JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 JTA CEO Nat Ford is Dallas-bound, and he\u2019s catching an earlier bus than expected.<\/p>\n
After initially announcing he\u2019d leave the agency in January of 2027, his start date at the Dallas Area Rapid Transit has been set for October 26th, leaving just three months for JTA to figure out a temporary or permanent replacement.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe immediate problem, you know, we\u2019ve got a good strong board, but we need an interim to lead the ship,\u201d said Councilmember Rory Diamond (R-District 13).<\/p>\n Diamond, who serves as Council Liaison to JTA, argues the expedited timeline increases the likelihood JTA will need to name an interim CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way you can plug and play somebody in three months and it\u2019s gonna be less than that, right? Because Nat Ford is going to have to move to Dallas and start transitioning over there,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n In a statement, JTA acknowledged it is \u201cworking with Mr. Ford and the Board of Directors to finalize a revised transition timeline\u201d.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Another question surrounding Ford\u2019s departure is whether he may be entitled to any severance package.<\/p>\n His contract does allow for 20 weeks\u2019 salary and any accrued vacation time to be paid out in a lump sum if he resigns with \u201cgood reason\u201d.<\/p>\n Good reason could involve an asserted breach of contract by JTA or a diminishment of Ford\u2019s duties without his consent.<\/p>\n We asked JTA whether Ford has asserted good reason for his departure, and the agency told us, \u201cno such claims have been filed\u201d.<\/p>\n Once Ford is gone, Diamond argued the next CEO will have their work cut out for them.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWe need someone with experience in running an agency who can get us out of the mess we\u2019re in. We also want somebody who knows Jacksonville or at least can adapt to Jacksonville very quickly because it\u2019s a unique beast of what we need. Huge city, very few resources,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n We expect to learn more about JTA\u2019s plans to find a new CEO during the next board meeting set for July 29th.<\/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 JTA CEO Nat Ford is Dallas-bound, and he\u2019s catching an earlier bus than expected. After…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":962097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[61783,12189,29919,5229,14336,77300,1596,386833,13825,3188,723,9649,25686,7310,3005,77156,48908,18708,17918,425,157430,298125,13824,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-962096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-61783","tag-action_news","tag-action_news_shack","tag-america","tag-ceo","tag-chan","tag-dallas","tag-dallas_area_rapid_transport","tag-diamond","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-ford","tag-gta","tag-jacksonville","tag-jake","tag-jake_stan","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jta","tag-lavilla","tag-local","tag-nat_ford","tag-natt_ford","tag-rory_diamond","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116990992996209274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962096","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=962096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}