Mark Woods: Press “restart button,” end this JEA farce

The chairwoman of JEA's board appeared before a City Council committee Monday and talked about rebuilding trust in Jacksonville by pressing a "restart button."

Then she left City Hall, refusing to answer any questions from reporters.

Next stop: Atlanta.

In JEA-speak, a "restart" apparently means, "Can we end the conversation about what has happened recently -- even if some of it raises serious ethical and legal questions -- and move full-speed ahead toward a sale?"

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In one of their first acts after asking for a restart, JEA leaders are leaving town, giving their final "Project Scampi" presentation to bidders for Jacksonville's public utility at an undisclosed location. We just know that it's in Atlanta, more than 300 miles from Jacksonville.

The reason given: "With respondents traveling from around the world, Atlanta was selected because of its international airport hub and proximity to Jacksonville."

Beyond the question of what this JEA trip will cost you -- as of now, you do still own this utility -- and beyond the optics, it's an unintended reminder of an important point: If your local utility is sold, the ownership will not be local.

Beyond the fact that we do have an airport here -- even has "international" in its name -- it's also a reminder that JEA board members have interesting ideas about when it's important for people to travel to Jacksonville.

Remember when JEA was looking for a CEO?

One of the candidates was Cris Eugster, the chief operating officer of CPS Energy in San Antonio -- the nation's largest municipal utility.

You would've thought his resume and experience would make him a natural candidate to run JEA. But the JEA board conveniently found some reasons to rule out Eugster. For instance, he did his initial one-on-one interview via a video conference.

Never mind that this was because to get to Jacksonville would have required driving through Hurricane Michael's devastation.

Some board members saw this as a lack of commitment.

At the time, April Green -- now the board chairwoman who read the "restart button" statement to the City Council committee Monday -- speculated that Eugster was using the Jacksonville job offer "as a leverage back home."

So we eliminated a highly qualified CEO candidate partly because he wouldn't drive through hurricane devastation, Yet we don't want to ask the people who want to own that utility to change planes in Atlanta and take a one-hour flight to Jacksonville?

It's almost as if the JEA board didn't want a CEO well-versed in the operations and strategic planning of a municipal utility -- and instead preferred someone, even a complete novice at running a utility, who would steer JEA toward where we are today.

The mayor complains about "conspiracy theories." But if it walks like Big Foot, talks like Big Foot and is seen heading to Atlanta carrying something with a secret code name of Project Scampi ...

JEA leaders keep saying that none of this has been predetermined -- that there now are five options, and they're diligently exploring all of them.

Again and again, their actions say otherwise.

When Green and two top JEA officials appeared at the City Council committee workshop Monday, it only emphasized this.

There were several telling moments, with more than the usual suspects of JEA critics raising questions.

Councilman Aaron Bowman said: "It seems to me like you got together and said, 'Let's scare the employees. Let's scare the consumer. Let's offer some cash incentives and they'll come running to us to want to sell this utility."

Council member Danny Becton, the council's liaison to JEA, brought up that JEA leaders keep saying one of the reasons for privatizing is that they face revenue challenges -- and local, state and federal regulations limit what a public utility can do.

Speaking to JEA Chief Operating Officer Melissa Dykes, Becton pointed out that this council has been in place since July. At the same time JEA has been aggressively pursuing a sale, it has not asked the council to do anything to change local constraints.

"You have this council right here," Becton said. "What could this council do to help you tomorrow by removing a local constraint? What would you ask us?"

Dykes paused for a moment. A long, telling moment.

"This may not be a satisfactory answer to you," she eventually said, "but what I'd really like to do is think about that for a little bit, because it is such an incredibly important question. I have a wish list. I want to go back to that wish list."

She said she didn't want to answer "off the cuff" and forget something.

JEA leaders are able to rattle off all kinds of detailed arguments, off the cuff, for why a sale makes sense. There are some reasonable arguments. But, again and again, they diminish those arguments when they fail to lay out any sort of case or plan for other options.

JEA leaders again talked Monday about operating with transparency. Yet it turns out that at the same time they were speaking, pledging to keep the public in the loop, the public didn't know that a board member had resigned -- a week earlier.

They talk about building trust. Yet again and again, they give the public reason to distrust.

The most egregious example might be the cash-for-faux-stock scheme that could have led to those atop JEA walking away with astronomical sums after a sale. Just because the scheme was thwarted before it happened doesn't mean we should move past it. It should be investigated. Questions should be answered. Changes should be made.

It is indeed time to press a restart button.

The one that removes this board and CEO.

The one that leads not to Atlanta, but to a real restart.

mwoods@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4212

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