Nine former members of JEA’s senior leadership team who served under former CEO Aaron Zahn have been fired without cause.
JEA Special Assistant to the CEO Gerri Boyce McKenzie confirmed in an email July 13 that JEA interim CEO and Managing Director Paul McElroy decided to cut ties with former utility executives after a 30-day investigation by the city’s Office of General Counsel.
McElroy placed former Chief Administrative Officer Herschel Vinyard on administrative leave May 12. The other eight executives were placed on paid administrative leave June 9
McElroy’s action was based on the association of the nine executives with JEA’s failed invitation to negotiate with private companies interested in buying the city-owned utility and with an employee bonus plan that was not implemented.
Zahn proposed both efforts. The board of directors fired him in January.
Because they were terminated without cause, Florida statute and JEA policy state former executives are entitled to 20 weeks of pay and health benefits.
Documents from the city’s Department of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight show their salaries range from $180,000 to $350,000 per year.
Boyce provided McElroy’s statement to the fired employees when he placed them on leave June 9.
“Individually or collectively, real or perceived, you have been complicit or implicitly involved with or simply a direct beneficiary of the ITN or Performance Unit Plan,” McElroy said.
“Over the last number of weeks I have reviewed testimony and spoke with many people about the ITN and the Performance Unit Plan, nothing I’ve read or heard clarifies your role, real or perceived, in a positive light.
“I have concluded you as individuals and as a group have lost the confidence of management, employees, City Council, the media and the community,” McElroy said.
Zahn hired Vinyard in April 2019 to handle JEA’s corporate compliance, legal, environmental and government affairs, in addition to serving as a strategic adviser to the senior leadership team.
He was among four JEA executives negotiating with the nine private companies that bid on the failed push to sell the city-owned utility, before being replaced in the negotiations by three members of Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration.
McElroy appointed eight interim senior leadership team members in June to replace those who were fired.
These are the nine executives terminated without cause:
• Caren Anders, vice president and general manager of energy systems.
• Deryle Calhoun, vice president and general manager of water and wastewater systems.
• Shawn Eads, chief information officer.
• Jon Kendrick, vice president and chief human resource officer.
• John McCarthy, vice president and chief supply chain officer.
• Steve McInall, vice president and chief energy and water and wastewater planning officer.
• Paul Steinbrecher, vice president and chief environmental officer.
• Kerri Stewart, vice president and chief customer officer.
• Hershel Vinyard, chief administrative officer.