7Mayor Mitch Colvin is a District 3 resident and served as a district representative for two terms before being elected as Mayor in 2017. This will now be his third consecutive term as Mayor. Next year will mark ten years since he was first elected to the City Council.

Over that time, his focus in the past has been primarily about collaboration with the county, the state and neighboring entities.
However, 2020 brought along the COVID-19 pandemic and race relations came to the forefront of the entire country. Projects were paused, delayed and even canceled. Colvin believes 2022 has been a turning point for the city of Fayetteville.

“So now that we have turned a corner on those two things, now the focus continues to [be] the people in the community,” Colvin said.

When asked about the rising violent crime trend seen in Fayetteville, Colvin says that you have to put it into perspective.

“I think today we have some of the problems that a lot of communities our size have, but certainly it has room for improvement for sure. I accept that, but I think we have to debunk and put this in perspective as to where we are, is relative to the size. We're a community of 250,000 plus in the area and greater surrounding area,” Colvin said.

Fayetteville Police Chief Gina Hawkins told City Council last week that violent crime has increased from January to June.
Domestic assault reports are up nearly 17%, and aggravated assault reports rose by 14%.

However, the overall crime rate has decreased since 2016.
Colvin says that a carrot stick approach has to be used for the crime problem. He says the first thing the city needs to do is make sure law enforcement officers are doing their jobs. Making sure the law is being enforced.
The second part of the problem is to address underlying problems like mental health. He says 10% of the budget of the Fayetteville Police Department ends up going toward mental health.

“The quality of life is embedded in this community with mental health. If you go right down the street, you see people who are obviously in need of services. And so I want to work with the hospital, with the county and see how we can be a better partner to help address that,” Colvin said.

An idea that he wants to work more on in the upcoming term is to make sure Fayetteville residents are work-ready. He says there is a great workforce in the community, but he wants to invest in workforce training to help people get certified in different fields.

“We've had great success and [added] jobs to the economy, which is the number one priority that I had as well. And so we want to continue to build on those successes, but to bring the higher-end wage jobs and the only way I think you can do that is to invest in the workforce training, which I have some initiatives for next generation job creation,” Colvin told Up & Coming Weekly.

“I want to do a pilot program to encourage young people, particularly high school graduates or people who are changing careers, to pay for a nine month course in cyber certification and with the expectation that they will get at least a $50,000 to $60,000 job opportunity at the end of that. And that can be a game changer for a lot of people.”

Another priority for Colvin is housing. There is a 20,000 housing shortage in Fayetteville, and while a bond package has been approved to be put to voters in November to help pay for some of that, Colvin has other ideas as well — specifically around the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the Department of Energy.

“There could be additional dollars in there to leverage our housing ARPA funds if we make [houses] energy efficient and we encourage sustainability as we build that,” Colvin said. “So the goal is to learn about the programs that are coming.”

Last week he voted against putting the Vote Yes Fayetteville referendum on the ballot.

The Vote Yes Initiative would change the way City Council would be structured. Instead of all nine members being elected by district, four members would be elected at large, and five would be elected from districts.
City Council voted against putting the referendum on the ballot because there were concerns over the validity of the referendum's petition.
Colvin told Up & Coming Weekly he is against the initiative.

“Personally, I don't think a council structure change is necessary and the case really hasn't been made as to why this is something that is needed at this time. As a former district representative for four years and mayor, for now, three terms, I know the importance of having the point of view of a district,” Colvin said.

The goal now for Colvin is to continue representing the entire city and improve the quality of life for everyone.

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