City Council - Regular Meeting

Reminders, if he didn't show up. Anybody else in the room?

Great, all. Are we live? We're live. All right. Sounds great. Thanks for being here, everybody. I would like to call the August 11th City Council meeting to order and welcome everyone here tonight and welcome those who are watching on YouTube. At this time, if we... Bobby, would you mind giving the invocations?

No problem. All right.

Thank you, sir.

Will you join me in prayer, please? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity. We as citizens and elected officials gather together to take care of the business of Graham. We seek your wisdom and discernment as we go about this. Let us be patient. Let us be mindful of the mission and task you've given to us. Father, we ask you to guide us. Let all that we do, it's your will be done. These things we ask in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

At this time, if you could stand, if you're able, for the pledge.

One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

to remind you of your duty to serve the public with integrity, transparency, and impartiality. I remind you of your obligation to avoid conflict of interest, financial or personal, and to disclose any relationship, investment, or affiliation that could reasonably be seen to influence your judgment on tonight's agenda. I remind you of your duty to base decisions on merit of each matter free of undue influence, gifts, or favors from any party with interest in an outcome. I remind you of your responsibility to treat all members of the public, staff, and fellow council members with respect and to conduct this meeting openly and in accordance with the law. With that, I ask if there are any potential conflicts of interest concerning tonight's agenda items.

Madam Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we remove Agenda item number seven under new business.

For fiscal year 25-26.

Make a motion we approve.

I've got a couple. OK. And then for A, I saw during my recusal for the Main Street portion, Jim had asked where the board had decided that there was not to be a Main Street involvement. Bobby had said that there was a motion to be passed, but I went through and saw on March 14th, 2023, Talley was sent to the, or approved to go to the national conference. All right. So the March, that same March was when it was unfunded and refunded. Okay. Those are all my questions. Ricky, I will move back to your motion.

Just to Add to that, if I may, if you don't mind. She ended up not going, so.

No, I know. I just saw where the budget amendment was approved. Are you good? Can we move back to Ricky's? Yes, ma'am. All right.

Make a motion we approve the agenda as written.

In September, if it goes further than that, that's no problem. We can put the timelines to whatever city council would like us to do. Okay. Thank you.

Aaron, I have someone saying that the- Can you speak into your mic, please, Ricky? I have someone on the text message saying the broadcast is not going out on YouTube.

Thank you, Ricky. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to open up conversation between council. Bonnie, do you want to start? I know that you circulated.

Your cost of construction, maintenance, and any and all other costs of whatever nature required for the use and development of said property. Number four, city reserves the discretion to reject any and all bids. Those are the ones that we have.

I just wanted you to read them first in case some of mine are repetitive and we may have to weed them out, I guess. The ones that I had come up with were that there would be no assignment clause, meaning that the buyer is not allowed to transfer the deal. Buyers shall obtain an approved site plan, including a rendering for construction within one year of purchase. A buyer should be financially responsible for proper repair and remediation of the existing basement located on the property prior to construction of any approved project. All present and future construction costs, care, maintenance, or repair costs for approved project constructed or placed stood on the site for 80 years. No parking lots. or apartment buildings should be allowed, shall be allowed, and no buildings above three stories. That's the ones that I had.

Does HRC's regulations negate the need for the last item?

It could, yeah. It could. It very well could. Some of these could be overlapping.

My other question is, for number four, you said all present, future construction costs. If they want to get grants, they can get grants. No, city grants, like a facade grant. Are they not eligible for a facade grant here?

Oh, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that they can't, you know, any kind of construction costs, care, maintenance, or repair costs for that project, should be privately funded like the city out so sure we can add that to it like I said this is just kind of a rough draft thing that I came up with some of them may be overlapping in some areas so we'll have to tweak it you know I'm sure Bobby do you have any to add or any questions for Bonnie all right the things that I had submitted or I thought about um

on deed restrictions. The building of the purchaser for the contract is awarded. Bids for the property must be equal to or greater than the appraised value of the property. Property will be appraised as a commercial lot. And architectural rendering of the proposed structure be bill will be submitted within 30 days of offer acceptance appearance should be similar to the building that existed prior to 1979. All existing of at a certified landfill location for the type of contamination being those were my thoughts.

Bob how much of that. some items on there that it has to be, or do we have to make that restriction now?

I think a combination of what Council Member Chen and what we have here. I think it's been covered in the basic, you know, all development shall comply with all applicable laws, ordinances, and regulations, which would include building codes. And I believe, as was mentioned, there's certainly some overlap here that can be taken out. And I guess it's up to this council to which ones they want to keep in. But I have a suggestion. I think, like you said, you know, the ones, of course, our role, quite frankly, is, you know, to make a determination if we can as to whether or not they're legal in a appraiser, you know, to look at what we have and make recommendations. I just, I just, offer that as a suggestion at this juncture.

Thank you, Bob.

Put an end to bidding process that we collect 25% of the money up front.

Like earnest money? Is that what you're saying? Yes. Like as soon as we accept a bid, they have 24 hours?

It is. I mean, you know, it's not the typical residential deal, you might say, but when you get down to it, you can require whatever you want to. You can require whatever you want to be paid down, and that's just, you know, part of it. People will receive the bid instructions, and they'll just have to comply with it if they're interested in it and submit the bid proposal.

Okay. Ricky, did you have any thoughts on what Bobby or Bonnie had said?

I agree with what Bobby and Bonnie had said. Okay.

Jim, deed restriction thoughts, please.

I think a lot of the stuff will be handled by the HRC. Um, I don't think that the HRC was formed, had been formed when the park was built. Um, I might be wrong, but I don't think it was, but, uh, I think a lot of the stuff that we're putting on there, the HRC handles some of those. And I know there was a lot of discussion about if they purchased the park and they want to donate it back to the city, the city doesn't have to accept it. And also, you put a lot of restrictions on property, then nobody's going to want to buy it. But that's just my two cents. So are you in favor of... Bobby and Bonnie and Ricky have valid points. It's just my opinion HRC and basic real estate would handle anything else.

So you're in favor of Bob's list and that's pretty much it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I think the HRC will handle whatever's going up there. They have to look at it anyway.

Okay. But I think what Mr. Ward said about having an appraiser look at what we're recommending, that those things that would lower the appraisal value, then we wouldn't want to include that. Because we want to get the best appraisal value for the property. And anything that will drive that cost, that value down, we don't want to.

So you're in favor of composing all of these into one and giving it to the appraisal? and having them report back in September what Bob said.

What's good, what's bad.

Their recommendations of deed restrictions. Right. Okay. I need consensus on moving forward. Do you have any? My thoughts would be, and I think they would be unpopular with this council, Um, but my thoughts would be that we restrict it to, this has got to be a park that's publicly accessed because I think that that is such an access asset for downtown. It's an asset for our downtown businesses. Our downtown businesses have expressed the extreme lack of parking. So we don't want to add new infrastructure downtown. Um, and so my deed restriction would be to say, whoever buys it, they've got to keep it a public access. park privately maintained.

No, well, that goes with an open bid, everybody has an opportunity to bid on it.

Sure, and everybody would have an opportunity to keep it an open park if we choose that restriction.

If the winning bid is for the park, so be it. Yeah.

But I think one of your deed restrictions saying that they've got to create a zero lot line building would prohibit that lot from staying a park?

Well, it's a question of how we word the bid. It can be a park or it could be a building. If it's going to be a building, it needs to conform.

I don't, I didn't hear in your language the if statement. It sounded like it must be a building with a zero lot line. Okay. So it does give the opportunity for a park to remain.

If the winning bid is for a park, they'll have the responsibility to build a park.

Okay. So do I have consensus to combine all of these deed restrictions, give them to the appraiser, and then have them report back in September? Yes, from Jim.

I would like to have it happen sooner than September. Bob, how much time do we need to give the appraiser?

I will defer to Aaron on that. Aaron has dealt with the appraiser. I guess to some degree it depends upon the schedule here, but it's got a little extra assignment here in going through these restrictions. It's a little more. Aaron, what would be your take as far as turnaround on the appraisal?

I was going to say it really depends on the workload of the appraiser. So, I mean, the sooner we can get it to the appraiser, you know, the quicker they can get to it. So, after we get a green light, if council moves forward and, you know, I can get started with them to see how long it is done.

Okay. One, one final thought, I guess, and I'll ask Renee, you know, whenever we can get a composite together, uh, we'll, Aaron and I and Brian will talk, but we will get the list onto an appraiser as soon as we, as soon as we possibly can. And, and we, and if, and the reason I'm bringing up, I'm asking permission to go ahead and get this list, prior to having the minutes approved at the next meeting to approve the list.

I'm going to... Yeah, we'll go ahead and send the list, and you have...

I'm going to make an assumption that this list stands approved as offered by the council member, and with that, we will move forward.

And I'm going to... Jim, you're not going to submit a list of deed restrictions because you don't have them.

Okay? I think the HRC handles all that.

Okay. And so you should hear from the four of us our deed restrictions. Right. In other words, they should be given to Renee.

Renee will put together a composite list. We'll get that on to the... And we're going to take the list as presented. We're not going to do any editorial or call in our... Sure. And then we get it on to the appraiser. And then... then we can get a time frame at that point.

Erin, do you have the calendar of events on one of your slides? If not, that's okay. I just wanted to throw it up there. No. Okay. Okay. That is consensus. Are we good to move on from that topic? Megan, you good?

I think my only question would be if there are conflicting deed restrictions. Just to use the example tonight, if yours was it shall be a park and the others may conflict with that, do you want us to kind of separate it into the ones that don't conflict and have to come back with two different numbers?

I think, like Bob said, let the appraisal pick the, this is the best bang for your buck for the piece of land. So he or she will weed out the other ones that council does not want to see.

I guess there should be, if you're going to propose to build something, we have conditions. If you're going to bid to build a park, you have assumptions. The opportunity is going to be, hey, you can build a park or you can build a structure.

We'll just make sure that's clear in our language.

That's the way the bid should be.

Then we'll have time to wordsmith it at the September meeting or whenever this comes back. I think we need to. Okay. All right, let's move on to public hearing.

Interrupt you just a second. The issue has been brought up. Do we want to entertain getting more than one appraisal? Or do we just want to go with one? In other words, there may be some value in getting two appraisals. Of course, you're talking about time, but we're talking about a fairly complex matter here. And from the City of Brown's point of view, we'd like to get probably the best value that you can. So all for that is just a suggestion. And if the council, by consensus, would like us to proceed along those lines, we'll certainly do so.

OK.

I would wait for us to get at least two or three for appraisal. OK.

Yes. Yes, at least three is what I'm hearing as consensus from council.

Okay. Okay. We will proceed accordingly. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Bob. All right. Annexation East Hardin Street. This is a public hearing scheduled to consider approving an annexation ordinance to extend the corporate limits of City of Graham. Aaron, can I recognize you in this?

All right. Thank you, Mayor. As you just... alluded to, this is an appraiser request. I'm sorry, appraiser. Anastasia request for a property located off of East Hardin Street, parcel ID is 152084, 152083. The property is approximately 0.73 acres. It's being requested to be annexed into the city as the property owner has connected to public utilities, which comes with a requirement that you annex into the city upon doing so. The property is zoned R18. However, the property is also going through a planning board for rezoning to a commercial zoning, which would come to council at a later date.

Yes. So this is only for the annexation and not the rezoning?

Correct.

And just to reiterate this property but up to the city of Graham yes lines and they've decided to take on water and sewer for the city and so it's a the next check box is to bring them into the city correct if you're if if a property is on a note to make it known and Jason to the city limits and they have to an exam right okay. Do you have any comments before we open public hearing.

No okay.

Can I have a motion to open public hearing?

Second motion, we open public hearing.

All in favor? Aye. All right. The public hearing is now open. Is there anyone that would like to speak to this annexation? Come on up. You could give your name and address. We don't make it easy on you. I apologize. Name and address, please.

I'm Dewey Brown. I own the property. I assume this is the right piece of land down there. And I represent, I'm supposed to be here to represent it, is all I can tell you.

Okay.

There is no sewer down there. I had to put in a septic tank. But I do have, and requested, and do have city water.

Okay. Do you have any questions or anything?

No, I don't.

All right. Well, thank you for being here to represent the property. Is that it? If that's all that you want to share.

Thank you.

Thank you. Does anybody else have anything to share on this public hearing for annexation? All right. At this time, I'm going to ask if we can close the public hearing.

I'm not going to close the public hearing.

Second. All in favor? Aye. All right. I need, well, is there any discussion?

Madam Mayor, I make a motion we approve the annexation.

All in favor? Aye. All right. Aaron, you have an annexation. All right. Next on the agenda is rezoning 10.05 acres off Zero Hanford Road. Aaron, I'm going to identify you again for this, please, sir.

Thank you, Mayor. This item has been tabled a few times by council to today's day. This is a request to rezone 10.05 acres of property from R18 to conditional residential. The previous plan that was reviewed by council did show 16 cottage homes and 10 custom built homes. There has been a change to the site plan since that submittal. It was submitted to staff the same day that the packets went to council. So what you have is different from what was requested to be tabled prior. So it's up to council if you would like for us to proceed or if you would like us to have this sent back through for review by TRC and planning board.

So TRC and planning board has not seen what we're talking about tonight.

Mm-hmm.

And TRC would need to review it. In the planning board. Yeah, in the planning board. So it would have to come back to us again.

Yes. Generally, when we have a change to a site plan, we do want to make sure it gets checked off. That was a requirement by council a few years ago.

So we could do it twice or we could just wait and do it all in one.

Right. And if it has to come back, if you send it back down and it comes back to council, it would be on your

October City Council meeting.

Okay.

I'll make a motion that we table the rezoning and have it resubmitted through the TRC and the Planning Board for review and approval.

I got a second from Jim. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Passed unanimously. All right. So we'll have that back before us in October. Moving on, we've got new business ordinance amendment chapter 20, traffic and vehicles, parking and work zone and special event areas. Aaron Holland, can I recognize you again, please, sir?

All right. Thank you, Mayor. At the conclusion of the June 9th city council meeting, staff was directed by council to review current ordinances pertaining to chapter 20, traffic and vehicles. Staff had raised concerns prior about the difficulty of road construction and repairs due to vehicles being parked on the road, even with notice to residents of impending road work. This issue also was echoed by the police department as they've dealt with similar issues with council approved street closures. North Carolina General Statute Provide municipalities with the ability to tow vehicles with proper notice of construction in advance. Staff is requesting to add the necessary language based on the NCGS direction for proper towing capabilities. Staff does recommend approval.

Great. So to reiterate, we kindly ask you right now not to park in the event areas and the public work construction zone areas. If this ordinance passes, we could also tow your vehicles.

Correct.

Okay. Council, do you have any questions? Any thoughts? This has come before us from staff. They needed some help and is recommended for approval from staff.

The mayor make a motion that we approve this text amendment. Second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Aye. Oh, okay. 4-1.

When it comes to special events, I don't know if towing should be, I guess it should be a measure of last resort.

Hmm.

it kind of is a last resort written in the ordinance. We give a lot of warnings. Is that correct, Aaron?

Yeah, I think the general practice, and I don't want to speak for PD, but I think the effort to try to get vehicles that are parked out on the roadways or parking spaces, that's done. But when we're at that point of no return, we would like to have the ability to clear the spaces out as necessary People are coming in with large pieces of equipment and apparatuses. We don't want to have that blocked by vehicles. So it just gives us the ability, if we have to, that we can, essentially.

Your vote can stand. I just wanted to clear that up for the public that we're not going to get toe happy after this.

We're just... That's my concern. Special events, if it's properly advertised and you're notified and... You don't tow, well, it's time for you to move your car. Another thing, if equipment is being brought in to be set up, whether it be a bounce, some apparatus, whatever, but just because, okay, it's now within the time we want to clear the streets for a special event, you know, hey, if somebody's Buying something, you know, reasonable.

Just wanted to confirm. His concerns were noted in the notes. You're good. All right. Good. Thank you, Bobby.

What is the final vote?

4-1. Bobby was against. All right, moving on to donation policy. City Council will consider adopting a donation policy effective August 12th tomorrow. And I'm going to recognize our city manager, Megan Garner, for this one.

Thank you. North Carolina general statutes clearly give City Council the authority to accept donations of real and personal property. This can only be delegated in whole or in part upon approval by the governing board. The draft policy before you delineates which categories of donation could be accepted by City Council or staff. City Council approval per the draft proposed tonight would still be required for donations of real property, monetary donations exceeding $30,000, donations intended for use by City Council, donations earmarked for a certain purpose or purposes, and any donated funds, even if they weren't for City Council or they were under our dollar threshold, would have to be approved via budget amendment by City Council before they could be spent. Staff approval would be authorized for monetary donations up to $30,000 and personal property valued less than $30,000. Two recent examples of personal property that were donated that came before City Council were the drone from the 9-11 organization City Council had to approve and the custom kitchen table for the fire department had to come before City Council for approval.

Sure.

Okay. Thank you, Megan.

Jim, do you have any thoughts on this policy?

I don't.

Okay.

Ricky?

I don't. I'm pleased with it.

I've got a couple of things, but Bobby, Bonnie, do y'all have thoughts on it?

Nope.

Where does sponsorship fall in this? It wasn't mentioned, so I didn't know if it was completely separate or if it was... Where does that fall?

Sponsorship was approved by City Council under a separate policy brought forth by the Rec Department in the last, I would say, probably two-ish years. And if you don't have that policy, we'll be happy to get it to you.

And then... In-kind donations and services were not mentioned in this. Is that something that we should include?

I would say it's probably not something that we really have often unless it's someone volunteering their time. We don't get a lot of people. given in-kind donations.

Okay.

But if City Council had one preference one way or the other, we could certainly address it in the policy. Okay.

All the donations still have to be approved by Council anyway before the money is spent, correct?

Yes, any dollars, correct. So even if they fell under the $30,000 before they could be spent, they would have to come before City Council with a budget amendment.

This policy says city may decline donations, but there's not a clear process or timeline to formally reject them. Is that something that would help city staff if that was outlined in this policy?

Not necessarily. I think there are some things that may take a little longer to determine whether it would be in the city's best interest to accept or deny. Okay.

Do we have recurring or multi-part donations that would become a gray area between that $30,000 threshold?

None that I can think of as far as recurring donations, no. Not that I can think of. Okay.

And no multi-part? No. Okay. Okay. Policy says donations must immediately be submitted for review. Is there a timeline or a time frame for any of that?

No, again, I think some would take a little longer to determine whether they should be accepted than others.

And then There's no mention of long-term restricted gifts or endowments. Does our Parks and Rec deal with that, those kinds of gifts? That was the only kind of department that I could think of for, like, endowment stuff.

Yeah, I can't think of any they have received. But, again, if it were earmarked for any specific purpose, it would have to come before city council before it could be accepted.

Okay. Those were my questions as far as the holes and... what could be added to that policy. Is there anything that you guys want to add after that, or are we still good?

Still good.

OK. I'm good. All right. I'll entertain a motion.

I make a motion we approve this adoption donation policy.

I'm sorry.

Second.

Do you want the effective date in that motion, Megan? That would be fantastic.

Make a motion that we adopt the donation policy effective August 12th, 2026. Second. 12-01.

12-01. All in favor? All opposed? 5-0. All right. Moving on.

Y'all got until that time to get the donations rolling in tonight.

So they don't have to follow protocol. Okay, Fall Festival Special Event, Downtown Graham. City Council will consider approving a request to use sidewalks around Downtown Graham for vendor tents in the Sesquicentennial Park area on Saturday, September 19, 2026, with the rain date being October 18. The time for that is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for Fall Fest, and I will recognize Erin Holland.

Thank you, Mayor. Basically, what you just said is exactly what I was going to read, but...

Sorry, I stole your... No, you're fine.

You're fine. The only reason that we're sending it through this channel to get approved versus consent agenda is because of the addition of Sesquicentennial Park being requested to be used. The prior year, it wasn't, but being that it changes the request, that's why it's going before council.

Okay. Thank you, Aaron.

I have one question.

Yeah. Can you speak into your mic, please, Ricky?

The people putting this on, are they going to have to carry liability insurance?

So I know that's the part that attorneys and I have. I don't want this to be a city sanctioned event. Yeah. That's the part that the attorney and I have spoken about. Chances are we're going to at least need to have it, if not more than to cover the six months attending a portion of it. vendors, um, merchants already have a certain space outside of their size that they can use already. Um, but I think getting some liability insurance coverage will take care of the park part of this. Okay.

Any other questions from council?

So basically the sponsor on their certificate of insurance should list the city of Graham. Correct.

Okay. Is there any reason, is Burke here? Is there any reason to think if they're going to be around where the park was and where they've got grass growing and everything, that it's going to be any kind of hazard on that surface?

So I did check with Burke. He didn't have that much concern except for if it's rained recently because that area is still sort of establishing itself with the grass. So it could get muddy. That would be an inconvenience for anyone that's, I guess, standing on it or having anything stacked on it. But from what I can tell from the application, the use of that space is going to be limited. But essentially, if it rains prior to the event, then obviously the people on the park will have muddy shoes.

Yeah. Okay. Just wondering. I mean, we always make some money turning into mud wrestling.

Any other questions from council? No. Okay.

Madam Mayor, I make a motion that we approve this fall festival event. Second.

Do we need to include the dates, or are you good? End the motion. I don't think it hurts to have the dates.

Okay.

Madam Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the fall festival special event in downtown Graham on September the 19th, 2026. Second.

I'm going to add with the addition of rain date October

18th as well on that.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? It's 5-0. Passed. Thank you, guys. We're really excited about the Fall Festival. We can't wait to see you downtown. Moving on, skipping number seven because that was part of the agenda approval process. Number eight is vehicle sales. City Council will direct staff on Council's preferred option for the amendment to existing ordinances governing vehicle sales. Aaron Holland.

Thank you again. At the conclusion of the June council meeting, council provided consensus for staff to review existing ordinances governing vehicle sales and propose regulatory language to strengthen the approval process. It was suggested that the city look into doing a moratorium. However, staff from research in other communities looked into criteria that communities that have stronger language has and wanted to say that we could possibly incorporate that into our ordinance and strengthen what we have without having to go through the moratorium because eventually that would be the end goal of a moratorium is to get language that could strengthen what you currently have. So what you have before you has not been reviewed by planning board. and essentially what we're asking based on option one, which is to add criteria to the permitted use part of our development ordinance or option two, which is to create a special use category for the use. Staff recommends option one, special uses are very difficult. And we believe that if we have criteria that is approved by city council, that would be what we could use to review requests to have car sales and that could weed out those that maybe we're not trying to have, you know, coming to the city.

Okay.

So we just need direction on, you know, option one or two to plan a booking.

to the process as we give our thoughts, it goes to planning board and comes back to us. Right.

Okay. Madam Mayor, since I brought this up at the last meeting, I would like to make a motion that we approve using number one.

Okay. Are there any other thoughts before I ask for a second? No. Okay. I know that the whole purpose of this was to target used car lots. Sorry, can you speak into your mic?

It's to keep new car lots from popping up that really doesn't fit the character.

Sure. But it's targeted to car lots, correct? Yes, ma'am. Okay. My question is... Do we have other things that we want to put in this so it's less targeted for car lots, and that could be outdoor displays and sales of business, other high-traffic commercial uses, large lot for commercial uses, so that we have more in this other than just these one-off, very targeted policies? Is there more that we want to explore putting in this policy?

Well, I think the use, I think the criteria is tailored to the use of car lots. So if anything else is thrown in, I think we would have to review those uses because it may not be applicable for the lighting standard that you would have for car lots for some other type of business. I think... What this came from was centered around car lots in mind. And our ordinance doesn't distinguish between new or used car lots. That's why it's just vehicle sales because that's how our ordinance addresses that. But if we're looking at any other uses that may also be tied in at this, I think it could change the criteria listing because I think this is tailored for car lots.

And this is a citywide. It's not just the corridors down 54 or 87. This is a citywide.

It's citywide, but one specifically highlights 87 and 54. Okay. Okay.

Well, that's because the overlay is there. So you would want to have a higher criteria basis for that versus a car lot on another street that's not our overlay area. Right.

OK. I'm good to send it to planning board to get their thoughts on it. Ricky, do you want to go back to your motion?

Is there a second?

Make a motion that we approve the option one. adding to the development orders as a use by right with special conditions.

So we're sending it to the planning board, though, right? We're sending it to the planning board, but we're sending option one only to the planning board. Is there any... Right. It's going to... No use in going through it right now. Is there any... benefit in sending both of these to the planning board for them to look at both or.

I mean certainly can I do think it. It does change the review by planning board if they know they're looking at it as a you are right and they're going in with the expectation that we're putting specific things in place because if it's going to be staff approved and these criteria we're going to we would like to see because It doesn't go any further. Special use is a whole other animal. You have to put on a totally different pair of glasses to see what you want to have there. I just think it could complicate it by sending both.

Yeah, that's fine.

I think it's preference to counsel of how you're looking at the vehicle sales being approved going forward. So that's why it was brought back at request by counsel.

I think we need to stay away from special use, personally.

OK. we had a motion for option one all in favor aye all opposed all right you are sending option one before planning board we'll see that october november yes okay um number nine facade and beautification grant changes city council will discuss making possible changes um to the existing facade and beautification grants aaron holland

Thank you again. We also approved in the past budget to maintain the current funding levels for our facade and beautification grants, which are at $15,000 each. But they did temporarily pause the spending while staff research potential interior project expenses. Based on a review of programs in other jurisdictions, the attached document establishes guidelines to properly expand funding to cover specific interior improvements. So what you have before you are basically the criteria that other jurisdictions that provide funding for both interior and exterior have in place for their jurisdictions. Most of what you see are things that won't be able to be taken off if someone left. So you have your plumbing, electrical, painting, flooring, windows, doors, lighting upgrades. Those are things that if you approve it for someone to have done, if they left and went somewhere else, it's not as though they can take that with them like you could with maybe furniture or some other items. Staff does recommend that if we do move forward, that we be general and moving forward. Our HRC and Appearance Commission, they review exterior criteria currently. So if we do ask that they look at interior as well, that we are not asking them to run it through the same lenses that we do for exterior, where it has to be historic, because we do not have any say of what anyone does on the inside as far as decor, colors, things of that like. So that's why I'm saying if this is something that HRC or Appearance does take on, that they're taking it on from a general perspective, not for any aesthetic approvals.

OK. Jim, you want to kick us off? You have any thoughts on this?

I think to Erin's point about the Appearance Commission HRC perhaps because it is you know historical and what they do what we're approving on the outside the facades and everything they have requirements you know paint codes and certain construction techniques and the windows style I think I'm the one that originally suggested this and my my idea was if some of the the older buildings had tile when you went into the entrance and some of it was very elaborate and very beautiful. And I was thinking that, you know, if the grants could cover the restoration of that or perhaps any of the woodwork, but if you're doing plumbing and electrical and things like that, it's not really preserving the historical value. qualities of of that building um and i think that would be kind of to have the that other stuff in there would be i would say it would probably be a headache for hrc and the appearance board to look at that stuff because i mean how do you you know we're gonna go back to like iron pipe and you know sweat and copper and all this stuff i mean it would probably be beautiful but But, you know, not necessarily, you know, by today's standards. So I think that may be limited to flooring in the entry and exit area of the business where the doors are at going in and out. Inside and outside the entry doors.

Inside. Well, like the tile area, you know, the doors.

the entrance, when you open up the tile, sometimes the tile goes under the door and it's inside. Um, and then, you know, some of them have like the original 10 ceilings, something like that, where it's, it's, it is actual historical part of the building, something like that. I just don't, I don't know. I think it would be great if we could, but I think for HRC, with it being historical and the appearance commission, Asking them to do plumbing and electrical and heating and air might be a bit much, especially with the amount of the grant.

The money pots are very tiny to be covering so much. Yeah. Okay. Ricky, do you have thoughts?

Yes, ma'am. I'm very opposed to using any grants to... do any interior work. That is the property owner's responsibility or the leasee's responsibility.

Bobby, any thoughts?

I'll give you an example of how you can go overboard on the interior. At Fort Belvoir, they've got some old buildings that used to be barracks. They renovate it And the historical folks got involved. And instead of installing windows that were better, energy efficient, they forced the builder to put in original windows, which would leak. And it was one of those things. It's one thing to take care of the facade. Another thing when you try to keep the interior and as Jim says, well, what if they got 10 roofs? Hey, if I buy a building and I want to make it better, keeping the 10 roof or the ceiling might be counterproductive. I'm hearing you say you're... The ceiling, I mean, the interior. You would not want to have the side money spent on the interior. Okay.

I agree because that I would not want the facade money spent on the interior because That's a lot on our HRC and our appearance commission, and they do a lot as it is. And I think this would just put an undue burden on them, number one. And number two, you may have somebody come forward that has, for instance, they want to redo their ceiling or something or their floor, and then you look at the outside of their building and it looks pretty bad. So I'm thinking, you know, what do we see? What does everyone see when they're They're driving around town. They see the outside of these buildings. And I wouldn't want them to spend a facade grant on the inside before they correct what's wrong on the outside. I think we should just stick to the outside.

So stick to the policy? The current policy. The current. Yes, ma'am. Can somebody make a motion?

I'll make a motion that we stick with the current facade and beautification grant.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Aye.

Okay, that was 4-1. Jim is opposed to that. Okay. Sorry, I'm going to pause right here. Did everybody sign up to speak for public comments that wants to speak at public comments?

Cool.

All right. We will start public comments then. Thank you for Thank you for pausing for me. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Catherine, you are up first here. If you could state your name and your address, and then you have three minutes. Okay. Thank you so much for being here.

Well, I'm Catherine Baird, and I'm a business owner on Main Street in Graham, and that's actually how I start my speech. My name is Catherine Baird, and I own a small business on Main Street in Graham. I've owned a store for almost eight years, and I've been on Main Street in Graham for four and a half years. Did you know that? The name of my store is Gala Couture, and I sell apparel and gifts. I would be interested in knowing who here tonight even knew any of that. Gala Couture is my only livelihood, and I came tonight to ask for your help and support. In December, I almost closed my store. 2025 was the hardest year in business yet, even more so than COVID and election years combined. I had planned to leave Graham or close the store altogether because I was broke. I searched for a new store location in Mebane, Burlington, Greensboro, and even as far as Jamestown. But I grew up in Graham. My mom still lives in the same house where I grew up on Parker Street. My forebears have lived here, I think, even before Graham was named. My dad was actually born, worked, and lived on the same city block where I grew up. So I'm very invested in Graham and I want my business to thrive here. My struggle has been exposure and customer traffic. When requests are made to improve tourism downtown, the common response is, oh, the businesses are just fine. They don't need any help. Well, maybe a few are fine. but not all of us. In four and a half years, I haven't been asked how I'm doing. I'm here tonight because of a discouraging discovery. In July, two tourists visited Graham because several months ago, Graham was featured by Deborah Noel on PBS Weekender. She is a very popular Instagrammer who visits and features various cities across the state. Two tourists had a handwritten list comprised of several businesses featured by Ms. Noel. But unfortunately, Gala Couture was not on the list. It wasn't visited. It wasn't mentioned or featured. The couple only found me quite by accident. They saw my window display and entered. They shopped and literally asked, and I quote, how could such a delightful store have been missed? They were glad they found me and I was grateful. And this is also a question I've wondered. We businesses downtown cooperate amongst ourselves to promote our social media and to plan events. But there's some simple ways the city could help. Our city website contains very little tourism info to reach the needed scope of tourism to support Graham. The website consistently has outdated material, sometimes even as much as a year or two old. There's not a legend of businesses or a map of businesses on the site, and there are no wayfinder signs anywhere in the city that I've seen to direct visitors. The tourism liaison, Kaylee, who is paid for by occupancy taxes, is tasked with posting city information like road closures and water main issues and very little tourism. It's my understanding that a new website is under construction. Thank you, Catherine.

If you could email us the rest of your comments. Sure. We really appreciate that you're here.

Email all of us, please.

Thank you. Yes, please. Thank you for being here. Daniel Alves.

Daniel Alves, 1022 No Road. It's coming for y'all, I know of three times, and I brought it up twice from local business owners downtown Graham about this trash truck that's leaving this stuff all over downtown. And now that we're saving $20,000, you know, not planting flowers at this park that we got that I think is an exaggerated number. Can we get the trash truck fixed so I don't have to go wash the asphalt down twice a week so my customers can sit outside and enjoy themselves? Secondly, I'd like to hear from Ricky, Bonnie, and Bobby on how y'all would like to see

city of graham spend the grant money that we have since y'all chose to vote the to do away with the park and i'd like to hear your answer tonight thank you daniel um greg and ruth saunders you guys still here i think they left i think they left with the hanford room yeah they were here for the hanford road thing all right richard white Name and address, please, sir.

My name is Richard Wright, and I live at 236 South Marshall Street in Graham. And I just wanted to come by. I'm representing the Citizens Committee, the Susquehanna Park Citizens Committee. And we are moving apace. We are moving ahead quite energetically. We've had several meetings. We brought Dr. Powell, Sam Powell, on board. And he is sort of shepherding us as far as gathering money, gathering pledges right now, gathering pledges. And we're moving full force into buying this property. And I just want to thank the board, personally thank the board, for all the assistance you've given us. It's a very hard thing for us to do because we're just citizens. We really don't know what we're doing, okay? You guys do. We don't. All we know is that's sacred property. And our moms and dads and our grandmas and grandpas, they put in money to make that park. It's not even a park. It's just like a celebration area. And that's why we're here, to make sure that hallowed ground stays hallowed ground. And I just want to thank everyone here for the good help that you've given us. And when we submit our bids, all I can ask is that you look at it with a smile and you don't make fun of it, and just we're trying to raise as much money as possible, and the online, the pledges that we've gotten have been substantial. We've had a lot of people, and we have like a thread that goes through, and that the people are hitting on that is quite, It's quite reassuring, for one thing, because I know some of the people who've pledged money, and there's a lot of people I don't know, and there's a lot of people who've pledged money who aren't from here. And you would think that folks that are from here, we want to save the park. And these other folks come in, and they want to make Graham their home, too. And so, you know, it just breaks my heart to hear this young lady talk about her business failing because my dad, Sun Wright, he went through like maybe five businesses before he found his niche, which was a grocery store. And I know how hard that can be. And I know what it's like to sit around a kitchen table and hear your mom and dad talk about money. It's really hard. But I just want to hope you can help that young lady. And I just want to thank you for the help you've given us. We're proceeding apace. And if you need any information, we are wide open. We're not doing anything undercover in the least bit. I've got eight seconds to go. Anybody want to ask me any questions?

Thank you, Richard. I appreciate you being here.

Thank you so much.

Eric Chrisman?

Yeah. My name is Eric Crispin. I live at 208 Albright Avenue here in Graham, lifelong citizen. I would like to congratulate you this evening on your deportment. It's a rare occasion to see civility on the City Council. Congratulations. I am a little bit disappointed in the pace, a pace which you've gone to get rid of the Sesquicentennial Park. It came up, the Mayor ordered a first, wanted to put it on the agenda. It was, let's sell it, get rid of it right now. One of the council members spent a lot of time on his convalescing developing a new park. But the lack of imagination to use the space that was already there was dismaying that it doesn't have to be a park. It could be a green space. It could be the Graham Commons. It could be the RBNB Graham Commons. Would you grab your name on it if you'd like? But the fact that you'd didn't consider using the same space for anything other than getting rid of the park was kind of dismayed and disappointing that your lack of imagination that it could have made something nice and green that the fact that they're going to have a the arts around the square thing and the concern was that they get mud on their shoes and not for the safety of the people. So it would indicate that the park is safe enough to use. There was a discussion a couple of meetings ago where we're going to put the park benches. Put them in the Graham Commons. You could have the plaque. You could have all those things you want. Plant native trees, native shrubs. Garden clubs, horticultural clubs could donate stuff. All you'd have to do is mow it. You say it costs $20,000 a year to maintain the park. I'll call BS on that. There's no way it's going to cost $20,000 to maintain that park. You planted, what, 300 trees around town? How much does it cost to maintain those trees? Watering the park, mowing the park, it shouldn't be that much of a problem. I'm disappointed in some of the votes, especially the Mayor Pro Tem. He was dead. He was all 100% for the park, invoked the sacred name of Pat Bailey. He said, Pat Bailey would roll over in her grave if you knew what we were going to do with that park. But yet, when pressure was put on, I don't know who was putting the pressure on, flipped over and said, got to sell it, got to sell it, got to sell it. I don't know if somebody has pictures, somebody has tape recordings. I don't know what motivates the hell bent for leather, we've got to sell the product right now. It just, it doesn't make sense. But I do appreciate, once again, I do appreciate your decorum. Thank you so much for taking the item off the agenda. That was a flashpoint. that just made everybody look foolish. So thank you very much for that.

Thank you, Eric. All right. I have one comment that was sent to me by Jason Varner. I do not think it's right for you to have to pay that back. And I hope you will not have to use your own money to pay that. If it is your place to go to that meeting, they need to pay for it. Not you put that down in the email and put my name with it. Jason Varner. Okay. That is all of public comments. City staff. Bob, Brian, anything? Aaron? Aaron?

That's actually ironic that Mr. Alvis brought up the topic on the not the trash. Okay. But the use of the grant money, we're going to find out from council. If if you have ideas of your own, or if you want a suggestion that has come up where staff has found use for that money to tie with an existing utility project where we're um replacing the water lines coming into downtown that money actually could be utilized for that space y'all did approve in this budget for us to continue with that that uh waterline upgrade so if that was something that council would entertain for that that money i i did want to throw that out there um obviously that's not something you have to go for tonight it was just uh with us having to be on the clock again to get the money spent. I didn't want it to sneak up on us again and have to rush to have it done.

Thank you, Aaron.

It's up to you.

Yeah. Megan, do you have anything?

Yeah, my two items you mentioned at the beginning, the ethics statement and the civility statement, I think what you read for the ethics statement was a little different than what Graham did in the past. So if you don't mind sending those to me, I'll be happy to distribute them out to council and to legal. And is it city council consensus that we bring that back at the next meeting for potential adoption?

Yes. Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

Yes, I've got that on my list to send it out. You said two things, is that the two things were the two different statements? Two statements, correct. Okay, just making sure. Renee, do you have anything for us? All right. Bonnie, let's start with you. You got comments?

I don't really have much other than we had a library committee meeting today and we were briefed by Susanna on the progress of, she's working on getting a state grant for about $240,000. She's trying to compile some information to get that in by September. So they usually get this every year. And I think last year they got $247,000. We actually got a little extra last year. But she did a really good job. Also, just be aware that the library hours have changed one hour. I think the one in Mebane, starting August 31st, will be closing at 7 p.m. rather than 8 p.m. So be aware that there is an hour shift in library hours. And that's pretty much all I have.

OK. Great.

Bobby? Erin, do we need to make a motion to do a budget amendment for the borderline and the grant?

I'm not sure if it's a budget amendment. I think what we need would be direction from council to staff to make the necessary changes to the scope of work that's been submitted to the state so that it shows that the funds would be used towards the utility project, if that's what council wants it to go towards. So if we can get that, that would be how we can move forward.

I would like to add whatever City Council identifies as the use or uses for that fund, we would have to amend the project ordinance. So we would have to bring that to you for adoption.

Okay. Do you all agree?

I've got a couple of things I want to say.

Direct the staff to make the necessary paperwork to use the grant money for the water utilities. that Aaron talked about.

In order to move it forward, we would need consensus of City Council to bring it back at the next month's meeting. So y'all tell us what you'd like to do.

I agree with both.

I agree.

Yeah.

You have consensus? Okay. Thank you. Anything else, Bobby? Nope. All right. Ricky?

Oh, I have one thing. We need to... amend our ordinance about cars parking on the sidewalk or over a sidewalk at this last month's national night out i had several more than several community groups step forward and ask me about some If there's something that we could do in subdivisions where people use the sidewalk and actually walk on them, people are parking their cars across the sidewalks. And what can we do to get the police department to look at the issues? Is that enough, Aaron?

Yeah, so I think I would need to speak with our legal team and PD to see what options we have to strengthen what we have. And then I could bring back some language, some options for council to consider. All right.

Ricky, do you know what subdivisions that was coming from? Because I know that there's been a lot of complaints from Riley's Meadow, and we don't have jurisdiction over that yet.

Raleigh's Meadows is one that came up, Broadview Acres, Forks at Alamance, Raleigh's Nest, Rogers Nest, and Lacey Farms.

Okay. Aaron, will you bring us an update on that one? Okay. Thank you. Jim.

I have two things. First thing is, Madam Mayor, I applaud you for wanting to build a Graham community, as far as on your Facebook page and asking people if they want to get involved in that. However, when they click on the link, it goes to your candidates page, which has donation buttons that go to ActBlue. While I'm not saying anything is illegal or anything like that, it's just the appearance when you're asking for information from people and it's under the idea of building a community group to help Graham. I just, you know, it's a little strange. And, you know, in the interest of being transparent, you know, I mean, I'm sure it's possible that the names and, you know, whoever fills out this form can be used later, you know, and just the donation buttons, you know, it's a little, it looks a little strange. I just wanted, you know, I wanted to mention that. It was brought up to me that, you know, hey, it's, It's not a Facebook community page. It goes to a candidate page. I just wanted to bring that up. The second thing, can we, the lady that spoke, De La Couture, is that?

De La Couture.

um megan that our our pr girl i mean i know our website needs to be updated but the young lady that handles all the pr and things like that would it be possible for her to maybe once a week or once a month feature um a business from from graham one of our downtown businesses and doesn't necessarily have to be downtown just all of the businesses in graham um I would say maybe the locally owned, not necessarily chain stores or anything like that, but people who are local, and by local I mean Alamance County, and maybe go in and interview them. Just give them maybe a little two or three minute chance to promote themselves on the Graham website and put it on their Facebook page and just let it go out the way it wants to in the ether.

Yeah, two comments to that. I've already emailed the city clerk to get her contact information. Ms. Beard, I think was her. Beard. Thank you. To get her contact information so we can touch base with her specifically. Second is our PR person is already working on a business spotlight project.

program that we're still fleshing out the details for there will be one that is specific for downtown and then there will be one that's more citywide so that's something that we've already been working on internally honestly since she was hired awesome maybe we could have a um a business night out you know we pick a business once a month and we all just go down have a party and just promote them um but uh and i i think i'm the one who always says the downtown Um, our downtown doesn't need help. Um, of course that's, you know, when I, when I make that statement is I don't think we need to spend a whole lot of money. Um, like, you know, our other neighbors Burlington and Mebane do because we're so easy to get to. So, um, that's, that's what I meant. I'm, I'm not trying to, uh, exclude any, any businesses. Um, but you know, maybe we can do a little better on our social stuff and, and, uh, If we can help them out.

Yeah. And I'm sorry, there is a third point to that. City Council did fund a website redo, which is nearing completion. So that part has already been in the works. Awesome.

Thank you. That's it.

Thank you. To your point first, if the city site is eligible to host that Graham community stuff, I would welcome that. It's only on my campaign site because that's the site I have access to. If it's consensus with council that that community group can live on the Graham City page, I would absolutely welcome it. It's just a forum to gather community members that are interested in coming together and sharing thoughts about where Graham should be.

That would be maybe the equivalent of like a town hall or something, you know, instead of building a list with people.

Well, it's a committee. It's not just an open meeting.

Well, is it something that the council might want to address? We have a committee such as, you know, like the HRC or the Appearance Commission, you know, something like that?

Yeah, it's like a vision building committee to talk about where we are, identify challenges and opportunities and build on from there.

The only thing is just the appearance and like, you know, do these people know? I mean, it's what's going to be done with that information. And I only say this is because it's on your candidate page, which is ActBlue.

The candidate page is Squarespace.

If you go to your donate, you hit the donate button, it's ActBlue. Now, what's going to stop these? How do they know? I mean, because, you know, it's on the internet. It's there. I'm just saying it's like, you know, that's a little uncomfortable coming from... And while I know what you have at heart and what you want this committee, this community committee... It's just the appearance of it is what I'm talking about. Especially when you go to it and it has a donate page that goes to ActBlue.

Sure. I will make a Facebook post to make sure that people understand that when they go to the page, they are not obligated to click.

Don't hit that donate button.

The donate button.

Whatever you do, don't hit that.

Just so it's cleared up.

Okay, moving on. Facebook has, you can't just form a Facebook group and you be the administrator of it and make it-

it's not a Facebook group.

It's a... Well, I mean, it's community.

I mean, it's just no different than... And if you want to start a Facebook group, by all means, go right ahead, but...

It wasn't my idea. You're the one that wanted to do it.

That's not what I'm doing. Okay, moving on.

I'm just saying that the spirit of what you wanted to do is fine. That's fine and dandy. It's just... where that sign up page is. It's a little, you know, and I'll make the post to make sure people know. I don't think LMS News is going to pick up on it. So I figured out, you know, out of the interest of being transparent, which, you know, we all want that. Thought I'd bring it up.

All right. Can I get a, hold on, I'm going to, I'm sorry, it's my turn to comment now, Bobby. The Discover Graham Instagram that Kaylee was tasked with Can I get an update on when that's going to launch? We will send communication to city council. Okay. Do we have a timeline of when that's going to launch? It's been talked about since November of last year. No, I don't have a timeline right now. Okay. Um, so that was one of the campaigns that she was going to start for local businesses. Um, okay. Additionally, I'm sorry, but it's my turn to have my mayoral comments right now. Um, So next is the grant funds. Daniel, thank you for bringing those up. I was additionally going to ask that we allocate some of the grant funding to purchase some new nice planters downtown. We've got some that are rusted out in the bottom, the green ones specifically that I'm talking about. So I would like to purchase some larger new planters planters to elevate our streetscape and then also invest in some structural wayfinding signs. I think I've heard from Catherine before she came in tonight. There's other businesses, especially the ones that are not directly on the square, specifically CLAT, Harvard 64. Daniel, I don't know if you can nod your head or not if you needed. So I think that... structural wayfinding signs and planters would go a long way as far as beautification of downtown and also supporting our local business economy. So I would like to allocate and add that to the consensus that you guys have that we carve out some of that funding to go to the wayfinding and planters and then add the rest to the water project. Can I get consensus on that?

I think it's worth discussing.

Okay. Can we add it as an agenda item for September?

So is there a certain amount of money that we're, because we're going from using all the money for the utility upgrade to possibly carving down X amount. Is there a ballpark amount that you're thinking about? Because we don't have quotes on what that would cost.

Yeah. Can we make it an agenda item and we can discuss it further on September?

Okay.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Can we get an update on the flashing beacons that were approved in the January meeting, I believe, and the benches that were approved to put back in the May meeting?

Yeah. And if I could, was that city council consensus to bring the wayfinding and the planners forward with the utility item? I think Jim and I said, yeah.

I just said we could discuss it.

We have a third head nod.

Do we or we do? Do we?

Okay, thank you. The benches, as I responded to your email, I think in the last two weeks, Public Works is making brackets that would be welded to the bench and would be fixed to the sidewalk that is still in progress. And could you please repeat the other item you were asking about? The flashing beacons. Waiting on DOT approval.

Okay.

um can we request that the benches be put out before the fall festival we can try if if public works can get it done before them they are um they do have some vacancies in the department that would be handling that at the moment okay um

And then I have a note just for the community. Fall Festival is September 19th. Come out and play with us. And then just confirming that in September we'll see those budget items because that'll be the end of Q1 for the earmarked items. that we had said that we'll revisit.

So everything that was included for City Council's consideration after the year started will be brought back to City Council. So what was in those summary of changes from the two separate budget meetings will come forward?

In September.

Correct. Okay.

Great.

All right.

That is all I have.

I would like to add a comment in regards to the web page. Can you speak in... For your community interest group, I thought it was going to be, our page was going to focus on businesses.

Are you referring to our website?

Right.

Yes.

The Facebook page that Kaylee's working on.

The website will have a business area dedicated to it. When you said Facebook...

Well, I'm just talking about the community group that the mayor wants.

Those would be very separate things.

Yeah, because we need, you know, posting it on the City of Graham page or wherever. We have to be careful, like, about the perceived endorsement of the organization versus, hey, it's not a city...

I don't think consensus was given to move that page into the city page. It was just that I will make a clarifying Facebook post so that it'll continue to live on my campaign site.

Yeah, we just have to be careful about what we post to the city website in regards to organizations because you have to be very careful given our current social climate. that if you allow one organization to begin posting on an official city site, government site, it's kind of a perceived endorsement. And that's why we have to be very careful of what we endorse, what we issue proclamations for, because proclamations are issued in the name of the city the council and the citizens of Graham. So we need to be very mindful of that because there are some things that other municipalities have issued proclamations for that. I think we got residents in our community who would say, no, we don't, we don't need to endorse that. So again, we must be mindful of our community and, and things that we say here from the podium representing you as citizens of Graham.

So thank you, Bobby. Um, At this time, I will entertain a motion for a closed session.

Madam Mayor, I make a motion that City Council go into a closed session to discuss the personnel issue in accordance with North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11a6. All in favor?

Aye. All opposed? Thank you all so much for being here. We appreciate it.

Pizza.

Feels good in here. But it is cold in there.

All righty.

All right.

Madam Mayor, I'll make a motion that we come out of closed session.

Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Who wants to make it?

I'll make a motion we go into open session.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Unanimous? Who's making this?

You want me to do it? Yeah, whoever has it in front. Okay. Okay, so I don't need to make it as a motion, just state it, right? You do need to make it as a motion. Okay.

Yeah.

All right. I make a motion that we extend our city attorney's contracts and raise their salary from $102,166 to $117,166. And this is split between the two of them, by the way. What's that?

Effective.

Oh, effective immediately. Yeah, immediately today. Okay.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? Aye.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

Anybody second?

Second. What was the motion?

To adjourn.

All in favor? Aye. All opposed?

Hey, Bob. Thanks, y'all. You didn't oppose that one, did you? Okay.

Was that a no from you?

Or one for, yeah.