Gerri Boyce's favorite part of her office is the upside-down, pentagon-shaped windows that line the back wall.
The windows in the office on Church Street offer expansive views of Jacksonville's Downtown. Boyce, JEA spokeswoman, likes to look out the windows and see events like the Jacksonville Jazz Festival and One Spark igniting activity in the area.
"Those kinds of things are just what Jacksonville needs," Boyce said.
The Jacksonville native remembers visiting Downtown as a child, shopping at the department stores and eating at the restaurants. Now as part of Jacksonville's Downtown working population, she loves to see how the city is beginning to show the same spirit it had during her childhood. She'll people watch and point out to co-workers when she sees someone driving the wrong way on one of Downtown's streets.
Much like her passion for the city's Downtown, Boyce said she enjoys every component of her job as spokeswoman, which includes talking to reporters and coordinating interviews. Her most important job, though, is making sure JEA's purpose to provide quality service is clear.
"I'm curious by nature. I love to ask questions, and this allows me to do that without being nosy," she said.
Sometimes this means answering tough questions for the authority, including those from JEA customers. Each Saturday at 1 p.m., Boyce hosts the radio program, "Q&A with JEA" on WOKV, where she does just that.
"I'm still nervous every week," she said.
Another part of her job is to publicize the agency's latest promotions, including a new mobile website and an initiative of giving away 2,000 free 8-foot trees this month to customers who choose to go to paperless billing.
She also likes to balance the stress in her job by placing items in her office that make her smile. She has a fake fish in a bowl, bright posters from past Earth Day celebrations and model JEA trucks that the agency used to sell to customers. To spice it up, she added a Tyrannosaurus rex figurine and orange caution cones.
One of the most visible features of her office sits in the corner and is a large inflatable of the subject in Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream." She jokes that it is the face she makes when reporters call with tough questions.
"With this type of job, you have to get it out of your system," she said. "You have to enjoy your job to do well at it."