TALLAHASSEE — After huddling Tuesday morning in a last-minute strategy session, Indian River County officials agreed to defer the County’s Florida Public Service Commission petition for a declaratory statement clarifying what rights its ratepayers have after their franchise agreement expires in March 2017.
The decision on the matter, which was to be the 23rd item on the day’s agenda reportedly came after the County’s legal team was contacted by members of the PSC staff around 8 a.m. Tuesday, in an effort to work out a way to postpone an extended public discussion over the merits or weaknesses of the County’s request.
Oral arguments on the County’s petition, which posed more than a dozen complex regulatory and legal questions to the PSC, were set to be heard before the five commissioners and their army of attorneys, analysts and support staff.
But the PSC staff had recommended the commission not answer most of the questions on various grounds.
Some of the issues, staff said, should be addressed by the courts, and others by the Florida Legislature.
In short, the County was unlikely to get an answer on Tuesday to the most important question – is Vero electric’s territory permanent, as City officials claim, or can the County negotiate electric service with another provider – namely Florida Power and Light – to take over the 20,000 county residents now on Vero’s system after they’re no longer bound by a franchise agreement?
The county’s lead utilities attorney, Floyd Self of Tallahassee firm Gonzalez Saggio and Harlan, said in the lobby of the PSC hearing room, “We’ll be drawing upon the staff analysis and filing an amended, updated petition only focusing on a couple of issues. My understanding is that the staff is going to treat it as a new petition. Hopefully the outcome will be very favorable.”
Vero’s utilities attorney Robert Scheffel “Schef” Wright was in attendance and prepared to argue on behalf of the City’s position, and Mayor Dick Winger made the trip to the state’s capital to represent the Vero Beach City Council. Wright deferred to one of the PSC staff attorneys to answer a query about the status of the petition, that it was expected to be re-filed on Monday.
County Administrator Joe Baird, who traveled to Tallahassee for the proceedings, said the County learned a great deal from the 112-page PSC staff analysis addressing their many questions.
Baird said attorneys could use this information to hone the new petition, molding into something the PSC could feel comfortable sinking its teeth into.
Florida Municipal Electric Association Executive Director Barry Moline was present in the packed gallery at the meeting when it was announced that the item was being pulled from the agenda.
Attorneys from FPL and Duke Energy were also on hand, as the state’s investor-owned utilities are very interested in how the PSC might weigh in about choice of electric provider once a franchise agreement expires.
Commissioner Tim Zorc met in Tallahassee with Self and County Attorney Dylan Reingold the evening prior to the PSC hearing to discuss various strategies the County is considering to achieve an exit from Vero electric to get County residents low FPL rates.
After the announcement of the deferral, Zorc said, “I look at it as a good thing, having our attorneys Floyd and Dylan speaking with the PSC staff prior to the early part of the meeting this morning, going back and forth, coming up with the deferral, reshaping the complaint as it was submitted.”
Zorc said the complaint will undergo “some wordsmithing, and coming out the other end . . . probably in February, I think it might provide a clearer direction. We’ll have to see how staff reacts to our modified complaint.”
“If we’re successful and the (Public Service) Commission approves those, I think we’ll be in a better position than if we would have argued all the points in our complaint today,” Zorc said.
Zorc and Peter O’Bryan were on hand for the meeting, and afterward County Attorney Dylan Reingold emailed the balance of the County Commission to update them on the status of the petition.
“The item was deferred at our request,” Reingold said in the note to the Board. “After a thorough review of the staff recommendation we are pairing down the questions presented in our petition. This will not alter the general issue presented to the PSC. Our questions will better frame the issue in a manner that will be more useful as we move forward in this process.”
Reingold confirmed what Zorc said, that he anticipates a new hearing at the beginning of February.
