Legal Case History​

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• 2023 City of Gainesville vs Gainesville Regional Utilities Authority Board (GRUA) suit in Florida courts seeking to invalidate HB1645 and thus remove GRUA.  Dismissed on procedural grounds.

• 2023 Gainesville Residents United (Wheeler, Hutchinson, Bottcher, Little, Marvel) vs State and City officials in federal courts seeking to invalidate HB1645 and thus GRUA.  Dismissed on procedural grounds.  We considered refiling in Florida courts but chose not to.

• 2023 Gainesville Residents United (Hutchinson and Shapiro) vs Governor DeSantis in Florida courts (QW).  Settlement agreement that all GRUA members resign and governor reappoint new members.  Subsequent dismissal without prejudice.

• 2023 Professor Joe Little (Young and Hammer) vs City and GRUA members in Florida courts (QW).  Dismissed, with leave to amend.

• 2024 GRUA vs City of Gainesville challenging 2024 referendum.  Partially denied, plaintiff appealed.

• 2025 October 10th Judge Wright denied plaintiff GRUA's request for suspension of the Defendant City of Gainesville's ordinance enactment through (our second) public referendum because Plaintiff relied on Florida Statutes, Section 166.0411, which governs ordinance enforcement, not enactment. Thus, defendant may proceed with the (second) referendum to amend their home rule charter by enacting this ordinance through public referendum.  This decision did not address the underlying legal issue of Gainesville's home-rule authority to amend their city charter.  The City, through a citizen's public referendum (first referendum) amended their charter in 2024.  In a prior court case, GRUA challenged the city's authority to amend a State law and Judge Wright held that the City's home-rule powers did grant them that authority.  GRUA has appealed that decision. The two cases are related in that GRUA alleged in the second case that the City may not enact an ordinance (second referendum) similar to the ordinance (first referendum) being challenged.

 

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