Politics and utility control
To the editor:
In regards to “municipalization” of the electric utility: The only issue that I can see here is which group gets to RUN the utility (EGO, EGO! )..
What fundamental changes can occur? Either way, the operation remains non-profit. If, in fact, there are some ideas which the city could/would implement to improve service and rates, what on earth is holding up applying these ideas to the existing organization – other than administrative stubbornness, the usual resistance to change and local “power-politics” (No pun). Recalcitrant administration can be well challenged without divorce ! .
The example of Winter Park includes nothing that indicates that the cited recent service improvements there were attributable to anything other than the switch from FOR-Profit to NON-Profit operation – which is NOT at issue here at all!
I smell the heavy aroma of some good old petty local politics here, for there do not appear to be any other motives for joining the debate. I just do not see how cutting an apparently successful entity into pieces is likely to produce any positive economic effects.
Frankly, I do not understand why there should be more than just a few regional electric distributors or in fact why more than one statewide, excluding the panhandle – or even why major producers should not also handle distribution, as they commonly do elsewhere.
Allen N. Wollscheidt
Cape Coral