Ordinance 2026-574<\/a>, is titled the \u201cStand for Service Act.\u201d It\u2019s being brought forward by City Council Pres. Nick Howland.<\/p>\nUnder the ordinance, companies receiving a Recapture Enhanced Value (REV) Grant incentive would be required to make a \u201cgood faith effort\u201d to hire qualified veterans and\/or active-duty military spouses for a minimum of 10% of new jobs created, according to the bill.<\/p>\n
Howland said the idea is to connect city-backed job growth with Jacksonville\u2019s large military and veteran community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a city of about a million and growing and we have over 100 000 veterans here,\u201d Howland said. \u201cSo 10% of our workforce should be veterans … Veterans earn more than non-veterans. Veterans volunteer more than non-veterans and veterans vote more than non-veterans. So if we can grow and better our workforce, we\u2019re growing a community contingent that gives back to the city of Jacksonville.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howland described the 10% threshold as a target rather than a strict quota. He said it is meant to be \u201caspirational,\u201d adding that falling short could affect whether a company receives incentives in the future.<\/p>\n
The ordinance also includes a separate economic development provision involving Cecil Airport. The bill updates the city\u2019s policy to acknowledge Cecil Airport as a primary engine for economic and workforce development and says projects benefiting Cecil Airport should receive additional positive consideration when the city evaluates potential public investments.<\/p>\n
Howland also defended the bill when asked how it fits into broader debates about hiring practices or DEI, arguing the policy is focused on veterans and military families.<\/p>\n
\u201cVeterans are the best candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are not DEI hires. Veterans have written blank checks up to and including their lives for our nation, the least we can do is make sure that they have a productive and enjoyable post-service life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bill was introduced Tuesday and will now move through the standard committee and review process before it comes back to the full City Council for a vote.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council introduced a new bill Tuesday night that would change the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,2583,3393],"class_list":["post-355454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-military","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}