VERO BEACH — The City of Vero Beach has retained attorney Robert Scheffel Wright of the Tallahassee law firm Young van Assenderp P.A. to defend itself against complaints filed with the Florida Public Service Commission.
The complaints, filed by local activists Dr. Stephen Faherty and Glenn Heran, claim numerous irregularities related to the city’s operation of the electric utility, especially as it relates to territorial issues and the 61 percent (about 20,000 customers) of the electric rate payers who live outside the city.
The decision to retain Young van Assenderp P.A. was made by top city staff, but was not brought before the city council for approval. According to Councilman Brian Heady, who found out that the city had embarked upon another legal battle with yet another out-of-town law firm through meetings at City Hall, Scheffel Wright is being paid $250 per hour, plus reimbursable expenses, for his services to the city. Heady said he questioned, as he has in the past, why outside legal counsel needed to be retained when the city spends nearly $600,000 per year on the City Attorney, Assistant City Attorney and support staff.
“I asked the question of (City Attorney) Charlie Vitunac why we couldn’t handle this in house and he said that he has been advised that because of the complexity of the issues having to do with the Public Service Commission, that we need an attorney familiar with the Public Service Commission,” Heady said.
The law firm website states that Scheffel Wright “practices extensively in utilities and energy law, and specializes in the representation of consumers and consumer groups, local governments with utility issues, and developers of efficient, competitive power plants, including renewable energy facilities, waste-to-energy facilities, cogeneration plants, and independent merchant plants before the Florida Public Service Commission and in civil litigation. Mr. Wright also practices in the areas of natural gas regulation and water and wastewater utility regulation.”
Heady said he has made it clear to Vitunac that he hopes that the city can come to some sort of resolution with Faherty and Heran.
“I meet with Mr. Vitunac on a very regular basis,” Heady said. “I talked to him about how we can resolve this issue, what can we do to resolve this.”
The city has recently come under scrutiny for spending $3 million over a six-year period on high-priced Boston consultants and attorneys not licensed in the state of Florida working on issues surrounding the electric utility and for keeping many of the documents related to the work of those consultants secret.
Scheffel Wright is a 59-year-old native of Miami who graduated from Duke University, taught economics at the university level and then earned his Juris Doctorate from Florida State University Law School in 1992, graduating with high honors. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1992 and also has privileges to practice in U.S. District Court in the Northern and Middle Districts of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court.
Heady said he has asked for copies of the complaints filed against the city with the PSC and copies of all the pleadings in the case, but he has not received these documents. When asked why the decision to enter into a contractual relationship with an outside attorney did not come before him as a council member, Heady said he was under the impression that $25,000 would need to be spent before council approval was required.
One complaint was filed on Sept. 21 and the most recent was filed on Dec. 9. The city has reportedly filed a motion to dismiss a request for a declaratory judgment on one of the complaints and has also asked for an extension to respond to the complaints until Jan. 15, as Scheffel Wright has just been retained and needs time to research the case and prepare the response.
Though the City of Vero Beach utilities is not technically “regulated” by the Public Service Commission, the agency does have jurisdiction over the city as a municipality providing utility services to the public.
