Mayor Craig Flecher, who last week sided with Council members Tracy Carroll and PIlar Turner in expressing a willingness to request a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the city wholesale power contract with the Orlando Utilities Commission, backed away from that position during today’s Council meeting.
Fletcher stopped far short of supporting former Councilman Charlie Wilson’s assertion that crimes may have been committed in the negotiations and handling of public records related to the OUC agreement. Fletcher said that, though he believes mistakes were made, he sees no evidence crimes were committed.
Whether entering the OUC agreement was a “mistake,” as Fletcher put it, is debatable. For example, some have pointed out that once the city began buying power from the OUC rates came down. Since Fletcher has taken office, though, rates have gone up. Councilman Jay Kramer, for one, continues to argue that the city is passing up opportunities to lower electric rates. Kramer has also said the decision to pay for capital projects out of cash has driven up rates unnecessarily.
Wilson, who served on the Council for a month before being removed by a court order for failing to have met residency requirements, continues to believe an FDLE investigation is warranted. Despite Fletcher’s unwillingness to join Carroll and Turner in calling for an FDLE investigation, Wilson said he wants the Council to take the matter up again next week.
At issue is the suspicion by some that the liquidated damages provision in the OUC agreement was inserted without the Council’s knowledge.
Following a 2009 investigation by the State Attorney’s office, a grand jury decline to call for indictments.
Wilson insists the termination provision in the OUC agreement amount to an exit “penalty,” though others see it as a limit on damages. If the proposed sale of the city’s electric system goes forward, the city will pay the OUC $20 million for terminating the 20-year wholesale power agreement. Without the stop-loss provision, it could have cost the city far more than $20 million to terminate the agreement.
Indian River Guardian 
Vero Beach has a legal contract with OUC, and with any well negotiated contract there are provisions that must be met for breaking the contract so as to protect both parties. For OUC it provides some compensation for loss of income. For Vero Beach it provides protection by limiting our potential liability for breaking a contract without cause since OUC has not breached any part of the contract.