JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — JEA is set to consider a rate hike on customers starting in October, as city leaders attempt to get to the bottom of the utility’s failure to collect additional capacity fees.
City Council’s JEA Liaison and Chair of the JEA Special Investigatory Committee, Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large), said he hopes that rate hike could be offset if JEA resolves a multi-decade failure to charge large commercial customers additional capacity fees.
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Some members of city council have estimated the uncollected fees could total as much as $100 million.
“Because right now regular customers like you and I are paying for the lack of those fees being collected,” said Salem.
JEA Board Chair Joe DiSalvo downplayed the impact capacity fee collection issues have on rates.
Instead, he attributed potential rate hikes are being driven by lower than expected revenues and ongoing capital projects.
“A past capacity fee is completely different. It’s more on the commercial side, not the residential,” said DiSalvo. ”The numbers they’re hearing, and again you’ll hear this at the workshop on the 14th of April, are being vastly exaggerated, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
But DiSalvo wasn’t able to say how many businesses JEA has failed to charge.
Action News Jax told you earlier this month about a memo drafted by JEA’s former General Counsel, Regina Ross, which concluded JEA legally had to collect uncharged additional capacity fees from Mayo Clinic, which she estimated owned $18.9 million alone.
The JEA Special Investigatory Committee is asking JEA to waive attorney-client privilege to allow Ross to participate in the investigation and help council auditors calculate the scope of the issue.
“We need Regina Ross to help us,” said Salem.
But DiSalvo said any decision to waive attorney-client privilege will not be made hastily, and it will be discussed at length in an upcoming meeting.
“That’s a serious consideration. What type of precedence are you setting?” said DiSalvo. ”We’re not going to take that lightly at all. I can tell you that right now.”
Both the consideration of waiving attorney-client privilege and a deep dive into the capacity fee issue will be discussed at a board workshop scheduled for April 14th.
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