Gainesville commission plans to put GRU Authority on upcoming ballot 

The Gainesville City Commission on Thursday stepped toward creating a ballot measure that would ask voters to either remove or keep the city charter article the Legislature approved last year to create the Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority. 

The commission voted unanimously to direct the city attorney to prepare an ordinance that would begin the work. Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker was absent from the vote.  

Commissioner Bryan Eastman offered the motion, and Commissioner Reina Saco seconded it. 

“If we want to get back to a place of stability—where there’s not these back-and-forth questions of legitimacy—the people need to have a say on this,” Eastman said. 

The ordinance would create the ballot language that voters would read, and the ordinance will need two supermajority votes by the City Commission to pass and get onto the ballot. The city also needs to coordinate with Kim Barton, Alachua County’s supervisor of elections, to see if the measure could fit onto the August primary ballot or the November general election ballot. 

The vote was not scheduled for Thursday’s regular meeting, but community groups and residents appeared to speak during public comment. The City Commission extended the public comment period to accommodate all the public commenters—18 touching on the GRU Authority. 

Bobby Mermer, coordinator for the Alachua County Labor Coalition, said the vote could go either way. If voters decide to keep the authority, he said at least the members will then have the people’s backing to be there. 

“It’s time to make this right, the wrong that was perpetuated on us last year,” Mermer said. “And also, we need to do this just to end the chaos. We saw the board have to resign.” 

The City Commission’s decision came a week after all four members of the GRU Authority resigned. The resignations were coordinated by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office to settle a lawsuit challenging his GRU Authority appointments based on residency and public notice concerns.  

The resignations become effective in the middle of May, when the governor is expected to appoint a new authority. Applications for five seats are open until April 16.   

Janice Garry, president of the League of Women Voters of Alachua County, brought up the ballot referendum, with many speakers voicing support for her statements. She said the state representatives usurped local officials when creating the GRU Authority. 

“This commission can give voters the choice of who governs our municipal utility,” Garry said. “We have the opportunity to regain democratic process and home rule in Gainesville.” 

Mayor Harvey Ward said the ordinance, if passed, would do exactly what he had asked legislators for a year ago—to let the people decide with a referendum. The Florida Legislature put a referendum about GRU on the ballot in 2017 that was defeated in favor of City Commission control of the utility.  

Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-Newberry, called that referendum skewed since only city voters, not all GRU customers, could vote. Clemons declined to comment on this story. 

“If I didn’t believe the people ought to be heard on an issue like this, then I’m in the wrong seat,” Ward said at Thursday’s meeting.  

The city charter was amended last year through House Bill 1645. But city charters have various ways to be amended—by a special act of the state Legislature, by a ballot referendum initiated by the City Commission, by a ballot referendum initiated by citizen petitions, by a ballot referendum initiated by the charter review committee or by a ballot referendum initiated by the state Legislature.  

Eastman asked City Attorney Daniel Nee if the City Commission could propose a ballot measure that changes what the Legislature placed in the charter.  

Nee said the bill didn’t change state law, just the city charter that can be amended without limit through the required processes.  

“I’m not aware of anything that would make that sort of charter amendment, a special act-initiated charter amendment, somehow sacrosanct,” Nee said at the meeting.  

At a media interview on Friday, Ward said the idea of reverting any charter changes passed by the state Legislature has persisted for nearly a year. He said he’s heard from the community groups in that time but has asked them to wait, wanting to see how the GRU Authority shakes out.  

However, Ward said he thinks the groups—League of Women Voters, Alachua County Labor Coalition and the NAACP—are tired of waiting. 

“I wanted to see if maybe the Legislature would make an effort at fixing some of the very obvious deficiencies in the current bill to help us shake out some of the things that still haven’t been shaken out about how GRU acts as an individual entity when legally it’s not an individual entity,” Ward said Friday. “But none of that got fixed in the legislative session.” 

Ward also said he sees no way to include voters from outside the city in the ballot measure—addressing skepticism of the 2017 ballot referendum. He added that those voters, though GRU customers, aren’t city residents and therefore not owners of the utility. However, Ward said those property owners can annex into the city and become qualified voters.  
Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional information and quotes.