by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
It arrives by fax, a seven-page document claiming the JEA “is robbing you blind.” JEA and City officials won’t speculate on how many people have received it, though they flatly and unanimously confirm it is “completely erroneous.”
“The bottom line is that someone is distributing a letter that asks JEA customers to seek a refund because of an apparent overcharge,” said Loree French of the General Counsel’s Office. “There’s no basis for it. There’s no overcharge. I don’t know where the person behind it received his information, but he’s even sending it to people in St. Augustine who aren’t JEA customers. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
Thomas Thomas, the man behind the “refund application forms,” said he has already sent out 500 and has 4,000 more ready to go.
“It’s economic fraud,” said Thomas. “They’re taking money out of our pocket and putting it into a general fund.”
Completed applications have been making their way to the mayor’s office for several weeks.
“We’ve been averaging one or two a day,” said Audrey Moran, chief of staff for Mayor John Delaney. “When they first started coming in, we didn’t even know what they were.”
Calling them “a hoax,” Moran said the forms have been forwarded to JEA spokesperson Bruce Dugan, who has been aware of their existence and Thomas’ complaint for some time.
In a statement alerting JEA employees, Dugan said, “the problem is two-fold: Mr. Thomas is misleading our customers into thinking they are due sizable refunds based on a series of errors in his data and his reasoning, and two, this represents a distinct escalation in Mr. Thomas’ activities on the subject which suggests that, unchecked, Mr. Thomas will continue to escalate his actions until he feels he is successful.”
Dugan met with French and Ernst Mueller from the General Counsel’s Office last Friday to determine what legal action, if any, they should take.
Suggestions were made for JEA to 1) Draft a letter to Thomas explaining why he is wrong and asking him to stop distributing the forms because “they appear to be deceiving our customers into thinking they are getting a big refund check.” 2) Draft a news release following any media inquiries. 3) Draft a letter to customers who send in the completed forms letting them know they “are bogus and no refunds are being given because the charges are actual charges for actual costs incurred by JEA . . .”
If Thomas continues to distribute the forms, JEA has the option of contacting the State Attorney’s Office to seek an injunction “to prevent any further distribution.”
“I’m sure JEA is very frustrated by this,” said French. “Whether or not this is some kind of a prank, it is still going to cost them a great deal of time, money and manpower to correct it.”