Council Quickies: Airport Workers, Street Vendors and SEAP+

Charlotte City Council held a public forum and quick business meeting on Tuesday night following the formal swearing-in of new District 6 rep Edwin Peacock.

Topics covered at the public forum included the need for more staffing at Animal Care & Control, demands from airport workers for better pay and a living wage, and the debate around street vendors operating in NoDa.

On the Agenda:

• Public Forum
• Affordable Housing and Other Business Items

Public Forum

Volunteers with the city’s Animal Care & Control thanked the council for addressing two requests they have been calling for at council meetings for years: funding for a new shelter facility and the removal of the agency from CMPD’s oversight. 

However, speakers at Tuesday’s meeting pointed out that the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget does not include funding for more staff at the existing shelter, which has been in a continual crisis due to overcrowding for years now and will continue to be the agency’s headquarters while the new facility is built from scratch. 

“Intake is rising and the shelter expansion is still years away. These staff are urgently needed to continue saving lives,” said one speaker. 

Read more: City Manager Proposes Fiscal Year ’26 Budget

Dominique Chambers, a wheelchair agent at Charlotte International Douglas Airport said, “I love my job … but most passengers have no idea about the struggles we face every day to get them to their destinations.” 

Chambers spoke about low wages, minimal benefits, poor working conditions, and understaffing. He said he makes $12.50 an hour and lives with his grandmother while some of his coworkers live in their cars. He hopes to live in a home of his own some day but can’t do so with his current pay, he said.  

Chambers and others who showed up on Tuesday delivered hundreds of handwritten postcards to council on Tuesday demanding they introduce an ordinance that would guarantee contracted airport workers earn a living wage and work in better conditions.

Michael Sims with Crowntown Cannabis addresses council on behalf of fellow business owners on North Davidson Street about the difficulties they’ve had with street vendors. “It’s gone from being a nuisance to a public emergency for public safety,” he said, adding that no local laws regulate these vendors.

Read more: NoDa Street Vendors React to Newly Proposed Permitting Process (2023)

Neighborhood Theatre founder Paul McBroom said he knew “good” street vendors but he had also witnessed bad vendors who threatened brick-and-mortar business owners and caused a nuisance. He said the city should provide a place for the good vendors to go but insisted there is no room on the sidewalks for any of them. 

McBroom asked that NoDa be designated a congested business district so vendors can be regulated as they are in Uptown.

One NoDa resident spoke in support of the street vendors, pointing out that many are Black entrepreneurs and emphasizing that those who oppose them “tell a one-sided tale of exaggerated inconveniences and cost without accounting for the real abundant benefits” of their presence, calling them a boon to the community.

One woman told council that her car was stolen with her dog inside in early April and the juvenile suspects were arrested but then let go without punishment. Since then, the suspects and their family have allegedly called her to extort her, saying they still have her dog back but police won’t do anything about it. 

The woman said she’s found that victims have no rights when juveniles are involved in crimes against them and that she hasn’t even been allowed to acquire a police report documenting the incident. 

Terri White with the Charlotte Museum of History asks that council fund the museum the same way they annually fund other institutions in the city. 

“Each year we ask for support and we’re told, ‘Oh, next fiscal year,’” White said. “This is my third fiscal year as president. There is no more runway for us to wait while our peers are funded with higher numbers than we have requested.” 

Strategic Energy Action Plan+ and Other Business Items

Moving on to the business portion of the meeting, council unanimously approved the adoption of the updated Strategic Energy Action Plan, known as SEAP+, with no discussion.

The SEAP+ includes updates to two original SEAP goals and adds another:

• Charlotte will reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 72% (to 3.56 metric tons of CO2 emissions per capita) by 2035 and reach net-zero by 2050.
• The city will install 600 megawatts of distributed renewable energy generation by 2035 and source 100% of its electricity use in municipal buildings from zero carbon sources by 2030, reaching net-zero emissions in municipal buildings by 2050.
• The city will reach net zero emissions in its light-duty fleet by 2035 and in its entire fleet by 2050.

“While the key objective of the SEAP is greenhouse gas emissions reduction, the SEAP+ has broadened this focus to include waste and water reduction and climate risk, and charts a course to align economic development policy, such as the creation of green jobs, with the actions necessary to transition to a zero carbon future,” read Tuesday’s agenda. 

Council approved $1.2 million to Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region for the acquisition, rehab and resale of 15 affordable single-family homes in the Corridors of Opportunity. 

Council extended the $1-per-year lease of the Innovation Barn in the Belmont neighborhood for another five years past the current lease’s expiration date in June 2026. Envision Charlotte will continue to host nonprofit organizations inside the facility through June 2031.

Before heading into a closed session, council members asked for some clarity on rules that played a role in the recent controversy surrounding Chief Johnny Jennings’ settlement. 

LaWana Mayfield asked about the rule that states council members who leave in the middle of the meeting are counted as Yes votes after that, which is how Jennings’ vote was reportedly approved. City attorney Anthony Fox said the rule was the result of state law and is out of his or the city manager’s control.

Mayfield also asked what it would take to investigate council leaks that have been made to the media following or during closed sessions. 

“Council doesn’t have the power to censure each other, but there has to be a level of accountability when we are having sensitive conversations and that info is being reported to the media verbatim or in some cases incorrectly and we don’t know what member is providing this info,” Mayfield said. 

Fox said it would take a directive from the council based on a majority vote to start such an investigation. Mayfield asked that the issue be referred to committee for further discussion. Mayor Lyles didn’t support that idea, asking that council be given a chance to work it out together rather than leave it to a smaller committee.