{"id":893757,"date":"2026-06-26T08:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893757\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:46:21","slug":"oig-jea-failed-to-collect-additional-commercial-capacity-fees-amid-historical-record-gaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/893757\/","title":{"rendered":"OIG: JEA failed to collect additional commercial capacity fees amid historical record gaps"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 The Office of Inspector General found in a report released on Thursday that historical policy and recordkeeping gaps led JEA<\/a> to miss collecting additional capacity fees from commercial customers, including the Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n

The review concluded JEA \u201chistorically failed\u201d to manage and collect additional capacity fees in line with governing directives. Contributing factors included incomplete historical records from JEA\u2019s 1997 takeover of city water and sewer systems, system and data integration failures, organizational silos, growth that occurred \u201cbehind the meter,\u201d and a lack of formal procedures, the report said.<\/p>\n

Read the full report below.<\/b><\/p>\n

Capacity fees are one-time charges assessed when a customer connects to JEA\u2019s water, wastewater or reclaimed systems to pay for infrastructure expansion and replacement.<\/p>\n

The OIG said JEA\u2019s records show some legacy accounts transferred from the city with missing documentation or baselines recorded as zero.<\/p>\n

The review focused on the Mayo Clinic account after internal and external inquiries showed the health system\u2019s water use had grown significantly since the 1990s. <\/p>\n

JEA staff estimated Mayo\u2019s current consumption was about 276% above the capacity originally paid for in 1995. JEA documents and proposals cited amounts ranging from roughly $834,331.50 to as much as $7.5 million depending on rate assumptions and time frames, the report said.<\/p>\n

The OIG said JEA did take steps to address the problem, including meetings with Mayo officials, internal assessments and the creation of a Capacity Fee Project Team to review large-meter accounts, resolve historical discrepancies and design future controls. <\/p>\n

The team paused recovery efforts as of May while seeking legal guidance on statutes of limitations, the report said.<\/p>\n

When the OIG asked JEA for a list of entities that owe additional capacity fees, JEA replied, \u201cSuch a list does not currently exist,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The OIG recommended that JEA leadership share the Capacity Fee Project Team\u2019s solutions and completion dates with the JEA Board of Directors during publicly noticed meetings to ensure transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n

JEA\u2019s managing director and CEO Vickie Cavey, in a written response attached to the OIG report, said the utility supports the recommended corrective action and will share the team\u2019s solutions and timelines with the board. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate the Office of Inspector General\u2019s thorough review of this complicated issue,\u201d Cavey said. \u201cWe are working diligently to create a process that addresses an issue that dates back several decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The response also noted one clarifying timing disagreement about when certain staff were first alerted to the Mayo matter.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Office of Inspector General found in a report released on Thursday that historical policy…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":893758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,14626,60610,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-893757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jea","tag-oig","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116815540460118763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}