Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Although the city did not get everything it wanted, it locks into another 10 years.
By AMY WIMMER
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 10, 2001
ST. PETE BEACH -- The city and Florida Power will sign a new franchise agreement this month, extending their relationship another 10 years and officially ending conversations about St. Pete Beach forming its own electric company.
St. Pete Beach will be next in the line of Pinellas communities that have signed new franchise agreements with Florida Power within the last few months. Most of the original agreements, which were only one page long, were signed 30 years ago. St. Pete Beach's expires July 1.
City Manager Carl Schwing had asked Florida Power to extend the agreement for 90 days after July 1 to allow St. Pete Beach to finish work on a new ordinance governing its right of way.
City attorney Jim Devito feared signing a contract with Florida Power before passing the ordinance.
But Florida Power declined to temporarily extend the franchise. Nancy Loehr, regional manager for Florida Power, said her experience in other communities shows that perfecting a right-of-way ordinance can take months.
She said Florida Power also wants to work with the city and follow its codes.
"Let's do it right, and not do it fast, is what I would ask of this commission," Loehr said.
Schwing, Gulfport City Manager Bob Lee and Indian Rocks Beach City Manager Tom Brobeil worked together to negotiate their new agreements with Florida Power. Gulfport's agreement will also expire July 1; Indian Rocks Beach's expires later this year.
When negotiations began six months ago, city commissioners said they wanted a short-term contract that allowed the city some flexibility in case the electric industry changed dramatically in the next few years, as it has elsewhere in the country. They also hoped Florida Power would agree to pay for burying Gulf Boulevard utility lines. St. Pete Beach fell short of those negotiating points. The contract will be for 10 years, a time period commissioners were hoping for. But Florida Power made no concessions on burying the utilities, mainly because the company is now working with the county on a Gulf Boulevard beautification project that will include it.
"Florida Power is not going to pay for undergrounding," Schwing said. "That's an expense that they're not prepared to bear."
And while the previous agreement allowed St. Pete Beach to buy Florida Power's equipment and power lines once the franchise expired, the new agreement is not that specific. On this issue, the new franchise agreement will state:
"Nothing in this franchise shall be construed as an acknowledgement by grantee that grantor has any right to acquire grantee's facilities without grantee's consent."
Schwing said the city managers working on this franchise agreement spent more time on that section than any other.
That point was an important issue last year, when a former mayor of St. Pete Beach, Terry Gannon, began urging public officials throughout the beaches to investigate forming their own electric companies.
At the time, Gannon charged that Florida Power was a monopoly in Pinellas and that the beaches should consider getting into the electric business to compete with the power giant. Gannon believed the contract that will expire July 1 forced Florida Power to sell its equipment to St. Pete Beach if the beach city wanted it, though that point is still being debated in Florida Power court battles with other cities.
Schwing said he thinks the 10-year agreement will give communities time to consider their options and observe what happens with deregulating utilities elsewhere.