Chris Miller, chair of Jacksonville City Council's Rules Committee, leads a meeting Monday, April 6, 2026. | City of Jacksonville.
Published on April 6, 2026 at 5:28 pm
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As multiple investigations linked to JEA continue, a Jacksonville City Council member has hit the pause button on two appointments to the utility’s board of directors.
Council Rules Chair Chris Miller says he won’t take up the nominations for at least two weeks.
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Miller says council should not move forward with leadership changes until there’s more clarity about JEA’s internal investigation into workplace morale allegations as well as probes by the council’s special investigatory committee and other local agencies.
“In my mind as the Rules chair, I thought it was smart, prudent for us to tap the brakes,” Miller said at the beginning of Monday’s Rules Committee meeting. “Let’s slow down a little bit and not affect the changes of leadership until we know a little bit more about what’s going on.”
The nominations in questions are the reappointment of recent JEA board chair and retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph DiSalvo and Randy Wyse, former president of the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighter.
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Currently, there are at least four active investigations regarding JEA.
In March, City Council President Kevin Carrico launched the Council Special Investigatory Committee after he brought forward then-anonymous allegations of a toxic workplace culture created by CEO Vickie Cavey and pervasive racism.
Since then, one employee has come forward — former Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson, who says there are other past and present in the senior leadership team who have experienced the behavior.
To date, JEA’s board, Mayor Deegan and several of JEA’s field employees have spoken out in support of Cavey. After the council committee began, the JEA board decided an anonymous complaint triggered the utility’s internal policy to investigate the allegations.
The committee also is working in tandem with the city’s Office of Inspector General and the Council Auditor’s Office on a decades-long policy that appears to have resulted in JEA under-collecting water capacity fees from several commercial water customers. The council’s investigatory committee is also holding hearings on that topic.
Carrico, who nominated Wyse, is also the subject of his own subpoena request by the 4th Circuit State Attorney Office related to his failed attempt in February to fill the JEA role with his boss, Boys & Girls Club Boys & Girls Club CEO Paul Martinez. Text messages show Carrico nominated his nonprofit leader to repay “a big favor.”
Rules Committee members made a point Monday to reaffirm their faith and support for Wyse’s nomination.
Mayor Donna Deegan nominated DiSalvo last month to serve a second, four-year term on the JEA board. He was one of the seven members brought on in April 2020 to replace the board that was in charge during the failed attempt to sell JEA in 2019.
The decision to defer the bills came from Miller, not Carrico.
“As you all know, there’s a lot going on. To say there’s a lot going on with JEA right now is a gross understatement,” Miller said. “There’s a lot going on internally with their leadership, with surveys, as well as from the City Council special committee perspective. There’s even some things going on at other levels — and other agencies here locally regarding different actions, some appointments and other things that have occurred.”
Investigation timetable
Miller said, for now, he intends to defer the nominations only until the next time the Rules Committee meets – scheduled for April 20. But that could change. Miller said he hoped employee survey results — one being conducted by the council’s investigatory committee and the other internally by the utility’s board – could help the council’s decision.
But council member Ron Salem, who chairs the investigatory committee, said Monday that those survey results could be “several weeks away.”
DiSalvo and Salem’s relationship has deteriorated since February. DiSalvo says he’s been frustrated with the council’s efforts to interject itself in internal personnel issues at JEA — an independent city agency.
He would not allow Salem — who is council liaison to JEA — to speak at the utility’s board meeting in February. He also declined to provide Salem information during a board meeting April 2 about the anonymous complaint that led to JEA’s internal probe.
“He’s trying to find out who exactly the complainant is. That’s none of his businesses. That’s an HR issue,” DiSalvo said to new reporters about Salem’s questions after the board meeting.
On Monday, council member Michael Boylan praised Miller’s deferral but urged him to hold it further if there was still uncertainty.
There have been calls by others on council to hold off on Wyse’s and DiSalvo’s confirmation hearings until the investigations are over.
“In light of JEA governance issues, City Council should pause JEA appointments to the board until investigations by the State Attorney and Inspector General are complete,” council member Matt Carlucci said in a written statement to Jacksonville Today on March 27.
Phil Perry, the city’s chief communications office, said Monday that the mayor supports deferring the nominations “in line with (council member) Carlucci.”
Council Vice President Nick Howland, who could be elected the council’s next president and inherit the council’s JEA investigation, also supported Miller’s decision.
“There’s a lot going on at JEA right now — several issues. I think none of them are insurmountable,” Howland said. “But there’s a lot of drama right now. I think we should make decisions when we can cut the drama out and decide based on facts and evidence. Right now is not the time to take up these two nominations.”
