The future of the Skyway and the Emerald Trial will go under the microscope of a select special City Council committee tasked by City Council Nick Howland with examining what caused theJacksonville Transportation Authority's financial crisis and how to orient transportation spending with JTA's share of the local gas tax.
Howland announced his charge to the select committee in a Sept. 30 memo that could chart far-reaching changes in how JTA carries out its mission while it deals with a financial crunch that is forcing transit service cuts and layoffs.
Howland sent the memo two days after the state Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution issued a subpoena seeking records from JTA. Howland noted the JTA board also is considering its own
independent review.
"With the Attorney General's Office conducting a state investigation and the JTA board planning an independent forensic audit, the committee's work will complement these efforts by focusing on JTA's financial stability, governance, operational performance and transportation priorities," Howland wrote in the memo.
City Council member Chris Miller will be chair of the Financial Audit and Oversight Select Committee whose other members are council members Ron Salem and Joe Calucci.
The select committee will examine a list of transit and road projects that JTA is responsible for completing with its share of the local gas tax. City Council approved doubling the gas tax in 2021 to 12 cents per gallon. The additional 6 cents will pay for a long list of road, transit and drainage projects the city and JTA are jointly undertaking.
Howland's memo says the select committee "should work closely with the mayor's office" on making any changes to the JTA list of projects, which also would require agreement by the JTA board.
The list of gas tax-funded projects includes $247 million for conversion of the elevated Skyway structure for use by autonomous transit shuttles. That would be part of the Ultimate Urban Circulator program planned by JTA that started with the NAVI system on Bay Street that has been costly with sparse ridership.
The review also will examine the $132 million for constructing portions of the Emerald Trail network of bicycle and walking paths by using local option gas tax money. Mayor Donna Deegan has said that funding must remain intact.
JTA's current round of budget-cutting will stop Skyway service on Nov. 2 and the NAVI service using autonomous transit shuttles will halt Jan. 1. JTA passengers will seereductions in bus service starting Oct. 1 with future pullbacks in the coming months.
JTA has said the cuts are needed to reset the agency's budget and create a new foundation for bringing back transit service levels in a financially sustainable way.
As part of the select committee's examination of how JTA missed the mark on its financial projections, Howland said the committee will examine "whether whistleblower concerns were appropriately addressed." Howland said that refers to former JTA board member Megan Hayward
Hayward raised concerns at JTA board meetings in early 2025 about the agency's reporting of bus ridership, its tuition reimbursement program for employees taking outside courses, and about JTA's financial sponsorship of JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development arm of JAX Chamber.
Other areas for the select committee will be JTA's paratransit service for riders with disabilities, the regular bus service and road construction in order to do a "comprehensive assessment of Jacksonville's current and future transportation priorities," Howland's memo says.
He set a Dec. 4 deadline for the committee to present a report with findings and recommendations.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Future of Skyway and Emerald Trail on the table for special committee
