There is no additional layer of Government, the utility service is simply being removed from the City of Vero Beach and made to stand on its own with Governance from the ratepayers. The Utility Authority is created from the City of Vero Beach Utility which reduces the size of the City Government. It will then be up to the ratepayers what kind of qualified people they want and if they want more or less bureaucracy.
The ratepayers determine who sits on the board of the Utility Authority. The board does not have any other goal then to run the Utility, unlike a City Council that represents only the taxpayers and can have goals incongruent with all the ratepayers. Keep in mind the term ratepayers applies to all the customers of the Utility, and is not limited to the taxpayers only. A Utility Authority is designed to wholly represent all the users of the Utility.
The issue of qualified, or professionalism refers to policy setting. The policy of the Council over the last several years was to sell the Utility. That policy prevented the hiring of a utility director for several years and directed management to focus on selling the utility and not work on quality of service and getting the rates down. I would wholeheartedly agree that there is limited information on this and there is much work that needs to be done. More than likely this will take several years and several Councils to accomplish. The public will have ample opportunity to support or reject this concept.
– Jay Kramer, Vero Beach Vice Mayor
Indian River Guardian 
Jay, I agree with your idea of removing politics from the operation of the electric utility. I do not believe a utility authority (made up of board members who are elected or appointed?) is the answer. Will the city transfer all assets and liabilities to the utility authority? I believe an autonomous electric utility management team be hired to manage the business of the electric system void of all political interference. The management team will be made up of professionals in the area of electric utility operation and management. The existing utility staff would remain as is. The proposed electrical management would be on par with the city manager and answer only to the owners of the utility via the their elected officials. Allow the numbers and customer service be the governing factors.
Appreciate Mr. Kramer’s clarification of how a utility authority works. Good to be reminded also that due to the decision to attempt to sell our power system, we did not hire a replacement for the last person in charge of utilities.