{"id":459725,"date":"2026-10-08T03:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/459725\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T03:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T03:32:10","slug":"incoming-dart-ceo-nathaniel-ford-named-in-florida-spending-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/459725\/","title":{"rendered":"Incoming DART CEO Nathaniel Ford named in Florida spending probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DART<\/p>\n

DART President and CEO candidate Nathaniel P. Ford Sr, speaks during a meet and greet, on Saturday, July 11, 2026 at Dallas Area Rapid Transit headquarters in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

Incoming Dallas Area Rapid Transit CEO<\/a> Nathaniel Ford Sr. is among those whose communications are being sought by Florida investigators examining contracts and spending at the financially troubled Jacksonville Transportation Authority, which he previously led.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Florida attorney general\u2019s office subpoenaed agency records, including communications like emails and texts involving Ford<\/a>, his spouse and the owner of a consulting firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The subpoena seeks records from the agency from 2023 to 2025, including tuition reimbursement records, payments for massages and murals, card statements and ridership reports for the authority\u2019s controversial autonomous vehicle program.<\/p>\n

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JTA officials confirmed on Sept. 29 they had received the subpoena from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier\u2019s Office of Statewide Prosecution, nonprofit Florida news outlet Jacksonville Today reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: Who is Nathaniel Ford Sr., DART\u2019s next CEO? What to know about the longtime transit executive<\/a><\/p>\n

The investigation comes as the Jacksonville public transit agency faces a nearly $40 million budget shortfall and layoffs affecting roughly 200 employees, Florida news outlets reported. The authority said it is \u201cprepared to fully cooperate\u201d with investigators in a statement reported by local media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ford is scheduled to start as DART\u2019s president and CEO<\/a> on Oct. 26 after leading the JTA for 13 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A DART spokesperson said Ford and DART Board Chair Randall Bryant did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

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Bryant said earlier this year his agency had secured \u201cone of the most talented, sought-out transit executives\u201d in hiring Ford, pointing to his decades of experience serving as CEO of transportation agencies in Atlanta, San Francisco and Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s hire was controversial among DART\u2019s board<\/a>, who voted 9-6 in his favor this summer. Some touted his decades of experience leading transit agencies and others cautioned against his history.<\/p>\n

Related: DART names Florida transit executive Nathaniel Ford CEO after divided board vote<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News previously reported that Ford\u2019s tenure in Jacksonville, Florida, has raised questions about travel expenses and financial oversight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s employment agreement with DART<\/a> includes an initial three-year term with a base salary of $515,000 and $80,000 for relocation. Several board members voted against the contract. Plano DART board member Anthony Ricciardelli rejected it, saying in July it paid \u201chigher than the highest-paid executive at any of the 12 member cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ford also faced scrutiny during his earlier tenure at Atlanta\u2019s transit agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to 2006 reporting in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on audits of his spending, Ford and his secretaries charged nearly $150,000 over his five years at MARTA to agency credit cards that its board did not know about.<\/p>\n

The Florida Attorney General has also subpoenaed Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan for records from a 2025 meeting with a former JTA board member who says she raised alarms about the agency\u2019s finances, Jacksonville television station WJXT-TV reported Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: DART\u2019s apparent CEO pick brings decades of experience \u2014 and scrutiny at past agencies<\/a><\/p>\n

Deegan, who vouched for Ford to DART board members and in a July interview with The News, said she would happily cooperate with the investigation, according to the station.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In July, she called Ford \u201ca visionary\u201d in an interview with The News and said she was disappointed he is leaving Florida but not surprised DART hired him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the projects we’ve been able to fund here have been because of the relationships he’s established and the vision that he’s had,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A response from the JTA to the subpoena is due later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DART President and CEO candidate Nathaniel P. Ford Sr, speaks during a meet and greet, on Saturday, July…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,87998,90556,91363,112539],"class_list":["post-459725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dart","tag-tp-finance","tag-tp-investigations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}