VERO BEACH — Would a jury of local residents rule that Vero Beach electric rates are unreasonable? If an amicable agreement cannot be reached in a circuit court suit filed by Indian River Shores, ratepayers are likely to find out.
With the clock running on cutting a deal to dispense with the lawsuit this fall, the Vero Beach City Council discussed the possibility of a trial Tuesday night with the city’s utility attorney Robert Scheffel “Schef” Wright.
“The Town claims our rates are unreasonable, naturally enough we don’t agree with that,” Wright said. “Our rates are higher than we wish they were; we’re going to do what we can to lower them, but that doesn’t make them unreasonable.
“Proving that they’re unreasonable is a very tall order for the Town and we’ll see how that comes out,” Wright said.
Wright, a Tallahassee-based attorney with privileges before the Florida Public Service Commission, was in town to update the Council on two looming legal matters — the Shores’ lawsuit and a PSC petition filed by the Indian River Board of County Commissioners in July asking for a declaratory statement regarding the County’s rights after its franchise with Vero expires in March 2017.
The civil case is in abeyance while a state-mandated conflict resolution process runs its course. The County’s complaint is set to be taken up by the PSC on Nov. 25, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Though the County has not yet filed its own suit in circuit court or joined the Shores’ suit, it did join the settlement negotiations so the County electric ratepayers would have more rights in the process. The parties met on Aug. 19 and are scheduled to meet again on Sept. 26.
During the initial August meeting, the Shores’ lead attorney Bruce May, of the Holland and Knight law firm, made it very clear that the Shores wants Florida Power and Light rates.
Wright also made it very clear that it’s not possible for Vero to offer FPL rates, but said he thought the City could cut the nearly 30 percent rate disparity in half.
At a subsequent meeting of the Indian River Shores Town Council, members — impatient for a solution to high electric rates and disappointed to hear that Vero had put the sale to FPL “on the back burner” according to Wright — instructed May not to allow the conflict resolution procedure to become protracted. Negotiate in good faith, they said, but wrap it up by the end of 2014.
“The Town has gone to court,” Wright said. “If necessary (knocks on wooden podium), I’m hoping it won’t be, but if necessary we’ll have a trial on whether our rates are unreasonable. I like our facts.”
As a body, the City Council has not yet given Wright any direction with regard to legal strategy, but Councilman Craig Fletcher showed some of his hand while questioning attorneys about how the proceedings might go down. The answer was a trial in Indian River County circuit court.
“Do we have a choice? Do we, the City, have a choice?” Fletcher asked, referring to a bench trial versus a jury trial.
“I don’t want a jury trial,” said Fletcher, who pressed both Wright and City Attorney Wayne Comment on the issue.
Wright said he wasn’t sure whether or not it would be a bench trial or a jury trial.
“I’m mostly the PSC guy,” he said.
Coment, who works more frequently within the civil circuit court realm, said that, unless both parties had waived their right to a jury trial, that the Shores could demand a jury trial.
One avenue Vero is pursuing to reduce rates is mothballing the Big Blue power plant. Another is to eliminate the nearly $6 million direct transfer into the general fund and raising taxes. Still another is to re-negotiate the City’s 20-year, $2 billion wholesale power contract with the Orlando Utilities Commission.
“OUC has some motivation to work with us on this and I’m optimistic that we can get somewhere,” Wright said, noting that he and City Manager Jim O’Connor had a “promising but non-specific” meeting with OUC last month.
Wright and O’Connor are set to meet with OUC about that on Friday in the lead-up to next week’s meeting with the Shores and County legal teams. Holland and Knight is bringing their in-house rate consultant to crunch Vero’s numbers.
