{"id":168205,"date":"2026-02-25T08:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168205\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:07:09","slug":"council-president-carrico-addresses-big-favor-wording-amid-jea-controversy-says-there-is-no-quid-pro-quo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/168205\/","title":{"rendered":"Council President Carrico addresses \u2018big favor\u2019 wording amid JEA controversy; says there is \u2018no quid pro quo\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico is calling for an independent, outside review of allegations involving leadership and workplace culture at JEA,<\/a> while also responding directly to questions about the \u201cbig favor\u201d wording in text messages tied to a JEA board appointment.<\/p>\n

Carrico spoke with News4JAX after a day of tense public meetings \u2014 first at JEA headquarters, then at City Hall \u2014 where the debate expanded from who should sit on the JEA board to whether there should be an external look at claims about management and employee morale.<\/p>\n

Carrico said he watched the JEA board meeting Monday and was surprised the board did not immediately move toward an outside investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little taken back,\u201d Carrico said. \u201cWe owe the people accountability and transparency,\u201d <\/p>\n

His comments came after emotional public comment at JEA.<\/p>\n

Former Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson<\/a> criticized CEO Vickie Cavey\u2019s leadership and said her style at headquarters \u201chas been anything but positive.\u201d Wilson also claimed he raised concerns internally and did not have a job the next day. <\/p>\n

Other employees spoke in support of Cavey, saying she supported the workforce and \u201csteadied this boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the JEA meeting, members also debated the external review. <\/p>\n

JEA board member Ricardo \u201cRick\u201d Morales III said he believed it was \u201creasonable\u201d to pursue an objective, outside review of leadership. But the board opted to go through standard HR processes first. <\/p>\n

The board later passed a confidence vote in favor of Cavey.<\/p>\n

When News4JAX asked Carrico whether it\u2019s fair for board members to say concerns should go through HR and internal processes before bringing in an outside perspective, Carrico said the situation is more complicated and suggested employees may not feel safe speaking up inside the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow there seems to be a culture of fear over there,\u201d Carrico said. \u201cWhere if you speak up you could get fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conversation then spilled into Tuesday\u2019s city council meeting.<\/p>\n

Dozens participating in public comment and some addressing the situation at the public utility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to go through another JEA scandal,\u201d one resident said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey bro\u2026 the jig is up,\u201d another said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to get a better hold on some of these boards and these commissions,\u201d someone told the council. <\/p>\n

Carrico said City Council has options if the JEA board does not move toward an outside review \u2014 though he said he hasn\u2019t decided whether to use them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s within the council\u2019s authority to call an investigative committee,\u201d Carrico said. <\/p>\n

He said he hopes to speak directly with JEA board chair Joe DiSalvo about why the board did not immediately move toward an investigation, saying he believed there were allegations \u201cfrom multiple sources\u201d that should be looked at.<\/p>\n

But the back and forth with JEA stems from a text message.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, messages between Carrico and current board member Arthur Adams surfaced showing Carrico say he was replacing Adams referencing a \u201cbig favor\u201d and appointing \u201cmy guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that\u2019s blown out of proportion,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just my incorrect use of passive language and using the word \u201dfavor” loosely… Let me be clear on that and definitive. There is no quid pro quo. There\u2019s no raise. There\u2019s no additional things that my CEO has offered me to sit on a volunteer board.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a poor use of the word in my case so I have to own up to that but there is no favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico also said the JEA board seat remains open after the withdrawal of Paul Martinez, the nominee he had backed. Carrico said he is looking at \u201call options\u201d for the full-term appointment, including the possibility of reappointing Adams, and said he expects scrutiny no matter who is selected.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll possibilities are still open right now,\u201d Carrico said, adding that he wants to nominate \u201ca true community leader that people trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico was the one to bring the allegations within JEA leadership to the public eye. It came just after Martinez withdrew from consideration and as questions over the text messages remained. It had residents asking during public comment why he chose to announce it when he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the time,\u201d he said. I\u2019d had several conversations and there was a board appointment up that I put forward. Obviously there was some backlash to that appointment. It didn\u2019t go through so I thought that was the time to just go ahead and go public and let it out and that\u2019s how it unfolded.”<\/p>\n

Carrico said his goal now is to restore confidence in what he described as \u201cthe people\u2019s utility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I would say stay tuned and let\u2019s work together as adults and move this forward and restore the public trust,\u201d Carrico said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico is calling for an independent, outside review of allegations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501,5896],"class_list":["post-168205","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\/168205","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=168205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}