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County vows to block utility's sale
By WILL VAN SANT The Hernando County Commission Tuesday vowed to marshal all political and legal might at its disposal to block the sale of Florida Water to what officials dubbed "a rogue authority" of two small Panhandle towns. In a strongly-worded resolution, the commission asked the towns of Milton and Gulf Breeze, which have a combined population of less than 13,000, to reconsider their purchase of Florida Water, a private utility providing water and sewer service to some 500,000 residents in 28 Florida counties, 33,000 of them in Hernando. The towns, taking advantage of additions made to state law in 1997 that are now under scrutiny, formed the Florida Water Services Authority on Thursday. The same day Milton and Gulf Breeze reached a roughly $500-million deal to purchase the utilities giant. The move shocked a host of local governments besides Hernando, including Citrus and Polk counties, which had formed their own coalition -- the Florida Government Utility Authority -- and had been negotiating to buy Florida Water for more than a year. "We are going to court," said Hernando County Commission chairwoman Nancy Robinson. "Our people are geared up and ready to go." The Citrus County Commission also officially condemned the takeover plan Tuesday. "If this (sale) goes through, we will eliminate any ability on our behalf to control our own destinies when it comes to water resources," said Citrus County commissioner Gary Bartell. Having distant towns exempt from adequate public or private oversight control water resources across the state is simply wrong, Hernando County commissioners and attorneys said. Further, they argued it is not in keeping with the spirit of the state law under which Gulf Breeze and Milton joined to purchase Florida Water. Five years ago, the state Legislature added sections to the Florida Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969 that deal with how local governments go about yoking together to purchase private utilities. As it now stands, those additions are deficient, said assistant county attorney Kent Weissinger, because they allow local governments to buy utilities that lie outside of their jurisdictions. The nearest Florida Water utility system is 100 miles from Milton or Gulf Breeze, according to Weissinger. Moreover, he said, the law does not require outside governments to notify residents when a deal is afoot that will shift ownership of utilities that serve them. These loopholes allow for the type of deal struck by the Panhandle towns and Florida Water, Weissinger said, but that was never what the legislature had in mind. The letter of the law needs to be amended, he said, to reflect its intent. "It's just fundamentally wrong," said Mike Twomey, who heads the nonprofit Florida Utility Watch. "The major flaw is that it allows governments to purchase utilities outside their own political boundaries without getting the permission of the governments where the utilities reside." Mike Mullen, attorney for Nassau County, home to 12,000 Florida Water customers on Amelia Island, called the surprise deal "disturbing." And Tuesday, the County Commission voted to oppose the purchase. "It appears that Gulf Breeze and Milton . . . have utilized what was intended to be a very good legislation in an unfortunate manner," Mullen said. "You don't expect that of fellow governmental bodies." Brooksville attorney and Florida Water representative Joe Mason said all the outrage did not come as a surprise. "We expected to hear the stuck pig squeal," he said. Whether counties feel the Legislature was "unwise" in its wording of the law is "immaterial" Mason said, adding that his clients have no fear of a legal assault from local governments. Other Florida Water customers across the state are expressing the same sense of having been duped and fear of having control of local water come from far-off governments with no oversight. On Marco Island, confronting water shortages and some of the highest utility rates in Florida, the deal is at the top of the public agenda and a special meeting has been set for Monday. "Our community is not going to accept two small cities on the Panhandle making decisions for our community," said city manager Bill Moss. "They are not going to." -- Times staff writers Carrie Johnson and Robert King contributed to this report. Will Van Sant covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com.
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