Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the Kittyhawk Town Council meeting to order. It's Monday, uh, November 3rd, 2025. It is 5:00 p.m. We're in the Smith meeting room at the Kittyhawk Town Hall. Thank you all for joining us tonight. Those of you that are here in person, those those of you who are watching from home, we thank you very much. If you're able to stand, please do so and join us in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all very much. Cast I need a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Please move.

Motion made by Charlotte. Second. Second. Second by Dylan. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Thank you. Uh we have a presentation for our auditor here. Uh come on up ma'am please. Please state your name. I told her earlier to save her, make sure her presentation did not go over two hours and she assured me that was not going to happen. That will not be a problem.

Good evening. I hope you're all doing well tonight. Um I'm Madonna Stafford with Car Racing Ingram. I'm a partner in our new office. So I just like to tell you all thank you for allowing me to be here with you tonight to go over your June 30th, 2025 audit reports. You should have copies of those to follow along if you choose. Um, first I always just like to start off by reminding everyone what we were engaged to do. For us, that was to come in and do a financial audit of the town's finances and then issue an opinion on those financial statements and whether those were um materially correct. We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards as well as government auditing standards. And I'm pleased to say that we issued an unmodified opinion on the town's finances for the June 30, 2025 year. Essentially, that means it was a clean opinion and we found nothing materially wrong with the statements. Um, the opinion letter will be on pages one through three of your audit reports and then that will go through our entire procedures and everything that that covers. Moving on, I will spend just a couple of minutes and um point out a couple of your financial highlights for the year. We'll start with looking at your governmentwide statements. That's going to be on exhibit one and two of your audit reports. These statements show the town's um finance financial condition as a total in whole and it's on full acral basis which means that's all of your fixed assets, your debt, your pension, everything everything is in included in those two statements. So for year end June 30, 2025, the town's net position decreased by $2.4 million from last year. And the biggest

um factor in this is the $ 1.1 million contribution that you made to NC DOT for the sidewalk project. So that was a a large portion of that decline there. The other major change for 2025 was an increase in your public safety expenses and that was due in part to the construction and remodeling of your police building along with some increases on your staffing and that sort of thing too. So that's really kind of the two driving factors there that we saw. Next we'll look at your fund um statements which are going to be on exhibits three and four. These statements are going to pres be presented on the modified approval basis, which is also your budgetary basis. And they're going to show a little bit more detail than what we saw in exhibits one and two. So, if you look at your general fund, which is the town's most important fund because that really kind of covers all of your basic operations, you'll see your fund balance increased approximately $48,000 this year. This included a decrease in your overall revenues of about 200,000. And that decrease was from your state shared revenues, your occupancy taxes, and then land transfer taxes just as the economy has started to kind of level off a little bit as we saw some of those COVID highs. That's now started to level off a little bit. In addition there, your expenditures increased about $1.5 million this year. Again, the main driving factor there was that $1.1 million for the sidewalk project. And then looking at your fund balance for the general fund, you ended the year at $14.4 million with 7.3 million of

this being unrestricted money. So really that's telling you that the town could operate for about seven more months with no money coming in and still be able to cover all of your expenses at that current funding level. The town also has a minimum fund balance policy that requires that $3.4 million 3.5 excuse me to be set aside for unanticipated expenses. So, as you can see at 7.3, the town is in excellent shape with your own minimum fund balance policies. Have a healthy fund balance and lots of room to reserve. Moving on, we'll take a look next at your budgetary schedules. Those will start on page 52 of your audit report. actual revenues were about 320,000 more than was budgeted and your actual expenditures were $1.1 million less than was budgeted. The original um adopted budget anticipated using $1.9 million from reserves, but in actuality, the town only needed about $700,000 to balance the year to close out. So the town actually performed much better than what was originally anticipated. So that's really good news as well. Looking at your overall cash and investment balances for the year, there was a decline there of about 3.2 million and that was pretty much the entire renovation project over at the at the police department. Um, next I do want to highlight your tax collection percentage. For fiscal year 25, you were at 99.63%. That is just a very slight uptick from the 24 level at 99.57.

So you guys are doing an absolutely excellent job there to maintain that 99% year after year. That looks wonderful. Um, looking at page 61 and 62 of your audit report, you'll see our our report there on internal controls. We don't necessarily issue a specific opinion on internal controls, but we do evaluate controls and test controls throughout our audit procedures. And if there were to be any kind of deficiencies noted during that testing, we would be able and have to present those to the board. So, I'm pleased to say we found no um significant deficiencies, material weaknesses, budgetary violations, statutory violations, non-compliance, or any other issues that we have to come before the board with tonight. Um, also of note, the audit has been submitted and approved by the LGC. There were no financial performance indicators noted through the submission process. So, there's nothing there that the town will need to respond to and the town has formally completed its fiscal year 25 audit requirements with the state. Um, in closing, I would just like to thank the finance department for their cooperation this year. It's a new audit, so that requires a lot more just for us to get into it and know what we're dealing with. Excellent to work with. So, we are very appreciative of their help. And if you have any questions or comments, I'll be happy to address those.

Thank you, Miss Stafford. Uh, council, any questions for Miss Stafford? Great report. Happy. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for your time. You did you did well on the time. Thank you. Thank you so much. Great report. Thank you. And that is uh has a lot to do with our finance department, Liliana, and her staff, too. So, thank you. Uh item 4B, Melody.

Sure. Um Rob and mayor, if you would come forward. I just want to officially present and acknowledge that I'm studio the town um is pleased to announce that we've received the 2025 North Carolina Marvin Collins honorable mention award for our from the American Planning Association for our comprehensive plan category which we also call the plan, the Calanius plan and so forth. Um, it highlights the exceptional work done by Rob and the planning department, the town council and the community members who participated in the process and um to create a vision for the town's future. I think it went on 25 years. Is that correct? and it's a it's rewarding to see this um this accomplishment acknowledged by the state and it's very important. So congratulations to everyone involved really in making this possible and thank you for your ongoing commitment to imagine Kittyhawk which is tremendous. So thank you guys. Thank you, Melody and Council and Rob and your staff. Uh, as she said, that was a group effort. So, thank you so much.

Public comment. Uh, Lauren, do we have anyone sign up for public comment, please? Yes, sir. Mr. Perry, come on up. Mr. Perry, as always, public comments, three minutes. And Mr. Perry, I know how I know you know the routine, so just speak directly into the microphone so we can be sure to pick you up there. Good evening. Good evening.

Terry Perry, 3831 Herbert Perry Road, the village. I note on the agenda tonight, numerous consent items. Item six, hotel and 6 India are major town policy changes that you're being asked to pass without open council discussion. Further, you have only had a weekend to review important policy changes. Town management is trying to ram through changes in policy the night before an election that is the first contested mayor's race in 20 years. This is wrong. It's deliberate. Consent consent items H and I should be pulled from the agenda and placed on the back burner until the next council is seated. Then council should deliberate the policies in open council. That is unless you are comfortable with policies that allow the police department to continue to purchase twodoor hot rod mustangs. I urge you to pull those two items for future debate and consideration. Thank you, Mr. Perry. Anyone else signed up to speak, Lauren, at public comment?

No, sir. Anyone that's here tonight that would like to speak in public comment about any topic? Any second? Anybody? Okay, Lauren, let the record show no one else chose to speak. Uh consent agenda. I'm going to make a comment on that, please. Yes, sir. Based on public comment, I'm going to make a ask to have item H and I removed from tonight's consent agenda. Okay. Are you making that as a motion? I am making as a motion. All right. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second made by Jeff. Any further discussion. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

All opposed. I'm a nay on that. Council has had plenty of time to look over this material that was that we were ordered by the time manager earlier. Okay. Item seven. We have uh no items removed from the consent agenda. where we did have. Yeah, we've got to go back A through G. That's right. So, cuz H and I have been removed via vote. Okay. A through G. I'll make a motion to approve A through. Thank you, David. G. Second. Second. Second by Charl. All in favor say I. I. All oppose.

Okay. We have items 6 A through G. And now we have item uh number seven. We have the two items removed from the consent agenda. items H and I. I'm sorry. I didn't hear the the the vote how that went. It was kind of first first time H and I was 41. I know it was pulled but what was one? Okay, that was just one. Thank you. All right. So items H and I. You want to take item H first? Who wants to? Traveling expense policy. Y are we are we here for discussion or I I want to pull it completely. I'm asking for it completely removed. Further discussion.

Okay. Would you like to table it or just remove? All right. Table to another case. Correct. It would be to table. All right. This item six first. So now you would take that item. So just go H then I and then make your motion. Okay. We again we're talking about item 6H only to table. Understood. Who wants to make that motion? I'm making a motion to table item H. Thank you. Further discussion. Thank you, David. I'll second that. Second by Jeff. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Thank you. So when will when do you want to table it until?

I would say at least January or February. Do I need to make that in my motion? It'd be it'd be more I'm All right. I'm going I'm going to change my motion. I make a motion to remove from the consent agenda item H. We're doing it individually up until the February town hall meeting 2026. I think that's appropriate. December is way too soon with the new kind. So that's my motion. I'll second that motion. Second made by Jeff. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. All right. Item six I, fleet management policy. I also move to make a motion to remove that from tonight's consent consent consent agenda item I until February of 2026.

Tabled. Table. All right, we have a motion. Second. I'll second it. Second by Jeff. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All oppose. Thank you. That takes care of item seven. Item eight, we have a public hearing zoning text amendment. Uh, council, I need a motion to go into public hearing, please. So, move. Motion made by David. Second. Second. Second by Charlotte. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. All oppose. We are in public hearing. Thank you, Rob. Item 88.

Um, the proposal you have in your uh packets tonight is for section 42-74. Um, I'll save you guys reading all the way through it. It just takes our regulations that we currently have for variances, what standards the board of adjustment is looking at and is aligning that language with the state statutes. Um, planning board re or review this at their September meeting. Um, unanimously recommended approval. Um, without taking any questions.

Basically cleaning up like you like you done before with the language and everything. Yeah, specifically the one that we currently have number five that the variance is minimum the variance that will make possibly the reasonable use of the land building or structure. Um the state doesn't have that as one of the required findings anymore. So we're just like I said aligning our our ordinance with the state statute. Thank you Rob. Yep.

C any questions for Rob in this matter? Any questions for Rob? Is anyone here tonight would like to speak during this public hearing? Anyone at all? Lauren, let the record show no one else chose to speak. Okay, council, what would you like to do in this matter? And if there's no uh further discussion, we need to go back into regular session. Make a move to go back into regular uh session, please. Thank you, David. Made a motion. Second second. Second by Jeff. All in favor? I. All oppose. Thank you. We are back in regular session. Council, what would you like to do in this matter?

Mr. Mayor, I I move to approve the proposed text amendment to section 42-74. Town council has found the proposal to be consistent with the town's adopted land use plan. Thank you, Jeff. Second by David. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rob. Thank you, Rob.

All right. Now, we need to schedule a couple of public hearings, please. Item Aday, special use permit, 5416 North Crowan Highway, a gas station. Need a motion, please. Mr. Mayor, I move to set a public hearing at the town council meeting on December 1st, 2025 to consider a special use permit application for a gas station located at 5416 North Ken Highway. Second.

Thank you, Dylan. Motion seconded by David. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. All oppose. Item 8B. We need to also set a public hearing. Schedule use permit 4352B the Woods Road RV Park. Do we have a motion? Mayor. Uh I just have a comment. uh you know, we we've talked about these major public hearings and at at the December meetings, especially when there's a council coming over, it seems to be a mighty busy night. Uh if if the applicant wants to continue with uh December the 1st, it's going to be a busy night. Um I would like to see it moved to

You can choose a later date, right? December unless there if they're in a rush. It's just we have had this and it I remember we had Corinda Lane on a on an opening night. Families are here and it it's just seems to be a lot of commotion and um I I think that one of them seems to be a little bit clearer than the second one and um I would like it if it would be okay to to move it to uh the January meeting. I just asked is the applicant here anyone representing the applicant. Okay. Thank you.

Jeff, you provided foundation for so I think it's appropriate if you guys would like to. The only requirement is that it come before you twice. This is the first time. The next time will be when the hearing held. So yes, you you can you guys can vote to move that doesn't require the applicant to agree to that. Okay. Okay, Mr. Mayor, I move to set the public hearing at the town council meeting January. I'm not sure what the date of that meeting. I think just say January will the meeting the January meeting to consider a special use permit application for an RV park located at 4352B the Woods Road. January 2026. Correct.

January 2026. Do we have a second? I'll second that. Second by David. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I I all vote.

Thank you, council. Item 10. Uh can counsel if you remember, we have asked Melody to do some research for us um to gather some information here regarding this time all that we're in right now. She has done that and uh reported back to council as requested. Uh I assume you've had a chance to read over this. There is a there is a motion attached. If council would like to make a motion, you can approve, deny, or table again to a further to a future meeting. That's what you'd like to do

or just give direction. If you want to stop, we can stop or we'll just skip. We need we need to give her some direction because we ask her to look into this as council. I'm going have to have a discussion on it. Whatever y'all want to do. I think it's good road to go down, you know. I mean, move past a little.

So, what we're trying to accomplish, just for the record, is move three offices from upstairs to downstairs. There's no egress up there. The stairway is uh not accessible for ADA purposes. Um perhaps add additional bathrooms so that we have public and then staff bathrooms. Um create a wishlist things would be create a dedicated break space that is separate from the copy room. Perhaps create a small conference room and um add a few offices for future needs. So, um, this proposal I reached out to three two local architect firms and and deals architects who helped us with the police department. I received proposals from two and they're a little bit different um and offer different things. It depends on what if and what we want to do. Um so the first proposal is from Beacon Architects. It's more budget friendly. It's well suited if the town wants to start with a limited feasibility study before committing to a full design. And the issue that we have here is this is something we would have to plan for. This is not anything that we could just go and do. I think the cost would be something that we would need to commit to capital reserve or something. So the cost for this one, it does lack some of the detailed cost estimating and and multiple design options and that cost is $8,000. Option two, Dills Architects is more comprehensive. It includes programming, multiple multiple designs, and a cost

estimate um offering more clarity for budgeting and decision making. It is more expensive. The price is $14,500. Um, it likely provides a better value if the town aims to move quickly into the schematic and eventual construction phases. So, um, we would need to approve um, money transfer to accomplish either one of these things. Um, either the $8,000 or the $14,000. We haven't come to you for that yet because we wanted to get your feedback. Is this this is something you even want to continue to explore. So, um I'm willing to answer any other questions you

excuse me if I'm sorry. Uh as Melody just stated, this is uh kind of a future planning down the road thing that we're looking at that that this council has been very good at doing in the past. So, uh how do you feel? Do you want to pursue it or stop everything right now? That's up to you. I mean, I've been talking all night. I'll start. So,

um I I'm fine with continuing to pursue down the road of looking at things to do for the staff. Um I think we at least my opinion is it kind of reverts back everything we talked about tonight. We probably need to push back further discussion until you know January, February before we transfer any money and spend any money. But but I do like the fact of what direction they're taking it. I think you know it's time for a little bit of facelift around here for sure. Which option would you be in favor of? Uh local beacon. Okay. Do it.

Uh yeah, I think I echo a lot of those same uh comments. Um I am a fan of keeping it local. Uh I've worked with Beacon Architecture before. They're a phenomenal firm to work with. Um, I think starting with some more conversation in the future is the right direction. Not sure I'm quite quite ready to make a decision on pulling the trigger on spending something tonight. U, but again, agree with the process of of proceeding in that direction. That's all I have.

All right. Thank you. I think we're all on the same page with this, Jeff. Well, Dylan and I have talked and you know, um, we would like to see the town hall stay where it is and in doing so as the town grows that we are running at title places and it is difficult to to maneuver up the steps to get upstairs. Uh, I think as we did the police department, it it's time to start pursuing ideas of how to facilitate the ADU um aspects of of moving around in in our our facility here. And so I think it I think it's uh something that we we definitely can pursue and but if we can wait you know it is going to be probably a put money aside for for a while but if it's a local group phases is always an option. So once again, I I I want to continue moving forward, but uh we'll just table it until January.

Thank you. Sean, I'm I'm good with that. Tingling it until January. January. Um I'm not I don't have any experience with Beacon, but if Dylan does, I'm happy about that. I know Rob needs a place to be able to spread out his plans and show people what he needs to do and they don't need to be climbing up those stairs to do it. So, thank you. I think we've all stated in the past, this is one beautiful room we're sitting in right now. I would hate to see this go. All right. Thank you, council. We uh all Melody, is that what you need? Sure.

Okay. Very good. Any further discussion on that matter? Melody, is there a kind of, you know, you talked about, is there some way you can just give us a a rough kind of sketch of what just a handdrawn crayon of kind of what you're looking? I don't have that skill, right?

I know it will, if we do the the list, I think it will be a combination of renovation and maybe some new some new space. Um, the planning department really would like to have their own suite and they have drawn out a plan that would go through the the front door straight where the monument is and have a whole planning suite in there because most people that come here are coming for planning

and I don't know how you would I mean there's a lot of space in the lobby. There's that big office that we've opened up. Um, we would recycle the glass that we just paid to put in there. Um, so I I'm not sure that I could I mean, people have talked about enclosing the porches, but in my I don't I can't make sense of that in my mind because that's an exterior wall and you'd have would you walk through somebody else's office to get to another? I don't I don't have that capability. And if somebody does, Phil, you know, I can jump in on that a little bit. I had two thoughts on that. Maybe is there not room across the the over on the police department for planning over there somewhere? So they could spread out now.

Well, I know it disconnects this. Yes. I mean strap a little bit, but we have three suites that we're trying to rent right now over there. That would also require renovation though because they don't work under a medical office scenario, right? So that's going to cause cost money as well. It may not be the right idea, but just fixing that staircase alone to be in the code is going to be a pretty big deal because you have to have a certain that's going to kind of dictate the downstairs right there in of itself. Yeah. I think you're going to run into problem with them. So, the staircase is going to be the biggest challenge of what leftover space you're going to have right there.

And we've already had staff that couldn't make it up and down the steps, which is why we rearranged a couple years ago. I think have not been in code for a long time. Long time. We want to take care of our building and we, you know, we redid the floors and paint repainted and, you know, it's a nice it's a nice welcoming space. We certainly don't want to You want to take care of the building, but you want to take care of the people, too. Yeah. We we need I mean, honestly, you could remove the wall in between your office and what used to be the planning office, and that would be a suite right there. And that used to be the town manager's office down just by removing that one wall right there. But it's still upstairs.

Still upstairs. Rob looks like he can get up there. I we all everybody who's up there can get up there. But but I mean I'm just trying to comment that that staircase alone to get that into compliance is going to be a a big shift of that renovation down there. I understand. So Okay. You got what you need, Melody? Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. Okay. Any old business? We do not have any old business reports from time manager Melody.

Well, um I did want to say that we have currently leased suite 9 in the medical office building um to a new family practice that will be opening in January and we're working on prospects for leasing suite 6, 7, and 8. We have a few leads on that and that will be coming available when Beach Medical closes on January the 1st. Um, just a reminder, offices are closed next Tuesday in observance of Veterans Day. We currently have Operation Greenlight going on. It's a National Association of Counties initiatives that encourages residents and businesses to show their support to local veterans by shining green lights throughout our communities to let local veterans know they are seen, appreciated, and supported. And I think ours will start tomorrow, right, Lily?

Are they on now? I haven't been outside. I know they're on the ladders today, so we will be all lit up in green um if we're not already tomorrow. Um staffwise, I want to um let you guys know that Rob Testerman recently completed the leading for results course at the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Um he was selected as a 2025 civic fellow from over 150 applicants. And the program focuses on organizational leadership, helping fellows gain insights into their leadership styles and practice critical behaviors with individual coaching. So I want to let everyone congratulate Rob on completing this program which is actually paid for by the civic fellows credit civic credit union. So it is at no cost to the town. And if you don't mind me sharing Rob, Rob said it was the best training he'd ever been to. So, and uh Lauren Garrett has recently completed the 2025 clerk certification institute. It's a year-long program for municipal and county clerks. It covers topics like open meeting law, public records law, and local government procedures. By finishing the CCI, Lauren meets the educational requirements for the certified municipal clerk designation. Um, and this is a significant milestone and in 2026 she is on track to become the first certified municipal clerk for the town of Kittyhawk. Her participation has already become invaluable to us and uh and um please join me in congratulating Laurian on this achievement. It's it's a big deal.

You're the first. That's all I have. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Melody. Casey without you. Okay. time counsel Dave. Well, we knew that would become valuable at some point. Um, I'd like to congratulate her on that and Rob um for their accomplishments and uh I'm sure to be put to good use. Probably already has. And uh once again, congratulations. That's all I have. Thank you, Dave.

Same thing. Uh congrats Rob and Lauren for your hard work on that. I know that was definitely a lot of work being put into both those items. And thank you to the finance department and the planning department for uh the two presentations we got at the be beginning of the meeting. It's really great to hear about the good stuff like that. So that's all I have. Thank you, Dylan. Uh I'd like to thank the election workers who are here waiting for us to get out of the way tonight. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Uh I know you're ready to get to work, but thank you. Speaking of the election, I sure hope everybody turns out this is a privilege that we have in this country and in our time to turn to vote. If you don't vote and you run your mouth and complain, don't do it to me cuz I'm going to tell you something. I promise you I will. I've done it before and I'll do it again. So turn out to vote. Uh it's a very important election for this time tomorrow. So everybody exercise your right. Please do. Uh, thanks to Rob, thanks to Lauren being the first. Uh, and thanks to all the staff, thanks to all this council very much. That's all I have. Jeff,

yeah, I'd also like to u congratulate Rob on the land use plan. I think everybody on the council here knows how much uh I lean on the land use plan. It's dear to my heart. I I I believe it tells a a lot about the people and the history and uh the future of what the people of Kittyhawk would like to see our our town look like u in the future. Congratulations Lauren for being first and congratulation to Liliana and the finance for having the excellent report. Uh, as Dylan said, uh, it's always nice to hear good good reports, especially when it comes to money. And everybody, please turn out to vote tomorrow. It is a a great gift that all of us Americans are blessed with. That's all I have.

Thank you, Jeff. Well, when you're fourth, it's not doesn't leave much to say. I echo all of those wonderful things, Liliana and Lauren and Rob and and um that was a wonderful report from the finance department. Um the only thing I'd like to add is be sure you bring your picture ID tomorrow. Yep. Very important. Thank you. Thank you, Charl. Okay, council. If nothing else, I will entertain a motion to adjourn our meeting, please. So moved, Mr. Mayor. Motion made by Jeff. Second. Second. Second by Dylan. All in favor say I. I. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We. We are journ.