County Commission - Regular Meeting

Gostaria de abrir a sessão de trabalho da comissão do Condado de Dixon de 8 de setembro. Se todos puderem se curvar e orar comigo.

Deus Todo-Poderoso, nosso Pai Celeste, enviai sobre nós que ocupamos cargos neste Condado o espírito de sabedoria, caridade e justiça, para que, com grande propósito, possamos servir com segurança como comissários, funcionários eleitos e chefes de departamento para promover o bem-estar de todos os cidadãos do Condado de Dixon. Remember, while the commission deliberates tonight, that the county government is only a convenience created by the people to be managed by us, without our own powers, except those voluntarily granted to it by the people we represent. We pray that you will always keep us aware of this fact. May all this be done to fulfill your purpose through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. All standing for the oath.

I swear fidelity to the flag of the United States of America.

A nation under God, indivisible, with freedom and justice.

A call. Yes. Sir. Sir. More. Sir. It's good to see all of you here tonight. Congratulations. Good to see all of you. Let's go straight to the first item of the agenda. If there is no objection, we will move the approval of the act for after the election of the president. If there is no objection, we will move on to the elections. The first election is for the president of the Dixon County Commission. This is a position that I occupied and now it is open to be chosen by the new county commission. I will open the session for recommendations. Commissioner Simpkins proposes that we choose the president.

This is a nomination that does not require a second vote. Is there any other indication for the president? No. I declare the nominations closed. All in favor of Mr. Williams being the president of the County Commission vote saying yes. Against? Yes. Congratulations. I don't know who did it. He was always there for me. I found this guy here. It's not the one my wife's grandfather has. I don't give it to you. Historically, we know how county commissions can be intense. Very well, you will have to give me a minute.

Very well. So, the next item of the agenda will be to elect President Plutempore and, in recent years, this has been Commissioner Simpkins. So, I will now open the space for indications.

I indicate Randy Simpkins.

Right, Commissioner Simpkins. Any other indication? There are no more indications. Very well, all indications closed. All in favor, say yes. All against.

Right, Mr. Simpkin?

Thank you all. Thank you to all the commissioners for electing me as president. I thank you for that. I'm a little like Mayor Ri, you know? I want to participate in the conversation and have the opportunity to work with you. So I'm looking forward to it. Right.

Our next item will be the draft.

All drafts were sent by e-mail.

I hope you all have received a copy.

So, the objective is to approve the draft for the work session on August 3, 2026. Copies were distributed to all members in advance. Any correction or addition to the draft? Without corrections and without objections, the Act of the Work Session of August 3, 2026, will be approved as distributed. Right. Any committee report? I know there was a big change here, so I don't know if there is any committee pending. No reports. The next one is the appointment of a commissioner for the airport authority. Commissioner Bates served in this role and I'm bringing Mike Pett because the airport is in his district. So I would like to open the space for approval. We already have a motion by Spicer seconded by Wink. Any discussion? And remember, all this will be taken to our regular general meeting in two weeks. So, all in favor, say yes. All against, unanimous. The next is the Sanitation Council and we need to fill in a vacancy left by Ken Mathis. And I'm presenting Mr. John Striticus to assume the post. And in this council, what they usually do is work with the recycling program and bring ideas of how we can recycle better. And they also take care of the exemptions of the $10 tax on the electricity bill if you have a meter in a cellar instead of a residence or something like that. They approve these exemptions. That's basically what this council does. So you still don't know Commissioner Strucos. He's a guy from the research area. So, I think he will do well in that. So, open the word to hear a motion. Motion of Mr. Petty in a second, from OSHA. Any discussion? All in favor, say yes. Very well. Next, you will see on the agenda that we had a public hearing, but it is only to warn you that, on September 21, in two weeks, when we have our regular meeting, we will have a public hearing. And the public hearing will be about, if you look at the... The amendment is at the top of page, says amendment number 1. This comes from the Planning Commission. These are recommendations that they approved to change the zoning resolution. We had a public hearing on August 17 and the Commission, at the time, continued and... I think I'm saying this wrong. I'm sorry. The public hearing will be about the non-residential character and development standards. I'm sorry. So this will be our first public hearing on the subject. So the top of the page says non-residential character and development standards. This comes from the planning commission. That's what the public hearing will be about. And like some of the new commissioners, we will have a public hearing and after that you will vote to move on to the next session. So we will vote on that. So if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. You can contact me or Andrew Mills, who usually deals with planning and zoning. So, moving on, just to clarify, your other amendment, number 1, So, this is what I said that we would vote on the 21st. The public hearing was held in August, on the 17th, and this practically makes some changes in the study of traffic impact and removes the light industry from district C1. Therefore, we will vote on this in two weeks, on the 21st. These are the announcements. Does anyone have any questions about them? Is everything clear to everyone? Very well. Next, the quarterly financial report of the school council. This is their fourth quarter, therefore, the closing of the year. I will not close it.

Good evening. I sent this by e-mail to all of you. Star shared with me your e-mail addresses for those who are new. So I hope you had the chance to analyze. All right, but we're just going to ask you to pass this to the regular session. Regular? So our 141, which is our budget from the General Use School Fund, finished the fourth quarter with 107% of the revenue and 95% of the expenses. Our 142 is our federal project fund, which consists of federal refunds. Basically, what we spend, we receive back from the government. Both the revenue and expenses are 80%. Our 143 is our school nutrition fund, which had revenue of 109% and expenses of 98%. And then our 177, which is the capital project fund, ended with 100% revenue and the expenses are only 33% because you released those 17 million from our fund balance recently. So we still didn't have a chance to spend a lot. So that's where our fourth quarter finances are. I just wanted to highlight a few things for me.

What motivates me when I look at page 2 is to see the total of the receipts. We, in fact, collected 6.6 million more than we had estimated. Therefore, always conservative with the receipts. And if you look at page 14 about expenses, I'll be sure.

It's this page that I'm passing here. Page 14.

So that's their expenses.

It's 5 million less, 5.1, almost 5.1.

So you'll see the balance of the fund, you'll see the money, the 11 million, 9.18 million. So that's what's left for them. That's what will be added to the fund balance. I always like to see these numbers. Good job. This always increases your fund balance. We took 17 million last year. So it seems that we were waiting for you to stay at 13 million. Now we will have about 25 million in fund balance to start the year. So very good, very good. So these are my... And just for everyone to know, this will be forwarded in two weeks for voting.

So if you have any questions, feel free to contact Valerie. And we also ask them.

Tonight, after this meeting, after the closing, we will have Mr. Hall here to present the budget to the new commissioners and any of you who want to stay, there will be time to analyze and ask questions. In the next work session next month, we will ask the school council to do the same to analyze their budget. Very well, I accept a motion to take this to a regular meeting. We have a motion with a second from Brit. Any discussion? All in favor say yes. All against? Very well. Thank you. Very well. The next item on the agenda is the approval of the revised policy of public comments that was also left on your tables. And I will let Mr. Reagan go through this.

This body has had a policy of public comments for some time, but there have been changes in the law that require us to make some changes to it. One of the most significant changes is that, in the past, public comments were limited to items or subjects relevant to the agenda of that meeting. The General Assembly of Tennessee expanded this and now the comments can be about anything pertinent to items in which this body has authority to act or is involved. Therefore, it is a very, very wide spectrum of things about which they can comment. Now you will also see here that there is a limit of 3 minutes per person in a total of 30 minutes for all public comments. And if we have a case with a large number of people wanting to speak, the President of the Commission will have the ability to reduce to less than 3 minutes if necessary to allow everyone to speak. But we try to establish some parameters and the law allows this. I will highlight this fact because there are people who speak in public hearings, as in zoning changes, which we will see in the next meeting, but also in the public comment section. There is no obligation for you to answer them, it is only to allow people to say what they want, so you as the body after the comments made Se isso levar vocês a acreditarem que alguma medida deve ser tomada, vocês podem tratar disso no curso normal, sendo um órgão legislativo e propondo quaisquer mudanças nas leis locais que desejem. But this amendment also recognizes that now we will have public comments at any meeting where there are passable items of action and we will add this to work sessions because we are taking measures to develop the agenda of the regular meeting. Therefore, I think that talking with Mayor Williams, with the consent of this body, what this would look like from now on is that we would put a period of public comments at the end of our work sessions agenda, closer to the beginning of the agenda for regular meetings. Ah, yes, you can have a complete discussion about the things in the work session, listen to the public about the appropriate items and go to regular meetings where you vote officially. This will give the public the opportunity to be heard right at the beginning, before voting on the items.

Therefore, I am available to answer whatever you may have.

Brian, I analyzed this a little since July, when it was approved. The only thing I didn't say, that I still didn't find in the newsroom, is if you are a resident of the jurisdiction or you know, I am a resident of any place. And I think it is being interpreted in a broader way. Well, it doesn't specifically say that it is as broad as the state of Tennessee, but I know that some jurisdictions are treating it that way. The way we write this policy is that we are limiting the residents of Dixon County, anyone who owns real estate here or anyone who operates a business here. And if they are out of this, it will be up to the president. Ryan, at our last meeting, received a petition from Mr. Hodges about a road problem in Hooper and Sherman, near Creekwood and Apony. They had, I think, about twenty-something names in it. As far as I remember, I thought that maybe we should have put this on the agenda in the next months or weeks to let people see. But what I would like to see in this, instead of just debating the change of the speed limit, as we always do, is to analyze the security issues, because what they are asking for are the loopholes. That's it, Mr. Rodis. I mean, if you want to talk about it, you could tell us what they were asking for.

Hey, we can end this policy, then, in other subjects, we bring this... No, it's okay. I just want to be sure that... No, it's okay. Any comments on the policy that is before you? I need to hear a motion to approve the implementation of this. I'll add this. In other matters, well, just to present this amendment, it's what I said before, this amendment to the zoning resolution, that's what we'll have the public hearing in two weeks. So that's it. You have it in your hands to study. The next item is the approval of the pensions of elected officials, and that will be voted tonight. It's not just to send a vote. You don't need to hand it over, it's by state law. So I'm going to read the names of all the employees who have fiancés and who were delivered, right? Okay, you have all of them. Danny Williams, Timmy Eads, Shelly Yates, Glenna Pinterers, Luan Greer, Leslie Shelton, Pam Lewis, Sub-Chief Leslie Waters and Administrative Director Jackie Hodges. So I accept a motion to approve. Motion by Dawson, second by Malister. Any discussion? Todos a favor, digam sim. Todos contra. Muito bem. Agora vamos para a parte divertida. Então, também temos na agenda, eu quero apresentar um plano de 100 dias So, we left this on your tables tonight too, after campaigning for 8 months and being in the community visiting all your districts, participating in all the forums, barbecues and all the other places. These are the items that I feel that people want us to discuss and seek resolutions and solutions. So I want to bring this, I want to read all this and then I'm open to discussion. We are researching many of these points now, but let me start with the 100-day plan. The first is about recovery homes. And as you know, historically, we don't have permission, neither the counties nor the cities, to regulate them due to the law of fair housing and the law of Americans with disabilities. Therefore, one of the things that I feel we should do is send a resolution to our state representatives and to our representatives at the Zewa Congress asking them to change in some way to allow us to regulate the recovery homes. So, I don't know if it will be done or not, but I think our part is to ask officially and see if we can change the laws so we can regulate it. Number two. I've heard a lot about this from the elderly. You know, with the ongoing increase in the mortgage tax, the assessments and everything, a lot of people feel that they are being expelled from the Dixon County by the prices. So, one of the things that the state allows is a freezing program of the mortgage tax for elderly people who are 65 years or older, whose income is at the limit or below the limit defined annually by the state. Therefore, there will be some cooperation. We will probably have the case to come and present this program. There will be a certain cooperation necessary by the office of the tax assessor and the office of the administrator. So there will be some conversations with both and, fortunately, this would put a freeze on their taxes. What they pay at the current rate would be limited, as long as they meet this level of income every year and would have to reapply annually. Number three is the trash rate of 10 dollars. As you know, we currently charge 10 dollars in all the electric meters that go to the sanitary facility and the electrical department collects this fee for us. And over the years this fee has continued to grow and not only that, in the last agreement we had with them, in the letter they asked us to look for other solutions because they no longer want to collect this. So, I think we have several options that we will need to discuss and bring to present to you. This would involve the county possibly create some kind of payment system and bill on its own. It could also be, I think that the county of Riquemont now applies an annual rate along with the predial tax when they send the account annually. It is a separate item that contains a sanitation rate. So, these are some of the options that we will have to analyze. And, of course, maybe we can simply end this, including the land tax. These are the three options that I will prepare and bring to you, showing the costs and what the procedures would be to do this. Number four, as you know, we put a six-month moratorium in data centers and the planning commission is taking care of it. So, we must have a resolution within 100 days of the planning commission that tells us how we are going to regulate them. As you know, we cannot ban them, we can regulate them. So, we will have to find out what zoning they should have and what restrictions and regulations we can apply to this. Therefore, this will become part of the planning commission So the last, number five, is to hire a full-time planner. I think you all know that as we continue to grow, I feel that we don't have an adequate number of people in the planning and zoning office. And I think we need a full-time planner who is really working to help us plan the future. And how do we continue to protect rural areas as we move forward? helping us with this in the future. I think it will be very critical. So, this will require a budget amendment. We don't have that. So, I'll bring this back as soon as I find out where we can get the money and make this budget amendment. So, these are the five items I'm focused on. I'm sure all of you probably have others, but I'm going to focus and try to get this within 100 days. I think people want us to address these issues. So, I'm going to open up space for any comments. I'm not sure if we're going to approve anything. I think it's more or less just trying to inform what I'm planning and what I'm going to try to bring back to you. So, I'm going to open up space. Any comments?

What was the cost that the electric company charges us to make this actual charge?

So, I think last year we were around $550,180 for the meter that we are paying for the $10. Commissioner Bridge.

Well, I had already discussed with you that me and Mayor Ryan met with the people of Cá, about five or six months, about the freezing of the property tax. And you know, I think it would be a very good idea if you could ask if they would come to speak. You know, we don't want to violate any law of transparency. Because it's a little more complicated than just saying that we're going to freeze the prediary taxes. It's much more involved in that. And I think it would be very good if they came to make a presentation like they did for us.

And where people could ask questions.

It's something I want to do for some time, and we met with Hassi... We couldn't make Bob take a decision, but I don't think he was against it, but he was very close to the election and the new commission entering. I just think he really wanted the new commission to analyze this. I would talk to them to see if they would be willing to come and talk to me.

And this is my plan, to have them here when we, and maybe our work session starts at 6 that night, to have the case here and have them available to present and answer questions. When you said they earned so much money, do you have any idea how much they can earn? How much? We can adopt three.

So if you have a lot of properties, it's just about your main residence. And you can't change it. It's regulated by the state. It's very clear the objective. You can access it online. And there's not much to discuss. What can you do? These are the things. These are the directions. It's very clear.

and left it out, then. Yes, I think the lowest, I think I saw that the lowest was 41 and goes up to 65. So this will be the interval that we will have to define and we will have to do. In part of my research, I found out that it would probably cost us about 250,000 approximately. But we will be able to get it if we can find out what is the level of income that we can use to help us calculate how much it would cost us, what revenue we would lose.

250,000 in what? So we will have these discussions with the house here.

They can analyze all these scenarios and we can have the administrator and the tax evaluator. We all have here to... I mean, it will be an open conversation, so feel free when we do this, it's something that we want contributions, I think this is very important. Any more questions or comments? Okay, everyone agrees with that, right?

So, next.

Sorry to interrupt you, Commissioner Simpkins, but go on with what you want to see and others. This is another subject.

All right. As I said at the last meeting, the sheriff presented me with a request from some people from that area. Very concerned with traffic, as we have in many places in the county, especially near our schools. And I don't... You know, we've analyzed this for years and it's really not impossible. A good way to deal with this, but people out there, some of them want the lumbars, or speed reducers, or whatever they call it, installed. And the road is already sinuous out there anyway. And Mr. Rages. está preocupado com a limpeza das estradas. No inverno, quando temos neve de vez em quando, então há muitas preocupações e as pessoas entraram em contato comigo desde então e querem vir a uma reunião para expressar sua opinião. So I just think that maybe in the month of November, let's see, this is October, our October work session, if we could put this on the agenda and announce that we will have a meeting about it, about the concerns with the road and the safety of the road. Or whatever we do, besides just reducing the speed limit, But they are more concerned with the fact that if they are already driving in this specific way, you will install ramps. I mean, they can end up entering people's rooms and... ...shelves and everywhere else, you know, if they are driving like that. So my concern is with the security out there. I would like the sheriff to talk a little about that too.

You can talk.

I would just like to add, mayor and commissioners, that if this meeting happens, we will have some data.

I will do an additional speed research and maybe five years of data already.

Accidents and mail boxes. We didn't have anything very serious around here, but we had some side hits and several mail boxes hit. So, I can provide some factual data, maybe help guide you to where you want to go with this. And what I know for being a

Pretending to be a road engineer for the city of Baleme.

It's what they used in Forest Hill, called a speed table, which is not a high spine. It's about 10 centimeters. You travel a certain distance and go down. And they are designed by a road engineer. As for your length, I'm not recommending this. I'll just provide some information about it for you. You still need to worry about passing through it with a plow. But it's nothing drastic. And if you drive passing the limit, the signaled speed is just a lever, but if you go 8 km per hour above that, it will make your teeth hit. So I'll try to get all the information for you and I'm sure that Jack can provide more information about traffic moderation. So anyway, I just want you to know that I will have all the information I have for you to consider.

I'm begging you for that. You are talking about the whole county, you are not talking about the roadway. Ah, you're talking about, okay.

It's just a joke.

So you're just talking about a joke. I didn't know if you were, okay. Sherman and Hooper.

Yes, it's the entry of the funds and there are several residences that take a shortcut.

Sherman and Hooper. I just wanted to clarify that. So, okay. So this will be for the next work session. Any other issues? Very well. Any comments from the audience?

Did anyone write comments from the audience? All right, doctor.

Very well. Announcements. So, with so many commissars, we are trying to compile a new anniversary list. So, is there anyone here? Is there anyone here who celebrates his birthday in September? He... What did you do? Mine was in August. No, mine and Cindy's were in August. You finished. So, no one celebrates their birthday in September. When is yours? September 20th. Happy birthday, in advance.

Very well. Any other announcement?

Does anyone have any other announcement?

Excuse me. I would just like to...

or be sure that if you are a new commissioner and you don't have my cell phone and my e-mail, I have a card. Number two, I would like to invite you, as you are available, to do a tour of the Dixon County chain, because it is your largest budget item in the general fund, I believe. The chain is the Sheriff's Office. I would encourage you to come and do a tour. Uh, know the facilities. If you want to follow a patrol, just sign a responsibility letter and come with us. Uh, some of you have experience in applying the law or correctional systems. Uh, but I would still encourage you to come. Today is one of our... We have an advice for our level 1 credential. But I would like you to receive a personal invitation to come. And it is up to you. If you want to do this at 7 pm, we will do it. We work 24-7, holidays. So if you have nothing to do at Christmas or need to burn that hair on Thanksgiving Day, we will do a walkthrough with you. So thank you mayor for allowing me to talk. I just wanted to be sure that I passed this information to you. Well, you just need to call me and I'll organize it. You just need to bring it.

And I would only say, I know we had some nominations tonight. Nominations for advice. We are trying to work on this list, so there will be more to come. We will be putting some of you, other commissioners, in other councils, in other councils. So let us, we are trying to get the two we needed. I felt they were urgent and then we will work to take this list to you. We will make more nominations for other councils. Any other announcement? So, before we close, let me tell you, the new commissioners, many of the new commissioners asked Mr. Hall to be here tonight to review the budget, the budget of the General Fund of the County. So, everyone is welcome to stay. If any of the older commissioners don't want to stay, that's fine. But let's allow the commissioners to ask questions and Mr. Hall will make the presentation. So we will end the broadcast on YouTube and we will do our recess, but it will remain open to the public. Therefore, anyone here is welcome to stay. Or so feel free. Being so, without anything else, right. Our next work session will be Monday, October 5, at 7 p.m. here in the Chamber of the Booty Ridge Commission of the Administrative Building in Forward Court Square, in Charlotte, Tennessee. Do we have a motion to close? All in favor say yes.