BY MARK SCHUMANN
After not seeing each other for 20 years, two former college roommates crossed paths as they were checking into the same hotel. The two men had dinner together with their spouses, and then found a quiet corner in the hotel lobby where they sat late into the night reminiscing over their college years.
At breakfast the following morning one man said to his friend, “My wife was so furious with me for getting back to the room late that she became historical.”
“You mean hysterical,” the other man asked?
“No, I mean historical,” his friend said. “She brought up everything I’ve ever done wrong.”
In a similar way, the South Beach residents who continue to harp on real or perceived injustices suffered at the hands of a city are being historical.
For example, a representative of the South Beach Property Owners Association was quoted in the press recently as saying the resentment among south barrier island residents toward the city is probably almost impossible to overcome.
When I read that statement, I was reminded of the expression that holding onto to resentment is like choosing to be stung over and over again by the same bee.
While clinging to their resentments, South Beach residents are following County Commissioner Bob Solari down a road that will not lead to lower rates. Solari has proposed the county take over service of the south barrier island, though the move will require a public investment of $10 million or more.
When Solari heads down to South Beach to preach liberty and foment discontent, he never mentions that the city has offered to charge South Beach residents county rates for the full term of any new franchise agreement. He also never points out that as a group these 3,000 customers would pay 4.3 percent more than they are now paying, this according to a memo City Manager Jim O’Connor sent the City Council just yesterday.
Somehow South Beach residents have become convinced they are being taken to the cleaners by the city, when in fact city water and sewer charges are comparable to the county’s rates. The county charges less to low-volume users, but more for higher levels of water consumption. But on the whole, the two rate structures are revenue neutral.
About the same time the county mailed a survey to south barrier island residents asking whether they would prefer to receive service from the city or the county, a flyer also went out from the South Beach property owners association indicating the city’s rates are 30 percent higher than the county’s.
Though the claim of a 30 percent rate differential may have simply been confusion between water and sewer rates and electric rates, the assertion is untrue, and may well have affected the results of the survey. After all, falsehoods repeated often enough become fact is the minds of those who choose to believe them. Hitler knew this, telling his propagandist that lies repeated often enough become the truth.
Speaking of fiction being mistaken for fact, if you go to the Indian River County Library looking for Brian Heady’s book, “Liars, Cheats and Thieves,” you find it, quite appropriately, catalogued in the fiction section.
Unlike professionally written non-fiction, Heady’s 160-page book offers no explanatory notes, documentation, citations, nor even an index.
One falsehood that has become local legend is the claim that the city’s wholesale power contract with the Orlando Utilities Commission includes a $20 million exit penalty, slipped in at the last minute by then city attorney Charlie Vitunac.
In fact, the contract provides for a $20 million cap on damages for early termination. Without this “stop loss” clause, the city would be paying the OUC far more to terminate the agreement some 17 years ahead of the expiration date. Secondly, the provision is reciprocal, applying to both parties. And finally, the OUC initially wanted the cap on damages to be more than $20 million.
The claim that onerous provisions were slipped into the OUC contract after it was signed is pure fiction. The accusation makes for a good story, but it is a story that belongs in the fiction section, right along with the tale about how the city has subjugated south beach residents. Those who continue spinning this tale are demonstrating that “takers” are not the only ones suffering from a victim mentality. It’s a powerful addiction – the belief that one has been wronged.
Indian River Guardian 
Resentment is too strong a word to apply to those who are seeking to spend the least amount of their family budget for utilitty servicecs, The more appropriate terminology is actually common sense.
Dr. Stephen Faherty who was catalyst for the sale of the electrical services was recently quoted as saying that The Moorings Club and St. Edwards proprerities each would save approximately $40,000 per year on FP&L rates. Thus, it makes no financial sense for most ratepayers to continue to pay unnecessarily higher costs than are possible.
There are many false claims out in the public which makes it all the more imperative that ratepayers do their own homework and make their own assessments.
It is not resentment to use basic math and come to the conclusion that a better deal is possible. Unfortunately though not all ratepayers have a choice. There is indeed the possibility that huge savings will not be realized. It is a gamble most sensible people are willing to take.
I do hope that the residents of the City of Vero Beach who plan on voting on March 12 for or against the sale of the Electric Utility will read todays PJ. If you don’t believe what you are reading here, go to the following links and read what others are saying. Just copy and paste these links into your browser window and check it out. Don’t vote based upon the lies and propaganda of FPL and don’t be influenced by people living outside of our City. They have their own interests and their own wallets in mind, not what is best for the City residents. Keep Vero Beach Strong. Vote NO!
OOps I forgot to include the links. Here they are.
The links don’t work on this site. I have tried 3 x so I guess I cannot send you the links. Sorry. If you go to the TC Palm web site and search for Lynne Larkin as well as reading the lead article, you will find more information on the deal with TPL that will help you decide.
Fiction? Really? Which fact in the book is fiction? Give me a page number and I’ll tell where in the public record you can verify. You only provide more protection for those who lie cheat and steal from the public!
Page 3: “This book is a FICTIONALIZED account of true events.”
Which part of true events did you not understand?
You are the one who wove the word “fictionalized” into the sentence describing your book. Further, you assign “novel” thoughts, feelings and motivations to the “characters” in your book.
Mark, Rather than write a dry, hard to read, book recounting the events from the development of the OUC contract in 2007 through the beginning of a new face of the council in January of 2011 I wrote a fictionalized story of those events. The book has dialog which I cannot provide recordings of each and every word but I can give you public records or names of people who will verify the meaning of the things written in the dialog. My book falls into a category of creative non-fiction.
Again, you assign “novel” thoughts, feelings and motivation to the “characters” in your book. At the very least, it is undeniable that “Liars, Cheats & Thieves” offers an account of events chocked full of your opinions.