Three former JEA board members testified in the criminal trial of former JEA executives Aaron Zahn and Ryan Wannemacher that they would not have voted for an employee incentive plan in 2019 if they had known it would potentially pay out hundreds of millions of dollars with a sale of the city-owned utility.
Andy Allen, Kelly Flanagan and Fred Newbill were on the board July 23, 2019, when it approved what was known as the performance unit plan, or PUP.
The stated purpose of the plan was to offer employees performance units, which were similar to stock in a private company, as a way to motivate the staff to excel in their jobs and improve the utility’s financial performance.