Jacksonville, Fl — A special committee investigating JTA begins its monthslong work this morning.
City Council President Nick Howland charged the committee in a September 30th memo, two days after the Florida Attorney General’s Office issued a subpoena seeking records from JTA.
Howland told Jacksonville’s Morning News today that the special committee will complement the AG’s review and JTA’s forensic audit.
“We’re going to be looking at how JTA got there, their financial and operational stability. What they’re going to do to stabilize the authority moving forward. We’re going to look at governance,” Howland said.
He wants to ‘optimize’ the transportation priorities of JTA.
“The goal is to make sure that public transit works for Jacksonville families and businesses that depend on it,” Howland said.
On Thursday, Action News Jax investigator Ben Becker obtained handwritten notes from Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s office that are now part of the Attorney General’s investigation.
The notes document a March 2025 meeting between Deegan and former JTA board member Megan Hayward, who warned city leaders about financial concerns at the agency before JTA revealed a $39 million budget shortfall that later led to layoffs and service cuts.
Howland, who was Rules Chair at that time, says he called Hayward to understand what was happening at JTA and hear about the ‘unanswered questions’ she had about the agency.
“We agreed that I would defer her bill, which was within my power as Rules Chair at the time, until she got answers at the next JTA Board meeting. Otherwise that bill would have had her immediately replaced,” Howland said.
The bill was deferred and Hayward attended the next JTA Board meeting, where Howland said she probed several topics.
“All we can do since there are no Council appointments to the JTA Board, it’s all the governor and the mayor. All I could have done really, and without having the knowledge to have done it back then, is deferred it indefinitely. But we did take it to vote. It passed as I recall unanimously in Rules and then unanimously at Council. If we knew then what we know now, that likely would not have happened,” he said.
Howland says he anticipates Hayward will be called to testify before the special committee as it investigates JTA governance.
Howland says there is a hero in all of this, new CFO Randall Barnes. He’s credited with discovering that revenues were overcounted and expenses were undercounted.
“He’s the one who highlighted the main issues, brought it to light and just in time. It’s time for us to fix it and I think we will moving forward,” Howland said.
The Financial Audit and Oversight Select Committee examining JTA finances is expected to report to City Council on December 4th.
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