JEA’s special investigatory committee is once again pressing top leadership on two issues that have been hanging over the utility for months. Those questions center on allegations of a toxic work culture inside JEA and a separate concern involving the utility’s failure to collect millions of dollars in capacity fees from large commercial customers.
Chief Administrative Officer Jody Brooks appeared before the committee and quickly pushed back on the idea that there is a toxic work environment within the organization. She dismissed those claims directly. But when the conversation shifted to the missed revenue, Brooks had a more difficult time explaining how the lapse went unnoticed for so long.
Brooks acknowledged during her remarks that systems in place today are more efficient and better equipped to catch errors like this. At the same time, she pointed to limitations in earlier technology and internal processes as a likely reason the issue was not identified sooner. Her explanation suggested that the problem may have been systemic rather than the result of a single oversight…