City Council - Regular Meeting

I called to order the Thomasville City Council meeting for Monday, June 15th, 2026. Welcome all who are in the chambers here this evening for this meeting. A special welcome this evening to Nancy Staten from our City School Board of Education. And we also have with us Mr. Kevin Hinton, Director of Operations for the school system. Pleased to have you both with us. Also from the Chamber of Commerce, we welcome Sean Dalton to our meeting, representing the Chamber Board this evening. And we also welcome any members of the press that may be joining us, anyone on the website or social media, wherever that may be, that you are with us this evening, you're welcome to be here as well. We have one absence this evening, Hunter Thrift is away on an excused absence. Mr. Deputy City Manager, Mr. Bowling, do give us our additions or deletions to the agenda, if any.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would request that items 6B and 6C be removed for consideration for this evening's meeting. Item 6B is the adoption of the budget ordinance and fee schedule. As you know, the House has passed the third reading of the tax moratorium. It's on the governor's desk. He has 10 days to sign. He can decide not to sign. which would effectively end on June the 20th. He can choose to veto, and then the House and Senate would have to do whatever on it, or he can approve it. And so at this point, we're not clear on what the next steps of the budget's gonna look like. So what was the best interest? Since we cannot adopt two tax rates in a single year, we'll have to pull that from the agenda. Item C is the school resource agreement with Thomas City Schools. That has not been approved by the Thomas City School Board.

Okay, having heard this, what is the pleasure of council?

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to approve the agenda as written. I'll second.

We have a motion to second. Is there any discussion? Are we okay on the vote?

Okay.

You may record your vote. Okay, we have six zeros, so that has been approved unanimously. We're down to item three, public forum. I don't have the sheet yet. Thank you. We have one speaker that is signed up this evening that looks like Dustin Bingham. If you would come to the podium, please, and state your name and your subject for the clerk, and you will have two minutes to speak, sir.

My name is Dustin Bingham. Subject for tonight, Flock Security. My sincerest apologies for asserting that my public records request was not granted. I foolishly neglected to monitor my junk folder. I'm still pouring over the language of the contract, but given global and national surveillance trends, the point still stands that Flock LPRs and similar tech presents a pervasive danger to our democracy, individual, immutable, inalienable, God-given, constitutionally protected rights. by entering contract with flock security you've kicked off onto the slippery slope of totalitarianism by signing on to an authoritarian ai surveillance control grid project cooked up by openly anti-democratic ai billionaires to forces into 15-minute cities complete with biometric ai mass surveillance cbdc's and biometric digital ids connected to social credit scores that determine which liberties freedoms and human rights we can freely express and enjoy. Not to mention Peter Thiel, whose Founders Fund is Flock's largest, one of their largest investors, openly states regularly that our democratically elected president should be replaced with a CEO king. That affects all of us, your jobs too. It will automate everyone out of here. All this with no public vote, without consent from the governed, You should not pretend to know better than us about what we want. You erode trust with this spy first, questions later, guilty till proven innocent, predictive policing. That's not what the Fourth Amendment's about. Your challenge, as Christians and public servants, does the city government and Thomasville PD wish to stand alongside these anti-democratic AI megacorps firmly on the wrong side of the Constitution? Or would you rather stand for the Constitution and honor God by protecting your neighbor's rights by canceling your contract, removing the flock cameras, and making a publicly stated stance against all forms of AI mass surveillance? Hillsborough, Pittsburgh, Chatham County, and cities all over the U.S. have already left Thomasville behind on this and canceled their contracts.

We're now down to item four, recognitions and presentations. Item A, proclamation, home ownership month. Council Member Peyton Williams will offer this one.

can i talk into this is that cool all right toby welcome i have a proclamation in celebration of home ownership month whereas june is national home ownership month a time to celebrate the value that owning a home brings to families neighborhoods and cities across america And whereas homeownership contributes to a strong economy, fosters vibrant communities and represents the fulfillment of the American dream for many individuals and families. And whereas the city of Thomasville remains committed to increasing homeownership opportunities for its residents through the successful efforts of public, private and nonprofit organizations that work to expand access and affordability. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed that Raleigh York Jr., mayor of the city of Thomasville, does hereby proclaim the month of June 2026 as Homeownership Month in the city of Thomasville and encourages all residents, businesses and organizations to recognize this observance all year long and continue supporting initiatives that help individuals and families achieve homeownership. Proclaimed the 15th day of June 2026 signed and sealed.

Thank you so much, Mayor and Council and everyone else in attendance. We are grateful to be the community development partner with the city of Thomasville, offering programs and services geared towards homeownership and home retention. We will be celebrating homeownership month at our office in Lexington, behind the Lexington Police Department on the 24th, so a week from this Wednesday. From 1130 to 2, we'll be serving hot dogs and hamburgers We have some raffles, some drawings and different things like that. But just it's a day for us to celebrate homeownership and then also educate the population on what it may take to become a homeowner. If they need help with building that credit score, they need help with the down payment assistance. We offer a $50,000 down payment assistance program. And sometimes we're able to get additional down payment assistance stacked for that. And so we like to celebrate this month every year just in a way that we can promote the programs and services that we offer for the community. But thank you so much for the recognition. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Item B's proclamation, June 10th, June 19th, 2026. Council Member Jacquez-Johnson will present this.

anything for our youth to join us up here for the reading of the proclamation. We are excited to have two of our nonprofit organizations that will be stepping up this year to help organize an amazing event for us on Friday, June 19th. This is anything for our youth, but also save our babies. is partnering with this amazing organization to provide us this for our county. So the proclamation reads, whereas President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st of 1863. declaring all slaves shall then therefore and forever be free. And whereas it took almost three years of conflict and loss to bring about the end of the Civil War, accumulating in the national ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December of 1865, formally abolishing the sanctioned institution of slavery. And whereas the news of freedom spread gradually throughout the nation, And on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and issued General Order Number Three, announcing freedom to some of the last enslaved individuals in America. And whereas June 19, June 19, has become nationally recognized as National Freedom Day, commemorating the abolition of sanctioned slavery in the United States and celebrating African-Americans' resilience heritage, and contributions. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that Raleigh York, Jr., mayor of the city of Thomasville, does proclaim that June 19th, 2026, as Juneteenth, 2026. And the city of Thomasville, and he encouraged all residents to recognize the profound historical significance of this celebration, honoring the legacy of freedom, unity, and perseverance within the African American history and local community and our nation. Proclaim this, the 15th day of June, 2026.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. We thank you for this proclamation. We are so excited about Juneteenth. It will be in Lexington at the Arts Theater on Main Street. There's going to be games, food, the youth. We're focusing on the youth this year. It's Juneteenth. There's going to be drawings, so the youth can come in any time between 1 and 5. and just draw, just have a good time. We're excited, and we're just so excited and ecstatic to be here, so thank you so much, and we look forward to seeing you on Juneteenth.

Thank you. Next, we'll have a proclamation, Parks and Recreation Month. Council Member Lisa Schilt.

This is a proclamation in celebration of Parks and Recreation Month for July 2026. Whereas Parks and Recreation is an integral part of the community across the country, promoting health, wellness by improving both physical and mental well-being. It promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health and increased cognitive performances and well-being. It encourages physical activities by providing space for proper sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and many other activities designed to promote an active lifestyle. It promotes It provides programming and education activities such as out of school time, programming youth sports, and environmental education, which are critical in childhood development. Whereas Parks and Rec supports economic prosperity and increasing property values, expanding The local tax base attracting tourism helps businesses thrive and contributes to crime reduction. In North Carolina, local parks have generated over $6 billion in economic activities and provides over 37,000 jobs, ranking the state's 10th in the nation. Whereas parks and recreation is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our communities, providing adaptable infrastructures and enhances resilience in the faces of natural disasters and preserving the ecology beauty of our natural spaces for all generations. And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month and the City of Thomasville, North Carolina recognizes the many benefits Deprived from parks and recreation resources. Now, therefore, Raleigh York Jr., Mayor for the City of Thomasville, does hereby proclaim July 2026 as Park and Recreation Month. And he urges all residents to take advantage of the many recreational activities available throughout the city, both during the month of July and throughout the year. Signed, Raleigh York Jr., Proclamated the 15th day of June, 2026. Thank y'all for everything y'all do.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. I have our Recreation Program Director here with us tonight, as well as our Administrative Assistant, Capricia Davis, and Molly Laster, our Recreation Program Director. I was going to let Molly fill everyone in on all the programming coming throughout the summer and some of the special events due to Parks and Recreation Month. So, Molly.

Yes, thank you all. Thank you for the recognition, not only in July, but throughout the year and the support that all of you give us, Mayor, Council, and to our administration as well. This year we have listened to our residents and have heard that we want Food Truck Fridays to change to the evening, so we're going to change those to Thursday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. all throughout the month of July. So check our Facebook page. That'll be coming out. Our aquatic center here is, of course, open Monday through Friday. I mean, Monday through Sunday, every day of the week. And we just invite you out here. We've had tons of swimmers already. Our summer camp is operating daily. And then we also have our Fun on the Run program, which traditionally has been done on Tuesdays. And this year our program coordinator has included an adaptive on Thursdays, which is inclusive for people of all abilities. So if you're interested in coming out too and seeing any of that, we would love to have you. But thank you all for your support.

Thank you. Thank you. We're now down to item five, our consent agenda, and I will recognize our deputy city manager, Eddie Bowling.

Thank you again, Mayor. So item 5A, consideration of minutes at a brief minute. from the council meeting on May 18th, 2026. Item C is the approval of the McGill Contract for Engineering Services for the Kern Street School property redevelopment. This work supports the proposed redevelopment of the former Kern Street School site at 200 Kern Street into a residential neighborhood, including approximately 14 to 17 building residential lots and a rough graded pocket park, public street, sidewalk extensions, water, sewer, utility extensions, storm water improvements. The proposal includes surveying, civil engineering, design, bidding systems, and construction-based services. Item D is consideration of utility bill and services director position and description and salary grade. And item E is consideration of revised Appendix A classes to grade schedule as of July 1st, 2026. D and E both recognize the utility service bill and director position and updates the corresponding Appendix A. The classes to grade schedule the concept of elevating this role during the budget workshop and this action formally approves the position description and places the building services director at grade 37. item f is consideration of road closure ordinance including three temporary road closure ordinances for upcoming community events Thank you very much. What's the pleasure of counsel? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion. Will we approve the consent agenda as provided to us by our deputy city manager? Second. Second. Is there any discussion?

You may record your vote. I have six zero, so that has been unanimously approved. We're now down to our regular agenda. We have one item, item A, consideration of resolution to request that the NCDOT process the petition to accept Meadow Lane into the state's road maintenance system. I'll recognize Mr. Chuck George, Director of Planning and Community Development.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. The state is requesting for the city council to approve the resolution so they can submit the petition to the state for approval of Melody Lane, which is the section between Melody and Lakeview Drive. It's a dirt section. Dirt gravel road, I should say, that meets the middle standards. The requirement says to have four structures or residential homes built on the road. Then they can consider it for acceptance into the system.

Is that Melody or Meadow? Meadow. Okay. My apologies. That's all right. Okay.

Melody wraps around. Right. All right.

Thank you. Thank you for that. What's the pleasure, Council?

I make a motion that we approve the resolution to request the North Carolina DOT process to petition to accept Meadow Lane into the state road maintenance system.

Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? Okay, you may record your vote. And we have 60. So that has been approved. The other two items on regular agenda have been deleted and will be brought up at a later meeting. We're now down to committee reports and appointments. So we'll start this evening with Mayor Pro Tem Dana Lomba.

I have submitted my report to Wendy. I do want to say that I read the proclamation for gun violence this past Saturday, and that was a great group of people, had a great time. It was super hot outside, but it was a good turnout, good time, good folks, and I appreciate them letting me read the proclamation. And that is my report, and I'll let that stand.

Thank you very much. Council Member Jacquez-Johnson.

Thank you so much, Mayor York. I have submitted a copy of my activities to our clerk. And like Councilwoman Dana said, we got the chance to attend the Gun Violence Awareness along with Councilwoman Erica Sanders. A really great year. The Trilsky Foundation puts on that event every single year for our community. This is year six they have done it down at Doak Park. It's a great time for not just remembrance, but also for the community to come together around gun prevention and what we can do as a community to stop it. And so always very privileged to be able to speak at that event. And then we also have been very busy with the month with getting ready for the trail ride, which will be on Saturday, June the 20th. So if you are in the city on that, for Father's Day weekend, please join us down at Pace Park. It will be an amazing time with food trucks. It's a free event, and we'll have folks from all across the region coming and putting their boots on the ground here in the city of Thomasville. So I'll let that stand as my report. Thank you. Council Member Doug Hunt.

Mr. Mayor, I've submitted a copy of my activities to the clerk, and I'll let that stand as my report.

Thank you. Council Member Peyton Williams.

I've not submitted my activities, but I will, I know. I'm fully off the wagon, but I'm going to do better, probably. We're supposed to pass our budget tonight. It's the most important thing we do as a city. It's really, we can't do anything if we don't pass a budget. Why aren't we passing our budget? Because the state legislature, instead of not just passing their own budget, has now decided to make it difficult for us to pass our budget. So if we were to move forward with the budget that we originally planned with the tax rate that we originally wanted to set and they pass this legislation, we'll be like millions and millions of dollars in the hole and we can't change it. It's locked in. Am I right, Misty? We can't go back. locked in. So I'm like, what are we supposed to do? Just sit around and wait? The state gets to do that. They don't have to pass a budget. We have to pass a budget. It's so frustrating and it's frustrating for me and my only job is to just sit up here and talk about it. I can't imagine how frustrating it is for the administrators and for the finance team and the people whose job is to actually put the budget together. So if you're looking for something to be righteously angry about, I will gladly talk to you about this for hours and hours. It's driving me insane, and I feel crazy. But we're going to work through it, and it's going to be, and we'll figure out what to do. But that's why we don't have a budget. We should, but we don't. It's also Pride Month. Happy Pride. I think one of the bravest things that you can do as a person is be who you are. And so I'm fortunate and thankful that we live in a country that we're supposed to be able to do that. And I know for some people that's not a reality. So if you're looking for an ally, you have one up here. And I'm grateful that you're a part of our town. And I think once I send Wendy my report, I'll be all sewed up.

Thank you. Council Member Lisa Schell. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I have submitted the copy of my activities report. I got the privilege of going to the ribbon cutting for the new Japanese restaurant. It was amazing. The food's really good. If y'all get a chance, stop by. I want to thank Parks and Rec for everything that they do, especially for our kids and especially with it being summertime and them out of school. That gives them a lot more to do. I'd like to thank our chief, all of our officers, our fire department, and all of our city council for doing what we do. And that'll send us my report.

Thank you. Council Member Erica Sanders.

submitted my report, Mayor, to Mrs. Wendy for today. And I would like to say that I went to the Rock the Block, and that was good. It was the first time I ever did the Rock the Block. But it was good. I really enjoyed it. And when we have another Rock the Block next year, you all should come out and just come out and support that event. because it was really blessed. And also the gun violence, I enjoyed that. I was grateful that they asked me to do the prayer. So I felt real blessed by that. And I just want to thank everybody on council for all the work that y'all are doing in the city of Thomasville. And I would like to thank everybody in Thomasville for everything that you're doing. But I want to also mention that I do want to thank the Recreation Center, Corey, and the whole team for all the hard work that y'all are doing for our children and us, for the residents, because we went to that showing the... Strickland Center showing of the different pictures and how y'all wanted. And I like the fact that you gave the residents an opportunity to pick and choose what it was that they would like for it to look like. I thought that was awesome. So thank you for that. Kudos to you for that. And that stands as my report.

Thank you. I've had kind of a busy month. Most of it tied up with the Memorial Day activities, which I'll mention those. We had several of these. Now, understand that anybody, anywhere, especially our citizens here in Thomasville, can plug into any of these activities that we have for Memorial Day events each year. And what it's all about is where we're honoring and remembering those that have died in service to our country and where and we're asking to go ghost our families to come for that weekend. And so we can show them that we love and respect them and thank them for the sacrifice they have made. And I don't know of another event anywhere close to us that does anything like this. So these events, I'm just gonna read you a list, you may have seen these, of what we did that weekend. It started off with an event out at the rest stop at the Vietnam Wall with a memorial service out there. We had a gathering of warriors on Saturday evening. We welcomed the families down at the motel on Sunday afternoon. After that, they went to Carolina Memorial Baptist Church where they were served a dinner. And following the dinner, there was a memorial service there in the church sanctuary. After that, we went to the Finch Auditorium and had a great patriotic concert by the 208th Army Band. They do a great job each year. We've had them for the last several years. And then on Memorial Day, we have the Memorial Day Parade, which starts uptown and comes through the park here to the stadium. A ceremony is put on there at the stadium. One thing that we didn't get this year was the paratroopers jumping into the stadium because of the weather at that time, very overcast and dangerous for them to do that. So we didn't get that. But after following that, we have lunch with the families of the Woman's Club. And that kind of wraps up the weekend of Memorial Day. So you see there's many, many events. Most of these are open totally to the public. Everything is free of charge. There's no solicitation. There's nothing sold at this event. There's no campaigning at this event. It's a very good event to just honor and recognize our Gold Star families and then their loved ones that were lost in battle for our country. A couple other events, I'll just mention, as Councilwoman Schell did, the Maki of Japan restaurant that opened. We cut a ribbon for that this past week. And they've done a real great job there. It's a beautiful restaurant. The food is great food, so I'd encourage you to go try them out. We had North Carolina Department of Labor had the safety awards. Ballpark Road Community Center and our city receive many safety awards for the good work they do here and the safe work that they do for our city. And finally, this past Thursday evening at Finchville, we recognize our Thomasville All Stars. These are unsung heroes from our community that are honored there. We're privileged to have one of those in attendance tonight. Molly with the Recreation Department that was up here earlier. And a former All-Star, still an All-Star, Nancy Staton from the school board. And it was my privilege to nominate both of these ladies for that award. I don't see anybody else that I know of. Anybody else? Oh, Eric. Eric has been one of the all-stars as well. Eric? Eric? I didn't mean to overlook you. I didn't, but when I saw you, I knew you had done it. So anyway, it was a good event, and it's something that we do here like that. We like to honor our people. We like to honor our employees because they do a great job for us and others in the community that do as well. So that is my report, so I'll now go to our Deputy City Manager, Mr. Bowling.

and have 14,500 new jobs and over $252 billion in investment. I think as we look at this investment and the things that are coming to North Carolina, as a city, it's important for us to realize what infrastructure goes in place to support those things, and we're facing challenges, and so I think that for us, it's gonna be a long-term goal of ours to upgrade our infrastructure so we can support projects like that. The last thing I'll mention, call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Over the weekend, they had a wall water line break that stopped the plant from being able to produce water for a period of time. We didn't have anybody go without water. We only had one customer that had low pressure during the event. Then we were able to open the interconnects with Davidson Water, so we're thankful for the partnership with Davidson Water, but also more importantly, our staff who came in on their day off, worked through the day and the night to make sure the repairs were made to continue providing the service.

Thank you. And finally, our city attorney, Ms. Whitman.

Good evening. My report will be fairly short, too. I, Peyton, share your sentiment about our unknowing and unknown ability here. It makes it very difficult on what we do, so we've all been on pins and needles trying to figure out where we go and what we do and what do we do if they do this and what do we do if they do that and we're all just kind of sitting here. Thomas, I don't know how you're handling all of this. He is a rock star, let me tell you, for making all this happen. The other thing I wanted to mention, I think a couple of you talked about how incredibly hot it was on Saturday. Please keep in mind that a lot of your older folks in the neighborhoods do not have air conditioning. So please check on your neighbors. Make sure that they're okay. There are resources out there that can give fans to people that don't have AC. With Meals on Wheels, we're keeping a vigilant check on these folks. We delivered fans. We've delivered window units, portable AC units, all kinds of stuff. So please make sure you do that. And if you know people that need assistance, call Cooperative Community Ministries. Call us. Call any of these support areas, and we will get them some sort of assistance out there.

and call Home Solutions. Good to know, fantastic. Oh, fantastic.

Yes, as he was saying, Home Solutions does have a few AC units that they can rent out or loan out. You loan them out during these situations for people when it's incredibly hot and they don't have air conditioning.

That's good.

One of the paralegals in my office, her AC chose last Friday to go out. So she's going to have to have it replaced. So it was a lovely weekend for that to happen. But, you know, they were fortunate enough. They went and bought two window units and they're making do. But please keep a check on your neighbors. It is crucial this time of year. And that's all I have.

Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Yeah, very much so. And I too want to join in praising our great management team that we have here in Thomasville. The great work that they do, all of our directors. We've got three or four, let's see, two, three, about three or four of them here tonight with us. And they just do a great job. They work every day. for the betterment of the city of Thomasville and our citizens. And we are very blessed to have the crew, the people that we have on this team.

We are blessed.

So I thank them so much for all they do. So having said that, do we have any other additions or updates to come before council?

I would like to say that we had got a shining star award from city council, from the school board, the last week. I wanted to show y'all. We got this from Thomasville City.

Read that, Erica, if you would.

Okay, let me read it. shining star award presented to Thomasville City Council. In recognition of your outstanding commitment, collaboration, and dedicated partnership with Thomasville City Schools, your leadership has strengthened our community, supported our students, and advanced our shared mission of educational excellence with gratitude for your continued service to the children and families of Thomasville.

Thank you. Thank you to the school board for that. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. All right.

Any other additions or updates? Okay, we're now down to adjournment. Do I have a motion we adjourn? So moved.

Second.

Second. Okay. You may record your vote. Vote is 6-0. We are adjourned.

Bye. God. That would drive me insane.