“A night of resolutions”: GRU Authority passes five resolutions unanimously while countering statements made by the public

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the September 4 GRU Authority meeting, the board passed five resolutions, including two that asked the Gainesville City Commission to repeal ordinances they’ve recently passed. Many people spoke during public comment, and the CEO and Directors responded to their arguments throughout the meeting.

New Director Jack Jacobs takes oath of office

At the beginning of the meeting, City Clerk Kristen Bryant administered the oath of office to new Director Jack Jacobs, which brought the board back to five members.

Biomass fuel suppliers ask for increased usage of the biomass plant

During general public comment, two biomass fuel suppliers said GRU has cut the supply by about half, which changes their “whole business dynamic.” Richard Schwab from Perry said the suppliers are “using your market to sustainably manage forests for habitat restoration, site prep, and other things that would normally either be left there to mess up the environment or possibly even go up into the atmosphere through carbon by just burning it by site prep. So what you’re doing is a service to the environment, not just making green electricity, but you’re also providing fuel reduction services to the woods in the environment and how we manage it.”

Eddie Hodge from Williston Timber Company said each of the suppliers has purchased expensive equipment to process wood for the biomass plant, and they can’t make a profit when GRU buys roughly half what they previously purchased. He asked GRU to “reconsider taking this much downtime. We cannot do again this year what we did last year.”

During CEO Comments, CEO Ed Bielarski said the biomass plant has an upcoming five-week turbine outage that occurs every 10 years. The plant also had a maintenance outage earlier this year. Bielarski also said that gas prices have been low, leading to a cost of about $20/MW at the Kelly plant and about $35/MW at the biomass plant: “By running the biomass plant down to 50 megawatts, we’re saving $5 million a year for our customers.” He said he would be happy to ask GRU’s management company to talk to the suppliers “and see what situation you’re in so that you can better understand ours.”

“A night of resolutions”

Bielarski said the meeting would be “a night of resolutions” to improve the management, operations, and control of the utility.

Authorization for Authority attorney to file lawsuits against the City of Gainesville

GRU Authority (GRUA) Attorney Scott Walker asked for a motion from the board to authorize his office to work with Bielarski to file suit against the City of Gainesville, if necessary, to seek declaratory relief against the City’s ability to call for a ballot referendum to eliminate the Authority.

Director Craig Carter made a motion to authorize Walker’s firm to work with Bielarski to draft language to prepare for and file a lawsuit to defend their position on the ballot referendum.

In response to members of the public who opposed the motion, Vice Chair David Haslam said, “[GRU] was taken away from the City because the City did a bad job over a lot of time. That’s not deniable. You can do the math, and that’s pretty obvious. So that’s number one. Number two, this is a power company. It’s not like we’re doing weird stuff with it… If we were to say, you know what, we’re all going to resign to go back to the City, what do you hope the City does? They did a poor job the first time… What do you hope the City’s gonna do better than us? We live here. We want GRU to be better. We can’t work on the problems with GRU right now because we’re constantly doing the same thing. It’s constantly the same conversations that’s brought up by the public… Well, you know what I want? I want customer service better. I want lower rates. I want some accountability.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Fixing a typographical error

The first resolution amended a definition in a resolution previously adopted on August 7 to negotiate and execute several financial transactions.

Carter made a motion to adopt the resolution, and it passed unanimously.

Eliminating a 25% surcharge on water/wastewater connections outside the city limits

The second resolution would eliminate the 25% surcharge imposed on GRU water and wastewater connection charges for entities located outside the city limits of Gainesville, effective September 30. 

Carter made a motion to adopt the resolution. 

During public comment on the motion, Alachua County Labor Coalition Coordinator Bobby Mermer said those fees have traditionally gone to the ConnectFree program, and “we want ConnectFree because we want affordable housing.” He said the group that favors returning control of the utility to the City has “a vision for the future, and it includes keeping important programs like ConnectFree.”

Bielarski responded that ConnectFree had been intended to assist homeowners in the city limits who wanted to switch from a septic system to the City’s wastewater system, but “they couldn’t find the people that were willing to do it, so they diverted funds from the City for other purposes.”

Debbie Martinez said, “If the City Commission really cared about affordable housing, they would cut their bloated budget and their massive staff… I support this motion.”

Director Jack Jacobs said, “This board has been in existence for just a short period of time. The City Commission had decades to get us to where we are today, and it’s going to take a little time for us to work this out, but I can assure you, just even the little time that I’ve been here talking with Mr. Bielarski, we’re always working on ways to improve, bit by bit, and different things we can do to improve the customers’ bills… That’s our main job here, is to make things better, and let me say that we’re working to that end, but it’s going to take some time.”

Carter said he was on the City Commission when they were working on ConnectFree, and “we had virtually zero people take advantage of the connection.” He said that they changed it to help nonprofits connect to water/wastewater and added, “The problem here is… we’re collecting something that we’re handing over to the City. If they want to collect it, they can go collect it… I can’t stop looking up there. It says, ‘John R. Kelly Generating Station, owned by the people it serves.’ Doesn’t say ‘Owned by the City of Gainesville,’ it says, ‘Owned by the people it serves.’ So we are penalizing people, okay? The City made a decision to go outside their city limits. It was a business decision, and I’m ready to stop that practice.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Hiring a Utility Attorney who works directly for GRU

The third resolution authorized GRU to hire a Utility Attorney who is “free from the direction and control of another legal entity, such as the City Commission.”  

Carter made a motion to approve the resolution.

During public comment, Jim Konish referred to the absence of the Utility Attorney and speculated about the reason; Bielarski responded that she was not there because she “is no longer with the City.” He said representatives from the City Attorney’s Office were present.

Carter said the ballot referendum “puts [City Attorney Daniel Nee] in an awkward position, and I think it doesn’t put the board in a good position, and so I’m definitely in favor [of the motion].”

The motion passed unanimously.

Asking the City Commission to repeal recent ordinance requiring GRU to pay permit fees

The fourth resolution asked the City Commission to reinstate their previous policy of exempting GRU from right-of-way regulations and permit fees; the City Commission made the change on March 21, 2024.

Carter made a motion to approve the resolution.

In response to a comment made by Mermer during public comment about the resolution prompting a “charter crisis,” Bielarski said he would “abide by the resolution that the board approved, and if that was in conflict with the City – I work for the Authority.”

In response to a question from Skinner, a GRU employee said the utility does 2,000 to 3,000 permits or notifications a year, just for water/wastewater; she said there are more for gas and power delivery, “so it’s a lot of communication back and forth on a more-than-daily basis.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Asking the City Commission to take GRU control off the November ballot

The fifth resolution asked the City Commission to repeal their ordinance that placed a referendum on the November ballot to return control of GRU to the City “and tak[e] all necessary actions to ensure the ballot measure shall not appear therewith.”

Carter made a motion to approve the resolution.

In response to a suggestion made by Jim Konish during public comment on the motion, Skinner asked Walker whether they should be looking into filing a Writ of Prohibition. Walker said, “We certainly will look at that and any and all causes of action and take what we think is the appropriate action.”

Skinner agreed with Jeffrey Shapiro’s public comment regarding “convoluted” language in the bill that created the Authority and said, “We are not afraid of a vote. We just do not feel that the actions taken were appropriate. Do we necessarily agree that the way that the Authority was put into place was 100% appropriate? I don’t think any of us would say 100% with anything in this day and age… [but] we have to work within the framework that we are given… But we do the best job that we possibly can to keep the rates low, keep the utility in good financial standing, while also taking into account those residents outside the city.”

Skinner continued, “Some of you come in here and you claim that you are the residents’ representatives. I say that’s false, because people are scared to come to this meeting, be in the center, and get beat up by both extremes. And that’s where the people are. So you get your little conclave, they get their little conclave, but there’s a lot more of us sitting here in the middle, and that is an issue. And it’s not just here in Gainesville, it’s country-wide.”

Carter said, “If this referendum goes through, this utility would go under the City Manager.” He said people keep asking him why the board didn’t do a national search for a CEO and whether Bielarski is vetted and added, “I’m sure the City Manager hasn’t been vetted to run a utility… The City is deliberately not bringing it back under a Charter [Officer], not restoring it the way it was; they’re eliminating that whole position… What would stop them from commingling all assets at that point – you know, just say it’s one checkbook? So that’s where I’m really concerned.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Director Comments

During Director Comments, Skinner praised Bielarski for “personally taking on Customer Service and the inadequacies there,” including inaccuracies on bills and inappropriate shut-offs. He promised Bielarski “whatever we need to do to help restore the faith in the customer service at GRU.”

Carter said his goal for the utility was that employees would be proud to wear the uniform everywhere they go and that it would be so good to work there that it would be hard to get a job at GRU.

Jacobs said he’s been taking tours of various utility facilities, “and we’ve got some of the finest workers in the utility, and they support what Mr. Bielarski is doing. So I want everybody to know out there that you’ve got a good utility here in the making, and we’re going to do our doggone best to make sure that happens… I would love not to have to fight with the City Commission back and forth, but you know, it is what it is. They’re putting roadblocks in our way at every turn, so just give us a chance.”