Board of Commissioners - workshop

All right. Good evening. Welcome to the September 8th, 2026 Board of Commissioners work session. Before we call this meeting to order, I am going to ask Commissioner Pittman if he would please start us off with a prayer.

Let's pray. Great God, our Father, we rejoice in you and your great love for us. Lord, you give us so many wonderful things, so many blessings, and it's harder for us even to be aware of them all. We just want to thank you that you love us so much. Lord, there are those who maybe don't understand that, who don't know your love, and we pray they may find it and they may learn of you and know that you love us all. Lord, we pray tonight for those who work so hard. We just celebrated Labor Day, and so many worked so hard to provide for their families and to provide goods and services that we need. And, Lord, we just pray that you'd bless them with strength and help them to know that they're appreciated. Lord, we just pray that you'd be with our military personnel wherever they are, We thank you for their commitment to our freedom. And Lord, we pray for a day when peace will be more prevalent in our world. We know that there is a day of peace that is coming that will end all wars and all strife. But for now, Lord, we just pray that you'd help us to be peacemakers. guide and direct this board tonight, that decisions that we make will be in accordance with your will and for the best for our citizens. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

All right. I will call this meeting to order. If you all will please stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we will move on to 1.1. I'm sorry, item 1, approval of the agenda. I need a motion to approve the agenda, including the changes on page 5.

So moved. Second.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. That carries 5-0. So we will move down to 2.1, County Commissioner Follow-Up on Transparency Resolution. Mr. Eller?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a couple of updates for the board about what's happening. We talked about this at the coffee committee and wanted to also follow back up with all of you to let you know what's happening. I know in June you passed a transparency resolution. We've been working diligently on that and items to put on that site. Wanted to give you a quick update and really do a few shout outs. So I want to thank Todd Shanley who's here tonight. Also want to thank our DSS leadership team for all the work that they've done to help us get information there. And then also we're also trying to get information from our school systems and CHA about the impact that federal and state changes may have had. from a policy or a budget perspective on us. So I want to quickly name with you tonight what programs we're talking about that we're specifically looking at that were named in the resolution as a reminder. So anything related to special education services, Title I programs, school nutrition, and Medicaid reimbursements. the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs, which is SNAP, and Women, Infants, and Children's Program, which is WIC, and obviously some of our Medicaid programs that are impacted too. So there are decisions that can be made at the state and federal level government that have some sort of trickle down effect to us, whether that's increased workloads on staff or whether that's a monetary or fiscal adjustment that needs to occur. So one thing we're trying to do is capture all that from our departments who are impacted by these programs. Put those on a website that we're demoing right now and we'll hopefully have something at least prototyped by the end of this month. This is the goal, not it's going to be iterative. We're always going to be updating it. We're going to put more information than this that's out there for the public to be able to see. You know, we've had some questions from some residents about, hey, what do I get in return for my taxes and what does that look like? So information like that out there This will be an ongoing process that we continue to update as we get updates. But I wanted to let you know that we haven't just sat on this since you voted on it in June. We're moving on it. So hopefully we'll have a prototype ready to go by the end of this month. We'll update you at the next work session, hopefully kind of where we are then and continue to update that site with information. Just know that that's moving along and we'll get your feedback on it before we finalize anything to see kind of what you think about it and what it looks like. So just know that that work has not gone unnoticed and I'm very proud of our team for all the work they've put into it. We're trying to take a lot of complex, complicated information.

make it very concise and to the point which is not always the easiest thing to do so just know your staff continues to work really hard and I'm very proud of them for that so more to come on that just a quick update did you all have any questions regarding that okay so we'll move on to 2.2 and then you will also be presenting this examples of resolutions that counties have passed regarding the state constitutional amendment ballot item

thank you madam chair some of you had questions you receiving from constituents about you know what's what's different now versus resolutions that counties passed several months ago and we wanted to at least try to answer some questions for you there there's been a lot of questions about what's what is the impact of the constitutional amendment that's on the ballot i think at our last meeting Some of you commented on that, and the impact is still unknown. We don't know what that's going to mean or what it looks like, but there have been a lot of questions that have been asked, and what we felt like it would be a fair process, and I know Commissioner Wartman asked us to talk about this tonight. County Attorney Hall and I have been bouncing this around a little bit and trying to educate you and the public as well about why did counties pass resolutions and how is that different today than it was during the budget process for which most of these counties passed the resolution. In your packet, we put some examples of those resolutions. And in addition to that, we also put a briefing from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. Again, it's out there on the web. You can Google these things. We just capture some of these things as examples for you to help educate you. But also, I appreciate the time and effort Attorney Hall's put into this to really prepare some responses for you tonight and hopefully answer some questions for you in this Q&A session we have here tonight. So I'll defer to him.

All right. Thank you. And I think it's all right. So there's two statutes that that apply to this general principle that we're talking about. So 153, a 456 is the one that I think you all are probably familiar with already. That says a county shall not use public funds to endorse or oppose a referendum election or a particular candidate for elective office. so I am one of the group of attorneys who believes that prohibits any kind of resolution at all at any time now you've got a couple of examples I think Union and alamance maybe and there's been some others who have passed resolutions back when the legislature was debating whether to put the referendum on the ballot about the property tax cap So again, my thinking is that the statute is black and white, very clear. We cannot adopt a resolution endorsing or prohibiting that. Now there's three different schools of thought among the attorneys who think you can do it. So most of the attorneys. uh for counties who have done that fall into one of three camps so the first camp is that passing the resolution while the legislature was debating the referendum was allowed because it was not yet a referendum so there's some daylight there i mean that's a pretty reasonable argument they're saying we were lobbying the legislature it was not yet a referendum my problem with that interpretation though is once you adopt a resolution it's there you can't unring the bell you can't take it back you can't say to your voters now that it's it is on the ballot for the fall you can't say to your voters disregard the resolution we passed opposing this referendum now that it's a referendum so you have in fact taken a stand even though your intention was just to speak to the legislature, there's not really a way that I can see to do that. But that's the thinking of some of the counties who have done it. And again, I think that's the one of the three lines of thinking where there is the most daylight or most argument that you can make there. The next group of thinking that says you can pass a resolution is because the statute doesn't state a penalty for it. It doesn't say there's a civil penalty. It doesn't say it's a misdemeanor or anything else. And therefore, because that statute does not give a penalty, you can do it. I mean, it's harmless. We violated the statute, but nobody can do anything to us. I disagree with that interpretation because there's lots of statutes that don't state a penalty within the body of the statute. But you can still be violating the statute. Obviously, you could still be sued for it. Maybe there's no civil penalty for it. But as a public body, if we are found to have done something in violation of a statute, the court could order it to be reversed. Certainly we would be probably liable to pay the attorney fees of whatever party sued us trying to set aside what they contend is an illegal action. So that's the second argument, but I don't side with that argument. The third argument among the people who believe you can do this, and this is actually what the School of Government told me, this is the School of Government position, That line of thinking is it doesn't violate the statute to pass a resolution opposing the property tax cap or in favor of the property tax cap, whichever way you want to look at it. It doesn't violate the statute because you're not spending any public money. And so I disagree with that interpretation. And again, this is what the school of government says. And I don't recall the last time I disagreed with the school of government about anything. But their thinking is it doesn't cost any money to pass a resolution. And I don't agree with that because we're spending county tax dollars, taxpayer dollars sitting here. I mean, everything we touch, the lighting, the heat, the air, it's all taxpayer dollars. And so we can't have a resolution without a meeting. We can't have a meeting without spending tax dollars. So when I press the the School of Government professor on this and it's a wonderful professor who's been there a long time and his his advice is usually solid gold. But when I pressed him on that, he said, well, the statute is talking about advertising, printing flyers, printing posters, putting online advertisements in favor or against something. That's what it's talking about. but again the statute is very clear unambiguous the statute does not say any exceptions exist like that so um given the fact that we're spending money sitting here talking about it i again think that it would run afoul of that statute um the other statute which is is kind of interesting is 153a99 and that's entitled county employee political activity and it says two things it says county employees cannot spend any time or counting money on the clock doing any kind of politicking it also says they cannot be pressured into doing any politicking and it also says they are absolutely free as you would imagine under the first amendment to politic all they want on their personal time So it both prohibits employee activity, it also guarantees them protections. And it says county employee, you five are not county employees, even though you're paid to be commissioners, you're not employees, you five are in fact the employer. So you five and then through the county manager, since we follow the county manager system, you're actually the employer. But one of the school government articles says there's a 1998 attorney general opinion that says for purposes of this statute this statute does apply to you all even though you're not counting employees it applies to elected officials i have not been able to read that attorney general opinion in uh in black and white because it's from 1998 and they're not on the attorney general website going back that far but the school of government cited that in 2017 as applying to to elected officials and i don't have any reason to believe that that's been rescinded or changed A related question that's come up with all this is, how is this different from the resolution you all passed for the geo bonds that are going to be on the ballot? And so, of course, if you think back to the resolution you passed, or if anybody listening wants to go back and read it, you very clearly did not take a stand pro or con in that. So that's one reason that was okay. The other reason that resolution was different, and it's fine, is that was a resolution you were actually required to pass. So if you look at the statutes, it's Chapter 159, Article 4, entitled the Local Government Bond Act. It spells out the different ways counties can borrow money. And one way is a general obligation bond. But if you want to borrow money for something to a GO bond, it has to be put to a vote. So you all were actually just completing a required step. The legislature has told you you must take a vote to put it on the ballot. You know, it won't be on the ballot unless you vote in the affirmative. So that's a ministerial act, an act you are required to do. And in the course of doing so, you correctly did not take a stand one way or the other. So that's why that's different. um mr ellard put some other questions on the agenda item here i'll run through and make sure we've answered them so the first one first talking point being can you all as commissioners express your personal opinions on the referendum as private citizens and you absolutely can just because your commissioners doesn't mean in your private life you give up your first amendment privileges Given everything else we've talked about here, though, tonight, I think it would be inappropriate to do it from the dais. So even when you're in a meeting, if you say, I'm saying this as a public citizen, I'm not sure that holds water legally because you're here in your official capacity and not as a private citizen. But on your private social media accounts, meetings you attend to public, your church friends, your family, your neighbors, you certainly can tell people what you personally think. Can you all discuss during a public meeting the potential impact of the tax cap resolution or referendum rather on Cabarrus County without advocating one way or another? You can. You could discuss potential impacts. I think you could give facts. Now I would defer to Mr Eller as to exactly what there is to discuss, because with this resolution, It doesn't spell out what a cap would be. It's just to amend the state constitution to require the legislature to do that. So we don't know numbers. I've heard things batted around like a 3% increase at a time as a cap, but we don't know what the cap would be. So it's a little hard, I think, to even give facts as much as we might want to give facts. for people to make a decision. Unless it passes and the legislature actually takes action on it, we don't really know what they're going to do to tie our hands. So it's a little hard to educate ourselves, much less anybody else about what the potential impact is. Another talking point or thinking point was, i can we provide residents with neutral factual information about the potential impacts of that amendment if it passed similar to the educational information you did disseminate about the geo bonds just factual information i think you could do that i think you could give factual neutral information just about potential impacts but at this stage it's really hard to even say what that would be because we don't know what the legislature will do And even if the referendum passes, the legislature may not do anything. We just don't know. I think there's an appetite, certainly among some members, to do something. But I'm sure they're going to get lobbied very hard not to do anything. They may get cold feet. So there's no guarantee, even if it passes, that they would actually do anything. The final talking point we had on the agenda item here was would any resolution concerning preservation of local authority now constitute prohibited advocacy? And I definitely think it would now that it's actually on the ballot. I thought it was iffy when the legislature was debating it, but there is an argument you can make there. But I think now that it's passed and it's become a referendum on the ballot, we cannot certainly take one position or another at this time. And I think that covers all the questions that we've been batting around. But if you all have anything further.

Did you all have any questions regarding this?

In our packet, the part that says, if you scroll down, that says states that have imposed property tax limits have seen local governments closing community pools, considering deep cuts to emergency services, cutting services at libraries and more. Is that from the local, is that from the NCI?

Yeah, it's from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners put this out after the budget passed. This is the, I would say, the only statement that's been made that we could find publicly about impact, to Attorney Hall's point, until we know exactly what action the General Assembly would take if the referendum passes. It's hard to even state what the local impact would be so this is just a fact sheet that the County Commissioners Association Put out to all counties after the budget was finalized So we're allowed to ask questions as long as we don't take a stance

So hypothetically speaking, if this passes and there's a cap put on there, but yet we're responsible for the services, how do we operate within that limitation if we're not in control of that limitation?

Yeah, I think at this point that's the question a lot of people are asking. We don't know what the cap would be or what the stipulations or formulary behind it would even be. I think. I think counties that are going through conversations about services and and the amount of services needed in their community will definitely be following this to decide and determine what impact would this have on us there. counties as you know that do a lot of things beyond mandated services over and above which obviously come out of the county fund balance or budget and there are other counties who only do the the minimum requirements that are mandated and so you know i think that's that's a hard question to answer as to what is the true impact the answer is it depends on the county and the level of services that they're providing

I think if it passes, our job will shift. We will no longer be under that restriction. Our job will be to watch the legislature very carefully, see what they propose, and advocate then. I agree that at that point, and they're just writing bills, we have free reign to advocate as much as we want.

Just like we would lobby them on anything else. Yeah, there's nothing pending at that point. Well, why would we have a commissioner then if they're the ones that are going to make the decision? I'm just asking a question because that's one of our biggest jobs that we do every year. So if they want to take that job over, then... Yeah, I have a commissioner.

I honestly don't remember where I read this, but I read somewhere in all these emails and things online. I've been reading that if they do adopt something, if the referendum passes and if the legislature does anything, there's probably going to be a list of Exceptions or 3rd rails things that cannot be touched or reduced. So, at that point, then you all would, I think, have something to talk about and something to educate the public on. Here's the ramification of this and here are the groups. Here are the things we cannot touch. Let's say the legislature says. however of course some counties i guess in theory won't have a concern with it but a county that does have a concern with having that cap there may be a list of things like schools parks what have you that the legislature at that point gives you direction on you can't touch these things if you're having trouble slotting under this cap these things are off limits you know and everything else is where you need to look for your cuts but that's just speculation at this point so instead of running as a county commissioner you'd be running as a lobbyist kind of yeah okay manager yes sir you won't be surprised if you say i look at some of this a little differently

I don't consider the county commissioners to be the employers. I consider the taxpayers in this county to be the employers. And we are their employees. And we, you know, it's like in a business. You have people who own the business. That would be the taxpayers. And they have administrators that work under them. We're the administrators elected to do that. I don't consider us the employers. So to me, my purpose, our purpose should be to try to do the best for as many of our citizens as possible and i can't get into a lot of that with this because i'd be doing advocate advocacy one way or the other but you already know where i stand on that without me saying it think the as far as the geo bonds I think I made it clear when we were discussing that then I'm not gonna say whether I would vote for or against those bonds but I wanted it to be geo bonds that's why I voted to put it on the ballot so that the people get to decide our employers get to decide so that's where I kind of have a little different take on it but I'm not here for me 11 years in raleigh i was not there for me i was there for the people and that's what i try to do here as long as i'm here we don't know how long that's going to be but as long as i'm here i'm working for the people i just hope we all have that attitude if if the state doesn't pass a budget how does how would something like that work locally because we have to pass a budget we don't have the option of not passing one so how would

How does that play out if they don't pass a budget?

That's a great question, Commissioner. I think many counties are asking that same question. I mean, it's so early in this process, we don't know. I mean, you're required to have that budget ready to go by the end of June, as you know, every year. And if the state hasn't done their part, it's hard for us, for sure. So I think that's a fair question.

I'm just curious because you've done a phenomenal job so far. I think we all agree. And you're tasked with what we answer to the taxpayers for. So it's kind of hard for you to do your job at the same time that we're holding you accountable for if there's no... Budget to allow us to know where we have to operate in so it's a trickle-down effect.

This is what that is I think from When you called to ask for this to be discussed one of the things that I know that you noted was just making sure We all knew what this really meant and to raise awareness. I know many of you've had conversations about this so again, we're willing and able to continue to take questions we may not have all the answers i i don't even know until we get more guidance from the state about what this might look like that we even have all the answers for sure but um but i think the other thing that you noted not to put words in your mouth was you know and you said it a minute ago this in your mind is one of the fundamental things that a county commissioner or county has authority to do and and that troubled you which is why you wanted to talk about this tonight so can we have a state representative come to our meeting before this goes on a ballot to answer questions and explain them i mean i think we can ask state representatives any questions that we we would like and i'm happy to take those questions and try to get you answers for those

any other questions comments just two quick ones sir I'm curious to to hear what the school government's response was when he said well that's not using public dollars because in their own blog post the one I've been relying on says exactly that using the building the staff even live-streaming it's not okay that the electrons and the light bulbs right okay what What's changed? Are they going to take the blog down?

I guess he hadn't read that blog post or maybe somebody else wrote it.

That's just for my identification. Could you just put a finer point on the First Amendment thing? Because I want to make sure that not only we understand, but that staff understands it. we are absolutely free as individuals to say whatever we want when we're not spending taxpayer dollars and i don't want people i don't want there to be a chilling effect on whether people can support it or not on their own dime on their own time absolutely just this building is not absolutely you know not not in this building not on county time but yeah for you all that's when you're present in these meetings when you walk out of these meetings

Do we have a policy for the county that contradicts that? Isn't there a policy that says our county employees aren't allowed to? Do we need to adjust that policy then so that they're covered?

That's what Attorney Aldridge referenced in earlier. I mean, for our staff, absolutely, there's a legislative advocacy or lobbying policy that we have. But for you, because you're not technically employees, I think that's the difference. I don't want to speak for you.

Correct. And even that policy references company time. When they're on the clock, they cannot campaign. But any employee of the county can advocate in any way they want to when they're not on the clock and in their personal role. Now, even in their personal time, you know, as an employee, I should not on personal time go out and say, introduce myself as the county attorney and here's what I want to tell you. If I say, hey, I'm Doug, you don't know me, but here's what I want to tell you about this, you know, that's fine.

Probably shouldn't have a county shirt on while you're doing it.

Exactly. I mean, there's all kinds of practical implications, you know, of that type thing. It's just as a practical matter, you need to take reasonable steps to make sure people aren't confused about whether you're speaking for yourself or speaking for the county.

Yes, Commissioner Wartman, I would say we don't need to change the policy, but during this season, we would typically remind employees that the policy's there, and I know some departments have already started doing that, and we'll continue to reinforce that for sure.

Any other comments or questions? Okay, thank you.

I'd just like to say that everybody makes mistakes. You don't get everything right. But I appreciate the fact we have two gentlemen here who are very committed to trying to get it right. I appreciate that.

Yeah, I'm very grateful for y'all doing all of the digging and the research that went into this. So thank you very much.

Thank you for asking the question.

All right, so we will move on to item three. First, I'm going to say... Thank you to Heather Mobley and David Thrift and Charles Ratliff and Tracy LeCompte for coming out tonight. I appreciate you all taking the time to come to discuss all of these. But unless you all have any issues with any of the removals or appointments on the boards and committees, I would ask you all to put these on the consent agenda. Are we all good for that? Yeah. Okay. Awesome. So we will do 3.1 all the way to 3.30 for the consent agenda. Thank you guys for coming out. I appreciate it. All right. So we will move on to 3.31, resolution amending the board commissioner's 2026 meeting schedule. Ari, did you have anything you wanted to say with that, ma'am?

Yes. So this schedule has been amended to reflect the date for the Cabrera Summit. So the only thing that was added up was October 7th.

and just as a note i want y'all to remember too because i definitely didn't remember that from this last time but it's the commissioner's training that we do too that we change it so it ends up being on a tuesday instead of we never go to it where was i think it was in houston or something this last year um so just remember well two of you won't have to remember remember but it will change for the next, uh, calendar. So it'll be on a Tuesday for that as well. So I have to make a mental note to myself with that. Cause I almost forgot about it this year.

Um, was there anything else made on that?

Okay. So we will move that to consent. All right. Then we'll move to 3.32 human services, social services, family support services with Susan.

Well, hi, how are you?

Good.

How are you?

I'm doing well. Thank you for coming.

Good evening. So I am bringing forward tonight a request for review and approval of our revised child care subsidy waiting list policies. This is for the subsidized child care assistance program, which we also call SCCA for short, in accordance with the updated requirements from the North Carolina Division of Child Development Early Education. which is DCDEE. So I'll be using those two acronyms just moving forward. A little bit of background. The SCCA program policy manual chapter 10 changed. That is our local options and waiting list policies. It was revised September 30th of 2025. And as part of a statewide implementation, we are now required by DCDEE, all 100 counties, local purchasing agencies. In Cabarrus County's case, DSS is us. We are required to review, update, and submit our local child care policies. So a local policy form was revised in April of this year, 2026, and is now requiring all 100 counties to utilize this form as our ongoing template. Previously it was optional, but now it's a requirement for all 100 counties. So what we've done is we've reviewed and updated our current policies in accordance with the revisions and the requirements. And hopefully you received a copy of that in your packet. It has been reviewed by DCDEE and approved. As of July 22nd, it was approved by the division. And basically what we did is we took our current waiting list policies that have been in place. We transferred them requiring using the existing policy and the language that was required and placed that on the new local policy form template just to be in compliance. We maintained the same order of our waiting list and the content, so nothing was changed. It was simply transferred from a Word document over to this new template. And we did that without changing any of the substance. So you'll see that on the screen. So really what we're asking is that you take a look at it. Uh, it has been reviewed by the division. Uh, that was a requirement, um, by DCD and now we're bringing it forward to you guys to review and approve commissioners.

Do you have any comments or questions regarding this for Laura?

Okay. Um, the one through 12 priority list. those were of our choosing or did you say that that's the typical one or the state wants us to use these in this order this is a local option one through seven are

what we call exempt from a waiting list when we do have a waiting list. But this is the order that has been in place from a previous board. So we're bringing forward what has already been in place and what we have been following. So one through seven, even when we're currently on a waiting list, not taking applications due to a lack of funding, those children are exempt. So really where it would pick up is number eight.

I see. Okay.

Yeah. And we follow it chronological order.

Because I would argue that one through seven really probably ought to be reordered. But if they're exempt, it really doesn't make much difference. And I'm glad to see number one technically on our list is children in a crisis situation.

One and two, those are funded by what we call a set-aside amount. So 4% of our funding is set aside to serve those children. So even if we have an ongoing waiting list for the other groups, our funding for one and two is separate. So oftentimes we don't have a waiting list either way for one and two children. Okay, good.

Any other questions? Alright, are we good for consent on that? Alright, thank you, Laura. Thank you. OK, so we will move on to 3.33. Transportation with Charles Ratliff for the grant application public hearing.

Suzanne what we have for you tonight is our annual 5311 grant we bring it to you every year this time it's predetermined by the good folks at NCDOT right so this for FY 28 I'm sorry FY 28 we've been awarded one hundred ninety four thousand four hundred three dollars The county's part of that is $29,160, or 15%. So we use that grant. It covers uniforms for employees, helps offset some salary costs, helps cover travel, education, things like that. So it's admin. This particular grant, it does require public hearing. So we ask that you hold a public hearing at your next meeting and then just accept the grant resolution.

Commissioners, do you have any questions, comments? okay so we will have a public hearing on september the 21st for this um and we're good for consent okay and then we also have 3.34 transportation 5310 elderly and handicap grant budget amendment

Yes, thank you. We have the 5310 elderly and handicapped grant that is provided via 5310 grant funding for transportation. We're a subrecipient. City of Concord awards us the funding after we apply, and so we are then considered a subrecipient. We had to perform a budget amendment that I actually aligned with Ross and Mitzi O'Dell on for the increase in funding. We got more funding than what we budgeted, which is a good thing. So I will need the budget to be a budget amendment to be amended in the 5240 transportation grant. In addition, just to let you know, there are no additional county funds needed. We have that within our own budget within transportation. So we just basically move some things around and made a line so that you wouldn't have to provide any more county money.

Yay.

Yeah.

Any questions or concerns? We're good for consent. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Suzanne.

Thank you.

Thank you, Charles. All right. So we'll move to three point three five adoption of resolution for the placement of law enforcement vehicles with the towns of Harrisburg, Mount Pleasant and Midland.

Hey, Kyle. Hi. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Thank you. This resolution actually relates to an item that I brought up to you all in the regular session last month, which was a last minute ad. And I think at that point, I mentioned that we would put this resolution in place. This resolution links to all the law enforcement agreements that we have with the various municipalities. So Harrisburg, Mount Pleasant, and Midland. Each of those agreements reads in a different way in terms of what happens to the vehicles if they have to be salvaged or once they age out. So I call it salvaged when it gets in a wreck and it can't be driven anymore. And then aged out is once it hits a certain mileage. Additionally, and this was the wrinkle that caused the issue this year, is that Town of Midland insures their own vehicles. The other two entities are not like that. And to get titles on those vehicles, they need to have it insured prior to that. And that's why I was up there for the last minute for you all last month. This resolution that Doug Hall crafted will basically line itself up with the agreement. So even if the law enforcement agreements change, over the years, meaning they put in different provisions, it will link to this resolution and allow county staff to handle the exchange of the vehicle as is needed in a timely fashion versus coming to the board. And I'm happy to read this resolution out to you, but that is the history of why we're doing this.

Do you all need him to read the resolution?

Thank you for doing this. Yes, you're welcome. Doug did more of the heavy lifting than I did.

All right. Are we good with the consent? Yes, sir.

I'll just mention, and I'm not pushing one way or the other, just mention that some citizens, whenever we come up with things like this, ask me. Why are you doing this with a vehicle with no more mileage than that on it? That sort of thing. Mine's got 250,000. It's still going good. Why is that? Of course, I usually try to tell them, well, it's probably had more wear and tear in that lower mileage than your vehicle.

but that's about all i can say what can you add to that the patrol vehicles are swapped out typically at about a hundred thousand miles because of the high velocity that they do and the turns that they do that's specifically why so in our sheriff's department when you all pass a sheriff department employee who's not on patrol driving that car has over a hundred thousand miles when you are dealing with patrol cars meeting out in these municipal areas or with our own patrol in the unincorporated areas i can guarantee you those are the newest vehicles with under 100 000 miles because of the the velocity they're traveling at and specifically on the roads that they're traveling at i haven't just spent an awful lot of money getting my power steering fixed on my truck i can kind of relate to what you're saying

I just I don't know some citizens probably never be satisfied with that answer, but it makes sense to me.

I don't think anybody but the officer who's driving at that speed trying to get somewhere would be happy with that answer.

Alright, are we good with consent? OK, then we will move on to donation of surplus vehicle to Gold Hill Volunteer Fire Department with Kyle.

Okay, you've all heard this from me before. Cabarrus County receives multiple requests each year from various fire departments for surplus vehicles from Cabarrus County. Cabarrus County Fire Services and Infrastructure and Asset Management departments maintain these requests in a tracking document and as the vehicles become available, re-reach back out to those departments that submitted their request to see if the need for the vehicle still exists. During the past few months, we've had several vehicles available for these fire departments. And Gold Hill Volunteer Fire Department has confirmed they still have a need for a surplus SUV. This happens this time of year. Every year is when I come in front of you with all of these requests.

Our list is getting shorter, right?

OK, so you know when you get a lot of emails and you're answering them really fast, but they seem to come in faster than you can answer them? That's an analogy for you.

Madam Chair, that's another complaint I've heard is, why do they need an SUV? And I might have an idea why, but I think you probably answered that better than I could.

A lot of these departments obviously have a lot of different folks doing a lot of different services, and these vehicles are all over our mileage amount. In fact, in probably the next few months, I'll come in front of you with some various 410 vehicles that'll be in the 180,000 mile. So they use them for what I've been told is sometimes they will convert them into brush trucks and things like that. But I think the bulk of them are used for non-emergency response for the different inspections they go out and do. So they can keep the mileage off of their critical vehicles. And I'm sure the board could answer to that. Some of you have experience, but that's always been the indication given to us from them. And if we did not provide these to the volunteer fire department, we would just sell these at an auction house.

We can put a SUV on the road and keep a $1.5 million fire engine off the road. Then everybody wins.

Agreed. But to ask them specifically what they do with it, I typically don't do that. We request a letter for them to tell us what they're utilizing it for, and then we put it on the list, and it comes first come first serve.

Again, that satisfies me, but it may not satisfy somebody else.

All right, we go with consent. OK, thank you, Kyle.

Thank you so much.

All right, we'll move on to 3.37. The NCACC legislative goals consideration for Cabarrus County with John Eller.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So thanks to. everyone for getting me your responses and the things that you really wanted us to focus on going into this next session. So we were able to submit those to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. I did make sure that anything you voted on was weighted. And as I discussed with Madam Chair, we wanted to identify the items for which all of you had the highest weighted scores on items that all five of you agreed upon. So that was the litmus test that we submitted. That doesn't mean, again, as you heard Attorney Hall talk about earlier, if there's something you're passionate about on your own time that you want to advocate for, Absolutely. You have a right to do that like anyone. But these are items that we felt like because of the momentum that all of you have had over the past few months, really trying to work hard together to make decisions together. We wanted to continue that momentum and that commitment. And so what we did was we took all of those results, weighted those and the ones that you came up with out of all the possibilities. So in your packet, you can see kind of where we started. um and and you were able to say look i support this or i don't and here's my ranking for it from those i'll read the ones that's in the packet for where everyone landed and those have been submitted to the county commissioners association but we wanted to memorialize those here uh tonight and one is school funding formulas that account for high growth being in a high growth area asking for more state support for school funding that was our number one item the second item was opposing unfunded mandates that are passed along to counties many counties can struggle meeting their budgets, given all the mandates that have been given them. And as we talked earlier, some provide higher levels of service than others. So those unfunded mandates, when they're surprised, particularly to small counties, can have a definite impact to larger counties and an even larger impact. So those are things we just want to keep in mind as we get a federal mandate or a state mandate. they do have an impact and so those were your second items that you noted the third was financial support particularly with a lot of the behavioral health challenges that we've had with children being housed in emergency rooms or in local dss offices this has been a statewide challenge as you know our team has worked Many after hours, many weekends with youth staying in the office because there's no placement for them to go to. All of you identified this as your third most important priority to help find and seek placements and treatment for those youth who are in our office but also in the ERED looking for a place to go. The fourth item that you noted was expanding federal veterans programs such as commitment to the Veterans Services Support Outreach Act. Many of you noted your support for veterans and that showed up in your rankings. And then we had a tie for number five for two, so I listed those here as five and six. And that was providing funding to support mandatory background checks and fingerprinting required by session law. I think all of you may be aware of this, but I want to make sure, you know, in the session law that passed, it required additional background screenings and fingerprinting that occurs in libraries, parks, recreation, and other program public services. And this definitely increased cost to counties, not just with equipment required to do it, but also the staffing time. that's there and you noted that and then tied with that one as well was funding for behavioral health substance use and jail services this is a little different from the one we talked about with youth and the ereds and and the office but adjacent uh if you will As many of you know, across the state we're seeing an increase in an impact for our emergency services staff, our hospitals, our law enforcement and sheriff's partners, our DSS folks. We bear significant costs in that space and the opioid settlement funds have obviously helped with that litigation that occurred to offset what would be county expenses. But behavioral health is still something that counties across the state continue to struggle with. So there's also other things that have occurred as far as arena's law that I know the sheriff has talked about as well, which has increased our jail population. speak for the sheriff, but I do know that our population has increased since the passage of that law tremendously. So I hope when you see the sheriff next time, ask about that. I think that would be a good conversation for you as well. But based on all of those things, these were the top priorities that Had the highest weights that you agreed on and those are the ones that are submitted So I want to thank all of you for sharing your feedback For your your rankings for your comments from calling me asking questions one-on-one. It's exactly what we should be doing I want you to be as well educated as you can be So hopefully this process helped you kind of see what the universe was out there That was important of things that we've heard from several of you and then your overall ranking So I'll turn it back to you madam chair if there's any questions

So I just want to say thank you because you made this process incredibly easy with the legislative priorities that you listed. And if anybody wants to know, they are on our agenda, all of them, so that you can take a look and see what all of those were. And even though, you know what, some of these didn't, my number one didn't end up on here, which is okay. That is okay. But you made this process so easy for us to be able to collaborate together, to rank these, and then be able to sign off on our... five slash six legislative agenda items so i appreciate what you did in this process for us i thought it i thought it went seamlessly so thank you yes sir i would just point out on page three of this uh the bottom paragraph a couple of spelling errors you might want to correct

It says funding to support additional capacity needed for pro-sectors. I think that's supposed to be prosecutors.

You don't know what a pro-sector is?

And then it says... You know, if the legislature decides to award additional district attorney and legal assistant staff to other counties, it should be then, T-H-E-N, not then.

Thank you for pointing those out.

There are probably others that I missed, but those two kind of hit me in the face.

You got an A-plus in the English class. But that was the one that came to us, right? Because that was just the list. Yeah, correct. That may have been.

typos that came from yeah yeah I had to fill out a form for each one of these and submit them so they want what they saw on their end is a little bit different than what you see thank you

so for anybody that wants to know a prospector is a skilled professional who prepares human or animal bodies or body parts for demonstration teaching okay good catch thank you thank you all right any other questions okay

So we will move on to 3.38, and this is with David Thrift as well. This is the resolution of the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners to advance Cabarrus County revaluation schedule from January 1st, 2028 to January 29, 2029, and to implement subsequent repraisals every four years after that. Hi. Hi.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good evening. So this request is just to ask for a resolution to advance the revaluation from January 1, 2028 to January 1, 2029. You certainly, as commissioners, have the authority to do that. We're required to do a revaluation at least once every eight years. The commissioners have the opportunity to do that on a scheduled shorter time frames than that eight-year period. We've historically done a four year cycle since 2004. Our recommendation from the tax administration is to continue with a four-year cycle after that advancement. I think that's really the most beneficial timeframe between revaluations to have the effect of the equity that provides our taxpayers by doing a revaluation, but also respecting the resources that it takes to implement a reappraisal and a revaluation.

Madam Chair? Yes, sir. First of all, to me, from 28 to 29 is not an advancement. It's a postponement because you're doing it later instead of earlier. So that would not be an advance. That would be a postponement. Secondly, you know very well I object to this anyway. I don't believe any government entity should have that authority to do that, so I can't support this anyway. But let's correct the language there at least.

All right. Any other questions or concerns regarding this resolution? Okay. So we'll put that on consent 4-1. Or I'm sorry, action 4-1. Yes, action 4-1. all right thank you david thank you appreciate it all right so we'll move on to 3.39 resolution supporting the construction of roadway improvements by the north carolina department of transportation at tucasegee road and pleasant grove church road in cabarrus county with well hello hi miss kelly how are you i'm good

We have had a request from NCDOT regarding this intersection. Funds have been identified by NCDOT, just shy of $1.7 million to do a realignment both vertically and horizontally to make this intersection safer. As always, they do request support from us in the form of a resolution for each project in the county. So this is simply a resolution supporting that project.

Okay. Commissioners, do you have any questions or concerns? Are we good for consent on this resolution? All right, we'll move to consent on that one. Thank you, ma'am.

Can we ask them to murder Rhodes? For real? I'm getting a lot of questions.

Me too, honestly. All right, so we'll move on to 3.40, Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act Resolution for Senior Housing. All right.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So in 1982, Congress created the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Essentially what it does is for entities that have what they call a public good use, which is usually charter schools, senior related housing projects, those kind of things, come before the local governing board. so that they can get a tax exempt bond issue to be able to finance those projects to move forward. I sent this information out to all of you in advance just to give you a heads up. We do have an entity that's looking to seek this resolution, which does require a public hearing, but also to be able to move forward with this. And because Congress can't assess local needs, the way they set up the act in 1982 is that these come before you to allow these projects to move forward. With this, this does not put any legal or financial risk to the county at all. I've spoken with Attorney Hall about this. I've spoken with our finance director as well. And so other counties get these requests typically. And what we have to do is, if you're... with your approvals to move forward with the public hearing and then the resolution to follow if the board so chooses. And I put information in your packet that includes information about the two entities as well as some additional information. So go please with the board. We're seeking a public hearing at the next meeting as well.

Did you all have the opportunity to take a look at all of that that was sent? Any questions or concerns on that? So we will have a public hearing on this at the next meeting on September the 21st. And we can put this on consent, right? We don't have, do we need, with a public, okay. I mean, after the public hearing. Right. The resolution can. But we can do it for consent for now. So are we good with consent?

Consent to a public hearing?

Correct. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Let's move on to 3.41. EMS special events fees with Jonathan and Kara. And bingo. He's not here, but thank you.

He already got his 40 hours in. Oh, he did.

No overtime. Not even for him.

Good evening. To give you a quick back story of what we're asking for here, this is not something new. Obviously, we are asking to increase our rates, so it's not a new service. But more than just dialing 911 and getting one of our trucks, people have the opportunity, citizens have the opportunity to reach out to us, and we will provide medical coverage for a special event. A lot of times you'll see them at 5Ks or a mud run or something of that nature. And to be equitable and fair to the taxpayers. We charge for those events. What we're asking for, we haven't increased our rates in 10 years, but what we're asking for is for an ambulance, a staffed ambulance, we're gonna go from $125 to $200 an hour. That's gonna cover your salaries for the staff on the truck, fuel, insurance, that sort of thing. Some events will require more than one truck. Some events will require a supervisor, an operational member on site, and that rate is going to go from $50 an hour to $75 an hour. And then the other item you'll see, we actually do provide coverage to Charlotte Motor Speedway and ZMAX Dragway with TrackMedics. So we have Cabarrus County EMS staff employees that are paid for by the Speedway to come out there. And that rate is going to increase from $28 an hour to $50 an hour. Okay.

Any questions on any of that?

He covered it all, so I don't have anything. All right.

Y'all good with consent? Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys. All right. Moving on to 3.42, Facilities Design and Construction. Bid award for construction of new infrastructure and asset management grounds maintenance facility with Michael Miller. Good evening.

Good evening. On July 13th, 2026, the county advertised a bid package for the construction of the new infrastructure and asset management grounds maintenance facility to be built on vacant property out in front of the current facility, which is on the front side of Franklin Park to the left of the main entrance for your cross-railway tracks. Bid documents were posted on the county website, and the bidding process was administered by Morrisburg Architects, Pre-bid meeting was held on July 26th, I'm sorry, 22nd, 2026. And sealed bids were received on August 11th. We received 10 total bids. And the county staff, along with Morrisburg, have reviewed the bids on recommending a construction contract be awarded to a low bidder who was Harmon Construction Services. Their bid, including the base bid, contingency, and alternate pricing, totals $2,476,404, which is within the budgeted amount. That figure does not include furniture or card readers or surveillance cameras. To save money, we buy that stuff internally and coordinate the installation via a state contract or purchasing cooperatives. So the requested motion for a regular meeting is for a motion to approve the bid and authorize the county manager on behalf of Cabarrus County to execute the contract with Harmon Construction Services for the construction of a new grounds maintenance facility subject to review and revision of the county attorney. Any questions?

Have we worked with them before?

No, sir.

Did they back out?

They did not. We gave them a thorough, I guess, check online and called some references. They're a new company, but I think that the owner was split off of a larger contractor in Charlotte, so they have experience.

Have fun, Michael.

Thank you. We'll keep an eye on them.

Are we good with consent? Okay. Thank you, Michael.

Thank you.

All right. So we'll move on to 3.43, ambulance receivable write-off with Jim Howden. Good evening.

Good evening. Hope you're doing well. Good evening, Commissioners. As part of finance's year-end process, we evaluate all of our accounts receivable balances. Historically, the ambulance accounts receivable balance, if older than four years old, is uncollectible. So in order to prevent us from overstating our accounts receivable balance, we ask the board to allow us to write off balances greater or older than fiscal year 2022. Now please keep in mind, this is an accounting entry. We do not write off individual accounts. They are all still on the books. Our EMS department and our third party vendor With all means possible, try to collect everything that is outstanding. This is just an accounting entry. So I'm asking the board to allow us to write off fiscal year 2022's outstanding balance of $2,453,499.84. Any questions? Okay, so we're good for consent. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

We will move on to 3.44, waive library card replacement fee during library card sign-up month. Hello, Miss Melanie.

Hello. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Good. Everybody's got one? They're free? So I'm here to request that for the month of September we waive the $2 replacement fee for library cards. We like to offer this every year during library card sign-up month just to encourage people who have lost their cards to come back to the library. First-time library cards are free for everyone. Then we charge the $2 fee just to help cover the cost of the actual card. It's not a revenue producer for us at all. But the small fee really can be a barrier to elderly and children, especially teenagers who need to check out books for school, but their parents who have always been in charge of their card have lost it. And then we get the teens in. They need to do their homework. They don't have the library card. We want to charge them $2. They don't have $2. So we just, with back to school, we want to be able to make it easier for those teenagers and for elderly and anybody who's lost their library card. We do about 800 replacement cards a year, so fewer than 100 every month, so it's not a big hit fiscally. We also try and encourage people to use the app, the library app, which will hold their library card information in case they do lose it. So we do try to help people out as much as we can, but waiving the $2 fee for library card sign-up month is just an extra thing that we can do to help celebrate for the month.

All right. Any questions on that? Okay. I do need a motion to suspend the rules.

Second.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, that carries 5-0. And then I need a motion to approve waiving the $2 fee for replacing library cards during the month of September in recognition of library card sign-up month.

So moved. Second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right, that carries 5-0. Thank you all. Thank you, ma'am. all right so we'll move on to 3.45 risk and safety transfer of funds from insurance claim recovery to the sheriff's office with john bradley how are you

Great. Welcome. Good evening, Commissioners. Thanks for having me. Just wanted to warn you that this is probably the first time that I'm coming to you not asking for money, so don't hate me yet. But in April of this year, we had a deputy responding to back up a call and noticed some electrical issues on their new Ford Explorer SUV that is a hybrid while responding to that call. So they took appropriate action, pulled over the vehicle, then caught fire and burned to the ground. I want to also thank some departments that were involved in this. We utilize emergency management, our fire marshal's office, the sheriff's office, as well as our infrastructure group for our fleet maintenance, as well as RISC and our third-party administrator. We were all working closely together to try to give a recovery for this vehicle fire. Per an investigation from Ford Motor Company, The only thing that they could determine was that most likely the fire originated from behind the driver's side tire, which is where a lot of wiring and fuses are located. It was not an engine fire, so they were denying liability um for the accident for that but we were able to work with ford as well as a equipment upfitter campbell brown who has provided a lot of upfitting for these vehicles to retrieve some subrogation funds even though they were not willing to accept liabilities so The recovery funds are $83,431.77, and that was the estimate that we valued from April of this year of what a new vehicle replacement would cost. So hopefully we're in line with that if prices have not gone up too much. But what we'd like to do is have a motion to approve the budget amendment to move funds from our 9641 insurance liability claims account to the Sheriff's Office 9863 account for purchasing a new motor vehicle.

Any questions? Consent? Alright, we'll move that to consent. Thank you, John. Okay, thank you. All right, so we'll move on to 3.46, Animal Shelter Grant Funds from Subaru for Cabarrus County Animal Shelter with Chief Deputy Scott Zeman. Welcome.

Thank you.

Look at you. You're the Chief Deputy now.

That's the rumor.

That's exciting.

So if I do anything procedurally wrong, please let me know.

Well, I'm already excited because you're talking about giving money to the shelter, so that's awesome.

Some bringing forward for your consideration acceptance of grant funds from Subaru from the Cabarrus County Animal Shelter. The funds will be used for various purposes to include vaccine clinics and fee waived adoptions. The events will be planned for fall of 2026 and potentially will offer free vaccines for pets to Cabarrus County residents and potentially any leftover funds will be used for fee waived adoptions. The total award amount is $4,000 with no match from the Cabarrus County. We are requesting approval and acceptance of these funds with the approval of a corresponding budget amendment.

So I have a question. How did we come about this grant? Is this a grant that we get regularly from Subaru?

That was my understanding.

Okay. They're pretty good because they do a lot of donations to a lot of different areas of Cabarrus County. Any questions regarding that? All right. We'll put that on consent. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. So we'll move on to 3.47 Soil and Water Conservation, Agriculture Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund grant from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services with Amy. Hello.

Hello. Good evening. This is a mouthful, and there's actually two of them. But the first one is a grant from Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. I'm going to refer to that as ADFP going forward.

Sounds much better.

Yes, it's a little shorter. So this first application that we are seeking permission to formally accept is for a cost of community services survey. And that is a survey to gauge the current cost of services throughout the county on a land use value. This is the amount of $17,000, so we are seeking permission to accept that, as well as the associated budget amendment.

OK, we go with consent for this. Alright, so we'll put consent for that and then we'll move on to the next ADFP trust grant.

Yeah, so the second ADFP grant award we are seeking approval of is for a conservation easement. I don't have the number in front of me, so I can't remember that exact amount.

$357,851.50. Thank you. You're welcome.

So a lot more money than this first one, but that is coming from the state. We also have secured additional matching funds from the United States Department of Agriculture for that one and that amount is to cover the purchase cost of a conservation easement located in Mount Pleasant as well as some associated soft costs such as a survey environmental assessment and that kind of thing so I'm looking for permission to approve that as well as the budget amendment absolutely

we ever said no to money well i just particularly appreciate y'all doing this stuff because i can't remember the exact figure maybe you know but north carolina is only second to texas in annual loss of farmland agricultural land and i can't remember what the figure is in north carolina

I can't remember off the top of my head, but last I heard we're getting pretty close to Texas and fighting for that number one spot, which is not a spot we want to be in.

Well, as an old country boy, I definitely don't want that happening. I wish we could reverse it. So I appreciate what you're doing on that.

Thank you. Yes, very much. So we're good with consent on this as well? Okay. So we'll put that on consent. Thank you, Amy. Thank you. all right and we actually do not have a need for closed session tonight um but i do want to remind everybody that this uh this friday september the 11th besides being the 25th anniversary of september 11th is also the opening of our cabarrus county fair so we do have the ribbon cutting at 3 30 and i would encourage everybody to get on the website and take a look at all of the events and the nights that you get free tickets and discounted tickets and all of that fun stuff so it's going to be an awesome time i'm really looking forward to it this year um do you all have any questions or thoughts before we go all right i'll take a motion uh to adjourn all those in favor please say aye any opposed all right we are adjourned