The city Office of General Counsel will hire another attorney and he or she will work exclusively for JEA.
The new hire will represent a new direction for the city.
“This blueprint is the first of its kind where the assigned attorney is completely dedicated to a particular authority, while at the same time employed by and under the house of the Office of General Counsel,” said General Counsel Jason Gabriel.
City Council authorized increasing the employee cap in the city’s law firm by two positions to allow hiring an attorney and a paralegal to serve the legal needs of the municipal utility.
The combined salaries of the two positions through Sept. 30 — $120,075 — will be transferred to the Office of General Counsel from JEA’s internal service fund revenue. Continuing salaries will be budgeted for 2016-17 and subsequent fiscal years by JEA.
How the city provides legal services to the utility was one of the topics studied by the council’s Special Committee on the JEA Annual Contribution.
Melissa Dykes, JEA chief financial officer, said with $2 billion in revenue, $8 billion in assets and 2,000 employees, JEA is a large and complex organization with diverse legal-service needs.
After conferring with Gabriel to determine the best course of action, based on how legal services are provided to other municipal utilities, the decision was made to hire dedicated counsel, she said.
Gabriel said the attorneys currently on his staff are “local government generalists” who have a working knowledge in many areas such as contracts, ethics, employment and labor, land use, public records law and procurement.
He said having an attorney working exclusively for JEA is in accordance with the City Charter and upholds the foundation of central services under Jacksonville’s consolidated government.
Working for the utility will require the new attorney to have particular skills.
Gabriel is drafting a list of practice and experience requirements for the new position. In addition to the usual legal expertise, candidates likely to be interviewed for the position will have experience with the state Public Service Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North America Electric Reliability Commission.
“We are subject to regulation by the entire alphabet of government agencies,” said Dykes.
Applicants also will be graded on their experience in environmental law, permitting, franchise fees and Public Service Tax.
Gabriel said after the questionnaire is made available to potential candidates, there will be a standard application process.
He expects to hire the 36th attorney in his office “hopefully in the next several months.”
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