LOCAL

Judge: City residents can intervene in GRU legal battle

Andrew Caplan
andrew.caplan@gvillesun.com
Cooling turbines release steam, pictured at bottom, at the Deerhaven Renewable Energy Center, formely known as the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, which the city bought for $754 million last year [File/ Gainesville Sun].

An Alachua County judge has granted a pair of motions for two Gainesville residents to intervene in a lawsuit aimed at removing a question from the November ballot.

Three former Gainesville commissioners, Susan Bottcher, Yvonne Hinson and Thomas Hawkins, in May filed a lawsuit against the city and supervisor of elections to remove a referendum that, if passed, would create a new board to govern Gainesville Regional Utilities. GRU is currently governed by the City Commission.

The lawsuit argues that the ballot question is misleading and violates the Florida Constitution.

The trio of former commissioners sued the city of Gainesville saying it had an in interest in the matter, though all seven of the current commissioners have spoken out against the ballot iniative and would like to see it fail.

Last week, city residents Thomas McIntosh and Jim Konish were granted their motions to intervene in the lawsuit. Both successfully argued they had an interest in the issue, as well, and a right to vote on the ballot item.

Konish and McIntosh subsequently filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit, as did Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton. A third Gainesville resident has also filed a motion to intervene. Those motions are expected to be ruled on within the month.

Joe Little, the plaintiffs' attorney, has asked to dely the lawsuit until after the November election.

According to a July report by Standard & Poor’s, a financial services company, GRU’s credit rating would drop if a five-member independent utility board, or GRU authority, was established, partly due to “very high debt levels.” The report states the drop factors GRU’s high rates, which are among the highest in the state, and cost pressures, which are impacted by its near $2 billion debt. 

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