City Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to call to order the Thursday, January 8th meeting of work session for Congress. Court City Council. Welcome everyone. If you would please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silent prayer.

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. Thank you. Okay, council members, you have copies of minutes from November 25th, December 9th, December 11th, and December 16th. Do we typically approve those at the regular meeting on Thursday or now? Great. Okay. So, that will be an item we will um take care of on Thursday. Uh in presentations, uh it is our pleasure to make a presentation of a retirement plaque recognizing Mark Rosie Kaine for over 30 years of service with the city of Concord. And if I could ask him to come forward at this time. Okay. How are you sir? Good. Good. [laughter]

Very good. Yeah. We're We're looking for some profound words from you. You don't want to know what I got. [laughter] Oh, but I I think we really do. You want me to go ahead and start? No.

Um, no. I'll talk a little bit about you about you first because I'll say all good things and hopefully that will temper your comments a a little bit later on. But, um, the Mark began his career with the city over 30 years ago as a member of the sewer department. Mark then transferred to water resources where he worked on both construction and meter lab crews. He later transitioned to the electric utility underground division before he continued to expand his tech technical expertise with the city. He ultimately found his long-term home as a meter technician where he dedicated approximately 23 years of service. Throughout his career, Mark was known for his strong work ethic and reliability. His contributions will have a lasting impact on the city and his service is deeply appreciated and those are very sincere and it is certainly a pleasure to present you this plaque in recognition of 30 years of faithful, loyal, and dedicated service to the city of Concord billing department uh dated January 1st, 2026. six. And so now you can say anything you want.

No. No. [laughter] Cuz I'm gone now. Yeah.

No, I just appreciate. [applause] [applause] I just appreciate the city of Concord for the last 30 years. And I I get emotional. Certainly understandable. [snorts] I'm not a good speaker, but I just appreciate the city of Concord and that guy back there, Keith Cter. You just don't know how much y'all mean to me and I just appreciate it.

Thank you. Great. Thank you so much. [applause]

AND AND AFTER WE MAKE our picture, then then I'm going to ask you to recognize your folks that that are here with you tonight. If I can keep this microphone from rolling away. here in the back. If you would please stand.

Great. [applause] And then I got my coworker Cter and Brad Ple back there. Been we worked about the same all together to I think about 23 years. And then the maker reed uh boss lady. Okay. She says she ain't but she is great.

Well, as much as we congratulate you on your retirement, uh certainly your years of experience and everything you've been you have contributed to this to the city will will be felt as a loss. But we wish you the very best in your retirement. Yes, sir. Thank you. [applause] Yes. And before be before you sit down, if you would give an opportunity for council members to shake your hand and congratulate you as well.

[laughter] By the way, Kane's [laughter]

great. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Okay. Next, I would ask if Keith Cter Carricker uh would come forward uh to for his recognition. Thank you. How are you, sir? Good. Good. I'll let you you hold that so you can begin preparing your speech. All right. As as well,

uh Keith began his career with the city over 31 years ago as part of the tree trimming crew. He later transitioned to the electric overhead and finally meter technician, a position he held for an estimated 25 years. Over the course of his career, Keith became a trusted and familiar presence, delivering outstanding service to our community. His long tenure reflects a sustained commitment to his work and his contribution over the years have been a meaningful part of the city's service to the community. His contributions will have lasting impact on the city and his service is deeply appreciated. And we have this retirement plaque presented to Keith Cter Carricker in recognition of 31 years of faithful, loyal, and dedicated service to the city of Concord. Uh certainly congratulations. want to give you an opportunity to introduce your family and friends that might be here with you as as well as make any other comments you feel moved to make.

All right. I want to thank the city and I appreciate everything y'all done for me and my family. Um you give me everything I got in my life right now. I want to thank my wife back there, Miss Jennifer. Um not only do we work together every day, we're married. Okay. Double trouble. Is that the one that the earlier was referred to as the boss man? No. The boss woman. No, that's Mr. Mika right there. Okay. That's the boss. Yes. Oh, you got two. Yes. And then Brad is my direct supervisor and I appreciate him. We've been together about 25 years. But I appreciate everything the city's done for me and uh I appreciate all my co-workers and everything they did and all the relationships and everything means a lot. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. [applause]

Great. [applause] Thank you again. If you would take the opportunity to allow council to to shake your hand as well. a lot of years of service leaving all at one time. So, we certainly appreciate that. So, we move now to um new business. I don't think we have anything under unfinished business. Uh first up under ourformational items is presentation of the independent auditors report on the annual comprehensive financial report for a fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. And so I think we have a representative.

We do. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'm going to call on Kristen, our deputy finance director, to come up and introduce our auditor who's going to do the presentation to council this evening. [clears throat] Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kchinsky, Miss Jenkins. Um, this afternoon I have the pleasure of introducing Bao Tao. She's here from Martin Starns and Associates. They conducted our fiscal year 25 audit. Um, and she is here to share the results of that audit with you. Thank you. Great. Okay.

Hey, good afternoon. My name is Bal Tao and I'm from Martin Sarns and Associate. I'll be presenting the fiscal year 2025 audit financial statements. The audit has been submitted to the local government commission, but we are awaiting approval. I will begin by going over some audit highlights. We issue an unmodified opinion on the financial statements in all federal and state programs except for housing choice voucher which is qualified. An unmodified or clean opinion is issued when an auditor can state without reservation that the financial statements are fairly presented in all material respect in conformity with GAP. The qualified opinion is when the auditor is identified has identified misstatements or issues but the misstatements or issues are not pervasive. The financial statements are still largely reliable despite the identified issues. We will dis we will discuss this in more detail later in the presentation. There was a new implementation in fiscal 25 called Gatsby 101 compensated absences. Gatsby 101 is to record sick leave as a liability. This slide shows the available fund balance in the general fund in 2025. The available fund balance for the city was 50.8%. The LGC minimum fund balance available percentage is 25% for units with general fund expenditures above 10 million. This slide shows the general funds summary. The revenue increase by 29 million or 21.9%

mainly due to an increase in added value in taxes. The expenditure increased by 8 million or 6.1% mainly due to increase in public safety. This slide shows the top three revenues in the general fund. Total revenue is 164.8 million. The top three comprised of 140.3 million or 85% of the total revenue. Other revenues included unrestricted intergovernmental license and permits and investments. This slide shows the added balance taxes revenue. It increased by 22.4 million or 29%. In the current year, increases due to increase in property values. In fiscal 25, property values are 23 million which is an increase of 46 uh 28% from prior year. This slide shows the other tax revenue. It increased by 2.1 million or 7% in the current year mainly due to increase in local option sales tax. This slide shows the restricted intergovernmental revenues. It increased by 2 million or 34% in the current year due to increase in grant proceeds and police grants. This slide shows the top three expenditures in the general fund. Total expenditure is 127.7 million. The top three comprise of 103 million or 81%. Other expenses include cultural recreation, planning and community

development, capital outlay and depth services. This slide shows the public safety expenditures. It increased by 10.3 million in the current year or 16.7%. And mainly due to an increase in salary and capital expenditures in the police and fire department. This slide shows the public works expenditures. It increased by 1.5 million in the current year or 7.5% and mainly due to increase in salaries and capital expenditures in the solid waste uh department. This slide shows the general um government expenditures. It decreased by 8.1 million in the current year or 42.2% 2% decreases due to a large decrease in the nondep departmental. This slide shows the quick ratio for the electric fund quick um quick ratio over the past three years were 14.94 in 2023, 12.81 in 2024 and 17.47 in 2025. The LGC is typically typically concerned with units that have a quick ratio below one. No concerns with electric fund. This slide shows the quick ratio for water and sewer. This includes the water fund and the wastewater fund combined and reported on the LGC data input sheet. The quick ratio over the past three years were 28.73 in 2023,

25.6 6 in 2024, 17.44 in 2025. The LGC is typically concerned with units that have a quick ratio below one. No concerns with water and sewer. We tested the following seven major programs that are shown above. for the comp um for the compliance findings 20 25-001 there was a material weakness in housing choice voucher the city did not follow procedures to ensure the proper elleibility determination were made and documented 2025-002 there was a material weakness and a material non-compliance for housing choice voucher the city did not follow procedures to ensure that the housing Housing quality standards were corrected or subsequent procedures to stop housing assistance payments were not enforced. 2020 2025-00003 there was material weakness in a material non-compliance for public housing operating fund. The city did not follow procedures to ensure the proper eligibility determination were made and documented. The details the details details of the findings can be found at the end of the audit report. Along with the submission of the audit to the LGC, we are required to complete a data input sheet with various financial information. Kristen reviews and certifies this template to be submitted. This template analyze the data and provides results as performance indicators. As performance indicators range from deficient fund balance, statutory violations and significant findings. Water and sewer operating net income excluding depreciation including debt

service principle and interest is negative 1.1 million. The LGC is concerned with negative income. This performance indicator that will this is a performance indicator that will require for the city to respond to the LGC within 60 days of the auditor's board presentation. The city has a stable property tax evaluation and collection percentage. The city met the general fund balance available as of percentage of expenditures which is 50.8% in the fiscal 25 minimum is 25%. The water and sewer unrestricted cash Nevada total expense excluding depreciation including debt service principal interest is 201.16%. The LGC is concerned with less than 60%. Therefore, no concerns. Water and sewer capital assets condition ratio is 53.06%. LGC is concerned with less than or equal to 50%, therefore no concerns. Electric operating net income excluding depreciation including debt, service, principal and interest is 23 million. LGC is concerned with a negative net income. Therefore, no concerns. This conclude my audit presentation. Thank you for allowing us to continue as your auditors. We look forward to working with you years to come. Are there any questions?

Can you go back to the compliance? Compliance. Yes. So beside federal transit cluster, there's two numbers. Am I reading that? Why is that? I'm sorry. On the third one, the federal transit cluster, there's two different numbers. Yes, that has two different assisted listing numbers.

Okay. So, if I may ask, in a nutshell, is what you're telling us that we're in really good shape, we're in s so shape, or we're in bad shape? It sounds like we're in really good shape, but I want to make sure that I'm hearing what you're saying. So, if you had to analyze the city in one sentence, what would that what would you say? I would say in a good shape, but Kristen, do you want to come explain other than the compliance, I guess?

Yeah. So, excuse [clears throat] me. As B was explaining with the LGC form um that we complete um all of those performance indicators were positive except for that one with water which generally relates to their new debt that came on board. Um so they had new debt service. Um so those performance indicators are positive. Yes. So we're meeting all the rest of those and so we'll get that response into the LGC um within 60 days. Uh Betty, just to um elaborate on your question about transit is there's two separate funding sources for transit. One is for more of the operations where the where another of the grants is more of um vehicles or capital purchases and that's the reason there's two numbers. Does that answer both your questions? Okay.

Okay. Any additional questions from council? Just can you please go back to the the second point the section 8 housing vouchers. You said there was a a finding based on um quality standards and documentation. Can you please go back to that?

It's this one here. So those are those are program programming um findings related to the eligibility of tenants and then the housing um quality standards is related to inspections and I think reinspections more specifically if you remember correctly. Um, and if you would like, so the the audit report that Bao is referring to, the annual comprehensive financial report is available on our website and at the back of that report list these findings in detail. And if you have any further questions on those, feel free to reach out to me if you have other questions once you read those. I just want to say these audits can be painful and sometimes they reveal to us things we don't want to hear, but I just want to give thanks to our staff for making this a smooth process and for getting us to the place we are right now. So, thank you all very much.

Great. Thank you, Andy. Yeah, the only thing I would disagree with is you say they're quite frequently painful. I'd say they are always painful, but uh Jennifer um isn't there a summary at the back of the audit if I remember correctly? Am I dreaming that or is that what you're talking about? That there's the response or there's any sort of feedback and then there's the response piece of that. Yes. So at the back of the audit is related to the grants and the compliance that are listed programs. Okay. So the findings will be related there uh will be listed there as well as an action plan that Mary and her team have listed as a response on how are they're planning to address these findings and to to get the city within compliance.

That's what I was think that's what I was looking for is I knew there was like question and answer. I know that wasn't the proper term for it. So So that's on the website too to scroll all the way to the bottom all the way all the way back to like some pages at the back. Perfect. Thank you Christopher. You're welcome. Okay. Any additional questions or comments? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, moving on. [clears throat] We have a number of items that will be for our Thursday meeting in close including a public hearing on uh matter of closing a rideway as well as another annexation request. Uh so now we will move to discussion. Yes sir.

Uh we certainly can. Yeah, absolutely. So we'll go ahead and have staff reports on the two items I just mentioned. The first one being uh public hearing that's scheduled for Thursday on the matter of closing the rightway of two unopened areas of the intersection of Hermitage Drive and Winfield Boulevard. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I'll call on Fred now to come up, the senior planner uh in the planning department. He's going to cover the first two uh public hearings tonight. He'll provide the staff report to council and answer any questions you may have.

Good afternoon, Mayor. Happy New Year, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kinsky, and Miss Jenkins. Once again, the item before you is a right-of-way closure petition. Um, and council will remember um that this item was brought to you last month as you made a resolution of intent um to consider this matter further at a public hearing which is scheduled for Thursday of this week. The uh as a reminder, the rideway in question is an unopened and unimproved 3,400 ft area located on the southwest quadrant of the Hermitage Road and Winfield Boulevard intersection. Carolyn Tucker is the applicant for this petition. Um, and then is also the owner of the adjacent properties immediately surrounding the area of closure. Um, as a as a sole adjoining property owner, Miss Tucker has been uh notified and briefed on the ownership requirements um of the general statutes uh and the impact of the closure. On this next slide is an aerial shot that shows the approximate area of the proposed closure as indicated by the red crosshatch area. Um and once more in brief, the applicant is the owner of the three parcels immediately adjacent to the area of closure. Um there are no utilities present in the closure area. Um and planning staff did not receive any objections uh from any other departments who reviewed this request. In terms of council's next steps, council should conduct a public hearing um and either adopt or deny a resolution for closure of right of way um in question. and I'll gladly field any questions that the council may have at this time.

Great. Any questions from council? All right, I think you can proceed to the next one.

Let me grab it. Right. Good afternoon again, Mayor Morris, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kinsky, Miss Jenkins. Um the item before you um is a voluntary annexation petition for three parcels uh totaling approximately 13.4 acres located at 7201 and 7205 Trail Road I'm in a portion of 508 Cessna Road. Um these properties are owned uh by Cowat Company, Vulcan Lands Incorporated and Gerald and Kimberly Henson. Uh this application is submitted uh on behalf of these owners by Suzanne Todd and the proposed annexation would be for the extension of Vulcan's um existing overburden storage area. The zoning map uh here shows the three properties uh located there in the red cross-hatched area and they are all currently zoned Cabaris County Countryside Residential. Um if the annexation is approved, uh the request for zoning would be to City of Concord I2 general industrial with an additional land use plan amendment um to industrial employment. The land use plan amendment is necessary because the proposed I2 zoning um isn't consistent with the current uh suburban neighborhood land use category. Um and toward that end, um council should be aware that this case would be coming back to you at a point in the uh in a later date for consideration for the formal land use plan amendment request. If the council approves the annexation petition, the properties will become a part of district 5. [clears throat] And as with all annexations, both internal and external entities were notified and given the opportunity uh to provide comments and feedback on the

proposal, and no comments were returned. Um, additionally, adjacent property owners um recognized neighborhoods and HOAs were all notified via mail um of the proposed annexation by the planning department staff um letters dated December 22nd of last year, as well as with an advertisement run in the Independent Tribune dated uh December 27th of last year. In regards to council's next steps, uh, consider the annexation request to adopt or deny the annexation and if adopted, consideration before the planning and zoning commission for the recommended or the recommendation of resoning to I2 general industrial. I'll gladly take any questions that the council may have at this time.

Great. Thank you. Any questions? for the sake of the council. The mayor and I had an opportunity to visit this spot for two hours yesterday. It's an impressive, phenomenal place of putting together taking these rocks and churning them up and using them. Um, this this simply makes sense. And for them to want to voluntarily annex that makes sense also. So, I saw no problem yesterday driving through looking at all this property. Right, Steve? Do you you have an opinion about

Absolutely. I think I think our time there yesterday was well spent. Uh it was extremely educational. Uh it was kind of ironic that at the beginning of the conversation, I think uh Andy and I both said simultaneously, why do you want to be annexed? you know, why do you want to voluntarily pay city taxes? Uh, and of course there there was a good explanation, you know, as to uh both their responsibility to the community as well as some of the technicalities uh regarding their permit process. Uh we had extensive [clears throat] conversations. Uh I think uh we learned a great deal about the definition of overburden and what this property would be used for. Uh what the long-term implications would be uh which we we both had quite a few questions about that. I think from an environmental standpoint, uh there are quite a few people that would appreciate the conservation piece that will occur uh on this property as well as the potential uh future uses which which are pretty pretty amazing. when we talked about potential for a future water source reservoir, uh we didn't get into as much detail on that because I think we quickly determined that all of that would uh happen long after we have departed this earth.

Yeah. Yeah. But but it was uh you know I was very very impressed with their um corporate responsibility to the community and to the decisions. Um, you know, and I think we've I can't think of a question we left unanswered uh regarding any blasting that they do uh how they monitor it u what the implications are to adjacent property owners and you know uh the folks involved in this this process are all adjacent property owners. So, you know, they did a pretty thorough job of answering all their questions and I think they plan to be present to answer any additional questions at the public hearing on Thursday. So, was it was a very good experience, I thought. Any other questions or comments from council?

Yep. All right. Thank you. Did you receive any feedback from the adjacent property owner? No, ma'am. Uh, planning staff received no comments, no calls, no emails regarding this proposed annexation. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Hey, Fred, I have one more. So, I'm looking at the map. Um, this would there's no like ingress egress on this except through the Vulcan property. Correct. It's just an extension of where they're already coming in off of Popular Tent Road. That is correct. Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Yeah. some ve very extensive BMS and other regulations that they comply with. Uh I think a 50 foot undisturbed buffer all the way around the property even before they construct any BMS. So it is pretty pretty regulated. and Jennifer. Essentially what they said is by doing this they will have direct access to their other property and so there'll be many fewer trucks on our streets on our road. They will keep all of the transportation on their property and we'll have no impact on on our streets and everything.

Yeah. And I think the alternative is on this overburden which is the [clears throat] land that's removed top soil uh trees uh to expose this rock. Were this property not available, the alternative would be loading that up and transporting it on public uh highways away from the site, which obviously would have a much bigger impact from a traffic standpoint as well as wear and tear uh on the roads. as well. So, yeah, it's very well thought out. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you, sir. And we move now to [clears throat] staff reports on the public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance amending article three, zoning amendments and hearing procedures. Article five, subdivision plat site plans and construction documents. And article 14, definition of the Concord development ordinance. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I call on Monteray at this time from our planning department. She's our development review manager. She's going to provide the staff report to council and answer any questions you may have.

Good afternoon, Mayor Morris, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Colchinsky, and Miss Jenkins. As the mayor mentioned, I will be talking about text amendments in article 3, 5, and 14. So, to provide a little bit of background, over the last few years, we've seen an uptick in conversations amongst the development community, including their hiring professionals, as well as um having to get our legal involved, trying to determine how um we calculate what needs to come back before planning and zoning versus what staff can do administratively. Um there are also several conversations over the last year where we've noticed that we needed to add some procedural changes to when minor plats require site plans and then as well as just update cross reference and regulations. Specifically we'll be speaking about the administrative amendments plat and construction process and definitions. Article three. This particular section um basically implies that there are certain small things that the administrative amendments can do, but the important part before you is changes that are not considered similar and things that would have to go back before planning and zoning to change the already approved resoning plans. As you will see, sections 1 through eight, all of the black are currently in our code. Any of the red and blue outlines are things that we've added to provide clarity. You will also see that cross reference in article 5 later. Article 5.4.9 is the large substantive portion of what planning is choosing to change. As I mentioned, you will see this exact articulation on the slide previously. So, we're copying and pasting to ensure that in both portions of the code, we are articulating clearly what we can do administratively versus what in plain sight you would have to take back before planning and zoning. if somebody else made changes to the approved resoning plan

and then as I mentioned in our background you will also see that we are taking out the 10% calculations as I had mentioned it's been very difficult especially over the last three years as we've seen in uptick in conversations of properties being sold with approved reszoning plans and developers wanting to make some modifications as to how you calculate the 10% change. So this just makes it so much easier that we don't have to address that anymore. Article 5.1.1b talks about the uh minor subdivisions which we call final minor plats. This particular piece adds um a memorialization of a new process that we've decided where in these specific instances site plans will be required with your final minor plat. Um that ensures that all departments get what they need whether it be sidewalk curb and gutter are seen um utilities etc. So 5.1.2 is just a change in the general statute. Therefore, it has been reflected here to update the language. And these next slides are in working closely with our engineering department. We went ahead and brought these changes as well. Um our engineering director Jackie Deal is here if you have any specific questions. I will just be going over the language changes. So as you can see in the first piece right here, number three is new language. um it is procedural in nature that they are adding to the code to have it documented. 5.7.2 is again where they are just adding language that they have been doing for numerous years to go ahead and put that in the policy so we have it documented where anyone and everyone has clarity on procedural changes. 5.7.3 the inspection. These are also process changes that they wanted to go ahead and add in the code to make sure that it was clear and concise across all avenues.

And 5.7.4.8 is the exact same processes that we've seen that they are adding to the code. And then they've updated processes in number two, four, five, and six as you can see as well. And then 5.7.9 is their last update. Um it basically just reiterates some of the processes that are changed and this is reflecting those changes. And then circling back to article 14, this is planning's last substantive change. And this is aligning the um general statute change that we made in article 5. And to fix the definition here in article 14, these text amendments were brought before planning and zoning commission in December of 2025, so last month. Um the top two bullet points were unanimously approved by planning and zoning. Basically, that it is consistent with our 2030 land use plan. um and that it is reasonable amongst character of of the community laws and statutes and maintain staff's ability to administer the code. Next steps before you would be to consider the text amendments to the Concord Development Ordinance, otherwise known as the CDO, to approve a statement of consistency, and make a motion to approve or deny the amendments. This closes my presentation, and I would be happy to answer any questions. questions from council.

Yes, ma'am. Okay, Monterey. Yes, ma'am. It's a lot of reading. I'm just going to let you know. I read through all of it and I won't say that I understand all of it. That's the unfortunate part, but yes, ma'am. I do have a question for you. And as you and I know cuz you help me so much, you know, developers call in and they say, um, this process is hard. It's convoluted. It's we make a change. We have to go back. Now, I'm going to preface that by also saying that sometimes my children push back on rules and guidelines because they don't like them. So, I'm not saying that there's not a reason for it, but I guess my question would be because I know there's a lot of discussions at the Raleigh level of

we need to do everything we can to make housing quick go through all the things, right? Do you feel like that this clears up that this is kind of where I'm a little bit foggy that you can help me with like the reason does it clear up kind of some of the things that we're are doing and you still feel like it I'm not going to use the word easier because I don't think anything in this process is easy but do you see what I'm asking because I we get a lot of feedback you and I both do on this and I just want to make sure that we're doing and holding the standards that we need to hold and then being um aware that for for some people it's a hard process to go through. Does that that make sense?

It definitely does and I I think to provide clarity to that the 10% changes um which you'll see in article five are basically talking about 10% of the alignment of different parcels. So if you move to shift the building a little bit if you're going to pick up a purchase that someone is trying to sell that they've gotten approved or roads or open space. trying to calculate that became to your point a very expensive significant challenge as to how staff interpreted it versus the developer and then versus their engineer. Sometimes we've had to consult legal their legal's gotten involved. So yes, that does add a lot of maybe potentially unnecessary time and and cost. So by taking that out and providing additional language that flushes out what you have to go back to planning and zoning for I think does still keep us to you know hold true to the rules and regulations to maintain what the city of Concord is looking for also while adding unnecessary burden on staff and on the developers. So I think we're landing in a good place.

Thank you. Great.

Other question? Yes sir. Jennifer, I would just say as well at at the front of the presentation Monterey gave about the admin some of the administrative approvals that will cut down on the time because now there's a lot of things that anytime it's changed has to come back to council and depending on the timing of your next meeting that could be two or three weeks down the road. By council adopting some of those changes, it allows staff to make some of those changes, still consistent with with council's guidance, but without having to come back and delay the developer another week, two weeks, three weeks to get some very minor changes made. So that will speed up the process. But to your point, we do want to maintain the standards of good development in our community. Sometimes that takes time.

Great. Thank you for adding those comments because that's what I most frequently hear from developers. We're [clears throat] more concerned about time is money. Yes. You know, how long it takes without definitely compromising standards? 100% and I totally agree with what uh Mr. Payne said. Yes. Great. Yes. Other questions or comments? And of course any of the developers that are impacted by this will have an opportunity to come and speak at this public hearing on Thursday, right? Yes, sir. And I think um a couple have reached out asking because they are in this 10% calculation

turmoil, [clears throat] if you will. And so when they had asked about when they needed to come back to planning and zoning or what they needed to provide, we did make them aware of this conversation and they did seem interested um in a positive way. Excellent. If there are no more questions, thank you very much. Thank you all for your time. Yes, ma'am. Okay, we move now to presentations of petitions and requests. Uh, first up is consider authorizing the city manager to execute a contract between the Concord ABC board and the city of Concord Police Department. So, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, Chief Hughes is up. He's going to provide this report to council this evening and or this request, I should say. Take [clears throat] any questions you may have. Chief Hughes.

Thank you, Mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kjinsky, Miss Jenkins. Uh the item before you is for a proposed update to the ABC law enforcement agreement between the Concord ABC board and the city of Concord. The city's current agreement was uh back from 1996. So it's been a number of years since that agreement has been updated. uh under the a separate uh longerstanding agreement, the uh ABC board currently uh remits 5% of net sales to the city to support ABC law enforcement. Under that structure, the city's uh received $178,300 in FY24 and $168,59 in FY25. and that's in exchange for funding the police department's um ABC officer, the one ABC officer. So, under the revised agreement uh that's before you, it would provide for a more defined uh sustainable funding model, and that would be 200,000 uh annually that would be broken into equal payments every 90 days. Uh and also allows for an annual 5% escalation to account for rising personnel operational cost. Uh in exchange for funding the increased funding, the police department would assign two full-time sworn officers exclusively to ABC enforcement. Uh this would require the addition of one police officer, sworn police officer, uh to the department's current authorized strength so that we could ensure proper staffing and coverage. And our recommendation, our request is for authorization for the city manager to execute the updated agreement between the ABC board of Concord and City of Concord. And I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Okay, questions for Chief Hughes. I I have some. Um, oddly enough, I was telling Lloyd today that someone tagged me on Next Door Neighbors wanting me to explain how this works, and I didn't really know how it works. So are [clears throat] you telling me that 5% of all ABC sales in the city are returned to the city of Concord to pay for our off for to pay for one officer? No. So there are so the original agreement which was back in 96 was addressing um a requirement that the ABC board has some type of law enforcement. They could go in the direction of having their own law enforcement or they could contract with in our case with the city.

Okay. uh which is what they did. And I think the sum in the original contract was like $16,000 and some change a year for 50% of one police officer's time. Okay. And then there was some language in there that adjusted it based off the actual amount of hours that were worked. Okay. Um this ties back into the city code that was uh changed in 2023 uh through Raleigh that established it at a 5% rate. Okay. U and it's net sales. So it's not like what they gross. It is after all of their expenses and their capital projects and everything else. It's

that 5%'s for law enforcement. There's other funds that are designated for uh the city and then there's other funds that are designated for Cabaris County as well. Okay. Those are in addition to these this 5% of funds. So how many officers do you dedicate to a just one? Just one. And so like let's just say the ABC store on Davidson Drive. Do they call you and say, "It's going to be a busy Saturday night. We'd like to have an officer." Is that is that kind of how And then there might the same thing might happen at Publix. The one out by Publix. I mean, so how do you get one officer to There's what, five or six,

right? So what happens typically is that one officer is responsible for all the compliance checks. They're making sure all the alcohol establishments in the city are compliant with ABC regulations. They work with the ABC stores to try to uh identify strategies that could help prevent theft from happening or internal theft that may be happening. There there's all the that's their focus is working towards um prevention of alcohol um violations and then addressing any alcohol violations that happen. that doesn't uh preclude them from calling 911 or asking for assistance

because obviously there's alcohol establishments that operate uh hours outside of what one person could handle. So the police department itself does provide additional resources beyond just that. But this would currently we have one police officer that's that's their job. Not necessarily security. Correct. Not necessarily security. There's a whole another uh strategy that we have in place to help reduce uh theft and other issues at the ABC stores themselves. Gotcha. I understand. And so this $200,000 increase, that's going to be what we are paid from the ABC to provide that officer.

That is correct. Provide those two officers. And then again, it does have a uh provision for 5% increase each year for the uh increased operational cost. Okay. All right. That makes good sense. Thank you so much for the clarification. Yes, ma'am.

I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. So, this is not costing the city money. There's going to be a return based on this $200,000 and the 5% or no. So there is a cost associated with staffing police officers obviously in addition to salaries and benefits. The current salary and benefit for a brand new police officer annually is $86,962. So if you looked at it um in that light, the cost is around $170ish something,000 annually. But the reality is is that there's going to be additional cost because it's not going to be the brand new police officer that's working uh the ABC assignment. So there's going to be additional cost, but um but the majority the lion share of that cost would be covered through this agreement. Yes. Does that make sense?

It does. I'm just trying to understand. So that variance of what's not covered, the city would cover for those extra resources. Correct.

Right. So anything that would exceed that 200,000. So if the salaries of the persons that are assigned are greater than that, it could be that um the maintenance and upkeep of vehicles, the fuel that's associated with the cars, if it exceeds if whatever the costs are exceed that 200,000, then that would be something we the city uh would be responsible for. However, I think it's important to note also that the police officer having the police officers is a benefit beyond just the ABC stores as well. They're able to help us with alcohol enforcement. They're a subject matter expert that's able to provide guidance to other police officers. Uh they help us to work underage campaigns that address alcohol or potential alcohol violations in other areas. So there's a lot of other benefits that come along with this beyond just dedicated to the ABC board. And so there is truthfully some responsibility to the city I think as well for that. I mean, it does help us overall offset some of that cost.

John, Chief, I, you know, I've seen this for quite a few years and it it's impressive what we do with this and, you know, I think it's a great thing. Um, the access training they'll receive I I assume is from ALE, correct? Yes. they go to the AL's basic enforcement school so they learn uh the more detailed nuances of alcohol enforcement because it is different than your general law enforcement responsibility. Will this be a rotation or will you have two dedicated

so maintaining the same model that we have now. We have a police officer who's dedicated to it. They go through the training because that does take time to become uh proficient at that job. And so they typically will stay for several years and then they may decide they want to go do something else in the police department whether that's traffic enforcement or criminal investigations or they want to be a supervisor. So there is movement that happens over time but typically we get several years out of a person who's assigned to uh ABC role. Okay. Thank you. I think it's good also to maintain those relationships with AL and it's you know when we have a a checkpoint etc. It's good to have, you know, co- enforcement through all the agencies involved. Yes, sir.

Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Other questions or comments? [clears throat] So, so based on what I'm hearing from you, if if we have a complaint from a citizen and they say this convenience store out on ABC Street is selling alcohol to minors on a consistent basis, then it would be part of the responsibilities of this individual to devise a plan to make sure that that was not true or that if if it was true corrective action would be taken. Is that am I interpreting correctly?

That is that is correct. And then depending on what the size of the the issue is, these are our point or this would be our point person to work with the state's AL alcohol law enforcement, right? Um to help address whatever those issues may be. But yes, that is that's their job. And so we would be using these individuals that are funded by this $200,000 for the majority uh to accomplish these tasks that really are not related to ABC sales at all. Right?

If it's beer and wine and what what would happen at convenience stores, which I wouldn't venture to guess how many of those we would have in the city of Concord, but it's quite a few. quite a few. Yes. Yeah.

And there's other things too. They do the like our current ABC officer, he does all the research on permit requests. So when a there's a permitting process the planning works through that has a whole lot of other elements outside of just law enforcement for the law enforcement piece. That's what he does. He goes through and checks [clears throat] the applicant's criminal histories. Checks the location. Make sure that the physical location is within ordinance and within law to make sure that it is compliant. And then uh we the police my signature is that it submits to the state for their and through planning for their review and approval or uh recommended denial of a alcohol permit.

Right. And so if the local ABC board [clears throat] decided that they wanted to you you mentioned earlier um a private service or something might be an option for them. then the city would not benefit from all these other services. Is that that is correct? That is correct. Yes, sir. So, it sounds like a good deal for us to me. Yes, sir. It it has been beneficial from my perspective since 1996. I think prior to 1996, they had their own version of a private force or something. I'm not really sure.

Yeah. And so understand if you don't have the answer to this question, but how many ABC stores we had in 1996 versus today? Two, I'd have to say two. Two additional two when we had a total of two. We had two back then and today we have I don't even know off the top of my head. Eight. We have eight. Yeah. So that's pretty substantial increase. Quite quite a change since 1996. Right. Yeah. Okay. Any additional

This was a mutual I was just going to say this was definitely a mutual agreement to to revise this 1996 agreement. Right. Right. Yeah. And I forgot we had a member of the ABC board with us or I would have called him up and try to ask him some hard questions. Great. Any [laughter] any additional questions? Next time leave for the Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we consider adopting updated rules and regulations for the Concord Pageant Regional Airport. I think we have several items in that category.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, Kyle is here. He's our FBO manager out at the airport. He's going to handle items 2, three, four, and five uh for council this evening. Take any questions you may have. Mr. C, if you would.

Absolutely. Good afternoon, mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Mr. Kchinsky, and Miss Jenkins. Um, first item, item two, is to consider updating rules and regulations for the airport. Um, this is what pilots follow in addition to anybody else doing business at the airport. It keeps things safe. Um, they haven't been updated quite some time. The FAA encourages us to update them every 5 to 10 years. Our last update was in the mid200s, so they're well overdue. um outside council has reviews these rules and regulations and um they are constructed to kind of give us uh an extra guidance to comply with federal grant assurances as well. Um if anybody's any questions um for item number three um we are going to ask for a change approval and a change order um for the apron tax lane rehab project. When we were kind of doing more work out at the airport we determined that there was a need to enlarge the repair area. Um the contractor is requesting an additional 15 days for this project. Um the project has been reviewed and recommended by our independent engineer. This is a NC DOT grant funed project. There'll be no additional cost to the city for this. There any questions on item three. Um item number four, uh we will be updating our minimum standards as well. Our minimum standards kind of keeps the elevated service at our airport. So the FAA encourages these when we accept the grant money as well. once again that these were last updated in the mid-200s. The FAA encourages updates every 5 to 10 years on these. Um and it was also uh reviewed by outside council in addition to the rules and regulations. If there are any questions on item four. Um then going on to item five, we are um requesting approval to proceed with professional service agreement with Wilson Groups and Architects for the design of our new hanger in common. This hanger in common is one of those big bulk hangers that you see at the airport. It's not a row of tea hangers or anything like that. Um, but approximately 40,000 square feet. The FAA, this will be a FAA grant funded project. Uh, it requires us to prepare

an independent fee estimate. That if was at 87 thou $87,7588. Um, and then we came in about 25 27 grand under that budget. Uh, the project once again will be funded 100% with no match required and the funding is coming from the bipartisan infrastructure law grant. Are there any questions on any of the items I presented to you? I have one if I may just out [clears throat] of curiosity. Um the rules that you're talking about up there. Let's see where I lost my place. I think that I need to probably put my glasses back on. Um I think that was item number two. So give an example of something that would negatively interfere with the safe, orderly, and efficient use of the airport.

So a good example is a problem that we kind of have right now is aircraft would be pl block blocking different taxi lanes and stuff like that. So there's no egress out of an area in case emergency. So by having for instance that part of one of our rules, people will have to keep the egress free and clear. Prime example is our fire station 6 is between two hangers. If aircraft block that egress, the fire trucks can't get out in the event of emergency. So that's just one example of the rules that we have. Okay. I was just curious like I was there in the spring when Vice President Vance came to town. That was a big deal. Yes. And there were lots of people and I was thinking when reading that I'm thinking would that be the kind of thing that you would prohibit from happening there because it does interfere or is that considered an interference?

What like when a VIP flies in? Yeah. Well, like there was a whole that was a whole big to-do. There were people there and dignitaries and cars and secret service and all that. That's regular business for us at the airport. There are VIPs that fly in and out there every day almost. Oh, great. That's very interesting. Thank you. You're welcome. Great. Other questions? And so if I heard you correctly on on item five, you're talking about building a 40,000 foot hanger. Yes. At no cost to the city. It it'll be funded by grant money. Yes. Yeah. And then what kind of a waiting list do you have for hanger space currently?

Long. It is very long. We probably have at least 60 to 70 aircraft across all of our different size of hangers. It's It is long. So, it's well overdue. Yeah. And so, you're going to build a hanger 40,000 square feet. You got a waiting list of people already wanting to rent space. And so, who gets the rent? We don't know yet. So, rent money, rent income, it'll go right to the airport. So, they build a new hanger. It doesn't cost us any money, but we get the proceeds of all the rent. Yes, sir. That sounds like an unrealistic um federal deal to me. Yeah.

And they buy our fuel. Yes. And services and everything else that we sell. Well, just say thank you. [laughter] Yes. Yeah. I think you're right. All the big aircraft probably three or four big aircraft like what like the NASCAR team flies. For the smaller aircraft, we can probably fit 20 if we really wanted to. Fill it. It'll be filled on day one, right? Yeah. Great. Thank you very much.

Okay. Next up is item six. Consider authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a contract with JD Goodram Company Incorporated for the construction of the Laurel Park pump station elimination. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So Jackie, our engineering director for the city, she's going to handle items six and seven this evening, present those to council and take any questions you may have.

Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council, Miss Colchinski, Mr. Payne, Miss Jenkins. Um, today we are presenting the Laurel Park pump station elimination. Um, we would like to award this contract to JD Goodram. We the project consists of nearly 1,300 linear feet of 8 in sanitary sewer. Um we received bids December 18th of 2025. Three bids were received. JD Goodrum was the lowest bidder at 849,000 and the contract duration is 120 days. So I'm happy to take questions on that item. So, does this eliminate I used to live in Laurel Park and let me tell you, this is a topic of discussion in that neighborhood. Um, will this eliminate the kind of right away, you know, all of that area back there or are you just replacing what's there? I'm just I I need to I didn't have clarity on that. So,

so there still will be sanitary sewer easement back there back there. Right. And we did obtain a little bit more additional easement, okay, earlier in the year through our real estate acquisition phase. Um, so that will not be able to turn into a usable area, right, for other purposes. What will this [cough] how will this benefit that that's that's what I need explanation on?

So the benefit is the maintenance that we do as far as staff time um replacement. This from what I understand is about 20 to 25 years old. So complete rehab would be needed at some point. Okay. Which is very costly. So the the payback on this is about 10 to 11 years. Um staff is out there weekly cleaning things up. So um so they won't see them as much. True. True. Um which is good. No, I'm saying that's a good [laughter] thing for staff, but then also for the individuals that like to talk to your staff while they're out there. So, just to, you know, from an education perspective, I'm just trying to understand that piece.

I know Jeff does a really good job of like science with Jeff. Um, but yeah, the eliminating over my head when it's gravity simplifies the system so much from a maintenance perspective. So, um, new infrastructure that's out there that was completed allows this connection to be made. So, our our process to treat gets so much easier. And I think what I'm looking for more is from the neighbor perspective like that's where I get the calls, right? Is

hey we're out there a lot where like I I'm just I want to understand just from so in plain language for me to when I talk to these individuals to say this is how it's beneficial. This is why we're making the investment from a city perspective because we're good stewards of the money but also from does that make sense what I'm trying to ask? Okay. So, every week we have to send somebody out there to check, verify everything's still working. We also have to go out weekly to jet and clean. There's a trash basket there that gets stopped up and it causes backups in the sewer. Mhm. So, they will not see those people anymore once this project is completed.

There have also been complaints in the past based on the large equipment that comes in and out. It's between two residential houses, breaking driveways, turn radiuses, all that kind of stuff. they will not see those trucks like that anymore on a regular basis. So, we will be ghost in that area hopefully. That's what I needed. Thank you so much. Yes, sir.

Great. Other questions. And so I I think that that based on what we heard uh from Kyle just a minute ago, we're going to measure all other investments uh to see if it measures up to to to that level. So I'm just kidding. I'm not not going to hold you to that standard. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you very much. And you've got the next item.

All right. The next item is to consider the authorizing the city manager to negotiate a change order with Cinderella Partners for up to 250,000 and utilize retain earnings from the golf course to pay for additional co the additional cost. Um so we're currently in a renovation at the Rocky River clubhouse. Um, the project, the original contract amount was $879,000, which included almost $80,000 in contingency. During construction, several conditions that were not included in the original scope were discovered, including areas of deterioration that needed repair or replacement. So to address these issues and to ensure that the building envelope on the outside um is completely durable and lowmaintenance um the amount of $250,000 is requested. This will allow us to upgrade some additional windows. Uh a door um the coupoopa section um replace some vinyl exterior exterior uh remove and replace some rotted wood that was discovered when we took off the original siding. Um let's see. We were we're replacing some aluminum aluminum sheeting and termite damage and some mold remediation was identified during construction which will be addressed as part of this change order.

So, and if I may, Jackie, I'll just add to that because I know the question may come up. All of these monies, including the original contract itself, is not coming from taxpayer dollars. This is all profits that the golf course itself has made over time that we have held in reserve that are restricted. We can't just use them for anything. They were earned at the golf course through rounds of golf and events that were played. So, we have to restrict that to how we spend that money. So, this is where that money is coming from. So, no taxpayer dollars are going to this. That's why this makes, in my opinion, a really easy decision for council to continue to support the infrastructure that belongs to the city.

Not quite as good a deal as the hanger at the airport, but close. Yes. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Next up, we have uh adopting a res consider adopting a resolution authorizing an imminent domain action for a parcel located at 145 Himmlock Street. And I think Valerie's going to cover th that item and the next one.

Yes sir. Thank you. Good evening. Um so we have talked about this u acquisition of these two properties for um quite some time now actually. Uh this is the final the formal step that gives the legal department the permission to begin the legal process for these acquisitions. And um these are 145 Hemlock and 75 Young Street. These properties appear from all appearances have been completely abandoned by the by the record title holders for many many years. um taxes are not being paid on them and um this so this action would be to bring those properties back into the tax base if they're sold out or to in any event they're going to be um utilized for affordable housing purposes

and I'll be happy to answer any questions. I think on several different levels this is a very important and very good thing for us to do. It's kind of a new approach for us. It is, but it's we're gonna see how it goes. But I think it could be very positive.

Just sort of as anformational thing, I saw an article recently that Detroit had a really bad problem with blighted property and they have brought their the number of parcels with blighted property from something like 50,000 parcels down to about a thousand using similar similar tactics. So [clears throat] on on this particular piece of property and the same for the next one, [clears throat] there are past due taxes that are due on these properties probably a number of years. Yes, sir.

Um so how how would that compare with the uh value of $45,000? Do you know right off if you don't understand? the I don't have the tax value right in front of me, but it's it's the taxes that are owed are are less than the tax value, the assessed tax value. So, the tax value is what we will use for these two properties um for our deposit when we go to court. We're required to place a deposit with the clerk of court um that is as close to the value of the property as we can get it without, you know, necessarily getting an appraiser out there. Um although we can also do that if we choose to do it. Um so the out of when we file our paperwork at the courthouse, the county's attorney presumably will also file his answer at the courthouse and as part of the settlement of the case process. The county will get the taxes that are then and it's city and county taxes, but they'll go to the county, right? Because the county processes the city's taxes, too. So there will be some tax collection aspect of this um any deposit. So assuming that there nobody's going to come forward to try to claim this deposit. If they do honestly it would be it would be very costly for them to prosecute that because these these properties are sitting in estates that are 50 60 75 years old. So they would have to go back, they would have to hire an estates attorney and go back and go through not just the estate of the of the owner of record whose name is on the deed, but every heir of that owner of record till the present day, which would cost $100,000 or more to to get through all of that properly. Um, so it just isn't,

you know, the value of the property would be far exceeded by the cost of trying to prosecute all of that paperwork because that's really what it is. Yeah. If that if that makes sense. And so by virtue of following this procedure, um we now have the opportunity to improve the neighborhood and the value of the neighborhood properties because right now it is in a deteriorating state. Um, and I'm sure that and and there's no no other solution to to to

to correct all these other violations, deterioration, abandonment. Probably even just the the issue of overgrown, you know, grass and weeds and and brush and things because that invites mosquitoes and rodents and that gets your feral cat colony going. And I mean it just it can just really snowball and code enforcement can't be everywhere all the time. Right. Yeah. So I'm surprised that we're only doing two. That's that's all the money we have, sir. Right. Gotcha. Yeah. But but this is something that I would assume would be very popular with these neighborhoods. I would I would think so

finally a solution to this and and I I would understand and and almost expect there to be some skepticism at least at first but um we're going to follow through on on our word, you know, and these properties are going to be used for affordable housing and it says that in the resolution and it's going to say that in the lawsuit. So that's going to be that's going to be enforceable. Great. Okay, other questions for Valerie. And then I think you've got a second second one. And the second one is exactly the same as the first one. 75 Young Street. And it's just the formal your formal approval that tells me go ahead and get started. Great. Thank you.

You're welcome. Okay. Next up is [clears throat] consider adopting the 2026 state legislative goals. Uh I think city manager comment on that.

So thank you Mr. Mayor. So um I have sent out these proposed goals to council taking some feedback from council. This is the final product that was included in your agenda packet. Uh that will be up for your consideration and hopeful adoption on Thursday evening. Happy to take any uh questions you may have about uh any of the items that were contained. Some of these goals uh were similar to what council has adopted in the past. There was some minor changes uh made uh some grammatical, you know, things that were corrected in the document that you have. But again, happy to answer any questions you may have. U the goal of this u provided council does adopt it would be for myself, the mayor, and any other council members that would like to um perhaps uh ask our legislative delegation to meet with them and cover these items with them uh to make sure they have a copy in hand of what this council has said. uh you think are the priorities for them to work on our behalf in Raleigh at the general assembly. Um so with that, Mr. Mayor, happy to answer any questions you may have.

Yes, sir. So, I just want to commend that. It's one thing for us to pass it. The second is to communicate it to our legislators that these are important to us and I think the two of you can do it well. You may invite others to help you, but I think a face to face these are our issues. I hope you take them seriously would be very important to do. Thank you. Other questions or comments?

You know, I think there are a number of other organizations throughout the year that reach out to the city and ask you what what are your goals? You know, how can we support you and is it consistent with with other organizations? So, there are great many benefits to this, I think. Okay. If there are no other comments, we move now to our consent agenda uh which consists of quite a few items. Uh is there anything there that anybody needs further discussion or clarification on? Um hearing none, uh we move to matters uh not on the agenda, which we will cover on Thursday evening. And so unless there is something that I may have missed, which is certainly a possibility, Mr. City Manager, we're on track. Then at this time, I would entertain a motion that we go into close session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11A4 in order to discuss the location or expansion of industries or other business in the area served by the public body. Second.

Okay. I heard a motion from Jennifer, a second from Councilman Sweat. Is there any discussion? Uh, hearing none. All in favor, please say I. All oppose. No. Uh, we are now in close session. Thank you.