JEA privatization focus group not funded by Lenny Curry’s political operation

JEA board to be reshuffled, again.

On Friday, WJCT broke the news that “Data Targeting, Inc., a Gainesville firm that worked to elect Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, conducted a focus group study in late February asking participants whether they support selling municipal utility JEA.”

The claim was that “a private group of investors” who are “nonpartisan” were paying for the focus group, which saw participants get $100 a person.

Data Targeting’s Tim Baker, who serves as Curry’s political adviser (among a variety of other clients in the region and throughout Florida), told Florida Politics on Friday afternoon that neither Curry nor his political operation funded the research.

“I couldn’t confirm as a course of doing business if we did a focus group or who it was for,” Baker said, “but I can tell you that I’ve never done a focus group for any Curry entity or Curry funded entity since the pension campaign, and we did not conduct a group for any such Curry aligned entities on JEA privatization.”

Baker adds that the “public opinion research firm” is “active all over the state and nation for public, private, and campaign clients,” with a long history of “public opinion studies on a wide variety of topics all over the country.”

The privatization debate has proved a tough sell in Jacksonville, with locals including former Mayor Jake Godbold and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan sounding notes of apprehension.

“I’m following the interim CEO’s position, and that is they should not be pursuing this right now,” Curry said Thursday. “They need to get back to serving the customers and the core businesses and developing a strategic plan so they can adjust to the market forces for the future.”

Some are skeptical as to Curry’s real dispensation on the matter, given that the concept of exploring privatization was broached by former JEA Board member Tom Petway, a key Curry backer, as he exited the board late last year.

However, what’s clear: the focus group’s funding came from an operation not directly aligned with Curry.

Data Targeting does not divulge its clients or work done for them, so the ultimate source of funding for the research remains a mystery.