The General Policy Committee authorized the city manager to negotiate a new agreement with the Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) authority for collection of stormwater and solid‑waste cart fees after staff presented an analysis showing several alternatives were more costly or carried revenue risk.

Public Works and finance staff told the committee that keeping stormwater and solid‑waste cart fees on GRU bills provides economies of scale in billing and collection. Staff presented the current figures: budgeted stormwater and cart revenues for FY26 total about $23.8 million. Under the existing arrangement, GRU’s fee for collection is a fixed amount of roughly $825,000 for FY26; staff proposed negotiating a revised fee equal to approximately 4% of revenues collected, which staff estimated would amount to about $952,000 for FY26 and remain significantly cheaper than switching to the property‑tax roll.

Staff said the alternative — moving fees to the tax bill — would raise estimated administrative costs to about $1.47 million because of the tax collector’s 2% collection fee, an estimated $50,000 property‑appraiser fee, and a statutory early‑payment discount that reduces collected revenue. Staff also warned that nonprofit and government parcels now billed by GRU would likely stop paying stormwater fees on a tax bill in the same way, producing about $1 million of revenue exposure.

Commissioners noted the tradeoffs between an annual property‑tax billing schedule versus a monthly utility bill: for an example medium cart and single storm ERU, the FY26 monthly amount is roughly $52.80; converted to an annual tax bill that would be ~$633.66, shifting payment timing for many residents. Staff said the city lacks practical ways to stop service (trash pickup or stormwater service) for individual non‑payers if the city billed separately. For those reasons and to limit revenue risk, staff recommended negotiating a collection fee with GRU rather than moving the fees to the tax roll.

The committee voted to authorize the city manager to negotiate a new agreement with GRU for continuing collection of stormwater and solid‑waste fees on the GRU bill.

Ending: Staff will negotiate terms with GRU (including a proposed percentage fee) and return to the GRU authority and the commission as required; commissioners expressed interest in minimizing collection costs and protecting lower‑income residents from sudden payment‑timing shocks.