JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville City Council member is calling for a special committee investigating JEA to be disbanded, following a new Action News Jax investigation.<\/p>\n
Councilman Jimmy Peluso said the committee appears ineffective.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think it looks more like a circus than us trying to find the solutions,\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n The three-member council committee was formed to investigate allegations of a toxic workplace culture<\/b><\/a> at JEA, raised by former Chief of Staff Kurt Wilson and aimed at CEO Vickie Cavey.<\/p>\n Action News Jax\u2019s Ben Becker revealed on Thursday<\/b><\/a> that Wilson and former board chair Bobby Stein recruited a telehealth company, RightSite Health, for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department without disclosing they had been offered an equity stake in the company.<\/p>\n Councilman Rory Diamond, who serves on the JEA committee and Duval DOGE, has also proposed the city use RightSite Health, while leading an investigation into the city\u2019s primary telehealth provider<\/b><\/a>, Telescope Health.<\/p>\n Peluso said the findings prompted him to question Diamond\u2019s role.<\/p>\n \u201cNow that we have seen Ben Becker\u2019s report \u2026 I think we have noticed there is a member of the committee who might be a little bit compromised right now,\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Diamond pushed back in a terse statement, saying:<\/p>\n \u201cJimmy Peluso is Mayor Deegan\u2019s errand boy and has been trying to stop accountability at every turn. Ask yourself, why would anyone oppose getting to the truth? It\u2019s all to hide the corruption, and we won\u2019t stop until we get to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Councilman Matt Carlucci is urging caution, saying the City Council should pause JEA board appointments until investigations by the State Attorney and Inspector General are complete.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax has been reporting on a series of controversies involving JEA in recent months, including a text message from Council President Kevin Carrico referencing a \u201cbig favor for a friend\u201d<\/b><\/a> tied to a board appointment. It has resulted in a probe by the State Attorney\u2019s Office. Peluso previously had requested Carrico temporarily step down from his role during the investigation, to which Carrico responded by calling him a \u201cdrama queen.\u201d<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Carrico sent Action News Jax a statement regarding Peluso:<\/p>\n \u201cNow more than ever, we need an independent and transparent review of JEA. Calls to shut down the Council\u2019s Special Investigatory Committee are an attempt to avoid accountability at a time when it is urgently needed. With rates skyrocketing, serious concerns about a toxic workplace culture, and potential tens of millions in uncollected fees owed to taxpayers, the public deserves answers – not political interference designed to sweep these issues under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n The next JEA Investigatory committee meeting is scheduled for April 13.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville City Council member is calling for a special committee investigating JEA to be…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":687702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[13027,5229,13816,288509,288507,48502,48495,20339,13825,288511,3188,723,7310,14626,12179,48496,257879,288508,425,48506,12176,288506,48497,288510,13824,288512,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,22869],"class_list":["post-687701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_jacks","tag-america","tag-ben_becker","tag-bobby_stein","tag-chief_of_staff","tag-council_president","tag-councilman","tag-deegan","tag-diamond","tag-duval_doge","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-jea","tag-jfrd","tag-jimmy_peluso","tag-kevin_carico","tag-kurt_wilson","tag-local","tag-matt_carlucci","tag-mayor","tag-newhaq","tag-peluso","tag-right_site_health","tag-rory_diamond","tag-telescope_health","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wilson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116306415931518707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687701","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=687701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}