Bluster: talk in a loud, aggressive, or indignant way with little effect.

“The current sleazy attack campaign aimed at discrediting Richard Winger and Amelia Graves makes clear there is no road too low, no gutter too filthy for those who believe winning is ‘everything.'”

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Like coffee, tea has a distinct fragrance, or in this case a pungent odor.  It doesn’t take a bloodhound to smell the local Tea Party’s hand in the recent attacks on Vero Beach Mayor Richard Winger and Councilwoman Amelia Graves. These mailers have Tea Party fingerprints all over them.

Writing about these most recent underhanded assaults on two honorable public servants, I got a mental image of Indian River County Commissioner Bob Solari, State Rep. Debbie Mayfield and their Indian River Tea Party allies calling in coordinates for mortar attacks launches from Tampa, home base to Citizens Alliance for Florida’s Economy and its propaganda arm, Strategic Image Management.

Later in the day, I was reminded of an announcement issued last April by the leadership of the Indian River Tea Party. In that “news release,” the Tea Party team pledged to carry out a statewide campaign intended to sew seeds of discontent in other communities that own electric utilities.

Since that blustery announcement, we haven’t heard much from the Indian River Tea Party about their statewide effort.  I suspect the wealthy, white males who control the Indian River Tea Party found that only in Vero Beach, one of the wealthiest communities is the state, are there large contingents of those, such as themselves, who are especially susceptible to Florida Power & Light’s message of discontent? Several of these men have contributed generously to Harry Howle’s second try for a seat on the City Council.

If Tea Party leaders can elect Howle, and if they can re-elect Pilar Turner next fall, they they will only need to win one of two other seats up in 2016.  With control of the Council, the local Tea Party can start again to slash municipal services, fire more city employees, and perhaps even drive the city into bankruptcy in a last ditch effort to hand Vero Electric over to FPL.  Their larger goal, though, will be consolidation of local government.

The current sleazy attack campaign aimed at discrediting Richard Winger and Amelia Graves makes clear there is no road too low, no gutter too filthy for those who believe winning is “everything.”

Indian River Tea Party announcement issued in April, 2015:

As the Board of the Indian River Tea Party, we assume that an important aspect of your organization’s mission, like ours, is to enlighten taxpayers. We decided to contact you when we became aware that citizens in your area face the same situation we do here in Indian River County with regard to excessive electric utility rates. This is because of an organization named Florida Municipal Power Agency. The FMPA, as they are commonly referred to, is responsible for providing the City of Ocala with residential and commercial power. They also provide power to 30 other Florida cities including Vero Beach here in Indian River County. Thus, our interest in the FMPA.

The FMPA has contracts with the City of Ocala and one of your local elected officials or a member of Ocala’s staff serves on the board of the FMPA. According to the information we have, as of January of this year, the FMPA’s electric rates resulted in the customers of your city utility being charged significantly higher electric rates than those charged by non-FMPA affiliated power providers. The FMPA is not governed by any state agency nor are they regulated by the Public Service Commission like private power providers are.

From our perspective, and the reason we have become involved here in our area is, the higher than market electric rates results in “taxation without representation” for many of our citizens and based on the information we have, the same situation exists in your area. Specifically, in 2013 the City of Ocala transferred $8.7 million from Ocala Utility Services to the City of Ocala general fund. This same situation exists here between the Vero Beach electric utility and the City of Vero Beach. For taxpayers living outside the city limits, which is a significant percentage of the customer base, they have no vote in electing city officials which in effect is taxation without representation.

The Florida Legislature set aside funds last year for the Florida Auditor General’s Office to audit the FMPA. That audit has occurred, there are initial findings (some of which are attached), and the results are exactly what you would expect of an agency “unregulated” by free market forces or governmental oversight. This is a complex issue that is uniquely mainstream here in Indian River County because the City of Vero Beach has been trying to get out of the FMPA for several years to no avail.

We are reaching out to other Tea Party groups in the state to raise awareness with the hope that you will join us in asking our state and local officials to pay closer attention to the FMPA, their practices and specifically, this audit. Please let us know if you would like to learn more regarding this matter and its negative, and unfair, financial impact on taxpayers in your area.

Sincerely,