City Council Work Session - Regular Meeting

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Well, good evening, everyone. We'd like to call our May 26 City Council meeting to order. We welcome those who are joining us in the audience, those who may be joining us virtually. We welcome you as well. At this time, as with every meeting, we start with the invocation. We'll ask that Rabbi Scott Klein, U.S. Army Chaplain, as Rabbi comes forward, we ask that please, everyone would stand for the prayer. Immediately following, if we could repeat the Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I invite everybody to join me in prayer. Almighty God, sovereign of the universe, we gather tonight in this chamber of leadership, grateful for the privilege to serve and guide the city of Fayetteville. We look across the room at our neighborhoods, recognizing the profound strength found in our rich diversity, a mosaic of backgrounds, cultures, and faiths that unite us as one community. As we mark Jewish American Heritage Month, we express our gratitude for the rich history and enduring spirit of the Jewish people whose journey is fundamentally guided by the timeless values of justice, compassion, and tikkun olam, the sacred charge to repair the world. May this calling to heal our fractured spaces and uplift our neighbors inspire all of us, alongside residents of our heritage, and every heritage to actively build and bless this city. We also stand here tonight also carrying the heavy and sacred weight of Memorial Day, having just paused to honor the brave men and women who laid down their lives for our freedom. May the memory of their ultimate sacrifice remain a permanent beacon for this council, reminding us of the high cost of liberty that we enjoy and the profound responsibility we hold to protect it. Let their legacy inspire us to work with unwavering integrity, to listen to one another with respect, and to govern with a shared commitment to justice and unity. Guide the hearts and minds of our city council members tonight, grant them wisdom in their deliberations, and bless the people of Fayetteville with peace, safety, and prosperity. Amen.

Amen. 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. Rabbi, thank you so much for giving us the prayer. Thank you for joining us. We know you're a military chaplain. If you want to, tell us a little bit about yourself and anything else you'd like to say.

Absolutely. Can't believe it. Going into year three here in beautiful Fayetteville. We love it. I'm joined here tonight with my wife, Ellie, who is wrapping up a school year on post. She does amazing work. And our Jewish community on post continues to grow. Beth Israel congregation, of course, down the streets continues to thrive. And it's an honor, I was just chatting before the meeting with members of the police and fire department where I'm proud to serve as a chaplain. So it's just an honor to be a part of this beautiful city and continue to meet new people and develop further relationships with just further commits us to call Fayetteville home. Well, we appreciate hearing that.

We thank you for your service to our country. Thank you for your service to our community. So can we give Chaplain a round of applause? All right, Council, with that, I'll go to Council Member McMillan. You had a special guest that wanted to come and greet us.

We sure do. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This time I'd like to introduce the Zenaida Cranford Mentor-Mentee Mentorship Program. This is a youth-centered nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering girls ages 12 through 17 through positive intervention, personal development, mentorship, leadership opportunities, and community engagement. It's founded on the belief that prevention is more impactful than punishment. ZCMMP proudly considers itself a founding success story of the city of Fayetteville's empowering community safety micro-grant initiative. Through this support, they've continued to demonstrate how preventative mentorship programs and positive youth engagement can serve as effective tools in strengthening community safety and reducing youth vulnerability. Their organization advocates for positive intervention, approaches that focus on exposure, guidance, relationship building, emotional support, leadership development, and community involvement, rather than punitive measures. At this time, I'd like to invite Ms. Nishi Chapawala to the podium. The impact of ZC MMP can also be seen through the personal growth and achievements of their participants. One example is Nishi. She will be performing the national anthem at the city council meeting. A reflection of the confidence, leadership, and social growth that mentorship and positive community support can help cultivate in young people. Moments like these reflect ZC MMP's commitment to helping youth recognize their talents, stepping outside of their comfort zones, and growing into leaders within their community. At this time, I ask you all to stand as you're willing and able for the singing of our national anthem.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous Oh, the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air. through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home Mother.

Thank you, Councilman McMillan. Thank you, Ms. Nietzsche. Beautiful, beautiful song that you rendered us, and thank you for the hard work that you and the organization are doing in our community. With that, I'll turn to Councilmember Jones.

Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Very quickly, I would like to announce a new farmer's market. Here in Fayetteville, the roots of resilience farmers market after 5, it is located at 4,616 merchants and road. It will be held every 2nd and 4th Thursday, 530 PM to 8 PM. Again, come out, get your fresh vegetables, fruit, natural items. Also, I would like to announce the heroes of Fayetteville and Cumberland County as presented by Greater Life of Fayetteville, appropriately entitled, Through Their Eyes, We Remember, Through Their Voices, We Honor. And this is a celebration of our local leaders, our foundational leaders who have built Fayetteville, Cumberland County, going back to the 1700s up to today. And our youth will be performing. Various stories, songs, things of that nature. We will have individuals there from grades one through eight. So we invite you out and that will be held Friday, May 29th, 530 p.m. to 8 p.m. Also repeating again on Saturday, June 6th from 2 p.m. to 4 30 p.m and that will be at fervor technical community college 23 28 uh whole road lastly i would just like to say happy birthday to my to my father uh just turned 88 years old so i want to thank him for doing that he may be watching love you dad thank you thank you thank you councilman jones uh council member ferguson

Did you have an announcement?

I heard that from a birdie. I have an announcement for Brenda, Councilwoman Brenda McNair. It's the Picnic in the Park at Lake Rim, fourth annual Unity in the Park community celebration. Join us. For a day of joy and camaraderie at the annual Unity in the Park event, this vibrant community gathering aims to bring together residents of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate the diversity and spirit of our neighborhood. Nestled in the heart of our beautiful Lake Rim Park, this family friendly event is the perfect opportunity to meet new friends, enjoy local talent, and participate in a variety of fun-filled activities. Join us for a special event featuring city staff, fire department, public police department, PWC, and local businesses. That's Sunday, June 7th, 2026 from 3 to 8 p.m. at Lake Rim Park, 2214 Tarkland Road.

Thank you, sir. It sounded like a radio ad, so thank you. All right, so council with that, I think we're caught up on the announcements. I did see Mr. Grant Bennett out there who had the opportunity to go by. This is the 2-6 project. Fairville funded his organization several years ago when Mr. Bennett wanted to grow. STEM and technology training to our young people. He had a full house at Sagra Stadium this weekend, so thank you for the work. I think it was probably the first cohort that actually has gone through the entire process, and it was probably, I hate to guess how many kids, but it was packed. So thank you for the work you're doing, and look forward to much success in the future. So council, with that, we'll move.

Mr. Manager, you have anything? Yes, sir. Good evening, Mayor, members of council. I'll be brief. Three announcements. First is later this week on Thursday, May 28th at 6 p.m., we'll have our next edition of Doug in the District. We'll be in District 8 at 1420 Hoke Loop Road at New Life Bible Church. Please join us if you can. That's this coming Thursday, May 28th at 6 p.m. District 8 at New Life Bible Church. We are rolling out one of our budget games. I think all the other council members and districts that we have been in so far, it's been a very informative and engaging opportunity for citizens to learn more about the city's budget and how things actually happen and help us make decisions as to what's a priority for them. Secondly, next week we'll do the ribbon cutting for courts at Glenville Lake. That'll be on June 3rd at 10 a.m. That facility is located at 730 Filter Plant Road. And mayor, members of council, we have some fun gear and swag. We're gonna ask y'all to help us. Don't know what y'all know about pickleball, but get ready, limber up, do your stretches. We're looking forward to having a lot of fun with you guys out there on June 3rd. And then a new addition that I hope to do once a month is to recognize the faithful service of all of our employees who have given of their time and who have retired. At the last meeting, I think I mentioned to the council, Derek Bowens had worked with us for 24 years We held his retirement ceremony last week, and during it, his wife and his family members came up and said how important it was that we actually mentioned and discussed that at a council meeting, the people who work behind the scenes. And so with your permission, I have a very short list of recent retirees that are coming up. Some of them you know, some of you don't. And I'd like for us, if we could, Madam Clerk, if we could start adding those into our official record as well. So I'd like to start first with Terrence Roberson, who was our street maintenance supervisor who retired at the beginning of this month with 39 years of service. Derek Bowens, who retires on June 1st with 24 years of service. Fire Captain Ivey, who is retiring with 40 years of service on June 1st. Anthony Mathis is retiring this on June 1st with 17 years of service as an equipment operator. Our own Patricia Johnson, who's our permit tech supervisor, if you know her downstairs, she's retiring on June 1st with 14 years experience of service with us. Keisha Deal is a 911 communications supervisor who's retiring with 22 years of service on June 1st. Dinah Engle, our forensic technician, is retiring after 21 years of service on June 1st. James Roper, Mr. Roper, if you may know him, our transit supervisor, is retiring on July 1st with 28 years of service. Fire Lieutenant Ake is retiring after 31 years of service on July 1st. And our very own Michelle Smith-Riordan is retiring on June 1st with 25 years of service. And Daryl Smith, Equipment Operator 3, is retiring on June 1st with five years of service. and so on behalf of the staff and i know speaking for the city council as well we want to wish all of them a happy retirement and thank them for all of their years of dedicated service thank you let's give them a round of applause

Thank you, Mr. Hewitt. Congratulations to all of the retirees. You don't have to get up first thing in the morning, so we're all jealous about that. But good luck to you in your next chapter. And Mr. Derrick, I missed his final ceremony. Has he already had his last day?

He is here through, I think, the end of this week. Willie? All right.

All right, I won't be labored. I'll be able to speak to him. All right, but thank you and congratulations to all. With that, council will look for the approval of the agenda and we have council member Thompson. Are you online?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I can hear you. All right, good to see you, Mayor Pro Tem.

All right, so council, with that, we'll go to a motion to approve this. Council member Hondros, is there a second? Second, uh, hair. They've already got the vote up. What do we got here? All right. We already voting. Let me catch up with everybody. All right. All right. Who are we missing? Yeah. I ain't got there yet. That's the next. So did you want to change or you, you're going to stay red? You did? All right, so Madam Clerk, that's unanimous. All right, council moving to consent. So, Council Member McMillan, I'm calling you for your items.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to pull items 7.0 alpha 2, 7.0 alpha 4, and 7.0 Alpha 12 from the consent agenda.

All right, so Council Member McMillan, that's a motion to approve with the exception of 7.0A2, 7.0A4, and 7.0A12, is that correct? That's correct. All right, is there a seconder by you, Council Member Ferguson? Yeah. All right, so Council, any discussion on the motion? This is to approve with the exception of those three items. All right, Council, I look to you for your vote. Mayor Pro Tem. Mayor Pro Tem, are you with us? Ring. All right. Who are we missing, Madam Clerk? Me. Me? All right. I got to get with it tonight. All right, so motion carries unanimously. All right, 7.082, Council Member McMillan.

I'd like to make a motion to send 7.082 to a work session.

All right, 7.082 is a motion by Council Member McMillan, seconded by Davis. Yes, sir. All right, discussion? All right, look to you for your votes. This is for 7.082 to go to a work session. Mayor Pro Tem.

Green.

All right, motion carries. All right, 7.084, Council Member McMillan.

Yes, so this has come through the work session already. This is a revised charter and reconstitution of the Community Public Safety Advisory Board. I think as a whole, we had a lot of consent from the council on the fact that this is moving in the right direction. This new board, CPSAB, What we talked about in the work session was that how this, although it doesn't meet completely the demands of the public to move towards things like independent oversight, it does move far beyond what the last constitution of the board does. It recognizes a holistic approach to community safety rather than focusing on one facet of community safety and the police. ONE OF THE THINGS THAT CAME UP IN THE WORK SESSION WAS HOW THIS STILL FALLS SHORT BY REQUIRING MEMBERS OF THE BOARD TO UNDERGO SOMEWHAT OF AN INDOCTRINATION BY GOING THROUGH THE CITIZENS POLICE PROGRAM. BY MAKING THAT A REQUIREMENT. THE SUGGESTION PUT FORWARD IN THE WORK SESSION WAS TO MAKE THAT RECOMMENDED. One of the arguments was that if you continue to approach this as a holistic idea of community safety and welcome in all talents, that removes the need to indoctrinate, to force somebody to go through something like a police citizens program. We also talked about how there are people who are part of this program who have already been through the police force. Matter of fact, one of my neighbors in District 8 actually taught this citizens police program and that it shouldn't be a requirement for that person to. I'd like to put a motion forward to approve the constitution of the revised charter of the Community Public Safety Advisory Board, but strike down the language that requires attendance of the police citizens, of course.

All right. So there's a motion to revise and adopt not this version, but the version with the revisions as stated by Council Member McMillan. Is there a second? All right, seeing none. All right, motion dies. So we need a motion to approve this. I'm prepared to make another motion. Sir? Sir?

Yeah. I'm prepared to make another motion to send this back to work session to hammer out the things that are not fitting with the holistic picture of community safety as the community knows it to be.

All right. Second motion by Council Member McMillan. Is there a second on that? All right. Motion dies for lack of a second. All right. Council Member need a... Mr. Mackin?

Yes, sir. I got a motion, sir. I'm ready. Can we move to adopt the policy as written?

All right. There's a motion by Mayor Pro Tems to adopt what's enclosed in the CAM, seconded by Hare. Discussion? Discussion. All right. Council Member McMillan.

Yeah, I think we're making a mistake, and I think we'll revisit this in years to come. There's something that we've just finally turned the corner on in terms of our approach to community safety. If we keep making the same mistakes and focusing on one facet of community safety... lifting that and not recognizing the talent of mental health professionals, of those who work with the unhoused population and put them on equal footing when they're coming to a board of this type, then we're gonna continue to get this wrong. I urge the council to reconsider this and do this the right way. Meet the intent, the original intent, and I speak from the standpoint of somebody who was there from the start in 2020 when recommendations for creation of this board were made.

All right, so there's a motion on the floor, seconded by Councilmember, Mayor Pro Tem made the motion, seconded by Hare. Discussion, as someone who actually voted on it, the original intent was to create more of a community bridge between the community and the police at that time. This has a broader focus, which I think the council and our government has changed to have now an Office of Community Safety that has those other components, so I still see this as progress, but the original intent was to bridge the community with the police, and now that it's been amended, there will be the intent of the board, if it's successful, is to make sure that a lot of these community services go along with it. So I just wanted to clarify intent. I actually voted on it. Yes, sir. All right. So, Council, I see no other questions. I'll tell you before you vote.

Second round. We're voting, sir.

Ring. All right. Who are we missing?

Council Member Ferguson. There we go.

Martin, where you at? All right, motion carries. Nine to one, those voting in opposition, Councilmember McMillan. 7.0A012, Councilmember McMillan.

Yeah, again, we gotta get this right, y'all. Gotta get it right. In terms of the renewal of the contract for SROs, this is more serious than something that should be on a consent agenda. Very, very disappointed that it would come to the council and to the public without serious examination. Living in this community for years, many of us are old enough to remember just a few years ago when disparities were named by Cumberland County Schools, were seriously discussed by the chair's department. and were brought by the education board of the NAACP that noted disparities in discipline and the SRO's role in that. How many of y'all remember that, just by a show of hands? It wasn't long ago. I think we're on a slippery slope if this board does not seriously look at not just the fact that the program is in place, but the efficacy of such a program. This impacts our kids. Rubber stamping something like this denies the existence of and the complications of the school to prison pipeline and the things that come when we discipline without really taking a good look at our measures, our tools, and even the people who are involved in that discipline. What I would suggest is that this council send this back to a work session and really demand the figures from the Cumberland County Schools that talk about what this SRO program has done in the time that it's been in place from the FPD. so that we're not rubber stamping something and we're not really sure if it's working. We're not sure of the potentially harmful impacts on our children. This is too serious to get wrong. It's too serious, again, to put on a consent agenda and rubber stamp in this way. I'd like to make a motion to send this back to work session.

All right. Motion by Council Member McMillan to send this back to work session. Second. Second. Councilmember Green, that's a second.

Yep, for the purpose of discussion.

All right, second by Councilmember Green. All right, discussion. Councilmember Green.

Yes. City Manager Hewitt, could you briefly give us a little update on what this looks like? I know upstairs you made a couple of comments about a one-year renewal. Can you give the general synopsis that you gave upstairs down here, please?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you for this opportunity as well. The contract largely remains the same with a few additions. Prior, and currently rather, the agreement is for one-year terms that come back to council each year for renewal. This allows for a one-year renewal but with two additional options, so it basically has a three-year term. It also very clearly identifies that the full freight of funding the SROs, School Resource Officers, And the TCOs, or traffic control officers that are crossing guards, is the responsibility of payment from the Cumberland County school system. And so it is largely of no cost to the city. It also clearly spells out where we will be able to provide SROs and TCOs in the city of Fayetteville for the schools. I think it's 49, Dr. Mansell, is that right? Schools that, public schools that we have in the city of which ones we're going to provide SROs and which ones will not have it. Additionally, when we created this contract several years ago, it was a last minute. I think we had, Mayor, was it 60 days or something like that to try to stand this up and we didn't have a full opportunity and we did not have our office of community safety in place at that time. And so now this agreement makes very clear that in addition to clarifying the roles of our SROs and TCOs and the funding arrangement, it also with the support of Dr. Bracey, Superintendent of Cumming County Schools, allows us to work collaboratively with them in our Office of Community Safety as well. I'm here to answer any questions, Dr. Mansell is, and Chief Bryan is too.

So you see this as kind of a process? where we are looking at the Office of Community Safety, which we did stand up to take this to where we eventually hope that it will go and the model that it looks and how it looks.

Yes, ma'am. And we have also in the agreements to understand clearly what the roles and responsibilities, which has always been consistent, There were a lot of concerns that we looked at, and I think when we look at the police department's quarterly report or year-to-date report that Chief Bryan will be giving later tonight, as I mentioned upstairs, I think it really clearly shows that there is a role for safety and security in the school systems, and our SROs can play a part, but it also calls, and we call on the school system to make sure they're doing their part to work for those schools where we don't have SROs, which is primarily elementary schools.

Thank you, Dr. Hewitt. All right. So for context for the listening audience, maybe two to three years ago, the sheriff made a decision because of personnel, sheriff at that time, that he was no longer able to have deputies in the schools as the SRO officers were. So each municipality, the city of Fayetteville, Hope Mills, and Spring Lake had to cover those positions. And we did it with police officers. And as you said, Dr. Hewitt, we had about a 90-day, 60 to 90 days to ramp that up, to get the crossing guards moved over, uniformed, and to make sure that these kids had access Protection at schools are not new in our community. In fact, in high school, I had, and that was a. Pretty long time ago, not getting specific tonight, but it was the city police officer, but after that, for several years, the sheriff handled it for maybe 2025 years when we made that decision. There are all kinds of assumptions that we're somehow being heavy handed toward our kids, but this is not a change. It was either sheriffs, now it's our city police officers. But you know, there's a theory called the self-fulfilling prophecy, right? For the last two conversations, we've had in there somehow that if we do something that involves the police, that means it's bad. But we say we want to build better relationships. But you can't build better relationships by implying that things are bad with the officers. The previous item had that because they had to go through a training with the police officers, somehow that made it bad. And now we're talking about our schools and somehow that makes it bad. If we really intend on building a better relationship between the police and the community, we can't start with the assumption that it's bad. And so our kids need positive reinforcement and to know they may want to grow up one day and be a police officer. But how do we do it when we see the implication that somehow it's bad? And so I think that we need to be mindful of our words and see what our true intent is. And I understand everybody says about what could happen. It hasn't happened. And thank God for that. And so, but we have a decision tonight to renew this. This is up for renewal. It was originally done in one year increments. And according to the manager, the changes are that these will have some automatic triggers, which will also include the community safety piece. So council, I hope that we'll consider that as we, as we get through this. Councilman McMillan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, words do mean things. They do. If you were paying attention during the last election cycle, you saw a lot of use of the words transparency and accountability. A hell of a lot of use of those words, and there were empty uses of that word. Let me tell you why. There are many times when we have opportunities to put systems of accountability and transparency in place. Sometimes these things have to do with our most precious resources. In this case, our children. When somebody says to put a system in place, to put a halt in a place to analyze the results of a program, and you boil it down to bad versus good, there's some misunderstanding in terms of the words. The words you should understand is a responsibility of this board to have not only transparency but accountability in these systems. How are we going to continuously rubber stamp a program without taking a look at the efficacy when it involves our most precious resource, our children and their safety. There's an analysis that has not been done and it's piss poor leadership to zoom past that and rubber stamp approval of a program that you have not taken an analytic look at in terms of the efficacy and the safety.

All right, thank you. Councilman McMillan, words sound good, no depth to it. 25 years have been officers in schools. Three years, this program has worked with our officers in our schools. So it's good to say transparency and accountability. You don't have anything specific that's not transparent because we're discussing it now. Anything that's specific that you said, well, you've said your part. You've had your two rounds. This is my second round. So you've got to do more than give word salads.

You've gotta have something that goes along with it. Bring it to a work session. But with that, bring it to a work session.

With that, the motion on the floor is to repeat the motion. The motion was to bring it to a work session. To send this back to a work session. It was the second. And we will talk about the transparency.

It's not a discussion.

We've had two rounds of discussion. We're repeating the motion. We're calling for the question. So the motion on the floor is to bring it to a work session. Seconded by Council Member Green. All right, Council Member Harris, did you have a discussion?

Just one statement, Mayor. I was trying to find it while I was sitting here. I've been having some computer problems. Someone sent us an email, a parent, but I can't seem to find it right now. But the parent stated, if I could somewhat surmise what she said. She says, I know that you all are talking about the budget soon, and I know that you're going to be talking about SROs. Whatever you decide, she said, I appreciate the SROs, but whatever you decide, please let the SRO officer that we have at our school to return because of the impression, the positive impression that they have put on her children.

but I just wanted to share that.

All right.

Thank you. All right. So, council, we've had, uh, see, you know, no other second rounds. Uh, we've had two rounds of discussions. The motion is to send it to a work session and look to you for your votes. All right. Uh, Madam clerk, who we miss. All right, motion fails. Seven to two, those voted in favor of work session, McMillan, Ferguson. Council, I'll look to you for a motion. Let me clear the board, Jen, so I can see.

All right. Mayor, I move that we renew the contract for the SROs.

All right, there's a motion by Mayor Pro Tem, seconded by Hare. Discussion?

Yeah, I'll chime in on that. Yes, sir. You're making a mistake. If this is voted down, I'll make a motion to pull this completely.

What do you mean? I'll make a motion to pull this. If the motion, oh, this is voted down, I guess. Yeah, it was voted down. All right.

And just to double down, if I may, in terms of systems, we have opportunities to do our job, ladies and gentlemen. What our job is is to roll our sleeves up and make policy to ensure that accountability's in place. If you're not willing to do that, if there's some negligence on our part to do that, that's a failure on the part of the city council. And I hope that votes like this show the city what we're willing to do and what we're not willing to do in terms of putting in systems of accountability and transparency. My motion to take it to a work session is so that we can do our job. The hard job of figuring out what types of analytics we need to have in place if the city is going to maintain this program. What could happen is many entities will send things to the city if they feel like they can get a rubber stamp on it. Businesses like data centers could do that. If they feel like this is a place where politicians bend over, or let me rephrase that, where politicians are negligent in fulfillment of their duties, where politicians refuse to actually put any systems in place, we will continue to get systems that fail us. So I urge all of you in this and all things to try to figure out what systems of accountability and transparency we need to put in place as part of what we were elected to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman McMillan. And again, no depth, no description. It's been here for 25 years. It's been on our side for three years. You have a contract. So it's easy to say transparency, accountability, analytics, those are word salads, but there's no specifics. So, there's a motion on the floor by Mayor Pro Tem, second by Hare to approve. Council, look to you for your vote on that. Mayor Pro Tem. All right, motion carries. All right, council, moving to the next item. Reports, 8.01 is the review of the Personnel Review Board.

There we go. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. Jerry Klipp, Human Resource Director. I'm here to give a report on the Personnel Review Board. The purpose of the, as you may know, the purpose of the review board is to hear post-termination appeals. And unlike many of the other committees and boards that we have throughout the city, this is kind of an ad hoc committee, so we only meet and convene when a hearing is requested. It's comprised of six members from the community, and as a matter of fact, Rabbi Scott Klein, who gave her invocation tonight, is the chairman of this board. They're rarely called. They've only been two convened since I've been here, and I'm coming into my sixth year here. The last one was called in November of 2025. So not much to report, really. So what questions do you have?

All right.

It's the easiest report you'll probably ever give, right?

And it's a short report.

All right.

I appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you as the chair of the Appointments Committee. All of our committees do a great job, do a great job. So thank you for just making the short presentation. I move that we accept the report. All right, motion.

All right, motion by Council Member Harris, seconded by Jones. Discussion? All right, Council, look to you for your votes. Mayor Pro Tem. All right. All right. All right, motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Cliff. 8.02, Federal Public Works Commission. I saw Mr. Bryant, saw Chairman King. They were saving all their questions for you.

How you doing? I'm doing great. And I want to say good evening to the mayor. I want to say good evening to all the city councilmen and women. Oh, excuse me.

Can you hear me now? Yes, sir.

All right. So it's great to see everyone. I'm not familiar with everyone, but there's a lot of friends here, and I appreciate all the familiar faces. If you don't know me, I am Richard King. I'm the chairman of the PWC board. There's a couple of us. There's Vice Chair Ronna Garrett, Secretary Donald Porter, and Chris Davis, Dr. Chris Davis. We make up the PWC commission. I unfortunately pulled the short straw, so I'm here tonight to give this briefing. All kidding aside, I'm excited to give this briefing. There's a lot of good stuff going on at Fayetteville PwC, and I hope there's a lot of citizens and ratepayers out there watching this also so they can see what we've got going on. So, as for the state of PWC, we are strong, reliable, award-winning, forward-looking into the next century. Through strong governments, strategic investments, and community partnership, PWC remains committed to being recognized as one of the best utilities in the United States. In 2025, PWC celebrated 120 years of delivering safe, reliable, and affordable services throughout Fayetteville and the surrounding regions. In fiscal year 2025, PwC provided a total of 52 million in contributions supported of the city of Fayetteville. These contributions reflect the PwC's ongoing commitment to strengthen the city's infrastructure, economic growth, and quality of life. Key investments included 31.2 million in annexation-related infrastructure and debt service, 11.9 million in payment in lieu of taxes, $4 million in supporting street lighting, $2.3 million in storm drainage improvements. Other targeted investments included economic development initiatives, infrastructure enhancements such as underground conversation, excuse me, and lighting and improvements. Community assets including Fay TV and shared parking infrastructure also. PwC continues receiving regional and national recognition that reinforces the utilities leadership and reliability, safety, operational excellence, and financial stewardship. Among its most notable recognitions were the American Public Power Association's Reliable Public Power Award Diamond Level for the seventh time, the American Public Power Association Safety Award of Excellence, The North Carolina Partnership for Safe Water 25-Year Director's Award. The North Carolina OneWater Distribution Overall System of the Year. The North Carolina OneWater Wastewater Collections Large System of the Year. And eighth place in the National Associations of Fleet Administrators Top 100 Fleets in America Award. PwC's electric reliability metrics remain among the best in the industry. PwC customers experience less than one outage on average annually, and the average outage duration was approximately 31 minutes, about half the national average. We have expansions on renewable energy capacity continuing with multiple solar projects completed and underway. Our modernization projects include smart substations, upgrades and automation technologies, as well as an ongoing sub-transmission system improvements. The Butler Warner Generation Plant remains one of the community's greatest assets with a 98% availability factor through a power supply agreement with Duke Energy Progress. PwC continues to deliver high quality drinking water that significantly exceeds federal standards. PWC experienced fewer sewer overflows and water main breaks than national benchmarks. Key water and wastewater improvement initiatives include investments into the advanced treatment systems such as power active carbon and granular active carbon to address emerging contaminants like PFAS. We have secured 83.5 million in total funding for water treatment improvements through state and federal programs. We have supported growth for the city of Fayetteville's phase five annexation areas by managing multiple construction projects and assessment collection on behalf of the city. We have expanded infrastructure to provide drinking water to Grays Creek Elementary and Alderman Road Elementary School. PWC led regional advocacy efforts such as opposing an interbasin transfer request to protect local water resources and long-term supply, the Fuqua Arena. We continue to invest in workforce development through local student programs and partnerships. We have collaborated with Fayetteville State University and Fayetteville Technical Community College to establish a regional training center supporting green economy jobs. Demonstrated commitments to community presence, education, and long-term economic vitality by fulfilling 500 plus community requests. PWC stands today as one of the community's most valuable assets. For over a century, the utility has remained a driving force behind Fayetteville's progress. PwC continues to prove that excellence and affordability can go hand in hand. It's more than a utility. PwC is a legacy of service, innovation, and community pride. So again, the state of PwC is strong, reliable, award winning, and preparing for the next century.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We appreciate that, and this is a great, great rundown. Just had a couple questions as you mentioned in your report a couple times about preparing for the future. Delivery of energy is changing. where, and you don't have to get into the details, but there are plans that PWC is making about future delivery of power and water or the filtration of water. We know that even though Comoros is in Bladen County, our rate payers are carrying a huge load of cleaning up the water. Even though we didn't receive any taxes in this community, again, the impacts of it, didn't respect the county line boundaries that are there. What is PwC's plans for making sure that, because we have a uniqueness with a power generation plant, and the way that power is changing, what are the plans, or have they started to make plans about delivering services in the future?

Well, we have a major issue coming in 2029 where we've got to figure out whether or not we're going to stay with Duke Progress Energy or not. And so we're searching out what's the best thing for PwC and the way we're positioned in this community and in this region. And Tim can answer questions. But we also, on your PFAS question, you know we're building a new facility.

Okay.

Water filtration. Water filtration system that's going to handle the PFAS. I think it's $120 million, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, and just secured $85 million. And we just secured 85, is what I said, from federal grants. But I think we are the only one in this region that is going to have that facility up and running, if I'm not mistaken. So that's what we're doing for the PFAS and for the energy side of it. We're not sure where we're going.

Well, the reason I mention that, so the rate payers are paying, what, $120 million or so and investing in this new filtration system, right, that will serve us well, but it will – Its primary goal is to filter and clean the water from the PFAS and forever chemicals that we talked about. But again, the problem was not generated in Cumberland County, right? It's the alleged culprit of that. Camaro's is located just across the line, about 17 miles from here, but our rate payers are paying for the cleanup. Is that right?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. To address the question of PFAS and forever chemicals that are in the water here in the Cape Fear River, you're right. There is a large plume of PFAS that was generated by the Chemours Company south of us. However, as we have all come to realize and understand over the last several years, PFAS and PFOA, these forever chemicals, they're in more than just the contamination caused by Chemours. They're everywhere around us. Because of the lax regulation of PFAS and contaminants in many, many years prior, we find ourselves dealing with PFAS and contaminants from every direction. However, again, it would be easy to say that it's Chemours' fault, and that's the reason why we're building the GAC, the Granule Activated Carbon and the Powder Activated Carbon systems, filters that we're putting in place. But the reality is the... contaminants are from every direction. And now the EPA has mandated that we meet that challenge of cleaning up all of our water by 2029. And PwC, we're out front and forward adhering to that regulation before it's put in place to ensure the ongoing security of our water systems here in this community.

Yeah, and the last question, we took a contingency a couple of years back up to the Department of Energy in D.C. We were awarded a sustainability grant because we had a sustainability plan. And so as you plan for power delivery and renewables, right, PwC, the city was awarded 400 and something thousand, Ms. Jutta could probably 425? 450?

Yeah.

And then you and Fayetteville State had a collaboration on clean energy that were awarded another grant. How is PwC planning for renewables as you do your next?

And again, as Mr. Chair mentioned in his annual report, PwC is currently undergoing several solar energy facilities construction, and we also put in service a number last year. And again, we're moving forward with enhancing our community solar program, as well as looking forward to expanding other opportunities for citizens to further engage in net metering and battery storage systems and programs with PwC helping to share that cost burden. Gotcha.

All right. Councilman here.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. CEO, thank you for coming in and helping out with the presentation. You just mentioned something about solar, and I think it was last year there was a piece of property that we rezoned. for a possible future solar farm or whatever the correct technical name may be. With that solar item that you just mentioned or in your dialogue there, is that where it would be going?

So that's one of multiple sites. So the Carver's Fall site that we mentioned last year, that site is moving forward. Again, just ironically enough, I was just talking to the manager just last week about progressing that project, and it is in progress moving forward. The site's been cleared, and we're on ready to start construction at that location. Into a solar, into a solar, into solar.

Okay.

And again, additionally, we have been working with the city to secure several other parcels along fields road, as well as some perimeter property along the airport to further expand our renewables and solar assets here in the city of Fayetteville.

Thank you, sir. Thank you both. All right. May I approach him and then councilman?

Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Brian, we've been a phone call. Can you explain to the audience the number one cause for the power outages and what you're doing to remedy that?

If I understood your question correctly, you asked what was the number one cause of power outages in the community? Is that accurate?

That's correct.

So the number one cause of outages, as we've seen them looking backwards, is a combination. It's actually top two. The top two are some of our aging infrastructure that we're investing in, and the second one is a lot of our animals and rodents or squirrels that get into our outages. into our substations so when you have an animal such as a squirrel that gets onto our energized lines they cause an arc and it takes out multiple multiple customers all at once particularly in large substation that impacts upwards of three to five thousand customers at once we've gone through significant measures to safeguard our infrastructure from the likes of squirrels and snakes, however, that's the reality in a Highly vegetated community like we have in Fayetteville So it's an ongoing effort that we're managing through keeping the animals out of our infrastructure and along with that again we have put multiple millions of dollars in our 10-year CIP as well as our ongoing onm budget to manage through some aging infrastructure on our electric side of the business And I would say again Yes, the shield. Are you putting up those shield protectors? Correct. We are putting up the shield protectors. And again, I just want to point back, again, any outage is a long outage. But I want to reiterate, as the chair mentioned in his report, here at Fayetteville PwC, we are very proud of the fact that we have some of the best reliability, not just here in North Carolina, but across the country. As he mentioned in his report, our outage is duration about one per customer, less than 30 minutes, so about 30 minutes per customer on average for the year. That's outstanding, outstanding service. And again, I know no one wants to be out, and I know it always happens at the most inopportune time, but nonetheless, we pride ourselves in being among the best in the country.

Great job, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. Councilman Honduras.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Chairman King and Mr. Bryant. Thank you for the report. And I don't know if you have this answer for today, but perhaps at a future meeting we can invite you back so you could talk to council a little bit or perhaps a short presentation on how utilities plan for and handle large-scale industrial electric and water users. I think that's something that may be beneficial to us.

And again, Councilmember Honduras, again, I want to share with you and this council pretty much what I shared with the County Commission about a week ago. PwC, we were very much in front of managing large commercial industrial loads over two years ago. We put in place a large power user tariff that mandated that those large commercial industrial customers, they paid their costs for any infrastructure upgrades. They can either write a check up front or they can finance those costs over 10 years to insulate our customers from the cost of bringing on a large commercial industrial customer such as the data center. So again, we were out front before Duke or anyone else did that here in the state of North Carolina. We were safeguarding our customers as we continue to safeguard our customers from the concerns of subsidizing large commercial loads by the native customers.

Yeah, thank you for that, and I appreciate that. Having served a year as the PwC commissioner and liaison to council, all the good work you all do, as you mentioned, the outages, it's never a good time to not have power, right? But we do, you all, PwC does fare better than most or perform better than most. I appreciate that, and thank you for the information. I appreciate it. All right, thank you.

Mr. Bryant, thank you. Mr. King, council, do we need to receive this report?

No.

All right. All right. This is a motion by Council Member Behar, seconded by Davis. Discussion. All right, Council, I'll look to you before you vote. Thank you, gentlemen. Good to see you.

Agreed, Mr. Mayor.

All right. All right. Yes, sir, we got you. Motion carries unanimous. All right, council, moving to the public hearing for 9.01. We are at this time preparing to hold a public hearing. Will city council formally seek your input? INDIVIDUALS DESIGNED TO SPEAK IN THE HEARING MUST HAVE SIGNED UP TO SPEAK BY THE CITY CLERK BY NAME BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF TONIGHT'S MEETING. WE BEGIN WITH THE STAFF PRESENTATION, THEN WE'LL MOVE INTO THE FORMAL HEARINGS. 15 MINUTES WILL BE ALLOWED FOR THOSE IN FAVOR AND THOSE OPPOSED TO THE ITEMS RELATED TO THE HEARING. INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS ARE LIMITED TO THREE MINUTES EACH UNLESS BY PREVIOUS ARRANGEMENT A SINGLE SPOKESPERSON HAS BEEN DESIGNATED, IN WHICH CASE THAT SPOKESPERSON MAY USE THE ENTIRE 15 MINUTES. WHEN THE CITY CLERK CALLS YOUR NAME, PLEASE COME TO THE PODIUM. PLEASE CLEARLY ST may then address the council. When the light changes from green to amber, it means you have 30 seconds remaining. The timer will ring at the end of your allotted time. So with that, I will give way to, who's presenting this item? Mr. Gibson? He just got here, didn't he? I'll tell you the truth. YOU JUST GOT HERE, MAN.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. THAT AGENDA ITEM IS FOR RENAMING A BALL FIELD ON NORTH STREET FOR A GENTLEMAN WHO HAS, AND I DON'T WANT TO SAY PAID but participating in making Parks and Recreation a better place for kids to participate in, strengthening young men, young women in how to be members of the community, how you participate, how you change your life to be a better person. The advisory board endorsed it. Parks and Recreation, for the time that he had given us in volunteering and coaching, we appreciate. We have nothing but good things to say, so.

All right, thank you. So with that, I'll open the public hearing, Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we have no speakers for this item.

All right, that will close the public hearing. Was this just a public hearing or we needed action?

Mr. Hewitt.

Yeah.

If it's appropriate, you can take action. All right.

Councilman Davis, your district. Thank you, Mayor. If there's no questions by council, I have a motion to appear. But I think Councilman Green has a question.

All right, Council Member Green and then Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Gibson.

Trying to get out of here, ain't he?

He is. We're not going to let him. We got to be here. He's got to be here. Mr. Gibson, feel free to correct me if I'm incorrect. There's a lot of history behind naming facilities and naming schools and naming things in our community. I've been around long enough to know that there's been a lot of angst over some of the name requests and name changes. I'm not necessarily opposed, but I would be remiss if I didn't say this to the public. one of the things I believe that the reasons we stopped naming facilities after people was because it didn't give a sense of location. So we have a lot of, we have, you know, senior citizen East, we have, um, different facilities named by their location parks are named for their location so that it makes it easier for the general public to find these facilities without going on a seek and find mission so to me when you want to name something coach donald bennett field it doesn't say where it is it also doesn't say what kind of field it is so just from that vantage point i'm wondering if any consideration was given by the committee when they reviewed this to coach Donald Bennett baseball field at North Street. I know it's a little longer, but it solves the problem of the reason we have all of the history behind why we went from doing one thing to doing another. So can you enlighten me or give me some things that they discussed at the committee level, please, sir?

Well, I think what they were asked to do was the renaming of the existing ball field at the address. Changing the name of the ball field from North Street Park to Donald Bennett, I don't think that they were looking at what the total naming of the facility would be because we would still keep it as North Street Park or the Donald Bennett. at North Street Park so whatever that naming or address or placard in our guide or on Google or whatever people look stuff up it would still say North Street Park so we would make sure that that's there because you would have that location

Thank you.

Yeah. So it's not the changing of the park. It's just the field. Yes, sir. Okay. All right.

Councilman Jones. Thank you so much. I just wanted to elaborate on that. I'm the liaison for that Fayetteville Cumberland Advisory Committee. And one of the things that they did actually, they wanted to provide the clarity, again, about if it was for the park. And we made that very clear. It's for a specific, it's for the field. They wanted to inquire if there were any opposition from the public in the area. There was not. Their representatives came and, spoke I know happened to be very familiar with coach Bennett myself he was one of the few individuals to actually utilize what would historically have been a underutilized area for that very engaging with our youth and so the Commission Those were all the questions that they had. But overall, they were in support of this, and they definitely understood that it was a field and were more lenient. They were understanding that it just made sense. Let me just put it like that. Not an entire park, but a field. So I think it was understood it was a baseball field. So when they were changing the name, they knew exactly what they were doing for that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. And I would second that if there are no other questions.

I think Councilman Mahandros popped up the peace sign. So we've got a motion by Davis, seconded by Mahandros. We've had discussion. Council, I look to you for your votes on this item. All right, Mr. Gibson, you can go back to bed. All right, Mayor Pro Tem. All right, motion carries. All right, council moving to 9.02, text amendment to article 30, uniform development ordinance to include medical arts campus zoning. Ms. Baptiste, how are you?

Good evening, city council. Tonight we are gonna present a proposed text amendment to the Unified Development Ordinance to introduce a new zoning district called the Medical Art Campus Zoning District. In essence, this zoning district is gonna define and establish the district, add the zoning district to the use table, adopt applicable development standards as well as establish definitions for the district. The zoning district will include developing the zoning district as well as use standards for the use table, adding different buffer types as well as adding standards for the exterior for lighting. Staff has worked diligently with members from the Cape Fear Hospital staff to come up with the standards for this zoning district. We met with staff from the hospital and identified different zoning standards. standards that they needed that they were not being served and having a base zoning of office and institutional. So we have come up with some amendments to create this new district that will help the hospital in their development and add different uses that they were not being able to have in the office and institutional zoning district. This new zoning district supports the general strategic operating plan that the city has adopted by supporting goals two and goals three. Specifically, with the development of the Medical Arts Campus Zoning District, anyone seeking to rezone to this zoning district will need at least a minimum of five acres to utilize this zoning district. There's also leeway that will be given with this zoning district in terms of the height and the setback allowed or required for development. In the ONI zoning district, the rear setback would be 20 feet from corner lots, And in the medical arts campus zoning district, the rear setback would be three feet or 20 feet if it is adjacent to a residentially zoned property. So it clarifies it and gives the developer a little bit more flexibility if they're being located next to another commercially developed or commercially zoned property. And I'll let Mr. Chester Green, who also worked on this with me, as well as Scott Walters. Mr. Walters could not be here tonight, so Mr. Green is gonna give you some of the updates that this zoning district allows in terms of the use table and accessory uses as well as landscaping.

So in terms of the use table, it allows many of the uses that O&I allowed, but the biggest additional uses that the hospital identified that we added in was pharmacy with and without drive-through, just made sense. Blood tissue collection center, drug and alcohol treatment facility, and then a few other minor uses also in there. And then the biggest accessory use that they asked for that's not currently allowed in ONI was food trucks. They tend to have food trucks there on a regular basis and they wanted to make sure that it was okay. In terms of the buffering, I know there's always some concern, but basically the buffering will be the same as what the hospital was required before. The overlay required them to have a Type D buffer whenever they boarded residential, single-family residential. So we left that the same. They'll require a Type A buffer if they border other... multi-family residential, and then when we move to commercial, there's no buffer because we don't normally require a buffer between other commercial and the hospital to other commercial doesn't require a buffer. In terms of the lighting, really the only change is in the ONI district, they only allow 20-foot poles. They've had a big issue with this over the years, having to get exceptions. So we've added them to the 30 foot pole height so that they don't need to get any special exemptions anymore. So that is the only change really in lighting. Everything else stays pretty much the same and they've had no issues with it in the past. The only other thing on here is a table of abbreviations. That's just the standard thing to add that to the abbreviations.

Currently, there will be no city capital cost or automatic general fund expenditure with this adoption. The regulation changes only defines the district, identifies allowed use and set development standards, and identifies uses that will require a special use permit. City Council has the option to adopt the text amendment as written, adopt revisions to the amendment, reject the amendment, or table to a later date. Professional planning staff and the Planning Commission recommends that the City Council move to adopt, which involves the approval of the amendments as written. That's our presentation. We ask that for questions after the public hearing is closed. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Baptiste. All right, with that, we'll open the public hearing. Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we have one speaker for this item, Mr. Mack Sellers.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. My name is Macklin Sellers. I am the director for planning, design, and construction for Cape Fear Valley. I believe we are the only hospital in the city now that would fall underneath your zoning. However, any other hospitals or systems that came in, this would also work for them as well. It's been a pleasure working in Fayetteville the last 10 years. We've made a lot of progress on some things that I know that you've seen around the hospital. One of our projects coming up very soon that we'll be opening is our joint venture for the School of Medicine with Methodist University. That is June the 11th, and then the students start a week or so later. Can I answer any questions for you about this district?

Maybe for you or Ms. Baptiste and her team, and thank you for joining us, Mr. Sellers. Certainly a lot of changes. I grew up here, so a lot of completely different landscape. But the question that I have is, as you said, you have a medical school coming online, you had a residency program that brings two to three hundred people here annually, right? As the hospital continues to grow, How do we make the area around it livable, bikeable, walkable? Are the zoning changes that you have make it favorable? Because I heard you say that you had certain buffers that are required from residential and multifamily. So the question is, as it continues to build out, is there an option for folks to live close to where they work, to walk to and from work, to bike to and from work? So are any of these changes giving way for any new development if that was to occur as the school and the hospital continue to grow?

So the, yeah, I mean the buffers, the big buffer is between single family residential in the hospital. Um, there's always, it's always there. I mean, nobody ever really wants to see that go away. The buffer between the multifamily is really a minimal buffer. It's a few trees in a line and maybe a couple of bushes. There can always be connections. If that multifamily was somehow part of the hospital, then it wouldn't really fall under that same buffers. If it's just in the area, they'll always be required to have sidewalks and stuff like that. Most people aren't walking through the landscape area, but we could, but sidewalks are always allowed in the landscape area, so if the hospital or the multifamily wanted to connect to the hospital property, there would be no issues with that. In terms of, this zoning only really affects the hospital, so I'm not,

So it's not really a district then? Because this is my understanding, this was a, okay, it's a campus zoning district. So it's not really, because before we had talked about, this is some years ago, creating a medical district around there. So when I saw this, this is not that.

This is just a new zoning district that the hospital would be rezoned to, and then any other big facility could come.

All right. I think, Dr. Newton, we had had that conversation at one time. That's not tonight, so I don't have to get into it. Yes, sir. All right. Council, any other questions? All right. With that, Madam Clerk, any other? Oops. No, sir. All right. All right. So the tap was not premature. All right. Councilman Hondros, thank you. Mr. Sellers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll move that we approve as presented.

All right. It's a motion by Councilman Hondros, seconded by Ferguson. Any discussion? All right. Council, I look forward to your votes. Mayor Pro Tem. Green, Mr. Mayor. All right. Thank you. Right. So, Council, moving to the next item of business, 9.03. Got my man, Mr. Jeff Yates, coming up. How are you, sir?

Good evening, Mayor.

Money man.

All right, good evening, Mayor, members of council. Tonight, we have our statutorily required public hearing. This is kind of the last gate you pass through before you can adopt your budget. And the point of tonight's exercise is really to allow the public to give you as a council through this process feedback on the proposed budget. The manager presented his budget about a week and a half ago, a little bit more than that. It's been posted online for review. We've added our transparency tool, budget and brief. We've had a couple of work sessions. If you go all the way back to April 8th, we presented the CIP. So this is the culmination of all those. I'll take just a couple of minutes and I'll run through the highlights. No new information tonight, and it's really not necessary for discussion, but really to get feedback. So just to kind of provide you context. The council priorities, comprehensive approach to community safety, continuing economic growth opportunities, working with our housing and neighborhood revitalization and refurbishment efforts, improving and expanding transportation, transit, and connectivity. And remember, the budget and operating and capital principles, we focused on employees, maintaining our services and commitments, focused on high-value, high-impact additions, focused on finishing what we started, aligned with what can be realistically delivered, meaning that what can we as an organization put on the street and actually build, construct, and or operate. Balanced and responsible planning for capital improvements over the long term. THIS INCLUDES SIGNIFICANT RECOMMENDATIONS AROUND MAINTENANCE AND OUR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS. I'M SORRY, I WENT THE WRONG WAY. THERE WE GO. THE RECOMMENDED TAX RATES, WE'RE RECOMMENDING A TAX RATE OF 47.95. THIS IS THAT THREE CENT TAX INCREASE, AND I WILL GO OVER WHERE THAT GOES IN JUST A MOMENT. EXPENDITURE BY DEPARTMENT. OVERALL, THE TOTAL BUDGET IS DOWN A LITTLE BIT, MORE THAN A HALF A PERCENT, GOING FROM THE 324, ALMOST 325 MILLION IN THE REVISED 2026 BUDGET. REMEMBER, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADOPTED AND REVISED. REVISED REFLECTS ALL THE ACTIONS COUNCIL HAS TAKEN AS WELL AS ANY ACCOUNTING ENCUMBRANCES AND CARRIES THAT HAD TO GO ON BETWEEN THE YEAR. THEN THE RECOMMENDED BUDGET IS ABOUT $323 MILLION. And perhaps a better way to look at it, and this is a really good graphic that we put in that I really think is important. When we look at the general fund, which is where all the tax dollars go, so the $323 million budget is what we refer to as the gross budget, meaning it includes all the enterprises, all the transfers, all the interfund activities, and so forth. When we look at the general fund, which is the main fund where your ad valorem taxes go, we can look at where our expenditures go. And the idea behind this is, if you'll show me your checkbook, I'll show you your priorities. So we can see that our two top expenditures are police, fire, then right shortly thereafter is parks and recreation. OTHER APPROPRIATIONS ARE FUND LEVEL EXPENSES, SO IT'S NOT REALLY A DEPARTMENT. THEN YOU CAN SEE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SO FORTH ALL THE WAY DOWN. WHEN YOU LOOK AT OUR PERSONNEL INVESTMENT, WE'VE INVESTED THE MOST IN POLICE AND FIRE, JUST LIKE YOU WOULD EXPECT AS GOVERNMENT IS PERSONNEL HEAVY. SO I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THIS LOOK FOR YOU. UOC OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SAFETY INTERNAL AUDIT. or construction management on this list they are embedded in the city manager's office but if you were to put ocs on this list it would be in between um it would be right right around the city attorney's office on the uh on this list so it's probably between finance i'm sorry between the city attorney and human resources development right in that area So where is the additional penny for the penny for operations? Remember going back, there's one penny for operations, two pennies for capital. The biggest part of that goes into a safe and secure community, community engagement, which is our citizen survey, a financially strong city, which really is additional help during our audit time. 18% goes to parks and recreation, and then a diverse and strong economy. But the preponderance of that chunk goes to safe and secure community, and the economic of the 22% is the contribution to the parking fund. And if you remember, you can go back to prior presentations. These are all outlined in detail, as well as in your transmittal letters, in your operating budget, and also in your capital program, which I'll show in just a moment. When you look at the recommended CIP by fund, you can see we have about $97 million worth of projects recommended for 2027. The biggest chunk of those being in stormwater, our continuation of our bond program, which is in the public safety capital project fund, and our airport projects. Over the life of the program, including appropriation to date, you're looking at almost $670 million worth of projects. which is, as Doug would say, a blessed plenty. A lot of stuff going on. I will point out that when we look at transportation capital projects, the very last one below, that's where our streets and sidewalks, and those are our ongoing streets and sidewalk programs. So the city is investing right around $6 million a year in that infrastructure, continuing on. And that includes going forward from 27 on, we've expended all the bond money. So that's ongoing contribution and ongoing PAL bill and ongoing sources, not the $25 million bonds. The additional pennies for capital. Those go to transportation projects, including sidewalks and streets, parks and recreation projects. Those are ongoing maintenance and infrastructure projects so that we can replace playgrounds and other resurfacing tennis courts and play surfaces and that kind of thing. GENERAL GOVERNMENT CAPITAL PROJECTS AND THEN PUBLIC SAFETY CAPITAL PROJECTS. THE PUBLIC SAFETY IS REALLY AROUND OUR RADIO SYSTEM, PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE AROUND OUR MOTOROLA RADIO SYSTEM. THIS IS A PORTION OF THE REPLACEMENT COST. AND IN THE SECOND PENNY, YOU CAN SEE THAT THAT GOES TO THE PUBLIC SAFETY, AN ADDITIONAL MILLION FOR RADIO REPLACEMENT, GENERAL CAPITAL PROJECT FUNDS AND PARKS AND RECREATION. A 540, but I will say the transportation capital projects, the biggest chunk, 1.2 million of that is for the Farmer's Road project. This is for the property acquisition. So it's the start of that project and the one way in, one way out program. So with that, kind of where we are, tonight's the required public hearing. We have a work session scheduled for Thursday. Right now, the plan is to talk about some of the public safety questions that have come up, talk a little bit more about the 38 positions and kind of where we are going in our investment in public safety. If you remember, we had a conversation about the investment in transit and the investment in downtown. So a similar conversation around public safety. Then we're also going to come back and have a conversation about the budget chronicles, answer those questions for you as a council, and review the parking lot. We'll be looking to you during our discussion on Thursday as well as the work session on Monday the 1st to give us guidance and direction as to what you want to see And the final adoption package. Our hope is to get it adopted on the 8th, which will give us ample time to get the new year ready for July 1st and get all of our systems ready. So with that, Mayor, I'll give it back to you for the public hearing.

All right. Thank you, sir. And just want to remind everyone just. See mr. Pitts back there and I know he knows it but just want to make sure the readers of that and other outlets know this is Just the recommended budget by the manager and management. This is not the final budget So I don't want you know, I already started getting some emails talking about 3% tax increase so This is just a recommended budget the City Council will go through the process and Work our way and and pull out our red pencils and mark out some stuff. I'm sure but Thank you. Mr. Yates. So with that I will open up Let me open up the public here.

Okay All right, we have five speakers two in favor three in opposition Our first speaker is mr. Benjamin Holt quest

Good evening. My name is Ben Holquist from Strong Towns Fayetteville. First, I want to thank Dr. Hewitt and your team for your thorough proposed budget and what I'm sure were many hard decisions with the limited financial resources. I also want to thank the council for asking hard questions and trying to find solutions to improve services without raising taxes. I have a lot I would like to say, but I also have limited resources of time, so I had to also make some tough decisions. I'm here multiple times a month, and I hear how much everyone wants to improve services and keep taxes low. Our residents are struggling and getting squeezed in multiple directions. Their electric bills are going up, gas prices have surged, food prices are higher, and taxes keep raising. Personally, I don't mind paying higher taxes for the betterment of society, but not everyone is as fortunate as I am. Unlike income taxes that can be progressive to protect lower incomes, property taxes are usually regressive, hurting the lower incomes the most. A couple of months ago, our comptroller presented that our city's financial position is strong. I think this proposed budget proves otherwise. We are treading water at best. In order to provide better services at our current tax rate, we need to get better, we need to get a lot more value out of the land in Fayetteville. This means we need to increase density allowed throughout our city by reducing minimum lot sizes, allowing mixed use zoning in commercial areas, and eliminating parking minimums. In the second budget work session, there was a lot of discussion about the half a million dollars a year we spend to subsidize paid parking downtown. While that is a lot, we subsidize all the free parking throughout the city with tens of millions of dollars. There is a ton of land in Fayetteville taken up with empty parking spots that could be more housing and more businesses. Not only would you raise property taxes or property tax revenue to improve services, but would also house and employ more people. Also, this land already has the necessary infrastructure, police and firefighter coverage, and transit stops, unlike greenfield developments out on the edge of the city. We also currently lack the skilled workforce to attract larger employers, and dense, walkable, mixed-use zoning is popular with young professionals we need to come to Fayetteville. The hype around Midtown and Coalition is evidence we need more of this development. We need competitive salaries for city employees to attract and keep our top talent. These are the people that keep our city running. After that, I would like more money for our most vulnerable residents, like transit, walking, and biking infrastructure, housing assistance, and the Office of Community Safety. However, you need to make the best out of our limited financial resources. After this budget, though, let's make the best out of our limited land resources. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Mayor, our next speaker is Mr. Toriano Riddick.

Hi, sir.

Councilman, Mayor, one second. My name is Toriano Riddick. I will go ahead and pull up everything real quick. One second. All right, there we go. All right, good evening to Mayor Colvin, members of the council, city leadership, and the members of our community. My name is Toriano Riddick, Jr. I'm a Navy veteran, and I'm the CEO of Riddick & Co. LOC. We're a service disabled veteran-owned small business, and we're focused on workforce readiness, operational professionalism, and workforce capability development. I'm here tonight to express my support for several budget initiatives. I'm including fully funding the, you know, the office of community safety. I have listened to the council discuss the desire to improve the tier status for our community. I also know that 1 of the key factors to improving our tier status is about adding to our workforce. Um, you know, once I, you know, short story once I got out the Navy, you know, you. A lot of veterans around here would come out with a ton of experience, but I think the biggest thing that I knew that we can make the impact is bridging the gap between the workforce. We have a ton of manufacturers, defense manufacturers, logistics manufacturers all across, even some over right next to our mall. We have KACI as well. These are major defense organizations that I do feel those amongst my age, it's very important to keep retention here available. As we get ready to move on to Tier 2, we are really deciding on who is going to be, what is our identity going to be, where our Americans can do city. A lot has happened here. This is my second time coming here, and I do see that everybody has the same exact intent of wanting to push forward, but how will we move forward? Nobody wants to step in mud and have to go back to clean up later. This is going to be for the future. Everything we're doing right now is for our future. Fable sits within, I am prepared to present a workforce development initiative designed to help retain and develop local talent through workforce readiness, leadership development, professionalism, interview readiness, and workforce capability development aligned with high demand industries. This will be a 12-month pilot initiative operated with a small vetted team and structured around measurable workforce outcomes, our phase rollout implementation, participation tracking, workforce engagement, career readiness development, and long-term employment pathway support. We also plan to work alongside existing workforce systems like our NC Works pathways, our workforce development boards that we have already been in contact with a few counties, especially mid Carolina. Ms. Rozier, if you're watching, thank you for this direction. This is extremely vital with the recent announcement from Goodyear and the push back to data center development. There's a way to create a workforce that is not connected to an industry that the community feel is harmful. After reviewing this city's fiscal year 2027 plans and economic development direction, it became clear the Fayetteville is already investing into long-term growth through infrastructure redevelopment, public safety, and economic expansion. Riddick & Co. is committed to building that future here with our community. We are here to stay and grow along the side of the city that we proudly call home. I do appreciate you guys' support. Thank you again. Thank you, sir. Good job.

Madam Clerk?

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Bobbie Burgess.

There's that eye contact. Hello, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Council and other people. Well, yeah, I just want to make sure you're listening over there. I'm listening with my eyes. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. So, good evening, Council. Good evening, members of the public. I am speaking in opposition to this budget today because, unfortunately, it tells the community that the Council does not care about the community's children. which is a major concern of the community in itself. Youth programming opportunities, all of the like. Every dog in the district so far, youth has come up. What are we doing for the summer? What opportunities are available for teens, all ages of children? And when they were mentioning that, they weren't necessarily mentioning in the youth concerns about the youth curfew in particular. I mean, already tonight, the issue of the SRO topic was steamrolled and dismissed, which is also a key youth issue that deserved to be addressed with the complexity that it is. And now with this budget, we're going to lose elements of our safe activation spaces and block party and other youth events that are hosted by the Office of Community Safety. You see, by cutting the OCS budget by $286,577,000, it would directly cut those programs because they're also at the same time trying to bring online a behavioral health response team. So it really shouldn't be a choose, like one can work and the other can't. They should be both happening in tandem. So I ask that you at least maintain the same OCS budget from fiscal year 2026. And if you're feeling frisky, dare I say, approve the additional penny. Because in doing so, you'll fully fund it, which will address all the pillars as they're designed to be addressed. Homelessness, youth, mental health, rapid crisis response. All of those things are necessary to actually make our community a safe community. And believe it or not, when all those pillars are addressed, the other parts of safety also get uplifted and improved, like police and fire. Because then they can focus on what they need to be doing instead of the issues the Office of Community Safety would be better equipped To handle, I mean, honestly, kind of simply put, like, we just asked for this money, like, a couple years ago, and I find it to be a spit in the face that we're already suffocating this brand new department. They don't even have the time to breathe and become all that they need to be. So, my call is to ask you guys to fund this properly, keep the budget level from fiscal year 26 to fiscal year 27 and do the will of the people. I understand that money is tight, but I am sure. I am positive that the money can be found somewhere to at least keep the budget level. Thank you for your attention. Thank you.

Mayor, our next speaker is Mr. Kurt Bailish.

Good evening, sir. Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. I appreciate your time and patience. I'm here to speak out against the proposed budget, mainly for the tax increase only. I respect what you guys are doing and the hard decisions that you guys all have to make on a daily basis in funding the multiple avenues of government. I moved here in 2006. This is the longest I've ever called a place home. Fayetteville is my home. Since I moved here in 2006, my property taxes have went from about $300 to close to $800. On a fixed budget as a disabled veteran, this is drastically impacting my ability to provide for my child. I don't have a lot to say. I just, I want you guys to know how this is affecting. It's been one small step at a time. It's not been a large tax increase. It's been little tax increase followed by little tax increase. And this is the real effect that it's having on me and my business. At a certain point, you have to ask when you're gonna start losing residents like me that honestly care about the betterment of the society around us and where we're gonna go. I have a business here. I have a nonprofit. I help other veterans learn creative trade skills through that nonprofit. I help them find themselves after service, after war, and this city is looking to push me away because I just can't afford to live here much longer. Thank you for your time.

Mayor, our final speaker is Ms. Lizette Rodriguez.

Good evening.

Hello, Council. I'm Lissette Rodriguez, founder of Fayetteville Freedom for All. Today I was wanting to speak to voice our organization's opposition to the potential budget cuts for the Office of Community Safety. As you all know, the OCS is very, very new, and Director John Jones has only been in his position for less than a year, and we feel those cuts could hinder their growth. When this office was established in 2024, this council's priority was the establishment of a mental and behavioral health response team that could respond to nonviolent calls. And I know OCS is working with Campbell University to study our 911 calls to pinpoint how many calls that could potentially be diverted by OCS. But a few years back, FPD Chief Hawkins stated that the FPD receives around 4,000 911 calls related to mental health per month. And I imagine that number has increased over the past few years as families and children have faced increased financial hardships, societal hardships since the COVID pandemic. And as you all know, this office can and will save lives if we fully fund it. So I implore this council to think of the long-term investment and long-term benefits and cost savings that can come with the fully funded OCS. We've been dealing with police vacancies for many years now, and I believe and I think the statistics and the success that we're seeing in other cities bear out that a fully funded OCS would help reduce the burden placed on our officers so they wouldn't have to respond to calls related to mental health crises, nonviolent issues related to homelessness and substance abuse. After all, they joined the police force to be police and not to be mental health counselors or social workers. The OCS will help the city be proactive when it comes to addressing issues like youth crime and youth violence. It will help our families, our children, our seniors, and our veteran populations that often bring the trauma of war back with them to the city. If these budget cuts pass, the OCS will have to reduce their youth employment and youth programming, their community violence interruption programs, reducing funding for violence prevention, outreach, victim services, and survivor support. And I know the council is debating raising taxes to fund a variety of things. And of course, we want to see a fully funded Office of Community Safety, but at minimum, we hope the council will allow OCS to keep its current funding level. And if funds have to be cut, we ask that the city and county manager, or sorry, the council and city manager to give more control to Director Jones over OCS's budget so he can reallocate funds as needed and so that there aren't things that are related, OCS related activities that aren't necessarily related to that response team and the pillars that OCS is working to build out. I do want to note our IT department is getting more funding than the Office of Community Safety and I think it's worth putting that investment forward. Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we have no further speakers.

All right. We will close the public hearing. No action is needed. That was just the public hearing. Is that correct? All right. So, again, the next budget meeting will be Thursday. Several. Mr. Yates is hopeful, wishful thinking. It will be done by the 8th, but we'll see. But thank you for your comments tonight and your perspective. So, counsel, with that, we will move to... The next item, sir. Can I just? Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Mr. Yates. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Yates, whenever you come, whenever we have our Thursday meeting, give me a full explanation of what the other appropriations mean and those dollars. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member Hare.

Council, with that, we will move into our evidentiary hearings. We must now move into tonight's evidentiary hearings. Council decisions will be based on competent material and substantial evidence which is presented. All those who are planning to speak must provide their testimony under oath. Those who are offering themselves as a witness and expert on an issue must provide testimony supporting the individual expertise that they have. Council, at this time, I'd ask if any council members have any conflicts or have had any ex parte communications that they need to disclose. That all those who wish to speak at the hearing, please step forward so that you can be sworn in by the clerk.

For item 10.01, we have Mr. Charleston Roberson, Mr. Jerry Porter, Mr. John Russell. Would you like me to swear in for 10.02 as well, sir?

Yeah, we'll get it done. And Mayor Pro Tem, you'll have to, you won't be able to participate in this evidentiary hearings. But yeah, if we could swear affirm all these in.

All? For both? Okay, for both. Yes, sir. And Yep, for item 10.02, we have Ms. Robin Tatum, Mr. Roland Norris, Ms. Morgan Cook, Mr. Ryan Shively, Mr. Dan Wall, Mr. William Troutman, Mr. Dennis Chisholm, and Ms. Blanche Chisholm. If everyone will raise their right hand. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth? So help you God. Thank you.

All right.

Thank you all All right At this time I'll turn over you mr. Harmon Thank You mr. Mayor Council the first item we have is 2601 this is brought to you by Bishop Jerry Porter with United Gospel Fellowship global ministries This SUP is for transitional housing, location is 707 Murchison Road, a little over three and a half acres, and this is in Councilman Davis' district. Just to give you an idea of where the property is located, here along Murchison Road, where Cumberland comes into Murchison right in this area. This property was an assisted living facility some years ago and some other things as well over the years. There's a mix of some residential area plus offices there. Currently, the zoning out there is a mix of residential You're the MR5, some O&I, and a little bit of commercial LC here to the top. The property in question is owned O&I. The land use plan, McCall's, and you'll see another slide here in a moment that shows this as well, but most of this property is within the floodplain, and so that's why it shows up on our land use plan as parks and open space, although these buildings that are currently on there have been on there for a number of years. This is the building in question where they're looking to do the transitional housing. These are some of the things surrounding that particular site. I've got the MLK Park behind it. We've got a cemetery in front and then other things there to the left and right along Murchison Road. As I mentioned a while ago, most of this site is in the floodplain, all but just a wee little bit right in this corner is floodplain. The area you see in the red is actually the floodway, and that's the area that today we would not even allow someone to build in. You can build in the floodplain as long as you meet certain standards, but you would not be able to build in the floodway currently. As you can see, under that you do see some of the buildings are within that floodway. This is just kind of a basic site plan that they submitted. As you saw a while ago from the picture, it's the existing building out there with existing parking. Consistency generally aligns with adopted city objectives related to corridor reinvestment, neighborhood stabilization, community development expansion, and community serving services. The facility is intended to provide workforce support, life skill development, mentorship, and transitioning housing services that promote personal stability and self-sufficiency. I believe with their application, they're looking to house about 40 individuals at this particular site. And then I'm not gonna go through the details of some of the options you have, but as you, that would conclude our staff report at this time. If you would hold any questions you have till after your evidentiary hearing.

All right, thank you, Mr. Harmon. With that, we will open up the public hearing. Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we have three speakers for this item.

Our first speaker is Mr. Charleston Roberson.

Mr. Charleston Roberson, not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Jerry Porter. I'm sorry, Bishop.

Bishop, all this time I didn't know that the J stood for Jerry.

How you doing, sir? I do well. My name is Bishop J. Venturio Porter, pastor emeritus of the Christ Cathedral and the presiding prelate of the United Gospel Fellowship Covenant Ministries International. I am here to respectfully request approval for this special use permit. I've been here in this community, our church has been here for over 46 years. Our vision is to provide a structural transitional environment that restore dignity, stability, accountability, and hope to men in need within I personally am a veteran, disabled veteran as well. We believe that this proposal meets the required finding of all the facts that were presented to us. First, the proposal complies with the unified development ordinance and applicable regulations. We commit to operating responsible and full compliance with the city's requirement. Second, this program will support not disturb the surrounding community through structured mentorship, accountability, counseling, referrals, faith-based support, and community partnership. Third, the program will not endanger public health or safety. we will maintain clear rules, supervision, structured programming, and coordination with local agencies to ensure a safe environment. Fourth, this request support the city's goal relating to community development, homelessness reduction, rehabilitation, and reintegration. do not believe that this use will harm surrounding community value. Structured transitional programs help individuals achieve stability, employment, and permanent housing while addressing a real community need. And finally, we commit to complying with all applicable city, state, and federal laws in operating this facility. Our mission is rooted in service. 46 years we've been here. Accountability, part of this community. We've partnered with this community over the years. We seek to help rebuild lives responsibly within the city of Fayetteville. We respectfully ask your favorable consideration and approval of this special use permit. Thank you. Thank you, Bishop.

Thank you, Bishop. And we'll call you if there's some other questions. Thank you, Mayor. All right, Madam Clerk.

Mayor, our final speaker for this item is Mr. John Russell.

Mr. Russell, how are you, sir? I'm doing fine.

I'm doing fine. Mr. Mayor and City Council, thank you for having me. I want to vote on behalf of the 707 Murchison Road environment, and I want to just give a little short story about what happened that brought me to the light. My name is John Russell, and I'm a North Carolina Certified Peer Support Specialist. And I really like my job, to tell you the truth. I came in 2023, and I was talking about the situation. For those that don't know, I particularly got into this platform because my sister and brother had passed away from fentanyl. I didn't know which way I was going, and I wind up coming here first. And y'all helped me. Y'all helped me. Y'all put me in the right direction. Y'all put me with the police department. And the police department, we've been going ever since. But the other day on the 28th of April, I received a phone call from the Office of Community Safety. And one of the problems that they had was that the unhoused that was right there at the library, were becoming a little bit overbearing. And they were asking me, like, you know, John, why is there so many, you know, they stay here all day, what's going on? And I said, well, you know, they use the Wi-Fi as well as it's a safe zone. They don't have to worry about trespassing if they get caught in the mix. But as we started to look at the situation, we started to see how really bad it was because the homeless individuals were using the bathroom outside in front of the children. you know, they were just really taking over that location over there. And one of the things that hit me the hardest was that they said that the children were scared to get off the school bus to go into the library. So I said, oh no, we're gonna have to fix that. So I wind up getting with a couple of my coworkers that I work with, and being a peer support specialist, you wind up dealing with a lot of substance use disorders and mental health. So, I got with a lot of my cohorts that I work with, and we were able to go out there and do interventions. Now, please, let me say this first and foremost. A lot of the individuals that are out there are our cousins, our brothers, our sisters, our mothers, and we have to treat this lightly. It ain't like just going in there and trying to get them out of the way. But as I started to get this multifaceted team of individuals like North Carolina Harm Reduction, Pastor Burrows, I forgot his name, I'm so sorry, I'm up here talking real fast. But I was able to get a team of individuals together and we were out there working with them with compassion. Seems as funny though, they were complying. They started to fall back, and they were understanding that the front of the library was something that, you know, you're putting a bad look on our community. You're putting a bad look on our city. So I wind up getting with a friend of mine, Ken Burrows, who's in charge of this group called Men of Purpose. And as me and him were sitting there talking, he told me that he's developing this building where he can house individuals at. So when we went out there to the community and start working with the individuals, just so happens we were able to find housing for four individuals, but they were outside of the city of Fayetteville. So I would like to vote for a go on this housing complex so that we can work with these individuals in our own city. Some of these people are from our own city, our own family members, and we're having to ship them out of town because we don't have housing here. So I would like to ask, please consider allowing men of purpose to utilize 707 for transitional housing. Because not only do they need transitional housing, but they need the services put on them as well. People working with them instead of just housing them. So I just basically wanted to come up here and say that. So if it helps, it helps. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Russell. Appreciate it. Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we have no further speakers for this item.

All right. So with that, Council will close the public hearing. Councilman Harry, you have your line up. Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I like this. For all the speakers that came forward, I do appreciate you coming forward. I like the direction that they are trying to go. I've always appreciated also... Dr Porter for what they have done and trying to support those less fortunate in our community. So thank you for that. And also Mr, the gentleman's just Russell Russell that just left us. If Mr Harmon was that who gave us Mr Harmon come back up. Um, And I was trying to get this before you step down. Okay, I guess I'm looking at one of one. So I'm looking at map one. And in this map, you have, as you stated, you have the red for the floodway and you have The blue for the 100 foot plane is very small, but I think that's what it says. Since this is existing property, tell me, say it again, what can be done in the blue section and what can be done in the red section?

Well, again, it is existing. Right, it is existing. Something can operate in both areas because it is existing. Right. There just can be complications in the future. If it was new construction. Well, any time new construction or, of course, any time.

I understood better just due to the fact that it's existing. And I know the property well. I drove by there today and looking at it. So I'm good. I'm good. Thank you, Mayor. I understand what I'm going to do.

All right. Council, I don't see any further questions. So with that, Council Member Davis, this is your district.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If there's no other questions from Council, but I think Council Member Jones, Council Member Ferguson has a question. Oh, okay. I'm waiting to make a motion, sir. Oh, you're trying to second, okay.

Hey, I'm tracking the board.

This is a pretty lengthy motion, so Mr. Mayor, at this time, I am prepared to make a motion for this. If you give me one second. All right, Mr. Mayor. Based off of the information presented to us today, Finding fact number one, that the special use complies with all applicable standards, conditions, and specifications in this ordinance, including the section 30-4.C, and the fact that they present today that the site will house no more than 40 residents. Number two, the special use will be in harmony with the area which is where it is located. And the finding fact for that one is that the property will be professionally manage and maintain, contributing to the overall appearance and stability of the corridor. Final fact number three, that the special use will not materially endanger the public health or safety if it is located where proposed and developed according to the plan as submitted and approved. And the fact that I heard today was that the facility will comply with all applicable building fire and life safety codes, including occupancy limits, emergency egress, and required inspections prior to operation. Finding fact number four, Mr. Mayor, is that the special use is in general conformity with the city's adopted land use plan and policies. And the finding fact for that is that the public benefit and quality of life the services offer promote self-sufficiency, reduce negative social outcomes, and enhance the quality of life for residents in the community. Finding fact number five is that the special use will not substantially injure or value the abutting land or the special use in the public necessity. Finding fact for that one is that the use will not include, will not intrude Introduce conditions typically associated with negative impacts on the property, such as excessive noise, uncontrolled traffic or congestion, outdoor storage or industrial activity or unsupervised disorderly gatherings. And the last finding is that the special use complies with all of the relevant city, state and federal laws and regulations. And that the finding fact for that is that the Building and fire code compliance that the structure will meet all applicable North Carolina building code and fire code requirements, including occupancy limits, life safety measures, emergency egress, and fire inspections. That is the motion, Mr. Mayor.

All right, it's a lengthy one. It's a motion by Council Member Davidson, seconded by Council Member Jones. Is that what you, okay, all right. All right, council discussion. Council Member Hodges, you got discussion?

Please, so I'm looking at our packet, and there was several options there. One included some conditions. I don't know if this was included in the motion. Limiting the occupancy to 40 residents. He did say that. Compliance. Okay. All of those were in there? Okay. I'm just making sure. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

All right. Councilman McMillan. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Realizing this is a zoning call and zoning vote, I do want to open up an opportunity to discuss further how the council can support your efforts and the efforts of other groups that are doing this kind of important, critically important work. And thank you. Thank you.

All right, Council Member McMillan. All right, the first step we can do as supporters is pass this motion that's on the floor. So, Council, I look to you for your votes.

No.

All right. Motion carries 9-0. All right. Congratulations. Thank you. Good luck to you, Bishop. John, good to see you. Thank you for your work. All right. Council Member Davis, you had some updates on 10.02? No? No?

Okay. All right. Mr. Harmon. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council once again. The next case before us, SUP 2602. This is owned by Russell Street LLC. They are looking to acquire a special use permit for a salvage slash junkyard. Location is 610 East Russell Street, just under 11 acres, and this also is in Councilman Davis' district as well. Just to give you an idea of where the property is located, this is East Russell here. This is 301 here. So it's basically at the corner of 301 and East Russell other than the auto shop here on the corner. Our zoning has it currently as industrial property. It does border some MR5 properties around and some other industrial properties across the road from it as well. Our land use map calls for this to be industrial employment center along with across the road and then here along 301 is mainly heavy commercial and then residential back in these areas. Just a quick picture of what the property currently looks like. It's been basically vacant or unused for a number of years. These are some of the surrounding properties. This is the O'Reilly's there on the corner that separates that property from the corner. And then as you can just see, kind of the other surrounding areas, warehouses across the road and railroad tracks along East Russell as well. Site plan, and I won't go into this. The applicants will fill you in in more detail on what they're looking to do on the site itself. But this is just to give you an overview. And then another different little angle for their site plan as well. And then the third, more of a surveyed look at the property. That concludes the staff presentation. If you'd hold any comments for staff or questions until after the public hearing, we'd appreciate it.

All right, thank you, Mr. Harmon. That, Madam Clerk, will open up the public hearing. Call you first.

We have eight speakers for this item, five in favor, three in opposition. Our first speaker is Ms. Robin Tatum.

Good evening, Ms. Tatum.

Good evening. Can I get some help getting our PowerPoint?

There you go.

While they're doing that, attorney, Madam Attorney, you want to update us on one of the attachments or... There was an update on the packet, correct?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. Just for the record, the city consents to striking the previously submitted staff report. Staff's presentation should be factually only and should not include any recommendation. And just as a reminder, council's decision should be based on the evidence presented during this hearing. Thank you, Mayor.

Oh, there's another one? Thank you. Okay.

Okay, thank you. Sorry for that delay. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. We appreciate the ability to be here tonight. My name is Robin Tatum, and I am an attorney with the law firm of Smith Anderson in Raleigh, and I'm here with my colleagues, Aaron Catlett, And one of our new lawyers, Sydney Wiswell, who is learning about zoning and city council meetings tonight. We represent the applicant, Russell Street LLC, which is the applicant. We have the president of the company, Mr. Dan Wall, here tonight. Mr. Wall and his family live in Wilmington and have owned and operated these types of facilities across North Carolina for 20 years. Before we get started, what I would like to do, with your permission, is we've put together some notebooks for you that have the exhibits that we're gonna present so we don't have to keep getting disruptive. It also has our application and our sketch plan and some UDA provisions and things of that nature. I'm also, Madam Clerk, going to hand up the originals for your records as we go.

Jeffrey, you want Ms. Sabina or Paula to help cover it from this end?

Now as she's doing that, I'm just gonna give an overview of what we think the evidence will show tonight and what our position is and then we're gonna call three expert witnesses and Mr. Wall if that is needed.

Thank you.

Want me to keep talking or?

No, just give us a minute.

I don't want to hold you up, but I don't want to rush you. All right, Madam Attorney, we're ready for you. Thank you so much. This is just a little bit of information about the property. Mr. Harmon has already told you where it's located. It's 610 East Russell Street. It's about 11 acres, and it's zoned heavy industrial. From all of our research, it appears that this heavy industrial designation has been there for a very long time. It's also been vacant for quite a while. And I wanted to give you a little bit of a background about how we got here tonight. The applicant purchased the property in 2023. It had been on the market for many years. It was marketed as an industrial site, and as I'll get to in a minute, that's really all you can do on the property at this time because it's zoned heavy industrial. It doesn't allow most other less intense uses. So it was vacant and in disrepair, and Our client bought it with the hope that they could either rent it to some industrial user or clean it up and make it in better repair. But what happened was that there is a lot of vandalism and there's a lot of trespassing and a lot of issues that make it difficult to repair and redevelop the property unless somebody is actually there. every day operating a business. So if there's no tenants and there's no business, then what happens is nothing ever gets better. So why we are here today is I had some discussions with the city and suggested that the best way to get this property cleaned up and in operation is to actually ask for a special use permit so that we can develop it in accordance with the building code and with the UDO and have an ongoing operation there so someone's there on a daily basis. And so that's why that we're here tonight. Now, with respect to the slide, I do want to emphasize about the heavy industrial zoning. In your zoning ordinance, This is the most intense district that exists in the city of Fayetteville. And it is established and intended to accommodate heavy manufacturing, assembly, fabrication, processing, and on and on, and other industrial uses that may be large scale or have extensive exterior movement of vehicles, materials, and good, and a greater potential for adverse environmental and visual impacts. So that is the zoning district that we are working with and that's the only one that we have the ability to develop under at this time. I do want to tell you under the table of permitted uses that the heavy industrial district does not allow single family housing, it doesn't allow multifamily housing, it doesn't allow restaurants, no hotels, no entertainment except adult entertainment by right, no other indoor entertainment is allowed. And so, but the things when you look at the table that are permitted, They're very intense. It's heavy vehicle sales and services. The extraction industry, which is mining and quarrying, they allow industrial services and even high-impact and hazardous manufacturing. And these are things that you don't need a special use for. permit for, although they have some standards. So in order to get this parcel up and running, we have to work within the confines of that zoning district. Now, the comprehensive plan also designates this as what they call industrial and entertainment, and it's pretty, I mean, employment, sorry about that. And it's pretty consistent with the heavy industrial designation. And it basically says that this is the place where we want the most intense uses at this time. Now, if it was zoned differently, we would have more options, but the fact is that it's not. Now, if you look at the heavy industrial district, the only place that you can do is salvage and junkyard. And I wish it had a better name because there are benefits to salvage, your definition of salvage and junkyard, but unfortunately, that's what we're stuck with. But I do wanna point out that that's the only place that you can do it in the city and only with a special use permit. Now, I just wanted, and I'm sure I'm probably telling you things you know, but I did wanna go over what a special use permit is. And it is, when a use is allowed as a special use, then it is permitted so long as we can come before you today and present substantial, competent, and material evidence that the standards in the ordinance are met. Here's a little bit more about the property information. Again, it shows the industrial employment area and the requested use. You can see that it is in an area that has other heavy industrial around it and a lot of the adjoining areas. And the surrounding uses right now, we went through there today. There are other high-intensity uses, an auto parts store, an auto body repair business, self-storage, window tenting service, and electrical contractors. There are some residential properties. There are buffering requirements for that. We actually have proposed to not only meet but to... Enhance those so that there's no adverse impacts Again we were talking about go back I About a special use permit So again if we present the evidence and there's no contrary evidence then the special use permit should be allowed Now this is the definition of a salvage and junkyard under the unified development ordinance And one of the We think that what we plan falls clearly within this definition. There is another definition in the UDO that's called a recycling center, and it actually talks about storage, processing, resale, and use of recyclable materials, but it says the word solely. So the definition of recycling The salvage and junkyard is broader than that, and it allows an establishment where junk, waste, old metals, wood, lumber, or paper are brought, bailed, packed, disassembled, stored, and handled, also automobile wrecking. What is proposed here, and again, Mr. Wall and his company do this across the state, so this is a business that they know, and they know well. They'll accept discarded materials, scrap metal, paper, and wood. And then what they will do, and it can come in from anyone. Anybody can bring it in a car. They can bring it in a pickup truck. They can bring it in a bigger truck. And they will bring it there. And then what will happen is it will be kind of sorted and made smaller. And then it goes, Mr. Wall takes it in a big truck and takes it all to Sanford. So it's not being sold from the property. It's just being collected and put into somewhere that it can go somewhere else to be processed. If there's any doubt about whether that it can be a recycling center or a salvage yard, under North Carolina law, if you can fall in two different categories, then the property owner gets to pick whichever one that they would like, and they can pick the ones with the least restrictions because you cannot, if you have someone that falls two places, you have to give the benefit to the property owner. Now there are six special use permit standards. I'm gonna go through and say what they are and then kind of tell you what the evidence is. As you probably know, there are certain topics that require expert testimony. One is whether the value of property will be affected We have an appraiser that will testify to that. Another one that needs an expert is anything having to do with traffic and traffic safety. We have a traffic engineer here tonight. The other is any other area that requires expert testimony in court. We do have our environmental engineer here who designed the sketch plan and can go through that and testify as to why, in his expert opinion, he believes all of the standards can be met. Okay, the six standards are just quickly that the special use complies with all the applicable standards, conditions, and specifications in the ordinance, that it will be in harmony with the area, that it will not materially endanger the public health or safety, that it's in general conformity with the city's adopted plans and policies, that it will not substantially injure the value, and it's substantially injured the value of abutting land, and it complies with all other rules and regulations. Now with respect to one, and I'm gonna bring these witnesses up in just a second, but I wanted to go through so you have a forecast of what we expect the evidence to show. The first thing, does it comply with all applicable standards, conditions, and specifications in the ordinance? The concept plan will show the layout, setbacks, some landscaping, and compliance with other UDO standards. We also, if you'll see in the front, pocket of your notebook. These are additional conditions that our client will offer to add to the special use permit so that there are additional things that the UDO does not otherwise require, and I'll get to them in a minute, and that make sure that in addition to having just an obligation to comply with all other rules and regulations, that if it's attached to the special use permit, that's an additional way to enforce it. Our engineer, Rusty Norris, an environmental engineer, has prepared this. It's a concept plan. It's not a site plan. And I'll get to that in a minute. And he can go through it with you specifically. But it shows generally the setbacks that they're met and sometimes exceeded from the UDO. And with respect to UDO compliance in the future, we had a meeting with the technical review committee and they provided a report. And basically until the special use permit is granted, we do not have the information that we need to go and know exactly what next steps are needed. For example, there's some buildings there. If the buildings remain, will need a building permit potentially if they are removed it'll be a site plan and that those will trigger different requirements and that's why we have added the condition that whatever it is they will comply the trc actually stated that 99 of their comments and what will be decided in the future will not come up until after that after the special use permit because only then will you know what the plan of development We did have a very positive, we included the transcript from the TRC in the notebook and we'll ask for it to be an exhibit. And they were helpful and we agreed to work together in the future to make sure all of the requirements were met. now i did want to touch those conditions really quickly that are in the pocket of your notebook and we've agreed to make conditions of the special use permit and the first is that the salvage and junk junk yards help be in compliance with all applicable standards conditions and specifications of the udo and the state and federal law at the time of development As I said, we're required to do this, but by adding the condition that not only would it be a violation of the law, but it would also be a violation of the special use permit. The second is that the property owner will install a new six-foot-tall screening berm along Russell Street, and that will have trees planted on the top to four or five feet, and that is in this area only. Right here, I'll let Mr. Norse talk about it, but that is something that UDO does not require, but that will visually protect and buffer the Russell Street side. The last is to turn the existing fence, which is not required necessarily by the UDO, and make it solid and opaque. Second standard is that it has to be in harmony with the area. In North Carolina, there is something called a presumption of harmony. And what that means is if it's listed as a special use in the zoning district, that there is automatically a finding of harmony unless there's substantial competent and material evidence against it. We do not think we need to rely on that presumption because we do think it's in the area will be located. The surrounding uses and the surrounding districts are intense. Again, that the whole point of this is to try to get this property in a better condition. We also have an expert appraiser who will testify that in his professional opinion, it will be in harmony with the area. The next is, and you saw this in your previous hearing, is that the use will not substantially or materially endanger the public health or safety. We'll have the testimony of our engineer that if the SUP is allowed that the operation will comply with all of the UDO, the TRC requirements and state and federal regulations. We also have a licensed traffic engineer who has looked at both the amount of traffic and whether there will be a traffic safety issue.

And again, we have the conditions of approval.

standard four is that it should be in general conformity with the city's adopted plans and policies the evidence that we have put forward is that it's in an area that's deemed industrial and commercial and that is uh exactly what we are proposing i did want to just point out quickly just because of some of the statements that are now stricken but were made is the property is not in the central Kim Belton neighborhood plan, the Cape River plan, or the downtown plan. You see right that little purple area? That's the industrial and employment area. And this type of, and I just real quickly just want to address this because I think it's important because we're dealing with a parcel that is zoned heavy industrial. We can't do anything with it that's not heavy industrial. So if the long-term plan is to do something different, then the plan is used to guide future zoning decisions and not special use permit decisions because we can only work within the confines of our district. And that particular standard consistency with a comprehensive plan has been in ordinances for decades. know because I've been doing this for decades the but recently within the last five years the statutes and the court cases have said that you can't turn down a special use permit because of inconsistency with the comp plan because it's only a policy and it's not a law and one of those is 160 D 501 and where it says that the comprehensive plan is advisory and it should be used to determine future zoning and you can't use it as a regulatory standard that governs the issuance of a development regulation which is what our development permit number four um Again, as we've said, regardless of whether it's proper or not, we think this is met, and the evidence before you is that it's in the industrial employment area. The next is it won't substantially injure the value of abutting land. We have an appraiser here who has done a report and evaluated. We think actually that if the special use permit is granted that it will enhance the property and the property around it because Some of the vandalism and the trespassing and that kind of thing can stop. The property can get cleaned up. If it complies with the UDO, there'll be certain landscaping things that are required, and it will potentially probably not transform it into what everybody would like it ultimately to be, but we think it will be a vast improvement and a step in the right direction. The last is that... Property complies with rules and regulations, and that is the condition that I've already provided to you. So if you have any questions for me, I'm glad to answer them. If not, I'll just call our witnesses.

Yes, ma'am, please.

Councilman Herr has a question. Just for clarity, Madam Attorney, you said that your area was going to, well, it showed on the, I'm not sure which item it was, the different things that are collected, materials that are collected. Are these materials that would be freely given by the public or Does the public bring in, for example, metals and other recyclable type materials to sell?

Yeah. Yes, they will purchase the items from the public.

Okay.

Right, right. They will purchase it from the public, but the public doesn't buy from that location. No, no, no.

You answered me already. All right, Council. What we'll do is we'll give the proponents time to call their witnesses and then do the same for the opponents, and then we'll try to catch questions. Okay. Okay.

And I'm gonna ask some questions, but I'm also gonna let our experts do their own talking because they know better than I do. I'm gonna leave this up. I'm gonna call Mr. Rusty Norris, please. Yes, Mr. Norris, can you please state your name for the record and tell the council how you're employed? Roland Blair Norris the second and I am the owner of ELM site solutions And what is ELM site solutions We are a civil engineering and environmental engineering and consulting firm Okay, I'm gonna hand you what's been marked as our exhibit or Russell Street exhibit one and ask if you recognize that Exhibit yes, ma'am. I do and what is that I?

It is a summary of my affidavit about the use of this property to meet the UDO, as well as a CV of my detailed experience and the site plans and sketch plans that have been presented thus far.

Okay, and you said exhibit A is your CV, and for the council's purpose, that's at tab 4A of your notebook if you want to follow along. And can you describe your educational background and experience?

Sure. I am a licensed professional engineer and a licensed professional survey with license issued by the state of North Carolina. I have a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from NC State. And believe it or not, 40 years of experience doing these type of projects. both in the civil engineering arena and environmental engineering and consulting arena.

And does your work include assisting with preparing site plans and getting permits for this type of facility that's been in front of the council?

Yes, we've designed multiple solid waste facilities, including transfer stations and metal recovery yards, like what's being proposed here in the salvage and junkyard project.

Okay, were you involved in preparing the special use permit, in this case the application?

Yes, we were. We reviewed the UDO for conformance, and we worked with the owner, Mr. Wall, on his desires to operate the facility and the logistics to do that, and then we developed a sketch plan in front of the council here based on that.

I would like to offer Mr. Norris as an expert in environmental and civil engineering and ask that the council accept that.

So I also want to hear what this is, correct? Yeah. Okay.

okay thank you just a couple of other things can you take a look so I think you testified part of your analysis was determining whether this particular operation including the sketch plan and in the future would be able to comply with the UDO requirements yes I reviewed the UDO requirements for the heavy industrial sector and we will meet all those requirements Is there any state review required?

For a salvage and junkyard, the solid waste section does not require permitting under their jurisdiction, but we will need to get stormwater permits from the state of North Carolina under the DEQ stormwater program.

Okay. Do you remember what the technical review committee told us about future compliance?

Yes, we did a cursory review with the TRC so we could understand what the city requirements would be under the UDO relative to planning, engineering, infrastructure. And we went through the details of that in our preliminary meeting and found that we would be able to meet all the city's requirements for that.

When the time comes.

When the time comes.

Okay. Can you just, without me interfering, kind of go through your, you can use your cursor and kind of show what the site, what this sketch plan shows?

Sure, what we have here is we have in red are the existing buildings that are currently underutilized. On the drawing, you'll see a dashed yellow line, which is all of the required setbacks for the project. Robin pointed out along Russell Street, we plan to enhance the buffering at the project above the UDO standards by putting an earthen berm there with ornamental plantings and whatnot. And we also are committing to enhancing the fence for privacy around the facility.

And what about these trees that exist?

On the westerly side, we have a pretty substantial tree canopy there. And it actually exceeds what the city UDO requires. So what we intend to do is work with the technical review committee to confirm that and be able to use that buffer that's existing with nice sized canopy trees versus, you know, starting over with smaller trees for the screening.

And based on your review of the UDO and this site and your professional qualifications, is it your opinion that this particular application will comply with the UDO and other requirements?

Yes, ma'am, it will.

And would you mind reading paragraph 13 of your application? of your affidavit into the record.

Sure. Based upon the above facts and upon my training, research, and experience, it is my professional opinion that the proposed salvage yard will be in compliance with the applicable standards, conditions, and specifications of the UDO as well as state and federal law requirements at the time of development. Additionally, the special use will not materially endanger the public health or safety if located where proposed and developed according to the plan as submitted and approved.

Okay, thank you. What I would like to do now, if I could, is to admit Exhibit 1 into evidence and provide it to the clerk.

Now, was that his affidavit or that was, because you've given us a packet that we've been trying to scale through. Are any of these documents that you've given to her in here?

Yes, they are all in here. And that particular one is at...

Right. We're tracking those just to make sure that she didn't have to resend it.

Okay, yeah, there's a... An index in the front, which, oh, here it is right there. The affidavits are found at four.

Yes, ma'am.

Along with the TRC meeting transcript. We transcribed it, but that link there, you can actually listen to it if you were so inclined to do that.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you. Okay, next I would like to call Morgan Cook. I may have to put this down. Hi, Ms. Cook. Can you state your name and address for the record?

Yes. My name is Morgan Cook, and my address is 421 Fayetteville Street, Raleigh, North Carolina.

And how are you employed?

I'm employed with Kimley Horn and Associates in Raleigh.

Okay. And what is Kimley Horn?

Kimley Horn is an engineering firm, and I, in particular, specialize in traffic engineering.

Okay, I'm going to hand you what's been marked as Russell Street Exhibit 2 and ask you if you recognize that document. I do, yes. And what is it?

This is an affidavit regarding the special use permit application for this site.

And what is that affidavit? What does it have in there?

It has my experience and CV and some findings associated with our traffic assessment.

Okay, and what is exhibit A to your affidavit?

Exhibit A is my qualifications and associated with that is my professional summary and education and professional licenses.

Okay, can you tell the council about your education, your licensing, and your experience in traffic engineering?

Yes, I have an engineering license in the state of North Carolina and as well as a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University. And my experience is I have about seven years of experience in traffic engineering in the state.

Okay, and what is, as a part of your report, did you also prepare, or your affidavit, did you prepare a report?

Yes, I did. I prepared a traffic assessment for the proposed site.

Okay, and I'm gonna ask you to please summarize that at exhibit B and explain to the council what you did, what you studied, and what you found in your own words, and then we can follow up.

Exactly, yes. So what I've done is I've prepared a traffic assessment for this site. taking existing daily traffic volumes and then adding on not only the site traffic but also some future growth to see the impacts of that and to ensure that they are within NCDOT level of service standards. And then we also performed a safety analysis for this site as well to see what safety incidents were found in the site through NCDOT's traffic engineering accident analysis system program. And we were able to find that the incident rate was below the NCDOT thresholds for that as well.

I'd like to move to qualify Ms. Cook as an expert in traffic engineering.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you. Do you know where the property is?

Yes, 610 East Russell Street.

And have you actually been there?

Multiple times, yes. Okay.

So, and you are aware of the proposed use? Yes, salvage and junkyard. Okay, so I think you said you came, what were the questions? You had two questions to answer?

Correct, just making sure that this site does not adversely affect the health and welfare of the public.

Can you please read, well, first of all, you've got your report here, just to read into the record. your summary and recommendations.

Absolutely, so based on a review of existing traffic conditions and current traffic and safety data the land use associated with the proposed special use permit is Expected to have a minimal impact on traffic conditions on the surrounding road street network And likewise existing roadways in the site vicinity operate attractive traffic volumes well below their capacities and a review of traffic incidents indicates no safety concerns in the site vicinity and that would warrant further investigation or mitigation.

And has that got your professional engineering seal on there?

Correct, it does. Okay.

And one last thing. Can you also read paragraph 12 of your affidavit and that the information in the affidavit is true and correct?

Absolutely, yes. So based upon the above facts and upon my training, research, and experience, it is my professional opinion that the proposed salvage yard will not materially endanger the public health or safety if located where proposed and developed according to the plan as submitted and approved.

Okay, thank you. I'd like to move to admit Exhibit 2 into the record. Okay, next I'd like to call Ryan Shively. Okay, Mr. Shively, can you please state your name and address for the record?

Yes, hi, my name is Richard Ryan Shively. I live at 2508 Brant Forest Court in Greensboro.

Okay, and how are you employed?

I am a principal with Sutton Shively Appraisals.

Okay, and I'm gonna hand you what's been marked as... the applicants exhibit three and ask if you recognize that.

Yes, ma'am.

And what is that?

This is an affidavit. It states my name, my address, my qualifications, and summarizes my findings in the impact analysis.

Okay, and is your CV or resume attached to that affidavit?

Yes, after page four, yeah.

please summarize your education and experience for the city council.

Yes, I'm a state certified general appraiser. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Findlay and a Master of Fine Arts from Purdue University. I've been a residential appraiser since 2006, and a commercial appraiser since 2016. I'm a founding partner in Sutton Shively Appraisals, specializing in commercial real estate appraisals in North Carolina. I've been appraising for 18 years and have appraised commercial and residential properties in the state of North Carolina for 10 years. I hold MAI and SRA designations, which are the highest commercial and residential designations put out by the Appraisal Institute. The designations require significant additional peer review, education requirements, and national testing. And as an appraiser, I am governed by USPAP, which requires me to be impartial, objective, and independent.

Okay, at this time I'd like to move to qualify Mr. Shively as an expert in property valuation. Okay. Okay, identify exhibit B to your report. Excuse me, exhibit B to your affidavit. To my affidavit, okay. Which would be your report.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, that is the impact analysis, yes.

Okay, and can you explain what an impact analysis is?

Yes, an impact analysis is a report that is not a valuation. It's an analysis of the impact of the proposed use on nearby uses. And... The main method used in the impact analysis is through paired sales analysis. You take matched pairs of properties that are impacted by external things, and then you compare them to similar properties that are not impacted in the same way to see if there's an impact on property value.

Okay, and can you summarize the results of your study and report?

Yes, I took... Okay, so I did prepare a statement. I reviewed, adopted, and signed the report for the proposed Russell Street project, a salvage yard in Fayetteville, prepared by Kirkland Appraisals. The impact analysis relies upon accepted appraisal methodologies, including the matched pair analyses, which are referenced in the report, as well as reasoning for the conclusions. Market impacts of plus or minus 5% are within the typical market imperfection and do not support any impact at all. The data provides support for no impact on adjacent property or land, particularly given the highest and best uses of the surrounding areas as industrial and higher density residential in nature. The report offers good support for compatibility between the proposed use and the existing nearby uses, including residential uses which are set back from and buffered from the nearest proposed building by a range of 190 to 445 feet in distance. They have vegetation, some fencing and landscaping, not to mention some elevation change along the subject's, the parcel's southern perimeter. I'm basing this on my own personal analysis and findings. Additionally, a screening berm shall be constructed within the setback from East Russell Street and opaque fencing and additional planting shall be added. And the current tree cover will be maintained within the setback from SC Street. I therefore conclude based on the data presented that the proposed development will not substantially injure the value of abutting land and that the plan will be in harmony with the areas in which it is located.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Shively. I'd like to move at this time to admit his report and to evidence as exhibit three. Okay, we're good. I don't have any more for Mr. Shively. The other thing I would like to admit at this time or ask to admit is our transcription of the link for the TRC report, which is number five. Okay, we have one more exhibit, which is the affidavit of Mr. Wall. I think that I would rather just wait until we close and you have questions and let him answer any that you have left. Everything that we've said has summarized the position and presented the evidence, but if you have any specific questions unique to this operation, he can be available.

All right, Mr. Wall is the actual applicant you're representing, correct? Yes. Yes, sir. Yeah, I see his affidavit. Okay. All right. Thank you. Madam Clerk, I think that was all of the proponents. Can I call any opponents?

Yes, sir. Our first speaker is Mr. William Troutman.

What was that? I'm Dennis Chisholm. I'm a partner with Bill Troutman. Oh, okay. We're the owners of All Climate Control Storage that abuts this property. Now, Councilman Davis, are you my – is it in your district? Okay. I've heard all this, and I want to say right off the bat I'm not opposed to – A salvage junkyard you see in any form, but it's not in this location is not a good location for it is all we're saying. We abut it and we're directly behind it. If you can see on the previous thing there with it, you have the parts store on 301. We call it Southeastern Boulevard. And then if you go straight south there, you can see our facility. That's an old picture. And we have gone to great expense to make it a beautiful facility. And it's first rate. And we're doing very well, and we thank you for the opportunity to be here in Fayetteville. But this proposed junkyard slash salvage yard, whatever it is, it just doesn't fit in this location is all we're saying. And it's not in harmony if it goes with the... uh conditions of this hearing here i know this is an evidentiary hearing it's not a public hearing so we're going to say those six points that you brought it out number two for sure it's not harmonious with our business okay and so we just want to make that clear and also there's lots of detrimental things you can say about a junkyard but This is a salvage yard. Again, like I'm saying, I'm not knocking Mr. Wall for trying to improve the property. He bought it. He wants to do something with it. It just doesn't fit. It's incompatible with a clean, secure, self-storage facility like we have. My business depends on appearance, depends on customer security and safety and visibility and consumer confidence, and we just don't feel like this is going to fit. So we're going to object to it. We're going to oppose it. There's several things that it could impact. It could impact like visual blight. One thing it's got noise. It's going to have a lot of noise. Outdoor dismantling activity. They're going to be breaking down things and putting them in trucks and such a lot of dust and debris. There's gonna be rodent concerns. It's gonna move a lot of rodents. We know that. I have to deal with that. It's gotta increase theft concerns because there's opportunities there with parts, et cetera, et cetera, for nefarious people. It's a fire hazard. It could be a fire hazard. It's got a, we built this up, this whole area here and put a beautiful facility there. Sunbelt next to us improved. Sim Hall built some things right behind him. He's my neighbor right behind it. You can see there with his, he's on the map too, on the aerial. And everybody improved. The whole thing rose up when we put our facility in. And it's improved it tremendously from what it was. And so we just hate to see a junkyard, salvage yard, recycle yard, however you want to put it, in that particular location. Like I say, they have a place, but it's not that location. It's also going to... I could get an appraiser also up here to tell you that it's going to devalue my property. I promise you that. It's not going to enhance the property. It's not going to enhance the value of my property at all. I promise you that. We can get appraisers to prove that if you want to. But the entire...

situation just doesn't fit in that location that's all we're saying again we're not opposed to mr wall trying to do something there we hope he does something nice and different but this is not it that's all i have to say all right thank you mr troutman and remember now this is an evidentiary hearing so whatever evidence you have this is the time for it to be presented okay and so as you as you bring that We've got strict guidelines on it. I just made my point.

Yes, sir. I got you.

I was just saying if there's anything to admit or give copies of that supports your position. Thank you. All right. All right. Madam Clerk. Let me allow them to do it, and then we'll provide the last few minutes for a vote for either side. Okay. Okay. All right, Madam Clerk.

Our next speaker is Ms. Blanche Chisholm.

Yes, ma'am.

Can we present these?

Yes, sir. Whatever you have that you want us to consider, please give it to the clerk.

Thank you very much.

Are you Mr. Troutman? I'm Troutman. All right, it's your turn. Yes, sir.

I operate a recycling company also, and we reprocess printing equipment, very large printing equipment, and we liquidate large printing companies. And we had to, when we're recycling, there's a lot of work to do to this environmentally to protect everything around us. We have to make sure all oil is drained, everything, all barrels are clean, every chemical is accounted for. There's quite a bit of things that have to be done So I have since moved away from that and went to paper recycling because it's much cleaner I chose not to be in that type of recycling business Also, I kind of look at it where you're located at Europe. This junkyard is gonna be Eight tenths of a mile from here right here your location. Do you want that here? I don't think so. I don't want it. I don't want it where it's at. Because I look at it as gonna be a 20% devaluing our property straight away. We put millions of dollars into this property. And if you would take a look, they've avoided taking pictures of the more gentrified area. If you drive out there and take a look, you'll see that we've made a great improvement to that area. And if you have any questions on recycling, I can get quite a bit of information. We still do it, but we hire a company professionally to move it. We do not have it on our property. It is moved to a facility that is qualified to take care of all those needs. We just take less money for the recycled material. I don't want to see this there. You're going to have oil leakage. I know what happens. You don't know what employees are going to be out there and how much he really cares about Fayetteville and what kind of contamination that he's going to cause. This is not good for your city. It is sitting in your back door of downtown. You want to build out. You don't want to have this there. So do you guys have any questions for me on this?

Not at the moment. I would like to allow a cross-examination by Attorney Tatum. So, madam.

I'd like to object to the submission of this on value under North Carolina general statute 160 D 1402 You have to have an expert to testify as to value. It's also not signed We don't know who prepared it where the information came from and it can't be used to rebut our expert and expert report I actually have an expert if you believe in artificial intelligence This is my source

So, you know, we're looking at hundreds. So, you know, I'm sorry. We needed you here a few meetings ago. What's that again?

All right. All right. Thank you, sir. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Madam Attorney, did you have any other cross-examination questions?

Just a couple of questions for Mr. Chisholm, first of all. Well, both of them, actually. So, you know. um so i just wanted to clarify for the council so it's your position that the harmony standard isn't met correct is there any other standard you claim hasn't been met well uh like we pointed out all those other things that could affect you the value for sure there's no doubt about it okay but you don't have an appraiser here today no i don't have it with me no okay And the other thing is you stated that you were worried about noise and rodents and all of those types of things. Do you know for a fact if Mr. Wall complies with all of the required laws that this will happen?

I don't see how he can keep from, but I know salvage yards, Bill's been in the business. The noise, the dust, all that's going on, it's going to happen, period. You can say it won't, but it will. It'll be there.

Do you have any facts or evidence that supports this particular operation?

Just the experience of seeing it in the past.

Okay, but you don't know about it.

Do you agree, Bill? Well, Mr. Troutman, Mr. Troutman, we have to gift you one at a time, okay?

Oh, I thought she called both of us. I'm sorry.

I just want to know if there's any evidence that this will happen at this in the future. That's what I would like to know.

I don't have evidence until you do it, but then it's too late.

Okay.

That's why we're here objecting.

Okay, and you know that Mr. Wall's property is zoned industrial, correct? Yes. And your property is not zoned industrial?

No, it's not.

Okay, so... His uses are more intense than your property is allowed.

Right, but he abuts us. Okay. And he abuts Mr. Sims, who I called him tonight, and he's been very ill. He can't make it, but he's objecting also. Mr. Sims right here, this property.

Okay. All right. I don't have anything further.

All right. Thank you. Councilman Davis, you have questions for? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir.

I guess my first question would be for Madam Attorney. Based off of what his last response was in reference to the property abutting his property, would there be any buffer between the abutting of his property?

The last one is someone who's not here. There are buffers. What we have presented is a condition that says we will comply with all of the buffer requirements, all of the requirements in the UDO, all of the state requirements, and there are buffer requirements, and they're laid out on this particular sketch plan. Now in your wisdom, the city council has decided what the buffers are on each of these sides and we were comply with them. And as a matter of fact, we will exceed those buffer requirements in certain places like on Russell street and in other areas. Um, so it will meet or exceed everything that the city council has decided needs to be buffered and the buffers are different. If it's residential, it has a bigger buffer, which is over here and over here. And so those are, and if you have been out there, you can drive in these areas and you really can't see very much. But as respect to other high commercial uses, yes, there are buffer requirements, and yes, we will comply with them.

Okay, thank you. Also, you referenced in one of your slides policy versus the law can you go to that slide for me please yes and could you just dive into that just a little bit more about what you meant by um policy versus the law yeah i can

Okay, one of the standards is inconsistent, is there substantial consistency with the comprehensive plan? And the comprehensive plan, according to the UDO and the state statutes, The state statutes had never until 2001 with the enactment of 160D, which is the state statute that governs zoning and land use. Before 160D, the general statutes just said you had to zone in conformance with a comprehensive plan. Nobody really knew what that was, nobody knew what it meant, but it was used generally to guide future zoning decisions. So you would say, I think this needs to happen in this area, and then as people would come to rezone it, you would decide whether or not that was compliant or not. And as you probably know, because you do a lot of rezonings, is that you don't have to have comprehensive plan compliance to rezone or to die a rezone. So what 160D did was explain that And this is a quote, comprehensive plan shall be advisory in nature and without independent regulatory effect. Plans adopted under this chapter do not expand, diminish, or alter the scope of authority for development regulations. And there's a case that was decided, The one from American Towers basically says the same thing as the presumption of harmony, which is if it's included as a special use, then there's a presumption that it complies with comprehensive plan. But what the school deaf case decided in 2022, which was after 160D, that because it's a policy, and it's not a law that you can't decide a special use permit decision against the applicant because of plan inconsistency. And we asked to strike the report as we did earlier because there was a suggestion that there was comp plan inconsistency because there wasn't housing, commercial, retail, there wasn't things we couldn't do. So it's our position that you can't say it's inconsistent with the comprehensive plan because you can't develop something that it's not zoned for. So that's where we are on that. We do think that the evidence we've put forward Mean that doesn't matter because everything we put in the record shows that it's it's zoned for industrial uses and that the comprehensive plan designates it as Industrial and employment which is for the most intense I'll read that for you The right here That should be, I see. It's for high intensity non-residential uses with high impact or likelihood for nuisance. So we believe that regardless of whether it's a policy or not, that we comply with it and this is the type of use that is contemplated for this area and that it's a policy If that's not gonna be the council's desire in the future, that's fine, but the way it's written right now, that our choices are limited, and this is one that's within it.

Thank you. My last question, before I give it back to you, Mr. Mayor, can you address any of the environmental concerns that have been brought up today?

Yes, and that's the purpose of our testimony from the engineer Mr. Norris and for the reason that we put in that condition that says we have to comply with all of the local rules, all of the state rules, all of the federal rules, everything in the UDO, so every law that's out there that governs the operation of this type of use, we have committed to not only comply with it because we have to, but we've agreed to put that as a condition in the special use. So that's an additional enforcement mechanism. So you just don't have to, you can go back and say, hey, you know, this is in your special use. You know, The law says if you have speculative fears or you think things are going to happen and you don't have proof, we have a responsible, well-known, well-established operator that does this across the state regularly and knows how and does comply with environmental laws, and that's what we plan to do.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I'm done with my questions. If you can come back to me once, Council is done with questions. All right, thank you.

Council Member here. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I think it's these gentlemen here. Mr. Dennis, well, Mr. Trotman? No. Mr. Trotman, I'm Dennis Chisholm. Okay. Maybe you can just help me with this because I want to make sure I'm understanding. As I look at item two, and the findings. And then I also, I want to go back to the surrounding properties. I went out there and I visited the site the other day. And from what I'm looking at here, I want to make sure that I'm understanding the correct location. There is now a storage facility that's orange. It's very new. Not orange. It's a light color, right? Whatever the color is, whatever the color is, is not in the photos, what I saw. Correct. So could you tell me which building or location would you be in? Our address is 220 Southeastern Boulevard. So the surrounding properties, none of these photos include your address? The photos that I'm looking at?

Yes, they did. It just showed a real old one from 2017. And which one is that one?

Could you go back to the photos? Could they take you back on your screen to the photos, please? Yeah.

Those aren't my photos. Those are Mr. Harmon's. I guess you could pull them up.

Okay. Mr. Harmon, could you load those four photos just for me, please, sir? Where it says surrounding properties. Okay. Is one of those locations yours? None of them are shown. Okay. Okay. Okay. I understand a little better. All right. Thank you. All right. Councilman McMillan.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just for the proponents, a question on if you can address the concerns around additional theft.

If this the salvage yard would be would invite crime in terms of people trying to break in and instill things It will be a permanent business operating in accordance with the law I will tell you and and if you want mr. Wall to testify One of the primary reasons that we want to redevelop it is to stop the trespassing and vandalism there's people go on this property if you've been there they walk right on they make themselves at home um and so by having people there day in and day out and it will be locked it will be secure i don't think it's going to be vandalized or crime or there's crime any more than anywhere else and if there is then i think the remedy is to call the police And that it intends on operating lawfully and that we believe that granting this permit and having people on site to secure it Operate it lawfully will be an advantage to that as opposed to a disadvantage. I I don't think there's any evidence that shows that just because it's a salvage yard that it's going to have some additional crime than some other business would have if it's operated properly.

All right. Council, thank you. Thank you to proponents, opponents. I don't see any more questions. So with that, we'll close the public hearing. And I'll go to you, Councilman Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I really enjoyed the presentation by Attorney Tatum. I thank the residents, the business owners for coming out and speaking in reference to this property. With that being said, this is a lot of information that you provided to us tonight. And I need me myself as a council member because we can't have any conversation with the public of reference to these. I believe it's fitting for myself and council to take this information into consideration and read through it and come back to this matter for a final decision. So Mr. Mayor, I'm with that we take this information and we come back on June 22nd for our June meeting, and we vote at that time. So not taking action today.

All right. This motion by Council Member Davis, I guess, is to table, is what you're saying? Yes. To June 22nd. All right. Council Member Huntress, is that a second?

Possibly. Question, then a potential second. So we're going to close the public hearing. Sorry, go ahead. Delay action until the 22nd. June 22nd. Yes, sir. I second the motion.

I'd really like to have a decision, Your Honor.

All right, so there's a motion by Council Member Davis, a second by Hondros. Council, remember, these are special use items. They are governed by the facts that we've been presented tonight. Yes, sir, but we don't always have to make a decision at the time.

I understand a lot of information, Mr. Mayor, so I think we should read it through it thoroughly. Okay, I understand. All right.

about coming back for a decision and not for the hearings closed. Is that correct?

Correct. Not for more evidence. There won't be any more testimony. Thank you. All right. Council Member Green, you had a question?

I just wanted to hear from our attorney just to verify that this was allowable. Madam Attorney.

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, it is. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Huntress, you had another question?

The only... Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The only other alternative, I think... There was a question about the June 22nd date. We can do June 8th, either or. I'm okay with either.

June 8th is fine. So I'm in my motion to take with us into June 8th. Second.

All right. Council, any other comments or questions? All right. And Councilman Davis, what's the purpose of what you're saying? You're going to verify it?

We got to go through this book and look at it and consult with the city as well. Thank you.

All right.

Yeah.

All right. Council, I look to you for your votes on that. And this is to June 8th. All right. June 8th, we'll have this item appeared and heard. All right, thank you. All right. Council, we still have... All right, let's... We still have two staff reports, so let's take a 10-minute break. Let's call the meeting back to order. Chief, how are you? Good morning. Morning, right?

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I'm Kevin Dove, fire chief, and I'm here tonight to present the 2026 first quarter review very quickly. As a reminder, due to federal and state reporting requirements for fire service, we report on a calendar year instead of a fiscal year. Our first quarter highlights include welcoming Lucy to our department, our second crisis response dog, completing annual physicals, and our second annual cancer screenings for every sworn employee. The city emergency operations plan was updated and approved by council, and our folks participated in Fayetteville Beautiful. The call volume is slightly increased from quarter one of 2025, totaling 6,892 calls, with March being the busiest of the three months. EMS and rescue continue to be the lion's share of our responses. There were 338 total fire responses in quarter one. The next two slides are heat maps showing the response locations divided up by council district. As a reminder, we can always dig into your district for you or get you some closer maps if you'd like. The first slide shows the fire response and the second slide is the medical responses. The total response time improved this quarter to seven minutes and 19 seconds. A reminder that these numbers are on the 90th percentile, so that means from the time the 911 operator picks up the phone to the time our folks are standing on your front porch is seven minutes and 19 seconds, 90% of the time. There were a total of 91 structure fires. 20% of those started in the kitchen. Eight of the 91 were intentionally set. Unfortunately, we had one civilian fire fatality, 10 civilian injuries, and six firefighter injuries during the first quarter. The dollar save ratio is down, but the driver for that is the large commercial fire we had on Ramsey Street, which was nearly a million dollars. Top three fire losses were the fire on Ramsey Street, an apartment fire on Windward Cove, and a residential fire on Cagle Court. For our medical response, we saw a slight decrease in overall responses and a moderate increase in overdose responses. Our folks took part in the Cape Fear Valley Heartfelt Banquet where 32 firefighters were recognized for cardiac arrest saves. This event brings the responders and the patient together. and they can interact and the responders talk to the people that they revived and gave a second chance at life. Moving into hazardous material response, there were 66 total responses. 50 of those were natural gas leaks. Human resources, at the end of the first quarter we had two vacancies, both were in the fire marshal's office. Both have had offers extended and jobs accepted. So at this time we are 100% fully staffed and have a waiting list. The allotted overhires worked as intended to cover the resignations and retirements. So we didn't see a big strain on our overtime usage. I know Mr. Yates doesn't believe that, but I got charts that show it. With that said, we have a handful of announced retirements happening over the summer, and we're preparing to seat the Academy 26.2 in late summer. We've added some additional information to our demographic slide. Of our 358-person authorized headcount, we have 63 males from underrepresented populations. 31 females, 50% of the recruits hired in quarter one were from underrepresented populations, bringing us up to 26% underrepresented population, which is not great, it's not optimal, but it's the highest we've had since we started tracking this, and we're still working at it. We hired 12 firefighters for recruit class 26.1. Our departments completed over 32,000 total hours of training. Moving into the fire marshal's office. Total fire inspections increased causing violations to increase. We issued 162 new certificates of occupancy. One thing I want you to take note of is we distributed over 1,000 educational flyers to prospective and existing business owners in an attempt to reduce the violation number. We're really trying. We push this information. We do everything we can do because at the end of the day, the less violations mean we have a safer community. Electrical equipment and wiring issues continue to lead the way on our top fire code violations. Lastly, we engaged over 7,000 residents, installed over 300 smoke alarms, installed 73 carbon monoxide alarms, checked 171 car seats, and taught 61 people CPR. This last picture on our smoke alarm slide is one I'm proud of, and Ms. Neal's not here tonight, but she and the good folks at FAST partnered with us to get the smoke alarm flyers up in every bus. And as you can see, Sparky rode the bus some, talking with folks, because as Ms. Neal says, you gotta go ride with them because they're going places. And finally, as always, smoke alarms save lives. We're here, we have them for free. Please call us to get one or get yours checked. And I try to keep it under five minutes, so I'm happy to answer any questions.

Fantastic, sir. Councilman Hare. Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate you. I'm going to say assuming, and you can give me the correct answer, I'm assuming that we're still up under the no exterior fire burn.

No, that's been removed, especially after this past weekend.

Okay, since the rain.

But the city's still a, you can't, no open burning in the city of Fayetteville.

Okay, well, that's what I mean. So what my question was, because I don't see, ever see any, of those on our report. Do you ever have any violation issues with that, where people are?

They roll into the fire responses as illegal burning or outside fires. It's rare, it's not a lot.

Yeah, yeah. Did you also say I know that we have retirements that are getting ready to come, as you were just saying, but did you also say that the fire department is fully staffed, and did you say you had a waiting list? Yes, sir. That's great. I like that. Okay, two more things. How is the E.E. Smith program going?

We work with them well year in, year out. We just had participation at their graduation ceremony and we try to onboard as many of those folks as we can.

Are we having successes there?

Yes, sir.

Okay, as far as your diagram on, could you turn back to where you had the different ethnicities that are being hired or were hired. That wasn't the one I saw.

That's the demographics chart. This is the hiring and this was the... Well, regardless, I don't see it right now.

You don't need to really have to try to find it. I was at one of my community watch meetings and I guess she was a new recruit, African-American young lady. And the residents, after the meeting, smiled. We had a conversation about that because that's something that was relatively new to them, that they had to have come from Fire Station 9.

Yes, sir. That's her on the screen right there. Oh, that was her? That's Dasha Battle. She's from Lee County. We snagged her up as an actual lateral hire. She was certified, and we hired her in January, and she's on the road doing a great job.

Yeah, and you know that whenever you show those kind of demographics, wherever that you are, and other people are seeing them, especially younger folk, That also is a draw and a pull for folk to say, hey, well, maybe I'll give this fire thing an opportunity. So thank you for a job well done. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Council Member McMillan.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you, Chief Dove. Much appreciated on the Topo job. Please, kudos, congrats, and thanks to you guys for putting this together. Love to see the disaggregated data. but also love to see a good heat map and for us to be able to zero in on our districts and understand the intensity of the medical calls and the fire calls. One of the statistics that jumped out at me were the six firefighter injuries. I'm not sure if that's a lot, but I was wondering how the guys are doing, guys or gals are doing, and then what long-term care looks like when there are firefighter injuries.

Thank the Lord. We've not had any significant firefighter injuries in several years. All of these are sprains and strains, maybe a nick on a finger, but any injury on duty is a reportable injury, so that's what they are. We have one person on workers' comp right now, but he's finishing up and he'll be back to work. So all of our folks are well taken care of. And that's, again, a commitment to you all for allowing us to do the physicals and the cancer screenings every year.

Councilman Ferguson and Jones.

Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Chief, for the continued great work that you're doing. One question. What do you attribute the increase to? The calls in March, were it increased? What would you attribute that to?

It's only, you know, we had 155 more in the first quarter of 25 than we did in the first quarter of 25. But if you look at the months, they're really similar. I think it's not as cold, and maybe people are getting out more, different things like that. There's really nothing that we can zero in on. Gotcha.

Thank you.

Councilman Jones. Thank you very quickly. Could you speak to the stove suppression kits that you all also use now? Some of the residents are interested in those, and that was a good addition. Your staff are doing a great job with that. Yes, sir. Can you speak to those?

We have, they're called auto-outs.

I always screw that up.

If you don't know where they are, they look like a can of tuna with a magnet on them. You stick it up in your hood, and then if a pot catches fire or something like that, they activate no different than a commercial hood system. They're fairly cheap. We have some. We were able to procure some. For the first time, we had some historically through a partnership with ECD that had to go to certain areas, at-risk communities, but we now have some available so they can contact the same number for smoke alarms and we can get those installed.

Thank you.

All right. Chief, I don't see any other questions. Thank you.

Council, look for a motion to receive this report. So moved.

All right. Motion by Council Member Jones, second by Hare. Council, I look to you for your votes to receive first quarter report. All right. Who? All right. Motion carries unanimously. Chief Bryan.

I heard that bingo pass for me.

All right. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, Senior Leadership, citizens and colleagues. Good evening. Chief Bryan here to do our first quarter report for 2026. As you'll see here, First slide here shows our numbers from January through March. In all the different areas, you'll see a slight increase in total crime and arrests. Next slide. You'll see a significant decrease in where we were at last year. To this year, in reference to homicides and rapes. And, uh, decrease also an aggravated assault. But we do have an increase in, uh, in all other person's crime, which I will elaborate a little bit further on the other slides. This is our homicide, again, you see the numbers. Of course, we utilize the homicide unit to come to these scenes to ensure that there's no suspicious activity, and then they'll deem it as an overdose or suicide. And at times, these numbers can change based on what we receive from the coroner's office, or the medical examiner's office. Next slide here in terms of our domestic aggravated assaults. You'll see that our numbers are really decreasing the felony. I would say that would be attributed to our collaboration with the Phoenix Center and making sure that our officers and our detectives are doing that follow-up work with those victims to make sure that we won't have any type of repeated offenses from those suspects. These are our numbers for our sound thinking. As you'll see, we have 101 alerts with seven guns recovered, six arrests, and 129 shell casings recovered. Regarding our property crimes, we have You'll see the significant decrease in terms of motor vehicle theft with almost 50% and our robbery with a slight increase in some of the other areas. But our overall property crime is down a half percent. Field contacts with juveniles from January to March, as you'll see, we've had a significant increase from last year to this year with 86.9%. You'll see the decrease in incident reports and also overall incident charges as well. You can look at the different incidents in the breakdown between 25 and 26. significant increases, and you'll see this will be in reference to our field contacts. So we have an increase, but also please be advised that these field contacts will also have positive encounters as well. They're not always negative. But you see our numbers, motor vehicle theft down 81% involving the juveniles. And as we had a unit that put together by one of our district commanders that really worked well. And it was really, it shows across the board how we impacted not only but juveniles, but also adults. These are the numbers regarding the curfew and the field contacts. This is our school resource officer program. Now, this slide is gonna be different from the rest of the information that you've seen previously, because this is starting from August of 2025 through March of 2026. So these are our calls for services and the incident reports at the elementary, the middle, and also at the high school levels. In reference to our collaboration with the federal agencies, these are our numbers. You'll see that we've had a significant seizure during this quarter of 284,000 with six firearms recovered, one federally indicted, and five federally sentenced during this period of time. And this was a collaboration with our ATF partners. Six firearms or 43?

On the fair partnership?

I'm sorry, sir. Yes, 43. I know it's late. Yes, sir. 43. 43 total. I'm sorry. The six firearms was with the DEA, FBI, and USPS. And then we had others with ATF. Our next slide, these are our seizures from 25 to 26, and you can see the comparison, and you'll see the difference. It just varies based on what type of cases that we'll have with our federal partners, and that's why you have the variance of the seizures from year to year. This is our numbers for the 911 center. You see, we're topping over 90,000 calls processed. And over 50,000 calls dispatch for service. As you'll see our numbers for the traffic fatalities, we went up 1 to about 20% from 25 to 26. And you'll see the circumstances or the contributing factors for those. Fatalities. Here are our traffic stops total from 25 to 26. You see an increase there of about 600 stops, additional stops. And this slide here gives you the demographic and the years from 25 to 26, and you can see the difference. But what I will say is that we are consistently in terms of what our percentage rates are for 2025 and 2026. regarding those that are black drivers, same for 25 and 26. You'll see the same the the variance of the percentage for white drivers. And then also there was a decrease from 25 to 26 for the other category. But pretty much it's not a huge disparity in terms of what we are doing consistently throughout every year. Next you'll see our internal affairs unit. These are use of force, our departmental, uh, investigation. Those are the ones that we initiate. As you'll see, we have an increase from 25 to 26. Uh, many of these are dealing with, um, our officers, um, not attending court. And so we're having to make sure that we, um, making sure that they know that this has to take place and by that they were receiving a suspension by not attending court. You also see the internal dispositions. Additional data from our internal affairs regarding the disciplinary action and our departmental staffing. These numbers here are as of March 31st, 2026. Our current numbers right now based on our academies that we have, we have 23 currently in our 26-1. We have 12 in our 26-2. We have 16 in processing for our July class that we're projecting to have 20. And we have nine current laterals. So when we look at our numbers right now, we have 34 vacancies. With the ones that we have projecting between the 16 and the nine, that's another 25. So then we're talking about nine positions remaining. Yes, sir. Again, you'll see our attrition rate from resignation of retirement and no dismissals. Operation Speed Kills, as we know, we've always been, during our community meetings, we hear about the careless and reckless, the red light violations, and so we're stepping up in terms of what we're doing out there as enforcement. You'll see during this quarter we had 527 citations. 483 of those were speeding and a good majority of those speeding violations that we did enforcement on 295 were for violations of 15 miles and above the speed limit so we're getting those um those speeders that are endangering our community and in our streets And you'll see the additional violations that we also are also citing for as well. These are our community events. We had Career Day at Fascinate U Children's Museum. We've had activities at Highland House Nursing and Rehabilitation. And we've also had opportunities where the police and fire has collaborated together on some of these other community events. This also is a community birthday celebration and at school career days. And this was our BLED class that we had in March of this year. And this is our vision statement and mission statement. At this time, I will entertain your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Councilman here. Chief, I once again want to applaud what you and your team are doing to get our numbers down as far as vacancies go. That was one of our number one questions when we had review of council members with you before you came to be our chief. And that was to kind of help lower this number. So all what you and your team are doing, once again, I salute you and I salute the team. I didn't see a number in here, unless I just didn't hear it. I thought in the past you had given us something with the support of the shot spotter, and normally you give us that. It's in there. It's in here? Yes, sir. Okay, then for some reason I missed. Could you take me to that page as I'm going through it? Yes, sir. Here it is. Okay, okay, okay. So again, that is a support for us. That tool does help us. It's a tool, sir, yes, sir. Yeah, and I'm glad for that. I know it's coming up again for us soon to look at it. Curfew, I was glad to see. You can go back to that, too. I was glad to see... Those numbers and the interaction with our, the very few that are out there, that means that there's been a great collaboration with our parents and of those that have the younger juveniles that will be on the street. As I look at, for example, just the Shot Spotter and Curfew, the atmosphere that was taking place when we were having these discussions and we're seeing here tonight and with our last report. I think this is the first one with the curfew, right? Did we have it last? We also had it last. Okay, I know it was more recent because we had just started it. that both of these hot topic items at one time, these have been very, very good working tools for our city. So once again, thumbs up to you and our team, and I'll continue to

support not only these but other things you know you all our biggest budget item also be remiss if we didn't also thank for City Council are also senior leadership team and in terms of supporting some of the initiatives that we put in place to do these recruitments so thank you as well for the support because without that we won't be able to be where we're at with these numbers so it also goes to you as well for the support

Thank you, Chief. Appreciate your service and appreciate this information. Start with the statement that has a question attached. Earlier tonight, we effectively punted on responsibility, on further accountability for the SRO program. And we punted on even developing or discussing a system to tighten that up. which is disappointing, not a reflection of your service. Just looking at it, there are things, there's data that could be presented on a regular basis. Things like racial and disability disaggregation. Things like school discipline linkage, and the definition of that is connection between police contact and suspensions or expulsion. Things like MOU compliance, reviewing that regularly, or even school climate and perception, what the perception is of SROs. More than just an anecdotal, you know, here and there, but what does data say? What does surveys say? That's the type of thing that I will push for, and I know that's going to happen in the city eventually. Yes, sir. I'm wondering if you're developing systems like that on the police force, separate from council oversight, and also if you are in touch with Cumberland County Schools, because without a relationship with the schools that includes that type of analysis, it would be impossible to even take a look at this and make improvements. But are you developing a relationship with the schools that allows you to dig into this type of information in terms of the SRO program?

Yes, sir. We are collaborating with the schools. We have also a really good relationship with the superintendent, Bracey. So in terms to address those issues, are not only in regards to the police being involved, but those issues exist without police even being in the school system. But I will say this in terms of what you're looking for, there's no reason that we shouldn't be able to provide some type of data so that you can have that as well. So we would work with you and the school system to provide those numbers as well.

I appreciate that. This is another avenue of depth that I think that we're moving towards. I appreciate you and the city manager providing the policy behind facial recognition and some of the measures that are in place there. We know it's deeper than that in terms of surveillance tech. I'm going to mention FUSIS. mentioned Clearview AI, Flock, even drone technology. There is technology in place. There's an infrastructure that's developed over years in the city. And the same type of policy, the same type of non-pillar analysis that some of your counterparts do in other cities, I think is needed here. That's not a topic for tonight, but that is going to come to us pretty soon for discussion. I want to get your take on what it would look like to increase the standards of transparency and accountability in terms of surveillance tech, if that's something that you and your department would be prepared to move us forward on.

yes sir as as in reference to when we're talking about that the dfr program we already have the ability once we get there a forward-facing platform where any citizen will be able to go on there but just to remind you also sir we we've been doing and utilizing drone technology for over 10 years. So this is nothing new. And there's strict policies in terms of that we already have in place that are accredited or that go through the accreditation process, but also North Carolina General Statutes is also very strict. So it really is very restrictive on how we're able to utilize this technology. So a lot of the things that you're asking for are already in place, but we'll just make sure that you can see it and then understand that we're already in compliance with many of the initiatives.

I appreciate that. And to my colleagues, another level of that is reviewing the contracts. There's been controversies, especially with Axon, who's connected with that FUSIS and with FLOC in terms of where this data goes. And that is a responsibility for us that we need to dig into and take more seriously. But I appreciate your role in pushing us forward.

Yes, sir.

All right.

Thank you, Councilman Ferguson. for the work that you continue to do, the great work. I remember when I was actually running for office, we were about 80-something short, and I remember saying that quite often, so to see we're at close to nine is just incredible, and I know that's the result of so many efforts. But my one question is, you gave the amount of the overall stops, and then you gave the amount of the stops during the speed kills campaign. My question is, were those stops included in the overall stops, or were they separate?

No, those were included in the overall stops, sir. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Chief.

Yes, sir.

I know it's late. Just got a couple things I want to point out. So juvenile weapon recovery and the 25, it's up 100% from this year. And so you're getting more interaction with our young people. You also have 100% drug recovery, right? And so being in these schools, building these relationships, learning these folks on a first-name basis, when they come and tell you, because you encourage your kids, because I've had three in the Cumberland County schools, you encourage your kids if you're getting bullied. gun or weapon or firearm, you let somebody know, but they have to trust that person that they tell the information to.

We're developing those relationships.

And it's showing up in your numbers, which is where I'm going, that you've got 25 guns off the street and out of the hands of juveniles in three months. That's phenomenal. You've got 28... drug uh hate the seizures but not the offenses but it could have been fentanyl and some dangerous drugs that that really have a deadly impact but those things were seized and and taken in three months off of these kids according to these stats right and so certainly we're not encouraging this and we won't see those numbers go down to zero but i would much rather have the 25 guns that you're taking off the street in your possession than in the possession of some All right. All right. And then I'll say again, as we talked about the SROs, and I see my friend finally got someone to send him his information and explain it. use it right but in the meantime who in here that has children that want your kids to go to a school where you're not present or some law enforcement or some form of security you have securities at the mall you have securities at the bank and you even have securities at church why would you not have it to protect your children and so i think that there's a way to do both and um but you know i just encourage that if we're going to have and make points that people give us to to say that we actually take the information and do something useful with it. And so I look forward to conversation for another day from a colleague there when we have it to explain those things that you talked about and what the outcomes that we're looking for, what the metrics are. But this is a great report. The only question I had, and I don't, I'm trying to understand this so that I can explain it logically. So for the traffic stops, there are about 8,000, roughly 8,000 a year for black on average, 20, 25, 20, 26. And there are about 4,000 for the whites, roughly. Now the percentages I see, it's not a lot of variance there, but what I've One of the hypothesis that their economic challenges, we've got higher percentage, in fact, unemployment has gone up 14% for black people in the last 12, 18 months. So expired tags, window tent, different violations that caused the interaction. But I was looking at the total number of stops and the tickets issued for those kind of things. Does this capture the warnings or are these all of the tickets that were given? Explain that for me because that doesn't make up the numbers in mind.

Just for that particular operation? Yes, sir.

Okay.

Yes, sir.

Do you have a breakdown like this for the total number of citations, speeding, no insurance, and all of that for a three-month period?

I do not, sir. Okay. If you see, sir, we're doing a significant amount of stops. Right. We're talking about 13,000.

Right. No, understand. I'm just saying the people who got violations the same way that they did Operation Speed Kills, are you able in your quarterly report to show how many tickets were issued for no insurance or driving under influence? Doesn't it break it down?

it would probably look a lot like what those numbers are during the speed kills in the correlation. This was multiple operations that we did with Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, Highway Patrol, Fort Bragg, Hope Mills, and Spring Lake. And so I want to say it was at least four speed kills operations that we had during this quarter.

Okay. All right.

Yes, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. All right, Council Chief said he cannot make it to work on time in the morning if we don't take some action, get him out of here. So I don't see any other questions. Councilman Davis. Yes, sir, I move that we receive the report. All right, motion by Councilmember Davis, second by Hare. Discussion? All right, Chief, I guess they'll expect to see you in the morning. Yes, sir. Go to bed. Thank you. All right, Council, I look forward to your vote. All right, Council, good job. Motion to adjourn.