JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 JEA has been served a subpoena by the State Attorney\u2019s Office asking for communications related to the City Council President, his failed attempt to appoint his boss to the JEA Board of Directors, and a lobbying contract with the local firm that employs Jacksonville\u2019s former Mayor Lenny Curry.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Specifically, the subpoena asks for communications related to board appointments, communications between the utility\u2019s former Chief of Staff and the City Council President, and communications with JEA\u2019s old lobbying firm, Ballard Partners.<\/p>\n During Monday\u2019s meeting of the JEA Special Investigatory Committee, Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13) suggested the subpoena may be part of a new investigation into JEA\u2019s decision to end that lobbying contract in January.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is now an investigation into bid rigging on the Ballard contract,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n Diamond, while questioning the immediate past JEA Board Chair Joe DiSalvo, asked about previous testimony<\/a> given by former JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson.<\/p>\n Wilson claimed Mayor Donna Deegan personally pressured JEA CEO Vickie Cavey to end the utility\u2019s relationship with Ballard.<\/p>\n DiSalvo testified he had no knowledge of any pressure campaign related to the Ballard contract, but argued the CEO should make those decisions independently.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should be shielded from, this sounds naive, shielded from political gamesmanship,\u201d said DiSalvo.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office issued a statement denying any role in the decision to end JEA\u2019s contract with Ballard.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Councilman Diamond well knows, his wishful thinking isn\u2019t based in reality,\u201d a spokesperson for the mayor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n And despite Diamond\u2019s suggestions, there\u2019s no mention of, or requests related to, the mayor\u2019s office in the new subpoena.<\/p>\n But keywords identified in the subpoena do suggest a connection to the State Attorney\u2019s investigation into Council President Kevin Carrico, who was also subpoenaed in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new subpoena asks for communications that mention Paul Martinez, Carrico\u2019s boss, whom he unsuccessfully tried to appoint to the JEA Board<\/a> as \u201cbig favor\u201d to a friend<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carrico issued a statement suggesting the latest subpoena represents a \u201cthird\u201d active investigation into the utility, urging the CEO to \u201cimmediately turn over all relevant documents to investigators\u201d.<\/p>\n For his part, DiSalvo said he doesn\u2019t know whether the two subpoenas are related.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got to look into the details on it,\u201d said DiSalvo.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/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 JEA has been served a subpoena by the State Attorney\u2019s Office asking for communications related…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,347,28,348,116,351,118,117,501,103284,349,350,346,345],"class_list":{"0":"post-230384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-cbs47","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-fox30","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-jacksonville-fl","14":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","15":"tag-jacksonville-news","16":"tag-jea","17":"tag-lobbying-contract","18":"tag-northeast-florida","19":"tag-southeast-georgia","20":"tag-wfox","21":"tag-wjax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230384","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=230384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}