VERO BEACH —The City of Vero Beach will hold a special town hall meeting to discuss electric issues at 5 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at Vero Beach City Hall.
For about a year and a half, Vero Beach City Councilman Brian Heady has been trying to get the city to vet the sale of Vero Beach Utilities to Florida Power and Light “in the public eye” and Friday it finaly got put on the calendar.
When contacted about the meeting, four members of the Vero Beach City Council were in favor of having it, according to City Clerk Tammy Vock. Only Mayor Jay Kramer was opposed.
Mayor Kramer has publicly endorsed candidate Dick Winger and former Vero Councilman Ken Daige for two Vero Beach City Council seats up in November.
Kramer said, “It’s time to demand all the cards on the table face up” about the sale to FPL as one reason for his support of Daige and Winger over his fellow incumbents Heady and Councilwoman Tracy Carroll.
Kramer has also stated publicly that he is voting “no” on the Nov. 8 ballot question about leasing the power plant property.
He participated in a panel discussion on Thursday and reiterated that he thought a “partial sale” of the 61 percent of the Vero Beach Electric customers outside the city limits was the best solution.
The concept of a partial sale or its financial implications to the city has not been discussed in public, but city staff has spent time working with Kramer on this alternative plan.
Heady said he’s pleased that three of his fellow council members decided to join him in support of a town hall meeting. A memo Heady wrote on Wednesday requesting a special call meeting prompted the question being posed to the council members individually by Vock on Friday.
“I ask for this as I am told repeatedly that the public is concerned about where we are and what ramifications would result in either keeping or selling the utility,” the memo states. “The public also has concerns about what would happen to the site of the power plant should the utility be sold.”
Two events held on Thursday — one hosted by FPL and one hosted by former Vero Beach Mayor Warren Winchester — still left many questions unanswered because the elected officials, city staff and people supporting and opposing the sale to FPL have not all been in the same room together for the explicit purpose of fleshing out the issue prior to November’s election.
The city is legally barred from spending taxpayer dollars to produce or distribute any printed material which could be construed as trying to persuade voters one way or another on a ballot initiative.
The agenda released on Friday afternoon includes a public comment section at the beginning of the meeting. Heady said he hopes there will be a free flow of information with a variety of viewpoints expressed and fact-checking along the way by city staff, members of the public and FPL staffers.
“I spoke to (FPL External Affairs Manager) Amy Brunjes this morning and told her of the meeting and I asked her to have representatives there that could answer questions,” Heady said Saturday. “She was thrilled and said they would be there.”
“I think that any question that people have at all about this needs to be answered,” Heady said. “I know that FPL doesn’t have the final numbers out there, but I think they have enough information together to answer the questions and get the information out there about what the vote should be on the referendum.”
In Wednesday’s memo, Heady thanked Kramer for the open and transparent way he handles city meetings, as this has been a marked change from previous councils.
“Your willingness to allow for all public comment and participation is testament to your understanding of our collective role to be servants of the people,” Heady wrote.
The town hall meeting will be televised on Channel 13 and will also be available through live, and later recorded, over the internet by going to the City of Vero Beach website at www.COVB.org and clicking on “live video stream.”