City Council - Regular Meeting

[music] All right, we'll call this meeting to order. If you please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Remain standing. We have the invocation, Mr. Marshall. Okay. Would you bow with me in prayer? Our gracious and loving heavenly father, we come before you in the name of your son and through his finished work on our behalf. We come to ask your hand of direction to be upon these commissioners and their staff whom you have called to serve you and this community as they conduct the people's business and install a new commissioner. We ask that you grant them wisdom to work together as you have revealed to us in Amos 3:3. Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? May you guard their hearts from any motivations and priorities that would be self-s serving or contrary to your holy character. May you grant them the unity to serve together to further the welfare of this county and its residents. Lord, we also ask that at this special time of year that we remember the true reason for this season. As we wish others a merry Christmas, may we understand that the word Christmas derives from a gathering of people meeting to worship Christ, Christ Mas. We thank you, Lord, that you sent us a special message through your son. As we read in Hebrews 1:es 1 and 2, long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son. On the night of Christ's birth, the angels gave us a message of hope that is recorded in Luke 2:14. Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased. Lord, we pray for this peace to abide in our hearts. This is not a peace that results from an absence of war, but the personal inner peace that comes from being in a right relationship with the God who created us, loves us, and sent

his son to reconcile us to himself. He is your message to us and the one who has revealed you to us as we read in John 1:18. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is truly God and is closest to the Father has shown us what God is like. Heavenly Father, may each one of us be one of those with whom God is pleased by responding to your message with a humble heart and an obedient spirit. In Christ's name, amen. Amen. All right. I'd like to take this moment to recognize our youth commission, Baja Witset Bates. If you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you.

Um, hi. Hi. My name is Ba Witzip Bates. I am a sophomore at West Cabaris High and I am with the youth commission for this semester. Thank you. All right. Next, we have the appointment of our new commissioner. Uh, I need a motion for Mr. Ian Patrick. You want to come on up? I need a motion from the board to nominate him as to replace and fill the vacancy we have. So move. Second. All in favor say I. I.

All oppose. Passes for zero. [snorts] Will you raise your right hand and place your left hand on the Bible, please? I, Ian Patrick, do solemnly swear I, Ian Patrick, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

that I will support the Constitution of the United States. So help me God. I, Ian Patrick, do solemnly and sincerely swear I, Ian Patrick, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof or may be established for the government thereof. And I will be, excuse me, and that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend And that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution of said state

the Constitution of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability, so help me God. to the best of my knowledge and ability, so help me God. I, Ian Patrick, do solemnly swear I, Ian Patrick, do solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as Cabaris County Commissioner. So help me God

as Cabaris County Commissioner. So help me God. [applause] [applause] Thank you.

Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

Smile. Let me get one more just

so much quick. Okay. Do you have Huh?

Yeah.

Thank you. Okay, we're back. We're back in session. All right. Next, we have our board organization meeting. At this time, we will be taking nominations for chairman and vice chairman. First, we'll take uh nominations for chairman.

Mr. chair. Yes. I nominate Laura Lindsay to be our chair. Okay. All right. Any other nominations? If there's no more nominations, we will close the nomination for chairs. Have a motion to approve Laura Lindsay as chairman. So move. Got a second. Second. All in favor say I. I I oppose. All right. Passes four to one.

Next, we have um any nominations for vice chair. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to nominate Ian Patrick to be vice chair. Any other nominations? All right, we close nominations. Have a motion. So move. Second. All right. All in favor of Ian Patrick as vice chair say I. I oppose.

Passes 5. We will take a quick little recess to rearrange ourselves up here and then we'll be back with the new chairman and vice chairman. Thank you all for your patience. Oh, in the bathroom.

Larry. [cough and clears throat] Let's switch. much here. This is for your patience. Um, I do want to take a moment, uh, if you will indulge me. Um, I am incredibly honored and humbled to be appointed to serve as your chairman by my fellow commissioners. I appreciate you all for having faith in me to serve in this leadership position. As much of an honor as this role is, it doesn't even compare to the honor I had

yesterday of being able to baptize my son into the kingdom of Jesus. This is a season for celebrating the birth of Jesus and becoming new. This board is becoming a new body tonight. I look forward to 2026 and I'm very hopeful as we move into this next year that we can work together for the good of the Cabaris County citizens. And I will now call on Ian Patrick if you'd like to make a few comments, sir.

Yeah. Wow. I'm blown away. Um didn't expect that. Um, I'm really humbled to been been chosen by the Cabaris County Republican Party in the Commissioner's Vote to fill Mr. Shu's seat. Um, I'm also really surprised and honored about the vice chair position. Um, I'll keep this quick because I'm here to listen to begin with. Um, so I only offer the following. I'm I understand I have to fill the shoes of a a serious and impressive public servant, Mr. Lynn Shu, who served this county and her people for decades, and I'm honored for that. Um, so only say I'm not sure what projects we have on the books um or coming up for [snorts] naming opportunities for Mr. Shu. Um, building, bridge, um, you have it. But I hope when we get to there that the board would consider a naming opportunity to honor his legacy and his service to the county. Um I hope to see serve the people of Cabaris County with honor and integrity. God bless and I hope you all have a merry Christmas.

Thank you Ian. Okay. All right. I need to have an approval of the agenda. So I need a motion to approve the agenda with the ch.

Yeah, I'm going to Yeah. Yeah. I need a motion to approve the agenda um with the removal of item H1, budget FY27 and the changes on page four. So move second. All in favor please say I. I.

Any opposed? All right, that motion carries 5. We will move down to item D. First, we will have a proclamation for Reverend Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And I will read the proclamation. Whereas Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, and a devote and devoted his life to fighting poverty, injustice, and racism in America. And whereas Reverend Dr. King through his practice of nonviolent protest promoted the importance of love, peace, and freedom for humankind and challenged America to honor its promise of liberty and justice for all citizens. And whereas during his lifetime, Reverend Dr. King sought to forge the common ground on which individuals of all ages, races, and backgrounds could join together to address important community issues and provide service to their community. And whereas the third Monday in January has been established as national holiday to observe the anniversary of Reverend Dr. King's birthday and commemorated as a national day of service. And now therefore, the Cabaris County Board of Commissioners hereby proclaims Monday, January 19th, 2026, as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Cabaris County, and encourages all citizens to join in the special programs and ceremonies to be held throughout the county honoring the life and work of Reverend Dr. King in his legacy of peace and equality for all citizens. and it is adopted this day, this 15th day of December 2025. I need a motion to accept this proclamation. Please

move. Second. I'll do second. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed?

That motion carries. 5-0. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to uh recognition of budget item two, government finance officers association's distinguished budget presentation award. Jim Howden, welcome Jim. Good evening. Thank you. So Cabaris County and the Cabaris County budget team received the distinguished budget presentation award from governmental financial officer officers association. This award is one of the highest awards for a budget team that they can receive. This is the 27th year we have received that award. We just like to congratulate our budget team Raj Yinia and Sophia and the whole Cabaris County staff that helps with the budget each year for receiving this award. Thank you so much. [applause] Commissioners, did you have any questions? No. Okay. All right. So, now is the time to move to informal public comments. Um, I do want to make note that we do have the policy up on um the overhead. So, if you do have any uh issues, please note that the public participation policy is ahead uh above you. Um, I do need to read out a summary of the policy on public participation. Um, [clears throat] if someone is in violation of the policy, we will issue a a warning and then we will remind them of the policy and give an opportunity to step aside and review and finish thoughts at the end of public comment or continue without further violation. Um, if it continues, we will ask you to leave. So,

I do please ask for everybody to be respectful to each other as we go on with public comment. Ari, do you have the first one? Jerry Anderson.

Hey, I'm Jerry Anderson, uh, Canapapolis, North Carolina. I'm here to talk about changes we need to make with DSS. The first change we need to make in this community here is to take Jay White and get him away from the judge uh up here with DSS. They work together and it's I think it's they should never be up there taking children when they work together and doing the things they that they do. Second thing is when DSS comes to your house to take a child, they ought to give a reason. When they come to take my child, the reason was you didn't get a phone call. No, I didn't get a phone call. And I searched for that reason since 9 916. Well, 4916. I searched for that reason why they come to my house. There was no reason for them to come to in the first place. And a lot of these people have been dismissed. There's two two that hadn't been dismissed and that's Jay White and Christy Wilham the judge. And they need to be looked at. And these two two people that work for your agency come to my house and took a child and said, "You didn't get a phone call. Never told me." And this child went to school all that semester. It was April. Been going to school. no reason to be taken. And uh so how they got involved is when I went to ask after my child who was adult, a mother was a helpless federal child and I went to ask for help for her and they got involved 5 months and told me everything was all right.

They investigated more of the child and said gave me a temporary custody order which was illegal. And then when I went up there to check on the the custody order, these two women that came to my house to take the child lied on an intake order and said I reported a helpless child that she wasn't doing her job. Now, these two social workers, I got their names, but I let I won't I'll be nice in here, but uh come to my house. Who comes to your house and takes anything and don't give you a reason? Especially a child. Yeah, I'm mad. But who' I be mad? Somebody. Uh, what is it when you don't get an answer? Shouldn't, you know, evil runs around this town still right now undercover. The Lord sees it and I see it. And um I just want to tell you when they took my child, she was unaccountable for two days. Two days unaccountable for. They said they come on Saturday, which they did.

Jeter Anderson. Good evening, Jeter Anderson. I'd like to pick off where Mr. Anderson was leaving off on 4916. Our child was just removed cuz he didn't get the phone call. We never got an answer why that child was taken. I guess because we wasn't getting her back. We wasn't getting this child back. She was beautiful. They they wanted her. When they seen her, they was taking her. They had no reason cuz we wasn't even talking about the child. We was talking about a mentally ill adult that needed some assistance, that needed some care, that was vulnerable. She was vulnerable and she needed to be in a department in the social services that that helped those people. I think they call it the adult and aging department. There's plenty of departments, but it's the adult and aging department. Anyway, some lady Jessica Bridges walked out there said, "I can help you. I can help you." She left that girl neglected. She got further exploited. Further exploited. And she died really bad. It was nothing you ever want to see, especially your sister that you love very much. And I know this government doesn't like to owe people, but you owe us. You owe Mr. Anderson and you owe him big. You owe him an answer to why his child was taken, removed out his house. I have it on video. Cuz she didn't get the phone call. Well, no, he didn't get the phone call. What is it when you take a child and you don't get a reason why? What's that called? I know what it's called. A crazy government. We got a crazy government up here that won't get the answer. come in our house and took the child won't get an answer. Y'all can tell me the answer. I'm listening. I hope y'all are. This man loved his family. Seek help for his family. This his daughter was He didn't get to tell you about his daughter up here. She had

conditions that she needed help with. Nah, she was thrown to the side, treated like a by Jay White. That's what Jay White thought she was. Jay White thought she was a because she never was treated with any kind of care she needed. She was treated with disrespect. She wasn't treated like the helpless child she was. She was a helpless child by the federal government. I I got the plaque. I brought it in here many times and showed y'all showed it to your faces and y'all just continue to block. We our former chairman said, "I'm going to look into it. I'm going to look into it." I guess he blocked it a little bit longer so the child can get older so it can so they can keep her away because if we don't got a reason that child was taken, we can't even fight to get her back. Our child was taken judge's orders for what? No one went to jail for this child being adopted out. If you taking my child need to lock somebody up, somebody needs to go to jail. And I'm going to get my answer. I don't know if y'all thinking I'm going away. if y'all can arrest me and charge me to death. But I'm not going away. I want my answer. I'm owed that

Robert Mitten Mon Maton.

Hello, my name is Robert Matton and I am a citizen of Concord. Thank you all very much tonight for allowing me to speak. Um, I like to say that I am not a damn Democrat and I'm certainly not a fascist DQPer. I am a progressive and I am proudly Antifa. Antifa means that I am against fascism and fascism is raging on in this nation as well as the state of North Carolina. Antifa merely means that one is anti-fascist, anti-Trump, anti- MAGA, and certainly anti-Nazi and nothing more. Every good American is Antifa. I am speaking tonight to express how deeply offended and disgusted I am by what happened last month with the snap and food bank crisis that happened in Cabaris County and we're still going through. I want to remind everybody right now that America is not a Christian nation. It never has been nor will it ever be. And I want to remind everybody the founding fathers for the most part were deists. They were freethinkers and they strongly believed that their religious beliefs had no place in government. You will not find God written in the constitution. No god, no cult, no religion has any place in our government, including North Carolina. And I'll remind you too that God was never written into the pledge of allegiance until 1954 by the Knights of Columbus. I will remind everybody also that there's 18,000 gods and more than 1,000 religions and cults. None are any better than the rest. The citizens of Cabaris County should never expect that it should be just the churches and rich people's donations that help to feed and care for the citizens first and foremost. No. That is the duty of the government to care for the citizens, not a damn cult. in front of me. I only see rich white people in

front of me. I do not see any brown, black, Asians or poor people in front of me. How are they going to be represented? I don't think they are being represented. Everyone in this nation is paying a lot of attention to uh politics knows that the GOP is cheating in elections and North Carolina is the most notorious state in the union for political cheating. I think the citizens should need to find out exactly how much of that $150,000 has been replaced by the churches and by the rich people's donations. I think that's something that we should know since we were in limbo last month. And I'd like to say I would love to challenge the comm the cultist commissioner to a public debate one- on-one. Thank you. Tammy Pitman. I just came to remind everybody the reason that we celebrate Christmas. In those days, this is Luke 2 chapter 1. In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be reg registered. This was the first registration when Corinius was governor of Syria. And all went out to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was at the of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. and she gave

birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for him in the end down to verse 29 or 21 and at the end of 8 days when he was circumci circumcised. He was called Jesus the name given to the a uh by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Just thought we needed to be reminded of the reason that we celebrate Christmas. [applause]

Bob Kuth. Put my eyeballs on here. Uh, Madam Chairman, commissioners, thank you for letting me speak here tonight. And I'm here tonight for your monthly dose of encouragement. Uh, it was uh 25 years ago this very night that I was on my first meeting here on this board of commissioners. And for those that don't know, I served 12 years from 2001 to 2012 on this body uh during a time of great change in this community. And uh, Commissioner Patrick, that first night too, I was elected vice chair that very first meeting. So, but uh you never know where it's going to take you. Still 25 years later, I'm still working with county governments across this state. And it's a great pleasure to do that and to meet see many different things happening. But I wanted to uh express my gratitude to each one of you for being willing to serve. This is not an easy job. Uh it used to joke used to be that once you get sworn in, then you get sworn at. And so, you know, I think Commissioner Pitman would agree with that. But, uh, what I would like to do, though, is ask you tonight, okay, I'm going to pick this up this way. My glasses don't even work as I thought they would. So, uh, I wouldn't be remiss not not to mention my good friend Lyn Shu. Lynn and I never served on a board together, but he was elected to the school board the same year I was elected here to this board. And I've known Lyn Lynn for 25 years and can tell you big shoes to fill and I hope that uh that we can all live up to his legacy as a member of this board. Um the challenge has been rather chaotic and we all agree on that this last year on this board and into the county and uh so tonight I come to you asking challenging you take a

deep breath. It's a new year. Just like you said, Chairman Lindsay, it's a new year. time to start over, time to build new relationships, time to face the challenges together, and I challenge this board to do that and to work together strongly. I think that the community deserves it. Uh we'll tell you that back in the um several people have asked me across the state this last year, so what in the world is going on in Cabaris County? And so, uh but I think it's time for us to realize that we're people are watching us. We're one of the most we're one of the highly respected counties in the state. And I think that uh I challenge y'all to do and to work together this next year as a board. I also challenge the public sitting out here and I saw I think several commissioner candidates sitting out here in the audience tonight is to pray for this board. In Romans, we're told to pray for the governing authorities to honor the governing authorities. We may not agree with them and you may see me back up here one month, you know, ranting and raving about something I disagree with, but we still have to honor you and your service and I want to thank you for that and I'm looking forward to seeing uh great things in in the the uh months to come. God bless you. God bless Cabaris County and God bless United States of America.

That is all. Mr. Kuth, I just want to say thank you for your service, sir. We appreciate your comments.

Okay, commissioners. I need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Go ahead, Larry. I'll let you do this. So, move. Second. Okay. All those in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? All right. That carries 5-0 and we will move down to new business. Um, we did remove the budget FY27, so we will move on to the appropriation of funds and that would be Miss Kelly Sephford. Thank you. We have need to do a budget amendment to appropriate funds for the acquisition of the Northwest Elementary School site uh and the uh appropriate project ordinances. This has been an ongoing discussion as you are most of you are aware for quite a while probably over a year and so this is just to move funds around in order to purchase that we had most of the funds available but we were a few dollars short so we pulled it from another location

commissioners do you have any questions okay I'll take a motion to approve the budget amendment to appropriate funds for the acquisition of the Northwest Elementary School site move All those in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? All right, that motion carries. 5-0. Um, and then moving on. Uh, just want to make sure everybody is uh aware we still have some vacancies um in some of our uh uh liaison and boards that we uh have. So, please go online if you are interested um in looking at some of those. we we would love um to have some more people apply um and appoint you to those boards. So, we appreciate that. And um I commissioners, has everyone had an opportunity to look at all of the reports? Any questions on those? Okay. And I will move on to general comments by board members. Commissioner Pitman, did you have any uh reports for us today? You turned it off.

I didn't know I had it on. Okay. Uh I forgot to bring my notebook again, so I don't have much. I did go to Midland Town Council meeting the other night and uh everybody there I think had pretty good time. They swore in new members and uh honored those members who leaving and um I was going to make a report to them and they got smart and didn't let me do it. And uh then they had a dinner which I had already eaten supper so I excuse myself but u I'm sure we'll have more to go. I was going to tell them about what Kelly had informed me about the getting inspections at the solar farms and that sort of thing but I can do that next meeting.

I finished up the North Car Duke North Carolina leadership forum last week. Uh that's been four months. But uh for my comments, uh going back to the to the shooting we had um here at the Christmas tree lighting, uh for those of us that were there, I wanted to highlight um how great of a job the Cabaris County Sheriff's Office did um pulling people inside of their vegetable there. Um how quickly and and effectively the Cabaris County EMS uh were able to work and bring things under control. But I also wanted to um to show my appreciation for Concord Fire Department and Concord Police Department as well. Um they were all able to work in a very hectic situation to make sure that uh everybody was was safe. So I just wanted to say thank you for the outstanding work that those agencies did out there that night.

I think we can all agree with that. So thank you for those um comments. Uh Vice Chair Patrick, did you have any comments that you'd like to make, sir? Well, I don't have any committee assignments yet. Any general comments? I can tell you what happened in Harrisburg. Okay. I resigned from my town council seat in Harrisburg and they swore in the new folks and appointed my seat and um did what we always did and had the beautiful poinsettias up front and took some beautiful Christmas photos and it was a good time. So, no no real business to report. Okay. Well, we're happy to have you here. And Commissioner Jones, I have nothing to report.

Okay. All right. Well, I do have um so first I want to talk about Eve who is here tonight. She is up for adoption at the animal shelter. She is incredibly sweet. So if you are looking for a family member, I would highly recommend her. Um I did my video this month uh with Holly and Sleigh. Um, and I also before we press play on this, I want to remind everyone that it is freezing cold outside. I saw a horrible video today of a dog that is chained up outside in 15° weather. Please, please bring your dogs inside. They most of them can't handle this kind of weather. So, so please, please care about them if you're going to have them. and if not, send me a message and I'll find somebody who can take care of it for you. Um, so here is our animal shelter video uh for for tonight. [music] Hey y'all, Commissioner Laura Lindsay here at the Cabaris County Animal Shelter. Ready to get a good helping of some Christmas cheer? Let's go meet some new babies. [music] This is Holly. She's a 35year-old mast. [music] [music] [music] This is a one-year-old female looking for her forever home.

[music] Don't forget, there's still a little bit more time left for the Home for the Holidays promotion here at the Animal Shelter. The event is running through Christmas and you get half off of all of the adoption fees. And even more importantly, you get a new best friend. Learn more at the Animal Shelter Facebook page. [music] And everyone, have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. [music]

I ALSO WANT to take um thank Julie who is the animal shelter director for a teaching me a new word mastiffish. I didn't even know that was a word but that's how they describe Holly. So um anyway just very thankful to be able to work with them this year. Um we've had a 100% adoption rate uh at the animal shelter this year with the animals that we have uh put on video. So I'm very grateful to have had that opportunity and we'll continue that into 2026 as well. And we do have a need for close session uh to consult with an attorney and acquisition of real property. Um and so we need to go go into close session per NCGS143-318- uh.11A3 and5. Can I have a motion to go into close session?

So move. Second. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? All right. I just want to say merry Christmas and happy new year to everybody. And we are in close session.