{"id":303810,"date":"2026-06-11T12:02:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303810\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T12:02:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:02:48","slug":"1000-records-reveal-jacksonville-city-council-presidents-big-favor-jea-board-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303810\/","title":{"rendered":"1,000+ records reveal Jacksonville City Council president’s \u2018big favor\u2019 JEA board controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a thousand pages of emails and text messages subpoenaed by the State Attorney\u2019s Office are providing new details about Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico\u2019s attempt to appoint his boss to the JEA board.<\/p>\n

The records were received nearly four months after the State Attorney’s Office issued a subpoena for Carrico’s texts and emails involving JEA, Paul Martinez, and key words such as ‘favors.’ It stems from a text message Carrico sent to current JEA board member Arthur Adams, stating that he owed a friend a ‘big favor’<\/a> and would be appointing that friend to the JEA board over Adams.<\/p>\n

Among the newly released documents is a Jan. 8 text message from Carrico to Paul Martinez that reads, ‘Let me know when you have five minutes to discuss JEA.’<\/p>\n

Martinez is president of the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida, where Carrico also works. Carrico was planning to appoint Martinez to the JEA board.<\/p>\n

Emails show Martinez formally submitted his application for the board position on Feb. 6, one day after Carrico sent the ‘big favor’ text message to Adams. Martinez ultimately\u00a0withdrew his name<\/a> from consideration after the message became public later in February.<\/p>\n

The records also include a Jan. 20 message from Carrico to an unknown recipient that states, \u201cGuess it\u2019s time they get a new board member to show them who\u2019s boss\u2026you ready to play the game?\u201d<\/p>\n

The word ‘favor’ appears in several other text messages contained in the records.<\/p>\n

In a Jan. 27 text message, Carrico asked someone for a favor on behalf of another individual, writing, \u201c…my brother from another mother and someone you need to know needs a favor. He’s got a civil service board hearing and needs a brother like you to him an hour or so of your time. Can you guys connect?”<\/p>\n

In another message with unknown date, Carrico asked for a favor on behalf of former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, writing, \u201cNeed this permit closed out bro\u2026it\u2019s a favor to a church for Lenny Curry.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Coast News reached out to Carrico for comment on the messages but has not received a response as of publication. The State Attorney\u2019s Office also did not respond to requests for an update on the investigation.<\/p>\n

The documents do not contain any references to racism or toxicity within JEA\u2019s executive leadership. Carrico made those allegations after the ‘big favor’ text message became public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a thousand pages of emails and text messages subpoenaed by the State Attorney\u2019s Office are providing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75612,48759,116,4040,118,117,501,73056,78188,8782,4720,17865],"class_list":["post-303810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-arthur-adams","tag-favor","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-city-council","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jea","tag-paul-martinez","tag-president-kevin-carrico","tag-state-attorneys-office","tag-text-message","tag-text-messages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303810","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=303810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}