{"id":163394,"date":"2026-02-21T02:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/163394\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T02:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:15:18","slug":"council-president-kevin-carricos-pick-for-jea-board-withdraws-from-consideration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/163394\/","title":{"rendered":"Council President Kevin Carrico\u2019s pick for JEA board withdraws from consideration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"h909051-p1\" class=\"permalinkable\">Paul Martinez, president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the JEA board, he confirmed to the Daily Record in a Feb. 19 text message.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p2\" class=\"permalinkable\">Martinez\u2019s appointment to the board came under scrutiny after reporting from Action News Jax\u2019s Ben Becker showed Council President Kevin Carrico texted Arthur Adams, who Martinez would have replaced on the board, that Martinez was nominated as a \u201cbig favor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Kevin Carrico\" class=\"media-element file-default fr-fic fr-dii\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Kevin_Carrico_t850.jpg\" title=\"Kevin Carrico\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kevin Carrico<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p3\" class=\"permalinkable\">\u201cI owed a big favor to a freind and opted to put him on the JEA board as your term is expiring,\u201d Carrico\u2019s text read. \u201cNot sure if you wanted to stay but I needed to do this for my guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p4\" class=\"permalinkable\">Carrico, who works under Martinez as the vice president for strategic initiatives at the Boys and Girls Clubs, appointed Martinez under Council Resolution 2026-0119. Under the city charter, appointments to the board are subject to confirmation by the full Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p5\" class=\"permalinkable\">\u201cAfter thoughtful consideration, I have decided not to pursue appointment to the JEA Board, as my priority remains the strength and stability of the Boys &amp; Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida,\u201d Martinez wrote in the text. \u201cWhile I am disappointed that I will not be able to serve the City of Jacksonville in this additional capacity, I remain fully committed to leading this organization with integrity and focus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p6\" class=\"permalinkable\">\u201cI respect Paul Martinez\u2019s decision and thank him for his decades of service to Jacksonville,\u201d Carrico wrote in a text to the Daily Record. \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 leadership and committment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p7\" class=\"permalinkable\">Carrico wrote that he would ask for a withdrawal of Martinez\u2019s appointment legislation at the Council\u2019s Feb. 24 meeting.<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p8\" class=\"permalinkable\">With Martinez\u2019s withdrawal, Adams is set to remain on the city-owned utility\u2019s board. In a text to Carrico reported by Action News Jax, Adams wrote that he wished to stay on for a full term.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p9\" class=\"permalinkable\">Adams was appointed by then-Council President Randy White to a partial term in 2024, due to conclude on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n<p id=\"h909051-p10\" class=\"permalinkable\">Martinez was appointed for a full term, set to end in February 2030.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Martinez, president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, has withdrawn his name from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-163394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163394","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=163394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}