City Council Work Session - Regular Meeting

You would...

Yes, sir.

All right.

Okay. How about now? Okay.

All right.

I won't touch it. So lots of different things that we would work directly with the developer, the contractors. A lot of the big companies that we're seeing like Amazon or another blue chip, they're going to have a lot of independent consultants and engineers that are going to work with them. Companies that are familiar with North Carolina regulations, we see do a lot of work to submit applications for permits, which we highly encourage. If you are able to have a direct conversation with the developer, that's one of the first things that we would say is suggest that they get somebody that knows North Carolina, that knows DEQ, that knows our regulations, and that know our permitting staff. particularly folks at the Fayetteville Regional Office Air Quality Division or in the Raleigh Central Office if it's a higher level permit like a Title V or something like that for a lot of engines. Another thing that we can see is that a lot of times people will try to take an avoidance, we call that, sort of set their emissions at a cap that prevents a higher level of permitting. Um, sometimes you'll call that a synthetic minor. Sometimes you'll call that, uh, any number of things, but it's essentially saying I'm going to put in some scrubbers or I'm going to set my hours at a limited number. So I'm not crossing over. and emitting certain chemicals and particulates into the air that are going to trigger an additional layer of permitting, again, Title V or PSD. That's when you start to see developers and applicants need to have a public hearing or a public comment period just because the level of new emissions is so great that the Clean Air Act mandates that. You might have seen recently we had our hearing in Richmond County for the Amazon facility. That was a requirement of both the Clean Air Act for the public comment period and then by the discretion of the Division of Air Quality Director to hold a public hearing so that the community could come and make its thoughts known. So we carried that out last week. Additionally, what we would say about air permitting is that if gas fire generation is necessary, sometimes we've seen proposals for gas powered facilities or hybrid power facilities that bring in some gas. It can also mean a new pipeline or compressor station to get that gas to the facility. And each of those pieces of hardware can have its own permitting workflows and can take some time to get through and approve the plans. Some of those may also have their own air permits. So these can quickly become complicated regulatory frameworks and workflows however these are also things that we are no strangers to so between the Fayetteville office and the Raleigh central office this is something that can can be pretty pretty easily navigated with with the right advanced conversation with the right relationships again we like to begin conversations early and often to avoid surprises so again you'll hear me say this a lot tonight if you have a development in mind please send them our way just so everybody is avoiding surprises and we can talk with them about the required permits. Another question that we like to ask is, is water actually involved? Chances are there is gonna be some level of water involved, but as my colleague from NC State was saying, not everybody uses a lot of water for cooling if they use cooling at all. Some are fully air-cooled, and he was able to speak pretty fluently about the interplay between water and electricity use and how one rate would go up and how one rate would go down depending on the technology applied. Of course, the evaporative cooling, we also call that open loop, uses a lot more water. And I'll tell you anecdotally, for what it's worth, the proposals that we have seen for the most part over the past six to eight months, just about all of them are proposing closed loop systems. And so again, there are additives put in that water, there are different things. um that some facilities are able to do to reclaim and reuse that water again local utilities are going to be the front line in receiving that discharge if in fact it is discharged and so again we go back to pwc and their permits to the plant and then of course you know we as the permitters of those sewer plants would have some involvement in reviewing a draft permit But our ability to directly regulate those discharges is limited unless they become a discharge to surface waters. And so if we talk about the Cape Fear or any other basin, a lake or a river throughout the state, there's going to be what we typically call loading limits. So if that water is impaired and there's been a rulemaking process that says you can't add any more of this chemical or this nutrient, that's going to be much more difficult for us to write a permit for that discharger to the surface waters because to discharge to a river or a lake, you're essentially getting the same level of permitting, an NPDES permit or National Pollute and Discharge Elimination System permit that we would write to a sewer plant to do the same for their own treated water. So with a private user, that's gonna be just as difficult to do because there's modeling and things like that. It can take a couple of years to write those and gather all the data that we need to make a good decision. But again, those are very rare proposals. I've only seen one in North Carolina over the past two years, and that project was withdrawn as a proposal. So again, we talk about the cooling water, but we also know that a lot of these are gonna use sanitary sewer. There's gonna be staff, there may be toilets, kitchens, things like that that are gonna have some type of discharge. um i have seen several proposals statewide you know they're going to need some new uh new lines run you know new sanitary sewer lines run and things like that we obviously permit those but we're not seeing the level of of major impact on the wastewater side as we would if somebody was using you know a major open loop cooling system And again, I'll skip a little bit of the particulars on the cooling system types. Again, my colleague from NC State did a great job on that. So we talk about what's in the water, things to prevent corrosion and rust, things to prevent Legionnaires disease as well. We see viruses and things become a consideration, although that's obviously more of a health department thing at the local level to regulate. top line here our main concern is just ensuring that folks understand that at some point this water more than likely has to leave the facility somehow if it's if it's been drained for for system repair or if it's part of a regular blowdown and it needs to be filled back up from time to time so there's always going to be something to think about in that regard The other question that we see a lot of people ask is, where's the water itself coming from? Been getting a lot of questions lately about on-site wells. We're seeing an uptick in facilities being proposed inside of abandoned industrial sites or decommissioned industrial sites. We're seeing several companies whose business model is to find old industrial facilities that already have power run to them. water and wastewater lines in some of them are chosen because they have on site wells so a lot of the old textile mills for instance that we're seeing particularly around the triad for instance a lot of companies are very attracted to those because they can just go in and fill up those closed loop systems they don't have to ink an agreement with the local water supply authorities they can just get that out of the ground There's typically a registration required, but not a permit required, which is why that's very attractive for a lot of people when there's an active well. Typically, unless you're in the coastal counties and there's a lot stronger protection for aquifers, for instance, there's not really a permit required to extract groundwater at this time, but a registration if it's over 100,000 gallons a day. And then of course, the water has to go somewhere, so we've talked a little bit about that. Again, I think just based on the technology, based on the facility, the hardware, the answer again is gonna be it depends on what you're dealing with. So again, asking those questions early and often are really important to figure out exactly what you'd be dealing with. All right, any questions?

No, I think you covered it. Well, I did see one, Council Member Hondros.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Payne. You mentioned the NC or NPDES permit. And then you also mentioned the one facility in Rockingham. I think they received, if I heard you correctly, if I remember correctly, an air quality permit.

So the facility in Rockingham, so that is Unify in Madison. That's a Novum data center. So they are actually exempt from a permit. We've been working with them pretty closely over the past few months since they announced construction of that, well, renovation of that facility. So they're actually air exempt.

for air, did they get any permits issued for that project, that specific project from NCDEQ?

Yes, council member. They got an erosion and sedimentation control permit for land disturbance. They, I believe, needed to add nine acres of disturbance on top of the existing footprint of the building. And so we did that and a construction stormwater permit through our Winston-Salem office.

And so what, I guess my ultimate question, what statutory authority does the state grant counties and local municipalities in the way of air quality or water quality? What ordinance are we allowed to write? Because the best of my knowledge, the only authority the city of Fayetteville has currently Through our NPDES permit, we're a permit holder from NCDEQ. Between that issued permit from NCDEQ and Chapter 23 of our Code of Ordinances, which is our stormwater ordinance, that stormwater runoff, quantity and quality, that's pretty much the only statutory authority we have granted by the state, but I would love for you to let me know if there's additional.

Of course. So I'll start with air. Let's see. Mecklenburg, Buncombe, and Forsyth counties are the three counties in North Carolina that have delegated authority to write their own air permits. So each of those counties is going to have sort of the equivalent of a division of air quality. that serves the area within the county and writes all air permits. I believe there is a draft review process similar to what our local water utility partners would be familiar with when we look at an IUP, for instance. I believe we also review the draft permits in partnership with our local colleagues, but that authority is delegated to each of those three counties statewide. With water, you are correct in terms of the relationship between DEQ writing MPDES permits to a sewer plant. the folks at the plant or for the local community writing permits to the industrial users. There is always a give and take that we see. There's always a bit of a negotiation that comes into play when you're talking about things like allocations, when you're talking about things like loading. We see this a lot with life sciences, chlorides, and different chemicals. We see this with a lot of heavy industry across the state. Particularly what I would say for a community like Fayetteville, this part of the state that's seeing a lot of industrial growth. I know that it's a challenge for pre-treatment folks in particular to figure out existing users and the likelihood of additional growth. The trends of additional growth that are coming through the pipeline through local economic development efforts in particular and national trends. critical minerals and manufacturing and things like that, so figuring out who gets what and how much. That's a key area of decision making that local government and local utility providers retain. In terms of anything else, the delegation of permit writing authority, it is patchy, as you indicate, it is not thorough. in every capacity, but there are things that we can work with you on if you have a particular project or if I can get you some additional information, we can sit down and look at

Well, I appreciate that, and there may be one forthcoming. I think the general question for me came from, because I think we're one of six municipalities in the state that have an MPDS permit, and I know here locally, I see Mr. Reeves back there, our assistant director, but I think there's another... Handful or maybe a half dozen of local industries that have a discharge permit that we inspect So the fact that I think you mentioned three counties that have air quality so there's a path to I'm guessing there's a pathway application process or certification process where Cumberland County or Fayetteville could could at some point become Qualified or or have the statutory authority to put restrictions on air quality?

Perhaps, yes.

Okay. Okay. But currently, the only thing the city of Fayetteville has is that MPDS permit and our stormwater ordinance, right? There's no other, does any staff member know if we have any other statutory authority other than those two items? I don't know who would answer that question. Thank you.

Probably the one with a lot of grants.

Not that I'm aware of, but as the gentleman stated, perhaps we can work with DEQ to work something out.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you. And Councilman hundreds. I think that as we get into some of the conversation from Virginia, Madam Attorney, even though we may not have the authority to issue permits or to revoke permits, nothing stops you from entering into an agreement with people who decide to come into your area, does it? So if you want to set ground rules and criteria on a case by case basis, is that something that council could legally do?

so long as we're not preempted by the state or federal government.

Right, all right. Well, General Assembly, close your ears. All right, Councilmember McMillan-Green and Jones.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for that question, Councilmember Honduras. It goes back to something we talked about earlier in the year in terms of tightening up. Our responsibilities as a municipality to have some staff connection to environmental standards, environmental protections, and I love that question because it raises a possibility of what we could do to have things in place policy-wise and even structurally to protect our water, our land, and our air. The answer is there's a lot more that we could do structurally to be prepared. I had a question for DEQ around PFAS. I'm coming back to it. And concerns that there are very limited ways that we could, that we regulate PFAS chemicals. And I know that's been in the news recently with Wilmington. In a hearing recently where that was raised, if we have thousands of these chemicals and we're only detecting and regulating a limited number, where does that leave us and our water supply, especially the vulnerabilities? I'm wondering if you could speak to PFAS in terms of data centers and if there would be concerns around chemicals that are not regulated currently, And then also, if there's movement towards or away from increased regulation of PFAS. And I know that's a leading question, but I really want everybody to understand that.

And we understand that everybody is concerned about PFAS. We're definitely concerned about it, and it's one of, like I said, it's one of our core priorities to get clarity for people in this state on, but also to help put some wins on the board in terms of strengthening regulation and clarity of regulation. And so with data centers specifically, there is nothing specific that I'm aware of in terms of a PFAS risk for a data center. But as with anything that we see in the industrial process over time, there's always going to be new things that come to be a concern. There's always going to be things that are probably fine now or that we haven't detected yet. that maybe 10 years from now, maybe 15 years from now, they could be similar to PFAS. I know that sounds scary, but that's what we've seen over time. As of right now, we typically see most PFAS emissions from industry, from manufacturing and some other things. Cooling water, cooling systems and things like that, the air with data centers, emissions and things, it's not really something that's on our radar as a source of PFAS.

Right on. And just to put a button on it, that's one of the reasons why there's a lot more concern here, especially with all the uncertainty. Both of you have come with admitted and very candid uncertainty about what could be there. There are people that are saying the juice is not worth the squeeze in terms of inviting this industry into our communities. But thank you for answering that.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Council Member Green.

Don't get too comfortable. Can you give us an update on Fuqua-Averina's request and when we might know something back on that request for Interbasin?

Without having all the details in front of me, I believe it's fair to say that there is not an enormous amount of political appetite for approving IBT's in the state of North Carolina. But I can get you a much clearer answer than that.

Thank you.

Councilman Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, very quickly. You answered my question about the loading, so thank you so much. Excellent, excellent information. Just one quick question. I know you mentioned the air, waste water, all those permitting. Are there, I know, and this may be tied specifically to the type of permitting, but depending on the type of permitting that associated with that,

Yes, Council Member Jones, there are. So if you have an air permit, chances are it's going to require regular monitoring. We also see anytime there's, again, however rare the case may be, but if there was a direct discharge to a lake or a river for cooling water, regular testing would be required. as part of the permit drafting process we actively work with applicants with the companies themselves that are either writing the per excuse me submitting the permit applications on the company's behalf or the company and their own engineers directly And there's a lot of very technical level discussion about engine types, for instance, on diesel generators, emissions controls and different things, heat levels, the degree to which diesel and fuel is combusted can mean fewer particulates, for instance, or more of a gap, more of a vapor or something like that. So all of that is written into the permit, and based on that criteria, the regular reporting requirements and monitoring are going to follow from that.

All right.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Thank you. And Mr. Briggs, who's waited patiently for us. Good evening, sir.

Good afternoon, Randall. Well, good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the City Council. Thanks for having me here. I am a next door neighbor. I have been in the community for about 30 years. And the company that I run is Advanced Internet Technologies. My residential address is in Fayetteville, 307 Arundel Court. But I happen to have a facility across the street at 421 Maiden Lane. It is a data center. It was much larger at one time. And what I want to do is I want to talk about basically data center, AIT's data center, and data center operations. I have just a little bit of practical experience. Over the last 30 years, I understand the systems. I understand ping, power, pipe, process. I understand all that intimately as an individual has worked on these systems with my hands. And that lends a certain perspective, I think, that is valuable and would be interesting for you to consider as you move forward. Now, let me see if I can get this to work. Let's talk about AIT. Okay, here's the big shocker. AIT already owns and operates a data center right in your backyard. I started out in a garage, Kenwood by the river. In fact, when I went shopping for my first house, the realtor asked me, what are you looking for in a house? I said, the largest garage I can find with the largest patio I can park my vehicles. And he said, why is that? I said, because I'm operating out of my garage. Well, back in the late 90s, we had an explosive agreement. The Internet was taking off and we caught the wave just right. And when we did, we grew exponentially. We went from my garage, I think my neighbors thought I was running an organized crime outfit. Because they're like, what's all the cars doing over there all hours of the day? And I'm like, well, we're working. And it was a classic garage startup turned into a two-time Inc. 500, multimillion-dollar corporation, state-of-the-art data center, ICANN-accredited registrar, right in this community. And I'm happy to say that we were able to leverage the talent in this community, which is tremendous. It is tremendous. When I look at Fort Bragg, Fort Liberty, I see that that talent is amazing. But I will say this. We are not the same scale. that's being proposed right now. We have a 480 basically service with 1,200 amps, and that's about one megawatt of power. What's being contemplated right now with these hyperscalers is two, three, four, 500 megawatts. That's an enormous scale difference. But the principles are still the same, and I think that those are things that need to be considered. Now, When we look at data centers, I've been watching the shows and the televised episodes of the meetings, and I see that there are people that are not for data centers. I see that there are people that may be for data centers, and I understand that. I am very sympathetic to that. However, I will say this. We are all reaping the benefits of data centers right now. everyone in this group and everyone in this room is if you have a PDA a you are using and connected to a data center. If you have an iPhone, you're connected to a data center. An Android, you're connected to a data center. If you're using Google, you are using artificial intelligence, which is connected to a data center on your secondary and tertiary searches because Gemini AI has already been integrated into that. If you use Amazon, You're using AI, and you're connected to an AI data center. That's a fact. If you don't want to use AI at AI data centers, check your phones at the door. Because the fact of the matter is, artificial intelligence is here, it's driving everything. The question is, we have to weigh and identify the benefits and the risks. And I understand this is a touchy subject. I will say that the risks are real. And the way that we have to navigate this is we have to have community involvement. And I want to talk about that a little bit. I believe in transparency. I also believe in economic development. I believe that some things need to probably remain confidential, to a certain degree secret. There needs to be NDAs. Sure, but then when does that stop? When do we start having conversations? When is it open so we build trust through transparency? And I don't mean to get up on my soapbox. Like I said, I've just been watching the meetings from afar. But I will say this, community boundaries must be established because what's coming is like nothing we've ever seen. Everybody knows that Fort Bragg and three other military installations have hyperscaler data centers moving in. These are your Metas, your Googles, your Black Rocks. These are not small players, and they are for profit, which means they need to make a profit. How do they make a profit? They cut costs. What are some of the biggest costs that they have? Regulation. What do they want to do? If it's me, I want to reduce regulation. Why? I'm a for-profit entity. If I can reduce regulatory burden, what can I do? I can make more money. That's my mandate. That's what I do. Now, do I heed what's environmentally sound, what is good for the community? Maybe I do. Maybe I'm benevolent. Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm looking at maximizing my profit. So we need to understand that we need to draw community boundaries. And these don't need to be operationalized. They don't need to be a pyramid, basically, basically empiricism characterized by empiricism, what they need to do is the community needs to be involved and say, hey, look, do's and don'ts. We don't want pollution. We don't want noise. We want basically also to basically avail ourselves of what's available out there in terms of AI. So we have to mitigate these risks. And that's just a fact. Now, how do we do that? We have to sit down at some point and stop having conversations. And I don't mean to be critical. I sat on two or three transition committees for the state of North Carolina with their data centers, some very large data centers. I was instrumental in writing the policy papers that migrated off the old architecture to the new architecture. I've seen large data centers. Just because they're large doesn't mean they're sophisticated. I've seen a lot of mistakes. But what we have to do is we have to clearly define what the metrics of success and failure are. And success and failure are basically the same size of the same coin. And when we do that, we need to make sure that the metrics that we have are clearly definable. It can't be something amorphous. It can't be vague. It's got to be definable. We've got to operationalize it. And I call it DAMA. Basically, it's got to be achievable. We can't tell a hyperscaler data center that comes in here and says, you must have a PUE ratio of one to one. That's impossible to achieve. It's not possible. You must have a power factor of 95 or above. These are all things that we can develop, they can achieve, we can define, and then we need to make them measurable. And it's easy to make them measurable. Some of you saw the five-point framework I handed out. It's very simple. People will argue whether or not it's the proper basically variable inside the P framework. It doesn't matter. We can figure it out. But we have to have these concrete metrics in place if we're going to develop sound policies and procedures to basically leverage these data centers and they have to be auditable. That means we have to be able to audit them. We have to have people that are qualified to audit them. We can't go in and say, we trust you to do the right thing. No. I am a practical operator. I'm not an academician. I'm not a politician. I'm the guy who's turning the wrenches, changing the compressors, looking at why we descale those pipes, Right? And we're descaling them. And you know why we're descaling them? And oh, by the way, don't use chlorine. Use hydrogen peroxide. It has less of an effect. And it won't corrode, basically, your inner pipes that you're using for cooling. There's a lot of little things out there that have been basically identified and achieved in the private sector that we should avail ourselves of. Once we develop these metrics for success, We need to come together as a community. We're already doing that. I think this is fantastic. There needs to be a collaborative effort. There needs to be an effort that involves everyone. You know, we have a lot of uncertainty. We have a lot of risk. Risk creates doubt. Doubt creates fear. Fear creates anger. So when I look around and I see people getting upset and angry, it's because they don't understand. They haven't been part of the collaborative process. And maybe they have, but I've not seen it. And it's gotta be transparent. If we don't have transparency, we don't have trust. So I'll give you a perfect example. I asked my wife I said, I got some guests coming over for dinner. Oh, who are they? I said, well, you don't need to know. They're coming over. They're going to track up the house. They're going to eat our food. I mean, I may mess the bathrooms up. I don't know. Well, I need to know who they are, she would say. And I would say, well, no, I can't tell you that. How long do you think my marriage would last? No, it's not going to. So I know we just now announced who some of these drone companies are. And if anybody here thinks that the hyperscaler data centers are not tried, I'm sorry, I can project, are not tried and true, if you think for a second they're not tied to the hyperscaler data centers, the multi-megawatt data centers, think again. The Army has a mandate. Every squad, by the end of 2026, will have a drone cluster, a Wi-Fi drone network. It's already been announced. Hegseth has announced it. Where is it going to be? It's going to be one of four places or four of four places. One of them is going to be Fort Bragg. One of them is going to be right here. These drone companies are moving in. You think drone companies are just moving in? No, they have telemetry requirements. They have high-speed requirements for aerial photography, for reconnaissance. They'll be using the field. They'll create Wi-Fi mobile networks. They are not able to process this data on the battlefield. They have to bring it back, and they bring it back to the AI megawatt data centers and that's what they do and that's what's going on right now. There's no accident what's going on in terms of them moving in. So the question I have is who are they? Who are they? And some people in this community know who they are. They already know. I know. And if we don't share and collaborate, in my view, I'll probably get kicked out after this, but in my view, there needs to be a collaborative process. We need to develop KPIs, key performance indicators, metrics, TUEs, total usage efficiency ratios. These are all things that's out there. And SLAs. What's an SLA? Service level agreement. They will understand these hyperscalar data centers. You must achieve uptime. You must achieve basically total usage effectiveness, power usage effectiveness. You must achieve the power factors, 95% or higher. If you don't, We hurt you. We claw back your profit. You hit these goals, and they'll understand that. You don't cut corners. You don't use aluminum windings when you can use copper windings. You use K-factor generators, excuse me, K-factor transformers. use top-of-the-line generators, you use harmonics that measure power, distortion, no orders of two, three, four, you don't mess our grid up, because if you're a part of our grid, our PWC guys here, right, you know what happens if they're part of the grid and their harmonics are not correct. They're gonna feed that distortion right back into our grid, which is then gonna have a detrimental impact. So the Hertz need to be running at 60, They need to have the right equipment to make sure they're not adversely impacting our grid, our power, and if we don't do that, we're in trouble.

Try to speak into the mic because you got folks on the audio that can't hear you, but it's passionate, man. I feel like I'm in church.

I'm so right. This is a church I've been living in, Mayor Colvin, for a long time. I'm sorry. I've been told I'm too loud. My voice is too loud. So I think... I think that this is a great opportunity. Don't get me wrong. I own an operated data center. I'm old. I'm 66. I'm getting ready to retire. I'm not even sure I wanted to be here. I was supposed to go fishing. But what I'm trying to say is we have the ability in this community to really take advantage of this. Too fast, we make mistakes. Too slow, and we missed the opportunity. And I don't think we can afford to miss an opportunity. I believe this will become a drone capital of the entire country. Can you imagine if we form a P3 public partner, a private-public partnership, and we bring in the public sector We bring in the city, the county, the private sector. We bring in basically these hyperscalers that are coming in, K1, K12. We bring all these people in and we sit down and we say let's make this work. But we have to be transparent with each other. We have to look and get a real grasp around what's going on. And we have to be able to work out what the standards are. And then we can lift our entire community. Could you imagine what would happen to our children? The educational system. I mean, these kids grow up around drones. I've already got word they're bringing in Xbox and PlayStations. That is what the military is doing. Why? Because that's what our kids use. They're going to have K1 through K12 programs, STEM programs. This is going to present an incredible opportunity for us to become at the forefront of the next generation of drone technology. I have nothing else to say, Mr. Mayor.

Well, you laid it down. Certainly, I appreciate you, appreciate your passion, known you a long time.

and you and you you always uh give us give it to us straight did have a question from council member dj here brother briggs have known you for long times years years years uh appreciated when AIT, right? That's it. When it first came out, I was right there in the line cutting the ribbon. So thank you for all that you do, and thank you for the history that you've given us today. First Lady, thank you also for being with us. If you are not one of our advisors talking to our planning and folk as we try to do some developing for this, you need to be. you're speaking some of the same things that I don't want to speak for all of my colleagues but I have had conversations with many of them about how we go about protecting our neighborhoods and the concerns that our residents have regardless of the folks that come up to that microphone there we do hear that at least I do hear it and I ask those questions and those questions are directed to our staff and how do we improve now you keep saying that and i believe it that it can be done yes uh not talking so much about the the the nuts and bolts of the mechanics of it but uh because that's not all i don't think on our side but as far as policy procedures ordinances How do we protect our water? How do we protect our environment? These are not new questions for our staff. They've been hearing this from all of us, but I know they've been hearing it from me also. If you would, once more, give us your perspective on how do we protect our residents from, let's just say, from electricity bills, higher electricity bills, if that's an issue. How do we protect, and I know we've been hearing it tonight, our residents from large amount of possibility of water being used and how that would relate to residents' bills. How do we protect that? our residents from environmental concerns, whatever they may be. I was happy to be a part of the team that visited three of data centers, had a lot of great input, even from your office, even all the way up to the 30,000 square foot facility in Raleigh. Tell us how we do that and can that be done? Because that's a big concern for me and it's a big concern for my residents. Yes, sir, good question. It can be done.

It means that the hyperscaler data centers, maybe PwC, I don't understand the relationship, who's going to be doing what, if they're going to be generating their own power, settling off of PwC, whatever. But power, okay, needs to be clean. Now what I mean isn't is it fossil fuel, is it renewable energy? The power needs to be harmonically pure. It doesn't need to be distorted. The voltage, have you ever noticed, in the hot afternoons at 3 p.m., there seems to be, the lights are blinking. No offense. But we've all seen that, right? What's happening is the voltage is dropping. PWC is trying to manage the entire grid during peak hours. When the voltage drops, the amperage increases. When the amperage increases, the total wattage needs to be basically increased to the data center. It creates harmonic distortion. It creates resistance, it creates more heat, which requires more cooling, and it becomes a big mess. So what we have to do is we have to establish standards. Power factors, I'll give you an example. Power usage efficiency. So let's say, coming into the data center, I meter all my power, I see every time, the local utility company, browns out, drops the phase, voltage reduction. Probably not the most popular with them, but I see it. And so what we have to do, Councilman, is we have to establish what is the power usage efficiency, for example. You know, what are the acceptable harmonics ranges? Now, that'll be on the data centers, the hyperscale of data centers, and the utility company. But if you have 140 kilowatts coming into a data center, I'm giving you a little example, and you have 100 kilowatts being used by the servers, then you have 140 divided by 100, you know, you have a 1.4 ratio. That's actually pretty good. That means that out of that 140 kilowatts, 100 are actually going to what they're supposed to, which is the computational effort being put out by the servers. In my case, CPU in the hyperscalers, GPU, because that's what they're using for the artificial intelligence. That's one metric. It's called PUE. TUE is another. WE is another for the water. Power factors are another. Maintenance schedules, proper descaling, all these things roll into it. There's an entire pre-combat checklist, I'm falling back on my military, that needs to be addressed and you need to go down every day, week, and month. to make sure best practices are being followed. The same thing goes for water utilization. One of the things I didn't hear discussed today, and maybe it's because we didn't have time, was how do you do that? Okay, and we have developed some hybrid systems over at AIT. Some of the staff had the dubious honor of coming over and observing my systems, and what we did is, We figured out basically how to use a combined water and air based system in the summertime. And it involved buying Walmart sprinkler systems, hooking them up to timers, and deionization filters, putting them underneath my condenser units, and running them every 60 seconds on an hour. It improved my power consumption and my cooling by four to five percent. Now they have multi-million dollar systems that do this, but I don't have the money. So I had to go to Walmart. And these systems, there's a fancy name for this. There's a lot of best practices. Hot rolls, cold rolls, okay, ventilation. There's so many different things that can be done. Blanking panels, all the things that can be done, but there's a cost associated with them. And I think to answer your question, a lot of folks aren't going to want to do that.

Yeah, because I wanted you to kind of bring it home for me, because I wanted to know, are you saying then, we as a council, because we do policy and budget and ordinances,

to speak on how our ordinance is written on how this the mechanics of it is constructed are you saying that i'm saying that we establish sir clear standards and we tell them this is your sla your service level agreement yes they will understand that and say your uptime is going to be this your power unit efficiency will be this Your water unit efficiency will be this. And you're saying all of that is part of policy and ordinance.

Yeah, so a lot of that is in that best practice ordinance. It talks about everything he's talking about, the type of generators, tier four versus some other ones that don't admit as much. But you can put all of that into consideration in your policy and say, if you're going to bring your project to our area, these are the gold standards.

And I don't mean to drill, Mayor, but these are some of the things that have been just popping off at us. And so I want answers. I want to understand. I agree with you 100%.

How this is to be written. And the citizens of this community deserve those answers. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir.

All right. Councilman Jones. Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Very quickly, could you speak again to closed loop and what are some things? You don't have to necessarily go into a lot of detail. I know for the sake of time. But what are some things that... Should be considered.

Okay, yes sir, I understand the question. I'm going to differ a little bit with maybe my predecessor speakers. Not as an academic, but as a guy that implements it. Okay, there is no such thing as a closed loop system. Let me repeat that. There's no such thing as a closed loop system. It's a euphemism. You may have a first loop. The first loop, it could be, I mean, direct the chip cooling. It could be a loop that is closely wrapped around basically the heat generation components of any system. There's a secondary loop that's parallel and tangential to that first loop. Make sense? That secondary loop cools the first loop, right? Then there's a third loop, maybe even a fourth loop. Those loops basically do the same thing. They touch the third loop, second loop, and first loop. All the while, there's water, liquid, hopefully the proper deionization and descaling chemicals in there that are environmentally friendly. And they're cooling everything. But at some point, one of three things happens to that loop, sir, that heat. It has to be released. It has to be evaporated through an EvapGo cooler or cooling system or a cooling tower. Or it has to be radiated, just like your car radiator. So, the idea of a closed loop, I think it breathes well, but the law of thermodynamics is pretty straightforward. The heat's gotta go somewhere.

All right, thank you. And lastly, I have to definitely agree with my counterpart, Councilman Hare. If we ever need, and I think we do in some form or fashion, some sort of expertise, I love the... information and knowledge in a straight base information that you do bring from their years of experience to see where it has evolved to where it is now I think that's a valuable resource that we definitely need to tap into lastly what I also heard was we have a chance to get it right And it sounds like we can do it. Take the time to actually put the parameters in place, very specific things, measurable things, and I love that aspect, because it's measurable. How do you know something is successful? There has to be some form of measurement there. So I appreciate you saying that, the KPIs and all of that. I love what you also stated in regards to everything that we're doing to, that educational piece is very, very important. Just knowing, again, we may not have to get to the point where you have your knowledge base, but at some point for the community, just a basic level understanding of what we're going to do, how it's going to be measured, and how we're gonna hold some individuals, developers, regardless of if it was data centers or not, How are we going to hold them accountable? So I appreciate your openness with that and just saying hold individuals accountable. And what I also heard indirectly was it's probably going to cost a little more for some of these technologies. However, with the correct policies, we can still hold them accountable because, again, just like any other business, they're for profit. So thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you.

All right. Councilman McMillan.

Yes thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you Mr. Briggs. I deeply appreciate all the expertise that you brought to the board. Also for sharing your experiences for pressing for transparency and community involvement. Thank you also for the emphasis on scale. And my question is around obsolescence. This is a concern I've heard from community members that have come for public forum. We'll probably hear it again in a couple of hours. What happens at this scale? If we're talking about Eastover, the pre-application said 180 acres, 200 megawatts. What happens at that scale with technology that is moving this fast when it's obsolete? What does that mean for communities?

Very astute, very incisive perspective. And I don't usually compliment people.

I appreciate that, thank you.

I will say this. I am, maybe I'm fortunate, maybe I'm not. I've lived through two revolutions. I caught the internet wave just right. I was in the right place at the right time with the right people in the right community. And I, to a certain degree, owe this community back. I love-hate relationships, been up and down, but for the most part, I can't complain. And I will say this, what I witnessed back in 98, 99, 2000, I'm already witnessing right now. I am. And I'll tell you what we saw back then. Data centers were overbuilt. Everything was 4U in Iraq, not 3U, 2U, 1U, 4U in Iraq. And it was massive, massive heat, massive power consumption, And what gradually happened was two evolutionary paths of reduction in size. One was a micro-sizing of computers from about four U, four inches in a rack, three U, two U, one U. The other was a consolidation into rack-like units where they shared power supply, they shared hypervisors, they shared components that normally they would have separately. That allowed them to become more efficient. The same thing's happening now. It's already here. The large language models, which are the cornerstone of AI, and they're, if you're reading, they're, God knows, I don't even know if they're self-aware yet, but what's going on right now is they're micro-sizing. In fact, a couple of companies, Apple, in fact, has combined GPU, CPU, consolidated memory into units that don't require basically the massive amperage and power to run. They run off of standard 110, 120 volt outlets. Yes, it's already here. If I wait long enough, my data center will be able to handle it. So, Yeah, it's a concern. There could be overbuilding going on right now. It happened in the 2000s. The data center's overbuilt. Exodus out in California built a $5 billion data center that they started to fill up. Looked like they had a god awful valuation. It was through the roof based upon trailing quarters of revenue predicated on some fictitious income saving and balance sheet. I don't even know how they got their valuation. But they went bankrupt. And there was an exodus, all right. An exodus of the senior management out the door. So that's a very, very valid point. We have to watch the technology because it moves so quickly. Here today, gone tomorrow. The way that cloud, anthropic, open AI, the way that they're moving right now, data centers potentially in space, the micro-sizing, combining of memory, all that, you are absolutely correct, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Brooks.

All right. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Before I ask my question, Mr. Mayor, I'm going to ask you to respond to the statement I've just made earlier, because we talked about these large data centers that depart and leave us 10 million square feet of building that is no longer in use. What do they do in Lawton County?

Yeah, so- Mr. Briggs, and part of that was what I was going to talk about next, but what they did in Lawton County was started a decommissioned fund that said that, you know, out of their $5 billion budget, now let's put that in context, so the city of Fayetteville's budget is $300 million, $400 million. PwC is about the same, so together that would have been less than a billion, but out of their $5 billion budget, 1.3 a year comes from the 280-plus data centers in that community. 10% of that money goes to a decommissioned fund that is now, I think he says, a few hundred million dollars in there, and in their agreements with each new data center. And by the way, the reason they have almost 300, because they didn't have any regulation. So they started about 2,000 where you did. Right. had an application said all this looks like office it goes in office so everything that that came under that zone and went without even having to come to the board and so they had a proliferation of it. But the point is that never to ask you question approach in 10% of the tax revenue from this goes toward the commission in addition to the individual agreements that I have with the company with Microsoft with Apple says that if you pull out his community that there are certain responsibilities.

I want him to respond to that Mr. Bridge because as you stated earlier everything evolves I remember when I was growing up we used to have reel to reels for music you know then you had 8 tracks then you had CDs then you had cassettes then you had thumb drives now you do everything online so everything evolves that's why I wanted to ask that question but You made a lot of good points today, and my page is almost full of writing down notes, but I want you to fill in one of the blanks, and it's one of the acronyms that you stated earlier. I got to SLA. What was the TEU acronym, and what did that stand for?

TUE is total usage effectiveness. I think it should have been called efficiency, but I'll go with the flow. But basically, what TUE is, is a consolidation of, say, PUE, power utilization effectiveness. We talked about the ratio. The closer it gets to one, the more optimal it is. One, in other words, 1.4 kilowatts, 140 kilowatts come in, 130 kilowatts come in, 100 kilowatts is used for the data processing itself, the other's used for cooling, ancillary service and all that. The closer that equilibrium gets to one, which is impossible, that means it's perfect. Okay, but that's what the acronym, they're well-known acronyms, and I don't necessarily expect the hyperscalers to volunteer these.

Well, that's why it's important for us to have our checklist, that's why I'm writing mine down, so we can ask them those questions.

Yeah, there's a lot of checklists, and I think, to address Mayor Colvin's point, is decommissioning fund Given the history and the reality of basically the compression of technology and the increased exponential power that often associated or is associated with that, a decommissioning fund would be prudent. I think that's something that is reasonable, and I think that's something that should be negotiated.

That's also on the checklist, Mr. Mayor. Thank you very much. All right.

Mr. Briggs, I know you got to go. We got a lot to do. Your wife's been very patient with us.

She's with me, too.

We appreciate that. You said a couple things I want to point out, and I want to go to my colleague McMillan's comment about the way things change, and we asked this question up there. Now, you mentioned that you caught the dot-com right when it was at the right swing. And everybody in 99, 2000, I remember even saying, hey, you have to get rid of everything because nothing's gonna work after 2000. So it was a swing. Everybody was scared of the unknown. And they said, hey, it's gonna pop. So everything is cyclical. The dot com eventually popped, right? But we still have the internet. And out of that came where we are today. Right. To where that, you know, when the Internet came about, whether it's Al Gore or whoever, you know, invented it. You know, you don't have to comment. I'm just saying it popped because you have people who speculate and everybody runs to it. And at some point it corrects itself.

Yes.

So I think. Any market will be corrected, but just like the internet still exists after that, because data centers do more than just whole storage, it also has AI, which is embedded in everything. It has, from my understanding, where AI or where the coders teach AI how to be AI and how to model its behavior. So there are a number of components. Is it your expectation, even if the industry changes, that there won't be a need for technology and for what these things bring? I mean, I think it's just like the internet, right?

I think that the internet is just a medium. And it's infrastructure that's linked together and connected. On the other hand, the technology has improved vastly. The amount of data that we're able to transfer now with the fiber optics that we have today dwarf what we once had. I started out with something called a T3. A T3 is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Okay, compared to what we have today with fiber that means terabytes of fiber at a time. My personal opinion is it's already started the decompression, decommission, I should say, the downsizing. It's already begun. The AI is here to stay. There's no doubt about it. However, the footprint and the resources that it's going to consume I think will reduce and be reduced over time. I don't have any doubt about that. If we follow the pattern of technology as it has evolved over the years, decades, and even centuries.

So I think- So I guess my point was, even though it gets leaner and more efficient, um the basis of it is here to stay but it's not going anywhere yep it is here definitely all right so councilwoman mcnear has a question and then uh council we have about two hours in on on this item yes ma'am

Thank you. I want to first of all thank Mr. Briggs for allowing us to tour your facility. It was a wealth of information and we thoroughly enjoyed it. So I have a question. You said a lot today and we've heard a lot from everyone today and colleagues. Can you summarize From a downtown operation perspective, what design, zoning, or infrastructure priorities should the city emphasize to facilitate data center use without disrupting residents or businesses?

Yes ma'am, I can do that. And I'm going to try to avoid walking around when I do it. I will say this. The notion right now is a hyperscaler data center will move in and buy up hundreds of acres and create a three, four, 500 watt massive AI powered data center. That is not the model that's being adopted right now. A lot of these hyperscalers have had to adapt to communities. Within our community itself, right here, Cumberland County and Fayetteville, we have parcels of land that are within the acceptable radius of Fort Bragg and the Central Sea office. The central office that was run by the old, I'm dating myself now, Sprint. DJ, you may remember Sprint. They've since changed names. Yeah, a few times. But I guess that is the superhighway where most everybody gets on the internet. Everybody around Cumberland County. And you've got to connect to them. In between... There are splintered factions and locations. Now, what I will say is I'm going to throw a word out. The word is asymmetric WAN, wide area network, technology or topology. What that means is you don't have to put all the components of the data center in the same place. You don't need to do that. What can be done is you can have a super GPU processing 100 megawatt plant in one location that's not close to residences, that's close to whatever resources it needs, and then you could have another one that focuses on another dimension asymmetrically of WAN technology. You can have another one that doesn't have the power capacity. It may have one megawatt, two megawatts, five megawatts. It can't bring the GPU servers in to do the processing. But what it does have is proximate straight shots to the Sprint central office. So fiber and bandwidth become the most important thing there. How fast can we get that telemetry, that data, to where it needs to go? So think about CPUs, central processing units, and GPUs. CPUs are your managers. They do processing sequentially. They do it with discretion. But they're not near as fast as GPUs. And GPUs do parallel processing where they process these massive amounts of data almost simultaneously. So to answer the question, very simply, is we don't have to locate it all in one location. We can spread it out. and we can distribute it and still make it work just as well as otherwise. Now, that will come at a higher cost to the hyperscalers.

All right.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Briggs. Thank you to all the participants today. Learned a lot. We certainly appreciate you taking time to come share this information with us. Dr. Manziel, you good? All right. Thank you, council. We'll move to 6.02, strategic planning recommended 2027. How are you, sir? Mr. Andy?

I had a long weekend. All right. You did a great job, too, in Virginia. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. It changed the tune just a little bit. All right, good evening, Council, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem. I'm Andy Brayboy from the Office of Strategic and Performance Analytics. And tonight, I think it's still tonight evening. It's almost tonight. Yeah. We're going to talk about the FY27 strategic plan, and in particular, the strategic plan alignment. So what you'll see going through the presentation, because where we're at in the fiscal year, we're going to talk a little bit of what you would see in our strategic plan book, our planning process and timeline, how we get to where we are now, and then what we call our strategic alignment crosswalk. And I'll speak more about this as we go forward. So city council, this is what you would see in the book. So we start everything off of our foundation for planning, our mission, our vision, our core values. These three elements, of course, you've seen these for quite some time. They've stayed pretty consistent for a number of years. Our core values, which is respect, and then we have our strategic goals uh as you recall historically we had six goals we brought the idea to council to consolidate these down from six to five goals council gave us the uh the authority to bring back some ideas on what they would look like and we came back with the consolidation of our previous go-to and go three which was our diverse and viable economy, and a city investment in today and tomorrow. We combine those two into our new economic and strategic growth goal two. The other goals are one, three, four, and five, stay consistent. And this reflects really where the city of Fayetteville is today. So again, what you will see in the book, this is our message from the city manager. It really sets the tone for our strategic planning. And in essence, it's a remaining focus on responsible planning, measurable outcomes, and operational excellence, and working collaboratively to strengthen neighborhoods, support residents, and position favor for long-term success. And then, of course, we would get to our FI-27 strategic priorities. This is a culmination of the entire process. It starts with our priority one for FY27, which is continue implementing a comprehensive approach to community safety. Priority two, enhance economic growth opportunities throughout the city. Priority three, expand housing and neighborhood revitalization and refurbishment efforts with an emphasis on mature neighborhoods and attainable housing needs. And then priority four, improve and expand transportation, transit, and overall connectivity for our residents. So I wanted to show a little bit about how the strategic planning process works on a fiscal basis. This is what our office used to make sure that we hit certain milestones throughout the year so that we can hit our implementation deadline. So we start in our August to October. Phases is our pre-work where we're really brainstorming a lot of ideas. We get a lot of context from the team. We go into October and December. It's our fall to winter timeframe for our communication. If we're doing a resident survey or anything like that, it's where we're collecting this type of data. January to February is when we have our council retreat. March to April is when we are collecting and consolidating all the information into our plan. And then we have April to May is when we finalize the plan and ensure that it is in line with the recommended budget and the recommended plan. And then we go into adoption in June alongside of our budget and then implementation in July. And then of course tonight we're ensuring that our adopted budget and our adopted strategic plan are in alignment. So this is the typical cadence that we follow year to year. Just as a guide, it is flexible. So now we'll look at how the 2027 strategic plan timeline played out. And so you'll see as we go through the timeline, a yellow and a green oval bubble. The green is what staff incorporated new into the timeline for 27. And then yellow is what council added. So we started it with our Q2 timeline. fy 26 priorities update as part of our normal performance measurement reporting then we go to january 14th which is the mayor called a special meeting to for spa to facilitate our strategic planning overview we looked at historic elements of the plan how we go throughout our process and arrive at our actual implementation of the plan This was a new part of our normal process. The next day we kicked off, which was facilitated by our consultant FountainWorks, our small group sessions for strategic planning. And we implemented this as part of the process to resemble what we do with our budget small group sessions. to where council could really come together small groups and begin brainstorming and working collaboratively ahead of our strategic planning retreat, which this was a huge success of the process this year. We then go to February 4th, which was our actual council retreat, where our goals, priorities, and our overall strategic plan is voted on by council to move forward. Then February 25th is our senior leadership team retreat part one, where we start the groundwork for looking at what was discussed and voted on at the council retreat. And then a part of our normal process, our consultant Fountainworks came back to council on March 23rd to present the summary or the synopsis from the council retreat and the priorities that were voted on throughout that process. This was pulled to a special meeting at the request of council, which occurred then on April 6th, which the special meeting was called to solidify or confirm that the priority language was captured correctly. This is where that priority three, the revitalization and refurbishment language with the emphasis on mature neighborhoods is where this was deliberated and discussed and finally approved by council. then April 15th we have the part two of our SLT retreat this is where we do a similar route Robin exercise similar to how we do at council retreat where staff takes everything from the timeline and from the council retreat they see which priorities are solidified look within the budgets that they have they have presented to begin developing our priority action plans And then June 22nd, by this time, the budget was adopted. We had our recommended plan ready to go. At this point, the goals were already approved by council. The priorities and the priority language was saluted by council. So we submitted this as an administrative report for approval, and this was pulled at the dinner meeting to come to tonight's word section. And that's where we are tonight, presenting the strategic alignment to ensure that the adopted budget is in alignment with the adopted plan. So this is our base framework for the strategic plan. It shows our five goals and then how each priority aligns with each goal. So your priority one, community safety, of course, falls within goal one, safe and secure community. Priority two, economic growth. And priority three, your housing priority. That falls within economic and strategic growth. And then priority four, transient connectivity is, of course, a part of that. Desire a place to live, work, and recreate. Now, of course, we know that multiple priorities can cross over multiple goals, but this is just where we align those to where it fits best with the essence of what the goal actually is. Go for a financially sound city. Of course, this is our city-wide stewardship goal, and in collaborative citizen and business engagement is our city-wide engagement. Now as we move forward while we do, and a part of what I've implemented in our FY27 plan is what we call a strategic climate crosswalk. And as we move forward, everything can be cross-verified with section adjustments to the recommended budget and other appropriations within the approved adopted budget. So what is a crosswalk? The document that you have at your dais, the 11 by 17, This would be your tangible crosswalk. So what it is, it's a one-page accountability map, and it takes every action from council within the adopted budget and traces it directly into the FY27 plan, line by line, and it shows where, whether, and how each action is actually funded. And it answers one major question, which is, did the funding follow the plan? And that's the purpose of the crosswalk. And this matters because it takes two large organizational or enterprise documents and it combines them into one, your plan and then your budget. It puts them in a verifiable document to show exactly that the actions that you're doing within your plan align directly with what you've budgeted for. So we start with our plan. Of course, as you can see from the actual crosswalk, we have 39 actions that meet directly to our four priorities. then we trace each one of these actions to the budget and then we align the funding status for that and for FY 27 to find funding status that we use for our crosswalk is new if I 27 a budget adopted budget So this is new dollars that are in the FY 27 budget for this action You can also look at this as a new appropriation or new allocation current service level Funding through CIP or bond the enterprise fund and then not in the fi 27 adopted budget Which means that just there's no identifiable funding source for that item and staff would move forward with the existing capacity Where needed or where it could? And then this of course is what your strategic alignment crosswalk will look right look white look like and So if you look on your crosswalk, P1, P is priority, A is action. So P1, A1 would be priority one, action one. And so for priority one, community safety, you go right across, you have 11 actions, three are new, seven are at current service level, and then one not in the adopted budget. And we map this out all the way down our four priorities, and then we show the budget status in that column as well. So at a glance, your crosswalk now has 12 new FI27 dollars, you know, a part of your budget. 18 are at current service level. Two, CIP are bond-funded, four, enterprise funds, and three are existing capacity, which means there's no identified funding sources in the budget, and staff would move forward as best as possible. So when we brought our first recommended strategic plan, when that was ready, we had at the time one new strategic action tied to our council priorities, and now part of the adopted budget, we have 12 new actions. So we can look at each priority now. Priority one, comprehensive community safety. You can see this aligns with goal one, of course. You have 11 actions, three new FY27 dollars, which is the DFR program, which is P1A7 on your crosswalk. That's how we assign the code for it. And then the six additional police officer positions. You have a youth safety and violence prevention, which is the West Fayetteville Youth Center Study, Hollywood Heights Community Center. We then also have the eight frozen police officer positions restored to police. And then we have for fire prevention- Is it eight or six?

Because I see six.

I heard you say eight. Six additional police officers. This is six additional, and then eight frozen were restored. So six additional and eight restored.

So the six additional, Mr. Manager, you can clarify. Was that a part of that 24-hour crime response?

Okay. Okay, okay, okay.

Right. Okay. All right. Sorry about that. No, no. Council Member Hare had a question, but I was going to let you get to this first break here.

okay yes sir um and then the smoke alarm for fire provision this was of course um at the time with the recommended budget was part of that penny increase but it was sustained without the rate increase so that service could continue with the four fire inspections um inspectors added and i'll pause there for questions councilman here mr brayboy thank you you all you and your well you don't have your partner tonight but you you guys always do a great job

My concern is what I brought up, the last report that you all gave us. I went through this the other day when it came in and I didn't see it, so I still don't see it and I don't see here. One of the goals, if it's supposed to be upon the housing and revitalization was the support that council gave me about, making our older existing neighborhoods a priority for improving and for, as far as that perspective goes, and I don't see that. I don't know if it's just, if it goes on this sheet, then maybe, I may be wrong, it may not go on this sheet, but if it's supposed to go on the crosswalk, I was wanting to know, whenever we talk about the neighborhood revitalization, why doesn't it include, to include the older existing neighborhoods?

Is it?

P3A6, I think. P3? Yes, sir.

emphasis on mature home repair loan and grant program that was part of a six yes sir it's all the way to the right okay all the way to the right yeah what you saying where it says mature neighborhood okay so and appreciate that but just I asking for for clarity that should not also been a part of it being in the bowl to go all the way down since it was i was i remember us making it a priority so that's the reason i mean i had to i had to have help to receive where it was because i i stopped after so many uh sections that it's all over there then that was my only goal to be clear what you're saying is um you would prefer that to be on the left side underneath the actual tactic well i mean it can be there yes but i was thinking that because i was pushing so forth and the council supported me as far as a priority that it should be listed as a priority and then the full explanation of it as it goes down through the line item of it like for example neighborhood revitalization, however you want to put it, older existing neighborhoods also, just so that it has a early part of the inclusion there as we go all the way through.

as far as you know i think what he's saying mr lowry where you got promote homeowner assistance maybe add it in that description just add it to that line yeah right right that way in the boldness yeah thank you thank you mayor all right thank you mr brayboy thank you mr mayor mr lowry help me help myself what if the level of service that you have on this spreadsheet is not our desired outcome

I.E., I'm always talking about the airport. We know it's self-sufficient with the enterprise fund, but this is not giving us the expansion or the outcome that we're looking for. What should we be doing and how should we be looking differently?

At this point, the plan is not adopted whatsoever. These tactics have been built tangential to the adopted budget. So anything that is in the adopted budget as it relates to, for instance, airport, if it's in the budget, it would be on your crosswalk. If there is any ancillary or if the airport has additional strategies, maybe they could speak to it.

What the Transportation Committee has is...

own strategy if i could say uh mr mayor so how do we get that on the crosswalk on how we want to move forward with this i think that would be a director specific question from from the airport or transit it would be within the needs of their capacity of what their budget can hold but your crosswalk is built directly from your adopted budget

But this is an enterprise fund, so that's really not coming out.

That's right. And that's why I said that would be a director-specific question to be able to answer how they use those enterprise funds.

And Mayor Pro Tempore, Enterprise funds just said that the funds that go into it have to be used for that. It doesn't mean that we can't add money to it as long as what you're spending on once it gets in there is within the guidelines. That's what I wanted to hear. So I think some of the committee's work will be coming back with that.

I just want to make sure our vision is on this because from what you have here, we need to move in a different direction because what we've been doing is not working when it comes to the airport. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Yes, sir. Councilman McMillan.

Yes, thank you again. Always appreciate your work, the Jedis of our organizations, what I call y'all. Thank you for the in-depth crosswalk. I had a question about the cycle that we're going into with fiscal year 28. And understanding how priorities are made, understanding how early in the process we start to identify emergent issues. I'm gonna go back to a conversation we had in March around environmental concerns and compliance and quality evaluation. It was just a suggestion that was not picked up on during our last strategic planning cycle. Since then, I can identify a methane leak in Western Fayetteville that is still a concern to folks that live out there. I can also identify environmental concerns around Fay Block. I see my sister, Ms. Starr, out in the audience, spent some time with Fairview Neighborhood Improvement Association, and there's still concerns that the city isn't doing enough in terms of environmental compliance. And we just spent an hour and a half talking about environmental concerns around data centers, potential data center development here. And I'm wondering when this emergent issue of environmental compliance, us taking a strategic approach to protecting ourselves environmentally, can enter into the planning cycle for fiscal year 28 funding and prioritization from this board.

Well, your typical planning cycle, we do it a little bit different in Fayetteville. Typically, you would strategically plan and then you would set your budget based on your plan. And we work kind of budget to plan because our budget is fiscal and we have a budget ordinance. So right now, the way our cycle is set up, your council retreat happens early in the year, in January and February. So we instituted or we implemented those small group strategic planning sessions a part of our process this previous year. for those type of conversations to where before we actually go to the retreat, you could really deliberate and collaborate amongst yourselves and the council in a small group setting to be able to have those conversations then before we go to the actual retreat and anything is even voted on. So I would say that would be where those conversations would come up in those small group sessions. The only other way you could change that is if we change the whole strategic planning framework and your council retreat would actually be in the fall. So then that way it would be prior to the departments doing their departmental recommended budgets. Right now, the departments do their budget, and then we do the retreat, and then we plan, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it makes sense. I would say to my colleagues, would love to consider having conversations this fall around that environmental piece. I forgot to mention Stilfab, which some of y'all are very familiar with and concerns from that community about encroachment and environmental protection.

All right, thank you. Sandy and only thing I see only I think this is good and to my colleagues some of these are policy issues you know you basically take the collective policy will of the council and put it into a plan and then we then we then prioritize and budget to fund and to execute that plan right right so The only additive I'll have is this year's budget process, and it's happened previous years, but this year in particular, didn't leave a lot of room for us to get to where we needed to be, right? There's a hard stop that state gives us is have to have it done and complete by June 30th. And so what I see is the strategic planning from January to February, if you go back to that first slide where you had the timeline, right? January to February is where the plan for the council takes place. Then staff picks it up from March and doesn't come back with anything to us till May. So you got March, April, and May that there is a lag between when the council said these are the priorities. And when we actually get it in front of us, usually late May, when we get it in front of us with two or three meetings planned to wrap it all up and adopt it. I guess this may be a manager question. How can we get that timeline that gives us a little bit more room on our side of that? Because we lose three months. Starting in January, how does it take the staff and the retreats that y'all have and to do all of that from the end of the last meeting in January and February to May when we present it?

Well, we actually brought it back to you next month. And there was a question about the org chart.

Well, not the plan. So what I'm talking about is when you bring us a presented budget, what was the date that you presented your recommended budget to us? That was like May-ish, right?

May 8th.

right okay and so so really from the plan to when you give it to us was about five months from when we left strategic planning in January February because I know we had to delay it because of the snow but according to your timeline between January and February is where the council says these are the priorities that we're gonna okay adopt from the end of that meeting to when you give us that recommended budget is when you and staff do your plan to, I guess, to reassess what came out of our conversation and when it actually shows back up as your recommended budget. Now, we may have had a check-in or two about when we adopt strategic plans, does this look like what you came out of the plan with? But how do we get that timeline moved up to where instead of May 8th, that it's sometime in April?

Well, Mayor, we actually gave you all your thing on March 23rd. The budget? No, sir.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Yeah. Well, a lot of the budget, as you know from doing this as well, we're pulling together a lot of threads, and then you're also looking at revenues and other issues like that. We can try and we'll be happy to try to get to council the budget earlier. I think one of the things that would be helpful would be if when we're doing the strategic plan, if we also layer in about a level of service so that we are able to talk around what we're willing to pay for, what to do more or less of, One of the issues that we did do as well that was part of the budget that took a lot of time, as you recall, and council as well, was that we also were preparing the CIP, which a lot of the items that we're, Mayor Pro Tem talked about about service and transit and other issues like that were part of the CIP. I think we brought that piece to you in February as well, March. early April and so it's a sequential one but we'll be happy to go back and take a look at the schedule to see if we can do that easier so that what's funded in the recommended budget recommended for funding in the recommended budget it's more closely aligned to council's parties but yeah we'd be happy to do that okay

All right. Councilman Hondros.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think hearing my colleagues, Mayor Pro Tem and Councilman McMillan and then yourself, and listening to Mr. Brayboy and Dr. Hewitt, I think what I'm hearing is we need to get started in the fall instead of... in January. I know going into strategic planning retreat, usually at the beginning of the year, there's always a risk of inclement weather delays. but i know one of my frustrations has been you know we look at the one year to two year plan getting into the two to five year plan five to ten year plan ten to twenty year plan you know we hadn't really gotten to dig into that and from what i'm hearing today it's because we're doing it in reverse so we need to have our strategic planning in in the fall so that we can incorporate that year's strategic planning in that year's budget the future year's budget so next year in the beginning of 27, we'll be working on 2028's budget. So if we get into strategic planning in January, February, March, it's too late to incorporate that in the budget. So I think that's where our bottleneck may be

Mr. Mayor and Council, we also talked about that as well in preparation for this evening's presentation of this. One of the opportunities, but also a challenge it could be, is that in the fall every other year, the council members are running for re-election. And depending on the outcome of the election, a lot of the activity that would have been adopted or pre-work that would have been done by council, the new council may have a different, one or two voices may change or none may change, but the council may have wanted to take a different direction. And so part of our long-term strategy we've had has always been to look at doing more staff work as early as possible so that we can, but I do believe that there's an opportunity to your point that staff, not the manager, but the staff could make the council aware of issues of importance for the future sooner than let's say February when it rolls in. One of the issues that I know I've been talking about with PWC has been around what we're gonna do with something as large as TexFi. We talk about water and the inner basin transfers. What happens if our water, primary water source at the Hoflo Water Treatment Plant, that clear well is contaminated? That's been something that we don't have a solution for, we don't have a budget for, but clearly we need to make sure that council has that. Dr. Hare and Mayor Pro Tem remember as well all the discussion about, and I think it was, I'm leaving somebody off, about the western transit in western Fayetteville or regional transit. I think that was also Councilman Bajandros' issue. When that report came out, you and staff were given limited time before it was time for the budget as to what that would look like. um and so the idea that we could maybe not necessarily come with your priorities for the next year but could use a fall session for us to do some long-range planning and visioning i think would be very um helpful uh what and i know staff welcomes that as well because we feel really compressed at times trying to get y'all all of the information And it seems like it's a mad rush starting in January before we do the retreat, then come back with the retreat, the CIP, and the budget items. And I would say that this is nothing that, a little bit of time, we don't mind the work at all. So we'd be happy to facilitate that anyway, council.

Yeah, Dr. Hewitt, I appreciate that. Thank you. Quite frankly, I don't think the residents um care what our campaign cycle looks like or what the municipal election cycle looks like you know they they have needs pressing needs that um they expect us to address so i think our state partners look at kind of when they do their budget process kind of every two years it may be a situation as we're talking through this that um Once those municipal elections are held that first fall or spring, you know, we look at a two-year cycle, and then, you know, you can tweak it that second year. That way you're not getting into that. I think we've identified a challenge, and so it's just collectively we need to decide how we can improve upon it. Thank you.

Mayor Procter. Oh, was it McMillan? Councilman McMillan. Mapperton. All right. All right. Yes, sir.

I think this is where we left off.

So priority two, enhance economic growth. We have six new initiatives here. Fair Fight 27, the Corridor for Opportunity, Downtown Manager, Now and Then Festival, the General Contractor Program, Next Gen Workforce, and the Convention Center Study. 12 total actions. Housing-enabled revitalization. Council Member Mayer, this is what you were referencing. So the first item here, mature home repair loan and grant program. This was added as a part of the adopted budget. The sewer connection phase five. Of course, our housing bond and park as well. And in transit and overall connectivity, we have the added transit bench and trash cans. This supports the bus stop amenity performance measures, which is listed on your contractor services within your other appropriations of the adopted budget. You have your state street aid for FI 27, 6.9 million, which is usually split between two appropriations, your street maintenance, and then your payment preservation, and of course your enterprise funds,

meriprotein was alluded to.

All right, so any time a council initiative or appropriation is not tied directly to a priority, we also try to align it to where it fits within a goal. So for downtown alleyway cleaning, of course, that's goal three, desirable place to live, work, and recreate. Contribution to Black Voices Museum, goal three. City investment for downtown events, goal three. Our compensation merit increase, goal four, which is financially sound city. Contracted support from construction management that's exemplary city services go for and then senior advisory board funding which is our collaborative resident engagement and So next steps from here, of course, we would finalize and publish at council's discretion the FY27 plan and book, which would show the strategic alignment. We begin our quarterly performance reporting, which we normally do on a quarterly basis. FY27, because of new programs like the DFRs, would have a baseline evaluation, so we would have a set of baseline year for FY27 to measure that data, and we spoke with police on this as well. And then, of course, as we've all been alluding to, we would begin the FY28 planning cycle once again. which was, you know, our August to October time frame. This is where we start speaking with staff on any SWOT analysis or anything like that. This is where we could implement, like Council Member Honduras was alluding to, the fall planning session, and City Manager Hugh was alluding to, and that is the standard. That's the ICMA standard. That's the Baldrige standard. That's the GFOA standard. You plan and then you budget. So that is the framework that we need to get to. We've been trying to move the city in that direction for multiple years now, especially since I've been here. But right now, typically we budget and then plan. So we just need to alter our framework a little bit. So the recommendation for tonight as we presented for the strategic alignment is for Council to accept the alignment as presented and allow SPA to submit the plan as an admin report on considering the next regular meeting, which would officially adopt the FY27 strategic plan.

All right. So, Council, before this is a presentation tonight, now, Mr. Hewitt, I know there were a couple of concerns that came up. So how would that be addressed before anything? adoption consideration if there was an acceleration of the calendar that we talked about because this plan has the current timeline it's something that you said a minute ago you said you you've been trying since you've been here to recommend it because right now we're budgeting and then planning and so are you are you proposing it that maybe that should be reversed is there a plan and in budget or what are you what are you saying

well it's always a proposal but it would be a major shift for the organization for sure this would be what you would refer to as change management in a lot of ways because it would take even a council cultural change because as city manager here alluded to no two councils are beholden to the next so it would be a a bit of a change in developing within the council culture that the priorities that you said, the plan that you set within that one major fall strategic planning session is locked solid for whatever term or duration you set it at, whether it be if you want to start with two, three, four, or a long-term five-year plan. It's all possible. It's all plausible. It would just, of course, it would be a huge undertaking. It would have to come together in agreement on what it looks like, the full framework. But you would, ideally, you could have it as early as August for your full strategic planning session where you set your plan and your priorities for the next year. just say three years. Um, this would give the earlier that you said it as a council, the earlier staff can take onto consideration when they're developing their departmental budgets to be presented to CMO at the CMO level, which all plays into the recommended budget that city C manager who presents to the council. So, you know, if you had it in August, your full, voted on priorities and they were solidified and we get that in our office, get that back to you as quick as possible, we could get those priorities into staff's hands as they're developing their S1, S2, and S3

Right so basically if hypothetically you followed the pattern you said so instead of January February that took place in August September that's a three-month four-month acceleration would then Mr. Yates and Mr. manager are you saying it would be also a four-month acceleration and when we got a recommended budget

No sir that would likely not happen a lot of the work with the budget again for instance your audit which also factors somewhat into this is done by the end of the year the revenues upon which we base some of the state revenues don't come out until then we will go back with Mr. Floyd who's here and take a look at how we might be able to tighten that up I think that speed up the budget process really is the work that you're talking about, which is making sure that council gives the direction in the strategic plan because the plan then drives the budget piece. What I would ask for, and I think council also has supported, is making sure that you have an opportunity to see beyond the manager. Since I've been manager, I've always tried to do that. I've never limited your ability to talk to the departments. As a matter of fact, I encourage that. You've been all out on community tours. But I think one of the things that was missing this year, and I'm not sure quite what it was, is that we tried to bring to you a comprehensive list of items as part of the CIP that we thought were based on some of Council's parties, and that was wrong. Some of that was wrong, particularly some of the funding that was requested. on to fund the cip and that's something that we want to make sure we don't have that misalignment again and so but what that looks like is i mean i've heard all of you talk about it as well i think transit is a perfect example of that we were at the end of the year and we were talking about extending bus amenities whether it be stops or whether it be benches or going to the airport I don't know that we have done an adequate job of making sure that council has a full picture of what it would take to really become the transportation choice rider and so that y'all are able to make those long-term investments that are needed and give us the guidance so that when it comes time to put the budget together, you'll be able to say this is a continuation of council's three-year plan in this regard. Mayor Pro Tem and I have had conversations, as have several others, about this building, about the maintenance of the buildings. There was a surprise that we had sidewalks in front of the police department that had cracks in them and people were falling. There is literally hundreds of millions of dollars probably of deferred maintenance that the staff have not brought to use since before I even started with the city of Fayetteville. That's how we ended up, Dr. Hare, with a 40-year paving cycle. That's how we ended up with buses with a gangsta lane. How we didn't have any parks and recreation facilities out west while the Seabrook Pool is now out of commission while we resurface it after the first time in 20 years. We didn't have any, one second, please. We didn't have, and so I'm just trying to tell y'all that we welcome the opportunity to talk to y'all at a greater detail about that.

Well, I think it continues to my question before I forget what the basis of it. All that is true. No disagreement there. There should be... some type of capital maintenance allocation is done so that you don't have those things. That's not what I'm saying. I guess what I'm saying is it's proposing that the budget that we have came in and didn't leave a lot of runway because that's where the whole conversation originated that it could be cured and that's why I wanted to ask that question if we started our process three or four months earlier so basically I think what it is is it's an interpretation of what we say the priorities are because council comes out of strategic planning, I don't think there was a lot of ambiguity about what our items were. It may have been one or two where some of the language was changed before adopted, but it was the interpretation by staff as to what that looked like in form of a budget and priorities. So what I'm saying is because there's always gonna be, there will always take time to realign those two different perspectives, And I think you hit it that it just the process needs to be given more than four meetings Absolutely, right and then and that's that's the goal So however that looks so my question tonight because we have a hard stop coming up at 6 that we have to recess this meeting to to accommodate the recognitions and the public hearing

process tonight is if we adopt this as is how do you make the corrections or do we need to push this and let you come back with the proposal to fix that well this is again the plan and then budget and so tonight what we're looking at was when you adopted the budget was this the budget powers this plan The dates which Andy mentioned about the quarterly updates or the fall retreat or the spring retreat, we can adjust that at any time that you choose. But the underlying part in the crosswalk is really saying that this is at the end of the year when you do your evaluation of yourself, do my evaluation, do the evaluation of your organization, did we do those things on that long crosswalk that we said we would do within the funding that we had available or bring it back to council? And so I think it's ready for adoption and we'll be happy again to come back with a separate effort to look at the timing of the budget preparation. And we would also appreciate an opportunity to talk to our strategic planning consultant in a little bit of greater detail and get a proposal for a fall retreat and to meet council's interest.

But if that's going to cure the problem, I don't I think the basis of it is how do we get a solution that gets us your recommended interpretation of the meeting before we got it last year. And pushing our meeting back four months, if it's not gonna yield a solution to that, which is why I asked that, then I don't know that that's what we're saying. And so I guess that can be flushed out at a later time, but the goal is is that instead of in, in May and expecting it to be hashed out and adopted in four meetings, which this year turned into 10 meetings, can we start that process earlier? Now, if you're telling me that starting our part in August and September fixes that, I agree with you. What I heard you say was that if we start our part in August and September, that does not fix that. No. Oh, no.

I'm sorry. I misunderstood. So absolutely. So if we meet earlier with council and council says you wish to spend more money, $300,000 in putting in bus stops, then that will show up in the recommended budget. If council says they don't want to fund a CIP project and we bring you to CIP, then that won't show up in the recommended budget. So the greater clarity you give us, specifically, not only that you want to do something, but how much you wish to spend, Absolutely, the budget will be exactly aligned. What we ran into this year was, I think we had about $8 million of play beyond continuing basic services. And so one of the things that we had to look at was, how do you continue the other items that council had identified? such as to pay for employees, such as expansion of services and just a natural growth of the budget. And we thought we had that. We tried and we said several times during the budget adoption or recommended adoption period that council we could balance the budget without a tax rate increase, which council ultimately did, thanks to council's work. And we actually pointed out to you what those adds were and what those deductions were. but it did not meet the council's interest specifically for $300,000, I think on transit, the money for mature neighborhoods, the other studies. But if council is able to give us the time, allow us to hear what you want to say and what you want to see in the budget in the fall or the winter months, we absolutely can come back with a worksheet how we propose to do that. We would only ask that when that happens, and it shows up in the budget. If we get it wrong, as you did this year, please let us know and give us a chance to fix it.

Okay, all right. Council Member McMillan, then Council would need to break off the stage.

I just want to say thank you for this conversation. Thank you, Dr. Hewitt. To the Mayor's questions around how we improve the process, I think that something like a crosswalk and centering a crosswalk during our budget discussions is one thing we can do to improve our processes as a board, as a council. There was a point where a couple of us made suggestions about being more thorough in our discussions about items particularly that came near the end of the budget discussions. without a discussion about how they they fit into our priorities and our strategy overall and i think as a board we can take the time to ensure that we don't push forward things that are either outside of our priority or things that are brand new in ways that disregard all the work that's done in the run up to the budget season. So I think one of the fixes is not on staff, I think it's on us as a council and how intentional we are about matching our allocation, our fund allocations to the priorities that we've talked about at the beginning of the year. But thank you.

All right, thank you. All right, thank you sir. yes sir we've got uh we've got about four minutes to we'll need to take a recess with give the council a minute to stretch legs and then we'll get right into our six o'clock yeah we can we can do it just put a caveat in there that they'll come back with uh some date recommendations well so mayor pro temp thank you mr mayor i move that we uh uh adopt the recommended 2027 strategic plan as presented uh just make sure that when you come back you come back with the recommendations that were spoke here tonight all right motion by mayor pro temp second by davis discussion all right council i'll look to you for your vote Okay, Madam Clerk, who are we missing?

Council Member McMillan.

All right, Council Member McMillan. All right, thank you. Thank you, Council. All right, Council, so if we can get a motion, we'll recess this meeting. We'll pick it back up at the conclusion of the public forum and the recognitions. Yeah, we left off at item 6.03. All right, so we'll recess that.

Thank you.

Well, good good evening everyone. We would like to call our next portion of our tonight. Our meeting tonight at 6 PM our public hearing as well as our announcements and recognitions. We welcome all of you who are joining us in the audience. Those who are here and join us remotely. We have a lot to cover tonight, so we'll set some expectations on the front end. We will start with our announcements and recognition. of uh citizens who do great work in and out our community every day and we want to make sure that we set aside time to recognize them and highlight the good work that they have and continue to do we have uh some congrats congratulations are in order for members of our Our athletic club of Terry Sanford and and some other places that have done some great work will highlight that tonight But we'll make some presentation to them then following that we will move into our public forum That is council policy 120-9 Those who will participate in that will required to sign up to speak it gave their information to the city clerk prior to the start of the night's meeting we have a total of 49 people who will speak at the public forum. So we'll talk about the rules around that, the allocated city council time that has the policy established to allow for residents to do it. Now, as a part of that, we will get as many as we can within reason. If there is a carryover in the past, and council will consider this, that we would, based on where we are once we get to the hour time limit, we'll make a decision or propose to council of how we handle and how many, if there are a number of remaining speakers. And so the council has been reasonable at these requests in the past, but then after this, the reason why we have some tight time parameters tonight that we also have the continuation of the meeting that we recessed earlier and so we still have to come back to that and we still have about five or six seven items to cover immediately following this portion so we'll do what we can but and also if you've looked at the list tonight as far as the district You were asked when you signed up to give you a district number. If there's not a number, it has a NR that represents non-resident, so non-city resident. So we'll go through the list in terms of how we signed up. But if we get to a time constraint, usually the precedence has been that we will give City residents the opportunity to try to hear from them and then we'll get as far as we can on the in ours the non-resident so we'll work hard to get it and So the other part of it is tonight as we talk about it. This is the spirit of democracy and That we can have different opinions. I do think that everyone who showed up tonight cares about our community, but we will have to have ground rules in order. Nothing works without it. And so I would ask that everyone give the same level of respect tonight to your fellow citizens and other people who are in this room and to the council. any disrespect will be dealt with and you'll be asked to leave. And so we don't have a lot of room to deal with that. So we're all adults and good citizens, and I hope we operate in that same spirit tonight. And so we'll look forward to that. So with that, we will get into our recognitions. We will, I'll come back to that. yeah so we'll get into recognitions we have a uh proclamation uh that uh mayor pro tem has and we'll present it we'll ask miss uh takia mathis if she would come to uh the podium come on down this mathis

She is a dedicated member of the National Psoriasis Foundation, a disease which I have suffered from for the past 30 years almost, so we are well acquainted. This is in recognition of National Psoriasis Month. So whereas psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune condition that affects millions of individuals worldwide, often accompanied by comorbidities such as depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, and other serious health conditions. And whereas the impact of psoriasis extends beyond the skin, significantly affecting the mental health, emotional well-being, self-esteem, and overall quality of life. whereas individuals living with psoriasis and other chronic illnesses frequently face stigma misunderstanding and barriers to equitable health care and support and whereas promoting awareness education and advocacy around both physical and mental health is essential to improving outcomes and empowering individuals and families affected by this chronic condition and whereas Community-centered initiatives that focus on healing, empowerment, and connection play a vital role in reducing isolation and strengthening support systems. And whereas Ms. Mathis has demonstrated over a decade of dedicated advocacy, leadership, and service, rising awareness and creating impactful spaces that center mental health, chronic illness, and community empowerment. And she was on the National Psoriasis Cover Magazine, I believe, last year, representing Fayetteville very well. whereas the 10th annual surprises mental health and empowerment day serves as a platform to unite communities amplify voices and promote holistic wellness for those impacted by surprises every day the conditions now therefore I miss Cove and mayor of the city of Fayetteville North Carolina behalf of the City Council and more than 210,000 citizens do hereby honor people claim this day as National Psoriasis Day and Mental Health Empowerment Day and witness wherefore I here do unset my hand and call this great seal of the City of Fayetteville to be affixed this day 3 August 2026 Speech. Speech.

I'm glad I wrote something. Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Good evening. So it is with profound gratitude and humility that I stand before you as a city, as a city of favor recognizes Psoriasis Mental Health and Empowerment Day. For many people, psoriasis is seen as a skin condition, but for those of us who live with it, we know it reaches much deeper. It affects our confidence, our mental health, our opportunities, our relationships, and sometimes even our will to keep showing up. I know that story because I've lived it. I'm still living it. When I was 11, I didn't really have a skin advocate. I didn't have someone who looked like me telling me I was still beautiful, still worthy, still enough. I often felt alone in a battle that no one else could see. And it belongs to everyone, including little boys and little girls who are navigating psoriasis, eczema, HS, lupus, sickle cell diabetes, cancer, any mental health illness, trauma, and any other chronic illnesses that makes them wonder will they ever truly be seen. And I want them to know that you're not your diagnosis, you're not your scars, you're not your trauma, and that you're worthy. Since returning home to Fayetteville, I have been intentional about turning my pain into purpose. Together with incredible community partners, we've created initiatives that bring awareness, education, and healing. We've adopted a local park because healing also happens when community cares for the spaces we share. I've shared incredible honor welcoming an international film crew to Japan to Fayetteville to tell my story and shine light on global advocacy. I've had the privilege to help elevate conversations around chronic illness on national and international platforms, opening doors for so many voices. And I've learned that legacy isn't simply a name engraved on a building or money left behind. That legacy is the light you leave in people long after you've walked away. To my husband, Damien, thank you for never walking away and accepting every piece of me, through every flare, every setback, every victory, and every dream. You reminded me that love doesn't disappear when life becomes difficult. To my children, thank you for teaching me that the greatest inheritance I can leave you is in wealth, is courage, compassion, perseverance, and purpose. To my dear friends, Tracy Falcon, Shadia, my cousin Mimi, and my brother Talit. Thank you for loving me and supporting me from afar, always. And to my friends, my fellow business owners, community partners, and supporters across social media, some of whom I've never even met. Thank you for standing behind me, beside me, and thank you for every message, every share, every conversation, every prayer, and the kindness that comes behind why I keep going. And finally, I want to thank someone I don't always give enough credit to, which is myself. I'm thankful for refusing to quit. Thank you for believing in your dreams and thank you for surviving what was thought that I thought was meant to break. Thank you for choosing purpose over pain, courage over comfort, and faith over fear, because I've learned that every scar can become a story, every setback can become a setup, and every obstacle can become an opportunity. And this is a reminder that once what made me feel invisible has became the very thing that allowed others to feel seen. So today I accept the honor, not only for myself, but for every warrior fighting silently And may we continue building a Fayetteville where every person with chronic illnesses, mental illnesses, and trauma knows that you are seen, heard, and valued. You are never alone. Thank you, city of Fayetteville. This is an incredible honor. And thank you for choosing me and honoring the Standing Light Foundation. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Mathis, and thank you for the great work in representing our community with such a noble cause. At this time, we'll ask that Mr. Josh Mozingo will come up, and I will turn it over to Councilmember Green.

Jeff, you and Tracy can come up. All of you can come up if you'd like. That way we'll get pictures of everybody. Go ahead, Stefon.

All right.

Thank you.

Whereas Joshua Mozingo was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 28th, 2007 and began his baseball journey at just three years old with West Fayetteville Little League. And whereas Joshua's early dedication to the sport led him to begin advanced training at age six with Derek Graham at Athlete's Choice Battling Center. And at age seven, he embarked on a travel baseball career that connected him with exceptional coaches, through area stars, team ghosts, and later the elite Canes baseball showcase program. And whereas Joshua excelled academically and athletically at Village Christian Academy, earning a place on the varsity baseball team as a seventh grader and setting the school record for his hits during his eighth grade season.

Wow.

And whereas upon transferring to Terry Sanford High School, Joshua quickly became a standout athlete, securing the varsity shortstop position during his freshman year. And consistently posting exceptional battling averages, ultimately earning a collegiate baseball offer from East Carolina University on August 1st, 2024. And whereas Joshua's senior season was historic as he became Terry Sanford High School's all-time hits leader, broke the North Carolina state hits record previously held since 2011, surpassed the school's run scored record, and concluded his high school career with 177 hits and 155 runs. Wow. And whereas Joshua graduated summa cum laude with a 4.3 GPA and began his collegiate journey at East Carolina University just 22 days later, continuing to pursue his lifelong dream of playing professional baseball while exemplifying humility, focus, respect, and the team-first mindset praised by his coach, Sam Guy. now therefore i mitch coven mayor of the city of fayetteville north carolina and on behalf of the city council and more than 208 000 citizens do hereby honor joshua mozingo and witness whereof i have here and to set my hand and cause the great seal of the city of fayetteville to be affixed this third day of august 2026 sign mitch coven mayor

So I want to share just a few words because y'all know me and I like to talk, but anyway. Jeff and I work together on a lot of different areas, a lot of different community things that we have been involved in over the years. And he called me up and he said, and I am his council person as well, but he called me up and he said, you know, Josh would really like a city of Fayetteville flag for his room in East Carolina. I said, okay, I can make that happen probably. Let me just see what I can find out and I'll call you back. So as I got to thinking, I thought, wait a minute, I think he just had some major accolades with baseball. I need to back up a minute. We need to take this opportunity to honor Josh tonight and make certain that we look at the overall character that this young man has possessed throughout the time that he's been in school. Not only is he a major athlete, but his grades, everything about him. I know he's been involved civically. At every turn, you make great decisions. So I just thank you for being an example to younger students as they come up. And I think it's just important. And it said a lot to me that you wanted a city of Fayetteville flag for your dorm room. So I am gonna present that to you tonight. It's my pleasure. Yes, absolutely.

proclamation from the city.

Okay. You're welcome.

Let's do this for the for the you want to get over here and get in this picture.

Sam, join us. Come on. All right. Now get in now. I get the family. That's right.

Again congratulations to Mr. Mozingo thank you for how you've represented the city and you continue to do great things so remember us when you get to the major leagues all right All right, at this time, I'd like to call my sister, Dr. Zakia Backman, to the podium, please. Have a special presentation for her. She'll be read by Mayor Pro Tem Derek Thompson. You ready?

She's going to do it. Oh, Brenda. Brenda.

Come on. Council Member McNair, come on.

Come on. That's right, don't let it take your shine.

Ready?

Introducing Principal Dr. Beckman of Beckman Bill Hefner School. Under her thoughtful leadership, the school has become a beacon of excellence where strong collaborative staff culture supports every learner. Dr. Beckman is dedicated to high quality professional development, mentorship, and shared leadership. ensuring teachers have the tools and time to grow while students are challenged to reach their highest potential. She fights for meaningful partnerships with families, local businesses, and community organizations to expand opportunities across STEM, arts, athletics, and service, advancing equity and access for all students with a focus on safety, belonging, and character as core foundations. She fosters a thriving, inclusive learning community where every student can excel and every staff member can flourish.

The proclamation reads, whereas the city of Fayetteville recognizes exceptional individuals who commit to education and community fosters an environment of growth and learning, and whereas Principal Beckmans has exemplified outstanding leadership and dedication at the Bill Hefner Elementary School, inspiring students, faculty, and parents alike, and whereas under her guidance the school has achieved significant academic milestones fostered a culture of kindness and respect and embraced a transformative educational experience that empowers each student to reach their full potential and whereas Dr. Beckman's innovative approach to education her unwavering support of teachers and her advocacy for students with diverse needs reflect her profound commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive learning environment And whereas her tireless work extends beyond the classroom, engaging with the community to promote educational initiatives and strengthen partnerships that enhance the quality of education for all. And whereas Dr. Bettman's dedication to creating a positive impact on the lives of young learners serves as a shining example to us all. now therefore our mayor mitch coven of the city of fayetteville of north carolina and on behalf of council and more than 208 000 citizens do hereby proclaim this third day of august in the year of 2026 in honor of dr zakiya beckman and witness whereof i herefore set my hand and call this great seal of the city of fayetteville to be a fix this third day of august 2026 congratulations

It is an honor and a privilege to have you here tonight.

I wanted to speak from my heart. Is it because of my grandson David, my granddaughter Brianna, and Tiana McNair that I had the pleasure to meet you and your wonderful staff here? I just about know every one of them because we consistently have communications meetings together, I'm always at your events. You call me, I'm there, Johnny on the spot, and you always consider me. And so I want to say thank you. And what I've noticed, and I like to say, the level of excellence is underspoken when it comes to Dr. Beckman and her team. And I want to say to the teachers, I love you. My grandchildren love you, and this community loves you. They want to say thank you. With that being said, I want to present to you an award of excellence to the faculty and staff of Bill Hefner Elementary School in recognition of outstanding service and commitment to educational excellence. One team, one sound, anchored in excellence. and grateful appreciation for your unwavering commitment to academic achievement, student success, the service to the community, your dedication, compassion, and professionalism make a lasting and positive impact on the lives of students and family. With that being said, I'd like to present this to you, Dr. Backman, the teacher, the principal, all of that.

I'm going to ask my staff if you will please come and stand because I cannot stand without this wonderful team. And this may not be everybody, but the ones who came out tonight, I want to have them stand because they are the reason for the spirit of excellence. I'm just a visionary, and they have followed my lead. So if y'all could come up quickly. Quickly, quickly, they have a meeting to carry on. Wow. Councilwoman McNair wants us to take a picture real quick, and then I'll have words, if that's okay.

Can we take a picture? I have you three to come on this side for me, please. Yeah, come on this way, right here.

Oh, that's terrific.

that's a good photo

Oh and especially to Councilwoman Brenda McNair the city of Fayetteville this is a very distinguished honor to stand before you tonight we've been working in the county for years and for Councilwoman Brenda McNair to come by campus and just to see the work that we do every day was a grace and a distinguished honor for you to recognize us. Because the work we do every day, Councilwoman McNair, we do it for every child. not just because your grandchildren came through. It was wonderful seeing you come through. It has been great receiving your continuous support. Thank you for showing up for everything. Thank you for supporting us. And for any council members who have done that over the years, we thank you. I have to stand before you and say to God be the glory because he deserves all the honor and praise in my life. Tonight, I stand with true humility and gratitude because this has been a heck of a year. At Bill Hefner, I'm going to tell you guys, we have done it. And we've done it by operating as what? One. one with the standard of, and how we do that every day is come in dedicated and committed to the work at hand. And it is our heart's desire to come in and impact students in a way that they're ready to compete in a global society and ready to compete with any student, any country, any time, because we equip them with not only the skill set, but the love and compassion. So again, I thank my father for coming out tonight, my mother, my sister, my daughter who's with me. Faith, can you please stand? she is thank y'all give her a hand she's shy she is standing on behalf of my beloved husband who i just um lost and he will be here tonight so i just want to honor him because i know that he is still looking down and he is smiling because he gave of me daily for me to come out and lead. And I believe I heard somebody say tireless. This has truly been a tireless journey. Has it been tireless, Bill Hefner? It has been tireless. But again, I won't stand before you long. I want to say I love you all. Thank you. If you don't have a child in the school system, Bill Hefner is a great school to come and partner with. All right. We love you. Thank you. And last but not least, I have to honor my leader who's here representing CCS, Ms. Melanie Boyd. I want to thank her for her leadership because I appreciate every bit of it. Thank you. Love you.

Thank you again, Dr. Backman, sister. Thank you, Councilwoman McNair. Thank you to the Bill Hefner team. I would not be able to go home tonight if I did not acknowledge my two Ms. Colvins on the front row. So I see my wife, Ms. Colvin, and my mother, Ms. Colvin. So welcome to me tonight. All right. But thank you. Thank you. Dr. Backman says for the great work that you all are doing over there, Bill Heffner, truly. We can't thank our educators enough for the work that you do. Words do not express the appreciation, because none of us would be where we are if we didn't have school teachers and educators along the way, so thank you for that. And so, Councilors, we move now to our next acknowledgement, the announcement, Camp Ready Report. Ms. Laura Smith, our Emergency Management Coordinator, will give a review of Camp Ready. How are you?

Doing well. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, and council. I wanted to kind of introduce you to Camp Ready. This is the seventh, eighth, possibly ninth year that the fire department has done this camp. And it's sort of evolved over the last two years. ready stands for respond engage act deploy you and what we do is try to give our campers an idea of what careers in public safety or even public service look like so we're trying to gear it towards those kids that are interested so i have do have a couple of representatives here um They're a little bit shy. But one of the things I greatly enjoy is it does bring high school kids from all over the county together. And they don't normally or they wouldn't normally have those connections. We have Kira who's from Jack Britt. Zianna goes to the early college, was that right? Yeah, she goes to the early college at Fayetteville State. So we have children from Cape Fear High School as well. Different demographics, just different backgrounds coming together and I really do enjoy that part of it. So what we enjoyed this, about three weeks ago now, three weeks ago now was we had the bomb squad from the sheriff's office come out. We had our Fayetteville Police Department forensics team come out, our hazmat team, our search and rescue team. We had EMS come out. And so they just learned basic skills, basic skills that in any type of disaster, they could help save a life. They know how to apply tourniquets. They know how to do hands-only CPR. And it's just a really overall good time. i'm not sure that they enjoy all of it but i like to think the emergency management part of it is is the best but i don't know um do you have anything to say you want to hit on anything

Well, I will put Miss Kira on the spot. She's going to share a little bit about her history with Camp Ready. But we also have Chief Johnson. Kira is a volunteer junior firefighter over at Stony Point Volunteer Fire Department, and we look forward to stealing her from him in the near future. So it's just been an absolute pleasure to work with these young folks, even the young kids who don't want to come to emergency services. have that opportunity to build that networking and those skills of working with other kids from different communities and different backgrounds. And it's just been an absolutely awesome experience for the last several years, and we look forward to making it even better in the future years.

The last thing I'll say before I present Ms. Kira with an appreciation is part of what you fund when you approve SL2 in the budget is this program. So thank you for that. And for the sake of time, I did place some bags on your chairs. They just have a few items in them, a T-shirt, a fan, helps you build your emergency kit for your home or business. So, Kira's first year in camp was three years ago, which was also my first camp with the City of Fayetteville. So, she came along and she wanted to do forensics at first, and that quickly changed to her love of the fire service. So as Captain Shakespeare said, she is a junior firefighter with Stony Point and Chief Johnson. She will graduate from Jack Britt this year. And then she will apply to become a fable firefighter next fall. so we are thankful for those opportunities like that this year i gave kira a special title as this was her third summer with me um so i'd like to present her with this plaque and is just camp ready ambassador for 2026 presented to miss kira air And I'll just end with Captain Shake Shaft. Kira is scheming ways to help out with camp once she is a favorable firefighter. So with that, thank you very much. Chief Johnson, do you have anything you would like to say? Okay. All right. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. All right. Miss Jennifer, that's your daughter. yes sir she's my youngest both of my kids work for the city of fayetteville so that's what i'm talking about well she doesn't yet but all right well good all right well thank you what she had okay is that it all right well thank you thank you so much uh to uh miss kira uh also to all of the uh our young future leaders who participated in this camp ready process. Thank you to Miss Laura Smith. Thank you to our fire department team and emergency management team for investing in our next generation. So thank you. Keep up the good work. So Council, now as we move to the next item of business, we'll provide a minute or two for folks to exit. I see there were some families that were exiting before we get into the next part. All right. So Council will move to item. City Council policy, the public form 120 dot 9 per City Council policies, the time the residents may have input and a voice in what goes on in their city. The public form will last no longer than one hour. Each speaker is limited to three minutes each to address the city council issues related to the city of Fayetteville. No time will be yielded to any other speaker by another speaker. Any remaining speakers on the public forum list that did not have an opportunity to address the city council will have that option to have their name placed at the beginning of the next scheduled public forum list of speakers. All non residents are placed at the end of the list of speakers individuals unable to attend may mail written comments or e-mail public comments at Fayetteville NC dot gov written comments will be summarized by the city clerk during the meeting and then announced so that Council we will open up our public forum and madam clerk.

Mayor, we actually have 50 speakers and I believe five, I'm sorry, four written comments for the end. Our first speaker is Mr. Joseph Schwab.

Good evening, sir. Oh, good evening. I wasn't expecting to speak, so I didn't write a speech. I'm going to talk about transparency, though. So I do want to thank you for a couple of transparency things that I've seen. One, cameras are on for this meeting, so I appreciate that. Loved ones are able to see people get recognized. You're able to see body language from you all and from the speakers. So I really do appreciate that. Council Member Green pointed out that more things are put on the calendar now, such as committee meetings. So that helps the public be more informed. That helps them actually show up to some of these committee meetings. So I do appreciate that better act of transparency that you all have done. Now, I'm going to get to data centers and transparency. I'm actually going to work my way backward. So this morning I was listening to the radio. Mayor Colvin was on there. Malik was on there. Mayor, you keep saying this 120-day stay is actually protecting us. That's a falsehood. That is not true. It does not protect us. The only thing that protects us would be a moratorium. The lawyer has said that to you. So please quit spreading falsehoods on the radio. I would appreciate that. There's another thing you said, and it was about hosting meetings to hear from the community. Y'all have not hosted any meetings, zero. This is a public forum. We are showing up to talk about what we want to talk about. What we want to talk about is data centers. Any time y'all could have called a special meeting and held, I don't know, two, three-hour meeting, had 60 people speak, be done with it. Maybe listen to them. Stop the moratorium process. Maybe get on with our business in the city. Instead of this silly fight we're having, this is not hard. It really is not hard. So those are the two things I noticed this morning. Malik, I do appreciate your thoughts on the visit y'all had up in Virginia. some things that could be improved with the UDO. I did hear you, I did hear you, Mayor Colvin, about some things that could be improved. So I do appreciate those thoughts. I also want to go back to July, and I want to talk to you, Mayor Pro Tem Thompson. I went to a community watch meeting, and you said the same thing about the 120-day stay. You said a falsehood to the community. So please don't lie to the community. Please tell the truth. This 100-day state does nothing to protect the community, does nothing to protect us from data center development. The only thing that protects us is a moratorium. That's the truth. That's all we're asking for is the truth. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right.

Let me clarify two points. Typically, the public forum is for you to have opportunity to speak to us, and we typically don't respond, but we're addressed directly. I was, Mayor Pro Tem was, and so if you're going to quote me, Mr. Schwab, and then go back and listen to it, You don't have to respond. Yeah, well, I don't need you to tell me that. You don't have to respond. Yes, sir. Let's keep it moving. He's speaking to me. Excuse me, Council Member, and I'll acknowledge if you need to be. But don't imply that there was a falsehood because they can listen to it. No one said the 120 days was the protection. In fact, what was said this morning was that the ordinance is the protection and moratoriums are pauses or permanent versus that. So anyone that wants to listen to WIU can do it. Since it was directly stated, I wanted to make sure that we're not going to be— You could just listen. You do not have to— Councilmember? That's it. All right. Madam Clerk.

Our next speaker is Mr. Chalico Hurst. Mr. Chalico Hurst, not present. Our next speaker is Ms. Stephanie Settle. Ms. Stephanie Settle, not present. Our next speaker is Mr. John Harnoy. Mr. John Harnoy. Not present. Our next speaker is Miss Destiny Beard.

Good evening, Miss Beard.

Hi, good evening, thank you. My name's Destiny Beard. I actually came with a different speech today, but I've been here since three. I live and work in my children play three miles from where the Terra Nexus project is proposed. I am technically outside of city limits, but it's important to know that my concerns aren't confined by city limits or county lines or zoning districts. They're regional concerns, and our communities do share the same resources, and we live with the same long-term decisions and consequences that would be made. I'm not someone who's easily persuaded by sensational headlines or social media outrage. My concerns about data centers are not based on fear or politics. They come from taking the time to research the issue from multiple perspectives. And after reviewing the available information that we have, I struggle to understand how we can conclude these concerns have been answered well enough. to move forward with establishing UDOs on next Monday. Mr. Briggs whose presentation I sincerely did appreciate today said, when we move too fast we make mistakes and I couldn't agree more. I also hope this council will continue to rely on people like him as regulations are developed and just as importantly as they're monitored and enforced over time. We cannot create a framework for future development before we fully understand the long term consequences of the type of development we are preparing to allow. One of the experts today acknowledged that there are still questions that cannot yet be answered. That alone tells me we should be cautious about adopting permanent UDOs before we have those answers. I don't say that from a place of fear, but from a plea of wisdom. When the potential consequences are significant and the long-term impacts are still uncertain, caution is not opposition. It's responsible leadership. And I've heard the arguments in favor of data centers talking about economic development, technological advancement, national security. But I still have one question. If the cost of those benefits is placing additional strain on our already challenged water resources or creating risks to the health and well-being of the people who live here, then what have we truly secured? Economic growth and technological advancement are valuable, but they should never come at the expense of the very resources that sustain life in our communities. These concerns deserve careful consideration before UEOs are adopted that may shape our community for decades to come. Tonight, I'm asking this council not to move faster than our understanding allows. I'm requesting we move slowly and responsibly, ensuring that progress protects both the people and the natural resources that make this community a place we can even call home. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I know I haven't really been considered because of where we live, but I really do have concerns. And I think that I'm not necessarily anti-DAS terms, but I'm definitely not for them based off what we know right now. And I appreciate you allowing people to speak and bringing in people that you did today. And I hope that we will listen and go slow and do things right, because I feel like we only have one chance to get this right. Thank you very much.

Thank you, ma'am.

May I? Our next speaker is Miss Angela Freckleton. Miss Angela Freckleton. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Nicholas Tito. Mr. Nicholas Tito. Not present. Our next speaker is Miss Carol Olinger. Miss Carol Olinger. Not present. Next speaker is Miss Amara Burks. Miss Amara Burks. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Anthony Holmes. Mr. Anthony Holmes. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Wade Fowler.

There he is. I can't see him right now. Former Councilman and Commissioner Fowler, good evening, sir.

Good evening. Mr. Mayor, Distinguished Council Members, appreciate you letting me come speak. I was here last time speaking about something a little less important. It's called Pickleball. But I spoke to you about it from a Parks and Rec viewpoint last time, and I wanted to give you a new viewpoint to look at and to make a small request at the end. And that's that sports tourism has become a big part of a lot of local communities. And I know that there is a plan in the city of Fayetteville that works around sports tourism. One of the things that's missing in the plan that I can see is a true pickleball sports facility that can host the kind of tournaments that sports tourists want to come to. And I've done a little bit of leg work, and we can put in a facility with 24 courts where the old Masaryk pickleball courts are right now, tennis courts are right now, for a cost that's about, at most, 15% of the cost of the Glenville courts that we put in for tennis. And that's not a knock on that. That's a great facility over there, and it's kind of tough because it's not level. Well, where we've got it right now, we can do it for significantly less money, and we have access to some of the best organizers for tournaments in this area. As a matter of fact, one of them in the local area, not right here, but within close distance to us, organizes the US Open Pickleball Tournament down in Florida. We can really bring in a lot of revenue. We've been looking at a lot of stuff as a cost basis, and there's a cost. And I actually heard my council member, Derek Thompson, talking about, hey, we need to plan on putting aside funds in our budget for repairs. Well, with the amount of sponsorship that's available, with the other ways we can fund this, we can have... the money that's there for repairs built into the facility itself through continuing use. And I have spoken with Robert Van Gans and Michelle Williams, and I've spoken with PWC. I've also spoken with Congressman Hudson's office. I'm looking, I'm not coming here asking to say just build this for us. We're committed to work to gather the funds necessary to really make this come to being. And so what my request for you is, is to instead of have a three minute little presentation here, I would like to see if we could be put on the work, you know, agenda schedule for a full presentation complete with layouts, complete with cost ideas, complete with information about where we can gather the funds to make it happen, and either do that in October or November. So thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Fowler. And just wanted to update you. Give it to Ms. Williams because we are planning to bring her to council regarding their proposals for sports tourism partnerships. Thank you.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Juanita Myers. Ms. Juanita Myers. She didn't make it. Okay, thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Max Rupe. Max didn't make it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Arlene Fields.

You do.

good evening good evening mr mayor and city council members so i actually was planning on yielding my time but since so many people seemed otherwise occupied i guess it's meant to be so um mr mayor and councilman davis i appreciate you going on widu this morning to talk about your experiences visiting the data centers and mayor you mentioned that data center developers can mitigate water power noise and related issues but as Mr. Briggs of AIT noted during the work session this afternoon they're not going to automatically do it we have to make sure that they do And Councilman Davis, you talked about April, one of the Loudoun County representatives that you met with, and she said, make sure you guys get it right for the people. And here are some ways that I think we can get it right. First, take passing the proposed UD updates off the table. Regulations are moving in the NC legislature, and we don't want our ordinances to conflict with state-level laws and have to redo them. Second, I'm calling for a 12-month moratorium. The AI industry is changing so fast that even if you institute a moratorium until December, that's not nearly enough time for the dust to settle on this industry. And as was made clear in this afternoon's presentations, AI and data centers are not going away. But as I've said before, before we jump on this data center train, we need to make sure we know what direction it's going. So, thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Mayor, our next speaker is Mr. Jeremy Dozer. Mr. Jeremy Dozer. Not present. Our next speaker is Miss Janet Menzak.

Good evening, man.

Good evening. Idolatry and avarice, that council members is what many of you have been fallen victim to. The worship of wealth and power over God. You have seen the dollar signs attached to bringing data centers into our city and that has blinded you to the harms you will be responsible for inflicting on the citizens of this town. I saw this plainly in a recent video clip I've watched of Mayor Mitch on a local radio show speaking about how Cumberland County voted to reject Comores, but they built in Bladen County instead. Your argument summed up basically was that, Bladen County got all the tax revenue and we paid for all the cleanup. Basically, and then your statement was, let's not make the same mistake with Comores, but with different consequences. So you know there's consequences, right? But what's more important is that we get the money, right Mitch? That's all that really matters. Those words are out there forever, Mr. Mayor. And when the people of this city see a lower quality of life from air and water pollution, they will remember who let it happen. All of you up there who vote for these weak UDOs with no protections or requirements for the data centers to filter their waste water, to provide their own clean energy source, that is what you will be responsible for. That will be your legacy. Your children and your grandchildren will curse you for not standing up for them, even if you thought it might not matter. The federal government might just force the data centers through anyway, and you'll have resisted for nothing. Make no mistake, people, this is the existential issue of our time. The evil and greed disguised as national security and economic development. As the citizens of town after town sue and vote their council members out and get arrested and thrown out of meetings for standing up what they believe in. We are the ones on the right side of history. We are the patriots, the righteous warriors. You up there on the podium, you are the shills for big tech, the idolaters. You can tell yourselves all you want, the data centers are coming whether you want them or not. That lie will not absolve you. We know it is within your power to simply say we do not want this in our city. And we can draft ordinances so strict that most developers will pass Fayetteville by. And yes, city might get sued, the data centers pushed through anyway, but at least you would have saved your souls. At least you would have proved to the people of this city who elected you, who trusted you, that you had our best interests in mind. Your pride and your greed has told you that you know better. Just remember, we aren't going away after this vote is over. We aren't going to stop coming to meetings and yelling at you. We will continue to call for boycotts of your businesses. You can whine all you want about political bullying, Mr. Hondros. In fact, the issue of your foolishness has ensured that every line item of every future endeavor of this council be watched and scrutinized to the letter. More than that, it has become all too clear that you are far too comfortable in your jobs. That is going to change, and I hope everyone in this room and everyone watching at home will join me in making it a personal mission to get a charter changed for us to allow us to recall you. In the meantime, I suggest you all take a long, hard look at the decision you are about to make and who you are ultimately accountable to. And may he have mercy on you.

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Mia Clavon.

Yeah. I've never done this before and I'm really nervous. Thank you for making me politically active. Mayor, council members, I'm Mia and I live off Pam Lee. I speak loud, so I'm going to stand for it. Last town hall, your argument was that this brings jobs. So let's look at the reports. For hyperscale data centers, not the one you guys toured, but the hyperscale data centers, actual permanent staffing can be as low as 10% of the number originally promised. Google New York, 125 permanent jobs were promised. Currently only houses 35. QTS New Albany, Ohio promised 10 jobs per building with four planned buildings and delivered only 25. and they're not alone. Permanent staffing rarely materializes at the scale that they promise. We were promised how many jobs? Let's talk about our past decisions here. Fire station four on Bragg Boulevard, originally projected to cost eight million, ballooned to over nine million, finalized at 9.4 million. Contract with WV Brawley and the engineers, you know was completely demolished and now it's just this giant eyesore on Bragg Boulevard Nobody knows what to do about it. Okay, and then we've got the apex contracting group Abandoning for city construction projects were 7.9 million and there were zero accountability for this count of this company Even after questions surrounding their campaign contributions came out Segar Stadium was pitched as a catalyst for downtown revitalization the final cost 37 million 10 million over the original budget Why are we repeating the same pattern? We're just asking you guys to slow down, please. Okay? Because governments at every level from townships to Congress have been debating, advocating for, and passing legislation that would ban, limit, or restrict the construction of data centers. Prince George County, Denver, Cumberland County, Charlotte, and the entire state of Maine just have paused and delayed construction on data centers. So why are we Fayetteville rushing this? What's the emergency? Seriously, where is, were you guys this confident in your past projects to override your constituents express desires? I am not a political person and I'm here right now. Like, the where you have have you all considered what happens when the drought hits water rationing becomes necessary due to these data centers when your lights start flickering like i don't know loudon county virginia due to grid strain how many residents can afford it who's going to compensate the underprivileged what happens when the ai bubble pops and leaves us all a band with this giant abandoned monstrosity just like fire station four I want a total ban, but I know that's not even an option, and Congress isn't even pushing that. So can we just pass a one-year moratorium? Because I really don't want to be forced to bathe in cancer water filled with PFAS. And I don't want my air pollution. Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you.

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Kristen Starks. Ms. Kristen Starks, not present. Our next speaker is Fern Davis.

Long time no see. uh same same issue though um honestly i expected to go much later and i was gonna riff on what other people said but uh that didn't work out i guess everyone's on vacation um look you guys know the pluses and minuses i'm not gonna pretend that you don't you do and you're probably gonna do what you want to do anyway uh that's what the city council here typically does and what we've all learned to expect from you all last time i was here i asked you to prove me wrong i'm still asking you prove me wrong um Yeah, you guys went and saw data centers in other places, I get that, but that's kind of like when my grandmother came over as a kid and my mama made us clean the house for three days straight beforehand, right? So that my grandmother would think that's how the house always looked, even though it's not. Don't buy that hook, line, and sinker, come on now, okay? I live in East Fayetteville, right? And I know there is a propensity in this city, especially, to be like, hey, we need to throw dollars at East Fayetteville, because it's historically not been taken very well care of. This ain't the way. Okay, you know there ain't gonna be enough jobs. You all know that. Man, sorry, I had a plan, it just went out of my head. So like, what are we doing here? You know you're trying to rush this through. Why? Why? I don't understand. Because this data center ain't gonna dig us out of the hole that Fayetteville's been dug into by the mismanagement of some of the people on the city council, okay? And the thing with data centers that y'all are not seeming to think about is this is the biggest issue domestically in the country right now. We ain't gonna forget this like we did Fire Station 4 or the dozens of other mismanaged projects that have gone on the last 20 years in this city. It ain't gonna be that. People are not going to forget, they're not gonna forgive. So you ignore that at your peril, and I mean your peril for your elections since y'all seem to be a little sensitive about people being upset with you. Okay, so like, I'm sorry, you ran for office and you ain't listening. You started the meeting, Mr. Mayor, talking about respect. But I've been in these meetings and I've seen y'all roll your eyes. I've seen you scoff. And yeah, I know that we can be a little bit challenging. I know I can be a little bit of a jerk with the way I speak. You signed up for it. You ran for office. I didn't run for office. You did. So lead us. Also, there is a lack of imagination on this city council for what this city could be. You are so focused on the base. and you're so focused on taking money from defense contractors and out-of-state corporations that you refuse to invest in the actual people here and the talent here to keep people here. You notice how many few young people in this room right now? That's because they leave the moment they can. Because this city ain't got anything for them. That's your legacy. If you don't do something different. And yeah, we're gonna have no water coming soon too. So if that's the legacy you want, cool. Just understand that the margins that y'all won by last election are not that big, and you can be voted out. It's doable. So ignore that at your peril.

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Lorena Murray.

GOOD AFTERNOON. EVENING.

THANK YOU. GOOD EVENING, CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, MAYOR COLVIN, AND CITIZENS OF FATEVILLE. CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, THANK YOU FOR VISITING SOME DATA CENTERS, INCLUDING OUR OWN SMALL DATA CENTER, AIT. I'M SURE YOU'RE ABLE TO SEE AND HEAR GOOD INFORMATION FROM THE COMPANIES THAT RUN DATA CENTERS. Were you able to talk to people in the surrounding areas who study the environmental impacts? Were you able to talk to the neighbors? Okay, last month I participated in a town hall in which we studied the proposed changes to the UDOs. We took all those UDOs, divided them up table by table, and let a random group of people study those UDOs. Now, these were not a lot of political activists. Sure, some of the people running the thing were political activists, but these were ordinary people and some politicians. You might have read about it in The Observer. These are some of the concerns mentioned. Data centers would be permitted too close to neighborhoods with not enough setback. The UDOs do not address low frequency noise, which is proven to cause sleep disturbance and stress related symptoms. Do you all know what that means by low frequency noise? I don't, but we had some expert that was studying that. The noise decibels permitted are too high for day and night. They don't address water or energy usage. They permit diesel generators with little regard to the air pollution they permit. Maybe over 100 diesel generators at one mega data center. And they don't address water pollution. Other than to say, whatever the EPA says is what we'll do. So now also, the Southern Environmental Law Center has studied our proposed UDO changes, and they find that they have merit, but they're lacking in some crucial areas. First of all, data centers would be allowed in the wrong places, not just heavy industrial, but other places. Don't ask me all the names of all the zoning. I don't know all those terms, but I know not just heavy industrial. And all data centers ought to be subject to a special use permit process so that we all have a chance to say something about them. The proposed noise rules won't protect neighbors' sleep or well-being because noise should be limited to 50 decibels during the day and 40 at night. And the following types of noise should be prohibited. And if you know what these are, great, I do not. Pure tone, narrow band, tonal, and low frequency noise that exceed the ambient background levels at residential properties. I know I sent you all Southern Environmental Law Center information. If you need this information, let me know and I can get it to you. This was given to me by somebody else. Data center buildings and equipment would be allowed too close to homes. The setback should be at least 1,000 feet for all data center buildings. And I have more to say, but please vote for a moratorium so that we can study all this. Thank you.

Mayor, our next speaker is Mr. Isaac LeCap. Mr. Isaac LeCap. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Rashad Rahman. Mr. Rashad Rahman. Not present. Our next speaker is Bobby Griffin. Bobby Griffin. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Robert Walls. Mr. Robert Walls. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Zachary Traylor. Mr. Zachary Traylor. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Charles Houston.

Good evening, sir. Good evening. Good evening, Councilmen, Councilladies, fellow citizens. Good evening. My name is Charles Benjamin Houston. I represent students, families, and residents who deserve answers before this Council commits Fayetteville to a decision we cannot undo. Loudoun County, Virginia, hosts the largest data center market on moratoriums. Excuse me.

My notes.

I know I can't start my time, but I've got to start over here. I'm an 18-year Army civil affairs veteran, a Fayetteville school teacher, and a resident who has worked in this community at every level, including custodial work at Westover Hills Elementary, where our summer maintenance was delayed because of water supply issues at that school. I say that so this council understands I am not speaking in abstractions. I have mopped these floors. I have served this country. I teach these children. And I attended the meetings where I reviewed the ordinances this city currently has in place. They are insufficient. The protections are not there. Loudoun County, Virginia hosts the largest data center market on Earth. In 2024, they impose a moratorium. Wake County updated their unified development ordinance with mandatory noise limits, traffic impact analysis and utility capacity verification. These are our neighbor communities in North Carolina. Fayetteville deserves the same standard they demanded for themselves. Here is what the data shows. A typical hyperscale data center employs 50 to 100 permanent workers on 500 acres. It consumes up to 500 million gallons of water per day. Westover could not get consistent water pressure for summer maintenance. Now we are asking what happens to the city's water infrastructure when an industrial facility draws millions of gallons daily. EPA environmental justice data consistently shows these facilities land in lower income communities and communities of color. Fayetteville fits that pattern exactly. My civil affairs training taught me to assess how decisions impact communities on the ground, not on paper. This decision has not cleared that bar. North Carolina now criminalizes tent encampments for the unhoused. Cumberland County has one homeless shelter. My church in Rayford serves our neighbors in need and sends overflow to the Salvation Army. And on many nights, those beds are full too. This council speaks of economic development. The community asking for that development tonight sleeps outside because we have nowhere to put them. That is the infrastructure gap that deserves urgent attention. I need this council on the record tonight. Did any council members sign a non-disclosure agreement with the developer? Did the city commission an independent fiscal impact analysis, or did the developer provide the only economic projections?

Ladies and gentlemen, my students are watching, and 30 years from now, they'll want to know what these answers are.

Thank you for your time.

All right, Madam Clerk.

Mayor, our next speaker is Mr. Benjamin Santiago.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening, council. My name is Benjamin Santiago, and I'm going to be a little bit of a palate cleanser for you. I'm not here for data centers. I'm here for a potential safety hazard near an elementary school in District 7 in the western part of our county. I'm a kind of an avid outdoor bicyclist, walker. And there are many trails that crisscross the area between the reservation and the back of the neighborhood where this elementary school is. And during my exploration, I found what is hundreds of tires with multiple years worth of vegetation that have grown on top of them. And it is a matter of time before a single spark not only takes out the elementary school, but the apartment complex that is less than 50 yards away from it. Where did you say this is sir? This is behind Bill Hefner Elementary School in the 7th district And I have photos. I've been in contact with Councilman McMillan, who I've shared the photos with. And interestingly enough, if you all are not aware, that piece of land is on lease to either the city, the county, or some other entity from the federal government. I've been in contact with the- It must be the county. Well, whoever it is, I've been in contact with the Environmental Protection Agency, a part of the DPW on Fort Bragg. They've kind of got their wheels starting to turn. So this is really kind of more so for you all and for the community at large. Thank you. Thank you.

And Mr. Santiago, can we get a staff member to give you the email address to send those pictures to?

Sure. All right. Okay.

All right. All right. Madam Clerk.

All right, Mayor. Our next speaker is Dr. Brooke Fletcher. Dr. Brooke Fletcher? Not present. Got to turn the page, hold please. Our next speaker is Mr. Benjamin Holquist.

Oh, good evening.

Hey, sir. How are you?

Good. I was expecting to be the palate cleanser today, but he beat me to it. My name is Ben Holtquist from Strongtown Fayetteville. Speed is the number one factor of the seriousness of a crash. While country highways and freeways can accommodate high speeds, city streets cannot. High speeds and conflict cannot coexist safely. Therefore, we need to lower the speed limit of our major roads from 45 to 35 miles per hour. The fatality rate of pedestrian crashes increases exponentially with the increase of speed. While 55% of pedestrians would survive a 35 mile per hour collision, only 15% would at 40 miles per hour. At many of our schools, we allow people to drive by at speeds that would kill a child 85% of the time. That is absurd. I haven't found a study that shows a survival rate at 50 miles per hour yet, but I'm pretty sure that that is about zero. We know slowing traffic improves safety, but it also reduces fuel consumption and the greenhouse gases they create. It reduces the wear on tires and brakes that creates particulate matter pollution and causes cardiovascular and respiratory illness. It reduces noise pollution that causes physical and mental stress and hearing loss. And it will save a lot more space in our city for higher priorities. Slower traffic doesn't need 12-foot lanes, and since it reduces following distance, streets can maintain a high level of service with fewer lanes. This extra space on our streets can make way for high-quality buffered bike lanes, reducing car dependency. Slower traffic can also reduce setback requirements, allowing businesses to build up to the sidewalk, improving walkability, and maximizing land use. Fayetteville is not a large city. The vast majority of the city fits within a 10 mile diameter. That means most residents that live and work in the city would have about a five mile commute or less. Those with longer commutes have freeway options that wouldn't be affected by lower speed limits. On city streets, a 10 mile per hour reduction in speed would cost most residents less than one minute per day. We've all seen the speeder fly past us only for us to pull right up next to him at the next stoplight. High speeds on city streets do not save people time, but it does cost them money in gas, tires and brakes and cost society with safety, health and well-being. Walkability is impossible with high speed traffic, no matter how good the sidewalks are, and good transit is impossible without walkability. Driving a vehicle alone is the least efficient mode of transportation possible. Walking, biking, and transit are the most efficient, but are practically impossible here. Instead of prioritizing the least efficient mode, we should be prioritizing the most efficient. Fixing this starts with reducing speeds, and 45 is too high. Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Mayor, our next speaker is Miss Amelia Maxfield. Miss Amelia Maxfield. Not present. Our next speaker is Mr. Kevin Slem. Mr. Kevin Slem or Sleem. Not present. Our next speaker is Miss Taylor Welch-Randall. Miss Taylor Welch-Randall. Not present. Our next speaker is Ms. Lisa Greathouse.

Good evening, Ms. Greathouse.

Good evening. Lisa Greathouse, District 5. Testifying in front of a Senate hearing committee in February 1967, astronaut Frank Borman was asked, how on earth could this have happened? How could three men die in a simple test? The senator was speaking about the capsule fire that consumed the lives of three Apollo astronauts. After thinking for a few moments, Borman replied, Senator, it was a failure of imagination. No one ever imagined such a thing could ever happen, so we never planned for it. NASA was under a great deal of pressure to beat Russia to the moon and to achieve Kennedy's initiative to have an American on the moon before the 1960s decade. Numerous testimonies by NASA employees in the aftermath of the fire. They stated they were made to move too fast. They needed to slow down. What if NASA had declared a moratorium on space flight? I'm not speaking of the legal action that the city moratorium would concern. Just wondering what if, what if NASA employees had been given more time to think, to plan, to imagine? What if a moratorium made for safer data centers? A one-year moratorium would give the city staff and those writing and developing the UDOs a chance to find answers to a myriad of questions using their skills, their knowledge, their networks, and to imagine potential hazards. Data centers are a danger to our health and well-being for all of us. That's including Mother Nature. Mother Nature is another way we reference God. What is so bad about passing a moratorium? Yes, we will still end up at a UDO stage, but imagine how more complete and comprehensive the UDOs will be with the time a moratorium allows. It will give staff time to use their imagination to consider the countless risk involved in data centers. And who knows, maybe even save lives.

Madam Clerk.

Mayor, our next speaker is Mr. Floyd Wicker.

Good evening, Reverend Wicker.

Thank you so much. I'm supposed to be in a meeting tonight, but I tried to hang on as much as I could, and I'm late for the meeting, but I'm glad to be here with you all tonight. First, I'd like to say good evening, Mr. Mayor and members of the Fayetteville City Council. I'd like to thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. I come before you tonight as a resident of 17 years or more. I believe that Fayetteville has the opportunity to become something greater than a community whose identity is defined primarily as the Pentagon South, Vietnam, or that which we know as Fort Bragg. As you strive for ways to lift this community out of its perennial tier one status I urge you tonight to begin looking at industries that promote a better quality of life for all of its residents, industries that promote world peace since we are the all American city, industries that promote education. We just acknowledged a wonderful principal and all of her staff. Some of our schools in the city of Fayetteville are closing. But I urge you tonight to begin looking at industries that promote economic equality and beloved community, as opposed to businesses and communities that support the lucrative, I mean the lucrative, war economy. You know we spend about one trillion dollars a year preparing for war? In these economies, listen to what they lead to. They lead to violence, more violence, like handgun violence down all around the city, death, domination, supremacy, and destruction. So I believe it is time for a new vision for Fayetteville. And guess what? I believe God has given me some vision. I'm excited about it too. But I believe it is time for a new vision, a vision which holds up the high ideals of reconciliation. That's what we need to be teaching our children at that educational school, at that middle school or elementary school. That's what we need to be talking to our children about. Nonviolence, diplomacy, and peace building. You see, every dollar invested in supporting and promoting the military industrial complex of which drones, Data centers are a major role. I think they're linked. It's a dollar that cannot be invested in neighborhoods, our schools, our parks, our clean water, public transportation.

Thank you, Reverend Wick.

Oh, man, I'm just getting good. I see. I'm getting ready for that sermon, man.

And for mayor or next speaker is miss Melissa Williams.

Good evening.

Good evening. Everyone. So I'm back. I haven't asked this time though. So as some of you may know, my name is Melissa Williams and I live right up that hill on Morgan Street. in january i believe it was 2025 i stood right here in front of this lectern and i asked for something from this city what i asked for was i needed help with a problem on my street with cut through traffic so let's fast forward now right where this is august 2026. I have spent nearly two years working with the city of Fayetteville staff I have submitted I have pulled my own data I have begged y'all for data I have pulled I don't even know how many hundreds of documents I'm sure the people in your document department know my name well Throughout that process, I learned something. I learned that I don't have a traffic problem. What I have is a quality of life problem.

And what I realized, you guys don't have anybody that deals with quality of life.

I have emailed you. I've emailed you. You. I've emailed everybody on this up there on the die. Or is it day? Anyhow. The problem is, it's not that people aren't doing their jobs. Everybody's doing their jobs. You're doing your job, you're doing your job. Y'all are doing your job. But nobody owns the problems. The traffic people are like, oh, well, we did our thing. We don't do traffic impact analysis. This is outside of our scope. City planning, they've already done their thing, right? The stuff is already built. But we have a problem. and no one has addressed it, and Lord knows it's not for my lack of trying. I'm sure Councilman Davis can tell you that. So, tonight I'm not asking you to approve any type of particular traffic device, no traffic calming, that's not what I'm asking for. What I'm asking is a much simpler question. What I'm asking is who in this city government is responsible for taking ownership when someone's problem doesn't fit neatly into whatever little box. You guys have quality of life all over that city of Fayetteville website. But who doesn't? Who doesn't? Because I am like really at my wit's end. Most, everybody on my street, that neighborhood hasn't even been there six years, and everybody is gone, with the exception of three people. You have built an extraction economy, and it's kind of what, I wish I could have got that man's card. People work here and they leave. I used to work at the VA hospital right there on Ramsey Street. If you knew how many doctors work there and don't live here.

Thank you, Ms. Williams.

Is somebody going to address my problem? Please.

Mr. Hewitt, are you familiar with whatever her ask is? Hold on, Ms. Williams. Uh-huh. Can you help us understand what, because Ms. Woods, you come and talk a few times, but I don't recall a specific issue.

Because I was still working in good faith with your people. Now I'm here.

Right. So which department can speak to her so we can get an understanding about what the issue is?

Mayor, I'd be happy to provide counsel with that information. Ms. Williams is correct. We have had a lot of email back and forth, traffic concerns, and other issues as well, and we will be happy to follow up.

Okay. Ms. Williams, if you can see this gentleman right in the back corner, we'll get a follow-up as to what your specific detail is.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Theresa Burns. Ms. Theresa Burns?

She's here. Good evening, Ms. Burns.

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. I am here again to make an argument for a data center moratorium. Um, one of the things that I dislike most is the cloak and dagger scenario that we have things that aren't put out in the open that you have to find out as like, where are these data centers being put? I have a good idea of another one and I'm going to keep an eye on it and that we as the people don't really know what's good for us. Um, the very reason clean water was used before closed loop system in the first place because it was cheapest. The negative aspects regarding the public, they just didn't care. It was business and it was chosen over the health and welfare of the people, their health and environment, the constant noise pollution, of the turbine engines affecting mental health, the constant emission of turbine engines affecting respiratory health. The deceptive marketing buzzword of closed loop does not mean zero impact. It does not mean zero contamination. They require chemical water treatments and undergo periodic blowdown flushes, discharging wastewater into the municipal sewer systems. The random testing in another municipality ended in revoking the wastewater permit after they found drug-resistant bacteria. We need a commission agency or agency that has been created to ensure the data centers are putting the health and welfare of the surrounding community at the top where it's supposed to be. This commission should include members of the public that the city council is supposed to serve. Routine and surprise inspections of those appointed. We can't allow the data centers to police themselves. They're not gonna do it. And we need to make the data centers pay for all necessary upgrades to the grid in the area due to their use and not one cent be passed down to the consumer who we don't want it. But you're going to make us pay for it anyway? It doesn't make sense. The consumers do not have the billions or the millions as the data centers do. And all these concerns are why a one to three year moratorium is necessary. We're not going to argue what some people say is inevitable. But just give us time. We need more time.

Thank you, Ms. Burns.

Mayor our next speaker is miss Alexis McHargue you and I apologize if I messed that up.

Good evening miss McHargue.

Good evening and uh just it is McHargue. I'm McHargue I'm sorry. It's okay I know it's a tricky one no worries. Good evening to the members of City Council and to my fellow citizens. Webster's dictionary defines integrity as firm adherence to a code, especially moral, or incorruptibility. Most of us consider it to be doing the right thing when no one is watching. I would like to thank the council members who are effectively representing their delegation and advocating for the best outcome for our community. And now I would like to address the arrest of the council and Mayor Colvin directly. If you refuse to reject the data centers outright, the least you can do is legislate protections for us. DuPont renamed, after the scandal, to Chemours in order to distance themselves from the outcome. They destroyed our public waterways. I was born here, at Cape Fear Valley Hospital. And I went to Grace Creek High School, which is right down the road from Galberry Elementary. I remember when we were out of school for a week after the discovery of the PFAS in our water. And I remember at 16 thinking, how long have we been exposed to this if we've just now discovered it and we're out of school for a week because we can't cook food? Galberry took almost a decade to have clean water after the event. The city of Fayetteville deserves better and we need to set the precedent that we expect better from these corporations. I'm not sure what closed door discussions have occurred, but the outcome is evident and apparent. The corruption is visible to the naked eye of the observer, the public, the city of Fayetteville. Just like the decisions you make here in public, we can all see you. We are watching you, and the decisions you make affect us directly. Please make your decisions with integrity, no matter how much money they show you. And now that I actually have a little bit of additional time, I would like to bring up some other things because people believe that closed-loop systems are the answer. They are not the answer. As the lovely lady right before me said, the closed-loop systems flush wastewater, contaminated wastewater, back into our waterways, which is the exact same problem as what Chemours, aka DuPont, did to us. We're not asking for you to stop it. We've made that very clear. We're not even asking to have no data centers. We're not even, put that aside. We're just asking for a moratorium. We're just asking to slow down and to pause and to let us build the legislation to protect us, to protect you guys, your families, your children, your grandchildren who are in this community. I don't wanna have to leave my hometown because it becomes unlivable. And it's getting that way really fast and I'm scared. Can we just please slow it down? That's all I ask you guys. Thank you very much for your time.

Mayor, our next speaker is Miss Amber Rossi.

Good evening, Miss Rossi.

Hello, today I argue that this council and big tech have no right to create a monopoly on water. That is a humanitarian crisis and a human rights violation. A monopoly on water is exactly what will happen by welcoming this data center leech into Fayetteville. You are condemning our future by allowing big corporations to steal our very source of life. We deserve to live with the same fresh, clean water, food, and land like our peers, like you guys got the chance to do before us. At this rate, we will run out of water in five years. In five years, I won't even be 30. So what's the plan? What are we doing? What kind of life are you guys giving to the younger generation? Data centers also cause a plethora of health problems from giving babies heart palpitations to causing cattle to be stillborn. They also create a perfect environment to harvest bacteria and once our water supply is tainted, it is over. We are already seeing reports of power outages because of these data centers. We're already in a drought. Our lakes here in North Carolina are already running dry. Where's this water coming from? For these data centers, you wanna welcome it, where's the water gonna come from? It will come from all of us in this room. No good deal is worth sacrificing our lives for. We deserve to live in a country that prioritizes real humans over AI, profit, and control. Billionaires do not deserve to call all the shots for every living human and animal. We are tired of their input. AI is not the future. We are and I'm quite tired of hearing the latter. Thank you.

Mayor our next speaker is Miss Carla Guzman. This speaker was a miscommunication. I had a thought that she had signed up as written comments, but she had requested to sign up as a speaker, and she did sign up in time.

Okay, Mrs. Guzman, how are you?

Good, thank you. Hello, council members, mayor. My name is Carla. I am a resident living in the residential neighborhood bounded by Odom Drive, Village Drive, Redwood Drive, Coventry Road, Ireland Drive, and in the Sherwood Park neighborhood, District 5. I am asking for immediate municipal intervention regarding a severe escalating traffic crisis in our streets. Due to the massive uncoordinated growth bleeding over from Hope Mills, our quiet 25 mile per hour residential area has been transformed into a high speed bypass corridor. Commuters routinely fly past our homes and cut straight through our neighborhood streets, trying to outsmart major traffic lights. Most alarmingly, our neighborhood is completely surrounded by critical school zones. Douglas Bird High School, Sherwood Elementary, Mary MacArthur, just to name a few. This reckless cut through traffic directly endangers hundreds of children at active bus stops and school drop off zones. Furthermore, the danger does not stop at night, past midnight. Our neighborhood is terrorized by loud engine revving and high speeding around blind spots. Despite multiple 911 calls, non-emergency reports, and direct conversations with the sheriff, crime prevention specialist, and the captain over several weeks, the dangers persist. Our families do not pay local taxes for no reason. Last month, this council approved $327.3 million in operating budget, $117 million in capital improvement plan promising to prioritize neighborhood safety and street infrastructure. Yet the issue persists because metrics ignore our reality. We refuse to let a piece of paper dismiss our safety before another tragedy occurs and they have happened. I am formally asking you to take three immediate actions. Number one,

Ms. Guzman. Okay. I'm sorry, your time's up. You submitted to this.

Yes, I've submitted and written comments. There's a packet in front of you for all of you members to review.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. We'll do that.

Mayor, our next speaker is Ms. Savannah Akins. Ms. Savannah Akins. Not present. Number 40 was a duplicate from earlier, so I apologize for that. The next speaker is Miss Barbara Trasher.

Good evening.

good evening council my name is Barbara Thrasher I'm gonna talk really fast because I have a lot to say I have lived in Fayetteville for only the past four years but it's grown near and dear to my heart and I'm a current resident recently of Hope Mills but I do work and pour my heart in Fayetteville district number nine I'm speaking to express, like many people before, my perspective and displeasure regarding potential data center development to include the UDOs being considered, which as many in the community have noted, do not provide nearly enough protections. Council members, I most want to ask, what is your priority? Mayor Colvin in particular, I would love to know why we're seeing so much resistance to a moratorium, which most of us feel is needed to take that time to make the right decisions. I think you've heard that all night tonight. If we do allow data center development and we take the time, that's one thing. Otherwise, it seems like aren't we just asking for another short-sighted mess that this city has to react to? Shouldn't we be proactive here, not reactive? And individually, I ask each of you to really reflect. Are you prioritizing protecting the people who live, work, and raise families right here? Because I'll be honest, some of you, I absolutely would say yes. And some of you, it doesn't seem like it. I'll add that many of us, myself included, realize an out and out ban on data center development is a state decision. Many of us are fighting that fight as well. I realize some of the members of council believe a moratorium would open up the city to a lawsuit. I call BS. There are too many good lawyers advocating and making this happen across the country. My ask of you, figure it out. You signed up for this when you ran for council. The citizens of Fayetteville deserve better. Clearly some work and research has been done in regards to this as we've spent many, many meetings here. It seems many of you feel well good enough. I'm telling you it is not. The community is telling you it is not. Fayetteville deserves better. Data centers require massive resources and concrete safeguards before any project moves forward. I sincerely ask the council to zoom out of this current push and pull and consider the following. We'll go real quick. We need absolute transparency, speaks for itself. We insist on ethical environmental practices and not just the illusion of environmental protection. Data centers are notorious for their immense consumption of electricity and water, and you've heard it all night. I'll spare you my paragraph. I'm not against progress, most of us are not. I'm not against progress at the expense of my, I'm against it at the expense of my own quality of life, of my neighbor's quality of life, of my student's quality of life. Honestly, at your quality of life. We are all looking at you, our elected officials, to put the community first. The community's showing up. We're telling you we deserve better. Thank you.

mayor our next speaker is mr joshua reed what are we looking like on time mr reed is our 20th speaker that will be an hour all right good evening

Good evening. My name is Joshua Reed. I'm a lifelong resident and a member of the Communist Party USA. For several months now, the people of Fayetteville, North Carolina have been loudly outspoken about their opposition to the construction of a mega AI data center. A project we now know has been in the works since as early as last fall, even though we found out about it in early spring. Residents were quick to educate themselves about what the project would mean for them and their community. And the more they learned, the more they became increasingly unwell in their hearts and minds. The information that is readily available from legal and environmental experts, as well as testimonies from working people whose lives have been directly impacted by data center construction, affirm what the people of fayetteville have been saying from the start data center construction is not good for the people however it is obvious that the people of this city are not being prioritized and we're not stupid we know you don't care especially you council person Honduras as it is your real estate firm that could experience tremendous profit from the development. We are calling you out and we are angry.

Don't don't call names. Just have your peace, but let's keep your respect.

You'll hate this part. Well, you mayor, Rather than listen to the people of Fayetteville, you have silenced dissent and chosen corporate greed over this city. You have prioritized private contractors over your own neighbors. You claim to be a voice for black people, but you are ushering in a development that disproportionately subjects people of color to unlivable conditions. And the majority of you have followed suit. Perhaps some of you genuinely do care for the people of Fayetteville. But truth be told, your silence has conveyed a message of indifference. Your seeming lack of consideration for the people has built a wall of distrust in all of us. And it is up to each of you council members and mayor to earn back our trust, earn our trust. If we do not get our way next week on the 10th, if city council chooses to throw us to the wolves that are billion dollar firms and corporations, the people of the city, we will not shut up. I know that's what you'd prefer. I know. But we are not in the habit of staying obedient to corrupt leadership. And we are not under the guise that doing nothing but vote for someone will solve this issue. Thank you.

All right, Madam Clerk.

Mayor, we have reached one hour. We have seven speakers left and per policy, I do need to summarize the four written comments that we have.

Okay. Well, let's do the comments, because that's per our policy.

All right, so Mr. Kevin Slim did provide comments. He is concerned about the drone center that is the Ukrainian drone center that's coming in and the manufacturer and who the plant manager is, if they are American or Ukrainian, and if there is integration, and if there is a Russian plant manager here as well. Then we have Ms. Gail Onat. She would like to speak in regards to the future identity of Fayetteville. And she says that cities build brands, narratives, and visions that attract talent, investment, and pride. And with Fayetteville, we have history, diversity, and potential, but our communication still reflects where we've been and not where we're going. And we need to modernize our brand logo and slogan. Ms. Bobby Burgess stated that the public deserves a moratorium, that the public has repeatedly expressed desire for a moratorium, and that she requests the vote of no to the UDO and to allow for a moratorium. And she stated she will see everyone next week at the public hearing. Then we have, let me pass this one. I'm sorry. Then we have Ms. Cynthia Leaks. She stated on July 16th, Fayetteville Freedom for All hosted a working group community town hall on the proposed data centers in UDO. There were working groups of five citizens each that reviewed sections of the UDO. And although the UDO is a working document, these of understanding was quite difficult to follow as it does not flow to reflect the high standards our city can offer to citizens for this massive project. And she requests a 12 month moratorium be activated immediately. And that she is,

in agreement with what has been submitted by the concerns of residents and that is our four written comments sir all right all right council councilman mcmillan yes mr mayor thank you i'd like to make a motion that council extend the time for public forum in order to hear the remaining speakers tonight

It's much but customer McMillan. All right. Most of us that that second second by Jones. OK, discussion.

Yes, I can chime in on that. Mr. Mayor, if I may.

Quickly, yes sir.

Yeah, so we cut off public forum last time. This was back in June's meeting. And what I found out later is that there were people who were non-residents that were directly impacted by data center plans. You can go back to last year, September, there's a pre-application in the community of Eastover that directly impacts people living on that land and adjacent lands. And instead of looking at this as a resident issue, we need to make space for people in neighboring towns. One of the things we also found out is that through connecting to BWC, those lands could be annexed to the city. So I think it will be best practice for us from now on to not discriminate against non-residents, to allow voices. Also, I want to note that when we want to, we make all kinds of special meetings. We were making special meetings even in July when we were supposed to be on vacation. The least we could do is make time to hear from our residents. All right.

Thank you, Council Member McMillan. Thank you.

all right so council look to you for action on that you had a comment yes sir all right before we vote councilman here I try not to say anything but I was so disappointed regardless I had to say make my peace I have been an elected official for 24 years I have done my best to serve the citizens in district 4 and all of Fayetteville for 24 years Never, I haven't heard it to my ears, where anyone has stood before me and told me I was corrupt. I have been in business for 46 years. I have been in small business in this town. I consider that a disrespectful statement towards me. And I wanted you all to know that I did not like it personally, Mayor. That was all I wanted to say.

All right, all right, all right, all right. Listen, all right, we established at the beginning that we're going to get through this process and we've done well. Let's not go off the rails at the end. But any further disruptions, you'll be asked to leave. No exceptions. All right, so there's a motion on the floor, and council, I'll look to you for your vote. All right, 5-5, motion fails. All right, so we will conclude the public forum. We will get back and give a five-minute break. We will begin the remainder of our meeting. Absolutely. See you later, sir. Thank you. All right, we'll take a recess.

all right council we'll call our meeting back to order uh we will pick up at item 6.03

Oh, yeah.

Hey, sir.

Speak first.

Okay, let me go to Councilman here before your presentation. Councilman here.

Thank you, Mayor. Council. This item read the reduction of the speed limit on Blanton Road is the item that I've brought to you gosh I'm surprised it has taken so long to come back to us I feel like I had brought it to us maybe in February or March but here we are today tonight I had several residents that were here to support lowering the speed to 35 to 25 which the 25 miles an hour runs through all of our residential neighborhoods anyway. But they were here, but they, It was just a little much for them to stay after the 6 o'clock time to where we are now. Now, staff does not support lowering this down from 35 to 25, but I just want you to go back in your memory for a moment. A couple of years ago, I think 2024, we lost two lives. speeding on a Blanton Road a few years before that we had several pieces of damaged property due to speeding on Blanton Road just tonight we had several of our public speakers talking about the improvement what of lowering the speed would help their community I know that sometimes staff or the police department or whoever it is that goes out and do the studies may not always see things the way that the residents see things. But it's the residents that are mostly affected that are there 24-7 and may not always be there. You may not always get the same effect on a monitoring system that's there for seven to 10 days when you are doing a plan. The residents live there. They live in the area. and they know what best fits them. So tonight as we go into listening to the presentation, I want you to take that into consideration that it's the residents that are affected and this is something that they are requesting for their neighborhood and for their street is to change the traffic from 35 miles an hour to 25 miles an hour on Blanton Road. as we have been doing on various streets throughout the year, but at least since I've been on council. Thank you, Mayor. All right.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Council. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Councilmember Herr, for speaking about the request for this. Before we begin, I do want to state I 100% am in support of reducing speeding. It's just the matter of the speed limit that staff is recommending not to lower. And so we would love to be able to address speeding concerns, not only on Blanton Road, but also across the city. I also want to preempt my presentation just very briefly. While we were going through the data center presentation, I was reviewing some of the numbers that I have in my sealed memo regarding the Blanton Road crash review. And some of those numbers in the table are actually incorrect. So I will be voiding that seal and rescinding that memo and releasing an updated memo later this month. There is a slide that has those numbers on the table, or there's a slide that has that table with the numbers. And I'll be pointing out to essentially ignore or set aside those numbers while we go through this presentation. So back in April, during the council work session, there was a council request for public services to review Blanton Road for the speed limit to be reduced from 35 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour. from our review of all the information that we have as well as coordination with fapd we came back and we are recommending to keep the speed limit at 35 miles per hour the five reasons that we have are the first one there's a council policy on speed limit reduction it's 160.3 and it requires not only a public hearing but also requires a petition from the community as well The second one, FAPD can speak to this a little bit more, but on the agenda there is an attachment that has a memo from FAPD that recommends not to reduce the speed limit for various factors. One of them being that the number of complaints regarding speeding on Blanton Road is not substantial or substantive. And then additionally, the current traffic studies that have been performed out there do not show an aggravated speeding condition. There is speeding, but it's not as extreme as some other instances might be. The crash review that public services has performed, there's not a crash pattern or anything that indicates roadway deficiency. And then, and I'll get into this a little bit further, NCDOT, ITE, even our own city recent speed limit reductions, they all show that just reducing the speed limit is not going to slow down cars. just that's that is shown through data that's not something that's a subjective approach and then the final one using the federal highway and the manual for uniform traffic control devices federal guidelines for how signs are done across an entire country we have curb advisory speed signs out there for 25 miles per hour that are not supported the current guidelines that the federal government says hey use this they don't support having that 25 mile per hour posted curve but i want to get into a little bit more detail here and i know this is a little bit late at night so i'll try and keep this a little bit brief so we can get into the questions Council Policy 160.3, it says that a petition has to be submitted by the residents abutting the streets in the neighborhood. And then from there, you'll also have to hold a public hearing. This is not a staff policy, that is a council policy. And to our knowledge, we do not have a petition and we are not aware of anyone instigating one yet. On the Fay PD speed limit reduction memo, there have been two studies performed, one in 23, one in 26. Both of them show the average speed of 30 miles per hour or less. That is the average speed. Additionally, there have been fewer than three speeding complaints that have been reported on Blanton whenever staff reviewed this area. Whenever we look at the crash review from the large scale, mile high view of all of this, right now Blanton Road is 35 miles per hour posted. It has approximately 1,800 vehicles per day. It is less than a mile long. And whenever we look at it, there are 65 crashes over five years. Another way to say that is almost 75% of the crashes are happening at the traffic signal with Pamela Lee. of all of them there's only been one fatal crash in the past five years according to the information that we have and that fatal crash was somebody doing 70 miles an hour around a stopped school bus in a curve across double yellow on a wet road reducing the speed limit is not going to stop somebody from breaking multiple walls This is the table that I was talking about at the very beginning of all this. Essentially, some of the information, the numbers that are associated with Blanton Road on this row here are incorrect, and so I would like to set this information aside. However, From our crash review where we looked at all 65 crashes in the past five years, 97% of them were due to driver error. 42% failed to maintain lane, all the way down to 22% for failing to yield, basically rear-ending somebody and slowing down and turning into a neighborhood. The 3%, that's two crashes where deer jumped into the roadway. Whenever you're talking about reducing speed limits, trying to reduce speeding inside of neighborhoods, NCDOT has released literature on this, and they have essentially said artificially reducing the speed limit will not guarantee that motorists will obey the regulation. And we have proof, we have data that drives this information behind it as well. When we reduce the speed limit on road turn drive, the 85th percentile, that is 85% of the traffic is comfortable driving up to that speed, was driving at 40 miles an hour. And after the speed limit reduction, they were driving between 38 and 42, depending on where you measured it. West Rowan is the exact same boat where before the speed limit reduction, it was 36. And after the speed limit reduction, they stayed at 36 to 34, depending on where you measured it. And then the final one, the ball bank indicator test. This is essentially where we put a level inside of our truck. We drive the curves at different speeds and we measure that against what the federal guidelines tell us that we should have a sign up there saying go this fast around this curve. Because anything faster may feel unsafe. We did that, and right now what you guys see on the screen is HC3, which is next to Goodyear Avenue, has a post-speed limit or advisory sign for 25 miles per hour. The federal guidelines say that that curve can be driven perfectly fine, perfectly capable at 35 miles per hour right now today. That sign is over-signed. It has no federal support behind it. so for all those reasons we have above standard signage out in the field right now all the not only industry guidance but our own city date city data from ruritan and west roanne back it up that reducing the speed limit is not going to slow people down and if apd does not support reducing the speed limit and even the council policy where we don't have a petition or we don't have a public hearing yet for all of those reasons we are recommending to keep the speed limit for blanton road at 35 miles per hour

all right uh before i go to mayor pro tem uh i need you to go back to the council policy 160.3 he quoted it a couple of times can you go back yeah uh so my version says a petition may be submitted True, yes. Not shall be has to be only says maybe, which means it's an option, right? Yes. Are you saying that this policy is the only way the speed limits get reduced?

No.

So why is this included? Because it was implied that it couldn't be done unless it happened this way.

Staff do not have a... outside of staff essentially saying please overwrite council policy 160.3 to reduce the speed limit. Staff don't have a way to do that.

No, I get that. I got that. This didn't come from a staff. This came by a council member request that is now before us, but this was used as a basis for denial. So I just want to clear that up that this is just a way to get it done, not the only way. Because it says may. Madam Attorney, does may mean have to or a possibility or option?

It's an option, sir.

Okay, so let's start with that. So go back to the other couple points that you had on there. The other thing is that you said that, can you pull up your speed limit presentation about where you showed, let's see what page it was. It was, yeah, the Rua Tan West Rowan. So what you're saying that, Staff's position is what you represent, that reduction of speed doesn't work.

Reducing the speed limit won't reduce speeders or speeding.

Got you. But so then if that's the case, then under what circumstances do you reduce speed?

If a design for a roadway or if a roadway has been re-striped into an instance where the design is no longer meeting current industry standards, then the speed would be reduced at that point.

Those only circumstances as a professional that you're telling me that speed is ever reduced that you are aware of.

I don't have an exhaustive list from looking at this from a data-driven approach. However, from a non-data-driven approach, if council wills that the speed limit be reduced, then we will reduce it.

No, I get that. I'm just going back through the criteria that the access to consider. So one was city council policy, which is an option, but not a requirement necessarily. And then two, the other information showed that lowering speed limit, according to your calculations, doesn't reduce speeders, but enforcement does. Would you agree with that?

Enforcement temporarily does, yes.

What does that mean?

A cop can't sit there 24-7 and let the cops leave.

But you encourage better behavior, right? Yes. Okay. And then there was one other that you said that there was a 25-mile-per-hour sign that showed going around a curve. And you said that's, what did you call it, undersigned, oversigned?

It's technically oversigned.

Which means that it's more than what's required.

Yes, it's above the standard, yes.

What basis was used to put it here?

That I do not have the answer on. That was performed by my predecessors. Okay.

All right.

Mayor Pro Tem Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Bryant, I have one question for you, then I have one for Chief Bryant or Joyce or Patty, whichever one's here. Why does it always take, first of all, data sometimes is not always the driving force to get something done. Because what you were telling us today and what I have heard numerous times since I have been on council, when it comes to reducing speeds or getting a traffic calming measure or even changing the light, it takes a fatality to change something. Why does it always take somebody to die for us to make a safety move?

I don't have a answer or a response to that. I do know that there are some safety recommendations that staff can make or have made that was not the result of a fatality.

So why do we always use that as a data collection item to determine safety, I would say? You use it, DOT use it, everybody uses it. I don't understand why.

If I had to assume, based on my education, my understanding, essentially fatalities are things that tend to grab the headlines and they carry a lot of gravity along with them. To have 10 fender benders versus one fatality, the fatality is going to be more of a focal point because 10 fender benders are easier to repair, easier to fix. You cannot fix somebody's life.

that I do have a safety project that did not result from fatality that we are recommending for safety improvements and that is the good milling and two bill project yes I'm familiar with that let me just say I don't want somebody to die before we make a change chief what was the last time we had a traffic speeding campaign on Blanton Road or has there ever been one conducted all 0.87 miles on it

Yes, sir. I don't believe we've had actually a speed campaign on that particular road, but we've had our speed centuries, like you stated, in December 23 and then in April of 26.

So if we do campaigns in other areas to reduce speeding, we know this is a optimal place for speeders. How come we didn't do one on Blanton Road before this presentation, at least, to give us some updated data?

The reason why is because of the data that we received from the speed century. It showed that we had an average speed of three miles over the speed limit compared to other places in the city, which is much, much more severe. So we're putting our priorities in the locations where the tendency for.

Good answer. So now give me your professional opinion. Tell me when and ever that a speed reduction does not increase safety.

Well, based on the information that Mr. Gill- I'm basing it off your 32 years of experience, not off his dad.

I'm talking to you.

So I can tell you, I can speak from a perspective of, I can't speak in terms of traffic on 32 years. I haven't been doing traffic 32 years. But what I will tell you in terms of what we would need to do is in order to impact the roadways and what we're trying to do is reduce it, it's enforcement. It's always going to be enforcement. whether it's going to be temporary or long term, but that's the way I believe that we're going to be able to impact making folks to adhere to the speed limit.

Well, I'm going to say this last point, Mr. Mayor, and I'm going to close. I know that you have a told me and told council that you wanted Fedville to be like Suffolk, Virginia.

Emporia, Virginia, sir. The Emporia, Virginia.

It's coming, sir.

You get a ticket.

So do me a favor and make sure we put some tickets out there on Blanton Road. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right.

All right. All right. Council Member Davis.

Yes. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Were there any more traffic measures that we could use on that road besides reducing the speed that we can help? It doesn't seem that you guys gave any other recommendations. Just a denial of the request.

I do have recommendations. They do not come with a low amount of resources. Things such as roundabouts. Roundabouts, curb and gutter. Those will be the first two things that I would start looking at.

Roundabouts. The ones similar to the ones that are on... St. Rocio. Council Member Jones' district. Those...

I would not take them off the table. However, I would also look at things that you would have in the downtown area as well.

Okay. Well, you know, just maybe next time we can get some more recommendations if you guys don't agree to the reducing the speed. Because I have the same issue when I have a street in District 2. I get the, oh, the speed is not going to reduce the speeding, which we understand. But we do need other things that we can put in place to help us out. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Davis. Councilmember Green.

Thank you, Ms. Meyer. I am, first of all, if we're going wordsmith a word, then we need to change the ordinance and make it clear so that we're not questioning whether it's a may or a should or a can, but it needs to be a, this is what you have to do. So, I will put in our request to fix those things.

Well, to that point, right, I think you need to establish if council has made a decision that that's going to be the only path. I think they could have worded it the way they did so that you have other options.

Right. My point is that ordinance is a little bit of the problem because of the way it's written. So that's my two cents worth on that for whatever that's worth, about two cents. If the average... speed was only three miles over the speed limit, I can see why we're not out there working in that area. That's not excessive speeding. So I have some concerns about that. I am pleased that the curve has a reduction sign so that people know the curve is coming. All of those things I think are important. I would hazard a guess, and I think this is true in most anywhere across the city, that if we looked at those tickets that were written and things that happened on Blanton Road a lot of them would have occurred probably have occurred by the residents in and around Blanton Road that is typically I believe what the case is in most situations unfortunately so I I tend to go when with staff and what they recommend I don't know what I'm going to do at this moment but I have some concerns about just reducing speed limits in this manner. So thank you. Thank you.

Council Member McMillan.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm learning. I'm learning a lot. I heard the question that you asked the city attorney, and that was half the question. That should have been asked. I'm going to read the whole statement.

Yeah, well, don't put words in my mouth.

Please don't interrupt me.

Don't put words in my mouth.

I have the floor. I have not yielded. Well, don't put words in my mouth. I have not yielded.

Well, you don't have to.

Number 160.3 is a petition may be submitted by a majority of the residents abutting streets in a neighborhood for reduction or increase of the speed limit. You picked out that sentence in the May. What you did not read is upon receipt of a valid petition, city council will hold a public hearing to consider the request. And adding that extra sentence, that's some context we need to consider. This is also entitled request for speed limit changes. One could deduce that if there's a speed limit change to be made, we follow this policy that is initiated by the sentence that you picked out. underscored by the second sentence that this is indeed the policy this is the practice and this is what we should follow i'm gonna gonna send it back to the city attorney for your interpretation of the entire uh policy instead of just the sentence the mayor picked up um council member mcmillan my interpretation does not change the may signifies that it's an option and once that first sentence is triggered then you get to the second part And then my second part is, for every policy that we have, we don't go back and make sure that all of the possibilities are outlined. I think this one needs clarification, as my colleague Councilmember Green stated. And I think we need to be fair to the staff and maybe even show some grace. for following a policy that has been written since 2024. And I thank you, Brian, for your patience and grace, as usual.

All right, thank you, Mr. McMillan.

And before I go to Council Member Hare, since you directly addressed me, I'm going to directly address you.

You know, the first sentence, the first word in the point that I was making, mean that it's an option, which, you know, I'm glad the attorney cleared it up. But, you know, when you... When you look to to to make a statement that you don't really understand the process or the interpretation of it Then you should have all of that Yes, so it's really important to be clear with our words and with our processes I've been in the policy committee saying this for a long time.

Yeah, and this city I think we have a bad habit of trying to find ways to do things that may not be in the in the process and then not doing our due diligence to make sure the process is clear.

And I think that needs to be pointed out when that's the case. Word salad. You didn't really add anything significant. Council Mayor, go ahead. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to be moving forward with a motion. This item was brought to me by the residents. I didn't think it up. I didn't do any other thing outside of making a request due to residents. I had several of them with me tonight, but they made it all the way up to the 6 o'clock p.m. time, and it was just a bit long for them to stay. So they went on home. I think lowering in a way that we can slow traffic down within our, and on any of our streets, but especially in our interior residential streets, especially where we have a lot of seniors on that street. We have a senior complex there of seniors. And we also, in the curve there, we have a daycare center. As we were doing in the budget earlier this year, we were saying we wanted to support a particular thing and this being an additional tool to put in the toolbox to help support the community. I think this helps. I appreciate it being brought to me by the residents. I would like to move that we reduce the speed limit on Blanton Road from 35 miles an hour to 25 miles an hour. All right, so motion by Council Member Harris, second by Thompson. Discussion?

All right, Council, I look to you for action. I'm I'm clerk those voting. It passes those voting opposing Graham Miller and first all right, but she 6.0 for. Dr man says back. Thank you miss Brian, thank you Sir.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council, Andrew Mansell from the City Manager's Office. Back in May, the Mayor had an exciting idea for a convention center downtown. Admin report was previously submitted in June, and this presentation is the overview of that admin report that you all received. It's the groundwork for the feasibility study, and I'll go over everything that it covers next. has seven sections in the book that you received section number one is the foundation and the or the foundational order from what we learned in the csl study we looked at the 2024 hotel study in section two uh looked at where the conference center would go and specific demand for it in section three how how we compare to the state's largest cities in section four safeguards that we learned from other rfps the path forward the cost and then we'll end with the options There's five executive numbers here that frame this whole thing. First is the CSL study. They're the ones that commissioned for the county back in 2021. They said that a study like this would cost about $100,000 and it would take about three to four months. When they looked at this about four, five years ago now, they said there's about 1.1 million people within an hour drives of downtown the pathway forward on a project like this would take about five to seven years to the last block I skipped over the middle or the second to last one at the 280 because I'd like to explain that a little bit more the original request is for a convention center and just a convention center and that's what we researched but as we looked at your different peer projects the same pattern appeared in each one and that center was paired a convention center was paired with a headquarters hotel so we didn't conclude that A convention center would need a hotel, but we left the question in so that the consultant could examine it both ways, with or without a hotel, and then they can bring you the recommendation in this study. Only an official study can tell us what will work here in Fayetteville. So the foundation, what can we extract from the CSL study that's still applicable today and try to potentially save some money, and what would not apply? In 2021, the county paid CSL for the feasibility study, but that study was for a 2,500-seat concert hall, performing arts center. So some of it transfers over there on the left. The red column is the stuff that doesn't transfer. They said about 1.1 million people within an hour's drive. CSL also interviewed several community leaders for that study, elected officials, businesses, institutes, and found that 80% of them preferred a location downtown. The public also agreed at some of the CSL forums that 48% said they'd like it downtown compared to 23% said in the Crown Coliseum area. They also did, at number one down here at the bottom, they also did a study where they looked at different areas of the county and weighted 20 different criterias, like access, parking, available land, and the downtown area scored 161 points compared to the Crown at 135 and the outer loop at 107. The things here on the right are the parts of their study that do not transfer. The money is gonna be different because it's a different type of facility. The demand, different facility. And they did not look at a hotel and they did not select a site. So the market, and this is the hotels discussions part of this whole thing, but the reason why it appears here is the facilities we reviewed pair the center with a hotel because the convention center is hundreds of people who needs rooms at that center. In 2024, the city commissioned RevPar, and they did a study for about a 125-room hotel downtown, and these projections are their numbers. About 73% stability, $185 a night, two million a year in operating profit after setting aside money for upkeep, and that hotel is real, happening on top of the Segar Stadium parking deck. projected completion in about 2025. But the red box here is something that we wanted to make sure to include. The hotel that's being built there is a 125 room hotel. Pier cities typically needed a 250 to 300 room full service hotel. So that's what we wanted to make sure that the study captured. Is the hotel being built big enough? And if it's not, would we need another hybrid hotel on the convention center? And if that's not possible, how big can the convention center be that would support under that 125 room hotel? Again, all questions that this feasibility study could answer. The demand, so who would come here? Who would come to Fayetteville for a convention center? We scan North Carolina's major associations where they hold their annual conferences over the last two years. And Fayetteville doesn't appear on any of the recent searches because we don't have a place big enough for them to come. Greenville is about half our population. They recently opened their center and they hosted two large events last year. And the portion here in Bold, 82nd Airborne is right here in Fayetteville, and they go down to Orlando, Florida for their convention center. These include the last two years, but the last time that Fayetteville hosted League of Municipalities was in 2007. The statewide picture, this is the 10 largest cities in North Carolina. Six operate downtown convention centers. Durham is currently building one in the dark blue there, and their project is $540 million. Cary and High Point are special cases because Cary sits inside Raleigh's meeting district. High Point's furniture market fills kind of a similar role. So that leaves Fayetteville with the only one in the top ten list with no center. Now, the question that we get asked a lot of times right here is, we have a center, it's the Crown Coliseum, right? But there is a big difference. Crown Coliseum is an arena, has a fixed bowl of seats built for concerts, sports, and shows, but a convention center is the opposite. It's flat, has dividable floor space, exhibit hall, ballrooms, meeting rooms, multi-business day events, and it is dependent on a large hotel and restaurants within walking distance. The Crown has fixed seating, no attached hotel, not downtown, can't walk around there at night. Some of the safeguards that we learned that we want to make sure that we include in our RFP as we build it out. As we looked at other public projects that have been structured, these are the three main things that we found that are important. First, automatic reevaluation. If the program or budget moves more than a set threshold, and on here I have an example of, say, 10%, then everything would pause for reconfirmation. The second is the sequencing. Program and site get approved together before any project management contract is signed. Third, parcel level rigor. Every candidate site carries its own program and numbers before public confirmation of the final design. So basically, if the plan changes, we stop and we recheck. We approve the building and land together before hiring anyone to run the project, and every piece of land run its own numbers. The roadmap, five to seven years. And the most challenging part is number two there, that would be the funding. If the study's authorized in late 2026, you're looking at an opening conservatively between 2031 and 2033. Now those numbers could plus or minus depending on different things in the market or with funding. But the strip map in the bottom is additional information for how the process would flow, appropriations, steering committee, safeguards, and groundwork with legislation. How much would it cost? Our meeting with CSL told us it would be about $100,000, three to four months. And what that would buy us is here on the right, market analysis program, building program financials, two or three candidate sites, 30-year impact projection. And they'd also carry as much forward from the 2021 study till now as they could. Now, a lot of numbers would be updated, but they're not completely starting over. And that's partially why the price is what it is. We checked other peer cities. This is about what we can expect to pay. But the red banner here at the bottom is an important caveat. Our meeting with them was a verbal meeting. None of this is in writing. And the final number wouldn't be set until in the RFP. There's a couple options we have here before you. Number one, buy the study, $100,000, hear what the consultants have to say, and then decide on the next step. Option two, you can commit $600,000, which is 100 plus 500, and the additional 500 would buy the next phase. The blueprints, partial level site, cost estimate from actual programs. And option three is kind of a two-part gate phase where you authorize the 100,000 now with a ceiling of six, but phase two only happens on a second vote. The difference between option one and three, Option one, they're the same amount of money, $100,000 for the study, $100,000 for the study. difference with number one is if the study comes back strong and council would like to move forward under option one means new solicitation new contract and use a new study with a separate vote that could delay the project by several months option three has that already built in you would just stay with the same company and they could continue working without that delay so just different considerations different options To conclude, we're of the top 10 largest cities in the state. We're the only one with over $200,000 with no convention center. I went over the market fundamentals and the conferences and where site locations could be. We talked about safeguardings and the cost at a potential $100,000. So I am free for any questions.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Dr. Manziel is pretty thorough, man. And you were able to gather a lot of that from just what the county had done and some of the publicly available information. You said number three, you said that there's no decision needed tonight. So what's the next steps on that? Because I know the... I'm sorry, can you clarify that?

Yes, sir. We have a draft RFP ready and the funds are appropriated. But until a decision is made to move those funds for the RFP, we're waiting for your decision.

Right. Okay. So number three on here, I guess, is...

This didn't come from a request for action. It came from a request for information, which was the admin report. Right, right, right. Okay.

So you need another step in order to proceed, if that's the case. Okay. Well, I think it was good. I think this exposed a lot, just kind of as... you know just as an update when you know distinctly Fayetteville the chamber Fayetteville State and some of the other institutions here wanted to be a part of the conversation to see if there's some participation so I think uh to me council as we consider this the feasibility um you're saying one and three are the same as far as money which we've already appropriated in the budget the other one just keeps you from having to redo another rfp in the event that it comes back strong so you know council hopefully that we can consider you could still not move forward on option three right

Either way, you're just taking out that delay.

But I'm saying as far as the financial commitment, they were the same. One just had the ability to allow it to continue if the results were favorable. Okay.

And so Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You mentioned in your presentation about the last time that we had a, I guess, conference was NLC back in 2000. Do you have any idea revenue that conference generated for the city of Fayetteville?

Back in 2007? Yeah. I think it was $13,000 awarded from the city to them. I don't know how much they profited. I don't have that information.

I just wanted the listening audience to understand the impact economically that a convention center will have if you build one. We go to conferences all the time. All of them are at convention centers. All of them are at cities that have thousands and thousands of people there. All of them get hotels. All of them get rental cars. All of them get food. This is a game changer for the city of Fairville. At the timeline, and you said step two, the funding, is the hard part, I guess. Who came up with the timeline? Because you're talking about seven years from now?

Again, sir, these are conservative numbers just to be safe, but this information came from our meeting with CSL and kind of what to expect. They told us the hardest part is funding and getting that commitment for such a big project. So how do we move that timeline up? Hopefully that can be a question that CSL or whomever does the study can answer, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Council Member McMillan.

Yes, hey, thank you again. I have two questions and a comment. First question goes back to a comment I made when we first got this request from the mayor to look at a convention. I know at least Greensboro Curry Center is privately funded. I'm wondering if part of the study is gonna be looking at private funding and or collaborative funding with other municipalities. and what that looks like in other places in North Carolina. And then I like the timeline slide. It talks about five to seven years beginning with the study. I'm also interested in being able to answer for the public when we would recoup funds that come across or come about in that whole first phase. I get a lot of questions about Segar Stadium That I'm not able to properly answer about when when we will recoup funds from from the construction When we will see as a city And when we when we will be confident that we're making our money back and would love to see any projections go out much further in terms of what revenue will be coming back and And then a comment just from one of my neighbors. Talked about how when the city wants something that's for industries, for big business, we move on it pretty aggressively. If it's for something that's for quality of life or the welfare of people, we're pretty slow. And just a comment to us as a board, in terms of resources for the homeless, we still don't have a 24 hour facility. There is a demand signal also for us to do this kind of study for things that benefit people, in particular the unhoused community. But thank you. Yes sir, thank you.

all right um dr manziel last question i have for um we flip this back over to council um part of that would any feasibility include uh letting the the vendor or or the recipient of the rfp know about the hotel being proposed and if there's an opportunity for him to scale up that may because i saw that It was looking for probably twice the size that would work with that. Is that something just to make sure those two facets are working? Because you've got a commitment on 125 rooms. Maybe if there was the market for it or a driver just to see what it would take if he added the additional space or capacity.

Absolutely, sir. They would have to look at that as part of it.

And finally, on the funding side, I sent this to Jody, but the EB-5 program was recently in Wilmington down at the Riverwalk, and they have their convention center near their amphitheater and all of that other stuff, and they were able to get about $26 to $27 million from that EB-5 program that went toward it. So, I mean, there are funding vehicles out there. um and anyone that doesn't think sagra is uh you know it's really the only stable anchor that we have downtown as far as amenities um that these businesses i'm sure appreciate uh what what the good work that the woodpeckers and the new operators of that are bringing uh from movie nights to fourth of july and a number of things that this community is experiencing and enjoying so um but council look to you uh councilman davis

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Of course, you all know, hopefully it can be in District 2. So I'm glad that we already have a downtown manager coming into play to help out with this. But there's a study that's going to be done by Barry Dunn. Is that correct? Is that the name of the people? that's correct um how does that play into this study with the convention center are they going to come with the same something similar or how is that going to um impact this rfp that goes out because i don't want to reduplicate the same type of studies if that's the

So it's an excellent question. One of the things that we're doing now is we are looking at the different facets of what a downtown manager may be. One of them is to make sure that it is not simply an ombudsman. That was something that we did hear from the Downtown Alliance and other stakeholders we've met. But in order to really advance to downtown as this study contemplates and I think as council is interested, we need someone who probably brings some of Robert Van Geen's type level experience who can actually connect opportunities with investment. Absolutely. And so that would be what we'd be looking for. But the Barry Dunn study I think is looking at What are also the impediments that we have in the city which may lead buildings to languish, that may make it difficult for people to do business, whether with the city or with historic district regulations, Central Fire District building code, or even whether or not the rents which are being offered. properties are being offered and the condition of their end lend itself to having a vibrant downtown. All of those things I think are on the table. Isn't there an entrance interview soon, the kickoff, Jody?

Or has it already started?

They'll begin this month through October as stakeholder engagement for the downtown study.

Awesome, thank you.

Councilman Jones. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a quick explanation again. You said option one, feasibility only, option three. Could you explain again those two variations? Three would basically, let me state this and then you can correct me. Three would be pretty much once you deliver phase one, it would automatically shift into phase two without any other council action, or how would that work?

No, sir, not automatically. They would still come back to you for approval to move forward. It would just keep that same company, keep business with that same company to move forward to phase two. Phase option one doesn't have a follow on company, so you have to go back, make a new contract, find someone else to do it, and that's the delay that phase option three removes. It depends on how quickly you want it done.

How does that work in regards to making sure that we follow the guidelines for RFPs and things of that nature, Madam Attorney? Just for my personal knowledge, thank you.

Councilman Jones as long as you start with the RFP process you're good so you can break it up or you can do it all at one time as long as you do the public solicitation

All right, so there wouldn't be, there would still be an option for council to decide on that next step with option three?

Yes, sir.

Yep, and I like the fact you said that they were at least consider, well, I don't know how in-depth because this is probably a different kind of scope, but the various funding cycles that he mentioned that we could possibly look at.

All right, thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, Council Member McNair.

thank you Mr. Mayor I want to say first of all thank you for this project Thank you. And I'm excited about it. But however, we know that in the past, we've had some projects, which we hear it all the time, that has fallen through the cracks. But however, questions to you, sir. What are the top five projects risk, and what mitigation and contingency plans are proposed?

No, I'm not telling you.

I'm done with you, Mr. Mayor.

Oh, OK. Yes, ma'am. I'll go back in a couple of slides here. So we looked at several projects from around the state, other projects that were successful and some that weren't successful. And we asked ourselves that same question. What parameters can we set to ensure success in a massive project like this that would take several years to finish? And that's where we came up with these top three sort of parameters, safeguards, guardrails, if you will, that we want to make sure that the RFP includes so that it is successful in the end. So the answer to your question is basically these three, the revalidation triggers, approving the site and the program together is key, not just approving the idea of one, but approving a specific location, and then having independent numbers on that location as well. All three important pieces that we want to make sure is included. Yes, ma'am.

All right. Thank you, Councilman Davis. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If Council doesn't have any more questions, I'm prepared to make a motion, sir.

Yes, sir. You have the floor.

All right, Mr. Mayor.

I have one more question from you. Can we also start to think about looking at the cities that do have convention centers and figuring out how much of a burden they are financially, budget-wise on those. I think we could probably do some peer city analysis on existing structures and understand who's losing money, who's really having a hard time just meeting their budget. based on commitments like this that could be a drain on them in the future.

Yes, sir.

Well, sir, in the feasibility study to check pros, cons, and run a pro forma on it.

Some of that could be management issues, too, with the specific sites, not necessarily the building. But we could add that as a component as potential things to look at in the study.

I appreciate that. Yes, sir. Thank you.

All right. Councilman Davis. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move that we go with option number three from the presentation. Thank you, sir.

as much by councilman davis uh three seconds by pro tem uh discussion all right council i'll look to you for action all right i'm kurt unanimous thank you we've been working you huh man it's been great sir thank you thank you everything goes well man we can probably get the bros to do the convention here but that was pretty good and about purpose about green so all right all right so mr brian we're back sir uh we'll turn it over to you yes sir thank you i'm glad to be here

All right. So the Blanton Road presentation that I provided previously tonight, that one I went through a little bit quick. This one I'm going to slow it down just for a second. No, you don't have to do that. Parking program is a very complex thing. So during the budget discussions, council was told that to facilitate the parking contract, it would require revenue increases. And as part of goal four, we are looking to try and provide a financially sound city, providing exemplary city services. The bottom line is, right now, tonight, staff are making three recommendations. The first one is to make the special event rate for the Hay Street parking deck to be $10 per event instead of five. We have a handful of citation fees that are based on peer review that we are recommending to increase. And then we are recommending to convert a currently permit only parking lot into a paid parking lot. Regarding the special event rate, staff met with the Downtown Alliance back in February of 25 and April 26. And anecdotally, and we did not take a formal poll, we did not take formal votes, but anecdotally from those meetings, we heard general support for the Hay Street parking deck to be turned into a $10 per special event rate parking deck. And the reasoning behind that is, essentially, people who are price conscious, who don't want to pay $10 to park in the Hay Street parking deck, they'll drive farther away, they'll park somewhere a little bit outside of downtown or at the end of downtown, and they'll walk past the storefronts, eventually becoming potential customers and shoppers as they see things in the windows that they want to buy their kids. So with that, staff are recommending that special event rate for the Hay Deck go to $10 per special event. There's a lot more smaller items on the side, but those are the main thrust here. The citation fees, I'm missing the word fee inside of here, but we did a peer review of the 10 municipalities by population in the city of the state of North Carolina, as well as Asheville, which is the 11th. And from there, we found that Fayetteville pretty much across the board has below average citation penalties or citation fees. From our review of all the other municipalities in the area, we're recommending two main changes here. The first one is a general increase across the board to what you see here on the screen. And the second one is to remove two of the citation penalties. The first one is going to be judgment fees, which almost no other municipality has. And the second one is repeat overtime violation, which almost no other municipality has. And then the parking lots. Whenever we heard from council that we're looking to try and improve the efficiency of the parking program, we reviewed the five lowest performing parking lots in terms of revenue. And after very, very in-depth conversations with the current contractor and understanding the history of why those parking lots operate the way that they do, where they are, we found that four of them, essentially, they're not able to be changed at this time. due to some very unique circumstances unique to that very specific site but one of them can be changed and that's the Bowen Ann parking lot for anybody that's familiar with Green Street where the Wells Fargo that is currently vacant used to be we actually own part of the parking lot next to that Wells Fargo it is part of the Wells Fargo properties parking lot and then Bowen Ann is ours right now that parking lot is also permit only we are recommending to make that a paid parking lot so that we can increase some capacity in that area. And then I know that this is in the back of some mind or even some front of mind of some council members up here, but staff are currently working through the parking RFP. We are getting closer to the end of the process. We are hoping and intending to bring it to council on September 14th. And if we can and it is successfully adopted, then we are looking to begin enforcement under the new contract on October 1st. Now this is only phase one of these recommendations that are being made for this program. We are going to be requiring the contractor that we hire under this new contract to come back with phase two, their recommendations after they provide more expert opinion, expert recommendation, and expert analysis on the information that we have and what the industry guidance is. And we are looking to have them come back to council at the December or January work session, if possible. And so with that, uh, we have three different changes to the parking program tonight. We are hopefully going to be bringing it back for council consent adoption on August 24th, uh, pending any conversations, questions, changes that occurred tonight.

all right uh mayor protein thank you mr mayor great job brian uh i didn't see anything that i wanted to uh question but i had something that i didn't understand what it was what is a within the lines violation uh so that might be a little bit of an archaic language uh within the lines violation my understanding is that it is a double parking it's parking over the line that you're not within the lines say that again

double parking, that you're over the line, that you're not within the lines.

You know, you're on the white line. You mean you're taking up two parking spots is what you're saying? Yes. You know, like that would be parking. I got it. Thank you. All right. Before I go to Council Member McMillan, I did have a comment for you. Yes, sir. At SAVE visit to Wilmington the other day, wife and i both drove it was 20 dollars to park per car and it was 24 hours a day weekend included now we're not there because they've got convention centers amphitheaters riverwalks all those kind of things that we're working toward that we're drawing but that shows that where we're going my concern with what you have here The citation side, I'm okay because, you know, it's kind of punitive. You know, somebody's mad whether it's a $10 ticket or a $20 ticket. I get that. And I get the emails that say, hey, I came to your city, you know, and I couldn't work the machine, and I got a ticket, and I'm not coming back ever again. I hear that. But, you know, so I'm somewhat following you there. What I'm a little reluctant about, and special events, I get that. I want to make sure that what you're having, because these downtown businesses are talking to us more about it needing a draw. And you don't want to discourage anything because they are trying to draw right now. And I even saw what Durham relieved paid parking on certain times for certain periods. I don't want to crack that back open, but I think, I don't know what kind of message this sends in a time where people are in that mode, you know, because we're trying to still bring things to magnetize it. Like we're talking about tonight, like we're talking about what Mr floats is proposing. So have you taken that into consideration fees? I understand it because of the punitive side. If you don't, if you don't park like that, then you don't get the ticket. I get that.

So I have a response. have to carefully word it to make sure that somebody doesn't say oh they are going to do this because we're not we're not right now

Brian, once you say it, you can't take it back. Mayor, to your point, and that's a really good point, and some of the considerations we had were trying to solve the dilemma that would allow us to sign or bring you back the parking management contract to have the funds available. How we did that in the near term was in the budget. You authorized us to use $250,000 of general fund to supplement and asked us to look for an additional $250,000. That has always been a little bit of a swag, as you know, because at the end of the year we have to make sure that it nets out because you gotta pay the contractor. What we can do is, to your point, it may be a benefit for us to talk to Taylor and to our new Budget and Evaluation Director and Jeff and Tiffany Murray about what it looks like for us to hit that question head on with the new consultant that we would like for y'all to engage about when and the timing. One of the things that's not in Brian's recommendation is changing the hours of enforcement. I'm not sure when you and Dr. Colvin were in Wilmington, but i would dare say that it was you may have been stayed after five o'clock and our enforcement um and you know really penalizes people who work downtown because they you get ticketed until five and the people who are have the discretionary um to come down for restaurants and not whatnot else those may be the ones that um again benefit from not having enforcement past five o'clock but they're also as you and the wife are accustomed to paying parking if it's convenient and clean and all this other stuff so If you would like, I think the main thing that we were looking at was we wanted to present you the recommendations. It would be a fee schedule change. And so if we can, if council could maybe receive the report and we could talk to the Transportation Committee as well as Taylor and to Jeff about some options that would allow us to possibly sign the contract and benefit from the contractor talking to us. I think that the special event fee for Hay Street parking deck, we have one month left of of baseball and their season is finished on September, at the end of August actually, unless they're in the playoffs and then that may won't be here. So I guess if you're asking us to juice, work, to squeeze in the near term, I'd probably say I would recommend that y'all allow us to get the parking management consultant and come in with a whole host of recommendations that y'all could consider instead of this one.

Including some equipment fixes, you know, because I do hear that, quite a bit as well. So I don't know if that's in the RFP, but you need to make it easy for people to pay so that it's not, they don't get a ticket behind complications. yes we are going to be talking with the contractor that we're going to be hiring about what we can do about the equipment whether it's maintenance or amortization of new equipment all right and then last question before councilman mcmillan goes the the fee that we charge for the monthly rate like at the new parking deck i know it was was an old fee how long did we lock into that because it was like 50 a month or something i know we did that for both decks in the decks as well uh

The monthly parking permit is still $50 a month currently.

So there was no recommendation to fix that?

Not with this recommendation. We are going to rely on the consultant and the contractor to come back with advice and guidance.

But if we're looking for more revenue, how do we look over that?

Well, simply is that some of the folks that you're hoping that work downtown that would pay that or live downtown, You kind of want them to park in the deck so that it frees up the on street parking because it you know it's a for some people who Play the odds it may be cheaper to move them to the decks which is where you want the folks that are on street stays turnover, but In terms of a Comparison with the fees you like you looked at a whole lot of things So I was just saying that it was that a consideration to see if it was on par with that.

I But you're saying this could be something that is added to what the consultant reviews? Yes. All right. All right. Councilman McMillan, then Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm wondering if we could consider a way to get public feedback prior to taking action. I say that because we're discussing this after a public forum on the first Monday and then considering taking action later in this month. i was here i was actually in the cheap seats uh when the times times were changed i know that uh the public had a lot of input about that downtown alliance was even uh in full strength to come out and talk about their preferences um and i think if we can we should make some space for the public to to hear this tonight and then have time to react and give give some input prior to taking action all right councilman davis thank you mr mayor

I just was ready to make a motion if there's no more questions. Receive your report? Yes, sir.

Okay. All right. It's a motion by Councilman Davis to receive reports. That's second by Hondros. All right. Discussion. We've had a lot. All right. Look to you for your votes on it. It's coming. It's coming. It's coming. I don't think I'm sure system popped up yet. Okay. There it is. All right. So I need y'all to vote again.

All right.

Thank you. Mr. Brian, Brian, Brian. All right. Um, 6.06. Uh, may I pretend was that from the policy committee? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This item 6.06 came up to the Policy Committee in reference to changing our time for our work sessions the first Monday of every month from 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock, from 3 o'clock to 2 o'clock. It's to get council consensus on we could put this on a consent agenda item for our next meeting. All right.

Simple and plain. We saw how we have to recess just to accommodate. Council, is there a second?

Second.

All right, second on the motion, is there a discussion? You had a discussion? Yes.

Is there any reason, because I was, if it, oh.

Yeah, so I go to Councilman Ferguson, he has a discussion. He's on the committee with us, go ahead, sir. David, is your head, it's good, okay. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. My thought on this is because we have visited this a few times, we've changed times, we've changed, kinds of things and and to go back to two o'clock and add an hour I just don't believe is the thing to do it's based on a couple times that we went over and that was really because we had a closed session and that's what kind of took us over I think it's a part of time management I don't think we should change the time. We should kind of manage our time better. That's just my thought and my opinion.

Thank you. Thank you, Martin. All right. All right. Council, any other comments, questions? All right. I look to avoid votes.

I need to find out what that was. All right.

Madam Clerk, we're missing no one. All right, motion carries. Those voting in opposition, Jones, McMillan, Ferguson. All right, motion carries.

It was discussed in the Senate back to us. That's how it got here.

All right, well, it's going on to Monday. All right, 6.07. We're at council member requests. As we know, these are now 10 minutes. And so Madam Clerk will set the time. We will run through these items and... Turn it over to Councilmember Ferguson's first up at bat, Martin. No, you don't have to. No, she's just putting the time on for you. I don't want you preaching now.

No, I'm joking. No, this is good. This is good. Y'all, I think y'all have it on your thing. I'm just going to run through it real quick. This is something that came from the June work session that we brought over. So, FayConnect is what I'm looking at. The city of Fayetteville is actively prioritizing connectivity by investing in, of course, you know, sidewalks, expanding public transit, all that great stuff. And so in our efforts to establish a more connected community, It is my belief that we should strongly consider digital connectivity investing in our residents via robust notification systems. So here are some of the benefits of Faye Connect. It would support proactive engagement, transparency and trust in city leadership, stronger participation in public initiatives. It also reinforces equitable access. to critical updates and reduces information gaps that can leave vulnerable communities behind. And I've heard, I don't think we've been through one city council session where somebody didn't bring up, well I didn't get that information or the information wasn't, sent to me, or the information's not on the site, or the information, whatever. In fact, Dean, you mentioned at the last meeting when we were talking about the hearing, you were asking how are we gonna get that information out. And the answer wasn't quite to your liking, but with a system like this, we can send information, so that they will get notifications, regardless of where it is. There's a list of things that can be all that time, so I still got five minutes, reinforces, creates a cohesive, resilient, and well-informed community, and it complements the current physical connectivity initiatives that's part of these other connectivity efforts outlined in the city's priorities. The scope and the capabilities to consider would be multimodal communications. This would be a communication that if you don't have a landline, you still can We can send it through your email or send it through whatever the case may be. It may be voice, SMS, text, email, social media, push notifications. You can do all this at the same time. Also, interoperability, integration within the existing IT systems, CRM, personal records, public safety systems, all that great stuff. I did speak with uh mrs phelps as well as uh mr david in reference to some of these things and they were giving me some really good information i think this would be a game changer in relation to what we do as a city also i've checked all of the top 10 communities or top 10 cities within the state of north carolina and fayetteville is the only city does not have a robust notification system They connect scope and capabilities, two-way communications. I know the chief was talking about doing a, where you can ask people, where you can send a signal and some communication. If you see someone speeding, et cetera, it's a two-way communication. This system would include that. It may need to be separate for the PD, but it could also be a part of this. Accessibility, inclusion, of course, ADA compliant. which is a big part, consent and privacy, opt-in processes, etc. Also, this would be great because it gives you, it analyzes, it gives you analytics, reporting, it shows you how much you reach, where you engage, delivery, the cost model, the initial setup per message cost, licensing, training, maintenance, etc. Here's the governance and oversight. My recommendation would be to establish a FACONEC steering committee with representatives from city manager's office, office of communications, IT, public safety, emergency management, public works, community relations, and legal. And then develop a policy framework for opt-in data retention and message frequency. And then lastly, a modern robust notification system is not just a technological upgrade. It's a strategic investment that helps create a more informed, engaged, and digitally connected community. And I think we can get ahead of this. If approved, staff will be tasked to explore the full spectrum of notification system options, including potential vendors, integration with the existing city IT systems, implementation approaches, privacy and security considerations, accessibility, multilingual support, budgeting, and a realistic timeline. And so this includes plans for robust public engagement strategy to inform residents about Faye Connect and how to enroll. And my recommendation would be to consider a 12 to 18 month phased rollout with clear milestones and feedback loops. And with that, I'll answer any questions anyone might have.

Wow that I think you just from a chance to make me had a question yes and I did I did too all right the councilman McNair here and then I think my question is to see manager with this robust system that Ferguson is presenting to counsel how does it differ from what we already used in the safety and security compliance.

Thank you, ma'am. Thank you for the question, and thank you as well, Dr. Ferguson. That would be what we would do with the councilman's request is we would come back to council with information on the systems that we currently use and trying to see if we are using the systems we have to the fullest extent possible. If we're not, why? And is there something else in the marketplace that might allow us to do it as well? One of the considerations we always have is just because we buy it doesn't mean we'll always use it effectively. So I think that was the metrics check back in that was needed. I will say that in the next week or so we'll be able to announce a new director of marketing and communications and this will be one of the jobs that we will put them on to work with Jody and David Scott who's done amazing in this interim role. I want to say that publicly. Thank you so much. And we've been running him quite ragged you can take off Saturday and Sunday again this upcoming weekend if you like and That that'd be one of the first things we do ma'am is that we would We would assess what we currently have lay that out on the matrix and then come back to council with that report

All right, thank you, Council Member McNair. Council Member Harris. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. If this is all of what I think it is, I'm going to ask the maker of, that brought it to the table. Now, as far as notifications, I sort of first just kind of went to, the notifications for zoning and planning cases. That's what I initially thought until you started saying other things. And I think that's a great idea. As long as it's not saying we take up our signs and we stop mailing. Of course, I want to see the budget because some folk may not do the computer things even still today. So I like the sound of it.

and i i would like to see what the budget would be on it and i'm pretty sure there would be some form of a program that has to be purchased and whoever has it right i would love to get get their information yes sir and that's the good thing about it if you don't have a computer it will actually call your phone your landline uh it's multimodal so uh either any way they need to contact you they came with this system um they're 27 000 that we for looking at doing a survey, you could do it with this. And you'd have a built-in, you could build a built-in community.

Even though I did, it was $26,000, and I did ask for that money to be used somewhere else. Not that $26,000. I'm just saying. Another $26,000. Stay focused there. You've got a minute. Right, right, right. Go ahead. Any other questions? Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

All right. I got one minute and two seconds. All right, y'all. So, Councilman Ferguson, let me make sure I'm understanding what you're saying. Is this something that would be Like the robocalls like the schools used to do when somebody didn't show up? Or is this texting people's phones? I mean, what does this look like?

It would be multimodal. So the basic piece would be mobile. Everybody has a mobile phone. So the basic thing would be a text. Right. You could get an SMX. For those who don't, but this you would be able to opt in.

So is this only for emergencies or what type of information is going on?

No, this is for any information. This could be a reminder.

of what he just said it rip right but but I mean you know people get a lot of Texas you get Texas right right like a lot this will be out in Texas you could you only get it if you opt in to get it which which one I mean I'm just I'm I'm interested in hearing more right so that's what tonight's discussion is about okay and then it'll come back with the option so I I don't have any are there any other questions of Councilmember McMillan

Just one, if you could clarify. Thank you for this forward leaning, innovative, I love it. Were you targeting fiscal year 27 or fiscal year 28 in terms of implementation and budgeting?

You know, that's what I would ask staff to kind of come back with because I do know as I was speaking with Ms. Phelps that they already have like a system Everbridge and they could kind of pull from that. So I don't know what that would look like. But that's what I would ask staff to come back with.

All right. Council, we're at the end of the time, so we'll look to you for your votes. Thank you, Council Member Ferguson.

Thank you.

Look to you for action on this is to support for staff to come back with more information. All right. Ms. Jennifer, can you clear the deck so we can vote? It's not clear. Okay. Here we go. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Ferguson. Look forward to it. Good. Out of the box. Thank you. All right. Council, I'll be brief. 6.08, the coordination of the feeding program. So... received a lot of as you all have a receive a lot of calls. Some are concerns some are other things to where we have a wonderful community with a great heart that that coordinates feeding or or or feeds and wants to participate in fading and bringing food to some of our are less fortunate and I meet with a lot of these these providers and nonprofits who do this in the area and spoke to them in length about some of this and a lot of them benefited from the coffee with the mayor the fact that they didn't know, one didn't know the other was doing the same thing that they were doing. And so you ended up with a lot of them doing the same thing on certain days and nobody doing it on other days. And what we've seen, Dr. Parfit sent us a sent us all pictures of behind the uh capital on corner the bridge um if you go back behind the library you'll see what i'm saying if you go to the park that we've invested in across from festival park that i get calls from the businesses that are that are in and around that area oftentimes people will pull up with 25 or 30 plates they'll hand it out and then they'll take off and go home so there's no trash support there's no coordination of it On your desk, you'll see, I had a conversation today with Major Hughes from Salvation Army, one of our partners, and he brought this slide back, which are on some of your desks as a possibility. The thought is, is to, have partners. Salvation Army maybe maybe first Baptist I think downtown was doing some feeding and some of these other community partners to have certain sites where they would choose to do this at and almost sites are participation would be trash cans or port-a-potties or or some some staff support that we can make sure that Good intentions are not turning into other issues. I think also with this, from what I heard from some of the providers, you don't really have any regulation of who's doing that. People could cook this food in their backyard, cook it in the house, and then bring it and then and then right now you know it's just kind of a free fall with this having certain sites to support it uh the salvation army had a vacant uh lot in front of its its place that this was a schematic of that would have uh ultimately not now but would have a designated area for people to to eat What's brought, it has a little concession in the bathroom for where some of the partners could deliver their food on the days that they chose to do it. Right now, what Major Hughes said, I thought I had the numbers with me about how many meals and overnight stays they provided, but he said that Monday through Friday, the Day Resource Center does lunch, and they do dinner seven days a week. And so there are gaps there. And so the ask tonight is to allow staff to meet with some of the partners that we have. Salvation Army will bring in some of the other folks that maybe Mr. Cawley's office deals with, some of our community partners, and to see if there could be some type of coordinated effort. plan that that one protected some of the most vulnerable that are getting these plates that we don't really know the origins of but to mainly making sure there's trash support so that our letter team didn't fall behind, you know, Michael gets to call once it gets to a point. And there are tons of trash that are taken from, you know, down by the river and different places that that, you know, well intentions, but just not supported very well. So that's the ask tonight to get staff to look at more information.

I'm a person yes, thank you, Mister mayor 2 questions one is we subsidize salvation I wish they get back on their feet how much they going to charge us to do this and 2 with the coordinated feeding how can we extend some of that to the West side of Fayetteville so we still got people to bill stand people going out there feeling so it's not just that at the library, you know what I'm saying is is a citywide.

effort right I think there has to be more support in West Fayetteville because you have a lot of the population out there that you know are in some of those those shopping areas that I get the calls and I'm sure you do a lot so Salvation Army was there to be partner and what we talked about today because it's so very preliminary and I told him we were having this discussion tonight was trash support port-a-potties and those kind of things it wasn't necessarily monetary that's you know but you know again that could be part of the discussion thank you All right. Council Member McNair.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for bringing this item to us because I remember probably about two years ago when I was the chair of the Homelessness and Mental Health Committee. brought this to the committee to kill a streamline the feeding. I'm for the house. I think this is a great idea. Lifeline a lot that we I was focused on. And so how if I want to make a report on what's for you. where the feeding was happening in front of Walmart um if you look across the street those woods are cleared out and I'm very excited about that we work hard to get that done um like um because I mean Mayor Pro Tem Thompson said there's still some um individuals that that are are needing um Some assistance, but however a West Fayetteville has improved a lot And I thank you for bringing this because we really need to streamline a lot of these churches and nonprofits They were feeding all at the same time and sometimes they weren't feeding period and so thank you, sir Thank You customer Councilmember McMillan

Thank you. Thank you for this motion. Thank you for this idea. I wanted to ask Mr. Mayor if beyond the show of support and additional coordination, if there's any thoughts about policing folks who are trying to feed their neighbors. What I wouldn't want to see is us say this is the only place where you can help people. This is the only place where you can set up your grill.

What do you mean when you say policing them?

What I'm saying is I don't want to see a scenario where we say you can only feed people in these designated spots. I am for helping. I am for, especially if this council is willing to support, adding additional trash support, helping with coordination, connecting organizations, making sure that there's minimal repetition so that people can help more people. but what I wouldn't be for is saying these are your only designated places where you can feed people, where you can help your neighbors. I wanted you to speak towards that. I hope that's where we're going.

You have to have some, you know, I don't know how you can accomplish both things, right? To say that these are coordinated spots that we're asking you to do it and then not ask people to do it. So the ask I have tonight is to get with the community partners who do this work every day. And I have had, like I said, some preliminary conversations with the ones that I've had the opportunity to talk to. but i would uh to ask tonight is to get them together let staff come back with maybe an option a and b and say hey this is how we can accomplish that the goal is to get them to do it in a coordinated spot now the pathway there um i don't quite have all of that fleshed out but i think you know the professionals who are in the space could say if you did it this way uh you know it could accomplish what your goal my goal is to get it accomplished is to not have our parks full of trash at the conclusion of it and to make sure that there's no gaps in between you know the people who need the service and to make sure that it's clear as to where the support is and to make sure that the city can support it from a trash perspective as well

And we're not heading towards ordinances that would punish anybody who's not working within these designated spaces.

I mean, nothing happens tonight, so I think we're asking the how. All I'm trying to do now is to see if there's enough support for the concept, the what. When staff comes back with it, you'll have to, I mean, I can't answer that. You know what I mean? So I think it would be speculative for me to answer it. So I don't know what they're going to come back and say. So I'm sure that they will come back with recommendation A and B. But tonight's ask is, is this an effort that can be supported to get us to get to the next step to answer some of those questions? All right, so Councilmember Jones and Davis, talk about that for a second.

I rescind, sir, I'm good. Yep, very quickly, I was just gonna make a motion. I appreciate it because it brings in that public safety aspect. That, for me, is the huge part there.

All right, so Council, I'll look to you for action on it. Oh, Councilmember Ferguson, did you add something?

Okay, I thought did you make the motion yeah 18 seconds, sir.

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so All right, so much about Jones second about Ferguson. All right council look to you for action All right, thank you counseling and Well staff will come back with the reports to some of those questions councilman Macmillan all right The next item, 6.09, is one that I've talked to Cliffdale West neighborhood about. Previously, I made a commitment to them to have an assessment done in their community about the location of fire hydrants um in particular and this has gone back probably a year year and a half i know chief dove sent some information and i know the city you know has the some of the highest ratings and available for fire departments the iso ratings um but to chief dove's acknowledgement uh there were uh these these even though the area is covered it is not at the recommended rate of distance in between and so he did come back with some preliminary information about what it would take to add some additional hydrants it is in an area that aqua covers and not pwc But it wasn't about the service provider of the water this was about the city have the right number of 5 hydrants to meet according to whatever the recommended ISO standards were and and. Of course, district 8 councilmember McMillan is probably heard this conversation as well. So some of those areas in West Fayetteville are covered, you know they have trucks and they have other coverage items but This specifically was for any area for us to look at what it will be robustly to make sure that fire hydrants are the right distances apart, particularly in areas of West Fayetteville that had different, not necessarily urban rule standards when it was annexed in. So that was the ask tonight. Any questions I can answer about it? Councilman McNair, is your light on this from the last time?

Okay, all right, yes, miss me help me understand I'm confused about the fire hydrant part because as you know, in Southwest Fayetteville is hardly no fire hydrants anywhere. A stone point down the room, barefoot room. There's no fire hydrants so she written mark can you come up and explain to me what's the purpose of having 5 not only that most fires are put out by fire hydrants to put out by the water trucks. So I'm trying to determine what's the purpose of having so many fire hydrants if we're not using them.

I'll speak to specific requests. That's the problem, that they did not, you know, you're covering it with water trucks, but some of these neighborhoods, if you go to neighborhoods that are in the inner city, the distance between them are not the same as those out to the west, to your acknowledgement that you don't see a lot of fire hydrants. Go ahead, sir, if you can.

Correct. And you, sir, you already alluded to that. The neighborhoods that you're talking about in West Fayetteville were built when they were still in the county and under different fire code requirements at the time. The fire code requirements in the city of Fayetteville and the current fire code requirements require spacing of approximately 400, 600 feet apart. Now, that can vary a little bit depending upon the occupancy type, the construction type, the fire flow requirements for those buildings. Currently, and we've known this has been a concern since the area was annexed in 2004, and we have been addressing it using our trucks, bringing the water to it. But that is a problem when the fire, if we don't get notified in time, the fire gets beyond our initial control, past the incipient phase, where we need higher fire flow and we don't have hydrants nearby, then we have to run truck shuttles, we have to call additional trucks, request additional personnel, and those such things.

So your point is we need fire hydrants in these communities?

Fire hydrants is one option, yes sir.

So what if I told you I have at least 10 communities that don't have a fire hydrant at all?

Chief knows that. We're aware. Okay. So here's the thing. Us not addressing it doesn't fix it. So this came because of Cliff Dale West.

Let me just say that I understand that, Mr. Mayor. But I think I brought this up maybe a year and a half ago, the Chief Dove.

Well, I'm down to five minutes and 52 seconds. I'm tracking, Mr. Mayor. All right. Council Member McMillan.

First, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to appreciate my neighbors, especially Mr. Robinson, who might be watching, who's out in Clifftail West. This goes back many, many years and many, many councils. In terms of an issue and a grievance, I want to say when all is said and done, it'd be prudent for us to have a comprehensive look at all the neighborhoods, all the legacy neighborhoods that are impacted by this. And then also to prioritize where we should allocate our resources. Another piece of this is, There are some cost benefits to investing instead of more fire hydrants into trucks, high capacity trucks that are more mobile. I do also want to thank Chief Dove who has come to Cliffdale West. It was there last month. and told the community about the need for prioritization and process, but also Chief Dove told them, I'm not going to say no to more fire hydrants. I want them just as much as you. However, it's prudent for us to have a process for how we prioritize and take a comprehensive look at this. But thank you to Cliffdale West for bringing this to the forefront.

All right. All right. Council will look to you for action for you to consider on that. And this one was, I agree with that, but the specific ask because it was a legacy issue out there. And when they come back with it, you know, we can expand it. But right now this was something that was brought by.

So are we talking about all of the annexed areas in the city, Mr. Mayor, or are we just talking about one specific area?

Initially this one was Cliffdale West as a pilot can be considered since they had to research already.

Yes sir and Mr. Mayor we will be prepared to do not only annexation area but anywhere else where we might have gaps but we'll focus on the annexation area first.

All right thank you council. Council 6.010 is Councilman Ferguson.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Okay, October 8th, 2016, Hurricane Matthews happened. Of the one way in and one way out communities, the city focused on two severely affected communities, Rayconda with 237 homes, Kings Grant with more than 500 homes at the time. 19 days later, safe route into Fayetteville neighborhood repaired in record time, WRAL. Six months later, April 11th, 2017, the city of Fayetteville received $1.2 million grant from Golden Leaf Foundation. 900K, 900,000 of that went to the entrance for a new entrance into Ray Conda subdivision, which had a little more than 200 homes. The rest, 300K was used to remove debris from Cross Creek. 14 months after Hurricane Matthew, December 28th, 2017, The second entrance to Ray Conda was completed. August 23rd, 2019, three years later, CBS News 17. Three years after Hurricane Matthew, Fayville neighborhood road finally gets fixed. Three years. The thousands of residents who live and drive in Kings Grant had to enter and exit through a one lane trail through a muddy church baseball field. They were bound by catastrophe for three years, two years ago. Fast forward for time's sake, a list was comprised of more than 100 one-way and one-way out communities. That list was prioritized down to 17 communities. Is Mr. Reeves here? No, he's left. Mr. Reeves told me during a conversation that we had, a meeting we had, I asked him how many other neighborhoods in Fayetteville out of these 17 on that list had been compromised or had any incident where they're one way in one way out compromise them he said none of them none of the others on this entire list that was created by the council has ever had any incident where they were compromised so the city approved funding for the project planning which is was has been complete allocated funding for the next phase of land acquisition and here we are a whole decade later And the money is put to sidewalks which will cause the project to stop and wait another year as the prices continue to escalate. First Kings Grant is the only one still on this list, or the only one on the list, period, that has ever had an incident. The community has grown since by hundreds of homes. We have 147 coming to Liberty Hills 2. Now mind you, this is an addition, still one way in, one way out. We have a developer who is still interested in partnering with the city on a secondary entrance. And this is not just about King's Grant. This is really about all of the one way in and one way out entrances. And I believe that there's other funding into other ways through ARPA, FAMPO, grants. What pots of money we have or could be used for the project as well as others. So we'll have a better understanding where council and city should start looking for money for this and all the other one way in, one way out. So my desire is for staff to research and present to council how CIP projects like this, these one way in, one way out entrances, like King's Grant's second interest, Farmers Road have ever been funded or could be funded at the local, state, and federal levels to help guide our future efforts. Furthermore, I ask that the CIP committee, in collaboration with staff, present council with a clear prioritization matrix detailing the criteria used in the decision making process for CIP projects. Can I answer any questions you might have?

Thank you, Councilman Ferguson. I had a question. Councilmember McMillan has a question in Thompson. Oh, was your light on for the last time? I do have a question. Okay, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you Mr. Mayor. One of the things I liked about this proposal was the CIP prioritization matrix. It goes back to conversations we had again during the budget season about priorities. I would love to see criteria, weights if that's applicable, and for us to start making more decisions.

uh based on a process that's thorough and so i appreciate you bringing that as part of this this offering absolutely thank you all right thank you um council councilmember ferguson thank you for that that was informative um just to give some context to it it was a couple things you said they want to make sure that are corrected okay One, it was not a council list. The manager, at the request of your predecessor, hired an outside consultant to do this report. Is that correct, Mr. Manager? The council accepted it. Hold on a second. So they did, but it was not council's list. So we didn't take the information, create the criteria. Can you talk about the process in which you acquired? And how much did that report cost, $500,000? Wait.

roughly. I don't recall that mayor.

It's been some time right so you know what because I know he's got a clock ticking so and so but there was a there was a report to write share with you and I have that it is Sir and you also saw on that report that half a million dollar report that it had. 2 of the neighborhoods before that correct right and so I agree with you that this is a public safety issue just like it is for locks Creek, you know the same storm that you reference in 2016, yes, that's great folks right I'm referring to one way and yet yes, sir, so so so I I think I would support following the recommendation of the $500,000 report which says that there's Robin Hills There is also Creeks Edge. Creeks. And there's King's Grant. Right. But that's what the consultants said, not us.

Right, two years ago.

Yeah, right. But it's still a report by subject matter experts, because you and I. No, I got you. I got you on that. I'm just saying, but that was two years ago. So if you want an updated report, I get that. But I think you just put it out there that it was a council-driven decision, and we basically, I agree, should follow the report.

It was council-approved, so that's what I meant.

I'm sorry. All right. All right. Council Member Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to clarify one statement when it comes to the Hurricane Matthew that came through in 2016, which I was a board member in reconduct. And living in there. Yeah, right. And living in the same neighborhood. Correct. uh the longleaf uh pine money that came in was came in for an emergency funding the emergency funding that put in a temporary entrance only funding yeah foundations right right uh it was voted on by the board to add a new interest it wasn't voted on by the residents because the board had provisions over the residents because they was appointed i voted against it But it's a good thing that I didn't because less than a year later, that bridge breached. So we were still back to one way in and one way out. And that's where we are now after the last hurricane. I can't remember. I think it was Helene that we're still at the one way in, one way out entrance. So without that funding, we would still be stuck with no way in and no way out.

But you got it. Without it, I get it, sir. I do understand, but you did get it, and it was repaired.

All right, so you ready for your answer?

Yes, so my question, I'm asking staff to research, present to council how CIP projects like the King Grant Second Entrance, Farmer's Road, have ever been funded or could be funded at the local, state, and federal levels. This will help us guide our future efforts. And furthermore, I'm asking the CIP committee, in collaboration with staff, to present to council a clear prioritization matrix detailing the criteria used in the decision making process for CIP projects like this.

Question on the motion, Mr. Mayor. Yes. So you're telling us to circumvent the study that has already been done by the CIP committee?

I'm not telling you to circumvent the, I'm asking us- You're asking us to create another priority list. No, I'm talking to present the priority list you have. If you have, if you go to- The priority list has already been presented by the study. No, no, what I'm saying is, I want to, my request is to how do you prioritize it not to circumvent this i'm saying you have matter of fact on the list on the website on actually on the plan it says has a rigorous planning and prioritization based on clearly defined criteria oh i want you no studying no research just tell us what that

And staff could answer that question today.

Right, that's not going to come from the CIP committee. Staff has that information.

I'm asking the CIP committee to come to us and show us the process by which they prioritize. What's your council member request? That's it, it's right there.

Right, but I'm saying that's a committee request. So what you're asking us to vote on now, because the time is up, is to tell the CIP committee to bring the criteria and present it back to council. Or how you set priorities.

Yeah, the CIP committee with the help of the staff to come back to council to give us a clear matrix on how they go about prioritizing these CIP projects.

You hire a consultant and you go by what he says.

It's two years later. We're two years later. Many things have happened. A lot of things have transpired. You even said that it's got breached again. So when things happen, we've got to go.

So you want to update his study?

I don't want to update its study. I want exactly what it says in the thing. I want it to tell us how you are. There's a process for prioritizing, right? It's right in your policy, but it says it's a robust system that you prioritize. Now you're saying we send it to another place, an outside committee. I'm saying, I'm not saying anything.

I'm trying to understand what you're saying because I'm not following it. So when he sends the RFP out to the people who provided the study, it had the criteria in there. It said, look at safety, look at this, so the manager could answer those questions. I'm asking, what is your ask of this board?

That's my ask.

But when you said you can answer...

all right so council his his times it's it's yeah it's two requests all right so i'm trying to get you to clear them get you cleared up one more time after him but then we got to move because everybody gets the same amount of time but when we come back to the cip and i understand about the priority you're trying to find out how the pro how the list becomes a priority list but also what you have to also understand is once that stuff comes to city council It can be changed anyway. That priority list can be changed.

Okay.

Well, then that's your answer. You already know that because we've done that this year during budget time. Well, that's even better.

Well, I'm saying in order to change it, you've got to re-look at it. You've got to look at it. You said yourself, Mayor, that we need to re-look at this.