Remarks by Kelly Long
32 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 20:59
“I just want to mention this, and I just want to make it clear that this zone does not apply to unzoned property. I've got a lot of questions around that. It's clear in the ordinance, but it's not listed here, so I just want to clarify, correct? It's not in the zoning to be an LDR. Right, but just to be clear.”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 30:36
“Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'd just like to mention a few things.”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 30:40
“On this particular five-mill request, I looked again at the audit. It was currently 2.875 unrestricted funds and unassigned funds of 4.4. And after looking at everything, it just looks to me like this isn't needed at this time. So 5 million increase would be another 700,000 and they were 500,000 more in budgeted income than they even thought. So those two together would be another 1.1 million. I just feel like It's not needed at this time, so I just want to mention that. I didn't do anything wrong. I did everything right, but I think when you put this on a tax district, it needs to be a need.”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 32:30
“Yeah, I think that would be great. Is that all right? I'd like to hear that.”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 33:47
“Can I ask a question, please? Yes, ma'am. Did you buy a new fire truck this year as well or last year?”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 34:04
“So that's the last one that's been purchased?”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 34:08
“So what would you say you have set aside? I know you said you didn't know exactly. Can you guess?”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 34:43
“Well, at $5 million, I'm sorry, I didn't say $5 million, but $4.4 is what they had in unassigned funds as of the date of the audit. So you're saying that's not true now?”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 38:49
“I do have a few questions. I had some questions around this. There's a lot of people that have complained that when their vehicles are picked up like a Friday and they might not be open on a Saturday or Sunday then they're forced to pay those storage fees for the whole weekend even though it might not be available for them to get their car so they're forced to do that. So these storage fees are a problem. Is there anything in there that anywhere around adding something in there that they should be either allowed to pick up their car on the weekend or not charge the fee for the days that…”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 40:16
“Yeah, I think we could bring it back and we could do that pretty much immediately, right?”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 40:21
“Okay. As long as we can do that and address that, that has been my problem with it, not increasing the towing fees.”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 47:42
“Yes. Just want to point out that starting tomorrow, our auditors will be here. They're actually en route tonight to be here tomorrow to start physically looking at things with our Sheriff's Department audit. So that is going to be happening this week as part of their physical being here. And then our next meeting for the Oversight Committee will be September 28th where we will be laying out our budget compliance audit parameters. So That'll be in a few weeks, so we'll start with that. All right.”
County Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 42:14
“Thank you. I move for adoption of a resolution authorizing and directing an independent forensic audit of the financial operations and budgetary functions of Granville County, including the general fund for the six consecutive fiscal years commencing July 1, 2019 and ending June 30, 2025, establishing in the scope procurement method, and oversight structure, and providing for other matters related thereto.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 43:06
“No, the previous audit was not a forensic audit. It was an operational audit. This audit, because it is a quote-unquote financial audit, and we're going to want to dig a little deeper, actually the one that I'm looking at suggesting is going to be the budget compliance audit, but it is a type of audit. forensic audits done by a forensic auditor, and basically it details how an entity is using their firm's money, and the forensic auditor would typically perform the following. It would establish a baseline. It's important for our new county administrator to be able to review budgets and know…”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 44:47
“Absolutely not. It's just a financial snapshot of where the county started, what money and assets they had, and it tells you how they ended and did the audit meet federal guidelines. It is a true snapshot. It doesn't tell you the how. It doesn't tell you any details. It's like a financial statement.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 45:12
“We will have to get RFPs and get bids out. I will tell you that currently the audit that we're doing as an operational audit is going to be around $320,000. So we would have $180,000 left over in our current budget. So we will have to look at the cost and see the feasibility and look at that. Thank you. You're welcome.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 46:25
“I'm going to refer to Gary because Gary brought this audit, and Gary has done a lot of study and in-depth study, so I'm going to refer that to Gary.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 53:16
“Mr. Chairman, I would just make a... that we call it a budget compliance audit because that's what it is. It's very simple. And basically what it does is it shows what we're budgeting and doing with our budget money. Does it adhere? Does it line up? And that takes personality out of it. But we still are doing an audit that is a forensic type audit. But we're changing the name to tell exactly what the purpose is and not calling it a forensic audit.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 54:34
“Yeah, this is a resolution. So when we bring it back, it would be an ordinance. It would be because this is a resolution. So, yeah. What do you think, Gary?”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 59:13
“Correct. Thank you. I'm fine with that, as long as council votes appropriately. Yeah, I'm fine with that. I don't think it hurts anything we're doing.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:09:38
“I guess so, but because it changed. As I said, I just don't understand.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:42:26
“Mr. Chairman, may I comment on this? So I've been working on it about two years, and I reached out to several municipalities and counties, and the ones that had the best ordinances with no lawsuits, no issues, and they had paid the money to have them drawn up by professional attorneys. The one that I relied on the most, there was actually two, but one was in Incentus, California, an administrator out there named Jay, and he gave me all of his notes, their ordinance, told me everything about it and I took that and I also took one from Shelbourne, Massachusetts and I looked at that one and then…”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:43:59
“No, it's really interesting. If you look from Maine to Florida, there's only two states that even have ordinances. It's really new for whatever reason on the East Coast. They're all over the West Coast and all up north, but we just don't have them a lot in the South and on the East Coast. There's two in Tennessee. and one in Florida and that's the only other ordinances that exist. So the East Coast is wide open and fresh pickings to have these things put everywhere. No, absolutely no questions asked, just wake up and they're in your backyard. So that's why I took this to task and I've got two…”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:02:05
“Yes, just want to give you an update on our current audit, as I say, performance audit, efficiency performance audit, and audit. The company that we've hired, they are already working on the audit. They're physically going to be on site the week of September the 14th through the 18th. They're still working, getting in information and working with the public safety staff and everything's going as expected. It just takes time to do it. So we're kind of in the middle of the audit. So I'll inform you as we move along the way.”
County Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 30:50
“I just wanted to mention a few things. I mentioned this in the Finance Committee when it was brought, and basically tonight I just wanted to look at a few financial things. The millage increase we're asking for is five mills, and in South Greenville that would be $220,000 per mill, which is over a million dollars. I looked through the application on Finance Committee and everything, and Last year, they got $9.1 million in taxes, $812,000 in VLOs, and $838,000 in grants, interest income, and miscellaneous income. There's also a 0.35 debt service millage increase. Also, I looked at the salaries…”
County Council · Aug 18, 2026