The Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority voted Wednesday to work with the city of Gainesville to end their memorandum of understanding that has the utility collect the city’s stormwater and garbage collection fees.  

But the city’s fees likely won’t come off utility bills until September 2026.  

Since 1988, GRU has placed the city’s stormwater fee on customers’ monthly utility bills, collecting the money and sending it to the city. The garbage collection fee has been on GRU bills for even longer, and the city pays the utility $800,000 per year to manage the billing.  

However, GRU CEO Ed Bielarski said it’s hard for customers to understand the bills and make a comparison for just their utility bills. The big number at the bottom of the bill that most customers look at reflects not just the cost of electricity, water, wastewater and gas but also the city’s fees.  

“When people get a utility bill, they’re getting our services,” Bielarski said on the new bills without the city’s fees.   

He said customers often call GRU with garbage collection complaints even though the utility doesn’t manage the trucks. Bielarski added that customers call and need help paying their bills to avoid getting shut off, and he said removing these fees could help prevent future customer shutoffs.  

The garbage collection fees currently range from $20.50 to $40.75 per month, depending on the size of the trash can. After an approved 20% increase starts in April, the price range will move to $24.60 to $48.90 per month.   

Bielarski said the idea of taking the city’s fees off the bills has been around for years, but since the creation of the GRU Authority and utility efforts to reduce bills, he said the idea has grown.  

He added that the city’s decision to raise garbage collection rates by 20% made GRU staff think even harder about ending the memorandum of understanding.  

At Wednesday’s meeting, authority directors agreed and said the bill situation is confusing for customers.

Director Craig Carter said the $800,000 payment will be hard to give up, but he said it’s the right choice, making the motion to end the memorandum. Chair Eric Lawson said he’d like Bielarski to return with the ways GRU will make up the payment.  

Bielarski said the utility has worked hard to lower bills and the change will further the progress, though the fees will remain for Gainesville residents. He noted that GRU’s electric bills have fallen in comparison with other utilities in Florida, ranking 12^th highest in bills for 1,000 kilowatt-hours in January 2025 instead of seventh highest in January 2024 and second highest in January 2023. 

For Gainesville, City Manager Cynthia Curry said in a March letter to Bielarski that the city is open to ending the memorandum of understanding, last signed in August 2023. She said the memorandum requires 24-month notice, but the city would be open to shortening that window to Sept. 30, 2025.  

That date would be the end of the city’s and GRU’s fiscal years and give one and a half years to install a new system.  

“Staff has already began the process of procuring the required professional services for the methodology studies and has had a preliminary meeting with the [Alachua County] tax collector,” Curry said.  

The most likely path for the city would be to place the fees on the annual property taxes done by Alachua County Tax Collector John Power and his office. If placed on the taxes, the fees would shift from monthly to a larger, annual payment.  

In the letter, Curry said this path could present some challenges for residents since the payments aren’t spread out across the year. She said landlords may also need to adjust if their renters currently pay these fees as part of the utility bill. Now, the property owner would pay the fees on their property taxes.  

The changes also come after a mishap in the billing system that GRU uses that left city leaders concerned. In January, the system erred and sent stormwater and garbage collection fees that ranged from 5% to 50% higher than the actual fees.  

Bielarski said the error impacted 51,796 stormwater accounts, 25,274 garbage accounts and 1,498 rental lighting accounts. The total amount overcharged to customers was more than $300,000.    

Bielarski told city leaders in a letter that the problem, partly an automated change with the software used, was fixed and won’t happen again. He said customers will have their March or April bill reduced accordingly in order to make up the difference.