Governor announces first three members of GRU Authority
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Governor Ron DeSantis has announced the first three of five members for the Authority that will begin governing Gainesville Regional Authorities after they are sworn in on October 4.
Following the recent passage of HB 1645, the Authority will manage, operate, control, and have broad authority with respect to the operation of Gainesville Regional Utilities, taking that control from the Gainesville City Commission. The law is being challenged in several lawsuits; the judge in the lawsuit filed in Leon County by the City of Gainesville signaled that she may issue a ruling on Friday, September 29.
James Coats IV
Coats is the Chief Executive Officer of Phalanx Defense Systems. Active in his community, he serves as a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society and was awarded the “Spirit of Gainesville” Award by the Alachua County Chamber of Commerce. Coats earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in business administration from American Military University.
Robert Karow
Karow is currently retired, previously serving as the Manager, Legal Counsel, and Contracts Manager for Oleoductos de Crudos Pesados. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Earning his bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration from Chapman College and his juris doctor from the University of Florida, Karow has over 40 years of energy experience with an emphasis in oil and natural gas, pipelines, facilities, and power generation.
Eric Lawson
Lawson is the Chief Executive Officer of HCA North Florida Regional Hospital. Holding multiple executive leadership positions in hospitals over the past 30 years, he most recently served as the Division Chief Financial Officer for HCA TriStar. Lawson earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Tennessee Technological University.
Looks like competence is on the way!
Oct 4 can’t get here fast enough
Wow…James Coats, huh!?!
Looks like DeSantis is heavily influenced by the corrupt federal intelligence agencies. Spooks are everywhere.
Exactly. He acts as though he is the acting public relations liaison for the local MIC-INTEL community. It’s looking like Florida is on a fast track to morph into little Bethesda at this point.
(The GRU authority had to be changed. It is just sad to see who was appointed so far. This just goes to show that political favors are alive and well; whether local, state, federal, or international.)
Re: Coats—Infiltration pays off well. Soon to be:
The Rich Men South of Richmond
Yes. yes, yes, Evil Knievel and Home Slice I agree with you. They should leave GRU in the hands of our very very, very, competent local leaders. Without their current and past leadership, we would not be #1 in the state as the most expensive place to live. It is very hard to achieve this, and we should not throw this rating away by letting some group of successful, local, people manage our GRU. Keep GRU and our property taxes in the hands of our great current leaders. After all being rated #1 is a great achievement regardless of what it is for.
I cannot stand our local leftist government. But two of the three appointees have no damn Business on that board. These were very obviously political appointees and not selected based on merit. Let’s all just watch as the business rates shoot down while our resident rates continue their slow climb upwards!
And if you think Boca Raton is more affordable to live in than Gainesville, regardless what that survey states, then you really need to get out more.
Sounds like we are finally getting some intelligent people on board.
What do all of those appointed have that the current City Commissioners and idiot Mayor don’t?
Common sense and an education that gives them the knowledge to utilize and apportion/distribute the funds to the best needs of the community.
Harvey! Harvey Ward! Don’t get your hopes up!
One of the appointees is from “Phalanx Defense Systems,” not phallic instruments. Just didn’t want you to show up by mistake.
The occultist can’t help themselves. Symbolism abounds!
I know one of them: I would put my life on him.
Literally.
Per Andrew Caplan.. But there’s one major problem: None of them live within the city’s boundaries, as required by law.
For the initial appointments, the statute says a minimum of one member must live outside the city. There is no maximum. Future appointments must be proportional to the percentage of GRU customers living outside the city.
“…the statute says a minimum of one member must live outside the city. There is no maximum.”
Beautiful! Do they have to be Floridians, Americans?
Who owns this utility?
Jazz, the people of Gainesville are supposed to but that hasn’t been working out for most of us.
As many people as I’ve asked, I’ve yet to find a single person who voted to raise their utility bills.
Must be GRU customers, smart guy.
Interesting. This is the Sun’s article, “ House Bill 1645, sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Clemons, states that four of the five members must be city voters residing within the municipal boundaries − the other in the county − and have GRU electric services during their terms”. Which is correct?
You failed to note what followed that phrase. “EXCEPT THAT A MINIMUM OF ONE MEMBER MUST BE A RESIDENT OF THE UNINCORPORATED AREA…”
No need to shout! I did see it. But it is math – if you have a 5 person board and 4 must be city residents, that leaves 1 spot for a non-Gainesville City resident.
Care to explain this smart guy? You helped sell this power grab like it was well intentioned and well thought out. You know it was done by a late filing by Clemons and then rushed through the legislature without normal hearings, substantial public or expert comment, and a done deal with little floor debate, right?
I can’t upload a screenshot, but if you look at House 1645, line 154 to 157, 4 must be “…qualified electors of the City…” It appears the Gainesville Sun is correct.
“All members of the authority shall be a qualified elector of the City, except that a minimum of one member must be a resident of the unincorporated area of the county or a municipality in the county other than the City of Gainesville.”
No maximum is specified, only a minimum.
Gotta love that legalese.😉
Attorneys don’t know how to speak or write with common sense, they just hope to confuse people with the continued intent of having to employ one for explanation.
Right. Except for the part about 4 of the 5 have to live in the city. Three outside the city plus 2 unfilled spots = 5. The current arrangement would result in 2 city residents and 3 county – clearly in violation.
https://x.com/AACaplan/status/1707197763362894285?s=20 The intent of the law.
The composition of the Authority shall be adjusted
159 upon expiration of any member’s term, or upon any Authority
160 vacancy, to reflect the ratio of total electric meters serving
161 GRU electric customers outside the City’s jurisdictional
162 boundaries to total electric meters serving all GRU electric
163 customers. For example, upon expiration of a member’s term or
164 upon an Authority vacancy, if the ratio of total electric meters
165 serving customers outside the City boundaries to total electric
166 meters serving all electric customers reaches 40 percent, the
167 Governor must appoint a second member from outside the City
168 boundaries to serve the next term that would otherwise be served
169 by a qualified elector of the City. Conversely, upon expiration
170 of any member’s term or upon any Authority vacancy, if the ratio
171 subsequently falls below 40 percent, the Governor must appoint a
172 qualified elector of the City to serve the next term that
173 otherwise would have been served by a resident from outside the
174 City boundaries.
Thanks for the clarification! The gainesville eclipse got it wrong as usual. Intentional?
There is literally nothing in the bill that gives a different set of rules for initial appointments. The “at least one member” line is for GRU’s customer base because a second can be appointed. It says so in the bill right after. I think you got fed some inaccurate information that is doing damage control.
Does that mean as an Alachua County Resident living outside Wokesville but a GRU and City Of Gainesville” captive tax and utility customer slave” without representation I can secede from their bondage and financial demise? I have no voice and am done with their failed political agenda that has no place in running a utility. So Glad new governance is coming .
I live in Alachua and get GRU gas and so does High Springs. So you don’t technically need to live in Gainesville City limit to be able to be a GRU utility customer.
Members of the Authority must live within GRU’s electric service territory.
How much you wanna bet they’ll, the liberals, will put more effort into proving they don’t reside in the required area than ANY one of them did when certain Board members were elected who didn’t reside in their districts?
OK, so I guess that’s your job.
I’d be happy to do it and with the intelligence liberals have shown, would be much better at it than they are.
How difficult can it actually be to determine if an address within a specific geographical area meets the requirements? Don’t answer that, don’t want to confuse you.
Uh, what about ““All members of the authority shall be a qualified elector of the City,…”?
Geez, you’d think the bill establishing this was rushed through the state legislature after a late filing, and without full hearings and/or expert and citizen comment, as if political calculations counted and grabbing the power was all that counted.
Nahhhhhhhh, never happen.
If it has to be a “qualified elector,” that should rule out most of the voters in Gainesville. Given their track record, they’re not qualified to do much of anything.
No doubt you’ll eventually be rescued by the white knights at FPL.
Looks like a good list, so far.
Sure beats the “list” we’ve had for several years.
Amen to that!
None of us have any representation on the proposed board as it answers to no one but the governor, if him. Of course that is the usual case with private utility companies, so those in the county but served by GRU – I am one – are experiencing nothing new in terms of representation. The citizens of Gainesville on the other hand have had ownership and control pulled from them by the outsiders Clemons and the GOP legislature. Let’s hope the courts reverse this travesty.
The city commission has completely failed as the board of directors of the utility. FAILED. Bankruptcy is just a matter of time. Time to try something different before its too late, if it isn’t already.
Yeah, in a democracy that means electing new commissioners.
First, it’s a representative democracy. Second, the system isn’t absolute. If the representatives fail, it’s the obligation of the higher authority (the state) to seek justice through its legally based intervention.
A representative democracy is a sub set of the larger category “DEMOCRACY”, smart guy, so your noting that is like saying Go Gators. To determine failure, one should expect lengthy and non-partisan, expert investigations, not rushed and sloppy partisan take overs by well known enemies of the entity which they seek to unseat. Like other take overs by the DeSantis regime, this is bad precedent that we should all hope is overturned so it doesn’t become SOP in Florida.
That the fellow partisans and – cough, cough – enemies predominate in the comments on this site is fine, but we don’t need a program to know the players.
Wish it were that easy. Then again, also wish the commissioners didn’t raise, (and continue to raise), our utility rates either. So much for those wishes.
I guess that proves a couple of things, the voters who elect their “representatives” continue to make bad choices and those “representatives” could care less about their constituents. Have to give Harvey some credit though – he’s a good snake oil salesperson.
Jazz welcome to my world I live in the county I have not had representation on the running of GRU the last 4 years now you understand how I feel
City codes require all boards to be ultra Deverse, as only a Deverse board can possibly do anything good. These applicants are all members of the Devil Class, White Men! For the board to have the proper Deversity numbers, the remaining two applicants MUST be one-eyed one-legged dwarf albino genderfluid translesbian single parent unemployed homeless third grade dropout recovering addict undocumented immigrant underserved Pastafarians. Please appoint accordingly, Governor.
GNV city codes don’t apply to this state controlled board, nor will GNV codes/rules regarding the operation of GRU. Diversity is the current favored term of the left for affirmative action, which has been ruled unconstitutional.
Last week James Coats sold the former Phalanx property on NE 8th Avenue to Alachua County for a million dollars an acre, $3.2 million, after the city manager attested that the city was notified of the offer in May but no one told staff to negotiate for the city on the reverter clause or first right of refusal. Long story, noncompliance with terms, moved the company to SC, changed the name to PDS Defense. https://qpublic.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=1081&LayerID=26490&PageTypeID=4&PageID=10770&KeyValue=12562-000-000
He is truly a bad person with nefarious intentions. I rarely say this about any person.
He peeled the local government years ago when they took ownership of that property on 8th and once again peeled them on the sale of the same property. None of this is unintentional. It’s sad to see so many partisan hacks take up for someone they do not know just because he was appointed by DeSantis.
Being heavily tied in with the military industrial complex and intel community paid off for Coats. Among other non humanitarian ventures, he made a ‘killing’ on providing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s special forces with black ops (off the books) equipment to be used in the ongoing genocide in Yemen and Oman. Now he closes shop locally and hauls ass out of state. You scratch Mr Deep States back and Mr Deep State scratches you right back!
Let me be positive and just say at least the city is not in charge of our utility anymore.
Clemons was surprised to learn Wednesday that at least two of the appointments won’t meet the residency requirements, despite their appointments. He said his bill is clear on the requirements but added he wasn’t briefed on the selections or anyone’s address prior to the names being announced.
“Yeah, that’s not going to work,” Clemons said of the governor’s appointments.
Stop shilling and start reporting if you want to be taken seriously.
It doesn’t matter what anybody says about the law. Here is what the law says: “Authority members shall: Be a qualified elector of the City, except that a
minimum of one member must be a resident of the unincorporated area of the county or a municipality in the county other than the City of Gainesville.” There is no maximum in the bill for the first round of appointees. Anybody can read the statute.
Suggestion: The AC writes a follow up article about this residency controversy and quotes the entire bill for our education.
Jennifer, you are posting the text clearly for everyone to read.
It’s just many people don’t like the answer/truth you are providing.
What’s concerning to me is Clemon’s response to the Sun.
It makes it look like there is a disconnect with the Governors office at a time when there should be 100% alignment. How could he not be involved in the selections as the sponsor of the bill?
Using your text:
“Authority members shall: Be a qualified elector of the City, except that a minimum of one member must be a resident of the unincorporated area of the county or a municipality….”
THIS MAKE NO SENSE. To be a “qualified elector” of the City, you have to LIVE in the City.
Time to go back to law school…..
Even Rep Clemons doesn’t know what you are talking about.
Do you know what “except” means?
I “accept” your explanation.
Except that it clearly states members shall be qualified electors of the city… clearly in reference to being residents of the city. I don’t understand why this is difficult to digest. Clemons even points it out through his quote. It’s just dumb to blindly support a bad decision no matter what political party initiated it.
Will someone let Commissioner Greasyman no its 2023 not 2018 and his voting facts on GRU are irrelevant? Being stuck on Stupid is how these Commissioner and Admin rolls , but quit insulting everyone’s ability to recognize the real facts. GRU is broke and so is Gainesville and you own it.
All owned by Blackrock/Vanguard, especially an HCA CEO!
Seems a lot of people are taking bits and pieces out of context and are not reading the whole section. By itself ‘2d’ specifies that at least one member come from outside of the City. However the next paragraph clearly explains how the number of members who are outside of the City can increase based on the number of electric meters outside of the City. So at this point in time, the ratio is 4-1. In the years ahead, that number may be 3-2, but it could go back to 4-1 based on the number of meters. However, there should never be more than a 3-2 split. There is nothing in the law that says the governor can appoint more than 1 member outside of the City for the new board.
(2) All members of the Authority shall:
(a) Maintain primary residence within the electric service territory of GRU’s electric utility system.
(b) Receive GRU electric utility system service at all times during the term of appointment.
(c) Not have been convicted of a felony as defined by general law.
(d) Be a qualified elector of the City, except that a minimum of one member must be a resident of the unincorporated area of the county or a municipality in the county other than
the City of Gainesville.
(3) The composition of the Authority shall be adjusted upon expiration of any member’s term, or upon any Authority vacancy, to reflect the ratio of total electric meters serving GRU electric customers outside the City’s jurisdictional boundaries to total electric meters serving all GRU electric customers. For example, upon expiration of a member’s term or upon an Authority vacancy, if the ratio of total electric meters serving customers outside the City boundaries to total electric meters serving all electric customers reaches 40 percent, the Governor must appoint a second member from outside the City boundaries to serve the next term that would otherwise be served by a qualified elector of the City. Conversely, upon expiration of any member’s term or upon any Authority vacancy, if the ratio subsequently falls below 40 percent, the Governor must appoint a qualified elector of the City to serve the next term that
otherwise would have been served by a resident from outside the City boundaries.
What if no one in Wokesville is Qualified? Its been proven they are not.
Hallelujah! Jubilations! Grown-ups finally in charge!
I am willing to rent any interested GRU Authority appointee a Hayes-Santos type “primary residence” 6 blocks from city hall immediately. The initial meeting will probably be a month long and they will need catered meals.
Great idea !
Especially since the spokesperson for Gainesville Residents United isn’t a resident of Gainesville and he never was for all the years he was on the BOCC and everyone knew he didn’t live in his district which was in the City.