With Eric Silagy’s retirement as president and CEO of Florida Power & Light, his bosses at NextEra Energy, FPL’s parent company, seem to be all too eager to move on.
They’re asking the Federal Elections Commission to dismiss a complaint pertaining to the dark money scandal that Silagy set afoot. The FEC should pursue it aggressively.
The request takes a whole lot of chutzpah on NextEra’s part. Neither FPL nor NextEra are named respondents in the complaint filed by the public interest group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). However, NextEra is plainly concerned over where a diligent investigation would lead and what it might turn up. It was a tacit admission that $1.3 million from FPL went into the dark money pipeline.
CREW identified by name 17 other individuals and organizations, beginning with the now-notorious Grow United, Inc., which was one of the conduits of the money that financed spoiler candidates in three Florida legislative races in 2020.
The complaint also targets “unknown respondents” and discusses Silagy and FPL as sources of some of the money laundered by the respondents it does identify. NextEra is reasonably nervous about that.
But it is not reasonable to try to make it go away.
One of those false-front candidates who did no campaigning created the 32-vote margin of defeat for state Sen. José Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami. Angered by a solar energy bill that Rodriguez filed, Silagy had written to political consultants paid by FPL, “I want you to make his life a living hell … seriously.”
The complaint to the FEC is the only hope the people of Florida have at the moment for holding FPL to any account for financing “ghost” candidates, among other underhanded tactics.
The extent of Silagy’s involvement would reflect on his fitness to continue as vice chair of the university system’s Board of Governors. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him. Under former Gov. Rick Scott, Silagy also had direct access to the highest levels of power and was a welcome guest at the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.
DeSantis’ indifference to the FPL scandal is deeply troubling. Florida’s governor is voluble about just about everything else that happens, but his silence about FPL’s unprincipled behavior speaks volumes about him. In contrast, he’s had his compliant Florida Supreme Court give him statewide grand juries to politically exploit illegal immigration and the COVID vaccines, neither of which is nearly as appropriate for an investigation as is the dark money pit of Florida politics.
The Florida Public Service Commission, a regulatory body, theoretically oversees FPL. It has been mum, too. It is well remembered what happens to commissioners who cross FPL. Four of them appointed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist paid with their jobs for turning down the utility’s largest-ever rate increase. Two were denied renomination, and the Senate rejected the others.
The Legislature is as deep in FPL’s pocket as the Public Service Commission. If it were otherwise, and there were still a functioning two-party system in Tallahassee, some part of it would be probing the company’s political machinations. Someone should want to know whether any of the customers’ money went into its politics. In a real Legislature, the utility executives would be forced to testify before legislative committees.
In better times, attorneys general like Robert Shevin, Bob Butterworth and Crist would not be looking away, like Ashley Moody is.
Florida might as well replace its state seal with the familiar symbol of the three monkeys who hear, see and say nothing.
Along with the announcement of Silagy’s retirement, NextEra’s CEO John Ketchum said the FEC should dismiss the CREW complaint because it is “based solely on media reports and allegations” and that the total FPL funds potentially involved “do not exceed $1.3 million.”
That may be small change compared to a utility executive’s compensation package, but it’s big money to most people. Moreover, Ketchum’s snide allusion to “media reports” deprecates how deeply the Orlando Sentinel and Miami Herald have dug into Silagy’s mess. And it points up the dereliction of public officialdom in leaving it all to the media.
The eyes of all who care must turn to Washington and the FEC. It has a competent and active staff, but its recommendations often go nowhere because the six-member panel splits evenly along party lines.
The complaint should not be dismissed. It should be followed from wherever the dark money trails begin to every place they lead.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
