A Citizen Spotlight: Fayetteville’s Mayor Mitch Colvin

 

Ms Jheri Worldwide

Staff Writer

Fayetteville’s Mayor Mitch Colvin is in his fourth term, and as our conversation began, I asked him about his tenure in the role. “Well, you never say never, right? Definitely won’t be mayor forever,” he replied. “I don’t believe that’s useful for me or the city. Over these last four terms, I’ve had goals for Fayetteville, and I’m seeing a lot of that vision come to life now. There’s always work to do, and I make decisions toward the end of my term to focus on the present, not on future political outcomes. I don’t have the answer to that question just yet.”

We then delved into the community benefits of being a multi-term leader. “You want continuity,” he said. “With these two-year terms, the entire board is up for election every two years, leading to a 40% to 50% turnover. Each new council member brings their own vision and perspective. You need some institutional consistency to make sure that as a city, we’re continuing to move forward, whether it’s with different perspectives or not. We put an incredible amount of time and resources and budget into putting things in place. And then you may have a new group that pivots and goes in a completely different direction, but that’s just the nature of it. It is good to have historical perspective.”

I shifted the conversation to the representation of Fayetteville in the media, “We’re working on that, I’ll start with this. I think we are one of the best kept secrets when people come here. What they’ve heard or thought before they got here is completely different. We’ve worked hard to make it that way. We’ve added a lot of amenities for quality of life improvement. We’ve done a lot on the economic side to kind of lift people’s situation out of the situation that it’s in. We struggle to get our message out. Raleigh and the Durham area gets most of the concentration from the media outlets unless it’s bad, thankfully, now with social media and platforms like you have, we’re trying to get the word out that we have one of the fastest growing metros, including the Harnett county area. We’re a bedroom community to Raleigh, we’re not a competitor, but we are a great alternative for people who want a more affordable way of life that still has quality retail outlets and great food choices. We’ve got the baseball stadium and amenities. We’ll continue to build on that with the Black History Museum and now the performing arts that will be built downtown. We are investing in the future to make sure that we are a great destination place for people who want an alternative or an option. They don’t have to always go to Raleigh. But we’re trying to get that word out right.”

I shared, “I’m looking forward to the new developments. There’s a lot to love about Fayetteville. Let’s talk about affordable housing. The numbers are so skewed. So what’s affordable to one person doesn’t actually reflect the community equitably.”

“Absolutely,” Mayor Colvin agreed, “I always break it down because affordable housing has got this kind of a catch all phrase. I think it is housing that’s affordable for you. If you’re paying more than 30% of whatever it is you make to live somewhere, you’re going to struggle at some point. So we’ve got to have options to hit all spectrums, and I think we’re doing that. One thing that we have here is our rental prices are higher than the income income level because of various things. We think sometimes the allocation that the military gives the military families is high, so landlords raise their price to align with that, and which creates a struggle for people who are not military and don’t get a housing allowance. So the way we fix that is we bring more available rental units on the market, which we’re doing that working with builders and developers to bring more more options, which will bring the price down. I asked the council to look at creating 300 new homeowners this two year term and we’ve increased our down payment assistance program. We’re working with some of the local, other local governmental bodies. So we’ve not only expanded that for city employees, but we’ve done it for county hospital and school board members. Government employs almost 55% of the people here in the city for one governmental unit or another. We want to make sure that all of them can be homeowners, whether you’re a cafeteria worker, a bus driver or whoever, that you can own a home, which is, you know, the way you build wealth. So $30,000 is the down payment assistance if you buy within the city limits. We’re hoping that that will catch on. And now with the interest rates dropping, we think that money will go further.”

I reflected on his comments about pandemic assistance, curious about the flow of funds. “How does that work?” I asked. “Is it a direct allocation, or does it come from various levels?”

“When the pandemic first hit it was under the previous administration, and it was just a little chaotic. People just didn’t know what they were dealing with. Some rescue funds came in, if you were a city, over maybe 200,000 people, then the allocations came straight to you. But it was just a small amount,” he explained, “Then we got that money out to help people who didn’t qualify for PPP. So beauticians, barbers, people with just one employee, or they were the only employee. We were able to help them pay their booth rent and pay things to keep going. But then as the new administration came in, it was a lot more clarification to it. Some of the money came to the state, it trickled down, which is a lot slower process. Then there were some direct allocations, like the ARPA dollars, $44 million came to the city directly from the federal government, which we were able to put on the street immediately. Rental assistance came directly in. We helped almost 2,500 families stay in their houses during that time with more than $16 million coming straight from an allocation from HUD. It varies depending on the program, anytime you involve federal, state, and then us, the money and the rules make it more complicated.”

As our conversation neared its end, I asked a challenging question: “How did it feel to be accused of discrimination?”

“That was hurtful,” he admitted. “I’m a father of three daughters. I’m African American, I’ve dealt with the prejudices that exist every day. I fight to make sure everybody’s treated right, regardless of what you are. I understand that sometimes the position brings certain things with it. I have to put aside my personal preference, which will be, let me fight and dispute. I have to look at what’s in the best benefit of the taxpayer. To defend that and to take that to court to get an end that that clears me may cost the taxpayers three or four times as much as it was to end situation. It was a tough dichotomy between those two outcomes. But, people that know me know who I am and what I stand for. The people that I get up and look at every day, from my mother, 84 years old, to my three daughters, from 29 to 20, and my wife, all African American females, they know where I’m at.”

I posed my final question: “Do you have greater political ambitions?”

“I never started out to say, I want to be a mayor. I want to be a governor. That’s kind of secondary. I didn’t go in the military, so my contribution to my community has been this. If that leads to something else, then, you know, I’m all for that, because I still have the passion to be at the table for policy. I heard Governor Moore say this at an event I went to in Raleigh, ‘policies are in everything from the water we drink to the air we breathe, to the job you work, to the streets, anything you can think of, where your kids go to school.’ So you gotta have people with the right passion making that policy. As long as I’m passionate about it, I’m all for the public service piece.”

Mayor Colvin’s dedication to Fayetteville’s growth and community well-being was evident throughout our discussion, revealing a leader focused not just on the present, but on laying the groundwork for a brighter future.

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