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.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM SEPTEMBER 14 - 20, 2022 UCW 9 City Council member Brenda McNair is a family woman at heart. is is the first public office McNair has held. She ran on a platform of change and envisioned becoming more of an advocate for the people. She is an ordained minister and owns several businesses, includ- ing an air conditioning company. McNair beat out long-term council member Larry Wright Sr., who has been on the council since 2013. McNair won by 20 votes — less than 1.5%. However, her start to the City Council has been shaky. She recently voted against future discussions of the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center when she was actually in support of it. She tells Up & Coming Weekly that she didn't realize she voted against the historical center until the morning after the work ses- sion. Her vote against the center led to a dead- locked council, 5-5. at vote jeopardized the center's future as the county depended on the City of Fayetteville to move forward. "I guess my understanding of what I voted on wasn't clear," McNair said. "I think [the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center] is a really great opportu- nity for the city and for our community to partake of and to bring growth to the city of Fayetteville." Regarding another controversial topic, the Vote Yes Referendum, McNair wasn't able to make it to an emergency meeting earlier this month where the majority of the council ap- pealed the decision to have the referendum appear on the November ballot. e Vote Yes Referendum would restructure the current City Council to include at-large members. McNair said that if she had been present at that meeting, she would have voted against the appeal. She says it does not matter if she supports the referendum or not, rather it only matters what the citizens vote for. "I feel that the people should have the right to vote. I'm not going to say I'm for it. I'm not going to say I'm against it. But my thing is they should have the right to vote," McNair said. "If we believe in democracy, then give the people the choice and fear should not have any place in this. I feel we should not fear what is going to hap- pen if you put it on the ballot. If people don't want it, then don't vote for it. So we do have the option." McNair says she doesn't want to make party- line decisions because her job is nonpartisan. She wants to make sound decisions that are based on the welfare of the people. She also wants to stay true to herself. "I'm not afraid of anything that I say. People are going to have their opinion. Enjoy your opinion. I don't care what you say or do. You'll make some people happy. You'll make some people mad. And some people are just going to be outright con- fused," McNair said. One of McNair's top priorities includes inform- ing her constituents about resources they have access to but may not know about. "I want to reach out to them to better inform them that they have a representative ready to take them to the next level. ey may be doing well, but I've found out that there are so many resources that the city of Fayetteville is not aware of," McNair said. Some of those resources include job training, first-time home-buyer workshops, the urban ministry, the fair housing committee, community safety micro-grants and the Center for Economic Empowerment and Development. "We have all this information that a lot of people are not taking advantage of," McNair said. Another priority for McNair is mental health. Mental health issues run in her family and she has seen firsthand its impacts. She believes that by addressing the mental health crisis, the city could also address the homeless popula- tion simultaneously. Gun violence is also a personal priority for McNair. A few weeks ago, McNair lost her 35-year-old cousin to gun violence. She thinks this trend with young people about getting guns because they look cool is very dangerous. "My cousin was just in a store. is young man came up, shot him twice in his chest be- cause they had a few words," McNair said. She hopes to look into having a rehabilita- tion center for young people instead of sending them to jail for small crimes, especially when these young people don't have role models to set them up for success. "It's almost like a boot camp. Instead of sending our young people off to prison and keeping them locked up in jail. I want to work on a facility to retrain or to train these young people about livelihood, on how to obtain a prosperous life without crime if they're ca- pable," McNair said. "But just sending them to prison because they make one mistake ... they go out, they're trying to find themselves and they get in trouble." Another project McNair wants to work on is a state-of-the-art senior center for those who may not have access to one otherwise. Ideally, this would be for retirees but people who are still able to function and don't need 24/7 care. "ey could have activities in the same facil- ity. ey can communicate with each other. ey can have a restaurant inside their facility, a nice restaurant, a nice swimming pool, a nice day center in there so people can come in and speak to them and things of that nature. I know there are assisted living homes, but this takes it to a different level," McNair said. For her District 7 residents, she aims to rep- resent them the best way she can. She wants them to know who their representative is, what district they are living in, who their community watch leader is, who their HOA president is, and to be aware of their community — posi- tives and negatives. "I want them to know that they have a rep- resentative here. I am ready to work hard for them so that we can iron out some of the issues that they have. I know we're not going to iron out everything, but the things that we can work on, I want to be able to work on, all the issues that we can improve and direct them to the staff that can handle a lot of the issues that they're having," McNair said. e next Fayetteville City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. City Council District 7: McNair wants citizens to be informed, make their own choices, be present by HANNAH LEE NEWS HANNAH LEE, Assistant Editor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. "I guess my understanding of what I voted on wasn't clear. I think [the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center] is a really great oppor- tunity for the city." — Brenda McNair, City Council District 7