COMMENTARY
LYNNE LARKIN
How many of us thought that, once Russ Lemmon left the Press Journal, the days of opinion pieces headlining the front page were over? Larry Reisman knew better. Those columns promoting the Vero Beach utility sale to FPL started fairly quickly, and they’ve increased in frequency.
For a newspaper, above-the-fold opinion pieces, which are not tagged as opinion, seem to belie the “news” part of their description.
The flogging of the Florida Municipal Power Agency, criticism of which is certainly in order, has become the be-all/end-all of what drives the PJ agenda. Every person attempting to destroy the FMPA is “a star,” and the private utilities are stalwart businesses on white horses.
The FMPA, meanwhile, is cast as an evil specter, sucking money from its members without accountability. Neither scenario is true.
You wouldn’t know it from Scripps’ pages, however, unless you could glean a shred of a fact from some of the smaller articles hiding out on page 10. Colleen Wixon’s reporting has been balanced and without the wild adjectives flung about in the faux-news pieces. She eschews the fable about city voters having “overwhelmingly approved” a sale to FPL. [The first referendum was about leasing the power plant land to FPL, so “negotiations could go forward,” the second was to approve a “contract” for the sale that had no details nor any real numbers attached, and was again promoted as “vital” so that “negotiations could continue.”]
Once FPL directed that there be an audit of its competitor – how handy to have that kind of pull in a state government – the hyperbole was on steroids.
Reminder: The City tried to extricate itself from the FMPA contracts back in 2003-4 when the money drain was alarming. The council at that time hired the most experienced litigators in the utility field, and used every inch of muscle they had to break away. It was a long, hard-fought battle. By a one-vote margin, the City lost. There remains no great love for FMPA in the city, and any attempts to pretend that people against the sale are “pro” that organization are deluded.
The issue, as it has always been, is our City’s future if it destroys itself while trying to make the deal. What good is that? The taxpayers lose the protections and benefits of what Vero Beach means as a paradise among Florida cities. We read a story every day about how real problems exist for city programs, infrastructure needs aren’t being funded, the playgrounds are rusting and begging for private donations! That’s just the start of what it will mean to lose our income.
The last of the City Council sell-at-any-cost members has joined the County, the Shores, and the Mayfields in their new parry and thrust: Dismantle the FMPA entirely. Well, isn’t that a pretty proposal for FPL, Duke, and the other for-profit companies. Your representatives are cozy with private industry if they are willing to sell to companies that have already charged customers billions for building nuclear plants and future projects that never materialize. Their former employees run the Public Service Commission. You want a say in rates? You’re not getting one there. If nothing else, the FMPA has preventedmonopolies from being born.
One of the Scripp’s “stars,” the Mayfields, have paid little attention to our area in their combined terms in Tallahassee. Most of their legislation has been to support big tobacco, big advertising, big communications firms. Suddenly they are all over this sale to FPL. Suddenly they aren’t in the pockets of big utilities? We deserve real news, not the Scripps FPL Journal.
Indian River Guardian 
The paper must be in real trouble. I can’t go to a retail establishment without someone trying to convince me to subscribe to “our local hometown paper” at the entrance. Even the television ad appears desperately trying to convince us that they are doing the job we all know they are not. I cancelled our PJ subscription over five years ago after being a loyal reader since 1958. I even had it sent to me when I was away at school. Sad to say, I don’t miss it a bit yet feel more informed than ever.
Lynn Larkin hit the nail on the head. The evolution of the Vero Press Journal has produced a daily publication that primarily is focused on news the occurs outside of Indian River County. There is also a trend toward the lighter side of the news. In an article about the All Aboard Florida train proposal Eve Samples addressed the inconvenience of having to stay at a restaurant for a second drink because of the rail traffic. There has been a complete lack of attention to the fact that the train proposal is a public health and safety risk. Our “hometown paper” has not addressed how our local hospitals would deal with a train accident or how the St. Lucie nuclear power plant evacuation plan would mesh with the train schedule. Most importantly there is no analysis of how those who live on the wrong side of the tracks would get to an Emergency room in a timely fashion over rail crossings that might not be accessible because of train travel.
..and let’s not forget that both votes were heavily predicated on, amongst other data, that there was to be $100,000,000+ from the proceeds of a sale leftover after expenses for Vero Beach! That was a joke.
I am certainly happy that Lynne agrees that the FMPA is deserving of criticism. One question, though: what is more deserving as an “evil specter” than an agency that specializes in so-called “Hotel California” contracts? How about an agency that escapes government oversight designed to protect consumers (to include a municipality as a whole) from egregious business practices, as uncovered by the state audit? (If that audit was not done, would the FMPA have done the right thing and policed itself to lower the cost to ratepayers? I think not…)
You mention Wixon’s articles (she is a true journalist) while bombasting Reisman’s views on the issue; you conveniently forget that he, as you (and Mr. Schumann), are opinion columnists – he and you et al. have the right to voice your respective opinions.
One other thing: you mention what would happen to “the protections and benefits of what Vero Beach means as a paradise among Florida cities,” while citing examples of “what it will mean to lose our income.” You are obviously referring to the contribution that ALL ratepayers make through their electric bills to the city’s general revenue fund. County ratepayers have less to benefit from these “contributions” than city residents – namely, they pay much less in property taxes than neighboring cities with similar size and infrastructures. But I will not hold my breath waiting for even a modest rise in the millage rate to help bring down those inflated electric rates.
Just sayin’…
Appreciate everyone’s feedback, politely given. Will add for Jack Richards’ comments: Reminder, the FMPA internal audits had already corrected the big problems with hedging. The other items should have been of concern to member cities, since that information was easily available to all of them. Any bashing should be handed out to all of them for not speaking up. Oversight exists.
FPL lost some $3.6 billion hedging. Have they made public what they have done to “correct” their hedging “problems?” It would be foolish for the FMPA, FPL or any other utility to fail to hedge against the wild place fluctuations that would otherwise be caused by volatile fuel markets. The question is not whether to hedge, but how to hedge, and when it comes to assign blame for taking too much risk, there is plenty of blame to go around. The heat seems to be exclusively on the FMPA though, because unlink FPL, FMPA leaders are not busy recruiting the likes of Debbie Mayfield, Glen Heran and Charlie Wilson to carry out a sustained smear campaign against FPL.