Governor appoints remaining two members of GRU Authority
Press release from the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Craig Carter and Dr. Tara Ezzell to the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority.
Craig Carter
Carter is a Commercial Realtor and Sales Associate at Coldwell Banker Commercial M.M. Parrish Realtors. He previously served as a Commissioner for the City of Gainesville. Active in his community, Carter currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Gainesville Regional Airport Authority and is a member of the Gainesville Rotary Club.
Dr. Tara Ezzell
Dr. Ezzell is a Dermatologist and Partner at Dermatology Associates. Active in her community, she serves as the Assistant Secretary of the Parker Road Community Development District Board of Directors, is a member of the Alachua County Medical Society, and is the former Vice Chair of the Child Advocacy Center Board of Directors. Dr. Ezzell earned her bachelor’s degree from Emory University and her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Florida.
I feel like the ball was dropped all the way around.
Our local, state and fed government are jokes. Why can’t any governing body get anything right anymore? It’s always politics above substance.
A well appointed board could have truly made a difference in this instance, but hell no, the state plays politics here just as the city has done for years.
My summary of the qualifications of the 5 board members. They all have actually run a business and all have executive/director/boardroom-level experience and seem like reasonable choices to me.
Businessman / military contractor, MBA
Energy industry executive, ex-military, JD
Hospital CEO / executive
Realtor, former city commissioner, vice-chair GRA
Dermatologist / partner, community group director
For a non paid position that is faced with substantial headaches and difficult decisions – I think it’s a great group.
I would have liked to have seen Todd Chase, though
Craig Carter was also known for Craig Carter’s Golf Carts. He is definitely not a leftist or progressive type.
Double down when breaking the law. The GOP way.
It’s going to be ok. Just because you and your fellow liberals won’t be able to paint rainbow crosswalks anymore (due to lack of funds) doesn’t mean life is going to end!
Go outside and breathe – enjoy the nature you all are always talking about! Let us business people handle this.
I just spit up my non-alcoholic drink at your comment, Ronnie. You regressive’s “Define and Accentuate” the term, “Breaking the Law”. The tide has finally turned on you, my friend, and your liberal teammates when it comes to GRU, even if you have not realized it. And by the way, the change makes me and many others, very happy!
Nice. The Democratic way (just to remind you) was to bleed the utility from hundreds of millions of dollars in GFT payments and obligating them to over $2 billion in biomass payments. No accountability. Must be the Democratic Party way, aye?
Funny, it’s seems the local Dems don’t understand residency laws either. In this case, since the members are highly qualified otherwise and some members only have 1 or 2 years terms, as long as they’re GRU customers your friends can waste more money and time in court for nothing.
Let’s just hope they can stop the city from bleeding GRU dry.
One has experience with city government…knows the current group is fiscally incompetent.
One is a military contractor…probably knows how to blow up the current operations and make it more residentially friendly.
One is ex-military…knows there may be some pain.
One knows the local real estate market…maybe turn of that vacancy sign city leaders keep on.
One is a doctor…should be able to stop the hemorrhaging or at least hide that vein in Harvey’s forehead when it explodes.
I see no reason why they should have to live in the City. I live outside the city limits, but still have to pay GRU. I suspect the governor looked at the addresses and they said Gainesville (like mine).
It’s part of the bill not your pleasure.
I don’t know where the members of this board stand when it comes to the current GRU rate structure.
I know there is a segment among us that is apathetic about the amount GRU charge for services.
Their first order of business will probably be the best indicator of what to expect going forward.
Putting the desires of Moody’s and Fitch ahead of the desires of the ratepayers will be a bad sign. The CC went that route.
Pay down the debt by growing the utility not by increasing the rates.
GRU is geographically land-locked with Paynes Prairie to the west and Clay Electric, FPL and Duke surrounding us. We even have a hole in the middle of our donut – UF campus. GRU can not grow itself out of its dilemma.
So all those 4 – 10 story apartment complexes hasn’t increased demand?
Maybe Dr. Ezzell’s husband could be appointed as head videographer of all the committee’s meetings?
The city commission totally screwed up the GRU finances. A former city commissioner is appointed to the Authority to fix the mess he helped create. Gov D sure has a sick sense of humor.