A credibility note up front: this page does not claim tourism tax dollars pay for the RTIC. They don’t, and under state law they can’t. What the record shows is something more useful to understand: three separate money streams, steered by one overlapping coalition, approved by the same 6–1 council votes, converging on the same downtown blocks. Here’s each stream, and what links them.
Stream 1: The BID (downtown governance, privatized)
Council created the Downtown Business Improvement District June 11, 2024, 6–1, Kim Roney the lone no, one of the most divisive local fights in recent memory. A new property assessment (~8.8¢ per $100) raises ~$1.2M/year, projected $1.8M for 2026, spent on “safety and cleanliness” by an appointed, unelected board. (City project page · Watchdog)
Who runs it: the operating contract went (5–1, Roney no) to the Asheville Downtown Improvement District, a nonprofit created by the Asheville Downtown Association, the Area Chamber of Commerce, and a California BID consultancy, with one person, Hayden Plemmons, directing both the ADA and the ADID. The board council appointed (6–1, Roney no; she pulled it from the consent agenda) is anchored by hotel and commercial property interests: the Foundry Hotel, McKibbon Hospitality, property management firms. Council member Antanette Mosley holds a non-voting seat. (BPR)
The ambassadors are cleaners and helpers by charter: unarmed, no citation power, real services (needle disposal, Narcan, wayfinding). They are also, functionally, a privately governed presence layer: 434 wellness checks and 42 emergency calls in their first seven months, trained in part by APD. The anti-BID coalition’s warning at the hearings, “clean for who and safe for who?”, was about exactly this: downtown’s public realm managed by a business-appointed body, with the unhoused as its implicit subject. No ambassador misconduct has been documented since launch; the structural question isn’t misconduct, it’s who governs public space. (828NewsNow first-year review · BPR on the opposition)
Stream 2: The TDA (tens of millions to marketing while the city pleads scarcity)
The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority collects a 6% occupancy tax (roughly $34–41M a year) and by state law spends two-thirds on tourism marketing and administration. Its board is dominated by lodging interests (current chair: a hotel GM); its CEO’s compensation tops $450K. (BPR · Watchdog)
The siphon critique is bipartisan and on the record (County Commission chair Brownie Newman called the allocation “outrageous… such a disservice to this community”), and the reform fight is effectively lost for now: 2026’s SB 484, signed in June, prohibits occupancy-tax spending on public safety, affordable housing, education, and infrastructure unless the legislature says otherwise. So here is the precise, defensible claim: the TDA does not fund surveillance; it drains tens of millions annually into marketing while the city pleads scarcity for everything else, including the scarcity arguments used to justify grabbing federal surveillance money when it’s offered.
Stream 3: The RTIC (federal money, city obligation)
The $1.14M is a DOJ earmark; the 7.5-year Axon contract is Asheville’s own obligation (What Is the RTIC). No BID or TDA dollars touch it. What the RTIC does take from downtown is different: cameras. Its voluntary camera-registration program recruits exactly the businesses the BID assesses and the Chamber organizes.
What links the streams: the same coalition
- The Chamber recruited for the surveillance network by name. Its February 2023 “Public Safety for All” campaign explicitly invited businesses to “join Buncombe County’s Community Camera Registry Program” (the Fusus network) and to lobby council for public-safety funding. Explore Asheville, the TDA’s marketing arm, hosted the same campaign material. That’s the documented TDA-adjacent touchpoint: advocacy, not funding.
- Business pressure produced the policing escalation. A September 2023 letter from ~40 restaurant, hotel, and business owners demanded visible police presence and “removal of vagrants from public streets”; the Sheriff answered with a $186K downtown patrol proposal that included a Real Time Intelligence Center officer. (Citizen Times via Yahoo)
- The 2022 plan to wire downtown businesses into Fusus at $60/camera/year mostly didn’t materialize: fewer than 20 downtown business cameras as of early 2023. The RTIC’s registration drive is that plan’s second life, now with the BID and Chamber as the organizing infrastructure.
- The same people oppose both. Jen Hampton and Food & Beverage United, the DSA, Firestorm: the anti-BID coalition of 2024 is the anti-RTIC coalition of 2026.
The voting pattern: one table
| Vote | Result | The no |
|---|---|---|
| Fusus interlocal (Jan 2023) | 4–1 | Roney |
| BID creation (Jun 2024) | 6–1 | Roney |
| ADID operating contract (Jan 2025) | 5–1 | Roney |
| BID board appointments (Apr 2025) | 6–1 | Roney |
| RTIC equipment grant (Mar 2025) | 6–1 | Roney |
| RTIC $1.14M + Axon contract (May 2026) | 6–1 · 6–1 | Roney |
| Private check-in meetings | 6 of 7 support | Roney (The Check-In Meetings) |
Downtown’s governance, its policing posture, and its camera network have moved as one program, and one member has dissented from all of it, every time.
Watch items
- G20, Aug 29–Sep 1: the TDA’s Explore Asheville is the promotional lead ($1.5–2M spending estimate); security plans, closures, and any BID role remain unannounced two weeks out. Host cities historically use summit security to make surveillance additions permanent. Watch for G20-linked security spending, camera additions, and data-sharing agreements that outlive the weekend.
- The BID’s first renewal (3-year contract + renewals) and its board minutes: does camera-registry promotion appear?
- Candidate questions: Should a council member hold a seat on the BID operator’s board? (Antanette Mosley does, non-voting, while seeking re-election.) Will candidates commit to publishing the RTIC’s registered-camera list and the BID’s full financials?
Related: What Is the RTIC · Election 2026 · The Check-In Meetings · Get Involved