City Commission votes for the fourth time to put GRU referendum on November ballot

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At a special meeting today, the Gainesville City Commission approved the “redo” of the second reading of an ordinance that will put a referendum on the November ballot to transfer control of Gainesville Regional Utilities back to the City Commission; the utility has been governed by the GRU Authority since October 1, 2023, following the passage of HB 1645.

City Attorney Daniel Nee explained that the Commission had already passed the ordinance, but he had recommended “[bringing] you back to redo it again” because a business impact estimate was not included the first time.

City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “The basis of this is what’s happening with the GRU transfer [of funds from the utility to General Government, which was recently cut by the Authority].” She asked the City Manager to write another press release “to explain to the public how we got to the point… of this 10-year plan that you and the former General Manager, Tony Cunningham, worked on. But I think that plan laid out, for 10 years, how we reduce the transfer and really make up… part of what happened with the biomass.”

Public comment

During public comment, nine people spoke in favor of putting the referendum on the ballot, and two people spoke against it.

Former County Commissioner Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson said there is a group of citizens who will run the campaign to influence voters to vote “yes” on the referendum, and he said he knew that the City Commission could not be directly involved, but he hoped they would “continue your discussions about what happens to the utility, particularly on November 6, when you will likely take over.” He said they needed to be “ready to go” as the new governing board of the utility, “unlike the previous board, or the current board, that really doesn’t know what’s going on.” He said they should have “some adult conversations that aren’t happening [at the Authority].”

Former City Commissioner Susan Bottcher said she agreed with Hutchinson: “What you can do is, you can demonstrate, starting immediately, that you do have control. You do offer stability. Just like for the last hundred years, there was stability with the City Commission being the governing body for our utility, because, as we’ve seen ever since October, when the first Authority Board was seated, and now with the current Authority Board, it has been nothing but disruption and chaos… The City Commission really is the appropriate body to be the governing structure for our utility company.” She added, “We will take care of making sure that the public is educated on what this referendum is, what it means, and why it’s a good idea to return to the stability of the City Commission.”

Motion

Following public comment, Commissioner Reina Saco said she would be “more than happy to do this again” and made the motion to approve the ordinance on second reading. Chestnut seconded the motion.

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said, “We really need to get this utility that’s been owned by the people it serves for over a hundred years into a place where it isn’t constantly being this politicized organization, as something that is just working, that is going forward, and so if there’s any employees, particularly at GRU, that are watching, I know that it will be a priority for me, and I hope the rest of this Commission, that there will be stability and [you can] get back to doing your jobs, which is incredibly important work of making sure we have clean water for our families, making sure that our electricity turns on, making sure that our gas is going, that we can communicate with one another.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said he was particularly disappointed that the Commission no longer gets updates on the Integrated Resource Plan to “tell us where we’re headed with our electrical power… Whether the [IRP] is followed or not – that is what this ballot measure is about. This ballot measure is about net-metering,… how that needs to be done in a way that both encourages lots of distributed solar, but also to make sure the system is whole and functioning and properly valued… I want to have those conversations.” 

Willits said he wanted to “have those conversations with a Utility Advisory Board who – you know, this extra layer of people who have experience in our utility, in other utilities, with customers, with community members.” He said that if the City Commission regains control of the utility, “I’ll be the first to suggest [reinstating] the Utility Advisory Board,” possibly with changes. 

Willits said he looked forward to a “robust community discussion” about net metering, which he said “was not had recently,” but 29 members of the public spoke when the GRU Authority decided to reduce compensation rates for new solar customers (but preserved the rates of current solar customers).

Chestnut said the debt reduction plan “is number one for me.”

Mayor Harvey Ward thanked the people who had come to speak about the ordinance “all four times” and the people who went to Tallahassee last March, “asking that we take these steps, way back then. I am ready to respond with finality to the request of the community, and then we will put it in the hands of the community. That’s what this is. This is not about managing the utility. This is about asking you who you want to manage the utility. This is, as Commissioner Chestnut noted a few weeks ago, this is about basic democracy.”

The Commission voted unanimously to approve the ordinance on second reading.