COMMENTARY

Editor’s note: The following commentary, first published June 7, is even more relevant today, given Councilwoman Pilar Turner’s assertion that the Florida Municipal Power Agency is “dividing” the community.  

I spoke with someone yesterday about Turner’s campaign website who observed there are two sides to every story.  In truth, there are sometimes more than two sides to a story, and the one you need to be most concerned about is the side that is not being told.  

It seems to me Turner, her former colleague on the city council, Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher, Bob Solari, Glenn Heran, Charlie Wilson and their friends at Florida Power & Light are the ones who are driving a wedge through the heart of the community.  Some want more political power, some want more customers, some want to “liberate” valuable waterfront property for developers, some desperately need to be right, but every one of them wants something. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARK SCHUMANN

Since the news broke that Florida Power & Light’s attempted acquisition of Vero Electric is unraveling, pro-sale utility activist and local FPL operative Glenn Heran has been uncharacteristically quiet. The utility giant’s most vocal supporter of late has instead been Charlie Wilson, who just this week announced plans to run for a seat on the Vero Beach City Council.

Though Heran has been lying low, it may not be long before he is scheming behind the scenes to put FPL money to work in support of Wilson. After all, in the last election, FPL funneled nearly $50,0000 through a Heran-run electioneering communications organization – Citizens for a Better Future – to support Tracy Carroll.

Earlier in the year, FPL spent more than $125,000 to persuade 2,339 voters to support the March 12 referendum on the contract between the company and the City of Vero Beach.  In addition to its direct expenditures of $29,000, FPL gave $92,000 to another Glenn Heran controlled political action committee – Citizens for a Brighter Future.

FPL has single-mindedly supported candidates like Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner, who were willing to approve letters of intent and sign contracts without challenging a single word, call for premature referendums and in every way defer to the wishes of the utility giant.  The company’s support for contentious, combative and divisive politicians like Carroll, Fletcher and Turner is an example of how outside corporate influence can poison local politics.

FPL’s “chosen ones” publicly argued the company’s rationale for the sale – that Vero Beach residents would enjoy substantial savings on electric bills in exchange for slightly higher taxes. When it came time to prepare a new budget, though, Carroll, Fletcher and Turner proposed draconian cuts is staffing and services as a way of offsetting the anticipated loss in utility revenue.

In complete disregard of the fact that the City had already trimmed a quarter of its budget, Turner famously insisted “any organization can cut another 15 percent from its budget.” If the three had prevailed, fewer beaches would be guarded, Crestlawn Cemetery would have been sold, wages would still be frozen for most City employees, fewer police officers would be guarding the City, and the list goes on.  Essentially, the Troika would have gutted City services.

The Troika also ran off many competent and dedicated employees. Together, they fired a city attorney, brought the City Clerk to tears, and created a contentious and adversarial relationship between the Council and City staff.  In fact, FPL’s three “appointees” to the Council were so antagonistic toward City staff it seemed as if they actually believed what they read in Vero Beach 32963. (The role the island weekly has played in stoking fires of discontent by relentlessly attacking the City with grossly exaggerated assertions of incompetence is a story for another day.)

With Turner and then Fletcher wielding the gavel, Council meetings became a dangerous place for dissenters. No longer could citizens speak their mind and raise their concerns without fear of being bullied by the Council.

Carroll, along with Fletcher, managed to bring shame on the City for the bigoted comments they made when refusing to sign a proclamation for Humanist Recognition Week.  Carroll tried to turn the dog exercise area over to a private club. And who can forget how Carroll and her husband attempted to set loose the plague of short term rentals by violating City code and then challenging their $50 citation before the Code Enforcement Board?  The City is now spending tens of thousands of dollars defending itself against Tracy Carroll’s Fort-Lauderdale-style vision for Vero Beach.

Regardless of the damage Carroll was doing to the City of Vero Beach, FPL’s Amy Brunjes was always there to support her.

Now Wilson, who once acknowledged that he was “carrying water” for FPL”, has declared he wants to be mayor. Recently, Wilson sounded as if he was reading from FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy’s playbook, when he insisted the way to force the power sale is through political, regulatory and legislative pressure.

Silagy, of course, worked as the chief of staff for U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnson of Louisiana.  As a political strong-armer for FPL, Silagy successfully lobbied for the firing of two members of the Florida Public Service Commission who voted against FPL’s request for a rate increase.  Soon after the two PSC commissioners were sacked, Silagy was promoted to president and CEO of FPL.

Now the company has none other than local political hack Charlie Wilson making its case, and a weak case it is.  Just this past Friday, Mayor Richard Winger said reviving the negotiations would be like “raising Lazarus from the dead.”

Other than FPL leaders and Wilson, nearly everyone familiar with the negotiations knows it is time to move on.  There is much the City can and should do to lower rates and improve the governance of the electric utility.  Now is the time to begin that work.

Wilson’s campaign for a seat on the city council and his insistence on challenging the Florida Municipal Power Agency in court should be seen for what they are, distractions, nothing more than distractions.