Editor’s note: During last Tuesday’s Vero Beach City Council meeting, Mayor Laura Moss claimed City Staff has been conducting an ongoing financial review of the likely terms FPL will propose in a letter of intent to be presented to the Council at a special call meeting on May 16. When Vero Beach resident Brian Heady asked for the release of any documents related to Staff’s review and analysis of FPL’s pending offer, Moss claimed the information is proprietary and had Heady removed from the Council chambers. The information Heady sought is not proprietary, as Moss claimed. Saturday, InsideVero requested the information. Yesterday, apparently after the Press Journal weighed in, City Staff began releasing documents. Attorneys with the law firm of Carlton Fields, who are acting as agents of the City, appear to have informed City Manager Jim O’Connor that they will not release documents in their possession until FPL’s letter of intent is made public.
Unless members of City Staff are withholding other documents in their possession, the information released yesterday makes clear Moss is not telling the truth in claiming Staff has conducted a financial review of the proposed deal. In fact, all Staff appears to have done to date is respond to requests from FPL officials for information the company needs to prepare an offer to acquire Vero Electric. What this means is that by the time FPL presents its letter of intent, company officials will have had months to consider the terms they are proposing.
When the Council meets next Tuesday City officials will have had little, if any time at all to thoroughly review FPL’s terms. Despite this handicap, Council members Harry Howle, Moss and Lange Sykes have all indicated they will be prepared next Tuesday to accept the terms in FPL’s letter of intent. In short, there will be no negotiation on the terms of the sale. FPL’s offer will be a take-it-or-leave-it deal, and Howle, Moss and Sykes, all of whom were elected to the Council with significant support from FPL, show no inclination to negotiate the best deal possible for the people of Vero Beach.
BRIAN HEADY
If there are no meaningful consequences for violating the Sunshine Laws then we have no real access to public records.
Our mayor said at the last meeting being mayor was like being queen. In the current example the queen has wrongfully violated the constitutional rights of citizens by having me taken into custody and removed from meetings. Last Tuesday was not the first time.
Her argument the information I requested is privileged is not legally defensible, and the notion that no notes or written records of the FPL offer exist is impossible to take seriously. A business entity such as our electric utility valued at over $200 million being offered for sale without a shred of written documentation is just not believable. If true this is completely and wholly irresponsible.
More likely and more believable is there is a criminal conspiracy to hide the records from public view.
Why?
Indian River Guardian 
I have to agree with the conclusions of Mr. Heady. And encourage everyone to insist on answers before any decision is made concerning FPL and Vero Beach.
Contemptible behavior by Moss and her cohorts .There has to be a legal challenge to this sort of nonsense ! Heady is right on this one ! FPL actually is running Vero Beach with the 3 Stooges ,Moss Howle and Sykes !
Florida Statutes Chapter 119.01(1) clearly states, “It is the policy of this state that all state, county, and municipal records are open for personal inspection and copying by any person. Providing access to public records is a duty of each agency.” This sale is a matter of public record and all documents regarding same fall under Chapter 119. It is not a matter of whether someone wants those records released, such release is required by state law.