Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

We will call this September the 14th, 2026 meeting of the Wilson County Board of Commissioners to order. I'd like to welcome everyone that's in the audience this evening. We're glad that you chose this Monday night to be with us. And hopefully there will be some interesting and informative information to come from our meeting this evening. We begin with a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance led by Commissioner Wetherington.

Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Please stand with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Next on our agenda is consideration of the minutes from our August 2026 meeting. What is the pleasure of the board?

I make a motion to approve. Second.

Motion's been made and properly seconded to approve the motion to approve the minutes from our August meeting. Are there any corrections, discussion from those minutes? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, the motion carries. Next, we move to resolutions of appreciation, and we ask Ms. Anna Godwin, Wilson County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition Executive Director to come forward for a presentation.

Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for being here and allowing us the privilege to be here. I would ask, could some of our staff come and join me for the proclamation?

That's okay.

As they're coming up, I'll introduce them. We have Daquan Curry and Kimberly Redance. They are North Carolina Certified Peer Support Specialists on our team, which means they are individuals with lived experience of substance use disorder, and they are a vital part of our team and represent the power of recovery. National Recovery Month. Whereas National Recovery Month is observed each September to celebrate the millions of people living in recovery from substance use and mental health challenges, recognize the families and communities who support them, and promote the message that recovery is real. And whereas behavioral health is an essential part of overall health and well-being, and substance use disorders are treatable health conditions from which people can and do recover. Whereas addiction and mental health challenges affect individuals, families, workplaces, schools, and communities across every region, background, and political affiliation. And whereas recovery is strengthened by access to evidence-based treatment, peer support, risk reduction, stable housing, employment opportunities, family and community connection, and public policies that reduce barriers to care. And whereas stigma remains one of the greatest barriers preventing people from seeking help accessing treatment and sustaining recovery and whereas public leaders health care providers recovery community organizations employers schools faith communities and residents all have a role in playing in building communities where people can ask for help without shame and whereas public leaders can support recovery by listening to people with lived experience expanding access to care investing in recovery support services, using recovery-friendly language, and advancing policies that help people rebuild their lives with dignity and support. And whereas National Recovery Month provides an opportunity to celebrate people in recovery, honor those we have lost, support family and loved ones, and recommit building recovery-ready communities. Now, therefore, we do hereby proclaim September 2026 as National Recovery Month in Wilson, North Carolina, and call upon residences, organizations, businesses, healthcare providers, public agencies, and community leaders to celebrate recovery, reduce stigma, support people and families affected by addiction and mental health challenges, and work together to ensure that recovery is understood, accessible, and supported.

Thank you. Any questions for Ms. Godwin regarding the proclamation? If not, is there a motion to approve it?

So moved. Second.

Motion's been made and properly seconded to approve the Wilson County Substance Abuse Provision Coalition Proclamation for Recovery Month. Any other discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed? The motion carries. Thank you very much for being here. Oh, I hope so, definitely.

you

Thank you all for being with us this evening. Next, we ask Mr. Jonathan Pope, our Emergency Management Director, come forward to present the 2026 Preparedness Month Proclamation.

Good evening, Commissioners. Good evening. Having me come tonight. As we all know, September is National Preparedness Month. And this year's theme for National Preparedness is Americans Stand Ready. And some of those focuses on that is stand ready to uphold our patriotic duty, prepare individuals, support first responders, and help communities recover. Stand ready to protect our family and friends. Know what to do, where to go, and what you need in an emergency. and stand ready to help our communities take proactive steps to make neighborhoods more resilient. I'll read the proclamation.

Please do.

Wilson County Preparedness Month, 2026. Whereas National Preparedness Month is an observance across our nation and state each September to raise awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time. And whereas counties throughout North Carolina have been affected by a variety of emergencies, including hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, wildfires, flooding, earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. And whereas every community, business, family, and individual in Wilson County is personally responsible to be ready for natural and man-made disasters, including tornadoes, flooding, hurricanes, and public disturbances that might disrupt normal daily activities. And... Whereas the safety and well-being of our community depend on the commitment of individuals, families, schools, businesses, and organizations to work together toward a culture of preparedness. And whereas the peak of hurricane season is historically mid-August through October, and September 10th marks the peak of hurricane season. And whereas Wilson County residents should know the risk for the area and plan accordingly. And whereas Wilson County offers and encourages citizens to register at no cost in the Code Red emergency notification system to receive severe weather warnings. And whereas Wilson County residents should help the elderly and those who cannot help themselves. And whereas Wilson County residents should include the safety of their pets and or livestock in their emergency plans. And whereas Wilson County Emergency Management, North Carolina Emergency Management, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have collaborated to recognize September as National Preparedness Month to encourage Wilson County residents to be disaster ready. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Commissioners of Wilson County hereby declare September 2026 as Preparedness Month in Wilson County and encourages all citizens to provide for their loved ones by developing an emergency plan, building an emergency kit, and communicating their emergency plan to all members of their household and or workplace. This the 14th day of September 2026.

Thank you, sir. Any questions or comments from the board regarding the Wilson County Preparedness Month proclamation?

I have a question, Chairman. Please do. We had a pretty significant hurricane that came through. So do you have an idea of the, looking at Wilson County, the percentage of residents that are registered with this code red. Would you have an idea of that?

At this moment, we do not. The city of Wilson actually just changed platforms for emergency notification. We still are using code red. That is something I would definitely look into and find out what percentage of everybody who does not.

We're getting ready to release some.

I just made some new flyers to release those out. Actually, Stephen shared some on our website to try to encourage people to sign up for Code Red. It is a great program because it will locate wherever you're at. You can put different locations in it, and it will locate exactly where you're at to make sure you are warned if there's something on the way.

Commissioner Lucas, Code Red had a change in their software, their platform a while back, and that's one of the first things Jonathan had to get on is updating us to that new format. And as he indicated, people do sign up for the cities, and then we encourage the counties. So some of us, like me, get two things on our phones because I sign up for both. But as he said, they're getting information out to get that, and hopefully use our system, which we found out, correct me if I'm wrong, during the training is a little more robust than we thought it was.

Oh, yes.

So he's checking into that as well.

I can't remember if I had mentioned this earlier. We just got certified in our IPALS, being able to send IPALS messages.

Tell them what that is. That's pretty significant.

Thank you. Currently, I am the only one in Wilson County that can send those messages. So if there's any threat of an immediate danger, meaning an active shooter, or we know there is a tornado, or we have any type of immediate emergency that we need people to stay away, I am able to send through Code Red. As soon as I send the message, it is sent to FEMA. They approve it, and that's where we geotrack exactly a location. I can make it a circle on the map or a square or any type of shape. As soon as you come into that location, your cell phone will be alerted with emergency notification. And that doesn't matter if you're from Florida, California, wherever. If you come into that area where that notification needs to be sent, your cell phone will go off. But it's going to only go off on the phones. We don't have the capability as far as like the going on tv or anything like that if it was something immediate like that we could they would probably contact me but we have that capability here in wilson county now to be able to send those high pause messages to get an immediate notification out to someone who we can say hey do not enter this area or stay away from this area and we can keep those updated so the the city of wilson is it the same information being shared twice

So it could be because if you're in the city and sign up for theirs, depending on, they will alert you for everything from, I don't speak for them, but just since I live in the city, you do too, trash pickup delays. Sometimes Wilson City Police avoid a certain area. That's a Code Red or whatever new platform they're on. On our Code Red, same thing. We would notify you. We could do similar stuff, Water Services Department, but also Emergencies. The iPause is the thing where your phone really activates and you know this is serious business. We've never done that in Wilson County, and that's one of the first things that Jonathan mentioned in his interview, but he also has been hot on the trails to get that done, and now we have that capability. That's new for us.

Well, how does the public know that this particular service is activated on their phone? I never heard of it until tonight.

It's very similar to if you get a... like a missing persons alert or amber alert on your phone. It's identical notification kind of to that. As far as the public maybe knowing that, and that's something we can release and let them know. As mentioned before, it's a very strict,

circumstance where they'll actually release that emergency to the phone.

In my career, I have made one notification for a serious wreck that was on 95 that was coming through Charleston County at the time. So it's very rare, but if we do have that capability, then we can notify everyone.

Any other comments or questions for Mr. Pope? If not, is there a motion to approve the proclamation as presented? So moved.

Second.

Motion has been made and properly seconded to approve the proclamation given to us this evening by our emergency management director, Mr. Johnathan. Any further comments or discussion? If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. Ron, can we get a picture with Jonathan? Absolutely. Can we come down for this one?

Absolutely. Come right on down.

One, two, three.

Chairman Boyette, Sheriff Woodard, who's next on the agenda, will be here in about five minutes, and so if we could move him down your direction, and then when he arrives, he'll be more than glad to present. Okay. He's about five minutes away.

Then we'll go ahead and move into public hearings and then come back when the sheriff is available. This time we ask Mr. Michael Cobb, our emergency services director, medical services director, to come forward. We will conduct a public hearing for the friendly medical transport ambulance franchise application as described and presented to us this evening by Mr. Michael Cobb. And at this time we will call the public hearing to order, open the public hearing, and recognize Mr. Cobb.

Thank you. Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening.

Last month you had the first time, your first month that you could take a look at the agreement with Friendly Medical Transport and we ask you to hold this public hearing tonight. What we'll ask tonight is after the public hearing that you will either approve or deny their franchise application to operate an ambulance service in Wilson County. Their application is complete. They are eligible. The public hearing for tonight was advertised by the clerk. They're currently operating in six counties, will be their seventh in this part of the state. They'll be operating at the EMT level here for now, with aspirations of maybe paramedic later, or paramedic, operate at the paramedic level in some other counties. And the department recommends approval.

Good evening, commissioners. I want to just thank you for the opportunity tonight to review our franchise application. Myself and Friendly Medical Transport, we've been serving eastern North Carolina since 2012. Like you were saying, we're currently franchised now in six counties. We'll make our seventh county. We welcome the opportunity to be able to serve Wilson County for non-emergent medical transport.

Any questions from the board regarding the Friendly Medical Transport Ambulance franchise as presented to us this evening?

Could you tell us what those counties are that you're currently serving in?

Carteret, Onslow, Craven, Pamlico, Jones, and Lenore.

Any other questions or comments from the board? If not, we will ask the public, is there anyone here that would like to come forward and speak regarding the franchise, friendly medical transport ambulance franchise that we have presented this evening? There's no one that wishes to speak, then we will close the public hearing. and consider presentation that's been made to us this evening by Mr. Cobb. What is the pleasure of the board?

I make a motion to approve. Second.

Motion's been made and properly seconded to approve friendly medical transport ambulance franchise application. Any further discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed? The motion carries. Thank you, sir. Okay, then we will move to personal appearances. And we will ask Mr. Crawford-Bolton, our tax administrator, to come forward for a couple of presentations.

Good evening.

Good evening.

The first item on the agenda tonight is to present the July 2026 collection report for your information. And I'll be glad to answer any questions you have about the report.

Any questions or comments on the July 2026 tax collection report?

Clayton, are those numbers still being skewed by the believers' needs situation?

Are they still being what? I'm sorry?

So are those numbers being skewed by the believers' needs?

These numbers in July are, yes, the Believer Meats is part of this one in the beginning right now for these numbers. They're not being skewed, but we had to bill Believer Meats early, and so we have that in this levy for the beginning of this year prior to the billing that took place in August. But the collections is just current collections that we did for the month of July and prior years for that.

Any other questions or comments? If not, then the board will stand in receipt of that report. Please continue.

The second item for you tonight is to present the August 2026 refunds and releases in excess of $100 for your consideration. And I'll be glad to answer any questions you have about the recommendations presented before you.

Any questions for Mr. Bolton?

Crawford, can you explain the difference between the refund and release, just so we have a good understanding of what that is?

Yes. So a refund is when the taxpayer has already made a payment for the amount of taxes that they're asking relief from, whereas a release is where they have not made a payment yet. Statutorily, there's a timeframe which people have a timeframe to be able to make a request for a refund or release, which is either five years from the time that the tax is implemented or six months, whichever is greater. Usually that six months is referring to only payments. And so there's a certain time period, statutorily, that a taxpayer can make a request for a release or refund of taxes based off clerical error, illegal tax, or a tax levy for legal purposes.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? What is the pleasure of the board?

Move to approve.

Motion's been made and properly seconded to approve the recommendations for August 2026 refunds and releases as presented to us this evening by our tax administrator, Mr. Crawford Bolt. Any further comments or discussion? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed? The motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. At this time, we will move back to resolutions of appreciations, and we would like for Sheriff Calvin Woodard to come forward and present to us a request to award badges and service weapons to a number of retiring employees with the Sheriff's Office.

First of all, as always, I'd like to give an honor to God, Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior. Definitely, good evening, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen of the board, Mr. County Manager, and the Willis County leadership team. I come before you to present North Carolina General Statute 20-187.2, where I request that the badges and service weapon be issued to the retirees of the Sheriff's Office who had served a 30-year tenure. I have a total of 10 men and women who have served that tenure. And I would just give just a brief description of just their duties or as what they were assigned to at the sheriff's office. The first one being my chief of staff, which is my chief deputy, Wanda Samuel, who's also been a field deputy, my public information officer, domestic violence. excuse me, as well as a supervisor over the SROs during her tenure. Major Mark Connor, who's also been a detective, a field division employee, as well as a captain over the detention center at one point, which now he's over the civil, community judicial, and other areas of the sheriff's office. Captain Terrence Anderson, who was over the field division, a SRO supervisor, and also a detective, a narcotics detective in his past. Captain James McLaughlin, who has been a field division deputy, a detective, a major case detective, as well as now captain over the field division. Corporal Scott Drew, who was an SRO in the Wilson County School System, signed a FIKE, also over the field division. Also a member of my search and recovery dive team. Lance Corporal Adam Howell, who served as the deputy in Black Creek, also served some stints in animal enforcement, as well as the field division. Sergeant Austin O'Briant, who was also assigned to the field division, and also a general instructor, as well as Corporal Drew, I believe, as well. Marcus Ruffin, who's also in the field division, and also served as stint in drugs, and as also a detective. And last but not least, Senior Detective Toby Myrick, who was a detective, served as an SRO, and also the criminal intelligence investigator over crime scenes.

Any questions or comments regarding the sheriff's request?

Sheriff, did you say 30-year tenure? To, that's what the statute is?

Yes, sir. Some have served over 30 years, of course.

Any other comments or questions for Sheriff Woodard? If not, what is the pleasure of the board? Move for approval.

Second. Second.

Motion has been made and properly seconded to approve the request from Sheriff Woodard to award badges and service weapons to those retiring employees as explained to us this evening. Any further questions or discussion? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries. Thank you, sir. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. And Sheriff Woodard, if you would, please give the regards of the board to those that are retiring, because we know they've served Wilson County well. Next, we move down and re-engage personal appearances. We ask Ms. Danae Windsor, Assistant Financial Services Director, come forward for a couple of presentations.

Good evening, commissioners. Thank you for your time this evening. The first item that I'm bringing before you today is a revision to the Wilson County procurement policy. These revisions are required updates stemming from federal uniform guidance changes that affect historically underutilized business solicitations and lower the required bid number for eligible water and sewer projects. We are obligated to ensure that our policies reflect federal uniform guidance in order to receive federal grant funding, so that's why I'm bringing these changes to you today.

Any questions or discussion for Ms. Windsor?

We got a question. So the temporary two-bid minimum sunsets or expires January 1st, 2031. Can that expiration then, action we take tonight, it would remove it from the policy January 1st, 2031, or are we gonna have to go back in

We will have to go back and remove it. We do have it dated within the policy, so if the policy should exist beyond that point without any changes, it would no longer apply, but I'm certain we'll have plenty of changes to this policy before then.

Commissioner Hill, if you recall a few years back, we went through the Iran Divestment Act and several of the other changes. Since that time, the finance department's been extremely active on staying current on all the changes. And of course, when new administrations roll in, that changes as well at the state level. We will very likely be making multiple changes.

I was just trying to save a step.

Yep.

Any other questions or comments? If not, what is the pleasure of the board? I'll make a motion for approval.

Second.

Motion's being made to approve the Procurement policy changes as presented to us this evening by our business office, Ms. Renee Windsor. I should say finance office.

Thank you, commissioners.

Any other questions or comments? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. Please continue.

Thank you. So the second item that I'm bringing forward to you today is the resolution to participate in North Carolina Cooperative Liquid Asset Security Systems, otherwise known as North Carolina CLAS. We wish to participate in order to increase the safety of our county's EIDL funds through diversification and to ensure that we are providing wise stewardship of county dollars by making sure that they are in appropriate and conservative ways invested to the best return possible for the county. I believe you have the resolution. I'm happy to read it if you would like me to.

How often do they meet to determine what's suitable in the changing interest rate environment?

I believe that it's quarterly.

It's quarterly, okay.

And I believe those quarterly meetings do line up with federal meetings. Shortly after changes at the federal level, they'll start looking at what they're doing county and locally.

Any other questions or comments? If not, what is the pleasure of the board?

Any for approval?

Second. The motion has been made properly seconded to approve the resolution to participate in NC CLASP as presented to the board this evening. Any further comments or discussion? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioners.

Next, we ask Mr. Angel Landrieu, our Financial Services Director, to come forward for at least three presentations.

Good evening, commissioners. Good evening. The first one I have before you is I'm bringing a service contract on behalf of our information technology department. This is a three-year contract with Spectrum for internet service. We're increasing also our capacity from one gigabyte to two gigabytes. And I will take any questions you have at this point.

Any questions or discussion from the board? Angel, if you wouldn't mind, could you just take a moment briefly to explain to those that are here this evening what that... Spectrum Business will allow us to do. Absolutely. So this is for the...

Internet connection, got the word internet. We currently use two providers. We use Greenlight and we also use Spectrum. Greenlight is our main source of internet connection that we use. But since we have 911 and other services that we provide, we wanna make sure that when one system goes down, the other one's available to immediately take over. It actually becomes almost a seamless transition between moving from Spectrum to, from Greenlight to Spectrum. So it serves as a backup, but we also use it on a regular daily service here in our building and throughout the county. We may switch between Greenlight and move over to Spectrum to make sure that it's up and running all the time, it's operational. Thank you, sir. Absolutely.

Just a quick question. So what are we putting out for internet with the two companies?

I'm sorry, the question again?

How much are we paying for internet?

This contract is a total of $48,000 for three years. Our first year is 16,200, then it jumps to 32 on the second. It's still $16,200 per year incremental. So actually, we've already had this contract. This is not a new contract.

So what is it with the other, I want to know total.

I would have to ask. We can get that for you.

Oh, okay.

We can get it for you. Yeah. Yes?

Yes?

I would think it's suitable to this amount, too, as well. So this three-year contract is about short of $50,000. I would go and venture out that the green light would be approximately the same, if not even lower than that.

Okay.

We're fortunate to have two reliable providers in this county. That is not the case everywhere, but we're very fortunate to have that. And we did use... that service recently when there was the big outage. We were able to switch, as you heard me say in the agenda work session.

Is that pretty much common in the county?

No, that was rare this time. We just don't normally have outages with green light, but it happens.

Outages happen. And some counties don't have this privilege of having multiple providers. We are one of those that do have access to more than one provider. I'm sorry.

Any other questions or comments? If not, what is the pleasure of the board?

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

Motion has been made and properly seconded to approve the multi-year service agreement with Spectrum Business as presented to us by our financial services director, Mr. Angel Landrieu. Any further comments or discussions? If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries.

Please continue. Next, I have budget amendments to bring to your consideration approval. The first one, I want to emphasize and explain a little bit. This is a requesting $145,100 to appropriate funds for the law enforcement officers' bonus pay per Section 43.1 of Section Law 2026-41. We have been asked by the state to provide these funds to those qualifying as LEO officers, law enforcement officers. And this is why I'm bringing this one to you. Remaining of my requests are carryovers from prior year, from IT, EMS, Senior Department, Department of Social Services, Health Department. That completes my request. I'll take any questions you may have. While you're reviewing it, I also want to point out that the request for the sheriff's has to be paid out according to session law by October 15. We are ready to make this transaction completed. Our check run will be dated October 5 and payment would actually be out to the officers by October 7.

Is that a one-time bonus or is that something we need to build on?

One-time bonus as dictated by the sessional law.

And just to be clear, Commissioner Weatherton, when you asked, I understand what you were asking, that this is county funds fronted, but this is not county funds, it's state funds. So Thursday night we were sharing, we have to go through a reimbursement process, which we are still learning what that will look like, but our promise from the state is that we will get those funds back. But this is county funds fronted for state funding for law enforcement officers. Okay.

And that'll be those payments. Will all the payments be audited?

I know you mentioned... They can be. They can be. They can be audited by our auditors and also by the state auditor's office and also SBI department.

And I'm assuming if we gave an unqualified individual that money, then it'd be on us to...

Either refund it back to the state or pay to the officers that were not on the list.

which is why finance, payroll, all of them have gone through like a three-prong system. to check, recheck, and verify on the particular ones receiving.

Yeah, we've had a total of seven employees from the county involved in this to make sure that we're crossing our T's and dotting our I's. It's a little complex. Not a whole lot of information has been given, except it's been made available. I have reached out to the SBI and asked them when we can expect a payment once the payment is made out to employees, but yet to receive a formal reply to my request.

And as is with audits, we would be audited based on the instructions, which have been very fluid, that we are receiving from the FBI. So Angel and them are keeping that paper trail and instructions because we can only go by what they've told us to do. And so they're keeping up with that.

Any other comments or questions regarding the budget amendments as presented to us this evening? If not, is there a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Motion's been made and properly seconded. Any further discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries.

Please continue. The final presentation to you is the financial report for you to receive for the month of July. We'll take any questions you have at this moment.

Any questions regarding the monthly financial report as presented to us? July, 2026. Angel, thanks one more time for not trying to put it all on the same page. It does help me out greatly when I don't have to squint too bad.

I feel the pain.

Any other questions or comments? If not, then the board will stand in receipt of this monthly financial report.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Ron, any old business? No, sir. Any other matters? No, sir. Then we go to committee reports. And Commissioner Daniels, could you read the appointments committee for us this evening?

Appointment Committee for September 26 Wilson County Board of Education of Health Appoint Edmund Dakota Wilson County Library Board of Trustees appoint Alan Lane Motion has been made properly seconded to approve the appointments as presented any further discussion or questions

If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries. I do not have anything except to say that several of us went to the statewide county commissioner's meeting that was held in Durham. I'm limited what I can say in terms of, I was asked by someone, were we going off to a spa located in the mountains of the western part of North Carolina or Kentucky? I said, no, we're going to Durham. And that's what we did. It was a great meeting. It was a great meeting. But the highlight of the meeting was that two departments here in Wilson County received awards, and there were only 11 special awards given, and Wilson County got two of the 11, one for DSS and one for emergency medical services. And that's incredible. And I don't know if they're represented here this evening. I was going to ask them to stand. But let's give them a round of applause anyway.

And we will have the opportunity to recognize them at a future meeting when the association comes. Okay, great, great. Good idea. Ron, anything in the manager's report? Just on a personal note to everyone here, including many of you in the audience, just a thank you for your care and support on the loss of my mom. She loved this county. A lot of my passion for the county comes from my parents loving it so much, but this board has been amazing, and our citizens have been amazing. Parts of the media have been amazing, but people have just been very kind to me, and I just want to say thanks to all of you. I love this place, and I just appreciate the people that I work with, so thank you. And Ron, it's good to have you back. Lori did well in your stead. She did. I watched her. She did a beautiful job. Wonderful job.

Except I lost track of which seat she was sitting in.

It slowed the meeting down a little bit.

It's time for concerns of the public as conducted by the Code of Conduct. Do we have anybody that signed up this evening? Okay. Then it's time to move into closed session. Is there a motion to move into closed session for personnel reasons as stated in NCGS 143-318.11, parentheses A, closed parentheses, parentheses 6, closed parentheses, to consider the qualifications, competence, performance, condition of appointment of a public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee.

So moved. Second.

Motion has been made and properly seconded to go into closed session for the stated reason. All those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

All opposed? Motion carries. We're going to take a very short break to get some coffee, and then we'll go into closed session.