Fayetteville aldermen approve appointments, grant application, paving award and budget changes; one utilities appointment fails

Fayetteville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Thursday approved multiple personnel appointments, authorized a $750,000 HOME grant application, awarded a paving contract and adopted several ordinances, while one recommended appointment to the Fayetteville Board of Public Utilities failed to gain approval.

At the top of the meeting’s business, Mayor (name not specified in the record) presented three appointments to boards and commissions. The board confirmed Rusty Pittenger to the Fayetteville Board of Public Utilities to fill the seat vacated by Russ Dixon (term through June 30, 2027), and confirmed Veronica King to another FPU seat (term through June 30, 2026). A separate county-seat appointment recommended for Eddie Plunkett to the FPU failed on the board floor.

The board voted to approve a request from Planning and Codes to apply for a HOME Investment Partnerships Program grant of up to $750,000; the application carries no local match requirement, staff said. The board also approved awarding the Don Davidson paving bid to Lincoln Paving, the lowest bidder, for $26,545.

Members approved ordinance changes moving the city’s planning body from a regional planning commission to a municipal planning commission with five mayoral appointees, and approved an ordinance to raise municipal court costs from $85 to $125 (noting $115 as the court cost plus a $10 special police fund). The board also accepted the FY2023–24 audit and voted to contract with auditing firm Matlock Clements at $38,500 per year with a maximum 3% annual increase.

Other consent and new-business actions included a budget amendment and a $200 transfer from the tourism account to a fund for life-expense (additional budget amendments were noted as forthcoming). The board approved the annual Slawburger Festival permit and related event route, set for April, and appointed Joel Jacobson to the Industrial Oversight Committee (term through June 2027). The mayor additionally announced the appointment of Regina Monte to the Fayetteville Housing Authority to replace a term that expired in February 2025; that appointment was provided as information to the board.

Votes were recorded by roll call during each item. For the Rusty Pittenger appointment the board recorded ayes from council members identified in the roll call as “Mister Palmer,” “Mister Grabber,” “Mister Eden,” “Mister Kramer,” “Miss Small” and “Mister Oliver,” and the motion carried. The Veronica King appointment passed after roll-call votes that included both yes and no responses; the record shows the motion carried. The county-seat FPU appointment failed after a roll-call in which several members voted no and one voted aye. The paving contract, HOME grant application, planning commission ordinance, municipal court-fee ordinance, audit acceptance, selection of Matlock Clements, budget amendment and the Industrial Oversight Committee appointment all carried on recorded votes.

No vote counts tied to named members were listed for every item; where the roll call recorded individual yes/no answers they are captured in the formal minutes.

The meeting packet indicated bid documents and ordinance texts were circulated to aldermen before the meeting; the board’s votes move each item to implementation or to the next administrative step (grant application filing, contract paperwork, ordinance publication and audit contracting).