Northeast Florida’s top 10 stories reflect a momentous 2024

Donna Deegan has her work cut out for her.

It’s almost time for Christmas, New Year’s celebrations and the Gator Bowl, so it’s understandable that Northeast Florida is ready to look forward.

But before we turn the calendar to 2025, let’s take a look back at the biggest stories that impacted the First Coast in 2024.

Stadium deal

The deal was done in June, and the future of the NFL is secured in Jacksonville for decades to come.

That’s the takeaway after the City Council voted 14-1 (with two abstentions) to approve spending $775 million renovating its NFL stadium, money to be matched with $625 million from the Jaguars.

The accord allocates an additional $56 million in city money (beyond the $775 million) for riverfront parks and improvements on the flex field, which abuts the stadium. 

“We can reach historic, generational process when we focus and work together for a singular goal, together,” Mayor Donna Deegan said.

The 2024 season hasn’t gone the way football fans might have wanted locally, but within just a few years, the city will have a stadium that competes with those in bigger markets. With a revived sports district, the big bet is that an economic engine will finally ramp up around the franchise, fulfilling expectations that are now decades old.

FRS, finally

Pension reform, again.

That’s the big takeaway from the Jacksonville Association of Fire Fighters and the local Fraternal Order of Police unions being given a path to the Florida Retirement System this Summer.

Defined benefit pensions were eliminated for new hires as of 2017, a condition of pension reform legislation in Jacksonville and Tallahassee. The measures authorized a successful referendum dedicating a current half-cent sales tax to defraying legacy pension debt once its current purpose of paying down Better Jacksonville Plan obligations is fulfilled.

Though the city hasn’t dug out from the multibillion-dollar hole created by the old plan closed by former Mayor Lenny Curry, the current Mayor is confident that the city can shoulder this burden.

There’s time to figure it out. But the ultimate cost won’t be known until the next election cycle.

“The first realized budget impacts will be in FY28. There are several variables that make it difficult to pinpoint the exact financial impact until employee elections occur in 2027,” said a spokesperson for Deegan earlier this year.

Wiles wins

One of the most trusted advisors to various Jacksonville Mayors is now the right-hand person to President-elect Donald Trump.

After her work to get him elected, Susie Wiles moves on to be his Chief of Staff.

In theory, this is great news for Jacksonville. There are few who understand the city’s myriad capital and infrastructural needs like Wiles does.

In practice, it will be a test of the bipartisanship of the current administration to see if they can sublimate plays to capital-D Democrats to leverage Northeast Florida’s previously unimagined political capital to bring resources home to Duval.

Concentration camps? Seriously?

One factor that could hurt city efforts in bringing home the bacon: the Mayor’s intemperate comments about the President-elect during the stretch run of the presidential campaign.

During an interview with Times Radio in London, Deegan said Trump would put “people in what would really amount to a concentration camp-type situation to round them out of the country.”

Deegan didn’t back down when the host accused her of using loaded language.

“What would we call them? If you’re rounding people up and putting them in camps?” Deegan responded. “What would we call those? It’s a concentration of people that are in a camp. I’m not suggesting anything beyond that, but I just think it seems rather inhumane to me.”

The comments led to a swift rebuke and an unambiguous suggestion from Trump World.

“This is not only unequivocally false but the same type of dangerous rhetoric that led to two assassination attempts … and has divided our country,” said spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. “This no-name Mayor should resign in disgrace over this egregious comment.”

Though it’s possible the White House could get around this, it’s not likely this Mayor gets access to the administration in the way she did during the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris era.

Leap for LaVilla

An urban core Jacksonville neighborhood on the rise will be boosted by a presence from the state’s flagship university.

The University of Florida is bringing a grad school campus to LaVilla, and the impact will be significant.

There will be 22 buildable acres at this site near the Prime Osborn available to UF for the campus. The hope, per the administration, is that “design, planning, and construction” ramps up this year.

Until the build is complete, an existing building near the historic convention center will be used for classes, representing a change of plans from previous proposals that contemplated the JEA tower as temporary home for the fledgling campus.

When finally constructed, the campus will include the Florida Semiconductor Institute, further sweetening the deal which will be seeded by $300 million in public and private funds.

The state approved $75 million in each of the last two budgets, which is in addition to $50 million in commitments by the Jacksonville City Council and $50 million from private donors. The Deegan administration wants $50 million more in city money spread out over four years for the build.

The Jacksonville Jaguars were willing to cede 14 acres adjacent to the stadium sports complex the team wants to be built out before 2030. They also were willing to front $5 million of the private contribution. But the administration resisted the temptation to concentrate development at the sports complex, which is already set for a capital infusion. 

Programs are expected to include a professional MBA program, a master’s in management with a concentration in AI, a master’s in engineering management with a concentration in data analytics, a master’s in computer science with concentrations in AI and cybersecurity, a master’s in the study of law, and a master’s in AI in biomedical and health sciences.

“Our expansion into Jacksonville is exciting, especially as new companies continue to move to the area and look to hire outstanding talent,” said Interim UF President Kent Fuchs. “The workforce-oriented graduate programs we’ll be offering will help build tomorrow’s leaders and positively impact the state’s economy. Jacksonville — like UF — is on the forefront of innovation. This is a place where our students will create great change and help transform the industries of the future.”

Duval goes red

This November was a watershed election for Duval County Republicans, given that statewide candidates Trump and Rick Scott both won the county, while Reggie Blount won election to the School Board in a Westside Jacksonville district.

Dean Black, the outgoing three-term Chair of the local party, said none of that was an accident, with superior organization and long-term planning coupled with rigorous voter outreach driving the result, and spotlighting a path forward for the resurgent Republican Party.

“Ever since I became Chairman, the single thing I have focused on is voter registration,” Black said. “When I became Chair at the end of 2018 and going into 2019, as we were getting operations going, the Democrats achieved a lead in voter registration of over 40,000. Today it’s down to 11,000, and that’s the lowest plurality Democrat lead in history. And the size of the army you bring to the field matters.”

The army drives turnout, and Black notes that despite a slight registration edge for Democrats, Republicans win the battle of “pure raw voter turnout.” He expects that to continue, aided by aggressive fundraising; Black notes he’s raised “millions and millions of dollars” to that end.

Speaker on deck

Speaker-designate Sam Garrison will again be in a position of power in the House this year, with an ability to advance his legislative agenda and regional priorities.

As the Clay County Republican and current Rules and Ethics Chair prepares to take the gavel from Daniel Perez in two years, he will spend considerable time on organizational priorities.

“Traditionally the Speaker-designate doesn’t carry a lot of legislation. That’s not for any reason other than you’re kind of pulled into 1,000 different directions, and so I honestly don’t know if I’ll be formally carrying any bills this year. I’ll certainly be very involved in what we’re doing in the House and with legislation I care about and supporting my colleagues,” Garrison said.

He will also have to keep an eye on the 2026 election cycle, ensuring strong candidates to the House are “ready to roll in two years” when he’s Speaker.

“That’s kind of the role I have this year, and then also making sure that from the rules perspective that the House itself is operating efficiently,” Garrison said. “It’s kind of a servant leadership position with this term and that role. You’ve really got to focus on your colleagues more than yourself.”

Garrison sees part of his path this year as ensuring legislative “continuity” from one Speaker to the next, something he also expects to be the case if state Rep. Jennifer Canady takes over as expected as Speaker after the 2028 election.

Homeless help?

Speaking of Garrison, a bill he pushed this year created a budget predicament for Jacksonville and its increasingly widespread problem with unhoused people sleeping in public spaces.

The ban on public camping and sleeping compels counties to set up encampments that ban drugs and alcohol and include rehabilitative social services as a way of enforcing the prohibition against rough sleeping as part of what the sponsor calls a “compassionate response to the shortage of shelters.” 

Those conditions, funded by the counties, include clean restrooms, running water, security on premises and bans on drugs and alcohol. They must also be located in places that don’t impact the value of nearby properties.

Deegan has said she doesn’t like the camps idea, and doesn’t want to arrest people. Still, as Jacksonville Today notes, 448 people have been “warned” about sleeping on the streets, and the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department has offered outreach and services and one-way bus tickets to about 150 people.

“In terms of sending people into the communities where they come from, I know that’s probably not the most popular thing, but at the end of the day, you have so many resources for the citizens of your city,” Deegan said on her regular WJCT segment. “And if people are either being bussed here and or somehow are here and they’d rather go home to be closer to family, I think that’s just one resource we have.” 

Time is of the essence to solve the problem as state law allows for civil action starting Jan. 1 against property owners impacted by non-enforcement.

Last dance

It appears a congressional seat with a connection to Jacksonville will see its balance of power shift southward next year.

State Sen. Randy Fine of Brevard County is the odds-on favorite to win Florida’s 6th Congressional District seat last held by U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, who is moving on to the Trump administration as a National Security Adviser.

The district encompasses part of St. Johns County, but extends south to the Daytona area and Orlando exurbs.

Jacksonville City Councilman Rory Diamond flirted with running for the seat, touting a deployment to Palm Coast as a sign of locality, but he ultimately did not run.

Fine has Primary and General Election opponents, but the Trump-endorsed veteran politico looks likely to vanquish his underfunded and largely unknown competition.

Hutson exits

CD 6 is not the only power play lost by Jacksonville adjacent politicians.

St. Johns County couldn’t hold the Senate seat formerly held by term limited Travis Hutson, as Tom Leek of Ormond Beach wrested it away from the region.

Not that locals didn’t try to keep the seat — former St. Johns Sheriff David Shoar and one-time pro wrestler Gerry James ran in the Primary.

But Leek, a Tallahassee power player connected to Gov. Ron DeSantis, won that big money fight then knocked over the Democratic sacrificial lamb in the General Election.

We’d advise the Mayor’s Office to get to know Leek, who was the House Appropriations Chair and would seem to be on track to do something similar in the Senate at some point. They tell us they’ve talked to locals in the delegation as they try to work Tallahassee this Session, but they haven’t provided a list of what priorities are being carried by local legislators yet.