“It is a big idea, but it’s one our community has been clamoring for”: In discussion that wasn’t on the agenda, Gainesville City Commission takes first step toward ballot referendum on taking control of GRU back from the Authority

BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Although the topic was not on today’s Gainesville City Commission agenda, the Commission voted unanimously to ask the City Attorney to take steps toward putting a referendum on the November ballot to eliminate the GRU Authority and return control of GRU to the Commission. They also passed an ordinance requiring GRU to pay permitting fees on second reading.
General Public Comment
Eighteen people showed up to advocate for the idea, which had not previously been discussed publicly, during the General Public Comment period in the afternoon session of the meeting.
Michael Perkins was the first to spell out the idea, saying that “this country was founded on taxation without representation, and I feel that that’s what’s going on with the GRU appointed board. We the citizens have no input on what’s going on. So we would like to recommend that this council put forth a referendum on the ballot that will allow citizens to put forth their choice about what they want done with GRU… We need to send that word forward to the Governor, that the citizens feel that they can govern themselves.”
Janice Garry, President of the League of Women Voters, said the organization opposed HB 1645, which she said “blatantly violated democratic processes and trounced on Home Rule… Home Rule has been trashed… Therefore the League of Women Voters of Alachua County urges this City Commission to place on the November 2024 ballot a referendum that would delete Article VII of the City Charter that created the Authority. State statute 166.031 gives this Commission the authority to place a referendum on the general election ballot. This commission can give voters a choice of who governs our municipal utility.”
Evelyn Foxx, President of the Alachua County branch of the NAACP, said she “[stood] in support of everything that Janice Garry said and more.”
Bobby Mermer expressed the Alachua County Labor Coalition’s support for the proposal, and James Ingle spoke for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Former County Commissioner Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson spoke for Gainesville Residents United, which has brought lawsuits challenging the Authority, saying, “The chaos will continue, caused by this board and HB 1645, until the voters have a chance to decide whether this is really what they want… And we look forward to a campaign in the summer and into October and November.”
A total of 19 people (including one who had come to speak on a different topic but indicated his support) spoke in favor of the referendum over about 50 minutes.
Ward: “An extraordinary ask, but it’s an extraordinary situation.”
After General Public Comment, Mayor Harvey Ward said the referendum is “an extraordinary ask, but it’s an extraordinary situation.” Assuming that Commissioners would want to discuss the idea, Ward moved Commission Comment up from its place at the end of the afternoon session.
Commissioner Bryan Eastman asked City Attorney Daniel Nee about the “legality… of changing something within our Charter that was created by Special Act.” Nee read the procedure for changing the Charter from Florida Statutes and said it would need to be done with an ordinance, passed by a supermajority of 4/5 of the Commission (six out of seven votes), to call for a Charter Amendment Ballot Referendum. He said he didn’t see anything in the statutes that made a Charter Amendment from a Special Act “sacrosanct.” He concluded, “So the Charter is sort of a living document… that can be amended, un-amended, re-amended, and amended again.”
Commissioner Ed Book said he’d heard the idea for the first time the previous evening and said, “What we’re seeing here is a piece of a much larger picture because it’s not an agenda item… I want to hear from more community members.” He said he would like to see the proposal on a future agenda.
Saco: “If people are against it, they can vote against it on the ballot when it pops up.”
Commissioner Reina Saco said she would “not favor tabling this for future discussion… I think if we want to move forward on this, we should do so as soon as possible… If people are against it, they can vote against it on the ballot when it pops up… I think we make the decision one way or another today.” She pointed out that Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton prefers to know as soon as possible if something will be added to a ballot.
Ward confirmed with Nee that the process would be to direct the City Attorney to create an ordinance setting the referendum, and that ordinance would have two readings before the City Commission.
Willits: “It is a big idea, but it’s one our community has been clamoring for.”
Commissioner Casey Willits said, “A lot of the voters wish this could have been a vote to begin with, and now some of them are asking us more directly to give them that opportunity… It is a big idea, but it’s one our community has been clamoring for.”
Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “I agree that we need to move as swiftly as possible. And we’re not asking for a special election, because [Barton] gets upset when you ask for a special election. She gets very upset. But this would be part of the normal election process. And I think that people have not been heard from, and they want to have their voice to weigh in on this.”
Ward said the idea of the referendum had come up when HB 1645 was still pending before the legislature in 2023: “This is not brand new. It’s the first time we’ve had an opportunity to talk about it here. It’s the first time it’s come before this body. But it’s certainly not the first time that folks have expressed this in the community… I appreciate those of you who were ready to move this forward before the bill passed last year, for having patience to see how this played out… Nobody should take this as a personal affront. This is a question of how we approach the governance of the utility, and I hope that folks will take it in that way, if we were to move forward and put a referendum on the ballot… I don’t know how this would turn out on a ballot, I really don’t.”
Ward said the ballot language should be simple, along the lines of “Who do you want to run this thing?”
Eastman said, “I think that if we want to get back to a place of stability, where there’s not this back and forth questions of legitimacy, the people need to have a say on this. And if it doesn’t go our way, then at least – if it doesn’t go the way of returning GRU back to the local elected officials, then the GRU Authority… can look the constituents and the ratepayers in the eyes and say they wanted us here.”
Motion
Eastman made a motion to “direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance, as allowed by the Florida constitution and state law, putting to a vote of the residents of Gainesville an amendment to our Charter that eliminates the Governor-appointed board that manages, operates, and controls the utilities owned by the City of Gainesville by striking Article VII out of the City Charter in its entirety, placing the question on the ballot so that people can decide the future of their utility.” The motion was seconded by Chestnut.
Book said he was concerned that they “didn’t have the ability to provide other people the opportunity for input today because it came through various groups and from an organizational standpoint.” He asked whether they could consider the motion at the next General Policy Committee meeting instead.
Ward said they already had a “fairly busy day” at the next GPC meeting, but if they voted to move forward today, he would put the issue on that agenda for “further conversation to fill in the blanks about how that moves forward and what a timetable might look like.”
During public comment on the motion, Kim Popejoy suggested that they not “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and simply change the Charter to give the City Commission the power to appoint Authority members.
The motion passed 6-0, with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker absent.
Ordinance requiring GRU to pay permitting fees passes on second reading
In other business, the Commission passed an ordinance requiring GRU to pay permitting fees on second reading, 5-0, with Duncan-Walker and Saco absent.
No, we DO NOT want the city commissioners to have power over GRU! No!
Remember, when GRU was established it was at a time when city elections fell during the general election cycle, and brought out much more of the population portion to vote.
Since then, the city elections were gradually converted into a springtime off year cycle, creating the echo chamber we have now. They may be in for a rude awakening in November, when a far greater democracy happens.
GRU was also established before pre-UF in Gainesville as well.
The reality is this motion is all because these greedy “commissioners” can’t stand not having that “piggy bank” (GRU) to use whenever a liberal radical idea comes up that they don’t have the money for. Listen boobs: You already ran it into the ground financially. And, these concerned citizens that brought it up were staged/planted nitwit followers.
Beyond stupid, but then it’s expected from an entity that just can’t let go of that pacifier.
Thank you, City Commissioners, for taking the first step restoring democracy for GRU!
Will voters outside of the City limits of Gainesville, who are rate payers of GRU, be able to vote on this issue?
Do rate payers outside of Gainesville city limits have the ability to vote for the City of Gainesville Commissioners who will operate the Utility again if all this passes?
No to both questions. Only City of Gainesville voters can vote on charter amendments.
Then the Commissioners are speaking misinformation…..
Ward said the ballot language should be simple, along the lines of “Who do you want to run this thing?”
Only City residents can decide that.
Eastman said “placing the question on the ballot so that people can decide the future of their utility.”
Only City residents can, not the ratepayers of the Utility.
Willits said, “A lot of the voters wish this could have been a vote to begin with, and now some of them are asking us more directly to give them that opportunity”
Only the residents of the City, not all voters……What about the ratepayers?
Saco said “If people are against it, they can vote against it on the ballot when it pops up”
No, only the residents of the City can vote against it.
One ballot option should be to sell GRU for erasing the debt in return.
State law doesn’t allow non-city residents to vote on charter amendments.
I’m sure the city would welcome the votes of residents of the GRU service territory in unincorporated areas, if Tallahassee didn’t prohibit it.
The city of Gainesville owns GRU, not Alachua County or Newberry. The latter don’t own Clay Electric or FPL either
Ownership, in what manner? I’m a newer resident and I’m trying to understand responsibilities here.
GRU was created and is owned by the city of Gainesville and is a long standing utility. As such, it has been run by people appointed by the leaders elected by the citizens, who are it’s final owners, not the state. Having a state appointed “authority” running it is a violation of the simple rules of ownership and of democratic government.
It is true that non-citizens of Gainesville are also customers, but they are not owners, and like any utility or other business serving them, they have had no say in GRU’s governance, though the state appointed “authority” requires 1 non-Gainesville citizen who is a customer member to represent them, and even more if their number as a portion of all customers increases.
PS This is blatant theft by the state from Gainesville and was led by politicians in debt to Florida Power and Light who were not elected by Gainesville Residents and are also of the opposite party of the dominant party in the city and county. The partisan nature of this attack is not an accident.
Can something that has negative worth actually be stolen? In other words, wouldn’t it be stolen debt?
All utilities operate with debt. FPL is owned by Nextera, which carries 73 billion dollars worth of debt, for example. That’s right, billions. The idea that a utility should not have any debt is a fantasy cooked up by people who have no idea how they work.
Of course utilities carry debt. It’s GRU’s debt to assets ration that’s the problem. Especially since a large part of their debt is for items that had nothing to do with maintaining or upgrading their electric generators and infrastructure and a used wood burner that we could have built ourselves for a third of what it cost us to buy it used.
You meant to say, “that GRU has been run into the ground by the continued fiscal incompetence of Gainesville’s City Commissioners, who continue to be elected by a group of voters who comprise the majority of uninformed, ignorant voters; who have unfortunately, become an infestation to this community.”
That’s the real truth.
Then elect someone else. The Governor may not like how I run my business, but tough …., that is unless you’re Disney. Then he thinks he should take over. This is outrageous BS that no one who believes in free enterprise, ownership rights, small government and self determination should tolerate. Unfortunately, almost no one this board cares about any of that.
bS
Wrong. We do care about it. That’s why most of us are in agreement with some governance over the Commission’s continued abuse and misuse of GRU funds. If you were the CEO of a company actions would be taken to prevent your abuse of profits as well.
Jazz, I thought the current thing was “stakeholders”, not owners nor investors. You are sounding a bit bigoted with your very exclusive in thinking and language. You need to go to diversity training.
According to GRU’s own site: “Today, as a publicly owned utility, we serve approximately 99,700 customers with a service area of 124 square miles.” PUBLICLY OWNED, not owned by the city of Gainesville. If you are a ratepayer, paying for PUBLICLY owned services, you SHOULD have a voice in their governance. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON outside of the city limits of Gainesville, but FORCED to purchase from GRU has a voice. Not one. Taxation without representation. You keep going on and on about how the Authority Board was unconstitutional yet you are completely silent about citizens being FORCED to buy utilities where they have no representation. Hypocrite much?
The city owns GRU, not Newberry.
Great you solved the problem.
Eastman (aka Jazzman). Your comment made absolutely zero sense and in no way, shape, or form related to my statement. Show us where I referenced Newberry.
Nope. Leftisits are all about taxation without representation.
If you dont like GRU, why don’t you switch to a private company?
Knucklehead. It’s not that people don’t like GRU, most of us don’t like how the city commission has used it as their personal piggy bank.
I meet socially with several groups of citizens and I have yet to hear the “Clamor” for this proposed referendum issue. Most are happy that the “City” does not have total control on all issues,
So much for “SUNSHINE LAWS”… how would 19 or so people representing lobbies, unions and specific demographic groups just happen to show up to support an item that was not even on the agenda?
C’mon man! Ward you are still cheating. And Hutch has continued to whine because he did not get his way.
WE THE PEOPLE ARE BEING HARMED BY THESE PEOPLE. They will not stop!
The Dunning-Kruger is strong in that lot. The Mayor and Commission for too long managed GRU both as a political operation, and a tool by which money could be overtly transferred and covertly hijacked to fund pet projects with resulting financial ramifications. Only now is it coming to light the multiple under the table transfers of GRU ratepayer wealth to general government.
Bryan, I understand that your favorite play toy and golden goose have been taken away. Rather than throwing a temper tantrum, recognize that it’s about time you give up your security blanket and demonstrate that you can manage what you’ve got before growing into a larger role. From the evidence presented by the commission’s work over the past few months, your already over your heads.
The utility board has had issues getting its feet under it, but was still better than commission (mis) management and with new members has promise. Until then, I urge keeping an open mind.
Illegal. Merely a straw ballot that will fail. Only the legislature can amend 1645 under these circumstances. Nee is off the rails and remains fully funded by GRU ratepayers.
Nothing illegal about it, traitor.
We’re talking about Florida Statute 550.1645, right? Jazz, you’re saying that the City can amend State Statute?
I’m saying the city can hold referendums on issues of interest to it’s citizens.
Thank you for clearing that up. In summary, it’s not illegal, but it’s a straw ballot as the referendum lacks any authority.
Like rearranging those deck chairs on the CC-Titanic.
So they can waste more of our time and money, once again proving that they are not able to make good business decisions and should never be allowed to have fiscal control of GRU ever again.
Nope but we can amend our own city charter, which is what this referendum does.
Yep, Nee Boy finally got the job after his boss chose to flee the corrupt radicalism of Po, like most sane people would. Now Nee is on his knees to support these replacements… When he can’t hand them any more favors, he’ll be thrown away too, just like Bielarski w
Hey Legislature, Liberate the ratepayers outside of the City Limits. Pass a law the prohibits a City to provide utility services beyond the boundary of the municipality.
Force the City the sell it’s utility assets beyond the city limits and stop the madness.
Rep Hinson offered that as an amendment when the bill was in the House and Republicans voted it down.
I guess there’s a couple smart ones in the bunch after all.
Any conservative would vote against anything Hinson promoted. She’s as radical as they come.
If you don’t like GRU why don’t you switch to Clay or Duke or some other private enterprise. See how much of a say you get then! Lol
Sell the whole damn thing to a real utility that knows how to run like a business . Get rid of the clowns on the city commission. Have the state audit every thing in that crooked place. Let those who live outside the city opt out and get better cheaper service elsewhere. Look into all the crooked not for profits who have commissioners on the boards or other crooked city officials. Make it a conflict of interest and prohibit anyone in leadership or on the commission from financially benefiting from any city funded donations to a “pet” charity or project in any way. Let GRU bill the city for every damn thing GRU does for that crappy city. Turn it all upside down. Sure couldn’t be any worse than what is there now.
Yes Senator Perry, we know that’s what FPL paid you $100k to advocate for.
Talk about taxation without representation. If you live in the county, review your GRU bill, a monopoly service provider. How many surcharges, service fees and other costs do you pay, yet you had no input or control over the city utility.
But of course, the city needs this revenue stream to fund their agenda. Need more money, raise the rates and increase the general fund transfer. If you don’t believe it, look at the GRU debt service, the utility profit and the amount of money taken by the city.
How much input do customers get with private utilities? Must be so much more right?
Unbelievable! The morons want to regress so that crooks can be voted onto the GRU board so that the city commissioner crooks can continue to bilk money from GRU and the consumers of GRU product will continue to pay high rates so the city commission can continue to waste money on their leftist causes. The GRU IS NOT THE CITY OF GAINESVILLE’S CASH COW!!!!! Governor DeSantis do something about these crooks!!!!!!
Spending addictions are hard to break. They just want to keep spending out of the rate payers piggy bank.
I am gobsmacked. They just worked out a deal to convince the Authority to resign so the Governor would start from scratch.
Now, without the item being on the agenda, amazingly there are 19 individuals or representatives of groups present at a meeting to speak in favor of giving the COG control of GRU? That doesn’t seem sketchy.
Saco is worried about rushing into PILOT programs for a community cultural center but doesn’t care about rushing non-agenda items to the ballot without hearing from the public. And not just cherry-picked public that somehow knew this would be discussed.
The COG got us into this mess so bad the Governor HAD to step in. Audits have shown they mishandle money. They are so mad the gravy train is ending, they are now wanting to nickel and dime GRU just to have a pissing match.
Was the plan to convince the Authority to resign, swoop in and try to regain control? COG is the worst. No one has been “clamoring” for COG to take GRU over. It hasn’t even been year to work out the kinks.
This shouldn’t surprise me. But how the COG can do this with a straight face and think people won’t see this is shady is what is appalling.
They don’t care
Perfect example of an echo chamber happened there… “preaching to the choir” 💩👹🤡🍦🍦🍦D
Right, but fortunately city elections are in the fall now, so many more voters than when spring elections let 3% of the city elect the “winners” we’ve had.
The problem is GRU and its abusers drove away many reasonable possible voters already. But a referendum in November ‘24 might actually be a good thing, as more come out anyway.
If this comes to a vote, the majority of citizens of gainesville that vote will support it is my guess
If it has a “D” anywhere in its name.
Boy this doesn’t pass the smell test. How did all the speakers in support know to show up? Sunshine law violation?
A real mystery, that one
These Bully Buffoons have no shame, brain , or recollection. Even vaccinating and firing them does not phase them. Smoking that Biomass will do that to ya.
Duncan-Walker absent again. She should resign and return her salary.
Whatever happened to giving the public notice and putting an item on the agenda BEFORE the City Commission votes to take action or to direct the City Attorney to draft a new ordinance? Rules, what rules? This crew doesn’t care about any stinking rules as long as they get their way.
!!! BREAKING NEWS !!! BREAKING NEWS !!! BREAKING NEWS !!!
WARD & CITY COMMISSION GO FULL MAGA!!!
Wholeheartedly Embrace Right-Wing Fever-Dream of NULLIFICATION!!!
Pictures at 11.
The devil will be in the details that Nee pulls out of his sleeve. He has a $758/hr Ackerman attorney (who is #2 ranked GRU RFP ATTORNEY) to join him in an ethical debacle. The only elected Authority in Fla. is Key West. This is where the electric rates are the highest highest due to the extremely hostile geography- something GRU does not deal with. Nee’s attacks on the GRU Authority, a sister Unit of City Government, GRU remain FULLY FUNDED by GRU Ratepayers.
He’ll waste millions on attorneys, like Edward Bielarski did, then get shuffled out the door too
There is NO WAY I am an advocate of the City Commission taking control of GRU.
they had their chance and failed miserably with their decisions in the past, with the Biomass boondoggle and using gru as their piggy bank through the GFT.
Seems the people, or should I say idiots, clamoring for returning control of GRU to the Commission, are the people who like being subservient to that same Commission.
Michael Perkins was just bright enough to make mention of “taxation without representation.” Wonder if Ward’s feeding him as too seeing as how the City has been raising GRU rates for the past several years, despite residents’ objections.
One thing is for certain, the idiots continue to show just how uneducated they truly are and their unending fealty to their rulers. That’s two things.
The Commission is subservient to the voters, not the other way around. The “authority” is subservient to only the Governor, you know, like how they do it in Russia.
As I said, it’s easy to see who some are subservient to.
Did the Brain Dead Commissioners forget that the state legislature is observing their every move. I hope the new board removes all transfer’s and demands repayment to GRU customers for maliciously taking money without profits to pay for it. Did GRU have to borrow the 68 million plus that has reportedly been taken over an above profits. This particular meeting should be grounds to remove the Mayor and Commissioners’ from holding office. GRU needs justice to survive and it won’t come voluntarily from Gainesville. Recall them all.com
All the the quotes in bold are Orwellian “speak”
These commissioners are shysters, pure and simple. To make a statement about taxation without representation is laughable at best. “Eastman made a motion to “direct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance, as allowed by the Florida constitution and state law, putting to a vote of the residents of Gainesville an amendment to our Charter that eliminates the Governor-appointed board..” Read that again…’residents of Gainesville’..which means the ratepayers outside the city limits FORCED to purchase from GRU have ZERO say in determining GRU’s governance. This is unacceptable. These commissioners should ALL be removed for malfeasance and violation of Sunshine State Law. To sit there and ask us to believe that it was just happenstance that 19 people were present and prepared to discuss an agenda item that wasn’t even on the agenda?? Are you serious?! PLEASE…DO NOT let these shysters regain control of GRU. They’ve run up a ridiculous tab so far, time to turn off the spigot.
I do agree that it was quite suspect and obvious that it was an end around/sneak attack to have all the reps of these various organizations show up in a coordinated (stickers on shirts) blindside to bring up a non-agenda item during general public comment. Understand, though, that these groups have been working since the beginning against the takeover by the state. I just wonder why it took them so long to come forward with this latest idea. It is certainly not evidence of any Sunshine Law violation as they are not elected commissioners. Any commissioner can discuss whatever they like with any group or individual, but they cannot with each other in private.
At least Eastman did not throw his shoe or hold up then tear in half a picture of the Governor. He merely again shows us his behind.
This political showboating was staged and rehearsed…. The blow-back will be additional distrust by ratepayers and state auditors who will gavel down this ratepayer funded attempt at insurrection.
Harvey, you can kiss GRU goodbye for good! Governor isn’t letting you near it ever again!
Everyone should visit the City Commission meeting for 3-21-24, on their website. Some of the fascist mentioned they were invited to speak , supporting the belief this was all staged and orchestrated by prejudice clowns. You need the see the mistruths, lala land denial of destroying GRU, and last but not least whining about no voice concerning GRU. The position over 35% of GRU have been in for decades. The City Bullies are grasping at straws and just can’t accept reality and actually seem proud of what they have done to govern a once great utility into borderline insolvency. Does wokeness dissolve braincells? This Commission should be replaced.
Janice Garry is a veteran Dem partisan hack, not “nonpartisan LWV” valid. If democracy were their true concern, they never would have moved local elections to spring before. Erase all prior GCC decisions then.
She needs to wash her hair – it looks disgusting…. Every time I see her I want to itch.
His opening sentence is absurd: “Michael Perkins was the first to spell out the idea, saying that “this country was founded on taxation without representation, and I feel that that’s what’s going on with the GRU appointed board.”” I guess he has forgotten all those living OUTSIDE the city who are served either electricity, water, and/or natural gas who CANNOT vote in a city election….THAT’S “taxation without representation.”
Typical Chronicle commenters wanting their Daddy in Tallahassee to take over local governments, and losers like Kornish rooting against the citizens who’s vote he sought and the commission he wished to join. I guess he thought that should be an honorary office without power.
Pathetic bunch of whiners with no regard for self governance or the precedent this undermining of it sets.
People being forced to subsidize others’ benefits without any say in the matter is the polar opposite of self-governance.
Yeah, tell Amazon and Walmart you want a say in what they do with their earnings. Best of luck.
When did Amazon and Walmart create public utilities?? News flash. Both Amazon and Walmart are publicly traded companies. As such, stockholders DO have a say in what those companies do with their earnings. GRU ratepayers outside city limits do not. Non sequitur much?
You are not a stockholder in GRU, and probably not FPL either, but hey, maybe you can get the Governor to steal that for you too.
Dang Eastman/Jazzman, how drunk were you when you responded? You continue to blather on and on about theft but are completely silent on the theft occurring every day by GRU and City Commission against ratepayers in the county limits FORCED to buy from GRU.
wow, bringing in an apples to Watermelons argument, that’s pretty rich 😉
“Yeah, tell Amazon and Walmart you want a say in what they do with their earnings. Best of luck.”
You hit the nail on the head. In those cases, I can shop elsewhere and “vote with my dollars”. In this case, people outside the city limits do not have this choice.
We know who your daddy is.
Jazz…I see you and your existential mind. At times, I even agree with you. You lose me when you start name calling and drawing political lines. That is all.
Jane, you might note that I am not the only one calling names or talking politics, or on the former usually not the 1st in the conversation to do so. However, you are correct that the discussions should stay rationale, but not losing my patience with some of the repetitive irrationality and nastiness here is difficult. That is all.
The governor needs to make an example of them or the national liberal media will begin to trumpet Gainesville and the way they have successfully thumbed their noses at DeSantis and the State Legislature over and over. Can you imagine seeing Ward, Saco, etc. on MSNBC like they had that crazy Dr. Simon on?
Hey, maybe you’ll get a real thrill in your leg when he sends in troops.
The Gainesville City Commission does not speak for me or the majority of residents.
We do NOT want GRU under the control of the City. Their track record speaks for itself: $1.7+ BILLION in debt and our utility bills have doubled or tripled in the last 10 years.
The City of Gainesville needs to be dissolved as an entity by the State for at least 10 years as it is too corrupt and unfixable.
Then elect someone else. You don’t think the “authority” will answer to you do you? How?
If you are going to make comments, at least be accurate. March 2014 GRU electric bill for a 1000 kwh use (industry standard comparison) was $139.15. January 2024 was $145.74. Hardly a doubling or tripling. Less than 4% in almost 10 years, almost negligible. Look for yourself at fl.publicpower.com
Sorry, had an extra period –
flpublicpower.com
Florida Municipal Electric Association
FMEA
That is an interesting web site. Why are the city of Alachua’s power rates so low compared to Gainesville?
If you don’t want GRU under control of the city and the majority agree with you, then you have nothing to worry about. Just vote no. Democracy!
I don’t know what the commission’s end game is, but if I were trying to get the City’s charter pulled, this would be the path I would take.
“More authority, send in the troops, end elected government!”
What is this Cuba or Russia?
It’s actually more representative of Chicago or San Francisco, add in Portland as well.
Hutch will join the ranks of those who in 2000 supported Ralph Nader and swung the election to Bush all by themselves.
The “community” must be clamoring for lousy roads as well.
State law will always trump a local vote.
Ask the Florida and US Supreme courts.
Otherwise, just more City BS nonsense.
Article V11 of the Gainesville City Charter reads:” Sec. 7.10 (2). ….” In the event that any City charter provision, ordinance, resolution, decree, or any part thereof conflicts with the provisions of this article, the provisions of this article shall govern”
Let’s do some math. You’ll see a lot in these comments that GRU is in massive amounts of debt. That’s right- they operate with 1.7 billion dollars worth of debt. Some folks would have you believe all that debt is because the city uses GRU as a piggy bank. That’s only partially true. I won’t argue that the city doesn’t rely on GRU revenue, but the idea that our reliance on GRU revenue is what causes the debt is really not true.
At one point about a quarter of the city’s budget was from a general fund transfer from gru to the city. At its peak, it was about 30 million, now it’s at around 15 million. But that only accounts for about 1% of the utility’s debt! But When we cut the city’s budget as drastically as we have, you have to lay off police, fire, and parks workers which we have and cut services. Aren’t we supposed to be backing the blue? What happened?
So where’s all the debt coming from? All utilities operate with debt. That’s how this industry works. Duke, clay, FPL all carry billions of dollars worth of debt as well. Most of that debt is from running all the expensive infrastructure it takes to produce and distribute energy. Even though they operate with debt, that doesn’t mean they aren’t stable. That’s why people still invest in utility bonds despite the debt to equity ratio being so high. But lawmakers have you all believing GRU’s debt comes from our city’s “spending addiction”.
go ahead and cut the city’s budget by 25%, in 5 years you may see your bill lowered by 3, 4, or even 5 dollars!!!
Also, for all those complaining about living outside city limits and not having a say, I hear you. The ballot measure should be for the GRU service area so everyone can have a say. But if we were to sell GRU to say, FPL, do you really think that would give you a greater say in how your utility is run? They don’t answer to anyone but their shareholders! At least you can still go complain at a commission meeting when they mess up lol. FPL won’t even allow you that
I hate paying the elevated bills, but at least that money goes back in to my community, as opposed to some rich shareholder who may not even live in my state. All these lawmakers pushing for the grua board are bought out by utility companies its public info. I would think chronicle readers would be a little more in-tune with how money in politics affects things. Some of you want GRU sold off and that’s fine but don’t think you’re gonna have any say in how it’s run and the response times on power outages are gonna drive you nuts.
Also some of you are morons who don’t know how sunshine laws work. City officials can meet with members of the public whenever they want. Public notice requirement is only for when officials want to talk to each other.
Sadly, the fact remains the Hanrahan administration mortgaged the future of the city and GRU’s customers out past the working lives of our children.
We continue to await a coherent plan for amortizing GRU’s excess biomass debt from the current city commission and its main political constituencies. But the math reality is very harsh to their redistributionist leanings so we will be waiting a long time.
The matter is constantly repackaged as a political problem because they can’t solve it financially. As LW implies, the city is so addicted to GRU cash that they have no idea how to provide basic services without it.
Uhhh Yo, Earth To Liberal. Earth To Liberal. It was Pegeen , little Tommy , Monteocha Craig , and the rest of the Biomass 8 * that made a deal with the Devil. That Kyoto Protocol sunk GRU and now Gainesville will reap what they have sown to GRU Customers that live outside the city. We don’t want your dirty electricity(Biomass Lies) , nor your dirt politics that perpetuate financial ruin. Free the County from you Bondage and kiss your transfer goodbye.
That is all correct.
Intended for “Liberal Yahoo”
Especially the line “That’s only partially true.”
Intentionally misleading information, reads like the blatant propaganda that it is.
$30,000,000 is 2% of that $1.7 billion and represents ONE YEAR of transfer. This has been going on for decades, so that $300-600 million over 20 years is a substantial contribution to the current catastrophic debt level.
“All utilities operate with debt.”
–the average utility operates with a debt ratio of 0.12.
–GRU operates with a debt ratio of 0.83.
“When we cut the city’s budget as drastically as we have, you have to lay off police, fire, and parks workers which we have and cut services”
– The city’s budget INCREASED vs prior year, and all that were eliminated were unfilled city government positions.
– There are plenty of wasteful areas that can be cut without affecting essential service. The bloated GNV City Government could be cut by 50% without any noticeable effects.
Selling GRU will reduce our say in how the utility is run
– Impossible, we have zero say right now. “Public ownership” of GRU is a joke.
People like you are a big part of the problem in this town. You are slightly articulate and can make words salads, and so you assume that makes you “intelligent” and able to make “intelligent decisions.” Sadly for us all, that is not the case.
If GRU were sold to FP&L, it wouldn’t be run by masked morbidly obese people with deep psychological issues, zero business/professional training, horrible work habits, and a complete absence of general intelligence.
‘Your’ GRU money is going to pay for homeless camps, homeless hotels, and all the police, fire, and ambulance calls generated by the homeless, including responding to their many victims. It’s supporting a criminal who looks like a lower-level hood from New Jersey; someone who would normally be content selling counterfeit goods on eBay, but he has found some real suckers here.
A qualified auditor needs to perform an audit of how much the run-amok homeless assistance has cost the city in real dollars over the past few years. Something like that was done recently in Oakland. It was about $70 million over three years. That’s probably close.
The Gainesville City Commission is barred by s. 7.10 (2) from placing a question of repeal of Article V11 of the City Charter on a referendum. Such a question would have to come directly from the VOTERS- ONLY.
Since when do you care about the law. Recently, when you and everyone else here were pretending there was nothing wrong with the “authority” membership, you said it could disregarded.
Our Governor, after appointing a new Authority that is properly constituted in every regard, might want to put the question of repeal before the voters on its own initiative. That way the question will be properly drafted, and any doubt will be gone. Three City Commission seats are up for voter review.
The Governor was unable to to appoint an “authority” that was ” properly constituted” on his 1st try. What makes you think he won’t screw it up again? You’re a very poor judge of laws and politicians.
It is warmly funny to consider that the actual governor might give one damn what happens with the idiocy of municipal Gainesville. Its safe to assume the task of picking this committee was one or two levels below his desk. And why not? This is a no win deal for him. If he sent a billion to Gainesville tomorrow they would still hate him.
Hell No! COG Commission CANNOT have control over GRU. Thier underhanded financial agreements over the past 10 years is why we are here, as residents paying outrageous energy prices.