“From Parker Road to Newnans Lake, from Deerhaven to [Paynes] Prairie, all ought to be Gainesville”: Mayor Ward says GRU customers outside the city limits can have a voice by annexing into the city
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the November 6 Gainesville City Commission meeting, Mayor Harvey Ward said that if GRU customers who live outside the city limits want a voice in GRU, they should annex into the city.
During a discussion of the 1st District Court of Appeal’s order that the City cannot take over the management of Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) from the governor-appointed GRU Authority, despite a 75% vote from city residents who supported the change, City Attorney Daniel Nee said the ruling means that “enforcement of the Charter Amendment passed by the electors will not take effect until such time as the appellate issues are resolved or the court lifts the writ.” He said it would likely take “a matter of months” to resolve the issue.
Ward: “A way to solve this is for someone to take up the effort to enlarge the city’s borders, to bring in, potentially, everyone who is a Gainesville Regional Utilities customer into being a resident of the city of Gainesville.”
Mayor Harvey Ward said, “I have heard all the community discussion, and I respect all of it… A thing that continues to be true is that many people are upset they didn’t get to vote in this, and I want to solve that… There is a straightforward, if difficult, path to that. The only reason that only city residents got to vote on this is that city residents own the utilities… A way to solve this is for someone to take up the effort to enlarge the city’s borders, to bring in, potentially, everyone who is a Gainesville Regional Utilities customer into being a resident of the city of Gainesville. I absolutely support that… I have always been supportive of giving more people the opportunity to vote… The way to do that is annexation.”
Ward: “From Parker Road to Newnans Lake, from Deerhaven to [Paynes] Prairie, all ought to be Gainesville… That is my answer to folks who say, ‘Why didn’t I get to vote?'”
Ward continued, “From Parker Road to Newnans Lake, from Deerhaven to [Paynes] Prairie, all ought to be Gainesville… That is my answer to folks who say, ‘Why didn’t I get to vote?’ I think you should be able to vote. Let’s work on that together.”
Nee said he understood the ruling: “We obviously disagree with it, but it is a maintenance of the status quo until such time as the decision of the trial court, the decision supporting our arguments in favor of Home Rule, are addressed by the 1st District Court of Appeal.”
City Commissioner Bryan Eastman said, “I am obviously disappointed in the outcome, if for no other reason than we just need stability within this utility. We need to be able to look people in the eye and say [what the future is] going to hold for GRU, and once again, we are up in the air because of more legal games being played.”
Ward said, “More than 14,000 people who live in our community showed up and voted, and now the broader government says, once again, ‘Thanks for showing up and doing that, but we’ll see if it matters.’ That is not how this is supposed to work. It’s not how my Civics teacher told me; it’s not how your Civics teacher told you. It’s not how Schoolhouse Rock told us, right? This is wrong. I’m not going to argue with the courts; certainly they’re their own separate branch, but this is wrong.”
Let’s just consolidate Gainesville and Alachua County. Then we don’t need to maintain two difference fire departments and two different police forces. Just those two things would save us lots of money.
That makes too much sense Fred. Obviously the reason we have a growing population and spreading developed metropolitan area is due to Gainesville, the anchor for the previous cow towns, now bedroom communities that surround. Having duplication of service departments and urban services in the county don’t make sense. Unification or annexation do and with it would follow the votes of those county residents into Gainesville politics. Maybe someday!
Harvey ward is out of touch with reality, no one WANTS to be part of Gainesville/GRU right now, especially after the staged protest vote to return governance of GRU to the city. The city ran the utility into the ground, which affected the bond rating, costing customers more, the city insisted on keeping the untenable “general fund transfer” of 18 million until the state HAD to step in to ensure solvency. NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! I would rather see GRU lose control of utilities outside the city limits. Clay Electric Co-op is a much better choice than Gainesville’s liberal piggy bank bankrupting customers to fund homeless hotels etc.
GRU is significantly better than Clay Electric. I’ve been a customer of both, at my current address which is now GRU and before that in rural N Alachua County. GRU has less outages and is much faster at fixing them and proactively checks on customers. There is no comparison.
Agreed but that does depend on one’s location and accessibility. However, the management is where the commission has continued to short circuit and tripped the breakers.
GRU employees have continued to be professional and serve the public in spite of some commissioner’s lack of appreciation for the services they provide.
Makes sense to leave it under the direction of a manager who’s both experienced and knowledgeable in the field and with the utility.
Rural is the key word in your complaint about Clay Electric. I have no clue where you live in the People’s Republic, but I suspect you are on underground utilities. I am not. I am in an older neighborhood that not only has above-ground utilities, but also has prehistoric water mains, that cause wild fluctuation in water pressure. I have gone weeks at a time without electricity post hurricane, right in the heart of our proud little bastion is leftism.
I have overhead electric and it travels about 3/8 mile from major road and line. It was previously Clay as was the similar overhead linefurther out in the county, where I lived previously.
Not sure what you’ve been smokin’ but statistics that are public indformation paint a different picture.
Jazzman I’m surprised at you. Fewer outages, not less outages.
I would like for Mayor Ward to consider giving the forced annexation of Robbinswood back to the county. We have never received any additional services for that annexation. All we got was increased taxes and then you took about 40 affordable housing units across from Butler Plaza where people could walk to work and changed our residential housing to MU1 resulting in a 5 story hotel inside a cul-de-sac with one way in and out. I asked what it would cost me to hook up to city sewer and the quote was $85,000.00. I’m sure you guys aren’t finished destroying single family neighborhoods yet. In fact, I believe you already passed “inclusionary zoning”. Gainesville is being destroyed.
He does realize people are moving out of Gainesville doesn’t he?
A better idea would be to split the county in two. Given the current state of Gainesville, Ward failed not only Civics, but Math class as well.
Give Ward, his minions, and other sycophants, and those who want to be bound to monetary waste, high utility and taxes, and anyone else who thinks the government owes them. Maybe the other entity could find people more interested in providing actual representation.
Doubtful he would find that appealing, he’d lose his tax base; can’t tax state or county property and can’t get blood from a turnip.
His comment regarding 75% of City residents supporting the referendum is misinformation. According to Supervisor of Elections data, 20% of all eligible voters participated in the vote. Of those 20% of voters, 75 percent voted yes.
80% of all eligible voters did not participate.
Now add the 40 percent of GRU customers in the county and that’s 120% that didn’t or couldn’t participate. Yeah, these Commissioners are for the people. No the people did not support giving the commission control of GRU. Leave it alone and go do something constructive instead of dropping about $250,000.00 on your egos. The GRUA is saving the taxpayers money and reducing the ridiculous debt they have because of the past and present Commissioners.
James, the 40% in the county -I’m one of them – don’t own GRU so their opinion is irrelevent
Maybe they’re irrelevant to you and the City Commison, but to me they’re neighbors with a valid interest with no representation.
James, then you must be similary outraged that FPL and Duke Energy customers similarly have no say in their profits. Maybe you should tell you’re neighbors to build their own utility, which is what Gainesville did, or annex into the city which of course would change the politics of the city. Stealing the utility is not an ethical option and should also be illegal.
That’s not how we count votes in America Someone.
The near deep freeze of voluntary annexations in recent years is a huge vote of no confidence in the Gainesville city commission.
This seems to be their typical response these days…if you don’t like it, then annex in. Why? To pay more in taxes and receive nothing in return!
Be careful what you wish for, Harvey! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Hey Harvey. Better idea. Make ALL of Alachua County (including the city) under control of Alachua County. Yes. A merger. What? It’s only okay if the city gets all the power and screw the citizens but when it’s an idea to benefit all of the citizens it’s NOT a good idea? Ah. Typical.
Yes, one governing body and one law enforcement agency is ideal and would make the most economical sense for this city and county.
Due to technological progress police departments have become antiquated and redundant. Police chiefs are political appointees and they commonly disregard the law to serve political purposes. An elected sheriff is the only common sense way.
But these people will never do the right thing because that would require ceding power for the benefit of the entire community.
An easy fix is to give up their out of city limits territory. Let Clay Electric or someone else service it.
I prefer GRU and I’ve had both.
Me too. I enjoy the lower rates on Clay. Service has been good too
Wonderful attitude anyone outside City Limits encounters with Gainesville who has position of Entitlement and refuses to even Listen to County Residents whether it be about GRU, Roadways or COMMON SENSE they seem to be running out of
Ward: you were LITERALLY told, before spending $250,000+ for the special election that you HAD to have, that the results of the vote wouldn’t matter because there was still a pending court case. You’re doing a real bad at comprehension…in all scenarios of reality (not just civics).
So these happy annexed residents, will they get bus service? Repaved roads when needed? The Gainesville-only medical pickup service? Sidewalks and bikeways? I’d like to know.
Eastman is upset that his hokey videos didn’t work
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Ward, more or less: “If you live near East Germany, and would rather not be ruled by East Germany, the smart thing to do is volunteer to be controlled by East Germany, then maybe your worthless vote while being crushed by East Germany will make you feel better.”
Correct me if I’m wrong on this XO and your 29 thumbs up – East Germans weren’t allowed to vote were they? Gainesville residents do get to vote.
Jazz. Funny how you keep ignoring the county residents who do NOT have a vote. And your ‘let them eat cake’ kind of comment is right on par with your liberal mindset….
Other Bob, County residents – like me – don’t own GRU, Get it? Cripes!
By the way, the “authority” is not subject to your vote, or anyone’s vote but the governor and there is no termination date in the law for this corrupt take over. Are you gonna’ be OK with it when a democrat becomes governor and supports a higher usage tax on customers not in the city?
The last time the city tried to annex the N.W. area to 91st. street, the result was a resounding 90% against. A lot of money wasted for a special election because botcher claimed area citizens reached out to her. Sure! Just like this latest fiasco.
Ward is absolutely delusional.
Demonrats.
If anything was voted on last Tuesday it should have been to vote Ward off the Commission. This Commission has nothing to be proud of except for the massive amount of money they have spent.
If I were ever to be annexed into the city with crappy city services forced upon me and my checkbook I would move immediately.
Hell NO!
Earlier on Thursday the commission agreed to take out a $25 million loan at 5% interest that will be paid from the Infrastructure $.01 sales tax income that the sheeple voted in. So they are paying over $1million in interest to get hands on money now! That is not fiscal responsibility, it is increasing the debt. Wonder what happens if the sales tax revenue doesn’t come in at expected rate, especially since courts have kept GRU in the right hands.
“Wonder what happens if the sales tax revenue doesn’t come in at expected rate”
That sales tax revenue stream was put up as collateral for the loan. So if the city fails to make payment the creditor would have rights to that asset until they are made whole.
Isn’t it funny how commies get so excited when a rigged off-year Election Day results in a “win” with under 10% of the population voting for them? That’s how the Communist Patty oligarchs rule everywhere from Cuba to China 👿👹🤡