position was eliminated\u00a0<\/a>after he raised concerns about morale.\u00a0<\/p>\nA key obstacle emerged during the meeting: access to testimony from former JEA attorney Regina Ross. Salem said the city\u2019s Office of General Counsel indicated Ross may not be available to speak due to potential attorney-client privilege.<\/p>\n
That drew pushback from Diamond, who argued Ross is central to the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s no longer at JEA. She\u2019s at the center of this question. And now the Office of General Counsel is saying we can\u2019t ask her questions. That\u2019s nuts,\u201d Diamond said. “There is no attorney-client privilege among city gov and OGC about a matter of public importance when there is no pending litigation. It doesn\u2019t exist. It\u2019s a lie.”<\/p>\n
“I don\u2019t understand why we cant have a conversation with her because she knows internally and has experienced some of the conversations we\u2019re hearing,” Councilmember Ju’Coby Pittman said.<\/p>\n
According to council legal counsel Jason Teal, the committee has the authority to issue subpoenas if witnesses refuse to cooperate. Failure to comply could result in fines or jail time under city ordinance.<\/p>\n
“In the council rules and ordinance code, a duty imposed upon any individual that is called by a committee or as part of an investigation to fully participate to the best of their ability,” Teal said.<\/p>\n
“We plan to participate, assist the auditors and this committee as the office of general counsel to the best of our abilities,” said Dylan Reingold, Deputy Chief of Office of General Counsel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The special committee also plans to gather information through anonymous surveys. One will be sent to 147 current JEA employees at the manager level, while a second will target former employees. The surveys are intended to assess workplace culture while protecting participants from retaliation.<\/p>\n
Pittman emphasized the need to support employees who may be hesitant to come forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here and really just want to help the people who are afraid to speak,\u201d Pittman said. \u201cAll they want to do is keep their job and do their work.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also requested data on African American employees who have been promoted, demoted or terminated during the tenure of JEA CEO Vickie Cavey, as part of the committee\u2019s review of discrimination allegations.<\/p>\n
Not all council members agree with how the investigation is being handled. Although not on the committee, Matt Carlucci attended the meeting and voiced concerns about fairness and transparency.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think these meetings are of any value unless you have everybody here to give both sides of the story,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n
The meeting also included a heated exchange between Salem and Carlucci during public discussion.<\/p>\n
As part of its actions Tuesday, the committee approved sending a formal notice instructing anyone involved in the investigation to preserve all relevant documents, including emails and text messages.<\/p>\n
Salem said any JEA employees or members of the administration who wish to speak with the committee can contact his office.<\/p>\n
City Council President Kevin Carrico, who formed the special committee, was also in attendance. Carrico will be able to participate and vote during these meetings.<\/p>\n
At this time, Carrico is also being investigated<\/a> by the State Attorney’s Office for an unrelated JEA issue revolving around his recent attempt at nominating a member to the utility’s board.<\/p>\nFirst Coast News reached out to JEA on Monday and they referred us to their previous statement released:<\/p>\n
“JEA remains committed to delivering essential services to our customers in the most effective and efficient manner. We ensure that JEA employees have easily accessible resources to address any personal and professional concerns. At the core of JEA\u2019s values is accountability and respect for the more than 2,000 employees, who are the backbone of this organization.”<\/p>\n
The committee\u2019s next meeting is scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville City Council’s special committee is investigating claims about JEA’s financial practices and alleged toxic workplace culture.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-195854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195854","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=195854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}