COMMENTARY
“Ironically, if the members of the Indian River County Commission follow through on their promise not to renew the County’s franchise agreement with Vero Beach when it expires in March 2017, it will be good news for the 20,000 customers of Vero Electric located outside the city limits of Vero Beach. As a result, those customers could see a further 6 percent reduction in their electric bills.”
MARK SCHUMANN
In what can only been seen as a stunning and total rejection of claims made by the Indian River County Commission, the Florida Public Service Commission today affirmed its exclusive and superior jurisdiction and authority to regulate a stable, economically viable statewide power grid. The PSC’s ruling will preserve Vero Beach’s existing service territory in the unincorporated areas of Indian River County, even after the franchise agreement between Vero Beach and the County expires in March 2017.
“I will say that Mr. Wright hit it out of the park today on his legal arguments, and I completely agree with him,” said PSC Commissioners Julie Brown just before making the motion to reject the Indian River County Commission’s claims.
Brown went on to rebuke the Indian River County Commission for wasting the PSC’s time.
County Commissioners Tim Zorc, Peter O’Bryan and Bob Solari, along with County Administrator Joe Baird, County Attorney Dylan Reingold and Assistant County Attorney Kate Pingolt Cotner made the trip to Tallahassee to lobby legislators and to receive first-hand the PSC rebuff.
According to press reports, the six County officials were joined in Tallahassee by Vero Beach City Councilwoman Pilar Turner, who spent Monday roaming the halls of the Florida Legislature seeking support for a break up of the Florida Municipal Power Agency. Being politicians, the commissioners and Turner are far more circumspect as they go about their lobbying efforts, but the bottom line is that, after today’s PSC ruling, the only way for Turner and her allies on the County Commission to help FPL expand its customers base will be with assistance from the Florida Legislature and the courts. It’s a longshot at best.
What local utility activists, Turner, the County Commission and State Rep. Debbie Mayfield will likely hear from legislators, though, is that Vero Beach’s and Indian River County’s issues are ones that should be resolved at the local level.
For the Legislature to refer the issue back to the City and County would be a nightmare for a County administration and a County Commission that only knows confrontation. Seeking first to understand and then to be understood and working for win-win solutions are skills that seem beyond the level of emotion maternity of the current members of the Indian River County Commission.
Ironically, if the members of the Indian River County Commission follow through on their promise not to renew the County’s franchise agreement with Vero Beach when it expires in March 2017, it will be good news for the 20,000 customers of Vero Electric located outside the city limits of Vero Beach. As a result, those customers could see a further 6 percent reduction in their bills. Currently, the franchise agreement between Vero Beach and the County Commission required Vero Electric to tack on a 6 percent franchise fee to bills issued to its out-of-city electric customers. That money is then passed on the the Indian River County Commission.
Just two weeks ago, the County Commission instructed staff to prepare requests for proposals from electric service providers to serve Vero Beach’s customers in the unincorporated areas of the County. Presumably, today’s PSC ruling will bring a halt to the County’s plans to establish its own electric utility.
The PSC’s ruling today did not address the issues raised by the Town of Indian River Shores in its lawsuit against Vero Beach. The Town has argued that one municipality (Vero Beach) does not have the right to serve customers within another municipality (Indian River Shores) without permission, and the Shores Town Council has already made clear it will not renew its franchise agreement with Vero Beach when it expires in 2016.
Shores officials assert that their Town is “sovereign,” and that the Town Council, not the PSC, has the sole authority to determine who will provide electric utility service to Town residents. The legal debate may come down to the question of whether the powers granted the PSC are superior to those delegated to municipalities.
The Shores’ lawsuit against Vero Beach is in abeyance until March 3. If the Shores Town Council pursues its lawsuit against Vero Beach, the case will almost surely make its way to the Florida Supreme Court – but only after millions of dollars are spent in legal fees.
Editor’s note: Late this afternoon, the island weekly posted a story about today’s PSC hearing on its online website, VeroNews.com. The island weekly’s report bears some correction. First, Vero Beach’s utility attorney, Schef Wright, is quoted as testifying that Vero Beach has no intention of selling its electric system voluntarily. In the context of the PSC hearing, Wright was asserting that Vero Beach has no plans to capitulate to a forced sale of its utility infrastructure and customer base in the unincorporated areas of Indian River County to the County Commission.
The VeroNews.com report also used out of context Wright’s argument that “rates are utterly irrelevant.” Again, Wright’s statement was made in the context of the legal issues before the PSC. If the Vero Beach City Council and Wright truly considered rates irrelevant, as the island weekly wants its readers to believe, City officials would not be working to renegotiate the Vero Electric’s wholesale power agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission. They would not be conducting a rate optimization study. They would not be considering decommissioning the power plant, and they would not be preparing to conduce a system optimization study. “Our rates are higher than we wish they were. We are working on it,” Wright told the Commission.
VeroNews.com’s report on today’s PSC meeting is just the latest example of how the island weekly cannot keep itself from twisting facts and distorting the truth.
Indian River Guardian 
Could the county commissioners, Mr Baird, Attorney Reingold and Pingot please send the citizen tax payers of Indian River County a check for over $150,000 or whatever it cost for this bogus lawsuit out your personal accounts so we might better spend this money on worthwhile projects?
Solari,O’Bryan and Zorc owe the people of the city of Vero an apology and tax money that they wasted in their flawed plan to force Vero Electric to sell to FPL. Of course, the worst of these is Bob Solari who is a resident of the city of Vero.What does Pilar Turner think she can accomplish with her trek up north? Not much, I can assure you. What we can now expect from her is to defend Indian River Shores against her home town even though she is a councilwoman in the city.