Board also allocates $100,000 for lobbying and public relations

MARK SCHUMANN

Not content to let the Indian River County Commission’s legislative and statewide public relations attack on their agency go unchallenged, the Florida Municipal Power Agency board today approved spending $100,000 to counter the County’s effort.

With encouragement from Vero Beach City Councilman Randy Old, the board’s executive committee also unanimously approved issuing a request for proposals from outside management consultants to study the major issues raised in the State Auditor General’s recent report on the agency.  As approved, the motion calls for the executive committee to draft and issue an RFP to qualified consulting firms.  Whichever firm is selected by the executive committee will answer, not to staff, but directly to the committee.

George Forbes, City Manager of Jacksonville Beach, said he thought the biggest issues raised in the audit resulted from, “bad advice from staff and a board that doesn’t exercise enough oversight over the decision being made.”

Any effective solutions, Forbes said, will require a more engaged board of directors.

Some argue all of the decisions that have led to losses in fuel hedging, interest rate swaps and an investment in Public Gas Partners were made under a previous general manager. Certainly, it was that general manager who pushed for the interest rate swaps that now loom over the FMPA as a $100 million-plus liability.

The larger point others make, though, is that the FMPA board is ultimately responsible for exercise informed control and for not sinking into “group think.”

The FMPA today issued the following press release:

FMPA Members Begin Process to Retain Management Consultant

Third-party consultant will assist Executive Committee in addressing key audit findings

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 19, 2015 – The Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) All-Requirements Project Executive Committee voted today to begin a process to retain a management consulting firm to address key preliminary findings of the Florida Auditor General’s operational audit.

The Auditor General’s preliminary and tentative audit findings, released on Jan. 21, 2015, included five findings that relate to the All-Requirements Project. These findings relate to fuel hedging, natural gas supply agency participation, interest rate swaps, peak shaving and All-Requirements Project termination provisions. Due to the complex nature of these topics, Executive Committee members agreed to begin the process to retain an independent management consulting firm to advise the Executive Committee concerning these findings.

The Executive Committee will select a consultant through a request for qualifications process, and the selected consultant will report its recommendations directly to the Executive Committee.

“We look forward to the opportunity to improve how we operate, and we value the insight that a third-party expert will bring to the process,” said Howard McKinnon, Executive Committee Chairman and Town Manager of Havana, Fla.