Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1451418
10 UCW FEBRUARY 16 - 22, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Fayetteville City Council has decided to not look further into the allegations that former Coun- cilwoman Tisha Wadell made in her resignation letter in Novem- ber of last year. Wadell asked the Fayetteville City Council to investigate the following: • e allegation that Mayor Mitch Colvin destroyed pub- lic records by having his cell phone wiped clean (phone number 910.987.0590) and any involvement of any member of city staff. • e involvement of Johna- than Charleston regarding any business with Bernhard Capital Partners or their representatives. • e involvement of Mayor Mitch Colvin regarding any business with BCP or any of their representatives — to include Mayor Steve Benja- min. • Members of Council con- tacted by or having dis- cussions with Attorney Johnathan Charleston or any of his representatives regarding Dismass Charities before, during or after the initial Special Use Permit was brought to the board for consideration. If this did happened, it would be a direct violation of the law/ policy regarding Special Use Permits. In November, Councilwoman Yvonne Kinston asked the Audit Committee to review the allega- tions and to, as a group, ask the whole of City Council to discuss whether or not to do an indepen- dent investigation into the Mayor e Audit Committee voted 4 to 0 for the motion, which was to be presented to City Council at the beginning of December. However, the Chair of the Audit Committee, Johnny Dawkins, pulled the item last minute - de- spite voting on it. Dawkins told Up & Coming Weekly that he voted on it initially because it would just be a discus- sion item, not a recommendation for the council to go one way or another. "In the two weeks or so be- tween the Audit Committee Meeting and the work session, I reviewed the bylaws of the Audit Committee, and it ap- peared to me that the issue is not something in our purview," Dawkins said. According to the City's website, the Audit Committee's "pri- mary purpose is to assist the City Council in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities for the overall stewardship of the City's financial affairs." Dawkins told Up & Coming Weekly that he believes these al- legations should go to the Ethics Committee and not the Audit Committee since no city funds, or misuse of city funds was brought up in the allegations. "ere's never been a time when I was chairman, where I pulled an item like this. I went to enough law school to know that this is not in the purview of the Audit Committee, but the city attorney wouldn't give me a definite answer on that," Dawkins said. On Jan. 28, Kinston brought up the issue in the Audit Committee. She asked Dawkins why he pulled the unanimously voted-on item from the December work session. He said that he did not feel like it should have been up to the Au- dit Committee to bring this topic forward. However, when the two other committee members backed Kin- ston, Dawkins conceded and said he was fine putting it up, as long as Kinston presented it and it had her name on it. is all cumulat- ed last week when City Council's Work Session officially discussed a possible investigation. Colvin recused himself from the conver- sation immediately and did not vote on it. e biggest argument against the investigation, coming from Councilman Larry Wright, is that external organizations already conducted investigations into the allegations. "For us, as a council, to come back and say, 'Go further, spend more money,' I feel at this time I can't support it," Wright said. is is referring to the investi- gation made by CityView TO- DAY's investigative reporter Greg Barnes. He found that there were no signs of corruption regarding BCP's efforts to take over the PWC, however, he did find a lack of transparency by people trying to broker a deal with the equity firm. e allegations that Barnes did not yet look into in a published article includes: Colvin allegedly destroying public records when he had his cell phone "wiped clean" during an investigation that led to the resignation of for- mer City Councilman Tyrone Wil- liams in 2018; that some council members may have improperly or illegally discussed a special use permit for Dismas Charities, which wants to build a halfway house for federal prisoners on land along Cain Road; or whether building permits and certificates of appropriateness were handled properly for a downtown building that Colvin has an interest in. e council denied the motion for an external investigation 5 to 4. e people who voted against the investigation were Christo- pher Davis, Kathy Jensen, D.J. Haire, Wright and Dawkins. e people who voted in favor of the investigation were council- members Antonio Jones, Shakey- la Ingram, Courtney Banks- Mclaughlin and Kinston. NEWS City Council votes against independent investigation into Mayor by HANNAH LEE HANNAH LEE, Assistant Editor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. The Fayetteville City Council poses for a group photo prior to the resignation of Tisha Waddell. (Photo courtesy of the City of Fayetteville website.)