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JEA CEO Vickie Cavey defended herself against allegations of racism and toxic leadership June 22 before a Jacksonville City Council committee.
Toward the end of what could be the final meeting of the Council Special Investigative Committee on JEA, members expressed frustration with Cavey’s testimony, while one Council member took issue with the committee’s process over the past several months.
Cavey said she did not recall events like the setting of a board agenda, an alleged conversation with a JEA staff member about a comment she made saying to “make JEA great again,” a conversation with a JEA staff member about them wanting Cavey’s CEO role and more.
Committee members indicated they were not satisfied with Cavey’s testimony and what they saw as the frequent use of the phrase “I don’t recall,” which she uttered in some variation more than 20 times in more than two hours of testimony.
“I’m just going to be honest today, Ms. Cavey, I’m very disappointed in some of your answers,” committee member Ju’Coby Pittman said. “JEA is our most valuable asset that the city has and for you not to know some of these questions, I just felt I just didn’t even want to ask anymore because of what I heard here today.”
“I’m the only person in the room under oath, and I want to be very careful. If I don’t know, or if I don’t recall, I’m going to say it,” Cavey said.
“I wish we’d have had less ‘I don’t recall,’” committee member Ron Salem said after the meeting. “She had several weeks to prepare and that was a little frustrating.”
Committee’s work stems from February allegations
Allegations against Cavey emerged in February after Council President Kevin Carrico told The Florida Times-Union that she had fostered a racist, toxic workplace culture at JEA.
In a February statement provided to the Daily Record, Carrico said he would push for a change of leadership at JEA.
“Since becoming Council President and as a leader of this community I have unfortunately taken numerous meetings and calls from JEA employees with allegations of racism, toxic corporate culture, and other leadership challenges associated with the CEO,” Carrico wrote.
“I am currently having conversations with community leadership interested in addressing these challenges and moving our utility forward.”
Since Carrico, along with former JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson, made allegations against Cavey, the Council committee has investigated JEA’s culture.
In mid-February, Carrico drew scrutiny for nominating Paul Martinez, his boss at Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, to replace Arthur Adams after Action News Jax revealed texts between Carrico and Adams showing Carrico made Martinez’s nomination as a “big favor” to a friend.
After Action News Jax reported on Carrico’s text messages, Martinez withdrew from consideration and Carrico nominated Randy Wyse, head of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters, to the JEA board. Wyse’s nomination, along with the renomination of board member Joseph DiSalvo, have been deferred indefinitely by Rules Committee Chair Chris Miller.
Carrico dismissed allegations of misconduct in his nomination of Martinez, saying in a statement that “political noise and unfair attacks sought to distract from (Martinez’s) lifetime of service.”
The intended recipient of Carrico’s “big favor” has not been identified, nor is it known what the favor was.
Cavey’s testimony
In her appearance before the special committee, Cavey disputed reports regarding the events leading up to the Feb. 24 JEA board meeting.
In the week before, Cavey described how she had been asked to resign by board member Rick Morales III, but publically denied Morales’ statement that she agreed to resign for the first time.
Morales told the JEA board at the Feb. 24 meeting that he had previously taken meetings with JEA employees when he expected to become board chair. From those meetings, he said, he reached the conclusion it was best for Cavey to resign. Morales told board members Cavey initially agreed to resign before walking back that pledge.
In her testimony, Cavey also pushed back against statements by Wilson that he had been fired after he spoke with Morales about Cavey’s leadership. Cavey, echoing JEA’s chief human resources officer Diane Moser, said Wilson left the utility of his own volition.
In a statement made by his attorney after Moser’s testimony, Wilson contradicted what Moser told the committee.
“Mr. Wilson did not resign from his position at JEA. Contrary to Diane Moser’s testimony before the Special Investigative Committee today, on February 19, Ms. Moser made clear to Mr. Wilson that he was being relieved of his duties that day,” Wilson’s attorney, Kirsten Doolittle, wrote. “While JEA has agreed to allow Mr. Wilson to run out his personal leave, his termination becomes effective in June 2026. This was not a voluntary separation.”
Cavey’s testimony came days after JEA released the results of an employee engagement survey, which showed fewer than half of JEA’s employees said they had confidence in Cavey and other utility leadership.
One comment drew the attention of committee member Rory Diamond, citing an employee who said they “don’t trust the Board or Vickie, or at this point anyone at City Hall. JEA isn’t a political tool.”
During Diamond’s questioning, Cavey denied she had been pressured by Mayor Donna Deegan or Chief Administrative Officer Mike Weinstein regarding a lobbying contract with the Ballard Partners firm, which employs former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and his former Chief of Staff Jordan Elsbury.
In a February news conference, Deegan alluded to Curry and allies of Ballard Partners as leading a “smear campaign” against Cavey. That campaign, Deegan said, came after JEA opted not to extend a contract with Ballard in January 2026.
Deegan told reporters to “connect the dots” after she was asked about Curry and Elsbury’s involvement. Curry and Elsbury both denied being involved.
The committee also drew criticism from Matt Carlucci, a Council member who has sat in on most of the committee’s meetings but is not on the committee. Carlucci, who attempted to interrupt questioning from Diamond by banging his fists on the table in front of him, called members hypocrites for focusing on the popularity of JEA’s leadership, while not attending to the Council’s own issues, including an investigation of a city health initiative that found no wrongdoing, city funds spent to lobby legislators in Tallahassee to allow Council member Joe Carlucci to become Council vice president and more. .
“If there’s a toxic environment anywhere, it’s the City Council’s hallways,” Carlucci later said. “That’s where it’s toxic. Maybe not with y’all, but a lot of people on the Council, it’s toxic.”
Carlucci later apologized for his behavior, but repeated comments made at previous committee meetings that he did not trust its work.
“I’m not sure I know of any CEO that doesn’t have work to do with their employees, because they’re the ones having to make tough decisions,” Carlucci said. “She has worked with three of the best CEOs that JEA has ever had, so it’s not like she hasn’t been trained by the best and worked for the best.”
JEA committee could come to conclusion
Cavey’s testimony was the last scheduled meeting for the JEA investigatory committee during the 2025-26 Council term, which ends June 30.
Council Vice President Nick Howland, who is scheduled to become president July 1, said he would announce if the committee would continue in a June 26 memo.
Salem and Carrico, who created the investigatory committee, said they did not expect to see the committee move forward after July 1. Salem declined to analyze in detail what the committee had learned over months of meetings and testimony.
The committee did learn the future of one survey and one investigation into Cavey’s actions. A survey commissioned by Council to survey employees working in JEA’s Downtown headquarters had been emailed to potential respondents, Council Secretary Jason Teal said. That survey will be open for respondents for two weeks and the results will be presented to the JEA board.
Additionally, an investigation into Cavey started by JEA and processed through a third-party law firm is expected to present its results in around five weeks.