JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Special Investigatory Committee on JEA matters is proposing new legislation designed to force city council members to comply with investigations.
This was after City Council President Terrance Freeman reopened the committee to investigate Council Member LeAnna Cumber’s connections to the canceled sale of JEA.
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“Yeah, that we bring to light issues that could imply that there was something that was done that could’ve deceived the council,” Nick Howland, Vice Chair of Special Investigatory Committee, said.
In March 2021, the city was seeking bids for a potential JEA sale. LeAnna Cumber told the JEA Public Power Partners that she had no conflicts regarding JEA or with the invitation to negotiate.
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Cumber’s husband, Husein Cumber, was not on the JEA Board when it voted to explore privatization and resigned after she was elected in 2019.
He had been an unpaid advisor to an entity that was interested in buying JEA, but it didn’t hire him because of his wife’s council position.
Cumber at the time chose not to reveal that her husband was working as an FBI informant.
“We were never able to answer that question. Plus the JEA sale never went through, so it would’ve been very difficult to answer that question. So, it more focused on whether there was a false or misleading disclosure,” Howland said.
The Special Committee was charged with three action items:
- To investigate whether the committee was deceived or misled by councilmember Cumber of JEA Public Power Partners responding to subpoenas or making disclosures
- Determine whether Cumber attempted to use her official position to influence the invitation to negotiate process for personal gain
- Propose legislation to ensure that such deceptions, if any, do not impede the work of any future investigatory committee.
“Is there’s an element of the ordinance code that talks about duty to comply with investigations. And city council was not mentioned explicitly as a body within the city government that has a duty to comply. We’re going to change that ordinance code eventually to make sure the city council is specifically called out in that law,” Howland said.
Cumber was running for Mayor at the time against Daniel Davis and insisted this was a political hit job during the election.
At one point, an ethics commission decided not to investigate the claims, stating it was outside the statute of limitations and political in nature.
“They chose not to investigate it. We chose then to focus on the third charge for the special investigatory committee which was to propose legislation and make sure this never happens again,” Howland said.
The Ethics Commission says it sent a letter to the SIC Tuesday saying it supports the Office of General Counsel’s recommendation that the council rules be changed to provide a more clearly delineated process for use by city council committee or the council itself if a future need arises for inquiry or investigation into the conduct of a city council member
It also recommended updating legislation to propose a clear time limit on filing complaints during an election cycle.