City Council - Regular Meeting

Go on, as always, if you would, just silent cell phones, watches, all those other fun things. You're going to see us playing with a new technology aid or hindrance, depending on how it goes, in these microphones this evening. If you can't hear us, I'll do my best, and Brad's going to do his best to flag someone to remind them to click their microphone on. Or the opposite for me, cut mine off so y'all don't hear me grumbling or muttering or whatever it is that I'm doing at the moment. So with that, I appreciate everyone being here this evening is Monday, August 7, right? Yeah, Monday, August 17. It doesn't feel like we've gotten that far in the year, but we sure have. And so we're going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. I appreciate everyone being able to be here. we have a full room in front of us of folks that we appreciate y'all being able to give of your time this evening and so we have a very busy agenda including some closed closed session items this evening so we are going to go ahead and get going with that if we could have Archbishop Slater come forward and lead us with an invocation followed by a Pledge of Allegiance

Good evening, Mayor, City Council. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity that we can call on your name once again. We're here to do business, Lord, and we ask you, Lord, to guide our thoughts, guide our minds, guide our hands, and even the things that we sign or vote on, Lord. Father, we thank you for this great city as we continue to go further, Lord, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

If you'd please join me in the pledge. Madam Clerk, if you would please conduct a roll call.

Mayor Gaylor. Present. Mayor Pro Tem Weeks. Present. Councilman Boyette. Present. Councilwoman Taylor. Present. Councilwoman Matthews. Present. Councilman White.

Present. All right, that's president accounted for, as always appreciate Charles time. And we look forward to having Councilman Jones back with us just as soon as possible. So with that, we will continue on with our agenda is the business order of the day. First, we need to adopt the agenda, there is a quick change It was requested by staff. We'd like to go ahead and do some recognitions and presentations of certificates of appreciation to those that have volunteered their time and talents for the Elevate Goldsboro group sessions. Mr. Livingston, is that the appropriate way to describe that?

Yes, Mr. Weaver, I think that is.

Then we'd like to add that as a item under recognitions of presentations. If it's all right, we'll add that as item 4.5. Madam Clerk and solution or any other changes to the agenda requested. Council that any recommended or requested changes to the agenda with the addition of 4.5 is presented. Hearing none would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as modified as the business order of the day.

So moved.

Motion has been made and properly seconded to adopt the agenda as modified with the inclusion of item 4.5. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, we will vote.

My computer just restarted.

All right. Hearing none, we'll wait for her updates and vote by show of hand. All in favor, please vote by show of hand. All opposed, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes unanimously. Not anonymously. Okay. Pardon the tongue twister there. All right, we will begin by beginning to hear from our Commission on Community Relations and Development. We enjoy hearing from the different commissions that says the council and and its work, including the Commission on Community Relations development, which is here to do a mid year presentation. Mr. Lewinson, is there any other preface before we offer them the floor?

No, Mr. Mayor.

Perfect. Well, then I would invite the chair or representative from CCRD to come up and tell us what all is going on.

Thank you, Mayor and the City Council members. My name is John Twitty. I'm representing the Commission on Community Relations and Development. As you know, we serve as a vital bridge between the city's diverse residents, the community organizations, as well as the city government. We are requesting that the city maintain that endorsement with you, continued partnership and funding for our upcoming priorities to strengthen the civic engagement and equity across our different communities. OK. All right. You tell them to go ahead and move the slide. All right. When do we meet? We meet the second Tuesday every month at 6 o'clock right here in the answering room next door. Next. Again, I kind of gave you a purpose before. This is some of the things we do. I'm not going to insult anyone's intelligence by reading this. But we do appreciate the city's support. These are the members I have been voted in as chair. We have two current vacancies, which we will vote on to be on the commission next meeting that we have. Last year, one of the activities that we've done was the Martin Luther King luncheon. It was held on January the 19th, a very successful encounter. This was our guest speaker, Dr. Martin, what is his name? Oh, it's Bishop Darren Moore. We participated in the Memorial Day Parade. These are some pictures from that. Our gun violence awareness program, this misprint on the program, this should be the 26th. Actually, it was the 17th of June, 2026. We had a panel, a state trooper, an individual from Charlotte, North Carolina. We participated in the Juneteenth event at the Hub. And these are our upcoming events. And again, as you see, the Martin Luther King Day celebration this year, I mean, next year will be January the 18th. Any questions? I appreciate you giving more of your time.

Counselor, any questions?

Mr. Shawinick?

Yes.

I was reviewing the slate of committee members this weekend, and you have a very strong committee that assists you. We're very grateful for all the work you do. Do you have any challenges now as a committee?

Not at the moment, ma'am. I thank you for your support.

Is there anyone else with questions or comments? Seeing none, we'll give it the rest of the evening back and congratulations on another semester. I know you guys are excited over at the Academy. Look forward to being there on the kickoff day. All right. All right. With that, we will move to item 4.2, the Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities, their mid-year presentation. Welcome, and again, thank you for being here this evening, giving even more of your time.

Thank you so much. Greetings, Mayor and Council. How are you all doing tonight?

Good.

Well, at this time, I stand to present to you the MCPD, which is the Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities. What is the MCPD? The Man's Committee for Persons with Disabilities plans, conducts, publicizes activities designed to promote the well-being of the people with disabilities. Well, you may say, who are the people with disabilities? Sometimes we cannot see them. Sometimes we might see a wheelchair. Sometimes we might see a cane. But sometimes we can't be in their ranks. so you never know who you may run across that has a disability this committee is composed of 16 members making it the largest city board and commission okay what does it do well our goal is to promote the establishment and improvement of services for instance if you go into a store and that store does not have the ability for someone with a wheelchair or cane to enter in you will bring that back to our committee and what will we do we will go meet with the manager or whomever that established establishment belongs to and we will try to get that done so everybody can be helpful you can help us and we can help them okay We advise the city council about the goals, recommendations, and activities of this council. What have we been up to lately? Well, we've been up to a lot of things. Community support. The MCPD supports other community organizations. It's not just about us. We're a collaboration and we come together to help make things great in this city, the city of Godesboro. We educate, we take every opportunity to educate people in the community about disability awareness. We go out to speak to other organizations and we maintain a Facebook page. So if you're not connected on Facebook, look us up. Also, every May, the first Wednesday of every May, we have the Hal K. Plunk Awareness Walk, and it is so awesome. We have people from all over different counties, they come and they join us to bring awareness to other people that do not know that there is, we need help. We need help. Okay? I need help to know that someone has a disability. Okay? So we need help. Again, it's the first Wednesday in May and next year it will be May the 5th, 2027. We would love to see each and every one of you there. we have pictures to show that this community comes together and we walk around downtown in our beautiful downtown to show and enlighten people that we are a community that comes together for the help of each other the mcpd also have an annual awards recognition we come we recognize people with the following categories. The Mayor's Trophy, the Employee of the Year, Employer of the Year, the Committee Member of the Year, and Most Accessible Business. We give these to people that come out and help us the most. If you know of a business that helps us, come on out and we will put their name in the bid, okay? Advocating for Inclusion. We worked with the city of Goldsboro Department to identify and repair issues in the sidewalk that was downtown. We had some issues down there and we got that done. We worked with the city of Goldsboro Engineering and Planning Department to create additional diverse handicapped accessible parking downtown in our beautiful downtown. Did you have you seen that? Yes, I heard that. Also, one of our biggest The biggest thing that we've done in the last two years, we spearheaded several fundraiser initiatives to fund various activities throughout the year. One thing was the most important thing for us in the last two years, we have an inclusive playground. It's almost finished. Partnering with Trillium and the City of Goldsboro leadership, the playground is mostly completed. We have the fence, we have to get the fence in, and then we'll have you all down for a ribbon cutting. And it is located at the North End Park. Stay tuned, because it's gonna be awesome. Now, for those of you that don't know, again, we meet the third Thursday of every month, lunchtime, 12 to one. We would love some of you all to come now and be part of our committee. We have a liaison department with the Parks and Rec, We have an advising department with community development. And, of course, our own Councilman Brandy Matthews is on our board with us. So, again, thank you for giving us this opportunity to stand before you and to enlighten you about MCPD. Have a great day.

And I want to thank the thank the committee because as as these members see things around town that you can't be everywhere at once. But as these committees as these committee members see things around town, they're not shy about bringing them forward and saying you may not notice that, but that's a hindrance. And things don't change overnight, but you have to make sure that it trends in the right direction. And when you see a, that was a perfect picture where there was about a three-inch gap in one of the grates. Many times I walked past it, I never noticed it. But it was brought forward, and what happened? It was fixed. and those are the things that um you know this council um councilman matthews you've been active with this committee for for many years uh appreciate all the work that all of y'all are doing because you truly are making a difference so so thank you was there any comments or questions from council i didn't mean to just hop forward but perfect Alright, next, we're going to continue to highlight some good stuff. Mr. Livingston, if you are able and if not, feel free to kick it over to somebody else. But our supervisor the quarter award presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think it's on. OK, good.

All right.

We've got the city of Goldsboro, the supervisor of the quarter award this evening, fourth quarter fiscal year 2526. This quarter's award is to Nikki Luckett for outstanding achievement. Over the past several months, Nikki has demonstrated a remarkable level of care and awareness in monitoring changes in her customers, particularly noting a concerning pattern of cognitive decline in two individuals. Rather than overlooking subtle warning signs, she took the initiative to closely observe, document, and act on these changes with professionalism and urgency. Nikki's genuine concern for the citizens' well-being prompted her to take appropriate actions, which ultimately resulted in a welfare check. And she collaborated effectively with her supervisors and colleagues across departments to help ensure the citizens' safety and provide necessary attention and support they deserve and need. Nikki consistently goes above and beyond her responsibilities, exemplifying what it means to lead with empathy and accountability. Her actions not only reflect positively on her as a supervisor, but also reinforce our organization's commitment to the safety and care of those we serve. For these reasons, I strongly recommend Nikki Luckett as the supervisor of the quarter in recognition of her exceptional attentiveness, compassion, and commitment to customer well-being. Nikki's work ethic and accomplishments reflect well on herself and the city of Goldsboro. Awarded this day, August 17, 2026.

So Nikki's direct supervisor, Lee Peter, could not be here tonight due to another previous obligation. But she and I both are just so impressed with Nikki. I'm embarrassing her and I apologize that she cares about her customers so much. The customer service reps have a very, very difficult job to do. People that are in need and they are compassionate too and feel that pain. Nikki always reaches out. Her customer service reps reach out to help folks as much as they can. She is a wonderful person to get along with and we so appreciate respect her for the job that she does so from Lee and I and from Dre and all finance staff thank you for everything that you do

Thank you for all that you do and for acknowledging that while you have to maintain a professional face, it doesn't always come easy. So job well done. Please keep it up and maintain those standards for those around you because they will rise to whatever bar you set for them. So thank you. Next, let's move to an introduction of Miss CC Nesbitt. This is a exciting presentation. It's another opportunity for us to highlight folks that are coming to the city of Goldsboro for periods of time and then wherever they go next, we look forward to celebrating but if you don't mind, Mr. Arnold.

Mayor, council, I'm proud to be here instead of Latoya. She cannot make it. She is the direct supervisor and actually the instigator of this great program and having us have a participant this year in the city of Goldsboro. The program, as we looked at it, was coming together and presented to us as we were talking about what can we do more for communication. and how can we embrace this as we talked about in our citizen survey, we really wanna do more. And so we started talking about this is a great opportunity to bring somebody in that has the opportunity to help us and create some energy and such to what we wanna do with communication. So we went ahead and pursued the fellows program and we put our application in and we're selected as an entity. And then we're also able to interview up to three students. And we made the selection of one, and that's Cece Nesbitt. And Cece's been a welcome addition to us. She's downstairs with LaToya. And with that, I want to turn it over to Cece and let her talk a little bit about herself and what she's going to be doing for us.

Hello. Good to see you guys today. My name is Cece and I just graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with my bachelor's in political science and Latin American studies. And as a Lead for North Carolina fellow, it's an AmeriCorps program placing recent graduates who are committed to public service in local governments across the state of North Carolina in order to increase organizational capacity and interest in local government. This year, I will be with LaToya in the city manager's office to help improve timeliness and transparency in public communications. Previously, last year, I worked with Habitat for Humanity on the McNair development, and so I fell in love with Goldsboro's deep history and culture and community, and so I'm really glad to be back and serving Goldsboro to gain a better perspective on how local governments serve their communities and to gain new perspectives on what it means to be a public servant.

Whenever we're doing our agenda meetings, again, it's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you. So glad that you chose Goldsboro. So glad that Ms. Henry decided that this was a direction we needed to go to up our talent level, and I've just really enjoyed our time together so far. Thank you.

Keep it up.

Mayor and I just like to say I echo your sentiments. I think we've hit a home run with the CC and she's hit the ground running and so appreciative of this program and CC selecting us and selecting her. But she's already done a video on public comments, which I think is really awesome. But she's already hitting the ground running, getting a lot of nice stuff done for us.

And now you're on video and comments.

Yeah. I just learned a fun fact about Cece tonight. She has a twin also. Yes. That's going to be working. Identical. So yes.

She's going to be a Teach for America teacher. So she'll be at KIPP, Durham, and Durham.

Congratulations to you and your family. What a fantastic summer.

Good job.

So Council, now whenever you see her walking around or shadowing Latoya or something like that, now you know who she is, make sure that you reach out your hand, say hello. Just another wonderful addition to the team. Next, we will move to item 4.5. And Ms. Goetz, I'm going to let you guide me on the right way to do this. We have some certificates of appreciation to give out to those folks that gave of their time to be part of the Elevate Goldsboro planning committee. As everyone is aware, every now and then you have to stand up bad hot committees to service in different ways. And this has been a heavy lift over the last over over a year now. And later on this evening, council will have the opportunity to to discuss elevate Goldsboro comprehensive land use plan one more time and adopt if ready. But I think it is certainly time to go ahead and say thank you to all those folks that have given of their time and talents over the last year. So, would you like to call out the names and I'll just go down there and then we can present? And then if we can get everyone after we hand you your certificate, if you would please stand up there and then we can get a picture of everyone together. Is that alright? That's great. I'll come down.

Lynn Barwick. Rashima Bivens. June Bynum. Reva Davis. Nancy Delia. Delia, sorry, Berry Gray. Cynthia Hinnant. Brian Joiner. Brian Joiner. Anthony Slater. Albert VanCleek. ronald waters betty watkins dr mark witchard then we have several staff members that get them up here too kelly arnold Felicia Brown. April Choice. There's Felicia. Mark Helmer. Holly Jones. Paul Sailors. And Kenny Talton.

Just one more time, thank you all for, get a little bit of feedback there, but as loud as I am, I probably don't need to do it other than for the video, but city is not run on one person or seven people or a manager alone. It's the voice of the people, and so being able to have each of you give of your time and your talents, your opinions, go to multiple meetings, say things that sometimes are just throwing a grenade in the campfire to see what happens because it needs to be said, that's how you get a land use plan that can survive you know any of us right it's meant to perpetuate the city beyond any one administration or any one executive or things like that so again thank you for giving of your time your talents i want to make sure that we get a good picture and we'll make sure that these get to those who are not able to be here this evening

Thank you.

All right, next, we'll move to our public comment period section five on our agenda. Miss gets is there? Who's our first speaker?

There are no speakers signed up tonight.

Okay, well, then we will keep right on rolling into our consent agenda. Okay, if you'd like if you'd like to just approach the clerk, and then go ahead and sign up great. We'll grab your information. And then we will continue. Usually as we're she's going to go get it. I'm reminding folks to go and grab it. But we're off one item this time. So

welcome hi I'm Jacqueline Hennett I don't know if I'm in the right place or not but my parents lived here up until 2021 and 2023 and so I own the property now so basically I need to find out Who am I supposed to contact about concerns I have for the neighborhood? I haven't lived here since I was in high school, but now back and forth because they're no longer here, taking care of the property, what have you. So I have concerns about the neighborhood that has gone down considerably on Norfis because I know a lot of the homeowners are deceased, their rentals, what have you. And we're right off of 117. in the Little Washington area. The grass has not been cut near the railroad since 2021. We used to be able to put in a ticket, but now I'm getting back and forth. It's the county's problem. It's the state's problem. It's the city's problem. It's the railroad. And I cannot believe that it has gone down that much. I have pictures. There's trash everywhere. from Whitfield Drive down near, what is it? It starts past the church, Mount Zion Church. There's some, I guess there's some contractors. I haven't seen them, I don't know, because I only come here once a month. And there's trash. It's not really trash. It's stuff from remodeling a home or tearing it down that are on the side of the street. You have garbage cans. out either on the curb, partway in the street, so you have to duck out to get by. And I think some neighbors, because some of them are young, don't know that you have to go online for bulk pickup. Some of the bulk pickups, they don't pick up. There's a toilet out there. They've been out there for months. um is there someone that cuts the grass for these places that are condemned because of the flooding um i noticed that as well as what i have here you can't even see the dream ditch the drain my father said dream ditch drain ditch behind the house over there's a flood the water is going to come like it did before thankfully there was no damage to that property my property except for the fact that it came to the garage but it didn't do any of that so numbers what what do we do what do i do yes

Right. Okay. I forgot to turn the microphone back on. You're just going to have to look at me occasionally and possibly even like wave a little flag or something. We give them a chance to make sure that we have good contact information. And with that, Mr. Livingston, if it's okay, we'll go ahead. There were no other speakers. Mr. Livingston, if you would go ahead and hear any remaining questions on consent agenda items 6-1 through 6-6. And hearing none, we'll entertain a motion to

Thank you, Mayor. We have six items on the consent agenda. I'll be happy to go over them briefly if you'd like, or we can vote on them as one measure, which we normally do for these non-controversial items.

Perfect. Council, are there any remaining questions on items 6-1 through 6-6?

I just have one comment. Yes, sir, please. Just for the ultra-violent... Yeah, for the ultra-violent... disinfecting system i know we need it and it's been up there we have been competing for the dsip um grant for for several years i just ask that um going forward for anything that we're doing of that nature because this year they opened up a different category for the dsip i think that we can should continue to try to put in that grant even if we get denied we should still try to get that free money just to try to offset it not just not do it that's all i have

Mr. Mayor, before you do that, I need to gain access to my iPad real quick.

mayor if it's helpful i can give a brief 20-second summary on each one of them Okay, item 6.1 is an upset bid procedure. We got in at one bid at, I guess, at $750. The tax value is $1,500, so we'll put it back into upset bid mode, see if we get any other bidders. The disinfection lighting system, it's the procurement method. It's specialized parts that we have to use because it's a system designed to work with only specific kind of parts. So we're using a procurement or asking for a procurement exception, which is pretty much the norm there. The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, that is for speed trailers and some other things. We've got roughly $35,000, I think, on that. So that's accepting that grant. The resolution authorizing a change order is for the West Oak Pocket Park. That's roughly 18,000 in repairs and expansion that we had to do in result of the West Oak Pocket Park in front of GWTA. That's to close that project out. The specific threshold exception for the Bryan Multisports Complex is to move our single procurement up to $350,000 to match the federal standards so that we can use all of our coronavirus funding for that project and not have to leave any more money on the table. And the other ones are just the department monthly reports.

Just one quick one. I thought we was going to apply for extension for those COVID funds.

So we did apply for extension. We're still waiting on the results. There's no guarantee on that, but we've submitted an extension on that one.

It was also the council asked staff to go back to the Travel and Tourism Board, ask for their recommendation. They still wanted to stay with this project. And that was kind of where it was left, was go back, find out if they want to make any adjustments. That's correct. They did not. And then, so it's moving forward as a consent agenda item, just to ensure that we don't lose any sort of window there. I realize that there are a lot of other other needs in our parks recreation system. And we're going to continue to be a lot more aggressive and a lot more incentive to these pools of funds and things that we're able to use because we have other other needs everything from accessibility and inclusion all the way through basics of lighting and general maintenance. There's a lot of things out there. Any other comments or questions on consent agenda items? All right. Hearing none, would entertain a motion to approve consent agenda items or not. Items 6.1 through 6.6.

So moved. That we approve it.

All right. Motion has been made and properly seconded that we approve consent agenda items 6.1 through 6.6. We'll vote by roll call if I believe that's the right way to do it. Madam Clerk, if you would.

Mayor Gaylor?

Yes.

Mayor Pro Tem Weeks? Yes. Councilwoman Jones? She's not here. Councilman Boyette?

Yes.

Councilwoman Taylor? Yes. Councilwoman Matthews?

Yes.

Councilman White?

Yes.

All right, all present votes being in the affirmative consent agenda items six, one through six, six are approved. We'll move to section seven of our agenda old business. This is where we're going to get into a little bit more meaty discussion. These are significant things, some of which are requesting action this evening. Some others are merely for information. I'll ask uh mr arnold or whoever is bringing them forward to uh just go ahead and say up front this is one that is for action or this is one that is for information that you'll see in the future just to help everyone keep everything straight because there is a lot in front of us this evening so i'm assuming for you mr

Mayor of City Council, I'm stepping in for Jonathan, who's off tonight. Back in May, we came to you and gave you a report out on the Harris Street Bridge. As a part of our biannual report from DOT, it came back and said it was needing immediate repair. And so at that time, we decided to go ahead and close it to heavy traffic, but keep it open while we worked on repair. And so we've put up during the interim, we've went ahead and marked it and said all heavy trucks stay off the bridge. And while we went ahead and had an engineer look at it, withdrawal engineer, did a spec sheet of what needed to be fixed. And then also then they helped us to coordinate a bid. And when we got our bids, we looked at a contract we called S&C Construction. And they were the low bid. And when we met on site, they started looking at it and said, you know, we could probably help you more than your design here by adding some beams. So there are three beams that are problematic in there. And what these bridges are built on are beams. and essentially three of them were in stock with snc construction they are one of the largest dot bridge repair companies in eastern north carolina and they just happen to have these beams in stock And so they said, if we can do this project, we'll replace the beams on site. And the extra cost was $10,000. It's going to add a duration of life to the bridge. We don't know how long, but it's going to be better than the fix that we're going to make. And so we are recommending a contract award to SNC Construction LLC in the amount of $165,000. What they will do is once we approve this tonight by resolution to our recommendation, there will be a second action that Katherine talked about, how we'll transfer the funds over, make the funds available, and they're ready to go. They said that once they get on site, it'll take three weeks, three to four weeks. That means total closure of Harris Street, because they will be on site repairing that bridge. They can get on it immediately because they get busy in October, so this is kind of the ideal opportunity for us to get the bridge fixed, extend the life, and then be ready once we reopen it to do two more things. One is make sure that we re-sign it. It's not going to help the load capacity to the bridge. This bridge still has a very low rating. And so we need to better sign it and make sure we try our best to make sure and warn the community that this sign has a low capacity bridge. Also, what we need to start doing is planning for a new bridge sometime in the future. And we'll work on that effort and probably start inserting and looking at it in our next five to 10 year capital improvement plan of how we want to do this bridge and make it better for the long term. this does give us a short-term fix to do that effort it is a fortuitous opportunity we think so we're standing here ready to make a recommendation to adopt resolution to award the bid and move forward on closing harris street bridge and getting repaired so council this one is a

The new part of the presentation is new to council. Even though we are asking for action this evening, the previous discussion around the bridge was the fact that there were failure points that were in urgent need. They were not unsafe, but they were going to become unsafe if we didn't take quick action. Quick action was taken, traffic was diverted, at least heavyweight traffic was diverted, and contractors were identified. A contractor was identified that also happens to have components from other bridges that they've been disassembling that can fit into this bridge that will then give us a significant amount of life back. Council, you may remember this is the bridge that if we ended up having to deal with a complete total replace, we were looking at over a million dollars. for a bridge about as wide as this room. So being able to move forward quickly, I think is financially responsible as well as operationally sound for both the contractor and of course public safety. But that is just my opinion, but I do think it leans in with what staff has pulled together for us. What questions do we have? This is again, it's kind of down in the weeds engineering stuff, but it's also very important because it's our people who drive over it every day. Are there any questions or comments right now? Is there a motion to adopt the resolution in the packet approving the Harris Street Bridge improvements in the contract?

So moved.

All right, motion made improperly seconded to adopt the resolution authorizing the execution of a contract with S&C Construction LLC for the Harris Street Bridge improvements. Motion being made improperly seconded. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we will vote by show of hands. All in favor, please raise your hand. All opposed, same sign. Seeing none, motion passes. Did I miss a procedural step there? Did I call for debate? Someone rewind. Can we can we can we get a New York do instant replay? Oh, yeah. Okay. Was there any? I think I did. Okay. All right. Was there any debate? Right? Perfect. Then I guess we'll well, the motion second vote will stand passing unanimously. All right.

Thank you, Mayor. We'll keep you informed the schedule as it comes for Thank you, sir.

All right, well, next move to item 7.2, which is the budget piece, the budget ordinance coupling on item 7.1, Ms. Gwinn. And Matt, I don't mean to overstep you, but I know you are not. All right, perfect.

Evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council. So with the Council approving the contract to award SCM, we need to have the appropriation in place. So where we are proposing to pull the funds from was there was a pot of money of about $190,000. It was PAL bill money left over from fiscal 25. And so we're proposing to move that out of contingency for about $165,000 in order to fund this contract.

That does work out. This has been something that we've been very intentional about, is Powell bill allocations and ensuring that they're going directly to actual physical stuff. Council comments, questions for Ms. Gwynne? Fair enough, fair enough. Is there a motion to adopt the ordinance as presented in the agenda package?

So do Mr. Mack.

All right, motions have been made and properly seconded to adopt the grant project fund ordinance as presented. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll vote by show of hands again. Does everyone?

Are you back up?

If you're back up, then I'll vote electronically if possible. You did. Very good, excuse me. All right, all votes haven't been cast. Wait, what? Yeah, there we go. Motion passes. All right, we'll keep moving along unless I am missing anything. Item three, our Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. Mr. Livingston or who? I'm sorry. 7.3. I skipped ahead. Apologies. No, no, no. Item 7.3. And Mr. Lewis, is this one for adoption this evening or a continuation of the discussion? Yes, it is. And so, counsel, again, this one would be for adoption. It has been something that's been discussed in the past, but listen closely for any questions, of course.

Yes, this is a resolution for, this happens every two years. One, it's for us for a capital improvement plan and for you council to acknowledge that we do have one. Also, it does, with the state, it recognizes that we do have this. So when we do grants and things of that nature, that applies points to the grant application. So the state requires us to do it every two years with the city council's approval.

Do you have, well, in the agenda packet, there is the actual revised plan. Council, are there any remaining questions on this item? I realize it's also kind of a down in the weeds sort of thing, but is there additional questions? Hearing none, is there a motion to adopt the resolution as presented?

So moved.

All right, motions are made. Is there a second? All right, motion having been made and properly seconded to adopt and approve the resolution as presented. Is there any debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote electronically if possible. Just state your vote for the record. Yes. All right, perfect. All right. All votes been tallied. We have a plan and a resolution. Thank you, sir. And that, again, everybody, these are things that is just good governance. Having these things in place that then allow you to pursue funding opportunities, that allow you to be able to point to why you're doing what, when, and how, it's just good governance. I appreciate this council being so forward thinking in how we've gone about doing all these different layers of planning. All right, next one that I don't believe is for vote this evening. I believe this one is continuing the discussion, correct?

I'm sorry, I'm going to use this. We're ready to give you an update tonight.

Perfect. So item 7.4 is our stormwater private ditch and inspection discussion. So Mr. Arnold.

So city manager Livingston gave you the quick, but this is a continuing dialogue about stormwater and what we're doing with our permit. And most of this will be with Bobby, but this is to remind you that at one time, about two, three months ago, we had a conversation about private ditch maintenance and we were kind of uncertain how we wanted to address that. So tonight we're going to give you the results of how we want to address that. and we're ready to address it as soon as you hear this tonight. The second part is we want to come back to the stormwater control maintenance items, particularly if they're privately owned and how we do that. And Bobby's going to go through that a little bit with you and give you a proposal that partly you've heard before about two and a half years ago. We like to kind of rekindle this conversation because we think we have a better way of how we can maintain and help assist with our permitting now that we have a stormwater permit that's valid we really need to be kind of doing our best efforts and this will be a way we can do assisting and working with the private owners of their stormwater system so with that i'm going to turn it over to bobby good evening everyone

So our stormwater conveyances, I just want to apologize. Our stormwater conveyances, I just want to give a brief information. Any kind of conveyance that takes stormwater from one point to another, there's several different types of stormwater conveyances. There's open and then there's closed pipe conveyances. So conveyances are meant to reduce flooding and move stormwater to the lowest point in the watershed. Poor maintenance can increase flooding risk to property owners. Keeping ditches clear protects neighboring properties and the community. It can cause shallow flooding if you have closed or open ditches that are full of sediment or trash or other type of debris. So we're asking the community to make sure that they keep their conveyances clear. this. The stormwater conveyance process that we've worked through, we're asking residents if they have concerns about any kind of stormwater conveyance to give us a call. We are also in the process of creating an online form. Photos also are very much encouraged as they help us see the conditions that the residents are concerned with. so city staff will take and view the ownership of the stormwater conveyance it can be tricky because there's right-of-ways and certain places we have to pull up the deeds to ensure we have the proper property owners we are working on a gis map to help facilitate this The private ditches are to be maintained by their homeowners. A lot of times you'll see the private ditches are in the middle of two different properties. So how it works is that one property owner will get the one on the private ditch on their side and the other homeowner will get the ditch on their side. So private ditch maintenance is already in our code. And it will, if there's an issue with one owner not maintaining their side of the open ditch, the residents can call the city and the city will come out and help them work through the process. You know, most of the time it's just about information and education. So if property owners don't know that they're not supposed to maintain it, a lot of times it'll cause some issues. If it's an NCDOT ditch, we are asking residents to submit an NCDOT reporting form. And if they need assistance with that, we can help as well. And if it's city-owned conveyance, we will refer it to the Public Works and they will evaluate and conduct repairs. Is there any questions about that process?

Please, go ahead. So how long does the state have to respond?

So I don't know exactly how long they have to respond, but we have put a couple requests in already in the last couple months and we've seen about a week to two weeks turnaround for them to fix it.

So they actually fixed it?

Yes, they were really responsive with us.

You talk a little bit. Yeah, I hear different people talk about like blue line ditches, especially out in like the edges of the city versus just a what may have been a ditch at one time through someone's yard. How does someone know if they have something on their property that they need to maintain?

So that's what the GIS map is going to be for. It's going to let property owners, we have to pull deeds for these, a lot of properties to determine the ownership, but that is what the GIS tool is going to be used for. Property owners will be able to take a look at that and determine, you know, if they own the ditch or if it's somebody else's like NCDOT. And we're going to start publishing information to the public so that they know what kind of issues that they can maintain with their ditches, you know, different types of ditch maintenance. You know, we're also thinking about publishing something with the utility bills so that residents know who to contact if they had questions.

Another issue I know we're running across all over town is that ditches has been so long since any of them were maintained. Well, in certain situations since they were maintained. How do you anticipate working with the public for those ditches that need to be dug back out and need to be back operational, but it's been 10 years since anyone did it?

So right now we're going to work as a complaint base. So if a resident has a concern, what we have seen is a couple residents have called and asked, you know, it's flooding my house, you know, what can I do? And it was just a bunch of leaves and limbs in the open ditch. But... How it works is each person is responsible for their own portion. And if they don't, it can cause flooding on the adjacent property. And that could create liability issues. We encourage everybody to maintain their own portion of it. Any other questions on conveyances?

I was just going to make a comment that I think it's important to make sure that the public understands how easy it is to report these things because that is a line item category in the 311 system to be able to report stormwater or drainage or ditch issue. And that might be good to point that out in an upcoming report. newsletter and utility bills or whatever, especially since we're in storm season prep mode right now. I know Councilman White's had some issues in his district and so have I that the streets and stormwater folks has been working hard to address with Doug and David and their crew and being able to get as much as we can done and keep things clean leading into storm season. Those guys are really working hard out there for us.

Yes, sir. We we have a stormwater hotline that you can report that to. And there is some public works has some service buttons in there. We are planning on sending out some information in the utility bills. And then, of course, if anybody needs any assistance, they can just give us a call. So one of the one of the things I I didn't mention. So our code enforcement will notify owners if there's an issue or violation if needed, if it's not being maintained properly.

Ready to move to stormwater control? Or you've already touched on that?

I'm ready to move to it if there's no more questions on conveyances.

Perfect.

So our stormwater control measures, so these are our ponds, our retention, our detention ponds, anything that stores stormwater and releases it slowly. It's meant to reduce flooding but also treat stormwater and keep the pollutants from entering the streams. So the current process right now, the city conducts inspections on all stormwater control measures each year. The SCMs, if they're not operating properly, the owner is notified, and they are given 180 days to conduct maintenance. After that 180 days, the city will hire someone to conduct the maintenance, and the homeowner will be billed. If the homeowner does not pay the bill, there can be a lien placed. So that's the current process. So the current process, it's a little insufficient. We have limited funding and staffing capacity to conduct the required inspections. There are 413 SCMs, and these are not including all the grandfathered stormwater control measures. So the city staff cannot safely and fully inspect all these devices. So for a lot of these stormwater control measures, they have these things. If you can see on the screen right here, this is a trash rack, and you have to get inside of them and take a look and make sure that all the water is discharging out of it properly. And then there's underground retention, and there's just some places that we as city employees can't go. So the city performed inspections may create legal liability and financial obligations for the city as well. So the annual inspections, they're very important. They help ensure that the SCM is operating properly, which helps reduce flooding and reduce pollutants from entering surface waters. It also reduces the cost of maintenance if we perform the inspections on a yearly schedule versus waiting five years. Most things that are an issue can be, if they're done, conducted yearly, like cleaning them out, it helps ensure they're operating properly. So the best practices suggested by the DEQ is for us to transition our city inspection program to an administrative oversight program. NCDEQ requires two annual inspections, one by a qualified professional such as a surveyor, a PE, or a landscape architect, and one by city staff. The private owners must submit inspections. We're going to work it to our fiscal schedule to have them do every year by June 30th. And the city maintenance on private property is limited to significant safety risks. So that's, you know, if a whole neighborhood is going to flood or something like that, we would. We'll be bringing back UDO 6.5 stormwater for new development. This fall, we're planning on bringing it to the Planning Commission September 28. Notice to City Council on November 2. And November 16, we'll be conducting another public hearing for it with an effective date of July 1. Are there any questions?

Council, comments, questions for Ms. Barnes? This will be one that as we get through November and then into the spring, there's going to need to be a lot of communication. We're going to make sure that all of us fully understand the ramifications. You'll have folks that are being held to a standard that, frankly, they were always held to, but wasn't as enforced and as communicated as it could have been or should have been. And so now we're kind of having to undo a little bit of that damage. So I want to make sure that everyone is fully versed on what that is as we go into the spring. But we've got to get through this fall first, right?

Yes.

Cool, cool. All right, council, any other comments, questions? Again, this is not an action item. This is an information and an update. Hearing none, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Alright, Mr. Livingston, I'm going to turn this one over to you unless you look at me and just say absolutely not. 7.5 adoption of the Elevate Goldsboro Comprehensive Land Plan.

well thank you mr mayor as you know we started the project land use plan update back in june of 2025 um we we held the public hearings and a lot of the public input and we've gone through numerous uh drafts revisions and we presented it to you and we feel like it's ready for adoption now we gave it an extra 30 days to see if there was anybody else that you know was out there that maybe give them time to look at it too but so far I don't know that we've gotten any additional other public comments back and I think we're ready for adoption tonight but I have the planning board or the planning manager here he can also add some context to that too as well

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm glad to be here tonight. Yeah, so to add to what City Manager basically said, we had a joint meeting with City Planning Commission and Council. And upon that review, we got some feedback from Council that you wanted some additional considerations for industrial properties and key locations across the city. that those those changes were made and you did review those at the public hearing I should also mention that playing Commission did recommend approval those changes that you requested were made and presented to playing Commission and also available for public inspection at the public hearing and therefore tonight we're playing staff is recommending that you adopt a resolution to to approve the Elevate Goldsboro plan.

All right, Council, there is a PowerPoint presentation that was for information is one that we have seen before is actually at one of the or at the July meeting that goes through the plan updates. There haven't been any changes since it was brought to us last time. So at this point, if there are any questions, then we'll hear them. If anyone needs an update and would like Mr. Helmer to walk back through those those slides just for the sake of a general refresher. I'm sure he's happy to do that while he's here. Or we can entertain a motion to adopt or amend. Yes, sir.

Just a question for the manager. The conversation that we had and when I brought up the issues related to my concerns with environmental, you said that had been addressed just to make sure, right?

Yes, sir. Those have been addressed.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, I'd be ready to go ahead and vote if the council sees fit to do so. Is that in the form of a motion? Well, yes, sir.

So I did I did hear from Mayor protein, but I just want to be sure that those changes on the south side was included in the change.

Yeah. So the the the that slideshow is I'd see if you can slide over there.

Yeah.

Yeah. See if I can pull up the 11. Yes. So there were some comment regarding, if I remember correctly, South George, South John Street. Was that the street you were talking about? You wanted the opportunity for some mixed use. Right. So, you know, the older plan or Envision 35 showed that as being industrial. There was some discussion early on about the original proposal was for a mixed use in that corridor. Upon discussion by the various groups that reviewed the plan, they thought the mixed, we're calling it the employment flex. which is really more of a commercial type based, but has the opportunity there according to the plan. It doesn't prohibit residential there. So you get basically the best of both with the current designation that the proposed future land use plan offers, which is a flex space, a commercial flex employment type with a residential component.

okay my my last concern is I know we talked about and you brought it up to Mister mayor about how to develop that side of the city when it's in the pool of blood zone and I know we said that that was internal we will try to do some different types of ordinances to achieve that so I just do not want to have that fall off the radar so that we could ensure that we can develop the entire city.

And I appreciate appreciate staff and planning So at some point, our agendas are packed for the next two meetings. But if we see an opportunity, because the councilman is absolutely right that the ability to develop in floodplain or floodplain adjacent, and there are rules existing in our current ordinances. being able to offer some kind of briefing some kind of understanding of what that is and where you foresee that evolving in the future i think is really important because you you did give me a briefing after the fact and say well it's not hard no it's just it's a yes but with additional cavities right so we have a flood damage prevention ordinance which does not prohibit uh development within 100-year floodplain but with developing in 100-year floodplain

Certain responsibilities are expected of development, which means primarily elevating structures in such a way that when the floods do come, that the damage to personal property is limited, less severe, and less costly to the flood insurance program, which allows...

i think it would be good as as time permits to be able to deliver a briefing to council on what that looks like and what the impacts of that are because you know everything adds everything adds cost now it adds cost for when it when it adds cost for good reason i stand by it but if it adds cost that you can't really you know point to a benefit now i think with this that you can i'm not i'm not trying to be to be negative or contentious in any way But I want us to know what development would look like so that we know how to pull interest into our own districts. And so I know that's a very important thing. I'd be glad to do that.

Also, there's potential changes coming to mandated changes that could potentially have been talked about in the last few years that could possibly. Right.

uh impact uh development within the city of goldsboro so i'd be happy to brief you as well on the latest uh on those uh initiatives we'll figure out how how to best do that be it in a meeting like this or be it in you know in

written briefers and whatever you choose we'll figure that out because i don't think that's really timely thank you councilman for bringing that back up yes sir i see your hand up um just to make another couple of comments i know there's uh areas that uh councilman white pointed out that he feels strongly about about how he'd like to see development unfold and i i have the same uh likes and desires specifically in that area but other areas too and I think it's important just to put it out there that the comprehensive plan is sort of like the 30,000 foot thing and then we as a council will be able to take our UDO when we do that next And drill down on specifics of what we'd like to see from the UDO standpoint with zoning classification. And then if we see things we want to adjust that the mayor was speaking of regarding what we're want to do by ordinance and flood areas or this or that. We as the council will have a great opportunity to affect change and get things like this. This council wants it with a UDO update and I'm glad that Councilwoman Taylor stayed on top of that so that we were budgeted for it and because that's going to be the other half of the puzzle. And a really important one to me because that's when the council gets to put their hands and their footprint, so to speak, on what happens actually so far as the development that actually happens. Absolutely.

I wanted to thank the planning department and the committee and also you know each council member does really bring their gifts to the table and so I personally wanted to thank Councilman White, Councilman Boya and also our mayor because they've been very impactful in recommendations for this as well and that's helped to educate us as well so I'm grateful that you guys brought a lot of knowledge and so thank you Councilman White, Councilman Boya and to you mayor for impact in this and helping to educate us well on it.

I second that. Thank you for your support.

And just one comment on the procurement side of the RFP for the UDO update. We are doing that now. Planning's working with procurement on an RFP for that, which we hope will get done in less than 30 days and get something out.

So

y'all say that was very discreet instead of her smacking me she just said hate that I appreciate that the we already acknowledged all of the folks that have volunteered as I keep saying their time and talents to be part of things to answer the call the city and all of those folks whose names were called received certificates earlier again thank you Whether this gets approved this evening or not, I think it will. But again, you've put your stamp on it at a minimum 10 years of what Goldsboro is going to try to look like as it develops. So that's pretty impressive. So, Council, did I hear, is there a motion to adopt the plan this evening? Yes, sir.

I would make that motion, Mr. Mayor.

All right, is there a second?

I'll second it.

All right, motion being made and properly seconded to adopt the Elevate Goals for Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Is there any further debate? Hearing none, we'll call the vote. Please vote electronically if possible. If I had to, I never mind, it's not that.

As I said, we're playing with toys.

We're doing our best. Perfect.

All right. That was your vote was yes. Perfect.

Thank you. All right. All votes present being tallied. Motion passes unanimously. Again, thank you everyone for your time. Thank you.

Have a good evening.

All right, next we'll move to item 7.6, an operating budget amendment. Mrs. Gwinn. And again, Mr. Lewis, I don't want to bypass you. I'll just know that you're all right.

Mayor, council, we have before you tonight a budget amendment for the operating budget. It's for $15,000, and it's to move agency support from the annual allocation generic line item to the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce. And what I would be asking for you is to please vote to excuse Mayor Gaylor because he's an ex-officio member. And as per session law 2021-191, an elected board member can't also vote on an appropriation to which they have some form of membership or voting or non-voting. So we would need the vote to excuse, and then Mayor Pro Tem Weeks would conduct the vote, motion, and so forth to approve that allocation move.

This time I'll call for a motion to remove me for a few minutes. All right. Motion to have made improperly seconded to excuse me from voting due to the appearance of a conflict on this one. Is there any debate? Do I vote? On this one? Ron, do I vote on this one? I wouldn't think so.

I think you vote on yourself to excuse yourself.

Well, I'm in favor of it.

OK. That you can vote on.

OK. All right. All right. Motion passed. I'm out.

Yeah.

That's OK. All right.

Any questions from the council as to why we are voting on this as far as moving the item? All right, any debate? If not, I would ask if entertain a motion that we for or against this appropriation being relocated.

I'll make a motion that we approve the transfer relocation. Madam Mayor Pro Tem.

Is there a second? If no debate, let's go ahead and vote electronically. All right, the vote passes. Now I will entertain a motion to bring our mayor back into the formal meeting. Is there a second? Any debate? I would love for us to have a debate. Just joking. All right. Everybody, you vote electronically, please. Welcome back, Mayor.

not commenting on the substance that was discussed just merely the the orchestration of the meeting. It looked fantastic from over there. And I appreciate y'all doing that. All right, I'll tell you what we are approaching the 90 minute mark when we would otherwise take a brief recess for nature breaks. How about we go ahead and do that we will come back at 11 minutes from now we'll come back at seven o'clock. I'll just give everyone a chance and then we will reconvene and come back with new business. So we'll stand in recess until seven o'clock. All this one back to order, because Ron sets his watch fast. And we are. I think we're there we go. We're literally within three seconds anyway. So we'll continue on with new business council again. Appreciate everyone sticking sticking around this evening. All right. Cemetery Trust, Mr. Livingston or strong.

I will go ahead and just quickly brief this one. It is an item that was brought to us regarding cemeteries and the plots therein and how we deal with those and we have a few trusts here that Mr. Lawrence can talk to us about but they actually are endowments or trusts I guess that dictate that we take care of individual lots in perpetuity by taking flowers out there and things like that but

They've been working on this staff has been working on this for a while and Kelly's been more involved in it So I'll turn it over to the deputy city manager before you before you begin Council, this is one that's the first time that we are seeing it as a council There are two resolutions in the agenda item. I'm sure you've already seen that we can act on one of them both of them or none of them this evening But this is what's in front of us for consideration and disposition at the pleasure of counsel. So, mr. Lawrence

Mayor, I hadn't planned on testing the microphone, but I guess I'm having to. So before I talk about the trust, I'm just going to say real quick to comment about my watch setting time. My dad always told me, if you're five minutes early, son, you're 10 minutes late. So I always ride 15 minutes early. Now, on to the trust matters. These trusts have been set up, different families set these trusts up. Wells Fargo has historically been the trustee of different trusts. Previously, the city has received trust funds because a court ordered that the trust funds be sent to the city who was maintaining the cemeteries where the grave sites were located. This particular situation, this time the Wells Fargo lawyers contacted us and said, hey, will you take these by agreement? And so those agreements are the reason this is on the agenda. One part of the agreement for the Griffin Trust is that that money would be held and used just to maintain the plots. The city already maintains the plots, but those monies can help offset those expenses. In the past, the trust where the court had ordered the city to take those, it was the same concept as the Griffin Trust, which was just to maintain the plots. The Robinson Trust, though, has a provision where the trust proceeds, not the corpus itself, but the proceeds are to be used to place flowers on that trust. So the staff had discussed, that's why the city manager stated the staff had been having some discussions and work on this, talking to the staff with the cemeteries as well, So it's essentially a policy setting situation tonight. If the city is going to accept trust where funds are going to have to be utilized to put flowers on graves, that's going to create some responsibility on city employees that it's never had before. and then you have that throughout the city from do for one you got to do for more it does trust come along. So the idea was to not accept the Robinson trust by agreement. But to accept the Griffin because it is consistent with the courts have ordered in the past but this will be the first time the city's energy into an agreement to do this. I think the resolution before less I'm mistaken is it for me to sign okay to to sign an agreement on behalf of the city to accept the trust obviously you can appoint the city manager which i think that's probably preferable as opposed to the lawyer doing it would be the city manager to sign those agreements accepting those trust funds but i think tonight too can then sort of establish a policy as to when these come back to the council or are sent to the city in the future that the council has set a policy saying we're going to only accept that we don't have to do stored and we call those extraordinary efforts to maintain or put flowers etc on those cemetery plots.

So whenever we discuss this, just in briefing, I think the easy one is the Griffin Trust because it mirrors precedent. I think the one that deserves some discussion, possibly not a vote this evening, would be the Robinson Trust because, as I said privately then and I'll say publicly now, ultimately we are a policymaking body, right? And I want us to be able to have a policy that we're pointing to that says, here's what we're able to do, here's what we're not able to do. And I want it to be able to something that is articulable, not someone having to fish through precedent and see what's acceptable, what's not. So obviously I will yield to your advice and Mr. Lawrence's advice, but I'm thinking that if it is the opinion of council that we are not going to go in the direction of embellishments or decorations on sites in perpetuity, which I think is probably a wise move, I'm just thinking that I probably ought to be accompanied by some sort of actual policy that we're able to then vote on and adopt as a city policy so that two years from now, three years from now, the opposite. But that's just kind of kind of my thought council. Where are we on what we think is reasonable for the city to be able to promise in perpetuity for the maintenance of a gravesite? Yes, sir. I see your hand.

I think we definitely need to put a policy in place that probably keeps the language of what we're going to do limited or something that doesn't spell out anything too specific so that it's the city's discretion of how exactly those funds are applied within the cemetery and that request not drilling down like you said and the things that are going to set precedence let's just get a little together and clarify the council's will and then I guess Mr. Lawrence if we put a policy in place you went back to Wells Fargo and said this trust is not within the scope of what we can accept they can they have the ability to modify that and bring it back where it does meet our terms right and

No, because the trust itself says that the proceeds or the sort of the profits of the corpus of the trust are to be used to place flowers. So it has nothing to do with Wells Fargo. The trust itself is set up that way. Now, Wells Fargo's attorneys could go to the court and have a judge and ask a judge to then order that the funds be dispersed to the city and the city then be the trustee. But obviously, I can appear in court and argue against that.

and give the will of the council being the the you know the basis for arguing against acceptance of that particular trust okay so who who's the trustee on on that particular one that we're speaking of at this point the bank wells fargo is a trustee on both okay so if they're the trustee then they have the ability to dictate or change direction right if they're the one in charge

No, their only responsibility is to adhere to the trust document. The trust document says what's supposed to be done with the trust funds. The trustee is just given the responsibility of handling the trust funds as the trust states. They don't get the discretion to spend it how they want to, unless it says that, but it doesn't say that in this situation.

So in that particular case, then moving forward, if we put a policy in place that doesn't fit with the wishes of that trust, let's assume that there are no errors available to speak at any longer for it. So then the remedy is to go through the court. Is that how that's handled in?

Well, I'm going to start by saying, first of all, I'm not a trust lawyer, number one. But number two, the trust dictates, because the trust is the document that dictates how the funds are spent. They would have to go to the court to have a judge order that the trust documents themselves essentially be amended by the court's order to be spent a different way.

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Lawrence, so if we decline the Robinson Trusts, What happens?

Wells Fargo continues to be the trustee and they're responsible for the Biden by the trust document itself.

And then if they petition a court in the court, if they petition a court to move it to somebody else, does it make it easier for a judge to see why we would not be able to honor that trust as opposed to just awarded anyway?

I don't quite understand your question.

They're going to a judge right now to be removed as trustee and make us trustee, right? No. They're not right now.

They're asking us by agreement to take over as trustee.

Okay. And then if we say no, their next step, in theory, could be to petition a court, right? Correct. Right. I did a terrible job of asking that question. The point that I was trying to kind of get towards is if we say no and they then go to a judge, a judge very reasonably could say, we're talking about flowers twice a year, guys. Why can't you do that? I could see a judge trying to be reasonable in saying that. But if we've already put it out in policy, here's what we can do at certain monetary thresholds. Here's what we cannot do. And I think that it makes it a little bit easier for a judge to be able to see how we have been thoughtful. It's not just saying no because we don't have any desire. It's just that we've been thoughtful about how to respond. Anyway, I think that my point has been made to staff. But there are two residents. Sorry, go ahead.

Well you have 2 parts to that particular denial one of them is staff starting to put flowers on graves, but the second part is only the we call the interest can be used for my purpose he can use the Corpus of flowers may go up. Whatever else is to decorate that may go up you may not be getting much interest of any proceeds from that and then you can't touch the Corpus you may not be able to accomplish the goal of a buying flowers major that put in one flower. So then you have the family that comes back and says, you're not really acting like a good trustee because it says flowers and you put one tulip, whatever that argument may be. So I think it just keeps the city from going down that road of a lot of possibilities other than just putting flowers that could take place.

Also mayor when I agree with you and cancel one boy, I really do think we're going to have to have a policy, especially when it comes to embellishments. My reasoning for that is, for instance, if the trustee says I want a certain flower on the grave site, but I'm a family member and maybe that's against my religion or I don't care for those flowers or vandalism takes place in the grave. There's just so many different things to look at when it comes to embellishments. And that's just really a huge concern of mine.

I will say that the business of taking care of cemeteries can be very costly. Just maintaining the rights away and the overall care of the cemetery can be costly. So these things, although there's tools in place to help out, they don't really fully cover the cost.

So, I guess at the end of the day, if we have a policy in place, the request from the bank or whoever it may be in the future for us to take on and take over as trustee, if it doesn't fit with our criteria and we don't, then that just means that the current trustee, which in this case would be Wells Fargo, continues to have to maintain it and carry out the wishes of that trust, and the responsibility stays where it's currently at. Yeah, then I'd say we put a policy in place and move on.

some form of action and be able to move forward something. The acceptance of the Griffin Trust that is only asking us to continue doing what we have previously done, I think we could safely act on. The declination of the Robinson Trust, I think that we ought to give staff opportunity to pull together a policy and then be able to adopt and decline at the same time if that's possible. Ron, if you need a decision faster than that, please just tell us. But otherwise, I think... That one could probably sit for at least a meeting.

I do not.

You do not? You need action?

We can wait. You said if we have to take some time or go ahead and take care of it, I'm saying I do not.

Okay.

We're not under any pressure to do that.

We're not under any pressure. Okay. Then, counsel, what is the will of counsel? I've stated that I think that we could safely do the acceptance of the Griffin Trust. Is there a motion to or not to, or is there a motion to table the whole item?

I would make a motion to accept the Griffin Trust and then it can take care of both of it in one motion and then deny the acceptance or table the acceptance, whatever the preference of council would be of the second one. I would make that motion, accept one and table one.

So to restate your motion would be to accept the Griffin Trust and then table the resolution regarding the Robinson Trust.

That is correct, Mr. Mayor.

Ron is that okay? Is there a second?

I'm gonna second that.

All right here in motion being properly made as reflected on the screen. Is there any further debate? Just just a quick Yes, sir, please. Quick question.

Why we just didn't get mics that we just push once and they just stay on.

But that won't my question. Those settings can be changed too. All of this is trying to fly the plane while rebuilding the thing.

But my question is just so I can understand why we tabling it. Because I feel like we all in agreeance that that's not something that we want to do. Or are we just waiting on the policy?

Yeah, for me it was just waiting for the policy to be able to say why. That's really all. Okay. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am, please.

So I'm in agreeing to the acceptable and the exception and the denial. However, we have, Willowdale has a preservation society. Is this something that we could share with them and maybe they could court the idea of taking on that responsibility of flowers?

Possibly, but I think I'm going to bring the deputy city manager because we are talking to them right now or he has been talking to them.

So you'll see in October a Willowdale presentation and entering a memorandum of understanding with them. We've talked about this as a possibility and it might be one of our considerations in a policy, but we haven't asked them per se if they want to take on that extra responsibility or not.

Any further debate? If not, we will call the vote. And again, the motion is to adopt one and table the others who allow those sorts of conversations to happen here. All right. All votes haven't been cast. Motion passes. The resolution for the Griffin Trust is adopted and the resolution for the Robinson Trust is tabled. And then we will bring the, there's not a specific date on that one. We'll bring that one back as soon as we can. Okay. I would like to be able to handle that next month, but I'm looking at Kelly and I don't want him to be mad at me. All right. Cool. Alright, with that, let's move to item 8.2. Mr. Livingston, would you like to brief?

Well, I think Mary, you've had a little bit more experience on this one than I have working with the military host cities and where we're at with that right now.

So I will then yeah, I will be brief as to not eat up everyone's time this evening. But the the mayors of military host cities and following along with with statute that defines the North Carolina Military Affairs Commission are very intentional about trying to show that they are really owning the responsibility of being a military host city. And so what does that mean? That means that you are being intentional about trying to have active lobbying efforts. It means you're trying to actively work to make the community a better place to raise a family and to be part of a family. It means absolutely going after childcare issues. It means absolutely advocating for construction on your base. It means all of those things. so the the other mayors of the other military host cities defined by statute we came up with a resolution that we wanted to put on the record at every single one of us have locked Jacksonville us Fayetteville obviously that clearly states Elizabeth City that clearly states that we are military host cities and we own that responsibility and then we also support the General Assembly and possibly the possibly federal representatives as well supporting efforts that make grant programs a little bit tailored towards us if that means that there's a grading rubric for a grant program that's a parks recreation plan and there's a hundred points of can we get three extra points for being a military host city on if it's a state level grant These are things that we are going to continue advocating for, and this is one of those steps. And so you've seen the other host cities have this same resolution, and a couple more will in the next couple of months. But I would appreciate council entertaining this resolution.

I make a motion that we approve the resolution.

I'll second.

All right. This motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any debate or discussion? We have other folks that are very engaged with military affairs on the state level. And if anyone else has any comments for, against, or suggestions, I'm all for them.

Mr. Mayor, not to belabor the point, but this is an awesome resolution. But it also will give us a nod. We're trying to work towards having an identifier so that we can be identified quickly so we can get those extra points at the state and federal level. So this is an excellent opportunity for us to try to set apart that we can get extra money because we do take on extra responsibilities with being a military host city. Sir, thank you for your advocacy.

So with that, a motion having been made and properly seconded, debate having been had, we will call the vote. Please vote electronically if possible. Excuse me.

Mr. Mayor, I vote in the affirmative.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. All right. All votes in favor of motion passes unanimously. Again, I appreciate everyone's support and advocacy in your own ways, both publicly and privately, for the things that we do as a military host city. We want to be the best. All right. We'll now come back to our second to last item under new business, item 8.3. Yes, ma'am.

Amy.

There you go.

with help from the assistant city manager if needed. So staff is proposing the special event policy be revised to allow the city manager to close Center Street between Chestnut and Spruce Streets when requested by a completed special event application. All other areas of Center Street will still require council approval. The purpose is to streamline the process for closing the streets by the Hub and Freedom Field. And this is it's come up a couple of times. So why does it have to come to council if you're just closing that little section? So that's why I can't all staff has brought it up for council consideration.

And council, I know this one has come come before us a couple of different times. Again, the other criteria would have to be in place. And this does not impact all of Center Street. It is just the block there in between Freedom Field and the hub. So is there an opinion of council or is there a motion table or a motion to approve?

Mayor, I would make a motion that we approve this item as requested by staff. All right. Motion's been made.

Is there a second?

I will second that.

All right. Is there any debate? Again, this is this is a policy that this council with a lot of foresight created. And this is us tweaking something that we have created and put on the books. I think it was good when we did it. I think it's better after the fact. But are there any other comments? Hearing none motion having been made a probably second debate debate being had. We'll call the vote please vote electronically if possible. All right, all those haven't been been cast motion passes unanimously.

All right.

Next and lastly, we will move to item 8.4. Mr. Livingston, do you want me to go directly to Ms. Brown?

I think this is one of those things that we've kind of thought through for several months now. We feel like designating as a park lines up with a lot of our other parks in terms of park hours, in terms of the rules and regulations that generally apply to all our various parks. and sort of helps streamline the process of using the hub instead of having to go to a couple different agencies. You just go through the Parks and Recreation Department. But I will hand it over to our Director Brown and see if she can elaborate a little more for us.

Good afternoon, everyone. I brought Jordan with me, our Marketing Specialist Supervisor, so we can tag team this together. But City Manager pretty much touched on my entire presentation.

No, you're good, you're good.

So very first thing, why designate the Hub as a city park? As he said, you know, better booking experience for our customers, streamlined communication with city departments, enforceable park hours to minimize damage and vandalism, and we already maintain some of it anyway. I know several of you know, but Parks and Recreation, we're responsible for cleaning the restrooms at the Hub, as well as we're responsible for maintaining the grounds, mowing the grass at the Hub. But to be clear, this is not something where Parks and Recreation is saying, okay, yeah, we decide this amongst ourselves and we're coming before you all tonight. We actually had a meeting about a month or so ago. There's several departments that have a hand in what goes on behind the scenes with the hub. So we're talking about police, IT, of course, Parks and Recreation. public works, I'm missing someone, downtown development, and it may be another department that I'm missing, but city manager's office. But again, just to show all the different departments that come into play and to the point where when someone wants to use the hub, because they do see our staff there cleaning the restrooms you know they were actually call us previously you know to they want to rent the hub so much so that if you call parks and recreation you know our phone tree says thank you for calling parks and recreation if you were inquiring about the hub or the field across from the hub please call one of our other departments I mean we provide a number for them to call because people will call us because they saw us And like I said, didn't have any problem taking the calls. It's just, you know, we weren't the ones responsible for renting it. But with that said, with our other parks, we, of course, do special events at our other parks. I'll throw out Hermann Park as an example. And that's where Jordan comes in. We have, you know, people that fill out a special event application. We go through it, specifically she goes through it, and then we reach out to the other departments as needed. So if someone wants to do a street closure, we're like, okay, you definitely need to go to the police department for a street closure. We don't do that, but we also give the police a heads up. if someone you know needs additional trash cans that's public works we'll reach out to public works so we're already doing that with our other parks anyway and so that's what this presentation is is again it's not something where we're like oh yeah We're just going to take it from everybody, but it was, you know, a group decision that was made to see how can we make everything better for everybody. But also with that, Jordan has been working on behind the scenes, you know, a new website for the Hub because that was one of the other things that came up. There actually wasn't a website for the Hub. So people would literally be calling around different departments trying to figure out who do I contact to rent this. So this is not live yet. This is just a preview for you all to see. But this would be like the landing page, the home page. And I cut it off at the top. These are screenshots that I did. But at the top, you know, is, you know, of course, city of Goldsboro. And then here the pictures is just different pictures of the hub. And then as you scroll down, we have the frequently asked questions, how to rent it, the features. And then we have like live buttons where if you click, it brings up like the Hub rental application, something like that for you to see. But also what we're working on with IT is we're working on having like a dedicated email address. We haven't gotten that solidified yet. So right now we just have Jordan Walker's name in there. But again, this website isn't live. We're just showing you all screenshots of it. But the idea would be someone's interested in renting the Hub. They click on that link and they fill out the application. And it actually comes to several of us behind the scenes. But that way, trying to future plan, not saying she's going anywhere, but should she go somewhere? By having a dedicated email address for the hub, other people will be able to, other city staffers will be able to dive into it later should that be the case. So that's our presentation as far as getting a decision from council tonight, if it's your pleasure for the hub to be dedicated as a city park and up under Parks and Recreation.

Yes, sir.

I was just going to make a comment. I think that's a great idea in the name of streamlining things, and I did have a chance to look at what Ms. Walker's been working on behind the scenes. I think it looks great and certainly all-inclusive so somebody can find out everything they need to know in one easy-to-get-to spot or at least be easily directed to that spot. So I know there's been a lot of hard work gone in behind the scenes on the website, and this is just another piece of it that will help our citizens.

Any other comments or questions? I'll just say that y'all already do a really nice job with the rental spaces for the other parks, the park house, the spaces over at Foster, and obviously up and coming, the spaces over at Peachtree. So to me, it feels quite logical. Yeah, it's a busy space, and I just want to stay that way. So I look forward to seeing what y'all build and how you choose to leverage it. Well, not hearing anything to the negative. I think we know where this is going. But is the council's pleasure to go ahead and adopt the resolution this evening? Or we counsel like this to be on our consent agenda for the next meeting if there are other things to they would like to ask or to think about?

Mayor, would it be stepping outside of precedent to vote on something that we're just hearing? And should we have it back on consent agenda? I'm fine with and ready to proceed, but I don't want to go around what we're established doing.

it is is purely at the pleasure of council this one again is not a highly contentious thing uh representatives from multiple departments amongst the city have already fleshed this out and said here's how it could work and so i don't really think that there's a whole lot for us to really question or ask about after the fact but of course i never want to put anything in front of council and then demand action without opportunity to question so

OK, well, if you're OK with it, then I'll make a motion that we accept this guidance and move forward.

All right, so a motion has been made to adopt the resolution as presented. All right, is there a second? Second. All right, a motion has been made and properly seconded to adopt the resolution designating the hub as a city park. Is there any debate? Hearing none, please vote electronically if possible. All right, all votes. All present votes been cast motion passes unanimously. Y'all. What's the timeline you think for go live on the site?

it could go live tomorrow cool well i mean y'all you know stress doesn't if it will give us that new email address definitely if i didn't want to say it out loud in case something happens and people start at the risk of creating an interdepartmental feud i'm going to say we're moving to the next item thank you all for sticking around this evening thank you

Alright, so that concludes all of the items on our agenda. Again, we do have conversations for closed session related to personnel litigation, a couple of different things that Ron's ready to talk about. So with that, well, let's move to our city manager's report. Mr. Lewiston.

I have nothing Mr. Mayor.

all right mr lewis and i appreciate you uh toughing it out this evening um he's he's here he's present he's capable but he's tired so we're gonna we're gonna leave it at that so but look i hope you uh feel better and hope if you don't that you choose not to be here in the morning for those around you that's my my humble opinion all right uh

Yeah, I um

I'm sorry, y'all. I tried. I tried. I tried. I've given him eight. I'm getting at least 18 opportunities to step up. All right. Anyway, back to back to business. This is the second meeting of the month of memory serves. And so we will follow our tradition. Councilman White, the floor is yours for any council member comment.

Thank you, Mr. Matt. I just have one. Shout out to Goldsboro Rehab over there. It used to be the Bryan Center. My mom was there for about two weeks, and they took real good care of us, so I really appreciate that. That's all I have.

I'm glad she's doing well, sir.

No comment, Mr. Mayor.

Remember?

Mayor, I wanted to congratulate Councilman Boyett. I saw where you were elected for the second term for the League of Municipalities Legislative Policy Committee. And so I just wanted to congratulate you on that, sir. We're very proud of you. also I've been in contact with councilwoman Jones and she is just sounding really good and she was watching tonight and I just wanted to honor her she has called me many times just to say what do you need how can I serve you what can I do for you and how can I pray for you and I just think that just speaks so highly of her and her testimony so we miss you and we look forward to seeing you very soon that's all I have there

No comment.

I'll steal a line from Councilman Boyette. Thank you to all of our city employees, you guys, guys and girls. It's been an incredibly busy summer. It's been a hot summer. It was a dry summer and then it became just a hot, wet summer. But to each and every one of you that's out there actually doing the work and the heavy lifting and getting dirty every day. Anytime I see y'all and I'm riding by, I always try to stop and say hello, but I know I don't get to everybody. But I really do appreciate all the work that you're doing and it's absolutely making a difference. So please do not stop. All right, that concludes my comments. Mr. Lawrence, motion to go into closed session for litigation and personnel. Is that correct? All right. Council would entertain a motion to go or request a motion to go into closed session to discuss matters related to personnel and litigation.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right. Motions have been made and properly seconded to go into closed session to discuss matters regarding litigation and personnel. Is there any debate? Hearing none, all in favor, please vote electronically if possible. Yes, sir. Yes. All right. All right. Motion passes on a five one vote. The eyes have it begrudgingly or not. Here we are. All right. So with that, if everyone will reconvene in closed session, the interim in just a few minutes. All right, our agenda has been completed for the evening. Appreciate everybody's time and diligence. Nothing else is on the agenda for tonight. Council, do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion's been made. Do I have a second? Motion's been made and properly seconded. Do I have a motion? I'll show a hand. All in favor? All opposed? We actually have one extra one. All right, motion passes. We say adjourn.

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