GRU Fight: Mayor Ward Vs. GM Bielarski
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward and Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) General Manager (GM) Ed Bielarski held a debate Tuesday evening ahead of the Nov. 4 special election where Gainesville residents will vote on if the utility should stay in control of the governor-appointed board or be put back in the hands of the city commission.
Both Ward and Bielarski have a personal stake in the vote. GRU was taken from the city early on in Ward’s term, and Bielarski took the position of GM after being appointed a board member.
Ward has a salary of $88,700, while Bielarski has a salary of $342,000.
The debate was moderated by Alachua County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President Evelyn Fox.
Gainesville resident and photographer Chuck Ross filmed the debate and posted it on YouTube.
Ward and Bielarski described their arguments in their opening statements.
Ward said, “I will tell you that I have been reticent to be involved in this sort of thing about this issue because I don't think that—first of all, we voted on this a bunch of times. You know, this is number three. I think most people in this room have probably already voted, or you know exactly how you're going to vote.”
Ward said that because the GRU Authority is appointed by the governor, then a governor on a different side of the political spectrum could make appointments if elected. “You may not always like the governor who gets to pick,” he said.
Ward said, “I believe the people that you select that are known to you locally are going to serve you better than people who are appointed by somebody [far] away… I think the people who sue you to keep you from voting probably, in the long term, are on the wrong side of history.”
Bielarski said, “The authority wasn’t created in a vacuum; it has a history.” Bielarski said GRU’s problems under the City of Gainesville prompted the state to step in, describing when he worked as the manager for the utility under the city a decade ago.
“They’d already set down a path that created some distinct operational financial difficulties with them,” said Bielarski. “We entered into a $2.5 billion dollar biomass purchase agreement that was stretching the finances of the organization. We needed to get out of that contract; that was one of my tasks… We had a series of solar feed-in tariffs that to this day cost us about $80 million… Through this there were excess transfers that were being made from the utility to the city… In some years they were actually taking more in a transfer than what GRU made in a profit, so it’s not a sustainable situation… From 2018 to 2021, there was $68 million more taken from GRU to the city in terms of profit.”
Bielarski said, “We’ve reduced the average residential bill from $156 to $137,” based on natural gas reduction. He added that the authority has repaid $176 million in debt in part by lowering the general funds transfer (GFT) to the city.
The opening statements were followed by a Q&A where Bielarski and Ward debated on the GFT and other topics relating to the utility.
A day after the debate, a judge blocked Bielarski’s most recent attempt to halt the referendum, denying a motion from the GRU Authority to stop the vote. Bielarski has announced the authority is appealing the decision.
Bielarski made a statement about the debate on his Facebook after it was over.
The debate came a month after Bielarski had a social media battle against Gainesville City Commissioner Bryan Eastman.
Jack Walden
More information about the upcoming election is available on the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections website.
