City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Burke County Board of Commissioners regular meeting for Monday, September the 15th, 2025 at 6 PM. We're glad you're here. I would ask you to uh silence your mobile devices at this time. If you got telephones, pagers, all that kind of good stuff, please uh put those on vibrate so uh we don't have interruptions tonight. I'll remind all speakers as you come to the microphone tonight, please be sure to uh press the button on the right so the red light comes on and we get a good uh recording and a good YouTube uh broadcast tonight. Madame clerk, I'll make note all commissioners are present along with our county manager, our attorney, along with our finance officer and nobody else over next to you, are they? Mark. Okay. All right. Good to see you all tonight. Everybody is present. Madam clerk. All right. We're happy to have Pastor Tikica Garrison with us tonight from Carolina Caring. Pastor Garrison is going to bring our invocation and following that we'll have the pledge of allegiance. And we're glad to have some 4 folks with us tonight uh with cooperative extension. And so they'll come up just following the uh invocation and come right in this area and we'll face the flag and pledge allegiance to the flag and we'll follow your leadership for the pledge at that time. So let's all stand together for the invocation. Let us pray. Gracious and holy God, we come to you with thanks for this time, for this ability to be here with gratitude for those who are willing to put themselves forward to serve and for those who tirelessly serve this beautiful community. We thank you for the rich history and beauty and and love that just resonates through Burke County. We ask now that you be with us. Allow us to

curb any anxieties that we have coming into this room and celebrate the voices both big and the voices very small for they provide us hope. Hope for our future. Guide us now, Lord, as we make choices, as we discern, as we disagree and we agree. Lord, be a witness to us. It's all these things that we ask. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Pastor Glor. Y'all come on up. Okay, let's turn and face the flag back here in the corner and we'll follow your leadership. Okay to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I'm going to ask you guys to hang out there for just a second. I want the commissioners to come down. Let's get a picture with these guys tonight.

Great. [Music] It's all right. See everybody? [Music] She's important. Okay. All right. Thank you guys for coming tonight. [Applause] Okay, gentlemen. This brings us to item number four of our agenda tonight. Approval of the agenda. And gentlemen, you've had that agenda for a couple days. I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve the agenda. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. All those in favor signify by the uplifted hand. 5 Z. Madam clerk, item number five is approval of meeting minutes. Tonight, gentlemen, we have minutes from May the 19th, 2025 board of commissioner special meeting. May 19th, 2025 board of commissioner regular meeting. June the 2nd, 2025 board of commissioner pre-aggenda meeting. Are there any u additions, corrections to the minutes that we need to be aware of? Seeing here none, I'll entertain a motion to approve these minutes.

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the following minutes as written. May 19th, 2025, Board of Commissioner special called meeting. May 19th, 2025, Board of Commissioners regular meeting. and June the 2nd, 2025 board of commissioners pre-aggenda meeting.

Thank you, Commissioner Burns. All those in favor signify by the uplift at hand. 5 to zero. Madam clerk. All right. This brings us to item six, presentations. We have several presentations tonight. And we are glad to have with us cooperative extension. Tonight, 4H program overview and recognition of 4 state and national championship winners. And we're happy to have Nikki Carpenter, our cooperative extension agent with us tonight. and Nikki, we'll hear from you at this time. Thank you. So, my name is Nikki Carpenter and I'm your Burke County 4H youth development extension agent. And so, I want to tell you a little bit about 4. It is the largest youth development organization in the United States, reaching more than 7 million young people. You might recognize the symbol as the green four-leaf clover that has an H on each leaf. The H's stand for head, heart, hands, and health. What makes 4 special is that it's the only youth program connected directly to our land grant universities. For many kids, it's actually their first step into higher education. But the best part, 4 learning doesn't happen by reading or listening. We call it learn by doing. Kids gain knowledge, skills, and confidence through hands-on projects. projects that build on each other year after year. And along the way, they discover how to use what they've learned to improve their lives, their families, and their communities. So, who can join 4? If you're between the ages of 5 and 18, there's a place for you in 4. You can explore projects in cooking, clothing design, public speaking, aerospace, robotics, livestock, you name it. You might raise an animal, build a rocket, or even join a virtual club with kids from across the

world. And for adults, there's a role for you, too. You can volunteer as a club leader, help at events, or just lend your talents where they're needed most. To get started, it's easy. All you have to do is reach out to our extension office, and we will guide you through the process. So that's 4, learning, growing, and connecting together. So let's talk about how we do it here in Burke County. Burke County 4 uses several different delivery modes to share opportunities with our community. First, we have clubs. These include community clubs. They may have special interest groups, homeschool clubs, horse clubs. We also have spin clubs, which stand for special interest, and these are like archery, fishing, cooking. There's also specialty groups as backpack babysitters, teen leadership in practice, and junior beekeepers. Then we also focus on positive youth and adult partnerships, and these happen through our afterchool programs, one-on-one mentorships, community collaborations, and family focused activities like health rocks. Another important mode is our 4 school enrichment. We have project guides, curriculum for individual students as well as the full classroom. These are led by either agents, educators, volunteers, for all of our different schools, private, charter, public, and even they're again our after school. So, here's something we're proud of. In 2024 alone, Burke County 4 reached nearly 2,100 school age youth through these delivery modes. That's 2,100 young people learning, growing, and building brighter futures right here in our community. Some of your 4 opportunities have been listed on the slide there with you. And so our core mission of 4 is to guide young people in leadership development, career, life skills, civic engagement, but it's grounded in agriculture and natural resources. What makes 4 unique is that you as the member decide what you want to learn and how fast you want

to move. This builds goal setting skills and gives you the chance to earn awards and incentives along the way. Tonight, we're especially honored to recognize some of our outstanding Burke County 4ers who have earned state level awards this year by doing these type of goals. [Applause] So, let's give a big congratulations to our Burke County 4H horse bowl team. Do you want them to come up now? That'd be

perfect. Okay. So, Great. So, if I could have our horse bowl team and coach please come up. All right. So, our horse bowl team, we have Coach Crosby Norris, Lola D. Roier, Satie Sabin, Julian Hernandez, Ellie Hudson, and Ruby D. Ro D. Roier D. Rosier. Thank you. All right. And they've got some certificates for you. Now, these guys went to our um state competition. They won first place in our West District and then they went on to our state competition in Raleigh in March where they placed fifth in the state. Ellie also won second place high individual. Sadi placed seventh high individual out of 60 rookie junior competitors in hippology. Ruby earned fifth place high senior individual in horse bowl which qualifies her to compete on the NC State's horse bowl team and represent North Carolina at the Southern Regionals. And Ellie also took first place in our junior photography in the horse artistic expression state competition. Congratulations to our bird team. [Applause] This next young lady welcomes a goal setting challenge and each year builds upon her knowledge, experience, and skills, earning a national trip as an award. Addie Fulbright excelled in this year's ARY competition, which stands for application, interview, resume, and essay. Congrats to her, and I can't wait to hear about the trip. Miss Eddie Fulbright.

[Applause] Unable to be with us this evening, Jacob Hanland, who is currently at NC State University, was awarded three college scholarships through our 4H scholarship program for his many accomplishments. So, we added his photo in. He's currently in class. Congrats, Jacob. All right. Another major highlight is our 2025 North Carolina State 4H horse show held July 9th through 13th at the James B. Hunt horse complex in Raleigh. The event brought together 217 horse and rider combinations from 38 counties. It was an incredible showcase of North Carolina 4H youth talent and dedication. So a few guys from the horse show we have Jessica Carwell, Ruby D. Rosier, Satie Sovereign, Ellie Hudson, Ruby, I got your name in there twice. I think one was supposed to be Lola. Lola, that's my fault. And I added a picture of where Ellie had um won her junior photography with the horse photo. Congrats to our 4 horse show competitors. [Applause] Good job. 4 project record books. These are basically forms put together that give the members 4 story, their chosen 4 project area and their knowledge gained in that area from the whole previous year along with a place to record their community service and citizenship activities. Burke County received notification this past July that we had members to place on the district state level, but they will receive their

returning books on November 18th at our county achievement night. So they know by tonight that they have won, but they don't know what place until they do our county program. So y'all save the date, November 18th. So 4 Project Record Book winners, we have Aviana Paige Clark. If you'll please come up as I call your names. Ellie Hudson, Emma Oakley. A certificates over here for you. Emma Oakley, Kaylee Hoy, Emily Hall, Joey Morrison, Hazel Cole, Hannah Cole, Ruby D. Rosier, Madison Prior, and Addie Fulbright. And this is a very proud moment as an agent to have this many recognized on the district state level for project record books. So, congratulations Emma Oakley.

This is some of their first time being here at your um place. So, we're very excited they're here.

Thank you. Congratulations. [Music] [Applause] We also want to recognize the remarkable contributions of 4H leaders and supporters. The Hall of Fame award honors volunteers, extension professionals, staff, donors, and others who have made a lasting impact on 4 through their time, energy, and resources. On April 26, 2025, at a special ceremony at NC State University, we were proud to celebrate Lisa Hanland, who was inducted to the North Carolina 4H Hall of Fame. Her leadership and service truly embodied the 4H motto of making the best better. Miss Lisa [Applause] So, thank you all for celebrating with us and for continuing to support the leaders of tomorrow. [Applause] All right. Thank you, Nikki, for that presentation and thank you to all of you guys for the the work and effort that

you've put into all the accomplishments that you made. We're certainly proud of of our folks and I'm glad that you could be here tonight so that we could recognize you and all that you've done. So, gentlemen, I'll entertain a motion to accept the report as pres. Yes. First of all, I want to ask, can we make all of our meetings like this? This was a lot of fun. But I would at this time make a motion to accept the report as presented. Thank you, Commissioner Burns. All those in favor signify by the updates and 5 to zero. Madam clerk. All right.

Second item also coming from cooperative extension tonight proclamation declaring National 4 week. This be presented by Nikki Carpenter as well. Okay, Nikki. We're grateful to our county commissioners and officials for their ongoing support. This year we presented them with the National 4 week pro proclamation officially declaring October 5th through 11th of 2025 as National 4 week.

Thank you Nikki. Gentlemen, you have the proclamation in front of you. I won't take time to read all of it. Maybe I'll just hit a couple highlights just uh so our folks can can know what we're talking about. Um as Nikki said, this is a proclamation declaring October 5 through 11 as national 4 week. 4 is America's largest youth development organization. Programs are develop d delivered by the cooperative extension uh system, a community of more than 100 public land grant colleges and universities across the nation. 4 connects young people as we've saw tonight, many of them expanding from its strong agricultural roots and supporting future leaders in science, agriculture and community leadership is an important imperative for the US Department of Agricultural Natural Institute of Foods and Agriculture 4H program. So with that proclamation, gentlemen, we will proclaim that week October 5 through 11 as National 4H week. Do I hear a motion to accept this proclamation?

Mr. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to approve proclamation number 2025-15.

Thank you, Commissioner Barry. All those in favor signify the effic madame clerk. Thank you, Nikki, again for being here tonight and for all your folks. This brings us to item number three. That's good. [Applause] North Carolina uh National Disability Employment Awareness Month. And this comes from our representative of business relations, Janet Hannah. And we'll wait just a moment to give time for folks to regroup just a bit.

School preparation for tomorrow. Yep. Mhm. [Music] That was a lot of fun, guys. Well, girls, you're going to have a tough act to follow, but we we're counting on you.

We'll give you just another moment. Those kids got to get home and do some homework tonight. All right. Now, with that, we'll recognize Janet, Hannah, and I know several other folks that are here tonight. I'm going to ask you all to introduce yourself as you present tonight. uh representing uh employment and independence for persons with disabilities. And again, I think a little bit different name change tonight, so you'll help us with that as we go along. Okay, I'll turn it over to you guys.

Y thank you. they had left the speaker on. So, um, my name is Shelley Cash and I am with NCIPD and, um, I have two co-workers with me, but I was going to say that that was going to be a tough act to follow and I'm glad to know that we have so many talented youth in Burke County. Um our mission tonight is to obtain the proclamation and the um INDEM the National Disability Employment Awareness Month theme this year is celebrating value and talent and that is the 2025 um ending and I'm going to turn it over to Miss Naira.

Good evening. My name is Naira Simmons. I'm the counselor charged with EIPD and my role is to assist our clients in providing any services to help them reach their employment goal. Thank you gentlemen for having us this today. My name is Janet Hannah and I am a business relations representative with EIPD short aka vocational rehab. Just to give you a little bit of information before we ask for the proclamation, Burke County, according to the 2023 census, had 87,570 citizens. Also, according to that census, 11,910 citizens in Burke County have a disability. Those disabilities are both hidden disabilities and disabilities that we see. Our Western Regional Works Source West location here in Morgan that serves Burke County. Last year, we had a total of 215 individuals to apply for our services. Of those 215 individuals, myself, Shellyley, and another representative, we received 48 referrals. We placed those 48 referrals in employment and successfully closed 23 of them. In addition to that, we had 13 internships going on throughout the county as well as three of those individuals were hired directly by the internships when they completed them. I'm sharing this information with you this evening because we have a need in Burke County. Um we're a great hidden resource and we're the best hidden resource in the

county. So you we ask that you if you know anyone with the disability to please refer them to us for services if they're interested in going to work in maintaining employment. At this time we would like to ask you for the PL proclamation for the north for the national disability employment and awareness month for the month of October.

All right. Thank you gentlemen. You've got that uh proclamation in front of you. And again, I'll just hit a couple of highlights. U this month, October of 2025, is celebrated as the 80th anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Uh in the EAM has since evolved to highlight the importance of creating sustaining inclusive workplaces that provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities. America looks to forward for com commemorating its 250th anniversary in 2026 and this year's NDEAM theme and graphics align with that milestone. 2025 theme celebrating value and talent recognizes the skill, dedication, and innovation that workers with disabilities bring to their jobs. Strengthening our communities and economy while reminding us that America's true strength lies in the talents of all of its people. And I want to thank you for the work that you guys are doing and have done for many, many years right here in Burke County and do a great job and help lots of our folks uh get gainfully employed and be part of our workforce. So, gentlemen, with that uh I will ask for a motion to approve this proclamation.

Mr. Chairman, I've got a point of order. Yes. Uh on our handout, it says proclamation 2025-15. It should be 2025-14. And I will make a motion that we approve that. Madam clerk, you buying all that, huh? Okay. Okay. Gentlemen, you've heard the motion. All those in favor signify up. Five to zero. Thank you very much. All right.

Brings us to item number four. And Mr. County Manager going to talk to us about the year end report. And again, Mr. Manager, you've got hard acts to follow and uh we'll look forward to what you have for us tonight.

I'm perfectly aware and yield uh to the previous two both of which did terrific and I like the board uh very happy that they came and enjoyed those presentations very much. Um what I wanted to uh present to the board tonight is something we do annually. Each of you at your u dice there at desk. You have the physical copy of the end of year report. Um and this is something that we again annually try to deliver uh in September. As you're all aware, our physical year runs July 1st through June 30th. So we're approaching that 90-day mark following the end of the physical year. And we've been able to um we're currently working through the audit process. They're actually here in town this week, our our CPA audit firm. Um, but we uh at a staff level and I'd like to spec say a special thanks to certainly our finance office for helping compile this. Um, but all of our department heads who uh submitted data to be included in to this uh interview report. I think it's good from a staff perspective um to to make sure that we're effectively communicating performance goals to the board. Uh that we're following your strategic plan um and that we're on track and in alignment um with many of our um performance indicators, key performance indicators, uh such as debt ratios, fund balance, uh percentages, and those type of things. So, um I've put together a brief summary and a slide deck, but again, that full report is there in front of you. uh certainly ha happy to answer any questions u following the presentation but I always like to start just by talking about um I don't know that you can accomplish your goals if you don't know what they are. I don't know how you measure progress or outcomes if you haven't stated those and um over the last three years as I'm concluding my third uh full year here in Burke County. Um I think the single biggest investment and and movement that we've made is not in what we do but how we do it. uh being intentional about our culture, about the the the uh the people that we're recruiting, about the service delivery uh impact that we're trying to make. Uh and really being focused on continuous

improvement, measurement, performance um and doing that through an actionable set of values uh that we can um really use as a guiding northstar. I think that's that's probably the thing that I try to put in front of our team as often as I can, more often than really any other uh transactional type accomplishment because I think that is what will create that lasting uh and sustainable improvement that we all want to talk about. Part of high performance is a commitment to communication. Um and we try to do that periodically throughout the year. So if you look at our kind of scheduled formalized reports to the board, uh we're in this end of the fiscal year, September reporting. And when I look on the at the year, um I think it was an incredibly successful fiscal year. Certainly not one without challenges. Um but in in the in the uh wake of those challenges, I'm could not be more proud to serve this board and to serve alongside um our team. Uh just a quick reflection, I'll remind you we implemented the first ever comprehensive pay classification study last July. That had never been done in the history of Burke County. Uh it was a really a a project that accomplished three things. one, it was market-based wages with full implementation. Um, but it was more than that. It was also the first time in the history of this organization that we had started and done a full audit of our job descriptions. So, there were people who worked here for for 20 years. Uh, and you think about the change in policy and technology and regulatory environment and yet their job descriptions had never been updated and and it didn't give us a real, you know, a real in the weeds opportunity to evaluate need and highest and best use and automation and process flow. Um so that was a significant significant project uh that we were able to implement. Um it was also the first full year of bringing EMS billing in house and I'll give you some more of that data later in the presentation but it certainly has proven uh uh to provide dividends. We also as you all are aware uh uh transitioned historically Burke County had contracted uh with a company to haul our MSW which is municipal solid

waste. So think household uh waste. We don't collect that here at our landfill. we have to transfer uh transfer that uh to to a landfill in Cville County and we've historically paid for that. We transition that in house this year uh and that the savings to taxpayers were about $1.1 million. Um our talent retention metrics for the third consecutive year uh concluded at lower than 10%. Uh we were successfully able to renegotiate both administrative third party administration costs of Blue Cross Blue Shield as well as lower our claims uh costs this year cumulatively about a million dollars between the two. Um something that I'm very proud of is that just only a few short months ago uh our environmental health for on-site septic uh was at 12 weeks and it's as early as today it's less than 30 days. Um, and the Burke County received a an award from your uh national association, the Niko Association for Innovation, uh, because we created some ARGIS, and we did some changes to how we dispatch those and how we prioritize those, but um, um, that's a really big deal as our community continues to see a little bit of an uptick in single family home and permitting. We were able to stay committed to our capital plan, um, specifically EMS, animal services, and the courthouse. All of those projects are on time and under budget and made significant progress during uh the 2024 2025 fiscal year. We completed again the first ever comprehensive public safety strategic plan uh which you know pointed out some some some really u um what I would consider almost lowhanging fruit as performance indicators. things that we've talked about that you all are aware of dispatch delay and 911 um lag time uh uh in in EMS and things that are really making our performance uh in public safety um you know significantly improve in a highest and best use a pretty low return on investment uh from a cost perspective uh um strategy we've eliminated we've had a backlog of child welfare cases in our department of social services that have lingered for years uh we've completely eliminated that that no longer exists case loads

are down to 10 and 11 to1. They were at 30 to1. They're 10 to 11 to1. Uh that may be uh the single most important thing that we've accomplished this entire year. Um we've advanced our water sewer AIA study. We know about our water spoilage and our uh sewer INI problems. Um we had this uh third consecutive year of positive cash flow this year in that fund, which you'll see here just in a moment. Uh but we're building towards sustainability and uh the potential of expansion. uh we've centralized and the board of commissioners took action on February the 14th uh to bring our opioid settlement coordinator back um under the county commissioners and centralized that as a standalone department and that's led to significant progress in a very short period of time and and you know not last but not least certainly we've had 11 and a half months of disaster recovery efforts which have been a donation center, debris collection, waterway collection, a massively complicated public assistance application ation for a tick over $11 million with the Federal Emergency Management Administration, uh, private property debris collection, uh, delivering uh, uh, medicines and insulin and oxygen and all kinds of other things. Um, so, you know, again, when I reflect on all of those in a limited 12-month period, um, I I think that we're a better organization today and a better team today than we were then. And I'm also not confident that given that level of load that that this organization a few years ago would have been as successful as we've been. So that when I talk about culture and sustainable performance and transformational that's why I think it's so important to have this this embedded culture um that we've been trying to build because the transactional components matter. Um but but it's a it's it's a much more meaningful um um delivery I think when when folks are doing it for the right reasons and that's why we're I think mostly successful. I'll focus primarily what's in the entity report uh hovers around uh focus area number four in your uh

strategic plan which is fiscal stewardship. Um so I'm I'm going to go uh through some highlights that are in your report uh just to just to um this is supposed to be a revenue portfolio. I'm apologize. There's parts of the slide missing. Uh but I'll you you'll see how I can do uh off the top of my head. Um our total revenue last year was about $13.8 million. 53.64% of that came from property tax revenue. We've cons continued to see that dependency uh come down year-over-year, which is good. Uh sales tax is about 16.75% uh which is our second largest revenue stream uh represented there in the green. and then restricted intergovernmental which is uh primarily public health and DSS uh grants and flow through dollars are our third largest and that would align with most every other county in North Carolina. It's important when we start talking about uh property taxes being tick over 53% of our total revenue. Uh one of the ways that we measure our our efficiency in taxation is an analytic that we call per capita income or uh per capita t uh tax uh levy per capita and and really what that means is what's our total levy uh divided by the total number of people in Burke County. Um so this is not per household or per taxpayer. It's divided per person. But I think it it is a fair and equitable way to compare us to the other 99 counties in the state. And and so what we've got here on the left hand side, you can see we're currently uh based on our 2425 uh levy at about $672 per capita, which is the 18th lowest in the state of North Carolina, which is a good measure of our efficiency and ability to operate at a low cost. And I've just compared that to some other counties in the region. Uh for example, um many times Burke County is cont compared to Kataba County who has a 35 36 cents tax rate. Um, but if you look at their uh per capita distribution, it's uh, you know, about about 100 um, right at maybe $80 more expensive uh, than Burke County. And I think that's just important to keep in mind. It's not

a perfect analytic. There's not a perfect analytic. Some households have three people, some have two, some have five. But it is a, you know, one way to measure uh, operational efficiency. Our top 10 taxpayers uh, here on the screen collectively, they have about a $700 million valuation. uh that equates to about $3.9 million in revenue. Uh and that is equivalent to about 3.6 cent. So 1 cent on our property tax rates about a million uh almost $1.1 million million $90,000 for the year we just concluded. We've continued to see high performance in the tax office. Um a little bit of a dip in collection percentage, finishing the year at about 98.4, but still really really good. John and his team continue to uh uh really hover at a at a at a very proficient level. Uh sales taxes, we've talked throughout the year, we were uh Q2, Q3 seeing a little bit of a dip. Um and we were, you know, also seeing that uh in some other economic driven revenue sources. Um but the fourth quarter really saw a strong rebound. We ended the ended the year plus 4% uh compared to the 23 24 year. Um and you can see that here. We've just broken it down by quarter, but a nice rebound here in the fourth quarter. um in the back side of the third quarter also. But overall about a 4% growth and that's really um across all three articles. As a reminder, article 39, 40, and 42 are our prime um components. All 100 counties in North Carolina have these articles. Article 39 is the first 1 cent. Uh articles 40 and 42 make up the second 1 cent or a half cent a piece. That's the two cents that come back to the county. The other 4.75 cents go to the state as income in their budget. uh but but good growth on both sides which tells us um there's point of sale growth here in county which is good for our economic uh um uh you know just health and then also statewide uh which is how 39 is distributed on a population basis. So that that tells us that we're seeing a little bit of growth uh across the state. Another good indicator of economic

performance and also staff performance is um building permits. And so this is a measure of of single family homes um as well as commercial structures. You can see kind of flat on the commercial structure side, but a nice rebound um about 65 70 more single family permits and 2425 than what we saw the previous year. More in line with what we saw two years ago. Um and again I remind you and I think you all know these are these are uh single family home permits that are in the county's permitting district. So outside largely at the municipal uh boundaries and most of those do require on-site septic. And so being at that 30-day turnaround for folks that are needing to put a septic system in is a really really important uh component of development here. I'm just uh comparing both revenue and expense for planning and zoning as well as building inspections. Um I'd like to report that the building inspections department because of the increase in volume um um were able to cover their cost. So the the revenue generated from building permits this year uh were able to cover the cost of salaries, operations, and what little bit of capital was in that department. Um, and you can see that from year to year how how it changes. One of the biggest parts of our budget this year, uh, and one of the accomplishments we talked about earlier was this was the first full year of in-house EMS billing. As a reminder, uh, prior to 2023, uh, we had a contract with a company in, uh, Winston Salem, Thomasville area, uh, called ESMC. And, um, um, they're they're a contract billing company. Um, so you're building Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance. um makes up about 96 97% of the total billing and um uh they charge about a 6% fee net collections and they would just withhold that uh and they had historically average somewhere between 50 and 52% collections. That 6% equated to about a $400,000 a year contract. So by bringing that in house, we've been able to eliminate that contract. And as you can see, we grew revenue this year by about 41% from about 5.1 million uh

to 7.5 million. So that's unrestricted revenue that helps um offset the cost of the department. Again, lowering the pressure on the property tax rate as well as giving us the resources that we need to invest into EMS to improve uh response time and overall performance and patient care outcomes. Another very positive component uh of this year's financial performance is our investment income. Um you know, there was a very intentional effort I think over the last couple of years. Again, I'll brag on our entire team, uh, especially our finance team. Um, but we have grown from $63,000 in interest income in 2022. This past year, I took over 2.1 million. It is down a little bit from the prior year, and the reason it's down primarily is there's less cash on hand. We started the animal services building, the EMS building, invested into the courthouse this year. So, there's simply less cash on hand to invest. Um, um, rates have been largely stable. So, we primarily invest in commercial paper, US treasuries, very, very low risk. um um uh vehicles, but um haven't seen a tremendous amount of volatility in rates. Um so largely the change is just available cash to invest. As we as uh um uh we reported at your last board meeting, we're still actively managing about 24 grants that total about $6.2 million. Um, I've talked about our capital improvement plan, but um, I think all are moving um and and in a really good spot and staying committed to that 5-year perpetual plan, I think, has been a big part of our operational strategy. Uh, occupancy tax closed the year at about $1.3 million. As a reminder, uh, the county levies the occupancy tax as it does in all 100 counties. We have a 6% occupancy tax in our county. That's the maximum allowed by statute. What's different here is in 2007 there was local legislation passed about how that's distributed. So you can see even though we collected 1.3, we paid out 1.283. Uh so that net difference of uh call it $25,000 is what

stays in the counties um coffers, the rest of it goes to either the city of Morganington uh Valdes or two stays at the TDA and that's based on legislation that makes us again different than the other 99 counties in in North Carolina. Uh, quickly looking at our enterprise funds, uh, Solid Waste had a had a, uh, its best financial year ever. Um, now we finished the year at a positive cash flow at of about $2.8 million. Um, I would point out about 1.5 of that was from a single payer. So, the debris collection efforts from around the county. Um, SDR was the contractor. Of the 2.8, they were 1.5. But even if you exclude those, and the reason is if you look at the materials by type, we we typically collect between 1,500 uh and 2,000 tons of brush. And this year we collected 42,000 tons of brush. That's that's the difference. Um but even if you ex exclude that extraordinary revenue source from SDR of about 1.5 million, the fund still turned a profit of about 1.3 uh which is in a line of where it should be to pay for uh closing costs and monitoring costs and all the environmental regulatory as well as preparing for uh potentially the next uh sale and phase of of MSW exploration here in Burke County. Water sewer also had a really good year. Uh we know that there's still performance yet to be garnered from this fund. We still have a tremendous amount of of water loss that we're uh continuing to track down as well as overp payments on the sewer side to primarily the city of Hickory for infiltration and infield that comes from rainwater. Um we're getting closer to having those things rectified. There is a uh an RFP posted now um for sewer meters. We'll put in five sewer meters, all paid for through a grant from the division of water resources, um that'll monitor where our system connects with some of our municipal partners so that we can actually measure sewer consumption versus just using the bill

that they provide to their customers. And I think that'll give us a much more accurate uh billing component and cut down on that significantly. Um but the fund was still able to perform at a positive cash surplus of $433,000 for the second year. Last year it was 431. This year it's 433. are pretty consistent. Uh we're also working through our water metering project. As you all recall, about 200 water meters are being replaced uh over the next four to five months and um that too was also paid for with a grant from the division of water quality. So excited uh to see that number to continue to improve. Of our total budget, the functional allocation really did not change. Still about 26% to human services, 23% to education, and about 30% to public safety. Um, one of the numbers that we track uh as a as a good way to to make sure that we're uh again operating as as um efficiently as we can is simple things like uh energy cost, you know, light bills and and heating and cooling bills and those type things and trying to make sure what what we like to call int intelligent commissioning that we have lights that turn off automatically and we have uh you know, just some safeguards in place that we're we're continuing to manage that and we compare ourselves on a square footage cost basis as well as a total cost basis to some similar size counties. Uh this year was about 1.15 uh million. Uh both health and DSS continue to operate um uh very competitively. Public health or excuse me, social services had about a 41% uh subsidy. Total budget was about 22 million. A little over eight and a half of that came from local resources. Public health was about 58% subsidy. So about a $5.5 million uh uh total total budget. When I look at our public safety portfolio, um, total spend was about $31.7 million. And you can see the allocation by type and by department there. Um, and when I compare our total spend, now this would be at the end of June 30, 2024. So this is this data is 12 months old. And the reason it's 12 months old

is we don't have comparisons for current year counties. But I think it's just an important analytic to to try to compare what are our taxpayers contributing to these functions compared to other counties. So, as of uh audited numbers, June 30th of 2024, that's what this is indicating. And you can see there uh both from law enforcement and detention, uh we're still operating in a very efficient way. Our EMS department is uh uh almost exactly in line uh with some of these peer counties. Um risk management also a major component of our overall spend and it is a it's a controllable spend. Um we try to do training and and put programs in place. Um, but we're we are a we are a self-insured largely uh organization on the wellness side for workers comp, property liability. We do buy buy a package, but we still control the claim side of that uh to a certain extent. And you can see uh a little bit of an uptick in workers comp uh costs about $527,000 um up about $90,000 from the prior year. We had two really good years following a tough 2122 uh but still uh you know lower than what we were in 2021. So still a good year. uh property liability was about $20,000 lower than 2324. Um um so performing performing well there. Uh our employee wellness cost, so this is just claims data. This does not include the third party administrative cost. Um but continuing to improve. Uh we were able to reduce the monthly claims cost by about $50,000 a year. It's about $600,000 there. Um the formula formulary pharmacy formulary spend was also slightly less as well as the administrative costs altogether. roughly a million dollars uh in lower spend on wellness. You can see last year when I did this report, we were at 39 and a half% pharmacy. We we we made some improvement to 37. I still think that that could be below 30. Um and and uh you know, that's one of our goals is to continue to look for ways to push that down. uh last year. What drove a lot of that cost was GLP uh weight loss drugs that are incredibly expensive. Um um

high cost claimments and their total um cost kind of similar from last year and I think that would align with um with national data as far as percentage of folks that would be considered a high cost claimment on a wellness program. Um overall our employee wellness fund is about $8.5 million fund. Um, so if we can continue to find ways, as a reminder, um, we did a countywide biometrics this year where we tested uh, A1C and blood pressure and waist circumference and cholesterol and we've, uh, used that to identify risk factors and align people with one or more risk factors with a health coach uh, to make sure that they have access to medication, make sure they have access to dietary, nutritional counseling, those type things. uh with the goal of lowering our chronic disease uh cost and emergency room utilization uh and and looking again to continue to to save cost there. Um this is this board of commissioners has a very um responsible fund balance policy uni fund balance policy of about 25%. Um we're going to end the year about 19 a.5% which so that's been drawn down um between 8 and 9% this year. Uh I would point out that had the uh FEMA public assistance application which is a little over 11 million um you know if that money had been refunded to us by now or if it had not have happened and everything else would have um would have taken place as it did throughout the year we would have be about we would be at about 28.5%. So we would be above your policy. This is a temporary dip below that for one-time utilization of fund balance to do pay for the disaster recovery efforts that we've had. uh and we expect um all of that to be reimbursed uh eventually through the FEMA public assistance process. I would point out that our application we before last did finally make it to Washington DC after what seemed like 15 rounds of scrutiny um just to get there and be kicked back one more time. So it is a uh it is a

tugof-war with a short rope a lot. Um we I think we're ahead of other counties in this region. when I talk to my peers. Uh the Association of County Commissioners does a Thursday morning uh statewide call uh and another call with just Western North Carolina managers regularly. And um again, I think uh I want to say a very special thank you to Margaret and her team. They've continued to largely champion that. Um but we meet on it as often as anything else and we feel confident that those resources will come back to Burke County at some point at some point. Um, quickly and I'll close with these last couple of slides as it relates to debt service. Um, this is our annual debt service for the year that we're in is about $4.8 million. You can see this hard fall off from this year to next year. That's because drawn and patent will pay off in March of 2026. Uh, this 10-year payout is a uh industry standard for measuring uh debt portfolio health. And what this means is over the next 10 years, what percentage of your debt principle, your par value will you pay off? And as you can see, by 2029, we're at 100%. And any anytime you issue debt, you're typically going 10, 15, 20 year term. So that 10-year payout is showing you what what p what percentage of the uh amortization schedule uh have you completed. Um and on the back side, so um after after this year, we'll be down at about a little less than 2% of our total budget. Remember, our total general fund budget is about 113 million. Um so so you know, lower than 2%. And generally what you see is anything seven or eight percent if you're according to Moody's and S&P and those folks anything seven or eight percent or lower is about as high as you can score. Um so our total debt right now is about 28.4 million. Um only about 12.6 of that belongs to the county. The other 15.8 belongs to the school system. I would point out that the school system debt 100% is paid for through NC lottery dollars uh and a special sales tax that's earmarked for school debt. Um, and when you look at our debt load

compared to some of our regional counties, uh, and again that can be allocated on a per capita basis too, we've got about 33 and that would be principal and interest. Um, and when you compare, you know, do that on a per capita basis. We we we we have about $375 per person and you're able to uh benchmark that against some other counties in our region. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my report. Uh, again, your hard copies in front of you. uh happy to answer any questions the board may have on these topics or uh any other information that you want to reflect on from 2425.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Gentlemen, any questions for uh Brown on these his report? I think I can certainly say on behalf of this board, we're proud of the the work that's been done uh through throughout your uh department and throughout the county with every department and appreciate all that happens and we don't take it for granted and with that gentleman I'll entertain a motion to accept this report as presented. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to say the report is as as presented.

Thank you. All those in favor signify at the hand. And that's five to zero, madam clerk. Item number seven, schedule public hearings. We have none tonight. Item number eight, informal public comments. Uh madam clerk, this time I'll open the floor for informal public comments. Do we have anybody signed up tonight? We do, Mr. Chairman. Um we have three citizens signed up to speak. The first is Kimberly Clark. [Music] Miss Clark, if you'll state your name and address, please.

You'll touch that button on the right so the red light will come on right at the bottom. There you go. You got it. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Kimberly Clark. Hello. Um I'm here regarding Hoka um the organization that I founded and that we've had um a lawsuit ongoing for the past year and we've had issues ongoing for the past two years prior to the lawsuit. Um, and I brought the December 2023 letter that I wrote and I have some highlighted things. I'm gonna give it to Ryan because he wasn't in that time after this. But the reason we're here, we gratefully appreciate the tax exemption, but the um all the items have not been addressed. Um, and that lawsuit was dismissed without any consultation from our attorney and from um, Brian. Uh, what is your county attorney's name?

Pardon me? Destin Hall.

Destin Hall. Yeah. Um, so um, we were kind of like not in the loop in any of that. So, we're just wanted to put that on record and also to reiterate that we're really grateful um one of the boxes that we checked for tax exemption which was discussed with Brian Epley and J.R. Simpson in November of 2024 was the tiny house low to moderate income housing that our organization has had on our radar since we landed here in Burke County. And we want to teach people how to do simplification living so they can serve more in the community. Um, and there's more to that. But, um, when I had the meeting with Brian and Jr., We we stated that I asked Brian I said I know that um uh the zoning Peter what is Peter's last name that retired

mentor yeah that I had had meetings with him regarding zoning and planning and all of that and that he was retiring and I asked Brian if I could come and speak with him once we got these two issues off the table and he said absolutely. Well, we never got those two issues off the table till recently, and we didn't want an interference of trade claim that we discussed with our attorney time and time again. So, we went ahead and rolled with the tiny house project. So, we have tiny house on our property. Okay. And um we need to solve that problem. And we don't know who to go to to solve that because we asked for a meeting with Brian when these two issues got resolved and we thought they were going to get resolved more expediently. They didn't. And we're requesting that the check box that we did the two you'll have to cite it, Brian. Um the the low to moderate income housing checkbox. We would like that as part of the exemption request because that's what we checked and that was oversighted when John Brides wrote the letter to us which we just got last week. So there's that. Um, we still have outstanding attorney fees that still need to be discussed and I think there's some due process issues related to that because again I stated this the last time we were here in July. Had you guys responded to our request for tax exemption and the appeal in 2024 and in 2025, we would not have had to file a lawsuit at all. And that is a due process issue. So there's things. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Miss Clark. Madam Clerk,

Marsha Love. [Music] Okay. I'm Marsha Love. I'm a board member with Kimberly Hoka. First, I again, a lot of what I'm going to say is kind of what she just covered, but I'd like to thank you all very much for granting the tax exemption status. That was prayers answered and it was one step forward. Unfortunately, the three years that it's taken to get to that point has led to the attorney involvement and fees acrewed. It was my understanding that the lawsuit for attorney peace was still on the table. And there I think like she mentioned, we had requested a meeting with Mr. directly. I think maybe the end of last year once everything was solved, but that still waiting on that. Um, like Kim said, we do still we do have one tiny house now on site and we want to be able to move quickly with that. We're nearing the beginning of a new year and I just plead with you that any lawsuits, remaining issues can be resolved before we get to that time. Um, I really am all this is way above me, but I want to tell you a little story if I may about kind of where I'm at and what's in my heart with AOA. So, I'm a registered nurse and I had a patient come in. She's 25 years old and homeless and she was there for a very serious life-threatening infection, life-threatening infection to her arm. I worked night shift and I spent a lot of evenings with her. She's the same age as my daughter. And you know, I quickly realized that she's just a lost little girl, kind of at the bottom, just in a bad place and didn't didn't feel like she had any help. Well, I was off for a few days and, you know, I guess they got the infection cleared up and when I came back, she had been discharged. I'm sure she got all kinds

of list of resources and stuff available and self-care care instructions and all of that. But I asked the the night shift, I said, "Does anybody know where she went? Did she go to a home? Did she go somewhere nobody knew?" And still to this day, it really bothers me. I wish I had been able to tell her a about a place like Kachoka where there is powerful goddirected healing that might could have made a difference in her life. I'm sorry. It's just it's really something that's bothered me for all these years. Uh but anyway, my hopes and prayers for 226 are for a fresh new start and that a very positive relationship can develop between Hoka and Burke County. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss L. Madam clerk, uh Christy Gupton.

Thank you, Chairman Britain, Burke County Commissioners. As promised, I'm here to share some thoughts with you that are gerine to the health and well-being of our community. Tonight, I want to talk to you about the vital role independent communityarmacies play in our community um and the well-being of our residents uh and why we should be actively steering patients to them as opposed to the large corporate giants um you know that we might have also have access to. Independenties are more than just a place to pick up medications. They're trusted community well uh community healthc care providers. They know their patients by first name. They understand their health care um medical histories and they go above and beyond uh to make connections um so that people can have personalized timely care. This level of service really cannot be replicated by big boxies and I have the data to prove it. Um patients uh need a more connected uh grassroots level of uh of pharmacy care like a member of your local family just you know at your local pharmacy. Let's not forget the tragic story in Wisconsin um that occurred to a young 22-year-old man newly out on his own walked into a big box pharmacy looking to fill his inhaler for his asthma. Um the last time he filled it was $65. This time they wanted $539. And instead of the pharmacist digging in and really trying to help this patient, he was sort of shued aside and you know the next patient was motioned forward. Uh he left that day without his inhaler and in a few days he was dead. I want to uh also submit that um communityarmacies are very flexible.

They generally provide free uh same day delivery to home addresses or work. Um special order medications. Uh lots of patient counseling. Um special p uh pill packing and sorting. Um they usually coordinate efforts with local physicians. Again, they're part of the local care team. This is incredibly valuable. Um but health plan data show that clinical outcomes are better when you fill prescriptions at a local pharmacy. Furthermore, localarmacies um contribute directly to our local economy. Think of a circular economy, right? Patients come in and fillies uh fill prescriptions and then pay taxes and and and um are are participating in a economy that circulates right here. um you know as opposed to a linear economy where profits are extracted from our community and sent in one direction right out of town. Um access is a problem. So when big uh boxies close their doors like um some have in our community on my side of town in the Oak Oak Hill area there was a Walgreens uh that sat on the corner. It now sits empty. So if we don't support our local independent communityarmacies, we could risk having a um pharmacy de desert. Lastly, um communityarmacies are great partners, especially in crisis. Um so during COVID, we learned a lot about what communityarmacies could do and they stepped in and did those things. Um, just a year ago, uh, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, did you know that a local community pharmacist, a local direct primary care doctor, and some local citizens all came together to collect medical supplies, take them to

our local airport, load them up on military helicopters so that they could be airlifted to our neighbors in the high country. Um, you should we should really get together and talk about those kind of stories behind the story. Um, I urge you to consider initiatives and partnerships that support independentarmacies and um, uh, keeping health care local, keeping it keeping it personal and making it affordable. I did create you a little video behind that QR code um, from when the initiative uh, came together during Hurricane Helen last year. So, I hope you'll get a chance to watch it. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss G. Madam Clair. All right, thank you very much. With that, I'll close the public comment tonight. Appreciate those uh speaking tonight. This brings us to item number nine, consent agenda. Mr. Manager, we'll hear from you,

Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much, members of the board. Fairly short uh consent agenda for uh this evening. So, item one is a um consideration for approval of from the animal advisory board for updated rules of procedures. Item two is from the clerk's office uh to appoint uh make an appointment to the council on aging. Uh item three is your monthly tax collection report for August 2025. Uh and finally for consideration uh also from the tax department is your monthly release and refund report for August 2025. Um all of these were you know were presented at pre-agender. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Gentlemen, you've heard the uh consent agenda as presented. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to accept the uh or approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. All those in favor signify the faith in hand. 5 Z, Madam Cler, which brings us to item 10, items for decision tonight. Have several items tonight. First one comes from community development and registered deeds. Centralize the PL review function to the county staff. And I'll recognize our own Alan Blind, our deputy manager and planning director. Afternoon, Alan. And Stephanie, is Stephanie with us tonight?

She couldn't join us tonight, but um she hoped I could cover this uh the territory for us both, but uh thank you chairman um commissioners and members of the public and staff um working with the register of deeds office, my office, community development. We're working together for proposal to consolidate the plat review process here in Burke County. There's currently kind of two components of it. One is municipal local zoning rules that every town has their own set of rules and then there's watershed rules and actually every town can have their version of the watershed rules. Uh and then there's that other component. This the plat review of components that are uh outlined in the general statutes 4730. And these include verifying uh survey or certifications, owner signatures, title block information, deed reference, adjoining property owners notes, and other required elements to make a complete plat. So currently, um municipal planners are doing both those roles. And uh we're proposing that the uh Burke County staff would cover the plat review components. Let the local planners and the municipalities cover their zoning rules and wershed rules, but let us consolidate the the plat components. If um you all are supportive of this change, um we would be uh kind of operate this beginning October 1st with a gradual roll out and uh complete that roll out January 1st, 2026. um and working with the community development staff. There's four of us who review plats. There'll be um four uh register of deeds um staff will also be noted as officers to um you know in this capacity to review and sign off on plats if we need backup. So that's what's proposed. I can answer any questions for you.

All right. Thank you, Alan. Gentlemen, any questions for Allan on this item? All right. Seeing here none, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to adopt resolution 2025-30. Thank you, Mr. Barry. All those in favor signify the update at hand. 5 to zero. Madam clerk. All right. Thank you, Alan. Item number two tonight comes from the clerk. Reappoints to the Burke County Board of Adjustment. Madame Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Um, this is a request to make some appointments or reappointments to the Burke County Board of Adjustment. Gregory Smith currently occupies seat number four representing West on the Burke County Board of Adjustment and his term ends September 30th, 2025. He is willing to serve another three-year term ending September 30th, 2028. We also have another application on file from Damian Patton.

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Gentlemen, you've heard the uh information from the clerk. We have two candidates for this seat uh currently held by Gregory Smith and we also have an application for Damian Patton. I will entertain nominations for this seat at this time. Gentlemen, Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to reappoint Gregory Smith to the Burke County Board of Adjustment seat number four West to a three-year term ending September the 30th, 2028.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner Burns. Any other nominations? All right. Hearing none, I'll entertain motion that we accept Mr. Gregory Smith as reappointment to uh seat number four to the U B County Board of Adjustment. All those in favor signify the update hand five to zero. Madam clerk. All right. Item number three also from the clerk reappoints to the Burke County Planning Board. Madam clerk,

thank you Mr. Chairman, members of the board, um the terms of appointment for Shawn Freeman, seat number two east, and Andrew Laddermilt, seat number five at large on the Burke County Planning Board in September 30th, 2025. Both members are willing to serve another term. Uh there are several applications on file for the board's consideration and the term is for three years.

All right. Thank you, Madam C. Gentlemen. You've heard the information. We have uh seat number two and also seat number five. Seat number two is East on the Burke County Planning Board. And we have U Carol Lewis, Chase Dillow, Heather Ward, or Terry Swanson or Shawn Freeman who is currently seated in that seat who would be eligible for the East seat. I'll open the floor for nominations for the uh number two seat at this time. Mr. Chairman,

I'll make a motion to appoint Shawn Freeman to seek number two, East Burke Planning Board for three-year term ending September 30th, 2028. All right. Thank you, Commissioner D. Do we have any other nominations for this seat number two? Okay, seeing hearing none, I'll close nominations and accept a motion to seat Sean Freeman to seat number two for the east seat for the planning board. That was the motion. That was the motion. That was the motion.

Okay. Thank you very much. All those in favor of that motion signify the update hand. Five zero. Okay. All right. Now for the uh for the atlarge seat currently uh held by Andrew Ldermill. Uh we have a number of uh candidates for applications for that seat. Jim and I won't read them. I think everybody has them in front of them. And I'll open the floor for nominations for seat number five, the atlarge seat. Mr. Chairman.

Yes, sir. I make a motion to reappoint Andrew Ladder Laddermill to seat number five at large on the Burke County Planning Board for a three-year term ending September 30th, 2028.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Burns. That coming as a motion, I suppose. Are there any other nominations? Well, that's not exactly appropriate probably, but uh any other nominations hearing? None. With that motion, we'll take a vote on that. Those in favor signify the update hand. Five to zero. Madam clerk. All right. Item number four, clerk appoints to the evaluation task force. Madam clerk,

thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. Um, at your July meeting, the you all adopted a resolution establishing the Burke County Reevaluation Task Force. Uh, is a seven member citizen and board charged with promoting transparency, enhancing public understanding, and providing community input throughout the 2027 countywide property revaluation process. Um, we've uh taken um some applications. you have um five uh five applicants for uh five different seats on the seven member board. Um so uh the requested action uh is to um and I would remind you you got an application uh today that is at your seat is to um appoint uh Tim Newton to seat number one representing the real estate professional. uh to appoint Kevin Ferris, seat number three, insurance professional, to appoint Evan Cwley, um seat number four, agricultural community, to appoint Jerry Norville, seat six at large, and to appoint Johnny Carwell to seat seven citizen over the age of 55. And all of those have a term ending January 1, 2027.

All right. Thank you, Madam Cler. Now gentlemen, you've uh seen these applicants for the various seats for our reevaluation task force. Do I hear a motion that we accept all these as presented by the clerk? I'll make that motion, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. All those in favor signify the updates at hand. Be five to zero. Mad clerk. All right. Item number five, clerk the appointments uh appointments to the veteran service board. Madam clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. This is a request to um make some appointments or reappoints to the Veterans Service Board, which is comprised of five at large seats designated for veterans with an honorable service record. Uh the terms for David Tberen, seat number three, and Edwin Wear, seat number four, will expire on September 30th. These these members have expressed a willingness to continue serving. Uh, additionally, there are applications on file from Jim Freddy and Dylan Smith. Um, so for uh uh seat number three, uh you can appoint or reappoint uh the same as seat number four as as you so desire.

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh gentlemen, first will take seat number three uh currently uh held by David Turbagen. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we uh reappoint David Turberen to the veteran service board seat number three. All right. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Those in favor signify the updated hand. Five to zero, madam clerk. All right. I will entertain the nominations for seat number four. Uh that will be uh the seat currently held by Edwin Wear uh nominations. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion point to reappoint Evan Wear

to seat number four for three-year terms in September 30 through 28. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Stra. Those in favor signify the uplift to hand and that'll we will reappoint Mr. Wear to seat number four. All right. Thank you very much. This brings us to item number 11, reports and comments. Tonight, gentlemen, I'll open the floor at this time for reports comments and we'll start over there with Miss Finance. Anything from you tonight? No, sir. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Margaret. Mr. Attorney, anything from you? Nothing there, Mr. Chair. Mr. Tra, nothing here, sir. All right, Mr. Burns.

Uh, yes, Mr. Chairman. I did want to make a just a couple acknowledgements. uh let everybody know that um Phil Burgerer or has appointed me to the North Carolina Education Workforce and Innovation Commission. We had our first meeting this past Friday be virtual. We'll have our first in-person meeting October the 10th in Alexander County. Also wanted to mention that I did receive an appointment back to serve as an ATL large director on the uh policy board for the board of directors for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. And I was blessed to be able to join um Mr. Robinson down at Fire Department to u give an award to Zachary Wade who was not able to attend our last meeting when we gave those awards out. And um as a point of personal privilege, I'd just like to ask everybody if they would remember Charlie Kirk's family at his passing.

Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Congratulations on those appointments. We appreciate your willingness to serve in those capacities and represent us well there. Yes, Mr. Manager.

Be very brief. um did wanted to share and I shared with uh board members last week, but um um following the president's um announcement of of of allocating dollars uh for FEMA and cleanup after what felt like a a moderate period of stagnation. Um we've had some waterway debris removal projects funded and approved in Burke County. started on really our most impacted areas uh Lynville uh up the northern side of the county uh last week and I think there was eight approved projects there. So, we're hoping that PPDR and some of the other um priorities follow suit and and get underway. Um I know we all know this as a reminder that's that project um on June 30th became managed by the state. So, we're the county is no longer in charge of that, but it is good to to know that there's some movement. Um, so, uh, hopefully we keep up that momentum. Thanks, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to say it was a pleasure to see all the kids and young folks that came here tonight, especially supported by their uh, parents. It's a it's a blessing to me to see parents that support their children that way and they're young people, and I really like that. And I don't want to put the county manager on the spot, but would you like to address the automobile tax issue that you and I discussed earlier today?

Sure. Yes, sir. So, um being brief in in North Carolina when um in 2013, the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles DMV uh partnered with Department of Revenue and and took over uh property taxes on motor vehicles at the time that you renew your tag. And from time to time when a tag is expired and someone goes to renew it, so for example, your tag expires in March, you don't renew it until August. Uh that generates a gap bill. What's it called? gap bill for those five months. Um, and the the DMV and the department of revenue uh generate a report that's sent to counties um that that identifies those because we we don't do the billing, the assessment or the tracking at this point. We've just um um um in this in this gap bill situation do the billing. And so uh many about 8,000 bills were sent out a couple of weeks ago from Burke County based on information we received from the state. Um, we've came to find out that some of that information was erroneous and some of the bills were uh incorrect calculation. Um, and we we've gone through and and found unduplicated bills. There's about 6,500 remaining. Some we've already dealt with. Some are uh were duplicates, but there's about 6,500 remaining. We'll be sending a letter to each of those folks. But what we want people to know is that um before you go online, before you send a check in, make sure you really really look at your bill and if something looks in any way erroneous or doesn't make sense to call the tax office um or to come to the tax office. We can compare the DMV system to our local system and and reconcile that. I'd also say if you've made a payment uh and you've overpaid in any way that we'll issue a refund as soon as we get that payment and apply it to your account, we can tell that you've made an overpayment and a refund will be issued immediately. So, um um we we've had about 200 to 300 folks a day over the last four or five days come in. So, we we're dealing with those as they come and we'll happy to continue to do that. But, uh if you're an impacted person,

you'll be getting some notification from our office in sometime this week. Yeah. And I want to stress a lot of times, ever since I can remember being a kid and watching county commissioners and all that, this board will sometimes get the blame for things that's not our fault. We did not send those out. That was originated down in Raleigh. And uh I just I'm I'm trying to make sure our board the community knows that our board is not responsible for that. That's right. We mailed the bills based on information we received from that report which had erroneous totals. That's correct. Yes, sir. [Music] Thank you, Mr. Man. Thank you. Good job,

Mr. Mayor. U Yes, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to thank uh County Manager Epley. Um he spent several hours with me. We kind of rode the county the other day and got to stop and see some of our spots. James Robinson back there. Thank you, James. That place looks phenomenal. uh several of our convenience sites in the landfill. And uh you know, I like to say the troops are motivated everywhere we went. I can tell there's great leadership around the county because folks uh were hardworking. Uh they seem to be on task and they seem happy. So thank you, Brian, for what you do for the county. All right. Thank you, Mr. Barry. Madam Clerk, no comments. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. All right. And with that, I will make several courtesy reminders tonight. Uh September the 27th, we're going to premiere uh our oneyear anniversary of Helen, a documentary that our county and the city of Morgan, I think, has been working on. Am I right about that, Mr. Manager? Uh we want to take some time to uh uh remember that event. I'm sure most of us will never forget it, but we want to uh memorialize and and think about that event on We'll be doing that on September the 27th. This will occur at the Morgan Soccer Complex, 10:00 a.m. Rain or Shine. And there'll be some uh some goodie bags there, I think. And we want to thank some of our community sponsors who has helped us to put some of that together. Burke County United Way, the Community Foundation of Burke County, UNCC Health Blue Ridge, Hampton in Morgan, Rutherford Electric, the city of Morgan, and Burke County. And so we look forward to spending a little bit of time together that morning uh to remember the events of Hurricane Helen that impacted our county in such a tremendous way. Then on October the 20, October the 6th rather, board of commissioners pre-aggenda meeting here at 3 PM. And then I'll continue to uh remind our folks, youth groups and others that would be willing to come and uh lead us in our pledge of allegiance at the uh beginning of our meeting. We'd love for you to do that. You can sign up through our county website or see the clerk to help you with that. Also reminder uh for our animal services folks, spay and neuter your pets to foster or adopt pets at the Burke County Animal Services. And another reminder uh cover your loads of trash. If you're moving trash around through the county, please uh please cover that up as you go down the road so that somebody else isn't picking that up. Don't litter and

pick up trash throughout your community. And I would remind you that we do have a link on our website, the community beautifification tab on our website. If if you have areas that need special attention that you have a concern about, you can go there and give us some information and we'll do our best to respond to that as well. So with that, we'll come to item number 12, vacancy announcements. Madam clerk,

thank you Mr. Mr. Chair, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen of the audience, we have the following opportunities for citizens to serve on county boards and committees. The Adult Care and Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee, the Burke County Public Health Advisory Board, Hickory Regional Planning Commission, Drexel Planning Board, ETJ Alternate, Partners, Health Man Management's Human Rights Committee, the Revaluation Task Force. That's it.

All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Again, I would encourage you uh if you're uh interested in working and helping on any of these boards and committees, we would love to have your involvement and you can again see our clerk for that or I think you can find that application on our website as well. And uh I would commend our our manager and team for a good kickoff with our citizens. Um,

Academy Citizen Academy. Thank you. This past week, I think Mr. Vice Chair helped to kick that off. Appreciate that and appreciate those who came to attend and we look forward to going through that over the next several weeks together. So, thank you very much for those participating. would like to say about the revolutionary war the 27th also that afternoon the war encampment another another

another reminder there that'll take place after house all right gentlemen that brings us to close session we have no need for close session tonight and with that I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to adjourn and reconvene at Monday Night Football somewhere. Okay. All right. All those in favor of motion to adjourn, second by the updated hand. Five to zero.