GRU Authority reduces GFT by $1.5 million, increases usage for lowest electric rate tier from 850 kWh to 1,000 kWh
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their December 11 meeting, the GRU Authority reduced the FY24 General Fund Transfer by almost $1.5 million, announced that electric rates will not increase through 2027, and increased the usage billed at the lowest residential electric rate from 850 kWh to 1,000 kWh.
FY24 General Fund Transfer reduced by almost $1.5 million
During public comment on the consent agenda, multiple people objected to an item reducing the remaining FY24 General Fund Transfer from $3 million to $1,488,897 to recoup expenses for County streetlights and legal fees to defend the Authority against lawsuits from the City.
Jim Konish thought they were not recouping enough, but City of Gainesville Finance Director Dennis Nguyen said the City “strongly disagrees with GRU’s unilateral decision to impose these deductions… The City should not bear responsibility for GRU’s financial obligations. Such actions undermine the intent and structure of the General Services Contribution, creating an inequitable burden on General Government without proper justification or mutual agreement.” Nguyen said the City “intends to engage with the County to explore a better path forward regarding these streetlight costs and seeks additional discussion with GRU concerning legal fees charged to General Government… We recommend awaiting current litigation before establishing a precedent where GRU can compel General Government to accept expenditures by manipulating the GSC.”
Chuck Ross also agreed that the GFT item should be pulled from the consent agenda for discussion.
The consent agenda passed unanimously, including the GFT item.
No electric rate increases in 2026 or 2027
During CEO comments, CEO Ed Bielarski said he told staff that the budget should be developed under the assumption that there will be no electric rate increases in 2026 or 2027.
Lower residential electric tier increased to 1,000 kWh
The board also adopted a resolution that changes the tiers for residential electricity billing, effective January 1, 2025; currently the lower-priced tier tops out at 850kWh per month, but under the new structure, the lower rate will apply up to 1,000 kWh per month. The price per kilowatt-hour will remain the same for the lower tier and will increase by about a penny for the higher tier.
The change will result in a reduction of $4.13 per month for residential accounts that use exactly 1,000 kWh; accounts that use 850 kWh or less will remain the same, bills for accounts that use between 851 kWh and 1450 kWh will be slightly lower than under the current billing structure, and accounts that use more than 1,450 kWh will see higher bills.
According to the presentation at the meeting, 59% of customer accounts will pay an average of $2.23 less per month, 24% of customer accounts will pay the same, and 17% of customer accounts (those using over 1,450 kWh per month) will pay an average of $5.52 more per month.
Director Jack Jacobs pointed out that GRU is now “competitive with Clay Electric. Yes, we haven’t quite caught FP&L, but Clay Electric, we’re competitive with.”
Bielarski said the monthly bill for 1,000 kWH has gone down from $152 down to $140, mostly due to reduced fuel expenses, and “we want to get it lower. We want to get to the middle of the road… When people say, ‘You haven’t [decreased] the rate, you haven’t done anything’ – well, we’ve done a lot. The organization is subject to inflationary pressures that we’re absorbing in the workforce, and we’re continuing to try to be more efficient and absorb those over a period of time.”
Director David Haslam added, “The mess didn’t happen overnight, and we can’t fix it – it’s not light switch on, light switch off. There’s going to be some time involved. And for all the public comment that thinks that we don’t all want the absolute best for Gainesville and the best for this utility – that’s obscene.”
The new electric tiers passed unanimously and will take effect on January 1, 2025.
YOU HAVE DONE A LOT, BUT WE ARE NOT SO THANKFUL, or impressed. 😐
GRU is a Monopoly. You guys are not competing with Clay electric, or FPL. What kind of burnt breakers are y’all working with at these meetings ???
Let me see if I understand what I just read….?
The City of Gainesville Commission wants us “GRU Customers” to pay the legal fees to defend lawsuits from the City towards the State Authority, right??? For the mess the CoG commission got themselves in for over spending shady $$$ to start with.
During the Covid days???
And after all the fudging numbers, you are saying to me, I can save enough on my energy bill, to run my microwave long enough to cook some Ramen noodles…. 😋
As far as the street light repair cost are concerned in Alachua County, How can the county say it cost so much, when the county has spent millions for new the new homeless project over by Meridian?
The County has also recently acquired the old West End Golf Course off Newberry Rd in Jonesviille.
How can the county cry, we don’t have enough money to pay a crew of GRUs guys to fix a street light???
I tell ya what it is…..
The Gainesville City Commission won’t come clean about their finances with GRU Customers during the “COVID-19 Days”.
Neither Will the State Authority, because their is too much corporate American Horse $hit to be unraveled.
No one wants to be a “Fall Guy”. Noooo!
We gonna drag our customers through the mud. That’s easier than actually admitting to GRU Customers what the cog was doing at the time.
Yea. Y’all have done something.
You have topped “Boeing” on your lack of principles.
😂😂😂
“City of Gainesville Finance Director Dennis Nguyen said the City “strongly disagrees with GRU’s unilateral decision to impose these deductions… The City should not bear responsibility for GRU’s financial obligations.” Where was he when 99% of the GRU customers objected to the increased rates a couple years ago?
That idiot doesn’t realize, or just refuses to acknowledge, it’s the City that got the “publicly owned” utility to this point. Their frivolous, irresponsible, financial incompetence, and possibly malfeasance, in using GRU profits for their own personal agendas. It’s about time someone took their keys away.
I may have to go by City Hall to see if Harvey’s head has exploded or if he and Poe are consoling one another in some closet.
Thanks GRU Authority; hopefully you’ll be able to continue providing some relief for GRU customers who’ve been taken advantage of for years by the City’s inept leadership.
Agreed, wasnt the City using GRU as a piggy bank?
Then we found out the piggy bank was in the red, now the city is saying they shouldnt have to bear the costs of their own actions?
What a grift!
Ok now I am mad. You just got into my donutz budget. You know I like doNUTz in my mouth and with this latest transfer cut I can’t buy my donutz. What is the BS about expanding the lower tier usage and saving the customer money. Big Daddy Eddy B you are doing it all wrong. We are supposed to be taking more money from the citizens not putting it back in their pockets.
Going from the MainStreetDaily News, he’s only been on the city payroll a year and a half. I guess he pulled the short straw over at the city when this meeting was announced.
Going from the MainStreetDaily News, he’s only been on the city payroll a year and a half. I guess he pulled the short straw over at the city when this meeting was announced.
City of Gainesville Finance Director Dennis Nguyen is either an unscrupulous corporate pawn or mentally retarded. His quotes above are so disingenuous … so I’m going with the former
The Failed Gainesville city leaders need to be drug tested. They seem to not be within the worlds reality. Or is that a trait of Control Freaks?
Maybe Nguyen is another of Harvey’s closet buddies.
Must be a big closet.
Maybe the city can sell some gold tennis shoes to make extra money?
Rainbow 🌈 tennis shoes..
This GRU authority is great!
Wish they were around way back when so Hanrahan couldn’t ruin GRU
Going biomass to stop climate change…
If GRU has a climate change, a sustainability, or DEI officer, Bielarski and the authority need to can those positions if they haven’t already to further lower costs to help the ratepayers…those positions are not a mandate from Desantis or the State of Florida.
Customer service still sucks at GRU
and that needs some work…
there’s a long wait time to get through …Also, put the GRU phone # on the part of the bill we keep in case we need to call them..
FPL, Duke, & Clay have better, faster to get to , nicer, & more helpful customer service representatives…
Bielarski needs to start talking and planning about
New electric generating plants that use clean coal brought here by rail…
He needs to lock in a 30 year contract for clean coal delivery to make GRU great again!
MGRUGA‼️ like Aoooga!🎶😃
There was formal “forgiveness” of a $3 million loss on FY 23 IT services These losses were $4.5 million in FY22 and had been going on for years. There was a previous public reveal that Cunningham had falsified “Full Cost Allocation Reports” regarding GRU IT services provided to the City. The recoupment was therefore only a fraction of what is actually owed to GRU. The total amount of SLA losses borne by GRU ratepayers that is supposed to be identified and included in the Flow of Funds remain unknown.
“The City should not bear responsibility for GRU’s financial obligations. Such actions undermine the intent and structure of the General Services Contribution, creating an inequitable burden on General Government without proper justification or mutual agreement.”
Really? Well, two can play that game. The county should not bear responsibility for the City’s previously mismanagement of GRU and therefore should not bear any burden to pay off their GRU debt.
Yeah, but I want the county to pay their bill…
“During public comment on the consent agenda, multiple people objected to an item reducing the remaining FY24 General Fund Transfer from $3 million to $1,488,897 to recoup expenses for County streetlights and legal fees to defend the Authority against lawsuits from the City.”
OK Jennifer. Who were they and what did they say?
Watch the video. She’s not your personal secretary
They’re all listed by name in the article
Jennifer, I’m sure you must be right, but..
You only mention Nguyen, who is not the “public” and Chuck Ross – don’t know who he is, but even if he is the “public”, that’s one guy and he’s not “multiple people”. You can’t be including Jim Konish since he must be an elected city commissioner, right, and he didn’t object to the “recouping” but wanted more “recouped”.
Were those the “multiple people”? Help me out please.
I wrote that “multiple people” spoke during public comment about the GFT reduction. They were Konish, Nguyen, and Ross.
Not to be argumentative, but you wrote:
” multiple people objected”
All three objected. Konish thought they should cut more, and the other two thought they should not cut anything from the GFT.
Probably some of the Mayor & Commission’s paid minions & serfs.
Great job GRUA–keep up the great work and don’t back down, ever.
The reckless and likely criminally negligent abuse of GRU funds by the corrupt members of the Gainesville City Commission has nearly driven us all over a financial cliff.
The GRU ratepayers have been defrauded by the Gainesville City Commission for years by this underhanded scheme to steal from GRU in order to fund unpopular / wasteful government spending that they knew could never be enacted in the light of day.
Even worse, a significant portion of GRU ratepayers (I hear 30-40%) aren’t Gainesville residents, so they don’t even have the option of voting these crooks out. Pure taxation without representation.
How much was laundered and funneled toward rewarding campaign donors, election office employees, and other members of our own local corrupt Democratic Party political machine, we may never know.
The bootlickers and commies who support the City never explain how driving up utility rates benefits the people of this county, especially the poor and disadvantaged that they pretend to champion.
Link to evidence of criminality Dad?