Updated Sept. 12, 7:50 a.m.

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

What options does Glenn Heran, head of the political action committee Citizens for a Brighter Future, have for using nearly $30,000 in Florida Power & Light contributions left over from last March’s referendum?

Anyone listening to WTTB’s Bob Soos Morning Magazine show Tuesday was again misinformed when guest Charlie Wilson claimed Inside Vero misreported the potential for Heran and Citizens for a Brighter Future to employ the FPL money for the benefit of City Council candidate Tracy Carroll.

“So, we do have that election coming up. It is a critical election. You’ve got our newest tabloid, that we call the phony papers, that’s covering the issue.  They have made several mistakes.  The latest one, they have included in their coverage, especially of Mr. Winchester, that the PAC that was put together for the referendum has a considerable amount of money left over, is going to pour money into a candidate’s campaign,” Wilson said.

In truth, what Inside Vero accurately reported is that Citizens for a Brighter Future will be free to use its war chest to Carroll’s benefit.

Though he almost surely knows better, Wilson failed to acknowledge that Citizens for a Brighter Future need not write a check to Carroll’s campaign in order to aid her cause. The PAC Heran leads will be free to conduct polling and place issue-oriented advertising emphasizing the importance of concluding the sale of Vero Electric to FPL.

In a similar way, during past campaigns, Carroll has stressed her priority of getting the city out of the electric utility business, while FPL ran parallel advertising stressing the benefits of a sale of Vero Electric to the community, but never specifically mentioning Carroll.

Recent changes in Florida’s election laws may even allow Heran’s group to place advertising specifically supporting Carroll, so long as the group does not work in concert with the candidate.

Wilson and others are already attempting to position Carroll as the only candidate in support of executing the asset purchase and sale agreement between the City and FPL.  This assertion, of course, is not true. But in the theatre of political spin, where the self-described “Professor of Political Baloney” operates on WTTB’s Morning Magazine program, truth does not seem to matter.

Councilman Richard Winger, both through his public statements and his actions, continues to work to find a way to conclude the sale.   This indisputable fact does not keep Wilson from serving up political baloney.  “There are six candidates for City Council.  Only one of the six are for the sale, and that is Tracy Carroll,” Wilson said this week on Soos’ program.

Supposedly FPL’s latest proposal for restructuring the deal has finally cleared what the transactional attorneys for the umpteenth time have described as “a path forward.”   At least that is what attorney John Igoe told the City Council last week when he sought and received authorization for an additional $250,000 in legal fees, bringing the total for his firm to nearly $1.7 million.

If Igoe is correct is claiming the negotiations for the sale are now on a positive trajectory, then one might wonder why Wilson and the strident pro-sale crowd believe Carroll’s re-election is “critical.”  After all, the contract between the City and FPL is already signed. The answer is simply this:  Despite public assurances that the current negotiations with the Florida Municipal Agency are progressing toward and inevitably positive conclusion, supporters of the sale are gearing up for what will surely be an lengthy and expensive state-wide battle with the FMPA.

Taking Vero Beach’s cause to the state level, Mayor Craig Fletcher recently sent a letter to the President of the Florida Senate and to the Speaker of the Florida House calling their attention to Vero Beach’s effort to sell its electric system to FPL.  The Indian River County Commission last month approved spending up to $100,000 on a lobbying effort to support the sale.

For the record, the following is an excerpt from Inside Vero’s report on Councilwoman Tracy Carroll’s announcement that she would see a third term.

Glenn Heran, president of the Taxpayer’s Association and head of a political action committee known as Citizens for a Bright Future, has control of nearly $30,000 in Florida Power & Light money left over from last March’s referendum.  If Heran uses his war chest for Carroll’s benefit, she may be difficult to beat, despite the apparent ill-will the Vice Mayor created when she supported turning over a popular dog park for development as a boat house, assailed Humanists in the now infamous comments she made during the June 4 City Council meeting, and now her involvement in the short-term rental issue.

Wilson wound up his time on the Soos’ Morning Show with some unsolicited and less than gentile advice for Bea Gardner, who now has a slot on Soos’ show on Wednesday mornings.  It was counsel Wilson would do well to consider for himself.  Wilson said, “The only advice that I could give her is a quote from Abraham Lincoln, that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”