JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A number of private utility companies, investment banks and law firms, along with JEA's interim CEO, will be served subpoenas as Jacksonville City Council's probe into the utility's failed privatization pushes forward.
On Tuesday afternoon, the decision was made to issue the subpoenas over the coming days in order to gather information to assist in the investigation.
"People still don't want this [investigation] to happen, they're still putting up roadblocks," said special committee chair Rory Diamond, District 13. "JEA is putting up road blocks, lots of people are putting up roadblocks."
The Rules Committee of Jacksonville City Council unanimously approved a motion to ask the Office of General Counsel to issue subpoenas to Dykes for testimony and to the final bidders in the failed "invitation-to-negotiate" (ITN) process for information relating to their bids.
Diamond said he expects all entities based in Florida to receive the subpoenas this week, and out-of-state entities to receive subpoenas next week.
Investment banks involved in the failed privatization process, like J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, will be subpoenaed for all internal information related to JEA's financial forecasts and background on the "performance unit plan," also known as PUP.
"They're going to have internal documents that are extremely helpful to show that, one, JEA was in pretty good shape financially, and two, what was going on with the performance-unit-plan," Diamond said. "How much money was expected to be driven out of that?"
Meanwhile, the bidders themselves will also face requests. Diamond said his committee is looking for answers to questions regarding the bidding process and what was told to the companies by JEA.
Major utility players, like Florida Power & Light parent company NextEra Energy and Duke Energy, will be subpoenaed for documents.
"Find out who they were using to smooth the city of Jacksonville and JEA," said Ronnie Burris, Business Manager for Local 630, which represents a number of JEA employees. "I know there was some heavy hitters running around. I mean, just look at the legal fees JEA paid out and the people representing them."
The 22 subpoenas being issued will be accompanied by public records requests for the same documents, and will be handed out to the various players by the city's Office of General Counsel (OGC).
Diamond has acknowledged that the original timeline for the special committee's investigation, which was first set to conclude on June 1, is not manageable. He said he expects the investigation to last through the end of the year, possibly concluding in December.
The subpoenas have a return date of May 18. It remains unclear whether the committee will be able to meet in-person on that day.