JEA board chair: Jacksonville utility ‘still not for sale,’ new team ready to lead
Any time there are major changes at city agencies, there can be public speculation regarding those changes. As the new chair of the all-volunteer board that oversees JEA, let me begin with this important message: JEA is still not for sale.
As a board, we are responsible for acting as fiduciary agents and ensuring policy governance for the City of Jacksonville. In the interest of more than a million JEA customers, the board wants to ensure monthly utility bills are reasonable, particularly for our most vulnerable residents.
We have been focused on JEA controlling costs for both operations and maintenance and capital projects, representing about $9 billion in new spending over the next nine years.
JEA leadership must be aligned with the direction of the board regarding fiscal responsibility and other areas that reflect the mission and discipline that goes with being a municipal utility. That’s why the board unanimously supported hiring Vickie Cavey as our interim CEO and managing director.
After a 32-year career at JEA, she was an obvious choice to meet our immediate leadership needs, bringing a deep understanding of the agency and industry — and the heart of a public servant. While there may have been well-qualified internal candidates, the magnitude of our pending capital projects and programs suggested the need to maintain their ongoing focus on operations and financial controls.
For the past 125 years, JEA has met the future needs of our electric, water and wastewater customers with innovation and bold ideas. As we enter a transformative era, we will continue to rely on the same forward planning and showing you, our loyal customers, what is next for JEA.
For this new era, our blueprint begins with setting goals to address the realities of climate change and the need to move forward on renewables and other clean energy. Last year, JEA established a goal of generating 35 percent clean energy by 2030. As we work toward these goals, we recognize the impact of fast-changing pace of technology on our industry.
That’s why we stand poised to revise our clean energy goals as technology evolves.
JEA also is focused on meeting the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas policy of 90% carbon capture by 2032. We know we must be postured appropriately to meet this challenge. Our experts are working to analyze and plan for all aspects of this policy, so we have our work cut out for us.
Some of these variables, including the pipeline network analysis, are at least 10 years out from being feasible. But, make no mistake, JEA is up to the challenge.
Another transformative component of this era is managing the increasing demand for power and water services in JEA’s service footprint. The good news is the Jacksonville region is growing; we just need to be smart on how we position the utility to meet the increased demand.
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This ties back to clean energy considerations, in addition to partnering considerations and how we tackle transmission costs. Preparing and managing for the future will be critical.
With hurricane season upon us, severe weather preparation remains imperative for JEA. We constantly strive to improve our preventative measures necessary to endure severe weather events and restore services expeditiously. Additionally, JEA remains committed to supporting communities in need of emergency services, to help restore utility services disrupted by severe weather, both within and outside Florida.
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Of course, to achieve all of this, the most crucial factor is our workforce. Our more than 2,200 employees remain JEA’s most precious asset. Looking to the future, JEA must develop a reliable pipeline of talent to backfill many of our accomplished workforce veterans who are nearing retirement.
Our key ingredient for the future includes a solid professional development program and advancement opportunities throughout JEA.
As history has shown, JEA is ready to meet our many challenges and set the bar for the future standard for utility companies. Rest assured that as we do, we will never lose focus on our responsibility to provide you, our customers, with the best service possible.
Joe DiSalvo, chair, JEA Board of Directors, Jacksonville
This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JEA interim CEO Vicky Cavey is right fit to lead utility
