JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On Monday, News4Jax heard from the former head of the Jacksonville City Council committee looking into the JEA scandal.
Councilman Rory Diamond resigned from that committee last week.
Many have credited Diamond with giving the committee teeth. The former federal prosecutor was hammering away about getting to the bottom of the JEA deal gone wrong.
Some were surprised to learn he is leaving the committee when it is so close to finishing its job.
The council president has extended the deadline for the committee to wrap up and its members are meeting Monday evening.
Diamond said much of the committee’s work is done and he wants to focus on other things. He said the move is not political, as some have suggested.
It was Diamond who grilled former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and other executives about the role they played in the attempted sale of JEA last year.
“I loved being part of this JEA committee,” Diamond said. “I honestly feel that there was an effort to steal at least $1 billion from the people of Jacksonville.”
But now that lawyers have been interviewing those key players, more is coming to light about what happened.
The council committee has until December to delve into the failed deal to sell the city-owned utility but it’s expected they will get a full report soon from their attorney about the role Zahn and the other executives played.
Diamond on Monday addressed those who questioned the timing of his departure.
“Well, the council president removed me as chair so I really didn’t have much influence anymore and I was kind of a bit player. So, I thought I’d be more helpful writing new legislation to focus on other issues while that committee wraps this thing up. It’s basically done already,” he said.
The JEA committee was planning to discuss those issues and how their report will be presented, but that’s not it. A federal investigation is also underway and Diamond believes we will see charges and even an arrest as a result.
No word when that will wrap up.