Item 3A
January 16, 2007
MEMORANDUM
TO: The Honorable Mayor
and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Jim Hans
~. i~"~y~anager
SUBJECT: Follow-up eport
AGENDA ITEM # 3A
JANUARY 22, 2007
JEA Branch Office; After the recent closing of JEA's Branch Office on Sailfish Drive in
Atlantic Beach, the Commission was advised that staff had already offered to meet with
representatives from JEA to discuss the possibility of collecting bills for electric service at City
Hall in Atlantic Beach. JEA responded in a letter dated December 18, 2006 from Marlene
Murphy- Roach, VP Customer Relationships. She wrote that JEA would not be able to work
with jointly with Atlantic Beach on collection of bills because of other priorities. A copy of the
letter is attached for your information.
Discussion with Ms. Gilpin; Ms. Janice Gilpin of 80 Palm Av. appeared at the last commission
meeting with a number of concerns related to pedestrian traffic near her home. Since that time
David Thompson has met with her to discuss her concerns. It is anticipated that a more complete
report will be made to the city commission at the next meeting.
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J61.
December 18, 2006
Mr. Jim Hanson
~" City Manager
City of Atlantic Beach
830 Seminole Road
` ` ` ~ T R ' ~ Atlantic Beach, FL 32233-5455
W A T `E R Dear Mr. Hanson:
AGENDA ITEM # 3A
JANUARY 22, 2007
In regards to your letter to Jim Dickenson dated 12/12/06, Jim asked me
SEWER to reply on his behalf as I am responsible for JEA's branch operations. I
wanted to reiterate our telephone discussion on Friday, 12/15/06. When
JEA was informed by the Tax Collector that a new site had been
selected for their branch which was outside of JEA's service territory, it
prompted our decision to notify customers that effective November 30,
2006, we would no longer have a branch facility at the beach.
Over the past twelve months, JEA's transactions at that branch
fluctuated around 1,000 to 1,200 per month representing approximately
15% percent of the population served in Atlantic Beach. With this in
mind, we pulled a list of all the customers who had utilized the branch in
the previous 90 days and sent letters notifying them of the impending
closure and communicated the various options of continuing to do
business with us i.e. Internet, pay by phone, our St. Johns Bluff branch.
In addition, for several weeks we handed out flyers to all visitors to the
~* Atlantic Beach branch.
With regards to taking payments at the Atlantic Beach City Hall, as
indicated in the telephone conversation on Friday, JEA is in the midst of
a major technology implementation of a new multi-million dollar
Customer Information System (CIS) with approximately 30 interfaces.
~" Over the next 12 - 15 months we will be heavily engaged in successfully
deploying this system and stabilizing it after its go-live date which is
estimated to take place in the fall/winter of next year.
,~, AGENDA ITEM # 3A
JANUARY 22, 2007
Page 2
Mr. Jim Hanson
December 18, 2006
Due to the size of this implementation, both our technology and business
resources are stretched to capacity as we continue to maintain the
stability of the existing system. Therefore, at this time, we would not be
able to resource the project to research and execute the option of
bringing up a third third-party payment processor. Currently we are
supporting the tax collector partnership as well as our out-sourced
payment processing vendor for mailed payments.
Of course while we cannot engage in a short term solution, we are
always willing to talk about any mutually beneficial opportunities which
you may see on the horizon to better serve both of our customers. The
satisfaction of our customers is always a primary focus for JEA and we
remain committed to serving the residents of Atlantic Beach with
excellence. I can be reached at 665-4606 or at murpma(a~iea.com.
Sincerely, n
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~. Marlen Murphy-Roach
VP Customer Relationships
MMR/nn