https://cbs12.com/news/local/lake-worth-beach-residents-utility-bill-increase-electric-florida
REBUTAL TO FPL STATEMENT BY VICE MAYOR MCVOY
In an on camera interview on November 07, 2022, Vice Mayor McVoy made this statement to Dani Travis of News 12 - “I do not foresee the City switching to Florida Power & Light, nor do I foresee FPL being interested in buying, especially not at a price that would make it work”!
The searing question is – Make it work for - who? The current situation is ONLY working for the City of Lake Worth Beach! – It is certainly NOT working for the rate payers, who are being harshly impacted by these unexpected and excessive PCA charges!
I challenge the Board of Commissioners to provide an current appraisal of the City of Lake Worth Beach Utilities sellable assets (which by the way - is a non-profit, citizens owned utility tasked with providing reliable, low cost and clean energy, while giving back to the community).Their words – Not mine!
Let’s review the potential assets:
A power plant that is outdated and in- efficient to the point that power must be purchased from outside sources i.e. power produced by Natural Gas fueling out of Orlando!
Some moderately conditioned maintenance equipment i.e. Bucket trucks, Lift trucks and so on!
A small expensive work force!
The only asset of the City of Lake Worth Beach Utilities is the 27,500 customer list – which the Board of Commissioners cannot legally use as an asset, because it is a non-profit citizens owned company! There is not supposed to be a profit center!
Why would FPL want to buy the Utility from the City of Lake Worth Beach – THERE IS NOTHING TO SELL accept for the profit making customer list! If not for customer list – this Utility is a total liability for the City and they would be so much better off without overseeing a Utility – they are neither qualified or experienced to manage!
We challenge this Board of Commissioners to prove us wrong with releasing any appraisal that they may have been conducted, in support of their claims of worth of the Utility!
The bottom line - No matter how you arrange the numbers – they just don’t add up! By all appearances, we suspect a huge mis-appropriation of the funds collected from these arbitrary Power Cost Adjustment charges! We see it as a profit center to subsidize other City of Lake Worth Beach business! If we are off base with our suspicions – the simple solution would be to open the books and prove us wrong! Clarity and Transparency would go a long way is relieving some of the tensions of this issue!