Board of Commissioners - Special Meeting

Board of Commissioner special meeting is now called to order. Um, Evangelist Sanford, would you please uh come to the podium and lead us in our pledge of allegiance and invitation? Please stand and join us if you choose to.

Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening, Lord, with a heart of thanksgiving, a mouth of praise. We thank you Lord for this day that you have made. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe as we travel over the dangerous highway. Thank you heavenly father for these that are here and I ask your blessings upon each one in the name of Jesus. And if someone is still in bed today in pain God I ask that you be with them heavenly father in the name of Jesus. And Lord as we prepare for this meeting God I ask that you be in the center of it in the name of Jesus. And God, help us, God, to come together as one and do what is right for this child, for one another in the name of Jesus. Lord, I just thank you and I just give you praise, glory, and honor in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you, ma'am. All right. I entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Commissioner Cooper. Is there a second? Mayor Pro may second that motion. Uh any discussion? All in favor?

Motion carries unanimously. We'll now move on to agenda item um 4A which is our town town manager job listing. Um so as you know we have to begin the process of hiring a new town manager. So, you have been provided with um the original job description um and and the previous town manager um job listing that we posted before. And you should also have some recommendations um for the the for updating our our job listing. So I know you just got the recommendations. So if you want to take a second to go over those, I did discuss briefly with um this these are just some recommendations I had. Uh I did briefly talk to Mr. uh Overton about the salary range and what the town is currently capable of um being able to sustain and the salary range is about 130 to 160. Uh but we can double check those numbers again with HR. She can run them against the NCLM's salary reports that they do for the entire state. Um, Mr. Overton also checked into looking for municipalities of our size, uh, but could not find any comparable information because we're a little small. So, I'd like to begin discussion with the salary range if that's okay. Did anybody have any additional suggestions, questions?

Well, I haven't read it. I just got this only thing I seen in here. So I don't know what you did. You want to approve on this? No, no, no, no. This is offered. This is just my my thoughts in an actual listing form. Oh, okay. Simply So when I the thing that I would recommend, I put it in a report for you. I had opportunity to read. So yeah, this is just these are my just my thoughts. Commissioner Jackson, did you have something? Yeah, I'm I'm I'm going to stick without having um comments on it now because I like to take time to read it and go over and this is just not enough time for me. We just not got these today. No,

I just got this here today. That's these are these are my This is me providing you a copy of my own personal thoughts. This is not submitted. You said we can go over it, but I'm saying this I have over this. Yeah, you don't have this is for me too. My suggestions. I just put it for your convenience. The things that I recommended, I put them in a document so you'll have them. This is not a part of the agenda package. This is not for discussion. What we're discussing is the information that you were given. The original listing from our last posting and the uh town manager job requirements.

Yeah, I have that in here. Okay. So that's all in the agenda, right? That's what I said. So since the salary is at the top, is there any discussion on salary range? This is the exact same thing in your agenda. No, that's not it.

That's this right here. That's this right here. Same thing. But this is just some additional you. This is my No, not adding it to the agenda or the agenda packet. These are just my own personal thoughts and suggestions that I put together so that the board would know my sentiments. Okay. And this uh document here, I think it needs to be it's got a two year in there um for the board. This is the one that I was reading. Right. This is right. This is the original. That's why I want to go through this. It's in the agenda.

So, can we start at the top with the salary range? Is there a recommended salary range? Again, that's why I spoke with Mr. Overton. Um, and what we can sustain as the town is $130 to $160,000. Um, right now we are currently paying uh Mr. English 144 and we Mr. Roy was making 140 and so I thought 130 to 160 based on qualifications is a good range. 140 160 and and I think the reason being I mean 130 not 140 130

130 uh you recommended that um $72 an hour be given to Mr. U Dennis and um because you pulled the inrums town manager Samantha's as well as what was done in the past you and Miss Cooper and uh since that's what you have recommended that's what board voted on is that correct? Yes. Okay. because that was your recommendation, mayor, the $72 an I know. Okay. All right. So, that don't range over there of what? 130 to 160. We just want to make sure that was your recommendation at $72 an hour. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Cooper.

Uh, yes. Um, I I think I like the range except I think we should start at the bottom of what was the bottom 120 to 160. 120 to 160.

Yeah. instead of 130. Any issues with that? Mr. Jackson, I'm like I said before, I'm not going to vote on anything. I don't think we need to be making decisions or votes until everybody is satisfied with what they're seeing. I understand it was in the packet, but I would like to go I would like to compare and do all of those things, too. So, I guess my question is, are we voting on this or is everybody just making that recommendation, but it's not set in stone until it's voted on? It's not set in stone until it's voted on. We're going through to Thank you. I appreciate that.

Put it together. You just turned on. I'm sorry. I'm going to give it a right. All right. So, did everybody get a chance to read the old salary?

When did you send that out? You know, I sent what whatever was in the agenda packet I sent out yesterday, but I did also provide two extra ones of believe it was these two. The one that says the uh this is what was given to me from Elizabeth in HR stating that was the only town manager job description we had on file and it was sent out yesterday. This I believe I made copies of just so you can have it. This is just a job description, but it's clearly not a job description. All it is is just uh the general statute on it.

Okay. So, we're going for discussion. I'll get it and then we So I for the sake of of making sure we're not wasting any time if we're not going to be able to discuss the manager listing then we can wait and do it all Thursday with the league. Um because again Thursday the Thursday special meeting that was the next week the 20 we're having a meeting on the 23rd regular meeting. So you've called another special meeting for the league is coming for town manager hiring practices. Oh my another special meeting. That's fine. Yeah. Can you lay them down?

Okay. Yeah. I mean I know this special meeting we have a meeting on Monday, but on the 26th for the special meeting I won't be able to make that. That's fine. Okay. Can we go ahead and So are you guys prepared to discuss the town manager listing today or no? I mean, we can discuss it. Discuss it. We're fine. I'm fine with discussing something. Whatever you want to do,

it's kind of hard to discuss something that hasn't been read. Yeah, that's what we was just telling you. But you asked the question. We said the same thing. You asked We all had our agendas at the same time,

ma'am. It was yesterday. All right, let's move on. We'll move on to the next agenda item. Resolution to 20264 to approve a municipal accounting service cyber security and technical assistance memorandum agreement. Mr. for Overton. Um, this agreement is with the North Carolina League of Municipalities. They received a grant from the federal government to provide training and software uh to small towns. The original grant was for towns less than 10,000. So we were not eligible because our population is almost 12,000. But because you know of of some problems we've had in the past, we've got an exemption. They say now we are eligible to participate if we want to. This grant provides training to the small towns. They have free webinars. There's about a dozen of them that any of our employees or board members, manager or what can just go on the website and look at. They begin April 1. Evelyn has a schedule of those uh classes that are free to anybody who wants to look at them. Uh we don't have to have agreement for that. You can look at that. They will also provide staff to come in and help train the employees. Uh when this first came out, Mr. Rory asked me I if if I needed them to come and I no I don't think so but this training could be very beneficial to some of our younger employees. Uh there is training that may be beneficial to some of our department heads uh and it's also could be very beneficial to uh council members. Um

they can the training is free. There's no cost to it. uh you can take as little or as much training as they're willing to give you. Uh but in order for them to come in and provide the additional training other than the free webinars, they require us to sign this contract. There's also another agreement there. They have developed an accounting software with the company called Black Mountain. They're providing this software free of cost for free three free years to many of these small governments. uh in order to participate in that, if we ever wanted to, we also have to sign this contract. We do not have to buy or use the Blackbound software, and we're not changing any software until we get these audits up. But in order to participate at some time in the future, we need to sign the agreement. And again, you can take as little or as much training as you want, and there's no cost. So, we really have nothing to lose.

Mr. Just to be clear, as our finance officer, you recommend this be approved, correct? Yes. Okay. So, and the training because I'm getting old. I'm going to retire in two years. So, this training could help train some of the people in my department and other departments to move up and replace me in a few years. Well, that sounds good. Spring Lake definitely needs contingency. Um, so I I do appreciate you guys taking this training. Um, the league offers a lot of services that I think we should start taking advantage of. Uh, training is definitely important. So, is there any discussion or questions from the board? Commissioner Jackson,

when it says to approve a a municipal accounting services, cyber security and technical I'm not. So, you're you're saying that we're just going to there's going to offer training. So, what why do we if it's free, why do we need to approve it? because they want the they the league requires you to sign this contract in order for them to give you the free training other than the webinar. You don't sign the contract, they won't give you the free training. Okay. And when you say about the accounting system, so are they going to change the accounting system? No, we're not the part of the grant allow they have developed a governmental accounting software with a company called Black Mountain.

Okay. They are providing that software and installing it in a lot of these small towns for free. Um, we do not have to buy that. No, we we already have Harris. We don't need to change any soft accounting software until we are caught up with our audits because it would be it' just be a mess to try to move over stuff until it's it's completely caught up. You you want to start with good beginning balances. We don't have to buy the software. We don't have to use it, but if we ever did want to use it, we have to sign this contract.

So now, let me ask you something. When if if and when if or when we decide to use it or not to use it, that would be the board's decision will come up after Yes, ma'am. Agree on. Yes, ma'am. And one more thing, you're not old. You're getting older. You don't know how I feel. I'm trying to have ain't as young as I usually.

Well, one one I can certify that he is old. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. Um, but essentially what I'll say is I know I know it's a little confusing uh that the league would ask for a signed contract to provide something for free. Uh, the only thing I could compare it to is when you're about to ride a ride or something and they still need to sign a little waiver. Um, now I'm not saying this is a waiver, but they just want something in writing, as far as I can tell, saying they're going to come in and provide some training. That's it. That's it. The reason for this, it's being paid for by a federal grant. The the federal grant probably making them do this. They need some accountability.

Mr. Lton, thank you, Madam Mayor. Mr. Overton, it says cyber security and technical assistance. uh speaking with the town managers today. We had um Fedville Tech to come at our last meeting and I like that suggestion that you made because the question was since they were going to offer it free as well as this is free and you were saying if they could maybe depending on the board if they could co kind of work together on this since security if we utilize it. What were you kind of saying with that? Mr. Manager, good job. You did the first time.

I'm just saying.

So, you're right. Um, when the Fed Tech uh team came in, they did a great job with their presentation. I was very impressed with the thoroughess and their experience already working with Hopeville. So, if they are already going to do that for free as well, my thought process was could there be a collaboration between the two of them? So that way we're not duplicating efforts or having both of them kind of run in different directions. So I would say let's bring them both to the table and and let the students get the training that they need and bring in the legal municipalities alongside of them and let them collaborate. So that way we get double for our free or the say double, right? And so I I could help facilitate that meeting with the two of those entities once you all vote on this and I'll take it from there.

Okay. I was I wanted to make sure this was different and when I talked to Mr. he did explain to me as well as paragraph number um two and I had asked where it says down Mr. often uh you said up until 3 years and then we need to get this done by J uh December 31st 2026 and allow and it says allow for additional service as needed. So when you stated we don't have to change that software right now until the audit is done uh this document always says I mean says as well as needed in the overall program.

Okay. So understand is there any further discussion? I'm entertaining a motion to approve resolution 202604. Commissioner Thompson. So move. Commissioner Cooper. Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

The motion carries. We'll now move on to Manchester Fire District. Mr. English. So, it's been we finally have an agreement with um well, not a formal agreement, but we have a opportunity now to move forward with the Manchester Fire District. Uh it's been a long time coming and um it looks like we are in the process of sitting down with the county and working out the details at this point. And so, I would like for at this time, Mr. overton to walk through kind of what the expectations are from us going forward before we uh have a discussion. Um as you all know we had a contract with Cumberland County to provide fire protection service out of the Manchester Fire Station. That contract expired uh June of 2024. Okay. or you know 25 I'm sorry June of 25 that contract expired. Uh we were negotiating with the county to renew that contract. However, we were not successful in getting a new agreement with the county. So on September 30th, we discontinued service to the Manchester Fire District. The county has since contracted with a volunteer fire department in the county to provide that service. Um, however, that fire department, while they do a good job, their fire station is located too far away uh and that affects the ISO rating out in the uh fire district. In other words, their response time is too long because it's they have too far to drive. So, the county has come back to us and said they're willing to negotiate a contract with us. At their meeting last week,

they agreed in principle to a contract where they would pay us 647,000 a year. My understanding is it is a three-year contract starting July 1. Uh we need to work out some of the details like is it going to be paid all at once or is it going to be paid each month? Um, uh, Jason has proposed that we hire three additional firemen, uh, from the frozen positions that were frozen by the league, I mean, by the, um, LBC a few years ago. Also to possibly give some raises to our existing firemen to make their salaries more competitive with surrounding fire departments and to replace some equipment, all of the mattresses at the fire station and some other things. Um the other thing we'd like to work out in detail is our old contract. There was no increase in it. It was just whatever the fire district tax was. This is 647 every year for 3 years. Uh we've also probably liked to put in what are the options to renew this contract uh and what would be the uh increases if we did renew it. We need to work out some of them details. The other thing the county will do is they will give us 50,000 immediately for us to uh give them mutual aid from now until June 30th. We would not be the primary fire district uh for the next 3 months. We would just go on mutual aid if we were asked to. But then we would become the primary responders July 1 at 647,000 a year. Um that is substantially more. Before we were only getting about 160,000 a year and it was costing us 6 or 700,000. This is much uh a much

better contract for us than the previous one. And so we just need your uh blessing to uh approve this in principle and allow Mr. Divis and our attorney to work out the details and get a formal contract back to you for approval. Uh the county does need to let the the volunteer fire department know pretty soon whether or not they're going to go with us or continue with them. So they are requesting an answer soon. Mr. Porter, just just very very briefly. Um so we don't have a formal contract to vote on. You just need a consensus tonight on that. Yeah. and then we'll work out the details later. Yeah. Me, you, and Mr. English.

Yeah. Okay. So, we need a I'm just trying to clarify. So, we need a consensus on that, our formal vote, and then on the mutual aid, we need a formal vote on that a little more quickly, but we've got a a meeting Monday. So, um is that do we need anything other than just saying we'll do it and then for mutual aid? Uh no, the mutual aid, that's most everybody has mutual aids anyway. Have we already signed a mutual aid? I would not sign a period because I knew what they were going to do if they were going to make us keep running out there. And I said, "No, hang on." So, can you come up? I have some questions. Oh, okay.

And and before I and I'll turn my light off, but the 50K is from when to when? From now to June 30th. And what would we have to do to get the 50K? And do you recommend we do the 50K? I do. um what they want to do is that will that will help them with uh house fires um major wrecks and I was going to say nine echoes but you don't or or heart heart attacks or something that we we will automatically go out there

do do they need us to like I mean so obviously if we're going to sign a contract we would need an official vote on that do they already have that contract and can we get that on the agenda for They don't have one. They don't know. He might know. I do. Usually those are pretty simple. They don't they don't have a contract that they don't have a contract that we sign agree on, right? We're trying to make sure that we get the 50K. So, Jimmy knows what we're a little ways from the contract itself. They just they just want to hear that we agree on. No, no, no. Not further after the June. I'm talking about for the initial 50k. No, I haven't seen anything related to just the initial.

You won't need that. It's it's a uh it's a fire chief thing we all sign. I would sign it last year because um I knew that again that they would have us run everything out there and basically they get paid for and I'm still using our taxpayer money to run us. So, I wouldn't do that. So, you just need the board to give you on on not the overall contract, but for the initial mutual aid, right? You just need the board to say yay or a tonight or Monday night. one or the other. Correct. That I'm just trying to get the vote clear. Yeah. Okay. We're not in a big rush to that. I mean, the biggest thing is we just they want to let the people know they got to give them 90 days. Yeah. And that's why we'll take over 71 if the board approves. No, no, no, no, no. Not not the You're talking for mutual aid? Yes.

Yeah. Mutual aid is is Yeah. They can do it tonight or they can do it Monday. Just saying, "Okay, we understand what you're going to do. Go ahead and we'll collect the $50,000 needs to be discussed tonight." Okay. Right. Um my question is are you commissioner Jackson? Okay. I am so sorry. Go ahead. Um so are you a you y'all think y'all able to handle that with the mutual aid going out? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, we did 20 years. Yeah, we're we're pretty we're pretty good. We can handle any other questions from the board because you're right. handle today.

That's what I was talking to you about right there and get the word in right and we was getting paid for it. Now you saying we need the 50,000 but you said there's nothing no documents that need to be signed and anything. So it's just a guarantee by word of mouth that they're going to give you the mutate or just I mean where does this it that comes from the fire chief

that comes to fire chiefs. I have to sign it saying we will be in the mutual aid and it's for the county and they pay every mutual aid $50,000 for the the year like that. That's just something they add into our bless course and I said I wouldn't do it last year because I know what they going to do. It was worth $50,000. Yeah, we can do that. So, but we will do it now because they're paying us. They're going I know they're paying us but he said it still he wouldn't take the 50,000 last year because he didn't want to be running back and forth out there. I know they're paying you the 50,000, but still will you be in the same situation if you running back and forth out there? I mean, it's not changing anything. Well, because the mutual aid is they y'all going to work together, correct?

So, you didn't do it last year because you said you didn't want to be running back and forth out there. So, what's the difference from this year if they need you to run back and forth out there and you're helping one another? Correct. You still you're still going to do that because it's happening this year. Yes, ma'am. The the biggest deal with it is we didn't want I felt as as a fire chief is they they were west area was going to get all the money, right? And that we were going to get all the calls, right? What about that tax all y'all's taxpayer money? I wasn't going to do that. Right. But what about what's the difference from this time they accepted it?

This one here when we accept it, we're accepted for the three months to run mutual aid and then it becomes ours for the 630 47,000 and then we the mutual aid agreement will be go like beyond that. We have to go where the rest of your truck has to go out or something. Okay. But the 50,000 is until uh the budget. Correct. All right. Thank you. Any other questions?

Please carry on with your uh negotiations with county and come back with us with your recommendations. We'll more than likely have to communicate that to the county via resolution. Yeah. The the only thing I would ask is at least on the mutual aid if the board give consensus for Miss uh Chief Williams to go ahead uh sign that just for three months not the main 50,000 just that today and that's until June 30th June 30th the new contract starts July 1. I I don't think we need a resolution just consensus that he can sign that right. I'm saying for that's the way we're going to communicate back to the board after is the board willing to give their consensus. Yeah.

You know that's good. gave their consensus. All right. I understand a motion to go into close session concerning to NCGs 14331883 attorney client privilege. Commissioner Cooper. So moved. Is there a second? I discussion. All in favor? Motion cares. We're now in close session. Thank you all for coming out. You're more than welcome to stay until we come out.

session. No actions taken. Commissioner Cooper. Commissioner Burgess. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. Meeting adjourned. This is what I