JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A grand jury should investigate JEA for potential conflict of interest and ethics violations before the city takes any further steps toward potentially selling the city-owned utility, City Council member Matt Carlucci said Saturday.
Carlucci said he will file a resolution Monday for other City Council members to decide whether they will join him in seeking a grand jury probe.
He said a grand jury is needed to examine potential conflicts of interest and ethics violations, an employee bonus plan that could have delivered financial windfalls to JEA employees in the event of a JEA sale, and how the JEA board put the city-owned utility up for sale without sufficient notice to City Council.
“The troublesome behavior surrounding the exploratory sales process of the JEA must be investigated,” Carlucci said. “I believe, like many other people, a thorough investigation is required before any attempt to sell the JEA moves forward.”
JEA spokeswoman Gina Kyle said the agency has no response to Carlucci’s statement.
Carlucci, who opposes selling JEA, said in a statement the investigation would examine potential conflicts of interests including “former board members and city employees with startling consulting contracts.”
The grand jury also would examine an employee bonus plan the JEA board approved July 23. Carlucci said the bonus plan was “approved unhesitatingly” by the board.
The bonus plan, which the JEA board plans to kill at its Tuesday meeting, could have created a financial windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars for utility employees if a JEA sale netted $4 billion or more for the city, according to a report by the City Council’s Auditor’s office.
The utility, which is an independent agency of city government, has pledged it will fully cooperate with a special City Council meeting Monday when council members will dig into the controversial employee bonus plan.