A Skyway monorail train pulls away from the station near the Jacksonville Transportation Authority headquarters in LaVilla. | Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on November 11, 2026 at 1:03 pm
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The Jacksonville Transportation Authority has now received a subpoena from the 4th Circuit State Attorney’s Office, signaling another investigation into the agency that is dealing with the fallout of a financial crisis.
The subpoena covers records from Oct. 1, 2023, through the present, related to JTA projects and services, including the Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Innovation (NAVI) service, the Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C), the Skyway, and the Bay Street Innovation Corridor.
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It seeks communications regarding budget shortfalls, financial disclosures, vendors and procurement, ridership data, audits, and public statements regarding matters such as finances, budgeting, and ridership.
The subpoena also seeks finance and accounting records, including budgets, cash flow forecasts, and records related to shortfalls.
It also asks for procurement and contracting records surrounding several vendors: Mason Nye Murals, Dream Builders Communications, Team Pegine Inc. and the GEMS Initiative, Gannett Fleming and TranSystems, Jones-Worley Designs, Jacobs Project Management Company, KL2 Connects, LLC, WSP USA, and any wellness services provided or funded for JTA employees or board members.
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For these vendors, the state attorney’s office wants to see records including bid documents, purchase orders, deliverables, and procurement policies.
The subpoena also calls on JTA to produce records regarding the agency’s top executives, including now-former CEO Nat Ford and interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson, as well as Jeffrey Smith, Randall Barnes, Jessica Shepler, and Richard Clark. For each of them, investigators want to see employment agreements, corporate card statements, travel records, and other documents.
State attorney investigators also asked for ridership and transit performance records since Jan. 1, 2023, for each of JTA’s modes of transit, including bus, NAVI, and Skyway. JTA suspended Skyway service earlier this month, on November 2, and will pause NAVI service on January 1, 2027.
The subpoena also requested sponsorship data, records related to service reductions and layoffs, governance and board records, audit reports, and records regarding warnings or concerns raised by current or former JTA board members regarding the agency’s financial condition or budgeting.
The subpoena directs JTA to produce the records by Nov. 20.
Some of these records have already been requested by the Florida Attorney General’s Office, which has now issued three subpoenas to JTA.
JTA releases records from previous subpoena
On Tuesday, JTA also released records it produced in response to the second subpoena from the attorney general’s office. In early October, the attorney general’s office issued a criminal investigative subpoena to JTA, requesting a variety of documents, including contracts, salary information, documentation of business trips taken by some JTA employees, and sponsorship information.
The subpoena also requested text and email communications among interim JTA CEO Cleveland Ferguson, now-former JTA CEO Nat Ford, and Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan. The subpoena also requested communications among Ferguson and Ford regarding any audit of JTA, the financial health of the agency, and communications with some members of the mayor’s office.
Tuesday afternoon, JTA released records it produced in response to the subpoena, including contract information, specific salary details, travel documentation, and more. The documents initially released did not include any of the requested text or email communications. News4JAX has asked JTA about the status of those records.
This document release comes about a week after the agency released records it turned over in response to the first subpoena from the attorney general’s office. Those records detailed spending on training and consulting, as well as statements from JTA purchasing cards.
The subpoenas come as JTA faces a roughly $39 million budget shortfall and city officials consider steps to stabilize the agency’s finances.
News4JAX is reviewing the latest records that were released and will update this story as we learn more.
