Board of Education - Regular Meeting

I don't think you are Lights on.

Good evening. Want to welcome everybody to the January 12th Williamson County Commissioner Meeting. As a reminder, if you haven't already done so, please silence your cell phones uh for the duration of the meeting. First item on our agenda is always the invocation followed by the pledge. Tonight's invocation and pledge will be delivered by district 10. Invocation will be given by Commissioner Bill Petty. The pledge to be led by Commissioner Megan Guffy. Please rise. We all bow. Dear Lord God, we come before you tonight to discuss, debate, and make decisions for our county. We know that you are in our presence because you promise when two or more of us are gathered together, you are there. And do we know you're in control? Well, when Jesus was challenged by Satan in the desert, he said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God." So everything we have, everything we do, everything we think comes from one source that comes from our God. So we're here together to recognize that. In that process, I pray that the Bible verse, Proverbs 3 5-6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lead not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your path straight. I pray that we listen intentively to one another that we we seek to understand before we're understood and that the decisions we make tonight are the best decisions we can make for our county. And I also want to pray just now for for our country and for the world. There's a lot of turmoil obviously and I pray for peace. I pray for understanding. I pray for healing.

There's a lot of hurting people right now and we need to pray for them and find ways to reach out with them and help them in their strife. And in the name of our savior, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Please join me in 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 item on our agenda is the roll call. If the commissioners have not yet done so, please hit your present button. Record the role, please, Mr. Whitby. I have 23 present, one Torres.

And Commissioner Torres did call and said he would probably be late, but he doesn't plan on attending this evening, and we'll uh expect him when he is able to arrive. Next uh item on the agenda agenda is approval of the minutes of the November 10th commissioner meeting. Copies were mailed out to each of you. I've got a proper motion from Commissioner Tunnliff, seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Are there any additions or corrections to the minutes of the November 10th commissioner meeting? I see none. If we're ready to vote, if you're in favor of approval of the minutes, uh indicate by pressing your yes button when it pops up. There we go. Uh, if you're not in favor, your no button. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time.

If you're not present, you can't push your no button. Who's not present? Says I'm not present. It says he's absent. Ricky Jones. Oh, yeah. We have uh Mr. Whidby. Ricky Jones is showing his absent. Yes. My vote is yes. His voice voted as yes. Um, if you wish, go ahead and record the vote. Mr. Whidby, I cannot get this. They are not promoting the screen forward. So I can [snorts]

There we go. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whitby. 23. Yes. Zero. No.

Resolution passes. Uh just before we go into citizens communications, uh I was told by council that I can go ahead and make the statement that resolution 12629 has been pulled by the author. Normally that statement would be made after citizens communications, but we thought uh that there might be those presents who would like to know that it's pulled before they speak or or opt to speak or not speak. So, uh if you've signed up to speak, obviously you still may do so. Uh and you can speak to that resolution if you wish. Uh just know that we will not be hearing that resolution tonight. Again, that resolution being 12629. With that, we'll move on to citizen communications. Our rules allow up to three minutes per speaker and we have tonight four speakers. I will call you out in order in which you signed in. If you would uh when I call your name, come to the podium and announce your name along with the town uh in which you live. Uh first I have Mr. Mike Ryan.

I can't turn the mic on until they do that. And Mr. Whitby if you could uh Diane's unable to uh turn the mic on to the podium. Advance the screen. It's not on. No, give me just a second. Give us just a second. Normally we if they advance the screen, we're able to turn that on. Here we go. I now you're live. Go ahead, Mr. Ryan.

Okay, great. Thank you very much, Mike Ryan. Um and I'll make my comments very short. I want you to know that as a taxpayer from Franklin, Tennessee, I support taxpayer transparency for the potential sale of the Williamson Medical Center. It appears that key aspects of the evaluation process have happened behind closed doors with potential sale proceeds to be put into a trust overseen by unelected officials unaccountable to taxpaying voters. Last month, twothirds of you voted to change our state law that would allow sale funds to be returned to the county and its taxpayers, therefore, which would help shrink our 1.1 billion in debt. And that, of course, equates to about 4,400 uh dollars per resident. I just want to thank the twothirds who voted for this last month and implore the others to make the next vote 100%. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Next I have Thomas Vain Court Mr. Thomas Ver Court or Vanc Court. Hopefully I'm not butchering that too terribly.

Don't worry about it, Commissioner. Everybody butchers it. [laughter] Uh my name is Thomas Vine Court. Uh I am a taxpaying citizen of uh the city of Franklin as well. I'll be even more brief than Mike. I merely want to reinforce what my friend Mike Bryan said. I agree with everything he said. I think if we're going to sell the hospital, the proceeds should stay right here in Williamson County and more specifically be used to pay down debt. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Mr. Vancort. Next, we have uh former commissioner Todd Kner.

Good evening. Thank you. Obviously, I'm coming to you tonight as a simple private citizen. I I want to say that I think you are one of the best county commissions in the nation. I really believe that. I appreciate your commitment and your dedication very much. When I served on this commission, we had to build schools at an incredibly fast pace. But it was the right investment to make at that time. We did incur a lot of debt and most of that remains with us today. As an aside, the state of Tennessee has a debt level that's about $266 per capita. And my calculation is a little different from what I heard a minute ago. Our county has a debt of about $4,44 per capita. And now we face the upcoming cost of building the new jail and juvenile justice center, both of which are much needed and will increase our debt. Allow me to digress for just a moment and declare that I truly love our great hospital. They saved my life literally in 1983 following a very bad accident. I greatly applaud your prior passing of the resolution to allow any proceeds from the sale of the hospital to benefit our taxpayer owners by enabling a reduction of our county debt. As I've been talking with voters, a great majority of them express significant concern about our rising debt level. Thank you for your dedication and your service to our county. I applaud your farsighted thinking. Thank you.

I'm doing that in communications messages. Thank you, Mr. Kesner. And our last speaker tonight is uh Mr. Steve Hickeyi.

Before I start, I'd just like to say Todd, there's no such thing as a plain, simple citizen, and certainly not you, sir. Respected members of the county commission, I'm Steve Hickeyi, uh Franklin resident and chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party, and I speak with you tonight in that capacity to state the official position of our county party on the potential sale of Williamson Medical Center. Our county hospital was formed nearly seven decades ago as a nonprofit hospital owned by the citizens of Williamson County. Over the years, those same citizens have made continued investments in this public asset. The hospital belongs to the taxpayers of Williamson County. We the taxpayers have a rightful expectation regarding his disposition. A transaction of this magnitude is a significant undertaking for the county. As such, it demands the utmost in transparency and avoidance of conflicts of interest. This will ensure not just confidence in this process in the taxpayers's mind, but also that the taxpayers receive top dollar for this very valuable asset. Current state law requires after payment of hospital related debts that the nest proceeds from such a sale be put into a foundation or trust administered by unaccountable appointees. That's not acceptable. Our position is that the net proceeds must be returned to the county general fund so as to pay down debt or offset capital projects that would otherwise incur debt. We thank the commissioners who have supported a legislative remedy to this situation. Thank you. However, your work will not be done with the passage of such a bill. We urge you to follow through and return the full measure to the Williamson County taxpayers. To summarize, we, the Williamson County Republican Party, support the sale of Williamson Medical Center only if the proceeds from that sale are returned to the county general fund and not sequestered in a trust or foundation. This is the taxpayers's money. They should be able to use it how they see fit. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Hickey. And that concludes citizen communications. Uh moving on now to communications and messages. We have two proclamations this evening. Uh for the first one, I will call on commissioners Clifford, Herbert, Hester, Lawrence, Sanford, Mary Smith, Steve Smith, and Commissioner Stresser for a proclamation honoring the 2025 Page High School Patriots football team. Y'all go on that side. They're gonna come on this side. [clears throat] You want to have them come over?

Okay. Thank you. Um, I'd like to go ahead and ask the Paige football team to join us up here. Coaches and players, if you could come around the front. Where do you want? They're coming here. They know where they're going. [laughter] Instructions for you. congratulations [clears throat] big team.

Yeah, everybody. Okay, y'all ready? Okay, here you go. This is a proclamation honoring the 2025 Paige High School Patriots football team. Congratulations. Whereas the Paige High School Patriots football team made school history by winning its first ever state championship, capturing the Class 5A Blue Cross Bull title on Friday, December 5th, 2025 at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, defeating Sevir County 214 and completing a perfect 14-0 season. [applause] As somebody who watched one of those championship games against Seir County, I'm just really proud of you guys. Congratulations. Whereas the championship marked the culmination of one of the most successful eras in Tennessee high school football with Paige compiling an extraordinary overall record over the past four years, suffering only a handful of losses, several of which came in previous state finals. while establishing the program as one of the most consistent and dominant in the state. And whereas in a thrilling rematch of last year's championship, the Patriots secured victory with a decisive 45 yardd touchdown with quarterback Cameron Cruz to Kaden Aerman with 58 seconds remaining, delivering the long- aaited breakthrough that had eluded the program in four consecutive state title appearances. And whereas the Patriots demonstrated exceptional resilience throughout the postseason, delivering defining defensive stops led by state championship MVP Cohen Gryom along with strong performances from Shawn Cunningham, Emanuel Calvin Johnson, Jordan Curl, Jake Wthbone, Knight Wilson, and many others. And whereas offensive momentum in the second half

was propelled by touchdown from James Pierre and Knight Wilson, complemented by Cruz's efficient passing and leadership under pressure. And whereas under the leadership of head coach Charles Wthbone, coach of the year, the Patriots exemplified perseverance, unity, and pride, representing Paige High School in the Rudderville community with outstanding character and determination. And whereas the his this historic championship stands as a proud milestone for Paige High School, inspiring students, alumni, families, and supporters across Williamson County. Way to go. Now, here's the fun part. I get to name you all. Okay. Freshman Riley, Elijah King, Austin Bellski, Chance, Greg, Ra, Brandon Beckett, John Ryder, Bennett Clump. Sophomores Isaac Oti, Talon Cisneros, Olan Hatgood, Everett Humphrey, Jacob Smith, Jack Jackson Neestor, Tyson Robbins, Wrigley Braden, Braden McGawan, Harrison Griffin, Hatton Kart, Grant Pitman, Will Plots, Graham Johnson, Graham Griffin, Cooper Mueller, Kingston Wells, Nicholas Brady, Random Guiles, Levi Win, Ryland Wright, Evan Venutrix, Bennett Kaufman. Did I get that right?

Okay, good. Bennett Kaufman, Everett Tut, Frankie Patruno, Rhett Atkins, Thomas Dowling, Owen Yarro, Joseph Gara, Connor Sullivan, juniors, Elijah Pimento, Ryder Casillas, Pton Dickerson, Drew Remple, Cameron Cruz, Kyle Weebush, M. Lee, Colin Muick, Flynn Steel, Quincy Finley, Paxton Walters, Grant Dickens, Liam Strother, Asher Lorenzan, Grant White, Sam Gorsen, Liam Perry, Nolan Belu, Por Porter Whitehead, Jonathan Baba, Caleb Kaufman, Joan Hacker, Daniel Callahan, Cash Kulus, Jesse Kits, Preston Ashmore, Ryan Nuranchic. Hopefully I said that right, too. and seniors Knight Wilson, Colt Brown, Sean Cunning, Sean Cunningham, Kaden Aerman, Tyson Cobb, Grady Kase, Levi Sisle, Cohen Gryom, Colton Zulki, Eli Bell, James Pierre, Wyatt Hec McInness, Maddox Morgan, Davs, Matthew, Jacob Wthbone, Emanuel Johnson, Jordan Curl, and Sloan Bass. Head coach Charles Wthbone. Assistant coaches Curt Annis, Jay Emmens, Jason Hoth, Stephen King, Jerry Mccloan, Mloone Mlone, John Nester, Miller Pulk, Travis Shepard, Sha Temple, Scott Wells, Kaden Williams, Shane Williams, and James Wolf. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Williamson County Board of Commissioners, meeting in regular session on this 12th day of January, 2026, hereby congratulates the 2025 Paige High School Patriots football team on winning the first state championship in school history and for their exceptional representation of Paige High School and Williamson County. Thank you. [applause]

[applause] [applause] [applause]

Can everyone look at Miss Macy? Hey guys,

over here.

Thank you guys. That's right. [applause] Congratulations.

Congratulations. And congratulations once again to the Paige High Patriots football team. Our next proclamation tonight has to do with the 2025 Summit High School girls volleyball team state champions. And I'll call upon commissioners Carden, Herbert, Hester, and Mason. guys are going out and the ladies are coming.

I got you. They were in the hallway. And I believe they are out in the hallway. Here they come.

Just kind of circle.

Nice. Yeah. Yeah, if y'all just want to kind of group up right there and hold it or put it on the floor. Exactly.

All right, ladies. Proclamation honoring the 2025 Summit High School girls volleyball team as state champions. Whereas the Summit High School girls volleyball team won the class AAA state volleyball championship for the first time in the history of Summit High School, which opened its doors in 2011. And whereas in securing this historic victory, the Spartans closed their season by defeating Brentwood High School 3 to2 in an intense and hard-fought state championship match. And whereas the championship match was fitting as it marked the fifth meeting between the two teams during the season with the series tied 2 to2 entering the final contest. And whereas during the championship match the Spartans collectively registered 68 kills, 64 assists, nine aces, 63 digs, and 13 blocks, demonstrating excellence in every phase of the game. And whereas junior Emory Estiff recorded an impressive 22 kills with senior Maggie Khis adding 13 more, powering the Spartans offense, which was expertly guided by setter Mandy Shanahan, who was named the championship MVP. And whereas the summit team entered the tournament as state newcomers, but emerged as state champions, displaying resilience, composure, and unwavering determination throughout the week. And whereas the Summit High School girls volleyball team members and coaches include seniors Amanda Shanahan, Bell's Lambert, Kendall Williams, Maggie Kles, and Skyler or Skyler Skyler Lambert. Juniors Ary Poke, Emmy Estip, Madison Spelta, Mika Hayes, Micah, thank you. Micah Hayes, Tessa Row, sophomores Charlie Johnson, Julia Hill, Non Yansy, and head coach Warren Riker, assistant coaches Avery Davis, Delaney Gallagher,

and Lily Dalstrom. Whereas this remarkable group of athletes and coaches has brought great pride to Summit High School in Williamson County through their sportsmanship, perseverance, and exceptional performance on the state's biggest stage. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of county commissioners meeting in regular session this 12th day of January, 2026, hereby congratulate the 2025 Summit High School girls volleyball team as the class AAA state volleyball champions and recognize the level of excellence exemplified collectively by the team and for the numerous outstanding individual student athletes. Congratulations [applause]

[applause]

Congratulations. [applause] And congratulations once again to the Summit High School girls volleyball team. Both teams make Williamson County proud tonight. Um last under communications and messages, uh Commissioner Bill Petty would like to make a brief remark concerning resolution 12629.

Okay. Thank you. Uh yeah, I pulled it but it's not dead. Um, we had a meeting, the text study committee had a meeting Wednesday night and just did a fabulous job of going through the uh, resolution and finding places that we needed to change and correct and um, Christy Ransom was there to help out and she followed our requests and wrote some amendments to it. So, there were enough amendments that I thought it might get confusing and take us too much time tonight to go through them all. So, we're going to uh I'm going to rewrite it and get ready to submit it for the the February meeting. So, we'll be discussing it then. I hope that it has generated uh some conversation. Well, I know it's generated some conversation in the county and I think that's a good thing. uh we we need to think about these things uh and we need to be looking at the future of our county. I know we all believe that and we all think that's important and uh I'm excited uh to see what comes up in the in the next couple of months. So that's the situation and thank you very much chairman.

Thank you commissioner. Next item on our agenda is reports of county offices. I'll call upon Major Ro Mayor Rogers Anderson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [clears throat] Uh, let me start by saying uh we'll ask Phoebe to come up. She's uh the general, and I'll let let her give an overview.

Thank you, Mayor Anderson, and good evening, commissioners. Um this evening you will find in your packet there are three reports on debt obligation which includes the county district school bond the general obligation both series 2025 as well as the general purpose school fund tax anticipation note. Um these were all issued in November so do not fret. I have not tried to slide anything by you. There was not issued. Um each of you received a copy of these reports back on November the 21st. However, part of my legal responsibility, is to make sure they're also included in person at the next meeting, public meeting, which is this evening, um, and to ensure that that has been acknowledged within the minutes. So, that is why you have those reports. Again, um, I have submitted those on on behalf of the county for you to review. And any questions, please feel free to ask. This evening, since we did not have a December meeting, I will report on October and November numbers. The privilege tax collections for the month of October was a little over 1.1 million. And for the month of November, privilege tax for the month collections was 1.4. So you can see we are continuing to stay very steady in our collections from month to month. In October, we did collect a small amount of commercial privilege tax in the amount of $2474. Um, in January will be our first time that we have opened that up as you all had passed for those um to be extended that privilege tax for commercial throughout the county. You will not see that until after the first of the year, which I will report to you next month. Education impact fee for October is 1.6 six and for the month of November collections was 1.9. Our Cool Springs Conference Center received a profit for both the months of

October and November. In October, we received a profit of $151,052. And for the month of November, we received a profit of $64,214. This brings our net profit to date to fiscal year date of 168,079 for the Cool Springs Conference Center. Um, this concludes my report. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to take those at this time. Any questions for Ms. Riley? I see none. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman. We have one other uh report. Uh this is from Chris Jones and William Bradford. Chris, as many of you know, is from Middle Tennessee um electric. I guess it's a presentation more than a report. And then William Bradford is the CEO, president of United. So I'm not sure who to call on or what. William, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate it. Do we have our slides up? No. Gave us a second to get your slides up. Adrian,

I'll be real quick while they come up. Um, as Mayor Anderson said, my name is William Bradford. I'm the CEO of United Communications. We are a local internet provider headquartered right here in Franklin and Berry Farms. We're part of the Middle Tennessee Electric organization. And I think everybody knows Chris Jones, the CEO of Middle Tennessee Electric, and Chuck Barber, who has uh heroically led our government relation efforts over the years. So, uh we are so excited to be here tonight. And it's half half update, half presentation. We're going to keep it real quick because I understand y'all have been here past midnight many nights. As local executives, we really appreciate what y'all do to make this a great place to invest in a community. We like to joke once you build infrastructure, you can't move it. And this is a wonderful place uh to have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure. Oh, thank you very much. Oh, perfect. We'll keep this real quick. We're a local company, but we're not small. United alone has invested over $250 million in broadband infrastructure in Middle Tennessee. We're very committed to the communities we serve. We've brought over a hundred million dollars of federal and state grants to this region and are a leader in fiber optics in our communities. In 2022, as many of [clears throat] you all know, you were hearing from many of your constituents about the lack of broadband in Williamson County. Uh Williamson County, like many counties, still suffered in the rural areas by lack of broadband. Over 15,000 homes and businesses didn't have access in our community alone to reliable internet. Mayor Anderson challenged us to come up with a solution to see that every single resident of Williamson County got access to broadband and you this commission uh supported our initiative to partner together and seek ARPA grants uh for this region and we were very successful at doing that. The commission uh stepped up and supported uh with your own ARPA

money a little over $2 million. Uh we brought almost uh $20 million of state grants as part of that project and United funded the rest. As a result, United has invested over $60 million in Williamson County alone in broadband infrastructure and we've virtually eliminated the lack of broadband in Williamson County. It's been a great success. You can see here, I know everybody likes to see maps, so that's the only reason I brought slides. You can see we kept to our word and we focused on the rural areas first. The green means we have brought broadband service to these areas and as you can see we've served the four corners of the county. We're pleased earlier uh or in the middle of 2025 to announce we're now bringing our services to Franklin and Brentwood. Uh but as you know we're a rural first company. We brought fiber to the areas of greatest need. And I'd like to just make a real quick comment. I know we're so quick as executives of the county and executives of our business to turn to the next challenge and the next opportunity. Uh and so we really wanted to come tonight and express our gratitude of a successful project and take a minute and celebrate things that worked really well uh with a with a meaningful investment to us but a relatively small investment. The county has spurred over $60 million of broadband investment and solved a need for its citizens and we couldn't be happier about the partnership uh with Williamson County and we're very appreciative. We worked hand in hand quite regularly with Mayor Anderson and Commissioner Webb who you all charged uh to ensure these grants were spent wisely and benefited your constituents. And so more than anything on behalf of Chris Jones, Chuck, our team of over 750 local employees right here in Middle Tennessee, we want to express our gratitude and we've got a token of appreciation um to share with you all. not not much. Uh but we do want to recognize and officially certify that Williamson County is now an 8 gig certified community. And what that means is you

all now have access to the areas the state's fastest internet. And not only that, we back it up with the privacy our citizens deserve and local customer service right here in Middle Tennessee. So we're very excited to partner with you and make a huge impact on infrastructure investment in the county. Thank you, Mr. CHAIRMAN. [applause]

Thank you very much. Yeah, I think uh Mr. Bradford, if uh if you don't mind, I think Commissioner Tennac wants to say a few words. I also want to just reiterate the fact that uh United brings if we are serving that area free 8 gig internet to all our volunteer fire departments at no charge and uh and that matters to those guys. I think uh Commissioner Sanford will agree with that. So, thank you very much for what you do.

Thank you. [applause] Well, as a followup to that, appreciate William acknowledging and recognizing what they have done united, but it really wouldn't have would not have been possible without several years ago, Chris and the board at Middle Tennessee Electric taking a risk, taking a gamble, stepping out there on the plank to ensure that we had the services we've God. And so, thank you to Middle Tennessee Electric and to their board for believing that they could make this happen. And thanks to William for actually making happen. They're homegrown products and we appreciate you all very much. Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. THE THE [applause] SO, with that, I'll entertain any questions, Mr. Chairman, that you may have. Any questions for the mayor? Uh, Commissioner Lawrence. Good evening, Mayor. Uh question about the property we voted on last month at the JHG Hill property um regarding the new judicial center. Uh where are we on that and how much time do we have to do a study under under the option? So to try to answer your question, the due diligence process is uh ongoing. That's phase one. I don't know is Kevin here? No,

I think that's phase one and phase two. So, we're doing the the due diligence on that. Once that report comes back and we get the all grain that the um hazard there's no hazardous mitigate or any ma hazardous material or if we have to mitigated we'll know what I cannot report to you that because I haven't got the results back in. We do have 120 days, Bobby, once the time clock starts. We have 120 days in which to exercise our options on that property, which you'll have to you all will have to decide whether we go with that location. I suspect we you will see this in um more likely February, maybe into March depending on the reports we get.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions for the mayor? I see none. Next up, we have reports from Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Jason Golden.

Thank you, Mr. chair and thank you commissioners. We don't have any funding requests on your agenda tonight. Uh but I will take this opportunity to thank you again for celebrating our students. Uh every time we have that opportunity makes me smile. I will tell you specifically, Commissioner Smith, uh thank you for naming each one of those individual students. You know, years ago, decades ago, uh a student might have seen their name in the newspaper. Uh and there's something special about their actual name getting shared. Uh so thank you all for that. You know our vision statement is that we will provide a supportive environment where students are challenged to excel in academics, athletics and the arts. Uh and you all support us in that endeavor. Uh those moments of success uh are definitely worth celebrating. But I did want to let you know that out in the hallway after you celebrated them, Coach Wthbone took an opportunity to tell them it's time to put that behind you. The reason you don't win backto back a lot of times is because you let this get to your head. Uh we've got workouts. Uh I thought it's really neat he took that opportunity to go after to go after his uh his his leaders to prepare for next year. Uh so with that, that's my report.

Any questions for Superintendent Golden? I see none. Thank you.

Next, we have a hospital report. Uh CEO Phil Mazooka and CFO Terry Fowler. Thank you, Mr. Chair and commissioners. Uh good evening and happy new year. I'm uh pleased to report at the end of the year we've got some exciting news uh for Williamson Health. Just a few weeks ago, Williamson Health will William Williamson Medical Center was named to Forbes magazine inaugural list of top hospitals in America for 2026. We were one of only two hospitals in Tennessee and the only hospital in Middle Tennessee and just one of 253 hospitals nationwide to receive the highest overall five-star award. We're extremely honored to be included in this very first ranking of top hospitals put out by Forbes that focused on patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, best practices, and value. The recognition exemplifies Williamson Health's ongoing commitment to delivering highquality health care with exceptional patient experiences. The honor belongs to the dedicated members of our team who work tirelessly to ensure our community has access to top-notch medical services in a familiar comforting environment. We're also informed in December that we have once again been awarded several 2026 recognitions from the National Women's Choice Award program for best hospitals. Eight awards we earned in 2026 are patient experience, outpatient experience, patient safety, heart care, obstetrics, knee and hip replacement, minimally invasive surgery, and women's services. As with the Forbes ranking, all of the awards and recognitions we receive are a direct reflection of our

team's steadfast commitment to what we consider our privileged mission to care for this special community. From a provider standpoint, we continue to add providers to our growing Williamson Health Medical Group. Recently, re recently, we added a new primary care physician, Dr. Troy Miller, to our West Franklin Clinic location. For those of you who remember our longtime primary care physician, Dr. Kenneth Dodge, who retired this past summer, Dr. Millan Miller has joined Dr. Dodge's former practice. And to strengthen our breast health team, we've added a new nurse practitioner, Payton Lee, to our high-risk breast program to help provider care for patients at increased risk for developing breast cancer. The Williamson Health Turn Duga Breast Health Center continues to be recognized leader in Middle Tennessee. Our brand new CT scanner has been in installed and is currently seeing patients. This is our first CT scanner with cardiac capabilities, which we'll be begin using by the end of this month. We're extremely proud of this new piece of equipment. It is one more example of how we continually elevate our overall services and technologies to benefit our community. Construction for the new MRI with cardiac capabilities and installation is still scheduled for March. In closing, I'm proud to say that Thursday this week, Williamson Health celebrates 68 years of providing service to our community. Now, with that, I'll turn it over to Terry to provide a report on the financials. Good evening everyone. Here's the financial results for November. November had softer volumes than budgeted which resulted in a budget miss. Inpatient admissions were 12% below budget and 4% below prior year. Total surgeries were

9% below budget and 2% uh below prior year. Medical visits were up 5% versus prior year. Part of the reason for the declines year-over-year relates to November having fewer business days this year than the prior year. From an earnings standpoint, Ibida was less than budget by 15% or 357,000. However, favorable year-to- date by 1.6 million or 14%. Net income was unfavorable to budget by 442,000 however favorable year-to- date by 1.2 million or 126%. Although revenues were lower than budget, we continue to operate efficiently as operating expenses as a percentage of net revenue continue to be below budget and prior year both for November and year-to- date. Ibida margin percent was 6.5% for the month and 8.3% year-to- date. Operating cash increased 1.3 million mainly due to timing of payroll and days cash on hand all sources uh was 113 days which is up one day from prior month. Debt coverage remained at 2.48 and then this concludes my report. Thank you. Let me know if you have any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Mazuka or Mr. Fowler. Uh, first up, I have a question from Mr. Penny. Yeah. Um, I'm I'm just curious. There's a lot of confusion about what exactly Williamson County owns with regard to the hospital. Could you clear that up for us a little bit?

I'm I'm not trying to avoid the question because that's something that the attorneys will be able to give you precise answers. I can tell you from my perspective, what I'm aware of. So um when we took out the original bonds for the hospital where it currently exists, one of the covenants of the bonds was that once those bonds were paid off, we had to donate the uh land and building to a governmental entity. And so when we paid off those bonds, we actually donated uh the land, the original land and the original facility to the uh to the county itself. So the original land and the original facility are county-owned property, but the hospital operations are still not owned by the county. That's under the private act hospital district. There's about I think it's about 17 acres of property, bone and jointed uh tollgate and and another piece of property down the street uh that is owned by the hospital district and not the county. And so that's from my from my understanding the non-technical explanation of uh of ownership at this point.

Yeah. So so the contents of the hospital are not owned by the county. It's just the building and the land. That's the original land. Yeah. And the building and uh upgrades to that building is my u is is what I understand. Okay. But again, that's something that the attorneys would be able to answer from a technical standpoint. Thank you. Commissioner Tunnliffe. Phil, are we uh over here? Thanks. Our heart health month is coming up. Is the hospital participating again in that wonderful? Yes, we are. We're going to do the uh calcium scoring uh program u uh next month, month of February.

I will encourage all residents and all county commissioners partake on this. I did this last year and a health issue was discovered with myself and thanks to the health professionals at Williamson Health. Um everything looks good, but I encourage every one of us to go and all the residents to go and get that checked out. Thank you. I can tell you that uh you know, I'm not going to violate any HIPPA, but there were several people that felt like they were in perfect health that had the test done that found some pretty significant issues that had to be dealt with. So, I'm really happy that we were able to help those people. I hope everybody gets a zero on their score, but that doesn't always happen.

Mr. Mazuka, if you would maybe elaborate on how that works and how someone can sign up uh to have the test done. Yeah, you'll be able to sign up for the test in February. And it's basically a CAT scan that gets done. And I think based on uh based on going through it, the CAT scan takes about a minute. And so it's uh very quick, very easy. I don't think that you need a physician uh order. And I think we did over a,000 last year, a thousand procedures. Uh last year it was uh $50 for the total scan. Uh this year it's $65.

Well worth it. It truly is. It tr I mean, you don't change. You don't do anything. You just go in. You're in and out the door within 15 minutes normally. Any other questions for Mr. Mizuka or Mr. Fowler? I see none. Thank you. Thank you. We have a health report this evening. I'll call upon Miss Kathy McGomery.

Good evening, commissioners. Um over the holidays you may have heard or seen um articles that were in the news about an outbreak of hystopplasmosis cases that were in our Thompson Station and Spring Hill area. Um representatives at our local health department have actually been assisting the Tennessee Department of Health in investigations and so forth. Um, and last week we actually met with both city and county uh, mayors to give them an update on um, on what's going on in those in those areas. And so I've invited Dr. Mary Margaret Phil and Dr. Emma Taylor Sammon who are both state epidemiologists with TDH to provide that update for you as well. So, I'm going to turn this over to them.

Well, Mayor Anderson, Mr. Chairman, and commissioners, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to come and address the board this evening. As Kathy said, my name is Dr. Mary Margaret Phil, and I serve as the state epidemiologist with the Tennessee Department of Health and I'm accompanied by my colleague, Dr. Emma Taylor Salmon and we want to provide you an update on this ongoing investigation that we've been conducting into this cluster of cases of hystoplasmosis in the Williamson and Murray County areas. So I'm first going to turn it over to my colleague Dr. Taylor Salammon who's going to get a little bit of background on hystoppplasmosis.

Thank you. All right. So hystoplasmosis is a fungal infection that is caused by uh the fungus hystoppplasmos uh hystoppplasma capsulatum. It often presents as pneumonia and it is endemic in the central and eastern United States. Around 60 to 90% of people who live in this area are exposed at some point in their lifetime. It lives in the soil, especially in soil that is heavily contaminated with bat or bird droppings. And some activities that in can increase your risk are uh going into caves, cleaning chicken coops, construction, landscaping. When it's in the soil, it grows as a mold and that produces spores that get into the air. People become sick by breathing in these spores and once they get into the lungs, they're able to develop and invade the body and it can spread just into the lungs and can also spread throughout your whole body. Most people even have self-limited disease though. Um the severity of illness in people who are infected really depends on the person's underlying immune system and on the intensity of their exposure. how much of the spores that they inhale. Only about 1% of people who are exposed to the spores will develop symptoms and usually presents after about 3 to 17 days with symptoms that can a lot of times mimic a common cold or the flu. You can have fever, chills, cough, you can have a headache, you might have some body aches, but these symptoms frequently resolve without treatment. And most people don't even know that they had hystopplasmosis. However, in people who have suppressed immune systems, as well as in babies or in adults that are over 55, you have an increased risk of developing severe or disseminated disease.

So in November of this past year, we actually heard from several distinct clinicians in Middle Tennessee who were seeing an unusually high number of patients in their hospitals with hystoppplasmosis. So we looked at the data that was available to us and we were able to confirm that we were seeing a higher than expected number of cases of disease in this area of the state. Um we were prompted then to notify clinicians in Middle Tennessee of this increase and we released a Tennessee Health Alert Network message uh in um in early December. This was to provide awareness to physicians in Middle Tennessee about the increase to provide education about the diagnosis and treatment of hystoppplasmosis and to ask them to notify us if they were taking care of patients that they felt could have hystopplasma infection. And since then, we've worked very closely with the Williamson County and Murray County Health Departments to conduct outreach and interviews of patients that were reported to us by their physician who were suspected of having hystopplasmosis. And so our goal is to try to talk with patients and understand what risk factors they may have and understand what exposures they may have had uh to hystopplasma in about the three weeks before their symptoms began. So where are we today? Well, as of January 9th, we've identified 35 cases of hystoppplasmosis in the Murray and Williamson County um areas, which I'll show you on the map on the next slide. Um this graph shows the distribution of cases over time by the date that they first became ill. And you can see we do see a skewing sort of to the late September, early October time frame when we see the most cases. Um but we do still see um cases developing uh through, you know, mid to late November as well. When we look at the geographic distribution, we do see this very tight clustering right along the border of Williamson and Murray counties and the Thompson Station and Spring Hill areas. [clears throat] I'll pause for a second. I will just note that for the vast majority of patients, this dot represents their home address. But there

are a couple of patients that we interviewed who perhaps live outside of that area but work there or who have some other activity that brings them into this area more frequently, which is why they were included in our investigation. So while our investigation has not yet identified a single clear source of exposure that's causing this increase in illnesses, this is not uncommon for hystopplasmosis. As Dr. Taylor Sammon said, it's an endemic fungus that lives in the soil and we see across the entire state of Tennessee. We do occasionally and historically have seen clusters that may be linked to a specific occupational or community exposure and we are continuing to explore any potential risk factors in the community. Because hysto is commonly found throughout the soil, it can be challenging to completely prevent exposure. But as Dr. Taylor Sammon said, we know that those individuals at highest risk are people that either inhale the greatest amount of spores or who have weakened immune systems like she mentioned. Um we uh do have some general recommendations which she's already alluded to which is really to try to limit exposure to activities that disturb the soil or increased exposure to plant matter or bird or bat droppings. Um so I've listed on the bullets there some examples of what those activities may be. Um and then if individual if an individual feels that they are especially high risk or want to mitigate their risk even further, they could consider wearing a protective mask when conducting higher risk activities. All that to say, our investigation is ongoing and we're continuing to look for modifiable risk factors in the community and if new specific actions are recommended, we're happy to come back to the board to provide an update. Um, but we will stop there and are happy to take any questions that you may have.

Any questions? Uh, Commissioner Hayes. Yes. Hi. It was my understanding that the majority of the people that came down ill have been teenage age range. Is that true? Yeah, not the majority. There are certainly a handful of cases that are um younger individuals. Um do you recall what the mean age is? So the the median age is 50. Okay. Um and there there understandably have been some um cases in the news and um families that have spoken up quite understandably where there were some younger patients. Um but that's not the majority of what we're seeing.

Okay. And I also heard the area that was of concern was like the June Lake area where there had been a lot of construction and change in the soil and right I didn't know because when I heard teenagers I think they're playing maybe they're playing ball out in you know you know you come up with ideas of like oh my gosh how do they prevent that? So I'm glad to hear you all are on top of it. It's it is a huge concern and I appreciate you giving us an update. Thank you.

Thanks ma'am. Yeah, and you know, the June Lake area has come up in our interviews. Um, but it is a huge development. There is construction everywhere in Middle Tennessee, and so it's hard to pinpoint that, you know, this one particular uh construction development is quote unquote the cause, but we are having ongoing conversations with Spring Hill leadership as well as with the leadership of the development who have been very responsive to make sure that there's not something that we're missing. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? Hey, Commissioner Hester. Commissioner Hester, how was hystopplasmosis treated since it's a fungal infection?

There are antifungal medications that we can use to treat it. Um, you know, most patients actually don't need treatment and so they can be closely monitored by their clinician to determine if treatment is necessary. Those drugs have risks and benefits. you know, if if you're sick enough to need them, they're great to be given, but we don't want to give them unnecessarily if your body will fight the infection on its own. Um, but there are anti different antifungal medications that can be administered either orally or through an IV depending on how sick the patient is. Does does it ordinarily include hospitalization? It

in the majority of patients, it does not. We have certainly seen that some of these patients in this investigation have been hospitalized and some have been critically ill. um and hospitalized for a very long time. Um but that's not the case in every single patient. Well, which of these practices require more caution? Uh I think there more people who are raising chickens in and about this area and you get you have chickens, you're going to need to clean up.

That is true. That is great and we do we do ask about that in our interviews and we have not seen that every patient has chickens. Um if we did that would uh that would be an easy thing to provide education about. But you're right there are a lot of very common activities on that list and so that's why we're really just trying to raise awareness and make sure that people understand that hystoppplasma is present in the soil. I think for many residents this is probably the first time that they've ever heard of this. It's a long name. It sounds very scary. Um, and we we want to provide information and then also reassure to the degree that we can that this is nothing new to Tennessee. Um, and we see this um, in patients across the state every year. Um, but we are trying to take a closer look in this instance to make sure that there's not something else people can do to protect themselves. And one more quick, we live in an area where the bird fly overs because of the Tennessee River and our lakes and streams and the Cumberland River and that contributes to histolasmosis is from my understanding. Is that true?

Yes, ma'am. the the the pH of the soil that is most um uh supportive for the growth and and flourishing of hystopplasma is that that often has bird or bat droppings mixed in. Um we actually have uh have gone so far as to we've engaged with the National Weather Service. We've engaged with some local community birders to understand bird migration patterns to see if there's been something atypical happening this year. And so far we haven't seen anything out of the ordinary, but we are trying to turn over all of those stones. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, [snorts] Commissioner Hester. Any other questions? Commissioner Richards, my question for you. Thank you for the update. Uh, is it typical that it's clustered together like that or is that unusual?

No, this is somewhat atypical and again that's what prompted the investigation. um you know we see hysto is actually not a disease that we investigate every case of routinely because it is found across the state and because most people don't have serious or severe illness. Um but because we've seen this tight clustering, that's what's prompted us to try to dig further and see if there's some again community or occupational or um uh what's the word I'm looking for? Like um yeah, um I was trying to think of like recreational exposure that people have. Um that was a commonality and so far we have not found that, but we're continuing to interview cases and make sure that there's not a common theme there that we've identified. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Commissioner Lawrence. Yes. Thank you so much for the update. So 35 cases, how does that compare to like other counties? Is that a high number compared to like Davidson County or where you got a lot bigger population or

Yeah, because we don't routinely track cases of hysto meaning that if I'm a doctor in Nashville and I take care of a patient with hysto and normal any other time, I normally don't report that to the department of health. So we don't typically count every single case of hystoplasmosis in Tennessee. Um, we were able to look at things like historical hospital discharge data and emergency department data to see how these trends from this year compared to prior years. Um, and again, we do feel like that 35 number is higher than we would expect for this part of the state. It's higher than what we've seen in prior years, but it's not an exact comparison because we're sort of comparing apples to oranges um because we don't routinely ask that clinicians notify us of every single case of hysto that they see. Um, so it's it's not um hopefully that's a satisfactory answer to your question, but I don't really have great historical data or great data from other counties to compare to.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? All great questions. And I want to thank Miss Montgomery for bringing uh this to our attention. And am I right just to put a note of uh urgency on this, correct me if I'm wrong, out of these outbreaks, there has been one fatality, correct or no? Um I I'm we are continuing to look at medical records to understand. There have been patients that we were notified of that um have passed away, but we're trying to determine the cause of that and and whether or not it is directly related to their infection with hystoppplasma or not. Okay. Well, thank you doctor. Thank both of you and thank you again, Miss McGomery. Any other departments wishing to report or any other reports at this time?

Yes, sir. Commissioner Tunnliffe, I believe the uh sheriff's office has a quarterly update on their jail accreditation. Thank you, Sheriff.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, commissioners. Uh I'm going to be introducing Mr. Jim Hart with CATAS and he's going to make a presentation. And I will note that the agenda says um that this is a quarterly update. That's actually only required uh at the law enforcement committee level. Tonight, he is going to present you with a staffing analysis. Last month, I sent y'all an email that told you about the jail uh who has become a tier 2 certified facility, and we are only one of six jails in the state of Tennessee to have attained that highest level through the TCI, Tennessee Correctional Institute. So, we're very proud of that. I want to congratulate our staff. I want to thank our gel administrator, Carol Esteban, Captain Chad Uker, and our compliance officer, Lieutenant Jasper Driscoll. And just to recap uh the message that I sent you last month, if we weren't certified uh through TCI, the standard amount of money that we receive from the state for every state inmate per day is $38. Being a tier 2 certified agency, we receive an additional $12 per inmate per day. So that takes that total up to $50 a day for a state inmate. And with that, I am going to turn this over to Jim Hart. This requires no action on your part, but this is a mandate to attain and maintain [laughter] that tier 2 status. So he's going to give you this presentation.

Good evening everyone. My name is Jim Hart. on the uh jail consultant with the county technical assistance service or CATAS. Um part of the tier 2 accreditation requires a formal staffing analysis and a review of the jail standards as it relates to uh their healthcare operations uh to be um completed within one year of their accreditation. So this complies with that. The other part of that that uh requirement is that it be uh presented to uh a public safety committee, a county corrections partnership, to the full commission just to get it on record that that this study was done and that you've been informed of it. Uh last month I had the opportunity to present it to to your law enforcement committee and a copy of the uh um staffing full staffing analysis report was submitted to you uh via email. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because it's a very detailed report, a lengthy report, but I just want to sort of hit the highlights and the process that we went through for your information. Uh the methodology that I use was just was uh utilized in the National Institute of Corrections Staffing Analysis Workbook for uh jails and it's a it's a process that we went through to take a look at the comprehensive operation of of a jail facility. looking at daily activities, looking at a coverage plan, meaning when do we have staff on duty, where do we have them on duty, what kind of functions and activities are they doing as as part of that. The other thing we looked at is we evaluated the shift scheduling to to look at a comparison of eight hours, 10 hours or 12 hour shifts to see what's what seemed to work and support the AY's uh mission. And then we looked at a relief factor or the net annual work hours. Um the main challenges that that that we identified were just uh we're hiring we had the opportunity to hire staff and then we're training those staff and then we're losing those staff meaning that they're moving on to other functions within the sheriff's office or they're moving on to other agencies. Not uncommon of what I'm seeing at other

locations around uh around the state. Um some of the things that we look at just to to um paint a picture of you will if you will of the jail is all the functions that that are going on. Uh when we start thinking about bookings and releases and uh doing uh rounds uh looking at uh safety and security rounds in a facility, the different types of inspections that are conducted. We just uh paint a detailed picture of what's what's occurring both inside the facility but also what's occurring outside the facility that requires staff efforts such as transporting inmates to hospitals to local clinics to department of corrections those type of things that require some form of work effort. Uh we looked again at at daily activities. Sometimes that we can find some inefficiencies by um better scheduling of functions and activities uh versus letting the activities control the staff efforts and where we start uh operating in this crisis management mode if you will. The staff coverage plan again looks at um having the right type of staff in the right place at the right time, doing the right things that are consistent with the agency's policies and procedures, uh their post orders, the training, the best correctional practices, and then the state jail standards. I'm not going to bore you with these these next three slides, but this basically just help enabled us to identify the posts and the positions from the jail administrator to every correctional deputy in in the facility. Apply the number of hours of coverage that is needed both weekly, daily uh and annually. And then apply a relief factor to that. Meaning we give employees time off through vacations, military time, FMLA, bereavement and then we we uh divide that calculation into the coverage to give [clears throat] us how many uh staff that we actually need to cover those posts and those positions throughout the uh throughout the year.

When we looked at uh the net annual work hours, um one of the things that we we um frequently will see is is that a jail has adequate staff coverage, meaning all the posts and positions are identified and we have adequate staff to support those. But we start finding some some challenges sometimes as it relates to the relief factor, meaning we haven't calculated enough of of all the time off that employees uh actually take. So when we we go through this process and we look at the relief factor or the net annual work hours as it's referred to here, we look at three years worth of data of every employee that was that worked whether they worked one day in the sheriff's office or working during the three years and to give us that average based on that job classification. We only look at those relieved positions, meaning if an employee doesn't show up to work central control on that day, we have to f have somebody to cover that post. It's a It's one of those functions that's relieved. On the other side, if if the jail administrator is is off doing some training for a couple days, we don't have another jail administrator. Somebody else assumes some of those functions and roles. So, uh for the purpose of this agency, uh the food service uh staff, uh the correctional deputies, and then the booking specialists were those that we identified as as needing to be relieved uh positions. The only thing to point out here as it relates to the net annual work hours of relief factor is I think that we could do a little bit better job and we've had this discussion with the agency as it relates to capturing the training hours away from work. So when employees are out doing different types of training um to to uh better themselves or add to their toolkit, we can do a little bit better job of capturing that time off to ensure we get a really good accurate uh picture of that that relief factor. We looked at um the coverage plan as after we put this together to uh look at it as it relates to various functions

and activities, emergency response, uh both the minimum standards for le uh local correction facilities and the accreditation standards just to ensure that we can do the job that the plan or that the existing staff is able to function in in an adequate manner and that the uh the plan or any kind of adjustments that may be made uh also support um uh compliance with uh with these various uh uh reviews that we conducted. One of the things that we identified is is that um the agency was on 12-h hour shifts. They shifted to 10-hour shifts uh last summer and there was some staff shortages. They went to eight hour shifts and they're now in the process of getting ready to go back to 10-hour shifts. But I evaluate uh shift schedules by these five components that you see here. Um looking at sufficiency, do we have enough staff on duty based on what the plan calls for? Um and what I found is there were there were some shortages from time to time. Uh is it is it efficient? Uh an inefficient schedule will have additional staff on duty that may not have been scheduled. And then is it consistent again with the the flotation of of uh the numbers of staff available and deployed and other functions going on sometimes created that inconsistency. Staff found it a very attractive schedule particularly shifting from the twelves to the 10ens. Um and then um we are just experience that we're seeing is is that the 12-h hour shift schedules are having um sometimes are problematic or challenging uh for staff to get that that time off or that rest time from shift to shift. And so staff are finding that those 10-hour shifts or those eight hour shifts are enabling them to get that adequate downtime. I looked at the healthc care operations as it relates to the Tennessee Corrections Institute standards and the standards for the accreditation and what we found is that they're doing a great job. Uh they're they're addressing the uh the inmate needs. Um we looked at

various inmate grievances and found them to be very minimal um that uh that were out there. So in in uh the uh healthc care providers providing a a great service, the only thing that we found is is that uh they are trying to identify uh inmates right at the front door just to give that initial assessment to to identify if there's any problems or challenges that need that uh uh immediate medical need. And because of that, it sort of backs up the booking process a little bit. Uh but that was the only uh major uh downside. But it's a good side because they're trying to identify anyone who has uh any types of problems uh right at the front door. Um the healthc care coverage um at this point we found to be um uh pretty accurate and this is what was uh proposed or is planned uh inside the uh existing contract. So, in general, um, this presentation, the staffing study that you've received, um, complies with the standards, uh, of the Tennessee Corrections Institute, uh, for the agency to they've achieved their tier 2 accreditation, but to maintain it because the requirement, uh, uh, required us to have this done within 12 months of the the actual accreditation. And with that, I'll take any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Hart? I see none. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Sheriff. Any other [clears throat] departments wishing to Chairman, I would like to ask Sheriff Hughes a question if I can. Absolutely. Sheriff Hughes. Sheriff, do you mind addressing the email that I forwarded to you on that intersection that we had some concerns on for accidents? Split Log Road. Yes, sir. Uh, yes, sir. You asked me about an accident that occurred, I believe, over the weekend or over the last week at least. Three or four of them.

Yeah. And uh so what we did is we asked staff to pull all of the accidents that have happened in that area last year, the total for 2025. And we determined that there were 24 accidents that have [clears throat] occurred since January 1st of 2025. Uh Jim Rule with Risk Management also received an email and he took uh someone out today to look at the actual site to lay eyes on it [snorts] and then I responded to you and to Jim Rule and to Eddie Hood and uh I hope that we can work collaboratively together to look at some solutions on maybe some signage or things to prevent future accidents. Obviously, we can take care of the enforcement, the traffic study, but uh I think there's probably some uh things that Eddie and his staff can look at to maybe a long-term corrective action for that particular road given that many that that large number of accidents in a short period of time.

Thank you, Sheriff. I know we all had received that email and it was a concern. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any other departments wishing to report at this time? Seeing none, we'll move on to elections and appointments. Uh, first one up tonight is the Storm Water Appeals Board. This is a three-year term expiring one of 29. Term expiring

together. Uh, we'll do both of these together. Term expiring uh Liz McLaren and Steve Westerman. Nominations are Liz McLaren and Steve Westerman. I have a proper motion by Commi from Commissioner Guffy and seconded by uh Commissioner Drew Torres. Um, any discussions? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of those nominations, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whidby. 24 yes, zero. No.

Nominations are approved. Next, we have adjustments and appeals board. Filling an unexpired term expiring one of 28. Deceased is Kenneth Schult. Nomination is Bo Childress. I have a proper motion made by Commissioner Guffy and seconded by Commissioner Ricky Jones. Any uh any discussion? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the nomination, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whitby. 24 yes, zero no. Motion passes. And our last one is the beer board. Filling an unexpired term expiring 11 of 28. Term expired is Tom Wilson. Nomination is Matthew Baldry. I have a proper motion made by Commissioner Guffy, seconded by Commissioner Carden. Any discussions? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the nomination, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Could it be 22? Yes. To abstain. Nomination is approved. Next, we have our consent agenda. Uh, I'll entertain a motion. Proper motion made by Commissioner Hayes, seconded by Commissioner Torres. Any discussions? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, uh, if you're in favor of accepting the consent agenda, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed, your no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whitby. 24 yes, zero no. Motion passes. We have no unfinished business. Under new business, we do have two zoning hearings tonight. Um, I will read the description of each and then invite anyone from the public who wishes to speak on either one of these

to come to the podium and do so. Uh afterwards we will vote on them as a whole uh as as the commission. The first public hearing uh has to do with resolution 1265, a resolution to amend article 3 of the zoning ordinance regarding mailed notices when public notice is required for a zoning map amendment. Anyone wishing to speak from the public, please come to the podium and do so now. Going once. Going twice. Hearing is now closed. We will now vote on the resolution 1265. Again, a resolution to amend article 3 of the zoning ordinance regarding mail notices when public notice is required of a zoning map amendment. I have a proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Greg Sanford. Explan uh regional planning commission with 740 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This has to do with notice for zoning map amendments. Currently, we give notice to adjacent property owners for any area of a zoning map amendment. This essentially changes it from adjacent properties to any property owner within 500 ft of that boundary line. Uh the concern being that the current adjacent property requirement might not be sufficient to give other property owners in the surrounding area uh enough notice that they may be impacted by a reasonzoning. And I would ask uh if there are any questions, council can come up and probably answer them much better than me. And I do have a question it looks like from Commissioner Tunnliff.

Yeah, it's it's not just the area in which we send those notices. Well, can someone explain to me why we dropped the sign notice needed for this 15 days prior? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Toncliffe, that's actually a typo. Um, we don't send mailed notices on text amendments because a text amendment applies countywide in the entire unincorporated area. So, the mailed notices do go for a map amendment, a reszone, but a text amendment, if we sent mailed notice, that'd be to everybody in the county. So that actually shouldn't have been in the table for a text amendment. So the sign notices

and the sign notice that we there's no property on which to place a sign for a text amendment since it's countywide. So that shouldn't have been in there to begin with. Thank you. Thought we were opening it up. Let's clean that too.

Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 1265, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? [clears throat] Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whidby. 24 yes, zero, no. Resolution passes. Our next zoning hearing has to do with resolution 1266, a resolution to amend article 3 of the zoning ordinance regarding utility availability for new development. Uh we'll open the floor to any public comments at this time. Going once, going twice. [clears throat] Zoning hearing is closed. So now to the commissioners again. Resolution 1266, a resolution to amend article 3 of the zoning ordinance regarding utility availability for new development. I have a proper motion from Commissioner Barb Sturgeon, seconded by Commissioner Betsy Hester, Planning Regional Planning Commission with 740 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Torres. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, as many of y'all know, uh, last summer there was a significant sewer leak in the grassland area at a, uh, dilapidated plant, and that really uncovered the lack of communication from TDC and our regional planning commission. And so, this resolution is an effort to uh, increase that communication in terms of private utility companies and their standing with Tekk. And I would ask Christie since she helped or since she wrote this to come and maybe add some color.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Torres. Um, so when developments come into the planning commission process, whether it's a concept plan or a non-residential site plan or whatever, they have to provide notice uh or a letter of service availability from the water provider and the sewer provider. Um and we just had as you can see from the amendment just kind of a basic give us a letter that it's available. um because we have multiple types of wastewater provision whether it's septic individual septic or a municipal sewer or in the case of the one that Christopher Torres was referencing um a private utility providing public wastewater which sometimes is a discharge like the one in Grassland and sometimes it's more often in the county it's the like the step systems the land application uh there really wasn't um an opportunity to find out if that particular plant that is proposed to accept this new development is in good shape and it's functioning well without any active violations. And so after what was going on in Grassland, Commissioner Surgeon and Commissioner Torres reached out to me and said, "Can we get a little more detail?" Because the planning commission is just not getting that information. So if a new subdivision's coming in and proposed for a plant, the planning commission and the staff really didn't have any way to know what the status of that plant was. And so, uh, again, while we were opening this, I took the opportunity to just ask for a little more detail, not only for the sewer availability, but also the water. You know, what, um, what type of improvements are going to be needed and how long is that going to take? And, and we sent this out to all the utilities that would be potentially affected. Uh, one of them reached out to me with some questions and suggestions on how to word a couple of things. So, we were happy to work with them on that. Um, but this just gives the planning commission more detail uh to make a more educated decision on a development when it comes in, what utilities are actually available to serve that development.

Uh, question or comment from Commissioner Sanford

Christie. So, [clears throat] um, the utility companies will be providing additional details. Is that accurate? Uh generally it it will be something between the utility provider and the developer presumably. Um a lot of times the water providers they already have this information um especially later in the process and that was the one thing that we that we tweaked the water provider that reached out to me. We were asking for too much at the concept plan stage and so that's why it's broken down into diff different phases. Um, so I think essentially the letter would come from the like for instance the water utility provider because their engineering firm is going to look at what's being proposed and see how it meets in their long-term provision of utilities. Um, it just gives the planning commission hopefully a better idea of what has to happen before they can even turn on the the spot, I guess.

Okay. Thank you. Mhm. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 1267, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Okay, give them just a second. Commissioner Guffy stepped away.

Commissioner Sanford and Commissioner Mary Smith. And then I believe Commissioner Guffy has stepped away momentarily. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whidby. 23 yes, one absent. Resolution passes.

Next resolution. Resolution 1268. Resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 Parks and Recreation Department budget by $170,000 revenues to come from participant fees. Uh parks and proper motion made by Commissioner Drew Torres. Seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Parks and Wreck was 540 against. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Morton. Mr. Chair, if I may have a moment. Uh, do we want to do 1267 first or start with 1268? As I was reading that, I wondered if I had skipped one, and you're right. So, if it pleases the commission, we will uh We've got 1267 loaded. So,

yeah, we've got 1267. So, I'm going to backtrack and uh I don't know if we need to clear the motions in a second to offer new ones, but I'm going to read the proper title this time. Resolution 1267, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 parks and recreation budget by 64,42.50 revenues to come from donations. Uh, proper motion made by Commissioner Drew Torres, seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Parks and Wreck was 540 against, budget committee was 440 against. Now, explanation, please. Commissioner board. Uh, yes. This is just accepting funds from youth sports organizations to pay for officials and upgrade facilities.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby. 24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Now, resolution 1268, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 parks and recck department budget by $170,000 revenues to come from participant fees. Proper motion made by Commissioner Drew Torres and seconded by Commissioner Lisa Hayes. Parks and Rec Committee was 540 against, budget committee was 440 against. Explanation, please, Commissioner Morton.

Yes. Uh, just accepting fees uh from participants at the Performing Arts Center.

Any questions or comments? [snorts] [clears throat] Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby. 24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 1269, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 animal center budget by $19,500. Revenues to come from donations. Proper motion made by Commissioner Judy Herbert, seconded by Commissioner Tom Tunnacliffe. The public health committee was 540 against. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Morton.

Jes. You think Judy Hayes can't do any more for this community. She comes up with a tremendously generous donation. Uh, this is accepting that donation from Judy Hayes.

And we do want to thank former commissioner Judy Hayes for everything she does for this county, including this wonderful donation to our animal center. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Widby. 24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 12612, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 animal center budget by $10,000 revenues to come from unappropriated county general funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Greg Lawrence and seconded by Commissioner Lisa Hayes. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Webb,

which are we on 126 11 or 12? 12. Am I skipping them again? 11. Well, 11 is under other, right? Right. Yeah. So, we're on 12. Okay. Uh what we've got here is simply a water leak occurred during the irrigation line and it was out of warranty and so they're asking for an amendment uh to the budget. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whitby.

24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. And uh to Commissioner Webb's point, I noticed my packet was a little uh disheveled when I received it. Uh some of these um and this may have been the case for you, Commissioner Webb, that uh they're not in order necessarily. You might check your agenda page to make sure we're you're following along in order. Some of these are under other versus appropriations. So, I think they were put in the pack numerically uh when they should have been placed under their appropriate categories. So, I think there's three or four resolutions that are that way if if you want to double check your stack. Which brings me to now I've lost my place. Are we on 14 now? Yes, sir.

Resolution 12614. Resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 Williamson County Office of Public Safety budget by $4,966.87 for overtime, supplies, and maintenance of vehicles. revenues to come from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reimbursements for emergency management assistance to North Carolina. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tom Tunnliff and seconded by Commissioner Greg Sanford. Uh law enforcement did not wish to review this one. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Tunnliffe.

Thank you, Chairman. I I will also state that this is not one that we chose not to review. That was a different one and that's a mistake. Um, I would like to uh Sorry, I just we we reviewed this one if I remember correctly, didn't we, Commissioner Sanford? Um, pretty self-explanatory based on the title. Um, Teemo wants to give us a little bit of money to help compensate our expenses in North Carolina with their flood and we're very thankful to them for their assistance and I apologize for that error. Do you for the record know what was the vote 540 against? I believe it was 4.

4. Okay. Four in favor, zero against from the law enforcement public safety committee. 440 against for budget committee. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whby 24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. We're now on resolution 12615 resolution for intercategory transfer transfer of $1,37.94 between major categories to provide for administrative costs related to the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tom Tunnliff and seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Budget committee was 340 against with one abstension. Uh explanation please, Commissioner Morton.

Uh yes, this is just an intercategory transfer. doesn't change the total amount. They just need to shift it from salary to benefits. Uh question or comment from Commissioner Webb. Mr. Chair, because this does affect the ARPA program, which I am part of, I'll abstain. Understood. [clears throat] Thank you, Commissioner. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed, your no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whby. 23. Yes. One abstain.

Resolution passes. Resolution 12616. Resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 budget by 64,600 revenues to come from opioid abatement funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Guy Carden and seconded by Commissioner Tom Tundliffe. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Webb. Uh Mr. Chair, this corrects a a problem that we've got in order to get this money into the the fund. This amends the budget by the 64,600 relating to the opioid abatement funds.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby.

24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 12617, resolution approving an amendment to the county attorney uh budget for payment of council and potential hospital transaction. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tom Tunnliff, seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. The budget committee was 440 against. Property committee I do have would not hear. Hopefully I'm saying that right and not making a mistake again. Um explanation please, Commissioner Morton.

Uh thank you, [clears throat] Mr. Chair. Um this is a a resolution to to amend our budget uh to provide for legal counsel for this commission for the county uh independent of the hospitals. Um I believe the reason property didn't hear it was at the time we didn't really have an understanding of kind of where it came from. Uh Mr. Jesse Neil is here today. Um he can provide some further explanation and also possibly some updates on what he's been doing for the last two months. Um, in rough terms, it was, you know, sort of a high side, low side estimation of of fees and expenses through the fiscal year. Uh, we've estimated on the high side of the the estimates there. We obviously don't have to and hope that we won't spend all of this money. Uh, do fully intend to be reimbursed from either the hospital or if there ends up being a sale that this commission approves, the acquiring party to reimburse those fees back to the county.

Any questions or comments? Do you wish to speak on this, Mr. Neil, or want to hear from me? Uh, Commissioner Lawrence. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's

ahead. Thank you, Commissioners. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, since uh we we last spoke, I appreciate the opportunity to report back. Uh we've done uh a lot of productive work engaging directly with uh the hospital and the hospital's council uh on a couple different points based on the direction that you were able to give me and that the property committee was also able to give me. There was a question about whether the hospital would be willing to uh share criteria used to evaluate potential partners for Williamson Health and uh based on uh that request they responded in the affirmative and shared that with us which we then shared with uh the property committee. Uh they also asked at our at our request if if the commission would be willing to provide and evaluate and offer up additional criteria that they thought would be appropriate and consistent with uh the goals of the commission and the county in evaluating these potential partners. So that I thought was a very productive opportunity to engage with the process. Uh the premise of these discussions uh are the are the same premise that we discussed at our last meeting which was it should go without saying and if it doesn't it is that the county commission is involved in the evaluation process and they ultimately will decide whether a transaction is pursued or not. And so over a course of several meetings with with the uh with the hospitals council uh we've made a number of different requests and directions to them uh to their credit they've responded and been engaged and open to the direction that we have uh we have asked for them. They've also asked uh if there are significant additional uh issues that they would like the commission uh that the commission would like to make aware to potential partners uh that they could include in communications to those potential partners. Examples of these include it's it's very common for county

governments and the hospital uh to have an arrangement with regard to prisoner healthcare. that's that's often an informal arrangement, but one that still has to be managed and addressed through the transaction documents. That's an example. Another would be EMS service. If there are specific expectations of the commission uh with regard to EMS service and a potential partner's use and investment in that service, uh that's something that uh I can I can take back with me and advocate to the process to make sure that that's included. your priorities are my priorities and those are ones that we can relay back to the hospital and we have standing in an opportunity to engage engage with them. Um last but not least uh I think one of the biggest um areas where the commission has absolute in my mind unfettered standing to lead the community through the process is through what we call community covenants. When a c when a county hospital decides to engage with a partner uh to invest capital or whatever the the the strategy and approach ultimately will be, there are commitments and they're a reflection of the community and the county and what their priorities are, access to care, uh the name on the building, uh if there was a children's hospital, uh those are a couple different examples, participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and importantly, uh maintenance of charity care policies and protocols. uh those are typical features that you would see in a in a transaction document and those I believe and I think they agree should be driven by uh the county and the county commission. I believe an email went out on December 11th uh after uh sharing the the property committee presentation that I had prepared uh with a request for uh if you were willing and able to share with me uh any uh

questions or recommendations or directions uh or uh priorities with regard to those community covenants. Uh and so if uh if you are uh interested in talking directly or was sharing any of those with me, uh you can email them to me and they can be reviewed at the January 28th property committee meeting uh which is um I believe is when it when it is scheduled. So I'm I'm I'm glad to to answer any kind of additional questions about uh the work we're doing. Uh we've got a a diligence uh process protocol that's been developed. We've got requests out to the hospital and they have been responding to those requests on a rolling basis with with information that's needed for us to uh evaluate and advise you on the steps forward in terms of a transaction uh including uh ownership of property uh down to the every deed and uh every every acre. And so that process is ongoing as it should be and I don't think it's too late or too early for that process. I think that uh through uh our engagement and the information that you're sharing with me and my hope is that the information that you'll continue to share with me to guide me and direct me, I will be advocating for those priorities through the process and able to report back on questions and updates uh as they arise. So, I I appreciate the opportunity to give you give you an update and I really am honored, my firm is honored to be able to represent uh the county commission on this matter. So I thank you again.

Any questions for Mr. Neil? Commissioner Lawrence. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh good evening, Jesse. Just a question sort of a follow up on Commissioner Tonic's question. What so the property that's owned by the hospital district? What what is your opinion on that property as as in regards to the proceeds from the sale of those assets? are would they not be considered county assets as well since the county set up the district and sort of is basically the district operates under the oversight of the commission or is your opinion that that's a separate entity and those assets would be treated differently.

So and that that question was I believe brought up on the property committee. I I don't believe um it it can be analyzed further for sure. I don't believe there would be a distinguish under current law uh between that property uh and and the property that's owned by the the the the hospital entity. Uh but we can certainly there's certainly room to um have different perspectives on that and we can certainly take a a position that we've developed and can research.

Okay. Okay. So in other words, you you would look at it all holistically as one one piece of property as a whole that that the proceeds of which should go depending on what happens with state law. Of course, if we can get a change in the state law, if the state law has changed, if that were to come back to the county commission, those asset the proceeds from those assets would be included. Correct.

So I'll I'll I'll put it u this way. So, as a former assistant attorney general that reviewed these transactions, what I think is is the custom historically is that there would not be a treatment distinguished between the two sources. Now, with regard to this transaction as your lawyer, I would like to review and make a determination about whether we could take a different position if that was consistent with state law. Certainly, if there's an update to state law that impacts how that is accounted for and distributed, uh I would be that I would help develop that uh position and that approach and advocate for that on your behalf. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Hayes.

Hi there. Um you mentioned a second ago that you given an update to the property committee. I haven't seen anything go out to the whole commission. So, are you just giving updates to the property committee? the I can clarify from my from my perspective. Uh I was I was forwarded an email on December 15th uh of an email that was sent out um to the full commissioners. It appears at least from the two uh with a with a uh attached to that a copy of the presentation. So my understanding is that it has been distributed. I I've received the presentation, but it was my understanding from that committee meeting that all commissioners would be copied on any updates and if there were any questions sent to you that those would also be sent out to all commissioners, therefore lessening four or five of us asking you to do the same thing. So, we're all informed all at the same time. So, I just want to make sure I'm understanding. Are you just sending these property committee? Are you sending them to the whole commission? I have not sent any communications to the property committee. I I was I appeared on the agenda and gave a presentation.

Okay. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding something you said. So, do we have any expected communications that we're going to get to you from you on a regular basis? I am I am glad and willing and I think we're we're approaching the time where it's appropriate for me to start providing updates and potential uh decision points and schedules in conjunction with my discussions with u the hospital. But of course, I'd defer to you and your direction on that front. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Petty.

Hi, Jesse. U appreciate working with you. Uh got getting to know you. I like you. No, you're a nice man. I appreciate that. I My question is that the money thing here. We got $900,000 and it's $150,000 a month and I did some math on it and I divided $150,000 by 20 which we got 20 working days to a month and that came up to $7,500 a day and you divide that by nine and that comes in about eight hours. So, I guess I'm wondering, you know, I I I'm not questioning the work you're doing. I think you're doing a good job. Please don't misunderstand me, but I just don't understand the cost here. I I can't imagine somebody's working eight hours a day at $9 $900 an hour every day of the week for for six months to do this. And I'm just a little bit confused at how this building is going. So,

sure, I'm glad to weigh in generally on that. Uh it would not just be me in my office working eight hours a day on Williamson County. what what I uh do is uh leverage uh parallegals, associates, junior partners, mid-level partners, senior partners in various specialties uh to to maximize the value and minimize the cost. Uh and so historically, uh and I I don't know what um what the rates are that the hospital uh pays for its council. I've represented uh county governments and I've represented hospital governments, hospital systems uh on transactions similar to this uh and and the rate is based on uh a number of workflows that I'm glad to walk through right now if you'd like.

Yeah, I mean I'm assuming you you have billing records we could that would be available for us to see how we're being built because I just want to understand I'm not trying to create a problem here. I just don't understand. Sure. And I I I understand that this is the the the public's money and uh we keep track of our time on this matter uh in six-minute increments. Uh every single six-minute increment is accounted for with the person who performed the work and a description of the work they did. And I would welcome a chance to review that with you. Yeah. Okay.

Commissioner Sanford, I don't have a problem with your money. you're an expert in what you do and your staff is is an expert in this line of work. I don't know how many experts we have on this commission of of hospital salespeople. So, um my [clears throat] only comment is I speak for district 5 alone, but um I would hope that you would use your expertise to represent this commission obviously and think of the things that we can't think of, right? I've never done this before. Um I'm not too sure my co-commissioners have either. And uh I would just ask and lean on you and your expertise um because you are an expert in this field and uh think of things, problems and concerns that we wouldn't think of and obviously just ask those questions or um just be our eyes and ears and I appreciate it.

Thank you, Commissioner. I would be glad to serve in that function. I think it's uh important and with this kind of delegation and direction uh we can find out a we can develop a protocol uh where I can uh set some opportunities for y'all to weigh in and discuss and I can give my recommendations and experience on those front and ultimately I'm supporting you and educating you uh and helping you guide the community through that and so that to me is the heart of what I'm here to do. Thank you. Thank you Commissioner Sturgeon.

Thank you Chairman. Um, yeah, I like you too, Jesse, and I like the way you communicate, but I have a a problem with $900 an hour. And, um, we approved this back in November um, on a temporary basis. And, um, Mr. Mosley informed me at the budget meeting, if we approve this, then we're basically approving you as well. And um I I've asked around to some lawyers and I I can't find anyone who thinks $900 an hour is reasonable for a specialist. And I don't know. I'm just a county commissioner. I don't hire lawyers very often. But if I were to hire a lawyer, I would want some like comparables like this is what people charge. This is documentation on what you can expect. and we were just told $900 an hour and not given any backup information on why that's reasonable. So, at this point, I just don't feel comfortable voting yes on this resolution.

Commissioner Mary Smith.

Yeah. Hi, thank you, Jesse. Um, so real quick, I think Commissioner Morton, did I hear you say that the hospital was going to reimburse the attorney's fees? It certainly is my intent to to request that. Um, and I believe that Mr. Neil believes that we have the right to do so under the existing [snorts] agreements that we have with the hospital whether or not the sale closes. If the sale does close, then I think everybody expects and it would be part of the transaction that we would be reimbursed by a purchaser. I think however also that if the sale did not go through, my understanding is that we have the right, we certainly would intend to. I would intend to seek those fees back from the hospital. They've they've brought this to us. We didn't start this process ourselves. So, my expectation is that we we would be reimbursed if it were not successful and reimbured if it were.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, so you've been with us for over a month now. Do you know what the total is that you've buil up to date? I believe it's uh 86,000 uh in that in that range. Okay. Um the amount of time uh that was included in the invoice includes uh time both that uh was spent and was build to the county and also the time that was um spent on the county's work that we decided not to build. Uh so um there are um they are accounted for and that's the approximate range give or take a few dollars. Okay. And that was approximately [cough] two months give or take.

And that was for uh work that was completed uh in November and was build in December. Okay. So that was pretty much one month for Right. Yeah. Give or take a few days. Yes, ma'am. Would it be possible to have you, you know, send that invoice just so everyone kind of has a deal has an idea of everyone in your office that's involved and kind of what makes up that $900 an hour. And I guess just a summary of the work because I mean I've been in the property committee and you've answered questions and we've got an idea of the the way you've represented us and the questions that you've asked of the hospital board during this this first month. Would it be possible to kind of get that invoice and just kind of a synopsis of here's the work that we've done over this last month? Okay.

Absolutely. It's a public document and I can also apply some narrative. I've got some information too about where I see the workflow um up to up to today then over in the short term and then in into the new year how I think that work will be allocated in the budget associated with it. Some of it will require different rate ranges on certain uh specialists and so I'm glad to dive into the detail for that.

Okay, great. Um given that I'd like to you know obviously we need to keep attorney representation in this transaction. Would it be possible to amend this proposed budget for another month? And then that way everyone on the commission has an opportunity to see what the invoices look like and if there's any questions from that invoice [snorts] to amend this to from 900,000 to 100,000. Is that your amendment? I'm going to make a motion. Yeah, I'll make a motion to amend it from 900,000 to 100,000. I have a motion on the floor to amend resolution 12617 from its current 900,000 to 100,000.

Do I hear a second? Second comes from Commissioner Petty. Any questions or comments on the amendment? Uh my board has reflects uh Commissioner Mason, but I think you pressed to speak earlier. Do you have a question or comment that would refer to the amendment? And then I'll come to you again momentarily. Commissioner Sturgeon has already spoken. Commissioner Clifford on the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is there anything you're aware of that would keep this commission from terminating our relationship with you at any time if we felt that it was improper or inappropriate for us?

Uh no. Okay. I would suggest that a deferment wouldn't make much sense. I think we could terminate anytime we want to. Anytime we review something and we all felt it was inappropriate. So, I won't support the deferment just because I think it needs to move forward. I didn't defer. Uh, Commissioner Lawrence on the amendment. I didn't defer. Okay. I'm trying to understand the amendment. So, the amendment is for $100,000. Yes. The idea is that we would be able to have money there to continue to pay u Mr. Neil while some of the questions regarding the services that he's providing are answered.

So, but he's already built 86,000. So, that doesn't leave a lot of extra for So, then maybe we need to amend 200. Did Did we pay the Did we pay you the 86,000 already or is that is that what we're voting on tonight? Is this is it the 86 part of this 900 or I I build I've build for one month of services and I've been paid for that. Um I have not build for December uh or any other period of time. The county attorney budget. Okay. So is the 86,000 part of the 900,000 you may not know that are not in the current budget.

It is okay. So we need to put up Yes, please. Miss Riley, my understanding was we already voted on this in November. It passed 22 to1 to pay you $900 an hour. Uh, every commissioner here has already voted yes to this. Why are we voting on it again? So, yes, the 86 that we've already paid is included in this 900. um because we had not budgeted anything for his service

because obviously we didn't know with the time of the budget that we were going to have the service included in that line item. So we have budgeted currently zero for his services. So we need to get the 86 in that we've already paid as well as the current amount that we owe for the month of December and through January 12th. So yes sir. Okay. So this res purpose of this resolution is simply to get a line item on the budget. Is that what this is for? It is to increase the legal line items so that we can pay him throughout the fiscal year. Any money that we do not spend obviously will go right back into the fund balance at year end. This is just to keep me from having I either come to you now for money or I come to you in a couple of months.

Okay. But Commissioner Beather just mentioned we we approved his salary or his his hourly rate. Correct. So why do you need another approval from us? We I do not need approval for his hourly rate. You have approved that but you did not along with that approve money in the budget for me actually to expend those funds. So I have to now pay for the services in which we have agreed to. But you've already paid him. Yes, I have a le a line that is for legal services and I have used that. Okay.

But if we pay him as well as our other legal services providers then I will not have money at June 30. I will be in the hole for several thousand several hundred,000. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Stresser on the amendment.

Um, well, while I uh appreciate the spirit of the amendment, um I I agree with Commissioner Clifford. Um we're going to get a lot of answers and clarity to what the billings look like uh before the next meeting. And we do reserve the right if we're not happy or comfortable with our legal counsel, we can can obviously make a change. Uh so I think the uh appropriate thing at this point is to appro approve this uh line item for the budget. Uh and again, we have ultimate flexibility with legal counsel here. Uh and I think it'll be helpful for all of us to see kind of the workflow that the the the financial side of all of this, but we'll have time to do that before the next meeting. So, uh, I'm going to vote for the resolution as is.

Commissioner Sanford on the amendment. Yeah, this is mindbl don't don't support this amendment. Um, this commission, y'all didn't give this much scrutiny when Paul Webb brought forth the resolution to spend $2 million on hand dryers for the a center. This is crazy right here. Um, this man is an expert in his field. Pay the man what he's worth. We're going to get the money back from the hospital regardless one way or another. Pay the man. This is crazy. Commissioner Hayes on the amendment. So you just stated that you did you have build services for December. So I do support the amendment.

Goes back to my original comment. Work has been done. I would have expected work's been build. It's been done. Commission would have an update formally on email. So I do support a delay. I'd like to look. You know what? Maybe we should have scrutinized the dryers a little closer. But hey, is what it is. Now we're scrutinizing. This is a big deal. It's a big deal because there are other experts that could be brought in. So, you know what's one more month, folks? Yeah, that's it. Any other questions or comments on the amendment? If not, if you're ready to vote on the amendment again, the amendment would reduce the resolution from $900,000 to 100. Just just want to make sure there's a point of clarity on the amendment.

Go ahead, Commissioner Mary Smith. because I don't think that the spirit of the amendment is actually the 100,000 meets it. I don't think that that actually is the correct amount. I think the idea was just to get the information that we need to all the commissioners. So I don't know that the 100,000 would actually solve anything. So I would like to pull that amendment and your I can Yeah. 200,000 or pull it. Yeah. Are you with I will I will increase the amendment to 200,000 since there does seem to be support. The second came from Commissioner Petty. Is that okay with you, Commissioner Petty, to increase the amendment to a figure of $200,000?

Yes. Okay. I've got uh a new motion and a new second increasing the amend amended amount to $200,000 versus the stated 900,000 amount. Any question or comment on the amendment? Commissioner Torres.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I I understand the intent. I think um if I understood Phoebe right, we have money in the line today for all legal services. Potentially we could have a shortfall come late springish where we would have to come back and revisit. I think the timeline in the presentation that I saw that um any potential action or decision would come in Q3 is am I remembering that correctly, Mr. Neil? I think that would probably be an aggressive schedule for it. Q4, but and and I could That's right.

Yeah. So, you know, my concern similar to Commissioner Sanfords is I think Mr. Neil is clearly an expert. Um, and I think uh I I don't know what we're accomplishing by delaying it quite honestly. Um, and as Commissioner Morton pointed out, the intent is that we have rights for the hospital to reimburse us. Uh, as well as on the back end, most likely the purchaser is going to reimburse as well. So, I won't support the amendment. I'd rather see us keep moving forward and um just continue to get the updates as we've a agreed upon today. Thanks,

Commissioner Petty on the amendment.

I'm in favor of the spirit of it, but in after what m Mr. Clifford said, I didn't realize that, you know, we can stop. We we can disengage at any time we want. And um so you you know you we only charge 86,000 in our first month. That's a lot less money than 150,000. So um as I'm I'm okay as long as we can take this month by month and make decision then. And I really want to you know once we start see the seeing the building have a little [clears throat] better idea, a little better feel for it. Um, so, um, I I I I agree with with Commissioner Torres and I I I I again I'm I'm in favor of the spirit of it, but at the same time, we can accomplish the same thing without the amendment because we have that option to do that. So,

so, Commissioner Petty, is it my understanding you wish to pull your second? Go ahead. Yeah, I'm going to pull it. Yeah. Okay. And I'm going to go ahead and just pull the amendment based on the conversation here and the feedback and the discussion which I think was very good. I'm going to go ahead and pull the amendment because I think we can accomplish the same thing without having an amendment. Okay, so the amendment and its second have been pulled. Now we're back to the original resolution. Any questions or comments on the original resolution? I believe Commissioner Sturgeon was up first. Well, Jennifer was on earlier. Oh, I'm sorry. Barb had already spoken. So you Commissioner Sturgeon, you've already spoken. I'll come back to you and I'll go now to Commissioner Mason.

Thank you. So, I serve as vice chair on property. Commissioner Jones is chair. I just want to remind everybody that through property, we have made the decision to have Jesse attend those meetings and update us, give a platform for everybody to ask questions. So, I know there'll be times where things will be sent out like his last presentation, but if you have questions, you want to deep dive, dig into stuff. Um, let Commissioner Jones know so we can make a request that when Jesse comes to property that, hey, we want to look at this, we want to look at that. So, I just want to remind everybody that we were trying to streamline the process by not scheduling special meetings. And just know that every time property meets, most likely Jesse's going to be there. And if you have questions and concerns, we can address it uh through property as well.

Before I go to Commissioner Sturgeon, I've had a request just to ask all commissioners who are having conversations amongst themselves to keep those down uh to a minimum. You're allowed to speak to each other, but we want to make sure that everyone can hear the speakers and the questions uh as they're being asked and called upon. Uh, Commissioner Sturgeon,

thank you. Um, I have two questions. One is if we decide to change directions, what does that look like? Who decides that? Do we take an inofficial poll in between meetings that maybe we want to do something differently or do we have to write a resolution to make this change? We didn't have a resolution to approve the rate. So, I mean, at any point, can we just vote in the middle of a meeting to like change directions? I'll go to legal counsel on that one. Is it on? There it is. Okay.

Um, actually, it would take something on your agenda for you to take action, but the board would would be able to terminate the contract by majority vote. Okay. So, it couldn't just be one person's uncomfortable. would have to be. That's correct. Okay. And then just as a point of comparison, can I ask how much is Mosley being paid to represent the hospital in this transaction? I do not have that information for you, but I can get it for you. Okay. Is it anywhere close to $900 an hour? I suspect it's not.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Commissioner Morton, do you have a question or comment? Just maybe a point of clarification and maybe I'm maybe there's hair splitting. I I understood that Basparian and Sims was representing the hospital the transaction. Basparian Sims is my counterpart representing the hospital for the transaction matter. Basian Basar and Sims. Do you know Basparian Sims hourly rate by chance? Uh, I do not. I suspect it is market. It is what? Market. Any other questions or comments on the resolution?

If not, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 12617, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whitby. 21 yes, three no. Resolution passes. Thank you, Mr. Neil. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon.

Now, we're under the category of other. The first resolution under this category is resolution 1261, a resolution of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners regarding commission oversight and independent legal representation in connection with Williamson Health. The resolution did not go before any committee at the request of the author. Explanation, please. Commissioner Richards. Thank you, Chairman. Um, colleagues, I I want to be very clear about what this resol resolution does and does not do. I didn't get a motion in a second. I apologize. I'm sorry. Uh, let me do that real quick. [snorts] Proper motion made by Commissioner Drew Torres, seconded by Commissioner Stresser. Please go ahead, Commissioner.

Uh, it's not about undoing a budget vote that we just had. It's not about accusing anyone of wrongdoing. It's about commission oversight and who legal council represents and when county own assets of this scale are involved. Let me begin with some important history that I don't think most of you are aware of. In 2011, the full county commission adopted a formal resolution stating that the Williamson Medical Center was not for sale. It's resolution number 6112. They declared it's not for sale and not surplus property. The action was sufficient at the time to stop any forward momentum toward a sale because it reflected a clear policy direction of the governing body with oversight author authority over county owned assets. The resolution has never been rescended to my knowledge. As of today, it remains the last formal policy position adopted by this commission on the question of the hospital sailor disposition. If that resolution was sufficient then to halt a sale process, it is sufficient today unless and until this body affirmatively decides otherwise. Importantly, the convention has not approved a hospital sale process and it has not approved a transactional legal work towards a sale. What has occurred instead is that the hospital board has initiated activities on its own without prior approval of this commission and without this body being fully informed of those activities developed. These activities have been described as strategic planning or evaluation options. But issuing requests for proposals, soliciting bids, and engaging transactional counsel go far beyond internal strategic strategic planning. These are market-f facing actions that signal intent, create reliance, and carry legal and financial consequences for the county. That distinction matters. With respect to the $900,000 outside council budget amendment we just approved, that resolution funded a budget line item. It did not define governance. It did not clarify. The resolution does. At the November meeting, outside council was introduced at a substantial hourly rate

and described as temporary without prior commission authorization. Reasonable questions were raised. This resolution does not interfere with planning and it does not premeditate any outcome. It simply reaffirms that when this commission is asked to exercise its fiduciary duty over county-owned assets, we are entitled to independent legal advice that reports to us. A yes vote today does not authorize a sale. It does not reverse any prior vote and ensures that this commission's oversight rule clearly exercised in 2011 is respected today. For those reasons, I ask for your support. Question or comment? First from Commissioner Sanford.

Two things. Um, first would be Bobby. Since he brought up that, uh, resolution from 2011 or 12, um, that's stopped that says the hospital's not for sale, does that carry over and it's active now? Can the hospital board, this board still has the authority to approve a sale if that's what you're asking? Okay. And then secondly, for Commissioner Richardson, um, we have independent counsel back here in the back um, that we've hired. I I don't understand why we need more legal counsel. It would be my opinion that that council is conflicted. How so?

Uh it was appointed by our own internal internal council or at least picked by our own internal council that is under investigation for a conflict of interest. Gotcha. Thanks, Commissioner Lawrence.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I I have a couple of questions as well. I I I have brought up the question of whether the hospital should be declared surplus before any sale process can be initiated. I don't believe I've gotten an answer to that question. I don't know if Jesse could answer that or or council. Um it it would seem to me, especially given the prior resolution, which I didn't know about, but the the 2011 county commission decision, in order for any sale to go forward, that this body would have to come to a conclusion that we want to declare it surplus, would we not? That's correct. And we haven't done that.

No, sir. So, are are we getting the card ahead of the horse here? [snorts] is could we bring Jesse up to ask him that question?

Uh, thank you. I and I I did record your question on that front at our last property committee meeting. We have researched that. Uh, I do agree that it likely needs to be declared surplus. the process in sequence uh in terms of the RFP, the evaluation, uh the letter of intent, uh the closing date uh we have some flexibility with that and I don't think we have to predetermine how that will be applied but structure in a way consistent with state law is certainly doable and we have looked at that and we can advise you on the best approach there.

Okay. So you don't think we have we should declare or we need to declare or we must declare it surplus before we can go forward with an RFP process? I did not see any indication that that the the the de declaration of surplus had to precede that process. Uh the hospital initiated a process under a strategic evaluation and it that did not need any kind of declaration from uh the county government. Uh in terms of declaring a surplus, uh my my reading on it based on your question is I agree that there there likely needs to be a declaration of surplus. uh it is not dictated in terms of timing or sequence of when that has to happen.

Thoughts? Um no, I guess that's all my questions. Thank you, Commissioner Mason. Thank you. Thank you. I'm I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this and I probably should have done this before I pushed my button, but I want to point out to this commission, you know, attorneys come in all shapes, sizes, and specialties. I know a lot about criminal prosecution. Chaz knows a lot about animals. Sean does a lot. [laughter] I thought you were a mortgage attorney. [laughter]

And so we all have our our specialties and you know I get divorce questions all the time from my parents and um who are divorced ironically and I don't know how to answer them. And so when you are dealing with a specific type of law you go to a specific type of lawyer which is why we have engaged with uh with Jesse. Same thing when you have a medical issue. Same thing if you have a car issue. And at a certain point, we have to put our trust in the process. And when we met with him at property, we asked him based on everything we're hearing, cuz I keep hearing uh transparency, things are happening behind closed doors. And the way Jesse laid out the process and how he's been involved in these transactions before, we're right on target. Everything that's happening, there's not all this malfas that's going on that no one knows about. the hospital is entitled to do their due diligence and they have some protection because of their proprietary uh information and at a certain point when we get there we get to be a part of that we get to look at it we get to evaluate it and so I keep hearing about transparency but that's not the process and that's not where we're at and so at a certain point we have to understand the process and that's the way I understand the process that's the way it was presented at property and so don't really understand this continued mistrust of the entire system. And maybe that's what it is. It's just a mistrust of the system. But as an attorney, I understand there are rules and there are regulations and we follow them. And that's exactly what we're doing. And so I don't have an issue with the process. I don't have an issue with how we're doing it. And and quite frankly, I hate that Jesse continues to sit here and is billing us while we're going around and around in circles talking about whether or not we're following the correct process. And so that's that is my two cents.

Thank you, Commissioner Mason. Commissioner Williams. [cough]

Thank you, Mr. [clears throat] Chair. I apologize. I've lost my voice this weekend uh at wrestling tournament. So, um, that's I'm going to kind of go along with Commissioner Mason here. I I think my my issue with these resolutions that are coming forward is it comes from a place of mistrust. I'm on the hospital board as well as three other county commissioners on there, right? and we serve on that to ensure that we're watching out for what's in fiduciary best interest for the county. I'm not a hospital expert, don't pretend to be, but I sit there on there from a community perspective and from a county commissioner's perspective on the board. I think the board of trustees has sent a very clear signal that is in the best interest to explore the option of cell right and in the process of doing that we are soliciting proposals to understand what is the value of the hospital but at the end of the day they're going to come to you we will come to you with a recommendation and this commission controls the decision as to whether it proceeds or not there is no obligation of this commission to follow anything that the board of trustees comes to you with, but it would be extremely unwise to not listen in detail as to what the final recommendation is. And just because an RFP is being request has been uh proposed and solicited, it doesn't mean that the board's even going to come back with the a recommendation to sell the hospital in the first place. But it is in the best interest of this county to at least explore that option and to come back with some very detailed information. Okay. And I think that's the problem with these this resolution is it's flipping the role

pretending that the county commission is the one that should be initiating this. And we certainly could if we were having issues, right? But I don't think we the hospital does not create issues for us. It's the hospital that's recognizing hey it's in our best interest to do this and in reality what what for the most part the commission is it's really about the allocation of the proceeds right now that can weigh into our decision as to whether we move forward or not with it down the road but that has nothing to do with testing the market and understanding it in more detail as to what is the valuation so let's not confuse those two it keeps getting confused and there's this narrative of mistrust that's being put out and I just won't stand for Any [snorts] other questions or comments regarding resolution 1261? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. If you're opposed, your no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Sturgeon, record the vote, please, Mr. Whby. Six yes, 18 no. Resolution fails. Resolution 1262, a resolution authorizing the Williamson County Board of Commissioners to initiate a request for proposals and retain an independent consultant to advise the commission regarding potential transactions involving Williamson Health. Got a proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith. I don't as of yet have a second. Second came in from Commissioner Pete Stresser. This resolution did not go before any committee. Again, at the request of the author. Explanation, please. Commissioner Richards.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This resolution is straightforward and limited in scope. It authorizes the commission, not the hospital board, to issue a request for proposals and retain an independent consultant whose sole client is this body to advise us on potential transactions involing involving Williamson Health. The reason this matters is simple. The hospital board has retained their own financial and strategic consultant and that consultant appropriately serves the hospital board, not the county commission. This commission has a separate fiduciary duty to the taxpayers and fulfilling that duty requires advice that is independent of the hospital board and its retained consultants. What is especially concerning is that firms with direct recent exposure advising counties in hospital transactions, including firms that have successfully advised counties like Blount County, were never contacted to represent Williamson County in this process. This is not a criticism of any one firm. It is a recognition that no competitive convention controlled process has occurred to ensure we are getting independent, best qualified advice. Issuing an RFP is not about choosing a transaction and it's not about favoring or opposing any outcome. It's about ensuring that when this commission deliberates, we do so with our own independent expertise, selected transparenc transparently and reporting directly to us. That is all this resolution does and I respectfully ask for your support. Thank you.

Questions or comments from Commissioner Torres? Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, if I can ask Commissioner Richards just directly, I'm curious just what do you see as being additive on this resolution or what the consultants might bring that we're not getting from council? Uh, this is above and beyond council. This would be the outside consultants. It would be our Kaufman Hall. Okay. And do you have a an estimated cost? No. No, I don't. That's why we would request an RFP and then would we retain them for the entire time of uh up until transaction?

That would be up to the commission. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Uh, Commissioner Morton,

I I I actually think this this is good for for us. I I think certainly us having independent legal advice. I think having independent financial advice probably makes sense. This this uh this this idea of a request for proposals to find out kind of what's out there, how we could be better advised. I think there's a lot of overlap between our interest and the hospital's interest, but certainly appreciate that they diverge. Certainly the point that we need legal representation and financial representation, which is what I think would be the supplement here, uh wouldn't be inappropriate. I I am uncomfortable with a direction that says that five of our city commissioners can have no say. I don't think that that's appropriate. Um so I I would I would offer an amendment that that took out the striking of five the five sitting commissioners uh on the hospital board. Um, and with that then then I can I can approve the request for proposals.

Is that a proper motion, Commissioner Morton? Um, I'll leave that just as a comment at this time. See what everybody else has to say that I may file add request for a motion an amendment to the uh to the resolution later. Understood. Commissioner Matt Williams. If I can just ask a clarif clarifying question to the intent of this, do you have a general idea as to what the scope of this consultant would be looking at? It would be the similar is what the hospital Kaufman Hall is doing for the for the hospital.

Okay. So, and this is where my stance on it and I'm just going to throw a scenario out. There are some county commissions that strike a check every single month because their their community hospitals lose money, right? because our demographic is 99.9% insured. We have a a hospital that operates in the black and that is not a scenario that we've ever run into. If we were in that scenario, this would be a situation to where the county commission would initiate this, probably bring a consultant in, look at strategically why we would want to pursue selling this asset, right? But that's not how this is initiated. This is the hospital board coming and saying if if we brought in a consultant, I think specifically what the consultant would need to be looking at is the allocation of the proceeds should a transaction be offered by this or be be approved be suggested by the board and then ultimately approved by the commissioner the commission and how to structure that. I I'm not sure that this is how that's written and I'm not sure that this is the appropriate time yet to potentially look at this, but I think in the spirit of it, should this get a little bit further down, if the legislature comes back and gives us an indication or approval that the proceeds might have a wider a wider range of application for the county's interest, Right. And I think maybe a consultant coming in at that point would be very appropriate. But the strateg I don't understand why we would bring a consultant in to do a strategic analysis as to whether an RFP of the hospital is appropriate or not. That doesn't make that doesn't make sense to me because in essence, Coffin and Hall is already engaging with the hospital board who's initiated the process to do that.

And when the results of the RFP and the recommendation of the hospital board is presented to this commission, all of that information is going to be presented at that point in time for this commission to make a decision. That's all I have to say. Commissioner Mary Smith,

um I agree this is a really good discussion. I think just the feedback that we're getting from the community and I think um Commissioner Williams hit on it a little bit with just this mistrust, a lot of questions and I think mistrust on both sides. I mean, I'm hearing from people that are concerned about not wanting to sell the hospital. There's 70 years of history there. They're concerned about what's going to happen, you know, if the hospital should get sold. What does that mean to them? I'm talked to people that have written written into their wills donations to this hospital. And so, there's a lot of concern in the community and there's a lot of questions and I think we're having difficulty answering all those questions because this is the largest financial transaction we've ever gone through. But it's more than just financial. It's emotional. So, I think that, you know, having a consultant that can kind of help us through this process. Um, I think again, Commissioner Williams makes a good point. Is it right now or is it later? But right now, all we're asking to do is put an RFP together to kind of understand what this consultant would do and that what they would provide. So, I would be supportive of the RFP process just to make sure that we have somebody that we can talk to, we can lean on that can walk us through this and make sure that everyone's interests and everyone's questions and concerns are being addressed.

Commissioner Lawrence.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is going to be the largest financial transaction in Williamson County history without a doubt. And we definitely want to make sure we get this right. We are the representatives of the taxpayers. The hospital board is not. We are their elected representatives. They are not. That's a very distinct difference between our boards. There may be some conflicts of interest that they have um that may steer them in a direction of a certain decision that a different consultant with a different set of with a possibly different agenda could possibly look at and say they disagree with and believe that there might be another or better option that we should consider. So, I agree with Commissioner Morton. I mean, this is like um a second opinion more or less. We're going to have a different cons consultant set of consultants that could give us a second second opinion on the different proposals that come in. I I I also agree with Commissioner Williams. I don't I don't think we need two sets of of RFPs out there to that that would be very confusing to the hospital community. I think if we we put out a separate RFP that the hospital board I'm not we don't have privilege right now to the hospital's RFP or that process but if there was a way we could uh if we could hire a consultant that could be be engaged with the RFP process alongside the hospital consultants. um that would

eliminate the need for another, you know, RFP. And I think that would be again very confusing and redundant and and unnecessary. Uh I mean, I'm not sure we need to take that whereas at I mean really the the the purpose of this resolution and as I see it is is simply to put out a request for proposal for a consultant. If that doesn't mean we're going to hire that consultant. It it doesn't mean we're going to enga I don't think this resolution binds us. Correct me if I'm wrong. Uh council uh binds us to uh sending out a separate request for proposal. If we were to decide to hire a a consultant, I think at that point we could decide how we could engage with the current RFP. So I I support the idea of the resolution as long as we're not binding ourselves to a couple of things that you know the other issue that Commissioner Morton, he may bring a resolution later on or amendment on. Uh but as as long as we're not binding ourselves to that is would could we support this amendment to just to do a request for proposal and and would that be binding us to do a separate request for proposal for the hospital? Well, obviously the under the the language of the of this resolution, you are directing them to you are directing the county to start that process to request a separate um request for proposals. Okay. Now, some of the language in the resolution really needs to be amended. Um, number five, like Commissioner Moran says, I don't believe that's um within the authority of the county commission to

take away statutory authority of one commissioner or two commissioners. So, I do raise that concern while you are considering this. Any followup? No. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. just a comment and then if I could I have a question for council if you'll allow him to make his way up to the podium. Um I'm real not I'm just not sure what the RFP is doing. So I I do want to ask some questions. Um for my limited experience working in a big firm with other lawyers that did, you know, company buying, selling, M&As. It wasn't just hiring a lawyer to draft a contract. That was the deal team. It was advising on the best interest of the client. uh whether it made sense to go forward with a deal or aspects of a deal and if not don't do it. If so, here's the best way to get through this deal to maximize your return for that client. That was my understanding working with you and your team of people that you told us earlier that you're working with from senior partners, mid-level partners, associates, parillegals. You guys are the deal team for the county commission and the sale of this hospital. So my question, I guess a couple questions. A, is that true? And maybe elaborate on that. Uh, B, from your experience representing governments and transactions like this, what [clears throat] would be your recommendation based on what you're hearing for the need of an RFP or a consultant in addition to yourself at this point in the process? And what would you suggest that we consider?

Sure. Thank you, Commissioner, for that that question. First, uh, in terms of the deal team, uh, that we put together to help support the commissioners, uh, it is a fullervice, full range of specialties and backgrounds to help evaluate uh, the the legal and economic impact and community impact of a potential uh, transaction. Uh, we've done those in Tennessee and we've done them in other states uh, as well. And so that is the service and scope of uh, the engagement letter that we h have signed. And uh I think we are as strong as as any organization in the country and able to provide that support service to you. Um in terms of what I have seen uh I think that that is uh a fair question. It is not unheard of for a county government to engage uh a supplemental financial advisor of of some sort. Uh and there's a couple different flavors to that. Uh you don't want to just hire someone to check the checker. uh that gets very expensive for everyone involved. Uh but having someone who can uh collaborate and engage directly with the county uh with Kaufman Hall as their counterpart um that is something that I have seen uh not uh most of the time it's a minority uh rule I would say but there are times where that engagement is uh pursued and it's it's more so in the idea of a fairness opinion uh someone who can give and look at the the data the economic ICS the market um and and give a uh feedback in terms of uh the overall package that's being proposed. And so I think it can be tailored uh to Williamson County if if that is the direction it goes. Uh, I do think that you would want it to to supplement uh and uh add value to the the exercise

that that Kaufman Hall is already engaged to do as opposed to uh a parallel process that processed the same data, evaluated the same market trends. I I think that that would be would be how I'd characterize it. A follow-up question, Mr. Chair. Yes. would you be in a position to provide us with some advice as to what that could look like if we were to pursue an RFP or financial advisor, however you just frame that and at what point in the process. Yes, I've got experience uh currently and historically doing exactly that. So, I'm glad to prepare that if you'd like.

Okay. Uh, having heard that, I would like to make a motion to table this resolution until we receive advice and recommendations on behalf of our lawyer as to what we might need and to when we might need it. I just feel like I am certainly ill equipped to vote on whether we need to move forward with an RFP at this point for a scope that has not been identified in this resolution, but perhaps it could be at a later date. I just don't think it's ripe right now, and I am definitely illprepared to vote on it. So, I'm going to make a motion to table this resolution. Second.

Got a proper motion to table made by Commissioner Clifford, seconded by Commissioner Tunnliff. I've got questions and comments on the board. Um, questions or comments related to tableabling or do I It's undebatable. Is it undebatable? It is undebatable. Oh. Does it have to be a three four three-pointers vote or just a majority vote? Just Okay. I'm told tableabling is undebatable. Uh it will pass with a simple majority vote. If you're ready to vote and you're unless you're

she's u loading it now uh in a moment when it appears on your screen. If you're in favor of tableabling this press your yes button if you're opposed your no. [cough] You have it loaded. Okay. Go ahead. And if you're again in favor of tableabling resolution 1262, press your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whidby.

16 yes, eight no. Motion to table passes. Next resolution is resolution 12611, resolution accepting a donation of incubators from friends of Williamson County Animal Center. Uh public health was 540 against. Budget committee was 440 against. I do have a proper motion made by Commissioner Guy Carden, seconded by Commissioner Tom Tunnacliffe. To our resident animal expert, Commissioner Morton, explanation, please. [laughter]

Not often I'm left speechless. Uh, Mr. Chair, um, this is a this is a resolution uh for incubators for neonatal kittens. And what are incubators, Mr. Martin? Well, that's not part of my specialty animal practice. Uh, not with regard to kittens. They're incubator specialists. Yes, that would. Any questions or comments? [clears throat] Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 12611, press your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Petty, sorry.

Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby 22. Yes. Two out. Resolution passes. Resolution 12613. Resolution accepting a donation of walkie-talkies valuing approximately $2,200 from the company called Rocky Talk. Proper motion made by Commissioner Barb Sturgeon. Seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Public health committee was 540 against. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton. Uh, yes. This is just uh accepting some walkie-talkies just to allow staff to communicate better inside the building.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time.

Mary is waiting on Mary. She's got Okay, she's ready to vote, Commissioner Smith. There we go. Record the vote. Uh, Commissioner Sturgeon. There we go. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whby.

21. Yes. Three out. Resolution passes. Resolution 12618, resolution amending the 5-year capital improvement program for schools, roads, fire protection, and recreation. Proper motion made by Commissioner Guffy, seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. School board was 1240 against. Law enforcement did not hear it. Highway commission was 540 against. Education committee was 440 against. Parks and wreck was 540 against. And budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton.

Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um this this is not approving the funding of these projects. This is a planning tool that our departments use. Um it is also required for our adequate facilities tax and adequate uh school facilities tax. Um, for that reason, I would ask that you support this question or comment from Commissioner Tennocliffe. I feel compelled to say that the reason law enforcement and public safety did not hear this is we did not have the supporting documents. So, it's not that we did not agree with it.

Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote. If you're in favor of resolution 12618, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whby. 22 yes. Z no two out.

Resolution passes. Resolution 12619. Resolution accepting an inkind donation of a bird sanctuary and bench from Boy Scout Troop 48 to be installed in the vicinity of the Williamson County Library. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tom Tunnliff and seconded by Commissioner Megan Guffy. uh property committee did not meet this month. Uh explanation please, Commissioner Morton. Uh yes, this is uh supporting Eagle Scout project and uh although my animal practice does not include birds either, [laughter] uh it uh is a a great Eagle Scout project by Troop 48.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby.

Resolution passes. Resolution 12620, resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into an interlocal agreement with the town of Nolanville, Tennessee for the reimbursement of costs associated with software licenses purchased by Williamson County. Proper motion made by Commissioner Steve Smith, seconded by Commissioner Betsy Hester. Uh, law enforcement did not review it. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Toncliffe. Yeah, once again, we we did hear this one, but that's all right. Um, we're going to get that figured out. 440 against. I don't know exactly. I've slept since then, so I apologize.

Okay. I'm being told law enforcement was 440 against. We are just trying to get reimbur. We're not trying. We are going to get reimbursement back from Nolanville for some software that was required to make their system work with ours. If I believe I'm correct and Connor's nodding yes. A question or comment from Commissioner Mason.

Mine is not about the resolution. It's about the would not review. I've seen it on a lot of these and and it my question was going to be is it would not review or is it better did not review or it sounds like in this case it was reviewed. I'm just thrown off. I've never seen the would not review because I don't recall even at property s going to hear that. So I'm not sure where this is coming from. I was told it had to do with it not being on the agenda in time but I'll let Commissioner Tunnliff the chair of that committee give a better explanation if he can. I'm not sure I can. Okay. Any other questions or comments?

Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whitby. 24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 12621, resolution authorizing the Williamson County mayor to enter into an interlocal agreement with the city of Franklin for the provision of firefighting and emergency response services. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tunnliffe, seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. The law enforcement committee, I have it down, is 340 against. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation, please, Commissioner Tunnliffe. Yeah, I um I would require some help from uh the county on this one to bring me up to full speed on it. Again, I apologize.

No worries, sir. the safety director. I know you know that for them. This is an agreement between the county and the city of Franklin for them to help us out on unincorporated area in the area of 65 and 840 that they can get to more quickly for fire response from their station at the a center. They're just clo more uh closely located to it. They can get to it quicker. Uh there's no money exchanging hands on this deal. It's just um them helping us out. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote. Did you have a question, Commissioner Smith? No, no, that was for the motion. I apologize. If you're ready to vote Oh, you do have a question. Okay.

Is is this basically a mutual aid agreement for a specific area? It's it it is it's an autoateg dispatched, they are dispatched at the same time. Mutual aid would be where we are dispatched and we get on the radio and ask for them to come. This will be automatically instituted. Okay. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other questions or comments? Uh, Commissioner Williams, I just want to say like I know this has been a long time going. This has been a multi-year discussion and working through a lot of details to finally get to this point. So, just appreciate all the hard work that's gone into this and more to come hopefully. Yes,

still working on it. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whitby.

24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 12622, resolution authorizing the execution and delivery of a master services agreement with powder tales for management of special duty work by Williamson County deputy sheriffs, authorizing payment of employees for such work pursuant to special duty law enforcement provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act and addressing the treatment of such payments for purposes of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. Proper motion made by Commissioner Greg Sanford, seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Um, law enforcement I have down did not review it. Correct. I'll take that as a correct.

Correct. And then budget was 440 against for the explanation on this one. I'm going to go to our legal counsel Bobby Cook. Well, how about I think you wanted to go first or no? Unless I can call for explanation. I'll go first to Commissioner O'Neal. It's not as complicated as it sounds. I believe everybody worked this out amongst the budgeting and human resources, but it's a uh to better uh administer the offduty employment that where people private parties hire the deputies and all the cost of this is going to be borne by the persons that are hiring the deputies. You have anything to add to that? Unless questions.

Okay. Unless there are any any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Whitby. Resolution passes. Resolution 12623, resolution declaring certain county owned weapons as surplus. Proper motion came in from Commissioner Tom Tunnacliffe, seconded by Commissioner Guy Carden. Public safety law enforcement was 340 against. budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Tunnliffe.

This is for two rifles that are still to be declared surplus that were, I believe, missed on the last one we ran through on this. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby

24. Yes. Zero. No. Resolution passes. Resolution 12624. Resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into an equipment rental agreement with Diverse Computing Inc.. Proper motion from Commissioner Tom Tunnliff, seconded by Commissioner Greg Sanford. Law enforcement, public safety was 340 against. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Tunnliffe.

Yes. after speaking with it and also with um the sheriff's department. This is a piece of equipment that'll be used at the courthouse to allow us to connect to TBI and other law enforcement agencies. Um which we could not do without this piece of equipment. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Sanford, record the vote, please. Mr. Whby.

24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 12625, resolution to convey Williamson County's interest in real property, commonly referenced as the Fair View Ballpark, to the city of Fairview and authorizing the county mayor to execute all documents needed to convey the property. Proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith and seconded by Commissioner Ricky Jones. Uh parks and wreck were 440 against with one abstension. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton. About 30 years ago, City of Fairview asked our parks and recck department to take this park over. Uh they have now asked for it back. So we are giving it back to the city of Fairview. Uh

question or comment from Commissioner Ricky Jones. They will be voting on that on the 15th. They haven't voted on it yet. That's FYI. They be in the city of Fairview. Yes. Uh, Commissioner Lisa Hayes. It's also my understanding they're going to reimburse us for $150,000 of investment. Was that not correct when we do this? Per the parks and recck meeting. Anybody? Gordon, do you have any or or Rogers? either one that they're supposed to. I don't think they're going to pass.

So, we're getting the cart before the horse uh between the county mayor Anderson and the city of Fairview mayor Anderson. There has been a request for reimbursement of funds if they approve the transition uh to acquire the park. Uh, one of the stipulations is to reimburse us for the lights that you guys approved as a commission uh, a year ago, a little over a year ago, and it's approximately $150,000. We'll get the exact amount if they uh, choose to uh, follow through on this request. So, we're voting on this before we've gotten their vote on it.

Yes, that's correct. They they have asked if the county would be willing to do it. The answer to that is yes, if you actually want to acquire the park. So, they are maybe second guessing themselves. I don't know. But as Commissioner Jones pointed out, uh this is all pending their approval, which they haven't met yet. Okay. Interesting. Thank any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby. 23 yes, one no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 12626. Resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a lease agreement with US Congressman Matthew Vaneps. Proper motion made by Commissioner Steve Smith and seconded by Commissioner Tom Tunnliffe. Uh, property committee did not meet. Budget committee 440 against. explanation, please, Commissioner Morton.

Uh, yes. Uh, historically, the, uh, representative for our district has wanted a an office here locally. Uh, and we've been providing that to formerly Congressman Green and Congressman Van Eps has asked for the same. So, uh, this would authorize us to enter into that lease with his office. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby.

24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 12627, resolution adopting an electronic signature policy for county grant contracts. Proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith and seconded by Commissioner Paul Webb. Budget committee was 440 against. Explanation, please, Commissioner Webb.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What this does is authorize us to sign grant contracts electronically and the comproller requires us to file this statement by approval by this body before that's allowed. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed, your no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Whidby. 24 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. As always, we want to thank the sheriff and the sheriff's deputies for being here tonight. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh, all department heads for staying late. Is there any other business to come before the commission this evening, Commissioner Mary Smith?

Just real quickly, it was brought to my attention my name was actually on the consent agenda, so I just wanted to state that I did vote my conscience. Any other business to come before this commission? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. We are adjourned.