The Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority held its monthly meeting Wednesday, its first since the Florida First District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of continuing the authority’s control of GRU despite the city of Gainesville’s efforts to reclaim control.
GRU Authority board member Jack Jacobs celebrated the legal victory by calling the win a “slam dunk.” He addressed the city directly saying, “I’d like to see the city not waste anymore taxpayer money.”
Ed Bielarski, CEO of the GRU Authority, took a different approach. He recounted the struggles and discouraging moments of the legal battle. He said he had people telling him: “You should just resign.” Bielarski said he did not intend to go down without a fight. He described the judge’s final ruling as “remarkable.”
The three-year battle between the City of Gainesville and the GRU Authority started when GRU received a new governing entity in 2023, after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed an independent board to run GRU. In June, DeSantis signed House Bill 1451, which prevents the City of Gainesville from taking back control of the utility company.
A Gainesville referendum on the November 2024 ballot to dissolve the GRU Authority and give power back to the city received 73% of voter approval.
After the November referendum, Judge George M. Wright of the 8th Judicial Circuit Court ruled that the GRU Authority cannot be dissolved saying that Florida statutes and the constitution did not align with the ballot referendum.
“If (the referendum) is not lawful, it doesn’t matter if it’s 100%” of the vote, he said. "The city couldn’t have a referendum. They couldn’t change a special law.”
The conversation at Wednesday’s meeting turned into a debate once the general public comment began.
Jim Konish, who is running for Gainesville’s District 4 commission seat, read HB 1645, which created the governor-appointed five-member board. The bill described the board’s composition as including one member who is a resident customer in good standing with GRU. Three members must have specific knowledge on topics like, finance, engineering, economics and law.
“There shall be five members, we have three,” Konish said. “So, if the city commission goes back to the residency line of attack, you’re done.”
Konish said the house bill was just a confusing attempt to create a representative authority. “That’s not what we have here,” he said.
During the meeting, GRU Authority board members voted to approve a 3% cost-of-living salary increase for Bielarski, praising his leadership.
This did not sit well with audience member Armando Grundy-Gomez, a former air traffic control operator and world history teacher at Eastside High School. He said the nine-to-five workers are the ones deserving of the pay increase to deal with rising gas and grocery prices. He asked the board to pay regular workers now and not wait until 2028.
“To sit here and tell me I don’t have leadership is disgusting,” he said. He urged the board to do what’s important, even though giving raises to regular full-time workers is not a popular decision.
“It sends a very good message to the people who work for you,” he said.