{"id":221163,"date":"2026-04-06T22:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221163\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T22:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T22:16:07","slug":"jacksonville-rules-committee-puts-jea-appointments-on-hold-as-questions-swirl-around-utility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/221163\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Rules Committee puts JEA appointments on hold as questions swirl around utility"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council\u2019s Rules Committee deferred two JEA board-related items, pausing Council President Kevin Carrico\u2019s appointment of Randy Wyse and Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s reappointment of board chair Joe DiSalvo as investigations and internal questions surrounding the city-owned utility continue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Anonymous text targets JEA CEO amid ongoing political tensions<\/a><\/p>\n

Rules Committee Chair Chris Miller said he marked both items for deferral to \u201ctap the brakes\u201d while multiple reviews play out, including an Inspector General-led effort tied to disputed capacity fees and a council special investigatory committee examining workplace culture allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mind as the rules chair, I thought it was smart, prudent for us to tap the brakes,\u201d Miller said. \u201cLet\u2019s slow down a little bit and not affect the changes of leadership until we know a little bit more about what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE|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

When asked, Miller said his intent is to defer the items for one council cycle. But other council members in attendance said they are open to a longer wait period.<\/p>\n

The deferred items involve Wyse replacing board member Arthur Adams<\/a> and DiSalvo\u2019s reappointment.<\/p>\n

Miller told the committee there is \u201ca lot going on\u201d with JEA \u2014 including questions about leadership, employee surveys and ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say there\u2019s a lot going on with JEA right now is a gross understatement,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Several councilmembers joined the conversation to support Miller\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Joe Carlucci said he supports Wyse but wants more time to get answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t know until things continue to unfold but I\u2019m going to use that time to get my answers to the questions I have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The decision comes as the two nominations were set to go through final review at the Rules Committee ahead of a full vote from city council.<\/p>\n

So far, the Special Investigative Committee on JEA has held two meetings<\/a> to review workplace culture and disputes over capacity fees. A survey is set to go out to employees for review.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of drama,\u201d Howland said. \u201cI think we should make decisions when we can cut the drama out and decide based on facts and evidence. And right now is not the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Michael Boylan encouraged the committee to continue deferring the nominations until the issues are resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encouraged that you continue to defer it to such time that we have a solution to the matters at hand,\u201d Boylan said.<\/p>\n

Other members said the delay was about timing rather than the nominees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do have full confidence in Mr. Wyse\u2019s abilities,\u201d Councilmember Mike Gay said. \u201cSo it\u2019s no reflection on him whatsoever. But I do think it\u2019s wise for us to just take our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deferral comes after the Jacksonville NAACP asked Council President Kevin Carrico to wait to appoint<\/a> the next board member until investigations were complete.<\/p>\n

It also follows a March 27 statement from Councilmember Matt Carlucci calling for a pause on appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of unfolding issues surrounding JEA, the City Council should pause appointments to the JEA Board until active investigations by the State Attorney<\/a> and Inspector General are complete,\u201d Carlucci said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the mayor\u2019s office said Deegan supports delaying appointments.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Deegan supports a pause on all JEA board appointments until the active investigations are complete, and she looks forward to Board Member DiSalvo serving another term once that process concludes,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

News4JAX has reached out to Carrico for comment on his appointment and will update this story when a response is received.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council\u2019s Rules Committee deferred two JEA board-related items, pausing Council President Kevin Carrico\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501],"class_list":["post-221163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221163","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=221163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}