City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. I don't know.

Welcome to the January 5th meeting of your Goldsboro City Council. Uh appreciate everyone being here. Wish everyone a happy new year and a happy and prosperous new year for the city of Goldsboro. We have a robust agenda with a number of public hearings this evening uh as well as uh a number of different things that we'll be moving through. So with that, we as our as is our tradition, we will begin with an invocation uh this evening from Father David Wy, our police chaplain, followed by a pledge of allegiance, and then we will return for roll call. Follow. Let us pray. Gracious, loving, and almighty God, we give you thanks for the abundant blessings of this life. We thank you for this beautiful city. We thank you for its residents, those that visit it, and we thank you for those that you have called to be leaders of it. We ask that you, as we begin this new year, we ask that you bless this city. Bless it with its beauty, bless it with its contentment, and bless it with peace and comfort for all. We also ask your blessing upon this council as they make decisions that affect it, this city, and its residents. And we ask that you pour your spirit upon each of us so that when we leave this place, we may show forth your love with everyone that we meet. All this we ask in your holy name. Amen.

Thank you. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As we're taking our seats, I'll remind everyone to please silence their cell phones. Uh, that goes double for me. All right. And iPads for that matter, I suppose. All right. Uh, Madame Clerk, if you please conduct a roll call. Mayor Gayler, present. Councilwoman Jones, present. Councilman Boyette, present. Councilwoman Taylor, present. Councilwoman Weekes, present.

Councilwoman Matthews, Councilman White, present. All right. all present and accounted for. As always, I appreciate everyone's time and commitment that it takes to be uh be part of this council and try to move our city forward. We'll move to adoption of the agenda. Mr. Livingston, are there any staff requested changes? Uh no, sir, not that I am aware of. I didn't I didn't think of anything either, so just making sure. Council, are any requested changes to the agenda as presented? Hearing none, is there a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? So move.

All right. Motion's been made and properly seconded uh to adopt the agenda as presented. Uh is there any debate? Hearing none, we will call the vote. Madame clerk, if you are able, I need to add Is it popping up for y'all?

All in favor of adopting the of adopting the agenda. Oh, now it's up. There we go. Just needed me to spur it along. There we go. Uh all all in the affirmative motion passed unanimously. Uh the agenda is adopted as the business order of the day. Next, we'll move to section four. We will begin with the administration of the oath for the mayor prom office. Uh, madame clerk, if you would please walk us through this process. And I believe we have a guest here to administer the oath. Yes, sir. They can come on up. If you would.

Well, good evening, council members, mayor. First of all, this is the first council meeting I've ever been to where you had an electronic voting system. We're modernizing

now. I'm a nerd. That was really cool. I want to see your buttons at some point in time cuz pressing those buttons. So, uh, so just, uh, appreciate what you do. Appreciate what you do, not just for Wayne County, but the city of Goldsboro and everything you do in between. And it's an honor to work with you and look forward to working with you in the new year. But I have the distinct pleasure today to swear in to Mayor Pro Tim, Miss Beverly Weeks. And so, uh, Councilwoman Weekes, if you will come forward and bring your family, friends, and anybody else who wants to join in with you on this special occasion. And I always joke at swearing in that uh this is the fun part, the swearing in. And as soon as we're done the swearing at, we'll begin.

So if you would, what I ask you to do is I ask you to put your uh raise your right hand, place your left hand on the Bible, and uh I'm going to say I and then you state your name and I'll finish reading the oath of office and at the end I'll say so help me God. And you repeat that. So help me God. And so we'll go ahead and get started for the oath of office for the mayor of Pro Tim. I that I

do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and that I will faithfully and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government. Therefore, that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of my uh knowledge and ability. that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as mayor pro Tim. So help me God. I do. So help me God.

Congratulations ma'am. You're officially swore in as mayor pro Tim. There's three of them. Okay. John, thanks for doing this. Yeah.

Thank you. Mayor Pton, welcome back. Let's see.

Next, we'll move to item 4.2, two, which is a retirement resolution for a gentleman who has been with this city for more than 31 years. Uh, on a personal note, um, I highly doubt that Allan is watching this meeting this evening. I hope he has found something better to do with his time, but if he is, uh, I just want to go on record to say for the last decade plus, he has been an absolute gentleman in the position. He has supported this community through, you know, offering sessions with the small business center to be able to help help explain the process for going through um going through starting a business in Goldsboro. And he absolutely was a model for how you can do things effectively and also with a kind and genuine way of of conducting yourself. So again, just I on a personal note just wanted to put those things out there as he and I have certainly had these conversations for a long time now. So with that, resolution 2026-1 and council, I will read the resolution and then ask for a motion to adopt the resolution. Resolution uh 2026-1, a resolution expressing appreciation for services rendered by Alan Anderson Jr. as an employee of the city of Goldsboro for more than 31 years. Whereas Alan Anderson Jr. retired on December 31st, 2025 as building codes administrator with more than 31 years of service with the city of Goldsboro. And whereas Allan began his career on November 30th, 1994 as building codes inspector 2 with the inspections department. And whereas on April 1st, 2013, Allan was promoted to building codes administrator where he served until his retirement. And whereas Allan has demonstrated exceptional dedication and efficiency in his service, earning the respect and admiration of his colleagues and the

citizens of the city of Goldsboro. And whereas the mayor and city council of the city of Goldsboro are desirous on behalf of themselves, city employees, and the citizens of the city of Goldsboro of expressing to Alan Anderson Jr. their deep appreciation and gratitude for the service rendered by him to the city over the years. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the mayor and city council of the city of Goldsboro, North Carolina, that we express to Alan Anderson, Jr. our very best wishes for success, happiness, prosperity, and good health in his future endeavors. This resolution shall be incorporated into the official minutes of the city of Goldsboro and shall be in full force in effect from and after this the 5th day of January, 2026. Council, may I have a motion to adopt the resolution?

Second. Motion having been made and properly seconded to adopt the resolution. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. Please vote electronically if possible.

Have any others coming? Two. Okay. All in favor, please vote by show of hands. All oppose, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes. There we go. That'll allow you to complete the vote. Perfect. All right. Next, we'll move uh straight into our public hearings. Uh we'll begin with item 5.1. Mr. Livingston, if you have anything to add. If not, we'll pull up a representative from PL. I think we have Mr. Helmer here to explain the extension they're requesting.

Good evening. Uh Mr. Mayor, Council, um first case reporting conditional zoning 0424 Tucker Trace. Uh the applicant uh uh uh from Bartlett Engineering, the representative of the project is requesting a 30-day continuance of this proposal. Mr. Bartlett is here if you'd like to speak. Okay. I think it would be appropriate uh as we discussed at our agenda setting meeting, I think it would be appropriate to still open the public hearing allow if anyone did make time to come this evening and speak. We'll hear their words and their comments and then council can deliberate about if we would like to grant that continuence. Is that appropriate, Mr. Elmer? That sounds fant.

All right. And also, I believe there was a letter that was submitted to council uh that was that was desired to be incorporated into the record. I believe that was from Mr. Henry Smith representing a number of the residents. Um, Miss Gex, you have a copy of that letter as well. Yes, sir. Which can then be of course made publicly available as well as part of the official record of the meeting. Council, everyone know everyone I know received a copy of that. Just want to make sure that everything is on the record. Uh, so with that, uh, if it's the right thing to do, we'll open reopen the public hearing. Okay.

And, uh, ask if anyone is interested in coming forward and speaking. So, uh, everyone, this is a public hearing item 5.1 on our agenda. It is conditional zoning or CZ425 for Tucker Trace. Is anyone here to come forward and speak? Second call. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak on item 5.1? Third and final call. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak on CZ 425 Tucker Trace. All right. Hearing none, the applicant, as Mr. Homer stated has requested another 30-day continuance. Um, that is certainly can be done at the pleasure of council. Is there any comment, concern, or a motion to continue this public hearing until the first meeting in February?

I make a motion that we continue it until the first meeting in February. Okay. Motion has been made and properly seconded to continue uh this uh this public hearing until the first meeting in February. Is there any debate on that? Mayor February the 2nd. February 2nd. That way we can put in the record for a date certain. February 2nd. All right. Uh so with that we'll uh is there any debate? Who was the motion and second? Sorry was typing. Councilman Jones made the motion and and did you second? Yeah. I'm sorry. You made a motion and then Councilman Jones second. Thank you.

All right. Is there any debate hearing? None. Uh please vote electronically if possible.

Ah no one perfect. All right. All votes haven't been cast. Vote in the affirmative. This uh is this public hearing is continued until the first meeting in February. Just for the record again. Yes, mayor. February 2nd. February 2nd. Yes. All right. We will move into item 5.2. Mr. Lewis, do you have anything to add or do we go straight to planning?

Thank you. The second case for you, it's RZ05-25 Glenda Blanding. Uh I have received an email from Glenda Blanding uh requesting in writing that this uh request to reszone the property be uh uh removed from consideration. Okay. Okay. This is getting far too efficient. So, uh, with that, council is would any action need to be taken by council to officially remove this or just simply she would be considered a withdrawal? I think you just still need to go ahead and just open the public hearing and just inform the public that it's being that requested to be withdrawn. Okay. Opportunity to speak, but then after that and close it, nobody speaks, you can close it. Go ahead and vote to approve the withdrawal. Okay.

Be the most efficient. Let's do it that way then. All right. So, Mr. Is there any briefing? If we're going to open the public hearing, do you mind going and delivering the brief so that folks know what they would be commenting on even if Yeah, I'd be glad to do that. All right.

Yeah. So, the the the proposal was a 21 approximately 21,000 ft uh piece of property um uh owned by Glenda Blanding. Uh the current zoning was R16 and the request was to reszone to a residential manufactured home district with RM-9. Um the land use did call for medium density uh residential at this location. Um uh the surrounding properties were all currently zoned R16 uh with a little bit our uh M9 uh nearby. Um the property map here, the zoning map here shows the RM9 immediately across the street, immediately adjacent to and then a couple of lots uh throughout the the the general area uh that was currently zoned for RM9. So um the purpose R16 is for low density residential. RM9 is essentially the same district but allows for manufactured homes which the R16 does not. So, uh, current land use plan again calls for medium density residential in in this vicinity. Uh, I should note that the property is just outside of the corporate limits. So, if she was to reszone, uh, and extend sewer and water to the site to build a manufactured home, she would have to uh, extend water and sewer to the location as well as uh, request annexation. Um, city's land use plan locates this parcel in the medium density residential land use designation. medium resident residential land use categories will accommodate medium density single family residential uses and prohibit all activities of commercial uh nature except certain home occupations. Um uh this is a reszoning proposal approximately 4 acres uh to be resoneed from R16 to RM9. All all permitted uses

in the residential uh RM9 zoning district uh could be considered as potential uses for the site subject property formerly known as central heights subdivision and located east of Tiffany Gardens. The site's currently occupied by Woodlands. Staff has uh uh distributed this proposed resoning request to city engineering and fire marshall's office. Only since this is a straight reszoning request, city water and sewer are available to serve the site. property is not located in special flood hazard area. The applicant specifically is requesting the the proposal be removed from consideration because of the cost of extending water sewer u annexation. So she just didn't think the value was there. So she elected to request um the proposal be uh removed from consideration. Um that's pretty much all I have. Uh if you'd like have any questions of me, I'll be glad to answer.

Just Yes, please. Quick question. It's on the same side as Tiffany Gardens. Um you might have to help me out. Yeah, I think that is right. That's the back. That's the only reason I asked. Yeah. So, any other questions of me? Just procedurally so council knows its options. We could vote to reject would which would kind of be a moot point because it's being withdrawn. But would a rejection impact a future like request if we want? No. No. There's no precedent. It's essentially it's it's a case by case basis.

Okay. Perfect. So there's no point in voting on it to approve or reject when it's being asked to be. Yeah. I wouldn't think so.

Just wanted to make sure that council, you know, truly understood its options. All right. So, with that, we will open the public hearing. Uh even though as was discussed, this one was uh requested to be removed, but as it was advertised, the right thing to do is still allow anyone to come forward and speak. So, we will open a public hearing item 5.2 RZ 525 on our agenda. Does anyone wish to come forward and speak? Second call. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak on item 5.2 RZ 525? Third and final call. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak on RZ 525 item 5.2 on our agenda. All right. Seeing no one, we'll close the public hearing. Council would entertain a motion to accept the withdrawal uh per staff's recommendation.

So moved. All right. Motion has been made and properly seconded. All right. Made second uh to approve the Wait, wrong wrong vote. Yank that down. Sorry. Hold on. Sorry.

All in favor of allowing the withdrawal vote by show of hands. All oppose, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes unanimously. There you go. Good. Perfect. Perfect. All right. Item 5.3, uh, special use permit council. Before we get into these next two, just a reminder, special use permits are the four vote tests. Uh, Mr. Lawrence, do you have anything to add about the quasi judicial or the weight of or anything like that for the special use? Any standard briefing that you want to offer?

Just a reminder that the only evidence to be considered is evidence presented here today. You can't do an independent investigation. and you can't talk to people outside of the meeting about it or somebody calls you or emails you, that cannot be considered. If you've had some sort of contact like that, uh, and have had some contact back and forth, need to let everybody else know, uh, if that's occurred, but and then additionally, as far as any evidence about property values or traffic has to be presented by an expert, uh, any testimony given by somebody of the general public about their thoughts of those things cannot be considered, cannot be given weight. That' be my brief summary on that.

That's That's perfect. I just wanted to be a reminder for myself and uh and those of us who are going to have to express an opinion. All right. So, we'll move to item three, SU725. Mr. L, do you have anything to add or we go straight to planning? No, just go straight to You covered everything. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh, happy new year.

Let's see. Tonight again, we'll be discussing two special use permits. The first one, SU725, is for a bar. This will be classified as a place of entertainment with ABC. This location of this property is going to be located on the west side of 117 North between Carolina Commerce Drive and Tommy's Road. As you'll see, the owner is Mr. Paul Williams. Uh, Mr. Williams, are you here tonight? Yes, sir.

Thank you. Let's see. The applicant The owner is Paul T. Williams. The applicant, Andrew Farms of Wayne County, Inc. Um, let's see. I believe that is uh a typo. It should be the applicant being Mr. Paul T. Williams and the owner being Andrew Farms of Wayne County, Inc. The current zoning for the property is general business. As you'll recall, um the general business zoning district recently for this property received a change of zone use for a portion of the subject property on December the 1st, 2025. The existing land use was for a convenience store with fuel gas sales. Land use designation is mixed use 2. The applicants requesting a special use permit again to allow for a place of entertainment with ABC permits to sell alcohol at 2606 North Williams Street. The employees for this operation will consist of six days and hours of operations Monday through Sunday proposing from 12 noon to 2:00 a.m. Approve the approval criteria for this place of entertainment is that no establishment shall be located within 200 ft of any residentially zoned or developed property, church or school. if it is separated from a residentially zoned or developed property by a four-lane highway. The 200t separation shall only apply to the properties along the sides and the rear of the establishment. No establishment shall be located within 100 ft and 50 ft of any other such establishment. You want let's go ahead and do that. If you'll excuse me, I should have been sworn in right. My apologies. I see.

Closest to the heart. Okay. Thanks. Appreciate that. Closest to the heart. There's a lot.

All right. Moving forward. No establishment again as part of the approval criteria shall be located within 100 ft of any other such establishment and any outdoor activities associated with the POE must specifically be approved as part of any associated review and approval process. According to the applicant submitted floor plan, the proposed bar will consist of three pool tables, seating for approximately 35 people, restrooms, and a storage area. If the special use is approved, the site will be required to meet the development regulations of the city's UDO. and a building permit and final inspection will be required for the upfit of the existing tenant space to ensure that all life safety and uh building codes have been satisfied before occupying the facility. So here is a picture illustrating the current zoning of the property. Again, the property being what you see here is the existing uh facility. And of course, here is the part that was recently reszoned, but it's currently if this special use permit is approved, it will have to be annexed into the city of Goldsboro before any upfit or any development approvals can take place in the future. We currently have received the application for annexation and this will be following in the coming months uh the procedural due processes. Here's the uh comprehensive land use plan showing mixed use too. Here's an illustration of the floor plan of the property for the property. Uh here is the kitchen area, the bar, pool tables. These are just approximations with entries

at the front and back and sides of the facility. Staff evaluation planning staff have reviewed the requests in accordance with the UDO and our comprehensive land use plan and have no objections to this proposed use. At this time, council um can ask staff of any questions they may have. Uh any person wishing to speak or give testimony may do so after they've been sworn in properly. And after council hears, anyone who wishes to speak, the mayor shall close the public hearing and council shall enter into deliberation. And I'll leave the findings to you, mayor, in order to determine if the special use permit shall be issued. again would please refer to your worksheet and if you have any questions of staff of course we're here to help answer those questions mayor I'll conclude my presentation tonight council are there any questions for Mr. talent at this time. All right. Hearing none, it is our practice that we then invite the applicant up to uh come and deliver a brief if they so choose or hear any questions from council and then we open the public hearing for, you know, everyone else to be able to be able to comment or uh bring forward concerns, but it makes sense to hear from the applicant so everyone knows what it is that they're actually here to talk about. So, with that, if the applicant, if you're interested in coming forward to speak and uh and state what it is that you're going to be doing, you're welcome to do so.

We'll get her first. There you go. There you go. Raise your right hand.

There you go. for the truth and the truth. Thank you. Sure.

Um, first time I've been here. So, um, I've been in Goldboro since 2002. I opened a staff I'm in now, uh, 2011 and it's been doing real good. I got a lot of pool players that trying to find more places to go to. So, that's why I'm trying to open another business up. Um, I have another business too that I opened up in 2018, but it's so small you can't do nothing with it. So, that's why I'm trying to get another business opened up. I saw just one quick question for me. I saw in your drawing that there was a kitchen area. Will we be having food or is that Yes. Okay.

But it's this sounds kind of weird, but like Wanda's they got um a grill and all that stuff. I'm trying to stick with just air fryers, hot dogs, and pizzas. Okay. Just keep it simple. Yes. Council, any questions for the applicant? All right. Hearing none, just have a seat. Uh we may call you back up if there are any additional questions. Okay.

All right. So, with that, uh we'll open the public hearing for item 5.3. I don't see any hands up for any immediate questions right now. So, we'll open up the public hearing for item 5.3. This is SU725. Um, anyone wishing to come forward and speak? Second call. Uh, this is item 5.3 on our agenda, SU725. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak? Okay. Third and final call. Anyone wishing to come forward and speak on SU725 item 5.3 on our agenda. All right. Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. Uh council, it's now our time to deliberate. There is the the four-part test. There's the worksheet in the agenda packet uh as well as on our uh on the dashboard here for us. What comments, questions do we have for for staff

or are there uh are folks ready to make some motions? I have a question. Yes, ma'am. I'm trying to figure out exactly where this is located. Mr. T, would you please come back up and go back to the map and let's make sure that we're all very clear. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Okay. So if you are traveling on North William Street and you come to the intersection of Ptown Road and William, if you'll go through that intersection, you will come to of course that's been a part of the widening project. After you pass Griffin Steel, which is on your left,

I believe um TA Loving has a stores lay down yard also on the left. And I believe just after you pass that, you will see a road that extends off to the left as you see down here. Mhm. off of William Street. This is where Commerce Drive is located. Um but again, the Circle K is immediately to the north of the proposed the old gas station. Yes, ma'am. Well, of the old gas station. Yes, ma'am. And then you have the Circle K and beyond that is the new 42, the new highway exchange. So, that's also in close proximity to where the proposal is for this new residential area as well. Correct.

That is correct. It will be directly across the street here is property that was once uh looked at by Malard Oil and Malard Oil uh withdrew their request. And so beyond that property, which was the gas station, is where you would have the residential subdivision by the name of Tucker Trace off of Tommy's Road. and um which you have currently continued till the next hearing. Um and I believe that from our last discussion, Tucker Tracy, it may I think they may have u entertained uh interest in buying that property that's directly across the street as well.

Yes, sir. And and just to clarify the because the the Tucker Trace development is across the four lane, then it would be exempt from any spacing related to residential. Yes, sir. Okay. I just want to make sure that was right. Say that again. Can you repeat that, Chris? The Tucker Trace is across the four lane and so therefore it's not subject to spacing requirements when it's separated by a four-lane highway. It would only be subject to the spacing requirements for the things on the same side of the road with it, which is all the GB stuff. Okay. I think it was phrased as a declar sort of a declarative statement, but I think it was meant to confirm if that is correct. It was meant as a question. Mr. Talon, is that correct?

That is correct. Okay. Yes, sir. Perfect. Mr. Talton, I have one question as well since you brought that up. Um, right there on Commerce Drive direct located behind the gas station is a kids play area and and I was wondering are there any stipulations as far as how far apart that can be from that kids play area. There's a commercial business there for children. It's a really nice indoor playground area at this time. No, ma'am. I don't see any stipulations.

Council, any other com? Yes, sir. Are you referring to the building? I think it's purple and the am I off a notch? No, it is. It used to be Best. Yeah, it was it was best. I'm unfamiliar with that. It is further up Carolina Commerce right there where where Kenny's pointer is right there. And they have the bottom if you're facing the building bottom left couple of storefronts in there. It's a nice indoor indoor children's playground. Gotcha. That's looking for birthday party venues. I'm not I'm not a business partner in that. I'm just noting that it is there.

That's right. That's correct. I think that was helpful when you did the pointer. Yes. Yes. Where it was in correlation. Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. Council, any other comments, questions for Mr. Talton? Hearing? None. There are four motions uh that we will need to go through. The first one relates to uh any material endangerment to the public health or safety. We would either need need to vote that it would be a danger to public health or safety or would not be a uh danger to public health or safety. I need a motion one way or the other.

I'll make a motion, Mr. Mayor, that this uh request would not endanger the public health or safety. That is correct. Motion's been made. Is there a second? Is there a second? All right. Motion fails for lack of second. Is there are there any other questions or is there uh a motion to table this item for a future meeting if there is additional questions that need to be asked? Is there a motion to the contrary to say that it would um could we could we table this? I have concerns about the children. Okay. Okay.

I would second that motion if that's in the form of a motion. Okay.

All right. So, a motion has been made and properly seconded to table item 5.3 SU725 to the public hearing has already been closed. This would be tabled until the first meeting in February when we generally hear land use planning matters. Uh between that time there would of course need to be any conversations or any concerns you know handled with staff uh so where that we can then ultimately make a decision. Um that motion have been made and properly seconded. Is there any debate on that? Hearing none, it's my obligation to work through that motion. Uh we'll have to call a vote on the motion to table. So with that, uh please vote electronically if possible. All those haven't been cast. This matter has been tabled to the February 2nd council meeting. Uh any questions and concerns between now and then. Please council, please do get with planning staff and that way we can ultimately give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Thank you council. Just caution that if you direct the questions to staff, staff don't answer them. Need to be answered in here. Yes, sir. Okay, that's correct. Perfect.

All right. So, with that, we will move to let me make a note here. We'll move to item 5.4 SU 925. Again, council, this is a special use. same stipulations are going to have to uh the evidentiary weight that Mr. Lawrence already briefed us on is in effect and the four motion test is in effect. So with that we will move to item SU 925. Mr. Leonson, do you have anything to add or go straight to Mr. Talton? No first. Mr. Talton, if you would please.

Thank you, sir. As the mayor said, we're now going to be reviewing case SU925. This will be for a proposed convenience store with no fuel sales located at 1515 East Ash Street. This will be at the corner of North I'm sorry, East Ash Street and North Jefferson Street. The owner that we have listed on file is OneHour Cleaners and Laundry Care of Mr. Brian Foster. The applicant is Mr. Maheen Abdu Alashshaw. Mr. Lshaw, are you present tonight? Yes.

Thank you. The current zoning is neighborhood zoning district. Existing land use is a dry cleaning business. Land use designation is office and institutional. The request again is for a place of con convenience store without fuel gas sales. The days and hours of operation are Monday through Sunday, 24 hours, 7 days a week. The employees would be two. According to the applicant submitted floor plan, the proposed convenience store will provide drive-thru services and shall consist of aisles, multilevel counters and shelves, coolers, and refrigerators, all to utilize for product display and sales. Storage areas, a mechanical room, and employee restrooms will be provided. If the special use permit is approved, the site will be required to meet the development regulations of the city's unified development code. In addition, a building permit and final inspection will be required for the upfit of the existing facility to ensure that all life and safety codes have been satisfied before occupying the facility. So, here is the location again, East Ash Street, North Jefferson Street. The current zoning for the property again is neighborhood business. To the west of the property is office and institutional. To the north of the property is a parcel that is own neighborhood business. North of that is predominantly residential. Across the street along Jefferson, you'll see a property convenience store that's also located uh there. And there's an adjacent property that is zone neighborhood business and to the north of that predominantly residential in nature. To the south of the property is property that is zone office and

institutional that is uh for sale as we speak. Properties along the east corridor along east a street are predominantly office and institutional and office and residential. This is the current land use plan for this East Ash Street corridor. At this time, the plan shows predominantly those properties along East Ary is being developed for office and institutional use. Here is a picture of the property along East Ash Street. You'll notice the existing Kings convenience store across the street. Here's a floor plan of their site plan at this time. If it were to be approved, we would consider this uh site as meeting our UDO. There are some changes that that are needed at this time. Outside that, this is a detail of the the store itself. You will see in the front of the store here's where the proposed drive-thru would be. This would be East Ash Street along the right side of your monitor with a entrance off the front. Again, this is the grocery or the display area, shelves, coolers, refrigerators, and the going to the rear of the facility is a storage room and of course a mechanical room and restrooms for employees of the facility. So the comprehensive land use plan that we've already spoke of it shows this as being designated as office and institutional

properties in the vicinity and adjacent to the subject property are predominantly located in office and institutional and residential zoning districts. Businesses include financial services, beauty salons, real estate, property management and insurance services. The proposed use at this time is not compatible with existing land uses and development patterns along East Asht Street. The proposed use also is not consistent with the city's comprehensive land use plan. Mayor, I'll turn it back over to you to answer any questions or ask any questions you or council may have and uh we'll be glad to to do so at your direction.

All right, council. Any questions for Mr. Talton at this time? I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Um, Mr. Talton, I don't know if this is a silly question or not, but do we have like a product list? So, am I to assume that this will be a place to get vapes and THC and all the other items 24 hours a day?

That's a good question. We do not have an inventory list. We have been provided with information where the floor space would not consist of 25% or more vape sales. For that reason alone, it does not qualify as a having to meet the distance separation requirements from another vape store. Um, again, the applicant is here. I'd encourage you to ask questions for what type of products he will have in the store. And u, I'll leave it at that. I have one follow-up question. Yes, ma'am. Um, is the convenience store beside it 20? What is their hours of operations? I do not know. Okay,

that answer question. Um, do you know if this um applicant um if they have any other businesses in the city that they are currently running? Councilman Taylor, I'm not aware of that. I know that there is a connection to the Kings convenience store directly across the street. There's a what now? There is a connection there. Okay. Uh again, I had to defer back to Mr. Alashshaw. Okay. So, we would need to ask him that. Okay. Thank you. I see your hand up, Councilwoman. Yes.

Um help me understand. Um, so if this is approved, we will have two convenience stores side by side selling the same things except for one will have a drive-thru. They will be directly across the street from each other. Um, and again, when it comes to their inventory, um, we can assume that they will be selling similar products, um, but without a list or an inventory list. I could not tell you exactly what they will be selling compared to what Kings is currently selling at this time.

Well, for for the record, that question will direct to the applicant so sure that we're not getting conjecture or opinion based evidence, but that way we can actually ask the applicant directly. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. Quick question for our attorney. Is it appropriate in the process when we're handling them as such here to ask staff whether or not the applicant or the connected business is um in good in good standing with the city or would that be not appropriate? Let's find out that question.

I cannot answer that question for you without conferring with our uh police department. Thank you. Yes, sir. If that's what you mean by good standing, of course that's up for debate as to what that might mean, right? Whether that's a zoning issue or code enforcement issue, law enforcement issue, it brings a think of a lot of different things under that umbrella. And that was really an umbrella kind of question just you know of the things that could be an issue or anything is there anything an issue. That was all just a caution the council not to consider that unless there is specific evidence presented as to those questions. Okay.

Yes, ma'am. Well, I was just kind of piggybacking off of um Councilman Boyette's question. So, you said we you said that we would need to ask Chief West the question about crime, but maybe what about with the city as far as any violations or within the planning department. I'm not aware of any violations uh currently on site or across the street at KE's convenience store. Okay. Can ask those questions. Okay. But you also recall the four questions you have to answer. Right. The evidence has to be specific as to those four questions too. Right. I understand.

All right. Anything else for Mr. Tal? I have one question. Yes, ma'am. Please. So, um, in reviewing this this weekend and looking at the paperwork that you guys submitted to us, I did note that you had said the land use was inconsistent. How about the parking in that small area? Um, was it conducive to what the individual was asking for? It was. I believe with the information we have at this time that parking would be sufficient for the facility. All right, council. I'm not seeing any other hands or Yes, sir. Go ahead.

So, just to clarify, then the the staff's statement that was included in the brief was that it is not compatible with the land use plan or consistent with what's in the area. Yes, sir. I'll be glad to elaborate on that if you'd like. Could you elaborate?

I'd be glad to be glad to. So again in the report and in the agenda memo um I'm sorry and in the presentation you'll notice uh we brought up that it was um in an office and institutional predominantly surrounded by office and institutional uh uses. Uh this use is not compatible with the surrounding uses around the proposed convenience store. There is a store directly across the street. It is also neighborhood business. But if you look to the right of the existing store, convenience store of Kings, there's a church. Um going eastward to the rear of the facility. Um again, you'll find another neighborhood business zoning district. I don't know that it's being used as such. I want to say it's being used right now for residential. We need to check that to clarify that. But the uh again those were some of the reasons that we decided it was incompatible with regards to the land use plan. A lot of times um office and institutional uses serve as a transitional district between higher intensity uses and residential uses. Uh this is something that is spelled out in our land use plan that the city should uh look at in uh monitoring and enforcing when it comes to development of plans and of of businesses locating within that district. When it comes to the actual land use map, if you look at the land use map, you'll see that it is again office and institutional predominantly in that corridor. And that is something that is uh the proposed use again as being a neighborhood business

is not in accordance with the map. So we based our decision or our facts, our comments based off the map itself, the plan, the comprehensive plan and the UDO, what the current zoning. Uh again, we have no personal preference whatsoever. We're just listing the facts of what we believe are the facts of the case on behalf of the planning department as to um the statements that were been made. I hope that answered your question. Council, any other questions for Mr. Talton before we invite the applicant up? Yes, ma'am. Please.

Just refresh memory. Did he say if Kings is 24 hours as well? Uh he was not he was not sure. And so we'll direct that question to the applicant. So, if there is a connection, if he's able to answer that question again, I wanted Yeah, I'm sorry. I was just curious if there was Yeah, you don't need to apologize. You're you're spot on questions. All right. So, with that, Mr. Talton will relieve you from the podium for a few minutes. Yes, sir. And I believe the applicant, I believe he uh did uh believe I heard someone say that they were here, right? If the applicant is interested in coming forward before we get into the actual public hearing itself, we would hear any sort of comments or brief from the applicant. Yes.

Here, come come forward if you would please. And please uh approach the city clerk. Yes. Yes.

Welcome, sir.

How you doing? Uh I'm Ash Mored. I'm from Farmville. I'm just speaking for him because he's English very limited. Yeah. So uh I bought the two convenience stores that's owned to my family from my uh father's side of the family. And uh so the different between the two convenience stores, that one got alcohol, this one doesn't. That one doesn't have a drive-thru, this one it does. and about the traffic. Uh that's what she said. Uh traffic um to the parking lot. We ran like a small traffic and it was perfect. Yeah. No TC products, no vapes, nothing will harm the community as well. And uh

so I believe uh two questions that I remember hearing. One was do you know the store next door since you did say that it was associate is that one also 24 hours. Uh, I think opens around 8:00, closes around 11:00, 12. I'm not sure. Okay. So, it's not 24 hours. It's not 24 hours. And do you mind elaborating a little bit on the product mix for the proposed store? The product is going to be drinks, chips, snacks, cans, groceries. Yeah. But it's no alcohol at all. Okay. Yeah. You know, Walmart closes at 11:12. Food line closes at 10:00. Yeah. Okay. Council, what comments, questions do you have for the applicant?

I have one. Yes, ma'am. Please. Um, I just did a quick um Google search. Yes. And it says that Kings Discount Daily. Would that be it? The one across the street? Yes. It closes at 1:00 a.m. Is that accurate? I don't I don't think so. I I believe they closes the latest 12th or 11. I'm not sure though. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. And you said this. Um, how are you related to the person that owns Kings? We are family. Yeah. So, close relatives, cousins, brothers, dads, parents. Yeah, cousins.

Okay. And so, um, are any of them here for you to ask on what time you guys actually close or? So, my cousin, the one he owns the King's Dilly, he's in Wilson running his other gas station. He have he owns a gas station one in Greenville and one in Wilson. Okay. Yes. And I lease from his father in Farmville. Okay. Are we able to for for the record? I don't know that we've gotten conclusive evidence of the actual hours of operation other than we can other than definitively saying it's not 24 hours. Is that a correct synopsis for the record?

I would ask that question for that to be stated. So, the hours of operation to the best of your knowledge, uh, stating on behalf of the applicant, is Kings is Kings Deli and Grocery. Is it a 24-hour store? No, it's not a 24 hours. Okay. That can be that can be on the record, right? Okay. All right. Council, what other comments, questions do we have? Yes, ma'am. Please. I think the applicant is trying to get your attention. I don't know what that looks like, but he given that you're kind of serving as translator here, we'll allow it if you go back and Okay, that's okay. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah.

If Okay. And if you would come all the way back up to the microphone so it's just we're recording and transcribing. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Uh, let me correct the king's hours. It's from 8 to 1. Okay. Yeah. 8 a.m. 1 8 a.m. From 8 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. 1 a.m. Okay. So, not 24 hours, but not 24. There you go. So, it is accurate. Yeah, I'm I'm good. Okay. Any other comments, questions for the applicant. We can always uh after the public hearing ask them to return to the podium if it's the pleasure of count. I wish I could bring some people from the community to bring them with me, but it's okay. It's okay.

Yeah. All right. If you would please have a seat, we will open the public hearing and allow uh any anyone else to come. Thank you everyone. It's nice to meet you. Good to meet you. All right, everyone. This is a public hearing for item 5.4 on our agenda, SU925. Is there anyone wishing to come forward and speak?

And if you would just uh approach the clerk. Phyllis Merritt James, 503 Cardinal Drive. Um, my question with this is we're in dire need of someone with a gas station there instead of having duplicity across the street. I know there's a lot of people that, you know, from 1 to 7, nothing happens good after 1:00 in the morning anyway. Um, so if they're hungry and want to get something, they should be able to get to that store that's already established across there. But ideally, it would be great if we have gas station because we don't have anything in that area doing the cut through. That's my comment.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone else wishing to come forward and speak on item 5.4 SU 925? Would please approach the court? Switch it. Switch it.

Hello, council. Chris Cox, Cox Properties, 104 Twin Oaks Place, Goldsboro. Can I get the the map um brought back up? Can any I represent the land owners of the property across the street, uh Miss Moy and uh Mr. Gurley. Um, as you a lot of you guys have been here a long time, it's the vacant property now and it used to be the daycare. It's uh right

used to sit right here. If you would come back to the microphone to state that just for the transcription

used to be a daycare there um but they got it cleaned up after hurricane blew a big oak tree through it. But we've had it for sale quite some time now. And uh to be honest, we could have sold it a hundred times if it had been zoned for a similar type use as these gentlemen are trying to do here. I have nothing say bad about against their business. It's just not in the right place. Um this, as you can see, the corridor here is is all o uh office and institutional. The only reason that King's convenience store is there is because convenience store was there prior to the the land use plan that we now have and that's the only reason it is there and it's for that case the dry cleaners as well. Um now if the the council and the staff want to change that and change it to where they would allow some retail use, I could sell it tomorrow. I could sell it for coffee shop, uh, pastries, restaurant. I mean, different types of uses. I mean, O and I is a hard it's a hard deal. You know, everybody knows how office is right now. Well, if you don't, it's there's a lot of it. So, um I think uh and Miss Morren thinks that if you do choose to to change to a retail type use, she would be expecting the same and so would a lot of other people along this corridor. So, just keep that in mind.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else wishing to come forward and speak for SU 925? We'll do our third and final call just for the record on SU 925 item 5.4 on our agenda. Anyone wish to come forward and speak? Seeing none, we will close the public hearing. Uh council, we have the fourpart test that we work through on our worksheet. I know it's again part of the packet also part of the dashboard in civic uh civic plus would. Yes, ma'am. Mr. T. Oh, Mr. Talton, if you'd like to come come back.

Thank you, Mayor. I was getting there. My next question was going to be, does anyone else have anything for Mr. Talton or or the applicant here?

Thank you. I I I would be remiss if I I wanted to bring up something that I had to be careful with, but I want to try uh watch my words here with regards to the property. The map right now showed Kings Convenience Store. I know that we currently uh the applicant had applied for ABC at the store and we have internal affairs, our officer with Goldboro PD that uh had actually looked at the site for uh new ABC permits to be issued. um the officer in charge for making those recommendations on the local opinion form uh that we have to approve before ABC can be issued. Uh he gave his recommendation. The recommendation I want to say at this time I believe looked at the property and its history in the past not at the not at the applicant. I do again because of the officer who has provided that information, I do recall there having an ABC permit, a new permit application that if I'm not mistaken was actually approved. Uh but because this officer may be looking at this meeting tonight, I wanted to let him know for the record that I'm sharing that information with you, but it shouldn't at this point in time. I don't want to give any bearing on this proposal. And at the same time, the only other thing I wanted to say, um, I do know and and, uh, manager lives Mike can allude to it more than I can, but with regards to property just north of the facility, I believe it's the old Edgewood School.

Is that right? I believe the city of Goldsboro is under a lease for parks and recreation to utilize that facility for some of their program services. Parks and Recreation. Yes, that's correct. That's correct. Yes, sir. And I just say going back to the land use plan, you know, um the applicant spoke of uh I believe it was no alcohol. Is that right? Or was that was stated on the record that there would not be alcohol?

No alcohol. The only other question I would ask is there going to be any u cigarettes or tobacco sales because the ordinance was actually or the land use plan was pretty specific about that these type of facilities uh would be discouraged around youth centered facilities. even though it's maybe just a a stone throw from it, it's something that we used to consider. So, that was a consideration as well. But again, there's a lot of issues that Mr. Lawrence uh you know, we have to be particular about and we can't assume anything. We have to everything based off of facts, factual testimony. But I did want to throw that out there because u I felt like I owed that to the Goldsboro Police Department and um because I did not remember that until just now. And so far as the uh the new use of that facility, um that kind of again goes along with the comprehensive language plan. If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

I have Yes, sir. Please. I I I just I know he said there wouldn't be any vapes and alcohol there, but did he say tobacco products? Did not. I That's what I And if you'd like, I can ask him to re come back. I just want to Okay. Would a representative of the applicant uh come back to the podium for a a clarifying question? Councilman White, if you'd like to. I know you I understand that you said there will be no vapes or or THC and that nature, but will you be selling cigarettes? It will be like 25%. Thank you. You're welcome.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I was just nothing. I remember he told us about the food and stuff. All right, Mr. Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Um just um kind of commenting on um Miss Miss James made a comment about um the proximity of other stores, but there is a mobile gas station. Is it mobile or M O I L? Yep. that if I'm not mistaken used to be 24 hours. I'm not sure if it still is. So there is that convenience there within that proximity too. Just wanted to put that out there. Yep. Mr. T. Yes, ma'am.

I have one question for you. Can you show me um the proximity to the church? Yes. Here is a church here. I do not know the uh the denomination. And then right behind where the cleaners used to be, that would be residential right there. I was going to say it's own neighborhood business, but I do believe it is residential. Yes, I know it is.

So, council, uh, as you collect any final questions, I'll just remind you there are four motions. Any motion coming into the negative? All four have to be positive for this to be uh for the special use permit to be issued. Any one uh in the negative um you know prohibits the issuance of the special use permit. Uh if there are no remaining questions for staff or for the applicant, I would entertain motions. Uh the first one would relate to the materiality of any danger to public health or safety. a motion that it would or would not. I have a question. Yes, ma'am.

Um, if there would be a motion to table this, would it? Absolutely. Okay. Um, I would like to make a motion that we table this until our um next council meeting or the the February 2nd date. Okay. the February 2nd would be the next one that we hear land use. And so if you're making a motion, the uh motion has been made that we table uh the vote or table the votes on item SU925 until the February 2nd. Tabing the public hearing in is it closed? Just want to make sure we're clarified.

That's why I was clarifying the the vote on this public hearing. Was her motion, right? Public hearing has been closed unless you want to table and continue the public hearing. It's up to you. No, no, no. I'm okay with closing the public hearing. I I want to table the actual vote. Perfect. So, a motion has been made to table the vote on SU925 until the February 2nd meeting of the city council. Is there a second? Second. All right. Motion been made and properly seconded to table uh the vote on SU 925. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. All in Wait just a second. Let's get we get the right vote up. Something happened. Sorry.

That's all right. All in favor of tableabling the vote. Please vote by show of hands. All oppose. Same sign. Seeing none, motion passes. Uh item SU925 is tabled until the February 2nd meeting. I just remind council that between now and February 2nd with regards to the last two items, these are both special use permits, no independent investigation. They're talking to people, that sort of thing. Only considering the evidence presented here.

Gotcha. All right. Thank you, council. Clear on that. All right. Perfect. So, with that, we will move into our public comment period. Uh section six of our agenda. Miss, please. our first um speaker I believe that was here for the public um public hearing, Mr. Mored.

Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Did you have anything to add for our general public comment period or were you just here to speak for the uh public hearing on your zoning item? I'm just here just to speak on his behalf. Perfect. Then we're good. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Our next speaker would be Rodney Robinson. All right. All right. There we go.

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening.

My name is Rodney Robinson, citizen here of Goldsboro, North Carolina. And today I am here to speak once again on behalf of my community. We have all discussed that if people in the community see something to say something and that's concerning our gun violence activities in the city of Goldboro. I live in areas that are affected by gun violence. I'm always calling and reporting things that I see and things that I hear. Not only that, I've been in the midst of shootings myself. reached out personally to some of you to let you guys know the things and the concerns that are happening in the community. But no longer will we dictate whether if we see something or say something because the community is now saying something. So what are you going to do about it? They are making phone calls. They are sending emails. They are talking to offers and making reports of the things that's going on in their community. Now, what are we going to do with the information that they are given? I blame y'all now. It's no longer the community's fault because they are saying something. They voted you guys in. You represent us. You work for us. We are the people. And so, when are we going to stand up and do something within the communities to reduce the gun violence, the activities that are going on? 13 years old,

gunned down, not too far from where the mayor stay. I was told that they were on the way home when this happened, but no concerns to stop, no concerns to see what was going on in the community, no concerns to to reach out to the families. I'm tired of the lies and the deceit that you guys are portraying to my community. This is my city and I do a great job at the things that I do to speak for our community. I hold you guys accountable in honor of Jalia Ton and others that were killed in these neighborhoods. You guys know the neighborhoods. I've sat down, emails, talked with the chief of police. I made efforts. So, like I said, the accountability is on y'all now. And it's your fault. And I'm ready for y'all to do something about it and stop sitting here and allowing the things to happen the way they are happening. The city of Bor.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Nicole Dixon. Good evening.

Good. Good evening, city members, council members. I'm going to pick piggyback off of uh Mr. Rodney. Um I come before you today with a heavy heart and a burning question. What are we doing truly doing to protect our children? When many of us say it takes a village, that village includes all of us. Try not to get emotional. That village includes all of us and not just those who live in your neighborhoods and who don't look like you. Just weeks ago, our community was shaken by the tragic and senseless killing of 13-year-old Jalita Jalia Tune. Her life was stolen and she is not the first. Our streets have become battlegrounds. Our youth, our future are caught in the crossfire. In the wake of this tragedy, I turned to Goldsboro Police Department 2024 to 2028 strategic plan, hoping to find answers. What I found instead were promises. Promises that remain unfulfilled. Let's talk about the community police services division. According to the plan, this division is supposed to create age appropriate activities for youth, including 16 to 17 year olds, reinstate community- based programs like citizens, police academy, establish monthly neighborhoods watch meetings in every housing authority complex, provide training in schools on gun violence and gang prevention through the EKG curriculum. These are not just bullet points on a page. These are lifelines. These are the very kinds of initiatives that could have reached Julia, the young men who took her life before tragedy stuck struck. But when I searched the GPD website for this division, it was nowhere to be found. No contact, no updates, no evidence of action. So I ask you, who is responsible for this division? Why is it not operational? And

most importantly, when will the Gossboro Police Department begin to truly protect and serve all of its citizens, especially those in our most vulnerable communities? Over 80% of our local government's budget goes towards salaries, benefits, and equipment for this department. Funds by taxpayers, men, many of whom live in the very neighborhoods most affected by this violence. They deserve to see their dollars at work, not just in patrol cars and paychecks, but in prevention and presence and programs that build trust and save lives. We cannot afford to wait for another child to be buried before we act. The time for plans is over. The time for accountability, transparency, and implementation is now. Thank you.

That was our last speaker. All right, we will move to section seven, our consent agenda, and I'll reserve comments to the um mayor and council member comments section at the end of the meeting. But um we'll move to our consent agenda. Mr. Livingston, if you'd please hear any remaining comments or questions.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have on our consent agenda three items. Uh one is the revision of the Wayne County United uh soccer club agreement. they essentially want to uh start that in January as opposed to July. So that was a minor revision there. We have a municipal agreement with NC Department of Transportation for inspection of bridges on our municipal street system and approval of uh meeting minutes held in December. I'll entertain any questions on that. Council, any remaining questions on items on the consent agenda? Hearing none, we'll entertain a motion to adopt the consent agenda items 71 through 73. So moved. Okay.

Motion's been made and properly seconded to approve consent agenda items as presented. Please vote electronically if possible.

All right. All votes have been tallied. Consent agenda is approved. All right. We'll move to old business. Item 8.1. advisory board to commissions appointments. Um, Miss Guts, if you please brief us. I know you worked hard to work with the different boards of commissions and prepare a resolution that sits as many people as possible. Where are we?

Okay. C, thank you, council. Um, so in your packet, you have um a resolution appointing members to advisory boards and commissions. You also have another resolution commending those individuals who have served on the original appointment. um resolution. We have heard from all of our boards except for the planning board. Um the planning board did not respond back to emails and they had not met. Um but there is a recommendation from the planning staff which is listed in your resolution. Um everybody else has made their recommendations and is listed on the resolution that's attached. Um, with these appointments, we have one parks and wreck appointment still available, a seat available on that board, and we have three vacant positions still available for the mayor's committee for persons with disabilities. All other boards will be filled.

Okay. So, council, how about we begin? There's two resolutions that are part of this uh this item of business. One is the resolution commending individuals who have served on advisory boards and commissions of the city of Goldsboro. That one is simply recognizing everyone whose terms have ended or have uh resigned from any board or commission. We have a motion to approve the resolution commending individuals who have served. I make a motion that we approve that resolution. All right. Is there a second?

All right. Motion's been made and properly seconded. Just for uh for the record, this is not the full appointments resolution. This is just the resolution uh for appreciation. Yes. All right. And so you want us to vote on this one as All right. Um so with that, is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll uh call a vote. Please vote electronically if possible. And again, this is just on the resolution commending individuals. So I I mean I don't think we should vote based on this because that's not what it says. is I know it says that here, but I I would much rather take a hand vote because here I'm voting to approve advisory boards and commission appointments and I just don't We can break them up into two.

Yeah, I wanted to be broken up into two votes. I know. What I'm saying is right now my vote says advisory boards and commissions appointments. That's what I am voting on right here. Up here I'm voting on the resolution. So I'm just saying can we take a hand vote for this and then because I don't want to vote for this right now if I'm voting for that.

Right. So the the piece that we're voting on right now is exclusively the resolution commending individuals who have served on advisory boards and commissions of the city of Goldsboro. And those in favor of that specific resolution not getting into the actual appointments resolution uh vote by show of hands. Uh all in favor please uh vote by hand. All oppose. Same sign. Seeing none, motion passes. That resolution, which will be 2026, I guess probably five. Uh resolution commending individuals who have served on advisory boards and commissions is approved. All right. Now, let's get to the the meat of this particular item, which is the actual uh appointment of new folks to serve on the advisory boards and commissions. A resolution has been drafted and prepared by our city clerk. Um, obviously we can amend it or edit it. Are there any uh comments or questions at this time?

I Yes, sir. I'm sorry. No, no, go ahead. Um, I with um Dorel Smith, he's the student that would be on Parks and Wreck. That's only a six-month appointment. It's for their school term. For his school term. Yes, sir. And then if he wants to apply to for the next school term, he's he's welcome to do that. Okay. All right. Yes, sir. That's that's all right. No, and that's that's a good point. This would be first time in a couple years that we've been able to secure a student to fill that spot. And so I'm excited to be able to to have somebody there. I'm glad you pointed that out. Yes, sir.

Um comment and a motion. Um thank thank you to the staff for putting all the hard work into this and getting it together in a form that we can vote on. Comment number one, uh, comment number two, the m, madame clerk had mentioned that the planning commission had not had an opportunity to vote as a group on their appointee, but the planning commission chairman told me that that particular person that's on the resolution is the planning commission is unanimously in favor of that that um individual that's a part of this resolution. So that being said, I would make a motion to approve the resolution as prepared and presented by staff.

Motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. All right. Motion has been made and properly seconded to adopt the resolution appointing members as presented. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. Please vote electronically if you can. All right. Motion passes unanimously. uh boards and commissions resolution appointing uh members to advisory boards and commissions is approved. Um madame clerk, if you would one more time, we still need folks for mayor's committee for persons with disabilities. We have three vacant seats on the mayor's committee and one vacant seat on the parks and recy board.

Perfect. So those watching, listening at home that know folks, um encourage them. I'd love to be able to bring that up you next meeting or next month as well. Thank you. All right. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. Let's move to item 9.1. Mr. Livingston, if you would, please.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have uh our consultant, Mr. Ted Cole with Davenport, here this evening to kind of give us an update on our where we're at with our CIP, a brief financial overview. Um, we'll also be talking about this more at the retreat, but tonight it's more to kind of get the basic overview of and where we're at with the CIP. And before you begin, we are right at that 7:00 hour where I always pull council to see if we need uh nature breaks or a quick few minute recess. Council, we keep going or is anyone asking for a quick recess?

All right. Seeing none, we'll keep going. All right. Yes, sir. For you. Okay. Well, thank you that good evening. Um, you want me to hand these out? A lot of them. You got it. Yes, sir.

Um, while these are coming around, I'm Ted Cole with Davenport. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I've presented to you all before. Um, we serve as financial advisor to the city. Um most of the activity surrounding that work is related to capital projects and capital planning and that's what we're here to discuss this evening. The hard copies that are coming around are exactly the same as what's on your screen. So you can look at either and uh you won't be missing anything. Um should I be controlling the screen? Okay. Make sure I can do that. Great. And um is there a pointer on this? Um, I think it's the other one.

The other one. Yes, sir.

Okay. Got it. All right. Um, not looking for any action this evening. I know you had a long agenda with more to go, so I'll try to move through it relatively quickly, but happy to entertain questions as we go. Um, there are a number of items in the appendix uh that I do not plan to go through detail surrounding some of the CIP, capital improvement plan projects. uh that are um being worked on and developed by staff, all of the details surrounding your existing debt and your financial policies. So, what we're really going to cover is the top um five items. We're going to talk about the city's bond rating. We're going to talk a little bit about general fund operations and your fund balances. Um we're going to talk about your existing debt profile. We're going to look specifically at FY26. That's the fiscal year we're in. FY26 capital projects. And then we're going to look at a a longer term capital improvement plan that goes out to 2032 or a few years beyond that. Um so I'm going to start with credit ratings. Um you've seen this before, most of you. I believe um the city has double A rating. double A credit ratings from both Moody's and Standard and Pores. Those are the two most commonly used rating agencies. This comes into play when you're issuing debt. You have a rating on that debt that helps inform investors about the risk of the debt. Um interest rates, things like that. Higher ratings are better. AAA being the highest rating any local government, state can achieve. You're a couple notches from that. Some of you may recall we had the Moody's rating reinstated back in March and they reinstated it at the level it was

previously at before they pulled it back due to um delayed audits. So solid double A rating from both Moody's and Standard and Pores. We have a few comparisons that we'll do throughout the book and we'll look at other rated cities and towns across the country by Moody's. You can see in your same level double A there's like 1,300 cities and towns across the country that have a similar rating and then within North Carolina 24 and you can see who those are. So I would call these folks here your rating peers within North Carolina all over different parts of the state large small growing not growing as much. So, it's a very diverse group in that regard, but the commonality is they're all rated double A fund balance. Um, couple of things on this slide. On the left, we're restating your fund balance policy. Um, it is tied to the unassigned fund balance, which is a component of the fund balance that you can find in the audit very clearly. It's the part of your fund balance over which you have the most control, the least amount of outside restrictions. And your policy states that you'd like it to be at a minimum of 10% of your budget with a target of 15% or more. We've graphed that here. Gold is the tw is the 15%. Red is the minimum 10%. And you can see between fiscal year 20 and 25, this hashmarked is just acknowledging that the 25 isn't officially um publicly audited yet, but very good numbers here from finance that we feel good about. And the takeaway is particularly on that unassigned fund balance over the last six years, you all

have significantly added to that fund balance and really starting at a point where you were well below your policy. You were well below where the local government commission would want to see you. And as you all know, that was contributed to putting you on the um unit assistance list, which you are now off of, right? you're no longer under that um level of scrutiny by the local government commission because again you have come through um a number of years where you've added to fund balance and other things have improved as well. So you are well in compliance with your current policy actually well above compliance. Um you can see here when we compare you to other cities nationally or within North Carolina you want your you're the gold bar. You want that further to the the right. You compare very well. So you have a you're in compliance with your policy and then some. You compare well to other highly rated communities. And one of the things we've talked with staff about is the potential to revisit your policy and maybe strengthen it or increase the percentages. Hypothetically, if you were to do that, let's say moving the 15% to 30%. Just hypothetically, um, on your 25 budget of 49 million, um, your unassigned fund balance target would be about 14.8 million. Um, in actuality, you're sitting at about 24 million. Right? So even if you were to increase your policy from 15 to 30% your unassigned fund balance in 25 would be almost $10 million higher than what would be required under that policy. So I think there is an opportunity to consider seriously about raising the percentage of the policy.

Um, and and if you do that, I guess you can still, I believe, take comfort that you would still be well in above compliance and there would be some dollars available that you all could consider contributing to help fund capital projects, which is what we're about to get into. So, I think that's something I speak for you, Matt. I think that's something you all will plan to bring forward for further discussion as part of the budget. Is that fair? That's that's going to be the topic at our next budget committee meeting one of them

and and you know this is all really good news. I mean you know solidly back in compliance compare very well and these level of reserves in that unassigned fund balance almost $25 million. Keep in mind it had gotten down to about $1.5 million. That's the level of dollars that kind of created this this this issue here. So, um something to think about and as we get into the discussion about capital, you're going to see that we're going to show you to do this this or this, you might need to dedicate a certain amount of fund balance to get it done. That's why we've sort of identified this these dollars that would be over and above even a higher policy level if you chose to implement that. Okay. So tax supported debt um this is very current. It's through and including the last borrowing we did. Um your general government general fund is supporting about $22 million of debt. The occupancy tax fund covers about 2 and a.5 million all in. There's about $25 million of debt outstanding. Everything is fixed rate. The rates aren't going to change unless you do something to change them like refinance debt. And you can see generally there's a nice downward slope to your annual payment. Every bar is a fiscal year. Starting in the year we're in, fiscal 26, the total payment between the general fund and occupancy is 4.6. It steps down, has a nice step down in 28 to 4 million, another nice step down to 3.3. All of this is creating an opportunity in the future as these payments drop to

backfill with new debt or PIGO for capital projects if that's part of the strategy you want to implement. So, we're going when we start talking about the the the list of capital projects and the dollar amounts, we're going to start identifying a way to fund those projects, part of which will be issuing debt in the future. And as our debt is stepping down now, backfilling with new debt will help create some affordability. Do you mind touching on a term that you just used, PGO versus new? Do you mind explaining that?

Sorry. Yeah, I should. Payo just means simply cash funding, right? Whether it's from current year revenue that you're bringing in or it's from reserves that you've accumulated. PayO just means, hey, we're going to pay cash for this versus debt funding. Go out and borrow and use that money. So PIGO is cash funding. Um, you have certain debt policies in place. Um, this one measures how quickly you pay back your debt. Higher is better. Your green bars are higher than the red line. That's a good thing. It means you're paying back your debt rapidly. The middle one is the amount of debt outstanding as a percent of your tax base. Lower is better. Your green bars are well below the red line. You're you're in compliance with that policy. And in fact, you have some capacity within that policy to issue new debt. Not suggesting that's a reason to go and do it, but you are not overleveraged when we look at your debt profile. And you can see the comparison. Remember this one, lower is better. Goldsboro's in gold. And as you kind of go down the line, you can see you're at or slightly better than these green bars. That's a a positive position, meaning you're you're less leveraged than some of your rated peers. And again, you're you're well below your policy. So, a very reasonable conversation to be having about the potential to issue debt, right? For whatever projects it is that you all decide are the top priority. It would be a very different discussion if you were overleveraged, your debt was excessive, we would be more cautious about saying you have debt capacity. But any way we look at it across these three ratios, this is the annual payment as a percent

of your budget. Lower is better. You're below your policy. You compare well uh maybe a tad ahead of some of these these rating peers. But the takeaway is the city has debt capacity, the ability to take on additional debt and still demonstrate a solid debt profile. But the follow-on question is, do we have debt affordability? Right? It's kind of like in your personal finances. I can qualify for this loan on paper, but I got to figure out how I fit it into my monthly budget to make the payment. So, the capacity is there, and now we're going to focus on if you were to do these things, how does it impact your budget? What kind of decisions would you have to make to be able to repay that that CIP program? Okay. This is where your book might come in handy. Uh the chart's going to be real hard to see up here. Um but it's actually pretty simple if if you just kind of work your way um from left to right. Fiscal years are on the far left. And we're starting with 26, which is the year we're in. The debt service for your general fund debt and your general fund vehicle debt are laid out in columns B and C. That's debt that's already been issued. We know it to the penny. It's not going to change. And right now, we have placeholders for new debt or new PGO cash funding. This is just your existing debt. So you have you have let's call it column F. You have $4 million a year. uh in 26 to pay and then it's stepping down. Okay, these are the payments you have to make for the next decade plus.

The resources in your budget to make those payments um is column G, a little over $4 million. And that was the amount of money that y'all budgeted in fiscal 25, right? Not 26, but 25 for debt service. And you'll note that we are holding that constant. That's a very important concept that even though your debt is stepping down, right, it gets down to 3 million and 2 million, we're proposing that you try to maintain that $4 million a year every year. If you were to do that, what it's going to mean is you're going to create some affordability for new projects, right? As the current debt goes down, your funding stays constant. you build some cushion. Now, we know and we've known for some time that in 26 and 27, you're going to need $200,000 a year each year to balance out the debt, right? Cuz the debt payments are 43 and 42, 4.3 and 4.2 million. Your annual appropriations a little over four. So, we got a supplement and this is likely to come from surplus or reserves. This is something we've shared previously. It's actually a little better than our prior numbers because interest rate came in better on the last loan. Um, but we know in 26 and 27 there'll be a couple hundred,000 that need to be appropriated to balance it out. And then what you'll see there in column K is you're back to just the 4 million a year. And as these payments step down, you start to have these surpluses. and that those are the dollars that could be helpful to you all to afford or help afford new projects going forward. Okay. So everything you've issued to

date, I would say there's a sustainable plan in place to keep funding that the dollars are already accounted for knowing that we need a couple of years grand total of about $470,000 between the two years to supplement this 4 million a year. Okay, questions on that? All right. So, now we're going to talk about the future. And the first thing we're going to do is isolate FY26. This is the year we're in. Obviously, we're halfway through this fiscal year. Um, this has all of the projects listed uh that have been I guess I will make sure I don't misspe here, Matt, that have been approved or budgeted. Um, they're, you know, in various stages of being purchased. And you'll notice all of them are listed here. The grand total of all of these is about eight. I'm going to round up $8.5 million. You can see the funding sources. PGO means city cash grants or some outstand outside funding sources, insurance proceeds, grants. Um, so $8.5 million and the funding for that at the bottom is expected to come all from cash and um grant or insurance proceeds. In other words, there is no debt at this time assumed to to fund these projects. You've got insurance proceeds uh 938,000 uh grant funding 29 PAL bill payo money that's money you get for street resurfacing a million2 and the 33 would be cash or fund balance. So to be clear,

while there's no debt assumed here, there is the likely use of reserves to help fund some of these projects. But remember, that's why we spent time on the fund balance and talking about the dollars that you have above your policy that could be dedicated to fund balance. So that's kind of where it comes full circle. So, this plan that you'll see here in a moment does anticipate um some one-time dollars likely from fund balance. Um maybe in 26 you're adding to fund balance like you've done in prior years and you're able to use some of that um additional fund balance that you accumulate in 26 above and beyond what you have currently. But when we talk about the affordability of this right existing debt hasn't changed column B and C there is no change from what we saw earlier we have no debt running through here this is just the 26 projects we have the PGO or the cash funding we we know in fiscal 26 it's a little over $4 million how do we get 4 million it's because we're we're assuming you have the million2 from PAL bill. That's your money plus the 33. So you got a little over 4 million in 26. And then we're assuming you spend that million2 a year of PAL bill on street resurfacing. That that's that's a pretty consistent number that's come in. We're assuming it gets spent every year. And our sources of funding are the same 4 million we talked about earlier, the million2 a year of PAL bill, the couple years of reserves, and with those dollars, we're still

short. And what this model is telling you to make all of this work, continuing servicing this debt, fund these P cash funded projects in addition to your 4 million, your PAL bill, this $475,000, you need about $3.3 million in FY26 to make that work. The idea would be that that could come from reserves above your policy level if you chose to do that. And that that's that's the direction staff is proceeding in at this time because again, we're not assuming there's any debt issued for these projects, just cash funded. And um the the the magnitude of the projects are such that uh we would need to anticipate about $3.3 million coming from reserves to make all of that work. Now note just a couple years out you start to have some surpluses and and again this is only funding the 26 projects. We're about to start talking about 27 28 29. Um, so while you do need to come up with some dollars here in 2026, couple years later, you're back into creating those surpluses because of that constant funding of the 4 million. Okay, any questions on that? All right. So, when we talk about the the broader and longer term CIP, y'all have seen this before. Um, the city has a very, um, I'd call it an an advanced CIP process where you have a list of projects. That's pretty healthy. Um, but but importantly, you have a means to assess

those projects for prioritization, looking at um, priority categories, high, medium, and low. You can kind of read what each of those means. Maybe you've seen some of that recently in discussions. But you've also got criteria categories 1 2 3 4. And what we have is a matrix here, right? We have the criteria on the vertical axis, the priority on the horizontal axis. Funding level A, which is the highest level of funding. Highest consideration for funding resources constitutes anything that's high here and prioritization one and two. And really what we're focusing on here is funding level A. I'm going to show you what falls into funding level B and C, but we're most interested tonight talking about the viability of funding level A. Okay? And it's made up of lots of projects which um I think is in the the appendix if you need to get into and and look at it. If not, staff can provide it. Um here's a summary. So this runs from fiscal 27. Remember 26 we've already talked about. This is 27 through 32. General fund, utility fund, storm water, occupancy tax. We're really tonight just talking about general fund and really just talking about funding level A. So within the general fund over this um six years funding level A is 29 million. Funding level B is 22 million. Funding level C is a half a million. So over this six years in the general fund there's $52 million of projects identified. 29 of which is that highest level category funding level A. I'm not going to get into it tonight, but you

can see what kind of dollars are out there being discussed for utilities. Big big dollars, which I know you all are aware of, but that's not what we're here to talk about this evening. Storm water occupancy tax. Okay, so that's a very highlevel CIP summary. Now we're going to drill down to what we're going to model which is 27 to 32 general fund only funding level A only that 29 uh million. So you can see all the projects that fall into this category by year. Um and any these parentheses all of this is going we're assuming most all of this is debt funded and wherever there is a a parenthetical it's the term of the debt. So like heavy equipment we're advertising the debt over 10 years vehicles 5 years these uh paving and road projects 10 years. So we're we want to make sure we're not you know funding something over 20 years if it's only going to last five or 10 years. That's what's there. You can see the dollars, what it is per year, what it sums up to. And at the bottom, we have two sources of funding here. Remember in 26, we said no debt, right? We we we anticipate funding with some use of fund balance, but we're not anticipating debt in 26. But 27 and beyond, we have our million2 a year of PAL bill money that is going to streets. Think it has to. And then everything else is funded with debt. That's our starting point. So, we've got $29 million of projects and we got $29 million of sources over this six years. That's $7.2 million of PAL bill and 22

million in change of debt. This is the starting point. Okay. It is important to note while we're only talking about level A, there is $22 million of projects in level B. And some of those projects over time could find their way moving into a level A prioritization. Right? So, we're going to show you how funding level A works over this six-year period. We are not currently modeling level B or level C. To the extent any of those projects move to level A, that would be additional projects you'd have to fund. And that that's really the point of this box is we don't want to lose sight of funding level B and C projects because they could well move up to funding level A. So what does this look like with debt? We are going to for the purposes of the model you know we're going to issue debt at 5% right that's higher than current market but we want to be a little bit conservative and by fiscal year 27 28 29 30 32 we're showing you how much debt we'd issue over that period we get to 22 million we also know from some of the road and paving studies that have been done previously ly that there's some, you know, road and paving work that needs to be done out to 35. So, we've actually included here another 4 million and 33 for roads and paving and another 4 million35. So, what I'm about to show you is funding $30 million worth of projects with debt

and, you know, 7 million and change of projects with PIGO. So, it's a it's it's a pretty significant amount of projects that would be getting done. and your debt profile would go from just the dark green, you know, that's we looked at earlier. And as the old debt rolls out off, we're adding new debt. Now, we do peak out here a little bit higher than where we are obviously. Um, but then we get back into the same level fairly quickly. So, what we're about to talk about is how affordable is this? What does it mean to our budget? and in what year do we have the dollars available to do this? What I can tell you is back to those policies, you could issue all of the debt that we're modeling here and you're still in compliance with your policies, right? So from a policy perspective, a debt capacity perspective, this works. The important question I think more important question perhaps for you all is what does it mean to our budget and lot of numbers here but hopefully you've got the gist of how this works. Existing debt we've already talked about it. This is new debt to support this larger CIP. This is a new column in this chart. This is the same column PIGO. So now we've got existing debt, new debt, PIGO, cash funded, and we've got these payments to make under column F under this plan. Resources, we have the same 4,55, the same a million2 of PAL bill, 200 and some thousand for a couple of years, and we're short. We looked at it earlier that first 3.3 million is driven by the 26 CIP. But as we add in these other years, we

have additional shortfalls we have to fund. And over roughly a decade, um the grand total of what we would expect to supplement would be a little over $7 million to make all of this work. So remember, you keep budgeting the 4,55. You keep dedicating the PAL bill money, which we've got as a million2 a year. We know we got to have a couple years of some, I'll call it modest fund balance contributions. And then these are more significant dollars that would need to be made available year by year. Not every year, but year by year, largely front-loaded. But over the decade, it's a little over seven million that would allow you to do all of those things. Um and um be able to demonstrate a repayment plan. Um and again, what are we talking about? We're talking about funding all of these projects plus the 26 projects that we talked about, which was about 8.5 million. So, you know, we're pushing 35 $40 million worth of projects. The impact of which is really it's column M as in Michael I think that you would really want to focus on and be thinking about each of those budgets where that dollar amount occurs is is a budget where we need to address adding more dollars to make this work. You're not going to do all of this at once. You do it every year. so it doesn't happen all at once. Any questions on that? We're we're in the home stretch. Last slide is just some observations most all of which I've covered. Um you know have done very well to get reserves

back. do think you should give some consideration and discussion to uh a an increase in the fund balance policy. Even if you do that, there are some dollars that you've accumulated that you could make available for a capital plan. I believe that to be true. Uh I'm comfortable with that without jeopardizing your rating. I think it's a plan the local government commission could get behind. Um, you've got a pretty healthy general fund CIP with level A being 29 million, but all of it A, B, and C about 52 million. Um, and over for level funding level A over about a decade, there's about a $7 million shortfall we'd have to address. Not all at once. Happens over a number of years. We need to be mindful of looking at that CIP every year and making sure we understand how funding level A changes, right? Do some of these dollars go from B to A? We want to be mindful of that. That will change the outcome. Um, and I think a lot of this will come back to you all for further discussion as part of the budget process.

Any questions? Council comments, questions. It's a lot to digest and obviously we will have other opportunities to pose questions as well. I'm going to ask one that's just kind of a surface level um complicated question, but a surface level one for right now. We're looking I'm looking on page 20, which is, you know, just back couple slides on column G. You know, we're assuming here all the way out to 2055 the exact same number for a general fund budget debt service. You know, time value of money that four that 4 million bucks in 2025 is a very different 4 million bucks in 2045. So, I think we have to look at what a a realistic adjustment to that would be over the course of over the course of time. I also am a little bit curious and this maybe this is more comment than question. I'm also a little bit curious how are you guys how would how are you guys uh taking into account the 8-year revaluation schedules for property values and are you assuming our overall budget our overall revenues remain flat every and no further development or everything sitting where it is and 8-year adjustments

right so a couple things This is these are annual current year revenues that come in, right? And these are one-time dollars. If you are able to increase column G, that that is a better model, right? Because we're we're shifting funding from one-time sources to annual ongoing sources. So that increasing column G in a in a sustainable way will take pressure off of M for sure. And I think it's a better model because it's current year revenues, not one-time revenues. As it relates to the growth in the tax base, the growth in the budget, we're not making any assumptions. We're just simply saying in 2025 you were able to dedicate 4,55,000. We want to keep doing that. Okay. Now if that means instead of um let me the value of a penny was 600 380 so call it 400,000 you know that was 10 pennies worth of revenue in one year and another year maybe it's 8 pennies worth. We're not making any assumptions about that. We're not making any assumptions about what you might do to your tax rate in one year or the other. We're we're just simply saying we can keep dedicating the 4 million however you can get there in your budget and you keep dedicating the million2 of PAL bill. This is the shortfall. But absolutely if you can increase column G um in some meaningful way, it it's going to take pressure off of reserves and give you a more sustainable plan. But we're we're not making any assumptions about future tax rate decisions.

Okay. Fair enough. All right. So, this is something that we will discuss many more times and we will have presented to us in various forms at our retreat. So, the plan, Mr. mayor is to bring this to the budget committee from recommendations from staff based on what you're seeing um you know and based on some priorities the council's already set out to us and and then that the budget committee and staff take those recommendations to the retreat and we'll get a recap um again from Davenport a little bit different than this but at the retreat as well.

Perfect. and council. Everybody of course is has access to the exact same information. If you have comments, uh, feel free to get with myself, our finance director, obviously, Mr. Livingston, and let's make sure that everyone's voices are are heard and incorporated as we go into these different budget committee meetings. It is a complicated thing about what we're about to do. So, thank you. Anything further from you? Yeah, that's all. Council, I sort of jump to the conclusion. Any other comments, questions from y'all? All right, perfect. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. As we move to our next item of business, item 9.2, we'll just remind the chamber this is a business meeting and decorum is expected. And so, uh, but with that, we'll move to item 9.2. Mr. Livingston. Thank you, mayor. Um, this is an update on our MS4 storm water permit program. As you know, we've hired our storm water manager and um she's helping get our program where it needs to be and she's here to give us a presentation kind of update on where we are, where we're going. This is okay. Welcome back. Hi. Let's hope this goes better than the first time. Hey, it's going to be fun.

So, um good evening everyone. My name is Bobby Barnes. I'm the storm water administrator. Um, I'm here to introduce to you the National Discharge Elimination Systems Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. We have a 2026 update and work protection. Am I talking loud enough? You're good.

Okay. Our MS4, which is the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, is a mandate from the Clean Water Act of North Carolina. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that's me. Our MS4 is a mandate from the Clean Water Act and the NCD Department of Environmental Quality. There are six control measures that we must meet each year. Um, and we use the storm water management plan as our operating procedure for those six minimum two year. We are going to be updating the storm water management plan this year. Um, our control measure for number one is public education. Public education is are um done using the education action plan from our storm water management plan which we will be updating as well this year to include specific target audiences and measurable goals. We are looking to increase I'm sorry I did it again didn't I? So our control measure number one is public education. We have a public education action plan within our storm water management plan. We're going to update both of those this year. The purpose of the education is to increase public education for pollution prevention tailored to specific audiences. Part of the public education is done with the clean water education partnership of the central pines region which provides information for keeping surface waterways clean and free of pollutants. We will also like to start engaging in community events to provide greater community outreach and education. We will be holding preconstruction meetings with developers once our engineering manual has been approved.

This slide right here is part of our education action plan and it goes into specific target audiences and what we're trying to implement in our education action plan. So this bottom one you'll see on here sediment is actually the number one pollutant in North Carolina and the source comes from new developments any kind of land disturbing activity that we have. Um, our land use types is land development and landscaping. Our target audience is going to be developers and landscapers. And our education methods will be pre-construction meetings, community events in person, and in pamphlets. Control measure two is public participation, which includes public involvement and program development. And this goes back to our storm water management plan that we'll be updating this year. So we will be asking for public hearing for it and we will ask for community input. Our storm water management plan establishes we would like mandates our current storm water management plan mandates that we establish a watershed stakeholders committee. So we would also would like to be doing that this year. And we will be holding a public hearing for adoption of erosion and sediment control ordinance which I will go into further in a minute. and we will be requesting public participation in creek week from the clean water education fund. Creek Week is held every year from for one week. It's from March 14th to 21st. Volunteers go into a creek and help remove trash. It helps keep the wershed clean and improve water quality and safeguard our drinking water. and helps re reduce obstructions within the storm water control infrastructure that can create clogging and increase

flooding. Our control measure number three is elicit d discharge detection and elimination. We have an ordinance for this currently. It is the illegal discharge control ordinance and it's 6.6. This this criteria comes directly from our ordinance. Um, and the ordinance is meant to keep chemicals and pollutants out of our storm sewer system. This year will be updating the elicit illegal discharge control ordinance. Control number four is construction site runoff control and this is going to be our new ordinance that we are putting forth the erosion and sediment control ordinance. It is to protect um erosion and sediment happening on construction sites from entering the storm sewer system because as it enters the storm sewer system it picks up chemicals and pollutants and then it all goes into streams, surface waters. Currently the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality does the control measure number six I mean four criteria for us as um they review the plans and then they issue the NCG01. We are looking to take over legal authority for the city this summer and we'll be asking for delegation from the sedimentation control committee commission. This next slide goes into our erosion sediment control ordinance. Currently, the NCDQ has the authority to review plans, construction site plans for um erosion and sediment control and then they issue an NCG01.

This is our timeline for 2026. We already have a draft ordinance from our model from the model ordinance provided to us from the SEC and the only changes from the current law which this is a erosion sediment control is a current law from NC state we just are using the DEEQ2 for this control measure. So the timeline we are going to provide the model ordinance that we have amended to what we would like for the city into the DEQ this month and then um it will be hang on I've lost my thought. So, we'll be providing the informal the draft ordinance for an informal review this month to the NCDEQ and they will they will um push it up to the segmentation control commission for review and feedback and then we will have to have it approved by city council before the May 7th. So, either in March or April, we will send the erosion sediment control ordinance through. The only difference between the current laws and what we are pushing for, we're pushing for all the same stuff so that it doesn't create a burden on our public developers or anything, is that we're asking for anything over a half an acre to have a re erosion sediment control review and anything under a half an acre will be a land disturbance permit, previously a grading permit. Our effective date will be July 1st of this year for the erosion center control ordinance. Control number five is post construction runoff control. This which is all storm water control

measures that are already in place. This year we'll be increasing our inspections on all our storm water control measures within our extra extr territorial jurisdiction to ensure that operating properly and that regular maintenance is done. This will also help reduce local flooding. Uh control measure six is pollution prevention and our good good housekeeping. Most of this is done through uh public works and a lot of it is street sweeping um catch basin cleaning preventing elicit discharge and spills. Um we also have training in this category which is includes staff training on chemical use spills and elicit discharges. Um, this is a citywide good housekeeping measure. We're also helping to hoping to educate the public on um, you know, how to keep leaf litter from blocking our storm drains, which will also help reduce flooding. Current projects, we are updating our capital improvement projects to include storm water infrastructure measures that we need to repair. We are updating our storm water management plan and we are also updating our ordinances for illegal discharge control 6.6 watershed review board 8.7 wershed I mean administrative staff 8.4.2.2 and we'll be creating a local erosion sediment control program. We are also in the process of updating our zoning ordinances to add safety fencing around retention ponds that could be a danger to the public. Any questions,

council? What uh comments and questions do we have? Hearing none, I'll just simply ask that um when you're looking at our ordinances, especially as it goes to the blown debris. You know, we do have other ordinances in place for things like um lawn lawn care services. is, you know, they're not supposed to blow leaf clippings into the street. And so, you know, work with code enforcement. Let's make sure that our ordinances are collaborative and kind of stack on top of each other neatly and aren't just kind of sitting off on islands. And so, take a look through the whole thing and make sure that we're building something that's comprehensive and works well together. Thank you for what you're doing. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, Mr. Livingston, we are on item 9.3. If you would please deliver the brief or call up, I'm guessing Jonathan. I'll have Jonathan come up. He's been working on this and also, as you know, our our standards for four-way stops. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor and Council. How's everybody?

Good. Um, you know, as we as everybody's aware back in November the 17th of 2025, we kind of adopted some guidelines we were going to go through with our always stop signs. Um, so the the um intersection we're looking at tonight's Walnut Street and Claybornne. Um it did not meet the the crash data, but it did meet the um sight distance when you're heading north on Claybornne and you get to the stop sign there where you walnut that there's a clump of tree, clump of pine trees on the right hand side. It's kind of blocking view. Um but you know, it's kind of staff's recommendation to install a four-way stop sign. So, council, you'll remember that uh some months ago we approved a new ordinance for four-way stops to to be a little bit more prescriptive as opposed to just, you know, who wants to stop kind of thing. You're trying to uh mirror the DOT rules for the the four-way stops and adopting their thresholds. Uh that makes our ordinance both u legally justifiable as well as predictable. So with that, are there any comments or questions on this uh recommendation from staff in this ordinance? Yes, sir.

Just make a comment, especially since it's my district, that um the residents in that area greatly appreciate the effort that's been put into this. Yeah, there's been number of accidents. I've got text messages in people's yards and such as that um from the accidents there's and that. So I'm happy we're here with this. And that being said, a question that I'm going to have I might as well ask now is where does that put us at for study with Best and Walnut because once this goes up that's going to be even more of a drag strip because people are just going to use that street instead.

Well, and that's I mean that's just something that we're going to have to stay in front of and you know like for for instance on this one we got a petition in from from the citizens in the area. So, you know, if we want to follow the same guides, then they can send us in a petition and we'll do our study and and see how it goes. Uh, you know, we did sit down with uh David Perry uh him and his wife and and we talked with them and they told us the same thing about the about the the the truck being turned over in the yard and stuff and I mean I I I don't know if anybody just didn't but there was only one crash in that area over the last 5 years. So, I don't know if anybody just didn't turn it in or or what, but uh but anyway,

I think the primary concern that I've always heard or at least the last few years has been just speeding, right? And if there's any speeding going on, eventually there's going to be an accident. And I'd be interested to know based on the criteria that we adopted as council where that best and walnut falls in. Does it meet criteria there related to distance or sight or anything? So, if a petition does come forth that we sort of know what we're going to be looking at.

Okay. Yeah, we we could look into it. Um and at this intersection in particular, we did have uh Chief West did put up a speed trailer um in both directions on Walnut and on Claybornne. And um I mean we we got the study back from that and I mean it was there was there was some fast you know drivers through there but um thank you. Yep. Yes sir.

Um I have a question not about this particular one but I didn't know um a few months ago I had mentioned to um Matt and maybe he mentioned to you about Clingman and where Stronic meets forth near the new social services building. And and then my concerns are that you can take and turn down Stronic by the new jail and you can just hit a straight shot all the way down the way Memorial Drive non-stop and we have um much more traffic right there due to social services in right being right there. Right.

So I didn't know if you um had any thoughts or if you had a chance to check on that. you know, I I I haven't. Um, but I mean, at the end of the day, we we p we passed the two guidelines, which was crash data and the site distance. Um, I I mean, you know, we can we can Matt, myself, Kelly, whoever. I mean, we can sit down and discuss if we want to expand that or not and just kind of go from there. Um, but, you know, I just didn't know if like if do you remember anybody saying anything to you about it? Anyone mentioning that? I I believe we got an email about it a while back, but that's when we were looking at traffic calming studies, you know, about putting in speed humps or or speed cushions or whatever, and we we decided not to go that route. So, okay.

Um but we can, you know, we'll sit down and discuss a little further. Yeah, cuz I've had that's my area right there. And I've had some more complaints from the the people that live right there, especially with um you know, their children playing and and they they're just saying that now that ser right there is a lot more traffic. So I don't know if we can do a traffic study or Yeah, we we can look at it. Yeah, we'll look at it. I appreciate it. We we have we have on calls that we could, you know, reach out to if we need to. Okay. Thank you very much.

I echo the councilwoman's concerns. I think there are other spots in the city that uh and you y'all we've already had this conversation privately. I'll just go ahead and reiterate it publicly. The two criteria that we laid out are spot on. They're very good criteria. I think that there's another one that we're going to have to figure out because there are strips just like this one that are residential areas that are long strips with no stop. And so naturally, folks gravitate towards those when they're looking to go faster. you you can go further on certain streets without a stop in a residential neighborhood than you can on Ash Street.

And so, you know, I think that there are those things that we've we got to take a look at, but I don't know the technicals of what the DOT manual has that we can pull out of it. I don't know that I don't pretend to be an expert, but I do think that the two pieces that we've done are good. I think that we still need another lever in there somewhere that we can that we can pull. I know there's other parts of the city as well that have requested things and I don't know what that looks like, but that's why y'all are make making the big bucks, right? We'll figure it out. All right. And just one more comment and and I don't know how much of a problem that was before they um put the new jail and then the social services there kind of like all within a couple of months because the um

even though that jail was there on William Street, they were building the extension and then they moved all the inmates over. So now it's like people are just constantly, you know, and officers traffic is just increased. So I think that's where the issue is. But I appreciate your help. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll we'll look into it. So, good all good conversation. Is there anything else on uh the specific one of Walnut Street at Clayurn Street? Just need you to take a vote on it. I know. We're getting there. We're getting there. Hearing none. Is there a motion to adopt the ordinance uh establishing a four-way stop control for Walnut Street at Claybour Street as presented? So, move.

All right. Motion made and properly seconded to adopt the motion as presented. Please. Is there any debate? hearing. None. Please vote electronically if possible. Who wait? Are you able to vote vote by hand? It didn't pop up. Okay. Do you mind just recording your vote for the clerk? Yes. All right. Perfect. All right. Perfect. All votes have been tallied. Uh motion passes unanimously. Um ordinance is approved. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Uh Mr. Livingston. Uh we'll hear your report if you have any holidays you'd like.

Just a couple things, Mayor. First of all, I want to tell everybody happy new year. I hope you had a great holidays and um bealf of the staff, we appreciate the uh support that you've given us throughout the year and we're looking forward to a constructive new year and and and great things happening here in Goldsboro. Um we're working on the retreat draft. Um, we'll have that for you at the next council meeting so that you can see it in advance and we can talk through any kind of additions or subtractions that you might want on that draft. U, we've sent out uh direction to the department heads on the budget process so that they can go ahead and, you know, we're we're leaning on pretty heavy this year to get some things in quicker so that we can have a more meaningful robust budget discussion at our our retreat on the on the 12th and 13th. Um and also like we saw tonight, we're going to have um that these discussions with the budget committee prior to the 12th and 13th to bring some recommendations on that as far as the CIP, things like the debt policy and and and our fund balance policy and and also things like our fee schedule that we've talked about, how we want to uh look at those those policy issues. Um couple other items just so you're aware. Um, you know, the Choice Neighborhood, Pocket Park at the GWTA's, um, underway. It's they're, you know, should be wrapping that up in a few more weeks, but, um, I I think they're just, you know, finishing up the landscaping. Also, the, uh, park, the all accessible park or project um, at North End, it looks really really nice. Um, so we'll have be having some ribbon cutings for those. Just look forward to those. And, um, that's all I got, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Livingston. All right. So, with that, we will move to mayor and council member comments. It is the first meeting of the month and the year for that matter. So, we will begin at the end of the day. So, representative from district 1, uh, Councilwoman, floor is yours.

Yes. Um, every year about this time I talk about the property release applications that can be found at the tax office for uh individuals that are uh elderly 65 and there is a a monetary requirement. Um, and it has helped a lot of people. Some people it hasn't, but I am a testament um of knowing that it does help some. And um I will have some of those at every church in my district and you can also uh get them at the um tax office. Um the second thing I wanted to talk about is um we had an opportunity to go to North Drive. um Councilman Boyette and the mayor and I went to North Drive to um look at the community supporting schools and it was just really awesome. They are doing an excellent job with the reading buddies and the um the different individual rooms and how they do uh comprehensive reading. That is excellent. And I am just really impressed with uh Miss Bennett and Miss Veil Mahartsville and uh the superintendent was there as well. Um the second thing uh third thing I want to talk about is you know we live in a fracturous age and it is very difficult to see our children being killed in this community. Now, while the last death was not in my district, it impact all of our districts, it impact the community.

It also impact my church community because both families are there and it's very hard. It was very hard for those families to be in there and be in church and on both sides. And as a mother and a council woman, it really really has hurt me and touched my heart. But let me tell you what I do see. We do need some work. But let me tell you what I do see. I see organizations coming together. I see sororities and fraternities coming together, working with young girls and working with young boys. Now, it it does it takes a village. It takes a community. And it also takes a home. And I'm asking that we all come together. the home, the community, and the church, and let's work together because I do see some good things happening. Mayor, I would also like to I know that we have resources that there are things that's going on in the community that our youth can be involved in and I'm just wanting to know how we can get that out even more to make sure that uh the the parents and and the youth know about these things that are going on. I would like to see that circulated even more.

But we all got to work together, the home, the community, and the church. It takes all of us. And I'm asking this year that that happens. Um, I also would like to say congratulations again to me pro team. weeks. I look forward to working with you even more. Um, and also I'd like to thank Miss Josephine for helping me get the lighting on Neil Street because those lights have been out over there. So, I want to thank her so much. If if she's listening, it'll be in the notes. And I'm I'm going to look very forward to working with everyone and I want to thank the staff. And that's all that I ask.

Thank you, ma'am. Councilman,

thank you. I echo all those sentiments uh from Councilwoman Jones, every one of them, and uh completely agree with with those comments. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and and off to a happy new year. Um congratulations uh to our new mayor pro Tim for this year are in order. Thank you for agreeing to serve in that capacity. Also want to say one more uh congratulations to our employees that were presented various certificates for their service at our recent employee service award breakfast. Which leads me to also as always thank all of our hardworking city employees, our staff, everyone that helps helps this city turn because it could not happen without everyone doing their part. every employee, every department, us take it it takes a village to run run a municipality as well. That's all my comments, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, sir. M floor is yours.

Um, so I also echo um and applaud Councilwoman Jones on her comments about what our city needs. Um I I do know that we do have a community support um division at our Goldsboro Police Department and they do um come out when people start neighborhood watches. The officers will come out once a month to um help in the meetings, answer questions. Um, my heart goes out to this family um that has lost this child along with all the other people that have lost children and brothers and cousins and sons and daughters over the years. Um, I do think that um we do need to do more in the community as far as uh getting out there, getting the the people and the children to get to know our officers. I do see the officers out and I do see them um attempting to to enforce the community support services now more than I had in the past. So, I would like to see that happen more. Um, I also would like to, as Councilwoman Jones said, like to see us just try to um look out for each other, join together. Um, I know we had one speaker that came up and and talked about if you see something, say something. And we have been we've been we have been saying that a lot these past few years. If you see something, say something. And I do myself see a lot more people now that are are less afraid to speak out. And so I do not want the people that are taking those opportunities and getting

the the heart and and getting brave to speak up and say something. I do not want them to stop doing that because that counts. Um people do not realize how much it matters. um when people, you know, te say stuff about what they see and and make everyone aware of what's going on in the communities. Um so certainly my heart goes out to this family. I I just um it's a bad situation all the way around. Um, I also would like to congratulate once again Mayor Pro Tim Weekes um on her

her appointment that you had this year. Yeah, it's a big big responsibility. And then I'm glad to see that we are finally getting these always stop signs in. Um that that is great. uh anything that can help us from having accidents and more people getting injured and and one more thing to help making our city safer. Um other than that, I'm done. Thank you, Councilwoman. Tim, floor is yours.

I love how you both um said we are working hard, but we have so much more to do. And um but there is the positive. And I love how you were concentrating on the positive as well. And um I just wanted to honor two churches in my district in the fifth district. Um Councilwoman Jones and I were able to be a part of a service, a beautiful service that was led by Pastor Danny Johnson over at Goldsboro Worship Center and Dr. Aaron McNair II at Deeper Life Church Ministries. and they did a phenomenal job of um bringing us all together in unity and as a community and then stressing also the emphasis of you know we don't always have the answers and Mr. Rodney, I want to thank you for coming up and speaking. Um, what you said, it does impact us and you know, we don't always have all the answers, but um, again, this church emphasized both of these churches coming together, the value of unity and then also the value of prayer. Um, that prayer really can change things. So, I just wanted to honor those two churches. Also, I wanted to thank um the Goldsboro alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. They um had a beautiful event down at the hub and they were able to give out food and resources to our homeless and unhoused community and so I'm grateful that the mayor um allowed me to attend that um on his behalf. It was a beautiful event and I also told them that I would mention that on Thursday, January the 29th, they are having an AIDS, HIV and mental health webinar and you can go to their website and find out more information about that. Then next, I want to thank the Commission on Community Relations and Development. They um I'm looking forward and I hope I see many of you there too as um we celebrate together at

the Martin Luther King lunchon. And so that is going to be January the 19th at the First Church. And if you haven't purchased your ticket, please go ahead and make sure you purchase your ticket. And then finally, um, Councilwoman Jones, I just want to say publicly, you have served our city with great excellence this last year. I have watched you. I have watched you attend multiple events. Um, looked at your Facebook page and I'm telling you, you have made a huge impact on the city of Gold. And, um, I am honored to serve with you. I'm honored to serve with all of you, but I am honored to serve with you and you have served our city with great excellence. So, well done um to Councilwoman Hawwa Jones. Council

floor is yours.

Um thanks, Mayor. I just want to take just a second to thank um Rodney and Nicole for always um coming up here and standing in the gap. Um it does take courage and um I commend both of you for being in the trenches and being boots on the ground. Um, and I think you're definitely worth listening to because you are the microphones to the people that we often don't see or hear from. So, thank you. Um, keep coming. Um, keep holding us accountable. Um, I appreciate you for doing that. Um, I also want to say to the council and remind us that I recommended us having two retreats a year. um instead of having one retreat two days straight all day long, it's a heavy lift. Um not just for us as council members, it's a lot of information to retain. So I want us to really consider a spring retreat and a fall retreat. I think it'll be helpful for staff as well. Um it's a heavy lift for them to be in that space. Our residents have to contain all of that information as well. So, I'm asking you again to consider um a spring and a fall retreat or many retreats throughout the year. It's the opportunity for us to continue to build morale and camaraderie with the staff as well as each other. So, just want to throw that out there. Um again, thanks.

Thank you, Councilman Forers. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um to everyone, I pray that you have a blessed New Year's. Um I pray you all had a wonderful holiday season. Um, I attended the uh the funeral of Lee on um Saturday and um I would tell you that I'm no stranger to death because of my past employment, but that moved me in a way that I couldn't shake to see that baby laying in that casket. Um, and then to read about the juveniles who are conducting the crimes in our city, uh, leads me to wonder what what we need to do. I heard a lot about, you know, it takes a village, but we can't have a village when the youth disrespect the elders and the elders are scared of the youth. So, there's something there's a disconnect that we have to get in there in the community. I always said that poverty, crime is the lynch pin to poverty. And until we can to to lift those communities up, cuz most of the crimes that was committed over this last crime spree that we had in the city were the LMI communities was no community that was well established, but a community that that's that's low, that's poverished. And we need to do something and look into to the city and to working to make sure that everybody's moving forward at the same speed. Everybody won't get there at the same time, but everybody need to be moving forward. Uh so I ask that we support those organizations who are doing the work. We don't need another round table. We don't need to talk about anything else. We need people out there on the ground that are actually doing the work. And there are some organizations out there that are actually doing the work. So, we need to get behind those organizations and support those organizations if they're out there in the trenches trying to do

the work in our communities. Um, greet these kids. Sometimes just saying hello to these kids and stop walking past them and mean mugging them, it means the world. Just greet them, shake their hand, ask them what's up, what's good, what are you doing today, what you learned today. just have a conversation with him. You never know how much a kind word will change somebody's outcome and outlook for that day. Um Rodney, I do um commend you. Continue to hold us accountable. Uh call us out when we need to be called out so that we can do the right thing. Moving past that, the leafs and yard waste in district 6. I wrote it past it all for the last two weeks. And I had a conversation with the city mayor. The city may have has did something about it today. He is on it today. However, it shouldn't get to that point. We have stuff that's on the ground in district 6 that's been on the ground since September. And and I'm getting emails that says, excuse well, I won't even say what it says, but it says, you know, the only way I get stuff done is if I can if I got the raise H to get things done and get hopping and popping. And it shouldn't take that to get what the citizens are already paying for. They're paying for a service. And now they paid that there's three months that this individual has not received that service, but it's three months that he has paid for and that's unacceptable. Safety on call road and New Hope Road where the gas station is going. When we voted on this this gas station, the citizens that stayed in that neighborhood came out and spoke against it. Some of it is eerily the same as

some of the same complaints that they have in in Tuck or Trace and why they don't want to see it happening. So now the safety issues are coming to pass. They got a access road that's crossing the walkway, the greenway right there on on New Hope Road. So now it's a safety hazard when they're out there riding bikes or they're running or they're walking their dogs. And that's without the gas station being open. There's been five crashes at that corner since January of last year. This is without the gas station being open. I keep asking when are we going to do something about the traffic? So, I did see a plan that supposed to be. So, my next question was, how can we use the greenway or the the running trail if it's a traffic circle with continuous traffic? So, there's a lot of things that we're doing, I think, and that I I I I said my displeasures with M today because it seems like the more the citizens ask for, the less they receive. And that's just my perception, especially in my district, because it seems that we have a little bit more. The perception is that we have a little bit more than others. So, we build up, we don't improve the infrastructure, and we just ask the citizens to deal with it. And that's what I'm getting from the citizens. So, I have rode around. There are a lot of leaves there. And now we got the new ordinance where it says we're only picking up four yards. Well, now I have eight yards because you haven't picked it up in three or four weeks. So, now what do I do? Do I just put up four yards and then keep pulling it out until I get it all out of my backyard or are

you going to come and pick it up all because you haven't picked it up in 3 or 4 months? So, I'm really frustrated about that piece of it about about something simple as coming to pick up yard waste and the leaves. So, so I I I would ask that the city manager did engage. I'm not not poking fingers at the city manager cuz he did engage right away today when I called him with the issues, but these are reoccurring issues. That's all I have. Thank you, sir. Good comments all as always. Um, I'll be brief. I'm just going to reiterate something that I've already said in uh in my meetings, you know, with the manager and with staff. Our the financial status of our city is trending very strongly, very strongly. The our our debt loads are down. Our general fund balance is up is where it needs to be. The you know development is is is moving in in a in a a way that's you know contained but it but still is certainly moving. We've got a lot of very strong indicators, but none of that matters if folks aren't getting the services that they need and that they are paying for. And so as we look and as we get into um as we get into January and February, I really want us to take a look at what tools, what equipment, what one-time purchases need to happen as part of our our capital improvement plan to be able to assist in additional surveillance tools for police. If we don't have manpower to put everybody everywhere, what technology can we leverage? But what surveillance tools are out there that we want to that we want to add to

our arsenal? What do we want to add in parks and recreation programming? Uh, you know, I see I see GPD officers coaching flag football teams in parks and wreck. I see parks and wreck employees staying late and coaching basketball teams. Um, one of them who absolutely smoked everybody last year. I mean, I see folks putting in the work and I want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to support them in those things that are truly meaningful and I believe can help prevent a lot of or some of the things. I also want to go on record of saying thank you to the organizations that have done so much work over this last year trying to improve the city of Goldsboro. There's too many to name, so I'm not even going to try. I'm just simply going to say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this community, cannot be fixed with what's right with this community if we all continue doing what we can do. Incremental change, one little step at a time, making a good decision each time we have the opportunity and doing the best we can to connect connect with our youth. It was stated earlier, I think very accurately, right now there's an imbalance where that we have the elders elders in our community that are scared of the youth in our community and and there's there's no policing your way out of that alone. You know, you can you got to have the strong enforcement arm. I completely agree. You got to have that. You got to have that deterrent effect, but you got to have that that nurture, that community piece. And I know so many who laid it all on the line over this last year trying to connect and trying to to build and have frankly. And to still see the year end the way that it ended, I

know was very disheartening for uh for a lot of folks on kind of a a macro scale. So what I want to end my comments on right here are do not lose faith, do not give up, and do not stop trying. The reason we know that see something say something works is because within hours the per the people who perpetrated that murder were in custody. Please, please, please do not stop connecting with people and helping them make good decisions to do the right thing every chance they get the opportunity. So, with that, that concludes my comments. Um, Mr. Lawrence talked me out of requesting a uh a close session for personnel this evening, so y'all can thank him for that.

Thank you. But um it's just a delay though till the next meeting. It's just a delay. But next meeting. All right. He he did talk me out of it. So I appreciate that. So with that, nothing else coming before council. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion's been made and properly seconded to adjurnn. There's no debate on a motion to adjurnn. We'll vote by show of hands. All in favor, please uh show your hand. All oppose, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes unanimously. Friends we stay.