Fayetteville City Council members met for more than 90 minutes Thursday night to discuss agreements with Cumberland County Schools to provide school resource and traffic control officers within city limits.
The decision follows a May 21 letter from Sheriff Ennis Wright notifying police chiefs in each of Cumberland County’s municipalities that his department can no longer provide the staffing for schools outside the county's jurisdiction. This includes Fayetteville, Hope Mills and Spring Lake.
The school board presented the city with one agreement covering resource and traffic control officers Wednesday morning, according to City Manager Doug Hewett.
The Fayetteville Council, however, voted to separate the agreements.
School resource officer vote
Councilwoman Courtney Banks McLaughlin made a motion to approve the school resource officer agreement with conditions based on what Police Chief Kemberle Braden says the Fayetteville Police Department is able to provide.
“As a parent with students in our school system, I think I would feel more safer knowing that we have trained SROs in our school system,” Banks-McLaughlin said.
Braden told council members he could assign six roving school resource officers at the start of the school year, Aug. 26.
By Jan. 1, the chief said, he is committed to having nine school resource officers to support high schools in Fayetteville or be placed in the “most critical schools.”
Braden said that by August next year, he hopes to have all high schools and middle schools covered with 19 school resource officers.
The agreement also directs city staff to work with the school board to revise the arrangement in 12 months.
Council members Mayor Mitch Colvin, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen and council members Banks-Mclaughlin, Malik Davis, D.J. Haire, Deno Hondros, Lynne Greene, Derrick Thompson and Brenda McNair voted 9-1 to approve the agreement.
Councilman Mario Benavente, who raised questions ahead of Thursday's vote and at a June 24 work session about whether school resource officers support a “school to prison pipeline," voted against the agreement.
Benavente asked Thursday night what would happen if the school board didn't agree to the city’s revisions.
Colvin said Benavente’s question was hypothetical.
“I guess we’ll deal with it as it comes,” Colvin said.
The chief told council members that even if the council chose not to fund the officers, the police department would still handle 911 calls if private security officers provided the staffing.
“I think the support that I put behind this program is based on the fact that I would rather be proactive in doing something within the schools than purely responsive to whenever a critical incident occurs,” Braden said.
Request to meet with Cumberland County officials
In a separate vote, Councilman Deno Hondros motioned for the City Council to meet again in August or September to discuss setting up a meeting with Cumberland County Board of Education and Cumberland County Commissioners.
The vote passed 9-1, with Benavente casting the dissenting vote.
Multiple council members raised concerns at the meeting about whether the county should fund traffic control officers in the city.
Benavente, who initially seconded Hondros’ motion, withdrew his support after Hondros amended his motion to state that the meeting would be with county partners and clarified that he wants the council to meet first before meeting with county representatives.
Hondros originally requested the sheriff be part of the meeting and pointed to an email that Councilwoman McNair sent fellow council members Wednesday requesting a meeting with Wright to gain “clarity” on no longer being able to provide officers.
Traffic control officers
Council members voted 9-1 to provide traffic control officers for designated areas of the city based on availability, with Benavente voting against.
Hewett told council members that providing 66 traffic control officers, as requested by the school district, was not feasible.
The council also authorized Hewett to execute an agreement with the school system for the first year where the district or county would reimburse the costs.
School board members provided a letter to Cumberland County commissioners on Wednesday, requesting that the county provide the funding for the traffic control officers.
Hewett told council members the estimated cost for the city to provide school resource and traffic control officers would be $4.9 million.
Hewett said that even with the school district offering to pay for school resource officer salaries, benefits and $3,000 in upfront costs, the city would still incur costs for cars, training and equipment, which he projected to be $1.5 million over five years.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
Most Popular
Comments / 0