Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to Board of Supervisors work session here in Pennsylvania County. Tuesday, December 16th, 2025, 3:05 p.m. Board meeting room, 39 Bank Street, Southeast Shat, Virginia, 24531. Uh, Madame Clerk, would you call the role, please? Yes, sir. Mr. Mr. Bowman here. Mr. Dalton here. Mr. Dudley, Mr. Ingram here, Mr. Whittle here, Mr. Height here. Mr. Tucker here. Madame Clerk, uh, was Mr. Dudley going to phone in or No, I haven't heard anything. Have not heard? I have not.

Thank you. All right. Uh, let's see. Any items to be added to the agenda? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to I'd like to add an item a county owned equipment policy policy as item 5B. 5B. All right. 5B. Any other additions to the agenda?

No, sir. Hear none. I'll entertain a motion to add 5B and also the approval. Mr. Chairman, I apologize. That should be 6B. Yeah, we just move it down a second. That's why I was looking here. I mean, okay. Well, I'll change my motion to make it 6B. Thank you. All right. That's my motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Is there support for that motion? I'll second it.

Thank you, Mr. Ingram. All right. Any discussion? You've heard that motion. Let's vote. All right. That motion passes unanimously. Now I will ask for a motion to approve the agenda with the addition. So moved. Thank you so much, Mr. Bowman. Second.

Thank you so much. Any discussion, gentlemen, cast your votes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. for the citizens convenience. All work session and committee meetings are now being recorded and can be viewed on the county's Facebook and the same YouTube location as the board of supervisors business meetings. Please remember that the board's work session is designed for internal board and county staff communication, discussion, and work. It is not a question and answer session with the audience accordingly during the work session. No questions or communications from the audience will be entertained respectfully. Any outbursts or disorderly conduct from the audience will not be tolerated and may result in the offending person's removal from the work session. As a reminder, all county citizens and other appropriate parties as designated by the board's bylaws are permitted to make comments under the hearing of the citizens section of tonight's business meeting. We'll now move down to agenda item 5A, FY25, comprehensive annual financial report presentation. Miss Venderhide.

Yes. Hello. I am so thankful we're to this point in our FY25 year. You know, we usually have one foot in each year and we certainly do this time. We are currently sitting in 26. We're working on budget for 27 and we're hopefully finalizing as um Scott Wickham's here to make the presentation tonight to you or this afternoon to you all about the this year's FY2025 audit. And um I'm not going to belabor anything. I'm just going to invite him up and thank him so much. He traveled here all the way from Hurt was working in Hurt today. So he didn't have too far to travel. Let's make sure this is on the arrow that makes it okay.

Good afternoon and welcome, sir.

Thank you. And thank you, Kim. Uh, yes, my my name is Scott Wickham. I'm partner in charge of the county's audit. Um, it was nice that I was able to coordinate some work and being kind of hurt today, so it was convenient to be over here. Um, we just wrapped up the 2025 audit. Uh final copies went out yesterday, so this is fresh off the press and I'm sure everyone's had a chance to read 177 pages of document here. Um but if not, as you do, if there's questions, my contacts on the front of this handout and and I'm happy to answer those as we move forward. So um I'll go through a presentation which is the very thin document um and then take questions at the end. Overview of the overall audit results. Um the first report that we issue in the audit report is the independent auditors report or the opinion on the financial statements. The county has again received an unmodified opinion which is the best opinion you can get. Um that speaks to the numbers in the report. Um it used to be an unqualified or a clean opinion. Um but it's unmodified. It's the best you can get. Um previously there was three paragraphs was a good good report and four paragraphs was bad. There's probably 11 paragraphs now with all additional information in there. Um but it's still a good report. Um one new item this year was Gazsby 101. Um the implementation of compensated absences was a new standard that all governments were required to incorporate in their financial statements. Uh the county and school board have done that for 2025. Uh the impact of that um is no no impact on your operations. Um it's an accounting liability, acrual liability. Um it it increased the county liabilities for sick leave mostly about $1.5 million. Uh impact to the schools was about $10 million. Um the reason for that that big increase um in prior audit standards you reported the amount estimated to be paid if an employee were to be leave would leave under termination or or

retirement. So it was just the cash payments. With the new standard you're required to estimate an amount used for time off as well. So, um, a lot of teachers have a lot of time off during the year and that increases that liability significantly for the school board and and pretty simply for the county as well. But, uh, that's the big change there, um, with implementation of that standard. The next section in the report is the management discussion and analysis. And this is a section that Kim and and her staff work up and and provide. Um, in a governmental report, there's not a lot of information that has comparative data um, from prior year to current year. So, it's one section that does have um some good information for you to see there as far as that goes. Exhibit one is the full full acrual balance sheet. Um and I can hit on some of these numbers and further in the report, but full acral is big picture. It includes all the county assets and all the county's debt. Um exhibit three is the balance sheet and the modified acrruel basis of accounting. So, this is the the shorter term um more what you're used to budgeting with your fund balance essentially. Um, exhibit nine is related to the proprietary funds or your business type activities which is going to be the water and sewer and the solid waste. There's also a column for your internal services which is mostly your health insurance fund. Uh, most of the presentation is geared towards your governmental activities. So, I do want to point out a few things that happened during 2025 related to those. Uh, your solid waste cash decreased by $1.3 million. So, something to keep an eye on as far as your solid waste goes. That was a big decrease in cash for you during 2025. water and sewer cash increased by 400,000. Um, but your health insurance also decreased by about 1.3 million. So, something to keep an eye on as as you're watching those those budgets. And then there's two other reports that we have in the report. Um, the first being the um report on government auditing standards and compliance. Um, that was a clean report with no items noted during our testing of state compliance and other standards. Um and

then the the final report is our testing on uniform guidance or used to be A133 or federal testing. Uh we did have one item that reported there um related to social services. Um during our testing of federal programs, social services at Medicaid um we found some untimely eligibility verifications. Uh they're required to be done annually. Uh they had not been done. It was a little longer than a year. So um we do have finding for those. The impact was not any benefit impact. So the people were still eligible and there was no dollar impact but they were non-compliant because they were untimely reverified. Um so so services has implemented a process to attempt to prevent that going forward. But we did note that in the report. That was the only finding in the report. Um we do issue a separate letter of recommendations as well. Um I didn't plan to go over those but they're in the back of this handout as well for you to read. So, if you do have questions, please let me know. Moving on to the 5-year trend. Um, kind of some some financial information here. Um, you've got 5-year trend of governmentwide. This is that balance sheet exhibit one that I was talking about. Uh, with your full acrruel accounting. Um, you can see to the right side there, you see annual growth rate. Um, total assets over the 5-year trend are pretty even. Uh, liabilities are decreasing. Um and across the bottom net position is about 1.7% growth per year of the five years. But the unrestricted portion being what you have available to use growing about 12.6% per year. Net investment in capital assets as part of that net position that is the net value of all the buildings and vehicles and um infrastructure less the debt to acquire those. There was a big drop off in 2025 from 2024. there uh that's actually the school related assets that the debt has been paid off on. So those assets moved to the school board. So it is a decrease

in your net position but it just moved to the school board uh because the debt related to those assets was paid off. Still have a current ratio of just under four. So pretty strong financially on the full acral basis. Moving to the five-year trend to the general fund on the revenues, you can see property taxes have grown at 8% per year. Um, intergovernment revenues have grown at just under half a percent per year. Um, in fact, in 2025, the the county didn't experience quite as much, but the school boards saw a significant decrease in federal funding. Um, as a lot of the ARPA funds have have been used. Um, ESER in particularly was a a major funding source for the school board and is is closed and gone now. So, uh, we do expect to see a decrease in and those state and federal funds moving forward. So, it's good to see the the revenue growing, um, particularly the the local revenue growing, uh, to help fund the tax basis there. Um, you see the expenditures on the next page, the 5-year trend for expenditures. Um, operating expenditures growing about 7.3% per year. Um, couple items of note there. the the school education um fluctuates a lot based on when they use their carryover funds. Um so you see in 20 uh 24 they did not use a lot of carryover funds. 2025 they started to use them. So that's some of the impact in that increase there as well. Um towards the bottom you see total total expenditures increasing about 10.75 7% per year. So I do want to point out that revenues are are expenses are outpacing revenues. So, it's something to monitor, but we'll talk about the health of the general fund in just a second.

Excuse me. Sure. Um, quick question on the I'm sorry, quick question on the total expenditures. Um, uh, 10.71% increase. Would that would a portion of that also be the carryover from the schools? It would be uh part of that is the use of that also. And that 10 10.7% that also does include the capital projects. So looking at it at a on a budget basis, I'd probably consider more that operating amount of 7% increase there. Gotcha.

Good question. Um on the general fund revenues, here we have a pie chart that compares the the current year and the prior year. Um as you can see in the 2025 about 51% of the the general fund revenues general property taxes compared to as well 51% in the prior year. So pretty comparable. Similar chart for expenditures general fund operating in debt expenditures for 2025 compared to 2024 about 25% education in current year versus 19% in the prior year. uh 30% public safety versus 32% in the prior year. County reserves as I mentioned I was going to talk a little bit about the general fund and and where you all are uh financially there. GFOA is a national organization that recommends a minimum unassigned fund balance of two months u or two months of expenditures or 16.67% of unassigned fund balance. In purple across the bottom, you can see the county at 2025 was at 19.646 64% um unassigned fund balance. It's a percentage of operating expenditures. So just above that national organization's amount. Always want to point out that that is a a very general minimum. Um so you are above that minimum. Something to watch. Um certainly it takes into account for it does not take into account for the fact that you all have some twiceear collections. So, you receive a lot of your taxes in in June um or half of them in June. It's kind of like when you get that paycheck in, the bank account looks a little bit better than it does later time in the month kind of thing. Um so, think about that a little bit as you see that. Um but you are above that that recommended minimum. So, that's good good place to be. Um unassigned fund balance has grown at about 1.8% per year. So, that is also good to see as well.

county debt balances. Um really good to see the the decrease. You all continue to pay down debt here. I know you all have recent some recent issuances with literary loans um for school improvements, but they do have very good interest rates. Um but on the whole, your your total debt has decreased. Also want to point out this is not just your bonded debt. This includes those accounting liabilities such as the acred leave or comp adapances that I mentioned earlier as well as the net pension liability um which is an estimate provided by the state actuary and your net OPED liabilities provided by the state actuary and you're also local actuary for that as well. So accounting liabilities beyond your bonded debt but again it is overall on a decreasing trend. Um there was some increases in here from the prior year related to the impact of that GASBY 101 re uh imple implementation. Um but good decrease there. And for debt per capita to be about 2,222 compared to a state average of 4,113. I always want to point out we do not have 2025 numbers yet. So the 2025 is 2024 uh which is the most recent information in the APA's state cost comparative report. um but well below that that state average. So that's a good spot to be. I mentioned that state net uh net pension VRS retirement liability. Um that is not anything that the county or school board has done wrong. They they tell you how much to pay and you all have paid that. Um but the the pension liability is a result of um the VRS not doing as well as they expected with the investments or um doing better or people staying longer or shorter than they expected. there's a lot of variables in that pension liability and therefore it's a significant estimate. So I want to point out how significant with the sensitivity analysis. Um standards require us to report it at the discount rate of 6.75%. So as you can see here on this page um

the county's net pension liability is about $7 million. The schoolboard teacher portion is about $47 million and then the the non-teer portion is about $278,000. But you can see the impact um if they do better on their investments versus worse on their investments. It's it's a very big estimate. So want to point that out as part of that. Um as I mentioned you all implemented Gatsby 101 this year. Um upcoming standards Gatsby 103 financial reporting model um is one in for uh impact for 2026. uh this standard when it first went into to consideration was groundbreaking and going to change the entire format of the the financial statements. Um then they could not agree on how they wanted it to look and then co hit and it kept tend to get delayed. Um so it's not nearly the ground breaking changes that it was supposed to be initially but it will have some impacts for the county. um partic the the largest being um your budget to actual statements currently have original budget, final budget, actual and the change from your final budget to your actual. Um it will also require a column for the change in original budget and final budget. So these additional appropriations you make during the year, the larger ones may show up in the audit report as RSI for uh readers to understand why the budget was changed as well. So that's one of the bigger changes going forward. Um, there will also be some verbiage changes and and and maybe some improvements or increased requirements in the management discussion analysis that Kim does and I can provide those those requirements to her. Um, statement 104, disclosure of certain capital assets that also could have some impact on you all as far as the the verbiage for how you all record your assets. Um, but I don't [snorts] expect it to have a significant impact on the county. So, overall the audit process went really well. Um, we have a secure portal we send to the the staff and uh they do

a great job of uploading those files to us. We get a good jump in the office on those and then we visit on site, review the items that are too large to scan or or uh we need to see in person and and do our interviews and those items as well. So, uh we appreciate everyone doing a great job of of being very timely with their information. Um overall, uh I think the next page is that that recommendation letter. A lot of counties have three or four pages of recommendations and the fact that there's three items here is is really good. So, um I think overall the audit aside from the the Medicaid uh timeliness finding reported um the audit went really well. So, I think that part was really good. Financially, you're in pretty good shape. Did want to caution those cash declines and your your solid waste and your health insurance funds. Um general funds in pretty good shape. Just continue to watch, make sure those budgets are balanced. Um but overall in pretty good shape financially. So um with that it pretty good audit and I'll take questions.

Go ahead. Thank you. Great briefing and uh presentation. So just one question. It has to do with the DSS. The u the folks over there they have a tough time trying to keep up with everything. The personnel changes, people coming and going. uh with that. So basically the I guess the finding was under Medicaid. That's correct. It was under a Medicaid and and there was nothing uh no funds I guess actually lost there. It was explain that one to me.

Yes. So u this the the federal requirements are that u the workers go in and annually verify each case to make sure that there's not been a change in in benefit eligibility. Okay. Um, and so they had not done that timely. Um, but once I discussed with Regina which cases we found to be untimely, they went and and did those verifications and and it did not impact anybody's benefits. So, um, there wasn't a dollar change or anything wrong other than the fact that they were they were untimely. So, um, they probably would have continued to be untimely if we had not pointed them out, but now there's a plan in place to prevent that. So,

okay, good. That that's all I wanted right there. I just want to clear that up. Thank you very much. Good. Good. uh presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Whitman and uh thank you for uh presenting the audit to us. I had a question on our general fund balance and our reserves there. Um, now I know we're over the threshold in terms of having enough money in the fund balance to uh to meet our obligations, but my question is uh since we're kind of fudging the line there a little bit uh and we're getting ready to get into budget season, what would be your recommendation in terms of um maybe an incremental increase to uh that threshold? toll it as far as the fund balance is concerned.

That's a great question. Um I being an accountant I'm more on the conservative side. So you know if the the national recommendation is 2 months I would say at least 20% maybe closer to 25%. Um you know there's a a lot there are some localities that have a formalized fund balance policy um with a minimum that may require some sort of increases if if that happens. So, um potentially looking at um updating or or policy changes to to get there as well could be a good option. Um but I do think that you're in good shape, but I think that that's something to make sure you're monitoring during your budget.

Yes, sir. I don't I don't just necessarily want to be in good shape. Uh Miss Vendhide does a great job in terms of keeping us financially solvent. Um, I guess to kind of fine-tune this question, uh, if we increase the 20%, would would we not want to do that incrementally over a span of maybe five, six years, that sort of thing, so that we don't, uh, put ourselves out of whack in other areas of the budget.

Sure. I think that's that's a that's a good option, a good plan to do that. Um, and I don't think you're that far off either. Um, you know, as this is just a calculation based on operating expenditures, um, there certainly could be one-time expenditures in there that are are decreasing your number also. So, um, it's more of a a barometer, but it's not an exact science either, right? And it does not include your your assigned or your restricted funds, you know, um, that the 1% sales tax and things like that are are not included in that unassigned fund balance. So, okay. Okay. That that makes me breathe a little easier. And um so this is uh kind of like a one time snapshot moment in time thing type of deal. Okay. Exactly.

All right. Good deal. I'm good, gentlemen. Any other questions? Questions? Thank you so much, Mr. D. Thank you all. And we appreciate uh you working so closely with us. Yes. Anything else? Just please let me know. Happy holidays.

Thank you, sir. And and again, let me uh [clears throat] let me give uh Miss Vender Hyde, her team uh you know, their kudos because uh they run a pretty tight ship over there and uh you all not only balance our books and keep us uh accountable and help us in decision making, but uh I I really really appreciate a clean audit. All right. Anything? Anyone else? Okay. All right. We move to agenda item 6A, clerical update on Pennsylvania county code authorization. Mr. Arnold, good evening. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Hopefully at you all's seat at the dis you have a copy of a handout that I just distributed a short while ago. Uh this provides some examples of what I would like to discuss with you all today in regards to examples of scribers errors or clerical errors. Um, also potential contradictions within county code or uh in the case of the examples that we're going to be discussing, different sections of the zoning ordinance may contradict themselves and also opportunities to just improve the overall clarity um by way of reformatting uh the county code. Right now, I'm primarily focusing on the zoning ordinance because that's uh one of the chapters of code that uh we deal with most frequently. It's probably the most uh sizable in terms of page numbers and everything like that, but certainly these opportunities may present themselves in any of the uh numerous

chapters of county code. So, one of the first examples I'd like to share with you all is when it comes to determining the front yard uh for lakefront property at Smith Mountain Lake. And if you look at uh in section 35-40 in the principal definitions, you'll see on page 47 that for Smith Mountain Lake, quote, "Front yards for lots or lots and subdivisions that boarded on the edge of Smith Mountain Lake shall be assumed to be located between the principal building on the lot and the road fronting the lot. Front yard shall not be considered to be between the principal building and the lake. However, uh if we look at another section of code 35-61, uh we will see that in December of 2021, uh it states, and I quote, "On Smith Mountain Lake and Leville Lake, the front yard for lots and lots and subdivisions that border on the edge of Smith Mountain Lake shall be assumed to be located between the principal building on the lot and the lake. front yard should not be considered to lie between the principal building and the road. So the reason for bringing this up is [snorts] when we review one of the reasons is um staff during the course of evaluating building permits, we do a site plan review and you frequently might get building permit applications for accessory buildings to be located uh on lakefront property as well as anywhere in the county. So, which one do you go off of right here? I think it's a pretty hopefully an obvious uh point to make, but uh this has the point of all of this is largely based around we have a dayto-day utilization and and and usage of county code. And the

clearer it is not only for staff but the public then hopefully we can all uh you know it's easier to navigate and easier to get on with uh the task at hand which hopefully is going to be you know issuing permits and then passing it over to the inspectors and the building official to ensure that things are constructed to you know uniform statewide building code standards. So, um, that's one example. And I also want to point out this when it deals with up making an amendment to county code, what we're seeing here is likely to happen uh to anybody. U there's so much interreationships and uh this section of code, we're thinking, oh, we just got to update this. And there's gosh knows how many other places that might be tucked away in there that you also need to be touching as well to update it. So it's a lot of times you don't realize these things until time goes on and you happen to revisit another section and you're like wow okay in a perfect world we would have caught that before we would have gone forward with that most recent code amendment. Similarly, uh as far as accessory, still dealing with accessory buildings, uh or structures, uh one section of code in the RC1, uh zoning district, it states that um the accessory structure must be at least 12 ft from the rear property line. Uh however, uh section 35-74 states that uh 15t uh from the rear set from the rear property line for accessory buildings is required. So that one you may almost say you could probably include some wording that would just allow uh you know you to refer to the regulations of a specific zoning district. And so you could just include a statement there in section 35-74 possibly. And this would all be with

working with the county attorney to make sure things are uh very clear and can be easily operationalized. But you could state something along the lines of for section 35-74 um section number 2B, a detached accessory building shall not be closer than 15 ft to the main building or rear lot line unless specified uh unless a a different setback distance is specified within the zoning district specific regulation. Something along those lines that will give you some flexibility there. Uh so those are just examples of contradictions. Uh let's also look at maybe what I would call an opportunity to improve the uh formatting of the ordinance and uh which also would make it uh easier to use and easier to apply. So if we look at u section 35-42 u for M2 permitted uses or heavy industrial zoning district permitted uses, you see a pretty lengthy list of all the uses and this is just an excerpt from it. This is not all the uses. This is like one of three pages. Uh but they're not always alphabet sorted alphabetically. Um they also sometimes you might have multiple uses listed on the same row. uh and spacing or they're not it's it's not clear when one when there's one use that you're referring to and it runs into another use and so maybe include some punctuation, maybe make it a bulleted list, maybe put it in the form of a table with with rows and columns. I mean, we can all come up with ways to improve this, but again, we want this to be navigable for the public and for staff and uh and that's at the heart of all of this. And and lastly, um a lot of the reformatting deals with those list of uses, whether they're the by

right or the uses that require a special use permit. Uh third, uh kind of family of opportunities to clarify uh county code and in particular the zoning ordinance would be referred to as uh the category of scriveners errors or clerical errors. And uh so uh one example uh that I pointed out in here is uh from section 35-712 um issuance issuances delegated to the board of zoning appeals. Um, it states, let's see, and I'm going to just jump in mid-stream rather than reading this uh lengthy statement, but that the character of the zoning district will not be changed thereby and that such use will be in harmony with the purpose and intent of the ordinance of this ordinance with the uses permitted by fight in the zoning district with additional regulations. I think we mean by right right there. Although some might say it can be a little bit of a [laughter] a fight or a struggle to get something pushed through when it comes to getting zoning approval, but I don't think that's the the intent or the spirit of of the zoning ordinance in that case. So again, these things are easy to spot. Uh when myself as well as many other staff are looking at these ordinances on a daily basis, we frequently pick up on these opportunities. So um that's really all I got. I appreciate y'all let me share you with you those examples. The ask today is that we pass a resolution that would authorize the county attorney uh to make these uh improvements and uh amendments to county code wherever it's identified. so long as it only addresses, you know, like uh grammar errors, spelling errors, opportunities to improve the formatting, uh or to resolve contradictions when we see that there's been a more recent amendment and

there were older sections of county code that probably should have been updated once that more recent amendment was approved. So, uh that's essentially it I think. And but the to follow up with one last point on that, I am not advocating nor asking that there's any change to the intent or anything like that of that true substance of any county ordinance or section of county code as that ultimately uh requires board of supervisors approval. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions you all might have. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Donald. Couple things. You had a illustration about the lake. Now the lakes don't Smith Mountain and Leville don't they regulate from a shoreline up so many feet that we don't have control of. That's right. Yeah. I mean like the docks and so many feet up. That's right. Like 600 ft on one of them. I think eight on it's I believe it's more about 800 on like Smith Mountain Lake. Maybe you're right. The le might be lower than 600. Yeah. Around that building's in that. We don't have any control of it. All that's regulated by AA. Well, we shouldn't be allowing a building to be below that contour, whatever that elevation is. I'm just saying they control that. That's right.

And then a lot of this other stuff I I know once we get to that point on the re that we had Berkeley to do our reson ordinance, a lot of this will be in them changes, won't it?

There is certainly a good chance they will be. Absolutely. Absolutely. But, uh, the point of bringing this here today is I I just think there's opportunities to correct these fairly minor things as we still continue to look at how the zoning ordinance can be approved more globally and comprehensively. But until we're at that point, I I'm I'm asking if you all might be uh on board with making these what I can say again minor updates. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Mr. Boger,

thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dave, um the ask that you have to let the attorney make these corrections. I'm okay with that. It's word smithing stuff and yes, you see the obvious in there. So, yeah, making those changes. I'm good with that. Uh the only question I've got is on the lots here, the on homes that are on the lakes. Uh yeah, that's usually every homeowner that lives on the lake, that's their front yard is looking out over the lake there, the water.

So, I'm kind of curious as to why uh the one you've highlighted here on Smith Mountain Lake and Leville, the front yard of lots and lots and subdivisions that border the edge of the lake shall be assumed to be located between the principal building of the lot and the lake, but the front yards shall not be considered lie between the principal building and the road. you know, the dates here, uh, you've got 2021 and 2025. Why Why would that happen like that? I mean, I'm I don't see where somebody would have made or should have made a change like that. I think just leaving it like it is. So, evidently, somebody was sleep at the wheel when that one happened. As I stated, I think

I mean, this is this is

right. We aren't catching this until we're not talking about this until today in 2025. Yet, the most recent section of code was updated in December of 21. I think well I don't want to speculate but uh there's probably a good chance that uh whenever that section of code was updated they were just unaware of another reference in the same chapter in the zoning ordinance that might need to also be touched and updated. And I have heard of this happening in many many localities. It's kind of part for the course. Uh and and but when we catch it we just want to make sure we get it all right. Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm good.

Thank you, sir. What else? Yes, sir. M Whittle, would you uh would you let the board know when you made changes and things like that? Absolutely. We would be happy to have some type of a communication stream so that you all know, you know, what updates are made and how we do that is something I'm happy to work with our county attorney on whether it's, you know, updates as needed or we Yeah, we we can certainly ensure there's some uh transparency on what's being updated. Absolutely. Thank you, Dave. You bet. Anyone else? Thank you, Mr. Honor. Yes, sir. Mr. D.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Honor. Um, you were somewhat reluctant to say that they would be incorporated in the new comprehensive zoning rewrite. Um, I I was confused with that because I was thinking that our new zoning u upgrade would be consistently uh inclusive of of everything.

Oh, sure. The reason why my rel I had may come across as some reluctance to make a statement there is only because I did not look to see if these particular items that I shared with you today were they clarified in the proposed ordinance. You our focus is the ordinance that we're currently working with which is the uh adopted zoning ordinance. You know that ultimately dates back to 1991 but has been updated along the way. So, but your your point uh though is is is valid as far as whatever updates are going to be made whether they're scribers errors or reformatting improvements. We obviously want those to perpetuate on through to you know the next iteration of the county zoning ordinance um you know and and the proposed zoning ordinance. And I just I don't have that firsthand knowledge to know how they were addressed in the Berkeley group's work. But I'm inclined to say they likely would have been caught because that was as I understand one of the main goals of that was to just over time. It makes sense from my standpoint. You got a lot of hands that touch things. There's a lot of different sections to touch and a lot of years that span. And so the potential for these things is is what I would call only natural. Yeah.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Arnold. Thank you again for your presentation. But, uh, I guess my question is this. Um, our new, uh, department head over community development, Oscar, and I can never call his last name. Is it Vaughn? Vaughn. Oscar Vaughn is the chief building official. Yes, sir. Okay. Um my question is um I'm sure he is taking a look and assisting you with this and making sure that um he brings his uh experience to bear on some of this stuff.

I feel quite confident. Yes, sir. He he has observed these along with me and we kind of point them out as we find them. And these are just examples. There are others buried in there. Trust me, I I get it. I just want to make sure that um you know he's uh fully engaged there. Sure. Okay. But uh no, I don't have a issue with that. In fact, uh I am hoping once we get the comprehensive plan in place, we can overlay that and you know at some point we're going to have to transition away from the 1991 version.

That's right. and and uh move to our new comp plan and our new uh policy. So, I just want to make sure that our Mr. Bond, yourself, everybody's kind of looking forward. Yes, sir. Okay. Absolutely. Cool. All right. Anything else, gentlemen? Mr. Evans, can I guess what we need to do is uh put it on the consent agenda. Maybe works with it. Is that right? Yes. Yes. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Okay. All right. So, we get the language correct. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. Anything else, gentlemen? Okay.

All right. Any other discussion from uh our business meeting? All right. We move to 6B. We have one here. Uh let's see. This is county policy concerning equipment.

Equipment paraphernalia. Okay. All right. Good deal. All right. Who wants to present? Let me let me go ahead and do this real quickly. Um, and this is another area that we probably need to clean up. And uh, let me uh, and I I've already expressed my gratitude to Mr. height privately. So, let me do it express it publicly. I appreciate your time and serving with you, sir. I know tonight's your last meeting and we'll love on you a little bit. Uh but also for being the vice and just being a good sounding board sometimes when you know I as the chairman want to vent. So, you've been a great guy for that. Uh Mr. Height wants to purchase his uh laptop, cell phone, that sort of thing. And it's been customary uh that the county would sell um the the firearms to the uh [snorts] sheriff's department retirees for a dollar. And uh [clears throat] someone shared with me that they changed the policy uh uh previous board changed the policy in preventing uh the uh the supervisors from purchasing uh their laptops or cell phones, that sort of thing for a dollar. They wanted to have them appraised for market value. And I I don't think uh we should go down that road. I I I expressed privately to a couple people that we just need to codify this and our supervisors once you've served effectively and served well. Uh and all of you all on this DS know that uh this is not a 9 to5 job you know it's like 8 to midnight some days. So um [clears throat] that being the case, I I just think in

the interest of fairness and parody that we should u set the policy and uh we we should uh not change it back and forth with you know the changing of the board. I think that any board person be it male female that serves as supervisor should be given the opportunity to buy their phone and their iPad for a dollar from the county. So, I'll entertain discussion on that. So, that's where we are.

I know we u we looked at that a few years ago. The I don't remember the $1. I know that applies to the sheriff's office uh weapon that the officer in good standing can purchase that for $1. But as far as the the the uh iPad and the the phone itself, you know, I I I agree with you. I think that the the holder has surely worked for it. and uh whatever we can do to to help facilitate that exit gift, I'd be in favor of it. Yes, sir. Mr. B,

I'd [clears throat] just like to say that Eddie needs all those electronics he can get uh because I know he's not getting them at work. And the uh and in comparison to a weapon, uh the weapon has more value because when you're looking at the electronics, these things here. Yeah. These these uh this the phone, I mean, you're going to have to have a new one every two or three years. The laptop, you're going to have to update all the software. Yeah, I'm okay with it. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes, sir. You have fun with it, Eddie. Thank Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. I'm fine with it. I think it's good. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. D. Mr. Give Mr. Whittle any comments? Yes, sir. So, were you were you advocating a dollar or something else?

Yes, sir. I I'm just saying let's just, you know, I agree. Fair market value is very subjective. Correct. And and I like your proposal and I would second that. Okay. At any rate, um what what I would uh like to see is um [clears throat] is we will we'll ask Mr. Evans to words smmith that for us and uh you know let's uh set the policy in perpetuity if we can for the county supervisors please.

Cool. Anything else? And that way it's not changing with every whim, you know. I I don't think we need to keep going back and forth with that sort of thing. Sure. Okay. All right. Uh let's see. to pay $5. Any other discussion from the business meeting? Okay. Uh time for close session. Mr. Evans, would you read us in please, sir?

Yes, Mr. Chairman. There are four matters designated for close session this afternoon which are first discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointments promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of any public body legal authority Virginia code section 2.23711A1 23711A1 subject matter discussion of compensation incentives for county employees purpose review and discussion of the same. Second, we have discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose or of the disposition of publicly held real real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body. Legal authority Virginia code section 2.23711 23711 A3 subject matter potential real property acquisition for public purpose and the purpose is review and discussion regarding the same. Third, we have discussion of plans to protect public safety as it relates to terrorist activity or specific cyber security threats or vulnerabilities and briefings by staff members, legal counsel or law enforcement or emergency service officials concerning actions taken to respond to such matters or a threat or related threat to public safety. Discussion of information subject to the exclusion of subdivision 2 or 14 of 2.237052 237052 where discussion and open meeting would jeopardize the safety of any person or the security of any facility, building, structure, information technology system or software program or discussion of reports or plans relating to the security of any government governmental facility, building or structure or the safety of persons using such facility facility, building or structure. Legal authority Virginia code section 2.23711 23711 A19 subject matter jail and courthouse updates purpose discussion regarding the same and lastly discussion concerning the prospective business or

industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the businesses or industries's interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community. Legal authority Virginia code section 2.2371185 2 371185 subject matter unannounced perspective business businesses and industries purpose general economic development project updates Mr. Chairman now be appropriate to entertain a motion discussion and vote regarding close session thank you Mr. evidence. I'll entertain that motion to go into close. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Second. Thank you so much for the second.

All right. Any discussion? Hearing none, cast your votes, please, gentlemen. Motion passes unanimously. Let us convene into close. Thank you.

Mr. Evans, would you read us in, please?

Yes, Mr. Chairman. Be it resolved that at the Pittsy County Board of Supervisors work session held on December the 16th, 2025, the board hereby certifies by recorded vote that to the best of each board member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. If any board member believes that there was a departure from the requirement requirements of the act, he shall so state prior to the vote indicating the substance of the departure. The statement shall be recorded in the board's minutes. We will now have a roll call vote regarding the set certification of closed session. Mr. Bowman, yes. Mr. Dalton,

yes. Mr. Dudley. Mr. Ingram? Yes. Mr. Whittle? Yes. Mr. Height? Yes. Mr. Tucker? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Edins.