Gainesville residents file lawsuit against DeSantis for GRU Authority appointments

A lawsuit has been filed in Leon County challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointment of three non-Gainesville residents to a newly established board that will oversee all aspects of the city's municipal utility.

The 65-page lawsuit calls on the governor to rescind the appointments and questions whether the state legally noticed openings prior to sifting through applications.

Last week, DeSantis appointed Alachua County residents James Coats IV, Robert Karow and Christopher "Eric" Lawson — all registered Republicans — to the first-ever Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority. It was the first time in the state's history that the governor was allowed to appoint people to oversee a municipal utility.

Despite the requirement that four of the five members live within city limits, the governor's office selected three who don't. The other two members have yet to be named, despite their terms beginning Sunday.

The case is filed by board members for Gainesville Residents United Inc., the same group contesting the legality of House Bill 1645 in federal court. DeSantis is listed as the sole respondent, while Robert Hutchinson and Jeffrey Shapiro, both board members of the Gainesville group, are listed as the petitioners. They are represented by attorneys Joe Little, Gary Edinger and Terrell Arline.

"We're just asking the governor to comply with the simplest procedural requirements in a law he recently signed," said Hutchinson, a former county commissioner and president of Gainesville Residents United.

The latest filing comes just three days after a judge ruled against the city of Gainesville's case versus the state for the bill being unconstitutional. But unlike that case, the citizens' group believes it has standing in the matter and that its second lawsuit is much more clear.

The "GRU takeover" bill, sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Clemons, states that the makeup of the GRU Authority is set to reflect the ratio of total electric meters serving GRU customers, meaning four of the five members must live in Gainesville.

"Appointments shall be ... a qualified elector of the City, except that a minimum of one member must be a resident of the unincorporated area of the county or a municipality in the county other than the City of Gainesville," the bill reads.

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

If the utility serves more than 40% of its electric meters who reside outside the city limits, then the governor can appoint a second county resident, the bill says. Currently, GRU only has about 30% of its customers outside city limits.

Clemons has also made clear throughout the bill's process that the board was always supposed to seat four Gainesville residents.

However, that hasn't stopped some conservatives — including Clemons' own legislative aide — from falsely claiming the governor has the legal authority to appoint the initial members to the board from anywhere in Alachua County as long as they have GRU electric. HB-1645 says no such thing.

"In a nutshell, the appointments made by the Governor yesterday are in accordance with the law," Clemons' aide, Mike Murtha, wrote in an email. "The makeup of the inaugural members of the Authority may all be ratepayers living outside the City limits."

The governor's office hasn't responded to questions about the appointments, except saying that it hadn't heard of any issues with the first round of names.

Counts levied in lawsuit

In legal parlance, Monday's filing is a petition for writ of quo warranto, which asks "Under what authority is this action being taken?"

Hutchinson and Shapiro say the governor can't legally appoint anyone to the GRU Authority board until 30 days after his office publishes a public notice to solicit applications, which they contend never happened.

The citizen group filed an open records request on Sept. 6 and has yet to receive any documentation for the public notice. The governor’s office and state Sen. Keith Perry responded to the group that no such records existed.

To date, the only known notification was through an email sent through Clemons' office in June to a short list of possible applicants, which doesn't satisfy the legal requirement, the lawsuit states. His office didn’t respond to additional requests for information on the public notices.

The governor's office has also ignored multiple requests by The Gainesville Sun for documentation from all applicants prior to selections being named.

Without any proof of notice, all actions made by the board would be null and void until requirements have been met, according to state law.

More: City loses lawsuit, judge rules state legislature's 'GRU takeover' can remain

Residency requirements

The lawsuit also challenges the residency requirement of those named to the board last week.

Coats is listed as chief executive officer of Phalanx Defense Systems, a business located in northeast Gainesville, though it's unclear if the business is still operating locally. The business sells military-grade armor, including bulletproof vests, holsters and ballistic inserts for backpacks, online.

He has previously been awarded the "Spirit of Gainesville" award by the local chamber of commerce and has done various charity work around the city. There are various videos of him on YouTube performing magic tricks, including how to pickpocket people.

Lawson is the chief executive officer of HCA North Florida Regional Hospital, which goes before the city for various projects. He was previously the chief financial officer for HCA Tristar and has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Tennessee Technological University.

The third board member is Karow, whose resume shows he worked as a manager and attorney for Oleoductos de Crudos Pesados, a crude oil pipeline in the Ecuadorian Orient region. He was also a board director for ATP Oil & Gas, which was ordered to pay almost $42 million in federal court for mass pollution of the Gulf of Mexico and filed bankruptcy shortly after.

Though all three live outside city limits, the law states only one can.

"It is clearly not the fault of the appointees that they were improperly solicited and appointed by the governor," Hutchinson said.

In 2021, DeSantis removed Alachua County School Board member Diyonne McGraw for living a few hundred feet outside her district. While all three of Tuesday's appointees have a "Gainesville" address, each is in the unincorporated area.

Board members are scheduled to be sworn in by Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward. The board will then host its first meeting at 6 p.m. in the City Hall auditorium.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: DeSantis faces lawsuit over GRU Authority appointments