City Council President Scott Wilson will appoint a special investigative committee with subpoena power to look into JEA’s push to privatize.
Wilson expects to announce the committee’s creation during a 2 p.m. news conference today on the steps of City Hall. City Hall is closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
District 13 Council member Rory Diamond, a Republican and former special assistant U.S. Attorney, will chair the committee. District 10 member Brenda Priestly Jackson, a Democrat, and District 14 member Randy DeFoor, a Republican, will serve on the panel. Both are attorneys.
The JEA board canceled the utility’s invitation to negotiate Dec. 24. The ITN could have resulted in a recommendation to sell JEA to at least one of nine private companies that bid on the utility.
The Council’s investigation will be conducted independently of a federal probe into JEA underway by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
State Attorney Melissa Nelson passed the JEA inquiry to federal investigators Jan. 13.