Eckels questions Mayor Seiler about FPL franchise

Middle RiverTerrace meeting, Sunday 9/13/09, activist Vicki Eckels questions Mayor Jack Seiler and Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom about the FPL franchise agreement, which is due to expire in October. Why not hire a consultant to study municipalizing the electrical utility, and keep the money in the city? See it as it happened! Video by Cal Deal.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Fort
• Lauderdale
• Florida
• Power
• and
• Light
• contract
• renewal
• 30
• years

[drbillftldle]

You're probably right about the 5-0. But in 25 years of public service, I've never been on a board that was so blatantly deceived. Ethical and Sunshine thing also. It's hard to let that pass without going on the record.

I didn't go to the meetings. Until last week, I thought that the city would incorporate into a brief for the FPSC some of the new info and suggestions I had developed. Reality check.

If you are interested academically, I could send you the stuff from Homeland Security.

[DenFtlaud]

Prediction: FP&L Franchise Agreement approved 5-0. Stay home. Don't waste your time attending the meeting.

[DenFtlaud]

We could do this we could do that ... In this economy the could do's could be expensive. All the contracts are for 30 years. It's time to approve this and move on already. Did you attend the PSC hearings on the FP&L rate hike at the Broward County Main Library in June? I couldn't attend, but I have sent a letter opposing it. I also attended the last hearinf the PSC held in FL and very few people were in attendance.

[drbillftldle]

It is not too late to reopen negotiations. The proposed franchise agreement should at least be submitted to outside legal opinion. It remains to be seen whether the powers that be will act in the public good based on good information, rather than the disinformation supplied by FPL and filtered through city negotiators. Your input is needed to speak at the commission meeting tomorrow night. TiVo your TV shows and come live. Reality is better. Make it so.

[drbillftldle]

For the last three months, the primary UAC researcher has tried to meet with city negotiators to give them this data and to suggest strategies. Those efforts were rebuffed by city negotiators, despite public promises to the contrary. One might speculate that they thought this knowledge would complicate their negotiations. Unlike recent union negotiations, the FPL franchise negotiations excluded the public. We should all wonder why. Litigation is a bogus issue.

[drbillftldle]

Ft. Lauderdale stands to make 6% of $30M in franchise fees. Ft. Lauderdale has not expressed any opposition to the rate hike. FPL is a vertically integrated monopoly. They have no reason to give us an agreement with any favorable clauses. We should be suspicious that what they give in one part, they taketh away in another. We should all wonder why Ft. Lauderdale hasn't opposed the rate hike.

[drbillftldle]

FPL wants a $13B rate hike to ensure it gets enough investment from stockholders. FPL's parent company, the FPL Group, is traded on the stock exchange (FPL isnt). The company reported net income of $1.7B last year. It had a return on equity over five years of 75+ %; 13+ % last year; on track for 44% this year. That's better than the S&P 500 and virtually all Fortune 500 companies. The rate hike would cost Fort Lauderdale residents $30M a year.Rate hike? I don't think so.

[drbillftldle]

Until two years ago utilities only reported adjusted data, which excluded outages caused by major storms and about eight other categories. In 03, FPL reported about 70 minutes as an average outage duration. Unadjusted data counting storm outages raised this to 4500 minutes. To put these on the same graph the axis had to be changed from linear to logarithmic. The hidden cost of these outages avoided by undergrounding could go back in our economy, instead of to FPL stockholders.

[drbillftldle]

As for a cost of the buyout, utilities always overestimate the value for their grids as a scare tactic. They quoted up to $900 million. More likely, it is half that. After all, we wouldn't be buying their generating plants and nuclear power plants. Even adding this on as a second bond issue, we would recoup costs in as little as 10 years. Hidden costs prevented by outages would immediately have gone back into our economy.

[drbillftldle]

Utilities on barrier islands in North Carolina that have completely undergrounded report that outages from storms are virtually eliminated. If we undergrounded, then the majority of this $57M would not be lost and would contribute to our local economy. Net income, gross GDP, tax revenues, etc., would all increase, more than recouping the cost of undergrounding within six or seven years.