DART leaders back incoming CEO despite Florida investigation

We are now hearing from DART's chairman of the board for the first time since we learned about a criminal probe involving DART's brand new CEO. His name is Nat Ford. He will get paid more than half a million dollars a year to take over DART's top job next week. Florida's attorney general is investigating the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's finances and contracts while Ford was leading that agency's agency. Fox 4's Lori Brown is now with the latest. Lori. Well, incoming DART CEO Nat Ford is not facing any criminal charges related to the nearly $40 million budget shortfall. This latest subpoena raises even more questions. And now the Jacksonville City Council is conducting an investigation of its own. There's actually a $23 million swing quarter over quarter on a $140-ish million company, which is just unheard of to come in that much over and to be projecting that inaccurately. The new CEO of DART will soon be in the hot seat in front of this Jacksonville Financial Audit and Oversight Committee over his time at the head of the city's transit authority. I don't know how we can do our job if we don't ask Nat Ford some questions. I just don't see how we can finish this out without asking the guy who's in charge of all this, why did you do this in 2023 and 2024 when you're getting this information? Why did you keep going down this road? City Councilman Rory Diamond said Ford agreed to voluntarily come before them to answer questions about how the agency fell into a financial crisis. I think the people of Jacksonville deserve to hear that, and I don't care what state he's in. I think he should voluntarily come here and speak to us. To cope with its shortfall, JTA had to lay off longtime employees, reducing 194 positions. It's also halting its much-touted driverless shuttle operation called Navi December 31st and slashing bus routes. There is just some bad budgeting and some bad basic financial operations. But prosecutors with the Florida Attorney General's Office are working to figure out if the budget shortfall resulted from bad math or if mistakes rose to the criminal level. A new subpoena request contracts between JTA and Nat Ford's wife. It also asked the new executive director to identify all JTA employees salaried over $150,000 a year. JTA will also need to provide travel documentation for several employees, including Nat Ford, the destination, reason for travel, and who approved the travel. And the subpoena also requests all texts and emails with Ford regarding the termination of employees working in the accounting department. DART's interim CEO and the board chair gave the Dallas City Council Transportation Committee a quarterly update Monday. The chair said they are still confident in their selection of Ford. I don't even want to use this forum as an opportunity to get into a battle with the Attorney General of Florida, but we have made our decision based upon what we know at the time and what we know now. There is not any belief of the board to make a change in that decision. We have affirmed Nat Ford as our CEO, and we continue to do that. Documents requested in several subpoenas are due October 30th. Nat Ford is set to take the reins at DART. Next Monday, I've requested an interview with him through both JTA and DART, but he has not yet responded. In Dallas, Lori Brown, Fox 4 News.