INDIAN RIVER SHORES — Ahead of Tuesday’s continued negotiations over the Vero Beach electric utility’s service territory, Indian River Shores Mayor Brian Barefoot expressed concern about how negotiations have been progressing.
He sent out a prepared statement Monday saying, in part, that he is pleased that his town’s and the county’s actions have prompted the City of Vero Beach to explore more options to lower electric rates, but outlined several tradeoffs in the deal that he finds worrisome.
He added that those concessions could end up costing rate payers more in the long-term.
“I am also concerned that the City intends to continue its unjust practice of syphoning off utility revenue from non-resident customers to fund City operations, which is unacceptable to our residents,” Barefoot wrote.
“While I commend the City for looking into ways to work with OUC to lower electric rates, it is our hope that the City will now put similar effort toward negotiations with FMPA (Florida Municipal Power Agency) to finalize the sale to FPL, which would result in far greater rate reductions,” he said.
Vero officials admit that no work is currently being done on the sale agreement, that those efforts ground to a screeching several months ago as talks with OUC and the FMPA broke down when the OUC and the FMPA could not resolve a dispute over the priority of their respective bondholders.
To read Mayor Barefoot’s full statement, click on the PDF beside this article.
Meanwhile, the Indian River Board of County Commissioners on Thursday announced that it will meet in special session at 3 p.m. today to discuss the very same topic Mayor Barefoot addressed in his press release – Vero’s proposed rate-reduction efforts. That meeting will take place in the conference room in Building B at the County Administration complex.
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, the 15 elected officials representing the Shores, Vero and the County will meet together with their legal teams in hopes of hammering out a compromise that will keep the parties out of circuit court. The public meeting will be held at the Richardson Center on the Vero Beach Mueller Campus of Indian River State College, 6155 College Lane.
If the three boards fail to coalesce around a settlement, the next step in the state-mandated conflict resolution process prescribed when one government entity sues another will be mediation. The parties are expected to choose a certified mediator – probably an experienced local attorney – during Tuesday’s meeting.
For more about the options Vero Beach officials are considering, click the related article.
