The former second-in-command at JEA testified under oath before a Jacksonville City Council investigatory committee March 23, describing what he said was toxic behavior by CEO and Managing Director Vickie Cavey and detailing how the city-owned utility failed to collect millions of dollars worth of connection fees.
Kurt Wilson, JEA’s chief of staff from May 2024 until February 2026, told Council members he felt his professional relationship with Cavey deteriorated until his position was eliminated. Wilson also said JEA employees were “scared for their job” because of Cavey’s conduct after she took over as interim CEO in April 2024, her first CEO position.
Wilson’s testimony before the Council Special Investigatory Committee on JEA were his second on-the-record comments regarding Cavey’s behavior since his leadership role was eliminated. He also spoke at a Feb. 24 board meeting about Cavey’s behavior in the days after he was fired.
Cavey had a “blind spot” in her leadership of JEA, Wilson said. She at times intimidated senior leaders, he said, and sought retribution against those she felt pushed back against her.
“Very early on (in her tenure as CEO), we had issues, and my counsel to her was, ‘Hey, you’re the CEO. Now your word has weight,’” Wilson said. “She took that counsel fine. She would run down the person she felt she offended.”
Wilson said by the end of 2024, JEA employees stopped speaking to him about Cavey’s behavior because they were scared of being fired.
During 2025, Wilson said, he and Cavey had multiple conversations regarding her leadership style, and their working relationship deteriorated. In December 2025, Wilson said, he informed Cavey of his plans to leave JEA because of her actions, and they worked out an exit strategy designed to play out over about six months.
A few days after that meeting, Wilson said, he met with JEA board Vice Chair Rick Morales III at Morales’ request. At that meeting, Wilson answered questions about Cavey’s leadership style.
Morales said at the Feb. 24 board meeting that he had spoken with JEA employees in the previous months and heard about Cavey’s leadership issues. He said he asked Cavey on Feb. 16 to step down as CEO. Morales said Cavey initially agreed but later reneged on that agreement.
Wilson was fired Feb. 19.
JEA’s board has the power to hire and fire the utility’s CEO, while the CEO manages the utlity under the board’s supervision.
Wilson’s firing came after he agreed to remain with JEA at Cavey’s request, Wilson told Council members. He said their relationship improved in January. However, it deteriorated again after Morales asked Cavey to resign, Wilson said.
After Cavey’s conversation with Morales, Wilson said, her actions at a meeting of JEA leadership prompted him to contact JEA board Chair Joseph DiSalvo to inform him that the upcoming Feb. 24 board meeting would have “an issue coming.”
After that conversation with DiSalvo, Wilson said, he was fired.
Wilson also told Council members that JEA employees did not feel comfortable reporting concerns with Cavey to the utility’s human resources department. Employees also took issue with Diane Moser, JEA’s chief human resources officer, Wilson said.
Wilson declined to describe specific issues that other JEA employees had with Cavey, saying that Cavey would go on a “witch hunt” to identify those who complained.
Cavey, who did not attend the committee meeting March 23, has denied accusations of inappropriate workplace behavior.
JEA did not respond to a request for comment about Wilson’s testimony.
Ballard Partners contract
Wilson came under criticism in the days leading up to his testimony after records published by Action News Jax showed that Wilson was the sole evaluator on a lobbying contract for Ballard Partners. JEA told Action News Jax in a statement that Wilson and a former JEA board member pressured other leadership to execute the Ballard contract, which was not renewed the following year.
Mayor Donna Deegan alleged that criticism against Cavey was part of a “smear campaign” by former Mayor Lenny Curry and his former city chief of staff, Jordan Elsbury. Both Curry and Elsbury are Ballard employees.
Curry and Elsbury have denied the accusations. Curry, while twice calling into radio show First Coast Connect, said Deegan lied.
Mike Weinstein, the city’s chief administrative officer, told the Daily Record in a March 23 interview that Wilson told him about 10 months ago that there were multiple scorers who awarded the Ballard contract, not just Wilson.
“(Wilson) said that he would look into and see if they had any options,” Weinstein said. “A couple of days later, he came back and said he had checked again with the scorers, plural, and that there really wasn’t an option at this point.”
Wilson told Council members that there was a difference of around $8,000 a month for the proposals submitted by Ballard and The Southern Group, the only other lobbying firm to submit a proposal. That difference, Wilson said, made it impossible to find a way to award the contract to The Southern Group.
Deegan pressured Cavey to stop using Ballard Partners, Wilson told Council members. As a result, JEA paid Ballard for three months while not using its services, despite the utility having the ability to cancel the contract at any time.
Wilson’s testimony changed how Weinstein viewed Wilson after working with him for several decades, Weinstein said.
Wilson previously worked as a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department firefighter and administrator for 25 years. He was promoted to fire chief by Curry in 2015.
“It taints everything he says and taints everything he said to me for the 20-30 years I’ve known him,” Weinstein said. “It just bothers me to see somebody take over $300,000 a year salary and then try to do a coup.”
Wilson did not answer a request for comment in response to Weinstein’s remarks.
Concerns about the committee
Three Council members not on the committee investigating JEA criticized Council for going outside of its authority by proceeding with the investigation.
“I think what we’re doing here is an overreach, and I appreciate the intent,” Council member Michael Boylan said. “Not to mention, I also believe it’s unnecessary use of tax dollars.”
Council members Matt Carlucci and Jimmy Peluso agreed with Boylan.
Council member Rory Diamond said Council took a similar approach to reviewing the attempted sale of JEA in 2021. Carlucci said that review resulted in a Council committee report that eventually led to criminal charges against former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn and former CFO Ryan Wannemacher. No criminal accusations have been filed in relation to the current situation at JEA.
“JEA is a multibillion-dollar electric and water utility, and a bunch of politicians shouldn’t be trying to run it…,” Weinstein said. “It’s concerning. It’s an independent authority, and it’s that way for a purpose. That’s to keep local politicians out of it.”
“I think the end goal is to have a change in the board and the management of JEA, so a few people can be much more influential than they are now.”
Unpaid fees
Wilson also took questions about JEA’s failure to charge capacity fees to certain customers. Wilson said he heard as many as 20 customers had not paid what they fully owed in the 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 to decide how it would try to collect those fees.
Cavey’s tenure
Cavey became CEO of JEA in September 2024, promoted from an interim role after replacing former CEO and Managing Director Jay Stowe.
Cavey joined JEA in 1984 as a mechanical engineer and rose to several administrative positions. She came out of retirement in March 2024 when the board asked her to serve as a liaison between them and Stowe’s administration to review the utility’s organizational structure.
Her contract was extended in February 2025, with the JEA board unanimously giving her a 25% pay raise to $700,000 a year.
JEA board member John Baker said at the time that although the salary increase “jumps off the page,” he believed it was justified given Cavey’s performance and leadership ability.
“We have got a really great leader. And it’s incumbent on any business that has a great leader to compensate them fairly,” Baker said.
Wilson was hired at JEA in 2020 in a government affairs position. Before JEA, he served in the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department for 25 years, retiring as chief.