Homestead and Florida City did the same - see end of post.On January 9, 2008 Mayor Horace Feliu, representing the City of South Miami, addressed the Public Service Commission on the matter of a Petition to Determine Need for Turkey Point Nuclear Units 6 & 7 Electrical Power Plant, By Florida Power & Light Company.
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO asked Horace: Same question, have you heard from the citizens of your city of South Miami? (she had also asked each city in the context of "same question": "Have you had a public hearing?")
MR. FELIU: Basically when I found out about it it was in the paper. And we always have public discussions at the commission meetings, and no one has ever spoken against this project. And we're very close to that Turkey Point location. We're in South Miami.
His honest answer should have actually been simply: "NO." The City of South Miami should send a clarifying letter to the PSC. The Full Transcript of what Horace said follows - It gets worse than the above misleading statement as he uses "we" and "I" Interchangeably:
CHAIRMAN CARTER: Next we'll ask Horace Feliu, the
Mayor of South Miami. And please forgive me if I mispronounce
your name. It wasn't my pronouncing. It was the writing that
I saw before.
MR. FELIU: You were very close. It's Feliu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and esteemed Commissioners.
Thank you for coming down here and taking time from your busy
schedules to listen to the public.
About two years ago I sponsored a Resolution in the
City of South Miami, which basically is the Freedom From Fossil
Fuels Acts. We requested from our county officials, our state
legislators and our federal government to do their part in
freeing ourselves from the use of fossil fuels and at the same
time create a type of situation or incentives whereby we
eliminate the greenhouse effects and carbon-based products that
contaminate our environment. So this is right in line with
exactly what we had in mind. We know it's a clean energy
source. FP&L has been an environmentally-friendly corporate
neighbor to all of us, and I'm here just to speak on that and
just basically let you know how we feel about it.
We realize that there's issues regarding the use of
water and everything else, but that is being addressed. FP&L has done their homework. I've listened carefully to their presentation at the county level, which was passed pretty much unanimously, and I'm in favor of this product -- of this project. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CARTER: Thank you. One moment, please.
Commissioner Argenziano.
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO: Same question, have you
heard from the citizens of your city of South Miami?
MR. FELIU: Basically when I found out about it it was in the paper. And we always have public discussions at the commission meetings, and no one has ever spoken against this project. And we're very close to that Turkey Point location. We're in South Miami.
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO: Thank you.
MR. FELIU: You're welcome.
---------------------------------
FUDGING THE SAME QUESTION BY ARGENZIANO -
SYLVESTER JACKSON, FLORIDA CITY:
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO: Yes. Mr. Jackson, just the
same question, have you had a public hearing or have you heard
from the citizens of your city?
MR. JACKSON: The good thing about FP&L, we have
found that they appear before our Commission on numerous
occasions. They came to us and presented their Turkey Point
project, as a matter of fact. And the citizens in attendance,
as we find in all of our city commission meetings, were not
negative in any way about the actual presentation that they
made to us.
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO: Thank you.
JON BURGESS, VICE MAYOR CITY OF HOMESTEAD:
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO: Just a quick question. I
don't know if there are other people here from the City of
Homestead, but how do -- how does the population or the
citizenry of your city, have you heard from them on your
resolution?
MR. BURGESS: We had a hearing, well, we opened it up
at our council meeting for the hearing when we passed the
resolution, and we had nobody with a negative view towards it
show up at the council meeting. We did have several people
that had positive views. And I think as a whole economically
and everything that it could do for us down there, I believe
the entire community -- or let me not say the entire, but the
majority of the community is in favor of it with what they
think it can bring us down there in the southern end. And the
demand that we have, as some of you may not know, we are the
largest growing city of that size. So we've got a lot of
demand going for power and stuff down there. And we've got our
own power system, but we also buy from FP&L and they run half
of the city. So we're looking forward to having quite a bit
more demand down there too that we're going to need to satisfy,
and we think that this will help us also; not just us, the
entire state and nation. So thank you.
COMMISSIONER ARGENZIANO: Thank you.
NOTE FROM GENIUS: The last two guys said 'citizens that showed up for meetings.' A handful of citizens show up at city council or city commission meetings. That is not a representative sample of their cities and it is not what Argenziano was after.
19 comments:
Thanks for this post. There should be a recall of Feliu over this issue. The people of South Miami are very angry about this power plant scheme by FPL, that the corporation wants us to pay for. Stop FPL NOW!
The mayor's actions were part of a larger setup orchestrated by FPL. A year and a half prior, Mayor Feliu sponsored a freedom from fossil fuels resolution - it came out of the blue, with no apparent plan or followthrough by himself or the commission. In hindsight it appears the intended purpose was to pave the path for the mayor to support FPL's planned nuclear expansion. We didn't see it coming. Yet another example of how FPL is manipulating the local municipalities.
Why does this Fossil Fuel Resolution automatically lead to expansion of Nuclear Energy in his mind?
Read the text of the mayor's testimony before the PSC. He used his successful passage of the fossil fuels resolution as evidence that the residents of South Miami supported nuclear expansion in Miami-Dade County. The mayor connected the dots for us.
This is what happens when a city's lobbyist is allowed to represent a corporation that does business in and with the same city. Fausto B. Gomez represents FPL, and South Miami, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, North Bay Village, West Miami, Miami-Dade County, Cutler Bay, Lake Park, Surfside, and Key Biscayne. What happens when a city asks their paid lobbyist to represent their interests against the lobbyist's bigger corporate client? These cities need to hire a new lobbyist who does not represent FPL.
See for yourself who Fausto Gomez represents:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Lobbyist/index.cfm?Lobbyists=View_Lobbyist_Info&Tab=lobbyist&Submenu=2&First_Name=Fausto+B.&Last_Name=Gomez&Suffix1=&Lobbyist_ID=000635&Title=-%3E2007-%3EL-%3EGomez%2C+Fausto+B
You may want to consider the fact that Mayor Feliu created the first green Task Force in the county to address the concerns of Global Warming and the dependency on foreign oil which has cost countless lives and jobs. His Freedom from Fossil Fuel resolution was adopted by the Miami Dade League of Cities and was included in President Obama's energy platform..... Perhaps this too is part of the conspiracy.
Don't let facts get in the way of your hatred of the Mayor and his solid proposal in the Freedom from Fossil Fuel Resolution. I applaud my Mayor for his support of generating energy sources other than coal and natural gas. For the record, Nuclear energy emits virtually zero carbon emissions.
Facts are facts. What was posted was EXACTLY what Horace said. The problem is, Horace did not check with the citizens when he endorsed two new nuclear reactors. That is a fact as well. City of South Miami residents did not weigh in on the issue but Horace did on their behalf.
The City of South Miami and FPL are about to get a wake up call on nuclear reactors... and the rest of Miami Dade will follow.
...and Horace Feliu, the Honorable Mayor of South Miami is getting lots of mileage out of his "Freedom from Foreign Fossil Fuel" resolution; his latest lobbying effort - Florida Energy Associates, quest for oil exploration off Florida's coast. Horace Feliu, the most highly paid, unregistered lobbyist in M-D County. Too bad the residents of the City of South Miami don't realize what their supporting - drill baby drill!
I was aghast when I read this until I realized that this is testimony from 11 months ago.
Much has changed since then. The City of South Miami has passed resolutions opposing the power lines from Turkey Point that are going to cut the city in half. They've also had a meeting where opponents to the plant made their case to the city - coincidentally the same one where they fired the City Manager. A big motivator may have been the outright resistance by city staff to do anything that would upset FPL.
There were NO meetings before that. FPL had been having little "open houses" here and there where they didn't really answer anything and made sure not too many people clustered together to hear the questions other concerned citizens asked. None were sponsored by South Miami as far as I know.
Feliu perjured himself before the PSC and as someone who does live within the 10 mile evacuation zone - that South Miami is not within - I resent the hell out of him saying that his residents are "near" the plant.
Mayor Horace Feliu, FP&L's Government Affairs and FP&L's Corporate Communications had better be circling the wagons - because a nicely wrapped package is headed North to FPSC Commissioner's Argenziano and Skop containing City of South Miami Commission tapes, Horace's "Freedom from Fossil Fuels" resolution, along with a transcript of the FPSC hearing and to top it off a copy of Horace's final 2008 election campaign contributions report highlighting all the FPL executives contributions to Horace's Mayoral bid. Perfectly timed - now Bob Butterworth will really have to earn his pay in trying to mend FP&L's image.
Pants on fire: The testimony we gave at the hearing was under oath.
Things didn't change in S. Miami...you just didn't know what was going on when he made his jaunt to the meeting to represent you in January 2008.
A suggestion for South Miami citizens who are sending the nicely wrapped package exposing Mayor Feliu's perjury to FPSC Commissioner's Skopp and Argenziano: why don't you also send an identical package to the Florida Attorney General's Office? If I'm not mistaken, I think the AG is running for some elected office in November 2010. FPL is a hot-button issue right now - a perfect time to capitalize on the situation. Horace has been in County jail before - another trip shouldn't be a burden to him.
In January of 08 South Miami Valerie Newman ran unsuccessfully for Mayor against Horace Feliu. Shortly after the election and Feliu's appearance before the PSC, Newman tried to question Mayor Feliu about why he had spoken on behalf of the residents of South Miami favoring the nuclear expansion.At a commission meeting during public remarks Valerie Newman even read from this very transcript. Unfortunately Feliu cut her short as he does whenever anyone speaks about a subject not to his liking. Baby Batista as he is he now referred to,cut her short and called her a sore looser "and a big one at that". Perhaps someone should file a complaint against Mayor Feliu.
South Miami Code of Ethics Chapter 8A-2.1 (1)
If a Public Official appears before another government agency to give a statement on an issue the public official must clearly state 1) If his statement reflects personal opinion or is the official stance of the City; 2)whether this is the majority or minority opinion of the body he represents. He must advocate the official city position, not a personal viewpoint.
Recall!
Batista? More like Castro with red hair. Interesting that Comm. Palmer reamed out Comm Newman early on stating "we must act as a body." Hey Comm. Palmer, does that pertain to your new phone buddy Horace Feliu. Although I don't go to meetings I watch them on television. you both are a disgrace to our city and don't belong behind the dais, more like downtown and in jail.
I think it would be a terrific ideal to load ALL of Miami with nuclear power plants. At least that would be SOMETHING constructive coming out of Miami. I've never seen such a crime-ridden excuse for a city since the old days of NYC when the entire city belonged to the criminals. What the citizens of Miami-Dade accept as a way of life no one else in America would, except in towns on the Mexican border. Do the rest of the state and the nation a favor and make something POSITIVE out of Miami... a nuclear wasteland!
The election in South Miami is heating up. Horace Feliu is calling his opponent's campaign negative. All Dr.Stoddard is doing is telling the people the truth (go online and do a search). On the other hand Mr. Feliu is telling people that his oponent is telling lies and that he is a racist. I hope there is a god and Mr. Stoddard wins this election. That would mean one less 'dirty politician'.
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