Carroll, Fletcher and Turner rushed the City down a dead end road

Though Council Woman Pilar Turner continues to insist a contract with FPL had to be in place before the City could address its issues with the FMPA, the approach turned out to be a classic case of getting the cart before the horse. — Councilwoman Pilar Turner continues to insist a contract with FPL had to be in place before the City could address its issues with the FMPA. The approach turned out to be a classic case of getting the cart before the horse.

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Mayor Craig Fletcher signs the purchase and sale agreement between the city and Florida Power & Light. Fletcher, along with Pilar Turner and Tracy Carroll rushed the signing of the contract so it could be put before voters in March 2013, long before key provisions in the agreement were worked out with the FMPA. — Then Mayor Craig Fletcher signed the purchase and sale agreement between the City and Florida Power & Light in February 2013. Along with Pilar Turner and Tracy Carroll, Fletcher rushed the signing of the contract so it could be put before voters in March 2013, long before key provisions in the agreement were worked out with the FMPA.

Councilman and former Mayor Craig Fletcher has been quiet lately. It is almost as if he went into a closet, turned off the light and locked the door.

Fletched, who made the original motion to hold a referendum in the spring of 2013 on a sales contract with Florida Power & Light, sat in stone cold silence during the May 6 City Council meeting, as transactional attorney John Igoe explained the pressure he had been under to cobble a contract together in time for Fletcher’s referendum. Fletcher, along with Pilar Turner, and former Councilmember Tracy Carroll, scheduled the referendum for March 2013, long before the sales agreement with FPL could be fully negotiated.

“It was unfortunate that we did not have the time. There was a lot of time pressure for getting that contract done,” Igoe said. “I wish we had done it differently,” he added. “I wish we had put everything on hold and talked to them (the Florida Municipal Power Agency). But that’s not what happened.”

Igoe concluded his comments by adding, “We got those contracts signed without the full input from FMPA because we just ran out of time.”

Igoe’s remarks raise the question of who was calling the shots in early 2013 and who established the timetable that put the transactional attorneys under such pressure. Were Carroll, Fletcher and Turner pursuing their own goals, or were they taking direction from FPL?

Swinging at a softball question lobbed at him earlier in the meeting by Turner, Igoe revealed that he does not welcome public critiques of his work. “I don’t know how I got on Mr. Schumann’s bad side, but the potshots he has taken at us in this process have been unbelievable,” Igoe said.

Turner had asked Igoe, “Can you give the public a little synopsis of the many things that we have accomplished in this past time?”

Turner, of course, does not what to have to explain to voters why the City racked up some $1.5 million in charges from Igoe’s firm, with no sale to show for all the time and expense. Rather than answer to the public for failing to deal with first things first, Turner would prefer to brag about all the minor details Igoe and his firm were able to identify and resolve.

Revealing that she still does not understand the fundamental issue with the City’s effort to sell its electric system to a non-FMPA member, Turner defended the path taken by her and the prior Council. The City and its $500-an-hour attorneys, she said, followed the template of the successful transaction between Homestead and Kissimmee. The difference between the Homestead-Kissimmee and Vero Beach-FPL deals, a difference apparently lost on Turner, is that Homestead sold its FMPA entitlements to another FMPA member. Just a minor detail, Mrs. Turner.

See: Council pressing ahead toward contract signing, referendum on power deal

3 comments

For whatever reason, this has not turned out the way it was intended by anyone. The question is what do we do now, Coach? How can we undo or at least change the course of events? I know there are a lot of experienced people around here – highly intelligent and able to handle all kinds of problems. We have some on Council and Staff…..and many more in our community. HELP! Our special attorneys appear to be takers but not too much givers.

I do not think this mess is a dead end street; I think it is it is a sink hole filled with $150,000,000 .A true quagmire that could become a bottomless pit.

The actions of Fletcher, et al are simply unfathomable. Especially in light of the fact, as has been pointed out before, that COVB went down this very same road a few years ago. Several millions of taxpayer dollars were spent in a futile attempt to extricate COVB from long-term utility purchase agreements. The effort, under the bumbling efforts of the former city attorney failed because at the end of it all, COVB was told – “A contract is a contract. And contractual obligations are obligatory.”