Here is a story that I like to tell to help put things in a new perspective:
30 years ago, the pinnacle of computer technology was a company with three initials – let’s call them XYZ. With their computers that filled large rooms that required air conditioning along with dozens of fans to cool these giant pieces of equipment, everyone knew that XYZ was the company to work with when it came to the information highway. After all, XYZ had been around for decades with a proven track record. Companies from around the world referred to them as a model of the future.
So if XYZ came to you and asked for a 30 year agreement to stay with them, and only them – you would be hard pressed to say no. Especially if they gave you a few little extras in their contract and maybe even a signing bonus. Where could you go wrong? For the next 30 years, you could be rest assured that your company would be in good hands with XYZ.
Then one day you are sitting in your office and Mango Computers comes knocking on your door. They tell you about a new product that will help you gain the same information and reach the same amount of people as with XYZ, except that instead of having to warehouse these massive machines that required an incredible expense, you could have it all sitting right in front of you on your desk top…for less money, no overhead, no extra employees, and no large electric bills to gain the same access to the Internet. Wow! What a great deal. So you quickly grab your pen and say, “Sign me up!” However, you are quickly reminded that, although the smart thing to do is to go with Mango Computers, you have a 30 year deal with XYZ.
So for the next 30 years, your company has to sit by and watch the advent of the desk top computer, the laptop computer, the wireless computer, the Ipad computer, and many many other forms of technology that have occurred over the last 30 years.
Yes, it’s true…XYZ eventually started to catch up to Mango Computers, but you had to wait for them to get there while your competition rode that wave into the future.
Now think of it in these terms: The City of Sarasota is your company and FPL is XYZ Computers of the 1980’s. Would you sign that 30 year agreement?
Amen! I have attended both the town hall and the city commissioner meeting last night. I am there for my daughter who is 11 and will be living with the consequences of our decisions now for most of her life. When I talk with her about life when I was her age, she can't believe how much has changed. We had no VCRs, no cable television, no cordless phones – not even an answering machines! Cell phones that can do what hers does now would have been the stuff of sci-fi novels. If the City signs this agreement, she will be almost the age I am now when it expires – and just imagine how much different her future will be. Thirty years is simply too long. Period. I hope our commissioners have the courage to do what needs to be done here.