Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for your patience. I apologize for being late this evening. We're going to start with introductions. We will start to my right.

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, and I serve Mecklenburg County at large.

Good evening. I am Mecklenburg County Commissioner Elaine Powell, representing Huntersville, Davidson, Cornelius, and North Charlotte. Welcome.

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

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

Good evening, everyone, and welcome. My name is Mark Jarrell. I've been elected by the people of District 4. It is great to see everyone, in particular our partners from the Sheriff's Office. Thank you all for being here. And I do want to acknowledge our elected colleague and Sheriff Gary McFadden. Thank you.

Good evening and welcome. My name is Arthur Griffin. I have the pleasure of serving as County Commissioner-at-Large.

Good afternoon. My name is Vilma DeLeek. I represent the most powerful district in the county. And I've been told not to say that anymore. And I grieve this evening because I grieve because of what's been said. District two is the most powerful district in the county. And thank you for allowing me to represent you.

Good evening. I'm Laura Meyer and I represent district five.

Good evening. I'm Susan Rodriguez McDowell and I have the honor of being elected by the people of district six. Welcome.

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

All right, now that introductions are out of the way, our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Commissioner George Dunlap.

We'll do the prayer first. I mean, if you want to stand, that's fine. We'll do the prayer first. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you at this time thanking you for all your many and wonderful gifts. Before we ask for anything, we just want to thank you for your presence. We want to thank you, Lord, for being in the building. We thank you for every person who is represented in this room. We ask a special blessing upon their families, their homes, that when they return, they will find a safe space. Father, we thank you for being in our lives. We thank you for those who are on the battlefield, We ask that you would protect them and cause no harm, hurt or danger to call upon them. We thank you, Father, for the residents of Mecklenburg County. We ask that you would pour blessings upon them, that they will find themselves in safe spaces, that they will find themselves in meaningful relationships, that they will find themselves in happy times. Father, we just thank you for your blessings. We thank you for our Sheriff's Department and all of the members of our Sheriff's Department. We ask a special blessing on our sheriff and all those who work under his guidance and leadership. We ask a special blessing for this board. We ask that you would give us the courage and the strength to do the right thing and to say the right thing and to be courageous and stand up for the people that we're bound to protect and serve. And Father, when you've done the things that have been assigned to us, we ask that you would give us a home where we can praise you forever. These blessings we ask with the forgiveness of all our many sins. This is my prayer for Christ's sake. Amen.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation,

So we start out every meeting by making sure that the public is aware of our mission, our vision, and also our board priorities. These are the elements that help guide our conversations and our decisions, so we think it's important that you all know what's guiding us. Our mission is to serve Mecklenburg County residents by helping improve their lives and community. Our vision, Mecklenburg County will be a community of pride and choice for people to live, learn, work, and recreate. Our FY26-27 board budget priorities are as follows. Economic development, education, environmental stewardship, health equity and wellness, services for our seniors, workforce development, and reducing racial disparities. I also want to note, I said this at one of our meetings prior to our hiatus, but I want to reiterate to the community that we now have these meetings with live Spanish translation and we know that we have a rapidly growing Spanish-speaking community here and we are committed to sharing information with you in real time and that means even the recordings of these meetings will be in Spanish. With that said, we're going to turn to awards and recognition. I'll turn the gavel over to our Vice Chair, Vice Chair Altman.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. It's with great pleasure that I turn to my colleague, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell, to read National Kinship Care Month here in Mecklenburg County.

Thank you. Appreciate that. And it's an honor to read this proclamation. And if I could ask our YFS director to come on down, and she'll be receiving this proclamation tonight. And I will just go ahead and begin reading it. Whereas this year, during the month of September, Kinship Care Month is observed as residents of Mecklenburg County are proud to recognize children and the grandparents, other relatives who raised them in kinship care, who ensure their safety, promote their well-being, and establish a stable household for these young people to thrive. And whereas nationally, more than 2.7 million children are living with grandparents, other relatives, and fictive kin in kinship care, of which 85,000 of these young people reside in North Carolina. And whereas citizens of Mecklenburg County join to honor children residing in urban, rural, and suburban households in Mecklenburg County who, through the unconditional support of their kin, have successfully addressed the emotional trauma of being separated from their parents, And whereas the public becomes increasingly aware of the challenges faced by children and their kinship caregivers to work in partnership with education, legal, social services, mental health, justice, and other systems to access services that can enable kinship youth to flourish in all facets of their life. And whereas children will live within a kinship family At some point during their childhood, kinship care provides the best opportunity to retain the child's cultural heritage and community ties. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners does hereby proclaim September 2026 as National Kinship Care Month in Mecklenburg County and urges all citizens, community agencies, religious organizations, businesses, and others to celebrate kinship families that offer safety, permanency, and well-being for children who are unable to remain with their birth parents. This, the first day of September 2026, signed by our chairman, Mark Jarrell. So moved. Second.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Rodriguez McDowell. Ms. Dale Campbell, we'd love to hear from you.

Good evening, Chair Jarrell, Vice Chair Altman, Commissioners, County Manager Bryant, and County Attorney Wade. I'm Denise Dale Campbell, and I'm the Division Director for Youth and Family Services. It is truly an honor to accept this proclamation in honor of National Kinship Month. This moment is especially meaningful because kinship care represents something at the very heart of child welfare that is the power of family, community, connection, and belonging. To every grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling, cousin, family friend, and caring adult who has opened their home and their heart to a child in need, thank you. You stepped forward when a child needed someone to say, I've got you. You provided more than a place to live. You provided love, stability, culture, traditions, and a sense of identity. You help children remain connected to the people and communities they know. We currently have 30%, 37% of youth in foster care placed with their kin. Kinship caregivers often take on this responsibility with a little notice, and sometimes with limited resources, yet they continue to show up day after day for children and families. As we celebrate kinship caregivers, we must also commit to doing more, to listening to their experiences, strengthening the support available to them, removing barriers, and ensuring that kin caregivers are treated as essential partners. So today, I accept this proclamation not only on behalf of those being honored, but as a reminder of the responsibility we all share as kinship is more than a placement. Kinship is family. Kinship is connection. Kinship is belonging. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ms. Steele-Campbell. Yes, let's give her a round of applause. And wait, before you leave, let us carry the motion, then we'd love to take a picture with you. The motion having been made and properly seconded, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that passes. Thank you.

Now you can clap.

Thank you for your service. Thank you. We appreciate you.

Thank you.

Pretty green. Thank you. Thank you.

Take a picture. Squeeze in, everybody. Kind of center a little bit. There you go. There you go.

Fantastic.

And I now turn the gavel back to you, sir.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair. Next up is public appearance. Bear with me as I read this rather lengthy statement. 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 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 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. Time limit for speaking is three minutes unless there are four or 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 ten 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 our 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 do have speakers signed up. Is it the first three groups?

Well, because there's only three of them, they get each three minutes.

Three minutes, sure. So what we'll do at this point, let's have Portia De La Foz, Corey Jamison, and Jeanette Kinnard come down, and you will each get three minutes. And we'll let you guys determine the order. Anybody can speak first. Thank you. And after they speak, we'll hear from Jackson Dumas. You have three minutes, ma'am.

Good evening, Chairman, Vice Chair, members of the Board of County Commissioners, County Manager Bryant, County Attorney Wade, and clerks. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is Portia Delafose, and I am here on behalf of Champion House of Care, Project One, where I serve as a board member. Champion House of Care Project One is a nonprofit organization located in the I-85 Sugar Creek Corridor. Our mission is centered on serving our neighbors, both those who are housed and those experiencing housing instability. By providing resources, support, and opportunities that address immediate needs, we also help these individuals and families move toward greater stability. Over the years, we have developed and provided several programs and services that directly impact residents in this community. One of those services is our five-day food pantry, which provides consistent access to food for individuals and families who may otherwise struggle to meet their basic nutritional needs. During the summer, we operate a summer camp that averages approximately 40 children from surrounding hotels. For many of these children, the program provides a safe, structured, and productive environment during the day, allowing them to participate in activities, learn, socialize, and simply be children rather than spending their days inside a hotel room. We also plan to provide an after-school program to support children and families beyond the traditional school day. Some of our other partnerships include an economic and financial literacy program with Truist Bank and a community health fair with McDonald's on Reagan Drive. We also have worked alongside the City of Charlotte, Crisis Assistance Ministry, and the Housing Collaborative in efforts surrounding the relocation of residents and subsequent closure of three hotels. As a result, the number of hotels operating within this corridor have been reduced from 15 to 12. We recognize that these are complex issues, and we do not claim that one organization can solve them alone. However, we believe our presence in this community has allowed us to build relationships, identify needs, and become a trusted resource and partner for residents who are often overlooked. Our goal is not simply to provide temporary assistance. Our goal is to help build stronger families, create opportunities, connect residents to resources, and contribute to a healthier and more stable community. We appreciate your time, your consideration, and your willingness to hear about the work that is taking place in our community. At this time, I'll turn the microphone over to Corey Jameson.

Good afternoon. My name is Corey Jamison, and I'm the Vice President of the Board of Champion House of Care Project One. As Portia stated, that we are a large impact company in how we impact the communities with what we give for our individual students, excuse me, our individual incomes through our program. The kids that we impact have the opportunity to come through our camp and also helps them with the food insecurities that they have at home in the hotels. In the hotels, we always make sure that right now that if we focus on the kids, we can be able to help the parents and also have them to have those insecurities now be secured. So we here at Champion House of Care, we also build it with our summer camp, as Portia said, our summer camp. We have individuals that have came in for the last three years. Now they are our camp counselor because they enjoy the program and they understand the impact that it has on their family. and also in the community. They bring their friends along. So we want to make sure that these kids have the right to be kids and not staying in a hotel and that be a deficit in their social skills, their education, and their food and securities. That's all I have to say. I'll turn it over to Jeanette Kennard. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Jeanette Kennard. I am the executive director, founder, visionary, of Champion House of Care Project One, which sits on Reagan Drive for seven years. We're now in Dorada Presbyterian Church. Things that we've done to impact the community. Of course, Reagan Drive is the only place that had 15 hotels. Working with the displacement team of the city, we're down to 12 hotels now. Also working with CMPD with Project Nighthawk, trying to close down the other hotel. Things that we've done, we've done where we have given the kids education. We've also impacted the seniors of Magnolia on Batesford Road, making sure that they had a living to go. We've also worked on crisis assistant ministry, making sure that they came into the community. Instead of people going down to crisis, they was able to come over to Dorada Presbyterian Church and get the same services. The other services that we do to impact the community, we sign them up for food stamps, for Medicaid. We're in the neighborhood, inside the tent area, making sure that our residents are still surviving. We know that they're wrong, but unfortunately, we're trying to give them a reason to live. Most of all, just trying to make sure that our kids, our next generation, has a life. Because we don't want to see them on the corner with a gun in their hand and drugs in the other hand. We want to see them make a difference in this world. So we go to McDonald's all the time, and you always see a child sitting there waiting to see if somebody can leave a burger or a fry on the table, which is something that shouldn't happen. So we started fighting hunger, just making sure that people had food, that even seniors Don't have to make a decision whether or not they have food or do they pay a bill. So we make sure that we have this. On last Friday, last Wednesday, we actually impacted 943 families in one day. That's how many people are coming over to us right now at 2230 West Sugar Creek Road. If I could leave you with anything else, I would tell you, mothers are crying, babies are dying. Somebody save my child. Thank you.

Is Jackson Dumas here? Come on down, Jackson. Jackson, you get up to three minutes. Just start whenever you're ready.

Good evening. My name is Jackson Dumas, and I'm a lifelong resident of Mecklenburg County, District 6. I'm here to express my concern about how recent developments at the state level have upended our local film and television industry right here in Charlotte, which threatens to pull hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars from our county. I want to thank Commissioners Altman and Rodriguez-McDowell for getting back to me via email about this matter. And I'm here tonight to share with the entire board the severity of this issue and ask that the county consider how it could help. If you haven't already seen the headlines, seemingly out of nowhere, the North Carolina film industry is effectively closed for the foreseeable future, and Charlotte is the first to take a hit, as it was announced just over a week ago that the Netflix series The Hunting Wives is leaving Charlotte, sending its jobs and economic development to Georgia. I work as a scout and location manager in the Charlotte film industry on movies, TV shows, and commercials. I worked on both of the first two seasons of The Hunting Wives, and I was one of many people looking forward to working on season three. The debacle at the state level is a complicated one, and I'd encourage you to look into WSOC's recent reporting for a detailed explainer. What I can share quickly is that to our community, it feels like history is repeating itself. In 2014, the state upended our film industry by slashing incentives and replacing them with a scaled-down grant program. In 2016, HB2 took another massive blow to an already reeling industry, and despite bouncing back since then, we are now facing an even greater threat. No funding for the next three years. We know that productions, considering filming in Charlotte, are at best delaying and at worst looking elsewhere in this time of uncertainty. Our state commerce department has made clear time and again that the film grant program generates thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity above its annual allocations, proving our industry is well worth the investment. I'm here tonight because I find it concerning that the future of our jobs in our industry are entirely at the mercy of the state. And I can't help but wonder if our local governments, county, city are both in partnership, have an opportunity to create a local incentive program to keep our industry alive. One that would act not just as a backstop that keeps our local industry open in times of statewide uncertainty, but act as an actual competitive advantage that makes Mecklenburg County the most attractive destination ever. for the state of North Carolina. I'm the son of a retired CMS teacher, the grandson of two city retirees, the fiance of a current CMS teacher, and I myself was a Mecklenburg County intern in 2017 with the Department of Public Information through the MIUP program. So I have seen firsthand how my county government can create job opportunities and attract talent through its governance. and making up for shortfalls at state level in the process. I hope that through this crisis, Mecklenburg County finds an opportunity to lead and create long-term opportunity and stability for our industry and our county's culture. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Jackson.

Appreciate it. We're going to move to appointments now. We're going to move to JCPC, which is the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council first. Colleagues, there's multiple slots that we have to vote on, and it can get a little confusing. So I just want everybody to know what the clerk has done is the applicants who are not selected for a specific category will be eligible for the general slot. She has, Madam Clerk, you put asterisks by certain names as well. Do you want to tell us what those were for?

Well, initially you'll see which ones were recommended by the JCPC nominating committee. When you get to the huge list, that is people who, if I'm not mistaken, Okay, that are on both the specific slots and the general slots. And just as a note, you can actually, if we're not nominating and appointing those specific slots, you can nominate a person for both the specific one and the general one.

So we'll muddle through it. We'll muddle through it. But again, it's just the way that it's laid out that everybody who is a part of those specific slots are eligible for general slots. So even if they don't get a specific slot, their name will be listed on the general slot.

So how many are we electing?

Well, I'm going to go, I'll let you know. That's a great question. I'll let you know as we go through each one because there's multiple slots there. So as we get to each one, I'll say how many are eligible that we have to, well, there'll be nominations. Yep. I'll let you know how many slots are there that we'll nominate. And if we go beyond those slots, it's the normal process. It'll have to come back to us. Okay? Okay. Do you have something, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell?

I just was a little confused. If you nominate someone for one of the specific smaller groups, does it bounce down to the general big list if they don't get chosen for the...

Yes, absolutely.

So you don't need to nominate them again in the general?

When we get to the general slot, you'll have to nominate on the general slot. You have to nominate each slot. Commissioner Leak.

The question deals with when one does not want to... state who they are. How do we know? They said prefer not to answer on the front page.

Yeah, so as far as ethnicity, Commissioner Leake is referring to ethnicity. Every applicant has the ability to choose prefer not to answer. So if any board member of you have an issue with that, obviously you don't want to nominate that person or for those of you that it doesn't matter, then certainly can move forward with it. So with that being said, what we'll do is we're going to start with nominations or appointments are needed on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill two two-year terms expiring June 30th, 2028. This is the youth slot. Brianna DeCruz, George Doe, Nikith Manapeli, and Amrita Yalagada were recommended by the JCPC Nominating Committee. What is your pleasure? Commissioner Powell.

I nominate Brianna DeCruz.

Okay. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

I'd like to nominate Amrita Yarlagada and also Benjamin Marchand.

All right. Commissioner Griffin. George Doe. Commissioner Altman.

Nikith Manipali, Phil McNary, and Monica Pettiford.

Hold on one second. No, this is the youth slot we're doing right now.

It's all right.

That's okay. There's only two that have not been nominated, and that's Samita Kutam and Anvija have not been nominated so far. Right now we have Brianna DeCruz, George Doe, Nikith Manipali, Benjamin Marchand, and Amrita Yalagada.

Move to close nominations.

Is there a second?

Second. Second.

All right, it's been moved and properly seconded to close nominations. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Ayes have that. So, Madam Clerk, this will come back.

Yes.

All right. Moving on, nomination or appointment is needed on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill one two-year term expiring June 30th, 2028. This is the juvenile defense attorney slot. And we have one name.

So moved.

LaVanetra Reeves has been moved.

Second.

And seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Are there any opposed? That's unanimous. Congratulations. Lava Netra. All right. Nominations and appointments are needed on juvenile crime prevention council to fill one two year term expiring June 30th, 2028. This is the substance abuse professional slot. Brittany Hammonds and Phil McNary were recommended by the JCPC nominating committee. Well, we have, um, right now we only get, we only can have one and we have three names. Commissioner Altman, you're first.

Phil McNary.

All right.

Second.

That's who you're going with.

Brittany Hammonds. What did she say?

She said Phil McNary. Yes. Commissioner Myers said Brittany Hammonds and Commissioner Griffin. Brittany Hammonds. All right. So we only have one slot and there's two nominations. So this has to come back. Madam Clerk. All right, nominations or appointments are needed on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill one two-year term expiring June 30th, 2028. This is the business community slot. Robert Edwards and Chiquita Patterson were recommended by the JCPC nominating committee. What is your question?

Carlton Johnson, I nominate.

Carlton Johnson has been nominated. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

I nominate Chiquita Patterson.

Chiquita Patterson and then Commissioner Altman.

Monica Pettiford.

Monica Pettiford, District 4. Any other nominations?

Move to close. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor to close nominations, say aye. Aye. All right. Nominations closed. This one will come back as well, Madam Clerk. All right. Nominations or appointments are needed on Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill two unexpired terms, unexpired terms expiring June 30th, 2027. This is the general public slot. Are there any nominations? Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Yes. Joseph Williams.

Hold on one second. Joseph Williams.

And Carla Carlisle.

Carla Carlisle. Commissioner Leak. Yes, Lockhart, District 2. J.G. Lockhart, District 2, Commissioner Dunlap.

First of all, I want to clarify something. Given the fact that there was more people nominated than the slots we had available, all those people who have previously been nominated can still be nominated in this category.

Yes, they can. Yes, absolutely.

So we're going to give Mr. Doe a second bite at the apple.

George Doe, another bite.

Commissioner Griffin? Yeah, I'd give Carlton Johnson another bite. He was nominated earlier. Okay. Commissioner Meyer?

I'd like to nominate Alexandra Jenkins.

Alexandra Jenkins. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell?

Yes. Imani Eason and Bobby Mattress.

Hold on one second. I'm sorry. Say that again. Imani Eason and who?

Bobby Mattress. And I've got to put Benjamin Marchand in there again.

Okay, hold on, Benjamin Marchand. All right, and I am going to nominate Monica Pettiford in this, Commissioner.

Monica Pettiford.

Okay.

I'm going to nominate Carlton Johnson.

Give me one second. Carlton's already been nominated, so that's perfect.

Mr. Chair, I have one more.

Yes.

Jennifer Lewis, June.

I got it.

Who's the closing nomination? I have it.

Let me come to Commissioner Powell before we do that.

I nominate Phil McNeary and Chiquita Patterson.

All right. So Phil McNeary and Chiquita Patterson. Before you make that motion, Commissioner Leak, let's make sure that we've got it right. Madam Clerk, I'm going to go down the list and make sure we're straight, okay? I've got Carla Carlisle. George Doe, Imani Eason, Alexandra Jenkins, Carlton Johnson, J.G. Lockhart, Jennifer Louis-Jean, Benjamin Marchand, Bobby Mattress, Phil McNary, Chiquita Patterson, Monica Pettiford, and Joseph Williams.

Got it.

All right.

Move to close the nomination. Second.

Moved and seconded to close nominations. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Ayes have it. We'll move on to the Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee. So reappointments are needed on Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee for four three-year terms. Larry Blakeney Sr., Robert Burton, Jeffrey Giddens, and Charles McCrory are all eligible for reappointment. Is there a motion?

Second.

Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Congratulations on the reappointments. Next, we're going to move to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, which... is the CRC, so reappointments are needed on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee for three, three-year terms expiring July 31st, 2029. Lambert Ginn, Debbie Nash, and Sam Smith Jr. are eligible for reappointment. Second. Moved and seconded. Commissioner Roderick Smith-Dowell.

I'm going to nominate Jessica Edwards.

Can I just bring up a point?

Give me one second, Commissioner Lee.

There are two of the nominees that are on this list. that also in their comments, as I read their applications, also mentioned that they want it to be on adult care. And so since we have so many openings on adult care, Madam Clerk, could we isolate those two names so that we don't assign them to this, which has so many applicants, and put them instead on adult care?

So normally when we are vetting them, I do check that to make sure that they are not – they've been through the process, that they've been contacted by the ombudsman.

Madison, do you have any updates on that one?

So we do reach out to them. So at this point, if you choose not to put them, we will make sure that they would be on the –

Let me go to Lee first, and then I'll come back to you.

So does that mean I should share the names so that they don't get assigned to this?

That would be unfair to them because they signed up for this.

Right, but they signed up for three, and one of them is adult care.

These are reappointments, which means they're currently serving.

Oh, I'm sorry. These aren't for the reappointments. These are for the – I'm sorry.

Maybe I said that wrong. This is reappointment right here.

I'm so sorry. That's okay. I'm here for the general appointment.

Let's come back to that in just a second. Commissioner Lee.

Okay. Jessica Edwards?

No, no, no. This is for the Community Relations Committee reappointments. We're not on that other list just yet, Commissioner. This is the reappointment to the CRC for three three-year terms expiring July 31st, 2029. This is for Lambert Ginn, Gwen, Debbie Nash, and Sam Smith, Sam Smith Jr. Hold on everybody, hold up everybody, one second. There's two different, for the Community Relations Committee, for this one, there's two different lists. This list right here is for reappointments. The next one we're about to go to is for six slots. This is for three open slots. Three people are eligible for reappointment. And then the next list we come to, they're all district two. All right. So we've got a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

All right. Any other discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Congratulations on the reappointment. Now let's move to the larger list. Thank you. So nominations or appointments are needed on the Charlotte Mecklenburg community relations committee to fill six terms. Let's go with commissioner Meyer.

Um, I nominate Laura Bailey, Lee Kinep, Jennifer Lewis, June, Constance Wallace, and Ebony Lucas. Could you repeat that a little fast? Sorry, Laura Bailey.

You have nomination.

Lee Kinep Kniep.

Good night.

Good night. Jennifer Lewis, June. Constance Wallace, Ebony Lucas.

You had Constance Wallace? I didn't have that the first time. Where's Constance Wallace? Wallace? You said Constance Wallace? Next page. She's on the next page. Next page. Oh, I see. Okay. I'm like, okay. All right. Perfect. Commissioner Altman.

Okay. Robert Edwards, Miles Mabry. Kim Mabry, you say Miles Mabry, Kim lamb and Yash, but no, no, no, no. Thank you.

Okay. Uh, commissioner leak.

Thank you. Garetha Butler, Jessica Edwards and Ryan Reed.

Any other? Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Aditya Upadhyay. Aditya, it's on the second page.

Yeah, I see it right above Constance Wiles.

Yes, and then also Jamie Wildgoose.

Who is that?

Jamie Wildgoose.

I got you right below there. Okay. I'm going to nominate Kira Robinson and Rory Pegram. George, you had somebody?

I think you've got them because if you look at the statistics, they are short on men. Yeah. And we need to nominate some.

Yeah, there you go. All right, Commissioner Powell.

I'd like to nominate Ingrid Bravo-Nunez and Omar Saxton and Aditya Apadhyay.

We had her, Commissioner Rodriguez McDowell did. He had her already.

That's all.

Okay. That's why you didn't know. You got your word. Okay.

Move to close nominations.

Well, hold on. Commissioner Leake, you had another nomination?

I did.

Who is it?

Cindy Young.

All right. Cindy Young. Go ahead and make your motion.

I'm trying to put some District 2 people because they're heavy with 5-4.

Go ahead and make your motion, Commissioner Meyer.

Move to close nominations. Second.

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

Aye.

Ayes have it. Madam Clerk, you caught all those, I'm sure. We're going to move to the Citizens Capital Budget Advisory Committee.

Moved to reappoint. Second.

Moved and seconded to reappoint Adam Kurse and Gabriel Mathlis. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Ayes have it. Chair? Yes.

I just wanted to be known that we do have one vacancy on here. So if people want to apply.

Okay, so for the public, there is a vacancy on the Citizens Capital Budget Advisory Committee. There's not a specific slot or anything like that. It's just general. Okay, so public, you heard that. Please apply because we do have a vacancy if you want to serve your community. Next, with that being done, great job, team. With that being done, manager, I'll turn it over to you. We've got a heavy manager's report tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have three items under my manager's report this evening, beginning with an update on the Innovation District. Joining us today, and as you're aware, the Innovation District is also known as the Pearl. Joining us this evening is Colin Lane, Hillary Crittodon, as well as Marcus Kimbrough. They'll be presenting this first item. Mr. Chair, please recognize them.

Here's a clicker on that photo for you.

Let me go to the other one. Oh, okay. All right. Good evening. So my name is Colin Lane. I've worked with Atrium. I know I've met most of you all and worked with a lot of you on the on the TIG and the TIG process five years ago. But truly excited to be here tonight to talk about really what I think is a project that's been transformational for Mecklenburg County and the city of Charlotte. The goal is to share really the genuine success story that this is and the power of a public-private partnership and the creation of the PEARL and the outcomes we've delivered to date. We've got slides that actually have a lot more detail than we're going to speak to. The goal was that it was a little more self-explanatory for you all and relevant to any other questions that you may have. So we set out to build the Pearl. Our goal was clear. We wanted to diversify the region's economy into health tech and life sciences, attract new industry partners and jobs to our market, build education and talent pipelines that lead directly to employment, and connect our community to those pathways so that opportunity is within reach for everyone. Because ultimately, that's how we create the chance to educate and employ our most vulnerable. The Pearl is an economic development engine for the region, built to diversify our economy and bring new industry and businesses large and small to Mecklenburg County. In just 14 months since opening, the first phase, which is really phase 1A, is all we've opened so far, The Pearl has become a national and international destination for the medical device industry. It's attracted some of the world's top med tech and imaging companies, including Siemens, Stryker, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and Zimmer Biomed. The opening of Atrium Health Wake Forest University School of Medicine, the first and only medical school in Charlotte, alongside IRCAD, North America has launched the flywheel. It's attracting talent, delivering economic impact, creating jobs, and drawing in a strong funnel of startups looking to relocate to Charlotte. It's created a new form of medical tourism in our market. We'll have over 10,000 people from all over the world visit EARCAD this year. On the jobs and talent front, we're delivering on both supply and demand. Carolinas College of Health Sciences, our nursing and allied health school, just enrolled a record 900 plus students for the fall semester. Our second class of medical students just started in July, and Wake Forest University has brought the business school and the school of professional studies on the campus. Our early college program also with Hawthorne Health Sciences Academy is already seeing its first graduates. to go work with us at Atrium. On the demand side, we're feeling the pull of the ecosystem with companies across medtech, biotech, and artificial intelligence reaching out proactively because they see talent and the talent pipeline here in Charlotte that they can't find anywhere else. We're excited to share the detail behind our year one economic impact, commissioned and led by an independent third party consultant, which stretches far beyond our initial projections for growth, economic output, and tax benefit, including significant dollars flowing into the market through business tourism, and especially valuable and growing benefit to Meffenburg County. This presentation also highlights the broader community benefits we're delivering. GMH, an independent developer with a strong track record in student housing, broke ground on a multi-family development at the Pearl earlier this summer. That housing combined with planned developments at 720 East Moorhead, which just as an FYI is about 100 yards from the Pearl, so really it's Pearl adjacent, and North Tryon will deliver hundreds of affordable housing units in the market. The value of what Atrium has contributed to date exceeds 50 million in support of affordable housing development for our community, including the Housing Impact Fund. We continue to engage our Community Advisory Council, which meets Thursday. We've made real progress on education and talent pipelines, as well as exciting work to support new startups and small businesses across the Charlotte area. So with that, I'm gonna hand it over to Hillary and Marcus to walk through a few specific projects we'd like to highlight.

Thanks so much, Colin, and thanks to everyone for having us here. I wanted to highlight a few exciting advancements that we've had in our early education talent pipeline and workforce development pathways. There's two programs that actually, when Commissioner Jarrell was on site visiting us recently and Commissioner Griffin as well had the chance to see a few of our students firsthand. One of them is called KidDocCamp that's focused on our youngest learners. We had 70 KidDoc graduates from all across CMS spend time with us at the Pearl this summer. We were able to engage volunteers from across the community as well and really expose students through a in-depth camp experience to all the things that the Pearl has to offer. and the educational experiences that are stemming from the science that's being delivered at our medical school, in EARCAD, and across our research partners. HYPE is actually an extension of some of the work that we've done with Early College. We have a number of students from that program who participated in HYPE, which is a program that really works to take those students who have a demonstrated interest in healthcare career and expose them to a host of different pathways. So we had 72 students participate in this program this summer. All of them are focused on healthcare as a pathway to careers, and they were able to engage with 150 volunteers across Atrium to explore different avenues they might want to pursue. as they continue through their program. To give a little bit of context, we've shared the early college with you all before, but we have a partnership with Hawthorne Health Sciences Academy. We have about 100 students per class who are participating in a four-year program. Their second two years are really onsite at the Pearl. So it's been very exciting to see those students matriculate from the work-based learning side of what they're doing into actually the hands-on learning And a number of those students who graduated in May are either working with us now or completing their 13th year with advanced certifications and doing sort of fellowship type program with us on the side, which is really exciting. Another program I wanted to highlight is called STEM Fest. We have our second annual STEM Fest coming up in November. This is a really exciting way to bring the community into the Pearl. We had 400 attendees our first year. We had around 20 community partners and we were able to expose both our young and our older learners to everything that the Pearl embodies around health innovation. And we were very excited to welcome Discovery Place, Dottie Rose Foundation, Queen City Robotics, and a number of our med tech partners that Colin referenced. to expose the community to what we're doing inside the Pearl. The last piece I wanted to highlight at a high level was our economic impact. We released a study earlier this summer demonstrating our year one impact of the Pearl. So in total, we generated over $220 million in economic output. when you look at direct, indirect, and induced jobs supporting 2,270 jobs through the PEARL in year one. And our year one tax revenue was $9.8 million. The other thing I want to highlight here that I think is really interesting is this concept of building faster at greater scale. So the pace at which the growth has been happening at the PEARL really outpaces innovation districts across the country. which when you think about the timeline that it will take for us to continue to deliver impact to the community, both in the form of jobs and tax benefit, that really speaks to our commitment and our partner's commitment on the development side to this accelerated growth. That's what I wanted to share. Marcus, any remarks?

No, I think we're good. I think we've covered all the slides that we wanted to share with you. We wanted to open it up to any Q&A at this point.

Well, thank you all. I know that there'll be some questions and feedback. And just colleagues, if you remember, this is part of what we agreed to that we would get periodic updates from our partners at Advocate Health. So they are here fulfilling that responsibility. So with that being said, let's open up for questions or comments. Commissioner Griffin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Colin, Hillary, and Marcus for your presentation. There are probably many questions I could ask, but I'm going to hone in on this education space, since it's real dear to my heart. Probably get these numbers mixed up, but somewhere years ago, there was an articulation of some 3,500 or 3,600 jobs being created as a result of the Pearl And about half of them, in terms of qualifications, did not need to have a four-year degree, but needed some additional training and certification, perhaps at the community college level, et cetera. partnered with right now at CMS with Hearth on Health Academy. That school is going to be folded into a new high school by the name of Second Ward High School, which is about a block away from you. What I'm concerned about is twofold. One, a clear pathway or articulation or MOU with the school system that gives some projections and forecasts of students coming through that... CMS and to ATRIAL, but also because of the vast requirements for jobs in the allied health field, I'm also looking to have a more specific connection with CBCC. And one of the concerns there is twofold. For those youngsters who will go right into the workplace after two years, but because of their excitement of the allied health fields that will be available to them, they may want to go into the university system. And so is there any conversations that you have with Central Piedmont or the UNC system so that the courses that the students take will be transferable if they want to continue their education into the university system and perhaps even going to medical school. So I'm looking for some tighter relationship with the education space. Can you speak to what your plans are, your forecast to tighten that up?

Yeah, I'm happy to. And I would just say we're really thrilled about Second Ward High School being our neighbor across the street and the ability to partner with them more deeply as that school opens. So we have a couple of programs that have partnerships with CMS. Our STEM lab program, which focuses on K-12 comprehensively, but really the pipelining program in middle school, we have an MOU with CMS, and we're in 11 schools right now, predominantly Title I schools that are bringing their students into campus on a weekly basis at the Pearl to do continuous learning. So that's that early pipeline that's actually funneling in our mind.

That's for us, not for you.

Oh, okay. That's actually funneling folks into a pathway like the early college. So building that excitement, especially in middle school when students often fall out of love, will you say, with science because they think it's not something that they're good at. So we have the early pipeline building and an MOU with CMS there. We also have one around the early college program. So when the students graduate from that early college program, they graduate with an associate's degree in a specific pathway. And so that has been done through our internal allied health school, which is Carolina's College of Health Sciences, but could be articulated with another school like a CPCC. So the credential should translate. We do have a number of students internally who go in and they might get a CNA certification, they might get a radiology tech certification. And then we have internal pathways at Advocate that I'm probably not the best person to speak to, but that allows folks to work with us and continue that education to go on and get a four-year degree should they choose to do that. We do have some exciting work with CPCC that's underway right now with their health sciences program. One of those pathways is around biomedical engineering equipment technology. So actually working on a lot of the robots and equipment that are part of the ecosystem we're building in med tech. So we're building a pathway around that. And we've had a lot of interest from other CMS schools like Philip O'Berry to build an early college program around pathways that don't currently sit in our Hawthorne program like a surgical tech pathway. So it's really exciting, and we see a lot of promise in terms of where it's going. But any recommendations or advice that you all have around deepening that partnership, we would love your advice and support.

The bell's for me, so thank you. Go ahead and follow up. No, no.

And then we'll move on.

Yeah, I mean, there is an MOU with the high school with American Airlines that they haven't executed yet. So I'd like to see the results of the follow through.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Leak.

No comment at this point. Yes. Is this old Brooklyn, part of Brooklyn?

Yes.

Excuse me. Is this part of Brooklyn?

Well, essentially, yes, as part of it.

Is that why we're bringing back second ward into that community? Because I understood you previously to say you weren't supporting a second ward. I said it.

I don't think I've ever said I don't support second ward since that's my high school.

Not in that area.

The school's coming out of the ground next to the gym. I know where it's coming out of.

Yeah.

but I'm asking the question, have you changed your mind? What's wrong? George Dunlap.

What's the, what was the question? Commissioner Lee.

My question is, are we supporting this plan?

Well, this is an update on the, just what the, on, on the total plan. Well, it is, it's, excuse me. I'm sorry. This is just an update on the, the, the current project. And, um, the, the, They're required to come. I'm not against it.

I'm just asking the question.

Right.

And so that's why I asked Donald, what's the problem?

This is really just the update that they're required to do. So I think many of us have had the opportunity to go and see the work that's being done and you know, and trying to continue to make those connections through CMS to, as Commissioner Griffin stated, and some of the workforce development opportunities that have been highlighted in the economic development pieces.

So I think... Will this hinder any of the high schools we have already with the health program?

Philip O'Berry. No, this actually, I guess the goal, and as we were talking through this when we first were trying to approve the TIG, was to make sure that there was a connection directly with CMS to support the children at different schools.

Yeah, for clarity. My questions are based for clarity for the general public.

All right, thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, board members? Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay, so let me just add a couple things. One, appreciate you all coming. I did have an opportunity to come by and see what was going on with the... The summer camp. And I think that was, that was phenomenal. Actually, I wish I could have stayed all day, but that, that was really phenomenal. So I am glad that we got this update. The economic impact is, is, is pretty impressive. I would double down on what commissioner Griffin said and, and, you know, continuing to make sure that we're, we're focusing, uh, with our board priorities as it relates to, uh, strengthening the, the, uh, education, uh, component and those relationships. And so I know that there's the work continues, uh, and I'm also in, in, I know we touched on it just a little bit, but I'm, I'm personally really, uh, happy about, uh, some of the, um, affordable housing components that, that have been discussed. I know that there's been, you know, discussion in the community and things of that nature, but, from what I can see as well. I mean, there's certainly units that are there, and so I thank you all for that. And I also like the truncated presentation. Appreciate that. We can read all the slides, right? So thank you. That's it, but I appreciate you all being here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Colleen, Hillary, and Marcus, for that very informative presentation, and congratulations on your success. in your first year. Mr. Chair, I'm going to take this next item out of the sequence that is listed on the agenda because we're joined by our colleagues from the sheriff's office and I want to be very respectful of their time so they can get back out there and serve our community. The item is pertaining to an update from our sheriff regarding reopening Jail North in response to the increase of the jail population. The sheriff's going to provide you that update, and then there will be two actions that you'll be requested to approve. The first is to amend the fiscal year 2027 budget ordinance to the tune of $3.2 million. Then also our public health director will provide you an overview of the health plan for jail north and ask that you approve that as well. That is routine in terms of with the reopening of the jail north, so I want to make sure that we go through those processes accordingly. With that, I'm going to ask our chef to come down and make the presentation.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

It has been a very long day. Me and my chief deputy traveled to Winston-Salem this morning to talk to other sheriffs, and we decided to come back home and talk to you all. If I had prepared a speech, it would be a very long speech, but I couldn't prepare a speech tonight as long as I wanted to because I'm sitting in my office today preparing to talk to you all, and I'm talking to mothers who are afraid. They're afraid of their children inside our detention center. Fathers are afraid of their daughters inside our detention center. But I told them they are housed in one of the best detention centers in the country. So we will take care of them. Chairman Jarrell, Chairman Artman, Commissioners, Manager Bryant, I come to you today to talk about the detention center north. First, we want to thank you for the budget that you have provided us, and we're always going to thank you because for you helping us, we can help the families throughout this county. Tonight, we want to address two issues. The first issue is the North Carolina General Statute 1530. 9.8, which requires local government and public authorities in the state to operate under the basic or balanced budget ordinance from July 1st to June 30th. That is why we're here to talk about that. But there's also a North Carolina General Statute 162-22 that says the sheriff has the care and custody of the county jail. North Carolina General Statute 162-22, the sheriff has the care and custody of the county jail. My staff and I was given this task of care and custody, but now we are with care and custody and medical and mental health, substance abuse, years of addiction, and now we are facing an overpopulated detention center. So let me put that in perspective for you all. The current detention center across the street houses 1,791. Somebody may say it might be different, but I'm looking at 1,791. As of yesterday, the Mecklenburg County Detention Center housed 2,222. If you look at that, that's over 400 and some people are not properly housed inside a detention center. But as of the day's current population, it's 2235. 83 people were arrested last night in Mecklenburg County. We cannot control that. So what does that look like? When you hear the family saying that my child is sleeping on the floor, they are not actually sleeping on the floor. They are sleeping on what we call a stacker bunk, which is a hard metal, a hard plastic apparatus with a three or four inch mattress on the top. That conversation went so long every day that I put one of the stack of bunks in the lobby so family members can see what their family members are sitting on or lying on, because it became a conversation daily. So let me put this in some context for you all when we're talking about the 2235. The largest population in Mecklenburg County occurred in 2008. when the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office housed 2,610. They had an advantage of this sheriff. Why? In 2008, they had three facilities to house 2,600 people in. They had Central, they had North, and they had what they called the Annex. So imagine, I'm housing 2,235 in one building But the previous sheriff had the ability, or previous sheriff, not Sheriff Carmichael, but some sheriff before him, had the ability to have three detention centers that housed 2,600 people. So yes, IRENA law has come, and we're not only going to blame it on IRENA's law, we're going to blame it on our community and people who allegedly commit crimes and come to jail, detention center. So a better perspective, November 25th, 2025, when we presented our presentation for the budget, we only had 1,560 people inside a detention center. And again today, after House Bill 307, and what we are not talking about is just the rapid rise of crime in our city, and they end up in our detention center. But we did make history. Why? Because we're the only sheriff's office that has housed 2,200 people inside the Mecklenburg County Detention Center. No other sheriff in the history of Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office has housed 2,200 people in a single building. And we have that to look at. So the board has a priority. And you said your priority is safe and prepared community. And that's what we're asking for, a safe and prepared community. You know, we talked about the agenda item here tonight for the $3 million. And we're going to offset that with this special sheriff revenue. And if you approve it, it's a great thing. And here's what you also approve. Not only that you are looking to approve this budget for housing people, you're going to help my staff with their mental health. You're going to help people who want treatment for mental health. And you're going to find people who can receive adequate medical care that we do provide for them. And then you're going to see that we can continue to create better programs inside the detention center. Because when you prepare better programs, you get better citizens. And yes, we have a revolving door, but we don't control the revolving door. We can only control what we can control, and that's the care and custody of these individuals who come to the Mecklenburg County Detention Center. I could prepare a longer speech and talk to you all night about it. Why? Because after I leave here, I still have to call three mothers and give them some type of news of what we're going to do with her son sleeping on the floor or her daughter sleeping on the floor or someone expecting their first child that may be sleeping on the floor. See, this is what we deal with every day, that most people can just say the jail or the detention center. But we deal in reality, a true reality. 2,200 people inside the Mecklenburg County Detention Center that only house 1,791. We ask for you to approve this budget. We ask that you understand what we are facing. But most of all, I ask that even after you do, come and visit us. Because I could have this audience filled with parents, fathers, daughters, siblings, grandmothers, children, to support this because they do not want their loved ones in the conditions that we are currently under. Because if you call your doctor, you may get a medical appointment in two months. In our facility, it may be two months instead of maybe a year. And we do have people housed inside our current detention center that has been housed there for over six years. So let me say we thank you all for this time. It has been a long day. My staff is ready. My staff has been ready. The building is ready. And we are ready to go. But we clearly understand when this came to our agenda, we were more than happy to come before you and tell you that we are still ready. Thank you.

Thank you. Let me get their presentation real quick.

Chair Jarrell. Vice Chair Altman, commissioners, good evening. My name is Andre Melkonian. I'm with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office Business Operations Division. Sheriff, thank you for the opening statement. On behalf of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office, I am going to be going through the presentation that we've shared with you all today, this evening. I know Sheriff shared a lot of information, and I'll give the opportunity for you all to review that data and ask any questions that you may have. As Sheriff mentioned, on November 25, 2025, during a budget and public policy workshop, Sheriff had shared the anticipated concerns and challenges as it relates to House Bill 307, known as Edina's Law. The House Bill was signed into law on October 3, 2025, and it went into effect December 1, 2025. As it pertains to detention operations and detention services, the biggest impact coming from House Bill 307 has been the increase, the sharp and unpredictable increase to the population in the custody of the sheriff's office. Average daily population is the biggest driver as it relates to detention operations because as the population goes up, things such as resident food, medical care, any facility and maintenance services, all of those are related to an increase in the population. In the presentation, you will notice a trend analysis for FY25, 26, and FY27 year-to-date, and you can see where the population begins to increase right away as House Bill 307 is signed into law in October. You can see that October population, the average daily population, increases significantly compared to September or prior months. One thing to consider about average daily population, there is a seasonality effect. What does that mean? WHAT WE'VE OBSERVED HISTORICALLY IS THAT DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS, THE AVERAGE DAILY POPULATION WILL INCREASE BECAUSE OF THE LONGER DAYLIGHT. THERE ARE PEOPLE ARE STAYING OUT LONGER. HOWEVER, AS THE SUMMER ENDS AND THE SCHOOL YEAR RESUMES AND THE DAYLIGHT SHORTENS, WE SEE THE POPULATION DECREASE SLIGHTLY. AND WHEN YOU LOOK AT FY26 TREND ANALYSIS TREND LINE, YOU CAN SEE WHEN WE WERE FINISHING THE SUMMER MONTHS AND GOING FROM AUGUST TO SEPTEMBER, the ADP began to trend down slightly, and that was our downward trend. However, with the House Bill 307 being signed into law, we began to see a reversal of that trend that has been historically observed. Another Mark, you will notice in December of 2025, when House Bill 307, Irina's law, took effect, the population change, the average daily population from December to January spiked significantly. And you can see the numbers explain what the Sheriff's Office has been observing as it pertains to detention operations. To give you a more detailed perspective, you can see that for the past 10 months, the population has not decreased. It has continued to increase each month since House Bill 307 was signed into law. And that will show you the perspective. Not included is today's population. I know Sheriff mentioned that earlier. Today's population was 2,235, highest ever population recorded for Detention Center Central, which is the only facility online today. Also not included in today's presentation, but we've done a quick analysis. We've looked at the number of arrests during the course of FY26 and compared to the number of arrests during the course of FY25. And there was a 16.5% increase in the number of arrests being processed through our arrest processing center. That resulted subsequently in an increase to the bookings. Compared to FY2025, in FY2026, there was a 23.2% increase in the number of bookings that were recorded subsequent to arrest being processed. What that did? is increase the population. And during the course of FY2026, the bookings outpaced releases by 625 when you look at the fiscal year. And that is the compounding effect. The more bookings you have, the less releases you have, you are bound to increase your average daily population over a course of a year, and that is what we have been able to observe over the past year. Today's agenda item focuses on activation of Detention Center North. As Manager Bryant alluded to earlier, that will result in the Sheriff's Office requesting a FY27 budget amendment in order to support operations at Detention Center North. This is a phase one implementation. Currently, there are four housing units with 56 beds each that are available to be brought online. They're online, they're ready. And that would create 224 beds that can be used through this phase one to transfer folks from detention center central to detention center north. Activation of Detention Center North's budget impact. As you can see, has been provided, and Sheriff spoke to this earlier, the budget amendment is specific to $3.2 million. Those expenses are medical services, facility costs, resident meals, printing, document management, office supplies, program supplies. And there's some potential realignments from an existing FY27 expense line. And that need is offset by the anticipated increase in state and federal revenue, as well as a potential for an offset through the Share Special Revenue Fund. All that to say, there is no impact to county dollars. The services and the expenses that are needed to support detention operations at north through phase one implementation would be offset through the anticipated revenue and an offset through the special revenue fund. We would be using existing FY27 positions that would be transferred from detention center central to detention center north. That total is 59 positions to include line staff and rank staff as well. to provide you all with an update on operational readiness. Facility inspection. Detention Center North passed jail inspection from North Carolina DHHS on August 27, 2026. Staff and personnel have been identified and are receiving facility training at MCDC North, prepared for transfer and receipt of residents from MCDC Central. Program supplies, mattresses, linen, jumpsuits have been prepared for detention operations at MCDC North. Facility maintenance and management. Our facility maintenance management provider, Keith Corporation, is prepared to support the facility in detention capacity once the budget amendment is approved. Resident Food Services, Aramark, who is our resident food services provider, is prepared to produce meals to be served to residents at MCDC North once the budget amendment is approved. Resident Medical Care, Vital Corp, who is our on-site medical care provider for the residents, will onboard the needed staff to provide care at MCDC North and will finalize the purchase of necessary medical supplies. Based on Vital Corps' assessment of needs, tentative date to support MCDC North is around mid-September 2026, pending approval of budget amendment. And those are the highlights that we have for you today as it pertains to activation of Detention Center North to provide the much-needed relief to the operations at Central. Welcome. Any questions you may have? Thank you.

I know we have questions. I'm going to start with Commissioner Dunlap and Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

Mr. Chair, in order to get the item for discussion, I'm going to first offer a motion that we amend the FY2027 budget ordinance to reopen jail north by increasing expenses for the sheriff's office by $3,213,591 and increasing revenue by the same amount to include $2,866,250 from state and federal sources and to transfer to the general fund from the sheriff's special revenue fund an amount of $347,341. Second. All right.

It's been moved and seconded. We're going to move into discussion, uh, prior to go into the motion. So, uh, go ahead. Commissioner Dunlap, commissioner Townsend, Ingram, then commissioner leak.

Well, I would just simply say this. I think we have a responsibility to provide, um, the resources needed to adequately fund and support jail operations and uh... i think the case has been made where we have citizens no matter what they did or may not have done, who are sleeping in not the best of conditions, and we have an opportunity to improve that. And I think what has been offered is reasonable, and therefore I would hope that this board would unanimously support the recommendation.

Thank you, Commissioner. Let me go to Commissioner Townsend-Ingram.

Thank you both very much for the report. When I went to the conference last week for the North Carolina County Commissioners, they gave a report of the jail health care costs. And we actually did really, really good in Mecklenburg County. We only came in about 2% over our projected budget. So you're doing an excellent job with care there. I just have some questions and I will, I will, I am in support of, of, of the motion. Um, the degree of violent crime offense, are we housing all of them? Um, in, I guess as right now we are because there's only one facility. Is there, um, is there an opportunity to, segregate the population of those not based on location but offense of crime to cut down on so many things. That's the first question. Recidivism, are we working with the DA because we have all these unfunded mandates that come down from the state and I know that we did not get what we needed to have DAs to prosecute and thereby lessen the amount of time that the residents stay in the facility. So what are the projected costs to continue until we can get the number of DAs that we need? I guess I'm asking what is the average amount of time and stay for an inmate?

Well, let me answer the first one. The first one, we do have a classification. So we do not classify everybody in one pod as people believe. We don't even feed the people the same food that we do. We have a strict diet for some people. So don't get the impression that everybody's housed together just to be housed together. No, they're not. That's a classification issue. We do not control who goes and comes, and we do not control what the district attorney does. I think that we have many entities that come to the table, but finding solutions for recidivism and reentry, we are not invited to many of those tables to get our input. which we should, but we're not. And so we just have to do custody care. They bring them, we keep them, and if somebody bonds them out or if they get out on their own, they can. But we've had those conversations. But as I said, six years, I don't know what you tell a family after six years. I don't know what you tell a district attorney after six years. But this is what we see, and it's kind of like out of sight, out of mind, and that's what we're dealing with. But that is something that... The committees that you have and these programs and organizations that you put together for criminal justice reform, I think they need, you can ask them those questions and they can give you some answer. I can't. We're just here for care and custody. You can finish here.

Do you have like a... like a one-sheeter that can explain and build the case for the programs, the many programs that you have, and I know that you give presentation yearly, but I was curious to know what percentage of those who go in, go through one of your programs, whether it's the barber or whatever, what percentage of those people actually stay and are contributing to the community without recidivism? You know, what's your recidivism rate for those that go through the program versus those who don't?

I don't know what our recidivism rate is now, but before COVID, we were nationally known for our recidivism rate. And I think the young man who's sitting down there actually did a story on our recidivism rate when he was at another TV station. And so we can get you those numbers, but we can definitely tell you that it is not where it was years ago.

Thank you. Commissioner Lee, Meyer, and then Griffin.

Let me say thank you for bringing your staff here tonight. And if I were to ask you how much did it cost you to bring them here to be with us to ask for funds to maintain and do what you need to do, you'd be able to tell me that, am I right?

Yes.

And I'm glad to see each of them here with you. And the thing that makes me feel so much better about it is you are saying to us about the detention center and that the detention center is going to be Housing young people, am I right?

Above the age of 18.

Up to 18.

Yes, ma'am.

And in our community today, you've got 14 and 12 and 13-year-old children who are finding themselves involved in problems. And it's more than mental health. It's neglect to some degree. So you have to fit into that process. Am I right? You have to be the mother, the father, the uncle, the aunt.

We deal with those in our community engagement, and we connect with them while our deputies are in the community, but we do not house 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds.

They go to youth centers.

Yes, ma'am.

I understand that, but I'm saying even with 18-year-olds, some of them act like 12 and 13-year-olds.

Yes, ma'am.

So all I'm saying to you, thank you, and I've never been against you, Sheriff. I always ask the question, what programs do we have? How are we enhancing our young people so that they will not be repeaters and be returned? And if you look at the report that comes to us to talk about who's in there, they look like me. And something has to change to help us to get our young people and parents to understand the responsibility. Mecklenburg has grown so much, but we never hear anything about if these young people are old people, whomever moved to Charlotte Mecklenburg and commit crimes here, you hear them talk about, let's go with his land. We can buy a house and be safe, but they bring the problems with them when they move with us. So that's a major problem. And I just want to thank you for having your staff here tonight. I see you have more young women with you than you do young men. And that's a good thing because I worry about the women who find themselves incarcerated also. So let me say thank you for what you do. And I've talked about the concession stand, the phone bills. We have nothing to do with that. Am I right?

For the concession stands?

Yes.

Which concession stands?

At the jail. It's commissary.

It's called what? Commissary.

And not concession stand. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Help me to understand that better.

Anytime.

Thank you. I don't want to be a visitor. I know I talked to Valerie Woodard one time and she talked to me about it. That's been some years ago. And thank you for young people for being here tonight. You look good in your white shirts and your blue. You look great. You look fabulous. Thank you for being here. So I'm hoping that we can help to cut back on on the problem that we're having in Mecklenburg County with our youth and with our other individuals. Some people are white collar criminals. We don't get them down there, do you? You lock up white collar criminals?

I don't, but if they bring to us, we do take care of them.

Thank you. I need to tell you about some of them.

Thank you. Commissioner Powell.

Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you to all the deputies. Uh, I know it has to be extra hard, like it's hard enough to do your job, but extra hard to have this overcrowding. And so when we get the jail population report every day, it is stunning, you know, like every day I look at it and I think, wow, how are you, how are you managing that? So this seems very necessary. And it also seems like a matter of public health, you know, in overcrowded conditions. A lot of things can happen, and so I'm really glad that you came before us to solve the problem, and I support it. I just have one question. I toured the detention center with you, and I can't remember this. It smelled good. I remember there was food.

It still smells good.

Yeah, and there was food cooking, but I can't. Food cooking. So is Aramark there?

Yes, yes they are.

So it would be the same vendor?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, that was my question. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Sheriff, for your presentation. But let me just say before I have some specific comments and questions, thank you for what you do for the people in there. These are dads, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, et cetera. Belonging husbands, wives, belonging to somebody. These are human beings. And certainly you do what you can in terms of intervention and rehabilitation with your various programs. And my hat's off to you for doing that work. I, like my other colleagues, we get the jail population report. And my colleagues remember me sharing with them. I was just blown away. That's 74% of your hotel guests, I don't wanna get that right, are African Americans. Yes, they are. And about 75, 78% of that group are under the age of 35. And we gotta do something, community, to do prevention, to slow up that pipeline that's going into that facility. And I don't know whether these folk are coming from out of state or wherever they are, but we gotta figure out on the front end what we can do to reduce that number as best we can because that's human assets that is in that facility. And I want to thank you for what you do for the folk that you have when you have them. Thank you. But community, we got a problem. And he didn't even tell you about it because he didn't show it. The folk under 18 also look a lot like me. And they go someplace else. So we need to figure out how to be more effective on the front end with those programs to reduce it. Now, that's not being soft on crime. That's you being realistic. You can't lock your way out of this, okay? And we've got to be able to take the frequent flyers. They've got to pay the price. But we've got to figure out how to maintain safety in this community at the same time trying to prevent crime. this becoming just a situation that's uncontrollable. And what I mean by that is, Chair, your presentation speaks to phase one of 224 inmates. And looking at the presentation, the young man beside you presented, if the state statute continues and your trend line continues the way it's trending, we're gonna be at phase two soon. I'm gonna have to do something else. So community, we gotta get together, we gotta support the sheriff, support the presentation at hand, but we also gotta work on that front end in terms of reducing the folk that's coming into Sheriff McFadden's Hotel over there. So I just want to thank you for your work that you're doing. But keep in mind, Mr. Manager, at this rate that he just presented, we're going to be at phase two pretty soon, and we're going to have to come back to this board to make sure that we have the resources to get there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Before I move to Commissioner Meyer, I do want to take a moment to recognize Councilwoman Joy Mayo has joined us. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your service as well. Let me go to Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for being here, Sheriff, and thank all the staff for being here and thank all the staff that can't be here. You guys do have such a hard job. is thankless, and I just want to recognize the work that you do. And like you said, Sheriff, you're overcrowded whether Irena's law was in effect or not. You're overcrowded. So we need to do something. And I just want to start off by saying I support this 100%. We need to do something. People need to get off the floor, so to speak, not really the floor. So I support this. I also have a question about the capacity of Jail North. What is the total capacity in terms of beds or the percentage of what?

A little over 700. Well, we have what they call CIP projects, so we're going to have a capacity just under 800.

Capacity under 800. Yes. So theoretically... we could use some of that for a juvenile detention center. And I want to thank Arthur Griffin for pretty much teeing up the conversation about what are we going to do about our youth. Let's stop it before it happens.

Well, I'll be glad to, but we've danced with that song before. The state has $35 million. We've been dancing with the same issue for three years. We've having backroom meetings, sidebar meetings, meetings privately. The only person that I want to have a meeting with is Billy Lasheter. Let me finish.

I only have three minutes.

Okay. Well, let me finish. If the conversation is not with me and Mr. Lassiter, you're just having a conversation. When I called Mr. Lassiter before I came, he said he didn't have no conversations since our last conversation. If we can let this rest and let myself and Billy Lassiter, William Lassiter of the Department of Juvenile Justice work this out, besides having a backroom conversation and a third party trying to sell this to us, we will be successful.

Would you be willing to lease part of the space to the state?

Again, we've had that conversation. We've had that conversation. I'll be willing to receive $13 to $18 million.

I'm done. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Okay. Sheriff McFadden, I have to tell you that you had me at hello. This is a no-brainer. We have to do this. And I mean, actually, we're not really doing anything except a statutory obligation to vote for this, to switch money around. So thank you. You have my utmost respect for how you run the jail. I have always... respected how you treat the residents and your focus on mental health. And I just really appreciate the work that all of you all are doing. I know this is extremely difficult. And so I do want to jump on to the juvenile detention center bandwagon for a moment in that we're speaking about the facility. And I believe that what I would like to do is explore and let you know, let us all kind of indicate our intention or our um our desire to have jail north also house juveniles we i believe and i think we would have to take a vote on it that if we did take a vote on it we would this board would support bringing our juveniles back to mecklenburg county and so if that has to happen through leasing part of the building to the state I would really appreciate if you would have those discussions and and let the board weigh in because It is a county building that I know you are currently operating all inmates but residents residents, but we do have the ability to lease a Yeah, a portion of it. So I'm glad to know that the capacity is 800 because they're only looking for 48 beds for juveniles.

We've had no discussion. Let me say this honestly. You don't want these kids no more than I do. I've had them. I don't have to look at reports. I understand everything that's going on about this more than most people at this diocese because I've been involved in this conversation for three years. The money is there for the state, but they just won't give it to this sheriff. The conversation me and Mr. Lassiter has, we have a plan. We always had a plan. It is trying to erode the authority of the sheriff and take away the authority of the sheriff. We ran the best detention center, juvenile detention center in the state. And so why not allow us to have the funding to run it? Leasing this part that you were talking about is kind of like at a boarding house. Who would take care of the medical costs? Who would take care of the food costs? Can they be out of sight and sound? Have we thought about that? We haven't thought about it. We're just saying leasing us space. We've had those conversations. Again, myself and Mr. Lassiter well know what it takes. Like he says, stand still for a moment. let us open this building and me and Mr. William Lassiter will have those conversations. But all of this interjection into what we're going to can do as a team, me and Mr. Lassiter is causing this confusion and maybe cause some strife between some of us about this juvenile detention center. It can be done, but it can't be done on emotions and it can't be done on wants because here's what I'll tell you. When we said that we had to open this detention center, Imagine we hired enough staff. Matter of fact, we hired so much of staff that now we have one over. We don't have a vacancy. We had over 90 vacancies the beginning of this year. So if you allow us to get one phase done and allow me and Mr. Lassiter to figure this out, we may get what you need, but you're not looking at the things that will make this detention center run. Food, sight and sound, maintenance, and how do you run the facility? Do we run it with our staff or Mr. Lassiter run it with his staff? Leasing is a small thing to say, yeah, we can lease it, but who's in control of that building and who will be in control of that building? Having these conversations with the sheriff present and Mr. Lassiter is what we need to do. If you go to the third party, It's not going to happen, and we know that. Allow us to be at the conversations and have the honest conversation. It can happen because we all want it. You talk about reports. I don't need to see a report. I don't read the reports. I see the faces every day. When I locked those doors and those juveniles left, I had the final dinner with them. So I well would love those juveniles to be back, but it's not free. Think about this. Go to the state and say, why don't you give Sheriff McFadden the money that he needs? If you have a pot of money, $35 million, a 37 sitting somewhere, and I'm only asking for a few dollars to run it, why not give me that? But we all know that. We all know the reason why. It's a little different with the sheriff. But I respect that. But I will listen to you all. But invite me to the conversations that two signatures were signed at. myself and Mr. Lassiter.

With the utmost respect, I just have to say that we have been doing this dance for a number of years. I've been here. We've been dancing around for a while. And I really, I'm imploring that if you say that when this phase opens, that you're ready to have that conversation with the state.

We're always ready.

Well, it seems that there's been one obstacle after another. And so I'm running out of time. And so I just want to say with respect, I'm taking your word that you're saying that you want this too. And I certainly hope we can make it happen. And I hope that we can get support from the board.

You need to get support from the state.

We have the support of the state.

We're moving on.

We're tracking.

We're going to move on. I know this is the time that there's attitudes, but here's what I'm saying. If you have the money and you have the money, why not give it?

Thank you. Let me go to Commissioner Dunlap.

Yeah, I just wanted to put some perspective on what's taking place tonight. In 2008, when my commissioner passed away, I was appointed by the Democratic Party to replace her. And at that time, if I remember correctly, the majority of the county commission were Republicans. And they voted not to seat me. And the reason they voted not to seat me was because there was a vote coming up about whether or not we would build a new jail. The new jail would cost $300 million. And they didn't know how I was going to vote. Well, when we took them to court, they relented. I got appointed anyway. And I cast a no vote. And the reason I cast a no vote was because Mecklenburg County at that time developed programs so that the inmates who had the least record, whatever you call it, the non-offensive, non-violent, were being released and sent into different programs. So that saved Mecklenburg County $300 million. What the sheriff is asking for tonight is a drop in the bucket compared to that, and we still don't have to build a new jail.

Thank you.

Commissioner Altman. Interesting conversation. I'm definitely in listening and learning mode. Further to that, I just want to understand two things. I understand, sir, that this is going to be funded by your special revenue fund. What is that? How does that money get generated? And is it sustainable year over year?

Vice Chair, that's a great question. That is a fund that was established in 2001, if I'm not mistaken. That was in reference to concealed hang-on permit revenue that the sheriff has been able to accumulate over the years.

Okay, so it hasn't been spent, so now there's a chunk. Once it gets spent, will you need ongoing funds to sustain this?

That is correct.

Do you think the revenue fund will sustain it? I can read the Sheriff McFadden.

The things that we overlook sometimes affect the Sheriff's Office. New gun laws affect the Sheriff's Office. Raise the age affect the Sheriff's Office. So we have to understand that we can say maybe, but if the people in Raleigh and D.C. changes things, as they did with the Irene's Law, We may not have it.

Thank you, sir. And then, Mr. Manager, I know you've been listening to the conversation also. And I think all of us, I shouldn't say, but I certainly would love to find a way to have our juveniles be able to be home. Do you have any insights or perspective that you can share? Because I certainly appreciate your point of view also.

The only perspective that I would share I have engaged in some of those conversations that the sheriff has alluded to, and I've made it clear that as much as I too would like to see a juvenile detention center here in Mecklenburg County, the county cannot afford to invest to support a juvenile detention facility. So to the sheriff's point, that is something that would have to be worked out with the state. So until that is worked out, I'm not in a position to bring anything to your attention for consideration. But what I will not do is ask that you invest county dollars given other priorities that you have. As much as I'd like to see a juvenile detention facility here, it won't be supported with county dollars.

Thank you. Is that it? Okay. A couple of things. And I want to piggyback on what the manager just said. So I don't want anybody to walk away from this conversation to think that many of us have not been engaged in the discussions with respect to the juveniles. And so we've had many conversations, whether it's phone conversations, whether it's face-to-face, there have been multiple conversations. And so We all want the same thing comes down to the dollars is as simple as that. Sheriff is asking for, um, the financial assistance from the state manager. And there's no daylight between the manager and I would respect to what we feel like the role of Mecklenburg County should be. I've communicated that to colleagues on this day as, uh, external, uh, stakeholders who care about the issue as well. And so, um, It comes down to what the state and the sheriff can work out. That's just the bottom line. Let me say this. Give me one second, Sheriff. One second. I just wanted to be clear that that's the bottom line on the juvenile... Discussion. We will be here, and I believe the manager would agree, we would be here to support with any data needs, data requests, or perspectives for sure. But I think we've been consistent with what the position is thus far. So, Sheriff, let me go to you before I finish.

So let me be clear also. It's not that I do not want the juveniles. I want the juveniles. I look at this space every day. We all know that the state has money. We all know that Children's Alliance is behind this and pushing this. We all know. We all know that Frank Crawford is pushing this. I have no problem with that. But you have to understand this. It takes dollars and funding. I'm willing to do it. We're going to prepare that juvenile facility for it. But you have to come with honest and an intentional conversation. This is always directed towards the sheriff and what he doesn't want to do or what he's not going to do. That's not it. If the state has a pot of money that they haven't spent, why aren't we not directing those questions to the state? Leasing it, even if we lease it, let me get this, who's controlling it? Sight and sound, we haven't looked at these reports. Even though we go to these meetings, have we looked at the sight and sound? I'm going to have... Adults inside a facility where juveniles are. Yes, it could happen. But with money, emotions are not going to have it. We want the kids. We had the kids. It should have never been closed. But we didn't listen the first time. And this is why we're in this predicament now. Because we listened to lies the first time. And lies closed this building. And we overlooked that. When a state jail inspector said, I lied in the middle of COVID, And I lied about it. This is what closed it. There was nothing wrong with that detention center. It was staffing in the middle of COVID. So let's be honest about it. And I will. We can go to these meetings and meetings all we want, and I will entertain it. But we have to be honest and intentional about this. We want the kids. If you want to put the sheriff on record, we would love to have the kids. Renting and leasing is not a good option. Why? Who's in charge of it? Who's going to occupy it? Who's going to staff it? Is the staff is going to lease it? I mean, the state is going to staff it? Who's going to do it? Who's going to do the medical? Do we share the same medical unit? Do we share the same food? Do we share the same space? When we're talking about leasing, it sounds good, but have you really come to the detention center, take a look at it, and let's have those conversations. I'm willing. I'm always going to be willing.

So, Sheriff, I think To be clear, what I'm saying is, I'm reiterating what you just said about the discussions between you and Billy Lassiter, or you and the state. That's all I'm doing. Like I said, we are here for whatever support, if it's a data, whatever the case may be. So I just want to get, no, we have not voted just yet. I want to get a couple of comments out, and then I will carry the motion. It's been moved and seconded. I'll carry the motion in just a second. So I did wanna put the juvenile discussion to bed with respect to where we are as far as the county is concerned. We've heard from the sheriff on what he is willing to do and the approach that he is going to take. So we've done that. The second thing is, as it relates to the motion that's on the table, one, it is certainly our responsibility to support the needs of the sheriff's office when they come to us. There's no financial impact to the county. They have moved dollars in a way that's certainly appropriate and that covers the cost of the need. They have certainly demonstrated the need. We see it every day with the report. So thank you for sending those reports. When you came to us previously at the budget policy hearing, and we talked about the impact of IRENA's law. We saw the numbers then. I think the question and the focus has to be moving forward. You told us just a little while ago that the numbers are going to continue to trend up. And yes, we have the overflow. But that doesn't stop the problem, right? Just because numbers are trending up, you're at capacity as far as staff. But as we trend up, right, you're gonna have to staff officers to meet that growing population, which speaks to what Commissioner Griffin has said. So there are other aspects of just besides beds and a building and housing that we are going to have to address as a community, as you said. and as a board, right? So we see the numbers now, and it's important for us to figure out and ask the question, what are we going to do, to use your words verbatim, to stop the bleeding, right? So I just wanted to put that in the atmosphere so that you understand that that's going to be and have to be a focus where we move as a board, as a community. How do we stop that? But I certainly support this and will continue to support this. And you had something, Commissioner?

No, I just didn't want to be lost on that one. It's raising the floor and the ceiling at the same time. We've got to certainly deal with the increasing capacity, but also find creative ways to support Gary in terms of programs to reduce people coming back. So you're doing a great job, as I said earlier. I hope we can figure out some creative ways to help you do an even better job in terms of what you're doing.

Well, we have, let me say this too, but you may have not caught this. We did a hiring practice, make sure we got this right. We did a hiring practice that we can't hire any more detention officers. Am I correct? We hired enough detention officers with the salary debt from the budget that we have from last time. So when you're talking about more crime, more beds, more space, Phase one is gonna be a phase two. We never thought we had 2200 by December. I mean, by this time, we thought maybe December. We've hired a staff where we're gonna ask, not ask for a position, but you have to look at it. Staffing. Because we had vacancies, but we went on a hiring practice and we'll, at that number of completed, Detention officers.

So we can carry them. Because you can. Mr. Sheriff.

Yes, ma'am.

Is your assistant here with you tonight?

My assistant.

Might not call him that. I'm just calling him that. Might be your right hand or your left hand. Is he here?

The chief deputy is here.

Help me. The name again?

The chief deputy.

And what's his name?

Ricky R. Robbins.

Robinson.

Yes, Robbins. No son.

Not son, but Robin. Thank you. Is he here?

Yes, he is.

Thank you. Thank you for being here, young man.

I thank him for being here.

All right, we've got a motion on the floor. It's been seconded. All those in favor, let's see by show of hands. It's unanimous, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you all.

Thank you, Sheriff and Garrett, Andre. Chair, there's one more procedural item that we need to take action on. Dr. Scott is going to provide you an overview of the health plan for the reopening of Jail North as well.

When you said his assistant, I was thinking of Shelby.

Good evening everyone. North Carolina general statute requires all detention centers have a health plan in place to support all detention facilities. But part of the authority of the public health director is to review said plan and also approve it. So as a part of tonight you have received a copy of the jail health plan that has been provided by the sheriff's office. in partnership with their contractor vital core our public health department has reviewed this plan of there is guidance from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that outlines all the components of the plan that are required and I want to emphasize that the public health department does not have to review the plan. We don' t have the authority to operationalize the plan but our goal is to review it to ensure the health and safety of those that are within the facility. You have a copy of the plan ahead of you. This is a process that as a board you review annually. You have reviewed it most and just a few outlined areas within the plan that are required include admission for health screenings outlining those operational procedures outlining what daily sick calls look like for those who are within the facility any routine medical dental and mental health processes and procedures, emergency care procedures, and also substance use procedures. There is also outlined within the plan a requirement that the public health director be notified of any death within the facility within five days and that also includes a process for how we will review said deaths within the facility with hopes for plans for prevention of future deaths at the facility. So ahead of you, you have a copy of the draft that was provided. As requirements by the Public Health Department, we also craft letters to support our approval for said plan, and you have a copy of that as well. We did receive some updates to the plan today that are not included in your package, but that does not prohibit us from moving forward with advancing with the current plan as is. Our public health department, in partnership with our medical director, provided some insights on just understanding the intake process and how persons who will be at the jail north facility will be transferred there so that we can have firmer understanding of what that procedure looks like. So again this is a standard process that you all review annually as a part of approving the jail health plan as a part of the responsibilities of the board and at this time I'll take any questions if you have any about the public health authority before proceeding with next steps in the process.

Thank you, Dr. Scott. Let me get a motion on the floor. So moved. Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded to approve the health plan. Does anybody have a quick question?

No.

Go ahead.

I don't have a question, but I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to share something with the public. The chair and I had the opportunity to visit with the sheriff this week. to recognize the attendance of the deputies. And I don't know what your total staff is, but we do know that 200, 200 of the sheriff's people had perfect attendance. And I think that's something to be celebrated.

Any other questions?

I'm just going to add to that. They've always had that program, previous sheriffs also.

All right. Hearing no other question, all those in favor, let's see by show of hands. That is unanimous, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Dr. Scott. We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Scott. And for the third and final item under my manager's report, our tax administrator, Ken Joyner, is going to present the uniform schedule values for 2027. He's also going to provide you an update on the 2027 reappraisal. In addition to that, he's also going to set the public hearing. Thank you. Sheriff, did you? I just want to thank you. Oh, welcome. Thank you, sir. I'll stand. Thank you. Good night, officers.

Ken, before you start, I just wanted to say, colleagues, if you haven't seen Ken's shoes, you need to check them out, okay? Because Ken is killing the game. He's killing the game tonight.

Show the shoes, show the shoes. Oh, look at that. I got to see it. Come on down.

We can't see them right here. Hey, Ken is killing the game tonight, I'll tell you.

Look at him, look at him.

Oh, the Carolina blue. Look at him, man.

So Ken will wear those shoes each time he provides an update on the reval, right? That's right.

Okay. I'm going to have to buy some new suits tonight. I think I got two that would work. You're losing weight, you will. I got two that would work. We're going to be here a few times. All right. Well, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. Before we get started, I do want to point out the staff that are here tonight. We have our two new deputy tax administrators over collections. You'll all see the familiar face, Ms. Fernandez. And we have Trish Peterson, who is deputy tax administrator over the assessment side here tonight. I also have with me our reval manager, Jeremy Blackwelder, and one of our real property managers on the residential side, David Strafel, here. And I just want to thank them for being here as well tonight, because it has been a long day for everybody. All right. So... Tonight, as Yogi Berra once said, it's like deja vu all over again. I can't believe it's been four years. But here we are, we're back again, and we are starting the beginning of the 2027 revaluation process tonight. North Carolina General Statutes require the assessor, one of my two roles as the Director of Tax Administration, to prepare the Uniform Schedule of Value standards and rules and bring that forth to the Board of County Commissioners. So the legal process starts with this tonight, the Schedule of Value submission. We will, I will request that the board authorized publication of a notice that the schedule of values are available for inspection at my office and on our website and that there will be a public hearing on the schedule of values for September 15th and that came along with the packet of information that will lead to the advertisement that will take place on September 6th in the Charlotte Observer. We will hold the public hearing at your next board meeting on September 15th, and then we will come back on October the 6th with a request for the board to approve that schedule of values, which will lead to four additional publications and an open appeal period that will end on November 10th. As we all know, January 1 will be the effective date of the reval and we will be mailing those notices sometime in early 2027. So that's the legal process why we're here tonight. We've been working with the clerk's office, and I'd like to thank Christine and her team for meeting with us and putting together this schedule. We've had to change it a few times, but they've been gems to work with. So they have already worked on the notices and gotten those prepared. Highlights for 2027 at this time I think that are important is You approved the Citizens Revaluation Advisory Committee members, and we have been busy meeting with them since April. Great group of people. We have some repeat members that have come back. Really informative, very helpful, and I think I speak for my team in that it's really good to have the ability to bounce certain items off of a group of individuals that don't work in our roles every day and maybe don't speak tax as we do. So having their ability is wonderful. We've gone through the current processes and procedures with them. We've been verifying our rates. We've been doing our model verification. We've been doing our documented quality assurance and quality control program. And the initial review has been completed by my team on over 428,000 parcels. We also still utilize SAS for their machine learning quality control. which has been a fantastic tool. So now the schedule is a manual on how we go about doing appraisals in Mecklenburg County. It will take effect, as we said, for January 1 of 2027, but it goes through and explains it and what we hope is a more layman's method of how the appraisal process takes place. So here's a list of all of the chapters. I think the schedule, not including the data study, the commercial data study, is over 300 and some pages. So there's 13 chapters, and we'll just kind of break them down. The first chapter is just an introduction to property assessments. It's got a lot of statutes in there, why we go about doing the revaluation process. Sales utilization and fair market value, how we go about qualifying sales, looking at that market data. We work very closely with Land Records over in Louisa. We have a set of procedures that they help us put together as part of the revaluation as well. Our land appraisal procedures, as I often tell groups, When you look at 428,000 parcels, not everyone has an improvement, but there's a land value on every one of those. So the land is that first important step in having accurate values. Our data collection procedures, chapter five, how we go about collecting data in the field, our field data collection instrument completion, calculation of the system values and income properties income generating properties utilizing that income approach to value. Then we get into the valuation of special properties. How we handle those statistics and appraisal process codes and conventions special features yard items and then we finish up with the uniform schedule of values and rules conclusion. And we have an appendix that includes items such as definitions of building improvement codes, construction detail, quality adjustments, depreciation, and IAAO appraisal principles, International Association of Assessing Officers. So that's just what the book is about. It will be available on the website beginning tomorrow and The clerk has a copy of it, I believe. Someone's delivered that to her. So if anybody is interested in looking at the manual, if you're not sleeping well, it will definitely help you. And we have a witness to that. DCM Attrid. read every page of it, gave us feedback, formatting, did it over two days. I don't know how she did it. But we wanna thank her publicly for her assistance in this process as well. Michelle.

Look at Commissioner Dunlap's face. You need a life.

Thank you for your public service.

only thing she could say is why do y'all have such a big schedule of values in virginia we didn't have anything like that and i said it's our statutes so then you look at the revaluation timeline january beginning that beginning process back in january of 24 when we closed out the 23 appeals that's when we start So there's three years of work that goes into this. When you've got to value that many parcels, you've got to finish up the last one so you know where you need to make some adjustments, how you go about handling the issues that arose the last time. We talked about the Citizens Advisory, the adoption in October. We'll mail those notices in early 27. The appeals period officially begins in January even before we mail a notice. The BER appeal filing period will end in May of 27 and we will be mailing bills next July with the new values granted that the General Assembly doesn't make any changes. I'm sure you're all aware of what's happened to the 2026 counties. Okay. So a little bit of an update on where we're at in the process. As I said, we valued basically 430,000 parcels so far with an initial run through. We have qualified 56,000 sales as valid arm's length market transactions. We're using those to value the 430,000. Where do we stand today? Well, we've had a lot of discussions over the last few years about what was going on in the market. Well, it kind of turned upside down on us as we got into the review. Residential has not been gaining at the levels that we had thought, and we've got a breakdown and we'll go through that. The ones you see here, the residential increasing at 15%, are parcels that existed in 2023 that still exist in 2027. So we're not including, it was vacant land back then, and now it's an improved property. These are only 23 houses reappraised for 27. So our median, that midpoint, is about 15%. On our commercials, We continue to see improvements in the commercial market and through our initial review, we're seeing about a 30% increase at that midpoint on all of the commercial properties. So let's dig into them a little bit more. This is probably hard for most people to see, but what we did is on our residential properties, we broke our properties into properties under $300,000. 300 to 500, 500 to 750, 750 to a million, one million to two million, and then greater than two million. The ones at the lower end, when you look at those under 300,000, $300,000, that's about 90,000 residential properties in Mecklenburg County. And right now, their median increase is 16%. When you look at that next grouping, 300 to 500,000, that is 150,000 properties. Those are our two biggest groups, and those are increasing at about 11%. When you go up 500 to 750, we're looking at about 55,000 parcels. That is a 21% increase, the median. Again, moving up to that next one, 750 to a million, they're going up about 25%. That's a little over 15,000 parcels. 1 million to 2 million, again, just over 14,029%. And those most expensive homes, about 3,400 that are in excess of $2 million, have been increasing at a rate of around 32%. I'm in a class up in Chapel Hill this week dealing with other counties. It's reappraisal in North Carolina. I still have to, after 33 years, still have to get continuing education. And we've been discussing, and other counties around the state are seeing trends like this as well, where the higher dollar properties are not being affected by the interest rates in the market the way we see the lower properties. So when you look at those first two categories, it's over 73% of the residential properties. They're at 16 and 11% and those other ones are where you're seeing the larger increases. So that's where we're at on the residential. On the commercial side, we talked a lot about our numbers, apartments, I think we talked about the warehouse space at one of the retreats recently. They are still going up the highest at 39%. Retail, office, other being mainly our commercial condos, they're all moving at fairly steady rates. as we see over these four-year periods. Now, I will point out we talked a lot about uptown, and when you see office space at 25% as the midpoint, I'm going to guess and assume that the majority of those uptown properties are in that lower half of the range because we're not seeing the increases in uptown at 25%. It's improving. It's a lot better than what we thought it could be. So it is better. But this just gives you kind of a snapshot of our market through the first run. We're working very closely. Those of you who've been on the board for a while will remember Josh Myers who did a study for us on the reval review. We still work with Josh. He is the best stats person I know in the business. And we work very closely with him. He helps us set our priorities for this second run where we will fine tune everything and we continue to meet with him. So we're using the best skilled people in the business to help us through this process. I do want to point out before we move on to the next slide that I was recently in a television interview and some of that information may differ from what we're seeing today. That interview, although it ran a couple of weeks ago, was filmed way back in the spring, I think in April. It was before we had done the initial pass. So we are seeing the increases in residential not exceeding commercial, which we had feared when we went back years ago and started this discussion. So there was a lot of talk about golf courses the last time. So in conversations with the executive team, with the manager, it was decided it would probably be best to just face that head on. How are we looking at the golf courses this time? So we went about looking at a different method. We went out and found a new specialist. And it's someone that we have used for Panther Stadium, it's that same company. And the individual, says we're building on 2023, the reevaluation highlighted the need for deeper golf industry expertise. So we went out and we got a recognized specialist with 25 plus years in golf recreation and leisure properties. And they have done some direct appraisals for us on a sampling of the golf courses and consulting with my team as they apply the information from that sampling to the other golf courses. So we feel very good about the process. This individual has done numerous nationally recognized courses, including Augusta National. Deep industry background, led the golf recreation at PricewaterhouseCooper and served as a national leader of golf leisure and recreation valuation. credentialed with more letters behind their name than I possess, which is saying something, because I've been doing this for 33 years. The gentleman has a lot of expertise. And he's been quoted or published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other national outlets. So I think we are searched. We came up with the right person. I feel very good about the process and that hopefully we can all see better results as we go through this revaluation. So with that, questions.

Thank you, Ken. Everybody's got a question. Let me start with Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wrote down A wrong page. Darn it. I was looking for, oh, yeah, this is right. So on page 12, where we stand today with the 15% for residential and 30 for commercial, do you sometimes, or am I dreaming this, do you sometimes show us a graph of, you know, like where... how much the increase is compared to previous years like like over time like this time it's 15% for residential and usually isn't there like a color for for commercial and a color for residential so we can see

Yeah, we normally start preparing those as we get closer to the final product. I know even after the values go out, I usually start with a weekly update to the board, and then it goes to every two weeks and once a month as we really get into the BER. But as we get further into the fall, as we start having some of that, we'll be glad to get more information out.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome, thank you.

All right, before I go to Commissioner Townsend, Commissioner Dunlap, will you offer this motion just so we can just get it on the floor, please?

Yes, sir, I offer a motion that we receive the uniform schedule of values, standards and rules for 2027 reappraisal and set a public hearing on the uniform schedule of values, standards and rules for 2027 reappraisal for September 15th, 2026 and direct the clerk of the board to publish the notice of public hearing.

All right, it's been moved and seconded. Let's continue with the discussion. Let me go to Commissioner Townsend.

Thanks so much. And for all you do for us who don't enjoy taxes the way you guys do, like Michelle. But it was an interesting conversation when we went to the North Carolina, the conference that we had for all county commissioners. And tax, of course, revaluation was a hot topic. I'm interested in the community understanding better what reevaluation is, and I'm happy to see the book and things of that nature. Is there an appetite, or do we have the capacity to schedule, and maybe you're not the right person to ask this, maybe it's the county manager, a series of educational events and town halls and workshops to help people understand what a re-evaluation does? Because re-evaluation has a dirty connotation. The word tax, first of all, has a dirty connotation. People don't like it. But is there an appetite or do we have a capacity for educating the public and then giving that opportunity to educate the public on the upcoming amendment that will be on the ballot maybe there's an opportunity there for us to do dual education or revaluations and, you know, start with that, the education of, of the tax amendment.

Well, I can, I can say there's definitely an appetite. We're working closely with, um, I think it's community relations now that's a part of the manager's office, the, um, video for smaller groups that may be, um, don't only want us for five or 10 minutes. Um, you know, so we'll have a video online that anybody can download. We'll be sending it through next door to reach a lot of those groups, working with, um, our community partners on those. So there, there definitely is the last time we held, I think, um, three different post-notice events at Valerie C. Woodard and at Ella B. Scarborough on the revaluation, allowing community members to come in. We had staff there they could sit down with, with computers and look up their notice, look up sales in their neighborhood and tell them the different things that we needed. Because education is part of our job to ensure that our customers understand exactly what it is we're doing and what role they can serve in getting the values as correct as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you. Let me go to Commissioner Powell and Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you. I really love, I love that you had special slides for the golf courses that you really listened to us. And, um, it's important because undeveloped land has become an endangered species in Mecklenburg County. And so as we approach build out, it is shocking. you know, to the general public when they saw the values of the golf course, they just couldn't believe it. And neither could I. So I just want to thank you for that. And thank you for always being so professional.

Thank you. And a lot of the credit for the golf goes to, um, County manager, Brian, he was like, they're going to want to know about the golf course. I really appreciate it. He opened the door for me to look better tonight. Um, we, we still face some of the same challenges because of the deed restrictions and the ability, but we're just looking at trying to ensure that we get the best qualified person here to help us through the process.

I appreciate it because it is valuable land. Thank you.

Commissioner Meyer.

Well, she stole my thunder there. But I do want to thank you. I guess I should thank you. But thank you because, I mean, first of all, you guys remember. That's amazing. But I think back then it was I learned so much about golf courses because that was my number one email were complaints about golf courses. So thank you, thank you. You're welcome. I really appreciate you guys listening to us. Thank you. Thanks. Do you have a question?

Commissioner Leak. I'm coming back to you, George. Did you have something?

There was a picture in the paper of a commercial building, I mean a fabulous home, and then a small home on the west side of town. And the people called me about the tax rate. It was much higher for that smaller home on the west side of town than the Ballantyne House. I don't know whether you saw that or not.

I did not. I'm not, I need to see if I can locate that one tomorrow for you.

Yes. So the question came to me and I could not answer that question based upon how you came up with that decision. It was a very small old house. Maybe it was built in the, maybe 30 years ago. And the lady was complaining about her taxes. she didn't have the money to pay for the taxes versus what the commercial, uh, facility that was, you know, fabulous was less. Okay.

So I'll be, I'll be looking for that. Please do. And we'll, we'll get something back to you on that.

And thank you so much for what you do.

You're welcome.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Let me go to commissioner Griffin done left. And then, uh, okay.

And thank you as usual for, uh, your plain spoken presentations, uh, particularly for the tough conversations about, uh, valuations and taxes. So appreciate that. Number one, uh, number two, hopefully Mr. Manager, as this, um, timeline of events from now until the end, we can pair that with some type of campaign around a homes program. Yes. While people are kind of, oh, wait a minute, I got a new tax bill or a new valuation. Somehow or another to tie that in with that campaign so that we can get greater participation. I think we We increasingly, each year, the participation goes up. And I think this is the time to catch people's attention from that perspective. The other piece, I like pictures and graphs. Usually around January, February time period, you produce those. And I hope you continue to do such in terms of map, the heat maps and all that kind of stuff. That was very, very informative for the general public. A technical question, I'm not real sure how to answer it, but properties directly across the street from each other, the valuation shifted as much as like $46 a square foot to $13 a square foot. Is that kind of normal if you were just across the street? I know neighborhoods to neighborhoods, but is that like an anomaly or that's just... That's normal.

Again, I would love to love to see the examples. Um, you know, I know, and I'll acknowledge that we're, we're still going to get together sometime so we can sit down and talk about the process. Cause I know you've asked to learn a little bit more about it and I'll make the same invitation to anyone else on the board. If they'd like to sit down one-on-one, we'll be glad to, to hold those meetings. Um, You know, there can be situations where there are different neighborhoods across the street from each other and under different influences, but just the way you're asking the question, it doesn't sound like a situation where we've got different economic factors going on on one side of the street or the other. So maybe we need to talk a little bit about where your example's coming from and make sure that we get that correct for 2027.

Can do. Final, it's Bureau Equalization and Review. Do they keep records? They do. In terms of hearings or presentations, et cetera?

They do. We record the meetings. We do learn that sometimes, I think there's three or four this year that The transfer didn't take place correct and the stuff was lost on those, but we do record, we take minutes. We've got a secretary to the board, statutory position, I'm not calling anybody, secretary, um, but it's the secretary to the board. Uh, so we make sure that we keep, um, records of the motions who made the motions, who voted for them, who voted against and all of that information. So yes, we do keep some information there.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Uh, commissioner Dunlap and commissioner.

Uh, yeah, I couldn't help, but notice the difference, uh, in terms of the expected of values this revaluation when compared to the last one, because we went from eight years to four years, and then our last revaluation, the average revaluation was about almost 50%. And so the highest this year expected is about 32%, and the lowest is about 11%. So we won't see these significant increases in values this time around, but I noticed that that group under 300,000 and the group 300,000 to 500,000, where the group 300,000 to 500,000 expects 11% increase, the lower group expects a 16% increase. What is the likelihood that a house valued today at 300,000 after this revaluation would be valued higher than the home that's currently $300,000 to $500,000?

I think individual neighborhoods, if there's been some increases, because when you're looking at 90,000 properties in that first grouping, another 150 in that second grouping, when you start looking at those, there's going to be neighborhoods in there that are gonna see larger increases. You know, because when you look at 16% as the median, that means half of them are more than 16%. Half of them are below there. So there's going to be groupings in there.

Got it, got it, thank you.

Commissioner Oldman.

Thank you, sir. My only question is, It appears, it says commercial median increase is 30% up and residential overall median increase is 15% up. So am I correct in saying that we have a positive trend insofar as more of the tax bill, the tax bill is being shifted to commercial properties, shifting a little away from homeowners because commercial properties are appreciating faster? Is that a true statement? Because I would be happy if that's the case.

That is where we hope everything will pan out. We're still doing some evaluations. If you remember the affordable housing, low to moderate income and that issue, it's still a growing problem. The state still has not solved that and closed that loophole. So I think, you know, in conversations with budgets, There's like a $1.5 billion of value that's been exempted over the last few years, and that pot keeps growing every year. So I can only imagine the numbers that we will see coming in between now and the time we send bills next year. That is a problem. We're seeing good growth in that sector, but we're seeing so many properties coming through as exemptions as well.

That's a good caveat, but I'm glad if our commercial market is getting stronger. Yes. Thank you.

Yes. I think we all can agree that that's important for this community.

Thank you.

Commissioner Powell.

Can we get a report? I don't know how long it'll take, so tell me if this is reasonable or not. But I would like to have a report of the tax-exempt properties. Who has the big chunk of it? I don't know how many pages that is, but I'd like to know.

Okay, we'll look at something. We have monthly meetings with the manager's office, so we'll run a couple options through at our next meeting. try to come up with something we think that would be a value to the board.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you commissioner. Well, Ken, you are the Michael Jordan of assessors. That is true. Um, must feel good to be number one. Um,

I did take great pleasure in you pointing out my shoes. I will say that was a nice touch.

That was well-deserved, sir. That was well-deserved.

It was a last-second change before I came over tonight. So I was just like...

I got a pair for tonight.

The whole ensemble was very good. I do have a couple of observations. Number one, Vice Chair Altman really touched on something that's important. I think the last reval we went through, certainly we saw the burden shift to residential versus commercial. And now we kind of see that trend reversing, which is, in my opinion, really good news for the community. It's not to the extent that we want, and it's not guaranteed where we finish, but certainly the way we're trending is really important. The other thing that I would say, and the slide that was right after that one, where we talked about the percentage increase to median values tiered. If I remember correctly, previously we saw the lower price homes have a much higher percentage of increase previously and the higher price homes had the lower percentage. And now we're seeing a reverse of that. Is that a correct statement?

That is, that is this a complete reversal of the last. Two reappraisals, especially the last one where we saw astronomical growth on those lower end properties in the valuation category. And so that is a definite shift. And, you know, in talking with other counties, talking with experts, it just appears that right now with money tightening that, the higher end properties are not as tied to loans and things such as that. And I think we've actually seen growth in our apartments. I think we're starting to see people making those choices again to rent that would fall into some of those lower end categories. So there's just not the number of sales there.

Yeah, and thank you for that. And the reason why I wanted to point that out, because I think it's important as colleagues, we understand a couple of things. One, we had a tremendous amount of feedback from like working class families that were homeowners and saw these exorbitant increases, 50%, 75% increase in values. And then certainly to some, it certainly impacted the cumulative amount that they were paying in property tax. So, Now that we're seeing the reverse of that, I do think it's important for us to point that out because some of us are district reps in the Crescent where, to your point about the heat map, you could see where those percentage of increases were just like off the charts. So that's one thing. The other thing is when we talk about educating the community, it is really important, and this is a very complicated formula that takes place, is that you know, it's not commensurate. Like just because your value has gone up, it does not mean that your bill has gone up. Like, so we get that confused and I, and I understand, right. I mean, you, you, you naturally think that, but that's not the way it works. Right. So we have to be really careful as we are in. I think we've done a good job over the years to educate the community that about how that works, where some folks actually will see a decrease. Others will have an increase in the percentages or, you know, they vary. So as we're talking about education, I think that is important. We have put the, uh, information about the homes programs and everyone's tax bill. And we found a way to do that. And I did want to point out cause commissioner towns and Ingram brought this up. Um, staff did. a ton of community engagement sessions. You touched on this, Ken, but we did a ton of community engagement sessions going into the community and different neighborhoods to really be able to make sure that they were educated. I think the reality of the situation is in a community of 1.2 million people, there's always going to be someone that says, you didn't touch me, you didn't touch my community. It's just a sad reality, but we certainly have tried to put things out on every channel that we have. And so thank you to you and your team. And we'll continue to educate, we'll continue to engage, but we've got to make sure that we're telling the right story. And I think we do have a good story to tell this year so far.

All right. Just two quick things. I agree. She made a great point about the referendum as well. And I'm sure that'll be something that we can work with Mike and his team that we can, even if it's just a pamphlet, something we can hand out at our community meetings. I think that's a great idea. And we do, Commissioner Griffin, talk about the Homes Program in our community sessions. We do point that out because we walk arm in arm with them.

Thank you. So we appreciate you and the entire team. So thank you all for being here and for your work. Definitely appreciate you.

And the clerk's office will, over the next few weeks, be passing out some of my business cards to you. So if you're out and about and somebody starts asking you a lot of questions, don't get overloaded. Give them my card. And if you get to where you need more, just let us know and we'll get more to you.

All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Ken, for that great update.

Are you sure about that?

I'll take some right now, right?

Right now?

Okay.

Just kidding.

Mr. Chair, as I conclude my report, just a point of personal privilege, I'd like to say hello to Deputy County Manager Dr. Leslie Johnson, who's watching online and texting as well. I just want to let her know that the team is thinking about her, and she remains in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you. That concludes my report.

Thank you. Tyrone? Yeah, I'm going to carry the vote right now. Thank you. So it's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Does anyone oppose? No. That is unanimous. Madam Clerk, thank you for the reminder, Mr. Attorney. And before we move to consent, I do want to just say one thing. Earlier today, if you were up on 11 at any point, you saw someone walking around with a tiara on, on their head. They were walking around with it and there's a really special reason. It was our clerk because today is her birthday. I think there's one singer on this board, or maybe there's a couple singers. You're the singer on the board. Oh, okay.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Christine.

Happy birthday to you.

Thank you for all you do and hope you had an amazing day. You're working on your birthday. That shows your dedication.

Absolutely.

All right. Let's go ahead and move to consent. Can I get a motion to approve all those items not pulled? Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Ayes have it. We're going to move to item 26-0397. It's a grant application, Catawba Water Rehabitat Enhancement Program Fund. Commissioner Lee.

Yes, I pulled that for the very reason that it asked for a grant, but it doesn't say how much the grant is for. In your package, you have all of the information that lends to responding to the information on consent items, so please read that. It's important. Read the second one, please, sir.

Well, I can't read it just yet. You've got to make a motion.

So moved to pass it. Second.

All right, moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes. Have it. Next is 26-0412, grant application, Federal Emergency Management Agency Building Resilient Infrastructure and Committees grant. I'm sorry, I don't see who pulled that one, Madam Clerk.

They're all Commissioner Lee.

They're all Commissioner Lee? Okay, Commissioner Lee.

Thank you. This is a federal emergency management agency grant. Okay. Please read your information in your package. It tells you exactly how much the grant is for. So the next time you will have that information. So move, Mr. Chairman.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Next item, 26-0415, budget amendment for FY27, West Mecklenburg Volunteer Fire Department, VFD funding, Commissioner Leak.

You need... I'm gonna move this before I even talk about it. It's important to make sure the West Mecklenburg Volunteer Fire Department receive the funds necessary to protect the people. So move. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Last item, 26-0416, grant application, fiscal year 2027, NCDOT Rural Operating Assistance Program, ROAP.

It does just what it says. Rural Operating Assistance Program to support the people who live in the rural communities. So move, Mr. Chairman. Second.

Moved and seconded.

But there's one that she did not list, and it talks about this Baptist church.

Hold on one second. Let me go through. Let me carry this motion right here.

I thought you did. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

No, that's okay. Let me just carry this, and then we'll come back to you. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Ayes have it. Commissioner Lee.

Yes, the one on the Greater Life Baptist Church. The leasing and the someone down on the left hand. Can the manager talk to me about that?

I didn't have that one. You're not, he's not prepared to speak to it. Can you follow up with commissioner legal?

No, let me say this. It's already in your pack, but that needs to be some clarity to this board as it relates to the leasing of the property, which it is. So I'll pull it next time. Don't get upset. I want to say to Mrs. Wood and her community. senior citizens who want to know what we're doing and how we're doing it. And that's why I pulled them.

And it was fine commissioner. It just wasn't pulled down. The manager wasn't ready to speak to it. So I'm just asking him to follow up, which is not a problem at all. So they'll, they'll follow up on that.

Thank you so much, my dear.

You're welcome. All right, that takes care of consent items. We're going to go to commissioner reports. You've been last all night. Thank you for your patience. You're going first.

Thank you. And I actually do have a report for the first time in a long time. I have an intergovernmental mental health. Community meeting, September 10th, 6 to 7.30. Doors open at 5.30. It's a beautiful Park Road Park Pavilion. If you haven't been, you guys should come and look at that beautiful space. Yes, there will be refreshments. But it will be with city, county, and CMS. We all pretty much overlap a district, District 5, District 6. So I invite you all to come and invite the public to come. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Powell.

Thank you. And if Dr. Johnson is still listening, I'm thinking of you. And I wanted to say a little bit extra about Christine, because I'm so glad that she was born. So happy birthday. Thank you. When I'm finished with this job in 97 days, you are one of the people I'm going to miss the most. And I just thank you for so many things. You're so conscientious. You're so detail-oriented. You have such a strong work ethic. You're smart. You're dedicated. But most of all, you just have the kindest heart. And I really appreciate you and celebrate that you were born. So that's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

I'm going to pass tonight.

Okay. Commissioner Leak.

Thank you. I just want to share with the group that Mrs. Heart lost her grandmother and was buried on Saturday. And she was one of the strong supporters of District 2 in supporting me and my efforts in the community. This is Heart's grandmother. So remember her in your prayers, please, those that you know how to pray. Thank you.

Commissioner Griffin?

Yes, sir. I usually don't have a presentation, but I do. passed out during our closed session this little piece about Alex. I met Alex in the late 70s when they were fighting school desegregation. It's a conservative think tank. They gave you... They gave you school choice in 2006. They pushed legislators to come up with toll roads around the country. They also gave you enrolled, enlisted, and employed, too. So if you look real, just drill down. But as you see, they're being highlighted because of this junk that they got on the ballot that's out now, these constitutional amendments. They all write all this stuff. So just be careful. Be conscious that there's a whole movement out there to turn the clock back to the 30s and 40s, and these are the folks you should always take a look at. It's called the American Legislative Exchange Commission.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. I appreciate that. So Commissioner Dunlap and Altman said they do not have a report, but I do. One, I want to say... Again, Dr. Johnson, you're listening. I want to just reiterate and double down that you are certainly in our thoughts and prayers and you are missed. Number two, Christine, I echo and ditto everything that Commissioner Powell said. Happy birthday to you and thank you for everything you do. And I want to give a special shout out on this board to our manager, Michael Bryant. So there hasn't been one thing that we have asked the manager to do that he has not done. He is meeting with community leaders. He is engaged. He is sitting on MPTA. I can tell you this, colleagues. Some of us have questioned the boards that the manager or the rooms that He's in, as it relates to certain organizations, large organizations and things of that nature. I can tell you unequivocally, when he is in that room, he is speaking on behalf of Mecklenburg County, representing our values as it relates to anything looking at the entire community and making sure the county is... has a voice. And it's just important for us to understand that, that he doesn't change when he's in front of the powerful and the influential, no matter what kind of money they have. And he has shown up to community meetings with five people and meetings with 500 people. And so I just want you to know how much, and he has been accessible 24 hours a day, vacations and everything. So I just didn't want this moment to pass without being able to acknowledge that and letting this board and this community know that we have just an outstanding person at the helm of this organization. So thank you, Mr. Manager.

And with that, I am going to add this part. It's not about him. It's about the body. He does say.

Well, this is about him. This is, yeah.

Adjourned. That's right. Second.

Yeah, so thank you for that, and I will declare the meeting adjourned. Thank you.

Teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream work.