Attorneys for Vero Beach and Indian River Shores are escalating the legal wrangling in an ongoing dispute over whether or not the Florida Public Service Commission should open up Vero’s service territory and let Florida Power & Light serve the entire Town instead of just 20 percent of its residents.
Vero petitioned the PSC to have the Shores’ complaint dismissed on various grounds, including the city’s argument that the Shores has no standing to launch a territorial dispute. The Town, lacking the ability to file as a municipality, petitioned the PSC as a customer of Vero electric, as the Town Hall complex and public safety buildings are electric customers.
Despite the Town’s claims that Vero will have no permission to serve the Town after a 30-year franchise agreement expires on Nov. 6, Vero says its permission to serve is not contingent upon the existence of a franchise agreement as Vero served Town buildings with electricity prior to the PSC awarding Vero what it claims as a permanent service territory in the late 1980s.
The Shores’ attorneys say Vero’s insistence that it has an unchecked right to serve the Town with electric power, with or without the Town’s consent in the absence of a valid franchise agreement, makes the city an unregulated monopoly and could run afoul of federal antitrust laws.
Mayor Brian Barefoot in a statement last week suggested Vero’s voluminous 75-page motion to dismiss is padded with extraneous information intended to distract and confuse the PSC, or whomever else might read it.
“Our Town provided a strong response to a motion filed by the City of Vero Beach to dismiss our petition to the Public Service Commission for a modification of territorial order. At 75 pages, the City’s motion to dismiss is as long as it is misleading, and mischaracterizes our Town’s petition and calls for the PSC to prematurely rule on the merits of our case,” Barefoot said.
The PSC complaint requesting a territorial review is one of four separate legal and regulatory battles Vero is currently engaged in – three with the Shores and one with the County Commission, which expects to receive an opinion from the Florida Supreme Court later this month, addressing its dispute with Vero Beach over electric service the city provides in the county.
