Konish: A brief review of Judge Wright’s decision on the GRU ballot referendum
Letter to the editor
By not timely seeking a Temporary Injunction BEFORE the November 24 general election ballots were printed, an obviously defective City Commission Ballot Question and Summary went before City of Gainesville voters only and passed by a 72.5% margin.
The defective nature of this referendum has now been confirmed belatedly by Judge George Wright on May 9, 2025, and the Temporary Injunction has been rendered permanent.
Instead of merely striking the lopsided referendum as misleading, Judge Wright unnecessarily and erroneously proceeded to invite a new referendum. The City Commission voted 6-1 at their Thursday, May 15 meeting to do just that.
These outcomes guarantee years of chaos and uncertainty. Courts normally avoid such a constitutional crisis, if possible.
The coalition seeking to defeat the very existence of any independent Governor-appointed GRU Authority is more than willing to destroy GRU in order to get their political ATM back. This controversy is partisan and personal. There is no bottom. Federal Judge Alan Winsor noted this when he found the GRU Authority is an independent entity that can sue the City (Commission), and this in fact is what we are witnessing.
While failing to mention at all a rich and extensive legislative history beginning with the HB1325 bill filed by Keith Perry in 2015, Judge Wright made startling conclusions as follows:
- Municipal and State powers are coequal when it comes to amending a City Charter, and
- That Section 7.10 of Article VII does not prohibit a City Ordinance calling for the now invalidated referendum abolishing the GRU Authority.
By ignoring the controlling legislative history, Judge Wright sidesteps the overwhelmingly obvious legislative intent that future governance of GRU, a regional utility, be free from the direction and control of the Gainesville City Commission.
The resultant constitutional crisis that will be created by any upcoming November 2025 special election on a yet-to-be-decided replacement referendum is unnecessary and dangerous. This is a direct attack on the fragile GRU bond rating accompanying massive long-term debt incurred by the City Commissioners since 2005. The cronies of these miscreants are leading the legal attack.
Expect City Commission cronies, who have already filed a slew of private nuisance suits, to file some more. Judge Wright fails to mention the previous and extensive litigation at all.
City of Gainesville taxpayers will fund both sides of the current and future lawsuits since the Authority has decided to deduct its legal fees from the GRU Direct Transfer to the City (which now is set to be 32.8% of GRU claimed profits for FY25 at $8.5 million). That should cover the legal fees.
While this controversy is of statewide importance, no third party has shown any interest in it except for City Commissioner cronies. This is telling.
The legislature can settle this matter, but the GRU Authority does not seem capable of developing a legislative agenda and is slow to react to anything during their monthly do-nothing carefully choreographed meetings.
It will be no easy task to draft a ballot question and summary to 1) repeal Article VII and 2) deal with the appurtenant repeal of Section 3.06, which abolished the position of the GRU General Manager as a Charter Officer of the City. Multiple ballot questions may be required, for a variety of reasons. The City Commission must explain the appointment of a replacement GRU General Manager and what the powers of that appointee will be.
The Court can rule in advance on the legality of any new referendum, if the challenge is timely. The Court can also enjoin the second referendum until the appeal of the pending case is concluded with finality.
Jim Konish, Gainesville
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Assertions of facts in letters are similarly the responsibility of the author. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.
divide and conquer
idiom
variants: divide and rule
: to make a group of people disagree and fight with one another so that they will not join together against one
Good opinion piece and much of it does have merit. These statements are worth another mention.
“Expect City Commission cronies, who have already filed a slew of private nuisance suits, to file some more.” Those would be Botched-up, Hutched-up and the other progressive $0ci@li$ts who are f*#ked-up. Biggest hypocrites in the County.
“City of Gainesville taxpayers will fund both sides of the current and future lawsuits since the Authority has decided to deduct its legal fees from the GRU Direct Transfer to the City (which now is set to be 32.8% of GRU claimed profits for FY25 at $8.5 million).” It’d be nice to see the financial benefits the Commissioners and Mayor receive as compensation. They may not have accountants that can keep up with and explain City spending but they appear to be very adept at hiding other things.
“The coalition seeking to defeat the very existence of any independent Governor-appointed GRU Authority is more than willing to destroy GRU in order to get their political ATM back.” It’s all about greed, always has been and always will be.
Here’s my prediction, as soon as they get control of GRU back, those raises they suggested a while back will happen. Then I want all their minions to shut up and not complain about it.
Thanks for the letter.
Nice summary and I agree for the most part although I see this being drawn out for many years in the “court of law”. This could have been squashed one way or the other — but nope! The court has done an injustice — most likely intentionally.
Sure, “Dude Named Ben,” which is why the legislature needs to solve this once and for all
The City always has funding for more lawyers, but too poor to give bigger raises to GPD and GFD. 💩
This will not end well for the elected. Once taxpayers realize and understand that their money has been used to sue themselves and they lost regardless of the outcome, they will be very displeased. Add that insult to the expense of special elections and see how they feel about tax increases and bond floats. I agree the GRU authority needs to up its game with respect to legislation or they and our state reps will look equally complicit in this waste.
The “taxpayers” have been duped into believing any government above county level is going to take money and/or benefits from them.
They (local taxpayers) believe the current ruling County and City government has their best interest in mind, totally false! The sheep hear their County and City Boards call and they shuck out their hard earned money without question! Not going to change, especially when a large # of UF Students claim AC as their home of record so they too can vote in local elections even though they will leave in 1 – 4 years (5 or more for the slower ones) and could care less the chaos they cause when they hit the road!
🤣 You do realize you’re alluding that Gainesville voters will recognize money is being used to sue themselves don’t you?
😭😭 They ain’t exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, and the bright colored crayons were used a long ago – a long, long time ago.
I agree with you, Tutone. The Taxpayers will be displeased. Unfortunately for all, “The Taxpayers” and “The Voters” are not the exact same groups.
The Voters won’t care.
legislature can settle this matter, but the GRU Authority does not seem capable of developing a legislative agenda and is slow to react to anything during their monthly do-nothing carefully choreographed meetings.
Excellent and truthful letter. The Gainesville City Commissioners are only out to use GRU for a piggy bank. GRU customers and voters should be aware of what the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority has accomplished.
1st – No electric base rate increases for the second consecutive year and no natural gas base rate increases.
2nd – Fitch, a bond rating agency, has commended the Authority for their ability to execute its current financial plan, including maintenance of strong operating income levels and the utility’s lower general fund transfers approved last year. Additionally, Fitch praises the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority, which, it asserts, has been “functioning effectively since its appointment on May 16, 2024.
This would be impossible with the Gainesville City Commissioners trying to run GRU. Voters should not let the Commision start robbing GRU again for their own wasteful projects.
And the current GRU leadership is only looking for themselves in this. They were promoted without qualifications but the board will not look into this. Two weeks ago I overheard a discussion from few workers while working near my apartment, and it was horrifying to hear how are they treated and how many people are leaving. There is anxiety of voicing the ‘wrong’ opinion. GRU is between two bad choices, and that relates to us who pay the bill.
“The legislature can settle this matter, but the GRU Authority does not seem capable of developing a legislative agenda and is slow to react to anything during their monthly do-nothing carefully choreographed meetings.”
This is the best sentence in the opinion piece. The GRU Authority needs to encourage the legislature to get this settled, once and for all.
Perhaps the easiest solution is to require full regulation of any municipal utility that has customers outside city boundaries. Thus, because a certain percentage of GRU customers (40%) are outside city limits, GRU would then be fully regulated like FP&L is by the FL PSC. Home rule could then be restored, but the 40% would be protected.
It’s baffling why the City won’t referendum-annex the 40% of GRU customers not currently in the city limits? Do they have a secret deal with the County, who’d lose that cash cow? 🧐🧐
Probably because many of those customers outside city limits don’t want to be part of the crapshow that is the city of Gainesville. Have you ever listened to a city commission meeting? They make San Fran seem conservative.
Martha, why didn’t we move to Lake Butler?
This city commission, along with the overpaid city manager, makes me sick.
Just one more reason why I left that county/city.
More scummy judges messing with GRU, again. They don’t just make crime rates and immigration worse?
ACLUSPLCDNC 🤡👺👿👹💩
Gotta love Mr Konish. Often wrong but never in doubt. He is unanimous in his opinion