“We’re under such careful watch right now”: Gainesville City Commission removes HB 1645 item from agenda
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the July 12 Gainesville City Commission Agenda Review meeting, commissioners decided against placing an item about HB 1645 lawsuits on the July 20 City Commission agenda.
The draft agenda for the July 20 City Commission meeting included an item titled, “Litigation regarding House Bill 1645,” with a note that the funds were previously approved by the Commission. The recommendation was for the Commission to authorize the City Attorney’s Office and outside counsel to represent the City of Gainesville in as-yet-unfiled litigation “seeking declaratory and injunctive relief related to House Bill 1645,” in the lawsuit that was recently filed by Gainesville Residents United, Inc., and “in any appellate or collateral matters resulting from the aforesaid litigation.”
Commissioner Bryan Eastman asked for clarification on the item: “This is now the third time that we would be voting on this. What does this authorize, or I guess I’d like to hear from the City Attorney why he thinks we need to authorize this after having voted to move forward, plus an allocation of funds.”
“Make no mistake, it will be our strong recommendation that we have to address what we see as inconsistencies and ambiguities with these amendments to our Charter in order to function properly, both in the short term and in the long term.” – City Attorney Daniel Nee
City Attorney Daniel Nee said it “might be a misnomer” to say his office is seeking authorization; he said it was “more in line with a notification. But also of such interest that I thought… there might be some commissioners who still thought that it required some additional authorization… Make no mistake, it will be our strong recommendation that we have to address what we see as inconsistencies and ambiguities with these amendments to our Charter in order to function properly, both in the short term and in the long term.”
Nee also pointed out that the City is listed as a nominal defendant in the Gainesville Residents United lawsuit. He said his office doesn’t normally seek authorization to represent the City when it’s a defendant in a lawsuit, “but it seemed the cleanest way to put it before you, let you know this is what’s happening in a matter that I think is considered momentous.”
“I would prefer that we not vote on this, or if we do, we at least put it on the consent agenda.” – Commissioner Bryan Eastman
Eastman said he leaned “almost in the opposite direction… We’re under such careful watch right now that if it’s not necessary for our commission to authorize it–when we’re talking about something that is as high-profile as suing the governor, I just want to be, you know–what exactly do we want to get out of that discussion? Is it really necessary to have that discussion? So I would prefer that we not vote on this, or if we do, we at least put it on the consent agenda.”
Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut suggested that if the City Attorney is just providing an update, he could do that individually with commissioners “and not put it on the agenda, because we have already authorized the expenditure.”
Mayor Harvey Ward said he was comfortable with that, “if it’s the sense of the commission.”
Nee said he had put the item on the agenda as “sort of a belt-and-suspenders to make sure that the commission was absolutely positive that they’ve given us this authority.” He said, however, that he thought he had the authority under the previous vote of the commission to authorize the hiring of outside counsel to challenge HB 1645 and that he also had the authority under the City Charter. He added, “So maybe it was inartful to have an item seeking authorization; it should have been just an update or notification… I just didn’t want there to be a concern that actions were moving forward without the full knowledge of the commission.”
Ward said he would pull the item from the agenda “with the understanding that we’ve already given authorization.” Nee said he would pull it from the agenda “but [would] be prepared to put it back on, in the event anyone asks me to.”
What part of ” Your Fired” do these Brainiac’s not understand?
Somehow I see them all marching to “No Justice, No Peace” in a couple of months.
They have a difficult time getting past the
“Y o u…”
Harvey’s just hoping there’s a skirt somewhere to either hide behind or break the fall. I was surprised when I saw him out the other day with a family member and neither were wearing masks.
No virus = no masks
You’re
They earned it.
Government should always be accountable to the people. It does not matter if you are a dog catcher or an elected official.
Therein is the root of the problem. They’ve never felt they were accountable to anyone.
They’re about to find out they are.
They did not understand, or forgot, they work for us
Ridiculous comments here. The City Commission is accountable to the owners of GRU, the citizens of Gainesville, i.e, the people. The new board will be accountable to no one except the governor – and not sure if he can remove them at will – and certainy not to “the people”.
You may not like the results of elections, but that’s the only way we the people have any control. Supporting BS like this GRU takeover is short sighted and the precedent it sets can easily come back and bite those applauding it if we someday get a governor and legislature they don’t agree with that decides to act in a like manner.
“The City Commission is accountable to the owners of GRU, the citizens of Gainesville, i.e, the people.“
This was true at one point in time but once the massive amount of debt was racked up the citizen’s position was subordinated to the bond holders.
Slice, the bond holders do not elect the city commission, voters do.
I am talking about how the city acts and handles city business, not about elections. No one votes here anyway.
Those financial agreements are loaded with covenants to protect the lender…Basically laying out what the borrower must do and what it cannot do without violating the terms of agreement. Covenants are included in nearly all loan or bond agreements, especially when dealing with large amounts
Have you noticed that many large, publicly traded companies are acting in ways that harm the company’s bottom line while also ruining the corporate culture and public relations? This goes against its fiduciary responsibility. So why would a city, which is also a corporate entity, be any different. The voters in the city are getting screwed just as the shareholders are getting screwed. This has to do with lenders, such as Blackrock, requiring insane financials covenants that go against all logic…it’s social manipulation and the city and GRU are very much involved!
Now that the foxes aren’t guarding the hen house we will be able to determine if GRU can survive $100,000,000 of transfers even though the profits were not there. Hopefully the City of Gainesville will be required to pay GRU and the GRU customers back , and also be held responsible for those control freak actions. Can’t wait to see how Harvey Ward and Company are held accountable. The Kickback which will be greatly reduced or maybe eliminated will be a bigly relief for GRU. The new regime will be a blessing.
Accountable once every four years and this particular group and it’s predecessors has shown a propensity for not listening to voters. They’ve done enough damage to last a generation already.
You need to back away from the trough for a while.
As a county resident who has no voice in city elections but is forced to use GRU, I am grateful that someone finally stepped in to stop the city’s long-term use of the “transfer fee” to keep from having to balance their budget. For decades they’ve stolen millions from ratepayers in a process that amounts to taxation without representation.
If they’d stopped blatant use of their control over GRU to steal from customers, this never would have happened. Now taxpayers are funding a frivolous lawsuit in an attempt to hold onto their GRU slush fund.
Wonder if the ratepayers can sue city leaders for misuse of funds?
Any real attorneys reading?
no say its not so
If they’re going to fool with the charter they can achieve cost reduction by removing the requirement for a bloated 7 member commission and reduce it back to 5 equal to the County commission.
It looks like Cynthia already has the money spent.
Taxpayer-funded Dem lawyers are like vampires — an endless source of campaign donations.
In other words, Nee is trying to publicly cover his you know what but the Commission wasn’t falling for it. Instead, they reminded him that they want to keep their schemes behind closed doors and outside of the Sunshine. How much longer before they lose confidence in their City Attorney, just like they’ve done with so many of their other Charter Officers?
Hey Commis Do Your Jobs
Resurface State Road 337
Priority Death Trap
You don’t Care About Human Lifes
You Do Nothings Crooks
Hey Dennis Cook… what?? 337 is a COUNTY road and the Gainesville City Commission has NOTHING to do with it.
Wrong Commission! Tell it to the Alachua Board of County Commissioners
Harvey Ward: “if it’s the sense of the commission”.
Are you kidding? This commission hasn’t demonstrated a lick of sense and is devoid of any logic while sticking to their woke & broke strategy.
Can someone translate in the simplest terms what the city attorney was trying to do – and why the commission didn’t want to do it ?
See above response from FredUp.
Looks like everyone is trying to cover their own butt. Neither the attorney nor the commission wants to be labeled as the trigger guy for this ignorant venture against the state
In other words, the commissioners who “don’t do anything to earn my salary so I don’t need the State looking any deeper into our business” are scared to death.
Woke GNV/UF voters get to see the results of their partisan voting in all its glory!
This is a carefully thought out end around by the douche bag GNV CC, City Attorney, and Mayor!
All this babble is nothing more than a prelude to more “do nothing” politics taken from the current woke Democratic playbook! Yeah, yeah: the Republican playbook is pretty similar, sling crap at the other party, don’t really accomplish anything!
They are simply informing the woke UF voting population, and their like minded GNV constituents, that they are being persecuted by the bad Republicans! Poor babies! Bad DeSantis, Bad Clemons! Good GNV CC, Mayor, and City Attorney! Slinging snot all over the dais!