Fayetteville City Council Work Session – November 10, 2025
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Fayetteville City Council Work Session – November 10, 2025
The Fayetteville City Council held a work session on November 10, 2025, starting at 4:00 PM. The meeting focused on six council member agenda requests covering audits, police report timelines, tenant rights research, dinner meeting procedures, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and alleyway improvements. Several motions were passed, except one that failed for lack of a second. A closed session was postponed to the dinner meeting to view a video from the District Attorney.
Discussion Items
- Item 6.01 – Request Audit of CIP Projects (Council Members Hondros, Davis, & Greene): Council members argued that stalled capital improvement projects, particularly in District 2, have eroded public trust and sought a state auditor to conduct a forensic or performance audit. After debate over a video from District Attorney Billy West regarding an investigation, the council unanimously approved a motion to formally request the state auditor to audit the stalled CIP projects. The council also discussed but deferred a motion to view the District Attorney's video in closed session until the dinner meeting.
- Item 6.02 – FPD Quarterly Report Upload Date Consistency (Council Member Benavente): Benavente proposed requiring the Fayetteville Police Department to submit its quarterly report by the same Friday deadline as other departments, to allow council and public time to review before the meeting. Police Chief Bryant expressed concern about releasing sensitive data before council reviewed it. The motion died for lack of a second.
- Item 6.03 – Research Tenants Rights Ordinance (Council Member Benavente): Benavente requested staff research successful tenant rights ordinances from cities like Charlotte and Durham, focusing on rent abatement and habitability protections. Some council members worried about unintended consequences for landlords and homeless populations. The motion passed, with a directive to include state law context.
- Item 6.04 – Dinner Meeting Reform (Council Member Benavente): Benavente moved to mandate a formal agenda for all future dinner meetings, citing a prior meeting where items were added without notice. After a heated exchange, the motion passed despite opposition from some members who argued it would stifle necessary discussion.
- Item 6.05 – Disclose City Council Conflict of Interest Forms (Mayor Colvin): The mayor requested staff bring back best practices for making council disclosure forms publicly accessible, similar to state ethics forms. A motion to that effect passed.
- Item 6.06 – Arts Council Alleyway Improvement (Council Members Benavente and Davis): The council moved to have staff (led by Michael Gibson and Parks and Rec) research costs and improvements to make the alleyway adjacent to the Arts Council more inviting. An amendment to include all downtown alleyways was added but the motion specified the Arts Council alley as the priority. The motion passed.
Key Outcomes
- Item 6.01 (CIP Audit): Motion passed unanimously. Formal request to state auditor to be sent.
- Item 6.02 (FPD Report Deadline): Motion died for lack of a second.
- Item 6.03 (Tenants Rights Ordinance): Motion passed. Staff to research and report back.
- Item 6.04 (Dinner Meeting Agenda): Motion passed. Mandatory agenda for dinner meetings effective immediately.
- Item 6.05 (Conflict of Interest Disclosure): Motion passed. Staff to bring best practices.
- Item 6.06 (Alleyway Improvement): Motion passed. Staff to research improvements and costs.
- Closed Session: Deferred to the dinner meeting to view the District Attorney's video regarding the investigation of stalled projects.
Meeting Transcript
Or of the goals from our strategic plan, it actually aligns with all six of them. So that's really all I have. I will answer any questions. I'll reserve time for any questions. Um I'm sure my my two colleagues may want to speak on it as well. Thank you. I'm with you. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh just uh to reiterate reiterate what uh my colleague said, basically to try to provide transparency. Of course, a lot of these stall projects are in district two, and I have been hearing a lot of great concern from a lot of residents in district two. So this is just an effort to provide transparency with the community. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Gotcha. Councilmember Gray. I will just reiterate what my two colleagues have said. The the um spirit in which this was requested was just to have some transparency around the Muhammad projects, the SOLS CPI projects, and just to get some information for the public because their confidence is really lacking in us as um being able to move the city forward. So that's what it was around. Gotcha. Uh well, thank you, Councilmember. And then before I go to the attorney of reference to the district attorney's items, there was um there are some copies that should be on your dais uh from dated April 24th of 25 this year, uh correspondence between uh our city attorney uh LaCelle Pullium and the district attorney's office uh reference to uh formally requesting his involvement uh in the criminal uh investigation portion, if any. Um, and then also from uh earlier uh around that same time there's a letter that we spoke about uh that uh on the heels of a conversation with members of our delegation that was sent um electronically by Jennifer's office uh reference to the same thing that to brief uh the delegation on where we were going with this and involvement or the request of of uh Billy West. Um Mr. West is at a district attorney's conference in San Francisco, I think, and he has sent back uh a video for us, and I'll go to the attorney for that because she thinks that that may be something that we need to view in in closed session. So, madam attorney. Thank you, Mayor Covey. Um City Council, um, as the mayor said, uh District Attorney West did send us a video. Um it appears that the audience of the video is the city council, and so it's my recommendation that the council view that in closed session, maybe at the end of the meeting upon motion of one of the council members. I have a question. I have a question. Yeah. So thank you, Mr. Mayor. I guess my question is, and I didn't go back and look through my emails, but as I'm looking at these letters and these emails, were we copied on these? No, ma'am. Okay, so because this is the first time I'm I'm played up recalling seeing this. So I guess my question is, you know, this was done on April 24th with information that was going back and forth that we didn't know about well, some of these involved in Jenner's Jennifer's notes. I think she included it with came out of the discussion of our meetings, the mayor mayor pro tem meeting. Minutes. But um council, once we I spoke to uh Senator McKinnis, uh this did happen in a meeting. I don't uh we can pull minutes from that, but I was talking to the council about my conversation with him uh in the spring about his concerns with this and and sent that letter after speaking with you all. But we can pull that for the question. I just think in the future that maybe when something like this these letters go out that the council should see it because I think it would have given some information to everyone. That's it. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Councilman Benavette. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
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