BY MARK SCHUMANN

Frustrated with his inability to communicate clearly, a man said to his wife, “You may think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure that what I said is exactly what I meant.”

At Tuesday’s special call City Council meeting to consider the proposed asset purchase and sale agreement between the city and Florida Power & Light, Mayor Craig Fletcher said, “We are here to talk about the purchase and sale agreement, not whether or not it’s going to be financially feasible for the City of Vero Beach to do this.”

One can only hope Fletcher’s statement wasn’t reflective of exactly what he meant.  From the tone and course of the discussion, though, it is clear the Council majority of Tracy Carroll, Pilar Turner and Fletcher are ready to ask voters to approve the sale of the electric system without first explaining exactly what it will mean to the city.

How much will city taxes increase?  What city services will be cut?  Is a sale of the full system better for the city and its county customers than a partial sale?  Is the formation of an independent utility commission a viable alternative?  Will the sale of Vero Electric be followed by an equally aggressive push to turn the city’s water, wastewater and sewer utility over to the county?

It is one thing to change your mind, as Fletcher is given to do, or to make a new decision based on new informaiton.  But it is quite something different to renege on a promise.  During last fall’s campaign, Fletcher told the Press Journal editorial board he would support a referendum, but only when a completed contract was in hand.  Stressing the importance of giving voters all the facts before asking them to vote in a binding referendum, Fletcher said he expected that by early 2014 the city and FPL would have negotiated a contract in which all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed.

Whether it was a suggestion from FPL, or someone else’s idea, we may never know, but Fletcher now seems comfortable making voters cast their ballots blindfolded.  The March 12 referendum asks voters to approve the contract, as it exists now, with many important issues yet to be resolved.  Because the ultimate resolution of those issues may require substantive changes to the agreement, the results of the March 12 referendum may ultimately prove invalid.

It was probably less a misstatement and more of a Freudian slip that Fletcher said, ““We are here to talk about the purchase and sale agreement, not whether or not it’s going to be financially feasible for the City of Vero Beach to do this.”

Anyone wondering what the end game is would do well to take Fletcher at his word on this one.  For the Council troika of Carroll, Turner and Fletcher, the primary consideration isn’t about whether the sale makes sense for the city.   They haven’t presented a detailed plan for how the city will close a $3 million budget gap, because they have no such plan.  As Fletcher made clear, they are not concerned about whether it is financially feasible for the city to sell its electric system under terms exceedingly favorable to FPL.  Their objective is to push the sale through come hell or high water.