Konish: Legislative intent is the polestar

Letter to the editor

In my 44-year career in legal publishing and consulting, the matter of reform of GRU governance is unique.

From the “Perry” bill to the “Clemons” bill to now the “Johnson” bill (now “tabled”), in more and more specific and harsh terms, the legislature has decided that GRU shall be governed wholly and completely separately from the whims of the Gainesville City Commission. 

Multi-million-dollar paydays for expensive private attorneys to help the Gainesville City Commissioners and their surrogates thwart HB1645 would be quashed. No extortion (tax) for use of City and County Rights-of-Way that were given away free of charge 100 years ago to GRU would be allowed (these “assets” appear on GRU books as worth $800,000).

Johnson’s bill does not appear to mandate:

  1. Timely ascertainment of the magnitude of SLA (Service-Level Agreement) losses
  2. Ascertainment of SLA losses with Alachua County
  3. Recoupment of past SLA losses

An SLA loss is not reflected on GRU financial statements unless ascertained and quantified. Cost shifts such as free County fire hydrants or the solar feed-in tariff are a different problem that falls under section 12 of Article VII.

GRU ratepayers cannot afford matters that do not pass the smell test to be covered up any longer.

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.

    • Everything that is not on the City Commissioners personal agenda ($) is tabled. Keep watchin’.

    • In my opinion, a freshman representative got a draft from Clemons, caught a firestorm of dissent, and pulled it back due to a lack of engagement from the GRU Authority.

  • I love this right here…”the legislature has decided that GRU shall be governed wholly and completely separately from the whims of the Gainesville City Commission. “

  • One hopes this loser among the many who have grabbed onto power- all the members of our “legislative delegation” lost among Alachua County voters but are selected by our overlords in Levy, Baker, Clay, Gilchrist counties, etc and Konish and Belarski both ran in Gainesville and lost – uses less loaded language in his “legal publishing” career. But hey, he’s drunk with the high he’s on from tagging along with the traitors Clemons and Perry (2 other Alachua County election losers) and mistakenly thinks anyone but the mostly idiots and local election loser regulars commenting here cares WTH he thinks about anything.

    • For the 40 percent of ratepayers outside of city limits, that’s the only representation they have.

    • I think the 14 thumbs downs I got for my post was Jim’s vote total when he ran for the city commission.

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