Ethics complaint accuses Bielarski of embezzling election funds

Bobby Mermer, campaign manager for Yes Local Public Utilities, filed an ethics complaint against Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) CEO Ed Bielarski on Friday.

Sent to the Florida Ethics Commission, the complaint says Bielarski violated state law by using GRU funds to notify voters about Gainesville’s upcoming referendum. Mermer relies on invoice inserts, customer emails and social media posts.

The referendum will ask Gainesville voters whether to eliminate Section 7 of the city charter, eliminating the GRU authority and returning management of the utility to the city commission. The GRU authority filed an emergency injunction to stop the referendum.

“If the Charter Referendum is approved by a majority, the GRU Authority will be dissolved and Mr. Bielarski will lose his salary of $332,016, the highest in the history of the City of Gainesville,” Mermer said in the complaint. “He has a substantial financial interest in the outcome, which apparently leads him to misuse public funds and violate state law.”

Mermer points to Florida Statutes § 116.113: “This paragraph applies to a communication initiated by a local government or a person acting on behalf of a local government, whether the communication is limited to factual information or pleads in favor of adoption or defeat. a question, a referendum or an amendment.

In the complaint, Mermer said Bielarski’s information went even beyond factual information, calling it false and biased.

Bielarski told Mainstreet he sees it as the utility’s responsibility to inform customers about issues that will affect them. He said the GRU did the same in 2017, when another public service referendum was underway.

He said it was an educational process with no goal of changing voters’ minds. He said the information was accurate and points out that the last section of the law gives the power to send the information.

“This paragraph does not exclude local government. . .to report on the official actions of the governing body of local government in an accurate, fair and impartial manner; publish factual information on a government website or in printed materials; hosting and providing information in a public forum; provision of factual information in response to a request for information; or providing information otherwise authorized or required by law,” Florida Statutes Ch. 106.113(b).

However, Mermer said the article only applies to specific information, such as a decision by the GRU authority, and not to a professional comparison between positions.

A hearing is scheduled for next week on the emergency injunction to stop the referendum.