- An Alachua County judge ruled the City of Gainesville can amend its charter to remove the GRU Authority, leading to a second referendum in 2025.
- The University of Florida launched its third presidential search after the Board of Governors rejected Dr. Santa Ono's nomination.
- The city of Alachua faced significant turmoil in 2025 with multiple resignations and accusations involving city officials and election voting rights.
- Celebration Pointe's financial troubles continued with lawsuits, partnership disputes, and bankruptcy filings involving key investors and managers.
Editor’s Note: Mainstreet’s 2025 year-end recap includes the area’s top news stories, top feature stories, top high school sports events, our most-viewed website stories and our Community Impact Report.
Mainstreet published more than 2,000 stories in 2025 to keep local residents in the know, so you can stay safe, cast informed votes and be a better neighbor in Gainesville, Alachua County and around North Central Florida.
That’s our main goal. And along the way, we broke some big stories and continued covering the big stories that keep impacting residents year after year.
The 2025 list, ordered by our judgment of importance, contains a good mix of new news and continued news from previous years that revealed telling details.
Did we miss a story or place the list out of order? Let us know in the comments.
- Déjà vu at GRU
The tug-of-war over management of Gainesville Regional Utilities continued throughout 2025 with judicial rulings, lawsuits and a referendum—the same reasons it earned second place in our 2024 rankings.
An Alachua County judge ruled in April that the city of Gainesville has the power to amend its charter to remove Section 7, the part added by the Florida Legislature to create the GRU Authority.
The judge also said the 2024 ballot language was confusing. Both the city of Gainesville and GRU Authority appealed the ruling, but the City Commission decided to hold another referendum based on the preliminary ruling.
The GRU Authority sued to prevent the referendum and enforcement of the referendum results, arguing that the city would squash the authority’s right to appeal that remained in the Florida First District Court of Appeal.
Within 72 hours of the referendum, which was a 75% victory for the City Commission to regain control of the utility, the appeal court blocked the referendum result from taking effect until the legal matters are settled.
- Déjà vu with UF’s presidential search
The University of Florida launched its third presidential search in as many years at a November Board of Trustees meeting.
The forced third search followed the Board of Trustees’ unanimous selection of Dr. Santa Ono as the next president, but the Florida Board of Governors rejected Ono in a tense meeting, marking the first time the governors have rejected a presidential applicant.
Over the course of 2025, UF announced Ono’s selection as the lone finalist, Ono left his job as the University of Michigan president for the new Florida role, the UF Board of Trustees unanimously approved Ono despite concerns of DEI-leanings, the Board of Governors rejected Ono, interim UF President Kent Fuchs extended his contract, the trustees selected Donald Landry as interim president to replace Fuchs, and the trustees later launched a search with Landry as one of the contenders.
- City of Alachua deals with resignations, accusations
For several years, the city of Alachua has worked on its good life community without much drama or outside notice.
But in 2025, the city experienced public upheaval that included the resignation of three of its four-member planning department, the resignation of its city manager, accusations from a former planner of undue influence on the city’s work, split votes to investigate the matter and resident complaints (and legal threats) over public records requests.
On top of these, nine Alachua residents were declared to be ineligible voters in the city’s March election that saw two new candidates step onto the dais. The voting ineligibility stemmed from past criminal convictions, and amid mixed reviews, a national organization stepped in to pay associated fines.
The city is also in the middle of reviewing the controversial Tara April development, with Alachua County claiming affected party status and positioned to sue.
- Finances at Celebration Pointe under microscope
In 2024, three corporate entities that comprise Celebration Pointe filed for bankruptcy. The developments’ leaders said it would be a quick restructuring of debt, and while some question marks remained, the curtain opened this year.
In June, long-time partner Patricia Shively, who had invested over $100 million into Celebration Pointe, sued Svein Dyrkolbotn, his company Viking Companies and her financial advising firm.
She claimed they had conspired against her and defrauded her of millions. Shively said instead of looking out for her money, her financial adviser colluded with Dyrkolbotn.
A couple of months later, Alachua County eliminated its contract with Viking Companies to manage its sports and event center located at Celebration Pointe and built in partnership with Dyrkolbotn.
In October, Dyrkolbotn filed for personal bankruptcy as several bankruptcy cases proceeded against the Celebration Pointe entities and Viking Companies.
- Iconic Gainesville businesses face ADA suits
Mainstreet broke news of over 40 lawsuits filed against local businesses because of ADA compliance issues concerning websites.
The lawsuits all came from the same resident and were filed without giving notice of violations. Business owners called the lawsuits predatory and sought help from elected officials, but the attorney who filed the suits defended them as necessary to force ADA compliance.
In a follow-up story, Mainstreet spoke with a local business owner who quickly aimed to fix her site and a board member for the Center for Independent Living of North Central Florida.
- School board members pressured for social media comments
School Board of Alachua County members Sarah Rockwell and Tina Certain both came under fire for controversial Facebook posts made about conservative figures on their personal accounts in the summer and fall.
The incidents resulted in scrutiny from community members along with the state board of education. Certain and Rockwell were both called to state meetings to answer questions concerning their actions, including asking a public commenter to leave a meeting before rescinding the directive.
No official reprimands came from the state board, but it required school board members to attend training and said it would continue to monitor the situation in Alachua County.
Adding to the news around Alachua County Public Schools, a Gainesville High School teacher and a Talbot Elementary School teacher were placed on leave amid state probes, and the school board initiated a superintendent search.
- Newberry Charter School conversion
In September, the School Board of Alachua County’s appeal for the Newberry charter school conversion was denied during a Charter School Appeal Commission Hearing.
The decision paved the way for Newberry Elementary School to convert into a charter school for the 2026-2027 school year.
The Newberry Community School Board has already begun meeting to prepare for the opening, and the board voted in December on teacher salaries, personnel changes and policy standards.
- Jury awards $15 million in ACSO discrimination case
An Alachua County jury said Sgt. Kevin Davis had been the victim of racial discrimination and retaliation by former Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr. and his administration. The jury awarded $15 million in damages, significantly more than Davis requested.
The case is on appeal before the Florida First District Court of Appeal, with an active motion by the sheriff’s office to move the case to mediation.
- Memo reveals reason for 2024 raid in Alachua
In 2024, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) raided the offices of Alachua Today and Boukari Law in the city of Alachua, but the reasons and results remained unclear.
In May, Mainstreet discovered the reasons for the raid. FDLE was searching for evidence of sexual misconduct against juveniles, according to an FDLE memo.
After Mainstreet reached out for comment before publication, Bryan Boukari and Alachua Today sued Mainstreet to prevent publication. Mainstreet published the story, and an Alachua County judge threw out the lawsuit within days of the filing.
- Florida DOGE audits Gainesville and Alachua County
Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Gainesville in July and announced an audit of Gainesville’s fiscal operations. The governor, through CFO Blaise Ingoglia, also started audits in other cities and counties.
DeSantis said rapidly increasing local taxes that fail to correspond to population increases are evidence of wasteful spending. The audits form part of his plan to introduce property tax changes in 2026.
The city of Gainesville and Alachua County turned over hundreds of pages of reports and records going back years. So far, no formal audit report has been released, although DeSantis did include a $30,000 contribution from the county to a Planned Parenthood event and the city’s $187,000 salary for its director of equity and inclusion in a list of wasteful spending.
The audits set the table for a potential landmark year concerning property taxes, with counties already gearing up in opposition.