INDIAN RIVER SHORES — Bruce May, utilities legal counsel for the Town of Indian River Shores, has requested thousands of pages of records from the City of Vero Beach as he seeks to build the case that Vero’s electric rates are unreasonable, that Vero has not prudently managed the utility, and that Vero deliberately phonied its customer counts in 2008 in violation of state law.
But May isn’t looking for a “gotcha” moment in court, as he concluded his formal request for records, dated Sept. 4, with, “If feasible, we propose that you post this information to the city’s website to facilitate public review.”
The documents May requested from Vero include the city’s electric tariffs, its Florida Public Service Commission filings and recommendations going back six years, billings for electric service, and budgets, accounting records and analyses which help explain the city’s rates.
Since the Shores is not only seeking “significant rate relief” going forward, but also a refund of the excess amount its residents have been billed from 2008 to date, May asked for all rate studies, analyses and reports for that amount of time.
To establish the thought process behind, and the parties responsible for Vero allegedly under-stating its customer count in 2008 to avoid being brought under state regulation by a bill sponsored by then-Rep. Stan Mayfield, May is requesting all documents explaining or discussing the city’s electric customer numbers.
These records go back to when Jim Gabbard was city manager, Charlie Vitunac was city attorney, R.B. Sloan was utility director, Steve Maillet was finance director and Boston-based consultant Sue Hersey was Vero’s go-to consultant on matters related to the electric utility.
Sloan resigned in October 2009.
Maillet retired in March 2010 but stayed on through the summer of 2011 as a contractor, logging more than 26 years with the city.
Hersey continued to work for Vero through the transition into its Orlando Utilities Commission contract in early 2010.
Gabbard, who had already retired once as police chief, retired a second time as city manager in October 2010.
Vitunac negotiated a deal to resign right before he would have been fired in February 2011.
City Manager Jim O’Connor and Finance Director Cindy Lawson were both hired in July 2011. Utility Director Tom Richards didn’t come on board until 2012.
City Attorney Wayne Coment was Vitunac’s deputy at the time. Many view Coment as the one who did most of the heavy lifting on Vero’s legal staff while Vitunac was constantly distracted by city politics and intrigues with his former brother-in-law Gabbard.
So Coment is one of the only people remaining who may have been involved in any of the research, analysis or decision-making regarding Vero’s responsibilities under the Mayfield bill.
If Coment is disinclined to roll over on his former bosses about what happened, May could call up Gabbard, Vitunac, Sloan and Hersey to be deposed in the case, along with former mayor Tom White, former mayor Sabin Abell, and Debra Fromang, Bill Fish and Ken Daige – the former City Council members who might have been brought in on strategy sessions with regard to dealing with implications of the Mayfield bill.
Maillet died in May 2012 after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Since the Shores is alleging “unreasonable rates,” mismanagement of the utility and a systematic disregard for the concerns of the Shores’ ratepayers about high rates, he is requesting all information explaining, analyzing or discussing rates, fees or surcharges levied on its ratepayers – and especially on the 22,000 customers residing outside the city limits.
Any city council meeting backup documents or statements made during public meetings – such as then-Mayor Abell’s now-famous suggestion to ratepayers to “open a window” if they didn’t like the city’s soaring electric rates in 2009 – would also be fair game in the lawsuit.
State Attorney Bruce Colton’s 2009 probe into allegations of bid rigging with regard to the selection of OUC over FPL to provide wholesale power to Vero might also be dredged up as part of the Shores’ case.
Concerned about the nearly $6 million in direct transfers, plus another nearly $2 million in administrative transfers, into Vero’s general fund, May has requested all documents, reports and memos related to those transfers.
In an interview last month, the head of Holland and Knight’s utilities division said he’d done extensive research on the history of the Vero electric issue, not just from official documents, but from the hundreds of stories published by sister publication Vero Beach 32963 and VeroNews.com, and even from former councilman Brian Heady’s book, “Liars, Cheats, and Thieves,” penned under the name Kris O’Brian.
City Clerk Tammy Vock said Friday that her office gave May an estimate of what the records request would cost, and that May and the Shores have committed to pay the estimated $1,500 in staff costs for clerical, warehouse and technology personnel to search, compile and copy the records.
Under Florida law, a government entity can charge actual staff time, including benefit costs, for the hours its personnel spend compiling an extensive records request, plus the 15 cents per page charged to the public for photocopies.
Vock said she thinks it will take city staff about three weeks to compile the requested documents.
Meanwhile, Vero Beach has submitted an equally extensive records request to Indian River County with regard to the County’s filing with the Florida Public Service Commission seeking declaratory judgment on the County Commission’s rights after Vero’s 30-year franchise agreement with the County expires in March 2017.
Hearings on that complaint are scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
