Two minutes before Asheville City Council’s Tuesday meeting was scheduled to begin, City Clerk Maggie Burleson addressed a capacity crowd inside the Council Chamber. At her news that “Item D” would be removed from Council’s agenda, a whoop of cathartic exultation arose from those assembled.
The community members had gathered to share their concerns about the city accepting a $1.14 million federal award for the Asheville Police Department. Chuck Edwards, the Republican who represents Asheville in the U.S. House, had earmarked the money at APD’s request to help the department create a “real-time intelligence center.”
That technology, similar to resources already employed by the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, would allow APD to access live footage from surveillance cameras across the city. “By providing personnel with the ability to collect, analyze, and disseminate real-time information to responding officers, the RTIC will enhance situational awareness and support timely, informed, and effective responses,” city staff wrote in a report about the award.
Staff had identified no drawbacks to accepting the money. During public comment period Tuesday, speakers noted that while the federal grant covered initial hardware and software for the RTIC, city taxpayers would be responsible for its ongoing operational expenses. They also raised concerns over privacy, data security, and the potential for Asheville’s cameras to be co-opted by federal immigration authorities.
“Let’s call it what it actually is: a centralized hub for spying on the people of Asheville, funded by a far-right federal administration that has declared war on our most vulnerable neighbors,” said Jen Hampton, co-chair of the advocacy group Asheville Food and Beverage United.
City officials do not appear to have anticipated substantial community pushback on the RTIC. Council had placed the award on its consent agenda, a measure meant to approve multiple noncontroversial items with a single vote. No member raised concerns during Council’s April 9 agenda briefing. At a March 26 Public Safety Committee meeting, Council members Bo Hess and Sheneika Smith both approved it without further comment when APD Interim Chief Jackie Stepp presented the matter. (Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley, the committee’s remaining member, was not present.)
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Esther Manheimer said the RTIC award would be referred to Council’s next work session on policy, finance, and infrastructure at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 28. If officials decide to move forward after hearing more information, she continued, a vote would be scheduled for a formal Council meeting in May.
“This issue in particular is very important to cities right now, especially in light of what we’re experiencing on a national level,” said Manheimer at Tuesday’s Council meeting. “I know a lot of cities around the nation are grappling with real-time intelligence center issues, so I think it warrants a full conversation before moving ahead.”
City staff project property tax increase
Eliminating the gap between Asheville’s general fund revenues and expenses for the next fiscal year will take about $17.1 million, city budget staff told Council at a Tuesday work session. To accomplish that without using the city’s fiscal reserves will require higher property taxes — roughly 19% higher than those levied this year.
Tony McDowell, Asheville’s finance director, estimated the necessary property tax rate at 39.22 cents per $100 of assessed value. While that rate is nominally lower than the current 44.19 cents per $100, city property values are also much higher following Buncombe County’s recent reassessment.
A typical residential property worth $350,000 before the revaluation, McDowell said, is now valued at around $500,000. The owner of such a home would pay about $311 more in city taxes next year under the new rate.
Those taxes would cover general cost increases for existing services, $3 million in raises for city employees, one new affordable housing staffer, and financing for the $80 million in bonds Asheville voters approved in 2024. No other new positions would be added, including the 16 new firefighters Asheville Fire Department members have been seeking.
McDowell stressed that all figures were preliminary and could change as Asheville adjusts its budget and the county hears property tax appeals. The city will publish its proposed budget document on Friday, May 8, with a public hearing to follow Tuesday, May 26. Other presentations and videos from the city’s budget process to date are available online.
Other tidbits
- Asheville outlined major changes to its digital content policies, which City Attorney Brad Branham said were necessary to comply with new accessibility requirements under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Public-facing resources like the Asheville App and water usage dashboards will go offline indefinitely until they can meet those requirements. The city will also remove large amounts of content, delisting hundreds of past videos from its YouTube page and taking away links to documents such as master plans. The changes will go into effect Friday, April 24; Branham said the city would work to restore content over the following months as the legal situation around ADA compliance became clearer.
- Council OKed a memorandum of understanding between APD and the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville. The document allows HACA to hire APD officers for overtime enforcement and investigation shifts in public housing, at a cost of up to $200,000 per year. The move follows Asheville Watchdog reporting about high levels of APD overtime pay, which reached $4.1 million — 18% of the total police payroll — in 2025.
- The city adopted an ordinance giving Development Services Department staff greater power to address abandoned buildings. The new language targets what Branham has called a “donut hole” in city code: unoccupied, nonresidential structures without specific code violations. Vice Mayor Mosley was the lone no vote, calling the measure “performative” because the city has not allocated additional funding to enforce the building regulations.
- Council approved a tweak to Asheville’s graffiti ordinance that removes restrictions on sidewalk chalk. The change comes after a lengthy dispute between the city and resident Virginia Harding, who was served a notice of violation and a $200 fine for making politically charged chalk drawings of her dachshund, Auggie. After Harding appealed, the city waived the fine but said she was still in violation of the graffiti ordinance. Assistant City Attorney Carly Gillingham said the revision was intended to comply with “evolving First Amendment legal guidance, improve clarity by removing undefined terms, and to ensure efficiency of staff resources.”
- The home of the Asheville Tourists minor-league baseball team will now be known as HomeTrust Park. It was formerly called Lewis McCormick Field, in honor of a bacteriologist who helped the city fight disease in the early 20th century. The ballpark received the new name in a deal between the Tourists and Asheville-based HomeTrust Bank. City documents did not list how much the bank will pay the Tourists for the naming rights.
Asheville City Council regularly meets every second and fourth Tuesday at the Council Chamber on the second floor of City Hall, 70 Court Plaza, beginning at 5 p.m. The next regular meeting will take place Tuesday, April 28. See the full recording and documents from the April 14 meeting.
