JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Transportation Authority had to field more tough questions from one of its board members.
This is the second meeting Megan Hayward raised major concerns with the authority.
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Action News Jax has been covering JTA for more than a year, and reports these issues have to do with what Hayward said are pricey executive perks.
The cornerstone of Thursday’s concern is the fact that taxpayers are paying for JTA executives’ tuition for postgraduate degrees, spending tens of thousands of dollars of public money on private education.
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At the meeting, Hayward asked, “Why is JTA allowed to discriminate in favor of highly paid executives,” when raising her concerns.
She questioned the tens of thousands of public dollars JTA spends sending its top brass back to school. On top of their already well-paying salaries, she said there’s no limit on how much JTA will pay toward their tuition. Meanwhile, she said JTA’s rank-and-file employees are capped by the authority policy at $5,250 a year.
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“I believe,” she said, “the rest of the employees would appreciate understanding why they are held to a different standard than the executive team.”
Action News Jax exposed that spending in August while reviewing JTA’s corporate credit card statements.
According to Hayward, the corporate card charges for Nova Southeastern pay for Executive Vice president and Chief Administrative Officer Cleveland Ferguson’s doctorate in psychology -- a perk, prior public records show, he gets on top of a $280,000 annual salary, $12,000 car allowance, $11,200 performance pay out and another $2,225 for unnamed “dues.”
ELT Compensation FY 2024 by ActionNewsJax on Scribd
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