DeSantis breaks from bill, appoints 4th GRU Authority member not in Gainesville limits

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed the remaining two members for the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority Wednesday afternoon just hours before the board was set to host its first meeting.

The board will control all decisions related to the municipal utility and will be made up of board members who almost entirely live outside city limits. It is the first municipal utility board appointed by a Florida governor in state history.

Only one of the appointments announced by the governor's office lives inside the city of Gainesville, according to voter registration records, a makeup that goes against the formula created through House Bill 1645.

The new members are former Gainesville commissioner Craig Carter, who still resides in Gainesville, and dermatologist Tara Ezzell, who is a county resident. The pair will join non-city residents James Coats IV, Robert Karow and Christopher "Eric" Lawson on the first-ever GRU Authority, which will strip away Gainesville's century-long control of its utility. All members are registered Republicans.

DeSantis, a presidential hopeful, initially appointed three members last week. The Gainesville Sun confirmed shortly after that none lived within Gainesville’s boundaries, as required by state law. Some local conservatives, including the legislative aide of the bill’s creator, have falsely claimed without evidence that the bill allows the initial board to be made up of a majority of county residents not residing in the city, though nothing in the bill states as such.

The board, now complete, is a 4-1 split made up of mostly non-city residents. HB-1645, coined the "GRU Takeover Bill" was written by Republican leaders and passed by the Legislature earlier this year. On Monday, a lawsuit was filed to challenge the first three appointments.

City leaders were not notified of the appointments in advance.

More: DeSantis names 3 to join the new GRU board. None live in city limits as required by law

About the new board

Carter is a local realtor and sales associate at Coldwell Banker Commercial M.M. Parrish Realtors. He previously served as a commissioner for Gainesville, before losing to David Arreola. He has remained active in the community and is also vice chair of the Gainesville Regional Airport Authority and a member of the Gainesville Rotary Club.

Voting records show he lives in northwest Gainesville. Carter, however, was not among the original field of applicants when the application process initially closed.

"My goal is to try to help the city of Gainesville and the citizens just like when I was on the City Commission," he said, adding that he intends to listen to professionals and city residents before addressing certain issues.

Ezzell, the only woman on the board, is a dermatologist and partner at Dermatology Associates. She serves as the assistant secretary of the Parker Road Community Development District Board of Directors. She is also a member of the Alachua County Medical Society and former vice chair of the Child Advocacy Center Board of Directors. She has a bachelor’s degree from Emory University and her doctorate of medicine from the University of Florida.

Her address shows up near Parker Road, in western Alachua County, south of Tioga and north of Haile Plantation, according to voter records. The home has GRU services, though not electric, which is a requirement of HB-1645.

More: Gainesville residents file lawsuit against DeSantis for GRU Authority appointments

Coats is the chief executive officer of Phalanx Defense Systems, a business located in northeast Gainesville, and recipient of the local chamber’s "Spirit of Gainesville" for various charity work around the community. Lawson is the chief executive officer of HCA North Florida Regional Hospital. Karow is a retired marine who also worked as an attorney and manager for a crude oil pipeline in the Ecuadorian Orient region. All three are also registered to vote outside city limits.

In 2021, DeSantis removed Alachua County School Board member Diyonne McGraw for living a few hundred feet outside her district. In 2022, County Commissioner Mary Alford resigned from office to avoid being removed by the governor after it was discovered she lived outside her jurisdiction. Both later retained their seats through reelection campaigns.

What's wrong with the board?

The new board's makeup is at odds with HB-1645, sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Clemons, which calls for a reverse makeup with four city electors and at least one member living outside of Gainesville.

If GRU’s percentage of electric meters for customers reaches 40% outside the city limits, the governor has the ability to appoint a second non-city resident, the bill reads. Currently, only about 30% of GRU’s meters are outside of the city’s boundaries. Additionally, all board memes must be GRU electric users or have the entity they represent to be a user throughout the time they serve and not have been convicted of a felony.

Clemons has made clear throughout the bill’s process that his intention was to have a majority of the board live inside the city of Gainesville and one outside to accurately reflect the representation of GRU's customer base.

The governor’s appointment office declined to answer questions about the new board and deferred all questions to the press office, which stated it had not heard of any issue with the new members. The Sun, which was advised to send an email with questions, has yet to receive an answer as to why a majority of its members were appointed outside the city limits.

“I think they have a really skewed interpretation of the policy and think it's an opportunity for the city to seek clarity through litigation,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who voted against the bill.

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward had previously stated he intends to swear in the members who will host their first meeting on Wednesday at City Hall.

Community reaction

The appointments were brought up during the city’s general policy meeting Thursday, with one audience member agreeing the board should be a majority of city residents.

Jim Konish, who helped draft one of the original bills to take control away the city’s utility powers years ago with Sen. Keith Perry, offered a cynical solution. He said the non-city residents can use his Gainesville address as a safe haven to meet the letter of the law. To avoid voter fraud issues, he suggested they change the address on their licenses.

Former GRU general manager Ed Bielarski, who has been critical of the utility’s management since his departure from city government, shared an opinion piece he wrote for a local conservative blog site that also agreed the majority should be mostly city residents. The former mayoral candidate was the one who spearheaded negotiations to purchase Gainesville’s controversial biomass plant that saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

“For all of us who believe in fairness and the rule of law, I implore the Governor to correct the improper appointment of three non-city-resident Authority members with the appropriate number of city residents,” he wrote.

A fear among city leaders is that the incoming board will vote to slash any transfer of funds from the utility to the city government. Currently, the city receives about $15 million from the utility side, which is already at a historic low and almost $20 million lower than last year as a result of actions taken to pay down GRU’s debt.

Commissioner Bryan Eastman asked staff Thursday to draw up what the impact would be and where cuts throughout departments.

“I have no idea what will occur here but I would like to have that information in hand if possible,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: DeSantis appoints final GRU board members who don't live in Gainesville