BREAKING: GRU Authority fires CEO/GM Cunningham and asks Bielarski to resign and become Interim CEO/GM of GRU

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At tonight’s GRU Authority meeting, Director Craig Carter asked to speak before the board took up the rest of the agenda and made three motions, all of which passed: first, to fire CEO/GM Tony Cunningham; second, to ask Chair Ed Bielarski to resign from the Authority and become the Interim CEO/GM of Gainesville Regional Authorities; and third, to make Eric Lawson the new Chair of the Authority.

First motion: Terminate Cunningham

Carter said, “I don’t do surprises” and said he had already talked to Cunningham and to “many pastors.” He said his first motion was to terminate Cunningham: “This is with his knowledge, not his happiness. The reason for this motion is so this utility could move forward. The reason for this motion is so his family can know what’s going on tonight, because I said flippantly [on Monday] that I should have voted to fire him so he could go to bed that night, and at least his wife and him knew what was going to happen the next day.”

Carter said that if that motion passed, he would ask Bielarski to resign from the Authority to become the Interim CEO/GM, “which is legal, as long as you’re not on the board.” He said he also wanted Lawson to be the new Chair, with current Vice Chair David Haslam remaining in his position.

With that said, Carter made his first motion to terminate Tony Cunningham, effective whenever the “Chair or the Interim negotiates his exit strategy, so… he’s not going to get up and leave. I feel confident that he’s going to be running this utility through the night and probably into tomorrow or something.” Haslam seconded the motion.

During public comment, four people spoke in favor of the motion, and five people spoke against it.

After public comment, Carter said, “We do need to move forward, and it’s clear and obvious that every meeting, something’s going to come up about trying to get rid of Mr. Cunningham… I am doing this for Tony. I talked to him 30 minutes before this meeting, and I cried on the phone. He’s become my friend. He’s been my brother in Christ… This is one of the most shameful nights of my life. But it needs to happen because he needs to be able to go home and put his head down and be done with this and go on and get another job… This is no slight on Mr. Cunningham.”

Lawson said he was not in favor of the motion: “I’ve stated that before. I feel like the board needs to get itself seated and understand what our direction is, and so I’m just not in favor of this motion.”

Haslam said, “Awkwardly enough, I called Tony this morning and talked to him, but I did the opposite because I called for his termination Monday. Nobody seemed to be on board with that. I want to work with you guys. And I told Tony that I’d publicly support him tonight if that’s what it came down to. And he told me, no, I didn’t have to do that… I’m not sure what you guys want, but this is what I thought should happen in the first place.”

Carter said, “If we don’t terminate him, then for the love of God, let’s all get behind him.”

The motion passed on a 4-1 vote, with Lawson in dissent.

Second motion: Ask Bielarski to resign and become Interim CEO/GM

Carter’s second motion was to ask Bielarski to resign after the board meeting and become the Interim CEO/GM, with the possibility of being named CEO/GM in the future. Carter added a second part to make Lawson the Chair, but that part was later split off into a separate motion. Director Chip Skinner seconded the motion.

Public comment was nearly evenly split, with the people who supported the first motion supporting the second motion and the same for those who had opposed the first motion.

Before the vote, Bielarski said, “I certainly would resign to take the position, just to let the board know.”

Looking toward the possibility of a four-member board, Skinner said, “I would charge the rest of the board members, if this motion passes, that we work together, listen to each other, and come together so we don’t have the division of seeing stuff on social media; don’t buy into it, don’t belittle each other. We all have our own thoughts, our own processes, and I think we have a good working relationship, and I would like to see that move forward.”

Carter said he hoped the Governor would appoint a fifth member quickly.

The motion passed 4-0, with Bielarski abstaining.

Third motion: Make Lawson the Chair

The board then took up the second part of the split motion, which was to make Lawson the Chair, with Haslam continuing as Vice Chair. Carter added, “Just to be clear, I don’t want to be Chair.”

The motion passed 5-0.

Fourth motion: Authorize the Chair to negotiate with the Interim CEO/GM

Later in the meeting, Carter realized that the previous motions had not specified a process for determining Bielarski’s salary, so he made a motion to authorize Lawson to negotiate with Bielarski and bring a contract back to the board. Skinner seconded the motion, and the motion passed unanimously.

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