The Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority voted Wednesday to continue its partnership with the city of Gainesville and keep garbage collection payments on the monthly utility bill. 

The GRU Authority directors also gave CEO Ed Bielarski a 3% merit increase as part of his annual evaluation. Bielarski will now earn $342,000 annually.  

The authority ranked Bielarski highly on his evaluations, and Cheryl McBride, chief people officer, said the directors highlighted Bielarski’s alignment with GRU’s mission, institutional knowledge and clear communication.  

Chair Eric Lawson noted that utility is at its lowest vacancy rate since the COVID-19 pandemic and the lowest headcount in the last 15 years. He added that Bielarski had focused on financial stability during a difficult budget season.  

“He’s executed on multiple prongs, I think, within the operations of the organization,” Lawson said.  

Director Chip Skinner said Bielarski had earned the merit increase—the same as given to other GRU employees who receive a three out of five or higher on annual evaluations. But Skinner said the board would face backlash for the decision from some community groups.  

Shortly after the meeting, Let The Voters Decide posted about the salary increase with a satirical Facebook post in mock praise of Bielarski. The group has advocated for eliminating the GRU Authority in the past referendum and the upcoming Nov. 4 referendum.  

City garbage collection 

Since the 1980s, GRU has collected the residential trash bills and stormwater bills for the city of Gainesville.  

When the utility was controlled by the City Commission, it could easily collect the payments through its monthly bills, and the same commissioners who set the utility rates set the garbage rates.  

However, putting these two bills on the monthly utility payments can skew perception of the utility and its cost of services.  

Lawson and Skinner both called it an optics issue. Customers look at the total cost of their bill and assume it all goes to GRU for electricity, water, wastewater and gas. While the full breakdown shows that residential garbage is part of the bill, it can be confusing to know that that cost is assigned by the City Commission and not by the GRU Authority.  

In March, the authority voted to end the contract with the Gainesville City Commission to stop collecting its garbage and stormwater bills.  

But city officials say other methods to collect the bills would raise costs and bring other difficulties.  

Bielarski said the city currently pays $825,000 to GRU for collecting the bills and transferring the money. The city offered to raise the amount to keep the operation the same, reflecting the higher cost it would be forced to pay if the authority pulled out.  

The new amount would be around $950,000. It wouldn’t be a straight fee for service. Instead, the authority would begin to earn a percentage of the fee. 

Bielarski said the utility could use the extra money to further the switch to virtual meters and potentially offset security deposits. 

“I thought that it was a good enough response from general government to bring it forward to you all and say, ‘GRU is comfortable continuing to bill under this arrangement,’” Bielarski said.   

Director David Haslam agreed with Lawson and Skinner about the optics. But then he was swayed by Director Jack Jacobs.  

Jacobs said it’s not an optics issue but one of principle. He said by continuing to bill for the city, GRU gives the city the unchecked ability to raise the garbage rates without pushback because it’s the utility bill that actually goes up.  

In early 2025, the City Commission voted to raise garbage rates by 20%. At its March meeting, Bielarski told the authority directors that the idea of removing the city’s bills had been around for years. He said GRU had just worked hard to reduce utility bills, and now the city’s increase will negate and downward movement on customers’ bills—making it seem like utility bills hadn’t budged.  

Jacobs said there’s no guarantee the city won’t raise rates again. He called the proposed payment increase from $825,000 to $950,000 a bribe.  

Haslam eventually joined Lawson and Skinner, but the authority motion limited the timeframe to two years, giving the authority a set time to reconsider the issue. Directors said if the garbage rates continue to increase and impact GRU, it could pull out in the future.