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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JANUARY 13-19, 2016 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Fayetteville City Council members met for seven hours to tackle half a dozen agenda items during its monthly work session last week. No votes or decisions are made during the monthly work session. The monthly planning meetings are usually attended by staff and council; however, this month the meeting was moved to the Council Chambers because more than 20 people attended the meeting because of the agenda items. Those in attendance were exposed to an exhibition rarely seen by the public. It was a night of frustration for council members who had to deal with issues rang - ing from policy matters to appointing citizens to advisory boards, all of which were hotly contested by the members of the council. One of the hot button issues members dicussed was garbage collection in a far reaching area of West Fayetteville, an area served by Councilman Bill Crisp. Environmental Services Director Jerry Deitzen briefed the council on a pilot project in which a private contractor would be paid to pick up the trash to see if it could do a better job than Deitzen's crew. Recent studies concluded the city performs at lower cost than private firms. Councilmen Jim Arp and Chalmers McDougald joined with Crisp to deride the plan that was approved by Deitzen and City Manager Ted Voorhees. The City Council decided the experimental trash collection project should be lim - ited to Crisp's district. The confrontation came because the council's original directions were vague, according to Voorhees. Deitzen faced heavy criticism from the member of the council, with some challenging the validity of his re- port. McDougald went so far as to suggest he be fired. Voorhees came to Deit- zen's defense, pushing back in what continued to be a testy exchange between elected officials and their top administrators. Later came a clash among council members themselves over how best to ap- point interested residents to the city's numerous advisory boards and commis- sions. Bobby Hurst has chaired the committee with that responsibility for eight years. But some new members including Mayor Pro-Tem Mitch Colvin want to change the process. Under the current process, the city lists board openings on its website. City residents who wish to volunteer their time to serve on the board fill out an online application for the positions, some of which require licensure. The applications are then reviewed by the committee and recommenda- tions for appointment are taken before the council for a vote. Hurst felt Colvin was questioning his integrity. Colvin questioned the process used by the committee to nominate citizens to the boards. Hurst and appoint - ments committee member Bill Crisp got so angry they resigned from the committee. At 11 p.m., council closed their work session and went into special session to discuss the upcoming parks and recreation bond vote. Although Council - man Kirk deViere, a former Army officer, now downtown business owner, is the newest member of the board, he guided his colleagues through the pro- cess. This was his first work session having just been elected in November. Prior to his election, deViere attended council meetings regularly and took notes, which allowed him to hit the ground running. He sketched out the projects that council had chosen in an October planning session and reviewed those favored by residents who had responded to a survey. He led council to its final decision, which eliminated a proposed $3.2 million aquarium from the projects list and put to an end any further dis - cussion of a $28 million multipurpose aquatic and senior center in order to avoid public confusion. The marathon meeting ended at midnight. The Greater Fayetteville Chamber is officially reorganized as it heads into an - other year of business advocacy for its membership. It was previously known as the Fayetteville–Cumberland County Cham- ber of Commerce and the Fayetteville Area Chamber of Commerce. The numerous name changes reflect years of frustration, and what the Chamber once described as "an inabil - ity to articulate a unified vision for its future." Organization leaders believe they now have "a clearer mission." The Chamber's new Chairman Brian Kent seems determined to grow the membership and exert its influence in the community. The Chamber is on its own now hav - ing separated itself from the Economic Development Alliance. The Alliance is funded in part by city and county governments and serves as local governments' industry hunter. Under the new arrangement, the Chamber is self-sustaining and receives no public funding. It's beholden only to its members and the business community. Up & Coming Weekly spent an hour with Kent recently. Kent left the military in 2005, but elected to remain in Fayetteville. He bought the old Sears Warehouse on Cumberland Street three years later, and received a Chamber loan to rebuild the property. The new building opened in 2012 as K3 Enterprises, an "innovative global conveyor of information solutions and related services." Kent joined the Chamber in 2011, and immediately emerged as a leader. He joined the board of directors in 2013. Last year Kent was recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by Methodist University. K3 Enterprises is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business with 80 employees handling technology contracts primarily with the military worth more than $10 million a year. The Greater Fayetteville Chamber faces the challenge of recovering from a protracted membership slump which has seen its numbers plunge from 1,500 when David Jameson was president 15 years ago, to only 700 today. Kent would like to see chamber memberships become what he calls "structured sponsorships" offering networking, event-planning, training and business education. Kent isn't happy with local govern - ment. The Chamber "has become a scapegoat for city and county inef- ficiencies," he said. He's among those who charge that the City of Fayetteville does not operate "in a business friendly environment." Council members agree and blame city staff. Kent adds that government "must streamline their processes" to speed up regulatory requirements of the unified development ordinance. The city's new Director of Inspections and Permitting agrees. Doug Hewitt re - joined the administration recently after an absence of a couple of years. He told city council this month that his staff is being cross-trained to respond to developer needs faster. He stressed the need for computer enhancements in order to synchronize internal systems so they can better communicate with each other. "We have to have a technology system that works," said Deputy City Man - ager Rochelle Small-Toney, which places the onus on city council to adequately fund the department. Reorganized Chamber Calls for City to Become More User Friendly by JEFF THOMPSON Contentious Planning Session Leads to Resignations by JEFF THOMPSON JEFF THOMPSON, Senior News Reporter. COMMENTS? news@upandcomingweekly. com. 910.484.6200. Bobby Hurst Kirk deViere