Florida Senate - 2016                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 840
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Ì325140jÎ325140                         
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  02/23/2016           .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
                                       .                                
       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————




       —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
       The Committee on Communications, Energy, and Public Utilities
       (Garcia) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Subsection (19) is added to section 163.01,
    6  Florida Statutes, to read:
    7         163.01 Florida Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969.—
    8         (19)(a)Any entity created pursuant to this section that
    9  supplies electricity through an interlocal agreement to its
   10  member municipalities shall annually submit to the Public
   11  Service Commission and each member municipality that
   12  participates in the electric power project an independently
   13  prepared financial statement for each individual generation
   14  asset. The financial statement must include:
   15         1.A balance sheet that reflects assets and liabilities
   16  associated with each generation asset, including the plant in
   17  service, accumulated additions and removals, net plant,
   18  depreciation, operations and maintenance expenses, allocations,
   19  and any other material asset and liability categories.
   20         2.An income statement that reflects each generation
   21  asset’s operational and financial activities for the reporting
   22  period, including revenues, expenses, gains, and losses. Any
   23  gains or losses from hedging activities associated with the
   24  generation asset shall be separately itemized.
   25         3.A statement of cash flows that identifies changes in the
   26  generation asset’s cash flows during the reporting period.
   27         4.The current fair market value for each generation asset.
   28  The current fair market value shall be determined assuming the
   29  price that a willing buyer would pay a willing seller for the
   30  generation asset, with neither party being under any compulsion
   31  to buy or sell and both having reasonable knowledge of relevant
   32  facts, and assuming all risk of ownership, loss, and
   33  decommissioning, as applicable. The current fair market value
   34  statement shall include the overall fair market value of the
   35  generation asset as a whole and each member municipality’s
   36  equity position net of the entity’s debt, based on the current
   37  fair market generation asset value. The current fair market
   38  value statement shall include, after considering the market
   39  value of the generation assets, the net return of equity or the
   40  cost to exit the entity for each member municipality.
   41         (b)To serve as a member of the governing body of an entity
   42  created pursuant to this section for the purpose of supplying
   43  electricity to its member municipalities, each member of the
   44  governing body must be an elected official from one of the
   45  entity’s member municipalities. Current members of a governing
   46  body of such an entity who are not elected officials may
   47  continue to serve until expiration of their terms but no later
   48  than July 1, 2018.
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.
   50  
   51  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   52  And the title is amended as follows:
   53         Delete everything before the enacting clause
   54  and insert:
   55                        A bill to be entitled                      
   56         An act relating to municipal power regulation;
   57         amending s. 163.01, F.S.; requiring certain entities
   58         created under the Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969
   59         to submit independently prepared financial statements
   60         for certain electric power projects to specified
   61         public entities; providing statement requirements;
   62         providing eligibility requirements for membership on
   63         the governing body of certain entities created under
   64         the Interlocal Cooperation Act of 1969; providing an
   65         effective date.
   66  
   67         WHEREAS, The Florida Municipal Power Agency is a joint-use
   68  action agency created pursuant to a series of interlocal
   69  agreements with the state’s municipalities to finance, acquire,
   70  contract, manage, and operate its own electric power projects or
   71  jointly accomplish the same purposes with other public or
   72  private utilities, and
   73         WHEREAS, the Florida Municipal Power Agency is governed by
   74  a board of directors, consisting of one board member from each
   75  member municipality, which decides all issues concerning each
   76  project except for the “All-Requirements” power supply project,
   77  and
   78         WHEREAS, the All-Requirements power supply project is
   79  governed by an executive committee, with each All-Requirements
   80  project member municipality that purchases power from the
   81  project appointing one executive committee member, and
   82         WHEREAS, the Auditor General conducted an operational audit
   83  of the Florida Municipal Power Agency and released Report No.
   84  2015-165 to the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee on March
   85  30, 2015, which included findings and recommendations, and
   86         WHEREAS, the Auditor General found many of the Florida
   87  Municipal Power Agency’s hedging activities to be inconsistent
   88  with other joint-use action agencies, leading to net losses of
   89  $247.6 million over the past 12 fiscal years, and
   90         WHEREAS, the Auditor General concluded that several of the
   91  Florida Municipal Power Agency’s personnel and payroll
   92  administration activities may negatively affect future rates,
   93  including the Chief Executive Officer’s employment contract that
   94  provides severance pay and lifetime benefits even if employment
   95  is terminated for cause, and
   96         WHEREAS, the Florida Municipal Power Agency did not
   97  consistently follow its own procurement and competitive
   98  selection policies, one of which may increase the cost of future
   99  bond issues, and
  100         WHEREAS, the Florida Municipal Power Agency’s All
  101  Requirements project agreement to curtail peak-shaving
  102  activities is primarily voluntary, relies on self-reporting, and
  103  contains no penalties for noncompliance, and
  104         WHEREAS, certain All-Requirements project contract
  105  provisions relating to the withdrawal of members are ambiguous,
  106  use a fixed discount rate rather than one based on current
  107  capital costs, and do not provide for independent verification
  108  by a withdrawing member, and
  109         WHEREAS, even though the Florida Municipal Power Agency is
  110  a governmental entity, many of the laws that apply to local
  111  governments do not apply to the agency, and
  112         WHEREAS, the Florida Municipal Power Agency is not subject
  113  to any rate-setting authority, including by the Public Service
  114  Commission, and
  115         WHEREAS, there exists a need to promote transparency and
  116  consistency and to increase public understanding and confidence
  117  in the operation of the Florida Municipal Power Agency by the
  118  member municipalities and the public, including those electric
  119  ratepayers who are not residents of the municipality supplying
  120  electric power but who are subject to a municipality that is
  121  receiving power from the agency, NOW, THEREFORE,