MARK SCHUMANN
Vero Beach City Councilman Craig Fletcher, who made a motion during last Tuesday’s Council meeting to approve Florida Power & Light’s proposal to assess a $26 million surcharge on the customers of Vero Electric, went on the radio the following day and seemingly admitted he has known all along the contract he signed last February would have to be changed. In other words, by his own admission, Fletcher seems to have been aware that when voters were asked to approve the purchase and sale agreement last spring, they were not given the full story.
“We all knew there was going to be a price to pay, and we all new it was going to be a big number,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher also indirectly accused Mayor Richard Winger and Councilwoman Amelia Graves of being less than honest with voters. “Some people last night showed their true colors. They told you one thing during the election and another thing last night. Now you know where they stand,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher was clearly smarting over having his motion to approve the $26 million surcharge tabled for further consideration.
In fairness to Winger and Graves, both campaigned on a promise to make every effort to conclude the sale under the terms agreed to last March. Neither Winger, nor Graves ever publicly committed to sell the system for terms substantially different from those already approved by voters. Graves and Winger have both indicated a willingness to consider the proposed $26 million surcharge, just not on Florida Power & Light’s timetable.
In advance of last Tuesday’s meeting, the transactional attorneys drafted an amendment to the letter of intent between the City and FPL. Clearly, they and FPL representatives hoped and expected the Council would approve the $26 million surcharge without seeking input from the Financial and Utilities Commissions.
Below is the first page of the draft amendments to the letter of intent prepared in advance of last Tuesday’s Council meeting. In an email to City Attorney Wayne Coment following the meeting in which Fletcher’s motion was tabled, transactional attorney John Igoe wrote, “…given the City Council meeting today we need to draft an Amendment to the APR (Asset Purchase Agreement) between the City and FPL vs the letter of intent, in my opinion.”
Indian River Guardian 
On July 20, 2013, I commented on an Inside Vero commentary “You Just Can’t Make This Up”:
“…The question that keeps gnawing at me is why the major hurdles were not addressed and resolved BEFORE signing anything with FPL. My guess is if everyone had seen the difficulty and extended timetable for this to go through, they might have decided to look for alternatives, and FPL didn’t want that to happen. Doesn’t matter now.”
This whole concept of the financial bottom line changing after the contract has been signed makes no sense to me. I guess that the next time that I purchase a house that I will need to have a separate stash of cash in case the buyer wants to change the purchase price after the moving van has left my driveway.
This is crazy. Fletcher had the city sign a contract to sell the electric company with terms of a contract in which he knew could never be met, so when the new terms are brought forth he expects them to sign a contract with those terms knowing there will be millions more of liability due at a later date. Does anyone think if these were FPL’s advisor they would tell them to sign such a one sided deal? And lastly we do not even know how much we are saving the City of Vero Beach electric user if anything? If he is looking out for the voters best interest, I would like to see the deal he would sign looking out for FPL’s best interest and the county customer’s best interest!!!!
Chicanery and deception as practiced by the past council. This concept certainly is not keeping with the spirit of Florida’s Sunshine Law. It must end.