“If the FMPA’s cooperation is to gained, what is needed now is patience, and from Wilson silence, or better yet, his return to Ft. Pierce.”

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Civic activist Charlie Wilson, whose rants before the City Council and County Commission and on local radio are as infested with misinformation as a stray dog is infested with fleas, showed up at the Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting Wednesday morning passing out a bright yellow brochure in which he attempts to place blame on eight people and organizations he claims are responsible for “stopping” the sale of Vero Electric.  This brochure must be Wilson’s attempt at yellow journalism.

In his amateurish little piece of hate mail, Wilson claims I ended my work with Vero Beach 32963 “under an ethical cloud,” an assertion bordering or libelous. In fact, the work I did for Vero Beach 32963 was as an independent contractor, and I ended my association with the island weekly because, like Wilson, the newspaper is perpetually shrouded in a cloud of negativity.  Wilson, himself, was once a journalist, serving as news director for WTTB.  From what I have been told, Wilson would likely not welcome a public discussion of the circumstances of his departure from WTTB.

In the propaganda piece Wilson was handing out Wednesday, he printed in quote marks above my byline a sentence I never wrote or spoke, but which appeared in a story in the island weekly. Wilson also reprinted photos lifted from InsideVero.com without permission, and he presented out of context a portion of my March 24, 2013 column. (Contract in hand, some now seek to silence dissent)

The self-proclaimed Professor of Political Baloney certainly did not bother to acknowledge that I have strongly advocated concluding the sale under the terms negotiated.  When it comes to practicing the art of propaganda, it would seem that Wilson could have given Joseph Goebbels a run for his money.

Wilson, a regular performers before the cameras at city council and county commission meetings, seems to be coming unhinged.  In complete defiance of the facts, he claims the Indian River Neighborhood Association opposes the sale and would “rather keep higher (electric) rates if it means lower taxes for the wealthy.”

This assertion is shear lunacy on Wilson’s part.  He simply cannot accept the fact that the IRNA opposed Tracy Carroll’s re-election because of her support for short-term rentals.  Wilson, who seems to have his heart, mind and soul set on forcing the city out of the utility business, is blinded to all other issues facing the community, except for opposing impact fees, which is supposedly how he make his living.

Wilson appears to me a little more disheveled these days, and I cannot help but wonder if he is challenged to maintain a grasp on reality.  For example, Wilson was on the radio yesterday announcing the creation of his propaganda piece and predicting Armageddon if the sale is not conclude on his terms and time table.

Wilson has taken to quoting me as saying the electric sale is a “done deal,” when, in fact, what I have reported is that it is a done deal as far as the City Council is concerned. After all, the City has signed a binding purchase and sale agreement with FPL and has spent more than $1 million in legal fees in an effort to conclude the sale.  What more would he have the city do?

In truth, the fate of the sale of Vero Electric rests in the hands of Florida Power and Light and the Florida Municipal Power Agency.  Currently, the FMPA and FPL are negotiating terms under which the FMPA would for three years take on Vero Beach’s power entitlement.  By now, FPL has probably received a tentative heads up on what the FMPA believes it will need to assume Vero Beach’s obligations.

Those power entitlements were to be transferred to the Orlando Utilities Commission and then to FPL.  That plan, nearly a year in the making, was shelved several months ago, when it became clear the Internal Revenue Service would never approve the sale of FMPA power to an investor-owned utility.

By mid February, or mid March at the latest, the FMPA Board will likely come to a final decision on what, if anything, it can do to help Vero Beach conclude the sale to FPL.

During his 12 minutes of weekly radio time yesterday, Wilson was also talking nonsense and spreading more misinformation about the concept of a partial sale, all at the invitation of the management of WTTB.

Wilson clearly does not understand how a partial sale would or could work. To listen to him, you could get the idea a partial sale would result in astronomically higher electric rates and the most burdensome taxes known to humankind.

The numbers I have seen suggest a partial sale would enable the city to actually lower electric rates and decommission the power plant, while also preserving some of its utility transfer revenue. Further, a partial sale would leave the city with far more cash than it will have if the current deal goes forward.

Having said that, a deal is a deal. If the current agreement between the city and FPL can be concluded, the city needs to honor its commitments and its contractual obligations.

Glenn Heran, Dr. Stephen Faherty, Wilson and even state Rep. Debbie Mayfield make the FMPA out to be the “enemy.”  Interestingly, though, when explaining two local bills she plans to introduce in the coming legislative session, Mayfield said the legislation she proposed last year, which would have applied state-wide, was opposed because, “no one else in the state has a problem with the FMPA.”

If the FMPA’s cooperation is to gained, what is needed now is patience and from Wilson silence, or better yet, his return to Ft. Pierce.