MARK SCHUMANN

Utilities Commission Chairman, Scott Stradley, announced at the beginning of this morning’s Commission meeting that Florida Power & Light representatives would not be making a presentation on their latest proposal for acquiring Vero Electric. Though the Commission’s first order of business was to hear from FPL representatives, Stradley explained they had “requested a little bit more time so that they could give us a more complete response to the situation.”

Stradley then pulled the second item from the agenda, which was to have been a review of recent correspondence between officials with FPL, the Florida Municipal Power Agency and the Orlando Utilities Commission.

Stradley scheduled today’s meeting in order to put the Utilities Commission in a position to advise the City Council on FPL’s latest offer, which includes a proposed $26 million surcharge on the customers of Vero Electric.  What the commission did accomplish today was to set goals and priorities for 2014.

Editor’s Note: The following commentary was published March 22 on InsideVero.com.

Utilities Commission is getting ahead of itself

Since November, one utility activist has often repeated the mantra, “elections have consequences.”  He is right; and the likely result of Scott Stradley’s re-election as chairman of the Utilities Commission is that the ardent pro-sale advocate will continue to use his position to promoting the sale of Vero Electric to FPL at any price.

Stradley, who has no formal utility experience, underscored that fact when he sent to Florida Municipal Power Agency General Manager Nicholas Guarriello an ill-timed letter that included a resume of his accounting practice.

Stradley’s letter was both an invitation and a request to Guarriello to attend what he described as a “very important meeting” of the Utilities Commission to be held March 31.  Stradley proposes to bring FPL and FMPA representatives together in the same meeting, two days before Mayor Richard Winger, City Manager Jim O’Connor and City Attorney Wayne Coment are scheduled to meet with FMPA representatives in Orlando to explore whether and under what circumstances negotiations might continue.

Not only was Stradley’s invitation to Guarriello ill-timed, it was ill-conceived. Given that FMPA leaders have made it clear they see nothing to be gained by holding further meetings with representatives of Florida Power & Light regarding Vero Beach’s FMPA contracts, why would Stradley think they would enter into the circus that will surely be the March 31 Utilities Commission meeting?  Stradley plans to devote that meeting to hearing from FPL representatives about their latest condition-laden offer.  Meanwhile, FMPA leaders have said FPL’s offer is “unworkable and unacceptable.”

If, at this point, the FMPA sees nothing to be gained by meeting privately with FPL executives, why would they agree to be pitted against FPL’s public relations specialists in what will surely be a high-emotion, low-informaiton, pro-sale, pro-FPL pep rally?

Stradley contends the City Council has directed the Finance and Utilities Commission’s to vet the concept of a partial sale, but the Council has passed no such motion.  At the March 4 Council meeting, Craig Fletcher’s motion to approve FPL’s latest proposal, including a $26 million surcharge on the customers of Vero Electric, was tabled.

The only motions the Council approved were first, a directive to the Utility and Finance Commissions to devote their March 19 meeting to a discussion of ways of lowering rates, and second, a directive to Mayor Winger to seek a meeting between himself, O’Connor, Coment, and representatives of the FMPA.

According to the official minutes of the March 4 City Council meeting, during the discussion that led to the tabling of Fletcher’s motion to approve FPL’s surcharge proposal, Councilwoman Amelia Graves said, “She felt giving a concept to their Commissions to review is futile. The Commissions need an actual contract to review and until they have a contract their Commissions cannot give an opinion. She wondered if they should ask FPL to go forward and bring back a completed contract so that then they could make a recommendation based on what the Finance and Utility Commission’s input is. They need a complete contract to review and they can’t have their Commissions review anything until that happens.”

In fact, the official minutes of the March 4 City Council meeting do not include any record of the Council directing either the Utilities or the Finance Commissions to render judgment on FPL’s proposed $26 million surcharge.

As Mayor Winger made clear that day, there are a number of other unresolved issues, all of which could significantly add to the cost of the sale.  These costs, he said, should not be born solely by Vero Electric’s customers within the city limits, but by all 34,000 customers.  Any additional costs could result in a surcharge of more than $26 million, making a decision on FPL’s proposal premature.

As eager as Stradly may be to use his position as chairman of the Utilities Commission to aid FPL is its acquisition of Vero Electric, he and his fellow Commissioners owe it to the public to make a decision based on all the facts.  At this point, important facts regarding the costs the City may bear in resolving its obligations to the FMPA have yet to be identified.  Without this information, the meeting Stradley is planning for March 31 will likely be nothing more than a bashing of the FMPA and a pep rally for FPL.

Below is Utility Commission Chairman Scott Stradley’s letter to FMPA General Manager Nicholas Guarriello, including his attached resume.