Today’s guest column comes from Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson, a 40-year GRU customer, former GRU employee, and former three-term Alachua County Commissioner. The lead art was created by DALL-E after reading passages from this article.
For folks who don’t follow the nuances of how local government functions, there’s much to yawn about in Florida House Bill 1645.
The bill amends the City of Gainesville’s Charter to remove virtually all of the City Commission’s authority and accountability for Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU).
Governance of our utility, which includes electricity, water, wastewater, natural gas, reclaimed water, and internet will be handed over in October to a five-member Authority appointed solely by Florida’s Governor.
The reason given is that an appointed body accountable only to the Governor will do a better job running the utility than locally elected officials.
For the first 11 of the 14 pages in the bill filed by Rep. Chuck Clemons, there’s not much to argue about as the document mainly provides definitions and lays out how and when the takeover is to occur. There is some language to mollify bond-rating agencies who provide investors with information about GRU’s credit-worthiness.
But then comes Section 7.10 “General Provisions” which brings up the rear – a phrase that’s appropriate for how it points its rear at the public. The first paragraph reads, in part:
“(1) The City and the Authority shall perform all acts necessary and proper to effectuate an orderly transition of the governance, operation, management, and control of all utility systems, properties, and assets held in the possession of GRU . . .”
BETTER SMILE WHILE YOU KOWTOW COMMISSIONERS
What this means is that City staff and particularly the City Attorney will soon be required by State Law to draw up the documents to divest itself of the City’s major asset, and smile while doing so.
If “the City”, by which this particularly means the City Commission, does not “perform all acts necessary and proper to effectuate an orderly transition . . .”, what recourse is available to the Governor if the City Commission does not enthusiastically participate?
Gov. DeSantis has already demonstrated that he will remove local elected officials for the slightest of slights to his agenda so that he can appoint their replacements. And Rep. Clemons and most of our legislative delegation have shown that they prefer to disregard the will of the voters, expressed just a few years ago when a State-imposed referendum on the same subject was defeated in a local election.
Just when you think an authoritarian takeover couldn’t get much worse, then along comes this gem:
“7.12 Limitation on Utility Directives. The [Utility] Authority . . . in making all policy and operational decisions over the affairs of the Utility System . . . shall consider only pecuniary factors and utility industry best practices standards, which do not include consideration of the furtherance of social, political, or ideological interests. Appropriate pecuniary factors and utility industry best practices are those which solely further the fiscal and financial benefit of the Utility System and customers.”
There’s a lot to unpack with this, the first being that “pecuniary interests” and “industry best practices” are phrases that are fundamentally in conflict with one another.
Best practices include a long list of things such as the reliability of generation and transmission of electricity, the purity of water and the cleanliness of wastewater, how rates are set for customers, whether new development pays for their own infrastructure or whether those costs are foisted on ratepayers or taxpayers, how rights-of-way are maintained, how employees are compensated, and on and on.
AND NONE OF THAT SOCIAL STUFF!
But just to make sure nobody misunderstands the agenda for dis’organization, the following is added “The [Utility] Authority . . . in making all policy and operational decisions over the affairs of the Utility System . . . [will] not include consideration of the furtherance of social, political, or ideological interests . . .”
So, the “social” stuff they won’t be considering will certainly start with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which is already being banned by DeSantis from state government and universities.
GRU has generally done a good job in not turning off power and water to customers during times of duress, such as cold weather, on weekends, etc. – but these have pecuniary impacts and are a social agenda, both of which could be verboten by the new GRU Authoritarians.
“Political and ideological interests” which the new Utility Authoritarians will no longer be allowed to consider will certainly include climate change, resource use, alternative energy sources, the use of local employees versus out-of-town contractors, and so on.
Was it ideological for GRU to put miles of overhead utilities underground to improve reliability and aesthetics?
Was it political to bow to pressure from neighbors who wanted the wastewater plants to not stink up their neighborhood? To respond, GRU installed biological air filtration technology acquired from Europe to clean-up sewer pipe gases.
Those were both substantial pecuniary impacts to the Utility whose outcomes were the result of local politics.
Without having a “political or ideological” discussion, there is no way to determine how a Utility should deal with solar energy, which might be Utility-owned, or produced by for-profit companies, or by individual commercial or residential customers on their rooftops. If this bill passes, relevant discussions would not legally be allowed to be considered in Gainesville as they are everywhere else in the world.
ALACHUA COUNTY GETS A PASS
There’s an unsurprising irony tucked into this debacle, and that is County government gets a pass via an explicit sentence exempting it, undoubtedly as a result of lobbying that will never come to light.
It could be the County doesn’t want their emergency radio deal to get caught up in this mess, or perhaps there are pending agreements for utilities with Big Development in the far-flung suburbs, or maybe it’s the County-City inter-local agreement for certain utility services such as hydrants and streetlights in exchange for whatever that really doesn’t want to be re-hashed (which the Authority would otherwise have to do).
The fact is, the County collects a ten percent tax on electric utilities, which it could simply drop and would lower GRU bills in the unincorporated area by that pecunity. But the County has been exempted from the Authority’s political and fiscal meddling, and not necessarily to the benefit of the west-side sprawlers.
WHAT THE BILL WON’T DO
There’s lots of State bills that could actually solve problems that the locals can’t seem to sort out.
The Legislature could annex the entire GRU service area into the Gainesville city limits to resolve the Legislator’s faux concern about representation.
The Legislature could require the University of Florida to purchase electricity from GRU, which would have happened decades ago were it not for state government being a wholly owned subsidiary of FP&L.
The Legislature could reduce the tax rates that local governments charge on utility bills.
The Legislature could adequately fund water and wastewater services, particularly for small towns, rural areas, and a surprisingly large number of Gainesville-area residents who are still using wells and septic tanks.
And in general government, the Legislature could mandate the merging of clearly duplicative services, such as Fire/Rescue.
But they continue to duck the things in their power that could make a positive difference, and instead poke at City residents and the government they elect.
WHAT THE NEW AUTHORITY WON’T DO
The five new Authority members will do very little to actually operate the Utillity, as that is done by industry professionals on staff.
But what the Authority will do even less of is listening to suggestions or complaints from citizens, in part because the State Law that established them puts off limits much of what citizens would be providing input about.
Since Authority members hold their office as a result of campaigning for the vote of only the Governor, why would they listen to anybody else? And he, she, or they won’t be paying much attention unless a local political party apparatchik points it out.
Utility companies are sometimes hard to love. I worked at the City of Gainesville in three capacities decades ago – initially as the Planner who drafted the first “Energy Element” to Gainesville’s comprehensive plan; then for GRU as an Energy Analyst and Public Information Specialist for nearly ten years; and finally as the Downtown Redevelopment Director during an era that included undergrounding utilities, re-lighting, and re-plumbing much of our downtown.
GRU is a real asset to our community, despite its occasional stumbles, and lack of support by our largest employer. GRU is ours – socially, politically, and ideologically, not the Governor’s.
GRU’s motto for over a century has been “Owned By The People It Serves”. There’s a lot of alternative language that I’ve considered suggesting for the new motto, but most is unpublishable. Perhaps the new Authority members might consider: “GRU – It’s The State, Do You Mind?”
FreeGNV 