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At a time when everyone should be tightening the belt, city staff led by former councilor John Arceri want us to spend $25,000 to $50,000 to hire a consultant to justify purchasing a utility that is serving the islands needs with an exemplary record of holding the line on rates, providing excellent services, a proven record of storm response, and a good corporate citizen.

We have been told that there is money to be saved and that municipalization will help fill city coffers, but where is that money going to come from? Today LCEC pays 72 percent of our electric bills to purchase the power they distribute to us, another 11 percent goes to operating and maintenance expenses, with an additional 9 percent going to depreciation and taxes. An additional 3 percent is spent on interest with the final 5 percent returned as stockholders equity.

If Marco were to purchase the utility there would be an additional amount for debt service that would add up to nearly 20 percent of revenues.

That means that if Marco was to hit the ground running the utility at the same efficiency as LCEC the residents of Marco could expect a minimum 10 percent increase in there rates just to cover the additional interest cost of buying the utility.

One mistake on a purchase power contract could double that rate increase and growing pains in operations could lead to even more rate increases or decreases in service, not to mention that storm response would now be the responsibility of Marco Island not the much larger and experienced utility we have all grown to depend on.

Additionally Marco would be at a disadvantage in purchasing wholesale power since we make up only 10 percent of the LCEC system. That would leave Marco with very little bargaining power which would most certainly lead to higher cost for wholesale power.

Debt service, lower bargaining power, lack of experienced personnel, storm preparedness, and a myriad of other factors make this an incredibly bad idea, yet the groundwork has been laid to move forward even before the committee meets.

City staff has already solicited bids for engineering firms to do the study. The agenda and time line for the study is complete and I am sure that certain members of the committee, those who Mr. Arceri refers to as “pro city,” have been advised as to who would be the preferred engineering firm to select. In short, the fix is in.

We have all heard the stories about consulting engineers and predetermined outcomes, well the truth of the matter is that you can hire an engineering firm to create a report that will support which ever side of an argument you wish to present.

There is nothing illegal or immoral in this. Most issues are not black and white therefore a case can be made for both sides, and engineering firms are in the business of justifying the outcome they are being paid to produce.

There is no doubt where the city staff and John Arceri are on this issue, and since they have set up the committee, solicited bids from consultants, and produced the agenda committee members will follow, (and I do mean follow), then one could conclude that the results of the study are already determined.

No matter how much this issue is clouded by the current propaganda campaign coming out of city hall, one must look to the track record of the water and wastewater utility to determine if you can believe city hall’s promises with regard to purchasing or operating another utility.

Water and wastewater rates have skyrocketed since the city took over the utility even though they promised not to raise the rates for five years.

The utility is now asking the council to institute an additional 8 percent rate hike to make up for lost revenue due to watering restrictions, even though water revenues are higher this year over last.

Revenues to the Marco Island utilities have grown and grown, yet they keep coming back for more and more. The same thing will happen to electric rates if city hall gets its way and municipalization of the electric utility becomes a reality.

The right decision for the municipalization committee to make is to disband and save us the taxpayers of Marco Island the cost of hiring a consultant. That will be the only savings that can be realized out of this incredibly bad idea.