City Council - Regular Meeting

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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to the City of Fayetteville City Council meeting, regular City Council meeting for July the 16th here in the City of Fayetteville. We are delighted any time citizens come to our City Council meetings. We know that many of the citizens are also watching virtually, but any time the citizens are here, we take it a privilege Now is the fact that you are here to watch the City Council as we make decisions and hold us accountable. Here in the City of Fayetteville, we'd like to open up our meetings with a prayer. And on this Thursday, I've asked our Mayor Pro Tem, Councilman Darrell Langford, to give us an opening prayer. Then we ask if you would please stand and cite our Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you.

Okay, let us bow our heads. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you thanking you for this day. Father, we thank you for shedding your blessings upon us for a beautiful day. Father, we ask that you continue to be with us. Give us the wisdom to make the decisions that line up with your word. decisions that will cater to and bless this population in the city of Fayetteville. Father, we ask that you bless our leader, the mayor of this fine city. We ask that you bless each and every council member, bless the staff, and most importantly, bless our citizens. These and many other blessings in Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

Amen. Please stand and sign our pledge of allegiance. And we're going to ask, gentlemen, please take your hats off.

Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. We have an agenda that has been prepared by our staff for us tonight to govern the meeting. The agendas are provided. It's also on the screen, but if you want a hard copy, you can see one of our clerks of Ms. Chelsea Seaman and Ms. Valencia. They will be glad to make sure you have a copy. The agenda has been prepared, as I said. Councilmembers, what is your pleasure with the agenda?

Move to approve. Second.

Properly moved and seconded. We approve the agenda. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers, nay. The approval of the minutes of the June 18th, 2026 City Council meeting. Council members, it is your pleasure with the minutes.

Move to approve. Second.

Properly moved and second. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers, nay. Ladies and gentlemen, we're always proud to do recognitions and presentations here in our city council meetings. And tonight, we are so delighted to have new employees introduced. So at this time, I'm going to ask Ms. Kim Beatty to come to represent the police department to introduce new employees.

Good evening.

Good evening, Ms. Beatty.

the Mayor and Council, and City Manager Ray and his staff. I just want to first of all thank you all for allowing me to introduce our new staff member. She is the Administrative Assistant Open Records Clerk. She comes to us with a vast knowledge of HR work, history of HR work, and She is a 22-year Army veteran. She's worked for the Coweta County Solicitor's Office as their pretrial diversion coordinator. She's only been with us for two weeks, and she has demonstrated that we picked a winner this time. She's come right in. Open records is not an easy job, but she's come right in. stepped right in and taken over as if she's been working here for quite some time. So without further ado, I will introduce to you all Ms. Tenjaleer Oates.

All right.

All of those compliments and credits to her. She made one mistake. your children shows the wrong branch of the service i have to say it's called army folks up here i'm sorry i'm the only navy so my air force buddy is no longer but uh but welcome we really appreciate the majority we really appreciate you coming to the city of fayetteville and adding to the incredible work that our police department is doing and we will make a more formal acknowledgement when we come up to the police department and say thank you for being here and welcome. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Let's do a picture?

Yeah, sure.

We've got time.

That works perfectly.

All right. And let's see on the count of three. One, two, and three. One, two, and three.

On the count of three. One, two, three. Thank you all so much.

If you'll hold, I'm just going to get one more, one more. Okay. And we can leave that slide. That's perfect. One, two, and three. Thank you.

New family member. Welcome to the family. All right. Another presentation. We want to get the skinny on the launch of the city of Fayetteville's new website, redesigned, featuring Fayetteville stories and the Fayetteville fact checker. Presented by our Director of Communications, Ms. Glenetta Griffin.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. After months of planning, collaboration, and development, it is with great excitement that we introduce the city of Fayetteville's newly redesigned website. This long-anticipated project spearheaded by our communications department represents a significant step forward in how we serve our city departments, residents, businesses, and visitors. We now offer a more modern, user-friendly, and accessible digital experience that reflects the professionalism and spirit of Fayetteville. This launch represents an important step forward in how we share information, deliver services, and connect with the public. We are excited to share this milestone with you and look forward to continuing to enhance the way we communicate with the public through this new digital front door to the City of Fayetteville. So I'm gonna show you, if you can see right here, this is just the front page, this part doesn't move. We have career opportunities, our data dashboard, Fayetteville Story, which I'm gonna go into detail. You can access our GoVille app right on the front page. Plans and studies, make a payment, report an issue, and public notices, and a lot more. So this is our new video motion header. So if you're looking on a mobile device, depending on your device, it may move, it may be stagnant, but these are some of the highlights of a few places that make Fayetteville special. And next, we are featuring Fayetteville Fact Check. I am super excited to release this. It's a new page that will serve as a trusted source for accurate and transparent information about the city. Visitors can submit questions or comments through the Fact Checker form to be added to the page. Now, why this is so special is because there's a lot of people spreading misinformation about the city of Fayetteville on social media. So now we have a centralized location, and I do want to warn everyone, if you do spread misinformation about the city, we have a little graphic that we're going to hit you with on social media that says you've been hit with a fact checker. So we're going to make sure you get the facts, okay? We can make one. Okay, next is Fayetteville Story. I am super excited about this one as well. So Fayetteville Story is our multimedia storytelling hub. It serves as the city's central storytelling platform, providing consistent and engaging ways to highlight the people, the places, the milestones and moments that shape our community. By aligning every story with the city's brand and vision, we're creating meaningful connections, preserving our history, and showcasing exciting futures in Fayetteville. We're ensuring that the community's story remains at the heart of everything that we do. So I'm gonna go, a few of our features right here, City Lens, if you guys have seen City Lens, we release City Lens every single month. So we recap the previous month, so you can actually go to the website right now to recap June, and we will continue to do that. We have, a section of our history, because you have to know where we came from, and you have to know the history of our city. We have news notices, we have a new press room where we have all of our press releases archived, and we have updated stories that would be there, we have surveys and videos. This is our storytelling team. I'm your director of communications, Glenetta Griffin. We have Danny Harrison, our public information officer, Lindsey Blunt, communications manager, and Reynaldo Angola Hernandez, our multimedia content producer. Our storytelling team is dedicated to capturing and sharing the authentic stories that define our community. Through the voices of our residents, businesses, employees and community partners, we celebrate the heritage, innovation, culture and progress that make Fayetteville a special place to live, work and visit. And our storytelling team is also our web team, and they have literally been working so hard on this for the last few months. I do want to highlight Danny Harrison, our public information officer, who is our project manager on the web team. And he was locked in to every meeting, getting us to the finish line, calling these people, just making sure we did not miss a beat. I do want our storytelling team to stand, please. Just stand where you are and wave. Thank you. And I wanna show you a video. Every city has a story. In Fayetteville, we're telling ours. Welcome to Fayetteville Story, our digital storytelling hub where you can discover the people, places, events, and moments that make our city unique, from major milestones to everyday memories. Fayetteville Story helps to stay connected to our community and our future. Your stories, your city, your Fayetteville. There are no limits on imagination. Visit FayettevilleStory.com and explore the next chapter of Fayetteville's story. I do want to give some special thanks to the mayor and council for your support through this process, our city manager Ray Gibson, our communications team, our Civic Plus redesign team. As always, we want to thank our Department of Information Technology for supporting their work with the website, the mobile app, and serving as our technology advisors, and all city departments and staff for their patience and their updates to their personal pages. So while we're excited to reach this milestone and to roll out the new design and features, this is still a beginning. It's a new beginning, and we're moving things around. So with anything we just launched two days ago, we're still working out some kinks, but we are live and certain things couldn't be updated until the actual website was live. So if you see some things, just know we're still working. This is gonna be a work in progress. We're continuously updating, adding stories, and we are going to be working on an ongoing basis to make sure that the website and our stories are up to date. So please be patient with us, but get ready as we take our storytelling to the next level, and don't forget to download the Goville app in the process. Thank you.

Thank you, Glenetta. Let's give them a round of applause. Your team has done a tremendous job, and I'm going to let the council make some compliments and comments, but I will commend you for what you're doing. You talk about working out kinks. I'm 70 years old, and I'm still working out kinks. Council members, do you have any comments for the communication? Ms. Glenetta.

I just want to say, when I came in today, I just pulled it up for the first time. I didn't even know it had transferred over to live, and I was like, wow. So it was a great wow factor.

Really good. That's a great job. No, that's a great job.

Yeah, I said it before, you know, I think this is the A team right here, man. You guys are awesome.

Thank you. Again, y'all are doing an amazing job. Thank you all for all the work y'all do as far as with the Mental Health Advisory Board, on the videos. Again, it's a stellar job.

Thank you.

Job well done. Thank you for bringing everyone's story to life.

Okay. Thank you all.

Thank you, again. Ladies and gentlemen, we need to move on to public hearings, and so item number four is the second hearing of our ordinance number 26019, fiscal year 2017, presented by our city manager, Mr. Ray Gibson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening, sir. At our last meeting, Karen Austin did a wonderful job, didn't she, presenting the budget? She did. I'm not going to repeat it. I just wanna mention, we do have an increase of 19, almost 20%. in our budget i do want to thank like i said karen austin mike bush keep mike in your thoughts and prayers as he continues to recover from his surgery our department heads a lot of them who are here tonight did a wonderful job you all did a wonderful job communicating your concerns and your priorities to us which we included in this fiscal year 2027 budget so I'm going to open the floor. If you want to ask the public, open the public hearing. I'll answer any questions. Did you have any?

I just got one. I was reading further down. I saw the contract for Clearwater Solutions. And I was looking at public works. It was a different number. So is that number under a different number?

Water and sewer. That number, the Clearwater is with the Water and Sewer Department. So they do our operations.

Any other questions from council do we have any citizens who have any questions on this item?

Hearing none Thank you very much. This is our last hearing on this item. We need to move on to item number five, which is to consider the adoption of ordinance number 26019, the fiscal year 27 budget.

You want to say anything else? It's easy to move forward and make a motion.

Council members, what is your pleasure with this ordinance? Properly moved and seconded. Any unreadiness? Shouldn't be, but... All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers, nay. Thank you. Appreciate you, City Manager. Consider ordinance number 26018. Request for... Dodd here to rezone 326... Acres at Highway 314, parcel number 0537-051. From professional office to neighborhood commercial. Presented by our senior planner, Ms. Marissa Jackson.

Good evening.

Hello, Marissa.

This project is located at the north end of the city here. It's at the intersection of New Hope Road and Highway 314. It's currently zoned professional office and the applicant would like to use it as a banquet hall. Banquet halls are not a permitted use in professional office so the applicant has requested to rezone to neighborhood commercial which is the same zoning as the adjacent parcel here to the south. This parcel used to be the Bank of America building. It has been vacant for many years. The applicant has considered a number of different uses, including a gas station, a restaurant, an urgent care center, a hotel, and after some conversations and some extensive community engagement, the applicant has landed on a banquet hall. This is the conceptual site plan. There is a 25 foot highway buffer here. And then there is a 50 foot buffer here between the commercial use and the residential uses. The applicant is planning to reuse the existing structure and enclose the bank drive-through area so that is also usable space. And then they're also proposing to enclose this area, number three, as an addition. And the applicant is planning to add some additional parking as well. There is an entrance here on New Hope Road. And then a little bit farther south down here, there's another entrance on 314 that is shared with the adjacent parcel. The applicant gave us two different layouts. One was more of like a classroom style layout. The other one was more like a family style layout. We had some preliminary conversations with the building department and the fire department. And the fire marshal thinks that the banquet hall might be able to accommodate up to 280 people they're going to have to get a new certificate of occupancy and so the exact number of occupancy or exact number of people that can be there all at once will be determined on the new certificate of occupancy and that's going to be after the applicant submits renovation and building plans for review and so the the firm occupancy will be determined at that time but right now we're thinking it might be up to 280 people This request does align with our comprehensive plan and our strategic plan and some of the things that we've been hearing from residents and citizen groups at meetings like this. A lot of people say, why are we building new things? Can we reuse some of the spaces that are vacant? And so this is a great opportunity for us to redevelop an existing parcel. And that's something that we're grateful for that we're able to do with this. It does have inner parcel access, reduced parking, and also design in a way that's aesthetically pleasing for that corridor. At the Planning Commission, they recommended approval of the request for rezoning with staff conditions. And staff had four conditions. The first one is that the applicant has to submit building permits for interior renovation and a change of occupancy to be reviewed by staff, the building official, and the fire marshal. And also that before any renovations can happen, all permits must be received, reviewed, and approved by the staff. The other thing is that the site currently doesn't have a trash enclosure. Staff is recommending a condition that a trash enclosure that meets the UDO requirements is erected. And then, Some of the trees and shrubbery may need to be removed to accommodate parking. And so staff is recommending that any trees or shrubs that are removed are either replaced or that the applicant pays into the city's tree fund to accommodate for that. And that's everything.

Anything else, Marissa?

No, sir.

Is the applicant here?

Please come down, sir. Mr. C? Council may have some questions for you and Ms. Jackson as well, so. How are you today?

Good, how are you, sir? Good. Good evening, everyone. It's been three years. We've been up and down with the project with the community and feedbacks. I think, sure, this time we nailed it. I think, sure, it's a good project, which is right there on 314, that's a busy corridor. think so the community would be happy to keep the memories right there and I think so with the presence on the highway we can definitely have more business from other communities and other cities in the neighborhood so it's a great project and I'm looking forward to get it started

Okay, I'm gonna ask council, but let me ask you first. I agree with you, that would be a great concept to build a banquet hall, but do you intend on having a commercial kitchen in the banquet hall? No. Okay.

It's just gonna be something where they can bring the food from outside, heat it up. To catering, yes.

Okay, no problem. Questions from the council, from Ms. Jackson, or Mr., what's your last name again?

Correct, Adoria.

Adoria, that's right.

We're somewhere the bridegroom or Event they can dress up, you know and get ready for the event they can wait They don't have to be in the public. So it's something where you know they can sit and just wait for everyone to come in and have a grand entry and

I have a question. Now, it's already been acknowledged that there are a number of other possibilities you are looking at and now settling on this. So what assurances would we have that you're going to stick with this concept of doing an event hall as opposed to changing to something else that may be applicable under a new zoning?

think so again you know working with the community is the key thing and you know once we spend in this building you're talking about at least 400 to 500 thousand dollar worth of renovation at that point you know once we put up our plans for renovation there's no coming back We just have to hope that it works out for everyone. And then five, 10 years, we don't know if I still have the building. Yes, we'll continue it.

Looking at the renovations plans, you're going to be spending a lot of money. So let's hope it works for you.

Yes, definitely. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be something very trending, very new. You know, we have few event centers, but again, you know, this is, we are bringing new technology and new, it's going to be good. Yeah. She's my design team. She's working really hard on it, so.

Anything you want to offer? Something about the uniqueness of what you're planning in the design?

Not in particular. I think anything to that building is going to really improve the street presence.

So in one of your renderings you had a picture of Creed Pennell You guys have a relationship with him his family since his passing Yes, their family wanted to do it the event center at first my wife she's a very fond of interior design and everything and So our deal with them didn't work out. Again, everyone wants a deal. So, you know, they want me to spend the money and get the best out of it, which, again, I don't blame them at all. You know, it's your right to ask. But at the very end, you know, it was just not working. But I did offer them that once I do it, we can do events in collaboration. That way I stay busy and their work is done, too.

Very generous. I know the family well, and I'm thankful that you're willing to work with them. Any other questions from the council?

there were two proposed layouts i'm just trying to get more understanding are those two options that you'll be during you know at any given time what you're hosting there one looked like a classroom format like you would be hosting classes one is more wedding

celebratory so what are those so the first proposal where you see right now that was from Mr. Parnell's family this was their layout and then do we have the second layout no no the second layout is ours which is more of a event center layout so not the classroom setting not the classroom any other questions from the council

Do we have any questions from any of the citizens.

There I have one thing I want to. Oh I'm sorry city manager. Oh I'm sorry. Mr. Doty would you be open to having a condition on there that this be zoned but the condition that says it can only be used as an event center.

Yes, to begin with, yes, as I said, that's my goal. But at the same point, we just don't want 10 years down the road, if I'm not there, my family is inherited, they cannot handle it. If they sell it, again, restaurant, we are limited with neighborhood commercial with few things. Again, keeping the building would be much better for everyone. But as of right now, yes, this is the plan and this is what we are going with. Again, five years down the road.

One other question for you about the trees. I know that you have the option of either replanting trees or paying into the fund. As of right now, what would you tend to lean towards?

I think so. We'll try to leave the trees. We are not talking too many trees on the parking Just few of them, but then again Whatever they suggest the best alternative would be we are willing to do that All the questions from council no questions from the citizens council members, what is your pleasure with this item I

Move to approve ordinance number 26-0-18. Moved and seconded.

Any unreadiness?

Mr. Mayor, did you wish to add the conditions and the additional condition about the only use being permitted in the event center?

Okay.

Motion.

So would would that be one more question so event center is definitely on it's gonna go on and

the event if it doesn't work and again you know if it doesn't work it's like y'all will come to know the parties and you know we're gonna have would it be possible at that point since the layout for the banquet hall is more like a restaurant if somebody wants to lease us in restaurant we can always leave our options open

You have to come back and do that before council.

If you want to do that, you just have to come back before the council and make that request. Any changes, you have to come back. We'll do that.

Okay.

So everyone heard the motion with the conditions. Any unreadiness? Call for the vote. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposers, nay. Thank you, sir. Appreciate the work within the community, okay? You guys have been able to lease out the other in

Yes, we are bringing in exotic foods. So it is the food from all around the world, which I've seen in a couple of malls. So it's something new. Something different. Yeah, something different. So hopefully in an ice cream shop.

Wish you well on that. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, the next items on the agenda is a consent agenda. We have several items on the consent agenda, however, been informed by our attorney that item number nine needs to be removed. It goes contrary to our new charter, so at this time, I'm asking for an approval. Agenda items 26R34, the service agreement with Clearwater Solutions for water and sewer operations. 26R40, track execution for 2027 comprehensive plan for the consultant Blue Cypress Consulting firm. 26R42, vehicle donation to the Fayette County Sheriff's Department. 26R43, race schedule amendment for water and sewer rates, 26R44 rate schedule amendment for residential solid waste, and 26R45 rate schedule amendment for stormwater rates. Are there any questions on these items? If not, I will take a motion that we approve the consent agenda items I just listed. 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 get ready to wrap up, we're moving on to reports and comments. Our city manager, Mr. Ray Gibson. Thank you, Mayor. There should be a number...

events up on the overhead not up there right now there they are i'm not going to walk through them all but i do want to add i did want to talk about the fourth of july event that we had here at the city i think uh kudos to our leadership on our economic development team in main street but to all our departments please fire everyone public services everyone communications wonderful job great turnout almost 6 000 people attended The event, Lori gave us those accounts, which is similar to what we had for the birthday event we had. So I just want to say thank you, and I think we have a video, correct, to watch?

So we'll put that video up. Great work.

Let's commend our staff for incredible work. And all respect to every staff member, even those out there volunteering in the heat. I stayed for a couple hours. I couldn't take much more. It was the hardest day ever. Anything else City Manager?

Yes, in June of every year the Mayor and Council, myself, and Chris, Chris went this year, Chris Hyndman, the City Manager, we went to the Georgia Municipal Association Conference. So our Council members get recognized for some awards. I just want to outline some of those awards that were received this year by our Mayor and Council. So the NOC certification, The Knox Leadership Certification was achieved by Mayor Ed Johnson, Council Members Joe Clark, Darrell Langford, and Dr. Nya Glover. That's a great course. It was like three or four days. Well done. Let's give them a round of applause.

And City Manager Ray Gibson.

I skipped. And Council Member Dr. Glover earned her Certificate of Excellence 120 credit hours. Congratulations. Mayor Johnson also received his certificate of excellence 120 credit hours and also a certificate of distinction 204 credit hours so congratulations. Police Department's holding their 24th annual Junior Police Academy starting today. 21 youth are participating. That's a great turnout. I think it's, yeah, Monday morning some of us will be there to take off the class, so it'll be exciting. I do want to, you know, I wasn't going to forget this. Chris Heinemann, our Assistant City Manager's birthday is July 20th. He said he'll be 43, so happy birthday, Chris.

Anything else? Thank you very much. City attorney, do you have anything for us tonight?

For me, thank you.

Okay. Council members, committee reports, anything?

I just want to follow up on what Ray said for July 4th. And folks, the community came out, and that is exactly what the vision that this mayor put out years ago, and city manager, for those things to happen. And the staff made it happen. And when you've got 6,000 people come out, I mean...

Almost as big as that Christmas one we had the first year.

Of course, the Georgia National Championship game was on TV, too, and everybody was out there. But this project here is why it happened. And it's just going to get bigger and bigger. Appreciate the staff for all the work y'all did on that.

Anyone else? I want to say in addition to the 250th celebration, I want to give our staff kudos just for the job that they do day in and day out. There's a lot going on in this city. And they come in and they execute with extreme professionalism. And, you know, they really get the job done. And through anything that's difficult and that's hard, they come out shining. They come out excellent at it. So thank you again, staff, for everything that you do for this city.

No, I like you. You and I think alike. You know, you took the words out of my mouth, but okay. No other comments from the council members at this time? Again, it's been a very hot summer, and I want to commend every staff member, but even particularly those who are out there on the streets, our public service, our public works department, our firemen, our police officers who respond to calls. But even the office staff, you know, I commend you for the work that we've accomplished over the summer. And I'd like to say there's more to come, okay? So don't ask me about the project on Highway 54 in Lanier. I mean Highway 85 in Lanier, okay? It's coming along finally, so we're thankful. At this time, we open the floor for citizen comments. If there are any citizens who would like to come and address the council, please come forward, address compliments, commendations, or even complaints. We'd love to hear what's on your mind. Will you please come? When you come, please give us your name and your address for the record.

No one has anything? Okay. There was one other thing we left out.

You did?

The back alley project.

That's what I was talking about. One of those two.

I mean.

I was scared to say something.

It looks amazing, and I know we've still got a little more work to do there, but that's going to be a new gathering space for this city. looks really good thank y'all for all you did for that because let's say that was only I was on planning and zoning in 2018 and that was came up and it was about years before that but the mural looks great mural does look great two years ago the mayor and this council said the number one priority was get that project done finally and of course we did run into some difficulties I do want the citizens to know it was not from this side. The city was working very hard to get that done. Litigation and courts have a way of changing our timeline, but it looks great, so take advantage of it.

More to come. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. We greatly appreciate when citizens turn out to our city council meetings, and so I know Agenda was not any contrary or any items that were in conflict, but we continue to move forward in a very progressive manner, and we rely on the citizens' feedback, so thank you for being here. We need to go into executive session for personnel, for litigation. as well as real estate. So you're welcome to stay if you like. Don't know how long we'll be, but we will report out once we finish with executive session. I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session for personnel, litigation, and real estate.

Move to go into executive session.

Properly moved and seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposers? You can stay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Have a wonderful evening.