COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
In a recent article published in the barrier island weekly, pro-sale utility activist Glenn Heran was quoted as saying, “The FMPA’s contracts are so restrictive that, not only do they render the city’s power purchase rights and assets worthless, they render the utility itself worthless and impossible to sell,” Heran said.
Though Heran is wrong in claiming the city’s electric system is “worthless,” and though he is grossly misinformed about the conditions under which the City of Vero Beach would, indeed, be free to sell its FMPA entitlement shares, the FPL apologist is at least now realizing something about his and FPL’s strategy isn’t adding up.
In the spring of 2013, Heran spent nearly $100,000 in FPL donations to Citizens For a Brighter Future, a political action committee he controlled. Heran used the money to convince voters to approve the purchase and sale agreement singed by Tracy Carroll, Craig Fletcher and Pilar Turner.
In hopes of keeping the dubious deal on track, Heran later formed and headed up Citizens For a Better Future, an electioneering communications organization that spent nearly $40,000 in FPL money to support Tracy Carroll’s failed bid for reelection.
Going back to 2009, Heran, along with Dr. Stephen Faherty, circulated financial models that widely miscalculated/exaggerated the potential financial benefit to the City of selling its electric system. One model projected the City would net $156.5 million in proceeds. Even if the deal were to go through, which now seems all but an impossibility, the actual proceeds would be some negative number, excluding, of course, existing reserve funds.
Now that the deal is unraveling, as many skeptics predicted it would, there is only one question left for Heran to answer: “Glenn, as a widely celebrated CPA, why didn’t you dig into this deep enough two years ago, rather than just make uninformed pronouncements and a lot of enemies?”
Indian River Guardian 
These ardent pro sales people (Heran, Wilson, Turner, Fletcher, Faherty, Carrol, Mucher etc) are truly an unusual lot. They must have had a behind the scene scheme that not one has brought to the surface yet. There is no way any intelligent person could expect this so called sale to be finalized as originally written. Either that or this lot has to be dumb as rocks. Pick which one you think it is.
Had Mr. Heran realized it was not a “piece of cake” deal a lot sooner, it would have saved us all a lot of grief and money.
As a Certified Public Accountant, does this imply liability to Heran for gross misstatements and sworn testimony?
Why not give Mr. Heran the opportunity to explain himself to your readers through the use of a interview? I do believe that INSIDEVERO does all it can to present both sides of an issue.. Certainly ir Mr. Heran is interested in true facts and believes what he is doing he should jump at the chance to explain his position and correct any false assumptions.Seems to me, if he were to decline such an offer, the silence would be deafening.
Jim, your suggestion is a good one. In the interest of fairness and in a desire to present all sides of the story, we have extended such offers to Mr. Heran. He has declined.
The City of Vero Beach is not the only community in Florida (or the nation) that owns its own utilities. It is also not the most expensive when it comes to utilities. Are all the other municipalities going thru this mess , neighbor against neighbor, mainland against the beach, county against city?
I have lived in the city limits for over 40 years and have never seen anything like this.
Any ideas how we can come together once again?
If Glen Heran has political ambitions, it might be useful to educate voters on his residency. There seems to be a growing trend in people seeking elective office even though they do not meet the nominal residency requirements..