Gainesville and GRU take their battle over utilities to Tallahassee

Claims of insurrection and debates of voter turnout filled a third-floor courtroom at Tallahassee’s First District Court of Appeal Tuesday morning. 

Representatives from the city of Gainesville and the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority Board met for an argument to present each side of the ongoing referendum litigation. 

The three-judge panel gave each side 20 minutes, a five-minute extension from what was originally planned for the hearing. Samuel J. Salario Jr., the attorney representing the GRU authority board, spoke first.

“The city of Gainesville is engaged in an insurrection against the state government,” he said.

When Judge L. Clayton Roberts said “insurrection” was “a little strong,” Salario defended his use of the term. By issuing the referendum, the city has tried to destroy an independent board appointed by the state legislature, he said, a power that doesn’t fall to local government.

The hearing was the latest in a yearslong battle between the city, the authority and the state.

As established in a state law, Gainesville’s utilities have been led by a five-member authority board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis since 2023. Before then, the city controlled its own utilities.

Former state Rep. Chuck Clemons drafted the house bill establishing the board. Citing bankruptcy and high utility rates, Clemons said an independent board could help organize the service.

Gainesville residents voted twice to return control of local utilities to the city. After a 2024 referendum was nullified because of unclear wording on the ballot, Gainesville residents voted for the second time in a November 2025 special election.

Though the 2025 referendum passed by a three-fourths majority vote, an appeals court ruled it can’t go into effect until ongoing lawsuits against the city — regarding the 2024 referendum — are settled.

It was the 2024 referendum, therefore, that brought the parties to Tallahassee on Tuesday — a fight Judge Thomas D. Winokur called unnecessary.

“Why are we talking about the 2024 ordinance at all?” Winokur asked. “How is this case not completely moot?”

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The pro-Authority argument

The authority board is suing over the latest referendum, Salario clarified, which he expects will be similar to arguments against the 2024 version — which is why Tuesday’s hearing was still valuable.

“In our view, it’s an issue of importance,” he said, referring to the hearing.

The city’s referendum, he said, violated both the content and intent of the state statute.

When the state government creates an independent unit, only the state government can destroy it, Salario said. Attempting to disband a state-appointed entity like the GRU Authority, therefore, steps on the state’s toes.

“That’s the legislature’s exclusive power to create,” Salario said. “It’s got to be the legislature’s exclusive power to abolish.”

The city shouldn’t be able to “destroy the authority altogether,” he said, especially when the authority board’s creation was intended to resolve residents’ concerns.

The GRU Authority arose in response to real concerns on the ground about debt and high utility rates, Salario said. In that context, the city’s actions against the board are “pretty dramatic,” he said.

“The city can’t flip on a dime and abolish it in one year from its enactment,” Salario said.

The pro-city argument

But for Joseph T. Eagleton, who represented the city of Gainesville at Tuesday’s hearing, the issue comes down to the “home rule” right. Florida’s home rule statute gives local governments the right to govern themselves.

Besides, Eagleton added, the city has no way to know what the state intended in forming the authority board — only what it wrote in the statute. When Judge Winokur protested that the intent was clear — to create an authority — Eagleton argued it wasn’t that simple.

The legislature wouldn’t create the authority board just for the city to turn around and abolish it, the judges added. But Eagleton said the process to fight the state-appointed board wasn’t a snap judgment.

“That may be a good sound bite, but it’s just not true with what the city has done here,” he said. 

The supermajority seen in both referendum votes, Eagleton said, offers a clear view of residents’ preferences.

Judges, however, argued the special election’s low turnout didn’t attract a large enough voter base to represent the entirety of the city — let alone the rest of GRU customers, some of whom living outside Gainesville and unable to vote in the election.

But with the change written directly into the city charter, Eagleton said the state would need to be more specific if it wanted to prevent the city from amending it — a power guaranteed by state statute. 

“I think if the legislature intended for the city of Gainesville not to be able to amend this provision through its home rule authority, then the legislature needed to say so,” Eagleton said.

While the city continues to fight for control of its utilities, a similar bill on utility services moves forward in the state legislature. Senate Bill 1724 aims to tighten rules governing how city-owned utilities serve customers outside municipal boundaries. 

Contact Bailey Diem at bdiem@alligator.org. Follow her on X @BaileyDiem.

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Bailey Diem

Bailey Diem is a journalism junior and The Alligator’s Spring 2026 metro editor. She spent previous semesters as engagement managing editor and as part of the metro and university desks. In her free time, she enjoys playing guitar or getting lost in a good book.