Howle’s ‘platform’ lacks foundation in law or logic

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Former City Council candidate Harry Howle

I read with a mixture of dismay and amusement former Vero Beach City Council candidate Harry Howle’s recent letter to the editor. A mere 173 words, Howle’s letter is little more than flash fiction. His latest submittal, though, may give an indication of the platform he will run on should he become an FPL-sponsored city council candidate again this fall.

Essentially, Howle argues the current city council needs to sit down at a closing table and sign paperwork handing Vero Electric over to Florida Power & Light.

Does the would-be city councilman not realize the contract approved by voters in the spring of 2013 cannot be legally executed? Is he not aware the City’s liabilities to the Florida Municipal Power Agency could total well over $300 million? And has he not considered that any new agreement will have to provide for the cost of settling the City’s obligations to the FMPA, and must also be put to voters in a referendum ?

Given that the taxpayers of Vero Beach cannot afford to satisfy a $300 million settlement, the FMPA might well be successful in seeking an injunction to the execution of Howle’s bright idea. Should Howle, Pilar Turner and a third, as yet to be named, FPL candidate end up as a new three-person majority on the council, Howle’s rhetoric and illogic will run up against reality and the rule of law.

Alliance for Better Florida Communities, a Vero Beach based electioneering communications organization, mailed out a slick post card supporting city council candidates Harry Howle and Pilar Turner. The organization received significant funding from Florida Power & Light.

Howle wrote, “What else will it take to convince city leaders that the only real solution to its problems is to sell the entire electric utility to Florida Power & Light?”

Based on his letter to the editor, Howle seems to have concluded that because the Orlando Utilities Commission objects to the current city council’s move to explore alternatives to remaining in a 20-year wholesale power deal, the OUC is necessarily right and the leaders of Vero Beach wrong. “…and now it looks like the city can’t get out of its contracts with the OUC either,” Howle wrote.

I wonder if Howle has read both the OUC’s letter addressed to “Mr. Fletcher,” and the City’s response. Based on his letter, it would seem Howle is getting all of his information and misinformation from the island weekly.

For advertising his party affiliation in a non-partisan municipal election, Harry Howle was fined by the Florida Elections Commission. — For advertising his party affiliation in a non-partisan municipal election, Harry Howle was censured by the Florida Elections Commission.

Howle precociously described as “a bad deal” the decision made by city leaders several decades ago to join the FMPA and to participate in several FMPA power projects. I wonder if Howle is aware that only after FPL walked away from a contract to buy Vero Electric did city leaders consider joining with other municipalities in forming the FMPA in the early 1980s. The deal was overwhelmingly approved by voters in the late 1970s, and could have been completed then, if only FPL had not left Vero Beach stranded at the alter.

Given Howle’s apparently limited knowledge of or disregard for history and his tenuous grasp of the facts, he might do well to pass on another run for a seat on the city council. If he were old enough, Howle would instead make the perfect vice presidential running mate for billionaire real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

2 comments

Mr Howle’s recent written letter to the Press Journal are so far off base it should be classified under fiction and poor fiction at that. I do not understand why he does not come down into the world of reality and admit the deal is too expensive for Vero ratepayers. $300 million is too much to pay;$150 million is too much; $52 million is too much and that figure has already been overwhelming rejected by most people who know what’s going on. It seems to me he either believes what he writes, but does not understand what the contractual agreements with OUC and FMPA mean, or he is playing politics once again. PS—– FPL is not the lowest electric supplier in the state. Check it out.

I’m reading this some 7 years or so later and I’m laughing my ass off at Mark Schumann and his fake “John Church” contributed. It was a good ride and we won. Even with the cost of energy increasing under the current, underwhelming and under qualified administration, we are still 30% lower in our electrics costs. We’ve saved over $100 million in energy costs since this twit, Schumann, wrote this article. What a loser.