During Monday\u2019s JEA investigatory meeting, Councilman Rory Diamond pointed to prior reporting by Action News Jax\u2019s Ben Becker that uncovered text messages related to the Ballard lobbying contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you watched some of the Action News stuff, they were talking about texts that go to January 2025<\/a> related to the Ballard contract,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n The State Attorney\u2019s Office JEA subpoena only goes back to July 2025 as opposed to its previous subpoena<\/a> regarding communications from City Council President Kevin Carrico and his \u201cbig favor\u201d text<\/a>.<\/p>\n New text messages<\/p>\n Now, newly obtained messages by Becker, appear to fill in those gaps and suggest JEA CEO Vickie Cavey was facing pressure from multiple directions, some urging her to cancel the contract, while others pushed for it to move forward.<\/p>\n According to the texts, on January 8, 2025, Cavey wrote former Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson: \u201cWe\u2019ve got problems having Ballard under contract, I just got a phone call from John Baker,\u201d referring to a current JEA board member.<\/p>\n According to the texts, on January 8, 2025, Cavey wrote former Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson: \u201cWe\u2019ve got problems having Ballard under contract, I just got a phone call from John Baker,\u201d referring to a current JEA board member. According to the texts, on January 8, 2025, Cavey wrote former Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson: \u201cWe\u2019ve got problems having Ballard under contract, I just got a phone call from John Baker,\u201d referring to a current JEA board member. <\/p>\n In another message dated January 13, 2025, Cavey stated: \u201cKurt called to ask me to call Bobby\u2026 he\u2019s not happy I won\u2019t execute that contract w\/ the lobbying firm\u201d in reference to former board president Bobby Stein. It\u2019s unclear who Cavey was communicating with in that exchange.<\/p>\n In another message dated January 13, 2025, Cavey stated: \u201cKurt called to ask me to call Bobby\u2026 he\u2019s not happy I won\u2019t execute that contract w\/ the lobbying firm\u201d in reference to former board president Bobby Stein. In another message dated January 13, 2025, Cavey stated: \u201cKurt called to ask me to call Bobby\u2026 he\u2019s not happy I won\u2019t execute that contract w\/ the lobbying firm\u201d in reference to former board president Bobby Stein. It\u2019s unclear who Cavey was communicating with in that exchange. <\/p>\n Previously, Becker reported Cavey texted with Wilson on January 10, 2025, not to execute the agreement after stating \u201cI\u2019ve now gotten calls from Tallahassee.\u201d Later, JEA said the Ballard contract was initiated solely by Wilson.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Cavey did cancel the agreement.<\/p>\n Past controversy<\/p>\n The controversy surrounding the Ballard contract has since grown into a broader dispute over workplace culture at JEA<\/a>.<\/p>\n This comes after Becker revealed a text message sent by Carrico to JEA board member Arthur Adams that he was being replaced as a \u201cbig favor\u201d to a friend — who turned out to be Carrico\u2019s boss at the Boys and Girls Clubs Paul Martinez. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Lobbyists connected to the firm, including former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and his former chief of staff Jordan Elsbury, have been accused by Mayor Donna Deegan of orchestrating what she has described as a \u201cvile smear campaign\u201d<\/a> against Cavey after the CEO pulled the plug on a Ballard lobbying contract. <\/p>\n The allegations against Cavey stem in part from claims made by Wilson and have triggered multiple investigations into JEA\u2019s internal environment.<\/p>\n Tensions rise<\/p>\n Tensions continue to rise between the Jacksonville City Council and JEA leadership over how best to assess workplace conditions.<\/p>\n In a letter to council members, JEA board member John Baker urged the council not to approve funding for a separate employee survey proposed by the Special Investigatory Committee (SIC). Baker argued that JEA is already conducting its own survey and warned that running two similar efforts could waste taxpayer money and produce conflicting results.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n He also questioned the credibility of Wilson, calling into question the reliability of his claims because of two recent stories — a reference to Becker\u2019s previous reporting on Wilson\u2019s ties to RiteSite Health<\/a> and the Boys and Girls Clubs<\/a> while he was a JEA employee. <\/p>\n \u201cJacksonville needs to come together on this issue rather than foster division between the Council and JEA,\u201d Baker wrote.<\/p>\n The State Attorney\u2019s Office does not confirm or deny active investigations are taking place.<\/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 Jacksonville City Council member is calling for the State Attorney\u2019s Office to expand its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,3282,3281,3280],"class_list":{"0":"post-230397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-lakana","12":"tag-lakanamigration","13":"tag-wjax-wokv-partner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230397","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=230397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"According](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/cmg\/OSNGKSBVKFC3VLVN4LNO3ZVVIA.jpg\")
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