One nomination and one renomination to the JEA board will not receive consideration by the Jacksonville City Council for at least two weeks.
Council member Chris Miller, who chairs the Council Rules Committee, announced April 6 his decision to defer the nomination of Randy Wyse and renomination of former JEA board Chair Joseph DiSalvo for at least one two-week period before the committee meets again. Miller left the door open to whether that deferral could be extended.
The Rules Committee makes recommendations on confirmations of appointments by the mayor’s office and Council to city boards and those of independent authorities.
“To say there’s a lot going on with JEA right now is a gross understatement,” Miller said. “I thought it was smart, prudent for us to tap the brakes. Let’s slow down a little bit and not effect the changes of leadership until we know a little bit more about what’s going on, until we know more from those surveys, we know more from an investigation that’s going on.”
Miller’s decision comes after the State Attorney’s Office instigated a review of Council President Kevin Carrico for nominating Paul Martinez, his supervisor at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, to the JEA board.
In addition, a special Council committee established by Carrico plans to survey current and former JEA employees about their experiences with Cavey.
Action News Jax reported that Carrico sent a text message to Arthur Adams, whom Martinez would have replaced on the board, that he nominated Martinez as a “big favor” to a friend.
Martinez later withdrew his nomination, and Carrico nominated Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters and the first district vice president of Florida Professional Firefighters.
Carrico has received a subpoena from the state attorney’s office seeking communications related to JEA, Wilson, Cavey, Martinez or any other JEA board member.
“We’re complying in full with all (the attorney’s) requests and making sure that we cooperate fully to make sure that it comes to the light that there was no wrongdoing on my behalf, and I’m confident that that’ll happen,” Carrico said March 11.
Other Council members in attendance at the Rules Committee meeting agreed with Miller’s decision. Council member Michael Boylan said the nominations should be deferred indefinitely.
“I appreciate your wisdom in deferring this, and I encourage you to continue to defer it until such time when we have a resolution to the matters at hand,” Boylan said.
“I know Mr. Wyse is here, and I have full confidence in him,” member Joe Carlucci said. “It may take more than one cycle, we just don’t know, until things continue to unfold, but I’m going to be using that time to get my answers to the questions I have.”
The deferral also comes as Council conducts an investigation into allegations that JEO CEO Vickie Cavey created a toxic workplace environment. Carrico and JEA board member Rick Morales III said they heard reports of inappropriate behavior by Cavey toward high-ranking staff, and former JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson said he experienced it firsthand.
Cavey has denied the allegations, telling the board that if her critics were being truthful, complaints would have emerged earlier in her more than 40 years with JEA and “would not suddenly appear overnight in a political news cycle.”
Following the allegations, and in light of accusations that JEA failed to properly collect capacity fees, Carrico created a Council investigatory committee to look into the matters. That committee has held two hearings and plans to survey current and former JEA employees about their experiences with Cavey.
Cavey, a longtime JEA engineer and administrator, came out of retirement in March 2024 when the board asked her to serve as a liaison between them and former CEO Jay Stowe’s administration to review the utility’s organizational structure and help choose an independent consultant that the board would pay to examine JEA’s capital improvement plan.
During her decades-long career with JEA, Cavey held such positions as special assistant to the CEO for external affairs, director of strategy development and execution, and director of strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
Mayor Donna Deegan defended Cavey during a Feb. 20 news conference. Deegan called Cavey the victim of a “smear campaign” launched after JEA declined to extend a lobbying contract with Ballard Partners, which employs former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and his former chief of staff, Jordan Elsbury.
Deegan told reporters to “connect the dots” after she was asked whether she believed Curry and Elsbury were involved.
Curry denied involvement, and Elsbury described Deegan’s accusations as “‘Wizard of Oz’ stuff.”
As for the capacity fees, which are charged to connect to JEA services, Daily Record news partner News4Jax reported that JEA attorneys argued in October 2025 that Mayo Clinic in Florida owes more than $12 million in additional capacity fees because its water and sewer usage increased dramatically over time. Mayo Clinic attorneys argued that Mayo Clinic is not required to pay those charges, citing a 1986 agreement with the city of Jacksonville, News4Jax reported.
Wilson, testifying under oath before the investigatory committee, said he heard that as many as 20 customers had not paid what they fully owed in capacity fees.
JEA charges the fees on a one-time basis to customers connecting to the utility’s water, wastewater and reclamation system. JEA, a not-for-profit organization, says the fees cover the costs of infrastructure expansion, replacement and refurbishment.
Wilson said JEA had not tried to conceal the capacity fee issue from the board or from the public and said JEA had not reached the point in deciding how it would try to collect those fees.