Council - Regular Meeting

2026. Let us stand. to those minutes?

If not, do I hear a motion to approve the minutes? Just a second.

Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. minutes are approved from our January 6. So we have no public comments. So we'll move on to old business. We will uh our first item is the backflow prevals. Uh Randy,

uh mayor and council, as you know, uh at the last council meeting, you you asked staff to check see if the plumbing code required a backflow or a an expansion tank in the plumbing of a building that receives a backflow prevention valve. So, we reached out to Kevin Marx, uh, Nash County Building Inspections, and, uh, he confirmed that a building that, uh, has a backflow installed and has a standard water heater does require an expansion tank. So that um the the two the two customers that have requested reimbursement of their hot water heaters that they had to replace after they put in their backflow prevention valve. I called their plumbers and the plumbers uh told me that they did not install an expansion tank and they didn't go into the building to see if there was an expansion tank. So the likely reason that those water heaters uh uh began to leak is is because the They heated up. They created pressure. That pressure had no place to go. Uh the water heaters were old and they began leaking.

What are your thoughts, council? You can see the manager's recommendation. My thoughts are they didn't get a permit and they didn't follow the code and we shouldn't be penalized for that.

What are your thoughts, Javian? Yeah, I was just going to say I think when we talked about this last time when we table it, [clears throat] I was a little bit concerned. I I I was a little bit concerned with it. Uh but based off the information now that Randy has shared with us and that is what we asked staff to do was to go back and kind of dig a little bit more. I think I was just trying to grasp the concept uh from legal counsel. Ras was, I think, suggesting at the last meeting that you kind of get to a rabbit hole when you start digging with some of this stuff, but this was something that we had initiated. So, Ras, if you would kind of give me that summary again just so I can wrap my mind around that piece because I think he was trying to help us make sense of that.

Yes, sir. Um, mayor, members of council, this this would represent a claim against the town. Um, you know, strictly speaking, I understand from Randy it was processed through the league municipalities pool risk fund. The insurance adjusters uh looked to see if the town had legal responsibility. And as to the uh expense of installing the backflow, I think the answer was yes. Uh my understanding Randy was that they they they implicitly determined that the town didn't have legal responsibility. It wasn't covered under the insurance policy for paying for the hot water heater. So that that was the determination made by your insurance adjusters on the legal issue whether you should feel that there was a responsibility a legal responsibility to pay for um the water heaters that were indirectly um caused by as a result of the backflow flow prevention device and the plumber coming in and fixing removing the backflow but not not checking to see if the expansion tax was going to be required. So, um I guess the issue is whether as a matter of good will the town would just uh elect to pay those costs. Um uh because the the municipalities decided that that in their view you were not legally responsible. So that's that's the issue for you. Um um whether you would want to

and raz if we do replace them, shouldn't we do like insurance companies? They weren't new. Exactly. So we need to look at their age if we decide to do that and and reimburse on that would be that would normally be the measure of the damages would be the depreciated value of those tanks not and they were like 10 years old, weren't they? I believe that's what I'm saying. So even mayor if so even though we must understand that they are commercial units I'm sure and and not residential what I think I'm grasping then is from the perspective of prorating uh based off of good faith. I I think that's accurate. Okay.

And and that's kind of where my assessment is at this point because I think at this point we're dragging out a situation that uh we really did not uh intend to get this far. um it was a mistake. We've admitted that. We've tried to rectify that in the best way we get faith as we possibly could. Um the insurance company have supported us in doing our effort. So at this point that would be my recommendation. So I I would have good faith if they followed the the rule of law and they did not.

Larry, what are your thoughts? I I I too have some concerns as well because all this started because mistake [clears throat] that we made, but I think we've done everything that we possibly could do uh with the help of Randy and doing some more research and even contacting the the plumbers that actually did the work to other people. So I don't want to get into a I want to be a good neighbor to our to our citizens. Uh we have a exemplary record of trying to be cooperative and working being fair with our citizens. So I'm I'm inclined even though the plumber didn't do what he should have done. I'm inclined to give them a reimbursement based on a pro depreciation of the war years. That way the citizens can't say we just shut them off all together. Uh that's I don't want to use the word that's our way out but I think that's the most fairest way we can we could do it. I don't think they'd have any re recourse uh whereas I don't based on that I don't think any any business would have any recourse with us if we re refunded them on a prorated basis do you think?

Well well whether that's whether town wants to do that or not is of course your call. It strikes me as a reasonable compromise, but that of course as you recall because um I I understand Mr. L's position that if in fact the plumber should have inquired and pointed out that the expansion tank was going to be required, but the plumber didn't. Um so so that that's where it leaves town in terms of but shouldn't they go back to back to the plumber instead of the town for that? That's certainly one entirely appropriate response as well.

Well, what I'm looking at if if if we let if we pronate let them pay part of it, then if they want to recoup the rest of it, then it's up to go back to the [clears throat] point.

I'm sort of stuck on this too because um the reason that they're in this situation is because of the mistake that we made. However, we cannot be held responsible for the mistakes of others and the plumbers clearly made a mistake. the onus is on them, but now we're asking them to go and start an action against the plumbers. And how successful that will that be? How much money will they have to spend in order to do that do that if the plumber doesn't say yes, let's make it right. Um, so I'm sort of stuck here too where I don't think it's our responsibility. I don't want to set the precedent where we take on the responsibility by the mistakes of others. Um, but at the same time, I don't want to be a bad neighbor and and leave people hanging where the beginning of it was. Well, I'm not saying that we tell them go for the rest of the diploma. That's that's left entirely up to them. If they won't accept what we reimburse them and be satisfied that ends it. If they're not satisfied, then it's up to them and we're not telling them what to do. It's up to them to go to the pl.

Well, we definitely aren't buying new water heaters for them when they're 10 years old. And none of those No, I'm not I'm not suggesting buying a new new unit at all. Now, what do we do as far as um any claims that haven't been brought to our attention at this time? I think we need to put a crown off date for any claims that may come to us. And what are we doing as far as releases of any liability? We'll have everyone sign a release

that in terms of settling with any of these folks that are making a claim against the town. That's that's part of what you do. you you you get a release if you um if you're willing to pay certain onion satisfaction claim. Uh I asked Randy if he knew of other claims that might be coming along the same lines and I don't I don't think anyone's coming out of the woodwork at this point. um something to think about uh because obviously you are setting a precedent, but um so so so probably the decision you make should legitimately apply if somebody next week makes the same sort of thing. I guess although you know the the heater failure, you know, I wouldn't think there would just be it it strikes me as being something that is somewhat unusual. I don't think you're going to have a large number of these types of claims in a town size Nashville, but there is an unknown. Randy, our our fund that we had that we that we were giving these reimbursements from, we have not exhausted that fund.

No, it it it's the water fund is where we were pulling the money from. So, so do I hear a motion? The manager, you saw what he recommended. What is the desire of the council? [clears throat]

Mayor, if I may make this motion. Uh typically I'm not going to go against the manager's recommendations because I do trust and have full confidence in the mayor uh in the town manager Randy. But on this particular case, I think it is in the council's best interest that I make this motion to uh move forward with good faith as the council and uh do this effort uh with a re um appropriated rate would be my motion. Do I hear a second? I second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. Nay. Okay. I Okay. Motion carries

and make sure it's prorated like it should. We have to make that decision right now as far as the be helpful. I mean, that's what I was thinking. Um I'm I'm remembering when um council member Xavier when he googled the average life of a water heater, it was like 8 to 12 years, wasn't it? Yeah. So I mean if you go in the middle of 10ear depreciation uh and and you you you take uh you know the the value of what their hot water heaters are and you divide it by 10. Uh that's because both of them were over 10 years of age.

About $65 for one and $49 $469 for the other one, which is what you're saying. Yeah. Should we um make a motion that we That would be great. I think that would be good for us. So, do I hear a motion that uh we uh in good faith for our citizens that we do reimburse them for the error that was made by the plumber, but that we will do it. We'll pro rate the the age of their um water heaters and reimburse them accordingly. I approve that motion. I mean I make that motion. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor let it be known by saying I. I.

And Randy thanks for all the research you did. Uh the next item on our agenda is the um let's see what it is. It is the gov delivery notification system. And um Lou Miss Louise been it. [laughter] Yeah. No need to play. So with our new website and some of the I'm going to try to hook this up to my computer. So we'll see if this works.

Yeah, of course it's not. Um, with the new website, we have a a gov delivery program which will send out text messages and emails to anyone that signs up. Recently, we had a lot of people call and complain that they did not get notification about the garbage changing. And we put it on the water bills, we put it on the website, we put it on Facebook, we put on Instagram, we put on X. and anybody that had signed up also got a text or an email telling them of the new garbage change. So, we were just going to run y'all through um the website a little bit. So, on our new our website, when you first sign up, there will be and I I think I look and most of y'all are signed up. I think there might have been one.

It's me. [laughter] There's a the first time you go to it, um, they'll pop up and it asks you to subscribe or people can go down to the bottom and say subscribe for updates and you put in your email address and you submit it. I've already done it so it's not going to let me do it again. Um,

so just you can sign up for emails or text. It gives you an option later [clears throat] on. Um, but we we we have bulletins. Um, Megan, I don't know if y'all have received the new newsletter. Megan has taken on with the assistant library director. She sends out a town newsletter now once a month with upcoming events. So, um, I just want to encourage people talk to you about not getting notifications to please let us know. We have, let me get the topics right now. The topics are um we're getting ready to get strong switched over to board of adjustment downtown strong board planning board so that how you get your agendas now they can get their agendas for those. Um then we have town announcements and those are the ones where where like roads are closed, trash is going to be running different. Um any kind of emergency like if we have a water break, we'll send out that. Um, as you can see right now, town announcement, this line here, 182 people are signed up for town announcements. 146 are t signed up to get the agendas. Um, we have, we don't have a town an employee newsletter, but that was something we were testing. But the town of Nashville News, which is the newsletter, we have 190 89 signed up for. Um, but it's it's fairly simple um for us to do. is automatic just so that when we get ready to do an announcement, I'll go in there and I'll put whatever I put on the website, whatever I put on Facebook, I then put in here as a we call them bulletins for some reason and not topics. That's a little strange on the way that's done. And then it all goes out and notifies everybody. So, if you've not signed up for it, I encourage

everybody to sign up for it. um is a great you like cuz like with this upcoming weather um I plan on taking my laptop home with me so that there's anything that goes on any kind of you know if there's with the as cold as it's going to get they're talking about maybe pipes freezing so we can send out notifications about maybe let their water drip or if they there's a water break in town we can put that on there so they know. So it's kind of like a code red but not really because it's not we're going to you know we still rely on the county for emergency the weather kind of code red but this is more just in town you know this is what's going on so mayor that's excuse me that's a great make sure you tell your neighbors about it

yeah I was just that's what I that's what I was going to uh ask it looks like this tool could help us more so for uh engagement yes you know um when you're talking about the agendas going Now, this is something that we can go to civic organizations, churches, nonprofits, and say, "Hey, uh, if you sign up for go.gov, uh, with the town of Nashville, you'll be able to get the agendas for certain, um, agendas and situations or like you said, trash and certain alerts and stuff. So, while people may not physically come in the building and may virtually watch this council meeting, this is another tool that we will have that we can engage our citizens and they can be um, updated and alerted."

Correct. And if you look with also with the new website now they can always go to our YouTube channel and stream it but if you go to the new website let's see right now if I can get it to go back to the main home um we have there's a live stream meeting that they can be watching it here too. And I think if I if y'all remember when we got this program, I showed you how people can get their the agendas, the minutes, you know, we I still do the traditional upload the minutes that have been signed by the mayor and attested by me, but they also town council. It's very slow lately, but if you go down here, you'll see upcoming events that's in progress. That's up right now. View event like so. I don't know if it's going to mess up with this, but well,

but we can see our meeting going on, right? It's it's kind of messing up right now. It does not look like this when you do it from remotely because when I was out with the blue, I did actually watch the meeting. So, we're behind. Hold on, Lou. It may be a few seconds behind. Oh, okay. But they can watch it in progress. Then it will p uh if you go to the past meetings here, you see where there's the agenda packet for what's coming up 2025, you see there's the agenda, the meetings, the agenda packet, the video, so they can all and then because everything's timestamped on the video, people can jump to just particular items. So it's a pretty good

it's a good program. I really want more people to sign up for gov delivery, but in the first I sent out a bunch of, you know, kind of a media blast online. Um, and within a day we had gone from like 89 to 189. So, we're just want because I know there's a lot of people that do not use social media and we just that's going to just have to be spread the by word of mouth. So, well, Lou, thank you so much. You're welcome. And I I'll see if I can sign up. [laughter] So, and I would share it with people

and we can actually see on that gov delivery. I can see exactly who is signed up and who's not signed up. So, and what they've signed up for. So, and if anybody has problems, if you know anybody, I can walk them through them. They can call us, give us their email address, and we can sign up for them so they just get an email because sometimes that's a little hard for people. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Um, so do we receive this explanation of the gov uh delivery notification system available to the town's um new website and watchration on how it works? Yes, we do. And thank you very much. Second. Second. All those in favor by saying I I do have one question there. Okay.

Do we have like a QR code that you can just scan and it brings you right there? I can I Yes, I've created one and I think it's at the front of the at the town hall on the I put a um flyer up there that might be easiest. It's like farmers market town and I get some out just everyone has a phone at this point you know maybe not maybe not um social media but right and if you've ever looked now at the website on your new we'll continue on with it um on the new website on your phone it is so much nicer than it used to be. So it's more it it works better with a smartphone.

But yeah, I'll get those flyers out once um farmers market starts. Maybe we'll put it on the water bill. I don't know there's enough room or not. Did you have a question? Sorry. One thing slate, please go to this microphone, please.

Just very quickly, one thing that I was going to say, I work as a senior technical engineer and um we're kind of going away QR codes like we're putting out a lot of information now that QR codes can be used um to directly install malware via single click. So I would personally be against utilizing a QR code for the simple fact that that is becoming more prominently known. Similarly to you know there are scams you may be aware of where someone sends you a PDF via email or a link via a text message. QR codes can used similarly to uh provide malware directly to a mobile device. So um I might you know go towards a different angle with that. Um obviously you know being the town of Nashville people may feel you know secure utilizing that but more people are starting to avoid that.

What is the alternative you have? So in terms of alternative uh the you want to put a little bit of friction between the user and accessing uh this site and the reason why is when you have something like a QR code. Typically speaking that'll launch you directly into the site from a security vantage point you don't want it to be quite that easy. Um, what I would probably recommend is have the QR code, go to an intermediary site,

which you will then have to click a capture, you know, that will say, "Yes, I'm a human," for example. You may have seen those when you log into certain sites. And that will uh provide the security clearance to actually jump to Nashville. Okay, that's what the QR code takes you to the website our the town's website which is then well now we've unplugged but there is a capture on the email there. So, is the capture directly upon clicking? Like, for example, if I were to go and click that link, it's probably not going to take me directly to the capture. I don't There's one on here right now. There's a capture. We'll see.

I guess my point is when you come from Google and you click the link, it's likely taking you directly to the site. It takes you to the town's website, right? And then there's a capture. I don't I don't know if I can. Okay. Come over here and I'll show you. [laughter] There's a hesitation in scanning a QR code. What's the difference between scanning a QR code and getting a capture versus scanning and bringing it directly to the site? If you don't want to scan it, you're not going to scan it. So, this is the town. I guess what I'm saying

and then you'll go down here. [clears throat] I think this is I I suppose that's the issue, right? Because initially when you click that link, it takes you directly to the site and that is typically what occurs in these QR scams is there will be a a faux site that the person SSOS into when they click that or excuse me scan that QR code. Whereas this you'll have a capture but it's only once you are in the process of creating an account. Now the QR code went directly to the website. The one that I did. Yeah. Not this not this website, the town website.

It takes you here. So that that's what I'm I'm saying is there's more people avoiding it due to consu. Well, then it's just going to have to be word of mouth, I guess, because I've tried. I mean, I don't know what the option other option is besides word of mouth. Do you I make a motion to Okay, [laughter] thanks some food for thought. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much. The next item on our agenda is uh downtown strong advisory board appointments. Sean,

good morning, mayor and council. Once again, always a pleasure to speak with all of y'all. This morning, the town will be making recommendations to the town council for appointments for our downtown strong advisory board. As you all aware in the manager report we've been sending out recently, we had two unexpired terms that pretty much came to an end when they were not eligible to be reappointed. We had one term that the business owner had to step away due to missing too many meetings. So we sent out letters on that. And we also just had the resignation of Pastor Luke Whitehead. Not for any particular reason. He just said right now scheduling conflicts kind of hurts with trying to get to the meetings on time. He has a lot of more things going on. So what we are proposed today, we have two out of three members here to meet the council. One of the members was unable to get here. We're proposing Mr. Michael AOT. He's the owner of Trash the Treasury, the former furniture store. Mr. AOT was unable to make it today. Of course, in the business that he's doing antiquing and collections, you got to be out early in the morning at those salvage places, at those auctions, getting that type of stuff. So he was unable to be here. But Mr. AOP brings a rich history of working on boards. In the manage report last week, we put in there that Mr. AOP did serve on the city of Richmond and city of New Orleans historic preservation board. So we think he'll be a great addition to our downtown board. After meeting with him, he looked very forward to work with us and he truly said his apologies on not being here today. We also have with us Lata Deo from Eagle Eye Management from the Nashville Junction. Lata has been very instrumental helping the town with our steering committee with parts of Rex. She's very involved with the downtown. She's very involved with launching new great ideas over here in Nashville. We are thrilled. Like I told her yesterday that she picked Nashville to launch and plant her business set and she has been a great asset to us in the downtown. And also Mr. Slade Woodard Slate has been attending the downtown meets for about two years. He's very great ideas, great initiatives. He took on the initiative of looking at the sidewalk, seeing what need to be repaired and fixed. So he would be

taking Pastor Luke White his spot as the residence. So those are the two business owners we have and the resident. And of course, we'll have one more spot open for a business owner that we'll be filling in the near future. I will bring up and cut his cut off. I'll keep talking until it dies again. I will bring up Lata from Eli Venture and also Mr. Slave Wood where you can meet them. And we're asking for recommendation from the council to vote all three of these members to our advisory board. As we stated in the manager's report, this is done the periodically way for our parks recreation board, our planning board, board of adjustment, and our library advisor board. Miss

just a name who you are. [laughter]

All right. Good morning, mayor of council. My name is the boys that speak to management. I have owned this business since 20087. So I was about 18 years old now. I moved to Nashville in 2021. U low see where I was best planted at. Uh and I met Sean and Koi and all the great people of the community and they've asked me to participate. I've been on several boards before in steering committees and other committees. So, I kind of understand what's going to be required of me, but I'm excited to be part of the community as a help to business owners. I'm a huge advocate for small businesses,

bringing their ideas and understanding. And my company focuses on training, consulting, and coaching those individuals so they can sustain their business. And we thank you for willing to serve so very much. And we've met you. Do you have anything?

Say, anything you'd like to say to the board for a few minutes? Um I think so I have spoken in front of the council a few times. I've been very familiar with the uh formerly MSD port I suppose downtown Strongport now um for the past two years or so. I didn't realize it had been that long Sean until I looked at my emails last night. Um but there have been a few updates since uh I think the application was put in. I was recently uh uh taken up to senior technical engineer. Uh I work for a company called Regg which specializes in financial regulations and financial regulation compliance for uh everything from very small insurance companies all the way up to Fortune 500 banks. Um, I spent a large portion of my career working directly with businesses trying to figure out what it is they need, how to best convey those things to their clients in a compliant way and how to improve uh their uh technical offerings as well. Um, presently I do a lot more uh backend work, but I do uh I am regularly in calls with clients and um I work pretty diligently to try and improve uh their situations. I am extremely active in terms of literally physically being active around this area. Um I probably walk around it four or five times a day. Um, I apologize for uh being a little underdressed. I walked here. Um, but I just appreciate your time today

and thank you for serving also. So, these guys I see walking around town. [laughter] Thank you. If we could get the council to make a recommendation for the Tanya Slate and Michael Aott to be appointed to the downtown advisory board, they will start their appointment in January. The first meeting will be on the fourth Tuesday of this month. Do do I hear a motion to approve these new members to the board? Move to approve Mr. and Mr. with Mr.

and Mr. and miss a who's who's not here. Appreciate all of them being willing to participate. That's my motion to approve. I second. All those. Yeah. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. I approve. Motion carries. The next item on our agenda is the foreclosure attorney agreement. [clears throat]

Yes. Mayor, Mayor and Council, uh we have 35 properties that owe for multiple years taxes over $500 and that total all 35 total $142,780. Um the the town staff has done everything within reason to collect on these unpaid taxes. everything from repeated notices, phone calls, offering payment plans, in some cases wage garnishments, and of course threats of foreclosure. Um that's where we are with a number of these uh presently. So this morning we have with us uh Mark Bardil. Uh he's an attorney that specializes in foreclosure from paid taxes for small towns. And Mark, with that, um, I'll let you take it over.

Thank you, Randy. We can get the lights cut so that

is this one working? Yes.

So, I am Mark Bardell from Zakius. We've uh been working in this field since 1985. I have my website pulled up that it's displaying right now. Couple of the services we offer are mortgage style foreclosures and in rim foreclosures. Right now, the contract under consideration is for mortgage style foreclosures. Both of the different method methods have their their pros and their cons. Um it's good to start with the mortgage stop foreclosure um method because it has the highest chance of ensuring that the town recoups the amount of cost including a reasonable attorney fee that is expended in order to collect these sums. So what's under consideration now is a mortgage style foreclosure contract. We have more than 40 years experience working in this field and You also represent a number of newspapers.

You can see from the map your area here, Nash County, we represent the town of Tarbor, Wilson, Warren County, Northampton, and we're finishing up our work there in Farmville as well. And then all these other towns and counties across the state from the foothills on the Virginia border and on the South Carolina border as well as the Atlantic Ocean.

Um, one of the things that you know should be perhaps one of your concerns is how much is this going to cost and what is the net going to be for your town. You can take a look at this table that we have here. got various clients. Some of them in urban areas, most of them in rural areas, some of them uh these figures reported at a very early age in the progress of that particular client. For instance, Wilson County, we were just reporting on one year's worth of work there. The very first year we worked for them. But then when you look at Northampton County, that's 15 quarters. So that's well advanced into the program. The reason why we provide a scale here or a distinction between early programs and late programs is because a lot of times the early programs you see a lot of heavy collections up front before a lot of the cost actually hit. Um so you need to have a longer period of time. It'll take a year before we have our probably our first hearing. there are so many due process requirements and uh timing in order to get cases before the court that it does take a while before you have your first sale. So, and it's only after you get to the sales for a good long period of time that you see what your true costs are going to be. But in each of these, you can see for Wilson County, the first year we collected threequarters of a million dollars for them and their true out-of- pocket cost was less than $5,000. And that's partially because we have a business model that looks to save our clients at every turn. I'll discuss a couple of those in a bit, but mostly it's because the way the statute is drawn. And that is that it allowed a reasonable attorney fee for the plan for the taxing unit uh to be added to the amount that the taxpayer would be required to pay to redeem their property

for forclosure or it could be added to the amount of the opening bid. And So anybody bidding on it at the courthouse that was not otherwise redeemed part of their purchase price would be the fees and cost necessary to get the case partial to that point in the process. So um you know here's a here's our largest blank Guilford County 28 quarters that's a good long period of time uh 11 million collected for them and their actual out-ofpocket cost was about.12% so it wasn't even 1% the highest one here would be I guess Northampton County and 15 quarter is quarters is what three and three/4 of a three and 3/4 years and they had a 2.85% cost. Um again that's principally because of the fees being part of the resentment. The scale of our practice allow me to get back to the homepage provides several benefits to a client like the town of Nashville. Um because we're across this state and have the volume that we have, this is all we do and we have it uh we think fairly organized and efficient. Our fees are typically half to twothirds of what the competition charges. Yet we're the most experienced firm, have the most capacity, and we're involved from everything from doing promo proono work on behalf of the property tax collection community before the general assembly. We're working on US Supreme Court case right now, all proono, to making sure that taxpayers are treated right and their money is collected for all of our

clients. Last year, uh, just under 2,000 cases were closed by us. This year so far we've closed 80 and right now we have 212 parcels listed for sale. Now the that number there is should be significant for you because that's going to drive interest in your properties that we end up selling here. We is few and far between. Um, but for those that do have to sell, if we have that kind of volume for sale at any one time, then that gives you an idea how much interest there is across the state because this web page sees about 15,000 hits a month. And no matter where your town is, if it's on this scroll, people are getting attention uh or giving attention to it and can take a look, get this data, be interested in their properties, in your properties, and come to bid at the courthouse. The reason why I'm making a concerted effort to relay that to you is because the last thing the town wants is to own these properties. The goal here is to collect money. It's not to defay their property. it is to try to affect a solution, collect the money and wrap the case up. But if it does go to sale, if there is a lot of interest in your properties, then there is likely to be a bidder, that person will bid. If you make the opening bid and to the extent that it includes the fees and cost, then you're going to be reimbursed and there won't be any out-of pocket cost for you at that point. Um, right now we've got 27 upcoming courthouse sales. That means 27 parcels in various local that are up for sale. Three as of the beginning of the year have been redeemed. That's the name of the game I'm mentioning to you. Two have

been sold and and conveyed the sale confirmed and the deed recorded and seven are in the upset bid process right now. Who gets all this work done? And that would be this crowd here. Um, it's my son Ben. He's been with us for five years. He's our associate attorney. Mity is our office manager. She's one of our North Carolina certified parallegals. She's known me longer than she's not known me. And so, she's been with us for a long, long time. She's uh the queen pin of the operation. Shelley, the assistant manager, believe it or not, started working with us when she was 16 and has worked for us ever since, except for a brief period when she decided to work for a vet. And then she came back after I promised her that I would buy her a pony. And then there's a Melanie is another one of our certified parallegals as well as Courtney. And uh for instance, just to give you an idea of the organization, Melanie's in our skip trace group and so she works on uh our process of service by publication. Emily's the lead title searcher in our title search group. Hope's the group leader of our court and sales group. Christina is the leader of our certified mail group. and Cheyenne is a leader of our skip trace group. So, we have these groups that are all responsible for particular parts of the process and I'll explain a little bit that in just a little a little bit more about that just a little bit. Resources for our clients on the website. Um, if the town becomes

a client, your staff will be able to have a client portal here and we have lots of articles that will help them become familiar with how to go about being our partner in this collection process and they can access this at any time together with some of our legislative and district affairs notifications. Um as far as the process is concerned we go. Um this breaks down the process into three big categories. uh the first third would be in blue, the second in pink, and the last in green. Each of them is broken down into three subprocesses. When I was trying to come up with a reporting system, color-coded reporting system, so our clients could understand where their particular cases were in the process. I grew up on a farm and and I I had to try to come up with some sort of organic way folks to understand how this works. And basically, you know, to to start something in the in the agriculture area, you have to have water. And then after a while, when you put water to the seed, you have a little pink sprout, and that's pink. And then in the last, you have green and growth and harvest. And that's where we are. The first third is all in blue. It starts with unfiled cases. We search the title. We draw the complaint, the summons, and then we send it out by certified mail or sheriff for service. Um at that point uh the process when personal service is complete um we go to a middle stage which is uh the final demand letter uh auditing the file for service and title and the final attorney

review. Um, a lot of that happens in that spot, in that place, because we're about to get into some more expensive parts of the process. And if we can make one more final demand before we get to that part, it's going to shorten the time of the process, it's going to bring more savings to the taxpayers because they won't have to pay for expensive things like public publication, notice of publication, uh, notice of sale, um, or paying for the appointment of a an attorney under the service civil relief act or a guardian ad line in which if we have to serve by publication both of those are necessary. So in that pink section we're able to do a little bit extra work try to contact the taxpayer give them one last chance to pay before we go into some of the more expensive stages. And of course the expenses big to them because if the cost of the proceeding or add to the amount of tax for them to redeem well you don't want to make an inch mountain for them to have to climb in order to get that done. And it's again another reason why we do this on a large scale and our fees are half to twothirds of what our competition charges. The lower we keep those costs including our fee the higher chance the taxpayer is able to save their property. And then at the end of the process, you've got um the green where we uh we go through the court actual the court phase of going to hearing and affecting the sale and the confirmation sale of the property. [snorts] Um of course also in farming and agriculture you understand that gray usually doesn't mean something good. That usually means death or problems if you uh and so that's where we run into bankruptcy or recall cases or parcels that have complications, but there it's a small portion of the cases that do end up with this type of situation. Just a couple examples of the

flow really quickly. Um, you know, you can imagine a lot of these cases if things are running well, you go from the unside unfiled stage to through the title search and then the personal service stage. And when taxpayers are served, that alerts them and often times they'll go right down and jump to the very bottom color code, which is a closed case because they'll pay all the taxes, fees, and cost. Um, and that's what you're hoping for in the great number of your cases because again, you're not seeking to devest these folks their property. You're just seeking to collect the money that's necessary to run local government here in the town of Nashville. Um, another example of the flow would be uh if we ended up going through the stage of of personal service and then upon the audit that we did in the peak uh section of our services, we discovered that the sheriff was mistaken in the service on a person. Service is very important. This is their property. This is a state action that may have the effect of devesting them of their property interest. Our statutes are very fair, comprehensive, and want to make sure that your taxpayers are handled in the way that they are able to take action to remedy this matter so that they don't lose their property. So, this audit stage is very important to make sure double check that service was complete. We discovered that the sheriff was mistaken in his service. You can see here that our case goes back up to the personal service stage and we complete our work after finally get service goes the rest of the uh processes and ends up with a closed case. One more example. Um same scenario before but uh we realize when we double check our title work for a second time we actually do two title searches as part of this process. one at the very beginning and then one just before we go

to the court to seek judgment. We discover that in the meantime somehow u an estate was filed in adjoining county for one of the property owners and we have heirs in the property. So we would add those heirs come back to this again filed an impersonal service stage affect service and go through the rest of the process. So that's basically process and an introduction of our firm. If you have any questions, glad to answer them here. We have represented a lot of uh small towns that fit the profile of the town of Nashville, and we'd love to be here as well.

Thank you so much. And we appreciate it. And and I like that you're going to do everything you can to see if they can keep their property, but at the same time, we've got that get I mean, it's not fair for some to pay and some not. And we want but we want to treat them with respect, and we don't want to just take their property. And I feel like that's your philosophy.

It it is. And one thing that, you know, kind of dubtales with this, we began this process um with an attempt by the town to issue demand letters from Mr. Raspberry. Uh and you know, that's a good idea. Um, we hope that the town has publicity about this upcoming program so your citizens, taxpayers will understand, you know, that the town is getting serious and seeking the ultimate remedy for unpaid taxes. But in the meantime, that your town also is taking measures to send out a letter [clears throat] and that your town attorney is involved in the process. We can offer that service, but we typically don't because we want to ensure that everything we do for you is considered a cost of the proceeding so that it can be reimbured. And if we did a demand letter for you, that would not be able to be added to any of these. That's just a cost that you'd have to pay in addition to the rest of the services. Um, get as many folks to pay up before we have to come become involved. and then when we come involved, we'll do the best job to make sure that they're alerted and we uh handle the work properly.

Thank you. Any questions from the council? We have a couple. So, um the figures you showed about um the percentage of what was submitted compared to what was paid out. Um did that include everything submitted or or just certain categories? That was at that at that point in our history with that particular client. That was what had been submitted, what we had been able to process, the amount of money we had collected, and what their true out-of- [snorts] pocket cost was. Okay. So, it wasn't anything that wasn't included then. Was everything currently?

Yes. Now, it's not saying that everything that had been assigned to us by that date had been processed and closed. There were certainly a lot of unlosed matters that were still in the pool of parcels that they had assigned to us. I was looking for the fine print. I'll make sure there wasn't anything [clears throat] exceptions to to the rule. And so,

no. And and I I think when you look at the various ages of those programs that we show, it illustrates and would capture all of those particular situations. If you have a a 28 quarter program that's that's illustrated, for instance, any of these things that you might think will may not have been included by that time in the history of the program, everything's been aired out. All the laundry's been, you know, handled in one way or the other. So, so any of those concerns would have already been worked in so that you could have seen, you know, the effect of those other things that you would be worried might not have been included. So, so that's a big enough. So, if we have a property that's unwanted for any reasons or any reasons um and we have to take it back because it's not paid and we go to the courthouse and it's it's us. So, that would be um that's also included in your list.

Yes. Let me go back to that list real quickly here. I won't take much time on it. And while you're doing that, does any of any of this list include payment plans or these are nonp plans? nonp non-payment plans. Yeah, we didn't we didn't put on the list for the packet anybody that uh was an active payment plan. Okay.

I have a question about the list. I see two properties that look like they're in the ETJ number and number 30. They're they're the stepping well number 30 is in town limits. Um years ago they annexed to get the town water. Okay. Which they they needed for their business

for number nine. That one's um next behind Harper's Nursery. So that that subdivision to to the south or behind the nursery they extend. Um would I have one final question? I know it's raised to the to to the lean. So if we do this and there's a mortgage so we're still are we ahead of it or behind it? We're ahead of it. It wipes out the mortgage.

It does. Real property tax is what's known as a super priority lean and it's uh it's it's the big lady or the big man on campus. It takes care of all the rest. Very few instances where it is rides in a second. But just to follow up on your question for instance here in Wilson County that four quarters that's just one year's work.

By the time we had collected that money we hadn't had a single court date. So, you know, there's no uh sales involved in that. So, that's just pure collection. Your your your cost there is going to be principally in bankruptcy costs that have been paid um and recall parcels. Um now, the bankruptcy charges that you all will pay, you know, for our fees in in regards to where we are at that stage in the proceeding when the bankruptcy is is initiated. Um we typically re get reimbursement for those as well because after the bankruptcy is over, we just pick up the case right along and then we reimburse you for what you paid us. So that is recouped in a great number of cases. You know, another example here in Guilford, uh that 28 quarters, it's a good long period there. Uh that fee here is a an astonishingly low fee. And one reason why that is so low is because Guilford has a relationship with their towns where their towns will buy the property uh when it when there's no other bidder. So that does relieve some of their burden. But then you come up here in Northampton uh at $73,000. I believe that includes the properties they had to purchase by that time. Now, that's in a way not fair as far as showing how well the the uh the u program did because you're able to sell those properties yourself [clears throat] eventually. And we have uh one of the we represent one of the poorest clients in the counties in North Carolina. Um and and they had a recent well not recent several years ago they had a sale of all of their pool of properties that they had purchased through the foreclosure program and and you know it sold for $80,000 which for many years will pay for whatever out of

pocket cost they have for their program. I I guess I would conclude by saying there just aren't a lot of surprises in these figures. I think in two years you're going to say, "Yep, that's about what we thought it was going to be." And in five years you'll say, "Yep, that was about Well, I saw the fees and I got a little concerned, but I guess if you counter in the the sale, then that that makes it makes it better and and and the redemptions. A lot of these properties are going to be redeemed." Any questions or concerns, Larry?

Yeah, I I do. Uh you in your presentation you mentioned the word redeemed and demand letters. What at what point in your process does the consumer lose control of this property once it's taken over after the demand letters are sent?

No that's a great that is a very great question and it's part of the issue that we're dealing with in the US Supreme Court now in this case that we're assisting. Um but North Carolina is one of the its statute is one of the most protected in the nation. As part of our work in that case, our office undertook a 50 state comparative law survey as to particular issues that that were involved in that case. And we could see from the way our statute is drawn and how it compares to the other states across the United States that ours is one of the fairest. And one of the ways that it is so fair is that the taxpayer doesn't lose the right to their property, the possession use of it. They don't lose it when we file the suit. We don't lose it when we get the judgment allowing us to sell. They don't lose it when we sell it or when the upset bid period expires. They only lose the right to the their property at the very end of the proceeding at the very last moment when we go to the court and ask the court to confirm the sale that we conducted. So, most of these proceedings if they're not redeemed early on and go through the whole process because of the stringent due process requirements and how much the links we have to go to to make sure everybody is served in the proper way from the beginning [clears throat] when we file the suit till we get it through the sales process is going to be in a minimum at a minimum a year maybe sometimes two or three years. So they have a very large window of opportunity to pay and resolve this matter. And the way we work [clears throat] the process, we try to leave the most expensive part of the process as far as the costs are concerned to the back end and give them opportunities in the front end to pay without even having to pay those.

Okay. So based on what you just said, they don't when they lose their property, there's no surprise. No, sir. Yes. Should be no surprise. Should be no surprise. uh and about the list that we've got here. I I went through the list the last couple days and yesterday I contacted a few of these residents up here and uh a couple of them said that they had already paid. I had one that come [laughter] up yesterday and paid. I had one that called me this morning said he was in in route to town to paid. Uh but uh I would like for us to make sure that we this list is as current as possible that we don't publicize any of the addresses up here if they've already [laughter] just overlooked.

There's no problem. I think that this list is just just an example. Okay. Prior to us, you know, turning over addresses to him, we will make sure that they they still owe the balances. Okay. Um, if they did come yesterday, that this has been what, two weeks ago, maybe. So, we'll just update it. This is just the statement I just used. If they do lose, it's not going to be a surprise to them, right? You know, because we we really have sent out a lot of letters. Postage is 74 cent per letter and we keep doing the same thing. We're not Don't talk. You're just disregarding it.

Don't talk about to that's my retirement. [laughter] May I if I may just in surmiration uh I want to thank um your name again. Cardell.

Mardell. Okay. I want to thank you because I think in all of the questions that we've concluded, especially with Larry's last question about the home owner being able to have that right up until the very end. Uh my observation is it suggests probably why your name of your company um is Zakius Legal Services and uh just for the record uh I part of clergy and I preached out of that text the first part of the year with Zakius make want to make sure that he did right by everybody. So, I I certainly understand that and I can appreciate the uh nature of work that you do to ensure that not only is the town treated fair, but the citizens are also treated fair. And I think here in Nashville, that's what we want for all of our citizens. So, thank you once again.

Okay, I'm going to be the longest one. Um, so on this property list, we obviously have some where the amount that's owed is greater than the value of the property that we're dealing with. What do we do in that situation?

So, it's really a matter of of how you want to look at the process and how comprehensive you want your program to be. the more comprehensive, the higher your collection rate will be eventually, even if you have more expense in the front end as to some of these properties. The truth of the matter is on a good number of these properties, unless you go through the full process, every year you're going to be dropping off another year's worth of taxes and they will ne the property will never be in the hands of someone who will be able to pay the taxes. um that's going to drag down your overall collection rate. The less your collection rate is, the less you can base your budget on it. And so it's very important to try to make every parcel shoulder its share of the cost of local government. And so, you know, most of our clients, I would say, are very reasonable about it. They understand the big picture. They understand that properties are upside down, but unless they do something about them, they're always going to be upside down and forever. Now, I'll give you an example of a case that we worked on yesterday with another client. Uh it was a high party number case and in our contract for high party numbers, the fee is higher, but this was a matter where it was a set of heirs that owned three parcels. Well, we called the client and said, you know, our fee is going to be multiples of what's owed. Excuse me. Our fee is going to be multiples of the value of the property. And but since you've got three parcels, we've done the work. We can do three parcels in one lawsuit. And why don't we just charge one fee instead of three

fees given the value? And of course, they agreed to that. and you know, we're going to be able to move that case on. Um, now all the time you don't have multiple parcels to be able to spread that cost over, but um, unless you get the work done, you're going to be writing off those taxes every year. And also, unless you get that work done, there's nobody really going to be able to own and enjoy the property because particularly in our property cases, there's so many parties. No one wants to be the person to step forward and take care of all the business because that means a big share of their own funds is paying for everybody's else's interest. In this particular case, we had more than 40 years.

But, you know, one was a home with some significant value. The other three lots were just vacant lots. Until you get it straight, it's going to be a mess. And so, um, I think what you're going to find is the money that we do collect is way more than necessary to to handle the most of these other small number of cases that you have to take care of that are upside down.

Okay. Um now as far as the fees that we owe to you, so if we if you start the process um and you go through your um the colors, the blue and then the pink. So it's before the the big bucks have been spent, but you've done work. If someone does come forward to pay off what is owed, is your fee included in that? Yes. Okay. So the only time I guess um there's some terminology here that I'm not familiar with. So recall fee. So when when does the process of recall happen?

So again in that example I was just mentioning with the three parcels and the four years. Um that was an option open to that client instead of incurring our fees and moving forward with the case after we had done the title work and disclose the complication and the ups down nature of the of the property. They could make a decision and say Bario will stop. Who's back? The client. Okay.

Could make a decision to say Zakius stop. here's a recall fee plus your out-of- pocket expense like a copy charge and our our skip trace subscription charges which usually is only you know a few dollars and stop your work. We recall that from the assignment you do not have to proceed and sometimes that occurs. Um but often times not the client decides to go ahead and move forward. Um you know a good example is perhaps someone on the list is a World War II vet. Uh I think some of those are still surviving in different places and the tax office just did not understand that that's who the person was. We might get a call and say, "Can we hold off just a little bit longer? We want to recall that one and give this person an extra chance." That does happen on rare occasions, but most it's because of uh decision because the upside down values to to leave is considered the client just says, "Well, maybe on this one we'll pass."

Um And if I could if I could interrupt just maybe to allay some of your concerns about the fees and maybe give you a better description. Typically the town will not be responsible for our fee until the money is on the table. And most of the time when the money is on the table it includes enough to pay all the fees and the cost.

So that's the majority of cases. There are a few exceptions. If someone avails themselves to the protection of the bankruptcy court, we do sending an invoice for what's owed at that time. You do pay us, but then we pick the case back up if the bankruptcy is is terminated. Um, and there are situations where if the tax off the your your finance department, if they don't contact us and let us know one is paid in full and we continue our work, you will pay the fee in that circumstance.

Um, I'm going to skip over to the agreement. Um, so it says that we are going to turn over everything to you. Um, that is delinquent. I guess my concern would be I would like for us to be able to look at that list and make a determination and say um, you know, these are the ones that we want to turn over, not every single thing that is delinquent. Um, you also talk about turning it over in batches. What does that typically look like? Is it just like when you start out with four properties and see how it goes? No, we what we typ, you know, in order to be able to charge half to twothirds what our competition charges, we have to have, you know, a client on the other side that just doesn't want to do this kind of work peace meal. And so what you need to do is look at your delinquent pool, what qualifies for the parameters you've given your finance office to say, hey, this these parcels should be in your delinquent pool. And then we want those parcels. Um, and you can set them up as a one a once a year batch. All of the parcels that fit those criteria, they go in or you can set it up four times a year or twice a year. It's whatever is best logistically for your tax office uh that the town wants to agree to. But this is not a situation where the the the town would say, you know, we've got four air properties. They're the worst in the world. They owe 28 years taxes on them. And we want you to do these, Mr. Partell. We've got to have a comprehensive program or else we won't have enough parcels to be able to pay all that it's going to cost to do all the work to collect from A to Z.

But it's pursuant to whatever our parameters are, saying, you know, it's been delinquent for X amount of time. Um, or it's not on a payment plan. It'll be pursuant to whatever we set up as a town as far as our parameters go. That That's right. But it would be something that, as you were saying, would be nice to put into the contract so we would understand that we can agree to that because your parameters could be anything seven years or older and and owes $3,000 worth of taxes. Well, that's going to limit your pool in a small town like NA Nashville to such extent that it might not be worth it for us to come here. So, as long as those those terms are reasonable, then that would be something we'd be interested in.

Okay. A lot of these other circles are having to do with fees, but you've explained that. Um, oh, one of my concerns. So, it says that the agreement um after the 2-year period shall automatically renew unless written notice is given. Um and I also don't see any sort of termination or breach of contract or anything like that. So, I guess um if you know we're working and I I understand what you're saying where the process takes up to two years. So, you can't just terminate halfway through because half of your work has been undone. But I guess um when things aren't done on time, all you have to do is send a letter explaining why. We don't have to agree to to what that is. Um so it could have been, you know, we were short stacked or something like that, but that's to us um not it's something that's in your control, not out of your control. So I guess um I would like some sort of um clause in here talking about like if um you know, maybe you're not happy with the the load of work we're giving, we're not happy with how the work is being some sort of termination or um way to get out of the contract. I guess

I understand those concerns, but the only thing that concerns me is that with a program like this and the nature of these kind of suits, um two years to be able to get started, the startup cost and and how much we'll put into getting this program off the ground, if you decided to terminate within six months or 12 months, we'd have a big loss here. So, what if we were to do a contract that does not automatically renew. It renews upon the agreement of both parties and then going forward a termination added in where if you know you're unhappy with the work at 2 years and 8 months that the parties could walk away.

That that would be fine. We don't have to have an automatic renewal. It's really as much for our clients as it is for us because renewal often times just takes an inordinate amount of time during the budget process and um and it's a lot of times seen by our clients as a as an ease where we know that we don't have to go [clears throat] through whatever you all might do an RFP or uh or putting it out for bid in some other less formal way. So, if you want to have a nonrenewal clause, it's not a problem for us.

Okay. Uh my last question just raz have you been able to take a look at all this? Are you happy with it? Uh yes, Miss Burns. We reviewed the contract u fairly extensively. Um Mark and I had a good conversation yesterday afternoon. Uh let me say that his firm's reputation is very strong. Okay, that was my

um very strong. um the lawyers with our firm, we've had occasions that work with Mark on tax collection for the various local governments. We represent experience has been it's been very positive. Um and I'll just say that the contract itself, it it is um it's complex in that it addresses numerous scenarios that are not familiar to most of us. And I'll just say that such this is the nature of the work. There are so many um eventualities that that um that firm handling these collection would not have control over. Um the stretched out lead time, the unknowns. You may have some cases where various nightmare scenarios evolve where you find you have a title nightmare or you have a bankruptcy that gets filed mid-procedure and and there there are there are contingencies that are addressed in this contract so far as how does that affect the fee and there are some basically some credit back to town scenarios and there are some chart scenarios and we've tried not being specialists ourselves, we have tried to sort of see what's going on, but in my view um every single one of those features of the contract uh are legit. And being an attorney of course and you understand that the law firms have to operate as a business. Um the the sums of money involved and the various scenarios addressed in the contract

they're addressed in a very reasonable way. Um we wouldn't have any concerns whatsoever with the contract terms that that are before you today.

No I I I'm excited that we're getting forward with this program. Um I think it's something that's absolutely necessary. [snorts] Um I think because none of us are in this this was a little foreign to all of us and we just see fe going wait a minute do we have to pay that? Are we responsible? So I think you've done an excellent job um just calming our fears there. Um I think all of my questions have been answered sufficiently. I've got one one final question for those that may be watching this meeting on YouTube. Randy, this tax this list of delinquent profit tax comes before this council every year. This is not the first year we've seen this. This is something we do every year. However, it is the first time that we have gone out to get an outside entity to help pursue these taxes. Is that correct?

That is correct. Yes.

That's clarification for somebody that may be looking at YouTube. So, I have a quick followup. So, I actually talked to Randy yesterday. My my gut was to leave out the lower ones, but after hearing from you, it sounds like that's not a good idea that anything that's uh potentially a marketable property needs to be included. Um, one of these is a ditch, so maybe we don't include that. But, but I mean, the rest of them has some kind of market. even if it's a losing situation, the future of it could be a a profitable one if there's a house there one day or something. So, it sounds like you're suggesting we give you pretty much everything that's not in a plan uh no matter what long as it's a markable. Is that that is that a good summary?

That that's that's a good summary. And you know what we ask our clients to do is in each assignment provide you know a good mix of ones that perhaps will likely be relatively easy to settle through redemption. Some that'll be moderately difficult and some that'll be difficult because that's helps us spread the work across that whole assignment. Make sure that we have showing for the board in good collections and doesn't overload us with the most difficult cases all in one assignment. Uh but you know, I was reading the other day a $2 billion investment here and you're adjoining county for a new what is it Johnson and Johnson type plant. Uh and you know there's already a lot of pressure on the land. You can see property values going up folks finding it harder to find available land. And so we've seen from the beginning of my practice in ' 85 where oftentimes I was in front of the courthouse literally reading to the squirrels my notice of sale because nobody else was there to now in some local having folks show up with webbed lawn chairs. Remember the old style webbed lawn chairs and they would sit them out and we might have 65 to 100 people at a particular sale. Now those are more urban areas but even in some of our more rural areas we're showing 10, 20, 35, 40 people show up. Now, is that going to happen for these properties? I don't know. We'll have to tell uh through time, but there is much more pressure on the land. I think this area is is is is set for some growth. And you probably are going to be more satisfied than you thought with these sales results is is just my guess.

Thank you so much. You did a great job of helping us understand that. We appreciate it. So you've heard your question. So do I hear a motion at this time to approve the service agreement between the town of Na Nashville and Zakius Law Firm from Trenton, North Carolina to foreclose on properties owing $500 in unpaid property taxes to the town of Nashville? I'll make that motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Let it be none by saying I. I. Motion carries. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes,

mayor. Could I suggest um our economic development uh coordinator with Nash County has another appointment coming up. Um could we change the agenda a little bit and maybe go to close session for about 15 minutes and then take care of the rest of the items. We just have surplus property three budget amendments after that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Is it from the council's do you agree with that? Second. All in favor by saying I. Thank you. So, um, can you read our close? So, um, mayor, um, I I, um, I wor make a motion.

Make a motion. That's the right word. I make a motion that we go into close session pursuant to NCGS143-318.11A4 to discuss matters related to the location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body including agreement on attentive list of economic development incentives that may be offered by the public in negotiations and per NCGS143- 311.11A1 to review and prove past close session meeting minutes. All those in favor. All right.

and we're back into our meeting. Um the next item on our agenda is surplus property. Okay. So, periodically the need for surplus a surplus property auction arises for various items that are no longer being used by the town. The parks and recreation department has items that are no longer used and need to be declared surfless property. There's a 2003 Chevy 1500. The truck will crank and run with a jump but has antifreeze in his engine oil. And CO is here to answer any questions about the actual equipment.

And a 2011 electronic sign trailer. From what I understand, that's the one they bought from Emerald Ale. I think it worked for a little while. But then one LED light panel is out and the replacement PL panels are not available. Um it would be good for parts. So um we're recommending that um you approve resolution 2602 declaring the parts and wreck 2003 pickup and the 2011 electronic sign trailer as surplus and authorizing their sale on auctions international online auction. Do I hear a motion to accept this? Move to accept online. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor of being none by saying I.

Our next item is budget amendment number 12. Tresa. Great. Budget amendment number 12 um recognizes $5,000 in new revenue received by the National Fire Department as a donation. These funds are allocated um I'm sorry. Of these funds, $2,800 will be used to purchase a gas air monitor and the remaining 2,200 will be used to purchase smoke detectors and other related equipment. Budget amendment number 12 increases both revenues and expenditures by $5,000 and this has no impact on the balance. Do I hear a motion to approve budget number 12 amendment? Second. All those in favor? I.

Next is budget amendment number 13. Budget amendment number 13 recognizes $500 in $500 donation received from property warf maintenance and construction to support FY26 shop with a cop program. Budget amendment number 13 increases both revenues and expenditures by $500 for FY26. Do I hear a motion to approve budget amendment 13? Move to approve. Second. All in favor by saying I. I.

Next is budget amendment number 14. Budget amendment number 14 recognizes $3,500 in grant funding rewarded to the Nashville Police Department. Nashville Police Department applied and received the Sparks good grant to fund equipment and to fund equipment and supplies for the Nashville cook team. This grant will support teams deployment during natural disasters and emergencies um to assist with the ELC operation. Budget amendment number 14 increases both revenues and expenditures by 3500 3500.

Do I hear a motion to approve budget amendment number 14? So move. Is there a second? All those in favor? All right. And that brings a conclusion to our meeting for today. Are any comments from the council. Oh, uh, there's one other thing we've got to do. Um, Chief T um, Chief Journey, can you come talk with us about the weather because I know you've been keeping up with us.

Good morning, Council Mayor. I stepped outside earlier during the meeting to sit in on the uh, state weather briefing. Uh they've been having one every day this week. The one today was not what I wanted to hear. Between Christmas and New Year's, I told Mr. Lancing in his office one day, my biggest fear is another ice storm. We've not had one in a long time. Well, it's leaning more today toward a ice storm and not a snowstorm,

which brings the issue of power that we're going to have to deal with. So, we started yesterday. I met with uh Chief Shockley, Jason Glover, with uh public works. We're already in the process. Um we're going to have a staff meeting tomorrow afternoon to go over everything. We've already started our mileage on fuel for Friday where we'll take and fill out vehicles. We'll get the mileage, the hours. We've already gone and taken drone pictures of where the layown yard will be for uh debris removal. So that way if there is funding that that's where it will go because all that's got to be taken care of. So we're already in the process of doing a lot of things behind the pictures. One thing I do want to stress Saturday and Sunday is one thing but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is going to be something too because we're looking at temperatures Monday on single digits and not getting out of the I think 25 is a high. That is extremely cold for this area. So, we're looking at all these different things that are going on with this storm. Um, but give comfort that we are doing we're we're supposed to be doing and making sure that we've got everything straightened out. There'll be a weather briefing. There's another one this afternoon I'll be in, but we'll we're following this thing thorough. Um, I cannot I cannot push out to enough to our citizens that are watching. Go ahead, get your stuff straight. You do not need to be on these roads Monday or Saturday, probably through next Tuesday or Wednesday, because these roads are going to be extremely slick. Down pile lines are going to be a thing because of the tree limbs getting heavy with ice and snapping. So, that's all one of these things we'll have to watch on too. Um, I'm going to get with Chief Shockley probably Friday afternoon. We're going to sit down and we're going to have a little class on things to look at for patients. Um, one thing I do remember out the last ice storm that we had when

people start losing power, people will do whatever they have to to stay warm. People pull grills into the back door of the house to make heat. That grill pumps in carbon monoxide in the house and then we have issues there. So, we got to look at what different things are that we've got to recognize. PD, we're going to go a little training with them to make them understand what to be looking for if they get to a scene before we do it for carbon monoxide. So all these things um there's a lot of different things going on with us. I would rather have a snowstorm and really truthfully I'd rather not have either one of them but we'll deal with whatever we got coming but right now it looks like we're going to have a ice storm instead of a snowstorm. So keep going.

I've got one question and I ask this question because we we have a very I don't know important but we have a funeral planned for our pastor on Saturday. Are you saying that it's sat Saturday will be an impassible day?

I'm saying Saturday is probably going to be Well, he said there was two scenarios this morning. One starts at 7:00 Saturday morning. The other one starts a little bit later, probably after lunch. Saturday is still kind of iffy. So, we're still having a look at that. The uh they did have a meeting this morning at the county to look at shelters across the county. Um, I'm going to talk with Trip Mun who's the emergency manager for the county. I've not talked with him yet about that, but uh, I've got a meeting with him later on today. So, we'll look at that if there is some need for shelters where there can be one there at probably be out toward Central High School. I don't know that for sure yet, but we will push that out. I'll get Lou to push that out as soon as we know stuff also. So, we'll use her new information that we can use. Um, again, we're doing it as soon as a state of emergency is sent out by the governor. What I will do is I will me and Mr. Lance have already told the county that we will go under them like we always do with our paperwork. I mean, you will have to sign paperwork on that. Soon as that happens, I'll get the paperwork. You just going to go and get that signed notorized. So, that will be taken care of. Also, uh Cy and Chris AOK have done some things to help out too. parks and wrecks playing a part in this, too. So, it's a it's a team effort and our team is moving forward. So, we're making sure everything's going be handled here in town. So,

you have any questions? No. No. But again, I'd just like to say [clears throat] talk about a team effort that I cannot say enough all the time about what a terrific team we have in Nashville. from the firemen, the policemen, the the maintenance people, the town office, Randy, it's just such a great team. It's a real blessing. I feel like I need to change the name of my town to Zach, [laughter] but anyway. Okay, mayor, um, and people watching, uh, we do anticipate, as Chris said, very cold temperatures.

Our distribution system will be fine as far as our elevated war towers not freezing during this episode. However, we do anticipate there's going to be a lot of citizens pipes freeze residentially under the house um even in their yards. We will respond appropriately. Um if it is an emergency, we will try to respond, but our priority is going to be cleaning the streets. So, just let everybody know we do anticipate with singledigit temperatures, water lines freezing. Do we have any recommendations for our citizens? Are we supposed to

um keep water water um spets dripping um a steady stream of of water? Um you will incur just a little bit more in your water bill, but that steady flow of water will keep water from freezing residentially. Like if you have three bathrooms, do you need it running in every bathroom? I would recommend. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Um because your water lines are running throughout your house. So, your main trunk line coming in, if you have a a bathroom in the the east or the west side of your house, if you do both of them, then you'll you'll you'll keep the water running. So, yeah. And then next to $20 on your water bills, it's a whole lot cheaper than a plumber coming to replace pipes.

Great. The pipes [clears throat] will initially freeze. You can call the town and and advise us that you don't have any water, but just know that that's going to be the case. The issue is going to be maybe next Thursday or Friday when they unfreeze. That's when you're going to have water leaks. We're going to get a lot of calls for service to go cut water off at that point and we'll be advising the citizens to call the plumber to make those repairs. Any repairs we'll have, we'll make them appropriately. Um, obviously if we have any broke water manes, that's an issue. If we have little service lines or 2in leaks, they're not going to be an issue during this this incident. So, any other questions? No. Thank you so much. Do I hear a motion? If there's Did you have anything to say, Randy? No. No,

if I discussion, do I hear a motion that we adjourn our meeting? Second. All in favor, let me know by saying I. And don't forget to