City Council - Regular Meeting

all right good evening i'd like to welcome everyone to the august 13th 2026 meeting the greenville city council i'm mayor pj conley presiding over tonight's meeting first i'd like to call on mayor pro tem foreman for the invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance thank you mayor um

I was reminded this week of my why, and oftentimes that we don't remember what the reason is that we do this work. And so I was led to share with us tonight 1 Corinthians 13. And it goes as, if I speak in tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong. or symbol clanging. If I have the gifts of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith and can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast only but do not have love, I've gained nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and it always perseveres. And my favorite part of this is verse 8 that says love never fails. Amen.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

visible with liberty and justice for all.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes, sir. Mayor Connolly.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Foreman.

Here.

Council Member Jones.

Here.

Council Member Hardy. Here. Council Member Scully has let us know he will not be attending this evening. Council Member Robinson. Here. Council Member Willis. Here. All right. Mayor Connolly, you have a quorum.

Thank you very much. We'll now move on to approval of tonight's agenda. Mr. Manager, any recommended changes? I have no changes, Mayor. All right. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All right. Motion to be made by Council Member Jones and by Council Member Robinson. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

We'll move on to special recognitions.

I'd like to ask Lynn Wooten to come forward and family. So it is my honor to recognize Glenn Wooten for his retirement from the city of Greenville. And I'd just like to take a few minutes to read some comments that came directly from some of your coworkers, just about you. All right, Glenn. You began your work with the city right out of high school. and started with the Public Works Department, spent several years there, and then transitioned over to the Recreation and Parks Department. Over the course of your career, Glenn, you were a valuable member of the team and built a reputation for doing things the right way. Now they say if you know Glenn, you know that his truck and his tools were treated like Fort Knox. and everything was always locked up, organized, and exactly where it belonged. Glenn is an incredibly skilled welder and craftsman and someone who takes pride in his work. As a building facilities technician and the department's chief playground inspector, he made sure the facilities were safe, clean, and ready for use by the public. Glenn also spent his time mentoring younger employees throughout his career, passing on his eye for detail and workplace knowledge. The attention to detail and willingness to teach others are some of Glenn's greatest qualities as an employee. And Glenn, we were fortunate enough to spend some time together a couple weeks ago. And I told you at that point in time that I felt that there was no greater gift in your life than to serve others. And clearly that number of years you have gone above and beyond to serve this community and touched the lives of people that you'll never know. but now after reading all the great things that your your department had to say about you i'd say also with that there's no greater honor than to have individuals that you have worked around for years talk so great about what type of person you are not just worker but what kind of person you are so on behalf of the city council and the city manager's office and recreation parks congratulations and god bless you thank you for everything you've done for the city of greenville I'm going to try to get this right without dropping it and breaking it, okay, because it's got the mayor and my name on it. It says, in recognition of 29 years and eight months of outstanding service, we extend our sincere appreciation to Ronald Glenn Wooten. Congratulations.

Thank you.

all right now if I could ask the members of the impact generates influence basketball team but the 12 you and the high school team to come forward any members that we may have

Oh, yeah.

I said earlier, if I just had a little bit more time, I would have set that basketball goal up on the first floor so we could have a game before the meeting started. It is also my honor to recognize the IGI, that's what I'll say, the Impact Generates Influence basketball team, both the 12U team and the high school team. They are a local AU program with both a 12U team, again, and a high school team. All year long, teams go head to head with tough competition and always bringing their best. They have some awesome wins lately, and let me tell you about those. The 12U team took home the 2025 National Championship, and the high school team grabbed second place at nationals this year. But IGI is about more than just basketball. They really focus on teaching their players to work hard, make good choices, and stay true to themselves. The lessons learned on the court help shape what these athletes are and prepare them for whatever comes next in life. And now what I'd like to do is, and it might not have everyone here, but I would like to recognize those with, where are the certificates? Right here. so i'm going to start with the 12u team and council member tanya foreman would like to present you with a certificate let me see if i can get this going right here so we have uh cruz errington domini byram Amari Smith, JJ Jones, Kamari Farmer, Carter Smith, Jordan Smith, Zion Cherry, Caden Taft, Troy Harris, and Jeremiah Williams. What a great honor, guys. Let's give them a hand. Now we have the high school kids. Try to double team this. We have Brendan Porter. Christian Eisler. Jackson Foster. Jaylen Rasko. Keyon Beal. Keyshawn Farmer. Landon Ashley. Loyalty Fuller. Enrique Beal. Quay Bynum. Ty Daniels. And where's Coach at? Where's Antoine at? Come on up, dude. And Coach Smith, Tony. And Kamari. I'd like to recognize Kamari as well. So now I'll turn it over to council members.

I just want to make sure that these teams are acknowledged for their hard work, their commitment and excellence, as well as the coaches and the families that have supported them to accomplish these goals. These are great accomplishments that they work very hard for. I'm proud of you guys.

Also, I want to echo that too. Congratulations, guys. It's awesome to be able to see you guys competing at such a high level, representing our community, going out there and showing good sportsmanship. Thank you to the coaches. The coaches are, they pour a lot of their time and effort into making sure that they teach you the game, but they're also teaching you other things too that you're going to take the rest of your life. So thank you for doing that and stepping up. It's not easy. It's a huge time commitment. I know that it's tough. Sometimes you have to take off work, but it's good, and I think these guys will appreciate everything that you've done over this season, and they're going to continue to look back at you as a good role model for making them better in life as they get older. So thank you.

All right.

Now I'd like to invite the 252 Lady Swarms up here. Come on, ladies. All right. These young ladies are swarming the stage.

What's going on?

All right. Again, it is my honor to recognize the 252 Lady Swarm. It's a local AU team that has achieved remarkable success in their inaugural year of competition. The team is made up of players from Pitt County, many of whom have previously played together in all-star leagues and tournaments. With a regular season record of 16-5, they earned the opportunity to compete at nationals in Virginia Beach. They came second to a more seasonal and experienced team just shy of the championship by one point, which is basically winning. Their outstanding performance is a tournament to their strong work ethic, determination, and discipline. Now I would also like to recognize each of you young ladies and present you with a certificate. We have Skylar Zachary. London Pierce. Eva Kate Stilton. Chelsea Wilkes. Brielle Little. Zoe Watts. Joy Morgan. Shani Heath. All right, and I love this name, Carmony Corden. I have to get my spell checker. Get on my spell checker. Haradaji Levy. Mia Perry. And Nevaeh Langley. Let's all give them another round of applause.

Yeah. One, two. Crazy.

We fumble a lot. so i want to reiterate the congratulations that i have for these young ladies i have seen them play and these are some real ballers you all um also i want to elevate mia perry because i understand that she was the highest scorer as well as um had the most rebounds is that correct uh-huh She's acting shy. All right. Okay. So I want to elevate her for that and congratulate the coaches also. Thank you guys for everything you do in our community.

Congratulations, ladies, again. I'm not going to say who it was, but I talked to one of the ladies up here, and I asked them if they could take the guys, and they gave me a yes. I'm just saying. Hey, if something takes place in the parking lot down there, I get it, okay? Hey, congratulations, lady. We're really proud of you. I think it's awesome, the accomplishment that you were able to accomplish with coming in second place. That's awesome. Hey, the one thing I always tell my girls, I'm a coach, I coach softball. One thing I always tell them is when you lose, make sure you take that the next game that you play and make you work even harder so that that next time you're the one celebrating, you're not the one with your heads down crying and upset that you didn't win. Make sure that you always work as hard as you possibly can, because it will translate from what you do on the basketball court into life. And make sure that you work as hard as you possibly can, because anything that you want to do in life, you can accomplish. And never forget that. Congratulations.

I'm used to it. It happens, man.

I'll try to give a handshake.

All right.

Won't be the last time.

I hear the Lady Swarm team, they got a team. I've heard there's some ballers. That's really good players.

They really do.

I got the inside track on them. You would be surprised. It's their first year, so they're taking off.

Can you imagine?

I'd love to see it. Love to see it.

And they're at various schools around the city.

Yeah. Can you play basketball?

I was a point guard.

Oh, were you? Were you a good shooter?

I was.

Yeah?

I was. I would imagine, you know.

Did you break some ankles?

I was a Dennis Rodman, a rebound. Oh, come on.

I was pretty good. I was pretty good. I had a pretty good process.

I'm going to have to look up some of that footage. All right.

Okay, good.

All right. We'll move on to the public comment period. The public comment period is a period reserved for comments by the public. Items that were scheduled to be a subject of a public hearing conducted this meeting or another meeting during the same week shall not be discussed. A total of 30 minutes is allocated with each individual being allowed no more than three minutes. Individuals who register with the city clerk will speak in the order registered until the allotted 30 minutes expires. If time remains after all persons that have registered have spoken, individuals who have not registered will have an opportunity to speak until the allotted 30 minutes expires. Madam Clerk, our first speaker.

Yes, sir. First speaker is Miss Gwen Green. You have three minutes to address the mayor and council at that podium right there.

Mayor Connolly, Mayor Pro Tem Foreman, city council members, city staff and members of the community. Good evening. I'm Gwen Green. I'm a Greenville resident, and I think of myself as being a vested and involved community member. I serve in organizations like Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. I serve on many committees. The National Council of Negro Women, where I serve on the Budget and Finance Committee. I'm a regular volunteer at my church, Koinonia Christian Center. I also volunteered with the West Greenville Health Council, where I co-wrote the proposal that brought face masks, hand sanitizer, and other supplies to nonprofits, community organizations, and churches, along with now volunteering with Pastor Rodney Coles of the Church's Outreach Network to establish children's book clubs and after-school programs. We're hoping to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. And before I moved here some 12 years ago, I volunteered with a number of other volunteer organizations, including a community development board and a redevelopment board in total transparency. I also serve as a commissioner on the housing authority of Greenville and in fact serve as its chair tonight. However, in the time I have left, I'd like to lay the fears of some of the city counselors. The Housing Authority staff truly are working every day to provide safe, decent housing for our residents. I will concede to you that they're working under some very difficult circumstances. Most of our facilities are some 40, 50 years old. It gets real hard to fix those up and clean them up. to the standard that we would all like to live in. However, I'd like to address a couple of other issues that were raised in your work session, one of which was the INSPIRE report. As it was presented, it truly was pretty alarming. However, I want you to know the Housing Authority staff was responsive. to all the issues that were outlined in the INSPIRE reports. Life-threatening issues as defined by HUD include smoke detectors, GFCI replacements, rust on electrical panels, all of which have to be repaired or replaced within 24 hours, while non-threatening issues must be corrected within 30 days. That's time.

You can keep going.

So the reports for 2024 were corrected within 24 hours for things like smoke detectors and GFCI units, including a water heater flute that had a downward slope. They were, they were corrected. I've got the details here for you and a box back there in case someone here would like to see the paperwork itself. As to the finances, Financial reports are provided, presented, and accepted at every meeting. Reports on rent collection and defaults are discussed because that too is a key responsibility of the housing authority to collect the rents. And by federal mandate, an outside audit is conducted annually by a reputable financial organization that is actually switched out every three years to ensure that we are going to get fair representation of the work that we're doing. The latest audit was conducted by Rector, Lofton, and Reeder for the fiscal year 2025. And I'll read very quickly their opinion. In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects the respective financial position of the business type activities of the Housing Authority of the City of Greenville as of September 30th, 2025. And the respective changes in financial position and where applicable, cash flows thereof for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. As to a work order process, none of us are satisfied with the existing process. The board receives a work order report every month. It gets discussed, if not every meeting, then every other meeting. The need for a better system is without question needed. However, the Housing Authority is going through a total software transition. The transition is being phased in so that we want to make sure that things like grant funding is being accounted for properly, that our accounts receivables and account payables, that it's working. If you will, the deadline for all of this phasing in will be completed by December of 2026. But you've got to give us time. We're not satisfied with the process as it currently is. We want tenants, we want our residents to be able to know that their work order has been accepted. Finally, as I know I'm running out of time, I've reached out to our Mayor Pro Tem. our last board meeting i stated that we needed to get into a better relationship with the city that it would not be possible to easily build brand new structures brand new homes without support from the city members of city council i stand here this evening telling you i suffer with housing authority envy i envy the denver the durham housing authority Because right now, they've got three developments in process, various stages of development, one of which includes the Hatai Village, which some of you may remember and recall. That's Durham's Black Market. Black Wall Street, I'm sorry. There are many phrases that come to mind to describe the current situation. I think a failure to communicate at this point in time probably says it best. And so it is that I ask that a meeting be held with the Housing Authority to better understand not only what is being done, but what has been accomplished and what we'd like to see going forward. Though there have been some quarterly managers meeting with city staff, clearly there needs to be more so that respectful and respected lines of communication can be established. I thank you all for listening. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Green. Madam Clerk, our next speaker.

We do not have any additional registered speakers.

Anyone else would like to speak during the public comment period. Please come forward. State your name for the record. You have three minutes. All right. So, you know, we'll close the public comment period. We'll move on to our appointments. Madam Clerk.

Okay. Yes, sir. First appointment that we have is to the Invest Greenville Board. That's a nomination made by you, Mayor Connolly.

I would like to reappoint Mr. Robert Cherry.

Okay. You'll need some help.

I need a motion.

Motion to appoint Robert Cherry.

All right. Motion to be made by Council Member Robinson, seconded by Council Member Jones. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Congratulations, Mr. Cherry.

Okay. And that concludes appointments from Best Greenville.

All right. Can you roll right on to number five? Okay.

Boards and Commissions, Board of Adjustment, Council Member Jones.

I would like to nominate Najia Lewis.

All right. Is there a second?

Second.

All right. Motion has been made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Council Member Hardy. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0. Congratulations and the Gia Jones Next we have the Environmental Advisory Commission That that appointment is assigned to councilmember Scully. So we will check with him next month Next we have the Historic Preservation Commission councilmember Hardy Okay Um, we do have the housing authority appointment. However, that is for the resident commissioner seat. And we are still waiting on a nomination from the residents council. So I don't have one to give to you tonight. Um, multimodal transportation commission, council member Jones.

I'd like to continue that one.

Okay. Um, also multimodal transportation commission, mayor, pretend foreman.

I would like to nominate Jonathan Metellus second.

All right. Motion's been made by Mayor Pro Tem Foreman, second by Council Member Robinson. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Congratulations, Mr. Metellus.

Okay. Next, well, no, so Multimodal Transportation Commission, Council Member Hardy. I'll let you continue that one as well. Okay. Next, we have the Pitt-Greenville Convention and Visitors Authority, Council Member Robinson.

I intend to meet with Rachel Whitten before I make that decision, and she just got in, so I want to do that, so I'd ask that be tabled.

Okay, yes, sir. Thank you. Next, we have the Planning and Zoning Commission, Mayor Pro Tem Foreman.

I'll continue that one.

Okay. Police Community Relations Committee, Council Member Robinson.

Continue that, please.

Okay, yes, sir. Recreation and Parks, also Council Member Robinson.

I would nominate Brian Fields.

Okay.

All right, is there a second? I think I heard a split second there. Motion's been made by Council Member Robinson, seconded by Council Member Jones. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Congratulations, Mr. Fields.

All right, Mayor Connolly, that concludes appointments.

Thank you very much. We will now move on to new business, which are the public hearings. This is the policy of the public hearings adopted by the City Council. A petitioner or a representative of the petitioner and a leader of those in opposition will each have 10 minutes. Persons following them will have up to three minutes each, with a total for each side no more than 30 minutes. Additionally, I want to remind those in attendance to extend the courtesy to persons speaking during the public hearing and to the City Council during discussions. Comments made by members of the public are to occur only during the public hearing as allowed by the mayor in accordance with adopted policy of the city council. There should be no interruptions of speakers or council members, including expressions of support or disagreements verbally or by applause, as this is distracting and makes discussion difficult. We ask for your cooperation. Thank you.

mr manager our first public hearing thank you mayor item number six ordinance to annex cobblestone south involving 2.2168 acres located east of allen road and at the current terminus of quail drive i'll now call forward our city planner dion hodge for the presentation good evening mayor and council good evening

I like it. I like it. This property is located in the southwestern quadrant of the city. More specifically, this property is located east of Allen Road and at the current terminus of Quail Drive. The current city limits are shown in green. The subject property is shown in red. This property is located in the Greens Mill Run watershed. This property is located in the primary service area on the tiered growth map and will be located in city council voting district number two. This property is anticipated to yield 10 single family lots with an estimated tax value of $3.25 million. And as this property is located in the ETJ, it is important to note that under Section 6 of GUC's charter, the development can still be provided sanitary sewer if the annexation is denied. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Any questions?

Can you go back to the first?

Uh, move forward.

I'm sorry. The map, the first map nuts, the second map move forward with the red one. Yes.

Just want to look at it again.

Okay.

All right. Any questions? Thank you very much. All right, the public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. Your first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. All right, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Open for board discussion or motion?

Motion to approve? Second.

All right, motion to be made by Councilmember Willis, seconded by Councilmember Robinson. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Item number seven.

All right, thank you, Mayor. Item number seven, ordinance to annex Lindale East, section five, phase two, involving 10.79 acres, located at the current terminal of Remington Drive and Stonehenge Drive. Again, call for it. Our city planner, Dion Hodge, for the presentation.

So this property is located in the southeastern quadrant of the city. More specifically, this property is located at the current terminal of Remington Drive and Stonehenge Drive. The current city limits are shown in green. The subject property is shown in red. This property is located in the Fork Swamp Watershed. This property is located in the primary service area on the tiered growth map and will be located in City Council Voting District number four. This property is anticipated to yield 21 single-family lots with an estimated tax value of $14.7 million. And as this property is located in the ETJ, it is important to note that under Section 6 of GUC's charter, the development can still be provided sanitary sewer if the annexation is denied. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Hodge?

Just one. Do you anticipate that when they're built out that they will connect to Stone Tenge so they can exit out to Arlington?

Exactly.

Thank you.

That seems to be their goal there. Any other questions?

Thank you very much. Public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has ten minutes. All others have three minutes.

Good evening. I'm Dwight Nelson with Rivers and Associates. We're the agent for the owner and be glad to answer any questions you may have.

That's all right. Any questions? I don't see. Thank you very much. Thank you. That was a great presentation. One of my favorites. All right. Anyone else here to speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has ten minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, public hearing is now closed. Open for board discussion or motion.

Motion to approve.

Second. All right. Motion to be made by Councilmember Hardy, seconded by Councilmember Robinson. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

All right, let's move on to item number eight. Thank you, Mayor. Item number eight, ordinance requested by P-O-B-O-L-L-C to rezone a total of 56.3694 acres from RA-20 residential agriculture to industry, to I industry for track 147.5795 acres to O-CA office conservation overlay for track two. 8.6062 acres and to office for track 3-0.1837 acres for the property located at the northeast corner of the intersection of Old Creek Road and Tram Road. I call forward our assistant director, Shante Gooby, for the presentation.

All right.

Good evening. Good evening. This property is located in the northeast quadrant of the city. It's more specifically located along Old Creek Road. So just sort of to the top left, that would be Hyster Yale. This rezoning is divided into three different tracks. I'll go through them, but then I have a survey. I'll give you a little bit more detail. But track one is the bulk of the property. you have track 2 which goes around the perimeter and then track 3 I have a blow up of that so it's just a teeny tiny little piece there and we'll talk about why that's been proposed for just office so again this is the breakdown of the different zonings that they're asking for. Track one is for industry. Track two is office with a conservation overlay. And track three is for plain office. This is a photograph of the property. So Old Creek Road would be, you know, sort of behind you. There is an activity center located along North Creek Road. Activity centers are where commercial and even industrial is encouraged and expected under the current zoning which is already 20 at full build out the number of trips would be roughly 1600 and at full build out under the proposed zoning the trips would be about 1,548. So you have a net decrease of 48 or 43 trips. So because of that, when they did the initial analysis and it is a reduction in trips, then they don't go further with the staff report that you normally see. The property is located in the second, the Johnson Mill, Parker's Creek Watershed if stormwater is required, it will require 10 year detention. The property is not located in a special flood hazard area. And there are no potential wetlands, buffers or streams. Again, the property is currently zoned RA20. I want to briefly talk about track two because that's a conservation area overlay that is typically not a zoning that we have. This is a zoning that we've had for years. This is not something under the new UDO. And the reason it's used, and this is straight out of our UDO, is when property is zoned with that CA overlay, then that means that you're prohibited from having buildings structures parking and drives etc on that piece of property so it essentially acts as a buffer and then just a little bit further it says it shall remain undeveloped vacant and again you can't put building structures or parking on it and then one other requirement is is it has to be at least a hundred feet wide And so that's essentially why you have track two at that width, that surrounding track one. And the reason why is because the future land use plan recommends industrial or logistics in gray. And then you have the green and that's potential conservation open space. And we talk about that green serves two purposes. It can either serve as a purpose for potential environmental constraints, but it can also show that there should be some sort of a buffer between the industrial and then the yellow is residential. So in this case the request is to put the conservation area overlay around the perimeter of the property. Track three is that little tiny piece and they have left that as part of an access. So that's why the track three is just office by itself. So again The future land use plan recommends industrial. The request is for industrial with, again, some conservation area overlay around the periphery. In staff's opinion, the request is in compliance with the comp plan with the future land use and character map. Therefore, staff recommends approval. And at the July 21st, 2026, planning and zoning meeting the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the request and i will be happy to answer any questions all right thank you very much any questions for miss gooby i just have one and is it my understanding that there's an additional buffer or between that and the properties surrounding it do you mean for track two or track two is the buffer

and try to is the buffer but that's more than what is normally required.

Yes, it does that make sense. Yes, it will stay in its natural state. So whatever trees are there, those have to stay there. Right. And again, you can't put parking and you can't put buildings in it, but you will still have the normal buffers that would be required as well. So that's an extra 100 feet of no buildings and no parking lot is essentially what that accomplishes.

And that is near Nipro, where Nipro's been?

Yeah, that's just kind of to the south of it, along North Creek Road.

Can you tell me a little bit more about why there's a cookie cutter track three?

I'll let the applicant, but again, the tiny piece is so there can be access, ingress and egress, because you cannot put that through the conservation area overlay. Okay. But again, we have a representative here who can talk a little bit more about it, but it was purposeful.

All right. Any other questions? Thank you very much. All right. The public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes.

uh good evening mayor council member my name is kim malpas representing pobo to address your question mr robertson what it is is there's an existing gravel drive that provides access to a couple owners in the back this old tram lane has been there for probably 75 or 80 years and because of the way the conservation you cannot put a private drive through it so we had to separate out that so they could still keep that access is what it is. And we met with the neighbors. And that's how this conservation overlay came about. We had a 50 foot originally that would match the vegetation. And they asked for another 50 feet. And I think everybody was in agreeance that with the compromises that would be okay, we had to leave that or that would have negated the act by doing the overlay.

That was kind of my supposition. Right. Thank you.

Any other questions? All right, any other questions for Mr. Malthus? Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Anyone else that is here to speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. You have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has ten minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Open for board discussion or motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

All right. Motion was made by Council Member Willis, second by Council Member Jones. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

move on to item number nine thank you mayor item number nine ordinance ordinance requested by the community development services department to amend the unified development ordinance udo to add definitions and standards for short-term rental homestay and short-term rental whole house lodging uses and adding these uses to section 313 table of uses as permitted uses in the following zoning districts are a 20 residential agriculture R15S, residential single family. R9S, residential single family. R6S, residential single family. R9, residential. R6, residential. R6A, residential. R6MH, residential mobile home. TH10, tiny home community. MR, medical residential. MRS, medical residential single family. OR, office residential. CD, downtown commercial. And CDF, downtown commercial fringe. Now I'll call forward Assistant Director Shante Gooby for the presentation.

I don't want to say anything, but after you read that, our whole crowd left. Almost our whole crowd. The three in the back are here. We're here for the long run, right?

We'll try to make it as interesting as possible. So again, short-term rentals, those can come on many different platforms. The most popular ones are Airbnb and Vrbo. And generally, you have two types of short-term rentals. You have what we're calling the homestay. which is where you have a host on site with you, whether it be an apartment or a house of some sort. And then we have what's called in the second definition, whole house lodging. And it's exactly what it sounds like. You get the whole dwelling to yourself. So we're just basically referring to it with the host and without a host. several months ago city staff was able to use some software that deals with short-term rentals this was done back in April of this year and we were able to identify some with certainty and some with not exact specificity of short-term rentals that are in Greenville so we've shown those all with the blue dots and then we broke those out into what zoning district they're in and And so at that time we had roughly 270 short term rentals in the city. So now to talk about the new standards that come with this. I'm gonna go through the homestay or with host first. And one of the reasons why I'm doing this is because a lot of these carry over to the second type of short-term rental. So again, with a host, the owner or operator does have to receive a zoning compliance permit. It's a one-time permit. There's no exterior advertising that's allowed, so no outside signage. The owner or operator does have to supply a certificate of insurance in the amount of a million dollars in liability insurance for the property, and that has to be submitted with a permit application. also no special events or gatherings in excess of the registered guests and then any existing short-term rentals as of tonight if this is passed has a year to get their permit with us right so these are the existing ones and then any new ones obviously we'll go ahead and ideally do their permit before they establish themselves as a short-term rental we do recognize that we're going to have to do a little bit of publicity to to bring awareness to them some people probably may not even know that they have to do this so that'll come if we if you approve this text amendment another thing that we added is that any short-term rental that receives either three citations or warnings for ordinance violations some examples would be noise trash and debris or illegal parking within a 12-month period may have their zoning compliance permit revoked Again, the intent is to not be punitive, but the intent is to make sure that the Airbnb owner operator is a good neighbor. And so that's what we're really after. It is subject to citations. And a little bit further, I'll tell you the schedule of the amounts of the citations. This is for whole house. These are the same ones I've went through. So I'm going to jump ahead to whole house lodging so whole house lodging means that the owner host is not on site so we've added 2 additional requirements. The person who owns or operates the Airbnb does not live in Pitt County and they're going to designate someone in Pitt County who will be a local contact that could be a local contact for planning staff local contact for even the police department so that that agent can accept any kind of issues or complaints and be able to respond to them. And again, this could be something as like an excessive amount of parking, noise, perhaps trash and debris that's been left in the yard. But ideally, that would be a local contact, easy for us to get in contact with, and someone perhaps in Ohio that may not have an idea any of these things are going on. again um we already have the forms and everything set up to go so that if if this is approved we'll be ready to go so the form for the agent is very short it does lay out the responsibilities of that agent so they understand if they are going to be an agent for someone what that means again that they're going to have to receive and respond to complaints This last section basically just again not to be punitive. It does give a grace period that if you are you have an agent and that agent says actually I'm moving to Texas. It gives you some time to appoint a new agent and get their information to us. As far as the citations, these are the same citations for any kind of zoning violation, and that is the first violation is $100. A second violation is a second violation within 365 days of the first. That amount is 250 and the third again is within 365 days of the first violation. And that amount is $500. This is the table of uses and so what this is showing is that all of the districts that allow residential, we have added, you'll see the red P, so that means it's a permitted use, does not require special use permit. This will be for both of those uses, so both uses will be allowed in the very same districts. In staff's opinion, the request is in compliance with the comprehensive plan. specifically chapter five creating complete neighborhoods goal 5.1 strong existing neighborhoods greenville will have strong established neighborhoods with the support for name with support for neighborhood organizations high quality housing unique character and robust integration with the rest of the community therefore staff recommends approval And at the July 21st, 2026 planning and zoning commission, the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the request. And I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Any questions?

Uh, Sean, can you remind me of the period of time that an owner would have to replace an agent?

We have said 10 days, 10 days.

Yes.

And then you said it was a year, they have a year to get the permit that this is passed?

For existing, for pre-existing ones, yes. And again, that's probably going to take a little bit of word of mouth to make people aware of that. But we've given a grace period of a year.

Okay. And then I can't remember if we finalized this, but what was the legality of this? I know we discussed that in the workshop.

city attorney's offices of the view that this is legally defensible and it will be in compliance are there any other peer cities that are doing something similar to this yeah there are several cities that have a short-term or short-term rental ordinances from raleigh asheville are they similar to what we're proposing i think raleigh was very similar to okay and there hasn't been any case law nobody's tried to sue the city over it Well, there has been some litigation out of Wilmington dealing with the rental registration challenge, but we believe this is not a rental registration program. This is a regulation of short-term rentals, but it's not a rental registration program. So we think this is legally defensible.

Can you go back to the citations again? Sure.

And this would be a notice of violation. So a parking through the police department may be a little different than if it makes its way to us. Let's say it is a parking issue and we would be notified as part of having the permits. 123 Main Street.

had a you know a kegger and they had 25 cars and we had to send the police out there and have them dispersed sure and then as far as like the complaints are concerned um are those complaints that are sent to directly to the city and the city investigates to see if it's a legitimate complaint and i guess where i'm going with this is is that each person's idea of quiet and peaceful is different in there and their type of nuisance is all always different. Some people don't want to see any of it. Some of them could just be calling in complaining just because they know what's going on inside the dwelling and know that it's something they don't want to see, but they just might be complaining. And so I guess my idea is, is, I want to make sure that whoever's making the complaint is being vetted by the city and the city can go ahead and say, well, this is a legitimate complaint. This isn't just somebody that's angry and just doesn't like that particular neighbor and their property.

We deal with that a lot. Again, one person's tolerance is much higher or lower than their neighbors. um so along with the permit we we have an index where we would keep track of the properties that would allow pd or even code enforcement to be able to cross-reference that we would essentially be the the keeper of the information someone could still go on the city compass we would probably need to add that as a new issue from the drop down box And I would think that that would probably come through planning first. If it is more of a lot of parking, let's say, the best solution would be to go through PD. Obviously it's not an emergency, but PD is 24 hours. We're eight to five. But it will, basically the, the different tentacles will still rest within the planning department is how it would work.

So, you know, I guess I think of the situation where you could have a neighbor that's just not happy. Right. And they find out that within a certain amount of complaints, they could, you know, get the then the neighboring property that they're not happy with multiple citations and potentially get them into some legal issues. So I guess like my thought is, is if the police department's called out to let's say one of the short-term rentals and they just say it was because of loud noise they go out there and say it's it's nothing well they call them again it happens again let's say they come out there four or five times and then the neighbor says I'm doing all these hypothetical things But this is probably a realistic situation. They go out there and they say, well, they call the planning department, say, well, the police have been out there five times. You know, I don't understand why we're not doing anything with it. How is that going to be handled? I guess as far as the complaint because it's going to be logged that the police were out there five times. But how legitimate were those five phone calls as far as an actual nuisance?

Right. Well, we would get the disposition, right? So we would know if it was founded, if they showed up and it was quiet and everyone were being good listeners. So we as the planning department would have some idea. Yes, you have five calls for service, but actually only one time was there actually an issue. So it will put on staff as sometimes there are of threading the needle of taking those different complaints, figuring out which really do hit a mark and which of those are maybe someone losing patients and they're calling every 15 minutes. So That happens in other things as well when we get complaints and what do you know it's already disappeared by the time that we get there. But what will happen or what will at least give us some way of communicating directly is that either we'll have the person on the permit or we will have a local contact. And if that local contact says, listen, this is my sister's place. Great. Can you tell us who your sister is? And that is a way that staff can directly communicate with someone that we may not be able to reach. They may have a run of bad guests, you know, and that happens as well. But the other thing is that at least Vrbo and Airbnb have a system themselves for if you live beside a property and you have issues, you can log those complaints with Airbnb and Vrbo as well. So there's a couple of things. Is it completely fail-safe? No. And there is going to take some discretion of how we deal with issues that come up.

and then the other question I have too is as far as somebody that is in deciding about doing like a short-term rental let it be one of the two scenarios what is there a penalty if they do not file and I guess my thought process is you're gonna have a lot of people that have been had not been used to it there's never been a filing period what type of penalty would be if somebody's operating one and then staff is notified that so-and-so in my neighborhood has an Airbnb and you say, well, it's not logged. We don't have them there. You send them a letter. Is there a penalty or is it just a requirement that within a certain period of time they need to go ahead and file?

The first letter is always, this has been brought to our attention. Again, we could be wrong. You may not be an Airbnb, but it starts with a letter. If you have any questions, please contact us. Um, And the other in in these cases we can direct them back to the planning site because the fillable forms will be there and they can go up I didn't know I was supposed to do that click click click and they send us what they need. Generally we give folks about 10 days to respond if we don't hear anything we'll do a second. In a V. we can do citations which is what is in front of you we can do that schedule of citations but obviously we want to make very sure that we are actually trying to track a short-term rental and it's not something else but the very first thing would be a nice but firm letter we believe you might be operating short-term rental and we would need you to apply for your permit final question i say we got first second and third what's the fourth There is no force. That's where I'm going to call Mr. McGirt and say, Mr. McGirt, we do not have a good listener. What would we like?

That's that's what I'm going to say. And so then that turns my attention to is, I guess, probably revocation maybe of a permit. And I guess from a legal standpoint, how does the city defend removing somebody's legal permit to be able to operate a short term rental?

and taking away their right as a property owner. We could bring in a civil action to collect the penalties and also bring in an injunction action to revoke the permit and they would have to cease operating if we had a court order.

But I guess from a legal standpoint, where do we stand if somebody says, well, you're taking away my property rights by allowing me to be able to operate a business out of the property that I own? Do we have any case law that says that we have the right to be able to do something like that where we can prevent somebody from actually having a rental?

Well, the case law says that cities have the authority to zone buildings and land. The short-term rental case that I was talking about out of Wilmington, it said that they had a – Wilmington's program was illegal because it was a rental registration program, but the court said that the cities could still zone – use zoning to regulate short-term rentals and we drafted this ordinance in in light of that case so we could bring a civil action to to revoke the permit and cease them from operating so essentially there's nothing i guess it would just be if somebody decided to sue just kind of like they could sue for any other reason

that they would establish the case law for it.

They could try to sue and say we're taking away their property rights. The case law is clear. Cities have the authority to zone property and to enact short term rental zoning ordinances as well. You have to make sure that it doesn't it's not a rental registration program or it's not a down zone. But the city has authority to to zone.

So we can zone. We also can put reasonable time, place and circumstances restrictions. We're not taking away their property right. We're regulating it, and if they don't comply, that's on them. So we're not taking away, if they comply, nothing's taken. I mean, all you got to do is comply with it, and this is very reasonable, probably. It's a lot less than what I would like to see, but it's a starting point.

Yeah, and I'm not arguing that. Yeah, I understand. I just want to see from the situation, if we get into that, because you've got a lot of people that are operating right now, and I'm sure they're not going to be real happy about the changes and having to –

to register and go through the process and having this my thought is you probably have some angry people and i want to make sure it's defensible from a city standpoint and again it's not a registration it's requiring them to get a zoning permit and we're giving them one year those existing short-term rental are giving given one year to obtain the permit okay it would be the same thing as a homeowner who's subject to nuisance we have a nuisance ordinance in the city of greenville that as homeowners or people who live in a home we're all subject

so it's no different we're just putting here like you're subject to these types of violations if you don't run your business appropriately i don't see any problem with it from a standpoint because i looked into this pretty heavily and i think it's a good starting point And maybe we can even look further down the road, but I don't see any legal problems with it in terms of what we've done because it's so minor and it puts the onus on them that you're only paying any fees or anything if you violate what are typically reasonable standards. There's nuisance and use of drugs or controlled substances or noise ordinances and parking violations that we've regulated for centuries in this city.

not centuries but a long time thank you mr attorney thank you mr attorney i had the same questions but it was from the other end of the spectrum that if somebody consistently violates you know what would happen because you know it affects citizens quality of life so that was where my concern was is what would happen at that point so i appreciate you answering that question

all right and then uh did you say that we don't know the exact location of all short-term rentals yeah the website that we used is more of a more of a website for an investor but we were able to download that information some of the things some of the properties we were able to identify because people actually put the picture of the house on it so we're like oh that's the one some for whatever reason don't put the picture of the house so the pen just sort of sits in the middle of the street. So we have a pen, we know about where it is, so we can put it together, but some of them are a little fuzzier. So we had to do some sleuthing of our own to try to take out some of the static.

So let's say potentially for one of the properties that we don't know the exact location of when the 365 day mark comes across, how are we going to ensure that all short term rentals are in compliance if we don't know the exact locations? Or is it going to be like an honor system for the operators?

Somewhat of an honor system, but also we as staff will still have to keep track because you come, you could have some people who fall out of the market who decide they don't want to do it anymore. But, you know, we did this about a year or so ago. I think we added maybe 80 more units since that time. So it will constantly be where staff will have to go in harvest as do as best as we can. And some of them may be from phone calls and someone reporting. It's an Airbnb. Okay. So It is not a perfect science. Airbnb, again, doesn't require you to put the picture of the property because that is a security issue. So it will be a little sleuthing on our side as well.

So some properties could potentially slip through the cracks, would you say?

Well, yes. However... they are good listeners we may not know that they're there and that's the intention is to be a good neighbor and then one more question do they have how often does the permit need to be renewed is it every year one time just one time did we say that i can't remember did we say the the amount for the permit is there amount uh we have not it's not in the manual of fees so

I mean, is it something that we should have? You know, you have to renew every year so we can keep better track of which ones are still operating and which ones are new.

That would be something for the whole council to think about. We have just put it as a one-time permit.

I think one of our attorneys over here has something to say, Mr. Birch.

Going up, Mr. Birch. The answer to that would be no, because that would be tantamount to the registration. And in order to be compliant with state law, we need to avoid that. And the way to do that is a one-time registration order.

Perfect. Thank you. I appreciate how tactful Ms. Gooby is. The reality of it is our code of ordinances is about six inches thick, and we have individuals that are violating those ordinances every single day. And if you have bad neighbors out there, our experience has been we're going to know about it.

You'll find out sooner or later. Yes. All right. If no other questions. Public hearing is now open. Those who speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. First person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes.

Hello. Hello. Hi.

Good evening, Council. I am Venus Diamond. I have been a resident of Greenville for two and a half years, resident of North Carolina for eight years. I would like to show my appreciation for this ordinance. I think this is a very good step, and though I would like to see, I loved your comment about wanting to see more pushes. I would love to see more pushes and more restrictions on Airbnbs. and other short-term leases, I think, as a whole, this is going to be very good for the community, especially given a time where the housing market is inflating way more than it should be. And at the same time, I think this would potentially bring down a lot of, you know, the threshold for people to be able to rent or, you know, mortgage in the city. I'm sorry. this would also bring more business to our local hotel industry which would be very nice for us to have though i would like to see more pushes notably in a lot of the zoning such as r6 which does include a lot of apartments and i feel like if that is included it does run the risk of somebody potentially using an airbnb to try to undercut our hotels and i know there are a lot of people particularly people in greenville power who can utilize this if they so please not I'm saying anybody will but it is a possibility that could be worrying but as a whole I like this ordinance this feels like it will be good for the community thank you thank you anyone else would like to speak on behalf of the applicant may come forward please state your name for the record you have three minutes

Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. First person has ten minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Is there a board discussion or a motion? Motion approved.

Second.

Motion was made by Council Member Hardy, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Foreman. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Move on to item number 10, our final public hearing tonight. Thank you, Mayor. Item number 10, ordinance requested by the Community and Development Services Department to clarify the required number of professional security personnel and alcohol establishments, Bar 2022, Micro Brewery, and Micro Distillery, that provide amplified entertainment after 11 p.m. Again, call forward our Assistant Director, Shante Gooby, for the presentation.

Hopefully this is very short. This is just an item to clarify. We kind of talked about this a little bit. This first deals with what staff considers alcohol establishments. We have, excuse me, we have four different uses in the city that we sort of categorize under that umbrella. a bar bar 2022 microbrewery microdistillery primary activity obviously sell consumption of alcohol on site all of these establishments have the ability to have a mixed beverage permits are a little different than just wine and beer in May of this year city staff brought a text amendment to clarify the number of professional security personnel that are required at alcohol establishments with Amplified Entertainment after 11 p.m. So it only counts after 11 p.m. At that meeting, there was some discussion that requiring security personnel may be burdensome to small businesses. After there was some discussion, staff's bringing this back with the text amendment in its same version. As far as amplified entertainment or UDO says, amplified entertainment shall mean any type of music or other entertainment delivered through and by an electronic system. So that could be music, it could be bingo. So the proposed language, again, is based on the occupancy of the building. So it's not based on the number of people that are there that night. And so what this says is if you have an occupancy between one and 200, you will have two security personnel required to be on site. And then for every 100 people, essentially, you add one more person. So two to 300 would be three. And then it goes a bit further to say, again, after 11pm, shall employ no less than two security guards. in order for one security guard to be inside and then one security guard to be able to patrol private parking lot. So if they're downtown and they don't actually have a parking lot, then both of the security personnel can be inside. Um, in staff's opinion, this request is in compliance with a comprehensive plan. Chapter four, growing the economic hub, which is goal 4.3. Modernize and diversify the local economy. Support the growth of a variety of employment opportunities and businesses that diversify Greenville's economy. Provide workers with a range of skill sets and training and encourage business growth within the incorporated areas and diversify Greenville's economy. tax base and then further we also have a second one in here this is from chapter one and this is growing the economic hub 1.4 a vibrant uptown support and control uptown nightlife promote uptown is greenville's vibrant and walkable nightlife district that supports a variety of high quality responsible drinking and restaurant establishments a thriving nightlife that can attract and retain young professionals that in turn attract high quality employers This does not mean nightlife activities need to be allowed to run out of control. Appropriate standards for these businesses should be improved so that uptown can be enjoyed safely and responsible. Therefore, staff recommends approval of the proposed amendment. This one's a little different. At the July 21st, 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission, they voted unanimously with a motion, but the motion had a little tweak to it so they did recommend approval but they went further and said while the commission did recommend approval of the amendment there was language included in the motion that there should be consideration given to the economic impact on small businesses to consider the use of bouncers

as a substitute for professional security personnel and with that i'll be glad to answer any questions any questions one question on your proposed language if you go back to it there is it says 1200 you really mean one to two hundred don't you establish oh i'm sorry there's a hyphen missing i'm sorry yeah okay just that and that's it

And why why are staff bringing back the same version of the text?

When I brought it to you in May, there was some discussion. I don't want to call names, but there was some discussion that perhaps this was expensive and that it could be overly burdensome to some of the establishments. we had a council work session i don't know if you were at that one and so the decision was to go with the professional security as opposed to the bouncers because secure professional security personnel would include off-duty cops or actual professional um security personnel as opposed to bouncers have less training and bouncers purview, if you will, stop at the door of the establishment so they can't go any further. So you're gonna get a person with more training and the ability to provide service outside of the establishment.

then are the the just to make sure that i'm clear are the current um bars whatever you want to call them grandfathered into this yes this does not affect any pre-existing so it would include any business that opens up with a special use permit under bar 2022 correct microbrewery microdistillery bar 2022 yes any of the four Me personally, I still have the same opinion as Councilmember Scully when this was last brought up. I do think that this will be burdensome to some small businesses, and I also think that it will keep some college students out of some jobs because those are who mainly staff and balance the clubs and the nightlife down here. So I just want to make that be known for the record.

All right. Any other comments, questions?

Uh, I have one and I don't even drink and I'm swimming in alcohol after all this conversation, um, about this, but, um, has there been any conversation, uh, with, um, businesses or bar owners outside of downtown?

No, because the ones that we have now are under the old, the old rules. So, so the answer is, is no. But we also don't have very many of them either the microbreweries and the micro distilleries we have are really downtown. And they're not going to be affected because they already have a special use permit. So they were ahead of this. So my point is, it's only going to affect those that would walk in the door and we would say, oh, by the way, this is a new requirement.

Can I ask our deputy chief a question about this? Does the police department feel that this is something that is necessary slash y'all want to see? Sorry to put you on the spot. No pressure.

Right, right.

Have you all had problems? I speak with the officers about that.

They actually work the area.

I haven't gotten a lot of feedback from that yet, so I would happily answer that. It gets the feedback from the officers that are actually on the street working.

Thank you. That's a good politician answer right there. I like that. All right. Any other questions? Comments? Thank you very much. Public hearing is now open. Those speaking on behalf of the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has ten minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, those in opposition to the applicant may come forward. Please state your name for the record. The first person has 10 minutes. All others have three minutes. Seeing none, the public hearing is now closed. Open for a board discussion or a motion.

So if one makes a motion, and I don't have a motion, but if one makes a motion, would that be with the suggestion of?

You can make whatever motion you want to make.

I don't want to make a motion.

You could take their motion. You could take the staff's motion. You could make up a motion.

Okay. Okay. I don't have much. Did I answer your question? That does.

Mayor, if I may, this to me is really interesting because I feel like at the core of it, our conversations have been centered around safety. And so looking at the request of planning and zoning to opt to use bouncers, but if they have to stop at the door, then I don't know that that achieves the safety that we were looking for for inside the establishment and then out. But then also, for the establishments that are already in business, this doesn't affect them. It's not retroactive. So this is going forward. So you don't want to implement something that's cost prohibitive to a new business that's starting their business. It's an interesting proposition, I think. Oh, you know, I don't mind making a motion. Gosh.

And I mean, I don't think this is. At least from my point of view, I'm not, you know, against safety around these establishments, but I just I just really think it would be cost prohibitive and kind of restrict what these businesses could do on a night to night basis. They'd really have to be mindful of, you know, what days they decide to provide amplified music past 11 o'clock. That's my only concern.

I'll make a motion to approve the text as tendered and the reason why is because I've dealt with downtown for 40 years as a criminal lawyer and I've seen the carnage caused by people in the bars who've consumed way too much. They weren't just drinking, they were intoxicated and served by bars and I think if you go talk to the officers on the streets, they will tell you that oftentimes the people come out of bars are not just drinking they are completely intoxicated and just drunk and today i had to read uh because of a case of a very serious injury that occurred in a bar and no bouncers were around and they may have per probably prevented it, had they been. And when you use the word bouncer, what does that really mean? It means you go hire a college kid to come in and provide security who oftentimes is a workout fanatic who wants to go bully people and use that power. That's what my experience has been. Now, those watching on TV, you may have harsh words, but you can have all the harsh words you want. It's the truth, and I've seen it for 40 years. So I don't want some 20-year-old kid, and I'm not trying to crack on a 20-year-old, providing security when something goes south because people have had too much alcohol to drink because they've been in the bar for a while. And so if you've got some professional security level of it, then you've got better training about how to de-escalate. Because what I find in the past is what bouncers do, the first thing they want to do is to strike. And I've represented bars who've been sued because their bouncers have struck them. Even though they've been trained, don't strike people. Grapple and escort. But that doesn't sink. So from that experience, that's why I do this. And it's not going to affect any of our bars that are currently in because they're grandfathered in, so you're lucky. But going forward, I think if you're going to be in the business of serving alcohol late at night, and people tend to imbibe, because how do you get drunk if you're in the bar if they're not serving you when they probably shouldn't be serving you? they're serving you too much alcohol and when you get too much alcohol people bounce into each other or see somebody's girl and there's comments back and forth and you and you got a fight and then when somebody gets hit it's not the strike that hurts them it's when they fall on the concrete and hit their head and get a brain bleed and get brain damage and I've seen hundreds of cases like that in 40 years so I'm a little tough on this I know but again a bouncer is nothing more that I see as a college kid that's just working in there part-time for thirteen fourteen dollars an hour so what level of professionalism do you get you get what you pay for so that's why i make the motion that we should adopt it as tendered and without the uh the bouncers as a substitute because i just think what you're really saying is let us hire somebody cheap who's a college kid and usually professional security has liability in place on insurance so if something does go south you've got a liability insurance policy that can that somebody can go after if this uh Security personnel went too far. And again, you see it. I've seen it time and time again. Multiple bars have been sued downtown over.

So you're making a motion for the staff? Yeah, the staff recommendation that tracking that language. Anybody got a second?

I'll second the motion.

All right. Any other discussion? Speak now forever. Hold your peace. All right. Motion to be made by Councilmember Robinson and seconded by Councilmember Willis. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

all right that was it for the public hearings we'll move on to other items of business number 11. all right thank you mayor item number 11 resolution approving an interlocal agreement with pitt county pitt area transit system relating to providing paratransit transportation services within the territorial jurisdiction of the city of greenville i'll call forward our transit manager wood davidson for short presentation thank you good evening good evening good evening

I look forward to your short presentation.

I'm going to give you a brief update on where we are with our ADA paratransit service. So just a reminder, ADA paratransit is the mandatory point-to-point transportation that we have to provide for qualifying customers with disabilities in which a disability affects their access to fixed-route bus. This is curb-to-curb, and it's reimbursed at 80% of operating costs, 85% of capital costs. I'm pleased to announce, since we were here talking about paratransit last, that the City of Greenville and Pitt County were selected to receive $200,000 each as part of a coordinated public transportation grant to continue our partnership effort to provide this transportation service. GREAT will use the funds to pay for trips that the county will provide, and PATS will purchase vehicles, I believe, with their funds. So we have been able to negotiate a renewed partnership for FY26-27. PATS went through a fully allocated cost model exercise with NCDOT staff to set their trip rate. So their new trip rate at a break-even point is $27 per trip. The city is still on track. We're scheduled to begin Partial ADA paratransit service that we will provide in October. The service is going to be provided with four vans, three which will be ADA accessible. One is a minivan. We're in the process of creating the new positions working with HR uh to get that finalized and we have trip booking software that's going to manage all of the clients bookings customers can book via mobile app or by calling our office it's a picture of what what the vehicles will look like that will provide the service so we have minivan and then the high roof vans with a transit style door it has an ada lift in the back So GREAT will be the primary provider once we begin service in October. Like I said, GREAT will run four vans. PATS will provide two to three. And we're still talking about about 2,250 rides per month for this program. The hours of operation, I know this was a point we spoke about back in February. We were able to go back and negotiate with PATS. that they will continue to provide the trips from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., mainly dialysis patients. Great and Pats will provide service from 6 to 6, and then Great will provide the service from 6 until 8.30 on weekdays. Saturdays, same thing. Pats will provide the early morning, 4 to 9. We have different hours on Saturdays. The hours will match the service that GREAT provides, 9 to 4.30, GREAT and PATS, PATS if needed, and then PATS will do 4.30 to 6 on Saturday. All right, we will notify customers of the change that GREAT will be the primary provider, PATS will be the secondary provider through electronic mail, USPS, starting in September. All existing customers' data will be exported into our new system. Eligibility requirements will not change. Request that council would approve the FY26-27 interlocal agreement with Pitt County.

All right, any questions? I did have a question there.

Did I understand you correctly to say that the new assessed cost is $27 per ride? Previously, it was $9 per ride. It was $18. It was $18, so $9 both ways. Or is it $18 one way? $18 each way, one way. And so the increase to $27 now, one way. Correct. And there's nothing that is there anything that we can do to. Affect that cost for citizens.

So the 27th, the citizen won't pay that. So that's the cost that the city will pay the county per trip.

City pays the county per trip. Okay.

And so then for the actual rider, what does that look like for the actual rider today that is still free when when the city begins charging a fare and that's slated for at some point in October, then what the federal government allows is twice the normal fare. So if we were charging $1 for a bus fare, then the fare for a patch ride would be $2. It would be $2.

Okay, so am I thinking about the cost for a citizen that's outside of a particular program or whatnot? I was told that it was $9 per trip. Is that something different?

I think that's the cost that a citizen of a county pays to ride PATS. versus they were riding it as a county as a county citizen riding the county system not a greenville resident using the ada paratransit system because we we work with the county to provide our ada paratransit system within the city limits right okay okay so within the city limits it's

It went from $27 to free, just like that.

A citizen does not pay. A customer does not pay today.

Okay, that is what we are paying the county.

We will pay the county $27 per trip that they provide.

Which previously was $18. Correct. Okay, I got it now. All right.

Just like that. You got it free. All you had to do was ask.

I think I got it understanding. Thank you.

All right, any other questions, comments?

No, I do want to say I'm so grateful and thankful that y'all did make it the time change so that we can make sure that all of our citizens can get to any appointments they need to be. And with that, I move that we approve.

And I second that with being specific about those citizens that are impacted by dialysis and need to get to their appointments. So we're greatly appreciative of that.

So we second in the motion or second in the comment?

Second in both. Awesome.

I like that. All right. Motion to be made by Councilmember Jones, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Foreman. Any other discussion?

did want to ask mayor if we could get an update at our next workshop about the rollout of the shelters um i would love to be able to for all of us to know together where we are with that rollout and how many more we have to go um just to get some clarity yes we'll do thank you all right any other discussion

Sure. And the bars that need to be removed.

We have we've already started removing those bars, right?

Yes. Yes.

OK, thank you. I want both of those. I've only seen a couple of their left.

We put we put a few in the middle of our chairs. All right.

Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Let's move on to item number 12. Item number 12. Final real item. Approval to purchase one ADA vehicle for the City of Greenville in the Transit Division. Turn it back over to Mr. Davidson.

Thank you. All right. Request to purchase one ADA paratransit van. So this would be a van matching that high top van that we saw council previously approved the purchase of three back in February. So this would be adding another ADA van. So cost of that van $123,370. $1.76 funding will come from 85% from our FDA funding 15% from general fund. That's what the band will look like. Request the Council approved the purchase of one ADA accessible paratransit van using FTA and general funds.

Alright. Any questions? Motions? All right. Motions have been made by Council Member Jones, seconded by Council Member Robinson. Any other discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay.

Motion passes 5-0.

Now what everybody's been waiting for, everybody in the audience has been waiting for, the city manager's report.

You know, it was going to be a long one tonight, but I will make it quick. I just want to wish my wife a happy anniversary. We will be celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary on Sunday. I can't wait to have a nice, quiet meal together at Taco Bell. Yes.

Hey, has anybody nominated her as a saint yet?

Saint Pam?

Saint Pam.

34 years. Yeah, makes and melts.

Man. She likes punishment, doesn't she?

Yes. We'll be enjoying our nacho bel grande Sunday evening.

What's the drink that they have? They've got like an orange drink or something? Baja Blast or something? Baja Blast. Hey, get her a Baja Blast to go with that.

That's right. Free refills. That's all we got.

Man, we're going south quick. All right. Our city attorney's report.

Quickly, Mayor and Council, shout out to Mr. Scott Nixon. He was reappointed to serve on the North Carolina Legal Municipalities Legislative Policy Committee. So shout out to Scott for that.

Congratulations.

Congratulations, Scott.

All right. Maybe this might be the most anticipated comment of the night. Our city clerk's report.

I'm going to keep this really short. Happy birthday to my baby sister Frannie. She's 38, but still a baby to me, my baby sister.

Happy birthday. That's awesome. Where are we going? Are we going to start tonight? Sure. Okay.

Mayor, I rehearsed this earlier. I have no comment.

Just congratulations to our three teams that we recognized earlier, and everybody have a great rest of your week. Awesome. Councilor Wills?

Thank you, Mayor. I attended the Chamber of Commerce's leadership conference earlier today. That was wonderful to see all the ladies come together. It was very empowering. So kudos to them. They do such good work, and so it was a wonderful event to attend. and praying for a safe school year for all of the teachers and administrators and students going back to school with the county schools. And I think that's all I have, Mayor. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Council Mayor Robinson. I just want to echo the comments earlier. First, congratulations to Glenn Wooten for serving us for three decades. That's amazing. Congratulations to those three teams. I mean, I really hear the ladies' swarm of just incredible players and coaches. I appreciate you volunteering your time and being a role model for these kids. It means more than you'll probably ever know in your lifetime, but they'll carry those lessons forward with them. And if you're watching and you have a team that's doing well, please let us know so we can have them down here at City Hall. Let's see. Also, thank you to everybody and staff and Valerie for a smiley mug of flowers and a gift certificate out to Vola. I mean, because that first two weeks I was not smiling after knee replacement. And I looked up and my wife put it right in front of me and said, do what the cup says and smile. And so thank y'all for doing that because I was not smiling the first two weeks. But thank y'all for thinking of me during that time. Good.

All right. Mayor Pro Tem Foreman.

I will mirror the comments that were made and elevate again the teams that were here and the many teams that we have in this city on all sides that are functioning in excellence and putting in hard work to make these accomplishments. So that's all.

All right.

I echo what everyone else said. Now I need a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second. All right. Motion's been made by Council Member Robinson, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Foreman. All those in favor say aye. All aye. Those opposed say nay.

Question passes.

We adjourn.