Council approves LCEC franchise agreement
After three years of hard work and more than $1 million spent on both sides that ratepayers had to pay the bill for, the Cape Coral City Council and LCEC finally have put together a franchise agreement both sides can be happy with.
The city council unanimously passed the franchise agreement during its regular city council meeting, allowing Mayor Joe Coviello and LCEC Executive Vice President and CEO Dennie Hamilton to formally sign it, ending a long, expensive process.
The 7-0 vote drew applause from the few people in the gallery as well as council, some of whom ran for office because of the franchise agreement.
During public comment, Hamilton expressed his thanks to all those involved, even during the ugly times, who helped the two sides get to where they are now.
“I would like to express both my personal and the LCEC board’s appreciation to the entire Council for unanimously designating the mayor to lead the negotiations, and to Stuart Diamond, Joe Mazurk-iewicz and Brian Rist for their efforts along the way to set the stage for the negotiations between Mayor Coviello and me,” Hamilton said. “I would especially like to recognize and thank Mayor Coviello for his professional, well-reasoned, balanced and honest approach that allowed us to swiftly reach agreement without conflict.”
“We worked together in a positive manner. I believe we got a fair agreement going forward for not only their customers but for our citizens,” Coviello said. “When you leave the negotiating table and neither side is absolutely happy, that means you had a good negotiation.”
There were only a few questions during public input, while council praised the work of Hamilton and the mayor.
“A lot of people have been involved with this over the years and I want to thank them because they played a part to get us here,” councilmember John Gunter said. “I believe in not looking at the past because you can’t change it. Hopefully, we can look forward.”
The agreement is a hybrid of some of the other agreements LCEC has made with Marco Island and the county. The agreement states:
n LCEC collects and pays franchise fees to the city in exchange for the right to construct, operate, and maintain electric facilities in roads, streets, alleys, bridges, easements, rights-of-way and other public places.
n The franchise fee will remain 3 percent of electric revenues for the first five years. The fee can increase to 4.5 percent in the sixth year, and a maximum of 6 percent in the 10th year for the remainder of the agreement. If any other municipality receives a fee greater than 6 percent, the city has the right to increase the fee if the benefits match. The city can reduce the fee at any time.
n A 20-year agreement with an automatic 10-year extension unless either party provides written notification of intent to amend or terminate the agreement.
n LCEC will continue to offer customers with qualified renewable energy systems an opportunity to sell excess energy back to LCEC. If the city has interest in exploring opportunities to participate in renewable energy projects or new technology, LCEC will engage in dialogue with the city and other parties as appropriate to determine the feasibility of new technologies.
n The city agrees not to distribute or sell electricity to LCEC customers and will not purchase electricity from a third party unless permitted by law (such as in the case of electric deregulation). If the laws in Florida change resulting in deregulation of the electric utility industry and distribution is no longer determined by service territory, LCEC has 90 days to evaluate and match the terms of any third party and continue selling to the city.
In other business, council also approved three permanent members and one alternate to the Budget Review Committee. Michael Bodkin was reappointed, alternate Gene Smith was made a permanent member, Joanne Gruber was also appointed to a permanent seat, while Philip Boller was made an alternate.