City Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to call to order the August 13th, 2026 Concord City Council meeting. Welcome everyone. If you would please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence.

Thank you. Okay, council members, you have copies of the minutes from July 7th, July 9th, and July 21st. Do I hear of any corrections or a motion to approve? Motion to approve, Mayor. I'll second that, Mayor. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Aye. That motion passes and we move next to presentations. We are honored to have a very special guest with us tonight and that is Roman Butzloff and we have a video that we're gonna show before we do a presentation.

How are you? Good. Well, we all know that Concord is a wonderful place to live. for a lot of different reasons. And this is yet another one. And because of Roman's actions, let's step over here so the photographer can see us. People all over the United States and all over the world know about that. And if you'll just Google his name, that video will come up and I think 25 others. Yeah, so you have really put Concord on the map. And the only thing that wasn't 100% positive about that video was we need to tell him how to pronounce Concord. Yes, yeah. But we have a proclamation for you, and I wan

Great, well, we want to thank you for bringing such a positive light on the city of Concord. And I'll give you this and hopefully you can hang that in your room. And in addition to that, Councilwoman Clay, I think came to visit you and she was talking about your bicycle. So she purchased a gift for you on behalf of city council that we want you to take And it is, as a matter of fact, I'll pull it out and show it to you since you got your hands full. A bell for your bicycle that lights up. Yeah. You're welcome. I hope you will enjoy that. Thank you very much. And we appreciate you being here to

I'm gonna repeat a little bit of what they just said, but for over 13 years of service to the city of Concord, Michelle Hunt retired August 1st, 2026 from her position at Rider Transit as the senior customer service representative. In 2007, Michelle and her family relocated from Washington, D.C., where she had a 20-year career with the federal government, including 10 years with the Drug Enforcement Administration. That may be where she learned some patience. in that area, but after moving to Concord, she pursued her passion for creativity by starting a home staging and interior design busines

Congratulations. Life part two begins. Right. Yeah. That would be wonderful. Yeah, please ask your family members to come up and join you.

Wonderful. And LJ can get a picture for us. How are you? Okay. Great. Congratulations.

And our next item, our recognition of the finance department, we did on Tuesday. So we will now move to departmental reports. And Jay Rowe has a report on our parks and recreation bond update. Welcome, sir.

Questions for Jay. Alright, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, next up on the agenda is public comment, persons requesting to be heard. So I'll read our rules on that. This portion of our meeting is our time to recognize persons requesting to be heard and provides an opportunity for anyone wishing to address the city council to do so. Each person will receive three minutes to address the council. There'll be a countdown clock on the screen. This is a time of listening for the council. The subject will be noted, and if it requires action or a request, the city manager will note as such and p

Thank you. Okay, our next speaker is Zach Allman.

Thank you. Okay, our next speaker is Keisha Sandage. Welcome.

Okay, our next speaker is Charles Patel.

Thank you. And that concludes all persons that have signed up for public comment tonight. So we now will move into our public hearings. First up, number one is conduct a public hearing to consider adopting a resolution authorizing the negotiation of an installment financing contract. Jessica talked with us about this on Tuesday. Does anybody have any additional questions on that before we open the public hearing? Okay, that being said, I will open the public hearing on this item. We do not have anyone that has signed up to speak, so if there's anybody that failed to have an opportunity and you

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? hearing none all in favor please say aye all opposed no that motion passes unanimously and we move to item two this is to conduct a public hearing to consider adopting an ordinance amending various articles article one through four six through 14 of the Concord Development Ordinance to address board and commission structure and duties, address signs in the Center City Zoning District, and further provide clarity, increase user efficiency, and comply with the North Carolina General Statutes. And Autumn talked with us about this on Tu

Great. All right. Thank you. And Kevin, if you want to address that specifically, there is some wording in here about electronic signs, but I think that only applies to public art facilities, you know the wording certainly better than I.

Right, and I asked that question on Tuesday night, thinking specifically about your situation, and the answer that I received was that the library and the Arts Council were the only two institutions that qualified, is that correct?

And so nowhere else in the Central Business District is that?

Anything else you wanna add? Okay, all righty, thank you. Is there anybody else that wishes to speak in the public hearing? If not, we'll close the public hearing. Council members, the recommendation on this one is a motion to adopt an ordinance amending various articles, articles one through four and six through 14 of the Concord Development Ordinance to address board and commission structure and duties, address signs in the Center City Zoning District, and further provide clarity, increase user efficiency, and comply with the North Carolina General Statutes. Do I hear such a motion?

I have a question first, sir. Kevin, could you clarify, just so I know, what the ordinance may have said about digital signs previously? Was there some ambiguity there that maybe caused Greg to think that it was okay to have that sign, and are we now changing that to where it's... No, ma'am, we're talking about a digital message board with movable...

Well, I appreciate the answer. I was just curious if there was some ambiguity there or something that wasn't clear about that that would have led you to think that that was okay. I just wanted to be sure that that was not something that we had misled from our part on the city. or that it was a change to where it was allowed at one point in time or wasn't clear, and now we've changed our position. Thank you.

Yeah, for the sake of clarity, for those that did not hear the discussion on Tuesday night, I think primarily the issues regarding signs that we discussed in this relate to the calculation of coverage on window signs was the primary item, right?

Okay, any other questions? Okay, I do still have a need for a motion. Yeah.

And then we'd move on to the motion for the text amendment. Okay. Council members, you see the two choices on the screen. Do I hear a motion to adopt or approve one or the other? May I move we approve the two bullets in blue?

All right, we have a motion and a second to approve the statement of reasonableness and consistency. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes.

Great, thank you. Okay, we have a motion to approve and a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Okay, and then... All right, and then the next item three, and that was for the zoning map amendment for property at Palisade Drive. We have a request from the owner for that matter to be tabled to our September meeting, so I would entertain a motion to table this item until September. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. Next up is presentation of petitio

All righty, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. All opposed, no. That motion passes. And we move to item six. This is to consider adopting an ordinance ordering the demolition of the structure located at 426 Lincoln Street, owned by Clean Clothes Enterprises. Chief Hughes talked to us about that one on Tuesday. Do you have additional questions for him?

I'm curious if Mr. Patel has been given a day that they're wanting to start demolition of this project.

Okay. Because I'm curious why he's maybe being told to move his things already?

Okay, and the definition that it's not necessarily just an eyesore as much as it is a public safety issue, correct?

And I guess, Chief, while you're there, because we did have this discussion on Tuesday, are you able to, just for the people that are here that probably weren't present, because we talked about the new parks and the safety issues. So can you talk a little bit about that? And I'm going to look at legal, because we also had the conversation of once it does get legalized, demolished they still can sell the property and how the process works so it's not necessarily a recommendation from us but just from a process perspective how that goes I'm not sure if they also understand that process can you s

Okay. Are there any additional questions?

I agree. I agree. And I don't think it's giving anybody 30 days. It's really more, if what I'm hearing is correctly, which is why I wanted the chief to explain this, I agree with... Jennifer on being able to table this motion for next month, just to allow enough time to really have those clear specifications and clarity. Because from what we heard earlier, I wanted to ask about make sure people understand we're not taking anyone's property. We're not taking their land. We're not taking any of that. And I think that's probably one of the things that people don't have clear

I think this is from this time in mind. I'm going to ask you. Can I go ahead and formally make that motion for us to table the consideration of adopting and ordering the demolition of the structure located on 426?

Yeah. I kind of feel the same way. I think when Mr. Patel used the word eyesore, that threw a flag to me that maybe he just thinks we're doing this because it's an eyesore. But in fact, we're looking at it as a public safety issue and there, there could be a big difference there and what he understands with that and what he thinks may or may not happen with the property. I don't, I'm going to speak out of both sides of my mouth. I don't know what we're going to think can happen in 30 days. I don't think you can work miracles on that building in 30 days. Um, it's probably still going to get dem

I think an important question to ask before you make a decision on this is, What happens during that 30 days on these civil penalties in the amount of $200 a day that have already begun accruing? They continue. They continue for another 30 days.

I just think that's a risk Mr. Patel takes.

I just have a question and you said we can ask the party here. do they understand that they can still sell this property even after the building is demolished?

I understand. I can't comment on that. I just want to make sure from a council perspective that whether we provide the 30 days for clarity, because it's not for changes. It's just for clarity for you to... for you to understand that you can still sell the property even if the building is demolished.

Would the fines stop when the demolition begins?

Would they stop the minute the bulldozer starts tearing the building down?

Okay. So essentially when the bulldozer shows up to knock the building down, the fines are done.

What do you think the process would be or how long, just as a rough estimate, do you think it would take to get, like, a bid and a contract written. I mean, is that an extra 30 days, 90 days, or two days?

Are you making that in the form of a motion?

Okay, we have a motion and a second to adopt an ordinance ordering the demolition of the structure located at 426 Lincoln Street, owned by Clean Clothes Enterprises. Did I get that correct, both of you? Okay. All right, is there any further discussion on this motion?

We have a motion and a second. We're still in discussion. The motion is to approve. The motion is to approve. to adopt an ordinance ordering the demolition of the structure located at 426 Lincoln Street, owned by Clean Clothes Enterprises.

Perfect, so we did not table it. We didn't make any changes to this. All right, perfect. That's where we started.

So we do have a motion and a second, and we're in the discussion period. Are you raising your hand to discuss? Oh, okay. Okay, is there any other discussion? All right, all in favor, please say aye.

All opposed, please say no. That motion passes unanimously. Okay, next up is item seven, consider adopting a reimbursement resolution for expenditures associated with a planned fiscal year 27 installment financing. Jessica talked about this item also on Tuesday night. Are there any additional questions on that? If not, I would entertain a motion to adopt a reimbursement resolution for expenditures associated with a planned fiscal year 27 installment financing. So moved, Mayor.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, please say no. Motion passes unanimously. Item eight, consider authorizing the city manager and staff to move forward with site investigation and schematic design with the consultant firm McAdams for WW Flow Park in the amount of $101,000. eight hundred and fifteen dollars and this is item that Jay talked to us about on Tuesday night and mentioned again in his bond project report tonight are there any additional questions Then in that case, I would entertain a motion to authorize the city manag

Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, please say no. That motion passes unanimously. Item 10 is considering amending the Article 5.10, political activities in the personnel policies and procedures. Ryan talked with us about that on Tuesday night. Of course, we've had a number of previous discussions. Does anybody have any additional questions? Yes, sir. Oh, your light was on. Oh, I'm sorry. Any questions on that item?

I just have one quick one that I didn't think of the other day. When will this become effective? If we pass it, it becomes effective immediately? Okay.

Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. Then I would entertain a motion to amend Article 5.10, Political Activities and the Personnel Policies and Procedures.

Okay, we have a motion and a second a couple of times. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. All opposed, please say no. That motion passes. We move to item 11, which is consider making appointments on vacancies to various City of Concord boards and commissions. As I reported on Tuesday night, Betty, Lori, and I met along with staff. We gave you a list of recommended names, which was to fill Two alternates on the Historic Preservation Commission with Brad Sullivan and Michael Modrak. And then one appointment on the Library Board of Trustees, which was Raven Odell William Garrity. And..

I'll let you go first. Please. You make it a lot more entertaining than I will.

And everything that, I'll ditto everything that he said. I can read this, but there's a whole lot of MPOs and ABCs and 123s. I think probably the most exciting part for all of us out here that don't know all that language, is that the Union Cemetery Road realignment has been successfully lit and construction is underway according to the monthly Division 10 report. I'd say that's probably in layman's terms what we're all excited to know and hear about. Absolutely.

Any questions? Thank you. Okay, next, Water and Sewer Authority of Cabarrus County, and that is Jeff Corley and Jennifer Hubbard.

Any other questions for Jeff or Jennifer? Thank you. All right, next up, Central Line of Council. Lori is our representative there.

Well, our meeting was last night. And I was attending virtually. And they've had some management changes there. And the young lady sent out the wrong Zoom meeting number. So I tried to attend, but I was not able to. I did write them and ask, since the Zoom meeting number was incorrect and no one could Zoom in, would they mind sending a recap of what happened? And if it's acceptable, I'll report that next month.

Great, thank you. Okay, general comments by council members?

hearing none there is no need of a closed session tonight so I would entertain a motion to adjourn have a motion and a second all in favor please say aye all opposed no we stand adjourned thank you