JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 We\u2019re learning more about accusations that JEA may have failed to collect as much as $100 million worth of fees.<\/p>\n
JEA rates have been on the rise, with customers seeing their bills increase by 3.7 percent last April and another 5.1 percent increase scheduled for this October.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n But at the same time the utility was approving rate hikes for its average customers, it was considering a deal that would have involved forgiving $18.9 million owed by a major company: Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n Action News Jax obtained a 2024 memo offered by JEA\u2019s former General Counsel, Regina Ross, in which she estimated Mayo\u2019s water and sewer usage had ballooned to nearly 644,000 gallons per day, or 453 percent of the initial capacity approved back in 1995.<\/p>\n Ross estimated the hospital had not been charged $18.9 million for that additional capacity.<\/p>\n The documents show JEA and Mayo have known about and have been trying to come to a resolution on the issue since 2022<\/p>\n Additionally, a memo from JEA\u2019s bond counsel, penned in October of last year, reveals JEA was working on a deal with Mayo that would involve JEA \u201cforegoing\u201d the past uncharged fees.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, I\u2019ve been saying for weeks there\u2019s a crisis of confidence over here with JEA,\u201d said Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4).<\/p>\n Carrico called the plan referenced in the memo an \u201coutrage\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, we don\u2019t control the rates at JEA. That\u2019s controlled by the board, but those rates have gone up, and they\u2019re going to continue to go up, and if there\u2019s $18 million that we\u2019re trying to sweep under the rug and not collect, that\u2019s an outrage for me,\u201d said Carrico. \u201cI can\u2019t believe they would even think that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about the Mayo deal, JEA would not confirm whether it\u2019s still considering waiving the uncollected fees, but did send a statement indicating negotiations are ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cJEA is continuing to work collaboratively with Mayo Clinic to review the historical records and reach a fair and reasonable resolution,\u201d a JEA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Councilmember Matt Carlucci (R-Group 4 At-Large) told Action News Jax he believes Mayo and JEA should be given time to resolve their dispute and cautioned against injecting politics into the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a contractual dispute, and this has been going on for I think a long time,\u201d said Carlucci. \u201cLet\u2019s let the two parties work it out, and let\u2019s keep the politics out of it. That\u2019s what I think should be done.\u201d<\/p>\n But Carrico noted the problem seems to extend beyond just Mayo.<\/p>\n The October memo from the utility\u2019s bond counsel indicated additional \u201clarge commercial customers\u201d may have also not been charged by JEA.<\/p>\n Carrico said the city\u2019s Office of Inspector General is looking into the utility\u2019s failure to charge additional capacity fees, and the total amount left on the table could be as much as $100 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have millions, if not tens but hundreds of millions of dollars in unaccounted for dollars while rates are going up is truly unacceptable,\u201d said Carrico.<\/p>\n In response to our questions about the utility\u2019s failure to collect additional capacity fees, JEA told Action News Jax on Friday it\u2019s working to improve its billing policies.<\/p>\n \u201cA program on how to properly track, identify, and bill JEA customers for \u201cadditional\u201d capacity fees due to customer growth and expansion is currently being developed by JEA,” said a JA spokesperson in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Carrico said the next steps will likely be dependent on the recommendations that come out of the Inspector General\u2019s Office, but the city council will likely become involved in some capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we have to go further and launch an investigative committee, we want to know where that money went, and we want to know if there\u2019s more money to collect,\u201d said Carrico.<\/p>\n Action News Jax reached out to Mayo Clinic Monday afternoon for comment on this story, but has not heard back.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/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 We\u2019re learning more about accusations that JEA may have failed to collect as much as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,643,7840,6490,969,1130,116,118,117,971,55599,10417,501,86961,77115,634,18614,23545,32231,36329,5242,86960,7842],"class_list":{"0":"post-184858","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-five","12":"tag-jack","13":"tag-jackson","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","16":"tag-jacksonville-news","17":"tag-jake","18":"tag-jake_stan","19":"tag-jake_stowan","20":"tag-jea","21":"tag-jea_council","22":"tag-kevin_carico","23":"tag-local","24":"tag-matt_carlucci","25":"tag-mayo","26":"tag-mayo_clinic","27":"tag-office_of_inspector_general","28":"tag-president","29":"tag-regina_ross","30":"tag-tanika_hughes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184858","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=184858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}