And some of those questions are going to be tough to answer.<\/p>\n
Chair Ron Salem said that General Counsel\u00a0Michael Fackler<\/a> said that Regina Ross, the longtime attorney for the utility, \u201cwould not be available to this Committee for any services, due to some issues with privileged information.\u201d<\/p>\n Committee member Rory Diamond, who has been critical of the city\u2019s General Counsel and of the utility\u2019s management for years, did not take the news well.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no mystery about what she heard and what she saw, that there\u2019s a significant problem of JEA over years, not collecting capacity fees. And she\u2019s up there jumping up and down, saying, \u2018You have to fix this correctly. You have to do this right. You can\u2019t just come up with Band-Aid stuff. You can\u2019t do stuff behind closed doors. This is a public issue. It needs to be out front, needs to be done right.\u2019 She\u2019s no longer at JEA. She\u2019s at the center of this question. And now OGC is saying that we cannot ask her questions. That\u2019s nuts,\u201d the second-term Republican said.<\/p>\n \u201cWaive the privilege, so we can ask all these questions out in the public,\u201d Diamond added. \u201cWhat secret could there be between OGC and JEA that we all don\u2019t have a right to ask questions about?\u201d<\/p>\n Ju\u2019Coby Pittman,\u00a0a Democrat in her second term, expressed her own concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cI can share with you what I\u2019ve heard. There is one person who is advocating for about 15 other people. They are afraid because they don\u2019t want to lose their job. And I\u2019m just sharing with you just the people who are currently here. I\u2019ve also had an opportunity to talk to people who were employed at JEA, and they were terminated. And some of the reasons for them being terminated are just unacceptable. And a few of them are also who were in management and who had been at JEA for several years. So, I\u2019m here, and really just want to help the people who are afraid to speak. All they want to do is keep their job and do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n Pittman wants information on the hiring and firing of members of ethnic minorities, and whether that will be provided is likewise an open question.<\/p>\n Deputy General Counsel\u00a0Dylan Feingold appeared in the stead of a vacationing Fackler, assuring the Committee that OGC would assist \u201cto the best and fullest\u201d of its abilities and said that Ross didn\u2019t face retaliation.<\/p>\n He also alleged that the City Council \u201cmay want to arrest (Ross),\u201d and that he\u2019s \u201ccertainly hoping that the City Council doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Salem called the comment \u201cinappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n Council President\u00a0Kevin Carrico<\/a> said the city lawyer was \u201cchildish and irresponsible\u201d in his comments, which seemed to reflect Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s<\/a> belief that the Committee is a joke.<\/p>\n The tension was on the dais at times as well.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CFPA-Digital-Ad-Sunburn-728x90-1.jpg\")
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