Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening, everyone. It's great to see you. Smiling faces. I want to call the meeting to order, and we're going to start with introductions first.

Good evening. My name is Commissioner Yvette Townsend Ingram. I'm also a Y Commissioner, YTI. I go by, and I serve Mecklenburg County at large.

Good evening. I am Mecklenburg County Commissioner Elaine Powell. representing North Mecklenburg, Huntersville, Davidson, Cornelius, and Orlando. Hello. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm George Dunlap, elected by the people of District 3.

Good evening. My name is Lee Altman, county commissioner serving at large, and I also have the privilege of serving as vice chair. Welcome.

Good evening and welcome. My name is Mark Jarrell. I've been elected by the people of District 4. I see a lot of District 4 people there. But I also have the honor of serving as chairman of the board. Welcome.

Good evening and welcome. My name is Arthur Griffin and I have the pleasure of serving for County Commissioner at large.

Good afternoon. The name is Vilma D. Leak and I represent the most powerful people in the county and that's District 2. But I've been told to stop saying that but I can't do it. And I won't do it. The most powerful people is District 2. Welcome and thank you for being here tonight. You look good.

Good evening. My name is Susan Rodriguez McDowell, and I have the honor of serving as the elected leader for District 6.

At this time, what I'm going to do is turn to our vice chair to lead us in the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. And when we get to the Pledge of Allegiance, we're going to ask all of you all to stand.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to give the invocation tonight from my synagogue that we always say when we are praying for our country. O God, and God of our ancestors, grant our country the will and the wherewithal to fulfill its calling to justice, liberty, and equality. May each of us fulfill our responsibilities of citizenship with care, generosity, and gratitude, ever conscious of the extraordinary blessing of freedom, ever mindful of our duties to one another. Bless those who volunteer to labor on behalf of us all. May they find the strength an

Thank you, Commissioner Altman. We'll move forward with the agenda. At the start of every meeting, we make sure that we lift up our county mission, our vision, and our board budget priorities. These are the items that guide our decisions and our discussion, and we think it's important for you all to know. Our mission is to serve Mecklenburg County residents by helping improve their lives and community. Our vision is Mecklenburg County will be a community of pride and choice for people to live, learn, work and recreate. Our FY26-27 board budget priorities are as follows. Economic development, e

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is my pleasure to call upon our colleague, Commissioner Susan Rodriguez McDowell, to bring forth the joint proclamation celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Thank you.

Thank you so much. It really is truly an honor for me to be able to bring forward this joint proclamation on behalf of the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Before I actually read the proclamation, the Latin American Chamber has put together a video to sort of introduce what we're celebrating tonight. So let's roll the tape.

Gabe Esparza, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Administration.

Susan Rodriguez-Mical, Mecklenburg County commissioner.

Thank you for that video that just speaks so well to how many leaders of this community are Hispanic heritage. And so with that, I'm going to read the proclamation. And as I begin to read, I'll ask Marta Tataje and Rafael Prieto to please come down to the podium to receive the proclamation. All right. So whereas each year from September 15th through October 15th, our nation celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month, honoring the histories, cultures, and contributions of people with roots across Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Spain. Traditions woven throughout Charlotte-Mec

Can I just say that this has been a very tough year for the Latino community and for, in fact, all immigrants, but Latinos have been particularly targeted. And the reason why this is so important this year is because of all of the pain and the trauma that has been endured and is ongoing, it's not over. And so I really want us all to think about the folks who have suffered the most and think about how we can always pull together and get through these hard times. So with that, I thank my colleagues for their support and I ask you to take the vote.

Thank you for those comments, Commissioner. The motion having been properly made and seconded, all those in favor say aye. Aye.

Madam Chair, can I call for a hand vote? I'd like to see this recorded. Absolutely.

All those in favor, raise your right hand. Thank you, Chairman Emeritus. And now it's your time. We would love to hear you. Thank you so much for coming. What's his name?

Thank you for being here. Thank you for being here.

This is Orlando. Remember when he first came. No, no, no, no. You're perfect. You're perfect. Remember you.

Okay, I gave it to Marta and Rafael. Can you guys go up front and hold it in Spanish and English?

I remember when you first came to the country. Yes, did you hold it down? Oh, yeah, I'm good.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming. It's nice to see you again. How are you? Good, I'm glad. Absolutely. Have you been here?

This is the best part of the job, what you just saw, all right? For sure. We are so thankful for getting to have this moment with you. And we will now turn to our colleague, Commissioner Laura Meyer, who has a proclamation honoring a great American. Dolly Parton for Dolly Parton Day.

Hang on one second. Don't leave. Thank you for those beautiful comments. And the motion having been properly made and seconded, all those in favor, please say nine to five. That is unanimous. So let's now take a picture. All right. And use your best asset, which I think Dolly said is your smile.

Wow. Crazy if you let it. Who says you can't have fun? One more.

A lot of all of us knew that. Right, right.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I return the gavel to you.

All right. And now we'll move to the next part of the agenda, which is the arts and culture moment. And I'm going to invite Charlotte's creative down. Yes. Yes. So we'll receive a presentation from Charlotte is Creative. I think all of us know Matt, but for those in the television land, it's Matt Olin and team. You guys are welcome to go up there.

Hold up. Before you go, let me do this. I want to turn to Commissioner Rodriguez-McDowell. The arts and culture moment was spawned by her idea, and I want to give her an opportunity to provide any comments if she'd like.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, I just want to say congratulations to all of you and thank you for bringing your stories to us because it's super helpful for us to actually hear tangibly where these public dollars are going and how it's benefiting the community. And I'm just so extremely proud that the county is part of y'all's creative process. So thank you for what you bring to us all. Thank you.

All right, next up on the agenda is public appearance. Madam Clerk, we still don't have any speakers, correct? That is correct. All right, so we will move to appointments. All right, and we're gonna start with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee. Appointments are needed on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee to fill six terms. This has come back to us, so we will be voting. There are quite a few candidates here, so we're just gonna go down the list. First up is Laura Bailey.

Well, no, no, no, no. No, because this is what came back.

Oh, and I'm on my chair's notes. I'm sorry. So we need to go to women's advisory first? Is that what we're doing? Yes. Okay, give me one. Let me go into the...

No, my chair's notes has community relations first. I wasn't on the iPad. I'm getting on the iPad now, so I'll do the women's advisory board. Thank you, Elaine.

No. Let me hear from the clerk. Go ahead.

Refresh your iPads. Everybody refresh your iPads.

Still doesn't put it in the right order.

The CRC is now first. All right. We'll give everybody time to open it up. It sure did refresh.

All right. Let's go through the CRC again. We are going to vote. Let's start with, uh, Laura Bailey. One, two, three, four, five, six or seven. No. Okay. Yash, but Nagar, there's total six opportunities, right? Okay. Keep your hands up, please. Madam clerk, you got this.

Thank you. So both of those are appointed.

Sarita Butler was one. Madam Clerk. Lee Knipe.

Lee Kenight. Jessica Edwards. Got one, Madam Clerk. Robert Edwards. Kim Lamb. Got one, two, three, four. Okay. Jennifer Louise Jean. We got two. Rory Pegram, District Four. Ryan Reed. Kira Robinson. Omar Saxton. Get to Constance Wallace. Okay. Aditya Upadhyay.

One, two, four. Constance Wallace. That's unanimous, Madam Clerk. Jamie Wildgoose. Two, three, four. Oh, that's five. And then Cindy Young.

She got five. So Madam Clerk, by my tally that we have appointed Laura Bailey, Yash Bhatnagar, Constance Wallace, Jamie Walgus, and Cindy Young, so that means there's one other slot that's open, so we'll go back through. Is that what you've got? All right. So I'm going to start with Ingrid Nunez.

Yes, ma'am. We've got one more to seat. So we're going to go down the list. Ingrid Nunez, I see one. Saritha Butler. Lee Knipe. Jessica Edwards. Robert Edwards. Kim Lam.

All right. So that would be our sixth one, Madam Clerk. All right. Moving on. Thank you. Next up, what I've got is JCPC, Madam Clerk. Everybody's refreshed properly. Appointments are needed on the JCPC to fill two two-year terms expiring June 30, 2028. This is the youth slot. The JCPC committee recommends Brianna DeCruz. Commissioner Powell.

Brianna DeCruz. It's just one? No, there's two slots. We're starting with Brianna DeCruz. She's the top of the list, so we're starting there. This is who was recommended by the JCPC. All right. So Brianna is appointed.

District 3. George for George. All right. Benjamin Marchand. And then we have Amrita Yalagada. One, two, three, four, five. Okay. So I've got Brianna DeCruz and Amrita. All right. All right, next, appointments are needed on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill one two-year term expiring June 30, 2028, substance abuse professional slot. The JCPC Committee recommends Phil McNeary.

They recommend Phil McNeary. There are two... It's been moved and seconded to appoint Phil McNeary. All those in favor, let's see by show of hands. One, two, three, four... All right, that's unanimous. All right, so Phil is appointed there. And then we've got juvenile crime. Let me see, excuse me, I'm sorry. Appointments are needed on the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill one two-year term expiring June 30th, 2028 for the business community slot. They recommend Chiquita Patterson. Make a motion.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, let's see by show of hands. All right, Ms. Patterson is appointed. Appointments are needed on Juvenile Crime Prevention Council to fill two unexpired terms expiring June 30th, 2027. This is gonna be the general public slot. The JCPC Committee recommends Joseph Williams. And as you can see, there are a lot of candidates, but can we get something on Joseph Williams? So moved.

Moved and seconded. All those in favor, let's see by show of hands. All right, so Joseph is appointed. Now we've got to go down the list to fill the other slot. First up, Carla Carlisle. Two, three, okay. George Doe, he was picked up. He's already picked up. I didn't think he was appointed. He didn't make it.

Okay, so let's go with George Doe. All right, Imani Eason. Alexandra Jenkins. Carlton Johnson. J.G. Lockhart. Jennifer Louis-Jean. Benjamin Marchand. Three. Bobby Mattress.

Okay. Next on the list is Phil McNary, but we've already taken care of him, right, Madam Clerk? That's correct. Okay. Chiquita Patterson was also taken care of. So we move to Monica Pettiford. One, two, three, four, five. So Monica has five. So then both of those slots, six, both of those slots would be filled. It would be Monica Pettiford and Joseph Williams. All right, let's move on to the Women's Advisory Board at this point. Nominations or appointments are needed on the Women's Advisory Board to fill two unexpired terms. The chair of the board recommends in order of preference is going to

Tracy Pratchett. Commissioner Townsend Ingram.

Ingrid Bravo Nunez. Any other nominations?

Alison Strong. So I'm going to nominate everybody that they recommended.

Any other nominations? All right, I'll take a motion to close nominations then. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye.

All right, nominations are closed. That will come back. Madam Clerk, let's go to the Lake Wylie Marine Commission. Reappointments are needed on the Lake Wylie Marine Commission for three, three-year terms expiring September 30th, 2029. Lawrence Justin, David Stoner, Brian Yarman are eligible for reappointment. So moved. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? We're going to move to the Building Development Commission. Reappointment is needed on the Building Development Commission for one three-year term expiring September 30, 2029. Keith Aul is eligible for reappointment.

Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. All right, we're going to move to the Planning Commission. So we need a nomination or appointment for the Planning Commission to fill one three-year term expiring June 30, 2029. Robert Allen. It's the Board of Education slot. We can nominate and appoint Robert Allen for the BOE slot in accordance with the Planning Commission bylaws. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

I just have a question. So since the school board chose them, we don't have to interview them or do we have to interview them?

We do not have to interview. It's their choice. Your appointment. We don't have to interview.

Yep, it does. All right, thank you. Good call out on that. But we don't have to. Thank you. Thank you. CMS is live. Yep. All right, let's move to the public hearing at 7 o'clock. So we're going to hear on the Uniform Schedules of Value Standards and Rules for the 2027 Countywide Appeal. Ken Joyner, if you want to make your way down, I'll entertain a motion to open a public hearing to receive public comment on the proposed Uniform Schedules of Value Standards and Rules for the 2027 Countywide Appraisal. It's been moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Mr. Joiner.

Since we don't have any speakers, can I make a motion to close the public hearing and adopt?

Not adopt. Not adopt. Close the public hearing. So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All right. Ayes have it. Thank you, sir.

All right. That was nice and easy. And you got the nice shoes again tonight, Ken. They're the coffee, right? Yeah, they're my dark coffee. I like it. I like it. All right. Mr. Manager, we'll turn to you for your report. I'm excited about this.

You know I use that quality of life explore all the time. I do too.

Where's the envelope? Thank you and congratulations.

Where's the check, Mike? I guarantee you.

Check's in the mail. We got a bargain if we only paid $1,000. We did. All right.

That was GIS, too. While the manager is making his way back, I just want the public to know that's the type of talent we have in Mecklenburg County. Best in class.

Oh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Everybody loves a dashboard. So that's fantastic. But I do have some questions. It sounds like the volume is quite a factor, OK? Correct me if I'm wrong. But how are we with staff? Do we have enough staff? This is a question I've asked about other departments for many, many years. And then later on, we find out, well, yeah, there wasn't quite enough resources there. uh how how are we doing with resources uh human resources because i mean i i i am curious about if you're checking these kinds of things it is a human correct not an ai per thing that's that's handling

Thank you. That's key. That's really, really important. The one thing I'm a bit fuzzy on is there's got to be code people that are checking out the plans before the thing is built. They have to approve. Then you have code people that are going out and inspecting. So isn't, that's two different things, right?

Thank you. That's really helpful. Appreciate it.

We're going to go Commissioner Powell, Meyer, then Townsend Ingram. Sure.

Thank you. The first thing I want to say is, you know, eight years' worth of thanks to Patrick Granson for always answering my calls and being so reliable and walking me through anything complex that I have to deal with. The second thing is I had to call another county to advocate for someone who had been taken advantage of. And I was asked for help because of knowledge of being a county commissioner, like how to help this person. So I'm calling the other county and I say, I'm from Mecklenburg County. I'm calling on behalf of so-and-so. And they're like, Mecklenburg is about code enforcement.

Thank you for that. So there's so much ETJ area that I represent, which is a lot of my phone calls for Patrick. When somebody, a contractor does something without the proper code enforcement paperwork,

I want to say thank you. I'm just amazed at your department, just how the skill and the level of talent in Mecklenburg County, it is really impressive. A lot of my questions were already answered through your presentation as you went through. Thank you very much for that. And it's very detailed and it's easily readable. My question is more so geared towards Kind of piggybacking on what Commissioner Powell was talking about. Unless there is something egregiously violated, the county really does not have any wherewithal to say, no, this can't be built or this can't go forward. And my mind goes t

Thank you. That's it. Commissioner Griffin and Commissioner Dunlap.

Real quickly, what you presented tonight is extraordinarily valuable and informative and will certainly help me in terms of responding to some of the calls I received. The last piece in terms of the program, that citizens and individuals can access is just super. So thank you to you, the brain trust up top there in terms of putting it together, and the whole team. I think that's really great. Some of my calls coming off of Commissioner Powell are out in the far reaches of the county, and particularly as it relates to the lake, like Lake Wiley, Mountain Island Lake, et cetera. Where is the line

Mr. Chair, I just really want to take this opportunity to publicly thank you, Ebenezer, and your entire team. I can't think of a time when I sent you a request that wasn't responded to and answered. Maybe with this new information now, I might be able to do some on my own, but I kind of like sending information to you.

But I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you.

I try not to belabor things in my comments, but I just have to take my time and say what everybody else said because I feel it so deeply, too. You know, you and I sat with a contractor, some contractors recently, And the struggle is real. I mean, and not only is a system that is not working, like, not responsive to the people it's supposed to serve, but as we were discussing, it costs homeowners money and can sometimes prevent them from being able to complete their project or drive up their costs. And, you know, this is so excellent. I am just so excited by it, and I hope that you know, all th

Can you add the commissioners to the bulk email? Sure, I can send it to you, yeah. Because I would love to have the link also, but amazing job.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Commissioner League, did you have anything that you wanted to add?

I just want to compliment him on his presentation, following him throughout the years and the work that he's done thus far and his staff. So I'm hoping that we'll have a meeting that the community, as she brings up, that the community will be able to see this directly, rather than in a board meeting, and that would be great, and reaching more people that way. So if you can plan that, let us know, and I'll help you get it out to the people.

Well, thank you. I want to start, before I get to you, I actually want to start with Dr. Johnson. I do want to say how much I appreciate her leadership. I think it's really important for leaders to get the hell out of the way when people know what they're doing and can make things happen, right? And not be intimidated by that. And so I think that's just a mark of a phenomenal leader in and of itself. I joke around a lot about your responsiveness. I told somebody one time, I don't think I even finished typing the email before you responded. Even at night. You're halfway around the world. I try

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Is there a motion to approve items not pulled from consent? So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All right. Thank you. Let's move to Commissioner Reports. I'm going to start with Commissioner Griffiths.

Madam Clerk, I had that there were no consent items pulled.

They were not pulled. I apologize that they weren't pulled. What we'll do is we're going to have to work with staff to get some responses on those, but they're

Let me say this, and we can move forward if you don't mind. We have responses to them, but if we want to go to the next meeting, be fine with me. Many of you don't want to even hear consent items.

Nobody, Commissioner, hold on one second. But I have to say it. Okay, but here's what I want us to do. Consent items are always a part of the agenda. No one minds consent items being pulled. No one on this day minds that. And if they do, it's too bad because anyone can pull consent items. Everyone up here has pulled them. And they will pull them as needed. So with that being said, I appreciate the grace that you're extending. Let's do this. Let's make sure that we get them next meeting. We'll address them and go from there. But right now, as of today, there were none that were documented or pu

Okay, but they have to be in. When did I say they had to be to you guys? They have to be to them Monday at 10 a.m. By 10 a.m. 10 a.m., yes. Thank you. All right. With that being said.

Let me just say thank you. Thank you, because I did talk with your staff.

Okay. Let me go to Commissioner reports. We're going to start with Commissioner Griffin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make a comment about something that's been in the news and we've talked about quite frequently, and that was I-77 South. I think the CIPRO is going to meet on the 23rd. We won't have another business meeting. We'll have a public policy meeting, I guess, on the 22nd. But I wanted to say something because there have been a lot of emails going back and forth. And I just want to speak from my perspective as an at-large county commissioner. I represent the entire county. We collectively represent the entire county. And there's seven municipalities in Mecklenb

Thank you. And, um, thank you, commissioner Griffin. Cause I agree with every word that you said. And to be clear, like I have never voted yes for this and I do not support the project. And, uh, the concerns that I've heard from citizens are from every part of Mecklenburg County. We represent the most people of any voting entity that gets to vote. We represent the most people. And the fact that we only get our little measly portion of it, our three little measly votes is disturbing. And so we've heard directly from community members and I represent the North who has already gone through the pa

She says, the concerns I most consistently hear from residents involve long-term affordability, equity, and absence of guaranteed enforceable community benefits. So that's another thing. If people are going to flip their votes. Three, two, one. All right. Time's up.

Let me say thank you for the opportunity to speak to this issue. And I spoke to it earlier as I look and sit right here in Brooklyn right now, as we were promised years ago that there would be housing and replacement of churches and living conditions would be different. And I'm watching the meeting last night and seeing the people walk around with signs saying support this process, that they're going to bring all of this into the community. And we are the ones who suffer. And when I say that, we are the people in the black community who's always disruptive in the process. They've known about t

We're going to stop it, but thank you for the comment. He's going to stop me. We've got to stop it.

But thank you, Mr. Chairman. I respect you dearly, love what you do, how you've done it, and how you've respected this bond and this community. You know I love you.

Thank you. Love you back. Commissioner Meyer.

I want to take this opportunity. I went to an amazing conference, and I wanted to tell the community about that, the Global Africa Conference. But I feel a responsibility to do the same as my colleagues, to make it clear that I am a no emphatically. And I will tell you, there has not been one time when I have teetered in that decision, but there was... And I usually don't respond to emails directly. If other colleagues have responded or whatever, I'll just take it under consideration. But there was one particular email where an individual specifically said, please change your vote to yes becau

that is listening to the community and who has always stood against this project. And I think one thing that needs to be said is that it's not proven that this will actually solve the congestion problem, which is what is stated as the reason for this. I think we can look at the project that happened in the north and we can see that it did not solve the problem. I think it's really important as this goes forward and if it does go through that there needs to be people who are held accountable, follow the money, see where the development dollars are going, see where those properties who owned the

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Albee.

Thank you to all my colleagues. I think I will add to say, on top of their comments, that, as I've said before, people can have different opinions about what a toll road in the South could do, how it could be improved upon in the North. But what we know for sure is that the law that was passed by the General Assembly is an attempt to strip the locality with the right and the authority to make this decision, to strip it away from them. And that is not right. And that should concern Democrats and Republicans across the state. And it should concern our governor. And, you know, what the general as

Thank you. All right, so I want to say, colleagues, I definitely appreciate all the comments. And, you know, the continued... Advocacy. I think Commissioner Powell, you said we represent the most amount of people. And that's not to diminish any other jurisdiction. That's just a fact of the matter. And so I think that is an important distinction. And while there are some in the community that have certainly advocated for this new community benefits agreement. There's certainly a whole host of people in the community that still are not signed on. And I think we're providing advocacy for those vo

And so as we move forward, I think it is, um, clear in my mind that I agree with you, commissioner Rodriguez McDowell. This doesn't, um, we're not solving to congestion. I think you can look at the toll roads in the north and know that Elaine does not solve congestion. What it is solving for is convenience. and said commentary on us as a community when we don't want to inconvenience the most affluent and those who have access and the means by which to travel that lane while others sit trying to get to work, Commissioner Griffin, on a job that keeps the community moving. So I think for me, I am