The special committee on JEA convened on June 22, 2026, to address several critical issues including capacity fee updates, employee survey results, and testimony from JEA CEO Vicki Kavey and former JEA attorney Regina Ross. The meeting focused on allegations of a toxic work environment, hiring practices, and the handling of capacity fee disputes with Mayo Clinic. Key discussions centered on the CEO's leadership, transparency in JEA operations, and ongoing investigations.
Good afternoon. Welcome to the special committee on JEA. Let me begin by introductions to my far left. Colleen Hamsey, Council Research. Mary Stefopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Brian Parks, Council Auditor's Office. Philip Peterson, Council Otter. Jason Teal, Legislative Council. Good afternoon, Rory Diamond, District 13, the Beaches. Ron Salem, group two at large. Jacoby Pittman, District 10. Kevin Carico, District 4. At Carlucci at large, group for just visiting. Okay. Before we get into uh, I understand, Miss Kavey, you have an opening statement. I was told just a few minutes ago. Yes, sir. Okay. I understand it's like five or ten minutes. I don't think it's that long, sir. Okay. We'll get to you in just a couple minutes. Uh capacity fee update. Council auditors. Through the chair to the committee. Uh, so kind of the update on where we are. I'll first start with where JA is in their process. So they had focused in on the three-inch and larger and based on their approach. They've calculated a high amount that should be no more than 25 million cumulative since about 2003. That was mentioned by Jody Brooks in her last meeting as well. Um we have validated certain aspects of that calculation and have reason to believe that based on the approach that some calculations may be understated slightly in certain situations from a maximum exposure. And then there's also in others, as they've mentioned in their thing that they are actually overstated in that because they'll be multifamily related, where if there's not a change in the number of units, they wouldn't actually owe anything, so there's aspects of that that we're working through. And we were right now upstairs reviewing that. Um we are working to finalize our approach for testing and hope to be at least through the three inch and larger meters by the time the city council returns from break. No matter what, we will have to take a break for the budget review. We are also hoping to form at least some testing related to the smaller than three inch meters to determine whether we need to test further or whether or not there's a valid reason to exclude from testing, i.e., there's not a material amount that could be owed. Could you explain your $25 million comment that you said a couple minutes ago? Yes. So as Jody also mentioned in her testimony the other day, they have calculated an initial amount of accumulative, that would be $25 million that was not collected on a high end. Again, that's what they've stated as. And so we are reviewing their analysis and stuff like that and testing different pieces of that as we are going through right now. And that includes that would include Mayo Clinic in that $25 million. Yes, because it any meter larger than three inches, three inches and larger. Okay included. Sure, would love to get this done before the budget process, but I'm sure y'all are doing everything you can to do that. Mr. Peterson is, I'm sure. Okay. Update on the employee survey, Mr. Teal.