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Belleair voters have many reasons to vote on power referendum

Re: Belleair referendum doesn't give voters choice, letter by A.L. Hickerson, Sept. 20.

Mr. Hickerson's plea to avoid commingling irrelevant facts and obfuscation does not seem to apply to his own opinion. The facts are plain and simple:

1. Progress Energy, a North Carolina subsidiary of Carolina Power & Light, breached its obligations under the franchise agreement it signed with Belleair in 1971. Progress Energy dragged Belleair through circuit court, appellate court and state Supreme Court on issues that it had already lost to Winter Park in an attempt to intimidate the Belleair Town Commission and residents.

2. Progress Energy has never negotiated in good faith. The town has only two issues: the improvement of old infrastructure to include undergrounding of lines over a reasonable time, and a simple purchase option at the end of the term.

3. Court-ordered arbitration awarded Belleair the right to buy the "poles and wires" for approximately $8-million, an enterprise which was valued by the company's own experts under sworn testimony to be in excess of $12-million. After receiving bids on wholesale energy supply and professional operation and maintenance contracts, the municipal enterprise will generate a positive cash flow after all expenses including debt service of approximately $899,000 in its first full year of operation and rise steadily to $2-million per year in the 20th year.

4. The enterprise, if approved, will manage risk exactly like Progress Energy does. Belleair's low bidder for energy was Progress Energy's wholesale energy supply department. Therefore, the citizens will experience similar energy/fuel costs, as they do with Progress Energy. Operation and maintenance will be with dedicated linemen, which Belleair does not currently have with Progress Energy, from a large local contractor who subcontracts with other utilities, both investor-owned and municipal. Storm risk again is similar to Progress Energy. Belleair will be one of 34 municipal utilities under mutual aide pacts through the Florida Municipal Electric Association. FMEA is similar in size and scope to Progress Energy. If anyone stopped to notice, Progress Energy's storm response contractors were out-of-state "mutual aide" contractors.

The utility director of Belleair will answer to the Belleair Electric Franchise Committee, which will respond to the Town Commission. The commission answers directly to the citizen/ratepayer/owner. The town has no control over some greedy executive who comes from North Carolina and is paid to retire, after 12 years of service, and given $38-million in Progress Energy stock and $1.3-million per year for the rest of his life. His decisions are self-serving and for the benefit of his options and Wall Street expectations, but, in the end, we ratepayers are the ones who paid the bill.

Mr. Hickerson cleverly slides over Winter Park and obfuscates the issue. Winter Park citizens voted overwhelmingly to float $49-million in bonds to buy Progress Energy's distribution system. The company's own experts indicated in sworn testimony that Winter Park would make money if it paid $79-million for the system.

Yes, Winter Park is struggling to turn a hunk-of-junk system into state of the art with superior reliability. They are making progress. Despite these problems, there is no call by the citizens of Winter Park to return the system to Progress Energy.

One only has to read this newspaper to evaluate the corporate character of Progress Energy. It breaches its agreements. We, the customers, are paying absurd perks to North Carolina executives for 12 years of service. Progress Energy has "forgotten" to roll back rates out of their savings from consolidation as ordered by the Public Service Commission.

Progress Energy has padded its hurricane expenses to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, raised its rates for hurricane expenses that it has been collecting for years and had hurricane windfall profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars - to the point that Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist had to intervene to stop the gluttony.

Just recently we learned that Progress Energy, a regulated company, has been paying inflated prices to its sister company, which is nonregulated, so they can charge inflated prices for energy costs.

Finally, after 30 years in private enterprise I have learned that it is bad practice to sign contracts with companies of questionable character. Indeed, Mr. Hickerson, there are two choices on Nov. 8: Wall Street or Main Street. I choose Main Street.

Evidence strong against managing power

I'm baffled and confused! Our tiny town of Belleair will be deciding by referendum on Nov. 8 whether the town should take over the distribution of power from Progress Energy.

Mayor George Mariani Jr. promised his dad that he would see to it that Belleair municipalized the power and undergrounded the wires, and he's proceeding with his promise, plunging Belleair into a minimum of $20-million of debt. Am I missing something?

The poles and wires will cost nearly $10-million, then they want to tear them down and put the wires underground for another $10-million. Am I missing something?

A citizen, Jim Harrison, is stuffing our mailboxes with slick brochures, which look conspicuously like the ones Mayor Mariani used in his campaign, filled with innuendoes, half-truths and outright lies. For example: "Voting Yes on Nov. 8 would permit the city to underground power lines for free." Am I missing something?

Town Manager Steve Cottrell has been looking at job opportunities elsewhere. Town Attorney Joel Tew resigned because of improprieties regarding the Belleview Biltmore Hotel issue. Commissioner Ernst Upmeyer resigned. In spite of this turmoil, the town wants to run a power company. Am I missing something?

The Belleair business plan, viewed only by those who request a copy from City Hall, states the town will cross-train its employees for running the power company - a real confidence booster, given that the man who picks up trash will be repairing transformers in power outages. Am I missing something?

A town that could not operate its wastewater plant and has major infrastructure problems wants to operate a power company. Am I missing something?

The decisions concerning the Belleview Biltmore properties will keep the commissioners, town manager, attorneys and Planning and Zoning Board busy for years. Yet the town wants to run a power company. Am I missing something?

The Town Commission has ignored its own town survey, sent out a couple years ago, which showed 82 percent of the residents were in favor of continuing with Progress Energy. It's worth noting this survey generated a 49 percent response rate, an extremely high number for any survey. Am I missing something?

Finally, with the energy crisis in this country sure to get worse after the hurricane damage, and with airlines as well as many other businesses filing for bankruptcy, the town of Belleair wants to start up a power business. Am I missing something?

Thanks for editorial supporting cemetery

Thanks for the wonderful article, Tending to those forgotten, Oct. 2. But most of all, thanks for the editorial published Oct. 7, Historic cemetery needs our help.

I feel that for all the years of my public service in helping others, without a thank you in many cases, your editorial was the most rewarding. It showed me that you really got it. Let's just hope that there is someone out there with the compassion shown by this newspaper that will also get it.

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[Last modified October 12, 2005, 00:19:18]