Editor’s Note:  After enduring the predictable clown act that has become public comment time, the Vero Beach City Council yesterday dispensed with minor zoning changes, including expanding the downtown district by .34 acres. With equal predictability, the Council gave final approval of a resolution proposed by Councilwoman Pilar Turner urging the Florida Legislature to pass a bill put forward by State Rep. Debbie Mayfield aimed at breaking up the Florida Municipal Power Agency.  

No one who has their fingerprints on the bill will admit their objective is to further Florida Power & Light’s efforts to expand its customer base by acquiring municipal utilities, but the intent is clear.  Mayor Jay Kramer, the lone dissenting vote, contends Mayfield’s bill can do no good, or at least will have no meaningful effect on the agency, other than to increase its costs of operations. Vice Mayor Randy Old and Councilman Richard Winger supported Turner’s resolution, but only on the grounds it could do no harm to Vero Beach.

Turner and newly-elected Councilman Harry Howle argued the FMPA is out of control and needs to be reigned in through Legislative intervention. In urging passage of her resolution supporting Mayfield’s bill, Turner claimed the FMPA has not been audited in more than 20 years.  In truth, the joint action agency is audited annually.  

Turner also argued the agency operates behind a veil of secrecy.  Again, the truth is the FMPA is subject to the the same open records and open meetings laws as are its member municipalities.

Perhaps most disingenuous about Turner’s claims was her complaints that the FMPA failed to share information with her, and required her to attend a meeting in Orlando to review documents designated a “proprietary.”  

Turner fail to explain the documents in question were designated “proprietary,” not by the FMPA, but by private companies doing business with the FMPA. Turner was asked by FMPA officials to sign a nondisclosure agreement before reviewing the documents, and she could not take notes or make copies. Today, she used this as an example of how the FMPA has failed to be transparent.

Investor-owned utilities make documents proprietary frequently, and they are able to designate them as “proprietary” based solely on their own judgment. That is, if an investor owned utility, such as Florida Power & Light, says certain documents represent proprietary information, they can designate them as such. In FMPA’s case, only a private company doing business with FMPA can designate their documents proprietary. FMPA cannot take this action. Despite Turner’s claims, the FMPA is an open organization with all of their own records open to the public.

Below is a story first posted in May of this year reporting at least one fact Turner apparently did not want anyone to know. After her meeting with the FMPA in which she now claims agency officials failed to be transparent with her she wrote a letter thanking them for “an informative meeting.”

When the dust settles on this year’s legislative session, Mayfield’s bill will almost sure have wound up in the round file, along with almost all of her previous efforts to pass legislation aiding FPL is its acquisition efforts.  

COMMENTARY

“One day after the meeting held at FMPA’s offices in Orlando, Turner wrote, “Just want to thank you and your staff for the informative meeting yesterday. I do appreciate the time and effort expended on my behalf. I certainly departed with a better understanding of the issues.”

“…could it be that Turner is using her personal email account and then clearing it of correspondence related to public business in order to get around Florida’s open records laws?”

MARK SCHUMANN

In a recent guest column published in the Press Journal, Vero Beach City Councilwoman Pilar Turner called for “the bright light of Florida’s Sunshine to be cast upon the darkest secrets of the FMPA” While accusing the FMPA of hiding information, Turner did not reveal that she met for a full afternoon with senior FMPA staff in Orlando on August 13, 2014.

The meeting was arranged to share with and explain to Turner the rational behind the agency’s calculation of Vero Beach’s cost for ending its membership in the joint action agency.

This week, responding to a public records request, Turner denied the existence of any email communication between herself and FMPA staff regarding the meeting. She also claimed not to have taken any notes during the half-day meeting. In an email to City Clerk Tammy Vock Turner wrote, “Please advise Mr. Schumann I was given no documents at the subject meeting. I have no notes relating to the discussions and I did not have any written communications with anyone regarding the meeting.”

Responding to an identical public records request, FMPA staff late Friday provided copies of numerous emails to and from Turner, include a message sent from Turner’s personal email account to FMPA Assistant General Counsel Jody Finklea on August 14, 2014.

One day after the meeting held at FMPA’s offices in Orlando, Turner wrote, “Just want to thank you and your staff for the informative meeting yesterday. I do appreciate the time and effort expended on my behalf. I certainly departed with a better understanding of the issues.”

One aspect of this story is that, while claiming the FMPA is hiding “dark secrets,” Turner has chosen not to discuss the fact that members of the agency’s senior staff met with her privately and at length to explain the cost calculations associated with Vero Beach’s proposed sale of its electric system to Florida Power & Light.

Beyond publicly mischaracterizing her dealings with the FMPA, Turner went further this week when she denied the existence of public records related to the August 13, 2014 meeting.

Now that Councilwoman Turner is writing guest commentary for the local newspaper accusing the FMPA of hiding “dark secrets,” could it be that she does not want the public to know she met privately with FMPA senior staff for a full afternoon? Does she not want it made public that she wrote FMPA staff thanking them for meeting with her?  Further, does Councilwoman Turner not want it known she wrote an email claiming to have left the August 13, 2014 meeting with “a better understanding of the issues?”

Further, could it be that Turner is using her personal email account and then clearing it of correspondence related to public business in order to get around Florida’s open records laws?

At least for this reporter, Turner’s denial of the existence of her April 14, 2014 email correspondence with Finklea raises questions about other occasions when the councilwoman has denied the existence of email correspondence or records  of telephone communications.

Turner owes it to the public to be forthright about the existence of public records and forthcoming when those records are requested.