The Florida Times-Union
October 22, 2019
Everything involving the sale of JEA is complicated.
But this much we do know: If the JEA board approves a potential sale offer, City Council will have to vote on it.
And if City Council votes yes, then the people of Jacksonville will have a chance to vote yes or no in a referendum.
The more information this community receives on the subject, the better.
So it makes sense for City Council to hire a special attorney to advise it on a sale. That issue is set to come before council Tuesday evening.
Council may decide whether to set aside $1.8 million to hire an outside attorney to advise it on a sale.
Much of the sale process has largely been conducted in private thanks to exemptions in state law.
There are indications, however, that the privacy of the process has been taken too far. That at least is the opinion of Barbara Petersen, the highly respected and longtime head of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee.
“It just doesn’t smell right,” she told the Times-Union.
