JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A company run by Tim Baker and Sam Mousa, two lobbyists who have both worked for Mayor Lenny Curry, organized and attended a secret trip to Atlanta on a private plane to watch a playoff baseball game along with Curry, his top administrator Brian Hughes, JEA’s then-CEO Aaron Zahn and City Council President Scott Wilson.
Curry, who cannot accept gifts from lobbyists worth more than $100, said he initially covered his $400 portion of the trip by accepting it as in-kind contribution from Baker and Mousa’s company, Conventus LLC, that was made in October to an obscure political committee that has no official ties to Curry or his political campaigns. He said he decided in December to personally pay for the trip.
The $400 payment for the Oct. 4 trip included Curry’s share of the same-day, round-trip private flight to Atlanta, ground transportation, and a ticket to Game 2 of the Atlanta Braves’ Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals that included a seat several rows behind the third-base dugout and access to an exclusive lounge that offered unlimited food, beer and wine.
Records obtained by the Times-Union show that Zahn recalled paying a higher amount than Hughes, Curry and Wilson. Zahn told city attorneys during sworn testimony last month that he paid $500 for the airfare and $250 for the ticket. Hughes, Curry and Wilson said they each paid $400 for the entire trip.
Wilson, who is also barred from receiving gifts worth more than $100 from lobbyists, said he didn’t receive an invoice for the Oct. 4 trip from Baker and Mousa’s company until Dec. 29. He said he wrote the company a $450 check after receiving the invoice that was cashed on Jan. 22.
Baker said in a text message that the face value of each ticket, which included access to the Delta Sky Club lounge, was $150. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the cost for a Delta Sky Club ticket was $280 to $300 per game in the Divisional playoff series.
Curry said in an interview that campaign finance laws allowed him to accept the gift through the political committee, Conservatism Counts, although he said he decided to eventually personally pay for it in December after Wilson called him several times asking how he should pay for his portion.
“After the third call, he told me he was going to get an invoice. I decided to write a check myself,” Curry said. “He was pretty amped.”
Curry said the only discussion about JEA he had with Zahn was urging him to increase transparency in JEA’s sales negotiations. At the time, the names of the companies trying to buy JEA were confidential, and JEA officials were prohibited from sharing many details with anyone outside the organization.
Curry said he didn’t see any issues with a company that actively lobbies City Hall covering his expenses for the trip or using a political committee to pay for him to attend a sports event.
“A number of lobbyists have raised money for me,” he said.
When asked why he used an obscure account to cover the trip’s costs and what fundraising activities resulted from discussions he had during the trip, Curry referred questions to Baker, who has said he no longer has a contract to work for Curry.
Baker said in a text message that Curry’s new political committee, Securing Florida’s Future, wasn’t operational at the time of the trip, so Curry used the other committee to raise money.
It’s unclear how the committee became connected to Curry.
State records show the Conservatism Counts committee was formed in 2016 by William S. Jones to a Tallahassee address that is also listed as the address of a lobbying firm, Tidewater Consulting. The paperwork lists no affiliated committees. In the section required to identify all candidates the committee intends to support, Jones stated: “to be determined.”
The committee has raised $438,000 and spent roughly the same. The committee has made contributions to a number of candidates, including a $1,000 donation during the city’s 2019 election to Jacksonville City Councilman Terrance Freeman. It also paid $8,600 to Data Targeting Research LLC, a political consulting firm run by Baker.
Wilson said Curry invited him to see the game and he didn’t know Baker, Mousa, Hughes and Zahn were attending until they arrived at Craig Airport on an early Friday afternoon to board the plane.
He said the trip wasn’t intended to be business-related, although he said Curry told him they needed to encourage Zahn to release the identities of the companies that were trying to buy the city-owned utility. Curry denied having those conversations.
Wilson said he didn’t hear any other conversations about JEA’s now-abandoned privatization efforts. The only other official business he recalled being discussed was the entertainment venue adjacent to the stadium, which is a similar concept to the one Shad Khan has proposed building on Lot J.
“It was going to be a fun trip. It wasn’t meant to be anything business-wise,” Wilson said.
Wilson said he believes $400 could possibly be below the true value of chartering a private airplane to Atlanta and purchasing an all-inclusive ticket to a post-season baseball game, although at the time he accepted the invoice at face value.
Wilson said the trip didn’t influence his decision-making as an elected official, but he now regrets attending.
“There were lobbyists there. I didn’t do anything illegal. I paid for the trip, but I wish I wouldn’t have gone,” Wilson said.
Baker worked as Curry’s top political strategist for his 2015 and 2019 election campaigns. Mousa worked as Curry’s top administrator until he retired last July, although he continued working for Curry as a consultant until Dec. 31. Baker and Mousa are both registered with the city as active lobbyists representing roughly a dozen companies.
Baker provided advice to JEA related to its efforts to sell JEA and arranged a meeting between JEA officials and a St. Johns County Commissioner to discuss their option to purchase the utility’s water rights in the county. JEA officials have said Zahn tried to hire Baker but that JEA ultimately didn’t end up paying him for his services.
Two former City Council members said Baker set up meetings with a Florida Power and Light lobbyist when JEA first discussed interest in privatization in 2018. Baker has said he didn’t work for any entities trying to buy JEA.
Florida Power and Light’s parent company, NextEra, submitted a bid to purchase JEA in 2019 and was considered the front-runner.
Mousa, who didn’t return a message seeking comment, has refused to say whether he’s working for Florida Power and Light or NextEra.
City attorneys asked Zahn about the Atlanta trip during a Jan. 22 interview as part of their investigation into his conduct as JEA’s CEO, which found evidence of two dozen instances of misconduct and prompted the board to fire him for cause.
The city’s Ethics Commission sent a letter to Hughes on Jan. 23 requesting information about the trip. The letter stated that there hasn’t been a formal ethics complaint filed.
In response, Hughes said he paid Baker $400 in cash to cover his share of the expenses. He said he had no recollection of discussing JEA’s privatization efforts with Zahn.