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Hazouri extends JEA investigative committee deadline and Rory Diamond resigns from panel

Hazouri issued a memo Friday night that announced that the Sept. 30 deadline for the special committee will have a new ending date of Dec. 31.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The Jacksonville City Council's expansive investigation of last year's attempted sale of JEA will get a new deadline of Dec. 31 after City Council President Tommy Hazouri gave it a three-month extension so "no stones will be left unturned."

But the special investigative committee will move on without original chairman Rory Diamond, who has been one of the strongest critics of the sales process. He stepped down from the panel, which will meet Monday to chart its next steps.

Hazouri issued a memo Friday night that announced that the Sept. 30 deadline for the special committee will have a new ending date of Dec. 31.

Hazouri's memo said he and the committee are "committed to seeking the truth, as the people and City Council will not stop until we have exhausted every effort in our investigation." He also said he had accepted Diamond's resignation.

Diamond said it was "just time to step off" and his resignation wasn't a protest of anything.

The committee "should be good to go without me," he said. "I'll support them any way I can."

The extension granted by Hazouri will give the committee more time to complete the investigation and write a comprehensive report detailing what happened when the JEA board put the utility up for sale in July 2019 and then pulled the plug on the sales process last December.

Federal authorities also are investigating JEA matters such as a controversial employee incentive program called a "performance unit plan" that could have generated a financial windfall for top utility executives if the city had sold JEA.

Hazouri's extension gives the special committee the ability to weigh whether it wants to conduct any more interviews or fact-finding. It has obtained thousands of documents and will draw from dozens of interviews.

Diamond and council member Ron Salem kick-started City Council's scrutiny of JEA last December when they interrogated former JEA executives, who have since lost their JEA jobs, about the performance unit plan.

Diamond branded the incentive plan "legal theft" and called for council to launch a formal investigation. The JEA board scrapped the plan in December.

Diamond was the chairman of the special investigative committee when council member Scott Wilson formed it in January during Wilson's term as council president. Brenda Priestly Jackson and Randy DeFoor rounded out the investigative committee.

Hazouri named Priestly Jackson as committee chairwoman when he became council president July 1 and added Wilson as a fourth member.

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With Diamond's resignation, the panel will go back to having three members.

Wilson will leave the committee in November because he must step down from council after running unsuccessfully for county clerk. District 4 voters will elect a new council member on Nov. 3. Hazouri's memo says he will replace Wilson on the committee in November.

Hazouri said his term as council president will be about transparency and setting priorities, with the JEA investigation being one of them.

He quoted the Sir Walter Scott line: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

"And we will untangle it," Hazouri said.

The special committee is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. Monday in a Zoom session.

    

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