A Fayetteville activist who launched an unsuccessful bid for city council this year has accused her former opponent of unfairly prioritizing Black residents in city services.
Kathy Greggs, a veteran and founder of the police reform group Fayetteville PACT, filed a complaint with the city’s Ethics Commission earlier this month against council member Brenda McNair. McNair, the incumbent, defeated Greggs in the November election, winning 78% of the vote and securing a third term.
“McNair has demonstrated a clear biased favoritism prioritizing assistance and resources for only one racial demographic—her own—over the needs of all constituents in District 7,” Greggs alleges in the complaint, which she shared with CityView. “Such official acts of racial preference undermined the essential principle of equal representation and service for all.”
Both Greggs and McNair are Black.
The complaint offers little specific evidence for the racial bias claims, instead focusing on concerns about party affiliation in what is supposed to be a nonpartisan council race.
It refers to several videos posted to a Facebook account under the name “Ashley Johnson.” The account, created two days before the November election, posted about Fayetteville City Council candidates. After the election, it shared that the mayoral race “needs to be recalled.” When CityView messaged the account to ask about the source of the videos and screenshots on November 3, the user declined to identify their origin.
The videos show McNair talking to voters. In one clip, she is asked if she is a Democrat and responds, “I am, and my opponent is not.”
In a second, McNair asks a woman if she is recording their exchange; when the woman says no, McNair continues: “I am for our people,” adding that her opponent, Greggs, “is working with MAGA.” A third clip, apparently from the same conversation, shows McNair asking the voter to cast her ballot for both her and Mayor Mitch Colvin.
McNair does not mention her race in any of the videos.
While municipal candidates in nonpartisan elections are legally allowed to mention their affiliation during their campaign, the ballot on Election Day does not include it.
In her complaint, Greggs argues that these exchanges demonstrate partisan bias in what is supposed to be a nonpartisan election. She also says McNair repeatedly referred to her affiliation with the Democratic Party in Facebook posts (a claim CityView has independently validated). State voting records indicate Greggs last voted in a Democratic primary in 2017, and is currently registered as unaffiliated. During her campaign, Greggs said she grew disillusioned with the local Democratic Party, which pushed her to run as an independent.
Greggs filed a separate complaint with the Cumberland County Board of Elections on November 18 that accused McNair of voter manipulation, coercion, intimidation, and spreading false information. She claimed that on Election Day, she saw McNair approaching voters in areas at polling sites where candidates are not allowed to be. The election board unanimously dismissed that complaint in late November.
The Fayetteville Ethics Commission met on Monday to consider the latest complaint in closed session. Neither Greggs nor McNair was present for the meeting. After the closed session, members adjourned without comment, offering no indication of next steps. City Clerk Jennifer Ayre later said another special meeting will be called to continue deliberations.
McNair said she was aware of the complaint and that she “takes such matters very seriously.” She declined to say more, citing the commission’s ongoing review. “My focus remains on the issues that matter most to our community.”
This is the eighth complaint submitted to the Ethics Commission since 2020. All seven prior complaints—including four against council members and three against former Police Chief Gina Hawkins—were dismissed. At its last meeting in June 2024, the commission addressed a complaint against Council Member D.J. Haire, which it ultimately deemed groundless.
The commission’s five current members—Charles C. Taylor, Dr. Carrie Cameron, Dr. Melanie C. Shorter, Stephanie Huston, and Dr. Robert J. Hambly Jr.—all began their terms in April. The City Council appoints commission members, with three coming from the general public and two seats reserved for an attorney and a certified public accountant. Each serves a three-year term, and there is a two-term limit.
The commission has faced criticism for conducting much of its work in closed session and pattern of dismissals.
The city has denied CityView’s efforts to obtain public records from past cases, including the Haire complaint, under state public records law, citing a state statute protecting “trial preparation materials.” Media law attorneys have advised CityView that those records should be made available once the commission has resolved the complaint.
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
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