COMMENTARY

“It’s not just a battle over ownership of municipal utilities. It is a struggle for the soul of the community.”

MARK SCHUMANN

After reflecting on the answers Vero Beach city council candidate Harry Howle III gave on TCPalm’s “Ask the Candidates” page, I am more convinced than ever the long and divisive struggle over the sale of Vero Electric has never been simply about electric rates.

In fact, the more city leaders are able to close the gap between Vero Electric and Florida Power & Light, the more desperate pro sale advocates – including Howle, Pilar Turner and Charlie Wilson – are to force the sale through, regardless of the changing terms and rising costs to the city, its taxpayers and to all 34,000 customers of Vero Electric.

To listen to Howle, Turner and Wilson, they are prepared to burden the taxpayers of Vero Beach with great expense in order to “do whatever is necessary” to affect the sale to FPL. These costs will be in the tens of millions of dollars, and they will come in the form of surcharges and monumental legal fees.

“WE MUST SELL THE ELECTRIC SYSTEM TO FLORIDA POWER AND LIGHT,” Howle wrote, sounding much like Tracy Carroll, who signed a Glenn-Heran-concocted pledge to sell to FPL come hell or high water. (It should be noted that at the time Heran was running an electioneering communications organization funded almost exclusively by FPL.)

“It’s imperative that we unite the community and force the FMPA to release the City from its contracts,” Howle added, sounding more like a spendthrift liberal who won’t pay his bills and honor his obligations than like the responsible, fiscal conservative he claims to be.

Sure, everyone wants lower electric rates, but why is it not sufficient for Vero Electric’s customers to be paying a rate that is within the statewide average? Why the fixation on comparing Vero Electric’s rates to FPL, a utility giant that, at least for now, just happens to have among the lowest rates in the state.

The answer, I believe, can be found in parsing statements Howle and Turner have made about their vision for the waterfront land they hope to “liberate.”

Though the public has never voted on the question of what should be done with the power plant site and possibly the waste water treatment plant site, and though the city council has never taken an official position on the question, Turner is bold to insist one of the primary objectives in selling the electric system is to “liberate the waterfront.”   But liberate it for whom, and under what terms?

Howle agrees with Turner. “I am in favor of getting the sewer and electric plants off of the lagoon. I would sell the assets; municipalities aren’t supposed to be in the property management business. The private sector does things more creatively and efficiently. I’d love to see the vision created by a team of experienced visionaries for the space where the Electric Plant and the Water Treatment plant used to be,” he wrote.

Quite simply, the 6-year struggle over the sale of Vero Electric is about much more than electric rates and the ownership of a municipal utility. It is also about land, private property rights, Libertarianism, and limited-government extremism.

Why do you figure Howle and Turner also want to hand the city’s profitable water and sewer utility over to the county? Or, failing that, why are they prepared to spend $20 million or more to build a new treatment facility near the airport? The answer, I believe, is that neither the power plant site nor the wastewater treatment plant site alone are as attractive to developers as they would be if offered together.

Because the city has a deep injection well, which is located near the airport, there is no discharge from the treatment plant into the Lagoon. Bottom line: There would be no economic or environmental advantage to building a new plant. So, why spend the $20 million?

In addition to clearing the way to hand valuable public lands over to developers, Howle and Turner seem bound and determined to gut city services, either by eliminating the ones they and their Tea Party friends consider “non-essential,” or by merging them with the county’s services.

Howle wrote, “I am in favor of streamlining government. Merging city departments with county departments, and even merging city departments with city departments are all on the table for discussion.”

Howle insists there is always room to “trim fat.”  “Right now we need the belt tightened; and you can ask my wife, I’m extremely frugal,” he wrote.

Turner famously maintains “every organization should be able to cut another 15 percent from its budget.” Both of these simplistic mantras ignore the fact that the city has already reduced its budget and staffing some 25 percent since 2009.

For his part, Wilson reasons that because the city has been able to cut its workforce without “neglecting services,” then surely more cuts are possible.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to realize the city cannot forgo the earnings from its utility enterprises without raising taxes. (Historically, these earnings have, for better or worse, kept Vero Beach’s property taxes among the lowest in the state.) Yet, Howle and Turner insist they would not be willing to raise taxes under any circumstances, not even in concurrence with the sale of Vero Electric and/or the sale of the city’s waster and sewer utility.

What Howle and Turner really have in mind, it seems, is starving the City of Vero Beach into disincorporation. With the dissolution of the city, down would come zoning restrictions that have helped make Vero Beach such a unique community, and up would go high-rise commercial and residential developments enriching builders and developers.

It’s the perfect storm. A greedy utility giant hungry for more customers is stirring it up with local private property rights fundamentalists who want greater development opportunities.

It’s not just a battle over ownership of municipal utilities. It is a struggle for the soul of the community.

Related stories:  

News article makes clear marine resort may well be in Vero Beach’s future

Electric deal has woven into it a hidden agenda

City’s water and sewer utility a vital asset

Footnote:

When asked to assess the performance of “your government’s chief executive,” a clear reference to City Manager Jim O’Connor, all the candidates except Howle offered their critique on O’Connor.

Howle, alone, missed the point, first criticizing President Obama, then Vero Beach Mayor Richard Winger, Vice Mayor Jay Kramer and Councilwoman Amelia Graves. In Vero Beach’s city manager form of government, none of the members of the city council serve in an executive capacity.

Howle wrote, “If you mean President Obama, see my answer to question 1. I’m completely philosophically opposed to his initiatives. Obamacare is a series of taxes that children today will be paying for in the future. Though a standard of educational excellence is a great thing, Common Core looks more like Jimmy Carter’s attempt to Federalize education by strengthening the Federal Government’s control of curriculum than it does a set of benchmarks. I’m also completely turned off by his lack of leadership on our illegal immigration issue and let’s not forget his foreign policy; it is weak if it exists at all. He is, however, hitting the golf ball better than ever.

“If you’re referring to our Mayor, I’m afraid he’s starting to look a lot more like a big government advocate than he is a fiscal conservative. In a recent interview, he said that “limited government is good, but it the public wants it, small isn’t good.” Furthermore, the unwillingness on the part of the Mayor, Jay Kramer, and Amelia Graves to push the sale forward, by the means previously spelled out, has emboldened the FMPA to block the sale and left their constituents paying higher electric bills than necessary.”