The Jacksonville Transportation Authority faces two inquiries as it confronts an approximately $39 million financial shortfall, layoffs and service reductions. Florida’s attorney general has subpoenaed JTA for contracts, communications, spending records and ridership information. Jacksonville City Council has convened a committee to examine how the agency reached its financial crisis and what changes could stabilize it. New reporting has put both the classification of vendor invoices and the accuracy of transit ridership figures in focus.

Why did Florida’s attorney general subpoena JTA?

The state’s subpoena seeks contracts involving Dream Builders Communication Inc., Jacobs Project Management Company, Jones-Worley Designs and Mason Nye Murals. It also requests records concerning tuition assistance, wellness services and ridership, along with specified emails and text messages. The request covers several subjects, so no single allegation explains the full scope of the investigation. JTA says it is cooperating and will provide the requested information.

What did Megan Hayward say about the vendor invoices?

Former JTA board member Megan Hayward gave Action News Jax documents she says show approximately $860,000 in billings from Jacobs, Jones-Worley and Mason Nye between October 2023 and May 2024. According to the station, the invoices were coded as vehicle maintenance expenses, a classification Hayward questioned given the firms’ reported work. She suggested the coding might have been intended to avoid oversight of administrative spending. Hayward had been at odds with JTA leadership over several issues, but whether these particular invoices were incorrectly classified remains a question for auditors and investigators.

The dates require care. Florida’s new transit administrative cost provision took effect July 1, 2024, after the invoice period Hayward described, and annual reporting under that provision began November 1, 2024. To assess her suggestion about circumventing the rule, investigators would need to establish when the charges were entered or changed and how they appeared in later budgets or reports. The invoice dates alone cannot answer that question.

Did JTA direct employees to ride NAVI to increase ridership?

An unnamed former JTA employee told News4JAX that managers and other senior staff were required to ride the NAVI autonomous shuttle at least once a week. The employee described a written schedule, said some staff had to report their trips and alleged that employees accounted for a significant share of riders for months. JTA denies recruiting employees to boost ridership. It told the station that a limited number served as NAVI ambassadors to help customers learn the service and to gather feedback.

The same former employee alleged that Skyway stations sometimes remained open when trains were not running, allowing turnstiles to record entries that did not correspond to train rides. JTA disputes the claim, saying it counts Skyway riders through system turnstiles and secures stations each evening. The agency said it has no information indicating ridership data was intentionally altered or inflated. News4JAX’s report presents a former employee’s allegations and JTA’s response; it does not establish that either NAVI or Skyway figures were falsified.

Why do the NAVI and Skyway numbers matter?

The state subpoena requests ridership information, making JTA’s counting methods and reported totals part of the records under review. An examination could compare any NAVI staff schedules and trip reports with daily ridership data, and Skyway turnstile entries with train operations. Federal transit reporting generally measures passenger trips by boardings, and the Federal Transit Administration uses agency data in funding calculations. That does not establish that JTA filed an inaccurate federal report or obtained funding through inflated numbers; investigators would first have to trace which figures JTA submitted and how they were used.

Why are Nat Ford’s wife and Dream Builders in the records request?

The subpoena asks JTA for communications involving former CEO Nat Ford, his wife Jannet Walker-Ford, and Kenston Griffin, founder of Dream Builders Communication. It also seeks JTA’s contracts with the firm, which describes its work as executive coaching, leadership development and strategic planning. Those requests could clarify who discussed the work and what role each person played in JTA’s relationship with the company. They do not reveal the contents of any messages, establish that Walker-Ford influenced a contract or indicate that she personally received a subpoena.

Walker-Ford is an executive at WSP, a separate infrastructure and advisory firm; WSP is not identified as Dream Builders in the subpoena. She also formerly chaired the WTS Foundation board, and WTS lists both WSP and Jacobs among supporters of its 2026 transportation scholarships. That is a documented industry relationship, not evidence that she participated in Jacobs’ JTA contract or the coding of its invoices. Public tax filings likewise list Nat Ford as an unpaid officer of Vibrant Places Inc., but the records reviewed do not connect that nonprofit to the JTA payments at issue.

Have Florida agencies been cited for incorrectly classifying expenses before?

Yes, though the available examples do not establish intentional evasion of a transit spending rule. A 2016 audit of Citrus Connection, the Lakeland area transit district, found that part of a bus purchase was incorrectly classified on its federal and state expenditure schedule. In a separate federal audit, Miami-Dade County Public Schools was found to have reported $400,482 in bus rental costs as supplies. Auditors said the Miami-Dade purchase was allowable, but its classification and resulting public report were inaccurate.

What is Jacksonville City Council investigating?

Council President Nick Howland has convened the Financial Audit and Oversight Select Committee to examine JTA’s budget failures, possible corrective measures and the future use of local option gas tax revenue. Its final report is due December 4, according to Action News Jax. The council’s work addresses JTA’s financial condition and future services, while the state has demanded specific records that may bear on spending and ridership questions. Findings from either inquiry could sharpen the other, but neither has yet resolved the newly reported allegations.

The questions are now specific enough to test: What services did JTA purchase, how were the invoices coded, and what did its ridership reports actually count? Contracts, approvals, accounting entries, staff instructions, trip data and submitted reports can provide those answers. Until they are examined, Hayward’s invoice concerns and the former employee’s ridership allegations remain consequential claims that JTA and its overseers must address.

THE JTA AT A CROSSROADS SERIES!