Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, and welcome to the 04/28/2026 regular meeting of the Gaston County Board of Commissioners. My name is Chad Brown. I serve as Chairman of the Board as well as Commissioner of the River Bend Township. I would like to welcome our viewers and thank Spectrum Cable and AT and T for making it possible for our citizens and our livestream audience. I would like to present your Gassing County Commission beginning on my far right.

Alan Fraley, Cherryville Township.

Good evening, Scott Sheehan, Gastonia Township.

Jim Bailey, South Point Township.

Kathy Kloniger, Dallas Township.

Bob Hovis, Crowders Mountain Township.

Good evening. Tom Peeger, Gastonia. At this time, I will also ask, commissioner Hovis for the invocation to be led by the, pledge of allegiance by Robert Rackle, our special guest.

If you will, please bow with me. Gracious father, we come to you tonight to conduct the business of the county. Father, keep us ever ever mindful for everyone here and all those who are here to speak. Help us to understand the point that individuals are coming from. Help us to be mindful of our compassion to those who may have opinion opinion from one another because we are all part of Gaston County. No one is always right, and no one is always wrong. We ask your guidance, your prayer, and your intercession into our actions tonight. We ask that in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, gentlemen. Also,

I will have to ask everyone to have a seat tonight for safety, please. The fire code will make us everybody, if you don't mind, please having a seat. First item on the agenda is public hearings. The commission will now take citizens comments on three public hearings tonight. Comments will be taken for the following issues.

Conditional District R E Z Dash 240. Conditional District R E Z 226 will be postponed, and R E Z 242 zoning map change will be on the agenda tonight. Before we begin, let me outline the rules of procedure for the hearing. Citizens wishing to make comments be recognized by the chair, then requested to step to the microphone and state their name and address for the record. Comments are limited to three minutes. All questions shall be directed to the chair for response. The chair shall rule on all points of order for the hearing. Do I hear a motion to go into public hearing?

So moved, mister.

Motion made by commissioner Hovitz, seconded by commissioner Sheehan. All in favor? We are now in public hearing. The first item on the agenda is conditional district REZ dash 240 RTR Renovations LLC. Miss Jamie Leesy, planning to building and development services will provide a brief overview once she has completed her comments. Citizens comments will be taken. Miss Leesy.

Thank you, mister chairman. Okay. Thank you, mister chairman. REZ26Dash01Dash07Dash00240 is a conditional rezoning request, excuse me, for parcel ID 173544 at 14556 Lucia River Bend Highway. The applicant and property owner is RTR Renovation LLC.

This request is to conditionally rezone from the r one single family limited zoning district with urban standards and corridor highway overlays to the C three general commercial conditional district with urban standards and corridor highway overlays. The subject parcel is located North of Mount Holly in the Northeast quadrant of the county. The orthophoto shows a mix of residential type uses and Highway 16 at the top of the corner top right corner. The zoning map shows the subject parcel is surrounded by residential zoning with pockets of commercial and residential multifamily in the vicinity. And the environmental features, the site is relatively flat with only four feet between the lowest and highest points on the site, and there is no flood designation on the property.

This map shows the parcels who were notified about today's public hearing. This is a list of properties that were notified. The site is serviced by a private well and septic system and accessed by NCDOT maintained road. The site plan shows the existing building as well as a small storage building to be removed and replaced with the parking area. The proposed type D buffer and fence runs along the side and rear of the property, and the area has been set aside for a future storage building to the rear of the property.

This is an image of the existing structure and the storage building from Google Street Views. The proposed site plan meets all parking surface and off street parking space requirements as well as the buffer yard requirements. General ordinance sections that we looked at during the review include the definition of contractor's office and equipment storage yard and the underlining zoning district definition for the proposed C 3 district. We also reviewed the conditional district definition and the table of uses, which confirmed that the contractor's office and equipment storage yard is a permitted use in the C 3 underlying zoning district. This is an existing site.

The applicant is requesting relief from lot grading and lot width requirements as no site alterations are proposed. The building does not meet the front setback requirement for the C H Overlay District, district, which are stricter than the underlying zoning district of C 3. The existing building setback is 44 feet from the property line, and the requirement is 50 feet. So they're requesting six feet of relief from that front setback. The Gaston County TRC reviewed this project on Wednesday, February 18, and provided the following comments.

EMS, natural resources, building services had no comment. Environmental health indicated that if the applicant application is approved, the applicant will be required to apply for existing septic system approval due to the change in use. And staff received one call about this rezoning request. Citizen asked general questions but did not share any concerns with staff. As for the comprehensive land use plan, the subject parcels are within Area 3, Northeast Riverfront Gaston small area plan.

The future land use designation is rural. The application as presented aligns with the comprehensive land use plan as it will maintain the rural feel of the area as well as bring increased commercial job commercial and job opportunities. The Planning and Zoning Board heard this case on its April 13 regular meeting and recommended approval with a 10 to zero vote. With that, I ask that you receive the staff report and presentation. As always, the board has the ability to recommend approve with modification or deny the request. Mister chairman, this concludes my presentation. The applicant is here if you have any questions.

Thank you, ma'am. Any any comments from the applicant at this time? Seeing none, any citizens wishing to comment on this issue at this time? Any questions from the board of commissioners? If there are no additional comments, I will now declare the public hearing closed.

Just to recap, the Planning and Zoning Board had unanimously recommended approval finding it to be reasonable in the public interest and consistent with the goals and comp plan as it has keep the parcel appearance residential in nature as well as being increased commercial opportunities in this area. Do I hear a motion to approve as with the modifications or given? Motion made by commissioner Fraley, seconded by commissioner Sheehan. Any discussion? All in favor?

It is unanimous, madam clerk. The next item was pulled. I will read it just Jamie, do you want to announce or what day is the June 23 would be the regular meeting? We will not have to re advertise just for the simple fact that we are just moving that to that. Do I hear a motion to continue the public hearing of R E Z 226? Motion made by commissioner Bailey, seconded by commissioner Sheehan. All in favor? It is continued, madam clerk. The next item is the zoning map change R E Z Dash 242 Clifton Curve for the applicant. Miss Peyton Wiggins, land development manager, building and development services, will provide a brief overview.

Once she has completed her comments, citizen's comments will be taken. Miss Wiggins.

Thank you, mister chairman. REZDash26Dash02Dash19Dash00242 is a general rezoning request from Clifton Curve Foy for PID 1 excuse me, 319056. The owner applicant is requesting to generally rezone the 1.1 acre parcel from the R 1 Single Family Limited zoning district with US urban standards overlay to the R two single family moderate zoning district with US urban standards overlay. The property is in the Southwest portion of the county, South of Kings Mountain, Bessemer City, and Gastonia city limits. And the ortho photo site shows that the site is currently vacant.

In February 2026, planning staff approved a subdivision plat to subdivide the subject parcel out of the original mother parcel, and that recorded plat is indeed book one eleven, page one nineteen. The portion of the county is primarily residential with a variety of housing types throughout the surrounding area. The environmental map shows that there's no flood on the property. The environmental map also confirms the property lies outside of any flood zone and shows an appropriate an approximate 12 foot elevation decrease from north to south across the 145 foot wide lot. The zoning map shows the subject property is r one with r one throughout the entire area.

There's a bit of white to the south, which is an improved development within the city limits of Gastonia. This map shows the property owners who received notices for tonight's public hearing. Notices were mailed on Tuesday, April 14, and assignments placed on-site the same day. Planning staff has not yet received any comments about this And this slide shows the information of those who were notified. The site to be developed would be served by a private well and septic system, and the site has frontage along Camp Rotary Road, which is an NCDOT owned and maintained roadway.

The Gaston County TRC reviewed this request on March 24, and there were no comments at this time. The GCL NPO provided the following comments, and the full letter is attached to your staff packet for more detail. According to the NCDOT's 2026, 2035 stip, there are no funded transportation improvement projects in the immediate vicinity. However, according to the CTP, there are recommended bicycle facility improvements along Camp Brodery Road, and these are unfunded at this time. This property falls within area 5, Scenic Gaston Southwest Gaston small area plan of the comprehensive land use plan.

The future land use designation is rural, and these areas are characterized by green rolling hills and plenty of open space. Residential homes are located on larger lots and are set back from the roads they front upon. Saff finds its application as presented consistent with the goals and future land use designation found within the comp plan as it will keep the parcel residential in nature. The planning and zoning board heard this request at its April 13 meeting and recommended approval of this request by a 10 to zero vote. Mister chairman, this concludes my presentation, and the applicant is here to answer any questions y'all may have.

Thank you, ma'am. Any comments from the applicant at this time? Any citizens wishing to comment on this issue? Any questions from the board of commissioners? Seeing there are no additional comments, I would declare the public hearing closed. Just to recap, the planning and zoning board recommended approval by a 10 to zero vote finding it reasonable in the public interest and consistent with the goals of the comp plan. And it will issue the parcel residential in nature as envisioned by the rural future land use development. Do I hear a motion to approve?

Motion to approve,

mister Chair. Motion made by commissioner Hovitz, seconded by commissioner Sheehan. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Thank you. This concludes tonight's public hearing. Next item on the agenda is approval of the business agenda. Are there any revisions to the business agenda or any items that need to be pulled?

I would like to pull Ah26.141 for discussion.

You just want to pull it for discussion now?

We can wait.

Okay. Thank you. So we'll be pulling Ah26. I guess it's just Ah. Do I hear a motion to approve the business agenda with Ah being pulled from the consent agenda?

So moved.

Motion made by Commissioner Hovitz, seconded by Commissioner Fraley. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Approval of the minutes. You provided a draft minutes of the rescheduled regular meeting of 02/26/2026 regular meeting of 03/24/2026. Are there any revisions, or do I hear a motion to approve as presented? Motion made by commissioner Keeger, seconded by commissioner Hobas. Any discussion? All in favor?

It is unanimous, madam clerk. The next item is citizens recognition. Our next item is citizen recognition. A portion of the board's agenda is set aside for the purpose of allowing citizens the opportunity to offer comments and suggestions. This period of comment is not intended to require the commission or staff to answer any questions or provide a response.

Questions requiring a response shall be answered as soon as possible through the county manager's office. Tonight's citizen's comments will be limited to three minutes as I call your name. Please state your name and address for the, record. First citizen, before I get to that, I just wanna mention, since we've had so much going back and forth over the last month or so, when the red light comes on, it will be muted, and I will ask you to stop at that time. So please make sure, we're gonna make sure everybody gets their three minutes tonight. So we'll do that, on a consistent basis to make sure. The first person to speak tonight is miss Brittany Elkin.

Hi. My name is Britney Elkin. I live at 33012 High Ridge Court. A year or two ago, my kids were outside playing with the neighbors when a police officer pulled into our neighborhood to say hello and let them see all the cool stuff in the car. The kids thought it was awesome, and honestly, so did I. So I wanna be very clear. I understand the value of our men and women in uniform and their importance in this community. That is why I believe that an ounce of prevention would go a long way in Gaston County. Teachers are foundational to the long term safety and success of our communities, and this is backed by research. Multiple studies show that stronger public school funding leads to lower rates of violent and property crime.

When students receive strong, well funded education, they gain access to better jobs and critical life skills, like impulse control, problem solving, and long term thinking that are directly tied to the lower crime rates. We cannot only focus on responding to crime. We need to invest in preventing it. And right now, Gaston County is choosing reaction over prevention. We spend about twice as much on public safety as we do on classroom operations, even though education is one of

the strongest

long term public safety investments that we could make. And when I've pressed this issue, I've been told we have to look at debt service. So I did. And guess what? Other counties have school debt too, but they do not use it as an excuse to underfund classroom operations.

Gaston County provides about 54,000,000 in operating support for our public schools, while carrying about 35,000,000 in school debt service. Johnston County collects about the same amount in property taxes as Gaston, but provides $110,000,000 in school operating support while carrying about 42,000,000 in school debt. So they have more debt than we do, and they still fund their classrooms about double what we do. That means this is not a money problem. This is a priority problem. And Gaston County's

Please, we're gonna hold our applause.

And Gaston County's priorities are on full display in this budget. I urge you to fund our schools based on their original request, not the watered down realistic version created after years of being told no. And between now and the next meeting, I will continue to share the numbers and help parents understand how their children are being put last in this county over and over. And if anybody here is hoping that we will get quiet and go away, we will not. It is time for the for us to get our priorities in order and fund our schools. Thank you.

Just stunned it. I'm gonna ask for everybody. We're not gonna applaud. We're not gonna do it for anybody, one side or the other, anything. That way, everybody gets the expedient time that they need to be here. The next person is miss Heather Elkin.

Good evening. My name is Heather Elkin. My address is 3708 Princeton Drive. I was born and raised in Gaston County. I am a graduate of Forest View High School.

I was raised by two educators who gave thirty years of service to Gaston County Schools, one as a beloved kindergarten and AG teacher, one as an esteemed principal and deputy assistant superintendent. I was raised in an environment that focused on the importance of public education, and public education at that time looked very different than it does in this county today. Two of my three children are students at Robinson Elementary, and my third starts kindergarten there in the fall. I was proud to enroll them in the same elementary school that I attended as a child and where my mother taught kindergarten for twenty years. The education I received through Gaston County Schools was stellar, and I wanted the same for my children.

But what I see today as my children are being raised in that same school system looks different. Their teachers don't have the supplies they need. Now they don't have the staff that is necessary to provide our children with a well rounded education. Librarians, school counselors, and nurses are gone. Theater programs are gone. I never could have imagined that a school system would get to such dire straits, and it's incomprehensible to me that we are here, but we are. The Board of Education has consistently been asking you for funds and have been receiving significantly less than what they need. This year, they aren't even asking for what they need, but only for what's realistic. Why is that? Because they know that you won't give them what they need?

Why are our children and teachers not being prioritized in the county budget? Why are we spending so much less on education than peer counties? These children are the future of this community. They are the next generation of nurses, police officers, paramedics, and important members of our community who need the foundation that should be taught to them in our schools. Like I said, I'm a product of Gaston County Schools, and I have proudly served this community as a nurse for twenty years.

Who is going to come behind me? Students whose education has been whittled down to the very basics because of lack of funds, vulnerable children who have fallen through the cracks because they didn't have a school counselor, students whose specials departments have been cut because we don't have enough money to pay for well rounded education for them. A successful community depends on successful children, and I don't see how they can be successful in this environment. I fully understand that this is also a state level issue with our legislatures failing to pass a budget, but all other counties in this state are dealing with that same problem. Yet the majority of those counties are choosing to spend significantly more than we are per pupil.

I remember my dad fighting tires tirelessly for the teachers and students of Gaston County Schools. He was at these commissioners meetings every month fighting to get what he needed for his schools. And now that he's retired, I will come stand here too and fight for them.

Thank you. Stephanie Hart. We're not we're not gonna do this. I'm I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be mean, but we have to stop this. If it continues, we'll just start escorting. Thank you.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Stephanie Hartman, and I live at 1223 Oakwood Avenue. I'm here as both a parent and a transplant who chose Gaston County. I'm not from Gastonia, but I am an engaged citizen. I'm a financial advisor, a Rotarian, a historic district commissioner, Sunday school teacher, and PTA member.

By every definition, I represent the kind of engaged citizen this county says it wants to recruit and retain. But for our family, retention is at risk. The Board of Education once again is about to submit a bare bones budget, anticipating that this body will not fully fund our schools. As a result, 3,300,000 was preemptively cut from funding intended for exceptional students. I am the parent of one of those students.

My son, Sammy, is exceptional in every way. He is exceptionally smart, exceptionally funny, and exceptionally kind. He does not require an EC classroom, but what he needs and what federal law requires is access to a general education classroom with additional supports. Those supports are what is being cut. Under the IDEA Act, the services in his IEP are not optional.

They are not a nice to have. They are the law. Because our district and school is failing, our family drives 17 miles each way from the historic district to Pinewood Elementary in Mt. Holly so that our son will receive an exceptional education. Pinewood was the only passing school to accept him through the lottery process.

I applied to 10 different schools to get him into a quality kindergarten, and applied for private ESA grants as well, for which we were denied. The process of getting Sammy into a Gaston County kindergarten that was not failing was more difficult than getting into graduate school, and I go to Harvard. Families should not have to bend over backwards in this county just to ensure that our children are educated adequately and legally, and let me be clear about accountability. We do understand the state and federal government share blame. Tonight, we're asking you to step up and to lead locally because you do not strengthen a workforce or retain engaged citizens without supporting our kids, and shame on anyone who would balance a budget by denying fundamental rights to children with disabilities.

Fund Gaston County Schools at the full $68,000,000 outlined in the superintendent's original budget. This represents only 32% of local property tax revenue allocated to schools, and still places Gaston County at the bottom of peer sized counties for the proportion of the budget being allocated to school funding. This is the bare minimum, and the fact that families are here groveling for funding that still amounts to less than average is unacceptable. So let me be very clear. We, the parents of Gaston County, will not stand by while you gamble with our kids' future. If this body will not adequately invest in education, parents will run. We will campaign, and we will vote to replace you with leaders who

will keep our children first. Thank you. Holland Delaney.

Good evening. My name is Holland Delaney. I'm at 1005 South Point Road in Belmont. My daughter is a fourth grader at Belmont Central, and my son will attend kindergarten at Page Primary this fall. I appreciate your time this evening to hear our thoughts, along with a lot of other concerned parents here with me.

Across Gaston County, our teachers are being asked to do more with fewer resources, balancing larger class sizes, limited supplies, increasing academic and social emotional needs. They did this with professionalism and dedication, but it's coming at a real cost. Increasingly, teachers are absorbing more responsibilities, both administrative and beyond. Things that are traditionally supported by guidance counselors, media specialists, and instructional support staff. These professionals play a critical role in our student success, supporting mental health, literacy, and access to learning resources.

While those roles are understaffed when those roles are understaffed and spread too thin, teachers are having to step in to fill that gap. At the same time, Gaston County invests less locally per student education than so many comparable counties, even though our residents carry a relatively high property tax burden. That gap is felt not in abstract numbers, but in daily workloads, support capacity, and long term sustainability for these teachers. This is about local priorities and local choices. We are asking for you to prioritize our children and the educators who lead them.

We should not depend on teachers' goodwill or parents' supplemental efforts to maintain essential educational services. Our educators deserve the resources and staffing necessary to focus on what they do best, teaching, mentoring, and supporting these students who are gonna be the future of Gaston County. I'm here to ask you to continue to strengthen education as a core county priority, ensuring our schools are open and fully funded at the request of the Board of Education to do the work that they do every day. Our children benefit when teachers feel supported. Our community benefits when schools are stable and well resourced. Thank you for your time.

Miss Holly Ball.

My name is Holly Ball. I live at 2717 Blackjack Oak Court, Gastonia. Thank you for letting me speak today. I will get straight to the point, mister chairman. There's an educational deficiency in this district. The kids of Gaston County are depending on you. I am from Arizona, taught junior high for eleven years, language arts and social studies. It is my passion. I love it, and I love teenagers, believe it or not. We moved to North Carolina in 2018.

After seven years of being a stay at home mom, I went back to work. I was hired to teach ELA at a middle school. Quickly, I began to see the mismanagement of the district. Number one, EC students are not serviced according to the IEPs. The EC person who was supposed to service my IEP students, the minutes, was not available most of the time. I asked about this missing minutes and I was told I was at the helm of the ship. The EC department needs funding for more people to service our IEP students. No student should be left behind due to staff shortages. It's illegal. Education is a human right.

Number two, funding is needed for support staff for safety in the community of the school. Fights would break out in my classroom every two to three weeks. I called for support staff who never come or would come thirty minutes after the call. At risk schools should have extra support staff, a school wide behavior plan that everyone needs to enforce, and have follow through with consequences. What happens to the kids that wanna sit there and learn?

Lastly, three, mister chairman, teacher retention needs to be addressed. With this budget, schools will be working in just the bare bones. When my husband and I look for a house to buy in Gastonia, I examine the school district, spending per student, the district budget. When families look for housing, they look at the district. This is bad publicity for this district. Teachers are losing their jobs. How do you expect people to move here? There are all these nice new houses for families to move into, but the boards of the district don't want to invest into the children of the district. I would go somewhere else. There goes the tax dollars.

Teachers need money and support. Just remember, when you retire, you will need a wonderful knowledgeable nurse at the hospital down the street. You will need a literate mathematically inclined EMT if you need it. Gaston County needs good engineers that can build bridges to sustain all the traffic that is increased over time. Teachers of Gaston County are educating the future of this county become plumbers, electricians, lawyers, doctors, and teachers. You want them to go to local colleges and technical schools. The teachers who have jobs now are not paid enough. They could look elsewhere, like South Carolina. A

side

note, my family and I are moving back.

Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Next person is Alicia Brinkley.

Evening. My name is Alicia Brinkley, and my address is 4050 South Cove Lane in Belmont. I come to you tonight not as a teacher or a staff member, but as a mom, a pediatric nurse, and a community member who is genuinely worried about the direction of public education in this county. I have two daughters, a second grader at Belmont Central and a rising kindergartner who will attend Page Primary. Like many parents here tonight, my children's classrooms are not numbers on a spreadsheet or items in a budget.

They are real places where my children will spend their days learning, growing, and becoming who they will be. I ask that you listen carefully tonight, not just to me, but to all of the speakers, and carry our words with you as you make decisions that directly affect our children. I am a proud product of public schools. When my husband and I chose to raise our family here more than thirteen years ago, we did so intentionally. We believed deeply in public education and trusted this district to provide a strong, supportive foundation for our children. Today, that trust feels uncertain. Teachers

are

the backbone of our schools, yet year after year, we ask more of them while quietly removing the support they need to succeed. We pile on responsibility and stress, often without pay, that honors the weight of their work. As essential positions are eliminated, teachers are forced to absorb the roles of others, special education staff, teaching assistants, school nurses, and now counselors and librarians. I worry deeply about what that means for our children. Last year, Page Primary did not have functioning air conditioning during the weeks leading up to the school year.

Teachers still showed up, moving into newly constructed classrooms to accommodate an ever growing student population, once again asked to make it work no matter the conditions. Many of these teachers are spending their own money on basic necessities like paper and cleaning supplies. And I keep asking, Why isn't there funding for the bare minimum? Why has this become accepted as the new normal? How can we expect our children to thrive when people who support them are being cut and schools are already short staffed?

You have incredibly important decisions ahead. When you approve budgets and allocate funding, I ask that you picture your own child, your grandchildren, sitting in one of these classrooms. Picture their teacher, their school day, and make decisions as if their safety and future depend on it, because for our families, they do. We are asking you, pleading with you, to treat these decisions with the urgency and responsibility our children deserve. These choices will affect our children not just this year, but for the entirety of their school careers. This is not about pointing fingers. It's about repairing something that is failing the very children it's meant to serve. Thank you.

Ms. Leah Wilson.

Good evening. My name is Leah Wilson. I'm at 164 Morgans Branch Road in Belmont. My husband and I have two daughters, a fourth grader at Belmont Central and a kindergartner at Page Primary. My husband is a proud product of Gaston County Schools, coming from a family of Gaston County educators, just like some of you in this room and this board this evening.

He has also worked in local government in Gaston County for the past eighteen years and currently works for the city of Belmont. I stand before you tonight not only as a parent and a community member, but as an oncology nurse who chose a second career because I wanted to know that I was making a difference. I have to believe that that same desire to leave your community better than you found it is a part of what called each of you to serve on this board. Our schools are not separate from our community. They are our community.

The children sitting in Gaston County classrooms today are tomorrow's workforce. Over 50% of the adults who power this county today live and work right here, which shows that our schools are directly shaping the future of our county's workforce. Education lays the groundwork for everything that follows in a child's life. When schools are underfunded, the impact isn't limited to test scores or classroom resources. It affects whether students stay, families stay, and whether our county can build and sustain that strong local workforce.

We all know that it takes just one teacher, one coach, one adult who believes in a child to change the entire trajectory of their future. That kind of impact doesn't happen when classrooms are overcrowded and educators are stretched beyond what's reasonable. It happens when schools are appropriately supported and funded. And I fully recognize that this challenge may be happening statewide without an approved state budget, but you right now have the opportunity to make a real difference right here in our town, in our own country, our own county. Because state funding isn't enough to run the system on its own, and county commissioners decide whether schools sink or stay afloat.

And while the state sets the floor, the county commissioners are a part of deciding whether teachers get competitive supplements. Staffing levels are sustainable, layoffs happen, and also control whether schools can fill funding gaps and avoid crises like the one happening now. We are growing rapidly in this county, yet we are asking our schools to do significantly more with significantly less, and the numbers we are seeing reflect that strain. This funding crisis is an abstract. Finding funding and investing in education is not just an expense, it's a commitment to our own county's future.

Our children deserve classrooms that allow them to thrive and not just get by. So I ask you tonight, please choose to be remembered as the board that stood up for its children and refused to underfund their future. Now is the moment that you prove it with action that we voted to put the right people on the board of county commissioners. Thank you.

Next person is miss Allison Lucas.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Allison Lucas. I live at 5714 Kildare Court in Belmont. For over a decade, I told this community's stories as an anchor and reporter at WSOC TV channel nine. I covered difficult decisions and the weight of leadership, so I understand what sits in front of you. But tonight, I'm not here as a journalist. I'm here as a mom. My daughter, Hope, is a second grader at Belmont Central Elementary School. And every morning, she walks into that school with excitement, energy, and trust. Trust that she is safe and trust that she's supported.

And that trust didn't just happen overnight. It was built. It was fostered first at Page Primary School, where she learned how to read. And if you've ever watched a child learn how to read, you know it's more than just academic. It is emotional. It is transformational. When their frustration turns into confidence, the moment a child realized, I can do this. Her teachers gave her that. Her teachers encouraged her, they believed in her, and they helped her believe in herself. Her teachers are people she looks up to.

They are people she loves so much that at the end of every school year, there are tears, real tears, because the connection is real. And I pray that her little sister is blessed to experience that same connection when she begins kindergarten in the next few years. Our schools are a place of connection, belonging, and growth, and that's what we risk when we don't fully invest in them. When we underfund them, we don't just tighten a budget, we put pressure on everything that makes those moments matter and makes them possible. We stretch the teachers thinner, we limit opportunity, and we risk weakening the very connections that make our schools so impactful.

This decision is bigger than a bottom line. Strong schools build strong communities. They shape our future, our workforce, and the culture we all value, and why we love living here. So please, invest in our schools, invest in our teachers, and protect the excitement, the trust, and the connections that children like my hope and her little sister carry with themselves every single day. Thank you. Miss Anna Renfroe.

Good evening, Chairman Brown, Vice Chair Ovis, and members of the Commission. My name is Doctor. Anna Renfroe. I reside at 1625 Hevelock Drive in Gastonia. I recently retired with over forty years in education, a portion of which, I'm proud to say, was as a part of Gaston County Schools. I had the privilege of working under Doctor. Ed Sadler. Many of you know and remember him. There are primarily two types of consequences, intended and unintended. Over the last year, I've watched the board of education reel over the unintended shortfall of $10,000,000.

As with this board, I believe members of the board of education are passionate about their work and representation in the community. I have no doubt that each and every member of the board of education has been extremely concerned about the shortfall and continues to work alongside the superintendent to ensure that something like this never happens again. I agree with you and with them that it cannot and must not happen again. On the other hand, we have the board of commission. If I may quote commissioner Keeger's Facebook post from this afternoon where he addressed your perspective on the school system's loss of the $7,200,000, this is state funding and has nothing to do with the county government.

Unintended consequences often reveal situations that are uncomfortable for all parties involved. In this case, one unintended consequence of the property valuation changes resulted in a $7,200,000 shortfall affecting your constituents who care deeply about public education and the quality of that education. Additionally, the post continued and spoke to the addition of a $5,500,000 in supplement funding over the last eleven years. Thank you for your efforts in this area. However, using eleven years as the baseline, Gaston County Schools is now in a position to lose $79,200,000 over the same eleven years.

That's huge. Another question was raised, should this not have been foreseeable alongside rising property values? The response concerned me as that we were not informed of this until after the budget was adopted. The uncomfortable situation is that we have two boards that don't seem that they talk to each other. Neither board should have been blindsided in my opinion, and no superintendent should be put in a position to tell his board that they'll only ask for what they think they can get.

Tonight, I'm encouraging you to not only approve the budget request of the board, but to supplement the budget by the $7,200,000 shortfall, which is a direct result of decisions around the property valuation over which you have control. Thank you.

My

name is Samantha Easters, and I live at 205 Red Oak Court in Gastonia. Over the past month, I, like many others, have spent time trying to understand how Gaston County Schools ended up in the position they are in today. Over multiple years, Gaston County Schools has asked for increased local funding and received minimal increases in response while clearly outlining the impact of expiring COVID funds, inflation, rising benefits, and the need to retain staff. What we're seeing now is a funding priority issue year after year, and I want to speak directly to the priorities this county has laid out publicly. You've said that you want to strengthen community partnerships.

Our public schools are one of the most critical partners in this county. You've said that you wanna recruit new industries and grow our economy. Strong public schools are one of the first things businesses will look at when deciding where You've said that you wanna recruit and retain a strong workforce. That workforce is educated in our schools. Our teachers are also part of that workforce. You have said that you value transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement. The school system has been transparent about its needs, and now citizens are here asking you to act. You've said that you want efficiency and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. But when schools are forced into hiring freezes, program cuts, and emergency funding requests, that's not efficiency. It's instability.

You've said that you want a structurally balanced budget, but our schools are not operating within a structurally balanced reality. They're operating in survival mode. And I want to speak not just as a community member, but also as a social worker professionally who works with children and families. I see what happens when schools do not have enough support. I see children struggling with anxiety, trauma, and unmet basic needs.

Schools are often the first place those needs are identified and supported. I see families relying on schools not just for education, but for stability, structure, meals, and connection to different resources. When positions are cut, when existing staff is a stretch too thin, these needs don't disappear, they go unmet. And when those needs go unmet, the impact does not stay in the classroom. It shows up in our health care systems, our social services, and eventually our community as a whole.

This is not just about education funding. This is about the overall health and stability of Gaston County. The need has been communicated, it's not been met. If education is truly a priority in Gaston County, it has to be reflected in funding decisions, not just in statements. Right now, our students, our teachers, and schools are paying the price of being placed at the bottom of the priority list for too long. When we underfund schools, we don't eliminate problems. We pay for them later in more expensive systems. Thank you.

Ms.

Tasha Ms. Ms. Good evening. My name is Doctor. Tasha Prieto. I reside at 1136 North Alexander Street. I was born in North Carolina, and I'm a property owner in this county. As a daughter of North Carolina, my roots include both North Carolina enslavers and the poor whites sent to protect the status quo for the 1% in the Civil War. I mentioned my roots because outside, after the last meeting, the Confederacy supporters wanted to know how many members of my family fought in the civil war, as if the greater the number, the greater the right I might have to an opinion on the racist statue. The answer is at least five.

I'm not proud of that number, but it should give my opinion on the statue subject equal footing with the Confederacy supporters who claim it is a memorial to our shared ancestors. And my opinion is that we should remember our failings as a society, not honor them. We should teach our children where we strayed from the ideal of equality for all. We should not honor the civil war, which at its heart was fought expressly to keep equality from all. We should teach our children where we strayed from the ideal of blind justice.

We should not honor the second iteration of the KKK in the nineteen tens when this statue was erected, designed to expressly intimate that justice is neither blind nor equal in this courthouse. Instead, let's teach our children the truth about the civil war. Let's teach our children that we when we as a society realize the error of our ways, our past ways, we correct course, that when we know better, we do better. For that reason, I respectfully request that the statute be moved elsewhere, to a graveyard or to a museum. That way, the county commissioners can show they truly support the fundamental American ideals of equality for all and blind justice. Thank you.

Cameron Cowell.

Hello. My name is Cameron Cowell from 3241 Wicklow Lane. Good evening. We had to do some writing with my first grade class this week, and we were I was asking my students why they think education is important, why they think school is important. What I'm about to read you came straight from them, my six my first graders, the six and seven year olds. They wrote, people need to learn because one wrote, people need to learn because they don't have to be dumb all the time. Wordings, little. They wrote, we want to learn. They wrote, we want to learn math. They wrote, because you learn good.

And they wrote, so you can be smart. They're trying to say something bigger than their words. They're asking for a chance, a chance to read, a chance to understand numbers, a chance to feel proud when they figure something out, a chance to grow up with options. They already believe that school will give them that future. The hard truth is this.

Our local funding decisions don't match their dreams. That don't match their beliefs. This commission decides how much of our property taxes go to our schools. Other counties choose to invest more. We do not. Our teachers and school leaders are doing the work. We show up every day. We stretch every dollar, and we carry this system, but we cannot replace and carry what is not funded. The gap shows up in classrooms, it shows up in staffing, and it shows up in what these children get each and every day. These children don't see budget or politics.

They see adults. They trust the adults. And helping them right now, that trust is not being met with our priorities and funding in this county. You have a choice. You can keep funding schools at this level and accept the results that come with it, or you can decide tonight that these children are worth more. Increased local funding for our schools, use our property taxes to support them at a higher level. Because when a six or seven year old asks for the chance to learn and adults in charge have the means to help out but choose not to, that is not a misunderstanding. That is a decision, and these children will live with it.

Noah Hartley.

Noah Hartley, 206 Kenwood Drive. This is my sixth year teaching visual arts at Hunter House High School. I was just named teacher of the year there and a top five finalist for Gaston County Schools teacher of the year. My father taught there. My brother taught there. My sister-in-law taught there. And for over three decades, my person my family has personally seen the impact teacher has in

this

community. I understand that a budget predicament like what is going on in this county forces difficult decisions, but I wanna be clear about what those decisions look like from inside our hallways. Decisions like removing over a 170 positions from our schools. Decisions like inadequately investing in the future of our community, especially compared to surrounding counties. These are just a few examples with catastrophic repercussions. Repercussions. And while you might not make all these decisions, you decide this budget. Gaston County has already lost a visual arts teacher at John Chavis Middle and a performing arts teacher at Highland. When we eliminate positions in areas like the arts, we are not just adjusting a budget. We are removing spaces where students find confidence, connection, and purpose.

For many students, those classrooms are the reason they stay engaged in school at all, something no test score can represent. There are 39 counselor positions that are being removed. At Hunter Huss, we have already lost two of our four. When we eliminate counselors, we are not just taking away the shoulders that so many students cry on. We are taking away the individuals that create every single student's schedule.

We are taking away the morning security crew. We are taking away the wonderful humans that hold schools together by doing a dozen tasks on top of counseling students. When those positions disappear, the impact doesn't stay isolated. It spreads. It increases the load on teachers and administration who remain, and over time, that strain shows up in the consistency and stability that our students rely on, and I promise you it will show up on our test scores.

Where you see a realistic budget, we see a lack of concern over education, which is the foundation of every county, and this county needs to do better. And from where I stand, that reflects a gap between the decision makers and classroom reality. Because in classrooms, we're not managing numbers. We're working with the future of our community. And the experiences we remove today shape who those students become tomorrow.

I'm here to make sure that our perspective is heard and to offer my classroom up as an example. Hunter Huss High School, Room E 103, please, if possible, come watch me teach and see the impact that teachers have in our community and encourage our school board members to do the same. Because when classrooms absorb the cost of these decisions, students carry it with them long after the budget is balanced. Thank you.

Jen Jen Tracy.

Good evening. My name is Jennifer Tracy, and I live at 109 Summersville Place in Belmont. I've read the explanations for the school budget short shortfalls, that it's the state's responsibility or the result of growth outside of your control. But while the adults are busy explaining away the why, our children are living with the what. There are plenty of people here tonight who will demonstrate why the numbers don't add up, but I wanna focus on the human aspect and the kids.

I don't care about the situation in other counties. I care about ours. Pointing fingers at Raleigh or city developers doesn't fix a single classroom. I'm here to ask this commission to lead, pull together across governmental team, include city leaders, include the school board, include teachers, include parents, and, yes, include the kids, to find a Gaston County solution and find it fast. Fast. Our children's education cannot be a hot potato that no one wants to hold. Technical answers aren't enough when it's a child's daily life at stake. My son is about to speak. He wrote every word of his remarks himself. He shouldn't have to worry about school budgets, but he realized that if the adults aren't fixing it, he had to say something.

Please listen, not as a budget item, but as a student and an equal resident of this county. Are

you Jack? K. Go ahead, Jack.

My name is Jack Tracy. My address is on the sheet. I'm a third grader at New Hope Elementary. I'm here because you are not giving our schools enough money. They're in a depot, and we need to put a ladder in so they can get out. The kids want to help. We can have bake sales or lemonade stands to help make some money too. I want to tell y'all what it's like at my school. We're growing so fast that we have kids meeting with teachers in closets. I go to AIG in a trailer outside with no bathroom, and some teachers don't even have a room.

They have to push their things on carts. I know they are planning to do some construction to expand my school, but if they're building more classrooms, why are they getting rid of our teachers? My first grade teaching assistant, miss Surface, just became a teacher a few months ago. She found out that she won't have a job next year. And if we're adding classrooms, don't we need more teachers? Not less. My guidance counselor, miss Axtel, has to see so many kids that she only gets to see our class every other week. We only see her half the time now for one school, and next year, we will have to share her with another school. She's a guidance counselor. She helps people.

And if she doesn't have enough time, it's not really effective. Also, my teachers and parents are having to pay for stuff themselves. My teachers are having to pay for copies and the stuff we have in our classrooms like our games and our books. My mom does PTO, and they have to pay for IXL, which I don't really like IXL. But do y'all have to pay for the stuff that you use at work? In social studies, we're learning about supply and demand. The county is growing, and the demand for school is going up, but the supply of money went down. I know I'm only in third grade, and that doesn't make sense. More people need means we need more money. When my mom told me we might lose a 175 staff members, I told her that she's losing three whole schools.

And while firing teachers, that's just straight up rude. So please give our district more money than they asked for because they didn't ask out for enough. I will go talk to them about how they need to do a better job of managing the money too. My friends and I are the future of Gaston County, and we really need that ladder. Thank you.

Are you Oliver? Yes. Go ahead, sir.

Hi. My name is Oliver Oliveras, and I'm a third grader at New Hope Elementary. I am here because I love my school. It made me very sad this week to find out that one of my teachers from first grade, missus Surface, was cut and will not be back next year. I'm worried that if we lose more teachers, it won't be the same, not just for me, but for younger kids that haven't had the chance to start school yet, like my little sister.

I love to read. My library library is my favorite specials. Missus Ammons shows me different books that she thinks will like that I will like, and she always has a has great picks. She says I am her his history guy. If our schools keep losing money, I am afraid kids aren't going to be able to go to the library as much and learn from people like missus Amens.

Please help New Hope keep our teachers and programs so we so every kid can have a great experience like mine. We are the future, and we don't wanna be forgotten. Thank you.

Sean Bates.

Sean Bates, President, Gastonia NAACP, 201 West Franklin. Now the mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. Well, we came here over and over to discuss this monument that's been held outside, and you guys have let it be known that you could care less what we what we think or what we feel.

However, we have a

bunch of people here concerned about budget practices. Now we've also spoke to you about the homeless students. We spoke to you about these school budgets. Now maybe you wanna explain to them the hundreds of thousands of dollars that has been wasted to protect that monument outside. Maybe that part of education will sink into some of these kids as far as what is truly important here.

I mean, if it's not the black people, if it's not the teachers that are begging you for help, or the staff or everything else involved in this education system, where do you guys step up as the leaders of this county and say you actually matter? It it is very tiresome to have to come and talk about this all the time, to have to come and plead to be seen, to be heard, to be respected. But it's more important to hold up the rights or the supremacy's view of what was before as opposed to caring about what the county has now. You see, when that monument went up, this county looked a lot different. And you you can make a claim that this is historical, so I'm not gonna be very long here tonight.

I'll say, why don't we, for historical purposes, put up a monument to represent all the slaves and all the black people that were lynched? Hopefully, you guys will accept that. Thank you.

It's the autograph.

My address is 201 West Franklin, Boulevard. Good evening. My name is Deanna Graham, vice president of the NAACP Gastonia Branch, 50Three-94B. I rise tonight to address three issues. First, Commissioner Chad Brown, I want to believe that requiring citizens to state their address is about procedure, not intimidation, but when that requirement appears to be applied unevenly, it raises concerns, because it makes some voices feel weighed more heavily than others.

Public meetings should be places where every citizen can speak without fear, without hesitation, and without feeling singled out or diminished. The last meeting did not feel equal. It felt selective, and equality and public participation matters. Second, I stand here once again to ask the question, and I'll continue to ask it until it's answered. If justice is truly blind, why does a confederate monument stand at the entrance of our courthouse?

This courthouse sits on the historic grounds of the Highland community, once a thriving center of black families, yet a confederate monument remains positioned at the very doorway of justice. This placement is not neutral. So I ask again, what message does that send to the people of Gaston County? In August 2020, this body voted to remove that monument. Commissioners once supported the relocation.

Commissioner Alan Fraley spoke about grace, forgiveness, and a change of heart. So respectfully, I asked, what changed? The court ruled you were not required to move the to remove the monument, but the decision returned the responsibility right back to you, because leadership is not defined by what you must do, but what you choose to do. Third, it is imperative that the Gaston County school system receive the financial support and resources necessary to educate, protect, and prepare our children. Strong schools create strong communities, and investing in education is investing in the future of Gaston County.

Justice is not proven by the words we speak, but by the actions we take. Tonight, I ask you to show this community that justice in Gaston County stands with its people by choosing unity over division, by moving toward healing, and by fully supporting the Gaston County school system with resources our children need to succeed. Thank you. Scotty Reed.

Well, before I start, how would the commissioner like to submit this for the public record?

Motion to motion to accept, mister chair.

Commissioner Commissioner Fraley. All in favor?

Hello. My name is Scottie Reed. I live at 1521 Old Highway 27th. I'm about ninth generation Gastonite. That's what I call people local to Gaston County, Gastonites.

I'm a proud descendant of the first free black settlement established in 1780 in Gaston County called Rankin Town. I'm coming here to speak to the audience tonight because according to the chairman at a meeting or two ago, they're not interested in hearing about anything else about this monument. I don't know if they were speaking for everyone, but they said that nobody's gonna move on it speaking of the commissioners. So I'm here to talk about institutional racism, not as an abstract concept, but as something we can see document and measure right here in Gaston County. Not just in the past, but today.

In 1912, when a confederate monument was erected, the keynote speaker did not hide the intent behind it. He praised white supremacy, promoted the ideal of a pure Anglo Saxon blood, and attacked the rights of black citizens to vote. My ancestors. That was not accidental language. That was a declaration of purpose, the purpose of that monument.

That monument was not built in 1865 for grieving families. It was built nearly fifty years later during Jim Crow when black people were being systematically disenfranchised and terrorized. It was placed at the courthouse, the center of law at the time, to send a message about who that system was for and who it was not for. That is institutional racism. Then in 1998, that same monument was moved in place at what is now the Gaston County government center.

This isn't just a courthouse. This is the government center, the seat of power. Right? The seat of local government where commissioners meet, records are kept, and decisions that affect the public are made. That decision didn't happen in a vacuum. It was a modern choice to preserve and recenter the same symbol of white supremacy at the center of government authority. That is institutional racism. Then in 2020, the community spoke, came out in large numbers, and said this monument should be relocated, preferably to a museum where it can be properly contextualized, including the racist speech given at its dedication with I turned in an article about that. And yet here we are. County commissioners today are not being neutral by refusing to remove this monument.

County commissioners are making an active decision to maintain a symbol that was explicitly created to uphold white supremacy. That is institutional racism.

The next person to speak is Barbara Yates.

Alright. I got the letter by Taylor for

each and

every Motion to accept. Mister Fraley. Second. Mr. Sheehan. All those in favor?

Second. Okay. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Barbara Yates. I live at 2009 Buckthorn Court here in Gastonia. I'm just I don't I don't have a speech tonight. I'm not really a big speaker, but I'm a grandmother of three that are going to Gaston County Schools, and I have teachers that are requesting for supplies. I'm buying paper and pencils for them, and I just don't understand that. We have an educational lottery that is not working for our system. And I'm just wondering, are you guys working with our state legislators legislators representatives to get this worked out. You know, I just don't understand why our kids are struggling, why our teachers are struggling. It's just it's breaking my heart to see this and that the teachers are begging me for papers and pencils, and I just don't understand that.

And I just wanna concur on all these speeches tonight and and just ask y'all to please work with our state representatives to get this problem solved. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. And our last speaker is Jessica Randall.

Give that to Matt.

Hi. My name is Jessica Randall, 100 Mayflower Court in Cramerton. I moved to Gaston County in 2012, first living in Mount Holly and then moving to Cramerton in 2016, where we now live with our two daughters who are in sixth and second grade. As small business owners and community minded citizens, my husband and I place a high value on giving back to our community, and we are teaching our girls the same. We want Gaston County to thrive.

We love the small town feel of Cramerton, and we love our neighbors, But for the first time since we moved to Gaston, we've been looking at houses in surrounding counties for one reason only, our public schools. Thanks to a handful of women who sounded alarms, I I learned recently about the small portion of our property taxes allocated to our schools compared to similar counties around us. This is a travesty. I then learned that our county's financial concerns have been brought to you, our commissioners, for years without meaningful action. What on earth could be more of a priority than our schools and our kids?

We pay our teachers laughable salaries, cut their health benefits, slash their supplements, and continue to cut personnel and services, which means they are constantly doing more with less with no end in sight. Our STEAM teacher was cut from my youngest daughter's STEAM school, a model school of distinction in our state. Librarians, nurses, counselors at a time when kids are more mentally taxed than they ever have been, and they need these resources. Entire theater department's gone. My oldest is a theater nerd.

It's unthinkable to me that she can't go to Highland now and do theater. I don't think anyone would voluntarily send their kids to these public schools unless they improve. Do more with less do more with less seems to be the mantra of our country right now, but you have the power to ease the burden on our educators and parents locally. You were just choosing not to. I see a lot of deflection and blame.

The board of education points to the commissioners, and the commissioners point to the board of ed or the state, And here we are begging for the sake of our kids for someone to stand up, take accountability, and be the leaders we elected you to be. I call on you to allocate no less than 30% of our property taxes to our schools and develop a plan to continue raising that percentage until we are competitive with comparable counties. This is not an unreasonable ask. An adequately funded school system is the backbone of our of our economy and our community. Anything less than 30% will continue to send a message that you refuse to prioritize our teachers, our kids, and our investment in this community. You will lose additional good families, educators, and businesses on this issue. You

will

lose us because you failed to act in the past, but especially now. We don't wanna leave. We love where we live. Show us that you want us to stay by properly funding our public schools, stop pointing fingers, and find a way to work together with the state. Thanks for your time.

Jessica Randall?

Yeah. Sure. That was fine. Oh, I'm sorry.

The next item on the agenda, excuse me, is the non consent agenda items, Office of Capital Improvements to authorize the gas county manager. We didn't do the consent. Consent. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda with item Ah pulled.

So moved.

Motion made by Commissioner Keeger, seconded by Commissioner Hovas. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Next item on the agenda is a non consent agenda items and commissioner Brown to office of capital improvements to authorize accounting manager his designee to execute a professional services contract with ESP Associates Inc. For special inspections and material testing for the Gasson County Courthouse 5th Floor project update. Do I have a motion?

So moved. Second.

Motion made by commissioner Hovas, seconded by commissioner Keeger. Any discussion? All in favor? It's unanimous, madam clerk. Next item on the agenda is pulled item Ah.

Miss Kathy?

Yes. I have some questions in relation to that. And can someone explain what this includes?

Mr. Skeba?

So the the item in question is for the renovation of the building inspections department downstairs. We've had several new offices that had to be created downstairs for some other purposes, and it took over some areas where we were at downstairs. So this is the revamping of that space downstairs, and I think one of the concerns is where the funding is actually coming from the building inspections, enterprise funds. So there is no general tax doc general tax funds that are being used for this renovation.

Okay. I have another question. Is that was the design done before the project was approved?

So the there has been a design already done for this project. Yes. But the the funds were the funds are already in place inside of those of the of the building inspections fund. The the thing about that fund is it can only be spent on stuff for building inspections, so it is very limited. We don't have anywhere else that we can actually push it out and use it for.

Okay. I just like to make sure that going forward that all projects are approved before we ever do designs. That's just my opinion. Okay. Thank you.

Do I have a

I have a motion to approve this as mentioned?

So moved. Second.

Motion made by commissioner Hovas, seconded by commissioner Keeger. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, Madam Clerk. No items added. Appointments. Mr. Fraley? Mr. Sheehan.

I have one, Mr. Chairman, Personnel Advisory Board, Mr. Andrew Blackman, reappointment. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Hovas.

Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Mr. Bailey.

Yes, sir. I have two tonight, sir. For Local Emergency Planning Committee, David Flannery and Workforce Development Board, John Hill.

Second. Seconded by Commissioner Hovas. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Mr. Kloninger.

I have one application received from Nino Williams for the Workforce Development Board.

Second. Seconded by Commissioner Hovas. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Mister Hovas.

Thank you, miss thank you, mister chair. I have two application from Jennifer Hamrick for the child fatality local review team. And for the Gassett County Fire Commission, I'd like to appoint Michael Brooks to replace Jamie Ramsey. Second.

Seconded by commissioner Keeger. All in discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, clerk. Commissioner Keeger? None. I have one for the personnel advisory board, doctor Reverend John A. McCullough, reappointment requested.

Second.

Seconded by commissioner Keeger. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous madam clerk. Full board appointments have two on the equalization and review board application received by mister Charles Moore.

Second. Motion and second.

Motion made by Commissioner Hovas, seconded by Commissioner Keeger. All in favor? It is unanimous by the Clerk. Second to review Equalization Review Board for Mr. David Paysour. Pacehour.

Motion, Mr. Chair.

Motion made by Commissioner Hovind, seconded by Commissioner Bailey. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk. Reports. Commissioner Fraley. None. Chairman. Commissioner Sheehan. None at this time, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bailey?

None at this time, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Kloninger?

I wanted to let everyone know that I went out and rode with Mills on Wheels with volunteers that have been volunteering for eight years plus, was Barry and Roberta Fail. I also attended the Gaston County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Gaston County Museum of Art and History Board meetings. That's all. Mr. Chair?

Mr. Hovas?

Mr. Chair, I'd just like to report to the board that I will be meeting with the Caramont Board of Directors this weekend in our annual planning session in Asheville. We're doing some major long term planning and I'm sure some other items will come from that that the board will have interest in. Other than that, I have the report.

Mr. Keeger?

Not at this time. I just want

to report that myself and the EDC this week were opening up a grand opening of REPI, the grand opening of their second grand opening. As you know, they've added an addition, great addition out there that we added to that. So that was one of the big events. This week, we have another one coming up from HAECO next week on a grand opening. So a lot's happening, in the economic development part of that.

County manager.

Good evening, commissioners, county staff, residents. It is an honor to serve as county manager and present the FY '27 budget to you this evening. I would like to thank the board for their participation in this process as well as staff for all their hard work. Before we get started, I just wanna provide a brief outline of what we'll be discussing this evening. I'm gonna provide some budget context about how we got to this place as well as the summary of the FY twenty seven budget and then the plan to move forward.

The current state of our budget, we did receive our FY twenty twenty five audit, in the prior months. The good news with that was that our fund balance target exceeded our general fund policy range, and those funds were transferred to the Community Investment Fund, and we'll discuss more about that in a little bit. The general fund through March 2026 for fiscal year 'twenty six, we have received 75% of our budgeted revenues and expended 58% of our expenditures. This is typical. It may look out of balance, but we there's a finite period of time where we receive the majority of our property tax revenue.

And so the typical early months of the fiscal year, you'll see the expenditures outpace the revenues, and then the revenues outpace the expenditures, and then by the end of the fiscal year, they level back out, because we will receive not as much revenue in the coming months. Departments have submitted their business plans to us, along with the county strategic plan that align with this budget. And I would like to mention and take a moment to say thank you to our budget staff who received the distinguished budget presentation award again this year, as well as some specialized awards along the process. This is a budget calendar for the process for this calendar year. The Board began in January of a budget planning session discussing what the priorities were and how we were gonna move through this process.

Department requests were due, and you can see there were subsequent meetings in February and March in which the board participated in as well as staff. We are in April. This is the presented manager's budget, and then the budget will hopefully be adopted next month. The board will have the opportunity to deliberate on what they're presented this evening and decide what they would like to adopt. Just a quick overview of some of the priorities that feed into this budget.

We have, since I took over as manager about eighteen months ago, we have attempted to strengthen our relationships with our municipal, regional, and community partners. We have focused on capital investments in this county, and we continue to do so. We have looked for ways to save taxpayer dollars and be more efficient and effective in the service delivery. We try to be transparent and accountable to our citizens as well as a focus on economic development, bringing in new industry, and providing housing options for those companies in which choose to locate here. A budget is a balancing act.

We didn't get here by chance. We got here as things that were pushed upon us, from nondiscretionary increases from whether it's from the state, or contractual increases, as well as revenues that may be stagnant, or some that are actually increasing. So it's a balance between how much revenues we got coming in and how much expenditures we got going out. We have had to reduce discretionary expenses as we have done over the last two budgets, and we'll get more into what that looks like in a couple of slides. Fund Balance.

Just want to provide a brief overview of Fund Balance, the purpose of it, and where we are to date. Like I said previously, the majority of our revenue comes in between November and January, that's property tax. We also get sales tax, three months in arrears, but property tax is the biggest amount. You may ask what's the importance of fund balance, and that's the importance of that is a rainy day fund in event of emergencies, in the event of economic opportunities or economic downturns. Also very important for our ratings, our ratings are for bond ratings, which is our ability to issue and, service debt, and the interest rates in which are associated with those.

It is closely monitored by the local government commission in Raleigh, and we do submit our audits and our financial reports to them on annual basis in accordance with state statutes. Our fund balance policy is 15 to 20% of total revenue, and we'll talk more about that in a second. So some more context about fund balance. So unassigned general fund fund balance, that's cash, free and clear cash, cash on hand. You can see here that that was at a low point in 2018 where we only had about 1%.

That's not even one month of expenditures. One month is about 8%. And if you remember discussing the cash flow, the first three months of the fiscal year, we're cash flowing because we don't have any money coming in. The sales tax isn't coming in, but for three months, and then property taxes isn't hitting until November. So if we don't have somewhere in the 20% range of fund balance, we are struggling to meet those demands. You can see that it peaked in 2025 at 23%. We are projecting for 2026, which these are not final numbers, and so we're being conservative with this. We're projecting an 18% fund balance. Balance. This is due to a couple things.

When you went over that 20%, your policy says that anything over 20% automatically gets transferred to the community investment fund, which is your capital fund, so almost $12,000,000 was transferred there. $2,100,000 for increased risk and liability insurance worker comp payments for this fiscal year, $10,000,000 to Gaston County Schools was appropriated, as well as $8,000,000 in the self insurance fund. This is yet to be done, but we project this being done in June. This will essentially eat up any kind of excess revenue that you have in the current year, so nothing will be getting added. This is a summary of all funds for fiscal year 2027.

You can see here the general fund is roughly 345,000,000, their community investment fund is almost 52,000,000, and then the subsequent funds from there. $345,000,000 total budget is only a 2% increase over FY 2026. It's an average of 1% increase over the last two years. If you remember, your 2025 budget and your 2026 budget were essentially flat while taking on significant amount of increases in debt service as well as contractual and operating, increases increases that were nondiscretionary. You can see here that the recommended tax rate is flat at 59.9¢.

We've only have about a $5,000,000 increase in revenue. We did have to reduce the capital investment fund transfer by $9,500,000 to fund some of these nondiscretionary increases that you see below, including a $5,000,000 health insurance plan funding increase, dollars 4,500,000 and three percent COLA for our employees. Just highlight a couple more. HR one impacts impacted DSS by $1.5 investment grants, million $0.1 Over that same two year period, CPI inflation was 5.7%. So our budget was up 2%, CPI was 5.7.

So we had to make significant reductions on the county side, and we'll show more about what that looks like on an operating basis on the next slide. So this just shows you a general fund operating, these are county departments. You can see that in FY 2026, that was down about 6% or $9,000,000. There was a $4,000,000 in that fiscal year of nondiscretionary increases that we had no control over, so we actually reduced the operating expenses by roughly $13,000,000 in FY '26. You can see for FY '27, there is a $6,000,000 increase in operating or 4%.

The majority of that are is nondiscretionary items, including 1,100,000 in investment grants, and $1,100,000 in IT replacements. This is an overview of the general fund revenue. You can see the majority of your revenue comes from property tax, roughly 60%. The next biggest categories are sales tax and intergovernmental and grants. Your property tax revenue is a 3% increase in projected revenue at a flat tax rate over the prior year.

Stability is crucial here in the event of economic downturns. Property tax is your single biggest stable source of revenue, unlike sales tax, which is dictated based on economic factors. Sales tax continues to, be a negative for us. You can see it's a projected, decrease of it's not a percent, not even half a percent, but 0.2% from last year's budget. It's extremely volatile based on economic conditions, and remember, a portion of this is budgeted in our community investment fund restricted for education and economic development purposes.

This slide is very telling, and I wanna take a second here, and I'll pause at the end if there are any questions, but the county's tax levy doesn't increase as much as the municipalities over the last few years. And so you can see here because we're on the ad valorem sales tax basis that the county share of sales tax in this county has went from 67% in 2022 to 61% in 2025. That is what we projected in current year as well as next year. And you may ask what impact does that have? That has resulted in a loss of $6,000,000 annually in sales tax for the county, and those funds have went to the different municipalities based on their ad valorem calculation.

User fees. There's about a 4% increase in projected revenue in user fees. There are some changes proposed in the, for user fees. You can see these in the adopted or the presented budget book at your table, on page 126. General fund expenditures match general fund revenues, in accordance with state statutes.

You can see here a breakdown of those expenditures. Keep in mind, this does not include any capital or debt payments for any of these categories. Personnel. We have a 3% cost of living adjustment budgeted in this budget effective for July. There is public safety pay plan adjustments as well as increased funding for health insurance, and a retirement contribution is increasing by 2% for from 15.117.1%, up from sixteen point one and fourteen point four the prior year.

We also have five new positions recommended in this budget. Those five positions, one is fully funded by building inspections funds, and two are funded by 100% grant from maternal and child health programs in public health. Two of those are general fund positions, one of which is in public works, and the other is in the office of capital improvements. We do believe that we'll be able to draw down some funding from solid waste for one of those as the Office of Capital Improvements project manager will be managing a project at solid waste, so we will be able to use some nontax dollars there. This is an overview of the operating.

It has increased by 5,600,000 or 4% over 2026. The biggest drivers of that is HR one. That's five 1,500,000 increase for Gaston County. That is the impact of the FNS, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. That has changed from the federal government is now paying 25% of the administrative costs, and the state and counties are paying 75%.

That was previously a fifty fifty split. And the other items that are in there that we have discussed previously are scheduled IT replacement investment grants as well as contractual and inflationary increases. For Gaston County Schools, this budget has a recommended budget of a flat operating budget. You do see a slight decrease in SROs. That is not an actual decrease.

That is just a budgeting calculation based on who are in those positions. They still have the same number of SRO positions in the schools, as well as the debt service increased ever so slightly, and that's just based on the debt service payments. It's around not even $100,000 and it has restored some capital funding to the schools of $1,200,000 and so their budget is up roughly $1,200,000. Gas and college, a flat operating budget. The debt service has fallen off some as we're retiring some debt, and the capital allocation is flat.

Your community investment fund or your capital fund, you can see here that there's $52,000,000 a $3,000,000 increase over FY 'twenty six. This is driven, primarily by a large, bond issuance last year, and then the actual allocation of the school capital allocation for this year that was reduced last year. And then there's some county deferred maintenance in there that we've been putting off for a few years to some of our facilities. There are there is a restricted portion of sales tax in here, roughly $30,700,000 Article 46, which is a sales tax for schools, is roughly $10,500,000 There's also a fund balance appropriation in this fund of $11,800,000 which essentially was the money that you transferred over there from the general fund in accordance with your policy. I will say and keep in mind that that fund balance appropriation within this fund is not sustainable for the duration in future years.

However, it is appropriate in this year, and next year, we will have to plan accordingly. This is the breakdown of the three buckets within the community investment fund. $13,300,000 is county funding, 36,600,000 is Gaston County Schools, and 1,900,000 is Gaston College. The county is self insured, and much like everyone, the medical plans and health insurance costs are continuing to rise nationwide, and we're seeing that here locally. We're seeing revenues for that fund continuously diminish and need to be higher and the expenditures going up.

There are significant administrative costs as well as the expenditures associated with claims are going up. There has not been an increase in employee contributions in over a decade, and the employer contribution has continued to go up. And the reserves within this fund have declined, as you can see on the next slide. In FY20, there was a peak of $19,000,000 in insurance reserves, that is down to $3,000,000 in FY25, which is what is resulting in the need to appropriate some funds to get back to make this fund solvent, as well as a necessary change to your health plan. So you see here on this slide, the health plan is almost $32,000,000 a $5,000,000 increase from FY 'twenty six.

You got our overview in March from the county's insurance broker. There is a 16% increase for county employees as well as the county itself. We're splitting that increase. There is no fund balance appropriation or transfer to the general fund from this fund, and so this fund is going to remain solvent, and we will need to continue to fund it appropriately. As I mentioned previously, there will be a transfer of approximately 8,000,000 in the general fund fund balance to this fund prior to June 30 due to projected overage in FY '26.

The United, Fire Protection Service Fund, it is balanced and physically responsible approach, has a flat tax rate recommendation of 11 and a half cents. This supports operations while planning for the future needs with no additional burden on the taxpayers. This is roughly $13,500,000 in expenditures and revenue. Looking forward, things that we are gonna continue to work on, we're gonna continue to be process improvement oriented as well as long term planning for capital projects and sustainability within our budget and make sure that we are attempting to recruit and retain economic development opportunities when necessary and to implement feedback that we've received from the bond rating agencies in the prior years. Next steps, now between now and May 12, the budget is available for public review online and in public at the library as well as at the county administration office.

May 12, this board will consider and have a public hearing for the FY 2027 budget adoption, and that budget will begin July 1. Again, I would like to thank the county commissioners, budget and finance staff, as well as our organizational leadership, HR staff, communications staff, and all of our budget contacts in the departments for all of their work and participation during this process. I will now take questions at this time.

Any questions from the board at this time? Mister Fraley.

Thank you, Matt, for the proposed budget. And what I would like to do is, between now and the next meeting is to task you and staff to bring us some options, maybe all cuts, maybe all tax increase or combination have some options for this board to look at to try to get us to the 68,000,000 requested school budget, you know, maybe to try to find 10,000,000 or $12,000,000 whatever that may be. I think it was 68,000,000 and we're looking at fifty four operating. Am I right on that as far as what their original request was?

Have not received an original request. So I'll get with Morgan, and we'll we'll discuss

I heard somebody mention that number. So and and that way, we can be transparent and this board can look at these options, what it's, you know, what we're going to be up against to make those kind of cuts, what's going to get cut from this budget to make it happen or to increase taxes and what that's going to do, what that's going to cost to taxpayers, but I think, you know, just to be honest, I think we gotta take a look at it and see if there's a way we can accomplish that and maybe meet somewhere in the middle, I don't know, but we have to yeah, we have we have issues, yes, we need to address them, I don't know what it's gonna take, but we need to start now. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Bailey.

Yes, I'd like echo some of the stuff that Alan said, some of the teachers were talking, Actually, I was doing numbers. I wasn't not paying attention to you. So so I I heard one of the teachers talk about Johnston County. Their budget comes in at just about $406.00 2,000,000, and ours, I guess, is right about $4.75 total. Correct?

Ours is $4.75, excluding transfers.

They they spend approximately 93,000,000 on their school system, while we're spending 81,000,000. So your numbers are pretty correct. And and I would with with like, commissioner Freddie was saying, I I would like to see some options to increase the budgets for the schools. And I know commissioner Brown, commissioner Hovitz has some other ideas for some supplements also. So but but thank you, mister chair.

Mr. Clotinger?

I would like to see some options as well. I took notes during the time that everyone spoke and things, but it really touches my heart, and I would really like to see the options.

Matt, as we go through this, I guess some of the questions are, can you tell us again, go back to where and I wanted to be related to what's is going on. When we talk about property taxes and what's happening with the reval, what happened with that, the municipalities, I think we did a study the other week, I think 16,000 new homes that one municipality had done. Those values come in at lower than what our expectation or needs are. Can you explain that just so everybody in the audience has just kind of a

Yes. So there's like a breakeven point on what a home, at least at this point, needs to be worth in terms to pay for the services that are going to be rendered for that home if you use an average of how many children might be in that home on average per US Census data, and we're just not meeting that as a county, and this body has no ability to control that. Most of the residential developments are approved within the municipalities. We service them, and so really what's happening in is when these projects are getting approved, we're having to provide additional services with not adequate enough revenue to provide those services. And so that's where we are.

And if you look at us on an average home value versus, say, Union County or Mecklenburg County, I mean, we're hundreds of thousands of dollars under those average home values. And so when you compare us to them, you have to take that into account because of the home values. While they have went up, that is true. They're not going up and they're not at the same values that some of our neighboring counties are.

Can you also talk about the ad valorem and how that is effective to the overall budget process because what I want to get to and I want to thank everyone who came tonight who spoke, his passion is we see it. Our problem is we give the funding over to the school board and they can have that decision on how they want to allocate that to supplements or whatever they want to put it towards. So I want to thank this board especially for when we had that $10,000,000 deficit just because that was because 400 jobs were going to be cut, not July 1, May 1. So this board put it up to say, hey, we think about you. We care about what's going on.

And I know it put Morgan in a difficult position to have to be able to say that, but we want you to know when we see these things, we we hear your voices. We've seen the emails. And we're here, but can you talk a little bit about the ad valorem and how that affects it and then all the total combination of the money we've lost? Not just that, when you see a paper plate going down the highway on a car that's looks like it's been beat to death, that's money that's robbing our taxes to be able to give out. When we have plates that aren't, renewed, that's money that's robbing every person that comes. That's why we try to put that out as you can see these deficits and have but talk a little bit about the ad valorem before we go forward.

Yeah. So sales tax is calculated on ad valorem basis, and essentially what that means is the percentage of tax levy, for all the entities within the county split that out based on whatever those percentages are. And so when our rate lowers down and the municipality hires, that increases their rates, then they obviously get a greater share of that property tax or that sales tax levy based on their ad valorem and their property tax going up. And so what ends up happening is is, you know, you think you're doing a good thing and you're lowering lowering property tax and is good, but then you get hit on the backside for sales tax when the municipalities keep their rates higher, and then they get rewarded, honestly, for keeping their rates higher. That's that's essentially how it There's also a per capita method, which you could switch to, but it wouldn't be in your favor either.

So the the method in which you have, is probably the best way to do it, but it has been a significant impact on us in the tune of $6,000,000 over that four year period. I mean, it's just gonna continue, and it's just it's going to continue for the foreseeable future until any of that balances out.

Mr. Hovas?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think with our the results of the last rebound, which we don't get to decide, I want I want everyone who's listening at home and those here, the seven of us don't get to decide when a rebel takes place. There's general statute requirements. And the state of North Carolina, as the state of North Carolina does with the school system, makes those decisions.

And we have tried for the last several years to stay on a four year cycle. And again, as we were working through, we're right in the middle, ending up one currently that will take place in January. January of next year. But we're right on the end of that. And sure enough, we haven't received the letter, but we'll probably receive one in August from the local government commission saying you should be working towards a reval because we've reached those parameters of property value changes that we have to stay within.

With that being said, you know, we have, an entity that oversees us. It's called the Local Government Commission. And if we don't meet our benchmarks, and if we don't meet our requirements, Gaston County government, as you know it today, would cease to exist because they oversee us. They keep us from finding ourselves with a $10,000,000 shortfall and putting ourselves there. That's the reason when the manager was talking about back in 2018, our fund balance was negligible.

It was

insufficient to operate on. We this board, and I've been on this board since then, I came in in 2017, we have tried to run the county much like a business, recognizing our costs, recognizing our revenues and trying to balance those. And Mr. Roden came here as an intern. And I remember the county manager county assistant manager he was assigned to when he came, said, well, I've got this project that's been sitting at my desk for two years. This is great. This guy's an eager beaver. He's a smart guy. I'm gonna hand this to him. It'll take him six, eight, maybe a year to get even close to being ready to do this.

Mr. Rodin accomplished that in six weeks. And he and the gentleman said to me, he's made a statement to me, I've hired an overachiever. Well, he certainly is an overachiever. He has done wonders to help us to get to where we are today financially. And only because of that have we been in the were we in the position to meet the school's urgent request so that, as the Chairman said, we didn't have to shut down schools. Let me just give you one example. This is fact. I'm not pointing a finger. This is just facts.

I like facts. I'm a data guy. The school system, since 2022, has been reimbursed at the state contract rate for diesel fuel. We run a few buses. We put a few miles on buses, right?

If you took that number and equated it to what's happened since 2022 because it was frozen at 1 point dollars 8 a gallon. I hate to say it, but the school system hasn't been able to buy diesel fuel for 1.8 a gallon. Prior to the Gulf insurrection over there and all that's been going on in the Strait Of Hormuz, it was basically costing them $3.2 a gallon, twice the cost of what it was. Now it's like $5.18 a gallon. That's $750,000 just for bus operating cost that we were losing, the school system wise.

It's horrific. It has nothing to do with our budget, but it has everything to do with the people who fund the majority of the school system, which is the state. That's just the reality. And I use that because I want you to understand what I'm going to get to next when we start talking about looking at another funding source. Our property tax tree, all the branches are creaking. We've built we're doing the right things. We're using that as effectively as we can, but we still can't meet all the needs. You heard Mr. Roden in his budget presentation talking about where we were pluses and where we were minuses. That's all reality.

But what I'm proposing is we do something very similar to what we did with the $240,000,000 of school bonds that we approved and the voters approved in 2017, is to use a $0.25 sales tax to as another funding source, not property tax, sales tax. Because if you don't spend it, you don't pay it. It's most the most economic economically dispersive way to raise funds for a government entity. And what we're going to be talking about later is using another 0 two five sales tax that we've had available. It wasn't earmarked for education, but we're looking I'm going to ask the Board tonight to approve a resolution to go to our representatives in the General Assembly to approve that change for the quarter set that we're not using for education to reallocate that for educational purposes.

It will net somewhere between $9,500,000 and $11,000,000 roughly, depending on where that economic scale is that Mr. Roden referred to. By doing that, we can raise our position in terms of teacher supplements, and we can find ourselves in the midpoint of that peer group that we're compared to, and it will actually put us above the state average. I think that will help us to maintain teachers. But let me explain one thing to you that is perfectly the truth.

We can never compete with Charlotte Mecklenburg. Our tax base isn't big enough. So you need to take Charlotte Mecklenburg and throw them out of the peer group and then look at the rest. They're not in our peer group. I understand that. But what I'm saying is they bias the whole system. But at the same time, the state needs to find a way to make teacher supplemental pay equalized. They worry about they want to equalize property tax. They want to control our property tax, which is the only way we can provide services. And when they do that, candy bar the door, you guys are going to be out in left field and that's just where the world is going to be.

But I say that to you because this is a way we can look for you because to get the sales tax reallocated for education, then we have to have a voter referendum. And you, the people, in education or whatever can help us and be partners with us. I've gone too much into my statements. I'm gonna go back to my thing. I want Matt finish his budget thing.

But it all ties together and it gives us a different funding source because before then, we were doing nickel and dime stuff with bonds. And I I was sitting there in your position. I had been in this that this this forum in the old County Courthouse more times. My son's 43 years old, and I started coming to county commissioner meetings before he was born because I couldn't believe Gaston County was inept as what was portrayed in the media. And it turns out, they weren't, and I learned a lot.

And that's the only reason I decided to be a representative for the people because I understand. I know how business works, and I have a business mind. And I have been one of the biggest supporters of Gaston County Schools. I'm the one who led the 2001 bond campaign and it took us five years to get the people seated at this dais to let you, the people, decide you wanted to spend your tax dollars on education. That's a fact. Mr. Rudd, you go back to your presentation.

Mr. Bailey.

Yes. I promise I won't be that long.

Sorry. I just wound up.

I was actually wanting to discuss one of the things that Mr. Rudd was talking about on our public services cost. I have talked to about, I think, four or five developers now that is pretty much pulling out of Gaston County because some of your local municipalities will not let them build custom homes. They won't track homes. They won't affordable homes. If doing this, we're not getting a tax base to make those public service equalized. What's pretty much the cost of a home now to be flat?

Yes, so if it's a new home, obviously, I'm not talking about existing homes because they're paid for under the existing base, but if it's a new home, it needs to be in excess of $600,000 Right.

Right. And a lot of your local municipalities won't allow them to build a house that big. The developers that I've talked to on numerous occasions over the past short period of time said they have proposed very nice million dollar homes to bring in higher tax bases, higher taxes. If you're bringing in executives making a lot of money, you're bringing people into the county that's spending money also, and they're paying higher taxes. And a lot of your local municipalities aren't aren't allowing that.

So all that's gonna do if you're buying if you're building correct me if I'm wrong, mister manager. If you're building a house at $350,000 and to be flat, it's over $600,000 we're falling further and further in a hole. So I mean, I agree we need affordable housing, but you also need a mix. And some of your municipalities aren't allowing that. So, I mean, encourage some of your local municipalities that you're in, also some of the city managers or city council people, hey, let's build equally.

Let's increase some of our bases to where people that want to move into Gaston County that wants a million dollar home. I mean, I can't afford one. But if they want to come here, let them build a house like that. Thank

you, Mr. Roton, for your attentiveness. I wanted to say one last thing. When we talk about what's happening in the municipalities, it does affect schools as well. If you can see the building of area building. So you think about, let's just use Lower South New Hope Road, there's a lot of houses that are congested now. That's going to cause us to have the cause and effect of having to either put a school somewhere close by or change some of the moniker of what's happened. So I want everybody to be cognizant of what's happening. And I'm I'm when I say that this board hears you, I've seen the chatter back and forth. I've seen the emails and we think that's that's how you get communication to us.

I think it's been clear this board is willing to ask the manager to look in different functionality of how we can try to get to something we can help. I know last year we talked about matching. I think we were at a million dollars for the supplement we asked the schools to match and they turned back on that. So there's different ways and means that we've tried to help. This board wants to help because you are a viable resource and when you think about gas and kind of economic development, the schools is a big part of that.

And so please don't undertake this as we're sitting here just I think somebody said just trying to we've kicked the can down the road on a lot of projects since I've been on this board. I know we have one project that I was very adamant about in 2014, still hadn't seen the light of day and probably will never see the light of day just because of where it stands and what we do. But thank you guys for coming. Thank you, Mr. Roton. Tom, did you want to say anything? Before I go to you, I am going go to other matters. If that's okay, then we'll come back. Anybody have other matters before the board? Commissioner Fraley?

Yes, I wanted to ask Matt one other question because it was just a percentage, but I want people to know this is just one of these things that's kind of hidden in the budget that you don't realize how much increase it is. And I don't even know the number, but I'm gonna ask Matt. The retirement increase, it it went from 15.1 to 17.1. What's that in dollars?

It was probably a little over a million dollars.

Yeah. And that's we have no control over that. We have to pay it into the state. It's state retirement and correct about that? I mean, is

that Yeah. We have no no

control about paying that. And another thing, I don't know if anybody mentioned it, because they did. I didn't hear it. But is it in, like, about 85% of everything in our revenues mandated on how we have to spend those? Can you kinda explain that a

little bit? The majority of our expenditures are mandated, whether that's by the federal government or the state. I mean, counties are a subsidiary, an arm of state government, and so we carry out, the wishes of the state in which the majority of that budget is mandated and required. And, I mean, not to get too much in the weeds, but if you look at a list of what counties are required to do and compare it to municipalities, our list has checks all the way down, municipalities has like one check, and that's not a shot at municipalities, it's just the reality and the difference of how those budgets and the discretion within those budgets, aligns with what we're trying to accomplish here.

Thank you, mister chairman.

Any other matters before we get to Bob? Mr. Hovas.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know that I've ever been an item on the agenda before, but I guess I am tonight. The peer group that we're compared to, in order for us to be in the middle of that group in terms of teacher supplements, I'm just talking about supplements at this point in time, we need to be we need an increase of $170,000 excuse me, 6,700,000. That would put us in the middle.

It doesn't put us at the top of the peer group, but it doesn't put us at the bottom. And it puts us almost $1,000 above the average for the state per teacher annually. Significant difference. It puts us at the $7,554 mark. That's what the average of being in the middle of the peer group, that's what that would be, just to give you an idea, so you understand what we're talking about in terms of scope.

By putting the, by getting the at requesting the general assembly, which I have a resolution here that I'm going to ask the rest of my board to agree in a moment. I'm going to ask for adding to the agenda a vote on sending this resolution to our delegation to be presented to the legislature. That number would be would generate that $0.25 sales tax would generate somewhere, like I told you, between $9,500,000 and $11,000,000 We can take that and fill this $676,700,000 gap to get us to that point. The rest of that funding, then we could use to supplement other school needs like Chromebooks or whatever that we currently are trying to fund through property tax. It's a totally different revenue source, and we get it for $0.70 on the dollar because 30% of sales tax is paid by people who do not live in Gaston County, who travel through here and buy goods and services.

And I say that because when we did that with capital debt, it totally changed us. That $250,000,000 is the largest bond issue that Gaston County has ever done, and it's moved a lot of things forward. And we're going to need to retire some of these other bond issues that are retiring. And as that debt falls off, we're going to need more because our facilities are still not what they need to be. And that's my proposal to fight to do something different, not to keep doing the same old thing, to do something different.

But what we will need from you is your help in getting that done both with the legislature to get them to give us the authority to do that, which I think this is probably a good year to do that. The current $0.25 sales tax that we have, we would never use in its current form, and it's been it was given to all 100 counties at the same time. That one just doesn't fit our matrix. But to add that on the school funding side is perfect. It's a perfect analysis.

And I've talked with most of my commissioners at depth about this and I think they're all in agreement. So one of the things that I'm and if you have any questions for me on that, I'll be glad to try to answer those if I've not given you enough information on how that works. Because I want you to understand, because we need you as a partner because if it does, if the state legislature does repurpose that $0.25 sales tax, then we're gonna be it's gonna be on the ballot in November. And we've got to accomplish this by June 6 to get that done. So that's a yeoman's effort.

And I'll be probably going to Raleigh to to to to, I would say, beat people up, but then I'll probably find myself in the jail and I don't want I don't want to operate the jail. With with that being said, we're we've got to do a lot of stuff between now and then. But it's something I think that's doable. I think it's a different out of the box approach, and we're gonna need your help in getting voters to understand that. And listen, everybody said that we would never get the school bond, the $270,000,000 bond passed and the $0.25 sales tax that was on a referendum.

But the voters did it because the voters understood. And I think the school system and my involvement, because I've been a big volunteer in the school system for over twenty plus years, we have been true to everything that we said we were going to do on bonds. The only thing we haven't met, the only criteria we haven't met was we delayed Belmont Middle. And we delayed Belmont Middle and didn't spend those those monies at that time because had we done that, when that debt service all occurred with other debts, the county would not have been able to pay the debt service. That makes a big difference.

And so we couldn't do that. But we've gone back and we filled that with the $250,000,000 and we're moving forward doing all those things that's necessary in order for Gaston County to continue to excel and have proper buildings and be able to meet the program requirements. But other than that, Mr. Chair, I'd like for a vote for the board to add this resolution to approve. Everybody has a copy of this at your desk. If you have any other questions, I'll talk to it

or It's not a vote. Has to be affirmation. Correct?

No. It's a vote. I'll make a motion to add it.

Motion made to add to the agenda.

We have a motion.

Mr. Keeger, add to the agenda this resolution, seconded by commissioner Fraley. All in favor? There's unanimous for that. Now,

I make the motion.

This Bob is making to request legislative modifying North Carolina General Statute 105, Article 43 to authorize the use of revenue collection for supplemental school funding. Second. Seconded by Commissioner Keeger. Any discussion? All in favor? It is unanimous, madam clerk.

Thank you. Good job. And thank you, folks.

Okay. Now, are there any other matters that have come before this board at this time?

Mr. Goldberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, we do have need for a closed session pursuant to North Carolina general statute one forty three dash three one eight dot 11 a one to discuss confidential information, a three for attorney client privilege, and a six for personnel matters. Matters. And I appreciate motion to as such.

Motion made by commissioner Hovas, seconded by commissioner Bailey. All in favor? We are now in closed session.

Do we

have a motion to come back into open session? So moved. Motion made by Commissioner Sheehan, seconded by Commissioner Bailey. All in favor? We are now back in open session. Commissioner or excuse me, Esquire Goldberg.

Commissioners, I request that the motion be had to authorize the county manager to execute a settlement agreement to resolve outstanding litigation with including a payment of not to exceed $350,000 and authorize an appropriation from the general fund fund balance to fund that, settlement subject to review and approval of the county attorney.

Do I have a motion motion by commissioner Bailey, seconded by commissioner Fraley. All in favor? All opposed is six one, madam attorney. They're all here. They're us over there. Oh, there's Bob. Sorry. Out to me. I'm gonna say I

don't know

how you vote. Yes or no? Yes. Yes. So six one, madam attorney.

This concludes our meeting for tonight. Our next work session is scheduled for Tuesday, May 12 at 6PM here in the Harleby Gas and Public Junior Corum Forum Courthouse. I have a scheduled, a special meeting immediately following the work session to be held, in the public hearing proposed for the FY budget twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven Gas and County budget. Citizens are welcome to comment that night. Thank you for watching. If you have any questions, please remit those to Donna s Buff at 866-3196. Good night, Kathy.