The Fayetteville City Council met on Monday, April 24, 2023, at 7:00 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting included recognitions, a proclamation for Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, several public hearings, and significant discussions on tax collection agreements, the Community Police Advisory Board report, additional polling locations, and a proposed charter amendment. Votes were taken on all major items.
Good evening, everyone would like to call our Monday, April 24th, Federal City Council Meeting the Order. Welcome to all of you who are joining us in the audience and those who are joining us by way of television. At this time, we will have our invocation, we'll ask that Imam Bobby Thomas with the Master Omar. I be Saeed Moss would give us a prayer if we could all please stand immediately following the prayer if we could uh repeat the Pledge of Allegiance in unity. Thank you. Let us pray. With God's name, most gracious, most most merciful, we thank you for our presence and this honorable assembly this evening. We ask for your grace and blessings as our leaders here discuss and decide affairs and matters before them. We ask, Lord, that they seek high noble goals for the ever-present challenges of our times. We pray that while striving to conclude the city's business, that they are intentional and directional, seeking to arrive at purposeful outcomes. And Lord God, let us be mindful that as we look to become the city that shines bright on a hill, that we don't overlook or look down on those less fortunate ones in our midst, the poor and the feeble. Let it be so that our city staff and municipal leaders find the resolve to uphold the values of sound principles and logic, both which aid in decision making and consensus building. As our creator, you made us thinking human beings who are not bound to unanimous agreement on every matter. But Lord, we pray that we will not become indifferent wherein we find disagreement. Okay. Of course, it's a pleasure to be here this evening. We appreciate Councilman Mario reaching out to us to be a part of the giving the invocation here this evening. It's just a testament to outreach and inclusiveness that we have in our fair city here. So we thank you for the opportunity. Of course, I was Cumberland County, uh retiree. So I've been in many settings such as this and for community and economic development. So I appreciate personally the opportunity to be here. And as an imam, as you may know or may not know, it is the person who leads the Muslim community in prayer, the one who who's the leader who gives the sermons or lectures, uh, who teaches the religion and educates people in the religion. So our masjid uh is very historical. If you don't know, we've named it in the honor of a great person, uh favorite son, if you will, a sheikh, if you would, in terms of how this people uh in his homeland would see him, Omar Ibn Saeed. He's in the historical archives of First Presbyterian Church not far from here. We saw very fitting that we would, since he left Senegal, came to Charleston, he came to Fayetteville, he ended up here. Uh and the story is a very rich story, and academia and historians alike are really dwelling into his story, his life story. Uh he's the only, the only extant or existing uh autobiography written in a native or nat uh a language prior to uh uh the Africans arriving here and learning English written in Arabic, his autobiography, which is very exceptional. So we saw fit to name our uh masjid, many would say Moss, in his honor. It's a great honor. Uh he would be proud to know that years removed from his presence and existence here that they we have uh much to talk about and discuss about his life. So we're very uh thankful to be here. We have been the we're the oldest Muslim community. There are others in the city of Fairville, but we've been here. Uh we take pride in being here the longest and very well established, and you all know probably personally some of the other Muslim that uh that are in this fair city and uh that have come through the ranks of uh Masjid Omar Ibn Saeed. So with that, I really would say again thank you for the opportunity to be here and uh look forward to maybe in the future coming back. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for the prayer. At this time, we have two other special guests, Miss Fayetteville and Miss Teen Fayetteville. Uh, if you could meet me at the podium. Uh and we have uh Mr. Thompson, Mr. Darren Thompson will introduce Miss Rachel, uh, Miss Fairville and also Miss Pearson. Ms. Fairville team. Mr. Thompson wasn't able to be here. So this is Rachel Townsend, Miss Favel and Hayden Hears and Ms.