Gainesville City Commission votes to send letter to legislators, asking them to reverse amendment that would prohibit City from regaining control of GRU

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At today’s General Policy Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission voted to send a Chair letter to legislators and ask them to reverse a bill amendment that would prohibit the City from regaining control of GRU by changing its Charter.

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut, who requested that the agenda item be added to the meeting, said she had learned about the amendment to House Bill 1451 early this morning from the media. The amendment, introduced by Representative Demi Busatta (R-Coral Gables), “expressly preempts to the state the subject of a regional utility authority created by the Legislature through charter amendment after January 1, 2023.” The GRU Authority is the only regional utility authority created by the legislature through a charter amendment since that date.

Chestnut said, “It sounds like the legislature is going into the utility business, and I wonder what this means for utility companies all over the state of Florida.”

Mayor Harvey Ward said there had been “no local delegation hearing on any of this. It’s not a Local Bill. I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding has always been that if it was something that only affected one municipality, then that needs to be a Local Bill, and therefore should have a local hearing.” 

Commissioner Ed Book said it was “really unusual” for “a south Florida Representative to add an amendment late in the session that only appeared to impact one municipality.”

City Attorney Nee: “There’s nothing that I’m aware of that would explain why this particular Representative would raise an amendment that, again, would seem to only presently affect [GRU].”

City Attorney Daniel Nee said he “couldn’t speak to… what motivated the Representative to make that amendment… There’s nothing that I’m aware of that would explain why this particular Representative would raise an amendment that, again, would seem to only presently affect [GRU].”

Book said it was also unusual that there was no “opportunity for community engagement and input, or even elected official input.”

Nee agreed, “Everything about it seems unusual, not the least of which… [is] that this is a matter that’s being litigated in appellate court right now and hopefully reaching a point… where there will be a resolution forthcoming in the not-too-distant future.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said the court case includes “a major question that needs to be answered” about whether a municipality can change its Charter to remove language added by the legislature: “I want a final answer to that, rather than just completely neutering it and changing the rules because a very limited group of people aren’t getting their way, as opposed to 70-74% of voters [who approved a ballot amendment to return control of the utility back to the City].”

Commissioner James Ingle said the creation of the GRU Authority was “shady” from the beginning: “So while it is unusual for the legislature in general, it is not unusual for this particular topic.”

Interim City Manager Andrew Persons said City staff have been in touch with the City’s lobbyist, and they’re monitoring the bills and talking to the local delegation.

Commissioner Eastman: “There are very, very few people I find that are defending the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority as a successful organization at this point… There is a handful of people that are employed at the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority that, I understand, are very, very aggressively trying to keep the status quo going for as long as possible, but that certainly is not our community.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said, “There are very, very few people I find that are defending the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority as a successful organization at this point. I mean, 75% of the voters have come out and spoken overwhelmingly against the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority, not once, but twice… I think it was an experiment that was attempted, and we are now hopefully running toward the end of that experiment. There is a handful of people that are employed at the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority that, I understand, are very, very aggressively trying to keep the status quo going for as long as possible, but that certainly is not our community.” He suggested sending a letter to the legislature.

Ward said he’d “heard from various folks that this was specifically the product of a GRU lobbyist talking to a Representative, and that being the case, I’m fairly certain that we’ll end up being billed for that lobbyist’s services, because that’s how it seems to flow.”

Ward also speculated that the reason the amendment was offered this week was that the lobbyist “waited until after we had approved the resolution giving [GRU] the bonding capacity that they wanted” last Thursday. He said he was “never surprised, consistently disappointed.”

Chestnut said each Commissioner should call the members of the local delegation “and see where they stand.”

Willits said that if the amendment was intended to be “a forward-thinking, clarify-for-the-future [bill],” legislators should change the date from January 1, 2023, to January 1, 2027: “It shouldn’t be retroactive. It should be in the future, to inform future legislators, not to make up for the failures of past legislatures… It’s not fair that they should be set forward… I wish I could apply new rules to my past behavior, I really, really wish I could, but I mostly don’t get to.”

Ward said he would “certainly lean on staff” to help write the letter because he wants to send it tomorrow morning, “as the final days of the legislature are looming… This not only excludes the will of more than 39,000 Gainesville voters, well more than 70%, more than once, but it also excludes the judiciary from weighing in going forward, which is perhaps a broader concern. It is one thing to say, ‘Well, we know better than the people in a particular community.’… It is entirely another to say, ‘We know better than one of the three branches of government, and we will exclude them from an ongoing process.’ That seems like a really big deal to me, and I seriously doubt that most of the legislature intends, or intended, that, as a part of the discussion.”

Motion

Eastman made a motion that was amended after discussion to read, “Direct the Mayor to send a letter, on behalf of the Gainesville City Commission, to the Alachua County legislative delegation, Speaker of the House, the Senate President, the Rules Chair, and the House and Senate sponsors for HB 1451, requesting removal of the referendum reversal amendment. This letter should express the concern that the amendment overrides the overwhelming will of Gainesville voters, urge the legislature to allow the pending court case to proceed without intervention, and convey the City Attorney’s concerns about the breadth and impact of the preemption language.” There were multiple seconds.  

The motion passed 6-0, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent.

The GRU Authority’s statement

GRU CEO Ed Bielarski sent the following statement today on behalf of the GRU Authority:

“The GRU Authority applauds the Florida Legislature’s action to reinforce a basic principle: When the State intervenes to protect utility customers from the overreach of local government, that protection is not advisory nor subject to local nullification. 

“By creating the Authority, the State preempted the City from further mismanaging the utility — causing the highest rates in the state, bond downgrades, and four times the average utility debt.  

“Despite the City’s attempt to claw back control of the utility by holding an unlawful, one-sided election that excluded nearly 40% of GRU’s customers, the Legislature’s action bolsters our efforts to provide stability for operations, clarity for financial markets, and, most significantly, protection for customers who deserve the affordability and reliability they now enjoy.  

“The Authority appreciates the Legislature taking up this important public policy of allowing regional utilities authorities to remain steadfastly focused on supporting Florida’s families by providing safe, reliable, and affordable utility services.”