JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 City Council President Kevin Carrico made bomb shell allegations on Thursday accusing Jacksonville\u2019s city-owned utility JEA of racism, having a toxic corporate culture and suggesting CEO Vickie Cavey has leadership challenges.<\/p>\n
The allegations come one day after his pick for JEA board, Boys and Girls Clubs CEO Paul Martinez dropped out<\/a>. Martinez is Carirco\u2019s boss at the non-profit where he is a vice-president. It\u2019s after Action News Jax Ben Becker discovered Carrico sent a text message February 5 to sitting JEA board member, Arthur Adams. It said Adams term was not being renewed because Carrico \u201cowed a big favor<\/a> to a friend.\u201d Carrico said Wednesday, \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that political noise and unfair attacks sought to distract from a lifetime of service, but our community continues to benefit from his [Martinez] leadership and commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n Adams, the lone African American male on the board and formerly a 20-year CSX veteran, replaced Edward Waters University President Dr. Zachary Faison Jr. on the JEA board and was serving the final year of Faison\u2019s term. Adams played a key role on JEA\u2019s Capital Projects Committee.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Carrico statement<\/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. I 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 disturbing culture observed at our utility. I 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<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u2018Where\u2019s the proof?\u2019 <\/p>\n Carrico\u2019s text message set off a firestorm of criticism among numerous city council members, including Councilman Michael Boylan, Jimmy Peluso and Matt Carlucci, who all sent Becker statements on Thursday night.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the former Council liasion to JEA the last couple of years (but not this year), someone who has known and respect Vicki Cavey for decades, and intimately familiar with competency of the current members of the JEA board, I find it hard to believe his assertion is credible,\u201d said Boyland. \u201cIn an organization as large as JEA, you can expect there to be \u201cdisgruntled\u201d employees. But to claim it\u2019s a prevailing issue because of its leadership, where\u2019s the proof?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf there is genuinely a problem at JEA, and a culture like the President claims, I\u2019d love to see this investigated and dealt with, accordingly,\u201d says Peluso. \u201cHowever, I wish this was brought up ahead of time to myself and our colleagues and not in the midst of yet another scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCouncil President Kevin Carrico is making serious allegations about JEA\u2019s culture and leadership. If he has credible evidence, he owes it to the Council and the public to present it transparently,\u201d says Carlucci.<\/p>\n \u201cIf those concerns were behind his recent appointment effort, that should have been stated at the time rather than framed as personal favoritism or a personal favor. Allegations of this magnitude require clarity, facts, and proper process.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n JEA history<\/p>\n The current structure of JEA\u2019s board was created after Jacksonville voters approved a charter amendment in 2020, following the failed attempt to sell the utility<\/a>, a scandal that led to the federal conviction of former CEO Aaron Zahn.<\/p>\n Under that structure, City Council selects four board members, while the mayor appoints three, a system intended to create checks and balances.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next<\/p>\n JEA has declined comment. Action News Jax has reached out the mayor\u2019s office and is waiting to hear back.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 City Council President Kevin Carrico made bomb shell allegations on Thursday accusing Jacksonville\u2019s city-owned utility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,77116,77117,18622,77827,13659,9322,44843,77128,969,116,118,117,18638,501,18639,77115,634,77130,77828,77118,5242,11103,8975,77829],"class_list":{"0":"post-162681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-arthur_adams","10":"tag-boys_and_girls_club","11":"tag-carria","12":"tag-carrico","13":"tag-carrio","14":"tag-ceo","15":"tag-democratic","16":"tag-gea","17":"tag-jack","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","20":"tag-jacksonville-news","21":"tag-jacksonville_city_council","22":"tag-jea","23":"tag-jimmy_peluso","24":"tag-kevin_carico","25":"tag-local","26":"tag-martinez","27":"tag-michael_boyer","28":"tag-paul_martinez","29":"tag-president","30":"tag-republican","31":"tag-scandal","32":"tag-vicky_cavey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162681","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=162681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}