COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

In a recent “insight editorial,” the editors of the island weekly, who have over the past five years done their best to force the City of Vero Beach out of both its utility businesses, wrote, “…our paper has advocated solutions that would be in the best interest of all our readers…”

In the current legislative session, State Rep. Debbie Mayfield, who keeps an office in City Hall, proposed four utility bills, all of which were clearly intended to aid Florida Power & Light in its attempted acquisition of Vero Electric, and to assist the County it is effort to squeeze Vero Beach out of the water and sewer business.

Reading the island weekly’s claim that it is concerned for the financial well-being of the City of Vero Beach, and hearing of Mayfield’s assertion that her legislative proposals were intended to serve her constituents, I am left thinking, “With friends like the island weekly and Rep. Debbie Mayfield, who needs enemies?”

The same island weekly that now applauds the Indian River Shores Town Council for seeking a way out of its franchise agreement with Vero Electric previously lamented the Town’s decision last year to enter into a new franchise agreement with Vero Beach for water and sewer service. The island weekly’s editors were troubled by what they saw as a “lost opportunity” to force Vero Beach out of the water and sewer business. Had the Shores Town Council chosen instead to accept the County’s office, they would have received from the island week’s editors nothing but unqualified praise.

There is at least one point on which the island weekly has remained stubbornly consistent, and that is its insistence that the City of Vero Beach should surrender both of its utilities.  The positions the island weekly has advocated are hardly in the best interest of all its readers, for the City cannot survive financially, if it sells its electric and water and sewer utilities.

“Our belief continues to be that any solution that rescues non-city customers from Vero electric – and leaves Vero still in the clutches of the bosses at FMPA – is a formula for municipal bankruptcy,” the island weekly’s editors wrote. Their reference to “municipal bankruptcy” was probably more a Freudian slip than an it was a sincere expression of concern.

All those who opposed a partial sale because they knew FPL wanted more, including the island weekly, are now poised to urge the Shores Town Council and the County Commission to attempt to force the City to surrender it 20,000 out-of-city electric customers. So long as FPL is willing to pay the City somewhere in the range of $5,500 to $6,500 per customers, that is a conversation the City should consider having.