Board of Commissioners - workshop

Good evening. Welcome to the Ferris County Board of Commissioners work session for May 4th, 2026. Chairman Lindsay is out and asked me to chair this meeting on her behalf. She sends her regards. If I could ask Commissioner Pittman to do the invocation.

Let's pray. Almighty God, our Father, we thank you for your love and your mercy to us. We know we do not deserve it, but we're grateful that you care for us anyway. that you gave your son Jesus to die in our place. Lord, we thank you for all the many blessings that you give to us, and we pray that you would guide and direct us and fill our hearts with the greater desire to be a blessing to others. Lord, lead and guide us through this meeting tonight. Help us to take very seriously matters of importance to all these, our citizens, Lord, those whom you love. whether they know you or not. For those who don't, we pray they will come to know you. Lord, be with those who are ill and having special needs, especially we lift up Commissioner Wartman's mother, the difficulty she's going through right now, and pray that you be with her. And I lift up the family of Jim Stowe, whom we buried yesterday, Lord, and I pray that you be with them and give them comfort and peace. Guide and direct all that we do is say that we may do your will in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Great. I need a motion and a second from the board for the changes on the agenda, including page three. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. First up, we'll have Mr. Stifel from the North Carolina Office State Auditor. Yeah. And you got to mash those buttons pretty hard.

First try. Well, good evening, board. My name is Andrew Stifel. I am the Charlotte Regional Field Manager for the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor. And I want to thank Vice Chair Patrick and as well as the rest of you for allowing me to speak tonight. I just wanted to briefly introduce myself to those of you that don't know me as well as share a little bit more about what our office does and how we work with local governments. So again, for those that don't know me, my name is Andrew Stifel. I was born right here in Cabarrus County my whole life. I was up in Raleigh the last four years working at the legislature for both the Senate and the House side and started with the auditor's office in July of last year, which brought me back home. And I now have a 10-county region. I basically say if you stay in the middle of downtown Charlotte and drive about 90 minutes outside of it, that is my territory, if you will. My job is to go around into these regions, meet with local elected officials, business leaders, nonprofit leaders, whatever organization they may be with, and just, again, share the word of OSA and what we do and how we can be of assistance. So we now have field members in Asheville, Wilmington, and Greensboro doing what I do as well. So we're working to cover the whole state almost there. So our office is made up of many divisions, just like any company. But when it comes to our audit divisions, we have six different kinds. They are financial, investigative, performance, rapid response, Dave, and information systems. And I'd like to briefly just share what they are and what they do. So our financial team performs what you might think of as just a typical government audit. They do these for universities, community colleges, other state agencies, or really any other unit of government. These audits are just to ensure that financial statements are up to date and ensure that these agencies or government entities are fairly presenting their statements. Our investigative division is led by a career prosecutor. Her team investigates reports from our tip line for fraud, waste, and abuse of state taxpayer money. This is more of the illegal things that you might think of embezzlement, stuff like that. So our team, what they do is they'll go through, investigate everything. Once they have a report, they'll turn that over to the SBI or the proper authorities who will then carry out an arrest. Our performance team helps improve government efficiency. These reports not only focus on financial matters, but also scope of work when it comes to government, ensuring that best practices are taking place so that time isn't wasted or resources aren't wasted. So it might not be just money, but also the actual practice of what these entities are doing. Our rapid response team is one of our newer divisions, and in its name, a typical audit can take anywhere from six to 18 months. What our rapid response team does is two to four months. We'll turn out a report where it's substantial enough to be a report, but it's also digestible to really anybody in the public and gives you a good, broad snapshot of what we might be looking into. So a lot of Um, reports will start like this. For example, the cat system in Charlotte, we did a rapid response audit on them. Our full comprehensive audit on them will be coming out probably in the next month or so, but we were able to quickly go in, look at cats, see what, um, might've been some of the baseline issues that they were having and then jump into that further. our second newest division and newest as of today or as of july of last year when it was created is the dave division which is the division of accountability value and efficiency this is to examine vacant state positions um so we had a dave report come out towards the end of last year beginning of this year that showed lots of lap salaries across all state government and why these positions weren't being filled some positions um you know certain agencies like the Highway Patrol was using these vacant lap salaries for gas for their troopers. So things that need to be used but not necessarily the right way to use it. So what this division is doing is seeing what positions we can eliminate and if we need to fund certain agencies more since they're using lap salary money and should be using appropriated money. And then lastly is information systems, very simple, not financial at all, but going through state government and making sure that IT systems are up to code, up to date, no security inefficiencies, things like that. They also handle our own IT as well. And then outside of audit, normal things, scheduling, administrative, constituent services, communications, legal, and then external relations, which is my division. So our external team consists of the field team, the field managers across the state, our communications team, and our constituent services team working in a bit of a triangle to, again, share the word of OSA, as I've said before. And then... I lost my spot. Sorry. I'd like to share just a little bit about Auditor Dave Bolick as well. So Auditor Bolick is the 21st state auditor elected here in North Carolina, born up the road in Lincolnton, went to UNC Chapel Hill and then Campbell Law School, then worked down in Fayetteville as a prosecutor and private attorney for a handful of years before being elected. auditor back in november of 2024 and what the auditor does is obviously oversees osa in its entirety but outside of that sits on the council of state with the nine other statewide elected officials and then also sits on the local government commission um which is headed up by the treasurer but he sits on as a voting member and auditor bolick has i think taken a very um new approach to what the office does on the things that we're working on, but also with us being the government accountability watchdog, we wanted to be accountable ourselves. So you can actually go to our website and we have our own dashboard put up of how we internally spend all of our money. So if we're going to ask people to show us their books, we're going to show you our books. And then the last thing I wanted to touch on is just some of the things that we accomplished last year and some of the things that we're still working on currently. So I think as most of you might have heard last year, we had the big comprehensive DMV performance audit. We found a lot of things that a lot of people already knew, but a lot of ways to fix those things. What I like about our performance audits is it's not just a finger wag, it's also a blueprint. It's here's where you guys might have lacked, but here's how you can improve. So that's what our DMV audit did. And actually just last week, one audit of the year from the National State Auditors Association. So big kudos to our audit team for their great work on that. Some of the other things we did last year was And continuing monitoring of Helene spending out west, a comprehensive audit of the Winston-Salem-Forsyth County Schools, conducting oversight of Medicaid spending and screening gaps at DHHS, and as I mentioned, our CATS rapid response audit. As we move in now, well, halfway into this new year almost, but into the new year, we'll be monitoring the new Mecklenburg County Transportation Authority that was set up by the legislature, working on releasing a comprehensive audit of the North Carolina Education Lottery. That should be coming out. pretty much in the next few days. The biggest thing showing that while the education lottery has brought in more revenue over the last two years, they have actually given less money to the schools. So our audit will show that and show ways that that can be reprimanded. And of course, we'll continue to receive tips from our tip line. Anybody in the state can call, email, or physically mail us a tip of any sort of government fraud, waste, and abuse. They can do it anonymously or not. our team reviews it in full and if it's something that we need to look into we will then work on a full report so that's basically what we do very broad in scope but limited in mission and that's just government accountability at the end of the day we want every single government entity whether state county or city to work for the people of north carolina and that's what we have been trying to do here for the last about year and a half now and will continue to do hopefully long into the future. So I'm happy to answer any questions that you guys might have to the best of my ability, but also left some of my cards with Vice Chair Patrick if you guys need me. I think most of you have my contact information, but if not, please feel free to grab one and reach out at any time.

Thank you, sir. Questions, comments from the board?

Where do we find these reports that you put out?

They're on our website, ncauditor.gov, and we'll have a tab there that's just reports, and you'll be able to go through all the way back actually to 1998. So you can just go through. They're just PDF files, and I like the way that we've done ours because you can get the basis on the first two, three pages. We have a snapshot for each report that we issue of what our findings are and what our recommendations are. So you can breeze through a lot of them if you want to just kind of get a snapshot of a majority of things we're doing, or if there's a very specific one, you know, you can go in there word search DMV and read the whole 600-page report if you had the time.

Do you post a rapid one as well?

Yes, sir. Those are all on our website, and a lot of them are on our social medias as well, so Office of State Auditor on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. A lot of our reports are linked there as well.

What do you do for, like, the local county? Like in conjunction, like if we ask for something to be looked at or just, you know, to kind of see if we're heading in the right direction on something or you see something there, how does that process work?

Yeah, it kind of depends on what the, you know, tip, for lack of a better term, would be. We've had certain – I've had certain instances meeting with county commissioners outside of this county that they might have had issues with the school board. So they've recommended that, and then depending on – What the tip is sometimes it's they just think it's mismanagement of funds. Sometimes it's possible embezzlement So depending on kind of what that tip is then it just goes into one of those six audit divisions that we have I would say nine times out of ten Most of our audits are gonna fall under performance So rapid response will issue that short two to three months snapshot then performance will do the entire audit itself. I So that's where a majority of it goes. And even though I work for the auditor's office, I am not an auditor. I'm not a CPA in any way, shape, or form. I have a poli sci degree. So it really just depends on what that scope is.

Have you seen counties utilize your office to – to kind of go through their books just to give everybody a comfort feeling that there's no allegations or anything?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We've seen that from a handful of government entities, and even most recently it was – I want to say Baptist on a mission is the group. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but we, they're a nonprofit group that was getting Helene money and they had some reports that they were misusing those funds. They asked us to do audit and we found they're completely up to code and spending the money exactly as they should be. So, um, to your question, yes, that that's something that a lot of entities, government and not have come to us just to be like, Hey, we think we're good. Can you just make sure? I will say it's been tough to balance the workload for our audit staff. There's just under 200 of us total at OSA, so about 160-odd auditors probably. So to have every single entity that receives taxpayer money audited is time-consuming. So it's about – managing our time and kind of finding what is most necessary. But at the end of it all, yes, we have had folks come to us and just say, are we good?

And I assume since this is a state service, there's no cost passed on to the county for if we had something done.

That's correct. Yes, sir. Yep. We, uh, we get money from the general assembly allocated to us to pay for these audits. So, um, and all of those, by the way, with our internal dashboard also, So every single one of our reports at the very bottom of the last page will tell you exactly how much the audit cost. So you'll be able to see exactly how we're spending our money on salaries and notebooks and pencils, but also how much money we're spending on each of these audits. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

I know when we met several months ago, I asked if you'd come to Cabarrus County. I asked that you'd wait until after our budget got done because they're in the middle of that. But we hear so much all the time about pockets are lined, all this different stuff. I fully stand behind our finance department. I think I put them up against anybody in the state. So if you were to come to Cabarrus County, what would that actual audit look like for our staff? So can you explain what that looks like for our people that are going to go through it? Because I'm fully willing to do it. I'd like to put it to rest one way or the other. If there's things we're doing wrong, let's fix it. If not, I'd like that publicized as well. But just, you know, there's a lot of misinformation. So what would it look like you coming to Cabarrus County and doing that audit for us?

Yeah, so our audit teams, they conduct first at what's called an entrance conference. So depending on where they are in the state or kind of the scope of the audit, we will sometimes physically send a team of auditors to wherever they might be. So we actually – I work out of our Charlotte field office. We have six full-time auditors there now. It's only 30 minutes up the road. We could just send them here. What they would do is sit down with Um, whoever, if either in the finance department, budget department, whichever, um, staff would be necessary, just sit down with them, go through books, kind of, it's kind of like a deposition. It's not obviously, but kind of like that. We're just, our audit team will have questions. Um, and that will start the process. So after that, then it's all internal. Our team will get whatever books and numbers they need, do the audit process fully on our own. And then at that point, follow up, if there's any questions or any other things that they might need, and then lastly conduct an exit conference where they'll sit back down with the staff and say, okay, here's what we found, here's what we're going to put in the report, and it also allows these folks a chance to respond. So they'll be able to look at the report in full before it's released and say, okay, hey, we didn't know that was a thing, thanks for pointing it out, or hey, we disagree with this statement here because of X, Y, and Z. So the people that are being audited also get a chance to respond to that report before it is released to the public.

And if that's the route we want to go, which again, I have no problem with it, how do you start that process?

It would have to be really just approved by the auditor himself or by our division leads. So as I was saying to Commissioner Jones, with certain tips we get, people will submit a tip and we'll review said tip and go, okay, this is enough for us to do an auditor. Well, maybe it's not really anything substantial. And some people come to us and it's not that anything wrong is happening. They just don't really like how it's being done, but it's not being done in an illegal or inefficient way. So once that tip, if you will, comes through, it really just comes down to approval from the division's heads once they get all the information they need. If they see it's fit for an audit, they'll fire it up and start working on a report. Cool. Thank you.

Other questions? Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time.

Thank you all very much. You all have a great night.

All right, we'll move on to Frankless Park Soccer Complex. Mr. Hagman.

Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for the time to come here before you. What you have before you is a code contract for the priority use of Frankless Park Soccer Complex. I'm here to just provide a brief overview of that proposed agreement of that, and this agreement is a result of over a year's worth of discussions, many meetings between county management, legal counsel, the Act of Living and Parks Commission, and our staff working through the terms to reach this point. The contract has currently been signed by the Charlotte Soccer Association, and it is with the City of Concord for their May agenda right now for them to sign. Tonight, I'm just bringing this forward to you to give you the opportunity to review the agreement, understand the work that has gone into it to date. So once the city has that signed, I will bring it back before you here in your June meeting to sign that contract. But this proposed agreement will provide up to $110,000 in revenue while continuing to support recreational athletic opportunities for our community and helping offset ongoing maintenance costs for the complex. When I came before you previously, it was to extend the previous 25-year contract for two months to align that with our fiscal year. And in doing so, that lends us now to look at starting a contract with our fiscal year and looking at quarterly installments of those revenue dollars to come in. What questions can I answer for you? Questions?

I just want to point out since we, I'm the liaison that we're getting away from the 25 year contracts and this is a year contract so that we're not locked in for such long periods of time. Correct.

That is absolutely correct. The active living in parks commission does not feel comfortable with anything longer than one year at this point. Just with the unknown of the secondary entrance of Frankless park, other organizations to consider, they wanted to hold to this for one year.

I know this is what's a Charlotte Soccer Association, but some of these teams are fielded in Cabarrus County.

That is correct. Yes, sir. So they operate regionally. So they are a large organization that's operating in multiple regional aspects, but they have a home base here, a home organization in Cabarrus County that operates and has been utilizing Franklin's Park for the last 25 years.

And I remember reading the contract or something about we will refund – $5,000 or something for tournaments that are canceled? Correct.

So right now, the way this is written is $90,000 guaranteed. There are four $5,000 opportunities for sole use weekend tournaments. And if a tournament were to be canceled, they could get a portion or all of that particular portion of that tournament back to them. But right now, the $90,000 is guaranteed no matter what. That's what I want to understand. Yes, sir. We also put some blackout opportunities in there for our special events that the active living in parks is putting on. So, and then also verbiage in there to talk about specifics of the quality of the fields provided. We really cleaned up a very old document. I have no other questions.

All right. Thanks, sir. Thank you. Speaking of Frank list part, second interest entrance, Michael Miller.

You're not Michael Miller.

We're with Michael. We'll just support staff.

All right, good afternoon. We're here today to present the findings of the feasibility study conducted to evaluate the potential for constructing a second entrance into Frank Lisk Park. And we'd like to receive some input and feedback on a path moving forward. Joining me are Greg Stewart and Michael DelVecchio with Banesh, who did the study for us. And before I turn the presentation over to Greg and Michael, I wanted to provide some brief background. So the need for the second entrance is driven by two primary factors. First being traffic congestion within the park on busy days. That's created a safety concern for visitors and staff. And the second being with the construction of the Red Bull Rock and Ball facility, on the former Philip Morris property. The rail line that intersects the main park entrance is expected to become active again and transport and freight. So we feel like that will produce additional challenges both for safety and traffic and ingress out of the park. The proposed site for the new entrance is located in the former Stonewall Jackson Training School property, which was conveyed to the county. And the new roadway would begin in the central area of the park around the park office and soccer complex. And it would connect over to Jackson Terrace right near the cemetery at Rocky Ridge Church. um and i don't want to steal too much of their thunder but in addition to the new entrance road the proposal also includes parking capacity additions as well as it addresses existing stormwater concerns inside the park so one last thing i think it's important to note that we have funding assigned assigned inside the cip for the project so that being said i'll turn it over to greg and michael

Thank you, Michael. Okay, if I advance this, is this, I got control of this or is this someone else?

Yes.

Okay.

I'll let you get to that. We won't jump right into the TIA. The TIA is a rather lengthy document. We can circle back to that. I was just looking to bring up our site plan. So as Michael had said, the project was initiated as a feasibility study to develop schematic design. for looking at approximately 6,000 linear feet going from the current entrance in creating a traffic circle and connecting some additional parking, doing some enhancements with stormwater management, continuing the proposed road with curb and sidewalk out to Jackson Terrace. As mentioned, the current entrance is near and crosses the railroad. Currently, there's not railroad traffic there. That creates a problem. However, knowing that there will be additional railroad traffic that comes into that area, that, to my understanding, was one of the precipice for having a study done for the second entrance as was talked about. So our team went in, did some originally site evaluations, got the site survey. We have staff that have worked on this site before and are familiar with the project. And as part of our effort, we also went and did a traffic impact analysis where we got traffic counts on the backside near Jackson Terrace to look at the traffic impacts that were needed. And then we came up with this schematic design, which was created as in the packet. I probably want to keep going. Just go to the site plan. Yeah, right there. That would probably serve us a little better in case there's some specific questions. So that's the overview. And in addition to what Michael had said, before I progress any further, are there any high-level questions or any immediate topics that you'd like us to respond to?

Is this going to cause any major disruptions at the park while this is going on?

To the park, there will be face constructions. There are some existing features that will have to be enhanced. The existing roadway going in, you can see that we will have a traffic circle that's added. So some of the improvements are proposed in conjunction with existing features. so there will be however we can develop a traffic management plan to accommodate that maybe some diversions around that some placement again this design is more schematic design at this point to outline the major features but continued operation of the park will be something that's considered as part of the design time as well as the construction's time when contractors will be in here we can build in some blackout periods for construction efforts but yes there will be some disrupt disruptions but we can't accommodate it

But the majority of the work is in a piece of the property that's not being used for the back side. Yeah, it's wooded right now.

Other questions? Where's this? for Michael, the timeline in our CIP and full design.

We've actually got an RFQ posted for full design. That's due on May 13. So we've got that ball rolling. And once we choose somebody, we'll be ready to roll into full design.

So best case scenario, that entrance is open, what did we say, like two years?

Two years. We'll probably need about nine months for design and then a year for construction and the railroad

presumes operations when? Kelly, do you know?

We'll be slightly ahead of Red Bull.

We'll be ahead of them.

Yeah, just barely, I think. Okay.

And you may not have the answer to this. I'm sorry to put you on the spot, but the railroad and the crossing and all that is really theirs, but I assume some upgrades the railroad would be making there, or...

They have not given us details. They've done some stuff over on Roberta. They haven't given us any details about hours. We're still working with them to ascertain what the hours of operation will be, because we've gotten a little bit conflicting information about that. So we're working on that. So we'll let you all know as soon as we get the details on that part.

Well, railroads work on their own timeline. Any other questions?

You can turn your microphone on. Or will they pass some of those on to us for the crossing?

There's no plan for them to pass on fees to the county. It will all either be through the rail or through our RRB's work.

I did actually try to speak to them about catching some of our costs, but haven't been successful so far.

OK. Anything else, gentlemen?

obviously we look forward to the opportunity if there's any other questions let us know I think you may have one or two other further discussions on to say even tonight for the railroad and so forth but don't look forward to the opportunity and if you have any questions thank you thank you all right moving on to fire marshal County employed firefighters co-location where's Jacob

Good evening, Commissioners. Thank you for allowing us to come in front of you tonight. So there's no formal presentation. This is a follow-up from the budget retreat. So as you recall, we discussed during the budget retreat, we made a formal presentation on a co-location of our county-employed firefighters. And at that time, there was a request to take that back to the fire chiefs and have some further discussion just to make sure that we were on the right track with that. So a lot of positives came back out of that meeting. So we did go back at the fire service board meeting in April and present that idea back to the fire chiefs. We had a lot of good constructive conversation. Commissioner Pittman and Chair Lindsay were able to be present at that meeting and take part in those conversations. It was very productive. There was an idea that has not been presented to us before now that came up during that meeting that we do feel like is a beneficial option to move forward with in consultation with the fire chiefs. So that is to look at dividing the personnel between two locations and then supplementing those units with fire department staff that are already in place to essentially form two units in two different locations in the county to provide additional coverage and a greater broad spectrum. So at the conclusion of the discussion, there were two votes taken by the fire chiefs. Again, I feel like it was a very, very productive meeting. All of the volunteer fire departments, their chiefs voted in the affirmative for both votes. One was that the positions, as they currently are budgeted, needed to exist and were beneficial. Again, all the fire chiefs voted in the affirmative on that, and then all the fire chiefs voted in the affirmative that they wanted to move forward with having additional conversations on what two best locations facilitate that idea of that two-location plan. So kind of what we're looking for tonight is any additional conversation that you all may want to have on that. And then just kind of looking at a consensus to move forward with having those additional conversations with the fire chiefs on what those locations will be and kind of formulate an official plan to come back, partner with the fire chiefs to present that back to you all as a formal recommendation. So that's kind of what we're looking at tonight is just any additional conversation that you all would like to have on the topic, and then just looking for a consensus on what all you think moving forward and whether we move forward with the consensus. And then, Kelly, if you'd like to add anything.

Yes, and we have started running GIS modeling to determine how we can get the most agencies impacted by splitting up the team because there are certain locations that will work best to raise or lower, make our ISO ratings better. So depending on where we put them, so it can impact almost every jurisdiction.

If you recall back to our presentation, one of the issues that we have is the way that we're currently structured. ISO kind of moved away from giving credit for our people because we weren't part of a fire department. By doing the co-location and doing that partnership with the fire department, OSFM has given us permission back at that point to then get credit for those people again. The Part of the conversation and question at this point is, what two locations do we get the biggest bang for our buck? So we've had GIS begin running numbers and doing some map analysis on the two best current station locations that if we put those people at, where do we reach the most amount of districts to get that credit? So GIS has turned that back around to me as far as the basic numbers. And then we're running the analysis on looking at what two locations cover the most amount of districts with the least amount of duplication with the least amount of uncovered districts. I don't think we have a combination of two locations that covers everything. But with the two locations, I think we can get down to at least one or two districts that are excluded versus where we were all in one location. We could only hit about half. So it does seem like we have some positivity that comes out of that. Questions?

What you said and what he said. What you said, what he said. Are you all doing that together or are you running a separate?

No, they're running it through their GIS.

She's referencing my analysis with county GIS.

So you're running that and you're looking at it to see the benefits and stuff?

yes we would we will identify which locations would provide the best coverage and give everybody the bump in the iso rating and provide that back to you all in a recommendation for locations so before we can really consider this we need that information We just needed consensus that this is what the board was, one direction the board was wanting to go so that we could make that. We didn't want to start asking the volunteer fire departments to meet with us and establish plans and create all that if we didn't have some consensus.

I didn't know if we can put this on new business because I have the fire study that we paid for twice. It's like 300 something pages. And I need a couple more weeks to look at that before I'm Because there's a lot of information to digest in that, so I wanted a couple more weeks to be able to look at that.

And we can have Jacob resend that because I don't know if Commissioner Patrick has that because it was a while back.

Commissioner Wortman gave me a copy on a thumb drive 30 minutes ago.

Does anybody else need it? Okay. We'll send it out so that you all have access to it and can review it.

Commissioner Wortman, do you have both copies of the old one and the new one?

um i was wondering and i'm not going to mention the department because i don't want to bring that into this discussion directly but there is a department that i've been hearing often does not respond to calls because they either they're understaffed or people you know can't get off work to go and stuff like that would the way that you're planning to divide up uh 410 possible help to alleviate that some so

If it's the department that I believe you're speaking of, there's additional conversations to be had on that topic. And so it just depends on where they're placed. There is some additional options, too, in the short term that I think Kelly's going to discuss with you all that may potentially leave part of that issue for now. Again, Kelly's going to speak more specifically, I believe, on that with you all. But yes, depending on what options we go with, again, because we want chief involvement, kind of what my plan is at this point is to take and formulate that information, take that GIS analysis as well as some of the things that we have to see as the county to make sure our people are protected safety-wise, they have the facilities they need, those types of things. and give those back to the fire departments. And then we'll meet together as a group and say, OK, based on the information that I'm providing you, as a group of fire chiefs, what would you recommend to the commissioners as being the most optimal? And then we would bring that back to you all. And you all would make the final decision on what locations. And my encouragement to them would be that they would provide you a couple of options and that we would look at the positives and negatives of all those. And then you all would have had the choice on that to make a final decision.

And I would say, I think the members of that department are not happy with that situation either. They would rather be able to go when they're needed, and they can't always do it as a problem. So I hope we can work something out about that.

Yeah, we will consult with our attorney on it.

So does the board like to put that on new business for the upcoming regular meeting? OK. All right. Anything else? Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank y'all. All right, moving into discussion items, we have a presentation from the Tourism Authority, Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Mills.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Thank you so much for affording us this opportunity to come before you again. I first want to thank Commissioner Wartman and Kelly for serving on our board of directors. Your dedication is in direction, I was trying to think of the right word, is greatly appreciated. So thank you for doing that. And I'm going to apologize ahead of time. You all have seen a lot of these numbers because we did just present at the summit to you all. But for the sake of your viewers, we thought we would just do some touch points quickly. Looking at the slide that's up right now, It is the mission of the Convention and Visitors Bureau to drive visitation to Cabarrus County to generate the maximum impact through hotel stays and visitor spending. I also want to remind everyone that we are funded by occupancy tax, which is a tax that is paid by the visitor when they spend the night in a hotel. So it is not a local tax that constituents and citizens pay. so just to let you know that and also to preface we are not here to ask you for any money we actually generate some money for you all so john go ahead and so talking about um the impact of tourism these are last year's numbers because we are in the year for the year right now so um this is kind of an overview of what we generated here in Cabarrus County last year. And these numbers are some pretty big numbers. And from the year prior, we were up 8.7% last year in visitors' activity. And if you look at the daily numbers, they generated 71,000 in state tax revenues, 493,000 in worker paychecks, These all tourism and these visitors have an impact on our community across the board. This is the big one. Everyone says, well, other than traffic, how does it benefit me? The taxes that are generated by visitor spending in Cabarrus County, they represent a tax savings of $178.24. per resident. So what that means is if it were not for hospitality and tourism and the visitor, every person who pays taxes in Cabarrus County would pay an additional $178 in taxes. So it is a benefit and it's our goal to make sure that number continues to increase every year so that it saves our residents some money. I'm gonna talk, we're gonna show a quick little video, and I say it's quick, it has got a lot of information in this video, but this talks a little bit and shows a little bit about our, it doesn't talk, it shows where we have marketed in the last year. Is there no sound? That's cool, that's fine. So as you see there, a lot of that was our marketing from last year. And a lot of people here go, well, what is it that you all do? Because they don't see these ads and online ads because they're put in markets outside of our area. So we always like the opportunity to be able to come in front of you all and show you a sneak peek of what we did in the past. Burger Madness, you know, it goes without saying Burger Madness was born during a very tough time for our restaurants during COVID. And we sat down and tried to figure out what we could do to help our restaurants cash registers ring. And we came up with this crazy idea of a burger competition. We reached out to those restaurants restaurant owners and managers and said, would you like to do this? And they said, sure. And initially we pitched a week and they said, well, it would be really difficult for people to eat all these burgers in one week. So can we do it for a month? And well, everything else was quiet at that time. So we said, sure, if that's what you want to do. It was supposed to be a one and done program, and unless you are under a rock, you will know that it is anything but one and done. We are on year five, and we sold a record number of burgers this year. I say we. We did not. Our 25 restaurants that participated sold over 9,500 burgers. Now, of course, Lee's Sandwich Shop won this year, but what we like to say is all 25 of those restaurants who participated, they were all winners. If they sold burgers during the month of March, then they were winners because that's the purpose of this program is to help them on their coming out of the fall and into the spring in a shoulder month. And we've had nothing but amazing feedback from our restaurants and our locals. This was never intended to be an overnight. This was intended for advocacy only. And we had visitors from 14 states that actually checked in. at our restaurants here. So yay! 97% were from North Carolina, but still 14 states were represented. So super excited about that and super proud of that. So we will be hosting Burger Madness again next year. And I encourage each and every one of you to don't eat a lot in February and get out there and support our restaurants in March and have a burger. Talking about meeting sales, which is another thing we do. We go out and we recruit meetings and conventions to come to Cabarrus County. Last year we had 22 events, which equated to 22,000 room nights with a $13 million economic impact on our destination. And turf sales, you all remember that we did turf three high schools way back when. I can't even remember how long ago that's been. But we turfed two fields at West Cabarrus, one at Cox Mill High School and one at J.M. Robinson. And the... Go back one more. Sorry. And those equated to 13 events, 4,000 room nights, and a $4 million economic impact. So the return on our investment is doing very well. The other thing we did was a Mondo track at Robinson High School. And just so everyone knows, our dollars, legislatively, we have to spend our money on tourism related items. So we did not do this just to upgrade three high schools and their athletic facilities. We did this in order for us to have first rider refusal after the school to be able to host overnight tournaments or weekend and weekday tournaments. at these facilities. Our event rights holders actually chose J.M. Robinson for this Mondo facility because it's a little more separated from the school and the parking is much larger than the other two schools. If you were by this high school, J.M. Robinson, over this weekend, we hosted a national middle school track event and I will tell you there was not a piece of grass or pavement anywhere that didn't have a car on it. It was a huge tournament and went really well even with a little bit of rain. But this facility last year generated six events with 2,000 room nights. and a $3 million economic impact on our community.

Dona, while you're on that slide, can we take a moment for you to explain how great the athletic director is there and how such a relationship is so important for that to be successful?

I sure will. Thank you for bringing that up, Kenny. Pat Helm is the AD at Robinson High School. And without his cooperation, we would not be able to do these events. He works tirelessly with our team to pull these events off. They're no small feat, I can assure you, and I don't think he gets paid any extra money to do this. He does it for the love of what he does, and we certainly appreciate him very much. Our opportunity market sales, these are like car shows and those different things. It's seven events for 3,000 room nights and a $3.5 million economic impact. Oh, and then I'm gonna turn it over to mr. Mills.

Yeah, that's that the meeting sales. It's just huge I mean we're talking 130,000 room lead nights that they produce in a year and that's all in the year for the year In fact, they got a piece of business already booked in 2029 So there they work that far out because that's how these planners work So so one primary reasons we're here this evening is the legislation requires that this board actually adopts our budget With our board members that approved our budget at our April board meeting and then now it's for us to come to this board and For an adoption so just to show you a little bit about our revenues and how they look for the last several years Obviously FY 2025 we had a record year at almost seven point eight million dollars We planned we came back this year and we planned a seven point five million dollar budget based off that record year and some of the events that when things that were taking place So we approved this budget and we were ready to go and little do we know our friends at Embassy Suites We're gonna remodel their entire hotel And so we had no conventions for about five months and they were taking three floors out at a time as they Ran through that so that room inventory was out. So Needless to say we are not going to achieve that 7.5 million. You can see that with that forecast But from the expense standpoint, we're all well within line to be able to cover that that loss So with that being said we look at revenue on a couple different scales. We'll get on a macro scale What is the national trend showing and? And then the moderate growth they're expecting from leisure travel, some group travel, business travel, are three segments that we'll look at. So we look at those things kind of from a macro level, and we look at micro, obviously, things like if there's an event that's coming to town and that's going to scale our revenues one way or another. Look at our average daily rates, look what room demand looks like, talk to our hotel partners. And so after all those conversations, we're coming back to this current budget that we have for next year at almost $7.6 million. And so that's the basis for how we come up with our revenues. And then we look at our expenses. We kind of have three major buckets that we will allocate. You've got what we're currently in on the left side, where we're headed to on the right side. So we are this year going to be around 30.5% in staffing. I can tell you that In our industry in particular, you typically will see in the 40% range for most of our peers as far as how they allocate their dollars towards staffing. We are going to add into this year's budget a new full-time non-exempt sales and services coordinator to help that sales team that's booking all these wonderful events. We will still be two full-timers short of where we were pre-pandemic, so we're able to operate still to scale based on where we were pre-pandemic with two less on that headcount. The admin side, 11.8%. 41% of that number is the admin fee, which is at the bottom, which I'll get to in a second. And so we're allocating 58%, which is almost double digits more than what our peers are doing. And so that's where you're – the largest piece of that is our paid media. So where are we placing this advertising and all of our target audiences? And so that's what makes up most of that. So with the budget you see at $7.5 million, the county retains, through the legislation, 5% in administrative fees. So the $367,000 almost drops into your general fund for your use. And then we have this annual marketing agreement of another $367,000 that the county retains. And we work with the county. Team to be able to talk about what tourism related capital projects we can come up with to be able to utilize those funds and so That the proud to say that the project that we went to we cannot borrow money as the TDA So if anything was large-scale the county would borrow the money and then we would use this tax to reimburse it so the county is General fund wouldn't have to pay it back. We did that with the turf field project that has been paid off and there's about 600,000 sitting there currently according to Jim So we'll continue to grow that money as you can see another 367 thousand next year and come up with some ideas on how we can best utilize those funds so

Our board is getting ready to go into their strategic planning process, so hopefully we will come out of that with some amazing ideas to work with the county to be able to make some improvements from a tourism standpoint.

And that's it.

Anybody have any questions? Questions, commissioners?

Well, thanks for what the CBB does and congratulations to Lee's Sandwich Shop. Yeah, right?

He worked it hard. He did. Yeah, he does. Thank you very much.

Thank you all very much. Are you all okay with the consent agenda for this item? Yes? Okay. All right, Byron's going to come back up for 2.2 and 2.3, which are active living and parks appointments.

So the one before you is for our Midland seat. Ms. Chastain was appointed to fill the remainder of Mr. Cook's term ending May 31st, and the Active Living and Parks Commission unanimously voted to appoint her to the Midland seat as she is the only eligible application for that district ending May 31st. Any questions for that one? consent okay next one next one miss Millicent her she is eligible for reappointment for her seat ending April 30th 2029 and based off of her previous service the board unanimously voted to reappoint her to her seat okay concerns

Thank you, sir. Thank you. And next up, we have Central Atlanta Workforce Development Board appointment. And I don't know who's doing that. Are you going to do it? Tracy.

Tracy Hampton holds the private sector seat number three. She's the HR slash professional on the Central Line of Workforce Development Board, whose term ends on June 30th, 2026, and that seat will need to be filled. And it is requested by the advisory board to reappoint Tracy Hampton for a two-year term.

Okay. And the next one, Ari?

The next one... Chad Champagne holds the private sector seat number four, construction, on the Central Line of Workforce Development Board, whose term will end June 30th, 2026. This seat will need to be filled. It is requested by the advisory board to reappoint Chad to fill the seat for a two-year term, ending June 30th, 2028. All right, consent.

Thank you very much. We will move to Board of Commissioner's resolution requiring transparency on federal and state budget impacts. I believe Commissioner Wartman is going to discuss that item.

We had a group of citizens come to us and ask that we adopt this resolution. I'm just going to read it. It's on here. I know we've talked about there's a couple concerns on some of the things. We don't have access to be able to post something on the Cabarrus County School Board's website. Um, so there's a couple of technical things that, that we might run into issues with. So, um, I told him I'd read it out. We can discuss it and, uh, probably taken if it's okay with this board after I read it and we talk about it, probably take another two weeks and add it to our, our new business instead of just plop it on consent agenda. Um, but it says Cabarrus board of County commissioners resolution requiring transparency on federal and state budget impacts. Whereas our county government and school system rely significantly on federal and state funding streams to deliver essential services to our community, and whereas our Cabarrus County school system serves nearly 35,000 students and relies on federal funding for special education services, Title I programs, school nutrition, and Medicaid reimbursements, And whereas federal budgets have created uncertainty about the continuation of critical programs, including the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, Women, Infants, and Children's Program, Medicaid, and educational funding, and whereas federal and state government funding streams for the services we administer are becoming increasingly unpredictable due to H.R. 1 passed by the 119th U.S. Congress creating cascading impacts on state and local budgets for years to come, and whereas the North Carolina General Assembly has not yet passed a comprehensive state budget, forcing state agencies and local governments to operate on continuation budgets that do not account for population growth, inflation, or increased service demands. And whereas these combined federal and state budget uncertainties create cascading impacts on Cabarrus County's ability to plan, budget, and deliver services that our residents depend on, And whereas residents have a right to understand how decisions made by federal and state governments affect their access to local services, and whereas transparency and accountability are essential principles of democratic governance, especially during times of budgetary uncertainty. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Cabarrus Board of County Commissioners hereby commits to providing clear, accessible, and timely information to county residents about budget impacts resulting from federal and state government decisions. And this broke down to section one, public transparency. The county manager shall establish and maintain a dedicated webpage on the school system's website that provides, one, clear explanations on how federal government shutdowns and state budget delays impact school services. Two, regular updates on the status of federal and state funding for programs administered by the county. Three, itemized information showing which services may face cuts or disruptions in the government entity, federal, state, or local responsible for funding decisions. Four, plain language summaries accessible to residents of all educational backgrounds and language proficiencies. Five, historical context showing funding trends and the cumulative impact of budget cuts over time. Six, contact information for federal and state elected officials who have decision-making authority over affected programs. Then Section 2, public hearing. Within 30 days of the adoption of this resolution, the Cabarrus Board of County Commissioners shall hold a public hearing on the impacts of federal government shutdowns and state budget delays on Cabarrus County services. The county manager is directed to, one, invite the Cabarrus County Board of Education to participate in a joint public hearing. Two, publicize the hearing through multiple channels, including the county website, local media, social media, email lists, and community organizations. Three, provide simultaneous interpretation services as needed to ensure accessibility. Four, collect written and oral testimony from residents, service providers, educators, healthcare workers, and other community stakeholders. Five, document the real-life impacts that residents of Cabarrus County are experiencing due to budget uncertainty. Section three public report within 90 days following the public hearing, the County manager shall prepare and publish a comprehensive report that includes one summary of testimony received at the public hearing to quantification of impacts on County residents, including number of residents at risk of losing snapper with benefits, impact on school nutrition programs, Medicaid service disruptions, effects on public school funding and services, impacts on county infrastructure and service delivery. Three, recommendations for interventions by city, county, state, and federal agencies to mitigate harm. Four, advocacy priorities for Cabarrus County's delegation to the General Assembly and U.S. Congress. Five, action plan for how the county will respond to various budget scenarios, including recommendations of specific funded programs Programmatic measures to offset the impacts the cuts will have on residents of Cabarrus County. Six, public meeting with community leaders to discuss pressing community issues and explore ways to collaborate effectively. And then Section 4, Intergovernmental Advocacy. The Board of Commissioners requests the County Manager to, one, publish an official statement opposing the federal cuts resulting from H.R. 1 passed by the 119th U.S. Congress that both names the total dollar amount our school system will lose due to the bill, along with the names of the NC elected officials who are responsible for the passage of this bill that takes millions of dollars away from our community. Two, transmit this resolution to North Carolina governor, members of the state legislature representing the Cabarrus County, and members of North Carolina's congressional delegation. Three, advocate for passage of a comprehensive state budget that fully funds county services and public education and ends the state's scheduled corporate and individual tax cuts. Four, urge state and federal officials to increase transparency about how their budget decisions affect local communities. And five, coordinate with other North Carolina counties facing similar challenges to amplify advocacy efforts. And I met with some people from this group. One of them is here. Steven's here. If we have questions, the gist of this for me was we always preach about transparency. And this is an easy way for us to provide quite a bit of information in one location to the community. And that way everybody has ample access to it to where we can see how some of these bills work. above us are affecting our local communities um is that about right stephen that's about right so um so i i was asked if i'd put it on the agenda i had no issue doing that i have no issue with a lot of this stuff but i know I would just ask that we add it to new business instead of consent, and that way we have a little bit more time to look it over. I know, Kelly, we've got a meeting coming up with the LGC Thursday. There's been a lot of time. Because I know there's some of this stuff that's going to be a little difficult. Like I said, the school system, we don't have access to their actual website. So it would give us a couple weeks to kind of look at it some more. But I did say we'd put it on here for discussion.

yeah we don't have access to their website of course we could ask them to host it um there's a couple of things in here that's kind of crystal ballish i mean asking us to know who and when on cuts and we don't always get that notice sometimes it's literally when a bill is being introduced so we don't necessarily have the ability to project it 90 days might be rather quick especially with regard to an action plan because it may require funding locally or you know resources that you would may need to fund to help us get an action plan so we might need a little more time than 90 days but those are kind of my first thoughts just as a response yes could you look at it and with Doug and find out somebody saying

don't have a problem with it I agree we're going to be under some time frames that we probably can't meet and there's a couple things in here we may not legally be able to do I need Doug to look at that but there's just a few but I'd like to kind of massage it to where something we can work with because I think it's very important we get something out there about our transparency with them on that but I think it needs some work but I think it's something we could work with

and i will engage with the schools on that i don't know if that's something that they can just go ahead and host or if they need to get their board to approve other comments there's some things i like in this believe it or not they are but i'm glad we're going to wait have hopefully the full board together before we act on this and i do plan to have some amendments to offer

Okay. I think the other thing I request is, this is quite a bit of work for staff in here. And so maybe at the regular meeting when we just after having massaged it, and maybe you could kind of give us a, you know, gut check on what kind of time and and potentially even cost commitment this is going to require for us especially in the middle of budget season i don't i don't necessarily have a problem with a lot of this as well but I do recognize the time commitment for staff and don't want to put them in a crunch. We're trying to get a budget out to.

We are.

Yeah.

Yeah. We can try to pull together some what we think timelines realistically we could accomplish and, you know, who the partners would be and how if we can, in fact, identify all of this information in the way that I guess is laid out, being able to project some of the, you know, who might lose different coverages and things may or may not be realistic. I mean, there's a lot of, for example, just right now with a lot of bills flying around about um the property tax and so it's hard for us to even project you know how you would respond to it because we don't know which plan gets thrown out and so same thing with some of these things it's just there's a lot of stuff floating around and and then how it's actually executed when they do develop a plan because a lot of times i think at least can attest that they throw out the plan and then the rules follow and sometimes take a good bit of time to work through to

actually figure out how you're carrying everything out and i think i think that's something everybody understands i think the important thing is is that we're moving in this right direction whether it takes a certain timeline to get here if it is a lot of work maybe you know maybe give us a couple months to get it but it's going on the website i think that i don't think that's an unfair request um so i just if we can put it on new business and that way the whole board will be here and We can discuss it more.

So if you guys are okay with putting it on new business, I would ask that you all come to the regular meeting with your suggestions on how to do it and even yours and the attorney's. Try to maintain the original intent as much as possible while realizing the actual how government needs to function to make these things work. I appreciate that. Sound good to you all?

Okay.

All righty. Moving on to Consolidated Human Services, Social Services Home and Community Care Block Grant. Suzanne and Tammy are here. Good evening.

Good evening. How's everyone? Thank you for giving me a little time tonight. Again, my name is Tammy Bair, and I work for Adult and Aging Services with DSS. And DSS is the lead agency for the Home and Community Care Block Grant, which is a mouthful, which is why we always say H-E-C-B-G. But each year that we do have to apply for the grant through a funding plan. And some of the services that are provided through this grant is through DSS, is our in-home aid, Adult Day Health, our Lunch Plus Club, and then other county services through Transportation Services and Housing Home Improvement, Active Living Parks, and And outside agency Mills and Wills also receives part of this grant. This year we did find out the funding early, so we do know how much it is, which is unusual to get it this early. As you can see, it's a little over $1.1 million, which does require a 10% county match for that as shown on the item. So I'm just here tonight requesting approval for us to move forward with the funding plan to apply for this funding.

Any questions, consent?

Okay. Thank you very much.

All righty. Another CHSA item, the transportation Title VII policy. Good evening, everyone.

Title VI. I'm not roaming. You still tired? Still tired, yeah. So this is one of the few times I don't come asking for money. So all I'm asking for is a couple signatures. So every three years, the state requires each transit agency to update their Title VI plan. So it's time for us to update ours. The biggest change is just, of course, the demographics throughout the county. It is due Thursday to the state, so I do need to ask you to suspend the rules and vote on it today or adopt it tonight. And we missed it, because working with the state, they're on a different time schedule than we are. So it was approved mid-April, but I couldn't get it to the work session in April, because it had already passed. Like I said, it just needs a couple signatures. It's the chair of the board, and the county manager's going to have to sign it.

I make a motion to suspend the rules.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you so much. I'll need a motion. I'll make a motion. We approve. All right.

Appreciate it. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. How are you going to get a chairman's signature?

I'm going to sign that one.

Fair enough. Okay. All right. Another CHSA, the Veterans Service Grant Budget Amendment and Fund 460 Project Ordinance. Mr. Gurley. Yes, sir.

Good evening, Vice Chair Board.

How are you guys doing? Great. Always good to see you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

My name is Chad Gurley, Veteran Services Director for Cabarrus County. I proudly say that. Board, I am here today to talk about the Consolidated Human Services Veteran Services Grant. amendment and project ordinance. This grant was administered by the Elizabeth Dole Act and administered by the North Carolina Department of Military and Veteran Affairs. This is the second round of the CVO grant. This grant was given to us on February 16, 2026 in the amount of $20,000. The funds for this award is to enhance technology, to do community outreach, to beef up staff training and supply services enhancement. This grant is only administered to counties who have five or fewer service officers. So Cabarrus County right at that five FTE mark. There is some talk in the Senate for a third round, but that's up for debate right now in the Senate. But as of now, we have the 20,000. There is no county match for these funds. And I'm here asking for a recommendation to approve the budget amendment and the project ordinance. Budget has reviewed the budget amendment and approved it. And also finance has approved the project ordinance as well and reviewed it.

great consent agenda fantastic thank you sir yes sir thank you all right let's see oh lord i got to read all this approval of definitive project investment agreement with north carolina railroad company and rrb beverage operations inc and definitive project investment sub agreement with rrb beverage operations inc mr phil

on this one. So, the North Carolina Railroad Company, NCRR, has a program called NCRR Invest. That program is investing $700,000 in rail infrastructure improvements on the RRB Beverage Operations Incorporated manufacturing site. Cabarrus County will act as a pass-through for the funds, and Cabarrus County is not supplying any of the funds for this infrastructure project. Cabarrus County is simply the pass through for the funds after NCRR verifies the completion of the project milestones. The project includes both land preparation, track work, drainage, and signal work. County staff can provide details on both of the agreements, the county involvement throughout the project, Narrative on pass-through projects like these in the past I don't think all of this board has been present these these pass-through projects have happened with the DOT so International Drive and the Sun cap project those were all pastors and in the past deputy county manager Marshall would have handled those So by default that that fell to me on this project. We do have representatives here and we also have a Samantha grass from the EDC they were involved in in the discussions and Doug can speak to the two agreements that we put into place we've spent considerable time with three entities legal teams in Two to three different countries going through all these agreements to make sure that the the county was acceptable to them Questions from border do you want to add something?

Skip that

So the agreement that you have in your agenda is the agreement that Mr. Billefer referred to that we drafted. So NCRR drafted and presented to you all, I think in 2021, if I'm not mistaken, what they called a term sheet. It was just a very brief agreement which you all adopted or that board at that time adopted. and it was signed and returned to them where we basically agreed in principle to participate in this project that's now before you. And so then what we needed, though, was taking off of that somewhat short and somewhat vague term sheet that we previously agreed to with NCRR. We needed a more full agreement than with RRB that would guarantee if there were any cost overruns, if NCRR did not approve, uh this pass through a grant or anything like that it guarantees that no money's coming out of our pockets uh we also or mr billifer has established that he's not responsible we're not responsible for monitoring the construction We've had that meeting with NCRR. NCRR will come, inspect it, and determine whether it's at an appropriate stage for payment to be made. So this agreement that we have before you tonight is the agreement spelling all this out between us and RRB to just kind of ride coattails, if you will, on the agreement with the state.

Questions on that?

Can you turn your microphone on?

Can you turn your microphone on?

When I read the agreement, I didn't know if they were actually depositing the money with us or we getting it as a reimbursement based on it says we'd be reimbursed up to 700,000. We are. Are we fronting the money or.

We are not fronting the money. So they send the money to us and then we have to turn around and disperse it.

So it's only a day.

Correct. I think we we settled on we will disperse within ten days. That's correct. But we're not fronting.

So we're not long term holding money or anything. Perfect. All right.

And just forgive my ignorance.

The reason it flows through us is because it has to flow through some government, some government into correct. And we are said intent and we've been tagged as it by whom? Well, by ourselves, basically by by agreeing to do it in 2021.

We've done this intermittently in the past as just working relationship with the EDC. um so that's and that was approved in 2021 so this is literally just the follow-up to that it's just we have a total turnover of the board since that was done yeah in our file we found the document where the county manager accepted the responsibility from from back in 2020. it seems like a lot of work if it goes well hopefully it won't be a lot of work i mean that's mr billifer is who it may it'll go well be worked for okay it's been a lot of work for you though right

coordination with the legal team and making sure we go through yes we have to review a lot of documents and when you first read those and i'm responsible for you know rail spur renovations and making sure they're done correctly in the way that it first read i had a lot of concerns so doug and i did work through that so yes it did but like kelly said we've we've done these pass-throughs before okay

agreement for the Elma seed Lomax incubator Farm Park with Carolina Farm Stewardship Association I believe we have a couple online as well

we do we have karen mcswain from the cfsa and we also have dylan alexander as the actual elmo lomax farm manager for cfsa and and we have talked uh to this board about this we brought this up a couple months ago where they made a presentation and i wanted to make sure that they got in front of you to let you know that this this uh fourth amendment was coming um Obviously, we expire at the end of June, so Doug and I worked with the CFSA to revise several parts of the agreement, shortening the term, adding some clarification on how quickly CFSA could opt out and how quickly the county could opt out. So that has been attached. That two- or three-page agreement has been attached, and we can answer any questions that you might have on it.

questions I know that was a pretty lengthy email sent to us regarding this

I prefer dissertation, but yes.

Does this affect that in any way, or is that a further conversation that we need to have?

There were some concerns, and we have Tracy LeCamp in the audience, and she's more than welcome to come up if you guys want to have a comfort level with that. But we did meet with CFSA about those concerns that were emailed to you. and had some conversation and a lot of what we've worked towards is that the county and cfsa nor need to put together an advisory committee to get back to try to i guess i would say completely scrap the old development plan but update that about what the opportunities are at the farm for the whole community and work towards that and i'm More than welcome if Tracy wants to speak to that. But we did start to go through that process and wanted to let you know that we plan on implementing that. Doug is going to try to work on the narrative or the verbiage to put that into the agreement prior to the voting at the regular meeting. So we probably don't need to go on consent. We need to go on new business, to be honest with you.

Is that OK with everyone? I'm not sure that Tracy needs to. I just want to make sure it didn't affect us. So you're going to modify this a little bit and get it on new business. Yes, yes. Is everybody OK with new business for this item?

Karen and Dylan, since you guys have had to sit here for awhile, do you have anything to add to that? May not OK.

All right, great. Thanks, sir. Thank you. All right, Hickory Ridge at Raging Ridge Greenway. And we have Jonathan Young. Hey, Jonathan. Hello, sir.

Good evening, commissioners, vice chair. Appreciate y'all having me here tonight. I'm John Young, poet works director for the town of Harrisburg. I am pinch hitting. We're supposed to be Brian Lee, our chief finance officer, supposed to be here. He's not feeling well tonight, so if you would remember him and his family. Just real quick, the town of Harrisburg is continuing its Greenway program. The request tonight is a connection across town or across county property. It's actually across from Hickory Ridge High School. We have an existing Greenway. It runs along Back Creek there. This connection has actually been in our Greenway master plan for a while. It's a short section of Greenway. It does make connection right to the entrance of the second entrance of Hickory Ridge High School. We will be putting in a pedestrian crossing as well to go along with this. I really feel like it's going to improve this area here. And again, it is a connection we've had for a while. The request tonight is for an easement across the county on property, or I guess it'll be on your agenda. But pretty straightforward. We've actually got this on our board agenda, our upcoming board agenda for approval for the construction contracts. We're moving pretty quickly.

piece of business a little different is we're going we're trying to work with them to save money and so we're gonna have them define the actual survey have that done at the end that allow them some flexibility. Schools are fine with that the way we've got it laid out, but that way they can move around a little bit because there's some wetlands and things in there. So we'll identify at the end, survey it, and then you can authorize the county manager to execute the document upon completion.

OK, consent. Very much, sir. Thank you. All right. Stephen M. Morris Behavioral Health Center, Lee Swift Monarch.

Uh, in June, 2023, the Cabarrus County board of commissioners approved the agreement to operate the Stephen Morris behavioral health center. At that time, it was just known as the regional behavioral health center with Monarch after a request for proposal process. That agreement contains several sections dealing with the provided care responsibilities and the responsibilities of the facility, but is in fact not a true lease. In order to comply with North Carolina General Statute 160A-272 and 153A-176, we must advertise by public notice and enter a formal lease. The requested action is to recommend the motion for the regular meeting to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute the lease for the Stephen M. Morris Behavioral Health Center with Monarch subject to review and revision by the county attorney. And just so that the board is aware, the draft that was dropped into this agenda tonight is most likely going to change yet again. It'll most likely be just a few words. So again, Doug and myself and some other folks on county staff have spent considerable time with Monarch Operations Group, as well as their legal team, going through the agreement, the prime lease that Doug drafted. from everything from insurance to what happens if the building burns down, all that type of information that goes into there with a multimillion-dollar building being under control and leased by one entity. And we had a last-minute change, whereas Monarch will be funding two of the law enforcement officers that are going to be added out there. And when that happened, we had to switch up some of the verbiage in there and add that in. And that's delayed us. So you're looking at what I would call the 98% draft. And I feel confident that we're going to have to change four words and add something else in there. But short of that, all of the other text and narrative in there will stay the same. And that's section 33, which I believe is page 23 and 24 in the agreement.

Okay, any questions on this item?

That actually should go to a lease, Dr. Pugh.

Great. All right, so we'll move this to new business, I guess, for the meeting. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, sir. Then a similar item, the sublease approval with Genoa Healthcare.

Yes. now having this this prime lease in in place we are going to have to sign the sublease for the pharmaceutical that is in that building so there's 239 square feet that'll be operated by a third party pharmaceutical i do believe you do say it as genoa but no one's ever said it to me so if i say it incorrectly i apologize we do have to sign that and that's why we we're putting this on the back end of this so you'll have to approve the prime lease before we're allowed to sign off on this and we did doug and myself also went through this verbiage it's very similar to what monarch uses at some of their other facilities and just so for the board's understanding these the providing of these pharmaceutical services is part of the original operating agreement we have with monarch where it says you have to provide these services it does not say what means you have to provide them

Does it make sense to put those under one agenda item as two motions?

I'm deferring to our legal counsel, but yes.

I mean, just because we have to approve one before we approve the second one. They're intertwined, and otherwise. You OK with that? Is that OK with the board? OK. All right, sign of construction approval of GMP 2 for progress place renovations.

Good afternoon again. um the goal for my presentation today is to give you a high level summary of the progress place renovations in preparation for receiving the guaranteed maximum price number two from messer construction and as you know messer is the construction manager at risk for the project and we're targeting early june to begin construction renovation and demolition work there You've already approved guaranteed maximum price number one, which was for long lead time items. And the next step in the process is approval of the second GMP. So Messer received bids on April 7th and 14th. They had to do it twice because the first time they didn't get the minimum number of bids required by statute in order to open all the packages. Second time around, they didn't receive enough bids. So Messer is currently holding scope review meetings with the low bidders and finalizing the numbers for the GMP. At this point, the GMP package is incomplete. So again, my focus tonight is on kind of a summary of the scope of work for GMP number two. And then at your regular meeting, we'll present the final version of the GMP in hopes to get approval there until we can meet that June start date. So in general, the Consolidated Human Services Agency operations that are currently being administered at the Cannon Boulevard location will move to Progress Place. And from the time we started talking about this project, our direction was to use the building as is as much as possible. So much of the existing office space and furniture will be used just like it was when we took over the building. But there are need for some minor modifications in order for us to make the building fit our needs. Also, we're taking the opportunity before the building is occupied to address some needed improvements in the plumbing, mechanical, and electrical systems and finishes to the building. So there's two buildings on site. Building 1,000 is the big building. It's about 109,000 square feet, four stories above grade and one story below grade. It was built in 2001. And after renovation, it will house customer service, administration, Medicaid, food and nutrition services, family support services, those departments for the agency, as well as Cabarrus County Communications and the Partnership for Children. There will also be a fitness room in the basement for staff. OK. The first floor renovation to create the customer service counter and the interview rooms will be the majority of the construction work in the building. On the fourth floor, there's some larger executive size offices that are going to be split into smaller offices. We'll be removing and replacing the entire HVAC system in the building. We're going to do a lighting upgrade for the entire building. We're going to replace the roof, which is original to the building. We're going to upfit a portion of the basement for the communications department. We're going to upfit another portion of the basement for staff fitness room. And we're going to install security cameras and access control throughout the building. That work is actually not included in the GMP, but our IT department will take care of that. And we're going to update a portion of the first floor for the partnership for children. And we're going to convert the existing kitchen space into a mail room and a file retention space. That's the 1,000 building. Any questions on that before I go to the other building?

Question?

OK. So we call it the 900 building because 900 is the address. It's the single story building out front. It's about 24,000 square feet. And it was built in 1998. So it's the older of the two. The interior was renovated by the former owner in 2008. And after we renovate it, it will house child welfare, that department for the agency. In terms of HVAC there, we're going to replace the primary components entirely. But there's some existing ductwork and fan boxes in there that the previous owner has already replaced recently enough that it doesn't make sense for us to do it. not do that work again. We're going to replace the ceiling and the lighting throughout the building. There will be construction of 17 hardwalled offices along the backside of the building, two new break rooms, two conference rooms, four visitation rooms, and an office for the sheriff's deputy. We're going to purchase and install new cubicles in the open area. That work is also not part of the GMP. We're going to buy those directly. and we're going to construct a new secure parking area for county vehicles it'll also attach to the building so staff's got a secure pathway into the building if they're there working after hours and we're going to replace the roof on that building as well so just kind of wrapping up um Messer is committed to providing a GMP by the end of this week. So when I get that, I'll pass it to you ahead of the regular meeting. This will be the final GMP on the project. And to end on a positive note, Jason told me today that they're trending under budget based on the original estimates.

And again, the reason that we're asking to keep this moving is to keep things on schedule. And so we will provide that as soon as they get it to us and keep it on what you can put it on new business so that we can review it at the meeting.

New business. Any other comments on that? Thanks, sir. Thank you. All right. Finance general obligation bond resolution. I believe Jim is going to do that one.

Good evening, commissioners. What you have in front of you is the initial general obligation referendum resolution authorizing the filing of an application to the LGC for our general obligation referendum debt in November that we're going out for. Now, right now, we are scheduled to do two referendums, one for the public schools and one for the community college. And so this resolution just allows us to, we will file something in the newspaper once it's approved, hopefully approved on the 18th, that allows notice to all the citizens of Cabarrus County. There is not a public hearing with this one. That will be in July. This, again, just allows us to file that application of intent to have a referendum. Now, by the 18th, we do have to have our maximum amounts for both referendums, so we still have time to get those put into this document.

questions and so you'll have to fill in the dollar amounts and the language correct what we would suggest is putting the max amount that you think for each of those categories and then we can go down from there, but we can't go up. So you want to advertise at the very highest level that you would go and then we'll back it down as we refine that based on the public comment that we get.

Okay. And I know we've talked about trying to get some information about if we think we'll have that reasonably by the next meeting. I hate to mix the two together, but how does our meeting at the LGC this week affect this decision?

um hard to say i think um i we're getting some preliminary conversation but this conversation really should be about the lobs but i think it's probably a good for us to kind of go ahead and go down this path so we understand all the details that they're looking for from us

so this will end up on new business as well correct okay commissioners if you're gonna put on the thing the maximum you think it's going to be when you might come below that should we put the words up to that amount in it we can

It says not to exceed already. Not to exceed. Not to exceed.

Well, OK. That's all right. Never mind. I forgot that part.

We'll continue working with you all on refining what that max number would be.

know we've had some general conversation around the fact that if we go beyond a certain amount we could start impacting our triple-a ratings and i don't think anybody wants to do that so i think probably start from that area there to have that conversation and and the community college number is a pretty fairly known entity or no no it would be correct the question is what is the what is the what are the school's numbers we just

we're not quite sure well they pop they passed a resolution 300 Cabarrus did 300 and Kannapolis did 200 so they're probably asking for more money than we would certainly want to bite off in one I think based on our debt projections

Brian, you're going to look at what we can actually service.

We'll probably put worst case scenario on here and start working backwards from there. Correct. I don't anticipate that what goes on to this document will be what you actually put on the ballot. I expect it will be less.

How much does it cost us every time we turn in these applications?

To turn in this resolution won't cost us anything. The final application will happen after the vote. So if it's not passed, we don't have to turn in that final application. If it is passed, how much do those applications cost? They're usually $12,500. So the one we did for the lob, that was $12,500? Yes, that is correct.

By the way, on that note, from a conversation I had today, and I'm not sure I'm at liberty to divulge with whom it was, you ain't getting a lob. I mean, I'll be very surprised if you do, so you need to go for the geo. Well, I guess we'll see how that affects.

We'll find out Thursday. We'll find out Thursday. And so I guess this needs to go on new business. Yeah.

I mean, ultimately what would happen is the projects that we're proposing doing a lob zone would have to go on to the geo bond, which would push other projects all further out into the future.

um the other thing is you know we would be into the school cap this year um with northwest so um that's kind of the layout so we'll be having those conversations i think we all agreed we wish those two could have been on a go but the timing is what pushed those as a lob because the schools are already capped and that's going to make it exponentially worse if the lgc turns us down for that So, I mean, we all agree it should be on a GO bond, but timing-wise, they have to have it. So that's why we went that route. Correct. I guess we'll find out Thursday.

And remind me, did the school board list the projects in their resolution? Would they have to go back, depending on what happens?

I don't think they should not. They were supposed to be pretty generic, but might check that. We need to go back and check. Yeah.

I didn't think we could tie it to a specific project.

You can. Once you do that, though, that's the only project you can do. So, for example, if this LOBS went sideways too close and the ballot was already out there, you know, we might have. and that was kind of why i was talking about it's better off to be general about the projects in case something changes in case you have a weird experience of some sort you know and this is probably not realistic but you know if a tornado came through and insurance is not covering rebuilding that building completely you know would we want to use some mobs or geo money to do that and you didn't spell out something broad enough to cover that emergency so that was the reason i was saying it would be better to be a little more broad in the descriptions although i know people want to know exactly what projects but it does give flexibility in the event of emergencies perfect

And can we take this, I know we no longer do band programs, but can we take this opportunity once again to say the benefit of the band program versus the logs? Yes. Can you please explain why that was so much more beneficial to us?

There's a number of reasons. The first one is, especially if you're doing, you know, five HVAC systems, a new construction and all that, most bids are only good for about 90 days, which I'm sure you're aware of, even in the field you're in. And so getting up all those projects linked up and synced up in time to go and put 10 projects out there, the band allows you a more generalized budget of we're going to do X, Y and Z. And then you finalize that at the end. The other benefits of that is you're only drawing down on the interest, you're only paying interest on what you've drawn down. And so This was kind of one of the misconceptions that we discovered last year was that if your project's $100 million, with the ban, you don't actually put $100 million. You're only taking about $75 million because you're not going to expend that full amount during that period. So there's no point in asking the bank to hold that money for you. So what you're doing is true enough at the end. So the other nice benefit of it is if you don't spend your contingency, you haven't brought it down and you aren't paying interest on it. Um, you only, when you get to the end of that, you can finalize pretty solidly where you're at. Um, and at any point, if the interest rate starts going the wrong direction during that process, you can go ahead and close up that band and finalize everything. Did I get everything right?

You did. So if we were to take a loan out under a band program, we pay just the interest until that building is actually constructed and open. Whereas now with this method, with GEO or LOBS, we're paying interest and principal on a building that's not even going to be built for three years. So we're instantly paying more money this way.

You're paying the full amount out of the gate.

Right. I guess the positives about geo bonds are just that you put it to the voters. You put it to the voters and it's up to them. And I'd much prefer that. It just it seems to me that we're just kind of in a transition period between how we've been financing projects and how it's going to have to happen in the future.

And we believe that you can use bands with geos too. So it allows you a little more flexibility. Again, you know, it's very difficult to, you know, line up all of those projects you can imagine having to get especially with the deferred maintenance if you're spelling out all those details bands give us a little more time to cleanly do those projects and you can still do it you're still getting all the benefits of it we believe if anybody would like to contact the lgc before our meeting on thursday at two to tell them the importance of northwest cabarrus high school and elementary school what would be a good way for them to get in contact with the lgc

As our email I believe they have a they do have a Comments like yeah, we could we could get that and post it.

Yeah, thank you State Treasurer is chairman Yeah, I believe there's a place where people can enter comments correct I

Okay, this will have to go on new business. Everybody okay? All righty. Sheriff's Office will welcome Chief Burchette for approval of Axon Skydio, I think I pronounced that correctly, drone contract.

Good evening, Commissioners. Come tonight asking or requesting for approval the attached axon contract this is for the replacement of our existing drone fleet number of factors why the fleet has to be replaced one is the federal government's direction which we have to stay in compliance with in order to operate a drone program is banned any drone that was manufactured in China So we cannot purchase – we currently have DJI, which is a Chinese company, which was at the forefront of drone manufacturing a number – six, seven years ago. That has – that edict has come down, which bans the use of federal funds to purchase drones unless you're purchasing a United States-made, which Scotty O. through Axon – is the other issue is the age of the fleet that we've had and had in use now for approximately seven years so this allows us to number one use as a federal asset forfeiture funds that we have on hand to pay for part of this as well as radio tower lease funds that we receive revenues that we receive so we're not asking for any any additional funding we're simply asking for approval to enter into this contract it is a five year contract which is it is a purchase it is not a lease but it includes all the maintenance software upgrades that may occur during that five year period any replacement of any damaged or malfunctioned drone during that period with a guaranteed replacement of all drones at the two and a half year mark So we will be getting brand new replacements. So we've tried to build in a robust contract with Axon, which is an industry leader, as well as Skydio. also integrates with all of our current software related to video that's captured that has an evidentiary value and has to have an audit trail, those types of things. This contract addresses all those critical components that we have to make sure that we maintain for transmitting evidence to the district attorney's office, those types of things.

Questions? consent um could you guys just send me the uh i assume you have a drone policy on yes sure that we're protecting people's privacy rights and all that absolutely with you know things flying around the air could i get a copy of that just for review yeah absolutely that's of utmost concern we utilize these in emergency operations we utilize them for example i'll give you an uh if we have a

fatality in Midland an automobile fatality we're going to utilize the drones and software to map that as well as mapping other other crime scenes these drones have been instrumental in the recovery of several autistic children that have run away from locations elderly dementia individuals to do that but there is strict Fourth Amendment requirements when utilizing a drone, and we have to follow those, as well as all of our drone pilots are truly licensed pilots through the Federal Aviation Association. So we have to make sure we're in compliance with every bit of it and make sure that we have those documents available. It was part of our North Carolina LEA, law enforcement's accreditation certification that we received recently, and I came before you. as part of that is making sure we have policies that dictate the utilization of that, especially something that can be intrusive.

You've got to be careful.

So I thank you.

And every flight has to be logged through the FAA as well.

Yes, logged and audited. Thank you, Ben, for what you do. Thank you. Appreciate it. Alright, I need a motion in a second to approve the regular meeting agenda, which will be quite lengthy with a lot of new business items. All in favor I any opposed motion carries. Alright, we do have a need for a closed session today to consult with the attorney. Can I have a motion a second ago in a closed session? All in favor. Any opposed? Motion carries. Do I need to say now?