Jacksonville City Council was preparing to vote on who would help decide how millions of dollars are spent on the Eastside, with Mayor Donna Deegan’s four nominees facing opposition from some community members. The Eastside Grants Committee, formed in February by a special Council committee, will oversee funding tied to the city’s Community Benefits Agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Under the deal, the city committed $40 million over the next seven years, while the Jaguars pledged additional millions annually for decades - all connected to the Stadium of the Future project.
The money was expected to support housing, economic development, and community programs on Jacksonville’s Eastside. The committee had nine seats to fill, with Mayor Deegan announcing her four nominees: Rochelle Stoddard, Rudolph Jamison Jr., Kim Black, and Ariane Randolph. The Council president was set to appoint four additional members, and the Jaguars would hold one representative seat.
“Being nominated to be a part of the CBA board or the East Side Grants Committee really is an honor,” said Ariane Randolph, one of the mayor’s nominees who led the LIFT JAX Eastside Project One Health program and had lived in the Eastside community for years. “I don’t take it lightly. It’s something serious, and I continue in the work that ancestors before me have started. My grandmother was in this community. I share her address.”
Randolph said she wanted residents to feel the impact of every dollar spent, pointing to the high vacancy rate along the A. Philip Randolph corridor - also known as Florida Avenue - as one of the most pressing issues. “Helping to decrease that vacancy rate and increase occupancy is a big part of that feeling,” Randolph said. “When we can create those transformational projects for residents, I think that will be the most impactful.”
Not everyone supported the mayor’s choices, with Latavia Harris, vice president of Together Eastside Coalition Inc., expressing concern that the nominees lacked lived experience in the community. The opposition highlighted tensions over who should control the substantial funding designated for Jacksonville’s Eastside development under the Community Benefits Agreement with the Jaguars.