Duval County

JEA chief financial officer is latest executive out at utility

By Russell Colburn, Action News Jax
By Russell Colburn, Action News Jax

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Another domino has fallen at JEA. Action News Jax has confirmed Chief Financial Officer Ryan Wannemacher is out.

The utility hasn’t said if he resigned or was fired.

This comes on the same day JEA released hundreds of pages of documents from bidders from when the board was considering selling the public utility.

JEA said Joe Orfano, once the treasurer, will be stepping in as interim CFO.

Just last week, the JEA Board fired CEO Aaron Zahn over a bonus program that could have cost taxpayers more than $300 million.

Days later, JEA Vice President and Legal Officer Lynne Rhode resigned.

Tuesday, JEA’S Board of Directors voted unanimously to end the Invitation to Negotiate, or ITN, and release all information in the months-long process that cost taxpayers $10 million.

That decision came in an emergency meeting called after Mayor Lenny Curry asked the board to pull the plug, an apparent about-face to his previous calls for the board to press ahead.

According to Action News Jax sources, FPL was the likely front-runner in the sale, but documents from its parent company, NextEra Energy, weren’t released Friday because they haven’t given JEA legal approval to do so.

The documents make it clear any JEA sale would have needed to provide more than $3 billion in value to the city and keep customers’ rates stable for three years.

With JEA backing away from negotiations, the 16 bidders have until Monday at noon to submit a protest.

We asked, and so far, JEA tells us there are none.

All that turnover at the top comes as the State Attorney’s Office is looking into JEA.

The Jacksonville Civic Council and Council Member Matt Carlucci have called for a grand jury investigation.

The Office of Inspector General has also opened an inquiry.

© 2019 Cox Media Group

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