The Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority voted Wednesday to confirm its employment contract with CEO Ed Bielarski, heard an update on the 2024 fiscal year, and decided to send a letter to Florida’s attorney general about a referendum on the authority’s existence. 

The meeting started with public commenters asking for Bielarski’s contract to be removed from the consent agenda. On the advice of its attorney, the GRU Authority voted to move the contract to the first item on the regular agenda.  

The contract provides Bielarski a $332,000 annual salary with a supply of 104 hours of paid time off. The contract also provides 20 weeks of severance pay if Bielarski is terminated without cause or the GRU Authority is dissolved.  

Almost all the commenters spoke against Bielarski’s contract. With the utility facing financial problems, Tyler Foerst, a local union leader, said board members should be saving money and not giving the largest salary in Gainesville history.  

Chair Eric Lawson, CEO of HCA Florida North Florida Hospital, conducted the contract negotiation. He said he asked human resources for salary numbers for medium-sized utilities across the country and also looked at Bielarski’s previous employment contracts with GRU.  

Bielarski previously served in the CEO position from 2015 to 2022, when the Gainesville City Commission fired him. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Bielarski to the GRU Authority in April, and two months later board members made him interim CEO after firing Tony Cunningham.  

Public commenters also criticized Bielarski’s route to return as CEO.  

Lawson said he took Bielarski’s salary from 2022 and applied a 3% raise per year to arrive at the $332,000 figure. He added that the number falls just short of the $343,000 median salary for medium-sized utilities that he received from human resources—based on a national Korn Ferry report.  

One public commenter, Mike Murtha, supported Bielarski’s permanent contract. Murtha serves as legislative aide to state Rep. Chuck Clemons, who first pushed for the creation of the GRU Authority. 

“On behalf of Speaker pro tem Clemons, and I say the majority of the delegation who voted for HB 1645, we thank you for your diligence, we thank you for your willingness to serve, and we thank your judgement on picking such an outstanding general manager,” Murtha told the authority.  

Clemons had called for the removal of Cunningham when the new authority members were appointed in May.  

Conducting a national search, an option previously rejected by the board members, was also brought up in public comment.  

Bielarski’s appointment as CEO comes as the City Commission has placed a referendum on November’s ballot to potentially dissolve the GRU Authority and shift management of the utility back to the commission.  

The referendum is the latest action in an 18-month saga for control of GRU.  

Board member Craig Carter said Wednesday that the authority needs to fight the referendum, which the authority views as illegal.  

“I don’t think that we’re doing our job if we don’t attack this with a lot of energy,” Carter said. 

On Wednesday’s agenda, board members approved sending a letter to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody that asks two questions:  

• Can a special act of the Legislature, the bill passed to create the GRU Authority, be repealed via a city charter amendment only voted on by city voters? 

• Pursuant to Chapter 2023-348, Laws of Florida, is the GRU Authority authorized to hire an independent legal general counsel for all authority operations? 

Moody is under no obligation to reply to the questions, but the board members wanted to send the letter for potential options in the future. 

The question of whether the board can fire its own legal counsel has remained open since the first meeting of the GRU Authority in October 2023. While the authority has hired Folds Walker LLC as its legal counsel, the city attorney’s office has remained involved in the process and maintains that it serves as the legal representative for the utility overall. 

Scott Walker with Folds Walker LLC told the board members that the firm has already researched the best ways to ask the courts to judge the validity of November’s referendum. 

An Orlando precedent could have the referendum called nonbinding, Walker said. 

The board members asked the legal staff to continue evaluating pathways to circumvent the referendum. Walker already presented arguments to the Gainesville City Commission about why the referendum is illegal in the law firms’ opinion—a view also held by the board members.  

When Walker is ready to file suit, board members said Bielarski could convene a special meeting for the GRU Authority to vote on moving forward.  

Mark Benton, director of accounting and finance, and Claudia Rasnick, chief financial officer, updated the board on the utility’s finances in the current fiscal year.  

Benton said the actual spending is following the budget closely, and Rasnick highlighted $79 million in principal debt paid off so far in the fiscal year—lasting from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2024. That’s money GRU will no longer pay interest on moving forward. 

Rasnick said GRU planned to pay off around $35 million before the debt reduction plan started. She said paying off $44 million more in debt than originally planned is proof that the debt reduction plan is working and called that level of debt reduction unheard of in GRU’s past.  

“When you look back at the history of GRU and the principal payments, they’re in the 20 or 30 range. We’ve never been at $79 million.” 

Bielarski added that lowering the general services contribution, the amount of money sent to the City Commission each year, has directly allowed GRU to operate at a surplus and then pay off debt. He said the lower contribution directly impacted customers by keeping rates flat for 2025 while also lowering debt in a period of inflation and allowing the utility to invest in itself. 

The debt reduction plan started under the City Commission in 2023. Once the GRU Authority took over, it kept the plan in place and modified it to further cut back on the general service contribution and add other savings.