{"id":174646,"date":"2026-03-02T05:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:18:15","slug":"all-eyes-on-jea-committee-as-it-chooses-leaders-amid-ongoing-swirling-controversies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174646\/","title":{"rendered":"All eyes on JEA committee as it chooses leaders amid ongoing swirling controversies"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 All eyes will be on JEA as one of its board committees gets ready for a key meeting on Monday, where the city-owned utility\u2019s board chooses its leaders for the next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It comes as controversies have swirled for weeks after text messages about an appointment<\/a> to the JEA board eventually led to allegations about leadership and workplace culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What started with text messages from City Council President Kevin Carrico referencing a \u201cbig favor\u201d tied to a board appointment has now sparked subpoenas<\/a>, political finger-pointing and growing scrutiny over how the city-owned utility operates.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Timeline: How \u2018big favor\u2019 texts sparked a JEA board shakeup and allegations about utility leadership<\/a> | Jacksonville City Council president issued subpoena after controversial \u2018big favor\u2019 text sent to JEA board member<\/a><\/p>\n

After the text messages became public, Carrico issued a statement that redirected the story<\/a> \u2013 to criticism of JEA CEO Vickie Cavey.<\/p>\n

He wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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<\/p>\n

That shift is something that News4JAX political analyst Rick Mullaney discussed on This Week in Jacksonville:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first blush, this appears to be changing the subject to be changing the subject away from the appointment — that was, as we said, inappropriate at best — and changing it to a different topic. But then you get into the question, what was that really about?\u201d Mullaney said, adding that it could involve relationships, lobbying contracts, and political influence\u2014claims that Mayor Donna Deegan has called a smear campaign against Cavey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a very significant press conference with the mayor and the chair of the board in which they were unequivocal in their support for Vickie Cavey,\u201d Mullaney said.<\/p>\n

The JEA board also showed its support for Cavey in its meeting on Tuesday \u2013 with a 6 to 1 vote backing Cavey\u2019s leadership<\/a> and confirming their confidence in her as CEO.<\/p>\n

The one \u201cno\u201d vote came from vice-chair Rick Morales, who also called for an outside investigation into Cavey\u2019s leadership. The board decided against an external review.<\/p>\n

Now, as the JEA board\u2019s executive committee meets Monday to choose board leaders for the next year, the events of the past week could come into play.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, the succession of the vice chair to becoming the chair is pretty collegial, pretty automatic. That may not be the case here,\u201d said Nate Monroe, executive editor of The Tributary. \u201cI mean, there is a substantive argument that a vice chair should not become the chair if they don\u2019t have confidence in the CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the executive committee comes up with its slate of officers, it will be up the full JEA board to accept it at a future board meeting.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 All eyes will be on JEA as one of its board committees gets ready for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5890,116,118,117,501,5896,99,78189],"class_list":["post-174646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-donna-deegan","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jea","tag-kevin-carrico","tag-politics","tag-vickie-cavey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174646","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=174646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}