Board of Aldermen - Special Meeting

Welcome to the North Topsel Beach monthly board of alderman meeting. Today is Tuesday, December 2nd. We're thrilled that you all could be here. So, with that in mind, I'm going to ask everybody to please have their cell phones turned to silent, and I am going to call the the meeting to order, and we're going to ask Alderman Benson to do the invocation.

Please stand, remain standing for the pledge. Bless this town, and may it remain a beautiful and friendly place. We pray that this board makes fair and informed decisions this morning. We also pray that our police officers, firefighters, and members of our armed forces here and around the world remain safe as they re risk so much for our security. We also pray that the town was spared from hurricanes this season and other natural disasters and that everyone associated with the town remains safe and secure. Amen.

Amen. And um Mayor Prom is not here today. So Rick, would you lead us?

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So before I ask for an approval on the agenda, I did just want to let everybody know I wanted to pass on a message from Tom Leonard, the mayor prom that he's at the hospital with his wife. She's got to have some additional surgeries done and today was the day they were told to come for preop. So with that, I am going to ask for an approval of the agenda. We have changes. Well, we need a first and a second and then if there's changes.

Motion approved. Do I have a second? Second. Any changes? Yes. Can I maybe Chip's answer? It's a procedural question. We're going to have a different board for half of the meeting. Do we approve the agenda for the whole meeting or do we approve the agenda until the operational part? Right. because sorry until the operational part. Rick's question is we have our current seating board until up until the operational part where we will switch and the oaths will be given to the new board members the organizational meeting on the agenda.

Yes. Okay. So does it make sense to approve the whole agenda right now or do we do just our part of it? I think you do your part of it. Okay. um you approve your part of it and then when when the new folks are sworn in, they're going to have oversight over the subsequent pieces. So, they should have a chance to approve those. So, then it sounds like what we need to do is approve it through um D through organizational meeting just in Well, but see this do you want to move up the appreciation certificates?

Um that's fine. And you have you have to I'm just trying to look for a clear break for you. So I think the clear break would be through item D. But I think actually if we just if we just made the certificate of appreciation B. Okay. And then that would be C and D. Then you have a clear break right there. Yep. That's perfect. Okay. So moved. So moved. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Okay, then we're going to Did you get that, Lexi?

Yeah. I have a question for council. I can't um it without him first taking oath of office as mayor, can I have him sign as mayor? Because I do not believe. What does he need to sign? Um so all of the certifications of appreciation, all of those have to have a signature by the mayor. Well, if they're approved by this mayor, this mayor can sign them. Okay. Unless the board wants to put them back and have the new mayor sign them. Okay. Or I mean we can just move it up and Rick can sign them after the meeting when you give him his stack of paperwork to sign if that's all right with you, right? Is that right? You mean that way you're not signing your own? I don't want to sign my own. Okay. No.

Okay. Okay. Are you good, Lexi? Okay. Then we're going to move on to public presentations and hearings. And we've going to start with our 2425 audit.

All right. Good morning. So, I'm here to present the uh 2425 audit. Uh this is our first year auditing North Topsel Beach. Um I have good news. We issued an unmodified opinion, also referred to as a clean audit opinion. I'm sorry, sir. Can you just back up with your name so everybody knows who you are? All right. Lee Gryom from CPA. Preston Douglas.

So the good news, we issued um before the December 31st deadline. We got the audit out. Uh we issued it to the local government commission November 25th, 2025. And considering how we just uh you guys just contracted with our firm early uh September, that was a pretty good feat to get this audit out. So give your craft uh your staff a lot of credit as well as your outsource accounting firm to get this audit out in a timely manner. Um the books overall from internal control standpoint were in great shape. Um I think we had one journal entry that we assisted with as the auditing firm. Uh we worked very closely with GWI for this audit. I think overall that the accounting records were much improved from the prior year. Uh given everything that I saw um there were no no budget overages. Uh no bank wreck issues. Um I was really impressed. There was a new purchase order form. uh in increased controls over AC, increased payroll controls, digitizing internal processes. I thought there was a lot of improvements that I was impressed with. Um overall, there was one internal control finding. Um for those of you who looked at the report, we had about a million dollars um in total of errors that we had to correct. And just to give you some context, that does sound terrible and scary, but a lot of times when you bring in a new audit firm, that's when you see prior period adjustments. I was speaking to the LGC and they look at hundreds and hundreds of reports. So most of the time you'll see cleanup when a new crowd comes in and has a different opinion. So yes, that is, you know, that there was a cleanup that was needed, but um you know, just to put it in context, it's not exactly unusual. Um and just to point out, there has been a lot of turnover. Sorry to interrupt you.

I've read the audit report. You need to be more specific. The million dollars you're talking about is a prior period adjustment, correct? Not to the financials because I think what we're doing is we're mixing. You looked at 25. As I understand it, 25 looked good to you. The adjustments you're talking about and the issues you talked about relate to the previous year. Correct. Right. Okay. Because right because when you presented that, it looked like all the stuff was happening in this current year. It's not.

Yeah. And that's a good point. And I I was about to bring another difference in what we did this year versus last year from a comparative standpoint and I and I'll touch on that now. Um for example, restricted cash. Um for the most part, if it's if cash is not in the general fund, you sort of take the position it all should be restricted. So if the prior audit firm or the pri prior staff, they they had a lot of stuff in unrestricted. So that would have been almost a $9 million change. So uh that was a position we took as a firm and then working with GWI, they agreed and the town agreed. Um, so there was a lot of improvements on this set of financials like your beach maintenance fund. We broke out a lot more detail between uh the grant sources and how the money was spent. So I think with the goal of you know when you close that project it's it's a little easier to demonstrate to your you know the regulatory agencies how that money was spent and and I didn't feel 100% comfortable with the way from I didn't spend a lot of time looking at the the prior audits but it didn't look like they really thoroughly went through that and there and there wasn't a single audit on the prior audit either which I think that was probably not correct but anyway um but I didn't give I didn't in my professional opinion I didn't feel like we needed to have a bunch of internal control findings. I I thought that was great improvements with the town and I was happy with that and the feedback and and sort of the recommendations to sort of continue that on and I'm hoping the controls I know you spent a lot of money with GWI but sometimes those control improvements can save money for years to come if you continue to implement. I've already had two audit clients this year where there was uh check frauds and and things like, you know, uh check washing where it was like $40,000 in a couple of instances. So, I think some of the stuff Deborah Mack and her crowd were doing, you know, maybe that would, you know, save you some heartache in the future. Couple of housekeeping items. Uh management provided full access to records. Uh we didn't have any

disagreements. There were no new accounting policies and we did not consult with other auditors for our for our uh audit opinion and from a financial uh trend standpoint um and we'll go briefly through the graphs but I mean you can just even see on the screen the first one uh very very positive particularly in the last three fiscal years you'll see that in a moment u but the financial trends in the last 10 years have been trending very positively uh total assets for everybody. The blue standing for what and the red cash and red is and we'll get to that. We'll get to that too, but I was just touching there it is at the bottom. Thanks.

Um and just to touch real quickly, governmentwide total assets 65 million at June 30th, 2025. Total liabilities 15.6 million. Net position uh 50.3 million. And overall there was an increase in net position of 556,000. The general fund added 1.8 million and it would have added 4 million if it wasn't for transferring to other funds. So the you know general fund showing a lot of strength. Uh general fund unassigned fund balance 12.6 million. That's really strong. Um and overall the government governmental funds did decrease by 2.4 but a lot of that was beach maintenance. Um there was almost $9 million or $9.4 $4 million in beach maintenance expenditure. So that's why you saw a decrease in governmental uh funds. Uh fire station fund number two, uh there was 2.4 million.

Real quick before you leave, be beach maintenance because you're you're looking at a cash basis money that's owed to us by FEMA is not counted in that. Right. That that's a good that was a good point, too. If we brought that in, we would have had more of a positive position. Correct. Correct. And and I'll point I don't know sometimes I don't want to get too much into the weeds. I know Rick likes the weeds, but um if you were look at the balance sheet and I No, more of us like the weeds, so we're okay.

Well, I like the weeds, too. I'd rather do that than talk about Yeah. Anyway, um on page 13, one interesting thing I was talking about restricted versus unrestricted. Working with Deborah Mack, we actually showed unrestricted cash of 4 million in the beach maintenance fund. And I would have without working with her, I would have put it all in restricted, but she determined that fund needs to be closed and that money could just be transferred out and used. So, I just wanted to point that out. Um, that was one of the last minute changes we made. Um, interest income, $2 million, 2.1 million this year. I thought that was really strong. Uh, and one other just to note, you know, I look at a lot of municipality financials. There was a lot of transferred activity, which I thought right away when I looked at this thought, I'm like, what in the world's going on? Moving money everywhere. Um, but most of that I think was just moving the money to beach maintenance fund. But that just is a little bit of an outlier. It's probably unusual uh historically at the town as well. I guess let's uh let's we'll go through the graphs now. And there's not too much to talk about other than just, you know, positive trends. And they've already we've already skipped the first graph, but I guess that's okay. Um

yeah, go back go back go back to the first one.

And this is this is your fund balance and governmental funds. um this is really kind of the equity um in your governmental funds. And you can see if you go this is 10 years go back to 2026 you're at 3.6 million and then go 10 years later you're at 36 million. Um and and one thing just to point out um I think what that does show is that the sophistication particularly with the project fund activities it really has increased at the town quite a bit and if you're trying to justify GWI's you know using them and all the money and all the resources I mean the sophistication has really increased uh dramatically really since 2022 2022 to 2025 and then when you take that with the turnover in the finance officer position and all the reporting ing requirements under FEMA and everything. Um, yeah, I just want to kind of point that out. Let's go to the next one. Next slide. Now, the local government commission, this one's really, really important. This is your emergency fund in the general fund. Um, and being a beach beach town, you want a a higher reserve. Um, but you guys are at 211%. So, almost two a little over two years in reserve in your general fund. that that means that's unassigned fund balance that basically doesn't have any restrictions and could be used for emergency. So you guys are in a in a town's really in a great shape uh from that standpoint. Let's go to the next one. Okay. And similar uh to the other two graphs, this is cash by fiscal year. So go all the way back to 2016, you were just under 5 million. At June 30th, 2025, you were at 34 million. So significant uh cash balances relative to you know 10 years ago and most of that being in the last three fiscal years.

Next one is outstanding debt by fiscal year. Um and I'll just I'll just say at 2000 June 30th 2025 you were at 11.6 million. Okay, last one. Property tax collection percentage. And for the most part, you guys are in the same around 99% each year. Fairly consistent. So, not too much to look at there. But again, in summary, uh, clean audit opinion. Um, you know, again, we're the independent CPA firm. We felt comfortable that you can rely on these financial statements. Um, of course it's not perfect. It's we don't audit every cent, but you know, we use materiality thresholds, but we feel comfortable that this represents the activity and the balances at the town for this fiscal year. Uh, again, big internal control improvements. Uh, I thought there was financial reporting improvements quite a bit as I pointed out a couple of things already. Uh, and solid financial trends and got the audit out in a timely manner, which that's a great thing. Not everybody, uh, does that. So, you know, give your manager and and the rest of the staff a lot of credit for pushing me hard to make sure we got this out. Um, lastly, as far as recommendations, I know you have a new finance officer. I am not familiar with him. I did not work with him. I wish him luck. Um, I hope uh continue to build on the improvements made would be my recommendation. Maybe get governmental accounting training and certainly I always tell people to build relationships within the state if he does not have that already. just not just to be relying on the auditor or GWI, but you just, you know, just to bounce ideas. I always recommend that. I think that's a great idea. And of course, stay on top of the any grant projects or project funds. That's where all the errors are. So, uh, certainly reach out to me or somebody else in the state before it becomes, you know, that,

you know, the town had had issues in the past where those funds just were, um, it didn't seem like they were, um, accounted for correctly. All right, that wraps up everything I wanted to cover. or is there any questions?

No, I just wanted to make a couple statements. Um Beth, you came in right on time because he was given kudos to Deborah Mack from GWI. So, I think those of us that have been on the boards that whole time that you head up there from 2016 up to now, there's just been so much progress that has happened and it's been very much a board and and management effort to get Rick the rid of the USDA loan. We've had a lot of help from the Carters when it comes to financial planning. GWI has been a big help. So, I'm very proud of where we are today with our financials for the town. So, does anybody have questions? I'll start with

you have questions for you. Um, just so we can go on the record. No misappropriation of funds, no cash missing. Correct. You're making these are acrruels you're talking about. They're accounting adjustments. They're not money missing. Correct. And if you if you wanted to um Deborah has a spreadsheet if you ever wanted to see that specifically the details information when you're doing acrual stuff and sometimes people look at it and said what do you mean there's a million dollar adjustment there wasn't a million the cash if you looked at your cash statement the cash was there correct correct

and so I think that's always been a part of stuff um no change in town policy over the year but so 25 is pretty good um how do we make sure are you are you confident with the changes we've seen and everything else that going forward we're not going to have a repeat of that. Um because I think we've done is I think that Alice now we have a finance director we're going to be filling those positions and stuff. Um it sound like you're pretty confident with the new processes that are in or not the new process the process that we're following and stuff like that are pretty solid going forward. Well, well, the the limitation of an audit, we're sort of past focused and and really as as much as I think I'm the most important person in the organiz here. I'm not. And it's really you guys and who you hire and and so it's up to you guys at the end of the day. Um I mean hopefully you can listen to what I'm saying and get some get some value out of it, but you know there's I'm kind of past look. Yeah,

I'm looking more so I mean making predictions is difficult. I think that you know GWI in particular did a good job of cleaning this stuff up. My issue is though you can clean it up once as long as those processes are being followed then the cleanup can it's not cleaning up going forward. So you're pretty confident what got cleaned up in 24 which was brought to your attention by Alice and the and the finance people. Correct. In terms of those adjustments so the only adjustments that you're making are for 24 not for 25. Correct. Correct. Correct. Okay. Right. And I think he also mentioned that the procedures that Deborah has documented that the staff is now following will also be extremely helpful. Okay.

Yes, Laura. So on your opinion on page three, it says management should improve internal controls over year-end financial reporting by strengthening review and reconciliation processes to ensure balances are complete and accurate. Staff responsible for closing and financial reporting should receive additional training on project fund accounting. Um, complex or unusual transactions should be reviewed by appropriately qualified personnel. So, I know the League of Municipalities has additional accounting training. As an audit firm, you say, you know, it would be good for us to get additional training. Do you think the league's training is something we should look at or what type of training?

Um, yeah. I think um I don't normally recommend the training, so that's why I'm kind of hesitating, but um if you guys need any I can I can quickly find some sources and reach out to other municipalities if you guys need a recommendation. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. Thank you. And just to close that out though, I think a lot of what was discussed there was the fact that we did not until Deborah Mack started working with us, we did not create new projects, new accounting

um processes for the all the big projects that we have. Like we didn't have, you know, I'll just say fund four or you know what I'm saying? Like all of that wasn't spelled out. It was just all lumped in. Right. No, my my issue is just general accounting controls, okay? That the right signoffs are on them, that those type of things, you know, I think that that Deborah's put in that type of system. I just want to make sure that that system exists. If you know, the old she gets hit by a car, do we still have those processes in place? And I think that, you know, that then will become the finance officer's obligation to the board. That's what I was just looking for for the documentation and process. Mike, Connie, any questions? Okay.

Thank you. Beth, did you want to did you want to say something?

One quick thing for um Lee is um one thing I think was critical and and that I think you mean about the year end closing and somebody reviewing is that what Deborah Mack found is that there was $7.5 million worth of DEQ money spent on FEMA projects. And so somebody had reviewed that at year end. The auditor missed it before you. Um, whoever was the finance officer missed it. So I think that's really critical for Commissioner Grant and mayor and council members is that somebody reviewing that and understanding that those grant monies while there was no money missing and the cash in total was there, DEEQ could have asked for the whole 10 million back. So the $7.5 million adjustment that she made from one fund to the other and passing cash is I think part of that critical piece you're talking about of having somebody at year end understanding those financials and where the monies should be.

And just to follow up on that that was within 25 that was not when she made the adjustment it was in the year that was occurring you came the stuff going back in 24 was the adjustment that you made. We didn't need to make an adjustment to the 25 because it had already been made by Deborra back is the point, right? Yeah. In page 54, the beach maintenance project fund. You can see the way the detail was broken out. It's much more much improved over prior years. I'm very aware of that issue because I worked with Deborah on that because I didn't that's the one we tried to track for two years and got cleaned up this year. So, she did a good job. You're welcome. Any I think I think that's it. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Yes. Have a good day. All right, we're going to move on to our coastal engineer update from Fran Wei.

Hello. Hello. Uh, I'm Fran Wei. I'm a coastal engineer with Applied Technology Management ATM. We've been working with the town on on various coastal projects since uh 2017. Uh, first slide, Ricky. Just an overview of the the town. We have uh five phases of shoreline. New River Inlet. Uh phase one is up near New River Inlet. We have phase five at the Surf City uh town limit. As you can see there, these are just an overview of projects that have happened recently or are planned. Uh we have, you know, some of the ones down on the the south end were completed uh and recently completed and they've been holding up well and we're working on some of the projects in phases one, two, and three right now. And we'll just go into each one individually really quickly. Okay. Uh this was the core navigation project. This was last February. They do these about every other year. They usually try to put about a 100,000 cubic yards of material on the beach. This is really a dredging project. So, it's a beneficial use. Uh the state and the Wilmington District of the Army Corps of Engineers, they work on this in the spring. There should be another meeting and I attend all the the meetings with the state and the the the Wilmington district and to see and the plans for coming up for next year. They should be out this spring and I I'll update you as soon as I hear something. Uh, next slide. This is the phase five down on the south end. The the this was completed about two years ago. The project has held up really well. Uh, it's a beach and a dune project nourishment. Uh, these are just of some photos in the lower right from last month. And the beach has been holding up

well to some of the recent uh, storm surge events and norers. Uh, next slide. There's a phase four. This is just, you know, as soon as you get onto the island, uh, you know, head south. And that's, uh, this just got completed last year. It's held up really well, too. It's that it's that upland truckall sand. Uh there there's obviously the dredging sand is is a a very good alternative as well uh for the but this material is slightly coarser and it does and it's all beach compatible but it it does hold a little bit better and uh it has been performing well. Uh next slide. Oh and these are just some more photos of the phase 4 and just you know from last month and you can go again Ricky. This is a disposal area 143. This is the next major. This is the largest nourishment ever for North Topsel Beach. As you can see, uh this is for about two million cubic yards of material. The biggest nourishment ever was about that 1.5 million in 2015 with uh in phase five to establish that engineered beach. So, this is a really big one and it's, you know, a beneficial reuse of the dredge material in that disposal area 143 that's been used, you know, for decades and they they were putting beach compatible material in there. And so, we just really want to get that beach compatible material out of there and onto the beach that is eligible for grants and and other sort of funding sources. And so that is a big deal with uh with these large projects where some sort of additional state or federal funding is really needed for the town to make these happen. Uh and then there's still there's some easement issues with the state agencies and uh TI Coastal is working through those right now, but you know that this is still planned to occur, you know, uh a year

from now about. Hey Fran, do you do you know if Chris has any updates as to when the he thinks the permit process would be completed? Uh no I I the first step was just to get all the easements in order and then and he did the the one-stop preapp meeting did the agencies are aware of this project the permit but the the official permit application is not going to get submitted until the easements are all sorted out and then uh hopefully they can turn it around in you know three or four months. Uh yeah go ahead. I I was going to wait till the end. Shallow draft fund.

When do we apply for those funds? Is it after you get permits? Is it Yes, that's the money we're looking for. Right. Right. I I I can I can double check on that. I will uh I I think you can go in beforehand, but I do think the the permit has to be Yes. in processing like near completion. And then act that's actually a good thing because then you can almost put a little pressure on the agencies to finish up their review. So but I I will look into that. Yeah, it would be helpful to know if it has to be shovel ready or as Rick just asked if we can

Right. I I Yes, I do to think it should be you know in review and I but I will double check on that. And Fran, another another point on uh the discussion here is the SHA draft fund did not receive any state additional state funding this year. So it's got its balance carryover balance of about $66 million. And we want to get our project in there under that $66 million before some other community on the coast is going out for that money as well because it's going to be a while until the shrive fund really recovers from the money that's being diverted to western North Carolina for hurricane Helen recovers. So it's really important that we apply as soon as we can to that fund. Mike Mike makes an excellent point because the other problem with that is actually they they updated and said there's like 70 million in there, but if we're asking for 35 to your point, you better get in early. Um, and we're also talking about we'll talk about the second session about working with Lazaro to see if we can get some separate funding on this thing because to Mike's point u we don't want to wait to try to get that money because it could be going and I think they only fund 20 million a year even when they're funding it. Right, Mike? It's not much.

Yeah. I just was trying to get one comment which I was appreciating that you put the pictures of the beach grasses because in phase four and five that project really did help hold those dunes and the beach grasses, you know, three, four years in now are looking amazing there. So,

okay, next slide, Ricky. Uh, this is potential tropical cyclone 8. This happened last September. uh it wasn't a tropical storm. It never reached that status. It never reached hurricane status, but it did qualify. The FEMA comes in and does their, you know, the countywide damage assessment for these major storms. And then obviously the the governor also has to declare a state of emergency that it all qualified for this. Uh this is a smaller project. It's only about uh 60,000 cubic yards of material, but it is a dune restoration. And it's, you know, just as soon as you get on the island north uh and and then we're going to try to and then definitely north of the pier is is, you know, where we're going to, you know, concentrate on. Uh and then you can next slide, Ricky. Uh yeah, in uh last May, April, May, we did actually have to plug some dunes up there that there were there was basically no dune. And as you know, we mentioned before, you know, county act even right now out there there there's ponding on the on New River Inlet Road. Uh and then with the no dune, then you get that salt water and tides up there and then a lot of ponding on New River Inlet Road. these uh the the 8,000 cubic yard critical dune restoration. It it worked well and you know those those dune sections did hold up to the recent storms and everything. So that is good. We're going to come back and do more of this all up and down uh the the the the ocean front here pretty much as soon as you get onto the island north. And that's what we're doing a month from now. Uh next slide, Ricky. Uh this is the the project that will be happening uh next month. We'll be getting it. You know, you can see as soon as you get onto the island, there's the Jeffre access and then we've got up to the pier that there will be about

one-third of the project and about twothirds of the project will occur north of the pier up to the topsel reef condos. Uh the Topsel Reef condos are are you know separate. They've they're all uh they didn't qualify bysection analysis by FEMA to see what survives a fiveyear storm and their structure survives a fiveyear storm. So we couldn't include them. But this is a project that will be happening. It'll be it'll be another truck haul. Uh and it'll be that good sand. Uh this will be a little more difficult because there are you know when we're doing this dune project we are getting closer to walkovers and peers and and just decks really. So it we do have to be a little bit more careful but this will happen you know next month. Those begin next month after Christmas and New Year's and next one. And this is just a a uh a summary of kind of where we are. the new river inlet management master plan EIS that is the basically everyone kind of refers to it as the terminal groin project that has moved forward but uh with the the government shutdown and everything it did did slow it down the draft EIS is still under review that's the main section of the EIS but then there are appendices that are also numerous appendices in these EIS documents they're humongous uh and and the biological ical assessment, the BA and the essential fish habitat are being worked on and they are appendices and dial court is working on them now. Uh then PTC8 we're working that that project is is going to happen here about a month from now and DA 143 is easement coordination the and then we have several of the projects completed that we already went through and then we're just going to continue working with

staff on uh funding and accounting and all the submitts to FEMA after the fact and for the state grant and then just permitting coordination on all projects as necessary And uh that that's the uh that's my presentation. Thank you, Fran.

Uh Fran, I do have a a comment um on the potential tropical cyclone number eight work. Just remind everybody that the town committed about $3 million for that recovery effort. Whether or not we get free reimbursement, we don't know yet. But we committed that money. And since that time, this past year, we had a pretty strong nor easter last few weeks that did a lot of erosion at the very north end along what I call condo road. I think it would be a good idea for those condominium homeowner associations to consider if it's possible to add additional monies to our project so that we could put additional sand in front of those uh condominiums from the topsell dunes all the way up through the st reges. that would I think really benefit because I know that the amount of sand that's going to be coming in with the 55,000 cubic yards you're talking about Fran is not going to uh replace what was uh eliminated in that nor easter that occurred um last month. So it's something for the those condominium homeowners to think about if it's possible to add to our project. Thank you

Connie. Anything you good? Thank you. Thank you, Fran. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to move into the next section, which is the beginning of the organizational meeting. And for farewell remarks, I believe that would be myself and um Alderman Benson, would you like to go first?

Okay. Thanks, Mayor. Thank all you for attending. One of our biggest crowds uh in the past year. Congratulations to Mayor Elect Rick Grant and the other new altermen that were elected. Rick is our new captain. Please don't run a ground the ship. Seriously, neither rain, snow, ice, or hurricane has kept me from reporting to you. For those of you keeping track, this is my 96th straight Alman's report and sadly my last report. I'd like to take a New York minute to recap those last 95 reports and some of the major accomplishments over those corresponding eight years. Our revenues have continued to grow while keeping expenses in check as investors and retirees see North Topsel Beach as a prime vacation and retirement community on the east coast. And as our audit report showed, we are in great financial position. We survived several hurricanes, restored infrastructure, and the eroded beach. Afterwards, we established a capital improvement fund for future major expenses. This resulted in purchase of a new fire engine, renovation of the north fire station, and construction of the new south end fire station. We established the beach inlet advisory committee to plan for future beach nourishment. This resulted in a plan with a $10.5 million state grant that nourished phase four last year. We now have a five-year plan in place, as Fran pointed out, to nourish the five file five miles of uh town. For those of you in the Cobra zone, we now have support from US Fish and Wildlife to

help get the legislation through both chambers of Congress and end this CBR penalty. We really cannot thank Mayor Pro Tim Tom Leonard enough. He has made that a major effort goal of his. He has worked dedicatedly over the last 8 to 10 years to make this happen. And even though he's not in a Cobra zone, he has worked diligently making three trips to testify before Congress and meet with the new director of fish and wildlife. And I think this last meeting was the one that's going to get us over the top because now Fish and Wildlife is going to work with the town to create that error that was made back in 1982. I'd like to thank my current former colleagues on the board for their efforts in making North Topsel Beach the vacation destination that it is. And finally, a big thank you to town manager out Sturian who has been effective manager getting the big projects done as well still taking care of the dayto-day uh operations of the town. Thank you, Alice. It's been my pleasure serving you, residents and property owners of North Topsel Beach. Let's continue the progress. Thank you.

Mine is not nearly as long, so not most of you won't be surprised at that. So, I want to thank everybody for coming today as well. I have been on the board um serving the town residents here for the last 10 years. I started as an alderman. I was an alderman for four years and then I was the mayor for six years. Um partnering with our board and our staff, I certainly feel that we've accomplished a lot. And I think Mike, you did a good job in listing out a lot of those board accomplishments. And I do look at the accomplishments as a board. I don't think any of us look at them as individual accomplishments. Um I have confidence that our newly elected board will continue down that same path. We will they will continue to put residents first, ensuring a safe place to enjoy for many years to come. They will there will always be challenges, but working together they will continue to overcome them as we have in the past 10 years. So thank you to staff. Thank you to the board. It's been a pleasure.

Thank you, Joan. You're welcome. Joanne, you did mention the one thing that you did not accomplish as mayor. For what? Instead of two. You'd still be here. Remember, he talked about having a four-year term for the mayor. Yeah. I'd still be here. You'd still be here. We didn't get to do that. He's probably laughing right now because my husband's here to make sure that I am actually turning over the gavvel. All right. Thank you. So, do you want to take a break so that we can get the new

So, we're going to take a quick break so the newly elected officials will be able to come up and get sworn in and seated.

So for me for me repeat after me. I, Richard Grant, I, Richard Grant, do solemnly and sincerely swear do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina

and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof. go slower on that one. And I I endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to the best of my knowledge and ability. And I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as mayor for North Topsel Beach. So help me God. Mr. Strawthers on the

I can add one if you'd like. Okay. Okay. So, I'll hold it here for both. All right. Repeat after me with your hand up. I, Larry Straw Hi, Larry Strawther do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States. do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States. that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina. that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina, and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof.

and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof thereof. That I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state. that I will endeavor to support, maintain, defend the Constitution and laws of scent, state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability, to the best of my knowledge and ability,

and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as alderman for North Topsel Beach. I'm that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as alderman for the town for North Topsel Beach. So help me God.

Mr. Barefoot.

Repeat after me. I Mark Barefoot. I Mark Barefoot. solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States. do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina. that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina. And that and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof. and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof. That I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state.

That I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state. Not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability, to the best of my knowledge and ability, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office. alderman for North Topsel Beach. So help me God. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as alderman for North Topsel Beach. So help me God. Beautiful. Thank you.

Thank you. from my childhood. So, my mother's gonna hold it for me. All right. So, I Kip Malcolm I, Kip Malcolm, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States do solemnly swear Do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support and the Constitution and the laws of the United States and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina. that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina, and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof.

and and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof. that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and the laws of said state not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. Not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. To the best of my knowledge and ability to the best of my knowledge and ability. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as alderman for North Topsville Beach. So help me God. and I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office of alderman for North Tops Beach. So,

thank you.

Okay. Uh, next order of business is I need a motion to approve the second part of today's um agenda.

Motion to approve. We we go motion then we do discussion. So motion approved. Do I hear a second? Second. Discussion.

So let's see. It is item E. No, it's not. Let's see. Item D, discussion of electric bikes on the beach. Um, I'm asking that we move that to um the January meeting as Mr. Malcolm has um let me know and we've had conversation about some state regulations that are going to affect that and could affect what towns are going to be doing. So, we would like to let the state rule on that first so that anything we talk about would be in line with that. So, if we can remove that item. Yeah, I think procedurally. Uh, so I'm going to make a motion to remove that. We Yeah, that's what you need. Yep.

Do we have a second? I second. All in favor? I Thank you. Um, under under the consent agenda, I'd like to pull off the finance department just because I've got a couple of questions to ask. Um, so I need a a motion. Well, can I make a motion? Actually, can we pull u all of the department heads that are present so that they can present uh publicly their reports? So, I make a motion to full uh item B from the consent agenda, the department head reports. Do I hear a second? Second. All in favor?

I opposed. Okay. So, uh, next order of business is, um, certificates of appreciation. So, I don't think Oh, Mike's still here. Uh, is Joanne still here? Okay. Well, we can do Mike,

right? I guess I guess we can we can do the election the prom mayor first. It does I think we've just got one person so that's fine. So I'd like to hear a a motion to uh approve I guess it'll be nominate a mayor prom. I'd like to make a motion to nominate Connie as mayor prom. Any other nominations? Okay. So, now we need a motion to approve her as mayor prom. No, you nominated her. So, no. So, now I'll make a motion

to approve her to approve as mayor prom. All in favor? I I Congratulations. Thank you. Now we'll go to the certificates of appreciation. And we want to have Mike come up. Have you got it, Alex? Alexis.

Okay. Thank you for your service. And she needs me to sign this and then we'll get it framed for you. Correct. So, thanks Mike. Thanks for your service. And I assume uh Alexis we will take care of the other ones. Okay. Thank you. Next order of business is the liaison appointments. I think I've discussed this in general um with with um here and I think I sent out a note to people as well. What I would suggest we do here, we have got three new aldermen. We have got a lot of liaison appointments. Um, and I thought I'd give you the new um the new alderman an opportunity to think about which one of these you want to be on. Um, so after working with Alice, there's six of them that we are going to need to fill today. And then I would suggest that what we do with the other ones and did I give you that handout? Did I Did I give you a hand out or do I still have it?

This one? Yeah, that one. Does everybody have that? If you look at those, so the highlighted items are for the um current positions that we don't need to fill today, but those are being filled by individuals who either were not elected or did not run. So, I think council, we need to have a motion to vacate those appointments. Remove remove those appointments. Do I hear a motion to remove those appointments? I'll make a motion to re remove the appointments of people who are no longer on the board. Second. I hear a second. All in favor? I.

So then let's move to what we have. We already filled out mayor prom. Um the second one is state and local reps um with those. So, we'd like to make sure we fill those. Um, do I hear who would be interested in those? And then reflecting back on the the sheet that you've got um with current members of different commit or different ones. So, with uh some of my government background, I would like to represent the town uh with the state and federal uh issues moving forward.

Okay. Um, just a comment on that. In the past, we've combined those two. So, it's fine to fill it now, but I would suggest uh when we get together in January that we give some thought to combining some of these going forward or separating something like state and federal or how to coordinate those. Um, and the other thing I'd like to suggest we consider for January is not just having board members as liaison or working on some of these committees, but that have actually citizens that might be interested. And the guy that I always talk about is sitting there, Mr. Fontana and the work that you did with DOT uh, and those type of things, but to have people involved in these, you know, on these liaison committees or whatever going forward. We don't have to decide that today, but I think it would be important to get more citizens involved in these things. Um, anybody else on state and and local? I think you're already

mayor, if I may. Uh, typically the state and federal leaison are the mayor and the mayor prom for the town of North Thompson Beach. That's how it's been done in the past. Are you wanting to not abide? Well, not abide, it's not the right word. um no longer have those seats as dedicated seats for the mayor and mayor prom. Well, what I would suggest then is if that's the way we've done it in the past, do that temporarily until January

and then decide that as a group how we want to handle that. Does that make sense? So, we'll we'll keep that as myself and mayor prom. Um but again, consider that to open it again in January when we're going over these things. Um, and Alice, I would ask you to weigh in on some of these as we go through them because we've talked about them. Um, the Army Corps EIS is one I believe um, we need to fill. Yes. You want to critical at this point. Um, for for the new members, I've asked Alice and she's the one that's the expert in these type of things to get people to understand what they're signing up for, which for the new guys or new people, it's probably not clear what some of these are. So,

Sure. Yeah. At the last board meeting, um I gave a brief update on um the draft EIS and the process that we were moving forward with and it was critical. Um we approved the agreement with Dow Cordi Associates to keep uh the engineering services going while the federal government was shut down. Um obviously they have reopened. Uh we have been communicating again actively within the last week with the army corps. So this committee is critical to fill at this point in time so that we keep things moving to get the the draft EIS out on time.

So do we have interest um for that committee? Yeah. Um I would also be interested in the uh armed cors committee. Okay. I lost my copy of the yellow thing. So, we're only going to do a few. We're only going to do a few. Yeah. Right now, we have on that one U the mayor and mayor pro Tim were on the US. So, right now we would have one person. Is that something you would like? Is that what is that what you were looking for?

This Yeah, this this one. So right now um on that we have um we have the mayor and mayor prom. Correct. So both of those spots are open. So we have one person that's interested in that one. Anybody else have interest? Um and again you can think about it until January but I think we need to have at least one person available on that today or would you recommend we do both? I would recommend both. And for this one in particular, it I would recommend if you're going to have one newer member to have one with um that's older that has the historical knowledge. Either one. It'll help. Okay. Do you want to do that? Well, the other one was prom before. So,

right, Connie and Yep. and Kip. Okay.

All right. CRC Alice, you want to give them an idea? Sure. Um, in the past, um, this is beach related typically. Um, it's a meeting that, um, this person would attend, uh, quarterly, um, in a state and there's not a lot of involvement, but usually a quarterly meeting. Okay. And right right now um inconsistent with the other one right now myself and and Connie are the two people if you want to do that.

Last year you did last year you assigned alternates which you haven't done in the past. Um before you assigned one member but last year you felt it was uh valuable to have one as a backup as an alternate. So, it's something you can decide. Do you want you guys, but you How about temporarily since you're already on it, she you'll replace me on it and there'll be the two of you. Okay. Does that work? Okay. Tispc Larry, anybody interested in that one? Yes.

I'd be I have I am now the currently am the vice chair on the test pack and so I'd like to continue to work on that uh that project. Anybody else want to serve on that? So, at this moment, Alderman Strawther serves in a citizen capacity, right? Which you're able to continue to serve on. Um, so that would still leave the two, right? And I would I would put him as our representative and not as a citizen representative. Correct. Replace him as citizen and put him on. Okay. Larry, I assume that's what you wanted. Yes. So then we could have one other person here and then a citizen

a citizen that would be interested in doing or replacing Larry on that. So anybody that's interested in that, please let us know and we can do that citizen in January. Can we do that? We have to have the 45day notice. There's a 45day requirement for the policy to advertise the vacancy. Okay. So can we advertise that one and we'll leave it vacant until that that period comes? And I believe citizens are able to attend those meetings anyway. Correct. close to the public. So, I would say anybody interested in that Phil would uh might want to go and attend the meeting as well. Where are those meetings typically? So, people know they're at uh Surf City, the town of Surf City's uh meeting meeting area and it's usually twice every two months. Okay.

So, you we meet six times a year unless there's a special meeting. Okay. And we might want to just let people know. So, you'll be the town's representative, not the citizen representative. And then we'll have one more to fill in January. Yeah, Larry and I had a discussion about this. Um, and I think it would definitely be something I'd also be interested in. We we definitely need I mean I think we need to have a minimum of two representatives. No, I agree. I the issue I've got right now is is that we could go to the end of this. We could have one person sign up for five things and and somebody sign up. I think if we if we lay out a foundation with what we're planning on doing and then we do a little bit of using the wrong term horse trading which we've done in the past, right?

Yeah. We currently had had myself as a citizen representative and uh Mayor Pro Tim Leonard was there as a as a member and and Mike Ben was so you'll be you'll be the member. So then we'll have another member to fill because they're not going to meet again until after our next meeting. Correct. that we're gonna actually we're going to meet next week. We'll meet December the 11th. All right. So, you'll be there for that one. And anybody that's interested in um December 16th, December the 11th for test. Okay. Yeah. Not BISC, right? Too many too many names. All right. Um today,

just just BISAC and the only other one is BISAC. And currently you're the chairman of that but not as a board member. Um and you know, I right now it's myself and Mike representing the board and you heading it up as a citizen. Um, I'm assuming you would like to step stay as the chairman but be the board member. I I I would definitely appreciate being able to serve continue to serve as the chairman uh since we're right in the middle of of things that we've been working on. Of course, there's election. There is an election that will take place in February based on the rules, but I mean, but for currently, I'd like to stay the chairman.

Okay. And and then every but as as our board representative, not as a citizen. Correct. Okay. Yeah. And then that would that would then we need one more alderman person or yourself that's going to and the citizen to replace you. That's right. Okay. So, I don't mind staying on it until January. And then if other people want to get involved in it, that's fine. Um but then if if I need to get off, that's fine. Okay. Well, wait. And then again, let's go ahead and notice um the 45 days for filling your spot. Yeah. For the citizen. For the citizen job. Does that make sense? Y we're just doing this by consensus. Chip. I'm assuming we don't need to do anything on these except by consensus. Okay. Okay.

And that's the rest is January. Yeah. And so I would what I would suggest you do um and I think Connie would probably be a good one for this too although I'm not trying to volunteer her but with Alice when you're looking at these Mark or or you know Kip or Larry have a discussion with her because I' I've been asked when people sign up for stuff the first question I'm always asked is how much time does this involve and then I come back with my standard answer is it depends how much time you want to spend on it. So, it's just something to think several of the committees um as both a citizen and as a board member. So, if you have any questions, I can I can try to help you. I mean, she's a logical one, but I didn't want to dump it on you. So, Mayor Prom, um

with that, let's move on to So, we're clear on the other ones being vacated. We're fine on that. Correct. Okay. So, Alex,

thank you, mayor. Good morning everyone. Staffing updates. I want to first say uh congratulations to Kim Weaver, our deputy uh finance officer who has recently retired. Uh I want to thank you for her 18 years of service with the town. Uh most recently, like I said, she was a deputy finance director but has served in other capacities as well. Kim's last day was November 26th. Um she was presented with a plaque for her years of service as well as some other momentos from everyone and we just wish her all the best in her next chapter. Included on today's agenda also is under new business is an agreement with accompanying contract authorization ordinance to enter into an agreement with a staffing agency to assist in the finance department. I reported in previous meetings that we have been interviewing and testing to fill the accountant one position that the board had approved. This position has not been filled as of yet. Um we continue to um interview and test as candidates apply, but this agreement will provide immediate assistance to the finance department and also will provide a temporary to hire option that's outlined in the agreement. individuals are vetted and tested through this agency and should the board board approve we have someone available to start immediately and that is included on today's agenda under new business coming up later on uh potential tropical cyclone 8 Fran reported on that um to some extent uh PTC8 PTC number eight work will resume we expect uh with St. Wooten continuing operations the first week of January. That's when they will uh mobilize and start. Uh the project's expected to take uh 3 months max to complete that remaining dune work. Also um as an update, it still remains um within FEMA

waiting to be obligated with funds. GFL cart change outs. Um, I've been reporting that GFL would be changing out trash and recycling accord recycling carts in the November time frame as part of the new contract that was approved back in April of 2025. We pushed a new cart rollouts until the off season because it just did not make u sense logistically to have carts um being maneuvered in in and out and trucks coming on and off the island during a busy time of year. GFL will begin swapping these carts out on Wednesday this week, which is December 3rd. Each resident will receive a new trash and recycling cart and the existing carts will be removed. Um whether they have one or multiple, they're all going to be changed out. So, it's just not one trash one recycling, it's whatever carts you've got, they will be swapped out. uh we have uh met with GF GFL to discuss the logistics of the process and have been in communicate and have been comm communicating the process for this week which I again it will take place on Wednesday. Uh I do want to say thank you to Holly Ridge, the town of Holly Ridge for um um being so kind to assist us with allowing us to use uh their facility for uh cart storage. Um, as we met with GFL, they looked at various sites here, but it's just too problematic um, between Drey's lot with the ground being unstable with it's not paved. The park is definitely not an option. I do not want to um, take up any um, space in our park. Even though that does have an asphalt service surface, it just um, it just makes more sense if it could be stored off island. So, we're thankful to them. Uh we anticipate completing the project on Wednesday, December 10th. So they will be working daily excluding Sundays to do this uh

cart swap out. So as we get information, it'll be posted um on our website and to Facebook as we proceed. I work citizen request platform. In 2024, we entered into an agreement with IWork uh software and part of this initiative is a citizens report portal. I initially rolled this out for beach patrol usage to pin and document items. These are personal property items that are removed from the beach during the summer months. Um um and also document citizen interaction. So it lets us know where we where hot spots or where we have more issues. Um the second phase of the imple implementation was for public works to start using internally. Um this was for a work order system. Um initially public works didn't have any um type of platform they were using to track work orders. Um so they have been using it and been very successful at implementing that and have done a great job. So now we are rolling out the next phase of this program which is the public portal to allow citizens to submit issues. Um this also includes being able to upload photos and locations um to drop pins to know exactly where something is. if it's a sign, it's a crossover, what a dead animal, whatever it may be. Um you can um put in the information, drop the pin of your location and upload a picture.

So now there will be before you leave that one, but this is not for police activity or or somebody sees a problem that is for fire and safety. Is that correct?

No, this is not for emergency services and that's um I have that later. Rob's going to capture that later on at the end, but it's not for emergency services, for fire, police. Um, you still need to call 911 for those type of uh situations, but this does, we envision it to most workly with public works, but it will also capture any other request um such as the 411 system that we currently use that the town has used for years that this will just replace that. So whenever someone is requesting something for public works, it'll be clear what you're requesting for. Anything else you would there's a option to select other. Um we have went through and built a tutorial which was published on the website yesterday and it walks step through step to take somebody through from start to finish on how to uh to to submit anything through this portal. Um we have scheduled later out today to roll out um announced public announcement announcing this um but the tutorial is already built onto the website and was there as of yesterday.

So so basically you're creating a punch list.

Yes. Yes. And a and a work order system. So this is going to be crucial for um the board down the road for any um to determine and justify any needs that are uh specifically within the public works department. Um, if we need to expand services, you're going to have the data to back up whatever requests that we may be coming to you with. It also tracks labor. It tracks everything. So, when they when they submit a work order and they put the information in, it calculates how much labor was used, how much the parts were, everything. So, you're getting a holistic um picture of what a request is. So would that tie in then to budget request then? So like the snowflake project, we might be able to track hours or whatever against that.

You'll know how much time that was spent responding to snowflakes being out and right how much it costs to replace them and so forth. Yes. Well, that's great because that's what we need to start building the budget more accurately is being able to track some costs.

Yep. Okay. stormwater projects for Island Drive and Richard Peters Park. I've been working with our engineers uh to finalize the designs to get the two storm water projects ready for bid. Again, these are on Island Drive and Richard Peters Park. Uh the final construction documents are now being finalized and have secured the encroachment agreement for the New River Inlet uh road site um with the Island Drive site still pending with the DOT. So, one we have secured, one is pending. Uh these two projects were for a grant that I wrote and secured in 2023, executed in June of 2024 uh with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, specifically the Division of Emergency Management, and that was for $1,261,67. Uh we've been submitting uh required reports quarterly and being reimbursed for payments which has um 100% to this point been for engineering to WK Dixon now referred to as Ordora.

Okay. So so the number is it's a reimbursement correct project. Okay.

Yes. Which is typical that's typical which is typical for most grants. the phase four project was highly unusual and the phase four project even in the contract agreements if you read those says it was supposed to be a reimbursement. So yes, that was um just a highly unusual situation that evolved. Um to date we have um expended $112,478 on engineering costs. Um we have a purchase order that's already been um encumbered and we've got $90,000 left on that. So that gives you an idea how much was planned uh for the engineering part to get it to bid. Um so we still have um funds available to complete that out for the um through December. I'm I am asking um consensus from the board to move forward with bidding these projects uh so that once all the documents are finalized this month, I can go straight up to bid to advertise for a January bid opening. Uh my intention is to bid the project out while waiting for the second encroachment agreement that I just mentioned with the DOT um and notify biders that the agreement is pending.

Do you want to get that consensus now? Yes. So is that the consensus of the board? I would motion. Nope, just consensus because we're not we're not contracting. We got to You're not approving a contract, but I just want to make sure that this is still something a uh priority of the town and the board. Yes. Yes. Something that's funded 100% by somebody else is a very good project. All in favor? Yeah. All good. Okay. Thank you, Els.

Okay. Thank you. Um WK Dixon, now known as Ardora, like I mentioned, has been under contract to assist uh through the bidding phase, which um that they've done a really great job on. I've asked them also to provide a new proposal to handle construction administration and observation. Um I envisioned this to aid in preparing the construction contracts, review drawings, um electrical components, pumps, infiltration systems, um just for consistency with the contract documents. um and also inspect the critical components and installations. The grant was written um when I prepared it to include the engineers's opinion of cost for construction plus a 5% inflation cost built in. So the grant was written with anticipating finishing out uh the engineering for the planning process to get to the bidding and then also what the probable cost of that we had estimated plus 5% for the cost of construction. So that's all included in the

So for layman's purposes, Dixon's covered by the grant. Correct. And we'll know once the bids come in what the actual cost is and then you can determine from there if you want if the board chooses to continue to move forward with the projects. Any questions on those? With that, that's uh that's just covering the initial cost as far as maintenance and everything else is going to fall on public works in the future. Correct. in the future. Yes. Any type of maintenance that's labor intensive responsible. It does not it's not automatic. It's labor intensive. Thank you. Yep. Correct. And two um and at one point because we do have a new board.

Um I will have the engineers come to do a full presentation so that you could ask any specific questions you have on both of the engineering solutions because they're both very different in nature. The one for Richard Peters Park, it's more about um pvious pavers with tearing out the asphalts to allow for drainage. Um and then the one on Island Drive and grocery is a little more sophisticated with adding pipe and an infiltration system. So, I think it'll be good to for the board to be able to look at the engineering and ask any questions um once we get the bids in. That's not the same thing that Surf City did, is it? Um, they had a storm water project down there.

They did do one the same one because we all went through the same study that was grant funded as well before we did this grant um with the RCCP process and WK Dixon recommended um that the one project like we're looking at on Island Drive which has worked in Surf City. Yes.

Yep. Okay. Um just a quick update on the pier behind the fire station because we I have received some inquiries on on that um project. The contract with RCP Marine is expected to be finalized this week with construction to start um right after it's signed and expected to be completed within 3 weeks. How big is Alice? How big of a pier is this? It's the same. It's just just that same. Yeah, it's just fixing what is there in kind.

The only thing that we're adding is we've we originally had budgeted, if you recall, a um potential um landing at Richard Peters Park at one of the peers for our fire department to be able to um to have closer access than here at the bridge. So, what when the board approved this, it just made much more sense to take that idea and move it there because it's closer to closer to the fire station number one, right behind their property and closer to the north end for access. Um, so just better all access overall. So, is is putting in a gate and a landing, so to speak, just for them to get into the water with their equipment. That's the only add-on.

All right. real real quick with that. Um, as far as time frame, you know, it's 3 weeks after it's been signed, but with the holidays and everything else, estimate before January, the end of January, basically. Yeah, I would say, um, and you never know with contractors because there's going to be delays. Um, but that is the information that we've got back from the contractor. So, that's what they're saying. They're really wanting it. I would probably, you know, estimate with the holidays, just like you said, it may take a little bit time, but the good part is that we're in the off season, so now is the time to do these type of projects. Thank you.

Okay. Crosswalks has been another question um that we've been receiving. Um staff has been asked to provide an update at the January meeting. Uh so there will be uh an update on crosswalks in January. That'll include the uh feedback from DOT, right? Because they still have to sign off on these. Correct. Correct. Every state road they do. Absolutely. Yes. There has to be agreements in place with the DOT for any crosswalks on theirs. We can

And just like Mr. barefoot um mentioned about maintenance. We will be required for maintenance going forward on any um any agreement with DOT on a state road with crosswalks. So we're we're responsible just like the one at Villa Capriani. We installed it and we're responsible for maintenance going forward. Right. So the board had already come up with a list of priorities, right, for public works for these crosswalks or is public works bringing us their list?

No, we've already established the priorities. We're just going to give an update because you mentioned that in the last meeting that was provided that there was some potential funding available and touching base with DOT. So, it's just coming back with what that plan is going to look like and if the board is still still comfortable with moving forward or if there's any other um input that we need to pivot on with a new board as well. And and if you remember what two things we talked about were we don't necessarily want to put the same thing everywhere that we put it in villa. Correct. Okay.

Yes. There was multiple types of installations that um our public works director outlined. Some of it include most of it actually included um signage or just the striping with the thermoplastic um that they put down on the roadways. And then the and then the other caveat was what do approve so that if they come back and they're willing to approve AB and C versus DE and F that that priority may switch because we may not be able to get the approvals that quickly. Right. It took a long time to get and it took a long time to get to the agreement in place with the DOT the last time.

Okay. Events. I just want to say thank you to everyone that participated and came out to our fourth annual Christmas tree lighting. Um it was a great event each year. It continues to grow since we started it. So that's always a good thing to see and a and a happy happy occasion. I want to thank all the staff who helped set up the event. Um it does take a lot goes into it. So I appreciate everything that everyone does to make it a success. Uh also thank you to our partners, the Presbyterian Church choirs, the children's choir and the adult choirs. They did a a great job as always. Um the Girl Scout troops number 4298 and 203. We had two this year usually of one. We had one more troop that helped with serving the hot cocoa and cookies. So thank you to them. And the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital. And also a reminder for this holiday season that the community pantry is um at town hall on the property for anyone that wants to drop off any non-p perishable items during this season. It's greatly appreciated. Um and this the pantry is on site year round as well. So not just this time of year, but I just wanted to make a note of that. Ellis, do you know um and they happen to be ladies, ladies that sit out here on Saturday on turnover day, are they still going to be out there as well during this time?

No. Um usually what happens if it starts to become uh overly full, I will contact share the table and then coordinate a pickup with them so that they come and take it and and then it gets replenished. So it's it's being rotated uh continually. Just a reminder, too, we do have a little free library out there on the front porch, too. So, if somebody's looking for a book to read on this rainy day, we do have that as well as the food pantry.

Yeah. And the next initiative um that I'll be working on um this week, we I'll be sending out a notice about the Santa Santa mail as well. Um where you can drop off there's a mailbox in the lobby for letters to Santa. So, anyone that did not give their letters to Santa while he was here for the tree lighting, you could bring them to town hall and drop them in the box at the lobby. Great. Uh, next item is open forum. Alexis, anything else? If I can address two things. Um, when talking about the uh accountant one position, I did not see it on the town website. Um, I didn't see it on the government jobs website either. I did see it on the league of municipalities though. So,

so it was posted um it needs to be reposted. So, you can set them up for certain amount of time to show and then it'll close out. That's when uh myself and the finance director as well as GWI Deborra um review the applicants. So, it just has to be okay um republished essentially each time. The League of Municipalities had it December 6th, I think expiration. So that's why I just didn't know it disappeared from some their um their terms for how long they have it is different from like gov deal or not gov deals gov jobs.com and um like our website.

Perfect. Thank you. And then the intention too is to continue to advertise a position internally. Um so in case somebody does apply that's be that um is well qualified and tests well um it'll also give us an opportunity to and if this um p particular person is uh working out we may come back to the board at one point to um you know to potentially um increase um the staffing within the finance department um if we we have two really good right and I know we'll get to that a little later agenda as well. I did want to belabor it. I just looked briefly. So internally, you mean we're just going to post on our website? When you say internally?

Yes. And then with the trash cans uh that are being replaced, I know you would correspond with some of our community members. If the trash cans are visible from the street, they will go get them as long as they're not impeding.

Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. Yes. Um that was one thing that we talked about when we were talking about the logistics of how this was going to work because we do have a lot of u property owners that um are not present during this this time. If they are visible on the property, they will walk um on the property and get the carts. Um, now they're not going to, you know, try to open up any doors or if there's a service yard, they're not going to try to, you know, go around a house searching. But if it is clearly visible, uh, from the roadway, they are, um, they are agreeable to go and get those, retrieve those cans. And then obviously we put the trash cans out on Wednesday. It'll take a week, up to a week. No penalties or fines from trash can. No.

Yeah. Just code enforcement has been advised to stand down during this time. Yes. All right. Any other questions or comments? So now open forum. There were no signups. Anybody wish to speak? Please identify yourself and your address. My name is Frank Rochelle. Is it working?

Frank Rochelle. I am a property owner Rogers Bay Campground. Also a longtime county resident. I've owned property at Rogers Bay for 30 years. And for all of my friends at Rogers Bay that's watching this, I am not here to make any complaints whatsoever. I have concerns. Nothing to do with Rogers Bay, however, and I'm sure I'm disappointing a lot of people. For years, I've been coming down here. I crossover right in front of Rogers Bay is Jeff property. We've asked or been mentioned several times about a handicap ramp there. You know what I'm talking about. And 30 years ago, I could get up and down those steps very easily with my fishing gear. At 77, it's a little harder. And um I guess a request, would you please look into the possibilities of doing that? Excuse me. But uh my father-in-law passed away probably 10 years ago and he could got where you could not get across those steps and uh a lot of people my age you have problems with neuropathy and stuff which I do have. So please uh look into that visit that and see if it's a possibility. I know y'all are in charge of that crossover now. Uh, but I knew it had to be some involvement as far as gaining, I guess, more area to put it up there. Another thing which I've been adamant about many years is the speed limit going through there. I brought it to everybody the tensions. I got involved with DOT 10 years ago, five, six, maybe seven or eight years ago. They did a study. They came back

and told me that I guess basically what it came down to there hadn't been enough wrecks or people hurt bad enough. However, I know for a fact that they lowered the speed limit there to 35 for a period of time. Now, few years ago, there was a sign there. It lowered to 35. And now, I think it's still 45 if I'm not mistaken. I sit on my deck, which is right in the front. I've watched at least two bad accidents. I saw a golf cart with kids almost got get hit there. So, I know that there's discussion about the traffic slowing down, but I think that's worth revisiting. And uh I've got emails from the DOT and I know I talked to Chief Unener and he don't remember and that there was a sign that it was reduced and and evidently it was done by mistake, but there was a sign that the DOT did reduce the speed limit. Please just u check into that

before touch list.

I Well, just a quick update to um regards to the beach access across from Rogers Bay. That is one of the accesses that we're already working on. Um, we've got cost estimates um to rebuild that one because it was deemed as one of the ones as a priority with repairs and and I have asked that that be uh looked at to make handicap accessible with a ramp. Um because we've been focusing on New River and Road with the beach access matting. Um we've got the two permitted to Jeffrey site and we've got one under permit right now down on Myrtle Drive. So, this hopefully will be the first one that we address on on Island Drive um because we've been already working on that and getting estimates.

Well, thank you. And I know I've like I said during the summertime that parking lot to add to the problems about the traffic in the summertime, that parking lot there probably will hold a hundred cars. Yeah. It's one of our largest parking lots which and then you got you got traffic coming from the bar. We got two entrances there. Entrance across the road. You got cars coming and going. And I'm serious. I've sat there and watched accidents almost happen and have actually watched two of them that could have been really, really bad. So, but thank you very much. And could you turn that off for me? And congratulations to all you new people. Thank.

Okay. All right. So, consent agenda. Um, I believe what we moved was to take off the department heads reports but not the other parts of that. Is that correct, Kip? All right. So, I need a motion to approve the consent agenda as modified. I'll make the motion. Second. All in favor? Discussion. Discussion. We can ask for discussion, but we already had the discussion. We changed it. But if you want to add something to it. Were we gonna pull off H so we could have some discussion? H. Where's H? That's uh under new business. Is that under new business?

That's new business. All right. Perfect. Thank you. All right. So now moving on to department head reports. Finance department. body doesn't know. So, I just had a couple of couple of quick questions uh for you. One of the things we're going to be talking about I think he knows that's the finance director. You want to introduce yourself again? Oh, sure. Uh my name is Wayne Johannes. Uh started in the middle of October. I'm the new finance officer.

Right. Um just a a couple of things and and we I brought this up before. Um, under the, um, let me find the right thing here. I had my notes on it before. Um, under the capital beach project beach maintenance thing under four.

Could you do me a favor? Um, we're showing this as against budget under double I. That is the cumulative amount of investment income, not the investment income this year. So, could you break those two out because that looks like we're making about 50% return, which which would be great, but obviously we're not. Um, I'd brought that up before because it says it's over budget by a million dollars. It's not because the budget would have only had interest for four months, and I'm pretty sure we don't have $1.3 million in interest in three months, in five months. And then also, uh, two things, and maybe Alice, have we had a chance to talk to Carters at all? Are they available at all?

Yes. Um I have touched base with Carters and told them um explained to them that the board was potentially looking at having them come in to give a proposal. Okay. Um for um to to look at the uh forecast the forecast for the beach project um with the $30 million project uh for phases one through three. Um and they said that they would be interested in having more discussions on it to get um just to learn more exactly what you're looking for. Um but felt like they could possibly um assist in giving a fiveyear plan.

The genesis behind this is that we've we've talked about doing the beach project. What we don't have yet is a five-year plan telling us what those numbers look like going out. And by the way, I did get a commitment from the county that they'll have their planning person come out in January to talk to us a little bit about what how they put that together. Um, but if we could maybe take a look at um how we put that together because I think that's a critical item for us to have u in terms of what that project looks like. I mean, we've got a lot of cash right now.

Um, we also have one more debt payment to go and some other things. So if that's something maybe that we could work on the agenda for next time. Am I making myself clear on this? The county coming to the county planning person coming to not not the planning person. What I asked them to do is originally Tim was going to come in and talk about how they put their five-year plan together. We're there would be a staff person there as to how they put their planning thing together because I think they Are you talking about a strategic plan? The strategic plan. I'm sorry. The strategic plan and that that would just be a general discussion. It wouldn't be anything. It would not be a big deal for us. Presentation, just a presentation. Okay. So, we're looking for them to explain to us how to do a strategic plan.

No, what we're asking them to do is what they how they did their plan. Okay. Um because I think there's things we might be able to coordinate with them. I don't know because I haven't I haven't talked to him. It's not going to be it's not going to be David. It's not going to be somebody at that level. It's going to be like an update, I think, more than anything else. But again, if you could just take a look at and I'm sure that you and Alice will work work with Carters to find out, but maybe if we could put them on the agenda. The whole idea is to give us a forecast of what our numbers are going to look like. Um because we don't know what we're going to get from shallow draft. We don't know if we'll get more money from the state. So, I think it's critical for us to know how much money we're going to have with all the projects and things we've got. So, that's all I had. Uh questions. Anybody else?

Okay. Thanks, Wayne. Thank you. Nice to meet everybody.

Just just as a protocol thing we talked about a little bit so everybody's clear out there. When we pull something off the consent agenda, it just allows that individual to come up here and ask questions. I think Wayne, your report was 10 and something pages long. Yeah,

I wasn't asking you to makeund 100 page, but I think if we're going to ask somebody questions about a report, we have to take it off the consent agenda. So that's the protocol. Is that does that work for everybody to have that as our protocol? All right. Uh so new board, welcome. Um so the way our reports run, it runs from the last board meeting to the cuto off date. So for that period, we ran 53 total calls. 55% were fire and 45% were EMS. And you know that's skewed because fires if there's a water line break we go shut it off. You know stuff like that. So it encompasses everything. Our new uh I will say this, our new jet ski is in service. So that new lift is going to come in great. Uh we just finished the breakin period on it. The guys have been out training on it to breakin period. Um, so we got to take it and get it serviced and then it's ready to roll.

So, do you have any vacancies right now? No, ma'am. We're full. You're full. Okay. And do you have any training plan for staff in the next quarter? Uh, yes ma'am. Uh, we're getting ready to send five to Katef Community College for the January seminar. It starts on Monday, goes through Sunday, and they'll the different classes start each different days of the week. So, they'll be spread out through that day of the week. So, that's coming up in January. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Just one followup. Do we have any pressure issues? I'm putting my onwasa hat on. Have you seen anything? They're doing a Everybody knows they're doing a meter change out this week, right? They're putting in the automated meters. So, if you haven't gotten notice, like mine went out, you're going to get a little bit of a pop uh when they put it in. The new meters are so that they can just drive by and read them. It also allows them if you've got issues, they can find out at your house that there's leaks and stuff. But, have you seen any pressure issues with them at all? Not Not normally this time of year. Um, pretty good on pressure this time of year. Um, and fortunately the fire we had the other night, it wasn't big enough to require a hydrant. We put it out with one line. So, um, questions.

Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I did have one more just real quick because is this a good time of year if somebody needs a survey to see if their smoke detectors are okay or whether they need more. Can they call and see if you guys can help out with that? Absolutely. I mean, we year round. I mean, even during the summer when people are here, you know, at their homes and they want a survey or exit route or uh just the guys to come out and look over things. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. And and I know you did this last time. Remind people you replace batteries. You replace there's a lot of services that you provide for people if they call you. Correct.

So if if you still have a smoke detector with a battery now, the new smoke detectors the batteries built in. So you have to buy a whole new smoke detector. And if people go buy them, we will install them. Correct. Um we'll come out and don't forget we also do the address signs. So if people need an address sign, they can call the station. The guys will make the sign and come out and install it as well. And it's it's right if they're over 10 years old, the correct the smoke detectors are not good and need to be replaced. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Anybody for inspections?

Planning department. And now police department. Kip, did you have something?

As usual, we step up our patrols in the winter time. We're stepping them up even more in the neighborhoods. A lot of people are uh gone. Uh I'll add to that by saying we get a a good many calls and people are giving us video of people that are around their houses. So, if you have those, it's great. Call us. will email it to us. We'll check those areas. A lot of times it turns out to be people that were just looking at houses. They like to go up and look through windows. Some of the houses are for sale, some of them are not, but it'll give us an idea of what's going on. They've sent us a lot of those. Um, I will say out of this report, we did have a pretty bad wreck up here on New River inlet recently in the 600 block. Uh, I think a lot of that had to do with, excuse me, there's a lot of curves that go through there. A lot of activity with people working. Uh, truck was parked partially in the road because you can't get off the road with those large trucks. I believe the uh lady that came around the sun caught her in the eyes a lot, which is not an excuse, but it it was a factor that you need to think about. in the afternoon about 4:30 uh she hit the back of that truck and then she ran over the guy. So he got injured really bad. Police and fire both everybody got out there pretty quick. Tourniquets were applied. He went to the hospital and he's doing fine. So I'll answer any other questions you have.

In in regards to budget, did you have vehicles? I think we had two vehicles in the budget this year. We did. We purchased one. There's still funds in there for another. Okay. All right. So, one was purchased. One was purchased. Okay. And do you have any vacancies right now? I do not. Okay. That's a good thing. Looking for a job.

Chief, quick question. Uh the accident, did the uh all these contractor trucks, I mean, everybody that lives here knows it's it's a nightmare. Um, do these guys have requirements of putting the triangles out or anything prior to that way you know the lady hits the triangle before she hits the triangle? I know they want to stop, drop, and roll and get out of there as quick as they can, but extra two minutes of throwing some triangles out or something. We don't have a requirement for that. He had his flashers on. Okay. All that was working. All right. So, I think the sun had a lot to do with it. Need to slow down coming through there, especially when all that activity where people are working.

That was a big factor. Chief, also I know obviously we've had a lot of training lately, uh the offseason being the the best time for the officers to train. Um emphasizing how many officers have we sent out to radar school recently? I know just to warn people that we are actively enforcing speed limits and and what our efforts are.

We had um two go recently. We've had some of course they're already certified. We have two getting ready to go to class. So everybody be up to speed on that. So let it be a word of warning. Please obey the speed limit and and because I know that that tends to be a lot of complaints that I hear both as a you know as reserve officer prior and as a citizen talking about the speeds on Island Drive and such. Thank you, Chief.

Right. I I just have one more thing that I wanted to throw out there for you and the board just as food for thought, but we have this great digital sign here at town hall and I was wondering if you thought it would make sense to maybe get one coming from Surf City into North Topsel where we could publish our speed limit and some of our rules and regs there just for um so when people cross over they know they're in a different municipality and that we do have you know our speed limit changes there. Yes. Yeah. Uh we can look at those. They make some smaller ones now. Uh they have some that are on sign mounted. Okay.

And we do have one sign that we mount on the sign that device that does radar and it has the speed that shows on it. Uh and we're getting ready to put it back out. Okay. And we can move it to different places around the island. And that and that has a budget. It has audit features on it so that you can see speeds at times as well, right? Reporting, right? It'll give us the report on what time it was, how many cars crossed, what their speeds were, what average speed was. It does a great big print out.

But while we're on that too, um, if we can when we talk to the county next time, um, with everybody talking about 45 and 35, I know with the buildup in Sneeed Ferry, it's not our territory, it's not our roads, but all our citizens go through there. It's 55 at the dentistry center through Dollar General through Ricks. Now Evolve's built up. You get that dead head where people are trying to get involved, trying to get in Rick's. Um there's been several accidents there already, I think, that Turkey Creeks had to deal with and and we've had to be second apartment in. Um we just like to try and maybe talk to the county and the DOT on that. um moving forward for safety of our

citiz took no action on changing the speed limit on New River Inlet on Island Drive. They specifically told us that there is there they are not going to reduce that speed limit because there's no bends. There's it's a straightaway and everything else. So that's their road. We can't do that. I'm fine. It's fine to bring it back up again. But they basically shut that one down without without comment. They they had the different reaction to New River Inlet, but on Island Drive, they were pretty solid. So, a comment on that on Island Drive, if citizens still want to see that reduced, they can still go straight to the state on that because we are seeing speeds of 55 on Island Drive. And

if remember that we talked about that being an enforcement issue, not a not a speed limit issue because and again, everybody knows I spent a lot of time looking at this stuff. The number one accident place on this island is in Surf City where they have a 35 mile hour speed limit and they allow LSVs. That by far is the highest traffic accident rate on the island. And the numbers on New River Inlet were one accident every 10 million miles traveled. So I'm just tell those are the numbers. I'm fine to open it back up again. We can have a discussion. Um but I think it's going to be in chief your opinion. I drive is going to be a tougher discussion. I think the new river in I think it would do DOT's looked at it a couple a couple of times.

I didn't want to open that can of worms. I was just saying next time we're talking to the county to discuss the 45 there or 55. It won't be the county everything. Yeah. What's funny is you know I go to all the county meetings by every meeting that comes up they tell people we have no involvement in the roads in the county. They're all state roads. We don't maintain them. We don't fix them. Whatever. Um, but we have roads that I think are going to be part of our our look at next year's budget as to what we got to fix. But the county will I'm just telling you they they have no desire to get into that because once it starts, right?

I don't mean to drag meeting on also, but hats off hats off to the DOT for or was it public works that did some of these bridges here that uh uh you don't you don't clack your teeth when you go over the bridge there at CV Pier now. So, who whoever did that job, thank you to them. That was a state that did it, but I know public works worked with him on that to get it done.

Go on to new business. All right. First one is calendar year uh schedule. Right. So I know there are why why don't let's let's do a motion uh to approve and a second and then do a discussion. So motion to approve. Motion to approve. Do I hear a second? Second. All right. Discussion. I'd like to move the February meeting to February 11th and then I believe we had another change we needed to make to move the May if possible. Well, I have a conflict for the May 6th meeting. If we could move that to the 13th, right? Sorry. Check your calendars. Check.

That's why I get my phone back. So, Alexa, we always have the right to do special meetings if if we need to, too. Um, so even if we schedule these meetings and we change the put those dates on, if there ends up being a conflict going forward, then we can we can modify those as well. Correct. Uh, yes. As long as you the proper notice Okay. Correct. How much notice? Uh, so if you're doing a special meeting, you need 48 hours. Um, okay.

If it's some kind of emergency meeting, um, as soon as you can. Uh but if you're wanting to amend the actual agenda itself rather than cancel and create a new meeting, that'll require seven-day notice. Okay. From when the next meeting. So what I'm hearing is move the 4th of February to the 11th. Okay. Okay. Let me stop. Every other meeting will be the first Wednesday of the month except that we're going to move February 4th to February 11th and May 6 to May 13th. Does everybody have consensus on the board? Yes.

Okay. Now we have to we have to do a motion to approve it. So now a motion now you need to modify the motion to include those dates. So, I'm going to make a modified motion to a motion to modify the um board's meeting dates for February and May. No, no, a motion to No, a motion to establish the dates for the year. That will be the first Wednesday of every month except for February and May. Yeah, you can make a motion to approve the calendar year 2026 board of alderman regular meeting with the February meeting on the 4th on the 11th and the May meeting on the 13th. Right.

All right. So that's that's your motion. That's the motion. Do I hear a second? I will second that. All in favor?

Program got a little bit uh complicated. So, I think it's going to be Larry and I handling this and and you can talk about a biscack meeting when I get done. Uh Chris is going to give us an update or was going to give us but he had some health issues today so he could not make the meeting. Um he sends his regrets. Um but what we're looking at is I got a uh one of those congratulation letters I'm sure everybody did from Lazaro. And so what I'm what I'd like to do, what I'm planning on doing is trying to set up a meeting with him to discuss with Alice and maybe Chris and somebody else to generally discuss funding for us. Um, you heard Mike talk about the shallow draft. I'm not convinced that we're going to get half of that fund because right now there's $72 million in there. I think they're lasting and France not a yes. We'll be we would be asking for half of that. So, uh, the idea, and I've talked about this in previous meetings, and I talked to Fim Foster, chairman, yesterday again, the county will support us in trying to do, which what did Chris say? Is it is it Oak Island that got the 20 million?

Does that sound right? Yes. So, you know, what their suggestion was is that we try to get legislation that says North Topsel Beach, not just a fund to ask for money. And so the idea is to meet with Lazara to see if he can do that similar to what they did at Oak Island and try to get separate funds in addition to that. And I think Alice, we talked about this, we have to get to him now to start it because in January is when he's going to be taking this forward. We can't wait until January to have a discussion with him.

Um, and then also bring up the issue relating to uh the state on the on the borrow pit to be able to handle those as well. So the idea would be trying to set up a meeting just a general how do you do you know hey I'm the new mayor type of meeting and then hit him give him an update and have Chris there to give him an update on what the project looks like and the funding and stuff. So it's not something that I have we have to get approval for from the board. I just want to give people a heads up um

that you're gonna have a meeting. Yeah, because I think more than any I wouldn't give you a heads up that I was going to meet with him, but generally I'm not convinced and I think it's why we talked about him having the Carters come in figuring out how much money we need to get this project done because if you remember Chris's last projection that had what a three to1 match in it which required us to have my memory is 345 million um from from the shallow draft and so hopefully we'll get that um but my recollection you were at the byways just meeting Fran, they only fund that about 20 million bucks a year. So, I'm not sure how they even got to 72 million on it. Um, but we need to get our hand on that one and also separate funding. So, anyway, that's it's kind of a general comment about trying to have that and then I'll report back in January or before that if we have to call a special meeting and then Larry, did you want to add anything else? I think

I'll get used to this or not. The uh Chris Chris is is pretty good too at at knowing how to go and who to go and all this stuff. And the bottom line is is that we've got to get to that point and and that's one of the things that we were going to somewhat discuss to today uh before Chris had had his issue. But uh so so we're but but we've got to do something quickly if we're going to be because if if in fact we can get our approvals, we've still got to be able to commit the money and and we we're going to have a hard time unless we I mean this is the time that we need to be going in for for asking for the money. So I think it's a good move to do that. And I think that if if available, Chris probably needs to be involved in that process, too.

Right. And I you and I talked about I think what makes sense is ha I'm not an expert on this Alice. I mean you're a lot more educated but having Chris lay out for for him what this looks like but the other thing too is I would like to schedule that before the bice meeting that you're scheduling on the 16th so that everybody will get an idea of what we're talking about for funding purposes. Well does that make sense?

Yeah. Well I mean right right now money I mean money approvals and money is the two things. I mean, we've got a plan basically in place. It's it's a matter of getting getting the money in place and and getting the final approvals on everything and and you know, we have little snags here and there with different state agencies. Yeah. and and we won't get into all that. In in any event, we what what my plan was was to have uh a a BISAC meeting scheduled for for 1216 that was not originally scheduled, but I wanted to schedule one so that Chris could bring the the the committee up to date because we we got the the cart before the horse the last go round where he made presentations to the board and some of my some of our committee members are not in the whole loop. So, we were going to have a meeting to have a uh to to determine some of that. And and this uh and and I don't know if I've got to revisit that. The date may have to change because I've got at least two people that now told me they could not make that make that date. The other thing that you mentioned to me which I think is a good idea is excuse me trying to do that here

because this this meeting is going to last several hours and so having it just dedicated to the beach project and to the funding and everything else makes more sense than trying and we had all of the the people getting sworn in and all the day too but yes plus that way it it'll go it'll be online and and everybody that comes knows exactly what we're going to be talking about and not just a a part of the meeting. So, as soon as I can get that clear on the dates, I don't know if we can make another date or not, but we'll we'll work on that. I'd really like to have one before the end of the year. No offense to the committee members, but we need to have one before the end of the year. So, if one or two people can't make it or they got to call in or whatever, that's

We had one that had a death and and and one that already told me weren't going to be able to be here, but Okay. Uh so, but the chairman will be there. The ch the chairman will be there. Yeah. One way or the other. All right. And so we we'll get that out. Still pan on getting it out this afternoon. Okay. Thank you. Three check signitories. Right now you and me are two.

Um we can either move that. We don't need three today, but if people are interested or if there's just one person that wants to be another check signatory, Alice, do you think we need three today? Do you want three today if possible? it it can be moved, but the two that are on there have to be committed to being available to sign the checks.

We've had I think we've had trouble understanding what the schedule was sometimes and being notified. So, I think if we can set the schedule um and I'm happy to spend a few minutes after the meeting and understand the schedule for the next six, eight weeks, then we can revisit this one. um because I think with newer board members um they might not be as up to speed as to what's in there. Happy to Mayor I'll be glad to to be one of the secretaries. Okay. But if any if nobody else wants it, we can unless somebody else wants to Does anybody want to do that? Well, but I'd be happy to sit with people too while we're doing it so that we can go over kind of the process. Okay.

Well, do we want to do we need a motion to add him as a secretary, the secretary? Uh, can I have a motion? If I make a motion we make Larry a third signatory. Do I hear a second? Second. All in favor? I. And Larry's opposed.

The next item's been removed, the electric bikes. Uh, the next one goes to Chip. Amended rules of procedure.

Thank you, mayor. Um, so just by way of background, it appears that the board in December of 2021 had adopted a a a suggested rules of procedure for the city council. I don't know how widely distributed and used that was, but uh my colleague Trey Ferguson and I in talking with the uh Mayor Grant and Alice decided to uh put forward a dra a a a more comprehensive set of rules of procedure. um that are catered specifically to the town. I think the the prior rules were were somewhat general. So, uh they're in your packet. I believe you've all seen them and had a chance to review them. So, um if if they're acceptable, the board would would want to accept them uh by motion. Um these are the these are not laws. These are the rules that you as a board are agreeing to hold yourselves accountable by. Um, so,

so what are the major changes? I read through it, but then I wasn't sure. Well, what have we been doing? What what what does this change? We didn't do a sidebyside analysis of what of the rules, the the rules from 2021 and the new rules. Um, when we came on board, um, we were not particularly aware that there was the 2021 rules. Um, so you know, we updated by way of these new rules. We think they're more they are more comprehensive and they are more catered towards North Topsel than we believe the previous rules were.

The one material change in this is under rule 4A. Right now you can send agenda items in within three days working. This moves it to seven. I the reason I'm okay with that if nothing else is if we start do if we do the three days that doesn't give Alice and her team time to be able to put information together. So if I hit them three days before a meeting and I said I really would like to add the issue of the finance guy coming up with this huge study. I've given them three business days to do it. Now it's moved to seven business days. So when you put stuff in the agenda, that that to me was the only material thing that I saw in there when I went through it.

And you didn't see any other any other changes. Alice, did you notice anything that would be um problematic? Not problematic. It can even be it can even be good, right? You know, I'm not saying anything. No, I I reviewed it when it was sent to U. Mayor Grant and I provided my input on that draft and it was in my input was incorporated. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Yes. If the board wants a sideby-side analysis or a comparison, we'd be happy to do that. So, who drafted I mean, who's authored these? Trey and I. Trey and you authored these. Okay. So, it doesn't mean that the board couldn't change them over time.

The board is free to amend their own rules. They're free to suspend their own rules. Um, they're free to just disregard them. And remind me we changed the language on one thing because I told you the way it worked is oh it was removing Okay. So originally it was written so that if I put something on the agenda to take it off the agenda in the meeting it had to be unanimous which means by definition unless I'm willing to remove it it could never come off the agenda. So, we change that to a majority so that if something because that's been our practice in the past, right? Because when I read it the first time, I'm like, "Wait a minute. As long as the person putting it on doesn't want to remove it, then there's no effect to that that term." And you did rewrite that.

Yes, that's correct. Right.

We do since it's a it's a first look at this thing. If you could do a quick side by side and then we put it on the agenda for January to approve it. Does that make sense to everybody? Yes. I like red lines. It's easier for me to do this stuff.

Look at that too. Um the need for the board to occasionally have um working sessions or a strategic planning meeting or to call for um kind of a retreat. I didn't see some of those things in there or what the procedure would be that that's going to be under the that's going to be under G. He's going to talk about it. Okay. Yeah. It's a it's a different This is basically I don't know what you call just what they call whole not Holes rules. What's that something's rules or procedures? Robert rules. This like Robert rules type of thing.

No, I I was looking at for the amount of days we'd need to give notice of that type of thing and cover those things. So if the board wanted to call a strategic planning meeting, how many days would we need for the public notice? Except that would be a special meeting. So you would have to have the 48 hour notice beforeh. So are you saying you want something like that in the rules of procedure? I would not because some of those things are are hard baked by the state too, right? I'm sorry. Those are could be state requirements in terms of meetings as well, right? So, like if we decide to change it to five minutes for a special meeting, that's not going to cut it.

No, you are legally required to do the 48 question. Um, what I will say is though there are some places that go ahead and predate their like budget work sessions and that's adopted within their uh regular scheduled meetings and that way they don't have to give notice and that typically allows the board um in advance. Okay. I think what what I what I'm hearing is I think that would be helpful in January to come back and amend the agenda. Well, no. Yeah, we could do that, but generally come back with when are we going to start a budget process? When are we going to have those meetings and stuff? So, go ahead and set those because in the past we've used we've just used the alderman meeting as those.

I think what I've heard from people is they would like to have a couple of days of a workshop to be able to go through a lot of details in terms of plan. Yeah. In my experience, I have had uh boards do that where they have dedicated meeting in January. Pick the dates adopted within their regular schedule. That makes sense. So that scheduling issue, mayor, the clerk will work on that. We'll work on the side by side comparison. Okay. And you've got the next one, which is consolidation. Uh and just just to give people a heads up, uh your partner brought this to me at the end of the last meeting. Um and so I suggested you bring it forward as what your recommendations were about combining the two boards.

Right. So um as we had spoken um I'll kind of tee it off and then the board can consider it and then we if the board is amendable by a sense of the board we'll come back with a hard plan in January. So, um, as as many on the board may know, the planning boards created uh by statute 160D-301 and the board of alderman by ordinance um may uh provide appointments to it. Um, the planning board's duties are enumerated in statute and uh as well as town's uniform development ordinance. The board of adjustments also created by statute. Um the board of alderman can designate a planning board to perform any of the duties of the board of adjustment um in addition to its other duties, but they can't do it the other way around. Basically, by saying you can merge a board of adjustment into a planning board, but you can't merge a planning board into a board of adjustment. So recently, I think there's been a recognition that um the workload has been somewhat unpredictable for both of the boards. Um and so the discussion came up uh with Trey and the mayor about uh merging the boards. Uh in other words, taking the board of adjustment, merging it into the planning board. There is um statutory language that allows for the planning board to then serve in the board of adjustment role for quasi judicial decisions and things like that. So the planning board currently has four members and two alternates uh serving three-year terms. The town's ordinance requires seven members and two alternates. So, we're down three members in the planning board. Board of adjustment has four members also serving three-year terms. Town's ordinance requires five members and four alternates. So, I think as sometimes communities find the interest or the the ability to recruit people kind of tends to taper down. So putting a board together might give you enough

people um to have that one board to serve in those those dual roles. Um so uh we would advise uh a merger of the board of adjustment uh into the planning board. Um and we're happy to come back in January with kind of a a step by step of how we go about doing that. There will be ordinance changes to that too. And then we talked about too is um because we went through this with staggered terms for alderman. We've got current members of the planning board. Is it if we're doing this in and I know you'll address this. Is it opponentio? Nobody's got a term right now. Do the new people get terms? How do all that kind of stuff? if you could give us some guidance on those type of things because clearly I think um based upon what's happened in the past the last thing we want to do is have everybody's terms expire at the same time.

No and and we agree and so you know staging those type of things in there has to be a a setup of the seats and how long they last so that you're exactly right everybody doesn't populate the board and then in three years the whole board gets worked up. So that would be a piece of what we would bring forward and then and then give us some advice in terms of like an existing and I don't know what the answer is an existing I'm a planning board person and I've got a year left if we merge the other board in does my term stay and then say those are the type of things that because that'll get back to the staggered board thing. So

if I may, um, in my experience when creating a new board, whether that's from scratch or merging, typically what I have done in my past as a clerk, is the entire board's terms get reset. Um, and that's whether you want to do an entire new application poll. Um, but everybody's terms are reset and then those terms are two or three years, some even one year just to allow that. Um, and then depending on the regulations of how many terms they're allowed to serve, which I don't think that we do have a regulation, um, that one-year term doesn't count too much towards that, um, their ability to continue to serve. Um, but that's how I've done it in the past.

That's exactly the issue. The issue is if and again, if you're asking me, if we go down that path, then we've got to go back to the 45day notice. We've got all those type of things built in. That's why we get, you know, if we have to do a if we decided today, which we're not, that we're going to more merge the boards and all the seats come up that we need to start noticing now because we got 45 days before we could do it. So, I'm just saying that's a guidance we need to get back from you because right now we have a functioning planning board.

The issue is if we're going the other way, how do we transition in one of those pieces? Does that make sense? I believe um if you were to set an expiration for the planning board and the board of adjustments and then set a beginning date or beginning terms for the new board, I believe you should be able to kind of sidestep the 45day gap. You'll still have to advertise and still have to get applications, but you won't necessarily be in lie of a board. you won't you won't be without a board uh during that time,

right? But that that's the advice I want from them because what I'm what I'm trying to figure out is and I don't know what the consensus the consensus board may be everybody that sits on the planning board today gets to serve their term. I don't know if that's consensus or not or the consensus might be everybody starts over and we take applications so nobody's got a seat and I think that as a board is something after you give us guidance on how this thing goes forward then we have a consensus as do you want to have people or not. Yeah, we'll put a road map together that you that the board can see and react to. Okay.

At this point, I would um think that I would not be in favor of merging the two boards. I don't feel that that serves the citizens of the town property owners um who are looking to go to the board of adjustments. Um, I understand that we are having an issue with um filling both boards, but at this time just u just thinking about it, I would not be in favor of merging the two boards. I don't think it's in the best interest. That's why it's it this is a an issue of first impression for them to come back and then lay out for us more

why why it makes sense, why it doesn't make sense, and those type of things. But do we have anything advertised now on our website that we have vacancies on these boards? No. No, not at this time. I'm getting um advertisements together. When do we think they'll be up? Um I should be able to have them finalized by this week. Okay. So, I mean, because the community needs to know if we have vacancies, maybe we could fill them. Okay. We know we got one. And and and then um are there any other jurisdictions in that you're aware of in North Carolina that have this combined uh boards? Not off the top of my head, but we could give you a list because I know Trey, my colleague, is aware of some of them.

Yeah. Because I'd be curious to see what their experience has been and whether or not that is going to be a fit for the for the board if we don't have enough applicants that have applied. Again, it would be an excellent opportunity to encourage citizens to apply whenever we do put that out. Having served on the board of adjustments and recently resigning because of this position. Um, I think it's a good spot to really get yourself into the town and we are desperately in need of positions, people to fill those. Okay. Any any other discussion? Obligations and responsibilities. You're still up.

Rolling right along. Um, so I'm going to go through some things here. Forgive me. might be not too lengthy, but um you know it's and I apologize that it's going to be a little dry, but I think that um for some of the new folks, it might be um you might get a few nuggets of information. So um I've been asked by the mayor to do uh to talk about obligations and responsibilities of the board. And I think the best way to do is break it down into basically five pieces. The first one is kind of an overview of the organization and management of the town, the roles of the board, the mayor and the town manager. Uh the second one is to talk about open meeting law. Uh the third is to talk about closed sessions. Um when and under what circumstances you can go into closed sessions. The fourth is to touch on ethics. There is an ethics requirement for new board members to take certain amount of classes. And then finally is to touch on the public records law. Um so to begin broadly North Carolina in North Carolina local governments operate under the authority granted to them by the state legislature. So in other words in order to act a local government must have specific legal authority to do so. Um that authorization typically typically comes in the form of statutes and North Carolina general general statute chapter 160A provides the authority for cities and towns. There are other sections that do as well, but that is that is the bulk of it. Um, the north town of North Topsel Beach is a municipal corporation under state law and as such is vested with certain specific powers. The board, as this board knows, is uh a board of alderman is consists of five members and a mayor. Um, and you are authorized as a board, not individually, but as a board to exercise all powers, functions, rights, privileges, and immunities of the corporation as allowed by law. Um the government and general management of

the town is vested in the board. Um every ordinance passed by the board is in full force and effect immediately uh unless there's a time frame put on it. And again getting back to what I kind of hinted at, a note of caution. Um your power uh is derived from the actions of the board collectively. Um you do not have any power individually. And I think a word of caution too that you don't want to be in situations where you give assurances that the board is going to act in a certain way because you never quite know which way it's going to act. Um obviously the mayor um while the government and general management of the town is vested in the board, the mayor has such powers and duties as are conferred on him by law together with other such powers and duties as may be conferred upon him by the board pursuant to law. Um, under the law, the mayor's recognized as the official head of the town for the purpose of service of civil process. So, if the town's going to get sued, they get to give it to you, mayor. Um, and for all ceremonial purposes. Um, also under the law, and perhaps most importantly, as he's doing today, the mayor provide presides over all board meetings, but only has the right to vote if there's an equal number of yays and nays, essentially to break a tie. The mayor prom which you elected today um is the al is also an alderman serving uh as mayor prom and they are entitled to vote on all matters and they're considered an alderman for all purposes including the determination of whether a quorum is present or not during the absence of the mayor. The board may confer upon the mayor prom any of the powers and duties of the mayor. So the board may confer those powers and duties. It does not say they're automatically conferred. In the event both the mayor and the mayor prom absent from a meeting, the

board may elect from its members a temporary chairman. So again, board has to take positive proactive action in that situation. Uh the town manager, the town of North Topppsel operates under the council manager plan as provided for in part two of article 7 of 16A. The town manager serves at the board's pleasure. Um, the town manager is the chief administrator of the town and is responsible to the board for administering all municipal affairs placed in the manager's charge by the board. Now, the board by stat by the town manager by statute and by ordinance has certain enumerated powers and duties. There's eight of them. I want to mention just one and then we'll talk just briefly about it. The town manager is to direct and supervise the administration of all departments, offices, and agencies of the town subject to the general direction and control of the town except as otherwise provided by law. So sometimes what you find is that it's it's okay for members of the board to speak with staff, but keep in mind that staff is getting their direction from the town manager. the town manager sets the goals that that the board gives her to set. Um these folks um organize their time according to those goals. And sometimes when staff hears something from an alderman, they're going to want to stop what they're doing to do what the alderman wants them to do. So just make sure that you're talking to the town manager and not directly to staff about what you need help with. Uh the town attorney, our uh role, uh Trey Ferguson is my uh colleague. He and I alternate here. Um, we represent the town acting through the board. So, we don't represent individual board members. We represent the town acting through the board. So, you want

to keep that in mind when you're talking to us that um attorney client privilege may not necessarily exist since we represent the board and the town and not you individually. So, now I'll talk a little bit about open meeting law. Um this is important um along with uh closed session. Um each official meeting of a public body uh must be open to the public. We all know this uh and any person is entitled to attend the meeting. So a public body and I'll read the definition means in relevant part any elected or appointed authority, board, commission, committee, council or other body of the state or one of its counties, cities, school administrative units or other political subdivisions or public corporations in the state that is composed of two or more members and exercises or is authorized to exercise legislative, policymaking, quasi judicial, administrative or advisory function. So that's the definition of a public body. If you don't fit the definition, it's not an official meeting of a public body, right? Board of alderman obviously is a public body. Well, what's an official meeting? So an official meeting means a meeting assembling or gathering together at any time or place or the simultaneous communication by conference, telephone or other electronic means of a majority of the members of a public body. And here's the key. for the purpose of conducting hearings, participating in deliberations or voting upon or otherwise transacting the public business within the jurisdiction real or apparent of the public body. So this is what we had had kind of talked about. A social meeting or other informal assembly or gathering together of the members of a public body, even if all of

you are in the same location at once, does not constitute an official meeting unless it's called or held to evade the spirit and purpose of the law. In other words, as I had just talked about, if you are all in the same room, you do not want to be there for the purpose of conducting hearings, participating in deliberations, or voting upon or otherwise transacting the public business. Yes, ma'am. But if it was a training session, if it was a training session, um a discussion of learning about strategic planning, those are not meetings. Then

I I would diff a training session is you listening. you are not um conducting hearings, participating in deliberations or voting upon or otherwise transacting the public business. If you are at a tra if if you are having a strategic session and you are engaging in conversation that I would argue is a public meeting and you should advertise it. Thank you. Okay. So we get together to talk about strategy that's a public meeting. If there's a Christmas party here that's not correct. Yes. we go to cooking. That's not right. But you also need to please yourselves, right? You know

that when you're at these events, you should not be talking about or deliberating about what's going on in that's going to be in front of you, right? I mean, I think what you're telling is the common sense on this thing is air on the side of not not Yes. doing that. Yes. Because you don't want to be called into something that said, "Wait a minute. I saw Mark and Kip We're huddling in the corner, you know, and and talking about something. So, you know, it's the safe side of this is if we're going to get together because we're going to have strategic planning. We have an, you know, meeting like that. I know the county has all that stuff open to the public when they go in. They they are on that side advertising.

So, what you're telling us is just understand, lean the other way. Yes. Lean the other way. Notice the meetings and have it open to the public. And then you're not if there's a shadow of a doubt, go that way. notice it and hold ano hold a public meeting. But as we discussed today, if Mark needs to understand one of the committees and what it does and he calls Connie about that committee, that's just information sharing, correct? Yeah. Right. That's that's not a public body. Thank you. Right. You have to have a quum to be a public body. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And electronically, if I want to send

something to the board, I don't do it all. I blind carbon copy. Or if I um Well, what do you want to send? Merry Christmas. That you can send that to the entire board. What do you all think about electric bikes on the beach? I wouldn't do that. Okay. You want to You want to That's You want to put that on the agenda. You want to ask everybody what they think in a public meeting about that so that so the public can can hear everybody's thoughts.

But but also keep in mind I'm not trying to play lawyer. Everything you do on your email address to this town unless it's privileged is subject to foyer. Yeah. So you know if if you send out something you know what they used to say pretend it's on the front page of the New York Times.

Yeah. So moving on quickly. So just about some talking points about voting. So, um, an official meeting of a public body must have a quorum to act. That's in statute. Um, a quorum is a majority of the actual membership of the board plus the mayor, excluding vacant seats. So, if somebody was, by vacant, they mean if somebody was not seated and sworn in. Okay, we don't have to worry about that. An affirmative vote equal to a majority of all the members of the board not excused from voting on the question and issue including the mayor's vote if needed to be cast um is required to adopt an ordinance take any action having the effect of an ordinance authorize or commit an expenditure of public funds or make ratify or authorize any contract on behalf of

Would you be specific talk about so I so Connie gets recused all right we've got five members on this board, two of them get recused. Do we have to have two to be a quorum or do we have to have three because the mayor? So two of them are rec two of them are recused. So under the definition, a quorum is a majority of the actual membership of the board plus the mayor excluding vacant seats. That's an interesting question. I don't know that I have an answer to that. I would have to look into that and see. Um There's been talk about people being recused and that kind of stuff and so I I think that's something

I don't want to answer off the top of my head for something like that. Um so moving along a member who has withdrawn from a meeting without being excused by a majority vote. So if you want to withdraw from a meeting, you just can't get up and walk out. The they have the board has to vote to allow you to leave. A member who has withdrawn from a meeting without being excused by majority of vote of the remaining members present is counted as present for purposes of determining whether or not a quorum is present. Now, this this is also where it gets a little dicey. No member is to be excused from voting except upon matters involving the consideration of the member's own financial interest or official conduct or on matters on which the member is prohibited from voting by law. You have a statutory duty to vote. Okay. A failure to vote by a member who is physically present in the council chamber or who has withdrawn without being excused by a majority vote of the remaining members present shall be recorded as an affirmative vote. So if you leave and you're unexcused, you're voting yes. Th

this is the legislative thing that says if three people decide to leave because they don't want to be voting on something they they still they still vote. Yeah. You can't get away from it. Yeah, that happened in Texas, remember? Where they walked out so you didn't have a quorum? Went to Illinois. Yeah.

Yep. Uh, quickly about closed sessions. Um, so unlike a a public meeting, a closed session is an official meeting of a public body in which the public is excluded from attending. Closed sessions can be held only when permitted by law. And the statutes 143-318.11. There are 10 situations and only 10 situations in which you can go into closed session. I'm not going to go through them right now. Um, a public body may hold a closed session only if it makes and adopts a motion to do so in an open meeting, which we know. Um, every motion to go into closed session must one cite one or more of the permissible purposes that were just listed above or that are one of the 10. must also cite the specific statute associated with that permissible purpose in open session before going into close session. So, for example, I move that the board go into close session, give the example, to prevent the premature disclosure of an honorary degree, scholarship, prize, or similar award pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143 318112. And then you make a mo the motion must be second and must be approved. Once the closed session is done, as the folks know who have been on the board, the board must return to the council chamber and make a motion to come back into open session before they can adjourn. Um, failure to follow the open meeting law um can result in an injunction. A court can order the board to stop the reoccurrence of past violations, the continuence of current violations, or preempt future violations, or any action taken can be invalidated. All right, ethics. Thank you for being patient. Um, so

ethics for the board of alderman uh are governed by two statutes, 1688 and 87. Uh, according to the law, the town must adopt a code of ethics, which it's my understanding that the town did. Um, I did see the the the code of ethics for committees. I don't know if I haven't seen the one for the board though, actually, but it appears that it was it was um adopted.

Um, so from what I could find per minutes and prior agendas. I see where they've noted in the minutes that there were ethics adopted, but I have not been able to find the ethics themselves. They're okay. So, just if we can't find it, the board has to by law adopt one. So, we're going to have to do that. January, we can. Yes, that's correct.

Appointed board. Yeah, it's just for appointed board. Um there the statute says certain things have to be in there. I I I won't go over those. Um so in terms of ethics, just keep in mind that and as we had talked about, mayor, it's it's it's not just the conflict itself, it's the appearance of a conflict. I mean, everybody's got a pretty good head on your shoulders. If you think this is a little hinky, this might not look right, maybe don't do it or go the other way or or reach out to Trey and I and say, "Hey, this is happening. What What should I do?" uh we're always available to give you um advice. Finally, there's a statute that says all new board members must receive a minimum of two clock hours of ethics education within 12 months after the initial election or appointment to office and again within 12 months after each subsequent election or appointment to office. And that's 168-87.

That's all.

Yeah. So, um I'll skip over a little bit of this. I'll go to public records law. Um so, the public records law in mass in um in North Carolina is governed by chapter 132. Um in essence, it makes clear that the written materials and other records created or received by local governments are the property of the citizens of North Carolina. And as such, the citizens have a right to them. So, a public record, I'll go through the definition quickly. It includes all documents. It's rather broad. All documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data, processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection with the transaction of public business. Right? We were just talking about an email that goes out to everybody that says, "Merry Christmas." Is that is that in connection with the transaction of public business? There's an argument to be made that maybe it's not um by any agency of North Carolina govern government or its subdivision. So unless certain narrow exceptions apply, these records must be produced upon request by a citizen. So some of the examples, one of the primary examples is attorney client privilege. We don't have to produce records that are subject to attorney client privilege. The courts read the public records law liberally in favor of public access to town records and information. So keep that in mind if you are writing or receiving materials. If you as a public official receive a a piece of paper and it's in your official capacity, that is a public record. Okay. So, just wrapping up, Trey Ferguson, who you meet next month, and I are here to help in any way we can. If you have

quick questions, long questions, we would rather hear from you beforehand as opposed to on the back end. Whoops. Um, so please reach out to us. Yes. So, one area that we didn't you didn't comment on that much is the fiduciary responsibilities of the board and the mayor and you know how that trickles to the town manager. I would like um a few comments on that maybe next month about the fiduciary responsibilities to the town because we have had a town in North Carolina recently get in a lot of trouble in that area and so I yes I think that would be well worth reviewing. H happy to do that. Yes. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? I think it'd be important too when you get um I'm making this up. Kip has a question he's going to reach out to you guys. I would suggest then when you on in on in January if that happens and come back and and brief the board in terms of if you've got issues that you want to get resolved like that. I don't mean for you specifically, but he says, "Hey, after thinking about this, does this count or does that count?" So, it might not be a bad idea in in the uh report, the attorney's report each month to kind of talk about anything that's hanging out just generally. Sure. happy to do that as well because you know with with new board members and stuff. I mean you know Kai and I have been doing this and and Alice for one and obviously Laura I think that would be helpful.

All right. Any other just that that was a great summary. Can you email us a copy of that as part of public record? Sure. Thank you. There's a video correct. Uh let's move on to H Ellis.

Yes. Thank you. Um this item is um what I briefly spoke about under my manager's report. Um this is uh for the board to uh consider the and approve a motion for the contract authorization ordinance in the agreement with Roth staffing um companies. And this is to provide immediate assistance to the finance department. Um, as I mentioned previously, um, there's an option in there, um, for a temp to hire scenario. Should u the person come on board and work out, um, we can that person can remain as a temp for as long as we choose, but if we choose, there's an option to bring that person to move them to um to hire them as well if they work out well. Um, this will also gives the opportunity too to uh have people come in, test them out. They can test us out, we test them out. Um, if they're not the right fit, we would simply request another candidate that has went through the vetting process um with Roth and went through the testing of course um and start over. Um, this is recommended for many reasons. One, it's for internal control that was talked about a lot today. Um it's essential to have two people in the finance department um and not one person so that the other person is in place. Um just vetting everything is the second person. Um that's essential and also keeping in compliance with the LGC finding that um and corrective action plan that was put in place in February of 2025. Um that plan um you know requires the board approved and sent to the LGC which they accepted but requires the town to create and maintain these internal control that provides that clear separation of duties and

processing and approval of financial transactions. Um so this is um this is crucial to have another person right now in finance department. uh to complete the task specifically uh with payroll. Um while we talk about you know um the new finance officer and I have talked about um using um ADP down the road for outsourcing payroll functions um but also help with accounts payable and that clear oversight so that there's not a uh duplication of duties. Um, no. We motion to approve first and then discussion. Motion to approve. Do I hear a motion to approve?

I make the motion to approve. Second. I second. Okay. Now discussion. So Alice with this company since we recently had a conflict with our outsourced accounting firm and our um audit firm. Do we know who the principles are with this company? And there is there any vested interest with our current outsourced accounting firm?

I asked specifically because I assumed this question would come up and I asked GWI in particular if there was any partners affiliated with their company whatsoever and I was told no. Um they I will say they have used them as a source for personnel before. So if they need help, they have reached out and provided they provided staffing to them on a temporary basis in the past. That's the only affiliation um that that I am aware of. So have we researched who the principles of this firm are and where they're based and that kind of thing?

Uh it's outlined in the agreement their umbrella, if you will, of partners. um and nothing as far as um I could tell there was no affiliation. This was also submitted to the attorneys for review prior coming to the board. Uh so it was vetted through them as well. Is this company or Yes, they are um in North Carolina

and our attorneys see no conflict. I don't know that we were asked to review whe whether there was a relationship between um Roth staffing and GWI. We did review the contract, the proposed engagement agreement. I mean, one of the ways to handle that is we can approve the contract subject to that review. So, you're looking specifically if there's any affiliation with GWI, just so I'm clear. Correct.

It's not my question, it's hers. Yes, that's my question because when we asked GWI in the past whether there was an affiliation with another on their forms, they got that information wrong. So I want to make sure that there's not an affiliation. So just so we are going to hold then on putting that person no in place. I mean we understand the need. No, we will um

hang on. We've got one alderman's position on that. I have not heard that any other alderman supports delaying this thing. It's just an issue that's being raised as part of the discussion that we're doing. Um because I, you know, and we can have more discussion on this. She's raising the issue. It's not been decided by the board yet, right? So, you know, it's a fair issue to raise, but I think we go back to right now we have somebody just retired. We've got Wayne in the finance department. We've got a representation to the LGC that we're gonna fill this position. Okay. And as I understand it, you have somebody that can start today. Tomorrow, December 3rd.

All right. So, I'm sorry. Go. I'm just saying. Let me go ahead.

I'm I'm not opposed with approving the position. I am opposed to us not doing our due diligence and finding out if there's a conflict. So, I do think we need to move forward, but I think our legal team needs to do a little background and see if there's any um from the company perspective ownership issues or conflicts with this firm. I, you know, based on the ba based on the the uh situation that we're currently in financially uh with far as having people to do the work, uh this is this is only a six-month contract. Correct.

Uh we have it maintaining through June 30th, 2026. Um should we need that. And again, the intention too was to continue to

um to recruit internally as well um on our website. And if we got somebody that was a viable candidate that tested well, we would certainly um we would um certainly hire that individual and then potentially look at disbanding this contract. And what I read what I read in the in the in in the presentation was that if we decided if you decided or that that we needed that this person was the person we wanted to hire, we have the right to do that before the expiration of the contract. Correct.

And we just pay out what we need to pay out. There's a there's a predetermined number that's in there.

Yes. Uh and so you know I I think worst case scenario if in fact there is any affiliation in the ownership it's not going to be more than six months and we're going to be we we could mess around for weeks trying to get that done and I think that if the person can come to work I personally would would say that we ought to or my my vote would be that we ought to to vote to approve the the uh the the contract and and and deal with the consequences of who may own some of that because we're only dealing with a six-month contract anyway and it's and it's got a it's got a determined number to it. It's not a it's not an open-end it's not an open-end contract. There's a determined number. So that's all that we're going to pay for that time period. Is that correct?

Can I just point out something in the contract too? This is different than hiring GWI to do something. You are this is a staffing company. What they're doing is they are hiring they've identified somebody that would be a you know like like the receptionist. So it's not somebody that's a an employee of Roth. It is a person that Roth has found to perform a temporary service for us that we have the right to hire. The other thing I would point out on this is we're replacing GWI at 125 bucks an hour at 50 bucks an hour. All right. And we have one person there. So,

and I may be reading I may be reading this the wrong way, but uh we're not giving a contract straight to Roth for hiring temporaries forever in a day. We're just going through Roth to get this one individual for 6 months. Correct. And if they're not cutting the mustard by February 1st, we're sending them out the door and they're going to send. We're sending we're cutting them loose and um having someone else come in

because the last thing I want to do having worked for the state, you you get people that come in, they show great they do great promise and you give them that olive branch and hire them and then the next day at work they're not worth anything. So I want to make sure that we make a I'm into hiring. I'm into retaining. I'm into having redundancy. Um I don't say get hit by a bus. I say if the other person wins the lottery, uh we need somebody to fall back and we need them here yesterday. So, uh I just wanted to try and get those cleared up. Let's let's go to Kip first and then we'll come to you.

Um how does this factor in with the deputy finance officer position and the accounting and our director? So, where where are we putting this person? This is a different title. This is uh payroll and accounting payables account technician. Is that their term?

This Yes, that that is their term and that mainly they use that to explain what the main duties they would be performing and those are the main duties that Kim was performing as the deputy finance officer. Um and and on paper technically Kim's position was not termed deputy finance officer. It was actually um the name on paper was administrative services specialist. Um, so to be honest with you, that name deputy finance director came about sometime before I um got placed here. I'm not sure. Um, but but does that make sense?

But you're you're looking you're looking the people that you're interviewing are people that you would consider for your accountant one position. Correct. That's that's what she's trying to do is correct fill that fill the account one position. And to Mark's point, you can let this per she can call or Wayne can call them up tomorrow and say, what's her name? Linda Scheler. Is it working out? And they bring somebody else in. Right. Yes. So the person's being paid as a 1099 person from us and they're getting or they're getting paid directly from this. They're getting paid by Roth. Roth and their benefits etc. come from Roth. Yes. Correct. All right. So, but to Kip's point,

contract just for this one employees, it's not we're not making a commitment to Roth forever in a day. No, we're not. But to Kip's point, if we have a director, an accountant one, do we need another position in accounting? And that's interesting.

And again, you know, this Wayne coming on as our finance officer. He has a strong financial background and experience in financial management as well as grant management. Um, and that's it's going to depend on who we get on board and what their strong suits are. So, we're going to be able to build the department with what we need. Um, the accountant one position was written specifically for to fill in um the gaps on what we were lacking as far as uh contract management and those type of services and overview. So, it's it's it's very important to get that filled first and then that's what I was saying. we may come back to the board and say, you know, we might ask for another position depending on the background, the individual's background that we get in and what we still might be lacking in. I I think that's what you brought up in the manager report is that

the whole idea is we don't know what his final recommendation is going to be about staffing and I think you told us that I mean like if you're asking my opinion if you had to hire two people behind Wayne you know not that I'm voting with with all the financial issues and the money that we're spending right now but I think that comes down to what you and Wayne

because we're looking at um as I explained before too looking at outsourcing with ADP which is going to take um that's going to be a project within itself to implement. So it's going to be essential that we have the staffing available on board to implement these initiatives. And then also we talked about in budget time the financial software uh program that the town has been using. It's been the program that's been in place for years and it needs replaced with something that matches uh our operations at this point in time. Um, you know, the town is a lot more sophisticated than they used to be in terms of with the grants management and the different funds. It's not as um straightforward as it used to be and we need a much uh a much more sophisticated accounting system to keep up with what we are actually doing and trying to track.

Again, I think it comes down to having boots on the ground and manpower or woman power, whatever. But what I would like to do is make sure that uh our specialist is working on the high projects and overseeing uh the twoe payroll period or whatever. Um and not he's not muddled with six hours of doing payroll every two weeks when he needs to be focusing on bigger bigger fish. That's why we need the person to come in uh right away to handle mainly and that's why you see accounts payable and payroll because those are going to be the immediate task that this person's going to have to take on immediately. I had one more. Can I say one thing? I

I think that we're we're we're going in full circles here and we're getting the circle's just getting bigger and bigger as we continue to talk. Uh we we've got a we've got a request for a contract to hire this one person for this one job that has nothing to do with all the other jobs. So I'd like to call the question. Okay. I still have one more comment. Last comment. Go ahead.

So under um GWI, we were running multiple AP runs a month. And I do think if we want to maximize this person's time and save the town some money, we need to look at how many AP runs we're doing because doing a run for 20 checks, we we can do them every other week and have more checks and not spend all that time in prep for a really small run. So I do think going forward since this is a contract position, we'll be paying by the hour, we need to look at some efficiencies around that in accounts payable.

Yes, that's fine. highly unusual for a town of this size to do check runs every single week. It's more every month. That's more in line with what normal operations are. Um, but I will say that um there's going to be a um a curve with vendors and then we also need to we've got contracts in place that are written that require payments focused around our weekly weekly payments right now. So, we have to be very careful on how we Yes, I agree we need to disengage from that, but we need to be smart about how we do that

and not just cut it off. We've had the question called we're in a circle and this kind of stuff. That's fine to have it presented at the January meeting as to what steps we're taking, but it has nothing to do with hiring this person. So, we have a motion, a second. All in favor? I. All opposed. Sorry. Can I ask a question? So, is it the sense of the board that you want us to do a background? No. Okay. Nope. Approve the contract. Um I I the unless somebody wants to have a motion that says we're going to delay the imple implementation of this because I don't know how long that's going to take to do something. I just go on their website. It's a big company.

This is much bigger than GWI. I mean they're a national company. Um and so we're hiring, let's keep in mind, we're hiring them to hire an individual that is not an employee of theirs, which is completely different than hiring an accounting firm and a person there. And again, I would point out this is 50 bucks an hour versus 125. So, so, so if we start this contract, h what does that do for playing out and ending the GWI contract? You already have an end date with GWI, which they gave us one last they are

they are um finishing up at the end of December with doing um on hands work and then the contract expires at the end of January. They're available throughout January just to answer questions from staff. Okay, that was that was the November meeting. We talked about their plan. I think that's in the minutes. Okay, it is. All right. Um let's go to open forum. We have one sign up that is Mr. Rusty Walker.

Hello folks. Rusty Walker, 115 Seagull Lane. Um, Chips sat over there and answered an awful lot of my questions while we while we've been sitting here. So, it's kind of taking some of the starch out of out of my sermon. But, um, congratulations to everybody. Hope the next two years of the current board is is transparent, is positive, and um next time two years when the next group sitting down, we can say we've had two good years and let's keep moving on because the the town the town's growing, the town's changing, the town has a lot of needs and the needs can be can be addressed and the problems can be solved. But with that, um, back on election day, sitting around over at the church while everybody was milling around, I wandered around and talked to several of the folks, city members, candidates, what have you, and I asked a question and the answer that I got disturbed me. Didn't surprise me, but it disturbed me. Chips answered a lot of that lot of that question for me. But my question was, does this board meet at any other point in time other than the Wednesday morning meeting, first of the month for two and a half, three hours? Nope. That's that's all we're scheduled to be together. So, you don't have a work session to talk about things that were brought up. Who's going, you know, that Walker guy got up and he got to talking about beach accesses again? who on the board's going to sit down and well, let's see what he's got to say. No. So, I can come back, you know, we'll come back two or three months later, bring up

the same thing again. Board still hasn't haven't gotten any any feedback. Myself, other folks get up here, we've got concerns, we've got questions, and it kind of falls on deaf ears. You're not listening. We've looked Alderman Square in the face two or three months later. Well, what have you done about so and so? What are you talking about? I don't remember that. You go back to the minutes, you see where it was brought up, but nothing's been done. Nothing's been approached. Something that I would like to see and I think it would be beneficial at least to the public that come up here. If somebody comes up with a concern, with a question, somebody on this board should take that and research it, assign it to somebody, and then next month, put it on the agenda and answer the question, whether it's positive, negative, or we don't care, but at least come back with a response and let us know where we are. Um, you know, I'm out of time. I could go on, but that's that's kind of where I'm at. You know, let us know that we're being heard and we've

Okay. and we're thought something of. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, now Yep. So, now we are in making sure I don't miss something here. Yep. Attorney's report. Uh, nothing to report. Mayor, mean nothing further to report. You've you've heard enough from me already.

Uh, yeah, we've been going on for three hours. Uh, just a couple of heads up. At the county meeting yesterday, the Hines Park um lodging now is available for employees of towns, municipalities, and elected officials here at half of the current rate. Current rate $75. That is 37.50 50 for elected officials and for town employees if they want to use that. Um so the Hines Park apparently there's cabins and stuff they've done there. Um I thank everybody for their support during the election. And then the final thing is uh on my on Wasa hat the water dog is out here this week and if everybody remembers what the water dog is they actually have a water a dog that can find leaks because it's senses apparently they can pick up the chlorine and the stuff in the water. So if you see on Wasat with a dog, they're not walking their dog this week. Um that is a water dog. Second thing is they're replacing meters out there. If you have not gotten a notice, they're putting in the electronic meters that makes everything faster and allows them to monitor your stuff closely. The word on that is you might feel a blip in the water when you turn it back on again, which I did this morning when they replaced my meter. So let's start with Mark.

Uh first of all, thank everybody that came out today. That was probably the fullest I've seen in this room all year. Um, thank everybody for their support with the election. Look forward to serving you to the best of my ability. Uh, for those of you that have concerns about where I work, I can get another job. I'm here for the town. I'm here to be an alderman. I'm here to do the best I can for the city. Uh, I hope everybody has a wonderful Christmas. I hope they had a great Thanksgiving and uh, we've been here long enough. So, thank you all for coming out. Have a good day.

Kip, I'll try to make it quick, but I want to make sure I cover everything. um encourage all of our residents and visitors to support the Rotary Club of Sneeeds Ferry uh by participating in the fifth annual shrimp dip coming up on January 1st uh over at Beach Access 31 uh right across from Rogers Bay and and and Beach Bums. Uh obviously the event is an excellent example of our strong commitment to the community uh with a focus on bringing neighbors together for a chilly dip in the ocean uh and as a new and fun way to ring in the new year. It's also uh benefiting the Down Syndrome network of Enslow and Carter counties. Uh last year they raised a record $4,500. So uh look online, there's some information there for that as well. We hope that they can meet and exceed their uh generous goal from last year. Um to close out my first meeting, I want to begin by offering a sincere thank you to Joanne McDerman, Mike Benson, and Tom Leonard. their years of uh service, dedication, and hard work have made a meaningful impact on our town. Uh and we're truly grateful for their commitment to North Hopsville Beach. To the residents, town staff, I wish you all a warm and joyous holiday season. May this Christmas bring peace, blessings, and time well spent with those you love. Merry Christmas, and have a happy new year. Uh, finally, sorry. I want to take a quick moment to uh express my deepest gratitude to three groups of people. To my family who were here, the room's emptied out pretty good, but thank you for your patience, your honesty, and your unwavering love. Uh, you've kept me grounded and reminded me why service matters. Uh, to my friends who have supported me, thank you for the encouragement, those late night conversations and support over the years. We still have a lot to do, so don't go too far. And to our uh to my neighbors,

supporters, uh mentors, thank you for placing trust in me. Your faith is not something I will take lightly. The swearing in marks the beginning of my work that we will do together. Uh working to strengthen our community, to listen with humility, uh and lead with integrity. So, I'm honored. I'm grateful. And I'm ready to serve. Thank you. Uh, thank you all for staying standing with me today and working with me in the four years ahead. Uhuh. You go last. Dang. Because that's the way they do it at the county. Okay. Lawrence,

the I want to thank everyone that that showed confidence in me by by electing me to the position. Uh, I don't have any agenda. My my my agenda is what the town needs. My intention is to do what I can do to to help the process. And if if I have no no reason to, you know, I've lived to be an old man and I'm I'm still here and and I've decided I'm giving four more years to something and and I'm doing it to North Topsel Beach. So if if if I'm speaking and if I'm talking with you, I'm concerned with what's going on and what we're doing. I've got things that I most like to do, but I'm going to get involved in all the things that I can do. So, I'm here for you and and and I I get what you say, Rusty, and I I it's one of one of things that I've talked about with several people, and we're going to respond to people. May not be what they want to hear, but we're going we're going to respond. So, thank y'all very much, and I look forward to a good four years,

Laura.

All right. So, it's holiday season, which means we still need to pay attention to those speed limits out there because everybody's flying around, shopping, doing whatever, but we are seeing people really speeding. So, please watch um the the roads and if you see people speeding, please call the non-emergency number. Also, it's that time of year when all of our neighbors leave and there are frozen pipes and bursts all around. So, if you have a neighborhood Facebook group or a Facebook page and you know, you can let people know now's the time if they haven't done it already to start insulating those outdoor shower pipes. That's a good thing. And also, I want to thank Chief for again reiterating that you can have some of the firemen come in and take a look at your smoke detectors. Um, so I just recently again had a family member whose dog chew chewed through a lithium ion battery and caught their house on fire. So be careful where you're storing those things. So I look forward to working with the new mayor and the new board. Um, congrats to all and happy holidays.

Now, how many turtles?

I used to get to go first. Um, I want us to thank Alice and the staff for the really great Christmas program. It was it was really great and it looked like everybody here had a fantastic time. I want to thank everybody for coming out or for those of you watching at home. I want to thank Boy, I'm really full of thanks today. I want to thank the former alderman um and Tom Tom and Mike and also Joanne. and I really look forward to working with the new board members as well and the new mayor. Um, with that all being said, I'm sad to report that Jean Beasley, the founder of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center passed away last night. North Topsale Beach has been a partner with the Sea Turtle Hospital in the protection and conservation of of endangered sea turtles. Um, Gan worked to save the turtles for over 50 years. Her conservation efforts resulted in over 3,27 protected nests, over 245 100,000 emerged hatchlings, many of those in North Topsale Beach since she beca began formally collecting and submitting data in 1995. The sea turtle hospital has seen over 1,600 um sick and injured sea turtles come through its doors since the building first opened in 1997. She was a native of North Carolina and a 1958 graduate of Duke University.

She celebrated her 90th birthday in October. I hope I probably should have saved that till last because now I want to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and New Year's. So, uh, motion to go into close session, and it would be legal advice. I don't have the statute sitting in front of me. I'll make a motion to go into close session. I've got I've got to read the Yes, you got it. He's going to give me the statute. 143-31811 A3. 43-318.11A3.

Do I have a motion? Yes. Motion. Yes. A motion. I just said a motion to close. Second. All All in favor? Bye. Bye.

I need a motion to come out of close session. I make a motion to come out of close session. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Uh, no action was taken uh in close session. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Make a motion to adjurnn. Wear a second. Second. We are. All in favor? I we are journed.