{"id":161954,"date":"2026-02-20T00:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161954\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:46:08","slug":"councilman-under-scrutiny-after-controversial-texts-involving-board-member-slams-jea-alleges-racism-toxic-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/161954\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilman under scrutiny after controversial texts involving board member slams JEA, alleges \u2018racism\u2019, \u2018toxic\u2019 culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council president, who is under scrutiny following controversial text messages to a JEA board member<\/a>, blasted the city-owned utility on Thursday, saying he\u2019s heard multiple allegations of racism and a toxic culture within the organization.<\/p>\n

MORE | Council president tells JEA board member he\u2019s replacing him because he owed a \u2018big favor\u2019 to his boss, texts show<\/a> | JEA board nominee withdraws amid criticism over councilman\u2019s text messages citing \u2018big favor\u2019<\/a> | Support grows for JEA board member amid questions of \u2018favor\u2019 Carrico says he owed his boss<\/a><\/p>\n

City Council President Kevin Carrico has faced backlash in recent days after text messages seemed to reveal that at least part of his motivation to nominate his boss, Paul Martinez, for a position on JEA\u2019s board happened because he owed him a \u201cbig favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the backlash and calls for Martinez to withdraw, Martinez bowed out on Wednesday evening. Martinez is the\u00a0current president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida<\/a>, where Carrico works as the vice president of strategic initiatives.<\/p>\n

Carrico\u00a0introduced a resolution on Feb. 10<\/a>\u00a0to nominate Martinez as a member of the JEA board to replace current board member Arthur Adams Jr., who was\u00a0appointed to the board in January 2025<\/a>\u00a0and whose term is close to expiring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat up bro…hey I owed a big favor to a friend and opted to put him on the JEA Board as your term is expiring,\u201d Carrico wrote to Adams on Feb. 5 in text messages provided by JEA. \u201cNot sure if you wanted to stay but I needed to do this for my guy. Tab is on me when we link up next.\ud83d\udc4a\u201d<\/p>\n

In the text thread, Adams responded that his \u201cplan was to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the texts became public, critics spoke out. <\/p>\n

In a statement to News4JAX, Jacksonville NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin called the move a \u201cbreach of public trust\u201d and later added it was an example of the \u201cGood Ole\u2019 Boy network\u201d being caught red-handed. Councilman Jimm Peluso called the text an example of \u201ccorruption at its finest.\u201d<\/p>\n

News4JAX contacted Carrico on Thursday to ask more questions about the \u201cbig favor\u201d he was referencing in the text message. The councilman didn\u2019t address that question directly, but instead sent a statement that made serious allegations and questioned the leadership of JEA CEO Vickie Cavey. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince 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,\u201d Carrico wrote. \u201cI am currently having conversations with community leaders interested in addressing these challenges and moving our utility forward. I look forward to announcing a name in the coming days given then [sic] disturbing culture observed at our utility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico did not provide any examples to back up his allegations. <\/p>\n

News4JAX contacted JEA as well as Cavey to see if they had any comment on Carrico\u2019s statement, but they did not immediately respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a vested interest in maintaining the integrity and efficacy of this utility, JEA is an integral part of every day Jacksonville and a vital part of our constituents and business day to day…. My advocacy and endorsement of a community leader, mentor, friend, and highly capable businessman is nothing more than that. As councilman I have been afforded relationships that prove vital to the success and forward movement of our incredible city. This is much to do about nothing, whatever the board decides I of course, will be happy with, but I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t advocate for a true friend and steward of this community,\u201d Carrico continued in his statement.<\/p>\n

The JEA board is\u00a0made up of seven members<\/a>. Four members are nominated by the Jacksonville City Council president and confirmed by the council; three members are appointed by the mayor of Jacksonville and confirmed by the council. The board of directors then appoints a managing director and CEO, who selects a top tier of management, the leadership team.<\/p>\n

Changes to how the JEA board is selected\u00a0were made in 2020<\/a>, following a scandal revolving around the proposed sale of JEA that ended with the\u00a0conviction of former JEA CEO Aaron Zahn on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previously, it was the mayor\u2019s responsibility to appoint every member of the board, and those selections were approved by the City Council.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council president, who is under scrutiny following controversial text messages to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501,5896],"class_list":["post-161954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jea","tag-kevin-carrico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}