Preview: Gainesville in May
As springs turn to summer our city is cutting budgets and preparing to split our city in two
Spring left quick didn’t it? The students are all gone after graduation weekend last week, the 70-degree days turned to 90, and the regular summer storms are now just a part of life. The city is also transitioning into Summer, preparing our budgets and entering our summer lull. Here’s what we’ve been and will be working on:
First Some Good News
April was a brutal month. Between budget cuts and watching GRU get taken from our residents through a cynical misinformation campaign, it was a tough month for everyone at City Hall. But in spite of it all, we actually got a lot of good things done!
In April we eliminated pointless regulations that forced single family home builders in older neighborhoods with smaller roads to double up their setback requirements, hurting predominantly low-income neighborhoods. We saved the tree in downtown Gainesville while creating a much nicer sidewalk. We dramatically expanded GRU’s solar energy footprint in a way that will have downward pressure on GRU rates. We expanded the allowed expenditures for our tree mitigation fund in a way that will allow more environmental land to be purchased and preserved. We voted to invest in the Thelma Bolton Center in a way that both preserves the historic building while expanding it for use in theater, events, and music shows.
Things tend to slow down in the summer in Gainesville, and that includes City Hall. So this next month we don’t have quite so many decisions to make, but the ones we have are big, complicated, and tough.
Finding solutions after the GRU Takeover
I don’t know what to say that I didn’t say in my long blog post, “Correcting the Misinformation on GRU”.
The GRU Takeover bill, HB 1645, has been passed by the Senate, and is now sitting on the Governor’s desk for signing. If signed (which seems likely), the law will go into effect on July 1st, with the new GRU Authority board seated on October 1st with their first meeting at 6 p.m. on October 4th.
Other than that we don’t know much. Right now, Gainesville Regional Utilities and General Government are deeply entwined. We share human resources, health insurance, information technology, legal staff. We have a joint structure of development review, GRU uses taxpayer funded right of way for all utility services. How do you disentangle these things? Will a new board be antagonistic or partner with the City Commission to make all of this work?
Even if it is signed, will it be upheld? Former County Commission Hutch Hutchinson is raising money to fight the bill legally, but it’s not clear how all of that will turn out.
Nothing like this has ever been passed in Florida before. Our state constitution gives cities the power to conduct municipal services. There are also protections cities to have their powers taken from them, but the Constitution also gives the Legislature power to alter laws. That just begins the legal questions. Is this a state board or a local board? Is it an Independent Special District or an agency of the city? This is so unlike anything else that has ever happened in the history of Florida there isn’t a lot of case law on how any of this is supposed to work.
Not only that, but the bill as written is a mess. Some fundamental parts of how it works aren’t clear, like who’s responsible for employees, if we can issue municipal bonds for the utility, how budgeting is supposed to work, who’s responsible for purchasing. It’s a very, very poorly written bill that will soon be a part of our City’s Charter.
There’s a famous prayer I think about in times like these:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference
My job is to find solutions to problems and put my residents first. That’s what we are elected to do. We on the commission are responsible for 850 employees at GRU and 99,000 people who rely on GRU utilities. The priority has to be them, regardless of anything else, and that means standing up for our community in the face of these autocratic moves, but also working to ensure that this transition is smooth and works. We can’t cut off our nose to spite our faces.
So once this passes my plan is to direct staff to challenge this legally where possible, and simultaneously work to find solutions to make it work. That means better defining how the charter officers work together, where responsibilities lie between general government and GRU, updating our ordinances to reflect a split government, and creating service agreements & contracts to protect our services and taxpayers.
Because while Tallahassee politicians get by on inventing problems, at the local level we solve problems.
Planning the austerity budget
Over the course of May, the City of Gainesville will be filling a hole of $18 million in our budget. That’s enormous. For comparison, the great recession cuts in 2009 were only $5.7 million, less than ⅓. This is due to the attacks coming from Tallahassee, who demanded we take “bold steps” to cut GRU debt at the February JLAC Committee.
So over the next month we’ll be having budget workshops to talk about how to make these massive, historical cuts. I don’t want people to be surprised by what’s going to come from this: while talking about “budget cuts” is easy, actually cutting budgets is incredibly hard. It’s going to mean a lot less of the things we love in the City of Gainesville, the things we need, and will require at least some new taxes.
In some ways this will be good, it’s always good for government to reassess itself and find efficiencies. But $18 million in cuts is far and away beyond “efficiencies”, it’s going to mean some cuts to the bone of programs and services we care about and need in this community. There’s just no way around it.
The truth is, despite what some ideologues want you to believe, Gainesville has never been a big spending city. A huge percentage of our city, 47.7%, is off the tax rolls. We have one of the lowest tax rates in Alachua County and lower than most other cities in Florida. Our general funds transfer is one of the lowest in Florida, as I mentioned in my last blog post. There’s always inefficiencies and “fat” to cut, but not as much as you’d think. Our per capita spending is pretty low compared to other cities in Florida. There are no obvious places to start cutting, it’s all going to be painful.
What we cut and how that looks is what we’ll be deciding, and if there are programs or services that personally mean a lot to you, I would start reaching out to your Commissioners and letting them know.
But I would also ask you reach out to Chuck Clemons, Chuck Brannon, Keith Perry, and Jennifer Bradley, because they need to know how their votes are hurting the people they represent.
What comes next in zoning
June 1st is when staff plans to come back to us with the second and final reading of the exclusionary zoning ordinances. This means our zoning will go back to the large lot, single family only zoning regulations they were a few years ago.
Like the last vote, I’ll be voting against this, but not because I’m opposed to bringing back single-family zoning per se. I proposed in February a plan that would bring back single-family zoning but allow homes to be built on smaller lots, like you see in older neighborhoods like Duckpond or newer neighborhoods like Town of Tioga. Our current zoning forces most single-family homes to be built on a minimum of .28 acres, which is incredibly large for new construction. Those restrictions unnecessarily drive up the cost of homes, hurts our environment, and isn’t really in line with what most families want in 2023.
The mayor has asked at this June meeting that we discuss what we’ll be in favor of for reforms in the future. I’ll excitedly be bringing back my lot size reform proposal from February, and am actively planning other proposals to bring forward for consideration.
Many cities are seeing good results with transit-oriented developments, allowing more homes to be built near bus stops. We need to consider the long-term vision for the South Main area, which is currently zoned industrial but is in a perfect location for people to live and shop right near Depot Park and the Hawthorne Trail. We need to make it easier to convert office spaces to residential. We need to revisit the outlawing of three unrelated people residing in a single home, a rule that is way too blunt and restrictive.
There are a lot of potential solutions, we just need to come together and figure out what our community wants and solutions work best for our residents.
Some local music for May…
I want to highlight some local bands each month, so I’ll start with Matcha. I’m a sucker for a good jam band, and local funky/reggae/horn band Matcha has it down. Amazing musicians, funky rhythms, and they keep the jams going without falling into the classic jam band trap of endless noodling. It’s all a lot of fun and you should definitely check them out live when they get back from their tour:
Thanks Bryan. I always enjoy reading your comments!
Such a great read, Bryan. Good info. Honest assessment. Flourished with music. I’m in Asheville with two grandchildren and they both came out to listen. Thanks for the kid cuddle time.