Stand Your Ground
Access Rights and Local Tempers: Florida Power and Light in the Town of Melbourne Beach
In Florida, utility companies like Florida Power and Light (FPL) have established rights to access their equipment located within easements on private properties. These easements grant FPL workers LEGAL access to maintain, repair, or upgrade power lines and electrical equipment without requiring permissions from property owners. It is understandable why this is necessary for FPL to have access in order to serve the town residents. We all know that emergencies, whether storm-related or other power outages, often occur.
Understanding these easement rights is crucial for homeowners to understand the complex relationship between private property rights and public utility needs. In Florida, landowners often face limited recourse when utility companies need access to their equipment. FPL’s established policies aim to ensure reliable service and minimize outages, but the balance between utility management and homeowners’ rights can sometimes create tension.
In September of 2023, Al Dennington, put herself in yet another revealing spotlight. It was during her campaign for mayor when Al Dennington overreacted to the typical line of tension that some people feel when utility workers come on their property. She took the innocuous incident and blew it completely out of proportion as she conveyed her delusions in a letter to Florida’s Attorney General’s office with a warning to FPL workers stating, “if they come back, its a stand your ground state right?”
Dennington’s aggressive behavior towards these FPL workers is no surprise to some residents. Similar aggressive behavior is now being witnessed during Town Commission meetings, over which she presides. In the letter she penned to the Florida Attorney General, she firmly proclaimed her stance and wrongly asserted “her rights” under the Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law. This law allows property owners to DEFEND themselves with force if they perceive a threat. Dennington made it very clear in her letter that, “if the FPL workers thought they could come onto her property, they should think again!”
Our now Mayor, Alison Dennington, who claims to have practiced law in Arkansas, but has no law license in Florida, leads us to question her interpretation of the Florida Stand Your Ground Law. Utility easements take precedence in these situations.
The State Attorney General’s office forwarded Al Dennington’s letter to our Police Chief, at that time, Melanie Griswold. Chief Griswold weighed in with a much needed critical perspective. Griswold expressed her confusion regarding Dennington’s decision to purposely escalate the situation by sending her complaint to the Attorney General rather than reaching out to the local Melbourne Beach Police Department.
It is important to note that the town police department is only six blocks away from Al Dennington’s home. One has to wonder why Dennington would choose to intentionally bypass local law enforcement and contact the State Attorney General’s office in Tallahassee when our local police officers are trained and capable of handling such a minor situation.
In a state where power outages can significantly impact our daily lives, balancing the needs of citizens with the demands of public utilities, especially during the extreme heat in September, it is important to consider the needs of others. Rather than Al Dennington making a wise choice to deescalate a situation, she chose, once again, to create conflict and make absurd accusations and threats, all the while preventing utility workers to do their job.
Fast forward now to June of 2025. After a recent Regular Town Commission meeting in May 2025, it is has become apparent that Mayor Dennington’s paranoia and lack of control of her emotional outbursts are not good for too many of us here in our town. She falsely claimed that she was threatened by a resident during public comment, who merely spoke about his concerns with her behavior and the effects that it has on our town. Another resident was threatened with a criminal complaint for handing out information during her public comment. Information that is all public record and was presented in order to document the points she was making during her public comment.
It was later discovered through a Public Records Request (PRR) obtained from the Town of Mel Beach Police Department, that Mayor Dennington expressed the following, in writing, to our Police Chief, Tim Zander, “I don’t think I’m safe here, NOR do I have any confidence in whether YOU or YOUR officers will take anything seriously if it involves me. I think I’ll get a handgun and a concealed carry permit all the same.” (click here to read the email exchange with Chief Zander )
As a very significant side note... Mayor Dennington, even today, doesn’t know the laws well enough to understand that no one needs a “concealed carry” permit in Florida. Nor does she comprehend the Stand Your Ground Law in our state, as revealed by her questions to Chief Zander... “can you advise me on the ins and outs of self-defense protocol, stand your ground, all that?” Can you shoot them onmy (sic) 1 time, more than once just to be safe/SURE?” “Do you have let you know (sic) you have a weapon first?” “What as (sic) my rights?”
Those statements are what triggered (pun intended) the necessity for additional officers to be on duty at every public meeting in order to wand everyone in attendance as they enter the building.
These types of scary and disjointed comments to Chief Zander, along with Mayor Dennington’s appalling untruths and ridiculous claims about town residents that she has never met or spoken to personally should be concerning for all of us.
Most of us have read numerous stories across the country about emotionally unstable shooters who pretend they are the VICTIM when they truly are not. These phony victims take their made up threats into their communities and crazily kill innocent people. The unpredictability of emotionally volatile people should be something we are vigilant about.