COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

“Indian River Shores 32963” reporter Lisa Zahner concluded her story on Tuesday’s Vero Beach City Council meeting by writing, “Should the city not fare well in court, it would be in a far less favorable position to broker a deal for the Shores portion of the (electric) system.”

Predictably, Zahner did not also address the implications of a legal victory for Vero Beach.  Allowing for the possibility of a Vero Beach victory in court would have made for a more balanced story, especially considering that Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox recently granted the Florida Public Service Commission standing in the case.

PSC lawyers have already filed a brief with the court arguing the PSC, and not the Shores Town Council, has sole and superior authority to determine electric service territories throughout the state.

The other side of the story, the side Zahner and her editors choose to ignore, is that if Vero Beach prevails in court, the city will be in a much better position, either to keep the full 34,000-customer system in tact, or to bargain for something better than the $13 million short-sale price FPL has offered.

Calls by Shores officials for transparency in Vero Beach’s negotiations with the Orlando Utilities Commission was another irony arising out of yesterday’s city council meeting.  After all, it was a Shores Town Councilman, Richard Haverland, who once wrote an email to the Town’s manager urging him to schedule a council meeting for an “extremely inconvenient time.”  Consider, also, the case of Shores Mayor Brian Barefoot and Haverland being fined for violating Florida open government laws.  Given their own poor track record, Shores officials are in no position to lecture on transparency.

Perhaps the most ironic statements from yesterday were made by Vero Beach City Councilwoman Pilar Turner. Further proving that she represents FPL, and not the residents of Vero Beach, Turner voted not to move forward on a new deal with the OUC that will lower the city’s wholesale power costs by some $750,000 a month.

Turner contends the revised agreement needs further study. But isn’t this the same Pilar Turner who signed a purchase and sale agreement with FPL in the spring of 2013. That contract, also approved by Tracy Carroll and Craig Fletcher, left many key provisions unresolved. In fact, FPL was eventually back before the council proposing to add to the deal a $26 million surcharge on the customers of Vero Electric.

Given her track record of rushing into a deal for the benefit of and at the direction of her patrons at FPL, Turner is hardly a credible voice calling for careful analysis. Likely, Turner hoped to burry the initiative to toward lower rates in a paralysis of analysis. As rates continue to come down for Vero Electric’s customers, Turner is finding it increasingly difficult to continue pushing for the sale.