VERO BEACH — A critical vote on four resolutions needing approval prior to the closing of the $185 million sale of the Vero Beach electric utility to Florida Power and Light has been tabled for one week.
The Florida Municipal Power Agency co-up Board of Directors was getting ready to vote in Orlando Wednesday morning on a seconded motion to accept the staff’s recommendation to move the transaction forward. But after the reading of the full title of the resolution, several members urged their colleagues to take more time to review the documents.
A motion to table was introduced, and seconded and a vote taken with about three quarters of the members voting to table the matter for one week.
Complaints had arisen earlier in the meeting – which began about 35 minutes late due to technical difficulties with the phone call-in system – about voting members representing the 31 FMPA cities not receiving the final versions of the resolutions at least 72 hours prior to the scheduled vote. Attorneys for various parties had still been tweaking the resolutions on Tuesday before Wednesday’s meeting.
The FMPA has a previously scheduled telephonic board meeting set for 10 a.m. March 21 at which time the board is expected to pick back up on the discussion about the Vero electric sale. Not only was the vote tabled, but also discussion was cut off once the motion to table was voted upon.
Vero must exit its membership in the co-op and its long-term power contracts in order to close the sale with FPL. In exchange for letting Vero out, the FMPA would be paid $108 million cash from the sale proceeds.