Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

With an invocation by Commissioner Goodman, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Gentlemen, remove your covers, please. Let us stand. Let us pray. Our Father and our God in heaven, we come to thee with humble hearts tonight. We pray for guidance. We pray for wisdom. We pray for acceptance of one another. Father, there are those in this community who have been bereaved. And we pray for their comfort and for their restoration. Father, we pray a special blessing for the loss of a young life in a car wreck. We pray that those who survived will heal quickly. Father, we pray for the loss of Robert Bauer. One of your faithful servants, a man who came here quite often and defended his position, a veteran, a Marine, a combat veteran, who said in a loving sort of way, we know that this is his house, and he's right about that, but it's also your house, Father. We pray that we keep all those things in mind. Father, we pray for the safety of those who protect us in uniform, both here and abroad. And we pray again for guidance as we go forward tonight. These things we ask in thy name. Amen.

Move on to roll call.

All commissioners are present.

Moving on to agenda amendments. I understand we're going to remove number five from the agenda. Move on to adoption of the agenda. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda with the removal of item number five?

So moved. Second, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion and a second.

All in favor? Motion carries. Move on to the approval of the minutes from the July 21st, 2026 regular meeting and the executive session minutes. I assume everybody has read those. Any deletions or corrections? Seeing none, do we have a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

I make a motion to approve the minutes.

I'll second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

MOTION CARRIES.

MOVE ON TO WE HAVE TWO PRESENTATIONS TONIGHT. ONE IS GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION POPULAR ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORTING AWARD.

Yes, sir. Thank you, commissioners. My name is Stephanie Chang. I'm the senior accountant here at Camden County Board of Commissioners. In front of you, you'll find a copy of the PowerPoint presentation as well as the 2024 PAFR, the Popular Annual Financial Report. Before we take a look at the report itself, I would like to take a few minutes to explain some key terms and explain how we got here and why we've built this. There it is. All right. So to start off, I want to talk about the GFOA and what that is. The Government Finance Officers Association is a national organization that provides government finance officers of all types. They do board of commissioners. They do cities and other municipalities, the school board. with training, legislative guidance, networking opportunities, best practices, and professional standards. The government finance professionals with scholarship, they also provide scholarships and mentorship opportunities. So part of that, the Paffer Fellows Program was a mentoring initiative that they did. It pairs graduate students with local governments for hands-on experience. A couple of goals of the program are to showcase government accounting as a career path, Graduates come out. Government accounting isn't always the first thing that people think of whenever they go to school for accounting. So this is an opportunity to show government accounting as a career path for them. It also allows for municipalities to build these Paffers. The Paffer program is to build a report that other municipalities can learn from. And so participation in this program is completely voluntary and free. It provided Natalie and I with opportunities for training and guidance from the GFOA. So from an overall timeline, we signed up for this program back in November of 2024. So this has nearly been a two-year journey in getting this together. Natalie and I met for over eight months during this project with a review from GFOA and just different meetings and trainings. So really, to get into it, what is a PAFR? So I've said PAFR a lot. You're familiar with our annual budget book and our comprehensive financial report, which is a 300-page document that contains our end-of-the-year audited financials. Over the last decade, Camden has consistently submitted both of these documents to the GFOA for review against best practices, and we received many awards for excellence in both budgeting and financial accounting. The popular annual financial report, simply put, is a user-friendly version of the county's year-end financials. If you're investing in a company, you would want to probably look at their profit and loss statements, their statement of cash flows. Those types of documents, government accounting is a little bit differently structured, but they're similar accounts. The similar documents would be found in our ACFR, our annual comprehensive financial report. So the goal of the PAPR is to take that information and simplify it to make it more accessible to the public. And with me tonight, I'm very, very pleased to introduce Natalie Antinor. This is our GFOA PAPR fellow who drove down from Atlanta to be here today to present this document with me. Thank you very much for being here, Natalie.

Thank you so much for having me. Apologies for the tardiness, but I'm so excited to be here.

It's a long drive. It is a long drive. All right. So I got more. So the purpose of the PAPR is to improve the average citizen's access to the county's financial data with clarity. All the details will continue to still be available in the ACVIR. This report is simply designed to improve the communication of that information to the public. So now, let us take a look at this report that Natalie helped build. So on the screen, you'll see pages of the report. They'll be a little difficult to read from the audience. So those who want to explore the details of this report, they're available on our website. There's also a paper copy for public viewing outside of the chamber doors on the table there. So I'll walk through each page briefly. And, Natalie, if you have anything that you want to add I know that each of these pages was designed with a lot of thought. So any time that you want to hop in, please feel free. Yeah. So in the introduction, we've got the table of contents. There's a brief explanation of the intent of the on here in reference to where the complete accounting information could be found. The web version is also hyperlinked just for easier navigation and improved usability. To start, we have the theme of the PAFR is kind of Camden's story. It's looking at where we came from, where we are, and where we are going. So Natalie and I had some really great conversations about what makes Camden such a great place to live. And she did a wonderful job of highlighting some of the major economic events that have shaped us as a community. And I believe this is a beautifully designed page. Thanks.

It was really beautiful learning about Camden's history, understanding how the unique history of Camden really affected the county economically and what's really going on. It's not just, oh, I'm putting something together. You're actually learning the history of the people who are there, what does it mean, and how these... how these events actually financially impacted where the county is. So I think that was important to highlight in general. I'll let you keep going.

Thank you. The next couple of pages show some statistical information about the county. So who our top 10 employers were in 2024. I like this one a lot. It's just kind of a snapshot of different figures.

Can we go back to the last one? Okay, so total personal income, it's an indicator. It basically tells you, well, if you go to that, the source, if you compare it to Georgia in general, you'll figure out where, you know, the people of this community are benchmarked according to the global, not the global, the national standards and the state standards. So it's just an indicator for you to figure out, okay, how are we doing? How are we progressing? Are we moving at a rate that makes sense statistically? I don't know if that's valuable to you all. Yeah. Thank you.

And then we have a visual explanation of how fund accounting works. This report focuses solely on the general fund, but the goal is for future reports to include other major funds like our SPLOST account, the capital improvement funds as well.

Yep. No, it's okay, it's okay. Okay, these numbers, beautifully put here, but what does it mean? Right? So like, as you all keep reading the path for a year, you'll be able to say, okay, oh, well, this year, you know, this is what the lost receipts look like. And the year before, and then when you speak to people who, you know, the accountants who actually deal with this information or the personnel who deal with this information, you can get more you know, in-depth information on how it affects us, you know, on a grand scheme. But these numbers are not just placed here. The goal is for you to at least you know, track from year to year, what are, what are things looking like? And I mean, for me, what I was studying is accounting, just thinking at the numbers, it's always a lot, but as you familiarize, familiarize yourself with how, like a body of information, specifically, this is Camden. Once you get used to how the numbers look from year to year, you'll get a better understanding of what's happening on a granular level, because It's just a lot to take on. And the PAFR is supposed to give people an understanding of what's going on overall, but continue to get people to go back to the actual reports, the actual financial reports. But accounting is the language of business and it's the language of how this world functions. So it just takes time to really get familiar with it. So I think that's the purpose of this page. It's not just to put numbers there.

Did you want to add anything to this one?

Okay. And same here. When you think of fund accounting, what does it mean? Like, what is the point of like, what's the point of or like, how does this even work? Right. All of our monies when we I guess when the county collects our tax dollars, where do they go? How is it allocated? You know, how is it? Organized, whenever you think of government taking money, using money, managing money, what does it look like? What's the point of it? This pictorial definition just tells you, okay, well, this is the beginning of how we start. there's a lot of black and white paperwork, right? But this is the concept to it. And since it's an inaugural one, more and more, like, the goal is for more and more paffers to give you more information on, okay, how this is performing. But for now, at least what's digestible is... there's a whole bunch of different funds. And if you go back to the actual financial reports, you go to the AFR, you will be able to learn in detail what is the general fund for? What's the SPLOST 8 fund for? how is it, what is it used for? You know, what's the essence of it? But I think this is the most important part, just understanding this part. And for people who do know, they can be like, okay, cool. Now I can go to the AFR and, you know, have an idea. And you're seeing some of them are bigger than the other. It's just, I hope this is helpful. I'll stop.

I think that's very helpful. Thank you. All right. here we have a one-page breakdown of the general fund financials for 2024. it clearly delineates what our revenues are our operating expenses versus the capital expenses with supplemental funding and includes pie charts to show how those numbers are derived and a little explanation about the change in fund balance it's like a one one stop shop for how did we do for the general fund in this year

Any questions?

And then the next page is looking at the future. So this one links to our strategic, the strategic plan. It has a couple of things in the strategic, the strategic plan and links back to where you would find that on our website. And then how to the final page is how citizens can contact Camden County. Good. So some acknowledgments, of course, is first Natalie for the months of work she did researching, designing, and producing this beautiful framework that we have to build on for years to come. GFOA's Mark Mack and Tao Pham spent hours with us doing phone calls and providing feedback and offering resources. They really helped, I think, a lot shape the story of the PAFR. And a big thank you to this board and to Camden County Administration for supporting transparency and innovation. And of course, to the citizens of Camden County who this report was created for. We really hope that it brings clarity and encourages more communication and feedback from the citizens.

Oh, and I wanted to add. An amazing thank you to Tiffany for being a great resource. Tiffany herself has been going through the CPA journey. I didn't mean to put you on blast like that, but it's been amazing to work with someone who understands accounting at the highest levels, right? And who can communicate what's actually happening and help me as still an accounting student who's going towards the CPA journey. I finished my accounting degree, but I'm still in school. just being able to understand things at this high level and digest it and be able to communicate it in return. So I think that that thank you is so important because you really helped me. Yeah. Thank you.

So in short, we're very excited to present this to you today. We truly believe it reflects Camden's commitment to community engagement, transparency, and excellence in financial reporting. We're also excited to share that GFOA has awarded us with the outstanding achievement and popular annual financial reporting for this report. which makes Camden County one of only 15 local Georgia communities to receive the Triple Crown. When meeting excellence in all three categories, the GFOA issues their best practice awards. So after answering any questions that you may have, we have a plaque and would love to take a picture with Natalie and the board and the finance team.

Any questions? Thanks, ladies. Great work. Appreciate you being here. Good luck on your career.

Thank you. I do have a couple.

Any questions from the board?

Yeah, just a couple real quick. So the popular total personal income, is that like a snapshot of if we were to tally up how much everyone made in Camden County, like that $1.8 million? Is that how that works? I'm trying to understand.

I think that one was based on... It was tiny. What is at the bottom?

Billion with a B. Sorry, 1.8 billion.

Let me see if I can go back to that.

Can I go up to it and read it?

there there is at the bottom of that um where that statistic is pulled from could you um read it yes please uh total personal income in camden county rose from 1.7 billion in 2014 to 2.4 billion in 2021 an increase of nearly 7.1 percent that reflects broad-based economic expansion across industries yes so that that statistic comes from um

I forget the name of the actual government website it comes from, but yes, it's the amount in bank accounts basically for everyone who's in Camden County. The Bureau of Economic Analysis, thank you, Claire.

That sounds intense, okay. And then I noticed this is 2024, probably because you guys are working on this in the middle of 2025. Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

So is this a report that's expected to follow probably a year behind moving forward?

So these are basically due at the end of the calendar year. So for this one, we have 2025 also available on the website. It's been submitted for the award. Natalie and I were able to work on that as well, which was really exciting. But as of right now, we have not yet received word back from GFOA about whether or not we've received the award for that year.

Well, I think it is a beautiful document. And Natalie, I want to let you know you do have a great resource in Tiffany, just like we do. So great work on this, guys.

Thank you.

Is this a snapshot? Yes, sir. Could this be turned into a dashboard that could be usable?

Potentially.

Okay. Just a question.

Yeah, those will change year over year, so...

I'm talking on maybe a monthly basis.

Statistics information is hard to get on a monthly basis for me. I'm not sure.

I know we've been working on a dashboard now for, what, a year, Joey? And this would be something that would be very usable. for everyone.

I will say something that I didn't know that I learned through some of the classes through ACCG is that accounting happens after the fact. So you pretty much do have to get the full picture before you can really dig into it and put the information together.

Yeah, we work in two cycles. We have our budget season, which is all of our planning, and then we have our audit season, which is basically tracking how we did. And we do the quarterly reports, which kind of keep track, but at the end of the year is really where we get a solid, this is exactly what happened this year.

Anything else? Thanks, ladies.

Thank you.

Excellent work. Okay, moving on to our next presentation, Human Firewall Project.

Good evening, Commissioners. As a part of our continuing effort to strengthen Camden County cybersecurity posture, we launched the Human Firewall Project to focus on one of the more important parts of any security program, which is our people. So technology alone, it can block a great deal of threats, but no security platform can completely replace an informed and vigilant workforce. This project was designed to examine our current cybersecurity awareness, evaluate phishing-related trends, and develop practical education and materials that help employees recognize and respond to threats. I have Sophia here with me today. She's led the work on this project, including the analysis, campaign development, and recommendations you'll see here in a moment. I was very impressed not only by the quality of her work, but also the degree of ownership that Sophia has shown. I feel it's a great benefit to have taken part in this year's Georgia County Internship Program. which offered us the opportunity to work with her on this project. And with that, I'll turn it over to you, Sophia.

Sorry. Thank you. I'm Sophia Harlos. I'm an intern with the county's IT department. One of my assignments as part of my internship was to contribute to the Human Firewall Project, which is a cybersecurity initiative responsible for increasing the awareness of county employees. In the following slides, I'll introduce you to the project's goals, campaigns, and their results. Many cyber attacks use social engineering, which exploits human weaknesses rather than technical ones. In order to strengthen the county's resilience against social engineering, the Human Firewall Project aims to increase employee awareness, identify vulnerabilities, and improve reporting habits. Because phishing is one of the most common forms of social engineering, and the one we're dealing with here, it is the focus of this project. When designing the email campaigns, we had three main objectives. The first, to identify any knowledge gaps, such as which email types the organization is most susceptible to and least likely identify as phishing. The second, to evaluate email reporting, such as what email types employees are already identifying as phishing and reporting. And the third, to measure the effectiveness of custom training. What impact does custom employee training have compared to our normal general cybersecurity training? The first three campaigns were sent over a period of four weeks, from May 26 to June 30, to about 260 employees. Campaign themes included spoofing to all users and email notification from Windows, impersonation sent to the JDA and email query imitating a small business owner, incentive to main point an anonymous survey request offering a free gift card. Each campaign was designed to test their group's resilience to different message types and to identify any weak areas. Here's a sample of one of the emails that was sent to all users. As you can see, it looks like it could be an actual email from Microsoft. However, the whole point of a spoofing message is to look to be from a trusted source, like Microsoft in this case. Here we can see the results from the three campaigns. The email sent to the JDA had the highest click rate at 66%, whereas MainPoint had the lowest click rate at 0%. As for reporting, MainPoint had the highest report rate at 44%, and all employees had the lowest report rate at 18%. To the right, you can see a comparison of each of the interaction rates. Note that this is not a weighted comparison, but rather compares what percent out of the total number of emails sent to each group were opened, clicked, or reported.

How many commissioners clicked the link?

I did not go through and count that. I'm sorry. To the right, you can see the total number of clickers each campaign had. 13% of employees who clicked were assigned to watch a three-minute training video that was designed specifically for the human firewall project. This video goes over one of the emails in depth and highlights areas that indicate whether or not it was phishing, along with what to look for in other messages. In this next slide, we can actually watch the training video that was assigned to the clickers. I'm sorry. I'm going to go back. We do not have audio. I'm so sorry. It's not working. Hi, I'm Sophia Harlos, and for this session, we will cover phishing as part of your cybersecurity awareness training. The purpose of this video is to help reinforce your email safety habits and improve awareness. By the end of this video, you should be able to understand what phishing is, know how to identify it, and what to do if you get a phishing email.

The projector is delayed.

Phishing is a cyber attack meant to trick you into giving away sensitive information, like passwords or your credit card information, or into downloading malware. These attacks are often in the form of an email or message and appear to be from a legitimate source, such as your employer or Microsoft. Some of you may have received an email similar to this one in your inbox. It looks like it could be an actual email from Microsoft letting you know that someone else has signed into your account. While it looks real, it is actually a phishing email. So, how do you identify whether or not an email is a phishing email?

well don't you worry i mean honestly i'm I know that the entire room was excited to get cybersecurity awareness training. It looks like fate saved you all. I was hoping to be able to not just bring this type of training to the county, but to everybody on YouTube and beyond. But it does not change exactly how great the training was and everybody that took the training. So Sophia will now display with these charts and the information just how effective it was.

All right. Sorry for the technical problems of the video, but, um, moving on based on the performance of the first spoofing campaign, a second spoofing campaign was sent over a period of three weeks between July 6th and August 1st, compared to the first spoofing campaign, there was a four, a 4.7% decrease in clicks and a 9.2% increase in reports. Additionally, about 20% of the employees who failed the second spoofing campaign also happened to fail the first. Now that we've seen the overall results, I'd like to highlight several key findings. First, email spoofing trusted services received the highest engagement on average, with 6.2% click rate and 43.8% of the messages being opened. As for reporting, about 60% of employees across all campaigns reported the simulated emails as phishing. About 70% of the phish failures were from users who had a low phish prone percentage score, that being between 0 and 10%. After custom training, employees were 74% less likely to click and 2.3% more likely to report the emails as phishing. Based on the key findings, we can begin to notice several patterns. First, there seems to be a vulnerable trust in third-party vendors, with more than 12% of employees interacting with spoofed service emails. As for the custom training, the outcome, I believe, was positive, and the employees who put out the previous campaigns were 74% less likely to fill the second campaign after receiving specialized training. However, about seven in 10 fish failures were from employees with low fish prone percentage scores, meaning even low risk employees are susceptible to realistic fishing attempts. I believe the campaign results highlight two key areas of concern, a vulnerability to spoofing emails and a need for more realistic training. Based on these results, there are a couple of next steps we could take. First, introduce more realistic and varied fishing emails such as spoofing ones, And to provide additional focus training for vulnerable employees based on the results from custom training. And next, to implement reporting focus training in order to reinforce our good reporting habits. And lastly, expand our training to include verifying third party communications in order to reduce our risk to spoofing emails.

Thank you, Sophia. What you've seen here is more than an internship assignment. The project gives us useful information about our current level of organizational awareness, identifies opportunities for improvement, and it provides materials that we can continue to use as a part of our broader cybersecurity program. Cybersecurity awareness is never just a one-time training exercise. It's a continuous process that it builds good habits, it reinforces expectations, and it's helping our people understand their role in protecting the county's assets and our infrastructure and keeping it safe. Sophia's work has given us a strong foundation for continuing that effort, and we appreciate the time, creativity, and professionalism that she brought to the Human Firewall Project. I'm proud of the work that she's presented to you today, and we're happy to take any questions.

So on a scale of 1 to 10, how did we do as a county overall? Fantastic. Oh, really?

Well, I would say there are sixty percent report rate is pretty good however, I do think The main concerning thing I can't exactly score us on a scale of one to ten how well we did but I would say that Overall the reporting was good. However, there does seem to be a weakness to spoofing emails Thank you, but you didn't get me We're gonna craft one just for you

Question from the board.

I hope you gained something from this internship that you're going to carry with you moving forward.

I did. Thank you.

Well, I really appreciate your time and the time of the public. So thank you very much.

Thanks, Okay, we'll move on to the first public comment section. These are comments related to items on the agenda. Comments related to three minutes. When you come up, state your name and your address. Okay, anybody signed up? Nobody signed up. Does anybody wish to speak to the board? Just come up to the podium.

If you would, give us your name and your address.

There you go. My name is David Patrick. I live at 24 Jesse's Lane, Woodbine, Georgia. That's out on Union Carbide Road. First off, just an address in the chair. I'd like to just say my appreciation to the board members and to the at-large Camden County government community, there's a lot of excellence. You know, I love seeing the data analysis because that should be the basis for our decisions based on good data. I note, you know, with all these high performance, I do note even with the cyber test that was done, you still got your 20% down there that's not paying attention, that's not doing exactly what they should be. So we need to focus on that to improve them, to bring them up to speed. Doesn't mean they need a whooping, maybe they need help. Right? I did want to speak, so thank you for that. I did want to speak, and if I'm out of order on this, let me know, because when you say speak about items on the agenda, I'd like to go down to the items five and six, no, six and seven. Six and seven, Sheriff's Department. I'm assuming we'll hear from the Sheriff's Department on that? Okay. Is it premature for me to speak on it, or is this appropriate time? This is the appropriate time, yes.

Okay.

Just on it, you know, I listened last year, came to a couple of meetings. I know we're not able to provide a much-needed facility for the sheriff so they can centralize their operations so this county can get up to speed on... What the employees are doing, we need to get the facilities up to speed on that, and I definitely support that. But then I look at items that eat you away on your budget. So these two items reflect, in my amount, probably pretty high dollar items, especially the item six on the explosive ordinance disposal truck. So, you know, when y'all look at that real hard, it's not enough information here for me to determine, well, how much does it cost? But I can imagine that's a pretty penny for that. Meanwhile, we're looking to get the facilities up to speed, and we're not able to do it right now because of budget restrictions, right? That's where we've been. I do know, you know, I wonder sometime when we're looking at things like this, we look at the frequency of use. GBI has 10 units of explosive units that are available. One of them is close to Savannah. There's another one that's close to Easton County, so I wonder... is there really a need for it or is it a won't? So that's on that one. Same thing on the other item with the item for the tow truck. Can we contract it out? Is that cheaper? Have these items been looked at in that regard? And I'd really look to see if we're gonna get what we need facility-wise, we have to be physically disciplined on how we're spending our money. I'd also like to just state to the board, Can we not look, and I know nobody likes to raise taxes, we had quite a crowd in here last year about raising taxes, but can we not establish a temporary special purpose optional sales tax to get us to facilities dedicated to a sheriff facility? Can that not happen? Because we do it for other things. We do it for the school. I believe that's applicable to us getting a sheriff's office upgraded and get this county rolling out how we ought to be. Resource-wise, all goes back to money. Resource-wise, we got a lot of water around here. We got these AI people wanting to come in. In the right hands, our resources can be used wisely and we can do better we can be the best i think we're on the road to that excellence but there's always another day and another way to do it better right for everybody i appreciate your time thank you thank you anybody else okay seeing none we'll end the public comment section and uh

Move to adjourn the regular meeting and convene a public hearing. Entertain a motion to do that.

I move to adjourn the regular meeting and convene a public hearing. Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Cassie.

Good evening, commissioners. Tonight, we have a request to rezone approximately 4.72 acres from agricultural forestry to commercial neighborhood. This request is in order to place a billboard on this parcel located on Laurel Island Parkway. It currently has a future land use designation of City of Kingsland. So we are also proposing a future land use change to commercial. This is located in District two. Here is the parcel. As you can see, it's surrounded by city parcels currently. It's the only county. Here it is again without the zoning. And the Planning Commission does recommend approval of this item.

Okay, does anybody in the audience wish to speak for the item? Anybody like to speak against the item? Okay, seeing none. Make a motion to adjourn the public hearing and reconvene the regular meeting. Second.

Motion and a second. All in favor?

Motion carries. Move on to the regular meeting. Item number one, Cassie.

Yes Sir, we have a request to rezone approximately 4.2 4.72 acres from agricultural forestry to commercial neighborhood. Along with that would be a future land use designation change from City of Kingsland to commercial. The Planning Commission does recommend approval of this item.

Okay, you haven't heard the item. Do we have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve the request to rezone approximately 4.72 acres from agricultural forestry to commercial neighborhood.

Second, Mr. Chairman.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I just wanted to ask, so with a commercial designation, they're probably going to use a small portion of it for the billboard. What kind of occupancies can they have on the rest of the land with commercial?

With commercial in general, it's a very large amount of different things they could do, but basically, you know, restaurants, stuff like that. Yes, that is correct, sir.

Any other questions? We have a motion and a second. All in favor? motion carries thank you thank you move on to item number two uh bear with me uh jared were you gonna present this oh i'm sorry

Mr. Chair, I can handle this presentation. Okay. But this is for the appointment of Ms. Jessie Griffin as a new animal control officer. And so the purpose of this is to swear her in and have her sign her oath. And then I'd have the oath for Your Honor to sign. Okay. So, ma'am.

Your Honor, how'd that feel?

Are you ready for this? It's a force of habit.

So if you'll raise your right hand, please. Okay. And do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will well and faithfully uphold and execute the constitutions and the laws of the United States and the state of Georgia, and to the best of your ability, enforce the regulations and ordinances of Camden County, Georgia?

I will.

All right, and welcome aboard. I'll sign that here.

Okay, Captain Goble, you're going to present item number three, request to purchase the JHB fire safety simulator.

Yes. Good evening, commissioners. So I'm here in front of you tonight to request the approval to purchase the JHB fire safety simulator. This was an approved capital purchase project for fiscal year 27. This simulator is going to take place the place of... What a lot of citizens thought of as the smokehouse or the fire safety trailer, uh, which we took to various schools over 25 years. Uh, but just due to number one, it losing its ADA compliance, um, and just the wear and tear over 25 years in the Georgia sun, uh, went into disrepair. Um, so this will get us another ADA compliant simulator. And this one has all the bells and whistles, which can not only teach children about fire safety, but we also have, you know, other residential and commercial fire safety pieces inside it. So we could teach adults for their residence, for their workplace. And there are also some features that will help train our firefighters in their response and stuff like that as well. But it is a source well contract. So that's where the quote is coming from that you have before you. But I'm just here to answer any questions you all may have.

Mr. Chairman. Questions from the board? I guess we entertain a motion.

I'm prepared to offer one. I move to approve the purchase of the GAHB fire safety simulator.

Now second. We have a motion and second discussion.

I just want to add that this past week I was actually at the fire safety symposium where all fire professionals from around the state come together to get education and one of the presenters was giving an example of, I believe it was the mother had passed out drunk while she was cooking some food. And so smoke started filling up the house, and there was a young four-year-old girl that actually got out of the house to get to the neighbor. And when they asked her how she knew what to do, she touched her hand along the wall to get out the door. She said she learned from her local fire department. So that really stuck with me, and that's why I think this is an extremely important purchase. So thank you.

Anything else?

I'd add that this basically was approved in the budgets. When we were talking about all the cuts we had to make, we decided to keep this one.

And I appreciate it. Excuse me. With the support the board gives the fire department, we are able to still educate the public, which does give us, based on other areas in the state, we do have a low fire death rate. But the problem is if we continue on just doing the little bit we can without the tools, the new technology that's out there this also includes a digital fire extinguisher training trainer which we can use separately which we'll be able to take to businesses festivals anywhere that anyone requests it but that's going to continue keeping us as safe as as we can thank you sir thank you okay we have a motion in a second any more discussion all in favor

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Okay, item number four, Captain Maher.

How y'all doing? Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm here tonight to request approval to purchase a self-contained breathing apparatus cascade machine. This system was approved in the 2027 capital purchase. Right now, we currently have two Cascades. They're all located in the north end of the county, and they're over 15 years old. During training and major events, we either have to travel to the north end of the county or to use the city's machines. By purchasing this now, Arctic is offering a five-year gold warranty over $5,000 value. Can I answer your questions?

Can I entertain a motion?

Make a motion to approve the purchase of the self-contained breathing apparatus cascade system. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Yes, sir. Is this cascade system fixed or portable?

It's fixed. It's going to be at headquarters.

And headquarters for the benefit of the public is where?

125 North Grove Road, Kingsland.

Thank you.

And for those that don't know. Yes, sir. Or need refreshing, could you explain what a cascade system is?

It fills up the bottles we breathe. That's right. It's purified air is what it is.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

It also weighs how much?

So it's two separate units. One of them weighs 830 pounds, and the other piece weighs 625 pounds, I believe it is.

So it's not going to be moved a whole lot?

No, sir.

Okay. Any other questions, comments? We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Motion carries. Thank you all.

Okay, item number five, we're going to, it was removed from the agenda, so we're going to move on to item number six. Captain Sears is here. Yep, there he is.

Sir, your microphone. Microphone.

Good evening. I'm here to get the approval to purchase the EOD K9 truck, not a bomb truck. And it is completely funded by a grant we received from GEMA for the K9 program. The quote came in through the GOVERNMENT CONTRACT THROUGH FLORIDA, THE SHERIFF'S ASSOCIATION, WHICH WOULD COME IN WAY UNDER WHAT THE ACTUAL PRICE WAS OR WHAT ACTUAL GRANT IS AWARDED TO US. AND THAT MONEY WILL BE USED FOR THE K-9 THROUGHOUT THE YEAR AND FOR OTHER EXPENSES.

OKAY. HAVING HEARD THE ITEM, ENTERTAIN A MOTION.

Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the purchase of the explosive ordnance disposal truck for the Camden County Sheriff's Office Special Operations Division. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

I just think it is really important to point out, especially for the gentleman that had questions about the funding, not a single dollar of your local tax dollars is going towards the purchase of that truck. It's a grant from GEMA, correct?

Yes, sir. All right.

Any further discussion?

It's not matching either, is it? It's full grant. It's full grant, yeah. No match.

No more discussion. We have a motion. All in favor? Motion carries.

I'm also here to request the purchase of another special operations vehicle, which would be a Marine unit truck, which we use to pull our vessels from place to place. Our heaviest vessel being 14,000 plus pounds, it requires an F-250 in order to safely move pull this actual vessel in and out of the water. And we also come in very reasonable with that as well, and it was through the Florida Sheriff's Association grant process, or not grant process, but the... Approved vendors. Approved vendors, yeah.

Okay.

This one will be some local tax dollars. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir.

We entertain a motion.

I make a motion that we approve this with some discussion. I would like for you to tell the story about trying to pull. Let's get a second real quick.

Let's get a second. Okay, I'll second. We have a second.

Okay.

I'd like to hear the story that you told me a while ago about pulling that heavy boat up sitting near bridge.

Yes, at first, when we first started this program, and our boats have kind of grown throughout the years. This was the Contender, which is a 2007 we still operate. It is a heavy boat, but we had a gas 250 to pull it. And going over the Cillian Air Bridge, if you didn't stomp it two miles out, you would never make it over the bridge. And you would get to the top of the bridge at 40 miles an hour, and you're standing on it. It will not move. It's barely getting over. When we switched to diesels, I took that same truck, come off a Jekyll and hit the grade of the bridge and was able to be well over the speed I needed to get over just by the diesel, the power that the diesel has and the torque that the diesel has.

Well, and the one thing, when I read that as well, I thought, why do we need a tow truck? You can call someone to tow you. It's not actually a tow truck. It is a boat-pulling truck that's very well needed, right?

Yes, and with these boats... It's considerably cheaper for us to purchase the fuel and have our own tanks instead of trying to fuel the boats on the water, which in emergency circumstances we do. So with that, we have to trailer the boats a lot. And we typically take our boats to Jacksonville to have service done. And you absolutely have to have a bigger truck And it's not just to pull the boat, because the majority of the trucks have enough horsepower to pull a truck or a boat. It's stopping, safely stopping the boat, even with the electric brakes. That's a lot of weight.

And like anything else, you guys, when you react, you have to react quickly. And I think that's important that you've got the tools to get there. For instance, you were talking about some young kid or something that drowned and you guys had to go to Jekyll Island or St. Simons to help him out. Yes, sir.

That's why I think it's important. This year has answered, I think it was 500 calls to Cumberland Island. So it's very common for us to get called out in emergency circumstance, and sometimes it takes us going a little faster to get there. And, you know, with a 14,000-pound boat, you want to be able to stop safely.

That's the contender, right? The contender?

The contender's not the largest. The silver ship is our largest. Okay.

To highlight funding source, just for the people that are interested, this is coming out of SPLOST 9 funds. Out of $800,000 we approved for vehicle sheriff's office this year, correct? Now, $78,342 is the total for the truck, including all of the equipment. That's for everything. Okay. I know someone that gets their 2025, 2024 Tundra service down in Jacksonville at Arlington Toyota, and a brand-new Tundra is right around that price with no police equipment. So I think this is actually a really great deal. Thank you.

Any further discussion? All in favor? Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, move on to item number eight, which is a reappointment of Ann Weston to the Camden County Public Library Board of Trustees. Entertain a motion.

I move to reappoint Ms. Ann Weston to the Camden County Public Library Board of Trustees. Second. We have a motion and a second.

Any discussion?

All in favor?

Motion carries. Okay, moving on to reports.

There's no changes at this time.

No change in the calendar. Joey, you have any comments?

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to add just real quick that I will be having really my second scheduled. Unfortunately, we had to postpone the first one, but my second scheduled town hall meeting August the 13th next Thursday at the Woodbine Library, so I invite everyone that's able to attend.

Are you going to reschedule the first one?

at some point yes we're actually looking we'll send that out tomorrow was the plan uh we're just making sure that everybody's on board and able to uh reserve everything so yes sir we will yes i also would like to let everybody know that the work session that we have scheduled thursday will be uh rescheduled as well thank you i wasn't sure if i was supposed to yes it's so good thank you okay anything else uh

Move on now to the additional public comment section. Anybody has signed up to speak? Katie? Nobody signed up. Anybody wish to speak to the board about any item?

We have several.

Ms. Heath, we'll let you go first.

I just want to double invite you to come to the Woodbine Public Library at 6 p.m. on August 13, so not this Thursday, but Thursday next week. And our library in Woodbine, serving all of North Camden County, is the best thing going in Woodbine. So come here. Our administrator, we're very happy to have you come, and the food will be good, we promise. Thank you.

Thank you. Ricky? Yes, sir.

Good evening, Commissioners. Rick Manning from Bullhead. In honor of Robert Bower, y'all welcome to my house. Anyway, I just wanted to touch on a couple of things. First thing, Commissioners, we could get Katie to somehow or another maybe put a little tab when we go to the website. We see a lot of people ask questions because they don't know how to get to the long version of the agenda. I've showed I don't know how many people in the Citizens Committee several times because it's a little funky if you don't know how to go and click here to get down there and get all the details of what's actually on the agenda. So if we could somehow figure out how to make that easier so The general public knows how to get there. I mean, shouldn't be too much trouble. And maybe get a presentation in the next meeting or two and show the citizens how to do that and get to the details. And then you may cut a little bit, a lot more questions out. And one other thing, I'd like to see if the board and the administration can entertain looking back at the planning commission, same kind of situation we have here or it was even brought up to maybe even start having the planning commission meetings here so that we can record them and have them out live like we do here because we're starting to get a lot more people going to the planning commission meetings and they're asking questions and details get left out when you transfer stuff from on paperwork without it being videoed so if we could ever entertain let's look at that again uh cost wise or whatever it needs to be thank you

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Bert Seals. I'm 816 Riverview Drive, St. Mary's. And I'm ready and truly honored Today was an educational thing for me here. I'm here really and truly to do some kudos to the graduate from the Citizens Academy that took place around the 25th of June. I was one of those who attended it. I'm glad that I did attend that academy. It was very rewarding. Lots of good information came out from the county's perspective. So many things that I learned. It's never too old to learn. I want to thank Claire Fiesel, I hope I'm not butchering her name, and the three young ladies over here, and the young man here, and the Commissioner Casey, normally he attended most of all the meetings. I appreciate you guys because we did, was able to get a lot of information out, you know what I mean, and so that we could take back to our local communities Even to our kids, you know what I mean? Because we didn't know how a lot of stuff works at the county level, even on the city level. And I thought it was so great that I was able to attend this. I wasn't scheduled to do it. Someone asked me to go there because they had to do another assignment. So I picked it up, and I am so glad that I went. They fed us. and a lot of candy, you know. And I don't need no more candy here, you know. So, but, you know, I think, you know, the good thing about this class is it was well organized. Binders the whole nine yards and was completely, we didn't have to pay a dime. All we had to do was to attend. You know what I mean? And I think that was so great that you know. I, you know, like education, education, education. We talk about location, location, I mean, buying and selling house. Education, education, education is the key to what's going on in and around this country, in and around this city, in and around this county. And we need to have that education going over and over. Those two young ladies that they were talking to, I'm like, ooh. about the whole, the financial stuff. I mean, it takes a lot to do those things, and it's good to have people to sit down there and tool it in their minds, because I don't have that kind of capability. I'm a aim, shoot, and you're gone, you know. That's what I'm about. I have to learn different things, you know what I mean, and still carry on. One of the things that I, again, I saw Claire was out, Oh, there she is. I love you, babe. You know, you did a good job. One of the things that I, you know, I generally go to the St. Mary's City Council meetings, you know, because I like to go and educate myself because there was someone that When I was in my early days in the military, he would go and he would always come back and educate us as a young airman. And, you know, to this day, you know, I didn't understand at the time, nor am I understanding what he was doing. And hopefully I could do the same thing, you know what I mean, to pass it on because this is what's so great about this country. You know what I mean? People don't understand that. We have problems. Don't get me wrong. We always have problems. You know what I mean? But we still forge ahead. No one attacks us because it's just like when they attacked Pearl Harbor. Even the general, the Japanese general said it was a mistake that they made because they wouldn't know that we were going to come back at them. And he was right. And we come back hard. You know what I mean? One of the things that I want to talk about here is this. It was a nice article that was written by Scott Brown. It was the latest publication here. And it was, you should vote because for a time you couldn't. And if you guys didn't read it, I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm just going to talk about one little piece in it. One of the things he wrote is, by the time the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, more than 900 citizenship schools had been created. The students, mostly adults, often met in secret locations. It is estimated that thousands of black citizens were taught how to read and write, which resulted in many of them gaining their right to vote. You know, this is 2026, people. We ain't got to do that no more. You know what I mean? Pretty much. A lot of education is taking place in all the public schools, even though I kind of wonder about that sometimes. Because some of them ain't gathering it. They're not taking it in. However, one of the key things is, you know, the right to vote. A civic duty, simple as that. and people wouldn't even come on and vote. I don't know how many people voted last time. I know it's not 50%. It's always below 50%. Local, federal, it's always under 50%. However, I'm talking to my black audience. We took a lot of hits. You know, I know you guys recorded, so when I'm speaking it out, not just for who are here, so those folks who are listening and could go back and look, that's why I'm saying it that way. Because a lot of people got beat up. MLK and the rest, you know, John Lewis, you know, all those different things that happened. However, you know, it's strange to this day. Back then, back then, it was black people. That was getting beat up. It was black people. Now we have black and brown. I don't know where the brown thing came in from. Back then it was black people. You know what I mean? And we took the hit. You know what I mean? Now, not me personally, but folks, you know, black folks. And you have to put and correct things where it needs to be corrected. It wasn't black and brown. It wasn't the Oriental. It was black people. And we didn't mind. We learned to tolerate what has happened. So when people walking around here and they speak in their minds and running them out, the first thing I ask them, did you vote? You know what I mean? Did you vote? And if they say, well, no, and they hesitate, I don't even answer them. I walk away from them, because it's a waste of time, a waste of money, and a waste of effort. That's what's happened today. And we are educated to the max. We are overeducated. We can't just go and vote. So again, we have a fight. It's not just black people. All these white folks, y'all need to vote too. You know what I mean? Because if you don't vote, whatever happens, whatever the consequences are, you have to fall with it and ride with it. That's what it's all about. If you vote, I don't care who you vote for. You may have lost, but that's okay. You voted. At least you could have a conversation. If you ain't voting, we can't have our conversation. That's the end of the whole story right there when people are running them out and saying things and doing things they have no business doing. Again, I just want to say thank you guys. I thank the school that helped educate me. I'm talking about the academy that educated me a whole lot. I enjoyed it for 12 weeks. I can't believe I went to school for 12 weeks and didn't miss a day. I was, I was, I kind of, you know, I look in the mirror, I'm like, I didn't miss a day, you know? But it was good. I appreciate you guys, and I appreciate what you guys continue to do. At least we don't, we ain't striking each other and calling other names and all these kind of things, you know what I mean? We had, even the academy, we had a little bit tit for tat, but we still did fine. We did well. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Appreciate that. Awesome. Anybody else? Coming to the podium.

David Patrick, 24 Jesse's Lane. John Lewis, if you see something, say something. That's one of his quotes. I wanted to say through the chair, thank you, Mr. Manning, for alerting me that there is actually a full agenda out there for me to look at. I look forward to learning how to get there so I can educate myself because, you know, some things have happened recently, and it's been a catalyst for me to get more involved with government. So you all can expect to see a lot of me. My concerns tonight I want to speak publicly about. There's shenanigans going on on our roadways. There is an abuse of privilege with golf carts, no 55-mile-an-hour roads, no highways, 35-mile-an-hour insurance. I see the county put out something about it recently. It was fairly vague, though, I'll say that. We could do better on that. We've got ATVs that live out off of Union Carbide Road. Mr. Turner is aware. We've communicated with the sheriff's office. Mr. Deputy Chief Danny Sykes has been great. Sheriff's been great on that, trying to enforce it. It's like rounding up people that disappear real quick. But they have torn up the environment out here. They have compacted the soil in the ditches, which drains directly into our estuaries, which is our oysters, our shrimp, the fish that we catch. And let me remind you all, there's some good fishing out here on Union Carbide Road now at Deep Creek. It's also turned into a carnival out there on the weekends with people up and down the roads doing wheelies. I've actually sent the Sheriff's Office videos of it all. Thank you for looking and being attentive to that. Yet it continues. As recent as yesterday, they're still out there doing it. But I'm looking to discuss with the county here about remediation for the damage that's been done in these ditches out here. We've got water laying up, which causes mosquito larvae. There's a lot of impact to the environment that is a result of illegal activity. I get a lot of people, oh, well, they're just kids out there having fun. Well, let me assure you, I've done enough work in my life in industrial environments, in other environments, shenanigans or horseplay will always result in one thing, and that's injury or death. So if you let them play, it's not okay. If it's against the law, it's against the law. Unless I have people follow the law, it'll make this, because you know what? If you hadn't ridden out to Union Carbide, it's a sore at down there at the end with the big sign for sale with the contamination and the salt and what have you. But on the way out there, you will see this fauna growing in them ditches. There's gopher tortoises right outside my house. There's probably 10 beds out there and they're eating them little plants that these people are running these equipment up and down in. All vapors into the environment. It is out of control. So I am seeking publicly help from the commissioners, continued support and help from the sheriff. Thank you, sir, through the chair. And that's where I'm at on that. So I thank you for your time. Okay. Good day to you.

Thank you. Anybody else?

Okay.

Seeing none. Move on to the commissioner comments section. Commissioners, any comments? Discussions?

I would just want to use my time to ask if this, are you still doing the Sheriff's Office Academy? Did you want to plug that real quick while you have an opportunity? September 1st, okay. For those that didn't hear or don't know, the Sheriff's Office also has an educational academy, much like the county puts on. I believe you guys still have openings currently, and it's a great experience as well for anybody who's interested.

Anything else? Okay, now we'll entertain a motion to adjourn the regular meeting and convene an executive session to discuss IT, litigation, and personnel.

Mr. Chairman, it is with great anticipation for moving to a warmer room that I make a motion that we adjourn for executive session.

I second.

All in favor? We'll be back. Executive session and reconvene the regular session.

I'll second. Motion and second. All in favor? We have two items to deal with from the executive session. I think Ben.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we approve the Camden County Sheriff's Office IT equipment purchase in the amount of $308,260.55. Second, Mr. Chairman.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries.

All right, the next motion I got is to approve the employment contract with the county administrator.

I'll second.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

I do.

All in favor? Motion carries. Motion to adjourn. I'll second. All in favor? We're adjourned. Thank you.