JTA board member calls for leadership to resign over financial crisis

A Jacksonville Transportation Authority board member is demanding that the agency’s top three executives resign, saying former CEO Nat Ford and his leadership team deliberately concealed the depth of JTA’s financial problems for more than a year.

Daniel Vallencourt spoke exclusively with News4Jax on Monday afternoon after releasing a statement that said JTA’s interim CEO, chief operations officer and senior vice president of public affairs should all step down — and that the authority cannot recover with any of them still in place.

“The Jacksonville Transportation Authority cannot navigate this financial crisis without major change,” Vallencourt wrote. “The house was on fire, and leadership was doing everything it could to convince everyone otherwise.”

In a statement to News4Jax, JTA said:

“Vallencourt raises the very questions the public, the JTA Board and the Jacksonville City Council are asking: What happened? Why did it happen? And who is responsible? Interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson and CFO Randall Barnes plan to address those questions directly at Wednesday’s board meeting.”

Board kept in the dark

Vallencourt joined the JTA board in February. At his first meeting, he said management asked the board to approve an emergency budget cut — reducing the operating budget from $162.4 million to $148.2 million — blaming a drop in sales tax revenue. What the board was not told, according to Vallencourt, was that JTA had already been drawing from its reserve funds for a full year by that point.

By the date of that meeting, $34.2 million had been pulled from reserves, according to Vallencourt. The board did not learn about those withdrawals until a retreat in August — 18 months after they began, Vallencourt said in the statement.

Despite the mounting deficit, Vallencourt said monthly financial reports consistently included a “Pending” column that made the agency’s financial picture appear far better than it was. By August, the deficit reached $39 million.

According to Vallencourt’s statement, the board-approved budget was $148.2 million. JTA spent $181.1 million — $32.9 million over the approved amount.

“Under what authority was that money spent?” he wrote.

Ford called JTA ‘financially strong’ as crisis grew

Vallencourt said the mixed signals from leadership continued even as the deficit worsened. In May 2026 — the day after the board adopted a smaller fiscal year 2027 budget — Ford wrote of JTA’s “strong financial stewardship” and described the agency as “financially strong,” according to the statement.

In July, management asked the board to approve a $40 million line of credit, describing it as a tool to manage “typical mismatches” in cash flow. The board later learned JTA owed vendors $24.9 million at that time, with $5.5 million more than 120 days past due.

JTA’s fiscal year 2025 audit also had to restate the prior year’s financial statements by $18.3 million, Vallencourt noted.

Questions about contracts and spending

Vallencourt raised pointed questions about several contracts and expenditures in his statement, including:

• Dream Builders Communication was paid nearly $1 million over two years for leadership training, succession planning and executive meetings — more than half of it without a purchase order.
• Team Pegine was paid $249,000 in 2025 for a “GEMS Initiative.” Vallencourt questioned what the agency received for that contract and what the total payments have been.
• Gannett Fleming TranSystems was paid $730,000 for an “Operational Development Plan.”
• JTA paid for an executive vice president’s doctorate education.
• JTA executives traveled to Germany and Japan while the authority was drawing millions from reserves.

Vallencourt also raised concerns about a conflict of interest in JTA’s CEO search. He said the managing principal of KL2 Connects — the firm hired to run the CEO search — was a paid JTA contractor. JTA’s procurement director has since confirmed in writing that this represented a “real, apparent or potential conflict of interest,” according to the statement.

‘A completely fresh start’

Vallencourt said he personally bore some responsibility for the situation, acknowledging he had been one of Ford’s biggest supporters and should have demanded raw financial documents, including balance sheets and cash flow statements.

“I didn’t, and I own that,” he wrote. “Oversight was part of my job, and I failed to do it adequately. I deeply regret that.”

He said that Gov. Ron DeSantis — who appointed him to the board — would be justified in asking for his resignation. “If he asks for it, I will readily provide it,” Vallencourt wrote.

Where things stand

JTA’s financial collapse has triggered a cascade of consequences across the region.

The agency has laid off nearly 200 workers. Jacksonville City Council approved an emergency plan in October to allow JTA to access up to $30 million in unspent local gas tax funds to pay down transportation-related debt, with the authority required to repay the funds by Sept. 30, 2037. The measure passed unanimously, 15-0.

Councilman Ron Salem said JTA is in a “death spiral.”

“When you’re borrowing money to pay bills, you’re in a death spiral,” Salem said.

Fitch Ratings downgraded JTA’s issuer default rating two notches — from AA+ to AA- — on Oct. 21, citing weakened financial resilience and assigning a negative outlook. A lower credit rating could make future borrowing more expensive.

City auditors have also told a council oversight committee that JTA’s financial problems may have been building for years. Auditors found the agency reported no significant budget stress in 2022, even though it spent approximately $4.8 million over budget. The agency finished fiscal year 2025 with a deficit of roughly $18.9 million before the shortfall ballooned to approximately $39 million in fiscal 2026.

The Florida Attorney General’s Office has subpoenaed JTA records related to contracts, travel, sponsorships and communications involving former CEO Ford and other agency leaders. JTA said it is “prepared to fully cooperate.”

Clay County has also voted to end its funding agreement with JTA.

City Council’s Financial Audit and Oversight Committee is continuing its investigation. Auditors have said their findings have not established that financial statements were intentionally falsified.

Ford resigned in July and officially become CEO of Dallas Area Rapid Transit on Monday. Jacksonville City Council’s Finance Committee voted to subpoena Ford to testify about JTA’s finances, and he is expected to speak at some point before the end of the year.

News4Jax was unable to reach Nat Ford for comment. The station also reached out to DeSantis’ office asking if he will call on Vallencourt to resign.

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This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.