Jacksonville mayor: I will not submit any JEA privatization plan

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said he will not submit any action to the City Council to sell JEA.

Curry issued a statement Thursday on the future of JEA.

He cited a city ordinance, stating, “If, and only if, the mayor submits a privatization plan would it then proceed to City Council.”

Later in the statement he said, “I am choosing to state unequivocally that I will not submit any JEA privatization plan to the City Council.”

“It’s definitely a sigh of relief,” said JEA union representative Valerie Gutierrez.

Gutierrez said she’s cautiously optimistic for the jobs of the utility's 2,000 employees.

“Though the mayor says he’s not presenting anything, it doesn’t mean somebody else can’t,” Gutierrez said.

City Councilman Garrett Dennis shared those sentiments in an interview with Action News Jax.

“We’re just going to watch, because [the mayor] said he will not come out with a plan, but he could probably get a council member to introduce some type of resolution or ordinance, or have the board of JEA do it.”

City Council President Anna Brosche also criticized Curry’s remarks, issuing this statement:

“Mayor Curry’s hand-picked JEA Board members kicked off a [months-long] botched cart-before-the-horse process of considering privatization for a high-performing utility owned by the citizens of Jacksonville, a process in which his administration has been integrally involved. Mayor Curry’s statement is a reflection of what his administration is seeing from polls: the majority of Jacksonville voters are opposed to back room deals being conducted involving potentially billions of [taxpayer] dollars. I was elected to protect your hard-earned tax dollars and promote a culture of transparency and what has been happening regarding JEA doesn’t add up.”

Brosche was out of town for Thursday’s special committee meeting on the future of JEA, but the rest of the council heard from the utility’s interim CEO Aaron Zahn.

Zahn said he was unaware of Curry’s remarks.

“That has no impact on what we’re doing, because we’re back to business,” Zahn said.

Thursday, Curry’s staff said he was in Dallas on ‘city business for economic development.’

Curry would not take any questions on JEA, letting his statement speak for itself.

Cox Media Group