Are there any lessons learned after Jacksonville came close to losing one of its most important entities...JEA?

CEO was found guilty in a scheme to sell the utility company and pocket millions

Roundtable on This Week in Jacksonville about the JEA trial (WJXT)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It was a case that took years to sort out.

Now that the JEA scandal has finally concluded with a federal trial leading to the conviction of the public utility’s former CEO Aaron Zahn, there’s one question that still lingers:

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What are the lessons learned from nearly losing one of the city of Jacksonville’s most important entities?

Zahn was convicted on both counts of conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with an alleged scheme that would have resulted in Zahn and other JEA executives making millions in bonuses if the utility was sold.

He faces decades in prison.

Timeline: The federal case against two former JEA executives

While Zahn was found guilty, his former CFO Ryan Wannemacher was found not guilty on both counts.

JU Public Policy Institute Director and News4JAX Political Analyst Rick Mullaney, Florida Times Union Columnist Nate Monroe and former city councilwoman Brenda Jackson sat down for a roundtable discussion on This Week in Jacksonville.

“The mystery has not been solved. We know why he was appointed. He was appointed to sell JEA. And took steps to sell JEA,” Mullaney said.

Jackson first got concerned about a potential sale as a citizen – then had a chance on city council to affect change.

“I think the first thing that we learn is that we all have unique roles, and we must work together, right? So we could not do what we did without the media, without Nate, without you, without asking tough questions. We could not do what we did without the council auditors raising the red flag, which is they’re the watchdog of the charter nowadays. That’s their role,” Jackson said.

RELATED: Looking back at former mayor’s ties to proposed JEA sale after former utility CEO’s conviction

Mullaney, who has served on several city administrations, called for a grand jury investigation during the controversy in 2019.

What’s his view on lessons learned? Well, it involves asking the right questions.

“One thing is to be careful, don’t learn the wrong lesson,” he said. “I think the wrong lesson would be let’s don’t sell it. I think the bigger lesson is that good public policy requires integrity. It requires transparency. And by the way, it requires acting in the public interest, not political interest or financial interest. And the fundamental flaw of JEA is that it did not involve integrity,” Mullaney said.

Mullaney said good public policy also requires courage and pointed to several leaders who demonstrated it during the JEA crisis.

Monroe is a local journalist who dug deep into the details of the performance unit’s plan... and call it out.

“I think that the conviction of Zahn cut right to the heart of what was a culture of silence in city hall and in the upper ranks of JEA. Federal prosecutors made it clear that Zahn and Wannemacher were the only two that they believed criminally liable for this performance unit plan scandal,” Monroe said. “But they also made it clear that there were a lot of people around these two guys that enabled them and that gave voice to lies and a fraudulent case to sell JEA, that’s bad public policy at best.”

Watch the full roundtable conversation on This Week in Jacksonville as the panel digs deeper into the scandal’s history on Sunday at 9 a.m. on Channel 4 or catch it on News4JAX+.


About the Author

Kent Justice co-anchors News4Jax's 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts weeknights and reports on government and politics. He also hosts "This Week in Jacksonville," Channel 4's hot topics and politics public affairs show each Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

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