MARK SCHUMANN

In a letter sent today to Vero Beach City Manager Jim O’Connor, Florida Municipal Power Agency General Manager Nicholas Guarriello wrote that the latest conditions which Florida Power & Light placed on the power deal just yesterday are, “unworkable and unacceptable under Vero Beach’s project contracts.”

Though the City Council agreed to FPL spokesperson Amy Brunjes’ request to schedule a meeting between representatives for FPL, the FMPA and the city, it would appear no such meeting is likely soon. Guarriello’s letter made clear the meeting “should not include FPL.”

Guarriello closed his letter to O’Connor confirming his willingness to meet with city officials to discuss the proposed sale to FPL and to address “other issues that Mayor Winger correctly described as parallel goals…”

FPL President Eric Silagy also received a letter today from Guarriello. The FMPA executive made clear the agency will not agree to FPL’s latest terms, all of which require setting aside key provisions in Vero Beach’s FMPA contracts.

Guarriello’s three-page letter to Silagy challenged “misstatements” made by FPL spokesperson Amy Brunjes and FPL staff to the City Council. Guarriello said he is “extremely disappointed” with the presentation Brunjes and her colleagues made to the City Council yesterday.

Utility activist Dr. Stephen Faherty, the island weekly newspaper, Vero Beach 32963, FPL spokespersons, City Councilwoman Pilar Turner and several utility activists continue to insist the $52 million FPL proposes to pay the FMPA to assume Vero Beach power supply through the end of 2017 is “preposterous,” and amounts to a “ransom.”

Addressing what he described as FPL staf’f’s continued effort to portray the payment as a windfall to the FMPA, Guarriello wrote, “FMPA does not need the capacity and energy from Vero Beach’s Stanton and Stanton II Projects interests between now and the end of 2017 and the $52 million payment to the FMPA is not a windfall.  Your assertion that the $52 million payment will ‘provide a significant financial benefit to the municipal members of the FMPA and their respective customers’ is wrong.”

One of the conditions FPL attorney Patrick Bryan laid out yesterday was a requirement Vero Beach be granted waiver to leave the All Requirements Project in time for a Jan. 1, 2015 closing.  Guarriello reiterated the FMPA’s long-standing position that a waiver will require unanimous approval of each of the FMPA member utilities that participate in the ARP. “Absent FMPA’s waiver, the current withdrawal date is October 1, 2016,” Guarriello wrote.

FPL’s Bryan, yesterday, told the Council FMPA has before it a reasonable proposal for addressing the contingent liabilities and stranded cost for which Vero Beach will be responsible when it leaves the FMPA.  Guarriello clearly sees it differently.  “Even if FMPA accepted the transactional attorney’s proposal, which has never been articulated in sufficient detail for FMPA to analyze from a business and legal perspective — for example, the draft coverage terms of the insurance policy have never been provided — the City and FPL would not be able to achieve a closing until after October 1, 2015,” he wrote.

“I have only heard the push for a closing by January 1, 2015, in FPL’s recent press pieces and Ms. Brunjes’ presentation.  So, I am frankly confused as to what FPL expects,” Guarriello added.

As in his letter to O’Connor, Guarriello closed affirming the FMPA’s willingness to work with Very Beach, adding,  “…but this letter campaign should end.”

The following are the letters FMPA General Manager Nicholas Guarriello sent today to FPL President Eric Silagy and to Vero Beach City Manager Jim O’Connor.