State Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office is seeking records of any communications by Mayor Donna Deegan and Chief Administrative Officer Mike Weinstein that would show opposition to JEA awarding a lobbying contract to Ballard Partners.
The April 17 subpoena issued to the city of Jacksonville and JEA also calls for any similar communications by top JEA staff and several of its board members.
City Council member Rory Diamond said he understands the attorney general’s investigation is looking into whether there was any illegal influence on JEA’s procurement process.
The subpoena by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution does not identify any specific state statutes related to procurement law, and it’s not clear what restrictions would apply to the circumstances surrounding JEA’s award of the lobbying contract.
After Deegan became mayor in July 2023, she cancelled the city’s contract with Ballard Partners, a global firm whose partners at its Jacksonville office are former Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry and Jordan Elsbury, who was chief of staff for Curry at City Hall.
JEA handles hiring for its own lobbyists. In January 2025, JEA awarded the contract for lobbying by Ballard Partners in the federal government’s executive branch and in local government. JEA decided in January 2026 to not renew the $150,000 per year contract.
State Attorney Melissa Nelson’s office separately issued a subpoena on April 10 to JEA for communications including words such as “lobbying contract” and any communications to or from Ballard Partners.
The subpoena sent by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution marks the first time a subpoena has sought records involving Deegan or Weinstein related to the Ballard Partners contract.
“We are gathering the documents requested and will fully cooperate with their investigation,” JEA spokeswoman Gerri Boyce said.
The mayor’s office declined comment.
The subpoena covers communications between and among Deegan, Weinstein, JEA CEO Vickie Cavey, former JEA chief of staff Kurt Wilson, JEA Chief Administrative Officer Jody Brooks, and four JEA board members: Joe DiSalvo, Arthur Adams, MG Orender and John Baker.
Wilson, who gave Ballard Partners the top score in December 2024 when he ranked competing firms that sought the contract, testified to a special City Council committee that when JEA was poised to finalize an executed contact, Cavey told him she’d gotten a call from board member Baker and she said JEA would “hold up” on engaging Ballard.
Wilson testified that was followed by a text from Cavey a couple of days later that she had gotten phone calls “from Tallahasee” and JEA might not execute the contract that day. Wilson said Cavey would not identify who had called her.
Wilson testified he took the position that JEA should not put politics into procurement for a lobbying contract that Ballard had “won fair and square.”
The selection of Ballard was based in part on the firm’s experience working with the federal executive branch and working “in or with” Jacksonville City Council and the mayor’s office, according to JEA documents.
Weinstein said in a March 23 interview that when he talked with Wilson about the selection process at that time, he told Wilson he did not know if Ballard Partners had ever communicated with the Deegan administration.
Weinstein said Wilson told him he would see what options JEA had and got back a few days later to say the process had already gotten to the point that JEA was going to move forward.
“And that was the end of it,” Weinstein said.
The mayor’s office issued a statement after Wilson testified that in regard to the Ballard Partners contract, the “only communication we would have had with JEA on this topic is the fact that local employees of the selected firm have not been in communication with the administration about official city business since we took office.”
“It was JEA’s decision to make as an independent authority, and we were not a participant in that decision,” the statement said of JEA hiring Ballard Partners.
Wilson testified that after JEA executed the contract with Ballard, Cavey would return from meetings with Deegan recounting the mayor’s displeasure with JEA having that contract.
Wilson noted the contract had a provision allowing JEA to terminate it at any time without having to show any cause. JEA instead kept Ballard for the full year of the contract and decided not to extend it for another year.
Deegan has said Cavey faced a “smear campaign” alleging she presides over a toxic workplace culture at JEA because she did not renew the Ballard contract.
City Council President Kevin Carrico formed the Special Investigatory Committee on JEA Matters to look into those allegations and also examine whether JEA failed to collect capacity fees owed by some large commercial customers.
Carrico formed the committee after the JEA board declined board Rick Morales request on Feb. 23 for an outside review of allegations Morales said he had heard from high-ranking administrators about the workplace culture.
While JEA ended its contact with Ballard Partners for local and federal lobbying services, JEA entered into a new contact this year with Ballard for lobbying at the state level.
None of the ongoing investigations has issued subpoenas to Ballard Partners.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida attorney general opens investigation of JEA lobbying contract
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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