{"id":1037376,"date":"2026-09-01T19:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1037376\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T19:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T19:25:16","slug":"vickie-cavey-to-retire-from-jea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1037376\/","title":{"rendered":"Vickie Cavey to retire from JEA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacksonville\u2019s public utility JEA<\/a><\/strong> is set for yet another permanent change of leadership.<\/p>\n

CEO\u00a0Vickie Cavey<\/strong><\/a>, who took a leave of absence at the end of July for reasons that were said not to be related to performance, is retiring effective Sept. 25.<\/p>\n

Her resignation letter says she leaves with a \u201cheavy heart\u201d but that the move was right for JEA, her family, and herself.<\/p>\n

At least in the short term, Chief Administrative Officer\u00a0Jody Brooks\u00a0<\/strong>will continue in an interim role, until the JEA Board meets to decide the future.<\/p>\n

Cavey, who has worked for the utility for 34 years in some capacity, returned to JEA after a retirement in 2024. She became interim managing director upon the departure of\u00a0Jay Stowe<\/a><\/strong>, then became\u00a0CEO<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in September of that year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though she was presented as a stabilizing force, the utility has experienced turbulence.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Jacksonville City Council<\/a><\/strong>, the 4th Circuit State Attorney, and the Attorney General\u2019s Office have been investigating issues related to JEA.<\/p>\n

The City Council probe was focused in part on an allegedly toxic workplace culture<\/a><\/strong> under Cavey, as well as uncollected capacity fees from commercial customers.<\/p>\n

Attorney General\u00a0James Uthmeier<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and State Attorney\u00a0Melissa Nelson<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0have been looking into the termination of the utility\u2019s lobbying contract with Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm that includes former Jacksonville Mayor\u00a0Lenny Curry<\/strong>\u00a0and his erstwhile Chief of Staff,\u00a0Jordan Elsbury<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Still, Cavey has had one key ally.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayor\u00a0Donna Deegan<\/strong> has advocated for Cavey as an \u201chonest and trustworthy public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacksonville City Councilman\u00a0Rory Diamond<\/strong><\/a>, a frequent critic of the utility\u2019s management over the years, said the following.<\/p>\n

\u201cJEA is a critical service for our residents, and I hope future leadership will do everything they can to stabilize or reduce rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

JEA is just the latest independent authority in Jacksonville to undergo a leadership shakeup.<\/p>\n

Longtime CEO\u00a0Nat Ford<\/strong> left the Jacksonville Transportation Authority this year for a similar role in Dallas. His position is currently being filled by an interim CEO also.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville\u2019s public utility JEA is set for yet another permanent change of leadership. CEO\u00a0Vickie Cavey, who took a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1037377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,10083,3188,723,7310,14626,10177,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,264091],"class_list":["post-1037376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-donna-deegan","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jea","tag-rory-diamond","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vickie-cavey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117197430850555250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}