Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico listens to JEA Board Chair Joe DiSalvo during an Special Investigatory Committee meeting on April 13, 2026. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on June 10, 2026 at 5:29 pm
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As Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico got ready to nominate his boss for a spot on the JEA board, he sent the candidate a text message:
“Guess it’s time they get a new board member to show them who’s boss.. … You ready to play the game?”
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The text was sent Jan. 20, three weeks before Paul Martinez, head of the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida, was tapped for the utility’s board. The text was included in more that 1,000 documents Carrico delivered to the State Attorney’s Office in response to a subpoena on Feb. 24.
Prosecutors sent the subpoena just days after a media report that Carrico had texted JEA board member Arthur Adams on Feb. 5 to say he would not be reappointed because the council president “owed a big favor to a friend and opted to put him of the JEA board.” That text also appeared in records delivered to the State Attorney’s Office.
Jacksonville Today obtained Carrico’s response to prosecutors Tuesday, more than 100 days after requesting the documents from the city on Feb. 27. The disclosure followed dozens of emails and intervention from an attorney.
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Many of the 100 pages contain black-out information — or redactions — and a lack of context. But the material reveals new communications from Carrico to Martinez in the lead-up to the nomination and as media reports began to document it.
Carrico officially nominated Martinez for the board seat Feb. 10, and the nomination was withdrawn at Martinez’s request on Feb. 24.
Since late February, Carrico has accused JEA CEO Vickie Cavey of fostering a toxic workplace culture and made claims of racism at the utility’s corporate headquarters. He launched a City Council Special Investigatory Committee into JEA to investigate the largely anonymous claims.
That led to claims of a smear campaign against Cavey from Mayor Donna Deegan and a call for Carrico to step down as council president.
Carrico’s text to Martinez on Jan. 20 provides more insight into the council president’s private rhetoric that began the cascade of events and revelations that led to the state attorney’s investigation into his communications with and about JEA officials.
The partly redacted message did not identify the recipient. But Carrico told Jacksonville Today at 12:36 a.m. Wednesday that the text message was directed to Martinez.
“I’m a straight shooter, and sometimes that means my language is more blunt than polished,” Carrico said in a text response to Jacksonville Today. “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 declined Jacksonville Today’s request for a more in-depth interview about the subpoena.
Friendly with former JEA executive
The documents obtained by Jacksonville Today show what appears to be a chummy relationship between Carrico and former JEA Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson — to date the only former JEA employee to publicly accuse Cavey of creating a toxic workplace at JEA.
Carrico’s texts to Martinez show the council president talked about JEA with his boss as early in the year as Jan. 8. A message from Carrico on that date asks his boss, “Let me know when you have 5 minutes to discuss JEA.”
In the thread, it appears Carrico shared news coverage of the board appointment focusing on the headline from Action News Jax that read “Jacksonville City Council President moves to appoint his boss to JEA board.”
Martinez’s appointment never made it to a council committee vote, once Martinez withdrew his name from contention. And Council Rules Chair Chris Miller put Carrico’s current nomination to replace Adams on hold while the investigations were active.
The conversations between Carrico and Wilson in the records response date back to July 2025.
In a text Dec. 9, Carrico makes at least one reference to research the JEA executive may have done for a now-canceled land deal between the utility and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Nassau County Foundation. Prosecutors at the State Attorney’s Office subpoenaed JEA for records linked to that called-off project.
Another thread — one where Carrico asks Wilson for statistics on JEA’s Duval County electric and water customers — shows a more casual relationship between Carrico and Wilson.
Where are the investigations going?
Jacksonville Today continues to go through the records response. Meanwhile, at least three active subpoenas from the State Attorney’s Office are looking into the mounting controversies revolving around JEA.
The council’s investigative committee is scheduled to wrap up its probe into JEA’s workplace culture and historically underpaid water capacity fees by the end of June. It’s unclear what the committee will recommend or what a survey of JEA employees will show about work conditions.
