COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

During his latest weekly appearance as the “Professor of Political Baloney” on the Bob Soos radio program, local political activist Charlie Wilson likened the Florida Municipal Power Agency to ENRON.  “FMPA is a business that makes money.  We don’t know exactly how much.  It’s like ENRON…Who knows what goes on there,” Wilson said.

Unless the FLorida Legislature and the leaders of more than 30 Florida municipalities have been completely fooled, Wilson’s assertion the the FMPA is a business like ENRON couldn’t be farther from the truth.

In fact, the FMPA is a joint action agency, whose members are municipalities and electrical cooperatives.  Like each member city, the FMPA must comply with Florida’s open government and public records laws.

In his interview with Soos, Wilson acknowledged the negotiations for the sale of Vero Electric have “certainly hit a snag.”

“This is a pretty major hurdle but there are a couple of alternatives ways of doing it.”  Without claiming to be privy to the negotiations, Wilson said, “there are all kinds of solution.”

Wilson’s claim that there “all kinds of solutions” to resolving the city’s contractional obligations to the FMPA and its bondholders is not borne out by the facts.  For example, nearly a year ago, the transactional attorneys promised that the negotiations would be long and arduous.  If an abundance of solutions to the hurdles that now stand in the way of the sale existed, surely those would have been identified by now.

Wilson may feel free to publicly accusing others of “sinking to speculation,” but the fact remains the deal is far from settled, and the negotiators are no where near finding a resolution to key issues flagged by the FMPA literally years ago. Anyone doubting this assertion need only listen to the audio recording of FMPA chief counsel Fred Bryant’s June 20 report the the FMPA executive committee.  That recording is available on the City of Vero Beach web site.  To listen, simply select the right arrow below.

Perhaps the “solution” WIlson has in mind is litigation, the same solution Dr. Stephen Faherty seemed to be suggesting recently in his “Utility Update” newsletter.  Faherty said he and Glenn Heran have an alternative plan that will be expensive for the FMPA.  Wilson echoed that threat when he said, “You play nice first, and if that doesn’t work you go to “Plan B.”

Wilson and his radio host Bob Soos, served up more misinformation when Soos claimed a failure in the negotiations would lead to higher electric rates.  “If you think rates are bad now, there is no question that with President Obama’s war on coal, and most of the source of power is coming from coal with Orlando Utilities,  it’s going to be even worse,” said Soos.

The truth is that Vero Electric’s current rates are artificially high now because the city is paying millions in cash for capital projects that would normally be financed.  The consequence of paying cash for capital projects is that the full costs are being worked into current rates, rather than being spread over 10, 20, or 30 years.  The city’s rates also now include the cost of the $500-per-hour transactional attorneys.

Further contributing the Vero Beach’s high electric rates is the facts that, because the city is locked negotiations with FLorida Power & Light, it is not free to renegotiate its wholesale power agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Besting FPL,  OUC recently won the bidding to supply wholesale power to the City of Lake Worth.  The OUC underbid FPL by offering Lake Worth rates approximately 25 percent below what it is charging Vero Beach.  Unfortunately for the customers of Vero Electric, City Council members Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner handcuffed the city by signing a sale agreement with FPL that may not close for at least three years, if ever.

Soos may not be aware of the reasons why Vero Beach’s electric rates are artificially high, and he may not know of the options the city will have to lower rates should the sale to FPL prove impossible.  Wilson, on the other hand, knows better.