Popejoy: DOGE visit violates Home Rule
Letter to the editor
The long-established Culture of the Gainesville Community is guided by the Principles of love thy neighbor, treat everyone as you wish to be treated, and support those less fortunate.
For One Hundred and Seventy-one years, the Citizens of Gainesville have Democratically elected our local leaders. We’ve chosen some good ones and some less good ones. They have always been Our Choice.
The governor of the state of Florida, along with his appointed officials and the state legislature, have taken it upon themselves to strip the Citizens of Gainesville of their Right to Govern themselves. They started this effort with the takeover of Gainesville’s Citizen-owned utility company and are intent on finishing the takeover by removing power and authority from our Duly Elected city commissioners and appointing a governing structure controlled solely by the governor’s office.
This is the end of Home Rule. This is the end of the Democratic Process in Gainesville. The administration did not start their efforts of authoritarian takeovers with Gainesville. Their clawing to themselves more and more local power will not end with Gainesville unless we can stop them here.
I respectfully ask the governor and the legislature to stop trying to impose their own will and values upon the Free Citizens of Gainesville who reside in the Free state of Florida. We are fully capable of governing ourselves.
I respectfully ask the Free Citizens of Gainesville to make your voices heard, exercise your free will, confront the bully, and reaffirm our constitutional right to Home Rule. Reaffirm that we are fully capable of governing ourselves!
Sincerely,
Kim Popejoy, 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.
Possibly the stupidest thing I have ever read about a city: “The long-established Culture of the Gainesville Community is guided by the Principles of love thy neighbor, treat everyone as you wish to be treated, and support those less fortunate.” And not at all relevant to a State’s DOGE audit.
Agreed.
Had expectations for a concise, well-thought, non-partisan piece but once the statement, “Culture of the Gainesville Community is guided by the Principles of love thy neighbor, treat everyone as you wish to be treated, and support those less fortunate” was made, I knew it was just another liberal hypocrite who’s upset those they take a knee to hasn’t been able to waste the profits of GRU. As far as we know, Popejoy may be one of the recipients of those ill-advised government handouts.
Diogenes apparently doesn’t like places with a history of tolerating and celebrating diverse citizens and aiming to help the less fortunate, and in fact that’s what most here rail against, but Kim, these are mostly the losers in local politics – unless Daddy in Tally helps them, which is often – with very minority viewpoints. Thanks for your sensical and conservative letter which promotes now apparently old values of local small government. These losers will tell you they are conservative, but they’re instant gratification addicts who will sell local autonomy to get results they want. If not, they could do the hard work of trying to win the next election in Gainesville, but then who wants to be led by people who hate their life so much and hate where they live.
Oh yeah, like the freak Gillum?
What I’ve seen is a city and county out of control. Take care of citizens and roads. Quit giving money to those who do not help
I think there is nothing wrong with a fresh set of eyes looking over the books. Group think is dangerous. Further more I have been in Gainesville for 20 years and things have changed and not all for the better.
Nah. It’s time for the adults to take over.
The writer doesn’t seem to understand that it’s the State that can create a city and they can dissolve a city too.
The Governor and DOGE is long overdue in auditing the City of Gainesville. First, the City gave Grace Marketplace initially 700000 for 30 shelter beds and then gave them more monies. Why was Robert Morganstern arrested on 07-25-2025 for Nochallenging a staff member about there are no beds available. If the city would have given the Reichert House a fraction of this monies to produce productive males, maybe they wouldn’t Thave all these serious problems. The city spent 150000 to save a tree in front of Harry’s but yet they had any monies to keep it the Reichert House open. Not to mention the monies they spend on garbage receptacles downtown and the Ambassador program they created. The foolish transition of Chief’s of Policemen that caused a male to loose his eye from a k-9 to all the murders and crime near the university of Florida when the transition was made. If they were correct in their actions, they wouldn’t force the permanent chief to resign in lieu of termination. Think about all the monies the city has spent to attorneys to challenge the Governor actions just to fatten attorney pickets when the attorneys knew from the beginning the city couldn’t win. As Governor Desantis stated that there are employees the city is paying more monies to than what the Chief Financial Officer for the State of Florida makes. Why would the city keep giving Grace market place almost millions of dollars and noone can show how this money help the homeless or how it was disbursed. The leaders at Grace Marketplace are continuing to resign after the City gave them close to a million dollars. DOGE should make them be accountable in written form, nothing verbal. Governor Desantis needs to clean hous vin Gainesville.
The Reichert House was a money pit filled with shady employees, embezzled money, and criminal youth. The city was correct in divesting from it. We need far less pet projects and more focus on supporting basic government issues like roads, fire departments, and policing. Downtown Gainesville is an abysmal 💩 hole now that’s it’s filled with homeless and violent thugs. These issues should be the priorities.
Please ask the City Council where the hundreds of thousands of dollars they gave to Reichert House went! They admitted 2 years ago they have no clue!
Really wish posters like Anastasia would proofread before posting.
Grace Marketplace is a drain on community services and Popejoy needs to under what to capitalize and what not to capitalize.
Who seriously spends 590k on trash cans that connect to the internet which will need maintenance contracts? That is absurd.
The Reichert House was a wasteful, non-productive, horrible way to “invest” in the youth. This is more of a scam than Bernie Maddoff.
Kim- Before going further,although “…The long-established Culture of the Gainesville Community is guided by the Principles of love thy neighbor, treat everyone as you wish to be treated, and support those less fortunate….” is a commendable sentiment it certainly is NOT part of this city’s culture or charter but nice try just the same, Kim. I truly wish life was perfect Kim but you fail to realize that there are some like myself that want fairness whilst others demand to take whatever they want (that old “ends justifies the means” scenario-so irritating, isn’t it?). Gainesville City proper has always been a bastion of liberalism and has been able to do so because 20%(?) of the voters vote and the other party barely even shows up to challenge them. As for GRU – the State finally stepped in and directed new management and results are alreay starting to show. If Gainesville was managing the money and being equitable there would hsave been no need for this audit but that is not the case. Harvey’s cookie jar of freebies for pet projects benefitting few are soon to be passe. Those of us outside the city limits (1.25 miles for me) have some GRU services but have had no meaningful input until now. The City of Gainesville decided for us and we had to shake our collective heads and eat s**t. Sorry, Kim but you are entering a new era with real adult supervision. I hope you’ll understand that fairness is not a one way street. It should apply apply to ALL OF US IN ALACHUA COUNTY and not just those from that beloved Duckpond oasis or those with NE and SE addresses who can be manipulated if they bother to even vote at all.
Shut up with this narrative…nobody is telling you what to do…the city is being audited.
I am for the audit, but against anyone being told they cannot share their opinion. Please try to rise above.
This has to be a joke.
Quoting Desantis on X from 7/22/25: “Gainesville has hiked taxes on property owners by over 85% in the last four years, while the city budget has expanded by nearly $90 million per year, a staggering increase that far outpaces population growth. Despite our DOGE team’s requests, the city has FAILED to explain or justify this spending.”
THAT is why Gainesville is being audited. Nothing more & nothing less!
Lynda, that statement is BS and even Len debunked it in his column. The city budget expand by $98 million in 5 years, not one.
Facts matter.
This Democrook, must have fallen out of bed this morning, hit her head, and came up with this Hogwash! 😂🤣
Nope, Gainesville needs desperately to be audited. So sick of the corruption here.
Open the books. If you are right then it’s not a big deal. If you are not then there is a reason to talk.
Moreover hole rule does not invalidate state laws or regulations.
Thatguy, Fl DOGE – as if federal DOGE has not sbeen shown to be a destructive waste of time – is guided not by bookkeeping concerns, but by partisan politics, as is almost everything this governor and the state legislature do. Listen to the governors speech at his recent pep rally in Gainesville and you will see what I mean. He thinks that by highlighting what programs he opposes cost he can run a campaign against local programs, not find illegality. It’s a political stunt, not an audit. All you really need to know beyond the governor’s track record for heavy handed partisan warfare, think about the fact that the new CFO who is the head of FL DOGE introduced a bill in the state legislature to make the Democratic Party illegal and change voters registered as Democrats to “no party”.
Yeah this knuckle dragger really did that, and voters are supposed to have any respect for him and this dog and pony show?
Negative pal. Audit now!
Taking and spending money from my utility bill for liberal nonsense violates MY home rule.
Florida DOGE is looking for fraud and waste. Anyone who doesn’t like it is part of the problem.
NO. it’s not or it would be looking into the Governor’s fast one on $10 million in state funds he sent to his wife who used it on political campaigns against ballot amendments. I wish somebody had given me $10 million to spend on campaigns, how about you?
It should also be looking into Alligator Concentration Camp, and how it’s funded. DeSantis said $450 million a year to run it, paid by Florida tax payers, to be reimbursed by FEMA. No permits have been drawn for fill or other Environmental aspects and the Micosukee tribe opposes it.
You are wrong as usual
The big dogs are being called in for a reason. It’s obvious the City of Gainesville commission doesn’t understand what it means to “govern accordingly”. They have clearly demonstrated their lack of understanding/concern when it comes to efficiently managing/maintaining a healthy utility and once prosperous city.
Everything was fine 20-30 years ago, all they had to do was keep the ball rolling. But they repeatedly (and publicly) flaunted their priorities of personal interests and financial gains, while losing sight of having any morals or decency by honorably leading the community they vowed to protect.
I wish the DOGE could audit the current and former mayors/commissioners/investors financial statements during times involving high dollar projects (biomass, land use development etc) and follow the money. Someone with authority needs to stand up for us. We’re the ones breaking our backs to keep the city running while the commission gambles with our taxes and sticks us with the bill..
Most are only in office to pad their resume and move along after their term expires leaving the rest of us to carry a lifetime of burden after countless 4-year terms of people who turn out to be nobody’s but pretend they were once a somebody (like a commissioner or mayor). They’ll just leave out the part about how they didn’t actually do anything except leave the town worse off than it was.
“The long-established Culture of the Gainesville Community is guided by the Principles of love thy neighbor, treat everyone as you wish to be treated, and support those less fortunate.”
Unless they’re “MAGA,” then celebrating their death is appropriate.
Long standing? Perhaps the person who wrote this should look into the dark history of Alachua County and Gainesville.
There are some bad moments in our history as recently as the 1920s.
Democrats are scared and trying to fill burn bags and bleach computers. If there was nothing going on they would invite the audit to rub it in the Governor’s face when nothing is found. That is not the case Alachua County Government needs the same audit.
The republican party is supposedly about decentralized government, more power to local governments. Using DOGE to undermine local government is categorically un-republican. MAGA is not republican.
Soooo TRUE‼️
You high Clairee?
“The long-established Culture of the Gainesville Community is guided by the Principles of love thy neighbor, treat everyone as you wish to be treated, and support those less fortunate.”
Did the above include the victims of the Gainesville Lynchings?
“For One Hundred and Seventy-one years, the Citizens of Gainesville have Democratically elected our local leaders. We’ve chosen some good ones and some less good ones. They have always been Our Choice.”
Virtue signaling, no substance, all show and no go!
Gainesville liberals profess to be accepting, loving, as well as non-judgemental to name a few of their many community attributes!
But they are not!
Government will do it say anything to keep power. People that blindly follow and virtue signal other to join are particularly vexing.
Popejoy, you are a piece of work. Open the books or get out of town.
The writer forgets 40% of GRU customers have NO representation at city hall. Even worse, only 3-5% of city residents actually vote to elect the city commission “winners” we see on the dais — classic oligarchy common in commie countries, their role models.
Ban the ACLUSPLCDNC Party in future elections! 💩👹🤡👿👺
Oh, but former commissioners will say ‘then you should ask to be annexed into the city.’ Then they can ignore you like others that get shut down at commission meetings…Ray Washington, Jo Beaty, the Martinez family and more.
Find it funny what Kim Popejoy states about ‘love thy neighbor’, I know a number of the GRUA members and they get blasted for doing their civic duty without pay by those that publicly spout love, but behind closed doors espouse hate! Looking at you Ward, Willits and Eastman and many other so-called progressives! And before you hit me on my comments….I have been a NPA voter for years and do not vote party lines what so ever!
13-15% is more accurate than 3-5%. Even more now, since the City Commission moved the City elections to the fall. Still, it’s a very sad, but scary number of local residents who stay informed and vote on local candidates/elections and control our City (and County) governments.
@Popejoy… you are not paying attention to reality. There are valid reasons the state has had to review the runaway nonsense you call “home rule”. Is it acceptable for elected officials to rule over their citizens without overseeing simply because they were elected? The answer is NO, it is not.
I know the city is corrupted. My hope is, the truth be known.
What’s up Rockford?
Join “DOGE Alachua County” on Facebook and help expose government waste with your posts.
Please include a link to the DOGE Alachua County page on Facebook. I could not find it and I would love to join it. Thanks!
Kim: you’re an idiot. The city is subservient to the state. The State has the right to check to make sure they are not squandering our tax money…”your 2 minutes are up! Next speaker please!…officer, remove that person for trying to speak past the buzzer”.
You are correct!!!
Hopefully it will end the ripping off of property owners who are forced to supply the money for the waste we see in city and county government.
Ask Willits about your “love thy neighbor “ statement. That only applies to those with whom you agree.
The clown government of Gainesville is run by clowns, elected by clowns.
I applaud Governor DeSantis. Auditing our local government seems like a good idea. It’s been one sided too long. A check up wouldn’t hurt.
Go to queenpegeen@tumbler, part 2, to see our “love thy neighbor” culture in full bloom. There is no love for anybody without a D after their name.