Mayor will replace JTA board member Kevin Holzendorf after drunken driving arrest

Mayor Lenny Curry is replacing Jacksonville Transportation board member Kevin Holzendorf with a new board member after police arrested Holzendorf on a charge of drunken driving.

Holzendorf, arrested last Frida when an officer saw a car go through two red lights, has served since 2013 on the JTA board. The seven-member board oversees a transportation agency whose bus operators face the loss of their ability to work as drivers if they get behind the wheel while intoxicated, on or off the job.

In addition to serving on JTA while it embarked on an expansion of transit and road construction, Holzendorf built a national profile in the transportation field. He had been on track to become the next board chairman for the American Public Transportation Association, which represents transit agencies and organizations across the country.

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Curry filed legislation Wednesday asking City Council to vote on an emergency basis to approve his appointment of Stephanie Burch to replace Holzendorf on the JTA board.

Brian Hughes, chief administrative officer for the city, said in a statement that JTA CEO Nat Ford told him and Curry on Saturday about the arrest of Holzendorf.

"Mr. Ford believed resignation was the appropriate course of action for a board member having an active DUI arrest," Hughes said. "The mayor agreed. Since that day, Mr. Holzendorf has not submitted the resignation as he committed to Mr. Ford he would do."

Hughes said the legislation for appointing Burch, which will go to City Council as an expedited emergency bill, will "ensure that JTA has a highly-qualified new board member for council's consideration as soon as possible."

Burch, an attorney, currently sits on the Downtown Investment Authority board and would leave that position to serve on JTA.  She was a top city administrator until earlier this year when she left City Hall and became general counsel for Concept Companies.

Holzendorf has been American Public Transportation Association leader

Mayor Alvin Brown appointed Holzendorf to the JTA board in 2013 and Curry reappointed him in 2017. That term was slated to run through May 2021 but Holzendorf has continued to be on the JTA board while he has served as a leader of the American Public Transportation Association.

He became vice chairman of the association in 2021 and the organization's nominating committee backed him on Sept. 1 to become board chairman for its 2022-23 term. Members of the association were scheduled to vote on his nomination at an Oct. 7 conference in Seattle.

The association did not respond Wednesday to questions about how the arrest of Holzendorf would affect him becoming its board chairman.

A  police officer arrested Holzendorf, 55, after seeing a Honda sedan drive through "two steady red lights" at Monument Road and Interstate 295 in the Arlington area, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office report.

Holzendorf, who was driving the car, had glassy eyes, slurred speech, and a "strong odor of an alcoholic beverage" coming from his breath, the report said. Holzendorf "performed poorly" on field sobriety tests and "multiple indicators of impairment were observed," the report said.

The report says a test done after the arrest showed a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.158, which is nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08.

For a JTA bus driver, a conviction for driving under the influence would result in a one-year disqualification to drive a commercial vehicle such as a bus, according to state law. That disqualification applies whether the driver was intoxicated while behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle or a regular vehicle.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: JTA and APTA board member arrested on driving under influence charge