Back on April 9, Steve Carr sent out a memo informing the commission that the utility Director would discuss our Utility as there has been mention of selling our electric utility to FP&L. There appears to be renewed discussion about the possibility of selling the Electric Utility. In order for you to have some idea of the complexities surrounding that idea, I asked the Utilities Director to draft the attached memorandum.
I don't recall ANY MENTION of selling our electric utility other than some disgruntled rate payers in the city. Commissioner Amoroso was attempting to have two gentlemen give a presentation that night and it was pulled off the agenda by the acting city manager. The above is the slick Power Point that we all were spared.
The above is what was presented on the Lindsey bus...propaganda from Brian Heady and Glenn Heran, whoever they might be. What is their interest? What do they have to gain? They won't tell but they will try and take advantage of unsuspecting residents and a commissioner.
UPDATE: The links below from beagardner.com are no longer functioning as of 4-25-12 as the web site owner, Ms. Gardner, closed her site. Was it pressure from someone? She says she doesn't have the time any longer to write her blog.
Read about them here.
Read about Who's the liar, cheat and thief?
25 comments:
I love this comment on the link …I wonder if Lake Worth is a member of FMPA. That could make a little sense of why these two clowns (Vero’s Brian Heady and Glenn Heran) are heading over there with their dog and pony show.
I READ THE PRESENTATION AND IT SEEMS TO ME THEY ARE WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES TO GET ANOTHER CITY, (LAKE WORTH IN THIS INSTANCE) TO ASK FPL TO COME TO THE TABLE. JUST LIKE WHAT WAS DONE IN THE CITY OF VERO BEACH.
Then the party begins. THE CITY IN QUESTION DOES ALL THE WORK, SPENDS ALL THE MONEY TO GET OUT OF THE POWER BUSINESS and in steps the knight in shinning armor, FPL.
Lynn, were you on the bus? If so, please tell us everything that was said during the trip and what happened at FMPA. If you weren't there, then please explain where you are getting the facts of what was "said"?
Did I say anything about what was said on the bus? I have no idea anonymous. Did you view the YouTube? I would imagine that is what was said. I would like to read a full report from someone who actually went to the workshop in Orlando. So far, nothing. If you find out, please share.
Lord knows that if YOU don't recall ANY MENTION of selling our electric utility.... then it never happened because as we all know you are the wise sage in Lake Worth and NOTHING happens without you knowing about and approving it. Right?
Of course the rest of your sentence reads..."other than some disgruntled rate payers in the city". So on the one hand you NEVER RECALL ANY MENTION, but in reality you did.
It's too funny watching your hated "dirty dozen" make you act like the tazmanian devil and pull what's left of your hair out. Looking forward to many more years of it.
Don't take the Lords' name in vain. :)
If it is only a few disgruntled residents, it is totally unofficial. There has been NOTHING discussed on the dais. All the rest of it is just plain bitching and complaining.
This is the last time you are coming over here to pull your crap. Take a chill pill...several.
Is anyone listening to Purila?
The presentation seems very straight forward.
Do you disagree with any of the statistics or computations given? If so, please share as it is an important topic.
After the financial fiasco on the beach, can Staff be expected to be transparent, efficient and effective?
I hope we have a Referendum on this in Nov. I believe it should be thoroughly addressed by all the candidates. That way a more thorough dissemination of a comprehensive explanation of the topic will replace the one liner sound bites we usually get from candidates.
How does anyone know that the numbers presented in this are even accurate. One thing that was flat wrong was the amount of millions we pull from the Utility to the operating account. These guys were off by $5 mil. If they were off here, where else are they off?
$4.5 plus $5 mil= boy Maxwell sure was right about how the real problem with our rates is the inefficiency and mismanagement of Staff.
Do you advocate that the replacement for Mattey will do a better job or do you advocate that we sell the Electric Utility?
I think it makes sense to consider selling to FPL, but FPL keeps telling us that it will not lower our rates if it buys LW Utilities because we would continue to get power from the same system for years and then would pay to switch over to their system over years, infrastructure upgrades. I tried, quickly to find the back up for my statement but failed.
Mattey told this Commission that a big part of the problem was customer service staff but they didn't listen to her. Customer Service was not under her management until about a year ago. She is the one who discovered the mess and came up with a solution.
Where did Greg Rice meet these guys,and how does this benefit him?
If Greg Rice wants something,run the other way! he is a slum land lord in Lake Worth and,basically, a developer whore.Greg and his small but screechingly vocal Cabal want to rape our quaint town so that we are another overbuilt slum,like most of the east coast of Florida!!
I never realized Greg Rice was such a bad guy.
What slum buildings does he rent out and what has he developed?
It seems Willie Howard is quoting the Vero presentation:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/companies-line-up-to-become-lake-worths-next-2323434.html
What does that say about propaganda?
Sue Hersey needs to explain. Could it be sky-rocketing fuel costs? Did she not project properly? Some Vero Beach residents want to get rid of it because they are paying super high rates as are we and they are sick of it. They have funded indebtedness. It is still a majority vote of their commission that must go to a referendum.
Fuel costs are at an all-time low. You're paying high rates because of FMPA's fuel hedging.
The presentation is inaccurate in many ways and just plain slanted. The Lake Worth way to present "information".
This wasn't LWorth presenting it.
Fuel costs--see this link to know the truth-
http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx
I would have to do some research on this to see what we have been buying it at and don't have the time right now.
As one of the disgruntled rate payers, (who isn't?) I believe it is time to educate ourselves on the subject of owning vs selling to FPL.
If the stats in the power point are anywhere near correct, think of what could be accomplished by having the lowest electric rates in Florida along with MOST of the rest of the state. (If the stats are anywhere near correct)
Customer service would be gone and handled by FPL. Maintenance and upgrades would not fall on our little city budget, un-collectables would disappear, our payroll for staff at the power plant, linemen would all be paid for at FPL. No need for warehousing equipment which sits around until we sell it for a loss.
Yes, there could be a little pain in the beginning, but just think what you could do with the extra 30% to 50% you are now paying for us to have "control" over our own electric utility.
You must also look into the future. Is there anything on the horizon that could change and make owning our own electric utility cause our rates to drop BELOW FPL? Ever?
Is it possible we (Lake Worth Utilities) are the neighborhood hardware store? The local Telephone booth?
I've lived here all my life. Pay residential AND commercial rates. I was never FOR selling to FPL. I am ready to start looking into that possibility. If it is inevitable, we should start sooner rather than later.
Side note: FPL is probably much more environmentally friendly than any of our current providers of electricity. Most of their power is from nuclear and they are big producers of solar and wind energy.
I don't understand this big rush to sell off our Utility. We would need a plan, yes another Study, to give us all the comparisons. There are 33 other municipalities with their own electric utility. How are they doing it? Lake Worth is basically in the lower TOP 1/3RD with 10 other municipalities higher than we for residential rates. Gainesville is higher than we in commercial rates.
I don't see rates deterring business. I am reading about new businesses all of the time.
If people in the community are talking about selling our Utility because of high rates, I want to know how this would be better in every aspect of the sale including $10 million reduced from our operating budget. I don't consider my rate high.
Everyone always wants to get rid of something as a solution. This is a big deal and a study would take a very long time. In the meantime, we are spending multi-millions upgrading our system.
Why should we be in the Electric Utility business?
Certainly local control hasn't helped our reliability or rates.
Bornsteein just came from a city without Electric Utility income and his tax rate was half ours.
What would your reason be for keeping our own utility? Just the $10 million it contributes to our budget? Think about it.....
I have seen our extraordinary high rates deter people from buying homes here all the time. Businesses too. I thought you were a realtor, isn't that one of the costs of ownership you'd sell your client on?
Are ANY of the 10 municipalities you looked at charging lower rates than FPL..... ANY?
I am still hearing about how our recent rate reduction and service charge increase have affected individual rate payers with the result a much higher monthly fee and many who would have ordinarily left their electric meter on while they were up north, shut it off, meaning NO revenue to the city for that meter.
While I can't stand the thought of another "study" (usually very slanted) I don't see any way around it. But it should begin NOW. Give us the information. It would have to go before the voters anyway. (more hysterical mis-information from both sides advocating for and against)
Again.... look loooooong range. Do we see ourselves in the power business? If yes... great! If no, we need to start the transition now. It only took 50 years to get the casino "remodeled".
Our Utility is an extremely valuable asset NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IT IS WORTH!! Why are we even having these discussions? Why are citizens trying to bring Heady and Heran here to give presentations on selling to FPL? What is their game? What is everyone's motivation? The commission has not even entertained a discussion about any of it.
FP&L is the lowest of the rates in Florida. This is a huge corporation. We can't compete with a corporation of this magnitude because of their massive bulk buying contracts. However, we have a Utility that has kept this city going by contributions to the operating budget. Without that money, you all can stop screaming about parks, etc. Just forget about your quality of life issues.
I would be interested in what savings we would generate particularly in getting rid of union employees.
I can tell you that our Utility is worth more to someone else than what we will be able to get out of it in a sale vs. the money already spent and the money being spent now.
It is not the Utility. It is the cost of power and the expense we have on our system and the crappy customer service that has mis-billed to the tune of over $1 mil. It is the fact that the city failed to bill properly, cities and businesses for their true consumption.
We are getting out of FMPA. Why doesn't everyone just wait and stop jumping the gun and see what the new power provider will offer and how it will really affect our bottom line?
And no, when I was in real estate I didn't sell a property based on the electric rates...not once...not ever.
Geez.... "one of the costs of ownership" is not "based on the electric rates". A nice twist of my words. You are very good at that. Instead of answering the main question, you divert to one un-important phrase, distort it, then give a BS answer to it.
This is not a "rush" to sell to FPL. This has been a rumble in the background for as long as I can remember, even back when we had the Lake Worth Utilities Authority as a board for running our utility.
I don't know Heady but read that he owns and operates many rentals and other properties. In you eyes, that problem makes him an evil developer. But he is also someone who probably can do the math. He is also probably someone who knows that "ONE" of the costs of ownership, along with insurance and taxes, is cost of power and water.... otherwise known as utilities.
So to answer YOUR question, why are we even having these discussions?... It is because our rates we pay for electricity are about 40% higher than what we'd pay if we were FPL customers.
Jimmy Fallon asks who wouldn't want more money? Are you the little girl in the high chair?
Yes, it is a very valuable asset. Yes, we don't know what it's worth. Sooooooo let's find out.
Can we make some money by selling it to FPL? Enough to make up for the gap in our general fund? After all, discounting the customer base outside the city limits, we'd have to pay that anyway in higher fees or taxes, just NOT to support a bunch of high paid small town electric utility staff.
Redundant.... If it is an eventuality, let's start now, not later.
Thank you to Mary Lindsey who cleared up who paid for the bus on her blog. Now all we would like to know is Heady and Heran's pony in the race. Can you clear that one up too?
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