The Gainesville City Commission wants itemized invoices and an explanation from the Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority after being charged around $313,998 in utility legal fees.
Mayor Harvey Ward sent a letter to GRU Authority Chair Eric Lawson on Friday after direction from the City Commission the previous day. In the letter, he said the GRU Authority has charged the city of Gainesville a total of $700,000 in legal fees accrued from suing the city over the last two years.
GRU sends a government services contribution to the city totaling $8.5 million annually. But the authority has subtracted the legal fees from that transfer, along with payment for Alachua County streetlights.
The letter and debate around legal fees are the latest in ongoing litigation and debate over control of GRU.
Ward said forcing the city to pay the legal fees isn’t a good business practice that companies follow, which was one of the rationales for creating the authority.
“It doesn’t make sense that they can just randomly say, ‘We don’t like this, so we’re going to sue you, and you’re going to pay for it,’” Ward said. “That’s weird. That’s not a common business practice.”
In a statement, GRU’s CEO Ed Bielarski said the utility isn’t charging the city for its legal bills. Rather, he said the city’s illegal actions—holding a referendum to eliminate the GRU Authority—forced the utility to spend money on legal fees rather than transfer the dollars as planned.
The legality of the referendum remains on appeal before the Florida First District Court of Appeal.
Bielarski added that the City Commission has no right to advise or direct the GRU Authority and no right to ask for itemized legal bills in the middle of active litigation.
Ward said the City Commission needed to pose these questions and challenge the utilities’ actions to know how far they could go.
“We’re on the hook for three-quarters of a million dollars to sue ourselves to stop our residents’ votes from being counted. That’s crazy,” Ward said.
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GRU didn’t rack up $700,000 in legal fees for fun. Those costs came from defending itself against actions and decisions made by the City. The state put GRU under a new authority, and the City fought it every step of the way. GRU had a legal obligation not a choice to respond, protect its operations, and comply with state law.
Now the City wants to act surprised by the bill?
If Gainesville refuses to refund GRU, it’s not the politicians who pay the price it’s the utility customers. Every dollar the City withholds is a dollar pulled out of the system that keeps the lights on, the water clean, and the infrastructure sound.
GRU shouldn’t have to drain utility revenue to cover a legal fight the City helped ignite.
If the City’s decisions triggered the legal dispute, the City should take responsibility for the cost. Anything else forces GRU customers to subsidize a political battle they never asked for.
The city did not pick this fight. Chuck Clemons did when he forcibly altered the city’s charter with HB1645. We The People already voted against an independent Authority in 2018, which was a referendum Clemons forced on the ballot. We said NO, loud and clear.
Regardless, the Authority’s contract attorney (and the consultants he’s hired) should provide the city with an itemized billing of their time and expenses. There’s nothing unusual about that and is standard business practice. If he can’t or won’t its raises suspicions that they’re padding their fees or otherwise hiding something.
Excellent point, Ms. Bottcher! And Bielarski’s argument–that the city’s referendum FORCED the GRU “authority” to spend money on legal fees is ridiculous, absurd. Nobody forced them to do that. They CHOSE to spend that money.
Give the citizens of Gainesville a break. Shut up!
The city of Gainesville Commission is totally un professional. They are the problem, they created the separation of the GRU from local control by their insane financial decisions
Might be a good time to note that FPL just got their largest rate hike in history. They will get nearly $1 billion in new revenue just in 2026. How much say did their customers get? Just saying.
Flush w i th disappointment
This is a 📸 of DNA 🧬 .🚴♀️
Which person’s thinks 🤔 🙄
💲700,000.00 belongs…..
Seriously 🚮🫡🤨❤️🔥
Happy 🦃🦃🦃🦃🦃🐞day
Its already well established that cities have a right to amend their charters. That is simply what the city commission did in 2024 and 2025 by putting the referendum on the ballot. Bielarski disagrees with the judge who ruled in the city’s favor, hence their excuse for appealing.
Bielarski goes further to claim the city has no right to expect an itemized listing of the legal fees the Authority’s legal team has billed the city since its pending litigation.
If that’s so, then they need to hold off asking the city to pay more than $700,000 to cover their legal expenses until after the appeal is settled.
Clearly, the Authority, under direction of Bielarski are either padding their bills, have sloppy accounting and/or are otherwise hiding what they are doing.
In any case, this is just one more reason why the owners of GRU – the citizens of Gainesville – have on multiple occasions issued our mandate to dissolve the Authority.
Again, excellent and logical point. And the bottom line? Why are we, the owners of GRU, the citizens of Gainesville, being billed for legal costs to keep us from controlling our utility?
Because you elect a city government that has proven it will not run GRU in a proper manner
Yep, that’s crazy
Mr. Bielarski, who makes some $340,000 after a recent raise, has an interesting way to interpret things. The “city’s illegal actions”? In most judgements, the ruling has gone against the GRU Authority and the November 2025 referendum had the blessing of the judge. Why are Bielarski and Authority continuing the legal battle? Could it have anything to do with Mr. Bielarski not wanting to give up his generous (preposterous) salary?
Chuck Clemmons defied democracy by intentionally bypassing local citizens and leadership and taking HB1645 directly to the legislature. Why? Could it have anything to do with the 2018 vote that said we didn’t want the state in our utility? He figured we would say “NO” again, so he skipped over us. We’ve voted the same way three times. No, Gainesville is not going to run away with our tail between our legs. We are going to defend ourselves.
The current Authority says they are superior at business practices. Then how do you explain the most recent GRU newsletter that from Oct 1 – Sept 30 there were: “Equipment Failure – 231”. The Authority brags about cutting expenses. Are the equipment failures a result of poor maintenance? We didn’t have a hurricane, so this is during good weather. And they say the city has no right to have an itemized accounting of the most recent charges of $313,998? Hogwash. Those accounting numbers should be readily available and it would have made sense to send that to the city without having to ask. GRU sends itemized billing for utilities. Why not send it for hundreds of thousands of dollars? It doesn’t smell right.
The good ‘ol boys sure don’t sound like sound business people to me. They sound like amateurs protecting their gig.
The City of Gainesville’s power grab over GRU couldn’t be more obvious. They want full control, yet they expect county residents who make up a massive share of GRU’s customer base to stay silent and pay the bills. That’s unacceptable. The moment GRU expanded outside city limits, the City lost the moral right to run it like a private toy. County customers are funding this utility too, and they deserve real representation, not to be treated like outsiders propping up City Hall’s spending habits. If Gainesville wants the revenue, then the county deserves the voice.
You are right
Asked to be annexed if you want a say
Keep GRU Free of city control!
I’ve yet to see any current and valid data that shows what % of GRU customers are within the city limits of Gainesville and what % of GRU customers are outside the city limits of Gainesville, FL?
The figures provided were sourced from financial and credit rating reports published by Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) and credit rating agencies.
The statement that GRU serves “about 102,000 electric customers, with about 60% in the city and almost 40% in Alachua County” is cited in the following documents:
A November 2024 S&P Global Ratings report titled “Gainesville, Florida; Combined Utility; Joint Criteria – GRU” states: “GRU serves about 102,000 electric customers, with about 60% in the city and almost 40% in Alachua County.” This report is available on the GRU website.
A July 2023 S&P Global Ratings document also references this breakdown, noting that the utility “serves the city of Gainesville (60% of customers) and unincorporated areas of Alachua County (40%)”. This report can also be found on the GRU website.
Other sources, such as news articles citing Moody’s reports and GRU’s official “About Us” page, confirm the number of electric customers is approximately 102,000.