What started in mid-February with Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico sending text messages about a JEA board seat has grown into multiple investigations at the local and state levels, claims and counterclaims of impropriety by figures at City Hall and the city-owned utility, and an abundance of disputed versions of events.
For those who aren’t directly involved or who don’t follow the JEA investigations in-depth, the developments may be difficult to follow.
As the issue enters its fourth month, and with investigations underway by a City Council special committee, JEA, the State Attorney’s Office and Florida Attorney General’s office, here is a status report of the situation and a look at some of the key points of conflict.
Allegations against JEA CEO Vickie Cavey
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.
Soon after, Carrico made allegations in The Florida Times-Union that JEA CEO Vickie Cavey had fostered a racist, toxic workplace culture at JEA.
So far, allegations against Cavey have come from Council members and former JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson who say they have spoken to JEA employees about Cavey’s alleged misconduct. Those Council members include Carrico, Ju’Coby Pittman and Ron Salem.
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.”
Those allegations have prompted two employee surveys about workplace culture – one by the Council investigative committee and the other by JEA, which is conducting the survey through Jackson Lewis, a law firm JEA keeps on retainer.
During an April 27 meeting of the Council investigatory committee, Pittman read letters she said were written by JEA employees, alleging racism in the workplace.
“With recent changes, minority representatives and leadership has steadily diminished. Individuals in minority roles were replaced with direct appointments of predominantly white candidates, except for one,” Pittman read from one of five letters she said she received.
“Appointments are made without a competitive process. This shift has altered the landscape of leadership and undetermined the appearance of our support for inclusiveness.”
Of its nine employees in JEA’s executive positions, one is nonwhite. Testifying before the City Council Special Investigatory Committee on JEA, JEA Chief Human Resources Officer Diane Moser said that ratio was a “moment in time” and did not represent a full lack of racial diversity at JEA.
“These things ebb and flow, and again, we hire for merit,” Moser said.
Moser also pushed back against allegations of racism and toxic workplace culture at JEA, saying she has not heard complaints.
“People that have come to me and said they don’t see what you’re hearing,” Moser said to Pittman. “But no one’s come to me and said there was a toxic work environment.”
As far as JEA’s process for hiring and promotion, Moser said she felt the company had a diversity of ideas, not necessarily just ethnicity.
“It means people with different ideas. It could mean people with different skin color, but we hire on merit, and I like to have people with different ideas and different skills,” Moser said.
Cavey, who has not appeared before the Council investigatory committee, has denied allegations against her.
During a Feb. 24 board members, Cavey said that if the allegations were true, complaints would have emerged earlier in her more than 40 years with JEA and “would not suddenly appear overnight in a political news cycle.”
“My leadership style is rigorous, and it is fair, consistent and grounded in respect. I hold senior leaders to high standards, because JEA’s mission is critical,” Cavey said.
Carrico’s “favor”
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.
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. The texts have prompted subpoenas from State Attorney Melissa Nelson, including a subpoena demanding messages between Carrico, Wilson, Martinez, Cavey and board members regarding board appointments.
Smear campaign
More than one Jacksonville politician has pointed to former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry as the impetus for that “big favor” text.
In a February press conference, Mayor Donna Deegan heavily alluded to Curry and allies of his lobbying firm, 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.
“The fact that those who want to control JEA for money and power are willing to smear a faithful public servant like Vickie is reprehensible, if not surprising,” Deegan said. “The problem is we’ve got some local bad actors who would rather go on a retribution and revenge tour than to move our city forward.”
Deegan told reporters to “connect the dots” after she was asked about the involvement of Curry and Jordan Elsbury, Curry’s former chief of staff and current managing partner with Ballard’s Jacksonville office.
After a reporter asked Cavey if she was pressured to extend the contract, Deegan urged Cavey to “tell the truth and shame the devil.”
“I would not call it a pressure campaign,” Cavey said.
Wilson, speaking before the Council investigatory committee on JEA, said he did not feel the utility’s use of Ballard was an issue. Wilson also said Deegan urged Cavey to drop the Ballard contract.
“I understand that she may be upset, but we’re not utilizing Lenny. We are utilizing them in D.C.,” Wilson said.
Curry, a partner with Ballard, works out of Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., according to his company profile. He said on radio show First Coast Connect on Feb. 23 that he was in the nation’s capital “most of the time.”
Curry is also registered to lobby for JEA, though he said that he’s registered to lobby for all of Ballard’s clients and has never represented JEA.
Controversies surrounding the Ballard contract with JEA also extended to Wilson. Wilson, according to a report from Action News Jax, was the only scorer who awarded the now-controversial lobbying contract to Ballard.
Mike Weinstein, the city’s chief administrative officer, told the Daily Record in a March 23 interview that Wilson told him about 10 months prior 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 a bid from Ballard was $8,000 a month less than a proposal from The Southern Group – the only other bidder for the contract. That difference, Wilson said, made it impossible to find a way to award the contract to The Southern Group.
Nelson and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier have entered the fray regarding the Ballard contract with JEA.
According to Daily Record news partner News4Jax, Nelson issued a subpoena to JEA demanding JEA turn over emails, texts and other communication records since July between the agency’s board members about appointments to the board of directors; any board discussions about Cavey; any communication records to or from Wilson that involve Carrico or board member Rick Morales III, who had asked Cavey to step down from her post; any communications to or from Ballard Partners; and any records that contain a mix of key words, including “racist” and “toxic.”
News4Jax also reported that a subpoena from Uthmeier to JEA targets records from a range of high-level JEA executives, members of the agency’s board of directors and Deegan about Ballard Partners, a powerful Florida-based lobbying firm that had previously represented the city-owned utility.
Curry and his former chief of staff, Jordan Elsbury, now Curry’s colleague at Ballard Partners, both denied being involved.
Questions about Wilson’s departure
One subplot to the initial allegations made against Cavey involved the departure of Kurt Wilson from JEA’s executive team.
News reports and some Council leaders said Wilson was fired after criticizing Cavey in conversations with JEA board members. Testimony from a former JEA board chair and the utility’s head of human resources put that assertion suggested otherwise.
Wilson told Council members on March 23 that, while meeting with then-Chair Joseph DiSalvo on Feb. 18, he told DiSalvo he was concerned he would be fired if Cavey knew he and DiSalvo were speaking.
DiSalvo told a Council committee April 13 that Wilson told him during the Feb. 18 meeting he was planning to resign. A JEA spokesperson told the Daily Record that Wilson said he was planning to resign and had already cleared out his desk.
Through an attorney, Wilson denied telling DiSalvo he was planning to resign.
Wilson and DiSalvo both testified under oath.
Moser told the Council investigatory committee that Wilson “quit” his role at JEA, not that he was fired.
Wilson, also through his attorney, contradicted that testimony, which Moser also provided under oath.
“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 in a statement. “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.”
Council members at Odds
Since Carrico commissioned the Council investigatory committee, it has drawn criticism for being slanted politically against JEA.
Council member Matt Carlucci has been a leading critic of the panel.
“At this stage, with an expanded investigation underway by the State attorney’s office(,) an independent review of personnel matters already being conducted by JEA, and the Jacksonville Office of Inspector General appropriately utilizing the Council Auditor to examine financial issues such as uncollected revenues, there are already multiple proper channels addressing the relevant concerns,” Carlucci wrote in a text message.
“Given that, and based on what I observed today (an April 13 committee meeting that included testimony from DiSalvo), I believe the committee has run its course. Continuing in this manner risks creating confusion, duplicating efforts, and undermining the structure that is in place for independent oversight.”
The Jacksonville Civic Council, a group of political and business leaders, pushed back against the committee’s investigation, saying it hurt JEA’s independence and businesses in the city. (More on Page 3A.)
“Jacksonville has worked hard to build a reputation for serious, professional governance. The executives and board members our authorities need to attract have choices,” it wrote.
“They choose cities where governance is stable and predictable, not subject to ad hoc political intervention,” the group wrote in a May 4 letter to all 19 Council members.
“Financial markets notice too: our authorities’ access to and cost of capital is influenced by perceptions of governance quality. Credibility, once lost, is expensive and slow to rebuild.”
JEA committee members say they are conducting oversight the JEA board refuses to do.
“If you read the ordinance code, Council has every right to investigate,” Salem, the investigative committee chair, told the Daily Record. “I think there are issues here that we need to look into. I think the board was slow to respond, and I think the Council is moving aggressively to figure out what’s going on over there.”
What’s next?
There’s no timeline for how long the JEA investigations will continue in City Hall, the State Attorney’s Office or Tallahassee with Uthmeier’s office.
Salem told the Daily Record there would be more to come in the investigatory committee’s work, depending on the further appetite of committee members.
After hearing testimony from a former JEA attorney and current JEA Chief Administrative Officer Jody Brooks on May 4, Salem said he plans to bring Cavey forward to testify. Other JEA employees could be called forward, as well.
A spokesperson for Nelson’s office, asked about the timeline for the state attorney’s investigation, declined to confirm that the investigation existed.