Florida AG subpoenas Mayor Deegan over meeting with former JTA board member who warned of financial crisis<\/a><\/p>\nHow did the shortfall happen?<\/p>\n
JTA\u2019s interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson and newly hired Chief Financial Officer Randall Bernard Barnes \u2014 who joined the agency in August \u2014 laid out the details before the city council\u2019s Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee.<\/p>\n
Barnes said JTA underestimated sales tax revenue at least two years in a row, resulting in a $19 million loss. On top of that, operating costs ran higher than expected for both the NAVI autonomous shuttle program and the Skyway. Barnes also said the cost to run Connexion \u2014 a ride service for people with disabilities \u2014 was not properly budgeted because of expected service cuts that never happened.<\/p>\n
In February, JTA\u2019s board amended the budget and announced layoffs after seeing the shortfall coming \u2014 but Barnes told the committee those steps weren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the budget amendment addressed the expected revenue shortfall, the plan to cut expenses was really not sufficient to address the full cost to provide services,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n
Nearly 200 people lost their jobs<\/p>\n
Councilman Raul Arias pressed the agency\u2019s leadership on what the layoffs actually saved. Ferguson said the workforce reductions are expected to save $21.9 million.<\/p>\n
But Arias pushed back on that approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the thing \u2014 I hate that we\u2019re saving money at the expense of people when we could\u2019ve saved money by not investing in things that we didn\u2019t really need at the time,\u201d Arias said. \u201cBut that\u2019s where we\u2019re at right now. So I would like to see scenarios where we could bring back these employees.\u201d<\/p>\n
The warnings that went unheeded<\/p>\n
The crisis didn\u2019t come without warning. Former JTA board member Megan Hayward \u2014 who served on the board for roughly a year and a half before being removed \u2014 says she repeatedly raised alarms about the agency\u2019s finances, particularly spending on NAVI. According to Hayward, the program\u2019s cost grew by more than $20 million beyond its original projection of about $250 million.<\/p>\n
Hayward says she took those concerns directly to Mayor Donna Deegan in March 2025.<\/p>\n
Now, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has subpoenaed Mayor Deegan, demanding records from that March 3, 2025, meeting \u2014 including emails, text messages, handwritten notes, and any recordings. The deadline for compliance is Oct. 20.<\/p>\n
Deegan\u2019s office confirmed the subpoena and said it would cooperate while disputing some of the details in the records request.<\/p>\n
State prosecutors are investigating<\/p>\n
The scrutiny extends well beyond the mayor\u2019s office. The AG\u2019s office previously subpoenaed JTA directly, seeking records on tuition reimbursement, contracts with an organizational development firm, and NAVI ridership numbers. Prosecutors are also examining communications involving former CEO Nat Ford.<\/p>\n
Hayward has called for a criminal investigation into the agency\u2019s use of federal funds.<\/p>\n
The fallout has also reached beyond Duval County. Clay County voted to end its funding agreement with JTA.<\/p>\n
City scrambles for accountability<\/p>\n
City Council President Nick Howland reconvened the Financial Audit and Oversight Committee to investigate JTA\u2019s finances. Councilman Ron Salem is pushing for an independent outside audit \u2014 separate from the committee\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
In a parallel move Tuesday, Mayor Deegan signed an executive order encouraging people appointed to city boards and independent agencies to complete training on finances, audits, ethics, and public records laws. The order also calls for independent agency leaders to certify the financial information they give the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaxpayers deserve confidence that the people overseeing their money understand the budgets, audits, and ethics rules in front of them,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the plan going forward?<\/p>\n
If the full council approves the measure Oct. 13, JTA will receive the $30 million from the Local Gas Tax Option fund \u2014 without any new taxes. The agency will be required to pay the money back by Sept. 30, 2037.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville city council committee has approved the release of $30 million in local gas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,14310,190649,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-873451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-jacksonville","tag-jta","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}