Bielarski named chair of new Gov. DeSantis-appointed GRU Authority board

Five members of the Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority board were sworn into office Thursday evening, officially marking the return of the authority following a brief hiatus after all four former members resigned in March due to a lawsuit that challenged the eligibility of the Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointees to hold their positions.

Each member took an oath of office Thursday swearing that they are duly qualified to hold office. Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward was absent from the ceremony, instead sending Gainesville City Clerk Kristen Bryant as his designee.

One appointee sworn in Thursday was Ed Bielarski, former general manager of GRU, who was fired in 2022 by the Gainesville City Commission before attempting a failed bid for mayor. While he accomplished some major projects during his tenure, including the controversial purchase of the biomass plant, commissioners believed that he fell short on other larger initiatives, including a solar project, a contract to provide the University of Florida with power and a partnership with Florida Power & Light.

Bielarski is arguably the most qualified to be appointed to the board given his robust background in utilities.

"I know a lot about the utility, understand a lot about its issues, and I think I made it a better place," Bielarski said Thursday.

More: Future of GRU Authority will officially be in the hands of Gainesville voters this November

Other appointees include Craig Carter and Eric Lawson, who served on the first rendition of the board before they both resigned, David Haslam, the owner of a local scooter company, and Robert “Chip” Skinner, a local sports coach and former spokesperson for the city of Gainesville.

After taking their oaths, the authority members were tasked with electing a chair and vice chair of the board. The chair is responsible for running the authority meetings, but is unable to make or second any motions.

Haslam nominated Bielarski to be chair, a motion that was seconded by Skinner and then unanimously passed. Bielarski nominated Haslam to be vice chair, a motion also seconded by Skinner and unanimously passed. Carter nominated Lawson for both chair and vice chair but failed to get a second to his motion both times.

After being appointed chair, Bielarski launched into a preplanned presentation on the history of GRU called "How the City Lost Control," the same name as his self-published book.

With a five-member board now sworn in, the authority will be able to move forward with making major decisions for the utility. While the four-member authority was previously deadlocked over issues such as the cutting of the fund transfer from GRU to general government, the new board is expected to rehash and revote on issues the previous authority members already discussed.

The authority members also received a brief training in ethics, with GRU Authority Attorney Kiersten Ballou from Folds Walker LLC explaining to them the nature of the position and Florida's broad Sunshine Law. She told the authority that under Florida law almost all of their written communication and documents are public records.

More: Docs: GRU Authority appointee resigned from city job after visiting adult website at work

In addition to ethics training, Ballou also walked authority members through the Gainesville City Commission's actions taken mere hours before the authority members were sworn in.

On Thursday, commissioners voted unanimously to pass the second reading of an ordinance that will ask voters to decide whether or not to delete the article of the city’s charter that created the authority. The amendment to the city’s charter was made with the passing of HB-1645, a bill that stripped the all-Democrat commission’s control over the municipal utility and handed it to a Gov. Ron DeSantis-appointed authority board.

Ballou told the authority that she finds a few issues with the ballot measure and that she believes it violated HB-1645 in a couple ways and potentially even state law. Despite this, City Attorney Daniel Nee has told commissioners, and authority members on Thursday, that he disagrees with the objections brought forth by Ballou and her firm.

Gainesville Commissioner Bryan Eastman sent a statement to The Sun after the meeting, citing the risks of selling GRU to a private company, something Bielarski has alluded to in the past and on Thursday.

"Tonight, the Chair of Ron DeSantis' GRU Authority spouted the same misinformation that has been disproven time and time again, even by his own staff. Invented numbers, rewritten history, and completely fabricated stories," Eastman wrote. "The sad fact is that Ron DeSantis' handpicked chair has been a vocal and public advocate for selling GRU to Florida Power & Light since he lost his election for mayor. He has called selling our local utility to FP&L 'the missing piece in saving the utility.' Privatizing GRU will mean higher rates, thousands of lost jobs, and money sent to Wall Street instead of staying local. We can't let that happen. We need to keep our local public utilities locally owned."

Bielarski sent an email Friday morning responding to Eastman's comments.

"I am disappointed that Commissioner Eastman has chosen once again to attack me for supposedly spouting misinformation even though the facts show otherwise," he wrote. "During my first board meeting, one of the key elements of my presentation was that GRU was forced to pay the City $68 million more than it earned from fiscal year 2018 through 2021... that figure was well-supported and as a result, has been necessarily proven by GRU staff."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: New Gainesville Regional Authority board sworn in Thursday evening