A group of Gainesville residents are suing Gainesville Regional Utilities to get a city power agreement thrown out.
Gainesville Citizens CARE Inc., a non-profit organization created to protest the agreement, said the city violated state public-meeting laws when signing an agreement to get power from a wood-burning power plant, according to a complaint filed Wednesday.
The Gainesville City Commission signed a roughly $3 billion contract in 2009 to buy 30 years of power from the new plant, which will be owned by American Renewables.
“This contract is void because of the way it was done,” said Jo Beaty, a board member of Gainesville Citizens CARE Inc. “The public process has been violated throughout the whole approval of this.”
City Commissioner Thomas Hawkins said the accusation is incorrect and each step was done through public meetings.
The complaint states the negotiations were not open to the public and the meeting notes were not available for residents to see.
It also states final changes to the contract, including changing the agreement from 20 years to 30 years, were made in private.
This isn’t the first time residents have been concerned about the agreement.
The County Commission is considering using another utility provider for its buildings because the wood-burning plant would increase its utility bills. Residents are also concerned about utility bill increases — a sentiment echoed by some City Commission candidates in the spring races.
Hawkins said any new power plant would increase rates. He said the wood-burning plant was the cheapest long-term option available to the city.
“Prices increase over time,” he said. “It’s something that we have to deal with, and the way we deal with it is we work every day to keep our rates low.”
Contact Meredith Rutland at mrutland@alligator.org.
