VERO BEACH — Longtime Vero Beach electric critics Steve Faherty and Glenn Heran have filed paperwork with the Florida Public Utility Commission putting complaints about the City of Vero Beach electric utility on hold, giving the city time to work out a better deal for ratepayers who live outside the city limits.
The action came after Heran and Faherty were called to City Hall for a meeting with City Manager Jim Gabbard, City Attorney Charles Vitunac, Acting Electric Utility Director John Lee and Councilman Brian Heady Wednesday, and were asked to drop the complaints they had filed with the PUC, according to Heran. Heran said Heady had asked for the meeting, expressing a desire to settle the complaints and avoid a long and costly legal battle.
“We weren’t going to drop the compliants, we have no reason to do so,” Heran said. “But we did send off a letter of abeyance to give the city some time, in my estimation about six months, to see what they can do about the problems.”
Faherty and Heran agreed to put the complaints on hold in response to the city’s promise to open up regional talks with other municipalities and with Florida Power and Light about electric service and rates, especially as they affect the 20,000 electric customers who live in unincorported Indian River County and the Town of Indian River Shores.
Currently, City of Vero Beach customers pay about 56 percent more for electric than FPL customers and, even with the anticipated better rates after Jan. 1 under the new Orlando Utilities Commission contract, customers on the city system will pay between 20 and 35 percent more, depending on whether or not FPL succeeds in obtaining a statewide rate increase.
Heady brokered the meeting, getting the two sides to separately agree to meet him and only belatedly informing them it would be a joint gathering. Heady characterized City Manager Jim Gabbard as unhappy about the meeting, claiming he did not know Faherty and Heran would be there.
“From my perspective, it is not my goal to see anybody take over anything,” Heady said. “My goal was to get the two sides to meet and put all the information on the table. I don’t think the city ever had a full deck to play with. I want all the cards to be there and there to be a reasonable debate then decide what we can and should do.”
One of the ideas they will explore is if the Vero Beach City Council, the Indian River Board of County Commissioners and the Indian River Shores Town Council can agree to meet on the electric issue, following the model of the joint commission currently seated to study water and wastewater issues.
Commissioner Wesley Davis set up the meeting that formed the joint commission working on water and sewer issues.
“The county has a franchise agreement with the city for electric the same as we do for water and sewer, and so do the folks in the Shores,” Davis said. “It is clear to me that the status quo will not stand and it’s important for all options to be on the table and for the county to have a seat at this table.”
The move on the city’s part to make the PSC complaints go away comes less than a week after it hired Tallahassee attorney Robert Scheffel Wright to defend the city.
No one was available at the Indian River Shores Town Hall to comment and former Mayor Tom Cadden, the town’s appointed representative for utility matters, could not be reached at home on Wednesday.
Vitunac refused to comment and when Gabbard’s office was called for more information on the proposal for a joint commission and the dealings with Heran and Faherty, his assistant Joyce Vonada responded, “We have been instructed to say that he does not wish to speak with you.”
Heran said the abeyance option provides the local governments some time to see if a deal can be struck, but also to keeps the option open to go forward with the complaints.
“If they can’t figure it out in a reasonable amount of time, then we can always start it back up, lawyer up and let’s go,” Heran said. “We’re not dropping this by any means.”
Faherty said he’s optimistic about what a joint electric commission could accomplish and that he expects the proposal to come up at the Jan. 5 meetings of both the City Council and the County Commission.
He said that if Heady cannot get two other council members to explore the options, the county and Town of Indian River Shores can proceed without them, considering what to do about two franchise agreements which expire in late 2016 for Indian River Shores and early 2017 for the county.
“The city would be left in the dust,” Faherty said.
Managing Editor Ian Love contributed to this report.
