JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 JEA is apparently the subject of an Inspector General investigation that could involve as much as $100 million in uncollected fees.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13) teased the new possible issue at JEA on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cExhausted by the scandals in Jax. Another big one coming at JEA. $100 million? Whack-a-mole,\u201d Diamond said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax has since heard from three sources close to the situation who have suggested the $100 million figure is related to uncharged mandatory one-time additional capacity fees over an unknown period of time.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n In a statement, Council President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4) confirmed an ongoing inquiry by the Office of Inspector General.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I have said for several weeks, there is a crisis of confidence at JEA. I am very concerned to hear that the Inspector General is now looking into serious allegations related to the utility,\u201d Carrico said. \u201dThe people of Jacksonville deserve transparency, accountability, and clear answers, and the Council will be carefully reviewing the Inspector General\u2019s findings.\u201d<\/p>\n JEA issued a statement in response to our questions about the details we\u2019ve heard from multiple sources.<\/p>\n \u201cJEA strives to ensure that its rates and capacity fees charged for water and sewer service are applied in a fair and equitable manner for all customers. All new connections are charged an applicable water and sewer capacity fee for associated development,\u201d a JEA spokesperson told Action News Jax. \u201dA program on how to properly track, identify and bill JEA customers for \u2018additional\u2019 capacity fees due to customer growth and expansion is currently being developed by JEA.\u201d<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Action News Jax also heard from an anonymous source close to the situation that the Inspector General is likely to request the City Council order Council Auditors to conduct an independent audit of the utility to find out more about the situation.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also heard suggestions the situation could impact JEA\u2019s bond obligations, but that\u2019s a claim the utility denies.<\/p>\n \u201cResolutions with customers or the implementation of a program on the billing and collection of additional capacity fees will have no impact on JEA\u2019s bond commitments,\u201d a JEA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 JEA is apparently the subject of an Inspector General investigation that could involve as much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,643,7840,18607,969,116,118,117,971,55599,970,501,77115,634,36329,9324,7842,82403],"class_list":{"0":"post-181648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-action_news_jack","10":"tag-ben_becker","11":"tag-council_president","12":"tag-jack","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","15":"tag-jacksonville-news","16":"tag-jake","17":"tag-jake_stan","18":"tag-jake_stoan","19":"tag-jea","20":"tag-kevin_carico","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-office_of_inspector_general","23":"tag-rory_diamond","24":"tag-tanika_hughes","25":"tag-ya_gvino"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}