All four members of the Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointed Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority board have submitted resignation letters over a lawsuit filed by a local citizen group, Gainesville Residents United.
The lawsuit questions the eligibility of the authority members based on their residency statuses. The Gainesville Sun has reported on this issue since the board members were appointed last year.
According to Robert Hutchinson, the president of Gainesville Residents United, all of the resignations will take effect within 60 days, though it is unclear whether any of the members resigned effective immediately.
“This is an interesting case,” Hutchinson said. “It's just one little bit of the saga of the chaos that's been created by this badly written law.”
Earlier coverage
eSantis breaks from bill, appoints 4th GRU Authority member not in Gainesville limits
Earlier coverage:GRU Authority board member resigns after residency requirements questioned
DeSantis initially appointed three members in September and 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 controls all decisions related to the municipal utility and is currently made up of board members who almost entirely live outside city limits. Only one of the appointees — Chair Craig Carter — lives inside the city of Gainesville, according to voter registration records, a makeup that goes against the formula created through House Bill 1645.
One former board member, Tara Ezzell, resigned a day after being appointed to the board because she did not meet the requirements for the position.
The Sun also reported after the first GRU Authority meeting that four members took an oath during their swearing-in ceremony claiming they were eligible, willing and able to do the job, contradictory to what their resignations show.
The lawsuit, filed back in October, questioned the authority through which the governor appointed people without them meeting property residency requirements. Hutchinson said the judge was expected to rule in favor of residents’ lawsuit on Thursday, but the resignation letters were submitted as a sort of settlement.
The governor is expected to appoint new board members before the current ones leave office. It is unclear which — if any — of the existing members will reapply for their positions.
“It shouldn't take a citizens’ group six months to get the courts to decide what was patently obvious to everybody who looked at it, including the board members,” Hutchinson said.
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