Baldwin County Commission Regular - Regular Meeting

Okay, if y'all don't mind, please stand for the invocation.

0:10 – 0:38•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Everyone, if you will bow with me, please. Dear Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for all the many blessings you bestow upon us here in this wonderful place we call home, Baldwin County. And Lord, we just ask you to be with us today as we conduct the business of Baldwin County Commission, Lord. Give us the strength, the wisdom, the courage to do things that are pleasing to you, dear Lord. And we ask all of this in Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.

0:43•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Please stand with me with the pledge, please. Sorry.

0:47 – 1:00•BUBillie Jo Underwood

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.

That's one of them while you were standing there looking at us. I said, hang on, I forgot to tell him. Yeah. All right, good morning and welcome to the... I'm going to see what day it is. October 6th work session portion of this meeting where we mainly adopt a consent agenda, and then we will hear from the public if there's any public comments. So we will get started with setting our consent agenda. First up, we have commissioners item CA1. I'm good. Yeah, I'm good with that. Okay. We have our animal control items, CB1, CB2.

Yeah, I'm good. All right, then we have our budget and purchasing. We got eight items there.

2:01 – 2:16•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Yeah, I have a question for CF1. All of a sudden, are we terminating... something with Summerdale when we just approved it a couple months ago. Why is it on the agenda? Who requested to put it on the agenda?

3:10 – 3:50•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Eddie, and I trust what you're saying and I believe it, but that just sounds like a song and dance to me. I'm going to be honest with you because all of a sudden this just pops up, you know, and we just signed the body just approved this two months ago. So this this This program or this development's been going on and it just didn't come up yesterday. And I'm not disrespecting you at one bit, but if we're going to do this for Somerdale, then we need to do it for all of them. And I just don't, with the body just approving it, You know, two months ago, and all of a sudden now it comes on the age

4:06•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Does the city of Somerdale know what's fixing to happen? Have they been notified at all?

4:22 – 5:15•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Yeah, well, I saw this on the agenda, and I reached out to Mayor Farris this morning. He didn't know anything about it. And I asked him, I said, has anybody been fired or anybody let go? And he said no. So I don't know what's going on. So I'd like to pull this from the and let us vote on it in the regular meeting. Because it just doesn't look good. I mean, y'all know this. Right here at the end, we gave them the extension until December 31st. to allow these municipalities to do this. And y'all know this. I didn't like it at the beginning. Y'all know that. I didn't like, if you live in the coun

Thank you, Eddie. All right, CIS, CG1 through CG6. Yeah, I'm good. We have our CI items with elected officials.

5:43 – 6:04•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Yes, I'm good. And I think there's several people here that may want to speak about that. Yeah, but they signed up for public comment, so we'll let them speak. So just to clarify this, if all three are in agreement to put this on consent, the resolution would be on consent, which is, I think, what you want.

No, I'm good with it. All right. We have EMA. Yep. Environmental management. Yes. Yeah, I'm good. And looks like we got a grants correction and plus four more items, five more items.

6:54 – 7:05•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Mark, I got a question for CO3, speed limit adjustment on County Road 64. So we're gonna, and I'm sorry, I apologize. I didn't click on that one to look and see. What's the plan there?

Y'all good with those? You got a juvenile detention item?

Yeah, it looks good. Thank you. Planning and zoning?

All right. People that are here that have signed up to speak today, I will have my colleague call out names, and when you hear your name, you will come up to this podium and say your name and what you're here for on behalf of or whatever, and you'll have... If you're speaking on behalf of a group, you'll have five minutes. If you're speaking by yourself, you'll have three minutes to get it all out. So who's my first one, Roxanne? Judge Scully. Judge Scully. How you doing, Judge?

Well, the consent will be voted on in one vote, and so it will be voted on in the regular meeting. Understood. Meaning we've given consent to that item, and it's already passed in our minds.

That's it. Is there anybody that you said the state director may want? Did you want to say anything? Okay. Yes, sir.

So I've got a question. Yes, sir. Are y'all in an appeals process to get the certification back?

And it will be in support. We hope our letter of support helps out and carries some weight with y'all.

21:35 – 22:53•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Mr. Chairman? Yes. May I speak? Yeah. I just want to say that for those of you, especially Kathy and Cindy and everyone, you've dedicated your lives to this cause and this purpose, and I know it hasn't been me intricately involved, but I know that those who have been, and I applaud you guys for not allowing this to just happen, and and fight for it because I've never heard anything but good things about what you guys do for the intellectually challenged members of our community. I remember when you guys built the group home for the men, the Bertola home in Locksley. I know that, I know ones wh

Anything, Matt? Yeah, just thank y'all. Hang on just one second, Judge. I just want to say thank you, and I can remember when I was running my first term of office, I was running with Judge Scully in his office term, and I came to know his daughter and didn't even understand what ARC was until he told me about it, and he was one of the first person I thought of in this, but I also have some friends and a personal friend that It's grown in this day camp, whatever you call it, program, and it immediately shut down the family's life as far as like now who's going to stay home and miss work, take

Yeah, but we ought to recognize her. That's right. Well, we appreciate y'all coming today and appreciate the outpouring of support for something that means so much to not only you guys, but to our county and possibly surrounding areas. I don't know if ORC of Baldwin takes in neighboring counties. I don't know how it works, but if it's a benefit to everybody, then it's great. May it be so. So, anyway, I will tell you this. We are going to vote on this. It's already been consented on. Y'all don't have to stay through any more of this boring stuff, but y'all are more than welcome to sit here. We'

Okay, so I have a request, and it's kind of a new request and something I've been thinking about since the last couple meetings. Commissioner Gruber brought this up, and I wanted to go ahead and take care of it, and I thought he was going to be here today, and since he's not, I'm going to take care of it. So I'm going to ask our attorney, first of all, to help me out, word my request, because I'm going to be requesting... a moratorium for 180 days on all rezoning cases that have not been put in the portal yet. This will be strictly new cases that aren't in limbo. We don't have a planning direc

28:16•BUBillie Jo Underwood

You talking about that thing out in the Gulf? Yeah. Okay. Just kind of keeping our eyes on the Gulf.

Can't believe we're having this conversation. We can't get out of here fast enough and

31:15 – 33:54•BUBillie Jo Underwood

And I want to make a shout out to the highway department particularly. I was out of town this weekend from Thursday through Sunday so my husband was calling me telling me how much rain we were having and we experienced nine inches where I live but I don't believe one county road had to be closed or was flooded or anything. And that's a testament to all of the work that we have done over the past few years in drainage projects to try to make our county more resilient. And I know we would catch all kind of grief from people griping about detours and all that. And I hope that people realize you c

Absolutely, and just keep us informed. I'm sure you'll keep our staff informed in case we have to call a special meeting or anything like that, so keep us up to date. We appreciate it. Yes, sir. I do not want to be at the EOC this week, so we'll do what we got to do. Anything else? Roger. Mr. Attorney?

So we are going to adjourn this work session, and it's 936. Welcome to our 10 o'clock regular meeting. Today we have our invocation by Pastor Wilson Newell with the First Methodist Church, and then followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. We'll get Commissioner Underwood to lead us in that. If you all don't mind, please stand for the invocation.

36:33 – 36:52•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. 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. Thank you.

Thank you and welcome again to this meeting today. First order of business is adoption of the September 15th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Do I hear a motion? I'll make that motion. Motion by Commissioner McKenzie, second by Commissioner Underwood to adopt the meeting minutes. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Commissioner Underwood is going to do our finance section.

37:24 – 37:42•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Okay, since I Mr. Gruber's not here. He asked me to read this for him. Make a motion that we approve the payment of the bills, and this report includes 949 invoices and distributions totaling $8,074,510.06. All right.

You heard the motion to pay the bills. Is there a second? Second. I got a second. No discussion. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

37:54 – 38:25•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Okay, Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve item BA2, the ratification of interim payments as allowed by policy 8.1. And this report includes 116 invoices and distributions totaling $5,507,000. $5,465.88. Boy, I screwed that up. Let me do that again. $5,577,465.88. They even printed it out for me. Okay, that's a motion.

I'll second that. Got a motion and a second to ratify the interim payments as allowed by Policy 8.1. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Next up, we have our consent agenda. Please note for the record that item CF1 has been pulled to our other staff section, so we'll be voting on everything except that item.

38:48•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we approve our consent agenda excluding item CF1, which will be put on other staff.

I'll second that. Got a motion and a second to adopt our consent agenda. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye.

And just to note for the record that for people that don't understand how consent works, we did take care of a pretty large item today that was affecting the citizens of Baldwin County with the art. Baldwin County program. So just wanted to bring to the actual live video feed that the commission has adopted to send a resolution in support of ARCA Baldwin County to the commissioner of the Department of Mental Health. So hopefully we can get that straightened out and y'all will be recertified soon. Thank y'all. A lot of representatives here earlier for the work session represent Ark of Baldwin C

40:26 – 42:18•BUBillie Jo Underwood

And I'll read the proclamation, and then I'll let you speak, and then we'll do the photos, okay? I'm not quite wearing purple, but it's in the color. It is, it is, definitely. All right, and that's the color for domestic violence. So, proclaiming October 2026 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Baldwin County, Alabama, whereas domestic violence is a serious crime that affects people of all races, ages, genders, and income levels, and whereas domestic violence is widespread and affects more than 10 million Americans each year, and whereas one in three Americans have witnessed an incident of

44:27 – 44:43•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

commissioners before we adopt this proclamation do y'all want to say anything I just want to say thank you Andre and miss smart for doing what you do for Baldwin County and for domestic violence it is a tough situation and I just want to say thank you

44:46 – 47:24•BUBillie Jo Underwood

As always, thank you. When I first learned about the Lighthouse, it was even before I become elected as a commissioner. And so many times you don't really even realize, because some people will not talk about what happens to them. They don't report it. They don't, you know, it never comes to surface. But for those who get help with you guys, it's amazing. It's like, you know, they talk about these people who get help from recovery, like from addictions and things like that. And I think the people who can face these things and get help and for the lighthouse being there I was coming home was on

Yep, thank y'all for being here, Ms. Smart, and Andre, I do give the number out as much as I can to individuals that I think that needs it, so we appreciate y'all being here today to accept this proclamation. Commissioners, is there a vote? We got a motion by Commissioner Underwood. Second. Second by Commissioner McKenzie to adopt this proclamation for Domestic Violence Awareness Month for the month of October of 2026. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Proclamation has been adopted. We have no public hearings today. We've got a building, I guess we do. Sorry. We

Y'all have any questions for Eddie? No. Okay. Open a public hearing on this item EF1, the amendment to Baldwin County floodplain development ordinance. Is there anybody signed up to speak? Yes, sir. All right. Nobody signed up to speak. Anybody sitting in here wishing to speak about this? All right. Close the public hearing. Commissioners?

I'll second it. Got a motion and a second to adopt this correction and amendment to the Baldwin County Floodplain Development Ordinance. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right, motion passes.

All right, so here in section F, we will bring, there's our other staff recommendations, where we'll bring up item CF1. This was pulled from our consent agenda. We have to vote on it separately. Item CF1 is the termination of building construction regulations agreement with the town of Summerdale.

51:04 – 52:11•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Yeah, I knew it was going to pass when we came here, why I pulled it. I just think it looks bad for the county to take away Summerdale's permitting just because some big developer. When have we ever listened to developers? And, you know, as a body, why do we do that? I just feel like it's setting the wrong precedent to do this when we just approved it two months ago to give the county or allow Silver Hill and Summerdale to do this. And all of a sudden now, Something happened and then all of a sudden now we're taking it away from them. It just doesn't look good. But I knew I was gonna get outvo

We got a motion on item CF1 and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Okay, motion passes. All right, next up we have, we got item GA1. which is an addenda. So RFQ for engineering services permission to advertise. I guess that could have been brought into consent, but.

Thank you, Frank. All right. Commissioners, do you all have a motion on this?

54:37•BUBillie Jo Underwood

I'll make a motion we approve item GA-1.

Second. Okay, got a motion and a second to approve item GA-1. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Next up is an item that I discussed at the work session. It has now been called Resolution 2027-20 of the Baldwin County Commission, and this resolution imposes a 180-day moratorium on all rezoning requests and all new data centers and renewable energy projects within zoned areas under the jurisdiction of Baldwin County, Alabama. I make a motion that we adopt this resolution as outlined by our attorney.

55:18•BUBillie Jo Underwood

And I'll second it. And I do have some discussion.

So I was gonna also add to it as well in the discussion topics. And I'm sure Commissioner Underwood will also echo this. Our staff is inundated right now with a bunch of rezoning cases and we've just got 14 on the agenda for our Fair Hope meeting coming up. And it's getting out of hand to the point to where we can't catch our breath And we don't have a planning director in place. We don't have our master plan in place. We don't have flumes in place. All that stuff that dictates rezoning cases is not available yet. And so what I wanted to see was just a pause and a slowdown. And Commissioner Gr

57:00 – 57:14•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Are we going to, Frank, are we going to make sure the public's aware of the exceptions? It doesn't affect, you know, building permits and all that, too. We're going to stress that because a lot of people are going to be hitting y'all's office, Eddie's office, up pretty hard about building permits.

57:22 – 57:46•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

I don't disagree with the moratorium. You made a good point about the staff, but they're going to get hit harder, too, once this 180 days is up, and there's going to be a lot of rezoning cases coming in front of them. And so this kind of helps out. So I really appreciate it. And I know the developers will be upset, but like I said earlier, when do we ever listen to developers?

Well, the new commissioners can catch a breath for a little while because they won't have to deal with them for the first 180 days of office, which is, you know, I don't think they'll pile up. I think people will really consider that. And developers will consider to bring a right product to the new commission that it needs to be something that when you bring it to it shouldn't be controversial it shouldn't be you know going against everybody's will around the area and stuff like that and that's what this master plan once it's solidified and a new planning director gonna find right now we don't

58:52 – 1:04:48•BUBillie Jo Underwood

Well, I mean... We'll be here for the next four years, thankfully. And I want to take a moment to explain why I believe this 180-day moratorium is very important. I have consistently mentioned this, not just in the last few months, not just in the last six months, but I've even asked about this over probably the last couple of years because our current flume is on a GIS and it's hard for people to read. in my opinion, but they've got better technology. There's all kinds of things. I have consistently asked for this, but there hasn't been a better time, I think, because, you know, I campaigned

All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All right, motion passes. Any press here? Okay, good. Commissioner, comments?

All right. I'm going to ask if we have any more comments. Matt, you got anything?

1:05:13 – 1:05:56•MMMatthew P. McKenzie

Yeah, I just want to say thank you, Angelo and Richard, for being here. Good luck to you all in the future. It's going to be here quick. But I just want to say thanks. Staff, thank you for putting this together. You know, y'all have done an excellent job, so thank y'all. Eddie, I want to say this, and what I said in my comments has nothing directly towards you personally. I want you to understand that. I just feel like that we should have done that, but that's okay. The body passed it, and move on. Commissioners, thank you. Roger, thank y'all. I know you'll be glad when I'm out of here, so I'l

Thank you. As Commissioner Gruber always says, thanks to all the staff that's involved in putting the agenda together. It takes a lot to do this, and so I won't belabor the meeting any longer with comments. But I do appreciate all y'all's help, and hopefully this thing that we did is going to give some of our staff a break tonight. and figure out how to work towards another process of making those rezoning cases go smoothly. All right. Any other greater good from the dais up here?

1:06:36•BUBillie Jo Underwood

I thank everybody, so I do want to thank everybody. Oh, come on.