Candidates for the March city elections discussed Gainesville’s state of affairs Monday night at the Alachua County Democratic Black Caucus debate.
Eight of the ten candidates who qualified for the upcoming elections attended the debate held in the County Administration Building.
Candidates answered questions posed by Charles Goston, former president of the caucus, and Ermon Owens, its current president.
The candidates vying for a three-year term on the city commission discussed issues ranging from increasing GRU rates to the biomass plant.
District 2 candidates Cheri Brodeur, a UF faculty member, and incumbent Todd Chase participated in the first half of the debate.
Brodeur said city commissioners can no longer plan far into the future when making important decisions, like the one that led to the implementation of the biomass plant.
“We are making plans for things so far down the road,” she said. “I’m going to be long dead by the time they are done with it.”
In the second half of the debate, at-large Seat 2 candidate Mark Venzke said Gainesville needs to find a way to break off from the biomass plant contract.
“That decision was made behind closed doors without the scrutiny of citizens and all of that frankly is wrong, if not illegal,” he said.
Other candidates debated issues like city commissioners’ civility at public meetings.
At-Large Seat 2 candidate Annie Orlando said city commissioners have become arrogant after being in power for so long.
“When we have leadership that doesn’t respect citizens, you can’t expect much in return,” she said.
One recurring topic of the night was how Gainesville’s poorer areas are currently coping with increasing utility rates.
Goston said GRU has not spent any money on the financial deficit of Gainesville’s citizenry. The biomass plant led to a spike in utility rates in October.
“Their utilities went from $2,000 a month to between $4,000 and $5,000 a month,” he said.
With the upcoming elections, citizens need to start doing more to research the platforms of their politicians, Goston said.
“GRU has become the living nightmare for a lot of people,” Gotson said. “People are looking to wake up from the nightmare.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 2/18/2014 under the headline "Candidates talk biomass plant, GRU rates at Monday debate"]
