Tampabay: Gathering stones for an electric Goliath

The town of Belleair is a tree-lined, affluent enclave of 4,100 residents on the western edge of Pinellas County. The entire town occupies only 2 square miles, almost all of it golf courses and homes.

The highest-profile address in town belongs to the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa. Otherwise, Belleair is a pleasant dot nestled beneath giant Clearwater to the north, on top of Belleair Bluffs and Largo to the south.

Not exactly a hotbed of revolution.

And yet, revolution of a sort is bubbling here. Belleair has traded its cardigans and golf shoes for a leather jacket, so to speak. The town is in a fight with the most powerful, most resourceful opponent possible:

Florida Power Corp., the state's second-largest electric company, with 1.3-million customers.

Belleair is talking ambitiously about kicking out Florida Power. The town's 30-year franchise agreement with the company runs out next year. Belleair says it might want to buy out the company's wires and poles and the rest of it, and become its own electric company.

Florida Power is treating Belleair, and an eastern Florida city called Casselberry considering the same thing, as roaring mice. The mighty elephant is up on the kitchen table, crying, "Eek!" The company has dispatched lawyers and money, although to date, no guns. It is airlifting in experts from around the nation to warn: You'll be sorrrr-yyyyy.

There is more at stake than one little town. Florida Power Corp. has more than 100 such franchise agreements. Something like 40 of these contracts expire by the year 2004.

"If little old Belleair prevails," Town Manager Steve Cottrell told me, "you're going to see an avalanche of cities moving in this direction."

(This might mean that the rest of the customers have to pay more to cover Florida Power's fixed costs. Or, it might mean that Florida Power gets to soak each city and town for a big "exit fee." This is all up in the air.)

Belleair has gone to court against Florida Power, as has Casselberry. Both towns want a ruling that the franchise agreement clearly gives them the right to buy out Florida Power.

Belleair also wants to force Florida Power to keep collecting a 6-percent "franchise fee" on electric bills, which it pays to the town. That fee this year is worth about $300,000 -- not a small chunk of the town's total budget of about $6-million. Florida Power says (sorry about that!) it can't keep collecting the fee if the contract expires.

So far, most of Florida Power's efforts have gone toward persuading Belleair residents that this is a very bad idea. The company says that Belleair and its consultants have seriously underestimated the costs.

Florida Power warns it might be entitled to even more money for being forced to sell a "going concern" and might charge Belleair for its "stranded" investments (money that the company invested in good faith, expecting to continue to have the business).

Cottrell says such claims are unfounded. Let's say Kmart or Sears builds a warehouse, predicting a certain number of customers. But customers go someplace else instead. Can the store sue the customers for the cost of its warehouse? "What other business is guaranteed that kind of surety?" he asks with scorn.

Belleair is a long way from deciding. First a judge must rule whether the town can proceed at all. Then there will be months of number-juggling and debate. Residents are divided; one wrote a letter to every town resident and organized a fiery meeting late last month.

It is hard to imagine this deal going through in the end. But if Belleair wants to pay lawyers and consultants to study it, who cares? True, the electric company stays nervous -- it does not want this idea to spread. But there are worse things in life than having a nervous electric company, like, say, having a complacent one.

Back to Tampa Bay area news
Back

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Mary Jo Melone

Howard Troxler

Headlines
From the Times
local news desks