JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office sent a subpoena in recent days to JEA for records relating to a controversial lobbying contract that the agency’s CEO nixed at the beginning of the year.
In sending the subpoena, a copy of which was reviewed by The Florida Trib and News4JAX, Uthmeier has inserted himself into a tangled feud that was already under investigation by State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office.
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It’s not clear what issues Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution is examining or what prompted his office to intervene.
The April 17 subpoena narrowly targets records from a range of high-level JEA executives, members of the agency’s board of directors and Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan about Ballard Partners, a powerful Florida-based lobbying firm that had previously represented the city-owned utility.
Ballard employs former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, who has frequently sparred with Deegan.
JEA CEO Vickie Cavey nixed the utility’s contract with Ballard in January, a development that Deegan has said initiated a “smear campaign” against Cavey led by the City Council, which recently formed a special committee to investigate JEA’s workplace culture under Cavey.
In response, City Council member Rory Diamond, a regular critic of the Deegan administration, has suggested Cavey’s decision to cancel the Ballard contract could have been improper — although lobbying work with the city and its myriad agencies frequently changes hands among a cottage industry of local and Tallahassee-based firms.
Nelson, the state attorney, has already issued at least two subpoenas to JEA, largely seeking other records.
Her office’s probe was prompted when City Council President Kevin Carrico attempted to replace a member of JEA’s board of directors with his boss at the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida, describing the move in a text message as a “big favor” for a friend.
Carrico responded to public criticism of that language by accusing Cavey of overseeing a toxic and racist culture at JEA, though without providing any specific accusations of wrongdoing.
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Nelson’s office sent Carrico a subpoena for more of his communication records after that text thread — between Carrico and a JEA board member whom he was hoping to replace with his boss, Paul Martinez — became public.
Although Nelson’s office also sought records from JEA about Ballard, the subpoenas from her office suggest prosecutors are primarily interested in other issues.
This is not the first time Uthmeier has inserted himself into a Jacksonville controversy. Earlier this year, he criticized Nelson for her decision not to pursue criminal charges after revelations that a city employee was keeping a logbook of privately owned firearms and people who carried them into two city buildings.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.