The messages, exchanged between Cavey and JEA board member Rick Morales, raise questions about when concerns over workplace culture at the utility were first raised — and how it aligns with political maneuvering surrounding the board.<\/p>\n
Board member says he asked CEO to resign<\/p>\n
At last Tuesday\u2019s JEA board meeting, Morales confirmed he approached Cavey and asked her to step down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did approach Vickie and ask her to resign and she said yes,\u201d Morales said during the meeting.<\/p>\n
Morales told the board that Cavey later reconsidered after initially agreeing to leave her position.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe texted me a few hours later, \u2018please hold on, I need to evaluate this with my pension,\u2019\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n
The request reportedly came after worker complaints surfaced alleging a toxic corporate culture within JEA.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hold off on Fackler please\u2019<\/p>\n
However, an Action News Jax review of dozens of text messages between Morales and Cavey from January 1 through mid-February reveals no indication of workplace culture concerns during that period.<\/p>\n
According to the messages, the first sign of a potential issue came in a text exchange on February 15.<\/p>\n
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/7OICGQEPLJEB5KVN4KOA7XVU74.png\")
<\/p>\n
Text message exchange between Cavey and Morales Text message exchange between Cavey and Morales <\/p>\n
Morales wrote to Cavey: \u201cIf you might have some time tomorrow afternoon to come by my office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cavey replied: \u201cAny hint to what it is?\u201d<\/p>\n
Morales responded: \u201cThere are just a few things I\u2019d like to chat with you in person about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day, February 16, Cavey\u2019s messages suggest she was weighing the possibility of resigning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may end up seriously damaged. Reading now. We will need to talk after I meet with the Pension office,\u201d Cavey texted.<\/p>\n
She also wrote: \u201cHold off on Fackler please,\u201d appearing to reference General Counsel for the City of Jacksonville Michael Fackler.<\/p>\n
When asked for clarification about the message, a JEA spokesperson declined to elaborate, saying the utility would not provide additional details about the text conversation.<\/p>\n
Political pressure emerges at the same time<\/p>\n
The timing of those messages coincides with another controversy involving the JEA board.<\/p>\n
Earlier reporting by Becker on February 16<\/a> revealed that Carrico had texted JEA board member Arthur Adams on February 5 about replacing him.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n According to the message, Carrico sought to install his boss at Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, Paul Martinez, on the board as what he described as a \u201cbig favor to a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n On February 17, Cavey sent Morales a link to the Action News Jax story detailing the Carrico text exchange, which another council member later characterized Carrico\u2019s actions as \u201ccorruption.\u201d<\/p>\n Two days later, on February 19, Carrico publicly raised allegations about problems inside JEA<\/a>, including claims of a toxic corporate culture and accusations of racism within the utility — aimed directly at Cavey.<\/p>\n \u2018Vile smear campaign\u2019<\/p>\n Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan defended Cavey at a news conference February 20<\/a>, saying this was all due to Cavey not renewing a lobbying contract with a firm with connections to Carrico, city council members, and former Mayor Lenny Curry.<\/p>\n Board shake-up and investigation<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the leadership shake-up continues.<\/p>\n Carrico has nominated former Jacksonville fire union leader Randy Wyse<\/a> to replace Adams on the JEA board. Adams had recently been voted vice-chair of the board<\/a>. Morales, who was vice-chair, lost his promotion to board chair.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n The developments have also drawn the attention of investigators. Carrico was served a subpoena<\/a> last week by the State Attorney\u2019s Office requesting all of his text and email communications related to JEA.<\/p>\n He has until next Tuesday to comply with that request.<\/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 A new batch of text messages obtained by Action News Jax\u2019s Ben Becker reveals more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,24475,77116,13653,72906,77827,13659,81064,9322,969,116,118,117,501,77115,85356,85359,43145,634,85360,85358,77118,5242,85361,85355,10209,85357,77829],"class_list":{"0":"post-180585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action_news","9":"tag-adams","10":"tag-arthur_adams","11":"tag-boys_and_girls_clubs","12":"tag-cario","13":"tag-carrico","14":"tag-carrio","15":"tag-cavey","16":"tag-ceo","17":"tag-jack","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","20":"tag-jacksonville-news","21":"tag-jea","22":"tag-kevin_carico","23":"tag-kevin_carrico","24":"tag-kv","25":"tag-ky","26":"tag-local","27":"tag-michael_fackler","28":"tag-morales","29":"tag-paul_martinez","30":"tag-president","31":"tag-randy_wise","32":"tag-rick_morales","33":"tag-tonight","34":"tag-vicky","35":"tag-vicky_cavey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180585","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=180585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}