Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Okay, good morning and I'll call to order the April 6th uh regular meeting of the H County Board of Commissioners. And our first order of business will be our pledge of allegiance. And after that, I'm going to ask our sheriff to come forward for the invocation. So, if everyone please stand if you can. to stand. Please take a seat if you would. Psalms 91 beginning in verse one says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. He will deliver you from the snare of the snare of the fowler and from the death deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. My prayer today is centered on our faith that God is with us. As we have celebrated the Easter season, we realize that there is a hope and a promise for those who believe and it is one that I have invested my time and my life most likely mo most of that here lately uh and my office of sheriff and one that I would encourage all of you who serve in a position of public trust to do the same. There is a greater power at work. There are things that happen which we do not understand but things we must trust that there is a greater plan not just for our own personal lives but for our county and the leadership going forward. So in that I trust in that I ask you to do the same

and I would invite you to join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to gather in a free nation, a free state, and a free county to conduct the people's business as they have so chosen. give us clarity of thought, wisdom, and strength to do the right thing always. And it is in the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen.

Thank you, Sheriff. And I hope everyone had a good Easter yesterday. Okay. Our next order of business is public hearing and public comment. I don't have any anyone signed up. Correct. Even Okay. And the next order of business will be constituent concerns. Does anybody have any constituent concerns? Hearing none, I'll move on to agency reports and presentations. We have National Library Week presentation from our library director, Kathy Wler. Welcome, Kathy. Good morning. In our annual National Library Week presentation, I wanted to take just a few minutes to go over some of the highlights of our past year at the libraries. Um, see if I can get this presentation advanced. All right, just a quick rundown of some of our system statistics for June 2025 through January of 2026, so basically half the fiscal year. We've had over 80,000 visitors to our libraries. We've checked out over 90,000 books and 19,000 audio books and DVDs. We've registered, 1195 new card holders. We've held over

206 adult programs with 5,900 attendees. We've held 260 youth programs with 4,300 attendees. We've held 699 non-l program meetings. Um, and of those 699 meetings, we've had over 10,000 visitors to the libraries just for those meetings. And we've been able to assist 468 people with notary services at our Wesville and Canton branches. So, looking back to last May, uh, the Fred Chapel Memorial was unveiled in May. This was a a privately funded undertaking um which started several months prior to the unveiling. This was completed in honor of the late Canton native Fred Chapel. Funding for this um project will be held by the library foundation. But this this project adds just a beautiful um addition to our Canton branch outdoor space with a beautiful sculpture by Grace Kathy who you see standing there. And it's just a really nice place for people to sit and contemplate and read books while they're at the library. We also held our third annual food drive. We collected over 500 pounds of food which we then turned over to Haywood Christian Ministry to benefit the Haywood County community. We're skipping ahead to July. Um in July we added Craftsy. This is an online resource for people who love to craft, sew, cook, and more. With over 2,000 classes available 247 online,

Craftsy joins other great online resources and streaming services offered by the library, including Canopy, Indie Flicks, Quell concerts, and the great courses. All of these resources are available free to card holders anytime. In July, we also held a community art show as part of our summer reading challenge. The theme last year was color our world. We distributed over 300 mini canvases to community members to create personal works of art. These were on display at the libraries for two weeks. We then collaborated with the Haywood Arts Council in Wesville to display the canvases for two weeks in August at their shop on Main Street in Wainesville. We received lots of positive feedback from the community for this community art show. And as part of our summer reading program, I didn't want to fail to mention that we had over 800 young people sign up for this summer reading challenge. And the summer reading program is our largest community outreach every year. And so it's always nice to see so many young people participating in reading over the summer months. And then we also added a new little free library at the Vance Street Park. This was thanks to a grant from the American Library Association's disaster relief fund. They granted us this funding following Hurricane Helen. The library that was at the Vance Street Park was very old. It was wood and it also took a beating during Hurricane Helen. The grant funds also funded new plexiglass plexiglass panels for our story walks at

Vance Street Park and also at the Canton Literacy Walk. So, this new box is a composite box that should hold up for many, many years, and it is stocked by not only the library, but also community members who enjoy going out to the Vance the Vance Street Park. In August, the library added the Museum of Cherokee People to our popular Zoom Pass program. This collaborative program provides card holders with free passes to local attractions, including the North Carolina Arboritum, the Asheville Museum of Science, and the Western North Carolina Nature Center. In 2025, we issued over 700 passes to card holders, saving them money and providing educational and entertaining experiences. The passes are generously paid for by the friends of the library. We also added new directional signage to the Wesville branch in August. This provides improved wayfinding throughout the upstairs level. And once again, the friends of the library provided the funding for this for these new signs. In September, with many thanks to Haywood County, worn and stained carpet was replaced at the Canton Branch Auditorium with new vinyl plank tiles. As you can see, the new flooring blends very well with the wood aesthetic of the room. It's much cleaner and it's easier to maintain. In October, due to the demand of additional private meeting spaces at both the Wainesville and Canton branches, library staff applied for a state library grant to add additional meeting spaces at the busy Wainesville

branch. The Duo booth, which you see in the top photo, can accommodate two people, and the quad booth can accommodate four and is wheelchair accessible. The library foundation provided the required matching funds for this federal grant. These additional meeting spaces join the solo booths or oneperson booths that we added in 2022 to great success. So then we get to November. The big project that took place over the winter months of November through February began last June when commissioners approved the bid for the HVAC project. In August, preliminary work began in the control room and Crow's Nest with a great deal of work being completed while the Wainesville branch continued to remain open to the public. In November, the branch was temporarily closed with curbside service resuming just two weeks later after old air handling equipment was removed from the ceiling and new components were brought in. The Wainesville branch reopened to the public on February 23rd, and we've received many compliments from the public, particularly in how much brighter and cleaner the library looks due to lighting and flooring replacement. So far, we have seen decreases in our electric bills, and we expect that to continue. Before I turn the presentation over to community engagement librarian Zachary Jones, I would like to express my s my sincere thanks to Hwood County for your support, to our board of trustees, and we are joined today by one of our board of trustees members, Shelley Clement. to our friends of the Haywood County Public Library. And we're joined today by our president, Claire Bass, and our incoming

president, Barbara Ralph. To our library foundation, and then to our dedicated library staff. Um, without without them, none of this would be possible. So, I'm very grateful to them also. Okay, Zach.

Thank you. Uh I'm here to talk about National Library Week. Uh this year it takes place from April 19th through the 25th. The theme is find your joy. Uh we have a week-long celebration of libraries uh through various events at the libraries. We're hosting our fourth annual National Library Week Bookmark Contest. This allows uh individuals to express their love of the library and winners of the contest will have their design reproduced and made available at all branches of the library throughout the summer. Uh, our youth librarians will be hosting special library and literacy themed story times and we'll also have a take and make kit available at all branches for library users to take a piece of the library home with them and complete a activity. That week at the Wesville branch, we have a storybook steam program, a healthy cooking program, a basket weaving program, and Canton will be hosting a youth chess program. Um, we have way too many programs for me to list all in one place, but you can go to haywood library.org to take a look at our calendar to see what our programming librarians have ready for uh the citizens of Hwood County. And then here is a copy of the National Library Week proclamation for 2026. We are very honored that the board would recognize National Library Week. Uh just to pull out a few quotes. Libraries spark creativity, fuel imagination, and inspire lifelong learning. Offering a space where individuals of all ages can find joy through exploration and discovery. Libraries provide free and equitable access to books, digital tools, and innovative programming, ensuring that all individuals, regardless of background, have the support they need to learn, connect, and thrive. and we encourage all residents to visit their library, explore its resources, and celebrate all the ways that the library draws us together as a community. Uh,

one thing I forgot to mention was um, we will be hosting also our fourth annual library uh, food drive in collaboration with Hwood Christian Ministries. So, in 2024, we collected 360 pounds of food. In 2025, we collected 520. And we hope that this year we are able to collect even more for the citizens of Hwood County. So we hope you will come to the libraries April 19th through the 25th and help us celebrate National Library Week. Thank you. I have any questions or comments?

Uh just a comment. I I've been a commissioner now going on eight years and I've always been impressed with with Kathy's attendance to our meetings. uh she's been very involved with the library and uh sure do appreciate that. Uh also was glad to see in May the Fred Chapel Memorial that was kind of a big highlight in your presentation for that area that that poet I think we recognized him here at another meeting and uh so that was great. And I also want to mention I've got two grandsons my wife and I now and one of the big events there last week I believe it was they went to story time. Awesome. Oh yeah, they they had a big time at the library and uh great.

So yeah, that was a great field event, a field trip for those and uh glad to see your project Tim. I know Tim sitting in the back and I know that that's been that's been on the on the front burner for a few years. Finally finally got that that renovation done with it. Wonderful. Yes. So we finally finally seen that across the finish line and I was glad Miss Best was uh instrumental in the flooring project. I noticed you mentioned and I was glad to assist her with uh pushing that across the finish line with our county manager. Uh he's he's tight, you know, he's he keeps a good cl tight hand on the purse strings and we appreciate that. But uh you know, we uh we're glad to glad to help you there.

It's been great.

I did want to mention just briefly that we received notice last week that we've received a grant through the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. It's about a $14,000 grant and it's expressly for the landscape within the town of Wainesville. So, we wrote the grant to improve the landscape at the Wainesville branch. Um, we had several large trees that came down due to Hurricane Helen. And so, it left a little bit of a void. So, we're going to develop that by adding a a short walking path. We'll add some pollinator flowers and bushes where we can hold some programming. and we'll add some benches and tables so that people can enjoy the outside spaces at the branch just a little bit more. So, I'll report on that project next year.

I was wondering on your individual booths that are in there, you come what what are those for? I mean, I they're meeting booths. Um, you you go inside and it it doesn't provide a fully soundproof environment, but it's nearly soundproof. If I walk past a booth where someone's inside and they're holding a a virtual meeting or talking on the phone, you can hear a little bit of a voice, but you cannot understand what they're saying. So, it's just a nice small enclosed space where people can have small meetings, carry on a phone call, conduct a virtual meeting if they need to.

So, that way they so they can connect to Wi-Fi. Absolutely. Yes. Kathy, I'd like to thank I'm I always say and I say this in here and I've said it to everybody that will listen. I am so proud of the job that our library does. I had no idea um how impactful to the to the community our our library system is and I just can't say thank you enough. Great staff, well-managed. Everybody's happy to be there. It just is a great asset to our community. Yeah. on that. Thank you. I appreciate y'all. Thank you.

Okay. The next uh item will be the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority 2025 annual report. And we have our Haywood County Tourism Development Authority Director, Karina Rufiier. Yay. I saw you looking at me when I was pronouncing your name. I think you finally got it. It took three years. I know. That's all.

It's a tough name. All right. Well, good morning everybody. Thank you for your time. Um today I'm pleased to present our 2025 annual report. Um, it's a year that reflects both resilience and intentional progress. As we all all know, this year was very much shaped by the impacts of Hurricane Helen. And that required us to go all out supporting our local businesses and really pushing the message out that Haywood County is open and ready for business for for that in all important visitor economy. But at the same time, we remain committed to our master plan, excuse me, which provides our long-term roadmap for sustainable tourism growth. So, while it was a year of recovery, it was also a year of alignment. Alignment of our brand, our strategic planning, and our partnerships. So, throughout this presentation, you'll see that the work we did ties back to a clear goal. The goal is to set Haywood County up to not just be status quo, but to be a leading destination in all of North Carolina. So, I'll walk you through just a few highlights of what we accomplished and where we're headed next. So, I'm going to skip through a lot a lot of the preliminary pages. Pausing here. And for those of you in the audience, if you truly want to learn more about the TDA and the work we do, this presentation is on heyda.com. Um, so the bottom left is the economic impact of tourism in Hwood County. And I'd like to pause here. You've all seen these numbers before. They're produced annually by Visit North Carolina and tourism economics for all counties within North Carolina and for every state in the country. So, it's very

stable data. And it's worth noting that visitors spent over $357 million at Haywood County local businesses in 2024, equating to over $900 in tax savings per Hwood County household and supports over 2,200 full-time jobs. And that makes tourism Haywood Countyy's biggest employer by far. We host a welcome center in partnership with Lake Junalca. We spent a fair amount of time revitalizing that welcome center in 2025 so that we could more support our local businesses with products like the visitor guide, hiking safety guides, and elk and wildlife safety and also supporting our local artists and makers with products that we carry on their behalf. I love to take a look at some of our visitor data. Um the bottom left we use very much for our marketing and messaging. We all know a lot of this. We are very much a leisure tourism destination. So you can see that top chart on the left. Saturdays and Sundays are when we have the most visitors in town. Thank you. And on the right we see the top 10 states for visitation. On the top, the darker the color, the more visitors come from that state. So you can see North Carolina drives the most of our visitation. But it's worth noting that about 22% of Hwood County visitors are from within North Carolina and about 78% are from all of those other nine states. The bottom chart shows you where folks are spending money. And so you can see that Florida is the darkest there. So we love our Flidians. As much as we might say they don't know how to drive here, they are very welcome in our economy. lodging performance. As you all know, we are solely funded by the 4% occupancy

tax um that our visitors pay and our lodging properties collect and remit on their behalf. On the left is the month-over-month chart which really shows again that seasonal visitation that we experience. You can see we're a little quieter in the winter months and very pretty strong summer and then that huge peak in October for our gorgeous fall foliage. It's worth noting that October, November, and December of 2025 were our highest occupancy collections on record ever. So certainly points to very strong recovery from Helen. On the bottom right, you can see occupancy tax collections comparing by calendar year. Again, 2025 is our highest year on record. That top chart shows us instead of looking at states, DMAs, um, our metro areas that our visitors are coming from and staying in our lodging properties. So, this allows us again to drill into a little bit more detail on where our visitors are coming from, and we use that very much with our marketing efforts. 2025 is the first year we were able to have a consistent brand year round. We launched the Visit Haywood brand uh the day before Helen hit us. So, it didn't go very far those first couple of months, but you can see on the screen some examples of both our print and digital advertising, and it was consistent across the board. That advertising drove over 63 million impressions and over a million visits to visit haywood.com. And jump, this is jumping ahead, but we were able to just announce this at our board meeting last month that this digital advertising integrated advertising campaign you see on screen won gold at the craft region American

advertising awards. So our our work is getting noticed. Moving ahead, I want to jump to the numbers at the bottom right of the screen. By having one brand, one message, and pushing it for an entire calendar year, we saw 99% growth in traffic to our website. That is 99% more opportunities for potential visitors to find about Hwood County and our local businesses. And it's also worth noting that US travel just published a report that across the US travel websites declined in traffic 2 and a half% in 2025 due to AI and other changes in technology. So the fact that we're up when everybody else was down is impressive. We do a million things all year round. I'm just going to highlight several key initiatives. We've all, I think, I've certainly presented IceFest to the commissioners before, but this was Icefest 2025, an absolutely amazing event that is both for our locals and for our visitors. It drove significant economic impact in 2025 and fantastic media coverage, which has value well beyond the time of the event. We launched the very light-hearted Fatburger Month campaign in 2025. Hopefully, some of you participated in 2026, which just ended. And I'll point out 192% year-over-year growth in social. It speaks to the fact that people want to have fun and they truly engage on this campaign because it is light-hearted and kind of silly. The biggest key initiative I'll pause on for a moment that we did in 2025 was

Open Haywood. As we were leading up to summer of 2025, it was clear that we were not performing well in the marketplace. Our future bookings were down almost 20% comparing us to other western North Carolina destinations. And we didn't want to go through the summer being 20% down. So, we scrambled with our agencies and local partners. We produced a beautiful video called Open Haywood in partnership with Buddy Melton, who produced a song for us in under two weeks. launched a campaign that ran the entire summer from June 23rd through September 30th. By the end of the campaign, we had gone from being down 20% to besting our neighboring destinations, driving a 13 to1 return on investment for that campaign. Public relations is another huge initiative for Visit Haywood. And that is where we work with travel writers, journalists, editors, photographers, and content creators and bring them to the destination and invite them to experience it firsthand and write about it. It provides an entirely different way of telling the Haywood County story than an ad. And advertising and public relations go hand in hand. Um, this year it was incredibly impactful through the new brand. And again on the bottom right, our 2025 efforts secured 113 media placements. That was Haywood County getting mentioned in 113 different media platforms over the course of the year. 204 million impressions, 204 million opportunities for somebody to read about us and almost 4 million in advertising value had we had to place ads in those publications. And when we bring those journalists in, those photos on the bottom left, we're introducing them directly to our local leaders, our local

business owners, and encouraging them to have the same experience that we all have every day. Um on the left hand side is the results of our 2425 audit. It was a very conservative year due to of course Helen the board was um we cut we pulled back on some of our spending initially to ensure that we were going to recover and we invest every year very significantly back in our community in 25 $377,000 in grants for projects like the new Raccoon Creek Bike Park, the Wainesville Rack Master Plan, the Labor Day Festival, Art After Dark, and more. And I have the pleasure of ending on some accolades. Um, through all of our work, Hwood County was named by Outside Magazine one of seven best fly fishing and multisport adventures in the US, not in the South, not North Carolina, in the US. Summer again across the US. Um, nobody can argue with the most legendary pancakes in the South, naming Joey's Pancake House. The 10 most beautiful places in the Great Smoky Mountains, Travel and Leisure called us the most underrated, one of the most underrated destinations in North Carolina. And Lonely Planet named us eight of North America's greatest road trips to take in the fall. All of that work is an effort of our public relations outreach. And then on the right, we we were honored with several awards. The first two were a North Carolina award and then a Southeast Tourism Society award for IceFest and the work we've done on that. And then the HSMAI is an international competition um for hospitality and sales and marketing

associates. for our multi-channel marketing campaign following Hurricane Helen, we won silver against all applicants and best of within the small budget category. So, Hwood County is definitely getting noticed. Looking ahead, uh we encourage you to save these dates because we're still going strong. On May 7th, it is National Travel and Tourism. Well, that whole week is National Travel and Tourism Week, but on May 7th, we're hosting a special mountain mornings at the Warren Center in Lake Junal Alaska where we'll be showing off even more of our forwardlooking work. So, we encourage you to come. That is from 8:30 to 10. In August, we are launching our first new website in over 10 years. It is going to be a phenomenal website built from the ground up for mobile, for AI, and all of those things that the world is requiring us to evolve into. And it will drive hopefully lots more business back to our local businesses. We'll bring back Elk Bucks and Gift of Haywood this winter. Oh, and I skipped. We are hosting for the first time in 70 years. The Society of American Travel Writers is coming to a rural destination. The last three years they've been to Detroit, Michigan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Istanbul, Turkey. And in October of 26, they're coming to Haywood County. May be calling on some of you to volunteer for that. So stay tuned. but we'll be bringing 225 to 250 travel writers, editors, and journalists to Haywood uh to experience all we have to offer. In January, we'll bring back Icefest again and then the ever popular Fatburger Month in March of 27. So, you can see we've got a lot going on. So,

2025 wasn't about getting back to where we were. It was about setting a stronger foundation for going forward. And so as we look ahead, we're entering an exciting new phase, one focused on growth and opportunity and highlighting and investing in all that makes Hwood County special. Thank you for your leadership and support because that is definitely what helps make all this work possible.

Anybody got any questions or comments for Karina? I I I do appreciate your nationally or your regionally recognized awards that y'all have gotten. So appreciate all the work that you've been doing. I I did see the or I watched the video that y'all put out. That was good. Very professionally done. Kind of struck a lot of chords I feel like for people who uh have visited here or maybe even people that live here actually. So I think it did did well on that. Anybody else got anything? Just want to point out uh as I always do, thank you Karina for the job you're doing out there. And uh uh as people get upset, I guess when you're driving around in the county with the Floridaidians or whoever it may be, just remember that just looking back at your report, 12 million in local taxes. And not only that, but $93 tax savings per household. That's pretty significant. So if you get upset, just drive a little bit slower and small and say, "Hey, those folks are bringing money into the county." So, thank you for a job well done.

Just a couple questions. I noticed this fat burger month kind of jumped off the page to me. Uh said you've encouraged several restaurants to participate in that. Uh there are several restaurants around that local use local grown beef. And uh I think without going too deep into the weeds with you, they've won some awards. I I know a couple of restaurants that have won some awards and they've used local farmers to secure their uh their hamburger and I thought that was pretty neat. Uh do you have anything to say about agurism? I know agurism is a big deal. I don't know if there's anything in your presentation about agrurism, but uh that that is becoming kind of a a big big item. I know there are a couple venues in the county now that uh are are doing that kind of getting people out on the farm and and letting them experience uh that that side of the the ledger. Uh do can you speak to that?

We do. It's it's not included in the annual report, but we do have a current section on our website about agri tourism. We do intentional media outreach specifically focused on that. And we actually have several of the day tours that we're doing during that Society of American Travel Writers Convention that I mentioned out to some of our our farms including 10acre Gardens, KT's Orchard, uh, and Sunburst Trout Farms, just to name a few. We're really trying to showcase those partnerships like you mentioned those restaurants like Kataluchi Ranch and Single Tree Heritage Kitchens that work with many of our local farms to source their food. We include all of that content on the website and the new website's going to give us a lot more flexibility to elevate that content than our current platform does. But it is absolutely a a featured theme of many featured themes that we include.

So you you had a gamified burger challenge here. Uh I know some local publications have uh the best of Haywood. I see their our reporter shaking her head. Who who who graded out as having the best burger?

We don't know yet. The redemption cards are due April 13th. So once all the redemption cards come in, we will review all of the scores. I can tell you sneak peek uh that at least three very hearty souls ate 20 or more burgers in 30 days. So we know people like those. We like like that challenge. Well, I you know, I I can't say I can't stop without putting a little word in for the hog. Uh, you know, hog farmers. Uh, I love a good bacon burger. And you can put bacon on anything and make it taste good. But, you know, it's not all about the beef sometimes. It's about the bacon you put on that burger. So, I just want to throw that out there to the hog.

And pimeo cheese. Don't forget the pimeto cheese because we are in the south. Everybody has their opinion on that, but I'll take American cheese. going. But anyway, thank you for your presentation. Thank you. Nice job, Karina. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Karina.

Okay. Next order of business, discussion or adjustment of the agenda. Does anybody have anything? The next will be our consent agenda. We have three items. Does anybody have any questions about any of the three items on the consent agenda? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion we approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll make that motion. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Okay. Anyone opposed? Okay. Then we get on to our regular agenda. Uh the first is to uh request approval of settlement of taxes effective March 24th, 2026. Finance Director Christian Owen. Hey Christian.

Good morning. Um you guys usually don't see this midyear. It usually comes um at the close of the fiscal year, but um with the vacancy in the tax collector's office, statute requires that someone either the tax collector or the finance director step in and do the annual settlement of taxes um effective the last day that that particular tax collector was in office. So that is what we have done and as of March 24th the um collection rate is what we always look at the the um consolidated rate is 96.14%. Um Haven's trying to pull it up for everyone so you can see um the property excluding motor vehicles was 95.88% 88% leaving um uncollected taxes as of March 24th, 2026 at $2,110,479. Does anyone have any questions?

Did you say the current collection rate was Could you repeat that? So the the consolidated rate which is all the property taxes including motor vehicles was 96.14% and that rate excluding motor vehicles is 95.88%.

That in in comparison to previous years. So we don't usually have a midyear collection rate. So this this is kind of a a one-off. It would be better to compare a June 30th to a June 30th number, then you have the same amount of time. So this this is a unusual circumstance. We don't usually have a a midyear settlement rate. This was basically something that we have to do when you, you know, anytime you replace a tax collector, you basically audit what they've done up to that point and then

you have to turn over kind of fresh books to a new tax collector. So, under whatever circumstances, if a tax collector elected or unelected leaves unexpectedly, you have to do this is a statute statute requirement. You have to do the settlement of taxes, right? It's it's required by law. Yes. You have an unexpected departure to make sure that the people's money is accounted for. State legislature makes us do an audit. So, you know, that kind of is good business just to make sure everything's on the up and up. Absolutely. And uh there were no findings of any discrepancies. There were no discrepancies. Just want to throw that out there because we always have these conspiracy theorists. It's always chuming the waters with misinformation.

Mhm. And so just for the record, we are required by law to do this in unusual circumstances and there were no findings of any ind discrepancies. No findings at all. Okay. Just want to make that clear. And what you were quoting from was in our packet. So yes, absolutely. It's not like Yeah. or just a few technical difficulties, but this is in the format that you see every year calculated the exact same way you see regard regardless of who does the calculation, it's the same. So, it's it's apples to apples when you have a full year to compare.

I got any questions on that? We'll entertain a motion we approve item one of the regular agenda. So moved. Second. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. Thank you. You opposed. Thank you, Christian. Okay. Number two of the regular agenda is to request approval of a resolution on the vacancy of the office of tax collector, county attorney Frank Queens. Oh, there you are, Frank. See, I've got a tie on. Now, there's a reason for that. The reason I have a talon is I have to be in court in a court hearing 16 minutes from now. So you can ask all the questions you want up to about 14 minutes from now and then I'm going to be just exiting stage. Right.

What happens if you don't wear a tie?

You're held in contempt of court. And you you'll notice that when I come to these meetings I'm never wear a tie, you know. So it's just it's the power of the judge. Okay. Remember that always in court. Okay. Um the resolution is uh is as follows. The board of commissioners I propose consider the following resolution. Whereas Haywood County there's a typo and whereas in all of those um alone among the hundred counties in North Carolina has an elected tax collector and whereas the Sebastian Cthine was the duly elected official in 2022 whereas Mr. Cthine submitted his resignation to the county's office of human resour resources on March 24, said to be effective that date. Whereas the statutes creating the elected office of tax collector for Haywood County are silent on the process of filling a vacancy in the office. That's just um that's just goofy. Uh the we have a we have a u u a private act actually u not a general statute that that created the elected office of tax collector back in the 30s I think or something like that. a very long time ago. And many other counties used to have elected tax collectors just like they used to elect coroners, they used to elect u

surveyors.

Yes. There used to be an elected county surveyor and in in a in a rehash of the of the of the general statutes decades ago, 99 counties said yes, we'll have we'll get rid of the elected tax collector. the the the tax collector job is a statutory job, but in every county except North Carolina, that position is filled by appointment of the county commissioners. Okay? And and just like any other county job, but not Haywood. So anyway, uh whereas in 1998, a vacancy occurred in the office by the resignation of the then elected tax collector. We've had this occasion come up. one one other time uh in 1998 the question arose then what was the procedure what with nothing in the statutes about how you fill the vacancy what should you do and so the county the county attorney and and commissioners at that time uh requested a local legislator um Mr. Bell from Canton to make an inquiry for a formal attorney general's opinion, which is the process for getting advice from the attorney general uh on matters that are not litigation. They're matters of statutory interpretation. And so the the uh uh Mr. Bell sent a letter to the uh attorney general. the attorney general's office filled with professional uh career lawyers researched the issue and and and con and sent us a an attorney general's written opinion in 1998 on how to fill the the vacancy and the uh the attorney general's opinion was that there are analogous situations that remain in the general statutes. One is the analogy of

a vacancy in the sheriff's office. The other is an analogy of the vacancy of a c of a county commissioner. Both of those are elected officials, elected positions. And the question becomes, if you have a vacancy in either of those positions, how do you fill them? Well, we have a statute that says how you do that. And it says they're very similar in both cases. And it says that the uh the county commissioners appoint the replacement but they have to consult with the uh party the political party of the u of the vacating official. So, if you have a Democrat uh sheriff who resigns, leaves office, whatever, you consult with the the Democratic parties apparatus and they make a recommendation. And in both cases, the recommendations are mandatory to the board of commissioners. So, that's the process for a county commissioner and that's the process for the sheriff. We have no such process for a tax collector. And the attorney general in 1998 said, "Well, you could follow that process if you wanted to. It's discretionary. It's in their discretion. It's in your discretion as to whether you followed that process or not, but you certainly are not required to follow the process of that party making a mandatory recommendation to you." Okay? So, you can consult. You don't have to. In fact, the the attorney general's opinion says that you can uh uh that it's in your discretion who you appoint and it's up to you. Okay. So, I've recited all that in the in the resolution. I'm won't go over it again. Uh the the the uh resolution goes on to say, "The resignation of Sebastian Cthran as the tax collector of Hwood County is acknowledged effective March 24, 2026.

The county manager is authorized and directed to utilize the county finance director to undertake. There's a typo there. Uh there's a typo there that wasn't caught by the staff. Um that to undertake and No, that's correct. Undertake and complete the reconciliation of the accounts and records. There's no typo in that one. U too bad about the wherees. Um, I think a public apologies appropriate at this point.

Okay. Sorry. If I had more staff help, there would not be these these kind of embarrassing errors would not slip through the cracks as they have in this case. Or somebody would turn on Microsoft Word spellch check. Either one will do. Your apology is recorded in the record. Thank you. Thank you.

The ongoing processes initiated by the tax collector, including court actions and advertising for delinquent taxes are ratified and shall continue. That's very timely. We've got our advertising for uh for overdue taxes are coming into the newspaper right now. And finally, uh, Gregory Wallace West of Wainesville is appointed as the interim tax collector of Hwood County, effective upon his obtaining bond as required by state law and taking and filing the oaths of office prescribed by the Constitution of the State of North Carolina and state law. That is my res recommended resolution to the county commissioners. Any questions? Any questions of Frank on this? Uh, so we want to correct the typos, correct? Yeah,

because there should be a comma after where. Okay. Yeah. And where is should be spelled right. Amazing. Anybody got any questions? Any other questions or typographical corrections? Thank you. Okay. Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion we approve item number two. Make a motion we approve item number two with said corrections to the proclamation. Second. Okay. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Okay. That's unanimous.

Okay. Next is to request approval of a shity bond for Greg West tax collector bond amount 100,000 as a term of four four at a term of four and a half years per North Carolina general statute 105-439C. our finance director, Christian Owens, back up. I had it. Yes. Um requesting approval to get Greg bonded so he can take office immediately. Okay. And uh so we have a motion for that. I'll make a motion. Okay. Second. Okay. Was was there any issue getting that?

There was no issues. It was super quick turnaround. Um we did some research into the amount. Um the amount we bonded him for was pretty standard for units of our size across the state. Um no issues at all. Okay. I just I just got to say this that we have had trouble getting tax collectors bonded for uh and it's nice not to have that issue because we have somebody very qualified to to do that position. So it was submitted and approved same day. So absolutely.

Yeah. and you were telling me I I can remember one tax collector we were sitting here everybody was sworn in but him and he didn't have a bond and finally they finally got it he had to be sworn in separately so I mean later at a later date so it's it's nice to have have that past us if you will so anyway all those in favor anybody else have anything you want to say or all those in favor say I want to oppose okay that's unanimous Okay, next is the item four is the tax collector's oath of office for Greg Wallace West and Haywood County Register. These will be administering the oath of office. Let's see. Matt, do you need to get your camera and everything set up? I'm going to let get set up so they can three times.

Left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand. I, Gregory Wallace West, do solemnly swear that I will support and maintain the Constitution laws of the United States and the Constitution laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as Haywood County Tax Collector. So help me God. And that I will not allow my actions as tax collector to be influenced by personal or political friendships or obligations. Yes, I Gregory Wallace West

do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina, and to be constitutional and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof, that I will that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the constitution of said state, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of my knowledge and ability. So help me God. Do I, Gregory Wallace West,

do swear that I will well and truly execute the duties of the Office of Haywood County Tax Collector according to the best of my skill and ability according to law. So help me God. I do. Congratulations. Thank you. Do you want to say something, Greg?

I would just like to say thank you. I appreciate all the support, you know, that I received during this the past the primary election. Uh I'm humbled and very appreciative. I look forward to the opportunity to get back in the office and work hard for the citizens of Haywood County. And it's my home. I'm proud to be here. And I just again want to say thank you to everyone and looking forward to the next four years. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you,

Greg. I just wanted to, you know, let you know that I was I was glad that you were there. um that we we could appoint you, you know, to do this and I appreciate you uh taking this on and everything because I know you do you did a great job before and uh to me this was a no-brainer. You just had an election and uh you I think you won with more than 50% of the vote. So, uh and then plus you've got the highest collection rate in Hwood County history and I never get any complaints about you. So, that's that's the main thing. Yeah. No opposition in November as well. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. until November you'll just kind of hopefully you'll get a couple people to vote for you. So,

well, I hope so. A little ironic here is today today I started with Haywood County exactly 17 years ago today. Today is my 17-year anniversary, April 6. So, uh just glad to be be a part of Haywood County. My family and I really appreciate everything that everybody's done for me. I appreciate it. We appreciate you too, Greg. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Greg.

You can go to work now, Ky. Okay, next order of business will be appointments. Um, do we have any? Let's see. Brian, do you want did you want to go over any of these? Um I I'll mention on the uh one for Sally Dixon, this is her first full term uh as her initial appointment was to fill fulfill an unexpired term. Correct. Okay. So, can we have a motion we approve item one? I'll make that motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

Okay. Next is appoint uh next is item number two is to request approval of a reappointment of Lyndon Smathers to a third three-year term to the Clyde Planning Board as an ETJ member. ETJ is extr territorial jurisdiction and so the town of Clyde submitted this. Mr. Chairman, it said I have an email. The mayor and the board of alderman recommended Mr. Smathers for the three-year term. Okay, great. Okay. So, can I have a mo motion to approve that? Okay. Is there a second?

I'd second that motion. Uh, also the comment. I know Mr. Spathers, I worked with him in the public job back in the 80s. His family was instrumental in the property where uh Haywood Community College sits today and he's a fine member of that community. His family's been in Clyde uh multi-generations. So, it's a it's a very good selection by the the town of Clyde to uh select Mr. Mathers I think he deeded the land for the Clyde Elementary School. His dad Yeah, he did. AndC. Yeah. Okay. Clyde Elementary School. Yeah. You said you said HCC. Did he do that, too? His dad did.

Oh, wow. That's cool. Okay. So, uh so you made that second. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

I. Okay. Uh item number three is to request approval for the following appointments and reappointments to the Haywood County Greenway Council. Uh it's appointment of Kip Sutton for a three-year term representing the bicycle community. Reappoint of Karina Ruffier for a three-year term to the Tourism Development Authority representative. A reappoint of Preston Jacobson for a three-year term as Haywood Waterways representative. reappointment of John Sherman for a three-year term as the Haywood Community College representative and reappointment of Byron Hickox for a three-year term as a Town of Clyde representative. Also, uh request approval. Let's see. I guess.

So, can I have a motion that we approve the greenway council members? Did you get the last one there? No, it's it's a different one. It's a trustee library trustee. Gotcha. So, this is for the item three of the Greenway Council. Can we have that motion? I'll make that motion. Second. Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Okay. Item four is to request approval of reappointments of Susan Tal. Let's see. Tran and Jennifer McWain Martin to serve uh second terms as the library board of trustees. And I'm sorry if I butchered Miss Susan's name. I'll make that motion. There a second. Second. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Yes. Unanimous. Anybody else got anything for the board today? Hearing none. I'll entertain a motion. We adjourn. I make a motion to adjurnn, Mr. Chairman. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. Okay. We'rejourned. Everybody be safe.