Should We Vote Yes, or No? A Response from Vote No Fayetteville Committee

Adam Beyah

‘We are a group of concerned citizens whose goal is to advocate against the efforts to change the current structure of our City Council.  We have, in turn, established and filed with the local Board of Election, a referendum committee, VOTE NO FAYETTEVILLE.  This committee is non-partisan; and as such, we welcome folks to join in our efforts to ensure Fayetteville Votes No to change the current structure of the city council.’

A lot of attention is being drawn to the so-called problems that Fayetteville is encountering of late. Every day we are learning of more problems in our City. Some are saying that the problems are a direct result of the current City Council structure of nine single member districts. The City Council members from those single member districts are accused of caring about their districts only and not “our city.”

We first became aware of the discontent that existed with the leadership in Fayetteville and Cumberland County on June 2, 2020, in an editorial written by Bill Bowman in Up & Coming Weekly. The editorial was titled “Fayetteville leadership collapses under pressure.” In the piece Bowman brings to our attention that the most trusted, prominent, and vital positions of leadership in Fayetteville and Cumberland County were held by “people of color.” Then he reminded us that the mayor, city manager, city attorney, seven out of nine City Council members, the police chief, fire chief, Cumberland County Sheriff, Cumberland County Schools superintendent and three Cumberland County Commissioners were “people of color.” Did I leave anyone out?

Those that were discontented organized their efforts into an initiative they named “VoteYesFayetteville (VYF).” We’ve seen a few mailers that the group sent out asking voters to sign a petition asking the City Council for a referendum to change the current structure of the Council; hence the name “Vote Yes.”

The first mailer made reference to the protest that took place on May 30, 2020, over the murder of George Floyd. That afternoon many protestors surrounded the Market House to continue the protest. The mailer, signed by former Mayor Tony Chavonne, made reference to the lack of police or fire department presence in the downtown area. This was of concern to him especially since his home is about a block away from the Market House.

In the second mailer, the Vote Yes group highlighted statistics to support their contention that Fayetteville has urgent issues to deal with. The mailer listed the following:
57% increase in murder and violent crime.
17% decline in police funding.
68% fewer traffic stops than 4 years ago.

While it is true that in 2020 homicides increased to 32 (three more the 29 murders that occurred in 2011); overall crime decreased to 8,885 the lowest reported than in any of the previous 10 years. I wonder who was Mayor back then?

As for police funding, you know in the budgeting process most City department heads ask for more money than they end up receiving. That is part of the budgeting process and in that regard the Chief never gets the money he or she asks for; ergo it is underfunded.

This group (VYF) also concludes that 68% fewer traffic stops make our streets not safe. In 2011, The Fayetteville Observer ran a report that analyzed 63,000 traffic stop records from 2009 and 2010 and concluded that black drivers accounted for three out of four searches made by police during traffic stops. This is a phenomenon known as Driving While Black.

During that time also Troy Williams headed up an effort to decrease the number of Blacks being stopped by the Fayetteville Police especially since those stops resulted in only a few charges. So, while VYF concludes that this results in unsafe streets. I prefer to be positive and conclude that the number of frivolous traffic stops has gone down. We should give kudos to Chief Gina Hawkins and her staff.

We are not convinced that changing the structure of the City Council will result in the improvements VYF say they are seeking. But to garner support for their cause by using “dog whistle political” tactics does little to build unity and goodwill in our City. We can and must do better.

Vote No Fayetteville Committee

VOTE NO TO CHANGE CURRENT CITY COUNCIL STRUCTURE!!!