Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the um Middle Sex County Board of Supervisors meeting December 2nd at 3:00 to order. And with that, uh Mr. Williams, would you lead us in a prayer, please?

Let us pray. Gracious Father, we come once again the father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Father, once again, you have led us to this place safely. Father, we like to thank you for the things that you do and the things that you're going to do. Father, come in our hearts that once again that we can do the things this is pleasing to you and pleasing to others, Father. that in some way we can show your goodness and your kindness and your love in Jesus name we all pray. Amen. Amen. Miss Hammond, would you lead us in a prayer please? Excuse me. Pledge

algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Miss Hammond, roll call, please.

Mr. Williams, present. Mr. Bill Harris, here. Mr. Kittinden here. Mr. Jesse here. Mr. Don Harris

here. Wonderful. Thank you. All right. like to welcome the public and everybody that's here today. Also, um we have a pretty full agenda, so we will take ample time to review and discuss everything we need to review and discuss. Uh but I'm going to keep everybody on task because we do have u a close session that's going to require uh some discussion as well. All righty. All right, meeting agenda is uh posted and ready to go. Um we would need a uh uh motion to approve the consent agenda.

So moved. So moved by Mr. [clears throat] Jesse. Thank you, sir. Second. Second by Mr. Kittin. Any further discussion or are there any additions or or uh changes to the minutes? Seeing none, hearing none. Um roll call on the motion to accept the um consent agenda, please. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Kittinden, yes. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Don Harris.

Yes. Motion to approve the consent agenda is approved. Uh I'll now open the uh floor for any public comments. Anybody wishing to speak? Do you have anybody on a list? I have not received any um submissions for public comment.

Thank you. Anybody want to speak that's not already on the agenda? Seeing none, hearing none, I will close the public comment section. Constitutional officers, item number three on your agenda, uh, treasur report only, pages 50 or excuse me, 55 and through 59. Any questions by anybody on that? Seeing none, hearing none. Uh, item B, commissioner of revenue report only. Any questions on that? No. Seeing none, would you like to speak?

I mean, you don't have to. If you if you like, I could give her a little bit delay while she's getting to the podium if she wants to come. She literally broke her leg getting the tax bills out. [laughter]

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, May. Bills are out. Bills are due on the 5th, so we're in the thick of that. And if anybody has any questions, I'm here. Any concerns on your part? No. No. Everyone's doing their due diligence and we're getting the taxpayers taken care of. So, wonderful. Thank you for being here. You know, kicking kicking trash cans and chairs ain't a good thing to do. No, it doesn't do it. [laughter] Thank you. Uhhuh.

Thank you, Miss Digs. Okay, moving right along. Item number four, agency and staff reports. Uh, VDOT. Uh, we now have not only the report, but we have Mr. Mcnite that, uh, is gracing us with their presence. [laughter] Yes, sir.

Uh, I'm here to give a a quick update and um just some some items that I did want to brief the board on really quickly. Uh, we are getting into snow season as everyone's aware. We're ready to go. We actually had a little bit of a of a Yeah. Yeah. We're Yeah, we're on the same page with that one. So, hopefully we don't need to to respond, but we are ready if needed. Um, so we have our contractors lined up and we're ready to go. Um, I did want to mention a couple projects that are coming up in the near future. the bridge project at of the Dragon Run bridge replacement on 17 at the county line that is set to begin in early of 2026 and they're anticipating the completion of that project by December of 2027. Um that's the construct the ADT of that road if you're wondering is about 12,000 vehicles per day. Um and they are increasing the width of that bridge from 23 feet approximately to about 40 feet and they are raising the bridge to um match the current grade of the other bridge um about 10 ft. Um there were eight bridge impacts in the last three years on the original bridge. Uh so this will be a much needed improvement of that of that crossing there. Um another item that

Wait a minute. Uh oh. Yes sir. Brief question. Sure. Does that entail any closing of the road while that construction is going on? The northbound road uh lanes will be closed. Traffic will be switched onto the southb they'll be concurrent on the southbound side of the uh of the bridge. So you will you will have one lane traffic through that section while the construction of the northbound bridge is under and is that um managed by a um [snorts] stop and go light or is that going to be individuals taking care of that?

No, it'll be channelized. So you'll have free flow southbound one lane over the new bridge and free flow northbound on the same bridge but in the other lane. Got um so that there will not be any impacts to no signals or any temporary signals. It'll just be one lane as opposed to two uh which you're normally accustomed to on 17 in that location.

Continue, sir. Um there were some questions about the signal and the flashing yellow light at Harmony Grove intersection. I did want to address that. Um they did do another analysis and have removed the flashing yellow uh from the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 700 p.m. based on the data. So it is a protected left turn going towards the Norris Bridge now uh from those hours. So that that signal has been adjusted and modified. We're going to keep an eye on that and if further adjustments or modifications need to happen, those will will happen quickly. But I I really appreciate your attention that I think y'all got on that right away. Thank you very much. Yes, sir.

And how about the stop light at uh St. Clair Walker Middle School? Has that been looked at or is that on the same delayed signal as the one at Harmony Grove in terms of the flashing yellow? Yes. Uh, I'm not sure. I'll have to double check that. I know we could look into that and maybe have that on a concurrent type schedule, right? I know we've had issues in [clears throat] the past where it being read too long. I I think Mr. Walker has asked me to look at that signal, but I'll I'll dig into that one. Yeah, just put it on your checklist to check it out for us if you would please. Sure.

Something uh flashing yellow from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. in the morning or 6:00 a.m. might be something to look at. I know there've been a couple accidents there, people running that light and hitting people. Uh, continue on, Mr. Mcnite.

The only other item I I did want to address, and I'm sure there's going to be some questions. Um, there was I've received a couple questions about the uh roundabout, proposed roundabout on Route Three at Stampers Bay Road. Um just a a quick synopsis that was applied for by the county in 2022 through the smart scale program. Uh it has an estimate of about 6.95 million. Uh PE has begun on that project. The design public hearing is to be scheduled. We're not quite there yet. They have to have some design before they can schedule that that public hearing, but that will be coming shortly. So,

and where will that public hearing take place? in here. It will. That's a good question. We'll we'll work with the county administrator to determine the best possible. Typically, we try to find a location close to the site that can house that amount of people. Um I don't know of anywhere off the top maybe the firehouse at Hartfield or Yeah. can't be anything. Yeah. that that has not been determined yet, but it will likely be we'll try to keep it as close to the to the location as possible. Do you have an estimated time frame of when that may occur? The the public hearing? Yes.

I I do not know off the It really depends on the design. Uh it should be in the next year though, okay, next few months here. I take it that's going y'all have to acquire some property probably. That's going to be a pretty good size roundabout in it for there from again it's in design. So, it really depends on the where they put it and um obviously anytime you're doing projects like this, you're trying to limit that impact as much as possible. Um but that will be part, you know, they'll probably present a couple different options and um based on the public feedback in the county and and we and us, we can decide which one's the best option for that location.

Continue, sir. That's really all I had, Mr. Harris. Unless you have some more questions for me. No, sir. Um, thank you very much for being here today. It it just clears up things when you're here. I know sometimes we don't necessarily need you, but we always glad to see you. Always happy to come. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Item 4B, school matters. It looks like there's two budget supplements. Uh I'd ask the school representatives to be here. Dr. SC. Yes, sir.

So, I will give you an overview of the first one. You'll find that on pages 63 and 64. And so, these are items that are have been additionally appropriated either through federal funds or state funds, um grant funds. The first two are some leftover funding that came in for title two and title three. And then the next two, the CTE grant and um state payment piece. It's the actual number that we just received from the state for CTE funding. The next two are grants. One of them is the school security grant. We apply for that each year. And then the last one is a supplemental. I teach is a program that we use that's been approved by the department of ed to quicken teacher lensure for those who already have a bachelor's degree and there was some grant funding that we were able to use for some of our teachers to to use that program. So that's the first budget supplement. You know, I'm going to ask a question,

of course. Um, just explain the uh school security grant uh in that amount. Uh, what particularly is in that?

Sure. So, there's a little bit of it that's left over from 24. Am I right about that, Karen? And then there's a we apply every year. Um, we typically don't get everything that we apply for because we apply for the MAX. What we'll be using it for this year or our access control phones at the high school and the elementary school. Stocking additional door lock hardware because all of our doors in all of our schools interior and exterior have the the fob locks that can be disabled and enabled immediately by us and additional cameras at all three schools. Okay. Additional from what we already have. Yes. As a need.

Correct. Yes. Mhm. Okay. Wonderful. That wasn't too bad. [snorts] Uh a motion would be in order to approve um FY2026-06. So move. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir. Second. and second by Mr. Bill Harris. Any further questions or discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Krennen, yes. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Don Harris, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Continue on. Dr. Sykes.

All right. And then you have on pages 65 and 66. We are making some adjustments to our FY26 budget and that is based on what we are projecting as our current student enrollment which is a little bit different than what we based our budget on so that we don't have any surprises in the year. And so all of these revenue items that you see here listed on the front page are adjustments to um state funded line items that are driven by our average daily membership.

Wonderful. I only have one question. The um uh under the category um fund 4-071 DW purchase services. What is that all about? Yes. So that's on the expense side. And what we're doing is that because we are projecting that our state funding will be reduced based on our enrollment, we've made adjustments there and moved um we have a couple of instructional positions that we have not hired this year. moving over to that category in order to fund what we see as some of the reductions we will receive from the state. Wonderful. Any further questions to Dr. Site?

Yeah, it's on I was going to ask a question about the same thing. It seemed to purchase services was a huge ticket item and what we just approved at 90,000 and now this one here is um purchase services at 161,000. It just it just seems like a which one's the 90,000? Um but it's expensive. Um the one we're getting ready to look at approving now. So, yep. Couple of different categories. So, on the first one that has to do with the um

moving over to cover the local match for the security grant. And so, what we've done here is it's it's moving money that was in the category of a couple of teaching positions that we have not been able to hire for this year. recognizing that our state funding is going to be less than what we projected our budget to be less than what we projected the state funding to be. So, it's just a movement in in that area. I think it's just probably just my ignorance. It just it just seems like we're moving around a quart million dollars and we're just saying purchase services. It just seems kind of like a broad um description of moving that kind of money. That's all it's coming from. It's an instruction. It's an instructional line item.

Thank you. I just got one question. When you say you you [clears throat] didn't have two teachers positions y'all full and that's the money y'all moved around. Yes, we are receiving less state money than we projected also. So just moving it into the correct category will we will be using it. And how much of the money is state funed? Is it 100%. This money here that on this p it's all state money. Yes. Okay. Mhm.

Uh I have one other question. Uh because it seems to move around a little bit. Um when is the state going to confirm what their budget's going to be or not be? Or is that still like it's been in the past? We're not quite sure until we're sure. For the current fiscal year they've made that decision. Are you talking about for 26 27?

Yes. So the budget or the governor will release his budget. I'm here in the 17th. Karen said it has to be released by the 20th. What I've been told on the superintendent side is on December 17th the governor would release his bianual budget. Recognizing of course general assembly will have budget proposals and then at that point a new governor will be in place. This is the long session and so it doesn't end until I think March 14th. I guess we could be hopeful that when it ends, given there's lots of new people in place, that we would have a budget, but I think we'll just have to wait and see, unfortunately. Okay. Miss Murray, you have anything you'd like to add to any of the conversation?

No, sir. Thank you both ladies. Um so um we would need a motion to approve FY2026-07. So moved. So moved by Mr. Krennon. Thank you, sir. And I need a second. I'll second it. Okay. Um thank you, Mr. Jesse. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Kittinden, yes. Mr. Don Harris,

yes. Motion's approved. Thank you ladies for being here today. Thank you. Um, oh, not yet. Never mind. I was going to introduce our guest, but not yet. Don't get ahead. Sorry. [laughter] All right. Um, social services reports on page um 67 6768.

You guys can read that at your leisure if you haven't already. Um, okay. We're going to move right along to item D. Um, Mr. Cardi. Well, actually, at this point, excuse me, at this point, we were going to ask I'm right here, right, that we were going to ask if we could move the audit presentation and acceptance from Robinson Farmer and Cox by um our auditor Jay to see if he could be moved up to this point since he is a visitor from out of town.

Okay. Um is everybody uh okay with making that move? Thank you. All right. At this point, I'd like to introduce Jay. He is our auditor from um Robinson Farmer and Cox. Good afternoon. I appreciate that as the weather is getting a little bad today. Um I am Jay. I'm the partner in charge of the county's audit. Um you should have the audit report with you and hopefully you have my notes as well. I go a little bit quickly. Um so I like to have the board have my notes. Um and you can stop and ask me any questions at any time. I guess we will get the notes now.

Okay. I'm sorry. At any point when I go through my presentation, you can stop and ask a question or you can wait till the end and ask a question then or if you would like afterwards u uh members of the county have my email address. You can shoot me an email or give me a call at any time. I'm going to start on uh page one of the audit report. We are giving the county what's called an unmmonified opinion. That's the best opinion we can give on these financial statements is stating that these financial statements are materially correct uh and they can be relied upon. I do want to talk about in a little bit about a restatement that's in that uh financial statement or in the audit report the opinion excuse me regarding what's called Gazsby 101. Um there's been some changes by uh governing standards about how leave liability is supposed to be calculated and I'll talk about that in a little bit. Next page is page 12, exhibit one. This is the financial statements for the county on a a full acral basis. I usually tell boards and and citizens not to look too much into these uh exhibits one and two simply for the fact that the state makes adjustments for VRS and OPED um that that really the boards have no control over the county has no control over. However, uh you do have to show these reports and again exhibit one which is the uh balance sheet on that full acral basis. Um again it shows the adjustments made by the state but it does show net position or really what you would call it equity in a business for uh government activities to be about 26 million which is an increase of almost three million for the year. The next page page 14 is exhibit two. This is again is that income statement on a full approval basis again with with those adjustments made by the state and

does show a gain of about $3 million for the year. Page 15, which is exhibit three, and this is where we kind of get more into things that the board and the county has control over. This is the balance sheet. Um, and this is on on this modified acroll basis without those adjustments made by the state. The fund balance at the end of the year was about 20.6 million. That's compared to 19.3 million uh at the prior year. So it's an increase about 1.3 million. And your unassigned fund balance is about 20.3 million up from 18.5 million prior year. Your cash and your investments at the end of the year was about 20.1 million up about 19.5 million from the prior year. Exhibit uh page 17 which is exhibit five. This is the county's income statement on that um modified acrruel basis. And this shows that the county county's revenue was about 38.3 million which is up about 4 a.5 million from the prior year. And expenditures were about 43.5 million which is up from about 36.2 million in the prior year. I won't go into it too much uh at all really but pages 19 20 and 21 are the financial statements of the airport. I just like for the board to to see those and then I'll kind of start about talking about the notes. Page 42 uh starts our notes for the long-term debt. I think this is always good for the board and the citizens to look at about what the debt the county has and when it's due. Uh so there's about 14.4 4 million in long-term debt associated with the county and about 6.3 million of long-term debt that's associated with the school board. And pages 43 and 44 shows the timing of these debt payments through the year 2055. And page 46 shows uh the debt that's

owed by the water authority and the amounts that are due through 208. Page 93. This is where I'm going to talk real quickly about the restatement of the uh beginning balances. Again, this is a new Gazsby statement of government accounting standards board statement 101, which is talks about compensated absences. essentially where it used to be that each locality pretty much c um had the had the debt of their their liability for um compensated absences based upon whatever their their policy was. So the policy let's say you can only uh get paid out 10 days when you leave. Let's say a locality had that but another locality said you get paid out 25 days when you leave. Well, this new accounting standard just says whatever everybody has at the end of the year, that's your liability, whether they get paid out that or not. Just so that um I think people looking at bonds can be able to compare Middle Sex County in Virginia to Middle Sex County in in New Jersey, you know, just just so that everybody's on the same page now. So by stating that um the the beginning net position uh was restated for uh the government activities of about 440,000 and for the school board about almost 2 million just because how how the school board does leave compared to the county. Uh exhibit 32 this is page 116. I just like showing the board again uh I'm not presenting to the school board but this is the school board's balance sheet. And the next page, page uh 33 or exhibit 33 is the school board's income statement. I usually like to tell the board what their contribution was from the county. And um for this fiscal year was uh 12.1 million, pretty much the same from the prior year. Page 128, this starts schedule one. I think these are the most important schedules. Schedules one and two, not only for the board, but for the

citizens. This is your income and your expenses compared to your budget. So, I'd like to say how well you did. And if you go to page 130, it's kind of the bottom line of the county's budget compared to their what they actually received for revenue. You had budgeted for 30 almost 35 million and you received about 38.3 million. And then uh starting on page 134, this is the schedule two, the budget of your actual expenses compar your actual expenses compared to your budget. If you go to page 137 at the bottom, kind of talks about how well the county did. Uh and the county had budgeted for 43.4 million. Um and you spent pretty much almost right on. Um I think those numbers in my notes are a little bit off but actually when I was writing the the notes I was very impressed. Uh usually most localities um do not get that close that you all did especially on your expenditure. So [clears throat] that was a very good job by the by the board.

Well I'm sorry Jay. Can you say that again? [laughter] One thing you you'll look at real quickly and it kind of it jumps out at you on that page 137. It does show that boat ramp um expenditures was about $2 million and the budget was was about $400,000. However, um if you look at everything, the total capital budgets, you you were only over about $175,000 on on almost $9 million. So, that's that's pretty good. Let's see where I'm at. Um yes, sir. Page page 130. 13.

I mean, yeah, 130. When you say the county revenues, budget revenues was 34 million and the county received 38 million. Are we talking about exact figures that the money that we budgeted versus the money that we received is $4 million difference? That would be correct. But that would be on what's the interpretation of I'm seeing a lot of a lot of numbers here that looks real good, but is none of them being interpreted. You know, you get so much money in, you spend so much, you got some leftover. And the way you got this report, I think I told you last time, you need a scientist got to figure out exactly what you're talking about.

Well, let's let's on on page 130. The final budget was was just under 35 million. And we're looking at the total general fund. Oh, I'm sorry. Let's go down to total primary governor. Excuse me. Still 35 million, which is right near the bottom, right before it starts about the the school board. Uh, and you all received 38.3 million. So you had 3.3 million received over your budget. Now a lot of that is you can see right there that line right above it is that grant from the port authority. That's a lot of it. Um but still still more [clears throat] a lot of the money is grant money that you you moving over to make the numbers look good. You're saying no no this was grant money grant money.

Okay. We have separated them right. Good grant and actual you know actual revenue you know is good to know actual what we taking up. So, so actually what we're spending because you know from uh from the way I'm looking at it, you know, you talking about got the tax guy come up here in a few minutes and we talking about increasing taxes or decreasing all that stuff and we doing it by word. I don't think none of us know exactly what's going on. So, I I just like for a little bit more clarity.

Sure. So, if you like to go over to page 128, that very top line talks about um your general property taxes. you had budgeted 22 22.2 million, you received 22.6 million. If you go down a little bit further down, there's these other local taxes. These are things like sales tax, um business license tax, those kind of things. You budgeted [clears throat] uh 40 4,45,000 and you received 4,121. So those taxes are pretty much straight in line with what your budget. you did receive a little bit more um on your total property uh your general property tax in FY25 than you budgeted for, but most of that was in that um the the real and uh personal property the public service corporation taxes. If you can see there, that's 772,000 more than you budgeted for. But the other line items, uh, the property taxes, you were about 231,000 under what you budgeted for, as well as the personal property taxes was about 200,000 under what you budgeted for. So that's your tax side. You know, the this whole um this whole schedule includes federal money, state money, other grants, um, service money that you may receive. So the number that I was talking about when we showed on 130 shows all these other um, numbers in that come in into play. And like I said, if you looked at at that page on 130, your biggest adjustment was that Port Authority grant, which wasn't budgeted for, and you received about 2 million for. So outside of that, you're pretty much right in line with your budget for the revenue. Does that answer your question? Does it help? Maybe

sort of. It helped a little bit, but Okay. I just like keep I just like keep stuff simplified and say you understand something you really don't. And I, you know, I understand numbers pretty good, you know. So when I say simplified, I'm let you know very clearly. I'm not doing this thing for me cuz I feel a whole lot of us don't understand that saying it's okay. And and yes, I I'm looking at a whole lot more now. So uh I I wish this report wasn't 200 pages and was 100.

But uh yeah, the last thing before I take any more questions, um usually I come up here and I I give what what's called the SIFA report. this the um the schedule of federal awards. However, um there's a thing called the compliance report. The CL the compliance report wasn't released when it's usually released in June. It wasn't released and then we had the shutdown. Um it finally was released last week. Um but not in time for me to include that into the report. I will say that the report we are we don't have any findings for the federal programs that we audited. I'll just let you know that. But it it cannot be released with this report because um what that OMB compliance report didn't come out in time for me to to include this in here. So we will issue it at a later date. It's not a requirement for me to come to the board and to uh provide that report. It's just this this audit report is the only one that's that's required.

And we'll make sure the board gets that memo. Yes. I will say be uh before any other questions I I'm the auditor and the partner in charge of about uh 11 localities throughout the state and usually um Middle Sex is is near the middle of that when it comes to financial health. I will say I've written all 11 reports this year and I will say Middle Sex is near the top now. Um I think there has been a lot of improvement financially at at this county uh in the last I've been doing this audit off and on for the last eight years. Um, and I've been the partner in charge for the last three years, and this is the best that I've seen the county's done. Any questions? Questions?

Yes, sir. I got to go. Well, what I have to say is, uh, I guess Middle Sex County in pretty good shape, right, financially? Yes, I would say. So, and again, uh, I spent the last three weeks writing reports and you guys are looking a lot better than some of the other reports I've been writing. Well, thank you on that. just tap on the question that Jesse said and you said Milick's in pretty good shape financially. Yes, sir. So, you're saying if that we want something, we just go out and buy it. I'm sorry. Say that again. [laughter] I interpret that to mean that the financial staff, including the chief executive officer, need a double raise. [laughter]

No, what what I'm saying is real, not going off. I'm saying if we're in financially good shape, if we want something, then we go and buy it. I would say other words, if we need $70 million for for a school, then it shouldn't be a whole lot of, you know, headache. We just should go ahead and do it. We have to increase taxes by 25%. I don't throwing that question. You don't need to answer that because it's going to be off. You have satisfy me on that answer. Say I will say that um other localities that have audit are in much more debt burden than this locality. Yeah, that's fair. Oh, that's fair. [clears throat] Wonderful. Got increase. Thanks for that. Uh, I might just make a couple comments. [clears throat]

Of course, it keeps you off the hot seat, although the county, according to you, is in pretty good financial position. We've we've looked at that very hard and what we need to do and how that affects taxes. And um but I would like to get this report earlier if I could uh in the future. Which report are we discussing? I'm talking about both of them. I other than seeing this today, that's the first time I've seen it.

I will say um I would like I would love to have the report to you in October. Uh it's just logistically it it I'll try to get to we're we're here on uh October. What? I'm sorry. December 5th. We're usually here in mid January. So, we've gotten it a lot a lot quicker. Um, my notes I can try to get it to you much quicker. It just makes it easier for us to most of us on this board is a numbers board and we look pretty close at uh and we listen to what you say about the financial strength of the county, but we look at those numbers pretty closely.

Yes, we did and we did email it to the board. So, we did email it to the board as soon as you gave it to us. We made sure that you had a electronic copy and then then you had it printed and as soon as we had it printed was yesterday or you mailed it to us and we had it delivered to you. So we do try to get it to you electronically as soon as we can but we agree um there was uh there was also I believe a twoe delay. They were hoping to wait for that. Yes. I think it was the Thursday before Thanksgiving. As soon as we get that it goes straight to y'all. Right. Right. But then the CIFA report was the other problem. Yeah. We did hold off for a little bit waiting for um the end of of the government shutdown to see if we could get that report into into this report.

Yeah, I I would just say that uh I I'll agree with the chairman uh in that there's an awful lot here to digest. So perhaps what what would probably be better is if if we scheduled you to come later so we'd have a little bit more time to go through it. So the the only difficulty is technically by law I'm supposed to deliver it to you before January technically. Um so and this was your December board meeting. That's and that's so that we can have it submitted to the Yes. So to the state by by then and I have to submit it to the state by December 15th. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Well, thank you. I think that would be helpful. And and and along that note, um forgot what I was going to say about that is that the report itself won't change obviously, but I think that what you're looking for is more time to discuss and get your information out. Now, if that's the case, we could certainly have him come back after this is presented formally and you could go over it further. I would certainly or you could certainly come see me and and and him in my office or or or again we can have a phone call conversation at any time.

Yeah. So I think that that might be because again knowing that we've got the deadline to meet and the numbers won't change. That's not what your question. I think your question is how did we get here? What are the numbers mean? And those are real valid questions that you did a great job already explaining but I get it that you'd want further deets details. And I will say from the timing you all are my first board this year. So we want to stay that way [laughter] actually. Um thank you sir. And uh and we were gently criticizing uh about getting the materials quicker. I understand is all but uh thank you for what you do and and and yeah I will say you're not the first board that asked for it a lot quicker. So

Oh wow. Okay. We just we just want to be the top of the list of whoever you're dealing with. We we we are the top of list. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I'd like to say a couple things. I I've talked to Paul Lee uh over things going a little bit before and uh you we have been very successful over the last decade and I think it's been large part due to some of the guidance we received from Paul and Jay and others with Robinson Harbor Cox. They've always been quick to return calls. I mean, many times I'll call them and they're calling me back before I can hang up leaving the message because I leave long messages anyway. But I want to thank you all for your help. Thank you.

Yes. Um and it would be in order to approve um the report. Uh anything else, Ann Marie, that you need on that? Um no, I think we're just requesting at this time that the Is it just an acceptance of the It's an acceptance of the audit. Yes. Uh, a motion would be in order for that. Also move that motion. Thank you, Mr. Jesse. Second. Second by Mr. Kittin. Any further questions? And thank you for saying and you elaborating on it if we need a phone call to you or we we want you to come back and explain something that needs further explanation. You're available to do that at any time.

No problem at all. Wonderful. Any further questions? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Kittinden, yes. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Don Harris, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you, Jay, for being here today. Thank you again. [clears throat] Okay. Um, everybody's favorite airport updates. Yes,

probably not. So, Chip is a much more photographer than I am. So, good afternoon board members. So, the first item agenda is uh Dominion power uh right away. Bottom line is we've got the the conduits buried under the under there and Dominion will not schedule the installation of electricity to the new terminal building until we give them a right away to put the power lines in the conduit that's already buried. So, we're asking the board to authorize Matt to or

the chairman to sign the rightway to allow Dominion Power to at least schedule it because we're not going to get electricity unless we do, right? Is that it? That's it. Okay. Well, your your pictures look pretty good. You going to discuss that any? We are. If you uh but I think we need a motion to dispose of this piece first. Yes, we do. Um so we uh I need a motion to approve the rightaway agreement with Dominion Power and the airport. So move. So moved by Mr. Bill Harris. Thank you, sir.

Second. Second by Mr. Williams. Wonderful. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Don Harris? Yes. That motion is approved. Thank you. Continue, sir.

Terminal construction. So, let me preface this with saying that we had the director of the department of aviation and the chief engineer out last Tuesday to take a look at what's going on. And their first comment to me was, you know, we've got an airport in the western part of the state that's much larger than Humble Field that started six months prior to you and they're only at this stage. So, as you can see, this is the pouring of the concrete for the for the slab. That was probably eight weeks ago. There's the red steel the steel going up. Red steel going up. That actually was five weeks ago when that when those pictures were taken. So,

all these pictures

I know. So, that's eight weeks ago. uh probably three weeks ago when Matt and uh company came out to take a look at the airport, we had walked around, took took a look took uh took a look at those. You can see the red steels up. We've got the roof is pretty much all the way up. They're still putting we're still putting flashing on at the time. The brick work around the outside is complete. The interior walls going up. Uh, I think they should have all the interior walls up by tomorrow if I if I were to sit there and and do a stretch on that. That's looking from where the terminal building where you'll see from the tie down area looking at the terminal building. I know the windows have been measured. Uh, they've been ordered. That's from the public side. The gra the gravel over there is pretty much where the parking lot's going to go. And that's the facing from the runway. Facing side from the runway. Oscar likes to call that the sun room. But the terminal build the the the attendant will be sitting on the left hand side in in that area right up in there and the uh public can have a nice view of everything else on the side over there on the front on the right hand side. What's happened since all these pictures have been taken? Uh the HVAC uh ducting has all been has been put in. The air conditioning unit is on site. Uh they're pouring the pad. When the rain stops, I think they're going to come in and pour the pad to place the HVAC unit. Uh the panels have all been put up. They're still waiting on Dominion Power or

wherever come in to land the transformer for the freephase power coming in. [clears throat] Uh the access control contractor has been in, they came in Monday and they've been wiring. And they they said they I was over there this morning. They said that they they'd be done by about 1:00 with what they could do for right now. Uh that's pretty much where we're sitting right now with the building. We should be well on our schedule for a February occupancy. And at February, we're going to have to figure out what we're going to do with the old home building. Well, now we've gotten the grant from the state for our furniture. So, they're paying $97 on a dollar for furniture. Uh I think their grant was right around $38,000. Uh the airport committee came in with a budget of $57,000. So, we're going to figure what we're going to cut on that to to make the difference up. Uh that's pretty much it. I have any questions from the board?

Questions? Anything in general in the airport that you want to know? [clears throat] I think it kind of has that wow factor y'all were looking for. Well, I mean, Oscar has shown me the pictures that he wants to put in for the finishings on the inside. He's looking at a blonde treated, you know, a bleach bleach uh oak kind of treated floor like a engineer floor. Uh putting carpet in the conference room. The conference room is is probably almost as big as what this is over here. Like what you're sitting here

be a very good meeting space. Uh we can have classes in the conference room. We can have meetings in the conference room. And I really want to encourage the public to come use that facility. Yes sir. Question. Richard, where where are we on the uh the taxi way? Is it uh that I know that we had talked about we were going to be funding part of that and

currently funded from the state is about a half taxi way. It goes about halfway down. Uh it goes just past that section of uh hangers that Oscar had built earlier that he sold off as condo hangers. So it goes just past that. But there's a taxi way just on the on the south end of south side of those hangers that go in and connect up and that'll be the end. Right now currently it's funded. Okay. So it would reach his proposed building. It would not reach his proposed building. Okay. Thank you.

I'll just comment. There's some other discussions going on about that and you guys will be uh subject to that information at a later date. And that's all I have. Okay. Well, I'll just say um it's been a pleasure for my working with you um and Matt on several things as it pertains to the airport and we're very lucky to have you there and you certainly look out for the best interests of the county and I personally appreciate that greatly. Thank you, sir. I really try.

Thank you. Okay. Item number E. Oh, we did.

Yeah, we're good with that with the rightway. Uh, Mr. Chip England, uh, county engineer, uh, RFP update. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um, in your packet there on the on page 88 is the is the board paper that gives you some background. And just to recap that briefly, I came back came to you back in the summertime and asked you to go out for an RFP for architectural and engineering professional services. We did that. We opened RFPs on September 11th. Then we had an internal staff selection committee that reviewed those RFPs and came up with a short list. Would you would you mention your committee members please?

I will. Um that was the county administrator, Matt Walker, myself, the county engineer, Dave Cretz, the planning director, Sarah Murphy from administrative assistant from administration. So we we reviewed the RFPs at that point, came up with a short list. Um, we had 12 um, submissions for that RFP, which was really good um, for a county of this size to have that many interested professional firms um, respond. Uh, we were able to to narrow that down to a top six. Um, last time I came before you with an update, um, I let you know that we were planning to go to do interviews at that top six and two of the board members were appointed to join the committee there. So, Mr. Bill Harris, Mr. Reggie Williams joined us in late October. A couple of good couple of long mornings we spent um having presentations from those firms. Um the committee at that point selected a top two and I'm bringing before you today draft contracts that are ready for signature to award um standard term contracts with two firms, Raymond Global Incorporated and DJG Incorporated. uh these contracts or these draft term contracts have been drafted and reviewed by the county attorney and they're recommended by the by the committee for for board approval. Um so these contracts do not at this time obligate the county to any spending. They do set up um an opportunity for requests for proposals under these contracts to come before you for projects and assignments down the road. So that would happen at a later date. Both of these firms, Raymond Global and DJG, bring extensive expertise and technical assistance um capabilities for the county in the needs

of architecture, uh mechanical, electrical, plumbing type work, facility safety and automation, site design and capital planning and budgeting. So they be they become a resource to us to draw upon for future task assignments. Um, we're bringing this before you today. I did maybe want to pause for a minute. I think we're going to try to ceue up a little bit of a demonstration of capabilities from one of these firms. They in their presentation, they they have some proprietary software that allows for some conceptualization. Um, and one of the one of the potential projects obviously was the RC cafeterium project. Um, this is one of the slides I'm showing before you here today. with just some conceptual rendition types of what could happen with that building to give you just a a fixed view. And then on the next slide, they had some automation capabilities here. So if we click on that and play, it kind of gives you an idea in a walkound feel for perhaps how that building could be um designed and improved in the future. So this is to give us some concepts. uh this is a demonstration of capabilities of these firms. So as we move forward perhaps with this project and are trying to decide what to do, what it might look like, what it might cost and pin that down into actual project tasking, these are some tools available through these architectural firms that we might be able to use uh to help understand uh what we might want to do with this project and then what what we can expect uh going forward. So I wanted to bring that forward. I think the committee was pretty impressed with Raymond Global who presented this. They have some proprietary software that allows us to conceptualize um going forward there. So with that, I'll I'll pause perhaps and and see if there's any questions from the board before [clears throat]

I ask you for some action. I have several. Um one the uh is their contract period uh in accepting these two firms there their annual term contracts and they're renewable for three additional terms. So we have a choice at each year to determine if we want to continue and renew great with these firms. Is there any retainer involved with these firms? There is no monetary retainer to to them at this point. I didn't see any in looking through all of that. So, no sir. Thought I'd ask it. No, the the only obligations for spending come when we

decide what project we want to do proposal scoping uh with them with with pricing. I would bring that to you at that point and ask you for your approval.

Okay. Uh I have one last question. It's not a deal breaker for me. I'm just trying to get as much information as can. Under uh item B, uh 5.25 was payments. Then uh under 5.25 was item B to subcontractors. and um it said to pay subcontractors within 7 days of the contractor's receipt of payment from the county for the proportionate share of the payment received. My question is, is that a typical uh it just looked a little short for me of payment within seven days?

And maybe you could elaborate on that. In the event, let's say it's a holiday season. Uh or the county's off, seven days ain't a whole lot of time to get that done. That's right. I'm not looking at exactly what you're looking at, but if I understand that was a requirement of them to pay their subcontractors. It was on page 11.

Uh item B um two subcontractors. So I guess my question was is that a reasonable time frame for everybody to meet on that? I understand why they want it at seven days, but to me it's probably more realistic to be, you know, a 10 or 14 day period. Again, these these are terms that were negotiated, I guess, reviewed by the the firms as well as as us. And um they had no objections to that those short time frames of the requirement to pay their subcontract. I'm not talking about So that's not for me to pay. That's not for the county to pay. That's for them to pay their subcontractors. Good.

That's the nuance. I hope that was that. That's why I asked that question. Wonderful. Good. Yeah. Right. We have 7:30. Okay. Good. Yes, sir. That that short time frame is not an obligation for us to pay them as the prime contractors, for them to pay their subcontractors. My last question is, so am I hearing what I think I'm hearing, which is everybody involved in the review process, county attorney, county administrator, um even go so far. Okay. Uh all were good with uh the recommendation to accept these two companies.

Yes sir. We came out of the the final interviews as a committee recommending to move forward with these two to award recommending award contract. That's all I needed to hear. Thank you, M. Mr. Chairman, I wasn't in attendance at the interviews because I was sick, but I think the county's got two very good choices here. Okay. Right. I was there in his place and that's why I'm like, yeah, that was me. I was Any other questions for Mr. England? What else you got, Mr. England? No, sir. We're just recommending th this for action to authorize a county administrator to proceed with executing these two contracts that were included in your packet for standard term contracts with Raymond Global Incorporated and DJG Incorporated.

A motion would be in order. So move so moved by Mr. Jesse. Second second by Mr. Bill Harris. Any further discussion? I I would I would just like to make one comment that um the pictures that he showed us here and the animation and so on and so on. Uh once you get into something and the design work kind of starts,

they're saying that they can change stuff on that animation part, call them up, give them an hour or so, couple hours notice, and they can make some change pretty quick. I mean, it was it was impressive. I'm just reading here about the about the gentleman that um I think he was pretty much in charge of that. He's licensed in 23 states and electrical and general contracting license in 23 states. Well, yeah. Yeah, I see that. Hold on one sec. Hold on, Emry. I'm seizing control for something. I got a question. Sorry, I was going to stop.

Yeah, I'll pause. Okay, then. So, Bill, what you're saying is the gentleman that does the animation could have uh Karen Reed leading that march right there. Could we make Karen the girl in the blue there? I think he's very capable of showing us a lot of different stuff. [laughter] Yeah, Mr. Chair, I I just want to say thank you, too. It was a real team effort. You know, several professional staff and board members were involved. uh spent quite a bit of time in pulling this together, but it was my job to kind of coordinate that, but obviously um a lot of good effort was put in from a team to bring this before you. Okay, we need roll call on the motion, please.

Mr. Kittenden, yes. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Don Harris,

yes. Motion's approved. Um, I'd go remiss if I didn't also say it's kind of nice from my standpoint when you got the quality of people that we have throughout our organization and and you're on that top list as well. So, thank you very much for all the work that you did uh and and keeping us uh on track with what we and particularly the questions we don't know to ask that you can ask. So, thank you very much for all your work. We're very valued to have you with Middle Sex County for sure. Thank you, sir. Okay, moving right along. How am I on time, Ann Marie?

Okay, planning update. Dave Cretz. Yes, sir. I'll try to be brief. Just a quick uh add-on to that. I was on that committee and that was an impressive presentation showing that uh what the possibilities for that rce building are that looked like it would be an inexpensive conversion relatively speaking the way they did it they kept most the structure so that was I know

these two gentlemen were in that meeting it was impressive both all I think all of us were impressed with that so so anyway quickly uh what I have is a update on the wake boat uh ramp Um, [clears throat] I spoke with uh William Wright this morning. He was able to open it for Thanksgiving. This is rather comical because he said I think the uh boat trailers were following the excavator down the hill [laughter] and uh he was able to open it up for the Thanksgiving holiday so somebody so they could get out and go rock fishing. But uh he's about 50% 75% finished with the project. So, he's not finished, but he was able to put a band-aid, a small band-aid on it, and get everybody out.

A couple or spoke with me yesterday, and they were very happy that the progress is being made so he could get out and start. Yeah, I think there's a lot of happy people. They were able to go out and go fishing on Thanksgiving. Thank you for everything you did on that project, too, Dave. Really do.

So, I just have one request. Uh, we had a pre-drredge meeting. And when I originally uh brought this up, I guess back in August, I guess it was that long ago, there was the possibility that somebody may uh require a uh post dredge survey. Well, the core didn't require one, but what was revealed in the the VMR the uh post the pre-drredge meeting was that VMRC wants a a post dredge survey. So, I've spoken with uh I've gotten with Bay Design Group. uh they've given me a quote of $3,500 to uh do the post dredge survey. This, to their credit, this is the same price that they did the survey for about three years ago when John kind of spearheaded it. So um so what I'm asking for is that um the you know authorization for the $3,500 to pay Bay design for the post dredge survey when it's finished. So that's that's my only ask today

and quick question and the post dredge survey is needed for it's a verification that the job was done correctly but they didn't u excavate too much too deep. Okay. Um we we had one performed with the broad creek. It's fairly standard. We were hoping we'd be able to get away with it but evidently VMRC wants one. So um it's not totally unexpected. We were hoping for better, but when it's all said and done, we basically gotten this project done for about $7,500. So, that's not bad in the dread.

Well, the time frame of how all of that transpired uh falls on your heavy shoulders for lifting and you have done an absolutely fantastic job at a reasonable amount of money of what it cost to do what we did there. Now, yeah, we may look at something later on. Uh does Mr. right or whoever have a uh opinion of how long this dredge will last for us on that? They Well, it's hard to say. We hope to get a year out of it. It's okay. That's what we don't know exactly. We'll have to just wait and see. Depends on the storm frequency that comes in, right?

I mean, today I went down there and took just looked the job over and there's high tides today and that pushes that water over that jetty. So, it's um I don't I'm not sure. I mean, obviously, it's a very popular boat ramp. So, it's I don't think it's something the board's ready to, you know, just throw in the trash at this point. So, no, absolutely. This is this is a good, you know, for now it's not a bad solution. Yeah. If you can get for this amount every year, just keep at it till we can figure it out and get a more holistic um solution.

Yeah. and they've uh I did find the u the the way I found out was in a roundabout way, but I also noticed on my voicemail that the uh DWR one of their their representative we've been talking about did leave me a message saying that some they just decided to go in a different direction. So, we'll see how they I still have not given up dragging them back into this, but we'll see how that goes. [laughter] Wonderful. Well, again, they should be I mean, they should be they should be doing it, but that's their financial decision. So, anyway,

well, again, thank you for what you've done and we certainly appreciate it. And by the way, you're in that top tier group that we can't do without, just so you know. I appreciate that. I very much do. Well, thank you, sir. Very much. Yes, sir. So, uh you'll have to repeat the amount uh for the mo for the motion. 3,500 for the post uh dredge survey. A motion would be in order to approve that. So move. Thank you, Mr. Second. Bill Harris, and thank you, Mr. Williams. For the second, uh, any further discussion, seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Jesse, I. Mr. Williams,

yes. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Kittinden, yes. Mr. Don Harris, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you again for all your work on that. Yes, sir. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir. [clears throat] Okay. Um, let me make sure I got all my lines crossed here. I think next is um Let's keep it rolling. Yes, keep it rolling. Reassessment update. Uh, Mr. Howen, that's correct. Yes, sir. Thank you for being here. [snorts]

Yes, sir. Uh, a couple things I wanted to mention before I get started. Uh, before I forget, if there are buildings like the I guess the new airport facility that are non-t taxable, but they're leased to a taxable person or entity leases more than a year, we can tax them as a lease hold. So, I wanted to mention that. Um, you guys probably already knew that, but it was on my mind. So, soon as I saw that, I wanted to bring it up. [cough] So, um, repeat that again. Appreciate your thoroughess.

Yeah. So, any any building that is county owned, um, which is obviously county is not taxable. If they lease it to a private individual or a corporation or whoever it is taxable, the lease is longer than one year, we have an obligation to send them a tax bill for a portion of the building that they're leasing. And that that [clears throat] usually happens with airport hangers. If somebody's leasing just a a you know, a spot in their hanger, you know, for their [snorts] private plane or whatever. So, um, but anyway, um, yes. So, I have a a short, uh, uh, update. I know you guys have a long agenda. I'll try to be quick and and thorough. Um, go ahead. Do you have a clipper or

No, we do. I don't Is this the clip? Mhm. I do. Okay.

Uh, so again, uh, I'm Jason Cowan. We're doing reassessment. It'll have an effective date of January 1st. Um, I've got to two professional designations, 15 years in the appraisal industry. Uh, purpose for the general reassessment is to ensure equitable distribution of a tax burden and of course comply with state reassessment laws. Um the four main things that assessors do is they discover property, they list property, they value property, and ultimately with you guys setting the tax rate, they tax property. Um here's a little diagram. It's uh important to understand this because discovery is the most expensive part of the project and the most critical part. And this is what we've we've kind of launched already where people we were in the field. Now I think we've been in the field uh about three weeks, two two three weeks. We've done two or three maps that the countyy's divided up into tax maps, little grids. We assign out u one or two at a time. Uh so we're out there uh going around taking pictures, measuring, confirming buildings are still there. Sometimes we're finding that they've been torn down or caught a fire or whatever. Um, but that's discovery. Uh, and that's that's actually two-part. It's us going into the field and then also the day-to-day activities um in the record room where the clerks in the commissioner's office who are looking at the deeds and the surveys and the wills get recorded every day. That's all gone into maintaining the property records for the county so that we can use it and also we can pass it forward in time to the next group of people. And then once we've collected all this information and measurements and things like that, we put it into a computer system uh what's called listing it just keeping it organized so that we can use it and then ultimately value the properties where we'll build like a financial model based upon the information that we discovered

in the field and through the record rooms we put into the computer and then ultimately value. So um I have a quick question. Yes sir. So you said January. Is that the target date for completing the discovery part of what we're talking about? No, we we'll probably we'll probably next like late spring, early summer, we'll have gone to all the properties and then we'll have two or three months of just [clears throat] data entry and then by next January we hope to have the entire project completed. It has an effective date of January. Not not this coming January. January a year. Excuse me. I misspoke. January 2027. Yes, sir. Correct.

Yeah. So, we won't make any potent potential changes to the tax rate until then. Yeah. Till till the spring of 2027 is when you'll have to make a decision. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Continue.

Um, yeah, I think we covered this slide mostly. is discovering um listing property um valuing the property. Um again, we develop a methodology where the goal is that we're hoping to approximate market value. We're supposed to get, you know, get close to as many groups in as property as we can, what they actually would sell for. We do this by by groups of property and we use groups of sales to value groups of property. And of course our goal is to meet the state standards and guidelines. Um so sorry buzzing. Um I have a little bit of a market update. I pulled um sales recently. Um

um Go ahead. I'm I'm reading things that um the housing market is not selling quite as quickly as they as they were. Yes. Um that kind of puts you looking at a moving target in a way. How [clears throat] do you address that?

Um sure. So um I study the trend a lot and I actually had a diagram. It's not in this presentation. We we had like a Zoom call. Um, and I monitor that like throughout the project all the way through. And that's actually um very important that you bring it up because our date is January 1st, 2027. That's the effective date. So even though we may finish up for all intents purposes in the fall of 2026, we still have to keep an eye on on the general trend and kind of project out to that date. Um, so often times the the law says that we should have it at 100% of fair market value, but if we notice like in the fall that things are trending down, we can leave it at say 97%. In anticipation of the market going down a couple percent. If that makes sense. So the report that we're that we are due January 1st, 2027, you can ingest it maybe up 30 days before the you would present the report

at any point before I send the notices. Yes. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yeah. And we have a couple of updates back before the board before January 1, 2027. So we'll we'll have routine updates along the way.

That's correct. Yeah. Uh so anyways, what I saw in the market, it's actually still very healthy. It's actually uh you're exactly right in this slide at the top. It says the median days on market. Uh it was I compared two two time frames. The quarter immediately preceding your last reassessment and then the last 90 days. So it was back before the last reassessment 25 days. That's what it t it took from the property going on the market to be coming under contract. Now it's taking about 49 days. So it is taking longer, but it's still like 60 days is usually where it starts to tip from from sellers market to buyers market. So it's right there and it's actually my interpretation of it is it's going back to normal. uh kind of the pre- pandemic levels, you know, that when the pandemic came out, for whatever reason, housing was really really tight. As soon as a property was listed, you had multiple offers competing and all that. So, we're just kind of going back to normal. Um but yeah, I I will know, you know, far in advance if it's really starting to go down. Uh we still are another important metric is um the the price to original list price the sales price what they actually got versus what they asked for in the market. That's still between 97 and 100. So anything above 95 is considered good. You know if it starts to get like below like you know 92 93 it's indicative of a buyer market where they have more of an upper hand. But we're not there yet. So um so again that's the mostly the residential market, retail, hospitality, special use properties. They've more or less cover recovered from their the sluggishness that they experienced during COVID. You know, retail was down, office buildings were down, and people weren't going into the office. They've kind of made most of

a comeback from that. the industrial market kind of remained strong throughout that whole thing because people were were still relying upon warehouses to distribute things and stuff like that. They they never really experienced a downturn and the office market is still still slow but there's not a lot of office space in this county. Um so it's not a not a huge concern. Um so to give you an update and we're really comparing things from the last reassessment to kind of the last 90 days or so. We'll consider three different metrics. The local MLS which is the primary u data source. Secondary would be the um federal housing finance agency and that agency oversees the um the mortgage industry in the country. So they oversee Fanny May and Freddy Mack. So they have really good data and they produce something called the um housing price index. It's like the consumer price index where they track the change of price over time like for like milk and eggs and groceries but they produce index just for housing. Um and the third thing we'll look at is the Virginia Department of Taxation data. So here in this slide we have the um the median home price and average home price uh in the fourth quarter of 2021. That's the the quarter was immediately preceding your last reassessment. It was they're highlighted in yellow. The median was 364,000 while the average was 387 um,000. And you compare that to um third quarter of 2025 um it's gone up the median up to 425 and 562. uh when you do that math it uh the I guess the average increase 45 the median

increase 17%. Um the conclusion is basically that it's still a strong healthy residential market and you know if things start to slip and go toward more towards the buyer side I'll know well in advance. Could you explain that first slide here? The average sale prices increased by approximately 25% while the median sale prices increase by 17.

Yes. So the um that interpretation would be there are some super high value like probably waterfront properties that go two $3 million that kind of drag up the average. So the best metric would be the median to compare the median to median because it's less infected by like outliers. That's the average sale price of high-end properties. Then the average sale price of high-end properties. Then what do we the 45%? Well, no, it's just it's just comparing the overall overall residential sales including both, you know, non- high-end and high. Okay. And then you come down to where the mediumric homes are 17%. Not including every Okay, got it.

That that's just the increase there. So, um, and that's that that shows you'll see the value of looking at multiple data points, uh, as we as we go through. Um, again, the the Federal Housing Finance Agency, they produce this information. They don't have county specific data. They have like federal data, state level, and they do zip code z uh, zip code groupings. So all the zip codes that begin with a certain three-digit number um which will include you know middle sex and then also maybe some of the other parts of surrounding counties as well. Uh but it's the most localized data that's available. Um again it's the consumer it's like the consumer uh housing excuse me consumer price index but it's for houses. It first started in 1995 with a baseline of 100 and um it shows that now that houses are at all-time high never been higher which shouldn't surprise us. Um we looked at there's two zip code groups in Middle Sex. One's begin with 230 and also 231. So, um, and here's the the summary data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that shows that in the fourth quarter of 2021, again, right before the last reassessment, the uh the index was at 272, it's now at 362. So, you've seen a continual um increase ever since that time. And if you were to roll back this this index, it would have been increasing since around 2012 or so. Uh it did go down actually 2008 9 and 11 and then since it's come back up. Um and then this is again for the other

part of the county that begins in 231. It had a similar uh increase uh from 260 to 347. So in this case it was a 33% increase. So we're seeing the MLS data showing between 17 and 45. We're seeing this federal data around 30 you know 30% increase. Um and then the next thing we'll look at is the state ratio study. And what they do is the state department of taxation they do an annual uh sort of report where they compare the sales and the current assessments and they do that little ratio where they divide the current assessment and the current sale price. They do it for every county every year. Um and the most recently published one that I was able to get my hands on was from 2024. So again, this is a little bit older. Uh and as we saw in the last slide, the market's still gone up. So they were saying that um the county overall is about 73%. Uh where it should be around 100. So that means 27% increase would be needed. So again, we're seeing between 17 and 45 around 33 and this 27. Again, it's it's a little older information. And this slide you just showed is Middle Sex.

Just Middle Sex. That's correct. Correct. Okay. Continue. [clears throat] And Jason, real quick before you move on. A property property class code 4. Okay. I think I know. But which one is that? That is commercial property. Okay. We're that far off on that particular, but commercial's a little tricky sometimes. Yeah, it's um this one shows 50%. But it's only one observation, right? Yeah. So, it's kind of it could be an extreme. All right.

Um so, again, just kind of recapping what we've already we said around 30% is reasonable. 30 to 35% would be a reasonable kind of expectation of growth in the tax base. Um so, again, summary, 30% overall, 8% a year. Um, and this is kind of the next the next little part of what I'm going to say is important. Um, actual assessment increases will vary a lot from this 30% kind of overall because they're targeted by class of property, whether it's residential or commercial zoning, whether it's waterfront, nonwaterfront, the age of the house, the size of the house, the condition of the house, all those things will make a difference. So, some may actually decrease if there's been a fire or some other issue. Some have been completely renovated. They may go up, you know, 100% or more. Um, but the point of it is that we'll look at it and we'll group things the way that we they should be grouped according to the standards. Um, so, uh, I did my own internal study where I went through the local MLS. I found about 1,200 sales. My conclusion was that we're about 64% uh assessment level which kind of lines up with what the state showed and what we were talking about before. So it would be about a 35% increase if we were to go all the way to 100%. And again, that was sales all within the Middle Sex, all from the local MLS system um realtor use.

And that comparison, um correct me if I'm wrong, but we're currently in um uh year 2025. By 2027, there could be a significant amount of ups and downs during that particular time frame. Correct.

Absolutely. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yeah. So we'll we'll do this was what I'm reporting basically is what's called a going in ratio study kind of this is how I found the county when I first started the project and throughout the project I'll do at least three maybe four more studies where I'll do guiding studies where this is where I've adjusted things to the current market and then I'll do another one where I'm really tightening in on the model and then I'll do two or three right before the noses go out. Um so this will be you know like I said one of many that I'll do. Um so uh we'll consider the sales by different groups or categories. Um and the overall um purpose and the the virtue in doing it is to make sure that any way that you slice it nobody's getting a raw deal. Um, so anyway that makes sense for us to slice and dice the analysis all of the assessment levels when you compare it on like the result as far as like its value as compared to sales, they shouldn't vary by more than 5% when we're finished. So in other words, the people down in Urbana versus Deltavville versus up in Jamaica, no one's like assessed at 90% and then 100%. Does that make sense? We want all every way that you would think about it, we want it to all equal very close to the overall level of the county. That's our goal. Um so, um I did like again I ran the numbers myself. I pulled the information from the local MLS. Um I grouped the sales by decade. So this is like groups of homes. And this table here is homes that were built in like 1910, 1920, 1930, and so on. And as you go up and

down the scale, um there was no systematic bias. They were all assessed pretty similar to the overall. Again, the overall down there in the grand total was 64%. And so, for example, the houses that were built in the 1980s, there was 152 of them and they were assessed at only at 63%. Right? So, there's no bias. That's the good news. I didn't when I looked at this, I didn't see any bias anywhere in the county, which is good. So when I'm finished the project, the goal is there won't be any bias either. Um, so this is just showing that the sales by the the age of home. And again, it'd be inappropriate if say the super old houses were assessed at 80% and the new ones were at 100%. You know, somebody would be getting a raw deal.

Yep. So just real quick, so the top line there, it says 190. That should be 11,900. And then 1910, 1920, 19. I skip I skipped a zero. Yes, you're correct. I just want to make sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Um in Excel there was a function where you can take off the last um the last number and I did that because I didn't want there to be if I did every single year, there wouldn't be enough sales in each year to make a meaningful result. So I had to group them all into a decade. Uh but good catch. Good catch. Um, so each house is in the county is given like a score on a on a quality rating. It's kind of like a report card when you're in school. A is like pretty high, way above average. B is a little above average. C's average. D and E are below average. And M is like mansion. U. So each one is given a quality rating. It's based upon a bunch of different factors like uh whether there's windows on the side of the house. Believe it or not, sometimes there's not windows on the side. It's only the front and the back. How deep the house is. If the roof line is cut up, mostly if the house is just keeping the outside out and the inside in, then it's on the lower end of the scale. But if there's some architectural design features that are kind of built in for aesthetics, it's on the upper end of the scale. U but each house is given a rating. Um and again here the existing data, it all lined up perfectly pretty much. There were um the only outliers were ones where there were low sale counts. So all the A houses, they were at 68%, the B's were at 66, but it was pretty close to the overall level. Um [clears throat] this is kind of the first metric we look at for location. All the zip codes in the county, they are all very close to the overall. So no problems with the distribution of the assessment level across the county. nobody and down in one zip code was was getting a raw deal. Um, again, waterfront nonwaterfronts the next

variable we'll look at. Um, they were pretty much within 1% of each other. So, that was good news. I was a little bit surprised by this. Usually, one or two is skewed a little bit different, but I was happy when I saw this. Um, so then we saw we we group the houses by size. And again, the whole the whole virtue of this is to make sure that the small houses are not over underassessed when it comes to comparing it to the big houses. And again, um it was pretty there was a little bit of skew here for houses that were really really small at 58, which is that's seven points off when it should be five, but everything else was all within a couple percentage points up and down the scale, which is good. Um so a little bit of a summary. Reassessments are the required to be done by state law every four to six years. The last little reassessment uh took place with an effective date of 112022. I think it's reasonable to for us to expect somewhere between 25 and 35% increase overall in the county's, you know, uh tax base. We will continue to monitor the sales throughout the project and of course we're going to further analysis.

Questions for Mr. Cohen. I'd like to say it been very well done and explained to us. I never had it explained like that before. And uh also would like to say I saw the piece where you got the the the cheese and slice. And what I would like to say, if there's some cheese somewhere around, you know, there's a mouse somewhere around. That's right. [laughter] Yeah, that's right. That's all I have to say. Mr. Chairman,

if I may, uh, we were passing notes here. Um, this is exactly what we heard about Mr. Cohen and his firm. Um, he really breaks down the presentation. It's facts and it's math. It's we try to remove the emotion from it and we bring the statistics and the facts in and and that's really what you want. You you want an assessment based on facts because when Heather's got to go to court and defend it, we want facts, not emotions, right, to back our our uh case up with. So, um we were told that during the RFP process, Mr. cow comes in and does a very good presentation and breaks things down so the board understands it and the public understands it. I'm very excited to see the results when it when it comes in and and his next update. So, just wanted to say that. So,

thank you. Yeah. And and I wanted to say also before I go, um [clears throat] I got my application in to be one of those guys that are the top tier. I know it's something I know it's something I have to earn, but uh I got my application report.

I I do have one thing I'd like to say to you. Thank you again for what you're doing. And I've heard nothing but good. Uh and the people that I ask those questions, believe me, they tell me what they think is not good, and I've not heard anything that's not good. So, thank you for that. I would like you, and I don't want to answer tonight, but I'd like you to think about it. uh and with uh the county administrator and with Miss Diggs as well is to what the impact would be to a county if we went to something other than a five-year um reassessment. Uh I'd be curious to know your opinion of the size of this county. Is that something um that would be fruitful for us to look at? Uh, and I I guess I asked that question more than anything else is since it's a five-year period, and six would be even more than that. Um, you know, you get a lot of people, you know, complaining about my taxes. I don't need my taxes to go up. And we're sensitive to that certainly, but it'd be curious to know um if if that could be reduced that tension from a five-year period of time, which basically people have been paying taxes for four years with no uh ability for the county to raise the tax because we're on a five-year plan. Is that something based on the size of this county that would be more digestible um on a less time frame or and I you know I don't want you to tell me what I want to hear. I want you to tell me what you really think. Yes, sir.

Uh what's good, what's bad, what we may consider. That's something we wouldn't even entertain until some sometime after 27. Sure. When when the when it when it's due. So does that make sense? the question I'm asking you. Yes, sir. It does. And actually, I don't I don't need any time. I can I can give you the information now. Um, so, uh, the general Well, in the 70s, I believe the early 70s was the first time that a county chose to do a reassessment more frequently. Yes.

And it was in Auburn Marl. And they went to the court system to see if it was legit because they didn't send people to the field. Remember when I said that slide, the most expensive part of the whole process is people going around measuring and taking pictures and stuff. Well, they didn't do that model. They just did what was kind like a desk review, an administrative review. Yes. Where they adjusted the values without going to the field. And obviously the point of that is that you can do exactly without much expense. Right. Right. So that's perfectly legal. It's done routinely. Uh, one of the counties that I'm actually discussing with doing this now is Fluana County. Yeah.

Similar. They're south of Charlottesville. Similar profile as far as like population and parcel count and stuff like that. And I'm going to be if I'm successful, if I'm entirely successful, I will have a contract with them at onethird of the cost per parcel of what I'm charging you. Right. So the answer to your question is you have to like you know it is it is a small investment which is like a little bit over $100,000. Um but it would make sense just from the sense of like you don't see this wild swing. Correct.

It'll be you know every if you do it if you choose to do it every two years is what I would recommend. It would be somewhere seven 8% every two years something like that. And then um counties that do this, they never have to push the envelope. So you can look at the counties um who do this frequently and their results because they they're audited every year by the state. So it's pretty pretty public information and I'm not saying anything inappropriate, but you can look at the results and they're always in the low 90s. They're like, you know, 90 92%. they never have to go all the way to 100% because they know they're going to do it in a couple years anyway, right? Versus versus pushing the envelope because, you know, it's going to be five or six years. Does that make sense?

So they they never have to, you know, step on the gas. They can kind of ease their way to where they need to be. So yeah, so that in summary, it can be very cost-effective. I would advise it. That's what the the textbooks say. Do it more frequently because it's less of a burden for people. Just a big surprise shock or whatever, you know. Yeah. Well, everybody seems to forget that their taxes have been maintained at the same rate. Yep.

You know, now if you have a big up and down swing of values going up and values going down, I can understand that you might want to rethink that. But, uh, it it's somewhat of a hard sale from for the county. standpoint of well you know you didn't you haven't paid any increased taxes in five years now you're paying the bill that's due right so

we would want to explore all those options and what might might make sense uh might be not be a yearly desk view but it might be something different as a two-year or threeyear period um to consider and look at uh that as Well, I think two years is the sweet spot because um one of the counties that I'm servicing is called Prince George and they're they're borderline urban. They're kind of on the edge of Petersburg and and um so they have a good portion they're about half rural and half suburban. So they actually chose to go from annual to every two years. Okay.

Where whereas the last 15 years they've been on annual and they thought, well, okay, this is too much. So I think two years is the most that makes sense because there's a there's a law that says that once every six years we have to put our we have to go boots on the ground. So you can get on a schedule. You can have like a little plan. Okay. Where where this year we did boots on the ground then we can go two-year desk review, two-year desk review, and then the following year the um the boots on the ground. I I got a question here. did earlier you said [clears throat] something that you look for a 25 to 35% increase somewhere in there. Yes sir.

And uh I know during the interview you said something also about that if you do similar to what you talk about now you're kind of doing a reassessment in a different way than waiting five years. I forgot you remember what he said review. Yeah. A desk review. That's correct.

Now now my thing is this. I'm not looking at the percentages. I'm looking at dollars and cents. If somebody look at the tax bill, it's $1,000 or whether it's 1,100 or whatever it is. It's a reason that taxes increase and decrease. I mean, we understand the value now. You supposed to be getting it right. If if our tax assessment be right, then how come we just don't do the percentages? Um,

and the second thing, you don't you don't have to answer that because I know we got to look at it, but and and that because like I audited here here today, you know, and asking the revenue coming in and it's not a mystery world if the five for us is going to have to increase or decrease taxes and it's not a joke because I think most people only look at the bill,

right? So we get a percentage now 61%. And we paying a,000 600 $610. So we get the other bill at a, you know, 30% increase is going to be $780. Then you get on a fixed income, you know. So what I'm saying is probably a little different. I know we got to have assessments and stuff like that, but I feel that we are driven by bills. Then we do our assessment regardless of how accurate it is. we either going to raise it or we going to decrease it based on bills and and uh I'm kind of like looking for this assessment to to get out because I like some of the things that you were saying and to get it right. It's going to be it's going to be interesting to me when you know we say right when I think I mentioned it to you that I said we see people now paying values that are out of sight. I mean, you look up at Sentinel, that's our local paper, you know. We look at and wonder where they buying it, where they buying this piece of property from. Now, we going to look at it by all these values that we going to put in. And we going to make it right within a 25 to a 30% increase. That part get very interesting. When you do Harmony the Village, I like to Harmony Village, I like to know how it's moving. I I just be honest. when you get to Harmony Village. And you also said it about I think something I wrote down here, but a tax area. What did you mean by tax area?

Tax area. Yeah, I think I wrote something down here. What a a tax map. Maybe a tax map. That's what it was. Okay. And you said we had three different tax maps. [clears throat]

Oh, yeah. at the very beginning. So the the county uh if you were to look at the whole county on a map uh for just simply locationational purposes in times past somebody laid out a grid and they broke it up into different grids. So it'd be like tax map one, two, three, four, five, six. So all that means it's it's it doesn't the values and the taxes are not done that way. It's not like if you're in tax map three, you pay more or less. That's just how we assign our work. So I say, "Okay, you know, uh, Megan, I want you to go do tax math one, and then you know, my son Ashton, you go do M seven or whatever." So, uh, that's all it is. It's just for for, uh, for locationational [clears throat] purposes. That's all.

Oh, that's pretty good. But, you know, the first person did them tax and I, you know, I won't it'd be pretty interesting on why they did them like that, you know. Oh, yeah. Because, you know, honesty is something that don't come by too often no more. No, it doesn't. I I have one thing I'll let you go and you may not know the answer to it, but the people that you um are dealing with that have a two-year assessment, do they also have a two-year budget? No, not necessarily. It's all annual. Some of them are on the fiscal year. Um but no, they I don't think anybody that I'm aware of adopt a two-year budget. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, you all have a good evening. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you being here and your insights. Yes sir.

Okay. Uh everybody good? Okay. Uh resolution. Uh item five, regular agenda items. Resolution R205-012, acceptance of surplus property. Uh Heather, are you discussing that? Yes, sir.

Okay. Um Matt or Amory are always welcome to to jump in as well if they have anything to add. Um so as the board will recall it is had discussions with the school board about uh the property behind the rce building down at Cooks Corner and the school board's not using the property and they actually surplused it about a year ago but um but we needed to do resolutions and a couple other things the paperwork I like to say. So that's been prepared and the the school board has properly adopted a resolution naming the property as surplus and conveying it to the board which is pursuant to code. So that's what's before you today is a resolution and the deed for you to accept this property um this surplus property from the school board. The code requires you to authorize me to accept it and so that's why it's written the way it is. You have a copy of the school board's resolution. You also have a copy of the deed that I prepared. Um, and I will sign it presuming that the majority board authorizes me to do so. And I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

So, all you need is approval for resolution R25-012. Is that correct? Yes, sir. That's what I'm looking for. All right. So, move. So, moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir. Second. Second by Mr. Kittin. Any further discussion? Wonderful. Roll call. Is that you, Ann Marie? It is. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Don Harris? Yes. Our uh resolution R2025-02 or 012 uh has been approved.

All right. Thank you very much. So, I will execute that. get the deed reported and uh you guys will be the owner of that surplus property. Okay. Is that all you have, Miss Lewis? That is for that item. Yes, sir. Okay. Item B, uh budget supplement request. Uh and I guess Amarie, you're going to talk about that.

Sorry about that. I was We can get you some additional training. Go ahead. Thank you. of this particular board meeting. You approve it very short time. However,

correct? At this time, I'm just asking that you approve the paper, which is this request form. uh budget subsequent requests FY2026-00005 which was the handheld cameras um that that um we've already approved. So a motion would be order to get our paperwork in order. Um Mr. Jesse so moved. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you sir. Second second by Mr. Bill Harris. Uh, not seeing where there's necessary for any further discussion. Roll call, please. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse?

Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Thank you. Yes. Motion is approved. Okay, moving right along. Um, the next You've already done the audit. That was moved. Yep. I've got one more budget adjustment. Surplus items. Nope. I got one more budget adjustment. Um,

okay. So on page uh D 273 of your documents, as you know, every year we receive four for life funds that get distributed to the volunteer rescue squad. Um the the funds come from a $4 charge on vehicle registrations and from there it's distributed in part to the state and part to the county. Um we are required to share it with a non with a volunteer rescue squad on training or necessary supplies. Um, my history went back and I could find it going on since at least 2000. So, you've been approving this. You, the board, have been approving this for 20 some odd years. And at this time, all I'm asking is that we appropriate the 14,09616 for for life funds to the volunteer rescue squad. Um, the last grant was used for iPads, pediatric bags, and medical equipment. And I think that's that's all I had on that

motion, please. So moved. So moved by Mr. Krin. Thank you, sir. Second. Second by Mr. Bill Harris. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Kittinden? Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. Mr. Bill Harris? Yes. Mr. Don Harris? Yes. Motion is approved. Okay. What else you got? Miss just one more, I think. Micardi.

2026-006. Okay. The next item that I have Correct. We are now up to, as you know, we have been trying to clean out the Quanet Hut area, the building adjacent to social adjacent to the social services department. Um, when we went through there last time, we brought forth to you a bunch of junk tables and some filing cabinets, and I told you we would come back with more. What our staff does is when they have a moment, they go through the building and they take pictures and they say, "Can we get rid of They go to the sheriff's office. They go to my They go to um our co-workers and they go to Dwayne um our uh facilities, our building and facilities uh assistant manager. So, these are the items that we found this time that would go ahead to be that were asking to be surplused. There were five filing cabinets, one over desk hutch, one electric moped scooter, one small bicycle, and one tire. Um you can see this is I'm trying to show you the pictures. You can see the by the pictures on the screen. It's a lot of junk. Um, if we don't get sales on these filing cabinets, we can certainly take them over to the metal recycling. Those are easy. Um, [snorts] and the other stuff, if we don't get bids on them, the tire, we won't even bother. But the rest of them, if we

I think we ought to keep that tire. We may need that. See, that's exactly That's why we've had it for four years. [laughter] Wait a minute. Um, we're talking about item 5e, surplus items. Yes, sir. Anything else you have on that? Nope. At this time, I just request that you declare them surplus and authorized staff to dispose of them. I'd be curious um before we make the motion. Uh how did we have a motorcycle in the whole deal? Interestingly, from what I was

me say it's electric, you got a gas tank on [laughter] the battery. Ah, what I found from this was that at one time, do you remember there used to be like a water storage tank at the new at the polar center. So, in that back room, these were just stuffed in the back room. So, when we developed the polar center, they got pulled out of there and stuffed over here. So, we really don't have a history, but that puts it back. They were back in that room that had the water tank when I got here 5 years ago. So, we're not quite sure where it came from. It was in some sort of storage somewhere.

Okay. All right. Wonderful. So, a motion would be in order for Miss Anne Marie to surplus the items and dispose of them as she sees fit. So, move. So, moved by Mr. Bill Harris. Thank you, sir. Seconded. Second by Mr. Wayne Jess. Seeing no further discussion, roll call, please. Mr. Jesse, yes. Mr. Williams, yes. Mr. Bill Harris, yes. Mr. Kitten, yes. Mr. Don Harris, yes. Motion is approved. Okay. I think Amarie, we got you on. Oh, you do. Yes, sir. For item F, citizens appointment. Actually, the only I have none.

Um, we have none at this time for your approval. We do have two upcoming term expirations and we sent out a reappointment letter to both uh Mr. McKinnon and Miss Holmes. Okay. So, no, I don't have any more action for you. Okay. So, we can move along. That's it. Correct. On to the next. Let's see where we are.

Administrative update. Cigarette taxes on page 277. And if there's no questions, I'm going to move to uh staff reports. Their reports only. That's in your booklet. Um, item C, adopt the 27 budget calendar. Matt Walker, you want to Yep. Mr. Chairman, we got you a draft uh budget calendar back in October, my memory serves.

Was there any changes to that?

No, we we went ahead and removed all the Friday meetings and shifted over to a Thursday meeting setup. it. This budget calendar basically maintains the expedited nature that we've adopted last couple budget years and adjusted it to meet the board's uh desires and it is kind of the culmination of a lot of amendments during last uh budget process where we kind of fine-tune it to meet the members needs. Uh if the board is inclined, I would recommend we approve the draft budget calendar as submitted. It aligns with the schools very well. Uh not to beat a a horse too much, it it you know, our meeting with the schools are on the same time where we meet with them. Uh I think it's February the 10th. It is February the 10th to get their um budget request and it it just gets us right in line with what I hope to be a fairly smooth expedited process for us. Um, real quickly though, I was able to attend, as usual, Jim Reinbald's presentation at the uh, Veco conference this year. Uh, it was very informative. It always is. He's got his facts and data. Um, it's it's it's curious because I don't think there's any concern that there's going to be quite a bit of budgetary trouble from the state. In fact, it's going to be the opposite. They're going to be probably arguing how to spend their surpluses that they're going to receive. And um I don't know if experience has told me anything. You can see people argue about how to cut spending, but oh boy, wait till they get to spend it and see the arguments that arise out of that. So, I'm going to be very cautious with uh expecting anything from the state. Even though this is kind of a lame duck session, so to speak, and we got a new governor coming in, uh they're going to be arguing over how to

spend surpluses. And um having said that, looking at ourselves, we are in this calendar on pace to be able to be largely complete with the budget by the end of March, which was a goal of ours. And um I'd recommend approval. That's all, Mr. Chairman. Uh and just as a comment uh the approval of this budget um you know we work from it as a working document but if something comes up for the school system for us for whoever that we need to amend that uh uh budget uh we can do that. Yeah, the the meetings that largely just involore involve the board and us as administrative staff, they're easily amendable. We just need to let the the media know and post it accordingly to meet the foyer requirements, whatnot. Um it's the meetings that involve others that are harder to adjust, especially the school board. Uh, one of the biggest meetings that's very hard to adjust is the January 8th meeting because we have so many other entities to involve and try to make sure they're present. And one of the things I would ask the board to look over one last time is that January 8th meeting to make sure that we've got everyone listed that y'all want to hear from because we are we are working on a few projects and we have partnerships with these projects um and these entities. So, I I think we've done a pretty good job of capturing all of them. And that is going to be the next meeting right around the corner cuz it's not too far away.

One month and so many days. Yeah. Go ahead, please. Um on um we have a we have listed Tuesday, April 1st as a regular board meeting. Is that a miss? I think it should be April 7th. I think uh the first is on Wednesday. Is that mood for any holiday for any purpose? Amory, but if a typo, it looks like a typo, Matt. It says because April 1st is Tuesday. April 2nd would not be Thursday. I'm pulling up a calendar. That could be a typo. It should be April 7th. April 7th.

All right, with that change, anything else that jumps out to anybody? Thanks, Randy. You still want to be there? Yeah. Yeah, that's your deliber deliberation period. That's got a a oneweek separation from the public hearing on the 26th. Wait a minute. [clears throat] Yeah. Okay. So, that seventh meeting would would fall after the second meeting after April 2nd. So March, not before but after. So I believe the way the calendar met pull it up. I was going to say can we

trying to grab it? Okay, we got So and it goes Thursday, March 26. Yep. April 7th, 2026. Correct. No, it goes April 2nd6. That has two meetings. as a meeting on April 2nd and as a meeting uh we changed from listed April 1 to April 7th. Yeah, this meeting here on April 1, just disregard that your regular meeting schedule. Thank you. Okay, that is on April the Hold on. April 7th. Yes, I lost it. Hold on. Right there. Yeah, that's April 7th. Okay, but your adoption meeting,

the deliberation and adoption is April 2nd. Okay. That's one week away from your public hearing on the 26th. Yes. Yes. Unless there's a compelling So the the typo is April 1st. That should be April 7th. We can fix that. And that has no effect on the budget process. That's what I Thank you, Bill. Okay. So, a motion would be in order to confirm the uh budget calendar with the changes uh with the changes uh instead of April one to April 7th for the regular board meeting. Correct. So, move one. So, moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you. Second. Second by Mr. Kitten. Thank you.

Seeing no other comments, discussion, roll call, please. Mr. Williams. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kitten. Yes. Mr. Jesse. Yes. Mr. Don Harris. Yes. And are we waiting on Mr. Williams or can we just Okay. Okay. Um motion's approved for the budget calendar and administration. Will staff be sending out calendar invites for those, please? Okay. And those calendar invites will be longer than 10 minutes. They'll be actual hours, please. Right.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Item number seven, county attorney update. Anything, Mr. Not not outside of my staff report. No, sir. Okay. Unfinished and new business. Item eight, unfinished business. Anybody? [snorts] Okay. New business. Okay, I'm moving right along. Uh item nine, matters presented by the board. I'll start with our senior member and you have something.

All right. Yeah, I did attend the 95th uh conference of Veco F and uh yeah, I did attend one of the seminars that I did attend was uh economic development benefits of future energy, you know, with uh data centers and all like that. Chesterfield right now is working on a fision fusion which is nuclear and uh you know uh it but it takes time with all the regulations and things to do like that

it takes about 7 to five year five to seven years to get it going. Uh but they're going to be the first and and Chesterfield will be one of the first in the east east coast they're going to be having a fusion uh which is and I asked them about it's nuclear but uh the nuclear part of it is just like if you get enough of that MRI they say and and it's like molecular but but meantime they were saying that really you're going to have to use either natural gas with generators you know natural gas generators if you going if you need to to keep up with the supply demand of the electricity that going to be needed in the future. So, um that was one of the pretty interesting that I that I attended that and um I attended uh the PDC there. Uh we had some some uh Dominion Power was there talking about the energy storage which uh more and more counties are going are going to that because it take up less uh acreage and uh because you actually you know they talked about going that we going to have here in Middle Sex but there's also other ones [clears throat] in the area that they're they're going to the demand of uh energy storage because the solar solar panels and stuff like that they they only on during the daytime they can store it in the energy energy uh batteries. So, you know, at night time they can use them and generate back and forth. So, uh that was pretty interesting on there. And also River County Community Foundation, I did attend that. Also, they did discuss something about the workforce housing because, uh once they appropriate the funding, they will make sure that that project get finished. So, uh that's, you know, that's still up and up and ends on on that. And let's see. Yeah, that's about all that I attended for the month.

Thank you, Mr. Jesse. Mr. Pnner, uh well, I I like like most of us when we went to the um the Veo conference and I think that it was very very worthwhile. I got a lot of good ideas, a lot of good information, made some contacts that I think will be very helpful some of the projects that we may be wanting to go forward with. Um, also I attended the uh the jail authority uh meeting uh this month and uh they did not have a quorum for I think the second second time in a row, but it was a uh they did provide some some interesting information about uh some of the the the capital projects are going to be working on.

Thank you, Mr. Krennan. Uh Mr. Bill Harris, I did as well attend the Veco conference and yes, I agree with you all. found it very enlightening or whatever and I think it's definitely worthwhile to people to get to talk to and ideas that come about and everything. So that's all I have.

Thank you sir. Um Mr. Williams did the same thing over and over again went to the conference and you know the most people I was interested was the architect. Uh so I found me the architect that built that built [laughter] He said Washington Lee High School was Mont High School and I did have a talk with him and uh uh we sat down and talk a little while and I did did ask him how much it cost for you to build that school and I'm going to say it like that about $40 million cheaper than what Mosley said that we could do we could do it up there on the ground up there. Yeah, you heard me right. So, uh, you know, now you got me all in in in in in a spin because that's what I went there for. And also went there to, uh, and went to a conference on the school board and the, uh, supervisors, how you get along and how you, uh, you know, you do things to, push and give and find out the information and and I come find out that some of them say, you know, it ain't about the community or where you at. It's always about a shelf of power. It's I want to have my way when you supervise is one way you think about the tax base and stuff like this. So when you when you look at it and and and and that's what I look at but it was very interesting when I uh saw my architect up there that's very interesting. So January if everybody listen you know exactly what I'm going to say.

All right. I wonder you were coming. [laughter] He got a school on a piece of grant for us already. Okay. I I I have nothing to comment on. Um so with that, I'm going to move along to uh item number 10, uh public comments. I'm going to open the floor for any public comments. [laughter] Great. Okay. Um, I'm going to close public comment and Miss Lewis, help us with a motion for close session, please.

Yes, sir. So, the board, uh, it would be appropriate for you to make a motion to convene in close session pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1. This is so the board can discuss personnel matters specifically regarding the county administrator position and so that we can um, pursuant to code sections 2.2-3711, 2-3711 A3 and A8. This is so the board can discuss acquiring rural property for a public purpose and about the disposition of county-owned property where discussions in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position of the public body. Answer that you may consult with me regarding specific legal matters, procedures, and questions about the acquiring and disposition of those properties. Now, with that said, Mr. Chairman, we will be meeting in this room. I do not know if we will take action after the close session, but we have a public hearing so that anyone wishes to attend uh when we come out of close session before that 7 p.m. If there is action, it'll be taken then.

So move. So moved by Mr. Jesse. Thank you, sir. Second. Seconded by Mr. Kittinen. Uh no further discussion is needed with that. Roll call to move into close session, please. Mr. Bill Harris. Yes. Mr. Kittinden. Yes. Mr. Jesse? Yes. Mr. Williams. Yes. Mr.