BY MARK SCHUMANN
Between now and March 12, when voters will weigh in on the sale of the city’s electric utility, expect a bombardment of misinformation to rain down upon Vero Beach, much like the bombs that devastated Polish cities during the German blitzkrieg of 1939.
One egregious fabrication of the truth is already being lobbed like a grenade by a political action committee promoting the sale of Vero Electric under the terms proposed by Florida Power & Light. Citizens for a Brighter Future hired a “polling” company, which now has callers telling people “FPL will pay the city about $179 million, which will help keep taxes low.”
That claim is outlandish.
First, FPL has offered $111.5 million in cash, of which the city will be lucky to have $4 million left over after paying off debt and buying its way out of wholesale power agreements.
Beyond this falsehood being widely tossed around by Citizens for a Brighter Future, FPL representatives themselves are making statements that seem disconnected from reality. Ryan Fair, FPL’s lead negotiator, was quoted in the local press just yesterday saying that he “felt confident” the company’s proposed purchase of Vero Electric could be closed in 2014, “if the referendum is approved.”
Columnist Russ Lemmon wrote in today’s newspaper, “If things go as planned from here on out, FPL would take over the system in early 2014. Possibly the final major hurdle in the process is the March 12 referendum.”
Lemmon might be accepting Fair’s statement at face value, but if Fair’s “felt” confidence that the deal can be closed in 2014 is genuine, then he must be working on false information, or is suffering from a sever case of wishful thinking.
More likely, Fair knows well the deal cannot close until late 2016, but wants voter to go to the polls March 12 believing that, if they approve this deal, they can get lower rates in early 2014, and will not have to wait almost another four years to get lower rates. It’s a clever public relations tactic, but it doesn’t seem to square with the truth.
What the City Council troika of Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner, along with the city administration and the transactional attorneys have continued to ignore is the fact that the city has long-standing and long-term obligations to the Florida Municipal Power Agency and its member cities which will almost surely delay a close to late 2016.
Councilmen Jay Kramer and Richard Winger both voted against accepting FPL’s offer, because they believe there are ways of lowering rates much sooner for everyone, including selling Vero Electric’s 22,000 county customers to FPL. This partial sale, they say, could be followed by a renegotiation of the city’s wholesale power agreements and the eventually decommissioning of the power plant.
During Tuesday’s Council meeting, Turner said one of her top priorities in pushing for this sale is to, “liberate the riverfront.”
Liberate the riverfront for whom? For some cronies who would like to build a marina resort in the heart of the city?
Ironically, if this is what Turner wants, a partial sale would serve her purpose, except that she also sees the sale as an “opportunity” to shrink city services down to some size that fits with the Tea Party’s philosophy of limited government.
Turner’s next move, once the city’s $200 million asset is handed over to FPL for a net of just $4 million, will be to push for the sale of the city’s water and sewer system to the county.
So, you see, the proposed sale of Vero Electric isn’t just about getting lower electric rates. It is also about bombarding the city into submission, so that it will one day have to be absorbed by the county.
Out of the rubble will emerge a new municipality, the Town of Vero Beach, exclusively serving the central barrier island. Then Turner and her supporters will have what they want, a riverfront cleared of the power plant and the water treatment plant, and a further division of the the haves and have-nots.
Indian River Guardian 
What would the incentive be for anyone to want to create the Town of Vero Beach? We have had a division between the haves and the have nots for decades. This occurred when the County Planning Commission allowed the building of John’s Island, Windsor, et al.
The idea of merging the City into the County has been around, and favored by some of our City Council member, for a long while; the idea of an exclusive Beachside Town of Vero Beach likewise.
Why not ditch the responsibility for the poverty pockets on the mainland, they’re only “takers”?
Why not have a small town with a wealthy tax base, without residents below the poverty level, dependent upon food stamps, medicaid and welfare, they’re only “takers”?
Why care about the elimination of our excellent police and firemen or the cuts in positions all over the city, they’re just “government”? It won’t affect Them. They will have their own very small fire and police departments.
After all the people losing jobs are only Civil Servants and who cares about them? Who cares about the lower income folks (the takers) on the mainland losing their services. Certainly They don’t.
You have to be blind not to see where the Tea Party hand is in all of this.
They will save some money every month on Their electric bills and the hell with what happens as a result.
The steps have been laid out. The Tea Party approves. First the Power Utility then the Water and Sewer Utilities and finally when there is no money left to run the City what choice will there be? Those who work for the City (our Civil Servants), and we who live in the City, and love the City are the losers. The anti-government exclusive few are the winners. What else is new in Indian River County and do any of Them really care?
Blame John’s Island and Windsor for starting this trend. Blame ourselves for allowing it to continue.
No Windsor and John’s Island et al are not too blame for the division of our county into the haves and the have nots. This occurred because of actions of the elected officials decades ago when there was a welcome mat put out for high end real estate development. The communities of John Island and Windsor, et. al have contributed far more to our quality of life than any other factor. Without the charitable donations of the many who are only part-time residents we would not have Riverside Theatre or the Museum of Art that is now a mecca on the Treasure Coast.
There is zero evidence of any Tea Party involvement in the initiation of the thoughts of moving away from the COVB electric services. It was Dr. Steve Faherty, a highly educated retired Federal employee, who got the ball rolling on the issue of seeking reduced electrical rates. There was nothing “anti-government” about his motivation. He simply found the electric rates to be out of line with reality and that is how he learned that the non-city rate payers were subsidizing the residents of Vero Beach.
The blame now rests with those who are opposed to the common sense solution of selling the electrical service to FP&L.
The local Tea Party has, in fact, pressed for the sale of Vero Electric, and further, has supported the proposed sales agreement negotiated between the city’s transactional attorneys and FPL.
Yes, the local Tea Party has involved itself into the controversy. It is, however, using too broad a brush to claim that they were the impetus for the potential sale achieving the progress that it has to date. The issue has been a major factor in multiple electoral campaigns where the voters ensured that pro-sale advocates had positions of responsibility. Since the Tea Party crowd represent a very small portion of the electorate, they are being credited which is not something that is due to them.