LWVAC is launching a "What You Can Do" (WYCD) campaign where we share a series of action plans. Being an activist has a broad range of engagement. These WYCD messages are intended to make being an activist easy. Ten minute activism. You can do it. Organizers do the research and work. We serve it to you in bite sized pieces. The important thing is that we don't just let the injustices and robbery of our democracy go unanswered. To be complacent is to be complicit. We will not be complicit. Read more about this campaign here. 

To receive the What You Can Do actions directly, please email info [at] lwv-alachua.org (subject: What%20You%20Can%20Do)  with "What You Can Do" in the subject line. Request to be added to the email list. Messages come out about once a week. 

CURRENT ACTION TOPICS: 1) TODAY: Support special election for GRU referendum and 2) Support the Science Integrity Act 

1. The last WYCD message, sent on 5/30, was about the current effort to return governance of our city utilities to our local elected officials. I won’t elaborate here, but have attached a speech that gives a nutshell of the situation. THE CITY COMMISSION VOTE IS TOMORROW. Send a message, right now, to CityComm [at] cityofgainesville.org and urge them to vote YES for a special election on Nov 4 for a referendum to allow voters to again vote to return GRU to the city commission and out of the state’s appointees who have no oversight.
1. If at all possible, attend the city commission meeting tomorrow. Arrive at 12:30 to go through security and ensure you get a seat. We are not sure where the GRU issue is on the agenda, but we need lots of supporters. There will be stickers to wear to show your support. You may speak, but just being in the audience sends a message to commissioners. Yes, they do count the number of supporters.
2. A bill, HR 1106 – Science Integrity Act is in the national legislature. GOV “requires each federal agency that funds, conducts, or oversees scientific research to adopt and enforce a scientific integrity policy.” The bill, according to the same site, “must (1) ensure that scientific conclusions are not based on political considerations, (2) prohibit the suppression or alteration of findings, and (3) permit researchers to disseminate their findings and engage with the scientific community as appropriate.”
1. At this writing the Bill appears to be stuck in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology after being referred to that committee from the House on 2-26-25.
2. No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate although discussions of scientific integrity have occurred in that body which may suggest at least some support for the principal of scientific integrity in the Senate.

Call Representative Kat Kammack: (202) 225-5744 and express your support for science and urge her to contact members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology about approving HR 1106 and moving it along. Florida house members of that committee are: Daniel Webster, Scott Franklin, and Mike Haridopolos.

Call Senators Rick Scott (202) 224-5274 and Ashley Moody: (202) 224-3041 to express your support of science as the foundation for government policy and for the introduction of a Senate version of the Science Integrity Act.

For further details and information, please read more details below.

Protect Science from Political Interference

We all are witness to the politically motivated assaults on science and scientists. The ubiquity of these assaults leaves many of us unsure about how or even whether to respond. Fortunately, the Union of Concerned Scientists offers all of us, regardless of our scientific training, a way to show our respect for science and our resistance to its undermining. Specifically, the Union of Concerned Scientists is supporting the Scientific Integrity Act.

HR 1106-Science Integrity Act, according to Congress. GOV “requires each federal agency that funds, conducts, or oversees scientific research to adopt and enforce a scientific integrity policy.”

The bill, according to the same site, “must (1) ensure that scientific conclusions are not based on political considerations, (2) prohibit the suppression or alteration of findings, and (3) permit researchers to disseminate their findings and engage with the scientific community as appropriate.”

According to Jen Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, “The whole purpose of this legislation is to ensure that safeguards are in place so that any science considered in policy decisions is the result of well-established independent science, not political mandates from above.” And in addition, “The Scientific Integrity Act would ensure scientific evidence-not the political and economic ambitions of a president and his self-interested allies-informs federal decision making.”

As you know, our WYCD emphasis is on influencing Florida’s two Senators and our local Representative to take certain actions or at least to consider the moral, ethical, or political implications of administrative actions. Calling them about the Science Integrity Act requires very specific messaging if our contacts are going to be considered and not ignored as the ravings of the uninformed and unsophisticated. For effective messaging we need to know the following details:

1. At this writing the Bill appears to be stuck in the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology after being referred to that committee from the House on 2-26-25.
2. No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate although discussions of scientific integrity have occurred in that body which may suggest at least some support for the principal of scientific integrity in the Senate.

Call Representative Kat Kammack: (202) 225-5744 and express your support for science and urge her to contact members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology about approving HR 1106 and moving it along. Florida house members of that committee are: Daniel Webster, Scott Franklin, and Mike Haridopolos.

Call Senators Rick Scott (202) 224-5274 and Ashley Moody: (202) 224-3041to express your support of science as the foundation for government policy and for the introduction of a Senate version of the Science Integrity Act.

LWVAC President Janice Garry's Presentation to the Gainesville City Commission

City Commission Meeting
Proposal to Delete Charter Article 7

Since the inception of House Bill 1645, the League of Women Voters of Alachua County has stood in vocal opposition. House Bill 1645 changed the Gainesville city charter. It usurped governance of Gainesville Regional Utilities from elected local officials to governor appointed Authority members. The bill blatantly violated democratic processes and it trounced on home rule.

Due process was violated at the initial step. In 2018 a ballot referendum that duplicated the concept of replacing the city commission with a third-party Authority was defeated by some 60% of voters. In 2023, instead of another referendum, a legislator presented the matter as a bill that bypassed local leaders and voters and threw it to the state level. That choice circumvented democracy and home rule.

Breaches continued. Gainesville residents did not have a thirty-day notice of the bill prior to the start of the legislative session, as is the standard practice with local bills. Legislators began the session and were too busy to travel to Gainesville, so the only meeting available to residents was in Tallahassee. During legislative committee meetings, vague terms and uncertain legalities were not defined or addressed. The bill was speedily passed and sent to the governor who signed it. GRU is now ruled by governor appointed members with virtually no oversight. Confusion has reigned as was spectacularly seen when a judge verified that the Authority members did not meet the basic residency requirement. They’ve resigned. Nobody is well served. Home rule has been trashed.

There is no part of HB 1645 that respected democratic processes or home rule. Therefore, the League of Women Voters of Alachua County urges this city commission to place on the November 2024 ballot a referendum that would delete Article 7 of the City Charter that created the Authority. State statute 166.031 gives this commission the authority to place a referendum on the general election ballot. This commission can give voters a choice of who governs our municipal utility. We have an opportunity to regain democratic process and home rule in Gainesville. Let’s do this. I’ll help. The League will help. A whole team will help.