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JEA's Billions Missing: Utilities Under Fire
11 Mar
Summary
- JEA may have billed millions less than owed for decades.
- Over a dozen entities flagged for unpaid utility fees.
- JEA admits to a lack of formal tracking for capacity fees.
Jacksonville's public utility, JEA, is facing a significant controversy over potentially billions of dollars in unpaid or improperly tracked utility fees. Internal documents obtained recently reveal that over a dozen entities, including major institutions, have been flagged for not paying additional water capacity fees. These fees are typically assessed when a customer's water usage increases by 20% or more.
The utility has acknowledged it lacks a formal program to track, identify, and bill these capacity fees, a systemic issue that appears to have gone unaddressed for decades. This lack of oversight has led to significant discrepancies, with some entities showing usage figures with tens of thousands of percent differences due to placeholder data.
A prominent dispute involves Mayo Clinic, which JEA claims owes nearly $19 million in unpaid capacity fees. This disagreement stems from differing interpretations of a 1986 agreement regarding water usage thresholds. City leaders have expressed alarm, initiating reviews by the Inspector General and city auditor to account for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in unaccounted funds.
