COMMENTARY
MARK SCHUMANN
Listening to the feigned indignation and political posturing at the Indian River County Commission and Vero Beach Utilities Commission meetings yesterday, I was left thinking of the song by the group, Enigma, “Silence has a right to be heard.”
The source of all the shameless theatrics, of course, are the recently released preliminary and tentative findings in the State Auditor General’s review of the Florida Municipal Power Agency. Where have these people been, I wondered, as I listened to them rant and rave about supposedly new revelations concerning the FMPA’s losses in fuel hedging. Several years ago, the FMPA general manager was sacked and replaced as a result of the losses. So, where’s the news?
The real news, it seems to me, is that local leaders are only now getting themselves clued in to information they should have been clear about years ago. About the FMPA’s natural gas fuel hedging losses and its ill-advised interest rate swaps, there is nothing new in the Auditor General’s report.
The FMPA has until next Friday to respond to 15 questions and issues raised in the report. In a nation that values due process, why not at least wait until FMPA leadership has had an opportunity to respond to the report?
Eager to jump to conclusions, the Press Journal’s new utility expert, Larry Reisman, is already calling for a breakup of the FMPA. Reisman seems utterly unaware of the legal and practical impossibilities of what he is proposing.
County Attorney Dylan Reingold, who was through last week’s Florida Public Service Commission Meeting, has announced he is taking to the road, essentially to stir up discontent is other FMPA cities, starting in Fort Meade.
While due process is respected, silence has a right to be heard.
Indian River Guardian 
Looking for blame in every other place and being outraged and too impatient to wait for answers. Yes, that is the same ol’ stuff we’ve been hearing for what seems like an eternity. It was disturbing and does not make humanity today appear to have improved over the generations. But maybe I am jumping to conclusions – which is no better than what the Commissioners and Company are accustomed to doing.
Tax wasting ,political fools. What these political fools want is the utter destruction of the city of Vero Beach. I see Solari behind this whole scheme, simply because he hates the City of Vero Beach. BTW ,with Zorc’s problems he should be seen and not heard. What can you say about some Press Journal reporters other then they love their paycheck.