JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The JEA Board will be conducting their final interviews Tuesday morning of the three finalists for the next CEO.

The interview will take place at the Jacksonville Public Library downtown, and is open to the public, but only 70 people will be allowed to attend.

Each interview will take an hour to an hour and a half. There are eleven questions set for each candidate, with room for follow-up questions. There is a scheduled break to happen at 12:30 p.m. where the board will have lunch, and then come back to discuss their thoughts on the candidates.

John Hairston, CEO and administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Oregon

Hairston was first to go in front of the candidates. Hairston has spent his entire career at Bonneville Power Administration. He spoke in front of the board with his wife sitting in the front seat, a fact that was pointed out by a board member, recognizing that the next JEA CEO will be moving to Jacksonville and becoming part of the community.

When asked about his leadership style, he said he is about listening and learning, and not believing he is the smartest person in the room.

“Just as a leader, I’m someone who listens, who goes into a situation and understands that there’s a lot to learn. You know, I don’t ever believe I’m the smartest one in the room. I do believe that we have strong teams and that I have to leverage those teams," Hairston said. "So I think as a CEO, one of my most important responsibilities is making sure that we have the right team of folks, that they developed the right culture and create the right atmosphere for folks to be successful.”

When it comes to renewable resources, Hairston believes that they are important and pointed out that many states are now having renewable portfolio requirements.

“I think that’s the right path to be on, because if you look at all of the science and you look at all the things that are happening around climate change, if we were able to move in that direction zero carbon is the way to go. But there are costs to that and you have to balance those costs," Hairston said.

He says that he doesn’t want to rush in with renewable energy, but rather have a long-term goal of switching over to renewable energy by 2055. This is due to the unreliability of solar power and wind power.

“You have to deal with the resource adequacy piece of that, because when you have peaking periods, whether it’s heat waves or cold snaps, you have to be able to manage that load in that variability. And if you don’t have it really planned out, well, you then run into rolling blackouts, things of that nature. But if you plan it well, you can actually leverage those baseload resources to to manage solar.”

Hairston did bring up JEA’s recent troubled history and the trouble of restoring trust. He says transparency is key in doing this.

“I would say is [transparency] would be certainly something that I would adhere to and I would really work towards making sure that there’s a level of comfort in terms of the transparency we provide to the public. So we re-earn that trust. That would be critically important to me.”

Morgan O’Brien, the former CEO and president of Peoples Gas in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

O’Brien has recently left his company in March after his company, Peoples Gas, after it was acquired by Aqua America Inc. He served as CEO for ten years. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh and spent his career in the city.

When asked about renewable energy, O’Brien says that it’s important but they have to find ways to bring in fossil resources too.

“We recognize that, even though I was in the business of of selling natural gas, that, you know, where the futures going and I think taking steps from where we are to where we want to go,” O’Brien said. “Adopting new technologies, not just just solar and wind, but also, you know, there’s technologies out there that I don’t think any of us could imagine.”

One of the proudest projects O’Brien brought up was a microgrid. A microgrid is an independent electricity source that can operate autonomously. O’Brien played a role in having the Pittsburgh International Airport to be completely run by a microgrid, the first major airport to do so. The microgrid, while not fully operational yet, will be fueled in part by the airport’s own natural gas wells drilled on-site and nearly 8,000 solar panels across eight acres.

When asked about the potential sale of JEA back in 2019, especially in light of Peoples Gas being sold, O’Brien said that there shouldn’t have been a separation of the utility company and the community.

“My goal would be to win those folks over just by being so ingrained in this community that you’d sit there and say there’s no way you’d ever want to separate this organization from this community. And that’s what a sale would do, regardless of what anybody says it would. It would separate this community from this this group of business here," O’Brien said.

The theme of being part of the community was consistent throughout O’Brien’s interview. He said that by keeping in touch with the Mayor, City Councilmembers, and other political leaders in the community and the state, will help the company succeed.

“So I think the most amazing asset that you have here is the relationship with the customers and the ability to partner with others to introduce technology to them, particularly in instances where it makes a lot of sense and and make sure your partners are good partners," O’Brien said. "That sharing your values and that have the same...I’ll call it a belief in what you’re doing here, that if something goes wrong, they’re going to be standing there just as you are. I’m a big believer in that as a utility. You’re the you’re the safety net that everyone will depend on for forever.”

Jay Stowe, CEO and founder of the Stowe Utility Group in Chattanooga, Tennessee and a former executive for the Tennessee Valley Authority

Unlike the previous two candidates, Stowe has history of being at different companies and moving to different cities.

He started off his career in North Carolina. In 2005, he became a Vice President of Operations at Huntsville Utilities in Huntsville, Alabama. He became President and CEO in 2014. He left that role to be a Senior Vice President at Tennessee Valley Authority in 2016. Last year, he founded and is the CEO of Stowe Utility Group, LLC in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Stowe starts of his interview by saying he has spent a few days in Jacksonville to see the city. Throughout the interview, Stowe references specific issues Jacksonville deals with when it comes to septic tanks, local neighborhoods, and Jacksonville’s Housing Authority.

John Baker even said at the end of the interview that he was appreciative of the homework Stowe did in researching the city.

When asked to describe his leadership style, Stowe said he was about teamwork.

“But one of my leadership skills, I think, is that I’ve been able to build teams that understood why we were doing what needed to happen and that team, everywhere that I’ve been, has kind of bought into the philosophies that we’ve been talking about today,” Stowe said.

He did note, that with building teams, comes time. The last two years, Stowe said, took its toll.

“There is no way that the the events of the last two years have just been shaken off and everything is fine all the way through the organization," Stowe said. "There’s got to be still continued a little bit of consternation and trust issues that we’ve got to get through and get over that to begin with and then begin building a team to be able to help support that and finding those areas where we talk and explain why.”

When it comes to renewable energy, Stowe believes that it has to be a piece of the puzzle, but they have to be aware of reliability, resiliency and cost rates.

“It’s part of the overall power supply portfolio. It can’t solve every single problem, but it has to be on the list of of possible solutions as we move forward,” Stowe said.

The Board Discussion

While the board discussion primarily revolved around positive feedback of the candidates. All of the board members had positive things to say about each candidate.

Bobby Stein, the Vice Chair, said he wants to look at the references for each candidate before he makes a decision. The hiring consultant will work to give verbal reports to the board on those references within 48 hours.

WOKV has requested a copy of those references as well.

Board members have 48 hours to send in their reviews of each candidate, and the candidate that is ranked the highest among the board members will be offered the position with a contract negotiation. If that falls through, the second-ranked candidate will be offered the job.

Contract negotiations will be done on October 30 and the new CEO will be named then. The current interim CEO, Paul McElroy, will have to leave his position in November as he cannot work for JEA for more than six months since he was the former CEO and was brought back after Aaron Zahn and Melissa Dyke were fired.

Cox Media Group