Aaron Zahn, center, in front of the federal courthouse in Jacksonville. Photo courtesy of WJXT News4Jax

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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.

Nate Monroe is the executive editor of The Florida Trib. He can be reached at nate.monroe@floridatrib.org.

Molly Farrar is a Report for America corps member and The Florida Trib’s Jacksonville municipal watchdog reporter. She can be reached at molly.farrar@floridatrib.org.

Nate Monroe is Executive Editor of The Florida Trib. He has been a journalist in the Southeast for the past 15 years. Most recently, he wrote a column about Florida for the USA Today Network. He was previously a metro columnist, beat reporter and investigative reporter for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, where he focused on covering the largest municipal government in Florida. Prior to arriving in Jacksonville in 2013, Nate was a reporter for newspapers in the Florida Panhandle and South Louisiana.

Nate's work has won local, state and national awards and led to federal convictions, voter-led reforms, and other significant impacts.

You can reach him at nate.monroe@floridatrib.org.

Molly Farrar covers accountability and policy in the consolidated city-county government of Jacksonville for The Florida Trib. Before joining us as a Report for America corps member, Farrar worked as a staff writer for Boston.com with the Boston Globe, WHDH Channel 7, and as a freelance reporter in the Greater Boston area covering local politics. Her news and transportation reporting won regional awards, and Farrar was selected as a First Amendment Institute Fellow with the New England First Amendment Coalition. Her investigative work on criminal justice and prisons was published in GBH News and The Intercept. Her stories have also appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Boston Globe. Farrar graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism and cello performance, where she also served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Free Press, the independent student newspaper. You can reach Molly at molly.farrar@floridatrib.org.