Gainesville Loves Mountains, a local group that led a three-and-a-half-year campaign to alter Gainesville Regional Utilities’ coal-purchasing practices, has launched an online petition opposing State Rep. Keith Perry’s GRU governance bill, which is under consideration in Tallahassee.
Gainesville Loves Mountains announced its Change.org petition, which has 170 supporters so far, in a recent news release.
While the group has had scuffles with GRU in the past, now it is coming to the utility’s defense, according to the news release, in which Jason Fults of Gainesville Loves Mountains said, “We haven’t always agreed with GRU or their practices, but Rep. Perry’s bill throws the baby out with the bathwater. This is one more in a plethora of examples of state politicians thinking they can govern our communities better from Tallahassee than we can.”
While the group supports the ongoing conversations about GRU governance and many of its members have thoughts on how it could be improved, Fults said in the news release that Perry’s bill is “a bad idea that holds our local, democratic process hostage and hinders us from making thoughtful changes.”
Gainesville Loves Mountains is looking for widespread support across the community for this campaign against the GRU governance bill.
Perry’s bill was cleared by Florida’s House of Representatives Local Government Affairs Committee this week but still has two more subcommittees to make it through before it can make it onto the House calendar.
For more details on Perry’s bill, check out this recent Sun story.