City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Five o'clock on the wall. It is six o'clock, and we'd like to start our meetings promptly on time. I'd like to first and foremost welcome each and every one of you to the City of Fayetteville City Council meeting for May the 21st, and especially to our citizens who are here. We thank you for coming and being a part of observing and watching your city council as we make decisions with our staff and as we continue to move this city forward. As always, we'd like to make sure that you're informed about what we're covering tonight. Our city clerk, Ms. Chelsea, has a hard copy of the agenda, but it's also being displayed on the screen. But in case you want to take some copious notes, you might want to get a hard copy of the agenda. Again, here in the city of Fayetteville, we open up our meetings with prayer or inspiration. And on tonight, I've asked Councilwoman Moultrie to give us an inspiration. And then we ask after the inspiration, if you don't mind standing and then citing our Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you.

Good evening, and thank you all for being here. Before we begin our work tonight, I'd like to offer a few simple words of encouragement. A moment for all of us to pause together before we turn to the business of the evening. We are one community, and a community is strongest not when everyone agrees, but when we choose to see the best in one another. When we look at our neighbor and assume good faith. When we listen before we answer. When we remember that the person across the table or across the aisle wants at heart many of the same things they do. Safety, dignity, and a good life for their children. These are uncertain times. The headlines are heavy, and the world beyond Fayetteville can feel unsteady in ways that reach right into our homes, our jobs, our families, our sense of what tomorrow may hold. Those thoughts and concerns are valid. Distress is not a weakness. It is a sign that we care. But let me leave you with this. For all our uncertainty, the most beautiful part of humanity has never changed. It is love. It is the meal carried to a grieving family, the hand extended to someone who has fallen, the consistent choice to show up for one another again and again without being asked. That is who we are at our best. So let's bring that to the work in front of us tonight. Patience, goodwill, and genuine care for the people we serve. Thank you, and let's get to work.

Thank you, Councilwoman Moultrie. Please stand as we face our flag and cite our Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, Again, we welcome you. At this time, we have the agenda prepared, and I ask the council members, what is your pleasure with the agenda that has been presented?

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to amend the agenda to table consent agenda item number nine.

Okay, the motion is to approve the agenda with the motion to table consent agenda item number nine. Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay. Is there any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers, nay. Approval of the minutes of the April 16, 2026 City Council regular meeting. Council members, what is your pleasure?

I move to approve. Second.

Properly moved and seconded. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposers have the same privilege, nay. All righty. And approval of the minutes for the May 7th, 2026 City Council Work Session.

Moved and approved.

Second. Moved and second. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers, nay. Recognitions and presentations. Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that our city of Fayetteville staff, which we call family, is growing. And so we have some new employees. And as such, I'm going to first ask our police chief, Robert Mast, to come up and introduce the newest member of our police family. And then we're going to ask Chelsea Seaman to introduce the newest of our administrative staff.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

Good evening, sir.

uh fellow directors uh first of all um i'm gonna pass the buck to sergeant montford to introduce our new employees okay um but i do have a special one um uh to give to y'all tonight uh we made a promotion within the within the police department for our office manager um miss kim bailey she started with the police department back in july 2017. she's been a very loyal employee for us. She does a lot of things. Right now she's multitasking everything right now because we are short on our open records request person. But I've shared a lot of conversations with her over the years. She's heard a lot of conversations and everybody asks, well, why didn't you just appoint her for that position? But I wanted her to know that she earned that position. We had 10 good applicants that put in for it that were qualified. We had outside assessors come in, and based on their recommendation, judgment, and based on ours, Ms. Kim was the number one pick. So me and her talked about that, and she earned that position. So I would like to introduce Ms. Kim Beatty as our new office manager.

Thank you, Chief. Glad to see you.

Sergeant Mumford will recognize us.

Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I just want to say thank you, first of all, for your support and everything that you do for us in providing the essential employees, personnel, and equipment that we need to keep our city safe. So, first and foremost, thank you. On behalf of Chief Mance, I want to introduce a couple of employees, new hires, and graduates that you met before. Our latest new hire comes to us with experience in the field of uniform patrol and school resource officer. And she will start with us off in the uniform patrol division. And that first newly hired employee, her name is Ms. Latoya King. She will come up. Ms. Latoya King will start her field training with the City of Fayetteville Uniformed Patrol the week starting of June 4th, 2026. Secondly, you've met these particular employees before, but I am proud to report to you tonight that they went from being cadets to officers graduating from the Fayette County Sheriff's Office Regional Law Enforcement Training Center. So tonight, I present to you from cadet to officer, officer, excuse me, class president, Officer Jasmine Shropshire. Fayette County Regional has since graduated, their third graduating class since opening up, and Jasmine was the first class president representing the city of Fayetteville Police Department. Our second employee, from cadet to officer, I present to you Officer Pavel Sanchez. And last but not least, I present to you from cadet to officer, Officer Robert Mendi-Bless. President Sharpshire started her first day in field training today on day shift. Her field training officer right now is Sergeant Justin Taylor. Sergeant Taylor. He stepped out. Okay. And Officer Sanchez starts tonight. Is that tonight? Tonight. So he'll be on patrol tonight. And Officer Robert Mendebles will be on patrol starting tomorrow morning. So again, on behalf of Chief Mast and the entire command staff, we just want to say thank you for your support.

we ask all of our new family members just to stand where you are because we have one more we want to welcome and we will take pictures that come down from the DS and give you a handshake of welcome all at once Chelsea good evening I would like to introduce our new deputy city clerk Valencia Tarver she is coming to us from the building department

so very grateful to have her.

Outstanding. Okay, welcome. Why don't you come on down so we can welcome you along with all the new officers, okay?

All right.

Council members. We don't have the rendition of We Are Family.

you

CHIEF MASS, I WAS GOING TO COMMENT THAT TO SERGEANT MONFORT THAT YOU WERE PASSING A BUCK. SERGEANT MONFORT, I THINK, WANTS A LITTLE BUCK, OKAY? ESPECIALLY IN TODAY'S ECONOMY, AT LEAST $20 FOR DOING IT. I'M JUST KIDDING. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE NEED TO MOVE ON TO NEW BUSINESS AT THIS TIME. FIRST ITEM FOR NEW BUSINESS IS CONSIDER RESOLUTION NUMBER 26, R-24, Intergovernmental Agreement with Fayette County for Inmate Services, presented by our City Manager, Mr. Ray Gibson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The resolution before you tonight is for an approval of an amendment to the IGA with Fayette County regarding the provision of inmate services. This amendment will increase the inmate rate, daily rate, from 5760 to 7212. The city will be billed for the number of days an inmate is booked into the jail in the discharge day. And this agreement is a yearly agreement that can be terminated by either party with 90 days written notice. They actually were gonna raise it up to $96, and so they're giving us a discount. Okay, but as we know the cost of all the services that we do it here in government.

They're going up so We can absorb this increase Thank You city manager with any questions about city manager on this resolution Even though this is not a public hearing item are they any questions many of the citizens on this item I Council members, what is your pleasure with resolution number 26R24?

Move to approve resolution number 26-R-24. Okay, you're adding the dashes in.

Is that going to cost us? No, I'm just kidding. Okay. It's been properly moved and seconded that we approve resolution 26R24. Is there any further discussion on that item from the council? Hearing none. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposers, nay. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're moving on to consent agenda items. These items have been discussed either in our work session or with the city council before, and so we are just approving these items, knowing what they are, and giving our staff direction to proceed. Consent agenda item 26, order 23, lease agreement with Round Town LLC. Consent... 26R25, Amendment to the Service Cost for Jericho Engineering Contract Agreement. 26R28, Departmental Job Restructuring for Communications and Municipal Court. And 26R29, City Manager Foyer Contract Amendment. Do I have a motion to approve those consent agenda items from council?

So moved.

Properly moved and seconded. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers, nay. Ladies and gentlemen, as we draw to a close on our city council meeting, we now go to reports and comments. We ask our city manager if he's got anything to report.

Mayor, on the overhead, you'll see a number of events. I don't see them yet. There they are. They're going to be happening over the next couple weeks. And I do want to note that we will be closed for Memorial Day as we honor the courageous men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who made the ultimate sacrifice. So make sure we recognize that special day. And I do want to point out that it is a happy belated birthday to Dr. Glover, Council Member Dr. Glover. Her birthday was May 16th. Thirty-five, right? Thirty-five.

I'll take that one.

I do want to recognize that it's Public Works Week, to thank our Public Works staff for all the wonderful work that they do. They do it in the hot, they do it in the cold. They're always out there, they're always willing to help, so I just want to make sure we thank them. If you're a resident, always, you see them working hard, please go over there and thank them for all the wonderful work that they do. And I do want to wish and congratulate Mayor Johnson and your wife, Vanessa, on your happy, your 23rd pastoral anniversary at Flat Creek, Flat Rock, Flat Creek, Flat Rock AME Church. The Rock. The Rock.

Congratulations. And that's it. I see we've got our Public Works Director, Mr. Cajun Rose. Any other Public Works employees here? Cajun, why don't you stand and take a bow and applause for the entire school. I know that other guy, Chris Hyman, sitting next to you won't take all the credit, but... Yeah, I know. And he's doing an incredible job. The staff is doing a wonderful job on the streets keeping Fayetteville looking good and always responding, especially when we have the water break on Grady. So thank you all very much for the outstanding job that you do. City Council members, do you want to make a report on or say it?

Just to keep... Mike Bush, our finance director, as he had bypassed her recently. Again, keep them in your prayers, please. Thank you.

I'd also like to do a shout-out to the Fable Historic Cemetery Committee. If you didn't notice, if you've not been here for a while and looked at it, they've been working on this for four years, but this past week, with the help of some very great... corporations who came in and funded it for them because, folks, they needed $150,000. It takes a long time to raise that money. Now they don't have to do it because these people came out. We had a huge work day with great attendance. And I'd like Gail Martin Jenkins for her.

How do I put that?

Her tenacity and pit bull attitude to get everything done. She's done a great job.

She must have had to tell you to do things a couple of times. Is that why? All right. Any other council members have anything you want to say? Moving to the mayor's comments, as we get ready to enter into the summer season, especially with our young people getting out of school, we're glad to be able to provide the city park, especially with the splash pad for our young people to enjoy themselves. I think if you have not, you can check out our website. We've established some operating days and hours, and so hopefully the young people will come out and enjoy themselves and not break up. the equipment, okay, like we've had in the past. So we also look forward to going to the GMA conference in the later part of June and becoming even more knowledgeable about how to make sure our government, our municipality and city council operate efficiently and effectively. So those are my comments. We now open the floor for citizen comments. This is an opportunity for other citizens to come. You can give compliments, criticisms, condemnations if you want. It's about anything. And we will open up our ears and take copious notes and listen. Citizens are here. Come forward. Give us your name and your address. And please sign in for the record.

Citizens, the floor is open.

Sign in here?

Yes, sir. Awesome. Let's see what's on your mind. And then you can sign in that way.

Absolutely. Well, good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to be here. My name is Onus Hunt. I'm the pastor of the Great Commission Church. We've been here in the city of Fayetteville for about a year now. We are located at 405 Fayette Place, Fayetteville, Georgia, 30214. I just wanted to come up and introduce myself and say pleased to meet you all. We had an amazing meeting earlier on with Mr. Ray Gibson for the ambassador program, and so we're looking forward to partnering with that. I'm also here with my wife. I don't want to get in trouble.

My wife is over there.

But that's it. Met Mayor Johnson some months ago as well, and so just excited to be here in the city. I'm excited to be partnering with you all and seeing how we can continue to strengthen this community as a church body as well, and to be more than just a church, supporting this community as well. So that's all.

Thank you. Welcome. Welcome, welcome.

Any other citizens? Seeing and hearing none.

Ladies and gentlemen, our work is done. Okay. At this time, there's nothing else. I've been informed that we do not need to go into the executive session. So we are all complete with the agenda items. And therefore, I will entertain a motion that we... What y'all got going on there?

Ray wanted to know if he was allowed to go to the splash pad. He just bought a new swimsuit. He was really excited about trying it out. I was about to wait for the case.

Okay, yes, all right. I'll entertain a motion that we adjourn motion to adjourn Probably moved and second all those in favor signify by saying aye Any opposers nay we adjourn ladies. Thank you very much, especially to the citizens who are here We hope that you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend Even though it's gonna be wet