COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Faherty on water & sewer rates

Unlike our hunter-gatherer ancestors, whose choice in the face of challenge was fight or flight, we moderns have an often-exercised third option – complaint.

For example, consider utility activist, Stephen Faherty.  Long an advocate of County Commissioner Bob Solari’s push for the County take over water and sewer service on the south barrier island, Faherty is now objecting to the City’s proposal to charge its south barrier island customers the same rates and fees they would pay as customers of the County.

Faherty has for years argued that Vero Beach treats its out-of-city utility customers unfairly. Faherty wants to be a customer of the County’s water & Sewer utility system, in spite of the multi-million dollar public investment that would be needed to fund such a move.

In an effort to appease Faherty and other south barrier island resident who have joined his choir, the City Council is planning to give Faherty and his followers what they say they want – County water & sewer rates and fees.

Faherty is still not happy.  This week, he alerted readers of his Utility Update email newsletter that the City is about to “increase” water & sewer rates to customers outside the city limits. The City Council may soon realize that someone like Faherty, who seems stuck in complain mode, will never be satisfied.

Heran’s self-defense column published in Press Journal

On October 29, 2009, Faherty wrote then City Council candidate Ken Daige, “Ken, Attached is a summary of what Glenn’s financial model (singular) can do. It (singular) shows no City tax increase, a possible tax decrease, and $625 in each customer’s pocket. Also attached are legislative proposals. Good Luck. Glenn and I look forward to working with you.”

The one and only model Faherty shared with Daige projected total cash proceeds of $216.5 million. After paying off $60 million in debt, the City would be left with $156.5 million, Heran’s model projected.

Heran, who has what would appear to be unlimited access to the Press Journal opinion pages, wrote yet another guest column Saturday pointing to “more conservative” estimates he presented to the Vero Beach City Council on September 21, 2010. By late 2010, though, the wildly optimistic assumptions he and Faherty had been touting since the previous year had already served their purpose of solidifying public support for the sale.  For example, during the Sep. 21, 2010 City Council to which Heran referred in his guest column, Tracy Carroll told the Council, “…she first saw this presentation by these two gentlemen in January (2010), which encouraged her to get involved with Clean Sweep Operation.” (Presumably Carroll meant, Operation Clean Sweep.)

What model did Carroll see in January 2010 that convinced her the survival of Western Civilization depended upon Vero Beach divesting itself of its electric utility? Was it the same financial model Mr. Faherty shared with Ken Daige in late 2009, the one projecting cash proceeds of $156.5 million from a sale?

The fact remains that during the city council campaign in the fall of 2009, when voters threw caution and good judgment to the wind and elected Brian Heady and Charlie Wilson, Faherty was sharing just one model – the one projecting the city would net $156.5 million from the sale.

Though Heran did not specifically know FPL would ask Vero Electric’s customers to pay $26 million to help fund its acquisition, (Who could have dreamed of such a thing?), the larger point is that none of Heran’s models came even close to projecting a scenario where a surcharge would be proposed.

Every step of the way – every step – Heran and Faherty and missed the mark with their estimates and projections. Heran would like to be seen as a utility activist. In truth, though, he is volunteer lobbyist and political activist for Florida Power & Light, working to bring an end to municipal power in Florida. As such, Heran’s estimates and projections, as well as his agenda, priorities and motivations should be considered in light of his publicly avowed allegiance to FPL.

See also: If FPL recognizes a volunteer of the year, Glenn Heran has earned the honors