COMMENTARY

“What Wilson is careful not to say is that even in their collective wisdom, the bright minds at FPL say they have no ideas for moving the sale forward.”

“Wilson, “borrowing” from a Peanuts cartoon, cast Councilwoman Amelia Graves as Lucy and Mayor Richard Winger as Charlie Brown. Together, Wilson has his characters conniving to fool voters yet again. It’s classic Wilson slime.”

MARK SCHUMANN

Like Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, local political activist and frequent candidate for public office, Charlie Wilson, seems to think the rules do not apply to him.  And like Mrs. Clinton, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Wilson lacks fidelity to the truth.

Wilson’s latest lie, or delusion, is his claim that Mayor Richard Winger and Councilwoman Amelia Graves somehow prevented the sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light.

In truth, the deal fell apart when Orlando Utilities Commission officials determined that assuming Vero Beach’s entitlement shares in three Florida Municipal Power Agency power projects would create conflicting contract obligations with the OUC’s existing bondholders.

Wilson wants voters to believe his twisted version of the truth, which is that by insisting on a full vetting by the Utilities and Finance Commissions before approving FPL’s proposal to assess a $26 million surcharge on Vero Electric, Winger and Graves, along with Vice Mayor Jay Kramer, somehow killed the deal. (The surcharge proposed by FPL was not included in the original purchase and sale agreement the previous Council so hastily put before voters.)

In truth, the power deal was dead even before Pilar Turner, along with Craig Fletcher and Tracy Carroll, rushed the sales contract before voters in order to try to get the deal done before the next election. That agreement, which cost the City $2 million to negotiate, was fatally flawed, largely because it did not take into account significant costs the City would have to pay to fulfill obligations to the FMPA and its bondholders.

All of that more or less became a moot point, though, given that the OUC backed out of the deal.  Absent a willing and qualified buyer, there can be no sale. No one, it appears, is interested in buying Vero Beach position in the three FMPA power projects. What Wilson is careful not to say is that even in their collective wisdom, the bright minds at FPL say they have no ideas for moving the sale forward.

Acting like a Clinton, Wilson yesterday was again ignoring the rules, if not the law.  He showed up at a candidate forum sponsored by the Indian River Tea Party, and was engaging in electioneering in clear violation of the rules. Wilson, “borrowing” from a Peanuts cartoon, cast Councilwoman Amelia Graves as Lucy and Mayor Richard Winger as Charlie Brown. Together, Wilson has his characters conniving to fool voters yet again. It’s classic Wilson slime.

In apparent violation of Florida’s election laws, Wilson had two signs printed claiming Graves and Winger prevented the sale of Vero Electric. The signs may violate Florida election law, because they lacked a disclaimer indicated that they were paid political advertising.

One sign was taped to the back of a pickup truck parked in front of the Heritage Center, the site of yesterday evening’s candidate forum. The other sign was placed near a garbage can in front of the Heritage Center.  Forum moderator, Paul Tanner, asked Wilson to take down the banner in front of the garbage can.

After Wilson began passing out his not-so-clever plagiarism of a Peanuts cartoon, Tanner had to again confront him for violating the event’s explicit rules against electioneering at the venue.

Wilson, who some believe was essentially run out of St. Lucie County years ago, has settled in Indian River County, where he continues to poison local politics.