GRU Authority keeps Cunningham as CEO after Coats’ motion fails for lack of a second; board will vote on Interim Attorney on Dec. 14

BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the December 6 GRU Authority regular meeting, Member James Coats made a motion to fire GRU General Manager Tony Cunningham, but the motion failed for lack of a second, and Chair Craig Carter told Cunningham he would have a year to show progress on the Authority’s priorities. During Member Comment, the board voted to let Carter negotiate with Scott Walker and bring back a contract to hire him as an Interim Attorney at the December 14 meeting.
Cunningham argues he’s the best person to serve as CEO
The agenda item for “Discussion of the General Manager/CEO Position at GRU” was last on the agenda, and Carter led off by giving Cunningham a chance to explain why he felt he should stay on as CEO. Cunningham spoke for nearly 20 minutes, saying that although his job is “critical and important for the utility, it is about the 850 employees that we have, it is about the 200,000 people that we provide services to in our community, and it is about this Authority and their role as we go forward into the future. He said he and his staff “really want to transform the utility into being run more like a business enterprise… and I contend that I think the current leadership of GRU… can best work both with the board… and drive that transformation down through the utility, through ultimately employees.”
“I will say, when you look at our utility, our rates are competitive, except for our electric rates. Our electric rates are high… We are laser-focused on the importance of bringing that down and making that more competitive in the industry.” – GRU CEO Tony Cunningham
Cunningham said it’s important to build trust with customers, “and one of the primary aspects of that is having competitive rates. And I will say, when you look at our utility, our rates are competitive, except for our electric rates. Our electric rates are high… We are laser-focused on the importance of bringing that down and making that more competitive in the industry.”
Cunningham proposed that the Authority develop a business plan for GRU over the next months while developing the budget.
Cunningham argued he was the best person to lay out the plan and strategy for GRU because his team had navigated out of the pandemic, brought the fuel levelization fund back to a positive balance and reduced the fuel adjustment charges, reduced the transfer from GRU to General Government, and identified cost reductions in the utility. He argued that they have successfully transitioned to the Authority and that Advanced Metering Infrastructure will be “transformational” for customers.
Cunningham said he has been at GRU for 22 years and that his record shows he is “a person of integrity, competency, and successes. I can continue to leverage that with our team, going forward.” He recommended that the Authority keep him in place as CEO, put metrics in place, and hold him accountable at the end of next year.
Coats presents his case: “This is something that has to be done”
Coats said he had a presentation prepared and handed out binders, asking the members to keep them closed until he started the presentation. He led off by saying, “This is going to be one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. This is not easy for me, and I just want to put a voice to that… This is something that has to be done.”
Coats asked Cunningham his highest level of education, and Cunningham said he has a Bachelor’s Degree. When asked whether he had taken business courses prior to being named CEO, Cunningham said, “I can’t quantify it. But I took numerous courses going through college.” Coats asked, “Business courses?” and Cunningham responded, “I mean, there were courses that had business aspects when I went to the College of Engineering.” Cunningham said he had not taken any business accounting courses.
Coats pointed out that the City of Gainesville’s job description for the GRU General Manager job states that an MBA is preferred, although a Bachelor’s degree with some experience is permitted. Coats then asked if Cunningham had electrical generation experience before being appointed to the position. Cunningham said he did not have “electrical generation experience specifically, but I worked on the leadership team at GRU for seven or eight years.”
Coats said “more than 14” internal candidates had more experience and higher education than Cunningham at the time he got the job. He clarified, “Well, it’s more than 14, but I figured 14 is a nice number.”
Cunningham said he believed he was selected for his “ability to work with different experts on a team and to develop a collaborative path forward for an organization.”
Coats asks CIO Walter Banks to discuss IT billing to General Government
Coats asked Cunningham about a request he’d made on November 13 for copies of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between GRU and the City; he said he’d never received them from Cunningham but had gotten them somewhere else. He asked Cunningham if he had made sure that ratepayers were getting “a good deal” in the SLAs, and Cunningham said his staff was evaluating that and would come back to the Authority with more information on February 7.
Coats asked Cunningham to look at an agreement for Information Technology (IT) services that took effect on October 1, 2023 and asked Cunningham to read a paragraph that said the “designated review owner or document owner is responsible for facilitating quarterly reviews of this document with the General Manager of utilities and the City Manager and the Enterprise IT Chief Information Officer.” Coats pointed out that Chief Information Officer Walter Banks’ signature was not on the document, but Cunningham said Banks was the creator of the document, while he and the City Manager signed the document.
Coats had previously asked Banks and Chief Financial Officer Claudia Rasnick to sit at the front table, and Coats now asked Banks why his name wasn’t on the agreement. Banks said he had asked a staff member to take his name off because he “thought there was a huge discrepancy” in the financial compensation for the services, “and frankly, I thought that there was a better way to do it.”
Banks said he had proposed billing the City $5.9 million for IT services in FY2023-24, but the agreement discounted that. Banks said he had expressed his concerns to Cunningham and had taken his signature off the document because of those concerns.
Banks: There were “things that made me feel very uncomfortable”
Coats asked Banks if his department or career had been threatened by Cunningham if he “didn’t comply or buy into the narrative,” and Banks said there were “things that made me feel very uncomfortable.” When Coats asked if Cunningham is the leader GRU needs right now, Banks said, “I’m gonna say it like this: It’s my intent that we should do better… It’s difficult for me, sitting right across from Tony, because I personally like him, but I don’t know if I’m qualified to answer that question.”
Banks said he had been asked to look at budget cuts of $2.9 million to $6 million, which he said could affect the jobs of half the staff in his department. Coats said he wanted to “apologize for the behavior that you experienced… If anything comes out of this, just understand that someone understands what it’s like to work in a hostile environment.”
“Anybody that speaks out against anything, any situation or institution, I don’t think that they should have the kind of fears that I have and I’ve had for quite some time… because I have a family.” – GRU CIO Walter Banks
Banks said some of the things he’d said were “uncomfortable for me, and I just want to make sure I don’t receive any backlash from that… Anybody that speaks out against anything, any situation or institution, I don’t think that they should have the kind of fears that I have and I’ve had for quite some time… because I have a family.”
Banks: “We could have negotiated to benefit GRU better”
Carter asked Banks if he’s afraid he’ll be fired, and Banks said that specifically regarding the SLA Coats had referred to, “We could have negotiated to benefit GRU better.” When pressed by Carter to say what he was afraid of, Banks said, “Payback.”
Rasnick: “I’ve got serious concerns” about whether the budget complies with HB 1645
Rasnick then took her turn discussing the reduction in the payment to be made by General Government for IT services in the 2023-24 fiscal year. She said, “Looking at HB 1645, SLA-related losses are supposed to be included in the flow of funds in the budget process. So I will tell you that this loss is not included in the flow of funds for the budget process for 2024, so as of right now, I’ve got serious concerns about that.” She said her recollection of how the amount was determined was that the $5.9 million was based on the ratio of Microsoft licenses between GRU and General Government.
“In my professional opinion… this board isn’t being given financial information enough to [make decisions on base rates and the general fund transfer]” – GRU CFO Claudia Rasnick
Coats asked whether Rasnick had been told to not engage the board, and she said, “In my professional opinion… this board isn’t being given financial information enough to [make decisions on base rates and the general fund transfer]… If I was a board member, I’d want to start to make decisions, because that’s why you’re here. You’re here because there are financial issues with the utility, we’ve got base rate issues going on, but we are not making decisions, and I’m not providing enough information for you to make those decisions.”
She said GRU staff has had “spirited” internal discussions “that we need to start to get this information flowing through. So we are in meeting four, and we’re still doing options… I do feel like I haven’t been able to give you the information that you need to do that.”
Coats asks CFO Claudia Rasnick to discuss the delayed debt issuance that cost ratepayers $2.9 million
Coats then turned to a May 11 memo from Rasnick that said GRU was directed by Mayor Harvey Ward to hold a request for approval of a debt issuance until after the State legislative session.
Rasnick said that before a March 15 meeting that included GRU staff, Ward, and City Manager Cynthia Curry, GRU had planned to bring the debt transactions to the City Commission on April 6, and during the March 15 discussion, “the one transaction with new money was asked to be pulled–in my professional opinion, it was asked to be pulled by the Mayor. And the impetus, in my professional opinion, was–to issue new debt while we were under the specter of JLAC, would not have been seen very well because you’re issuing new debt in the middle of trying to deal with the debt problem.”
Rasnick said the issuance was routine–“We need cash in order to fund the capital infrastructure”–and delaying it meant “you can’t fund the infrastructure, you have cash issues in some of the systems, which occurred, I believe in electric and water. But during that meeting, I clearly stated that this was going to cost more… because interest rates were rising… We didn’t know, of course, at the time, how much it was going to cost, but it was $2.9 million over three years.”
Rasnick emphasized that she was “extremely uncomfortable over here.” Coats asked, “Are you concerned for your job, similar to Mr. Banks, based on today?” Rasnick replied, “I would say after today, yes.”
Cunningham: “Ultimately, I made the decision myself”
Coats asked Cunningham if Ward had instructed him to delay the bond issuance, “or did you make the decision on your own?” Cunningham said there were about seven people in the room and that JLAC had recently told the City, “Hey, y’all gotta address this… Ultimately, I made the decision myself. The Mayor gave his opinion. An individual commissioner, just like an individual board member, cannot direct me. They can only act as a board. So the Mayor gave a suggestion, recommendation, his thoughts. Ultimately, I had to make a decision.”
Cunningham said JLAC had told the City that GRU needed a “debt reduction plan that’s aggressive and bold… Shortly after that, we need to issue more debt… We’re coming out of JLAC, and our first major action with the City Commission is to increase debt further, and so I did not think it was appropriate to do that… We needed to get in place what our plan forward is, before we do that.”
Coats: “I do not have the confidence in you to be the General Manager”
In closing his presentation, Coats said he had “established through data” that Cunningham does not have the education to run the utility. He added, “You chose to… allow the City Commission to engage in rate increases to make up for the money that you, as the General Manager, are giving them in SLA agreements. This is not appropriate… I do not have the confidence in you to be the General Manager here, based off the data and the fact that you’ve increased debt, you’ve increased payroll, you’ve created a hostile work environment for two people.” He said that “hundreds” of people showed up when the City Commission met to consider firing Ed Bielarski: “Where are they at? Everyone knew that the discussion about your employment was today… Your decisions as a business leader for this utility has negatively impacted every single ratepayer.”
Timeline clarified
Rasnick asked to clarify the timeline for the “counterparties, banks, and investors, etc., that are watching what’s happening here.” She said the delay was decided on March 15, then the City Commission approved the other transactions, the ones that were not new debt, on April 6. On April 13, the City Commission approved the Net Debt Reduction Plan, “So we could have put the new debt onto this calendar on that same day as the Net Debt Reduction Plan or at any one of the subsequent meetings; there’s no reason to wait until June other than, in my professional opinion, because that’s what I heard, was to hold it until after the legislative session.”
Cunningham interjected that an additional “major aspect of the Debt Reduction Plan” was the City Commission’s vote on May 4 to reduce the Government Services Contribution, “and then we brought the debt issuance in June.”
Coats to Cunningham: “I don’t trust anything you’re saying”
Coats told Cunningham, “You have done an amazing job at steering this board. Your presentations are canned–I’ve called you on it many times. You step on Claudia [Rasnick] every time she goes to tell the truth. The issue that I have with you is that I don’t trust anything you’re saying, based on the fact that it’s in data, it’s in writing–you’re giving money to the City. And you’re now going to make up a variety of excuses… We owe it to this community, Tony, to reduce rates, and all you’ve done is increase debt and increase rates.”
Cunningham said he was “not aware that I have created a hostile environment at all.” He said he’d never heard “that feedback from Mr. Banks… so I’m unaware of that.” He promised Rasnick and Banks that he would “still work with them in a respectful and professional manner.”
“So the business decision I was faced with at that point is, do we take $2.9 million, which is double what we were getting… or do we walk away and say, ‘Go get your own services.'” – GRU CEO Tony Cunningham
Cunningham said the City had previously paid about $1 million a year for IT services, and the SLA for FY2023 was $1.4 million, so he was trying to “capture more of those dollars.” He said the Microsoft licenses were a proxy they used to allocate expenses between GRU and General Government, and that came to $5.9 million, which was a big increase from $1.4 million. He continued, “So the business decision I was faced with at that point is, do we take $2.9 million, which is double what we were getting… or do we walk away and say, ‘Go get your own services.'” He said Banks told him they would not save that amount of money if they walked away, so they wouldn’t be able to reduce expenses enough to make up the loss in revenue.
Carter asked whether the City had given any concessions in that process; he said that as a businessman, he would tell the City to start packing their bags because “where are they going to go?”
Cunningham didn’t want to give the Authority an “overwhelming amount of data”
Regarding the allegation that he had kept Rasnick from bringing financial information to the Authority, Cunningham said that he and Rasnick work together to decide what to put in the presentations: “What we’re attempting to do is try to give you as much boiled-down information that can be used to figure out, hey, here’s the key takeaway, here’s what’s important in this information, so that there’s not an overwhelming amount of data that is clouding decisions.” He said he wasn’t “comfortable” asking the Authority to change rates or change the GSC when they were first appointed “without giving you an opportunity to have that information and the ability to understand the organization before bringing major decisions.”
Cunningham said he often follows Rasnick’s lead because she’s a CPA and he trusts her. Regarding the debt issuance, he said he thought it was important to get the Debt Reduction Plan and reduced general fund transfer in place before issuing more debt. “And so I made the decision, ultimately, for us to not issue it in April, when we didn’t have a plan… and then bring it back in June for the issuance. I don’t know how we would do that any different if we had to redo it because we had to get where we were going and what we were doing in place before we did that.”
Coats: “I hereby move that we terminate your employment, effective immediately”
Coats concluded, “Mr. Cunningham, you did exactly what I thought you would do, which is–you painted a picture, but the facts simply state you have two of your senior staff, that you said you don’t know what the issue is. They’re not lying, they clearly are well-respected, they’re not making this up. So someone isn’t being accurate. And if you couple it with your lack of experience that you have in the business arena and you couple it with the fact that you’ve made a lot of bad business decisions by continuing to give the City additional capital, I hereby move that we terminate your employment, effective immediately.”
The motion died for lack of a second.
Public comment generally favors Cunningham
Although they did not take action on that agenda item, the consensus of the board was that they wanted to take public comment.
Jean Clark, the IT Manager for Enterprise Services, said she had known Cunningham for 22 years and had worked for Banks for about eight years. She said Banks had strengthened the department during his tenure. She said she could retire at any point she wanted to, “and I would if [Banks were] leaving.”
Robin Baxley said she had worked with Cunningham for 17 years, and she was “very angry” to hear Coats say that Cunningham is not trustworthy: “Tony is the most upstanding, honest person that I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with… He may not have the degree that you all feel he needs, but he is exceedingly intelligent.” She said the “top-heavy” employees Coats had criticized were all there before Cunningham was appointed as General Manager.
Brett Goodman, Chief Operating Officer of GRU, said Cunningham’s directive to him was to “undo what Ed [Bielarski] did with overhead on the Chiefs.” He said Bielarski had added “an entire layer of organization… and it’s going to take years to unwind that… You need to give [Cunningham] a chance.”
Regarding the debt issuance, Goodman said Rasnick was correct “from a purely financial perspective,” but if they’d added more debt without having the debt reduction plan and the general fund transfer reduction, “you’re gonna cost your employees jobs… I’ll spend that $2.9 million (the cost of the delayed debt issuance) every single day for our 850 employees.”
Rick Hutton, a Supervising Engineer in the Sustainability Group at GRU, said Cunningham is “of the highest integrity” and said he was “pretty shocked at what’s occurred tonight.” He said he had never witnessed a hostile work environment around Cunningham and said GRU really needs some stability. He added, “I do not think that pushing him out and trying to bring somebody else in new is the right thing to do for GRU or our community, our customers.”
Former GRU General Manager Ed Bielarski said he “had to leave the room” when he realized what was happening because he had been through that four times, and the City Commission finally fired him on January 27, 2022. He said he had not “layered on debt… I added a few Chiefs, took them out of positions that we already had, and actually drove expenses down for the organization.” He said the debt reduction plan began when he bought out the biomass plant Power Purchase Agreement, turning a lease that was capitalized for $1.1 billion into $750 million of debt, over $300 million of debt reduction. He added, “You must challenge Tony, you must challenge the things you hear, because you have the power. You have to look at your legal representation.”
Bielarski said the strategic plan is not a transformational plan because “a transformational plan is deciding whether you want to be in the generation business any longer. You entered into a Solar PPA that doesn’t make sense.”
Jim Konish said Cunningham had put together a budget for the current fiscal year that’s “full of considerations relating to political, social, and ideological interests, which were prohibited [by HB 1645].” He said that under the bill, Cunningham only has authority over Human Resources and can’t even change the Fuel Adjustment Charge, which Cunningham recently reduced, without the approval of the Authority. He urged the Authority to hire their own legal representation instead of using City Attorney Daniel Nee, who, Konish said, represents the City Commissioners.
Debbie Martinez said, “Nice doesn’t equate to competency. I believe… that we need an expert who has a proven record of fixing financially broken utilities like ours.”
Christine Kunkel, who serves as the Clerk of the Authority, said she works in the General Manager’s office and said Cunningham cares deeply about the utility. She also said she was at fault for not fulfilling Coats’ record request regarding the SLA, saying she “dropped the ball.” She said, “Unfortunately, sometimes it can be overwhelming and things can slip through the cracks, which I’m sure you all understand, having served in very prominent positions.”
Kunkel said she had also supported Bielarski in front of the City Commission, and “neither one is the perfect CEO, because frankly, I don’t believe there is a perfect CEO. But I do believe that he cares very deeply about this organization.”
Carter to Cunningham: If you don’t achieve benchmarks in one year, “I expect you to resign”
When the discussion came back to the board, Member Robert Karow said he thought they needed to make a decision on hiring an attorney. Carter said he would bring that up in Member Comment because it wasn’t on the agenda.
Looking at Cunningham, Carter said he had been very candid that he “would love to have a fixer, a CEO that could come in and fix everything… But I also feel that we can’t pull too many levers at once, and I think that can sink a ship.” He said his focus is on reducing rates and debt reduction, “because we are at least triple over what we should be in debt… I have questioned Tony’s business decisions… What frustrates me is that it seems that GRU is making the concessions, time and time again, and that concerns me. And if you’re going to be our guy, I would like you to have a black eye or two.”
Cunningham said, “I’m good with that.”
Carter continued, “So I am putting my support behind you… So going forward, I think there needs to be a time limit. I think there needs to be some thresholds and some benchmarks that you need to achieve. If you don’t achieve those, I expect you to resign. I don’t expect to go through this again… And I think one year is a very good time.”
Member Eric Lawson said he thought Cunningham and his staff “are very professional and experts at what they do… There’s still a lot of work to do, but we also have to be careful with how we work with the bond markets and how we work with the evaluators… I think the IRP is very important in some of those long-term decisions, and certainly in this next budget process. That is where we’re going to flesh out a lot of the SLAs and some of those things. So I do give my support to Tony.”
Motion to hire an Interim Attorney
During Member Comment, Coats asked attorney Scott Walker to give his opinion on whether the Authority has the ability to appoint an Interim Attorney. Walker said he thought they did and added, “I think that you should establish your own procurement policies that are different from the policies that the City of Gainesville has… To answer your question, I think you have the ability to seek counsel, seek consultants, and employ those that you feel are necessary to help this utility.”
Nee said that regardless of any consultants the Authority hires, “I would continue to advise you that when it comes to the things specified in the charter, such as reviewing all contracts, bonds, and other instruments in writing… That is still, perhaps to your chagrin, the role that I hold, but that doesn’t mean you can’t receive counsel advice from several people.”
Cunningham said GRU has procurement policies that require the hiring to go through an RFP, and Carter said he would go through that with Walker, “but the point is, it’s interim.” Carter said that if the Authority needs to make a change to GRU’s procurement policy to be able to hire the Interim Attorney, he would bring that language back to the Dec. 14 meeting.
Karow made a motion to allow Carter to negotiate with Walker and reduce the payment to the City for Attorney services to free up money to pay Walker. Lawson seconded the motion.
The motion passed unanimously.
The next GRU Authority meeting is December 14 at 5:30 p.m.
Thank you for this detailed article AC. Thank you James Coates for standing in the gap for us. I know it was not easy to have this conversation with Cunningham but it was necessary. You had to play the hard-ass but it was effective. It appears there was some great dialogue in the meeting that is making progress. I agree to give Cunningham time to make things right. I hope the mayor and commissioners are paying attention. Their day is coming.
Scott Walker has his hands full representing 8 municipalities already. By all indications, High Springs is getting ready to drop him because someone’s carelessness cost them $350,000 this past year. His strategy is to “smooth things over” and not make much work for himself or his office (my observation/opinion).
He claimed to only read the contract and it wasn’t his job to raise any red flags…
Mr. Walker has been on the agenda for termination several times for over a year. The Board changed in November and his termination was tabled until January during the last the commission meeting because they are currently looking for a Fire Chief and City Manager. Many in High Springs will be glad to see him go.
Hostile work environments and political and personal attacks are the hallmarks of the City of Gainesville and GRU. Tony will not survive. Repeat. Tony will not survive. He has to work beyond hard for a year while simultaneously working hard to position himself and family for a new job and possible relocation. Live by the sword, die by the sword. They have basically given him notice. He is delusional if he thinks he will outlast that. I predict all kinds of lawsuits as Banks and Rasnik are minorities under Title VII. Even though they haven’t submitted a complaint to the city, they have both expressed public concerns to the perpetrator’s supervisors. Anything punitive that happens to them will be perfect claims for retaliation for coming forward with their concerns. You can’t make this up. Typical dysfunction, discrimination, egregious behavior and I wouldn’t doubt for a second that those in charge wouldn’t authorize or weaponize other arms of city government to harass or intimidate either of these employees or make threats to their families. The State of Florida needs to intervene further and take over that clown town and utility.
Tony Cunningham along with Weak Mayor Harvey Ward, who acts like he has the powers of a Strong Mayor system, has NO more power than the rest of the members on the city commission, have worked and appear to be working tirelessly to undermine GRUA board.
I do NOT believe GRU customers will ever be able to TRUST either one of them – given their record.
Their recommendations to the GRUA board appears to look more like a BAILOUT for city commissioners.
During Poe and Ward’s time serving together on the city commission, they went on a MASSIVE hiring and spending spree while the City/GRU was sitting on a mountain of UNSUSTAINABLE debt, and now they act like victims.
Mr. Ward and the other members of the city commission need to be DOWNSIZING city hall – NOT begging Chair Craig Carter and the rest of the GRUA board members for money to be TRANSFERRED to the city to be spent on maintaining these costly programs and projects they WANT but do NOT need.
Interesting that High Springs has been trying to fire Scott Walker, their city attorney, and now he shows up at the GRU mtgs wanting yet another job to add to his collection.
If would be fitting to give him an old fashion railroad send off from this historic town!
So now they will hire Carter’s friend as their attorney without reviewing options. What could be wrong about that. This board is a shatshow. A kangaroo court trial with Coates as judge. My advice to Mr. Cunningham is to save himself a lot of worry, anxiety, and grief and resign with a severance package and find another job. Then the illegitimate board can hire their unqualified friend(s) to run GRU. Btw, is Carter really as dense as the impression he gives?
Wonder when Coats will start pouting and threatening to resign again.
So while the city, via GRU, sends out self-gratifying emails to it’s customers about lowering it’s rates…”GRU reduced its electric fuel adjustment on Dec. 1, saving residential customers using 1,000 kWh $5 a month. December’s reduction in fuel costs marks the fourth this year. A customer using 1,000 kWh this December will pay about $37 less than last December.”
GRU CEO states, “I will say, when you look at our utility, our rates are competitive, except for our electric rates. Our electric rates are high…”
He just confirmed what most of us have known for years, and City Commissioners, (and other liberal lemmings), have not only denied but lied about.
Hope you’re still happy with your elected officials.
It’s too bad most of you don’t understand the difference between the electric RATE and the fuel adjustment charge. Sigh.
That’s not the only thing “too bad” around these parts.
The “Authority” is an illegal entity because only 1 of the 5 members actually qualifies for their position according to it’s own rules. Paying attention to whatever it does is a waste of time as it’s actions will be thrown out as non-binding nonsense eventually.
Jazzman you definitely Have not read the law or caught the part about a minimum of one! You are a complete disgrace to your elected seat if you are who I believe you are.
Since I am not elected to anything, I am not who you think I am.
You are wrong about the law. The “minimum of one” refers to adjustments to the Authority membership if non-city residents become larger share of GRU customers, and they are not now. That is in article 3 immediately following article 2 which states in para 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.”
Here are articles 2 and read 3:
“(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 other wise 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.”
Clearly you were either fed lies by someone or came up with a novel nonsensical interpretation of what is absolutely clear in the law.
In sum, the “Authority” is wasting everyone’s time and if they had any decency they would step down, and if the state GOP – including our local traitors Clemons and Perry – wasn’t too embarrassed to admit DeSantis had his mind on Iowa and not GRU when he picked these guys from a list of GOP donors, the situation would be fixed and we could get to the next biggr legal question – can the state steal the property of the citizens of Gainesville?
You are absolutely hilarious! You are not right, I have spoke with many people that have knowledge of the law! Not lies. Oh btw have fun trying to make your argument to who ever!
That Girl, I posted the law above. Can you read?
WTH is wrong with you?
Hey Girl,
I can assure you that Jizz-breath is not elected to anything. He/she or they/them (or whatever it is today) is just some person who is happy with high taxes, high utility bills, and is first in line for a guber-ment hand out.
Them needs a new fiddle to play. It sounds like a broken record.
Don’t like hearing the facts Captain Shad? It’s music to the ears of the ethical and wise.
Go one pretending the “Authority” is not a board of phonies – except one – emboldened to play out their farce in broad daylight when every one knows they don’t belong there, including even you. What does that say about your ethics and wisdom?
The fact is when you and your feckless commission loses everyone else but the Gainesville Voters win. Gru needs to saved and not go down the toilet with Gainesville. I have no comment on your lack of vision for Gru and it’s customers. Now get to work on Gainesville’s pending ‘Go fund me” . Lord knows they need it.
“Captain”, how about commenting on the facts for a change, which I posted above – the actual law! – for That Girl – and who’s meaning is unequivocal.
Whatever your “vision” for GRU is, mine does not include the state GOP stealing it from Gainesville citizens and then handing it’s direction over to an “Authority” of unqualified frauds who’s key to membership was probably being on a list of GOP donors.
free stuff is as ignorant about whether I receive hand outs as he is about my opinions, and apparently thinks opposing theft of property means an endorsement of whatever the owner of the property does and doesn’t like it when the thieves are pointed out.
Hitting the copium hard this morning I see?
Mr. Nee can and will perform all acts ordered by his bosses on the City Commission. Nothing Mr. Nee instigates or carries out Is billable to GRU. This is mandated by the Fla. Bar regulations regarding Ethics and Article VII of our City Charter – in multiple sections. The in house GRU “utility attorney” must work for Cunningham – not Nee.
The City Commission and GRU Authority cannot sue each other. The City Commission is attacking the Authority, and its bosses (Governor, Clemons, Perry, et al.) through proxies such as Hutch and Holland & Knight.
The Authority’s bosses will have to step in and swat down the wasteful attacks on the legitimacy of the Authority. It will also have to consider making the authority a separate entity from the City and/or transferring ownership of GRU to the Authority. The Authority should not assume any GRU debt without receiving ownership in return.
The manager told me the City owns the land and the Airport Authority owns the improvements. As Craig Carter knows, the airport has its own attorney.
Jim, putting aside your disgusting collaborationist coddling of the attackers of the citizens of Gainesville property, namely the carpetbaggers of the state GOP who you name, the “Authority” has no authority given that 4 of it’s members are clearly and unarguably not qualified to be members of that imposed board. Their wasting everyone’s time pretending they are.
Can’t you read?
Seething intensifies, more copium please!!
Mr. Konish:
I’m confused.
You state above “The city commission and GRU Authority cannot sue each other. The City Commission is attacking the Authority, and its bosses (Governor, Clemons, Perry, et al.) through proxies such as Hutch and Holland & Knight.”
In the past you have also cited Judge Angela Dempsey’s order dismissing the City Commission previous lawsuit:
“I. The City of Gainesville Failed to Sue the Proper Parties:
Page 3: “Each Defendant Is an Improper Party”. Page 4: “Plaintiff does not allege, much less demonstrate, that the Defendants meet any of the Francati elements.” “’The proper defendant in a lawsuit challenging a statute’s constitutionality is the state official designated to enforce the statute.’”… Neither the Attorney General, the Governor, nor the Secretary enforce the Challenged Law. Rather, the Authority does.”…”
alachuachronicle.com/konish-judge-dempsey-rebukes-gainesville-city-commission-and-their-attorneys/
It seems to me that Judge Dempsey’s finding implies that the city commission should have, in fact, sued the Authority.
“… Neither the Attorney General, the Governor, nor the Secretary enforce the Challenged Law. Rather, the Authority does.”…Judge Dempsey
You also state above “The City Commission is attacking the Authority, and its bosses (Governor, Clemons, Perry, et al.) through proxies such as Hutch and Holland & Knight.”
But, doesn’t Judge Dempsey’s ruling state that the “(Governor, Clemons, Perry, et al.)” are NOT the bosses of the Authority as you state not once but, TWICE above?
Is Judge Dempsey wrong? Oh deary, deary me!
Also, not aware the GRU Authority is accepting nor, even given the authorization to accept or make, any debt. Such responsibility still rests with the city last I heard.
Also, keep in mind the airport authority has its own charter (therefore, a stand alone entity) and is, in essence, a tenant of the city (very loosely speaking).