COMMENTARY

BEA GARDNER

Editor’s Note: Bea Gardner is the creator of Bea-isms at beagardner.com.

“If you could read my mind”, the song by Gordon Lightfoot comes to my mind of late when I think about the efforts of the City of Vero Beach to sell off its Electric Utility to FP&L.

Especially the lyrics towards the end of the song…now, just imagine these words coming out of Amy Brunjes mouth to the tune of… “If you could read my mind” by Gordon Lightfoot:

“I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.                                                            

If you could read my mind, what a tale my thoughts could tell.”

Maybe Amy Brunjes, or any of her bands of warriors just don’t get it but I can tell you this – I think I get it. I think the done deal is now a dead deal and I believe I know where they went wrong.

The now infamous Troika of Turner, Fletcher and Carroll got pretty cocky knowing that they had three votes to do anything they wanted regarding the sale so they choose to hire a law firm who had little, if no experience, in the utility field to transact the sale. The Troika allowed FPL to lead the hired law firm down the path to an ironclad deal for FPL with no regard for tackling the obstacles that stood in the way of the sale. That part of the deal only cost the Troika, oops, I mean the City, $1.5 Million That was where they went wrong – hiring a law firm who would not tackle the City’s obligations with FMPA first before cutting a deal with FPL.

Of course, the obstacles that I am talking about are the contracts and obligations with the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) that everybody knew were going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get out of. Yet, FPL and the sell crowd, continued to lead the ratepayers down the primrose path – telling them that a sale was eminent.

Getting back to the song…I’m am pretty sure that Amy and gang were probably thinking – If you could read my mind I would probably tell you that we knew all along that this deal would come down to FMPA and it probably would not fly.

Another verse of the song goes like this…”I’d walk away like a movie star…

If they knew all along that the deal as we know it would not fly then why? Why don’t they do as the song says – “ just walk away like a movie star”?

I believe I know the answer to that question. It’s beginning to look as though Florida Power & Light (FPL) had a different end game than what the ratepayers expected from this apparent deal. Looks to me like FPL was waiting in the wings for the City of Vero Beach to take the fall for not doing enough to get out of their obligations with FMPA so that Vero would spend even more money and more time to try to get out of the obligations with FMPA while FPL sits back and watches this three ring circus – at no further expense to FPL I might add.

The new three ring circus to watch in this saga is the Town of Indian River Shores, the Indian River County Commissioners and falling a bit into the background, the City of Vero Beach.

Another line in the song goes like this.

“And you won’t read that book again
Because the ending’s just too hard to take”

That makes me feel like Amy Brunjes is saying (If we could read her mind) “we won’t do this again – try to buy the Electric Utility from Vero Beach unless we know that at the end of the negotiations we would have a sale.

In the manner that FPL went about this whole thing, I am sure Amy Brunjes and all her minions have come to realize that, as the song says, “the ending is just too hard to take”.