Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for your patience. We apologize for the late start, but it is good to see everybody. I do want to say welcome. We're going to start tonight's meeting with introductions, and we'll start to my right with the clerks.

Good evening.

I am Christine Smith, clerk to the board. Welcome. Good evening. I am Arlissa Easton, deputy clerk to the board.

Good evening and welcome, everyone. I am Yvette Townsend, Ingram County Commissioner-at-Large, also known as Commissioner YTI.

Good evening, I'm George Dunlap, elected by the people of District 3.

Good evening and welcome. My name is Lee Altman, County Commissioner serving at large, and I also have the privilege of serving as Vice Chair. Welcome.

Good evening again. My name is Mark Jarrell. I've been elected by the people of District 4. I didn't know I had that reaction. But I've been elected by the people of District 4 and also have the honor of serving as Chairman of the Board. Welcome.

Good evening. You're welcome. My name is Arthur Griffin. I have the pleasure of serving as County Commissioner at large.

Good afternoon. My name is Vilma DeLeake, and I represent the most powerful district in the county, and that's District 2. Will all seniors stand up, please? One senior. Thank you for being here tonight. You carry the load. Will all young people stand up then? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Madam.

Good evening. My name is Susan Rodriguez McDowell, and I have the honor of being elected by the people of District 6.

Good evening and welcome. I'm Mike Bryan, Mecklenburg County Manager. Good evening, Tyrone Wade, County Attorney.

All right. Tonight, our invocation and pledge of allegiance will be led by none other than At-Large Commissioner Arthur Griffith.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Invocation is a time where organizations kind of reflect, talk a little bit about their purpose. And I just want to go back to my last invocation when I kind of talked about the parable in the Bible about the Good Samaritan. We certainly talked about the role of stopping to help the individual. I think most people understand that piece of the Bible, chapter 10 of Luke, verses 25 and 34. I ran out of time when we started talking about that road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was often known as very treacherous, where people were robbed and killed. And it lasted for so long that they nicknamed that road the Way of the Blood. And I share that because even during our budget discussions, I coined a phrase called learned institutional indifference. And even there, people knew about the difficulties in going from Jerusalem to Jericho. And I say that, that we have a responsibility as elected leaders in Mecklenburg County, not just to do the Good Samaritan role, but also to do the heavy lifting of straightening up that road to make it less treacherous and to make sure that we can create conditions for people to be reasonably successful with the quality of life. And so with that said, please join me, if you wish, as I say a little prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this place and space this evening. May we remember that every vote we cast reflect the lives of real people, children seeking meaningful educational opportunities, families striving for economic mobility, seniors seeking security, veterans seeking support, and residents who depend upon us to govern wisely. Grant us, Heavenly Father, with the wisdom to distinguish activity from achievement and the courage to challenge low expectations. and the humility to place the public good and interests above our own. In thy name we pray, amen. Please join me in pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, thank you all. Every meeting we start out and we make sure we level set by reiterating our mission, our vision, and our board budget priorities. These are the guardrails that help guide our discussions and come into our minds as we make any decision from this dais. Our mission is to serve Mecklenburg County residents by helping improve their lives and community. Our vision, Mecklenburg County, will be a community of pride and choice for people to live, learn, work, and recreate. Our FY26-27 board budget priorities are as follows. Economic development. education, environmental stewardship, health equity and wellness, services for seniors, workforce development, and reducing racial disparities. And at this time, I'm going to turn the gavel over to our vice chair to conduct the awards and recognition portion of our agenda.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm really excited about our agenda tonight and that we get to start off with recognition of Charlotte Black Pride Week and Charlotte Pride Week. And I will turn to Commissioner Susan Rodriguez McDowell to kick us off.

Thank you so much. All right. It really is my honor to be able to read this proclamation tonight. And as I do so, my understanding is that Miles Perry of Charlotte Black Pride and Cameron Pruitt, I don't see Cameron. Is he hiding? I don't see Cameron. OK. Of the Freedom Center for Social Justice. Maybe somebody else is here. John Walton Tate of Charlotte Pride and Chad Turner. If you guys want to come down and stand at the podium while we read, I'll go ahead and begin. Whereas Mecklenburg County is home to a vibrant and diverse community, among which are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer citizens and residents, and whereas Mecklenburg County's LGBTQ community have positively shaped the cultural, business, civic, faith, and social fabric of the county throughout its history, and whereas Charlotte Black Pride and Charlotte Pride have been creating visibility for and promoting a positive image of LGBTQ Carolinians for more than two decades. And whereas all modern pride events find their origin in the iconic Stonewall riots of June 1969 and the first Christopher Street Liberation Day march in 1970 in New York City, largely organized by LGBTQ people of color, transgender people, and young people. And whereas LGBTQ residents of Mecklenburg County first attempted to organize gay liberation movement organizations as early as 1971, with Charlotte's first Pride events finally held in 1981 and the ensuing decades inspiring the creation of Charlotte Pride in 2000. And whereas Charlotte Black Pride was founded in 2005 with a mission to promote LGBTQ pride primarily for, but not limited to, members of the black community while building social awareness, embracing spirituality, and celebrating the diversity that exists within our community. And whereas each July, black members of the LGBTQ community and their allies gather to celebrate the history culture, achievements, aspirations, and dreams during Charlotte Black Pride Week, culminating in Charlotte Black Pride's annual celebration, Blacktivism, you belong here. And whereas this August, Charlotte Pride will also carry forward a 45-year tradition of pride events in Mecklenburg County. So now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim July 11th through 18th, 2026, as Charlotte Black Pride Week, and August 7th through 16th, 2026, as Charlotte Pride Week in Mecklenburg County, and encourage all citizens to join us in this special observance. This is the 16th day of June, 2026, signed Mark D. Jarrell, the Chair of Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. So moved. Second. All right. Thank you all so much. I know what we'd like to do first is hear from our guests. If you guys would like to say anything before we take our vote.

Sounds good. Good evening, everyone. Commissioners, and thank you. On behalf of the entire Charlotte Black Pride Board, our volunteers, and tens of thousands of people who show up for us every year, we are deeply honored to receive this proclamation from the Board of County Commissioners. 21 years ago, four people had a vision. They believed that black queer people in Charlotte deserve a space where they belonged, not just tolerated, not just included, a space built by us, for us, and unapologetically ours. And from that belief, Charlotte Black Pride was born. What started with a few groups of people has grown into a movement with tens of thousands of people a year. A movement spanning generations of Black queer people who come to our city and feel like they actually belong somewhere. So tonight, I want to recognize that desire to belong and say, you belong here. You belong in this city. You belong in the spaces that celebrate you, that care for you, and fight for you. You belong here. And that is why this year's theme for Charlotte Black Pride is Blacktivism. You belong here. We chose those words with intentionality because in this moment, when so many people are being told otherwise, we believe it is our responsibility to keep saying pridefully and loudly, you belong here. In Charlotte, in the city that we love, and in the community that we are all nurturing. We are grateful to Mecklenburg County for this recognition, and we are grateful to everyone who chooses to belong with us. And Charlotte Black Pride Week is July 11th through the 18th. We hope to all see you out there. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. On behalf of Charlotte Pride, I'm honored to stand here before you today in Mecklenburg County. We don't just see a collection of neighborhoods. We see a vibrant, resilient family. For over two decades, Charlotte Pride has led LGBTQ plus visibility across the Carolinas, but True Pride is a year-round commitment. It lives in our community programs, our advocacy work, and our safe spaces we build together every single day. We remain firmly dedicated to ensuring our liberation is intersectional. True intersectionality means locking arms with those on the front lines, That is why we are incredibly proud to stand alongside our sister organization, Charlotte Black Pride, as they celebrate their legacy of advocacy and strength. Next month, from July 11th through the 18th, Charlotte Black Pride Week will bring their powerful message of blacktivism. We belong here to life across the county. Their fight is our fight, and we honor their vital leadership.

Thank you.

This August, our community will gather by the thousands to turn Uptown Charlotte into a beacon of joy, love, and resistance. We will fill Uptown with community and culture, and we will march down Tryon Street knowing we belong here, living our lives proud out loud. Let this moment serve as a promise to our youth, for our elders, for our allies. Charlotte Pride will always stand on the front lines of equality, Thank you to Mecklenburg County for standing with us and happy pride.

Thank you so much for being here. The motion having been made and properly seconded, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. Congratulations. And if you will please come down, we'd love to take a picture with you.

And you're going to have to shake everyone's hand. So just start at that side and go.

And while they're coming down, let's make a little more love in the room. There you go.

Congratulations. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

I miss getting to see you. It's sad. Congratulations.

Looks good. Big smiles, everybody. All right.

All right. We will now turn Commissioner Yvette Townsend Ingram for the Vitiligo Awareness Month Proclamation.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. And I get the honor of presenting this proclamation. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina proclamation, whereas Villalago is an autoimmune skin disease causing loss of pigment from areas of the skin resulting in irregular white spots or patches, and whereas Villalago affects more than 2 million Americans and between .004 to 2.28% of the population worldwide and even higher in certain regions, it can appear at any age and can affect all people regardless of gender, race, and ethnicity. And whereas while the condition is not typically associated with physical pain, the psychological and social effects can be significant for many affected individuals, especially children and those with darker skin. And whereas approximately 15 to 25% of people with vitiligo are also affected by at least one other autoimmune disorder, And whereas researchers and medical professionals are working to better understand and treat vitiligo, although there is currently no known cure, treatments are available that can help with regimentation, especially if begun early and used consistently. And whereas the mission of the leaders of North Carolina Vitiligo Support Community Group and its members is to support and empower individuals with vitiligo as well as educate, advocate, and spread awareness. And whereas the North Carolina vitiligo support community and its leaders have been designated by the Global Vitiligo Foundation to host the 2026 World Vitiligo Day USA Conference from June 26th through June 28th in Charlotte, North Carolina, marking a decade of resilience, strength, and beauty. And, whereas Mecklenburg County encourages citizens to increase awareness, understanding, and support for individuals with vitiligo in communities throughout the county, now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners does hereby present or proclaim June 2026 as Villalago Awareness Month, in Mecklenburg County and encourage all citizens to join us in this special observance. This 16th day of June, 2026, signed Mark D. Jarrell, Chair of Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. So moved. Second. Second.

All right. Madam Clerk, did we have someone here to receive this? No, ma'am. Okay, great. All right, then. The motion having been made and properly seconded, all those in favor, raise your right hand. And that is unanimous. And then lastly, we will turn to Commissioner Arthur Griffin for our proclamation honoring Juneteenth Day of Observance.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Is anyone here? Respect to Juneteenth.

President of the NAACP. All right, Reverend Mack, would you like to come down?

Would you like to come down and receive it?

Yeah, let me... read it first and get it into the record. Mecklenburg County, North Carolina proclamation. Whereas on June 19, 1865, more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops arrived in Galvingston, Texas to free 250,000 people still being held in bondage, and whereas June 19th became the emancipation date of black Americans' long suffering for freedom in the United States, and whereas through works of activists like Miss Opal Lee, known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, and former state representative Al Edwards, who authored the bill that made Texas the first state to designate Juneteenth a holiday in 1980. Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17th, 2021. And whereas the celebration of Juneteenth is a recognition of the endurance, the strength, and resilience of black Americans over oppression and inequality in the United States, and whereas the tradition of celebration has remained throughout the generations as Juneteenth is honored with family gatherings, prayer, festivities, drumming, dance, inspirational speeches, art, poetry, readings, picnic, games, singing, and fellowships. And whereas for African Americans, Juneteenth is a tribute to the strength and perseverance of our ancestors and a reminder for all Americans to commit to the eradication of racism and inequity. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners does hereby proclaim June 19, 2026 as Juneteenth Day Observance in Mecklenburg County and encourage all citizens to join us in this special observance. This 16th day of June, 2026, Mark D. Jarrell, Chair, Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners. So moved. Second.

Motion having been made and properly seconded, aren't we so lucky that you're here? Would you like to offer any comments?

I'd just like to invite everyone on the dais as well as in the room to our June 19th, Juneteenth celebration at Little Rock Amy Zion Church. On June 19th at 5 o'clock, we'll have a full, free soulful meal for you. God bless you all.

I just wanna say if I can, make a couple of comments. Miss Opal Lee, born in 2026, whose home burned down in 1939, at the ripe old age of 89 in 2015, decided that Juneteenth should be a national holiday. This lady, 89 years old, walked a little over two miles each day and her efforts to advocate for this holiday because it reflected the time that it took from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to the time that information got to Galveston, Texas. I mean, that is a reflection of the grit, the endurance, the tenacity, and resilience of the African American experience. And I just wanted to say that before we actually took a vote and had Minister Mack to come down and receive the proclamation. So it's been, turn it back to you.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Griffin. The motion having been made and properly seconded. All those in favor, raise your right hand. That is unanimous. And Reverend Mack, if you'd like to come down.

Congratulations. Thank you so very much. You know how we do. All right, so you can come back this way.

Can't get rid of us that easy.

No, no, you are the center.

All right.

Back to you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.

Thank you, everyone.

Next item on the agenda is Arts and Culture Moment, the Community Connector Grant. So at this time, we'll receive a presentation on the Community Connector Grant. I'll turn it over to Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell to give us the presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today, we are taking a moment to highlight one of the Arts and Science Council's newest and most impactful investments in our region, the Community Connector Grant. This grant reflects a simple but powerful belief that the transformative power of arts, science, and history should be accessible to everyone in every neighborhood across Charlotte Mecklenburg. The Community Connector Grant supports both creative individuals and nonprofit organizations who are developing new programs or expanding existing ones that bring people together through cultural experiences. At its core, this grant is about connection. connecting residents to creative opportunities, connecting communities to one another, and removing barriers that may prevent people from participating in arts and culture. Whether it's cost, access, language, or familiarity, these grants are designed to help ensure that everyone can engage, create, and belong. Pictured here is a photograph of Community Connector Grant recipient, Charlotte Cirque and Dance Center's production of Carmina Burana. The Community Connector Grant was shaped directly by the City of Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan, which outlines a shared vision for a stronger, more inclusive cultural ecosystem. Specifically, this program advances key priorities like expanding access to arts and cultural experiences, strengthening cultural infrastructure, and fostering innovation across our creative sector. It is made possible through support from Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte, and the North Carolina Arts Council Grassroots Arts Program, all working together to ensure that high quality arts experiences reach every corner of our community. Pictured here is a photograph of Community Connector grant recipient Do Greater Charlotte and their Camp Green Community Music Program. Here are a few key details about the program. Grants provide up to $20,000 for creative individuals and $25,000 for nonprofit organizations. Projects take place between June 2026 and June 2027. And each application cycle is designed to support equitable funding distribution across the community. In this inaugural granting cycle, ASC received 133 eligible funding applications totaling $2.445615 million in requests with 71 grants being funded at a total investment of $1.1 million. While the FY26 application window is now closed, the impact of this year's cohort is already underway. This year's Community Connector grant recipients represent a powerful cross-section of Charlotte Mecklenburg, each using creativity to meet people where they are. Projects include free arts programming for youth, seniors, and caregivers, bilingual and culturally rooted experiences that reflect our diverse community, programs that integrate wellness, storytelling, and education, and initiatives designed specifically for accessible and inclusive participation, including for individuals with disabilities. Inaugural recipients of this grant include Blumenthal Arts, the Charlotte Symphony, Jazz Arts Charlotte, creatives such as Hannah Hassan, Patrice Commodore, and others. What makes the Community Connector Grant unique is its focus on removing barriers and meeting needs directly. These are not one-size-fits-all programs. They are community-driven, culturally responsive, and deeply rooted in place. Together, they are helping to build a Charlotte-Meichlenburg where creativity is not just something we experience, but something we all participate in. Pictured here is a photograph of Community Connector Grant recipient, Baran Dance. ASC is thankful to Mecklenburg County for their support and the Community Connector Grant, and we are proud to support these incredible artists and organizations who are helping strengthen our community through creativity. ASC encourages all in attendance to explore this year's Community Connector Grant recipients, share these opportunities within your networks, and continue supporting the arts as a vital part of our community's growth and well-being. So if you would like more information, you can visit artsandscience.org. And that is it. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Commissioner. Appreciate that moment. Next on the agenda is public appearance, but Madam Clerk, we don't have any speakers, correct? All right, so with that, since there are no speakers, we're going to move to appointments. First appointments that we need to take care of are Region F Aging Advisory Committee. At this time, a reappointment is needed on the Region F Aging Advisory Committee for one two-year term expiring June 30, 2028. Terry Williams is eligible for reappointment.

So moved, Mr. Chairman. Second. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, Terry Williams is reappointed. Next, nominations or appointment is needed on the Region F Advisory Committee to fill two two-year terms expiring June 30th, 2028, effective July 1st, 2026. For the delegate slot, are there any nominations?

Natasha Young.

Okay, Natasha Young-Davis has been nominated. Any other nominations, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell?

Dawn Adams-Miller.

Dawn Adams-Miller. Any other nominations?

Moved on to say two names.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second. All right, moved and seconded for Dawn Adams-Miller and Natasha Young-Davis. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next appointment is needed on the region F aging advisory board advisory committee to fill one year, one year term expiring June 30th, 2027. This will be effective July 1st, 2026. It's the alternate slot. Jeffrey Dean is eligible to move into the alternate slot. So moved, moved and seconded all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Next, we're going to move to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee. Reappointments are needed on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee for seven three-year terms expiring June 30th, 2029. Jennifer Borchardt, Mika Clark, Nina Hoyt, Karakin Johnson, Dr. Emmanuel Meggett, Dolores Reed-Smith, and Margo Young are all eligible for reappointment.

So moved. Second.

All right. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Next, the Human Resources Advisory Committee. Reappointments are needed on the Human Resources Advisory Committee for three three-year terms expiring June 30th, 2029. This will be effective July 1st, 2026. Steven Jarrett, Nahemi Owen, and William Rothenbach are all eligible for reappointment.

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next. Library Board of Trustees, before we go here, just remember this particular committee, this board requires interviews. Oh, I'm sorry. This is the reappointment. I apologize. That's the next one we're coming to. Excuse me. Yeah, all right. Yeah, I apologize.

I've heard unreadiness.

Okay.

Do we have the capacity to nominate and appoint or no? No.

Well, the policy is got to be an interview. But this is for the reappointment, so I apologize. I was a little bit ahead.

They don't have to be interviewed a second time.

So reappointments are needed on Library Board of Trustees for two four-year terms expiring June 30, 2030, effective July 1, 2026. Peggy Brookhouse and Stacey Brown are eligible for reappointment. The chair of the CRC recommends... I don't know why I say CRC, madam. Library boy.

That's error.

Error, okay. Chair of the library boy recommends Peggy Brookhouse and Stacey Brown for reappointment.

So moved.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Nominations are needed for Library Board of Trustees to fill one four-year term expiring June 30th, 2030. Chair of the Library Board recommends either Devira Robinson or Linda Spearman Scott. Commissioner Griffin. Linda Spearman Scott.

Second.

Any other nominations?

Yes. Nominate Devira Robinson.

Okay. Second. Okay. So that... Madam clerk, we will have to, uh, both, um, both of these two have been nominated. Any other nominations, any other nominations? Nope. Just those two. Yes. Mr. Dunlap.

No, no, no, no nomination, but given our schedule, um, I'm going to ask that the board consider extending the term of the current until we return to our September meeting. So moved. Second.

All right. It's been moved and seconded. So we have a motion on the floor to extend the terms until we return at the September meeting to dispose of this. All those in favor? Say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. So Madam Clerk, you got that?

Yes, sir.

All right, perfect. And then with respect, let's go back to the nominations right now. I have two people that were nominated, Davira Robinson and Linda Spearman Scott. Both of those will come to us for an interview. I'll assign a committee to take care of the interview process. Good? All right. We are going to move to public hearings. We have quite a few. There are five tonight. I believe they should be grouped. Colleagues, if they're not grouped the way that I call it, please just stay with me. It's just Ebenezer and his team have a couple, and then obviously there are three coming from Clay. So the first one is a public hearing to amend the minor system stormwater fees for the city of Charlottetown of Cornelius. Chair.

We open the public hearing for comments on the proposed amendment and the minor system components, stormwater fees for the city of Charlotte and the town of Cornelius.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Madam Clerk, there are no speakers, correct?

That is correct.

All right. Ebenezer, do you have a presentation? No. All right. Chair. Commissioner?

I move that we close the public hearing and adopt the resolution authorizing amending minor systems fees for the city of Charlotte and the town of Cornelius.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Ayes have it, Madam Clerk. All right, next we have a public hearing for flood mitigation program retrofit program policy update. We do have a presentation for this one. Let's open a public hearing first and then we'll receive the presentation. You want to give me a motion?

I offer a motion to receive information for the presentation first and then open the hearing for comments on the proposed amendment for the retrofit program policy department.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

Ebenezer, you're recognized. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner, for the opportunity to make a couple of brief comments, and then one of our stormwater team members, Dave Craning, is going to walk you through the presentation. As you know, Louisa Stormwater Division is actively involved in managing flood risk in Mecklenburg County. primarily done through the ordinances we have in place regarding new developments, and then also we do stormwater purchases of flooded properties. The third leg of that stool is what we are going to be talking about, retrofit policy, where we do provide grants for homeowners to make preemptive repairs to the properties. This particular program was created in 2015 because the state allowed the creation of the program by statute in June 2014. This is for private property owners who want to stay in their homes but yet make repairs or adjustments so that it would reduce the flood risk. So this is about a 10-year mark by which we have, under the guidance of County Manager Michael Bryant and Deputy County Manager Leslie Johnson, to re-look at all our programs with an equity lens. As you know, these grants are based on property values. As you know, for the past few years, property values have gone up. And so some of the poorer homeowners in our community are not being able to take an advantage of this program, the grants, as such. So you will hear the presentation of what we are recommending in terms of changing the matrix so that more of our poorer homeowners can also take advantage of this program with a greater cost share from the county so that we can reduce the flood risk further. So that's the desire and that's our proposal. This has been presented to both the Strongwater Advisory Committee and the Environmental Stewardship Committee. And so now it's coming before you for public hearing and potential adoption. With that, I will introduce Dave Kroening, who is the project manager that manages the retrofit program in Louisa Stormwater Services.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ebenezer. Yes, I'm here tonight to talk about the retrofit policy updates and revisions. Great. So as Ebenezer said, we consider lowering flood risk in Mecklenburg to kind of the strategy behind it as a three-pronged approach or a three-legged stool. We have an active buyout program that's been in place since 1999. We do both pre-storm and post-storm acquisitions of flood-prone properties for those properties in the floodplain. That's a completely voluntary program. Similarly, the retrofit program, which we are talking about tonight, is also a voluntary program. And as Ebenezer said, it is a grant program to provide owners of flood-prone property with funding to lower the flood risk on their homes or businesses. It's also a voluntary program. The third aspect, which is our ordinance enforcement, is nonvoluntary. And essentially, the important component of that is... our ordinance has a requirement that when a home or business is damaged beyond a certain point, the property owner must make it safe and compliant with our ordinances before they can move back in. So that part of our stormwater ordinance is required for us to be participant in the National Flood Insurance Program. So in other words, to offer federal flood insurance through FEMA, we have to have that provision in our ordinances. So the retrofit program can be used by folks that hit that obstacle, that hit, you know, to be able to fund these improvements to their property to lower their flood risk. But Together, these three things form our strategy for reducing flood risk in Mecklenburg County. Specifically, retrofit program, which is what we're talking about tonight, this grant program for folks to reduce their flood risk on their property, was enabled through a state statute back in June of 2014. That statute requires development of a policy document with approval of the Board of County Commissioners. In August 2015, that original policy document was approved by the board, and we continue to use that policy till today. In 2020, we began an internal stormwater review of the completed projects, applications, and policy, and really that review has been ongoing since then. We've looked at the program using an environmental justice and disparity lens with the anticipation of bringing policy updates for consideration by the board as part of our strategic business plan in this fiscal year. So we have prepared the revised policy document. It has been presented to the Stormwater Advisory Committee on May 21st and approved. And it has also been presented to the Environmental Stewardship Committee and approved or endorsed on June 1st, 2026. So a little bit more about what exactly retrofit is. Again, it is a grant program that provides owners of flood prone property with funding to be able to lower the flood risk on their structure, their home. And we can fund various in-place flood mitigation techniques, including demolition, elevation, like we show in the picture on the slide, as well as several other floodproofing techniques. Grant funds are paid as reimbursement after work is complete, although we are able to reimburse on a interim basis. So there can be several reimbursements throughout the course of a project. It is entirely funded by stormwater fees. So this slide is really the result of the reviews that we've done over the years. The map on the left side of the slide shows Macklemore County. and we have the areas where the greatest density of these retrofit projects have been completed. Specifically, the upper left, the Riverside, River Haven, and Lake Drive areas on the Catawba River, they were flooded in 2019, and then subsequently during Hurricane Helene, they were flooded again in 2024. And then we have the area just south of the uptown area, which is the Briar and Little Sugar Creek areas. Those two together show the greatest concentration of these retrofit projects. I'll also point out on the map those orange areas are what we call the lower income areas of the county. And the way we determine that is we use the U.S. EPA disadvantaged communities layer, which is a layer that highlights lower income or overburdened portions of our community. So we'll just call that the lower income areas for this presentation, but that is, we get that from the US EPA. The table in the middle shows there are completed projects. We've completed a total of 40 of these projects thus far since 2015. I'll draw your attention to the red boxes. We've had 172 applications that came from those low income areas, those orange areas on the map. 172 applications, but only 10 completed projects in the low-income areas. Now, even that statistic is somewhat misleading, because if we look at the last five years, there have only been two projects completed in the low-income areas. And one of those was an LLC that tore a house down and built back a duplex that they planned to rent. And the other one was a partnership project with an HGTV television show that elevated a house a partnership with the homeowner and us. And so really what I want to emphasize is over the past five years, we have not generated any projects in the low-income areas for this program. So we know we have a problem making this program available in these areas. So we made this realization. We reached out to folks working in the affordable housing space to try to learn these groups are already working in these areas. We initially went into that thinking we could form a partnership. However, partnerships are not currently viable because of capacity issues by a lot of these entities working in that space. However, they did give us a lot of feedback on what we could do to change our program to make it more implementable in the low-income areas, and specifically, They suggested to us that we increase the contribution of stormwater funds for these projects and that secondly we allow for a designated agent such as a non-profit or other private entity to act on the owner's behalf. Currently the program requires that the homeowner fill out the application, submit the application, get bids from contractors, manage the construction project and manage the money. The feedback we got from the affordable housing space is that could be a real obstacle for some people and that we should consider allowing owners, homeowners, property owners to designate someone to work on their behalf. So that was feedback. Those are the two main takeaways from those interactions that we had. We also found that the matching contributions were no longer meaningful. This policy document was written in 2015. The matching contributions are based on property value. Property values have changed significantly in this community since 2015. We've already observed that relatively few projects were implemented in the low-income areas of the county, and again, the challenge with project management. So specifically, changes to the policy. We want to be able to provide additional opportunity for property owners in the low-income areas to improve their flood safety. Folks in these areas, they pay their stormwater fees, but yet we're not able to implement these projects. So we wanted to change the policy to be able to lower flood risk for all, not dependent upon income status or property value. So what we've proposed in this policy document that we're requesting you approve tonight is increases to the stormwater matching contributions based on updated property values. We want to add the ability for property owners to designate a project manager or a designated agent, either private or nonprofit. We want to have an open application period. Originally, the program was set up to have a specific window of time that we accept applications. We just want to accept applications year-round, and we want to allow for additional mitigation options, and we've made a bunch of text changes to the document to improve clarity. Specifically, the big take-home from this recommended policy change is in the matching amount for stormwater. The table on the left is our current policy, and you can see in that table how the matching contribution that stormwater provides changes depending upon the property value. I'll just point out stormwater currently pays up to 90%, but that's only for a property where the value is up to $90,000. Well, as it turns out, there's only one of those in all of the low-income areas of the county. So really, having that category is almost useless for us. So I'll point out our proposed policy, where we have 289 eligible projects where stormwater would contribute 90% or more. So we're planning to greatly increase the cost effectiveness, especially in the low-income areas, for this program to make it more attractive and to get these flood risk reduction techniques implemented in these areas. So looking forward, if these changes are approved, we plan to educate property owners on the benefits of flood mitigation nationally. A dollar spent on mitigation saves $6 in flood losses. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We want to position the retrofit program to respond. This whole concept of if a home is damaged to a certain point, the owner is required to make it safe, bring it into compliance. We want to make sure that the program is positioned for folks in the low-income areas to be able to use this program to make those necessary repairs. And then also, unfortunately, most of our work in this arena happens after floods. So we've been very fortunate, and we haven't had truly significant flooding in these low-income areas over the past several years, but the statistics indicate that we're going to have one at some point. So we want to make sure that the program is properly positioned for that event when it does happen. We also want to ensure that we, Stormwater, are present at these affordable housing meetings. We've kind of made connections in this community They've given us great feedback. We want to consistently reinforce the awareness of the program and our floodplain regulations, as well as convince them that floodproofing homes is indeed a critical repair and that everybody deserves to be safe in their home. Lastly is outreach. We plan to get the message out in the community in a three-phase approach. We plan to start with the historic west end public meetings. We have, through GIS analysis established, we have about 75 projects that would be eligible for this increased stormwater match in the historic West End. We already have existing relationships with the Northwest Council of Elders that we've worked with through the Stewart Creek Project, and we plan to sort of bring those connections together to begin outreach up there as phase one. The lessons we learn from that process and what people want and how we roll this out We'll then plan to apply in the Hidden Valley and Briar Creek neighborhoods through public meetings. And then lastly, adaptive management, learn from those experiences, send out mailers, put out yard signs, additional public meetings where we have density of these projects. So with that, thank you for your attention. And we are asking that you approve these policy changes.

We open to any questions you may have, but I just wanted to highlight this particular slide. I think that's the main change. Previously, for a home up to $90,000, if they have a $10,000 HVAC replacement, they would have to bring $1,000 to the table. Under this new, they only have to bring $100 to the table. so you would reimburse. So, by state law, we cannot reimburse 100%. We cannot reimburse 100%, so they need to have some skin in the game, and so that's why this is modeled, putting the equity lens in place. Appreciate any questions.

Thank you. I'm sure there's questions and comments. Let me go to Commissioner Dunlap first, Griffin, Leak, Rodriguez-McDowell, YTI.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, more than once now, this board has adopted as one of its major goals eliminating racial and ethnic barriers, and I think this proposed policy goes a long way in helping us to achieve that. Two concerns. While people can get their own manager or manage the project themselves, what I've learned across the country is that oftentimes people don't have the ability or the wherewithal to be able to do even that. And so I'm hoping that we can offer assistance to those who ask for assistance to help them fill out the necessary paperwork so that they can apply for these grants. The other thing I'm asking, and I'm sure it's already been thought of is that as we take on this initiative that we use this in our scorecard so that we can keep track on the number of projects that we do because that's the only way we're going to determine whether or not this policy implements the kinds of things that we want to see. So I'll stop right there before I move to adopt the policy, but I wanted to share that.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it's excellent that you've looked back to look forward in terms of what's happened over the last five years and the potential eligibility going forward. I think it's phenomenal. My only concern, if it is a concern, is to try to make sure that because we haven't communicated in those US EPA lower income areas about a lot of things happening from a communications perspective, a lot of seniors in those areas, that we try to figure out something unique that is effective in terms of a communications program so that many more people can take advantage of this. Because oftentimes we hear, I didn't know. So let's figure out how to do things different so that we're more effective for that population that's in those areas. But other than that, I think it's phenomenal.

We will definitely leverage our partners in the PI. They are using a lot of innovative ways to get the word out, and we will leverage all our tools in the toolbox. Thank you. Commissioner Leake.

Let me first say thank you for the presentation. Kept up with all of your reports. And your addition to the general public is going to mean a lot. as to how we disseminate the information with and to the people to understand what we're trying to help them get through. And if there's some way that we can support them economically, it would be even greater. I know we don't have any taxation, but if there's some way that we can eliminate, and especially for my seniors, to be able to maintain their property as we're asking to change the process, it would mean a lot. So if you get back with me and let me know where you are and when you're meeting, I'll be glad to be there with you.

Thank you, Commissioner Wildew.

Yes, I'll be glad to be there.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the Madam Chair of the Environmental Stewardship Committee is watching today or tonight, and she wanted me to convey to the board that the entire Environmental Stewardship Committee is unanimously and enthusiastically supported this policy. And we thank you guys for their hard work in putting it all together.

Thank you. Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

Thank you also for the presentation and for the work that you do. I just want to make it clarifying. So is the program to residents reimbursable? It's all on a reimbursement nature?

Yes, Commissioner. A couple of things. This is the first voluntary program. Two, depending on the project, it's a reimbursement, but as Dave mentioned, we do an ongoing periodic reimbursement in the sense that if there's a $10,000 project, I'm just using numbers as a guide, we're going to approve up to $9,900 worth of reimbursement. So as the project progresses, we will continue to work until now with the homeowner, but if they have a project manager, we'll work with them to make sure periodic payments are made so there's not undue burden on the homeowner.

Okay, because I was going to say that... to me, in my opinion, would be a barrier. It would be a cost prohibitive for any low-income person to be able to take that on. That and just education. I agree with what Commissioner said about understanding and knowing and having the wherewithal. I know even dealing with my own property, I, you know... my insurance company dropped me and everybody in our subdivision that had the same insurance and we didn't even know why. So even educating a little bit, you know, community meetings or, you know, homeowners meetings, association meetings, things of that nature. So thank you so much for what you're doing.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Commissioner Watiad, thanks for bringing that up. I want to make sure that we're clear. So to her question, the homeowner does have to come up with,

The 1% depending on the proper that the value of the property see if you see there's a table commissioner if the home is between 250 and 300 K the county will reimburse up to 90% of the cost of the project so it's a $10,000 project that homeowner would have to pony about $1,000 we will give 9,000 but for a property less than 150 K they would only have to bring to the table $100 the county will reimburse up to 9900 because the 99% reimbursement no, so I

I get it. I think where I was going to go for just a second, I really need to think through it. I appreciate what we've done because this is certainly a change where I think we've been talking about it for a few years, trying to figure out how to provide a level of equity. I do think about people that are on fixed income. And so when you think about the proportionality of my fixed income relative to whatever my portion that I would be responsible for, could cause an adverse impact. So that's something that I think we need to solve too, because if my income is $490 or what have you, depending on what that, you know, my 1%.

Yes, Commissioner. We are also looking at opportunities to partner with not-for-profits and other agencies, you know, who can come alongside and have the owner. Part of the challenge we have is the state statute says we cannot reimburse 100%. So we will continue to work on refining that, and maybe there's a third party or not-for-profit that can step in to help that. We will continue to refine the process. Again, this is not a new policy. It is a refinement of the existing one to move us forward, and it does not mean it's going to be static. We're going to continuously learn from it, and as we begin to encounter scenarios and opportunities, we will come back with further refinements as we see appropriate.

So I think, and I respect where you're coming from, and I appreciate it, Where I'm coming from is this, is that we get the calls when there is the issue, and then we're trying to solve it on the back end. What I'm trying to do is make sure that a $2.5 billion organization is not in a position where anybody that is at low income in our community that needs help won't be able to get it because we have to go back and adjust the policy or there's not a mechanism in place at the time that they need it. So that's my challenge to the team to just make sure that if there is a barrier that we've taken care of it on the front end and not on the back end. We are committed to working through that, yes.

So if I heard him correctly, nonprofit organizations and other organizations can pay that 1% to eliminate that barrier. Also, given that, I am going to make a motion that we close the public hearing and adopt the updated retrofit program policy documents. Seconds.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to recognize that we have retired Dave Kanin in the audience. And I just wanted to recognize him for his service. He's now serving on the Stormwater Advisory Council. Yeah.

Thanks. I didn't even recognize you, David. You look so relaxed and had a great retirement.

He's only got a couple more gray hair. Thank you, commissioners. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you for the work, team. We appreciate it. All right. Next. Oh, no. We didn't carry out the vote? We did.

We did, didn't we?

We carried out the vote, right?

Yeah. We didn't do a hand raise.

We just said aye.

We said aye. That's good.

You got it? We're good. All right. All right. So these next public hearings, we're going to hear from Clay. Before we open it up, we'll get the presentation from Clay, and then we'll get a motion to open a public hearing. And this is Business Location Expansion, Averitt Express.

Good evening, Commissioners. I am honored to be here tonight to present for your consideration Business Investment Program Grant for Averitt Express. Let me give you a little bit of background here. Everett Express is founded in 1971 in Cookville, Tennessee. It's a freight transportation logistics supply chain management company with international reach in more than 100 countries. They currently have a location in Mecklenburg County at 3708 Westinghouse Boulevard. They have a 40,000 square foot facility with about 180 employees. and they bought land off Beam Road and Shopton Road for a possible expansion that would include adding regional campus with sales, safety, operations, and a training center. So, project details. This would be a $239,139,139 new taxable investment, and that's split between real property and personal property. They would hire 211 new employees at an average wage of $81,769. I will note that there are 182 jobs at risk, which is what they currently have. If they were to move this to another location, all of those jobs would disappear. So in a way, it's a 211 plus 182 because you'd be saving those jobs here. And the competition for this is York County, South Carolina. And this map is just to show you the proposed location in relation to Mecklenburg County landmarks you might know. 2130 Shopton Road, Steel Creek Subdivision, Commission District Number 2. Now, let's take a look at the project incentives that have been proposed for this. The county is offering five years at a 50%. rate for grant for about two of the of the proposed new investment two million eight hundred seventy six thousand dollars the city of Charlotte is offering five years at ninety percent because this is a larger investment so they're upping their percentage a little bit to two million eight ninety eight seven ten this is a little unique and that the state is not participating the way they normally do in projects like this because We'll talk about the wages. For what they are, the wages are good. But the state has laws that prohibit them from offering incentives to companies if the average wage of the county, if this deal is below the average wage. Of course, the average wage includes all the CEOs who are here, all the upper management who's here. This is not that type of company. But nonetheless, the state can't participate. So they are offering through the community college system $274,000 in training grants, for a total of just a little over $6 million. And when you look at the types of jobs that are being proposed, these are good jobs for people who don't necessarily have college education, file clerks, truck drivers, materials handling, which is warehousing jobs, first line supervisors, truck mechanics, these types of jobs. And you can see that in these cases, the average wage for these individual jobs is better than the average wage for that particular job in the county. So they're good jobs, and they're jobs that we need in this county. And just to reemphasize some things, we do run this through a cost-benefit model, and what this shows is that Avery Express is expected to create an additional cumulative net of $1,217,000 in sales tax revenue by the end of year five for the county. And it is also expected to, let's see, have I missed a grant here? It's expected to create an additional 71 jobs at the end of the five-year period. Not as many jobs as a spinoff as some because these are the spinoff jobs that other projects normally create since these are trucking jobs and warehousing jobs, that sort of thing. But nonetheless, Avery Express is expected to net the county $619,000 in revenue in the final year of the grant term for a cumulative net of $3,309,000 over five years. Very involved company already locally. I'm putting before you here, I may not read all of these. They offer a comprehensive list of benefits, including all your normal medical insurance, dental, vision, that sort of thing, 401ks, employee assistance. They do already utilize our workforce partners here locally extensively, including Central Piedmont and Charlotte Mecklenburg School System and Charlotte Works. They do hire justice-involved people. which is important. They also, most of these positions do not require a degree, and they support local philanthropy already through things like Humane Society, Hurricane Relief, Second Harvest, and Good Samaritan. They also have a foundation that has given more than $17 million to charities, that's not just here, but throughout their system since 1986. And there's certainly more. I would point out that one of the main things to point out here is that they are active in our school systems with Central Piedmont and with local Charlotte Mecklenburg. in things like classroom visits, offering facility tours for students, and they also have on-the-job training in things like dock-to-driver, which can lead to a commercial driver's license. So all around a very good citizen that's already here already. So tonight we're requesting the Board of County Commissions to vote and adopt a resolution to approve a five-year 50% business investment program grant to Averitt Express for not to exceed amount of $2,876,000 and authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute that contract. So that concludes my presentation.

Well, let me open a hearing for the public hearing, but let me get a motion to open a public hearing.

I offer a motion to open a public hearing to receive comments on a proposed business investment program grant for Averitt Express Incorporated. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All right. Now the hearing's open. I want to hear from chair of economic development first and commissioner Rodriguez McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the economic development committee endorsed this project unanimously. They already have a great presence here. And so this is a good company that we want to stay here and continue to grow. These jobs are jobs that allow people who do not have a college education, which is a very big point. And so there's upward mobility and great benefits. And so we really, those are things that really attract the Economic Development Committee. Also that they hire justice involved and they have a track record of supporting our nonprofit and philanthropic community. So for us, it's a win-win-win all around. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Commissioner Townsend-Ingren and Commissioner Leak.

I am very appreciative of all of the hard work of the Economic Development Committee. I'm not a member, but I often attend. And I just want us to be able to take the lead on raising the standard. I have a problem with us calling all of these jobs good jobs. Yes, the overall intent of the whole program is good. But one, I want to see with our grants that we offer tax incentives to, That they offer more that is geared towards our priority, like transportation assistance to their employees or child care subsidies, something. In addition to the salary, if they're not going to offer the one thing, then they offer a salary that is a living wage. $35,000 a year is not a living wage here in Mecklenburg County. And I'm going to vote yes. But I want to always sound the alarm that we need to be leading and that we need to be the example of a county that is going to require businesses that come here, especially because we're kind of overloaded and we've got some problems with that growth. I think that we need to be able to pay the people that live here to live here because at $35,000 a year, one income, one salary, that's not going to cut it. But again, I applaud you guys for coming up with these deals. Thank you.

Thank you. Let me go to Commissioner Leak, then Commissioner Griffin.

Let me first say thank you. Thank you to the Economic Committee for saying yes. As I look at this and I see that college degree is not necessary, but can be available through Central Piedmont Community College to help people to advance themselves even more so. When you talk about the number of jobs that they can, new people that they're going to hire, I know they're going to bring some people with them because they're already here, but they're adding 71 more people to the process. Am I right? I'm looking at you because you gave that, spoke from... Yes, ma'am. So I'm excited about this. Yes, I want people to make a living wage, but if you're not making a wage period and you're getting started, this gives you an incentive to even do more. So I'm saying to this community, thank you to this board in supporting this, making sure that we hold people accountable. That's our job to do that. You bring it to us and then we look at it and make sure that over the years as a are here and people are employed, the college is being paid to educate. They don't have to pay any money. So that's free. And dental care, insurance is free. So that in itself is salary, not just the money that you get across the board. So I hope our young people are listening to this. And our seniors. Seniors are not too old to work. We do better work than young folk. Because we last longer and we're committed. And I don't mean any harm when I say this, but there are those people who even resent the fact that we've lived a long time. So we need to get out of here, get out of the way. So I'm sick of it. You need us for intelligence and for experience. We can take these jobs. Am I right, Madam President of the NAACP? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Commissioner Griffin and Commissioner Dunlap.

And these same people talk about age, they old too up here.

I'm young, I stood up when you said young people. Anyway, I certainly support this. I'm a member of the Economic Development Committee, and I think this is a good opportunity for Mecklenburg County. I might be misreading this, clarify if I'm wrong, but the list that you put up, it's what's prevailing here, but the company's doing $57,000 a year, not $35,000 that's in that trailing piece. So the company is actually offering a higher wage by $22,000 from that minimum.

Right, there's an average wage for that position, and then what this company pays for that position, and they pay in every category a higher wage.

So they're actually paying a higher wage than what's there.

Higher.

Yeah, and so the other piece, too, is Mr. Manager, Mr. Chair, and all, what I'd like to be able to share back to the public is those programs that Clay and team had brought to us five years ago, four years ago, we come back and say, look at what this company's doing, whether it's in terms of wages, Clay, or their contributions to nonprofits in the community, et cetera, to show that they're good citizens as well as bringing jobs. So there are a lot of opportunities, and I think we need to figure out how to share back to the public at some point. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Commissioner Dunlap.

Well, Mr. Griffin did a good job summarizing my comments because I serve on that committee as well. I just think it's a great opportunity for those who may be underemployed, not have the educational background to get other jobs. It's a great opportunity for them to get started.

Thank you. And I know, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell, you had a...

I just wanted to speak to the actual chart. I think it was misread. It was. I apologize. My mistake.

No, it's all good. We're looking at a whole lot of different things. But your point is well taken overall. And so we're all driving to that same fact. If we're going to contribute public dollars, we want to make sure that the community is getting the maximum return on investment. So your point is well taken. I appreciate everyone who pointed it out. that this was an area where we exceeded that ROI for the community. So I think it's certainly a great investment. Thank you for that, Clay.

And it's going to be in the community where it's needed. The business is going to be in the community.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Mr. Chair, I'd offer a motion that we approve the resolution for the five-year 50% business investment program grant to express or not to exceed amount of $2 million, my eyes are dim, $876,000, and to authorize the County Manager to negotiate and execute the contract.

Second.

And close the public hearing.

We've already made a motion. Yes.

And close the public hearing. And close the public hearing. All right.

Second.

All right, moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All right, ayes have it, Madam Clerk, that's unanimous. All right, Clay, you're up again. This is another business location expansion, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

You said it. That's a good one. I had to practice that. Our second program grant tonight is for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Let me advance this. It's banking, securities, leasing, credit card, consumer finance. They're based in Tokyo, Japan, with offices in 22 countries. They have over 85,000 employees, 6,000 of those in North and South America. And they've got about 4,000 to 4,500 branches in the U.S. The headquarters is in New York City. They're offering to establish a second headquarters for the Americas in Charlotte, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The bank has about $2.36 trillion in assets, about the size of Wells Fargo, and the reason they're interested in this area is financial talent and long-term savings over their current location. Project details of this project are $50,536,679 in new taxable investment, 14.7 of that is in real property. The other is in business personal property. They're offering 2,000 new jobs here. They currently have an office on Morehead Street with 85 employees. So those are at risk. If they were to move to another location, those would go with them. And the average wage for these new jobs would be $165,686. And the competition for this project is Jacksonville, Florida. And as I said, looking for highly specialized financial services talent. The site that they zeroed in on is 301 South College Street. It's in the uptown area in Commission District 4. Some people know it as the jukebox building. In this case, the county has offered five years at 80% for a total amount of $790,000. The city of Charlotte, 10 years at 90% for $847,503. In this case, the state has come in with a Job Development Investment Grant, or JDIG, to the tune of $69,520,000. That is a rebate of part of the With holdings tax that is payable to the state and since this is a very large large number of jobs high-paying jobs The state has a lot more resources here to put toward the deal They've also offered four million four hundred thousand dollars in community college training for a total of seventy five million five seven five fifty seven five oh three and when we look at the project impacts here and SMBC is expected to create an additional 1,531 jobs by the end of the five-year grant term. These are jobs not with the company, but that are here because the company's here, the jobs that they will create just by being here. SMBC is expected to create an additional cumulative net of $11,600,175 in sales tax by the end of year five. And they're expected to net the county $1,072,309 in revenue in the final year of the grant term for a cumulative net of $5,170,751 over five years. So tonight we're asking for the Board of County Commission to vote to adopt a resolution to approve a five-year 80% business investment program grant to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation for a not-to-exceed amount of $790,000 and to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute the contract. The funds are not paid until the investment is complete, the property taxes have been paid, and the jobs are created and verified. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Kalei. Let me go to the Chair of Economic Development.

Don't we need to open the hearing and do all that?

I offer a motion to open the public hearing to receive comments on a proposed business investment Program grant for Sumitomo Mitsubanking Corporation.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All right. Hearing is open. Now I'll go to Chair of Economic Development Committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the Economic Development Committee endorsed this project unanimously. This is, of course, a very exciting company, and they're providing 2,000 jobs for this one project. That's amazing. This puts Mecklenburg County in a stronger position as a financial powerhouse, not just nationally but internationally. I think that when you look at this project and the last project, you can see how the economic development team is looking at jobs all across the spectrum and all across the, you know, income levels. And so we're not just focusing on one sector. We're trying to uplift everyone in different categories. So this is a company that's already in our community, and we want to create a community where companies can put down roots and stay. So I think it's also important for us to note that they're planning to move into a 30-year-old mostly vacant uptown office building. So this will help our center city by getting a great tenant for this property. I think it's really important that we remember how that impacts our economy. So with that, the committee fully endorses this. Second.

Commissioner Griffin. Yeah, I just want to add to what Commissioner Rodriguez McDowell indicated, that 30-year-old building that's sort of not well-occupied is not creating enough commercial taxes for us. It will also increase the tax base here in Mecklenburg County. But as you said earlier, I love the visual of raising the floor and the ceiling at the same time. We're raising the floor in terms of $57,000, And here's the ceiling at $165,000 for highly skilled financial jobs. And the visual that I have is that a lot of these young folk that are at TD Bank, that are other financial institutions, that feel like they want a chance to move higher to a different level. will have an opportunity to do that. They've gotten some initial training and that this is an opportunity to move to a higher level in terms of the bigger bucks in terms of salaries. But it just gives the community a range of job opportunities in living wages. And I think that makes your community not only just attractive, but also livable in terms of having the diverse economic households here in Mecklenburg County. So I wholeheartedly endorse this proposal and look forward to finding ways to get people in the pipeline through Central Piedmont and other additional training that can take advantage of some of these jobs. But I really appreciate the chair of the Economic Development Committee's comments about really raising the floor and the ceiling at the same time. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Dunlap.

Mr. Chair, I would move that we close the public hearing, approve a resolution for a five-year 80% business investment program grant to Sumitoto Mitsuo Banking Corporation for not to exceed amount of $790,000 and to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute the contract. Second.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Everyone's been heard. All those in favor say aye. Aye. It's unanimous, Madam Clerk. Clay, you've got one more here to Capital Group Companies.

Yes, sir. This was for a business investment program grant for the Capital Group. The Capital Group is the world's largest active fund manager. They were founded in 1931. They have about 9,300 associates with headquarters in LA, Los Angeles, with offices in 15 countries. They have $3 trillion of assets under management. That is not their money. That's money they're managing for others. The Capital Group offers a wide range of products, including more than 50 mutual funds that are known to many as the American Funds, as well as EFTs, electronically traded funds, separately managed accounts. collective investment trust, and high net worth investment services. In this case, what we're looking at is about a $90 million investment that would create about 600 jobs. And of course, a lot of these jobs, they're financial service jobs, but in software developers, data scientists, investment operations, business operations, marketing, corporate functions. And in this case, the average salary is just over $200,000. They also have zeroed in on the uptown area at 101 North Tryon Street where Monarch Food Hall is. Submarket is uptown. It's in Commission District 4. And in this case, the county is looking at three years at 50% for a program grant of $634,000. The city of Charlotte is at five years at a 90% grant for about $1,038,000. And the state, once again, has offered a job development investment grant because these are many jobs at a high salary. They have more payroll tax to play with. You're looking at a 12-year grant of up to $17,173,500. The community college system has offered five years of training at $1,080,000. So the total incentives offered would be $21,107,965 over 12 years. This just shows some of the different, this is just a rough breakdown of some of the jobs to give you an idea of what we're looking at. As I said, data scientists, business and financial operations, general operation managers and general managers, HR specialists, obviously. There will be administrative jobs here too. But in all cases, again, these jobs for the categories match up well or pay more than what we offer normally for this type of position locally. And there are pages of these jobs. I mean, it goes on because I can only fit so much on a slide now with some of the things we've got here. But you're looking at, again, an average total of average of about 200,000 for all 600 jobs. When we run this through the Remy model, the capital growth of companies is expected to create an additional 766 jobs by the end of the five-year grant term that are not associated with the company. They're expected to create an additional cumulative net of $6,608,000 in sales tax by the end of year five. They're expected to net the county a million dollars over the final year of the grant term for a cumulative net of $6,279,000 over five years. You can't really see this, but I just put this in here to show you of a company of this type. And this goes for the last one too. The small things that the audience probably can't see, these are more small business jobs that are created. So even though this is a very large company with big salaries, they're expected to create the need for up to 895 small business jobs in the county by the end of year five. So even these bigger companies that come in do contribute to our small business environment. in a positive way. They have a very strong record of corporate and community engagement. They're not a company that's here now, so they are coming new to the community entirely. So when we look at them, we see they also offer very good benefits to all their employees. They expect to utilize our workforce partners. They have committed to do that. They have 25 employee resource groups, which are groups within the company that employees can identify with based on specific talents or things that they associate with. The company, they offer a transportation stipend, so a TSA allowance to their employees. They also partner with Bright Horizons to offer discounted daycare to their employees. We can't make companies do this, but it's nice to see when they do. They have tuition reimbursement policies. They also offer $200 a month towards student loan repayments. and they offer on-the-job training, and they do hire based on experience, not just college degree. They also measure and support the amount of spending they do with diverse suppliers, and they've supported over 5,000 nonprofits. And for somebody who is not here tonight, I'm also pointing out that they're very environmentally conscious. And you can see in your package a lot of things that they've done to make sure that they pay attention to the impact that they're having through things like bee pollination, gas emissions, LED certifications, and that sort of thing. So tonight, we're requesting the Board of County Commissioners to vote and adopt a resolution to approve a three-year, 50% business investment program grant to the Capital Group Companies, Inc. for a not-to-exceed amount of $634,000 and authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute the contract. The funds are not paid until the investment is complete, property taxes have been paid, and the jobs are created and verified. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Clay. So let's get the public hearing open.

Mr. Chair, I offer a motion to open the public hearing to receive comments on a proposed business investment program grant to the Capital Group Companies Incorporated.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Aye. All right.

Ayes have it. There's no speakers, but let me turn to Chair of Economic Development.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, again, the Economic Development Committee unanimously endorsed this project. Clearly, this is a company that goes well beyond the expectations that we have for or the desires that we have for any of our recipients but they do I mean their salaries are I mean just when you talk about the 200k for the average salary but then they're also getting these benefits that we wish so many others would offer such as the transportation spending account as well as some child care discounting and so that's just outstanding and also the fact that they're environmentally conscious and more aware than most companies that just for me is a clincher and so I just wholeheartedly endorse this project. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Leake.

I too want to thank you for helping us to generate revenue and jobs in Mecklenburg County. And I want to say to the community to be a part of the new employees if possible, our young people, because we do have colleges here and these people Many of them have different skills that's necessary for the job that they're looking for. So I'm just so excited about it because some people think about just the basic pay, but the benefits is what really is the payoff when you get those dental, insurances, those other insurances that you have to pay. And it brings revenue into the government of the county because people are in need of support. So this is how we get revenue in the process. So thank you so much for doing what you do and your staff. Where's your staff anyway? Where are your people?

Well, they're not all here tonight. They're scattered all over the place. They sent me in by myself. They don't usually do that.

Take the good news back to them, all right, and buy them an ice cream cone this weekend. Thank you so much. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. These are in District 4. Whether they're in my district or your district or anybody, they're in the community. They're in the county. And I look at the east side of town. For 12 years, those people had no jobs, did nothing with Eastland Mall land. It was vacant. We got no money as a county for support of the people in the district. So to you, thank you. Can I call you brother? Thank you, brother. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

So you saved the best for last. I appreciate it. This is all I ask for, right? Just some kind of, but I will say this. I listen to people and I have an understanding, a better understanding of today's times because I think that some people have been out of the workforce for a while and they don't understand. The benefits aren't free. You do have to pay something towards those benefits, and then when you get those benefits, you still have to pay out of pocket, and there's still conditions to you being able to go to the doctor, being able to go to, and then by the time you do all of those things, it's dehumanizing not to have enough, and I am one who will speak out as to women, black women, who can't go to the doctor or can't go here, even though you had benefits, because you don't have the time, you can't get off from work, or you don't have the coverage that will cover everything, or there's a loophole or something. So I appreciate opportunities like this, but I do want to raise awareness that just because a job has benefits and if it doesn't pay a living wage, then there's just so many things that we as privileged to have jobs or to have, not to have have had the difficulties that some of our current generation is experiencing, I think is significant. So I appreciate you for this one, especially I just want more. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Dunlap.

Well, this is the kind of job that causes mass resignation.

Causes what?

people to resign from their jobs and go apply for this one. It might even make people who are retired to come out of retirement.

Even old age people, huh?

Mr. Chair, I will offer a motion that we close the public hearing approval resolution for a three-year 50% business investment program grant to Capital Group Companies Incorporated for not to exceed amount of $634,000 and to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute all documents.

Second.

All right. It's been moved and seconded. Great discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. And that is unanimous, Madam Clerk. All right. That takes care of all our public hearings. We're going to move to advisory committee reports. And we are thankful that we have some friends here from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee to give us their annual report. Two men from the Divine Nine, one alpha man and one great kappa man.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

We don't see the other one, we just see alpha.

Good to see you both.

And it's just good to be a live man.

Thank you, thank you. Well, good evening, Chair Jarrell, Vice Chair Altman, County Manager Bryan, the Honorable Commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity today to share with you all the great things that we've been doing with the Community Relations Committee. Many of you know me, but my name is Sam Smith, Jr., and I serve as the chair for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee. So before I start these, I always like to get us grounded in our mission at the CRC. So our mission is to empower, collaborate, engage, and promote opportunities to create positive outcomes. Our current membership on the CRC is 30. We have a 45-member bandwidth. The mayor can appoint eight members to the committee. The city council can appoint 16 members, and this body can appoint 21 members. But before I move forward, I'll be remiss. I'm the one standing here giving all the good news, but a lot of the work is done by committee members, and many of them are present here today with us. So I would like all the committee members of the CRC that are present, if you all could please stand and be recognized by our commissioners. And we have a few members who are also present virtually watching the meeting this evening. So the primary function of our committee is to provide authentic feedback on community issues, assisting the facilitation of communication between the committee, community, and elected officials. We promote community harmony, civic opportunities, respect, and understanding among all residents, and we advocate for access and opportunity across the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Our committee structure, we have three main committees that drive a lot of the work that we do. The CRC liaison representative, this specific committee, their main focus is to increase community awareness about the programs and services that you hear about from us. Terry shortly. They work with staff to address community concerns. Our public relations committee, their main focus is our CRC newsletter, and you'll hear about the stats in a second around that. Speaking in the community is an opportunity for us to go out and speak about the work that we're doing with the CRC. We also have a CRC speaker series that is internal to the committee that we do every month, and then also identify partnership opportunities in the community. And then our third subcommittee is the Community Engagement and Culture Events Subcommittee. Their primary role is the annual MLK celebrations, and you'll hear a little bit about that in a second, the Police Community Relations Awards, and also the community festivals and events. So a little bit of highlight on some of the work that has happened on our committees. The first one is our annual Charlotte Mecklenburg MLK celebration. This particular committee in CRC will lead, host, and engage activities and meaningful award programs that honor Dr. King's legacy. We also have the Police Community Relations Awards. We lead and host the annual award program honoring CMPD officers who will go above and beyond to foster meaningful connections with residents and neighborhood groups. A little bit of stats on each of these committees. So our annual Charlotte-Mecklenburg MLK celebration It's a host of seven events hosted across the community with community members participation. Last year, we had about 8,000, I'm sorry, earlier this year, we had about 8,000 plus engagement across the community around that. Our Police Community Awards Committee, Stats, so approximately about 200 guests, including elected officials, community leaders, award nominees, CMPD leadership and staff, and family and friends of the nominated officers all participated in the police award. 10 officers were presented. with an award and one youth award was also presented this year. And I'll be remiss if I don't highlight and say thank you to Commissioner Elaine Powell for providing her fair remarks on behalf of this board. And she also did come to miss a moment where she shared about her impact and engagement with police officers growing up in her community. Additional committee highlights. So we expanded visibility through participation in community events. As you can see, these are some of the events that we have participated in, and I'll highlight a few of them momentarily. Some of the ones that I want to really lift up is the Live Well Met Tour. And the reason why I want to lift that up is because last year when we were here presenting, we made a pledge to this body asking you all to please get engaged with us. Oftentimes when the community hear the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, all they hear is Charlotte. They don't hear the Mecklenburg County part. So last year while we were here, we asked you all to please get involved and get engaged with us. And when Terry and I walked out of here, Dr. Kimberly Scott, walked up to us and said that she do want to partner with this committee, and through that was able to do the Live Well Tour with the health department and the CRC. So a little bit about the Live Well Tour. So in partnership, the CRC and the CRD, so the CRC is the committee, The CRD is the department. We presented at four of the seven tour stops in Matthews, Huntersville, Menhill, and Charlotte. So we share a little bit of work that the CRC is doing. The CRD shared a little bit of work that they are doing with the community, really just to bring a lot of awareness to that. The faith and safety conversation provided an opportunity to engage with 75 faith leaders. We constantly engage with these leaders when things are happening in our community and how we can move things forward. And then tomorrow, we have an event. So the CRC is co-sponsoring a film screening and community conversation in partnership with the Charlotte Leadership Collaborative. The film is called Join or Die. It explored the decline of civic engagement and the urgent need for stronger community participation and connection. So we'll be doing that tomorrow with the Charlotte Leadership Collaborative. We also expanded our reach through collaboration and communication. So again, I spoke about the speaker series. This is where we bring in members from the community in our monthly meeting to give updates or to share things that they are doing and how we could partner with them on these. And we also have our newsletter that we distribute to over 3,500 plus subscribers. And these are individuals who are in the community. Community stakeholders and we promote our events. We offer opportunity to network and also engage with the broader community So good evening commissioners, mr.

Chair I wanted to kind of my name is Terry Bradley and I'm serving as the interim community relations director And I wanted to kind of give some highlight. Our office actually serves as the administrative support for the committee. And you saw a good piece of the work that they're doing. And some other things that we do is around the core functions around four things I want to mention or lift up. And that's with the Americans with Disabilities Act, community affairs, our fair housing program, and our dispute settlement program. Our ADA program, American with Disabilities Act, is one of those programs that are ensuring that everyone with a disability has access to our programs, services, and any activities that the city of Charlotte is providing. That's through our facilities. through our websites, through our sidewalks, anything that we have ownership of, we want to make sure that they have access to using those services. And we do that by just working with all of the different departments to ensure that they're maintaining federal compliance around those areas. Right now, we're ensuring that all of our digital platforms right now are being compliant. As you might be aware, this month, It is mandatory that all of the city or municipality websites, digital platforms, have to be ADA compliant. And we've worked to ensure that that happens at this point. There's a potential opportunity that they might extend that out to a year, but we're trying to meet that deadline by this month. We also extend our services to work with our county partners to ensure that they have any support that they need around those areas. We've provided six luncheons, lunch and learns over the year to talk about ways of ensuring that the support staff are aware of these things that they need to do to bring compliance into place, and also that they have the necessary resources and education around what needs to be made compliant over the years. We also look at the physical barriers that are in place, what ways that we need to do to address and remove those barriers. So, primarily in terms of just all of the work that we do, we're looking at how do we remove barriers to ensure people have access. Our community affairs is our staple program as well. It's to ensure that we have education, outreach, and civic engagement with making sure that the community is aware of all of the services that might be provided for them. and also ensuring that there's an opportunity to share those concerns that the citizens might have and a way to address them in a meaningful dialogue. We're also looking at different ways of having engagement around different issues around the community as well. Next. Our dispute settlement program is a program that address conflict within our community. We have a dispute settlement program that has the opportunity to educate or train on conflict resolution. Also getting, ensure that we have mediators. Right now we have a pool of about 75 mediators that are trained in volunteering their time an opportunity to address concerns that might elevate to going through the court system. That kind of reduces the tensions that are in court because people have opportunities to talk thoroughly about what their issues and concerns are. We've had about 925 referrals over this year. And then cases that have been mediated, a little bit over 800 of those cases that have been addressed. We've had the opportunity to collect over 30,000 in restitution. So this work is not being the simplest work because it takes time for people to have meaningful dialogue. And when we have meaningful dialogue, it takes time. Time to talk about what happened, how it made you feel, and what would you like to do to make your situation whole, where you don't have that typically in the court systems. And then last but not least is our fair housing program. Our fair housing program is one that's actually kind of has opened up 24 inquiries for investigation and has closed about 18. The monetary relief received for complainants during that time has totaled about $6,687. Most complaints were race and disability related. Again, fair housing is one of those where we have the opportunity to ensure that people have equitable access to homes. Sometimes they really don't know their rights have been violated until they come to our office and we can sit down and ask them questions about what they've experienced and try to give them some redress. We also have a non-discrimination ordinance program. We opened with seven inquiries for investigation and closed about five. The total dollars received through conciliation is about $6,950. Most complaints were based on disability through our non-discrimination ordinance. And we also have five sources of income inquiries but none meeting elements of jurisdiction for investigation at this time. So with that, turn it back over to our chair.

So just very quickly on our outlook, about three years ago when I was appointed in this role, we created a strategic plan that will kind of help set a tone and a direction for where the CRC is going. Not going to go over year one and two because the last two years I've presented where we are and we have attained or accomplished all of those things in year one and two. So I want to talk a little bit about year three of the strategic plan. So this is really the end of that. I'm happy to say that we have been able to retain 100% membership and engagement. So we have kept our membership threshold to about 30. What we realized was 45 was way too large, and we were having a lot of dysfunction on the committee. But at 30, we've been able to have a steady flow, and everyone is very, very engaged. So I'm really proud to lift that up. We've also had... the opportunity to build a strong leadership team as we think about succession planning and also leadership transition. I'm happy to say or happy to be in partnership with my vice chair, Mr. Dr. Emmanuel Maggot, who is up there. He was appointed to his role last year, so we are working in partnership together to see the mission of the CRC and also the leadership of all of our subcommittees that are doing phenomenal work in keeping our subcommittees engaged in the work that we are doing. So we want to continue this progress. In September, we're going to have our retreat. At that retreat, we're going to develop a new three-year strategic plan that will help carry us to the next phase. and we'll be presenting that to you all in our next opportunity to get a camera from this body.

Thank you.

So where do we need help and support? So one of the things that I have been advocating for and I will continue to advocate for is that this body, including the city, help us to change the ordinance to get our membership threshold to 30. Right now it's 45. This is where we are supposed to be. But to change it to 30. 45 is a very huge committee. We are the largest committee in the board and commission system. so sometimes it's hard to get work done because a lot of um ideas that come to the table um at 30 we're able to manage a little bit more uh we also want to strongly engage the county uh commissioners to continue to partner with us um earlier i shared about the work um that dr scott and livewell and keon lewis and our team did with the livewell tour we would like to see more of that we So if there are opportunities to partner with this body, please, please, please reach out to us. We want to do that. We want people to know that this committee is not just a Charlotte committee, but it's a Mecklenburg County committee. And then the rest of it, again, continuing to increase participation in various events across the community and increasing our visibility and initiative that we're doing with this committee. With that, we'll take questions.

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for the report. Let me start to my right with Commissioner Townsend Ingram, then go to Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Well, first I just want to say welcome, and it's so good to see both Mr. Sam and my birthday twin, Terry Bradley. I did serve for one term on the Community Relations Committee and it was really exciting and I enjoyed it and I really, really appreciate all of the improvements that have been made. I concur with you with reducing the membership to 30. Actually, I would even venture to say lower and I would like to see a, instead of an attendance requirement, as all of ours have, and a participation requirement, because I think that that would even weed out more people and get more, because usually, you know, 20% of the people do 80% of the work, and that's, and you guys do a lot of stuff, especially with the the dispute settlement program, which is excellent, the ADA program you guys lead and have won awards, and I appreciate that. So I think that you're doing an excellent job. suggest, though, that you reach out to the Board of County Commissioners specifically if there's a thing that you guys are doing that aligns with our priorities, that you reach out to commissioners instead of waiting for us to come, because we kind of got a lot going on. So if you could reach out to us, because I would appreciate knowing when you guys have something so that I can participate and be involved. But otherwise, great job. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell and Commissioner Dunlap.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I just wanted to say thank you to all the members, those who are here and those who are watching. This is tremendous community work. And I mean, I just look at all the things that you guys are doing. This is like really, really nuts and bolts stuff that I think is just so, so important. So I want to say thank you to all of you for this hard work. I noticed that the makeup of the committee is like eight from the mayor, 16 from the city, 21 from the county. Do you guys have a recommendation, or who determines that breakdown? Because I concur that if they think it's best to reduce the number, put it in the bylaws, and get it officially changed. So I guess we need to figure out what's the method for doing that, because I support that. I just wanted to thank you for your leadership, and I know that there's been some big changes. I also want to thank you for sending your agendas. I've been getting those emails, and I appreciate that. And I just want to say well done. Thank you.

Commissioner Dunlap and Commissioner Leak.

Susan must have been reading my book. I too want to thank the committee. It's been a lot of changes, Sam, since you've taken over the leadership, and I certainly appreciate the way you've shaped the board. I had the same concern as it relates to the number, and I'm sure there will be some negotiation in terms of those numbers. I agree that the 45 is too big, and 30, we just have to, between the two boards, agree on the numbers. And again, you can get this information by simply getting on the mailing list.

Commissioner Leake.

Let me first say thank you, thank you, thank you. We've followed that group for years, over the years, your previous leading person who retired after 30-some years or more. And we're just grateful. And as I looked at your presentation of your report, it's excellent. Not a whole lot of reading, nice pictures, and everybody's smiling in all of these pictures. So they must be pleased with what's going on. took a note that I did see some seniors in here and not all young people. So you need a cross-section, and I don't mean that to be negative, but I'm saying it because I've gotten so much grief about old people need to go home and sit down. So I want to say to you, your organization has been very powerful for Mecklenburg County. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up. And I wish that other organizations that would represent us and come to us had a complete report as you have for us, your recommendations, what you want to change, what you've done, your successes and non-successes. Keep up the good work. And thank you so much for being here tonight. And I wish you could have come earlier and that place was packed to hear your report. Save it, give it out into churches, in the community, so people can see what you're doing. Spread the good news. People like to spread the bad news, but spread the good news. Thank you so much for your participation.

Thank you.

Commissioner Griffin. First of all, Mr. Smith, just to say thank you. I've been here with some of your reports when the ship wasn't quite as steady. But under your leadership and your team that you put together, you've moved from what they call storming to norming to performing. And what you've articulated tonight is your efforts for continuous improvement. and effectiveness as an organization. And I want to say hats off to you, the leadership team, your entire board and staff for getting to this point. So I don't want it to get past any of us to not be able to recognize the hard work that you and team have put together and the successes before us. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

I just want to say storming to norming to performing. I like that, Commissioner Griffin. Thank you, and congratulations.

Well, team, I just want to double down on what everyone's saying. You guys have done an amazing job. Thank you to all the committee members that are represented here, those that are listening. We sincerely appreciate your work. Sam, you as a leader have done a tremendous job. You're an outstanding young leader in this community. and we appreciate you. Terry, what you've done and what you do, the way you include us in all of the communication, whatever the event, the activity, you go out of your way to ensure that there's representation from the city and the county, and it's not lost on us at all. There's a real intentionality behind it, and we definitely appreciate it, the synergy between you two. Excellent. Excellent. And the takeaway, certainly, to double down on what others have said, Mr. Manager, we could go back and figure out how we could do that. 45 just is a ridiculous number for any individual to try to manage that. So we need to solve to that. To Commissioner Dunlap's point, we can figure out what the numbers as far as appointments are. But whatever we need to do to make your job easier and to make you successful, we want to be able to do that. But certainly want to just say thank you for what you guys have done, are doing, and will continue to do in the future. Thank you. You can give them a round of applause. All right. Thank you so much. Now it's my pleasure to turn it over to the manager for his report.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are two items under my manager's report this evening. For the first item, I'm asking that you receive as information an update on the progress of the Marshall Park Development Memorial Project. I'm gonna ask that Dr. Leslie Johnson make her way to the podium to tee this presentation up. Just as a little background information, the Stan Greenspun Holocaust Education Center at Queens University of Charlotte, in partnership with NAACP of Charlotte Mecklenburg Branch, the Charlotte Black Jewish Alliance, and Queens University of Charlotte, propose to honor the resilience of humanity through engagement with two iconic memorials in Marshall Park. The existing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial statue and a new Holocaust memorial sculpture. The project referred to as the Circle of Humanity, Monuments for Unity and Remembrance will weave together the stories of the Holocaust and the civil rights movement to promote understanding, tolerance, and a shared commitment to building a future where all people are treated with dignity and respect. I had the privilege of receiving an update from this group last week. I was extremely impressed with the work that they have done to date, and I'm excited for them to share with you their information and their presentation. Dr. Johnson.

Good evening, commissioners, and thank you, County Manager Bryant. Almost a year ago, It was on June 17th, 2025, you, the Board of County Commissioners, authorized the County Manager to negotiate and execute a memorandum of understanding, as County Manager Bryant noted, with the Stan Greensbourne Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center at Queens University of Charlotte, and to recognize and receive the donation of a new Holocaust memorial and other site improvements at Marshall Park. Join with me tonight are Reverend Corinne Mack and Rabbi Judy Schindler, who will provide an update on this project as already referenced, The Circle of Humanity, Monuments for Unity and Remembrance. The proposed improvements will happen at Marshall Park and the site as noted will include a Holocaust Memorial sculpture, gathering spaces between the new sculpture and the Martin Luther King sculpture or statue and a Holocaust Memorial statue as well as seating area and informational kiosk. These improvements will take place in or within the 2.5 acres that are part of the development plans associated with Marshall Park. Now, before we shift to me giving the clicker to Reverend Beck and Rabbi Schindler, I'm compelled to note that it has been over six decades since Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his iconic I Have a Dream speech. yet they're still relevant today. And possibly by intertwining history and culture, we can build bridges together. With that, I'm gonna pass the mic over to Reverend Mack and then Reverend Schindler, and they will also introduce others that are with us tonight.

Thank you. Good evening, County Manager Bryant, Chairman Jarrell, Vice-Chair Altman, and all of our esteemed county commissioners, thank you for this opportunity to come before you. I am Reverend Corinne Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP. And this presentation is the Circles for Humanity, Monuments for Unity and Remembrance. As you can see on the picture, There is a memorial for the Holocaust, which is very small, and quite frankly, it's covered with weeds at this time, as well as the monument for Dr. Martin Luther King. Our partners are Queens University of Charlotte, the Stan Ringspawn Holocaust Education Center, NACP Charlotte Mecklenburg branch, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, as well as the Charlotte Black and Jewish Alliance. This is about a shared history. We normally have a 20-minute video, but tonight we cut it down to 90 seconds, so bear with us. Please turn your time and your thoughts and process to this 90-second video because we believe the truth matters.

There's an African proverb that says if the lions don't tell their stories, the hunters will get all the credit.

I'm telling you the story now because you're young lions and lionesses.

My great-grandfather had been in slavery, and it goes across generations. You just don't get rid of it simply because there are no chains on you.

The effects of slavery are still very prominent, just as the effects of the Holocaust are still very prominent amongst our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community. The Jewish people have the DNA in their soul to look up close to what happened to African Americans after slavery.

We came to the South, young Jews, rabbis, many of them refugees from Nazi Germany. We hear Dr. King quoting the prophets. That was extraordinary. It made us proud.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, the future of America will depend on how it responds to Dr. King.

It was the work that Dr. King had spoken for, you know, fairness, equality against anti-Semitism and support of freedom for Soviet Jews.

A large Jewish presence in the civil rights movement was evident almost from the beginning.

Well, Stan Levinson and Harry Wagtail, the lawyers who were working with Dr. King, they were advisors, marchers, fundraisers. They were in the thick of things.

Our history and purpose and vision is a place to reflect, a place to educate, a place to celebrate civil rights gains because of this collaboration. Again, the memorial is sitting there. It was actually erected in 1979. And then the MLK was erected in 1980. All those years have gone by. And unfortunately, most of us don't know anything about either one of these communities. Imagine the power of the collaboration of the two. We've heard about our esteemed county commissioners giving the county managers the opportunity to execute the MOU, and we are grateful for that. We held 12 community feedback sessions, and I tell you, each one was more powerful than the next. Approximately 850 attendees overwhelmingly favorable feedback. And 103 took the time to complete a quite long survey. There were some community concerns brought to our attention, a very small group. We've had direct dialogue with those individuals, as well as giving them the opportunity to come to these feedbacks. And after they understood the real vision, they too came aboard. And now I bring you Rabbi Judy Schindler.

We really want to get to our sculptors who came in and announced them to the community. They came down from Durham. We'll get them some good dinner after this meeting. But here are some key takeaways from those 12 community feedback sessions. There was broad and enthusiastic community support for the initiative. The community favored a representational sculpture rather than the other finalist which was an abstract sculpture and there were by a significant majority Participants favored the sculpture concept called in transit the weight of absence created by these amazing North Carolina artists the concept that was created by Stephen Hayes and David Wilson whom you will shortly meet and It's important to note that there were a small number of thoughtful concerns in the feedback sessions, but it was not opposition. There were some thoughtful concerns about how we bring these two histories together. People asked that we ensure that we have historical accuracy, accessibility, and a clear explanation of both distinct histories and the connection between them. We've taken those recommendations seriously and incorporated them into our planning. We pulled together an urban design selection committee. Many of them are here. Several of them have direct linkage history with the Brooklyn Village, the historic Brooklyn neighborhood where these memorials will stand. The winner of the design selection, we had an RFP, it was called Woven Histories, and it was a collaboration that came together, the Urban Design Partners and Groundwork Studio. And this is the aerial vision that you can see they've created. We seek to create an educational corridor linking the MLK Memorial Statue and the Holocaust Memorial through interactive educational experiences and gathering spaces. There are many features, but you can see these are just samples. They'll be benches with stone books reflecting the civil rights history, the Holocaust history, and that shared history, those woven histories. The second, the middle top one, is the plaid dress. That plaid stone will reflect the dress that Dorothy Counts Scoggins wore when she courageously integrated an all-white Charlotte High School. We had an art selection committee that came together. These are leaders. from Charlotte Museum, Charlotte institutions, and the arts community. 57 artists submitted applications to create our sculpture. Eight finalists advanced. Ultimately, two developed full design concepts. And we are excited to bring these memorials to life. Education was a supremely high priority for those in the community feedback sessions. They want to make sure that we have interactive learning experiences, a digital learning hub, We envision bringing together many of our esteemed organizations in Charlotte to help craft that. The budget, we seek to be responsible stewards of our resources. Funds will come from private individuals, foundations, and corporations. Most project dollars will be invested locally supporting our city and state. And we seek to have a $100,000 endowment to ensure that we can maintain the monuments and have educational opportunities. We hope to complete this, here's a projected timeline, we hope to complete this within one to two years. And last, it's my great honor to introduce the exceptional artist selected to create Charlotte's new Holocaust Memorial sculpture, and as part of our circle of humanity, Durham-based Stephen Hayes and David Wilson.

Good evening. Okay. Good evening. Commissioners, Mr. Chair, we always like to open up by giving thanks and praises to the Lord for this opportunity to even be here this evening for our creative talent as well. Stephen Hayes and I... my partner in creativity. As Rabbi Judy mentioned, we're right up the road, two hours away in Durham, North Carolina. And even though we're a couple hours away, we find ourselves still feeling like Charlotte residents, community members. Our work and our creative footprint and community engagement footprint stretches back over 10 years in the Charlotte community, Charlotte Mecklenburg community overall. from the Gantt Center uptown to Beatty Sport Road to Stewart Creek Park. You can see our public artworks. Maybe even in residential private collections, you can see some of our fine art. So we by no means feel foreign to Charlotte Mecklenburg, and we're very grateful for this opportunity to once again hopefully create public art that is meaningful and authentic. So with the in transit weight of absence concept that you see on the screen above you, as artists we conceived this design for this memorial as a place of remembrance, reflection, and human connection. Rather than creating a deportation rail car physically as a memorial or a monument, We sought to distill its emotional reality into a sculptural form that speaks to loss, separation, uncertainty, and the enduring human desire for dignity. Through the memorial's two faces, because there will be one side that you see in front of you up on the screen now, and then there will be a reverse side, We hope visitors encounter both the tragedy of the Holocaust and the universal experiences that connect us all, family, resilience, compassion, memory, and the value of every human life. The reverse face invites quiet contemplation and affirms our shared responsibility to remember. We envision this memorial overall as a companion to the nearby MLK monument, creating a broader dialogue about injustice, courage, and the consequences of hatred. While each work reflects a distinct history, together they speak to our common humanity and the responsibility we all share to build a more just and compassionate future. Thank you for this opportunity.

You want to say something?

for the opportunity. My partner's a man of few words, so.

Well, again, we are pleased to be able to provide this update. Of course, we'll allow the opportunity for any questions that you may have. Just as you want to know what are the next steps, as I noted early on, a year ago, a year to a day, you authorized the county manager to negotiate an MOU. We did not execute that. We wanted to at least get community feedback. We wanted to get a host of other things before we proceeded with the next steps. So of course, again, as County Manager Bryant noted, today you are to receive this as information. If you have any questions of the team, they'll gladly respond to you. The next steps as noted would be one for us to work on. We've worked behind the scenes on a memorandum of understanding, but we opted not to execute it because we wanted to make sure that We got support of the community before we even attempted to advance it forward. And then the next thing, they're going to be working really hard to start raising the funds. You notice that they said it was philanthropic, private, individual. No county dollars are being asked at this time. And then, of course, they want to be able to announce the artist to the community at large because they had an aggressive or competitive selection process and they wanted to await before making that grand announcement before they had the opportunity to share it with you as a board. So with that, if you have any questions, I'll allow them to respond to you accordingly.

Thank you. Uh, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for the work. I'm going to start with, uh, uh, commissioner Alderman.

Thank you. Um, wow. I just have to get it out there on a personal note how deeply moving this is. My great grandparents and many of their children, not my grandfather, but other of theirs, and their spouses and children were all murdered in the Holocaust. And I've been to Auschwitz, and this image here is very accurate. But putting the personal aside, what really strikes me about this moment is the Holocaust represents one of history's most grotesque genocides. And the legacy of slavery in America is our original sin in this country. And you invoke praising God. One of the beautiful things about our shared tradition, I mean, some people are of different traditions and some don't have one, and I respect that too, but the one we're speaking about here is that contained in the Torah, contained in the Old Testament, was the innovation that we're all made in God's image. And every human being, rich or poor, stranger or neighbor, deserves that fundamental respect as someone who is made in the image of God. And so this shared partnership for me is a reminder across histories, one of history's worst genocides and the worst legacy of what America has done wrong and brought it together to find the commonality which was a failed obligation to recognize the humanity of others and to fight for it. And somewhere in your presentation were the words, their fight is our fight. And that is the legacy of the Jewish community and for everyone who wants to be a good ally to our neighbors. I say that as a Jew, but it's for everybody. to bring the fight for everybody. That's what we need to learn, and that's what I think this project is going to help us do, and to bring together different groups in a time when we do have so much division. I do have one question. I love what I see in terms of the memorial around the Holocaust, but where is the part around Dr. King? Is that image here, or are we using the one that we currently have?

In terms of the MLK? Yes. We're having conversations around that now. I'm sure you've heard the same complaints that we've heard in reference to the memorial right now and whether it looks like him or not. And so we did have a discussion with the artists about trying to see how we can fix that problem. We plan on raising money for that as well, just so that you're aware we are already in that conversation and decided that we need to raise money to do something different with that as well, with the approval, of course, of the county commissioners. But I want to remind everyone, if I may.

It's already in our budget.

I want to remind everyone, if I may, that this will be the first ever, not only in the country, but in the world. We will be the first to do something like this. And this is a teachable moment.

Thank you. Commissioner Leak.

I'm so full I can hardly speak for the remembrance of the experiences I have had through a segregated community, school where we lived, where we could buy and not buy, where we could try on and not try on. No policeman downtown on the square in Charlotte. So I'm so full, but I'm grateful that our manager and the people with him have come to the realization that there were contributions made. My husband was a freedom rider on the bus that burned. We marched to keep this city from building the education center. We marched in Buffalo. So I have a great legacy. I remember a lot of things. And I still carry the burden on my back as being a black woman struggling. Today is the anniversary of the death of my husband. Today. And I mentioned it to someone and tried not to cry. but I couldn't help but think about it. Lost my son at 93 to AIDS. My husband was killed in a car wreck on South Boulevard. But what has worried me more is some of my own people who have rejected me and not tried to work with me or support the community. So whatever I can do to help, I'm going to do it. Number two, I always speak truth, and people don't want to hear the truth. I served on the school board, and all I've tried to do as a teacher was to elevate my children and give them the best that I could give them and hold those who are responsible accountable. to be accountable to do what they had to do. And I've been a lifelong member of the NAACP all of my life. I remember meeting Martin Luther King. I remember when he was at a church meeting and stopped by, just to stop by that church, not to be a part of the meeting, but he was elected because he was not a part of the group. So I have a long history. And I'm not ashamed of my age, of the service that I've delivered and given in this community. We'll continue to do it. So thank you for the opportunity to say something. But whatever I can do to help, I'm here to help with you and not criticize you, but to help you. God bless you and thank you. And to the manager, thank you. Can't say it enough for a young man. I'm sorry, but I have a long story to tell about some people and some places and some incidents and some events. I haven't forgotten them, and I do not have Alzheimer's. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Griffith.

First of all, thank you for your presentation. I was just trying to reflect. I don't know how many people up here probably remember Harry Golan, but I do.

Oh yes, I do too. And we're going to tell those stories.

This is home for me. So I don't know if y'all remember, Jewel Suite was on the corner of 7th and McDowell Street. So the interaction, the intersection of African Americans and the Jewish community has been a part of me growing up here in Charlotte. So I just want to say just the concept is just phenomenal. And kind of leaned over to my chair and kind of say, okay, now what's the Marshall Park master plan again? Help me with that broader picture. And I guess the manager at some point, a month, two, three, a year, whatever it is, will kind of build that out. But I want you to visualize what I'm visualizing sitting here. In 2028, Second Ward High School will reopen after being closed for 59 years. And to have 2,000 kids a block away to experience a circle of humanity will last for many lifetimes. And I'm just trying to visualize that. I don't know where we are with everything, Mr. Manager, but there is a phenomenal potential if those things can occur in that space so that these youngsters will be thinking about a school that sat on that same land from 1923 to the time this community bulldozed it, but to reflect on that journey with that circle of humanity is really, really phenomenal. And hopefully that school will see images of Martin Luther King at our graduation in 1963 when he came to Charlotte. So there's phenomenal potential. I don't know the mechanics, but at some point somebody will share and enlighten me on the mechanics. The potential is just phenomenal, and I can just visualize that today, and then talk about personal experiences with Sarah Schreibman and my kids. When my kids were, I don't even know if they were, no, they were at Central Piedmont, because that's where we first met them, in daycare. It's when they built the J in the early years. I don't know if you even know that now. My grown, grown kids now would go to the J with the Schreibman family to enjoy that facility when it was brand new. So there's just a lot of emotions and just visions right now. And thank you for your presentation. And I'll get with the... the team over there to kind of figure out what does the Marshall Plan, Master Plan look like or can look like in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDonough.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You guys, this is really special. I'm so glad that the artists are here. It's so cool to see you guys in person. But I wanted to just make sure I understand. On slide 12, it looks like some of the pictures are renderings. and some look like photographs. So if you just help me out, I'm trying to understand. So yeah, the ones, the pictures like on the left look like they're actual photographs.

They're just concepts, right, from other, you know, the urban designer said, oh, we would like benches with books. Oh, okay. Yeah, so they're just concepts. Once we have the MOU, right, we will finalize the plans. Okay. Then we'll go fundraise, right, and then we'll sign contracts and get moving. Okay. Yeah, so these are just sort of like, components. They saw this and they're like, oh, that would be great to have a pathway that looks just like the dress that Dorothy...

So this is pulling all of these pieces together. Yes. And I just really love what Commissioner Griffin said about the juxtaposition with the high school and all that. That's really awesome. But thank you for explaining that. I just wasn't quite getting what was real and what was... We had 10 minutes so I was racing. No, thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. And thanks again to the artists for for their work, that's going to be amazing. So, thank you.

There will be a place to honor the memories of civil rights heroes. People can say, and Holocaust survivors, or to say, I'm in for this concept of unity and remembrance. So there'll be lots of, and we want to tell the stories of Harry Golden, our own civil rights and black Jewish relations stories that are so critical.

Awesome.

Thank you. Commissioner Townsend-Engle.

I want to say thank you, Reverend Mack and Rabbi Judy. for the presentation and especially for what Reverend Mack said that this is something that has not been done and that we will be an example because that's exactly what I was thinking. I cannot understand for the life of me why we compete for the popularity of the pain that we've gone through. We compete for it. Even in some instances between generations, we compete because we're afraid we'll lose our place. if you know that you've been solidified in history, it'll be there, but we have these monuments and we have these things and we will remember, and we do still need you, but you do still need to teach other generations. They need to learn from you. And if you are stingy with that, and if you hold onto that in the positions, then when you're gone, that's it. Who else do we have? So I think that that's a valuable lesson, so I appreciate you. I really love the artwork, appreciate the artists being here, and I just applaud you for being the example, again, I think that our community needs to be, especially in this current political environment. Thank you for taking the leadership on that.

Thank you.

Commissioner Dunlap.

Well, I'm going to yield most of my time to those who had more to say. But I thank you, too, for the work that you've done. But I also applaud you for being able to look outside the community to find the right person for this task. I support our local artists, but there are times when you have to look broader than your local community. And so I applaud you for having the guts to do that, to bring back a project, a memorial, a dedication that will be fitting for this community. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. So a couple just thoughts and comments. Appreciate the work and the vision and craftsmanship and just overall artistry. As someone who has no artistic bone in his body, I just always admire that. But I do want to say to our amazing community leaders that when I think about this project, I think about it in terms of beyond art. I think what it represents, particularly in a time of so much division and just strife and right is wrong and wrong is right and up is down and down is up. I think it's amazing for two leaders and I think there's a story in and of itself with two leaders coming together from Two different cultures, but the same community of humanity. That came together in a time, if you think about the backdrop of what we've experienced over the last couple of years, and it would have been easy for two leaders to move apart, as opposed to standing strong to come together and bringing communities together. I think it's actually a phenomenal story in and of itself that I hope you guys will think about sharing in a different way as we move forward from here. But I say all that to say just thank you for your leadership, because this took true leadership, leadership beyond just raising money. but engaging in some very difficult conversations and standing in the gap and taking whatever darts and arrows were coming with respect to criticism. And so we're just grateful and we're thankful tonight for that level of leadership and certainly look forward to taking this to the next phase.

Thank you. Leslie Johnson has been phenomenal every step of the way, and the committee up here, and all of you, so Leslie.

Thank you for pointing out Dr. Johnson. We know how much of a superstar she is, but I'm glad you were able to lift her up like that, so thank you.

Thank you. Definitely. Clark has nothing on her.

We can't wait to all dedicate it one day. We will celebrate together.

Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you, you all. Thank you all.

Thank you for that great update and your leadership. For the second and final item under my manager's report, I am not seeking action. This is for you all to receive as information and update pertaining to a proposed amendment to legislation, draft legislation, from the North Carolina General Assembly governing the Interstate 77 South Express Project. Lissette Nimmins, our Intergovernmental Affairs Manager, is gonna present that item to you. Mr. Chair, please recognize Ms. Nimmins.

Lissette, you are recognized, thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Chairman Jarrell, Vice Chair Altman, Commissioners, County Manager Bryant, and staff. This evening I will provide an overview of a proposed legislative amendment governing a planning organization's removal of a project from its transportation plan. To offer a background and context, as you may recall, on January 21st of this year, the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning Organization also referred to as CARPO, voted 14 to 7 in favor of supporting the implementation of the I-77 South Express Toll Lane project. After a majority vote on May 20th of this year, CARPO subsequently rescinded its support for the project. The proposed amendment provides that if a metropolitan planning organization or rural planning organization takes unilateral action to remove a project or prevents delivery or funding of a project from its metropolitan transportation improvement program or comprehensive transportation plan, after commencement of pre-development activities, any local government that voted in favor of removal is responsible for reimbursing the Department of Transportation for costs incurred. So I will first walk through some specifics of the amendment, starting with a few definitions. As you can see, these definitions are effective retroactive to January 1st of this year. Unilateral action is defined as removal of a project by an MPO or RPO that is not required by federal law, court order, or by written direction from the Department of Transportation. The department will determine what constitutes unilateral action and provide written notice specifying the amount to be reimbursed. A project is defined as one that is selected, programmed, or authorized pursuant to state statute and is included in the State Transportation Improvement Program, also known as the STIP. Last, you'll see the local government is defined as a municipality or a county. Next, I will walk you through specific cost specifications. The costs incurred include preliminary engineering, environmental studies, consultant fees, labor and expenditures prior to removal of the project. We do know that the approximate costs incurred for this project total $60 million. Each local government entity that voted in favor of removal shall be responsible for costs in proportion to their weighted voting percentage within the MPO or RPO. We also know that Mecklenburg County is responsible for a small share of this vote. However, we do not have the exact dollar amount that would be attributed to each municipality. Specific to reimbursements, you'll see that the Department of Transportation will not provide state funding or fund any projects under the STIP until it is fully reimbursed for projects to which this amendment applies. In addition, payments toward the reimbursement shall be deposited in the Highway Trust Fund. Lastly, a local government entity may not fund the reimbursement from the Mecklenburg County Roadway Systems and Public Transportation Systems Sales Tax Act. So what you see before you on this slide relates to further state action effective when the bill becomes law. The amendment provides that the Department of Transportation shall study the feasibility of options to terminate the June 6, 2014 agreement for the I-77 North Lanes projects in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties. This includes the option to acquire the project. And it also applies to any amendments to that agreement. The study shall include an assessment of the cost to terminate, modify, negotiate other options, and identify funding sources. And the Department of Transportation may engage a third party appraiser to make value determinations. They shall also report on the findings of the study to three entities. One, the joint legislative transportation oversight committee to the Senate and house transportation appropriations committee chairs and the fiscal research division. That report should be submitted by January 1st of 2027. Now, with regard to the step one, This amendment prohibits the department of transportation and the board of transportation from amending the step to remove reprioritize or reprogram the I 77 South express lanes project before January 1st of next year. So on this last slide, I will walk you through the history of this bill and the current status. House Bill 1094 was filed on April 29th of this year and is titled Ferry Division Performance Audit. The bill was passed by the House on June 3rd and was sent to the Senate. In the Senate, this bill has been converted to the NCDOT Omnibus Bill and contains a number of transportation-related provisions, affecting the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles. The new name of this bill is Ferry Division Audit DOT Omnibus. Now, due to the timing of the short session, there's been some discussion of House Bill 1094 being amended to add the language I've provided as the bill filing deadline for short session has passed. Alternatively, the provision could be added to the state budget bill and then would not pass through the normal committee process. On tomorrow, the Senate Transportation Committee could vote on the proposed committee substitute and this amendment if offered, that meeting is scheduled for 12 p.m. This concludes my presentation, and I will open the floor for discussion.

All right. Thank you, Lissette, for that update. I think it's an important update for the community. And for those in the community that don't know, Commissioner Altman is our representative at both CARPO and formerly at MTC as well and has been really engaged as it relates to this issue of I 77 and all things transportation for this board. So at this time, um, she is going to be the person that, um, will make a opening comments on behalf of the board.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you so much, Lizette, um, to the community. Uh, this discussion is happening because we want you to have information and you want to hear from, we want you to hear from this board and from our team. what we know and to give you an update because that's what we owe you. So the summary is our position has not changed. I received a directed vote from this board to vote against I-77 South way back when it was initially approved and I did so and we continue in that advocacy today. So we have and no way changed the position of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners vis-a-vis this project. We are aware of the legislation in Raleigh, and there is a legal opinion of Daniel E. Peterson of the town of Matthews, who is a partner, I believe, at Parker Poe, who has prepared an evaluation of this legislation and raises very serious constitutional concerns about the ability for this legislation to be passed at all and withstand any sort of constitutional scrutiny. I think it's clear that it has intended to threaten and coerce. There are transportation planning boards across the state, urban and rural, who in towns and municipalities and cities that when they get with DOT designs, they decide they don't want it. And this would create a new precedent that DOT could turn around and assess fees against any municipality in the state if they can do this to Mecklenburg County. So we need to be really careful and understand our friends and partners in the General Assembly and their constituents need to understand what this represents, which is really a power grab. from the General Assembly to the decision making that is properly vested in localities under federal law. I will note that this scare tactic of trying to assess $60 million to this region sort of doesn't make a lot of sense. If the bill is retroactive to January of this year, I find it Very hard to believe that $60 million in studies were concluded in all of six months. So, you know, we have to get to the bottom of that. And I also note the part of the legislation that says that DOT won't provide any funding under the STIP until it's fully reimbursed. I call upon the Department of Transportation and Governor Josh Stein to make clear that it would never hold hostage other unrelated projects because of this, frankly, illegal and unconstitutional power grab by the General Assembly. So Mecklenburg County will continue the position that this board has taken from the inception. And we will continue, I will continue to urge an alternatives analysis in order to help this community come to consensus about a world-class, future-looking solutions to our transportation issues, which understands the needs and history of our residents and takes into account the very serious mobility issues that we do have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. I know Commissioner Griffin has a comment as well.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Madam Vice Chair, for your comments. As a fellow at-large county commissioner, we certainly represent all 1.2 million, and likewise, as a corporate body, we all represent 1.2 million residents of Mecklenburg County. And from the beginning of this discussion, we have directed our representative, who is the Vice Chair, Lee Altman, to vote no as it relates to toll roads. I've traveled this county from Davis and North Carolina, Cornelius, Huntersville, Charlotte, Ment Hill, Matthews, and Pineville. I haven't found anyone that's embraced this notion of toll roads, so the vote that we gave our representative is the vote that we give her today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, Lizette, can you explain on the sixth slide where it talks about the DOT and the Board of Transportation shall not amend the stip to remove, reprioritize or reprogram the I-77. Can you explain the significance of that expiring January 1st, 2027? I don't understand that part.

So basically that provision means that before January 1st, the Department of Transportation cannot remove this action as voted by CARPO.

So you're saying that

The rescission vote does not really take effect until January 1st, 2027, based on the language in this bill.

Okay.

So as it stands, nothing has changed with the project since the rescission vote from carpo based on the language in this, in this amendment.

Okay. So it's kind of like not acknowledging the rescission vote.

Exactly.

Okay. That is really confusing.

This, this provides for no changes. until this date you see here.

Okay. All right, so I just wanted to say that, you know, in my view, this is retaliatory governance as opposed to representative governance. And so what we know is that this failed concept in the north is not working, okay? And so for... this or anybody to not learn from prior mistakes or other failed models and to just keep moving forward with the decision that began over a decade ago, that wouldn't be good governance either. And so if it wasn't true that the North situation wasn't failed, then I don't think the representative who's writing this bill would be including in the bill, that they want this concept to be rethought for the northern tolls. So this just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And so to the community, I just want to say that if you think that this doesn't make sense, you are right, because it doesn't. And so I just want to say that this board, or that this commissioner, I can just speak for myself, but I believe that we are all of the same mind that we don't want to have governing that is not listening to what's currently happening in the community. We don't want to be stuck in some kind of method that we can't change based on the realities on the ground and the realities of of all of the information that we've gotten since this original plan was cooked up over a decade ago. So I just wanted to say that, Mr. Chairman, that, you know, we want to be responsive to the people, and I think that's right. And so I really am so appreciative of this board for standing firm. And so I support that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Commissioner Leak.

Let me first say thank you for offering me the opportunity to speak as a member of this board. My concern and the question of ask repeatedly across the community because I've been to 100 counties in the state of North Carolina. When you talk about dividing a group of people and that's what it's going to do and has done. I have not yet seen where people in Raleigh have thought clearly about what they are saying to us to do. The community is a black community where they're talking about disrupting the people as they did with Brooklyn. Here we go again. A second ward, here we go again. Toll fee, where is the money going? To whom will be the recipients? We had a gas tax that we've been paying over the years for buying gas. So help me understand as a member of this community and living in Brooklyn, working in Brooklyn at a church and working in the school system, how this is going to make it better. So if we're saying no, we've said no. The people have said no. So why are you going to say to the people politically, it's not good for you, it's good for us? So I'm not trying to make it a racial issue, but it has become a black and a them issue. And how many, Mr. Chairman, live in that we represent sitting up here? How many people do we represent?

1.2 million.

How many?

1.2 million.

And you're going to say to me you're going to override 1.2 million people and what they said no to and you're going to justify it by pushing the process in Raleigh on us to make us do it anyway? So I just want to say that the people that I represent have said no repeatedly. And here you're saying yes again of Brooklyn. a second board, an area where we are sitting right now was where many of us walked and worked and labored in this community. Politically, it's what they're doing to us. So thank you for the opportunity. Hopefully that the people will not justify what they're doing. Where's the money going? Where's the tax money going? Help me understand that. How are you going to penalize us for saying no. So thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you all for your comments. Just very quickly, I want to thank the vice chair for her work. The carpool meeting is tomorrow night at six o'clock. I think the biggest takeaway is that the position of the board has not changed. This was already stated. I think another point to lift up is this, is that this board has and will continue to put the people first. This is not about political posturing. This is not about casting aspersions. This board in Mecklenburg County remains open to having substantive dialogue with any of our partners in the region, any of our partners across the state. That's always been our posture. That's nothing new, and that will continue to be our posture. But we'll certainly always make sure that we are standing by our convictions as it relates to the residents of Mecklenburg County. And I think it's a very easy proposition for the board members. For us as board members, it's an easy proposition and I'm glad that there's actually no daylight between any of us, the nine of us that sit up here, as it relates to, one, protecting our residents, two, having dialogue and communication with any of our partners and stakeholders, no matter what position that they may take. And we'll continue to do that because we believe that's in the best interest of our residents. So thank you, Lissette. for the presentation. Thank you for the work. We'll continue to follow that bill and that legislation and anything else that comes out. Thank you, Ms. Nemes. Mr.

Chair, that concludes my report.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Manager. I appreciate that. At this time, we'll move to consent items. Is there a motion to approve those items not pulled from consent?

So moved, Mr. Chairman.

Seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. No opposed. All right. We got that second. Let's move to Commissioner Reports. I'm going to start with you, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

No report.

Commissioner Townsend-Ingram.

I do have a brief report. I first just want to say thank you to everyone who sent well wishes to me during my health scare. I did have open heart surgery. For those of you who didn't know, I am on the heart transplant list, but I do have a device that is helping my heart along until I am able to get a heart. So I appreciate that as well as during the loss of my sister, my last living sibling. I appreciate that very much. I'm not gonna linger on that too much, but I just really appreciate it because it's, I've gone through the loss of every family member just about over the last 36 months. So I appreciate all of the support I've spent a lot of that time that I was away the best I could listening and researching so that I could get a clear understanding of my priorities and the county's priorities and how they mesh and magnify that, and I want to magnify it as your at-large county commissioner. However, I want to work more closely with commissioners who share the same priorities as I that align with the county's overall priorities as I realize we can't do it alone, and I cannot do it alone, and I don't want to do it alone. And with that being said, I want to extend an invitation to my colleagues who have the same special focus on specific interests, since we have so many. There's such a need, especially veteran commissioners who have the experience and expertise that I do not and I'm always a lifelong learner and I welcome the opportunity and I value that information that you have and that I want to be able to utilize and give to the community. I also want to extend an invitation to our new colleagues who will join us in January 2027. I believe As the newest member of the board, I offer an insight into how you can begin to absorb and take on this new massive responsibility. I recognize already by your platform some of the work that you do that overlaps with the board already, and I welcome the opportunity to work with you. I wanted to highlight some of the The four things that I want to focus on that have become more urgent to me. Food deserts that still exist, especially in District 2 where I live. Zip codes 28205, 28206, 28208, 28212, 28216, and 28217. Mental health care for all. Shout out to Santee for doing that work. As well as holistic health care for women. having vital discussions that we tend to put off for a better time or keep to ourselves and worry about later. Education, we had a great report today about our pre-K program that is doing wonderful, wonderful things. So education and child care deserts. that we have 65% of Mecklenburg County is in a childcare desert. That means there's a three-to-one ratio of, more than a three-to-one ratio of need to open slots. So my time is up, but I just wanted to highlight the priorities and just send my appreciation and thanks to everyone who sent well wishes to me.

Thank you. Commissioner Dunlap?

No report.

Commissioner Alderman?

No report.

Commissioner Griffin? No report, sir. Commissioner Leake.

I want to thank the basketball team in New York for winning after so many years of not doing so. But to say to those young men and the community, I was rooting for you every night and every day that they would win. And the young man whose father was part of the coaching team, it said something about the father and son relationship. that I hope that many people felt and got out of it. And to say to that young man, thank you for his leadership. And he was not selfish about being all about himself. He was about the team. And we sit here as nine people and should not be separated, but work for the betterment of all. And on Sunday is Father's Day. And I want to say to our chairperson, I want to say to our manager and all of our men who work so hard in this community that you may not have birthed the children that's at Charlotte Mecklenburg school system, but you provide the funds by which those children receive support and those families in this organization. So I pray that you have a wonderful Father's Day coming from the children of Mecklenburg County school system, coming from the community itself, that there are those who work very hard for our young people to be successful in this community and other communities. So, Mr. Manager, thank you. for your service and your work and involvement with the children by budgeting. And again to you, Mr. Chairman, as the father of two young daughters, that you will continue to be the kind of father that you've shown. And many of them have done this, and some have and have not. But I couldn't let this go by without saying to the fathers of this community, Power to you. Keep up the good work. And thank you for your service.

Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

I just couldn't let the moment pass when Commissioner Leak is shouting out the Knicks that we have to shout out the Canes. It was a great sports weekend, and I so enjoyed watching that series. The Stanley Cup was amazing. And I also did watch the Knicks series as well. And I just wanted to say... No chains. I love it.

It was awesome.

Let me just say very quickly, Commissioner Leak stole a little bit of my thunder because I did want to say happy Father's Day to All the fathers here that work, team members here from Mecklenburg County, and people that are acting as father figures.

That's right.

Whether they are a man or not, and certainly to my colleagues and role models here on the dais, happy Father's Day to all of you all. Mr. Manager, Mr. Dunlap-Griffin, Mr. Wade, and our entire team and to my colleagues to your uh significant others i definitely want to offer a happy father's day as well so uh with that being said i'll entertain a motion to adjourn all right all those in favor say aye aye meeting adjourned