Two City Council committees are split on how to handle a change in how JEA board members are appointed.
The mayor appoints JEA's seven board members. Council member Garrett Dennis filed Ordinance 2020-0100 on Feb. 11 asking Duval County voters to amend the city charter to allow Council to appoint four of them, diluting the mayor's control.
The Rules Committee voted unanimously 7-0 on March 3 to advance the bill to the full Council.
The Finance Committee deferred the bill. A majority of its members want any JEA-related charter change that requires a voter referendum to be vetted first in the Council's Future of JEA workshops.
Dennis argues that Council members have little to no influence in JEA without their chosen appointees.
“Let’s get the emotions out of it and do what’s right for the community, JEA and the ratepayers,” Dennis said.
All six members of the JEA board left Jan. 28 after a failed push to privatize the utility and voting to fire former Managing Director and CEO Aaron Zahn. Five resigned and another’s term ended. Members serve four-year terms.
The seventh member previously resigned.
Choosing a new board
This is the second time during Mayor Lenny Curry's tenure that the JEA board resigned. He asked for the resignations of all board members and made new appointments after his first-term 2015 election.
Dennis’ bill includes a provision that a JEA union or organization representing current or past JEA employees recommend one board appointee to council.
Another Rules Committee amendment to the bill gives the Council and mayor authority to remove appointees with or without cause with a two-thirds vote of the Council.
Finance Committee Vice Chair LeAnna Cumber said the ability to remove board members with or without cause makes her nervous.
Cumber shared the committee’s majority position that any charter changes related to JEA to be covered in one omnibus bill.
“I would be more inclined to have this done more under an umbrella so it’s cleaner and all the voters know these are the charter changes that are coming,” she said.
The Rules Committee focused on the long-term impact of changing the charter.
Council member Matt Carlucci has been hesitant to support Dennis’ bill.
He argues that appointments from a mayor serving four to eight years bring consistency as opposed to a different Council president selecting a board member every other year.
“The appointment process in place since consolidation has worked,” Carlucci said. “This is one time it hasn’t worked, and I’m not sure I’m ready to throw a process that has been successful.”
The city and county consolidated in 1968.
Council members Randy DeFoor and Brenda Priestly Jackson had a different take.
“What happened (with JEA) can’t happen again,” DeFoor said.
“The public is waiting for us to do something, and we aren’t the same city we were when it was originally consolidated. We’ve changed over time. It’s the great thing about time, you never stay in one place.”
Priestly Jackson said the Council has been excluded from meaningful participation in the selection process since the JEA board’s resignation.
“As it relates to consolidation and the charter, I think that depending on where you were born and where you live, you may think consolidation was the greatest thing since sliced bread and then you may think it marginalized your voice and excluded you,” she said.
Council member Rory Diamond, who chairs the Council’s Special Investigative Committee on JEA with DeFoor and Priestly Jackson, said he might introduce a floor amendment to flip the appointment ratio from four for the Council to four for the mayor.
The legislation will have to be discharged by Finance Committee Chair Aaron Bowman or Council President Scott Wilson to be considered by the full Council at its March 10 meeting.
JEA board appointees interviewed
The Rules Committee held public interviews March 3 for three of Curry’s seven JEA board nominees.
The committee questioned retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph DiSalvo; Robert “Bobby” L. Stein, president, The Regency Group; and Tom VanOsdol, Ascension Healthcare senior vice president and Ascension Florida ministry market executive.
Curry also nominated FRP Holdings Inc. Executive Chairman and CEO John Baker II; A. Zachary Faison, Jr., president and CEO of Edward Waters College; UF Health Jacksonville CEO Dr. Leon Haley Jr.; and Marty Lanahan, executive vice president and regional president of Iberia Bank.
They are scheduled to interview with the Rules Committee March 17 before it votes on all seven appointees. The full Council considers final confirmation March 24.