Commissioners - Regular Meeting

He's been out here. forward for our invocations. So if everyone if you can please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. 2 Chronicles 7:14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. I would invite you to join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Create in us a humble heart as we go about the people's business. Create in us a desire to pray and seek your face and to always turn our hearts towards what is right and to do the right thing regardless of the cost to ourselves personally. Please forgive us our sin, heal our land as we look to conduct the people's business here in Hayward County today. It is in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray. Amen. Thank you, Sheriff. [snorts]

Okay, our next order of business will be public hearings. We have two this morning. Uh the first will be a public hearing for the North Carolina Home Consortium's 2025 2030 consolidated plan including the 2026 action annual action plan. So Southwest Commission project manager for housing Len Scheler's here this morning. Welcome Len.

Good morning. Thank you. Good to see y'all. Um, so today's public hearing is to provide a brief overview of the Southwestern NC Home Consortium's 2026 through 2030 HUD home consolidated plan for which Hwood County serves as the lead entity. [snorts] The consortium's 7count footprint is Hwood counties and west. And this plan outlines the needs, priorities, and stages regarding housing for the next five years and guides how we'll use the home funds from HUD to address those needs. The plan draft reflects extensive input gathered over the past several months, including stakeholder meetings across the region, public surveys and input, and data analysis. The key priorities that were identified through this process and that are outlined in this plan include expanding the affordable housing supply, preserving and improving the existing housing stock, improving housing stability and h reducing the housing cost burdens, expanding housing access for special needs populations and preventing and addressing homelessness. At the beginning of March, we presented program updates to this board along with lessons learned over the last current program cycle. This plan takes those lessons into account, taking a more focused approach by prioritizing activities with strong implementation capacity and [snorts and clears throat] opportunities to leverage other funding sources such as low-income housing tax credits and CDBG funding. This plan also incorporates the consortium's annual action plan for 2026, which we anticipate using approximately $422,000 for new construction activities. If approved, these funds will be made available in our 2027 spring application cycle to eligible applicants, which include nonprofit and for-profit developers, as well as local

governments. The plan draft will be made available for a 30-day public comment beginning tomorrow, May 5th, and will close on June 5th. We do encourage feedback from residents, partners, and stakeholders from across the region, and a draft will also be sent directly to anyone who participated in the planning process to ensure accuracy. Following the comment period, a final version and review will be provided to this board for approval before we submit it to HUD at the end of June. As always, we thank Kaywood County and the board for helping us participate in this program. Um, and we welcome any questions there may be or input.

Anybody got anything ask? This is mainly for low and moderate housing is what you know. Correct. Yes. Targeting on. So, because I know we need housing and that's where we need it. So, okay. Anyway, anything? Okay. So, I need to open up public hearing at this time. If if there's any comments. Yes. Okay. Is there any comments to this this morning? See, no one. All right. I'll open and close it. So, okay. I will have uh my business cards and um anyone can access the plan on the Southwestern NC Home Consortium's website as well for the next 30 days. Right. And your phone numbers on the on their website. So, it is they needed to contact you. Okay. Absolutely.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Len. Thank you'all. Thank you. Very next public hearing is to accept public comment regarding Haywood County's closeout of the North Carolina Commerce CDBG grants. And this is 20-v3522 and 17-d31, no, I'm sorry, D-4137, Mountain Project Supporting Services and Armory Upgrades. and Karen uh Kina from McGill Associates is here. If I pronounce that wrong, you let me know.

Okay. And just if you would pull the mic down so we can hear you good. Okay. I am a little short. Let's say a lot. [laughter]

Okay. Um similar to what you've heard, this one's a little bit longer. Um we're you have a um community development block grant through the department of commerce and there were three grant fundings through that. So that's why we have three different grant numbers. Um the first one, the first grant was the CDBG co corona virus and that one is um why we're kind of rushing through this is we have to have those funds expended and closed out before the end of the fiscal year um because that there that is a limitation to the co money. So I will go through a real quick narrative and then we'll move on to the um presentation. Um today we are here in Haywood County Courthouse to [snorts] close out the community development block grants for as previous previously stated grant number 20-v3522 which was totaling 705705968,000 $100,000 and that for CDBG EG D grant number 17D4137 totaling 454,618,000. And real quick, I will tell you that the final uh one that we are currently working on is an additional 2,219,13182. So right now we are working on the the 2 million component for the same for the armory project but these are the two previous um grants that are part of that project. Um today we're here again to

secure um public comment through this pro for this project and to verify how the funds were expended um how what benefit they had to low to moderate income individuals and um to give you an idea of what components were part of that project. The activities included the uh grant number 20-v 3522 had two components in it. One being the um public services assistance that was part of the corona program which was rental assistance um utility assistance and mortgage assistance for in families that met the criteria. That program was implemented by Mountain Projects. They did an excellent job and 100% of all of the participants were load met to low to moderate income. And um as one other component of that project, they could not be um securing similar funds from another source because at that point in time during the CO and at the end of CO there were a few different funding supports that were out there and they could not double dip. That was a requirement of the program. So I'm going to try to move forward so we can see that here. So that was under the supportive services uh was like we just stated it was provide rental and mortgage and utility assistance and the number of households that you assisted was 94 households. Program ser limits were u the program services met the 100% low to moderate income and that the project was provided by mount the program was provided by mountain

projects. We uh they provided you the county with detailed information on um the household, what was their household income so that we could verify all that for you and for the state and federal government. The other component was the Armory project and this f these funds were specifically secured because the building is being provided as the emergency services facility. Um, as we know, prior to that, it was, I believe, a high school that was providing that service. And this now you have a dedicated emergency services that you've already utilized once unfortunately during Helen but it um as tragic as it was it did give us an understanding of during the construction phase of this project what the building was capable of doing. How did they do it well? What things did we need to improve? What additional um components did we add? there was to ensure that we had sufficient electrical, how do we support the building uh for families, individuals that are on oxygen. So there was a lot of things. It was sort of a test drive for us unfortunately, but it did give us great feedback. So um the building is the rehabilitation of the decommission National Guard Armory. Improvements and upgrades include, and it's these are still underway. Um because we were with the new $2 million, we were able to expand uh the project, which was much needed and will benefit the community. Um we the improvements to the condition [laughter] um kitchen, the congregation hall is, you know, the big drill hall that's

there. That is the true emergency facilities center where the CS and the gathering of the individuals, the bathroom, storage area, emergency management services, staffing area, uh lead paint and asbestous and electrical and abatement. Those last three components were the ones that we really have spent a great deal amount putting a new roof on, removing all lead and asbestous abatement and then upgrading the electrical. Those were the have been on these first phases. Those were the critically needed components. Um lead abatement was another big challenge. So um generally then we went on to the improvements to the kitchen. uh the improvements just general improvements to the building itself and those are still underway. So this pro that project and we under where we now know we are with it is you supported 74 let's the outcomes on it as we stated on this one we have supported over a 100 persons that were uh had re secured assistance during Helen um and it like I stated before it gave us the benefit of understanding what the needs were for the the community during an emergency and how we could best you utilize the building. In total, the 20 uh COVID num uh I'm having trouble this morning. 20 the 20 V3522 um project award was 75,000 968 and we expended all of those dollars um under the 17D 4137. It was specifically for those same

improvements to the Armory facility and that project um expended the total amount of those funds which were 454,618. So just for those that don't know where it is, these this is an aerial view of this region and then the property site. Here is at the beginning when the building was completely vacant. These were the um existing in the kitchen area. This is what was what they was called the drill hall and then this is the shooting range and storage areas that are in the building. So all of this has been improved. The lead is is out of this these all areas the um electrical has been improved um plumbing has been improved and then asbestous and lead has been removed from the building. So um we do go out and take additional pictures which can be shared with you and that's everything I have. Oh in total um the total project is $3,379,71782 the so but the 2 million is still is set to go and I turn it back to you for com public comment.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Does anyone have any public comment on this issue? Seeing no one, we'll close that public comment then. Thank you. Okay. Thank you for coming and sorry for it's so we had planned you might want to just share what our plans are for that Brian. Is that okay? U sure. Ultimately,

uh, in in this phase, uh, as Karen pointed out, we we got it ready to be used as an emergency shelter. Uh, and it was ready just a few weeks before Helen and without that uh, we would have really been in a bind. U, the kitchen turned out really, really nice. And a lot of credit goes to Tim uh, and and the contractor that we used, um, uh, Christian and Nicole and Patricia that used to work for us. They've all put in a lot of time on this. Uh the next phase that we're working on uh will expand uh uh for some EMS features. Right now we have EMS in the the main AR armory um uh section, but we're working currently on expanding that to have more storage or more garage space for EMS. And if we're lucky and securing some additional unmet need funding, we'll we'll create some additional storage for emergency management and facilities. So, it's a really great resource. We're going to have um I I don't know how much county money in it, but it's it's not a whole lot. Uh and we'll even have a a use for some uh recreation opportunities in the drill hall when we aren't using it for an emergency shelter. It's a it's really good. And you'll remember uh before we we got this project, we had an EMS unit uh that was based out of town hall and Clyde that didn't work. So getting in a facility that's in that location keeps response times low and it also uh is a better environment for our employees and it doesn't inconvenience Clyde. It's a it's come together very very well I think.

Yeah they the uh it being in the center of the county and it's right there at all the major four-lane highways to uh to get out. So, I'm very glad that uh and I want to thank the town of Clyde for letting us use their facilities as long as they have. But, uh this is definitely uh when we had a study done in 2019, I believe they said we needed to add more EMS bases. And so, this is the second one I believe that we that we've been able to do. So, and I think we're looking for maybe one or two more in the future. So, as we can Okay. Does anybody have any other comments on that? Okay. Okay. Next order of business will be public comment session. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Haven has got the is it where is it on the monitor? Okay. Okay. So, it'll keep up with your time. So, if and if you would when the three minutes is is concluded if you would take uh please li finish your comments at that point. Okay. So, I'm going to turn it over to Haven and let her say who's

the first who signed up is Joshua Blight.

Welcome.

Well, good morning, commissioners. My name is Josh Blight. I'm a resident of Clyde, a local business owner, a pastor, and most importantly, a father of three. I'm here because we are at a crossroads of our school budget. For years, our school board has tightened its belt, reducing staff through attrition and waiting on a state funding model that is decades behind the reality of the inflation that we see every day at the grocery store. We cannot punish our children for a funding lag they didn't create. In my work in the church, I've learned a hard lesson. When the person responsible for the mission has to stop and handle administrative duties because there's no support staff, the mission suffers. Currently, our our currently our support staff are among the lowest paid staffers in the county. If we lose them or if we lose the veteran teachers who lead our AP programs, we aren't just losing employees. We are sabotaging our mission. When a teacher has to be an administrator, a custodian, or support professional instead of an educator, our kids lose. When we cut programs for our top students, we are effectively telling our future doctors, nurses, and business owners to go grow someone else's economy instead of ours. We often talk about replacing the industrial base we lost with the mill. But no major company moves to a county with a de with a decaying school system. They look for a talent base. If we don't grow our own professionals who share Hwood County values, we will be forced to import talent who doesn't understand our community. We want the kids who grow up here to come back here, buy property here, and start a business here. That is how we grow our tax base naturally. Education is not an expense. It is the seed money for our future property tax revenue. Now, I respect that you are on the ballot. No one wants to be the tax hike candidate. Excuse me. Sorry. No one wants to be the tax height candidate. But let let's look at the math. Our property values are frozen in 2021. When the 2027

re-evaluation hits, the neutral uh the revenue neutral law means the effective rate will drop significantly. If you don't meet this need now, you'll be forced to raise after that drop what makes the which makes it look like a tax hike on the heels of a tax break. Politically and practically, the move is clear. Let's meet the school's needs now. Fully fund the mission. Then in 2027, you can be the leaders who oversaw a massive effective tax rate cut. It's a win for employees, a win for our families, and a win for your political legacy. I chose Haywood County not for the views, but for the values. So, let's protect those values by investing in the people who teach them. Let's do the smart thing, the right thing, and the winning thing for Haywood. Thank you.

Thank you. Next to up is Howard Neper. Welcome, Howard.

Good morning. [clears throat] I'm Howard Neper, private citizen, Haywood County resident. Uh I'm just here to uh follow up on some comments from the two weeks ago about the horses. Uh D uh Sam and [clears throat] Buster uh I had a chance to um think about the meeting and I have uh thousands of customers of a restaurant that that that have horses and and I've sat down with them and after thinking about the whole situation, I've come to the conclusion that uh as a private citizen, I'd like to do something and I did something about it. Uh I did form a 501c nonprofit horse rescue uh foundation. Uh paperwork will be finished in 30 days and and it's a a situation where uh anybody can fall into a problem with horses. Uh Mr. Eninsley pointed out uh that his wife had to face one of the ultimate decisions to put down a horse. Uh and it was a gracious thing that she did. Uh it's hard to do something like that. It's expensive. It's expensive to own a horse. We owned three horses. When I lived in Auburn Park, we were fortunate not to have expenses, but people today uh can get into a problem with horses uh with feed, putting them down if they have to. So, my foundation is there to act immediately to help feed uh the horses uh to help them educate people. Sometimes they get people have problems in life, but we don't want horses to suffer. So, I did that and I encourage everyone to do that. I also just want to say one other thing. Uh I I commend the the commissioners, all of the commissioners, all the employees of Haywood County. We live every day enjoying Haywood County and we sometimes they don't get it. They they do a really good job and we don't really give them the uh the thank you. We really should. It's difficult. And I had the I had the privilege to live in Miami and Haywood County. Miami has problems much worse

than Haywood County. They owe hundreds of uh you have no idea the debt that they have, but Haywood County is a strong county. The commissioners care, the employees care, nobody gets it right. And I also support the animal activists. They they come down, they care about animals, and I support that as well. When they see something wrong, they should report it. If they want to take it to to an agency, law enforcement, that's up to them. But they're important, too. So, the public has to work with the government to make it work. And that's all I have to say. I'm I'm glad that I live in this county and I'm proud of Miami as well, but they do a great job in Haywood County, the employees and the commissioners. It's not easy to be on that side and I understand that very clearly and it's not easy. You have to make some tough choices. Uh sometimes taxes do have to be raised, but uh we have a great county and uh and I'm proud to be in it and u uh I'm going to give all my information for the foundation to Mr. Martin at the main society uh the the county and the commissioners and all the veterinarian uh the vets in Haywood County to contact me. I funded it myself.

That's Tom and uh and uh so I won't need any grants and uh that's a good thing and I've got a lot of people that will put money in if necessary. So thank you again and uh good luck with your meeting. Okay. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. I appreciate that solution. Okay. Next is signed up is Graeme Haynes on behalf of a group. So he gets five minutes. Welcome Graeme.

Good morning commissioners. Um I've got some comments from uh myself and the Hwood County School Board and then also some from our principles. Um appreciate your time this morning. At our April 20th meeting, uh the school system proposed our local current expense budget for the 2627 school year. This budget included an additional $3 million ask in order to allow us to do three things. Uh the first one is to not have to continue to allocate our fund balance year after year to go towards increases that we have incurred as things such as the unfunded mandates from the state. Um utility increases, retirement and healthcare contributions. I know you all have those same things that you've got to worry about with your employees as well. Um the second thing is to fund uh additional existing positions that we have that are locally paid positions. Um in our bud budget presentation, Dr. Putnham talked about the 14 teachers, seven at Tuscola, seven at Pisgga that teach um our honors and AP classes that are vital to the success that we have and to the ranking that we showed at the last meeting. Um it doesn't have to be those positions. Nonetheless, we are over 14 positions, but we feel like we cannot cut anymore. We've cut all that we can cut, and those positions are vital to us. And then lastly, to allow our um or to allow us to better recruit and retain our non-certified and classified employees, our locally paid employees, uh by implementing a salary study that we had done a few years ago. I know you all did something else, something similar to that a few years back as well. Um, and I know from being in these meetings and and reading the paper that there's great value in that. Um, you all have said that it was one of the greatest things that you've done for your employees and we'd like to be able to do the same. Um, it's [clears throat] our understanding that the proposed budget that the county um will be

discussing this morning does not include the $3 million increase in it. Um, it includes far less than that at just over about a million dollars. Um, this this amount will not uh will not allow us, excuse me, this amount will only allow us to discontinue the use of the fund balance and only fund a portion of those 14 extra locally paid positions. Um, if that's the case, um, Hwood County Schools will not be able to continue at the level that it has been at. It's vital that we get the full amount. Um, it will mean potential cuts to excellent programs and it will also mean that our locally paid employees do not get the raises that they so greatly deserve. Um, and that our our principles, our directors, our teachers in turn will have to continue driving buses after they're done with their day, cleaning up the schools, um, covering the front desk, covering in the cafeterias because we can't find the people to fill those positions. Um, and so somebody's got to do it. Um, commissioners, um, I just ask that if you would fully fund our requests so that we can continue to provide, um, to our students and our employees the best that we can and the great things that Hwood County Schools has always been able to do and that we've had the support from you all to do. Um, so I just implore you to consider that and just know the dire impacts that it may have on our system if uh we don't get that full amount. So those are those are my comments and Dr. Putnham, he really did want to be here this morning. He had a doctor's appointment that he could not miss, but he said if anybody has any questions or if the media has any questions just to call him and he'll be happy to answer anything. Um, second thing I've got is a letter from our principles that they wrote and I've got a copy for each of you if you're okay if I hand it to you.

I will read this from our principles. Um, it says, "Dear commissioners, we the principles of Hwood County are writing to express our strong support for the Hwood County Schools fiscal year 2627 budget request and would like to encourage your careful consideration of the proposed increase in county funding. The proposed $96 million budget reflects a thoughtful and responsible approach to sustaining a high-erforming school system while addressing real financial pressures. Haywood County Schools has demonstrated consistent academic excellence, ranking among the top districts in North Carolina and maintaining a top position in the western region. This level of achievement, especially in the face of significant disruptions such as Hurricane Helen and the loss of instructional days, is a direct result of dedicated staff, strong leadership, and meaningful community support. The district's request for an additional 3 million in county funding is both respon or is both reasonable and necessary. A significant portion of these funds will support non-certified staff salary increases, addressing long-standing pay inequities, and helping retain the employees who are essential to daily school operations. Maintaining teaching positions and stabilizing staff levels is equally critical to preserving the quality of instruction students receive. This financial relief has ripple effects. staff who are able to sustain a living a livable wage while getting to help shape our future leaders will remain loyal to the school system. At the same time, the district is navigating rising operational costs, including utilities, retirement contributions, and employee benefits alongside reduction in state funding. The request also seeks to eliminate reliance on fund balance for recurring expenses. An important step toward long-term financial sustainability and reason or excuse me and responsible budgeting. This fund balance is currently healthy

enough to support two months of payable expenses should we face the continued lack of budget from our general assembly or a shutdown in funds. This is critical for the adults in the system but is a lifeline to our students. Equally important are the district's academic and career focused programs, expanding access to advanced placement courses, increasing industry recognized credentials through career and technical education, and growing internship opportunities, all contribute to preparing students for both college and the workforce. These programs not only benefit students, but also strengthen the local economy and community. If Hwood County school Hwood County leaders continue to want to attract excellence to our region, schools should be at the forefront of planning and funding. Without this funding, there will be less locally funded teachers will res which will result in larger class sizes. We recognize the difficult financial decisions you face, including competing county priorities and uncertainty in external funding sources. However, continued investment in Hwood County Schools is an investment in the future of our community. Strong schools attract families, support workforce development, and enhance overall quality of life. We respectfully urge you to support this budget request and provide the resources necessary for Hwood County Schools to maintain its high standards and continue serving students effectively. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Hwood County Schools principal and assistant principles association.

Thank you. Thank you, Graeme. Appreciate those comments. Next person signed up to is Chuck Francis. Welcome, Chuck. Good morning,

Chairman Ensley and Commissioners. My name is Chuck Francis. I'm currently serving as your chair of the Haywood County Schools Board of Education. Our board and administration have been working hard through the years to achieve and maintain a top performing school system. This has been achieved because of great staff, administration, parents, and students. Haywood County Schools have been in the top 10% out of 115 school districts across the great state of North Carolina and continue to perform at the highest level to this day. We have worked with tight budgets and have been good stewards of taxpayer monies throughout the years. Last month, the board of education voted unanimously to approve the budget that has been presented to you. We are very much aware of the hurdles that you face to fund county services, but want to remind you that if the budget that was presented is not fully funded, we will not be able to continue to perform at the high level that we have achieved. Our budget request is specifically for a muchneeded adjustment to our hourly employees pay in support of 14 current positions that set Haywood County Schools apart from other districts across the western district. Each of you have seen the achievements that our schools have accomplished in the previous budget presentation by our administration. It is now time for you to support our outstanding Haywood County School employees by approving the budget request that was approved by the Hwood County Schools Board of Education. Thank you very much for your time and your service to the county. Thank you. Thank you, Chuck.

No one else has signed up for public comment.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you everyone that made public comment. All right. Next will be constituent concerns. I need to read a couple of things. Um, there will be a public hearing regarding the budget on May 18th, 2026 during the regular commissioners meeting at 5:30. The manager's recommended budget presented today will be posted on the county website, sent to the press, and made available in the office of the clerk and the main branch of the public library until the hearing so that the [snorts] public can review the information. Notice of the availability of the proposed budget and a separate notice of public hearing will be published in the legal section of the mountaineer on Wednesday, May 6, and will also be posted on the county website. Okay. I need to move um the sheriff's presentation to I know this is not the time to do this, but I need to do it now. The sheriff's, uh you're in review presentation, we need to put that off till June the 1st. We had some technical issues on getting that done. So, um and we need to follow our policy. So, if can I have a motion that we move that to June 1st?

I'll make that motion to move it to June 1st. Second. All in favor say I. I. Okay. Thank y'all for that. Okay then. Yes. That's is that it that we need to do? Okay. Does anybody have any other constituent concerns that they need to bring?

Sure. I uh [snorts] I know the county manager got a kick out of this. We've been pushing to get a piece of debris removed since the day Hurricane Helen hit that would have negatively impacted a 8 to 10 maybe 15 million dollar piece of infrastructure that the taxpayers of Haywood County and North Carolina have diligently paid for. The bridge across 276 in Bethl had a stump that reached all the way to the pickets and it had I think severely undermined some of the uh footings under that bridge. And we have tried and tried and tried and so uh county manager put forth a last ditch effort this past week and that stump got removed. Uh yeah. Yeah. So, uh, I know people get weary of hearing about Hurricane Helen, but it's not over and it's not going to be over for years. We we've going to have, uh, impacts from this storm for many, many years. But, uh, that was a small victory because that stump should have been took care of a long time ago, but it finally got took care of. So, thank you for your efforts, Bryant.

Good. Anybody else got anything? That's good news for a change. Yeah. Good. Okay.

Okay. Next, we'll move to agency administrative agency reports and presentations. And we have the presentation of the manager's recommended budget for fiscal year 2026 2027. Okay. Brian. Thank you, commissioners. Um, proud to present the recommended budget. Um, a lot of work went into this. Uh, certainly Will's put in a lot of effort. Uh, couldn't do it without him. Uh Don Ramseay's help, Chris Boyd, Christian Owens helped. The department heads uh did an extremely good job in their request this year. They understood kind of what we were up against and their uh requests were were were uh very practical. And then of course uh the board of commissioners uh we started talking about the budget back in October individually. I think uh the three of us or the the the commissioners and myself, we've put in about six or seven hours together working on this budget at three different times. We've had a one public meeting in here and then we met with the school board jointly. So, you guys have spent a lot of time on this budget and getting it to this point. So, I want this to be more conversational uh than than a presentation because uh there's a lot of heavy lifting uh we're going to cover in the next few pages. But to give you some context about the 27 budget, I think it's important to start with the current budget that we're in. And we appropriated $10.9 million in fund balance to balance the current budget. That was the equivalent of 10.85 this year.

But given what we were up against with Helen, the closure of the mill, and because of Helen, the delay in reval, and keep in mind when we adopted the current year budget, the 26 budget, we didn't even have our our debris bills in. It wasn't until August or July, early August, that we got the debris bills. So using that 10.9 million was a very pragmatic approach, but using fund balance for recurring expenditures is not sustainable. And a lot of that is baked in. And I I want to make sure everyone is aware. Uh we're in a period of of modest growth in our revenues, but the expenditures are not modest. things are increasing rapidly and we'll spend the next uh 30 slides or so going over some of the things that we're uh uh needing to hash out. Uh this presentation will largely be about the general fund. I'll also like in prior years talk about the other funds, but most of the the the work is in the general fund. That's the locally tax supported u part of our budget. So we'll spend most of the time on it. Uh this year the department's requested a little over $130.2 million in in in costs. Uh my budget is uh $121 million. So we've uh reduced about $ 8.7 million from the department requests. Um our valuation that the the the budget uh is based on is 10.412 million. That's up 128 million from last year which was 10.283 283 million. Uh given that the the growth of a penny current year, uh a penny brought in about a million10. Next year we expect it to be at a million21.

So barely $11,000 growth in the value of a penny. You know, that's that's that's hardly 1%. And I think thank thank goodness for the growth. But uh give you some context. From last year to this year, we only grew at about $75,000. And natural growth this year is over $600,000. So it's it's great compared to last year, but it's still pretty minuscule when you think about our major revenue source. One of the other things that I'll mention is our collection rate is at 98.02. That's down from last year's collection rate of 98.18. And keep in mind, uh, FY22 was sort of the high water level. We had 98.38%. Uh, if if we had that 22 collection rate for the 27 budget, we generate about $219,000 more. That's not insignificant. Um, the biggest thing here is that this budget does include a 7 cent tax increase. We'll walk through these this this tax increase and I'll try to show you our approach to where it uh will be earmarked and that we're covering what I would consider in many cases unfunded mandates or or requirements from the state that we have to shoulder. And I think a lot of the the issues that that that Graham just brought up we share. It's cuts from the state or the federal government and we're trying to keep everything afloat with local property tax dollars. And it's that balance between uh providing services we're required to do and also understanding what the citizens go through with a tax increase. Um given a 7 increase, I'm still using $12.1 million in fund balance. And I

think this is important. We've got to write the ship, but if we didn't use fund balance, we'd be looking at an almost 19 cent increase this year. So, we have to we have to do a kind of a a very um intentional budget this year with the understanding that we haven't fixed it in just this year. We'll have more to do next year. Any questions uh about that? property tax next year. Of course, this is our largest uh revenue source and I misspoke. From 25 to 26, we only got about a $60,000 increase in property tax. This year, we expect $7.7 million, but 7.1 million comes from the tax increase. Natural growth is about $68,000. This graph represents our prior year collections of delinquent taxes as well. When you look at the categories, uh, real property is by far the largest. Uh, but when you look at the growth, actually motor vehicle, uh, taxes are are growing at a pretty, uh, good rate. And that's, uh, according to Judy, we're seeing used vehicles are have became so expensive that the value is more and it's driving motor vehicles. The smallest um the smallest portion is the corporate utilities and this is one of the the things this is how much we tax the the utility providers. Even the uh the utility polls have a tax, right? Uh we're leaving lots of money on the table because of reval. I think this number could be four to $500,000 more just for that utilities once we do a reval. It's an important function of our uh property tax revenue.

Sales tax is an increase of $883,000 for next year. Uh it's basically current year is exceeding budget and that's that's good. But there's there's a over on the next slide. I think the uh to date comparison is important. When I showed you this graph uh maybe five or six weeks ago, I was telling you that the trend is we're a million dollars uh over budget. It's it's it's trending well, but we saw the gap starting to narrow. And now look at the so basically 26 is mimicking 25 and that 883,000 is based on 0% growth for next year, but we're trying to project out the end of this year. Uh but that negative the last two months is is pretty alarming and we'll keep an eye on that as we move forward. Uh sales tax also uh you you'll see the the blue and the orange. Those are sales tax uh uh articles that have earmarks by the either the state or our own for this community college and for the school system. Both of those are growing as well. But the green is what the general fund is. Th those are the funds that you have at your disposal. Other taxes and license. Uh this is this is dropping uh $25,000. It's really a true up if you will. We're looking at our current year and trying to estimate where it's going to be. Uh two things are really driving this register of deeds revenues. They're slightly down. And then uh we get some funds back from the state for for telecommunications. This number is down as well. So, we expect to lose about $25,000 next year out of that revenue source. Uh, I guess good news is that beer and wine and some of our PILT revenues are up $25,000. So, uh, after this budget

presentation, maybe the beer and wine sales will be even up more. Who knows? Uh, restricted intergovernmental revenue. This is really the money that comes from the state and federal government to fund uh social services in the health department programs at HHSA. Uh this is a decrease of $35,000 for next year. And this is related to uh big beautiful bill or house resolution one, whatever you want to call it. Uh this is a reduction in the uh administration money we get for SNAP. Uh that's the uh the supplemental nutrition assistance program, I believe. So, we're losing $35,000. Keep in mind that is not um a full year. Most of these, [snorts] uh changes in Medicaid and SNAP go into effect in either October or in January. So, that 305 may grow in outlying years. Permits and fees, we're holding it flat for next year. We do have uh quite a bit of activity. I was talking with uh Garen last week about the number of septic and well uh applications. So, we are seeing some growth, but we're not seeing it in in our current year trends. So, we're we're just leaving that flat, but hopefully we see some uh some activity pickup and and additional revenue. Sales and service, this is an increase of a little over $450,000. Uh ambulance fees are increasing about $282,000 of that. Uh we talk about demand on our EMS folks. Uh but all the trips do equal more money. And then uh Lake Junalca restructured a contract with the sheriff's office and we have about $123,000 more coming into uh that budget uh based on some services we're providing for uh Lake Junalesco.

investment earnings is down about $257,000. One of the reasons is we we've had our u our money uh waiting on reimbursement from FEMA and so we've had less idle cash to invest and interest rates are a little bit lower. So next year we're we're just using the current trend to estimate where we think investment earnings will be. You can see back in 24 and 25 those numbers were huge. But um in in FY22 we only received $92,000 in investment earnings and in 21 we only received 19,000. So those were revenue sources the last few years we've had and I hope they don't revert back to those levels. But uh before those those figures wouldn't even received a slide on their own, right? They would have been combined with some miscellaneous revenue. but they're hugely important to us and we've used those at the end of the year. The last couple of years once we received additional revenue, we took care of some one-time expenditures and uh that's that's been a really nice tool to have, but that number is shrinking. Uh miscellaneous revenues. This is kind of a catchout and we've got a decrease of $4,500. Most of this is for uh meals on wheels donations as well as library fines and fees. more of a true up on what we're seeing this year and expect for next any any questions on re revenues side uh before continue. Okay. Um on the expenditure side this uh always with our salaries and benefits for our employees. I think we've talked numerous times that's the only reason we have success is keeping the right people on our team be able to serve the community from, you know, keeping our

facilities clean to the folks that uh run the EMS calls or um you know, help pay our vendors in time. Uh we have an increase this year for the the local government retirement system that's been going up about 1% a year uh for the last 20 years, give or take. it just keeps going up. Uh but it it's a a state requirement. Uh employee and retirey insurance. Uh for FY26, we had some some good confidence that we didn't raise our insurance rates this year. Uh next year it's going up about $1,800 per employee per year. Uh 9%. That's still below the the the national average on increases for health insurance, but it's very expensive. Um overtime uh we've had significant turnover especially in in public safety. So we have invested quite a bit more in overtime for the sheriff's office and for EMS and uh to a degree some additional funds for 911. Uh but those two are are driving it and it's simply we've got to run the cost. We've got to have the folks uh there. uh big beautiful bill HR1. I've already mentioned the loss in revenue. We also have to uh pick up additional staffing because of the Medicaid uh requirement. Uh currently we only have to review each file uh and I think there's about 19,000 folks on Medicaid in our county. We only have to review those cases once a year. changes with that big beautiful bill or HR1 requires an examination every six months. So we have had to add additional staff for that requirement so we can comply with the state and federal regulations. Keep

in mind we have to process applications within so much time and we have to do it with an accuracy rate. If if we were actually to provide uh Medicaid benefits to someone and they were not entitled to those, uh we would be on the hook for a reimbursement back to the to the state or federal government. So, we we have to get that right because everybody knows medical claims are super expensive. If we authorize someone on Medicaid and we get that invoice back, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Uh and jail expansion. Uh we've been talking about this for the last few years. Uh the jail is probably just a few weeks away from from being able to uh uh receive all the the the permits and um get our uh certificate of occupancy and it passes the state uh inspections. Uh so we have more positions in this budget uh to see the inmates that will be in the new addition. Uh in operating uh we've stripped out a whole lot, but we do have uh 1.254 254 million for the school system and we've got an additional increase for the the college and I know this is far short than the the the school requested of 3 million. Uh going back to the the presentation though we were trying to do something for the uh employees of the school system so they could implement that pay plan because that is critical and and my estimation I think it's kind of an unfunded mandate. I think Dr. Putnham and and maybe Graham just touched on that. The the state raised minimum starting salary for the school system to $15. Uh did not send any dollars with it. It's completed it's it's caused lots of compression and turnover issues. So the 1.254 the hope was that we can help them keep the right people on the in the right spot just like we do our employees. Um uh talk about our maintenance agreements. We we have these agreements

from software to elevator maintenance. The the things that we have contractors take care of uh just keeps increasing fuel, gas, diesel. I I'll give you some information in just a little bit, but we have lots of calls for service that that require us to spend lots of money on those. and oxygen. Uh, one of the increases we have year after year is the the number of EMS trips, but the cost of oxygen folks that while they're being transported on oxygen is soaring. Uh, so uh I think it's uh one that's going to be with us and unless we can find a different approach uh on on oxygen and ambulances. We've talked about this. This year we are to replace three ambulances and do a remount and they are over $400,000 a piece and that's really driving some of our capital. Let's dig in a little bit deeper here. Uh employee compensation. Uh this budget includes a 3% cola that would be implemented the first full pay period in in July. Uh employees would receive a 2% merit on their anniversary date. um midyear adjustment. Uh in June of 2024, we received a draft back from a pay and classification study that we had issued uh because we had done the study in 2021. So we issued one in June of 2024. We got that back and we were about 6% off market which wasn't that bad. But shortly after we got that study back, Helen hit and and all plans just kind of got shelved. Uh we've continued to to to do Merit and and and COLA, but the turnover is an issue. And so this budget, I've included funds to do another PACE study starting uh in in late fall, early winter, so we can have

those figures back to put into next year's budget or the 28 budget. So, and like I said, we were off 6%. So, this approach would be to uh do a midyear adjustment, the first full period in January of about 4%. It's going to cost a little over a million dollars. Now, the full extent will come back in the 28 budget, but I think it closes the gap. I've anecdotally, I've talked to some managers that have had some studies done recently and and they're coming back about 6% off market. So, if the June number was 6% and uh some of the managers are are dealing with about 6%, I think doing a mid-year 4% helps close that window, but we'll know once we uh get a study done in in late fall. We have left the money in for the Christmas bonus. It's about $175,000 total. We haven't touched longevity or 401k. Those those stay in. Uh, I've already mentioned the increase in medical insurance. It's going from 20,000 to 21,800 per employee per year. And there's the percentage increases you see from the ELGER local government retirement system. And that true up of overtime is significant. It's $841,000. Any questions on that? because that's that's basically the the those are the drivers or or 75% of the drivers of this budget. Through the budget process, we had 43 positions requested from the departments and all of them made compelling stories to fill those positions. But, you know, I I feel like every year I'm asked I'm I'm here asking our employees

to do more, do more, do more. And this year we've funded 17 positions, but it's really the nine that that we need at Health and Human Services for impacts from the federal government and we have eight for the sheriff's office that will will help staff the new addition. Keep in mind the sheriff's office when we when all of those beds are full, it's going to be much more than eight employees. The the sheriff's office early on requested 13 to give us an idea of how much staffing will cost. This is a compromise in eight. As our jail population grows, we may have to tweak that that eight. But those um there's still a gap. Um and you can see if we had funded all 43, that would be 3.6 million and these total about 1.4. 46 million. Questions on the positions that did not get funded. Overall operating is up almost 2.9 million, but the schools um we have that 1.254 million in again for those uh non-classifiedcertified employees. Uh the the college request was 268,243 more. I mentioned those contracts. Uh the increase in our maintenance contracts almost $320,000 this year. Uh insurance and bonding's up almost $125,000 and uh gas and diesel uh is 170,000, but I think the price at the pump since we put this presentations up is about 20 cents. So it's it's fluctuates daily. Well, I'll tell you, last year we bought 133 almost 134,000 gallons of unled gas and diesel 24,243.

And then another type of diesel, diesel number one, we we bought 13,343 gallons of that. So when you see 180,000 gallons of fuel and the price at the pump, it's impacting us as well. And then oxygen is up another $58,000 for next year. Questions? Uh so the schools operating would be a total of 19,659 for uh for their operating. The capital is at 1.25 and and debt uh the way we debt's decreasing for the schools, but that's where their sales tax money goes. we put it into a debt service fund that can be used then later on for capital or debt. And so because sales tax is increasing, the debt's showing up uh a little bit higher. And then sort of the same thing for the community college. Uh $3.8 million in operating. We've got capital funding of 750 and their debt because that's article 46. That's a a local set aside of $390,000. vehicles for next year. There's 14 uh a total of 2.2 million. Uh last year we got 18 vehicles and they were 1.4. The the big difference is the EMS line item. There's four, you know, three ambulances and one remount totaling $1.39 million. I think the only there are two vehicles for for health and human services. Everything else is public safety vehicles. Just because it's a lean budget doesn't mean though that we have stripped out

things. The approach was to make sure that we take care of what we have. We're trying not to add on a whole lot, but we do have to take care of our facilities. And I think over the last few years we've we've made some great strides. Our our our buildings are in better shape than they've been in a long time. But we do have uh 170,000 in for HVAC, 95,000 for flooring at the library to finish that that project. We've got some roof replacements at some of our voting precincts and to replace some bay doors for Meals on Wheels. We do have some uh replacements of some uh Viper radios. We have a fingerprint machine at the sheriff's office that's at end of life. It doesn't meet the new requirements for the state or FBI as of 123126. So that fingerprint machine is necessary. And then we have some um equipment just in the kitchen at the at the existing jail, the old jail that's at the end of its life cycle. So we've got 12,000 there. total of 691,000 in our in our capital budget or an increase. Any questions on capital? So, the total general fund is up 9.686 million from 111 to 121. If you look at the functional lines of that, 4.3 million goes to public safety, health and human services, 1.7, education, 1.5, non-EP departmental. This is where we budget a lot of our uh central counts like the employee raises, things like that. Once it gets approved, we we spread that to the departments that have it. But it's much easier should we need to make amendments to it to have it in

one pot as you can see. And then general government is up 870,000 but that's where we have the retirey insurance and some costs related to the upcoming reval. Uh cultural and recreation you see 216,000. It's not a whole there's only a few departments there but it's recreation and uh the library things like that. And we do have some additional funds as we open up the RAC Raccoon Creek bike park. We do have some operating costs associated with the uh the new bike park. When you look at functional lines, uh like I said, we're up a little over what did I say? 96. And you can see that um 6.2 is related to salaries and benefits operating 28 and then the capital 691. Uh the debt you see is dropping. Uh our our debt profile is solid. I've showed that to you over the last years since we aren't issuing new debt. I didn't put that in the slide, but the jail debt's dropping off about $60,000 a year by itself over the next three or four years. And then it it it may drop a little bit faster. So, the seven cents is is is not without um a lot of worry. Uh but I wanted to show where the money's going and the and just based on the $100,000 I started to pick the average home price or something like that. But it's all very personal, right? So each value each $100,000 value is basically 70. The current tax bill for $100,000 would be $550. The increase to $620 or $70. And what we would like to do is earmark this 7 cents for these items, the schools and college. And like I said, the money for the school system

particularly I think is a unfunded mandate, right? And so we've got a dollar. We've got 1.5 cents there. So that we have if if the schools use that for salaries for these for this study, we have a guaranteed revenue source to pay that in outline years. It's important that if you're saddled with something or if you if you're going to take something on that it's not just a one year. So this was our attempt at trying to make sure that we have enough money to fund that increase in outline years. Medicaid and SNAP, I should have touched on it. those those um those eight pos nine positions for Medicaid and SNAP along with the loss in revenue is about 1.7 cents. Jail operations while it's not that total amount this year as it grows it will go absorb 1.5 cents right now it's not there but it will be shortly because what we have in is not for a full year. So by the end of FY28, we'd expect that we would need all 1.5 cents for the jail. And then the jail debt is is about 2.3 of the 7 cents and turns out to uh uh $23 for next per $100,000. questions on on the breakout of of the seven cents and what we're trying to accomplish. Outline years, usually I just show you some expenditures that we think are going to keep growing. And I've got another slide, but what's more immediate, I think, are a couple things in the North Carolina General Assembly right now. Uh House Bill 1089. Uh we we feel like there's going to be something on the on the referendum in November related to the state setting how much

property tax can or can't go up a a year. Still not sure what that looks like, but that's something that um I've been on two subcommittee uh Zoom calls. The NCAACCC had an all hands-on deck meeting a couple of weeks ago and they've asked for another one this this week, this Thursday to include, you know, uh county commissioners. Something's going to happen and we're not very sure. And then uh over on the Senate side, there's a a a moratorium for revals. This doesn't necessarily apply to us. That moratorum would only impacts those counties that were in reval with values to be established on 11 126. Our values will be established 1127. So we currently aren't part of that moratorum, but there's a lot of wording in that bill that that we need to keep an eye on that to see if they change the language and to see if if if we would have an impact and and next year's reappraisal. Right. Our current values are approximately 44% off market now. We need to get this reval done because property values even though things have slowed down, they keep growing and um if the if we were put off, we'd go from four to six, maybe a seventh year. That's that's way too long in between reval periods. Um salaries and benefits though in outline years each 1% is is is growing as as we take care of employees. Uh it's it's roughly half a million dollars per 1%. Health insurance uh we're trying things to slow down the growth. You know, we switched to Etna and it saved a whole lot of money, but I I'd like to see us change u I don't want to change providers, but I would love to see us target some of the things that are

driving our costs. Some things are out of our our our hands. We we have lots of folks with with uh some serious health concerns, but there are some places that maybe we can expand on our wellness activities and try to get our employees cost down because it's it's it's it's becoming our second or third biggest funded cost is health insurance. Uh the retirement system probably will increase a percent next year as well. Uh we're fighting service demand increases. I've shown you all the performance data I think back last month. Everything that that we are responsible for keeps growing. Uh and then inflation is catching us. The price at the pump or uh is it it's just catching us as well. Uh capital replacement plan. Uh this could be vehicles, but we also have to keep taking care of our our facilities. The cost for that keep uh going up. And then debt is manageable right now, but there may be talk later on of some some debt in future years. And that's always a concern is if you have the capacity to to issue debt. Any any questions on that's sort of the the review of the general fund. Uh be glad to to stop there and and talk about the approach. Any questions you may have? Well, I think we've we've all spent a bunch of time on this, Brian. Uh I know you have and you've met with each of us individually twice, I think two or three times. So, uh that's why we don't have a lot of questions. We already know the bait.

You you've been put through the meat grinder already, I would say. So,

okay. If um we'll we'll flip over to the other funds because we want you to have an understanding of them. The health insurance fund budgeted at 15.7 million. This is an increase of 1.6 million for next year. Uh current employees, the cost is about 1.1 million for current employees. Retirees is an increase of $109,000. And the new employees that we're hiring at the sheriff's office and at Health and Human Services equals about $370,000. So that's driving that. Uh workers comp fund is is up only $36 at 517318. Uh the separation allowance fund is is flat. Uh the 911 fund is actually down 32,400 and solid waste uh is a total of $12.4 million. This is an increase of $6.1 million. Uh but we don't have any fee change proposed in in this budget. We are appropriating a large chunk of fund balance to cover what I consider four main projects we have going. We have to do some work at the MURF. The the tipping floor at the MURF is at the end of its useful life. So, we need some repairs. So, we have some engineering fees and some construction money there. We also um have Jones Cove uh convenience center. Because of the work that will be will have to take place at the murf, we need to make some improvements to the Jones Cove site so we can accommodate the public that's used to going to the to the Murf the best we can. And then we also have some funds in because we have two sites that needs and I think the the mountaineer may have done a story after our last meeting. We have two sites in the county that need uh attention. One is the J Creek. It's

not sized for the demand, current demand, much less the growth demand that's coming to that area. And then over in in the in the Bethl area, we we've got two sites over there. Uh the one site is it needs some improvements. Uh so that's a large chunk of fund balance in that solid waste fund. And keep in mind the the the availability fee covers more than just tipping fees, right? It it has to be management of the murf, the convenience centers, and we have to have enough money stashback to do projects like this. So that's that's really driving the the solid waste uh expenditures for next year. So this this is this the fund 31. This is with the school's debt service fund. This is where their uh sales tax money comes in to next year it will total 5.36 million. And uh similarly we have the fund 33. That's where the school's sales tax money goes. And they have uh 3.764 for next year. Fund 60 is where the the register of deeds recording fees uh are allocated. $61,000. No change there. Uh fund 61 fines and forfeitures again no change 350 uh a pay fund that is is I guess this is the third year it is flat at 910,000 and occupancy tax uh staying flat at 3,12,000 road district fund of 314,000 and that's a there's some natural growth of $858 in that fund. uh but no road district increased their rate. Fire district is a total of 7.397 million. Uh this is an increase of

$251,7. Uh you can see two districts are requesting an increase. Fines Creek going from 9 to 10 where Wesville and and and there's a lot of districts that make up all some of these, but Wesville district is going from 8 to 10 cents. Uh we have, if you think about it, we have 13 districts. There's a few more way they're they're parsed out, but if you roll them up, there's 13 districts. 11 of the 13 are at the 10-cent maximum already. So the the two districts that would stay uh if Fines Creek goes to 10 and Wel goes to 10, North Canton is at 7 cents and Sonuka is at 5 cents. uh Junaliska Siri Sanitary District is a decrease of 2,18 $186. Uh they're staying flat at 10 cents. Of course, this budget will be available here in the courthouse. We'll have a copy. Uh we have it available at the Canton Library. SW slight twist. Uh we have the parking lot being paved at the Wesville M at the Wesville branch. And so uh we're going to move that copy of the budget book over to Canton. And as soon as the construction's finished later this week, we'll have a copy on uh display at the library in Wesville as well. And of course, it's most easily found on our website. Next steps, should the board want to have the public hearing, uh we can have that at the next meeting on the 18th here in this room at 5:30. Uh if if the board approves it, we will have a public hearing advertised um this week and then you could consider adoption at the first

meeting in June. Commissioners, I know I covered a lot of ground in pretty quick order there. I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. I just I was looking over the weekend at some uh numbers and uh of course from 2021 to 2026 we've pretty well held the budget stable. We did have the one and a half cent increase for the school resource officers. We know where that went to. So, we were basically collecting the same thing in 20 2025 as we did in 2021. But since 20 2021, um the home housing in Haywood County has gone up 44%. That's what you just showed us. I think the national average was around 26. So, we've gone up 44% in housing, which means if you're going to buy a house in Haywood County, it's a lot more expensive. U insurance on their home on those homes has gone up between 46 and 64% for home insurance. And home insurance you got to have on your home, especially if you've got a mortgage. And speaking of mortgages, the rate interest rates in 2021 was 3.15%. And today they're between 6.1 and 6.4%. So basically that's doubled. Interest rates has doubled. Groceries has increased about 22%. Our home electricity has increased 30 to 36%. Uh medical is one of the the few that's not increased a lot, but it's increased 13% since then, which is surprising because medical seems to be going up all

the time. The CPI, the uh consumer price index has gone up 22% in that time in that time period. So, the county has stayed level and we've took money out of fund balance. So, those are some things that are driving this. That's why employees, we've got to keep up with them because if we don't, we're going to lose them to other counties, which we have in the past. And we've kind of cretailed that a little bit with some of the stuff we've done uh in the last several years. Uh but it seems like what's hit us is the mill closure has cost us about 2 million I believe in tax revenue. The big beautiful bill that that they passed in DC uh it looks like it's going to cost us you know around a million dollars because we've had to add positions and then we've got to add 300 I believe a little over $300,000 to the SNAP program. The feds aren't funding that. This is another unfunded mandate in the in the terms of a million dollars. The jail, which we've been paying for out of fund balance and the employees now, it looks like that's close to 3 million, would you say? Somewhere in that neighborhood. So, that's new. I mean, we knew it was coming, but um anyway, that's that's something that's just totally new. Then of course the schools, you know, uh would like more, but we're at 1.25 million for them, but they'd like three. So, um everything I guess what I'm saying is is this seems to be an inflation budget, if you will. We've tried to keep it down and we have kept it down for 5 years, but it comes to a point where the reval

wasn't done in 25 rightly so because we had the flood. So that didn't come you know that that's what happened there. So but uh that's you know I guess that's what come to my mind is this is this is an inflation budget. It's what it is. And I know everybody's having to pay more for everything else, but so are we. And there's not enough money to keep borrowing out a fund balance. And then and the fund balance was very critical for Helen and some other things that we've been able to do. And I think we've got just a little bit of that back, but not like what we should u not what we've expended anyway. Uh so we've had the mill closing. We've had the hurricane, two hurricanes actually, but we've had the one hurricane that has really, you know, set us back in a lot of different ways. It's cut out a lot of the growth. I mean, a lot of the homes that got destroyed aren't coming back. I know with the building going on today, you would think that, well, we're, you know, we're adding housing, hadn't stock, but how much what was the increase in the property taxes this time, Bryant? Did you say?

Yeah. in in valuation. Current year we were at 10.28 billion. Uh next year's 10.41 billion, an increase of 128.8 million. And and you touched on it when we lost the paper mill was 190 million. Right. Right. So so all the growth you see is and you know it's not even caught up with the milk. It's not caught up. And then and with growth comes additional services. You know, when you lose when you lose industrial growth,

it it feels differently when you're getting residential growth because they do send kids to schools or they do call EMS or they do go to the library. So, there's service demands as you grow with outside of industrial or manufacturing growth, you know.

Right. Right. Yeah. So that's just my thoughts on this on this whole process I guess as we've worked our way through it is you know inflation has eat everybody up and it's really eating up the county this time because we just we don't have anywhere else to turn but to the taxpayers and I I hate to do that but you know that's kind of where we're at. You know our budgets are mostly mandated just like this this bill for the new workers and the and the 300,000 for the SNAP program. that was something that we weren't looking for, counting on or anything. And then all of a sudden it got thrust upon us and the the federal and the state government both seems to be passing down cost to the local mun you know to the local governments to to pick up on it. So I guess everything's getting tougher and I can I can say that as long as I've been a county commissioner, this has probably been the toughest budget by far that that I've had to to face. So, um, anyway, that's just some of my thoughts on this. And I appreciate all the work that y'all have done. I know you've tried to keep things cut as much as you could, but that's mandated a lot of it. And we got to have a jail. [snorts] You know, population increases, we got to have a place to put them. So, sorry to be so depressing, but that's just kind of what the facts are today. Anybody else?

Well, thank you all. Well, not so fast, my friend. Just leave course with her. Tommy's up here. He got here.

You know, I will say that for everybody out there, like Commissioner Ensley said, we've spent hours on this. It it may appear to people that we don't have a lot to say or any many questions. Trust me, we've had a lot of questions. You you know that. And uh I still work I I work with hundreds and hundreds of people and a lot of them from Haywood County and they grill me real regular. And I know some of you out in the public and own businesses, you you get the same treatment. And I I've told people Lyndon Johnson said that being in politics is is like a donkey in a hail stom. You know, you just have to stand out there and take it. And I've likened this budget to being a plumber. And I've got friends who are plumbers. I'm not I'm not knocking plumbers here, but you know they say to be a plumber, hots on the left, cold's on the right. Stuff runs downhill. Well, you know, the way the state legislator's done us and the way the federal government's done us, it's like a federal government's on the left, state government's on the right, and commissioners, well, we're kind of downhill. And uh I sympathize with everybody that had their you know, you you have you've cut a lot of people. you you've cut a lot of requests out 11 well many many cents and I I look at this you know from a broad view that we we really haven't discussed I I know the news media outlets do but uh the North North Carolina General Assembly has aggressively cut income

taxes uh Since 2013, they've went from a 7.75% rate down to 3.99%. Uh, in 2026, that's scheduled to drop to 2.49% by 2029. They cut taxes and pat yourself on the back and then it runs downhill to the commissioners. It runs downhill to the people live in Fines Creek and White Oak and Crusoe and property taxes and uh you know here we are tasked with all these unmandated unmandated things that the state sends us and I I seen a person that's running for state legislature leave here earlier. I wish he'd stayed because uh there's there's so much that comes down from the state that dropped in our lap that's very uncomfortable and uh I don't know what's going to happen with this tax reform bill. Everybody else is kind of sitting on the on the edge of their seat, but uh this has been pretty this is a tough budget and uh it's tough for everybody. So, uh yeah. Yeah, it's tough. And uh the schools, I mean, it's it's widely known state of North Carolina, the legislators, they've cut the funding of the schools, depending on the ranking that you look at, it's we're anywhere from 43rd out of 50 to at the bottom. I mean, depend on

how you crunch the numbers. And the states done that. And we're the only form of government that's required by law to pass a balanced budget. States's not required to pass a balanced budget. The federal government's not required to pass a balanced budget, but we are. So right here's the Bryce tax right here. The five of us. We're tasked with paying for stuff that the state wants us to pay for, but they don't spend any money. And they continue to cut taxes for the school system. And they continue to cut taxes and make herself look good and they just pass it downhill. Do you disagree with anything I've said? sort of cynical, but uh the guy that trained me years ago said county government's just the banker for the things the state doesn't want to do. [laughter] And that's true. And and we do a good job of those things that this the state doesn't want to do, but we're the it is inflationary that's driving these things. And we don't have much wiggle room, right? It's the things that we do are mandated. There's just a handful of things that we could say, okay, it's it's it's parks and wreck, it's the library, it's meals on wheels, it's adult daycare. Those things are are critical to a lot of folks in our our county, but they're not mandated. But that's about it. You know, uh it's and then there's the expectation of service delivery. And I think we do a really good job. But you you've seen the the call volumes and and things. We could use these 46 people, right? I mean that's that's the that's the hard part of sitting in my chair is trying to balance these needs and it's it's a math

problem you can't solve. It's you know that's that's just where and and and some of those things like funding employee pay. Yeah, you can you could delay that but what happens your good employees will go someplace else or you say we don't need three ambulances in a remount this year. Let's just get one. They're putting 50,000 miles a year on those vehicles and it takes at least 24 months, maybe 30 to get them delivered. You have to order these ahead of time based on your call volume and to get them in so you don't have units down. Right. These are the things the rubber meets the road and there's no place to hide. Right. Yeah.

So, it's safe to say there's three budget drivers. employee compensation, schools, and public safety. That's it. I mean, that's the bare the bare bones of it. And and you're asking for seven cents. Yes, sir.

Could use could use closer to 18 or 19, but we have to have a practical approach to this, right? We we we can't use we can't rely as much on fund balance as we currently are, but we have to we have to establish a plan to write the ship. Well, you know, I appreciate everybody came and spoke and I know we had some impassioned speakers and uh you you can't get by throwing politics out there and I know the first speaker did. I I get it. Throw politics out there. Well, I've never considered myself a politician. I've got calluses on my hands. I'm dirty now. I had to work a little bit over this morning. And uh but I think uh Winston Churchill said it pretty good. He said, "A statesman looks after the next generation and a politician looks after his next election." And I sell this political movement. I I sell this political leveraging with people that's running, people that's running against people. And it'll happen. It's happened my whole life. But somebody sitting right here, like Teddy Roosevelt said, we're in the arena. We're we're we're battling it. We have to fight and we're in the arena. We have to do what we have to do. And uh so we will do what we have to do. That's what we're here for.

Yeah, go ahead. So I everybody knows knows me well knows I'm a real notetaker and we've been through this multiple times um with you um with ourselves, you know, just going through all of the different steps and I said I think in the last meeting or the meeting before my first budget meeting I thought I'll just walk right in there with a red pen and I'll just go slash slash and there's nothing to slash. It's tight. Um, Commissioner or Chairman Eninsley said he thought it was an inflation budget and I feel like it's a budget of a perfect storm. um since I have been on the board, you know, we've asked our employees to deal with COVID um which understand people see that as um we see it as a lot of things, but what it did was it required our staff to deal with grants and funding and um special circumstances that caused uh you know changes to their workflow and to their hours. We have dealt with uh tropical storm Fred which we all know was you know loss of life and that came with federal and state issues and funding and grants followed quickly thereafter by hurricane Helen and now the loss of the meal and I think we've all been kind of quiet about what the loss of the meal did to us because in a lot of ways our community is extremely resilient but you know it's all all of this is coming together and we see now the loss of the tax revenue knew for the business personal property that was in that meal. And that we see a lot of new rooftops in our community and that causes some angst and some frustration with different groups and individuals and myself with traffic and other things. But, you know, even all those rooftops are not catching up with what the closure of that meal was. We've seen um and I'm just reiterating a lot of things, but just trying to put it in

a different way of saying it. we're we all deal with as our individual households. The increase of expenses and insurance and fuel, all of those things are very real to us as individual households. And then that's magnitude or multiplied by you know all of our employees across hundreds of vehicles that we have in the fleet. Um I I've you know we've spent a lot of time working with schools and I've always said and I said at the last meeting that you know when people move here one of the things I have been able to say with great pride is that our schools have ranked sixth seventh or in the top 10% now of of 115 districts reporting and we're a small in comparison small rural rural community and they do a really really good job but it's like you it's all the things I just named and listed. Um, we have a new jail coming on. We've asked, you know, we had all these um, going back to our employees, the request for so many more positions and really all we did was put positions in place where we had to have them. What was mandated to us by the federal government and then by opening the new jail facility. And you know, the state and the the federal government is uh they they tie our hands in the things that they request us to do. And it's like what Commissioner Long said. You know, our state does not have a budget. And so many people think that Medicare reform is we're glad to see that come down from the federal level, but at the end of the road, that adds to this perfect storm that we're dealing with is somebody's got to be the person sitting at the desk checking the boxes. And um it's difficult for me. I've you know I've it's it's difficult to raise taxes anyway. And I know we came together as a board. We raised taxes for the school resource officers. And I um as my fellow

commissioners did felt very confident that that was the right thing to do. And as much as we need 19 cents, goodness gracious, that would be such a hardship for so many people. But at the end of the day, we have to we have to we have to pull the but we have to pull the ends of the rope together and we've got to you know seven cents is a lot. I understand that that's going to be impactful for some families in our community and it's going to be a shock to some. But I don't I this is another thing I I we've been over this so many times. I wish that there was a place that I could take that imaginary red pen and just say we're going to take that out. And I I just can't I cannot find that place. So, it's a it's tough. You know, we raise our hand to be elected. I think anybody that has ever been elected or served in elected position, you know, you got to take the good with the bad. And we've been very resilient. We've worked very hard for the last few years, but I think it's um it's not perfect. I wish we could I wish we could f fund the schools. I wish we could put some additional positions on within our own with our own staff, but I don't I don't see a way around it. Seven cents is a lot. But I I feel like we've looked at it really close and maybe somebody will come with some fresh ideas in the next few days. [laughter] Maybe the state will Annie up and give us a little money, right?

Yeah, that's great.

You [clears throat] know, I I couldn't agree more with my fellow commissioners and chairman about the comments that's already been made. Uh we've been going about this budget stuff. I remember Bryant sending a message back in October, I think it was. And I thought to my good I thought to myself, my goodness, we ain't even celebrated Thanksgiving or Christmas and we're already talking about next year's budget. So, uh, we've been at this for quite some time. A lot of discussion. We knew this day was coming. Uh, this dreaded day. Uh, but it is what it is. As Commissioner Long said, we're the ones sitting in this seat at this moment. I remember taking office back in 16. I said I would never raise taxes unless it was absolutely necessary. And I've done that. I can honestly say I've done that very thing. You know, as we mentioned when we had the school resource officers, I feel like that was absolutely necessary, you know, to protect our kids. And here we sit today looking at this seven cents increase. And uh as Commissioner Bess said, I've went through with a red pen trying to look at line items that that we could take off, do without and when we've cut it as much as we possibly can. I know the county manager and our finance staff has done the the same. all the requests that's come in, you know, even with the schools, uh, you know, we're not giving them what they are asking for, but we're not giving any other county department what they're asking for neither. Uh, and speaking on that, I guess if uh we did go move forward with the schools request of 3 million, that would just simply add two more cents roughly to that seven. Is that correct, Brian? Maybe because put you on the spot.

Well, because we don't have a funding formula, but let's say that we we increased it 3 million this year and we went back to uh historical 3 and a4% increase per student per year, right? So I think if we were going to raise that base, we also need to know what those outline years are are probably going to be so we could go ahead and cover it. So when we met with the schools, three 3 million this year would mean a 4.3 cent increase so we could make sure we funded fiscal years 28 and 29. Okay.

If if a multi-year funding formula was to be adopted, right? Well, I mean, we again, we got that request and and nothing I want to support more than our our school system. They do a fantastic job. Uh again, I've mentioned before, I've got a my first grandson who's going to be attending our local schools, and I want him to have the best education that that he can get, you know, and hopefully uh as uh some of our other commissioners has other grandkids. I'll have many more coming. So, uh, they are a true blessing, but I do want the best education for him that he can possibly get. So, definitely want to fund our schools and support them all we can. But saying that, we have to do the same for, you know, EMS and and all of our public safety and HHS and uh many many other departments that we have to support that that again we we've went back and smacked our hand and said, "No, you can't have 40 46 employees. We're going to cut that back." or even going back to our increases, you know, we've held after our pay study, we held them, you know, because of all the events that we've mentioned, but uh u we've got to take care of our employees as well. Uh we know we're behind and if we don't, it's going to cost us money in the long run. You know, I own a small business and I understand those impacts. You know, if you don't take care of them, somebody else will. Uh so it it is a true u as chairman Eninsley said it's toughest budget I've been a part of for sure. You know the the ones in the past that I thought were tough were very easy compared to this one. So um again going at it since October it's it I've done a lot of thinking a lot of figuring and a lot of studying and I feel like that we've come to this day doing the best that we possibly can. Nobody likes a

seven cents increase. I don't either. None of us do. We have to pay our taxes as well, you know. So, um, but but at some point, if you want the services and you want to take care of our people in Haywood County, which is what we were elected to do, we have to make the tough decisions. So, again, uh, nobody likes it and I know that this is not a done deal yet. We still got some work to do and, uh, but but we're getting close. But, thank you, Bryant. Thank the staff, Will, uh, everybody that's had a part of it. I know a lot of hours have went into this. We spent a lot of hours ourselves. Uh again, and it's not been easy. It's not fun. It's not fun sitting in this this seat at this time, but again, that's what we signed up for, and we got to make a tough decision. So, uh we've done the best we can. But thank you.

I just want to thank you, Brent, for all the hard work y'all and the staff done on this because like they have said, we've all set in on these meetings. we see how tough it is and y'all have done a real job with what you got to work with. You know, it's so many things has happened in the last three or four years. The meal shut and all the storms and then everything. Uh I just want people to understand how much we've lost because of that and especially the meal shutting down and stuff like that. And the this is going to be like everybody says the toughest budget we've seen probably in long many many years in the county. And uh I I don't agree on some of the things that that have done, but they're already in process and we got to pay for everything that we got going. We got to you know, we got to fund every department and stuff like that. And we've cut our own employees just like you know was talking about having to cut school employees which I hope they don't have to because our schools is one of the most important things we've got but uh and our public safety and all that stuff's got to be I mean we've got aging population. We've got to have EMS and stuff like that. And I just hope people understand what what it's what we're having to sacrifice to get all this stuff done, you know, and and uh it's like Brandon said, it's it's tough decision to make. We're going to have to really make tough decision. I hope we can we can find some way eventually to, you know, even help maybe school more if we can at some point, you know, if we get money back and stuff to where we could possibly help them some more. It's uh it's a tough budget and it's there's been a lot of work put in on this budget this time and uh it's just like the school board doing their budget or the sheriff's department doing their budget or anybody else. You know, it's it's tough when you get down to it and when you when you see you expenses growing like they are and not enough

coming in to cover it, you've got to you got to have a lot of sleepless nights and that uh that makes a huge difference. And I just, you know, like I say, I appreciate y'all doing. I hope people understand what's how hard it Well, I'm sure they do when they go to the grocery store and the gas station and everywhere else. It's they can see it's not only just what we've got, but what they've got on the outside, too. That's, you know, costing more money. Again, I appreciate all y'all done to work on this. Let me

ask a question. Is there a in your m in your crystal ball looking forward to next year after the reval? I'm not trying to really put you on the spot, but maybe to kind of give us um well, I'll just be I'll just be transparent about it. Somebody said that um we were going to ask for this increase and then you know we would never get we would never lower taxes. So is there a possibility with with the new rebal that we could see a decrease in the tax rate as the value as the valuation increases? And I realize that's kind of um that's kind of government math, but you know what I'm asking for is is there a chance that we could in a in a perfect world, you know, we get some we get some global issues maybe resolved and we see some other expenses decrease or whatever. Is there what what do you think? What what would you predict going forward?

No pressure.

No pressure. I play the oil futures in the mornings, too. The um the uh I I can't make a prediction because I don't know what the state's going to do. There's there's two things out there. Let's just say the state doesn't do anything. And and next year, the rules haven't changed, right? I think when you look at our values, uh 44% off market. Uh and when you try to get to reval, you don't try to get to 100%. Maybe we'll shoot for 95% so we can find that sweet spot. That's what the professionals say. So let's just say that our we're only 39% off market because of that 5%. Right? So uh you know yeah there there could be a we would certainly we're required to present what revenue neutral rate is. So we'll calculate that but absent of of having a better understanding of the because you're asking me 18 months in the future right and that's that's very tough but I could say you know if if we're 39% off market

then yeah we could we'll probably I think there will be some wiggle room but I don't know how much. And I think and I hate to be non-committal, but there's a lot of moving parts right now.

And I understand that and it was almost an unfair question, but you know, we put we put the reval off because of the hurricane because we were not sure what you know what the final bottom line of loss was going to be on that. And so, you know, my hope would be that as you know, I guess this is not a political statement, but I'm not coming I'm I'm not going to be back next year, but I just um you know, just trying to do the right thing that it would be nice if we could, you know, look to the future and hopefully I'm sure the commissioners that will will be here, we'll we'll keep it as close as we can. But I mean, I just I guess I want to say again, I understand that seven cents is is a feels like a big increase, but I don't know. I I just don't have a solution. And I wish that I personally, and I'm sure they all do, too, could bring a solution where it was not seven cents. But

you know, seven, sorry, 7 cents is is a lot of money. Uh, I know that I know that a lot of people's going to feel that impact, but going back to what Chairman Enzy was talking about about inflation. you know, we've been since 21 and uh I know in my business alone since 21 a lot's changed. Pricing's changed, cost have changed and uh you know, honestly, I feel like this whole board has done an excellent job in maintaining that tax rate since that time, you know, and taking on all these inflation costs and doing everything that we need to do. But we know that during that time, we were still behind. We still had these similar requests coming in the whole time that we kept knocking back. We kept pulling out a fund balance. So again, I think it's just come to this point. I think Jennifer said that perfect storm, you know, with everything that's happened uh us kicking the can down the road somewhat. Um along with the closing of the meal and and the the real storms that hit, you know, it truly impacted us along with inflation. Everybody knows if you're if you're living and breathing, you know what inflation's doing at the grocery store and the gas pumps and and insuranceances and medical cost and and and the list keeps going. So, uh again, I know it's a it's a whole lot of money. Could be a lot worse. Could be the 19 that that you mentioned, you know, that we fought back against. Even the seven I'm not happy with. But, uh again, I feel like we've done the best we can. Uh again, going back to my earlier comments, you know, uh with I speaking with a a 911 operator last week, you know, and and and really the complaint was to be blunt, it was about pay, you know, they wish they could get paid more, they can go across the county line and make more. And you take somebody like that, that's an essential worker,

which I feel like all of our employees are. And uh when you call 911, it's an emergency. and you want to talk to a professional, somebody that's happy with their job that can help you with your problem you got. And we could go all the way down the list with EMS, sheriff's department. Again, going back to HHS, I look at our social workers. Kevin and I was standing up there. I think it was after we met with the school board late one night and we got out at 9:30ish, whatever, and I seen a couple of the social workers coming in. you know, they've been out performing their job, you know, and and those folks need more money, you know, we got to support them as well. So, again, I could keep going and going on and on, but I'm not going to do that. But uh we we have a lot before us, a lot of challenging request and and again it's why we've been at it since October and we got to continue to look at this and make sure that we've balanced it the best we can. Even though our superiors of state and the federal government don't have to worry about a balanced budget, which by the way is not right. I mean, they should have to have a balanced budget just like we do. uh and not beat theirelves on the chest when they uh do something like give the the teachers or or the school system the increases that that they just did and said and say by the way you guys have to figure out how to pay for it. So, uh I know that's another story for another day, but it fits in this narrative today. But again, uh, tough job we have to do. And, uh, I'm going to quit rambling now and and let somebody else, uh, speak before I get myself in trouble.

One thing I did want to, Will you go back to your slide just to draw this to attention? This there's a slide in there about what seven cents looks like on a 100,000. Can you go back to that? I think this is real important. Um because I think all of us probably have gotten calls where people think it's seven, you know, how they how do we calculate the seven cents? Like how does that actually impact individual household budgets? And so if you take that per$100,000, that $70 is what you would maybe for instance see perundred in your mortgage payment, the increase per month. So that would be $70 divided by 12. So just explain, can you explain that just a little bit?

That's that's Yeah. So you take the total value divide by 100 and then multiply by the tax rate. So that's that's how we get the 550 currently at the 55cent tax rate. Same proposal or for the proposed is the 620 difference of 70 and that is per year. So you're exactly right.

Yes. So that if that if if you have a $100,000 property um and that's that's $70 divided by and I'm not trying to simplify this just want to put it in perspective for people because I think there is sometimes some angst about what that calculation looks like but that's really almost $6 a month which is significant. And I'm not making light of that in any way, but that would be $6 a month per h 100,000 on your mortgage, for instance.

Brian, when's the absolute [clears throat] required bylaw date that we have to pass this budget? Uh, you have to have one by June 30th. June 30th. I mean, you have to have a budget for 71, right? I'm just throwing that out there. June 30th, we're required by law to have a p a balanced budget. U so what if we come up to June 1st and we can't decide on something? We got June 15th meeting the second or excuse me, the second meeting in June. Yeah, I guess we could call an emergency meeting if we went that far. You

you could you could have workshops. They don't have to be voting meetings. You have lots of tools at your disposal.

Yeah. Any other questions or comments? We're all depressed. So, okay. Next order of business is discussion or adjustment to the agenda. I did adjust one thing. Does anybody have anything else they need to do? Okay, we have three items on the consent agenda. Does anybody have any questions on any of those three? And if not, I'll entertain a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. Make a motion to pass the consent agenda as presented. Mr. Chairman,

second. Any discussion at all? All those in favor say I. I.

Anyone opposed? That's unanimous. Next order of business is a regular agenda. And the only item is to request approval of grant project ordinance unmet needs grant 3.5 million to accept and appropriate unmet needs grant administered by the North Carolina Emergency Management for Tropical Storm Fred. Related recovery projects. Recovery projects are authorized and pre-approved by NCM. I guess that's North Carolina Emergency Management hopefully. And the grant is paid on a re reimbursement basis. Is this one yours, Brian, or Oh, Christian. Good morning. Hey, Christian.

And yes, you read that right. This is TS Fred money. Um, this is not new money. I will say that you have previously pro approved a million dollars of the 3.5 million total. So what this is doing is appropriating the balance of 2.5 and then just bringing that old money into um current regulations for the documentation for audit purposes. They want to see those budget amendments in an ordinance instead of an individual kind of like piece by piece. Um, so that's what we're doing here is we're appropriating the balance of 2.5 and then bringing it into the correct format for our audit purposes.

Okay. What like what are what would be some unmet needs you have? So, the what has been previously approved in the 1 million is the temporary debris management side that we used um during TS Fred and then I'm going to turn it over to Chris Boyd and let him talk about some of the other projects. Welcome, Chris.

Thank you, commissioners. With the additional funds uh to be requested to be appropriated today, we've asked the long-term recovery coordinator for NCM for some additional problems projects for public safety. Um I hesitate to say exactly what those are because nothing has been approved. If they approve those projects, we will have a short timeline to encumber those funds. We're preparing oursel for an approval to move forward immediately. If that approval does not come, this is just a a process that we've wasted a little bit of your time. I I will be totally honest. If it does come, we see me try to spend $2 million in the next 60 to 90 days.

So, we're just now getting money or getting this approved for Tropical Storm Fred and they're going to force us to be sure [snorts] it's spent in 60 to 90 days. Is that right? Not necessarily. There's there's too many things out there. This was appropriated in an MOA to the county after TS Fred. Each project we use that for, we have to seek pre-approval from state EM. So, we we only budgeted a million dollars because that's what was approved at the time to expend. I've continued to ask for additional projects. I've been turned down on three or four different projects. We we've come down to the timeline of um there's the potential for this to expire on June 30th unless the legislature takes action. Um I I asked for about five different things two weeks ago. Uh some of it, one of them was restated from January. NCM's had a little bit of lag in processing some things with the retirement of Joe and appointing a new long-term recovery coordinator. So, some things got lost in the shuffle. I had to to send some things back and ask for it to be um moved back to the top of the list. So, no, it's not new. We we've known the timeline. Um we've been turned down. I keep trying something. uh everything that um that we haven't been approved for, I look to something else to enhance public safety or emergency response for our county. So, no, I I continue to think of new things and and come up with new ideas and I I seek ways to spend this over and over and over while we have been denied at least two or three ways to spend this. I hope that answers your question.

Yeah. Yeah. I just again like maybe I'm going off of the unfunded mandates but we get this money in and uh just expecting us to have it spent or the projects done you know and that short time frame just seemed a little ridiculous. So uh I appreciate the explanation that that explains it.

You know one of the projects just to share a little one of the projects was we went through a grant process through another avenue seeking grant funds for this. it was denied in that process and those folks ask us to kick it back and reapply to the unmet needs. So it's not that we haven't worked on it. We have it. They want you to spend it over here first or over there first before we'll allow you to spend it. So we we've worked very diligently to do this and we've spent a significant amount of that. I'm just trying to use it all if if possible for the benefit of Hwood County and its citizens. questions on that? Okay. Mo, can I have a motion to approve item one of the regular agenda?

Okay, is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

Okay, that's unanimous. I did want to make a comment that the the state does not have a budget. So, um, if they would ever pass a budget, there are a lot of programs that would help our county, uh, actually. So, but you know, but yet they send us the the state sent this, right? So, and they're tell giving us a timeline to spend it even though we've waited for it forever. So, but I appreciate y'all staying after that. So, okay. Okay. Then uh the next item uh is appointments and I want to request approval of appointment of commissioner Tommy Long as the commissioner representative on Hwood County TDA board. Uh Jennifer has come off that board and so I had asked Tommy if he could be appointed on that. So

I'll make that motion. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Anyone opposed? Okay. It's unanimous. Okay, that concludes all the business. We don't have a close session, right, Bryant? No close session. No. Okay. I thought we were, so we're not. Okay. Is any other comments or anything need to bring before the board before we dismiss?

Yes. Uh, I've got I've got a question. You know, farmland preservation's been hot on the front burner across the western region for some time. And I had reached out to Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. They've got a farmland preservation uh representative. Uh have you reached out to them, Bryant, yet and maybe try to schedule them to come make a presentation here one of our commissioners meetings? No, but I I certainly can. If that's if you'd like that, I I'll be glad to. Um and and I think maybe I'd ask Dwayne Van Hook with our own soil and water, maybe Bill Yarbor to come and talk about that program as it exists now and how we could bolster it with partners like the Southern Highlands folks.

That'd be great. I constituents across the board are very interested in this topic and we we've been in meetings. I've been in meetings western district and at the state level and and you know it's it's it's dawning on people some counties it's too late uh that they've they're kind of waking up to the fact that we needed to you know concentrate more on farmland preservation.

So I'll uh I I'll see if I can't get that scheduled in the next meeting or two. Okay. Anybody else got anything? Okay, I entertain a motion. We adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Okay, we're journ. Everybody be safe.