The trial is ongoing. This story will be updated.

JEA’s internal compensation specialist told jurors on Monday that she was “surprised” to see the utility’s board of directors approve an incentive plan in the summer of 2019 that she believed presented potential conflicts of interest and appeared to allow some employees to benefit from insider information.

Pat Maillis, the director of employee services at JEA, worked for a time on an early, draft version of that incentive plan but ultimately had no role in what became known as the “performance unit plan” that JEA executives ultimately presented to the board during its July 2019 meeting. That plan is at the heart of the federal indictment against former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and CFO Ryan Wannemacher, whose trial on conspiracy and fraud charges began last week.

Prosecutors have argued the two are guilty of withholding critical information from the board about the workings of that plan, which could have generated payouts of tens of millions of dollars if JEA had been sold to a private company – a project that was moving in tandem with the incentive plan.

Maillis said Monday morning that although she would have expected to be involved in the creation of a long-term incentive plan, given her role at the agency, she was ultimately taken by surprise when she saw the board approve one in July 2019.

Prosecutors moved through several witnesses throughout the morning before calling Maillis, whose testimony spoke to issues central to the trial: Did Zahn and Wannemacher cut out internal experts, outside consultants and attorneys when they allegedly put together the performance unit plan? Prosecutors have said the two men did so in secret, while using legitimate work product of others to cover their tracks. Zahn and Wannemacher’s defense teams have said they acted in concert with those advisors and attorneys.

Maillis, at least, told jurors she had only a limited role in the creation of that plan. One of Zahn’s defense attorneys, during cross-examination, pressed Maillis to recall more specific details about her involvement in talks around creating a long-term incentive plan.

Nate Monroe is a metro columnist whose work regularly appears every Thursday and Sunday. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JEA trial:: Specialist saw conflicts, insider information in bonus plan