April 1, 2024

At our March 21st meeting the City Commission voted to move forward with putting the GRU Authority on the ballot for a full repeal this year. This came after a packed room of community members from the League of Women Voters, NAACP, the AFL-CIO, Labor Coalition and the Sierra Club came to the meeting asking for the voters to decide.

It was just about a year to the day that myself, the mayor, and a large number of community groups went to Tallahassee to ask the Alachua County Legislative Delegation to put their takeover of GRU to a referendum vote, instead of just forcing it through in a special act. To let the voters decide the future of their utility, not Tallahassee politicians. Clemons, Perry, and the rest refused to do that, so it was a good feeling to make the motion to finally give the voters a voice.

This is just the start of the process though. In April six-of-the-seven commissioners will need to vote in favor to get it on the ballot. We will need to agree on final ballot language, and decide which election this will be on, either August or November.

I’ve heard some confusion about the legality of this since the bill was passed by the Legislature and traditionally state law takes precedence over local ordinances. That’s true, but HB 1645 was a local bill, not a state law. That bill did one thing and one thing only: it amended the charter of the City of Gainesville. The legislature has the right to alter the charter of any city as per the Florida Constitution. But the city voters also have the ability to alter our charter under Florida Statutes 166.031.

166.031 Charter amendments.

(1) The governing body of a municipality may, by ordinance, or the electors of a municipality may, by petition signed by 10 percent of the registered electors as of the last preceding municipal general election, submit to the electors of said municipality a proposed amendment to its charter, which amendment may be to any part or to all of said charter except that part describing the boundaries of such municipality. The governing body of the municipality shall place the proposed amendment contained in the ordinance or petition to a vote of the electors at the next general election held within the municipality or at a special election called for such purpose.

Some have argued that portions of HB 1645 barring the Commission from “directing” the Authority means we can’t take this action as the Commission, but that isn’t the case. This isn’t a direction by the Commission, it’s a question to the voters. But even if we were barred by our Charter, Florida Statutes specifically say we can make this change regardless of what’s in our charter:

166.031 (3) A municipality may amend its charter pursuant to this section notwithstanding¹ any charter provisions to the contrary.

The City Charter is a living document, just like the laws of Florida are, and can be amended multiple ways including by a referendum to the residents. Nothing put into the charter by Chuck Clemons can overrule the ability of our city to do that.

So that means that at the bottom of your ballot, either August or November, you will see the official question of removal of the GRU Authority from our city government, putting oversight of the utilities back in the hands of the local elected officials of the City.

(1) Notwithstanding is a confusing word that, in spoken English it generally means “subject to” but in legal jargon it means “in spite of”. It essentially means this provision is upheld in spite of anything to the contrary, in this case charter provisions to the contrary.

You can read more of LWV of Alachua County's role in the recent vote and a history of actions and updates on the GRU controversy in our Article and Action Alert.