JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In a trial that could go on for several more weeks, special hearings are set for Friday morning in the federal case against former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and former CFO Ryan Wannemacher.
The pair are accused of orchestrating what some are calling the largest attempt to defraud the city in Jacksonville’s history.
The alleged scheme revolved around the potential sale of JEA and a proposed bonus plan that could have paid out millions of dollars to executives and others in a sale that would have happened under Mayor Lenny Curry’s watch.
Friday will begin without the two juries as two witnesses who were not on the original list filed by prosecutors share their testimony.
The hearing is on whether the testimony from the two witnesses involves comments that Zahn and Wannemacher made while under oath during workplace investigations. This is important because those comments are considered to be protected and can’t be used against them in court.
The federal government has to build its case against Zahn and Wannemacher without relying on the protected statements.
The two witnesses are the former JEA chief administrative officer and the former JEA vice president of human resources.
Former board member Camille Lee-Johnson was also on a government witness list, but her attorney told the judge she would be pleading the 5th.
Lee-Johnson was the chair of the board’s compensation committee when it adopted the employee incentive program at the center of this trial. She is expected to be in the courtroom Friday after the judge denied her request to not appear.
The defense could start calling witnesses next week.
On Thursday, Sam Mousa, Curry’s Chief Administrative Officer until he left city government in 2019, told the court about his role as a consultant for the mayor and for Florida Power & Light (FPL).
Mousa said he was hired as a consultant in 2019 to help draft a wish list of sorts of city projects, roads, parks and infrastructure that could have been funded from the billions of dollars the city would have received had JEA been sold.
MORE: City lawyer testifies she saw issues with controversial bonus plan for JEA execs, even though she was set to benefit | JEA pushed for accelerated plan to sell utility to alter the narrative after public backlash, investment banker says | Former JEA exec testifies she didn’t speak up about controversial bonus plan because she thought board members knew | Ex-JEA board chair had no idea plan she voted for could net $345M in bonus payouts if utility was sold: testimony | As city council auditors pushed for answers on controversial bonus plan, they say they got no response from JEA execs
On the stand, Mousa was asked about the yearly contribution JEA currently makes to the city and said it makes up a substantial portion, about 10% of the city’s budget.
Mousa also told the court that he was hired in August of 2019 as a consultant for FPL to raise awareness of the utility since its parent company Nextera was bidding to buy JEA.
Mousa said he only heard of the controversial bonus plan known as the PUP from reports on TV and in the newspaper.
He also said he had never seen anything like the bonus plan before in city government with assets or part of the profits of a sale going to top executives.
Earlier in the day, union leaders also testified.
They told the court that JEA executives had several meetings with them where they were warned hundreds of employees could be laid off if changes were not made. They said there was lots of confusion and chaos among employees.
When it came to the bonus plan as an incentive to help employees, they testified they were never given much information about it and they were never told of the potential payout it could bring top executives.
Current JEA CEO Jay Stowe also talked about what he faced when came on board in Nov 2020: rebuilding trust, hiring a new senior leadership team and the fact that JEA was on good financial footing when he joined.
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