JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council\u2019s special investigative committee on JEA met Monday for the third time.<\/p>\n
And committee members raised the possibility of expanding the investigation to include JEA\u2019s lobbying contract<\/a> and a major power plant project.<\/p>\n The Special Investigatory Committee was formed by City Council President Kevin Carrico. Its current charge focuses on two areas: allegations about workplace culture at JEA and questions about whether the utility failed to properly collect certain water and sewer capacity fees from some commercial customers over a period of years.<\/p>\n RELATED | City Council committee tries to follow the money in dispute over JEA capacity fees<\/a><\/p>\n During his opening remarks, former JEA Board Chair Joe DiSalvo disputed claims that JEA\u2019s workplace is toxic.<\/p>\n \u201cOur work environment can be intense but it is professional and driven,\u201d DiSalvo said.<\/p>\n DiSalvo also argued JEA was designed to operate independently of shifting political pressures. He asked the committee to give the board the space to look into some of the claims and concerns,<\/p>\n \u201cIts governance framework was intentionally structured to allow for operational independence, professional management and decision-making insulated from shifting political pressures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While the committee\u2019s charge is focused on capacity fees and workplace culture, Monday\u2019s questioning also touched on JEA\u2019s lobbying contract and a combined cycle plant project.<\/p>\n DiSalvo said JEA has invested about $350 million in the cleaner energy combined cycle project and is still awaiting approval from state regulators. Committee members Rory Diamond and Chair Ron Salem expressed their concern for if the project were to be denied.<\/p>\n MORE|Timeline: How \u2018big favor\u2019 texts sparked a JEA board shakeup and allegations about utility leadership<\/a>|Jacksonville City Council president issued subpoena after controversial \u2018big favor\u2019 text sent to JEA board member<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was caught completely by surprise,\u201d DiSalvo said. \u201cThe combined cycle has been in the works for at least three years\u2026 and that came out of the blue to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Near the end of the meeting, Councilmember Rory Diamond asked Carrico to consider amending the committee\u2019s charge to formally include the lobbying contract and the combined cycle plant.<\/p>\n Carrico said he would look into possibly amending the committee\u2019s charge.<\/p>\n The committee said a contract for the employee culture survey is expected to be introduced to council Tuesday, with results anticipated by June 30.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council\u2019s special investigative committee on JEA met Monday for the third time. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501],"class_list":{"0":"post-230494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-jea"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230494","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=230494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}