This story was originally published by The Florida Trib.
JEA might owe ex-CEO Aaron Zahn damages and attorneys fees for what an arbitrator deemed a breach of his original employment agreement when the board of directors fired him nearly seven years ago amid public controversy. The arbitrator’s decision, issued Wednesday and which largely sided with Zahn, represents an extraordinary godsend for a former utility executive who was recently released from prison following convictions of wire fraud and conspiracy – all tied to his highly controversial and unsuccessful effort as JEA’s leader to privatize the agency.
The arbitrator, Leslie W. Langbein of Miami Lakes, issued a 36-page decision that does not once mention Zahn’s convictions, which followed a years-long federal grand jury investigation.
Langbein said that instead of firing Zahn without cause, as the board had initially agreed to in December 2019 during a frenzied effort to tamp down public criticism of the agency, city attorneys improperly “favored a course of action that yielded to … public clamor and political pressure demanding Zahn’s termination with cause.”
Without naming her, Langbein was critical of former board chair April Green, a one-time Zahn ally who turned into a fierce critic by the end of his tenure. She had pressed for Zahn’s termination with cause in an effort to deny him months of severance-like pay.
A JEA spokesperson noted that the decision was not final but otherwise said the agency had no comment.
Langbein’s decision does not specify how much JEA might ultimately owe Zahn, and JEA attorneys can appeal, though such efforts are rarely successful.
Zahn’s civil disputes with JEA pre-date his criminal troubles.
While federal prosecutors investigated Zahn and ultimately won a conviction against him, the arbitration has run in parallel largely out of public notice.
The dispute centers on his employment contract, which the board approved at a fateful meeting July 23, 2019 – the same day the board approved a rash of complex, and ultimately explosive, resolutions that included allowing Zahn to begin the process of privatizing the city-owned utility. At that same meeting, the board also greenlit an opaque pay-for-performance plan that would later turn into the heart of his criminal case: Federal prosecutors argued it was part of a secret scheme to make sure Zahn pocketed a cut of any JEA sale proceeds, which could have amounted to millions of dollars.
Mayor Donna Deegan’s office declined to comment on the arbitrator’s decision and referred to the JEA spokesperson. Council Member Ron Salem also referred to JEA, saying the decision should work its way through the legal process.
View the most up-do-date version of this story at The Florida Trib.
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