Good afternoon.

Let me call the special committee on JEA to order.

It is just a little bit after one o'clock, and uh let's start with introductions to my far left.

Colleen Hamsey, Council Research.

Mary Stefopoulos, Office of General Counsel.

Brian Parks, Council Auditor's Office.

Kim Taylor, Council Auditor.

Good afternoon, Rory Diamond, District 13, the beaches.

Ron Salem, Group 2 at large.

Jacoby Pittman, District 10.

Okay, thank you everybody for joining us.

Um I don't know that the meeting will go on very long, but uh we'll get through the information we've got.

Let me start with uh Ms.

Taylor and an update on capacity fees, or is Mr.

Park's gonna do that?

I guess he needs to.

Okay.

Yeah, through the through the chair to the committee.

Um not a lot have we been able to get going since the last meeting.

However, we did just recently receive the data.

So we are going to be able to push through on getting things moving forward.

There is a chance we could be ready by you know what I mean to be done with things by the you know our next meeting that not the next one, but the last one in June.

It's just as you know, it depends on how things are as we go through it.

So if things are able to be verified very easily, then it'll be we will be on that point.

We'll at least be able to provide an update with what we've seen at that point and some numbers and stuff like that, no matter what.

So, I mean, clearly this analysis is gonna go beyond June 30th if necessary.

Yes, it will it'll we'll take the time that it needs, you know what I mean, to get it right, yes.

I think that's extremely important.

Now, when you say the data, Brian, can you be more specific on the data that you've received?

Does this for example does this go back to 1997 data?

Or is this all the data that involves capacity fees for all the major companies, et cetera?

We have just recently gotten this, so I can't exactly tell you what is all in this.

No matter what, we're going to have to go back with them and actually observe certain pools of some of this information because we can't just rely on that piece.

We are also gonna have to do samples, but there may be different ways to go about validating data because of the capacity fees in place at different points in time and whether or not changed.

So I can't say how far back their analysis has already went, but we will go back as far as we can, and I think no matter what, we would be able to pick up the still the amount that would be potentially owed or what what was not collected based on this and the data we have.

I don't see anybody in the queue, so we're we're eagerly awaiting all that information.

Uh okay, let's talk about the employee survey.

Um, let me begin by saying I think all of you have copies of this in front of you.

I've also uh was was provided a copy of the JEA survey that went out uh just recently, and uh reviewed it, and it their survey is I believe one that they do they've told us every other year, last did it in 24, they're doing it in 26.

It is it is more of a temperature check, is what I how I would define it, very broad uh survey about JEA in general, goes out to all employees, some well over 2,000 employees that respond to that.

It is not specific to really to any individual in their particular survey, and I don't know when that's gonna be completed, but uh that's one of the surveys JEA has referred to when they say they are performing a survey.

The second survey that they're doing that I don't know very much about is where they've hired this law firm that is uh trying to set up appointments with various people to talk to them about what they know about the culture within JEA, particularly at the senior leadership team level.

Um I don't know who they've met with.

I did get a call and I declined to to participate, but um they are uh meeting with people, don't know when that'll be completed.

Um Ms.

Pittman.

I just wanted to um ask you mentioned about a survey that has I guess more temperature check generality.

Um we've never been in this space before, so the questions that they've asked, I guess in the past may not be particularly um to the culture of the workforce, or can you share any other questions in terms of just comparing?

Um I'll be happy to provide you a copy of this survey.

Okay, I would appreciate that.

Mr.

Teal has them as well.

Um I'll read you the first five or six of these just to give you some feel for it.

I feel genuinely appreciated at JEA, and I guess it would be like a one-to-five scale how you would score that JE operates by strong values.

I feel included at JEA.

My pay is fair for work I do.

I feel well informed about important decisions at JEA.

Those are the first five or six that are there.

New ideas encouraged the JEA.

At JEA we do things efficiently and well, and it goes on.

There's about what, 25 questions, Mr.

Teal on their survey.

Okay.

I would I would really like to see that to compare the questions that they have to the questions that were designed for this survey.

For our survey, and as you mentioned, we don't know what the other survey is.

Is that correct?

Yeah, it it I know it is an interview survey.

Okay.

Okay.

So I I you know I want to say it may be a little bit different because these questions are very specific and detailed, and the questions that you just asked are very general and they're not detailed.

And I guess my other question I would like to ask, um, do we know if the employees are doing both um surveys or not?

Mr.

Teal.

Through the chair, Councilmember Pittman.

Um they have the opportunity to do both.

Um now uh uh when I say the employees, um, as Councilmember Salem indicated, the survey that JEA is doing is is company wide, so it's 2,000 plus employees.

Okay.

Um the one that we're doing would be targeted to just those individuals that or were designated by JEA as like senior management or management and above.

Managers and above, and so it's about a hundred and fifty people that that the SIC committees survey would be targeting.

Um so that that 150 would have the opportunity to do both, um, but the rest of the 2,000 employees would not have the opportunity to do the one that sick is doing.

So uh again, those numbers could be screwed because you're talking about apple, oranges, and grapefruit, right?

So um I know some of the individuals that I spoke with, um, two of them said that they would do both.

The other ones said no, they will not.

So, you know, it's kind of hard to um compare.

And um I don't know.

That would be kind of hard.

I don't think you can compare, and we'll we're about ready to get into it, our survey to to the JEA 2000 people survey.

They're two different surveys.

Our charge was the culture created by the CEO, so our questions are very will be very specific to that particular person and the culture uh racism particularly that may be going involved over.

Yes, sir.

Okay, and we can talk a little bit more about some um as we get into it as well.

Thank you.

So with that, um why don't we get into the survey um that all of you should have a copy of?

Um I reviewed it over the weekend and have spoken to Mr.

Mr.

Teal a little bit.

Um there are several references to senior leadership in the in our survey, and I've asked Mr.

Teal to remove that because I don't want to confuse the issue of senior leadership versus Ms.

Cavey particularly.

So any references to senior leadership will be removed and it will only reference uh Vicky Kavey and these 20 or 25 questions that are here.

Um other than that, um I thought the survey was uh on target, addressed the issues that we have, and uh also gave an opportunity at the end for any freelance comments they want to make uh back to us.

And um Mr.

Diamond, go ahead.

Did you have a comment?

Yeah, just briefly.

I yeah, I support your change on the senior leadership.

I uh it was confusing.

Um, and I think that brings up another question is do you want any other names on here?

Uh I do think the COO might maybe one question uh or so there.

It's up to you.

I I'm not passionate about it one way or the other.

The other thing is I do think we should just ask, do you feel comfortable taking surveys that they'll be anonymous?

Just you know.

What is the value of this?

Because the people still, even after all this effort we've gone to still don't feel like they can be honest on here.

I would like to know because I would weigh the results a little bit on that.

And I would also weigh the JEA surveys results on how people feel about it.

Well, one of the things that uh I know Mr.

Thiel is gonna get into the sometimes the response to a server like this does tell you something.

If if only five people respond to this survey, uh I think that's an indication that uh they don't want to respond to the survey.

Um so I know um the survey company is gonna send out, and Mr.

I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but they're gonna send out a letter several days before the survey goes out to those 150 plus people and say the city council survey will be in your inbox by X date.

Uh please, this is how you can respond.

You can copy it into your own browser at home or your own phone personal computer to respond, however you want to.

There'll be several reminders uh after that once a week or so, and we'll continue that until we see that we're not getting a whole lot more in, and then it will be fairly concluded.

Mr.

Teal, did I capture that pretty accurately?

Did uh and so that was one of the recommendations from the uh the uh selection link uh is that uh especially in light of this that this is gonna be the city council's survey is to do uh two things in that welcome letter.

One is to expect that you will get a survey from the city of Jacksonville, but also um that if they wanted to communicate with selection link is to provide them with a separate email that they would like to send that survey to.

So it doesn't even come to their JEA email, then they'll have the ability to do that.

That helps with the whole anonymity um aspect.

I do like the question though of you know, like uh, for example, a question of um I feel comfortable being completely honest in the survey commissioned by JEA.

Strongly agree or strongly disagree, or whatever that range is, you know, and that way we can kind of gauge that level of activity as well.

Sure.

I hang on just so I'm sorry, uh, through the chair to Jason.

Um in the initial email and these follow-up emails.

I mean, can we just like make it painfully obvious that this is not going back to JEA, that it's completely anonymous?

Like, like I I really just want to get honest answers out of folks, and I feel if they feel comfortable that it's not coming to any of their bosses, they that they will, right?

I think they'll trust us, but we're gonna make it like painfully obvious.

Okay, can I just add before you respond?

Keep in mind the survey results are going to the JEA board, but it'll be done in a and in a fashion that it'll be grouped together, it'll be very anonymous to the individual responder.

Mr.

Thiel, go ahead.

Through the chair to Councilmember Diamond.

Yeah, that's some language that we're gonna have in the initial letter to them is is that um none of the data uh or information that is provided to uh selection link in response to this will be accessible by anybody at JEA.

So it is just to you know beat them over the head with the fact that this is this is a an outside entity that's conducting this um within the city of Jacksonville obviously it's not JEA and so only those results as councilmember Salem indicated once they're compiled that will be made available to the JEA board but that was one of the reasons why it was such a uh importance I guess for the city council to engage its own survey so that city council's paying for it city council is responsible for it so that way we can communicate to those people hey you know this is this is not even gonna be seen by JEA and I should also just add on to that the boil in amendment that came through during uh uh at the council meeting was that um uh select link allows one presentation of the data and he uh his motion was that that presentation be offered to the JEA board where it could be presented to them in a more in a very uh professional fashion and they could be able to ask questions and that kind of thing so we will offer that to them once the surveys completed Ms.

Pittman yes I want to go back to um you mentioned that you you think that the names should be taken off of our survey is that correct the any reference to senior leadership team should be taken out and only Vicky Cabey's name be used in terms of how they're evaluating because that was sort of that was the charge of the of the culture that she was uh um responsible for okay I just want to make sure I understand um because a lot of the um complaints were about either her or mainly miss Ms.

Mosier.

So I just want to make sure that because if you you start because we wouldn't be here if we didn't know the names right so um I don't want to make it so generic that the charge is not done right and that we get the answers um that we want and and the information is clarified um at the end of the day so I mean I I mean some of the questions might be asked in a different way but it's it's I guess it's getting to what what what we're needing to know um so I just want to make sure I understand that I think it's important um that we do because these are those are the individuals that that are testifying and coming here and you know I don't want to talk to you about something else after this to see if it's possible to do.

Well just to respond to that and and to Councilmember Diamond's comments earlier if there's one other person that I'd like to see surveyed it would be Diane Moser because her name has come up several several times to me Mr Teal I don't know if we can do that or how we would do that I think it it it may be very difficult unless they're asked to freelance any other comments that would be one way to do it would be to um propose a question at the end is is there anything else that you would like to uh to to bring to management's attention or bring to the city council's attention and that kind of thing.

I think officially the only way to do it would be to amend the charge of the SIC at this point it seems um I don't know how how practical that that would be um given the the deadlines for completion of it but remember the the charge is to to look at the toxic work environment allegations as they pertain specifically to the CEO.

And I just think with what we know now and what we knew at the beginning of the charge is a little bit different right um because you've had employees to come forward and we have information that we didn't have before.

So I I would like to maybe include that question anyone else or any other issues that you would like to bring forward because then that just kind of capsulates everything that we currently have and to amend what we know now and what we didn't know before.

I I agree.

I think a couple of questions at the end where they can freelance comments about any other members of the senior leadership team or any other information that they think we should we should have Mr.

Teal would be very appropriate.

I think it would capture what Ms.

Pittman and I agree with her.

Uh I I don't want to reopen the sick or do anything like that at this point.

So I think that's the best way to probably capture it.

We okay?

Okay, what I'd like to see is and I well, I I want Ms.

Pittman said she I think Ms.

Pittman uh has possibly another issue she wants to bring up with some other employees, uh, yeah.

Well I tell you what, why don't we uh at this point adopt the survey as as indicated here so Mr.

Teal can run with it.

I have a motion on the floor.

Second.

Any further discussion?

Oh, Mr.

Teal.

We could um provide a little flexibility in terms of being able to make minor changes, you know, that kind of thing, uh as opposed to verbatim, um, and you would correct some spellings and and that kind of thing.

But yeah, the the only issue I think is is that I think there's 25 questions here, um, whether you feel like that's uh a sufficient amount.

We're gonna add a couple more in in terms of um the comfortable with the hourly or to being honest in a survey conducted by JEA as well as um the questions about members, other members of senior leadership.

You want to cap the number of questions or um you know, just uh any any direction along those lines, or you'd want to just provide the flexibility to just kind of my experience having done this 40 years ago in academics.

If you get beyond about 10 or 15 minutes, you're gonna lose people.

So I think that this is in that area.

I would other than the freelance questions at the end, I would not add any questions.

I think it's it's probably pretty good as it is.

And as far as I think the motion was made to allow you any other minor changes that you want to make, but I think what we're saying is we want that survey to move forward as quickly as we can.

Okay.

All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Motion passes.

Ms.

Pittman, you had another issue one you wanted to bring up.

I just wanted to bring this up.

I know before you all were asking about would any of the employees feel comfortable um coming, either current and or people who are gone.

I did have an opportunity to talk to a few of them, and uh they um don't mind coming to um testify, um, but they want to make sure that they are protected and that they would be um no backlash, you know, with them being or repercussions for them being um coming to here to share.

So I wanted to just I don't know where to land that.

Um, so I'm I guess I'm asking because I know when we first started out, um that was one of the questions because you didn't know uh one, I guess the letters that I had um where they were coming from, and of course they will be turned over the the letters that I have to you, Jason.

Um, but they've gotten to the point I think they may be ready to talk.

So, you know, if that is still needed, um, I think that's something that is a possibility, um, but I just want to make sure that uh they are protected in their positions.

Mr.

Teal, Mr.

Chair, uh through the chair to Councilmember Pivin.

Uh ma'am, what I would probably suggest is maybe give me an opportunity to meet with them, because there are certain protections under the whistleblower laws that um that can be afforded to employees.

Now the determiner of who isn't who is given whistleblower protection uh is either the IG or the um human rights commission um folks, um I think uh it's human rights, but I know the IG.

Uh but um probably uh if they're former employees, you know, then there may be, you know, like we had talked, we'd heard that there were some non-disclosure agreements that were signed and those kinds of things.

I want to make sure that they're not gonna run afoul of of any agreements that they've got with with JEA, um, and also you know, kind of maybe get a feel for the type of information that they they would have.

Um, and so that might be the best thing to do is is to to have me sit down and meet with them, kind of talk through some of the issues and what their concerns are and then see if if um we can point them in the right direction for whistleblower protection uh or you know, some other kind of thing.

Um I would like if possible to engage um some OGC folks in our employment section uh to maybe have uh an understanding as to what types of things might be protected or not protected, you know.

But um, but that might be the best way to do it as opposed to just bringing them forward and just kind of on the fly, you know, be like okay, you can't or you can't talk about that.

Um that might be a good way to handle it, but again it's the discretion of the committee.

I just I just want to have clarification because I know that that did come up, and you know, we were telling them to go other places and contact.

So if that you know, if we don't need it, then fine.

Um this is something that we don't have to do, but I told you all I would get back with you and let you knew.

I mean, it it took me a little while because I think they were a little bit apprehensive, and so um I just wanted to make sure if that you know came a time that we need to speak to someone, then we could if not, I don't I don't think it matter at this point to them um either or um but you all will have the the information that you requested.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, anything else anybody has just to recap the schedule, the next meeting in two weeks we will have uh um Jody Brooks along with Regina Ross testifying.

And combine yeah, thank you for reminding me combined cycle in the morning at I think we set 11 o'clock, and then the two in the afternoon and uh on the two weeks from then June 22nd, is Vicki Kavey, and I have spoken to Regina Ross and she is she does want to testify after Vicky Kavey as well.

That was included in her subpoena, so there's no issue there.

So she will uh be able to give her comments regarding uh Miss Kavey's uh uh um comments.

So that's the plan for the next two weeks.

Um any next four weeks essentially.

Any comments?

Okay, we are adjourned.