City Council candidate Charlie Wilson is paying an average of $1.92 a day as a customer of Vero Electric. He would save just .35 cents a day as a customer of FPL.

COMMENTARY

 

“To listen to Wilson’s public tirades about Vero Electric’s supposedly back-breaking rates, one might never guess that since Sept. 19, 2013 the city council candidate and most outspoken pro-sale fundamentalist has paid, on average, $1.92 a day, or $57.60 a month, as a customer of the City’s electric utility.  Over the last 8 months, Wilson carried an average previous balance on his Vero Beach utility bill of $159.14.”

MARK SCHUMANN

At practically every regularly televised meeting of the Vero Beach City Council, pro-sale utility activist, Charlie Wilson, angrily accuses Mayor Richard Winger, Vice Mayor Jay Kramer and Councilwoman Amelia Graves of “killing the sale” of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light. 

Wilson’s current strategy, which is supported by Councilwoman Pilar Turner and city council candidate Harry Howle III, and  is to blame Winger, Kramer and Graves for contract obligations for which they have no responsibility, while at the same time urging them to wage a legal battle with the Florida Municipal Power Agency.  Wilson’s only other strategy for handing Vero Electric over to FPL seems to be to cheer on the Indian River Shores Town Council and the Indian River County Commission for their efforts to wrest from Vero Beach its 20,000 out-of-city electric customers.  Wilson has even received a campaign contribution from Shores Vice Mayor Gerry Weick, who joined his fellow council members in voting to begin what will surely be a long, costly legal battle that will only serve to enrich a few attorneys.  

To listen to Wilson’s public tirades about Vero Electric’s supposedly back-breaking rates, one might never guess that since Sept. 19, 2013 the city council candidate and most outspoken pro-sale fundamentalist has paid, on average, $1.92 a day, or $57.60 a month, as a customer of the City’s electric utility. Over the past 8 months, Wilson has carried an average previous balance on his utility bill of $159.14.  At the current rate differential between Vero Electric and FPL, Wilson would save just .35 cents a day if he and other pro-sale fundamentalists can find a way to help FPL expand its customer base by acquiring Vero Electric

Wilson, echoing the complaints and pleading of the Shores Town Council and the County Commission, continues to create the impression that Vero Electric’s rates are egregious, onerous, burdensome, and unreasonable, amounting to nothing short of highway robbery.

Based on the Florida Municipal Electric Association’s June, 2014 statewide bill comparison, Vero Electric’s rate for 1000 KWH of residential use is $123, compared to the statewide average for municipal utilities of $121. Because the 6 percent of Vero Electric revenue transferred to the City’s general fund is equivalent to a 6 percent franchise fee, the most accurate comparison between municipal utilities and investor owned utilities, such as FPL, accounts for this fee.  Allowing for a 6 percent franchise fee, then, the current average rate among Florida’s investor owned utilities for 1000 KWH is $124.94.

Wilson, who seems addicted to controversy and is much more inclined to dwell in the problem rather than search for solutions, gives no acknowledgement of the numerous ways city staff and the current council is working to lower rates, including seeking to decommission the power plant and renegotiating its wholesale power agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission.

There are numerous examples of municipal utilities offering rates competitive with FPL. The City of Lake Worth, for example, which is also buying power from the OUC, is currently charging just $105.  Adjusting for a 6 percent franchise fee, FPL’s rate is 105.12.  Had Lake Worth officials followed the sage advice of Vero Beach’s FPL operatives, they would now surely be regretting that decision.

Wilson, Glenn Heran, Pilar Turner, Harry Howle III, the members of the Shores Town Council and Indian River County’s five county commissioners can all talk until they are blue in the face about Vero Beach’s unreasonable electric rates, but at least based on statewide averages, their pro-FPL propaganda flies in the face of facts.

Wilson, Turner and Howle will continue to speak recklessly about launching a long, expensive and doomed legal battle with the FMPA, for that is their only solution to “liberating the waterfront” for development.

It is now clear the City of Vero Beach will gain nothing form the sale, while the customers of Vero Electric will be stuck with a surcharge of no less than $26 million.  Given the determination with which some continue to push for the sale, it is hard to believe there isn’t something in this for someone.