Commission - Regular Meeting

come to order. Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you, Sheriff. Uh our next item of business is our prayer led by Commissioner Huffine and our pledge led by Commissioner England.

Let us bow our heads. Dear Lord, we come before you tonight with thankful and humble hearts. Lord, as we see so much of vision in our country and the world, help us to remember as you have said, we are all part of your family. Each of us with our own uniqueness and own talents. Dear Lord, guide us tonight and every day that each one of us utilize our abilities you have given us to work together to honor you and to always do what is pleasing to you as we make decision decisions that impact our community. Help us to follow your direction that will be the most beneficial to all the citizens of our county. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Face the flag and honor America. 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.

If you would please go ahead and indicate your presence at this 5:30 meeting on the screen if you haven't. 12.

We have 12 present, three absent. Our next item is approval of our agenda. This is a very limited agenda at this 5:30 meeting. It is to discuss uh the budget and uh planning for that. Um the mayor and Mitch is here as well. So we will have a very limited scope of discussion and then we will adjourn if uh before six o'clock. Move to approve. Motion to approve by Commissioner Jones, second by Commissioner Tucker.

Question seeing none. All in favor of that motion signify by saying I to approve the agenda. I I and the agenda is approved. We'll go ahead and move into recess at this time. Uh for our public comment period, each individual should be given three minutes to address the board regarding agenda items. Comments shall be limited to items on the meetings agenda. We have one person that signed up tonight to speak. Uh I think she had also requested to be able to hand out some things there at at your seat. So, you have those as well when she references those. Karen, if you'll come up. This right here.

Thank you. Oh, to the podium. What? Karen Nelson's. Karen, you've been here before. Yes. Oh, you're Oh, that's okay. I I'll let you brief me. That's fine. That's Well, some of them are supposed to have it. Did anybody miss one? She was going to double them. Yes, she she gave up. She said I didn't have enough for for everybody, and I thought I did. I have extra if anybody else wants one. I don't believe that's in the constitution. Just leave me one. I can't remember all of them. Sorry, I thought I had enough. Yes, sir. And I think Allison, she was making sure I'd give the clerk one is what it was. I did when I came in.

I told you if if Cheryl didn't get one, I'd be in trouble. K. Greg gave me good rules to follow and I'm trying to do that.

Trying to follow. Thank you for your time and listening to me. If you'll remember a year ago, uh well over 1,500 uh Washington County property owners petitioned to get help on that uh raise on their taxes since there was a appraisal put on it too which just devastated and hurt a lot of people and dear at since this time we didn't have time they said last year you know the budget closed and there wasn't time. So we're coming back to ask again to get help on that for everyone um to get some help and relief on it. And if you want to look at this paper, I was given this last week. I had never heard of it. And from the ones I've called the trustee office, a tax assessor, and several people, and they they had knowledge, a little knowledge of it, but some didn't. And I want to thank the commissioners that's helped me that I've talked to and worked with in trying to get help for everyone. That's that's our goal. Try to help everybody we can, especially the elderly. This is a tax freeze provision uh that the Tennessee constitution put in article 28 and I'm giving it tonight because in two weeks when I come to the budget meeting committee meeting u when you do your budget committee I we want to be able to ask to get on the agenda for it. So, this will give you time to study it and Allison can study it out, see the legalities, which I know she will. She does a great job and we'll work together, try to help this. Uh, if you look on the second page, in November of 20, 2006, Tennessee voters approved a constitutional amendment. You're looking at it allowing local government to implement a property tax freeze for homeowners age 65 and older. It was enacted in 2007. And so we're at 2026. So there's 19 years. Uh could have if we'd have known maybe we could have gotten rel relief before then later they also added any disabled or any veteran

didn't have to be 65 to get that help. So we are going to come back and ask for help for that with this and also for all the taxpayers some way to reduce that 21% and help them out. And on the third page, just a little example of how the um body works together, you commissioners and property assessors and everybody. Uh in Davidson County, Tennessee, on that third page, one the man who is the property assessor, he worked is working on a golden homeowners plan. That's to help the seniors. That's what we need, things that we can implement that's going to help the seniors especially who are really really struggling and the flood and everything added to it. And then when you get time, you can look on that last page. Uh I I was not going to be talking about that, but we will on March 11th. Maybe the infrastructure impact fee. Everybody said, "What we do if we start lowering taxes? How do we make money?" This here is a good plan. Hendersonville just got it passed and you read it. that money can be designated where to go for those fees that'll be paid for infrastructure taxes on those building developing and we can designate where we want it. Schools, uh, roads where we need help at without putting extra on the taxpayers. I thank you for your time and prayerfully hope we can work together to help all all Tennessee. This is for all Tennessian, not just Washington County. Thank you all. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Karen. I appreciate you bringing that information to us. That'll conclude our public uh comment period and we'll move back into regular uh for the 5:30 or 6 meeting. Ma'am, for a second one did go down, Mr. chairman for the 6:00 meeting, but I think it was after this one was pulled. I I don't know. Was you want to I got here at 5:25. There was a signage that I did.

Yeah. Uh was you wanting to to speak about the budget, ma'am? About the tax increase.

Okay. I tell you what, you didn't get signed up on this sheet, but you're signed up on the next sheet. So, come on forward and give your name and address, please. You'll have three [clears throat] minutes. Karen was right on the money. You must have worked on that, Karen. Thank you. My name is Anne Kirkpatrick. I live on 3732 Kimrod Drive in Johnson City. Um I am over 65 and I was I moved here four years ago. I was very surprised to see there was um tax on food here and then I was really surprised when I got two tax bills for my property because I as far as I know most states, most counties, whatever, you don't pay if you live in the city, you pay city taxes. If you live in the county, you pay county taxes. So, I really think it's crazy that I'm paying both city and county taxes and I'm paying about 2,000 right now and it's just going to keep going up and I'm making way less than I did in another state before I moved here. So, already like the, you know, wages are low here. So, it is a struggle and I hope that um we can get the tax freeze for people over 65, veterans and disabled. Thank you.

Thank you, Ann. Did she say what state? She All right, that will conclude our public comment period for the 5:30 meeting and we will go ahead and um move on into discussion and possible action on the upcoming fiscal year budget without limitations solely to budget items. Mayor or Mitch, did you want to start us off or mayor? So, as as you recall, good evening commissioners. Good evening

for allowing us to uh be here. The um the the rules of the commission require several full commission meetings to um involve the budget and so this is the first of those. This is your meeting. uh we have u opportunity to really at this time um maybe give the budget committee direction on things that you'd like to see included in the budget this year that may not just normally be um considered. Uh I think Mitch has sent you this document out there which lists departments. I mean this is basically the general fund budget in total. It includes grants. So, it's the number is a little inflated, but it it you know, gives you each department and kind of what's in there and what's included. So, um you know, we start off with a clean sheet of paper uh pretty much as we go into the budget season. And um what I have asked um the department heads and um those that will be submitting budgets to the budget committee which are due the first of next week is to provide a budget um for this FY27 year with no change in salary. So, uh, we can look at individual budgetary line items that they feel like need to be changed, whether they're adding personnel, deleting personnel, or any other particulars in there. So, we'll get a good look at at the the base of budgetary items by department and then um we'll ask them after that to

make a recommendation as to what they'd like to see in terms of salary and allow the commission to sort of flavor in as to what you think uh you'd like to see. probably I think the next meeting we have department heads available to uh answer questions about their budget that you all might have and that would be a time that I'm sure they'll come up and advocate for their people as to what they feel like a reasonable um salary increase is what cost of living is done. We'll have some data to help um you all um understand what they're asking for. So anyway, that's tonight. U with with that, anybody who has um a suggestion or anything they'd like to see different in the process or anything specific um about the budget as we begin the season next month. This is the opportunity. Mitch, do you have any

Commissioner Wheeler? I was actually just going to ask if one of you could speak a little bit about what type of growth we're looking at for this year. I know we don't have anything final, but we usually have some idea.

Well, um, this being my 15th with Washington County and then 19 if you count four if you count four with the school board. Um, usually that's going to be a question for the assessor commissioner. Um, we generally look at about a 3/4% increase in organic growth. Um we the the most recent information we have from him is a couple of months ago and he's got stuff that he's putting in for uh you know the end of December and so those numbers will be coming out within the next 60 days or so and we'll start seeing where we're where that's going to take us revenue-wise.

So let make sure I have that three not three and a quarter 3/4 of a 75. Yes sir. That's that's what we've looked at and generally planned on in I just want to make sure we heard that correct. It takes a long time and a lot of dollars to move the property tax number. I mean a lot of dollars. So the number that impacts the general correct

is that 75 is that average? Is that what was last year? Was it one last year? It it'll I commissioner to answer that specifically. You know, it might be 0.55 one year, it might be 1.2 the next. um if you factor out any tax rate changes. But what gets difficult last year is a reassess a reappraisal because once you reappraise and there's no you've changed the whole mixture and so you can't you know I can't maybe uh assessor Magguire has some way of doing it of actually figuring out what was new new stuff that came on board but when I'm looking at just totals I don't I don't have that

this this will be the second um budget year after the the appraisal so that we will have a ratio factor to consider this year and uh he has now calculated that as 0.92. So on if you take the personal property revenue that came in last year excluding glo grow growth um we would be at 92% of that number in terms of collections going into this next year. So that number we do know, but as far as far as I'm aware, that's the only hard number we have so far as far as revenue goes.

Commissioner,

yeah, a couple things me. I think you've provided this before, but one of the questions I continually are ask from citizens is they can't understand with all the growth that we've had, why the property tax isn't growing in funding. you know, we should just have, you know, a boundless amount of of money coming in. And I I think you've provided that before, but as we go through this process, if you can refresh that a little bit, I think that's helpful just to arm all of us to to speak to that. And the other thing, and I sent me a note on this, I compliment budget committee and and everyone here. I think we've done a good job sort of raising the salaries the last few years in the county. uh probably out of necessity but I'd like to see some recaps of maybe go back 3 four years something what we have done as far as raising those salaries and maybe as a comparison I guess two comparisons one how does that relate to inflation and then how are we doing from a competitive uh any information we can get from surrounding counties or across the state and just to make sure that we don't find ourselves in a position we were a couple years ago where we were sort of behind on the salary scale and we needed to make a big jump so that we just make sure we're we're staying par there. And then the other thing actually came out of tonight's packet. I thought it was a great recap from the highway department how much work they have done, but we we talk about all this expansion and all the new people coming in.

That's going to be more highway work for us as we go forward. If if Doug can give us any idea of what he's anticipating in the next couple of years, sort of give us some forward look as we maintain these growth rates, you know, what impact is that going to have on his department. It may in fact solid waste as well. Uh it may probably is going to impact the sheriff. So I think if any type of insights that they could give us what they're anticipating that we're not only looking at this year, we're starting to plan a little bit forward and anticipation of what's coming in the next few years. Uh I'm just some of the stuff going on in Nashville has me terrified. [laughter]

Uh yeah, you're not alone.

Yeah, I think we're all there on that. And I mean we we don't need to be handicapped but we need to educate the citizens so that you know they know how to respond to that as well so that we it really sounds good on the front end but then we could be five years down the road something's really nasty. So anything that helps with that would be very very helpful I think. Thank you. Mitch has produced recently a sheet on what it takes to generate a dollar thousand dollar for the general fund based on increased um growth of of property values. So you know that's we have something current on that and we'll redistribute that to you. So you have and it's I mean it's make you know really um [clears throat] the growth in in business moves it a lot faster because that rates 40% instead of 25% of assessed value but it takes a lot of residential houses to move the needle and as as you were alluding to I believe is it doesn't come close to what the cost of the road uh work that is associated with it and and what we're seeing now. I attended a meeting last week with um Senator Blackburn in a group in Knoxville that was talking about infrastructure in northeast Tennessee. And so one of the one of the people that was presenting was Braxman who is the regional person for Dr. Horton Homes. And you know what what what they have generated is a different style of development for our community than we've ever seen. This is the first national builder who

has been in our community. So, our our standard, not standard, but our, you know, typical subdivision um builders would would build out, you know, an 80 lot subdivision would be a good size subdivision. And so, we're not used to 500 units, you know, all of a sudden being put into place. And so you haven't seen them in the county what you've seen because our county planning uh department basically would not allow them the density that they wanted. So they've moved to places um where they could be annexed into the city. Well, that's, you know, that's fine and they get the density for those developments they need, but in many cases, they are um accessed by county roads. And as Commissioner Matherly explained to me recently, a lot of our roads in the county are wagon roads. And a wagon road is a road that was actually originally a road of a space for a horse and and buggy and wagon to go that later got some gravel and after that a little asphalt, but today they're not a whole lot wider. And so um and they're certainly not straighter. So they um [clears throat] you know when when you when you put a small development in, it's not a big deal, but when you put 500 units in there and you've got uh 2,000 vehicle trips a day, it makes a big difference. Um and we have them around. Um Indian Ridge Road is an example. Obviously Gray was big discussion about how all that um accesses uh Rockingham now even in Jonesboro. So, uh, it makes a difference. Um, and we just heard a a comment about impact fees and and that is something um

worth considering. It's they're available. Cities can impose impact fees, counties cannot unless you meet the growth test. So there was some legislation that went through last year that allows counties that grow at a certain rate to impose an impact fee. We're not quite there. So um you know maybe we need to revisit that legislation and you know to see if that's because that's you know that's a way we could apply some money either to schools or to roads or other infrastructure needs. Um, so anyway, I didn't really mean to go off on that tangent so much, but roads we we are now over a thousand miles [clears throat] of road in rural Washington County. And, you know, just the resurfacing of that, you know, requires close to 50 miles per year to to keep on a 20-year plan. Um, I've asked Doug and he's agreed to do this to um to to build a special crew and we've just he's just ordered some equipment to handle this that will do nothing but improve existing roads. So, this will be new. um he's agreed to do it and we're looking forward to seeing how um how that impacts some of these roads and and it'll make a difference but it'll take time to uh you know to improve you know to improve a thousand miles worth of road. Um other other things you'd like to see in the budget? So you don't have anything from the schools mayor that they would director h today if you remember the calendar they're going to come in about a month later

than when we uh county budget uh started working on their budgets. So all right I mean if that's what your question was. [clears throat] Yeah, we just we have our our joint meeting coming up. Uh don't let me mess this up, Director Boyd. April [snorts] 15th, 14th. 14th. 5:30. Is that correct? Or 6? 5:30 or 6?

5:30 at the central office. So that'll be a joint meeting and be a good opportunity to discuss budget needs uh with the school board because it they they do make up a large amount of our our budget for sure.

Any other questions for the mayor? Oh, Commissioner Jones. Uh, Commissioner Huffine mentioned that he would find it helpful to um get some information on uh revenue from property taxes. The other thing that would be really helpful and I also asked uh Mr. Meredith for is a reminder on maintenance of effort and you had already replied with some really good information. But these meetings are helpful to me every year because I have to like get the gears going again on a few of these key pieces of information about the county budget. I think when we were in Nashville, our county commissioners were talking about on average or in general about 90% of the county's budget is constrained by maintenance of effort requirements. at least maybe personnel. Is that

rough doable? He's working on it. Let's just leave it at that. I've never [clears throat] taken that as a whole if I mean if if you enroll the schools in there because right last year's budget is your maintenance. So that's 100% of their budget, right? um libraries library is you can't you know there's election commission election commissions kind of based on the number of election but I think now we're in a two-year election cycle every year maybe we could maybe we could send out an email that would see where applies to these cate I've just never looked at it in total right

and it it just shows where we're constrained and we can't reduce the budget in certain categories because there's a statute about that. Can't do it. It's helpful. Yep. That's that is that is true. And and you know, it's probably worth um it might be worth putting out our our um information on that the the requirements by either state statute or the constitution as to what county government has to provide for the citizens. Right. Just helpful. Yeah. that.

And one final thing is just that when we were in Nashville, we heard a couple of times that there was an adjustment to the sales state sales tax share or something that would result in a little bit more uh incoming for one year and then that adjustment would sort of taper in subsequent years or become standard or something. It's like a catchup year. And I just wondered if you would if you know when we might find out about that.

So the controller announced that they're now um going to issue official statistics annually on population. So traditionally um that adjustment had taken place after the year of the census and so now they're going to do it every year. And uh since it hasn't since we're in 2026, it's been 6 years since the 2020 census, they'll do six years at one time. So we will see a well and and that's based on population. So for us, it would mean we'll have an increased share and so we will have additional revenue. uh in communities that are declining in population, they would potentially move in the opposite direction, but that we we will have an increase in shared revenue and we'll have six years worth [clears throat] of it to account for in this budget and then after that it'll be annual.

Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for I appreciate you mentioning that because that was really important. How about that? I'm sorry. When do we get when we get when do they tell us how much money it is? And I'm just curious. They never send money. We'll we'll see that after the 1 of July. Okay. Yeah. But we'll I think we'll have that information in the next couple of weeks. Okay. Yeah. As we Yeah. And even though it wouldn't lend well to operations costs, it might help us with something. Say it again. I'm sorry. It It's not recurring. That one time jump is not a recurring.

The onetime jump won't, but the amount would would be the same and it would increase each year that we grow. Yeah, that's all. Thank you. Be constant. So, effectively, it's recurring money. Yeah, absolutely. Commissioner Wheeler.

Um, mayor, of course, I meet with a lot of people who are new in town that are coming in, need to change their wheels or that type thing. And then of course we also will hear from time to time from from folks um who um are caught by surprise but they have city and county taxes like the speaker tonight. It might be helpful if we had something we could point to to let people hear a little bit about uh where we are nationally. I think, you know, when we went to the meetings this week and and they're pointing out that Tennessee's got, you know, the lowest u property tax rate in the country, one if not the lowest, one of the lowest um and we don't have an income tax that a lot of people do not think about that that you know in these other states they're higher in their higher property taxes than us and an income tax. I think it might be helpful if at the next our next meeting if you all put a little bit of a presentation together about where we are compared to the other thing people don't realize is that when you compare us to other counties uh that that are the same or similar size to us uh we're extremely competitive with our tax rate there and and I don't think people understand that and um that's a piece of it that they need to see too uh that I think would be helpful. Um uh I think we need to do a good job this year of showing that we are uh constantly asking departments to tighten the belt, find ways [clears throat] to work smarter, to work more efficiently, but we also do have employees that we have to take care of. So, and we show that every year. I think we do a good job going through that and showing that if somebody's watching and paying attention. [clears throat] But um but I think we could do some to help people who either are new and don't understand the the system statewide or um or maybe have been here but don't

need a refresher on that. That's a good point. And I think what we saw was those comments driven off of people who say, "Man, we have a higher sales tax than any of the surrounding states." And they said, "Well, yeah, but we don't have an income tax." and we don't have a state property tax and so effectively the tax rate for citizens is significantly lower and I think that's what you're saying and we just would like to put that

in something simple for you to have and available you know and one of the things that as we start we can confirm that you Washington County uh has the second lowest tax rate in the region Sullivan County just reappraised this year So they slipped in behind us. It'll it'll be different going into next year, but you know, they are at um 161. We're 171 and and that puts us um only behind them in all the counties in our region and very and we're very close to lowest in the state, although there are some counties that um have a lot different revenue structure than we do and have a lower rate lower property tax rate. Yes, sir. If I don't know how you do this, but if you could put that somehow that that it shows how it impacts disposable income. We talk about cost of living and we've got a pretty competitive cost of living here. I think that that's the piece that people are missing. They don't understand what impact that's having on their disposable income. you you can move here from some move from somewhere else here, stay at the same salary, you've got more money in disposable income. So, if there's some way to sort of use a ratio or something that's really easy for people to understand, that might be a great way to express that.

You putting a challenge on now. We'll we'll work on it. Yeah, we might need a little help on that one. I'm sure it's been done somewhere. I'm sure it has. Chamber of Commerce. All right. All right. Thank you all very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mayor Mitch. Thank you. Move to adjourn.

All right. We have a move to adjourn at our 5:30 meeting. We'll uh I guess I'll call for a second on the adjournment. Commissioner Tucker, I think he was our second. All in favor of German on 5:30 meeting signify by saying I. I. All opposed. [clears throat] We're journ

There it is.

Thank you for your patience for just a moment.

We'll [clears throat] be moving a a new meeting now. It's our regular scheduled meeting uh for February. Uh we will uh have another prayer by uh Commissioner Edens and our pledge will be led by Commissioner Wheeler as well. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for an opportunity to come together and do the business of Washington County. We'd ask that you lead, guide, and direct the words we say, the actions that we take, that they would be most beneficial and helpful to the citizens of Washington County. but most importantly honoring and glorifying to you. Father God, we put our faith and our trust in you that you would lead us down the path you would have us to go. Your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. [snorts] Please salute the flag. I pledge alg 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. [clears throat] I did too. All right. If we'll if you'll take us to the uh signin screen, madame clerk,

madam clerk, while we're Well, here's our signing sheet. All right. If you would just indicate your presence on on the board.

There it is. There we go.

12 present, three absent. 12 present, three absent. We do have a quorum. Next item is approval of the agenda. There's any changes or recommendations or discussion or a motion? Move. Motion to approve the agenda by Commissioner Fitzgerald, seconded by Commissioner Huffine. Any further discussion, question? All in favor of that motion signify by saying I. I

all opposed and the agenda is approved. We'll go ahead and recess for our public comment period. Uh each individual will be given three minutes to address the board regarding agenda items. Uh comments will be limited to the meeting's agenda. Right. We do have a couple of speakers that signed up tonight. Miss Patrick, you are on this this one by the way. I don't know if she left or not, but

All right, our next speaker is uh James Reeves. James, are you here? All right, we'll move on. Uh Ken Matthews. Ken, if you'll come forward uh and uh give your address to the clerk, please. It's Kenny Matthews. Address is 254 Taylor Bridge Road. Um I was invited by Mr. Huffine here tonight uh for 3 minutes. It's a known issue on Taylor Bridge Road next to me with the property. Um I do know that two commissioners have been down there to view it. Um, it's an ongoing issue, safety. Uh, I'll describe the last 3 months just real quick. So, you've got a new picture. Um, domestic violence spilling over onto my property. Um, held up the road. I know that was called. I don't know if the deputies got there in time. Multiple fires. I was able to get my field in the lower field uh fixed from the flood which proved safety because they caught everything on fire and it was stopped because I had just freshly you know dirt. Uh just this past week they caught 80 acres about a third of it on fire. Department had to be called. They burn consecutively along with whatever else um the clientele contribute to each other there and it's it's spilling over onto my side with safety of my family, my wife, my kids and I have called the head of zoning and she doesn't return my calls. I reached out to Mr. Huffine and my district

commissioner and they returned. So, I'm trying to find out back in September um when a court order or something was in place. I know it was for 5 days, they had 30 days to clear out and um it's going on four or five months now. I know Mr. rather you reach me out, reach out to me after that first time,

but you know, law enforcement, all that, it's a re reoccurring almost for me and my family, it's three to four times a week, almost daily that we have to contend with this. Um, last week they dumped urine and feces out in the ground before it rains. Ammonia's there. I mean, it's just I mean, all the time it's no water, no septic, no electric, no sewer. Um, they have a mailbox. So, I assume that means intent to live there, but that's where it stops. I'll just let you guide the conversation or un

Well, we can't really have a conversation in public hearing. However, I know that our county attorney is aware of that and our sheriff is here in the room again and uh I think I think evidently it's a problem. I mean, it's it's clearly not not uh not solved. And uh so uh so I do I do feel like that um when you're commissioners and I I do know there was a roundup, but now that it's warming up, everyone's back out. [laughter] Yeah.

And back there. I know it may look like it's somewhat cleaned up. The building a more permanent structure was repossessed. I do know that. So really it wasn't cleaned up. It's it's kind of just okay where it was. So it's it's a mess. Um Allison, would you like to like comment a few? I know I know this is something you've worked on.

I'm happy to address I did not know we were going to discuss this. So I'm going to go on the fly a little bit and share while Mr. Matthews is here because I think that uh he came to a meeting perhaps in August alerting the commission of this issue on Taylor Bridge Road. Immediately we reviewed the planning director and I reviewed the standing order concerning post Helen and who could have special dispensation related to the storm and determined that the use of the property was not consistent with that special dispensation. She immediately issued correspondence. I think it was the end of August, so it was within days of the commission meeting. We followed up a number of times. Um, it took a lot to get the individual who's the property owner served with process, but the health education welfare committee authorized that the property owner be cited and served with process and appear in court. I went to court on the matter. Um, he had called in. I want to say that I was there, I don't want to exaggerate, two and a half hours waiting for him. Um, he did not appear. We got a court order that was dated October. So, just so that you know, we have a valid court order for Washington County to go onto the property and remove all of the tents, um, sheds, out buildings, uh, vehicles, everything else. We got an estimate from a private company that could provide, you know, that service of taking the blocks down and everything else. It was presented to health, education, and welfare. It was in excess of any of the monies currently budgeted in the zoning office. There was another large matter that was cleaned up. I'm looking at Tiffany because she works so much on

this. That was $16,000, probably 81 North. We had just had a $16,000 expenditure. So, we had been we the county had been working on the Taylor Bridge property to get as much of the residents off of there. At Commissioner Huffine's request over I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing this over the past week or so. I've been reaching out to the sheriff's office for any incident reports or anything like that because Commissioner Huffine did ask that it come that I come to health education welfare on Thursday March 5th with I'm kind of saying for Mr. I believe my wife will be there at 1:00. Um, which is where I will bring the latest information on this, the most updated photographs concerning who is still there. Um, everyone who's living on that parcel is doing so in violation of the zoning resolution. And as I said, the property owner has had um since October to make sure that all of those individuals were given notice. We creatively but with the court's permission made very large signs and posted them on 2 by twos so that the people who were living in the cars and the tents and the outuildings knew excuse me knew that the time was limited. So in so far as people might have concerns about the um you know the human aspect of it there has been months and months of notice to those individuals. So that's where it stands to clean it up as as it was um sitting last month would require a budget amendment and that's what I will present to health education welfare um on next Thursday. So I hope that helps Mr. Matthews. I hope that helps you. I know that you can't dialogue but at least now all of the information is shared in real time. Thank you. Maybe if I'm allowed, I can reach out to the

sheriff's office for some help on certain issues because the county officials, um, health department, all those, they show up, it's too unsafe. We're not going down in there. Law enforcement comes, well, that's a civil issue. It It's at a standstill, and then I'm I'm right there. So it maybe uh I can uh they have and we do appreciate that the fire especially with the 30 mph winds. Well, they can warm but I mean you've know they they burn rubber and everything

and for the sheriff a sheriff to act there has to be laws being broken. A sheriff cannot enforce county ordinance. Uh if you you you give me a judge that will sign order to kick them all off or take drag them to jail, uh we'll do it. Not a problem. Uh but I will meet with you, whatever we need to do. And and I encourage you that if there's a problem, dial 911 and let deputies respond. We'll do everything within our power, but um sometimes the pesky old constitution gets in the way and we can all It sounds like there is at least a motion to something. Anyway, I do thank you for your time

and I'm just going to follow up on what the sheriff said, just to be clear that what happens when um deputies go out there, if it's a civil matter between two property owners, this is rolling onto my land. These people are coming onto my land. the smoke is crossing onto my land. That's something that an individual takes up with the other property owner and that's outside the scope of what the county can do. What the county is doing is saying that the property owner is responsible to remove everyone and that's what we'll we'll present. But in the meantime, property owners do have those rights um to keep everyone off of their property.

I'll reach out um to what I can and can't do and a set of parameters. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Kenny. All right, that will conclude our public comment period at this time and we will move on to our public hearings for reasonzoning. [clears throat and cough] We have uh three uh public hearings this evening. Our first public hearing is a resolution reszoning the tax map in the 14th civil district, presently owned by Linda Root and Aaron French. Um, is there anyone here in opposition to this request? Is there anyone here in favor of? Seeing none, we'll move on to resolution 260202 is a resolution amending the Washington County zoning resolution, the vesting rights for site plans. Uh this is a public hearing for this text amendment. Is there anyone here in opposition to this amendment? Is there anyone here to speak for it? Seeing none, we'll move on to the next resolution. Resolution 260203 is a resolution amending the Washington County zoning resolution uh meat products manufacturing and slaughterhouse. Uh that is a text amendment as well. It does require public hearing. Same as the other one. Is there one anyone here to speak in opposition to? Seeing none, is there anyone here to speak in favor of?

Thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate y'all being here. See no further discussion um and no further resolutions, uh we'll move back into uh regular session. This time we'll have Angie Charles, our planning and zoning director, come forward to answer any questions you may have. Amazing. So possible.

Hello. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, as stated, your first item tonight is a resoning request and it is for property located on Bob Clark Road, 144 Bob Clark Road. The request is to reszone from R1 to A1 and that would be the general agriculture district. And the purpose of that request would be to allow a second single family dwelling on the property that the R1 district currently would not allow. There any questions about that item? Your um next item on your agenda is the text amendment request for the vesting rights. And this is really a housekeeping item and it brings us into conformance with recent legislation that has been passed. And that would be um providing those those vesting rights to site plans. And that is something that does require a text amendment to enter that into our code. And that would bring us um into into compliance with that recent legislation that was passed last session. And the other text amendment on your agenda this evening um as discussed would be amending the two definitions for the one for meat products manufacturing, the other for slaughterous. These are two separate uses as they're defined in the code and allowed in different districts. Your meat products manufacturing in the M2 and plan manufacturing districts, slaughterhouse in the A3. And the um definition text amendment to meat products manufacturing would be to allow retail sales with that use.

Thank you. Any questions for Angie? Angie, we appreciate all your hard work and all you do for us. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right, we'll go ahead and take the first resolution. Resolution number 260201 is a resolution reszoning the tax map in the 14th civil district owned by Linda RP and Aaron French. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve by Commissioner Fitzgerald, seconded by Commissioner Jones. Question or discussion? Call the question.

The question's been called. Madame clerk, if you'll switch us to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame clerk, if you'll announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. The next resolution is resolution number 260202. There's a resolution amending the Washington County zoning resolution vesting rights for site plans. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve by Commissioner Wexler, second by Commissioner Jones. Question or discussion? Call the question.

Questions been called. Madame Clerk, if you'll switch the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame Clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent and the resolution passes. The next resolution is resolution number 260203 is a resolution amending the Washington County zoning resolution meat products and manufacturing and slaughterhouse. We have a motion motion by Commissioner Wheeler to approve seconded by Commissioner Huffey. Question or discussion? Call the question.

Questions been called. Madame clerk, if you'll switch to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame clerk, if you'll announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Moving right on down to our special recognition and proclamations. Um, we have the soil and water conservation report, uh, page 19. We have, uh, some folks here that would, uh, You couldn't get Dr. Gillis out here with you tonight. Is that what it was? Might be here by the skin of his teeth. By the skin of his teeth.

Thank you, Mr. Mly, for that introduction. Uh my name is Houston Ward. I'm with the Washington County Soul and Water Conservation District. Uh with me tonight in attendance is uh my fellow district technician Paul Buck. Uh we would like to thank you again for the opportunity to come tonight and give you this report that we've been doing here annually for the past couple years. Uh in front of you, you'll find some folders enclosed with some uh brief reports descriptions of our activities that we were able to accomplish in 2025. I'm happy to report that we were able to utilize $135,000 across 200 acres with our state of Tennessee Department of Agricultural Funds. Uh as well as $2 million on around 1,200 acres in Washington County with our environmental quality incentives program as well as $100,000 on 50 acres with our conservation stewardship program. These programs grant us opportunities to work with land owners to address natural resource concerns, uh, animal health, soil health, water quality, and in some cases, uh, air quality. Uh, on top of these already substantial figures, I'm excited to announce that we have completed our EWP project with Washington County. As of December 2025, EWP stands for Emergency Watershed Protection Program. Uh, this program allowed us to work with the mayor's office and the highway department's office to armor and protect the roadways of Washington County that were destroyed or removed during Hurricane Helen. Uh, with this program, we're fortunate enough to install 9,000 ft of rock armor ranging from sites at Bumpus Cove and Little Germany to Bailey's Bridge at Bill Mock Road. Uh, each day work was performed. uh each day work was uh performed on these projects. There was a representative from our office on site to ensure that

the proper installation of these practices uh was uh being held in account. Prior to Hurricane Helen on the Nache River, we had installed seven structures on the Nache River. Uh we can report that all of these structures survived uh after the the uh the flood and there was no loss of any land. So these structures uh they stand a testament for what they what they are. So uh not long after the flood, our office was able to survey what seemed like miles of Washington County's banks along the Nichokeucky River. When we first received the engineer plans for the structures to be installed, the quote come out to around 77,000 tons of rock. By the end of the project, we had exceeded that. I do not have that number in front of me. I can't call it off the top of my head, but uh it was not uncom uncommon for us to run the queries all local queries out of rock weekly. So the total sum of the project come out to $6.5 million uh for the EWP project. Uh if anyone is interested in the work that went into this project, we welcome any questions and concerns and uh we'll be happy to show you uh some of the finished products if you would like. Again, we'd like to thank the mayor's office and the highway department and any other departments I may be leaving out for their assistance in this project. And uh thank you again for the opportunity to come and give you all a report of what we were able to accomplish. So,

thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the work you do for the county. And all right, we'll move right on into our uh board of county commissioners minutes. Do we have a motion to approve? Some move. Motion to approve by Commissioner Jones, second by Commissioner Wexler to approve the minutes. All in favor of that motion signify by saying I. I.

All opposed, and the minutes are approved for the February 9th meeting. Moving right on down to elections, appointments, and confirmations. Resolution 260204 is a resolution appointing members to the agricultural extension office committee. Do we have a motion to approve? Motion by Commissioner Huffine, seconded by Commissioner Wexler to approve the resolution. Question or discussion? Call the question.

Questions been called. Madam Clerk, if you'll switch us to voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Moving right on to the county mayor's report. Mayor Grandy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really just don't have much tonight, but I did want to say in um conjunction with a comment about the um the report from the river stabilization, I think I mentioned that to you all last time, that not only have they completed um that work, but um we have been reimbursed for more than half of it already. So, um, and speaking of reimbursement, I just wanted to say we were in Nashville earlier this week and we have, um, we've been working with our team of uh, representatives or um, and our legislators to, um, to change some statutes which slow down our repayment significantly once we have approved project at the federal level and and have completed them. So, it's it's an it's really awkward and people um blame Teima for this delay. The reality is we submit to tea and then they send it on into a department in the state that's um known as general services and that department basically handles contracts and procurement issues for a lot of different entities in the state and so their process is um slow because it doesn't really need to be fast and it it it touches a lot of places. So in the process we've identified 49 different steps that our request for reimbursement needs to go through at the state level. Uh it's frustrated the director of tee for a number of years and and we just asked what could help and he said really the statute has to change. So our representatives, Representative Alexander in the House and rep and Senator Crowe in the Senate have taken

it on and they have worked with uh with finance. They worked with the controller and we were um you know honored really to be in the Senate chamber yesterday where Senator Crowe presented this recommendation um to um the committee that's hearing it. passed unanimously and is on its way to hopefully being approved. Uh Senator uh Representative Alexander u presented it last week in her committee in the House. It passed out of that committee. So it it's headed I don't know that we will receive benefit from it. We may, but for future people that have disasters, this will streamline the process, shorten the time it takes to get reimp repayment for work we've already done and paid for. And so I just wanted to to mention that because as you see our legislators in the community or in Nashville or wherever you see them, you might just take a minute to thank them for their effort because they didn't have to take this on and they did because we asked them to. And yesterday and you know in support of it the comproller was there, director of finance was there, um the um director of um Tennessee emergency management there with his team. So there's a whole lot of support pushing this and it has the um potential impact to get us our money back a lot faster. So that's all I had really unless anybody has a question. Yes, sir. And I've never shied away from asking tough questions when I need to, but that's not what I'm doing tonight.

Awesome.

Uh but because I've done that, I feel free to do what I'm going to do. Um for the three of us commissioners that were at those meetings in Nashville, um I think it's important for the rest of the commission to hear this. uh one the director of tea uh in in a conversation the mayor was not in was extremely complimentary of the mayor and the work that he's done for this flood recovery and with them and then in addition to that after we had a long conversation with the team of folks in which most of the commissioners were listening um we walked out and the mayor went on to another meeting and the three commissioners were talking about it was unbelievable how knowledgeable you were to talk to them at the about the federal level, the state level and ways to improve it and uh uh but what that was just a really impressive afternoon to hear or morning rather to hear you talking with them and it was clear how much work you've done to get up to speed, stay up to speed and stay on top of this and and I think you know I want to thank you for that and and I want them to hear you know how good a job you've done.

Way too kind but we thank you for that. They they take undeserved abuse a lot because most people don't understand the process and they have been invaluable supporters of Washington County and the other counties involved in the flood for now coming close to 18 months. We meet with them every single week with the federal people and the state people to deal with issues um and to um share concerns and and also um things that are coming up that we need to know about. So they have been really over responsive for us and so they're good people. They really work hard and they care. So thank you commissioner. Mayor, mayor, just one more thing before you get away from that podium.

Um, when you we were here last time and met, we had talked about money that we had received from from FEMA already, and I think we had said $6 million, but had we received any more since our last meeting? Uh, no, sir. We have another payment scheduled that's $3.2 million we expect to have within the next few weeks. All right. We appreciate your hard work keeping it going.

And those monies are going into a an investment fund to repay the money that we borrowed to do the work um when we get to the three-year point when we can call those bonds and repay as much as possible.

And it it will probably take that long to get a lot of this money in. Is that do you have a timeline that you think when that'll be? We we have um $44 million currently obligated at the federal level. And those projects, some of them have already been worked, some of them are being worked and we we we probably have about 18 or 19 million more in in the in the pipeline to be repaid. This is work that we've done that we paid for with the bard money and [snorts] are waiting payment. So, um maybe if this legislation had already been approved, we'd have the money by now, but it's it's it's in the pipeline. Next, um next up is that $3.2 million.

I've had several questions since our last meeting of how much we got and and when we expect all of it to be back. Well, the NRCS people are really fast. They're 30-day people, so we like them a lot. Oh, wow. Absolutely. Yeah, they're awesome. Yes. But it it it come came through a different source. it was USDA money and before they started that project that money was committed and so really uh we have um submitted the request and and so far it's it's been turned around in about 30 days so that's oh wow that's really good thank you all thank you mayor our next item is the county attorney's report Miss Wilkinson

thank you I did prepare you a written report that I've left I think Tiffany put one on everyone's chair. There were some for the public on the podium there. Uh it was just a timely opportunity to share uh with you, but also with the public that the 2021 litigation that the county filed to enforce its zoning um was settled in 2023. And here we are in 2026, which is when operations uh were agreed to cease. And of course, I'm talking about the operation of a blockchain data center out on Bailey Bridge. And so, I thought it would be helpful to you as commissioners um in a public meeting so that the public knows we've been monitoring the compliance with the settlement agreement on a monthly basis. So what I've done here as we are coming to the conclusion of the period of time that was set out in the settlement agreement is I've reminded you of the highlights of that settlement agreement which were basically that red dog which was the operator would have its equipment out by March 28th 2026 and within 120 days they'd have excuse me they'd cease operations then they'd have their equipment out in 120 days. Thereafter, Bright Ridge would have uh the equipment that was just for the operation of that data center removed. So, I've calculated the the most broad dates um which is November 23rd, 2026. And as a professional courtesy, I reached out to council and have heard back from both entities that they have taken all the actions that are necessary to be um moving forward as agreed. So the other issue was that there were I think 51 residents within the certain radius of the operation that and Salem

new uh was it new victory Salem church they were given highspeed internet free of charge uh during the time that there were operations uh Bright Ridg's lawyer kindly confirmed that they've been given notice that they can continue to have that service but it will be a paid service. So, all of that is summarized on here to the extent that a member of the public hears about this later. It's in the minutes of the meeting. It's been given to the county clerk. I'm happy to answer any questions. There's a perdm rate that has been paid as a settlement fee after a lump sum and that has been paid on a monthly basis. Um it's been reviewed monthly working with the trustees office and of course the director of accounts and budgets and at the end of it the entire thing will be reconciled so that you'll have that um in the file. Of course the lawsuit was dismissed but that's in some what I was giving you. that since we were rolling up on March 28th, 2026, I thought it was uh the right thing to do to be sure that the record reflects that we have things in what I think is good order and that it has been monitored since the time of settlement and it will continue to be monitored until um all of the terms have been met. So, do you have any questions or anything I can answer for you?

I don't see any, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for the time.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Next item is a director of the health department. Uh Director Mlelen. [clears throat and cough] Good evening. I just wanted to provide you guys a little bit with the midyear report of everything that's been going on health department for this fiscal year. Um Sherry did pass out a one-pager for you all um to kind of highlight the key points of everything that's been going on at the health department since July 2025 until present. Um one of the main things we've been focusing on as a health department as a whole is increasing our capacity for services. We know Washington County is ever growing and we're trying to see how we can increase our capacity to have more access for individuals in our county. Um, so we've been slowly working in our primary care and family planning clinics to increase how many patients we can see per day. Um, and starting March 1st, we're going to hit our goal target that we've been working on since the fall of how many patients we can see. Um, and because of that, we've increased our staffing a little bit in the past midyear. Um, we've included one extra nurse. We hired a LPN and a medical assistant to assist those clinics. We were also able to get a full-time dentist starting in August. So, we have her on board, which is really great. We were able to hire two additional public health office assistants that help with all the clerical aspects of checking patients in things like that. And then we were also able to hire a nutrition educator and social counselor as well. So we've expanded our employee base a little bit with in the past half a year.

Um some of the clinical services high points that we've had, we've really been focusing on our primary care. Like I've said, we've been able to increase our primary care numbers 5.67% since last fiscal year. Um, we've really been looking at tea health as well. We know for a lot of our patients, transportation is an issue for them. So, we've really been leveraging teaalth a lot. Um, and this fiscal year um based on last fiscal year, we've been able to increase that 152% with our three providers. Um, so we're able to get access to those services to people who may not be able to come to the health department directly. Um, we've also been able to partner with Frontier Health, um, because behavioral health is a really big thing in all of our communities. So, we actually have a Frontier Health on site at the health department three days a week now starting in October. and she's able to have completed 69 mental health counseling sessions on site, which is really good for patients that again may have transportation issues and can have kind of a one-stop shop when they come to the health department. They can get their mental health services as well. Um, our dentist has also been able to have 639 dental visits. So going from no dentist for about two years to being able to serve that many people from August to January is really awesome. Um community outreach for us is going really well with our school day based dental program. We were able to go in 10 Washington County schools so far this year. We gave 1,000 fluoride varnish applications, 3,687 sealants, and 972 um silver dynamide fluoride SDF treatments. So the monetary value for that is a little over $180,000 that we were able to invest in our kiddos. So that's always great to see. Um and then lastly, we were awarded an

extra $100,000 from the state for their American Rescue Plan. So, their ARP funding and we're planning to do some exterior improvements to the health department building with that. So, updating some of our signage outside from older vinyl to newer metal that will last a little bit longer, resealing and relining our parking lot as well as replacing some awnings around our building. Um, but I just want to tell you guys thank you for all the support that you give the health department and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Commissioner St. Well, I was just going to comment on uh the mayor's comment and following up with what Commissioner Wheeler had said, just that uh as a member of the budget committee, the job that the mayor has done with FEMA and Teima and this flood, I think he's just done an excellent job and I just wanted to add that. Thank you, Commissioner. I must have missed you on my screen. I apologize. No problem, Mr. Awesome. Miss Mlen, is there any questions for Director Mlelen? Seeing none, we appreciate all you do. Thank you. We appreciate you guys.

We We know that you're doing a great job. All right. Our director of schools report, Director Boyd.

Good evening. Uh, I just want to say we we do appreciate all the hard work the health department does supporting our students, their families, and all the citizens in Washington County. Uh, the needs are great and we appreciate their hard work. Um, you have my normal memo just highlighting a few things uh on um items, but it was already called out earlier. I just want to remind each of you April 14th 5:30 at the district office a joint conversation around the school's budget the FY27 school's budget so and if you have the opportunity you know certainly if you if you don't have time you know please show up without RSVPing but if you if you can let us know so we just have an idea of how many will be there but uh like I said if you're busy and you can't we'll look for you anyway u if if any anyone has any questions that I can address, I'd be [clears throat] glad to.

All right. Any questions for Director Boyd? All right. Thank you very much, director. Our next item is our administrator elections. Uh Mr. Bast is here with us.

Thank you, Chairman. Uh appreciate you allowing me to be here. We are here to uh submit a some minor changes what I would call to our office policy there at the election office. And uh most of those changes are in are made in the operations of the office and mostly address dress code. Uh when I first took over, we met with the staff and made some minor changes to the dress code and that's mostly what you'll find on page seven. Otherwise, most things are correcting typos and and grammar. I'm available for any questions if anybody has any. If you'll look into the uh uh compensation and benefits committee, they did review this uh this past month and and did uh did uh accept accept the changes. Uh [clears throat] we really just received his his policy and I'm going to let Allison explain that just a minute before we vote.

That's right. uh the commission has the authority to accept and receive it and then it's kept as a matter of record. Each of the officials has their policy. There's a base personnel policy that's for all Washington County employees. And then of course in the um election commission, there's a heightened standards that are under the election code. Those are included in what uh um the administrator vest has brought, but he's just brought the changes within that supplement that address uh the dress code. And one of the things we did talk about is that it's less restrictive on the employees. It maintains the professional decorum, but it's less restrictive, but to um chairman Matherly's point, the commission really does not have the authority to uh question or change unless it was unlawful. So your your vote is to accept or reject the changes so that they can be made of record and put on file with the county clerk.

The committee's recommendation was to accept accept the report. That's correct. Do we have a motion? Motion by Commissioner Wheeler to accept the report. Seconded by Commissioner Wexler. All in favor of that motion sign. Did we do this by resolution under this? We did not. There's no resolution. All right. All in favor of that motion signify by saying I. I. All opposed. And the changes are accepted. Thank you all for all you Thank you, Mr. Best. Those look like good changes to me. [clears throat] I'll put you to work and you can dress like that.

Easy now. All right. So that just takes us on down to the Senate Commercial, Industrial, and Agricultural Committee. They [clears throat] did not meet, right, Commissioner Wexler. Well, we got snowed out. That's right. Snowed out. But I think there is a tourism marketing report on page 48. Is that correct? That That's it. A lot of good information there.

All right. If there's any questions about that report, uh, Commissioner Wexler uh can answer them. All right. Seeing no questions, we'll move on to the employee compensation and benefits committee which we really addressed [clears throat] uh with the election commissioner. That's uh that was the action that we took and of course you did hear that that the committee did recommend that. Uh I don't think there was any other further business that we conducted that day. Um and uh if there's any questions I'll be happy to answer them. Seeing no questions, we'll move on to the Health Education and Welfare Committee. Uh, Commissioner Carter. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Um, before I do this, Dr. Gillis did make it. Just wanted to point him out in his timely fashion. So, um, and before I get into this, I just want you all to know I've been on soil conservation board since I was before a teenager. I think I was probably 10 years old or something like that when I became a a youth board member. And, uh, you know, during that time, it was just fun cuz they would take you on little outings and stuff. I had no idea that, you know, 40 years later, what an important office that is. and uh especially over the last 2 years with the with the flood. Um I think it's pretty amazing what they accomplished and the the amount of money that they've uh brought in to help benefit our citizens and our land is pretty incredible. So I can just tell you, you know, they're

they're some of your all's employees. There's a handful in that office and you couldn't ask for better people. It it runs smooth. It starts with Greg Quillin and Dr. Gillis as the board chair and it goes all the way down to Houston and Paul and Michaela. They do a wonderful job and I know there's farmers out there and a couple here too. Um that they help the small farmer. you you drive by, you see some of these barns, you see the water systems, the fence, all that. It adds to our county and and it's just one of those things that you take you take for granted as you're driving by, but if you've experienced it and seen it, um you know how important it is. But I just want to say that cuz Dr. Gillis came in and he deserves a little bit of recognition after his whole life devoted to that. So, we'll go on to uh our health, education, and welfare minutes are found on page 50. And uh we only have one resolution this evening, and it's an item that we've talked about for several months. I think Mr. Wilson's still Bob. Okay. He's out there. If you all have questions for him now, they've worked on this and worked on this. They've gone back and forth. They've had to deal with us. They've had to deal with the city and they've had to deal with their own board. So, this comes to you as a recommendation from the committee. Um, and it is resolution number 26205. It's resolution approving the adoption of revisions to the Washington County Johnson City Animal Control Center bylaws. It's on page 64. Again, it comes to you as a recommendation from the committee and I move for its approval. [clears throat]

Motion made by Commissioner Carter to approve the resolution, seconded by Commissioner Wexler. Question or discussion. Call the question. Question's been called. Madame Clerk, switches to the voting screen. Please go ahead and cast your vote. Lock it in. Madam Clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 11 yes, one no, three absent, and the resolution passes. Anything else, Commissioner Carter? That's all. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. All right, we'll just move right on into the public safety committee report. Commissioner Edens.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have four resolutions before you tonight. Uh you will see our February 5th uh meeting notes on page 73. The first resolution is resolution number 26206. That is a resolution amending the fiscy year budget 2526 requested by the sheriff's office for deputy salary supplement. This comes to you and as a recommendation from the public safety committee and I move for its approval. Motion made by Commissioner Edens, seconded by Commissioner Fitzgerald to approve the resolution. Question or discussion? Call a question.

Question's been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switch us the voting screen, please. Go ahead and cast your vote. Lock it in. Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent. The resolution passes. Commissioner Eatens. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Next, we have resolution number 260207. This is a resolution amending the fiscy year budget 2526 requested by the sheriff's office for the SRO grant. This comes to you as a recommendation from public safety and I move for its approval. Motion made to approve the resolution by Commissioner Eden, seconded by Commissioner Stout. Question or discussion. Call the question.

Question's been called. Madame Clerk, if you'll switch to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame Clerk, if you'll announce the vote 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Commissioner Edens. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Next, we have resolution number 26208. This is a resolution authorizing the disposition of Washington County Sheriff's Office surplus property on govdills.com. This comes to you as a recommendation from public safety and I move for its approval. Second. Motion by Commissioner Edens to approve the resolution, seconded by Commissioner Jones. Question or discussion?

Call the question.

Question's been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switch us to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our last resolution is resolution number 26209. This is a resolution approving and authorizing the agreements between Washington County and Combined Public Communications LLC and Cyberpath Services. This comes to you as a recommendation from public safety and I move for its approval. Motioned by Commissioner Edens to approve the resolution, seconded by Commissioner Fitzgerald. Question or discussion?

Call the question. Question's been called. Madame clerk, if you'll switch uses the voting screen, go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Anything else, Commissioner? That's all for public safety. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. The public works committee, uh, Commissioner Davenport is not with us this evening. So, do we have a vice chairman? It's me again, Mr. Chairman. Me again. I I knew I was close right there in that corner, you know. All right. Well, you can just go ahead and take over from where you left off. I wanted there to be a brief pause so you'd think you got rid of me, then I just jump.

Well, you know, it's it's uh we got a long way to go here tonight, it looks like. Yes, sir. So, you can see the minutes from our public works committee meeting uh from February 5th on page 109. Uh we have three resolutions before you this evening. Uh first we have resolution number 26210. That is a resolution adopting the revisions to the Washington County road list to allow for the acceptance of a new road uh Parker Court of Sailor's Ridge subdivision and approving and adopting the Washington County road list. Uh this comes to you as a recommendation from public works and I move for its approval.

Motion made by Commissioner Eden, seconded by Commissioner Tucker to approve the resolution. Question or discussion? Call the question. Questions been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switches the voting screen, please go ahead and [clears throat] cast your vote. Lock it in. Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote 12 yes, three absent. The resolution passes. Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our next resolution is resolution number 260211. This is a resolution approving renewal of the lease agreement between Washington College Ruan Club Incorporated and Washington County, Tennessee. This comes to you as a recommendation from public works and I move for its approval.

Motion made by Commissioner Eden, seconded by Commissioner Wexler to approve the resolution. Question or discussion? All the question. Questions been called. Madam Clerk, if you'll switches the voting screen, go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame clerk, if you will announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Commissioner Eden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our final resolution of the evening is resolution number 260212. This is a resolution approving additional project with Chucky Utility District concerning waterline projects within certain uninccorporated areas of Washington County, Tennessee, and authorizing certain capital projects fund spending up to $350,000. This comes to you as a recommendation from public works and I move for it approval. Motion by Commissioner Edens to approve the resolution. Do we have a second? Second by Commissioner Fitzgerald. Mayor,

um, this resolution needs a little bit of direction if I might request that. Uh, the utility is non truck utility. It's Johnson City utility. Dry Creek is correct. And so there are a couple in the in the title that references truck utilities. We can change that to the Johnson water department. Uh remove the dry creek. The third parenthesy and the following line that city or water department however you want to do it and then in the public or in references again we just remove that. I apologize for that but it um you know If the guys wanted to confuse with another project we had going with with Kentucky utility district, this is dry creek road on the Johnson City side of the national [clears throat] and I apologize but thank you for that consideration.

Commissioner Wheeler, you're good with amendments. [laughter] No pressure. So moved. No pressure.

So moved. Commissioner Wheeler, I I do appreciate you uh taking on the wording of that. [laughter] I have been kneede in seventh grade social studies uh all day and it has been a long day. So, I certainly appreciate your help. Would move to amend the resolution to it each uh reference to Chucky Utility District to be changed to the Johnson City Utility District or Johnson City Water Department. Johnson Water Department to Johnson City Water Department and I believe that will I think all the references are that. So that will take care of it. That would be the motion to move to amend the resolution.

All right. So our amendment is uh by Commissioner Wheeler, second by Commissioner Huffine. Um, all in favor of the amend amendment signify by saying I. I. All right. So, we'll go back to the original motion as amended with those changes. Thank you, Commissioner Wheeler. Yes, sir. Call the question. Call the question on that one. The original amended amendment. So, okay. Madame clerk, if you'll switch at the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in.

Madame clerk, you announce the vote. 12 yes and three absent and the resolution. The amended resolution passes. Anything else? Commissioner Dav Commissioner Davenport. [laughter] I wouldn't do you that way, Commissioner Edens. Listen, I at least I have hair now. See, Commissioner Davenport, at least I have hair. No, sir. That does it for public works. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much.

All right. We're going to move on to the public the safety committee report. Uh Director Haney is you see that uh in your packet on page 133. Appreciate him doing that and and leading that for us as our safety director in Washington County. And uh he is here this evening. If there's any questions, uh, he'll be glad to answer those. Seeing no questions, we'll move right on to the budget committee report. Uh, Commissioner Tucker, I think, uh, with the absence of Commissioner Davenport, that puts you as the, uh, as our, uh, this, but I'll take it. So, you'll find our minutes on page 135. And let me see how many. [laughter]

We only got a couple resolutions. We got a few. And the first resolution uh is 260213 resolution amending the fiscal year budget 2025 to 2026 for the circuit court audio equipment. And this comes from a a recommendation from the committee. All right. Are you moving for approval? Yes. A second. Second by Commissioner Fitzgerald. Question or discussion?

Questions been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switch the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote. Lock it in. Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent, and a resolution passes. Commissioner Tucker. Yeah. Next resolution is 260214 resolution amending fiscal year budget 2025 to 2026 regures of deeds for printer copy or scanner and this comes to you as a motion from the committee. Motion [snorts] by Commissioner Tucker to approve seconded by Commissioner Wexler. Question or discussion. All the question.

Questions been called. Madam clerk, if you will switches the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Commissioner Tucker. All right. Our next one is resolution 260215 resolution amending the physical year 26 budget emergency management funding for Helen Recovery removal mutual aid from Johnson City. And this comes from the committee for approval. All right. Motion to approve by Commissioner Tucker, seconded by Commissioner Edens. Question or discussion? Caller question.

Questions been called. Madame Clerk, you'll switch us to voting screen. Go ahead and cast your vote. Lock it in. Madame Clerk, if you announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent. The resolution passes. Commissioner Tucker. Our next one is 260216. Resolution amended fiscal year budget 2025 2026. planning personnel and fringe benefits from share planning service with the town of Jonesboro. And this comes from the committee as a recommendation for approval. Please. All right. Motion by Commissioner Tucker, second by Commissioner Stout to approve the resolution. Question or discussion. Call the question.

Question's been called. Madame Clerk, if you'll switch the voting screen. Go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame Clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent. The resolution passes. Commissioner Tucker.

Next resolution is 260217. Resolution amending the fiscal year budget 2025 2026 sole conferation personnel and friends benefits for inspections of the NRCS stream bank stabilation projects. This comes to you from the budget committee. Motion by Commissioner Tucker to approve the resolution. Seconded by Commissioner Jones. Question or discussion. Call for the question.

Question's been called. Madame Clerk, if you'll switch it to the voting screen, please. Go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madame Clerk, if you'll announce the vote. 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Commissioner Tucker. Okay. And the next one is 260218 resolution approving authorizing certain capital projects fund spending up to 20,623 in fiscal year 26 for the new grey library increase and amending fiscal budget of 2026. This comes to you as a motion for approval from the budget committee.

Motion by to approve by Commissioner Tucker, second by Commissioner Stout. Question or discussion? Call the question. Question been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switches the voting screen. Go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in.

Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Commissioner Tucker. Our next resolution is 260219 resolution authorizing the insurance of general obligation refunding bonds of Washington County, Tennessee. and one making provision for the issue, sale and payment of said bonds establishing the terms therefore into this motion of proceeds uh for the levi of the taxes for payment of principal a premium if any of the interest of the bonds and this comes to you as a motion form of a motion

motion by commissioner uh Tucker to approve we have a second by commissioner Carter questions questions. Call a question. Question's been called. Madame clerk, if you'll switch to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in.

Madame clerk, if you'll announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent. The resolution passes. Mr. Our last one is resolution 260220, resolution amending the fiscal year budget 2025 2026 increase of the county's FEMA consultant contract. This comes to you as a as a motion from the budget committee. A motion by Commissioner Tucker to approve, second by Commissioner Jones. Any questions or discussion?

Call for the question. Question's been called. Madame clerk, switches the voting screen, please. Go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in.

Marty, sorry. Madam clerk, if you announce the vote, 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Anything else, Commissioner Tucker? All right.

Our next item is our notaries resolution 260221. It's a resolution approving the election of notaries public for appointment or reappointment for Washington County, Tennessee. Have a motion motion by Commissioner Wexler to approve. Second by Commissioner Huffine. All in favor of that uh resol or that motion signify by saying well this a resolution it's getting late in the night for me. Madame clerk if you'll switch to the voting screen. [laughter] Understand? I understand.

Go ahead announce the vote. 12 yes three absent and [clears throat] the resolution passes. We do have one item for new business. It's resolution 260222. It's a resolution instructing the clerk and master not to offer a bid on behalf of the county properties that have been that have environmental risk or financial liabilities associated with the properties andor exceed the value of the partial. Do I have a motion to approve? Motion by Commissioner Carter, seconded by Commissioner Huffine. Question or discussion? Call the question.

Call for the question. Madam clerk, if you'll switch to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Madam clerk, if you announce the vote 12 yes, three absent, and the resolution passes. Uh, we do have u an an announcement I need to talk to you about. Um, So, we have been requested by uh to consider a special called meeting to consider a private act for the city of Johnson City. This item suddenly came to our attention and would need to be considered next week if possible. I would like to discuss your availability since this item will require a twothirds majority to pass this body and because because it would be a uh a private act does require two/3s going and two/3s coming back. So it it would it we would need 10 people for that. Um, I'm not going to get into a whole lot about what it is because I'm going to let Allison do that. [laughter] But the real issue comes down to

who's going to be here. Monday is not good. Tuesday is not good. Thursday's bad. So, the real issue comes down to Wednesday. And there's been some issues with with having meetings on Wednesday and discussion of that. So with that being said, if you'll think about that for a few minutes and think through it, we can have a we just have to have the fiveday notice. That's all we have to have. With that being said, Allison, if you will kind of explain what our situation is.

I will. I'm happy to. Uh Johnson City reached out to Washington County on Monday with respect to, you might recall in 2019 that there was a public act that provided for the creation of regional retail tourism uh development district. It's Boon Creek. It's got its own name um which is out there and it was done as a public act and that's lawful. But at this juncture they are getting um their bond issuance and other things and there could be a challenge to it and they would just really like to make sure. So the resolution we've already prepared it. We prepared it Monday. Um if you'd like to consider it uh that it's because the districts can only be created with counties that meet a very narrow population classification. And so in order to to have that narrow population um classification, the county itself really does need to enact a private act that it has taken that on and that it has agreed to it. So in short, the resolution would be to take the the public act which was changing it as to a certain county that didn't have Washington County's name. It was by population, which if you knew the county's population, you would know that it therefore applied. And to make that into a private act, which would then say that um the Retail Tourism Development District Act would be reenacted to apply to Washington County, Tennessee. So what I did in preparing it was I took the public act made it an exhibit and then worked with Johnson City's uh bond council to ensure that it met his standards as a private act. So it would be a single item and it is taking the

statute that passed the house in 2019 and the senate and became public law and make it into a private act. I hope that doesn't burden it too much. Um, without getting into the nitty-gritty of the public act itself. And as for notice, um, in order to have a meeting next Wednesday, you would need to notice it Friday. And we've prepared the public notice. We've prepared the agenda. We've prepared the resolution and reached out. in Johnson City this evening confirmed its availability with the city manager to be here to tell you about um the request and why they are asking for it that she could be here. I do not know that bond council Mark Mamantov would be available but uh the city manager would be here to explain the request. Our meeting does not have to be advertised in the newspaper with the new uh change to notice. Thank you for asking. There are still sometimes where it says uh like the budget says uh population, excuse me, uh newspaper of general circulation. The reasonzonings have that specific language, but the meeting uh actually does not require it. It would be on the county's website and the county's uh procedural rules require 5 days. So Friday would be the fiveday mark. So deciding tonight would mean that we could make sure that Sherry has it in time to upload it for the notice. And otherwise I think that the chairman would say that there we would be looking at the following week. But I think Mr. Chairman that the city of Johnson City was hoping the county would consider it before the city had its meeting on Thursday. But I may have just drawn that conclusion. Th that's that's correct.

The Mr. Mayor was asking uh if it could be held during the day um on the 5th, which is committee day. And so yes, we would have adequate notice for that. And when I talked to Johnson City this evening, they did say that they could be available any time on Thursday. No, they said Wednesday. So I have not asked them about Thursday. We asked them about Wednesday. I'm happy to follow up. The only challenge with daytime is court. Uh I don't know what the court schedule holds in this room. Are you proposing 6:00 or could we do like tonight and do a 5:30? That might help. Absolutely.

Previous concern. Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm open. I mean it it it's a you know they're wanting to get it to Nashville as quickly as possible to get it to the state this this session. So uh I mean I'm no matter what decision I've made the last two days, it's it's conflict of somebody's schedule. So I thought it Thursday. Could we take it back to the old courthouse where we meet at and do it in there? And the mayor just suggested the international storytelling center. I think that's what or I'm talking about the courthouse where we have our meetings.

I mean, we can have a meeting [clears throat] anywhere. We We're just going to have to accommodate things like we do here. There storytell we're going to have it on Thursday. You all could locate a room down. Absolutely. Yeah. before they took a notice out. Yeah. U Mr. Chairman, I think we would if we might want to do this before we notice everything. We're going to need to u suspend the rules as far as it's not coming from a standing committee. I don't know that there would be a problem at all, but we might want to that's got to be done either before we notice it or at least before we meet.

Mhm. Well, that way CIA could be able to handle it Thursday morning. [laughter] Then we wouldn't have to suspend that rule. But, uh, we we we're it's going to require two a twothirds vote anyway to be considered or to even pass. Personally, I like the idea of CIA getting to hear about it. We're not hearing any detail coming in that night. It wouldn't be a bad idea for CIA to know a little bit about it and make a recommendation to us to put it in CIA committee that morning.

Long as Commissioner Wexler would would Yeah. I mean, we got we didn't meet last month. So, we got the things that were on because of the snow. We got things that were on there for last month. Unless we gotch another issue that will probably have committee discussion. So, um, you know, I mean, I don't mind we're meeting, so I don't mind. There's there's no purchasing this month, so you got some extra time if you need it. We've got three things already that are Thursday. This could be the fourth one. So, we do it Thursday evening right now, but they have a city commission meeting Thursday. So

there's about an 80% chance county own property. That's right. Do you know my recollection from last month is that Commissioner Tamito wanted to hold county owned property over at the uh TLC at a time not on that Thursday because it's too hard for people to go to and go. So that's that's accurate that four o'clock time slot would be open on Thursday committee day if that's true which is the last thing I heard.

That way we could have it all done before their commission meeting. Absolutely.

Okay. And I know the city would like for this done any way that we can get this done and considered. So, [clears throat] I think I think if that could be our plan, we'll we'll we'll find a place to I guess to to and and if this courtroom is open at 4:00, there's a good chance it could be, but you never know how the court schedule is. Even if it is, you've got people with 3:00 meetings and 5:00 meetings. So, if we can do it at the at the show center, people can still get to their committee meeting get to that commission meeting.

I just I'm just concerned about the video cameras and and things that people have grown accustomed to because this will be a special call meeting and I I think that would be something we'd need to work out in this room. Um, unless Blake and Matthew have some amazing ideas. Uh but [clears throat] but it that'd be my only only concern of it. If we can work out the logistics for Thursday, let's proceed with that. If not, can we say is a backup plan Wednesday? Wednesday a different here. 5:30. Yeah, that'd be your contingency.

Yeah. [clears throat and cough] Wednesday. Wednesday. 4:00 on Thursday. 4 o'clock on Thursday here. I can't wait. We just need to call Brendon and see if we can get this courtroom at 4:00 on Thursday. So, do you want it to come through CIA on? I think I would. Yeah. Okay. But if it's Wednesday, it we can't we can't do it that either. But we will have to suspend a rule at that point. The city of Johnson City is not available on Thursday. That way you wouldn't have

Oh, we'll be doing it before their meeting. So, we do it on my sister. Well, city, let's I tell you, I'm I'm going to feel I'm going to feel better. Apparently, the city's not available at all. No, sir. Okay. So they're not available at all on Thursday. It's anytime Thursday. Okay. So Wednesday at uh at a at a time selected 5:30 or 5. I know the earlier I get the worse. Wednesday. Are we back to Wednesday?

We're back. Thursday's out. City cannot be here Thursday at all. And they're asking for Wednesday. Why don't you take a poll of who can come on this? See, raise your hands. How many can be here Wednesday at 5?

Wednesday. Wednesday at 5. Wednesday at 5. That's available.

Got to be unanimous, but yeah. Of course, of course, we have three absent, too. So, hopefully, uh, you know, if somebody's not not sure, send out an email, everybody can respond who's going to make it, who can't make it. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, that'd be good. I have to admit I'm good with All right. So, we will say Wednesday at What' you say, Commissioner? Five five o'clock. All right. I appreciate the time to work with. I appreciate your understanding. Move to adjurnn. We do have a a motion to adjourn right after March the 12th. Uhoh.

Oh, we got two things though. March 12th at 12:00 noon is the cut off for the the deadline. And you have a blue book. Now Sherry said she was not carrying them blue bugs up here. They are downstairs as you go out the metal detector. So there's a blue book for you uh down there. All right. Now, let's go back to that motion tojourn, Commissioner Huffine. So, there we go. Got a motion and second. All in favor of adjourning signify by saying I. I. All opposed. We're ajourned.