Mayor Lenny Curry seeks resignations of five remaining JEA board of directors

[thelakelander]

Mayor Lenny Curry is seeking a clean sweep of the JEA board of directors, telling the remaining members in separate letters sent Monday evening that he is troubled by recent Times-Union reports about potential Sunshine Law violations and governance issues and is asking for their resignations "to be effective only if and when I accept them."

Curry invited the five board members to reapply if they are interested in being reappointed. Kerri Stewart, Curry's chief of staff, said Monday evening there is "absolutely" a chance the five members could be reappointed and that Curry has made "no immediate decisions about any of the five" and is asking them to continue to serve until final decisions are made.

"The mayor felt it necessary to communicate with the five remaining board members given the recent admonishment by the general counsel of the city of Jacksonville and further revelations by the Times-Union of purported dysfunction of the board," Stewart said.

"However, asking for immediate resignations of the remaining five board members would have left the JEA without a functioning board in the very near term," Stewart added.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/2015-10-12/story/mayor-lenny-curry-seeks-resignations-five-remaining-jea-board-directors

[brainstormer]

I have been critical on previous threads about Curry's selective picking of people to resign. To me, this is a much better solution. Clean house and start with a fresh new board. The JEA board has gotten to the point where they are merely choreographed sheep dancing to the music of a CEO. There is nothing about the JEA board that seems "independent" to me.

[Josh]

I have been critical on previous threads about Curry's selective picking of people to resign. To me, this is a much better solution. Clean house and start with a fresh new board. The JEA board has gotten to the point where they are merely choreographed sheep dancing to the music of a CEO. There is nothing about the JEA board that seems "independent" to me.

But appointing the next 5 names on Curry's list of campaign contributors is "independent."

[Ming The Merciless]

I have been critical on previous threads about Curry's selective picking of people to resign. To me, this is a much better solution. Clean house and start with a fresh new board. The JEA board has gotten to the point where they are merely choreographed sheep dancing to the music of a CEO. There is nothing about the JEA board that seems "independent" to me.

But appointing the next 5 names on Curry's list of campaign contributors is "independent."

You seem to misunderstand the concept of independence in the board context.  Ideally, board members are independent from management since they're the primary check on the top executive's conduct.

And there's a reason why they're called "political appointments."

[Tacachale]

I have been critical on previous threads about Curry's selective picking of people to resign. To me, this is a much better solution. Clean house and start with a fresh new board. The JEA board has gotten to the point where they are merely choreographed sheep dancing to the music of a CEO. There is nothing about the JEA board that seems "independent" to me.

But appointing the next 5 names on Curry's list of campaign contributors is "independent."

You seem to misunderstand the concept of independence in the board context.  Ideally, board members are independent from management since they're the primary check on the top executive's conduct.

And there's a reason why they're called "political appointments."

Spot on. Essentially all JEA board appointments are "political" in this way. That's not the issue. The issue is how they interact with the management once they're in.