Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good evening. I'm going to call to order the May 18th, 2026 regular meeting of the Henry County Board of Commissioners. Everyone, can you hear? No, it's on. Let's just stand for the pledge. Please stand for the pledge of

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. 1 Peter 3:1 15 says, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." I would invite you to join me in prayer. Father, thank you for this day. remind us that in the midst of contentious issues of our time, gentleness and respect is a call to order, especially for those of us who believe and believe in the hope and the message that there is a cause much greater than ourselves in which we serve. Give us clarity of thought, presence of mind, and purity of heart as we have discussions here today and decide the way forward for Haywood County. It is in the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen.

Okay. Thank you, Sheriff. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Okay. I didn't mean to yell at you, but that's only I get your attention. I hadn't learned how to whistle like people can, so need to learn how to do that. Okay. Tonight we'll be having a public hearing. Is that why y'all are here? We got a good crowd. That's good. Tonight we have a public hearing to receive public input for the proposed Hwood County budget for fiscal year 20 26 2027. And our uh Hwood County manager Bri Morehead's here to put on presentation. Thank you Bryant. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Um,

thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, members of the board, uh, this is basically the same presentation you saw two weeks ago today, uh, with one key change. Um, but like I said before I gave the presentation, how we got to this FY27 budget really started in FY26. Keep in mind we used 10.9 million in fund balance to balance this year's budget. But all of those things we had faced between Helen, the closing of the mill, uh causing the delay in the reval, and then remember when we adopted the current budget we're in, we didn't even have our our debris bills. So taking a a pragmatic look and and using a big chunk of fund balance was was a practical stance. Uh so some of the problems that we have for the upcoming budget were baked in in this fiscal year. You'll see uh the recommended budget that I presented two weeks ago is $121.5 million. Uh and you can see in red an updated appropriation. And this is after talking with uh chairman Eninsley I think who's had communications with uh chairman Francis of the board of education to increase their allocation by 1 million21,000. Uh this is basically the value of a penny in today's terms. Uh this would also be leaving at the tax rate I recommended 7 cent increase. So we are leaving the the uh the the recommendation at 62 cents. Uh nothing has changed except that last number fund balance appropriation. Uh and instead of 12.1, we're looking at 13.1 with the additional money for the schools. I can spend some time on that slide if you have any questions, concerns. Uh or I can continue. Go ahead.

Property tax course is our largest uh revenue source. We have about $64 million in for next year. It's an increase of 7.7 million or 13.72%. Of that, the natural growth is only $68,000. Uh we added $128 million of value to the county back to that $10.4 billion uh number, $128 million, which generated an additional $68,000 in new growth. Uh tax revenue uh with the 7 increase uh is 7.1 million of growth. property tax by category. You can see this is broken into four uh distinct areas. Real property, motor vehicle, personal, and corporate. Um I mentioned last time the delay in the reval because of corporate utility taxes. We're probably leaving $400,000 on the table by just those values alone. And that's been for the that'll be for two years. Uh interesting note though, motor vehicles was growing at a faster rate than most and uh according to the tax office, used vehicles are getting so expensive, you're you're seeing lots of value uh in in older vehicles. Sales tax um is holding its own. We've got an increase of a little over 5.4% over this year's budget. Uh an increase of $883 $883,000. But what's concerning is is when you look at it monthto monthth uh and you can see the first of the fiscal year the green line represents the current fiscal years blue line represents last fiscal year uh July August September October even into November we were actually outperforming sales tax by about a million dollars. Uh but then you can see

the last three months uh FY26 actually dips below FY25 and uh since this presentation we have received February's uh sales tax and it was actually $91,000 below FY25. So we see sales tax is is continuing to uh to tighten. Uh this is just a different view of sales tax because uh we actually have uh statutory requirements that Hwood County Schools, you can see that in the red. Uh that's increasing from 5.1 million to 5.37. And then we have the article 46 that we reserve for the uh community college and it's increasing from 3.29 to 3.38. We take those sales tax amounts and put them in their debt service fund. We'll talk about that uh later on. other taxes and licenses. Uh this is really just a true up. We have a decrease of about $25,000. A lot of it's with the register of deeds fees and we do have some telecom uh reimbursements from the state. That looks like uh those are decreasing as well. Pilt, uh that's the payment in le of taxes. That's the money we get from the federal government uh instead of uh property tax on all the land that they own. And then the beer and wine sales, we have a slight increase of $25,000 there. Restricted intergovernmental, this is one that is is basically where we get reimbursed from the federal state government for um for social services and health department work. Uh this is a decrease of about 305,000 next year and a lot of it is related to the uh HR1 or the big beautiful bill. uh it changed the way uh the the cost to administer the programs uh are are born and we have uh 75% of the cost of that instead of

50. Uh I will mention those changes occur um mid-fiscal year. I think these changes for SNAP go into to uh effect in um in October. So next year we actually may shoulder an even higher amount of that uh admin cost for for SNAP permits and fees we're leaving uh level. Uh we we are seeing some positive uh growth but right now it's uh everything's sort of uh unpredictable. So we're taking a conservative estimate on our permits and fees. We'll keep an eye on that and if we outperform, we'll certainly come back and let you know. sales and service. Uh this one is is a large increase next year for $452,000. Uh but a little over 282,000 is related to EMS um uh fees and we also have an increase of 123,000 in that account. Uh the sheriff's office does some work for Lake Junaluska and that's where the reimbursement for that uh is budgeted. investment earnings, we have a decrease of about $257,000. Uh you can see in the last few years we've had a larger amount of money invested as uh interest rates have dropped and we have less money. Uh we're expecting less interest earnings and miscellaneous revenue. This is really funds uh that are a decrease for donations mainly at meals on wheels and uh library uh funds and fees. That's a decrease of $4,500. Uh that's sort of u a review of the uh revenues for next year's general fund. Any questions, concerns?

Right. Yes, sir. Uh how much have we took out of the the actual general fund just to uh that hadn't been reimbursed that that to stay even with this the uh maybe the the funds that were still waiting for FEMA to reimburse. Uh yeah, how much have we took out that paid out that that's still waiting? O

overall they owe us about $5.7 million. We received a I guess about a month ago, the 10.9 which was the bulk of our uh um uh debris reimbursement. Uh but in that 5.7 that they owe us, there's some things that we are just waiting on reimbursement for, like our time that we spend on that. So maybe we didn't actually uh you know have an a true expense, but we had labor involved. So some of that money is is and I think it's about $2 million uh that was on our labor. So cold hard cash we probably are owed about $3.5 million.

Uh that's that will be reimbured. We've took sever whole lot out to just to balance the budget too, haven't we? That won't be reimbured. Yes. Um I haven't I don't I don't know exactly where we are. It's it's about $24 million for FY26 and it was the $10.9 million that we used to balance the budget and then overall I think we were about $14 million uh for some debris and I'm way off over my skis now. And we also had some some carryover funds, right? Well, at the end of the year, sometimes equipment or vehicles don't come in, so we roll that forward. And I think throughout the year, we were at about $24 million and some change in fund balance. Uh 10.9 to balance the budget, but we got almost 11 back from from uh FEMA already. I can get you a detailed I I'll email that to you, Commissioner Ramy.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. Um any other questions on the revenues before I go over to the expenditure side? Uh we'll we'll this is just a summary. Uh the big the big drivers in this budget uh were and will continue to be uh our employee compensation. And you can see we in in this upcoming budget we have a 3% cola that will be effective uh for all employees uh the first full pay period in July. uh employees will be eligible for up to a 2% merit on their anniversary date. So those two together total about 2.5 2.5 million give or take. Um and we also uh back in June of 24 we had received a draft of a study that we were hoping to to implement a pay and classification study. Um we got that in June. Helen hit of course and we basically shelved uh that study until we could get our feet underneath us. At that time uh we were on average about 6% off market. Uh and so in this upcoming budget we have a 4% midyear adjustment. Also having funds included to bring in um a new pay and classification company to to get our salaries back to market. Uh we we do h we're experiencing turnover and it's because uh we've lost some of our competitive edge in the market. Uh we also have funds in for Christmas bonus. Uh we haven't touched longevity funding or reduced the 401k for employees. Uh the big driver is medical insurance. Like everybody this cost just keeps rising. uh we we've increased at 1,800 per employee per year to the 218. Uh the state retirement system continues to go up about a percent a year. And then one big thing is overtime uh and

part-time. This is uh to to it says to true up over the last few years because of turnover, the sheriff's office and EMS in particular uh have uh experienced a lot of turnover and so they use overtime to patch that or part-time. So, we've increased $840,000 next year to try to uh to to budget more accurately. You can see there was a total of 43 positions requested this year. In this budget, we have 17 approved. The only positions that are approved are nine for Health and Human Services, and that's going to be eight for Medicaid and one for SNAP. and the eight for Medicaid are related to HR1 or the big beautiful bill and the am number of times that we have to uh to interview uh people that are seeking public assistance. If we had funded all of the 43 positions requested, it's about $3.7 million. The new positions are just under $1.5 million. uh major operating increases. Overall operating is up uh and this is an updated number from the two weeks ago 3.89 million. Uh and you can see the school system operating we've increased that by that million21 to 2,275. We've unchanged the community college at $268,000 increase. I will say that uh the maintenance contracts that we talked about in insurance and bonding uh th those everybody's experiencing. I think uh even our homeowners insurance uh is is up in our personal lives. Um the one number that continues to uh to to take monitoring is the additional $170,000 we have or $169,000 we have in

gas and diesel fuel. Last year we we bought 180,000 gallons of fuel and so uh doing the math we we've just added a dollar a gallon to what we uh we uh plan. So hopefully that holds but u continues as prices continue we'll we'll monitor that. And oxygen on here while it's only 58,000 this has increased every year uh from the number of trips we have for folks on our ambulances to the amount of time that maybe we have to hold them. Uh and that continues to grow go up. Next year is about $58,000. Uh schools in college here you can see we take the schools operating to uh $20.5 million. We have 1.25 in capital and a debt of 380,000. Uh you can see the the the schools decreased from last year to this year 1.9 million in in debt. So we've paid off some some school debt. Uh that's very low debt ratio for the school system and uh the community college 3.8 million in operating 750 in capital and debt of 390,000. We do we need to talk about that. Any questions concerns you have Mr. Chairman on school fund? Okay. Uh vehicles only 14 vehicles this year. Uh you can see last year we had 18. The the real kicker is the four for EMS. That's three ambulances and one uh remount. Uh outside of public safety, it's only two vehicles. Those are midsize SUVs for social services. Two at for 100,437. Uh it's it's a tight budget, but we've also had to keep up with with just taking care of our facilities. So, we do have funds in for HVAC repair and replacement. We've got some flooring at

the library. We've got precincts that need re-roofed and uh bay doors at Mills on Wheels uh need to be replaced. We've got funds in to replace some Viper radios. Uh we have a fingerprint machine. I I don't think that's a technical term, but uh we we have that machine that is no longer supported at the end of uh December. So, we would like to get that one ordered uh for the office for the sheriff's office. And then we have some uh equipment in the jail that's just met the end of its useful life. Uh so updated number uh you we have a general fund increase of a little over 10.7 million going to 122.5. You can see along the categories uh public safety is 4.3 million, education 2.5, uh health and human services 17, non-EP departmental is the big one at 1.2, too, but we budget lots of funds centrally and then we'll spread those throughout the year. So, this is where the COLA, the merit, and the midyear adjustments budgeted. We also have funds in there for retirey health insurance and things like that that skew some of those numbers. Uh when you look at function, uh salaries and benefits is is certainly the largest and then operating and then uh capital. Again, to review what the seven cent increase means per $100,000 of value, and this is per year, it's basically an increase of $70 uh per 100,000. And uh when you look at where those those dollars go for the the additional 70 uh the schools and college number is unchanged because the additional million is coming from uh our fund balance instead of 11 as an additional tax. Medicaid and SNAPS about 17 uh jail operations and jail debt 15 and 23 uh respectively.

Um outline here's just some things to be uh uh mindful of. There's two bills I think House Bill uh 1089 is the one that is and I I I think everybody's seen from the NCAACC their stance on on the state tinkering with with our ability to levy property tax. that's the one that will be most impactful. There's a Senate bill, but that's really pausing on Reval uh that doesn't um impact us. Um but if there's a bill out there, there's always a chance that it gets amended. So, we're keeping an eye on on on that legislation. And then, uh the reappraisal, it it's it's big and uh we we we delayed it because of Helen, which was the right call, but we're but the last numbers I have from Judy, we're about 44% off market. So, we're really trying to get those that complete because you you get your values too far off market, there's lots of pain for all the homeowners. And so, we're trying to get those those values established uh for January one. Some other considerations, each time we give 1% to our employees, it represents about a $500,000 increase. Uh health insurance, uh while it was up $1,800 per employee per year, that was still below the national average. Not much, but it was still below. But, uh, eight or nine% costs in health care are not unusual. Uh, and I we're we're probably going to see the state continue to raise the retirement uh system, the the employer contribution. Then operating, we know we have service demands and inflation. Uh, we've got capital uh replacement, especially our our facilities. Um, I'll go through briefly these these other funds. I don't think they're as important to the public hearing as uh as other things, but uh it is an accounting of all of our uh expenses. And you can

see health insurance uh that fund is at 15.7 million. That's an increase of 1.6 million. Uh current employees, active employees, uh represent 1.1 million of that increase. New employees, that's those nine for for Health and Human Services and eight for the sheriff. insurance represents $370,000 and the retirey insurance is up 109,000. Our workers comp fund is only up $36. Uh uh the separation allowance fund is flat. Uh our 911 fund is down 32,400. And solid waste, this is the big one. It's 12.4 million, an increase of 61 6.1 million, but uh most of that is fund balance. We aren't uh changing the rate. The the the availability fee will stay at 159, but we've accumulated fund balance so we can knock out some capital projects. And we have four projects uh that are in this year's budget. One is uh a large improvement at the MURF uh and we'll have to do something at Jones Cove Convenience Center to expand it to accommodate while the MURF is under construction. And we also have funds in there uh so we could locate convenience centers really in the south end of the county and the north end of the county where we're seeing the facilities not meet the the the need and that would be in the Bethl and in the Jonath Creek area. Uh fund 31 and fund 33 operate as the schools in the college debt funds. And this is where we account for their sales tax. I just mentioned that their their debt was dropping off 1.9 million, but we have all the sales tax go to this fund so we can clearly explain where it's at and also it's it's easier to keep track of if it's segregated from the general fund. We made that change a

few years ago. Um some other funds uh all of these are staying flat. The recording fees fines and forfeitures the pay accounts all are flat. Occupancy tax we're holding level. Uh tourism is is vital to us but we we don't see any reason to increase that just yet. Uh road district fund. This is a natural increase of $858 in that fund. No road district is increasing their rate. Uh the fire district is uh a total of 7.397 million. It's an increase of 251,000. Um there are two um fire districts and I don't know if they are here tonight. I know Waysville and uh and um Fines Creek both are requesting an increase and they are here should um the board have any questions. Uh Fines Creek's going from 9 to 10 cents and Wesville from 8 to 10. And Jun Alaska Sanitary District uh the rate is staying flat at 10 cents, but it is a decrease of $2,186 in dollars for next year. Uh just formality, the public's inspection, we have copies here in this building. We have them uh at the Canton Library and we have them on our website. Uh the next steps would be on the morning of June 1st, the board of commissioners, if you all wish to do so, can consider adoption. I'll have on the agenda the um the budget ordinance reflecting this presentation, unless I hear differently.

Hey, Brian, can you go back four or five slides to the um let's see right there? Maybe I go forward. Okay, one more time. where the TDA money is. Uh that two back or three back there. There it is. It's fund 63. It's occupancy tax. I just wanted you. So you've got that in our budget, but that's nothing we can do anything with. That's mandated from the state what they can do with I mean they have directions the TDA board on what they spend that on. So it doesn't come straight to the county. Correct.

I mean, it comes to the county, but it doesn't we don't spend it, I guess, is what I'm saying. Okay. So, that's a different board, so we can't use any of that. So, I I just wanted to make and and there's state statutes governing what that can be spent on, right? And the fines and fortune for anyway, what what is that mostly would you say? from the court system. We budget those and then they're they're passed along to the state and I'm not sure then the state divies them up to school districts I believe. I'm not sure exactly how that goes. Yeah. From us directly to the school from us directly to the school system.

Okay. So the school system gets the 350. That's part of what they get. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. I just want to clarify that because in a lot of our budget just for everybody it's mandated from the state. So, you know, we have to do what they tell us to do for the most part. But, uh, okay. I just want to Anybody got any other question? Well, that was it, right? Brian, you were done. Yes, sir. That uh on the extra money for the school system that's coming out of the general fund, right? That's not going to make a tax go to 8 cents, right? Correct. It it it's it was an additional million21 out of a fund balance.

Yeah. The last time we talked, which we'll go to 8 cents. That's reason I was concerned about it. Brian, I got a question. I know on the fire districts, do we have, if I remember right from our last meeting, we've got two of them that's not at 10 cents. Is that correct? Every other ones are at 10. I think it's Sonuk and North Canton. Let me look at my notes, though. I'm sure they're feeling the pressure of of cost just like everyone else is.

North Canton is at 7 cents and Sonuk is at 5 cents. Okay. And if these go to 10 cents on June 1st, those will be the only two. All right. Okay.

Anybody got any other questions or comments? Okay. Thank you, Brian. Okay. So Haven, you got how many people signed up for the public hearing? I have 15 signed up for public hearing. You have any for public comment? Yes. One.

Okay. Okay. So, we're going to do public comment on this uh budget right now. So, Haven will call your name if you would limit your comments to three minutes and Haven will let you know when your time's up. We're going to have it right up here so you can kind of keep up with it, keep up with your time and you can kind of gauge your comments from that. So, if you would just finish your once your three minutes are are up, please finish your uh statement so we can go on. How many of you got signed up for 15 for the public hearing? Yeah. Okay. All righty. All right.

And she's And so one more time, make sure you speak into the mic. just pull it down or pull it up where you need it. So, go and then Haven will call those out and she'll kind of run that for me. Thank you, Caven. I'm going to go ahead and apologize if I butcher these names. Y'all are teachers. You get it. Um, first that signed up to speak is Carol.

All right. Hello. To begin, I want to thank you for serving on the local government. As a public public school teacher that has dedicated the last 23 years at Hwood Public County Schools, I know that working for the state, the county, and ultimately our community is a calling. It is not an easy route nor a glamorous one. So, thank you for stepping up today. I speak to you as a veteran teacher and as an active member of the Hwood County Association of Educators. I realize that you are tasked with allocating monies in our budget to continue to make Haywood County the vibrant and healthy community it is. And I could not think of a better place to invest this money than in our public schools. The veil was lifted after Helen and COVID and the world saw that the engine of the engine of our communities were the public schools. Public schools provided free lunches, mental health support, and learning. We are still those same schools in our community. And I ask you once again to see that our public schools are a vital resource for a healthy community. As the world continues to change, schools are asked to adapt with less and less. From teachers, mental health care workers, teachers assistants, principles, cafeteria workers, maintenance, bus drivers, the list goes on. We are all already at capacity without a budget shortfall. My school alone, Wesville Middle School, has lost our dedicated health teacher as well as a loss of our Spanish program among other positions. These are vacancies are being filled by our media spe specialists as well as full-time classroom teachers that teach during their break and their planning in hopes that these positions will be filled. Our students and our teachers and our communities deserve better. I would love to see us give more options to our students in Hwood County, not have them taken away. I understand that your decision is hard, but without a public a healthy public school system, all of our other systems are overloaded. If we help our children now, we may not have to expand jails in the future. If

we help our children now, we can we don't have to add unnecessary burdens to our police officers and DHHs. If we invest in our students now, we can have a flooring flourishing Hwood County later. Thank you for listening and for those who want to reach out and be active within Haywood count Association of Educators, please sign up. Thank you.

Okay, thank you for your comments. Next person signed up is Max Ringba. Maybe I don't know if word's getting around cuz I swear every time I do these public comments, everybody gets a little better at doing my last name. I am not a public school teacher. I proudly just bought my first home in Hwood County. Um, I'm investing in my family's future here. I love to tell people I was born and raised in Raleigh and got trapped in these mountains after dropping out of college twice. And just because I don't have a fancy piece of paper doesn't mean I can't put two and two together. Uh, the biggest thing I find troubling is the fact that we are comparing apples to lethal weapons. um when we're adjusting this budget for the sheriff's department to have fun new toys. I cannot for the life of me figure out why Haywood County Sheriff's Department has an armored vehicle, but I'm not a police officer. So, what do I know? What I do know is I have been sitting here making sure that my nephew stays quiet to the appropriateness that we have derived from adult behavior. And I cannot look at this little boy and tell him the reason why it feels like school is not keeping up with him is because we have to invent more beds. What we can be doing is investing in these kids. I was a tutor through the pandemic. I've been hired on as a tutor in other cases and it's because people can't afford fancy after hours. It's meet in the coffee shop. It's poolside. I've watched what happens when we allow the kids to suffer because we can't come

to some kind of agreement. I've had to explain multiplication to an eighth grader who could not go past 10. I have had to hold hands of parents as their kid takes the SAT for the seventh time because they've just been passed along. I have helped in multiple counties. I went to private school. I know what the differences look like and it does not need to be in Haywood County. We don't need to basically give up on our kids so we can have more beds. Like I said, I don't see how that's fair. We can figure it out. All the kids are asking is that we love them and we just educate them better than when we had. That's all.

Hey, thank you, Max. Next that signed up to speak is Chelsea White Hogland. Hi. We have lots of little people in the room today. So if you find them distracting at all, you can understand why every single teaching position in our classrooms is absolutely priceless. I am here today as a social worker and a mother and a product of the public schools here in the mountains. The current budget proposal, as I see it, is embarrassing and a shameful demonstration of our county's priorities. As it stands, our leaders are investing in armored vehicles and cages while our kids get crumbs and cuts. We are getting a fancy new jail expansion with more than double the current number of beds. We are getting new armored vehicles. We are getting eight new positions for that new detention center. But meanwhile, our schools might have to cut 14 teaching positions, might have to cut the early college, might have to cut music or art or AP programs. What kind of budget is that? Anyone with a household budget knows that you don't splurge on dessert if you cannot afford dinner. From where I stand, it looks like our kids are missing out on dinner while the sheriff's office enjoys dessert in excess. I understand the county is facing difficult decisions and juggling factors and limits that are outside of the board's control. And I assure you there is not a parent in this room or probably in the whole dang county that does not know what it is like to make impossibly hard choices and change plans and put projects that we had hoped to complete to the side due to circumstances that are outside of our control. We also know that investing in our children is non-negotiable no matter the circumstances. Ironically,

research even shows that investing in public schools in our children leads to reductions in adult criminal activity correlated specifically to experienced staff in the classrooms to better academic and behavioral outcomes and much more. By funding cages instead of classrooms, you are laying down a self-fulfilling prophecy and showing us the vision that you have for our children's future. Cuts to education now lead to the criminals needed to fill those cages five and 10 years down the road. Appalachins are already stereotyped as being uneducated, backwards, ignorant, lazy, poor, aggressive, and violent. We all know that those ideas aren't who we really are. So why then would our county commissioners put out a budget that essentially confirms those mischaracterizations of our community and what we care about? Frank Burl, a mentor and educator over in Silva once told me, "Always keep getting an education because no one can take that from you." So we are here to say that we will not let you take it from our children. We are asking that you fully fund the $3 million increase requested by Hwood County Schools and that you push our representatives to be our voice in Raleigh and ask them to do their part. We will not take this lying down. If you make our children pay the price for your cages, there will be consequences from the community in the shape of collective action. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

Next person signed up is Carly Q. I brought you guys a paper. I'm going to read it to you.

All right. Um, we are all here to talk about how much we love public schools and I know you have a difficult decision in front of you. So, what I am offering is a resolution that you could adopt to show Raleigh that we care about public schools. I am here on behalf of the Haywood County Association of Educators with a resolution for our county commissioners. The title of the resolution is in support of kids over corporations. Uh whereas the Haywood County Board of Commissioners has a responsibility to promote the long-term health, economic vitality, and well-being of county residents. And whereas strong public schools are a central infrastructure that support work force development, economic growth, public safety, and community stability. And whereas North Carolina's persistent underfunding of public schools, driven in part by the billions of dollars in corporate tax breaks and private school vouchers over the last decade, has placed increased strain on counties and local taxpayers to meet basic community needs. And whereas North Carolina now ranks last in the nation in public school funding effort, limiting educational opportunity and undermining the future of local communities across the state. And whereas county governments frequently bear the downstream impacts of underinvestment in schools, including deferred capital needs, workforce shortages and increased demand for social and public health services. And whereas the kids over corporations campaign is a statewide effort to restore democratic accountability and ensure that public resources are invested in children, families, and communities, not diverted to corporate giveaways. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Haywood County Board of Commissioners formally supports the goals and principles of the Kids Over Corporations campaign, and be it

further resolved that this board calls on the North Carolina General Assembly to prioritize children and communities by restoring and increasing state investments in public education. And be it further resolved that this board urges state policymakers to end excessive corporate tax breaks and eliminate private school voucher programs, redirecting those funds to public schools and essential public services. And be it further resolved that this board affirms its support for a strong democracy in which educators, families, and communities have a meaningful voice in public policy and in which fear, division, and intimidation have no place. and be it finally resolved that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the governor of North Carolina, members of the North Carolina General Assembly representing Haywood County, and made publicly available as a statement of this board's commitment to investing in kids over corporations. I I hope that you'll adopt this and thank you for your time.

Good. Thank you, Carly. Next person that signed up to speak is Bill Coven.

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Bill Coven. I'm a social studies teacher at Tuscola. I've been a full-time teacher with Haywood County Schools for 11 years, but have had a relationship with the school system since 2008. I also serve as an officer of our local chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators. Much of what I have to say is no secret to you, but bears repeating. I do not envy your position at the moment. Due to unfunded mandates from the federal and state government and the inability of our leaders in the general assembly to pass a budget for this fiscal year, much more is being asked of you and our local government. You are being asked to bridge the gap. The proposed budget has some meaningful investment in our future, including public safety and raises for county personnel. What the proposed budget lacks is full support for our public school system. For our public school system to achieve, it must properly be properly funded. Heywood County Schools has consistently ranked in the top 10% of the state in recent years. To maintain that high mark, your support is needed. As Dr. Putnham has warned, without additional funding, there will be consequences. Those consequences could come in the form of increased class sizes, reduced programming, and less student choice, closing existing schools, andor the elimination of as many as 14 teaching positions. The quality of education directly depends on having a qualified teacher in front of the classroom. So, when you compromise that, you compromise our children's education. As you as you well know, a quality school system is key to economic development. Providing educated workforce, attracting families to the area, fully funded schools create a healthy community. It is well known that the funding

formula worked out two decades ago between the county and the school system has not uh kept up with inflation in recent years. It has been stated that the ask from Hwood County Schools would raise property taxes uh possibly another one to two cents on top of the seven cents raise that has been proposed. I ask you, is this not a wise investment? The children of our county, our future. For some of you, this is your last budget. You will be considering before you leave office. Will this be your legacy? And I ask all of you, what will your legacy be? Thank you for your service and consideration of this extremely important issue. I leave you I leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free um in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you for your comments, Bill.

Next up is Nate Roberto.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman. I want to say thank you for going over to the school board. I think that shows a lot of integrity. I wish you had been joined by uh your fellow colleagues. Um, I think in this time right now that just shows a lot of courage and I want to say thank you. Dear county commissioners, Haywood County Schools is facing a 1.8 million funding gap while the detention center expansion will cost us tens of millions of dollars. Only one voted against it. I believe and maybe you could tell us why. The proposed inflation budget is a result of the big beautiful bill and rising costs due to the war in Iran. inaction from our school board should be considered. They had years to manage this. One of them is running for a seat here. Another one is running for state office. What are they going to do differently that they didn't do over the past decade? As I said, the state has manufactured this crisis by passing laws and not sending funding with it. The federal government has done the same thing. But as far as this deliberative body goes, this proposal does not square well with education. For instance, you have 54 increase for incarceration, 21% to in to teach kids. That's that's the breakdown. That's the Smoky uh Smoky Mountain News article. We need to make a collective decision this evening. I'm asking you to use the power of government. You have the power. You have the power to fully fund the school budget. You also have the power to supplement the pay of daycare staff at Haywood Community College because as Dr. Shelley White alluded to, you we the

county has paid for a fully operational facility, but it's not fully operational because we don't have the staff. And so what are we to do about that? The president says it's a statewide crisis. It's not her problem. Well, it's my problem. Additionally, I'm asking that you hold a public forum. Call Call Chuck Edwards. Call Mark Ples. Get the men in here who created this crisis. And then get Dr. Putnham, get Mo Green, get Dr. Shelley White, and let's sit down and have a public conversation about this cuz the players need to be here and they need to be held accountable. As Dr. Dr. Pundam said, we're at a critical juncture. My daughter may not have Melebrook Elementary School to go to this fall, and I think that would be devastating. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, mate.

Next person that signed up is Trevor Putnham. Good evening. I wanted to start by saying thank you uh for those of you who invested I know lots of time in coming to a full funding resolution. Um I'll try to be brief. Um lots of folks to follow that's done a great job. For more than two decades, the Haywood County School System has followed an agreed upon funding formula between this commission and the schools. The that formula uh produces only small incremental increases yearly and that's provided that enrollment stays steady or is increasing. It does not account for inflation. It does not account for uh increasing utility expenses or major economic shifts. I want to pause for just a minute and emphasize two decades, no major adjustments. Think about how much the world has changed. Commissioner Ramy asked me before the meeting, how come it costs more with fewer teachers, starting pay in 2004 when this funding formula, and I'm going to estimate numbers here, was probably around 30 to $35,000.

It's now 48,000 and should be more. So, the individual teacher costs more. The time has come where the funding formula no longer works and we really need your support. Uh, we need the full $3 million request so that we can make meaningful pay increases for our support staff that so that we can maintain the teaching positions that we have and so that we can preserve precious opportunities for our students. I ask that you truly support education. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Pman.

Next up is um Chuck Francis.

Tag teaming you tonight, Dr. Putton. Good evening, commissioners and chairman Eninsley. And first of all, uh, Chuck Francis, chairman of the Haywood County Schools Board of Education. Uh, I'd like to thank Commissioner Long and Chairman Eninsley for coming to our meeting the other night. That was a treat. I've been on the board 26 years now and I've not seen that before and I appreciate I'm not saying you never came to a meeting. I'm just saying that to come to one of our meetings and speak to us and I appreciate that. At the meeting, we were informed that we are going to receive additional funding, but not the full $3 million increase uh that the school board had requested and approved. I've served on the board of education, as I mentioned, for 26 years now, and remember the days of us arguing up here over each line item before we had a funding formula. I remember it well. This concept of the funding formula only works if it is funded at a level to support the existing needs as well as to allow for growth and inflation. Uh, Chairman Eninsley, I think, pointed that out at our meeting on Monday night, and I do agree that it needs to be adjusted. Without a major adjustment to the formula, crucial cuts will have to be made that will negatively impact our schools. It will take years to recover. I appreciate the hard work that has taken place uh the personal visits, the phone calls from everyone involved in this process, but uh this evening I stand before you in support of our school's budget request. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Chuck. Next person signed up to speak is Carolyn Wasolski. Oh. Um, welcome.

Hi. I'm here because both my kids will be students in Haywood County's public school system. And I think what bothers me the most about seeing this budget is that I feel everyone has to know that this lack of funding is flatout unacceptable and wrong. It's not right or smart to invest less than half the requested amount towards the stability and quality of our kids' education. And it's not fair to be putting the job security of our teachers and school staff on the line when they're already overstretched. From what I know, the jail expansion has been largely opposed by a lot of people in Hwood County. The majority didn't choose this and I think if everybody could vote today on it, I doubt you would find putting funds toward a jail very high on the priority list of most families here. Um, I understand it's an ongoing project and it needs to be paid for, but the schools and our kids shouldn't be the ones to bear the brunt of that shortfall. Um, well, an increase in funding would be better than the current proposal. I think you can all find a way to make this right and fully fund the school's request. Um because I refuse to believe that's the best you can do. Um there's obviously going to need to be compromises, but we all know that nobody in this county is a stranger to adapting to less than ideal circumstances and making compromises. Um, my son is almost finished with kindergarten at Metobrook. And when I heard about this budget shortfall, my mind immediately went to his teachers, Miss Revvice and Miss Lyall. Um, two wonderful educators that have been willing to go the extra mile for my son and all the kids in their classes at Metobrook. And they don't deserve to have this uncertainty hanging over them as they try to do their jobs. what's going to happen when their class sizes increase or they lose their jobs because

of consolidation because we couldn't manage to pay support staff. Um, as a person who's taught many classes over the past 15 years to both adults and children, keeping a room full of 12 adults attentive is hard enough. And imagine a classroom full of 18 to 25 kindergarten students with no support. Um, I Why do we keep wondering why our schools struggle so much when we keep setting them up to fail? Why don't our kids don't deserve Why don't our kids deserve to have AP college or AP classes, early college, art, and music, and all of the extra opportunities that we had when we were in school? We all know once funding is cut, it's harder to get it back. And the sad part is that it's become almost expected for our teachers, school staff, and parents to fill in the blanks. often out of pocket. Um, take care of them for a change. Our teachers and caregivers are the ones who keep the world running and we're all indebted to them. I've heard several people here say that they don't want to underfund the schools. Well, prove it. Like, do it.

That's Tom, thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next person signed up is Wendy Rogers. She's got another fan out there.

Good evening, Chairman Eninsley, commissioners, and members of our community. My name is Wendy Rogers, and I serve as the principal of Central Hwood High School here in Hwood County. I stand before you tonight not only as an educator and administrator, but as someone who sees every single day the impact our schools have on the lives of our children, their families, and our community. First, I want to sincerely thank you for the support you've shown our schools over the years and for the difficult work in balancing a budget that um comes during difficult economic times. I understand that there are no easy decisions. But I also know this, our schools are at a critical point. The current funding shortfall is not simply a number on a spreadsheet. It cannot be. It represents real consequences for students and staff across our district. It means the possible loss of teaching positions. It means support staff, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, instructional assistants, and office personnel continuing to fall further and further behind financially while the cost of living continues to rise. These employees are the backbone of our schools. They are often the first faces our students see each morning and the people people who keep our schools running safely and effectively along beside us every single day. In alternative education, where I work, we work with students who need additional support, stability, encouragement, and relationships to succeed. When staffing is reduced and resources become strained, those supports are harder to provide. And while our district has consistently been re recognized as one of the top performing districts in the state of North Carolina, we cannot continue to maintain that level of excellence if we are forced to do more and more with less and less. I also stand here tonight as a taxpayer and a resident in Haywood County for a really long time, not telling you the years. I understand that any increase in funding ultimately comes back from the hardworking people who live here in this

county, including those who work both inside and outside our schools. I recognize that decisions impact everyone. However, the greatest deficit created by underfunding our schools will ultimately fall on our students and their futures. The long-term cost of not investing in education is far greater than the short-term discomfort of making difficult financial decisions today. The district leadership is not asking to provide us with luxury. They're asking for sustainability. They're asking for the ability to continue serving the students of Hwood County without being financially defeated. I respectfully ask you tonight to reconsider the current funding proposal and continue working toward fully supporting Hwood County Schools. An investment in our schools is an investment in the future of Haywood County. Strong schools strengthen our workforce, our economy, our families, and our communities as a whole. Please stand with our students, our educators, and every county employee who dedicate their lives to serving this community. Thank you.

Thank you, Wendy. I appreciate your work at Central Hwood. Thank you.

Next person that signed up is Mims Jurgen. Hello. Um, thank you for your time and for the opportunity to voice our opinions on this matter. Public speaking is neither my strength nor my favorite thing to do, but this is something I care about, so I will be brief. Um, I am before you on behalf of all of the families, not that they appointed me or anything, but on behalf of all of the families who rely on the public school system in Hwood County to ask you to invest in our schools like many others have here tonight. If choices must be made to invest in education or public safety, please choose education. As a social worker, I can tell you an investment in education is an investment in public safety. I've heard it said my whole life that children are our future. But they cannot shoulder this burden if they are living in a system that has chosen to value incarceration over knowledge. They deserve better. The people who teach them and feed them and care for them deserve better. On a personal note, after years and years of renting, my husband and I just purchased a house in Hwood County where first-time homeowners because this is where we want to raise our family. We love the people here. We love the landscape here. here. We love the school system here. All my siblings went through the school system here and I loved watching them grow and flourish in Hwood County Public Schools. We love the culture of this place and we've just made the biggest investment of our lives in purchasing a home here. One day, we're going to have children who go to Hwood County Public Schools. If you must increase our property taxes, please use the money to fully fund our schools. Please make the right decision and invest in our children's futures so that they can be our future. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next person that signed up to speak is Beth Johnson. Welcome.

Hello. I think you can tell I'm a little different than the other people that have come here. I'm a retired school teacher. I do not have any children or grandchildren in your school system to today. And so I thought probably I wouldn't bother to come until I saw this article that you have chosen the jail over the schools and I decided that that is I could not allow that to happen. I have been a teacher since 1973. I have taught in Georgia, in Virginia, and in three different counties in North Carolina. The last 13 years was happily spent at Pisgga, a very good school. And I did not mind that we spent our own money and our own time to buy whiteboards and glue them on the walls so that we could then buy with our own money the different colored markers to make our our lectures more interesting. I didn't mind that I spent at least one football game a year and the concession stand trying to figure out how to cook a hot dog when you're a social studies teacher. But I knew that that money was going to help the school do better. I didn't mind when I decided I wanted a computerized white whiteboard and there was no money for it. So I asked my dad and he gave me a Christmas present and I had the only computerized whiteboard in a building. I didn't mind doing that because I knew that other teachers were doing that and that we had a great school system. But now I'm afraid that you have picked spending the money in the wrong direction. If you have a have to make a choice between a jail and a school, if you pick the school, you won't need the jail. Thank you.

Next person signed up to speak is Chris Schwarz. Okay. Thank you for those comments. Welcome.

Hi there. I've uh I've never participated in one of these public forums and I didn't have any prepared remarks. just didn't know I was going to be talking uh until maybe an hour ago. Um but I felt the the need I felt compelled to do it because I'm a father of two kids in Hwood County Schools. Um I have a daughter at home who's studying for a math final tomorrow uh to end her school year at uh Hwood Early College and I have a rising sixth grader who's going to be a part of the inaugural class at Hwood Innovative. and he's just so excited for the opportunity. And to hear that there is a risk of the the budget not being fully approved and resources being cut and teaching positions being cut um is alarming to me. Um, I understand that, you know, uh, things are tight for everybody and, you know, gas is expensive and, um, that, you know, the the $186,000, you know, increase just in a single dollar of gas alone, you know, that's that's a that's a compelling story. However, this the students uh, the education system is not where we can um carve those funds back from. Uh, so I'm from Florida originally, been here about 5 years. This is home. Uh Hwood County feels more like home than Florida ever did. And one of the deciding factors that keeps me here is the high quality education that's available to my kids. You know, I wanted to have that Haywood County address so that way they could go to Hwood Early College and Hwood Innovative and take advantage of those resources that are available. So, I'm a I'm a father first. I'm also a student. I have attended uh Hwood Community College myself. uh right after Helen, that was one of the first institutions that opened its doors to me and asked me, hey, what do you need? How can we help you? You know, grants were available. There was, you know, everybody willing to to help out. So, the the school system here in Hwood County is powerful. Uh it is supportive.

Uh it is innovative. It is, you know, there for you. And I really hope that we can fully fund the education system here in Hwood County going forward. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Next up is Susie Harris.

Hello. Um, good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Susie Harris. I'm in my 70s and don't let this English accent fool you. We are currently in 250 years since this country declared independence. I come from a long lineage of famous people, one of whom was personalache to George Washington. My family actually helped to found this country. independence. The war of independence was fought because initially of excessive taxation. I chose to make this county my home because I live on a very low income and my neighbors do too. I'm elderly. My neighbors are elderly and every year the taxes go up across the board, not just with the property taxes. I grow my own food. I make my own bread. I make my own clothes. I do everything I can to not rely on anybody else. The churches around here give me woods so that I don't freeze to death in the winter because of the high prices of power. None of which is your fault. However, my neighbors and other elderly friends badged me to come down here because they didn't want to. So, they've asked me to show the courage to ask you please to understand that we can't take these continual rises in property taxes. I love the kids. Don't get me wrong. I think you're all very justified in what you're asking for. However, in this time of great hardship here in this country, I think I find it very hard to understand why people are being given payraises when so many people are losing their jobs and cannot

find other jobs, young or old. Whatever we depended on is gone now. We all have to stand up and try to do the best for ourselves. Tighten our belts. Now, I want to say that I love this country. I'm 83% Scottish. My family's been in this country all this time. And I just want you to know that we, the elderly and lowincome, will lose our homes because we can't afford to pay your tax increases. And if this goes on, I will become homeless. And I don't want that to happen to me or anybody else I know who lives on a low income, whether they're elderly or whether they're just low income, disabled. So I would like to ask you to reconsider the payraises and understand that down the road when things get better, and they will. I've lived through all this before. In the 70s, I saw the same thing going on both in this country and in Europe. and people did not get pay increases, but when they did, it was beneficial to them. Thank you very much for hearing me.

Thank you for your comments. Next up is Lane Perry. Welcome.

Thank you, honorable commissioners. My name is Dr. Lane Perry. I'm a professor at Western Carolina University. I have the privilege of being here not only with all these community members but with my two daughters, Prescott Perry and Penn and Perry, both who are students in the Haywood County Schools. One in Hazlewood and then the other in Wesville Middle. In moments like this, when I was reflecting on these remarks this evening, I'm reminded on the days following Helen, in the days following COVID, the most challenging times in our community. And I remember this one particular story that Jenny Wood, the executive director of our Hwood County Schools Foundation, shared with me. She said that she heard a story from several families in J Creek and they had been out of communication like many of us for several days and they were waiting for supplies in desperate need of basic supplies, basic physiological needs, which right above that remember is education. and they were waiting and then all of a sudden the social workers and several teachers showed up on their front doorstep in their holler with several supplies needed to get across the finish line for the next several weeks. And you know what the first thing those people heard when they stepped off the bus delivering those goods? See, Mom, I told you they'd come. I told you they would come. That's the responsibility. The voices that you've heard up here this evening, a majority of them are teachers K through 12 and beyond. And they stand up for our kids every single day. And you know what? They're up here standing up tonight as well. I'm just inspired by the fact that so many folks have come out. Um the way we demonstrate our belief in the future is by investing our dollars today. Your dollars represent a vote, something that we're all very familiar with in political contexts. But in everything, it's not about being political, though. It's about in everything human and good in our community. Please note that education and our schools is not a pet

project for anyone in here on either side of the aisle, on either side of the podium. It is our purpose as a community. Tomorrow morning, I have the privilege of being a Rotarian and awarding $7,000 in scholarships to some of the best and brightest students coming out of Haywood County Schools. And I'll tell you, it's tough choosing those recipients. Now, I've heard it mentioned a couple of times this evening about schools versus gels, and there's no contest. According to a recent study from the University of Michigan, a 10% increase per pupil investment has resulted in a 16% reduction in the probability of arrest. 75% of state prisons are populated by individuals who did not finish high school. What are we doing? What are we doing? These investments have benefits that extend beyond our intended purpose and our recipients. I'm proud that my daughters get to hear these voices in support of education today and tomorrow. I hope my family and our community h can be as proud of you all when you all choose to support the full $3 million that Hwood County Schools needs to be able to get across the next wave of our future in this community and beyond. Thank you.

Okay, thank you for your comments. That was the last public comment for the public hearing on the budget. Okay. Okay. So, I'll close that portion of the public hearing since that's all that spoke. Oh. Uh before I do that, um did did the fire departments want to comment on anything that y'all are here on your No.

Does anybody have any questions for the fire department? Okay. Okay. Did you want to didn't you need to explain anything or No. Okay. Okay. All righty. Okay. Our next next order of business will be our general public comment session. And I think you had one person sign up to speak. Haven. Yes. So the one person that signed up to speak is Kyle Edwards. Okay. Welcome, Kyle. Here you go.

Chicken to get up here. I can bring chicken. How are you, Kyle? How you doing, board? Right. I know most of you and I appreciate all of you cuz I don't envy your position, but I don't like the way I'm being done by the Haywood County Health Department. That's talking to the mic

in the in the microphone. I don't like the way I'm being done by the Haywood County Health Department. I've got 30 years experience with septic tanks with no failures according to their records at the county. Uh, I'm 86 years old, serviceed connected, 100% disabled veteran, and I feel like that you need the if you're going to be the jail, you're going to need all the help you get a paying for it. And uh uh common sense should be going a long ways when you've got the experience I have with putting in septic systems. I've got 30 years experience and no failures. Would like to the invite the whole board out there to my place and look at it. The boy from Raleigh looked at it and said it's stupid not to give it to me. And everybody that comes and looks at it says, "I got to get a soil scientist." I don't need one. I can look at it and tell myself because I've got the background for it. And uh uh we we're going to have to have some kind of base to pay for this jail. And I feel no matter uh how much education you got, experience goes a long way sometimes. Now my twin brother's a professional engineer and he agrees with me, but he don't have the license. He's he don't want to pay for the liability now. So he don't have it now. But he agreed with me and we took a perk test which they no longer accept and it passed. And that's all I've got to say

and I hope I didn't run into too much time. But I I appreciate your uh looking at it and coming out there and looking at it on the ground with me. The they pass four. I need eight or nine or 10. And the soil's the same all over. and I can prove that to you. So, look at my soil and look at my situation. Thank you. Hey, Kyle. Appreciate you coming out.

Okay, that'll conclude public comment. Okay, so we'll move on to constituent concerns. Does anybody have any any they need? I see. had one in my mind that I want to remember. Does anybody have anything? Yeah. Okay.

I want to respond to the gentleman that uh I was the one that voted against the jail and he wanted me to say why I voted against it. And uh back in when this jail first come about it was $16 million and the price everything went up and now we probably around $30 million and we just this jail was voted on we just had Fred not too long before that that storm and I was concerned that they if we had another disaster we'd have a problem paying for it. Well, because luck had it, we had a lean and uh I was reading an article in the paper today or in the on the I looked it up and Googled it and on the papers that were the articles that came out in the paper and stuff back then and at that at that time Jeff Haynes said that the jail capacity at that time averaged 117. Well, we called today to see what was in jail today and there's 115 in jail today. And my thinking is if right now is the wrong time to open up that jail and go up a three 3.5% tax. When it first started, it was 1.5% increase on taxes. Now it's 3.5. And to me, I feel like that this is wrong time to open up the new uh part of it that we just expanded and put that burden on the people. That's just my opinion and it's it's probably not a popular opinion, but I believe in uh funding the sheriff's department every way we can, but I don't believe we're in the jail business. I believe we could have build a smaller jail. to shut down the annex which had 40 beds in 2022. And I just felt like we could uh utilize that property and put a you know rebuilt that put new roof and stuff on it and

saved all this tax money that we could have used to help with the school without putting this much of a burden on the people in the county. And uh that's just my opinion on the jail. I'm not I'm not saying nothing bad about the jail. I want to fund the sheriff's department any kind of uh public services we can that we need but I just don't feel like we need that big of a job. That's if that's answering your question. On the other thing is why we weren't at the schoolboard meeting. I went wasn't wired that anybody's going to schoolboard meeting but if I had have been if we get over two it's quorum. So we'd had it had been time to uh for uh Haven to notice it and wouldn't have been. That's the answer to that. And what concerns me about the uh raising the taxes so much if people we have such influx of people coming in here right now when these taxes start hitting them on these high end homes and stuff we're going to have people moving out I'm afraid and that's one of my concerns about raising the taxes so high and the poor people live here like me I'm a poor person but anyway the the taxes are a burden when you get up so high and I understand that and but we have to have them to fund all these things that we have to have. But I just felt like that that jail was a sort of a a burden to uh if we hadn't had that and had a a lot smaller jail or something, we may not had no problem. We we probably wouldn't be in here today wondering about how we could fund this, you know, for the schools because schools, I've said 100 times, I want to give them every penny we can. And uh we've got the people in Hwood Can now are aging population. There's not as many kids. There's elderly people. They're not going to jail as much as a lot of the other people are, but they have to have emergency services. So, we and we got to fund emergency services to make sure we take care of these people, too. We got we got people we got different ages of people. We've got to look at it for school kids and then

elderly people. And but that that's just the reason I want to make get that point out that that's the reason I voted against it and the reason I I just can't see funding eight more people for when we're already over and sheriff's department already over overtime and stuff. If it takes that much to run it, how much more is it going to cost us? Cuz the other one's got to be updated as soon as this one's opens up and stuff. It's going to be a lot of money. I just want to make uh sure that people understood why I where I stand at on this. Okay. You did vote for the jail to build it. So, did I what? You voted for the jail to build it. I voted to pay for it. I didn't vote to build it. You voted to build it.

No, I didn't. Yeah. when it's it's almost like if if I'm building a house and I get a contractor to build the house and I okay that and then it comes time to pay him and then you say no. Well, that's basically what you're saying. No, I said when I voted for it to pay for jail, I voted against the jail but it's voted in so we have to pay for it now. And that's exactly what happened. Once it got voted in four to one, we had to pay for it when it come up. Van Hoy was wanting their money. they were going to build it. We had to prove to pay them. That's what a board does. I mean, you got Just because I disagree on one thing don't mean I don't have to paint. Yeah, but I I think the point was that the jail was voted for. So,

I may be wrong. No, he voted to build the jail. I just wanted to make that point. We'll move. I did not vote to build the jail. I voted to pay for the jail, Kevin. Okay, we can look at the minutes. All right, we'll do that. All right. It was 3 to 0 vote. It was me and Tommy and you and Brandon was out of town and Jennifer had a medical emergency. It passed three to nothing on building the gym. Yeah. Wasn't it? No. No. I voted against building the gym. I'm not sure. Well, let's let's look it up because I I want to make I want everybody know. I mean, you I don't All right. Misleading nobody.

We'll look it up. It'll be fine. Okay. I wanted to make some comments on the uh on the jail. I mean on the jail well on the budget uh and specifically the education. So the foring I wanted to explain the foreign funding formula a little bit. Um it's based on the number of students and so what we did was we built in an increase every year for those students. So as long as you all were gaining students the funding formula looked fine worked fine. What's happened is is the students have gone down. So the school system instead of having 8,000 students like it did in 19 around 2009 2008, it's got around 6400 now. So it's gone down 1,600 students. Well, the schools don't get that, but they've still got to maintain the same buildings. They did close the school several years ago, but it was before this. So they have u so they've done that. Um and so and then the county has worked with the superintendent to increase the funding formula more than what we so every 3 years I think we agree on a number and then but we've gone above that number that we agreed on right Brian is seems like

the I'm I'm I'm since I've been here we did this in two three year three three-year increments. The first was about 2.75% per per student increase and then this last iteration was at 3.25% per student. Right. Okay. So we have we that has gone up some. Yeah. And and that's very simplified because there's the the virtual students and the charter students and things like that that okay gets it down into the wheats.

Okay. Um, but I just wanted to comment that's kind of where we got in this position is because the school system is losing students instead of getting it. But I think we're turning the corner because I hear about people having kids out here. There's a couple of speakers that said that. So, I think that's a good thing. So, um, but anyway, that's one reason that we're in that we've kind of got into the bind we are or the school system has and us too. Uh we I wanted to comment on uh there was a comment about the big beautiful bill and I know we talked about it has added a million to our county budget but it has also helped a lot of people with u I know uh they don't you don't have tax on tips and overtime anymore and that it does help seniors. So there's a lot of benefits to the big beautiful bill that I didn't put out there. So hopefully with some of the benefits that we've got, it'll help offset some of this other uh the bad stuff if you will. But I think it's probably more good than bad. So I did want to make that comment about that. But uh those were we were trying to give reasons why the budget has increased and that was just one minor one minor reason. So um okay. So did anybody have anything else they wanted to comment on about this? any

Oh, sure. I'll uh I'll take a I'll take a stab at it. Uh first of all, I appreciate everybody came out to speak tonight. Uh some of those folks said they had never spoken publicly before. I think they showed a whole lot of courage and a lot of passion uh for coming out. And so, uh I think there was a few comments that I would like to address. uh and and please this is uh you know I think all the educators here will will attest that uh education is power education is power and uh I was always told growing up that you know ignorance could be corrected with education there's nothing wrong with being ignorant about a topic or ignorant about a subject uh education can correct that and education is a good thing. So to the gentleman, there was several comments and I was trying to make some uh some notes as everybody was talking. There was a gentleman said he was a tutor in the schools and uh a tutor uh privately and and he I think he was the first one that made the comment about the armored vehicle and uh I would be the first to say that you know if we put armored vehicle in front of children uh we would be we we we'd be in trouble. we we need to be took to the principal's office. We didn't do that. So, for educational purposes, uh we did not appropriate any tax funds to buy the armored vehicle. It was donations and seizures, drug seizures. Am I correct, county manager?

It's it's been several years, but I believe all of that was drug seizure, drug forfeiture money that And they got some donations, private don I think. I think I mean it's it's been a few years. I can't remember exactly how it's fun,

but but to y'all's point, I agree with and and we did not actually through two sheriff's departments. Uh they had requested this uh armored vehicle and and our county manager had cut that out of the budget request couple three well more than well several times. And just like he cut 18 positions, no 30, close to 30 position requests in your presentation, uh, we had departmental requests for that many more jobs. He cut them out. Actually, if we were to meet all of the budget requests that were presented to this board, we would have to raise your property taxes by 18 cents. Am I correct?

19. It it might be closer to 30 because without fund balance we were at 19 and we had cut 8 million out. So with with fund balance we cut 18. So using fund so if you you inject that in we cut those taxes that that significantly.

So we didn't spend property tax money on the armored vehicle. Okay? That's just just throw that out there. I've heard that several times. Another thing about the jail, I I've heard and this lady, you're very impassionate. I appreciate somebody that's passionate for your cause and the sign you held up for us to view the whole meeting. Uh, schools before jails. Well, I I agree. Uh, when we spent the money, I felt strongly that, man, what a waste of money. You know, we're having to spend money on a jail that basically is just throwaway money. There's no really return on that except now then this is the education part. We're required by the state to do this. Now as far as the jail concerned to come here tonight and to have us defund the jail that that just can't happen. Okay. We had public hearing after public hearing after public hearing. This has been a long process. You know, it's not Chick-fil-A. We had two sheriffs, Sheriff Christopher. Before I became a commissioner, that was a hot hot topic. We need to build a jail. We need to build This was before I became a commissioner 7 years ago. So, the current regime when I was elected was pushing for us to build a jail. The sitting commissioner said they had kicked that can down the road long enough. you know, it's time to do something. We were transporting prisoners uh across the state trying to find an open bed at 2:00 in the morning, wearing out tires, sheriff's cars, paying deputies overtime, and the math equation wasn't working in favor of continuing that path we were on. We had an elected sheriff by the people. The people spoke.

They elected a sheriff. He recommended we build the jail. They run the jail. They're in the sheriffing business. They're in the jail business. Okay. We had an election about four years ago and we had another pre uh sheriff was elected by the people of Haywood County overwhelmingly. He and his staff recommended that we build the jail. We We heard the people. Okay. I heard it. I heard it where I work. I'm getting tired of the judges letting prisoners loose because they don't have a bed to put them in. You know, they're putting them out on bond. I've heard it. I mean, so that decision was cemented several years ago. We went through the process of securing an architect. We went through the process of securing a contractor. We voted on all these items. We went through the process of securing funding for this. Then we finally made the big vote to secure a constructor and that was at the point of no return. Like you're going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. That's the point of no return. That was the final vote. But we had aligned all this stuff up and this was several years ago. And so they're handing us the keys this summer. I want you to understand this board, this county manager, we have held back the tide for the seven years that I've been a commissioner, we've raised property taxes by 2.5 cents. You can fact check me. We give the school system one penny with no regrets for resource officers because the sad condition our country's got in the sad condition that our school our our country has gotten in. We we've spent a penny to provide resource officers for every school in Hwood County. So if you exclude that, we've

actually raised property taxes by 2.5 cents. Now, if I've missed it a point like a tenth or something, you know, I I'll be corrected. I sure surely I'll be corrected. But for the most part, we've raised in seven years, property tax is 2.5 cents. 7 years. So, if you have a $300,000 house in 7 years, you your property taxes went up $75. It's caught up with us. The jail debt has to come on. We secured an architect. We paid for that. We secured a constructor. It was three of them came and presented. We made the vote to build the jail. Now then, we've been paying the construction financing out of debt out of our fund balance. They're handing us keys to this facility this summer. We have to pay the mortgage on it now. So, we roll it over into our repetitive funding yearly budget. Okay? I'm not going to build a house that the people wanted. Two two elected sheriffs and this has been a 10-year process probably. I'm not going to before the paint's dry and they hand me the keys. I'm not going to say, "Well, I'm not going to pay for it now." I don't think anybody here would build a house, get a contractor, secure financing through home trust or your local lender and build you a house if you've been paying the bills on it, the construction bills. And when they hand you the keys, you just say, "Forget it. I ain't paying for the blame thing. We're not going to do that." That decision was made years ago. We We can't back out of that. So, I want to put that there was several speakers. And again, education is power and ignorance can be overcome by education. So, I hope I'm giving you some education. I'm not taking you to

the principal's office. I'm not being mean. I'm just telling you that these are the cards that we are dealt. Not I'm not a mean person, you know. I I'm just telling you the facts. And you know, we have to pay the bills. You know, the light bill has to be paid. And it's going up about 12%. Maybe more. If you want lights to burn, you got to pay the power bill. So, some of this stuff make me happy. Oh, no, no, no. I I'm not happy about it. to the lady that came and was concerned about her property taxes. Uh, you know, and I I appreciate that historical uh synopsis you gave. You know, it's nice to be in the presence of royalty. Uh, my family actually got a land grant from King George before that little situation happened in 1776. Yeah, I can date you about the same time. But now for that for those purposes, you know that I appreciate you coming and speaking up. I appreciate that. And it's a hot topic in the state house of representatives and the state senate. I'm going to take I'm taking some time here. So I mean just sit back and enjoy this because a lot of times we get misrepresented. There's rumors started on us and this is really our only time to tell you and speak to you as commissioners. And so if you're upset about how long I'm taking, I'm sorry because you know we we get a chance to tell our story not very often. And if you don't tell your story, somebody will tell it for you and it's usually not going to be the truth. So here's the thing. For those of you running for commissioner, I see I see Carly Pew here. She's going to be on the ticket in November. And I appreciate the the public interest in this job. But if you think you come to this meeting two times a month and that's you're you're the

gist of your public service, you're sadly mistaken. I spent two days in a state commissioner meeting Friday and Saturday and the hot topic I'm I serve on the state board of commissioners and the hot topic was the tax reform bill, ma'am. And uh there is tax relief and I'd like for you to speak to our tax collector about the circuit breaker bill that's that's in place now for elderly folks that can give you a break. And so in the midst of all of our budgeting, we don't have a state budget. Now for those that want to politicize this, I'm nonpolitical. I deal I play the hand that I'm dealt. I don't care who's in power in Raleigh or Washington. I don't that doesn't matter when we have to set our budget. We have to deal the hand that we're dead and we have to play the hand with de. So right now there's no budget in Raleigh. For your information, I just was contacted my legislator today. Right during the meeting, I had some questions about where we are with the state budget. There was nothing mentioned about the the nice raise during all the public comments that's proposed at the state legislature. There is a very nice raise that's 8%. I don't know all the details about public education's funding raise. I'm happy with any raise I get. That's on the table. Uh, however, the county the employer has to pay the employees portion of the FICA. Is everybody familiar with that? Correct me if I'm wrong, county manager, but that's the county's portion of that raise. So,

when the teachers get a raise, it costs county taxpayers more money, too. We have to match certain state funds. I'm on board with that. However, the days for the teachers cost local taxpayers more money. You understand? We have to pay the employers portion of that. So, it's kind of a two-edged sword. We'll deal with it like we have all along. Commissioner Amy mentioned some things about the old jail when we go into the new jail. The North Carolina prison system gives us the rules that we play by. And if we're not up to code on these buildings, especially prisons, we could get in very much big trouble. And then the taxpayers in trouble when we have to raise your taxes to pay for things that we should have done. So, I'm trying to get a little education out there. Tell my story. I get a chance to tell my story, I'm tell. So, yes, we're going to have to do some modifications to the old facility to bring it up to state requirements. We We don't make law. We follow the law. And I don't want to break the law because I don't want to be the first inmate in the new jail. So, I don't want to break the law. I follow the law. Real simple. So, the armored vehicle, I hope you understand the truth about the armored vehicle. Get time to tell my story. And I hope you understand the truth about the jail. This isn't Chick-fil-A. This isn't something that started last week with this budget. We had public hearings that were broadcast in every newspaper widely w wasn't very heavily attended sadly. But uh we we had all kinds of public hearings about this topic.

Uh I think there was one other thing. Oh. Well, I'm going over my my my Okay. Oh, and to to uh Miss Harris, you made a statement that your taxes go up every year. I agree. I agree. We don't go back and forth. I mean, I'll talk to you after the meeting just for the sake of the people here. Uh again, I stated that we haven't raised your taxes in seven years, but two and a half cents, excluding the request from the school system for this resource officers. And by the way, we didn't get any negative feedback for doing that. Every it was very popular. We had to do it. And so, uh we haven't raised your taxes every year. Matter of fact, we've held the tide back so long it's caught up with us. and and there's three drivers, public safety, ambulances are $400,000 a piece. We need three. Two-year delivery, that's 1.2 million. That's every penny on your tax rate. The jail debt, public safety,

switching with you. These switches don't work. I heard that over there. It was true. And it's true. Chairman agrees. But I'm just going to double down on that, Mr. Chairman. If we don't tell our story, people will tell it for you and they'll usually get screwed up. I'm not criticizing. Thank you. You're doing a good job. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Would you say that again? Good job. Oh. Oh. Well, I know a lot of people this taped. You can watch it over and over when you get home.

Okay. Okay. And and I'm sure people be factecking me. I I may have made a few mistakes, but I think I'm pretty much straight up on this. So, there's three budget drivers here. Public education, public safety. I see the fire chief back here granting. That's part of the package. When the fire department boards bring us a request, they're an elected board. That's part of the public safety package. That's part of the tax increase in your districts. So, it's public safety, education, and the third one is employee compensation. I we're in a job market. You pay market pride. You go down to the farmers market down here, whatever they I'm ashamed to say what I paid for a watermelon in that food line the other day. I I like watermelon like cantalopes. But when you go by, you pay the market price. You pay the market price. They send me my power bill. I don't like it. I'm take I'm going to be taking a lot of cold showers next year, too. But I pay the bill. I pay the market price. The job market, we paid money to do a market study for our employees. We're six p 6 6% behind market. What happens? They go to Bunkin County. They go over here across the mountain. They go to Henderson County. We can't really compete with those folks. Look outside. They don't have the view that we have in Haywood County. A lot of people work here because they love our county. But still, we have to compensate our employees. They buy groceries. They pay power bills. They buy gas for their car. So, if you disagree with me, that's fine. We're not going to agree on everything. But, you know, you I I make a little bit more money than I did when I entered the workforce years ago. I make more money than I did when I

entered the workforce. So, if you want to hold the line on taxes, good luck. One more thing about the state legislature, and I learned this over the weekend, there is rumblings on the House floor about them sending money to cover the FICA cost with the educational bill. My state legislature just contacted me while I was in the meeting. I've been asking him all day. By the way, he's been very good to get back with me. They do not know the details yet. They just don't know enough of the details about the budget to let us know how to base our budget. So, one of our legislative goals at the NCAACCC is going to be a federal law that they need to enact to make states pass a budget by May 31st so we'll have something to work off of. We don't really still have anything to work off of on this funding as of an hour ago. They may come back with their part of the FICA. That was told by our legislative person last Saturday when I was in that meeting. Uh county commissioner work is not just two meetings a month. If you do it right, it takes a lot of your time. I willingly serve. I do my part. got to do do my part. I'm not asking for to pull more of my load. I'm asking for the horses to pull and all of them pull the same way and I pull my fair share. I appreciate this board and I appreciate working with these guys. And so I'm not apologizing for taking a long time, okay? I want to apologize. I just want to let you know where we're at. We have inflation like you do. And so we're working through it. In the presentation, we upped our we upped from

our last presentation a million dollars. So, we're taking fund balance. Hope you can take fund balance. I don't know that that'll pass between now and when we approve the budget, but I will say this. If we do it this way, we got another year to see what the state legislature does. We're going to have a representative from Haywood County. Either way, you slice and dice it. One of the speakers said it. We're going to have a representative from Haywood County again after November. We're going to have that. Maybe they can move the needle for us in Raleigh on this situation. And we're going to have a school board, possibly a school board member if they people decide to put a school board member on this board that they're on the ballot. So, I think everybody's weary hearing me talk, but but I Hey, I know I don't apologize. you you came and I appreciate you sitting and listening. We listen to every one of you. For those that left, sorry. You know, we listen to you. You should have at least had the courtesy to stay and listen to what we said. They're probably out spending some kind of wild story right now. But for those of you that stayed, I I respect you. Even though we don't maybe agree on every single thing, but you stayed. And for that I give you a lot of credit.

Okay. Anybody else?

So, um, as many of you know, and I appreciate everybody that that came out tonight, I I love the the opportunity always to have people in the community come to that podium and speak. I think it is one of the greatest rights that we have in this country. Whether I agree with you or we disagree with each other, I still think it's a great opportunity to get to stand there. And that's something that we've all learned in public school is that we have the opportunity to come and speak our mind. I did find it interesting tonight that I'm a real notetaker. Um, I carry this with me everywhere. If I lose it, I'm in real trouble. But there was a little bit of a theme tonight and I I I just want to I just want to say it back to you. versus lethal weapons, cages versus classrooms. Someone said this was the last budget that some of us would s would go through and would this be our legacy. Schools and kids should not bear the brunt of the jail expense. Prove it. Incarceration incarceration over knowledge. Having chosen jail over schools. If you pick the school, you won't need the jail. Um, this has never been a decision of the jail versus schools. For me, this this the jail, which was probably one of the toughest decisions I made as a board member, was settled long ago for me. Like Commissioner Long has said, we've come to the place in the road that we've got to pay for the house we built. And to stand to stand in front of the people that that choose us to sit on the board and make these decisions, for me to obligate the county for millions of dollars for that facility and then not turn the lights on and not staff it and not protect the current detention officers

that we have in the old facility, which was to me to be a bit ridiculous. So, our decision on the budget as it stands in tonight's meeting for me had nothing to do with weighing one against the other. They are they are on the same budget, but as far as I'm concerned, they they are really not interconnected. When we first heard the budget presentation from the county manager, it was approximately a million dollars of less funding for the schools than it is tonight. And the reason that we are now at this new number is because I think we've all tried to work collectively to meet you men and women and professionals in what you do. My kids went to public school. I went to public school. I still am involved in different levels of part of the public school. Have teacher friends that are in the public schools. We worked very hard to come to the table with something that meets you in the middle. And I realize it's tough. I went back. I've seen this. We've we've worked on our budget for months and months like I'm sure um the staff with the with the school system has. You know, we we had a request for many more positions, many more positions than we are able to fund. And we have over and over and over since I have been on the board asked our staff to do more and more and more. For a while, I started to believe that I was kind of the bad luck charm. We've had COVID, we had tropical storm Fred, we had the meal closure, we had hurricane Helen. All since I've been on the board and we've gone back to our staff over and over and over again and said, "Can you give us just a little more? We have all these federal programs and all these things and they've ste they've really risen to the occasion." Like Commissioner Long said, this budget is

made up of three really important components: education, public safety, and employee compensation. We need our employees just like you do. I recognize how important our employees are. Whether it is the clerk in one of our departments or it is a lead teacher in one of your schools, I understand how important the employee is and how important it is to our community. Um, public safety is I I wish that I wish that what so so many of the speakers had said was true. That if we just funded education, we wouldn't need the schools. And I really wish it was that simple because if it was that simple, those of us in this room tonight could have we could solve some really big world problems. It's really not that simple. We have got to find a way to blend this budget so that we are meeting as many of the needs as possible. Um, one of the things that strikes me though is, and I, Commissioner Ramy brought this up at the end of of the county manager's presentation tonight, this additional million dollars will could likely come from our fund balance. And by getting you to the 2.7, which is about $700,000 short of the original ask of $3 million, is is the shortfall is on replenishing the fund balance you spent previously, or that's how I recall it. And so I realize that that is uncomfortable. It makes us all tighten our belt. But when you think about the burden of this entire budget across all of the taxpayers in the county, I think we're we're really working hard. And you know, I I I didn't I chose not to run this next time. I'm not asking for accolades or support, but I really think that we've worked very hard to come to to get

close across the board. And um you know I really just want to stress to you again that never in my never in the months that we have worked on this budget and I want to stress that again. Never has it been a decision of do we open and staff the jail or do we take care of our young people. It's never been that decision for me. It's not that decision for me tonight. And so I again I appreciate everybody that came and spoke. Um, sometimes I think that we are misrepresented. If you were not in the meeting and hearing it for yourself, I don't know, or going back and watching the videos, I don't know that it's always we're always represented in the best light. But I can tell you personally, my goal is to do the best for the most. And um, we're trying to get you real close. Well, I couldn't have said it no better than Commissioner Long and Commissioner Best. I had many notes as well that I took throughout the meeting, but uh I'm not going to repeat what what both of you guys have said other than what I said earlier. I mean, the house is built now with the jail. It's it's completed or almost completed. They're getting ready to hand us the keys and we can't stop it at this point. So, uh, what we are looking at is trying to help the schools. And I want to say that I've said this many times before as well. I'm a big supporter of our schools, both the college and our public schools. U, I'm a product of that. Uh, a lot of my family members are. I've got family that still works in the school system. I've got my first grandchild, as I've mentioned before. Uh, he's going to be attending our schools. So, it is extremely important to me to give the school system everything that they need. Uh, and if it relates to

a school resource officer protecting him or if it's a teacher that's going to help educate him, whatever the needs are, uh, I want to totally support uh, what Dr. Putnham and uh, the school board's asking for. I know that uh, there's we're coming down to the the line, the finish line here. we've come up with uh another million dollars if we choose to do that uh when we vote for that. Seems like we have a consensus across the board to give the extra million dollars which I think uh takes us to the 2.3. Uh Miss Best, you may have said 2.7, but I think you meant the 2.3. That's okay. Everybody knew what you was talking about.

That was not a formal commitment, but but it looks like we're $700,000. Go ahead. Well, you're already factchecking, Miss Best. Hey, you got to in this position,

it looks like we're we're roughly $700,000 short uh that that we need to work on. And as Miss Best pointed out, you know, it may be a a conversation that we sit down, a hard conversation that we have. We're having to pull out of our fund balance. I've got some questions on y'all's fund balance, you know, of what the average is across the state. It's not a quick Google check. Looks like it's slightly less than what we currently have in our fund balance. I know you guys are wanting to build that just as we do as well. Uh but it may come down to uh the point where you guys have to pull a little bit more out of yours just like we do. It's all our money. Your money is our money. Our money is your money. So, uh uh it's pretty much going to come from the same pocketbook no matter how we how we uh take it out. So, uh, you know, I feel like over the next few weeks, we'll have some of those conversations on how we make up that difference. Uh, I'm sure that those needs will be met. We don't know what the legislators are going to do. They may come through for us. There's a lot of things at play. You know, next year is around the corner. We started working on this budget in October of last year. I think that's the earliest since I've been a sitting commissioner that we've started working on a budget. uh made the comment before we hadn't even meet uh turkey at Thanksgiving and we were already talking about the budget for the following year. Uh a lot of lot of uh demands a lot or not demands a lot of requests that have been made and uh you'd like to fund them all. At the end of the day, we have to balance that out as far as who gets what and and how we uh uh uh what we have the taxpayers uh pony up to uh to provide as well. And that's that's a hard line. You know, again, I have to pay my taxes. You know, I know this lady over here spoke. Uh I've I've got taxes that I have to pay. I've got I've got a mom. I've got

in-laws. I've got family members, masps. I've got kids that are now uh paying taxes and I can assure you one thing. I don't want to uh have them pay any more taxes than is needed. And I've said that since day one as well. I will though, however, be sure that that we have enough taxes coming in to cover what I feel is needed throughout the county. We've got a lot of great services from our public schools to the three major ones that they've already mentioned. you know, our public service. Uh we've got social service. We've got a lot of requests that are handed down from the state that we have to do. We have no choice. Probably 75% of our budgets mandated and we have to cover those costs uh whether we want to or not. If we decide we don't want to, guess what? The state steps in and says we don't need you guys anymore. So, uh, we have to do those requests along with the remainder of that budget we get to decide what to do with, which is roughly 25%. You might fact check me and it might be 24 or 26, but to

huh, I'm not going to hold you to it.

You ain't going to hold me to it. All right, good. But, uh, again, I I'm I'm a big supporter. I appreciate all of you guys coming out speaking for the schools. U, you're very passionate about it. I am as well. Like I said, my first grandchild, probably in the next 4 and 1/2 years, will be attending one of our schools, and I want him to get the best education that that he can get. And by the way, our schools has done a fantastic job. I mean, we had Dr. or Miss Barker come, I guess, is our last meeting. I think the last meeting meeting before and we had her brag on our our our schools and uh she done a excellent job and uh we're proud of our schools, all five of us. I don't think there's one of us that ain't proud of uh what our schools do and we definitely want to support them. We just got to work out the details on how this funding plays out. So, thank you for coming.

Have anything else? I just want to thank everybody for coming out and giving us your ideas of what you need and everything. And like I say, I'm 100% support of the schools. I've got kids been through there, two rounds of them, matter of fact, and and they uh they got a good education. I appreciate y'all coming out and expressing your concerns. Thank y'all. Okay. And I do appreciate everyone coming out and taking your time to to speak tonight. I know it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of courage to get up there because I always tell people I' I've done that before before I was a commissioner and you always feel the weight. You know, I kind of feel like you feel the weight of the county when you're up here because you know anyway I just

recognize the school board members that are here.

Yeah, the school board members. Who do we have? We have Chuck Francis Trevor. Of course, we've got Graham Hayes. He's a associate s superintendent. Jill Barker. I'll tell you this, De Barker is a good cheerleader for you all. Uh when she was at the last meeting, I meant to say this, but she got up and really uh told us all your good points and everything, which she I'm glad she did, but we we kind of knew that y'all were really good, but we we didn't know how really really good you were. And I want y'all to give me a a middle school and an elementary school report because you what you don't have because I know that you they excel in the in the middle and elementary too. I was just talking to somebody this weekend and they were talking about u their kids how how grateful they were were for their kids to go to the schools here and they really supported us you know making sure we support you with the finances and I can say I've got more emails from school me from people supporting you your opinion and what you know than I have from people that uh would rather us not you know increase the rate a little bit but we understand that education is really important and uh we want it to be, you know, we the schools are tops and we should be providing them with the funding they need in my opinion. So, uh, but we'll continue to do that. But I did want to say on the jail, it's unfortunate that that this is happening now because we've been planning this for years as as Jennifer said, I can remember meeting with Governor Sheriff Christopher a long time ago and developing the plans for it and then Sheriff Wilky was here for us to build it and then probably he might not be totally he may not be totally in their bill by the end of the here maybe even but possibly. So the next sheriff may have have use of that. Uh but that is

unfortunate and I do know that the armored vehicle has saved lives. I know that they used it on a on a stakeout and uh I don't know what the cost of a life is but I know that that armored vehicle is there to save lives. So um and I'm sure it seems like they might have even bought that from some grant money uh or they had help with it. and yeah, um I do have the numbers on the Bearcat. Hang on just a second and I'll break that down for you. 79 almost $80,000 was from asset forfeiture for forfeite. $5,000 was a donation. Um 84 and some change was a grant from the North Carolina from NCDPS and $12,000 came from the county budget. We did.

Okay. So, we put a little I stand corrected. We we gave $12,000 from county budget. checking the facts. Commissioner Long. Okay. I'm sure there'll be more people, but that was just a small portion of that. Correct. Thank you. Okay. So, I'm going to move on to I got one more thing. What? You do? Yeah, I do. Oh, okay.

I I want you to bear in mind a top a hot topic is our national birth rate. And so you guys in the school system, you got your work cut out for you. When I became a commissioner, our national birth rate was 1.9 children per productive woman. Now, don't don't ask me how you get to that number, a fraction of a child. But they moved the birth uh bearing age of a woman up to 47 from 45 to make it look pretty good. So, it's 1.9 when I became a commissioner. The latest results came out, our national birth rate is 1.57 per productive woman. Now for people in government and people in school system, these are important numbers to to know. I know there are pockets, geographical pockets where those numbers aren't true. However, you have to look at your region. And so we need two, just for your information, we need 2.1 births per productive woman to maintain our current United States population. Now, this is serious. This is a very serious situation. If you're in if you're in government planning, if you're in schoolboard planning, your numbers have dropped 571 students since 2021. There has to be adjustments made to compensate for the children that are not there. And so, I I'm just these are just facts, okay? I'm not trying to do anything other than to say, "Hey, there's a storm coming over here." And close your windows, you know, make sure that your windows are rolled up in your car. Get prepared. Make sure your gutters are cleaned out because that that that birth rate storm's coming. It's already here. So, just as a 30,000 ft view, you know, let's not let's not run us down a cattle shoot here every budget year and say,

"Oh, what happened?" We know what's happened. Thank you, Tommy. Okay. Next order of business will be uh administrative agency reports and presentations, but we don't have any tonight. Next will be discussion or judgment of the agenda. I don't have anything. Next order of business will be consent agenda. Of the six items on the consent agenda, does anybody have any questions on those? If not, I'll entertain a motion. We approve the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion at all? Did you have any discussion at all?

Hold on just a second. I don't have I don't have any discussion. I've just lost my consent agenda. Oh, here it is. Yeah. All right. I'm I'm up with you now. I've got so many papers up here. Couldn't find it. No, I I don't have anything. I'd looked it over. Oh,

I I I will. There is one comment that needs to be made. Item four on the consent agenda, and I was going to bring this up. For the conspiracy theorists that think we're spending money like drunken sailors, the state requires us to do a yearly audit by independent auditing group. It cost us $114,600. It's on the consent agenda. Just so you so you know, we are required by law to have a third party audit. Christian Bryant, the whole budget is went through with a fine tooth comb to make sure that 2 plus 2 equals four for the educators here. It bears mentioning item four on the consent agenda. We are approving $114,000 of your tax money that the state requires us to do and I wouldn't have it any other way to have an independent audit on our finances.

Can I get a add a boy on that? Add a boy. Good job. All right. So, we have a motion in a second. Have we voted? No. That's what I was getting to. Did you That was a discussion part. Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. I. Anyone opposing? Okay. Now, we do not have a regular agenda. We do not have appointments. We do not have a close session. Thank God. Does anybody have anything else before the board tonight? If not, I just one one more note. We We get a lot of flack, I guess, on social media and stuff, and I've read a few comments this week that it's talking about roundabouts and stuff like that.

Dog parks. Dog parks. Roundabouts. Please be educated when you say that we are allowing something or not allowing something. We have no authority over those decisions. So we don't control roundabouts and dog parks. As long as it ain't a county, the dog park, right? Okay. Did we Did we vote? All in favor say I. Oh, I need a motion. Make a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Motion. Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? say. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay, we're we're dismissed. We're Yeah, we're dis