City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Would like to call to order the February 10th, 2026 uh city council work session. Welcome. It's good to have all of you with us tonight. Um we are going to we'll have some presentations that we'll do on Thursday and so we're going to move right into um reports on public hearing. Um and first up I think Kim is going to talk with us uh about the ordinance for the historic district commission.

Evening. Good evening, Mayor, members of council, Miss Kchinsky, Mr. Payne, and Miss Jenkins. Uh, tonight I'll be presenting a brief overview of the update to the Concord historic handbook. So, some background on the update. Um, over the past few years, let me move this. Over the past few years, the preservation commission has received several requests uh to consider alternative materials to wood in replacement windows. The handbook requires replacement wood windows to be wood. Vinyl and aluminum clad windows are inappropriate in most instances and hybrid windows are approved in limited cases. So in the spring of 2025, the commission discussed the changes in availability of wood windows and they wanted to explore alternatives for replacement windows for all structure classifications. So uh they directed staff to conduct some research um to speak with other commissions and uh to give get guidance from the state historic preservation office. And then we uh presented sample windows of alternative materials to the commission. So the overall conclusion was um if original wood windows could not be preserved or repaired, hybrid and aluminum clad replacement windows may be considered by the commission on a case- by case basis at a commission hearing. So, and then um after that the planning and zoning commission um uh requested that staff work with the historic commission uh to develop clearer language defining what constitutes an unrepairable window and we um included that language in the text amendment. So, the handbook chapters to be amended uh are the approval needs list and chapter 6 standards for exterior changes

to buildings section 6.2 to windows and doors. Uh for the approval needs list, um uh there's a um uh an allowance for planning staff to approve wood windows on homes in the historic districts when the standards are met. And then additionally, language has been added to provide alternate window replacement materials that may be approved through a commission hearing. In the chapter language of chapter 6, we modified language to clarify criteria for repairable and unrepable windows as well as to clarify that hybrid and aluminum clad replacement windows may be considered on a case-by case basis during a commission hearing. Further in the design standards in this chapter we included language um modified language to align with the language in the approval needs list in the chapter. So to conclude um chapter 6 and the approval needs list have been updated. Um the historic preservation commission unanimously voted to send revisions to the planning and zoning commission with a recommendation of approval at their January 14th meeting. and the planning and zoning commission unanimously voted to send revisions to council with the recommendation of approval at their January 20th meeting. So for your next steps tonight, um they would be to consider the text amendment, adopt a statement of consistency, and to motion to adopt or not adopt the proposed changes to the Stark handbook. And we've uh crafted some uh statements of reasonleness and consistency. The top two, the first two bullet points are in the affirmative and the third one is in the negative. So I'll read those to you. The proposal is consistent with the 2030 land use plan in that goal three

objective 3.2 states that the city should support historic preservation efforts within the city's historic districts and for other historic sites. Additionally, section 9.8 8 of the Concord development ordinance references the historic handbook and it is considered a supplement to the CDO number uh bullet point two. The proposal is reasonable in that it provides updates and clarifi clarifying language to the historic handbook which serves as a supplement to the CDO and as a guide and reference manual for the historic preservation commission in their deliberations. or number three or bullet point three, the proposal is not reasonable as it does not provide updated and clarifying language to the historic handbook which serves as a supplement to the CDO and as a guide and reference manual for the Historic Preservation Commission in their deliberations.

So that's the end of my presentation tonight. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Any questions for Kim? I have a couple. Um, having served on the historic district commission many, many years ago and living in the historic district, I understand the complications of the the window issues, but also having restored a national register historic uh, property. If I recall correctly, the state historic preservation office was adamant and this involved investment tax credits,

right? Uh that I replace all the windows with wood windows, which I did because there was certainly a large financial incentive to do that, right? And so none of the usually do we have any commercial properties that would be in eligible for tax credits that fall in the historic district? We do have a few um but uh the also the residential um houses would be eligible as well. Uhhuh. Yeah.

And so there's no this doesn't create any problem with state historic preservation office. Um the secretary of the interior standards for rehabilitation which is what we use as a guideline does say you know when you replace historic features the new features shall match the old in design color texture and other visual qualities and where possible materials. So it's not necessarily to not not necessary to replace inkind materials right and quite often they use replacement materials as long as it looks like it the historic material um that's their preference. Yeah, I think that's a very beneficial change then. Thanks. Yeah. Any other questions?

All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Next up, we have Samantha from EDC to talk with us about a potential economic development grant.

Hello. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the council, Mr. Pay, Miss Kinsky, and Miss Jenkins. Um, thank you for the opportunity to present the project this afternoon. Um, Project Sky is Flyight Holdings Incorporated doing business as Flyight. Uh, the project location is 7075 Aviation Boulevard Northwest, Sweet A, Concord 28027. Um, Flyright offers flight training and FAA approved full motion simulators. Flyich was created to serve the advanced training needs of professional and owner pilots. Um, they first came to the Concord community in 2008 and moved into their current location in 2016. They currently have six simulators and would like to add a new jet simulator to increase business and employees here at the Concord location. Uh, they currently have 48 full-time employees and 22 part-time folks. Um, projected investment is estimated to be 9.5 million in personal property if they were to add this new simulator. Um, they would also add five new full-time jobs with wages well above well above our current county average wage. The city of Concord grant analysis is based on the estimated 9.5 million projected investment. The company is asking for your consideration of a three-year 85% economic development grant. Um, the estimated grant for that three-year term is $83,92 and net revenue to the city during that grant term is $14,663. And happy to answer any questions that y'all have.

Any questions for Samantha? Ju just one comment. In 16, didn't we grant them an incentive way back then? Yes. Okay. And that's over with now. How long was that incentive? That's probably the bed. It was probably three years. Three years. That's what I thought. Yes, I would assume that has all all been paid out. Thank you, sir. Mhm. Just a quick question. Yes, ma'am. The last sentence, so after the 3-year period has ended, 100% of the taxes would be collected by the city. It's that after the 14,663 for 3 years and then

Yes. So, you would net 100% of that after the grant term ends for year four. That's roughly $100,000 a year for as long as they got it there. Unless it depreciates. It would depreciate. Yes. Yeah. If, for example, they had the three-year, which would have taken it to 219, and now we've been what, now six years into an agreement where they're paying 100% of taxes, which is far more probably made up for the diff the delta on that probably. Am I correct that they uh operate facilities in other locations as well? They don't. Um there was an opportunity that they this simulator could have been um at a partner location in another state. Uhhuh.

But this is their only simulator training facility. Right. So the but they did have some other options. Yes, you're correct. And I think I asked this question when we talked about it before and perhaps you answered it, but I remember when they received their initial grant, there was quite a bit of discussion about the uh impact that they have on the local tourism economy. And most of the people that come there to train come from out of town and spend correct days a week or more in a hotel weeks. Yes. So they generate a lot of hotel room nights for the county for sure,

right? Which in turn generates revenue for the convention and visitors bureau, not to mention the restaurants and the meals that they eat during the time that they're here. Great. Any other questions? Just one last question. When we spoke about this last and I just forgot the number, the the average salary for those five employee employees that are going to be here. Yes. Um that is it's over 100. It's 127,000 and our average wage is currently right at 54,000. Great.

Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you very much. Okay. I think uh Raan is next up. Consider recognizing the mills at Rocky River Homeowners Association.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Cochensky, and Mrs. Jenkins. Um today, I'm here to request that the council consider formally recognizing a new neighborhood in our partnerships for stronger neighborhood program. Um, this program has been a priority for the mayor, city council, and our staff since the year 2000. And currently today, we have 82 officially recognized neighborhoods in the program. And 61 of those neighborhoods are considered active. Um, the neighborhood um that I'm recommending today is the Mills at Rocky River. It is in the council district um number seven right near Rocky River Road. Um, the subdivision has over 850 single family homes and they also have a fully active HOA board that meets every month and open to the community. Um, and after they've completed all of their application requirements, um, the Mills at Rocky River is requesting to be considered and formally recognized in our program. Um if approved this if approved into the program the city would have a total of 83 recognized neighborhoods and that would bring us to 62 active neighborhoods in the program. Um today I have Paige Johnson. She's the community manager here if there's any questions that you have about the community specifically.

Great. Thank you. Okay, council. Any questions on this item? Sounds like good news to me. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Okay. Next up, consider a resolution of intent to schedule a public hearing on the matter of closing the rightway at Buridge Road and Old Salsbury Concord Road. And I think Fred's going to talk about that.

Uh yes, sir. Good afternoon, Mayor Morris, members of council, um Mr. Pay, Miss Kochinsky, um and Miss Jenkins. The item before you is the first of two right-of-way uh closure applications for your consideration this afternoon. Um the rightway in question is an unopened and unimproved approximately 50 foot wide uh area located near the Burge Road and Old Salsbury Concord uh road intersection as highlighted here uh on this particular slide. The area of closure has an area of approximately 37,026 ft. Um and planning's plat research indicates that the right of way was originally a part of u a planned subdivision that was never um subdivided or never divided. Um, Rocks Properties LLC, TC Resources LLC, and Grace Global Methodist Church Incorporated each own a portion of the land that's immediately adjacent uh to the area of closure, and each property owner will receive a portion of the rightway being abandoned. This next slide is a picture shown from the planning department drone with the uh approximate closure area shown in the red cross-hatched area uh there to the left side of this particular picture. Um, and just to to recap the request, the petitioners for this rightaway closure request uh are the adjacent property owners uh that I'd mentioned previously. Uh, the area of closure is again unimproved and wooded and consists of approximately 37,000 square feet, 37,026 ft. Um, additionally, uh, council should be advised that there are no um, utilities present in the area of closure. um and planning staff did not receive any objections to the request from any of the other reviewing departments. Um pursuant to North Carolina general statutes, each petitioner um has been briefed on the their ownership requirements um and the impacts of this particular closing. Regarding council's next steps, council is to consider adopting a resolution to set a public hearing for March the 12th.

Um, and if adopted, staff will uh conduct a public notice in accordance with North Carolina general statutes, which includes uh mailing the resolution via certified mail to all adjacent property owners, posting signs on the property, um, as well as running ads um, in the local newspaper. I'll gladly answer any questions that the council may have at this time. So that rather large wooded parcel that this goes to, I'm assuming one of these parties you named are the owners of that. That's correct. Yes, sir. Uh there several of them. They're all adjacent to the area shown there in red.

Um I can't tell you which one's which right now, but I know Rocks owes uh Rocks LLC pretty much has the lion share of those uh that area. And it looks is that a right away for them also on the other side that the white lines. Oh, that's we'll be talking about that one next. Yes, sir. We're going to talk about Okay. Yes, sir. I I guess I'm just curious. Uh it looks like that's going to leave a pretty substantial plot landlocked. Uh well, there's a plan for the future of this lot to be uh developed by the Global uh Methodist Church. Uh would be a church site. So they're trying to recombine or get these rights of way closed, get the parcels aligned and recombined as needed for future development.

Okay. And and the the church is in the former farm credit bureau office. Yes, sir. Great. Yes, sir. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions, comments? All right. I think you got the next item as well. Might as well stay here. Correct.

All right. Uh good afternoon again, uh Mayor Morris, me members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kochinsky, uh and Miss Jenkins. The item before you is again another right-of-way closure application for your consideration. Um the rightway in question is again an unopen and unimproved uh 50 foot wide area located north of the um Burge Road and Old Concord Salsbury right of uh excuse me uh intersection. Um as shown there and highlighted on this particular slide, the area of closure has an area um of approximately 33,715 square ft. Um, and like the previous petition, the right of way was originally a part of a planned subdivision that was uh never divided. Rocks Properties LLC um and A Day in Paradise LLC each own a portion of the land immediately adjacent to the area of closure and each property owner will receive a portion of the ride ofway being abandoned. Again, there's another uh drone slide with the approximate area of closure shown with the cross red cross-hatched area um and located on the right side of this particular slide. Just to recap this request and to provide some additional details, um the petitioners for this rideway closure request are the adjacent property owners. As mentioned previously, um the area of closure is unimproved and wooded and consists of 37,715 square ft. Uh there are no utilities present in the area of closure. Um and planning staff didn't receive any objections to the request from any of the reviewing departments. Um again and as always um pursuant to North Carolina general statutes each petitioner has been briefed of their ownership uh requirements as well as the impact of the closure on their property. Uh once more and regarding council's next steps council is to consider adopting the resolution to set the public hearing for March the 12th. Um, and if adopted, staff will conduct a public hearing, uh, excuse me, public notice in according to North Carolina General Statutes, uh, including mailings, um, sign postings, as well as running ads in the newspaper. I'll

gladly answer any questions the council may have at this time. Questions for Fred? Um, I mean, you know, I'm I'm curious if if the church were to build something on the that undeveloped back side of the property, they wouldn't have any issues with ingress and egress just off of Cabaris Avenue or Old Concord Salsbury, whichever that is. Well, and actually access to the site probably would come off of Buridge uh as you know you've got uh DOT requirements for uh uh but they're giving up those rideways, right?

Yeah, they are. So, there's going to be and actually I think we've got this in DRC for review. So, uh transportation's already looking at it. So, uh we're well ahead uh and aware of the potential ingress egress issues for the development of the site. Cool. All right. Any other questions? Thank you, sir. You're welcome.

Okay. I think Philip has the next item. Consider a resolution in support of NC do. Yes, sir. Uh thank you, mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kjinsky, Miss Jenkins. The uh the first item I've got here is for the Brutin Smith Boulevard, Weddington Road area improvements. Um before you I've got on the screen a PowerPoint that I had shared a little over a year ago um when we first brought up this topic and were in our early discussions um with NC DOT. the project have been brought forth about the Britsmith Weddington Road uh intersection being as close as it is to I5 with the Concord Mills Boulevard uh area and traffic volumes that many people are very aware of that it needed quite quite a bit of help. So we had talked about this again about about a year ago. Uh continued our discussions with NC DOT and they are now at a point where they are prepared to uh begin the design and and move towards the construction phases uh in the near future on Brutemith Boulevard for these improvements. So again, I'm going to click forward to the map here. So to give you an area reference again, Brutemith Boulevard, Weddington Road there on the the lower area of the screen. Uh Gateway intersection is your your bottom right of that map. Uh and then to the north is just Weddington Road going north and south uh on on here. Um so what they had proposed is a is what they call a through cut through cut intersection at Brutemith Boulevard and Weddington Road. Essentially, they changed the phasing of the intersection. Tony's used this analogy in the past of reducing the number of slices of pie that the that the intersection has. So, so cutting that intersection timing into less pieces, we can give more timing to the to the

various sides and essentially give a more efficient intersection to folks coming through this area. Um, so again, that's Brutmith Boulevard, Wington Road. The only movement that is prohibited is the straight through on Weddington Road. And we'll we'll get to that in just one moment how that's being addressed. Okay. So, there's an example if you were to go further towards uh the Christenberry area uh at the LLE uh Bad Daddy's um kind of area intersection. There's an example of a through cut in our region. Uh so moving further down, further closer to the speedway, uh you've got the gateway intersection there at Bojangles, uh the there will also be an improvement by NCDOT to include a traffic signal there. Um reinforce the left turning movements. Again, make that a safer intersection as well in in this whole whole scheme. So essentially if if a if somebody were coming on Weddington Road and they were coming from Concord going to say BJ's they could use the gateway lane quadrant uh go around the Starbucks uh Bojangles area they could come out to this signal make a safe movement and get to that other side of the road. So again, another reason for that, um,

sorry. So if you're coming from from Concord on Weddington Road, coming from Fire Station 11, Dog Park, so forth, uh, there'd be signage that would that would direct folks to to take to take gateway to get across uh to the other side where BJ's uh, the other restaurants. And so you're making a turn before you get up to Brutin Smith. Yes. and going around the back.

Yeah, you would you would make a let's see it might be on on the next slide here. Yep. So, you'd make a left turn there at the KFC and kind of Starbucks intersection there. Um, and this is showing an improvement that that we've proposed in in our future uh CIP projects for for city staff to work on, not on a state road. So, this is not part of their project, but an adjacent one we would be working on. Uh so a safening up that movement. Folks can make that left turn, come out to the signal, make a safe safer movement there. Again, taking a lot of that congestion away from that heavier intersection there closer to the interstate and essentially uh improving the the safety as well.

Philip, one question about that turn by the way on the gateway. Yes, sir. So make sure I understand this. You can't go straight now Weddington to BJ's for example, crossing Brun Smith, right? You must make that turn if you want to go to BJ's. Correct. You would have to you would have to well you'd have to either make that turn at gateway or you could make the turn at the main intersection and then you'd essentially have to make a U-turn there. Go right and do a super street kind of thing. Yeah. Whatever you want to call it. Is that Here's my question. Again, we we would we would sign it on our portion of Weddington Road properly. So, so the drivers would be plenty aware. That left turn on the gateway. What? I'm not clearly understanding the improvements to improve that because that's since the trees have all been cut down. It's a lot safer obviously because you can see the cars coming to you.

Sure. But it backs up quite a bit right there and that's going to be worse.

The main safety improvement here is the left turn movement that is currently there that turns towards KFC uh is is removing that from this intersection because it's so close to Weddington Road where or not Weddington Roadmith Boulevard on Weddington Road uh that it was it was essentially jamming up that intersection main intersection. Uh so we're sending those folks further to the next gateway intersection uh um where we would be proposing a signal um again from the city's project. So two projects in one. The resolution is just for the state portion on Brutin Smith Boulevard. I know that's part of the confusion of this. Um the state is is going to do theirs in a in a silo of their own. Uh we can do the two projects separately. Um we'll we'll come back and do our Weddington Road project. Uh reinforce those movements, make it safer again the signal at the at the other um gateway intersection and uh improve pedestrian crossing. A lot of pieces to this one. So

are you going to do those in conjunction with each other? So they we don't want to say this correctly. I don't want to we don't want to wait on each other to to do our projects and and this is in our proposed CIPs right now. Okay. Um from what we understand from DOT, they have the funding. They're they're prepared to start working on this project from a design standpoint and then move straight into construction. um just they have a a rule of thumb now that any intersection projects they do within cities they need a resolution that says we're we're essentially okay with that. Okay. From the tag last last week, this this is on the on the the tip. In fact, it moved up two years in fact in order to get it done 2729.

Yeah. I think they they had originally uh thought this was going to be further out during another resurfacing project they were doing. Um but they've identified those funds. they were able to go ahead and speed that up and and get moving on it. Any other questions? All right. Think you've got the next one?

Yes, sir. So, all right. Move past this again. Another uh prior uh PowerPoint slide here. Um uh back in July, uh city council supported our application uh with the the CRMPO uh to improve the intersection of Rock Hill Church Road and Weddington Road uh near the um West Rock Coffee uh Cabaris Country Club area. And we again we went to the CRMPO. We asked for surface transportation program uh funding which was an 8020 split uh to to improve this intersection to a roundabout design and that is shown there. There's a uh a rough rendering of that. Um, our staff since that approval through the no, since the funds have been been been assigned, uh, our staff have begun the design internally, um, as a way to help stretch the dollars more on this project. Uh, engineering departments helped us with with the surveying, identifying the right of way. Our staff have begun the design process there. And so this this application that we we got approved for and now we have the municipal agreement that we need your blessing for uh is to designate the project as a $3 million project which would be $2.4 million from the federal surface transportation fund and then 600,000 from the city's transportation project fund. So that's an 8020 split. Again, uh it is currently in our CIP. it's in our current fiscal year. It's already allocated there um in the budget. So again, this would be to enter into that municipal agreement with the state that says we commit to that $600,000. It also has a typical NC DOT agreement

would say we are responsible for anything over that original estimate. Happy to take any question.

And right now you're comfortable with that number, right? Because we didn't that wasn't the same on the right course. And and and again, part of this is we're we're the ones designing this project. So, as we move through it and as if we see things are escalating through that, we can make those design adjustments and work with DOT ourselves. Um it's it's one of those manageable ones. We we don't exactly have to use a consultant for to do all that. So, we won't have the the change request on the design fees, per se. Happy to have capable staff that are able to to do that. question, Philillip. What would you say if by chance we get a phone call about cuz you know a lot of people don't like roundabouts. Okay. Um

some do. Some do. Some don't. We usually get calls from the ones that don't. Right. Sure. And this intersection is a pretty wellused. I know I use it probably daily. From your professional opinion, if somebody calls me and they say, "Why did the city do this?" Right. Can you talk about from a safety perspect I mean other than like if you've driven that that intersection you know why but just how would you term that?

Sure. So so it's it's two things. It's it's more efficient and and it's safer. So um kind of starting with the efficiency. There's what feels like an unnecessary stop movement from that T intersection. And and it's always kind of looked like a roundabout just has the the triangle shape in the middle of it. Um, from a from a safety standpoint, roundabouts, your your conflict points are more of a a sideswipe movement, if you will, and there's less conflict points around it than a T intersection. T intersection, you're having to cross paths, so you've got a uh more dangerous um well, T-bone type crash. Um but but yes, you you've you've calmed traffic on a what's become a major road. Um and as we're aware, there's a there's the future state project of the Union Cemetery that will align uh to this area. So this is kind of going at the same time be slightly in front of their finished dates for their project. Uh so we'll have that trafficcom homing in place on our more residential area going towards the schools and going that direction.

Another excellent point. Right. Yep. Yep. And this this will be single lane all the way around. Yes. Right. Yes. I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Uh do you anticipate um having to get a right ofway acquisition from the surrounding there? There is going to be some right of way um particularly that that property that's kind of in the uh triangle portion to the left. Um I believe that's the uh name just forgot me. Is that the atrium fac?

The atrium facility there. Yes. I think there's a little bit of property there and then there'll be some easements from these um uh the residents to the right, but but for the most part the the residents there will be actually lengthening their driveways um and and we're working on tying those in properly right now uh to give them the best access, safest access possible. So that's part of the creative design process I think that our folks in right now is is how do we give them the best situation at the end of the day there and we'll be in communication with them as we move through this. Um we will not need right of way uh in the current design that we've noted on the Cabaris country club side.

Thank you. Yes ma'am. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you. Uh, next up, um, Farmwood Boulevard, Culver Replacement, Jeff.

All right. Good afternoon, Mayor, Council, Mr. Payne, Miss Kchinsky, Miss Jenkins. Uh, item six is a construction contract with Birdsall Excavation and Construction for um the replacement of our Farmwood Boulevard culvert uh in the amount of 1,284,81818. Um, the Farmwood Boulevard Culbert was identified many years ago as part of our stormwater master planning project as being hydraulically deficient. If you know anything about this road, it's the oneway in and out to uh Wolf Meadow Elementary School. Uh, so there's some significant roadway passage requirements for that road for public safety reasons. Uh, so we uh opened bids on the 15th of January. Uh had five bids, got a very very competitive price. Um, this will be a new contractor for us. We did do a lot of vetting. uh and we were very happy with uh the recommendations from folks that are currently working with them and have worked with them in the past. So, we're asking your approval to move forward with that construction contract with Birdsaw.

Any questions? Okay, I think you got the next one. All right, seeing as we're moving forward with construction, uh number seven is a contract amendment with Armstrong Glenn. This is the engineering firm that did our design for that project. uh we are in the flood plane. There's some very specific requirements and work that has to be done uh as well as geotechnical work and daily inspections uh that we need to do. So we are asking for a contract amendment with Armstrong Glenn. Uh we included the scope of work in there and that total amount is 108,916.50. Um and as noted in the item earlier, we do have u enough money in that project account to to handle both of these expenses. So

any questions on that one? All right. Thank you, sir. Okay. Next up, um, approving correcting a mistake is the way I would interpret that, and Valerie's going to lead us through that one.

I think that's that's a very valid interpretation. Um, so back in 2019, the city agreed to act as a conduit for some bond financing for the Coleman Mill project to revitalize that historic mill and provide affordable housing units. It's 144 affordable housing units. That financing went more or less smoothly and was completed in 2024. And so all of that piece has been done, the conduit financing. As part of that transaction, the city was received $300,000 in bond issuance fees. At some point in in there, the developer of this project asked the city asked that the city would consider granting those fees back to them in furtherance of the financing of this project. And city council agreed to do that um and approved that grant in June of 2020. for reasons that no one can explain and we can't find any documentation of um this this was put back on the council agenda in December of 2022 and the grant was converted to a loan. Uh the developer has communicated that this was done in error and has asked that this grant be reinstated. So that's why we're back here today.

So it was not city money to start with. Correct. that was granted back to them and it's not going to have any financial impact now. It's just directing it the right way. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Very good. Thank you. I actually have one. Okay.

Is there a reason it was like mistakenly made as a loan? Did somebody think that was right, but then the customer, the developer said, "No, that's wrong." Yeah, we just really don't know. Um the the um when it was converted to the loan that was on the consent agenda, so there's no that's why I put it on the the regular agenda this time so that we would have, you know, Leslie's going to record me and we're going to have all of the information that for if something comes up in the future. Uh but we just don't know. My guess, and I have a guess, is that there was some conversation probably between um the planning director at the time, which was Steve, and the um the developer that was a miscommunication of some sort or um you know, maybe there was some thought of doing this and then he didn't really want to do, you know, we just don't know. We just don't know what phone conversations or you know, over lunch at two gals they what they talk. We just don't know. It could just been misinterpreted.

Exactly. And that's that's what I think it is. Some sort of miscommunication thing. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. We'll move to item nine. Uh I think Alex is going to address this one. Consider authorizing to negotiate and execute a contract supply new servers.

Yes, sir. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council. Mr. Miss Kojinski and Miss Jenkins. The request before you today is for a system upgrade to our electric ska system. This SKA system is what runs our entire electric grid and the existing servers we have were installed in 2011 making them 15 years old. They are so old that they will no longer support any software updates. Um this included in this price is two servers, all the software installation and migration to the new system. The total cost of this update is $135,19. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Questions for Alex? You know, I typically I would say 2011. That's that's not very old, but I talked to somebody at Apple the other day about my 2011 iPad having a and they said, "Throw it away." Yes, sir. which I'm still hanging on to it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay, if there are no other questions, thank you. Next up is considering uh application for water service. Jackie got that one. Welcome.

Good afternoon, mayor, members of council, Mr. Payne, Miss Colchinsky, and Miss Jenkins. Um, today I have two requests for you. The first one is Dale McNalty. Um the location is 1340 McCalli Drive. Uh it's a 1.9 acre parcel within Cabaris County jurisdiction. It's zoned LDR. It's within area B. There is an existing single family home. Um this is a map of the location. So the parcel is not considered served by water and sewer. However, water is available in Flow store road. So um an easement has been secured and recorded by the property owners. Uh this is a zoomed out view of the location. Um so the recommendation is to accept the preliminary application and have the owner proceed to the final application phase excluding annexation. And I'll be happy to answer questions about that one

quickly. I think it was in the Charlotte Observer today that we are in a severe drought um in Cabaris County and um does this have any any implication? I mean this is such a small project. I don't think it makes any difference but we should be worried about giving this water. No, this is a small amount. Yep. Thank you. Just curious the the expense of extending the water line from Flow Store Road out to this property. Is that the city or the property owner?

That is the property owner. So within um the right of way of flow store road that would be where and conjunction with that easement area, we do try to work with the customer. Um ultimately, you know, our water department gets to select the location, but we will work with the plumber. Um and they'll stake that out ahead of time. Uh so that expense for the longer distances on them. Yep. And and they do pay a higher rate outside. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. I think you got the next item.

Okay. Okay. Similarly, this address is 1375 Mccultiy Road. The property owner's name is Cheryl McCalty. Uh 1.54 acre parcel, also LDR area B. And there is an existing single family home there as well. So, this is at the end of the private road. Um and another easement has been recorded and secured by the property owner. So, the recommendation here would be to accept this preliminary application and have the owner proceed um excluding annexation.

Questions, comments? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, consider adopting the citizen in civility policy and turn it over to city manager for that one.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, u if council would allow me to take just a couple minutes and and talk a little about the background, uh for why this is coming to you, um back in March of 2004, we received our employee survey results and we had some things that were noted in there. Uh and we had a presentation uh of that of those survey results at our leadership summit in April of 2024. Our leadership summit is our annual event whereby we gather all of our supervisors in the city and have leadership training for about a half a day. And so you're talking anywhere from 200 to 225 city staff members that are there at that summit. So we furthermore discussed that at our department head meeting which is our monthly meeting of our senior staff of the city. Roughly 25 folks uh are at those meetings each month. So we discussed that in May and June of 2024. uh a lot of discussions with myself and the assistant city managers um and I developed a a volunteer uh employee work group to kind of take a deeper dive on the entire survey itself. And so that group of employees, not supervisors but employees um throughout the organization met in November and December of 2024 and also January of 2025. And so from that, that workg group came and presented back to the senior leadership at our department head meeting in February of last year. Uh and so following that, I emailed out to all city staff uh what those ideas from the workg group uh had generated. So those ideas uh were again discussed at the March department head meeting of last year. Uh and so as a followup, our annual leadership summit came up in April of last year. we had presented the full survey uh the previous year and so we kind of did a deeper dive on those what we called hot spots or issues uh that came back from the survey that we needed to work on and I think at that time I'd sent that information out to

council and let you know what and let you know or let you knew um what that was at the time and so at that leadership summit we broke out into groups on those hotspots and talked about um with the supervisors present the things that we could possibly do to to kind of address some of those areas of concern that had came up in the survey. And so without a doubt, I would think the most pressing item that came up was we needed to have some sort of policy procedure to address citizen incivility. Uh all the supervisors that were present uh described it as a concern no matter what their job description was. Uh and so from that meeting, again, that was April of last year. From that uh we assembled a or I assembled an employee volunteer work group. again another group of city staff members to develop this citizen in civility policy draft. And so that initial meeting was last June. Uh so we've been at it now for well over a year trying to address this. Um and so at that meeting in June, we had 17 uh employees that were present representing most of the city departments. uh I provided some intent to that group and then I got out of the way and said I want y'all to discuss and I didn't want them to feel like they couldn't you know speak freely amongst each other. So I moved out of the way. That group met eight times uh all the way up until October of this past year at which time they provided a presentation to me on what they had uh collectively come up with. And so then they came at the November uh senior staff meeting or the department head meeting uh and presented what they had put together and what they had presented to me. And so we discussed that again at the December department head meeting. Following that meeting this past December, I sent that out to all the city staff, all the city employees and asked for their feedback. and over a period of about three or four weeks, they did provide some feedback to me uh which I took and discussed with the assistant city managers and we

finalized what you saw in your agenda packet. So again, I know that's a lot of information, but just to show you the amount of staff time and staff opportunity across the entire city that had a hand in putting this policy together. So legal has reviewed the policy as well. So just some kind of overarching comments about citizen and civility. So certainly it's a highly uh talked about issue across the United States. Uh I have assisted the the school of government, UNCC school of government on multiple occasions with presentations in the state of North Carolina and elsewhere across the United States. So we are indeed public servants, but we're also human. While we're not perfect and we make mistakes, there's no place for disrespect or demeaning behavior towards staff from the public. We don't always agree, but there is an appropriate and constructive manner in which to have those conversations. I humbly request council on Thursday night consider the adoption of this policy to further enhance your support of the men and women who serve our community each day. Your approval sends a strong message to our staff of your support while also allowing us to act if inivil behavior occurs in the workplace. Some training has already been uh developed by HR and again with your approval on Thursday night, additional training will be developed to train our staff on such things as deescalation, scenario-based training, determining what is and is not in civil behavior. Uh furthermore, if approved, our sign shop uh can internally work to produce the signs that you saw on the last page of the draft policy. So, at this time, I'd be happy to take any questions you may have uh on the proposal or the policy that's in front of you. I just want to say thank you for listening to your staff, reading through it. I mean, this seems almost common sense,

but in our current costic environment to have something like this is absolutely supportive of staff. So, thank you for pulling this out. Other questions or comments? I think the league has training even on this, don't they, Lloyd? Like they're doing

Yeah. Yeah. And I think Dr. Alicia Deart Davis from the UNCC School of Government, she's doing an extensive extensive amount of work on citizen in civility, the impact, what she's seeing of the impact on the employees in in local government is tremendous. I've presented with her at the League of Municipalities Conference. I presented at the International City County Management Association with her. Um she's doing a lot of deep dives on this. As a matter of fact, um the North Carolina City and County Manager Association that I currently and and the president of, we've just commission her to do additional work uh and provide training modules that cities and towns across North Carolina could have available to train their employees on here's what to do. here's, you know, here's how you deescalate a situation, whether it's in person, whether it's over the phone, or even as silly as it sounds, that in civil behavior, you get an email for because that comes as well.

Um, and so it's it's a really highly talked about topic. Uh, I imagine we'll see some more of that at the league conference uh later on this spring. So, thank you.

Other questions or comments? you know, I I'm I applaud you as well and and I think that um you know, there are certain behaviors that we would never tolerate towards citizens and so I think to have that equal respect back, we owe that to our employees that are serving all those folks. Okay. If there are no other questions or comments, u next up is consent agenda. You see a number of items on there. I have not heard from anybody uh any questions or desire to uh to pull any of those items off. Uh so as close as I can determine I think that completes uh our business and we will stand adjourned and we do not have need of a close session tonight.

Yes. Uh on Thursday we do have a photograph immediately following council meeting. So thank you all. We stand a journ.