INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The County Commission had harsh words today for the City of Fellsmere and its plan to create a natural gas district that would include unincorporated parts of the county.
The issue came to the fore two weeks ago on June 19 when county staff added a discussion of it to the commission agenda as an emergency item after learning Fellsmere was on the verge of voting to create the district.
In a memo, County Finance Director Jason Brown called the plan “a cynical scam by the city of Fellsmere to levy a tax on property owners outside their limits and fund city operations with the money,” adding that it amounted to “a fleecing of unincorporated area residents.”
At today’s meeting, Brown said the county has received a legal opinion that Fellsmere does not have the authority to expand the boundaries of a gas district beyond its city limits and County Administrator Joe Baird said the county is prepared to challenge the attempt in court.
“I urge you to fight hard against this to protect county residents,” Baird told the board.
At the June 19 meeting several commissioners were sympathetic to Fellsmere’s plan and today all of them continued to support the creation of a gas district within the city’s limits, saying Fellsmere deserves credit for moving ahead with expansion of energy options to spur economic development.
But most commissioners were opposed to the idea of Fellsmere extending its sway over residents in unincorporated areas, citing the ongoing controversies and difficulties that have resulted from the city of Vero Beach’s provision of electric, water and sewer services to unincorporated areas.
“What they are doing seems like a wild grab to gain power and revenue for the future,” said Commissioner Bob Solari.
“I have great concerns about this,” said Commission Chairman Gary Wheeler. “The last thing we need is another Donnybrook and boondoggle like we have had with Vero Beach.”
Commissioners said they feared county residents would end up paying higher rates for natural gas than Fellsmere residents under the plan and that county residents might be required to hookup to the system whether they wanted to or not.
Commissioners also objected to being left in the dark until the last minute about the plan, saying Fellsmere has been working on a district proposal for a year and a half but only notified the county within the past few weeks.
Fellsmere did not have a representative at the commission meeting but City Manager Jason Nunemaker said afterward the Commission misunderstood the situation.
“We have been working to get natural gas extended out here for a year and half, and have been successful in getting the gas company to agree to run a line out from I-95 to near City Hall,” Nunemaker said. “Except for our actions, Northwest County would not be serviced by natural gas. We have only been working on the plan for the expanded service area for a month or so. The county has been so passive in its attitude about natural gas service that we may have misjudged their level of interest in what we are doing.”
At a Fellsmere city council meeting last month Nunemaker said the city wants a larger footprint for its gas district so that a gas company would be motivated to extend service into and throughout the area.
When Commissioner Bob Solari made a motion to direct staff to support Fellsmere’s creation of a natural gas supply district within its city limits but to strongly oppose any expansion of the district into unincorporated areas, it was immediately seconded by Commissioner Peter O’Bryan, but Commissioner Wesley Davis, whose district includes Fellsmere, tried a couple of lines of argument against the motion.
His basic point was that, based on recent conservations with the Fellsmere mayor and city manager, he believes the Fellsmere City Council will proceed on Thursday to pass an ordinance creating the district.
“I don’t know how much good it’s going to do for this commission to shout it down in this venue,” he said. “What are we going to do besides sit up here and beat our chests?”
He suggested commission action might be premature and ill-advised and said there would be time to act if the Fellsmere City Council passes the ordinance, which is expected to be discussed Thursday.
“We can challenge it at the PSC (Florida Public Service commission),” he said.
Commissioner Solari said it would be better to send a strong message to Fellsmere to think twice about its action, knowing the county is prepared to fight the action in front of the PSC or in Circuit Court.
When Davis continued to argue, Commissioner Wheeler told him he sounded more like a Fellsmere city councilman than a county commissioner.
Davis said he represents all the citizens of Indian River County, including those in Fellsmere, and told Wheeler that if he, Davis, were chairman of the commission he would rule Wheeler out of order because Wheeler had gotten off topic.
When the motion was called, Davis voted with the other four commissioners to direct staff to fight against creation of a district that includes territory outside Fellsmere’s city limits.
