JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4JAX and the Florida Trib on Thursday obtained new documents from the state attorney’s office connected to a subpoena sent to current Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico.
Investigators requested a large number of text messages from Carrico after it came to light through a public record request that he was trying to appoint his boss to the JEA board as a “big favor.”
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Text message records were obtained a few weeks ago through the City Council, but some were heavily redacted.
The new documents obtained Thursday, which include previously redacted messages, give critical context.
The one that was called into question was a message between Carrico and his boss at the Boys and Girls Club, Paul Martinez. The original text we received was heavily redacted and didn’t provide any context.
The originally-released text from Carrico to Martinez said, “Guess it’s time they get a new board member to show them who’s boss….You ready to play the game?” At the time, it was unclear what “the game” was.
Part of the game Carrico is referring to appears to be the Nassau County land deal, according to the text message in the unredacted message obtained on Thursday.
In a text message dated Jan. 7, it’s not clear who’s writing, but the conversation starts: “Hi, any word on the Nassau County property?” “They are checking with CEO to see if the donation of the land is still in play,” Carrico responds. “Gracias,” the original writer responds.
In the next message, dated Jan. 20, the writer, who appears to be Martinez, says, “Good evening, any word on Nassau for Nassau?”
Carrico responds, “No love, first they said no to giving it away because of fear of the board. Now they say not interested in selling either because of further growth in Nassau County. Guess it’s time they get a new board member to show them who’s boss. You ready to play the game?”
The last part of Carrico’s response matches one from the originally-released documents, and Carrico told News4JAX at the time that he was messaging with Martinez.
So why is this significant? It’s because the land, owned by JEA, was appraised at more than $1 million. According to a draft agreement that was never signed, JEA considered leasing the land to the nonprofit for $1 a year, but that was never executed. Real estate officials had previously concluded the facility could not essentially give away the land. They did offer the nonprofit the chance to discuss a market-rate lease or purchase of the land.
Martinez issued a statement to News4JAX and Florida Trib, denying any connection between his potential nomination to JEA’s board and the Nassau County land deal.
“There was no connection between my potential nomination to the JEA Board and the Nassau County Boys & Girls Club Foundation’s discussions regarding the property. The Nassau County Boys & Girls Club Foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) organization with its own independent board of directors. The Foundation’s board had expressed that it was not receiving responses regarding the property and asked me to inquire on its behalf. Other than this inquiry, I had no further conversations with Mr. Carrico regarding the property. Had I been appointed to the JEA Board, I understood that I would have been required to abstain from participating in any discussion or vote involving the property. That is how any potential conflict would have been handled,” Martinez said.
(News4JAX is going through the documents right now and will update this story)
Earlier this month, News4JAX reached out to Carrico for comment about the redacted message and the records overall.
Carrico confirmed to News4JAX that the “play the game” message was sent to Martinez, also saying, “I’m a straight shooter, and sometimes that means my language is more blunt than polished. The text reflects what I’ve said publicly for years: JEA needs change. Under the current leadership, Jacksonville ratepayers have been saddled with some of the largest utility rate hikes in JEA’s history, and they’ve every right to be frustrated. Rather than demanding answers and pushing back on behalf of customers, too many members of the board have simply accepted the status quo. I will continue fighting for greater accountability, stronger oversight, and for a board that puts ratepayers first.”
Carrico faced backlash after the first batch of text messages seemed to reveal that at least part of his motivation to nominate his boss for a position on JEA’s board happened because he owed him a “big favor.”
Carrico introduced a resolution on Feb. 10 to nominate Martinez as a member of the JEA board to replace board member Arthur Adams Jr., who was appointed to the board in January 2025 and whose term was close to expiring.
Martinez is the current president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, where Carrico works as the vice president of strategic initiatives.
How we got here
The original records request triggered a cost estimate from city council for nearly $4,000. We wanted to find out why, since the records we requested had already been compiled in response to a State Attorney’s Office subpoena issued in February.
After News4JAX and other local newsrooms started asking questions, the cost of providing the records to local reporters was eventually reduced to $220.
The ongoing JEA saga has many layers, so first, let’s start with some background.
Back in April, JEA itself was issued a subpoena by the state attorney seeking a broad swath of communication records about the agency’s CEO, Vickie Cavey, as well as discussions involving City Council President Kevin Carrico and a high-powered lobbying firm that employs former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.
But the records we requested were related to an earlier subpoena, issued in February, directly to Carrico for calendar entries and various communications.
After the text messages came to light, Martinez withdrew himself from consideration for the JEA board position.
But the public trust in the city-owned utility’s board appointment process was damaged, some said, and the SAO opted to investigate.
The subpoena, which Carrico revealed to News4JAX, called for the council president to turn over his daily calendar entries from Jan. 1, 2025, to Feb. 24, 2026, as well as emails, text messages, and other communications fitting a variety of categories.
They include communications between Carrico and any JEA board member related to a board appointment, communications with board members about Cavey, communications with former JEA chief of staff Kurt Wilson, and messages matching terms including “JEA,” “Board of Directors,” “lobbying,” and others.
The materials were originally due to the state attorney’s office on March 10, but Carrico told us he requested an extension.
In April, News4JAX made a public records request for the materials Carrico had turned over to prosecutors. In response, city council officials said the estimated cost of our request was $3,976.50.
Under Florida public records law, if a request requires “extensive” time or resources, an agency can charge the requester based on the amount of time and the hourly pay of the person working on the request.
The estimate called for 45 hours of work by Carrico and another 25 hours of work by his council assistant, each at a rate of a little more than $40 an hour. On top of that, it was estimated that the request would require an additional 10 hours of legal review, at a cost of $104 an hour.
When News4JAX asked why it would take 70 hours to pull and review materials that had already been gathered for the state attorney’s office, a city council official told us that no copies were made of the materials given to the state attorney’s office, so they would have to start over to fulfill our request.
Also, the official said, the documents handed over to prosecutors included non-public records, as well as records that were not reviewed for public record exemptions, thus requiring the legal review.
We further asked for additional details about the basis for the cost estimate, including:
- A detailed breakdown of the time estimates for Carrico and his assistant, including the tasks performed and why those efforts had to be repeated if the records were already gathered once before
- A detailed breakdown of the categories of records previously compiled, including the number of pages
- Whether or not any sort of index or inventory of the records exists, and whether it could help reduce the time required to process the request
- Clarification as to whether any of the requested records are already readily available
News4JAX also told city council officials that we were willing to work with them to obtain the records and view them in-person, if that would be a reasonable compromise to the costs involved.
City Council Legislative Counsel Jason Teal shared the following response:
“The hours spent by Council President Carrico and Ms. Lee represent the actual time spent compiling the documents responsive to the SAO request. Council President Carrico fulfilled the request himself because he is the only person who can examine his records and compare them to the subject matters sought in the subpoena, and he did not keep a copy of what was sent in response to the subpoena. I am unaware of any law or regulation that requires that a copy be kept of subpoenaed and produced documents; however, I would be happy to review any law that you have which says differently.
Therefore, to reproduce the materials provided in response to the subpoena, the Council President and Ms. Lee would be required to duplicate their dozens of hours initially spent. Due to the fact that they are producing the documents this time pursuant to a public record request (and not a subpoena), Florida’s public records laws allow the collection of costs associated with fulfilling the public record request. That would include the initial time to gather the documents, a substantive review to determine which are public records and which are private communications and a legal review to determine whether any of the public records are exempt from disclosure. This results in an additional, yet allowable, cost collection. An in-person review of responsive documents instead of another form of delivery would still require the initial production, review, and analysis to identify responsive documents for such in-person review.
Furthermore, as mentioned above, the initial document production was done in response to a subpoena not a public record request. Council President Carrico still has the original documents responsive to the subpoena in their native format stored in their native and original location. That is all he is legally required to do to maintain public records so that he can appropriately and legally respond to an initial public record request.
Finally, as mentioned twice above, the documents were produced in response to a subpoena. Therefore, your assertions regarding the public policy rationale for Florida’s broad public record laws and maintenance of tracking information and/or logs regarding the documents are irrelevant; however, I would be happy to review any relevant law that says otherwise.
Council President Carrico and the Jacksonville City Council remain committed to strict adherence to and compliance with their duties under Florida law."