The Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority unanimously passed three resolutions Wednesday that will allow it to hire its own attorney, request to exempt itself from right-of-way regulations and permit fees, and ask the city to remove the referendum from the November ballot.
Resolution 2024-633 allows the Authority to hire an attorney separate from the one working for the Gainesville City Commission.
Resolution 2024-634 requests an exemption from permit fees, which would allow the Authority to start projects without alerting the city.
Resolution 2024-636 requests the Gainesville City Commission remove the referendum from the November ballot, which would have given voters the choice to return control of GRU to elected officials rather than those appointed by the governor.
If the City Commission does not remove the referendum, the Authority has passed a motion to allow its legal team to move forward and file a lawsuit as necessary.
The Authority was created in June of 2023 when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1645. This bill appointed independent directors chosen by the governor to run Gainesville Regional Utilities, which was previously controlled by Gainesville elected officials.
Following this, the Gainesville City Commission passed an ordinance in May to put a referendum about the governance of GRU on the November ballot.
The referendum would have given voters the opportunity to decide whether to keep the Authority or go back to GRU being run by elected officials.
Recently, the Authority has been pushing for more separation from the city, as seen in Wednesday’s meeting.
This relates to the powers of the Authority as described in the meeting agenda and HB 1645.
According to the agenda, “while HB 1645 recognizes that while GRU is an asset of the city, it places the GRUA in complete, unfettered control of GRU.”
This aligns with HB 1645 which says, “the Authority shall operate as a unit of city government and… shall be free from direction and control of the Gainesville City Commission.”
The Authority would have less communication with the city, for example, by requesting an exemption from permitting.
Jeffrey Shapiro of Gainesville Residents United Inc. said, “A key goal the Authority seems to have is entirely dissociating itself from Gainesville and the city government.”
In Wednesday's meeting, the resolutions passed could essentially render the referendum obsolete. The Authority cannot remove the referendum from the ballot, but it can try to get those votes discounted.
Robert Skinner, a member of the GRU Authority said, “We are not afraid of a vote. We just do not feel that the actions taken were appropriate.”
This relates back to who has control over GRU. According to HB 1645, the power is solely given to the Authority, not the City Commission which put the referendum on the ballot.
Audience members at the meeting ranged from avid supporters of the Authority to those like Bobby Mermer, coordinator of the Alachua County Labor Coalition, who referred to the resolutions passed at Wednesday's meeting as an “undemocratic power grab.”
Mermer said, “I thought tonight’s votes were a disgrace.”
When the vote was finalized for Resolution 2024-636, Mermer walked out of the meeting.
David Haslam said, “What do you hope the city is going to do better than us?” following a round of public comments about the motion for the legal team to move forward if it cannot find relief with the city.
He said, “We can’t work on the problems with GRU right now because we are constantly doing the same thing. It’s constantly the same conversations that’s brought up by the public.”
Haslam urged audience members to respond even though the time for public comments had passed. Ultimately, no one was allowed to respond.
Audience members later criticized Haslam for bullying members of the public.