COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
In his latest “Utility Update” email newsletter, Dr. Stephen Faherty cited such weighty sources as Scripps utility expert, financial wizard and political pundit, Russ Lemmon. In addition to drawing on deep thinkers, whose powers of reason have become local legend, Faherty erroniously claimed the 31 member cities of the Florida Municipal Power Agency serve some 3 million customers. “The outside ratepayers represent some 600,000 of FMPA’s 3,000,000 customers,” Faherty wrote.
As it turns out, Faherty is off by a factor of 2.7!
FMPA Assistant General Manager Mark McCain said late this afternoon the agency’s 31 member cities serve approximately 800,000 residential and commercial electric meters. According to McCain, the number is based on information provided by FMPA’s member cities and is published in FMPA’s 2013-2014 membership directory.
Demonstrating that there no end to the ways one might take a bad idea and make it worse, Faherty rhetorically asked, “Should another trip be planned to the FMPA Annual Conference In Naples, FL, July 15-18, 2014, at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples?”
Resorting to what amounts to throwing a tantrum, County Commissioner Tim Zorc has already announced plans to fill two short buses with protesters he hopes will stage a peaceful demonstration in front of FMPA headquarters in Orlando at the May meeting of the FMPA board of directors.
Heran, Faherty and Zorc continually seek to cast the FMPA’s board members in a derogatory light, referring to them as “city managers and utility directors,” as of those job titles are pejorative. The Three “Somethings” seem oblivious to the fact that these same city managers and utility directors serve at the pleasure of elected officials, the great majority of whom appear ready to help the “poor” people of Vero Beach learn a valuable lesson in contract law.
Though Faherty, Heran and Zorc, among others, seem to think they can bend reality to their will, the fact remains that contracts say what they say, and they mean what they mean, and responsible individuals and communities fulfill their commitments, rather than seeking to shirk them, as Vero Beach’s pro-sale fundamentalists are urging the City to do.
Indian River Guardian 
The reason Zoric does not know about contract law is because when you go bankrupt you get out of all you commitments financial or otherwise. I wonder who’s Visa card he is paying the bus company with. (Hint: it might be a corporate card and has 3 letters F?L maybe)?
The juvenile behavior of some of our elected officials and the blatant spreading of misinformation by overzealous citizenry in our area makes us all look like real idiots. “Utility expert, financial wizard and political pundit” will look really great on Mr. Lemmon’s resume’, and there are probably some who’d believe it. All the crazy numbers that have been thrown at us – we may not be the sharpest pencils in the pencil box, but a lot of us have sweat equity in this City and surrounding area. We scrimped, saved, and did without in order to pay off mortgages and prepare for our non-working years. We are not ready to accept the words of people who’ve proven they have no more idea if FPL’s “deal” will be a solution or just another problem to be solved. Legal contracts are not something anyone wishes to break, unless one is taking bankruptcy perhaps.. Regardless of who did what and when, it IS what it IS. One thing at a time – and stop badmouthing the people who are just trying to protect themselves and their obligations.
Mark,
You might do your readers a service by providing some recent history of the last time COVB tried to extricate itself from long term electrical service contracts. Under the incompetent direction of the then city attorney the City ran up several million dollars in legal bills and got – nothing. (Apologize if this topic has already been covered, but I had not seen any reference to it.) A mark of intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes. And an old southern expression “There is no education from the second kick of the mule” comes to mind. COVB got kicked once before, and is getting kicked again. If the City did not learn from the first kick can we expect any “education” from this latest go-round?