Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Iowa County Board of Commissioners meeting for June 22nd, 2026. We'd like to welcome those who are in attendance in our audience this evening. Our first item on the agenda is invocation. We've got Pastor Nicky Waters with us from Poovey's Chapel Baptist Church. And we'll follow that with our Pledge of Allegiance. And Vice Chairman Mike LaBrosse will lead us in that this evening. So welcome, Pastor. Thank you.

Amen. Amen. Amen. that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. Will you pray with me? Father, thank you, God, for this day. Thank you for your love, and God, thank you for the opportunity you give us, God, to know your grace and your mercy, God, and to know your peace and to know your salvation, Lord, and know your love, God, that you not only give us, but, Lord, that we can give to others as you tell us, God, to love God, you and to love others like you love others. And God, thank you for our community. God, thank you for this county. God, thank you, Lord, for the people in it. God, thank you for the community that we have to gather together, Lord, and to honor your name. And God, to honor each other. Lord, thank you for the respect. And Lord, I pray, God, that we would always just follow you in everything we do and every decision that's made. God, here in our county, Lord, may we have your desire. God, may you bless those in leadership, God, to know your will and your desire. God, I pray you would help us, Lord. God, we've got an alcohol problem. We have a drug problem. God, we've got people who are suffering in our county. God, may you give us the resources so that we can, God, positively. encourage them, help them, help our families. God, help all these children in foster care, Lord. And God, restore their families back in a way, God, that would make our county, God, great. And Lord, just thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for our leadership. Thank you for your love in our life, God. And we just ask you to bless this time we have together, God, that you may lead all of us and guide us to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please face the flag. Attention, salute, pledge. 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.

All right. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Pastor. Are there any amendments to our agenda this evening?

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to respectfully ask with all the attention around the streaming of our meetings that we add a discussion item to discuss this situation.

About YouTube?

About YouTube and the streaming, yes, sir.

So are you making that in the form of a motion?

I'm asking to add it to the agenda, yes, sir, respectfully, so we can discuss it.

So is that a form of a motion? Yes. All right. So Commissioner Potter has asked that we put the YouTube on our agenda. And so I'll call the question. All those in favor, raise your hand. And those opposed, raise your hand. So that fails. Three, two.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Any other amendments to our agenda?

Mr. Chairman and Board of Commissioners, we do have one addition tonight. I'd like to add item 24. This would be for the FY26-27 year.

This is for the Home and Community Care Block Grant.

This is a late addition. This is for our aging, our AAA through the COG, and does not require any monies as a part of our budget, just part of their approval process for the year. And I'll be happy to discuss that a little further as we get into that item. But I request that as item number 24 under consent.

All right, so then that would move closed session to item 25, if you want to make a note of that. All right, hearing that amendment to the agenda, what's the pleasure of the board in adopting the agenda this evening?

Mr. Chair, I move that we accept this evening's agenda as the county manager's presented.

Any other comment or discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that motion carries. And our first item this evening is an overview of planned grid improvement work with Miss Robin Nicholson and Michael Legg from Duke Energy this evening. So welcome, Robin.

Good evening. Thank you, Chairman Church. Commissioners, thank you for allowing us time to speak with you this evening. We just want to give a quick overview because Duke Energy is getting ready to do a lot of work in Caldwell County. There are about six, five or six substations in the county. We're gonna be touching circuits coming out of every one of those substations except for one. And the reason we're not touching that one is because we did it last year. Once this work is completed, Our customers will see improved reliability. We'll have ways of restoring service quicker. And we'll be spending upwards of $50 million here in the county, just in Caldwell County. So we've met individually with some of the municipalities. We've met individually with Mr. Fox. And we would like to present this to you just to give you a high level overview of the volume of work and where we're going to be and talk a little in detail. And with me tonight is Michael Legg. He's going to be presenting. And we also have Brittany McCabe with us. She's going to be the one going forward that will be communicating with you and keeping you up to date as the work progresses throughout the county. So with that, I'm going to ask Michael to step forward and talk a little bit about the work that's going to be done.

Good evening, gentlemen. Appreciate you taking your time and inviting us and hearing us out. Like Robin said, we're investing, it's truthfully, north of $50 million into the Caudwell County infrastructure. This is just kind of an overview. Duke Energy is making a substantial investment, as we just mentioned, north of $50 million to modernize and update Caldwell County's electrical infrastructure. That's going to include rebuilding both overhead and underground power distribution systems. The biggest thing to take into account is the timeline. Work is scheduled to commence as early as June 30th. and it will continue all the way through December of 2028. Not all at once, but as you start seeing certain sections of Caldwell County finishing up on construction, they'll move right into some other locations. There will be some that are going on with around the same time, but it shouldn't be in a confined area. This is just kind of, it's kind of hard to see, but these dots and lines and everything, that is everything that we will be touching. This is actually zoomed out. So when you actually zoom in, it shows it a lot more spread out. So as you can tell, we are touching majority of Caldwell County within this construction. The age and condition of the existing infrastructure is one of the main reasons we're building this. If you ride down right here on Main Street, North Harper Avenue and all that, you can see our lines is very decrepit. They need to be updated for sure. It's also going to help us, you know, help with the growing energy demand with as businesses come as you know we already know Google's expanding as they expand or anything else maybe bringing in new customers and we need a better power quality. Customers that affected the majority of the work will take place in Lenore, Valmead, Gameville, Collisville, Cajun Mountain and the Hudson area. Not the entire area but you may see certain areas within those municipalities that are touched more. The projected goal is this work will support the energy demand of Caldwell County's growing economy while improving power quality and reducing the outages of our customers' experience. So one of the big things that we're doing in our new constructions, we are installing what they call a self-healing network. It basically acts just like a transfer switch on a generator. So if it sees an outage, if it's able to isolate itself and feed from a different direction, we can limit the amount of customers affected down to a single point. As long as it's not a man-operated switch or protective device, it should be able to heal on itself. You may see three big blinks, power may go out, and then it will cut right back on shortly after. Residents, what y'all can expect during this is a significant electric utility presence across much of Caldwell County, including utility contractors, engineers, tree trimming contractors, and flatting companies. You may experience occasional delays on your commutes to work, normal daily operations, and there may be some traffic detours if the road's not quite wide enough and we have to shut down a road. um we'll work closely with all our local municipalities to carry out this work safely with minimal disruption so i've already we've talked to shane and several of the other town managers about acquiring their event schedules so we're not shutting down roads or impacting these major events and especially whenever school starts back you know we won't be in the road during drop off or pickup or anything like that A couple of our companies that you'll see around, you won't really see too many Duke Energy labeled trucks doing this work or contractors will be doing it. You'll be seeing Bird Electric, that's what their symbol looks like. You'll see UCLS and then we also have Asplund Engineering which is doing a lot of the field work and design for this process. And with that, that's just a quick overview, and I'm welcome. Any questions anyone may have? Yes, sir.

The only question I have is I know you guys are really good about sending text messages out when you get ready to do work. I'm assuming the same thing will happen here that the community, if you have to take the power down, you'll notify the community that it's going to be taken down from time to time, right?

Right. The way you get notification is if you are signed up for text messages, email notifications, or phone calls, and that requires having your phone number and or email address listed on your account. So when they see a circuit, they'll go through and they'll pull everything that they have contact information on. So if we don't have a phone number or an email address, you wouldn't receive that notification. Or the app.

Or the app.

Yes, or the app.

And I highly suggest if you don't have the Duke Energy app, I suggest you get it because it works really, really well. You can report allergies in a matter of seconds to them. Yes.

A lot of folks talk about the grid, the electrical grid, and you see it on the news. You see it not only in North Carolina, but other parts of the United States. How does this affect the improvements? How does that affect our grid, and how is our electrical grid in Caldwell County?

This is a strengthening of that grid. And you have to think about the grid is interconnected, not just here in Caldwell County, but we are connected with surrounding counties. We're connected with the overall Duke Energy grid in North and South Carolina. So the stronger we make it here, it's going to strengthen the entire grid. So the stronger we make it in Burke County or the stronger we make it In Mecklenburg County or some distant county, the stronger we make the grid in all of these areas that we serve, the stronger it makes it for the overall grid. And it helps all of our customers by being able to maintain that reliability at a greater level. But we have a strong grid. We have no issues. It's aging. I mean, we've been in business well over 100 years. Not that those lines have been up that long, but there have been some lines that are up for a long time. And, you know, it takes, like anything, you need to do some maintenance. So we're doing this throughout our system as a part of the grid improvement just to make sure that we can maintain that reliability, that we can help you grow as we grow and provide greater capacity for our customers.

Thank you. Are you spending this kind of money in any other counties around here, too? Or is it just mostly Caldwell County right now?

We are spending some strong dollars in some of the surrounding counties. I know that in MacDowell County, there's a lot of infrastructure going in there. There's some in Burke, some in Catawba. There's a lot of infrastructure money being spent throughout this whole region. And we have a tremendous volume of work facing us over the next three, two, three, four years. But there's a lot of money being pumped into this general region with just, as we said, over 50 million right here in Caldwell County.

And I'm sure that these upgrades, if we have another storm event like we had with Eileen, this is going to help us to be a little more prepared for that. The system is going to be able to handle it a little better, correct?

We can never predict what Mother Nature is going to do, but it should assist, especially if we have ice storms or smaller summer storms. where you have maybe just one circuit or one area being affected. What Michael was referring to, the self-healing grid network, that will be in place when this is all said and done that would allow us to redirect. Just think of it as a road that gets closed because of an accident. Well, you've got to detour around that. So this is a way for us to detour that power around where the problem is and get it to where, you know, The issue is we can redirect that so that our customers have shorter or, in some cases, fewer at all outages.

Okay.

Thank you.

And we have made sure that our crews will not be in the way for the Blackberry Festival that's coming up. We've already ingrained that date in our calendar so that to not interfere with that. We know how important that is here in the county.

I meant to say the area that will be starting construction at the end of the month, it's going to be more towards the Valmead, kind of the northern part of the town. So we're going to be actually in downtown North for probably about another month or so.

Thank you for your help and cooperation. It's taken all of us. Appreciate it. Thank you, Rob.

Next we have a proclamation for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. So I will read that proclamation and then entertain a motion to adopt. But the proclamation reads, Whereas, on July the 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence affirming the 13 American colonies resolved to form a sovereign nation founded on the principles of liberty, justice, and equality. Whereas the United States of America was born from the courage, vision, and sacrifice of patriots who believed that government should derive its power from the consent of the governed and that all individuals are endowed with inalienable rights to liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, And whereas the 250 years Americans have come together on Independence Day to honor our founding ideals, celebrate our freedoms, and reflect on the ongoing responsibility to safeguard democracy for the future generations, and whereas the Fourth of July serves not only as a commemoration of our national birth but also as a moment to unite our community in pride gratitude and shared purposes and whereas the board of commissioners recognizes the dedication of service members veterans first responders and public servants who have worked to preserve and protect the freedoms we cherish and whereas in 2026 As we celebrate 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, we reaffirm our commitment to the founding values that continue to inspire progress, inclusion, and civic responsibility across our great county, state, and nation. therefore be it proclaimed that the Colwell County Board of Commissioners on behalf of its residents does hereby recognize and celebrate July the 4th 2026 as Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and encourages all citizens to take part in activities that honor our history reflect our shared values and celebrate the enduring spirit of the United States of America And be it further proclaimed that the proclamation be entered into the official records and shared in the spirit of unity, remembrance, and patriotic celebration. Do I hear a motion that we adopt this proclamation this evening?

I make a motion, Mr. Chairman, we adopt the proclamation as read.

All right. Any other comments or discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that motion carries unanimously. So thank you for that. I know I will. Where's Paige at? Paige has been working a lot on the 250th celebration within our county. We've got many things here within this building. I encourage everybody to go by and look at that before they leave this evening. But we do appreciate all the work that's gone into the recognition of our 250th celebration. And that brings us then to our budget presentation this evening and our county manager, Mr. Shane Fox.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Board of Commissioners. I'm here tonight to do an overview of the 26-27 proposed budget. A lot of the information you've seen before, I'll go relatively quick. Please throw a hand up or stop me if you want me to answer a question plenty of time throughout the presentation. presentation, obviously, to be able to do so. I want to just kind of remind everyone, just for the sake of reminder, about six weeks ago in this room, we had our budget workshop. That was on May the 7th. And then three weeks ago tonight, on June the 1st, we publicly presented the budget. Since that time, you'll see no real changes within the budget, no material changes that were presented on June the 1st. So again, as I go through this, please Feel free to stop me and ask any questions. But again, just from an overview standpoint, I'd like to go through some of the same slides we've talked about, just to get a little bit more of a refresher, perhaps, if that's OK with everyone. Overview of the agenda tonight. Took out a few slides here and there, but we'll go over some factors going into the 26-27 budget. We'll look at the general fund revenues and expenditures, and then we'll go into our water fund, fire department funds, and our opioid funds. Overall, some factors going into the 26-27 budget. Again, a lot of this stuff is repetitive, but we knew that we were ending the 25-26, the year that we're in now, our last month, relatively strong. Last year, the end of 25, we ended the audit year at a fund balance percentage of 21.46%. Again, roughly 8% a month, so that's a little bit more than two and a half months' worth. And we're looking to end the current year, the one that we're in now, finishing up here on June 30th, at a fund balance percentage roughly at 23 and a half percent. So again, we'll say rough terms about three months' worth of revenue or three months' worth of reserves there within our fund balance. We know we have modest debt roll-off in 26, 27, the year that we're proposing. We also know we have substantial debt rolling off next year, 27, 28. We know health insurance is up around $1 million and retirement is up $2 million. We talked about those as being essentially unfunded mandates. Both the health insurance on the state plan and, of course, the retirement piece through our state pension plan both had substantial increases, totaling about $3 million for us this year. And that's for everyone across the state that participates in both those plans. We've also asked departments to try to hold the line on FTEs. And you'll see, I think, that we've done so. We've also tried to re-engineer and eliminate a number of positions. as we've had either retirements, resignations, or we've chosen to do things perhaps a little bit differently in restructuring some of that. So we've been able to save some positions as well, and you'll see some of that throughout some of the numbers that we showed. And then we also know our property tax rate has been something that's been discussed, especially since the revalve last year, and looking to obviously try to evaluate that for our citizens. Again, currently the budget is presented with a two cent tax decrease as being presented. I'll go through the general fund revenues. Here's a pie chart that breaks down our revenues. Again, this is relatively common. It does show our property taxes at 50%, our sales tax at 11%, our vehicle tax, which is a part of our property taxes, at 4%. Other general revenues, departmental revenues, that's primarily our grants through our health and our DSS departments. Transfers and installments and appropriated fund balance. Essentially, appropriated fund balance is what you use to balance the budget. For us, that's right at $9 million, $8.9 million, or 8% of $111 million budget. Our property tax rate, again, proposed as a two-cent tax cut. That would put us at 47.75 last year or the year that we're in currently, 49.75 prior year 63. That was obviously prior to the revalve. So, again, proposing a two-cent tax cut. as what's presented. What does that look like from a tax base perspective? You can see the jump between 25 and 26. That's obviously the reevaluation that took place. 7.8 billion and 25 up to 11.1 last year. And we're projecting 11.5 this year. So that's a $400 million increase. Primary driver of that is Google and their new project that's going on. But again, that's a 3.6% growth in our tax base that's projected this year. So what does that mean when you multiply that times our rate and what our value looks like? We talk about the value of a penny. For us, about $1.1 million. So when we're discussing a penny being cut, that's about $1 million. A lot of things you'll hear throughout the night roughly equate to about $1 million. Same with fund balance. 1% on fund balance right now is about $1 million. Reason for that, we're around $111 million worth of budget. So 1% of that, again, about $1 million, give or take. So a penny for us, value of a penny, $1.1 million. How do we compare? Again, as we've talked, and we'll talk every year, no one likes paying taxes. It's not something that we like discussing, but unfortunately it's part of the business in which we have chosen, and it makes up 50% of our revenue. Our tax rate, as presented at 47.75, puts us pretty much smack dab in the middle of our regional partners here. Overall, the state has a very wide range, from Carteret County on the coast at 22.5%. all the way to Scotland down east at 99 cent. And we are projected with the current rate to be somewhere 22nd or 23rd. I made the comment either best or lowest. I'm not sure if there's a best within the tax, but we're roughly 22nd or 23rd lowest tax rate in the state with a projected rate at 47.75. And there we are obviously compared to our peers as well. Sales tax, something that does not quite get the same level of notoriety, but something that I think is important to point out. We have seen a pretty decent increase in sales tax over the last number of years here. This year that we have current in front of us, we're projecting that we're finishing about 14% ahead. So that's the current year, the one that's coming to an end now. So what we did was just took that 14% and we rolled into next year and kept that flat. We're obviously optimistic that that number comes in even more. Sales tax is something that we have seen again within a growth standpoint year over year being relatively substantial to us and makes up now more than 10% of our overall budget and something that we hope to continue to see grow across the state as we know the state continues to grow and be a leader in a lot of things. Our general fund fees, another revenue source for us. We've tried to keep relatively quiet this year. The only increases that we will see is with EMS, and we try to keep up with Medicaid and our Medicare and our reimbursement pieces of that. Everything else across the general fund we have kept flat, no rate changes. Our primary drivers of that are things like our building inspection fees, planning and permitting fees. and register of deeds. And again, no changes within that. I did make a couple bullet points up here that I pointed out that register of deeds and building inspections essentially pay for themselves. Those are two departments that pay for themselves. And I can feel the eyes in the back of my head here from our tax department. And, of course, they pay for themselves as well through the collection of our property taxes. But, again, no real fee changes except for EMS. What does that look like? Our 150%, 200% reimbursement rates there and what those look like. And these are, again, new rates to align with our Medicare fee schedules and what that looks like. Other revenues, no major changes within our other revenues. We do have a fairly substantial amount of revenue that we receive each year off of our current landfill contract for the publics and that's really broken out into two different pieces. We have our host fees which comes to the county and goes into our general fund. About $1.1 million is what we've projected there. And then our methane gas revenue, $600,000 is what's budgeted there. And that's being set aside for our future landfill cost and our capital project fund. That's something you all made that decision last year, so this will be year two of putting that money off to the side. Interest rates continue to be relatively high compared to where they were just a few years ago, and we're earning a little bit north of about $1 million is our projection on our investment income. The top bullet point here is one worth watching. We're not exactly sure of the ramifications of what HR1 or the big beautiful bill is going to look like for the state of North Carolina. As we discussed during the workshop and we've discussed a couple times since then, a lot yet to be determined there since we're kind of being lumped in as every other county in the state with our predeterminants and our error rates and what that looks like. But that is something, again, we've talked about to kind of keep in the back of your mind that could be coming back to you all for a discussion that we would be presenting some potential changes. And again, we're talking late fall, early winter for something like that. Overall, highlights in the general fund. I know I'm going relatively quick. I just don't want to go over too many things too many times with you all, but please ask questions. Looking for a two-cent reduction in the property tax rate. That's from 49.75 to 4.775. Again, that's going to put us somewhere around 22nd or 23rd. Unfortunately, because of, I think, changes at the state level that we're seeing, we've seen a number of counties, municipalities around us raise rates. We simply do not want to do that and don't feel like that is needed. So the budget that you have before you does have a two-cent tax reduction that's been presented. Sales tax is up 14% year-to-date, and that is projected, again, to keep that flat going into next year, and we feel like that is a very conservative approach. No fee changes other than EMS. Landfill fees continue to perform well, and we are setting aside monies for future capital needs that are there, and our investment income continues to perform well as well with our idle cash. That concludes the general fund revenues. Any questions so far?

Would you remind us what the revenue neutral is, what that rate is? Last year, revenue neutral was calculated at 46.66.

Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you. Absolutely. General fund expenditures. First slide's a dollar bill, kind of shows a breakdown of how we spend it. Public safety, which is, of course, EMS and fire, or EMS and our Sheriff's Department at 31%. Human services, that's DSS and health at 25%. Education, that's our local school system and community college at 17%. General funds, kind of a catch-all for everything else. Tax office, administration, planning, zoning, et cetera, at 14%. Physical and economic development, that's our EDC. The majority of that, again, is the Google incentive. That's a part of our overall budget. Our debt service and capital outlay is at 5%. And culture and arts, which is our library and our parks, are at 2%. So this breaks down how we spend a dollar here within Caldwell County. Pie chart broken out a little bit more by function shows that the majority of our expenditures are within our personnel. 36% in salary, 16% in benefits, so 52%. So north of half of what we spend here in the county goes to our salaries and our benefits to our personnel. Capital outlay is about 2%. Debt service is 3%. Operating expenditures, which is the catch-all for everything else, paying the power bills and utilities and supplies, materials, et cetera, at 27. And again, education, which is our local school system and Collard Community College, make up 17%. Salaries and benefits. Current budget as proposed does include one new detective for the Sheriff's Department, five new FTEs for communications. Lenore revenue does offset, as we had stated earlier, we voted on a couple years ago to take on the communications from the city of Lenore. and we're planning on doing so relatively quick as we go into the 26-27 year. No other FTEs are currently in the budget. Re-engineering departments have netted several less FTEs as we have started the year with. Through some of those changes we talked earlier within some departments, the water department, EMS, some of the other things that we've done in different places. Salary adjustments, we do not have any proposed other than merit one and merit two. $700,000 total is what that equates to. Keeping that merit one and merit two in, again, that's utilizing kind of our historical averages, which is about 50% give or take receive a merit two and about 30% receive a merit one and about 20% do not receive a merit. That's kind of historical numbers that we've seen. Overall, average salary is $56,729. That's all full-time employees for the county, not including any overtime. So that is all 600 full-time employees that make up that number. So what does that mean? If you get a merit one, that's about 1.8% at that average rate. If you get a merit two, that's about 3.6% of what the equivalent of that would be if you were at that average salary. A couple things to mention again. Health insurance and retirement, about $3 million, give or take, total for those two. What does that equate to? Well, you see there, one of those is a 2% COLA or a 4% COLA. So unfortunately, because of the increases, and again, what I refer to as kind of unfunded mandates, things that we have to do within the retirement system, And, of course, within our state health plan, which we are a member of legally, the increases, unfortunately, equate to a pretty substantial what could be a COLA that could get passed along. Again, this is to keep the benefits the same. What benefits that includes, it includes health insurance. Here's our 26 premiums. We've not received our 27-year premiums yet, and we will not for another few months. What does that mean to our community? Employees here, our employees that are a part of this, which is all of our full-time employees, roughly are between $35 a month on the low end of what they would pay for health insurance or the high end, $160 a month. I put up there a relatively low, very conservative marketplace number for an individual at $611. That was just to show that obviously our expense that we're putting into the health plan continues to allow for our cost here at the employee level to be relatively low. So again, our cost to the employee per month between $35 and $160. You see down here at the chart, everything this past year went to a salary-based. So it's depending on your salary, depends on whether you're in kind of the plan A or plan B or the 70, 80 as they used to refer to it as well. We are not proposing any other changes to our benefits. Here's kind of a list. Our dental is roughly $5 a month and vision is eight. Both of those considered a very low cost to our employees. Life insurance is included. Aflac products at a low cost. Longevity payments after five years. That ranges between $400 and $2,500. Just depends on your years of service within the county. Time off, a minimum of 40 days, that does include our holiday pay at 12, vacation between 15 to 33, again, that's based on tenure within the county. Sick time is eight hours per month for everyone, all full-time employees, and we do allow for eight hours a year for school function time. And for our FTEs, we do allow for up to four weeks paid for parental leave. That is on both sides of that, paternal and maternal leave. paternal and maternal. And that's also for fostering and adoptions as well for that four weeks. And we do offer up a tuition reimbursement plan at $52.50 annually. And of course our state retirement plan is something that we've been a part of and required to be a part of that we continue to make a match for. That number has grown given the fact that our overall population and the age of our individuals here continue to grow. So our percentage of that what used to start at say 6% now is triple that and what we're putting into the plan. That's part of what we saw with that $2 million increase a few moments ago within those slides. So no proposed changes to the employee benefits. Any questions so far? Capital outlay, we've seen a decrease in capital outlay this year. That is not because we're not taking care of our fleet or our buildings and facilities. It's because simply for the fact we're looking at things perhaps a little bit differently and we didn't have as many needs requested this year as well. So we had a pretty big year last year, if you recall, at 2.7 million. The year before that was even larger at 3.8. The $1.5 million does include things like six marked patrol cars and two unmarked with a truck. It does include an ambulance remount and several other items, including animal control with two new vehicles and a number of upgrades within IT. And so, again, $1.5 million worth of capital that's included in this budget. Our debt service continues to do well. I mentioned earlier that it is trending downwards, and it is. We are now debt-free on our Fay-Boy Hill building. We've paid that off in this 25-26 year, and that was $500,000 a year in payments. This coming year, 26-27, the budget that you have before you is the last payments for our early college and our towers, along with our human services building. So about $1.4 and a half, $1.5 million worth of debt rolling off in the current budget. so between the two about two million dollars and again using cents for instance about two cents on the tax rate worth of debt rolling off what does that mean moving forward after this budget that you approve hopefully tonight 27 beyond as of right now we'll just have our EMS Lenore basis and our animal control building along with our reoccurring rolling capital debt that we have with our 59 month debt that we continue to utilize as part of our overall cash flow plan. So essentially moving forward after this year, once we make the last two payments on the early college and human services building, we'll be down just to a couple pieces of debt within the general fund. Operating expenditures, this looks a little bit more daunting than what it is. I did that a little bit on purpose, but our operating expenditures overall are down this year. I think that's a testament to the work that the department heads put in in trying to reduce operating costs as much as possible because we knew we had other things, unfortunately, like our health insurance and our retirement and other things that were causing our budget to be up prior to starting. So if we break down the budget into roughly 40 areas, and that's made up of about 22, 23 different departments, About half of those, a little bit more, were actually down in operating cost on the year. Education, which is our local school system and community college. Two things there that are worth pointing out. One, the community college, we've added an additional $140,000 for a roof on Building A. And at the Colwell County School level, we've added $500,000 additional for school resource officer funding. That $500,000 is in addition to the $300,000 that we've already been adding to the school resource officers. Both those pieces, I put there 524 sales tax money. It's worth pointing out that both of these increases are being paid for out of sales tax money that can only be utilized for either education or economic development. So it's not for the general fund. So these increases of $500,000 and $140,000 are not coming from the general fund. So you'll see later tonight. on the agenda under consent, you'll see approval consideration for the additional 140 and the 500,000 and some additional monies towards some safety improvements at Dudley Shoals Elementary School that we talked about during the workshop. So those items, again, will be separate under consent. Worth noting here, we did keep the funding for the school system and community college flat outside of putting those additional pieces in there through the 524 money. Our overall summary is that we've added one new full-time employee at Sheriff's Department for a detective. We've added five for communications. We have no plan benefit changes. We have kept to one and $2,000 merit. Unfortunately, we ate up about $3 million, which is a pretty substantial call potentially within our health and retirement plan. Capital outlay overall is down. We've had modest debt roll off this year that we're proposing with a lot more substantial debt roll off moving forward after the 26, 27 year. overall operating expenditures are down slightly this year which i think is a good testament to the work that's gone into the budget special appropriations are flat the forest service did ask for a new vehicle that we've discussed and then we are continuing to fund our grant pool there of 25 000 to be able to utilize potentially for things like the fairgrounds and the water requests they had there with the installation of i think some Some additional work needs to be done. CC&TI is flat with $140,000 additional monies set aside through our 524 money. College Community College is flat with $500,000 additional towards school resource officers. And then our appropriated fund balance as it stands right now is $8.9 million. Questions before I move on?

question about just to inform the citizens of where the 524 money is generated. How is that generated? Because it hasn't been around that long. But kind of share where that tax money is coming from.

Absolutely. It's sales tax. So sales tax, when you go to the store and you buy a product, you're going to pay roughly 7% or 6.75%. A portion of that comes to the county. That's what we saw within the 14% increase. A portion of it goes to the state, and a portion is set aside for educational slash economic development purposes. That's 524. So it's known as 524 sales tax. And so it is being paid by all of us within the county as each time we purchase something. there's a small portion of that, about a quarter of that percent that ends up going into the 524 money that comes to us to be utilized towards, again, either education or economic development purposes. Our water fund. So we are proposing a 5% increase in our overall water rates. The reason for that is that we don't have a water plant. We don't have a water intake. We purchase our water primarily from the city of Lenoir with a little bit coming from Granite Falls. City of Lenoir did increase as part of their budget, their bulk water purchase, which is where we are at 5%. Again, the water fund is different than any other fund that we operate because it's operated as what's called an enterprise fund or a business. It has to be separate. We can't take money from it. They don't like us to give money to it. They want it to stand alone. And essentially, the rates that we charge are our source of revenue, right? When you put in a new tap or you have someone that comes in and does some additions, then there's some other sources there. But well over 95% of our revenue comes in from our water rates from our consumers. And so we try to keep those low. Here, for example, what the impacts of that 5% is going to look like. Currently, if you have a 3,000 gallon a month invoice, you're going to pay $29.68. That's going to take it at $31.13, so about $1.50 or $1.45 worth of increase there. Again, our water fund has performed well. We don't like to make a lot of money in it, but we do want to make enough that we're able to put aside for infrastructure needs as we have repairs and things of that nature. Our water fund is also debt free. As we talked earlier about the general fund, our water fund has been debt free for a number of years now. So the increase here again is just passing along the 5% increase that was requested through and approved by the city of Lenoir for their bulk rate. Some comparisons here, not that we like to compare, but other counties around us that do have water, Burke is about 49.50 for that same 3,000 gallon rate. Alexander is about 54 for that same 3,000 gallon rate. So again, our 31.13, again, I know it's an increase, but we're trying to stay competitive and keep our rates as low as possible while also maintaining a good healthy fund balance within our water fund that allows us to be able to make the repairs and infrastructure needs that we do throughout the course of any given year. Questions on the water fund? Fire departments. Here is a list of our fire departments and our 25, 26 rates on the left. It's a little blurry. Sorry about that. And then our proposed rates on the right side, 26, 27. And then the far right side shows any difference. No proposed rate changes here within the fire departments. We did have one fire department down at Sawmills or Sawmills Voluntary Fire Department that did request an increase. We have not proposed that within this budget. We have kept all fire departments the same. You'll see at the top there what they requested. from 10.5 to 14 or 3.5 on the fire and then from 3 to 4 on the rescue. Overall, a 4.5 cent tax increase is what was requested. That is not included in this budget. We have kept all fire departments the same. Lastly, our opioid fund. We have approximately $16 million that has been essentially earmarked to Caldwell County between the timeframe of 2022 and 2038 through a number of our opioid settlements and that list keeps getting longer and I think we're up to four now give or take of how many different settlements that we're participating in. We roughly have a cash balance there, about $4 million. Our requested budget that is before you that's proposed and has been presented publicly is $815,000. It does have a new peer support specialist for Drug Court. Our Drug Court is in partnership with Burke County. One of the items, again, on your consideration on consent tonight is a contract. to partner with Burke County for them to fund half of our recovery drug specialist position that's on there. This specialist that's being requested here through the peer support is at the request of not only our drug court folks, but our judges as well have requested that position. Here were our dates. May the 6th, as I mentioned earlier. I think I said 7th. I apologize for that. May 6th was our workshop. June 1st was when we stood here and I presented to you all publicly the budget. And then June 22nd is tonight, and we are here doing the public hearing. So with that, I will entertain any questions and, of course, be glad to answer anything you have regarding the budget.

Thank you all. All righty. Anyone have any questions of our county manager?

Is it time to work a request out there? Can we make a request or make a motion to change something?

Let's do that after the public hearing. All right. Hear what the folks have to say. All right. All right. Well, with that, we will segue into our public hearing. We've got a few folks that have signed up to speak this evening. Looks like eight. Our general rules are to allow you three minutes to speak. If you're on a roll, I'm not going to stop you if you want to speak because this is a pretty important matter each year when we adopt the budget. And so I will declare the public hearing open at this time. And with that, our first one that has signed up is Crystal Henderson, Mount Carmel Court in Hudson, North Carolina. So Ms. Henderson, if you'll come and kind of start your address with what you want to talk to us about and then just launch into it.

Good evening. I'm Crystal Henderson and I'm both a Caldwell County citizen and an employee of Caldwell County. And I'm here today to talk to you guys to reconsider your recommendation to not provide a cost of living increase to workers. So the last time that we've had a cost of living increase was 2019. And from that time, inflation has gone up 30%. And I know you guys talked a lot about the merit program. And I know several of us are very appreciative of the merit program. I'm not trying to say that we're not. However, with that, you know, you guys talked about your health care, the overall cost of that increase for you guys. My health care premiums increased 144% from last year to this year. So any merit that I received would have been completely negated by what I'm having to pay out of pocket. I also think, too, with talking about that on the presentation that was presented, we're talking about the increase in the health care costs and the increase in retirement, which looks like a COLA on there. However, while there is an increase in retirement, Local government retirement is not like a 401 . So that's not going to make a difference to me. I'm still going to receive the same rate I receive when I retire based on what I've made. So even though you're putting more into that, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to make any impact for individual employees. And so I just want to say, I particularly work in child protective services, and we are dying. We are very, very challenged right now by not only recruitment, but also retention. And my job there is staff development, so I do a lot of the hiring and the training of new social workers. And I'll just say that we invest a whole lot of time in workers. We invest our time, resources, taxpayer dollars into training these folks. And we get them trained, and then they're leaving. And they're going to other counties. And so I'll be very transparent. I've requested salaries from other counties and requested them from here as well. And so social workers in comparable positions, they can make $6,000 more in Burke County, $10,000 more in Catawba County, and $12,000 more in Alexander County. And so to go across the border and make that much of a difference, nobody's going to want to work here. So that prevents us from having people even apply for jobs. And so those counties also, they've released their budget, and they are proposing a cost of living increase for their employees. So this gap that we have, it's only going to get worse. And so we're training these people and then they're leaving and really we're losing a whole lot more than our training investment. We're losing their knowledge, we're losing their professional judgment, and we're losing the relationships that these folks have built throughout the community because we're not just losing new staff, we're losing seasoned staff as well. And so when we replace a social worker, it is not immediate. The state training that they have to do takes seven weeks, and sometimes it takes a while to get them into that. So it's usually four months before workers can even start carrying a caseload. So meanwhile, the work remains. Employees have to absorb those additional cases, and responsibilities remain vacant, or responsibilities while vacancies remain open. So currently in child welfare alone, we have 10 vacancies. And since January, we have had 13 vacancies. We've had 13 people leave our agency just in child welfare alone since January. With the amount of people that we have in our department, 10 vacancies is 17% of our workforce. So we're doing a job with essentially 83% of our staff. And it's very difficult to fill those positions when people look online and they see they can go somewhere else 10 miles down the road and work for $12,000 more. And so I googled this, and it says that when you have to replace a professional employee, it costs an agency anywhere between 50% and 200% of that employee's salary. And so thinking about that very, very conservatively, at that 50%, which is likely a whole lot more than that, if we've had 13 people leave since January, in six months, we're talking about a $300,000 extra cost to this agency, to these taxpayers, just to pay for turnover. And we're still doing this short-handed. And so retention is not just an employee issue. It's a physical responsibility issue. And investing in the workforce now is going to protect those taxpayer dollars later. It's going to improve the efficiency and reduce the long-term costs associated with chronic turnover.

Thank you all.

Next we have Emily Wiseman from Boxwood Street and Hudson.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Emily Wiseman. Today I have the privilege of speaking to you as a proud DSS employee, respectfully asking you to consider a cost of living increase for county employees. The reality is that many people believe DSS serves other people until life proves otherwise. A lost job, a serious illness, a death in the family, or even one missed paycheck can change everything. None of us in this room are immune to hardship. At some point, any one of us could find ourselves needing the services, guidance, or support that DSS provides. The employees of this agency are ready to help people through those moments, often without recognition and often without the public fully understanding the scope of what we do. The work may be understood, but its importance becomes crystal clear when a crisis arrives at your doorstep. The majority of DSS employees are not outsiders passing through. We are your neighbors, members of your church, people you went to high school with, and people raising families right here in Caldwell County with you. We care deeply about this community because this is where we live too. We understand the people we serve because we live here. And we have chosen to dedicate our career to strengthen this county and its people. That kind of commitment is worth protecting and investing in. And the reality is this. When we offer competitive pay, we are not just rewarding hard work. We are strengthening Caldwell County's ability to serve its people. As costs continue to rise, health care, groceries, housing, all of it, DSS employees are facing the same financial pressures as the families we serve. We continue showing up because we believe in this work and this community and these people. When we invest in ourselves and invest in Caldwell County, it is reasonable to hope that Caldwell County invests in us as well. The stronger and more supportive our workforce is, the better equipped we are to meet the growing needs of the citizens who depend on these services. When a trained employee leaves for a higher paying position elsewhere, the county loses valuable institutional knowledge, established community relationship, and years of professional expertise. That turnover creates avoidable costs as the county must devote additional taxpayer resources, as you just heard, to recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training replacements, while existing staff absorb increased workloads to maintain operations. And they do, and they will, because that mission matters. Our agency's motto is be the village. Every day, DSS employees strive to be that village for this community. Tonight, I'm asking you to be the village for us. Respect is more than a thank you. It is a reflection. Respect is reflected in the investments we make. I respectfully ask you to support meaningful raises for our employees and other county employees and invest in the people who continuously invest in this county. Thank you.

Next is Casey Puett. Lenore, welcome Ms. Puett.

Good evening. I'm the child welfare program manager with the Department of Social Services. I want to express my concerns for the underfunding and the understaffing of my department in particular. I want to address the financial and operational liabilities that our county could face if we continue to operate in the capacity we are now. At our current rate of pay, we are not competitive salary-wise in any of our positions with any of the surrounding counties. These are agencies who are poaching our seasoned workers and applicants. Most recently, one of our Child Protective Services supervisors was hired by a neighboring county into a regular child welfare investigator position, and she is making $7,300 more in a worker position than she is in the supervisor position in my agency. We have very few applicants, despite the openings posted on the county's website, Indeed, and social media. Because of the national social work shortage and our salary range, we cannot competitively compete with any of the other agencies in the hiring pool. We had an applicant from a neighboring county decline one of our social work supervisor positions because the pay we offered as a starting supervisor was equivalent to the pay she was making as a worker in another county. In the last five years, we have had a loss of almost 300 DSS social work experience years in our agency. in 2021 we had 11 workers with less than two years dss experience social work experience in 2026 we now have 23 social workers with less than two years social work experience that's actually scary What this means for you is the county is taking a tremendous liability. Because of staff shortages, social workers are covering down positions, stretching their already daunting workload. These social workers work with the most vulnerable of your community. Sorry. What's in the place? These social workers are working with the population and have specific requirements that they must meet per statute and policy. The ramifications of not being able to meet these requirements because of understaffing can be failed audits, which will result in financial loss to the community or expensive paybacks. Even more terrifying is when a worker misses something in their work because their caseload is so high. That could result in a child being injured, an adult being injured, or fatality. My department's administration met with County Manager Fox in early December of 2025 and discussed our staffing shortages and inability to be competitive. The county manager observed that it appeared we were hemorrhaging workers. We advised him that we have been in crisis mode for over a year. It was decided at that meeting that he would approach the Board of Commissioners with a request for a 10% increase. Our director presented him with a PowerPoint outlining the salary differentials and issues that could arise from this. We were denied our request for a raise, though you permitted the Sheriff's Department, jail, and EMS to have an increase of 5%. Why was that same consideration not given to us? We were advised to wait for the budget. And as you can see, there is no salary increase for us. As you have recently seen in the case out of Mecklenburg County, the House Oversight Committee recommended the prosecutor in that county look into the handling of a DSS child fatality case from earlier this year. The response of county government after the recommendation was to make the decision to hire 22 new social work positions for Mecklenburg County. When something like that happens here, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And when that happens, it will be recognized that we have expressed repeatedly to the county and the state how we cannot compete for hiring, how we have been handicapped by both entities, the county and the state, and how stretched then our staff is with covering cases, and that we have provided that information and ramifications to you. I cannot succession plan because all of my supervisors are covering extra jobs. When you are working like this, mistakes happen, and they're going to happen. We are approaching a critical threshold where further budget restrictions and lack of increases will introduce significant compliance, operational, safety, and financial risk. We have a great department. People do not want to leave, but they are exhausted and they must do what they have to for their family. Just as you are obliged to do what you can for the people of this county and make the unpopular choice of funding your department so that they can do what they can to take care of the people of this county.

Next is Ashley Aldridge from Troy Road in Hudson.

Good evening, gentlemen. I'm Ashley Aldridge. I'm first a citizen of this county, but I'm also a proud social worker in adult services at Colwell County DSS. I want to start out by thanking you for your service and I understand the difficult decisions that you have to consider for this upcoming budget. I've shared additional information in an email that I sent to each of you earlier so tonight I'm just going to give an overview of the perspective of someone who serves the citizens of Colwell County every single day. I'm here to respectfully ask that you consider the cost of living increase for employees in this year's budget. I stand here truly as somebody who loves this community. I live here, I work here, and I serve here. I'm an advocate through and through, and it is an honor to serve the citizens of this county. Every day, DSS employees help our citizens through some of the most challenging moments in their lives. We protect vulnerable children, vulnerable adults, we help families access critical resources, we connect individuals to health care and services, and we provide support in their time of crisis. As a social worker, I've seen firsthand the difference that dedicated public servants can make in someone's life. I've also seen the emotional weight that comes with this job. These are not simply cases to us. These are our neighbors. These are our friends. These are members of our community. As a social worker, we often sacrifice time with our own families to serve this very community. We take calls, we respond to processes in the middle of the night, on Christmas Day, or even in the midst of our own family celebrations. We do this work because we have a servant's heart and a genuine commitment to the people in this county. I speak from a perspective of adult services, but this is more about than just the Department of Adult Services. Behind every service that is provided, every benefit processed, every child protected, and every vulnerable adult supported, there is a dedicated employee making that happen. The work at DSS matters. It matters to a child who needs protection. It matters to an adult who doesn't have anybody to advocate on their behalf. It matters to a family facing a crisis. And it matters to the individuals who simply just need to help find instability. These services don't happen on their own. It happens because dedicated employees show up every day with compassion, professionalism, and a commitment to serving others. Public service is not always easy, but DSS employees continue to answer that call because we believe in serving our community. Tonight, I ask that you not only recognize the value that DSS provides, but demonstrate the value you place on the employees who make these services happen. DSS employees, we face the same rising costs as every other family in Caldwell County. We're affected also by the increase of housing, cost of goods, groceries, and everyday necessities. We work hard. We serve this community faithfully. We deserve compensation that allows us to continue serving without having to choose between public service and financial stability. This request is not just about outpaying our surrounding counties. It's ensuring that Colwell County remains competitive enough to retain our experienced employees, to attract new talent, and to continue providing the quality services that our citizens deserve. When our experienced employees leave, we lose institutional knowledge. We lose those trusted relationships and all that years of experience. We lose these mentors who are there to help the next generation. We lose the knowledge and dedication that these invested employees have given. This request is not asking for special treatment. We're asking you to find value in the people who serve your community. I feel that Colwell County should remain a place where talented, compassionate professionals choose to come, build their careers, remain in public service, and continue serving the citizens who depend upon them. I respectfully ask that you demonstrate the value you place on both the work and the people that perform the work by including a cost of living increase in this year's budget. When our citizens need help, DSS employees show up. So tonight, we're asking you to show up for us. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next is Megan Wiseman, Boxwood Street in Hudson.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Megan Wiseman, and I'm kindly asking you to reconsider the coal increase for county employees. I'm a supervisor in economic services overseeing workforce program integrity and childcare. I've worked in social services for 11 years across several agencies. And I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Over the 11 years, I've learned that this work is about people, not programs and policies. Since coming to Cobble County, I felt welcome and supported. And I'm grateful to work alongside employees who truly care about this community and the families we serve. Tonight, I want to talk about the people we serve and the people who dedicate themselves to serving them. The people who come through our doors aren't strangers. They're our neighbors, our coworkers, the parents sitting beside us at school events, and the people we see on Friday night at football games. And the truth is, it could be any of us or someone we love sitting in that same seat one day needing help during a difficult time. And when they walk through our doors, it's usually not because life is going well. It's because they're facing some of the hardest moments they may have ever experienced. They may be worried about putting food on the table, affording medical care, caring for an aging parent, or finding safety and stability for a child. They aren't looking for a policy manual. They're looking for help. And every day, employees across our agency provide that help. Whether it's food assistance, medical coverage, child care, protecting a child, or ensuring the safety of a vulnerable adult, our employees make the difference in the lives of Caldwell County citizens every day. Those services are only possible because of the dedicated employees who provide them. Unfortunately, retaining and recruiting qualified employees has become increasingly difficult. We invest significant time and resources training staff only to see them leave for other opportunities. At the same time, hiring ranges continue to shift, and new employees are sometimes brought in at rates similar to or even higher than long-term staff. That can be discouraging for employees who carry heavy workloads, train new staff, and remain committed to serving our community. When experienced employees leave, we don't just lose a position. We lose knowledge, relationships, and years of experience that benefit the citizens we serve. The employees who remain often absorb those responsibilities, take on additional work, and work longer hours because they care deeply about this community. I'm proud of the work we do, I'm proud of the people I work alongside, and I'm proud to serve Caldwell County. The people of this county deserve experienced, dedicated employees who could continue providing the services they rely on. Investing in the people who serve this community is ultimately an investment in the citizens of Caldwell County. Thank you for your time and consideration.

All right. The Kendra Nivens is from Morganton Boulevard, Lenore. I've been asked not to say your address. But typically in any public meeting, we ask for you to come up and say your address. So we know that you're from Caldwell County when you're addressing us. So but I have not been saying the box number just from the street that you live on. So I hope that's except acceptable to everyone. I figure you're brave enough to come and speak, and we just want to allow you that opportunity.

I am not a Caldwell County resident, but I am a Caldwell County employee.

Okay.

I would like to speak today about what workforce stability means for the citizens of Caldwell County. Child welfare social workers are responsible for investigating reports of abuse and neglect, assessing child safety, and making decisions that can impact families for a lifetime. These responsibilities require training, experience, and sound professional judgment. Unfortunately, our agency has experienced significant turnover in recent years. When positions remain vacant, the work does not disappear. Cases are redistributed among remaining staff, and employees at varied levels have stepped in to help keep services operating. Over the past year, supervisors, our program manager, deputy director, and even our director have assumed duties outside their normal responsibilities simply to ensure services continued without interruption. We have been operating in survival mode. Again, we have been operating in survival mode. Our new employees work incredibly hard and are committed to serving families. However, experience matters. Professional judgment is developed over time through training, mentorship, and years of practice. There is also important risk management component to this discussion. Social services operates under extensive state and federal requirements. High turnover and chronic vacancies increase the risk of missed deadlines, compliance issues, audit findings, corrective actions, and increased state oversight. But beyond those financial and regulatory consequences is something even more important. And child welfare, missing critical safety concern, can have life or death consequences for a child. No county wants to explain after a tragedy that warned signs were missed because workloads became unimaginable, staffing shortages existed, or experienced employees left for better opportunities elsewhere. Investing in retention helps reduce those risks. It strengthens accountability, improves service quality, and ensures that vulnerable children and families are served by experienced professionals. This is not simply an employee issue. It is service delivery issue. It is a public safety issue. It is about protecting the citizens who depend on county services during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Our citizens deserve a stable workforce. Our children and family deserve experienced social workers. And Colwell County deserves to retain the talented employees it has already invested in. I respectfully ask that this board considers its position on employee compensation and invest in the workforce that serves this community every single day. Thank you.

Your time is up. Thank you.

talk next is Laura Harrison miss Harrison I've got down as Morganton Boulevard as well yeah and we're Eric we're allowing them to let them talk sorry yes sir I appreciate it I live in Hudson I didn't listen

as well so just so you know so good evening I'm here tonight because it's become apparent the message that's being sent to DSS staff and county employees that our work is not valued recognized or appreciated as you've heard earlier this year DSS requested a 5% salary increase and the very same time at which the sheriff's department also requested raises their request was approved and ours was not we were told to wait for the budget process we waited and after doing exactly what we were asked to do we were yet again denied while some of this information you've heard and should be echoed from what county manager shane fox has already shared with you not only tonight in other meetings but also individually as well and in emails No matter how it's framed, this pattern tells employees they matter less. Our staff continue to uphold every federal, state, and local mandate, even though we are severely understaffed. Colwell County workers are handling caseloads nearly three times higher than what the state recommends, far beyond what surrounding counties ask of their workers. Yet there has been no meaningful acknowledgement of this burden, no relief, no investment, and no appreciation. We are losing qualified, experienced people at an alarming rate, and not because they want to leave DSS, but because neighboring counties actually value their employees enough to pay them fairly. Some of our supervisors are leaving for worker-level jobs in other counties because they can earn significantly more money doing less demanding work, and that should be a wake-up call. Every county around us is given a cost of living adjustment this year. Burke County is doing 3%, Lincoln 3%, Wilkes 4%, Watauga 5%, Catawba 3%, Alexander 2.5% or 3%. While also providing a merit of adjustments like we do too, so it's not just a COLA or a merit, some counties are getting both. Meanwhile, Caldwell County has not given employees a COLA since 2019, as you've heard. For seven years, the cost of living has climbed, inflation has hit every household, and employees have received nothing. This isn't just a budget issue, it is a message about appreciation, or the lack of it. Morale is suffering, recruitment is suffering, retention is suffering, and ultimately the people of Caldwell County will suffer when the workforce serving them continues to be stretched thinner, paid less, and shown little appreciation for doing the work that keeps this county functioning. Our staff make critical safety decisions when understaffed, overworked and inexperienced. This could lead to substantial and unintended negative outcomes. I urge you to reconsider not next year, not in another budget cycle, but now the strength of this county rests on the people who show up every single day under increasingly difficult circumstances. If we continue to underpay them, overlook them and undervalue them, we will continue to lose them. Tonight, I'm asking you to demonstrate clearly and decisively that Cobble County appreciates its employees. The future of our workforce and the services our residents rely on depends on it.

Next is Ashlyn Negnet.

Negretti.

Negretti, I'm sorry.

I put Morganton too. I'm from Gamewell.

Okay.

Good evening. Today I'm going to appeal to you as not only one of your constituents, but both as businessmen and family men. I don't know what your family life is like, but as patriarchs of your family, I would guess that you have many people who come to you looking to you for advice. Please keep that in mind as I talk to you about what I want to talk to you about tonight. Just know that being a patriarch is a cherished position to be in and I hope that you don't take it lightly. Imagine that a family member comes to you, daughter, son, niece, even your wife, looking for advice. They tell you how much they love their job, but things are getting hard. People keep quitting, the workload is getting harder and harder, and they're barely keeping up. They're appreciative of the merits, but with the staff shortages and the increased workload, their performance is slipping. They're not hopeful that they're going to be able to see that merit. They tell you they don't know if they can do it much longer. They're considering quitting, too. What are you going to tell them? Are you going to tell them to grin and bear it? Hopefully, somebody will come in and fix the problem. Are you going to tell them that they need to find somewhere that they need to know their worth, and they need to find somewhere that they deserve to work? Now, I know many of you are businessmen. And I'll tell you, I don't know much about running a business, but I would wager that the gist of it is to make a profit. I would guess that the easiest way of that is to make sure that you have good employees that know how to do their jobs. So picture your business. A company is coming in here doing exactly the same job as you, except they're paying more. They're offering additional financial incentives, and they're poaching your people. What do you do? Do let them go. You cross your fingers and hope that you can find experienced people in time to make sure that your operations don't falter? Or do you fight back, pay better, and keep those people whose work ethic you know and who understand the job inside and out? You, sirs, are sitting at a momentous crossroads. Your options are little, but the consequences are great. I urge you to reconsider your proposed budget regarding the social services salary increases. We are not losing people due to leadership problems or operations problems, but due to the financial consequence of falling behind our peers. If you do not do the right thing, the repercussions will be devastating. not only to the departments within your county, but to your constituents. Having less county workers is not going to change the number of people utilizing the services. It's going to have detrimental impacts on the community around you. Longer wait times, higher error rates, extra stress on EMS, law enforcement, and eventually yourselves. Your constituents are not happy. Your county workers are not happy. Something has to change. This is not a money grab. We're not being fiscally irresponsible. It's about securing the staff that you do have and paying them a fair wage for the tremendous workload that they have and the psychological pressure that they face day in and day out. When people go into this field, they do it knowing that they aren't going to be recognized as community heroes, but that doesn't matter. The vulnerable people without a voice are what matters. They at least deserve to not have to worry about what bills are going to get paid. We have a problem now, but the solution is within reach. However, I do believe that it will not be for long. It is much harder to save a sinking ship when it's already full of water. You have a sea of people out here in these shirts. They're not here because they want to leave their jobs. They're here because they're fighting for them.

Thank you.

All right, that brings us to the end of everyone who has signed up to speak this evening. So I will close the public hearing on the budget and ask for a motion.

A motion for what, sir?

For moving into adopting our budget.

I'll make a motion. that we adopt our budget, but my motion is going to be I'd like for this budget to be at revenue neutral.

All right. He said to move closed public hearing first. I did.

I said I closed the public hearing at this time. Yes, sir. I'm sorry.

I'll make a motion to close public hearing. Okay. All right.

So with the motion to close the public hearing, I'll say in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that motion carries. So that brings us then to items for decision about our budget this evening.

I would like to make a motion that we do revenue neutral on this budget to be voted on.

All right. So Commissioner Starnes has made a motion. that he would like to adopt a budget that is going to revenue neutral. Do I hear any discussion or comment?

Is that going to be the 46.66?

Yes, sir. I think that's what you clarified earlier, the 46.66.

Correct. That was last year's revenue neutral rate. Yes, sir.

And Mr. Chairman, I guess we'll have to pass this budget, this motion first. But I would like to request something to be added to the budget as well. When do you want to do that? When can we do that? That would be after his...

So his motion is before the body, so y'all are on it right now. And once it's voted upon, any other member can make a motion that they want to make. Assuming that's an amendment on the budget orders. Yeah.

Something different than the tax rate.

If we want to add something other than tax rate.

Is that what you're saying?

That's what I'm asking. That's right. Any member can bring up a motion to amend the budget ordinance. His motion for the body right now. So that would be taken up. And then whoever else wants to go next.

Okay. So we move on his motion. Then we can do it. All right.

So we've got a motion to adopt a budget. And moving out to the revenue neutral rate, which is $4,666. So... All right. Without any other discussion on that, I'll call the question. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that motion carries unanimously.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I would like to offer a promotion that we – tonight's been a very emotional night for our county employees, and I think that – and I know it's difficult. I get it. I understand it. One of the things I talked about during the budget retreat was the fact that if we don't start working on these salaries, it's just going to get worse. I'm just telling you, it's going to get worse. From an overall county perspective, they all need something. When you look at DSS specifically, you're potentially talking about lives being affected. You're talking about the loss of life. It's a crisis. We're right there. It's critical. I'm not really in favor of being on the news media because of the lack of effort that we're making to retain employees in DSS. It's critical. I'm telling y'all it's critical. I know there's some of you guys that don't like me. I get it. I understand that. Set your personal feelings aside for me for a moment and consider our employees. Consider these people sitting in this room right here. They've spoken loud to you. Let's help them. So my motion is that we, I'll make a motion, that we add a 5% COLA to our budget for all employees.

All right. Mr. Manager, do you have any numbers of what, a 5% across the board COLA is going to add to our budget?

Approximately with benefits, about $3 million is what it is across the board.

And keep in mind that, and I know some of y'all know this, some of you may not, when you look at DSS, it's about 50%. Some of them are a little bit more than 50%, some of them are a little bit less than 50%, but you're looking at the state's going to cover about 50% of those salaries over there. So the hit over there is not as big.

I would like to take this myself personally. I'll just tell you, it ain't nothing to them. I think I would like to go into closed session and let him explain to us what the detrimental effects are going to be, being we're going revenue neutral.

Yeah.

He can probably answer that question now, I bet you. Tony can anyway.

Where are we going to get $3 million from? That would be the question.

The $3 million at this point would either need to come directly from us utilizing appropriated fund balance, which right now is at $8.9 million, with the motion that passed earlier puts us at about $10 million. So it would be north of, we'll say, $13 million for that. The other option would be to have to reevaluate the current budget and look for ways of potential cost savings that would be in there or additional revenues that I'm not aware of at this point based on the discussions thus far.

Which would be going back up on taxes as additional revenue.

Potentially, yes, is one of the options.

And that's the one thing that we, I think as a board, have agreed that we don't want to do We took a pretty heavy hit last year from taxes with our residents and the folks who live here that are impacted by that. And I've heard that loud and clear.

And I agree with you. I agree with what you're saying. What would the impact be? And I had some rough numbers the other day, and I don't like to do this, but if we just did DSS, any idea what that cost would be?

May I ask what percentage?

Five to five.

Gross cost would be, we'll say, approximately 600 and some thousand. Now there is a reimbursement piece of that that would play into it.

So about 300,000 if we just do DSS.

Somewhere between three and 350, I would guess, would be my guess at this point. Again, approximate numbers.

When we did our salary study several years ago, we broke it up into three groups. And we did emergency services and law enforcement, the first group. And I think we did that last year, kind of, sort of. We're out of that mode of market adjustment, I call it. This year, if we were still on that process, would be health department and DSS. And there's Tony right there. And then the third year would be general administration. So I think... think that's what we're trying to move back into but not formally but with with this motion of addressing DSS or that group of people that we addressed in that second cycle if I'm wrong please correct me but I think that's that's where we're at because we we looked at EMS and law enforcement last last budget year So I don't know if that throws any clarity. I don't know if Tony can throw any clear... You're on the hot seat.

It's not that familiar.

I was just looking at the question you asked of Shane, and I agree with his number, $600,000 with fringes, because your salary budget in the budget you just approved is $9.5 million roughly. So if you do 5% of that number, that's probably about $450,000, and then you add the fringe benefits. Give or take 600,000. DSS reimbursements, maybe 50%. So you're talking 300. I didn't catch everything you were saying about the salary study. I know we did all three phases of it. and we covered all the employees through the three years, and then we stopped. We've not done another one. Correct. Was there something else on that?

No, I was just grouping that as that EMS, emergency services, and law enforcement. We kind of did that last year. This year, we're in that second phase. If we were still in that process, we're not. But DSS and Health Department were addressed during that second phase. And then the third phase came with general administration, kind of a catch-all, if you will, of all others. And so... That was my only... Yeah, you're correct.

We did public safety basically the first year, human services the second year, and then the third year was everybody else that didn't include it those first two years. But that program has ended as far as I know. Correct.

And I call it market adjustment because, I mean, when we talk about COLA and merit, we got away from that in 2019, right or wrong, agree to disagree. But what we've done is that's where the market adjustment came in, in those three phases. Where some people want to still call it a COLA, that's okay. But I look at it like a market adjustment, and that's what we're at today, a market adjustment in a certain department or a group of people.

Okay. Yeah. Since I'm up here, I felt like I'd be remiss if I didn't just kind of warn you that our fund balance appropriation is going to be large, and we're probably going to use some fund balance. So just be aware of that.

So, Mr. Chair, with that being known, because I don't know that we can afford $3 million, I think it puts us at too much risk from a fund balance preparation. So with that being said, I amend. Let me ask you this, Tony, or where did you go? If we go back to Mike's point and we go back to the DSS Health Department, any idea what that impact would be if we included the Health Department?

Give me a second.

double or are they I was gonna say that's what I was gonna ask you see some of those housing yeah some of those are paid to pay through well it's probably not gonna double cause I don't know yeah we don't get the reimbursement from the health department like we do you don't get it much yeah okay you don't think you have as much payroll there either though 800 so you think 800,000 Tony's going to look it up.

There's about 50 employees at health and just doing average there.

Anna, you out here in the audience anywhere? You got any idea? What 5% would be?

Okay.

So the bottom line impact would be

Looks like our salary budget there is around $3 million, so 5% of $3 million is $600,000 plus fringes, so... And you might get a little reimbursement through WIC, but it's probably not going to move the needle much.

So I would say probably about a $900,000 commitment with the reimbursement.

How does that sit with our fund balance preparation? Can we cover another million dollars in this budget and stay in a revenue neutral?

At Revenue Neutral, we're over $10 million of fund balance appropriation, so we're going to use some fund balance, even if you don't do anything right here. We've got some fund balance to spend, obviously. I'm not trying to doom and gloom, but I just want you to know what you're doing, be aware of it.

What's y'all's thoughts on if I'm in my... motion to cover DSS and health.

Now that's a million one altogether, I believe. It was 800 for health, 300 net for DSS. So about a million one.

So when did you say the surrounding counties, most of them was doing 3%?

Somebody up there said that? Was that something Shane had?

Some of them were 3%, some of them were 5%. I don't want to do one without having to do the other. I don't think that would be fair.

I've seen you roll your eyes. What you're rolling your eyes about, is this something we need to know? Because you're the one going to be on the chalk block here as far as us, when we come to you and ask you what's going on. That's part of the reason I wanted to go in closed session to figure out what was going on here. Don't lead us down the wrong path.

Don't intend to do that at all. I don't – I've not really had that much involvement in – I mean, I didn't know you were going to do revenue neutral until a few minutes ago. So, I mean, I don't feel like I've guided you one way or another on that. We didn't either. I think with this – I mean, before you address any more salaries, just with revenue neutral, at $10 million, you're probably going to use – I mean, I don't want to make predictions that don't come true, but two or three million dollars at least out of the... I mean, usually I say if we go up to five, we won't use any. Maybe up to seven. So you're... I mean, that's okay. We're going to be at 23%. Maybe we come down to 20%, 19%.

Yeah, I think that's where we need to decide, too, what our comfort level is with the revenue and the fund balance. Because I know that for me, I just don't want to keep adding to that fund balance. I would rather use that money to... benefit something besides just sitting on it.

I completely understand. I just, you know, I guess my concern is, obviously I'm concerned about all the employees, but we did do something for EMS. We did do something for the Sheriff's Office, and that was very much needed and very much appreciated, I think. And I just feel like we're kind of turning our backs on everybody else. So, I mean... I want to take care of everybody. If we can't afford it, then we can't afford it because that's one situation. But I know we can afford taking care of DSS at 5%. So like we've been equal to EMS, equal to sheriff's office, would you guys entertain just doing 5% for DSS for now?

I think we need to ask Mr. County Manager there. I mean, you're the one running this boat here. You need to sort of guide us here, even though it's just straightforward.

I would echo Mr. Helton's comments regarding fund balance. And we've discussed at least briefly a fund balance policy and what that would look like. And I think we've all kind of discussed throughout the workshop and throughout our other public hearings or presentations that we had that give or take 20% is where we're looking to aim for our policy, I believe. And that may be a little bit of a range. Maybe it's 18 to 22. But 20% is kind of the average at the state level we've discussed. And so we're going to be north of that. We're going to be probably at 23.5 going into this budget that we're about to pass. I do expect that we'll utilize some of that fund balance, as Mr. Helton shared, I would guess as well as he, that more than likely a few million dollars of that. So that will put us... that 20 to 21 percent range. So anything beyond that is just going to be potential more use of that fund balance and what that looks like.

The other good thing to kind of remember is we've got some debt service rolling off next year to kind of help offset. So I don't want to have to come right back and go into a tax increase. We're trying to adjust on on and make it as palatable as we can for our residents. Because I have heard that loud and clear. And that's where I'm at with that.

I don't disagree with that. I would add that our current revenue neutral rate puts us back to where we were at one point last year as part of the discussion. And again, that's going to be about a $10 million appropriation.

That seemed to be a big thing out of the reval is going revenue neutral. So that's what... I'm excited about being able to tell our citizens we're going revenue neutral. That's what everybody wanted last year.

Let me do this. I'm going to amend my motion that we give DSS a 5% increase across the board at DSS, roughly $300,000, and that we give a solid commitment that as we go through the year, If we see the ability to help out other employees of the departments, that we will do that. Because by January, we'll have a good feel for what we're going to do, what we can do, and where we're going to be sitting at. Typically, we've done these EMS and sheriff's offices.

And we're looking at $300,000.

About $300,000. Right, Tony?

For this. Let's do it. Is that fired at the health department? No.

I don't disagree with you, but we did it for EMS. We did it for Sheriff's Office. So was it fair then when we done it? I don't disagree with what you're saying. We've kind of put ourselves in a pickle a little bit, and we've done it. I mean, we as commissioners, and I include myself in that, we've done that ourselves. So I want to amend my motion that we give DSS a 5% increase across the board. And we have a commitment to look after, when we can, if we can, the other staff. We can't just forget it, guys. We've got to fix this problem.

You've got to fix it, but is our health department going to be up here in the next meeting? We did it for EMS. I know that. My question is, what if we go three and three and then look at it? I'm going to ask you. I don't know. What do you mean three and three? Three percent. Three percent. Then we look and see what's going on. But I'll let you entertain your motion, however. It don't matter.

I'll let my motion stand at 5. We've done it for EMS. We've done it for Sheriff. If we start sliding away from it, it's, I mean. Okay. if you guys will support that. And I would appreciate it. And I know these people in this room will. And I think Anna and them will understand as well. I mean, you know, my concern is, I'm just telling you guys, I do not, these caseloads are high. These caseloads are high. I experience this tough.

So I will call the question then.

Mr. Chairman, for procedural purposes, you made a motion and you said you were going to amend your motion. I think what you're doing, you're withdrawing your first motion. I'm withdrawing my first motion. You're putting a new motion on the table, which is 5% to DSS, I think. That's correct. Okay, I understand. That's the motion. Yes, sir. That's correct. You got it. That's just that motion.

So that's what we're voting on. So all in favor, raise your hand. All right, so that carries unanimously. I did want to say a lot of folks have came up here and said that we don't value you. And I want you to know that we do. I value you. It wasn't so many years ago I was sitting there as you working for the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office. And I was proud of that service and the things that I did for the service of the Sheriff's Department and our citizens in the county just like you are. And so don't ever think we do not value you. I kind of want you to know that. You are very important to us as employees, as all our employees, 600 across the board. And so I appreciate you, and I just want to say that going out the door. That's going to make it on YouTube and all those things too, but it's all good. We appreciate everything that you do.

I got something I'd like to read to y'all that I've thought about through this whole process. And just listen closely because this is the truth. When property values go up by an average of 50%, a lot of people assume that revenue neutral tax rate will keep their tax bills from rising because I know where this is coming from. Revenue neutral just means the county collects the exact same total amount of tax money as it did last year. That does not mean your tax bills is going down. It will in a little bit of a case. But it does not mean your personal tax bills stay the same. An average means that a huge number of people are sitting above 50% line. Their properties gain value faster than the rest of the county because their homes are now worth a bigger piece of the pie. They must pay a bigger piece of the tax. Even if the county sets a perfectly revenue neutral rate, it will still result in higher tax bills for a lot of taxpayers. That being said, we need to continue to do all we can to reduce the burden on taxpayers and that is what we are trying to do. But the ongoing discussion, ongoing revenue neutral would have made everyone's tax bill the same as in the past is just a lie. The only thing this does in general purposes is this divides our county even more. So I wanted y'all to hear that because you're gonna see when your tax bills come out, They will be somewhat little different, but they're still going to be higher, and there ain't nothing we can do about the reevaluation. And I appreciate everybody. Thank y'all.

All right. That's great. So that moves us then. into the resolutions for fee schedules of 26-27. And we've been presented that this evening. Okay. And so I will call and ask if there's a motion to adopt the fee schedules for 26-27.

Chairman, I make a motion we adopt the fee schedules that has been presented for 26 and 27.

All right. Any other discussion or comment? All in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

That then moves us to our consent agenda and our county manager, Mr. Shane Fox.

Mr. Chairman, Board of Commissioners, thank you for allowing me to present the consent agenda tonight. It's going to take a few moments. We do have a number of items here for consideration. Number seven, budget revision. This is for $5,442 additional dollars to our public information office. This is an additional grant received here at year end. It does not require any match from the county. Number eight is the previously discussed 524 sales tax allocation. This is in addition to the budget. This is a multi-year capital project fund, so we obviously have to adopt it separately. This includes $820,000 for school resource officers, which is a $500,000 increase over last year, $140,000 for the community college for a roof on Building A, and $150,000 to Dulles School for needed resources. road repairs and installation there. Number nine, budget revision. $5,000 additional monies to the Blown Rock Fire Department for additional tax revenues. This is through the discovery process. There was some additional tax revenue received. Again, no monies from the county. This is just monies being passed from the county to the Blown Rock Fire Department for additional tax revenue received in the 25-26 year. Number 10 and 11 are both from the Sheriff's Department. These are unspent monies that are being utilized to purchase three new radios and ten new computers. These were items that would have been a part of the 26-27 budget request. However, the Sheriff was able to utilize unspent money in the 25-26 budget to be able to move that before you tonight. Number 12 is our FY26-27 opioid settlement spending resolution. This is required each year for us as we pass as a part of the budget our resolution to go along with the budget request that was discussed earlier. Item 13 is some additions and updates to our public library policies that were presented before you as a part of this packet. 14 is appointment of three new board members to the library. These are three-year terms, Mr. Brian Barnes, Ms. Pam Helton, and Mrs. Dickie Wofford. Number 15 are appointments to the Economic Development Advisory Committee. These are reappointments to five members, along with the appointment of two additional members. And I... Just lost my place on those names. Hang on just one second. I apologize. The reappointment of Scott Hildebrand, Rick Justice, Chase Weinbarger, Dr. Mark Porch, and Tasha Roundtree. And then the addition of Tammy Johnson and Melissa Curtis. two new members as a part of our economic development advisory committee. Number 16 is our annual local water supply plan resolution. We do this annually. This is submitted to the state. This is through and under North Congenal Statutes 143, 355, which is again an annual requirement to share with the state our local water plan. We do have four water systems within Caldwell County that are a part of this plan.

Let me ask you a question. I should ask you this the other day. I didn't think about it until just now. Is this the plan that determines when there's a drought.

This plan is not the drought. This is a plan that shows and utilizes our capacity and what our water output is.

That's separate.

Number 17 is interlocal agreement between Caldwell and Burke County. This is, as mentioned earlier, our recovery court. This is a sharing of cost for our coordinator, 50% from Caldwell and 50% to Burke. This is a new agreement as our drug court is in its infancy stages here of being new come January or this past January of 2026. Number 18 is another consent agenda item. This is a contract with Watauga County to serve our North Caldwell EMS area. Currently, we have an ambulance that is housed at the Blown Rock Fire Station that will be leaving the fire station and moving down into Caldwell County to better serve our residents. A part of that is an agreement before you with Watauga County for $15,000 to be paid from Caldwell to Watauga County along with the billings that would be received from the transport from Watauga County for them to keep that. But that is essentially everything north of Blackberry Road including the Blown Rock portion of the town and then out 221. Number 19 is a renewal of the Game Will Fire Department housing contract. That is a total of $10,000 to go to Game Will Fire Department for our AMS crews to be housed there. Number 20 is an athletic postseason travel grant policy that came into play a few months ago through our conversations with the school system. This plan and policy before you allows for you all to make a decision to grant the school system a set amount of money that will be used for championships cost travel etc but that would be determined and distributed through the school system and number 21 is our local Caldwell local teams report from our child fatality team for 2025 again that's an annual requirement and then 22 is a firework application for Tri-County Motor Speedway 23 is, of course, your minutes from May 18th and June 1st. That does include our regular and closed session minutes. And then we did add number 24 earlier, which is our 2627 Home and Community Care Block Grant through Western Piedmont Council of Governments, the Area Aging Program.

department there has requested that those conclude a very lengthy consent agenda and be glad to answer any questions you might have one more question sorry mr chair number 20 that would be additional funding to the school system correct that is beyond what we're giving them now that would be correct okay yes

And that's for those teams traveling and different things for post-season activities.

Yes, sir. That is correct. But the money has to go to the school system. Right. It would be additional funding to them.

It does go to the school system. It does allow for them to make the full determination of how that money is to be spent. Okay. Mr. Chairman, our attorney...

I understand y'all voted on the motion to amend the budget ordinance. And I may have missed it. Did y'all vote on the actual ordinance as amended? And if not, before y'all close out, you need to vote on that. Y'all just voted to amend the proposed ordinance.

I don't think we did because I asked Shane that same question.

All right. So we need to go back and get that. So do I hear a motion that we adopt this evening's consent agenda? So moved. Any other discussion or comment? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

And then that brings us back to adopting our 2627 budget ordinance, which was at a revenue neutral rate of 46.66 cents. And I guess that then has to include the amended item of 5% COLA for DSS. That's right.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve the 26-27 budget ordinance as amended.

All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. Now, Mr. Attorney, anything else I need to do? You got it. You got that one perfect. I've been a little nervous. I bet so. Ha! All right, so next is we're going to enter into a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11a3 and North Carolina General Statute 143-318.11a4, Attorney Client Privilege and EDC. All in favor of going into closed session, say aye.

Aye.

Thank you.