COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Utility activist Charlie WIlson informed the city council yesterday that a group of “concerned citizens” is working on an as-yet-to-be-revealed plan that he said will enable the city to withdraw from the Florida Municipal Power Agency by the end of 2016.

Wilson, who now introduces himself, not as Charlie, but as Charles, and who only recently stopped stating his address as a post office box when addressing the council, has declared that he will run for a seat on the council this fall.  Wilson’s sole platform seems to be his insistence that the proposed sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light must go forward, for the fate of Western Civilization hangs in the balance.

When Wilson last ran for city council in 2009, he promised voters the City would net some $80 million on the sale of its electric utility.  Wilson’s calculation did not include existing reserve funds of approximately $30 million.  At the time, the pro-sale utility activist ALSO claimed interest income from the promised sale proceeds would make up for the lost transfer of $5.5 million annually from the electric fund to the City’s general fund.  It is now clear any sale would cost the City and its taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.  There will be no sale proceeds.  In fact, there will be no sale, despite Wilson’s delusional claims to the contrary.

Earlier during yesterday’s council meeting, attorney Schef Wright said that he has no new ideas for how to move the sale forward. Wright reported that he is working with the Orlando Utilities Commission and Florida Power & Light representatives to amend existing agreements. Those changes, Wright said, are needed to allow the City to at least have conversations about ways of lowering rates in the absence of a sale.  Wright said .

Wilson’s claims that some group of “concerned citizens” can accomplish what the City Council has not been able to achieve after spending some $2 million in legal fees is nothing but a campaign ploy.