Mayor Deegan's stadium deal is winning City Council support with amendments

The stadium deal negotiated by Mayor Donna Deegan is on track for City Council to give its support Tuesday after a whirlwind series of meetings this month.

City Council President Ron Salem set up the fast-track review and council members only made minor changes to the core of the deal that would do $1.4 billion of work on EverBank Stadium. The city would pay for $775 million of the cost and Jaguars owner Shad Khan would pay the rest while agreeing to sign a 30-year lease extension to keep playing football in Jacksonville.

City Council members completed their vetting Friday by soundly rejecting an amendment that would have taken a second look at whether the renovated football stadium should have a roof — the term "hot as hell" for conditions in September came up in the debate — while agreeing to set goals for use of apprenticeship programs during construction and hosting football games featuring historically Black colleges and universities at the stadium.

City Council President Ron Salem said the negotiations between Deegan and the Jaguars produced a "very fair" deal that council just tweaked in terms of the stadium renovation. He said he is pleased to be able to bring it to a vote in the final week of his one-year term as council president.

"It's been a very aggressive schedule but the council members have all cooperated because everybody — the administration, the City Council and the Jaguars — wanted this out before the break and we're going on a two-week vacation in July," he said.

The vote Tuesday won't be the final word, however, because City Council still must decide how much the city will invest in the community benefits agreement that is part of the overall stadium deal.

Deegan and the Jaguars negotiated a $300 million community benefits agreement in which the Jaguars agreed to $150 million over 30 years based on the city spending $150 million over a couple of years. City Council amended the legislation in a way that puts the Jaguars contribution at about $119 million and the city's share at $56 million.

City Council will decide after the summer break how much it will add to the community benefits agreement. Darnell Smith, chief of staff for Deegan, said the mayor remains committed to getting the total amount up to the $300 million mark in her proposal.

Other amendments to the legislation made changes around the edges.

Council member Rahman Johnson won support for adding a provision in the agreement that the Jaguars will work with the city to bring an HBCU football game each year to EverBank Stadium. Bethune-Cookman University once hosted the the Gateway Classic in Jacksonville during the 1980s, 1990s and through 2006.

Council members Mike Gay and Tyrona Clark-Murray teamed up on getting a goal inserted into the agreement for at least 10% of the work on the stadium to be done by registered apprentices. The North Florida Central Labor Council turned out at a public hearing Monday to make the case that using apprentices will keep paychecks in Jacksonville and foster workforce development in construction trades.

"This is a big project and when you think about all the registered apprentices we have here in Jacksonville and in Florida, why would we pull labor from somewhere else?" Clark-Murray said after the meeting. "We need to use what we have."

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Gay wasn't successful on another amendment that would have looked at whether the city should examine what the essential needs are for the stadium and what might be considered a "preference" for the renovation. He said that should include taking a second look at whether the city can save money by not constructing a roof covering in the renovated stadium.

"I'm gong to call it like it is that the roof is a preference," Gay said. "It's not a need."

He said other other stadiums have football games in hot weather without a roof and once Jacksonville gets past September, the heat no longer is an issue.

Jaguars President Mark Lamping said when the team started working four years ago on designing the "stadium of the future," fans made clear that reducing the heat in the stadium was at the top of their list.

"If you have 150 hospital transports during an NFL game in September, you know there's something wrong with the stadium that's highly abnormal," Lamping said. "In fact, it borders on being unsafe."

He said the roof also will help Jacksonville attract other sports events and concerts because they won't face the risk of heat and rain disruptions.

Council member Jimmy Peluso said he's seen people pass out at Jaguars games so it "truly is a health risk."

After wrapping up the amendments, council members at the meeting Friday voted without opposition to recommend approval of the legislation to the full council.

"With all these deliberations and all these amendments, I think it's an ever fairer deal now for taxpayers and for Jacksonville, and I'm still very much assured the Jags are going to be our partner here for 30 years," City Council member Nick Howland said.

City Council will convene its meeting earlier than usual Tuesday at 3 p.m. rather than the usual 5 p.m. start. The stadium legislation will come up for a vote toward the end of the meeting.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville City Council set to support stadium deal with Jaguars