County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

the allegheny county board of commissioners at this time please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance all right on the agenda tonight we do have a couple of changes under general business um we're going to drop item five for information under the four action section we're going to be dropping item three and adding an item 11 for melissa rector allegheny emotion With those changes, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

Got a motion, a second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor, show of hands for O. The agenda is approved. All right. in your packets you have minutes from the 817 meeting that's pages three through nine trust that everyone's had a chance to review those and at this time we'll take a motion to approve the minutes from the 817 meeting make a motion to approve minutes from 817 a meeting second got a motion in a second any discussion all right all in favor show hands four zero Okay. At this time, we're going to open the floor up for public comments. Anybody in the public that would like to make comments, please come forward at this time. State your name for the audience. Seeing no movement, we'll move ahead to presentations to the board. Jennifer Green, AppHealthcare, communicable disease report. Red is on. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Thank you all for having us. I'm here to do our report on people's business. It's not always the most fun topic. but it's one we try to update you on every so often so that you can see what's happening in Allegheny County and remind you of the work that we do for public health. So I'm gonna pass over the microphone and stand aside here.

Hi everyone, my name is Karina Martinez-Gonzalez. I'm the Director of Epidemiology, Clinical Disease and Preparedness for Health Care. So today I'm going to be going over the community disease burden incidence rate, so how much of a disease is in the community relative to the population, what the local disease landscape looks like here, including diseases that are spread by food and water, tick-borne diseases, and increased outbreaks of preventable diseases, and then we'll talk about emerging trends and what we've been up to with partner collaboration. So this is the communicable disease burden by county. So these are the total number of cases that we see across our district that we serve with Allegheny in the blue right there. So in Allegheny in 2025, there were 59 confirmed communicable disease cases for the year. Next slide. So for each of these cases that we see, we investigate seven more cases. So we have quite a few number of cases that come in front of us to be investigated. And this number here, the 51.8 is the incidence rate of communicable diseases in Allegheny County per 10,000 residents. So that's adjusted to the size of the population. So for every 10,000 residents, there are 40 or 51.8 communicable disease cases. which is a pretty standard communicable disease rate across the state as compared to other counties. Next slide. So this here is the data specific to Allegheny County by quarter. So you can see here that some of the diseases that we look at are seasonal. So things like tick-borne diseases are in the green colors, and you can see that those increase in summer months, of course. And then you have enteric diseases, which are diseases that are spread through food and water. Those are in the shades of red at the bottom there on the graph. And then sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea are in the shades of purple at the top. As you can see, this year we've had a pretty significant tick here with Lyme disease rates being pretty high. And we've also had a really high enteric disease here. So those are diseases that are spread by food and water. So things like Campylobacter and Salmonella. and those kinds of things, which are in the red color. But you can see the history of how Lyme disease has increased over the years here. And as the tick landscape has changed, so has the enteric disease landscape. Next slide. So recently there've been some things that have been developing in the global landscape that do have local impacts. So I'm sure you all have heard of Ebola virus. There's a strain of it called Bundibugyo virus, which is currently having an outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo. And it's become the most deadly outbreak that they have seen of Ebola virus. It's relevant because a couple of counties over, we have the home of Samaritan's Purse, which is one of the aid, organizations that's working at the Ebola treatment units. So we see folks come back from volunteering abroad who have come into contact with people with Ebola. And so one of the things that we do is monitoring those folks and seeing if they develop symptoms and making sure that they know the proper channels to go through so that we're not putting other first responders and folks at risk in that process. And then in the last slide that we looked at, there were the red cases, the enteric disease cases, so those that spread through food and water. And this summer across the state, we saw an increase in those of cyclosporiasis, which was linked to a big outbreak of things like lettuce and parsley and cilantro and all of those things that aren't cooked before being served. And so we did here see an increase in cyclosporiasis cases. similar to what we saw at the whole broader state level.

Next slide.

The other direction. There we go. So in terms of what we've been doing about communicable diseases and on the prevention side of things, we've been doing outreach on Ebola virus and other viral hemorrhagic fevers with partners just to make sure that everybody is aware of their role, making sure that we all have our policies up to date and all of that. We've been doing a lot of tick-borne disease education at health fairs. So our community health team has been going out and teaching kids about tick prevention and all of that. And then in our other counties, we've seen an increase in ehrlichiosis, which is another tick-borne disease. And so we've been doing work with providers to make sure that they're aware of that and are testing for that in their tick panels. And then so with communicable diseases that are reportable, it does take a lift on local healthcare providers. And so in order to lessen that lift, we've been working to get access to electronic medical records so that reporting to us is easier so that folks just need to tell us and not send us over all the records. And then we can use the electronic medical record to get all the information that we need to decrease the lift on the providers offices. And then we've been doing outbreak mitigation collaboration so that LOOKS A LOT OF DIFFERENT WAYS, BUT WITH AN INCREASE IN MEASLES IN THE STATE OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS, WE BORDER SOUTH CAROLINA, OF COURSE, AND THEY HAD A PRETTY SIGNIFICANT MEASLES OUTBREAK THAT WE SAW SPREAD UP INTO NORTH CAROLINA. AND IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THAT WE WERE PREPARED LOCALLY, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE DID WAS FIT TEST THE LOCAL and they're not putting themselves at risk if they were to come into contact with somebody who hadn't been vaccinated or who was symptomatic and potentially infectious with measles. So that's everything I have, but that's kind of the summary of what we've been working on up late. Oh, yes. The other thing that has been even more recent than all of this is, Over a couple weeks ago, there came to light that there was a farm that had some baby goats, kids that they were taking around in a mobile petting zoo that had developed symptoms of rabies. They tested them and they did come back positive for rabies. And so what we have been doing is identifying the families of folks that have been exposed doing the the risk assessment to see if they need to receive rabies post-exposure prophylaxis because as i'm sure you know rabies is almost always fatal but it's also preventable and so we've been identifying who needs the post-exposure prophylaxis and administering that vaccine and we had four folks in nash county um who were exposed and then um around 47 in watauga county who were exposed who ended up needing that post-exposure prophylaxis which we've been administering at the health department in order to decrease costs for individuals so they don't have to pay for ER visits every time that they need one of those vaccines in the series.

Any questions?

When you encounter an animal, a wild animal, out not acting the way that he should be acting, you know, especially like the skunk, raccoons nowadays, and coyotes, If you kill one of these animals, what should you contact the health department, the local vet? How do you, if you suspect something that's wrong?

I would contact animal control. They're the ones who do the processing for testing for us. They're most likely to test if it influences whether somebody needs to get the post-exposure prophylaxis, because if you have a skunk, like you said, that has been in somewhat, then if you can determine that that skunk wasn't rabid, then the person doesn't need to get all the rabies shots in the series for post-exposure prophylaxis. So in those situations, they're more likely to test But it is always a good idea to call because sometimes they'll want to test even if there isn't human involvement, if they are seeing a trend in suspicious activity in animals.

Yeah, and I'll just add local vet is a good, the veterinarian is a good resource. Unfortunately, I think that's one of the things that broke down in this mobile petting zoo. that did not happen soon enough. Consulting a local vet if you have pets that may have been exposed to a potentially rabid animal or wild animal is always a good idea. They may need to consult with the vet to see if they need evaluation because if they start showing symptoms or even before they do, sometimes you wanna monitor for symptoms very carefully if they've been exposed.

so you say we should contact our local animal control i'm i'm not sure that that's in our policy it may be we're going to review our animal control policy but we need to be sure if that's your recommendation that it's in there we'd be happy to work with you all on how we how we've been managing that um

What we want to do is have the right level of response that doesn't, I think Karina mentioned, we know that the typical species that carry a lot of rabies, but what we want to do is focus on where we have risk, right? If there's someone who's been exposed or someone that might have a farm that's had their animals exposed, that's when you want to do a test for rabies, which, you know, requires euthanizing an animal to test because their brain has to be tested.

So it's something you want to take on carefully.

And I think David may want to comment more. I don't want to cut you off.

yes so so animal control will come out and and take care of the suspected animals who have the possibility of rabies especially if it is bitten someone now if it is bitten someone the state will normally pay for having that test done now just because an animal is acting strange doesn't necessarily mean that they have rabies it's like Jennifer said that if there has been a succession of several different animals and they want to try to do a trend the state may pay for that testing to be done but not always so just because you think that an animal's not acting right and just want it tested just because they won't always the state won't always pay for that testing that that falls back on the person who is requesting that to be done so The public needs to understand that the state will not pay for every single one. And if you do euthanize an animal that has bitten someone, make sure that you do not shoot them in the head. If you shoot them in the head, then that does away with the possibility of us being able to have them tested. because as Jennifer said the brain is the part that needs to be tested to see if that animal is rabid so animal control does do that we do go in and we will kill the animal we'll dispatch the animal euthanize it in a humane way and then we'll send it off we take it to the local vet the vet prepares the head for testing it's done and put into a cold storage and then it's sent to the lab so um that is part of animal control court that if it is if it is rabid or possibly rabid and it has bitten someone thank you yeah good questions anybody else thank you for your time we appreciate it thanks

All right, moving down to general business for information. Rachel Rife, DSS request for approval to establish a statutory case review. How you doing?

Good, how are you all? My name is Rachel Rife, and I am the Adult Protective Services Supervisor at Allegheny DSS. We are coming before you today in regards to our adult multidisciplinary case. This is a team that we have within our agency that consists of a group of professionals that are involved with the adult population together with a commitment of working towards a common goal of protecting the adults within our community. This team typically meets quarterly to identify ways to respond to and prevent abuse, neglect, and exploitation for the disabled adults within our county. Members are able to share information, resources, identify gaps and deficiencies, and problem solve in order to best serve the adults within our county. At this time, there are three different types of teams that meet. There's systematic and limited case review, which is currently what our team operates under. The systematic review addresses gaps in services or deficiencies within our county. And the limited case review is just limited information that we are able to share about some cases, but again, it's very limited due to confidentiality reasons and things like that. So we are actually coming before you today to request permission to do the statutory case reviews within our team. And this is so that members can discuss very specific information on open cases that we And being able to do such, the different community members that we have will be able to share specific information for the adults that they might be serving or other resources that they have so that we can talk more openly and better identify the gaps and deficiencies and the needs of the specific adults that we are working with. This is also something that we're requesting in part with UNC School of Government as this system or the statutory case review was something that was just approved back in October of 2025. I think that this would be super helpful for our small county because we are so small and so many of our agencies all work together. But that way that we can share all of this information and just really better best serve the adults within our community.

Anybody have any questions? Who all is on that team? The social service employees or people in the community?

Yes, sir. It's different agencies within our community who are involved with adults. So it might be like law enforcement. Specifically, you know, the PD and the sheriff's office is the council on aging. We invite different branches of banks. We also have invited people like the clerk of court. different attorneys who are involved with the adults that we serve. It's also people like Allegheny In Motion, the different facilities that are here, the landings, Lotus Village, just any agencies that are specifically involved, the health department, the hospital, that are involved with the adults that we serve. And it's also a really good opportunity for people to say, hey, I have a concern about an adult. And we can kind of talk that through and what that looks like that the different agencies in the community could specifically help with as well.

So it's not just individuals from the community?

No, it's representation from different agencies.

Do you have representation from ADAP or other group homes?

I believe so, but we do send out like an email thread of people that we do invite. And we can always add to that list too as they are to people that we work with as well.

okay so we have uh your request under for information we'll take this up at our next meeting later this month thank you we appreciate it all right we said actually october october 19th board meeting so the meeting for october 19th needs to be moved because of early voting so we can have that at 90 south main I think that's what we did in the past move back up there yes so that's just an FYI yeah it's just for information that's where we'll move that's where we'll move yes all right we'll take that up for action at the next meeting moving right along to law enforcement surplus vehicle sales

So they have two vehicles that they confiscated years ago, and they're going to be putting those up on GovDeals for sale. It's a 2004 GMC pickup and a 2006 Dodge Ram truck with the flatbed. And they've chosen GovDeals. That's just so you know, the first one was a 2004 GMC pickup.

and so we'll just need a resolution to declare it surplus property at our next meeting i think it already has been is that how it works i'm not sure yeah i guess we just put out for business next week well they're going to put it on the auction site and they can put it on the auction site and they wanted yeah So we'll take that up for approval.

It's just for your information.

Where's this auction site at?

It's govdeals.govdeals.com. Yeah.

Okay. I think there's no issue with that as long as we have like a working link on our social media so folks can see that. All right. Aaron Ray Tompkins for the fairgrounds.

Let me ask one more question. Sorry. Why don't we take all of our county vehicles and put on that?

I mean, we can.

I mean.

We can. There's a fee associated with that, I'm pretty sure.

I mean, we're going to reach out a lot further anyway. Exactly.

Yes. I mean, this could be our test program.

I mean, it could be something to look into.

Yeah, definitely.

Because everybody ain't going to see the sign out front when they drive by.

Exactly. Or the website. Yeah.

How you doing? I'm good.

Thanks. So this is for information and actually I visited with Mr. Sheffley and David Spicer in regards to this. But we wanted to make you all aware of some conditions and things that are actually impacting the fairgrounds. And I don't know that I'm necessarily having so that way you all know the condition and some things that we've had to work with and want to be working through so if you look this is pictures of the Fairfields back which would be in May which is before the first event there there's two main pictures so you can at least see the condition that that the track was left in after our first event Then due to Mother Nature and some other events, I will credit that because it was a rainy season throughout the summer. Here are pictures from the first event, before the second event actually happened, going into the second event, and this actually caused a drain to be clogged, and it's still clogged, that we're trying to get unclogged. And then moving into the third event, So the condition that was left after the three events, three weeks in a row. However, we've had one of our fairgrounds board members go in and drain this to where it was bad enough at one point. He just about got the bulldozer stuck that was out there and has had to bring in an excavator. And this was after the Ag Board had spent almost $10,000 last year making improvements to that. part of the issues is over time there was a tractor trailer loading a half of sawdust brought in and dumped in that area to absorb some of the water but wasn't removed and so he has now got it towards draining better hopefully we'll have the drain cleared out this week after meeting with them again this morning but more or less just wanted to let you all aware that this is something that the rec department and there's some recommendations that's going to be coming forward to hopefully try to correct that to prevent this in the future but the thing is is we can't have people think that this is okay the way to leave that at the end is the biggest thing so it's it's not that i have a specific request today other than just providing you all information so the people's having an advance are not leaving it the way they found it in other words right do you have a set contractor that's supposed to resurface that area or are they allowed to use whoever they want or what's your what's your framework they can use whoever they want as far as a contractor and that's one of the things that i think we want to look at very heavily um is you can use whoever you want to build your your track your pit whatever you want but we have one set person that's contracted to clean it up afterwards and it's the one to cost they more or less have to pay that at the beginning of the to have that established and then that way we have it properly drained which would have prevented some of this here not to say it's all because there was a lot of rain over that period of time and when there was three events back to back to back you couldn't get the event fixed from the first one to get everything straightened up to the second one to then the third this is going to continue to happen when you have an outside event I mean

You know, we were dry in the early spring, but thank goodness we had those rains to help. But, I mean, this is something every time it's used, you know, there's going to be an issue about getting it back the way that it was.

And I think part of it is just them understanding that even if it takes them a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever it takes, that some of that expense may be split among multiple event holders.

What are you looking at getting this back to normal? How much money?

$8,000 to $10,000.

And you're going to have to have it done before the fair.

It will have to be before the next event. It's just we're fortunate that we have a board member that has been willing to do this work at this point to try to correct it. So that's why. with both of y'all and that way you had a better understanding of what we were marketing.

Do you plan to assess the users an equal share of that fee?

So that's what we had proposed initially and sort of brought to the table with them and had because the

approach that to begin with okay it's our largest outdoor facility and if you notice the crowds that you've drawn this year they've been unbelievable so we need to do whatever we need to do to keep that facility open some more more people will start using it

Exactly. And that's what we're trying to prevent because what we don't want to have happen is somebody that's rented the facility come in and stop using it because of getting it in this shape. You know what I'm saying? Because if somebody would have been in the shape of having to fix it from this last one other than the ag board itself. So that's where we are on that. It's trying to create the usability for as many individuals as possible.

and good when somebody talks about they had a good experience here then another people may start using it but if they go back and say it was nothing but a mud hole they're not going to be that anxious to come back and I think if we have one person as you would ask Harrison fix it every time I think that will help especially with some of the drainage because as you see here this is not going to drain is the biggest issue that we're

we hauling that sawdust off somewhere or just piling it up out there so the last event last two events didn't do anything with it and left it into the track so they've had to pile it up if they've had to pile it up to be able to start working yeah and that's one thing that i think is going to have to be required is if that's brought in it's got to be removed because when you're looking at two tractor trailer loads of sawdust brought in this year part of it was dumped in other places but that doesn't necessarily help us long term

Mr. Sheffley.

Yes, we appreciate all you do in all the different fields that you're involved. Is there a set fee that these users of the park have to pay if they don't do what needs to be done when they leave?

There is a deposit, but there's nothing after we have reviewed that and feel like we need to explore that some more and have that in place for the next season. Because at this point, we're already too far in the season to change anything, unfortunately. And this is something that we will have to work towards and have it in place to work for next year.

The other question I have is, in the planning between the fairgrounds and the recreation department, when you get in these situations, what was the plan on how to remedy it. What would be the way that it got fixed? If one of the vendors came in and just didn't do anything when they were done.

Right. And that's one of the things that we want to try to improve and have that if we had one person that more or less cleans that up at the end and those funds are already secured before the event, I think that will be much easier.

Okay. So you're suggesting as part of the application process or you build it into the fee structure, to where there's already a cleanup fee or deposit involved right off the bat. Is there a specific action that you need from the board before the ag fair to get this done?

No, at this point, no, because we have to, it's more of a, I hate to say it, but it's more of an act of thought because we'd already signed a $20,000 contract just with the pool. So, the time frame and we just wanted to make you all more aware at this point than anything else okay and there will be some follow-up discussions but we also have time to work for anybody else thank you sir all right we've dropped item five i'm gonna move to heather klein our county attorney

So I recently had a conversation with Trey Foucher, who's with the state, and we've worked with him for several years now in regards to grants that we have against our properties. There are multiple grants that we have, and we worked with him in regards to the pool, trying to get the pool declared, basically unusable and that we can't do anything with it. It's a lot more complicated than we thought it was going to be in order to make that happen. It's called obsolete in regards to the grants that we have. But we have state grants and we have federal grants. A lot of our grants are on Sam Brown Mountain property, but we have other ones, Veterans Park, and then I think we have one on Davis Field. which is part of Sam Brown. So in our conversations, we've discussed trading out properties with the school system for some of our ball fields and some other things so we can get additional grants. And we've done some surveying. We've talked to the school about what potentially we could do also in regards to their barn that is on the Sam Brown property. And so I went back to Trey and said, Hey, this is what we were thinking about doing. And Trey said, well, it's a little more complicated than we just thought about trading out where we would have to have a survey and we would have to have an appraisal of the properties that we were going to trade. to make it even so that we could take a grant off of a property and then add it to one that we might obtain so that the school might be able to have property that didn't have a grant on it. I think that's in violation of our grants to the county. So unfortunately, Trey said, well, it's not as easy as we might think, he said, because a couple of the properties that we're asking to swap out have a federal component to them, not just a state component. And because they have the federal, he said that we would have to get approval from the state to begin with, but then we would have to go through the federal process. And he said the federal process is very long. So it's something that we probably should get together and maybe even do a work session on or something to talk about all the properties that we have grants on, what portions of those properties we might be thinking about trading out and get a handle on what do we have surveys on and what do we have appraisals on? What might we need to do in order to, you know, get a proposal together to send to Trey? He did send me an application and some requirements in a sheet that said what we needed to do. It's going to be complicated. We thought that it wasn't going to be as hard to accomplish. And all that we had to do was some surveying and some appraisals. But that was, I don't know, maybe the explanation coming from the state was a little bit inadequate. And Trey is correcting us, letting us know it's going to be much more lengthy and difficult. He said the state approval is pretty easy. That's not really the big issue. It's dealing with the federal government to get a release of property that might be under one of the grants that was approved through the federal government. That is the hard part. One of the other things that I wanted to mention that I did get a copy of a while back from him, one of the grants that we have, it's called the Sam Brown Park Ball Field. That one does expire December 25th of 2027. And we have the Duncan Recreation Center Renovations Grant. That one expires 2034. And we have the Sparta Parkway Park. And that expires in March of 2040. So the federal grants are permanent. I don't know of any of them that expire. So the state grants are the ones that might expire. Federals are permanent. So which is why we have to go through the state to get a release and then go to the federal government to get a release. So those were just three, but those were state ones that we have. And some portions of our property might include some of those grants. and then a part of the federal so so not as easy as we think and this may be a multi-year process unfortunately certainly not what we wanted to hear no would you be open to to doing a work session around the first of october the first week of october yeah depending on everybody's schedule i think we need to look at the properties and the grants i think we have a

preliminary work schedule for the animal control this would be you know used to we could do two things at one time and the Duncan recreation the swimming pool is the main one but also the barn that is on the county property and like you said before

county is liable if somebody gets hurt at that barn and you know those are the ones we've been trying to work on for four five six years now yeah we have more than that too because the tennis courts are also um an issue for us because they were transferred to the school system in 2019 and that's not allowable under the grants so We have a lot of issues to work through. And Trey did say that we're not under any scrutiny at this point because we're trying to work towards a solution for several of our grants and the issues we have with the properties. So we're not under any timeline. We're not under a crunch. We recognize there's some issues that we have to take care of. It's just going to take a while.

you mentioned about the swimming pool being somebody has to say it's not usable or is that our our inspection department is that a who who does that so we've already been through that process um we declared it obsolete uh we had a public hearing uh we did ran a notice in the paper

We did send that to the state, sent it to Trey, but the state rejected it and we need to work with Trey in order to go either potentially back through that process. It's just another one on our list because They understood what the problem was, but I don't know if they want us to present it differently. I don't know if they want to trade property. I wasn't really clear on why they rejected it. But that's something we're going to have to work with Trey on again to go through that process and maybe do it slightly differently in order to get it declared obsolete.

Well, there were something in the grant about an earthquake. You know, that was one of the reasons that it couldn't be used and that was highly affected by the earthquake.

I know, but they rejected our request to declare it obsolete. And it's just something we're going to have to work on and maybe maybe have more in our in our request um I wasn't very um clear on why they rejected it like they didn't send a letter saying we're not going to give it it just was Trey calling me to say they've they've rejected it and then we're going to have to work on it that's the government

question, Mr. Chairman. So do we know how many federal grants we have that's tied to that?

Trey has told me, I, these are the state one, two, three, four, five, five state. I think there were two or three federal And I have copies of all of them. They're lengthy. And a lot of them are old. They're not new grants that we've received from the federal government. The state grants are the newer ones, Pardif and LWCF, but the federal grants are the older ones that were received probably 40, maybe even 50 years ago. So they're the ones that once they were attached to the property, they made it permanent.

And one of those grants, if I may, one of those grants was just for $68,000 that we got from the feds that we had to match. So that $68,000 stretched out over 30 or 40 years.

Permanent. Yeah. And now to change the use of that property, you have to go through the state. to recognize that you need the change based on the state grant that we have, but then you have to then go to the federal government to get a release, even for an acre of property that you're talking about potentially switching or a couple acres. The size doesn't matter. It's the fact that it's under a grant and that's, that's the issue.

So, I mean, this is a good lesson that people always say, we'll apply for a grant, get a grant. You've got to read the fine print in that grant. It may look good on the surface, but just like you've got five or six or seven problems here.

Not all of them are a problem, but because we want to do some maneuvering with the property in order to get a better recreational use for the community and the public, that's where we've run into the complication because it's not easy to make that change. definitely it's not easy to switch the property out of our names. And we've done that one time and we weren't legally allowed to do that. So, and I think it probably is because there's no, until recently within the last five years, we didn't know all of the grants that we had. We didn't have a centralized place that we could look to say, oh, we have these grants on these properties. And I think that that is a bit of a problem and we probably need to put something on public record to recognize the properties and the grants that are associated with each of them so that we don't have to worry. Where's that paperwork? It's on public record that we have a grant on a specific property or multiples. And then that way, anybody that would come after us, it's on public record. You could just do a search for the county and you could find that information.

Any other questions? Do we have a preliminary date set for a work session at this point in time? Okay. Maybe we can get everybody on the same page at some point this week or next and start looking at everybody's availability for the first or second week of October. Hopefully 30 days will be enough time to give everybody time to do the research they need to have a productive work session. All right. Last on the list for general business information is our tax administrator, Rita Miller.

Good evening. I have a handout. Candace is going to hand out to each of you. I don't want to. Thank you for listening to our update.

Thank you.

Mr. Shepard had asked me to provide the board with a legislative note. major property tax bills that I've introduced during the 2026 session up in North Carolina General Assembly. As you know, rising property values across the state have driven some intense legislative interest in property tax reform more than I've ever seen in my career. The handout she gave you outlines just a few of those bills, but tonight I'm going to focus on three of those bills after talking with My counterparts with the Assessors Association, we have a legislative committee that's part of the North Carolina Assessors Association. And so I've talked with them and they agree that these three are the most prominent at this time. So Session Law 2026-5 is the proposed constitutional amendment. And this will appear on the November 2026 ballot. If approved by the voters, it will grant the General Assembly authority to enact laws limiting the amount of which the levy on property tax may increase, which may include exceptions. And the current language, the way it was written, is not specific on how those future tax caps can be implemented. It does signal a profound shift in the authority, shifting the authority from the local boards to the state level on how your property taxes can be spent. As on a fiscal outlook, of course, property tax in Allegheny is our primary source of revenue. And state imposed limits could result in local budget stability and flexibility. And interestingly enough, late this afternoon, Chris McLaughlin with the School of Government sent out a blog, and it's the law blog, so I don't know if you saw it yet or not, but I'll read you just a little bit of what he had put in his publication today. So he says, the proposed amendment grants the General Assembly discretion to decide what type of limit on property tax increases it wishes to adopt. Presumably, the General Assembly could satisfy the proposed amendment by adopting a limit on appraised values. For example, Florida limits the increase in tax appraisals for primary residents to 3%, or they could adopt something on tax rates. The example he gave South Carolina limits the increase in local tax rates to the percentage increase in population plus inflation. Or the total tax levy, for example, New York limits the increase in local property tax levies to 2%. Overall, the General Assembly would retain the discretion as to the timing of any property tax limitations. It could do it immediately or it could do it not at all. It would be up to them. And then this is actually something I did not realize until this came today. He says, remember that our constitutional amendment is not required for the General Assembly to enact limits on local property taxes. It already has the authority to enact tax limits because our state constitution contains no language which prohibits such legislation. So that's that, basically. It's on the ballot. for the state to enact something. We just don't know what that means yet. So the next one is Senate Bill 349. It's the elderly and disabled property tax exclusion. This is one bill that is fully endorsed by the North Carolina Association of Assessing Officers. This bill seeks to increase the income eligibility thresholds for elderly and disabled property owners. It also does away with a deferred tax caveat in the circuit breaker exclusion. Circuit breaker exclusion has not been very popular through the state. There are very few counties who have residents who have taken advantage of that. We don't have any in Allegheny that have done that because of that deferred tax. It basically defers the tax to your mayor. So we do not have any property owners that want to do that. Just for the board and for the citizens' information, and this is a program that Canvas is over, the elderly and disabled income limit for 2027 is $39,900. The circuit breaker is $59,850. So as you can see, in today's time, $39,900 is pretty low for a household. So I fully agree with those names that need to be raised so that we can get more of our vulnerable demographic enrolled in some of these programs. So what this bill would do, it would expand tax relief to our vulnerable demographics. It would require additional public outreach on the tax office's part, on the board's part, and it would increase some of the process within the tax office. But if it gets released to some of our more vulnerable citizens, and we're all willing to do that. The last one I wanted to point out that's getting a lot of discussion is Senate Bill 992 called Truth in Taxation. This bill mandates strict transparency protocols whenever a local governing body intends to adopt a tax rate exceeding the revenue tax rate in a reappraisal year. which you know, 2027 next year is our reappraisal year. Local governments would be legally required to publish their intent to exceed the revenue neutral tax rate by local newspapers or government websites and individual direct mail notifications to all county property owners. So while this bill is designed to increase public transparency, I guess the one opposition us as tax folks have is that mandatory direct mail notification. Postage is one of my biggest line items. It's very expensive. So this bill, the way it's written now, the county would be responsible for notifying all the county property owners, but we are also, the way it's written, responsible for also notifying all the municipal property owners. So it's kind of a double whammy for the county. But for those listening that don't know what a revenue neutral tax rate is, I wanted to explain that. So that is the tax rate that we estimate to produce the same revenue for the next fiscal year as the current fiscal year adjusted for growth as if no reappraisal had occurred. So basically that's saying when we start the budget process next year, we're going to know, hopefully, what our new values are. Hopefully we're done with the Board of ENR and all the hearings and all that. So we know the value we're looking at. So we've got to estimate what the tax rate would be using those new values to come up with the same levy we had this year. So it's kind of a difficult process. But that is what revenue meaningful means. And that's only in the near future. So in closing, I just want to let you know that as your tax collector, I fully understand the financial burden that rising property taxes places on our citizens. I support any measure to promote fair and equitable taxes. I fully support an increase in thresholds for the elderly and disabled property tax exclusion and expansion of the disabled veterans property tax exclusion. I didn't cover any of those tonight. There are several of those out there. There's not anyone that's kind of in the lead, so to speak, right now for veterans. But as a member of the County Budget Committee, I have to kind of put on another hat because I also have to look at the reality of these changes. If the constitutional amendment passes in November, the resulting limits could constrain our local budget, potentially impacting our ability to fund county services. So there's two different hats I have to put on with this particular amendment. But none of this will continue to closely monitor these legislative developments and keep this board informed as policies take force and take shape. Mr. Sheffley, for the three things he gets through the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, if y'all watch that website, it's full of good information on all of these deals. And then every Monday at 3 o'clock, i have an assessor's zoom call where we discuss all of this what's happening in legislation this week what do they think is gaining ground what's not so we will try our best to keep everybody informed like i said property tax has got the most attention right now that i've ever seen i'd be glad to answer any questions that i can answer and if you have questions later just contact me all right mr irwin has a question please and

i guess state bill 128 143 it mentions that disabled veterans but then you go down to 228 and it says veterans disability rating but the first two 128 143 doesn't give a rating so if you're 10 or 90 percent

lot about veterans and providing property tax relief for veterans that's just a few of the language in different bills now which one gains momentum and gets passed you know that's not for me to say but that's just language and some of the different bills that have been put before that so not all of them depend on your rating of your disability that's just that okay that's just language and that one deal and for you to verify it you go through the veteran service officer how do you verify a veteran gets a rating or gets a discount so right now the only the only law on the books about veterans is the veterans exemption and it states they have to be 100 percent totally service related disabled and that is a form or application that the veteran service officer has to sign they're the one who has to verify that information and then he signs off on it and we process the application okay thank you anybody else um yes uh mr chairman um this county is very lucky to have rita in the role that she's in

and she's extremely knowledgeable and I would put her up against any person that has her role in the state of North Carolina that I've interacted with. She's proactive, thinking ahead. She's absorbed the information that they're sending to me from NCAACC and has looked into it and participates in activities that bond together her with the other people that have the same role that she has so that we can be as prepared as possible for the future. The worst thing that could happen, I guess it depends on how you look at government. So it might be, you know, you could argue it on either side, but if you had, let's say that they said no increase in your total revenue from one year to the next, then you would, every year you would lose at least the inflationary gap. You know, you would lose at least three or 4% of your, of your buying power with the same amount of money. So you would have to logically continually cut. Now, if they included, like, I think you mentioned that a couple of the places have like an inflation inflationary increase recommended. 3% or something along those lines. If you were in that 3% to 4% range, you could stay pretty much even and keep up with the inflationary costs, particularly with things happening with gas and that sort of thing. We do have some elements of what we do that are affected by the use of gas. So it's something that everyone's looking at and it'll be it's hard to argue against to the citizens about saying listen we're going to limit the amount that you're taxed you just have to think about what happens on the other end of that and make sure you're prepared for both sides of that you know the fact that you'll you could have to cut services down the line we're prepared to do whatever the people want but it's just important to understand the overall picture

And I do try to pay very close attention. We're a small county. We're not a wealthy county. We don't have dollars to just go here and there. So I do try to pay very close attention to our legislature and what's going on. And when they're in session, it's daily that we get requests. Tell us what this would do to your overall tax base. Tell us what this would do. How much money would you lose if this law got passed? So it's a daily thing.

that you're running reports and sending them down to my associations later so we didn't I didn't pay close attention Mr. Evans did you have something no I don't I just they don't want to hear from me what I think about the state taking our control but it's all good I think glass half full tight deal um we did get a have a visit from our representative uh last week i think and he he doesn't have answers like what specifically is going to be in the writing even if the constitution amendment is put in which is i think is so stupid like why you why is the they coming up with these why are they coming up with these new ideas of laws? I do not understand. He explained that what the problem is, there is some areas that are getting running rampant about how they tax people. So I get that. But he also pointed out that his group of counties all does a great job of that. And he was always wondering like, why, you know, we're going to put this on the backs of the smaller counties that does a good job on our tax rates. And just so we can get the other stuff, which is collateral damage really. But my question is the common sense part of it is we deal with strung out budget stuff from the state takes them forever to pass a budget, but they can spin off a hundred different laws that creates problems in County. So I, I don't have a lot, but it is what it is, but I really believe that, when it first they started actually we went down and visit them at the legislature building on the legislature days and did talk to Mr. Pickett a little bit about that and he really felt like that once they got into this that they would be some but there's no promise of that there's no guarantee that that they would be some great you know some things for the smaller lesser tax base areas that would have a little bit more play room than some of the other things. But there's still no writing in there to say that specifically. So we're all just waiting, I guess. But I guess my first thing is, I mean, I'm not campaigning about it, but say no with the Constitution amendment. I mean, the state does not need any more power than they have. um you know i i think they tie our hands a lot from counties and it's harder for us as you say because we're to some degree a poor county that doesn't have a very large tech space and everything that they do really hurts us so you know if they want to go play with all those other counties fine but leave us alone that's what i say well there's a lot of people in this county here you know thanks county's got too much control not only the state

address some of the taxpayers as they know barely making it that's all I got maybe they need to send Rita to the general legislature let her straighten them out she's a walking encyclopedia on taxes you're welcome to come up any August and there are people who really struggle exactly and you know it weighs heavily on us so I'm for

fair and equitable. We want to know what the rules are before we start the game.

Yeah. Thank you for your time. We appreciate it. All right. That concludes general business for information. This time it's 7.04 PM. I'm going to call a five minute recess before we move into full reaction.

We were just getting going good.

all right we're going to call the meeting back to order and start on our general business for action section and we're going to start with maui delt i admit an education coordinator for allegheny soil and water now which one's going to talk

Good evening, everybody. Last time I was here, I came to you asking for approval for an out-of-state conference. It's the SECDA meeting. Educators come from all over the southeast to go over their programs and things that can make it better. So in previous years that we've done this, we actually got the book barn idea, which is in every school now. And then we've put different ag books into the book barns. So I'm just asking for approval to go to that this year.

i'd make a motion to approve that we've done this in the past second all right got a motion and a second any discussion all right show of hands in favor 4-0 you're good to go thank you all right aaron ray you're up again board member change for the ag board

all right good afternoon so i have a different man on this time podium um and this is coming as far as uh from the extension office in the allegheny ag board um so this request will actually be um that we had brought to you last time as far as stacy uh barker to finish out the term of maggie osborne so i'll make a motion to approve second a motion a second any discussion favor show of hands 4-0 thank you very much

Thanks, sir. We have dropped item three. Next we'll move to Lisa Ashley for approval of the fuel contract.

So you have in front of you the contracts that were, not contracts, but the bids that were submitted. And You can see on those one vendor did not submit a bid for certain items and one vendor submitted for everything. So I just ask you guys to approve who you want the contract to go to.

Any discussion from admin?

I'm going to make a motion to go with everyone. The one vendor is going to do it all. Less headaches.

Do we have a motion on the floor? Second. And a second. Any discussion? All right. All in favor, show of hands. 4-0 for Hometown Oil.

all right David Spicer fire contracts so as you all know we've been working on this fire contract for quite some time now we have met with fire chiefs and some of the board members to get some insight on things that they wanted to change so we have come up with the correct wording as of now With the fire contract, they have all come forward and I think they're all good with that then now. So then that went back to Heather and Heather reviewed that and we had to change just a couple of things, but there were some things that we absolutely had to leave in there. so we had to do those things but right now this is the finished product so this is ready for you all's approval tonight and then we'll send it out and start getting them signed so the chiefs have reviewed this version yes okay all right at this time we'll entertain a motion i make a motion that we approve the co fair approval for the fair contract

second all right got a motion a second any discussion and i'm assuming that heather's been through it front to back back to front all right all in favor show hands four zero thank you april ham fire tax funds

Okay just have a couple of things from finance the first one is a budget amendment to pay out the fire tax funds the additional funds received and that should be for fiscal year 25-26. I used a template so in under revenues it says fiscal year 23-24 but it is 25-26. so this is from last year yes this is an additional revenue that came in last year for the fire departments we wait on all the collections to be done upstairs and reconciliation then it comes downstairs and these will actually be paid out this week i got another question about the fire uh how's glade creek doing on coming up here let's just look at your books uh they're actually emailing them to me and i have them tonight if you want to see them there's there's everything's fine no dollar at least a month on the house over here it's been insurance fuel and propane that's all i got i make a motion to approve the budget amendment a fair tax fund 25 26 year second all right got a motion and a second any discussion

All in favor, I'm going to show of hands, 4-0. All right, moving along to DSS.

Okay, the next one is a line item transfer for DSS just for $200, and this is for last year also.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Motion to second. Any discussion? All in favor, show of hands, 4-0. That's approved.

the final line transfer for recreation yeah and it's actually a budget amendment for recreation they received uh some sponsorship money to help with uniform cost so we just need to receive that revenue and budget that so they can spend that on the uniforms motion to approve second motion a sec any discussion all in favor show hands four zero thank you

Thank you. That'll wrap that part up. Ms. Boyer for Human Resources and DSS.

My first request this afternoon is for a one-time approval for a service credit enhancement, and that would be for $1,300 per five years of service for a social worker applicant with almost 13 years of experience. DSS is currently down one-third of their social workers. So this would benefit the department. It would allow them to bring somebody in that's already trained and ready to go. And they do have the funding availability in their budget.

I'd like a motion to approve.

Second. Any discussion? All in favor show of hands. 4-0. All right, you're up again.

Next, I'm requesting approval for an income maintenance administrator one. This is a new position for DSS, and the starting salary would be $53,465. They're not requesting any additional staff. They're just wanting to restructure their income maintenance unit, and the job description is in their packets, and it has been approved by the state.

make a motion to approve second a motion and a second um one bit of discussion is is there a minimum and maximum set for this position yet yes it would fall under the pay grade of 72 72 can you remind me what that what the max is on that one um i will have to i don't have it right here okay that's all right all in favor show hands for it

and our last item 11 melissa rector for allegheny in motion oh mr shepley one second um i just wanted to say that um i wanted to tell stacy that we appreciate the work that she did together with tiffany and a little bit of my myself included uh in order to work out some of these things are much more complex than they appear on the surface and the key is to

able to get the resources to these folks that are some of the heroes in the county and i appreciate the way that you dealt with this come on how you doing so i'm here for my public hearing and to take action on this fy 28

do we need to do a public hearing all right so we'll entertain a motion to approve second motion a second any discussion all in favor show hands please for a All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

We appreciate it. And that wraps up our for action portion. We'll move along to county manager comments.

Yes, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a statement here. The Allegheny County greatly appreciate the dedication and service provided by the Allegheny County Rescue Squad and our county's volunteer fire departments. The men and women who serve our communities in times of emergency are true heroes, and the county recognizes the critical role they play in protecting the lives and property of our citizens. Recently, a fundraising letter distributed by the Allegheny County Rescue Squad stated that, in quotes, Allegheny County has reduced their funding by $75,000 for the rescue squad, end of quote. We want to provide our citizens with accurate information regarding the county's funding of the rescue squad. The actual county funding provided to the rescue squad has been 20, 24, 25, 90,000, 20, 25, 26, 140,000. And in 20, 26, 27, 125,000. Therefore the reduction in county funding for the current fiscal year is $15,000. not $75,000. In fact, over the past two fiscal years, Allegheny County increased its annual funding to the Rescue Squad by $35,000 from $90,000 to $125,000 currently. While the county recognizes that any reduction in funding can present challenges for an organization, it is important that our citizens have an accurate understanding of the county's financial support. The county's budget decisions this year were particularly difficult. Requests for funding from county departments and outside organizations exceeded projected revenues by more than $4.6 million. The county commissioners therefore faced difficult choices, including the option of increasing taxes or reducing expenditures. The decision was made to avoid a tax increase and instead make measured reductions in funding and across the county's budget. This decision should not be interpreted as a lack of support for the rescue squad or for our fire departments. Allegheny County understands the importance of adequately funding emergency services and remains committed to supporting the organizations that provide these essential services to our communities. Allegheny County is in a strong financial However, it is important to recognize that a significant portion of the county's general fund is currently restricted because of the county's financial responsibilities related to building and infrastructure projects for the Allegheny County school system in the town of Sparta. These obligations limit the amount of unrestricted funding available for other purposes and must be considered when making responsible budget decisions. We believe our citizens deserve transparent and accurate information regarding how their tax dollars are being used. At the same time, we want to make clear that the county deeply values its relationship with the rescue squad and our volunteer fire departments. We are grateful for the countless hours these volunteers dedicate to serving our residents, often under extremely difficult and dangerous circumstances. The county looks forward to continuing to work cooperatively with the rescue squad, our fire departments, and all of our emergency service providers to ensure that Allegheny County remains a safe and vibrant place to live. Thank you.

Thanks, sir. anybody else have any comments from admins definitely all right we'll move to county commissioner comments we'll start off with mr walker i ain't got no comment i got question or two is a new loader at the landfill bro yeah um it was out of commission yes it's back over now yeah what will happen is it under warranty out of no it's out it's out of warranty now

how old is that now it's three and a half years old so it's already been that long and the other question i got did the ambulance service purchase a new pickup yes campground where did we have that budgeted in there it's a grant it came from a grant for the community paramedic program there's a grant we did we know about it before today Did the commissioner know about it? The grant. Yeah. The commissioner knew about the grant. He knows about the grant, but we didn't know what we were buying with the grant? I'm not sure if I think so. I mean, we had to present a budget.

It's in the budget.

Okay. I just wondered. I didn't know if we needed to pick up over AMLIS or what the deal was. Sure. And I did get a call today. It said AMLIS service got a new four-wheel drive pickup for the camper on it. I didn't know how many people we could haul them back at like a ambulance. What are we using it for?

It'll be used for the community paramedic program and will be certified as a quick response vehicle.

What's the little car we got up there we use?

Well, it will also, it's used for the MAP program and it also qualifies as a QRV.

so we had to have one for the mat program and one for the community paramedic program because they won't be going to the same places so they can't transport nobody in this pickup or anything okay i just i just wondered how they thought we might need an ambulance over a pickup but there was a budget amendment that came to the board probably about six weeks ago

that budgeted 100,000 for the initial amount of the MIH grant that he's talking about, the community paramedic program. The actual total grant is 300,000. And you'll be seeing some more budget amendments, but the vehicle portion of that, and I believe, well, the vehicle portion of it, I believe was about $70,000. I'm doing it by memory. But $70,000 for the vehicle, $10,000 for equipment, and I believe a portion of the salary was already budgeted. Yes.

So what are we going to use the other $200,000 for?

that'll be used us for equipment and medications and supplies and salary benefits benefits yeah it's a whole additional program for emus hey we're going to hire somebody to drive this truck are we moving somebody up or yes we've been we've been through the process of uh applications and we've also been through the interview process we have not gotten someone hired as of today but we are in the process of that so we're having any luck filling any positions we got open yes

yes and we've been getting a lot of good applicants to come forward to put in applications for these jobs that we have open right now wow that's all i got for today all right thank you mr evans um yes i had a couple things um i think the heritage festival will be uh happening before we come back to our next meeting because it's on the 19th correct yeah Yeah. So we have that going on. And also that big weekend, I think we're having the county fair also. It's going to be a lot of stuff going on. I hope we have less rain that few days. Also, there's something that they've been doing for the last few, I guess, two or three years. The Allegheny County Partnership for Children does a little fundraising thing at the Allegheny Partnership building. uh they actually go out like a friday i think it's the 25th and they start making apple butter and they sell it on saturday so it's always been a good fundraiser so that's happening um also i wanted to go circle back to the revenue neutral explanation that rita is talking about revenue neutral which she explained it very well is if you hold the line on that that's pretty much all you can do. In other words, if the state asks you to do more than that, then you're going to have to ax employees and you ax services. So, and I think Allegheny County over the last four years has done a good job with the revenue neutral, not trying to take in, which our tax rates say it, you know, you can't change it for those many years, but I think they've done a, you know, a good job with what we've had coming in that we, you know, it's took care of our services. So I, you know, the revenue neutral, if you're trying to do that, there's not much more that you can do. Um, and that's where I have a problem with the state. If it asks you to do more than that, you know, cause you have services in 2000 from the last time we had a tax valuation, 2019 to now, nothing's held cost-wise it's went up and actually extremely went up so so it's just the common sense figure of math but um anyway i think allegheny county has done a great job and within her leadership of some of the things that we i think the um picture this the i can't remember the name of pictometry um that stuff is brought in a lot of things it's not been permitted or whatever so it's actually brought in a lot of revenue actually it's been worth the money on that that people didn't know about you know but thing is if you have services you have cost but look forward to the fall and hopefully all the know we get some good weather and we don't our fire grounds don't look like it has been lately and it turned they have a good turnout because they have like said there's been a lot of really uh good events and everything it's been a good year for allegheny so that's all i wanted to say thank you sir mr erwin

just a few things I think you know we've got several upcoming events at the fairgrounds and those are some of our biggest events of the year so I hope a lot of people will turn out for those I think it was mentioned that on the Glade Creek checkbook was that a two-week test period or a month and have we passed that and how's it going

i have two reports from them the first one was you know a full check that was disbursed to them and the three things that i pointed out to commissioner walker that's what they paid they hadn't received their other check in the end of the two-week period so he just sent me a report that second check had not been received and nothing paid out are you satisfied with the way it's going

yes and that mr shepherd keeps in touch with me you know if he's got any questions he calls me to make sure it's allowable under the fire tax funds okay thank you that's all okay um i don't have a whole lot to add to that but i will echo kind of what timmy said um i don't agree at all with the state trying to take over the the ability for local governments to make their own decisions as to, you know, any increases on property tax. You know, I think that the people in the county elect local officials to seats of office to make those decisions and represent their interests. I don't think it has any business being decided at the state level as to what should be capped and what shouldn't. You know, when we look at decisions down the road, like how much we're going to increase funding for the rescue squad or how much we're going to increase funding for the recreation department if we're going to increase the level of service that our citizens are going to receive and we're capped by the state on how much we can levy a tax or increase our revenues to to meet those demands you know we're going to be faced with some very serious choices so that's something i would encourage you to think about Um, as you're making your decision, you know, for the ballot coming up in November, um, I read a study on this and it would really own across the board for the average citizen in North Carolina. I think it's would only save the average household between 84 and a hundred dollars. But the impact that it's going to have on your local municipal and county governments is going to be to the tune of millions. So. I would just encourage you to think about that when you're making that vote. I know nobody likes to hear the term tax increase or even discuss that, and it's always got negative connotations, but it's really going to impact the ability that we have to shape the future here if we're restricted by our state government. So that's all I've got. And thank you, everybody, for the time of the day. And at this time, we'll look for a motion to adjourn. All in favor show hands. We're adjourned.