COMMENTARY

“Barefoot certainly did not explain that steps Vero Beach is taking to lower rates will have Shores customers paying well below the statewide average rate for their power.”

“How did the top one percent, sitting on their wealth and basking in their privilege, ever get the notion life is fair?”

MARK SCHUMANN

In her report on Monday’s special called County Commission meeting, blogger Bea Gardner accurately characterized the negative, obstructionist and opportunistic attitude displayed by the five members of the Indian River County Commission as they seek to meddle in the Vero Beach City Council’s management of Vero Electric.  Listening to yesterday’s kangaroo court, one could easily have gotten the impression all five commissioners possess advanced degrees in utility law. What Gardner could have also explained is that while the Commission may be saying “no” to lower electric rates, in truth, the Commission has no say.

What the members of the County Commission have is a platform and an inexhaustible supply of gall. Vero Electric is not owned by the County, nor is the County a party to the City’s contracts with the Florida Municipal Power Agency and the Orlando Utilities Commission. Commissioner Wesley Davis’ recent assertion that fellow Commissioner Tim Zorc serves as the County’s “point person” with the FMPA is laughable.  The County has no relationship with the FMPA. During yesterday’s meeting, Davis went so far as to raise the prospect of seeking a court injunction to prevent the City Council from renegotiating its wholesale power agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission. 

When it comes to decisions to be made by and for the people of Vero Beach about their electric utility, the five members of the Indian River County Commission are simply spectators. They just have not yet realized the extent to which they are misguided, and they do not yet comprehend the degree to which they have made themselves irrelevant.

Given the Commission’s ill-advised effort to persuade the Florida Public Service Commission to abdicate its responsibility for ensuring a stable and reliable supply of electric power throughout the state, the five members of the County Commission are turning out to be, not just spectators, but bozos on the bus.

As the County Commission was meeting in special session yesterday, across town and on the other side of the Lagoon, Indian River Shores Mayor Brian Barefoot issued a statement that sounded as if it was written by Little Lord Fauntleroy. While Shores’ Vice Mayor Gerry Weick works to influence the outcome of the Vero Beach City Council election, Mayor Barefoot is taking the lead in articulating the privileged attitude of the Indian River Shores Town Council. Somehow, many of the county’s wealthiest residents have persuaded themselves they have an inalienable right to the lowest electric rates in the state. This privileged notion flies in the face of established utility law.

Barefoot wrote, “…the promised rate reduction, even if fulfilled, still would leave the City’s rate significantly higher than FPL.”

Barefoot did not bother to explain that Vero Electric’s rate is lower than the statewide average for investor owned utilities and is quite close to the statewide average for municipal utilities. Barefoot certainly did not explain that steps Vero Beach is taking to lower rates will have Shores customers paying well below the statewide average rate for their power. He must believe the propaganda coming from the Alliance for Better Florida Communities, an electioneering communications organization funded by FPL, the George E. Warren Corporation and The Hill Group, among others.

Barefoot added, “This would continue to place our Town in the untenable position where a majority of our residents pay much higher rates than their neighbors for the same amount of electricity. Our residents have made it clear that such a rate disparity (currently 20 percent) within our community is unfair and unacceptable.”

How did the top one percent, sitting on their wealth and basking in their privilege, ever get the notion life is fair?

Essentially, what Barefoot is saying is that the 80 percent of the Shores residents served by Vero Electric have found discontentment in comparing electric bills with the 20 percent of Shores residents served by FPL. The simple and obvious way to relieve their discontentment and to restore happiness to “Pleasantville” would be to let Vero Electric serve all of the Shores. All of this discontentment may was a way in the next hurricane, when the 20 percent of Shores customers who are served by FPL have to go several weeks before their power is restored.

The most telling quote of the day came from Vero Beach city council candidate Charlie Wilson, who has raised more than 80 percent of his campaign cash from contributors outside Vero Beach.  “It’s not about lower rates.” Wilson said. “It’s about getting out of the electric business.”

Wilson might have added: It’s also about getting the City of Vero Beach out of the water and sewer business so the power plant site and the wastewater treatment site can be made available to developers.

Gardner’s column is a must read. See: County Says NO to Lower Rates

 

With friends like these, who needs enemies?