The Gainesville City Commission approved an interim city manager contract, extended a contract with Bright Community Land Trust and authorized negotiations for a new stormwater billing contract on Thursday.  

Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons will step into the interim city manager role on Oct. 20 until the City Commission starts a search process or picks a permanent manager. The commissioners unanimously agreed to a salary of $245,000 for the interim post.  

Laura Graetz, human resources manager, said city manager salaries now range from $227,000 to $364,000. She said Gainesville asked other Florida cities for data and, from the responses, came to an average of $268,000.  

Graetz said that the average doesn’t include factors like tenure and experience. Still, she said Persons’ salary will be in the first quartile of the range for city manager.  

The city contracts with Bright for a variety of affordable housing projects, including donating 10 vacant lots for houses. The contract extension would last through October 2028 and allows Bright to operate like any other affordable housing provider if it wants to pursue opportunities outside the current contracts with Gainesville.  

Gainesville currently collects stormwater and garbage fees on monthly utility bills issued by Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU). Since the new GRU Authority took over, the directors said they would like to stop collecting the fees, voting in that direction earlier this year.  

City staff said negotiations with GRU continue to show the benefits for both organizations. Staff asked for permission to negotiate a contract for GRU to continue to bill the stormwater and garbage fees. 

Gainesville staff said other options include contracting through the tax collector’s office, but that would be more expensive and could have additional drawbacks. The city could also levy the fees as an annual tax, but that method couldn’t be implemented until 2027.