Jacksonville City Council is set to consider the first four nominations to the Eastside Grants Committee, a group established to distribute funds from the city’s community benefits agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars to Eastside residents and businesses.
Mayor Donna Deegan nominated Rochelle Stoddard, Rudolph Jamison Jr., Kim Black and Ariane Randolph to the nine-member committee. The committee’s makeup comprises four appointees by the mayor, four by the Council president and one representative of the Jaguars.
In the agreement with the Jaguars, the city agreed to provide $40 million in funding to the Eastside over seven years to fund affordable housing, workforce housing, economic development and homelessness services. The Jaguars committed to spend $2.5 million in the Eastside annually for the next 30 years.
The agreement was connected to the city’s $1.45 billion deal with the Jaguars to transform EverBank Stadium into the team’s “Stadium of the Future.”
Council-approved legislation for the grants committee calls for appointments of members having a “substantial economic business interest” in the Eastside. No more than three of the appointees may come from the same neighborhood of the five in the Eastside: Campbells Addition, Fairfield, Longbranch, Oakland and Phoenix.
The committee was formed in February 2026 under Ordinance 2026-0036, which was crafted by a special Council committee. The committee determined what it felt was the best route for the city to honor its financial commitments to the Eastside from the CBA.
The legislation recommends that members be from the Eastside and have experience in affordable housing, workforce housing, economic development and homelessness services.
Stoddard, nominated under Resolution 2026-0239, is the president of Berman Bros. Inc., according to her resume. Berman Bros., which operates in the Phoenix neighborhood, is a metal service center, scrap metal recycling facility and custom metal manufacturer.
Jamison, nominated under Resolution 2026-0240, is a Campbells Addition resident and executive director of the city’s Human Rights Commission, according to his resume.
Black, nominated under Resolution 2026-0241, is a retired nurse living in Campbells Addition.
Randolph, nominated under Resolution 2026-0242 and an Oakland resident, directs the Eastside Project One Health program for LIFT JAX, a nonprofit that says it works to “eradicate generational poverty in the Eastside.”
As outlined in Ordinance 2026-0036, the committee will request an annual funding appropriation from the city for Eastside grants and review grant applications. The city’s CBA funding will vary year-by-year based on the committee’s request.
Committee members will review the needs of the Eastside, recommend the selection process for grant recipients, review and score grant applications and participate in on-site evaluation of grant recipients.
Among other details of the committee’s structure, members will serve staggered two-year terms and the Council president will annually appoint a nonvoting Council liaison to the committee.
The committee will be aided by a manager from the Grants and Contract Compliance Division of the city’s Finance Department.
The nominations are set to come under consideration by the Council Rules Committee. All four individuals were nominated to one-year terms.
The nominations are on the Council agenda for March 24 as first readings, the initial step in the Council approval process. No action or discussion of the nominations is scheduled on that date.