First, I want to thank you for supporting the motion to move forward with an ordinance to place a referendum on the ballot to abolish the GRU Authority.      

Think of the cost of an election, if any, as an investment in the future of GRU. Presently as it stands the costs to maintain two separate administrations at battle with each other with several duplicate functions such as legal, is costing as much or more annually than the ballot measure, which would return GRU to the City*.

I'm concerned about the future of GRU based on certain actions by the GM and the GRUA.

After attending almost every GRU meeting since the GRUA was installed in Oct. of 23, it is my observation that the current board, taken as a whole, is not qualified to govern the utility. They do not hold the GM accountable for his actions because they lack the knowledge or understanding to ask the right questions. In fact, rarely do they ask any questions and when they do, let’s just say that the GM is a clever manipulator and obfuscator. 

Most importantly, the GRUA is not accountable to the customers, or the City.  As an example, the most recent issue with termination of the TEA troubles me, I think it may be the beginning of steering the Utility away from Self-Sufficiency. This is one reason I believe that the future of power generation by GRU may be in jeopardy under the stewardship of this board. I expressed my concerns about this issue, and they were ignored, this is true for a number of concerns brought to the attention of the GRUA. 

In summary, GRU is self-reliant for delivery of power to its customers, there needs to be accountability by the management of the Utility and that can only be achieved if the management is returned to local governance where the customers of GRU have a voice.

Based on the last vote**, that’s how your constituents wish it to be. 

Please vote to approve the ordinance to move forward with a referendum to revote HB1645-2023 for the betterment of GNV and GRU.

Chuck Ross  

*Further, the GM continually searches for additional ways to reduce the GFT below their budgeted amount of $8.5M.

As you may remember I spoke on several occasions against the alleged $68M claw back for the years from 2018 to 2021, at best it was half of that number using the GM's method and the method he used to calculate the claw back was wrong to begin with.  Steve Varvel brought the correct method, the flow of funds, long ago to one of their meetings and was ignored.

**The analysis of the votes for all 29 precincts from the info on the Alachua Cnty Super of Elections shows that 54K of the 79K Reg voters turned out (68%) and of those 73% cast ballots in favor of revoking HB 1645-2023 (attached).