The Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority discussed adding fluoride to water and a new lawsuit at a short Wednesday regular meeting.
Before the authority’s vote to accept the agenda and consent agenda, City Clerk Kristen Bryant spoke about a proposed policy on legally recording documents and responding to public records requests. She said the policy in the backup is lacking.
The state has a 20-page document that details the necessary steps for these procedures, Bryant said, but GRU’s backup documents only had a page and a half. She called the documents inadequate if the authority feels it needs to pass its own policies on the issues.
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Ed Bielarski, CEO of the utility, responded at the authority’s request. He said the agenda documents were an overview intended to give a broad scope of the different policies. He said the utility plans to have a more robust procedure spelled out in the future to comply with all state requirements.
GRU Authority Director David Haslam spoke early in the meeting to discuss a new lawsuit filed against the utility.
The lawsuit was filed on Feb. 3 against the GRU Authority and each director in their respective roles. Bobby Mermer and Jason Bellamy-Fults filed the lawsuit and claim that authority has no power since the November 2025 referendum, when 73% of Gainesville voters opted to revert control of the utility to the City Commission.
“The practical effect of that vote was to restore control of municipal utilities to the City Commission,” the lawsuit reads. “Because the Authority has not complied with that vote, petitioners turn to this Court for effective relief by way of quo warranto. That relief would include a determination that the Authority and its board members have no authority to control or direct any aspect of the city’s utilities or to take any other action other than to disband.”
The GRU Authority filed a suit and received a temporary injunction to keep the status quo and allow arguments to go before the courts. The authority and its attorneys called the referendum illegal, saying the City Commission had no right to place it on the ballot.
That lawsuit is scheduled for a hearing in early April, and attorney Scott Walker told the authority that the goal is to receive a permanent injunction against the referendum.
Haslam called the most recent litigation a nuisance lawsuit and said they need to stop. He highlighted a section that says GRU has been responsible for making Gainesville a cultural and educational jewel because of transfers to the city.
However, Haslam said those transfers also put the utility into major debt. He said he’d like GRU to earn enough revenue to send a large transfer to the city, but that will come after taking care of customers and the utilities, he said.
He said the GRU Authority is a local board giving local control and has many of the same goals as residents, including ecologically friendly generation like solar. But the authority must make its decisions when the time is right.
In January, the authority terminated a solar agreement, citing a rise in the market that made the project unfeasible.
Chair Eric Lawson agreed with Haslam concerning the lawsuits.
“I believe that all these lawsuits are harming GRU and are also harming our customers,” Lawson said.
He said the utility needs to be proactive and tell customers who is suing and the cost required to handle the lawsuits.
Following up on statements at the last meeting, five public commenters spoke against GRU adding fluoride to the water supply. GRU directors spoke to the issue during open comment, but all spoke in favor of continuing the practice.
Director Jack Jacobs said he views floriated drinking water as one of the modern miracles like the polio vaccine or pasteurized dairy products. He said he’s open to stopping the practice but would need to see a lot of hard data that hasn’t cropped up yet.
Haslam and Director Craig Carter echoed the sentiment, and Carter said the issue will likely come formally before the board in the future.
Original article online at: https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/govt-politics/gru-authority-lawsuit-fluoride