JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville city councilman says the outgoing CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority should not leave town without answering questions about the agency\u2019s $40 million budget shortfall, even if it takes a subpoena.<\/p>\n
JTA CEO Nat Ford\u2019s official last day is Wednesday. His departure comes as the agency is under an investigative review by the Jacksonville City Council\u2019s financial oversight review board.<\/p>\n
Councilman Rory Diamond said Ford should explain what happened at the agency before leaving Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
\u201cNat Ford was the CEO while all this was happening,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cHe made millions of dollars off the people of Jacksonville. We have a right to ask him questions about what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford began his tenure as CEO in 2012. During his time leading JTA, the agency developed express busways and launched a self-driving shuttle service.<\/p>\n
His tenure is ending as the agency deals with a $40 million budget shortfall that has led to route reductions, service cuts and widespread layoffs.<\/p>\n
There is also a separate criminal probe launched by Florida\u2019s attorney general. Investigators are looking at spending under Ford, including expenses related to massages, murals, hotel stays and the authority\u2019s tuition reimbursement policy.<\/p>\n
Diamond also questioned how JTA continued moving forward with the NAVI system while the agency was already facing debt tied to normal operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could you keep going with the NAVI system if you knew that you were seriously and already in debt just with normal operations?\u201d Diamond said. \u201cThat seems criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, the oversight committee learned JTA board members were largely left in the dark about financial projections for years.<\/p>\n
Diamond said he believes the council needs to hear from Ford directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see how we don\u2019t get [answers] unless we get Nat Ford up here,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n
Diamond is inviting Ford to voluntarily appear before the oversight committee, but said the council will use its subpoena power if needed.<\/p>\n
Ford is set to begin his new role as CEO of Dallas Area Rapid Transit next week, but Diamond said that would not stop the city from trying to get answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether he\u2019s in Texas, if he\u2019s in Florida, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cA subpoena from the Jacksonville City Council can be enforced in circuit court, and we\u2019ll go to Texas if we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
In accordance with Ford\u2019s contract, he will continue receiving his salary and benefits through Wednesday.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville city councilman says the outgoing CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority should not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,169682,6277,126030,21825,9325,169681,28,8580,11972,969,14186,116,118,117,18638,29883,799,169680,634,9327,169683,9324,13318,7842,13598,159931,5537],"class_list":["post-433010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-area_rapid_transit","tag-attorney_general","tag-bliss_eckman","tag-dallas","tag-diamond","tag-district_13","tag-florida","tag-ford","tag-hawaii","tag-jack","tag-jacks","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_city_council","tag-jacksonville_transportation_authority","tag-jta","tag-keltman","tag-local","tag-nat_ford","tag-natforce","tag-rory_diamond","tag-spain","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-taylor","tag-taylor_stewart","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433010","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=433010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}