The Florida Attorney General’s Office has subpoenaed records from the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, adding a state investigation to the scrutiny surrounding the agency. According to an internal JTA email obtained by Action News Jax, the request seeks records from October 2023 through October 2025 involving former CEO Nat Ford, his wife and an organizational development firm. It also seeks records concerning tuition reimbursement, scholarships and related communications through 2026. JTA confirmed receiving the subpoena and said it would cooperate.

The report does not name the firm, but one company with documented JTA work stands out as a question for further reporting: WSP, where Ford’s wife, Jannet Walker-Ford, is a senior executive. WSP explicitly lists organizational development among the services it offers transportation clients. It has also worked with JTA, including on the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C. Those are concrete connections, although the available report does not establish that WSP is the firm described in the subpoena.

What did the attorney general subpoena?

Action News Jax based its report on an email that interim JTA CEO Cleveland Ferguson sent to board members. Ferguson said JTA was preserving records and had assigned its internal auditor to oversee their collection because some requested material involved his own communications. JTA’s statement confirmed receipt of a subpoena from the attorney general’s office. The report does not disclose the legal theory behind the request or allege that any of the people mentioned committed a crime.

There is a distinction in who received it. JTA was subpoenaed for records involving Nat Ford, his wife and a firm; the published account does not say those three parties were each subpoenaed. That still makes their relationships and any relevant agency business important subjects of reporting. It does not tell us what investigators expect the records to show.

Why does the state have authority over JTA?

Florida law establishes JTA as an agency of the state, even though it serves Northeast Florida and receives local support. Four members of its seven-person board are appointed by the governor, while Jacksonville’s mayor appoints three. The board employs the executive director and can retain consultants, technical experts and engineers. State oversight and local accountability therefore meet inside the same agency.

The attorney general’s action is one form of state scrutiny. Florida’s Auditor General can audit the records of a government entity created by law, independently or at the direction of the Legislative Auditing Committee. The Florida Transportation Commission must monitor authorities such as JTA and periodically review their operations, budgets, revenue management and legal compliance. Its mandate is oversight: state law prohibits it from stepping into day-to-day decisions such as selecting a consultant or awarding a contract.

Federal agencies have a more targeted role when federal transit funding or requirements are involved. The Federal Transit Administration reviews grant recipients’ financial management and procurement practices. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector general can receive allegations about DOT programs, grants and contracts. The attorney general’s subpoena does not, by itself, indicate that a federal investigation has begun.

Who is Jannet Walker-Ford?

Nat Ford ran JTA after previously leading major transit systems in San Francisco and Atlanta. Jannet Walker-Ford has her own extensive career in the same industry, reaching senior positions inside a transit agency and at firms that serve public transportation clients. Their careers are relevant here because the subpoena seeks JTA records involving both of them, while a company where she is an executive has documented work with JTA.

At Atlanta’s MARTA, Walker-Ford served as deputy CEO/deputy general manager and chief information officer, helping lead the Breeze fare payment program. By 2016, she was a vice president at Parsons and its North America director of policy and strategic programs. Parsons described her skills as including program management, organizational change, stakeholder engagement, government relations and business development.

She joined Cubic Transportation Systems in 2017 to oversee eastern-region projects, operations and efforts to win new work. Cubic identified her as its vice president of government relations in 2019. In April 2020, AECOM appointed her senior vice president for transportation strategy, growth and key accounts in the Americas. AECOM also listed earlier executive experience at CH2M, Hill International and Booz Allen Hamilton, without giving dates for those roles.

Walker-Ford joined WSP in 2021 to lead its national transit and rail business. In June 2024, WSP placed her in charge of its U.S. Advisory and Planning business. The company says she is responsible for business performance and for bringing together technical expertise, strategy and communications to help clients plan, fund and organize infrastructure programs. She is a high-level business executive, though she is not WSP’s CEO.

What does organizational development mean in transportation?

An engineering firm can do considerably more than draw plans for a bridge, rail line or electrical system. WSP’s transportation materials specifically advertise organizational development alongside business planning, procurement advice and program management planning. Another WSP publication describes helping agencies assess their capabilities, improve business processes, clarify goals and structure their organizations to deliver transportation programs. That is the kind of outside management expertise a public agency might purchase when changing how it operates.

Walker-Ford’s career helps explain why firms value this work. A former transit executive can understand how agencies make decisions, build relationships with their leaders and connect a client’s operational problem to a consulting team’s services. Her previous employers explicitly assigned her responsibilities involving client relationships, government affairs, strategy or winning business. Those are established parts of her professional record, not an allegation that she influenced a particular JTA decision.

What work connects WSP to JTA, the U2C and JEA?

JTA board minutes show that on March 29, 2022, the board approved an amendment to an agreement with WSP USA for conceptual design and presentation services tied to transit oriented development around the Green Line and commuter rail. WSP also says it is part of the RS&H general engineering consultant team supporting JTA’s U2C. For that project, WSP describes planning, visualizations, technical requirements and an alternatives review related to potential state or federal funding. These records document work by the company; they do not identify Walker-Ford as a participant in either assignment.

WSP also appears in JEA procurement records, but the route is different. A JEA awards agenda lists WSP USA, formerly POWER Engineers, on a substation and transmission design services contract. WSP acquired POWER in October 2024, so the JEA record cannot be read as evidence that JEA initially selected Walker-Ford’s WSP advisory business for organizational work. It establishes another connection between the company and a Jacksonville public agency, involving electrical infrastructure design.

Is WSP the firm described in the subpoena?

WSP is a plausible firm to examine: it advertises the very type of service used to describe the unnamed firm, Walker-Ford leads a related business line, and the company has documented JTA work. The U2C connection makes the overlap particularly relevant to a continuing examination of JTA decisions and spending. Yet the published account has not identified the firm, and the March 2022 WSP board action predates the subpoena’s reported October 2023 starting point. We also lack a complete timeline and payment record for WSP’s U2C work.

The question is now specific: Which organizational development firm appears in the attorney general’s request, what did it do for JTA, and who approved the work? If that firm is WSP, the relevant assignments, dates, payments and any conflict disclosures would need close examination. If it is another firm, its identity and work would be just as important to understanding the subpoena. The state’s inquiry has made those answers matters of immediate public interest.

THE JTA AT A CROSSROADS SERIES!