NEWS ANALYSIS

MARK SCHUMANN

The gathering of 40 or so persons who turned out today for a meeting called by Indian River Shores Mayor Brian Barefoot included Vero Beach City Council candidates Laura Moss, Lange Sykes and Norman Wells.  Moss, Sykes and Wells were introduced by Barefoot as part of the Shores “team.”  In introducing the three Vero Beach City Council candidates for whom Shores leaders are busily raising money, Barefoot indicated he is confident they will support selling Vero Electric’s Shores customers to Florida Power & Light for the $30 million recently offered.

Vero Beach officials and their team of consultants say selling at $30 million will lead to higher rates for the remaining customers and higher taxes for the residents of Vero Beach.  According to their calculations, the price would need to be $47 million to avoid negatively impacting others simply to benefit Shores residents.  Vero Beach Vice Mayor Randy Old, who is running for re-election, has said publicly he believes ignoring the advice of the City’s consultants, and accepting $17 million less than experts believe is necessary, would be a violation of his fiduciary responsibilities to the resident of Vero Beach.

Old, along with candidates Sharon Gorry and Tony Young have all said they support a full sale of all of Vero Electric’s customers to FPL, if and when solutions can be found to resolving contract obligations and to funding a willing and qualified utility to assume Vero Beach’s position in three Florida Municipal Power Agency power projects.

Much of the 55 minute meeting was taken up by Barefoot and by the Town’s special utility counsel, Bruce May.  May described the long and expensive path the Shores has taken, (more than $1 million to date), and the legal rational used in seeking to force Vero Beach to turn is approximately 3500 customers over to FPL. Barefoot explained why he and Shores officials believe $30 million is a fair, “generous” offer for Vero Electric’s Shores customer base and related infrastructure.

“What we do next we probably won’t get into, because that’s not something that can be discussed in public,” Barefoot said.

Barefoot’s past actions suggest he is no fan of conducting the public’s business in the sunshine, but at some point, if the Shores Town Council is going to spend more taxpayer money appealing the Town’s recent setback before Florida Public Service Commission, that discussion will have to take place in public.

One member of the public who spoke today advised Barefoot to form a Political Action Committee to “inform” Vero Beach voters. Barefoot replied, “We are well aware that we can be helpful here, and we are going to try to be as helpful as possible.”

Within the past week, Shores residents Bill Grealis and John McCord sent out at least two email solicitations raising money for Moss, Sykes and Wells. One of the Grealis-McCord emails was directed to members of the Indian River Neighborhood Association. About IRNA members who live in the Shores, Barefoot said, “They’ve heard from us in the last week or so.” indicating the Shores mayor may be directly involved in fundraising efforts on behalf of Moss, Sykes and Wells.