Third criminal subpoena targets JTA, seeking records on contracts, ridership and Southbank land deal

A third criminal subpoena is targeting JTA. This one is addressed to interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson.

It follows a multi-million-dollar shortfall at JTA, deep budget deficits, service cuts, layoffs, and scrutiny over executive spending.

This is the third time state prosecutors have come knocking at JTA headquarters in LaVilla. The subpoena reaches into millions in contracts, JTA’s ridership numbers, and a Southbank land deal Action News Jax has been digging into for weeks.

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Florida’s Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution is demanding a slate of records: ground leases, cash flow statements, legal opinions given to board members about JTA sponsoring groups they’re tied to, and every dollar paid to two organizations.

The first is engineering and consulting firm WSP. It has held around $1.6 million in JTA contracts for planning, technical support, and visualization. Former CEO Nat Ford’s wife is on WSP’s leadership team. For years, Ford has maintained that the relationship is above board and has avoided a conflict of interest.

The second is Dream Builders, a consulting firm JTA paid more than $1 million to between 2019 and 2023.

JTA board member Daniel Vallencourt raised the red flag when Action News Jax talked to him for another JTA-related story.

“I’m concerned about Dream Builders,” Vallencourt said. “Being careful here, it seems that there’s a conflict of interests.”

Investigators also want JTA’s ridership reports and emails referencing “the need to increase ridership.” Last year, Action News Jax reported more than 330 of the Navi riders JTA counted were actually its own employees, consultants and interns working shifts.

The state also wants JTA’s ground lease with Corner Lot Properties. Action News Jax was there in 2023 when JTA and Corner Lot cut the ribbon on Artea, a multifamily development on the Southbank.

Starting in September, Action News Jax requested lease payment records from JTA and found months of missed rent at the Corner Lot property. Most of that was erased with one large catch-up payment in July, but records obtained by Action News Jax show it came up nearly $28,000 short, and JTA issued credits to close the gap.

READ: State prosecutors subpoena JTA records involving Corner Lot development deal

JTA confirmed this in an earlier statement, saying, “Corner Lot does not have an outstanding rent balance owed to the JTA.”

JTA also paid the same developer $1.5 million for soil cleanup, and taxpayers still don’t have a line-by-line accounting of where that money went.

The state gave JTA until yesterday to hand over the records, but JTA told us it has been granted a time extension to produce them.

Action News Jax tried to speak with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier about the JTA investigation when he was in town today, but his communications team stopped us from asking its questions.

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