A bill aiming to change the Gainesville Regional Utilities governing structure passed through its second Florida House subcommittee Tuesday.
However, concerns at the local level — namely from the Gainesville City Commission and the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce — still linger.
Florida House Bill 1325 aims to transfer GRU authority from the City Commission to an independent, five-member board appointed by the Commission. If passed, the bill would be voted on through a referendum.
Sponsored by Rep. Keith Perry, the bill also outlines board policies, such as qualifications for its members.
Perry filed a similar bill last year, but it was not successful.
The idea is to have an independently run board that focuses solely on governing GRU, with the goal being to run the utility more efficiently and reduce rates across the board, Perry said.
“We want to give them some autonomy,” Perry said. “While appointed by the City Commission, they wouldn’t report back to them for approval on how to run the utility.”
The City Commission believes GRU governance is a local matter that should be handled locally, Commissioner Lauren Poe said.
“I don’t believe that the state has the role to play in this,” Poe said.
Both the City Commission and Chamber oppose language in the bill outlining what board members can and can’t do.
“We (the Chamber) don’t believe that at this stage those determinations should be included as part of the bill,” said Kamal Latham, the Chamber’s vice president of public policy. “It should deal with the governance issue — separate from policy mandates and decisions.”
Perry said the bill’s policy language is based on other successfully run governing models across the state.
The originally filed 52-page bill was met with concern from the community, which led Perry to file a revised version.
The shorter version still contains policies that neither the Chamber nor the Commission agree with.
Latham and Poe both cited language in the bill that would hinder economic development incentives that GRU currently uses to retain and attract new businesses as a problem.
Poe will meet with Commissioner Randy Wells on Thursday at 1 p.m. to continue a local discussion on the utility’s governance structure.
“Our belief at this point is that we should be allowed to do that ourselves, as opposed to having the state tell us what we should be doing,” Poe said.
The bill advanced through its second subcommittee on the same day the City Commission interviewed candidates in hopes of finding a new GRU general manager. The general manager has overall responsibility for the company, said GRU human resources director Cheryl McBride.
Commissioners interviewed five of the six candidates starting at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Each interview ran about an hour long. Ed Bielarski, Rob McGarrah, Dwight Miller, Thor Wishart and Phil Williams attended the first round of interviews. The sixth candidate, Charles Dickerson, will be interviewed Monday due to a scheduling conflict.
Before the interviews began, the candidates were given a tour of the city and the GRU facilities. They will also attend one-on-one interviews with each of the commissioners Wednesday, McBride said. Dickerson will have his one-on-one interviews on Monday, if scheduling allows.
The Commission will announce its decision at a meeting Thursday, April 2, said McBride. The new general manager will take over from interim general manager Kathy Viehe, who replaced Bob Hunzinger after his resignation. Viehe did not apply for the permanent position, McBride said. The salary for the position is open to negotiation.
Commissioner Craig Carter said while the governance debate didn’t affect their interviewing process, all of the candidates are aware of Perry’s bill.
In the applicants, Carter said the commissioners are looking for someone who can be sensitive to the needs of citizens while also managing such a large company.
“It’s a unique situation,” Carter said. “There are people that are out there that have to make the decision, ‘Do I get medicine, or do I get electricity?’”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 - 4 on 3/25/2015 under the headline “GRU bill passes 2nd House subcommittee”]
