COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS

Headlines are a key element in any newspaper, especially those sold in high traffic businesses like Publix or Walgreens. It’s no accident that the National Enquirer and similar sensationalist publications are available at checkout counters, enticing readers with their headlines like “Aliens stole my baby” and “How I lost 500 pounds.”

The problem with headlines though is that they are often misleading. For instance, in 1948 the Chicago Tribune headline screamed “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” Unfortunately, the opposite was true.

Locally, the Treasure Coast daily, which clearly supports the sale of Vero Electric to FPL, seems to use headlines as a way of telegraphing their version of events to readers, who in fact, may never read the story behind the headline.

For instance, the headline this morning read “Town hall crowd called to action,” with a subhead “Vero Beach Chamber’s Charlie Wilson urges electric customers to push for FPL deal.” The story itself is run under the logo “Shaping our Future,” which is apparently designed to give any story carrying that logo more impact.

So what’s wrong with this headline?  First of all, the “crowd” was estimated well into the story at about 50 people. Some who attended thought it was more like 40. The story also notes, again near the end, that only pro-sale advocates were in the audience. I take that back. At least some in attendance were there merely to see who showed up.

This light turnout was in spite of a front page plug in the February 21^st edition of the daily. The headline that day, also under the Shaping our future logo, read “FPL to pay $26M in power buyout.” The subhead was more like a good news-bad news punchline. “Vero customers to also pay $26M.” Immediately to the right of the subhead was a plug for the Vero Chamber town hall meeting. Can’t get any better publicity than that.

Today’s headline, “Town hall crowd called to action,” sounds like a mass demonstration, while in reality, it was a pep rally supporting the sale. Apparently the call to action was met with an enthusiastic wave of indifference.

In contrast, the top story posted last night on our InsideVero.com website was how the FMPA has ceased negotiating with FPL. Now THAT’S a story. So where is it in the daily, or on its up-to-the-minute website, TCPalm.com? (As of 7:30 this morning, no mention of it.)

After a City Council meeting Tuesday morning in which FPL spokesperson-in-chief, Amy Brunjes, asked for immediate Council approval on the $26M “ransom” Vero Beach Electric customers would have to pay in order to make the FPL deal happen, Mayor Winger refused to be coerced on short notice and tabled the issue for two weeks. Yesterday’s headline in the daily, again under the Shaping our future logo, was “Council delays FPL’s request.”

A more appropriate headline might have been “Council rebuffs FPL’s demands.”  I’m sure that Amy Brunjes’ husband, publisher of the Treasure Coast daily, would have been sleeping on the living room couch if he published that headline.

In the March 4 edition, under Shaping our future, was the headline, “Lower for 4 years or higher for 3?” The subhead read, “Vero Beach council to set surcharge fate for electric sale to FPL.” That subhead indicates it is a “done deal,” that the surcharge will happen. Council only needs to decide on the length of time to pay it off. Far from reality, the surcharge was to be voted on at the March 4 City Council meeting.  FPL was presenting the ratepayer surcharges that day and expected council to approve their plan with no time to discuss it. Objecting to the pressure, the Council majority tabled a decision for two weeks. (Tandem Council members Turner and Fletcher voted for immediate approval of the surcharge). So, in spite of the headline, “4 years or 3” was a moot point.

Back on February 23, the headline read, “Vero FPL customers to see fee on bill.” Of course, following up their February 21 story about the $26 million surcharge, one would assume that is what the story refers to. But the fee in question is the six percent franchise fee that will be added to electric bills in addition to whatever ratepayers will be charged for their individual share of the $26 million. A more accurate headline would have been, “Vero FPL customers will get two fees on bill.”

Back on February 27, after the daily had touted FPL president Eric Silagy’s confidence that a sale could be completed by the end of this year, the headline asked, “Electric sale not likely by Jan. 1?” It was in response to an email from FMPA’s Nick Guarriello calling the timeline optimistic. Silagy had presented FPL’s acceptance of a $52 million price tag to end Vero’s power purchase contract at a meeting with the Treasure Coast daily’s editorial board. He also presented the $26 million surcharge plan and said the sale could now be closed by January 1, 2015. The newspaper presented that to readers in spite of all the issues that had to be decided before a sale contract could be written. Clearly, Silagy’s January 1, 2015 date was a clever way to put all the pressure on the FMPA, but there was no letter of agreement between FPL and FMPA on the $52 million. In other words, readers were lead to believe everyone was in agreement and the sale would be concluded by year-end. A better headline would have been “Electric sale not likely?”

Finally, what is the Vero Beach Chamber referred to in the Treasure Coast daily headline? The city’s chamber for almost 100 years is the Indian River County Chamber of Commerce. The name was changed from Vero Beach Chamber in the 1990s to reflect its role as the official county agency for tourism and economic development. It is still based in downtown Vero Beach and its members are primarily Vero Beach businesses and individuals.

This other Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce is the brainchild of Charlie Wilson, known around town as the man who has repeatedly run for elected office and failed (except that one time he made it to the Vero Beach City Council for a month). His first act as president of his chamber, was to send out a direct mail letter to all Vero Beach businesses welcoming them as charter members and enclosing an invoice for dues. The ploy worked, with many businesses paying the invoice because they thought it came from the established Chamber.

None of this matters though, because he is a leading proponent of the Vero Electric sale to FPL. Therefore his chamber has been virtually endorsed by the Treasure Coast daily. In spite of that endorsement and the newspaper’s misleading headlines, the electric deal is not going to happen, at least for now. The FMPA wants to work directly with our City Council to either work out a plan enabling us to sell our electric plant, or lower rates, or both. That folks, is not a headline but it is the truth.