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Mayor on JEA payouts: ‘Sounds pretty outrageous’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mayor Lenny Curry told News4Jax on Tuesday that he was unaware of JEA’s top leaders being promised six-figure payouts if they were fired without cause.

Additionally, Curry said he didn’t support the payday, or what’s been referred to as “golden parachutes." News4Jax first reported about the payouts Wednesday.

One contract -- for the Chief Administrative Officer -- promised JEA will pay more than $300,000 if he’s fired now. The same contract promised him more than $1.7 million if the utility was sold and he was fired afterward.

“Sounds pretty outrageous to me,” Curry said. “I learned about this the same place you guys did, from what I am reading in print and seeing in media.”

READ: Mayor on revisiting proposed JEA privatization: ‘Heck no. I’m done’ | Political consultant unfazed by JEA investigation

The city’s ethics director has called for all of the senior leaders within JEA to voluntarily give up the golden parachutes. In a recent email, the ethics director wrote about plans for senior leads to discuss the contacts with city lawyers.

“I would not have been supportive of those arrangements had I known about them at the time,” Curry said.

City Councilman Tommy Hazouri said he and other leaders will push not to pay any of the so-called golden parachutes for city leaders.

“If we have to take them to the highest court -- they are not going to get those dollars,” Hazouri said.

As of Tuesday, it remained unclear when and if those meetings with senior leaders happened.

The city is still trying to determine if it has to pay former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn the nearly $800,000 he was promised in his contract.


About the Author
Kelly Wiley headshot

Kelly Wiley, an award-winning investigative reporter, joined the News4Jax I-Team in June 2019.

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