JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Over the past two years, JEA top executives have worked to create a specific image of the utility, one that painted a bleak future and a time to take drastic measures. As the city of Jacksonville's auditor has pointed out, their portrayal of the public utility was far from the truth.
However, now, the questionable actions by JEA top staff members and city leaders have led to self-crafted chaos that didn't exist before, with implications for the entire first coast.
Matt Schellenberg, a former Jacksonville city councilman for eight years and liaison to JEA, says the fallout will have consequences and people need to be vigilant of those consequences.
RELATED: Entire JEA board resigns after voting to fire CEO Aaron Zahn, citing his actions in a proposed sale
"Because of what’s happened, the value is deteriorating because we don’t have good people moving it forward and that concerns me," Schellenberg said. "It should concern every taxpayer and every customer because if they’re not doing the right then your rate is going to go up higher."
He says the implications could spread far and wide on the First Coast, deterring new business from investing in Jacksonville because of our embattled city government.
"People are saying, 'What the hell is going on up there?' We just had a board wipe themselves out and management that’s still not capable of being truthful," he said.
Schellenberg admits he has always been in favor of finding out the value of JEA in today's current market. He created a special committee to do so starting in 2012. But while he was for valuing the asset, he was not for rushing into privatization. He said the public should have been fully engaged in the conversation from the getgo.
"Nothing like that happened," he said. " It was, 'we're going to do it. And we're going to force it on you, and then we're going to defend it'. And you know what? It didn't work very well."
He says as his term was ending the truth about JEA was coming out, but a major red flag along the way was the appointment of Aaron Zahn to CEO of JEA.
"I was the liaison," he said. "I could see exactly what was going on. And to say that Aaron Zahn was the top pick was just baffling to me. And it's because that's what the fourth floor wanted and they did clearly behind the scenes things that were inappropriate."
The fourth floor is where the mayor’s office is located, down the hall from City Council.
"Everything that I saw over there was self-interest," he said.
Schellenberg said he passed this information along to city attorneys when they questioned him in December. He said it was clear that the other candidates vying for the position of CEO were more qualified, but that Mayor Lenny Curry and Zahn were "friends".
Schellenberg says the number of times Zahn's badge was used to access City Hall should be a hint as to what was happening recently.
"When you have Aaron Zahn visiting City Hall 170 times, and then basically the mayor saying that he wasn't engaged in the process, I just think that I can't explain how he could say that he was not engaged and didn't know what was going on," he said.
As of Tuesday morning, with Zahn officially ousted 'with cause' by the board, and the entire board announcing they would be leaving by the end of February, it leaves a scramble to find their replacements.
"Who would want to work there now?" he asked. "Who is he going to pick? And why would you be on the board, when you have the executives that basically were going to take money from the taxpayers of up to a half a billion to a billion dollars?"
Schellenberg believes there needs to be a total reset, include the JEA senior leadership team.
"All gone. All gone," he said. "They cannot possibly be there. They have lost the trust of the citizens to run that for the best thing. Most companies fail because of the management and the lack of oversight by the board."
JEA has seen a total reset of the board before. But the current situation is unprecedented.
IN 2015 Mayor Curry asked the entire JEA board to submit their resignations. He then appointed their replacements.
Now we are seeing almost an entire board’s resignation again, but this time they are wanting to leave.