Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Mike.

Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to call to order today's Broadband Authority meeting today, Tuesday, June 16th at 2 p.m. And I'm formally calling the meeting to order at 2.05 p.m. The first item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from May 19th, 2026. Do you all have any requests for changes, additions, or deletions to the minutes? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion for approval.

I'll make a motion for approval. Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. I like sign, and that carries unanimously. Thank you all. We are at project updates, and I will ask Mr. Sandy to assist us.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. We're waiting on Rodney from Zytel. He got caught up in some traffic, so he says 2-07. I guess his GPS tells him he'll be here. So he should be here any minute. But we do have Carl Caldell. He's our project manager from the state, from DHCD. he's actually he was in town today we met earlier this morning he's doing a project inspection so we met with him earlier out at burnt chimney and then he and Rodney toured some other locations in the county mostly out towards Scruggs and the Westlake area to look at the activity that they've completed to date so it worked out well Carl was able to come and I said well hey why don't you stick around for the broadband meeting as well and he can introduce himself as the state project manager for this particular project now again as you guys are aware we have several different body projects Carl is just the project manager for this one the one we have with West Piedmont is actually a different project manager and the one we had for Shentel that's since closed out was a different project manager as well. But since Rodney's not here, we'll just jump into Carl. And Carl, thanks again for coming. Carl's a Southwest Virginia guy, so he came up from Southwest Virginia to be with us today, Carroll County area and Grayson County area. But he was going to speak a little bit about his visit today and just the progress of the project if I can speak correctly talk to regarding the Zytel project but also share some information with the board and the public about the bead process and the bead program and and where we are with that and how the state has set up some dashboards on their website and so forth so We'll just jump right into that, and then we can catch Rodney with some more specific project updates for the ZYTEL project, if that's okay with you.

Sure. Welcome, Carl. It's a pleasure to meet you and to have you here.

Oh, it's a pleasure to be here.

Rodney, I see you peeking at me. I see you.

Rodney snuck in.

It is a pleasure to have you with us. You should know that when you see Steve Sandy coming, you run in the opposite direction. No, no. Because he got you in here this afternoon, didn't he?

He did. He did. And I appreciate him inviting me today.

We appreciate you being here.

I don't have these opportunities much, and I have... spoke about with the Office of Broadband how as we move forward with BEAD, I do think there should be more open communications within localities to let the localities know the progress of what we're doing with BEAD. And this is part of it too. So like Steve Sandy said, my name is Carl Caudell. I am a Telecommunications and Broadband Project Manager for the Department of Housing and Community Development for the Office of Broadband. Big, big mouthful there, but mainly just a project manager. I oversee projects, mostly in Southwest Virginia, starting from Roanoke all the way down to our partners in Lee County. So it's a big footprint and it's a very diverse area than the rest of the state. So we have mountainous terrains, not so much as you go further east, but every area has their own challenges, their own obstacles that they have to overcome. And I've been privileged to oversee this project, Zavadi 2024. As Steve said, there was a previous project manager with the shintail projects and actually came on about halfway through those and and we're still wrapping those up but those are complete you know completed just doing some stuff on the finance side to finish those up as Steve said we were doing a site visit today we are Tried to do a site visit at least once a year, so it gave me the opportunity to get down to Franklin County. I've been through here, but now I get to stop and look. And I got with Rodney with Zytel, and we looked at some of the progress that they're making with the construction. We witnessed some crews working, and they're working all doing, you know, boring underground, you know, getting houses hooked up. And we were able to see them actively work and they were doing it in a safe way. So I know, you know, with our correspondence every month, you know, we have our monthly meetings. And we stay pretty open with communications when things are going on. And I know Zytel is making some good progress. Progress is looking good. Zytel has reported around 50% complete with their project, which is very good timing-wise. You know, we have a lot of like I said, we have the cooperation between, you know, the county through Zytel and DHCD. And that brings me to want to thank you all for the support that you have given to Steve, Sandy and Lori to Zytel and also previous projects to Shintel with community with the connecting communities to high speed Internet. We know the benefits of high speed Internet. It can change people's lives. has more opportunities for work, for telehealth, telemedicine. I am actually, I don't know if you've heard of the Virginia Rural Leadership Institute. Every year they have, they choose a cohort. I'm actually a cohort for this year, for 2026. And I plan on, as my community outreach, focusing more on telehealth and telemedicine. So we've got to lay the groundwork first for access and then we have to get, then we can move on to better things. And of course, businesses are always constantly growing and the demand for high speed internet keeps increasing. so our objective with the state is to keep up with that demand to make sure that all homes businesses and community anchors throughout the Commonwealth are have access to some sort of affordable high-speed internet so overall focusing back on Franklin County You know, with finishing up with the Shentel and Zytel, Franklin County is looking really good. And then with the bead, the bead is to kind of build on what we have accomplished with body and fill in the gaps of the communities and homes that are kind of fell between the cracks and there's also we know there's new house construction sometimes those don't get on previous body projects so you know beat is designed to pick those up and we still have a future body 2026 coming up so as new demands come up as new needs we still have programs to kind of seek funding to fill in those gaps. What I want to share with you today is an update on our BEAD. We're moving through pretty rapidly through the required federal steps, and that's like getting everyone through the checklist of what is required for the federal requirements for BEAD. Pretty soon we'll be transitioning from that planning to execution to implementation. we are trying to get everybody under contract actually we want to get everybody under contract by the end of this week we'll see if we can do that and once we have the contracts completed then that starts the boots on the ground so the Timelines from Bede will be coming shortly after that. And we have developed a Bede progress hub, which is what you see on the screen here. And unlike Vaati, where we get the report of how many passings have been completed, with Bede, as we get passings complete, we can update this map in real time. So as as progress is being made, as passings are being being fulfilled, this is a public facing website that you can use. And I encourage you to use it, especially with your constituents, you know, with the public. They they always want to know, when am I when am I getting connected or when can I expect connection? So on this map, I'll try to get down into the location here. So you can see on the map where it has all projects throughout all of Virginia. And the nice thing with this, if you've got friends outside of Franklin County, they can also come here and look and you'll see, especially in Franklin County, we've got Zytel and on the western side you have SpaceX project areas. This can also go down to the address level and I'll try to zoom back in where we're at. And these little dots here all have shows where There is service or where there's plan to be service so a lot of the green dots you click on a green dot It'll tell you who's actually currently serving that area Give it just a little. You'd think the state would have faster broadband. So you can tell from this location, they just picked a random one that it's serviced by Shinto. Now, if you look at some of the purple dots, these are your bead funded areas that are, and it'll show them if they're, this is Zytel plan service. So it'll show that if they're in a bead area, shows who is the provider and then and as they get turned up this will be updated to where they show connections that have been achieved so it's a really you know I like I like maps and especially when you look at your neighbors and see where they're at and seeing if you need internet where you can expect to get connection from. So any people that coming into the area new, you know, this is another tool that the public can use to see what is available in my area and go from there. But, So like I said, this shows project progress as it's being done in real time. maybe not to the exact minute but as each month the updates come will have this populated with new information I encourage you to use the tool share the tool to all those that are you know wanting to know the progress of when to expect internet service so in closing Franklin County is in a good strong position You know, we are still continuing to fulfill our mission to provide broadband access to everyone. And I appreciate your all support, the county support, and your partners, Zytel, Shintel, in completing this project. If there's any questions, I'll be glad. If I can answer, I'll definitely try.

Carl, thank you so much. That was a great overview. I'll open up the floor to any discussion by authority members. Mr. Carter.

Thank you. Thank you, Carl. How do you access this map? Do you go to the Virginia Department of Housing Community Development to access it?

I was looking to see if I could find an active link. I don't see one. There should be one. But it's actually deployment.bead.ghcd.virginia.gov. I know it's a mouthful.

We'll provide a link on our website as well.

I was about to suggest if there's a way that you could provide the link.

We'll add it to our broadband page, but I'm looking at Kevin in the back. We might be able to also put out something just on our social media as well to let people know about the new site you guys have.

Awesome. And it's still a work in progress, too. I know like we are, you know, especially like with the Zytel where people can click on it and they see Zytel, they can click on the link. It'll take them to Zytel sign up page and they can sign up for service from there.

Any other questions, thoughts? Well, thank you so much, Carl. We certainly appreciate your time here. Thank you. And we very much appreciate your visit to the county.

Definitely. Anytime.

You're always welcome. Mr. Sandy.

I think with that we'll transition over to Rodney and let Rodney Gray from Zytel give kind of a more specific project update on their activities in the county and as Carl said I think they're timing wise around a 50% mark of their project and so I think Rodney can give us some up-to-date statistics and information on how things are going in the county.

Sure thing.

Hi, Rodney.

Good afternoon. How are you, sir? I'm good. I apologize for my tardiness.

You're fine. You're fine. It's a pleasure.

22 traffic and VDOT.

There's a lot of road work going on right now.

It's not us. I know. It's not us.

Well, it's a pleasure to have you with us.

Thank you. I don't have a presentation for you today just with everything going on with Bede and other things that are going on with us. I did not have time to put anything together, but I do have some numbers for you that I can tell you on where we're looking for the project, and we're looking pretty good. As of today, and I just talked to both engineering and construction this morning before our site visit with Carl behind me, we are 100% done with engineering, staking, and walkouts for all six pops in Franklin County. So we're completely done with that. We're 90% done with all of the make ready and permitting. Still pop six we haven't permitted and that's more still on us. We had to close out earlier permits to free up some bonding money to get the rest of them open. And we have permits well in front of us for construction. We have 116 miles, it's actually 118 miles of the 210 miles complete. and active in Franklin County for the entire 2024 body project. Pops one and two are closed out and complete, and we have submitted those pops to vdot to close out their roads and we're waiting on them to close them out so we can get that permanent money released back from the bond pops three four and five are actively under construction which is what we're looking at with carl today pop six is the only remaining pop that we haven't addressed is going to be the one that's in calloway and i had a conversation with steve this morning about what might be available for us to multiple different options Of the 2,325 eligible body passings, we have 925 completed and passed with active fiber. We have 108 current subscribers in Franklin County that are being serviced by Zytel Internet. We have 247 client leads currently signed up that are within the body footprint that we can service once the rest of the pops are activated. According to the DHCD matrix that we put together, we are at 64% completion of the entire project. It's only 50%, approximately 50% of the construction is complete. But when you count in the more, we've completed 100% of the engineering, 100% of the walkout. It's that number of 64% completed. So we're still on target to finish by the end of the year. We expect to have all six POPs lit and activated. We still have active, we have six construction crews active in Franklin County right now. Carl got out to see three of them today. Three of our active construction crews out working right around the burnt chimney and towards the Rocky Mount area from burnt chimney. we're um expecting knock on wood the bead contracts i just got off the phone with kevin who's the bead project manager for franklin county right before i came in here and he insists we will have our contract signed off on by thursday this week that he's waiting for nothing from us as a provider it's everything Internal to them and then and and that we can start engineering. We can start ordering materials We could start doing pre construction stuff. We can't do any construction until the NTIA the federal government gives us our Environmental review Documents back and our historic preservation documents, which I'm Once again, I can't be 100% positive, but we have been told and everything that we've been told is that we get categorical exemptions on all of that because we build 100% in existing VDOT right-of-ways, and none of that is under environmental or historical reviews. It's a categorical exemption, so it... should be pretty quick um but we're talking about the federal government here so it's kind of an oxymoron to use the word quick with anything with them so um how many media addresses was it in franklin county do you remember i don't have that number I don't either. I'm sorry. I mean, for some reason, the number of 4000 sticks out, but that could be completely wrong. I'm just I'm guessing I've we applied for six different states in the B program. We have jumped exponentially in the size of company that we are from what we were prior to B to what we're going to be at the end of this four year B project will be active in six different states. And I have all six states, Carl's counterparts in those other states yelling at me and talking numbers and stuff, because I'm the liaison for all of those. But we'll have, just so you know, as I tell, once we're done in four to five years, we'll be a company that's headquartered right here at Smith Mountain Lake. And we'll have active services in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. Wow.

You've come a long way.

Never. For a company that never intended to do this.

I know. I know.

We were only going to build Brandon's neighborhood because he built the house and he couldn't get Comcast to put Google TV down his driveway. And it's like, let's just do it with that $50,000. then we turn into this. Never what we expected our life to become.

So, Rodney, with all of the numbers that you've given us in the benchmarks, do you anticipate that you're going to be where you need to be year-end, barring any federal obstacles that are out of your control?

for you mean for bead yeah we think we're going to be i mean the nice thing about what what's going to be nice for franklin county and bedford county are two what i consider home counties where we're actively working right now what's going to be nice for you guys for bead is we already have the construction crews here they're working on existing body projects so when those bead contracts get signed and we get the release we'll just add on to the existing body and those construction crews will just continue working so it's going to get your bead even though the bead projects are

48 months? Is that what it is?

48 months to complete the BEAD project in Franklin County and Bedford County. We expect the BEAD projects in Franklin County and Bedford County to be finished 12 to 18 months after we sign the contracts. We're not going to take the whole time because we've got to get those crews completed here where they are and get them moved into the other counties that we're dealing with for BEAD in Virginia. Okay. Carol being one of them, which I know Carl really wants us to be down there working on our B project in Carol. So but yeah, we you know, we're in in for bead. We're going to be building in Carroll County, Franklin County, Bedford County, a little bit of Roanoke County off the top side of Franklin County. And then off of Bedford County, we're building a little bit into Campbell County. And then we have Augusta, Rockbridge, and Culpeper County. We have provisional awardees for the BEAT project.

I have a question that I'm not sure is a silly question or not, but I don't know. Between what we're accomplishing with VATI and then the B projects, is it a safe assumption, Mr. Sandy, that we're going to have all of our residents with availability with maybe those some areas that are just topographically not able to access? Will B allow us to get at that near 100% mark?

oh yeah most definitely okay you know with bead there was a change initially we were looking at fiber everywhere but then there were some changes at the federal level about those rules and so some people will through bead will get satellite coverage but they'll still have high-speed internet it just won't be a an actual fiber to their property

okay so but yeah the expectation is after all these body projects and bead projects that will be near 100 you know high speed internet coverage in the county there are some addresses even no matter how much you want to like they just have to get an exam the island in smith mount lake that's got the house on there's no possible way to get fiber that island for any type of reasonable cost

They would be satellite, I guess.

They're they're they're getting the Starlink.

Yeah, the Starlink. Yeah.

And then or I guess Amazon. I don't know who got stuff in Bedford and Franklin County of Starlink or Amazon.

We had a few of each. Yeah. And so I think the good thing for us is most of our residents will actually have a couple options at the end of this. So they won't just have one option. I remember when he will have several options.

There was one address that's basically in the northwest part of the county that was on our bead map as an eligible address that we pulled out and said, this one has to be reserved because it would have taken that run and we needed to add like nine and a half miles of fiber just to get to one house. And it was the only house that was there. We didn't even I mean, it was a house you can look at on satellite and it's in your tax records as being a house, but on satellite views, I couldn't find a driveway. I mean, how do they get here? Is it helicopter pad or something here? I don't know.

Well, I think it's very exciting. I know that the authority, you know, we and staff for sure and all of our stakeholders have been working very, very hard to to make sure that our residents are hooked up and have options. And it sounds very much like that is gonna come to fruition.

And we have completely released the upgrade to what they call XGS PON in Franklin County. So maximum speed coverages, we can offer a resident five gig internet up and download speed. And in fact, we have one subscriber in Franklin County that is buying. They purchased the five gig, five gig up, five gig down internet speed. Wow. Wow. But most of our customers are going to our two gig package, which is our most popular right now.

Okay. Do any of the authority members have any questions, comments for Rodney? Rodney, I didn't want to cut you off. Did I cut you off from your presentation?

You did not. Okay. The numbers I gave you, I mean, we're moving along. I'm happy with what we're getting accomplished, and we have no major hurdles that we need any, that we have noticed. There's no, you know, VDOT's been working well with this. We've been working well with everything that's going on. There's a couple small little issues. you know private neighborhoods you always run into some some issues with what who are you and why are you here and why is my front yard all tore up and promise we'll get it fixed like we talked about steve we have we i think restoration is is one of our biggest obstacles to get across and we have addressed that internally and we're working towards thank you getting better at that that issues any other questions comments gentlemen okay thank you so much rodney for being here with us today we greatly appreciate it one one more thing we are in the final stages of signing the um the contracts and mous with your emergency management services department good um we have talked to jeff and i have his initial um edits to the contract which edits were You know, my seven page contract turned into like 18 pages when Jeff got it back.

That's what we in government do really well. You do it really, really well. We do it.

We knock it out of the park. But we're working to get towards that so that what that does is that puts a partnership between us and emergency management so that we will provide you guys with dark fiber to as many of your tower locations for 911 so that that microwave primary connection you have between all your tower sites can become a secondary connection and your primary connection can become dark fiber. so in exchange he's allowing us to to partner in some different emergency management services buildings and some different towers and pop sites to to service the citizens out of so it's a it's a win-win situation for us and for the county that's great that's great thank you thank you so much thank you thanks appreciate it mr sandy

was going to follow up with site restoration you know is just one of those issues with a lot of these projects but the two-year drought really doesn't help that either you know trying to get grass to grow in an area where they're not watering it and they don't really have the means to water some of these areas so that's just one of the challenges that that comes comes with the project and it's just exacerbated by the the drought that we're in so but otherwise you know I think this project is moving along very well and you know it seems like we will probably by the end of the year really have this and most all the bead projects associated with Zytel would be completed as well so we're going to have a celebration once we get towards that hundred percent mark we are going to have a celebration gentlemen

I know what you're thinking yeah okay so Mr. Sandy is that all you have this afternoon sir okay I will open up the floor for any comments questions concerns from the authority members anything on your mind I would just say that I read that article in the Cardinal News this morning about Bedford pulling out from the River Street deal I don't know what I'm looking for on that maybe a

Maybe someone who knows more about it would say, hey, Nick, we shouldn't follow that path.

I can hook you up.

Maybe we should. I can hook you up. I'd like to know a little bit more. Okay. I read the article, but that didn't tell me much. No.

Yeah, all I'll say is that that is a different project than the one we're in. Carl, you may know, I think that it's like eight or ten counties in that particular project that West Piedmont is doing. And it's kind of similar in some ways, but different in other ways. And so I have a meeting later this week with the state to talk about our River Street project. So maybe I'll have some updates for you, you know, soon. Cool.

That'd be great.

Okay, well, hearing no other comments, I will entertain a motion to adjourn the Broadband Authority meeting.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those like, sign. And all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And that carries unanimously. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Carl. Thank you, Rodney.

Thank you.

It's so nice to have you all with us this afternoon. It's a beautiful day outside, so I know you're making some sacrifices to be here, but we do appreciate your attendance this afternoon. I will officially call the meeting to order at 3 p.m. We will have our invocation offered by Mr. Meredith, followed with the pledge by Mr. Quinn. Mr. Meredith, before you do the invocation, may I ask for an inclusion in your prayer?

I think I'm probably going to include it, but go right ahead.

Okay. I want to make sure that we're keeping in prayer the Eastlake Church community and the family of the deceased individual, and also Walter Mitchell, who's Leland Mitchell's son that had the house fire the other night. So I would ask that we keep them in prayer as we move forward. So if you would stand, please.

Let us pray. Lord, as we come to you this evening, we appreciate the opportunity to gather amongst us and the people who have joined us this evening. And Lord, we ask you to keep the families and friends and our neighbors across the lake at East Lake in your prayers and hold them in your hands and comfort them as they recover from the tragic accident that happened up there and give them the strength. And also, look out for all of our military, firefighters, law enforcement, EMS, too. We're reminded each day how they put their lives in jeopardy as they go out to serve their communities. And we just ask you to keep their families and them in your arms. And prayers too. And as we head home this evening, please keep us safe travels. And Lord, we ask all this in your name. Amen.

Amen. OK, thank you, gentlemen. OK, the next thing on our agenda is approval of the agenda itself. Are there any requests from supervisors to adjust the agenda for any additions you would like to see? OK, hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda as submitted.

So moved.

Is there a second, please?

Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I like sign, and that carries unanimously. Thank you all very much. OK, Mr. Sandy, I'm going to turn this next very important item on our agenda over to you for introductory remarks.

Sure, thank you, Madam Chair. We have a special event today just to recognize one of our agencies and departments. Each year, the Virginia Association of Counties has a program where they give out awards to various counties for different categories for different reasons and so for the last several years we've been fortunate to to get one and sometimes two of these awards in a year so this year we do have Julie Whitlock from from Vacos here. Julie is I'll say probably the newest employee at VACO, so kind of her first time visiting us here for this purpose. She did mention being here about a year ago for a wedding in the area, but for her first presentation representing VACO, here to present the award today. And I won't let out the secret yet. I'll let her kind of explain the award, some of the criteria, and how they developed the program and issued this. So, Julie, welcome, and thanks for being here with us today.

Thank you, it's a pleasure. Madam Chair, members of the board, good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here with you. And as mentioned, I'm Julie Whitlock, the new general counsel for the Virginia Association of Counties, VACO. And for the benefit of those in the audience who may not be familiar with the association, VACO has existed since 1934 to be the voice of the Commonwealth's counties. We support 95 of the Commonwealth's counties through advocacy in the state legislature and at the federal level. We educate elected officials through programs, events, and resources. And we empower counties through numerous opportunities for local leaders to enhance their leadership abilities and grow their skill sets. Today, I am here to talk about our Achievement Award Program. The program was established in 2003 to recognize counties that have adopted innovative approaches to providing public services and to identify programs that can serve as models for other counties to emulate. This year, VACO received 103 entries and selected 40 winners from 26 counties. Today's award is Franklin's eighth award in the 24-year history of the awards program. Last year, you may recall Franklin won an award with a program titled The Franklin County Public Library Reimagines Its Role in Community Health. So this year, entries were judged in the following areas, whether the entry offered an innovative solution to a problem, whether it promoted cooperation with local, state, federal entities and or private entities in addressing a problem, and whether it provides a model that other local governments may learn from or can implement in their own localities. i'm pleased today to present franklin county with the 2026 achievement award for the virginia cooperative extension franklin county local food guide and gardening directory this directory stands as a premier example of how a community can elevate agriculture as a cornerstone of its economy while fostering agritourism strengthening small businesses and improving food access the This initiative reflects visionary leadership and deep community collaboration. The guide connects consumers directly with local producers, keeps food dollars circulating within the community, strengthens farm viability, and shows a steadfast commitment to sustaining Franklin County's agricultural legacy. The guide was established in 2011 and now has more than 4,000 copies printed annually. Residents and visitors alike can easily access information about local farms, farmers markets, and food-based enterprises, transforming awareness into action and support. The success of the Local Food Guide Directory, as we are told by Carol Haynes, who submitted the application, is the result of strong leadership complemented by sustained community collaboration. Her submission recognized the support of the county administrators, partner organizations, committee members, and specifically volunteer members of the committee who contribute more than 200 volunteer hours annually. including Mary Thurman and Martha Flora, and Franklin County's own tourism director, Kevin Tosh, for providing significant guidance and leadership. The Franklin County Local Food Guide Directory exemplifies the intent of the VACO Achievement Awards, and I am happy to present this and congratulate the county for this excellent program. We look forward to your participation in next year's program. And I understand we may have a few folks here to receive the award. Do we have Mary Thurmond?

Right, I think we have Carol and I think all the folks from the Extension Service. Come on up front and we'll meet you down in the front for a photograph.

Thank you so much.

It's been nice to be here with you.

Congratulations.

Would you all like to say anything?

For our support over the years, we'd like to thank the administration. We'd like to thank Kevin. We'd most importantly like to thank our Master Gardeners, because without them, we would not have had this local food guide directory. They have been the driving force. Extension is a proud partner with the Master Gardeners, and we appreciate everything.

I am.

OK, what a wonderful celebration. It's always nice when VACO acknowledges all the hard work going on here in the county. And it's such a privilege for us to be involved with VACO. So Julie, thank you so much for making the trip down. Give our regards to the staff. OK, next on the agenda, we have our consent agenda items. Gentlemen, I would ask if there are any items on the consent agenda that you would like pulled for further discussion. Mr. Tatum?

I would like to pull item number three for discussion, please.

OK. Anything else, gentlemen? I'll pull number 10. Number 10? Mr. Meredith, did you have something?

Actually, those are the two I was going to pull to. OK.

Anything else, gentlemen? Mr. James?

Number 8, please.

Pardon me? Pool number 8.

Number 8. OK. All right. So what we will do is I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda for items 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 as presented. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And that carries. And we'll begin with our pulled items. We'll begin with number three, the reassessment RFP approval. Remind me who, Mr. Tatum, you pulled that. Okay.

I wanted to bring that out for discussion. Do we have any options on this? I mean, I see where Wampler and Eames have been purchased by another group, but I just want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can to make sure that the last fiasco that we had a couple of years ago with our assessments doesn't take place again. Do we have any What are our options on this? I mean, as far as bidding it out, is there anyone else left to bid on it?

Well, we did. And Brian, maybe help me if I need some help. But it was put out for bid, and we really only had one respondent, which is Vision, which my understanding is the Vision group has purchased two of the previous companies who used to provide those services are now kind of one together under the vision umbrella. So I think for us, we did attempt to put that out for a competitive process, but really only had the one respondent. And I think across Virginia, there's only a few that are actually doing this work as a group.

How many localities around, I know, I think Roanoke County maybe are doing their assessments internally. Are you aware of any other jurisdictions that are starting to do this?

Well, I know Roanoke County does theirs on an annual basis. I'm not sure about Roanoke City, but I assume that they do their own as well internally. Most of the others that I'm aware of are still doing them with outside consultants at this point.

I just want to make sure that I mean all of us you know remember a couple years ago, people coming in and having assessments that were just astronomical. I mean, just want to make sure that the citizens get a fair and accurate assessment and that we do everything that we can to make sure that we secure that for our citizens.

But Tim, do you have someone that can prove that their assessment, their last assessment was unfair?

well there is an avenue for them to take for that if they oh yeah and I think a lot of them did and a lot of them you know received some reductions on it but just going but the the general perception that the citizens you know made I mean seeing your real estate values go up seventy 80% in one time is huge. And I know the market was crazy. I mean, the real estate market was crazy. And it hasn't come down. But seeing that big a jump, and that's something else we might need to look at. Right now, we assess every four years. and we get hit with these huge spikes, maybe we need to look at changing the way we, the timing on our assessments. Maybe two years to alleviate these huge spikes, whether it's up or down. I know Roanoke County does every year. I'm not saying that we need to go that far, but maybe we need to. to take a serious look at adjusting the way we do our assessments so that we don't float along at a certain level for four years. And during that four years, the market has gone sky high. Then all of a sudden, we see this huge spike. I think that people deserve to see that we're doing everything they can to show that we're giving them a fair assessment. And I think a lot of people felt a couple of years ago that they were just way too high. You know, we did quite a pretty good big adjustment on the tax rate to allow for that. But I just want to make sure that we're doing everything that we can. And if this is the only company that's available to us, if they're the only ones that bid on it, then, you know, we're kind of tied to that. But I think we need to look into the future, and maybe we need to adjust the way we're doing our assessments.

I think it's very important for our board to remember that the distinction of real market is what we're trying to obtain. And I know people felt that way, and I understand what you're saying, Tim, but feelings have nothing to do with real market. And you and I had this discussion the other day.

We did.

And there were talks when we did the last assessment of a real estate bubble, and there's no proof that that was a bubble. Real estate values have not gone down. And it is by state code that every four years we have an assessment. And it's just to get to the real market value. It's not to drive anyone's taxes up. That's right. is to get to a real market value. And there are avenues to take if you believe your assessment is unfair. But to go to assessing more than every four years, that's just going to cost more money. And it's going to make you, instead of you getting that three year break when real estate did go up, now we're going to hit you in between. I think the way it is now is about as fair of a shake as anybody can get. And if you feel that your assessment is wrong, there's avenues to take. I'm sure Margaret and them will happily assist you.

Mr. Carter, if you'd hang on.

Yeah, two comments. I have friends that live in Roanoke. They complain to me consistently about this yearly assessment, and their taxes go up every year. I think that opens the door for people to get hit every year with a tax increase. And as far as a bubble, I know of a piece of property that sold recently. The worst piece of land in Ferrum assessed at $41,000. Some guy came in there and paid $89,900 for it, cash. I think things are still going up.

Yeah. Yeah, I think I think that's a good observation. Mr. Jamison.

Steve, how did their price on the response to the RFI, how did it compare to last year, so the 2024?

To 2024? I don't know. I have to look to Brian to see if he has those numbers.

I don't have the exact number, but it was roughly $900,000 in 2024, so the 2028s went up roughly $200,000 or $300,000 from the proposal. But when you look at a four-year reassessment, that's not really astronomical with what we've seen in the market, nor what it would take for us to staff internally to do it differently. It was an increase, but to be honest, I don't necessarily know that it was unexpected based on what we're seeing. I will clarify, you know, we did advertise. We put it in the local paper. We put it on the statewide e-procurement system. So it was as many eyeballs on it as we could get. I think, you know, as Mr. Sandy said, there's just not a lot of people doing this level of work. The other thing that we require is In our RFP, Ms. Torrance was adamant that that was in there, and she's correct. And I think the board would agree that you have to physically visit every property. Well, that also is going to limit who can competitively bid on this project because they're not going to have crews in this end of the state. So if they were doing it digitally or with GIS or flying drones or things, you have other options. But because we require physically going to every parcel, if we have 40,000, then that's going to limit your crews that would be able to issue a competitive bid as well. And a lot of them, they are booked because, as you said, most every locality around us does this method. So they kind of have their book of business, for lack of a better way to say it. So there's only so many that would be able to cycle. And the only two that issued a proposal in 2024 for the 2024 assessment, they were both purchased by Vision Government Solutions, as Mr. Sandy said. So I don't know that this result was unexpected by us, but... i think for us those right now are the options we have and certainly with board's direction i think the process is roughly 18 months if you look at the schedule and the rfpm it's going to take 18 months for the work to be done so if you want to do it more frequently you're pretty much going to be in a constant state of reassessment like you do every two years something like that or you cycle it maybe differently you don't look at every parcel every time you do a an assessment there would be some ways to look at it but um Those are all the things that went into the process and the discussions that Ms. Torrance and myself, along with some of the vision folks, have had just in preparation. Happy to answer anything else.

Mr. Meredith.

Yes. I've got concerns as I was reading through these highlights and things. And in a couple months, I asked about the staff, if we've done this in-house, what would it run as how we do. I do know, as Mr. Carter was just saying, you know, my question is if we did this in-house, I'm going to use this for example, only, you know, south of 40 could be done, you know, two years and then this two years, you know, to make it easier. But I guess some of the things I'm concerned as I look through this is we get a bill of how much is going to be plus $50 per parcel charge for new construction. So I guess that's already an addition. It talks about this software program that the Commissioner of Revenue already uses So my question is it says they'll make it user friendly So if we do this in-house as an option, I know it's we're out of time right now. I'm looking down the road We already seems like we got a good software program that could help in-house Another concern I'm looking over here as I started going through this is I They give us a rate for so many, let's see, let's see, it's a rate of $900 per diem if they give us 180 man hours for informal review hearings. So we go over that, we're gonna get charged. 1,100 for commercial properties. They'll provide two days of training at $1,400 to assist the county. There's another litigation, they're gonna give us 36 mandates defensive values. Once we go over 36 mandates, it's billed at a rate of $1,400 a day. So I'm just a little concerned as this bid came in, How close are we going to stay to this original bid? Or looking at all these additions, they filled in allowance. Are we going to get a $200,000 or $300,000 bill at the end? Because when you bid something, you bid it to cover what you think is going to happen. We shouldn't get no change orders if you're in the construction world. There shouldn't be a change order. This has come into it. So those are some of the concerns. I don't know if y'all can elaborate. You know, do you feel comfortable that that's going to cover these hours they've billed in, that's going to cover what we need? Or, you know, I just don't like opening this right there knowing that the taxpayers could actually get a bill at the end.

Yeah, I mean, if Margaret, if you don't mind, I would defer to Margaret as maybe the best explanation on your question about the change orders there could be kind of what was the experience during the last assessment, and maybe Margaret could address that.

And I'm kind of interested with the $50 per new permit. I mean, we should pretty much know that addition now, or is that new permits as they're going through the appraisal? You know, it comes through there. Is that automatic $50 we'll have to pay moving forward?

Okay, thank you all. I appreciate your questions, and I have with me today John Atkinson with Vision, and he can better explain your questions, your answers, your questions.

OK, so can you hear me OK? So going back to your original questions, let's kind of work backwards. You were talking about the appeals and the informal appeals. Yes. When we put together the proposal, we based it on the metrics that we've seen across the state and other counties that are on a four-year cycle. Typically, the percentage rate is roughly 5% to 10%. that come in for that, and less than half a percent goes to the Board of Equalization or beyond. So we built that into the proposal. If we had built in a higher percentage or an open percentage that said we would do 100%, if that's what you got, the cost would go up exponentially for the county. So trying to contain cost, we put in what we think is adequate to cover what you would have. avoid any overages and then if there is any overages or if there is anything that's going to click additional costs the county would need to approve that in writing before we would do so it's not like we're going to finish the project and say here's your land book thank you for working with us and here's an additional two hundred thousand dollar bill The other question you were asking about new construction, right? So new construction is not something we can predict because we have no idea how many permits you're going to get a year. You could get a spike in that if there's a remodeling phase, that sort of thing. So that's something that you're paying anyway to collect outside of the reassessment. So that's where that fee comes in. only on new construction and permits so that would depend on how many you get again we can't quantify that at this point because we just don't know what's gonna happen over the next 18 months on that sense I think I did I answer all of your I think so I mean the building permit I mean you're gonna look at that land anyways to do a value so I don't understand paying extra because when you go to the lot

you thought it was going to be a piece of land. All of a sudden, there was a house there. You're still evaluating that.

Yeah, well, because we have to do a couple of things. So it's not only just going out and obviously the land. It's the house. It's measuring the new addition and measuring the change. providing a value for that change, entering that into the Canvas system so it's recorded into the system, reporting it to Margaret so she has it as well. There's a lot of other steps that go into just going there to the property. And we're going based on the permits. So for example, if we start data collection here in the next two months, a permit may not be completed until the end of the year and we would have to go back and do that. So that really would be two site visits, which is another reason why we do it as a separate component.

Okay. And one last question. I probably know the answer. If you don't use all this built in 180 man days or anything, would we get a credit? I mean, because if we go over it, we gotta pay it. So if we don't use it, could we get a credit?

I understand the question, but we still have to allocate the resources to the county and we can't use them for anything else until that's done. So there's no way really to credit it back in that way. It's a common question, but because we have to have the people available, ready to go, because we just don't know when the appeals open up. We just have to assume you're gonna get that 10% and we have to staff accordingly for that.

So if they're on standby, does that count towards 180 man days?

I'm sorry?

So you were just talking about you have to have people available and on standby if that arises, correct?

Basically dedicated to the project at that point.

So we got 180 man days. If they're just sitting in the office waiting to see if we get a phone call, are we being charged for that day?

No, you wouldn't because it's built into the contract now. But it would go against your time frame of it.

OK. But no credit if we don't use?

Unfortunately, no.

But we got to pay if we go over.

We also use that excess for any appeals between reassessments. They would cover that as well.

Well, I think there's three. Like I said, 180 days for that. And then down here is 36 million days defensive values. I mean, there's quite a bit of different scenario days built into this. So I mean, that's almost, I'm right there at 216 days built in for the values and the other things. And I think there's one more. So I was just curious, if we have to pay over, do we get a credit if we don't use all, you know, if we only use 100 out of the 200 days, do we get 100 days back? You know, it just seems fair to me, but I understand and I appreciate you answering the questions.

I'd like to take the opportunity. You were mentioning public engagement and in the appeal process, there are three opportunities that the property owners will have to ask questions about the reassessment and about the work that we've done. We would encourage people to take advantage of the informal appeals. That's the easiest on them. They will be there'll be options for in person. There'll be options for virtual. There'll be options for phone calls and emails. It's whatever they want to do. But we will be here in person to do this. We would encourage them to be part of that process. And we would encourage you as the board to encourage those residents to come to us when they have questions, because we have the data. We can look at what was done and we want them to be a part of it in that in that process. And again, that the informal appeal is easiest on them. The effort it takes for them, for the other two, it grows. So if they can, when they get their letters next spring, they have the questions, certainly reach out to us. We'll schedule a time. We'll listen to what they have. We will research it if we need to. We'll make changes if we need to, but we want their input.

I have a follow up to that, if I may. One of the things that I had highlighted when I reviewed the proposal, your menu of options, which are obviously, I think, things that are excluded from the RFP process, but extras if we so chose to go and include those. One of the things that was a lesson learned for me with our last reassessment, and there were so many complexities and a lot of upset residents for obvious reasons. Now, was the information incorrectly and egregiously done wrong? I'm not making those assertions. One thing that I liked was that there is a planning piece in here. And I would like to ask my colleagues, What would happen if we would offer a community meeting that's informative, not Q&A, but where the community could come in and you all could give a presentation explaining the process, explaining the expectations that property owners should have, explaining the expectations that Margaret as Commissioner of Revenue, you have, and what the impacts are to the extent that you, and a lot of this is not predictable, but could be foreseeable.

Yes, we would support that. It would be very hard for us to give you any sort of reliable percentage of what you may increase or down at this point. I understand that. That could happen really after the notices go out, but we would support that. And as part of our proposal, we are going to set up a website for the residents to access information about the reassessment. Margaret will vet that before it does, and a brochure that anybody who walks in can be handed as well.

Yeah, and I guess from where I'm coming from, communication here in the county is diverse. People have different methodologies of how they wish to get their information, whether it's social media, internet, physically buying a paper, what have you, word of mouth. My question is really based in large part that sometimes when you gather our citizens together and they can hear it from one source and they can hear it collectively and at the same time, to me, I've seen that be of great benefit to our constituencies. And to me, getting in front of some of this stuff might help them understand their bill when they get it. And if they don't, then them involving themselves in the process that you just articulated.

And we would support that. We've found that the overall project is much better if the public is better informed from the beginning. So we would support meetings like that. But I just wanted to point out that we have these other options that we're going to do automatically with Mark.

I would like to ask my colleagues about your thoughts on that.

I like it a lot. I think it would save us money on the appeal process because I think a lot of people, they just don't understand how it works. And I think back to the last assessment we had, I got a call from a person that does a lot of appraisals, residential appraisals, and his phone was ringing off the hook. And he said the first question he asked the people, he said, would you sell your house for that number? Well, no, I wouldn't that's too low. Well, there's your answer. I shouldn't do the appeal, right? So so I think it would help I like it a lot and I think it would help a lot.

Thank you. Mr. Mr. Tatum, you're in support.

I think that would be helpful.

Mr. Jamison. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Mr. Carter.

Yes, ma'am. And for the record, we don't do this just because we want to. It is required by state code.

It is, and it's done through the commissioner's office as your constitutional officer. You're elected by the people. I mean, I know the last time, because the process is complex and some people don't Sometimes it's just hard to understand it all. I think some people think we're up here pulling them outside of hats and just basically saying this is what your property needs to be worth with it not being data driven or through your office. And that's just not the way it works. So I think the more we can inform, the better off our citizens will perhaps be in a position to look at their upcoming bills. Mr. Mitchell, your thoughts.

I'm fine with that if that's what you all want to do. But, you know, I'll say, like I said before, at the end of the day, we set the tax rate. All they're doing is telling you what your property's worth. That's right. Now, I don't want the value of my property going down. I want it going up. Yeah. So...

It's about understanding.

It is about understanding, but at the same time, there was such a fit thrown about the last assessment. And every quarter when that real estate thing comes out and compares waterfront properties on the lake to our current reassessment, we have been under that from the day it came out. From the very day the last assessment came out, we were under it. And it just is what it is. It's not our fault. It's not their fault. It's fair market value.

Yeah, but again, that's an educational piece. Sure. I can give you that today. Mr. Meredith, what is your thinking?

I think the more transparency and more informed public can be, the better off we all are, so I'm supportive.

So I just want to make sure that if we go into this direction and work with staff and Margaret, we'll have to get an idea of exactly what we want. It'll be an additional cost, I'm assuming, because it's on a menu, versus it's not an additional cost?

No, it's been an ask from Margaret from day one.

Okay. I wish somebody had told me that.

Well, we do all we can, and they've come up with a lot of really good information to put on the website. We're going to have a lot of stuff that people can research to give details and processes. One thing I don't want to get into is people asking wanton percentages.

No, I understand. And we can, all of that, the parameters can be set up so that it is strictly an informational session. And we are doing our very best on behalf of our citizens. And I feel a real obligation to that.

And I think it's a good idea, but like I said, Mr. Atkinson has put a really good web page together to go on our website that will explain a lot of the process, brochures that they'll hand out. I'm going to have a letter on the process that I'm going to have the appraisers hand out. And so we're going to get the word out best we can, but meetings would be, in addition to that, would be good.

Well, I appreciate the supervisor's support to do this. So where I will leave this, Mr. Sandy, is if you would work with the commissioner's office and with the firm here to set up what you think would be the timing, what it is, the framework, what you recommend, and all the logistical aspects of that. Is that fair enough? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I was going to ask if you had an idea of generally what you think a good time frame for something like that would be based on your schedule and timetable.

I think a little later in the project in the sense of the way the information is fresh for the citizens before the value notices go out, I think that would help. So maybe look at something. a little later this year, but we can work with you guys on picking a date that works for you.

So maybe fall timeframe or something like that?

Thank you all very much. Any other questions for these folks? Okay. Thank you all so much for entertaining our questions and comments. Thank you. Margaret, we appreciate you. Thank you. I think you know that.

Thank you very much.

OK. I'm inclined, because some of these things have a little heaviness to them, I'm inclined to go ahead and ask for a motion for just number three that was pulled, if you're ready, to take action on approving number three, if there's a motion to do so.

So moved.

Mr. Carter? Second. Mr. Jamison?

Second.

OK. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, like son?

Nay. No.

All right, so we've got two. Not in disapproval, I guess you should say. So it's five to two. And that carries. OK, very good. All right, number eight. I'll refresh my memory. Who pulled number eight? Mr. Jamison.

last at our last work session I expressed to you the board you know my doubts with this are my problems and I still stand on that and the main reason I want to pull it out I want a roll call vote because I want to make sure my district knows that I oppose this

OK. That's fair enough.

That's fair enough.

OK. Any other comments, questions on item number eight? OK. I will entertain a motion to approve number eight.

I'll make a motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. So we'll do a roll call vote, Madam Clerk, if you don't mind.

Provisor Jamison?

Move.

Supervisor Mitchell? Yes. Supervisor Carter? Yes. Supervisor Meredith? Yes. Supervisor Quinn? Yes. Supervisor Tatum? Yes. And Chair Smith? Yes. Thank you.

And Mr. Jamison, thank you for your thoughts on that, as always. OK, we will move down to number 10. Mr. Quinn, I believe you pulled number 10.

I THOUGHT IT WOULD ACTUALLY BE HELPFUL TO GIVE THE AUDIENCE A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS FOR THOSE THAT HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO READ IT. EVERY TUESDAY MEETING OF THE MONTH THERE'S A PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND THERE HAVE BEEN TWO OPPORTUNITIES OR TWO RULES. ONE PERSON CAN GET UP AND SPEAK FOR THREE MINUTES. Or if that person has a group, and a group is defined as two or more people, that group can have one person speak for five minutes. And so the proposed amendment is to eliminate that five-minute opportunity. So in the future, one person could speak for three minutes. It'd be very simple. There's no group opportunity. And so I just wanted to mention, I was really torn about this because on one hand, I see it as being more efficient to eliminate the five minute rule for a group. However, it feels like constituents have become very active and they're speaking more and they're coming to us more and they're giving us more feedback. And so it just feels bad to me at this time to restrict the ability for a group of people to be represented by one person to speak for five minutes so so just in general i'm opposed to eliminating that provision which would uh it would disallow a group having one representative who would speak for five minutes thank you mr quinn are there any other comments

Yes, Madam Chair. I got the same concern. I got two parts, really. We started on this in January at our organizational meeting, and we put this off a month because we want to work on some details. And I know we did a lot of consideration. So I guess one concern I have is four months later, we're already making a change, and I'm not really

I would say.

Sure, that. But if the change is made, and that's part I just was concerned because I think it does save time instead of four people speaking for 12 minutes, one person at five. But also, if we're going to do that, I want clarification if the board decides. on page six it says in this discretion the chair may grant five minutes to the sole representative speaking for groups is that going to be eliminated and also on page seven under public hearings it also says you could do five minutes there so are we eliminating the five minutes in all three of those or i i think I guess my part is why we had a sudden change. And if we are, are we going to eliminate all three of those sections or just one section? Because the one falls under public comments under section B, which has been highlighted, and then also section C, and then under public hearing. So I just want clarification so people know why I can't speak five minutes here, but I can speak five minutes over here.

And Mr. Meredith, I think it's fair enough for me to say, with you just having come on the board in January, this has been a topic that I think most of my colleagues, we've talked about this for a couple of years. And we've been up and down with it and really just never taken any action on it. But I just thought that this discussion was something we needed to address once and for all. Because I've been getting feedback from other colleagues here at the dais. Mr. Carter.

I think following up on Mike's comments, we need to understand the difference between public comment versus a public hearing. I think a public hearing is a little different situation than the public comment we have earlier in the meeting. And I've had a few of my constituents complain that they got tired of waiting to speak because it drug on some people getting five minutes some getting three so to me i think three minutes is fair for everybody and perhaps if the board wanted to we could limit public hearing to three minutes um public comments three minutes and then under public hearing if it was a verified group we could offer them the five minute option

Yeah, that would be something.

As an alternative. Yeah.

No, I just think something I heard was to give more people opportunity to speak. But if we do five minutes, then it's not going to get everybody. You know, I'm just kind of filtering where just it's clear and simple. And I understand what you're saying, Supervisor Carter, too, on that part. Public hearing may be different from public comments. So I just...

Mr. Mitchell?

For my part, it should be three minutes across the board. It's not fair. There's no way to decide someone who didn't think they were part of the group, and they come up to talk, and it's not fair to you to have to try and hash that out. And it has been abused. It has. There's no arguing that it has been abused. And there's people who are wanting to speak, and then all of a sudden they were part of a group, didn't know they were part of a group. It's too much of a mess to try and manage. And every person that's out there that wants to speak, if they want their three minutes, they can have it. And that's just a fair way, and it's manageable that way.

Mr. Tatum?

I agree with Mr. Mitchell. I think that we should treat everybody fairly. And if we give one person three minutes, we should give everyone the same. And like you said, it's hard. Someone comes in, just because they're sitting in a particular area in the room, they get associated with a group. And then all of a sudden, they don't feel like that they have an opportunity to speak. I think we give everyone time. equal time and across the board.

Mr. Jamison, do you have any thoughts?

I'm good with that. Mr. Wood, Ms. Mitchell, Mr. Tatum, that seems like the fairest way to me.

OK. Mr. Quinn, did you have any feedback? OK, because you've already stated your case. And Mr. Meredith, you have as well. So the only thought that I have as we were discussing this was, from my perspective, when you have one person speaking on behalf of a group of people, then I'm not getting the benefit sitting up here hearing from each of the citizens. Their testimony, their comment and feedback to the board is going to be limited to what that appointed individual conveys. I want to hear from each citizen. And I don't care how long I have to sit here. I want to make sure that I am hearing from you. And giving it to somebody else on your behalf, I think we can do better than that. If it's the board's pleasure to keep it, I have no problem with that. I'm just in pursuit of trying to make sure that the comments are transparent, that when somebody makes a comment on behalf of a group, I don't know that I feel good that that group would concur with everything that's being said. So I want to hear from each of you. That's kind of where I came down on this. So having said that, and this item being pulled, I will entertain a motion on number 10. I'm sorry.

I just want clarification, please, before we do this, please. So the motions will be made is to cross the board in those two extra sections. I just mentioned we're going to change that if that's the motion.

I haven't heard the motion. So whoever wants to make the motion.

I will make that motion. I make a motion to approve the amendment as stated and including on page six section C under public comment and public hearing. Section B will also be changed to three minutes per speaker. And page seven. Yes, that was Section C on page 7. That was B. Section B. Yes. Correct. So all three of us.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Meredith. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. All those in favor? Madam Clerk, if you would do a roll call on this, please.

Supervisor Mitchell? Yes. Supervisor Carter? Yes. Supervisor Meredith? Yes. Supervisor Quinn?

No.

Supervisor Tatum? Yes. Supervisor Jamison? Yes. And Chair Smith? Yes.

All right. Thank you all very much for your feedback on these items. So we now have adopted all of the items on the consent agenda, and they stand approved. Next item is an action item we've been asked to undertake, which is the middle school generator award approval, the bid award approval, Mr. Sandy.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I think this item is related to a grant that was received to purchase a generator to go at the Ben Franklin Middle School. The generator primarily will help serve that facility in a better capacity during emergencies, power outages and so forth. It acts as a shelter. for the county. But having the generator there on site will also allow the schools in times of power outages and so forth to be able to keep the school running for those as well. So kind of as a dual purpose. And so we're You know, we were successful in getting the grant funding, and I believe it was $705,000 of grant funding that we were able to get, so we're thankful for that funding. And so just looking for the board to move forward with the contract approval. So we do need action on that and look for your authority there. The other item is the school board I think will be taking up at their next meeting a memorandum of understanding relative to the maintenance of that generator since it'll be housed there on the school property as well.

Yeah, I have had, I think Mr. Mitchell and I both with our monthly meetings, it was raised, given that this item is in the school's budget, since It's a county public safety inclusion, if you will, to our program. Why are the schools paying for the maintenance? Why isn't the county paying for it? That's a discussion I've yet to have with the appropriate people, whoever that would be. But I'm interested to know, Mr. Sandy, if that's something that we need to discuss now, or should it be more germane when it comes up for the budget discussions next year, given we've already adopted a budget?

Yeah, I think the maintenance would be part of their budget. I mean, part of our thought process is since it's on the school facility, they have access to the facility rather than us having someone come in and do preventive maintenance on that structure or that piece of equipment. seemed better that the county's paying the local share to put it there for the for the initial cost to put it there and then just the preventive maintenance it would be part of the school's routine budget just like just like they probably have at other facilities that the school has are there any questions or comments on this item

I just got one, Madam Chair. So out of 940,000, which you award, 75% is federal share. Is that adjusted with this contract amount, or is the federal part going to do 75% of the 940?

No, unfortunately, that portion goes down as well. So their portion went down. Our portion went down, too. So that's fine. Okay. I just... But yeah, it's kind of awarded up to that amount, but luckily through the bidding process, that number was accessed.

Okay, well I gotta try to save it all over there.

Okay, hearing no other inquiries, I'll entertain a motion to approve the middle school generator bid award.

I make a motion to approve the award of contractor Jameson Electric for the Benjamin Franklin Middle School emergency shelter generator project in the amount of $772,770 and authorize the county administrator and the county attorney to execute associated contract documents.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay. Mr. Jamison, please.

Before we vote, I'd like to make a statement here. Of course, the low bidder is my former company. My brother and I started this company back in about 1969 but since then my retirement I have no longer any ownership interest in it at all. I talked to the county attorney he advised me that as a legal matter voting on this contract would not be a conflict of interest under the conflict of inner statute. However, I am concerned that citizens might not be aware that I no longer own the company and therefore to avoid appearance of impropriety.

Impropriety. Thank you.

I'm going to abstain from voting on this motion.

Thank you, Mr. Jamieson. We very much appreciate that. OK. So we've got a motion and a second on the floor.

Madam Clark, if you would please. Supervisor Carter?

Yes.

Supervisor Tatum?

Yes.

Supervisor Quinn?

Yes.

Supervisor Mitchell? Yes. Supervisor Meredith? Yes. Chair Smith? Yes. And Mr. Jamieson is abstaining. Yes. Thank you very much. All right, gentlemen. Very good.

Next on our agenda, we have asked Rob Mann with AEP to be here with us today, primarily to discuss the water levels at Smith Mountain Lake. I would just preface this, well, number one, Rob, thank you for being here. You were very kind to accept our invitation. I think suffice it to say, we have surpassed even that 20-year record for drought, this is exceeding that even, I believe. And it's at a point now that it is impacting the economy in my district, which is very important to the overall county budget. And so things are getting to a point that it's got all of our attention. And the citizens are rightfully, they don't know what's up and what's down. There's a lot of complexities involved, you know, with AEP and with PGM. and FERC with regard to what you can do, how you can do it, and when. So again, I thought this would be an opportunity for you to share some information with our citizens and inform us about the current state of affairs and what expectations and then potential mitigations and if there are, you know, are they built into those triggers. I think that it's just a fair across the board request is what we'd like to hear from you on.

I appreciate the opportunity to be here, Chairman Smith and board members and county staff. So thank y'all for allowing us to be here. I do have some technical experts from our hydro team here as well. Brandon Littleton, our plant manager for Hydro and Wind. Joshua Blake, our maintenance superintendent senior. and also Dwayne Beaver, energy production superintendent, are also here with us. So I'll go through the presentation first. If there's some questions that we really need our technical experts to address, we'll bring them up and can address the questions. But we are absolutely aware of the economic impact that this project. We're very proud of the Smith Mountain Lake Dam. It is an ingenious plan, what they did with the pump storage. So just some of the history of it. It was built in the 1960s along the Roanoke River, has two dams and reservoirs. So Smith Mountain and Leesville created a unique pump storage system that provides electricity for the entire region. It helps drive the surrounding areas economy, as you mentioned, also a focal point for tourism and outdoor activities. Our pump storage project generates power by passing water through the Smith Mountain Lake turbine generators and discharging into Leesville Lake. The water is retained in Leesville until it's pumped back to Smith Mountain for reuse in Smith Mountain or there is some downstream that we allow out of Leesville Lake. There is no set schedule for operation. Typically generation happens when demand for electricity is high and it's pumped back into the Smith Mountain project, the Smith Mountain Lake area when demand is low. So operation can change hourly depending on demand. Next, let's see. I'm sorry. I didn't scroll through my. I'll skip that one. I already ran through that one. I'm sorry, folks.

That's OK.

Is it down? Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Steve. So the Appalachian Power Project is licensed to operate through the Smith Mountain Project by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. So that's FERC, which includes both Smith Mountain and Leesville Lakes. We have an obligation under the license from FERC to manage the occupancy and use of the project lands. The FERC license for the project requires we manage the lands within the project boundary to protect the resources of the project, including environmental, public recreation, cultural, scenic and power production assets. Appalachian Power developed the water management plan to assist with the management of the area within the project boundary as part of our licensing obligations. The water management plan includes processes that are implemented in times of drought, flooding, downstream obligations, and other scenarios for the project. So the WMP, as we call it, was implemented in 2010 after we renewed the FERC license in 2009. Unlike many storage projects, the Smith Mountain WMP is hydraulically driven, not elevation driven. Operations are based on inflow versus outflow balance, not maintaining a fixed lake level target. The WMP governs movement of the water through the project and requires mandatory releases from Leesville Dam to the Roanoke River. This is key. The purpose of these releases is to maintain downstream aquatic habitat and protect water quality even during drought conditions. The Smith Mountain WNP includes a multi-level trigger system tied to current water conditions. Triggers are based on inflow, current outflow, overall water availability, and many other contributing factors. As the inflow drops, The plan steps through the progressive trigger levels. Each level reduces downstream releases within allowed limits and prioritizes mandated releases from Smith Mountain Project. The WMP does not mandate a lake elevation. The water plan is reviewed annually by a technical review committee, also heard as a TRC if you hear that acronym. with representatives from the Tri-Counties Lake Administrative Commission, Smith Mountain Lake Association, Leesville Lake Association, Smith Mountain Water Safety Council, Western Virginia Water Authority, Dominion Energy, Department of Wildlife Resources, Department of Conservation Resources, I'm sorry, Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and other key stakeholders. Currently, the lake level sets around 790, which is about five feet below full pond. Ongoing drought conditions have created significant decrease in lake inflows. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality declared drought warning advisory for 94 counties, including Franklin, earlier this spring. Currently, the Roanoke River Shed remains in a drought warning. In addition, the USDA declared 24 counties in Virginia as drought disaster areas in April of 2026. Franklin County is one of those counties, and you can see the map in the drought warning conditions there. As part of the water management plan, Appalachian Power Company hit trigger point number one on April 27th and then shortly after that trigger point number two on May 11th. Each trigger point has reduced outflows from Leesville Dam. As part of our licensing, we are required to release water from Leesville to protect water ecology and habitats downstream. Important to note, since last July, Appalachian Power has not released more than the minimum amount of water required by our licensing requirement and water management plan downstreams. This slide represents several of the mitigation techniques. So trigger point activities, reduction in flows to maintaining downstream ecology. Federal communications, we have ongoing communications with the governing bodies, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, PJM, which is a regional transmission organization that manages their grid, and the Department of Environmental Quality. We work with PJM to facilitate testing to minimize impact on lake residences. Internally, water management, managing the water between Smith Mountain and Leesville to prevent any additional releases beyond what is mandated. And then the local communications. And we have been doing a lot of internal communication, I mean, external communication, speaking with local TV stations, our internal Facebook pages, and just meetings as far as, you know, I do participate in the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber and just trying to get that information out there. We also did take some extra steps met with a resident of Union Hall at his home and with our experts here and discussed the lake levels to get some of the information out. And their next slide here is really air message that we have where the actual management project, you can find all the documents there at our smithmountainproject.com. Real-time lake levels, you can easily get that off the website. I understand some people may not use the website, but there is information they can call us to. Air Hydro folks feel calls all the time. So we are available for actual, if people have questions, come directly to us, and we'll be more than happy to walk through. their questions out and answer them as best we can. Also, for real-time alerts and emails, there's a QR code here that, and I would hope, Steve, if we can share this on the website somehow, but I'll share it with the Chamber as well and TLAC and other organizations. So, we'll be more than happy to share any information we can. So, with that, I'll open it up to questions and we'll do our best to answer everything.

Well, Rob, thank you very much for being here. And thanks to your team for being here as well. This is just really great. I'm going to open up the floor to supervisors for questions, comments, to start this off. Anybody?

Dan? Thank you, Madam Chair. Quick question. On the one slide back here when you were talking about trigger one, trigger two, you decreased outflow of Leesville Lake because those triggers are on April, I think, 27th and May 11th. Does that sound correct?

Yep.

Did I understand it? So trigger one trigger to you lowered the release level from Weasel Lake. Correct. But then you made a statement said that you're doing the minimal amount of release from Weasel Lake since last July. Yes. Danny. So how could you be doing minimal release? This is below the minimal release.

So the trigger point is even lower than what's normal. The minimum.

Okay.

I just wanted to clarify. Once we hit that target, when the triggers are targeted, that's when we reduce even what is minimum at that point in time based on the management plan.

So are you all at a point you can't do no more triggers? We have one more. You got one more. Okay. Thank you.

Mr. Quinn.

So Rob, thank you very much for being here. You know, one thing that occurred to me, I've done town halls in the Union Hall District. It'd be very interesting if you or one of your colleagues was willing to come out for an hour and go through the exact presentation you have. I don't know if you'd be willing to do that, but it'd be awesome if you could.

I'd be happy to participate. It just has to be in a format where it's not just a waylay of APCO.

It's not what?

A waylay, where we get just bombarded with people yelling at us and that sort of thing. If it's an organized event, I'd be more than happy. But we have been in situations where town hall is not the best. If we're able to give a presentation and maybe be reserved for questions at the end and not have people discuss, you know, talking throughout the presentation, we would be willing to do that.

I think that they yell at me. I think they'd be nice to you. And anyway, so it's causing some concerns in a couple areas, and I thought it's just a good forum to talk about that. So one is, well, there are people right now that can't float their boat, right? I mean, literally, they can't float the boat. So whether it's because the boat cradle hits the ground or it's because the wire cables are too short, whatever the reason, they can't float their boat. And so AND I DON'T HAVE A GOOD FEEL FOR WHAT PERCENT THAT IS. I KIND OF WISH I DID. BUT MY GUESS IS IT'S MAYBE 10%. I'LL JUST PICK A NUMBER. BUT MY SENSE, TOO, I THINK ABOUT KIND OF the ability to float boats almost on a bell curve. So you came down five feet, and only 10% are impacted. But I think if you come down another foot, you're probably going to impact 50% of the people. So you're on the verge of impacting a lot more people is one sense. So there's a group of people that can't float their boat. That's a very immediate problem. So that's one set of calls I'm getting. The second call is there's a lot of uncertainty. Like, wow, they let it go down five feet. Are they going to let it go down five feet more? Or are they near the end? And understand from the presentation, you don't have a minimum. You don't have to achieve a minimum. For example, if people knew, well, you're not going to go below 790, it would be very comforting. But nobody knows how low it can go. And so that uncertainty creates a lot of problems. So that's kind of the second set of calls is that's from people that can float their boat. But they realize pretty soon I won't be able to float the boat. And then the third is, as with everything, all these theories and misinformation and people now, they're not going on vacation because they think they're going to crash into the sandbar, right? And it's not that way. If you stay in the middle of the lake, it's not a problem. You just have to do what you did a little bit more carefully. But people are feeling like I well the lake so low I can't put my boat in and once I put my boat in I'm gonna hit something and so I'm not going to go on vacation So there are people that are canceling vacations. I asked Brian tonight if he's seen any evidence of Revenue going down and he hasn't yet, but it's only May but but I'm concerned about the impact on on that and the impact on you know, now we're going to go into a reassessment. And those people that can't put their boat in the water, well, their assessment's going to be a lot lower. If you can't put a boat in the water at your place, you've lost a lot of value to your house. And so it kind of brings into some problems with the whole assessment. And so I'm kind of giving you a lot, but I There'd be a lot of comfort if people knew that you're not going to go below 790. And I realize you can't say that, but that's what people want to know. They want to know at what point would you not go any lower than that number.

So during the drought, we could go lower. It is a real possibility. Even speaking with the DQ, the drought conditions don't look like they're going to let up this summer, as I understand it, barring any heavy tropical storm. And even on our website, we do have the lowest, you know, I think we might have been at 787 before. Yes. Is my understanding, because I remember a couple of droughts growing up in the area and even in my early adulthood. So it could go lower. And the way the dam is constructed and designed, it can still generate electricity. Granted, we would like full pond. The head pressure is what we need to generate the most electricity. And also for the economic benefits, it doesn't do us any good if people aren't in those homes and not using electric power. And we understand the economic benefit. That's part of, we have our workers that... can't get on the lake. That's their recreational use too. So our folks are personally experiencing what this does, but I can't commit that it won't go lower than 790.

I know, I think that's now every inch is critical, right? The first five feet were, well, it's easy for me to say for many of the people, 90%, the first five feet wasn't a problem, but now every inch you're really hurting a lot of people.

Certainly. We do understand that and that has been shared. with myself and our hydro team as well. We completely understand that.

So Rob, in this environment, I'm just sharing information because this is complex and there's all kinds of mechanisms and triggers. And so if you if we just kind of just talk fundamentally, a lot of the questions that are coming up have to do with is the water in Smith Mountain Lake Is it being pulled out for other reasons?

There are some water municipalities that pull water out of it. You know, Bedford does have some water ability and that's well published knowledge, but no, the water is there for generating electricity. There are no other known reasons to pull the water out other than for drinking purposes.

Well, and I think where the citizens that I've talked to, they're questioning whether, you know, some of our partnering localities are drawn down due to data centers.

Currently, there's no other data centers constructed in the area. So, no, there are no other data centers. One in Botetourt County is pulling from Carvin's Cove, which Tinker Creek feeds Carvin Cove and probably some other watersheds and probably some other wells, too, that I'm not aware of.

So like with Pennsylvania County, with pending or projected projects perhaps, would it be a fair statement to say that there could be water withdrawals from Smith Mountain Lake for data projects?

Should that ever occur, all those agencies that I listed before would have to weigh in on any other proposal to pull water out of Smith Mountain. That's not something that AP grants. It's an application for any entity business to ask for that or municipality to pull water out of the lake.

So it does it end with FERC? I mean, is FERC the final decision maker on or... I'm trying to get a feel for, because there's a lot of fear about these data centers. And there are some factual information out there and non-factual. And all I'm trying to get my head around is, would a data center, and of course you mentioned the one in Botetourt, and potential ones going in elsewhere, is there the potential that water could be drawn out of Smith Mountain Lake to support their electricity needs off the grid?

Well, it would be for cooling purposes, not necessarily.

I misspoke. That's right. I'm sorry.

So I assume, and I'm making an assumption, that there could be potential applications to pull out of Smith Mountain Lake. Okay. But that would... need multiple levels of state federal local approvals so you know should any public hearings would be had um there would be opportunity for public to speak out on any type of water you pull draw what a current drought situation like what we're going through and you're projecting it could definitely go through the summer

as an example and hypothetically could this drought period if it were to reoccur again with a data center um you know in adjoining localities would the drought um that information would be available that that would be that would be part of the look ahead but would the drought preclude consideration of withdrawing money i mean water out of the lake

It could be considered that it made it a fatal flaw for that project to pull water out. Yes, a drought could do that.

So I mean, the main fundamental point that you guys are interested in is producing electricity. And there is a certain amount of water that you need to maintain level-wise in Smith Mountain Lake to produce the electricity that you're committed to doing. Did you have something to add, sir?

Yeah, I just want to say it would be very difficult to produce

come up so you can speak in the microphone please so this is great this is brandon littleton era hydro uh manager

Yes, I just want to say, very difficult thing to try to predict what may or may not happen in the future relative to data centers. But I can tell you that is a very extensive process to go through the permitting. And it would involve FERC, DQ, and just a whole plethora of other agencies to get that type of permit to work. draw water. For us to say whether that is or is not a possibility, I can't really honestly tell you anything is possible. I can say with absolute certainty today that no data center or anything like that as any contributing cause to the lake levels or the use of water today from the Smith Mountain project or at least Bill. So I can't speak about today, the future, that's much more difficult, but rest assured, that's not an easy hurdle to jump and there would need to be, during that process, considerations for example, what happens during a drought. And just like we have certain triggers at certain levels, you would expect that being part of that.

Well, and please understand the perspectives that I asked for on behalf of citizens and the businesses, and on behalf of us setting up here um trying to in an informed and a strategic manner legislate things in this county that are you know safely move us into our future yeah and and with the lake being as important as it is um we kind of like we need to stand in the gap for our citizens and try to answer their questions. That's why you guys were so kind to come in and answer these difficult questions. And I knew there were questions you couldn't answer. But what you've told me is that it's not out of the question, is my takeaway. Would that be fair? That is fair. OK. Questions? Mr. Quinn.

Brad, I was just going to compliment you on your shirt. You have the right shirt on for this meeting.

He did.

Mr. Quinn? Not Mr. Quinn. Mr. Gwynn. Excuse me.

Tropical storm. Have you guys done any studies or projections as to how much rain? There we go. How much rain do you have? We have a number. Do you have a number?

We do have a number. How much do we need?

I mean, what would we want?

We would need significant to alleviate the dry condition. You're talking about 10 inches of rain. Like in a day? Hopefully not. That's how far we are. That's how far we are. But we have our own onsite meteorology because obviously weather is important to what we do as a utopia. Initially, earlier on, we were actually forecasting a potential for some wetter weather later on in summer. However, I'm sure most of you have seen the forecast for a low through El Nino event and Rob spoke about those tropical systems the larger than normal El Nino can influence those tropical systems and those tropical systems are what we would typically rely on for a restoration so I don't want to be the downer or paint a bad picture but based on what we know and historical forecasts we're not looking for

uh quickly they fear i think we're okay with florida getting it right but like i said the nine anino influences a lot of those tropical system that we normally see so and for a guy that doesn't do math with five inches like bring it halfway up

It would help. It's hard to say. I mean, we've heard a lot of feedback, too, when we do get a rain that, hey, the leg level didn't jump. Well, consider how dry the soil is and how much absorption. So those initial rainfalls we get, a lot of it's going to be taken up with the absorption.

And presumably, it's not isolated thunderstorms that do any good.

It's sustained. Sustained. Yeah.

thank you so Rob just to close the loop a little bit on our line of discussion this man around data centers so that's what we're hearing a lot about if our joining localities build data centers you could draw water out of them out of our jurisdiction from Smith Mountain Lake they would hypothetically hypothetically that yeah they would have to go through that would be out of our control

feel like you would have some sort of say in it there would be some sort of conversation had if they need infrastructure through Franklin Bedford that easements would be needed you know so there would be some sort of I don't know if there would be zoning approvals or anything for a project of that nature but I feel the counties absolutely would have some sort of say in any type of project like that that would draw.

Who has ultimate control? Rob Furk or DEQ? Furk issues a license, yeah.

Yes, sir. You guys need to come up to the podium. I feel like I'm and I am. Joshua Blake. I'm overlooking you. I'm sorry.

Coming up to church, right? Or court. But so anytime that we have a situation where, for example, Bedford County has a water withdrawal permit, those things go through a series of approvals, if you will. So obviously DEQ is going to weigh in. That's going to have a period of public comment, so on and so forth. DWR, all the other groups, all the other alphabets here that we had on the one slide, they're all going to have say in that initially, or then in addition to it would go to FERC after that. So obviously then you're talking about running pipe and other things underground, above ground, wherever, so it's going to go through Large swaths, and I'm nowhere near a data center expert. But on that part of it, that's part of what that would look like, and it's not going to be something that sneaks up on anybody. It's very public, and I'm sure it's going to be pretty hot the way that topic goes these days.

Yeah, any type of that type of project would be extremely public.

Yeah, and Rob, again, please, I'm not trying to put you all on the spot. We're just trying to respond to our citizens.

Understood.

Is there anything else down here, gentlemen? Mr. Mitchell?

I think we're entertaining completely hypothetical situations, and the lake's not going to get any higher until it rains, just like that's the reason I made half a normal hay crop. Cattle don't have any grass. Any corn's drying up. And nothing anybody says, it's got to rain. And then the lake will get higher. And then everything will turn green again.

Well, I wish it were that simple.

It is that simple.

It's not with the consequences.

They can't control it. It is what it is.

I know Rob's doing rain dances. Anything else on this end?

One more just for the pulpit here. So you asked earlier about inches of water. A couple weeks ago, Rocky Mountain got, and I apologize, don't live in that area, four to five inches in 45 minutes. So in that scenario, what ended up happening is that water got into the pig, ended up in Leesville. At that time, Leesville went from about 6.02, that Thursday, whatever, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, hit on Saturday, Friday, Saturday, the weekend, Pig, obviously you've got evaporation, you've got water absorbed in the ground because it's so dry, all these other things. Leesville went up about seven feet. So in that scenario, that water ended up back in Smith. When it was pumped back, Smith came up about a foot. So just for reference, you get a storm, you get water, other things. We look at moisture content in the ground. As the water comes up, as the river levels and lake levels come up, obviously all your shoreline there also is absorbing water because it's been starved for so many months, now going on the nine to 12 month range. So there's a lot of other absorption things that take place there. But just as a recent point of reference that everybody can remember, four or five inches comes down in 45 minutes. It's not a hard thing to forget. So that scenario there, a little bit south of Smith, ended up in Leesville, did not leave the project, and it ended up being pumped back. People saw the lake level go from five, eighty nine, eight, five, nine, five, eighty nine, nine, somewhere in there up to five ninety one. So that's what you're kind of talking about here. All right. Thank you. Just that question was asked. That was a recent one that popped in my head.

So I guess the other thing you guys are probably going to remember this, but there was a project that Virginia Beach did and it took 15 years to get the approval for project. So I would assume you're talking about the same sort of regulatory approvals that would be if somebody decided they wanted to essentially stick straw ones with mountain.

I mean, water can only leave the lake in a handful of ways. I mean, you've got 22,000 acres of surface water-ish, probably less now, but obviously you've got that. So you've got a lot of evaporation. Last week my pool dropped about an inch and a half because of the heat and things like that. So you've got all that over 22,000 square acres or whatever. of surface water in addition to that you've got you know as we stated bedford has the withdrawal permit and then leaving leaseable but rob mentioned earlier july july is the time frame july 25 is the time frame because that's when our last capacity test was done there if you ignore the capacity test that was done on leesville in july 2025 it's may the 17th of 2025 is the last time we released more water than we are minimally required to do so And a question was asked by Mr. Meredith, sorry, my eyeballs lining up there earlier. If you look at the water management plan, there's tables in there and it outlines those months. So there's different considerations taken into each month of the year. For example, the one we just came out of was March, April, May. Those are your spawning seasons for striped bass and shad. So those considerations are taken into yet to put more water downstream of Leasville with consideration of the spawning season as well as the Brook Mill Hatchery and other facilities below there. Because you have, last I looked, it was over 30 some municipal water authorities in the Roanoke River Basin that do pull water out of the whole basin as you go down through there. So those are all considerations that are taken in when water is released out and trying to get lake levels to try to target a certain elevation that are just difficult because it's not just this county, this town, it's everyone.

Okay, unless the supervisors have any other things to add, we need to move on. Rob, thank you so much, and thanks to your guys back here. This has been very informative and helpful, and we appreciate your generosity and sharing your time with us.

Yeah, glad we could help, and I appreciate my team. Thank you.

Absolutely, thank you all. Okay, do we have VDOT still with us? Oh, there you are, Brian Casella. We're paying you overtime, aren't we?

Oh, no. No, I'm just here enjoying the show. It's always a pleasure to be here with you all for the board report. Thankfully, please do not do any rain dances for 10 inches of rain in a week because that will devastate us. That's right.

I forgot about that.

We will have major road problems.

Yeah.

And I live on the lake and enjoy the water, and I want the lake to come up, but don't do that.

Be careful what you ask for.

Please, yes.

Yeah.

All right. So starting with our maintenance activities for the previous 30 days, I'll just note, of course, we've been doing our mowing operations on primary and secondary routes. We're wrapped up. about 90 for the county on the secondary routes for our first round we have a pipe replacement project that's just been completed on dylan's mill road next activities we got route 756 old forge road a pipe replacement underway and then 739 bethlehem road another pipe replacement um of course continuing our secondary routes Looking over page two you see a long list of surface treatment schedules that we've completed and Several others have been completed even since we've submitted this report. So we're making our way through that Practically done with that So that's good news under land development activities. We've got Several things you can see there Nothing really to note about beyond of course the batty stuff we've got the fiber stuff that's going on completed traffic studies we have the installation of the horse and buggy signs that were put up in the snow creek area we have some folks that are pretty much their main source of transportation is through horse and buggy so we put up a bunch of signs trying to make citizens aware that that's part of it and they can need to be aware. Sure. on the page four we've got um our typical projects here uh i will say that we're starting on our rural rustics which are novella and red valley um and the lost mountain project uh route 122 and 636 the smart scale roundabout there that's looking for advertisement of 2027 and let's see what else do we have noteworthy I think that pretty much concludes our report here I will say that the project that is that works in 220 we reported last month that we were gonna change the traffic pattern and They had some constructability issues. It's delayed that. So we have not eliminated that through cut yet. So that will be more to come on that as I get updates. And then on June 24th, the plan is that on the Bomber Mill and 220 project, smart scale project, there will be no lefts out. So that's just an update on that one. That concludes our report. I did have some questions from last month that did send us an email summary on, but if you all didn't receive that information or whatever, I'd be glad to answer any questions on that or anything new.

Thank you, Brian. Questions from supervisors? Comments? Okay. Brian, you're getting off. I'm sorry, Mr. Jamison. I almost spoke too soon.

Brian. Yes, sir. At the Ways Park, is that VDOT to the entrance down to the park that's there?

I believe we do maintain down to a certain point before you get to the parking area.

Because it's a cul-de-sac right there before you get to the parking area. Do you all know that part? Let me ask. Where's it?

I'll have to look and double check on that, but yes, I can look that up.

The patching, it's got some patching on it, pretty rough. I don't know what we can do about it, but we've got a chance to ride down and take a look at it. What we'd really like for our park is just, you know, about three inches of blacktop. I think we've got a good sense of the board. Okay.

We'll see if we can find the funds for that. Yes, sir. We'll look into it.

Brian, thank you so much for being here, and thank you for your report. And I think you know all of us are very comfortable emailing you when things pop up, and you're always just on the spot getting back with us, and we greatly appreciate that.

We appreciate the relationship here to be able to serve you all and citizens of Franklin County, so thank you.

Well, good. Thank you so much. Okay, gentlemen, if it suits you, let's take a very quick five-minute break, and we will come back and have our discussion with schools.

So do I. It creates. But. Let's. Thank you. It's okay.

We are now at the report from Ann Shauver, Public Finance Consultant with the School Finance Report. Ann, good evening. We're so glad you're with us this evening.

Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the Board of Supervisors. It's nice to be with you again today. And yes, I have the report for the 11th month period ended May the 31st. And this report is up on the screen as well as I think on your computers there, and it's going to follow the same format that we've looked at these last two months, where we're sharing the year-to-date results through May, so 11 months of our fiscal year. The budget as it currently stands for fiscal 26. Then the next column, the percent column, is going to reflect the current amount that's been recognized so far through May, that 11-month period. If everything moves equally through the year, that would be at about 92%. And then the fourth column over is the one that probably is the most important in my mind, and that's our projection for the full fiscal year once it's complete. And that's going to be not only completing through the month of June, but any accounting adjustments, the accrual entries that the staff, that the team will need to do in order to be ready for audited financial statements. And then your right most two columns reflect the dollar and then the percent of positive or negative variance against budget. And so the comments that I would like to make today are a couple of items I'd like to highlight are that through the May period, This thing doesn't work, so I'll just skip that in that third column. You can see, so the target of 92%, so we're pretty close to that in terms of both total revenues and total expenditures at 91%. So pretty close. There are some items that are above and then a few that are below. On the revenue side, consistent with what we've seen thus far this fiscal year, the county funding is really supporting or guarding the fact that we are behind on both our our state sales tax estimate and that's really a function of timing because we will pick up an entire additional month when we close the books at the end of the year and then federal funding federal funding has been the one that we've been most attuned to most concerned about it being behind budget if you will at that 81% mark and And then on the expenditure side, again, in total, we're at 91% of budget. Some that are above, some that are below, some that are actually over the budget for the year at this point, that being the administration attendance and health category as well as the food service category. um and so then um i wanted to also comment a little bit about the um the result um as we compare you don't see the fiscal 25 numbers here but i want to tell you a little bit about how performance this year compares to that so our revenues are down one percent compared to fiscal 25 through may and our expenditures are down 3% compared to May. So I guess the good news there is a bigger expenditure curtailment than revenue decline year over year. You can see at the bottom of that first column that the change in net position, so revenues versus expenditures through May, down about 151,000. I'll call your attention to the lowest number in our fourth column, the projected column. Right now, we're expecting or predicting a negative change in net position for the year, rounded of about $1.2 million. You'll recall last month that number was $1.4 million, so a little bit of improvement. And then when we first did a projection, it was at $2.2 million. So that's kind of how that projection has shaped and has moved over time. So it has improved just a bit. I'd also like to just speak a little bit about the process, about what are we doing in order to get this crystal ball going on the projections. So on the revenue side of the house, we are using the school, and the school division is really taking the lead in some areas of these projections, and I'm doing a number of projections as well. There's a calculation tool that's available. I think it's Commonwealth of Virginia's State Department of Education, DOE. There's a calculation tool in Microsoft Excel that's available, and that's really been the tool that's been used on the first line, that state funding line. That's the non-sales tax component of state funding, 41.4%. $41.1 million estimate, and if I remember right, it's about 71% of the revenue, so biggest piece of the pie by far. I have a model that does the state sales tax, that 10.1 million, and that's actually up a little bit from last month with a really strong month of May sales tax posting to the ledger. On the federal side, the school division has a similar calculation type worksheet that it uses just based on its knowledge of federal funding and additional federal funds to be expected, the roughly $9.4 million that you see there for the May projection has increased since last month by a couple of hundred thousand. Other funding I would call kind of a group effort. We spent a bit of time on a call last week going over that. and continuing to shape that projection. The 1.3 million reflected is an increase since last month. And then on the county side, the 36, well, it's really right around 37 million that is reflected is just equal to budget. So what we're saying is that the county is going to fund an amount that's equal to budget that's been set by this board. And so you will notice that if you look at the budgeted amount versus the amount transferred through May, there's only a couple of hundred thousand dollars remaining to transfer in the month of June. And I want to come back to this county funding discussion in just a second, but let me keep going. On the expenditure side, and so really with expenditures, there's been a dual effort on the part of myself with county finance input as well as the school division finance staff. We've all spent time together. I've actually... You know, you can drive yourself crazy trying to predict things and at some point like perfect is the enemy of good, they say. So I've got like four different methods that I'm trying to look at these numbers. You know, all kind of a function of last year's results through May versus the total this year versus last year looking at that relationship. just various different methods. And really, once you put it all together, I think we're pretty confident as a whole at this roughly $100 million of expenditures for the year. I think we feel pretty good that we're pretty close on that. Some shift could occur between categories, but I think overall that should be our result. You'll notice the contingency line item right now has about 200,000, well it has exactly 200,000 plugged in, just to make a little bit of room for that uncertainty. Last month that was a half a million, so we've pulled that down a little bit as we've continued working with these numbers and refining a few things. So really a multi-tiered approach on the expenditure side of the house. and leading us to this, right now, projection of being down 1.2 million. We have had some discussions as a group with the external auditor that serves as auditor for the engagement for the county and school division about what happens if the school division concludes the year with a lost position. I think just sort of an idea to introduce a topic that we discussed with your lead auditor is the idea that perhaps there could be an agreement reached between the board of supervisors and the school board that there could be a repayment mechanism if there's a shortfall this year that a repayment mechanism would take place to occur in the next fiscal year over some period of time to be agreed upon, and that that basically would need to be done by a curtailment of expenditures in fiscal 27 by the school division. So again, I'm just introducing that idea. It's been a concept that's been discussed. I think it would be appropriate for both governing bodies to take that up and have discussion as appropriate.

so i am glad to answer any questions that uh board of supervisor members may have okay thank you questions yes madam chair i'm sorry yeah i do i have oh okay um next month when you come before us you should have final numbers other than revenue i know revenue they got a bill because you pay up front but as expenditures go you should pretty much have a

You know, I'm going to actually say, actually, no, sir, probably not. What I'll probably have a month from now is the results through June, through the calendar period June. Folks like Mr. Carter and Mr. White and myself, we keep very busy in June and July chasing down all of these accruals. You know, when would we be able to come to you and say, hey, we think we're, it's unaudited, hasn't been audited yet, but we feel like we're done with it. I would think, what, September, maybe, is more the typical timeframe for that. So this idea of projecting is actually going to continue. I don't know after this time next month, we will have an update again until September, but it really takes a couple months for that ink to totally drown all of the work that accounting staff do to close the books.

All right. Well, I think my biggest concern, and Dr. Sears, he might be able to answer too, but There's two categories, instruction, admin, and school services that if this happened on a county side, I'd be asking this same question. You set out a budget and we're projected, not projections, 1.2 million over budget, 557 over budget, 636 budget. I would like to know answers that when this is all said and done, how that happened because, Like I said, if it happened on the county side, I'd have Mr. Carter explaining why we budget a certain amount and we went over. And I'm just curious how this is going to happen, because that's 2.6, roughly, or 2.4. And I don't know if that would be a question for you or with Dr. Sears' school board or something. But I'm very interested in it, because I've been struggling with the personnel cuts of saving $3 million. And I have talked to Dr. Sears, and he's been kind enough to answer me, but I'm looking at 1.7. And so even though you cut $3 million out of personnel, you're not saving $3 million because you over-budgeted. Well, you spent more on your budget. I apologize. So I'm just curious of how that actually happened to go that much over budget. So I don't know if that would be Ann's venue or is that something we would work with school board?

I think I'll have to defer to Dr. Sears and his team to respond to answer those questions. I just didn't know who would be able to.

but you won't be final, final numbers until you're thinking September.

And that's very typical. It's very typical of all local governments that it oftentimes takes that amount of time. And then I would comment, I think I'll need to let the school division team respond to answer those specific questions about those categories. I will say, though, that I think an exercise like what we've developed, what we have in place now, we're looking at this every single month, We are hammering these numbers. I mean, that's the type of discipline that is needed in order to start changing things so that, you know, we are on top of the numbers. We are analyzing them all the time. And I think we've really encouraged development of the analytical skills and tools because we don't want results like this. We don't want to be over budget. We want every single number in both the revenue side and the expenditure side to be positive. And not necessarily hugely positive, because that means we haven't done a good job of budgeting, but we don't want them to be negative.

And a question for you. We're dealing here with the accrual side. What are we looking like on the cash side of the table?

I think defer to Mr. Carter on the cash side.

Mr. Carter, could you please comment to us what the cash side looks like?

Yeah, and so cash will be... a delayed impact as Ms. Shalva was describing because of the heavy state and federal reimbursement. So you're going to spend the money up front and wait for reimbursement in July and August is likely. And so she mentioned it a little bit, and so I have a little bit of this in my finance report. I can just skip this slide now. But, you know, so really we've exhausted the local transfer from the county. There's about $430,000 left to get through June.

Okay.

And so whatever spending that the monthly spend is for the school system, once that is complete, the only other thing that can can help their cash position is to receive state and federal money during the month. So at current rate of spend, just based on their monthly spend, they're likely going to go over this $1.2 million because this is the accrual projection.

That's right.

So on a cash basis, they're likely going to be in a further deficit. But timing could impact a lot of that. So it could be a very heavy month of collection in state or federal money that will make that position better. But with what we've seen trend-wise, you're likely to see a higher range of $3 million plus and a negative cash position at the end of June.

So would you say $3 to $5 million?

I would say that at current trend, without a heavy infusion of state and federal money for the month of June, and we just don't have that data yet, you're going to look at that range, in my opinion. And I think that gets back to that intergovernmental loan discussion and process that we've been working on that was mentioned.

So what is the school's monthly payroll look like?

So their monthly payroll, complete payroll, when you look at the impact on the cash balance, is roughly $7 to $7.5 million. When I look in the ledger and I see the pull off of cash. Now, that's not, when I say that's everything, that's benefits, that's paying your retirement pension, that's paying your health insurance, that's not just salaries to employees. But that's usually what hits the cash account when I see the payroll journal posted.

And you're saying that they're sitting on about $450,000 or so to get through the end of this month? Right.

With a payroll that is about $7 million? Payroll will be at the end of the month, and historically it's been around there when we look at the impact to cash, the overall process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carter.

Yes, ma'am.

Would it be fair to say that something we should maybe just touch on is the idea of consolidated cash account? Correct me when I start going askew here. I think, though, there's a bank account that's shared amongst county funds, the school division. And so it's not like there's not any money in that account. Oh, I understand. What ends up happening is the county basically floats the school division in order for its bills to continue getting paid. Right, right. Understood, Ann. Thank you.

Are there questions for Ann from any of this? Did you have something, Mr. Carter?

I'm curious, Ann, this repayment mechanism you mentioned earlier, what does that look like in your opinion? How are we going to accomplish that, or how's the school going to accomplish that?

Yes, sir. And so maybe to elaborate on that a little bit more, when I had a discussion with your auditor about it, you know, we know that school divisions in Virginia don't have the ability to levy a tax to raise additional tax revenues, for example, to cover a say $1.2 million shortfall. However, $1.2 million on a budget base of $100 million, I mean, it should be doable to cut that out of next year's budget. Don't spend it on whatever and repay the county with that amount. And basically what it comes down to is, I mean, if you look at the overage that's expected in the expenditure area, it's about $1 million. and a shortfall on the revenue side of about 200 and some thousand. And so, I mean, basically it kind of, it would be the way of saying, look, you overspent in 2026, you can't really do that. So you're going to have to underspend in 2027 to make up for it. And, you know, that sounds a little bit blunt, but, I mean, that's basically what that would look like. And I think if everyone feels like, yes, that's doable, that's reasonable, then, you know, the county would just provide less funding. In terms of, you know, all dollars are green. At the end of the day, it would just be the county providing less funding next year. And is that over a one-year period? Is that over a six-month period? I mean, all that would be to be hashed out and determined. I think the auditor feels like that is a dollar level. It's a small enough level that it should be reasonable to expect the school division to be able to manage it within its budget.

Well, the problem I see with that is it's going to hurt the students, going to hurt teachers. I don't see how that's going to be workable.

Mike, I agree, because they asked for 9 million. We gave them 3. And now you're asking them to absorb another million. It's going to be brutal, I think.

Well, and I'm understanding just loosely through some discussions that there's going to be a real effort. And Dr. Sears, when he comes up, we can ask about putting the phase three in place next year, which comes in at about $3.9 million. So I think there's a lot of discussion yet to be needed and had on this. But Ann, thank you very much. You continue to impress. Oh, thank you. Your time and all is very much appreciated. you're welcome it's my pleasure okay uh we will go next to dr sears um to give us the school finance report and speak to the revised cip good evening dr sears how are you sir i'm fine how are you all doing good thanks

Madam Chair, members of the board, Mr. Sandy, thank you all for allowing me to speak here this afternoon. In regard to our school finance report, on the plus side, the projected deficit does continue to decline each month as we work through the numbers to get a better handle on especially the outstanding federal reimbursements. On the negative side, it does still look like we could end this year in a deficit. Hopefully the number will end up being less than 1.2 million, but there are so many variables as I'm learning as we go through this with the timing of reimbursements, the difference between the sales tax versus the other elements of state funding, and all of that plays into it in ways that you can make a guess as to what it will be, but sometimes it's difficult to pin down exactly what it's going to be and when you're going to receive it. We are providing today the most up-to-date copy of the Franklin County Public Schools budget book and a summary sheet on which our 8.9 million in identified budget needs were able to be addressed for next year with the additional county funding. At its meeting last week, the Franklin County School Board voted to approve the amended budget that funded a step increase for all employees, the local share for textbooks, and a little over 70% of the increase for health insurance premiums. The remaining amount of health insurance premiums was added to the employee share during open enrollment. Does everyone have the green sheet that has those numbers on it?

Yes, sir.

The nearly $3.8 million in additional county funding is the largest increase of local funding in recent history. We greatly appreciate the additional funding and understand that you all had to make some tough decisions in order to increase our appropriation by that amount. As I stated at a previous joint meeting, there seems to be a historical disconnect each budget year between what the Board of Supervisors believes it has funded and what the appropriated funding actually covered. So I want to make sure that we're doing everything possible this year to better communicate the budget needs that remain unfunded in order for everyone to be on the same page next year when questions are asked. We do not have funding to continue the DSIP program for current retirees or those who are retiring this year. There are positions such as nurses and bookkeepers that have never been brought up to the market standard for salaries and their salary scales will not change for next year. We were not able to increase funding for needed bus repairs and updating safety equipment. And this comes following a year when we have been postponing major repairs that have sidelined eight buses. I'll qualify that, though, by saying the additional busing money definitely helps with that because we are not going to have to fix all of those buses now. We are getting more new buses in. So if we had a bus that needed a transmission and one that needed an engine, we might be able to combine those two now to get one back on the road without having to purchase new parts for those. So we're working on a plan for all of that now. We are not able to address many of our more critical capital needs and are having to make decisions about whether or not to replace water heaters or damaged gym floors. Mark Law will join me in a minute to talk a little more about that in the CIP list. As you know, we have made a significant number of personnel cuts for next year in our continuing effort to right-size our staffing in the midst of enrollment losses. The estimated savings from cutting these positions is in the three million range. However, since some of these positions were grant funded, and we usually have to do a few additional hires after the school year begins to keep our pre-K class sizes at the allowable level, and some of that is accounted for in the budget priorities that were funded, it is safer to use an estimated savings of about 2.25 million for conversational purposes. We are not currently applying that anywhere in our budget and will not do so until the status of next year's, I'm sorry, I'm getting tongue tied. We have not applied 2.25 million anywhere in our budget and we're not going to apply it until we know the status of this year's deficit and how that plan might work with the intergovernmental loan. We understand that ending this year in a deficit could result in a reduced local appropriation for next year, and our plan is to use whatever we need out of the 2.25 to offset that. Once we have a solid number for FY26 and can more accurately project salaries and benefits for FY27, we'll determine how much of the savings from cut positions remains to be applied toward other identified budget needs. So let's say the deficit stays 1.2 and we've got 2.25 in savings. That would leave us about a million that we could go back and revisit those budget priorities and apply it toward. The deficit should end up being a little more than that. Then we would have less to apply toward those priorities. We also don't have a final number yet from the state, so there's a chance that increases in their budget could assist in funding some of our needs that are currently unfunded. Who knows when we're gonna get that? We're all holding our breath, waiting for the state to get something done. So thank you all again for allowing me to speak regarding our budget. Are there any questions about it?

Any questions? Mr. Mitchell?

Dr. Sears I'd just like to thank you for putting this together and I guess we'll get the CIP list together but I can see real progress it's been I know it's been some painful meetings and it's been some painful talks but I you know seeing the the deficit number come down each month and Ann's reports and and what you've given us here and and you know these are tough talks we've had to have and these things in your budget and these budget assets that can get funded they're the they're real things and I know we've had some tough talks and and But I appreciate what you're doing and I appreciate the progress that I believe is being made to put us on a good path going forward.

Thank you. We feel much better going into next budget year than we do coming out of this budget year.

And I tell you, I really think that's what everyone had in mind for this, was to really be better prepared for you all, too, and for better communication from the county side and the school side. And I feel good about it and I appreciate what you're doing. Thank you.

Yes. Mr. Tatum.

I'd like to echo what Mr. Mitchell said. We appreciate. And this is this has not been easy for any of us. And I know certainly not you and your office and your staff. And I appreciate the hard work you all put in. And just looking at some of these items, I think we need to take a look at some of these capital items listed here. you know, replacement of the hot water heaters at the central gym. You know, this is something that the community uses as a shelter if needed. So this would be a service to the community. And, you know, some of these items we can use some some one time and I would not be a against tapping into fund balance if we need to, to meet some of these needs, some of these one-time purchases, because they do serve a broader community than just the school itself. The fire alarm replacement at the high school, does the fire alarm need to be replaced at the high school? If so, that is serious.

Some of those we are planning to do with the 1.1 million that we get each year. But that means we had to move other things down the priority list. And Mark can answer specific questions about that in a few minutes. He may have even included in his information a list of what we are, at this point, what we're planning to work on next year. And some of those items are on the list for the regular funding that we receive.

You know, some of these up here, the market study, the DCIP program for the retirees, stuff like that, you need recurring money for those. But some of these one-time capital projects, I think we need to roll up our sleeves to see how many of these we can knock out because, like I said, it's helping a broader community than just the school system. It's helping the whole town of Rocky Mountain and the community. With some of these things and in this fire alarm replacement, you know, that's a that's an issue of safety I mean if the fire alarms malfunction and some kid gets hurt We'll be on to us if that that ever happened and you know We need to make sure that we do everything to make sure that doesn't happen But thank you again for the hard work y'all put in I know you've taken a lot of lot of heat and and just thank you. You shouldered it. I will say that you and your staff, you shouldered it very well. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Mr. Meredith, I'm sorry. Whichever one of you. You always go first.

Dr. Sears, just while I was asking earlier, like I said, education's important. It's important to me. I was in education. It's the best break the cycle, as we say, for kids and everything we're coming up. The only question I have, and if you could do this, this would just ease my mind personally, I'm just speaking for myself, is those three budget items, instruction, admin, and food services, I guess when I'm having the toughest time, wrap my head around. And I don't want to do nothing to hurt moving forward. I just wanted to get this all cleaned up. But it's how do we budget for a year? And like I said, if Mr. Carter had done this, I'd be saying the same thing to him. But at the end of the year, we're just far over. You would think with vacancies, you would come in under. So I guess all I'm looking for, if you came to me and said, was none of your business, that's fine. I respect that, because I know there's But if you came to me and said, Mr. Meredith, food service is over because of this, this, this. We didn't anticipate that. We didn't have it in the budget. And I guess that eases my mind. I think it would ease all of our minds moving forward that when we see a budget, We know that budget's going to cover everything and hopefully come under. If that makes sense, what I'm asking for.

It does. And food services is self-sufficient. So if they go over budget, then they should create additional revenue to cover those expenses with the other items. We'll need to do a little digging to figure that out. And don't know because it says administration doesn't mean it was just toward administrators there are a lot of factors that go into that I know that some of the issues occurred because with the the budget looking off kilter because our heating oil was getting charged to transportation and and had been historically for a long time, and that got separated out this year, but I don't think it was reflected in the budget. So transportation looks like it's well under budget, but it caused something else to go over because the heating oil was taken out. So there are some some factors like that that are definitely affecting what those numbers look like.

OK, and that makes perfect sense. It just explains how this happened and gives us a better idea. And that's all I'm asking. It just means we have a better thing. And also, I would be curious if it's possible next month, I know you say you've cut 56, 57 positions. But is it possible to know how that affected each school? So if you had four admin, was that one at student admin? Was it one at high school? Was it one here? Just so we know how it's affecting the cuts you've made. The admin were three from the board office and one from the high school. And I just didn't know, if you've made a list of what those titles were, I come to all y'all's meetings, and I appreciate what you shared there. But it just kind of helps answer some questions. When we hear three admin, it's kind of like, well, what was those three admin? And I know you've been moving a lot around. But anyways, I just think that transparency would help us all. moving forward and doing what's best for our students and that's at the end of the day that's what we're all here is for the students and our kids so we appreciate what you're doing and helping us understand this thank you thank you yeah we'll do a little digging and try to get a a good explanation for the accounts that that appear to be over budget at this point

Thank you. Mr. Quinn.

Dr. Sears, I had a couple questions. So the first one is regarding phase three. And I'm looking at this. It appears that you'll be able to fund about half of phase three. Is that correct? And so then I was just curious, what's your system for providing additional steps to teachers? Like, does everybody get half their steps? Or the people that are the teachers that are way behind, they get more? Like, what's your system for allocating that?

What we have discussed, and of course this is all still subject to school board approval, but if enough funding were available to do something toward phase three, we would start by looking at those employees that are still four steps behind, and giving them an additional step, and then evaluating from there if we could do something beyond that. But that would be the first step we would look at, was taking those employees who had their salaries frozen seven years, they are all still four steps behind, and giving them one additional step to bring them up with the other group.

So the biggest step delinquency is four steps for a teacher? Nobody's more than four steps behind?

No one is beyond four steps now, yes. Because of phase one and phase two, it brought everybody up to where they should be on a salary scale and made up three steps.

So then what you're saying is you would first look at all the teachers that are behind by four steps and bring them up so they're only three steps behind. Yes. And then you look at how much money is left to see if you can do any more steps. Yes. OK. I understand. So then the second question is, on this, you purchase up to 15 used school buses. And it sounds like that was the original plan. But now, because you have more money, will you be purchasing all new school buses?

We are purchasing seven new school buses with the additional We had some already planned to purchase, and then with the additional money, I think we were going to purchase three, and the additional money is allowing us to purchase four more. So we will have seven new school buses next year.

And are you still purchasing any used school buses, or did you stop that?

No, there are not any plans to purchase used school buses. That's excellent.

I'm very happy about that. I think you have such a huge fleet and put on so many miles at purchasing used buses. I realized while you were doing it, we're forcing you, you know, your hands are tied, but it's awesome that you're not buying more used school buses. And then the last question. So I looked at, so, you know, this year you have four, you had four schools that are, have HVAC that are way beyond end of life, right? And we're funding the 4 million for eight with ABM for leeway. And so I was trying to figure out what the cost was for the other three. So I looked at your data here and, and my, figuring is that you need 9.3 million for those other three schools, is that right?

That sounds correct, yes.

And the reason I'm wondering, because I'm hoping that as we talk about the capital plan, that we can tell you that next summer, 2027, that you'll have whatever amount we figure, but we can tell you today that you'll have that money so you can plan on that and not have to do a last minute thing like the Lee Wade School was this year.

That would be great. And Mark can answer more specific questions about that. I know he's been working on putting these, updating these numbers and putting that together.

Okay, great questions gentlemen, thank you. Dr. Sears, I echo the remark to some of my colleagues. You all are making progress and that's all we can expect at this point. And very tough decisions to be made. You're carrying a lot of water for a lot of issues and we understand that. And at the end of the day, we're all working for the same people, for our children and for the families and citizens. So I think everybody's rolling their sleeves up at this point in time, you know, to get to the right place so that we don't have a third year deficit to deal with. And I'm confident we won't.

I am as well, thank you.

Okay. So we'll move into your CIP piece, if that's okay, Dr. Sears? Yes.

At this time, I'd like to ask that Mark Lyle, our Assistant Director of Operations and Head of Facilities and Maintenance join me. Mr. Lyle has updated our capital needs list to include the needed HVAC work at Callaway, Rocky Mountain, Snow Creek Elementary Schools. He has also updated the plan for how next year's budget allocation for capital projects will be utilized with the understanding that this plan is subject to change if critical issues arise that cause items to be bumped down on the priority list. And I'll let him speak to both of those items.

Good evening, Mr. Law. Good evening. Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for having me. So you have two pieces of paper. I see that you all found the large one. That is the 10-year, updated 10-year CIT plan. I've also provided a single sheet of paper which breaks out 26-27 onto one smaller piece of paper just to make it more easy to read. We'll go down through some of these numbers allocated for the 20, 26, 27 approved CIP budget. School projects would be the log in for replacement. We had a roof failure that caused the gym floor or the gym to leak. You run into the floor through the insurance allocations. It was not enough to repair the entire or replace the entire floor. So we're going to use $140,000 to replace that gym floor. The high school fire alarm system replacement. This is a partial replacement. We did the other partial about five years ago. This will complete the fire alarm system upgrade at the hospital. Tech D, the rooftop unit and boiler elimination. That rooftop unit is, I think, 30 years old. It is AC only, so we have a boiler to provide the heat. We are looking to remove the boiler, make the rooftop unit a heat pump with electric backup heat so we can delete the boiler. Also doing some rooftop unit replacements at Tech C due to age and equipment. transportation of course thank you for the million dollars that you provided for the additional buses division maintenance projects such as flooring plumbing electrical division-wide painting continuing with our radio communication upgrades access control systems playground equipment door locks and miscellaneous HVAC equipment which brings that total to $600,000 so With that, we have allocated $1.9 million for the 2026-27 CIP budget, leaving $161,232 as a contingency. As we complete these projects and they end up under budget, we'll reallocate that additional funding. So are we happy to answer any questions you may have for the CIP list?

This is impressive. It's all about playing catch up, right, Mr. Law? I do have one question, if I may. With respect to the other three schools that we're all projecting to hopefully get done next summer, what is the plan to go to bid on those projects as we speak today?

Let me pick that one. So right now we have a current RFP that is active through RMM that we obtained in 2022 as one year with four years of extension. So we reached out to them about those three schools, Callaway, Snow Creek, Rocky Mount. Project totals, they're estimating $9.3 million. A&E services are 871,000. And right now, if we were to have 545,000, we could have all the documents ready to put those out to bid whenever the board feels comfortable to make that purchase. We've done the back stuff. We just need the funding for the A&E services to get us to the next point.

So you need another $545,000 to do what?

That'll get us to the architectural drawings, 100% drawings, and have everything ready to be put out to bid and have it work completely.

Okay.

Yeah, Mark, could you just confirm the 871 is in addition to the 9.3?

No, the 871 is part included into the 545. No, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that. So the 871 is not in the 9.3. Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Questions? Are you going to continue to go through? I don't want to interrupt you, Mark.

No, I'm just answering your question.

Okay.

Questions? Comments? Mr. Mitchell?

If we're at 540 for the A&E work to get this out to bid, I'd like to see an action item for next month from Steve and Brian on how we handle that and an action item for us to vote on and move forward with.

Because next month will be July. I mean, what is the date that we would need to be able to pull the trigger on these that we would need to get the RFPs back in, evaluated, and awarded?

Ideally this fall, I would think.

OK. OK. Point well taken, Mr. Mitchell. Anybody else on this end?

Mark, you mentioned you use an RRMM on this?

Yes, they're the ones that have our current term contract for A&E services.

That's the reason you're using them?

Correct.

Thank you.

Mr. Meredith.

He answered one question there. The Gen 4, and please remind me here, the $140,000, is that, when you say replacing the whole floor, is that all the boards, or is that just fixing that corner and restraining?

That's replacing the entire boards and everything.

So can I ask this question? And as we're trying to stretch a dollar and get as much as accomplished, I know insurance will cover to replace that corner. Have we thought about, and I know I was at the meeting, y'all was talking about mismatch. Have we looked at if you use the insurance money to fix that corner and we just kind of restained it to blend it in together? or is it a matter could we get this fixed and then later on look at you know i'm just wondering because it sounds like we don't necessarily need to replace every board in there but i know i understand putting new with old you'd have a patchwork but i know all gym is used you know i'm just trying to stretch as much to get as much done and then operable and then maybe later we can look at what is your thoughts or y'all's take on that i do

so uh we we looked at that option i met with a couple of gym floor contractors out there and they expressed concern about only doing a portion of the floor being that that is the original floor the sizing will never match it'll they were explaining to me that it was going to cost more to patch the section than it would be just do the floor in theory but also the school board voted to do the gym floor at their june 8th meeting so my hands are kind of tied on that one now

Well, I ain't going to say it, because I'm certain they voted to do it, but they didn't have the money yet. So it's kind of interesting. But OK, thank you for clarifying that. Thank you.

Anybody else have any further questions, Mr. Law? Mr. Sandy, did you have a question?

Just to clarify again, I think the number was 545 that you said, so that would be for the A&E costs. The difference between the 871, I guess, is inspections and things like that during the project?

Yes, to run the RFP process, to do the inspections, to do commissioning at the end, and do all the final close-up documents and other 300,000 come back.

Okay. And just to be clear, to follow up on Mr. Jamison's comment, so you would use a term contract that you have with RMM, so that wouldn't, we're not talking about going through a competitive bidding process for that, back to your time question as well, but there would be a competitive bidding process for the school projects? Correct. And do you anticipate one bid for all three schools or separating that into three different contracts?

It would all depend. If the board funded all three projects at one time, we could very well wrap it into one big project or we can break it down to three separate. It's the board's place.

I just wonder if splitting it in three may allow you to get all three of them done in time. Does that maybe, in my mind, it makes it seem maybe a little more doable to get all three done in the summertime, but is that kind of your thinking, three different construction projects may be more beneficial?

Potentially. I think you're still going to have the same contractors bidding regardless if it's one big package or three small packages. I think it'll still be the same big competitive. I don't know that it affects timeline too much. There will be liquidated damages, so they'll know the time pressures up front.

Yes, I got to follow up on it. Is that an option that when this, if it goes out to bid, you could do it as a whole and options? Is that going to change anything that's costing us?

So we've done it in the past. We've grouped all the projects back in the early 2000s. We grouped all those together or several of those together each year and bid it out that way. Not sure that you see a lot of cost savings there with one versus the other.

Well, I just didn't know if I'd be optioned that you could be it as a whole and you could we could take business three individuals and just see which way it comes out better.

OK, so that's doable.

Excuse me.

I'm sorry, Mr. James.

That is doable, though, isn't it, Mark?

According to RMM, they predicted the work can be done in one summer, one normal summer.

What I'm saying is doable. You could bid each, you could write the RFP, school one, two, two, school three, and then on the fourth, group them together, and let the contractor, if he can give us a discount on that, he could do it. I mean, I know on sub work, HVAC, stuff like that, some bids will include, whether it's written, they'll include electrical and mechanical in one lump sum. and then other contracts that break it out, and then if a contractor, HVAC or electrical either one can do both, they will show a deduct for taking on both projects. I would rather see it going on like that. That's what you were talking about, right, Mr. Perry?

Yeah, I mean, and that's why I've seen you would have bid one, two, three as individuals, and then bid four would be A total of it all. Because like I said, if it ain't going to cost you anything, you might as well look at it. Because like you're saying, they might come in, well, I don't want to do all three, but I want to do the one. You just don't know. So I think I've seen that done before with schools or multiple projects. So I just think we need to look at every avenue to see what's going to be the best way. So yeah.

So Mr. Sandy, I'm sorry, Mr. Quinn.

Do you anticipate getting multiple bids for these projects? And I just ask because it seems like frequently we put something out to bid, and there's one bidder. It's disappointing. But is this work popular enough? Are there enough contractors out there that you would expect multiple bids?

Yes. Based on the age of great projects we've done in the past, we've had multiple bids by multiple companies.

So Mr. Sandy, question. And we've bounced this around just in discussion, but we're getting ready to really start. The rubber's going to hit the road to get these done with next summer in mind. At what point does the board, do you think that the board needs to make a formal commitment with a do not exceed number to the school board so that they can count on having the funding in place and ready to go? Or how would you recommend that we move forward with that?

It sounds like we're probably talking about two steps here. One would be to initiate the engineering, the A&E piece, which is the 550, 545, to allocate that to get moving forward. And then I think that process probably helps you sure up those numbers as well and know exactly what those costs are going to be for those three schools. Okay. I think you would be doing it in two pieces. We could look at the initial approval to get the A&E going on the agenda next month. Okay. And we'll also be, after that point, be continuing the conversations with our financial advisors. Correct. how to best, you know, come up with that 9.3-ish, whatever that number ends up being.

Right, right, right. Okay, any other questions from Mr. Law or Dr. Sears? Mr. Jamison.

Carter. Where would that point, whatever, come from?

The money tree, Brian, right?

I was hoping you was talking about that, Mr. Carter. So are you talking about the $545,000?

Just initiate this.

Realistically, so if you remember, and this has been probably a couple months ago, we had allocated up to $5 million out of the $20 million borrowing for school system projects. And we only really awarded or approved $4 million for the ABM for leeway. So really, I would take it out of that million dollar gap out of our existing borrowing for right now to get the A&E started and let that process move forward. i thought that money was allocated the the million was basically for the uh cte building no no that that was a separate we did purchase uh the module craft facility for five million and then we had allocated an additional five million million for school hvac projects and so ultimately it ended up we didn't do multiple projects we that was kind of just a placeholder but we did $4 million for Lee Wade, and so that leaves about a million difference with what was very early planning, but it's part of that $20 million. So since that's done, that's in the bank, we have that money available, Mr. Jamison. I think that's probably the appropriate place to take the A&E funds. Thank you. Yes, sir.

OK, thank you gentlemen so much. We appreciate you being with us and and sharing information and news moving in the right direction.

Thank you all.

Thank you all so much. OK, gentlemen, I am going to make a recommendation for your at your discretion, given that we are so far behind on our agenda. I would like to recommend that we we take our I think we need to take our dinner break, pick back up at 6 and pick up with Brian with his reports, the appropriation adoption, and then we'll have our closed meeting. We'll come out with just the agenda as it's laid out. How does that sit with you all, taking a 30-minute break for dinner?

You don't want to take closed while we eat?

Is closed session going to be to the point that we need more than 20 minutes? Yeah, we're going to need more than that. So we're going to take a break right now. We'll reconvene at 6 PM. We're going to come back for the bronze. He's got quite a few things to go over. And then we're going to go through the appropriations adoption. All of those things are going to take a little bit of time. Yeah. And what's left, I mean, we can pick things up, Mike. And if you all want to pick other things up before closed session.

I didn't know how long it was going to be. And I just don't want to come back for 15 minutes and then go into closed session. No, I understand. Yeah, that's all I was asking.

I understand. I understand. OK. Good evening, everyone. It's so nice to have you with us this evening. We appreciate you being here. We are juggling our agenda around a little bit. We've had a very long afternoon, but a productive one. What we would like to do is to move into this half of our meeting with public comment so that those that have signed up don't have to sit through a lot of county business unless you want to, and we certainly would welcome you to do that. So I need to read my prefacing language here that we've set this time aside for public comment. Public comment gives citizens an opportunity to address the board in person or in writing on matters appropriate to the responsibilities of the board. Each speaker will be limited to three minutes for their comments. Speakers must direct all comments to the board as a whole and not to individual board members or employees of the board or county. Personal attacks and insulting, defamatory, profane, or vulgar language directed at individual supervisors of the board will not be tolerated. Likewise, commentary on issues that are not within the purview of the board and that are not a function of local government and over which we have no control are not acceptable. Public comment is not a question and answer session, and board members will not answer questions during public comment. The chair of the board has the ultimate authority to manage the time the board allocates to public comment. The chair's authority includes but is not limited to limiting public comment to one person or position of a topic, shortening the time that each speaker has to speak, and or waiving any of the public comment provisions when appropriate and or necessary. If a speaker violates these rules, the chair may rule the speaker out of order, and upon second violation, have the speaker removed from the podium. So Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak with us?

Yes. First, we have Kim Jones.

OK. Good evening, Ms. Jones. Good evening. How are you?

My name is Kim Jones, and I'm a resident of Franklin County. I live in the Gills Creek District. I would like to speak plainly about what has been happening in several of these meetings. It is not civility or minor procedural issues. It is selective enforcement, viewpoint discrimination, and abuse of authority. It goes to the integrity of this board's process and to the constitutional rights of the public. The county's own rules of procedures say that public deliberations are supposed to occur in an atmosphere of respect and civility, and that officials must be independent, impartial, and fair. But what I and others have witnessed is the exact opposite. When citizens criticize the chair or ask whether a supervisor is fit for office, their response is to threaten removal or attempts to shut people down in a way that has no legitimate basis in the rules or the Constitution. Let me be clear. The First Amendment does not disappear because criticism is sharp. It does not disappear because comments are uncomfortable, and it does not disappear because a public official does not like hearing their name spoken in criticism. Public officials are not entitled to a shield from harsh speech. They are expected to tolerate it. The Supreme Court has long held that even caustic and unpleasant criticism is protected speech. In New York Times, Company v. Sullivan, the court made clear that debate on public issues must be uninhibited, robust, and wide open. In Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, the court rejected the idea that public officials or other public figures may silence offensive criticism just because it's outrageous. And in Snyder v. Phelps, the court reaffirmed that speech on matters of public concern receives the highest constitutional protection, even when it's deeply upsetting. Those principles apply here. A board meeting is not a private clubhouse. It is a public forum where citizens are entitled to criticize government conduct, government decisions, and government officials. The Fourth Circuit has recognized that local government meetings are limited public forums, meaning the board may adopt reasonable time, place, and manner rules, but it may not engage in viewpoint discrimination. Once the board opens a public comment period, it cannot use decorum rules as a weapon against criticism. Public officials may be criticized harshly, accused of poor judgment or bad leadership or unfitness of office. These are exactly the kinds of statements the First Amendment exists to protect. A rule against personal attacks can be used narrowly to prevent disruption, but it cannot be used to silence direct criticism of an elected official. The problem is not that the board has rules. The problem is that the rules appear to be enforced in a way that protects officials from criticism rather than protecting order in the meeting. And it is especially important here because the board has adopted rules that on their face already raise constitutional concerns. That is not civility. That is censorship. And the line between enforcing decorum and suppressing dissent has been crossed and is bringing this board dangerously close to a First Amendment and selective enforcement lawsuit.

Thank you. Thank you. Tammy Earhart.

Ms. Earhart, welcome.

Thank you. Good evening. My name is Tammy Earhart. I live in the Gills Creek District of Franklin County. The board's own rules of procedure say members should act in the public interest, comply with the constitutions and the law of the United States and Virginia, and exhibit conduct above reproach. They also say public comment is an opportunity for citizens to address the board and that the chair may manage the meeting. But the chair's authority is not unlimited. It is not a license to suppress criticism, to single out disfavored speakers, or to convert a public comment into a controlled performance where only approved speech is allowed. The board has now eliminated the option for a group spokesperson to have five minutes time when speaking for two or more citizens. Group speakers are often asked to do so because not everyone is comfortable with public speaking. Although the board's intention with this decision is to hear from more constituents, it will limit the voice of those not willing to speak publicly. If the board genuinely wants to hear from every constituent, perhaps everyone needs to show up to express how inefficient this could possibly get. This is a cut in public speech and everyone in this room understands why it's happening. It's happening because citizens have previously spoken forcefully, it is happening after the chair has repeatedly shown impatience with criticism, and it is happening in the same environment where the rules have been enforced selectively, inconsistently, and frankly in a way that looks designed to suppress the people most willing to challenge those in power. That should concern every member of the board. Your own rules of procedure say that public deliberation should be conducted openly in an atmosphere of respect and civility, and that officials must be independent, impartial, and fair. Those are not slogans. They are standards. When the chair uses authority to shorten speech after it proves effective, that is not fairness and that is not neutrality. That is control. And when the chair uses discretion to silence, diminish, or punish criticism that is not preserving order, it is a weaponizing procedure. But the board is not powerless here. The other supervisors are not required to sit quietly when one member narrows public participation and behaves as though criticism is a nuisance to be managed. Each member of this board has a duty to uphold the rules of the law and public trust. Right now, your silence is part of the problem. The board cannot continue to pretend this is someone else's issue. It is your issue. If one member makes the board look hostile, then the rest of the supervisors need to step forward and correct this, not later, but now. Citizens should not have to fight through shifting rules, shortened time limits, and arbitrary treatment just to be heard by the people elected to serve them. Every time this board ratchets down space for citizen speech, it sends the same message speak, but not too forcefully, criticize, but not too effectively, and organize, but not too successfully. I will close with this. I find it rather ironic that the board has repeatedly asked for citizen engagement, and now that you're getting it, you're changing the rules and silencing us. Thank you.

Walter Mitchell.

Good evening, Mr. Mitchell. Good evening. Good to see you. Good to see you as well.

My name is Walker Mitchell and I live in the Union Hall District, Newly. Good evening. Many of you know me as a political consultant. Tonight I'm giving away something I rarely offer, a free review of your 2026 performance to date from the perspective of the voters. Number one, board scraps two-year zoning rewrite. Nothing to show but fear, anger, mistrust, and questions about leadership. Number two, board kills major solar project on unrestricted land because solar doesn't work at night. Attorneys circling wanting litigation. Number three, board approves new school budget continuing to bleed the system dry. More teachers and parents are giving up. Number four, 11th hour voting reversal kills competitive bid on $4 million HVAC job. Bitter prospects say the move could have cost the taxpayers three cents of the seven cent tax hike the board just passed. Number five, losses mount at the $55 million Summit View Park, mostly empty years later. Number six, citizens brace for data centers and fear this board is even less trustworthy after the recent zoning fiasco. Number seven, hot off the press. Curtailing sustained public criticism, the board cuts time citizens get to speak during public comments. Individually, each of these stories is concerning. Together, they reveal a pattern. Month after month, the board appears to be reacting and not leading. Problems emerge, trust erodes, and accountability becomes difficult to find. Process seems to matter more than results and protecting procedure appears more important than earning public confidence. Voters see a county without a clear vision, strategy, or meaningful ways to measure progress. More importantly, they see a board that, under its current leadership, has struggled to bring people together around a common direction. My late grandfather, Charles Poindexter, often spoke about impact in public service. Ask yourselves, what impact have you made beyond voting yes or no on someone else's ideas? For those seeking reelection, an even tougher question awaits. Once the leadership problem becomes clear, what did you do? Because if your answer is nothing, if you cannot identify a single thing, then starting tonight, the problem is larger than any campaign. It is a problem that could affect this county for many years to come.

Christine Sizemore.

Good evening, Ms. Sizemore. Good evening. My name is Christine Sizemore. I'm a Franklin County resident from Hardy in the Boone District. I respectfully request that Franklin County hold a town hall meeting focused on one simple question. Where is the county headed and how do today's decisions fit into their future? Here are my thoughts, and I suspect I am not alone. The more I pay attention to county capital improvement plans, the more I find myself asking, what future are you building, who will benefit from it, and how we're supposed to understand the path that gets us there? That question seems difficult to answer. When residents raise concerns, the response is often that everything was done in public and that all anyone had to do was show up, pay attention, and get involved. That is easier said than done. Most people cannot spend hundreds of hours attending meetings, reviewing agenda packets, and follow discussions across multiple boards and departments, nor should they have to. Checking the box for legally required transparency is not the same as helping citizens understand what government is trying to accomplish. And what complicates matters is that there does seem to be a pattern. People are told one thing, but something else happens, and nobody explains the transition. Take Summit Park, for example. It was presented as both a business park and a community asset, a place where people could work, play and congregate, as it said. Today, citizens are reminded by county leadership that it is primarily a business park, while those interested in additional amenities are encouraged to pursue private fundraising efforts. The zoning rewrite is another example. What many residents understood as an update to comply with state requirements eventually became a complete restructuring of the ordinance that directly affected property rights. Whether those changes were right or wrong is not really my point. My point is that leadership never stopped to explain the transition, leaving citizens to reconstruct the reasoning for themselves instead of evaluating the decision itself. Today we're hearing discussions that could permanently shape Franklin County. Data centers are perhaps the most current example. Whether one supports them or opposes them is beside the point. Before those discussions move further, the public deserves more than another presentation or stack of handouts. We deserve a conversation with both elected officials and county leadership about where the county is headed while these decisions are being made and how they fit together. The board provides direction and oversight while county government develops and implements many of these initiatives. Citizens needs an opportunity to hear from both. And that ultimately comes back to leadership. If we repeatedly find ourselves asking how we got there, perhaps the most important question is this, who was responsible for explaining the path? Thank you. Thank you.

Dennis Crumpler. Dennis Crumpler.

Dennis Crumpler, Union Hall. I'm here tonight because your censure of Dan Quinn created a governance problem requiring recognition and consequences. First, let's set aside any pretense that Quinn's censure was for disclosure of personnel information. Then Chairman Thompson was widely known to have shared the same information during the same time period with no repercussions. So why the head fake? It's because the board had a real problem with Quinn's call for an investigation into a credible allegation that three supervisors had threatened a county employee's career over a campaign yard sign. If proven, that would be a reprehensible abuse of public office, and worse. Quinn's request for an independent review was precisely what his oath of office required. But instead of an investigation, this board delivered a censure. And here's the legal problem. Under Virginia's Conflict of Interest Act, a personal interest in a transaction, that's in quotes, exists when an official has a direct stake in a matter under consideration. Those three supervisors whose names we don't know had a direct stake in that matter. Discrediting Quinn would shield their reputations and guarantee the public never learned the truth. The law was invented to require all three of them to recuse themselves, but none did. The conflict was obvious and consequential, and the acting chair had an independent duty to identify it and demand recusals. In missing that, she corrupted the proceeding. And if she herself happened to be one of the three, then she would have presided over and voted on a matter in which she held a personal interest, a compounding breach. Both show disqualifying failures of judgment and leadership in Supervisor Smith, who was elected chairman mere weeks later in January. Two of the five supervisors who voted for her in January had no conflict in the tainted November censure vote. Those two supervisors have the power now to request a revote of that January election using the same procedure that recently reversed a $4 million vote on a repair contract. In light of new information about flaws in the censure vote they weren't aware of in January, I'm asking those two unconflicted supervisors, whoever you are, to please request a revote for chairman now.

Mr. Crumpler, I'm going to interrupt you. You are making accusatory statements by a supervisor by name, and that is not allowed, and I'm not going to tolerate it.

Is that a warning, or do I need to leave?

This is your first warning. Okay. Okay.

Such new information includes judgment failures during the tainted censure vote and the six months of unforced errors the public has endured since January. You, too, have the power and the justification to trigger a revote now and to confront data centers, improve our schools, and grow our economy. Our county needs leadership whose judgment is not in question.

Daniel Cundish.

Good evening. Thank you to the board for your time. My name is Daniel Cundiff. I'm a resident of Franklin County. My family has been in this area since around the Civil War. My mom was a teacher and my father a pharmacist. My grandparents owned local businesses, were farmers and mailmen. I could go on, but I think you get the point. We are Franklin County, just like the rest of my neighbors and community. I, along with hundreds of others, live very close to Summit View, and we, with the rest of Franklin County, from Smith Mountain Lake to Callaway to Sontag to Snow Creek, are deeply concerned about the zoning issues that are and will make us a target to trillion dollar corporations that profit off of their finite resources and offload the costs onto taxpayers and communities. I never thought that growing up in Franklin County, I would have to ask our leaders to protect our communities, resources, our health, our land, our energy and our children's future. I encourage you, the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission, I plead with you to please change the zoning ordinance to make sure Franklin County does not become a target of data centers. When people think of Franklin County, it should be for our rich and diverse history, our beautiful lands, rivers and lake, and our strong belief in our communities. our belief that we all have the right to live in peace and quiet, to live a healthy life, to be free, and to not be exploited by a trillion-dollar company at the expense of our resources, health, and freedoms. I'm going to share a few facts about data centers and what they do to communities, as many of you may be aware. When it comes to energy, data centers destabilize power grids and cause electric rates to increase. No one wants this. When it comes to water, which as you know, we are all in a drought, data centers can use up millions of gallons of water a day. Our communities don't have that to give. Some data centers use a closed loop system that uses less water. This process releases contaminants and PFAs as wastewater into our watershed and environment. No one wants this. When it comes to health, data centers contribute extensively to public health, such as cancers and asthma. They cause air and noise pollution. I for one cherish the quiet sounds that rural Franklin County has to offer. And I know I am not alone. And I know that no one wants to breathe in air that causes such negative effects on their health. No one wants this. When it comes to economics, data centers are currently exempt from sales and use tax in Virginia, which has resulted in a loss of billions of dollars in tax revenue every year. Localities also often give corporations additional incentives to attract them to an area. These are trillion dollar companies. Data centers only employ a few people. Most of the jobs that they boast creating are only temporary and construction jobs during the initial build out. Also, all of these negative effects from data centers, people who own property and homes near those data centers are left with their home value dwindling. No one wants this. Again, no one wants this except for the people who stand to profit off data centers at the expense of our health, land, resources, and community. I encourage and plead with the board and planning commission to change the zoning the future of Franklin County immediately.

Thank you. Thank you. Penny Hodges.

Penny Hodges, Gills Creek District. Okay, so I'm addressing the decision that was made at the meeting earlier today regarding limiting the citizens of Franklin County not being able to have a group and cutting out the five-minute talk. I mean, but I really think that this decision misses a much bigger decision, and it leads me to ponder if the Board of Supervisors really do want to hear from we the people. it's already impossible for us to express our concerns within our given three-minute time. And I know you guys realize that not everyone is comfortable speaking at the podium, and a lot of people are afraid to speak because of retaliation from the community, particularly county employees. And I know this because a lot of them have reached out to me. As y'all know, I've been very vocal about a lot of things going on in the county. And so for those people having someone to speak on their behalf of a group, it isn't a shortcut. It's a voice and it's a voice you all need to hear. And what concerns me again is this feels more like a step towards limiting what little opportunity the public already has to communicate to this board in a public and transparent way. We keep hearing about transparency, accountability, and better communication. We're communicating, but are you listening? Because when the opportunity for public participation is reduced, it's hard not to see this as us moving or you guys moving in the wrong direction. No offense to you, Laurie, on the guys. When you remove the ability for a group to have a representative speak, you're not hearing from more people. You're hearing from fewer people. Voices that may have been represented will simply go unheard. So from where I sit, this doesn't feel like an effort to improve our communication at all. It's just another effort to restrict one of the few effective ways that citizens have to communicate with their elected officials. Public participation is not a problem to be managed. It's the foundation of good government. If transparency and accountability are truly your goal, then the answer should be finding more ways for people to be heard, not fewer. So I end with this. Does the Franklin County Board of Supervisors really want to hear what we, the people of Franklin County, do you want to hear our voice? Thank you.

Ed Saunders? Ed Saunders? Ed Saunders?

Make sure I'm not too awfully loud. Ed Saunders, 245 Nature Zone Road, Ferrum, Virginia. Not my first time up here. So, of course, I'm here speaking about data centers. I think we all know that's kind of a hill I'm willing to die on. I think a lot of you wouldn't want them in your backyard, and I don't think any other folks in Franklin County should be in that same position. One thing I know you guys are very concerned about is litigation. Obviously these companies have more money than God. One thing that I think is specifically a concern of mine here in Franklin County is we all know what Franklin County is, and I don't mean this to be derogatory at all, but I sincerely worry that reasonable people in our county will be pushed to unreasonable lengths at some point. I think the first time some good old boy's farm dries up and he loses something that's been in his family for generations, a data center would very likely get some additional ventilation. I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope that I hope that these companies realize that we can only be pushed so far as a community and then there will be consequences. And unfortunately, I certainly like I'm a very reasonable person, but We've seen in the past things like the Killdozer, for example, where reasonable people were pushed to points where they were just unreasonable at that point. And I don't want our county known for that kind of thing. So I really hope that you guys will be good neighbors. I hope you'll put these things on the ballot. Let us bear the load of that. Let us make those decisions for what happens in our community. in addition to that, I really think the The community as a whole should probably know what project flash is Seems like there's a huge need to get a EP involved. I don't know what it is, but we're trying to figure that out I think that signing an NDA is probably something that you guys as representatives shouldn't be doing I certainly wouldn't if I were in your guys's shoes because that's your job is being part of the communicating with your community, your constituents. So I appreciate you guys' time. Hope you have a great evening.

Benjamin Schmidt.

Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Sacha. I'm a resident of Callaway, and I own a business in Rocky Mount. I would like to begin by asking for a show of hands from the public. How many of you are here, at least in part, because of concerns of a data center being built in Franklin County? All right, so that's most people. I'm sure you are well aware of the fact that Virginia has more data centers than anywhere else in the world. You have heard of the data center being built in Botetourt County and of the massive energy and water demands these centers impose. Board of Supervisors, the need for economic development must not blind the leaders in this county from seeing what is right and what is wrong. Already, when I look around Rocky Mount, I see a town filled with large corporations which, while they bring jobs, siphon money and resources away from the local community. I drove past the drive-through window last week and saw that they were advertising with pride that shift managers make $16 an hour to manage a crew of eight people. I hire people. I don't start my laborers at less than $19 an hour. I do my best to pay them more than that as they learn. When we do well, our crew does well, and the profits do not get sent to our bank accounts in the Cayman Islands or to our headquarters in Delaware. They stay here in Franklin County and in Virginia. That is the difference between small local large corporations. When I hear rumors that the county is flirting with data center developers, that council members are issuing cautions that putting restrictions in place could lead to lawsuits. I feel the need to issue a warning. With the power that you all have been elected to hold, to do nothing is to allow, which is to be responsible. I urge you to look at the roadmaps laid by other counties who have successfully fought off these threats. Do not be blinded by the initial contracts and construction opportunities. Look at the demand on our power grid, water resources, and land use, and use your power to make choices that will make your children and grandchildren proud. We have seen effective county leadership reject data centers in other counties and states, and we demand that it be done in Franklin County. Please make the time to prioritize zoning restrictions and laws that continue to allow Franklin County to be the place of freedom and opportunity that it is for many citizens while restricting vampiric megacorporations from sucking this county dry.

Thank you very much.

Keith Johnson? Keith Johnson?

Good evening, Keith. How are you?

Good, thank you. Sorry, cut myself at dinner, and this is the best way to prevent the bandage from leaking. Keith Johnson, I live in Boones Mill. I'm here today to talk about the financial troubles in our schools. To balance the county budget last year, you gave the school $3 million because they overspent their budget. That wasn't enough. The next year, you gave them more. You gave them $4 million to fix a boiler in one of the schools, you know, and it doesn't cost $4 million to fix a boiler. This year you raised our taxes $3 million and gave it all to the school because they were over budget again. This is about $10 million in two years. Obviously you're frustrated like the rest of us and required a financial review of the school system. I saw the nice, informative presentation, but it did not tell us where the school is spending the money to be so far over budget. It appears the school is not providing you with all the information you need to make an informed decision. After you gave the school $3.1 million a month ago, school administration sent a letter to staff saying they would spend $1 million for new money on buses and 1.2 million to pay for their health insurance for their employees. Well, this is new money to the school. And the insurance cost for employees should be a yearly budgeted item. So what's the superintendent doing with the $1.2 million that was already budgeted? The reason you can't get a handle on school expenses is the superintendent is playing a shell game. He keeps moving it around so you can't see it. I've heard it said we don't have a choice. We have to pay it to balance the county budget. But there's always a choice. The question is, when have you had enough of the mismanagement to do something different? Are you going to raise taxes every year to pay for this pattern of financial mismanagement at the school? It's time for the board to formally request the Commonwealth attorney appoint a special grand jury to investigate the financial mismanagement of our schools. You're gonna have to do it eventually. Are you gonna do it after we spend millions more? I know the chair is not supporting of this idea, but I'm hoping she'll warm up to it. Thank you.

Lauren Walk. I've never said that.

Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Lauren Walk. I live in the Boone District, and I'm the current PTO president at Boonesville Elementary School. I wanted to address what I believe is a growing concern among many residents, and that is transparency and communication. We've heard from many people today about the desire for more clear communication and better information dissemination on what decisions are being made and why. I have been attending both School Board and Board of Supervisors meetings since November, mostly because of my PTO position and wanting to watch how the schools are funded and what I can do to better help those get funded. What I have noticed is that during that time, I've seen a pattern where I will talk to Board of Supervisors representatives and School Board representatives, and they will both blame the other party. I am here asking to have you guys work together to foster better communication, better transparency on your end, to have more joint meetings, and to have better questions being directed directly to one another. I have asked questions here and received questions to go to the school board and vice versa. I've seen their meetings and your meetings where both are happening. If possible, we need to get together and have a better discussion so that the public can have more faith in us in this process, and so that we can actually fund our schools, get the needs met, and know what's happening. I have said the same thing at school board meetings. We need better transparency from everyone involved. You guys are very limited in what you can do, but you are in control of what you can do. And in that, we can improve. At the end of the day, residents are less concerned about who owns a problem than whether leaders are working together to solve it. Greater collaboration, clearer communication will strengthen not only decision making, but also public trust that both institutions depend on. These decisions affect our children. These decisions affect our county. And I know both groups seem very passionate about it. We can have our disagreements. We can have our opinions. but bringing those together and collaboratively working through them is the best path forward. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Dawn King-Grier.

Good evening. Good evening.

Dawn King-Grier, resident, Farron, Virginia. A community does not secure its future by taxing its people into poverty. For far too long, we've been told the only way forward is to chase outside grants, build complicated programs, and squeeze local landowners with administration fees. Today, I'm asking you to change that concept. We can protect our heritage and save taxpayers nearly half a million dollars this year alone, simply by making two choices. First, we refuse the grant bait. I urge this board to walk away from the rural microtransit system contract before June 30th. It looks like free money, but to anyone who's ever balanced a family budget, there's a catch. Taking that grant creates a massive unfunded liability when the state money vanishes. By walking away, we instantly save $120,000 local cash match, and we claim $210,000 in diverted staff hours. That's $330,000 right there. To keep things at home, public safety, and schools, that needs to be our priority, not new ideas and concepts from grant money exclusions. Second, we must put aside a shield. I ask you to pass the Citizens Farm and Agricultural Heritage Zoning Shield of Protection. It costs $0 to implement, but it changes the game entirely. It grants a permanent legal safe harbor to our traditional farmers, agritourism, and heritage crafts. By halting the cycle of predatory code enforcement fines against independent homesteads, we instantly cut out 161,000 in wasteful legal overhead, court costs, and out of the county's budget. When you add it up, rejecting the transit trap and passing the zoning shield saves Franklin County 491 in cold hard cash this year alone. Over the next three years, this disciplined approach cuts about $165 million of unnecessary spending. This creates structural surplus. It gives the board exactly the financial room you need to fulfill rollback for the recent $0.04 real estate tax hike. I urge you to pass this, send the signed resolution to Richmond before the statutory July 1st deadline, You do not build a stable community by inviting outside regulations or finding your own citizens. You do it by protecting the freedom of your people, shielding the agricultural heritage, and keeping our hard-earned money right here where it belongs, in our pockets, enclosing our greatest assets or our natural resources and these, your citizens, all of us. who steward towards them. The people of Franklin County, we know our history. We are wide awake to the fact that zoning laws originated to keep heavy industry into check, not to micromanage private properties and homesteads of everyday people. If folks want strict property controls, that's exactly what homeowners associations are designed for. It's not the role of the county government. By passing this resolution and sending it to Richmond, you are doing more than balancing a budget. You are standing as a guard for our national resources.

You are protecting the fundamental liberties of our property owners.

Ms. Greer, your time's up.

And it's kind of rude to have to be there for the last 15 minutes when we only get three minutes to voice the opinion of all the people who contact us because they can't contact us.

Okay, we are gonna move directly into picking up some of the other issues on our agenda from earlier. And Mr. Sandy, if it's okay with you and your staff, we'll bring Brian up to discuss various issues listed on the agenda. The first to begin with the school finance service contract, followed by the monthly finance report, and then the county and school supplemental comp update.

Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. So the first item is the school finance consultant. And so it's going to be attachment 13. I do not have a PowerPoint slide on that, but in your agenda. And so one of the things on this item particular, I know Ms. Chauver came earlier. and presented, but this is a separate contract for a consultant to assist the schools more in their day-to-day operations. So if you remember, of course, their current finance director retired at the end of April. The new chief financial officer isn't able to start until October. So there's a gap in a time to try and support the school system and the school staff. So the intent of the consultant would be to bridge that gap and ultimately to help set processes in place, provide improvements so when the new CFO starts in October, they'd be able to hit the ground running. So we've bridged that gap in that period of time. What we're recommending in a collaborative process, Mr. Sandy, myself, discussion with Dr. Sears and the school staff, we're recommending using a single-term contract procurement option as we did with Ms. Shalver. There is that per code as listed in the executive summary. Our policy caps that annually at $80,000 in cost for a 12-month period. And so we we went through a process trying to find additional help the school system started it We've participated in some of those calls We were unsuccessful in several consultants with the the scope of work that was preferred to be used and so with the help of several including mr Gwen trying to assist the schools and finding a consultant. We ultimately settled on Miss Rebecca Owens who is former Deputy County Administrator at Roanoke County and has a career of decades of experience between City of Salem and County of Roanoke. Certainly no stranger to local government finance and so would work very well with the school staff. What we would look to do is the county would procure the contract Ms. Owens would work for the county to assist the schools ultimately at the direction of my position. And then the joint scope of work is listed in your executive summary and the agenda item. So it would be a combination of year end, work accruals, audit preparation, in addition to school support on year-end annual school report, day-to-day on some things. We wanted the scope of work to be flexible, to be further defined as the process materialized. But I think for us, one of the things that we're really looking for is we really want process improvements implemented for the school system. And I don't mean that very negatively, but I think as we've gotten into the process, as Ms. Shaw ever mentioned, we've worked on several iterations of a report and a projection. and i know we haven't gotten to it yet but they're going to need a process in place if the board adopts the appropriation resolution that puts additional requirements on school board so the intent of this position would really be to get all those processes in place to assist them during this interim period there may be some work period beyond that scope you know timeline to be determined But the intent is really there's this gap of about three months or so until the new CFO starts in October. So don't want to belabor and go line by line on the scope of work, certainly in your packet. But if there are any questions of board members or concerns, be happy to try and address them.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. So, colleagues, we've got, first of all, I'll open the floor for any questions, concerns, inputs. Anybody have any questions on this before we move further?

Madam Chair, I do have a quick question.

Okay, sure.

Is this going to last only for the three months, or is this person staying on past the new CFO for the school system?

I think what we would prefer is that flexibility be offered to stay beyond if we as staff collectively between the county and the schools determine it's needed. I think for us, most of the work really would be to prepare in that three-month period, but the contract would be a 12-month contract. And that contract would be no more than $80,000 by our own procurement code and state law. So up to 12 months at a maximum cost of $80,000 would be the recommendation. I did fail to mention in collaboration with the schools, we're recommending that that cost be shared between the county and the schools. so we would split that evenly 50-50 that's it would be the county would ultimately pay the invoice we would invoice the school system for half of it but I do think because of that that obligation that's why the county wanted to be involved in monitoring the work that was being performed to make sure it was accomplishing the goals that we would anticipate well with that in mind I guess my concern is they don't have CFO until October

Correct.

I don't have a problem after the new CFO comes on. And we keep this person on. We do the 50-50. But I don't understand if they budget for a CFO starting July 1, why should we pay half of that? I understand what you're saying of keeping an eye. But they don't have a CFO. And I just don't understand why we're paying half of the salary. when they don't have CFO. I have no problem after October 1st if we're gonna keep this person on as like in Ann's role, position of monitoring and helping. But I don't understand when you have a $100 million budget organization with no CFO, while we fit in half that bill for that three months. That's just my concern and my comment on that.