If you’ve been watching what’s unfolding between the Jacksonville City Council and JEA, you probably feel like me who wants the insanity to stop and get busy lowering our electric bills!

Here’s what’s going on:

City council members are now grandstanding, holding meetings and spilling “breaking news” to local news outlets about the inner HR issues at JEA.  They are digging deep into personnel matters—questioning HR processes, examining internal complaints, and stepping into areas that, under any standard governance structure, belong to the JEA Board and executive leadership.

JEA was intentionally structured so that the Board governs, management manages, and Council provides oversight—not intervention. Those guardrails exist for a reason. They prevent politics from creeping into operations, and they ensure accountability happens in the right place, at the right level.

Yet here we are—watching politicians insert their noses where they don’t belong.

Here’s what matters to the people who pay JEA bills:  The costs of keeping their homes running is too high and unaffordable for many. Energy bills aren’t going down. Water and sewer costs aren’t easing up. Families and businesses alike are feeling it every single month.

And that’s why we are annoyed with the City Council.

Maybe there are legitimate concerns inside JEA. If so, they should be handled the way they were designed to be handled—by the Board, through proper channels, with professionalism and speed. That process exists for a reason, and bypassing it doesn’t build trust. It erodes it.  And the City Council is eroding trust in the way they govern this city.

Which brings us to the question that’s quietly building in the background:

Why is this happening—and why now?

When elected officials move outside their lane, when established governance structures are ignored, and when the focus drifts from dollars to drama, people start to wonder. Is this truly about accountability, or is something else driving the narrative?

Because right now, it doesn’t look like the system is working as designed.
It looks like the system is being worked.

Time to Stop the Grandstanding

If there are issues inside JEA, handle them—but handle them the right way.

The Board should handle them.
Leadership should resolve them.
And it should be done quickly and professionally.

Then move on.

Because Jacksonville doesn’t need more hearings or political theater. It doesn’t need “leaders” chasing headlines while costs continue to climb.

Start fighting for the ratepayer, not the spotlight.

Because at the end of the day, this isn’t complicated.

Jacksonville doesn’t need more hearings. It needs lower electric and water/sewer bills.