The knocks on the doors have echoed throughout St. Petersburg and Clearwater.<\/p>\n
Across those communities, a campaign is underway to sow doubts about dropping Duke Energy as a citywide electricity provider, efforts the cities have undertaken in the name of lower power bills.<\/p>\n
Paid canvassers have left a trail of glossy door hangers that warn of higher property taxes and billions in debt \u201cthat could take generations to pay off.\u201d Residents have seen more than $50,000 worth of ads on their Facebook and Instagram feeds.<\/p>\n
But no one seems to want to take credit for funding it.<\/p>\n
The campaigns are run by recently formed groups called the St. Pete Energy Alliance and the Clearwater Energy Alliance, both under a Pinellas umbrella organization classified as a business trade group. Unlike charities or political committees, these types of nonprofits don\u2019t have to disclose the identities of their donors in public records, causing them to sometimes be called \u201cdark money\u201d groups.<\/p>\n
Locals, including Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector and St. Petersburg City Council member Richie Floyd, suspect Duke Energy is funding the effort. But the company has declined to answer specific questions about any financial involvement. So has an industry lobbying group.<\/p>\n
Who is behind the push remains a mystery \u2014 even to the door-to-door canvassers spreading the message. Some of those workers were recruited in the parking lot of a plasma donation center in St. Petersburg, where people give vials of blood for quick cash.<\/p>\n
One former canvasser, St. Petersburg resident David Kovalak, told the Tampa Bay Times the groups are employing people desperate for money. They were paid hourly but also entered into raffles for collecting a high number of signatures showing support, he said, prompting canvassers to say whatever it took to get homeowners signed up \u2014 even if it meant distorting already vague talking points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 100% misleading people to just sign this thing that they have no clue what they\u2019re doing, just so that I can pay my rent,\u201d Kovalak said in an interview. He was recruited by the St. Pete Energy Alliance after donating plasma, the medical wrap still on his forearm while he rang doorbells.<\/p>\n
While speaking with the petitioners on his doorstep, Andy Oliver said he pulled up state business filings on his phone for the Pinellas Energy Alliance, the parent group of the St. Pete and Clearwater branches. October records listed a woman named Lisa Lohss as the \u201cincorporator.\u201d Lohss has a public LinkedIn profile that displays Duke Energy as her former employer.<\/p>\n
The pitch \u201cfelt really deceptive and dishonest,\u201d said Oliver, pastor of Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg. Since the interaction, he said he plans to get more involved to support the efforts to leave Duke Energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they came to my door and showed that they were willing to go to these types of lengths to deceive the public, it\u2019s not fighting fair,\u201d Oliver said.<\/p>\n
Rector, the Clearwater mayor, said he\u2019s heard from constituents about the canvassers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had citizens complain to me about how they were presenting themselves,\u201d Rector said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of confusion in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about Duke Energy\u2019s relationship to the energy alliances, the utility distanced itself from the effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe alliances you asked about are not controlled by Duke Energy,\u201d said company spokesperson Ana Gibbs in an email. \u201cLisa Lohss is not a Duke Energy employee and has not been for years. Duke Energy Florida only uses rate payer funds for providing reliable and safe electric services, in full accordance with applicable law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibbs twice declined to answer follow-up questions about whether Duke was contributing to the campaign without fully controlling the groups, saying reporters should contact the energy alliances.<\/p>\n
After a Times reporter tried to reach Lohss by phone and through her Facebook account, the Clearwater Energy Alliance sent an email saying she would not speak to a reporter.<\/p>\n
The Times emailed questions to the energy alliance groups, asking multiple times about the groups\u2019 funding. In response, the groups sent a statement that did not discuss financial information but said the alliances \u201cinclude more than 1,500 residents, along with local businesses and organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese alliances exist for one reason: residents are concerned about proposals for city takeovers of the electric grid,\u201d said Sean Schrader, a spokesperson for the groups and a Clearwater resident. \u201cA takeover would cost billions of dollars, and one way or another, local residents would pay \u2014 through rates, taxes or long-term city debt. That\u2019s not abstract. It\u2019s permanent.”<\/p>\n
Schrader also sent the Times a polling report the St. Pete Energy Alliance commissioned from Morning Consult, an opinion research firm in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
The polling found that \u201cemphasizing the financial risks of the proposal\u201d prompted residents to express more opposition to the cities taking over local grids. The report also suggested this process could put St. Petersburg more than $2 billion in debt. But St. Petersburg officials have not yet commissioned a study to estimate costs, and Schrader said that figure was an approximation based on a separate report paid for by Duke in Clearwater.<\/p>\n
The Times visited a canvassing office for the energy alliances in the garage of a northern St. Petersburg triplex. The walls were plastered with motivational posters \u2014 \u201cStart every conversation with a smile,\u201d one said. Canvassers in matching T-shirts sat in metal chairs, listening to a briefing. But after the journalists requested entry, workers asked the Times to leave and promptly closed the garage door.<\/p>\n
Last week, Floyd stood with protesters across the street from Duke Energy\u2019s St. Petersburg office, telling local TV cameras that the canvassing efforts were spreading unacceptable disinformation, such as the notion that leaving Duke would increase property taxes. Floyd has said that the idea the city would hike taxes for this purpose is \u201csilly,\u201d adding that a city-run utility would be funded by residents\u2019 utility bills.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the flyers people are taking door-to-door to my constituents\u2019 homes \u2014 and telling them lies,\u201c he said during the news conference. \u201cI\u2019m asking for Duke\u2019s front groups and Duke Energy to not fund these lies and to not participate in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A reporter then asked if he believed Duke was directly responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t tell you for sure that\u2019s who it is,\u201d Floyd replied. \u201cBut every arrow points in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
A mysterious campaign<\/p>\n
Several homeowners told the Times that canvassers were unable to answer basic questions about the background of the energy alliances.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you happen to know who is behind this?\u201d St. Petersburg resident Scott Barancik asked the woman who knocked at his door, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really know,\u201d she\u2019d replied, according to Barancik. When he noticed a small-print disclaimer on the door hanger that the Pinellas Energy Alliance was \u201ca 501c6 organization,\u201d he offered to look up that term so they could learn together what it meant.<\/p>\n
According to the Internal Revenue Service, it\u2019s a type of nonprofit for business leagues and chambers of commerce. That\u2019s the same classification as the Edison Electric Institute, a national utility industry lobbying group that counts Duke Energy as a member.<\/p>\n
The institute began running social media ads in September, the same month that Clearwater officials received a report from consultants that found forming a municipal-run utility could save residents millions on their electric bills.<\/p>\n
Those ads have since fallen off. But they were replaced with ones paid for by the Clearwater Energy Alliance, with similar wording:<\/p>\n
\u201cA government takeover of Clearwater\u2019s energy grid could cost more than $1 billion, leaving families and businesses to pay through higher taxes and energy costs,\u201d read an ad paid for by the utility institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cA government takeover of Clearwater\u2019s power grid could cost $1.1 billion, leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill,\u201d one from the Clearwater Energy Alliance reads.<\/p>\n
The Edison Electric Institute declined to answer emailed questions asking if it was involved with the energy alliances.<\/p>\n
Elected officials cry foul<\/p>\n
Regardless of who\u2019s behind the groups, local officials said they were concerned with their messaging and recruitment tactics.<\/p>\n
Door hangers distributed in Clearwater warn residents that dropping Duke would put Clearwater in $1.1 billion worth of debt, equivalent to about $10,000 per resident. The billion-dollar price tag comes from a study Duke commissioned from a consulting firm that has done similar work for utility companies across the country.<\/p>\n
Its findings contradict the study commissioned by the city.<\/p>\n
Mayor Rector said Clearwater would not incur debt in the process of creating its own utility and that there wouldn\u2019t be a cost to taxpayers. The utility would recoup the costs of acquiring the grid by issuing bonds, and residents would contribute solely through their electric bills.<\/p>\n
The Clearwater City Council voted last fall to get an appraisal of Duke\u2019s assets and create a potential timeline for a purchase offer. The appraisal is scheduled to be completed by the end of February, according to a city webpage.<\/p>\n
Rector, who has said he believes Duke is behind the canvassers, said the increasing cost of energy remains a primary concern for residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t appear to be answering or addressing that question,\u201d Rector, a Republican, said. \u201cIt\u2019s just about trying to campaign against us providing (electricity).\u201d<\/p>\n
Kovalak, the former canvasser, said he initially signed up with the group because he needed cash. But his suspicions grew that the message he was spreading was inaccurate, and a dispute over his hours was the last straw.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel bad now,\u201d he said, adding that he\u2019s considering going back to some of the homeowners he canvassed to try to correct the record.<\/p>\n
The pledges and letters of support from residents will be submitted to St. Petersburg and Clearwater city halls, Kovalak said, to bolster the alliances\u2019 claims that scores of locals are on their side. But he alleged that because canvassers were rewarded with more work if they collected more letters, sometimes they\u2019d sign for people they\u2019d never really canvassed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI forged a letter,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen other people forge a letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The St. Pete Energy Alliance pushed back against Kovalak\u2019s allegations, saying in an email that he had been let go and his statements about fabricated letters \u201care completely false.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen canvassers return from a shift with letters written by the people they talked to, the supervisors on the program place calls to every single person who wrote a letter to confirm its authenticity,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIn addition, the devices our canvassers use while knocking on doors have built in GPS, so the supervisors on the team can confirm that canvassers are visiting the homes they were assigned to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Floyd, the St. Petersburg City Council member, took offense to the groups\u2019 recruiting canvassers from a plasma donation center, calling it \u201cpredatory\u201d and \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two people outside Octapharma Plasma at Central Avenue and 34th Street N. in St. Petersburg confirmed to the Times that they had been approached in the parking lot by representatives from the St. Pete Energy Alliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the lowest of the low,\u201d said Floyd, a Democrat. \u201cPreying on people who are in times of need … to try to get them to work for a corporation that is raising our rates and screwing our residents and making them poorer \u2014 it\u2019s the worst form of capitalism I could possibly imagine.”<\/p>\n
When asked about Floyd\u2019s comments, the St. Pete alliance disputed that it was targeting the plasma center, saying that Octapharma is part of a bigger plaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a shopping center with a Verizon store, a Family Dollar, and a Chinese restaurant. They recruited workers at that shopping center and at the Walmart across the street,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIt is disrespectful to the people we have hired to suggest or report that they have somehow been exploited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several storefronts in that plaza are vacant, including the two closest to Octapharma. Both the Chinese restaurant and the Family Dollar are permanently closed.<\/p>\n
Times staff photojournalist Dirk Shadd contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Emily L. Mahoney is the energy reporter. Reach her at emahoney@tampabay.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n