JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Former Jacksonville Mayor Jake Goldbold told First Coast News "I’ve already read this book, I’ve already seen this movie," in regard to the controversy surrounding the potential sale of JEA.
"This is a big one, this is a big one," he said.
Godbold served 14 years on City Council and served as mayor from 1979 to 1987.
He had a letter hand-delivered to current Mayor Curry’s office last Wednesday to express his concerns.
"I was trying to say to him, Lenny this isn’t personal," he said.
He said a week later, the mayor left him a voicemail about it that he’s since tried to return.
"But this is the only time I’ve had a message from him, after it got out to the press," he said.
He believes he knows Mayor Curry’s situation first hand. He lived it.
"There was a group of people who wanted to sell the JEA in '82," he said.
They spent a year studying its value.
"There was some reasons for selling it, mainly the pie in the sky, the same thing it is today, this big amount of money," he said. "I finally made the decision that it wasn’t in the best interest of the people who own it, and that’s the taxpayers."
Godbold believes about 2,000 employees will lose their job if JEA is sold.
"You will disrupt their families, they will lose a lot, we will lose control of it," he said.
He also brings issue with a term we heard from Curry in our April 6 interview, "I would put the money in a lock box," Curry said.
Godbold is skeptical that a "lock box" exists.
"Getting all this money and putting it somewhere where politicians can’t get to it, well I would love to see that lock box."
Ultimately he says, it’s the mayor’s actions he questions, not his words.
"You have the man who backs you make the announcement, then you put so much pressure on Paul that he resigns then you bring in this new guy who has no idea on how to run a utility," he said. "You’ve got somebody over there now that you appointed, who just came to Jacksonville, nobody knows him, he doesn’t know us, we don’t know him and he has no background! This is like taking an airplane pilot and appointing him chair of Boeing."
Godbold says his biggest piece of advice is not to stop this weighing of the pros and cons, but rather finish the process since they’re in so deep and then let the people decide by putting it on the ballot for Duval County taxpayers to vote yes or no.