JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax found differences in the two sets of documents handed over to us that show emails and texts from Jacksonville council president Kevin Carrico.
It’s a part of a State Attorney’s office investigation into his ‘big favor text’ trying to get his Boys and Girls club boss put on the JEA board.
Action News Jax first showed you this redacted message from Carrico on June 9 that reads, “Guess it’s time they get a new board member to show them who’s boss... You ready to play the game?”
City council attorney Jason Teal told us it was redacted because of personal information. He also says the personal information was determined by Carrico.
The exact same documents we requested from the State Attorney’s office show the other half of that text, this time unredacted.
The thread starts with a message to Carrico reading... “Good evening. Any word on Nassau for Nassau?”
His response says, “No love... First they said no to giving it away because of fear of the board, now they say not interested in selling either because of future growth in Nassau county.”
Back in May, we told you about a second SAO subpoena asking for communications that discuss JEA-owned land near Yulee High School.
Internal documents given to Action News Jax show the Boys and Girls Club of Nassau County Foundation, where Paul Martinez, Carrico’s boss, was president, approaching JEA as early as 2022 about either donating the land or leasing it for a “nominal fee” to build a teen club facility. Sources familiar with the discussions told Action News Jax Ben Becker the proposed nominal fee would have been just $1 per year.
We asked Teal why the beginning portion of this text, which didn’t seem to have personal information, was redacted.
He sent us this statement:
“Council President Carrico went through the entirety of the materials and separated out personal from public communications. For the one that you reference, it was described to me that the first part of the text was his private conversation with his boss at the Boys and Girls Club about a project in Nassau County that their private organization was involved with. He was not engaged in that portion of the conversation as the City Council President, but as a private employee of the Boys and Girls Club. However, it switched once it crossed into the Council President’s ability to introduce legislation for an appointment to the JEA Board; hence the reason that that portion of the text was provided as the public record.”
We reached out to Paul Martinez for comment following the release of new text messages and the connection to the Boys and Girls Club. He sent this statement:
“There was no connection between my potential nomination to the JEA Board and the Nassau County Boys & Girls Club Foundation’s discussions regarding the property.
The Nassau County Boys & Girls Club Foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) organization with its own independent board of directors. The Foundation’s board had expressed that it was not receiving responses regarding the property and asked me to inquire on its behalf.
Other than this inquiry, I had no further conversations with Mr. Carrico regarding the property.
Had I been appointed to the JEA Board, I understood that I would have been required to abstain from participating in any discussion or vote involving the property. That is how any potential conflict would have been handled."
We also reached out to Mitch Stone, Carrico’s attorney. He sent us this statement:
“Kevin Carrico was acting in his role as an employee of the Boys and Girls club, not as councilman, when the inquiry was made about the availability of vacant land in Nassau County that is owned by JEA to build a teen center for the Nassau County community. The fact that JEA ultimately decided to keep the property for future growth had no negative consequence to Mr. Carrico personally or professionally. We are confident that any investigation into this matter will reveal what we already know, that Mr. Carrico committed no ethical, criminal or other violation by inquiring into the availability of land for a neighboring nonprofit to build a teen center for their community.”
We reached out to Carrico for clarification of these texts and how he determined personal information from public record.
We did not hear back.
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