\u2018Hurt and blindsided\u2019: Laid-off JTA employee says employees were given severance packets, escorted out of headquarters<\/a><\/p>\nFormer JTA employees also attended Wednesday\u2019s meeting and urged the agency to avoid additional layoffs by moving some workers to part-time positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all have issues to solve. They have bills to pay,\u201d a former employee said. \u201cNobody is happy about losing their homes or cars because they lost their jobs, so I would beg them to stay part time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson said the restructuring process is ongoing and is expected to continue through Nov. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis process is not finished,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cIt will continue through Nov. 1, and we will bring service within available resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferguson told board members that safety, reliability, debt reduction and financial discipline are the agency\u2019s top priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese decisions carry a real human cost,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cI recognize the weight of them, and I take responsibility for carrying them out in a way that is disciplined, fair and respectful of the people affected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some board members questioned whether JTA can repay its utility debt without first understanding how the agency reached its current financial position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to first know several things: What happened? Why did it happen? And are those problems solved?\u201d one board member said. \u201cWhere did the holes in the bucket come from?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Clay County Board of County Commissioners also voted Wednesday to terminate a funding agreement with JTA. The decision could affect Clay County\u2019s community transportation program, a public shuttle bus service.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville Transportation Authority\u2019s Board of Directors voted Wednesday to accept millions of dollars in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,799],"class_list":["post-408712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408712","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=408712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}