Barry say Vero Electric Effective so Council says bye bye Barry.
Whatever else you call Vero Beach’s approach to electricity, call it effective.
In his Sept. 25 column, Glenn Heran shows his limited understanding of organizational efficiency and municipal electric utilities.
Municipally owned electric systems serve their communities with reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible power. Heran’s analysis of Vero Beach’s situation focuses on only one issue: cost. Vero’s bills are higher for now, but they will be getting closer to FPL’s in the near future. This does not make them inefficient.
Is it inefficient to have poor reliability, with FPL’s average individual outage being 3 hours and 18 minutes? Vero Beach’s average is 46 minutes. Looks like FPL wins that round.
Is it inefficient to never again be a priority for hurricane restoration and have slower hurricane response than Vero Beach? If the city sells out to FPL, there will be longer outages. Looks like FPL wins that round.
Is it inefficient to have 57 percent of your community with underground wires, while FPL has only 37 percent? Underground wires make Vero Beach look great. FPL’s poles and wires look like they went through a hurricane and were never fixed. In fact, in many places around FPL’s service area that’s exactly what happened — six years ago and still crooked. FPL wins that round.
However, it’s very efficient to trick an entire community to allow you to use its power plant indefinitely. FPL wins that round, too.
Another unstated reason why a portion of Vero Beach’s bills are above FPL’s: undergrounding. Vero Beach’s utility is in great shape, with significant underground wires, especially in the county. Underground wires cost more, and the 43 percent of people with aboveground wires are paying for the 57 percent with underground wires.
Go look outside your house. If you don’t see any wires on the street, according to Glenn Heran, you might be a socialist.
This article was written by Barry Moline, executive director of the Florida Municipal Electric Association.
As you can see, Barry Moline is not happy with the “status quo sell sell sell” crowd and they were quick to bury Barry in their pile of dung by convincing this council NOT to renew with FMEA.
Barry Moline’s criticism of a possible deal between the city and Florida Power & Light Co. has apparently cost his organization $35,000 in membership fees that the city will no longer re-new.
Uh Huh, Here’s how it went down. Dr. Faherty very blatently flaunted his control over the current batch of elected officials when he went to the podium at the last meeting and TOLD the council they should not pay the $35,000 fee to renew with FMEA because Moline was saying that the FPL offer did not seem to be a good deal for the city.
The present majority of Council doesn’t like opposition coming from anybody, let alone someone that just might know a little about what he is saying. And this council is letting us know who they are taking their marching orders from. Yep, it is obvious, Carroll and Heady are taking their marching orders from Faherty and Heran. Since this council seems to have cut off their noses to spite their faces because they will not renew their agreement with FMEA who do you think will suffer. Yes, we all will suffer if an emergency arises and we get to help.
It’s really a very stupid move on their part. What will happen if the worst (hurricane) comes our way? We will no longer be eligible to get help for other power companies through the co-ordination of FMEA members. No coordination…check out the Northeast and the aftermath of Irene. Those utility companies FAILED their customers miserably…and we’re supposed to give this sitting council free reign with millions of dollars of assets with no real comfort that we will be helped in an emergency by dumping FMEA…Hmmm.
So, we no longer can count on the services that FMEA afforded us during an emergency, in other words, we have just gotten rid of our insurance policy (FMEA) that we have always in the past relied on.
Again, I say, your only choice will be to dump the status quo “sell, sell, sell, bunch” and cast your vote for Daige and Winger. We know that Daige and Winger will sell the utility only if the facts support a sale. And, you can be sure they will not take their marching orders from the likes of County Residents Faherty and Heran.
Also, be sure to VOTE NO on the referendum. It is clearly putting the “cart before the horse”
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The following point keeps being repeated: “Vero’s bills are higher for now, but they will be getting closer to FPL’s in the near future.” Can ANYBODY show us where the city’s rates have EVER been as low as or lower than FPL’s rates? I don’t know who to ask but there has got to be a spreadsheet showing rates over time. Past performance is not indicative of future trends but it does carry some weight.
I did an analysis of the rates of the two utilities from 1991-present. You can see it in the link below, page 2. It shows the rates nearly identical from 1991-2003. Then rates diverged when the rates of Vero Beach’s power supplier, FMPA, rose. Vero recently got out of that contract and rates have come down significantly. Click on the link below and scroll to page 2.
http://www.publicpower.com/verobeach/FMEA%20Vero%20Beach%20Proposed%20Sale%20Issue%20Paper%202011-5-27%20b%20FINAL.pdf
If you want to discuss it, contact me at bmoline@publicpower.com, or call me at 850-251-5060.
It would be nice if the rate was the only issue about which we’re concerned. I realize no one outside the city limits really cares what happens to Vero but I imagine they DO care about parks, in-city places to surf fish, crime anywhere–including inside city, traffic concerns, community events, general appearance of VB when guests/tourists visit, and no doubt a bunch of other items. Long-term is it possible to operate the city without huge increases of fees, taxes, property taxes? THAT is my concern.
I did an analysis of the rates of the two utilities from 1991-present. You can see it in the link below, page 2. It shows the rates nearly identical from 1991-2003. Then rates diverged when the rates of Vero Beach’s power supplier, FMPA, rose. Vero recently got out of that contract and rates have come down significantly. Click on the link below and scroll to page 2.
http://www.publicpower.com/verobeach/FMEA%20Vero%20Beach%20Proposed%20Sale%20Issue%20Paper%202011-5-27%20b%20FINAL.pdf
If you want to discuss it, contact me at bmoline@publicpower.com, or call me at 850-251-5060.
Gary, if you would like to go over the figures I can tell you that the Mayor of Vero, Jay Kramer will sit down with you any time and go over the figures to let you know how you personally will fare in this deal. I have been over the figures with him and by the time all things are considered there is not enough difference to make a mountain out of a molehill. I would still rather see the city be able to maintain all of their services and press on.
Two things to consider in this exchange is that Vero elect. rates are the 5th lowest in the state and Vero taxes are the 5th lowest in the state. Since FPL are the lowest in the state it is no wonder why folks who live in the county are not happy paying Vero’s rates. Thus, the groundswell for selling to FPL. I am a county resident and I always did wonder why a partial sale was not considered…..or is that still a possibility. That is where I thought Dr. Faherty was heading three years ago when he started pointing out that county residents were suffering from a case of taxation with no representation. If this referendum gets voted down,maybe a partial sale will be discussed. Then, FPL can walk away with half a loaf of bread…better than no loat of bread.
Regardless as to wether the city sells the electric utilities or not, the city of Vero will still be the same Vero ( which is a good thing…my family has been here over 100 years). The ARTIFICALLY LOW tax rates in Vero would be increased to the proper levels. The sale would not affect me in any way…I and my wife, purposely built were FPL serves. I am in no way affiliated with FPL.
HUGE increases in taxes??? PLEASE please read my other posts here. It is being pushed as a HUGE increase when it is NOT. I don’t see how someone can, in good conscience, claim that it’s a HUGE increase. The CITY portion of the tax bill is only 10%. EVEN IF the city taxes went up 90% that would only be an increase of 9% (90% of 10% of the entire tax bill).
BEA, please read my other posts about seperating the utility and selling only the county portion. FPL doesn’t want that. WHY??? IT IS NOT FEASABLE!!! I’m not an engineer but these are the facts on that bad arguement to split the system…FPL cannot just “cut” and remove the county portion from the city portion. Think of it this way…the “last” neighborhood on the FPL grid is next to a city supplied neighborhood. You cannot connect the city one to the FPL one becase the FPL one cannot handle the extra load…it would be like powering your neighbor’s WHOLE house from only 1 of your electric outlets. Aint gonna work. They would have to take EVERY former city neighborhood and connect it by a new parrallel line back to their main trunk line. If they buy the WHOLE system they have to do nothing, the ENTIRE city is already connected to the main trunk lines near the power plant (that is how the city buys power).
I don’t know how anybody, after understanding this basic fact can still, in good conscience, say that a partial sale is the best way to go.
All that said, It boils down to a matter of principle. People in the county that are on the city electric system have no SAY in any matters that concern them.
Why should anybody subsidize someone else’s ARTIFICIALLY LOW tax rate?
The argument that I use city parks, facilities etc. is a bad arguement. I could as easily argue that city residents use county roads, parks, courthouse etc.
Mountain over a mole hill?
I have 3 households of immediate family members who live in the county but are on city electric. They would save in the neighborhood of $500-$700 a year (each) if the city sold. To me, that’s not a mole hill.
My parents could use that money and it wouldn’t cost a city taxpayer 1 thin dime.
By off-setting the reduced income to the general fund from the city electric utilities with a slight increase in city taxes (9% based on the Mayor’s estimate that the city’s 10% portion of total taxes would increase by 90%) the city residents would still have a net savings because of the larger savings from FPL.
AND this is assuming that the city doesn’t make a dime from the sale. Factor in ANY net proceeds from the sale and the city could easily use this to not increase the city portion of taxes by 9%.
Soooo…let me recap. People in the county save hundreds per year and people in the city save somewhere less but still save something.
My parents kinda like to eat AND have their medications. A couple hundred bucks wouldn’t be such a bad thing for them would it???
Cathy Katrovitz, I disagree with your comment that “no one outside the city limits really cares what happens to Vero”. Many people that I know that live in the county are genuinely concerned about the future of Vero Beach (myself included). My family has lived here more than 100 years. We were here before Vero Beach existed way back when it was Brevard county, St. Lucie county and then finally Vero Beach became Indian River county. There is no reason to worry about the quality of life you enjoy in the city of Vero Beach. The level of services that you have come to expect will not change if the power plant is sold. You would have to agree that those services are currently funded by taxes and transfers of funds from the city electric system. If the funds are there, the services will not suffer. It doesn’t matter one bit if the funds all come from taxes or are a mixture as they are now. If the money is there, the services will remain at the current level. Up to this point, I hope you can see that my statement is correct.
NOW, let’s look at selling the power plant…
Say that the city of Vero walks away from the sale without a dime. All the fees and all the penalties wipe out the profits entirely. The city will have to raise rates on taxes. The Mayor has estimated this to be a 90% tax increase. HERE IS THE POINT I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH AND I FEEL IS BEING IGNORED BY THE OPPONENTS. The city portion of taxes on a tax bill is about 10%… so if the taxes rise by 90% that would only be an increase of 9% on the total tax bill.
AGAIN…ONLY A 9% INCREASE IN TAXES TO RETAIN THE SAME LEVEL OF SERVICES.
The savings enjoyed by lower FPL rates would be greater than the tax increase…so the city resident would still save money.
OK…it would be safe to assume that the city wouldn’t walk away with nothing from the sale. Anything they end up with would offset some of the 9% tax increase.
And, don’t forget, FPL will now pay property taxes on all that infrastructure that is currently untaxed. This too will offset some (actually a substantial amount) of the 9% tax increase.
It was reported in the last year that the city currently employs about 29 employees per 1000 residents and if the electric utilities were sold, that would drop to about 22 employees per 1000 residents. This too would offset some of the 9% tax increase. I’m afraid people are spreading a half truth to scare people.