Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. I'm going to call the meeting to order. It is great to see so many familiar faces today joining us. Thank you so much for being here. We're going to start with introductions, and we will start to my right with our clerks.

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

Good evening and welcome. My name is Commissioner Yvette Townsend Ingram, Commissioner YTI, and I serve you at large on the county commission.

Good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting. My name is George Dunlap and I'm elected by people of District 3.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Mark Jarrell and I've been elected by the people of District 4. And I also have the honor of serving as chairman of the board. I do want to recognize and shout out our members of Park and Rec that are here. I would ask you guys just to stand to be recognized right here at the top of the meeting. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening. My name is Vilma D. Leak, and I represent the most powerful district in the county. That's District 2. Welcome. Will all seniors please stand? None tonight. One.

Janice.

Janice, stop it. Represent law. Two. Wait, wait, wait.

Will all young people stand? None. Thank you.

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

Thank you for letting me do that.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Susan Rodriguez-McDowell, and I have the honor of being elected by the people of District 6.

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

Good evening. I'm Ed Yeager from the Office of County Attorney. I'm the Senior Deputy County Attorney here on behalf of Tyrone Wake.

Thank you. Tonight, our invocation and our Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Commissioner Dunlap.

Would you bow your heads, please? Heavenly Father, we come to thee as humble as we know how, thanking you for all your many and wonderful blessings, thanking you for all the activities of our limb, thanking you, Father, for being able to be in this space. Lord, we thank you for all your many and wonderful blessings. We thank you for the opportunity to serve the people of Mecklenburg County. And in doing so, Father, we ask that you would give us the strength, the courage, and the wisdom to do those things that would be pleasing in your sight. We ask a special blessing for those who are fighting an unjust war. We ask a special blessing for those who are homeless, those that are behind prison walls. We ask that you would help them to realize that you are God and above thee there is no other, that you have all power in your hand, that you can destroy and you will defend. Bless us all, Father, with the things that we've asked, these things we ask with the forgiveness of all our many sins. This is my prayer for Christ's sake. Amen.

Amen. Join us for the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

All right, thank you everyone. We always start our meetings with setting the tone with our, and reminding everyone of our mission and our vision. Our mission is to serve Mecklenburg County residents by helping improve their lives and community. Our vision is Mecklenburg County will be a community of pride and choice for people to live, learn, work, and recreate. Our board budget priorities for FY26-27 are as follows. economic development, education, environmental stewardship, health equity and wellness, services for seniors, workforce development, and reducing racial disparities. And we lift these items up not just out of practice, but we do it because these are the things that guide our decisions and guide the discussion that we have. And we'd like to make sure that everybody understands those things that are the guardrails that we use to make our decisions. With that being said, we're going to move to the next part of our agenda. That is our awards and recognition portion. And at this time, I'm going to turn to Commissioner Yvette Townsend Ingram to read a proclamation because July 2026 is guess what month? Park and Recreation Month. That's right.

Welcome you guys and you know I usually come and I come to the meetings because you're so close to me in proximity I haven't been to one in a little bit because I've been a little under the weather but hope to be back soon and appreciate you guys holding it down for us. So I'm going to read this proclamation which is richly reserved or deserved excuse me. Mecklenburg County North Carolina proclamation whereas Park and Recreation is an integral part of communities throughout the country, including Mecklenburg County, and whereas park and recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near and use parks, and whereas park and recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being and alleviating illness, And whereas park and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports, hiking, hiking trails, aquatic facilities, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles. And whereas park and recreation programming and education activities such as out of school activities, youth sports, and environmental education are critical to childhood development. and whereas park and recreation is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, and whereas park and recreation is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our communities resilient in the face of natural disasters and climate change, and whereas our park and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for our children and adults to connect with nature, and to recreate outdoors, and whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Park and Recreation Month to recognize the more than 160,000 full-time park and recreation professionals, along with hundreds of thousands of part-time and seasonal workers who maintain our recreational spaces, and whereas Mecklenburg County recognizes the benefits derived from park and recreation resources. Now, therefore, be it resolved by Mecklenburg County that July is recognized as Park and Recreation Month and is celebrating with the national theme the power of connection, play, community, nature. I'm sorry, connection, play, community, nature, belonging, and well-being. Please forgive that. faux pas of mine. In the County of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, this 7th day of July, 2026, signed Mark D. Jarrell, Chair, Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioner. So moved. Second. Second.

All right. It's been moved and properly seconded. Before we carry the motion, Nick. All right. Hey, come on down and receive it. We'll hear some remarks from our director and Take a picture. Is everybody coming down? And I want you all to know while you're coming down, uh, commissioner Powell is doing a Snoopy dance right now and probably watching Snoopy dance.

Well, I think we're going to do something with them, but yeah. Um, so again, I'll be brief. I just, I'm so grateful, uh, for the support of the manager of the board of County commissioners and all of the residents in Mecklenburg County. Um, as, as somebody who's lucky enough to be at the head of this ship, the 450 full-time men and women, and more than 500 part-time employees who keep our parks, our green spaces, our recreation centers, our nature centers, our nature preserves, our aquatics facilities, our athletic fields vibrant. It is joyous that we're able to celebrate today, and I'm thankful for all the support we get. So thank y'all.

Thank you. At this time, we'll carry the motion. All those in favor, let's see by show of hands. That is unanimous. Thank you. Thank y'all. Don't go anywhere. Everybody come this way, and we're going to take a picture.

What's your T-shirt?

First in line. Burt, we had a lot of T-shirts. We know who you are. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your work. Thank you. That's a good in-change.

And where? Oh, okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Hey, I'm Tony. Thank you so much. All right. Hey, how you doing? Good to see you. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you so much. How you doing? What's up, man? How you doing? Whatever. You working out? I'm working out.

How you doing?

Cool. What's up, man?

Thank you. I'll pay you for the t-shirt.

Hey, man. You want my shirt? I've got one. I'm trying to get mine. Y'all ain't going to beat up on me. Yeah, okay. It's all the fun.

Okay.

Oh, no, don't worry about us. We won't be seen.

Don't get behind Nick's head. Short people in the front. You'll look this way. Thank you, guys. Good to see you. I'll give you a second there, right there. There you go.

Hold on a second. Come on, lawyer. Just check this.

And I know we did not, uh, well, that's okay. Thank you guys for everything that you do. Really appreciate it at this time. We're going to move forward with the agenda. We're going to move to public appearance. I do have to read a statement that is rather lengthy. So beg for your indulgence and patience. Public appearance is the period during the board's regular meeting that members of the public are provided the opportunity to speak on matters not appearing on the agenda. members of the public who appear during the public appearance portion of a regular meeting may discuss any matter within the jurisdiction of the board of commissioners except for the following types of matters a matter which appears on the agenda of that meeting of the board a matter which concerns the candidacy of any person for public office including the candidacy of the person appearing before the board a request that the board considers funding a certain program or activity either from the current budget or by inclusion in a future budget. Such requests would be made at the board's annual budget public hearing. The time limit for speaking is three minutes unless there are four more speakers who wish to speak concerning the same matter, in which case all persons wishing to speak on the same matter will be considered a group and given a total of 10 minutes. The board reserves the right to alter these rules on a case by case basis as necessary for the efficient and effective conduct of business. Members of the board will not engage in dialogue with public appearance speakers. Comments will be received and followed up on as applicable by county staff and or members of the board. Handouts and or tokens shall be given to the clerk for distribution to the board at the conclusion of the meeting. Members of the public can also access and view the meeting on the government channel or online at watch.mechanc.gov. Tonight, I have... Three speakers. First is Pharisee Blakeney. If you are here, if you will come on down. And you can come to this podium here. And then I have Brandis Mitchell and Maudicia Mitchell. You all can come to this podium here. And Ms. Blakeney, whenever you're ready, you will have three minutes. I'm sorry. And just feel free to start whenever you are ready.

Good evening, commissioners, staff, and Mecklenburg County citizens. My name is Faricia Furtick. I previously submitted a request for a private meeting regarding concerns I have raised with Mecklenburg County Economic Services Development Department. As of today, I have not received a response or been contacted to schedule this meeting. My concerns include potential retaliation, inconsistent and unfair applications of policies, and how human resources and leadership align their processes when making decisions. To be clear, I am not here to re-litigate personnel matters in a public setting or create conflict. My intent is to ensure these concerns are reviewed appropriately and that I am given a fair opportunity to provide documentation in full context in a private setting. During my time in my role as a call center customer experience manager, I consistently focused on improving operations, accountability, and customer service outcomes. I was committed to the work answer serving Mecklenburg County residents effectively. And the opportunity was me was meaningful to me personally and professionally. That is part of why the situation has been difficult. It has a personal impact on my wellbeing and I want to ensure that out, excuse me, ensure that what occurred is understood in full context and evaluate evaluated fairly. At a broader level, I also want to raise a concern about how employee issues and internal concerns are addressed and escalated in my experience. There's a risk that concerns can be minimized or not fully addressed at the appropriate level, and I do not want this pattern to continue within the workplace. I am respectively requesting a private meeting where I can provide documentation and full context again for review, and I am also requesting a response within a reasonable timeframe so this matter can be addressed in a timely and appropriate manner. Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you. All right, we'll turn to Brandis Mitchell and Modicia Mitchell.

Hi, my name is Brandis Mitchell and I'm here today regarding the housing crisis that's going on in Mecklenburg County, particularly continuum of care. I've been a part of this program for four years. Now you guys say, go out and do something with yourself. I go to school, I work full time. I take care of senior citizens. I do everything that is exactly asked of me. April came. I came, I went to the staff of continuous care because all of the units that I've lived in, either I've had to fix the roof, I've had black mold. I've had non-working appliances. I've had different things. And I've went to them and I've said, hey, excuse me, this is what's wrong. My son was attacked and mauled by a pit bull in my backyard. And I live in an HOA. So I went to the staff and I said, hey, excuse me, my baby, this is an unsafe environment. Instead of saying, Ms. Mitchell, you know what, let's talk about this, or let's see what we can do, I was told, no, Ms. Mitchell, we're not, we're going to do this. Matter of fact, I was disrespected, but I have it on audio. So instead of arguing with them, I said, you know what? You guys had a city council meeting. I said I was coming. I told her, I said, I'm going to show the misappropriation of government funding, the pledges that you guys make at county, because you're making pledges and you're saying we're paying, but their pledges are not going through. So that leaves a lot of families like me and my kids who you say if we're going to pay something and they don't abide by these pledges, we're backed up. We might end up in a situation where It leads to homelessness, disconnections, and we've had this conversation repeatedly. I've came to county, I've went to every single body. I even went to rally last week. I was all up in the office at the commissioner's office having a conversation. This has went to the point of my kids, and not even only my kids, other kids in these programs that are going to lead to homelessness because of these pledges not being served or not being kept. I spoke out a couple of you guys. I do know your names because I probably have emailed you and I have showed you checks or sent over screenshots. This is me coming to you guys saying, Hey, it needs to be fixed because the structure of it and the people in it are not looking at the people that's inside of these programs. These children is more than just me. It's kids. And then I'm not just the only family. I'm just the one family that decided that, Hey, I'm going to say something, but that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi. Good evening, members of the city council. My name is Madessa Mitchell. I'm 16 years old, and I'm a resident of the Turtle Rock community. I'm here tonight regarding my family's experience in the continuum of care housing program. I've been in this program since I was 12. While its mission is to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring, it has impacted my life negatively. due to the complete lack of caseworker accountability. For four years, our caseworker deemed an uninhabitable house acceptable. Our oven and refrigerator did not work. Food constantly spoiled, forced my mother to replace expensive groceries with absolutely no caseworker support or referrals to pantries. Recently, we moved to a new house. Things were going well, except our utilities went unpaid until April after my mom had paid the bills up front and they took the money back, refusing to put it back on the bills. And our heat was off all winter. Then, my brother was bitten by a loose pit bull. Soon after, a caseworker submitted a false mental health check on my mother, resulting in her being wrongfully apprehended and being physically assaulted by a police officer. Also, my life being threatened. My mom was locked up for two weeks. My brother was struggling with trauma, and I was left entirely responsible for my two younger siblings. Thankfully, my grandmother took us in, even though she already houses three of my cousins. Those were some of the most traumatic moments of my life. Now that my mom is out, the program is unjustifiably removing us, leaving us homeless once again. This completely violates the promises of the COC. I believe the Charlotte Mecklenburg COC staff management and funding needs to be formally investigated. I'm not just speaking out for my family, but for the other families and teenagers currently trapped in this broken system. We have physical evidence of everything that happened, including broken appliances, the dog bite, and our unjustified removal. I am not here to speak out for personal matters, but to speak up for the COC organization to take accountability. Thank you for your time.

Thank you both. All right, Madam Clerk, that concludes all the speakers that we've had. I'm going to move forward with the agenda. We're going to move to appointments. The first appointment is for Charlotte Water Advisory Committee. Reappointment is needed on the Charlotte Water Advisory Committee for one three-year term expiring June 30, 2029. Dan Melvin is eligible for reappointment.

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? It's unanimous, Madam Clerk.

Is he here?

Mr. Melvin, are you here? Nope, but he is appointed. Next is Women's Advisory Board. Nominations or appointments are needed on the Women's Advisory Board to fill four unexpired terms. We did receive a letter of recommendation, and they put their preference in order. Kenya Brown, District 1. Claire Covington, District 4. Phyllis Barnett, District 5, and Kaitlyn Lee for District 4. Now, those are just the recommendations, but we have a whole slew of nominations. Let me go with Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to nominate Ingrid Nunes.

You said Ingrid Nunes.

You don't need a second, right? No, no, no, you don't.

Any other nominees? Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

I'd like to nominate Daryl Anderson of district two.

Okay. Any other nominations?

Nicole Ingram.

Nicole Ingram. Hold on.

Oh, that's already been announced.

No, no, no. That was Ingrid Nunez was the first one. She got Nicole Ingram, Daryl Anderson.

And Karen Linyard.

Karen Linyard.

Phyllis Barnett.

Phyllis Barnett. Any other nominations? I'm going to nominate, Mr. Leak, I'm going to nominate the ones that were recommended by the board in Kenya Brown, Claire Covington, and Caitlin Lee.

So moved.

So with that, madam clerk, this will have to come back to the next meeting.

Okay. Are you, are you doing all of them or just those three that were commissioner Meyer did one of them.

So commissioner Meyer did one. She did, uh, Phyllis Barnett. So I did the other, the other three. You good?

I am. Thank you. All right.

Good stuff. So if you all are watching, what will happen is, uh, we'll take this up the meeting in August and, uh, that's when the appointments will take place. All right, next, we're gonna move to the Domestic Violence Advisory Board. Nominations or appointment is needed on the Domestic Violence Advisory Board to fill one unexpired term expiring April 30th, 2027. There was a recommendation from this board and that was Sarah Ann Ryan, District 6, and there's also Brittany Hammonds of District 4.

I would like to nominate Sarah Ann Ryan.

All right. Sarah Ryan is nominated commissioner, uh, towns in England.

I'd actually like to, um, nominate Brittany Hammond.

Okay.

I serve on the domestic violence advisory board. Um, and, um, it isn't a, a great board, lots of diversity. And I'd like to see even more diversity. There's so many great women that have a voice. Um, and you don't wanna see anyone. not selected when nominated, especially when they're all volunteers, but.

Okay. Commissioner Dunlap.

Mr. Chair, just for the public's information, you'll notice that I'm not nominating anyone. And there's a reason for that. This board tries to balance our nominations so that all districts are represented. If you look at these committees, you'll see that they're lacking in representation from District 4. And so I'm not nominating anybody so that we can make sure that we get someone from District 4 on both of these committees, which has been the effort of this board for some time now. But all of them.

Thank you, Commissioner Leake.

William, is that Dana Cathy Williams?

Dana Cathy Williams, okay. Any other nominations?

Will the nomination be closed on the said names?

So these three will have to come back because there's only one slot. So these three will come back. We'll take this up again in August, ma'am. Thank you. All right, next, we're gonna move to appointments for the Town of Mint Hill Planning Board. Motion is needed to appoint Daniela Hawkins as an ETJ member to the Town of Mint Hill Planning Board. So moved. For a two-year term expiring June 30th, 2028, as recommended by the Planning Board.

So moved.

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

Aye.

Any opposed? That's unanimous, Madam Clerk. Next. We're going to move to advisory committee reports. And we are about to hear from our adult care, adult care home community and nursing home community advisory committee. This is their annual report. And so Keisha High, who is the regional ombudsman and Mecklenburg County assisted living in family care homes and Hillary Kaler, regional ombudsman for Mecklenburg County nursing homes. So welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. We always appreciate the opportunity to be with you every year, right about this time, and do our annual reports for both our adult care home and nursing home committees. I'm Hillary Kaler, and I've been a regional ombudsman in Mecklenburg County for 23 years. And this is Keisha High, who's with me tonight. She started our program back in January, so she's very new, and we're very excited to have her in Mecklenburg County. I know you have the report and can review it, but there are a couple highlights that I always like to make. It is an ever difficult opportunity to get new volunteers. We do have a great system in Mecklenburg County to have people apply to the committee It is just a very rigorous orientation process from the state And we do thoroughly go through talk to all of our volunteer Applicants and make sure that it's a good fit That is one thing that we know is very very challenging. We have a very Committed group of folks my nursing home committee I have a lot of members and so does Keisha on her adult care home committee who've been members for over 10 or 15 years So they're a great group of folks and we really love working with them. We always love to get new folks We have a couple folks that we've been working with lately and it's very promising. So we might get a couple new appointees very very soon like I mentioned there was coverage changes this year because on the report there was Rochelle McIver who had been the ombudsman in place for about three years we a couple highlights from this past year our nursing home committee has done its fifth year of honoring an outstanding staff member in a long-term care facility we feel it's important to continue doing this because a lot of the long-term care staff don't get the kudos that they deserve for the hard job that they do in the long-term care facility settings Each year we set committee goals. Of course one of those goals is to have more volunteers and like I'd mentioned It's really really difficult with some of the training Rigorous training requirements that they have to go through and it's not just sitting on a committee like other committees in the county You have to go out you have to visit you have to drive around the county you visit the different types of facilities out there You do that 36 hour orientation and then you still have meetings with us for about 18 hours a year So we know that's a very large commitment One of the committee challenges that they always consistently see and write on the report and we see as well when we're in the long-term care settings are related to the quality staffing. Staffing standards and staffing in both settings is very, very difficult. The quality of care in general and the quality of food, we see a lot of complaints related to some of those basic care needs across the spectrum. Doesn't matter if you're in a nursing home for rehabilitation for a short period of time, if you're there for long term. And the same with adult care home settings as well. There's a lot of changes in the environment when it comes to ownership and management of some of the facilities. I don't want to sound cheeky when I say it, but they change names pretty regularly. So keeping up with the who owns them, who manages them is pretty difficult at times. And there's a lot of companies that it's very much corporate focused. There are none or very few more manpa type of facilities out there like there used to be many, many years ago. It's large corporate structures. A lot of those ownerships are out of state. And it's just more of a business model than it ever has been before. One of the pieces of growth that we do see in the county are small family care homes. So they're those assisted livings and adult care homes that have six people or less. When the report was done, we had 29. We now have 30. Every year it changes and vacillates a little bit between 28 maybe up to 34 we've had as family care homes across the county. They do serve a purpose and they do a really good job with some of the needs that people have. But I will say one of the things that has happened and what we see in the assisted living or the adult care home world is that the majority of these facilities are private pay. meaning that it's unaffordable for most people to live in those facilities. Family care homes have taken on that as well. I'm not sure if any of the family care homes in Mecklenburg currently take Medicaid special assistance. They are all private pay, meaning there's $6,000, $7,000, $8,000 to $10,000 a month to live in those facilities, which is usually pretty unreasonable for most of us. I welcome any questions anyone has. I really appreciate the opportunity. I also appreciate when you all have ever reached out to us, when you have concerns and questions, if you have constituents that have questions, connecting them with us, we really appreciate that opportunity when you give it to us. And thank you so much.

Thank you. Commissioner Dunlap.

Thank you so much for your presentation. You always do a good job keeping us abreast of what's going on. I really want to take this opportunity to make a special appeal to the community. Ever since I've been a commissioner, this particular advisory committee has been lacking in terms of its number of volunteers. To date, there are 41 vacancies on the Adult Care Home Board. To date, there's 26 vacancies in the Nursing Home Board. We live in a community with 1.5, I gave them a second. 1.2 million citizens. There is no reason why these positions should go unfilled. I see some of the volunteers here. One of them lives in my district and she makes sure I keep up with what's going on. I'm just appealing that we would fill these vacancies. There's a great need. The big concern is while some of these facilities might be small, They are responsible for the care of our citizens. And the only way we can ensure that they're doing their job is to have volunteers to assist in doing that. So I'm appealing to the community that you would help us fill these vacancies. Thank you. Commissioner Leak.

Thank you. When I was elected to this board and saw that we did not have the representation for those who need us the most, and that's those who cannot care for themselves. And I talked about it and said to the public to volunteer to serve on the committee. And some people did step forward and decided to let that be a part of what they were going to do. And we decided within the last four or five months, I think, to increase the contribution and pay for the gas for those to get to those sites to care for our people. And many of our people do not have relatives even here in the city. So those in the community, especially within the confines of our churches, do have sick and shut enlist. So I too am saying, as I've said, soon as I got on this board and saw that there was no support for those who need us the most, that we volunteer, men, women, young people, young adults, to be a part of this process. So I hope you're hearing my plea tonight. And this is not the first time I've said it. This is maybe the fourth or fifth time that I've said it and asked for people to participate. And I think, again, we started out with $70 and then we moved to $100, I think. Am I right, Mr. Chairman?

I don't remember what we started out with, but I do know we raised it to your point.

Because we were not doing anything by paying for gas for anybody to go any place. So with that recommendation, we did provide for some funds to pay for the gas for attendance to those sites. And we're still doing that. So again, please consider volunteering to go into the homes to read or to sit and talk with our seniors. And thank you for the opportunity to make that plea. It was not my first plea. This is maybe my fifth or sixth plea to do that.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you not only for your presentation, but thank you for what you do. Thank you for being our oversight. I have been, I attended one of the inspections and I just, I want to ask you to continue to invite us because I think we all should, every once in a while we should go. I think it's important for us to see with our own eyes. We may not. we may one go and just give us that opportunity, because we would like to. I hope I speak for all of you, but I do speak for me. One question I think to our manager, under their committee challenges, the issue of transparency, there is no reporting of consolidated financial information to the regulatory oversight organizations that would allow the audit and review of the transaction that siphon off funds intended for the care. and welfare of nursing home residents. Is this something that, does this fall under us? Do we need to address that?

We'll look into that and get back to you. I don't have an answer right now.

I mean, who's over there?

I know in the past these questions have come up, but I need to confirm that, indeed, we don't have any oversight of that. Don't quote me, though. We'll go back and confirm.

Okay. And if we don't, can you find out who does? Sure. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.

Mr. Rodriguez McDowell.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for bringing that up, Commissioner Meyer, about that. And I really will be interested to learn the answer there. But I also wanted to say it's great to see new young blood in this position. So you're actually ombudsman?

I do the nursing homes, and Keisha does the adult care homes, the assisted livings.

Okay, that's awesome. Thank you for doing that. I would love to know what led you into that, because we need more folks, obviously, like you. And I was wondering if you guys, first of all, you can get back to me on this, but do you have ideas on how the Board of County Commissioners can help you increase your numbers? And I wondered if you can just sort of tell us a little bit about the impact of having so few volunteers. What does that do to the volunteers who are currently working and to yourselves? Tell us the impact of that. And then also... I know that the training rules are very, very, they're set from the state. They are. And so we can't really change those. But do you think that there would be interest if the rules were different? And is that something we should be adding to our legislative agenda? Is that some way that we can help you guys? Because this is obviously an extremely important issue. work that you all are doing and I just can't imagine like the numbers if y'all are supposed to have 47 members and you have six like these proportions are just so so far out that I just really want to get what the impact is and see if we can advocate somehow I don't under I don't know how we could impact the state because they seem to be very impenetrable But maybe in this area there would be some opening. I don't know how often that is brought to the state.

Yeah, you're right. The state standards come from, of course, federal standards for volunteerism and how often the amount of orientation hours, the amount of education to go into the buildings and to get that training. So it's very set. In recent years, of course, the state does the training we offer. An opportunity to locally do a little bit of independent study because we're much more virtual world now, so we can do some work with them locally. Before they're trained, we do some independent study, have them read some different regulations. We do some in-facility visits to see if it's a fit for them because, honestly, sometimes that's where the fit isn't. It's going into the buildings and feeling comfortable having conversations with folks and sitting with people. And then there's about 20 hours are virtual training hours through the state office at a set time. I would say that often there are barriers because people who work full time want to do it and it's hard so that is a barrier at times. I think one of the different populations we haven't hit as much are maybe college age students wanting to get involved in healthcare or wanting to get involved in aging services or just social work in general. So I think that's a population we could look at a little bit more. The impact that it has is that you have less people to go to a multitude of facilities so facilities don't get visited. So the opportunity and the job that Keisha and I have are to go to every facility anyway, and we handle a lot of concerns or complaints that are brought to us. The volunteers are kind of that baseline that go and kind of feel it out at least quarterly. they're there, they're visible, they're building a relationship with that facility to come very often. So the less folks we have, the less places we can go and the less often that they're there. So having that spread out a little bit. I will say there are some trains of thought I think coming into the fall where we might look at the statutes for the volunteer program and try to rewrite them or look and see if they are working They were written in 1976 in their old statute. So what do we need in today's world? So I think there is some movement at the state level to even consider that, which is nice to hear. So if we hear more about that, I'll certainly bring it to your attention.

Thank you so much. Thank you guys both for what you do. Thank you. And thank you, Tony. I know she's a long-term volunteer. She is.

Commissioner Townsend, England.

First, I want to say thank you to you both. Keisha, you're tugging at my heart springs because I have a very personal reason for liking your name, Keisha. My sister's name is Keisha. I do have several questions and they are basically, I'll email you those based on what you send in your report. I don't want to bore you or bore everybody else with the questions that I have. But I do want to make some recommendations just to the public and to the group so that such that, you know, if anybody wants to jump on board with me with the recommendations that I make and maybe back me up on this, um, one, the reason why I think one of the reasons why I think that there is a lack of volunteerism is to, uh, commissioner Luke's point, you know, volunteerism for something that is so uniquely It's a unique skill. This is an area where you just don't want anybody and everybody coming in and volunteering. That's why the qualifications and the training is so rigorous. I like your idea of having social work students, nursing students in particular so that they can get the understanding and they can have some bedside manner training and things of that nature because that is a very unique population and you have to handle them very specifically. too, I had a friend who recently applied because she is a social work major and she applied and it was just, just the pomp and circumstance until you got to the training. So that's something that we can work on. Um, and advertising. So yes, it's enough for the board of County commissioners to prompt people to apply for this, but just, letting people know, going to the colleges, going to even the high schools, like I don't know what happened to candy stripers or whatever, but I think that getting them to read and things of that nature, that's something that we could also look into. As a matter of fact, we spend so much money on researching other projects, why can't we invest some money into researching what it would take for this specific area of boosting volunteers. And I know that it's probably going to say, well, we need to have some kind of stipend or pay of some kind, because we're also living in a different area. And the people that can afford to do it may not be interested. And those who really want to do it, who want to invest time, can't afford to do it. You know, there are a lot of people that are 60 plus, 65 plus in that age group, and they're a lot more understanding, have more empathy about that. They're working themselves. So they can't afford full time. So they can't afford to put that. So those are my thoughts. I do have questions about how many visits and that kind of thing. And do you have a system of recording complaints and that kind of thing? But I'll email those to you. But thank you all very, very much for your volunteers, for your support and for your work in this area.

email anytime thank you so thank you colleagues for your feedback um hillary thank you for the uh report keisha thank you for being here as well um i do want to give you before i add comments keisha is there something that you want to add don't don't feel compelled to but i just want to give you space if you want to now it's time okay thank you though so a couple of things at the beginning of the meeting i read out our board priorities one of those priorities is services for seniors um commissioner dunlap and commissioner league both made the point that over five six years we are are basically in the same space that we've been in right since we've been on the board srm has definitely been talking about it so i think it's even greater than five or six years so i say that to say this if services for seniors is a priority for us this is certainly uh meets that threshold is in this wheelhouse we can't go another we can't be at this same point again next year it's just unacceptable um we just can't we won't be at the same point next year so what that means is we're going to have to um to your point commissioner yti is to figure out how do we have more of a sense of urgency and getting the support that's needed but I'm not expecting you all to do the heavy lifting. Okay. You're already running around and your short staff and you're, you know, you're so to try to solve to this shortage, um, is, um, would be difficult. So Mr. Manager, what I really like to understand is, is how do we lean in, uh, take in, take the, some of the recommendations from board members and really kind of figure, figure out how we can, address this shortage because again, I think there's a, it's a critical issue. Um, it's an issue of safety. It's an issue of protection. Um, and so, and security, thank you, commissioner leak. And then also this idea of the, this, this, the stipend again, um, I mean, it should be commensurate with, with the work that's being done. It should, people should show, we should be showing a level of value for these people, um, that are, taking time out to volunteer and to make things happen, uh, on behalf of these folks. And I, and I, I'm, I'm not tracking with, uh, the, the hundred dollars that, that, that's not, um, that, that, that, that just doesn't feel right. Right. So we, we got, we could do better than that. Uh, I believe so. I'll work with the manager on our tag up to make sure that this is some item that we. discuss we'll be reaching out to you all please send us whatever recommendations that any other recommendations that you have and I know we've got it documented in the minutes as well so thank you so much for what you do and I want to thank our community members for being here Miss Tony thank you what you're doing Janice thank you for being here as well thank you so much absolutely all right all right 75 per month excuse me All right, at this time, I think we are moving to the manager's report. And Mr. Manager, I'll turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two items under my manager's report for this evening. For the first item, I'd like to take a moment to spotlight four employees that have been selected to be our 2026 MEC-Ax award recipients. As you might be aware, our MECAC Awards was established in 2023 to recognize Mecklenburg County employees who are fueling positive impact in our organization and community by achieving results, cultivating relationships and people, and transforming our work through innovation and change. What makes this award so special is that employees were nominated by their peers. The first team member I would like to acknowledge this evening is Justin Jackson. Justin is currently serving as the park recreation superintendent for our parks and recreation department. His colleagues described him as professionally competitive and always putting his best foot forward to ensuring that our park and recreation facilities under his portfolio are running smoothly. Justin is known for his Chick-fil-A style customer service. Patrons and employees often compliment him on his kindness and his consistent and positive interactions with everyone. At any given moment, he is thinking outside the box and encouraging his team to do the same. He pushes his team to be both creative and proactive. Justin played, as you are aware, a key role in opening our very first regional rec center up in the north. The next MCACS recipient I would like to acknowledge is Todd Wilson, who unfortunately could not be with us this evening. Todd is serving as the department IT manager in Louisa's GIS division. His colleagues describe him as a transformative leader who is constantly strengthening the county's GIS operations and creating new initiatives to improve workflow. Todd is known for implementing the GIS project tracking dashboard, which helped the county to collect reliable metrics and improve GIS visibility and performance. At any given time, you can find him breaking down complex technical issues and topics with diagrams and charts to make it much easier for those around him to understand. The third MECH-ACTS recipient I will be acknowledging is Brandy Murray. Brandy serves as the Tax Operations Manager in the Office of Tax Administration. Her colleagues describe her as trustworthy, often supporting her employees through skill-developing challenges while also ensuring that deadlines and performance targets are met. Brandy is known for pioneering the ambassador peer support model that helps new employees to seamlessly integrate into their roles and feel welcomed as members of Team Mecklenburg. At any given time, you can find Brandy setting an example for her team through coaching, mentoring, and advocating for her employees in a manner that helps them develop as professionals. Closing out the 2026 MEC-AXA Award recipient, last but not least, is Erin Councilman. Erin is currently serving as a Social Services Supervisor in the Community Support Services Department. Her colleagues described her as a go-getter who was willing to embrace new opportunities and efforts to help as many residents as possible. Erin is known for overseeing a fast-paced grant project that used funds to assist individuals impacted by intimate partner violence. Her oversight on this project helped 95 households avoid eviction and maintain transportation for employment at any given time. She can be found standing in the gap to ensure that individuals are connected to the resources they need most. Our 2026 Make Acts Awards winners reaffirm my long-term standing belief, and you've heard me say this time and time again, we have the most talented workforce in the nation. Last month, I was honored to join all four of our MEC acts winners, their colleagues, friends, and family members at a celebratory luncheon that our HR team hosted in their honor. For their accomplishment, our winners will be receiving a coveted MEC acts awards plaque, one paid vacation day to be used at their discretion and a $500 award. Let's make that two vacation days.

All right, all right, I like that.

Chair Durrell and board members, at this time I ask that you join me and congratulating Aaron, Justin, Brandon, and Todd for being selected for this prestigious award. I would also like to ask our honorees to join us this evening by coming down to take a photo with you all and feel free to make any comments. Team, come on down, please.

Congratulations.

Congratulations. Thank you.

Congratulations. Not done yet.

That's right.

Yeah, there you go. Bookends.

Mr.

Chair, we might as well keep the good news going. You'll recall last month or so, I advised the board that we were promoting Ken Joyner to serve as our new director of the tax administration office. And at that time, you had the opportunity to express your appreciation to Julissa Fernandez for serving as interim OTC. And tonight, I'm pleased to tell you that she was promoted to the new deputy director of the new Office of Tax Management. It was a very competitive process, and she shined from the feedback that I received. And one of the many things that I'm excited about this new opportunity for Jalisa is not only will she continue to lead the OTC side of the house, but she'll get exposure on the assessor side as well. So there'll be some cross-training. So well-deserved, really excited about this new opportunity for Julissa, and I wanted to make you aware of that. Thank you.

Julissa, will you stand?

And again, you're welcome to make any comments regarding our Make Acts recipients, too.

Any quick comments?

Yeah, I would just like to say I'm overjoyed that you are appointed to this position, had the opportunity to have brief conversations with you throughout this process, and I am happy for you. Congratulations. Thank you. Yes, ma'am?

Yeah, okay, I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm just I'm just ecstatic. So thank you for letting us know this tonight. And I also just wanted to say to the MECACS folks, you guys, the award winners, I'm just so proud to work with all of you and to know you. And I just, I really do. It sounds corny, but it's not. I mean, you guys are rock stars, and you really make us look good. So thank you, and thank you all for what you do. Congratulations to Lisa.

Congratulations.

Commissioner Leak.

I just could not allow these two people to out talk me tonight, okay? I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. And that the general public that's looking will come and help to elevate other persons within the confines of our community to participate. The county is the best place in the world to work. the nicest people, pleasant, always available, always on time. Am I right, manager? Always on time and gets the job done. So again, young lady, stand up for me. Are you young or old? Stand up, darling. Yes.

You're still young.

You're young.

You're still young. But again, let me say thank you so much for offering yourself and I hope others will follow and see the example that you are setting to make things happen for us in the community. So again, power. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you. Thank you to the MEC Act's winners. You guys have gone above and beyond, and I'm so glad that you were recognized for it. Thank you so much for your work. And I'm so excited you are staying with us, and you have done such a great job, and it's just such a pleasure to work with you. So thank you. Thank you for staying. Thank you for accepting the position. Thank you all.

So very quickly, I do want to say congratulations to the MEC Act. uh, folks and, and winners. Thank you for what you do. And thank you for the hard work and what you represent for, uh, Mecklenburg County. And then I also want to say, uh, Julissa, you know, a huge fan, uh, congratulations, well-deserved. We are just, uh, we couldn't be excited. Mr. Manager, the hits just keep on coming. So thank you very much. And then Mecca actually all got two days. So what can you say? Love that. Love that.

Now I'm going to be the only person that hasn't said anything. I want to let y'all know that MEG Expo, I said skip the additional vacation day. I said kick it up to 1,000, but you know.

Kick it to 1,000. I got shouted at. You got to keep your job.

Well, thank you, everybody.

Congratulations again to everyone. Thank you, board members. And the final item under my manager's report is an update on the LaSalle Street facility. I am extremely pleased with how this project has evolved after the last year. The reason why I'm excited because the project reflects a high degree of collaboration, collaboration with you, the board, collaboration with the community and the residents in that part of the county, and collaboration with both the nonprofit and corporate sectors. One of the things I have constantly heard members of this board say is that we are pretty good at training and certifying our workforce development participants, but the opportunity for improvement is job placement. Well, this initiative, which will now be referred to as Urban Spark, addresses that opportunity. Not just job placement, but high wage paying jobs.

If you can't get excited for that, you're just not going to get excited.

The presentation will begin with the level set by Zach Lewis, Senior Assistant to the County Manager. He's going to walk you back over the course of the year, the key milestones associated with this project. Then he'll tag in Dr. Virginia Koval, Assistant County Manager of Workforce Development and Upper Mobility. She's gonna give you a refresher on the workforce development framework that she presented to you a few months ago. And then she's gonna introduce our presenters for the evening. With that, please recognize Zach. Zach, you're recognized, sir.

Okay. Well, good afternoon, Chair Jarrell, Commissioners, County Manager Bryant. I'm Zach Lewis, Senior Assistant to the County Manager. So this evening's presentation marks the fourth presentation over the past year regarding the LaSalle building's transformation into a community center focused on upwards economic mobility. While previous updates were all about laying the groundwork and finding the right partner to fit this building, tonight is a major milestone in this project. The team is very excited tonight as the bulk of tonight's presentation, as the manager mentioned, will be delivered from the chosen partner. who is the Urban League of Central Carolina. Urban League will share their Urban Spark program model, which will illustrate how this model will create an ecosystem of upwards mobility in this area, anchored in the LaSalle building as the hub. So to briefly connect the dots on how we reached tonight's milestone, this project actually kicked off last summer during the commissioner ride alongs in July and August after County Manager Bryant was announced as the new County Manager. By September, the board received the first presentation on this building's history and initial framework ideas, which following this presentation was immediately taken to the community for feedback and engagement. In October, the board received its second presentation where the community feedback was shared, as well as a refined recommendation that was shaped directly by that feedback, which the board supported. From November to January, the scope of work for nonprofits to apply was established and the formal nonprofit solicitation was launched to the public. In April, the board received its third presentation update, this time on the applicant pool and the evaluation criteria being used for selecting an applicant. And in May, the Urban League, after a lengthy and rigorous evaluation process, was formally selected as the chosen partner for this initiative. So that brings us to tonight's fourth presentation where again, you will hear directly from the Urban League on this Urban Spark model. But first, as the manager mentioned, I am going to pass it over to my colleague, Dr. Virginia Koval, and she is going to share how the LaSalle building plugs right into the county's overarching workforce development framework. Virginia.

Good evening, Commissioners, Chair Jarrell, Manager Bryant. Before we hear from our partners about the Urban Spark vision, I want to briefly ground us in how this initiative fits within the workforce development strategic framework that we presented in May. That framework, as seen on the screen, continues to guide our work across workforce development and upward mobility. It's the model for upward mobility practice that we want to see both internally and outside the community. I'm highlighting this because over the coming months, you'll be hearing about several initiatives like the one this evening that connect back to this framework. And these are not one-off projects. They are interconnected pieces of a coordinated effort to move our community forward in meaningful ways. One of the core roles outlined in this framework is our role as conveners. We bring stakeholders together to design solutions collaboratively. You'll hear a lot about that tonight. Alongside that, we strategically invest in programs that expand career pathways and create employment opportunities that can change trajectories for families. You're also going to hear a lot about that tonight. And while adopting this strategic framework was an important first step We also know that strategy without action won't get us where we want to be, which is one of the reasons why I'm so excited about the presentation tonight. Urban Spark is a strong illustration of this framework coming to life. It's workforce development and an upward mobility initiative that truly leverages our role as both convener and investor. What you'll hear tonight reflects an effort with the potential to build an entirely new workforce ecosystem on the west side, opening doors for residents through new partnerships and collaborations while continuing to rely on trusted partners who have longstanding deep roots in the community. And with that, I'd like to introduce the partners who are with us this evening and leading this effort. As I call your name, please stand. William McNeely, founder and CEO of Do Greater. Ricky Singh, executive director of My Brother's Keeper. Dr. Monique Perry Graves, chief executive officer of Road to Hire. Don Thomas, senior director and regional market lead for Year Up United. And finally, Robin Hamilton, CEO of the Urban League. Please join me in giving them a round of applause. So thank you. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Robin Hamilton, CEO of the Urban League. She's going to walk us through this Urban Spark vision and next steps.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Commissioners, Chairman Jarrell and County Manager, I am excited to be before you and to be at this stage and presenting to you the Urban Spark. So a year ago, I know the board asked a simple question, and that was what could the LaSalle building become for the families of Lincoln Heights, Washington Heights, and Beatty's Ford Corridor. Tonight, we're here to answer that question. We are the Urban Spark Collective. And so I really want to first, before I get too far into the presentation, thank just the collaboration that we've had with Mecklenburg County and specifically Zach Lewis and Virginia Corville. Just thank you so much for the time and the energy that they've put into making sure that we got this right. There's quite a passion for it, not just in the community, but also within the office itself. So we're excited to have been a part of this initiative in itself. I'm gonna take you through sort of where things land. This is not a program. I wanna preface it with that. When we say Urban Spark, this is not a program. What we want to show you is how organizations who I believe are among the strongest, most reputable organizations in this county could come together right, put egos aside and everything else and figure out how could we be a strong force for what could possibly happen in this sweet little 3,000 square foot building, right, that so many people call a beloved building itself. So with that, one of the things that I thought we'd start out with is being clear about who we're serving, right? So, you know, we are serving students that are in most proximate to the LaSalle site itself. So this is my clicker, okay. So that our proximity to it itself. So as you all know, that's West Charlotte, and that's Northwest School of the Arts. Phillip O'Berry students, not that far, and Harding University high school students. We're thinking that that's the majority of the students that might be in the high school around those surrounding areas. So we've got about 75% of those students are directly certified for free and reduced meals, majority first generation college prospects. A high proportion of opportunity youth are also within that area as well. And student athletes working, students are excluded from traditional programming hours just because the nature of what happens in a student athlete's life. And if you have a student or a teenager that's in sports, you know exactly what that means. Okay, so again, referring to the community itself, the greatest mobility gap is our greatest opportunity. 28216 is the zip code that we sort of center so many of these things around. And I don't think these numbers are surprising for you. I don't believe that they'd be new to you in terms of when we begin to really look at the median household income, the adults with bachelor's degree. And certainly what surprised me, I'll be honest, was the households with high-speed internet that we are still in this day and age talking about trying to get high-speed internet to homes. And then those homes that were owner-occupied. More information about this specific area that we'll have the opportunity to serve is certainly the demographic of 81 plus percent being African American. The median age was 42 and 49% receive food and nutrition services. Yeah, that's telling with 72% graduating from high school. And I want to take a moment and pause just for privilege also and say that a lot of this information that is coming and being shared with us, I had the opportunity to work with an organization called Educated Hulums. that may be familiar to y'all, but they were great in helping us kind of pull data together and information to help us understand the community that we're going into because this community, they've worked very closely with them in various different projects, so we felt that it was important to connect with someone who's done work there as well. And again, with LaSalle Street, again, this beloved building has 70 years of legacy and public service which I thought was really interesting as well and you see the iterations of the various different things I think many of you probably were in that building when it was project lift there's still lots of remnants within that building itself that still reference project lift but surprisingly she's got some great bones but she's definitely again a very beloved part of that community and I think that is an opportunity for us to do some really amazing things. I'm excited that it has access to public transportation and that it really is adjacent to all the communities and very convenient for all the communities that we've been talking about as well. So the intervention or what we might call or refer to as the intervention or really what the spark has sort of become as it's evolved, and I will say it has evolved. We've started out in one direction and really kind of grown this a lot. So this is more than just square footage on the South Street. I think the board and community leaders identified a real gap in this corridor for young people with really nowhere that's really structured to really find out what are the worlds of opportunities for these particular youth. And the Urban Spark plants a permanent staffed anchor right where the need is. And for the Urban League, this is our entry point to bring nearly five decades of services directly to the west side. So this is five partners, one accountable operator, coordinated all for impact. And I think that it's important that you see that logo on the upper right hand corner because Mecklenburg has certainly served as Mecklenburg County has certainly served as a partner along this journey. But I'm really excited to introduce to you all what I refer to as the dream team road to hire which many of you all know of road to hire services and that they've been amazing do amazing work in community and creating pathways an opportunity for education mentorship and career connections. They're within the schools, and we're going to talk more about some of their success. Year Up United, and they're equipping young adults with skills that they need for success through career pathways as well. Duke Greater Charlotte, who just opened up a beautiful facility that many of you all had a chance to visit as well. It moves creative entrepreneurs and helps them to find their footing and understand how you monetize that sort of thing. And then, of course, MBK, My Brother's Keeper, a collective impact organization founded by men of color to address inequities faced by boys and young men of color. And again, in the center is Urban League, who we have the honor of serving as the lead operator. And what that actually means is that we're the one that's within this integrated model that we are ultimately responsible and the accountable operator that we are responsible and accountable to the county. And so we will be your point of contact for that. So each of us have come together and have very distinct roles. And we think about which either which play to each other's strengths. So that's also something really exciting. So again, Urban League serving as the lead operator. Many of you all know us for our workforce development programs and the success that we've had around placement, particularly in the trades. And we're branching out to other things like pharmacy tech. And as you know, we have CNA. As a matter of fact, I want to talk to the folks that were here earlier. So I'm going to talk with them about how we might be able to support them. But micro-credentials and things that are putting people in jobs in a short period of time. Then Road to Hire, of course, delivers programming already within West Charlotte High School. And that's going to be an incredible nugget for us to really take advantage of. And they are dedicating at least 15 slots with probably over 15 employers, and so they are dedicating and they're telling us upfront that they are going to dedicate space for the citizens that are coming from that particular zip code. Year up, also the same thing. They are committing to at least a minimum of 10 seats in a cohort around making sure that these folks go through six months of the training, and then it's a six-month internship that we hope to see turn into a long-term job opportunity. And, of course, my brother's keeper, just someone who's already deeply rooted in this community and has done an amazing number of home visits. I think last year they did upwards of 8,000 home visits. So they're not new to this community, and the youth already migrate to them, and they've had a lot of work that they've built inside the 3E framework, and they were the ones that called out and said to us, hey, you know what, we think our opportunity here is to help with FAFSA. So we're really excited about that. And Do Greater Charlotte, again, of course, is that creative workforce where they connect youth to creative careers through opportunities and industry exposure and figuring out, again, I've got this creative side. I'm not a trades kid. I'm not an athlete. Where do I fall in all of these things? And so they really provide kind of a different way to be able to do that. A snapshot of these incredibly strong partners that we have around the table. Year up, they're serving 303 Westside residents already. So again, they're not new to the work in this space. With an average starting wage of $67,000. Now keep in mind what that average starting wage was, was $42,000 in that particular area. They've got 100% 90-day retention because they're tracking, and they have over 10 corporate partners that are supporting their work. Road to Hire, we know have 1,000 plus that they're served annually. Again, they're already in the schools, which is really great. So 74,000 is average starting wage with a 94% one-year retention rate, $30 million in scholarships that are awarded. And of course, My Brother's Keeper's also doing 741 residents served that they do regularly, 347 students that are re-engaged, 148 families that they're already working with to help complete that FAFSA. And their seniors, the one-to-one ratio that they're putting with their seniors, they're working with 102 seniors in a year. And I pause right there because one of the things that we learned through this process is that in talking to counselors and when Ricky Singh would tell us in this conversation with principals is that what they need is the counselors. They don't have the bandwidth to get to all the kids. And so we were like, is that a gap that we can fill? And so that's how this conversation came up about how do we support the FAFSA movement. So this is our framework in terms of that we'll be working from. And so we'll talk through this a lot more often, but we're starting to lean initially to awareness, making sure that folks learn and enroll in various different programs, whether it be Road to Hire, whether it be Year Up, whatever that might be, or some of the programming that might happen over at Duke Raider or Urban League. Stabilize, we'll make sure that there's barrier assessments. We know the county already has a HH assessment if we should need to talk with students about something else that's going on in their lives that we might be able to bring some wraparound supports to them. Earning some sort of a credential, whether it be micro-credential or putting them on a path to head into college to learn and obtain greater credentialing. Connect them and place them into either internships, interviews, or quite frankly, right into jobs. you know, placing them in high wage employment. And I want to keep reemphasizing what the county manager kept saying was high wage employment. So we are trying to do everything we can to make sure that we are focused on high wage, high earning jobs. And then, of course, employment that we're tracking at least 90 days plus to find out, you know, what's the retention? What are we where are we doing? And in some instances, we're tracking as far as 12, 12 months itself. So I want to let you see what this sort of looks like in real time. and talk a little bit about the student's journey in action. Okay, so this is Mateo, so go with me. So Mateo's a great, great standout athlete, but we all know that Mateo's in practice all the time, and then of course on the weekends, even on the off season, he's got AAU, so he's in a lot of different places and doesn't necessarily give him the flexibility to participate in traditional programming that might be available to students. Maybe he's coming over to the Spark. Maybe MBK is intervening because MBK is in that space with you students, particularly athletes. And maybe they suggest Mateo to take a class, a Saturday class, maybe at the Urban League. He gets kind of interested in maybe this IT or this business operations piece. We introduce him to Year Up. Year Up then can take him actually through their programming, which is a one-year program, but it's six months that starts out as training and then into an internship. And then they attend, perhaps, a pop-up over at the LaSalle building. The outcome is ultimately a $67,000 a year job. So we're tracking to figure out exactly, what is this handoff? What would this actually look like for someone like Mateo? Eliza, she's already taking classes. And she's already connected to Road to Higher inside of school. But she's struggling with some FAFSA. She's a first gen. So her family's not comfortable with this FAFSA thing. So again, MBK is kind of picking them up, trying to figure out how do we do this. Maybe she's taking the summer to take an AI accelerator that would be offered by Road to Hire. But what's really neat is that with Road to Hire, she has the opportunity to receive a four-year in-state scholarship and a success coach during that time. On average, those students are coming out when they finish college at $75,000 per year. So again, we're tracking and being very deliberate and specific about putting them on a track. And finally, Ricky. Ricky wants to pursue a career in the arts, but it's not really sure how to monetize it. So Duke Rader comes in, Spark House, of course. They enroll in this creator's economy and help him to build a portfolio. The Spark House Bureau then comes in and helps him figure out how to monetize that, which is really exciting as well. We like to talk about the Spark House Bureau. So MBK, again, might do some mentorship from a working creative professional. But at a LaSalle pop-up, Ricky is now attending entrepreneurship workshops and meeting other business organizations.

The outcome?

He's going to complete a portfolio, earns freelance income, and presents at the LaSalle Creator Showcase that we'll have as a pop-up there. So again, we wanted to give you some real examples of how this would happen in that area. So year one. We're not just, you know, we want to make sure that we have sort of a North Star, if you will, and what it is that we're trying to achieve. So we're looking at, the hope is for 250 plus participants that are enrolled or participating through this pipeline, through what we're doing. At least 75 credentials are earned, high wage placements into jobs, at least 50. 80% 90 day job retention. And 80% of the families completing the FAFSAs that are requesting the support. We've got over 25 employer partners that are already activated and engaged. 24 community pop-up events, which we'll talk a little bit more about, and at least 80 job interviews facilitated. And again, this is just a collective effort of what a number of strong organizations can come to do and what we can do when we put our minds to it, put our resources, and put our networks together. So what does this look like? I'll give you kind of a 12-month pop-up calendar. So where the corridor sees the urban spark at work. So in August we might be talking about celebrating the LaSalle past, present, and future. In October now we're moving to a ribbon cutting launch. November might be a placement fair where we are doing some sort of a job fair actually there. LaSalle Creator Showcase in February where Ricky can come and talk about all the creative things that he's able to do and monetize. April we might do expungement and second chance day. And in May, we might do, we're calling it a signing day gala. So we're hoping all the students have committed to the three Es, and they've figured out which direction they're going to go. And considering the fourth E, which is, of course, entrepreneurship. This is the visual of sort of the way we see it. I know LaSalle doesn't quite look like that yet, but just go with us, right? We think that this building could eventually turn into that. So that's the way that we see this incredible hub at 2324 LaSalle Street. And it being a great place, as you can see, where communities are interacting. When we talk about the pop-ups, the things that can happen, not just outside the building with what you see, for example, around atrium mammography or you see around the food trucks, the DJs, et cetera, but also the pop-ups that could happen internally. And what we mean by the pop-ups is an AI accelerator. We want this building to be open to other community partners that might want to come in and do a financial literacy, that might want to do some sort of other sort of workshops. And of course, our partners ourselves, we're committing to do pop-ups inside the building to make sure that there's always constant training that's going on. So this is a fixed meeting rhythm. We are already sort of in a rhythm, if you will, right now. We meet actually every other week right now, the LaSalle Working Committee, which you were introduced to. We have two program operations teams. So number two, we have program operations teams. We know as executive directors, we won't always be able to keep things moving ourselves individually, but we all have strong teams. But number two is that can help make sure that this thing continues to be successful. One of the things that we're most excited about is the Community Advisory Council. Right. This is not our building. This is their building. And they will be who guides us to tell us what's what we're doing well where they want to go and what's important to them. So that community advisory council is really important. And then of course data and compliance work groups so that we can make sure that we're reporting data and capturing data. So just to conclude to kind of bring us back to the vision that Mecklenburg County is a national example of how transformational growth can expand opportunity. So we're moving from barrier to credentials and the three E's, high wage careers and upward mobility. So we think this mirrors and complements the workforce development framework that was presented to you earlier. And we also think that this complements the work that CMS has already started to do around the three E's of enrolled, enlisted and employed. And we want to add a fourth E in terms of entrepreneurship. What we're working on immediate next steps at this point would be recruiting and seating that advisory council and finalizing a year one calendar of pop-up. We don't want to finalize anything until that community advisory committee has provided their input and decided what they want to see. And of course, confirm the LaSalle lease and up fits and framework with the county, which we've already began that work as well, and figure out how we turn that building into a really cool place for folks to visit. So with that, I'd like to take any questions that you all may have.

Thank you for that. I'm confident that they'll question. I'll start with you this time, Commissioner Townsend.

Thank you so much for the vision, and for all of the partners who agreed to work on this, because that was one of my questions. One of my questions was that specific building when I did the ride-along with our county manager. So I've got several questions, but I love the fact that you already put in, like you already answered one of my questions, major questions was the numbers. So representing Commissioner Griffin in his absence, I wanted to know about the numbers and you've already answered that. And then my next question is going to be, how will that be incorporated, Zach, in the scorecard that we have? The other question is I understand that urban league is the, um, you called the lead operator. Yes. But who is one of my questions is who is in charge of ensuring who do, who answer, who do we question if after a year we haven't met some of the goals that you set out for in that project? Do we, you know, is that collectively, Is that the county's responsibility? Is that the Urban League? Is it all of our collective?

Well, ultimately, it is the Urban League that has the direct responsibility to answer to Mecklenburg County. We'll continue to work, obviously, as a group, but ultimately it will be the Urban League so that you will have one entity that is ultimately responsible to make sure that the objectives are being met and things that we said we were going to do, we're continuing to do.

And my next question is, that was a big, beautiful... a rendition of how you would like the building to look on LaSalle. I live in District 2 in that area, so I know it doesn't look that way now. How are we going to get there, and is it the responsibility of the county? We've been told before, we have these projects and programs, and we've been told that others will fundraise for us. And then we get to one, two, three, four years down the road, and then we're expected to kick in money because we didn't quite meet the goal or they didn't meet it at all or didn't even try. So how is it anticipated that we will get there?

Thank you for that. So a couple of things. I think that that is evolving, meaning we know that this first year we're trying to see sort of how things are going to shake out. Right now we're trying to figure out how do we put the collective together and make sure that we have the appropriate programming and the activity that the community is pleased with, I feel very confident that we'll have some partners that are going to come along. But we didn't want to get over our skis and get ahead of ourselves and start talking about things that we don't have solidified. But I feel confident that we can come back and present a sustainability plan for what this looks like, not just for this year, but then after we go through a year, I think that that's going to tell us a lot about what the world of possibilities are from a sustainability and financial perspective of what needs to be done. But that's going to happen also in collaboration with the county.

And something else. I have one more question. I'm hoping that when we go to do the work for the building, that we will use local contractors and that we will use our students and that we'll use those programs that are already at those schools and actually give them the opportunity to work on the project that they will be benefiting from.

We think one of the most important aspects of the building is, again, making it clear that this is the community's building. And so there will be, you know, we're going to make sure that from a trades perspective that we have people that are on site. But when we initially talked about this building, we think of it as a piece of public art. And so how do we make sure that the building itself also looks like a piece of public art? And so we want even on the outside, on the inside, that this is something that everyone, people that wanted to touch it and be a part of it have had that opportunity. So we definitely are keen on making sure that from an MWBE perspective, perhaps trades, but not so that just residents in general being able to perhaps even earn a trade during that time period and be able to put that trade into place.

I'm thinking urban spark, the artwork should come from. Commissioner Meyer.

Thank you. I'm going to take a page out of Commissioner Durrell's book and say this is a slam dunk and a home run and a green slam. Seriously, I think this is wonderful. The vision is just incredible. It's above and beyond. I think the The five partners are amazing and the choices are just incredible. So thank you to the whole team who chose the partners and thank you to the partners for agreeing to do this because this is huge. So thank you all and I think, I don't, I might have missed it but I don't think we have a timeline, right? We don't, there's nothing, I don't know if I missed it.

No, I would say the closest thing we have to the timeline is let me go back to slide. Where we're, again, we're hoping once we get the go would be the slide where it starts to where the corridor sees urban spark at work. And it will begin talking about, you know, we anticipate. 19. Oh, I see. Yeah. Okay. So just kind of an idea of like where we'll begin to start having period of time where the building hopefully will have gone through whatever it needs to go through. And again, it's in great shape. Right. But to be able to put some. Some programming going on.

In terms of budgeting, the building is ours, so the renovation will be ours. Correct. In terms of financial. That's correct. And then the programming will also be part us, part them?

Part us. There will be a contractual agreement.

Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing and what you're going to do. It's going to make a huge difference. Thank you. We're excited. Thank you.

Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, okay. She just stole everything I was going to say. Um, I just am so appreciative of the partners. I have huge confidence that these are excellent, excellent partners. And Robin, I know with you, you know, kind of bringing it together. Um, it's I, that just notches up the confidence. Um, I just wanted to say thank you to Zach and Dr. Cove. think this is a huge jump from where we were before you know you know you brought us through the the different you know for you know forms that it kind of came through and now this is a huge jump and and so is it was worth waiting for so I think it's I'm real excited to see you know how this goes and so I just wanted to thank all of the partners and And I think that this is really an exciting project. So thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Dunlap.

Thank you. Robin, I look forward to your vision coming to fruition. I look forward to all the amazing things that you're going to do in the community. However, I can't overlook the fact that when the county first announced this initiative, there was some blowback in the community because people felt like there should be a restaurant or some other economic something going on in that community. Tell me what you plan to do in terms of community engagement so that people understand exactly what you're doing and how they can benefit from it.

Thank you for asking that question. I grazed over it, but we have a young lady here with us this evening. Sharika Comfort, if you're not familiar with the name, again, educated hoodlums, is helping us with community engagement because we wanted someone who understood the dynamics and all of the various different groups that need to be at the table. We just don't know everyone who needs to be at the table. because we're not working necessarily in community intimately all the time. So we want to make sure that we're bringing them to the table, we're informing them once you all say this is a go, we're having an opportunity to inform them about this is what the anticipated, this is what the thought is, because we need their feedback. We tell people we answer our RFP, but the community usually winds up telling us what it is that they want and need, and let them define what community engagement is. That community advisory group is absolutely pivotal. So we'll need to make sure that we are bringing them to the table and that they are defining what success is. And so, you know, we'll engage them through various different pop-ups, you know, a lot of coffee, a lot of sitting out on the front bench, might be some walking around the community itself. But keep in mind, we're also, this is intended to be a safe and predictable place, meaning there will be someone there uh physically so you know the during the school year the hours might be from one to nine right but in the summertime they might be nine to nine but there will be a body there there would possibly be multiple bodies there depending on what's going on so it's not like folks can't go in there and get answers or even if they have a question we at least know that there's a question that we can respond to but we want this to be a very open place for people to enjoy themselves and be able to feel connected to it so um you know again this is not a um a destination in terms of what you've seen in this presentation. I will tell you it could very come back and change depending on what the community tells us. but they are a huge part of this. So we're going to be asking our project lead to help us make sure we're navigating the community and making sure we're understanding who I can't, you know, say how important, you know, a commissioner leak is going to be and making sure that, you know, we've got the right people at the, at the table, we're having the right conversations and making sure that they feel comfortable with what's happening in their community. And again, making sure that they know that this building is their building.

Thank you. Commissioner leak.

Thank you. Last but not least to say thank you for your time your energy and the five brains that you want to put together to make this happen to a given group of individuals. I think about the planning of Philip O'Berry High School when I served on the school board that school was built to do just what you're saying right now to service different areas of concentration for young people to come out with jobs when they would leave Phillip O'Berry. We also planned to do something with the school off of South Boulevard. And that school was supposed to have been preparing young people for life through the service of being in the army. and the parents said, you're gonna give our kids guns, you're gonna put them on the street, did not understand the focus of what it would do. Number one, it would provide attendance. Number two, it would provide uniforms. Number three, it would provide discipline that our young people need then and need today. So as I hear what you're saying to us and showing to us, this is excellent. But I'm hoping that it's not just gonna be for LaSalle Street and the families in that community. And I look at all the pictures, it says West Charlotte. And I know what you mean. You're talking about the community. Am I right? Yes, ma'am.

We are. Right now, the first year, I'll be very candid, the first year, because we're trying to make sure that we get this right. That first year, we want to focus in on the students that are adjacent to that 28216. And so that way we can at least understand what the volumes right, what the questions are, how we're evolving. So we are very, we're focused in on the proximity to 28216 students that are graduating.

What would that do to the attendance at West Charlotte and its programs?

Well, we're not going to be operating this during the same time periods, if you will, during the day. So we would expect that students are still doing that. One thing that we have done as well, commissioners, we have done also a, we've mapped community, we call it a community asset map. We've looked at what's happening, for example, at the rec center, what's happening at the YMCA, what's happening at West Charlotte and Northwest. We will be working in collaboration, not in competition. And so again, they'll be part of that community advisory group as well. So we don't want to duplicate anything that's happening and we want to make sure that we're continuing to get input from them about what their needs are also from the community, so.

We certainly need that thrust in that area. Yes. That's when I think of Kathy Simmons Street. Yes. Right across the street from a West Charlotte, right across the street from the bus stop we're trying to close down. We will find some means by which to make life better for the people of Mecklenburg County that find themselves caught up in drugs. Four corridors have it. So if you are successful with your program, which I believe you will be, and if you're not successful, it's because of the community not supporting you. So we must give you the kind of support that you need and the thrust to for parents to be involved also. And make sure that we try to get young men in the program, not just young women. Just making sure that we bring our boys into the program so that they can be good fathers and good leaders in this community. So thank you, Mr. Chairperson for affording me to say this, but I think back at Phillip O'Berry, when we were planning that school, to be that process when I sat on the school board, but it never happened. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation to our staff. This is what we wanted. It's plain and simple. This is exactly what we wanted to see. We received feedback. When I say we, I'm also speaking on behalf of the community that gave feedback as well. about what could be done. We can't do everything, but we can do something. This should not be the last. This should be the first or the start or the spark. I really appreciate the fact that most people know and sometimes they take it the wrong way, but I'm not a big fan of programs. I don't think programs have really produced outcomes we have expected. I understand that they have their use and certainly great people are operating them. But what I like about this, what Mark Jarrell likes about this and what I think my colleagues like about this is that this is about empowering the community and providing a level of economic stability Not a handout, but a hand up. And so when you take somebody from $34,000 or $40,000 a year to $67,000 or $74,000 a year, that is a game changer. You're talking about one income. That's a game changer. You're almost doubling someone's income. You're doubling their quality of life. You are doubling opportunities. And so community, I want you to know that today we are doubling down on you. I appreciate the specific outcomes. We know exactly what the goals are for year one. There's no ambiguity to it. There's no hocus pocus to it. When you come back next year, we'll say, hey, you said 148 FAFSA, and we'll see where that number is. We said that we were going to have X number gainfully employed. We'll see where that number is. And so hopefully this will be a duplicatable model.

Absolutely.

That can be leveraged and utilized across the county and other communities as we look at other assets that we have from a county perspective. So I want to thank all of the operators, all of the partners. I mean, Robin, certainly Urban League, you know, being tip of the spear and all of our other partners for your intellectual and social capital. I'm glad you lifted up Sharika because she is a proven commodity in the community as somebody who is a younger person than us. But certainly in this space of community engagement and being able to provide a level of credibility and I trust that she will give us the feedback that we need, that we all need and we all want. So thank you for what you're doing and how you've been leaning in as well. So with that, again, just, we seem to be on the right track without question, Mr. Manager, and this was another home run for us and couldn't help it. Sorry. And we'll take it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board for your comments. I'd like to thank our partners as well. I'm so excited about this new partnership and I want to be clear and they understand this and they Embrace this. This will be a performance-based type of agreement. They shared with you their numbers, so I have no concerns about that. But with respect to that, it will be performance-based. And those outcomes will be part of our scorecard that will roll up in the workforce development part of their scorecard. And also, I have commitments already from successful leaders in this community, from the private sector, the faith community, as well as in the community in general that have committed to serving in an advisory role. I'm not prepared to release their names publicly tonight, but I do have those commitments and I think that is going to serve us very well as we continue to stand up this important initiative and even think about scaling it in other areas as well. So thanks again, guys. Look forward to working with you all. And Mr. Chair, that concludes my report.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Thank you all again. We're going to move to the next item on the agenda, which is County Commissioner reports and requests. We have got to designate a voting delegate and an alternate First, now we gotta do it twice, but the first is we have to do it for NACO. So we need to appoint the county's voting delegate, one member to serve as its alternate for the- 2026. 2026 National Association of the Counties Annual Conference to be held July 17th to 20th in Orleans Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. Commissioner Dunlap.

First, I'd like to know who will be there through at least one o'clock on Monday. The 20.

So commissioner Rodriguez McDowell will be there and oh, like, yeah, all of us.

Well, all three of us.

Well, no, not through.

Yeah. We're probably leaving at one plates at four or something sad. I mean, okay. If we're there to it's okay.

Um, yeah.

We want people to forget and leave early.

All right. Let me get, let me go to, so we know those two, let me get a question from a commissioner league.

I just want to nominate the three of you to serve. and the capacity representing Mecklenburg County when you go and you serve as chairperson of that committee. Well, we've got two, we've got, and one of them can serve as alternate. Listen to this.

I got an email saying, uh, from NACO saying that your proxy with me.

Well, yes, ma'am. So we're going to move to the next one.

I got an email saying that my proxy or our proxy was Lee Altman. So I thought it was already determined.

I don't even know if she's going there. Yeah, I think that didn't. Yeah, I think you're right. They just kept the same information in there. I think that was last year.

Commissioner Leak, you could include me in, too. I was the voting person last year.

She was at some point. Was she the alternate, though? Either way, we need to get somebody for this year.

Sean, I said you're leaving on Sunday.

Yeah, I am, but she didn't know that. Nobody knew that, that I was leaving on Sunday.

All right, so here's the thing. We have, well, I don't want to recognize that motion right now, Commissioner Lee, because I want us to just nail this out real quick. We also have Christine, our clerk, that will be there as well. So she can be an alternate as well. When do you leave?

I don't leave.

Yeah, she's gonna be there through the whole, through Monday. And had I known that there was nominations. Yeah, but I don't, I might, I want to be held down to that because I might be, I might want to get to the airport. That's all I'm saying. I'm not gonna miss a flight. If all else fails, I'll do it. Right. So I want to say, so we've got, you can't do it. Yeah, no, you can't do it. So we know we have, we have three, we have three different. So why don't we just say y'all to that?

Yeah. Cause if I can leave by one 30 or two, I'm fine.

It'll be over by then.

Okay. You think it will be?

Trust me, it will be.

So says the president. I will be there either way. All right, so all right now, Commissioner Lee, do you want to make a motion?

I so move that the chairperson of Mecklenburg County's delegation be that of our present chair and our alternates will be the two young ladies sitting to my left.

No, we're going to have one alternate and one designated nominee.

All right, whatever you say. Who is the alternate?

I'll entertain a motion for Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell to be our delegate and then Commissioner Meyer to be the alternate.

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor?

Well, hold on, hold on. If Christine can vote, She's eligible. Can she vote?

She can. She is a member of NICL. I would recommend that Christine is our delegate, and then one of us can be the alternate, because we have a plane to catch. So just in case, just something happens, she'll be here. Be there.

I thought y'all wanted to stay there, so I was coming up with a good idea. All right, so I'll entertain a motion for Christine to be the... Delegate and Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell be the alternate.

So moved. Second.

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

Aye.

Ayes have it. Next. So that was for NACO. Now we have to do the same thing for NCACC. which that's going to be held in Durham August 20th through the 22nd. Who all is going to be at the NCACC? I'm a volunteer. You want to be the voting delegate? Yes. All right.

So the voting takes place on what day?

Excuse me. What day does the voting take place? Does anybody know?

I said I'd be there.

Okay.

We got you. Who else wants to be? Do we have an alternate?

Does that know when the date is?

The 20th through the 22nd, but the voting, do we know?

The voting, what date? Oh, no, I don't know.

All right, but Commissioner Leak will be there as the delegate. And then, Susan, you said you wanted to be the alternate?

Sure.

Okay, fantastic. Can I get a motion to?

Second.

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

Aye.

Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Everyone for offering yourself up. Is there a motion? We're going to move to consent. Is there a motion to approve the consent items? So moved.

Second.

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

Aye. Question, question. Where are the consent items? Because I checked them off today and we're trying to get rid of the consent items and we're not going to do it long as I sit on this board. I have constituents that completely ask about the information of contractors And persons who will be doing what? Grants will be coming. Why is it we don't want it? George Dunlap was the one talking about we didn't need it some years ago. I haven't said a word, Commissioner Lee. Not now you haven't, but you did before.

As far as the consents are concerned. That goes to the clerk's office. It goes to the clerk. What's the cutoff for consents, Madam Clerk? Monday at 10 a.m. Monday at 10 a.m. And they were in.

Excuse me? They have not been going out for the last four meetings.

We send them with our email on Friday with the final agenda.

Well, I'm going to still fight for them because my constituents want them.

So all of that, we'll work with board support to make sure that they're working with Congress.

And I want the general public to hear this. Information, information is important. So you're not going to deny me that right to share that.

So commissioner, nobody wants to deny anybody the right to pull any of the consents. We'll work with board support to make sure that you have that. And they just have to be in at, by the cutoff so that we're consistent.

I'm just not going to take it.

All right.

Well, there's, there's no attempt, not for you to have, it has been, there's no attempt for you not to have been all right.

Um, all those, we need to do something.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And post. All right. That's unanimous, Madam Clerk. Let's go to Commissioner Reports. Does anybody want to start with you, Commissioner Leak?

I just want to make sure those of you who go to the convention that you intermingle with other people, talk to other people, and that whoever's elected president does not take with them issues that they don't like people so they won't put them in positions. And that's been a process of leadership in this organization at some point. So I will certainly share that with the convention in New Orleans.

Commissioner Meyer.

I'm not fighting anybody who's running. I'm not doing that, I'm just saying be fair.

Commissioner Meyer, you have nothing. Commissioner Rodriguez-McCowell. No report. Commissioner Townsend, anyone? No report. Commissioner Dunlap.

Move adjourned.

Second. Second. Move second. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you.