Alachua County decides to wait out streetlight agreement with Gainesville 

County Commissioner Ken Cornell speaks at a joint meeting with the Gainesville City Commission with Mayor Harvey Ward, left.
County Commissioner Ken Cornell (right) speaks at a joint meeting with the Gainesville City Commission with Mayor Harvey Ward in March 2024.
Photo by Seth Johnson

The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) decided not to change anything in its streetlight agreement with the Gainesville City Commission, despite urging by the city.  

Instead, the BOCC voted to refer the issue to county staff and hear an update at the next joint meeting of the two commissions. County commissioners said the issue appeared on the agenda too quickly for a vote on direction, especially without talking to the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority.  

The streetlight agreement dates back decades. In it, the Gainesville City Commission agreed to pay for the cost of streetlights in unincorporated Alachua County in exchange for right-of-way access in the unincorporated area.  

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The City Commission controlled Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) at the time of the agreement and during subsequent revisions, including 2022. GRU was the city department that would benefit from the ease of access to the rights-of-way. 

However, now that the GRU Authority controls the utility, the City Commission can’t enforce the agreement, Mayor Harvey Ward said at the meeting.  

The agreement, signed by the City Commission, states the city will operate the streetlights and provide the services. But Ward said the City Commission is now powerless to do anything with the utility or utility services. He said the county should want to leave the broken agreement and negotiate with GRU over the cost of the streetlights.  

Alachua County, though, sees no need to respond quickly. Since the GRU Authority was installed in October 2023, county staff said they had received no bills to keep the streetlights powered and the electricity continues to flow. 

Plus, County Commissioner Ken Cornell noted that the county doesn’t know who will run the utility in 2025. The City Commission could regain control of GRU—then the agreement could continue as before.  

The City Commission placed a referendum on November’s ballot to eliminate the GRU Authority and return management of the utility to the general government. The referendum passed with more than 70% of the vote, but a GRU Authority lawsuit called the referendum illegal.  

A judge agreed to pause any transfer of power until after the lawsuit is settled. Hearings for that lawsuit will happen at the start of 2025.  

Cornell said he doesn’t want to take action on the agreement until the management issue is settled—especially since everything continues working.  

“I appreciate you bringing it up, but to expect a resolution is just not going to happen unless somebody tells me otherwise,” Cornell said. 

Ward and city Commissioner Casey Willits said the agreement is working at the expense of city taxpayers. The GRU Authority has taken the cost of the streetlight agreement and subtracted it from the money transfer it sends to the general government. 

The annual cost of the streetlights is around $1.3 million, according to GRU.   

Ward and Willits said the utility had a surcharge on county customers to pay for the streetlight agreement. The GRU Authority eliminated that surcharge and said it views the payment as a responsibility of general government since the City Commission signed the agreement.  

But the City Commission can’t leave the agreement without Alachua County approval. City Commissioners said they get no benefit from the agreement since they no longer manage the utility.  

Gainesville Commissioner Bryan Eastman said he always thought the county received the short end of the agreement. He said local governments are entitled to franchise fees for utilities accessing their rights-of-way.  

The county would probably receive more money by imposing those fees than just the cost to power streetlights, Eastman said, putting the sum at around $6 million.  

Cornell said the county probably could get more money from a fee, but the agreement said any fees would need to be imposed by March 1. He said the county won’t have time to conduct a study and set a fee by March 1, 2025. He said 2026 would be the earliest.  

When coupled with the ongoing lawsuit, the county indicated it’s happy to keep the status quo, though city commissioners view the forced payment as a subsidy by city taxpayers. 

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