Finalizing the Lawsuit Over the GRU Authority
September 1, 2023
On October 4th Gov. Ron DeSantis is slated to take ownership of Gainesville Regional Utilities through his political appointees. In an unprecedented move, that the City believes is blatantly unconstitutional, a portion of our city government will be taken from the people without a referendum or proper notice and given to the Executive branch of the State of Florida. Nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Florida, and if this stands it will create a new precedent of what the state is capable of doing to a local city.
The stakes are very high, which is why the City of Gainesville is suing to stop this takeover and has filed a complaint on the many, many constitutional issues the bill has. I don’t need to get into them all, I’ve done that in more detail in previous articles.
In September we should have an answer on how this particular chapter ends. The City has requested, and the State of Florida agreed, to an expedited hearing to ensure we know whether the Authority will take office on October 4th or not.
Here is the timeline, subject to change:
September 15: The State of Florida answers our Complaint
September 20: The City Responds to the State’s Answers
September 22: Oral Argument before the Court
That means by the end of September we’ll (hopefully) have an answer. The state agreed to this expedited timeline because it’s in both of our interests.
One, legal ambiguity on a $2 billion utility is very bad. Our bond ratings agencies have already expressed concerns about the uncertainty this unprecedented takeover creates for the utility, and those issues have already cost our residents $2.9 million. By prolonging further uncertainty over who governs GRU we are risking further downgrades, staff departures, and legal issues.
Two, once a decision is made we can more readily decide what comes next. Senator Keith Perry has already said if it gets struck down they’ll just change it in the next session, the same way they’ve done to numerous other unconstitutional bills. State Republicans are committed to stealing our city government from us, through hell or high water. But it’s in our interest to move quickly as well. We need an answer so we can decide how best to govern with half of our city under Gubernatorial control, and to decide what other tools we have to bring local control back to our local residents.
However this turns out it will not be the end of the fight over Gainesville Regional Utilities, but at least we can close this very sad, partisan, and shameful chapter of our utility’s 100-year history.
You can read more of LWV of Alachua County's actions and updates on the GRU controversy in our Article and Action Alert.
