COMMENTARY
“The Shores is proposing this partial-sale, not Vero Beach. While Vero Beach may be a willing seller, it is not a desperate seller.”
“Instead of writing an insulting, bullying letter to Mayor Kramer, Barefoot should write a letter of apology the taxpayers he represents, as well as to the taxpayers of Vero Beach and the customers of Vero Electric.”
MARK SCHUMANN
City officials now have in hand a formal offer from Florida Power & Light to buy Vero Electric’s Indian River Shores customer base for $30 million. Also in hand at City Hall is a letter from Indian River Shores Brian Barefoot to Mayor Jay Kramer explaining why Barefoot and his fellow Shores Town Council members believe the deal is a good one for Vero Beach.
Admittedly, FPL’s latest proposal to pay nearly $10,000 per meter for Vero Beach’s Shores customers is more than twice the company’s original offer. Still, what Barefoot and company consider a “generous” offer falls some $15 million short of what the City’s outside utility consultants have estimated will be needed to insure that carving off the Shores customers base will not put the City’s taxpayers and remaining electric customers at risk of paying higher taxes and higher rates. (The considerations and calculations for a sale of the full system would be quite different, for the City would not be holding long-term contractual obligations and financial risks.)
Barefoot, who shoulders no responsibility for decision affecting the taxpayers of Vero Beach and the customers of Vero Electric, assured Mayor Kramer the $30 million offer “will more than cover the City’s long-term costs and contingent liabilities.” Barefoot refutes the City’s analysis of the costs, likely risks and lost economic opportunity; and he does so largely because he has yet to wrap his mind around that fact that the Town’s legal challenges have gone and are going nowhere. In fact, though the Shores has so far spent nearly $1 million trying to persuade judges and regulators to force Vero Beach to abandon it’s Shores customer base, nothing has come of these efforts. Nothing!
Disregarding the Town’s long string of expensive legal setbacks, Barefoot wrote, “…the City’s analysis assumes that the City should be entitled to guaranteed ‘profit’ from customers in the Town for 30 years after those customers depart the City’s system.”
Though they calculated the lost economic potential over 30 years, Vero Beach’s team of consultants also suggested working with a 50-year analysis would also be reasonable. Be clear about this. The Shores is proposing this partial-sale, not Vero Beach. While Vero Beach may be a willing seller, it is not a desperate seller. Just as FPL, or any other going concern can reasonable expect to continue to earn profits, Vero Electric can and should continue earning a return on investment for the residents and taxpayers of Vero Beach. If Vero Beach leaders sell a portion of Vero Electric, they will be surrendering profit potential forever. Barefoot’s letter to Kramer misses this point entirely.
In an example of supreme arrogance, Barefoot went on to suggested Vero Beach’s analysis of the financial impact of the proposed partial sale should account for savings to come from the cessation of legal hostilities between the Shores and Vero Beach. Quite simply, Barefoot is saying Vero Beach leaders should take into account the relief that will come when Shores leaders stop wasting everyone’s money on lawsuits that are going nowhere.
More than anyone else, Barefoot has led the charge, one defeat after another; and he, more than anyone else, is responsible for forcing the customers of Vero Electric to pay the cost of defending their system from novel legal challenges that have left judges and regulators shaking their heads. Instead of writing an insulting, bullying letter to Mayor Kramer, Barefoot should write a letter of apology the taxpayers he represents, as well as to the taxpayers of Vero Beach and the customers of Vero Electric.
Next Tuesday, FPL’s proposal is to be taken up by the Vero Beach City Council. Rather than accepting or rejecting the offer, it might me wise to ask the City’s team of consultants, as well as the Finance Commission, to take yet another look at all the numbers. If Vero Beach leaders except an offer still 50 percent below what the consultants say will be needed to protect the City’s taxpayers and electric customers, they are sure going to have some explaining to do.
Indian River Guardian 
A profile in courage is what Jay shows. Doesn’t occur too much in politics these days.
All who live in Indian River Shores should be asking why so much of their money is being spent on expensive lawsuits against Vero Beach. That spent money could be used to fund other worthwhile projects in that village. Since I live on the mainland and not in Indian River Shores, I can’t read the minds of those living there. Did the City of Vero let them down when we had the 2004 double hurricanes? Perhaps the folks who have so much, expect the rest of us to suffer for their benefit. I don’t know. I applaud those on our City Council who have indicated they will do what is right for their citizens. If those outside the city limits, don’t like that, perhaps they would be happier if Vero Beach were to annex them. That way they could have a voice. Certainly, FPL would not let us have a voice in their operations…..unless we were stockholders.