Letter: Governed without representation
Letter to the editor
I live in Gainesville and love many things about it and many people within. However, I am appalled and ashamed of the way our city leaders do many things.
Not long ago, a vote was held on whether to keep or abolish the governing board over GRU that took away the authority (and money) overseen by the city of Gainesville. Even though you may have utilities provided by GRU, you were unable to vote on this matter unless you lived in the city limits of Gainesville.
How does that make sense? It does not come close to being fair!! The only excuse I saw for this travesty was “there was not a way to know who had a right to vote.” You’ve got to be kidding, GRU has the address of everyone they serve… they do manage somehow to get their bills delivered, don’t they?
I would think non-residents of Gainesville would be LIVID! In a letter to the editor on Dec. 14th, Susan Bottcher stated annexation was the answer to voting in this situation. How insulting. Who wants to give up their community and its identity and become a part of Gainesville?
Having lived in a small town for 24-plus years, I understand community pride and all that goes with it.
I would like to see the county residents who have been discriminated against take action in whatever legal way is available to them.
Ron Haskins, Gainesville
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Since Ron Haskins saw fit to evoke my name I am compelled to respond.
But first I read and re-read his opinion piece in an effort to understand just what he took issue with. Was it me personally or that county GRU customers cannot vote in city elections? Seems a little of the former but mostly the latter.
Mr. Haskins asserted he heard county residents couldn’t vote on the city referendum because “there was not a way to know who had a right to vote.” No clue where he heard that from, but it wasn’t from the city or from our Gainesville Residents United, Inc. group who spearheaded the 2024 and 2025 referendum campaigns.
Before sitting down to write this I re-read my Dec. 14th opinion piece (which he thoughtfully included the link to so you can read it as well!). I wanted to be sure I had made clear the reason county residents, under any circumstances, cannot vote in city elections is because it’s prohibited by state statute. To directly quote from my op-ed, “It’s prohibited by state statute.”
Mr. Haskins declared my suggesting annexation as a solution “insulting”. How can offering a path to voting in the city (what the main complaint is all about), along with automatically lower utility bills (an added bonus!), be insulting?
He ends by imploring county residents to take legal action against so-called discrimination. Right, and that legal action to resolve what he thinks is discrimination is, you guessed it, annexation.
Yawn….just another liberal ‘Botch” job.
Susan, you continue to push for annexation based on a single issue. The county citizens want very little to do with annexation into the city. The city commissioners have shown time and time again that they can’t be trusted with fiduciary responsibilities. A better ‘solution’ would be consolidation, with the county running the local government.
Other, unitary government would mean voters from the entire county – including city residents – would determine our governance. Ley’s do it!
Good thing we got the utility authority because Hanrahan ruined GRU trying to stop climate change…
Bielarski: use best management practices, bring back clean coal, don’t worry about zero waste by 2050…the planet is fine..climate change is BS.
Root cause analysis points to Hanrahan and her desire to be recognized by the left-coast cult. Elections have consequences.
Susan, you are truly a greedy, grasping enemy of our community.
No one is going to shed a tear that you and your cronies are no longer able to steal GRU rate-payer money to line your own pockets and prop up the local Democratic Party machine.
You and your fellow AWFLs should head to the east side some time and explain to people how skyrocketing GRU bills would benefit them.
Fact: the state finally took away your piggy-bank after you and your fellow parasites pillaged it for over $1.7 billion, and you are never getting it back.
Not about county residents voting on city matters. About GRU customers voting on GRU matters.
I have Clay Electric. It’s a co-op so every customer is a member who can vote for members of the Board of Directors.
Maybe the only way to be fair is to turn GRU into a co-op so every customer, whether or not they are in the city, can vote for the Board of Directors representatives. But I don’t know how difficult this would be to do, and if the city had a say, would they even allow it.
Have you heard about prolonged Clay Utility outages and aging equipment? Do they do water and sewer as well?
I get the sense that GRU Authority/manger is cutting staff, deferring maintenance and future development so they can crow about ratepayer “savings” only to have those costs boomerang back on us in the future.
The 5% increase in my property taxes I attribute, in part, to the GRU Authority’s theft of the city’s utility.
The owners of the utility were allowed to vote in the election. Why would people who don’t own the utility be allowed to vote on how it is run? As Beardy said, he gets to vote on Clay Electric because he is an owner of the co-op. The City of Gainesville owns GRU, the city is made up of the citizens of Gainesville. The owners should determine how it is run – that means the vote should be restricted to the citizens of Gainesville. The only problem with the Board is that they have essentially stolen the GRU from the owners. Hopefully the GRU will be returned from the thieves to the owners soon.
then tell me how I can join Clay Electric and leave GRU.
Move
Annexation is a way out, but is that the only way you can think of ? Those of us in the County that are forced to use GRU utilities feel cheated on, because there is a quote under the GRU moniker that states “Owned By the People It Serves”. That statement once meant something, but not to the Commission. Think back on how the City got into such a massive debt, because it sure wasn’t because of GRU mis-management.
Dems do not really believe in democracy. That’s why. By looking at who they support today (Islamists and communists) we now see they support totalitarianism.
That’s why they tried to control PC and gender speech and suppress conscience as well as other basic civil rights’ like the press, religion and social media.
I think this started when they paradoxically admired mega polluter China’s one-party rule AND “climate change” doomsday cult. Anything totalitarian is what the DNC has become 🤡👿💩👺👹
The only way the city should have anything to do with GRU is if they only governed the people within the city limits of Gainesville. The the appointed board run GRU for the people outside the city limits. Nobody outside the city limits trusts or wants anything to do with the corrupt City Commissioners telling them what they can and/or can’t do. Don’t let anyone associated with the city of Gainesville have any power over residents living outside of the city. It really is that simple.
What if someone’s property doesn’t qualify for annexation (not compact, contiguous or creates a conclave)? What options are available to those GRU customers? I keep hearing that up to 40% of GRU’s customers are outside the city limits and cannot vote on the GRU authority issue which, if true, is a percentage that is large enough to warrant getting their input. Why can’t both sides (City and GRU authority) agree to take a straw poll of all the customers? Send out “ballots” to each customer asking who they want to be in charge of GRU and see where the results lead. It is probably a crazy idea, but wouldn’t it at least let provide us with input from everyone? At least it would show where the customers who live outside the city stand. We assume they want the current authority to remain in power but that may not be the case.
“Why can’t both sides (City and GRU authority) agree to take a straw poll of all the customers?”
Because the City doesn’t recognize the authority and just puts their fingers in their ears and yells “la la la” so they don’t have to hear the state government and courts tell them that they are no longer in charge.
I suppose Susie’s former business partner and her other buddies can’t enrich themselves sucking money out of GRU, otherwise she could care less.
Agreed. Taxation without representation. Big war was fought over this.
It has been about 20 years, maybe more, since GRU stole me from Clay Electric. But, each year I still receive a rebate check (capital credits) from Clay. It averages about $70 per year. GRU has NEVER sent me a rebate. Years ago, Mayor Poe also suggested that I voluntarily annex my property. Greedy corrupt politicians!
County GRU customers are the most ignorant of Florida voters, and that says a lot. They don’t understand the simple concept of ownership – we don’t own GRU, the city does – or the fact that if they think they should run it they would have to buy it or join the city. This isn’t hard, cretins.