MARK SCHUMANN

Vero Beach’s special utility counsel, Schef Wright, along with Mayor Richard Winger and City Manager Jim O’Connor, met Tuesday with six members of Florida Power & Light’s senior staff. According to Wright, the meeting was “cordial, frank and candid,” but unproductive.

“We all concluded that our power purchase agreements have cost structures that just are not conducive to or permissive of being able to find common ground on a partial sale,” Wright said in his report to the City Council later that evening.

Wright explained that if Vero Beach were to sell to FPL its Indian River Shores customers, significant stranded costs associated with the City’s power purchase agreements with the Florida Municipal Power Agency would have to be paid by the City’s remaining customers.

According to Wright, neither the City’s team nor FPL representatives put forward any ideas for how to execute the sale of the full system. “We don’t have a party to step into our shoes in the FMPA contracts. Absent that, the deal cannot work,” Wright said.

Wright also reported that the Town of Indian River Shores amended its court case against the City of Vero Beach to include claims of breach of contract, while dropping a request that the City hold a vote on forming an electric utility authority. The Shores also dropped the charge that its residents have been denied equal protection and due process.

The heart of the Shores’ lawsuit continues to be the assertion that Vero Beach’s electric rates are “unreasonable,” and that the Town has the right to force Vero Beach to abandon electric service to Shores customers when the franchise agreement between the two local governments expires in 2016.

Wight said that within 50 days he will file with the court a response to the Shores’ allegations.