JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — JEA CEO Vickie Cavey receuved a vote of confidence Tuesday morning.
The vote was called following accusations that Cavey had created a toxic work environment at the utility.
JEA customers and employees spoke for and against the embattled CEO in the first board meeting since controversy erupted at the utility.
Former JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson accused Cavey of creating a fear-based culture at the utility, affecting “dozens” of employees.
He also claimed he lost his job the day after relaying those concerns up the chain of command.
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“If the desired outcome is to suppress any future complaints, it worked,” said Wilson.
JEA customer John Burr cautioned the board against rushing to judgment due to political pressure.
“When we see board seats shuffled, calls to remove the CEO based on allegations of mismanagement, it looks like once again we’re moving the furniture around to suit political ends,” said Burr.
Meanwhile, Vice Chair Rick Morales, who had expected to be elected the new Board Chair during the meeting, announced he had also fielded complaints about Cavey over the past six weeks.
“I took it upon myself, there were no contracts, this had nothing to do with anything, to just reach out to senior JEA leadership, have them come out to my office and talk to me. I wanted to get to know these people,” said Morales. ”I was not prepared for what I’ve heard, and if I say the names right here, I’m afraid they’re going to be terminated.”
Morales even claimed Cavey had at one point agreed to resign, but later told him she’d changed her mind and eliminated the Chief of Staff position.
Councilman Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large), the liaison between the city council and JEA, expressed concerns about the accusations against Cavey, her decision to eliminate the Chief of Staff position, and the decision to delay a vote to elect new board leadership.
“These employees were subjected to living hell six years ago, and I will not let it happen again,” said Salem.
Board Chair Joseph DiSalvo explained he’d delayed the leadership vote due to the recent wave of controversy and would reschedule the vote for a later week.
The first domino to drop in the chain of controversy at JEA involved a text message obtained first by Action News Jax.
In it, Council President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4) explained he’d chosen to appoint his own boss, Paul Martinez, to the JEA Board because he owed a “big favor”.
After Action News Jax exposed the text message, Martinez dropped his bid for the JEA Board.
“That’s got nothing to do with the leadership issue,” Salem said when asked about the Carrico text.
When we asked directly whether the text was a concern, Salem agreed.
“Sure, and it was pulled,” said Salem.
After Action News Jax reported on Carrico’s text message, the Counil President issued a statement bringing to light the allegations against Cavey for the first time.
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Despite Wilson and Morales now coming forward with similar accusations, Cavey continued to describe them as “unsubstantiated” during Tuesday’s board meeting.
“And were they to be true, they would not suddenly appear overnight in a political news cycle; in fact, they would have surfaced long before now,” said Cavey.
Board Chair DiSalvo also came to Cavey’s defense, highlighting the lack of any concerns with the CEO coming through official channels.
“I don’t buy into any of this hearsay, and that’s all it’s been cause it hasn’t followed the appropriate processes,” said DiSalvo.
Other board members turned the criticism on Morales for asking the CEO to resign without consulting the board.
“The way this was handled was absolutely out of line,” said Board Secretary MG Orender.
At the conclusion of the meeting, DiSalvo called for a vote of confidence in the CEO.
“Let’s just get the elephant addressed right now,” said DiSalvo. ”We went through this crap five years ago, a little bit three years ago. When the heck are we gonna learn our lesson?”
Every member backed keeping Cavey on as CEO except Morales.
The board also declined to take up Morales’ request for an external investigation into leadership at JEA.
Salem was shut down by DiSalvo when he attempted to weigh in on Morales’ request, which prompted him to tell reporters after the meeting that the city council may need to get directly involved.
“What employee would come forward now after what happened to Kurt Wilson? Tell me. Who would come forward?” said Salem.
JEA’s Chief Human Resources Officer Diane Moser pushed back on the characterization of Wilson being “terminated”.
“There was no decision to terminate Kurt Wilson,” said Moser.
When asked to explain why Wilson was no longer with JEA, Moser simply stated “no comment”.
And while the board did not agree to consider launching an external review of JEA leadership, Moser said the agency is “open” to an external investigation.
“We have nothing to hide,” said Moser. “We’re completely transparent.”
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