Juno Beach is 77 miles North of Miami. That is a an hour and a half commute by car. Big deal. Many people do it or they move. They don't keep a helicopter and pilot for a 77 mile journey.Our money, held hostage by this utility/monopoly, is being used to buy FP&L a new Corporate jet at $31 Million at the same time they want a rate hike. Armando Olivera, CEO who is out of touch with the common folks, said he uses the Jet for Tallahassee trips "generally" using the additional Corporate helicopter get to work in Juno, but not always. Generally is a lot of the time in my book. So the helicopter has to be kept available for these trips to Juno Beach from Olivera's home in Miami...a helicopter and a pilot to go 77 miles. The pilot has to be a full-time employee ($90,000 a year?). And the jet also has to have a pilot (another $90,000?)!
A year 2,000 estimate on operating cost for helicopters per hour ranges from $143 to $320, hence, these daily commuting trips to Juno Beach are costing a lot of money ($500 at least with pilot costs -- more than most Miami rate-payers make in a week). I say: Ditch the copter and get this CEO to move. But definitely, get rid of the copter, jet and the 2 pilots! Charter a plane if you have to FP&L. Maybe Rodney Barreto can fly you around, Armando, to save some bucks.
12 comments:
Charter a plane? Whatttttttttt are you thinking?
With the level of corruption in both the private and public sectors these days, giving them carte blanche to charter would encourage that pilot to form his own company, roll his overhead and the salaries of a few buddies into the cost and then be "chartered" by FPL to fly for 70 million. By the way, you think this guy is their only pilot on the pay roll? I doubt it.
The CEO needs to be gone from his job. He is misusing taxpayers dollars. Or he can move up to Juno Beach and let FPL fund him a 5 million dollar water front property. The taxpayers save big time on that move. Which by the way they should not be collecting money to do that from us anyway. It is robbery when we have to deal with a monopoly and we are forced to give money to them that is wasted. I would not care what FPL did corporately with their income, IF we had a choice about who provided my power service.
Agree on the monopoly comments. Probably you are right about the charter stuff...I guess we should just fire him and get someone willing to move to Juno -- ALASKA.
Please send this info to the govt dept that decides on how much fpl charges me.
The helicopter undoubtably is a high end model, and probably has ground charges for storage in Miami and perhaps Juno. It has to fly from its base to the CEO's home to pick him up and then fly to Juno, wait, and make the return. A helicopter requires expensive fuel and servicing, as well as storage and pilot expenses. These substantial costs are charged by a monopoly to the FPL ratepayers. The proposed $31 million jet replacement is another expensive cost paid by rate payers. FPL will try to wiggle out of charging the costs to rate payers by saying the non public utility funds pay for these excesses.
I am guessing that the pilot is like a limo service... they go and sit stand-by until the boss decides to leave. Sitting stand-by is an issue as pilots can only be in service a certain number of hours, so that is why a back-up pilot would be necessary.
Speaking of limos, how does this guy get around town when he is flying without his Mercedes? Somehow, I don't envision him on a bus or in a hot smelly taxi.
I guess we also bought the helicopter for a couple of million dollars.
You are way low on your estimate of the helicopter hourly expense. Depending on the model and turbines, you're off by a factor of 10. These helicopters run by corporations generally have to have two pilots, not one. The maintenance schedule is nearly an hour of service for an hour of operation. FPL may have two, for all I know. Anyhow, you are not a business person so how would you know.
They fly Italian Agustas and only one pilot is required. http://www.agustawestland.com/product/aw109-power
Taken the trip many times. when I did, it was a full chopper, 4 or 5 people with at least 1 an exec. A lot better than driving, land on the roof in Juno.
FPL has more than one aircraft, both fixed wing and helicopters, and has an aviation department based in West Palm (used to in Miami pre Andrew at tamiami, post Andrew opalocka ). Helicopters are used all the time to transport personnel throughout the service area. They don’t just sit, they are used most of the time, not just for VP’s but other folk also. They are used for transmission line inspections and other functions. Want to see them in use, park by the GO building at 92 Ave and Flagler, they land on the roof. If you were to check you would find that they have had aircraft for at least the last 30 years. BTW youbetcha' FPL, the utility, is funded with ratepayer money not taxpayer money although ratepayers probably pay taxes also. The aircraft are used by both FPL group, other sub’s and the utility. Only the utility comes under PSC rulings. As I said in the above post I have flown on the helicopter and also fixed wing aircraft and I was not a VP at the time.
We pay taxes on our bills do we not? Do we have a choice? For all the control we have in our relationship with FPL, the taxes and the bills for FPL may as well appear on our county tax bill.
I think that our utility bill is more of a tax than not. Rates are approved through the state, when FPL is not controlling the state (and local) political entities.
The only justified use of our money as ratepayers or taxpayers (since we are dealing with a monopoly) is for the servicing and dealing with the lines, and if the lines were buried, they would not need as much air support.
Glad we have so many aviation experts reading this blog...and FP&Lers
Post a Comment