January 8, 2009, City Council Special Call Meeting on the Utility Authority/Representation Report by UAC
The final report from the UAC was not made available to the public until AFTER the City Council Special Call Meeting which was held for purposes of discussing the report! In addition, whereas the prior draft versions of the Report showed a column reflecting public comments as well as additional comments being included in the Pros and Cons, the final Report omitted the Public Comment column and most of the public comments. Could this be by design? For a copy of the minutes of this meeting, go to the City website, www.covb.org ,click on meetings schedule, click on City Council Meeting on Feb. 3 and then on Agenda. From there, go to item 2.D.2 and click on item for the minutes of this meeting.
February 3, 2009 City Council Meeting –
Also go to item 7.A of the City Council’s February 3rd Agenda (above) relating to the Rate and Cost of Service Study contract approved at the Meeting.
Tuesday, February 10, at 10 am in the City Hall.The Rate and Cost of Service Study contract will probably be discussed at the UAC Meeting on Tuesday. The UAC Agenda is not available at this time.
City Attorney
In late December 2008 I requested access to review the City’s file on the May 2008 selection of OUC as the City’s electric supplier starting January 1, 2010. I was advised in early January 2009 the file(s) could not be made available under Fl Statute 288.075. I then called the City Attorney who orally confirmed the denial for access, even of the list of names of the bidders and the evaluation factors and scores of the bidders because of requested confidentiality by the bidders. The statute does not seem to prohibit the availability of the names of the bidders and evaluation factors and scores, etc.
I later made a request in writing to the City Attorney and he orally advised later that the OUC contract is not final, my letter requesting file access had been sent to the City’s “Boston Attorney” to answer my questions, and it could be up to two years before the file is accessible to the public.
A Transmission & Distribution Study and a Cost Estimate have to be done to get the power from Orlando to Vero over FPL lines for 2010. What if the T & D cost from FPL to OUC/Vero is higher than if FPL bid and won the original contract and charged less to get the power here? Why isn’t the overall cost for both aspects considered in the final cost of the project and in arriving at the ultimate bid winner and ultimate cost to customers? Why can’t the City answer Florida legal questions? Why is the May 2008 OUC contract now not final after so many statements to the contrary by the City Council? What is the City trying to hide?
City Manager Plan of Action for a Utility Authority and my Comments
In January, lobbyists for the City held meetings in Tallahassee with the State Delegation from Indian River County and provided the attached City Manager’s Action Plan. I obtained a copy of the Action Plan and then sent the attached comments to a member of the State Delegation and also to the City Manager and Chair of the City’s UAC. I received the following response from the City Manager:
Russ Lemmon, Press Journal
Yesterday, I spent about 2 ½ hours with Russ Lemmon of the Press Journal discussing the utility issues. During the last hour, two delightful and concerned ladies joined the utility discussion. They had previously contacted Russ expressing their outrage at the City utility issues and he had arranged to meet them separately but he asked me to stay and talk to them also to which we all agreed. We need many supporters like them to get our views across. The support can take a variety of forms, such as:
o Getting petitions signed – we still need them!!!!! Send them in!
o Speaking at County, City, and Shores Government meetings
o Talking up the utility issues
o Forwarding the utility e-mails to others
o Writing editorial opinions to the Press Journal and 32963
o Contacting your County Board, Town Council, and State Legislators.
o ETC!
BE PROACTIVE!
Be Optimistic!
Where one avenue appears to close up, we can open up another and make a sow’s ear into a silk purse!
February 5th - County Vision and 5 year goal meetings
Some interesting items may come up in the planning sessions. Stay tuned.
More later
Steve Faherty
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