Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Oh yes. Oh yes. So yes. This meeting of Washington County Board of Commissioners is now in session pursuant to adjournment. The honorable chairman Greg Meatherly is presiding. Come to order. Remain standing. Thank you, Sheriff. First order of business this evening is our prayer led by Commissioner Carter and then we'll have the pledge led by Commissioner Fitzgerald. Mr. Carter.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You'll bow your heads with me, please. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for this extremely cold day today. We give you thanks for for all that it helps our beautiful area do. We know there's a purpose for and Lord, I give you thanks for a small agenda tonight. It's a blessing that we get to uh just enjoy things a little bit differently. And I know what that that means too. January is going to be a doozy and we just pray that over the coming days and weeks that you help all of us think about things just a little bit harder, make good decisions for our county. And Lord, I thank you for this Christmas season, for this birthday celebration. Thank you for the gifts that you've you've given us. Those the biggest ones are hope and joy and especially our salvation. We love you and we thank you for your son Jesus. Amen.

Amen.

United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I got a blank screen. Can I what?

You're having difficulty screen real quick. is if if Commissioner is dead. Oh, it's on his way back. Well, that was a quick That's a quick repair. I'm telling you. We might break it again. Commissioner Huff, are you off the air?

Mr. Malone, he's still absent. I see him over there. They may not fully answer that question. Yes. We call the roll. Madam clerk, you go ahead and call the roll and we'll we'll get those screens fixed while you're doing that. All right. Tucker here. Johnson here. Edens here. Davort here. Mly here. England here. Malone here. Stout here. Tama here. Jones here. We here. We here 15 present.

15 present. So we do have a quorum. Next item on is approval of the agenda. There's only one thing that we need to add to the agenda tonight is a notice. you will see um that comes on the uh facilities advisory committee and uh that's just for information but I did want to add that to the agenda uh knowing that we also done notice here at the meeting and that's Wednesday December the 17th 2025 3 p.m. in the first floor conference room of the historic courthouse in Jonesboro.

Motion made by Commissioner Tucker to approve that amendment. Seconded by Commissioner Johnson. Questions or discussion? All in favor of the amended agenda signify by saying I. I.

All opposed? All right. The motion passes. We have no public comment this evening. Uh we do not have any public hearing for reszoning. Uh you will find the minutes of the December 2nd of Washington County Board of Zoning Appeals in the packet on page one and the minutes of the December 2nd meeting on page two. But we do have a couple of special recognitions and proclamations this evening. Before we do though, mayor um I would like to uh recognize one of our special visitors here for his birthday. Uh Stephen Jones. Stephen, are you out there somewhere? Yes. Stephen raised his hand. We appreciate you being here tonight, Stephen. Uh you're not a regular attendee here at the county commission meeting and so we appreciate you being here tonight. You do know him, don't you? Commissioner Jones. Mayor, if you'll pull and move us forward uh with our special recognitions and proclamations.

We have two proclamations. Is there anyone here to receive the proclamation? Well, if there isn't anyone here to proceed the proclamation, we're not going to read it. Just a note that uh we do have a proclamation uh as part of the records guide recognizing January as human trafficking awareness month January the 11th as human trafficking awareness. We also have proclamation following the legend of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King who received that proclamation and we're going to dispense that meeting. Also just note that we recognize the month of January 2026 uh as Dr. Martin Luther King month and um through the national MLK day of service and political MLK related events u and other opportunities will be available to serve up. So these two proclamations will be entered into the record. Do they need to be a motion?

I think so. Yes, sir. Mayor Motion by Commissioner Huffine to approve the proclamations. Second by Commissioner Kamita. Any question or discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion to approve both proclamations signify by saying I.

I. All like sign. The motion passes and those are approved. Our next item is a board of county commissioner approval of the minutes from our November 24th meeting. I do have a motion. Motion by Commissioner Fitzgerald, seconded by Commissioner Wexler to approve the minutes of our last meeting. Questions or discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of that motion signify by saying I. I.

All opposed. And that motion passes. Amendments are approved. Next item is report of our county officials. Mayor Brandy, I don't have the floor tonight. Does anybody have any specific questions? Any questions for Mayor Green? Questions. Merry Christmas. Our next item is the county attorney report. Good evening. I did not bring you a written report. I'll just tell you merry Christmas and I'll provide the summary that I've traditionally prepared for you in December at the January meeting. Thank you. Any questions for Miss Wilson on her report?

Seeing none, we'll move right on to the director of the health department, Miss Mleen. You here this evening, Miss Mlelen? All right. Any questions for Miss Mlen? Seeing none. Thank you. You've done a great job at the health department. We appreciate all your hard work.

Director of schools. Director Boy.

Merry Christmas from Director Boy. He's ready for school to be out at least in a couple of days. Any questions for D? All right, seeing that we'll move on to the administrative elections. Mr. Chuck vest Chuck heard David Brown. Well, we'll watch for that. We appreciate that. Now, we do have a commercial, industrial, and agricultural committee. They did meet and had several items. Commissioner Wston.

Yes, we did meet on December the 3rd at 9:00 a.m. In the packet, you will find a copy of our minutes. And from the meeting, we have two resolutions uh to bring before you today. Resolution 251201, a resolution approving and authorizing $110,000 in funding to support updated marketing plan designed to promote Washington County tourism and amending the fiscal year 26 budget. I bring it before you as a recommendation from motion to approve by Commissioner Wexler, seconded by Commissioner Huff. Question or discussion? All the questions been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switches to the voting screen, please go ahead and cast your vote and lock it in. Dart, if you'll announce the vote, 15 yes, and the resolution passes. Commissioner Wel. The second uh resolution is 251202 resolution approving and authorizing $75,000 in funding to support visit Johnson City Big South Conference basketball championships 2027 and amending the fiscal year 26 budget. I bring it to you before from the committee and ask for your approval. Motion to approve the resolution by Commissioner Wexler, seconded by Commissioner England. Question or discussion.

Follow questions been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switch the vote on the screen, please go ahead and cast your vote. Lock it in. Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote 15, yes, the resolution passes. Any other items? Commissioner W. No, sir. All right. Thank you. Our communications task force back. Commissioner Huff. Yes. Uh you'll receive our minutes on page 44. If anyone has any questions, I'll be glad to answer. Otherwise, that's all we have. Sir,

any questions for Commissioner Hi. Seeing that, we'll move right on to the county on property report. Commissioner minutes in the agenda. Entertain any questions? Nothing actionable. Hopefully bring some actionable items you share. All right, seeing no questions for Commissioner Tama, we will move on to the budget committee report. Commissioner Davenport.

Yes, you'll find our minutes of December 4th meeting uh on page 49. We have one resolution coming before you tonight for motion. Resolution number 251203 resolution amend amending fiscal year budget emergency management funding recovery fire and police mutual aids from Johnson City. All right. We have the resolution and motion to uh approve by commissioner board. Second, second by commissioner. Question or discussion. Call for questions.

Questions been called. Madam clerk, if you'll switch us to the voting screen, please cast your vote and lock in. Madam clerk, if you announce the vote 15 yes, the resolution passes. Anything else, Commissioner Davenport? That's all I have. Next item is our notice. It's resolution 251204 is a resolution approving the election of public appointment and reappoint for Washington County, Tennessee. I have a motion. Motion made by Commissioner Jones, second by Commissioner Wexer to approve the resolution. Question discussion.

All questions been called. Madam clerfield switches the voting screen. Please cast your vote and lock it in. Madam clerk, if you'll announce the vote 15 yes and the resolution passes. The last item is the cut off date. The time is next Memphis County Commission agenda is January the 15th at 12 noon. We did read our meeting notice for the facilities advisory committee on Wednesday the 17 first floor conference room of the historic courthouse. And we have a motion to adjourn by commissioner, seconded by commissioner.journ. All in favor of journey signify by saying I. All opposed return.