If y
all give us just a minute.
Oh, there we go. All right, so
we will. We
ll call our AUGUST
24th meeting to order. We
welcome those who join us in
the audience, those who will
also, uh. Those who are also
joining us remote. We welcome
you at this time, as with every
meeting, we would like to start
with our invocation and prayer.
We have Apostle APRIL Hightower
of the New Salem International
Ministries. Apostle Hightower,
if you would, if we could
please stand for the prayer
immediately following. If we
could repeat the Pledge of
Allegiance.
Gracious father, we paused at
the beginning of this gathering
to recognize the
responsibilities, duties, and
assignment given to our mayor
and the City Council. MAY those
who serve in this chamber be
guided by wisdom, integrity,
fairness, and courage. Give
them the ability to listen
carefully. Consider diverse
perspectives, and make
decisions with the well-being
of our entire community in
mind. MAY they remember that
behind every policy and every
decision, our people, families,
children, seniors, veterans,
workers, business owners,
students, neighbors, and
individuals from many cultures,
backgrounds, and traditions
that rely on their decision
making ability to enhance the
future of our great city. Help
us to build a city where every
person is treated with dignity
and respect, where differences
do not divide us, but broaden
our understanding where
opportunity is pursued with
fairness and where compassion
guides our response to those
who are experiencing
difficulty. Grant our elected
leaders patience when
challenges are difficult,
humility when perspectives
differ, and wisdom to seek
common ground without
compromising the principle of
justice and human dignity that
represents our creator. Your
word reminds us to seek wisdom,
to pursue justice, to love
mercy, and to walk humbly. MAY
those principles guide the work
that takes place in this
chamber on today, that
contribute to a safer,
stronger, compassionate
and united Fayetteville. Bless
the mayor, the city council,
city officials, employees, and
all who contribute to the life
and future of our community.
Give them clarity when
decisions are difficult
patients, when opinions differ,
and discernment to recognize
solutions that strengthen the
entire community and everything
we give you thanks and praise
with gratitude. Humbleness for
the opportunity to serve your
people with hope for the future
of our city. MAY we move
forward together in peace. In
your name. We prayerfully
submit this petition on behalf
of our leaders as we trust you
throughout this process. Amen.
Amen.
Very good.
I pledge allegiance to.
The flag..
United States of. America and
to the Republic for which it
stands.
One nation under GOD,
indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
Pastor Hightower, thank you for
that wonderful prayer. I have
known you for a long time.
You
re doing great work in your
ministry on Murchison Road with
the after school care and some
of the other things that you
re
doing, tell the audience a
little bit about yourself and
your ministry.
Yes, sir. My name is Apostle
APRIL Hightower. I bring you
greetings on behalf of New
Salem International Ministries,
located at 4006 Murchison Road,
right here in the GOD Bless
City of Fayetteville, North
Carolina. The focus and purpose
of our ministry is to teach
biblical principles and
strategies that
s going to
challenge you to change in
order to improve your quality
of life and for specific areas,
spiritual growth, community and
economic development, housing,
as well as educational
excellence. On this weekend,
our community and we are
inviting the entire city of
Fayetteville to come out. We
re
having a Community Giveback
Back to School program, where
we
re going to have free
haircuts. We
re giving away
school supplies. We
re also
giving away food, clothing, and
we
re also going to have, um,
information concerning our
upcoming private school, New
Salem Christian Academy, that
will be opened up in the 2027,
2028 school year. So we
ll be
giving our information
concerning that. So you all are
welcome to come if you
re not
busy this Saturday from 10 to
3.
Alright. Thank you. Can we give
Pastor Hightower, Pastor
Hightower around.
The floor? Pastor.
Apostle Hightower.
What time would that be?
10:00 to 3:00.
Ten. Okay. All right.
All right. Well, thank you so
much, Apostle. Thank you for
that wonderful prayer. Uh,
Council, as we move to the next
item, we have the
announcements. I will go to
Council Member Jones.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. I just
want to take a few moments to
acknowledge my other half. Um,
she started a journey with me
right after undergraduate
school. She was a Winston-Salem
state ram. I was a Fayetteville
State Bronco. Didn
t hold that
against her. Uh, but she. I
decided to to marry this young
man at the time. So I
m excited
to just share that on this
Friday, we will be celebrating
our 28th wedding anniversary.
So I love you, honey. Just
wanted to let you know that.
Thank you, MR. Mayor.
Your smart man, sir. Uh,
COUNCILMAN Here.
Thank you. Mayor. Uh, I would
like to reiterate from. I was
trying to get it all on on my
kid. Yeah. I just want
reiterate from last week that,
um, this weekend, that
Saturday, the 29th, from 10
A.M. To 3 P.M., we will be
having the 34th annual Youth
Mojo Festival that will be in
the, um, Smith or Seabrook
Park, and we hope that you will
come out there and enjoy the
unity time and bring your
family. It
s going to be a big
day of food trucks, and you can
get your blood pressure
checked. And just a whole lot
of great health and fun times.
And for those of you that have
not, uh, registered to vote,
you will also have an
opportunity to do that with the
naacp, naacp, they they will
have a table in partnership
with, uh, uh, a Omega Psi Phi
fraternity, the Beta Chi
chapter. We look forward for
you coming out and stopping at
our table. Thank you. Mayor.
Yes, sir. All right, COUNCILMAN
Davis. Thank you, MR. Mayor.
I just wanted to announce that,
uh, Fayetteville is very own
Fayetteville. Cumberland Youth
Council is having a member
interest meeting on SEPTEMBER
3rd, um, from 6:30 P.M. To 8
P.M.. Uh, any ninth through
12th graders who are interested
in being a voice for your, um,
age demographic. Please join
them at the Federal Youth
Council office at 725 West
Rowan Street on SEPTEMBER 3rd,
from 630 to 8 P.M.. Thank you,
MR. Mayor.
Thank you. Um, all right,
counselor, seeing no other
announcements, I moved 5.0. The
city manager
s report. Mr.
Hewitt.
Uh. Thank you, thank you.
Mayor.
Um, two quick announcements.
And both of them are very
positive. Um, on this past
Wednesday, the Fayetteville
Fire Department traveled to
Chicago and earned the
international accreditation
from the Commission on Fire
Accreditation International for
the fourth time. So if we
could, Chief Dove, if you. And
when you come up and give your
presentation as well, if you
could tell the council more
about that. But this, uh, the
accreditation is a process of
self-assessment verified
through peer review. And our
Fayetteville Fire Department is
one of only 127 fire
departments on the planet. Wow.
To carry the iso class one and
internationally accredited
recognition. So if.
You could. Thank you.
Outstanding.
The other quick announcement
is, um, this past weekend has
also been very instrumental as
well. Our assistant clerk,
Paula Hanbury, um, received her
North Carolina certified
Municipal Clerk certification.
Uh, the certification
recognizes municipal clerks
have completed over a year
professional education and
training focused on knowledge
and skills essential to
effectively serve their
communities and pass the
required exams. The
certification reflects the
commitment to professional
excellence, continuous
learning, and the highest
standards of Municipal Clerk
Service. So MISS Hamburg.
, Paula.
That
s all sir.
All right. Thank you.
Congratulations again to Chief
Dove and our great fire
department. I know we look
forward to hearing your
presentation tonight, but thank
you. Uh, as outstanding, uh, of
127 on the planet. So that
s
huge. So we thank you. And the
hard work that you all do every
day. And MISS Paula, certainly
atulate you, uh, for
your credentials and all the
city employees. We have a very
hard working, dedicated and
qualified team, uh, that work
hard day in and day out. A lot
of you don
t see, uh, all the
work that they do behind the
scenes to keep the city
running. But we thank each and
every one of you. So, um, so
with that, council will move to
the approval of the agenda item
6.0. I
ll entertain a motion to
approve. We
ll use our systems
as a motion by Councilmember
Hair. Is there a second?
Second. All right. We
re going
to use our short. I heard
Councilmember McNair down here.
All right. So.
Uh.
Trying to get it..
Any any discussion on the
motion. All right. Council look
to you for your votes to
approve the agenda. All right,
MADAM Clerk. It
s unanimous.
Moving to the consent items.
Uh, we, uh, had a couple of, uh,
consent item questions. Uh,
think Councilmember Jones
7.085. I think. All right. And
Council, if you could, uh, put
a separate up or down on oh
six. I know we
ve had this was
a continuation. Um, so if we
could approve the agenda with
those two items. COUNCILMAN
Jones, uh, you want to make a
motion?
Yes. I move to approve the
consent agenda. Agenda. With
the exception of pulling 7.805
and 7.806.
All right.
There, a second. Second, second
by COUNCILMAN Davis. That
s all
I
m sure. System. All right.
Discussion on that. All right,
counselor, look to you for your
votes. This is approved with
the exception of those two
items. All right. Motion
carries, uh, item 7.085. I
ll
go to you, Councilmember Jones.
Thank you so much. Uh, just
wanted to provide some clarity,
uh, for the for the community
in regards to this item. Uh, I
am in support of it as it is
written, uh, at this time. So I
wanted to just provide some
additional clarity. So what I
want to do, I just want to
recap my understanding and you
can fill in the gaps. I don
t
want to take a lot of time. Uh,
there were obviously some, some
concerns from the community in
regards to this particular, uh,
rezoning. And so I just wanted
to provide some information to
address those. Uh, the first
aspect of that, uh, it was
originally planned to rezone
again, about 123 acres from Lee
to h. I. And part of that, uh,
rezoning, per my understanding,
was one, uh, addressing, uh,
temporary storage. And then
another aspect was some
building, uh, modifications
there. So those were two
things. Uh, so the current, uh,
recommendation, which was
revised, which I again, I
m in
approval, I
m in, um, agreement
with is to reduce that
rezoning, uh, down to 61 acres.
And that would be for the area
there where they
re actually
going to build the extension of
the steel fab, uh,
manufacturing. All right. In
addition to that, there were
some concerns with the Rose
s
Lake, uh, bed possibly being
touched. And then there
s a
conservative, uh, conservation
district out there. And then
beyond that, there was a layer
of trees there and just
providing some visuals. Uh, so,
as currently met, the Rose
s
Lake Lake bed will not be
touched. The conservation
district, they have agreed to
keep that in place, uh, as
Yes, COUNCILMAN. That
s all
correct.
All right. And then thirdly,
this should address the aspect
of ownership. Uh, this isn
t
this isn
t an odd, uh,
situation. It
s something that
actually occurs very frequently
within real estate, where if
someone doesn
t necessarily,
uh, own a property, they can do
an affirmation of an affidavit
of ownership. Is that correct?
Correct. That happens almost
every rezoning. We do.
Yes. And it
s not just big
organization, it
s smaller
ones. It
s smaller businesses
as well. And basically I just
wanted the community know it
s
hey, I want to I
m wanting to
buy this land before I buy it.
I want to make sure that I can
do what I need to do with it.
And it
s no different than if I
was opening a a salon or
something, somewhere. I want to
make sure that I can get that.
So that had just been, uh, in
place, uh, thirdly, fourthly,
and the last aspect, part of a
small portion of their
operations, uh, would be moved
from the front of Steel Fab,
which is right there, located
near one of my Whispering Pines
community, uh, to the back. So
that was a plus for this
particular community. I
ve,
I
ve spoken with, uh, those of,
uh, Whispering Pines, and we
just had our Hillandale West
meeting as well. And I know
some of the individuals, uh,
did go to the zoning commission
as well to voice their
concerns. And so I just wanted
to provide that. So if there
s
any aspects that I
ve missed
that would provide some
clarity, uh, on some things, if
you would do that, that, that
would I would greatly
appreciate it.
I think, COUNCILMAN, you you
covered it pretty well right
there. I think you
ve you
ve
been pretty much involved in
this, uh, for a while. So, you
know, well what
s been going on
and what the concerns are out
there.
Okay. All right. And, MR.
Mayor, I
ll be ready to make a
motion.
Yes, sir. It
s on you.
All right, so I
m moved.
To approve the. Amended map
amendment to heavy industrial
and retaining the current city
area as presented on the
evidence based submitted and
findings that the rezoning is
consistent with the future land
use plan, as demonstrated by
the attached consistency and
reasonable statement.
All right. Motion by
Councilmember Jones looks like.
Second by hair. Discussion. All
right, counselor, look to you
for your votes on oh five.
Good question sir. Good
questions.
MADAM Clerk. Can we MISS..
Council Member Ferguson.
Pardon? What are you doing now?
Okay. All right. Motion carries
you. Thank you. All right.
Thank you. Uh, 7.06 is a
continuation of a special use
permit. Um, that, uh, we heard
a few weeks back, um, asked
this item to be pulled for a
separate vote. Um, special use
permit just to our audience.
Uh, are basically governed by,
uh, state statute, which says
that there are a number of
findings of facts. Six in this
case, um, that, uh, sworn
testimony in, uh, uh, evidence,
uh, either support or, uh, or
do not support or build a case
to support or not support, um,
these findings and facts for
counsel. So counsel wanted a
separate vote for this for
consent. Um, and uh, with that
can entertain a motiono
consider this item unless there
were some further questions.
COUNCILMAN Hondros.
So move, MR. Mayor.
Move to approve.
All right. Motion by
Councilmember Hondros. And that
is to approve, sir. Yes. All
right. And it
s a it
s a
special use. Does he have to
read these findings? Okay. All
right. So the motion by
COUNCILMAN Hondros, is there a
second? Seconded by
Councilmember Green. All right.
Discussion. All right.
Counselor, look to you for your
votes. All right, MADAM Clerk.
Motion carries seven three.
Those voting oppose Thompson.
Colvin, Davis. All right, all
right. Moving to public hearing.
Uh, at this time, we are
preparing to hold a public
hearing where the city council
formally seeks your input.
Individuals desiring to speak
in the hearing. MR.. Signed up
to speak with the city clerk by
name and address before the
start of tonight
s meeting.
We
ll begin with the staff
presentation. Then we
ll move
into the formal hearing. 15
minutes will be allowed by
those in favor and those
opposed to the item in the
hearing. Individual speakers
are limited to three minutes
each, unless by previous
arrangement. A single
spokesperson is designated, in
which case the spokesperson MAY
use the entire 15 minutes. When
the city clerk calls your name,
please come to the podium.
Please clearly state your name
and address for the record. You
MAY then begin to address the
council when the light changes
from green to amber. That means
you have approximately 30s
remaining and at the conclusion
of your time, the timer will
ring or the light will turn
red. So at this time I
ll stop
and turn it over to you. Sir.
Good evening.
Good evening, good evening.
Let
s get this thing up. Oh.
Well, I don
t see the
presentation now. Thank you.
Good evening, MR. Mayor.
Members of the council. Um, my
name is Scott Walters. I
m with
the development Services
department. Uh, this will be a
short presentation on possible
text amendments to our sign
code specifically related to
wall mounted signage, window
signage, and the downtown two
district. Um, the council has
already seen this presentation
once before at their work
session on JUNE the 1st. Um,
the original presentation had
seven examples of those seven
examples, four were selected by
the council to move forward for
public hearing. The staff
presented the four examples to
the Planning Commission, um, at
their JULY 21st meeting, uh, as
part of the public hearing
process and to get their
recommendations tonight, we
bring it back before the
council. Uh, for your
consideration. Uh, the first
example in this is, uh, for
mounted signage. And
what we
re doing with this
example is we would remove the
five sign limit that we
currently have in place. Uh,
and then building mounted
signage would only be regulated
by the wall area of each side
of the building using the
increased allowance below. Um,
the way it reads, unless
otherwise stated, the permitted
copy area for building mounted
signage shall be calculated as
the greater of either. Um.
Currently it
s 1 to 1. We would
increase that to 1.5 to 1, and
the second one is 10%
currently. And that would
increase to 15%. The next is
the downtown two district. Uh,
this would remove the downtown
two districts from the
limitations of the subsection
below. Uh, and it would place
or allow the two district to
use the same standards as all
other nonresidential districts
for building. Building mounted
signage currently, the two
district is, uh, limited to one
exterior building of sign per
street front. Example f is
windows, signage, and this
would remove the limitation on
window signage related to walls
that have wall signage. Um, it
would increase to 100% coverage
of the glazed area of every
window and door on all sides of
the building. Um, and as a side
note, the d2 district is
already regulated in the same
as all other nonresidential
districts for windows, signage.
Um, below is the current
standards, as you see scratched
out, uh, 50% of the cumulative
square footage of the glazed
area. Um, that would increase
to 100%. Um, and we would take
away, as it says, down there
below, shall not exceed the
square footage of an installed
wall sign. And what that really
means is if there
s a wall sign
up there smaller, then what is
allowed for the glazed area.
Then you would have to stick
with the signage size of the
wall sign instead of the. So we
were removed. Both of those
standards and increase it to
100%. Coverage. Our last
example um, and this example,
we removed the five sign limit
for building mounted signs per
building or tenant space. Allow
full wall coverage of all
building walls. So basically a
wall wrap, whether it was one
big sign encompassing the whole
side of the building or or a
wall of the building, uh, or
multiple signs, um, on any one
side or all sides of the
building. And the only
regulating um requirement would
be that they would be they
would be required to have a
sign permit for any sign that
they did place on the building.
The recommendations on JULY
21st, uh, the Planning
Commission met and voted five
zero to recommend the City
Council approve example and c
as presented below is the
example b as we showed in the
first slide. An example c, um,
is the downtown two district
example. Um, the options here,
um, approve uh, with examples
of b and c as recommended by
the Planning Commission
approval some or none of the
examples as recommended by the
Planning Commission. Um,
remaining back to staff was
specific verbiage or changes as
desired or deny all uh text
amendment options.
COUNCILMAN.
MR. Mayor.
There
s no question I
m not
prepared to.
The public.
Hearing. All right.
That will open the public
hearing.
MADAM Clerk.
Mayor, we have no speakers for
this item.
That will.
Close the public hearing.
COUNCILMAN Hondros, there
s no
questions, MR. Mayor. I
m
prepared to make a motion. Yes,
sir. I move to approve, um,
examples b, c and f. All right.
Motion by Councilmember Hondros
to approve. Is there a second
by Councilmember Davis? I
believe I on the system
discussion. All right. Council
looks to you for your votes on
this item. All right, MADAM
Clerk. Uh, that is approved
voting opposition mayor pro
tem. All right. Uh, 8.02. Uh,
MR. Van Jones, robo.
Good evening. Mayor. Council.
Pleasure to be with you here
tonight.
I don
t know, it
s right. I
m a
pdf. I got it now, I did that,
I did that last time. Apologies
there for the brief delay. And
so you have before you. We
re
happy to be back again with
another applicant for the Candu
performance financing program.
Uh, tonight we have one project
in front of you, but I think
it
s a really great one, the
one that we
ve been working
with for some time. As you MAY
recall, this program was
developed to advance city
s
goal of increasing the number
and diversity of local vendors
available to you and
institutional, uh, uh,
institutions here in the
community. Importantly, it is
designed to address the typical
barriers that keep small
companies from growing,
especially those in low and
moderate income communities.
And it overcomes the hurdles of
traditional lending. It
s
administered by the 501 c3, and
we have a number of partners
that have worked with us
throughout this process, and
we
ll continue to. We launched
with $5 million, 2.5 million
from the city, 2.5 million from
the state, and job creating
businesses can apply for up to
$750,000 worth of funding. Uh,
I would say today a good time
to say now
s a great time to
apply. Uh, go to, uh, can do
carolina.Com and you can, uh,
and we
ll, we
ll share the link
in a moment there. But we
ll be
making a push to encourage
people to apply for our next
round of funding. But if the
company creates the required
jobs, the funds are treated as
a forgivable loan, meaning they
don
t accrue interest. And they
t company move forward
and grow. We had 29 unique
businesses apply, uh, working
through those. We had 17
candidates that were within the
qualified areas or qualified as
into the type of business they
were. Even though we can
t fund
non-profits, a lot of
non-profits ask, uh, seven
projects were submitted to the
investment committee. Uh, six
of those went forward with one,
I think we
re, uh, to seed our
partner for reviewing of the
financial due diligence. And we
had one project that met the
scoring criteria for this round
of funding. Uh, just as a
reminder, the air is in blue
and it does change and has
changed. There
s a new link,
but this was the maps that were
in place at the time of this
round of applications. These
are yellow to moderate income
census tracts. And again, to
qualify they have to be a
company that has 15 or fewer
businesses, um, employees,
sorry, operating in the census
tract. And they have to create
one job for $25,000, provided
with at least 60 of those new
hires being from low to
moderate income households,
they have to pay at least 10%
above the local average. Uh,
for the positions. By
classification, and create 50%
of the jobs within 18 months
and 100% within five years. Uh,
our applicant today that we
re
pleased to bring forward is
Carlos Godwin and Camden
Cleaning Solutions. And if you
have a moment, we
d like to let
him have an opportunity to say
a little bit about his company
and his project. Carlos.
Hello, everyone.
Good evening. All right.
My name is Carlos Godwin. In
2019, I started my commercial
cleaning business. Um, of
course, it
s called Camden
Cleaning Solutions and we
ve
been providing services to many
companies around, uh,
Fayetteville, um, including
Fayetteville State, uh, Fort
Liberty, Fort Bragg, and we
ve
also worked with Seymour
Johnson Air Force Base. And
today we
re asking for approval
for $125,000 for capital
equipment requests. And these
requests are broken down into
three different categories. Uh,
category number one, we
re
looking for fleet. So we
re
looking for $55,000 to purchase
2 to 3. Um, um, utility vans.
Um, uh, so that we can deploy
more, um, crews simultaneously.
We
re looking at $28,000 for
floor care equipment. This is
specifically for our stripping
wax, uh, service. Um, so we
re
looking at purchasing buffers
and scrubbers and also tile
grout equipment. And then that
last, uh, bucket is $42,000 for
our specialty equipment. And
this is for our pressure
washing trailers, our carpet
cleaning and carpet extraction,
as well as some of our small,
um, uh, business equipment,
like our mop buckets and our,
our carts and, um, and things
like that. And we
re also
looking to invest some of that
last bucket into facility
changes as well as, um, safety.
Um, so this investment is just
not going to help with, um, the
bottom line. We also want to
increase our staffing. So we
we
re looking at hiring five
people, um, over the next five
years with three of those, um,
to be in the next 18 to 24
months. And we
re hiring
different positions, such asning technicians, floor
specialists, um, supervisors,
as well as hr representatives.
So, uh, again, just a quick,
uh, $125,000 request for
approval for our capital
equipment so that we can
improve our, um, our, uh, our
business and our and our
infrastructure. So I thank you
guys for the time and
opportunity. I also want to
thank the Candu program for
helping us go through this this
journey.
Thank you sir.
Yeah.
Thank you. Thank you. And I
m
sure he
s happy to answer any
questions either now or, uh,
during or after the public
hearing that
s required. Uh, we
do respectfully request that
you approve these funds. I
think importantly for folks,
these are to buy the items that
allow a company to grow that
typically would require a line
of credit or some sort of debt
instrument that adds interest
costs, makes it very hard to
purchase equipment, pay the
debt, pay your people, do the
work and wait to get paid. And
that
s what the program is
designed to do to allow them to
get the assets they need to
grow. And for people looking
for more information they go to
can do Carolina fund.Com. We
have a new application form
going up tonight. And with that
thank you for the opportunity
to present this tonight. Thank
you for the support.
All right. Thank you. Uh we
ll
see any questions at the
moment. So with that I
ll open
up public hearing. MADAM Clerk..
Mayor, we have no speakers for
this item.
All right. So with that, we
will close the public hearing
and council look to you for a
motion. Councilmember Hondros.
I have a quick question for the
gentleman from Camden. Where
is, um, headquarters? Where are
you based out of.
We
re off of, uh, Grove Street,
109 Grove Street.
Awesome. Thank you so much.
Yes.
Councilmember McNair, you had a
question. Okay. No, sir.
I will if you don
t.
Councilmember Davis, you had a
question.
I was prepared to make a
motion, sir.
That
s..
Are y
all two fighting? What
y
all doing?
No, we were just going to make
a motion. Okay, I guess all
three of us.
Y
all don
t have to fight over
motions in here. All right, um,
I saw.
That Davis make it.
Yes. All right, COUNCILMAN
Dave.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. I move, I
move that we approve. Carlos
Godwin and Camden Cleaning
Solutions llc for the can
t do
performance financing funding
in the amount of $125,000 and
authorize the kdf to release
the funds subject to the
candidate entering into an
incentive agreement. Thank you,
MR. Mayor.
All right, all right. So let me
let me get a second on that
motion as a motion by
Councilmember Davis, seconded
by hair. And that is a district
two business, I think he said
Grove Street, right?
Yes it is.
That
s why I was kind of quiet.
All right.
Councilmember.
Uh, thank you, mayor. And I
like this. I like whenever we
can support our, uh, our local
business owners right here in
Fayetteville. Uh, MR.. Robert,
tell me, who does this, who
does the verification that
everything goes through in
accordance to the request
tonight?
Uh, it is, um, it is a team
effort as far as from this
point forward. It is our staff
working with special counsel,
and then we require debt
instruments. And then we are
also working with paramedics.
Who is one of your monitoring
groups for the funds that were
provided at the time. And city
staff is apprised of all the
contractual documents that go
into it? Uh, everyone enters
into a contract, we enter a
security agreement, for
example, for the vehicles,
we
ll hold title. Uh, in t
case, so should we know? I have
good faith in this project. And
actually, in all of the
companies we
ve been working
with. But should someone try to
do something like sell our
vehicle, they wouldn
t be able
to do that without, uh,
without, you know, actually,
they would not be able to do
that legally. So we do the
right things. We can. But we
also know that these are small
businesses. There
s risk
involved and they
re trying to
grow. But it is. We also work
with seed. And then when
companies need training or
upskilling, we work with the
hub at fsu or applicants who
maybe aren
t ready yet. So we
do have a variety of different
partners throughout.
Great. I
m glad to hear that
and I
m ready to vote. Mayor.
All right, I have a couple more
questions. Councilmember
McNair.
And I just wanted to say,
before we vote to MISTER
Carlos, congratulations,
because you do have my vote and
I
m excited for you, you and
your new staff.
All right, all right.
You said we do have a team of
experienced financial
volunteers that sit on our
steering committee. And
Michelle Scott here is the one
that has to check off and sign
off on any piece of paper that
comes in before it gets
anywhere.
Yeah. All right. Councilmember
McMillan.
Yeah. Thank you, MR. Mayor.
Yeah. Encouraged by. This
program. I definitely want to
see a grow in more applicants.
Accepted. Uh, question for robo
and then a question for MISTER
Camden. Uh, I
ll go with MISTER
Camden first. How did you find
out about this? Uh, this
program would encourage you to
apply, and then I
ll go ahead
and give you my my question.
Uh, robo, my question for you
is just what
s the the most
common reason for denial for
applicants?
Well, uh, I was just searching
on the, uh, Fayetteville
website, and I found it. I
really didn
t understand what
it was. And then I think, I
don
t know if it was Shayla at
the time, but I reached out to
one of the, uh, the people in
the organization. They were
able to inform me. So. And then
we just started filling out
paperwork and going through the
whole process.
Okay. Glad that you did. Thank
you.
And I think today I would say
that, uh, it
s not so much
denial as in, and this is
something we
re working really
hard on by identifying
businesses and sending out
mailers, now trying new ways to
get the word out. And we need
as much help as possible on
that. This fund is targeted for
small, existing businesses to
help them grow like you
ve got
right here, a person who
s got
full time, you know, working
full time with the employees in
that we
ve had, uh, I
d say the
challenge we
ve had is we
ve
had a large number of people
that haven
t yet really gotten
started and set up. So we
ve
been working to try to get them
the tools they need to become a
fully incorporated operating
business versus a secondary
contract work. And so that
s
really been the challenge for
the vast majority of folks that
have come in. They haven
t been
ready yet. Uh, we have some
people that have come back and
been able to grow through that,
and others we feel very
confident they will be able to.
Sometimes they want to take a
step from step one to step 14,
and we
ve been working to try
to help them get into something
around step five and six before
they come back. And, you know,
look for this bigger project.
So it takes a lot of time. But
also to the other side is we
have a lot of early, earlier
stage companies. I know I feel
confident there
s a lot of
businesses that are out there
doing the work every day and
are trying to keep up with
everything they have to do to
keep their business going. That
haven
t yet heard about this. I
think your business is a
perfect example. Uh, even
business. How long now? Since
2019. So he
s a perfect fit for
this when it first came out.
N
t until the second
round where he was able to hear
about it. So I think, you know,
I think we just need to get the
word out to qualifying existing
businesses. We have other
programs for startups. We have
other grant programs for really
big companies. But this is
unique in the sense it
s for a
small existing business to help
them grow.
Right. Thank you. Thank you.
And, uh, MR. Godwin again, uh,
good work. Very impressive. Um,
Robert, when we when we first
talked about this, it was a gap
that needed to be filled
because as you said, there
s
there
s something here,
regardless of what stage your
business in and if it
s a
conceptual idea, you have the
hub, what you
re helping with,
business plans and, and other
services to help you get
incorporated and tax id numbers
and all those kind of things
that that people need when you
first start, then you have
those who have been in business
who learn the trade, but now
they they
re ready to grow and
scale, which is MISTER Godwin.
And then you have our community
development. So there
s
something along the way, uh,
regardless of what size your
business is that, that, uh,
some of these services in the
community that are available to
you, uh, again, we just want to
encourage people to apply.
There
s a success story for, I
think maybe the first one we
approved, uh, the local
contractor, she bought
additional equipment with it.
And now my understanding is she
just got recently awarded a $4
million contract.
The usda grant from the North
Carolina. Right. Going to be
able to grow up and have, uh,
16 employees. Now, uh, vast,
exceeding quickly exceeding
their job creation
expectations. And I have a
feeling, well, Carlos has five
years to get it because we
didn
t want it to be a burden
on compliance for the company.
I have no doubt he
s going to
meet those numbers much faster
than that.
So. Fantastic. Well, look, I
don
t want to delay this any
further. Council, COUNCILMAN
Davis.
Uh, what can you tell us when
the next cycle for applications
can come in?
We if we get a large influx, we
tend to run as a group. But you
can apply any time. Okay. So
and now is a perfect time
because we
ve just worked
through this approval here. And
so we are absolutely ready.
We
ve got a brand new form
online that
ll make applying
even easier on our site. So now
is a perfect time. It
s always
a good time to give us a call.
And we we can handle just about
anything that comes in.
Thank you sir.
All right. Council look to you
for your votes. There are no
other questions. All right.
Motion carries. Unanimous.
Congratulations. Let
s go and
look forward to great things.
For.
All right, all right. Council
moving to the 9.01 staff
reports. Starts out with our
Chief Dove and our iso rated
fire department 135. In the in
the world 100 271 2727. Oh,
man. I gotta say, I
m not
really ready. It
s only 711 at
night. Look. Don
t smoke. Hey,
hey, uh, I thought you wanted
to get through this without a
complication. Oh, you don
t
worry. Let me think of some
questions for you. Yeah. I
usually psych myself up. I
wasn
t ready yet. Oh, good
evening, MR. Mayor. Members of
the council, Kevin Dove, fire
chief, uh, here tonight,
presenting the calendar year
2026, second quarter report.
Uh, we have three highlights,
uh, for the second that
we
re very excited to share.
Um, as Doctor Hewitt said, we
went through our accreditation
process and we
re awarded
accreditation for the fourth
time. Uh, and what I need
everybody to know is that
s not
done in a vacuum. That
s not
done just by the fire
department. That
s a a whole
group effort by the city. Uh,
when our peer assessors come
in, they interview city
manager
s office, they
interview it, they interview
hr, finance, budget, um, and
our number one center,
obviously. And if those folks
don
t have their ducks in a
row, it doesn
t work for us. So
we also share this with them
and we
re appreciative of their
work. Uh, and also I have to
thank our partners at
Fayetteville Technical
Community College. Uh, they
gave us that beautiful training
center that we take advantage
of every day. And that helps a
ton as well. Um, also, we
participated in a smoke alarm
Saturday canvass where we
visited 111 homes and installed
135 smoke alarms in three
hours. All free of charge. And
we held our groundbreaking for
fire station 16. So it was a
good quarter.
Yeah, yeah.
Um, moving on to operations,
um, we responded to 7359 calls
in quarter two, a slight
increase from 2025, with APRIL
being the busiest of three
months. Uh, 4452 of those calls
were medical in nature. 1115
false alarms, 1018 service
calls, and 317 fires. Uh, we
have your heat maps that you
like to see. Um, this is your
fire map. And this followed
behind with the medical, uh,
map. Also, as always, we
re
happy to get you zoomed in to
your districts. If you wish to
help you, uh, identify any
issues. Uh, the response times
stay consistent with the total
response time average of seven
minutes and 31 seconds, which
is well under our eight minute
expectation. Uh, I want to give
special attention to the
decrease in alarm handling
time. Uh, we thank MISS Reid
and her staff for being very
efficient. Uh, calls are being
turned out of our 911 center.
An average of one minute and
three seconds. And chief calls
are being turned out of our 911
center. And an average of one
minute and three seconds. Uh,
before we go any further on
statistics, I need to share
with you that the us Fire
Administration has changed how
we collect and report data as
the fire service, uh, what was
known as Infers, which is the
National Fire Incident
Reporting System, is now near
us, which is the National
Emergency Response Information
System. Say that three times
fast.
Mm.
Uh, this change took place in
JANUARY of 26. So several areas
that we previously tracked are
no longer tracked and some have
been manipulated and some are
collected different. So for
about the next 2 or 3 quarters,
you
re going to see some things
that MAY be skewed. But I
ll
try my best to, uh, to point
those out to you. All right, so
for our fire statistics, there
were 317 fire responses in the
second quarter. 68 those
were structure fires. 12 of
those started in the kitchen.
Sadly, there was one civilian
fire fatality and nine civilian
injuries. There were seven
firefighter injuries.
Thankfully, all minor sprains
and strains and things like
that. The percentage of fires
confined to the room of origin
is at 57%, which is one of the
things one of the changes, uh,
previously we would identify
fires as starting in the Room
of origin contained to the
building of origin, or did it
get to an exposure? Well,
that
s changed now. Now you
just report 25%, 50%, 75% or
100% loss. So that throws that
out. Um, what we
re going to do
from now on is, of the confined
room of origin. We
re going to
count in our 25% damage. Uh,
that
s the best way we can find
to track that. The dollar saved
ratio was at 94.33%. Uh, we had
a some significant fire losses
this quarter, which brought
that number down a little bit.
Uh, that was 2.2.68 1 million
in total fire loss. Um, six of
the structure fires were
intentionally set, and we had
three lithium ion battery
fires. Uh, we did use one of
our fire blankets. We had a
lithium ion battery fire in the
back of a tractor trailer. It
was a total of, uh, batteries
that were were taken off on us.
And we were we used our, uh,
our fire blanket. The top three
fire losses were the, uh, hotel
fire on Sycamore Dairy Road.
Uh, this picture is is awesome
to me, but I
m a fireman. It
probably scares the heck out of
a bunch of people, but one of
the occupants took this out of
their window. Um, that morning,
uh, the second fire was a
residential fire on Adolphus
Road. And then we had a farm
equipment fire on Stony Point
Road. You
ll see a decrease in
ems calls. Um, this is also
another part of that near us
where some calls are now
reclassified as service calls.
Uh, overdose responses and
Narcan administration continue
to trend down. Our hazmat team
had a busy as excuse me, had a
busy quarter. Um, natural gas
response has increased almost
triple. We don
t know why there
was no smoking gun. Um, but
we
re going to continue to
monitor that. And our hazmat
team is actually right now
getting ready to go to Harnett
County, uh, for a Co call. So
they
re busy. They
re always
moving. Uh, moving on to our
most important pieces, our
human capital, our personnel.
We held our sixth annual women
in the fire service day. Uh,
this is when we invite women
interested in the fire service
to the training center. Uh,
they kick all the males out.
Our female officers and
firefighters are there to
answer their questions. They
walk them through the physical
agility test, helped them with
interview skills, and basically
show them what it takes to be a
firefighter and what it
s all
about. It was actually a really
good quarter for us in regards
to separations. Uh, this chart
looks a little dramatic. Um,
bu only had two
resignations and one retirement
in the second quarter. At the
end of the quarter, we only had
one vacancy, which was a permit
technician and fire
inspections. We filled that,
but unfortunately, we are
starting to see an increase in
resignations over the summer.
Uh, our demographics remain
very similar to quarter one
simply because we didn
t lose
many people and we only hired
one inspector. Uh, we can
continue to currently be at 26%
underrepresented population.
Our staff completed over 32,000
hours of training in the second
quarter. Um, moving on into the
fire marshal
s office, our fire
inspectors completed 1038 new
plan reviews, did 323 new
construction inspections, 3471
maintenance inspections, and
discovered 7242 fire code
violations. Luckily, most of
those are education and fixed
right there. Um, very few
require a fine or any kind of
additional action. Uh, we
issued 143 new certificate of
occupancies and distributed 106
educational flyers to
businesses. Here are the top
five fire code violations that
we find. Portable fire
extinguishers are still number
one with electrical equipment,
wiring and hazards being number
two. And last but certainly not
least is our community risk
reduction folks. Uh, we
interacted with 9999 residents,
and I was like, really? You
couldn
t find one more person
to go talk to? But, uh, they
gave me the real number. So
that
s what it is. Uh, we were
at 104 community events, 392
smoke alarms were installed.
Total 116 carbon monoxide
alarms installed, 105 children
are now riding more safely in
cars. 1018 people now no hands,
only cpr. And we did three
youth fire setting
interventions during the second
quarter. And as always, no one
should ever go to sleep without
a working smoke alarm. Call us
or scan the qr code for free
smoke alarm delivered to your
home and installed by our fine
firefighters, and I
m happy to
take any of your questions.
Uh, do have a couple
Councilmember hair. And then I
had one.
Thank you. Pretty good. Uh,
report, chief. Thank you sir.
Uh, I was trying to see. I
think it was. Well, that says
that two that you had a, you
had where a person had, uh,
lost their life. But I
ve got
it written down here as far as
statistics, but you
ve got 2 or
3 that has, have that I was
trying to see. Was that person
caught that started the fire.
No, I think you said you said
the fire that was started. Was
that person caught?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Mayor.
Chief, on, uh, the page with
fire inspections. Second
quarter. It
s got years 22, 24,
25 and 26. Yes, yes. So you
have a huge increase in fire
code violations from 25 and 26.
It doubled. Why is that?
Our inspections doubled. Um, if
you look at the new
construction inspections, none
of those were reported. We
didn
t do them in 24 and 25.
And our plans reviews have
almost doubled as well. Um, due
to the additional staff, um,
and a lot of those are found in
the new plans reviews when
they
re going through the, the
reviews and they say, hey, with
this, you need a riser here or
something over here that counts
as a violation. Really? Yes,
sir. It
s just because it has
to be noted. But it
s no, it
s,
you know, people and education.
Oh yeah. The maintenance
inspections are the 3471. Those
are the ones that are on the
three, four and five year cycle
where we go into the, uh, the
business and, and get them
squared away.
Okay.
All right. Council member, uh,
Jones and then mayor pro tem.
Thank you, MR. Mayor.
Uh, first, thank you all for
what you do. Um, was able to
attend some of the car safety
events that you partnering with
the state and others with. You
all do a good job. I just
appreciated the engagement that
you have with the community,
how responsive they were. And I
think a lot of them were
surprised. They were like, oh,
the fire department is out
here. So you are doing a lot of
things. So I run a really,
really thank you all in the
community is really, really,
uh, appreciative of you. Uh, my
question is quick now, maybe
premature asking this. If so,
you can just say so and we get
it. Um, later in the year. Uh,
I see you
re doing a good job
with your staffing and your
retention, um, as well. And I
know you mentioned some things,
uh, at this moment, what are
your plans or what is in place
to, uh, address the over
higher, uh, situation?
Um, we
ve been working with,
uh, budget, and we think we
have a solution. Um, we
re
going to we
re moving. We
re
actually moving forward with
our second, um, class of 2026
that will start in SEPTEMBER.
Uh, we
re going to on board the
over hires. Um, and we
re going
to work closely with budget to
make sure, um, we can handle
that because we
re, we
re, um,
realizing some vacancies and
some coming. Um, or
retirements. So they
re going
to they
re going to flush
themselves out. The the concern
we have is probably for the,
um, first class of 2027, um, we
MAY not be able to to bring the
over higher zone. It just
depends on what the numbers
look like.
Okay.
Okay. Understood. I think we
can address that at that time.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right. Mayor Pro.
Tem.
Uh.
Just to piggyback.
Off of.
What my colleagues said about
the partnership with state, uh,
community Services, I went out
there.
And seen one of your events
about the child car seats and a
grandpa and a papa like me did
not realize that the car seat
that I had installed was
installed. Wrong.
Papa.
So I
m glad thatent out to
that event. And I don
t know
who the young lady was, but she
corrected me. How do you get
that information out? Because I
had asked, uh, Shakeshaft a few
questions about why that, uh,
exercise only lasted a couple
of hours. And how come we
didn
t publicize that? More? So
Papa
s like me around the city
can take their cars and get
them inspected for the child
seats that
s carrying their
loved ones.
Well, I got the guy right here,
so he can, uh, I
ll take the
beating if there is one, but he
can give you the information.
So that particular event that
you were at was part of
training new car seat techs. So
that class was a week long
class which included a two hour
car seat checking station for
us to test our new techs at,
uh. However, there have been,
uh, since that day, there
s
been three more events there
between the target parking lot
and the Harris Teeter parking
lot. They
re pushed out through
our social media, and they
re
pushed out through our
partners. It
s not just the
Fayetteville Fire Department.
You have the North Carolina
Safe Kids coalition. Hope Mills
Fire Department
s been out to
help us. Uh, Fayetteville
police have been out there to
help us. So it
s pushed out
through all of our social
media
s Fort Bragg fire as
well. So all of our partners
are pushing out the flyers and
the info and the businesses.
Our local business community
between Target and Harris
Teeter and all these folks
stepping up to welcome us to
their properties. We
re going
to meet the people where
they
re at. I can put it out on
social media all day long.
We
re going to go to where you
are, where you
re shopping with
your family. We
re going to
find you.
Great job, I appreciate that.
Thank you. Sir.
Uh, Chief Dave, one more
question. You talked about the
lithium battery blankets, I
believe when I first got on
council, you told me that they
were mainly used for parking
decks, and I said you had three
of them being used for two
questions. Two parts. One. Does
every department have one boss?
Three questions. Two, do you
need more? And three, what do
you do when you have a
emergency and a blanket is not
available? Because. Because let
me back up. Because I know the
phone that we
re supposed to
use, you can
t use anymore
because it
s hazardous from
that mistake.
Yeah. Well, we we continue to
learn about lithium ion
batteries every day. Um, I
think question one was where
are they? There
s one on every
other floor, in every parking
deck in the city to include the
hospital. The hospital came on
and partnered with us, and
there
s one in every battalion
chief
s vehicle in the city.
Um, there are two big to go on.
Our regular fire trucks without
remodeling the whole truck. And
we know those things are
expensive enough as they are.
Um, so the battalion chief can
get to wherever they
re needed
really quick. And we have some
spare. So the the question is
we don
t need anymore right
now. We
re good. What was your
third part?
That was it. That was all full
up.
Okay.
Um, and we had used it. They
re
they
re multi-use. Um, they
were designed for a car fire.
My biggest concern, as we were
learning, um, battery vehicles
is when they start burning, you
can
t put them out in a timely
manner. And those concrete, um,
buildings, they do. You degrade
the concrete, they spall, you
can lose the building. So that
was the the first goal. But as
we
re learning and moving, um,
you know, we
re getting more
creative.
You just made me think of
another question, chief. Uh, I
don
t know if you know the
answer or not, but a while ago,
it was a bomb threat, and I d that the police
department had to go through
the county to get a sniffing
dog. Well, I asked the police
department that question.
That
s okay. Yeah, yeah, my
dogs don
t sniff.
Yeah, I got.
They make people feel better.
Thank you. Chief.
All right.
Counsel, I don
t see any
further questions. We
ll look
for a motion to, uh. So, MR.
Mayor. All right, so there
s a
motion by Mayor Pro tem to
receive the second quarter
report. Second by here. Any
discussion? All right. Council,
look to you for your votes to
receive. All right, chief,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, you
got offases sir.Ll
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lipa firemen and ocs,
and of course, our residents
here in Fayetteville. Good
evening.
Good evening.
So again, I
m Chief Brian. I
will be conducting our second
quarter, which will be through
JANUARY through JUNE 30th of
this year. Hold on. Let me
find. There we go. As you
ll
see, our numbers here, um,
persons, um, crime, property
crimes, felony arrests. You
ll
see pretty much in terms of our
numbers, um.
Broken down.
See, the person
s crime is up
12. About 12%. I
ll show the
slides, um, that are coming
afterwards. That will explain
where the increase is at. But
in all reference, you
ll see
that overall, our crime is
down, but we have an increase
of 97 incidents. And again, uh,
that will be explained on the
next slide here. Uh, you
ll see
our violent crime. You
ll see
for 2025 to 2026, we
re at 54%
less in terms of our homicides
and victims, 46%.
So again, I want to make sure
to press her.
That, yes, 54% less. Um, in
terms of, uh, incidents and
also. 15, 46% in terms of
victims of homicides. And then
also we have a 29% decrease
also on rape. And, uh, we
continue to, um, lower our
aggravated assault, but our
Achilles heel right now are the
simple assaults. Um, where you
see here is about 18% out. And
then overall, you can look at
total persons. It
s up about
12% across the board from 25 to
26. Here again it reiterates
our numbers regarding
homicides. Uh, one of the
things that we
d like to tout
in terms of the average, um,
solvency rate across the United
States, about1%. Fayetteville
Police Department has 100% of
our clearance, 100% clearance.
So we
re doing that unit is
doing a phenomenal job in terms
of, um, solving these crimes in
terms of, um, those that have
been victimized. During our
aggravated assaults. Again,
you
ll see these numbers in
terms of where we are in these
misdemeanors. But yet we have,
um, 16% decrease where we
re
partnering with the Phoenix
Center to provide a wraparound
service. We also have our
officers and detectives that
are do follow up, uh, to ensure
that those victims are will not
be a repeat in terms of being a
victimization in terms of the
domestic violence. As you see
here, our sound thinking or
ShotSpotter, where we had 213
alerts through this period with
eight guns recovered, eight
arrested and 317 shell casings
recovered. A property crimes.
As you
ll see, these numbers
are also impacted, especially
on our motor vehicle where
we
re down 23%. You
ll see we
actually had a team that came
together with a task force to
address when we were starting
to have a trend, and, uh, that
particular task force really
made an impact in our numbers.
So you
ll see that here
reflected on this slide. And
also our robbery down 21%. Uh,
you know, in terms of these
robberies, uh, when our patrol
arrived, we also have our
capers, our Crimes against
persons unit that also respond.
And so with that, they
re able
to come out there and track any
suspects, live as soon as you
know, when they get there, then
they
ll start, um,
investigating that particular
case. And many times they
re
able to get and arrest those
suspects. So therefore, you all
know that many times it
s going
to be 1 or 2 individuals in the
city that are committing these
repeat robberies. So therefore
we
re being effective by by
utilizing our capers unit. And
they
re doing a great job as
well. Next here is our juvenile
data. As you know, um, this is
across the nation but also
within our state. We
ve
received calls from other
chiefs, uh, in terms of what
we
re doing, uh, of course,
you
ll see here the biggest
change that you
ll see in terms
from 25 to 26 is our field
contacts with juveniles. It
s
up 43%. Now, you also see that
that
s reflective from 25 to 26
in terms of what we
re doing
and seizing. We
re seizing 105%
more weapons. We seized um,
almost 70% more drugs from
juveniles. But at the same
time, you also decrease in
breaking and entering, uh,
among juveniles by 30, almost
32%. And also our motor vehicle
theft has really been impacted.
Also with this, uh, encounters
that we have now almost 52%
decrease in motor vehicle
thefts. So these are how we are
encountering and making an
impact in terms of, uh, crimes
with juveniles. Now, this slide
here illustrates the crimes and
contacts with uh juveniles
during the curfew time. Uh,
which is 11 A.M. Or 11 P.M. To
6 A.M.. And if you
re watching
and seeing what
s happening
with some of our other
municipalities, they
re
actually looking at, um,
changing their time from 11 or
looking at starting at early to
9 P.M.. So, but at this time,
we have right now where you
see, you have 38 contacts with
those 16 years in a and below,
where we
ve had 17 incidents
with 22, uh, incidents that
were charged, and 17 of these
are involving juveniles. And
then you
ll see the, uh,
reference to the the different
incidents that have taken
place. Now, we actually had a
total of 55 contacts during
this time period. But once we
engage with these individuals,
always be, you know, be aware
that we
re always utilizing
either a reasonable suspicion
or probable cause before we we
are engaging with these
individuals. And, you know,
again, this is where I state
that we
re not approaching any
of these individuals just based
on because we think that
they
re 16 or below. And just
to show that reflection, when
we do encounter some of these
individuals, we
ve had a total
of 55 and we had about ten of
them were 17 years of age. So
that was above. And also seven
were adults. So many times this
kind of reflects, again, that
we can
t really tell what their
age is until we actually have
some type of reason to, you
know, engage with them, uh,
through reasonable suspicion or
probable cause. Here
s our
school resource program. As you
see, we have the 18 certified
SROs. Of course. Uh, today was
the first day of school. And so
we
re going to be up and
ramping up. And one, one change
is different in terms of how
we
re looking at our numbers.
Uh, you
ll see, uh, previous
year we
ve done it as the
school year, but now we
re just
going to do it as a calendar
year just to keep it
consistent, because that
s how
we usually track all the rest
of our numbers. So we just want
to have that consistency.
Again, just this slide
demonstrates our partnership
with our federal partners. And
have you
ll see here our atf.
We
ve uh we had six federally
sentenced uh, during this
during this quarter, uh, four
federally indicted and 48
firearms seized. So with those
48 firearms seized, those are
all charged federally through
the atf.
And as you said, six federal
centers. I
m saying 13.
So six federally sentenced.
This is with atf.
Okay, okay.
This is specifically with atf.
Um, for federally indicted and
48 firearms charged federally.
And then between our federal
partners of dea, fbi, and the
us marshals, we, uh, sentenced
seven federally, 17 federally
indicted with 28 firearms and
nearly 600,000 in currency and
asset seized with those
partners. Here, you
ll see our,
uh, vice narcotics suppression
of of note. You
ll see, um,
meth. Uh, we
re we
re
definitely rising in terms of
seizures of meth. And also
marijuana. Uh, the marijuana
was, um, a result of a federal
case that we had with dea. So
therefore we had a pretty good
seizure from that particular
case, which also increased what
we had from 25 to 26. But
across the board, we
re
starting to see an increase in
meth across the community in
terms of usage. These are our
numbers here. Uh, for our 901
communications center. You
ll
see, uh, 911 calls. We
ve
processed, uh, 125,000 plus
calls. And between that and our
admin, you
re almost pressing
up to a 200,000 calls. Calls
for service or dispatch is
about a, um, just over 103,000
calls. So, uh, we
re
continuously pushing forward
with our number one center. Uh,
one thing that we
ve been
having, uh, in terms of traffic
enforcement, and we
re hoping
that these numbers are being
reflective of what we are being
able to do in the community. So
if you see in 2025, we had 14
fatalities resulting in these
crashes, uh, and now we have
nine. And then as far as the,
the, uh, fatalities, the
numbers were 16 last year when
we have nine on there as well.
So I hope this is reflective of
what we
re doing in terms of
slowing traffic down and making
sure that, um, you know, those
that are coming through here
understand that you need to
slow down when you
re coming
through the city of
Fayetteville. Then you
ll see
the, uh, the circumstances that
contributed, that contributed
to the, uh, these fatalities,
as you see there in 2025, ten
of them, ten of those incidents
were speeding that contributed
to those fatalities, uh, for
this year, we have five. So I
believe the message is getting
out there on here is our
traffic. Uh, stop reporting
where you see, we
re all almost
2500 stops. 23,400 more stops
than last year. Again, that
s
with the increase of what we
re
doing. Also with our personnel.
We
re having more personnel on
the street so that we can be a
lot more proactive versus being
reactive. Again, you
ll see the
demographics regarding the
vehicle stops, vehicle searches
in between there. If you look
at 25 among all three of the
demographics, the numbers isn
t
really changing. Now what you
will see, uh, there was an
increase in, uh, vehicle stops,
but you also see that there was
a decrease in, in searches, but
we still have maintained the
same numbers across the board.
Uh, between all three
demographics. This is one of
our the, uh, initiatives
the governor
s highway safety
program, where speed kills and
no, the limit 2026 and these
particular, um, uh, traffic and
enforcement activities, you
ll
see that we, uh, had over 600
citations issued with, uh,
speeding being the
overwhelming, um, uh, citation,
uh, during or violation during
these particular, um,
encounters. Here we are, our
Internal Affairs unit, where
you look at our numbers, uh,
use of force, uh, has increased
by ten. Uh, but then you
ll see
the most number, the number
that
s going to stick out to
you right now is our internal
departmental, uh,
investigations. And, uh, that
s
been as a result of, uh,
officers not appearing at
court. So we
re holding our
officers accountable, and and
we
re just making sure that
they understand that it
s
critical for them to be at
court. So, uh, you
ll see the
numbers being reflected, and
then you
ll see our
exonerations, uh, sustained.
And, uh, complaints, voters and
unfounded allegations. Again,
this slide again, will reflect
in terms of the the biggest,
um, uh, stand out is the
suspensions. And again, the
majority of those are what
s
driving those are failing to
appear to court. As you see,
our department mental staffing
and that
s uh, as of AUGUST
12th. And, uh, if you see,
we
re in the 90s in every one
of these categories, every one
of these categories. And if you
notice our numbers last year
around this time, we were at 64
vacant positions, and we
re at
32 now. But that
s with the
eight additional that that was
added. So we would actually be
at, I want to say at 23. So, so
you see, uh, we
re well into
um, the uh, in that, in that
down range in terms of reducing
our numbers, we
re projecting
based on what we see right now,
we have about 17 or 18 that are
in the pipeline. And we
re
we
re projecting that by
JANUARY
s class, we will have
every vacancy filled.
That
s also head on. Sir.
Yeah.
Very good. Let
s first time
that I can remember that being
the case.
And and you know, there
s
there
s a lot of, you know, in
terms of what we
re doing,
we
re also, you know, um,
attracting a lot of laterals.
And those laterals are critical
because we
re able to get them
on the street anywhere from
four weeks to six weeks, you
know? So that
s how we
re able
to do that. But we
re also
doing some innovative, uh,
recruiting in terms of we
re
bringing in canines from other
states. People are applying
from Connecticut, you know, to
become a k-9 officer here in
Fayetteville. We
re attracting
officers from New York, uh,
Kentucky. I mean, we have a
really wide scope in terms of
what we
re attracting and we
re
bringing them here. So what
that
s doing is helping us
increase the level of
experience from, you know, like
I said, when we first got on
here, uh, when I first got on
here last year, 75% of our
officers had five years or less
of experience. Wow. So now with
attracting and bringing in
these, uh, laterals, uh,
laterals that have left and
came back. So we
re really
making an impact. And what
we
re being able to do and, and
some of these innovative
programs. So I know patrol is,
is really happy to see what
we
re going to be able to do in
terms of 15, uh, officers per
squad. So then now that is
that
s going to entail that
we
ll be able to be proactive
and not only reactive, and then
we
ll be able to bring back our
cert team as well to, you know,
to deal with any kind of
projects that we MAY have in
the community. So again, we
re
we
re definitely in a great
spot in terms of what we
re
looking at right now.
Okay.
Again, this is our departmental
staffing. Of course, you know,
we are in a very transient
community where we have a
significant, um, a lot of our,
uh, employees are also, um,
military connected. So many
times we have those that, um,
when, you know, their spouses
ready to PCs, we
re also losing
those good employees. And, you
know, then we have some that
come in, so but we always take
them and, you know, but we
understand have that
understanding that this is a
transient community with Fort
Bragg. So but we always value,
uh, the experience, that those
employees bring to us, um, day
in and day out. For those that
are unaware, in APRIL we
launched our Faith pd podcast.
And so we
re utilizing these to
kind of make sure and put that
narrative out there in terms of
our local policing, our
department priorities, and
letting people know the people
behind the badge and also a
professional staff. So, uh, you
can catch it. Uh, I believe the
second Friday of each month,
either on Spotify, Apple or
iHeart and YouTube. So we
re
getting out there. We
re going
to try to have that, that,
that, that, that voice out
there. MR.. Uh, Ferguson, I
know you have that voice. We
re
going to get you on there so
you can help us out.
Martin.
Now you
ll see our community
events. Um, we have several our
Citizens Police academy, our
graduation there. Um, that
s
depicted on this slide. Also,
our Special Olympics, our
fundraiser for the torch run.
And I don
t know if you saw
back that that that slide on
the bottom left there we were
running in the rain. We were
running the rain. That was that
was a tough one.
That
s commitment.
Yes, sir. Then our other
community events, uh, were
child Abuse Awareness month.
Uh, the pinwheels for the Child
Advocacy Center. And we also,
uh, showing our
telecommunications week where
they had cultural foods from
New Orleans, uh, Latina Latin
food and Italian food. Also
displayed during that. It was
very, very festive. Uh, during
that, during that week. And
then here on this slide, here
s
our National Police Week where
we honor those officers that
made that ultimate sacrifice
while recognizing the
dedication of those that
to serve. And of
course, we had our awards and
promotion ceremony, which we
also recognize the dedicated
hard work of our officers and
professional staff, as you see
here. Our motto, Faith and
service, pride and commitment
and dedication to excellence
and our vision, statement and
mission statement. And at this
time, I will take your
questions.
All right. Thank you. Chief. We
do have a couple of questions.
Council member hair.
Well, thank you, mayor and
chief. Uh, thank you for you
and our team for all that
you
re doing. Uh, man, I
m glad
to hear that number is going to
change where we
re going to be
fully staffed. Uh, real soon.
And, uh, I
ll go back a, you
know, a few police chiefs. And
so this sounds real great. So
thank you. And everything that
you
re doing and that your
staff is doing, and of course,
the council with, uh, putting
in the budget to help, uh, give
additional dollars to pull our
men and women in, uh, I got a
couple of questions. One, when
you said about the lateral
folks are coming in, you said
some are coming back.
Yes, sir.
And first, explain what that
meant.
So we
ve had officers that were
previously employed with sfpd
that went on to other
departments or, uh, sought
employment, uh, in another
career field. But they are also
coming back now to the police
department.
So we
re looking more and more
inviting to support them coming
back.
I believe. So they
re they
re
getting the message. They
re
seeing what
s going on, sir?
Yeah. Explain to me what you
met, uh, on the k-9. You
re
getting, uh, some canine folks
that are coming in lateral, and
I don
t know if this is getting
ready to be a dumb question
here, but in front of you, you
said canine. And, uh, a guy
homeowner that owns German
Shepherds. I immediately
thought about the dogs. Also,
when they
re coming in lateral.
Is that just the individual?
So we
ve actually have two, um,
two candidates that have
canines that they want to bring
those canines with them.
Okay, okay, okay.
It wasn
t so that
s that
s you
know, that
s really when you
can bring on a team like that.
Right? Offhand no training. You
know, they
ll just have to, you
know, get some of the, um,
standards in terms of how we do
things and our, our, our
policies and SOPs, but pretty
much they can hit the ground
running when it comes to stuff
like that.
Okay. Now close to getting
close to my end here. Uh, go to
your slide with, um, sound
thinking. Yeah, sound thinking,
uh, shots spotter JANUARY
through JUNE of 26. Give say
those numbers out loud. Uh,
once again, because I don
t
want to mix them up, even
though I see what I see in
front of me. Tell me the, um,
the support with the sound
thinking, uh, ShotSpotter for
that time of the
recoveries.
So hold.
On just a minute.
So out of the 213 alerts, we
ve
had eight guns recovered, eight
individuals arrested and 317
shell casings that are also
recovered.
Okay, so that
s been a big
plus.
It will. And one of the things
for us, we understand that this
is just one tool in our
toolbox.
Right?
Right. Um, but but as we
continue moving forward and
collecting these shell cases,
those will help us connect the
dots on, you know, whether
there
s aggravated assaults,
shooting into occupied
dwellings or vehicles. And
that
s what we continue to just
kind of hold on because it is
going to connect the dots when
we get an individual or we
seize the weapon. And at that
time we can pin or connect the
nexus to those individuals with
those weapons and those
previous incidents.
Yes, sir. Thank you. I don
t
want to take up all the time. I
know my colleague is going to
have some questions. I was also
looking over at the juvenile
data report, and I
m glad to
hear, uh, because of negative
things that have have been
said. I
m glad to hear that.
Until you come up on a young
adult, uh, that
s when you find
out the information that
s
needed about that particular
person, not just running up on
them. So it was good to hear
that. And also wanted to say
congratulations to you. I don
t
think you
ve been before us
since you were put into the
governor
s committee. Whatever
that, uh, name of that. But
congratulations on that, sir.
Thank you sir.
Thank you mayor.
All right. Uh, Mayor pro tem.
Thank you mayor. Thank you
chief. Great report. Numbers
look great. I just want to add
a few comments. One is your
Emporium speeding campaign. I
m
glad that, uh, the numbers are
going down and the speeding. I
know that is your motto. To
make sure that when they come
through Fayetteville, they know
that they need to slow down.
Uh, but I
m a emphasize school
started today. I
m gonna say
that again. School started
today. Sir. I know you did a
campaign around the school
zone. I know you did. On 295
Raeford Road, Raleigh Road,
Ramsey Street, Morganton Road.
But school started today.
Yes, sir.
Might want to think about that.
Uh.
Sir, I already tell you. Uh,
Chief Wallace already has
plans. About what? What
s going
on? So he already talked to me
this morning, and, uh, he
already has a plan in terms to
address, uh, some of those, uh,
you know, in terms of that as
well.
Well, let me just say this, uh,
I was talking with the mayor
this morning. I was telling him
I was going out, uh, to one of
my hot spots in the school
zone, and I was glad to see
that, uh, Chief Hunt had his
people out there at Stony Point
and Century that we talked
about. MR. Mayor, we got about
that traffic. Yeah. Uh, I just
want our citizens to know that
we
re going to do all we can to
make sure our kids are safe in
school zones and outside of
school zones, not just this
year, but every year. Uh,
speaking of that, I wanted to
make sure you gave some props
to your crime prevention
specialist, because I think the
reason the motor vehicle theft
Break-Ins has went down.
Because every time I turn
around, they are emphasizing
motor vehicles. Lock your
vehicle up and don
t leave your
guns in your cars.
The 9 P.M. Routine.
The 9 P.M. Routine. I mean,
they recycle it over and over
and over again. I know my
colleague, uh, recognized, uh,
McNair recognized one, uh, I
can
t remember what her name
was, but all of them need to be
recognized for the great job
that they do at all these
communities that we have across
the entire city, uh,
emphasizing that, yes, the
second one is for, uh, Chief
Hunt. We just renewed our sro
contract. Are we meeting our
obligations with how many SROs
we need to have in the high
schools, the junior high
schools and elementary schools
and so forth and so on?
Yes, sir.
And what is the next
requirement that we have? We
have how many schools?
33.
And we only have 18 SROs, I
think.
Yes, sir.
So is it still shared services?
It I mean, right now the, uh,
Cumberland County sheriff, uh,
Cumberland County School System
is paying for that. And so
there will be some talk in
terms of adding at least
another three, uh, here. Um,
when when we come up to that
point. Yes, sir.
Last question I was going to
ask you, but I
m gonna ask you,
do we have dogs? Uh, bomb
sniffing dogs.
We have one.
Yes, sir.
All right. Thank you, chief.
That
s all I know. Yes, sir.
Thank you, MR. Mayor.
All right. Thank you,
Councilmember Jones.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. Very
quick. Thanks for the report.
Provided some excellent
information. Uh, just to make
sure I got that correctly.
Homicides are down over a
little over 54%. Is that
correct? That is correct. All
right. Now, I wanted to bring
that forward because a lot of
times I hear in the community
and they when you hear about
homicide and it
s it
s in the
media and it gets attention, I
get it. And it gives the
perception that it happens a
lot. I know one is too many. I,
I totally understand that. Uh,
but it gives the perception
that it
s consistently
occurring. And so I, I
m glad
that you brought that statistic
up, uh, for that. So I really,
really am glad for, uh, for
that, especially with your
clearance rate. That
s
phenomenal. And I want to tie
that in to the sound thinking a
lot of my areas that some of
them, they wish they had it in
their areas as well, but they
were, uh, for the most part in
support of it. Once they kind
of understand. I think you did
it. I don
t think you did a
good job with elaborating, such
as the shell casings and how
you MAY not see that immediate
effect, but through the process
of your investigation, it might
be six months down or whatever
it is, it could lead to
something. So I think that that
is a benefit, uh, of that. So
my two, three quick questions
for you, uh, in regards to the
youth context, um, you
mentioned the reasonable
suspicion, probable cause
aspect. Could you just give
give us an idea, give the
public an idea of what that
potentially looks looks like.
So what that looks like is not
one. One call comes in, says,
hey, there
s two suspicious,
um, subjects, uh, pulling car
handles. And in the community
on the street, we arrive there,
we see two individuals matching
that description. That
s when
we approach them. Then we
determine that there are
juveniles and they
ll that
s
how they get, um, you know,
related I our statistics.
Understood, understood. And
again, I know there MAY be some
nuances, but just I wanted to
share that just to, uh, let
folks know I really don
t
believe uh, and again, this is
me, uh, that that you all are
out there just looking, uh,
just randomly doing it. And you
stated that. So I appreciate
that because I wanted to bring
some clarity with that. Number
two, uh, as it relates to, uh,
vehicle searches, I do get a
lot of this question from our
residents. They said, well,
we
re we
re smelling marijuana
at stoplights. So,
hypothetically, someone stops
you, stop somebody for
equipment violation or
something. Is that that smell
of marijuana? Is that consider
a reasonable cause to acts, you
know, act or however you want
to ask.
About probable cause to go
ahead and ask, yes, yes you
did.
Okay, okay. And I know it MAY
seem like a cop, but a lot of I
get a lot of those questions.
And that
s some of the things
that I on the other part of it,
uh, some were saying, well, you
know, they can
t really if they
stop me, you know, if they
smell it, it they can they
really ask me to search my
vehicle or things of that
nature. So I just wanted..
Yes. At that point. Yes.
All right.
Thank you. Thank you. And
lastly, uh, how are your ears?
I know you all used some data
and things of that nature and
and just feedback, uh, areas
that you plan for your
speeding, uh, speeding
campaign. How are how are those
determined?
So a lot of those are based on
the calls from the, the
citizens here, the residents
here. Uh, a lot of the times
you all receive, uh, complaints
as well. And so we, we go ahead
and target based on the
feedback that we are receiving
in terms of where the calls are
coming from. And that
s where
we direct our resources to.
Absolutely. So, uh, and this is
a I, I do thank you for that.
I, I would like to put out
there, uh, Rosehill road and I
want to give you your, uh,
staff a lot of credit. I
ve
seen a increased presence along
Rose Hill Road. I mean, very,
at very strategic times in the
morning, midday, afternoon, I,
see them out there. Uh, so i
know that
s a major cut
through, uh, for some areas,
so. But definitely, uh, put
that on your radar. I know it
s
already out there. So with the
increased signage that they
have out there and some other
things that were done, uh, I
just wanted to put that out
there. But thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Oh, yeah. All right. Thank you.
Uh, Councilmember McMillan.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. Thank
you, chief. I appreciate all
you do. And thank you for this
report. Um, I had a question
about how we track, how we
track traffic, stop data. Um,
earlier this year, earlier this
summer, the governor signed a
budget that did not include a
general statute that
s been in
place since 2002. Uh, the
really forced departments
across North Carolina to track
incidents by race. Uh, to be
able to look at disparities,
especially in policing and
traffic stops, as you know, in
Fayetteville, it
s, uh, it
s
caused us to see that there are
some disparities. Uh, we
ve
dealt with driving while black
as, as a, as a result, you
know, some of those
disparities. I wanted to hear
from you. What what your
department
s take is on, uh, on
the loss of this requirement
and what your is in
terms of continuing to track
this data.
Yes, sir. So when we received
that information, uh, for us,
it was also we were surprised
that that actually went ahead
and passed, uh, but, uh, from
us, after discussing with my
staff and we had a
overwhelming, um, uh, agreement
in terms of, for us as a
department, it
s going to
continue to be in our policy so
that we have that transparency
for the community and maintain
that trust. So for us as a
department, even though it
s
it
s no longer a requirement,
we will be continuing the
traffic stop reports as part of
our requirement. And everything
that we do as a department.
I appreciate hearing you say
that, uh, in public, uh, also
would ask the council to think
about what we can do to ensure
that possibly that
s an
ordinance or something that
s
solid, uh, especially in light
of how things are changing
legislatively at the state.
State level. Uh, I also wanted
to ask chief about, uh,
information on the sro program.
Uh, we had a discussion earlier
this year about, uh, what an
awesome responsibility it is,
uh, to have police officers, a
uniformed, uh, in schools and
also how we need to take some
safeguards and understand what
impacts that has on our
students, especially. And I
want to make a request tonight.
Um, uh, if you look at slide
ten, it does show, uh, some
some responses. Uh, it does
show some very basic
information about our
interaction. Uh, but the point
that I brought up earlier this
year that I think data would
allow us to look at, uh, is how
this could impact the school to
prison pipeline and having, uh,
juveniles, kids and students
who are justice impacted, uh,
and how important it is to
track that. So there are some,
uh, there
s some measures like
school based or race arrests,
number of citations.
Say that again, sir.
Uh, school based arrests.
School based like tracking
that.
Okay.
Tracking citations? Yes, sir.
Tracking the number of court
referrals that come through the
sro program, especially, uh,
track and use of force
incidents with our students.
And then, uh, and then those
same type of racial breakdowns
to ensure that we
re not
repeating some racial
disparities that that exist on
the broader level. Okay. Uh, I
would like to see those. And
I
m sure more of my colleagues
will be interested in seeing
that on a on a quarterly basis.
Okay. And just so you know, to,
for, you know, I, I actually
had one of the SROs that was
talking, uh, he actually came
from the county and
transitioned over, uh, to the
city. And, um, you know, one of
the I don
t think the public
really knows how much of an
impact it has in terms of
having these SROs in our
schools, because he had he told
me a story of one of his, one
of the students, um, in the
school that she never spoke to
him. And at one time there was
an incident where, uh, he had
to restrain her from and, you
know, a fight that was going on
in the school. Uh, and she was
very, very, um, disruptive. Um,
and but he maintained
continued speaking with that
young lady. By the time the end
of the school year came out,
she came and hugged him. And
for him, it was just one of
those things where he sees the
difference in it. I mean, and
this is happening across our
schools, but nobody ever really
knows that because we
re not
talking about that publicly.
And I just also want to make
sure that we do a better job in
making sure that we are
highlighting a lot of these
positive encounters that are
happening because it
s
happening every day. We just
don
t, you know, we don
t hear
about them, and we only hear
about when it
s negative. So I
just want to make sure that we
also take some, you know, that
opportunity to also highlight
when when the good things are
also happening with our SROs.
As well. And I think we also
saw one of the good things,
chief, tonight and hearing you,
uh, underscore the importance
of having probable cause and
reasonable suspicion, the
suspicion, uh, prior to
approaching any individual,
regardless of age here. And I
appreciate that that is a part
of the enforcement, uh, and
part of what we
re passing on
to our officers as they go out
into the field. So thank you
for saying that publicly as
well.
Yes, sir.
All right. Thank you,
COUNCILMAN Davis.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. Uh, first
of all, thank you, sir, for the
presentation. Um, I think I
wanted to speak towards the
speeding. Um, you guys have
been on a tremendous job,
almost to the point where I
m
scared to leave my house now.
Okay, to be honest with you,
but I don
t speak.
That
s that
s what we
re
trying.
I don
t speak, by the way. Um,
but.
What are you scared for, MR.
Mayor?
Um, I do want to ask you,
though, um, there was a
comment, made a question asked
at the, uh, coffee with the
mayor this morning in reference
to, um, officers having to meet
a quota on giving out tickets.
Could you speak to that so that
we can, you know.
Absolutely, absolutely no quota
with tickets. Okay. That that
does not exist. Thank you. That
does not exist.
Thank you. All right, um,
before we go to round two for
Mayor pro tem, I did have a
couple of things I want to say.
One. Um, chief, thank you for
the thoroughness in the report.
I want I wanted to point out
something for the for the
listening audience that, you
know, we
ve heard from two of
the three components of public
safety tonight. We
ve heard
from fire from police. I see,
uh, MR. Jones back there with
Oakes. The combination of what
you all are doing are leading
to these positive numbers that
homicides almost in half, that
these juvenile related issues
that we have, uh, are trending
in the right way. And so, you
know, we
ve gone through some
tough times to make some tough
decisions. But, you know,
numbers don
t have an opinion.
They don
t have an affiliation.
They don
t they don
t they
re
not biased. Their numbers. And
these are factual numbers that
say that the combination of
these things are working
together for a good outcome.
And I want to make sure we
point that out from, you know,
the sound thinking and
ShotSpotter we had, you know,
there was some public concern
about that, but you
re getting
guns off the street. We
ve seen
arrests that come out of that.
And and I want to make sure we
highlight that the sro program,
when we recently renewed that
it was concerned that it was
somehow going to have a
negative impact. What I
m
seeing and I want to turn to
this slide while I
m saying
this, if you could, the school
resource officer program slide,
I want the public to follow
this for a minute. Uh, think it
slide number. It says ten, but
it
s page five. In the overall
scheme of things. Yeah. So
basically the orange is 22 is
reports. Yeah. That
s incident
reports okay. And then it calls
for service okay. And so the
comparison from year to year
where is that that component.
Because because you, you have a
calls for service versus
incident report. So how do you
compare uh year to year on
that.
So we
re into our second year
of doing this now. And so now
as I stated, we we
re changing
up our numbers from how we
were. We were first doing it
from AUGUST.
From school calendar year.
So I would say probably the end
of this year, then we
ll be
able to get, you know, full
year and then start making a
comparison.
So it
ll be a solid 12 month
comparison. Right? Okay. Okay.
All right. That was one of the
questions. And then two, um I
saw that uh, on your on your
gun seizures. Uh, I wrote
myself a note on that. Um, you
had. There out of the traffic
stops, 20, 25, there were 167
guns collectively seized. And
of course, these are illegal
weapons. Not not legal weapons.
Right. Or does this count
everything? Well, why would you
see a legal weapon?
It could be if if it was used
in a crime or it wasn
t, you
know, it had to been some type
of crime. So some.
Prompted decision. Right. So
167 case last year 143 this
year. These are just from the
vehicle searches. Now does that
also include uh or any of these
statistics in any of these
other categories, like where it
says the number of weapons
recovered from ShotSpotter? Um,
so the is there a possibility
that you responded to a
ShotSpotter alert? But it also
shows up on a on a vehicle?
Stop it. Probably not. Correct.
Well, probably a chance, but I
mean, what we did, we kind of
isolated the ShotSpotter and
made that specific, uh, on
those particular sides. So
where you see the eight, eight
weapons that were seized, that
was specifically to
ShotSpotter.
Gotcha. Because I
m just trying
to get a collective total
because that
s a lot of guns.
It
s coming off the street
between what I saw from the
juvenile report, which was, um,
and I don
t know if if the
public is tracking that, but
cities across the country, I
talked to mayors all the time.
There has been an influx of
guns in the availability of
guns. And this is huge that
you
re you
re scoring, you
know, 130, 40 guns in traffic.
You
re getting some from
ShotSpotter. You
re getting
others from from other sources.
So you want to speak to that.
So in terms of this so let
s
say for this traffic stop. So
I
ll give you an example. You
could have a an alert that that
goes off on the street here in
Fayetteville. Um and officers
respond to that alert. And
within the alert there was a
uh, maybe let
s say there was a
non woman call that accompanied
it and say, hey, there was a a
vehicle, um,n this area
looking, you know, stopping.
And so then we have a vehicle
that would, um, respond. And in
the course of responding to
that ShotSpotter alert, they
went ahead and stopped this
vehicle. Gotcha. So then now
you stop that vehicle, and then
now you determine that it was a
crime, whether, uh, related to
a break in or possible, um,
other, uh, possession of
marijuana or anything in there.
And then now you recover a
weapon. So now that particular
incident is included in all
these traffic.
Right? I understand.
I understand, but you also have
what we have the the
ShotSpotter. So we
ll do was
tie that specifically to that
which is that separate slide.
But I would say that all that
data is encompassed in the
traffic stop report. That MAY
have been, um, uh, under or
from a ShotSpotter alert.
Gotcha. All right. Well, um,
that
s all the questions I
have. I, I just think that, you
know, and then, uh, I guess the
last piece, I
ll say, I want to
I want to one, um, publicly,
uh, commend the participation
of the parents. Right. That
that in the curfew, there was a
lot of concern about that. But
what we see in the numbers,
again, numbers don
t have an
opinion. And, uh, that, um,
drug seizures are up 70%,
weapons up, uh, 105%. So in
other words, from 19 to 39, uh,
weapons from 19 last year to 39
this year. Um, and that, uh,
break break ins are down 31%.
Uh, and uh, motor vehicles are
down 51%. So, uh, thank you. To
the parents that are
participating to just help us
help keep some accountability
in place. And and thank you to
and the way this fits in and
I
ll, I
ll get ready to pass
the mic over to my colleagues.
But the way this fits into the
overall scheme of things, the
way your departments work
together, is that also, MR.
Jones is going around the city,
uh, creating programs that are
alternatives for these kids.
Uh, or some of our people in
this community that have
alternatives. So it
s working
together. Thank you. And good,
good, good work for and thank
you for the report tonight. So
I
ll go to, uh, Council Member
McNair for the first round. And
then we have second round
lights.
I
m ready to make a motion.
Okay, let me let me catch your
colleagues. Mayor Pro tem.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. Um, I
just had a comment and one
question that I forgot. Uh, we
were talking about SROs, and I
had an opportunity to speak to
Jack Britt students and 71st
students this year. I talked to
the principal, Doctor Tillman
and Jack Britt and Doctor King
over at Cindy. First. They
applaud the SROs in the great
jobs that they
re doing. When I
spoke to 71st High school, uh,
seniors during their graduation
practice, the sro was at the
door giving out pounds to all
300 students that was
graduating that year. I thought
that was a testament to the
great job that they
re doing.
Uh, speaking of schools, my
question I forgot to ask
earlier is we had a battalion
of CEOs coming here about some
complaints a couple of months
ago. Have all their concerns
been addressed? I can
t even
remember what they were.
The concern is that the
speeding, the careless and
reckless driving in the the,
um, during Norton school zones
so that that that issue is, is
still being addressed in terms
of with our traffic department
and enforcement out there. Now,
the commission just recently
met and, um, we
re on track to
get the approval with all the
standard operating procedures
and everything else and how it
will be consistent throughout
the state. Um, by JANUARY is
what we believe. Um, yeah,
JANUARY of this upcoming year.
Um, we believe that the
approvals and everything else
will be done by the commission,
and then we
ll be able to
implement the school zones and
the red light cameras.
And how many Tecos are we short
for this school year?
So our numbers fluctuate. We
have about 65, um, on average,
and those fluctuate because
it
s a part time position. So
therefore we
re always if
you
ll see um regarding when
our, our our turnover, that
s
probably our highest turnover
within the department. Um, for
one reason or the other.
But if we have residents that
look for some part time work
for $20 an hour, we can show
enough. Use your manpower.
Thank you. Chief. Yes, sir.
All right. Councilmember
McMillan, second round.
Yep. Thank you, MR. Mayor. Um,
chief, one of the things that
kept me engaged, uh, over the
years with council was pushing
to ensure we had a humane
response, uh, to to crime, to
mental health response, uh,
mental health crisis. Um,
according to police scorecard
scorecard.Org. Um, we remain
and and have been for a while.
Uh, near the top of the list in
terms of small cities in North
Carolina and a statistic called
a deadly force per arrest. Uh,
and, you know, there
s there
s
some people who have died over
the years. Uh, Jada Johnson is
one of them. Adrian Roberts and
another one, Joshua Oxendine.
Uh, and questions about whether
or not we could have had a
different response. Uh, when I
see the numbers of use of force
going up, uh, from last year,
this year, of course, I have
that same concern. I wonder
that we didn
t move far enough
policy wise to address that.
Um, I
m wondering what your
take is on the increase. I
think it was from 37, 37 to 47,
27% increase in use of force.
What does that mean for us as a
city? And what are we doing to
to address that?
Okay. So I can start with I
know today we actually had a
meeting with Chief Wallace and
Officers, Office of Community
Safety Director Jones, and
coming up with plans and
strategies for the alternative
response. So as, uh, OKs gets
their teams together, then
we
re going to have a better
approach in addressing, uh,
some of these issues with those
that are in mental health
crisis. But unfortunately,
right now, when those calls
come out, we are the only
answer until we can get some of
these other resources in place.
I would also, uh, state in
terms of there are multiple,
multiple incidents that occur
every day in this city
regarding mental health crisis.
But you don
t hear about them
and you don
t hear about them
because been successful
in being able to mitigate those
situations. So the ones that
you do here are the ones where
we have the unfortunate, uh,
situations such as that you
relayed, but there
s always
some other circumstances that
not everybody is aware of also.
But I will tell you that we
have a, a an excellent, um, uh,
officers, in terms of how we
deal with these situations.
Just this past week, we had,
uh, barricaded subjects. You
know, no one knows about this,
but we deal with that, and we
are are utilizing our, our
particular, uh, tactics and
everything to make sure that we
have a safe outcome for our
officers as well as those in
those crisis. So it happens so
many times, but our public is
unaware of it, and we deal with
that on a day, day by day, uh,
occasion. So, um, I believe,
you know, we, we do the best we
can, but, you know, future and
future wise with when Oaks gets
on, you know, get their
staffing. We
re looking forward
to being able to address those
issues in even better ways as
well.
Right? Yeah, I appreciate that.
Looking forward to tracking the
numbers and seeing those
numbers come down. Um, um,
downrange. There
s something
called storyboard reporting,
uh, where are we get in this,
uh, this habit of holding up
examples. Good, good news
stories, anecdotes, and maybe
emphasize those a little bit
more than the the the data. Uh,
would love to continue to hear
the good news stories about the
things that your, your force is
doing on the streets. Um, uh,
and especially a shift in our
approach to how we engage with
citizens. But also, we
d love
to see data like use of force,
uh, that, that matches, you
know, that shift in terms of
policy and council member.
Time
s up. Second round. All
right. Uh, Councilmember Jones,
I think it
s your first round.
Is your light on? Are you ready
to vote?
You ready to vote?
Oh, no.
Just a quick, quick. Yeah, I
was waiting.
She
s got a motion.
Okay. All right. Very quickly.
Uh, I just wanted to find out,
uh, chief, about your the
mental health support for your
staff. I mean, I know you all
do. A you encounter a lot of
things. Uh, and your officers
and other staff, they have
families, too, that they have
to go on to. So can you just
speak to how what is that look
like right now? And I know
there MAY be some opportunities
in the future, but what what
does that look like?
Right now? We have our
chaplains program. Uh, whenever
we have a critical incident, we
we call our chaplains, and they
they
ll come out 2 or 3:00 in
the morning, um, when we have,
you know, critical incidents
that officers are dealing with.
And so we, we have that
partnership with them. We also
have our peer support program
as well, where we monitor how
many critical incidents that
actually happens with our
officers. And then we
ll make
sure and reach out to them to
get them, uh, any counseling
services or requests for
counseling services. But you
also know we received a grant
for a licensed cli social
worker. So we
re in the process
of, of getting that that all
laid out so that we can do
that. Advertisement and have
that person on, on, on board
full time.
Thank you so much. Thank you,
MR. Mayor.
Yes, sir. COUNCILMAN Hondros,
first round.
Yes, sir. Thank you, MR. Mayor.
Thank you. Chief, um, and my
colleague to my right here
stole my thunder a little bit.
But this this question was for,
uh, Chief Dove and and Chief
Brian, are we doing all that we
can to support our women and
men in uniform? And as my
colleague mentioned, um, you
know, we dial 911, you know, in
the worst moments of our life,
right? And you guys respond and
you deal with that. So as a
council, are we doing
everything we can to support,
um, again, the men and women
and men in the uniform and, and
our number one operators, I
mean, they
re on the call that
sometimes ends tragically. So
what can we do to support, um,
both agencies. And again, the
nine, 11 operators.
I would say it
s one of those
things where when we we come to
you and request the support,
where resources that, you know,
and I would say, you know, just
continue and supporting us. Um,
but it takes more than council
the community, the community is
critical in terms of the morale
of our officers. So, for
example, uh, this weekend, on
Saturday, uh, Lewis Chapel
Missionary Baptist Church, the
men
s ministry, they served our
officers, all our first
responders, fire fighters. This
weekend. They served them
lunch. And, you know, the the
morale. And just to have, um,
you know, the community come in
on their, you know, on their
own dime and, and on their time
off to come and serve those
officers. So those type of
things are what we need from
our community. And it
s very
much appreciated. So I can
t,
you know, just tell you in, in
what we
re doing in terms
continue to having support.
When you see our officer, we
get we continuously get, uh,
atta boys, what we call in the
military where people call or
they send. I just received a
letter today where people in
the community, they send in and
let us know, and we make sure
and relay that message to the
officers. We had a call from an
elderly man that actually was
talking about our cadets that
stopped and helped him. Uh, two
weeks ago, he left a voicemail.
So we were making sure. So when
we get these calls, all of that
helps in terms of the morale
and the the mental health, uh,
capacity in terms of knowing
that, hey, you know, that your
community has your back.
Real quick, MR. Mayor, since
you on that note, chief, talk
about National Night of.
Because you didn
t you didn
t
speak about National Night Out,
and that just happened last
week or week before last.
So we didn
t talk about it
because it happened during this
quarter. So, um, we were going
to present that during the
third quarter.
I just wanted you to know that
the community appreciates what
you
re doing because they
showed up in droves at National
Night Out, even in all that
rain. Right. So so we do
appreciate you. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. All right.
Councilmember McNair.
Oh, thank you, MR. Mayor. Shut
up. Um. Thank you, chief. Great
report. Um, and thank you for,
um, the ride along. Yes, I, I
d
like to encourage mylleagues, if they haven
t
scheduled a ride along with the
chief, you must do so. District
seven. It was an awesome time
that day. Uh, it was calm. It
was right. He invited me.
To slow him down. They
re
getting.
A message inviting me to. To
wear a bulletproof vest. I
know. No front. That
s it. So,
um, that being said, uh, I
would like to make a motion to
receive, um, the Fayetteville
Police Department 2026 second
quarter report.
All right. As much motion by
Councilmember McNair, seconded
by Councilmember Ferguson had a
lot of discussion on this. So,
Council. Seeing none, I look to
you for your votes.
In the meantime, I have an
alibi. Just like to mention
that our class 26-1 graduates
tomorrow. We have 20 officers
that are graduating. Uh, we
started out with 22. So that is
a phenomenal rate in terms of
what we
re talking about
graduating rate. But in
addition to that, we
ve had
almost 50% of that graduating
class were females. That
s
awesome. So we
re we
re.
We
re we
re.
We
re bringing them.
Through.
Uh, that
s a great statistic.
And thank you. Congratulations
to the new graduates. And
chief. Thank you. And all of
the members of our law
enforcement, as well as our
fire department. Ocs, for thank
you for a great job of keeping
our community safe. So we
appreciate it.
Thank you.
All right, all right. Council
moving to, uh, the final item
is 10.01 authorization for fire
station for site prep. Good
evening sir.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. Mayor,
Pro Tem, Council members and
staff. Yes, sir. Okay, now I
have to find it. Sabina, any
help with this?
Got it up everywhere.
Oh.
Yes, they are
Thank you. Thank you very much.
All right. So, council members,
thank you for having me here
tonight. My name is Dan
LaMontagne. I work with Freeze
and Nichols. I work under
contract for the city with the
construction management
department. Uh, we
re here
today. I
m here tonight to talk
to you about Fire Station four,
phase one. And ask for
authorization to move forward
with phase one, which is site
preparation that will consist
of establishing a new project
using approximately 1.53
million of geo bond premiums
and remaining fire station for
project funds. We will prepare
a safe, stable, build ready
site that consists of site
clearing, grading, filling,
stabilizing the site,
installation and security, get
getting permits and
inspections, and then of
course, testing, documenting
and closing out the project of
the site clearing. We also ask
you to authorize coming group
to provide project management
services under their scope. And
we
re asking for authorization
to begin the competitive
qualifications based
Construction Manager at risk
selection process. Uh,
construction pricing schedule
and such will come back to
council for authorization
later. When that is complete.
We have a schedule. This is
just a workingedule. This
will be refined as we move
forward and get the
construction manager at risk.
On on us. Uh, under contract.
Um, we
re here in quarter
three. Uh, Council, considering
this phase one authorization,
we have to complete the ongoing
salvage this month. Um, it the
site preparation, procurement.
Uh, that
s, uh, the contractors
for that and also begin that
same evaluation quarter for we
plan to begin site preparation
with, finalize the cmr
selection and onboarding. Um,
validate the design and the
project costs and the schedule.
Then in first quarter 27,
complete the site prep and
pre-construction reviews. Um,
the council will consider that
proposed construction price
schedule and authorize that and
first quarter and then
following this, uh, council
s
approval, we
ll begin
replacement construction. We
ll
publish the validated
milestones with the cmr. Um,
and when the final completion
move in date would be. And
finally, I want to point out
that the city has put together
a project website for this
project. We know there
s
considerable community interest
in it. So all information to be
able to go to this site and
find out everything that
s
happening on the project, and a
very short presentation for you
tonight. So that
s the end of
that.
Not mad with that. All right.
Council any um, uh, comments or
questions. I think we covered a
little bit upstairs, but but
basically, um, you MAY have
covered it. Um, tonight, uh,
this is the approval of this,
uh, MR. Yates, was there a
component that you needed to
explain or, um, no. Okay.
Like MISS Murray, to address
some of the budget.
MR. Yates had been the one we
were working on. How you doing,
MISS Murray?
I
m doing.
Fine.
Are there any questions for me?
Oh, no. I just wanted to make
sure it wasn
t. So. Basically,
uh, with this. This is, uh,
this is kind of a a new phase
as well. Site prep it, and and,
uh, we
ll move here. I think
you talked to us about, uh,
that the expenses related to
this will be tracked
separately. And, uh, the, the
other or the older expenses,
uh, that that particular
bucket, uh, for lack of a
better word, will be reconciled
and closed out. So this this
phase will have it separate
line of expenses and and costs.
Correct?
That
s correct. Okay. We
re
going to close the old project
and do a new project. And
that
s part of the action
tonight.
Gotcha. All right. Thank you
ma
am. All right. Council
member Hondros.
Thank you, MR. Mayor. Thank you
Dan. And, uh, cfo. I appreciate
you all coming up. So the
question I asked of acm
upstairs was the cpo 20, 1934,
in our agenda packet, as well
as cpo 2027 one, um, which is,
as you stated, closing out. Um,
cfo Murray, the the old project
and starting this new one. But
can you speak a little bit to
the funding of those numbers?
Uh, how much have we spent to
date on that project, the one
we
re closing out? How much are
we transferring over? And, um,
those thi please?
Yes. Um, sorry. So, um, the
original project, when it was
brought before council, was for
a total of 11.4 million. Um,
almost 11.5 of that. We had a
general fund transfer of 1.2
ish. Um, and we did a financing
for 10.3. So of that funding,
we
ve spent a little over $7.6
million. So that
s what we
re
going to be closing out in this
particular project. And we
re
going to transfer the remaining
funds, which is $3.8 million,
into a new capital project. Um,
along with some bond premium
that we received from the
issuance of the first tranche
of the $97 million referendum.
Um, if you remember, earlier
this year, we issued $40
million, and we
re going to
take some of that premium. And,
um, assign it to this
particular project in order for
us to move forward.
In. The premium came from rate
reductions, and our stellar
credit. Is that right?
The premium did not come from
rate reductions. Okay. Um, the
bond premium, um, essentially,
um, when the city, um, decides
to issue bonds and we issue
bonds at a premium, that is
because the rate on our bonds
is higher than what the market
is currently. So they give us
additional money or they pay
additional money on the face
value of the bonds. Essentially
what we
re doing is we
re
getting upfront money, but
we
ll pay higher interest rates
over the life of the bonds.
Very good. Um, and I also was
thankful that, um, we had the,
uh, finally got the website
page where residents can track
the progress on the project.
Will the, um, budget
information be on that page or
not?
I have not looked at the link
for that page, so I will have
to defer to Dan.
Very good. Thank you so much.
Thank you..
All right, Council, I
ll look
to you for action on this.
Mayor Pro Tem.
I recommend that we approve
phase one. MR. Mayor.
All right. Motion by Mayor Pro
Tem to approve phase one.
Seconded by Davis. Discussion
on the motion. All right,
counselor, look to you for your
votes.
Thank you. Council.
All right. All right. Thank