JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Some of the people who make important decisions about the operations of JEA, a city-owned utility company, don’t even live in Jacksonville.
Laura Dutton, JEA’s Chief Strategy Officer, lives in Tennessee and recently received a 23% raise, an additional $73,000 a year, at the same time JEA is considering a rate hike.
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But her situation isn’t unusual.
JEA recently opened a new $100 million corporate headquarters, but three other senior managers also don’t live in Jacksonville.
The VP of People and Culture Helen Materazzi lives in New Jersey, VP of Engineering and Construction Pedro Melendez lives in Stuart, Fla. and VP of Economic Development Paul Mitchell lives in Port Orange, Fla. JEA has seven chiefs, including the managing director and CEO, and 16 vice presidents.
JEA has over 2,200 employees and the company said nearly half have the option to work remotely.
According to JEA, 88 employees live out of state. The majority of them are in Georgia and most commute, but there are about 26 others who live across the country in states like California, Colorado and New Jersey and have a hybrid/remote work arrangement. As for the employees who live in Georgia, 64 out of 67 commute to their JEA workplace, and three are hybrid/remote employees.
News4JAX spoke to Mark Stultz, JEA’s VP of Communication, about why so many employees are working remotely.
“We believe it is because it helps recruit the best talent for those roles. We do look at employees on a case-by-case basis, we look at recruiting on a case-by-case basis, we do a lot of recruitment, through the community, through the universities, the high schools in the trades, we try to recruit as much talent as we can. But there’s also a recognition that sometimes employees have special needs,” Stultz said.
It has become the new norm to work remotely, but there has been concern from some union officials that some upper managers are not in Jacksonville but should be.
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Some JEA customers said they understand the change but still think that management should be local.
“I am a little concerned that they’re not here in Jacksonville. They should be if somebody needs to talk to somebody over here that’s high on the food chain,” said customer Denise Bell.
JEA said the out-of-state managers should be available if needed and as far as the employees who are not management, JEA said their jobs can be handled from a distance.