When asked in a October 7, 2009 interview with reporter Mary Beth McDonald if the city should remain in the power business, then candidate Brian Heady replied, “We are stuck with a monopoly that has demonstrated they are willing to take advantage of us, and clearly we need to do something different.  Unfortunately, that might come down to, ‘We need to sell the power plant,’ because the city officials, so far, have demonstrated they can’t be trusted with running it.”

As a candidate for City Council, Heady stopped short of committing to selling the electric system to Florida Power & Light.  Soon after taking office, Heady, joined by Charlie Wilson and Kevin Sawnick, voted to begin discussions with FPL.

In a recent guest column published in Inside Vero Heady wrote, “As a newly elected official I was approached by concerned citizens and I was approached by FPL about the possibility of selling the municipal electric utility. FPL told me if the city invited them to present an offer they would evaluate the worth and make an offer to the city.”

Heady now argues a a focus on selling the electric system to FLP, regardless of the terms, has led officials to ignore other options for lowering costs to ratepayers.  “Sadly other solutions for lowering cost to ratepayers have been hijacked by a myopic view of a sale to FPL without consideration for any other alternatives,” Heady wrote.

The following is the full text of Heady’s guest column in the July issue of Inside Vero.

Sadly, open mindedness is not the order of the day

BRIAN HEADY/GUEST COLUMNIST

“Brian, your fingerprints are all over the deal to sell to FPL, why would you ask for the mayor and the vice-mayor to step down?”

Questions with the same significance have been asked of me since I took a vocal position with respect to recent comments made by Mayor Craig Fletcher and Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll in their official capacity as elected officials. My response about the criticism has been the same.  The issue is not about sale of the electric utility the issue is religious intolerance and the issue is an oath of office in which those two individuals have promised to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Their actions and behavior at a recent meeting were clear violations of their oath.

“But you don’t understand Brian,” I’m told. “Craig and Tracy are vital to the sale. They will vote yes for the sale.”

Recent votes confirm they will vote yes even if they don’t know or understand what they’re approving.  Fletcher and Carroll voted in favor of a $20,000,000 payment to OUC and when asked by me they have been unable or unwilling to explain what the payment is for. Alas I begin to understand. In Vero Beach the only important issue is the sale of the electric utility. That sale is specifically to FPL regardless of cost or terms. Any mention of other choices has been toxic for the last several years.

I was elected (quite unexpectedly by many) in November of 2009 to the Vero Beach City Council. At that time Vero Beach electric utility customers were paying twenty to thirty percent more for their electric service than their surrounding neighbors being served by FPL. As a newly elected official I was approached by concerned citizens and I was approached by FPL about the possibility of selling the municipal electric utility. FPL told me if the city invited them to present an offer they would evaluate the worth and make an offer to the city. I was promised the cost of valuation along with preparing the offer would be an FPL expense. No cost to the taxpayers.  I made my position known and recommended the city invite FPL to make that offer.  I voted in favor of that invitation.  Essentially that is where my fingerprints begin and end.

Since that time I lost a bid for reelection, in part because of my refusal to guarantee supporters my absolute backing for a sale of the Vero Beach electric utility to FPL. After my loss at the polls I was appointed to the Vero Beach Utility Advisory Commission. I believe my appointment was approved in large measure because I supported the invitation to FPL, but I was promptly removed when I started asking probing questions about the structure of any potential sale. Outside noticed meetings I was told; stop asking questions.

During a public meeting I insisted; not publicly discussing the public sale of a public asset was BS. I used the full version, the more colorful version of the term bovine feces.  My use of colorful language was certainly shortsighted but there is no denying it was a frustrated attempt and an ethical plea for truth and openness with respect to terms of any sale of a valuable public asset.

Tracy Carroll and Craig Fletcher took swift action to have me removed from the advisory board after my one word utterance of an often-used expression. Arguably that term should not be part of an official meeting regardless of how accurate it may be in its descriptive value.

We must “drive a stake in the sand” on this issue Councilman Craig Fletcher said as Tracy Carroll spearheaded an effort to remove me from the advisory commission. One word spoken in haste was enough to have a member of a governing board removed. But now those same two don’t think violations of their oath of office, and clear abuses of Constitutional guarantees merit any official action.  Their diatribe is officially ignored. Why the difference in standards? Simple answer; Carroll and Fletcher say yes to the sale of the electric without any questions.

In the final analysis the issue of importance has been and still is the cost of electric to consumers. Sadly other solutions for lowering cost to ratepayers have been hijacked by a myopic view of a sale to FPL without consideration for any other alternatives. Anyone who gets in the way is out; anyone who blindly supports a sale can do no wrong.