Letter: Annexation is a solution for GRU customers who live outside the city limits
Letter to the editor
It has always been the case that people who reside outside a city’s legal limits – any city, in any county – do not vote in their adjacent city’s elections. It’s prohibited by state statute. It does not matter if a county resident owns property in the city. It does not matter if a county resident owns a business within city limits. It does not matter if county residents get electricity or water services from a City-owned utility company. Where someone legally resides is where they register to vote. It’s all right there on the form they signed when they registered to vote.
It seems that neither the members of the GRU Authority board nor the CEO understand this basic lesson in civics. They cry crocodile tears for county customers who had no say in the recent referendum vote. Worse, they imply that it was the City’s doing.
They’ve ridiculed city commissioners whose perceived offense was to offer the only real, legal remedy: If GRU customers outside city limits want to vote in City elections, they can voluntarily annex into the city. As an added bonus, the electric and water/wastewater surcharges on their utility bills would cease. In other words, their GRU bills automatically go down. Vote in City elections and save on your utility bills? Sounds like a pretty good deal.
Since 1999, there have been ten annexation referenda in county areas contiguous with city limits. Of those ten, six failed by super majority margins. This shows that despite the option of being able to vote in City elections and elimination of the GRU surcharges, 60% of the time, county residents voted no.
Those who opposed the referendum votes that would abolish the governor-appointed Authority board assume that if county customers could vote, it would have swung the results in the other direction. Don’t be so sure. If they won’t vote to save money on their bills or for the right to vote in City elections, they would likely agree with our majority of city residents that local control of GRU is best. After all, non-city residents were among the most generous donors to the campaigns to end the Authority in both 2024 and 2025. They know it’s better for us to be able to vote for or against city commissioners who make those decisions.
Under the system we have now, no one gets to vote for any of the Authority board members. The Authority knows they can only be appointed or removed by the governor, so they are otherwise safe from the public. This was best illustrated by Authority member David Haslam at the May 2024 board meeting when he said, “I’m not running for office. I couldn’t care less. There’s the honest answer.”
Susan Bottcher, 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.
Typical, take a portion of a comment out of context. Since the board members are all city residents except for maybe one county seat they are all local.
Susan:
The utility authority is going to stay. It was a mandate from Tallahassee . Governor Desantis was elected by the people…
The utility authority was created because GNV city leadership put GRU
2billion$ in debt because of the wood burner biomass plant. .
That local dog & pony BS
Election is a workaround trying to
Trump state law…it ain’t gonna happen.
Fact: The city is subservient to the state.
The utility authority is doing a great job and Bilarski is doing a great job!
No thanks for wasting our tax dollars on your illegal scheme to try and take back control of GRU.
You’re kidding, right? I’m sure county residents voted no because they didn’t want their property taxes to go up – which would negate any utility savings. Plus they know none of those taxes would go to maintaining their roads or providing bus service.
You tried this BS before and westsiders just aren’t as stupid as you might think. You just can’t wait to get into the pockets of the ones who worked for it. Take a hike!
Sound like this delusional liberal needs to get off the crack pipe.
I wouldn’t subject myself to the yoke of the City Commission under any circumstances. Time after time the Commission has wasted tax payer money for virtue signaling and pet projects at the expense of tax payers. You’re asking us to put our heads in the mouth of a crocodile. No thank you!
A better idea would be for the city to cede all leadership and services to the county. The county, despite its left leaning politics, has demonstrated a greater understanding of fiscal responsibility and stability proving they can pay their bills without having to raid GRU’s coffers for their political agendas.
Maybe we should let county residents vote for it but exclude city residents.
Dems count on local elections being in off cycle years and seasons, when only 5% vote for left wing ordinances AND WIN. As long as that’s still the case, nobody on the westside should fall for annexation.
I have paid my electric bill to GRU since 1980. I have lived in both the city, Gainesville, and the county, Alachua, continuously throughout all those years. Shame on you to tell me I have no say/vote on issues regarding GRU.
I support everyone having a voice in matters that affect them, regardless of who their utility is. If the City takes back control of GRU, I would totally support creating an independent Authority that has real representation from both City and County residents on it.
I believe the point that Susan was making, which most of the commenters here seem to have missed, is that there was no legal way for the City to allow non-City residents to vote in the referendums. If that was the desire, then it should have been written into the original legislation.
That is, in fact, what Rep. Hinson asked for when she tried to amend the legislation, but Rep. Clemons refused.
Under the current Authority, there is no recourse for ANY of us who disagree with their decisions, whether your inside or outside of the City. That arrangement has got to go.
I unfortunately live in Gainesville city jurisdiction and I support GRU authority because the city commissioners are corrupt as hell..
Name the corruption, please. Specifically. I live in the City. If my Commissioners are corrupt, I’d like to know about it.
Taxation without representation. Wars have been fought over this. If you are forced to use GRU, you should be entitled to vote on all votable matters concerning GRU. The monopoly of utility inscription must end.
For the “taxation without representation” crowd:
1) Do you object to Duke and FPL taking profits and returning those to their shareholders, as the City of Gainesville did with GRU, or are profits somehow “taxation” when they’re being returned to a municipality?
2) Who’s “representing” you now under the GRUA? If you don’t like the decisions that they make, what can you actually do about it? Call the Governor’s office? DeSantis’ office doesn’t even return the calls of GRUA members, apparently, so good luck with that.
For real though, these are serious questions that no one from this crowd has been able to answer for me yet. I honestly do not get this line of argument.
I needed to count to 100 before writing this. My contempt for Ms. Botcher is so intense, I feel the need to go to confession. But even my level of contempt for her does not match her contempt for county residents forced to use GRU. Her “solution” is a farce and she knows it. She is a leftist that claims to believe in “social justice”, but when it comes time to practice it, she instead resorts to the traditional leftist norms of bullying and threats. I would like to tell her to please fornicate herself.
There is so much nonsense in this letter. I’m disappointed though not surprised a one time elected official penned this. Glad they are no longer on the Diaz.
So sure, I can annex into the City providing I’m contiguous to it. What if my neighbors don’t want to, as has been the case 60% of the time? So much for your dumb and impractical solution.
People don’t want to annex into the City because your budget priorities serve a perverse minority. A DEI Office, Rainbow colored sidewalks, Reichert House funding, special elections to usurp power, paid dinner meals for the Commissioners, award of no compete over priced bids (like automated trash cans) a taxpayer paid Holiday Parade, and now special recreational facilities for those who pay the least, yeah sure sign me up, lol.
You really tell the story at the end. Gee dummy why not annex in and you won’t pay a surtax on your utility bill. Why are they paying a surtax? Does it cost more to provide the service outside the City limits? Absolutely not! It’s just you can take advantage of non city residents, so why not, oh yeah go for it. Shows your true priorities.
GRU should be managed for the sole benefit of its ratepayers and nothing else. It owes nothing to the City for City services. If there are profits to be had, reduce rates and rebate it to the rate payers. Please stop stealing from our poor Eastside and Out of County residents, they don’t owe you anything for overburdened city services. Enough already! BTW, I’m a City of Gainesville taxpayer and a smart and educated enough white boy to know when people are being unfairly taken advantage of.
A better solution would be for County residents in the unincorporated area to choose another utility provider such as clay electric and laugh while the city of Gainesville goes bankrupt. Government elected parasites are too stupid and too incompetent to have anything other than a government job elected by useful idiots for communism!
Lloyd, we had another utility about 40 years ago. It was changed to GRU without customer consent.
As a county resident that is forced to use GRU electric I sit back and see how the City Commissioners try to take advantage to gain some sort of power over everyone. While I was working I sure wished that I could have voted a pay raise for myself like they did. Some of the outside Utlities give money back to the customers every so often, I’m not saying that GRU should. Looking back on what the Commissioners have done is just spend spend spend. We really don’t want to be annexed into they mess they have created. All we want is a vote on who regulates the power coming into my home. That way GRU can keep the popular phrase “GRU Owned by The People It Serves”
Skunk Spot Susan fails to mention all the NEGATIVES of living in the city limits.
Bottcher proves once again how bottched up she is.
What an idiot. Unfortunately, Ms. Bottcher thinks everyone will enjoy getting bottched by the City Commission as much as she does.
She needs to bottch off.
Thank you, Princess, for presenting this garbled version of The Palo Alto creed. I appreciate you taking almost 40 seconds to think out this explanation of how to convince us unwashed and unlettered rugged individualists that you are right and most of the victims of this extortion are wrong.
It seems your philosophy is that the floggings will continue until morale improves. How lucky we are to have an elitist like you to guide us through our travails.
None of the reactionary commentors here get the simple fact that by unifying the city and county partly or wholly, the result would be a government that had their voice in it. They also don’t get that they are not paying a tax without representation, they are buying a product from a company they don’t own and all such companies try to collect profits – is Walmart charging you a tax if they make a profit? If you are in the city, you own GRU and have full rights to choose it’s leaders, or did at least until the hostile take over by political enemies. As it is of course, no one has a say in who runs GRU except a disinterested governor who can’t even be bothered to replace expired members. Excellent! Great operation!! Does the highly paid director bother to write the governor to wake him up, or he doesn’t GAF either.
Lastly, the personal animus toward elected leaders, including unsupported claims of corruption – never any facts – are ridiculous given they can be voted out and more likely too with more annexed county voters, or if they aren’t, proving a lie about those charges.
Grow up. You don’t get to run entities you don’t own, and if you do want to run them, move to join the public that does.
I get it. What part of the difference in making profits and misappropriation of those profits do you not understand?
What would you do if one of your workers went to the construction site, stole the equipment and sold it at the local pawn shop to purchase the things they wanted? Don’t bother answering, most of us know what you would do despite your contradictory comments.
Are you on something?
Punting again.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh wait, you’re serious?!?!?!
The County residence who are forced to be on GRU should go to the county commission and demand a different power company look into why GRU is in the county. What kind of money does the County get from it? Where I used to live in Hills Santa Fe clay electric was less than a mile away. I never could figure out why in the hell I was stuck with Gainesville regional utilities.
That would be the logical behavior G. I am one of those county residents and I won’t be doing that because GRU is the best electrical service I’ve ever had, no comparison.
Jazz: You can thank Bielarski and the utility authority for that!
Sure except GRU being better than any other electric company I have had long predates the “authority”. Hats off to Bielarski and all the GRU employees.
But are you saying G Howard’s comment means Bielarski and the authority are doing a bad job?
Never thought that I’d see Stockholm Syndrome so publicly advocated.
I believe if you are in the county and have GRU services your household should be able to vote by proxy. How hard would it be to include a ballot on one of the monthly bills? Shareholders vote by proxy all of the time by mail. After all, isn’t the motto of GRU “GRU is owned by the people it serves”?
Dude, if you don’t live in the city, you don’t own any part of GRU. How hard is this simple fact to grasp?
Dude, here is a fact that even your mind might grasp…. If you dont live in the city, than you should have options for power providers and not be forced onto a provider that you have no say over. Amazingly simple.
That’s something you should take up with the county. The city doesn’t owe you a solution.
By the way, I’ve never had a choice about which utility company I wanted. Where are you getting this idea. I get you could ask that your region change, but good luck getting that.
I am not gonna guess as to how hard or thick your head must be. I never stated the CoG owes a solution, but at the same time the CoG doesnt have to purposefully be the problem that requires a solution. AND the CoG elites shouldn’t be looking down their snooty noses at those outside of Gainesville city limits forced onto GRU services. There should be choices, and we know for a fact that any choice presented would be fought against by the same Gainesville elitists that caused the problems to begin with.
Hell No!!!
So is incorporating the City into Alachua County and getting rid of the city government circus.
Susan, Susan, Susan….. what a crockpot full of steaming feces dost thou present. Your unsurprising and condescending attempt to gain more land for the CoG at the expense of those living outside of Gainesville is appalling. To conflate a service that is forced upon those outside of Gainesville, to the ability to be further fleeced from those that run Gainesville is a preposterous idea. You should not be able to have it both ways…. to keep these people hostage to a service that they have no say in should be considered criminal. But what would we expect from the elites, such as yourself, that have wasted billions of Gainesville and outlying county dollars. Here is a better idea, how about those outside of Gainesville, that are forced onto GRU, either be given the right to vote on GRU related issues, or be given free market alternatives to receive their service from other providers. Either of these remedies will work, but I know, since you are a totalitarian authoritarian, that you and the other elites (including Jazzy) will not go for an idea that would actually benefit those subjected to being robbed by your need to control.
Did Susan take advantage of that
“Solar feed in tariff” thing where she gets paid over market prices for the electricity she sells back to GRU? I could be wrong…just asking.
The last time you tried to annex my n.w. neighborhood, we voted 91% against. You seem determined to keep wasting tax payer’s money.
BLAH Blah blah… spin spin spin. The city of Gainesbills is getting exactly what it deserves. You all must be wealthy and lack compassion for others less fortunate than you. I’ve got some stories to share next year to warn the people moving here of what they’re getting into. They need to know that the “majority” of voters here couldn’t care less about others, unless of course, it’s simply to virtue signal to retain control of the piggy bank. SAIEW…
I live in the county in an area forced to use GRU. If I was able to vote on GRU issues, no way would I vote to return the utility to the city’s control. The city used GRU ratepayers to fund millions each year in pet projects that the city couldn’t afford on its own. (Some of those pet projects have a history of corruption as well – ex: Reichert House.)
GRU is a great utility in terms of service but it far too expensive compared to other Florida utilities and that’s because it’s been carrying the city’s boondoggles for decades. While we can’t offload that biomass debacle (that likely lined some pockets nicely), we can try to keep from adding to the debt load created by the city commissioners.
Now the city is throwing more money out the window, fighting to claw back their reliable piggy bank.
Our multigenerational LOCAL elected state representative and senator delivered a long overdue:
1) Damming operational audit of the City of Gainesville & GRU
2) Governor-appointed GRU Authority that can sue and be sued separately from the elected Gainesville City Commission
The unincorporated Alachua County urban fringe is in disfavor by the legislature. The GRU Authority may merely be a first step to eventual:
1. Transfer of ownership of GRU to the GRU Authority
2. DISSOLUTION of the City of Gainesville
3. Consolidation of City of Gainesville and County governments
No referendum of any kind to expand any current City Limit has any chance of passage. The legislature can and has legislated WITHOUT a referendum.
ALL GRU ratepayers anywhere will feel the brunt of further GRU debt downgrades.
The legislature is constitutionally REQUIRED to protect GRU creditors in the event of a default.
Neither straw ballots nor bogus referendums can repeal a valid act of the state legislature.
A strong judicial presumption of legislative correctness applies.
Dude, he wasn’t elected locally unless you lived in Newberry or Gilchrist County. Wake up!
well since he WAS elected from within the district and Gainesville is within that district, he was indeed elected “locally”…. see how that works…..
As you were a former City Commissioner, Susan, I find it laughable that you insist on the county residents voluntarily folding into the city. Here’s a better suggestion. And one in which YOU and your former colleagues voted against time and time again because you’d lose your power: UNIFICATION. Merge the county and city into a county-led entity similar to Duval county. Are you brave enough to call for a vote for THAT instead of annexation? Highly doubtful. Instead of making puerile suggestions, make one that actually benefits ALL of Alachua County.