Heady says he received input from FPL in selection of a transactional attorney
Florida Power & Light had input in the selection of an attorney to represent the City in its negotiations with FPL, former City Councilman Brian Heady now claims. Is the deal, then, genuinely an arms-length transaction? From offering guidance in the selection of the City’s transactional attorney, to the funding of a local political action committee to the tune of $97,000, FPL appears to have significant and growing influence in local politics.
NEWS ANALYSIS
MARK SCHUMANN
In August 2011, the Vero Beach City Council hired the West Palm Beach law firm of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge (now Edwards Wildman), and authorized an initial payment of $50,000 for attorneys John Igoe, Rick Miller and their associates to start work on the possible sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light.
In hiring a firm that had previously done work for FPL and already had an adversarial relationship with the Florida Municipal Power Agency, the City Council passed over a proposal from Gray Robinson, one of the state’s most experienced firms in utility law. Gray Robinson proposed handle the transaction for a discounted rate of $200 per hour, compared to Igoe’s and Miller’s rate of $500 per hour.
Gray Robinson had previously done extensive work for Vero Beach, including assisting GAI Consulting in determining the value of the city’s electric system in connecting with the possible sale, as well as working with GAI on an appraisal and optimization report of the city’s water and sewer system.
At the time Igoe and his colleagues were hired, then City Councilman Brian
Heady said he wanted to make sure the public understood the ultimate cost of the transactional attorneys would be “considerably more than $50,000.” Heady’s warning may prove to be the understatement of the decade. Including the latest authorization for $250,000, the cost to the City for the $500-per-hour work of John Igoe and his firm now stands at $1.7 million – and counting.
City Manager Jim O’Connor was reported at the time to have said he hoped a deal could be formulated within a few months. That was more than two years ago and $1.7 million ago.
Asked recently about the factors he considered in agreeing to hire Igoe, Rick Miller and their firm, Heady said he wanted to work with a Florida firm with offices reasonably close to the headquarters of FPL in Juno Beach and to the City of Vero Beach.
Interestingly, Heady also said that during the process of selecting a transactional attorney he received calls from representatives of FPL offering suggestions and observations, though he cannot now recall the exact content of those communications.
Could it be that FPL sought to guide the Council away from choosing Gray Robinson to represent the city because of the firms detailed knowledge of GAI Consulting’s valuation of Vero Electric? Or, could FPL negotiators have seen an advantage in Vero Beach hiring a law firm hiring a lawyer who had already demonstrated a willing to go to the mat with the Florida Municipal Power Agency. Whatever the compelling considerations were, they outweighed the fact that Gray Robinson offered to handle the transaction at hourly rate of $200, compared to Igoe and Miller, who form for $8.33 per minute, or $500 per hour.
The minutes from an August 18 special call meeting of the City Council record Heady as having said he “likes the fact they (Edwards, Angell Palmer & Dodge) are an adversary with FMPA.”
Heady’s claim that he received “input” from FPL representatives on the selection of a transactional attorney to represent the city begs the question of which other Council members were guided, or advised by FPL in the choice of a law firm to represent the City in its negotiations with FPL. Given the occasional hugging and high-fiving that has been seen to take place between certain Council members and representatives of FPL, one cannot help but question if the purchase and sale agreement between the CIty and FPL genuinely constitutes and arms-length transactions.
When asked why he did not consider a proposal by the Orlando law firm of Gray Robinson to be competitive with Igoe’s firm, Heady said Gray Robinson’s earlier work with GAI Consulting in valuing Vero Beach’s electric system was probably a negative. “I know how I think, and I would have wanted another set of eyes to look at the system,” Heady said.
With the City’s legal bills mounting, some are looking back at the Gray Robinson proposal wondering what the City Council was thinking in 2011, when it passed up a $200-per-hour offer from one of the most experienced utility attorneys in the state.
Could it be FPL representatives steered the CIty toward Igoe and Miller because Miller already had experience dusting it up with the Florida Municipal Power Agency, or may it have been that they sought to avoid negotiating with a law firm that was already quite familiar with the value of Vero Beach’s electric system? Heady can’t remember.
The following is the summary of the original Gray Robinson proposal, along with the firm’s resume of municipal utility experience.
Indian River Guardian 
Knowing that a well recognized law firm was asking $200/hr, how did our City Council Geniuses agree to a $500/hr rate. It boggles the mind.
Remember residents of Vero Beach, that is our money that the council is throwing at these robbers and throwing good money after bad over and over again.
Isn’t Tracy Carroll was one of those geniuses?
I thought the republican party was about sound business decisions. I guess these that hold office in vero aren’t of this stock.as Mr.Trump would say, fire em
I am a member in good standing of the Florida Bar. I will be glad to do nothing and would be willing to charge only half of what the current attorneys are charging to do nothing.
I WILL SAY THAT FROM EXPERIENCE AND KNOWING HEADY AS I DO, YOU CAN DEPEND ON HIM FOR HONESTY AND TONS OF HOURS OF RESEARCH IN DETERMINING WHAT IS THE BEST FOR THE CITY! SURE BRIAN MIGHT APPEAR TO ALWAYS BE DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER CANDIDATES, BUT ONE THING FOR SURE IS THAT HE ALWAYS KEEPS HIS WORD AND IS NEVER DETRACTED FROM DOING THE RIGHT THING. I CAN NOT VOTE IN THIS CITY ELECTION, BUT IF I COULD I WOULD VERY CAREFULLY PICK A CANDIDATE WHO HAS ALWAY BEEN UP FRONT AND 100% HONEST! I WISH FOR EVERYONE’S SAKE THERE WERE THREE SLOTS OPEN.
Well, you offer one take on it. Since we are what we see in the world, I cannot help but wonder what Brian’s take on the world says about him. Every where he looks he seems to see “”Liars, Cheats and Thieves.” Is his book fiction, as it says, or is it, perhaps, autobiography?
Mark,
If you read my book written under the pen name Kris O’Brian you would know what category the book falls under. Similar works are called “Creative Nonfiction.” It is a fictionalized account of true events. Fictionalized because sometimes in the book there are conversations between the characters which I do not have a word for word account. The intent was to tell the truthful story about the general content of those conversations.
In the book Brian Heady is one of the characters. I wrote the book. The logical conclusion then could be that it is somewhat autobiographical. It is about my election to the Vero Beach City Council and my eye opening experiences. Real names are used and I can prove from the public record the accuracy of everything I wrote.
As far as what the world says about me maybe you are an authority and you might care to share your knowledge with me. Or you could write a book. Mine was on the best sellers list. I wish you the same success.
Brian
“Mine was on the best sellers list,” you wrote. Can you be more specific? Which THE best sellers list? Your statement reminds me of an extremely creative flyer I once saw for a book. “This could be the BOOK OF THE YEAR,” the flyer claimed. I stand by my earlier observation that your book, “Liars, Cheats and Thieves,” would be appropriately cataloged as fiction or biography, or as “fictionalized autobiography.”
An account of the ways you have sought to pedal your book – flashing it before the cameras during public comment time at City Council meetings and waving it around during at least one candidate forum the way circuit preachers brandish their pocket New Testaments – would be another book accurately shelved in the business section under the heading: “shameless self-promotion.”
Speaking of the New Testament and half-truths, as salvific as its message may be, a pocket New Testament is no more than half the story – half a Bible. Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew, and when his followers finally began drifting away from the synagogue several decades after his death, the Torah (The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) remained their sacred scripture.
I have observed your performances on the stage of local politics for many years, Brian. When it serves your purposes, you can be the master of the half-truth. For example, the fact the representatives of FPL called you, and presumably other members of the Vero Beach City Council, in an effort to “inform” the Council’s decision on which law firm could best represent the City’s interests in its negotiations with FPL is half the story, half the truth. Exactly what FPL representatives said in order to persuade the Vero Beach City Council to hire the attorneys with whom they most preferred to negotiate, ones who already had done work for FPL, and who had experience dusting it up with the Florida Municipal Power Agency, is the other half of the story. That half of the truth, you, conveniently, can no longer recall.
Many years ago, stopped at a gas station in another state and was told by the attendant one of the tires was on the verge of blowing. Frankly, I didn’t believe, so kept going but the seed of doubt had been planted. Next stop for gas (same gas company), got the very same comment from attendant. Was I to believe my tire needed replacing or was this a ploy to sell tires? Made it all the way home, but there was that fear any minute that tire was history and I’d be history also. Planting a seed — whether it’s belief City is doomed unless we switch to FPL–or not accepting less-expensive attorney firm because of possible conflicts, while at the same time getting advice from FPL on selection. It gets way too complicated. But there have been many seeds planted from every which way….and Brian, what’s the point of writing under a pseudonym if those involved know who the author really is? I will not read something that could muddy the water even more than it is. Enough already!
You can not possibly know Brian Heady as you say you do. He takes
a situation and turns it around to fit his needs. He is a big liar and can not be trusted.