VERO BEACH — City Attorney Charles Vitunac delivered an 80-page document to the Vero Beach City Council Tuesday night outlining changes made to the 20-year, $2 billion contract with the Orlando Utilities Commission for service to the city’s 34,000 utility customers and asked members review the changes and approve them retroactively at their next meeting on Feb. 2.
Despite the denial of the existence of changes to the electric contract by top city staff, nine pages of changes were found between the April 7, 2008 blacked out or “redacted” version of the contract reviewed by members of the City Council and the “unredacted” version which was signed by then-Mayor Tom White on April 21, 2008 and led to the city changing utility providers at the start of the year.
Former Councilman Charlie Wilson and Councilman Brian Heady had requested Vitunac provide the review of the two versions of the 68-page contract and explain the changes so the council could weigh the legal implications.
On Jan. 5, the city’s legal staff presented the council with a preliminary review of the changes, at which time Heady asked for further detail and, after the meeting, called for the council to re-approve the contract to ensure it would not be vulnerable to legal challenge.
Vitunac said he had six to eight different versions of the contract emailed to him over two weeks’ time and that he would provide Heady with those emails, which amount to about 400 pages of documents. The 80-page, color-coded document distributed to the council for review shows what was added and deleted between April 7 and April 21. Vitunac first asked for the council to approve the changes on the spot and then it was suggested that the council members take until the Feb. 2 meeting to review the changes.
“It’s in a form that’s clear, it’s easy to read, it’s understandable,” Heady said. “I certainly appreciate getting it in this form.”
Vitunac said the council could either approve all the changes — which he said simply made the contract clearer and better — or approve all the changes that the members found acceptable and renegotiate the changes that they wish to see in the contract.
“If you do not like any of them, we can go back to OUC,” Vitunac said.
The contract took effect on April 21, 2008 and had a “turnover date” of Jan. 1, 2010 when OUC took over as power provider from the Florida Metropolitan Power Agency.
In response to a request from Heady for the city to “make sure that the critics are included in the loop,” by providing copies of the proposed amended contract to interested parties, Vitunac stated that anyone wishing to receive a copy of the 80-page document or wishing to have the changes explained to them should contact the City Attorney’s Office. The public only had access to the blacked out or “redacted” version of the contract until the complete “unredacted” contract was released from confidentiality on Sept. 30, 2009. Confidentiality was imposed for two years after sealed bids were opened in Sept. 2007.
The decision about retroactively approving the changes to the contract is expected to be taken up with the council meets next at 9 a.m. Feb. 2 in Council Chambers at the Vero Beach City Hall.
Related stories about changes to the OUC contract:
Vitunac: “Material” changes were made to electric contract