Update:  According to a report published this week by VeroNews.com, Glenn Heran, chairman of Citizens for a Brighter Future told reporter Lisa Zahner all $39,368.15 remaining in the political action committee’s bank account was used to pay for expenses incurred but not yet invoiced as of June 30.  June 30 was the date of the PAC’s latest financial report, prior to the one submitted by the PAC on Sep. 13.

Heran said all eight invoices paid from Aug. 21 through Sept. 11 were for expenses attributable to the March 12 Vero Electric sale referendum. The group organized and, with FPL contributions of $97,000, funded a successful campaign to convince Vero Beach voters to sell the city’s electric system to FPL.

Citizens for a Bright Future’s Sept. 13 financial report details eight payments made from Aug. 21 through Sept. 11  totaling $39,397.15.  According to Heran, all eight invoices — for mailing services, legal fees, polling work, signs and a list of registered Vero Beach voters purchased Sept. 10 – are not for any current or future political efforts.

One invoice from the Indian River County Supervisor of Elections Office dated Sept. 10, with an accompanying work order also dated Sept. 10, was for a list of registered voters in the City of Vero Beach.  Heran said the list was not for any current or future efforts but was simply needed for “wrap up work” in connection with the March 12 referendum. When asked why four vendors (Coates Law Firm, Get Out the Signs, Luce Research and Cornerstone Solutions) would all wait five months to invoice for some $39,000 in work, Heran told Inside Vero those vendors have their own wrap up procedures.

The following story was first posted Sept. 9

NEWS ANALYSIS

MARK SCHUMANN

According to documents filed Sept. 19 with the City Clerk’s office, utility activist Glenn Heran has closed the political action committee, Citizens for a Brighter Future. Reportedly, Heran started a new Electioneering Communication Organization. The first report on contributions to Heran’s new group will be Oct. 4.

According to a spokesperson for the Florida Elections Commission, Heran’s new organization will be free to advocate for and against candidates as well as promoting or opposing issues.  Citizens for a Brighter Future was not free to support or oppose candidates, but only to advocate for or against issues, such as the sale of Vero Electric.

In closing out the books for Citizens for a Brighter Future, Heran made disbursements of $39,382.15 from Aug. 21 through Sept. 11 for expenses he has said were attributable to a referendum on the sale of Vero Electric held last March.

I have previously speculated that Heran might use the nearly $40,000 left is his former PAC’s war chest to run an campaign stressing the importance of concluding the sale of Vero Electric, while Tracy Carroll and her supporters simultaneously seek to position her as the only one of six candidates willing to support the sale in votes that may still come before the City Council.

Frankly, it requires the willing suspension of disbelief to accept Heran’s claim that vendors who were invoicing Citizens for a Brighter Future regularly from Jan. 25 through Mar. 3, and who were being paid promptly, all of the sudden decided collectively to hold off for five months in invoicing for $39,382.15 in services.  One has to wonder how and why Heran, president of the Taxpayers Association and an outspoken proponent of fiscal and financial responsibility, would have sat on nearly $40,000 cash for five months while vendors went unpaid.

Has this FPL-donated PAC money gone to pay for signs, pushing polls, advertising and direct mail services for a campaign to directly or indirectly support Carroll’s re-election effort?  According to a report in the island week’s online site, Heran says no.

Below are the payments made by Citizens for a Bright Future during the first quarter, and from Aug. 21 to Sept 11. Florida Power & LIght’s $97,000 in contributions mad to the Heran-controlled PAC during the first quarter are also detailed below.