ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County wants the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) to pay more than one million dollars. The county gets a cut of OUC revenue for customers in unincorporated Orange County, but OUC doesn't want to pay.
The utility is arguing with the county about certain customers. An OUC spokesperson would only say it plans to work closely with Orange County throughout the process.
Orange County says, for the past five years, OUC has not been living up to its end of the bargain. An audit was performed after a retired engineer wrote to the county and said OUC was not giving the money it was owed. According to the report, OUC doesn't want to pay up.
"It appears to me they are going to stonewall us," county comptroller Martha Haynie told WFTV.
Haynie says the utility company owes the county $1.3 million. OUC is supposed to pay the county one-percent of the money generated by unincorporated Orange County customers who are serviced by OUC, but OUC disagrees.
"Is OUC going to step up and say, ‘Oh yea, we should improve the agreement and we should pay those fees that obviously belong to the county as part of the service fee?'" commissioner Fred Brummer questioned.
Right now, the power company believes only half of that amount is due to the county. The company agreed some addresses were misclassified. But OUC says the county doesn't get a portion of Lockheed Martin's bill; the company is located on Sand Lake Road in Orange County and its power bill runs about half-a-million dollars a month.
Commissioner Brummer says these issues need to be resolved. The county had to struggle this year with a $77 million shortfall.
"Orange County needs every, every cent," Brummer said.
County leaders say they plan to meet with OUC on the matter. If an agreement is not reached then it's possible the county will explore legal options.
WFTV
