VERO BEACH — The message was all about moving onward and upward Monday as Vero Beach Mayor Craig Fletcher signed the contract to sell the Vero Beach electric utility just after 2 p.m. in council chambers at city hall.
A group of 22 people, invited guests, city staff and media, gathered around to watch the signing, fire off photos and then to share a sheetcake decorated with a picture of the Vero Beach Power Plant. Arlene Fletcher looked on as her husband signed several original contracts.
Mayor Fletcher has described the $179 million deal with FPL as probably the most important thing he’ll do as an elected official.
That’s because reduced electric rates once the sale closes will pump approximately $23 million per year into the Indian River County, money that residents, businesses and governments will no longer pay extra for the same electricity as they’re now getting from the city. Fletcher has categorized this as the biggest economic development effort the city could ever undertake.
Fletcher described the long road and how the word first spread about the impetus for the sale, in living rooms and coffee shops all over Vero Beach. Conventional wisdom at the time was betting against a sale.
“Pilar and Tracy and I three years ago, they told us we’d never get past the Orlando Utilities Commission contract,” Fletcher said.
Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll and Councilwoman Pilar Turner were on hand for the signing. Also gathered in the Vero Beach council chambers for the ceremonial signing were a handful of people Fletcher had invited because he said the city owes them a debt of gratitude for making the deal happen — even against the odds in the early days.
Also present were former Councilman Charlie Wilson and utility activists Dr. Stephen Faherty and Glenn Heran. Three representatives from FPL were in the council chambers, including External Affairs Director Amy Brunjes.
The contract signed by Fletcher, witnessed by City Clerk Tammy Vock and attested to for legal sufficiency and municipal policy by City Attorney Wayne Coment and City Manager Jim O’Connor, respectively, not only sells the utility to FPL.
It also provides for employment opportunities with FPL for about 100 electric utility employees from two years of the closing, should they choose to go to work for FPL. Under that agreement, FPL assumes $14 million in unfunded pension liability for those employees who move over to the FPL benefit system.
Turner noted the transparency of the contract negotiations this time and the fact that all the documents and various versions of the contract have been out in the public for the council and the ratepayers to read.
“This is the document the council approved, there have been no changes,” Turner said.
“And no redactions,” someone added, referencing the OUC contract, which in 2008 was kept under wraps for two years before citizens had a chance to read it.
The agreement now goes to the voters for approval on March 12. Should the referendum on the sale pass, attorneys will proceed with efforts to tie up bond issues and the city’s involvement with the Florida Municipal Power Agency.
A closing could take place anywhere between one to three years from now, depending upon the progress of legal and regulatory matters.
All five City of Vero precincts will be open for the election and there are more than 10,400 people eligible to vote on the referendum.
Absentee ballots can be requested from Supervisor of Elections Leslie Swan’s office in person or online at www.voteindianriver.com. The referendum language is also available on that website.
Public testing of the tabulating equipment for the March 12 election will be conducted on Wednesday.