2012-0119 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting January 19,2012 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida 5E. Presentation by Aletha Player of Florida Power and Light External Affairs regarding Community Outreach Efforts. Action: Aletha Player of FPL reported noting the items that Mayor Edelcup mentioned to her yesterday will be working by next week including the SIB Sign on the FPL Building. Everyone should have received a letter from FPL regarding a rate increase. Back in 2010 when they filed for a rate increase, there was a settlement and as part of that settlement they agreed to freeze their rates to the end of 2012. In a regulatory environment, they are obligated to send a letter asking for a test year which is to be in March. She pointed out that today there are 55 electric utilities in the State of Florida, and their electric bill is the lowest, they are number one in clean energy, and they have the cleanest footprint in terms of C02. Commissioner Scholl asked how many of those 55 utilities does FPL have, and she said 75%. Commissioner Aelion said Sunny Isles Beach is mostly condominiums, and on the issue of hallway lighting, the Code calls for constant 24-hour lighting. To go from a shut-off switch to a sensor base is not easy to obtain, and he asked ifFPL can make an effort to achieve this and show its support. Ms. Player said FPL only brings power to the meter, what goes on internally is up to the owner ofthat building. Commissioner Aelion said there is a collective effort in neighboring cities as well, and the more vocal the better. Vice Mayor Thaler said one ofthe greatest frustrations that we have are in communications with FPL. The call backs and the amount of time it takes to get answers, that is one area that we need to correct, we need better communication with FPL. Ms. Player said that they met with the City Manager a couple of days ago and he had expressed those concerns, and they are committed to do better. The lighting involves Miami-Dade County which makes it a little more complex. They will send a survey of all lights in the City and they will work in conjunction with Miami-Dade County to correct some of these. City Manager Cohen said that they did meet which involved FPL and Miami-Dade County Public Works. As they read in a recent edition of our local newspaper, there are times when there is a question as to whose equipment is involved in an outage, and what they have started discussing is a better process for us to identify who we should call, when we should call, and also giving higher priority to situations when a circuit is out as opposed to one light being out. Where a whole bank of lights is out, FPL and the County both agreed that they would give that a much higher priority and respond to that in a much shorter period of time. Mayor Edelcup asked about the undergrounding of the City. When we first became a City some 15 years ago, we were told by the first City Commission and FPL representatives that within 10 years we would be totally undergrounded and of course we are not. He requested on a periodic basis, and he doesn't care if it is three or four times a year, that FPL and our City Manager update this Commission and the City as to the current status and timelines to complete the total undergrounding of the City so that we all have a better understanding and perspective of when it will be done. The Commission keeps getting asked that question particularly during the storm season when everybody is worried about their lights going off because of hurricanes or strong wind. He thinks it would be very good to institute a policy and maybe Ms. Player and the City Manager can work together on how to best communicate to the Commission that schedule. Ms. Player said that they have a meeting here Monday morning with the City Manager and the objective of that meeting is to brief the Manager on the status of where we are with that project, and also to review with him other projects. 3