And Then . . .
Along Came JEA's Investigatory Committee's Petty Innuendos
During recent episodes of JEA My Guy season two—our local comedy-drama featuring City Council characters, JEA characters, and a “he doth protest too much” former mayor Lenny Curry character—members of City Council’s Special Investigatory Committee on JEA Matters stole the show with petty innuendos.
Innuendos—disparaging allusive remarks, hints at impropriety—are these folks stock in trade.
The audience must remember that season two began when our current City Council president Kevin Carrico character’s my guy email—the one in which he promised a JEA board seat to his boss to whom he owed a favor—came to light. Our Carrico character then engaged in a bigger than life innuendo, suggesting with no concrete evidence that our JEA CEO character oversees a racist and toxic workplace culture, which in turn caused him to appoint our Special Committee—our Special Ones—to launch an investigation into these very same unsubstantiated allegations.
JEA’s Former Board Chair
Called to testify about these unsubstantiated allegations, our current JEA board member and former board chair character—retired U. S. Army Lt. General Joseph DiSalvo—was needled by our Special Ones. Our playbill explains that our General DiSalvo character is a retired U. S. Army Lt. General, having served as Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Southern Command. Audience members from military families know that General DiSalvo’s former command is a singular accomplishment commanding respect.
Our Special Ones, in a rare display of civility, recognized as much, thanking our General DiSalvo character for his service to our country. How could they not? We are a country at war.
Sadly, their grownup behavior was short lived as they reverted to asking childish, petty questions.
Stand Outs: Naming Names, Liaison Speech, Holding Hands
Special One characters Rory Diamond and Ron Salem, followed by our Carrico character, took center stage, dueling it out over who could ask the pettiest question. Not one disappointed.
The Diamond character badgered our General DiSalvo character for most of this almost two hour meeting, repeatedly asking our General if he had help drafting his opening statement. Affirming that he did, our General character mostly demurred when asked to name names. Our Carrico character returned to this petty line of inquiry in the scene’s closing moments—almost two hours later—again asking our General DiSalvo to name names.
This Diamond-Carrico curiosity sounds like 20 questions. Who helped you? Was it A, B, or C? D, E, or F.?
Petty.
Our Diamond character—maybe doing the Salem character’s bidding, maybe not—quizzed our General DiSalvo character on why he, as the then JEA board chair, did not recognize our Salem character when our Salem character served as City Council’s liaison to JEA’s board. During the board meeting, our Salem character wanted to speak, which our General DiSalvo character forbade.
Seemingly not satisfied with our Diamond character’s performance, our Salem character jumped in, complaining about having been silenced. Never mind that liaisons are not board members, and that their role is to observe—not participate—in independent authority board business.
Alas, these grapes continue to sour.
As if all that is not petty enough, our Diamond character cast some exceptionally sleazy innuendos at our General’s character. In asking about a press conference our Mayor Deegan character held in February, our Diamond character asked our General character “who invited you to the press conference,” and said—wait for it—“there’s this picture of you” and our JEA CEO character “and it looks like you’re holding hands.”
“Absurd,” exclaimed our General character.
What’s absurd is our Special Ones’ line of questioning and this entire spectacle: who helped you write your opening remarks, why did you not allow our City Council liaison to speak, who invited you to the Mayor’s press conference, and were you and the JEA CEO holding hands?
Pretty petty.
Enter The Elder Carlucci
Thankfully, our Elder Matt Carlucci character could not contain himself, sent a letter to our Carrico character and took the mic on Mikes on Mic, all to once again remind our audience that City Council must respect JEA’s independent role.
Our Elder character waxed eloquent about public trust and respect, old-fashioned and quaint communal values he learned from his father’s character. He also reminded our audience that our City Charter “sets guardrails between the Council and the JEA, as its own independent authority.” His character is our local good government conscience, deeply concerned that “Council is trying to be in charge of some of JEA’s operations” in which Council members “have no business.”
Public Distrust of City Council
During our Elder’s appearance on Mikes on Mic, one host explained that external investors pay close attention to our City Council characters’ performances, and that the public’s “distrust of City Council” is palpable. He asked our Elder how the Council might regain the public’s confidence.
In admitting that the public thinks some Council members are “petty,” our Elder held that Council members, once elected, must “care about all our people” and debate policies that matter—such as garbage collection fees—and remember that our consolidated government framers designed our local system to “keep the politics out of our [independent] authorities.”
One host admitted to watching the April 13 Special Ones interrogate our General DiSalvo character, finding some Special Ones’ performance “disgraceful,” and their “arrogance” simply “overwhelming.”
Our Disgruntled Audience
Our audience seems to agree. While most folks may have missed these latest scenes, some grumbled loudly, best articulated in an April 19 Florida Times-Union letter penned by Pearce Renfroe: When our Carrico character and former JEA executives “like Kurt Wilson (former JEA chief of staff) play games” with JEA . . . we have a respect problem.” “They do not respect JEA and what it represents, nor do they respect the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on it for daily necessities.”
Getting louder by the episode, our murmuring audience could be heard asking what is happening here. Are City Council characters winging it, wildly off script, or have those writing their dialogue lost their minds and all sense of decency? What do these characters imagine about our JEA’s future? What motivates these characters’ behaviors?
Maybe our Special Ones should listen to their brethren—those trying desperately to throw our Special Ones a lifeline, begging them to sunset their Special Investigatory Committee on JEA Matters and leave this inquiry to the professionals: our State Attorney, the JEA board, and the Office of Inspector General.
And then . . .
Along comes our State Attorney character, injecting seriousness and responsible behavior with an expanded subpoena that casts a wide net into JEA correspondence, notably about JEA’s CEO, City Council president Carrico, and “a high-powered lobbying firm that employs former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.”
Be careful what you wish for.
Our Special Ones take the stage again on April 27th.
What motivates these characters can be found in today’s Times Union. They are looking to oppose Donna in her reelection bid. It is the same duo over and over again trying to undermine her.
I sat in the chambers for that s..t show.
Jimmy Peluso at the end spoke about the credibility and career of the General and his management skills. I went up to the General and thanked him for keeping his composure as he had to deal the BS.
If I could wave a magic wand and see into a possible future - say June of 2028 (by which time Special One’s dream team for mayor and council elections would have occurred and changes made at JEA) I wonder what their end game would have turned out to have been. We’d know their motives, their strategy, who had what incentives and who received what rewards, whether JEA was in line to be sold, and who worked with who to achieve the end game.