BY MIKE VOGEL/FLORIDA TREND MAGAZINE

If Vero Beach voters decide to sell their utility to Florida Power & Light, it likely means selling it for all time.

Traditionally, cities cut an exclusive “franchise agreement” with a company like FPL to provide service to its citizens. The agreements would include a “purchase option.” That part of the contract allowed the city, if it didn’t renew the franchise agreement later, to buy the poles, lines and other power distribution gear that the utility had installed on the city’s rights of way.

Read More: http://www.floridatrend.com/article/15351/florida-utilities-death-of-the-buyout-clause