{"id":434121,"date":"2026-10-21T23:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/434121\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T23:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T23:40:12","slug":"jta-is-a-nightmare-city-councilman-calls-for-former-jta-ceo-to-testify-over-40m-financial-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/434121\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018JTA is a nightmare\u2019: City councilman calls for former JTA CEO to testify over $40M financial crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 As former Jacksonville Transportation Authority CEO Nat Ford<\/a> prepares to start a new job in Dallas Texas, Jacksonville City Council members want him on the record about what they\u2019re calling a financial mess left behind at JTA.<\/p>\n

Council member Rory Diamond, who serves as the city\u2019s liaison to JTA, spoke with News4JAX about his push to have Ford testify before local lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cJTA is a nightmare. It\u2019s an absolute living nightmare,\u201d Diamond said. \u201c200 employees got fired. There\u2019s a $40 million deficit. There\u2019s people who can\u2019t get to work and school like they used to because of huge leadership problems at JTA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subpoena voted on, but voluntary appearance expected<\/p>\n

Diamond and other city leaders on the Financial Audit and Oversight Select Committee voted Tuesday to subpoena Ford. But Diamond says that may not be necessary. After speaking with Ford\u2019s team, he says Ford indicated he will appear voluntarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis folks told me he\u2019s going to voluntarily come,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cAnd to his credit, he\u2019s never not shown up when we asked him to come over the last several years. So I expect that he\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond says the appearance will not happen this Friday, but is expected within the next several weeks. He hopes to have Ford testify before the holiday season.<\/p>\n

Documents requested in the subpoena are due Oct. 30.<\/p>\n

Questions about ridership data and federal funds<\/p>\n

Among the key questions Diamond wants answered: whether JTA\u2019s administration inflated ridership numbers for its Navi and Skyway systems to obtain federal funds \u2014 and who else bears responsibility for the financial shortfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very curious whether or not we falsified numbers about ridership,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cIt sure looks like paying employees to be on the Navi doesn\u2019t look right to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond drew a distinction between the city council\u2019s inquiry and a separate criminal probe being conducted by the State Attorney General\u2019s office. He said the council\u2019s goal is accountability, not prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to speak for the people to get the answers so that we could avoid this happening again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ford heading to new role in Dallas<\/p>\n

Ford is set to begin a new position at DART \u2014 Dallas Area Rapid Transit \u2014 which pays him more than $515,000 a year. News outlets in Dallas have been closely following the JTA investigation. Earlier today, however, DART board members said they are standing behind their decision to hire Ford.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 As former Jacksonville Transportation Authority CEO Nat Ford prepares to start a new job in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,799],"class_list":["post-434121","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\/434121","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=434121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}