{"id":397591,"date":"2026-09-12T03:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T03:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/397591\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T03:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T03:56:09","slug":"jea-board-chair-defends-former-ceo-vickie-cavey-amid-political-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/397591\/","title":{"rendered":"JEA board chair defends former CEO Vickie Cavey amid political pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 More than a week after JEA CEO Vickie Cavey announced her retirement, the chair of the utility\u2019s board<\/a> is defending her record and questioning the political pressure surrounding her departure.<\/p>\n

JEA Board Chair M.G. Orender said Cavey was unfairly targeted during her two-year tenure, including through several text-message smear campaigns<\/a> and a City Council investigation into allegations of a racist and toxic workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cJEA is better because of Vickie Cavey,\u201d Orender said.<\/p>\n

Orender credited Cavey with helping identify roughly $80 million in budget savings, which reduced the size of a rate increase. He also pointed to the utility\u2019s overall stability and improved bond ratings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s a woman who had worked 30-plus years at JEA, retired, was asked to come back by the prior board, and they brought a really good person in,\u201d Orender said.<\/p>\n

Orender said the City Council investigation did not substantiate the allegations after months of reviews.<\/p>\n

RELATED: JEA CEO grilled during Jacksonville council probe over workplace culture, disputed $25 million in fees<\/a><\/p>\n

The allegations were first raised by former City Council President Kevin Carrico, shortly after he learned he was under investigation for allegedly trying to help his boss secure an appointment to the JEA board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a conspiracy theorist, but I don\u2019t believe in coincidences,\u201d Orender said. \u201cI think that there were some different ties to JEA, and that was a reaction from Councilman Carrico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orender said the political controversy surrounding JEA could affect customers by creating confusion about the utility\u2019s finances and operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople hear these things \u2014 what\u2019s wrong over there? Why are they going up on my bill? \u2014 and they don\u2019t get a chance to hear the truth,\u201d Orender said.<\/p>\n

He said JEA\u2019s bond ratings with Moody\u2019s and Fitch improved twice during Cavey\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Orender said he has not seen any discussion about reviving efforts to sell JEA following Cavey\u2019s departure. However, he said he is watching several investigations involving political pressure, lobbyists, attempts to influence board appointments and the Florida attorney general\u2019s investigation into contracts involving Ballard Partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a thorough investigation, if something\u2019s wrong, I hope they take action,\u201d Orender said. \u201cIf there\u2019s nothing wrong, I hope they proclaim it from the mountaintops, because I don\u2019t want anyone with aspersions cast on them \u2014 their character, their activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orender said the community should pay attention to the results of those investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole community should be watching to see what happens next,\u201d he said. \u201cIf something out of left field comes up, you might want to go, \u2018Hmm, maybe that\u2019s behind it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jody Brooks is serving as JEA\u2019s interim CEO while the board searches for Cavey\u2019s replacement. Orender said the board will conduct both an internal and external search.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 More than a week after JEA CEO Vickie Cavey announced her retirement, the chair of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501,78189],"class_list":["post-397591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jea","tag-vickie-cavey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397591","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=397591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}