Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your patience. I know we're running a little bit behind, and I am going to call the meeting to order. We'll start with introductions, and we'll start with our 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. I'm Commissioner Yvette Townsend Ingram, also known as Commissioner YTI. Good evening. I serve you at large.

Good evening. I am Mecklenburg County Commissioner Elaine Powell, representing North Mecklenburg, Huntersville, Davidson, Cornelius, and North Charlotte. And I see some of our farmers. Welcome.

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

Good evening. My name is Lee Altman. I have the privilege of serving you as Vice Chair, and I also serve at large. Welcome to all the people who came out tonight. Great to see you.

Good evening again. My name is Mark Jarrell. I have the honor of serving as chairman of the board. I've also been elected by the people of District 4. Welcome.

Good evening and welcome. My name's Arthur Griffin and I have the pleasure of serving as your county commissioner at large.

Good afternoon. My name is Vilma DeLeake and I represent the most powerful district in the county. Will all my seniors please stand? No seniors.

Well, all young people stand.

Thank you so much for being cooperative. That's the way District 2 works together. Thank you. Welcome.

Good evening. I'm Laura Meyer, and I represent District 5.

Good evening. My name is Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, and I'm honored to be elected by the people of District 6.

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

All right, that takes care of our introductions. How about all middle-agers please stand?

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Leak. Tonight, we'll have our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Commissioner Meyer. So when she finishes the invocation, we'll ask you all to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to be a little unconventional tonight. In honor of the proclamation tonight for equality, Women Equality Day, I've chosen the lyrics from the musical Suffs. And if you haven't seen it, it's about suffragists back in 1916. and the words and lyrics are by Shana Taub. It's a wonderful production if anybody gets the opportunity to see it. This takes place in 1916 and it's a song, so bear with me there, but it's kind of a back and forth. If we were married, I promised to cherish you just as a gentleman should. If we were married, I promised to forfeit my legal autonomy for good. If we were married, we'd buy our own acre of land for our own little house. If we were married, our possessions and property would solely belong to the masculine spouse. If we were married, we'd fill out our family and life would be simply sublime. If we were married, I'd churn out your children because contraception's a federal crime. As we were married, we'd save up a nest egg to cushion us later in life. If we were married, my earnings would be in your name and I couldn't control my own spending or open a bank account or sign a contract or hire a lawyer because, economically speaking, I'd die by becoming your wife. You've got to admire the ease which with men can squeeze us into such a rigid role. Daughters are taught to aspire to a system expressly designed to keep them under control. For instance, if we were married and you physically beat me, that wouldn't be illegal to do. Can you believe it is 1916 and all these things are still actually true if we were married? If you would please rise with me to pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation,

Uh, thank you for that commissioner Meyer. Um, one of the things that we always do as a board, we'd like to level set and make sure everyone is aware of our mission, our vision, our board priorities. Um, these are the guardrails that guide our decisions and our actions. So we think it's important to lift up, uh, Mecklenburg county mission is to serve Mecklenburg county residents by helping improve their lives and community, our vision. is Mecklenburg County will be a community of pride and choice for people to live, learn, work and recreate. Our FY2627 board budget priorities are as follows economic development, education, environmental stewardship, health equity and wellness services for our seniors, workforce development and reducing racial disparities. Next up on the agenda, I wanna make a really important announcement. So I'm gonna read this message. I wanted to share with the community that we now have these meetings with live Spanish interpretation. And I think there, nope. but we can see them. All right. Right there. We could see them. I thought you could see them there. We know that the Spanish speaking community continues to grow and with Mecklenburg County, we're committed to sharing information with you in real time. So that means even the recordings of these meetings will be available in Spanish. And at this point, I know Commissioner Rodriguez McDowell would like to add some comments.

Queremos que ustedes estén conectados y entiendan nuestro trabajo y nuestro compromiso con usted. Gracias.

De nada.

Un poquito. You want me to keep it short? Great job. No, this is really important to this board. I think most people that watch us or see us know how important equity is for us and to make sure that we're providing access and opportunity to all residents in this community. So this is a great day for us. At this point in our agenda, we move to awards and recognition. And at this time, I usually turn it over to the vice chair. And I will. But before we do that, I have the high honor and distinct pleasure to lift something up that is important to us as colleagues, important to us as a county. And about two weeks ago, one of our own, one of our own colleagues, who has been in public service for, actually going on the fourth decade, from military service to law enforcement service to service on school board, county commission, served in offices at the state level, was the chairman of this board for six years, and has decided to keep going and is now the president of our National Association of County Officials. And that is none other than Commissioner George Dunlap. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Absolutely. And this is the first time that Mecklenburg County has been represented on the national level. And for those that don't know, Commissioner Dunlap is also chair emeritus of this board. And so we are extremely proud of him. And we stay inspired by his work. And so, Commissioner and Mr. President, if you'd like to add any comments, we receive them at this time.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll be brief. First of all, I could not have done this without the support of my colleagues here at Mecklenburg County. I would not have been able to do this without the support of our state association. And so I'm eternally grateful for all of the support that I received. For all of those staff people and other friends throughout the community who supported me, thank you so much. I look forward to serving not just Mecklenburg County, not just the state of North Carolina, but serving the entire United States. Because in my role as president, Mecklenburg County is elevated to the point that now they have a say in all issues facing counties throughout the United States. And I think if you talk to staff here, a number of them have been pointed to the various committees that NACO represents, and I am looking forward to the work that they'll continue to do. Thank you so much.

At this time, I'll turn the gavel over to the Vice Chair for awards and recognition portion of the agenda.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Tonight, we have three fantastic proclamations that we'll be taking up, beginning with Women's Equality Day 2026, and I call on Commissioner Townsend Ingram to kick us off.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. I am absolutely delighted to read this proclamation. It is a joint proclamation with the city, the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. And it reads as follows.

Oh, and Commissioner, I'm so sorry. Before you get going, why don't we call down the people who have come to receive it so they can be at the speaker's well. Looks like that is Ms. Denise, chairperson from the Women's Advisory Board, Ms. Hamilton Childress, and any other members who have come to receive these remarks. Thank you so much for being here.

Go up top.

Ready, ready?

City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County Joint Proclamation, whereas August 26, 2026, marks the 106th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and is observed annually as Women's Equality Day, and whereas this milestone while historic, did not guarantee equal access to the ballot for all women, particularly black women, indigenous women, and women of color, many of whom continued to face discriminatory barriers until the passage and enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and beyond. And whereas the long struggle for suffrage and equality began with the Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848, and was advanced by generations of women who took bold steps in organizing, educating, mobilizing for justice. And whereas Women's Equality Day reminds us that protecting and strengthening civic participation remains essential to a vibrant representative democracy. And whereas the women of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County continue to strengthen our community through their presence, perspective, and leadership. And whereas the Mecklenburg County women's advisory board has designated the 2026 women's equality day theme as empower her resiliency and self-sufficiency. with a celebratory event open to the public at Eastway Regional Recreation Center on Saturday, August 29th, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Now, therefore, we, Rob Harrington, Mayor of Charlotte, and Mark D. Jarrell, Chair of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, do hereby proclaim... August 26, 2026, as Women's Equality Day in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and encourage all residents to join in celebrating the achievements and contributions of women supporting opportunities that foster resiliency and self-sufficiency and reaffirming their commitment to a more equitable, inclusive, and representative society for women and girls of all backgrounds. witness our hands and the official seal of the city and Charlotte Mecklenburg County, Rob Harrington, mayor and Mark D Jarrell chair Mecklenburg board of County commissioners. So moved. Second.

All right, the motion having been made and properly seconded, we'd love to hear from our guests.

Thank you. Good evening, chair, commissioners, county staff, and members of our community. On behalf of the Mecklenburg County Women's Advisory Board, thank you for recognizing Women's Equality Day with this proclamation. We are grateful for your continued support of the board and for your commitment to acknowledging the contributions of women throughout the county. Women's Equality Day commemorates the certification of the 19th Amendment and reminds us that expanding opportunity and participation has always required the dedication of people willing to lead, serve, and advocate for others. It is both a celebration of progress and a reminder that building strong communities requires the voices and talents of everyone. The Women's Advisory Board is honored to serve as a bridge between our community and this board of commissioners, helping to elevate issues that affect women and families and offering perspectives. that strengthen Mecklenburg County as a place where all residents can thrive. Thank you for recognizing this important day and for your partnership in supporting a community where leadership, opportunity, and civic participation continue to grow for current and future generations. We are honored to accept this proclamation on behalf of the Women's Advisory Board. We welcome anyone and everyone to join us in a celebration of women's achievements and recognition of the ongoing fight for women's equality at our event on Saturday, August 29th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Eastway Regional Recreational Center. Thank you.

All right. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. That is unanimous. And if you would, please come down for a picture.

Thank you.

You're going to shake hands, too.

Just go down the line. Congratulations.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service.

Thank you so much.

Hey, how are you? You're always there. Everything you do.

Thank you.

I need to send her.

You need to get your proclamation. Suzette's on the case. Yes.

All right, for our next proclamation, it is my distinct pleasure to call upon our very own Chairman Mark Jarrell.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. This is a real honor for me to be able to read this proclamation for a lot of different reasons. One, I have a history with this. This is the proclamation for Child Support Awareness Month, and I was, for a while, child support enforcement agent here in Mecklenburg County and I'm really proud of that fact and I'm proud of the work that's done every day and the person that's leading child support enforcement is a personal friend and somebody that I've known for Since she was a little girl, I'll say. But we did serve as agents together, and it's just an honor. And I know the work that's being done by everyone that's over there, how much they care. And just to let everyone know that the way we do things here in Mecklenburg County, we don't look at it, child support, as a punitive action. It is a partnership where family and children are the focus. And that's the way those professionals go about their day and about their work. And we are better as a county and as a community because of their work. So it's an honor for me to read this. Whereas Mecklenburg County has operated child support services since July 2010, when the staff and customers of the program were entrusted to the county by the state of North Carolina. And whereas former President Bill Clinton first proclaimed August as National Child Support Awareness Month in 1995 to demonstrate the importance of child support as sustainable means of financial support and well-being for many of our nation's children. And whereas children living in poverty are more vulnerable to environmental, educational, health, and safety risks and are more likely to have cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional difficulties throughout their lifetime, and whereas parents and or caretakers, through a strong work ethic and personal responsibility, can provide a stable foundation for life to children who are dependent on them for their daily financial, emotional, and physical growth, and whereas Mecklenburg County is committed to ensuring the safety, health and well-being of our children by supporting families through programs designed to help parents remain engaged in their children's lives. And whereas Mecklenburg County promotes a thriving, productive, proactive and engaging community by taking a collaborative and holistic approach to help families benefit from both co-parenting and community support. And whereas in Mecklenburg County, there are approximately 52,147 children and custodial parents who receive more than $50.7 million in child support annually through the efforts of this county's child support professionals, which provides food, housing, and clothing to these families. Whereas collection of child support also contributes to the welfare of our local economy. by avoiding Medicaid costs annually and moving families into economic self-sufficiency by reducing dependence on the public assistance programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, and Food and Nutrition Services, FNS. And whereas these local efforts are provided by 132 Mecklenburg County full-time staff who work diligently to uphold the county's customer service and accountability standards. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners hereby proclaims August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month in Mecklenburg County this fifth day of August 2026. Signed, Mark D. Jarrell, Chair, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. So moved, Madam Chair. Second.

The motion properly having been made and seconded, all those in favor say aye. Aye. And that is unanimous. Fonda Clifton, are you here? Oh, wonderful. Please come down. We would love to hear your remarks and then have you get the proclamation and take a picture.

Thank you for proclaiming August as Child Support Awareness Month. It is an honor to accept this recognition tonight on behalf of the Child Support Services Division. This honor spotlights a remarkable group of professionals whose daily dedication transforms the lives of the children and families we serve. Every day, as Division Director, I am inspired by their passion and fortitude Their incredible commitment sets a true standard of excellence and it's my privilege to represent them tonight. Their work stands as a testament to what happens when talent aligns with purpose, showing that every major hurdle can be overcome when we move as one. They represent the absolute pinnacle of dedication and I take pride in leading this incredible group of professionals. To our county commissioners, county manager Michael Bryant, deputy county manager Dr. Kim Campbell, county attorney Tyrone Wade, department director Yolanda Griffin, and department deputy director Broderick Knight, thank you for your unwavering support in our journey to success.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your service. Thank you for your service. Thank you so much. Your proclamation? It doesn't. There's not a holder there, so. Come on, y'all. This is that sort of center. There you go.

There you go, yeah. That's right. Yeah.

We need our orchestra director.

That works.

There you go.

There it is.

And finally, last but definitely not least, we have very important proclamations celebrating Farmers Market Week. And I know we've got a lot of support in the chamber for that. I'd like to call to the podium Lisa Nee, Senior Health Program Manager with the Office of Chronic Disease Policy and Prevention, to receive the proclamation, provide remarks. Anyone else? who is to be joining at the podium, and I call now upon Commissioner Velma D. Leake.

It's a good-looking group right there.

Brought a lot of friends.

That's right. Yeah. That's right.

Will the rest of you please stand? Excuse me. Will the rest of you please stand in this group?

Who are you going to say to? I was going to say that some of them seem to be puzzled as to whether or not they should be here or not. But I'm sure you want all of them in the picture. So when the picture's done, you can all come down.

There we go. Thank you for standing. Thank you, George. Don't sit down. Stand up. We are recognizing you at this point. And they asked me to read this proclamation. Where access to safe, nutritional, affordable, and culturally appropriate food is fundamental to the health, the well-being, and quality of life of all Mecklenburg County residents. And whereas in Mecklenburg County, nearly 12% of households are food insured, and for more than 18% of children live in the food in secure household, underscoring the critical importance of expanding access to fresh, nutritious foods for all residents. And whereas Mecklenburg County is committed to advancing food security by strengthening local food systems, supporting North Carolina agriculture, reducing the distance where one has to travel to maintain or to buy and purchase farm items to put on their table for feeding their families. Whereas farmers market promote healthy communities by increasing access to nutritionist locally grown foods. That means that food is grown here. Encouraging healthy eating habits serving as vibrant community gathering places. And whereas approximately 75% of Mecklenburg County Farmer's Market participate in one or more nutritional assets programs, calling SNAP, SNAP Double Buck, WIC, Farmer's Market Nutrition Program, and the Senior Farmer's Market Nutritional Program, helping make fresh local grown foods more accessible and whereas more than 6,000 households have access to fresh local foods through SNAP and other agencies who provide them through Farmer's Market. Whereas in 2025, 668 Mecklenburg County seniors received more than what was necessary from the seniors farmers market nutrition program with vouchers helping older adults access fresh nutritionist foods while encouraging and strengthening the local agricultural economic and whereas farmers market and other agricultural direct marketing outlets. Whereas Mecklenburg County is home to a farmer's market that serves thousands of residents each year and represents the hard work of local growers, producers, and the market organizers. Now, therefore, be it resolved that Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners, in observance of National Farmers Market Week, I was about to say day, hereby proclaiming August 2nd through the 8th, 2026 as Farmers Market Week in Mecklenburg County and encouraging all citizens to join in the special observance this fifth day of August 2026 by the chairperson of this great organization, Mr. Michael Jarrell. do so present this proclamation. So move, Madam Vice Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner Lee. The motion having been made improperly seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

That is unanimous, and we would love to hear from our wonderful guests. Thank you for being here.

Thank you, County Commissioners, for having us and for recognizing this important week. My name is Lisa Nee, and I'm the Senior Health Manager for the Office of Chronic Disease Policy and Prevention with Mecklenburg County Public Health. Thank you all who came to recognize. You'll notice all of my friends in green shirts and maybe holding green shirts. Just as I mentioned, kind of each category, if you would just raise your hand so we can recognize different pieces of the food system that are here. So first we have our food security team for Mecklenburg County led by Mamie Saki Harris, made up of Emma Leone, Derek Wilson, and Reggie Singleton. We also have our farmers. Oh! We also have with us farmers and growers. So if you're a farmer or a grower, if you'll wave. We have Charlotte Mecklenburg Food Policy Council with us. We have farmers market managers. We have North Carolina Cooperative Extension. And we have a host of other food security supporters, farmers market goers, and friends. And so just really grateful for all the support for this proclamation. We know that these partners present, each of them play an important role in keeping our food system growing and thriving. National Farmers Market Week is a time to recognize the essential role farmers markets play in food security and in strengthening communities. More than places to shop, farmers markets connect neighbors with neighbors, increase access to fresh, nutritious food, and keep farms and communities thriving. They support small businesses, stimulate local economies, and promote more sustainable food systems by reducing the distance food travels from farm to table. When you shop at a farmers market, you're doing more than just fulfilling your grocery list. You're investing in local agriculture, preserving local farmland, and helping farmers earn a fair return by selling directly to consumers. A majority of Mecklenburg County farmers markets, as you heard, participate in SNAP EBT, SNAP Double Bucks, WIC at Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, helping make locally grown foods more accessible to more than 8,000 families in our county. As we all know, tomatoes do not grow in the grocery store, and green beans do not grow in a can. They grow at the hands of dedicated, passionate, and hardworking individuals. Our farmers who are up early and out in the fields, who are watching weather and reading the sky, and who try to work with Mother Nature when we can, all ensure that their community can have nutritious food. It's hard work and certainly not for the faint of heart. Farmer's markets take hard work, dedication, blood, sweat, hopefully not too many tears, and they don't just happen at the snap of a finger. Behind every farmer's market is a dedicated market manager, staff, volunteers, and certainly shoppers who plan and carry out events each week. I tip my hat to each of these individuals. This farmer's market week, I invite you to visit your local market, celebrate farmers, food producers, market managers, and teams who make fresh local food possible. Every visit helps build a healthier, more connected, and more resilient Mecklenburg County. Commissioners, thank you again.

All right, come on down.

Y'all like that rain we ordered for y'all specifically for the growers last night?

We would love for everyone to come down for a picture. Maybe anyone who would like to be in the picture. Just head this way. You have to stand right here.

I'm going to say hi. Hello.

Good to see you.

I love seeing you all. You're always happy.

Hello, neighbor. How are you? Thank you so much for being here.

What are you doing?

It's lovely to see you. I've got to get out on Saturday.

Great to see you.

I love the honey of ours.

I was trying to see you up there. Thank you. Look, man, you could have been like so many different farmers, you know, everything. Lovely to see you. How are you, sir? It's a pleasure. Thank you very much.

How you doing?

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you for being here. It is such a pleasure. This is a good part of the job. But we might just have to make everyone turn and take a picture like this.

But we got to move down here.

We got to move down a little bit. Suzette will direct traffic now. Are you in that little crevice?

I'm fine. I'm fine. All right, everybody, you ready? Yeah. We'll do a few shots in case we have some things. Big smile.

All right.

As people make it back to their chairs, I want to just again thank everybody for turning out. It was a great group.

And at this time, I will turn the gavel back to you, Mr. Chair.

Well, thank you, Madam Vice Chair. That was fantastic. And we'll move forward with the agenda. We do have to take up some items that we took up in closed session. So at this time, the chair will entertain a motion to authorize the county manager. to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of tax parcel 199-491-03 plus or minus five acres from Billy Alexander Pettigrew, Emily Fender Pettigrew for a purchase price of $1,200,000 for park and rec purposes. So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Madam Clerk, Chair will entertain a motion to authorize the County Manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of tax parcel 067-113-42 plus or minus 2.852 acres from Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education for a purchase price of $869,000 for park and rec purposes. So moved. Second. Seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It's unanimous. Chair will entertain a motion to authorize County Manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of tax parcels 065-081-07 and 065-081-08 plus or minus 0.535 acres from Daniel A. Nass for a purchase price of $850,000 for park and rec purposes.

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Chair, we'll entertain a motion to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of tax parcel 205-071-23 plus or minus 23.103 acres from Lakemont Property Investors LLC for a purchase price of $147,000 for the expansion of Sugar Creek Greenway. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Chair will entertain a motion to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of tax parcel 173-071-40 plus or minus .321 acres from Lowell Scott McCreary and wife Wendy Batson McCreary, heirs of the Charles E. Crowder and Betty Jean Crowder for a purchase price of $44,000 for expansion of Little Sugar Creek Greenway. So moved.

Second. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Chair, I'll entertain a motion to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of a permanent greenway easement on a portion of tax parcel 103-163-01 plus or minus .9753 acres from Forest Hills Apartments Limited Partnership for a purchase price of $59,000. $861.24. So moved. For construction of a portion of the Campbell Creek Greenway. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

No opposed. No opposed. All right. Chair will entertain a motion to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of a permanent Greenway easement of plus or minus .0625 acres and a temporary easement of plus or minus 0.663 acres, both on a portion of tax parcel 127-102-27 from 2650 Sanctuary LLC for a purchase price of $49,350 for construction of a portion of the Briar Creek Greenway.

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, chair will entertain a motion to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute all documents necessary for the acquisition of tax parcel 069-041-38 plus or minus three acres from Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education for a purchase price of $5,686,700 for future county office building location contingent upon approval by CMS Board of Education. So moved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

It's unanimous, Madam Clerk. All right, we will move forward to the next portion of our agenda. Give me a second. Which is public appearance. So I got to read a rather lengthy statement, so please bear with me. Public appearance is the period during the board's regular meeting that members of the public are provided the opportunity to speak on matters not appearing on the agenda. Members of the public who appear during the public appearance portion of a regular meeting may discuss any matter within the jurisdiction of the Board of Commissioners except for the following types of matters. A matter which appears on the agenda of that meeting of the Board. A matter which concerns the candidacy of any person for public office including the candidacy of the person appearing before the Board. A request that the Board considers funding a certain program or activity either from the current budget or by inclusion in a future budget. Such requests would be made at the board's annual budget public hearing. The time limit for speaking is three minutes unless there are four more speakers who wish to speak concerning the same matter in which case all persons wishing to speak on the same matter will be considered a group and given a total of 10 minutes, the board reserves the right to alter these rules on a case by case basis as necessary for the efficient and effective conduct of business. Members of the board will not engage in dialogue with public appearance speakers. Comments will be received and followed up on as applicable by county staff and or members of the board. Handouts and or tokens shall be given to the clerk for distribution to the board at the conclusion of the meeting. Members of the public can also access and view the meeting on the government channel or online at watch.mecnc.gov. Tonight, we have four groups or one group and three individual speakers. The first group is Jeanette Kennard, Corey Jamison, Portia Delafose, and Joe Zarek. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. All right. And then how about we go with Gwendolyn Forney and Joseph Birch? Gwendolyn Forney, you'll take one podium. And is Mr. Birch here? All right. You're going to come on that side over there. Or you can just stay on that side. You don't have to. You can just wait until she's done. Ms. Forney, you're going to have up to three minutes.

Thank you. Again, my name is Ms. Forney. I am executive director of Bright Hopes, a community nonprofit. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Keeping parents and guardians connected to their child's education is important. Did you know Charlotte-Mecklenburg School students in third and higher grades no longer receive a paper or hard copy report card? Parents and guardians must gain this valuable information from a computer or a phone. This is great news if you are tech savvy. It is challenging if you do not have the skills or technical equipment to carry this out. Many parents and guardians do not even know when this information is available. School attendance, progress reports, and more are on the report card. As a community, there is a need to do more to support parents and guardians with staying connected to their child's education. When parents are looking, students do better. School PTA meetings could have someone available to help parents get connected. Our faith community and community nonprofits could support families within their reach to stay or get connected. Our community libraries and community centers could offer support. News media and radio stations could be encouraged to announce the weeks or days this information is available. We want parents to put more positive energy into their children. This is a good place to support them. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Joseph Birch and Joseph Birch, Jr., I'm assuming. Did you want to come down together? Okay.

Good evening, Chair, members of the board. My name is Joseph Burch II, and I'm a Charlotte resident, a 2019 Sam Coulod graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, and an active client of the North Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Services. I'm standing here tonight because I love our public library system. Between 2022 and 2024, I served as a dedicated member of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Logistics and Support Operations Center under the direct supervision of Logistics Manager Kim Morella. In 2025, I proudly served as an official CML representative manning the outreach and information table at the West Boulevard branch for the West Fest and HBCU showcase. I have proven my reliability, my work ethic, and my passion for library services internally for years. Since 2023, I have also maintained consistent community employment working on the customer service team as a front-end ambassador at Michael's stores. Traditionally, time competitive panel interview structures present severe cognitive processing barriers that do not reflect my true capabilities or my multi-year record of flawless service to this county. For that reason, our state vocational rehabilitation counselors have requested a structured modified pathway under our own ADA guidelines to allow me to transition into permanent part-time supportive role. The North Carolina State has 100% funding secured right now to fully pay for my internship or provide 90% wage subsidy to bring me back on board at the library. It costs this county's budget practically nothing. I am qualified, I am fully defunded, and I am ready to go to work today. I will now hand over our... Time to to my father Joseph Bert senior to detail the administrative bottleneck That is currently blocking the state from executing my files. Thank you.

Thank you Thank you Joseph Good evening. Mr. Chair esteemed commissioners As Madam Clerk has verified, each of you have a form of dossier in your hands, or at least hopefully it was delivered to you. And that dossier is entitled Request for Administrative Accountability. My son and I are not here today to complain or to criticize. Actually, we want to thank all the county leadership for the work that you all have done on behalf of our residents because we really appreciate and we benefit from it. But we are standing here before you tonight because county personnel practices are being actively used to block state disability funds from putting a qualified resident to work. As documented in your packets, if you haven't had a chance to read them, as documented in those packets, our family submitted an explicit equity action plan placement pilot request to the assistant county manager, LaShawn Carter, the HR director, Jonette Freeman, and the library director, Caitlin Mowen, on June 17th. However, for 48 days, our filings were met with total executive staff silence. But once we hand delivered those dossiers Friday to your chambers, well, Next thing we know, the gears started scrambling. And yesterday morning at 943, library director Kate Lemoe, she broke her silence with a flat email rejection, asserting that her hands are tied because library policies align with Mecklenburg County's. Now, she sent that rejection to our vote rehab counselor, but we're glad that she at least asserted that the hiring policies are aligned with Mecklenburg County. And then this morning at 6.58, the HR director, Jonette Freeman, she emailed our vote rehab counselor, and she offered, shall we say, a symbolic August 11th meeting. But I want you all to listen, if you don't mind, to her written admission. Now, you have copies of all these emails and transactions that's occurred since June 16th when we started in your dossiers. But this is Ms. Freeman's admission. She said, it was emailed just 12 hours ago. She said, I quote, I look forward to meeting with you on the 11th to discuss this pathway that currently does not exist with the county. Well, commissioners, I want you to look, if you have a chance, look at that fact sheet that's sitting on the very top of your dossier's folder on the right-hand side. You'll notice that Mecklenburg County's active ADA Title II regulations explicitly mandate reasonable policy modifications to clear structural barriers for disabled residents. Your equity action plan mandates that you build proactive employment tracks for neurodivergent individuals, such as my son. Yet, your own, our own HR director just confessed in writing that the county has completely failed to build it. They're turning away free state money because the state, the staff refuses to coordinate the interagency paperwork.

Thank you, Mr. Birch. Yes, sir. Appreciate both of you being here.

And I apologize because the clerk told us. It's okay, Mr. Birch.

Your time is up. I apologize. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take a look at the documents that you sent. Thank you. All right, at this time, we're gonna move to the next part of our agenda, which are appointments. First appointments we need to deal with are Women's Advisory Board. Appointments are needed on the Women's Advisory Board to fill four unexpired terms. The chair has recommended Kenya Brown, Claire Covington, Phyllis Barnett, and Kaitlin Lee. We also have additional names. that have been nominated. So we will go through the roll call vote. Chair? Sure.

if there's time for advocacy, I hope that everybody received the same correspondence that I did from Karen, uh, Linyard from, from district two. Um, and she stated clearly a case why she should be appointed to this, um, board. And I would ask that you, uh, give some credence to her, uh, request.

Thank you. And there, and there is time for advocacy out there. I appreciate that commissioner. Anybody else want, would, uh, want to advocate?

I just want to advocate for her as well.

Okay. Anybody else? I'm sorry, go right ahead. Let me go with Commissioner Leak and then I'll come to you, Commissioner Griffin.

As her representative, I'm going to advocate and have been advocating for her. So nominate her.

Thank you. Well, we're going to go through the vote, the challenge sheet. Commissioner Griffin? You did echo. Okay. So then let's go ahead and go through. I'm going to start with all those supporting Daryl Anderson. Anybody supporting Mr. Anderson? How about Phyllis Barnett? Four, five, six. All right, so Phyllis is appointed. How about Ingrid Nunez? We have two. How about Kenya Brown? One, two, three, four, five, six. Claire Covington? One, two, three, four. Uh, Nicole Ingram to, uh, we've got Caitlin Lee, three Karen Linyard. She's district two. That's right.

Was unanimous.

Was unanimous for Karen Linyard. So, Madam Clerk, who I have appointed, we're going to need a second round to fill one seat, but I have Phyllis Barnett, Kenya Brown, and Karen Linyard. Is that what you have?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, sir. I'll make it easy.

I didn't vote for the one that had four, so I'll make it five.

Claire Covington? Yeah. So, you're going to change your... You're just adding your head and your vote. Okay. So with commissioner Dunlap, uh, we'll vote for Claire Covington. That would give her five. Okay. All right. All right, so with that, the appointees will be Phyllis Barnett, District 5, Kenya Brown, District 1, Claire Covington, District 4, and Karen Linyard, District 2. And I would like to say to all of the other folks who offered themselves up for service, I want to say thank you. Please continue. Your time will certainly come, so we thank you for that, and congratulations to those who have been appointed. Next is the Board of Equalization and Review. Nominations are needed for the Board of Equalization and Review to fill nine terms. The BER recommends Christopher Cochin, Blanche Penn, Henry Amenajor. Claire Covington is on this list as far as appointees, but she's just been appointed to this other. What was that?

Women's Advisory.

Women's Advisory, thank you. Anisha Hassell, Andrew Wallen, Melanie Mills, Melanie Mills-Johnson, excuse me, Arlicia Royal, and Brett Winter. So remember on this one, all nominees must be interviewed per our policy.

Mr. Chair, I will nominate all eight who remain for the interview.

I'll second.

All right. We've got a nomination to interview all eight and a second. Any questions? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Opposed.

All right, we've got one opposed and eight in favor. So we'll interview all eight and I'll make sure we get a committee appointed to get that done. All right, next, appointments for the Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority. A motion is needed to remove one Board of County Commissioners appointee, Rob Kidwell, from the Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It's unanimous, Madam Clerk. All right, appointments are needed on the Industrial Facilities and Pollution Control Financing Authority to fill three six-year terms. Mike Davidson, James Stickler are eligible for appointment, and Charles Stewart is eligible for reappointment.

So moved.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Opposed.

All right, one opposed, Madam Clerk. Next, we're gonna move to the Historic Landmarks Commission. Reappointment is needed on the Historic Landmarks Commission for one three-year term expiring July 31st, 2029. Andra Eves is eligible for reappointment. Is there a motion to reappoint?

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right, a nomination is needed on the Historic Landmarks Commission to fill one three-year term expiring July 31st, 2029. HLC Chair recommends John Short, but we do have other nominees as well, or other applicants as well. Are there any nominations?

Mr. Chair, I would recommend we go with the recommended candidate.

I would like to nominate Bob Aycock, please.

Bob Aycock.

Second, yeah.

Well, were you making a motion or were you just making a recommendation? I'm sorry, because I...

Well, what I did was I looked at the current list and I recognized that there was no candidate from district four.

That's true.

And so I recommended someone from district four.

And there wasn't any from district six either.

Okay. All right.

So can we move to nominate and appoint?

Hold on one second. Cause I just want to make sure that I want us to be clear. So that really yours is a motion.

I'm going to go with Elaine's recommendation. Nominate, move to nominate and appoint John.

How many positions?

It's just, it says two here. We've got, we've got two.

Yes. Cause commissioner Rodriguez, McDowell made it.

Okay.

No, hold on one second. It, There's two nominations so far, but I'm trying to go back real quick, because there's one slot to fill. There's only one slot to fill, right? So let's make sure that we level set. Commissioner Dunlap was making, it wasn't a pseudo motion, but it was a recommendation. So I received it as a recommendation, and then after you did that, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell nominated Mr. Aycock. So that's where we were. Yes.

So he did say motion.

So it's a motion. Okay. I thought you said recommendations. So let's vote on this right now.

Can I ask the attorney a question? Like it says that it says on my screen, that there are two openings. So if you refresh. Oh yeah, because it says one on one.

Yes, I caught that before the meeting. I don't know what happened. Forgive me, because it said two.

It's all good. So, all right, so there is a motion on the floor. Did we get a second? Second. All right. Motion on the floor is Mr. Short has been nominated and to appoint So all those in favor to, uh, nominate an appointment, Mr. Short, let's see by show of hands. One, two, three, four, five, all opposed. All right. So with that being said, Mr. Short is, uh, appointed. All right. Next, we're going to move to the building development commission. Reappointments are needed on the BDC for building development commission for two, three year terms expiring July 31st, 2029. Dana Galley, and Thomas Hapapuro are eligible for reappointment.

So moved. So moved.

Moved and seconded. Any unreadiness? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, next appointment is needed on the Build and Development Commission to fill one three-year term expiring July 31st, 2029, Home Builders Association of Charlotte slot. The HBA is recommending Eric Smith.

So moved. So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next, we're going to move to the Domestic Violence Advisory Board. An appointment is needed on the Domestic Violence Advisory Board to fill one unexpired term expiring April 30, 2027. The chair of this advisory board has recommended Sarah Ann Ryan and Brittany Hammonds, but we also have another applicant here as well.

I move and nominate the two people, District 2 Williams and Ryan, District 6. There's only one. There's only one. There's only one. There's only one, I'm sorry.

There's one, yep. So go ahead, Commissioner Leak. Did you want to just take one of those?

Yeah, I'm going to go with Ms. Williams.

Hold on, Commissioner. I'm sorry. What's the problem?

It's a vote. You already nominated, so you're voting now.

Oh, so now we're voting. I'm sorry. Yes, sir. Oh, I see. I apologize. Thank you. All right, so we're just going to go through them. We have three.

Advocacy.

Yes, Commissioner Dunlap.

For Brittany Hammonds, given the fact that there is not a person from District 4 on that committee.

Thank you for that. Any other advocacy on this one?

I advocate for the same reason. Okay.

Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Yeah, I just wanted to advocate for Sarah and Ryan for all that she is already doing with the Umbrella Center, and I just think she comes highly recommended, and I think that's really important in this case.

Okay. All right, with that, let's go through the vote. Dana Cathy Williams from District 2. Let me get one. Brittany, I'm sorry. Thank you.

What? Oh, you raised your hand for that.

Did you raise your hand? I'm sorry, I missed that. So that's two of them, thank you. All right, Brittany Hammonds. One, two, three, four. And then Sarah Ann Ryan. One, two, three, four, five. Okay, Sarah Ann Ryan, you are appointed.

Say that again?

There's one position, right? Mm-hmm. She raised, well, Commissioner Lee raised her hand for.

You can have, you can, you can. Okay, you can do, okay. Yeah, if the person didn't make it through, you can still vote for someone else. So that's fine. All right, that concludes that. Next up, I'll turn it over to the manager for the manager's report.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. For tonight's manager's report, I would like to start with a staffing update. After a nationwide search and an extremely competitive interview process, I am happy and delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Kimberly Scott, Dr. Scott to serve as our new public health director. As you all know, Dr. Scott is no stranger to this organization or community as she has served as the interim public health director for the last six months. Since joining Mecklenburg County in 2022, she has helped transform public health's approach to community health improvement by advancing collective impact, strengthening community engagement and fostering partnerships that bring residents, organizations and institutions together to improve health outcomes. An exemplary leader, Dr. Scott has more than 15 years of experience leading efforts to protect and improve community health through strategic leadership, collaboration and population health initiatives. As interim health director, she led a team of nearly 1,000 public health professionals in improving the quality of life for Mecklenburg County residents to several outbreaks, including measles, cyclosporiasis, and several other communicable diseases impacting our community. Prior to her interim director role, Dr. Scott served as Mecklenburg County's assistant health director for population health providing executive leadership for countywide public health strategy, community health improvement, strategic partnerships, along with violence and chronic disease prevention. She is well respected and recognized for her work, and I am so confident that Dr. Scott is the best public servant to sustain excellence at public health and even take it to the next level. Before joining Mecklenburg County, Dr. Scott held leadership roles in local government, nonprofit organizations, research and academia, leading multi-million dollar initiatives focused on improving population health. Her career pathway included health leadership in Wake County and senior leadership at a nonprofit in Georgia. As many of you already are aware, In Mecklenburg County, Dr. Scott is actively involved in numerous professional, civic, and nonprofit organizations, serving in leadership and advisory roles that support public health, education, and community development. Dr. Scott is a proud graduate of Albany State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and Georgia Southern University where she received a Master of Public Health and Community Health. Dr. Scott earned her Doctor of Public Health and Public Health Leadership from the University of South Florida. Dr. Scott is a highly respected leader with the public health teammates. I know they are not surprised that while we looked across the country to find the best person, Dr. Scott was right here with the organization. Now, as a matter of fact, I can assure you that many public health department employees, some of them are here tonight, are so thrilled about this announcement. She is someone they trust, admire, and consider the strongest of teammates. I'm sure they have been quietly rooting for today's announcement. Secrets out. At this time, I ask that you please join me in welcoming our new public health director, Dr. Scott.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to County Manager Bryant for those wonderful words. And thank you to the Board of County Commission, Mecklenburg County residents, partners, our amazing public health staff. It is an honor to be your next public health director. 48. That's the age I lost my father. It was unexpected. I remember the grief, the birthdays missed, the holidays that didn't feel quite right, the milestones where I saw an empty chair that had never been filled. At that time, I did not realize that that was sparking my passion for my life's work. When you lose someone soon, you begin to understand what public health is. It's about giving families more time together, more birthdays, more holidays, more ordinary Tuesdays around the table to have dinner. more memories with the people that you love. So for me, public health was never simply about a position or a role. It's always been personal and a passion. My journey in public health started as a high school peer educator in rural Georgia for a teen pregnancy prevention program. I had no idea that that opportunity would lead to my lifelong calling. My first professional role was as a health educator in rural Georgia, working at an innovative teen public health department center to focus on investments in young people through summer programs, mentoring, educational opportunities, and evidence-based initiatives to make sure that young people have bright futures. That experience lit a fire in me. So since then, I've had the opportunity to work across Georgia and the state of North Carolina alongside incredible partners, people, and community members to expand access to preventive cancer screenings, improve maternal and child health, reduce teen pregnancy, and strengthen neighborhoods, all to bring communities together to form a healthy and bright future. None of that happened overnight because real progress does not happen overnight. It happens through relationships, through conversations, community by community. It takes listening, it takes trust, it takes evidence, it takes perseverance. Long before I ever chose public health, I had incredible examples of what service looked like. My father served as a law enforcement officer, but in our small community, he was so much more. He was a basketball coach, a mentor, and someone who believed every young person deserved the opportunity to thrive. Even today, people still share stories with me about how he changed their life. My mother, who is here today, dedicated her career to education in our small town. It often felt like she taught half of the community, To this day, it's hard to go to Walmart with her because everybody knows her in our hometown. But she challenged them to believe in themselves and exceed their own expectations. My grandmother broke barriers as the first black woman to serve as her city council representative in her community, showing me that leadership is about serving others with courage, humility, and conviction. And tonight, I'm especially grateful that my sister is also here with me, who has been one of my biggest supporters, encouragers, and constant reminder that no matter where life takes us, family is our foundation and, quite frankly, my best friend. So looking back, I realized that service was not just something that my family did. It was the language we spoke. It was modeled around our dinner table, at our church, and lived through our community. These lessons have led me here to the community that I proudly call home. I inherit an extraordinary department that I'm so proud of. We have an internal mantra of being a five-star public health department. But today, I'm proud to say that we are ready to build on that foundation and imagine our public health department without limits. So as we look ahead, my commitment is simple. We will build on our remarkable foundation. We will continue to follow the data and evidence. We will strengthen our partnerships. We will embrace innovation. We will invest in our people. And most importantly, we will listen to our community. We are not defined by the challenges before us, but how we respond to them. So to our public health team, I thank you. To our community partners, I thank you. To this outstanding board, I thank you. The road ahead won't be easy, but public health is changing rapidly. We know that we'll have difficult decisions and face new challenges, but I want you to know this, I'm ready. I understand this responsibility and what comes with this role. And with that, I say thank you and I'm proud to serve you all.

Mom and sis, can you all come down?

Mom. I like that.

We'll take a picture. We'll do the conference.

Congratulations.

God bless you. All right, guys.

Thank you. Congratulations. That meant a lot. Congrats. You're so beautiful, and I know you're a father too. Well done. Congratulations. Representing Mill Georgia well.

Congratulations. Where did you teach in Georgia? Millageville. Well, my mom's from Tifton.

She's up the road from Macon, Georgia. Yep, yep, yep.

I can tell you're a great mom. You can smile.

Thank you.

A lot of Georgia up here. That's right. All right. She's kind of centered.

My dad's so happy, she's crying. All right, big smile, everybody.

Eyes up.

So we definitely can't let this moment pass without some comments from board members, because I know everyone is burning. We're going to keep it to 60 seconds, though, so we can keep the meeting moving. Let's start with Commissioner Powell.

Well, I told Dr. Scott, thank you for sharing your story. It means so much to know the core of your passion. And I know I wanted to say something else, but... But keep sharing. Thank you. That's all.

Commissioner Dunlap. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I told Dr. Scott I woke up with her in my spirit this morning. We oftentimes have the opportunity to shout out staff people who do a good job. And then I saw her in the news and her interview. I was saying, what a great job she did. I did not know.

Surprise.

Thank you so much. I hope you feel this. Because I've been sitting with him for a long time. So for him to be this choked up, I hope you feel it.

Well, we're also moved by your heart and spirit and feel so blessed. for you to be leading something that touches our residents in such an important way. So I'm just so thrilled for all of us that we get to have you as our leader. So thank you.

Commissioner Griffith.

You know, we kind of kid and joke about being cousins since my mom's from Macon, Georgia. But I felt your sincerity from the very first day I met you. I've recognized your professionalism by observing you over these years. And I couldn't be more happy for you and your family and for what you will do for the residents of Mecklenburg County and the state of North Carolina. God bless you.

Commissioner Leak.

I'm almost speechless to recognize the growth that a mother has produced. and father and family as encouraged, and your church family. Thank you for being in Mecklenburg County. God knows we need you because we are in serious trouble health-wise all across this country now. So whatever you have, give it to us. Afford us to know who you are and with whom you serve. Thank you for your time, your energy. And mother, thank you for being an excellent mother to your baby, I'm calling her your baby, and that's what she is for you. God bless you as a parent, it can happen, some people say it can't, but the evidence is there, and a black woman, she's a pretty black woman.

Commissioner Meyer.

Dr. Scott, congratulations, there could not have been a better choice, you deserve this, I'm so excited for this county, we are in great hands, and to the manager, thank you for seeing her value.

I mean, well, how can I add to all those? Uh, I mean, we all feel it and, um, and we've gotten to know you and, uh, I just want to say I'm a big admirer and I know that you've got this. I feel so confident in your ability and in your heart. And I really do. Um, I don't know. I just really see that this is going to be, uh, an amazing opportunity for you and for us. So thank you for what you do and what you bring to this.

Well, thank you, colleagues. You know, Dr. Scott, obviously this board and the manager and this entire community has tremendous faith and confidence in you. We have since the first time we met you. It's continued and it's only grown. to see you where you are now. I know what it's like when you have big shoes to fill and you're coming behind that, but like I've told you before, continue to be you. And I will say to your mom and your sister, thank you so much for being here. You have just produced just a tremendous individual, a tremendous person. And we are just grateful and thankful. And the last thing I would say is you really touched me when you referenced your dad. And as someone who understands that feeling, I can unequivocally tell you that his spirit is here with you today. And he is extremely proud. So thank you. Congratulations, Dr. Scott, to you and your family.

Okay. So for the next item under my manager's report, Mr. Chair, I'm actually going to hitch a ride to an acknowledgement you made at the opening of this meeting, and this is pertaining to Commissioner Dunlap. And this time it is on behalf of all county employees. For the next item under my manager's report and on behalf of my executive team, the Cabinet, along with the more than 6,400 members of our organization, I would like to take a point of personal privilege to officially and publicly extend a heartfelt congratulations to Commissioner George Dunlap of District 3 on becoming the president of the National Association of Counties, commonly referred to as NACO. Commissioner Dunlap's journey to the presidency has been more than 18 years in the making. However, he could not have been sworn in at a more opportune time. This appointment comes at a very critical time when counties nationwide are monitoring and mounting responses to state and national policies challenging county authority and our ability to serve our local communities. As most of you are aware, in his role as president, Commissioner Dunlap will lead an organization of more than 3,069 counties and over 40,000 elected leaders in its advocacy efforts at the federal level while also providing critical resources to advance legislative priorities at the state level in unique service to our community. This major accomplishment is one of great pride for our organization. Our team is incredibly energized and excited for this new historic opportunity to elevate our work and outline priorities. Commissioner Dunlap's election makes him the first Mecklenburg County representative to serve as president in NACO's 91 year history. While this marks a historic milestone for our community and organization, our team, Team Metco, acknowledges that this accomplishment is bigger than the presidency. Commissioner Dunlap, from your time in the Armed Forces to law enforcement, school board, to the Board of County Commissioners, and now President of the National Association of Counties, your service and record as a bridge builder advocate and problem solver makes you the ideal individual to represent our organization and this entire community. Your work and influence as president will be instrumental in the county's ability to effectively promote our priorities in Raleigh and Washington, D.C. on behalf of all 1.2 million Mecklenburg County residents. Our entire team commend you for your decision to lead in this new capacity. The team would also like to thank you for your decision to prioritize youth initiatives as part of your Building Better Futures platform. The national attention and potential resources you will bring with this focus will be critical to our ongoing intergovernmental efforts to reexamine how we work to improve outcomes for our youth. When it comes to promoting local government priorities, I believe there is no greater institution to represent the needs and work of localities across this county than our National Association of Counties. The direct and indirect ripple effect of Commissioner Dunlap serving as NACO's president has already started yielding meaningful benefits to our community and organization. As Chairman Jarrell announced earlier this year during his State of County Address, Thanks to Commissioner Dunlap's leadership, NACO's large urban county caucus and board of directors will be bringing its winter meeting to Charlotte-Mecklenburg in December. This three-day conference will yield more than a spotlight for our work. It will showcase Mecklenburg County and our partners in a way that will establish new and renewed opportunities to improve outcomes for our residents. And just last month, At the annual NACO conference, Mecklenburg County initiatives and programs were front and center, from efforts related to our opioid overdose and settlement work, to youth mental health programming, to cost-saving tactics and curating employees' benefits, and our work in leveraging arts and culture to drive our local economy. I'm so proud to report that Mecklenburg County's work and team received great praise and admiration In addition to the national recognition of our work, after ascending to the presidency, Commissioner Dunlap was extremely intentional in appointing members of our team to key influential leadership and advocacy roles. Commissioner Dunlap, we applaud your decision to appoint Deputy County Manager Dr. Kim Campbell to serve on NACO's Human Services and Education Policy Steering Committee and appointing Deputy County Manager Michelle Atree to serve on the NACO Finance Pensions and Intergovernmental Affairs Policy Steering Committee, and appointing me to serve on the NACO Community Economic and Workforce Development Policy Steering Committee. As if that was not enough, both deputy county managers were selected to serve as vice chairs of their respective boards. We also applaud your decision to appoint our just-announced Public Health Director, Dr. Kimberly Scott, to serve as Subcommittee Vice Chair of NACoS Public Health and Healthy Communities Subcommittee and appointing Housing Innovation and Stabilization Services Division Director, Karen Pelletier, to serve as Vice Chair of the Healthy Counties Innovation Council. Not to mention, congratulations are certainly in order for our very own Mecklenburg County Commissioner, Susan Rodriguez McDowell of District 6, who has been reappointed to serve on NACO's Arts and Culture Innovation Council. In addition to her national appointment, Commissioner Rodriguez McDowell was also unanimously elected as the new District 12 Director for the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. further amplifying Mecklenburg County's voice on the state and national level. Commissioner Dunlap, our team is incredibly grateful for what you have accomplished thus far, and we look forward to what the future will hold during your time as president. Now, before we proceed with the rest of the meeting, I will be the first to admit that it is pretty rare for staff to acknowledge an elected official in this manner. However, the energy, the pride, along with the state and national influence that has come as a result of Commissioner Dunlap's appointment, it makes this different. To Chair Jarrell and the rest of the board, my team and I could go on and on about our excitement and the importance and impact Commissioner Dunlap's decision to serve as President of NACO. However, we acknowledge that we have a pretty busy night. So in the interest of time, I will simply say congratulations, Mr. President, We are so proud to have you representing us on the national stage. And on that note, I will ask our public information department to roll the video.

Commissioner Dunlap, when you think about his years of service from the military to the school board, county commission, what he's meant to this community, what he's meant to this board, his leadership, chair for six years, now chair emeritus, president of our national association, it's an amazing day, not only for him, but it's certainly a culmination of his service, his dedication to community, his dedication to people.

Motion carried.

Congratulations. It instills great pride from an employee perspective because it's one thing for your work to be recognized locally, regionally, but it's another to kind of have your work amplified on a national level. Today's a testament that the county story doesn't only resonate with Mecklenburg County or the state, in the House recognized on a national level. Over 3,000 counties listened to our story, listened to Georgia's story, and listened to what we are doing in Mecklenburg County, and thought that we were the right people to be in this position to move the organizations and counties forward.

In Mecklenburg County, We're a leader in so many spaces. I mean, there are so many counties across the country that look to us. Again, we are the North Star in so many of our spaces, whether it's human service and public safety, our land use and environmental services. And for George to come into this role and to be the leader of NACO and to, again, serve as the leader for these 3,000 counties that are part of the organization, I think it speaks volumes to his leadership, but just our work in Mecklenburg County.

I want to say thank you to my Mecklenburg County colleagues. for your support and partnership, for trusting me to represent us on this stage.

Having Commissioner Dunlap ascend to the office of president of the National Association of Counties, I'm ecstatic. There are 3,069 counties across this entire country, and the president of the association that these counties are affiliated with

from Mecklenburg County. He is going to be able to connect with people from all over the country, whether it's urban areas, rural areas, suburban areas. He'll be able to take best practices. He'll be able to push initiatives, he will be able to make sure that Mecklenburg County is in the forefront of pushing initiatives that will impact people across the country. And when you think about having that voice and the impact of that voice, he's carrying Mecklenburg County everywhere he goes with him.

So proud of this accomplishment. And I just want to say on behalf of all 6,400 employees in Mecklenburg County, Commissioner Dunlap, You make us proud and you represent us so very well.

I started this journey nearly 18 years ago and I've had lots of support throughout this journey. I'm happy to represent Mecklenburg County. I'm happy to represent the state of North Carolina. NACO is It is the vehicle for advocacy for anything county government. It's all about the counties. When there are no other voices speaking on behalf of the counties, NACO is there. And I am so humbled by the opportunity to serve and to represent all of them.

Commissioner Dunlap, again, on behalf of Mecklenburg County employees, I want to present you with this plaque. Mecklenburg County employees honor and celebrate Commissioner George Dunlap, 2026-2027 President, National Association of Counties. And in addition to that, We also framed a poster-sized picture. I don't know if you all saw this, but this picture was actually hanging on the billboard at the Forbes Street Garage. So we framed it as a keepsake for you as well.

Thank you so much.

I can move on.

I don't know if you have any words, but I'm done. Well, part B of this item, and I'm going to look to the chair to actually lead this, but just as background, during the remarks, that Commissioner Dunlap made at the conference. He announced his presidential spotlight, Building Better Futures. And over this presidential year, the spotlight calls on counties across the entire country to examine what they are doing for young people, invest upstream before a challenging become crisis, and take at least one concrete action to improve outcomes for youth in their communities. And as part of that spotlight, President Dunlap also launched a Youth Housing and Homelessness Task Force to focus on one of the most pressing challenges facing young people today. And his challenge was to ask all 3,069 counties to adopt a resolution. And Mecklenburg County wanted to lead by example And a copy of that resolution I have provided to our chairman to frame that up and read that and hopefully have the board approve it moving forward. Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, and thank you to staff for that wonderful package highlighting Commissioner and President Dunlap. To the manager's point, we definitely wanna make sure that we are supporting the president's initiative. And to that end, I'm gonna say we're the first ones to adopt this resolution at his direction. This is the resolution of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners adopting the principles of the Building Better Futures Spotlight. Whereas counties contribute to the well-being of young people through a range of services, programs, and partnerships that vary according to each county's structure, authority, and local needs. Whereas 14.3% of children under 18 live in poverty in the United States, posing significant barriers to educational attainment, health, and long-term economic opportunity. And whereas youth homelessness and housing instability remain significant challenges with sources estimating that approximately one in 30 youth ages 13 to 17 experience some form of homelessness over the course of the year. And whereas the nation is experiencing a decline in academic readiness, as indicated by reports of lower math and reading proficiency and a drop off in preschool attendance compared to pre-pandemic levels, which may significantly reduce academic potential long term and increase the need for out of school support. And whereas research consistently demonstrates that young people thrive when they have access to safe environments, stable relationships with caring adults, positive community connections, and access to behavioral and physical health supports. And whereas counties are well positioned to convene local partners including schools, families, employers, nonprofit organizations, civic groups, and community providers to expand opportunities for young people. And whereas Depending on state and local structures and authorities, counties may support after-school programming, tutoring, and homework assistance, mentorship, recreation, summer programs, workforce and career readiness opportunities, and programs that serve youth who are at risk of or involved in the juvenile justice system and may collaborate with schools, nonprofits, and community providers to expand access to behavioral and physical health services. And whereas counties make local decisions about direct investments in youth development, sports, education, recreation, and housing stability through budget appropriations, funding partnerships, and resource allocation decisions that reflect local priorities and community needs. And whereas strengthening opportunities and pro-social support systems for young people can improve long-term outcomes and reduce risk factors that contribute to justice system involvement. And whereas Mecklenburg County takes pride in its responsibility to protect and enhance the health, welfare, and safety of our youth in efficient, outcome-based, and cost-effective ways. And whereas approximately 14.2% of Mecklenburg County children live in poverty and approximately 8.1% children under age 19 are uninsured. And whereas the 2025 Community Health Assessment recognized that the youth rate of emergency department visits due to suicide attempts increased by approximately 94% from 2018 to 2024, demonstrating need for continued investment in youth behavioral health and prevention. And whereas middle school participants in the FY26 Do the Right Thing Challenge in Mecklenburg County identified bullying, cyberbullying, gun violence, school fights, suicide, or self-harm as the most common ways youth violence impacts their lives. And whereas through the Mecklenburg County Love Speaks Out Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program, 52% of youth surveyed during FY26 indicated they had experienced or were currently experiencing an unhealthy relationship. Whereas through its partnership with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, the Mecklenburg County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council invests over $2 million annually to support impactful evidence-based community intervention and prevention programs. And whereas Mecklenburg County's Park and Recreation Department contributes to the wellbeing of young people through a range of services, programs, and partnerships, more than 10,000 Mecklenburg County youth participate every year and mcprd mecklenburg county park and rec department programming from summer camp youth athletics and out of school programming at our community centers nature centers and athletic facilities and whereas Through the Building Better Futures Spotlight, the National Association of Counties is mobilizing counties across the country to assess their youth investments, strengthen upstream supports, and take concrete action to improve outcomes for young people. And now therefore be be resolved that Mecklenburg County commits to the building better future spotlight principles to improve outcomes and opportunities for young people in our community. Mecklenburg County pledges to share what we learn with other counties and encourages all county officials, employees and residents to join in this effort. In keeping with this commitment, Mecklenburg County resolves to assess our county's current investment programs and partnerships that support youth and identify opportunities to strengthen and build on what is already working, take at least one concrete action to strengthen opportunities and outcomes for young people in our community, which may include expanding or enhancing after-school mentorship or youth development programming, improving access to behavioral health services for youth, supporting youth who are at risk or involved in the juvenile justice system, assessing and addressing youth housing instability and homelessness, strengthening connections between youth and educational or workforce opportunities, other locally identified priorities that improve outcomes for young people. Share our progress and lessons learned with NACO and peer counties to contribute to a national network of policy and practice. Signed this day, this fifth day of August 2026, Mark D. Jarrell Mecklenburg, Board of County Commissioners.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Any comments? Commissioner Powell.

It's missing a word. It should say way more than 10,000 Mecklenburg County youth participate every year in Mecklenburg County Park and Rec programming because I think I saw 10,000 in camp. I mean, just so many. So it's well over 10,000. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. But it's awesome. Thank you.

I just think it's a phenomenal theme, Mr. President, building better futures. I think we kind of talked a little bit about that, about the Graham Street site. Put my plug in for Graham Street. But, no, clearly we have a lot of work to do, and I appreciate your leadership in this particular space. And you mentioned academic readiness. They got me, so I'm there with you, and I'll ride this boat wherever it takes me, as long as you're there, sir, leading the way. Appreciate you. Thank you. Commissioner Meyer.

Well, if we're doing plugs, I do want to highlight and thank you for this, particularly about behavioral health for our youth. So thank you for that.

Yes, sir. Well, I will say that much of what you heard was shaped by the conversations that we've had here at the diocese. So you would see your work embedded in the resolution.

Fantastic. Thank you, sir. All right. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to say congratulations from the bottom of my heart, George. I'm so proud of you. And I've been here, I've been beside you for the last eight years and watched you and how you've taken this on. And I just want to say it's It's been great to see your example and, um, and to see how you've handled it. And so I just want to say you've made me proud and, uh, I think you've made our, our board proud. So thank you.

Absolutely.

Yeah. I just want to say, um, as the newest, uh, County commissioner, Um, what a great time to be here because I get to learn from the best and you were selected as the best. So lead the way I'm so anxious to learn all that I can. Congratulations. And I, what, when I talk about, you know, what we do, and then I get to say that my colleague and a colleague that I have leads the nation. in what all counties are supposed to do, that makes me tremendously proud. So very appreciative and congratulations.

Fantastic.

Do you have anything? Yes. I completely agree with you, Commissioner Townsend-Egram. It is fantastic. so special to, in the entire history of NACO's organization, to get to serve at a moment in time when our own dear, respected, beloved senior member, Chairman Emeritus, you know, gets to achieve this, not only to forward the vision that all of us have and that we've developed together, but for urban counties everywhere and for counties everywhere. And you are such... a great statesman in terms of talking to people who may have a different background but sort of diplomatically reaching that common ground to actually make progress. I just think you're tremendously placed to do great work for all of us. And it's a huge lift. It's a huge ask of you. I cannot even imagine what your calendar looks like. It truly is. a service that you are rendering to all of us. And I'm just very grateful to you. And I could not respect you more. Thank you.

Well, we are all proud. And I had a chance to say remarks earlier, so I'll just ditto what everyone else has said. Just congratulations. Well deserved. Thank you. With that, Mr. Manager, I'll turn it back over to you. You vote. Oh. Yeah, why don't we vote on this thing? How about that? All those in favor, let's see you by raising your right hand. All right. That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

For the next item under my manager's report, I'm going to ask that our Intergovernmental Affairs Manager, Lissette Nimmins, and Director for the Office of Management and Budget, Adrian Cox, make their word to the podium. As you know, recently the state of North Carolina adopted their budget, and tonight they're going to provide you an update on their budget and key legislation. With that, Mr. Chair, please recognize the two of them.

You guys are recognized. Thank you.

Good evening. Good evening. I won't comment on how I got to follow all of this great news, but I do have something to share. We do have a budget, so that's good news. I'll start by just giving a bit of a background. So Governor Josh Stein signed Senate Bill 257, titled the 2026 Appropriations Act, on July 7, 2026. Just say next slide when you need me to change.

Okay.

All right. Next slide. So this evening, I, along with our Mecklenburg County budget director, Adrian Cox, will provide an update on key provisions in the budget, including salary increases, support for the administrative office of the courts, the Dominique Moody Safety Act, elimination of the Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses, House Bill 171, Equality and State Agencies Prohibition on DEI, cancellation of state transportation improvement program, or STIP projects, and supplemental nutrition assistance program, or SNAP, pass-through costs. We will also identify pertinent legislation and administrative rules on the horizon, and these are related to tax legislation, as well as one proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget governing federal funding. Next slide. So I'll start with a high level funding overview. As you can see in the slide in front of you, the budget provides $1.6 billion for state agencies and UNC campuses. This includes $200 million for state agency repairs and renovations and $200 million for UNC repairs and renovations. It also releases $208.5 million for Children's Hospital in Wake County, and that funding comes from the ARPA Temporary Savings Reserve. It funds the Propel North Carolina workforce-driven funding model to ensure community colleges are prepared to meet the needs of all students and job creators. The budget provides approximately $3.1 million to improve administration of the SNAP program. Approximately $2.8 million is recurring. This funding will support improvements to the electronic case management system, NC FAST, support efforts to reduce SNAP payment error rates. and create seven continuous quality improvement training specialist positions to increase training and technical assistance to support County DSS. The budget sets personal income tax rate reductions starting with a cut from 3.99% to 3.49% in 2027 and guaranteeing a rate of 2.99% by 2032 with the goal of hitting a 2.49% rate. The budget also provides for an average 8% raise for certified teachers and bonuses paid by years of service, 3% increase for all state employees, and a bonus based on their salary. $1 billion in funding for Medicaid rebates and $847 million of that is recurring and $200 million is from the contingency reserve. There's also $700 million for Hurricane Helene relief with $450 million to secure the $2.2 billion federal match. Next slide, please. So now I'll highlight a few provisions in the budget that provide positive impact for counties. Next slide. I'll start with the statewide salary increases you see in front of you. As mentioned, certified teachers will receive an average 8% raise and bonuses based on years of service. The base salary for beginning teachers is increased to $48,000 before local supplements. There's also a 3% increase across the board for all state employees, including school principals and non-certified staff. and a 6.3% salary increase for assistant principals based on the teacher salary schedule and that schedule is set by the state is a minimum pay scale based on years of experience and education level. The average raise for a State Bureau of Investigation and Alcohol Law Enforcement officers is 20.3%. And SBI civilian personnel will receive an average of 27.5%. state highway patrol officers will see an average increase of 17.7%. And lastly, correctional officers will see an average increase of 15.4%. Probation and parole officers will receive an average increase of 10.1%. And other law enforcement officers will see an increase of 13%. Next slide, please. So the slide in front of you also shows where the budget provides additional funding to the administrative office of the courts. So roughly 2.9 million in recurring funding and $63,784 in non-recurring funding is allocated to support 18 full-time assistant district attorney positions statewide. Over 400,000 in recurring funding and roughly 13,000 in non-recurring funding is allocated to support 6.4 additional magistrate positions statewide. So to name a few, Avery, Cabarrus, Franklin, Iredell, New Hanover, and Wilson counties will receive one additional position under the magistrate section, and the part-time position in Burke County is converted to a full-time position. Next slide. The budget also includes language from the Dominique Moody Safety Act, which was previously introduced as a standalone bill. This includes creation of a child welfare case escalation team responsible for conducting escalation assessments of juveniles with a history of involvement with Child Protective Services, or CPS. The team is tasked with supporting county departments of social services, providing an additional level of review, providing quality assurance of the CPS history of a returning family and assessing the quality of prior service intervention and further decisions of services. With regard to funding under this provision of the bill, 550,000 in recurring funds from the general fund will be appropriated to DHHS under the Division of Social Services for six full-time equivalent positions to staff and implement this child welfare escalation team. And $100,000 in non-recurring funds from the general fund will be appropriated to DHHS to support training for county CPS employees and social workers to recognize abuse and neglect. Next slide, please. So to quickly go through other impacts to counties, next slide. The budget abolishes the office for historically underutilized businesses and the North Carolina small business enterprise program will now be administered through the office of purchase and contract. The bill also strikes identifiers aside from small business and this includes the terms minority, physically handicapped and women. So this will impact contracts and participation from MWB's. Next slide. Another significant change includes technical corrections to House Bill 171, Equality and State Agencies Prohibition on DEI. So to provide a bit of history here, the bill prohibits state agencies from promoting, supporting, implementing, or maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, including using DEI in hiring and employment, maintaining DEI offices, or offering or requiring DEI training. It also prohibits a state agency or unit of local government from one, using state funds or public money to promote, fund, implement, or maintain DEI initiatives. and two, applying for or accepting or using federal funding that requires compliance with DEI policies. The bill does not apply to short-term guest speakers or performers, to data collection, to the North Carolina State Commission on Indian Affairs, Indian Education Services and Positions, or the celebration of any holiday, observance, or remembrance. Next slide. So this bill passed the House and Senate in June of last year and was vetoed by the governor in July of last year. So the original effective date that we saw was July 1st of 2026. But because this bill has not become law, they had to revisit those dates, which is what you see in front of you. So the technical corrections provided for in the budget change this effective date to July 1st of 2027. In addition, starting February 1st of 2028, state agencies and units of local government will be required to prepare a report to the state auditor detailing actions to ensure that they've acted in compliance. This report must also be posted on each entity's website. Also, beginning April 1st, 2028, the state auditor shall prepare an annual report of information received from these entities and submit that report to the Joint Legislative Commission on governmental operations and to the General Assembly. So the House voted to override House Bill 171 on June 24th. The Senate has not yet taken up this motion. bill on the floor for a vote to override. So we will continue to monitor this. Um, in addition, the house also passed the Senate's adjournment resolution earlier today, which allows them to meet through November. So we could see this, um, potentially on the floor between now and that date. Next slide. The budget also includes language from a standalone amendment we previously reported on governing the cancellation of state transportation improvement programs or the STIP projects. So effective retroactively to January 1st of this year, 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 the Metropolitan Transit Transportation Improvement Program or a comprehensive transportation plan after that project has commenced, any local government that voted in favor is responsible for reimbursing the Department of Transportation. The cost incurred could include preliminary engineering, environmental studies, consultant fees, labor, and other expenditures. The DOT will not provide state funding or fund other projects under the STIP until they are fully reimbursed. Any unit of local government that voted against the I-77 South project will not be required to reimburse a DOT if that unit of local government votes to reinstate the October 16, 2024 resolution within 90 days of the effective date of this legislation. The effective date was July 1st of 2026. So you're looking at 90 days from that date. In some Mecklenburg County would need to reverse his vote with the Charlotte regional transportation planning organization to avoid this reimbursement requirement. Next slide. The budget also provides that benefit and administrative costs included in HR one related to snap shall be passed down to counties. This could result in a significant increase in program administration fees, and will require counties to pay the full state match for SNAP benefit cost if the state does not achieve their target error rate. Next slide. So in this last section, I'll walk through a few pieces of legislation as well as federal rules on the horizon. Next slide. The first bill you see here governing property tax is House Bill 1089, which passed the House and Senate and provides for a referendum on the ballot November 3rd to allow voters to decide whether the state constitution should be amended to require the General Assembly to enact a property tax levy limit. The second is Senate Bill 992, titled Truth in Taxation, which would, one, require a resolution passed by local government to adopt a tax rate above revenue neutral. Two, require notice of intent published in the newspaper and on the county's website. Three, require a public hearing on the issue of exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate. And four, require notice of intent by first class mail to property owners at least 14 days before the hearing. Notice can be provided electronically if the taxpayer has consented to such. This will create challenges for approving tax rates above revenue neutral after revaluation and also could place the county at risk for paying refunds if public notice requirements are not met. This bill has not passed the House. It was actually withdrawn from the House calendar and re-referred to the Rules Committee on July 1st of this year. The last item I'll address on the horizon. Next slide, please. is the proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget on uniform guidance governing federal funding. This proposed rule provides for amendments to over 450 sections in uniform guidance governing the administration of grants, cooperative agreements, and pass-through awards received to state and local government, nonprofits, universities, and other entities. These changes would take effect at the beginning of the fiscal year, October 1st, 2026. So to highlight several key amendments, the first provides for broader discretion in terminating an award if the termination is in the interest of the federal agency or pass-through entity. The proposed rule also prohibits use of award funding to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate DEI programs, gender ideology, or transition of a child under 19. It also restricts discrimination on the basis of the viewpoint, content or subject matter of speech in providing services for events, meetings or other activities. So this applies even if the public entity is not using federal funds for these types of activities or events. Merely being a recipient of federal funding places us under this requirement. Next slide. Next, the proposed rule requires an entity to ensure any subrecipient is not causing reputational harm to the entity, agency, or federal government. The proposed rule also requires that program goals align with the administration's policies and priorities. And lastly, the proposed rule prohibits the use of federal funds to support issue advocacy that promotes social, political, or policy positions not tied to the purpose of the award. So at this time, I will pause and turn it over to Adrian. He's going to provide a more detailed discussion of the SNAP costs and the impact to the county.

All right. Thank you so much. You can go to the next slide, please. So North Carolina is one of the 10 states with a locally administered Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and it is supervised by the state. This means that the administration and determination of benefits is largely the role of counties with the support and oversight by the State Department of Health and Human Services. The Federal Budget Reconciliation Act, H.R. 1, that was signed into law last July has several implications to SNAP, which are also reflected in the state budget with an impact to counties. First, as we expected, the state budget includes the decrease to the reimbursement to counties from 50% to 25% for administrating the SNAP program. We have anticipated this decrease, which will have a $7.5 million impact for the current fiscal year and is already factored in the budget that has been approved and will have a $10 million impact annually. Next slide. In addition to these changes, H.R. 1 also includes penalties to states with payment error rates of over 6%. Payment error rate is based on a sample of SNAP cases throughout the state that have an over or an under payment amount. H.R. 1 will require states to pay a percentage of the SNAP benefits in federal fiscal year 28 based on their error rates from federal fiscal year from either federal fiscal year 25 or federal fiscal year 26, which is the year we are currently in. Statewide error rates of 6%, but less than 8% would pay 5% of the benefits. Rates higher than 8% but below 10% would pay 10% of the benefits, and an error rate of more than 10% would require states to pay 15% of the SNAP benefits. Based on last year's data, a 5% benefit match would cost the state of North Carolina approximately $150 million. The most recent report that we have for federal fiscal year 2025 includes five months from last October up until February, and it reflects a statewide error rate of 6.5%, which would trigger the 5% match in the upcoming year if it does not improve before October 2026. The recently adopted state budget includes a provision that would recoup any cost of these penalties should they occur by withholding revenues from our two cent local sales tax impacting both counties and municipalities. Next slide. The formula adopted by the state allocates a portion of any penalties in two parts. First, 0.75% would be reduced from the sales tax from all counties. And by county, here what I mean is the countywide distribution of our local sales tax that goes to both the county government and the share distributed to cities and to towns. The remainder of the penalty would be based on a county's sales tax and its share of the statewide error rate. The Fiscal Research Division of the General Assembly prepared an illustrative calculation of this formula using data from 2025 and a copy of this has been included within your agenda material. The illustrative calculation by the Fiscal Research Division results in a countywide impact of $62 million for the county, the city, and the towns. In this scenario, the loss of revenue specifically to Mecklenburg County's budget would be $41.5 million. I also recreated the estimate by the Fiscal Research Division using the partial year of data from the current 2026 federal fiscal year, and the result is somewhat better. at $44.6 million countywide and $30 million just to Mecklenburg County. The estimates for the full year of data for federal fiscal year 2026, which will most likely be the basis year for determining the cost share penalties for our next fiscal year, will not be known until around February after the federal year closes in October. Next slide. So here is the formula for recouping the penalties that the state approved in the budget. This is a complicated way of determining how the penalty is allocated, and I'm happy to walk anyone through each step using a spreadsheet at another time if there's an interest. But I have listed the main points here on this slide. Higher sales tax will mean a higher withholding. A higher error rate will also mean a higher withholding. Error rates are based upon a very small sample size and may not provide an accurate representation. And the formula, especially when it is combined, with the penalty tiers that are defined in HR1 could result in very wild swings in penalties that are withheld from counties' sales taxes each year. Next slide. So, based off of what we know today, the possible budget impact is significant, ranging from $0 if the statewide penalty rate falls below that 6% up to approximately $120 million if we trigger the 15% cost share statewide. A more likely scenario is that we have a 5% penalty as a state And the annualized impact to the Mecklenburg County budget would likely be between 30 million and 42 million. And these are very wide ranges, and we do not know for certain until around February when we have the data from the current federal fiscal year. Next slide. Here is an example of how the cost sharing penalties might impact the city, the towns, using the scenario that was calculated by the fiscal research division. And you can see that based on the city and towns portion of the two cent local sales tax, the potential revenue loss would be more than 1% of their total general fund budgets. Next slide. There is potential that the impact will not hit us in fiscal year 2028. The statewide error rate could be reduced below the 6% threshold before the end of federal fiscal year 2026 in October. However, I will note that the state has not achieved an error rate below 6% since 2019 or since pandemic related waivers were in place in 2020 and 2021. There were some years when the statewide error rate would have triggered the 15% cost share in 2022 and in 2024. Also, new SNAP requirements became effective in December, and these changes may impact our error rates, and we have not seen the data for that impact yet. Also, Congress could also delay the cost sharing penalty. Currently, only 14 states are below the 6% threshold. The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and other partners are working to request a two-year delay to the cost sharing penalties. Next slide. So the Economic Services Division of Child, Family, and Adult Services have made several changes to try to reduce potential payment errors. The division has restructured to allow teams to focus on a single function. They have established weekly leadership meetings to identify opportunities for continuous improvements to the process. They have increased their quality sampling reviews. They have also extended the mentoring period for new hires and accuracy expectations. And North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has contracted with a vendor to provide business process redesign recommendations in an attempt to help lower payment error rates. It is important to understand that the State Department of Health and Human Services plays a critical role in supporting counties' efforts to reduce payment error. We are continuing to explore some ways to reduce error rates, including opportunities to leverage technology. But some elements of the payment error rate are beyond the county's control. And there is a short summary about payment error rates in your material, which highlight what the error rate is and what the error rate is not. Next slide. So a couple of key concerns about this change. First, the cost sharing penalties represent a significant shift of federal cost to local residents. The state's adopted formula for pushing the cost to local governments relies on a small set of sampling data. It is less than 1,000 samples statewide for 2025, and it also disadvantages large counties that receive more sales tax. The federal penalty and the state formula combined could result in some highly unpredictable and wide-ranging swings in revenue loss each year. And the state has not provided any additional revenue options to help offset the impact on all of the counties and cities and towns that will be impacted by the penalty if it is triggered. Next slide. So what options do we have as a county to respond to this change? Because this introduces a lot of uncertainty, there is a wide range of potential impacts on our revenue each fiscal year. It would be very challenging to try to offset SNAP cost-sharing penalties by expense reductions on an ongoing basis. If you could imagine in one year, there may be no penalty. In another year, it may be several million dollars. The Board should be aware that additional property tax revenue may be necessary in the upcoming years to cover the cost for SNAP benefits that were previously paid by the federal government. However, This may not be an option if property tax rate caps or caps on revenue neutral are established by the state. And if we have both cost sharing for SNAP and limitations on property tax rates, we would need to make reductions to services. We are continuing to work to reduce our share of the payment errors. But again, some of these elements of the payment error rate are beyond our control. The county should advocate for the state to cover the cost of SNAP cost sharing penalties rather than withholding local sales tax. And the county should also advocate for the federal government to delay or to even forego the SNAP cost sharing penalties that they have approved. So that completes my update.

Thank you. I know that was a lot of information and we will entertain questions and also. compile a list of questions that we may not have the answers to tonight. The budget was over 600 pages and moved through the General Assembly fairly quickly. Again, we gave you a snapshot, but I'm happy to take questions and follow up if we need to later.

All right. Senator Adrian, thank you for the presentation. I'm going to open up to questions. I am going to ask colleagues that just keep in mind we do have another presentation, so I'm going to ask us to kind of limit it to the big rocks that you want to really solve to right now, and then you can always follow up with staff on your own or in groups to go deeper. With that, I'll start with Commissioner Townsend-Ingram.

Thank you both very much for your presentations. It was very comprehensive, especially considering all of the details in the 600 pages. I guess my question is because we are quite frankly we're at a disadvantage in this county because we are predominantly one political party and it's our state legislature is basically controlled by another. Is there an appetite, you believe, or is there already established a government entity that or a committee that is established to specifically address opposing or alternative policies that can be implemented and strategies for addressing what may come? And I say that because it's very blatant that the policies that are being proposed, and I understand that it's been passed in one chamber and not another chamber of the government, but if these are put into effect, it will greatly impact the larger counties and usually the more democratically dense counties. Is there a government entity that has been established that will do nothing, not solve two, but come up with alternative policies that can be triggered if this goes into place, then this? I'll just leave it there.

And just to clarify, are you speaking of a body within the General Assembly or within the county or state?

Within the county or the state. Is there, I mean, because now we can leverage our president. I think that we should leverage our president of counties. And so I want to see a committee that and maybe that motion can be made if there isn't one, of a body that is addressing specifically alternative policies that can be triggered or that we will, you know, I don't like just kind of like being at the whim of whatever it is that they decide to pass or whatever triggers happen if if we achieve this error rate, then whatever. So I want something that kind of puts us ahead of the game, a strategy.

So quickly to answer your question, in terms of a government entity, no. But to one point you made, we do work with our associations to have conversations about how to advocate and have presented alternatives. So that would be my response.

Commissioner Leak.

Let me first say thank you for your presentations. And this is most important to this country as well as this county and as well as this state, this budget. One thing we know that the legislators have made their decisions of what the budget is and will be. What can we advocate for that we know that we might get some change to? My concern is teachers have always been a teacher working in the school system. The cafeteria, those funds coming from the cafeteria by children who pay their lunch money, what happens to those funds? That's number one. Are they included in the increase as it relates to salary increase to cafeteria workers and custodians. These are individuals who need those increases as well as others across this country and across this county and state. That's number one. Number two, Teach for America. They've made 12.5% more than the regular teacher. So then where are those funds coming from? Who determines who will make those funds? How much is available? And if those persons are actually teaching or are they administrators? So I need to know that part of the education component of this budget coming from state of North Carolina. We have representatives. We pay for people to represent us. We go down to Raleigh, we ask for 12 or 13 things. We know we're not going to get it. Three things is the least we should be trying to seek a change in, and I've always said that. So, Mr. Chairman, I'm going to stop there, but there are other issues. I've worked in the school system. I've been a teacher. I've always worked for the community and didn't just start. So I need to know those issues and not play footsies with groups of individuals to try to get things to happen, but making sure that all of us can make a decent living and take care of our families.

Thank you.

So I have more, but these are the three most important things that I want covered as it relates to this budget and what can we change or not change.

Thank you, Commissioner. So I'm assuming you'll follow up.

Yes, and just to clarify, that 3% increase across the board does apply to bus drivers and cafeteria staff. And I know Commissioner Leake and I talked earlier. I'll follow up with responses to the questions we talked about related to Teach for America and some other things we discussed. I can't hear you. So when we talked earlier, I wrote down the list of questions that we discussed. And so I'll follow up with responses to those.

Thank you. Commissioner Powell, then Commissioner Griffin.

Thank you. Are the towns aware before today of the potential impact?

Yes, they are.

Okay.

We provided them a summary of the potential impacts last week. I did speak with our city manager, Marcus Jones, about this as well. The equivalent of NACO, the League of Municipalities, they are advocating for a delay also. So there's an awareness about these penalties not only impacting the county, but the city and the towns across the entire state.

Thank you.

And because of those reasons, to go back to Commissioner YTI's question, this is a bipartisan concern. It's not just Democrat or Republican communities. It is communities from both sides of the aisle that have concerns about this legislation.

Right. I understand.

Especially if the state hasn't gotten under 6% since 2019. Correct. I'm going to just say my whole question so I don't run out of time, but I really want to know what elements are beyond our control that we might have a future voice in. And maybe I need to meet offline with you, Adrian, because you said so many elements are out of our control.

When I was speaking of the payment error rate, I mentioned that some of the elements might be beyond our control. They could be errors that are caused by the person receiving the benefit put in the wrong information. And then as part of the quality control that happens by the USDA or by the state, they have more information available. That's one example of how a payment error rate may come up that is beyond our control, but some elements are within our control.

So from Raleigh, I hear all the time, that this is how they want to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. I don't think there's anyone here that wants to continue with any waste, fraud, and abuse. So, you know, like when we're hearing this presentation, it kind of feels like a funeral. Like it really feels like a funeral. And I think how can we meet with them to talk about, you know, how can we meet with the General Assembly in some way to talk about how we work on reducing fraud, waste, and abuse, because nobody wants that. How do we work together so that it's not such a funeral? How do we work so that we can make a difference in a meaningful way without getting penalized for the whole entire state? And I keep thinking of Rusty.

You know, Rusty... Commissioner, you're going to have to wrap it up because we're going to keep it going.

I'm just looking at the county manager. But, you know, like, just troubleshooting. Like, how do we work together? Because I think this is not a great... path. Thank you.

And I'm going to ask you to answer that offline. Well, go ahead, Adrian.

Just quickly, because you mentioned waste, fraud, and abuse, and I want to be clear, the PER rate does not account for fraud rates. It is overpayments and underpayments. So that's not what we're talking about when we're talking about the payment error rate that is being used to determine what these penalties will be.

Thank you.

Let me go to Commissioner Griffin, please. Just to There's clearly gonna be questions I'll be submitting to both of you, but it just reminds me of post-Reconstruction or Rhodesia, where we are responsible. As I understand it, most of these programs are state programs. SNAP is a state program administered by local counties. And because of how they fund, how they use technology to run these programs, We're going to penalize the counties for administering the state programs if there happens to be things beyond our control, even potentially. That is absolutely insane. So my question to you is, is there any discussion, since we are one of 10 states, that there are 40 states and many territories that don't administer SNAP the way we do, is there any discussion about changing the way North Carolina runs the SNAP program is one question. Second question deals with the penalties. As I understand it, if the state error is 6.5 or whatever it is, in excess of 6.5 or whatever that percentage is, counties are responsible? Or is it the counties that have excess Error rate, hold on, I'm trying to put my time go away. All right, hold on. And the other piece is regarding the Moody piece earlier and the allocation of the $600,000 for six full-time positions. Is there any response to that $600,000 to the state director's response to some of the issues that were raised in that legislation.

Can we go to SNAP first? So for SNAP, first, I would actually describe SNAP as a federal program that then the states have some responsibility for how they go about doing it. And in North Carolina, the state has, in essence, said this is going to be locally administered. So the state has the oversight for SNAP, but it is locally administered. So the error rate, what triggers from HR1 is that 6% threshold. That would trigger the 5% penalty for any state. Our state has decided that that penalty rate, if it is triggered, would be paid for by withholding local sales tax. And in terms of how that calculation works, if we have a penalty, every county will pay some. And if we have a penalty, some counties will pay more based upon both their sales tax and their proportion of the state's error rate. So the state could have an error rate of over 6% and you as a county could have an error rate below 6% and you would still pay a portion of the penalty.

Commissioner Griffin, my view of the community legislation, I can't tie it to the State Director, but you'll recall that Representatives Cunningham and Chesser proposed legislation to create this escalation team, and I believe that is in response to that.

I'll follow up, but there's some more to that piece. Thank you. Did you have something?

You don't don't feel obligated. I'm speechless. This is so much garbage in here that I just can't even speak to it. I'm outraged.

There's so much garbage in it.

Commissioner Meyer.

Okay. I understand the error rate. I just want to make clear the error rate for people who don't understand, who are listening, that's human error. These are just human errors, correct?

That's correct.

Okay. And how is this, Adrian, you're a math person, mathematically, how does this make sense for if we have to spend $42 million, I take it that goes to the federal government and they want to save money, but they're costing us money. So how is this saving money over the whole thing?

So one of the points I mentioned is a is a key concern, is that this is a shift of federal costs to the local resident. So the federal benefits primarily paid for with income taxes, the revenue levers that you have are really limited to property tax.

So I want people to understand, residents to understand, that when we have to pay this penalty to the federal government, it's going to affect them directly the services that we provide right here. Those are going to be cut. Would you say that's probably about true?

That is a potential outcome.

I just want that. I mean, I understand it and I want people to hear that.

And connecting the dots as Adrian mentioned, you got the penalties here. If the voters approved to place a cap on property taxes, then there, and depending what the details of that is, you have that limitation. then as you know, we are set to have a property revaluation in 27, and if there is a cap on the revenue neutral tax rate, that limit the current levers we have to account for these penalties. So yes, not only would there be cuts, but if there are cuts, it would not just be only Mecklenburg County services. I would have to look at our partners as well. which is inclusive of education, community college, our criminal justice partners also. Mecklenburg County services alone cannot absorb this potential impact. I would have to look at everything across our entire budget for consideration.

Thank you for that. I'm glad. I hope people are hearing this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Dunlap.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not really a conspiracy theorist. However, if you think about everything that's being discussed here, considering the fact that the legislatures are limiting the amount of taxes we can raise, at the same time they are reducing the corporate sales tax. And now they've instituted or planning to institute all of these different penalties, think about it. Counties like Mecklenburg are going to be used to pay that same money that they're reducing the tax from. We're going to be supporting state government, any way you look at it. We're doing it already.

We're doing it already.

To me, that's ludicrous. just some of the things that they're talking about instituting. Specifically, a 14-day window of time where you must notify people by first-class mail. Everybody knows that the mail system is not reliable. I mean, if you really think about some of the things that they're doing, it just doesn't make sense. I don't know what levels we have to push that will cause them to change their mind and to consider the fact that we have people who have been elected by the residents of this county supporting this kind of legislation really causes me concern. And I try to stay out of politics on the board when it comes to talking about Republican and Democrats. But it's incumbent upon us to make sure that we elect people who understand government and understand how government functions because it is clear to me that some of the people that we're hearing from that are making these decisions clearly don't understand government.

Thank you. Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on slide three, where it talks about the income tax rate plan to drop, I really want to speak to the Republicans who can hear me. If you have family members, if you have neighbors, if you, if, if you're hearing my voice, I believe that all North Carolinians value public schools. and police officers and libraries and roads and trash. and parks and greenways, because I've heard people say it on a bipartisan basis. We cannot fund services that just make for a decent society if taxes continue to shrink and shrink and shrink. And so that's the first thing that I want to just remind us about. Regarding on slide 12, the the issue with the STIP and I-77, I just want to again say that I believe this legislation potentially illegally takes away the authority of the MPO to make transportation decisions for this community. And I believe that it may be a violation against bills of attainder in that it specifically targets Mecklenburg County. And I question the $60 million penalty that it seeks to impose as a number that may be inflated or wrong. And I will also note that where it says it requires Mecklenburg County to reverse the previous vote to avoid reimbursement, I received a directed vote from this board. to vote no. So we always voted no. So there is no reversal by Mecklenburg County because this body, as their representative, I never voted yes. I always voted no. And so therefore, there is no universe under which it could possibly be appropriate for Mecklenburg County to have any liability under this law. Now, I call upon the Attorney General of North Carolina and the Attorneys General across this nation to come together and challenge this federal legislation to, because of its disproportionate impact on large counties, because of the ludicrous 1,000 sample size by which it comes to a conclusion that could result in tens of millions of dollars of liability for this county alone for us to be responsible for the whole state regardless of if we're doing a good job with our error rate. There's so many reasons that this should have a legal challenge at the federal level by banding together with other states there have to be due process violations here and we need our heavy hitters to go to bat. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Well said to all our colleagues. Adrian, I've got just a question about the trigger for SNAP and these penalties. When you're doing the math, it seems like it's disproportional what urban counties would cover. It's not even proportional if I'm looking at it correctly. Because if I heard you right, you're saying that everybody is going, regardless of where the state lands, everybody's going to have to pitch in. And, I mean, based on our sales tax, that distribution, it's not going to be – held back proportionally. Is that accurate or will it be proportional based on the error rate itself?

So there are multiple steps in the formula. And the first step is that every county would be impacted by 0.75% of their sales tax, regardless of whether the sampling for their county indicated any type of error. So all counties, even some counties that have been sampled and have found no error, would have to pay a small portion. The remainder of how that allocation gets applied is another step that has multiple steps within it. which compounds the amount that you are going to have to pay based upon, one, how much of your sales tax you receive in comparison to the overall sales tax, and how much of the error rate, of the state's error rate, the particular county is responsible for. As a larger county, we have a higher sales tax, And we do tend to have, there are several counties that have larger error rates, but because we are a large county, it is fairly common that we will be sampled just when they do their broad sampling.

But theoretically, a county, we could have a lower error rate than counties, but in payback, a disproportional share, I guess, is where I'm going with that. The two main drivers. Proportional, right.

That is correct. The two main drivers are your sales.

I just want to illustrate that point that it is, again, it's the larger counties that really have to carry the burden. for the entire state. You know, you've got five or six counties that are gonna have to carry the burden regardless. And this is no shot at, you know, suburban or rural counties. I don't mean it in that sense, but it's really trying to, again, if you think about what we're already making up for in unfunded mandates at $500 million and you couple this on, you know, this sort of another penalty on top of that, we know that the budget's gonna be hit possibly $30 million a year if we're lucky. So to Commissioner Meyer's point, Commissioner Dunn, and everybody's point, we're gonna be forced to make some very difficult decisions. And I think, and the other thing that I did hear you say, hamstringing us with this cap on the property tax rate, if we even wanted to try to make up for any of the money that was taken from us, it's gonna hamstring the manager and our staff as well. So there's gonna be some very difficult decisions. We're gonna have to educate the public on where they need to advocate to And to Commissioner Powell's point, the last thing I would say is, and she has said this and been really a great proponent of going to speak to our friends in Raleigh and trying to provide an olive branch, and I would just really submit that You have organizations like NACO, National League of Cities, League of Municipalities. You have organizations that are bipartisan organizations that are talking to Raleigh, talking to federal government, and they're not moving. So it's not like, I guess I just want to make sure that we're all clear that from my perspective and my vantage point, there is advocacy. that's going on across, you know, that's been going on and continues to go on. And it's not like these conversations are not being had. But they're, huh?

What I was speaking to was not advocacy. I know that we have advocacy.

I was talking about Commissioner Powell. I was saying, to Commissioner Powell's point, she's been a huge proponent of going to Raleigh. So I'm just saying we have all of these folks that are already advocating advocacy. And because of that, I mean, I encourage anybody, if you've got sources and resources and people that you can rely on to continue to advocate, but it's being done. Thank you for that. Appreciate it.

Mr. Chair, and I commend this board in understanding the dilemma that we're facing. As you summarize it in your own words, I also want to point out the multi-year effect of this. that the penalties can fluctuate. So even if we have the lever to adjust taxes, then that subsequent year, if there is no penalty, and we've already raised taxes to account from the prior year, the penalties, that fluctuation, it just calls another degree of uncertainty. So as you all summarized, the penalty factor, the cap on the property tax, the cap on the revenue neutral cap. I also want you to be mindful of the year-to-year uncertainty we would have with the penalties as it relates to trying to project what we should do as it relates to adopting our budget. Cut one year, and then the next year the penalties may not be as harsh. So then you shot yourself in the foot. So I just want to be clear as you all get a grasp on everything associated with this potential language.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lissette and Adrian. Well done. Okay, for the final item under my manager's report, we have a presentation from First and Early Capital. Gentlemen, go ahead and make your way down, please. The new owners of the land that comprises Brooklyn Village Phase One. As the board is aware, the Brooklyn Village project was planned as a three-phase mixed-use development project. Phase one, which is our focus tonight, is located at the site of the former Bob Walton Plaza and is known as Brooklyn Village South. Phases two and three, which are not subject of tonight's discussion, are the properties where the former Board of Education and Marshall Park are located. For context, for why you are receiving tonight's presentation, you are likely aware that the previous developer's lender obtained ownership of the phase one property from that developer in recent weeks. Subsequently, First and Early acquired that parcel of land. After acquiring the land, the First and Early team reached out to me and expressed an interest in discussing their plans for that property. Tonight, the First and Early team, which consists of co-founders, and managing partners, Mr. Collins and Mr. Early, are here to share with you their thoughts regarding the site, the uptown Charlotte real estate market, and the path they've envisioned thus far for this property and how it might impact the Brooklyn Village redevelopment project. I would like to stress that the information you will receive tonight will only focus on phase one of the redevelopment and represents the beginning stages of the county working with the first and early team to bring phase one of the Brooklyn Village project to fruition. Following tonight's presentation and the board's guidance and feedback, county staff will engage with the first and early team to complete items necessary for this phase of the project to take shape and determine what next steps might look like to move forward together. This reflects my commitment to getting this important development back on track which includes bringing affordable housing to this part of uptown while honoring the legacy and history of Brooklyn Village. As we progress along this path, the board will receive additional updates, including action items for consideration. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will turn it over to Mr. Collins and Mr. Early to give you more information about their plans for Phase 1 of Brooklyn Village. Gentlemen.

So good evening, Chair Jarrell, commissioners, county manager Bryant, county staff members, everyone joining us this evening. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. We're honored to provide the ownership update on Brooklyn Village South. Next slide, please. So tonight, our update is organized around four points. An introduction of who we are, share exactly what we purchased, and talk a bit about today's market, as well as talk through collaboration and next steps. Next slide, please. So before we discuss the property, we wanted to briefly introduce myself and my partner. My name is Andre Collins. I'm the co-founder and managing partner of First and Early Capital. Charlotte has been my home since 2009. I'm a proud graduate of Johnson C. Smith University. I was the first Belk scholar at John C. Smith University. I also received a full scholarship to attend John C. Smith University to compete in track and field. On the full scholarship, I also graduated with a degree in finance. I also went to UNC Charlotte to receive my master's in real estate finance and development. My career began as an intern at the Carolina's Minority Suppliers Development Council and NCDOT, followed by roles at Belk Inc., Lincoln Harris, where I also spent seven years and where I met my business partner Jubal Early. Jubal has called Charlotte home since 1984 and brings more than 40 years of commercial real estate experience. Our relationship began through mentorship and grew into partnership. Eventually, we made the decision to leave Lincoln Harris to build first and early together. We have now worked side by side for nearly 11 years. We bring different experience, perspectives, but we share the same values, the same commitment to Charlotte, the same belief that real estate should create meaningful and lasting impact. Through our affiliated advisory platform, First and Early Partners, we provide commercial real estate advisory, investment and development support throughout the state and the region. Our work has included assignments in several corridors of opportunities including Batesford Road, West Boulevard, West Charlotte, Sugar Creek and East Charlotte. We have served private sector clients, but we also understand the responsibility that comes with public sector work. Our team has worked closely and represented organizations including the City of Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and Central Piedmont Community College. Our culture has always been built around service, and we're actively involved in the community, serving on numerous civic, professional, educational, and non-profit organizations. We do not view community involvement as separate from our business. It's core to who we are and what we do, and it's how we define success. Juba and I are not absentee owners. We live here in Charlotte. Charlotte is our home. We are raising our families here. You might hear some kids behind here. My wife and my kids are here present. My mother-in-law family is here representing. but we serve organizations here and we have invested in Brooklyn Village purely because we believe deeply in the future of this city and the history of this site specifically. We also understand that this property carries a responsibility beyond ownership. Brooklyn Village is part of Charlotte's history. Our commitment is to bring local accountability, institutional discipline, and collaborative support and spirit into its next chapter. Next slide please. On June 25th, we acquired phase one of Brooklyn Village, Brooklyn Village South, former Bob Walton Plaza. This is not just a real estate site. It is Charlotte's history and future. Next slide, please. This site allows for a purposeful walk between Uptown, Midtown, Cherry, The Pearl, Marshall Park, and key civic assets. Its location makes it a catalyst. Next slide, please. Now, why this place matters? The opportunity is bigger than buildings. It is about reconnecting neighborhoods, honoring Brooklyn's legacy, creating a place where people can live, work, walk, learn, shop, gather, and belong. Next slide, please. What success looks like? Well, success is not just one metric. It's housing, local business, public space, walkability, streets that connect, not divide, county revenue, and community. Next slide, please. The Master Redevelopment Agreement, acronym for that we call MRA, so you'll hear me reference that. throughout the presentation. So the MRA, which stands for Mastery Development Agreement, was established in 2019 as the framework for the site. We respect this framework and the public commitments in it. But phase one is now separately owned, and the market is different. Next slide, please. So the market has changed. Although Charlotte remains strong as one of the strongest and fastest growing urban areas in the United States, the challenge is that delivery has become harder. Interest rates, construction costs, financing standards, and tenant behavior have all changed over the past eight years. Next slide, please. So in the office market, we believe office should remain in division, but the scale and timing should align with demonstrated demand. So in 2018, there was strong demand for office. More companies were expanding, relocating, larger leases, but in today's environment, it's more selective demand. fewer tenants looking for larger blocks, tenants comparing buildings carefully and choosing all the best options. In 2018, also, build for tenants in 2018 was more speculative, and then in today's market, lenders may require a major tenant, significant pre-leasing, and stronger evidence of demand before providing construction financing. In 2018, there was five-day office. Today's environment is hybrid, remote work. So companies typically in this market require less space to configure it differently. In 2018, there was easier financing for banks, investors, equity partners. But in today's market, financing is still available, but lenders require more equity, more pre-leasing, stronger guarantees. are smaller phases. Next slide, please. So in the retail market, retail really still matters, but success today is about active streets, local operators, dining experiences, and gathering, not simply just maximizing square footage. It's about activating street level, which is critical. So in 2018, where It was driven by square footage. The emphasis is more about whether retail helps to create attractive, walkable, active environment as well for local restaurants, service businesses, entrepreneurs, and so on.

Next slide, please.

Regarding the hotel market, hospitality should remain a future opportunity. but it should be market-driven, tied to operator interests and demand. Early in 2018, hotels would be incorporated towards the beginning of mixed-use projects. In today's market, hotel construction generally follows evidence of room demand, tourism growth, corporate-level travel events, and nearby economic activity. Next slide, please. Regarding the residential market, so housing still remains fundamental. The opportunity is to deliver housing in right size phasing with a mix of products as part of a complete neighborhood. So in 2018 when residential programming was predetermined or fixed, in today's market, it's delivered building by building, parcel by parcel, rather than requiring the entire residential program to begin all at once. As regards to Unit counts and unit focus. In 2018, success would be measured primarily by whether the required number of homes were delivered. In today's market, long-term success includes housing quality, affordability, design, public realm, local business support, tax revenue, and the durability of the neighborhood. Next slide, please. We are not walking away from affordability. We want to preserve the county's affordability commitment and work together on the best delivery strategy. So our ownership position here is to preserve the county's affordability commitment evaluate delivery within the entire Brooklyn Village vision, support implementation that strengthens both affordability and project success, and then use public and private financing tools where appropriate. Next slide, please. So the demand story is still strong for Charlotte region. So Charlotte is growing, Brooklyn Village should help to meet the demand of housing, jobs, investments, and community. Next slide please. So our goal is to preserve the public vision, align the delivery framework, and create clear financeable phase one path forward. So in preserving, in our efforts to work together and preserve, it's restoring our preserving Brooklyn's legacy, affordable housing, economic development, public spaces. As regards to alignment, it's phase one responsibilities, phasing and timing, flexibility and market responsiveness. for financing purposes as well. And as regards to delivery, it's homes, jobs, investments, tax base, and great neighborhood. Next slide, please. So regarding next steps, we are proposing a 75-day collaborative process. In that process, Step one is to collaborate through August through September, meeting with county leadership and staff, conduct joint market and data analysis, establish a phase one baseline. And step two is to align August through October. It's working to develop a recommended phase one framework, preserving the county's priorities, as well as refining the targeted master redevelopment updates. And then in September, return to provide Board of Commissioners update regarding the recommended framework and approve the path forward and authorize the county staff and council to complete the required agreement. Next slide, please. So Brooklyn is one of Charlotte's most important stories. Together, we have an opportunity to write this next chapter. So thank you for your time, thank you for your leadership, and thank you for your partnership.

Thank you for the presentation. So I know there's going to be a lot of questions. Colleagues, I'm going to give us some leeway on this because the manager and staff need to get some feedback from us, initial thoughts around this. So let me start with Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you very much. Thank you. It's nice to meet you. I, for one, am very excited that We're seeing some movement on this, so that's exciting. And just to reiterate, our utmost importance to us is affordable housing. I just want to really make that extremely clear. Honestly, I've not heard of First and Early. Can you tell us some of your other projects in the county? Sure.

So First and Early Capital is a newly established investment platform here in Charlotte. A lot more folks in Charlotte probably have heard more about First and Early Partners, which is our brokerage advisory platform. And we've done a lot of work with We mentioned the city, Central Piedmont Community College, and we've recently done a project in South Park representing a large insurance firm in terms of providing site selection for that firm and helping them with that execution. Jubal, might be able to speak more to that.

Thank you. Yes. First and Early Partners is primarily a brokerage operation. And I started my career in 1984 with the Bissell Companies. I was involved in a number of development projects while I was at Bissell. And then I handled the Caroline Building uptown. Went to work for Highwoods after that. and finished my career at Lincoln Harris after 24 years and was involved in a number of projects with them. Currently, I'm involved in the Town Bank project in South Park, where we are developing a 75,000 square foot local headquarters for town in conjunction with Johnny Harris, and also involved in the Am Winds project that the Keith Corporation is developing for Am Winds on Sharon Road. So those are our current projects. Andre, as he mentioned previously, was involved heavily with the city of Charlotte and their corridors of progress going in incognito and tying up properties that were being used for trafficking and drugs. And he was responsible for getting those tied up. The city demolished the improvements and got rid of the trouble that was lurking in those properties. So we do a wide range of activities for multiple clients.

Thank you. And obviously this is in very, very early stages. And there are no plans yet. There are no, you have no partners yet. What's the, and I'm sorry if I missed it, but what do you think the timeline, oh, I said to October. Okay, that's all, thank you.

If I could touch on that just a little bit. I mean, we're just here to tell you who we are. We are proud to be the owners of Brooklyn Village and having local control. because we are going to make sure that it's done correctly and it's done in a timely fashion and in phases that work for the community, the history, and for those individuals or firms that we choose to work with. We're just glad to have local control.

Those are the words I love, local control. Thank you.

Commissioner Powell.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Collins. You have a beautiful family.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here. So I've been involved with this since early 2016, and I went to every single community meeting to hear community feedback. We represent the people. And I wasn't elected yet, but I went to every single meeting. I have all the paperwork, all the notes, everything. And I think you're gonna hear it over and over, because I heard it over and over, that the community, their number one priority was legacy and affordable housing, truly affordable. Like, you know, 80% AMI isn't truly affordable to most folks. And so at the end, like in the very last community session, we had a conversation where I thought that there was some acceptance there. They were saying like, we even want not just affordable, but workforce, which, you know, we talked about this at length about micro units. And so I don't know if you've heard that, but different kinds, like, and I can see it in your plans, like different kinds of housing, like different options. but affordable. And so I just want to make sure because, um, I'm not running again for office and I want to make sure that like, I am a good, all of us are make sure that we share what we've heard, but I heard it nonstop, you know, how important that was and commissioner Meyer already brought it up. So it's very important, especially here. And I think that's all, but I'm here. Like, if you guys want to see the history of what I have, I'm happy to share it. It takes up a big chunk of my office. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Commissioner Griffin. Thank you for your presentation. For the manager and the presenters, one of your slides is why this place matters. You talk about the history and legacy of Brooklyn. You have Second Ward, Cherry, Midtown, the Pearl, Uptown, and I'm just writing down. Atrium's housing is going to be upscale. Midtown with Peter Pappas, I think he sold out to someone. That's upscale. That's in development. Cherry is upscale in development. Uptown is upscale. And so the success for me is to have true representation to the extent you can, and honoring the legacy of Brooklyn by having different price points for some regular people to live in that area, to live and work and play in the downtown area. So this is real early, and you're probably not ready for this, but at some point, I'd be interested to hear what the success looked like to you when you think you're honoring Brooklyn's history and legacy. So not tonight, but at some point in the future because this is very important for me as a native Charlatan. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Leak.

Let me too say thank you for being here and seeing your baby up there trying to make it to the end of this meeting. And we are, too. Thank you for being here. I moved to Charlotte in 1964, and my husband pastored the church in Brooklyn called Little Rock, Amy's Iron Church. Everything you wanted to find was in Brooklyn for those that looked like me. But then they saw fit to change the look of the area. We're sitting in Brooklyn right now as we sit here. This is a part of Brooklyn. But my concern as I listened and was interested in the development and the changing of what was taking place in Charlotte, which is beginning to take along 77 again, here we come again. So I'm waiting to hear and see the results of what has happened with those who say they can make the change for us. and making living conditions better than what they were and could be. And the contracts that we signed or agreements that we made with other companies, what happened behind the doors. I don't know where you stand or what you intend to do about providing living facilities within the confines of the area that people could afford to live in. Have you done any building in Charlotte before?

We've been involved through our affiliate entity, been involved with a lot of different... Not involved, but what have you built in Charlotte? So we are not developers per se. First and only capital is an investment firm, private equity firm, and we work with developers of the right... with aligning the right partners in executing projects. So given our experience working with the public sector, we believe that this is a great opportunity to align ourself with county priorities and then work with bringing the right strategic partners with help in executing the county's vision.

So your plan is to bring in persons to do the work, but you provide the funds based upon what the agreement is with the county. Yes, ma'am. Well, I'm not sure because I haven't seen anything. I don't know what you've done previously to make other businesses successful.

Yeah, so we've been in... So in our previous role, before we started Personality Partners, we were at Lincoln Harris, a prominent regional development firm. In our role with that firm, we've been involved with a lot of site selections. So for example, we talk about the Pearl. We were heavily involved with the Pearl.

That's for Russ, so it's not for you, Andre.

Yeah, we were heavily involved in the Pearl. We helped to acquire all of the land for the Pearl. before we left Lincoln-Harris. And then in our involvement with the city of Charlotte, we also help with site selection and acquisition, disposition. We work with developers with their process of evaluating the best opportunities, underwriting, support, and so forth. As well as River District. We were involved with River District as well.

in that she rang the bell for me to stop so I cannot continue the dialogue with you at this point. So maybe we can talk at some other time when we are in the setting again to make a decision on what we will do or can do and what success might be. But we cannot recoup Brooklyn. Brooklyn is no more. And the property that's there, I'm not sure it will take care of what we need in terms of Housing, we keep talking about affordable housing across this community, but salary has to meet that process so the people can pay the rent wherever they live.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Is that it, sir?

Yes, ma'am, it is.

I have to stop now. The young man said stop.

Commissioner Dunlap.

Okay, thank you. Let me just say, first off, you guys come from your reputation. Anybody knows Johnny Harris? Lincoln Harris, the Bissells, they're all connected. They're all family members. They all have history here. So that tells me you've at least been working with some reputable companies. And that's certainly appreciated. And then you've talked about how you've acquired land. So I understand what your role is. I think what's going to be interesting to us is that when we share with you our vision and you share with us your vision, then it's going to be your job to determine what partners you're going to work with to deliver whatever we agree on. And so what I've heard some of my colleagues share is that As a part of that agreement, we have not backed away from affordable housing. Now, affordable housing might look differently than what we envisioned years ago, but we still want to see affordable housing. If you look at what's going on in the city and the potential for us having a Super Bowl and some of these other things, you still hear them say there's not enough hotel space. That was a part of one of these phases, I couldn't remember which phase it was in, but that is certainly something that I would like to see. You go to any major city, you're gonna see hotels located uptown. Once that space is gone, there's no more space to build hotels uptown. And so I think the thing that I'm more cognizant of is the market certainly has changed. All the corporate buildings uptown, no longer all whole corporate buildings. You see more housing. Some of the corporate buildings are being retrofitted to deal with housing uptown. So I think what you will find is a willing board who is willing to listen to what it is that you can bring to us. And I think we'll still have some deliverables that we have expectations of. And so I look forward to further conversation about what it is you will bring, or what you propose, and what it is that we're looking for.

We don't know. Thank you. Commissioner Altman.

I think Commissioner Dunlap summarized it really well. The only thing that I would tack on to everything he said that I fully agree with is a desire to double down on green space in an area where we just have tons of demand. And, you know, I know that that doesn't generate revenue and that this has to pencil. And affordable housing is extremely important. So, you know, I look forward to hearing how we can best balance all of these priorities. And thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And since we're just, like, throwing in all of our dreams, part of the original vision, I do believe, is affordable housing. rents for businesses you know for retail so that it wouldn't just be all like chain um you know national chains and things like that but that local businesses could be able to get into those spaces as well so just wanted to make sure we don't forget that one piece thank you uh did you have anything um you're good i'm gonna deserve to write

So thank you for being here. This is a project that obviously is really important to the board. I am going to take the liberty because it falls in my district. We all care about it. But I am going to take the liberty to tee up just some things for you guys to noodle on. some of my colleagues hit that and if you look at the history of our board and the way that we sort of go into these deals it's from a you know from the very beginning i mean there are some things that really uh excite us housing as you've heard i would say that you know 10 is a start but you know, for this board is, is, is gonna be like really, it's gonna be pretty light, uh, for this board. Um, and again, I understand the complexities of trying to make things pencil, but I can tell you 10% is, is not going to probably, uh, move this board. That's gonna be a difficult, that's gonna be a heavy lift. So I just wanna put that out in, in the atmosphere, uh, depending on what the other variables that we'd be looking at. Um, Green space is something that's always going to be enticing or appetizing to us as well. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell talked about this mix of potential commercial mix use sort of, you know, which would certainly has been a part of, you know, other initiatives that we've been a part of that's important. Um, also when you look at who was going to be participating in the development, the partners are critical, their credibility, um, subcontracting and what that looks like. Um, we can't say certain words, but we certainly support, um, businesses that have not had access to opportunity into certain projects. Uh, so we want to, you know, that's going to be important to this board as well. Uh, what that's going to look like and, and how, uh, information is going to be put out to vendors. Uh, I would say a project that I fell in love with that had a affordable housing mix that we participated in. Like, I don't remember the exact percentage, but was a project called Trella. Uh, it's uptown. It was, uh, something we did, uh, we contributed to with in Libyan, uh, commercial, I think Dunlap, if you remember that we were over there and commissioner Griffin, we were over there. Uh, I thought that was a great sort of model, uh, that we were all very excited about and we partnered with the city. So I just kind of wanted to give you just, um, you know, just some things I'm not throwing anything out, uh, appreciate the commitment that you don't have, you don't have to. make the effort to align with the board's vision, obviously. So we definitely appreciate it. And I'm very supportive, very interested as a district rep as well. And so to the extent that we can continue the conversation and move the ball forward, our staff is fully versed on where the board will most likely land and can give you some fantastic feedback for sure. Thank you.

I think we're aligned with your wishes. We understand what's priority for the county. And I'm sure you have PTSD from the last eight years.

Ten years.

The last individual who was involved. We hope to rectify as much of that as we can. But thank you for your time.

Well, it's a pleasure having you all and family members. Thank you all for being here and supporting as well. thank you gentlemen look forward to future discussions with the tour mr chair that concludes my report thank you okay thank you mr manager and uh colleagues thank you for the uh the great conversation there uh at this point um where are we on here promotion that we approved all consent items second we're not there yet no we're at uh we've got uh

We're not there yet. We've got two more things.

We've got another item from a commissioner. That could be a really fast item. Now you see why I was trying to move us along, right? Okay. But, no, right now what we're going to do is we're going to turn to commissioner reports. I'm going to turn to Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell. She brought something forward that I think is really important. We talked about it at our last meeting, but it's related to advisory board recommendations. So I'll turn to you right now, Commissioner, to tee this up.

Okay, sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, I wanted to make a motion that we approve the creation of an ad hoc committee to discuss recommendations for advisory boards and commissions recognition. So what I'm talking about here is like a yearly event where we thank and recognize commissioners Those who have put in a full term on an advisory board and have like some sort of you know reception or you know the idea of the ad hoc committee is to talk about the different ways that we could show our appreciation to our advisory boards and And so we have a few ideas on here, but that's the main point is for us to get together and talk about it. We actually have 49 boards in total. And so they all have different ways of honoring people and some don't honor people. And so I think this is something that we've talked about for a number of years. And so I just wanted to get it on the agenda to see if we could move forward. and come up with a plan. So the action is for the chair to appoint an ad hoc committee. Second.

All right, so it's been moved and seconded. Is there any quick thoughts around that, Commissioner Leake?

I want to thank you for your recommendation and your motion and your thought. It's one of the things that we need, and I'm glad you brought it forth and put it out here before this body. because some people we honor and some people we overlook. I look at the custodians, used to look at the custodians whenever I went to a school, when I was on a school board and attended the meetings, or a given set of community people. So I like the idea, but it has to be developed well, where there will not be this group against that group, but working together, making the whole better. And that's what you're trying to do, am I right?

Yes, ma'am.

And that's what I want to support. Yep.

Okay.

Let me go to Commissioner Griffin.

Yeah, and it's an ad hoc group, and so you're going to develop a process and a procedure. That's what she said.

Hopefully it doesn't drag on for too long. My hope is that we could get this rolling for the fall.

Sounds good. Commissioner Powell had something.

Yeah, same thing. I just want to thank you for this because there has been a time in history of the county where we did recognize all the advisory boards when Harry Jones was here. And I think it's really important. And I love that the clerks went to see how the city was doing it. Um, I really appreciate that. Our clerks went to see how the city recognizes their advisory boards. And I like, it is very important. So when I was on the waste management advisory board, I came into the front hallway. you know, in the reception area and we had the big event and it was just really nice to be recognized because it's a lot of it is volunteer work.

That's right.

So thank you for bringing it up.

But you're saying all of the volunteer work.

Yes, ma'am.

With some substance to make sure that they can be involved.

I could, that's what, that's what I was going to say, but I think she, yeah, I was going to say, so commissioner Dunlap is right. Um, but I wanted to get the feedback from the board before to show the support, but, um, And we're going to carry the motion, but we, we don't, we didn't need a motion because I can, as chair appoint an ad hoc committee. That's right. But with that being said, I do think it was important for it to come to the board, to get that reaction, to make sure that we were all in favor and supportive of it. Um, so it, it aligns and I, and I did want the public to understand what we were going to undertake as well. So did any, did anybody else have any comments before we carry the motion? Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

I just wanted it to be inclusive in the ad hoc committee. Well, we can talk about that at a later time. I know the hour is late, but I just wanted to, I wanted the ad hoc committee to be more than just determining who should be recognized and who should not just as a consideration of, you know, the impact and whether or not they're,

You're saying everybody's being recognized, right?

Everybody who completes a term on an advisory board. So it's not who, it's how. It's more about how.

Irrelevant. I retract. Because I think it's too much. Standards, as you said. It's too much. Never mind.

Finish your thought.

No, I just wanted it to be, in addition to recognition, it dawns on me that are we getting what we need from all of these committees? Like we have, how many committees? 49. 49. What do they do? If we're recognizing all of them, do we make a determination as to whether or not they're actually needed? Because we don't get reports from all 49, do we? No.

Well, I'm going to let the clerk address that in just one second. Let me come to Commissioner Dunlap. And in the interim, if you're making a substitute motion, then we'll have to deal with that. or a friendly amendment, whatever you're trying to.

So maybe I got it wrong, but Susan, my understanding was the ad hoc committee was supposed to do just what we're discussing. We're not trying to make all of the decisions about what they'll do and who they'll recognize tonight, but to put a committee together to determine who and what and when.

Come back with recommendations to the board.

But what Commissioner Townsend Ingram, if I heard her correctly, what she's saying, she wanted to expand the scope of the ad hoc committee is what I thought I heard her saying. That's why I was... To do what? Well, what she just said would... Repeat what you said you were trying to... And again, I don't want to put words in your mouth. That's just the way that I heard it.

So expand the ad hoc committee. If we're going to be... The committee is there to determine what is appropriate to commend those who volunteer their services. That means that we would be recommending, we would be determining every single one of them. So we have 49 committees. Do we need all 49? So is that something else that the, the, that ad hoc committee would determine whether or not those committees, if they've been, that's not what she's proposed.

Yeah. And I just wanna speak to that real quickly that we did do a committee like that just a few years ago. So it was 20, 22, maybe, um, we had an ad hoc committee where we went through it once and then, so there's not a, what was that? And then we worked on our application process. We did a number of things in that committee. And there are some boards that are mandated, some boards that aren't. There's a lot of complexity to it. And that's why I think it's a good discussion to have as an ad hoc committee, as opposed to...

So let me put it to bed in this sense right here. What you're proposing, Commissioner, is outside of the scope of this particular ad hoc committee. This is only for, just for us to come up with a way of recognition, period. Regardless if it's 4930, right? What you're proposing would be a totally separate ad hoc committee.

And I understand that, but we said in the scope of this committee, we would be recognizing all So would it be prudent to say, well, you know what? This committee would say we're recognizing them, but we don't see a need.

I think you're juggling two balls here.

I understand. And that's why I asked the question first.

And both are honorable. Both need to be responded to. But I think that what's in front of us is the recognition piece and a conversation about that. And then the second piece I think you're trying to get is the value proposition, whether it's 49 groups or 29 groups.

Right. And that's why I started asking the question. And if it's two separate, then that's fine. But I think that that should be something that is considered when we're considering the recognition.

So, Mr. Chair, we'll make this simple. The chair's responsibility is to appoint the ad hoc committee to determine who's going to be on it. and you give them the charge, what they're supposed to come back with.

Thank you. Well, what we're going to do is leave it in the scope of what Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell has said. So I'm not going to expand it at this point, but I do take what you're saying, Commissioner Townsend-Ingraham, and we can talk about that offline. So with that being said, we've heard from everybody. All those in favor, let's see by show of hands. Is there anyone opposed? That's unanimous. All right. So, uh, I will get that, uh, committee appointed. I could tell you right now, commissioner Rodriguez McDowell, you will be chairing that.

Okay. All right.

Um, so next, um, speaking of, uh, committees, um, commissioner Rodriguez McDowell would like to us to address, uh, potential bonuses for the adult care home and nursing home advisory committee. So, At this time, I'll turn over to you, Commissioner.

Thank you. If it's appropriate, I'd like to make a motion that we approve one-time $1,000 bonuses to newly appointed members of the Adult Care Home and the Nursing Home Advisory Committees. Um, so what this is, is saying these, these particular two committees have an extensive training, uh, process that is mandated by the state at 36 hours of training. And this is a big roadblock for us, uh, filling these positions. Currently we have, uh, 29 vacancies on adult care home and 23 vacancies on nursing home. So these are a large number of positions that have been open for years and very very difficult to fill So my thinking is that we come in with this bonus is a pilot and and see if this actually helps draw people to do to do the advisory committees and You know They wouldn't get the bonus until they complete the training because you are not appointed until you complete the training. So it's a bit of a process there. So that is my motion. Second.

All right, so it's been moved and seconded. Let me go to Commissioner Dunlap, and I have something on this as well.

Oh, yeah, I didn't say where. Can I just add where the money would come from?

That's exactly where I was going, the $125,000 that's in reserve.

The contingency, the appropriation. It's number two on here. Yeah, this is our BOCC contingency fund that we have in the budget. If we filled every slot, it would be $52,000. And I believe that has $700,000.

We haven't used any.

Oh, that's what I was thinking. You said it was more than $125,000.

Our total fund is $750,000, right?

Is that between the people you're honored to speak?

The fund has $700,000 in it. We haven't used any of it.

Let the ad hoc committee determine. You want to do it, but we need to decide how much now or later.

No, this is not for the ad hoc committee. This is a separate motion. This is something that we would start right away. Okay.

All right.

It's been moved and seconded already. I'm coming to you. I mean, this has been a position for as long as I've been on the board has been really tough and these are tough jobs. I mean, going to the various nursing homes and visit in addition to the 36 hours, uh, that's required in terms of training. Um, And it addresses the chairman as it goes down the list of our priorities in terms of seniors.

Yes, services for seniors.

But these are the least of our, these are people, these are babies and seniors. These are the folk who really need our support to the extent that we can. It's a pilot, so we're going to see if it works. So I certainly support it coming out of the chute. If it doesn't work, we'll come back and try something else. But we really have to figure out how to get those slots filled. That's right.

Let me go with, uh, Powell, Lee, Townsend, Ingram, then, uh, commissioner.

So I was watching the meeting when the, uh, ombudsman came and every year when we sit here and we hear their presentation, like there's outrage up here and we, we keep saying like, well, I mean, I've talked to everyone. I've talked to everyone at the state that everywhere I go, I've talked about how important it is to have more state oversight. And if we can't get that, I mean, I'm gonna keep pushing, but if we can't get that, we need this. And there is a huge hole here. Every year we talk about how bad it is. And so I love this idea. I think it pays for their time while they're in class. And I don't think any, you know, hope people wouldn't just go to that weren't motivated. You got to be motivated to do this work. And I think it would help, help get the right people in the right place to have some kind of oversight and some kind of role in communicating what is going, what you see, because they, you know, we've, we've all seen, you know, their call buttons tied to the bottom of the bed and, things that shouldn't be happening. You know, people not getting any assistance to the bathroom, things like that. So I think that this would be very helpful, you know, and it's a very small, it's just a very small stipend or whatever you want to call it to get it done. So thank you for doing this because after the meeting, I felt so hopeless. And then I've gotten two phone calls from a family member in the past week sobbing, about the lack of oversight from the state, the lack of responsiveness, and a different facility, I know you've gotten it, Commissioner Meyer, and then you have to tell these people that are in a very bad situation, well, report it to the state, but you can only report it to the state between these hours, or you can fax it, and they're so worried about their family member that, I mean, it's kind of a trauma to where they're not gonna sit down and type it up, and so it gets lost, and... I feel like this is really a powerful tool to help make things better. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Lee.

I sit here listening to our talking and when I got on this board and heard the reports from the various org boards that we have, nobody was coming up to support those who needed us the most. And that's those who cannot take care of themselves. Pat Cotham and I talked about it from this desk. We were the first two to do it. If you go to the back meetings and read the minutes, I'm sorry. So I'm in favor and when she sit back so I can see her. So when you can't talk with me about it, I was just anxious because this is what we've needed all the time. And we worked and I'm still working. I was out this just Saturday. You know, some of us don't do it because of being on the board. We do it because that's what we live for. That's our enjoyment. And asking the public to participate in going into homes and helping people. Some people can't do it, but the training you talk about is necessary. The right people with the right time and the right place need that support. And whatever we can do, I hope we can do it. and not be selfish in the process. So I give that credit to Pat and myself and I, you know, I'm still doing it. I do it every day, two days a week. I go to what's the name of the street, Mr. Chairman?

Catherine Simmons. Catherine Simmons.

See my people and it's a need in our community. So I'm supporting it 100%.

Thank you. Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

I support 100% everything that everybody has said.

Speak up just a little bit louder, honey.

I support 100% everything that everyone has said, but as I was talking with Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell, my concern is that it's a Band-Aid, and I understand that it's a pilot, but I think that there are other things that we should do, not just... Yes, they absolutely need money. They needed it a long time ago. But parity, I'm concerned about that, about the other organizations. And I know the requirements and the statutory requirements of the state. But I think that in addition to, and I know you make these But I keep thinking of the things that, so yes, I wholeheartedly support this, but I don't think that this is the only thing that needs to be done. I think about recommendation, you know, a person came to me and said, how can I join? And then they had trouble just getting to the part where because of the systems, we don't review our systems to say, well, do they need to be fixed or do we need more resources here or there? So in addition to, I just think that we need, but yes, I wholeheartedly support. And I just wanted to put that out there. Commissioner.

Thank you. I really appreciate you coming forward with this. Um, you know, I, uh, I definitely will be raising my hand for it. I want to ask that. Mr. Manager, to the extent the process you think would be good that, you know, when we sign people up and they go through this process, that they sign some sort of commitment. It may not be enforceable, you know, if they break the commitment and they don't end up doing the work. There's probably not a lot we can do for the $1,000 we paid them. But let's create the expectation. Let's create the moral obligation that in exchange for this training, which we're going to subsidize that you're agreeing to volunteer for a year and do this number of visits to create that expectation. And do you, sir, have any thoughts, feedbacks, or concerns as we undertake this pilot?

I don't have any because Commissioner SRM described it as a pilot. So let's see what happens.

That's good.

Let's try it. We know we need to do something in terms of the controls that we control. This is one mechanism that you have to see if it yields some positive results, and I'm willing certainly to see how it plays out. perhaps put some type of commitment in there if she's supportive of this, given this is her proposal for your consideration, and we'll reassess it once we're done.

Yeah, these are really often places of despair and neglect, and we have to do something, and I'm grateful.

Thank you. So, Madam Clerk, help me with something. Outside of this, if we do this bonus, what is the pay for this board?

The pay, is that what you asked? The stipend. Oh, the stipend. 150. It doubled. It doubled. It was 75. It was 75, so it's 150 a month paid quarterly.

I mean, not once.

For fuel.

It was 75, and now it's 150.

It was 75. It's 150 a month paid quarterly.

Hold on, everybody. It's 150 a quarter. It's 150 a month. 150 a month paid out quarterly.

Paid out quarterly, yes.

So I certainly support the bonus concept and a pilot. I just think that there should be rigor because we're not gonna give out just a bonus and then somebody walk away or something like that, right? So I just want there to be rigor around what that looks like to your point, Commissioner. I don't know how you work that Mr. Manager, but I do think the other thing is, With the load, if we're compensating people for gas, I think compensating people for time is important as well, not just the gas. The stipend still just does not feel right to me. And so at some point I don't have, I'm not prepared to offer up anything, but at some point we have to look at, to me, that stipend, that one 50 a month cover. I mean, gas now, shoot, I was out there. It was like four 10 or something crazy. I mean, that, that can, that can be, you know, and even if you don't, that's still, that's a, that's a, that's a pretty penny. So yes, ma'am.

I just want to ask the question because this would fall in the clerk's office because it is Madison who manages our boards and commissions. She is the one who actually puts in for the stipends and makes sure everybody is eligible for them. every quarter so when it comes to something like this and this thousand dollar bonus i know that we're just making uh uh approving this but we need the parameters around it and i don't know how we would that's what i just said that's what i just said the manager would come up with that's right oh okay so they would just we wouldn't bring it back to the board they would just it would just come to us no it's underneath the threshold no i think i think hold on hold on commissioner

What we'll wind up doing is if we approve the bonus, the manager's office is going to come back with a recommendation on how the pilot would look, right? And it would need to come to us so that we understand what the pilot looks like so that we're all on the same page, right? Is that fair, Mr. Manager? That's fair. I mean, is that getting to what you're saying or no?

Oh, yes, because I didn't know, like, a time frame or anything to get set up or ready. That's why I was wondering.

Yeah, no, I think we don't have the exact time frame at this point. I mean, we would execute it, the manager, if you could just work. We'll move it, you and I, to figure out when we move it forward.

Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Powell.

I'm good. Call for the vote. Need a vote?

Give me a second, Commissioner. We want everybody to be heard, please.

Call for the vote.

It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye's have it. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone. Just a verbal. Thank you.

Just a verbal. Thank you, Commissioner, for doing that. At this time, let me get the motion to approve the consent item.

Second.

All right, moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. And with that being said, let's go to Commissioner reports. Let me start with Commissioner Townsend-Ingram.

I'm going to pull this out because I thought I had to. I didn't think we were going to be able to. All right. So I'm going to document my commissioner report and send it via email just for the record because I like the two the two ad hoc committees that that Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell, and I actually have some ideas on committees that I think are important that I want to consider. And it is specifically for the community. But it occurred to me after conversations this morning with a professional about some of our systems. Our systems they're built usually and they're not Visited revisited we just and they they can become broken They cannot work the way we intended them to But we just well we did that and we keep moving and that was evidence tonight there are people that are put in place and to break the systems that we have, to find out ways to counter the systems, to put in another system to counter systems that we have, simply because they never agreed with them or don't think that the people that they're serving are deserving. And I think that our job as public servants is to tear down and rebuild systems over and over again and to evaluate their effectiveness and their efficacy in the community. Not to only advocate but to fix and create policies that make things better for people. So I'll be asking for an ad hoc committee to create an alternative to policies to counteract the presentation that was created today or presented today regarding the potential policies that our General Assembly is going to impose. And I'll also be asking for an ad hoc committee to... I'll leave it at that for now. But I just believe that we need to be constantly re-evaluating our systems, not just creating a system and then not going back to determine whether or not they're effective or if it's doing what we created it to do.

That's it. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

No report. Thank you.

Commissioner Powell.

Thank you. As I'm recovering from major surgery, I have had the need to drive on I-77 North almost every day, which gets me into thinking about the nightmare, like the nightmare of toll roads. And like, you know, you're in the normal lanes and it's gridlocked no matter what time it is. And it's like a open freeway on the toll roads. And So I just want to declare to the world that I have no intention of ever changing my vote, ever, on I-77 South, and I can't even believe we're there, like the whole situation. And then I want to share the good news. So Northern Regional Rec Center, now you know I'm a park and rec advocate, and I thought, like, I thought nobody could love Park and Rec more. I love them more now. I love them more. So North Region Rec Center has a senior center there. And they have equipment for seniors who are in rehab and from surgery. And it is so amazing, all of it. So when you're there, I'm on some of the equipment, I can see people in the pool. I can see how they're helping people that need adaptations in the pool. And then I see people playing hardcore badminton. Who knew it could be so hardcore? And I see all these different things, all these different age groups, all these different groups. And I feel so happy. Like, we have this place. And I know we have multiple, like we have Eastway. It's so beautiful to be there, to see everything that's happening. And then the people that work there, how caring they are. And so I wanted to bring it up because I didn't think I could be a better advocate

but I just learned more and I love them more.

And please, you know, if you come up to my district, I will take you there because it is so awesome. It's just awesome on top of awesome. And that's all. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Meyer.

No report.

Mrs. Dunlap. No report. Commissioner Leak.

No report.

Commissioner Altman.

Yeah, I just want to say, um, because we're on a little bit of a reduced schedule in the summer that we went many of us, um, to a beautiful dedication for the rusty Roselle new building. Uh, chairman gave beautiful remarks. Commissioner Powell gave beautiful remarks. Um, it was this rusty's family gave beautiful remarks, the rededication of the, uh, Louisa building.

Okay.

And, of course, the manager gave beautiful remarks and Dr. Johnson. So, anyway, it was amazing. I want to say I'm so happy to see my colleague, Commissioner Powell, looking so great after your surgery. Congratulations on making such great progress. It is a thrill and a joy. You make us so proud, Mr. Chairman Emeritus. And I was um, uh, pitching for commissioner Meyer, um, at, uh, Archdale park for a ribbon cutting, uh, where she is much beloved. Uh, and it was super cool to see, uh, the $4 million, uh, facelift that that park got because wow, community really turned out. And just generally, I want to say that in this broken world of so many things that are not going right, it is a privilege and joy. to get to serve this community with these colleagues in the room to do good work, to pool our resources, and try to keep the tax rate as low as possible, but to pool our resources to create the infrastructure and the services that we need, that we depend on, and that enrich our lives, all of our lives. no matter what part of the county you live in and the diversity that we enjoy here, it serves all of us and makes our lives better. And it's just a privilege to get to work on stuff that I think is so meaningful and constructive and a world that sometimes does feel broken. So thank you for the privilege.

Thank you. Commissioner Griffin. At 10.05, I'll make this comment. My driver's license expired because my age is 70. I won't tell, but anyway, I got my license renewed and I have to tell you this story. The young lady was helping me at DMV up off of Belle Avon, Brookshire, wherever it's at, mentioned that she had to move from Mooresville to Mecklenburg County. And I said, well, why? She said, I couldn't afford the tolls to get to DMV on time. So she moved into Mecklenburg County because of tolls. So I just wanted to share that with you, the impact of tolls on the working class folk here in Mecklenburg County. Thank you all very much. Thank you. So you're not changing your vote either? I'm not changing my vote.

First time we've all been together. All nine of us have been together in a long time. It was great meeting. Thank you, colleagues. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Thank you.

Thank you.