City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the city council meeting of the city of Lenor for Tuesday, January the 6th, 2026. That's interesting to say. It's a brand new year. Welcome. We're glad to have you. We hope that uh your uh new year came in well for 2025. Christmas went well for everyone. We wish you all the happy holidays. Uh we're glad to be back and we're ready to start a new year as as we move forward. So, thank you for being with us tonight. U as we always do, we start with a moment of silence and our pledge. And as we do that, I want to talk quickly say a few things. I want to thank all of our city staff for such a wonderful job during this holiday season. Uh they just did an outstanding job with our Christmas, our decorations, and all the things that went on. We certainly appreciate all the everybody that did that. It's beautiful. I think everyone enjoyed it. uh never went downtown any night that there weren't 10, 15, 20 people that were downtown enjoying uh our decorations and all the things that went on for Christmas. So, thank you all for that. Thank you for all the work that you that you were doing to that. I would mention one thing. our former uh manager, Lane Bailey, uh mother-in-law, Margaret, passed away this week, and we wanted to keep Lane and Ruth and their family in our thoughts and prayers as they uh as they deal with the loss of uh of her mother. U she was in her 90s, but uh she had had some issues, but talked to Wayne just before the meeting and he said to tell you, "Congratulations for sure." But uh

yes, he lived here in Lenor for a long time before they moved to Salsbury on that. So we'll keep them in our thoughts and prayers if you if you will. So thank you all for Oh yeah, and TJ uh our our attorney lost his father-in-law uh this past week as well, Reverend Hicks over in Morganington. And we certainly will keep you and your family and your our thoughts and prayers. I know there have been some issues, but you're very welcome. Thank you for uh for what you do with that. For sure. Thank you for the flowers.

You're very welcome. Very welcome. So, thank you for all of that. And again, uh we'll now please join us now for a moment of silence and our pledge.

[clears throat]

Thank you. Please salute the flag. I pledge algiance 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. We'll get started tonight with a very special recognition that I'm going to come down for. one of those nights that uh well I don't look forward to at all but uh it's a bitter a bittersweet [clears throat] night that we uh that we come together tonight to say somebody a very special thank you and you know to a guy who has been a great leader in this community 22 years Todd Purdue has served on this city council as a public servant a leader an ambassador a state leader, a community leader, a partner. He has served on nonprofit boards in this community. He's been a church leader, a deacon, uh deacon, and just the past deacon chair at the church. Uh he's a family man, of course, uh father, grandfather, and uh this whole community loves Scott Purdue. And we will we will miss you for what you have meant for all of us. We uh we keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers. Katherine for sure as you know we love her and we thank you for all that that you have meant. But [snorts] Todd is uh he has been a great friend growing up here. High Brighton high school boy

sportsman golfer he he's done it all [laughter] and he's been a great leader across this all this time. So we will miss you. First, I'd like to present you this resolution honoring Todd H. Purdue has served faithfully and diligently as a member of the Lenor City Council since 2003 and served as mayor pre prom from 2003 to 2007. And whereas at an elected official and while working in the insurance industry, Todd Purdue has devoted his time, his energy, the talents to the city of Lenor and provided experience, sound judgment, and ardent support for the city while serving on various local, regional, and state committees to briefly name a few. Cwell Railroad Commission board member Foothills Regional Airport Authority, former member, First Baptist Church of Lenor, Deacon and Chair, Centennial Foundation Trustee at the First Baptist Church of Lenor, Helping Hands Clinic, former chairman, Lenor Rotary Club, former officer and board member, the Lenor League of Municipalities Tax and Legislative Action Committee, the North Carolina League of Municipalities Risk Management Board of Trustees, and whereas Todd Purdue has reviewed and deliberated all matters, facts, and proposals presented before the council in a fair and sound manner and at all times keeping the best interest of the citizens of Lenor as a first priority. And whereas Todd Purdue has worked consistently to further Lenor's economic, cultural, and aesthetic development, as evidenced by the many successful projects accomplished during his tenure on city council, including helping create and contributing to the city of Londor Greenway, working with the city council on establishing long-term strategies and goals to ensure the physical strength and stability of

the city. And whereas Todd Purdue submitted his resignation from city council on November 4th, 2025. [clears throat] Now therefore, be it resolved that the Lenor City Council in a regular session assembled this the 6th day of January, 2026, hereby expresses sincere appreciation to our friend and colleague who through his excellent leadership and dedicated service to this city has earned respect and proudly made lasting contributions for the betterment of the city of Wenor. And be it further resolved that I as mayor and by the virtue of the power of authority invested in me as mayor of the city of Anor, North Carolina and on behalf of the North City Council and all citizens do hereby extend our deepest gratitude and highest commendation to Todd H. Purdue for his dedicated and outstanding service. This the sixth day of January 2026.

[applause] [applause]

I have one more thing to give you and then I'll let you have a [clears throat] This is a the highest honor that we can give for service seceded our city. that says that you served all of our citizens and gave them everything you had and we and for that we thank you. Presented to Todd H. Purdue City Councilman in recognition of 22 years of dedicated and outstanding service to the city of Lenor of the Lenor City Council. Joseph Lel Gibbons mayor January the 6, 2026. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Thank you. You're very welcome. You're very, very welcome. Thank you. Come on up. All right. [laughter]

You've apparently got a very long meeting tonight ahead of you. So, I'll be very very brief, [clears throat] but it it has been my pleasure for the last 22 years to be uh able to represent the citizens of Lenor uh as a member of the city council. Um wasn't my intention to to quit after 22 years, but my wife's health needs [clears throat] kind of brought that to the forefront. needed to uh to to make that move at which was a literal move outside of the city uh to get in housing that was a little bit uh uh better for her needs at this time. So, uh I left this council in great shape. You've added a wonderful member. Uh [clears throat] I commend you for uh your willingness to serve on the council. I know you do great. I hear great things. I'm glad David Stevens is able to continue uh the two years that I had left on my term. that brings excellent knowledge and wisdom to this council. Um, the thing I'll remember most about my time on council is how we got along. We never let politics or personal uh agendas get in the way of doing what was right for the city. Um, I will commend the manager. Uh, he's he's been an excellent manager. I I laugh about when Shirley was making her talk here and she said she worked for so many managers and and Lewis was her favorite. [laughter] But I will admit and I, you know, no offense to to Lane Bailey and no offense to Lewis Price, but but Scott, you've been a pleasure to work with. You guide this council well. They're very fortunate to have you. Apologize [clears throat] for my voice, but it has been my pleasure. I look back with great memories. I know there's great things ahead for the city and uh I'll be watching from the sidelines. So, thank you all. [applause]

[applause] Come on up.

All right. You got to You got to have somebody hold the things. Which one do you Which one do you want? That's how I knew.

All right, y'all look good. Two over here. This way a little bit. All right. One, two, three, cheese. One, two, three, cheese. Everybody put your hands down unless you're holding something. There we go. One, two, one, two, three, cheese. Oh, and department heads, you guys

make this job up here so much easier. You guys are the best. We appreciate it. Very true, Todd. Have a good one. [clears throat]

Thank you. As I say, that's always a tough thing. We uh we hate to lose someone like Todd. He has been a great great leader in our community. Still will be, but uh uh we would love we've had enjoyed having him here and all the things that he's done all America City. I mean, we can name and name and name things that we have gone through over these 20 22 years. Thank y'all for that. All right, we will now move to u our FY 2024 2025 audit report. We welcome our CPA, Cynthia [cough] Randolph, Cindy as we as we call you. [laughter]

We'll present our annual audit to the city council and the copy of the financial highlights ending in 2025, June 30, 2025 are included in your in our packets. Correct. Thank you. Welcome.

Woo. We made it with the government shutdown. These thing these audits were due December 31st, but with the government shutdown, the local government commission came in because you guys had a single audit. They had not approved the final compliance, federal compliance uh supplements that we have to go by to test programs. So now they've extended the audits not due till February 12th of 2026. Why they chose the 12th, I have no idea. But anyway, we're here. Uh, I would like to thank the council, Scott, Donna, the staff for all their assistance and for allowing us to do the audit again this year. It's always a pleasure to work with Scott and Donna and all the staff there. They do a great job with finances of the city. Um, the audit has been submitted to the local government commission and it was approved today by the local government commission. and they're a little behind the times with the holidays. I did issue an unmodified opinion, which is the normal type of opinion you'd want in an audit of your financial statements. Uh the city, like I said, did have a single audit in accordance with the uniform guidance because federal funding you you guys spent over $750,000 in federal funding and over $500,000 in state funding. So it was a federal and state single audit. I did um audit as a major federal program the clean water reviving fund the corona virus state fiscal recovery funds and the home investment program partnership program and for the uh that was for federal purposes for state

purposes I audited as a major program the PAL bill program which is the street money and then the state capital infrastructure fund and your skiff money that you had received. Um, I will say as of June 30 to 25, uh, we did not have any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies, uh, in compliance or in internal controls that needed to be noted in the audit. Okay, I'm just going to hit a few points. I know you guys are kind of busy. I think we've got a full schedule. So, I'm going to hit just a couple things real quick. The city has seen, and some of this was written in the audit, so I don't know if you guys had a chance to look at it. Uh, has seen several expansions over the past year, including is it Exela? Is that how you say? Ella Pharma Sciences who is now one of your leading taxpayers for the city. Improvements have been made to the sections of the 13.5 mile of greenway system for the water and sewer operation. Several large capital projects are in process, including the Finley Avenue area water project and the construction of approximately 4 miles of 20 in diameter water transmission main between uh the town of Baldi's water system and the city's water system. As of the close of June 30th, 25, the city's governmental funds reported combined ending fund balances of 25,648,319,

which was an increase from the previous year of 3,442 804. Approximately 85% of this total or 21,742 551 is available for spending at the government's discretion. The city, as I just said, the city had 85% of undesated fund balance as of June 30th, 25. The unassigned fund balance, now that was for your governmental funds. The unassigned fund balance for your general fund was 21,742 or 93% of your general fund expenditures. The city's debt decreased by 1,758,000 in outstanding principal. So you paid down that much in principal. Your total outstanding debt and this is between the governmental funds and your business type activities which is your water and sewer operations [clears throat] was 18,212,000 and the city's legal debt margin as of June 30th 2515,276. The city did maintain a tax collection percentage on your property taxes of 97.10% which is right of the state average for all the municipalities. The water and sewer funds change in net position or if you want to say net income uh was 1,749,000. The total net position for your water

and sewer, which is kind of like your retained earnings or your fund balance, was 62,88,666. So, as part of um submitting this audit to the local government commission, [clears throat] local government commission puts out um a template and it's through logos that we have to enter these numbers in and everything has to reconcile and then they look at it and say, "Okay, there's problem areas here that the city or the council or the staff would need to work on." I'm pleased [clears throat] to say that there were no financial performance indicators that I needed to make you guys aware of. That's one of the main things is they said the auditors have to come before the board if they what we call FPIC's which is financial performance indicators. We have to make you guys aware of that. And there was nothing of concern, which is really good because there's some that are really really uh not as well not good. Okay, I will I'll hit a few more quick things real quick. I think Donna said she had given you in your packet. These are kind of financial highlights between the funds. I'm just going to hit a couple little numbers for you and it's a comparison between 25 and 24 the previous year. your general fund change in fund balance uh for 253 million399204 which was an increase from the previous year of a little over 1.2 million and that was for the general fund. your general fund expenditures, total expenditures by department, they increase a little over $800,000

from the previous year. Mainly, I was looking at it today mainly because of salaries and benefits increase, capital outlay increase because we have to can't claim that as expenditures. uh special revenue funds in the audit. The these are your CBD CDBG block grants, your home program. These are ongoing projects and you budget for these and they continue until the project's complete. So the change in the fund balance for your special revenue funds which include a lot of little projects, it was a decrease of $394,036 mainly because we've spent money that has come in from pre, you know, like I say, these are ongoing projects. So, we've spent this once the project's [clears throat] complete, we either turn around and capitalize it or it's just complete and the the money's uh been spent there. Your enterprise fund, which is your water and sewer fund, the change in net position or net income in that fund, a little over 1.7 million, which was an increase from the previous year of 597,000. So these are quick overview of some very very large numbers. Um I will say the city is in great financial shape as the council and the staff of the city. You guys should commend yourself for a wonderful audit year. Are there any questions, comments?

Any questions for Cindy or Donna, our finance director? be the one concerning any of our finances. And not only do we like look at numbers and we're we're required to al also test like internal controls and processes and looking at how payrolls processed and nothing was noted that was out of the ordinary that was part of the significant deficiency material weaknesses. That's good to hear. Yes, very good to hear. Yes. Even though the numbers that are on the page are mostly due to the lady you're seeing sitting on the front. Exactly. She does a wonderful job. But all of our employees That's right.

take this very seriously. They do. And you know, if they see a place they can save the city money, they do it. And we are very fortunate from top to bottom to have great employees right in the city. And that's important these days because it's hard to find people that have the knowledge and care about a you know your organization like that. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Thank you Don u Cindy for that great report. Yes. [clears throat]

Thank you for your work on it. Donna, thank you and all your staff and all of our all of our staff. Without you guys, this wouldn't be possible. uh you uh you make things happen. You look for every way in the world to make it better and and improve it and service beyond measure is jumping all over the place right now. So we we appreciate that so much and we're glad that things are moving in the right direction. Still got a lot of things to do. Of course there's a lot of projects out there but uh

you know we'll just uh we got to keep moving forward and that's a good thing to be able feel like we can. So, if uh nothing else, then I will turn it over to council for any action that [clears throat] they would like to take concerning the acceptance of the annual audit. Like to make a motion, Mr. Mayor, that we accept the annual audit for the year ended June 30, 2026, June 25, excuse me. Let's go ahead and accept next year. You heard the motion from Council Member Stevens to uh approve the annual audit as presented. Any other comments? If not, all in favor, please say I. I. All opposed. Thank you. Thank you, Cindy. Thank you.

Safe trip. Yes. Thank you. [clears throat] I'll turn over to Mr. Hillbrand.

I would just like to echo her comments. I want to thank Donna Bean for her work. It's a lot of work and I appreciate it. And also the department directors for the work you do and our staff. Um, as everybody said, without you folks, we wouldn't have this [clears throat] um pleasing audit. So, thank you. Again, thank you very much for that. Okay, we'll move on our agenda to matters scheduled for public hearings this evening. Our first one is a code amendment. Uh this is an unauthorized or improper use of public places ordinance. This is the second reading. The second reading and public hearing of an ordinance amending chapter 13 unauthorized or improper use of public places and chapter 18 [clears throat] trespassing and prohibited activity under bridges and pedestrian underpasses of the Lenora code of ordinances clarifying its enforcement and penalties. Well, this is a of course a matter scheduled public hearing. So, I'll open the public hearing uh up and I will turn it first over to our uh police chief uh Chief Andy Wilson who's been working great deal on this project for us

and his staff.

Thank you, Mayor Gibbons, Council. Uh the ordinance amendments before you tonight are intended to update our code, our current code to just provide clear, consistent guidance for the use of public spaces across the city. Uh this language in this ordinance amendment reflects uh input from legal counsel. It reflects uh regional partners including the Western Pemont Council of Government's homeless response team analyzed with approaches used by other municipalities in our surrounding uh neighboring jurisdictions. Uh section 1315, it expands what was previously limited to parks and recreation facilities only and has um expanded to city properties, um bridges, uh streets, and other similar public areas. It adds clear definition for camping, encampments, temporary shelters, and the storage of personal property, so enforcement is fair and consistent across the board. Uh this ordinance also prohibits um unauthorized um obstructions and open flames on city property. U the um the uh the provisions regulate conduct and are focused on public safety access and health and safety concerns. So enforcement piece of this uh the enforcement emphasizes voluntary compliance. Arrest is not our go-to thing. Uh never has been with things like this and it won't be. Um it um officers are authorized uh city employees and will generally direct individual just to stop the prohibited activity, right? And nine times out of 10 that works. If that uh uh activity is consistent, what we would do is issue a notice of banishment, meaning they can't be back on that particular piece of city property. Um and what we have seen from

experience is that overwhelmingly um gains compliance. Um however um as a last resort when all those things fail obviously our our next approach there would be trespass either by general statute 144 which allows us to um charge under an ordinance and or a secondderee trespass. Um the uh section 182 uh that is the uh trespass under bridges. And so that uh that code amendment strengthens the safety rules for bridges and pedestrian underpasses uh which obviously present a heightened uh risk or um heightened sense of risk due to traffic visibility, fire hazards, and flooding. As we saw during our past hurricane, one of our primary concerns were were there any encampments or people or people staying under those bridges that may have not known that this flood was coming. And so, uh, the storage of property obstruction, open flames, um, in those areas under those bridges obviously will be prohibited. And the enforcement piece of that is identical to the section 1315 which uh would seek to gain voluntary compliance with um you know getting their stuff and moving on. Um so overall these amendments uh [clears throat] the the temp the uh intended aim of these is just to keep our public safety or public spaces safe, accessible, and usable for everyone. And so if you've got any questions for me, I'd be more than happy to answer. [clears throat]

Any questions for Chief Wilson concerning this [clears throat] at this time? Anyway, just to clarify, Chief, if people were using come want to camp out at one of our parks that would apply to them. So it's not any particular group. No, this cleans it up to say this is for everybody. Sure. If someone decides that they want to [clears throat] have a barbecue at Zach Fork, you know, soccer complex, that's prohibited. If someone wants to camp at Martin Luther King Center, that's prohibited. It's for any type of that use across all city properties. City properties. Thank you for clarifying that.

Yeah. Any any other questions before we do? Okay. We're in the open U public hearing. So, if there's anyone who would like to address the council concerning this u uh public hearing, this is the time to do so. Please uh come forward and give us your name and address.

Yes, my name is Charles San. I'm at Happy Hollow Lane in Lenor. Um I I I wish I had had the written comments of the police chief uh uh two weeks ago and a little more detail on this. Um some of the questions I have was is there a list of the complaints about this that we've had? uh is this an ongoing terrible ter you know problem that we're having that traffic is being impeded and uh the peaceful uh enjoyment of our public spaces is being impeded and so forth. Uh, basically I came and I didn't hear any of that before, you know, I just read the um the ordinance and uh so I came uh in response to your apparent advocacy of criminalizing the rational act of seeking shelter from the elements in our public spaces. uh an ordinance quote for the benefit of all residents and visitors to quote the first whereas in the ordinance proposed. It appears we've got the wrong end of the stick. The crime isn't being without a house and financial reserves in our economy. That's a misfortune that can happen to any of us without warning. The crime is the failure of those we elected to deliver on the promises of our republic. The huddled masses we see scattered about the hottest country offer all the evidence of the crime we might need to convict. Representatives of residents and

visitors should first be concerned with their failure to provide a safe haven for all who may come to Lenor, regardless their financial circumstances. We see you pleading later on in the agenda with the federal government for money to clean up the messy hill left us when Hill left us for the greener bottom line. By doesn't need our loes, but those folks we see struggling each winter along our roads and sidewalks as we go about buying stuff to celebrate the birth of Christ need help, not warnings, not fines, nor jail time. I suggest you postpone tightening up your ordinance and redirect staff to work on a solution that doesn't add burden to our police force or threaten the least of us in their moments of demonstrable need. Why not a handout and a hand out hand up for our brother when he's down and out? As my wife, as I was writing this, my wife said, "Why not a stable to sleep in?" We build public parks and community centers to serve the property persons of the area so they might have a safe place to play pickle ball. Why not some similar accommodation for those truly in need before devising regulations that might innocently run a f that they might innocently run a foul of that would require the police to rouse them, move them on, confiscate their belongings and our courts to find or imprison them for failing to own, rent, or otherwise have legitimate [clears throat] access to what we consider a home.

Let us share a little Amazing Grace where we can. Thank you sir. Appreciate your comments.

Thanks. She is next. Sharon. Okay. [clears throat] And we we know you but please give us your name and address. I know you do. Sharon, well, we have to do it. We have to do it for the record. I know. No. Sharon Harmon. I am a um lifetime generational resident of Lenor. Voter, taxpayer. I'm I'm settled. And your address? Just for the road? Uh 115 Haggler Road Southeast Lenor. Thank you.

Um I'm also the executive director of Yokefellow. And I have to wear these to see, so I'm sorry. There's good people up here. Good people in front of me. Um, and as you know, there actually I want to go on record saying there's two groups in this room that probably have more license to say anything about the homeless and that would be Yokefell and the police. And I commend our Lenor police. They are wonderful to work with. They're effective. They're also compassionate. They're responsive. They helped me with some decision making because Yoke Fella serves the homeless every day, all day. Um, and it was funny that you mentioned Lane Baileyy's name because Lane was the manager who came to Yoke Fellow and welcomed the first Leos into the gym. So, Charlie Fry, Father Mike Cogdale, and myself, we started the first Leos in the Lenor High School gym. Um, and we ran it from like December through the end of March. Um and then he came to the executive committee and said, "Do you guys want to build a shelter?" So Yokefellow said yes. So I proceeded um as the [cough] director of Yokefellow [clears throat] to raise all of the money that it took to rehabilitate that building from the heat pumps to the toilets to the ADA showers, towels, beds, cups, everything that was in that building, the security system. Yellow raised those funds to equip that building. and we opened the coldest day of 2014. I think it was like January the 4th. Um, and we served there faithfully all of those years. Um, it was a locally run, privately funded shelter. Um we we ran LEOS through the Oakfellow general operating budget and

we we sheltered and provided shelter for up to 16 individuals 247 most years the budget never exceeding 80ome,000 because the community was good to us in preparing meals and bringing food to Leos. There was a tremendous amount of community support. Um, we served full-blown case management. In the later years when we were having trouble getting some of our folks off the streets, we opened pure emergency shelter. Walk in. Um, we did background checks, but that was pretty much it. Walk in, get on a cot, um, go to sleep. It was just just just complete stripped down. Get on a bed and go to sleep, which is needed. Um, but that is no more. Um, this county several years ago had $4.4 million at the very onset of that fund because Rick Oxford came and talked to me about that money during CO. Um, [clears throat] that money was made available to Caldwell, Kataba, Burke, Alexander, and specifically from HUD to serve the homeless. [clears throat] Um, those monies were turned over to Western Pedmont Council of Government where a plan was developed. There is no money that has been set aside in that plan for forwardf facing services to the homeless. And I know we have homeless outreach teams. Um but I have to tell you, um I've been looking at the same faces for 15 years. There is no change in the homeless situation in Lenor. Um I have not seen any homeless outreach activity here in Lenor for months. And I received an email a couple weeks ago because we were commun actually one of our homeless guys the the his h his housing voucher came up. Well, guess what? They're very transient and if you

don't have a place to work with them and serve them consistently. So there's a housing voucher but we can't find them now. So that is why there needs to be some kind of shelter, a day shelter, an emergency shelter, something where they land, where you can provide services. So there's a there's a there's a voucher out there floating around with his name on it. We just have to wait till he crosses our path. The goat fella, um, we don't see any change in the services and and it's getting worse, but I will tell you the faces that I've seen. I see the same ones all the time. They're citizens just like me because I've got their IDs. I I have addresses. I have uh confidentiality forms. They have a Yokefell application with us. They're citizens just like me. Um and I and I know it is a terribly aggravating situation. I would like to see a reporting of what the the the Western Pemont Council of Government I would like to see a physical detailed report of what has been accomplished. I think it's three years in. Um from where we see it, we see nothing. We see nothing. And my guys, you know, the homeless outreach folks, they are very sweet. They are compassionate. But as my guys say, they're not doing anything. I saw them six months ago and they pro promised me this. So even our homeless community, there's no relationship being built with them. So anything can take place. Um I have a congressional paper because I I read a lot. I read a lot and there was a congressional paper issued several years ago admitting that chronic homelessness is the most divisive topic in every

community in this entire country. The only solution is broad collaboration. Broad collaboration. And we don't have that. We do not have that. Um, I hear that word thrown around a lot, but as the only agency that has effectively served the homeless since 2014, I I don't know where the collaboration is. It is not there. Um, you know, there are 60 people in this community, 60 citizens that need us. And I remember talking to Mayor Gibbons about this one night at Walgreens. Um I'm I'm a longtime resident and I love my city. I love my county, but I am ashamed of us. There are 60 people that need us. 60. I don't know what their point in town. I I don't know what their numbers come up with, but I know there are 60 people because I see them every day. I give them medicine. I give them socks. Uh we provide everything for them at Yfella. We feed them every afternoon at 3:00. So this community has always been outstanding in its service to those in need. We brag about having the first residential domestic violence shelter. We have the most wonderful inpatient hospice unit that is the best there is and we can brag about that. You know, this community built the soup kitchen, built Yolk fella, built Coinia, but there's 60 people that need us and we are just trying to find ways to get rid of them and that it's not working. It is not working. Um, we're Lenor and we can

do better than this. So, thank you for your service. Thank every [clears throat] I do appreciate Western Pedmont Council of Governments. I really appreciate law enforcement. So, if y'all have any questions for me? Not at this point. We'll we'll let Mr. Willis speak for the Western Pe so we can have some hear some other parts to it. Thank you, sir. Come on up. Give us your name and everything. Sure. [clears throat] Uh Ben Willis, um you

director of for comm of community and economic development for Western Pedmont Council of Government. address 2650 Hillwood Drive, Lenor, North Carolina. Also lifelong resident, generational resident of this community. Yes, sir.

And um Western Pemont Council of Government, just so everybody knows, uh is um we're we're more than just um homelessness response team. So we we have a planning department that works on things like zoning and code. We have the we house the workforce development board which is for four counties. We do Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Kataba. So workforce development board for all four counties. We also are a regional housing authority which is so if you get your section 8 vouchers those we have access to those. We are also uh coordinate that we're the area on aging. So your senior sitters, sen senior centers and all that stuff also run sort of through the Western Pemont Council of Governments. We're sort of behind the scenes. Our goal is to assist all 28 local governments in all four of those counties. We're we're an extension of you and all the other governments in that 375,000 people and and 28 governments within within our 4ount region. Um, homelessness is hard. This is very, very difficult work. What's like Mr. Stiff said, how do you balance that compassion with what we have to do and what you all have to do at the local government level is protect protect taxpayer dollars who are funding parks and recreation centers and all those types of things. So, uh, it makes it it makes it tricky and it puts everybody in a in a in a in a tough spot. Uh, the homelessness response team was formed about was three years ago from a grant through HUD um meant to address homelessness. We reached out to all the nonprofits. We reached out to all 28 municipalities and asked you what you wanted and got feedback from the

municipalities and nonprofits and they asked us to form this. This is what you wanted and this is what the nonprofits asked for and this is this was the feedback that they gave us and this was what the local governments asked us to do. Regional the homeless response team. I've got two members of the homeless response [clears throat] team back there. We have a we have an assigned member per county and the goal is to be a bridge between some of the nonprofit entities that we have church members which which are fantastic law enforcement huge partner number one law enforcement uh and anybody else that's involved with the homeless population. The goal also too is to is to look and look at a regional approach to be able to see how we deal with homeless at at different levels. Right? Ultimately, we're not making the decision. You all are. You guys are the ones that have to make the ordinances based on your community. Every community is a little bit different. It's got its own feel. It polices it different. It's amazing how different. We've done ride alongs with the Lenor Police Department. All the police departments in all four counties and how each one of these communities deal with homelessness is very different. I will say that the city of Lenor is top-notch. And I'm I'm not just saying that because I'm biased and I'm from here. It it really truly is one of the best in the region about how they handle and work with empathy and compassion, but also within the realms of the law to be able to protect the citizens and in the in public space. We um do work uh very close with Calwell County in Lenor. Um James Anders is our who's also in the audience is our Cowwell County representative who's here at least uh in Lenor at least once a week. We have multiple multiple calls. We're in the process of housing several people in Calwell County and Lenor preventing them from going into homelessness. Uh one is was a resident we're working very closely with law

enforcement. There's been work who has has been an issue with that has come up recently that we're trying to that we found a house for today. So there is a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes and there's a lot of individuals that we are able to help. But it's not just us. It's it's it the yoke fellows of the world are very important part of of this. South Cwell Christian Ministries, the faith-based communities. It's it's a very complex system and and we're also dealing within a system where we're dealing with a mental health crisis. We're also dealing with a substance use disorder and we're dealing with rural. So rural homelessness is very different from urban which it's so spread out and so you're not going to get rid of it, but there's ways to come to com to to work and try to help as much as you can. Um it's it's it's um it's a it's a really really tough spot. But one of the most important things in order to help and work together as a region is to have good data. So when we go and ask the the beauty of having a COG and the homeless response team do it at a regional level is that we can be regional. So if we can go about at a regional a lot of nonprofits who I've served on several nonprofit boards and several of you have, you have to go and you got you go at it by yourself and it's it's tricky. But when we work together as a region and can get the right data, then all the nonprofits can come together and then we as a region can apply for large amounts of funding to be able to com combat combat this. So it's it's a complicated issue. That's our goal. That's our our mission, but ultimately we serve the local governments and we're at your will and do and do what you ask us to do. Amber Bradford is our new homeless response manager for the region. brings our team brings a significant amount of uh experience. We work very closely with

the school systems and homeless children and veterans. Uh any children or veterans that we see in the region are get uh special treatment. We have special uh access to funds called day one funds for women and children who are on the verge of homelessness. If you have anybody or know of anybody to uh that needs access to that, please give us a call. You can go to homelessresponse.org or just look up Western Pemont Council of Government and see it. We have comprehensive resources for each county for anybody looking for assistance. If you need assistance or if you have anybody that needs assistance, reach out to us and we will try to connect them with the resources available. Yorkfellow being one of them in in in the city of Leno. If if you're in different parts of the county, we may connect you. Depends on the issue. Everybody is different. Every homeless individual is unique and has a different set of circumstances and issues that we have to deal with. Some homeless individuals don't want help and a lot of them don't.

But the ones that do, we can help you. If you are in if you want to get if you are having a drug issue and you want to off the streets, we can find you a place to get you somewhere to get you transitional help. Um it doesn't make it easier. It's still very very tough work. It t it does take all of us. Sharon, I agree with you 100%. It does take a regional play. It it takes all of us to be able to do this. This is not something we're going to solve overnight. Um there it's it's it's complicated and um but we're trying and we're working our best and if there's anybody has any suggestions on how we can do it better we we would more than happy we sit there and with you. We're not we're not in a silo. Our goal is to work with everybody. So uh we've always been open if we need to come to your organization to talk about what we're doing to present any information or data we'd be happy to. I'm calling it out here on from front of everybody. I can go into your nonprofit. We can go into your church. We can go to your We've done Rotary meetings. We've talen we've we've had these type of conversations going over the data at this council at the county commissioners meetings at across all four of our So, if anybody needs information, wants to learn what we're doing, we'd be happy to entertain uh an audience whether it's one person or 50 is 100. We we even put on a a seminar uh about warming stations at the civic center that's recorded. It is on YouTube talking about warming stations. We had all the fire departments. We had all the code enforcement to talk about everything that went down especially with uh pastor Wilong who did a wonderful wonderful thing but ran up against several obstacles and is issues that has become um a a playbook for other churches and other people that are trying to figure out how to go into space whether to do it or not because it can get tricky. It can get really tricky

and you don't want to put your church or your you know your people in your um uh at your church in in danger. So, it's there's there's so much that goes on with this. Um, and and we we're just here to say we're here to help in any way we can and uh whatever we whatever we can do that please just feel free to reach out. Homeless response.org is our website. Um, and then all our contact information for our whole team is on there as well. Thank you. So, are there any questions? Any questions of of Ben or any of the Western Pedmont

with this particular or with this particular ordinance um our planning department was involved and going over this. This mirrors some of the local other larger cities in the in the region. So it matches um with with what that is with with uh with some of the other ones too. So that that's kind of our involvement with this one. But [clears throat] again ultimately uh you guys it's it's up to you for how we can please reach out. we need can help in any further. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. Anyone else that would like to address the council concerning this particular area?

Yes, sir. Please, if you will, limit your comments for a while. We we we can't be here all night, so we you would make it make them quick as you can. Marco dear Chimun, 105 Winchester Drive. [cough and clears throat] Mayor Gibbons, may it please you, may it please the city of Lenor. Um because uh I I shouldn't be the one talking about this, but there are many folks who are struggling to find warmth in cold nights like in cold nights who don't have shelter who should be here. So, I pray that my words suffice to speak their truth into your considerations because I believe no matter how refined, how tight, how legally sound these ordinances may be, it can cause harm. And it could and it will keep me up at night. And it should keep you up at night. No one dreams of holding a sign asking for help. No one plans to lose their home, stability, their dignity. As my friend Charles says, it's a misfortune that any one of us could have found ourselves in. It just takes few changes in our lives for us to switch places. And I want to tell you that if police have increased authority and presence, we blur the line between public safety and [snorts] harm to folks who need us the most. Very quickly, I know very quickly I'll tell you when I was at Chapel Hill final season coming up, I went to a restaurant on Franklin Street and there was a man who was bothering no one.

He apparently had nowhere else to go. You can see he was wearing three layers of clothing, hair not in the best shape, but he wasn't disturbing anyone. employee walks up to them, gives them a glass of water. A beautiful act of community happened right there in front of me. Staying while I eat, it was apparent the manager got got complaints. Asked him to leave. And then not even a minute him going across the street, I see the flashing blue lights, three patrol cars. He was surrounded by officers for just walking out of the restaurant and apparently disturbing what definition of peace I can't fathom. And I saw the police handcuff him, sit at the curb, and this is on Franklin Street, busy on a Friday night with the little bit of belongings he had right there beside him. And for everyone who's passing by, college age or resident, to look at him like a spectacle, I had to film the whole thing. I needed to protect him. That's that's the best I could do. One concern I have is that it the proposal referenced recent Supreme Court decisions, but there's not one named my from my humble research, I believe it's referencing grants past v. Johnson 2024. Let me read you something very important from the descent of that opinion. The city of Grants Pass jails and finds those people for living anywhere in public at any time, including in their cars. If they use as little as a blanket to keep warm or rolled up shirt as a pillow for people with no access to

shelter, that punishes them for being homeless. that is unconscionable and unconstitutional. Punishing people for their status is cruel and unusual under the eth amendment. My friend Mr. Willis said that Lenor should be bragged about for empathy and compassion, but unconstitutional and unconscionable are the words that Supreme Court justices are labeling this case as being used to write your ordinances. Second, I believe it's I I I believe there could be a better recommendation like a co-responder model. Social workers alongside police departments. [snorts] A lot of experts were on this. I'm just here giving my humble input. I'll tell you three instances that I found just from general research. In June 2023, WCNC Charlotte reported that the city of Davidson had their co-responder program. Police Chief Davidson said this quote, "Just the mere presence of someone in uniform can sometimes make it somewhat a little more difficult for someone to interact with a police officer. There is a fear of police in some communities and we need to be aware and sensitive to that." police chief. Apex North Carolina has CART, crisis and advocacy response team. In their own description, the co-responder model helps deviate individuals with behavioral health challenges from the judicial system to resources they need. That ought to be our goal. No judicial system involvement services. Again, I understand maybe there's the urban versus rural in your minds. National Policing Institute 2021 wrote, "Pol officers respond to an array of needs from the community often working

alone or side by side with another officer. However, at times we must acknowledge that the partner they truly need does not actually need to wear a uniform. Frequently, a different set of skills and training are what is called for social workers. Months ago, you asked your people to give you input on Main Street. How can we make our city better? How can we do it? I call on you and I implore you to delay this vote. Vote no. Let the people do the same thing. Talk to your people. You've talked to experts. You've talked to 28 municipals. You've consulted with Western Pedmont. Now, consult the actual people. Let them give your input before you give your final vote. I'm a Christian man. My faith teaches me to never become an oppressor, for I too was once oppressed. But I look to my brothers and sisters who learn from the Torah that says that to save a life is to change the entire world. And I submit to you the reverse. If God forbid increased policing with those in need leads to a tragedy and a loss of life, to take a life is to destroy a world. So please restraint. No, let the people speak.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate your comment. [clears throat]

Okay, we're still in the public hearing concerning this. Would there anyone else that would like to address the council at this time concerning this this ordinance at all? Chief, anything else you wanted to add to have a record? Have people been arrested? Not nec not necessarily. Unless you have certain questions um for me. Yeah, he's got a question. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you, Chief. I guess uh the question and comment first questions from the time I've been on the council and it's almost well one will be 16 years. I don't know of a history from a homeless population that we've had massive arrest in that way. I don't think that's even been something that we Lenor Small anything that's happening in that way it's it's going to be heightened. I mean we it's not that's not something we're hiding in that way. Do we have a history of that population connected to the bigger population that we're having major arrest? I don't know of that. No. No major arrests. No. Uh

or I don't again [clears throat] if there's things happening, people are calling us. I'm getting calls when certain things are happening. I don't I don't get calls through the night about someone homeless has been picked up and harassed. And that's just my experience. And for the and I can say that for the time I've been on the council. So I'm just clarifying there is a systemic issue that we're all addressing. But just to be clear, when we comparing ourselves to larger cities, we're not saying this is not happening, but I don't see that as a systemic piece that that that's been brought to my attention or perhaps the council's attention.

Yeah. Yeah. So, as far as mass arrest, absolutely not. And the the focus here is not arrest, right? That's a last resort. That's not what this aims to uh be an enforcement mechanism. It it's it's um it's compliance. Compliance. No different than a lot of other issues that we deal with across either civil or criminal um law within city lenor. Uh no difference than the junk and debris that we enforce through civily through personal property u would be similar to home city. And so this necessarily isn't giving us authority to do things we really can't already do. It's just clarifying it not only for the public but for us to enforce. And so

can you I mean some guidelines I think that's clarified right you can do all these things today. Absolutely right. This just cleans it up and clarifies it so it's very clear to everybody the officers and the public what the the policies and regulations are. Sure. It it for our officers is telling us how we want it handled and through compliance through written notice of management if if if need be andor a last resort arrest. Nothing in this ordinance gives us more authority, more power, more presence than we already have. Um, but it does um it does detail better of what's expected and of of the ordinance. And so, no, this doesn't give us anything more than we have today.

[clears throat] And my initial question when you came up before was if someone was camping out at at the wreck at one of our recreation centers, we would use the same sure process of removing them is it's so it's not an attack on homeless. This has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you have a a roof over your head or not. Um it just does not. And so, um, to comment on what, uh, Marco had said, you know, I tell my officers, yeah, look at our school kids,

not one of them wants to grow up and be homeless. Not one of them, right? And so, we treat people evenly across the board. It does not matter if you have a roof over your head or not. Um, and and that's that's the how that's just our culture. That's what we do. Mr. Mr. Mayor, I've got a couple comments. Yes, sir. [clears throat]

Um, so in November, I spent a shift with, excuse [clears throat] me, I spent a shift with PD on a Friday night, and I was with PD for about six hours. And in that 6 hours, every call but one uh we probably had 10 calls that that I recognized coming through and uh were sus reports of suspicious person. And the officer that I spent the most time with said that, you know, the number of calls we now get for suspicious person is way up. and and we've all seen the homeless population nationwide has grown

and there's a lot of factors for that. Um, [clears throat] and as we approached each of those calls, the officer who had been who's been trained specifically on dealing with the homeless population, his level of compassion and his officers on his shift, their level of compassion for the the human that they were dealing with was outstanding. And there the there was no need for a single arrest because vagrancy which is homelessness basically is not a not a crime in the state of North Carolina that was repealed in the 1980s.

Right? And so vagrancy itself homelessness is not a crime. And an example that I would like to give you is that this particular ordinance is specifically speaking to our outside locations like our parks and wreck that are city property. And that city property is paid for with tax dollars. And all of us sitting here are tasked with the responsible spending of tax dollars and to protect the property that the the taxpayers pay for. And another example is the park is o we see the park as an open space

because that's what it's intended to be. But it doesn't mean that it's open all day long. So at night, I cannot go to the city hall and just walk in and sit in the lobby because that's city property that closes at the end of the business day. The same thing happens with our parks and our greenway and any public property, public space. There is a time where there's there's it closes or there is no need for someone to just to be there. And as a Christian, I feel the tug between what Jesus taught us and what the law and the taxpayers expect from government. The nonprofits that work on this problem, they are fantastic at getting things done that government has so many restrictions and laws that it is it's extremely cumbersome that the nonprofits and the churches and the families out there that take in homeless people have always made this happen. Right now, it's a big issue because of the numbers and because of the the coverage that we see in social media, regular media, and just our daily lives coming across people. And as much as my heart feels for those people, because I've had children at school that were homeless. I had three children at Collinsville that lived in a bus for over a year. But this the government is not necessarily set up for some of these situations to be able to to fix the problem. We can manage

and that's that's what this particular ordinance uh update is to help us manage city-owned property public spaces. This does not cover private property. So if someone is on your private property and you are want to allow them to be there, whatever that private property is, that's that's a different situation. That's your business. If I want to let people, homeless people or anybody else camp out in my front yard, that's my business as long as there's not an illegal act happening. And so this is about public spaces and public tax dollar protection. This is not about harassing or going after people because they have had a really hard road in life. And I've seen it as a teacher and I my heart goes out to those situations. And there are times through my church or through my my work over the years that I have tried to help that situation privately. Government's not really set up for that, especially small town government. So, I'd like to commend our police force for their compassion and how they handle that. I know Chris Bumgar has done a lot of training on that. All of our our our upper echelon officers have have tried to really make that point that we are dealing with human beings regardless of all the details around them. We're dealing with human beings. And I I really think that there's a little bit of disconnect with the understanding of this ordinance purpose. Its purpose is to protect taxpayer dollars and make sure that everybody has a safe experience in any of our public buildings, public spaces. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Anyone else would like to address the council concerning this uh public hearing concerning this code amendment? Yes, sir. Um, so originally I wasn't going to talk about this. Uh, my name is Emanuel Lazo. Thank you. And your address, please. 1601 North, uh, North Main Street. Thank you.

You know, the mechanic shop. I've seen half of you all all over there. So, um, sorry, I'm nervous. I wasn't planning on talking about this, but my question always becomes whenever I'm hearing all of this, because I used to go out in the parks a lot and talk to people in the recreation center and see the homelessness. My question is, what do you do after you tell them to leave? When they don't have a home, what do you what happens when you tell them to leave? Where else do they go? Are we informing them about the things that we have for them? Are we telling them what they can do? I've seen ch child homelessness. Not personally, but I've seen it when I uh went to the park and I would see the kids coming out of those ramps because I used to skate.

That was what that was what Mr. Willis has addressed. us to that's we we give them that guidance when they're asked to go and you you have these opportunities that we can give you to do that I guess Yfella and other places that you can talk to about trying to get certain certain help.

Yes. But I'm wondering if take putting more burden on the police to really clarify all this and try to put as much as we can on the police. Could we not give that work more towards social service workers who have those connections to be like, "Hey, we could take you to Yoke Fellow. We could take you to these nonprofit organizations that can help you with your homelessness problem. Better get that connection uh between those two groups." Um, it's not that I don't want police officers to do their job. It's more that I want to make sure they're doing the job that we need them to do, protecting us from actual disturbances, not suspicious persons. a suspicious person is just a person you don't know. And I'm wondering if we could have the compassion to send out those social workers

to get them connected to where they can go. You know, right that's all I didn't really have much planned for conversation. So good news it was short for you guys because I know there's a long conversation more after this. So thank you. We appreciate your comments very much. Appreciate you too. Okay, last call. Anybody else that would like to to speak concerning that? [clears throat] Okay, I will close the public hearing and turn it over to councilman for any any other discussion or uh motion whenever you're ready concerning this code amendment.

Mr. Mayor, make a motion that we approve the ordinance amendment as presented. Have a motion from council member Bill that we approve the uh code amendment as presented by the uh staff [clears throat] tonight concerning this. Any other discussion? All in favor, please say I. I.

All opposed. Thank you. Carries unanimously. Thank you very much for that. Thank you for your chief for your work and all on that and everything that is being done. We appreciate that. All right. Our second public hearing tonight is a US EPA notice of intent to apply for a brownfield cleanup grant. This will be used for the environmental cleanup of the old Brawl Hill site that is located at 1429 College Avenue Southwest, parcel number ID, number 2749445311. I will open the public hearing and turn it over to Mr. Radford Thomas uh who used to be with the city and now is our uh uh brownfield expert. How about that?

I don't know about that, but uh we've spent a lot of time and and a lot of good money helping out our community with these programs. And um first I I want to clarify one one thing. We are actually applying for two grants this year. Uh, one is to clean up, finish cleaning up the Broy Hill, old Broy Hill property that the city now owns. Uh, the other is a is another assessment grant that we can use to help our local businesses and individuals um, understand exactly what they may be dealing with uh, in order to market their property uh, know what they have to do so we can get it back into uh, usefulness in our community. Um, so that that's our intentions. Um, we did speak to you on October the 7th, I believe it was. Uh, kind of gave you an idea of what our plan was for the Broy Hill site, the options for cleanup. Um, and this time was uh duly advertised uh in the newspaper as a period of public comment. Someone wanted to come and speak to that. um you know the grant applications that we're making and we also have the public comment period will be open uh up until the uh a week before the due date for these grants which is January the 26th. Uh the assessment grant uh I'm going to let uh Greg Eisenhower, our environmental consultant, speak to you about the current status of the grant applications uh for just a minute and then we'll see if anyone has any comment. Thank you. Welcome, sir.

Thank you,

Mr. Mayor, members of council. For those uh of you I've met, it's good to see you again. For those I haven't met, my name is Greg Eisenhower. I am vice president and principal geologist with Mid-Atlantic Associates uh in Charlotte. And I have been uh fortunate to be your u environmental consultant uh over the last number of years through uh two uh assessment grants that we were able to acquire for the city. As Radford said, this this year is a is a little different in that um this is the first time we've had the opportunity to [clears throat] apply both for an additional assessment grant which will keep our brownfields initiative moving forward with other properties that have been identified as we've uh gone through the first two grants. Um as well as a cleanup grant to address the remaining issues at the at the Bro Hill site. And the goal of any of these programs is to try to uh put these properties back into economic reuse. And the Brawl Hill site is probably the closest site that we have uh to being able to do that. Um but there are some challenges and hence the the cleanup grant. Uh the statutory requirements for this particular grant are a little bit different in that you do have to have a public hearing uh for it. Uh in terms of the status uh in this particular case, the uh the government shutdown actually helped us because we were able to move forward and uh using last year's guidance to get a head start on our grant. So the assessment grant is essentially done. Uh we're going to have one more round of review. The cleanup grant uh should be in draft form within the next week. Uh and again, as Radford said, we're in good position. the these grant applications seem to always come down to the wire for some reason. Uh this year fortunately will not be the case. We we're we're ahead of the game and we see no difficulties with you know getting both of these grants applied. In total the grants uh would would would

mean an additional $1 million worth of uh brownfield related funding for the city of Lenor. Sounds great. And I'm happy to address any questions or concerns you might have. [clears throat and cough] just interested that you were the only person I've ever heard that government shutdown helped. [laughter]

Well, it helped us because you get such a short window. Um you typically have about 60 days between the time they actually announce the give you the guidance and the the grant deadline and it's it's just typically not possible to do it. So, you really have to fudge, kind of hedge a bit, kind of guess at what they're looking for, and at least try to get something outlined to give you a little bit of um a little bit of grace there towards the end. Okay.

Is there a time frame of how long that would take? Um, one of the things that we did as part of this process, you have to uh uh supply to EPA what is called an assessment of brownfield cleanup alternatives where you look at what your options are. Um, one of the things that we did, um, that didn't involve EPA grant funding specifically, uh, was the city was able to get an ARC grant, which the city matched to help remove a good portion of the debris that was left over. Um, in looking at what remains, uh, we think there is a a cleanup alternative that would not involve the expense of having to to remove it. Uh we've had there's other communities that have essentially uh been able to successfully apply for and get what amounts to uh kind of an on-site landfill to put inert debris. So, and that's what we have left at the Brawl Hill site, a lot of brick and and just material that is expensive to haul because it's so heavy. So we have a uh a a process but whereby we think uh there's an opportunity uh to actually use that material on site kind of as beneficial fill uh to level out the site and make it a little more attractive to developers. So and it would avoid the expense. We spent over I think $550,000 removing uh I think around 7,000 cubic yards of material and there's probably four to five cubic thousand cubic yards left. We don't want to replicate that expense if we can avoid it.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you very much. You have something else or Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. We're still in the public hearing. Would there anyone like to address the council concerning this uh notice of intent to apply for the brownfield cleanup? Yes. Yes, ma'am. Martha Lazo uh from 1601 North Main Street, my husband's shop. I don't like giving my address anyways anybody knows where I live. Yes.

But I'm very happy with Brownsville. Not only helped me when I got my building here in Main Street. I also referred them to other people. They don't speak the language, but they have helped them too. So I'm that's a help. I mean, they really helped me and they help other people that I could send to them. So they've been very help for the community. So, I wanted to address that. You know, I didn't I wasn't coming for that, but hearing them, I know how they do help the people and help our community because I'm one of them. We appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else would like to address? All right, I will close the public hearing then. Turn it over to council for uh No. No action. Turn it over to council for no action.

No action. [laughter] We'll just move on and apply. give them the go ahead and apply for it. [laughter] We appreciate that.

All right, we'll move on then to our consent agenda items tonight consisting of minutes of the city council meeting of Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. Item B is a resolution. This is a approval of a resolution in honor and recognition of council member Todd Purdue dedicated and outstanding service to the city council the city of Lenor and its citizens submitted. Item C is an acceptance of an offer to purchase real property and a notice of an offer to purchase real property. This is for 1340 Fairview Drive Southwest. Excuse me. Marcus Sims has submitted an offer to purchase 1340 Fairview Drive owned by the city of Lenor in the amount of $13,000 plus advertising cost. That's North Carolina PIN number 2748-563 698 and tax ID number 06184-1-7 as submitted. Staff has it advertised in the news topic an upset bid period as required by the North Carolina General Statutes number 16A-269. The required 5% bid deposit has been received and no upset bids were received on this project. Project uh D is project bid award. This is for Lenor Greenway phase two approval.

Greenway Gateway Gateway.

Getting tired. Gateway phase two approval to award the contract for the Anor uh gateway phase two to the lowest responsive responsible bidder right light Signs Incorporated for $414,772 as submitted. Right Signs Incorporated is also the contractor for the ongoing Lenor wayfinding project. Item [snorts] E is the Finley area water systems improvement project proposal for the Bonell Lammonds Engineering BLE to perform construction material testing services with anticipated cost of services of $27,585. The total project budget after bids included a line item budget of $80,000 for these services as submitted. Item F is a code amendments. This is for chapter 4, article 4, buildings and building regulations, non-residential buildings or structure standards. And chapter 10, minimum housing standards, first reading. First reading of the ordinances amending chapters four and chapter 10 of the Lenor code of ordinances related to non-residential buildings or structured standards and minimum housing standards and authorizing a public hearing to be held on Tuesday, January the 20th, 2026 for the second reading of these ordinances. That that is your consent agenda A through F. I will now turn it over to council for any question, action, motion. Whenever you're ready.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve uh the consent agenda items A through F as presented. We have a motion from Council Member Thomas that we approve the consent agenda item A through F as presented. Any discussion, question? All in favor, please say I. I. All opposed. Thank you very much. Next on our agenda is requests and petitions of any citizens. If there's anyone who would now like to address the council again, this is or or at first time this is a time to do so. Please limit your comments to several minutes if you will. Uh we would certainly appreciate that. [cough]

Uh Charleston, happy holiday Lenor. Um, I just wanted to uh take notice of the date, a day uh to quote Franklin Roosevelt that will live in infamy. We gather today on the anniversary of an assault on the capital of the United States and for I would suggest that we might count [clears throat] the council might consider some sort of a resolution on this date going forward. uh acknowledging the fact that um we came so close to losing our rights and our citizenship. Um I got off my track. I had some written remarks here, but um we have uh commissions and all over that uh regularly proclaim their support for law enforcement and Veterans Day and Memorial Day and closing offices on Christmas and Easter. But there isn't even a murmur about the significance of this date in American history, much less a proclamation of principle. Shame on politicians who easily cater to the fears of their base instead of offering a brighter day, a better way toward fulfilling the best hopes of the better angels among us. What happened on that day was the culmination of a saw losers blatant conspiracy to overturn an American election. The abomination was further compounded by issuing blanket presidential pardons to all those charged as well as those who plead guilty or were convicted by a jury of

their peers. The world can never forget what they've did there. And to quote a president we can all uh appreciate and support. I actually probably paraphrase. It is rather for us the living we here be rededicated to the task remaining before us that this government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth. a resolution to that thought might be appropriate for this council to adopt going forward. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We certainly appreciate your comments. Okay. Is there anyone else that would like to address the council?

Yes, sir.

Thank you. A friend of mine wanted to speak. Pastor Ivan de la Cruz. So if I may, I'm going to read his words that he would have run to you. But he's a pastor. He had to go. He had an important matter at his church. His words read, "Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Pastor Pastor Ivan de la Cruz. I serve a church and families here in Lenor and the surrounding communities. I am here today not as a politician but as a pastor, someone who walks daily with families who are deeply affected by current immigration enforcement practices. For us, immigration is not a policy debate. It is a human reality. I sit with parents who are afraid to drive their children to school. I pray with families who sleep with fear, wondering if today is the day they are separated. I counsel children who worry more about losing their parents than about their homework. Fear has become part of daily life for many in our community. This fear is not creating safer neighborhoods. It is creating silence, isolation, and trauma. People stop reporting crimes. They avoid hospitals. They stop attending church. They withdraw from community life. As a pastor, I see the emotional and spiritual damage every week. Children are especially affected. Many live with constant anxiety, afraid that a parent may not come home from work. This kind of fear leaves lasting scars. These children are not threats. They are students, sons, and daughters of this community. As a Christian leader, I must also speak for my faith. Scripture teaches us Matthew 25:35, "I was a stranger and you took me in."

This does not mean ignoring the law. It means applying the law with wisdom, dignity, and compassion. We recognize the importance of order and security, but enforcement without humanity breaks families, weakens trust, and harms the very communities it seeks to protect. Immigrant families in Lenor are not outsiders. They work. They contribute. They support local businesses. They help build this community. When fear drives them into hiding, our entire community pays a price socially, economically, and morally. Today, I'm not asking for chaos or open borders. I am asking for humane enforcement, family unity, and policies that consider the real human impact. Every generation is remembered not only for the laws it enforced, but for the compassion it showed. I stand here carrying the voices of many who are too afraid to stand here themselves. I ask their humanity be seen, their families protected, and their dignity respected. Thank you for listening. May wisdom and compassion guide us forward. The words of Pastor Ivan Deus.

Thank you, sir.

Again, again, Martalaso, uh, 1601 North Main Street. As you guys know, I'm very strong with the Hispanic community. I also have a nonprofit that I opened back in 2010 called City Espano when I was working as a so in the social service department for almost 10 years when I decided to open my own business and that's what happened and I sent Concilius Espano to Charlotte and North Carolina because I didn't saw the support here. Gonito span is still open but it's between North Carolina and Charlotte in South Carolina instead of their hometown where I open it when I came 20 years ago here. I opened it for our community but I then saw the support so I took it away. What for? If no one cared but now I see that I have to bring it back and we have to get United. So, I'm not here to argue or anything, but I see the hurt in my community. I'm sorry. I'm so emotional. [snorts] I'm sorry.

Okay. Okay. Take your time.

They're coming to me crying, scared. They're afraid. They don't know what to do. Their pastor don't know what to do. I certainly don't know what to do neither. All I can do is help him what I can help him with. [snorts] And I can I have to say my community stand up even though they know that I had the concealer. Other nonprofit that knows me reach out to me and they have helped me. Churches have helped me. So they have came and brought me food because they don't even want to go to work. They're afraid to go to work. They're afraid to go to school. They're afraid to go to doctors. They're afraid to do anything. So they're hiding in homes. days, weeks since that happened. They're coming out from homes. [snorts] So, I don't know what you guys I know this is hard for you guys because it's not your decisions. Like I told my son and him, it's not their decision because this this comes from the federal, you know, but we need to do something for our community because they're all hiding. They're afraid. So sometimes I go to my office and they other communities comes and leave me food and leave me clothes and leave me even cash to help this other community. So I share it with other churches. I need to do something. I don't know what but I need to put something together for our community, a safe haven for them. So I'm I'm planning to bring Conceilio like I told I told Chris I need to bring it back. find a way for them to have a place where they can go and feel safe. They don't even go to yoga fellow, they don't even get assisted. I mean, working at the social service, to be honest with you, they're the least of the people that come and get help. To be honest with you, they they're are hardworking people, very hardworking people. What they hurt is because they went to the schools, they went to the churches, they went to the,

you know, and and that hurts. What they doing in Wind Whitill Elementary School? What they going to find there? Parents, traumatized kids really going to the churches, pastors. Honestly, you know, I'm okay. I'm 100%. When you have to deport people if you know, I'm the first one who put, you know, I would I would report them, you know, but not these people. These people are hiding. Kids don't want to go to school. They decided not to go to school. A lot of them. And I'm so I'm happy now. my, you know, I know them since they were young. They were kids. I mean, I know him since they were kid and now look at what he's trying to become an attorney. I'm so proud that I have a couple of the young ones are coming attorney and they want to come back to our community. I brought my son back, you know, he has a degree. My son had graphic design. He's they're trying to come back to our community. Why not embrace them, you know, and make our community grow? We have to live together, you know?

Thank you for hearing me. Thank you, Martha. Thank you, Martha. [clears throat] Yes.

Hello everyone. I am My name is Hilda Granado from 1302 Harper Avenue. I am brand new in Lenor. I decide to bring my small business to Lenor from Charlotte, North Carolina. I live in Charlotte, but um being here for 3 months, I get in love with Lenor even though I drive every single day. Uh I don't care. Lenor is a place who I can feel the welcome. And some of you and I saw someone today, they've been eating on my place. Um I have a tortilla place you know it's a organic tortilla that I brought through through Lonor and it was my husband dream. My husband is a um is native Mexican. Um I am from Honduras. I came when I was 11 years old and it wasn't my decision to come to United States. my parents as a um missionary. They saw a girl who had 11 siblings living in a one room bedroom home. And I was pretty good, a smart girl at school with [snorts] the type score, but I I did not have the chance to continue my education because my parent were so poor. And I am so grateful and I get emotional because no other kids [laughter] had the same opportunity I as I have. And I flew and it was my first time coming into an airplane to United State. And the love that I received on my uh church of God, it was tremendous. Someone gave me clothing, shoes,

a calculator because I was going to attend a private school and I was a Christian school. And then I feel the love and I don't care about material stuff. I feel what the warmth that I feel that I wish I have on my country [snorts] and it wasn't my decision to come here. And today I'm here because my husband and I, we build three business. I've been in the real estate business for 17 years. I create a woman group. We are 40 women's investing in real estate for over two years. Uh my husband and I, we had a remod remodeling uh company for 20 years. My husband is still waiting for a green card and I'm here to speak for my community because I became American long time ago and I came to be part of America when America was welcome the Hispanic community don't where they didn't care about my color but what happened during this time of the year at the end of the holidays seeing the enforcement law which you call we we call ICE harassing the community. It was insane. And that was not the America I I know when I came here when I was very young. And my son, my three kids, they are America. This is the only country they know. And my husband is still waiting for a green card after he's been here for 25 years. The only thing I want to request tonight is you guys have more compassion for my community because now

the law enforcements is going for the color and I get a stopped by a highway patrol the other day and I has I still have to go to court. You know why? Because I was driving on highway 20 21. I don't know cuz I'm not used to Lenor. [snorts]

and he saw me right there on the light. I was right by him and he let me run like two miles and then he stopped me. And when he stopped me, I said, "Hello, sir. Why did you stop me? I didn't did nothing wrong." And he looked at me and he said, "Do you have a driving license?" And I looked back him and I said, "Yes, I do have a driver license." And he said to me, "I stop you because you were running 82 miles." And I said, "Excuse me, there is three different lights and I can't run 82 miles." But [snorts] you know what I learned that day? He stopped me because he saw me that I was Hispanic because he saw I did not have a driving license. That's what he thinking was right there in the moment. So tonight I want to present myself with you and I wanted to say that I'm so grateful to be in Lenor with my tortilla place and I want you guys to think for a moment what is going on through my community is insane and that's not the America that I know for years and you guys are being so generous to let my community grow up here and I learned that Lenor for got the to between the 13 and 27% of Hispanic community here and they deserve love. They deserve to be welcome because we come here to make America great, not to destroy America cuz that's me. I build three three business that I give job to other people who need it. And I understand you guys need to enforce the law and I'm okay with that. But we need to have more compassion. And I wanted to thank you, Lenor, for giving me me and my husband the opportunity to

have this business. And I wanted to thank Marta and everyone who um had been giving me a lot of love. Thank you so much. And I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate that. [snorts] Anyone else? [snorts] [sighs] ask how many speeches he wrote. I was going to ask you how many speeches you had tonight.

I know, right? [laughter] Mayor Given, Mayor Pro Tim Perkins, council members, and may it please the city of Lenor. I remember a day I was here and I was gracious of y'all to let me speak briefly and in that I gave my sincere promise to leave study at Chapel Hill and come back to Lenor. Lenor is where I was born that raised me and I'm proud that it is my home. I'm so happy and blessed that my parents found this place. My parents are immigrants from Peru. They escaped when shining path was in their wrath. And my father when I was in middle school, I don't remember the conversation, but he told me that the greatest thing about this nation is that you can walk up to the White House, you can shout your frustrations in open air. You can even curse the president and not a single person can lay a hand on you. But I am very scared because if I say anything negative, it could be me or my family that could be kidnapped. Just anything that could be seen as negative. In Morgan, I was stopped at a checkpoint and the cops asked me, "You speak English?" How is that going to help if I actually didn't speak English? I just practiced my constitutional right to not say a word and they still egged it on. They I gave them my license and when they called it up saying check of citizenship. Seriously, I gave you my license. Isn't that enough? All of this is because we're living in the end result of weaponized nivism. This is not new.

But I want to be clear. I'm coming to you do be to be political, but I'm don't I'm not going to be partisan. That's what's poisonous now is that immigration is weaponized in partisanship, but it has to be political. It is our way of life. Our lives are political. So, I want to give you some options that I hope you can accept and take like you can pass resolutions and ordinances to limit cooperation with ICE. You can fund know your rights workshops. Arm your people to protect themselves against law federal law enforcement. Create advisory boards with undocumented immigrants on them. Give them a seat at the table. Warn the community if ICE is on their way. Support immigrant owned businesses. Give them patronage. This is why this is all this is urgent is because last year the Supreme Court I'm going to go brief on this decided Vasquez Porto v known. Here's what the majority wrote. Apparently enlist alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion. I think the police chief will agree with me on that. It's good good so far, but it went the opposite way. The majority wrote, "However, it can be a relevant factor, ethnicity, a relevant factor when considered along other salient factors. That's why there's increased discrimination amongst ICE." That's a translation for you that it is now legal for ICE to detain anyone for looking for being brown, speaking Spanish, talking English with a Spanish accent. or appearing to work a low wage job. Here's the dangerous part is because the people who were pushing this was the

Federation of American Immigration Reform. They filed an amicus brief and they are a hate group designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have documented ties to white supremacist groups. And here are their words. by enjoining the government from relying on four factors that obviously are probitative of reasonable suspicion, especially to those with the specialized knowledge officers possess. The district court flipped the reasonable suspicion standard. And they continued, "Even those with a cursorary knowledge would reasonably suspect that persons meeting the district court's four factors, speaking Spanish, looking brown, appearing to work a low wage job, are illegal aliens." that reasonable suspicion standard demands no more. So what's the translation? They asked the Supreme Court to say that looking brown, speaking Spanish, working a low wage job is enough to detain them. And that's what the Supreme Court delivered. That is the reality. That's the law of the land now. So I come to you, city of Lenor, to say what are you going to do? Because if the state fails to protect us from the federal government and the county is going to fail in that mission to protect us, it rests in your hands. That is the trend. Federal government doesn't want to do efficient immigration enforcement. They want it down to the states, to the local governments. Show me your papers laws in Arizona. I think you remember those. Representative Destin Hall's bill now passed into law saying that all sheriffs must cooperate. All of this has remained clear that you may feel that you don't want you do not

want to get involved in federal politics, but is no longer the option. When hate groups are designing these rules, we all need to be concerned. We all need to act. [clears throat] Police can arrest ICE officials. I believe that your model of protecting and serving should apply to protecting and service everyone here against an overreaching federal government. They can warn us if ISIS is coming. If you read the Lenor news topic, there was a story Padilla. She was seeking asylum. She was doing things the right way. She was taken from us by ICE. She did everything the best she could and that wasn't enough. So, if everyone who's following the rules can be taken, we need someone to trust. That's why that's what city of Illinois can do. silence in action. They're choices that I pray you don't take. So if you say this is all complicated, where do we start? It's not complicated. Start somewhere. Start anywhere. Start yesterday. Like I told you, you can pass a resolution establishing city employees and resources to not be used for federal immigration law. You can fund know your rights workshop so that our our people can be prepared. You can create a community advisory board that includes undocumented residents. Give them a voice. Establish policies that requires any federal agencies that want to come here. You better show us warrants. You better show us your justifications. Tell Lenor Police Department to warn the community. Give public support to immigrant-owned businesses.

your dollars, grants, scholarships, the list goes on and on. You I I'm not asking to solve immigration. I'm not asking that. I'm just asking to protect the constitutional rights of people here, families like my own. declare without fear or hesitation that all persons in Lenor have the right to live here with protection. Everything you do right now, it's going to matter. So my final words to families like my own immigrant families, mixed status families is what we're called. to the city council. In the name of God, do your duty. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments. Certainly appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. One more. Don't worry. I'm the shortest. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you. Shortest in speech, tallest in height. Um,

hello. My name is Emanuel Ozo. I already put this in. Sorry, I have to go or else I'm going to start moving my lips too much. Um, hello. My name is Emanuel Ozo. I work out of 1601 North Main Street of Lenor. Today we showcased how ICE has affected our community negatively. [snorts] How it's limited our ability to work. How it's reduce the amount of ability for us to be members of the community. We know they left, but we know they'll come back in the future, too. There are measures that this city council can take to protect the people of Lenor. And these aren't, you know, these don't require funding. These don't require anything. This requires just cooperation. By declaring the city as a Fourth Amendment workplace, which will protect city property from unnecessary search without warrant, allowing the community to go to city properties like like we were talking with rec centers and stuff like that and at least give them some semblance of normaly and training these same city council workers in their rights and what they can do to protect the immigrant community. It's not something impossible. It was done in Durham, North Carolina. It It's literally writing pieces of paper, nothing more. Work with community organizers like Consilia when we bring it in to help us whenever they do come back again to better organize for giving people who are trapped in their homes basic necessities.

Gone. Again, that doesn't require money from you. It just requires cooperation. Sorry.

And [snorts] like you said, pushing know your right campaigns through workshops, let that be from local nonprofit organizations or if you guys want to yourself open those workshops for us, we would also appreciate that. [snorts] And just represent all of us equally. Don't rep don't represent who is only who you think is a citizen, but also the ones that aren't because they are community members just as much as the citizens that are here. We want you to create with us a lenor that is safer and stronger. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Okay. Thank you very much. We're going to move on tonight. We do not have any reports of our boards and commissions. Uh we'll return it now to the report and recommendations of our city manager, Mr. Hildbrand.

Mayor Council, some highlights um coming up for you. Uh the East Harper Streetscape meeting will be scheduled for tomorrow evening from 5:30 to 7:30. That's [clears throat] going to be held at the old American Trade and Pond at 5:32 Harper Avenue. So I encourage people to stop by for the drop in there to look at uh some of the plans that have put um gathered so far for that and give your input. Uh curbside Christmas tree recycling uh is underway, started today and will go through Friday, January 30th. The Lenor Business Advisory Board will meet on Thursday, January 8th at 5:00. It's a training session, third floor, city hall. Uh the city county service committee will meet on Monday, January 12th at noon at Jabro Civic Center. The economic development advisory committee will meet on Tuesday, January 13th, 8:15 a.m. and that's at the Jab Royal Civic Center. Uh the ABC board will meet on Thursday, January 15th at 2 o'clock. Uh the city [snorts] also will be closed on January 19th in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday. And I know some folks there's some events going on with that. It'll be on our website and due to time I'll let Joshua note those on the website so people can go to the website to see what activities are taking place on that day. Uh also the city uh will have their planning retreat on Friday, February 6 at 8:30 uh a.m. at Blue Ridge Energy Meeting Room. And lastly, I just want to go back and recognize Hannah Williams who graduated from the UNCC School of Government Civic Fellows program. and just want to say thank you. Proud of you.

Thank you. [applause] That's all I have. Okay. Any questions of city manager? Okay. We'll move on then. Any report from our city attorney tonight, Mr. Roy? No, sir. Thank you very much. I do have a report from the mayor's office. Uh we have a couple appointments to be made. Uh, one is an appointment to the Greater Hickory Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Advisory Committee called TAC, which is part of the Western Pemont Council of Governments. And our recommendation is for Mr. Council Member Jonathan Beal to serve in that seat. We have had discussion and he has agreed. So, twisted his arm, but he's

That's a good one. That's a tacky one. Yeah. [laughter] and to the uh Cwell Railroad Commission which is back being re reopened I think to some degree uh that I would recommend myself to fill that unexpired term of Todd Purdue. I have served as exeicio uh to that. Council member Stevens also serves on that committee. So u I would make that recommendation since I've already served on it and I'm very familiar with it and I would just take that uh take that spot for Todd's seat on that one. So I present those to you for your recommendation and approval if you will.

Mr. Mayor, council, I will approve those recommendations as presented. Have a motion from council member Thomas to approve the uh recommendations as presented those appointments. All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose. Thank you. And let's see, we do have a close session on top of that. Uh, all right. Council,

we have a close session and we'll enter into close session tonight to um North Carolina General Statutes 143-318.11 subsection A subsection 4 to discuss matters involving economic development and under North Carolina General Statutes 143-318.11 subsection A subsection 5 to establish or to instruct the public body staff or negotiating ating agents concerning the position to be taken by or on behalf of the public body in negotiating the price and other material terms of a contract or proposed contract for the acquisition of real property by purchase option exchange or lease. So I'll open up for a motion for go into close session. Anything to come out? Nothing will come out of it after we meet. Got a motion to go into close session by council member.

Read that again, please. Press wood. [laughter] This is the motion presented. All in favor, please say I. All opposed. We're in close session. Thank you. We come back out, we will go home. Thank you for being with us.

Mayor Pro Tim uh whatever your name is [laughter] Perkins. Mayor Proim Perkins. All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose. We're out of close session. Anything else to come before us? Ask your question. You want to ask your question now? What? What are you asking? Oh, no. I know. I know enough. Okay. All right. Nothing coming for us. This meeting is a term. Hold on. Yes, they should