County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Commissioner Waldrop, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Commissioner Quinn, will you lead us in the invocation?

Yes, sir. Thank you. Gracious and almighty God, we gather here in this place of service seeking your wisdom and your guidance for the Carter County Board of Commissioners. We ask that you grant us clarity of thought, a spirit of compassion, and the strength to make decisions that best serve the people of our coastal community. As we conduct our business, we are mindful that we live in a historic time. As our nation observes the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we give you thanks for the journey of these 250 years, for the freedoms we cherish, for the sacrifices of those who came before us, and the enduring resilience of the American spirit. May the values of liberty, unity, and justice which have sustained this nation for two and a half centuries continue to guide our local government today. Help us to see the potential in our county and to work together to ensure that the prosperity and peace we enjoy are preserved and nurtured for the generations yet to come. Bless the work of this board, bless the residents of Carteret County, and bless our nation as we honor our past and look forward to a future filled with hope, and opportunity. And in your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. That was pretty good for a couple minutes notice. In accordance with the State Government Ethics Act, it is the duty of every board member to avoid both conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflict. Does any board member have any known conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict with respect to any matter coming before the board this evening? If so, please identify the conflict and refrain from any undue participation in the particular matter involved. All right, I'd remind everybody to silence their cell phones and devices. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda?

So moved.

Second. Motion by Commissioner Waldrop, seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

So moved.

Second.

Motion by Commissioner Waldrop, seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? All right. Next, we will recognize our Jamie Hicks Sloan Employees of the Month for April, May, and June. Nick Wilson.

All right. Good evening, everyone. Thank you again. Tonight, we're here to recognize the recipients of the Jamie Hicks Long Employee of the Month Award for the second quarter of 2026. The award honors employees who go above and beyond in their jobs and make a real difference in Carteret County, how they serve our community. Each month, the departments nominate employees who show strong dedication, leadership, and a commitment to public service. Tonight, we're proud to recognize three of those employees who work and support their teams, their departments, and the residents of Carteret County. All right, we're going to first begin with our April honoree, Jennifer Patton, Social Worker Supervisor for DSS. Jennifer supervises the foster care staff. Her team handles important cases involving child safety and family support. It's a demanding job that requires reviewing reports, guiding tough decisions, and making sure services are in place to protect children. She's also there for her team, helping with daily operations and responding to issues after hours whenever needed. Since becoming a supervisor, Jennifer has focused on making team processes better. She helped create new forms and procedures, supported training for new employees, and worked closely with the continue improvement team to make case transitions smoother. She also looks for ways to save time and travel. By adjusting staff schedules, she reduced drive times while still meeting the needs of local families. Her leadership has helped create better outcomes, including more successful family reunifications. She gives clear directions while giving her time staff to grow and develop. For our leadership, dedication, and strong commitment to serving our children and families in our community, we're proud to recognize Jennifer Patton as the April Jamie Hicks Long Employee of the Month. So at this time, please join me in congratulating Jennifer on this well-deserved moment. She just emailed me out about five minutes ago. She's not going to make it tonight. She got on one of those calls, so she won't be here tonight. So we thank her anyway. So next we're going to recognize our May employee of the month, JD O'Neill, Building Codes Enforcement Officer with Planning and Development Department. JD has served Carteret County since May of 1994 and brings more than 30 years of experience to the department. In his role, he inspects residential and commercial building projects to make sure they meet the codes and safety standards. He also helps contractors and property owners by answering questions and guiding them through the inspection process. Jetty holds a level one certifications in building, electrical, mechanical, and plumbing, along with a level three cert in fire. He also certifies a CAMA local permit officer. This wide range of skills allows him to handle many different types of inspections and support multiple areas of the department. He covers the down east area primarily of Carteret County from Harkers Island to Cedar Island. This means he serves a huge area and travels many miles to support our residents. Over the last 15 years alone, Jetty has completed nearly 25,000 inspections. His knowledge has made him a trusted resource for both the county and the community. Around the office, if someone has a question about a home inspection, an older house, or a project from years ago, the answer is usually call JD. For his decades of dedication, helpfulness, and experience in protecting the health and safety of Carteret County residents, we're proud to recognize JD O'Neill as the May Employee of the Month. So this time, JD, will you come up?

great personality travel. Seven o'clock in the morning. Yeah. He's all over the place. People call him whenever they have a problem. Always. We appreciate it. Nice. Thank you.

Awesome. Yeah. Just stand in the middle.

How you doing, sir?

All right, finally, we're going to recognize our June honoree, Megan Harvey, tax listing supervisor for our tax office. In her role, Megan helps ensure property tax listings are accurate and up to date. These are the official records used to make sure property taxes are fair and accurate. She also manages a small team of appraisers. She works closely with staff to review records, correct errors, and keep daily operations running smoothly, especially during busy times of the year. Megan is someone who her coworkers can always count on when challenges arise. She takes a practical approach to solving problems, stays organized, and looks for ways to improve office processes. She is very generous with her time and knowledge, helping answer questions and make sure staff members follow correct procedures. In addition to supporting her team, Megan provides professional and polite service to the public. She helps taxpayer navigate difficult questions and concerns by providing clear and easy to understand information. So with her attention to detail, willingness to help others, and commitment to public service, Megan plays an important role in the success of the tax office. For her dedication and the important work she does to support county operations, we're proud to recognize Megan Harvey as our June Employee of the Month.

Sometimes when people call the tax office, they're not excited. They're aggravated about the tax bill or something like that. Megan always does a great job of getting them straightened out and getting the information they need. We appreciate your long service, too.

Thank you for all your years of service.

OK. A lot of years of service between those two. Next we're going to have public comment. And we are going to have a specific hearing on the animal ordinance, so one of these folks signed up for that, so we'll move you down to that particular ordinance. Shelby, Sally, if you will approach the podium and state your name and address for the record, please, and you have three minutes.

Chairman Chadwick, board members and administration. My name is Shelby Sally. I live at Live Oak Street here in Beaufort. I'm a retired senior citizen and I'm here tonight to enlist some help from you guys or some advice if you could help me. Before retiring, I worked at the Virginia Department of Education and helped disaggregate data Um, we had 137 public school systems. We had 1.3 million students, but we would get reports that, you know, things were not going well in a certain system and kids were not applying for summer programs, scholarships, that sort of thing. So it was my job to disaggregate data and divide it down to regional and local. And before we knew it, we had a perfect kid's name to match up with something. Well, I just love the Leon Mann Center here, and I'm very grateful for the work that you all do to support the center. And in going there, I have met some wonderful seniors. I don't know if any of you attended the first open mic night at the Carteret County Arts Council, but one of our 98-year-old seniors, she sang a cappella. And then another gentleman who was blind saying, and did a little soft shoe. It was wonderful. Just some of the most wonderful people that would have never met had I not gone to the S the senior center. But, um, what I'm wanting to ask help with is if, when a person signs up at the senior center, we fill out our name and dress and zip code. I don't want any personal information, but if I could have the zip code disaggregated. to see how many seniors come from down east versus Cedar Point because another thing that I used to have to do is write some grants sometimes and it was wonderful to have that data from a support area to add to it specifically why this money was needed for something and not that I feel that I need to do that here. You guys do a wonderful job of providing leadership but to go into a community and say, The seniors in your community are in need of this or that. And did you realize that in your town down east or in your town Beaufort, Um, 24% of the people that attend the Leon man center come from your district. So I'd like to be able to have that kind of data to speak to businesses and churches to say, we could really use a little bit of help with this or that they might wanna do. So that's, that's what I'd like to do, but I just really wanted to commend you on your leadership because dream work makes the teamwork and those guys over there, they sure do love that model. And I think that. the community as a whole would do the same. So if I could go to the various folks in the community and say, this is how many folks go to the Leon Mann Center and express, you know, we have a medical desert in some areas, a food desert in some areas, but let's all join our, what we give and help them. So.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, Mr. Brian Niccolo.

Good evening. I'm Brian Nicklow of 1502 Salter Path Road. I want to, first of all, thank you all for your service up here. This is going to be our last meeting before the 4th of July, which is going to be on a Saturday. It's going to be chaos, a crazy kind of good chaos I'm looking forward to, and good to see my fellow sovereigns here. But I'm here to make an announcement and throw some information out. as our fourth of july approaches it's important to start celebrating early i think it's too big of an occasion to wait for just one day fourth of july the county is hosting a 250th celebration on june 20th which a lot of effort has gone behind it and i know it will be a great representation of our county patriots however i think we could do more as individuals in preparing for our nation's 250th for example I, along with this small group of patriots, will meet this Thursday at 6 p.m. on the open field area near Lowe's. That's the 18th. So 6 p.m. near the Lowe's open field area. There at 6 p.m. we're just going to do an area cleanup and then followed by a short patriotic celebration, just play the national anthem, meet and greet each other. Because if you're like me, a patriot that works long and hard, it's hard to find where other fellow patriots are. So I'm going to start standing up, showing up, and if you're inclined, go ahead and join me. But then we're going to do the same thing the Friday, the Friday the 19th, and that's going to be in Indian Beach. We'll meet at the 6 PM at the public beach access, clean up the area. We leave everything better than we found it, and finish up with a little celebration there at 715. And that will be at 1502 Salter Path Road. And we have to wait till 715, because the food truck closes at 7. Give them a little chance to people move out, and then we move in. We do our 30 minute celebration, step off motivated for the weekend. I find sometimes, and this is where I was inspired, I find sometimes that it's easy to get behind a computer keyboard and feel productive. We throw it out there, we think we're doing something. This is just a small effort. If there's some other effort going on in the county, I'll find them and I'll join their effort. But for right now, I'm gonna stand up, show up, and show out, and make patriotism normal again here in Carteret County. Let's see. Let me finish up here. So I'll just go ahead and finish up. I just have one thing to say. Meet me out there. I have this, I bought it off Amazon. It's like patriotic bib overalls. It might trigger somebody hoping to get run over. Otherwise, that's why it's good to have a group out there with me. But anyways, I'll be out there looking like a fool, a patriotic fool. But anyways, I invite this Patriots to start meeting each other out from behind the keyboard, out in the public where we used to gather years ago before internet. And we find it's more isolating now where we can stand up together and just meet somewhere, anywhere. And if somebody else in this should take off, I'll join yours. So I just want to wish everyone a happy and safe and prosperous 250th celebration of our nation. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Brian. I figured you'd be up there at Washington, D.C. to that UFC fight there at the White House. You didn't make it this year, huh? All right. Next, we have a public hearing on a road name change, Morris Lane to Sea Turtle Bay on Harpers Island. Ms. Maureen Daughtry.

Good evening. Hey. Um, so the applicant is actually the resident that lives off of Morris lane. They own two properties. Um, and they would like to change the road name from Morris lane to sea turtle bay and Harper's island. Um, they submitted a request to do so, and they've also been, um, if, if approved, the nine one one address system will update. and they will be issued new addresses off of Sea Turtle Bay. And here's the map. Sorry, in the way. Morris Lane, intersecting Island Road and Harkers Island.

We're about to refresh my memory where that is on Harkers Island. Is that kind of in the middle by the Bridge Youth Center, or is that further down?

It's in the middle of, yes, the Bridge Youth Center and Harkers. the high rise bridge. Okay, so that is the EMC building on the left and the north.

Okay.

Is that it?

That's it. What was the impetus for the name change?

I think they just desired a new street name.

Okay, so it wasn't causing any kind of emergency vehicle response problems? No.

Okay.

There's two residents?

Two parcels and both owned by the same person. That's right.

Okay, so we're going to be required to go into a public hearing. Is there a motion to go into public hearing?

Motion to go into public hearing, Mr. Chairman.

Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Clark. All in favor? We are now in public hearing. Does anyone in the audience like to speak to this matter? Is the applicant here? All right. Hearing none and seeing none, is there a motion to close public hearing? So. Motion by Commissioner Shin, seconded by Commissioner Waldrop. All in favor? We are now out of public hearing. Is there a motion to approve or deny the request to rename Morris Lane on Harkers Island to Sea Turtle Bay?

Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the request to rename Morris Lane on Harper's Island to Sea Turtle Bay. Direct staff to update the street index 911 addressing system and effective addresses.

Okay. Motion by Commissioner Shin. Is there a second? I'll second. Seconded by Commissioner Moore.

All in favor? Any discussion? Well, I'll give you that opportunity during the public hearing to go ahead. You're good with this, Keith?

Yeah. Nobody's on this, but those two houses which they own, correct? Right.

I'm assuming at some point Dosa Morris has owned that property. It was in the beginning, I think. Any of their relatives still live there on the island?

He does have a couple daughters and granddaughters, I know, that live in the Diney's area. I don't know if they live on the island, but they are still around the area.

You two good with the name change? Y'all grew up there?

So that's not an endorsement for or against.

Well, obviously, they're not from the area because Newhorker's Honor would be naming any road Sea Turtle Bay. I can assure you of that.

But yet there's not been anybody come to complain.

Sometimes a silent majority. It's silent, I guess.

I mean, nobody's been, has come.

They don't know about it. People don't know about stuff like this.

Was everybody mailed within the radius?

We don't send mailings out, but I posted a sign at the location.

So there was a sign posted out on the front up there where they could see from the main road.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Yeah, and how long has that been? Two weeks.

Two weeks? It's been about two weeks now.

No one called?

No, I've seen people stop and look.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm not sure how I feel about it. If you were to table this till next month, you have a motion and a second, but a motion to table would, or you had to vote on that motion first. Madam Attorney.

I think we're going to finish the motion we already started. Judge?

Who made the motion? They can make an amendment. If the person who made the motion and seconded it agreed, they could change the motion. That was Chuck.

Would you be willing to do that, Commissioner Shin? I'd like to let everybody have maybe a little more time to talk about it. Maybe the neighbors.

What's been said and what Jimmy was saying, I will rescind my motion.

Okay.

Okay. And who seconded?

I seconded.

Are you fine with that? Yeah. All right. So motion to table. I'll make a motion that we table this till next meeting. Second. Second by Commissioner Quinn. Discussion.

Discussion. Can we mail the surrounding area to see if there are any objections? I know it's not a requirement.

Yeah, we didn't notice anybody. Yeah, but they're going to set a precedent.

Okay, maybe not. So it was in the paper. So the sign will stay up.

It was in the paper? It was in the paper, yes.

I also feel like I should let all of you know the conversation that I had back and forth with Maureen when she sent this over was, are we charging the residents, since it's voluntary, for the cost of the new signage and everything? And traditionally, in Carteret County, we did not do that. There have been so few road name changes that we did not charge the person who had come. It's not on our free schedule. That is also something that we could bring forward just to make it so it doesn't cost anybody else that the person has decided to change the signage, that they actually have to pay a fee in order to do it. it's not a lot of money i forgot what we figured out it was it was but by tabling that we're not going to cost them any more money no no we can still table it but what i'm saying is before we we take it up again if that's something that you guys would like to talk about we can certainly look into that i would just like to make sure that the community actually supports the action i mean

There's a lot of history in this county, and I like their name change. I mean, I'm fine by that name, but it's just erasing people from the history books. One day, all the Mansfields will be dead here in Carrick County, and somebody may want to change Mansfield Parkway. I just want to make sure we think about what we're doing and are slow and methodical.

It's their road, and they want to change it, and there's been no argument against them changing the road that is theirs adjacent to their property.

Well, it's partly theirs.

Why do you want to give the whole island the right to make a decision of what a property owner does on his property? I don't think that that's the case.

Well, I don't want to give the whole island, but I know that those signs, nobody sees them. They're going down there, 40, 50 mile an hour, they're headed to... to Shell Point, they're not looking at that sign. But not only is it their road, it's the people across the street's road, the people up here at the corner's road, and the people back there in the back, they were all paths back in the day. And they changed hands as people died off, and I just want to give it some time to make sure there is no objections with people in the immediate area, not everybody that's riding by.

Chairman, I've got something that is kind of in the works. I've been talking to Mr. Warren and I may have a street, also a street issue in my district or in actually David's district that we may be considering and the impetus that was put on this requester was that 51% of the people on that street needed to be on a petition, correct? Am I stating that correctly? So in this particular case, 51 will not be two. It'll be some significant number on this street that we may be renaming and the other complicating factor is it is a emergency response implication because right now this street in Pelletier, Cedar Point, ETJ, which doesn't exist anymore, maybe, unincorporated at this point. So I'm anticipating that this particular requester has to go get 51% of a petition signed of those that are affected. So how did that apply to that? And there's an emergency response issue on the request that I think I'm going to be putting forth in the future.

Right, so the fact that there's only two residences, it's 100%. because they're owned by the same person.

I just wanted to bring up the process because that process happened.

And I will say the fact, the tabling it and the fee issue, we have put it, Dee is confirming, it is on the fee schedule effective July 1st. So if you table it and you pass it in July, then that small fee will be paid by, if it were passed, they would pay for the new signage.

Okay, but the pieces of property is the small box in green and then the piece right beside it. There's another piece of property before you get to the corner piece according to those lines right there. And do they own that as well? So there's three or four other property owners there.

Yeah, there should be three parcels adjoining the road.

Oh, it's actually owned by this person.

Yeah, that's the Kyle Irvin folks. Right, yeah. Anyway, my purpose is to give people in the surrounding area more time to know what's happening. Next day they see Morris Lane gone, Morris Road gone, and Sea Turtle Bay up there, and how did this happen? So.

I'm just trying to prevent any unintended consequences. Right.

So there's a motion. Hold on, sorry. So also you had it in the paper and it ran for how long?

I think that was at least 10 days, June 3rd.

So paper, website. and a sign.

I can assure you the people that live there are probably not looking at the paper or the website. Anyway, there's a motion to table and a second to table. All in favor? Would you like further discussion?

Please. If they haven't looked, you just made the statement, they're not going to look at it. So what's adding another month going to do? They're still not going to look at it.

I think they need to be notified. the surrounding property owners that abut that road need to be notified when we're doing something like this.

Same person owns all this.

If I go over there to Complex and take the name off the front of the building and put a new name on it, I know what I'm saying. You wake up one day and it's something else.

And it looks like it may go through. So, Jimmy, the family property you referenced is to the north of there. That road goes all the way through to the other street?

It used to go to Texaco Drive.

It used to, yeah. It used to be. Is there any further discussion

All right, all in favor of tabling it? All opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you, Maureen. Thank you. You did an excellent job. Good evening. Next, we have another public hearing on revisions to Chapter 3, Animals, Section 321 and 322, regarding dangerous dog procedures, appeals, and enforcement. Ms. Nina Oliver and Jesse Dale, welcome.

All right, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about possible changes to the dangerous dog ordinance. I'm Nina Oliver, the public health director. This is Jesse Dale, the assistant health director. We are here to recommend proposed revisions to chapter three, animals, article two, section 3-21 and 3-22 of the county code. Recent animal incidences have led to these recommendations. Um, I believe in your packet you have, um, um, the dangerous dog ordinance. Uh, I'm going to go through some of this. I'm going to hit the highlights. So the red of course, or is the areas that have been removed. So those are the changes that you can see. Red is removed. Uh, green is new or additional. Been added. So I'm not going to go through the entire ordinance. Um, but I'm going to hit some highlights. So if you're looking at your first page, chapter three, animals, article two, dangerous dogs, if you flip or scroll to the second page, that's where the green starts. look at some changes there just to, to share with you some, some of the larger changes. So what's new is based on the severity of the, the dog attack or attack, uh, animal control can confine the dog to the shelter to begin an investigation, to determine if the dog is dangerous or potentially dangerous. If determined dangerous animal control shall notify the owner in writing owner may appeal this decision to the local health director, which would be me. in writing within three days. If there is no appeal to that decision, to the dangerous dog decision, the owner shall have 14 days or two weeks to comply with the dangerous dog provisions. These are the following provisions. Have a secure enclosure. Post a beware of dog signage. Dog will be required to be microchipped. Dog will be required to be sterilized. Owner will have the ability, will have to apply for a certificate of registration for the dog from animal control, which will be renewed annually. This allows us to capture what dangerous dogs are in the county. And so if, if one of you or our county manager says, how many dangerous dogs do we have? And. Where are they? We can capture that information by this registration process. That would have to be renewed annually. The fee for this registration will be set by the board. The owner will have to secure the dog using a collar or harness, a leash, and a muzzle during the times the dog is off its property. If any of the above requirements are violated, it will result in the issuance of a citation by law enforcement carrying a fine of $500 per offense. And then owner will provide animal control access to the property so they can conduct inspections and determine compliance with these provisions that have possibly been put in place. So I, that, That was a quick summary of everything there. These recommendations are to help strengthen, clarify, and close gaps within the current dangerous dog ordinance.

Thank you. Any questions before we go into a public hearing?

Well, I can do it public here.

All right. Is there a motion to go into public hearing? So moved. Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield. Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? All right. We are now in public hearing. Any commissioners like to speak first?

In case you want to check with the audience if anybody wants to speak. We had a speaker I thought that was signed up to speak for this. Would you like to come to the podium and speak before we start asking them questions?

Good evening. My name is Brandi Orth, and I live at 127 Carefree Lane, Moorhead in Carteret County. Three years ago, I was attacked by a Doberman. I was holding a small dog who was on a leash, and the Doberman was off leash with its owners nearby. The Doberman jumped up on me three times, trying to get a hold of the small dog I was holding. The Doberman knocked me down, causing me to black out. The Doberman bit me in the stomach, ripped the small dog from my arms, and proceeded to viciously attack her and repeatedly bite her. An observer intervened, which allowed the small dog to escape the vicious Doberman, and the small dog required many stitches, drains, and was hospitalized. The ordinance described at that time a potentially dangerous dog. The Doberman met the standard. but in my experience it was staff's interpretation of the ordinance that was the problem. Staff told me they did not view the Doberman as potentially dangerous and they would wait for the Doberman to attack again before reviewing that classification. I learned from the neighbors that this Doberman had attacked their small dog previously and had injured the dog and the wife. I called animal control supervisor, or emailed, and he wrote, if another incident happens, we will look into possibly deeming the dog then, but as of right now, we are not. I then called the assistant department head over animal control. He said he had full faith in the supervisor's decision and would not review the file. The owners of the Doberman continued to allow the dog to be off leash to avoid getting attacked again. I never walked my dog in that area. My request to the commissioners is to create written procedures that can be shared with the public with specific parameters for determining if a dog is potentially dangerous. Please direct staff to apply the potentially dangerous dog classification on the first attack. I don't think the let's wait and see if the dog attacks again is a good and safe policy. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Not for the speaker. Would anyone else like to speak? All right, anybody from the board?

What does this? In her instance, when she was attacked by the Doberman, if anybody's attacked by Doberman, why isn't the animal immediately put down? Does this make provision for putting down an animal that's hurt a person? And what good is it?

Well, so in ordinance or statute, it's written what is, it's already defined what a potentially dangerous dog is and what a dangerous dog is. And also in statute is kind of what we do next. We do not have the authority to put a dog down. Public health does not have that authority. Commissioner.

So where do we get the authority to... If a dangerous animal hurts a human being, something needs to be done.

Well, and I agree. I do agree with that. We can recommend to the Humane Society to put the animal down, but we don't have authority over the Humane Society. So we can recommend, we can strongly recommend, but we can't tell.

There are no killed shelter, are there? No.

But the law doesn't have the authority to protect citizens from dangerous animals?

Well, that's what we're trying to do here. It's more of a legal question. We're trying to get an ordinance going here.

This doesn't say that we're gonna kill the dogs, but what this does say is that, and first of all, and I hate that you went through that a few years ago, our ordinance does currently say that a dangerous dog is a dog that without provocation has killed or inflicted severe injury on a person. So hers was a dangerous dog. So that should have been cut and dry. And then what we're trying to do We've had that the whole time, but there haven't been any instructions about what to do next. So just saying, oh, that's a dangerous dog doesn't really help anything unless the person has homeowners insurance, in which case their insurance will get dropped if you file a claim. And then they'll do something about the dog. But sometimes people don't have that hanging over their head. So what the purpose is here is to look at what other counties are doing and to add some due process and some action. So what it does say is the animal control shall immediately impound the dog pending compliance or pending the outcome of any appeal. And the compliance has to be creating the secure enclosure, getting the dog sterilized, getting the dog with a chip put in it, having all of this equipment put into the to the yard, making sure that they're never left when they're not either in the pen or they're on the leash. And in counties that do that, what you'll find is many times families will say, I can't afford to do an enclosure like that. I'm going to, I'm going to relinquish the dog. And that's when, that's when sometimes they're euthanized.

So it's an improvement, but it's not, it's not, it's not what needs to be done.

Well, and also commissioner, um, our, our animal control officers don't, don't have the abilities to write, um, citations. So, um, this, this does have the, um, written into it that law enforcement will write a citation. I mean, it's a hefty citation too. So all of this added together, hopefully it'll build, um,

additional prevention and prevent from yeah deterrence here's my question so all animal control issues your department is handling so if it's if it happens in the town of beaufort or morehead city Our animal control officer is the one responding? No, sir.

We only do county. They have their own.

That doesn't address, I'm sorry, I forgot your name. Brandy. Brandy's issue because she's in the Moorhead City ETJ and she lives under Moorhead City's ordinances, not the county's.

Sure. So we would take care of it due to rabies. So public health will... focus on the rabies issue. For Moorhead City, she'll have to go through Moorhead City Animal Control.

But then it becomes another gray area because you're not inside the city limits. Moorhead City Police is not going to respond, and they're going to call the Sheriff's Department because it's in the county. So whose ordinance dictates what happens in her neighborhood?

It should be ours if it's ours.

But that's the confusing thing to the public. So you're designated Morehead City, but they're ETJ. You live under Morehead City's rule. If you want to add on to your house at Carefree Lane, you've got to go get a building permit from Morehead City. And we're passing an ordinance. You're going to fall under Morehead City. not the county's. So that's the conflicting part. Morehead City Police isn't gonna respond to your house, it's gonna have to be the Sheriff's Department, unless they get mutual aid, and then who has the authority? So I mean, that's my concern and question. The Sheriff's always ought to have authority throughout the county. They do, but they're enforcing our ordinances. Morant City may have a completely different ordinance or no ordinance.

They may, but shouldn't they fall under the county ordinance? That's my question.

So it's the planning ordinances that fall, that are under the ETJ. The ETJ goes by the planning ordinances. Without having the full ordinance package in front of us, I think this is a general ordinance, so it may still apply. That doesn't mean that the sheriff's office has an easy time enforcing some of our ordinances, because if it's not laid out specifically, write a citation for this and it's gonna be this type of misdemeanor, it's very hard for them to go out, particularly in an ETJ where they're not sure which ordinances apply. But I think this one will help clarify that some.

Some, but in that comment you made earlier, it seemed to me what, if you don't have parameters of what is dangerous, who gets to determine what is dangerous, because that could potentially be a lawsuit down the line if we do something to someone's dog and they argue that their dog isn't dangerous, which if you get attacked, that's dangerous to me, but it's not the first instance that's happened in Brandywine with a dog where another owner and pet were attacked.

think under the current ordinance the only question would be whether the dog was provoked and that that's the only time that you're going to have that issue of interpretation but I don't know if a dog attacks another dog and bites at you or I mean if her dog had to have stitches but she didn't have to have

Is it still a dangerous dog? Because I guess that's not what I'm asking.

Yeah, she fell on the ground and lost consciousness. She had, it sounds like a head injury, yeah. But I don't know what was going on at the time.

My other question is, it says you have the right to get access, but if they microchipped the animal, will you have access to where that animal has been to know if it's outside of the yard in question? No.

So it's not GPS tracking?

No. So what is just so you know it's the same dog? And just identify it? Okay, and then it says put them in an enclosed area. Can we dictate somebody has to use an underground fence? Because she's not allowed in her covenants to have a fence in her yard. So her neighbor couldn't have a fenced-in area for that dog fence.

then her neighbor would have to relinquish the dog so what the ordinance is saying is you have to if your dog is dangerous you're going to have to erect a pin a fence in order to keep it and if you can't comply with that then you don't get to keep the dog and would an underground fence comply no that'd be like a so many feet chain link fence or something read that part of the ordinance to change to me again because i And by the way, this is our first hearing on the ordinance. You guys don't have to vote on this tonight. This is like the other time when we first saw the ordinance. We're just trying to get into it.

I'm just trying to make sure I understand what I'm voting on.

We need to spell that out, that it needs to be some type of... We need to make sure we get it right.

Sure. So, Commissioner, secure enclosure shall mean other indoors or in an outdoor structure consisting of secure sides, cover and floor constructed from... from at least nine gauge chain link fencing that is at least six feet high all the way around and designed to prevent escape over under or through and to prevent the entry of children.

I missed that part. Thank you. That's what I was wanting to make sure I understood correctly.

So right now we had an incident at Cedar Island the other day, it was pit bull attacks, a small dog, just like in your case. And now that people can't come outside her house with her three year old child because dangerous dog down the street. So they get the sheriff's office involved. The only thing the sheriff's office has is dog without a leash, I think. So they did issue them some type of citation for that. But this gives animal control some authority to get the sheriff's office out there. The sheriff's office can then enforce the ordinance, write them a citation for the dangerous dog or a dog being at large, and the ability to take possession of the dog, make sure the dog has its rabies shots and all this up-to-date on all the shots. Correct.

So right now we cannot, Commissioner, we cannot take the dog for seven days. This allows animal control to secure the dog, bring it to...

This ordinance allows us to seize the dog, verify its vaccination status, and then impose.

Do an investigation.

Investigate it further, impose if they're going to get the dog back. It has to be under certain conditions. Correct. Or if it's not properly up to date on all its shots, it would be put down.

I'm all for it. One shot.

I know you want to put it down to start with, but we've got to give them a little bit of time.

That's the one adult hurting no human. If this passes tonight, do we still have... We can't pass it tonight.

We've got to have a second reading, just like our other ordinance with the fire protection. We've got to have at least the first reading. We're trying to get all the bugs out of it tonight and then reread it.

Can we add stuff to it later? Yes. We get this thing going and make it have even more teeth later. Absolutely.

You can amend it before our next meeting. If you want to, if you have suggestions, if, if, if all of you think about this or if the public thinks about this and has some input, we welcome that.

I just want there to be some due process before we start killing somebody's dog.

Right. Right. And that's what this, this does. And, uh, we had the incident at Cedar Island. Then we had another dangerous dog attack one of our employees.

Yes. And that was a DSS. Why this has come to light. Right. Um, and I, and I want to be, I just want to point out, this does not address putting dogs down yet. Correct. It does not. It, it talks about putting more securities in place. giving animal control a little bit more authority to seize dogs and providing fines. So we are happy. Whatever changes the commission wants to make, county manager wants to make, we are happy to work with you.

But we can get the first reading and still make changes later? Or does it have to be first read again?

No, we're having the hearing tonight, the first hearing. And then next meeting, we'll have more discussion. We welcome any input from the public.

Same as that one we did with the fires.

You can vote on it next meeting if you want to, if it passes unanimously.

Yeah, yeah, so I'm saying that we... We had concerns when he came about the fire ordinance and then we added some stuff to it and then we came back and we passed it in. So we should be able to, I guess what I'm trying to tell you.

Right. Okay, anyone else have any statements? You good? Keep her in the holster for right now. All right.

Thank you.

Motion to close public hearing. Second. Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Clark. All in favor? We are now out of public hearing. Thank you. So we will revisit this next month.

Happy July.

Next is the main event. Thank you, ma'am. continued discussion on the fiscal year 2026-2027 recommended budget.

Mr. Chairman, can I ask a clarifying question? On the action items for tonight, it said call for a motion to approve the first reading. Do we need to do that or we can leave it where we're at?

You don't need to do that.

Okay, just want to make sure we weren't doing anything that wasn't in the right order.

Yes, thank you.

All right, sorry about that. Do we need to go back into public hearing?

I don't think so. I think we're good to go.

Just discussion for the budget.

Yes. I thought you were going to present something, and do we have to go back into a public hearing?

No, we've already had the public hearing, and Dave presented the budget at our last meeting after our public hearing. If any of you have any questions, we are more than happy to help you with that or to entertain any discussion that the board would have.

okay so they presented information and we've all had discussions about it is there any further discussions mr chairman i've got a question for the finance director and then i have a potential motion before we do anything as far as passing the budget but the um When we sold the water system, we took the money and we had talked about putting that money in a capital fund, but it was never put in one that was designated so that it's in the restricted capital. Right now it's sitting in an unrestricted account, and after we've taken that away from residents that live in the county, I think it's incumbent that we make sure that that's spent on future capital needs and that's what the reason for potential sale was in addition to we were losing money and it actually was, we didn't have a big enough system to support maintaining that. How do we go about doing that, if I would like to make a motion that way?

You can restrict a portion of it or you can restrict all of the money in that fund. The board would just need to vote on what you would like that restriction to

proceeds we had to pay back part of the loan and then we had to pay some grant money back before we had used it for a certain amount of time that had to be prorated and then we had expenses from that sale I wouldn't want to restrict what the sale price was because we didn't net that amount and we don't have that.

The net amount on that was about $7.5 million.

So how would I work where that needs to go and be restricted?

Um You would just need to state the dollar amount, if you want to do the $7.5 million, and then whatever the restriction you wanted it to be. Like if you wanted it for waterway dredging. or if you wanted it restricted or be committed for a certain capital project or something like that. You would just need to state what that is.

I would like to make a motion to restrict the 7.5 million to capital improvements that the county could be foreseeing coming in the future for the enhancement of the community and the county.

Okay. Second.

All right, motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Clark. Discussion? So you want to restrict $7.5 million from the water sale for the jail?

Yeah, I want to, well, it could be used for that. That would be for the, I don't know whether the commissioners have made a decision as far as taking the action on that at this point. So right now it's to be for capital needs and improvements.

Okay, so we're not limiting it to that.

You could potentially use that for that if that's what the will of this board, the future board. Our board can't bind the future board. I can't bind the future board as to how the money can be spent, but I can bind. that could be used for any purpose. Well no, it's sitting in an undesignated, it's an unrestricted fund balance.

So is there any need to do that? When I talked with you one time and mentioned about using it for the jail, you said it might be better served as money for parks or recreation type stuff. Which would still be capital, I guess.

The motion, Commissioner Mansfield, the motion you made really isn't any more restrictive than an isolated capital fund anyway. We already have one of those, correct? Right.

So I would just like to add it to that money.

So really, to have more meaning, you really need to tighten it down a little bit more than just a...

I don't want to bind any future, you know, in six months I won't be here. I don't want to bind the incoming commissioner of Paylor as to what he may decide to do. My only restriction is that it's spent on capital and can't be just willy-nilly, somebody go, four people agree to go buy some crazy stuff.

Is it already in that situation?

No, it's not. It's not designated for anything currently.

I think it would be helpful if Dee would define what capital means in a finance perspective.

So I'm also.

Well, when we first originally talked about it, it was to potentially help fund the radio system upgrade for 911 that we were having to make. And then we were able to get some grant money to do that. So it depends on how that project shapes up, if any money would be needed for that. But that would be available to pay the remainder, whatever it could potentially cost, be associated with that. And if, as Commissioner Chadwick said, a future of when there is Decisions made about the jail that could be used for that.

But I mean it could also be used for Updating the courthouse or other Sometimes I have to stop and think and think through all the implications So what so Commissioner Mansfield what your motion would do is it would make it designated specifically for capital because it could be taken and transferred out of today can be used for an operating expense. So it would prevent that. It would make it where the board couldn't transfer. So for example, the board couldn't take it and transfer seven and a half million to the community college for operations.

I wasn't gonna single anybody out.

You're heading in the direction I'm heading. I was trying to think of just an outlandish example. But it would commit it where that if the board transferred somewhere else or spent it out of that fund, it could only be used on capital. Right.

And that was originally discussed when the decision was made and part of the agreements, but it was never followed up on and taken any action. And I'm just trying to do housekeeping before because this is my last of 12 budgets that we'll be participating in. So I wanted to make sure we did what we said we would do.

So can that money from that sale, that lump sum, whatever it is, seven point whatever, can that be, if it goes into a capital fund, can that be kept together where it can't be split up? It has to be used in a lump sum for like a larger project?

It wasn't in the motion, but I guess you could. The board could put parameters for a project, you could say X amount or greater than, so they couldn't be pulled out in 200,000 increments or whatever. You could do that.

Before a specific project.

increments for a specific project and we'll just use the jail for instance if we do that i'll just make up i mean like you're talking about you use community college but i don't want anybody to think that there's some commissioners up here that are have some differences in opinion on the jail and i don't want to do any we may or may not be here. So I would rather tie it to capital so that it's gonna take four commissioners, however that money will be spent. Right. And then that would be in the public so the citizens can see what their representative is doing and they can either vote for you again or vote for someone else.

But even if that motion passes tonight, that doesn't bind a future board. Is that correct?

It binds it to capital.

It binds it for restricted. It would take a majority vote of the board to change it.

It takes a majority vote of the board to do anything.

To answer your question, it doesn't bind it completely. It can be moved out. We can make a decision to do something if you can get four people to agree and do it again.

We have plenty of capital needs. I mean, seven and a half million don't go very far, unfortunately.

Yes.

But is it necessary? I mean, is it necessary to do this? I mean, you got to in a account kind of it's not it's not designated.

So it could be used for anything right now. But we've never I wouldn't make the motion if I didn't think it was necessary.

How do you feel about that, Dee?

Oh, I think it's a board decision. Generally, the only thing that a majority of a board cannot do is if there's money that is truly reserved and restricted. So that it's federal money, and like our opera money, can only be spent on certain things. It doesn't matter what the majority of the board wants. You can only spend it on these legal purposes. So for an item like this, the majority of the board gets to vote and could change it in the future.

So the problem is that, you know, you have an unrestricted fund balance of X amount of dollars, and what we take a beating for in this county is everybody thinks we have all this huge amount of money in savings. Some of the conversations you've had with maybe some other commissioners about potential projects, the general public doesn't know that any more than changing it to Sea Turtle Lane. So they think that that money's available for all these other issues, and we're sitting on a pile of money, and you're collecting more taxes from them that you shouldn't be collecting from them. That was from the sale of a capital item that the county owned, and I just want to make sure that it goes back for a capital item that is what's best for the community and citizens of our county.

And capital items could be like the jail, ballparks, other things like that.

Could it be deferred maintenance?

It's not binding future boards to anything other than it's going into restricted fund balance where it's not shown because some of the things with the state funding we get We're accused of being a rich county because we're actually operating it the way you would operate your household. You should have extra expenses so that if you end up having to go get a root canal or the transmission in your car goes out, you can afford to pay for it. But that's not the way that they reward you. They reward you if you spend all your money and then you have to go beg for more and then maybe you get it, maybe you don't.

All right. I got it. Anyone else? Any further discussion? All right, so we have a motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield, seconded by Commissioner Clark to designate seven and a half million proceeds from the water system to go into a fund that would fund capital projects throughout the county. All right, all in favor? All right, unanimous. Manager's report, Ms. Griffin.

Can we go back to the budget?

You wore me down on that. I forgot all about the budget.

It was a distraction. Don't worry about that.

Is there any further discussion about the budget? Commissioner Clark, would you like to say anything?

Yeah, I don't think we should vote on it tonight. I firmly believe that there's There's space in the budget that we can shave half a cent to a cent off to get some money back to our citizenry. Last year, we went up a cent and a half, and we were still, even without that cent and a half, we still would have a surplus. And I'd like to see our citizens get some of that back.

Okay. Commissioner Sheehan?

Well, I have to say I share pretty much the same concerns. You know, watch a look at the monthly printouts that we get on the budget to actuals. And, and then comparing those with with this recommended budget, and this, you know, this shows last year's it makes comparisons over the years i just see a lot of room every year for the last six that i've been on this board we've had a surplus at the end of the year we've come up we've had a surplus in in the budget so and we've had the argument made the argument every year that you know that's not going to be the case next year and the trends are uses well use sales tax for instance the trends are moving in a direction where they hit a plateau back during covid now they're coming down according to this according to this In 25, they went up 2.3%. This is sales tax increase. In 26, they increased 3.02%. But we're predicting a decrease of 1.5% from FY26. I'm willing to gamble that we're not gonna see a decrease in it. The economy is good if you look at the stock market. I don't see it, I don't see that changing. And I think, I know this year there's not as much fund balance has been appropriated right out of the gate, Last year, Dee, if I'm not mistaken, I think we appropriated more through the year as what was appropriated in the adopted budget. It was amended to put more in.

The adopted budget for the current year was adopted at a $2 million fund balance appropriation and to date that has increased to a $6 million appropriated fund balance.

$4 million and spent none of it, really. So I'm just saying my opinion is that there's room in there where we could shade down and give a penny back to the citizens. I've made the comment before One thing that is going to happen over the next couple of years and between now and 27 is homeowners insurance is going to go up. And we don't have any control over that. It's going to happen. In some zones, there's a chart out. I think I shared it a while back, but there's a chart out that shows all the different zones throughout the state. And of course, the coastal regions get punished more than anybody else in the state, regardless of what Helene did out in the mountains, we're going to pay the price here. So we don't have any control over that. That's going to happen. And in a couple of years, your homeowner's policy could potentially be doubled. So whatever we can do, in my opinion, whatever we can do for the citizens to take a little bit of the burden off, I'm in favor of it. I would like to do that, and I would like to see that in this budget. I don't know how much support I'll get on that, but, you know, I do commend the finance office for the hard work. I know you do a hard, you know, it's a hard job, and you do a good job at it, but I just feel like we can tighten our vests up a little bit. You're right.

I mean, they do a great job. Her job is exactly what she did, and our job is to punch holes in it.

Yeah, beat you up a little bit.

Well, Chairman, can I?

We're going to go down the line if it's all right with you. Vice Chairman Mansfield?

Well, I mean, I agree with a majority of what my two to the left are talking about, but... the facts are is there's a huge disconnect between Main Street and Wall Street. And if you get the TDA reports or the Beach Commission reports that you will see that sales tax is trending down. And if you're a business owner in this county, you'll know that business is trending down. And that projection for sales tax revenue to drop is, the prudent and conservative thing to do. I can't guarantee you at the end of the year sales tax will actually be negative in growth. It may end up being a percent and a half, but Commissioner Clark and I were discussing earlier today, a lot of the past couple years where that percentage of sales tax has gone up, it's because of all the inflation that all the families in this county are enduring at the grocery store and all the other things that are going through the roof to pay their bills and they're, what is, I don't wanna misquote anything, so the legislation that just passed, it's gonna go, now it's gonna go from the legislature to a voter referendum in the fall and they're in the general election and it's gonna put something on the ballot that's gonna ask people about, they're taking away local control. from municipalities and counties, and that will hinder your ability to raise taxes again in the future, and I do agree there may be some excess money left sitting there, but you have to save and have a contingency fund for emergencies and things to do, and then if you look at the page in your budget book, I mean, if you look at the amount, years of service and employees, county for less than four years. And a lot of it has to do with the lack of what they're getting paid. And I think that money needs to go. We're shoring up salaries and that's part that was in some of last year's budget. It's in some of this year's budget. And right now we're awaiting the results of a salary study. And if you're going to maintain that quality and good organization, you've got to pay your people. And I can't in good conscience vote to decrease that tax rate with those two pending things on the table. But I do agree 100% with everything you both said. I agree. I could make a lot of points on the budget. There's stuff that I've looked at up and down. But if you look at the total budget that's being proposed, It's actually less than last year's current budget. Most of that is due to less capital projects going on this year. Operating costs have actually gone up a little bit. Capital projects have gone down. I don't wanna belabor and waste everybody's time for me to opine on the numbers, but I've been through all the books and looked at it, and very interesting. I mean, the number one funded thing, and I mean, I served on that board, and I don't think you can ever not invest in your future. And I know we always disappoint the schools, and we don't give them exactly what they ask for, but we give them more money every year than they got before. But they're the number one funded category in our budget. And then sitting there to our superintendent's left, one seat over, is the soon-to-be sheriff, and the sheriff's department's our number two budget. So I think we support that. law and order and civil obedience and maintaining the peace and we support children being educated and providing for our future because if we don't give the money to Richie, we're gonna be giving it to John because you invest in the kids to keep them out of jail. But I won't belabor it anymore. I know how I'm gonna vote when the motion's made.

All right, Commissioner Waldrop.

I ditto everything that Commissioner Mansfield said, and with all due respect to the two commissioners on my far left, you said the exact same thing last month, and I haven't received any calls from either one of you this past month to talk about it. So to kick the can down the road on the 15th of June when this thing has to be approved by the 30th, I will have to say though, a conversation about cutting the tax rate wouldn't have gone very far with me anyway, but I haven't heard from either one of you this month. And to say this on the 15th of June to the seven commissioners sitting here,

Uh, it was said last month too. So, I mean, it's not like.

You said it last month and we didn't, I, I wouldn't have agreed then. And I haven't heard from you since.

Like you said, no need.

So that's all I have.

Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner Moore.

Well, I, I, I, I agree with Commissioner Mansfield. There's a lot of stuff that goes on in this county that one little thing can mess up and we get in trouble needing money to pay for it. Not for going up on any taxes, but with everything that the way it works going down could hurt us in the long run. So I've got to look at that part of it and make sure our employees are taken care of and we're able to work as a county in case of an emergency. I know we've got some, people tell us we've got money stored away. One bad thing comes through this county and all that can be gone. So we have to be careful. So like I said, I'm not for raising, but I'm definitely not for lowing for that reason. And with that being said, I'll pass it on.

Thank you, Commissioner Moore. Commissioner Quinn.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The viewer at home can't see this. The mission statement that's posted there on the back of the room here, it is our mission. I'm not going to read the whole thing. It is our mission to ensure the future health, safety, and quality of life in our county in a cost-effective and compassionate manner. I believe the finance department has put a budget together that does so, and I will be supporting it with the recent amendment. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Quinn. Used to, I didn't like going last, but now I kind of like getting the last word. Dee, did we have $4 million left over after we paid the bills from the last budget? Is that?

No, sir.

What was the amount?

So to not just go totally down in the weeds, kind of some of the dollars will drop by, about four million, and it may be off a few hundred thousand dollars one way or the other, but we have, we're appropriating four million to balance the 27 budget, so that's an additional increase there. We also have tried to deal with our capital needs, and we gave, we appropriated last four, 900,000, for the schools for additional chiller for maintenance needs. We also appropriated money for improvements to emergency operations center for backup center for that.

And this was about that was about three points a million.

Yes.

Right.

And so we've done a lot of trying to catch up on our building needs and went ahead and committed money to be spent. If it doesn't turn out to be four million decrease-ish, it's gonna be because these maintenance projects are in process and they just didn't get completed.

The money is committed, but it's not been spent yet, especially. And the other day, we had a pipe bust here at the courthouse, flooded the judges and the clerk of court and all that, and we had to have some money to... start working on it while we waited for reimbursement from our insurance company. And once I agree with Clymer and Chuck, I wish we didn't have to pay no damn taxes. I don't like paying taxes no more than anybody. I wish it was zero. But unfortunately, we don't live in that society. And about one cent to the average homeowner in Corbett County would be about $14 a month. You know, our state legislator friends, they want to cap our sales tax, our ad valorem tax. Now, that might be okay for some county, Wake County, whatever, it's 55, 60 cent. But in Carter County, we're 22 and a half cent. And I've spoke with Senator Sanderson and Celeste about maybe having a floor on that. If you're below 30 cent, leave them alone. We've done the right thing. Don't penalize Carter County for keeping the taxes low.

It's not the way they voted, though.

But I know that's not the way they voted. And it will pass because people think that I'm going to vote for this because I'm not going to have to pay any property tax. And they're trying to model themselves after Florida when it's just a tax by a different name. In Florida, the school system has the authority to tax. So the school system gives you a tax. You have different types of taxes. And when you add them all together, it's the same thing.

And their sales tax is significantly larger.

And it's a 12-month tourist state, too, because they have tourists nonstop. So I would love to have no tax, $14 a month to the average citizen. Would they realize that? Probably not. We had an extra $4 million left over thereabout. Just the other day on the consent agenda was $930,000 somewhere in that neighborhood for the chiller at Beaufort Elementary or Beaufort Middle, one of those. And then we actually had another one that another chiller went bad. What was it, Richie? $300,000 or $400,000. But the school system used their lottery money when they should have really come to the county and said, hey, we got another chiller going bad. Y'all are supposed to be... funding the bill for this. But they went ahead and used their lottery money to pay for that chiller. So there's another $300,000 or $400,000. And we've been, knock on wood, we've been blessed not to have any hurricanes the past four or five years. So to have an extra cent worth of property tax in the bank, I think, is about as frugal as you can get. We have a salary study that should have been done six, eight months ago. Matter of fact, if they don't get that done, very soon fire them and find somebody else to finish it, because they suck.

So I don't know what you do.

I think every other county is jealous of Carteret County and our tax rate. We're blessed with the beach. We're blessed with tourism. I just don't think you can get it no less than 22 1⁄2 cent. And when I go places, people commend us for having at 22 1⁄2 cent, business people. And they don't understand how we can do it. And we have mental health people. We have the sheriff's office needs employees, the school system. We're all in this race to the top. We have health department employees going to work in Onslow and Craven County. If you're going to find anybody worth five cents, we're going to have to pay them a little more. It's the short of the long of it or the long of the short of it, however you want to say it. And that's all I'm thinking.

Mr. Chairman, can I make a clarifying point?

I'll let you go one more time. No, I'm not going. I'm not going to clarify a point in your statement. Go right ahead.

Because it kind of... gets me fired up when people want to talk about, well, we're so proud, we're so tight and cheap that we've got the lowest tax rate in the state. That tax rate is only low, I'll say it again, I said it, I think, at the last meeting, the meeting before. After we had our property re-evaluation, the properties in Carnet County are worth $33.32 billion. And because of those values, that money generates that additional revenue because it's rate times value equals taxes. If the value's very high, you're gonna have a lower tax rate. And I said something today, maybe Richard you know off the top of your head, maybe you don't, I don't know since I was on the school board, but when I was on the school board, are not a rich county and when they make it to high school they're self-reporting and peer pressure they don't want to even fill out that information because they don't want to look and that's unfortunate because if you need help you should be able to get it so i mean we do have a low tax rate but we don't have the smallest budget in the state agree

So if there's no further discussion, is there a motion? If we don't vote on this tonight, we'd have to call another special meeting prior to June 30th. So what's the pleasure of the board?

I move to pass the budget as stated at the last meeting, presented by Dee.

All right, motion to.

Why are you shaking your head, Dee? What do I have to say?

Where is it?

Just to approve the adopted PAPA 27 budget ordinance. Okay.

and that's gonna remain at 22 and a half cents.

And then 22 and a half cent general fund tax rate.

The things we needed to shore up with the changes is we've got all that in there in the budget right now, so that will cover that.

It will.

Okay.

Okay. There's a motion on the floor.

But I think I have to say it again. God bless me. Go ahead. Okay. Motion to adopt the 2026 27 county budget ordinance, which consists of a point two to five general fund tax general fund tax rate and the amendment as presented tonight from Commissioner Mansfield.

Okay. Motion by Commissioner Waldrop. Seconded by Commissioner Moore. All in favor? All opposed? Motion carries.

Next we have board appointments.

First one will be the ABC board.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to nominate Commissioner Shin to be reappointed to the ABC board and to be reappointed as the chairman of the ABC board.

All right, and I'd like to nominate Vice Chairman Mansfield.

That's why I got out before you did.

Vice Chairman Mansfield to a reappointment to a three-year term. So all in favor of Commissioner Mansfield and Commissioner Shin? All right. Next is the Carter Community College Board of Trustees. I'd like to nominate Harry Smith. All in favor of Mr. Smith? Next is Carteret County Area Transportation System Advisory Board, Heath Smith, Veterans Service Director, appointment to a perpetual term. All in favor of Mr. Smith? Next is the Carteret County Library Board. I'm going to butcher this one.

Hold on, hold on. Amy Funderburg and Steven Williamson.

All in favor of Amy and Steven? Thank you. Next is the Carteret County Transportation Committee. Option to appoint a commissioner to fill the seat, to fill the second commissioner's seat. Commissioner Moore currently serves on the commissioner role and Commissioner Clark currently serves as ex-officio representative appointed by the US Highway 70 Advisory Board.

Chairman, I would like to be considered for that vacant seat that we now have on the Carteret County Transportation.

Would you like to take Commissioner Moore's seat or you want to continue to serve on that? No.

I think there's a second seat.

Okay.

So we had Commissioner Clark.

Okay. So two commissioners plus an ex officio. Commissioner Clark, would you still like to be the ex officio? Commissioner Waldrop and Commissioner Moore with Commissioner Clark as the ex officio. All in favor? All right. Child Fatality Prevention Team, Detective Matt Howe, reappointment, or appointment to a three-year term. All in favor of Detective Howe? Eastern Carolina Workforce Development Board, Jessica Adams, reappointment to a community-based organization representative seat with a two-year term expiring June 30th. All in favor of Ms. Adams? Economic Development Foundation Board, Jamie Limbaugh and Steven Wright, all in favor of Ms. Limbaugh and Wright? Fire and EMS Commission, Mike Lewis, reappointment to a four-year term. All in favor of Mr. Lewis? Harbor Authority Board, Thomas MacArthur, reappointment to a two-year term. All in favor of Mr. MacArthur? Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. We have many people here, so it looks like they're all reappointment. Chris Youngman's reappointment to a two-year term. Brooke Lane, reappointment to a two-year term. Marlo Blake, reappointment to a two-year term. Matt Howe, appointment to a two-year term. Nick Wilson, reappointment to a two-year term. Noah Johnson, reappointment to a two-year term. All in favor of those? And we have to nominate and appoint one of the following to a two-year term expiring June 30, 2028 as the Parks and Rec Degs of Need. Paul Stanley, Corbett County Parks and Rec, or a Morgan Gilbert, Moorhead City Parks and Rec. Does anybody have a preference? I'll nominate Mr. Stanley. All in favor of Mr. Stanley? All right. Jury commission, Michael Nelson to a reappointment of a two-year term. All in favor of Mr. Nelson? Next, we have a planning board. We've had a couple people interested in that recently. I'd like to nominate Drew Kennedy to a reappointment of a three-year term and table the other appointment. All in favor of Mr. Kennedy? Senior Center Advisory Board nominating and appointing two individuals to a two-year term for District 3, which is Commissioner Clark and Commissioner Mansfield's seat. These are two vacancies. Applications from interested individuals are enclosed for consideration. Do you have any... Preference here, Commissioner Clark?

I nominate Ellison Mejia, would you say that? Mejia. Huh? Mejia. Mejia, OK. And Frank Sansoni.

OK. All in favor of those folks?

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to table the match.

OK. Newport Planning Board, ETJ, we're going to table that seat. Next, we have Commissioner comment. Commissioner Wolbert.

Thank you, Chairman. I've got a few things. One, congratulations to the employees of the month. That was awesome. So we've got, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet Jennifer Patton, but JD and Megan, thank you for being here tonight. And thank you for your upwards of 56 years of service. It feels like one was 32 and one was 22. Okay. Don't qualify my math here. We had a great weekend in Morehead City. I was able to watch from afar, but we had some great winners locally for the Big Rock recreational golf, recreational fishing tournament, so congratulations to all those that were on some of the winning boats. I met a mother today that was in my gym class, and she was extremely proud of her son that was a mate on the winning boat, so that was really good. From Courtney Barnhills. So anyway, also 4th of July, Vogue Banks is going to be having finally again return on the 5th of July fireworks from Vogue Pier. So we're really happy about that. Thank you, Mr. Stanley. For agreeing to let fireworks come back to Emerald Isle So we're happy about that and there's going to be the second third and fourth going to have big events on Emerald Isle So if you haven't seen it one of our town commissioners from Emerald Isle Chris plum has a full set up of family fun, concert, so come down to Emerald Isle and see what's going on. In addition, she also has instituted a trolley, so we're really happy about that. That's gonna be on Fridays and Saturday nights, free to the public, but the town of Emerald Isle is taking contributions and hoping that the businesses that benefit will also contribute, so. free trolley on Fridays and Saturdays for the remainder of the season. Today was the Moorhead City third fire station opening day hose uncoupling ceremony. I got to attend, never seen one before, so we've had the ground opening of the third Moorhead City fire station. The sundown for the AVAB happened. That was a great event. And we had a great showing for our Wednesday night in Moorhead City. All the businesses got to benefit. All the former pilots and commanders got to come to Moorhead City and enjoy the waterfront. Attended the Carteret County History Museum's opening 250th anniversary. That was on the same night as the sundown party in Morehead City. So if you haven't been to the History Museum here in Carteret County, go see the 250th new exhibit. And attended the legislative lunch with Congressman Murphy last month. great time and he took the time to go to Carolina Wellness Center and tour the facility down in sea level which does detox and alcohol rehab so a lot going on and happy 4th of July represent go do something special for our 250th thank you Thank You Commissioner Walter Commissioner Moore

Okay, let's be short. Echoing most of the stuff there that Commissioner Walter said, I personally want to thank the employees of the month, J.D. O'Neill, Jennifer Patton, and Megan Harvey for a job well done. Again, I express a lot on our employees. Appreciate the employees and all they do. making our county a great place to live in, and they work hard. Also, July 4th is coming. Be safe. There's going to be a lot of people on the roads, out boating. Just be safe out there and look out for each other.

Thank you, Commissioner Moore. Commissioner Quinn?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, congratulations for all the hard work and the much-due recognition to the employees of the month. Thank you to Dee and her team for all the hard work that's put into putting that budget together. And then, of course, wishing everybody a happy and safe Fourth of July on the semi-Quincentennial of our year. signing of the Declaration of Independence, and using this as an opportunity to re-engage as far as your civic duties are concerned. Use this as an opportunity. The Declaration of Independence is not just a historical artifact. It's a promise. And we need to continue to remember that the work of liberty is never complete. So y'all be safe out there, safe on the water, safe with fireworks, and enjoy time with your friends and family. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Quinn. Commissioner Clark.

I want to thank Commissioner Quinn for telling me what the 250th was. I have asked and no one would tell me. So I was like, okay, we had a bicentennial, so what is this one? Semi-quincentennial. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you, sir. And thank you for all of your attendance tonight and your patience. And that's all.

Thank you, Commissioner Clark. Commissioner Shin.

Thank you, Chair. I'll be short as well. Just congratulations to the employees of the quarter, Ms. Patton, Mr. O'Neill, Ms. Harvey, for your dedicated service, but also thanks to all the Carter County staff for what you do, for your dedication. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Miss Sally that spoke earlier on the vicious dogs. I'm glad that's come to light.

I thought... No, that was a different speaker there.

That was... Well, I had her name... No, no, no. I'm going to apologize to him. The lady that spoke on the dogs, I thought we had a little more stringent... policy on that. Apparently not. I know when I was a councilman in Newport, we had a very similar issue. That was years ago. And we had to come up with another policy to deal with vicious animals. So I'm glad she brought it forward. I'm glad that We've got this in the works now with a stronger policy. Hopefully we can come up with something that's got even more teeth. So with that, I wish everybody a happy 4th. Be safe. Hope to see you here next month. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Sheehan. Vice Chairman Mansfield.

I think I exceeded my comments during the regular meeting, so I'm going to be short. I mean, I'll reiterate what all of my fellow commissioners have said just to be in brief. I mean, I always like to commend the employees of the month and our employees, and I'm so thankful for the staff that we do have, and I think my actions speak that. Sometimes words... I think you put your money where your mouth is. But I would like to apologize to Ms. Shelby Sally, but unfortunately Mother Nature called and I had to step out when the nomination was for the Senior Center Advisory Board and I was gonna nominate her to be appointed. So Nick, if you'll reach out to her and we'll try to get her on another board and tell her That's my fault, and I apologize for not being out here. Is there any more openings on that board?

Is there any more openings on that?

I'll look. There's some things she can probably serve on. She had an alternate.

I forget what it was. Tell her we can hopefully get her on that one in the near future. I think she had some great ideas. Anybody who's willing to volunteer and relocate here to our county, I think we should take them up.

We'll put her on there anyway. We're all time needing people to serve on these boards, and if somebody wants to do it.

There's a number of seats out there.

Well, let's say increasing.

Well, we own it, right?

Yeah, it's our board. Vice Chairman Mansfield is going to nominate Ms. Sally. Anybody got any problem with that? Excellent. So Ms. Sally will be added to that board as an extra member.

If it needs to be an alternate or however it needs to be to meet the statute.

Make it happen, Ray.

But I do apologize. That was my fault. With that, I'm done.

All right. Thank you very much. Sometimes you have to correct things if you make a little error, but that's fine. That's the nature of the beast. I had a big rock here this past week, big money. Down East was well represented. Cameron Guthrie, captain of the Marlin Fever, I think $6.5 million purse. Harker's Island Boy. Brent Gaskell, I think he brought a fish to the scales. Harker's Island Boy. And my son's college roommate, Dylan Isham, from the Free Ranger from Ocraco. They placed and ultimately got knocked out late Saturday night. Knocked to fourth place from third place. Big exciting times there. I want everybody to have a happy Fourth of July, whether you're on the boat or in Montana or in Mordahl or even a paradise like down east. You could have a good time no matter where you're at. And certainly our employees of the month, Ms. Patton and J.D. O'Neill and Megan, many years of service combined there. I think by passing our budget, we did a great service to our county employees. We did a nice raise last year, some more this year, and hopefully we can do a little better next year. I'm sure that study will be complete very soon. So that's all I have. Everybody, thank you all for coming. Have a good night.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion by Vice Chairman Mansfield. Seconded by Commissioner Quinn. All in favor? We're adjourning.