COMMENTARY

“The real story continues to be the ways FPL and its local fundamentalist pro-sale operatives are willing and able to manipulate the political process to get their way, or failing that, to extract revenge, or at least to cause mischief, even if it costs the taxpayers of Florida $200,000.” 

MARK SCHUMANN

In the face of mounting evidence that the sale of Vero Electric will be far less beneficial to the City than voters were initially promised, some continue to push for the sale.  I have come to think of the sell-at-any-price crowd as pro-sale fundamentalists, for they are fundamentally opposed to Vero Beach remaining in the utility business.  Energized by a fundamentalist fervor, they are determined to force the sale, regardless of the costs to rates payers and to the City.

What are the costs of the protracted negotiations? For starters, the City has racked up more than $1.5 million in legal fees.  More importantly, though, City leaders remain diverted from the task of doing what can be done now to lower rates.

The pro-sale crowd’s latest scheme, apparently aided by Florida Power & Light, is to ask the state to spend $200,000 on an independent audit of the Florida Municipal Power Agency. The island weekly finally got around to reporting on the proposed FMPA audit in its May 15 issue, though the story was first reported on insidevero.com last week.

In a story posted May 7, insidevero.com reported:

The County Commission latest plan for interjecting itself in the power sale will likely not be any more effective than its recent $75,000 lobbying effort. Not one of the four utility bills proposed by State. Rep. Debbie Mayfield made it to the House and Senate floor for consideration. All the Commission got for its money was a last minute, $200,000 budget appropriation to pay for a State Auditor General’s audit of the FMPA.

Though the FMPA is audited annually, and continue to receive positive reviews from independent credit rating agencies, Gov. Rick Scott must now decide whether to spend $200,000 of taxpayer money for an additional audit of the FMPA.

According to a high-level source in the Legislature, FPL actively supported imposing this additional audit of the FMPA.

The island weekly, which is increasing positioning itself as a propaganda piece for Solari and Turner, reported on the proposed audit without mentioning FPL’s apparent involvement in lobbying for a closer look at FMPA’s books.  The island tabloid also failed to inform its readers that the lobbying firm hired by the County Commission at $75,000, the Ballard Group, also works for FPL.

While reporting Solari’s and Turner’s views on what they hope an FMPA audit might reveal, the local version of “Pravda” failed to explain to its readers that the FMPA continues to receive positive reviews from independent credit rating agencies and from independent auditors who review the agency annually.

Perhaps its is time for a State Auditor General to audit FPL and perhaps even the Orlando Utilities Commission. After all, the OUC is charging Vero Beach far more per megawatt hour than it is currently charging the City of Lake Worth, and the OUC has set a steep price on liquidated damages Vero Beach will have to pay to terminate a contract signed in 2008.  At the very least, it would be interesting to see the numbers behind the numbers.  Lord only knows what an audit of FPL might reveal.  Doesn’t anyone wonder how much of a bonus certain FPL employees have been offered, if they can help their company begin gobbling up the state’s municipal utilities?

Hoping to making a story of the FMPA’s calculation of its offer to assume Vero Beach’s power entitlements for $52 million, Turner asked the FMPA to turn over all public records related to its offer.  Island weekly reporter, Lisa Zahner, made her own public records request of the FMPA.  She wanted to see copes of the invoices from nFront Consulting relating to the work done in preparing the report that was turned over to Turner.

The documents revealed nFront Consulting put 163 hours into its review.  According to FMPA Assistant General Manager Mark McCain, seven FMPA staff members spent 437 hours on the analysis.  “Resource planning and financial analysis were a significant portion of the total,” McCain said.

No story there, as least not the negative story for which Zahner was surely fishing.

The real story continues to be the ways FPL and its local fundamentalist pro-sale operatives are willing and able to manipulate the political process to get their way, or failing that, to extract revenge, or to at least cause mischief, even if it costs the taxpayers of Florida $200,000.