The Jacksonville Civic Council announced Friday who will serve on its special committee exploring the future of JEA, and the committee’s scope of work.
The committee is co-chaired by former CSX CEO Michael Ward and Bobby Stein of Chartwell Capital Management Co.
It includes John Baker II of FRP Holdings Inc.; Brightway Insurance Chairman David Miller; The Better Angels Society President Amy Margerium Berg; Heritage Capital Group advisory board Chairman Howard Serkin; Miller Electric Chief Executive Henry Brown; RS&H President and CEO David Sweeney; The HCI Group CEO Ricky Caplin; Rockpoint Group LLC Chairman Bill Walton; and attorney Kevin Hyde, who chairs the JCC Public Finance Task Force.
In a letter sent to Mayor Lenny Curry and the 19 City Council members Friday, Ward and Stein said the committee has formed and approved of a framework for proceeding with an analysis of the public utility.
“In the weeks ahead, we will be in touch with you to schedule a meeting to present the analytic framework in person,” the letter states.
The committee also wants to address Council President Anna Lopez Brosche’s special committee which is exploring a possible sale of JEA. That committee is chaired by John Crescimbeni and comprises all 19 council members.
The Civic Council outlined nine areas of focus for its evaluation.
The analysis will consider the impact a sale could have on community stakeholders; provide an overview of the utility; summarize JEA’s contributions to the city’s budget; evaluate a potential market value for JEA; investigate potential operational changes that could come with privatization; discuss other alternatives to selling the utility; develop a timeline for how a sale would take place; provide consideration for how to the city should proceed; and how it could use revenue generated by a possible sale.
“JEA is the single most valuable asset the city has or ever will have,” the council states.
“Deciding what to do with it requires a comprehensive, ordered process, as fact-based and free from politics as possible, and transparent to the citizens who own JEA.”
Civic Council Chair Tim Cost announced in February the group of 75 area executives would develop the special committee as the conversation to privatize the city’s public utility continues at City Hall.
Former JEA board Chair Tom Petway initiated the latest round of privatization talks at the utility’s November board meeting.
In February, JEA presented a report completed by its financial advisor, Public Financial Management Inc., that estimated the city could net anywhere from $2.9 billion to $6.4 billion on the open market after retiring debt and other obligations.