JTA interim CEO won’t seek permanent job, says agency had ‘no guardrails’

Jacksonville Transportation Authority interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson announced he will not seek the permanent job, as he described unpaid bills, a lack of guardrails, and leaders being overruled inside the agency.

Ferguson’s interim term ends March 31. He has been in the role for two months, and the agency will now begin a search for another CEO.

Ferguson walked the JTA board through what went wrong, pointing to constant turnover in leadership and the finance department.

“We were entering our third CEO in as many years, and as many controllers in as many years. With that turnover occurring throughout the finance department. That instability made it difficult to establish a clear, consistent, and reliable picture of our finances,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson also pointed to unpaid invoices dating back years.

“It’s 39 million bucks to our shock and awe. Never mind we find out we’ve got invoices from 2023 that haven’t been paid. I mean, how is that remotely possible?” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said vendors started calling, and spending went out the door with little check on it.

“We’ve got a system with no guardrails,” Ferguson said. “You put in the requisition, it goes through, you provide the service. There is accountability that is required.”

He said that for years, leadership raised red flags and was told to make it work anyway.

“But what pains me as a human being, what pains as a public servant, is that too many times our declarations of the questions that were on his slide were overruled by a policy decision. We’re going to go in this direction, and damn it, you all are going to figure it out,” Ferguson said.

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