Town Council - Regular Meeting

Okay.

It's Monday, June the 8th, 2026, 7 PM. Nancy Anderson and Bill Dieter.

We got all these mayors in house tonight. So legacy of the town. So thank you guys for being here. But, uh, um, For determination of quorum, we have a quorum. We're missing Darcy. Darcy, my mind goes. Yes. But we have a quorum. So let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, shall we? that's bill that's one of our mayors right yeah so exactly so uh all right item number four do we have any uh addition solutions the adoption of the agenda other than what i'm going to say

I have none.

Okay. Item number nine, the presentation for Wellington Park. It's now changed to It's another name now.

Yeah. Yeah.

We're going to take that off because we don't have a planner yet. And that's one of the conditions for them to come and present. If we had a planner in the seat and we don't have that yet, we're working on that and we're trying to get that worked out. And so it's just it's unfortunate, but we are working on it. So we're going to take that off item number nine off the agenda. ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU SAID?

I'LL ADOPT THE AMENDED AGENDA.

ALL IN FAVOR? ALL RIGHT. UNANIMOUS. The conflict of interest statement, in accordance to state law, it is the duty of every council member to avoid conflicts of interest. Does any council member have any known conflict of interest with respect to any matter or matters on the agenda? If so, please identify the conflict and refrain from any participation in the matter involved. Any conflicts? No conflicts. Okay, we're gonna move forward. Mayor and council member reports. Who wants to go first?

I'll go first. Okay, Ellen. It was a busy month. Actually, Mayor Bell and I sat down, we met with Union County Public Schools superintendent. We talked about the Student Town Council. It was a very productive meeting. They are very eager to get going and so are we. So that is on our list of things to do. it'll just be we have a lot of we have very full plate these days so on top of that i attended wuma this past month we had a very healthy discussion and here are a couple of highlights there was a lot of conversation in regards to the i-77 expansion and what had happened at crtpo uh there was a lot of conversation as well in regards to the state proposed cap in terms of property tax um and debate among members as to what what is your perception of that where do you how do you feel as a council um we have not had an opportunity as a council to discuss that at all um but that was one of the percolating topics. And then the third topic was truly about Fomal Creek sewer. And that currently the permitted flow rate is at 95% before they can put a stop to any new construction. We're currently at 88%. So it was more like an update of a sheet of paper that kind of went around and just to give us a heads up on status. Outside of that, we heard a couple of pieces of information from specific municipalities, specifically Wesley Chapel was talking about their million dollar high hazard dam and some of the headaches that they have had in terms of continuing to move that repair forward. Marvin shared how they have lost their town manager and that that they're working hard and concerned, too, as to how to fill in the gaps in the meantime. But they also mentioned that they have a park and that they had worked with Pondscapes, that they sponsored a beautiful kind of outdoor pond-related section. And if other municipalities were thinking about parks, that's just something, too. put on your radar. So that was the essence of everything that we learned at WOMA.

Next meeting?

I don't remember what the date is.

Karen, do you know the next WOMA meeting? I don't have it on my calendar because I know I can't go.

On the 25th, I will be here. What's that? I will be here. It's the 25th of June? June 25th. Okay. Okay. And I think it's in Wesley Chapel, or is it? I'll look it up.

We'll get that information and put it on the website. I'll make sure to put it in the minutes.

Yeah, in the minutes, okay. We also, I attended, there was a planning board training workshop that Aaron had helped organize, so I was happy to attend that. And I just kind of wanted to make a comment for people to consider. We've received updates from Union County with the current status of our drought. And I know we were lucky to get some good rain last week. We're all happy for that. But I just wanted to put it on people's radars that their HOAs should also kind of think about the water restrictions, even if it's on a well, because all of that well water is continuing from the table to get depleted. And so we have to think of our neighbors and not just our moms. And just my little bullet service statement for the night. So thank you.

Cool. Thank you.

I was in Marvin.

I was looking for July. It was in June.

Second, like at four o'clock or something like that.

It's four o'clock in Marvin. On a Thursday.

Okay. 25th. Okay.

So. Okay. First thing I want to talk about. are roads or road improvements i got this email on friday afternoon it says more than six miles into dairy roads across union county will be resurfaced soon thanks to a 699 670 mc department of transportation contract earned earlier this month by slurry papers in richmond virginia 22 secondary roads are planned for improvements Some of these are in our area, but not in Weddington, but I'll get farther down and we will get into the Weddington roads. I'm going to read the full list just because you may be interested in other roads. Oxford Terrace, Canterbury Lane, Wellington Drive, Pleasure Drive, Leisure Drive, Raintree Drive, Carmona Court, Wesley Woods Road, Cater Road, Gatewood Wayne, Weddington Downs Drive, Eagle Pass Court, Tall Oaks Court, Miner Lane, Antioch Court, Weddington Oaks Drive, Nelson Road, Treehill Road, Timber Oak Court, Riverton Road, Reefton Road, and Thames Court. contract calls for work to start early as mid-july and be completed by the summer of 27th road work restrictions will be in place for the holidays weekends and any unexpected events that may generate high traffic volumes so that is what we have happening in roads in our town and uh that we're getting repaid researchers to some degree and uh i'm glad for it i've been pushing them constantly for the past number of years. And the next thing I want to talk about is something I think is very important. There is a bill up in the Senate right now that is SB 1047, Regulatory Reform Act of 2026. which the senate regulatory reform committee discussed past wednesday and it's going to come in for a vote this week the bill does not overlap with the house regulatory reform efforts detailed later in this email the first part is permit choice modification and it says section 13 appears to expand the types of local development decisions subject to the permit choice law including legislative zoning decisions that is not good shot clock section 14 puts in place significant and complicated shot clocks under which local governments must make land use to send decisions including zoning decisions, failure to adhere to the timeframes would result in applications being deemed approved. no minimum lot sizes section 16 dot this allows the use of minimum lot size as a mean of expressing density allowance for residential zones it also limits the type of zoning districts a local government may utilize to the five types currently listed in the stats and publication of fee set schedules section 17 imposes new requirements on local governments to publish their development fee schedules and requires an annual report of these schedules to the local government commission and also limits fees that could be charged to those including in a binding fee statement finally it gives applicants the right to file a civil lawsuit if a local government does not follow these publication requirements so and the next thing is they want to basically do something on historic district formations paul's vested rights clock during any time of emergencies and there's more talk about permeable stormwater technology and building insulation materials in various other chapters there's a bunch here that would our ability to regulate development in this town and if you don't want this to happen you better be contacting our legislators as soon as possible this thing this email had a respond to date as of today to pat comment go into the uh senate and so i would i would say in my personal opinion there's about a lot of energy in this town spent on a lot of different things and some of them i think are relatively menial compared to what is going on with this This is important. This affects how this town will develop if this is passed. Weddington as we know it would not exist. We would have density like charlotte let's put it that way everywhere that's not developed it would be unrestricted growth i think what that would do to our schools and our roads it would be a disaster so i advise people who've been hate to say it blowing all of us up for various things this thing for slights and slight issues or whatnot direct your issue to somewhere that's really important right now this is really important and secondly if you want to criticize the council find criticizers but be factual know what you're criticizing is for and don't criticize the staff if you have a problem with staff give it to us we supervise the staff that's the way it works in the town give us the incoming we will deal with it But do not sit there and criticize the staff. That is not the proper way to do things. So with that, I do have one more thing. I just happened to be signing here a few minutes ago the bank reconciliations for Leslie for June, for end of May, June 1. And for the public's edification, we have cash and cash equivalents of $9,340,058. We are financially solvent and well off. We are nowhere near broke. The money has not been stolen. It is in the bank.

so anybody says anything different it's wrong i'll just leave it at that so that is the end of my report okay well thank you tom and thank you ellen no and and i had to it too i think it's been out there on social media that uh we failed our audit and that is nowhere it's just ludicrous and uh the auditor failed us yeah our fellow ghosted us but uh we did not fail an audit so it's that's bogus stuff that you see out on social media and uh and and i tell you i'm going to start doing a thing because uh in reference to what tom was saying you know there's a lot of uh there's a lot of bogus stuff that you know get thrown out gets thrown out on social media even comes up here and gets blasted out on uh in public comments it's just you take a little bit of truth And it looks nowhere like the truth. You know, if you don't have all the truth, then it's a lie. And so, you know, we've got to start exposing. And if I have to, I'll start calling names and start pointing people out for this kind of stuff happening. And you say, you know, why are you guys talking about this during the mayor and council reports? Well, you know, a lot of times people leave during, you know, when we get on into the nitty gritty and they don't hear it. And so I feel like we just need to, you know, let people know that, you know, we need to need to start correcting some things and start, you know, pointing some things out. And that's what we're going to start doing. And one thing that it's been out there for months and, and I try to be gracious and, and just, you know, not point out things, but you know, it's time we started doing it. And then again, we're going to start calling names if we have to. Um, It's campaign donation reports. This council, everybody who runs, I can say for myself, I file with the state. Whenever I have a great campaign finance person, she handles Congress and senators and on the federal level, on the state level, even gubernatorial candidates. She is just immaculate in what she does. She's just awesome. And so I filed directly with the state. And so I know it has been put out there on social media that because I've gotten campaign donations. I have, in fact, from a friend here in town And it's been put out there that Mayor Bell is taking money from developers and stuff like that. That's just bogus stuff. And I resent that because that kind of stuff is not happening. And we just need to have a little integrity in our town when we start getting up here at the mic or out on social media, quit putting, you know, fake names, fake, you know, accounts out there and trying to, you know, just stir stuff up. And so I'm a little upset with it, as you can see. So I just want to mention a few things here that I file with the state. There's nothing bogus with that. Everybody can see what I file. And I have a friend that I go to church with that I've known for a long time. He came to me a long time ago, a while back and said, hey, can I donate to your campaign? Sure. And so this person, this family, the Grahams, they help people all over the world, as you see on TV and their ministry. And so they help millions of people around the world. And they donate to conservative Christian candidates on local, state, federal, all the way up to the presidency. So I'm not the only one they donate to. So understand that. And so for someone to say, oh, you're taking a campaign donation from a developer. Well, in this case here, the developer is a friend but had no idea. development or no applications before the town during that time of many donated. Um, and, and again, um, I filed with the state. It's all on, you can go to my campaign reports, um, the um everyone i'll say this every developer doesn't matter who it is goes through the same process of planning board development there's no pre-appointed pre-approved anything with anybody so so that's that's you know I've heard that kind of thing. Oh, he's been pre-approved and all this kind of stuff. It's just bogus stuff. Um, so the accusations are, uh, the, uh, The things that's been against the board and the panel here and myself, it's just bogus. And I can ramble on about it, but I'll keep it short. I'll shorten it. It's just I think these things lack integrity. And it's easy to get on social media with a fake name or just get out there and just blow somebody up, whether it be myself, the council, or staff. And that's been happening with the staff. And so we're going to we're going to end that kind of stuff. We need to work together, be a part of the solution, not the problem. Let's all work together and try to come together and make a great town instead of trying to burn it down over elections or trying to get elected or whatever that may be. Let's have some integrity about our our you know what we're saying offer the truth you know a little bit of truth and a lot of lies makes it a lie so you can't say i'm telling the truth and you have and nothing looks like the truth in the end it becomes a lie so uh even with our deputies when we're hiring their deputies it was out there our tax rate was going to go through the through the roof and uh when we're hiring the two deputies that never happened And it's just, you know, I could go on and on. Even back when we did our taxes last year, our taxes are going to go through the roof. We didn't raise our taxes. Our Avalorum tax rate stayed the same. So I'm rambling on by saying, and forgive me for doing this, but I'm going to start addressing these things each time for... you know, things that are not true and exaggerated, and it may be unpleasant. You may say we don't need that, but it's, uh, we just can't continue to let this kind of stuff happen. And, and also attacking the staff and what they're doing. These guys do an excellent job. Again, the, we did not fill an audit. Uh, we have the, some of the best staff mentors members here that if any town, in fact, other towns have come to us. in the last six months and said, how do you guys do it? I'm not making this up. We've been in meetings with other council members and mayors in the state where they've come and said, how do you guys keep your tax rate? We cannot do it without raising our taxes. We cannot do this. And so in fact, the mayors have reached out to me and said, I want to know how you guys do it. Well, it's our staff. So anyway, I'm moving on. You get the gist of it and we're going to move on from there. Public comments. Annemarie, come on up.

Sorry, I need my glasses.

I hate you had to follow that.

That's okay. It's in line with what I was going to say.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. While I'm directing my comments towards you, this message is for everyone. As the kids are saying these days, I think we've lost the plot. Over the past several months leading up to and after the election, this town has become more divided than I've seen in a long time. It truly feels like we're pulling ourselves apart from the inside out. We have seen a council member step down, our town planner and our longtime administrator resign. And depending on where you sit, you might see this moment very differently. Some may see it as a victory. Our side won three council seats, the mayor, and now an appointment for the next year and a half, along with the ability to hire handpicked staff. High fives. Other people look at this exact same situation and see something could vary differently. They see chaos and dysfunction. They see proof that something nefarious is happening. It's town hall and there's corruption and the truth just hasn't come out yet. So they're saying we must fight to get our town back from these evil doers. But I would say this, no one is winning. No one. Because while we're focused on wins and losses, our town is being ripped apart. And honestly, it's shameful. Not because people disagree. Disagreement is healthy. Disagreement is not a personal attack. In fact, productive disagreement is what brings out our best ideas and our solutions. It actually brings people together. but that is not what is happening. At some point we crossed a line and this is the part that's hard for all of us to hear. We are responsible for how we got here. We are responsible for the things that have been said and for the things that we have left unsaid. Our words and actions have consequences. We have allowed gossip to take place of real conversation. We have allowed assumptions to get made instead of asking questions. We have taken shots online or made side comments from the podium or from this very mahogany desk instead of sitting down and actually talking. If you were sitting here thinking, yep, you tell a man, Marie, I have been wronged. the truth is you probably have you have you have actual grievances and you have actual wounds but you probably have also done the wounding so this is an invitation to look inward to remove the plank from our own eye before we call out the dust in someone else's to set down our proverbial weapons for just a minute and ask ourselves what part did i play in this Because if we're being honest, the environment we've created right now makes it really difficult. If you say something honest, it gets screenshotted, it gets taken out of context, it gets used against you, you get attacked online, kicked out of groups, blocked, et cetera. Someone might even come out and write a song about you and we laugh or we cheer it on or we share it. But then we turn around and we wonder why no one wants to step forward, admit fault or have a real conversation because that's a culture that we've built and it's not a healthy one. I'll also say this, I'm very passionate about this topic. What are we teaching our young people? We've talked about getting students from Wellington High School to get more involved in town government, letting them see how this works. What exactly are we showing them right now? That this is how adults handle disagreement, that accountability is optional, that it's easier to take a jab than to take responsibility because they are here watching and listening and learning. So now that I've sufficiently stood on my soapbox, I don't think it's fair to ask someone to do something I'm unwilling to do myself. So I want to take this moment. and something that happened during that campaign that I very much regret. So for that, for those that followed the campaign closely, this one might surprise you. Back in October, my mom, Vancy Anderson, former mayor, planning board member, retired nurse, owner and operator of the Hunter Farm and retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Air Force, stood here in uniform and gave a tribute to Sergeant Michael Verardo. This was a very difficult and meaningful moment for my mom and for our family as the Verardo family is near and dear to our hearts. Sometimes we even tease my parents that Michael and Sarah are their favorite kids. After she spoke, Gayle Butler came up here to make public comments. She thanked her, she put her hand on her shoulder and it was a genuine moment shared between two people who at that time would have called each other friend, who shared a career in healthcare and military moms having a real moment of connection and respect for one another. In fact, later that evening, my mom texted Gayle and thanking her and acknowledgement. I was later informed that moment was talked about online on a social media platform. I'm not even on being described as disingenuous in poor taste and an attention grab from Gail. I had the opportunity to correct the record and I didn't do it. At that time, I wanted to take the time to gather my thoughts and prepare a statement. I even had one fully prepared. And then I saw the things being said about me and my family that weren't true, blatant lies, innuendos, and accusations. Instead of doing what I knew was right, I let the moment pass. I should not have done that. I was wrong. And Gail, I'm very sorry. Here's the truth. At the end of the day, we are not responsible for what other people do, but we are responsible for what we do. And I own that. I share that story because if we're actually serious about fixing this, it starts here. It starts with ownership, with people being willing to say, I could have handled that better. We must choose to build something instead of tearing it down. Because right now, whether we want to admit it or not, we are tearing it apart. I want to be clear about something. This does not excuse bad behavior. It does not mean forgive and forget, or that we can ask questions or that we cannot ask questions or hold people accountable, but it does mean that we take a breath. We look inward and we start acting like the kind of community that we say we want to be. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. That's what it's about. Thank you. Thank you again, bill. Coming up. Awesome. That was good.

My name is Bill Dieter. I'm the guy who Christopher Neve made ad hominem attacks eight times in under four minutes during his public comments at the last town council meeting. Basically, Christopher Neve attacked my integrity, my reputation and character, not any differences in policy. Through falsehoods, some could say lies, half-truths and innuendo, Christopher Neve stated, I bought influence with the council. Some would say bribed the council and the council took this inducement and put me on the planning board. Christopher Neve stated I was in violation of planning board code of ethics and the council should remove me from the planning board. When Christopher Neve's slop is on social media, I just ignore it. HOWEVER, WHEN HE SAYS IT AT AN OFFICIAL TOWN MEETING, HIS SLANDEROUS STATEMENTS BECOME PART OF THE TOWN'S OFFICIAL MINUTES, AND I CAN'T LET THIS PASS WITHOUT A RESPONSE. SOME OF HIS COMMENTS, BILL DEITER IS THE LEADER OF THE WEDDINGTON WALL. I MEAN, COME ON. IT'S NOT EVEN A GROUP WITH A LEADER. IT'S A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY USED BY MANY PEOPLE IN SEVERAL COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. Christopher Neve said I donated time and financial support to some of you on council, and that's true. Like many across America, I do that in every election cycle, local, county, state, and federal. Christopher Neve insinuates that is a bribe. I'm bribing officials, You're telling me my $100 donation gives me undue influence with the president of the United States and other members of Congress? I mean, come on, really? Christopher Neve says I violated planning board ethics by discussing current or proposed projects coming before the planning board. I will be very succinct, that's just fiction. I could go on. I feel Christopher Neve having lost two election attempts is just a spiteful vindictive person. He wants to tear others down through attacks on their character instead of having a positive vision for building up our community. We are very fortunate to have five members on the council willing to give your time and talent for the betterment of Weddington. We also have seven appointed members on the planning board and board of adjustment with the same commitment. He wants to tear others down by attacking their character and integrity, not their ideas. Over the last few years, we've seen a shift to personal attacks instead of discussion of the issues. In my opinion, Christopher Neve is the personification of this shift. We have folks circulating petitions to bring in the BCI and the FBI to investigate the council. I mean, this is unbelievable. Really, folks are attacking town staff, questioning the quality of their work and suggesting they be fired. I mean, you got to be kidding me. We've got the hardest working staff in the county. Let me end by paraphrasing Teddy Roosevelt's 1910 speech about the man in the arena. He talks about active participation and courage rather than criticizing from the sidelines. He says, and I quote, it is not the critic who counts, but the man who strives to do the deeds, the man who knows great enthusiasms and great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause. I want to thank all of you for your service and devotion to our town. Each one of you is that man in the arena. Thank you.

Thank you, Bill. I hope tonight we can learn from what's been said. We can clean some of this up as we go forward and try to institute unity instead of attacking each other and having to come up here and defend each other or defend yourself. So I hope we can learn from this and from what Anne-Marie said and Bill said. I hope we can learn from tonight and move forward. Okay? Presentation from Chief Deputy Underwood. We are honored to have you here and also the public safety report. So we'll combine those two together.

thank you mayor thank you thank you for being here thank you for the opportunity every month to get up and talk about what happened the month prior uh when it comes to sheriff's office performance statistics crime stats things like that we appreciate the continued support of both the board the residents that are here in attendance and everyone who's uh watching online for those that don't know who i am i am james may i'm a lieutenant for sheriff eddie kathy and i work i get the pleasure to work alongside the small town contract deputies each day with me tonight and i'm going to be very uh succinct and

in.

Consider at the time, Chief Deputy Tony Underwood, who is our Chief Deputy over operations. He's here to kind of answer your questions about some other matters and has a little bit more than I will. So I'm just here to talk about the stats from last month. When you look online at our crime mapping software, because I know everybody does, they use that feature online. That's all right. Don't tell me you don't use it. It'll hurt my feelings. You're going to see a lot of calls for service in the town of Weddingston. Our preventative patrols, our traffic stops were still very high. These are all preventative measures we use to prevent traffic crashes. apprehend criminals slow people down and if you haven't been on providence road lately people need to slow down so that we're out there every day david plowler he's over to my left and the other deputies assigned to weddington are out there every day so please slow down when you see those guys when you look at our crime mapping software there was one call for service in particular i wanted to try to clarify if you look at that it's going to show there was a gunshot wound last month in weddington just right over here in steeplechase what that was that was a swatting call for service if you're not familiar with what swatting means it means somebody used an internet phone number um faking a phone number saying that someone had been shot at that home it of course drew a very large response from our deputies on scene with just very short amount of time no one was hurt inside of the home it was just a just a fake a prank call if you will but we are continuing to investigate that on our end to try to track down who that person was um but if you see that gunshot room on our website please you know don't be concerned sheriff's office didn't tell you about a major crime this was a this was a prank call i just that's how it was classified Another issue we've had that has been quite the nuisance for our deputies and myself, I tell you, I've had to say several prayers asking the Lord for patience over the last month with Axiom Pest Control. Anybody familiar with Axiom Pest Control? They've knocked on every door in Weddings and Wesley Chapel and Marvin, And I think they just picked the five towns that I supervise and just decided to knock on those doors. Because I tell you, I met with this young guy, he's like 21 years old and he's the manager and they recruit these guys from all over the country to come and knock on your door and ask if you want to buy pest control. And I may or may not have told them that I'd like to subscribe to pest control to rid our county of them. So I also told them that if they used a high pressure sales pitch and somebody said no the first time and they continued to stand on the porch, I was going to start taking people to jail for trespassing. Shortly after that, they decided to move on to Mecklenburg County. My advice to them was Mecklenburg County will probably be better fitting for your sales pitch. so thus far david as far as i know knock on wood they have they've got the note to move on so if um if you've dealt with action pest control people knocking on your door we're sorry you had to deal with that initially but hopefully the message we sent very quickly was appropriate to get them out of our hair and last but certainly not least from my side i'd like to thank miss karen dewey i tell you you know just listening to the meeting tonight so far there's There's a lot out there, a lot of information. But I can tell you a fact, and a fact is Ms. Karen has supported myself, the deputies that work for the town of Weddington, and the sheriff's office as a whole more than we could ever ask. And I tell you, that kind of support and watching what she's done behind the scenes that people don't necessarily get to see, that's truly a blessing. You've truly got just a fantastic town administrator in her. And I know she's going to be successful. But like I said, I'm never a big fan of change. i don't think i got any choice in this one so um but miss karen thank you so much we had a chance to take her out to lunch and this is how great union county supports our law enforcement we took her out to lunch and before i could pay her bill somebody had already paid the entire tables and you know and they wouldn't tell us who did it and i'll tell you that's just how great we're supported here and we can't can't begin to tell you how much and that's everybody everybody in the room so once again thank you um if you have any questions for me directly i'm sure that either chief underwood or i or david can answer those questions but we love being here we love the support and chief underwood i'll turn it over to you quick question lieutenant sir how since summertime

How are people doing with the garage doors? You know, you guys used to say, you know, drive through a neighborhood and three o'clock in the morning, garage doors open and that kind of thing, you know, and that sort of created a problem with theft in the garage. Are people doing a little bit better with that?

a little bit a little bit the smart garage doors have helped us out some with the notifications on the phone i will say the last day of school is the fifth school already out in union county yeah my kids go to ua so we were out two weeks ago so my ibuprofen has already started for the summer but kids are out we love our kids we love our teenagers there's a couple things we're going to see an increase in naturally We're going to see an increase in car break-ins. We're going to see an entry in people running into garages and grabbing the beer out of the refrigerator or whatever cold drinks you have. And we're going to see an increase in some of this e-bike, e-moto activity. We're going to be out there addressing it. So we encourage you to call 911 quickly and we'll come out there and deal with it. But there's a lot of preventative things. And I appreciate you asking this question. A lot of preventative things we can do ahead of time. Number one, lock your car doors. Number two, close your garage doors. Number three, don't leave your gun, your keys, and your computer inside your car. If we can do those things, we can continue to keep an extremely low crime rate in this area. I say it all the time. I'm going to continue to say it. This is one of the safest areas and one of the safest counties of the state. And so I'm not going to say any more on that. I'm not going to steal the chief's thunder on that. But we are blessed to have a very safe community. And it's because we all work together. So lock those car doors, please. Last thing you do before you go to bed, as you let the dog out for the last time that night, listen to that car, make the horn sound or whatever, and just take those keys out. Because we have seen time and time again, if criminals come in this area, normally from Charlotte, a condor or handle and they find it on a lot are going to stay in that neighborhood. They go to three different homes, find the cars locked, they will move on. They realize there's no there's not a target here to be had so we can prevent it through proactive policing efforts and bad here.

But the other day I was down in Waxhaw and there was a group of kids came out of the road onto Providence Road through traffic had people dodging every which way and they went through the road doing this like they're on a motorcycle then took off up another side it was so dangerous i'm surprised nobody got hit but these e-bikes are very dangerous and i'm actually starting to see the small kids with those electric scooter things go flying and they don't stop at anything right one pulled out in front of me two days ago it it was a miracle i didn't hit this little kid he hadn't seen me yet go fast right they go fast so i appreciate what you're doing and it's it's uh the summertime's gonna be fun

Well, like I said, we're out there. You pay us to take care of it, and we're going to do that job. And I hope we've done it well for you so far and continue to do that. What I would suggest, once again, call 911 on a timely manner. Get us over there. Don't be scared to call 911 unless it's just pure nonsense. But if it's a legitimate need for law enforcement, call us. I've been to several HOA meetings where I've discussed the difference between e-moto's what they can do if somebody needs me to come out i'm happy to do that you know i'm happy to give out my cell phone number email email email number email address to anyone that needs it um education is obviously huge and then proactive enforcement on the other side which we're putting them on the back of tow trucks and just being the bad guy sadly that's not what we signed up to do but if they're not heeding the warnings we are going I tell the deputies all the time, they can either change their behavior or we're going to change it for them. In some cases, we've had to change it for them. So far, so good.

Let me make one more comment because this sort of goes with the law enforcement. Fourth of July is coming up. Please be respectful of your neighbors. I know people like to shoot off fireworks, but the ones that I call butterbusters out there that resonate from miles apart are really annoying, especially things that create shockwaves through somebody's neighborhood are not supposed to be they're not legal to begin with but be considerate of your neighbors and their animals because some people but they are notorious for shooting off those things and I end up with five dogs behind the couch and it's really just not good neighbors I'll just leave it at that so be respectful

thank you chief underwood thank you and deputy plowler thank you guys we're honored to have uh chief underwood to well be here tonight to share a little bit about the the deputy well it's not the deputy but really the sergeant yes sir that we're adding so

well thank you for for what you do and thank you for your continued support of law enforcement and public safety for this community and for your investment in public safety and and i applaud you for doing that for taking the lead um and and really what i wanted to do it's not so much a presentation but i know there were concerns and or questions about the increase in the service cost for this year and it was a little bit of a sticker shock and i'll just go ahead and tell you on the front side I'll apologize to you for us not getting ahead of that. We've had those communications behind the scenes with our county finance staff. We never know when they're going to send notification to your staff about what your cost might look like for the next fiscal year. We submit our budget request to the county management team. They vet it. We meet with those individuals. We come up with what we can both live with, if you will. And once that decision is reached, it goes to county finance. Then they do their work. And they communicate with the various towns about what that cost might look like. They don't tell us when they're sending that notification. So our plan was not to ambush you with that. That's not the way we like to work. I want to be transparent and be upfront about it. We did intend to communicate with you about why there was a need for that additional sergeant position to be shared amongst those five municipalities. So I apologize for you not getting that notification and having the opportunity to discuss it beforehand. but I can put that back in the box. That's how they did it. But nonetheless, hopefully you've received this, what I would call a decision paper. that i shared it with the mayor friday and asked them to the council and it gives you a little bit of background and context on why we have moved towards a direct supervision model for our small town contracts unit i'm going to call it but essentially what happened was with the continued growth of our small towns and the additional personnel added to some of these contracts and let's say small town unit i'm talking about weddington now wing it because wing it came online last summer once they abolished their police department we added four deputies down there we've continued to have two serving in marvin two serving in lake park and one serving in wesley chapel so those are the small town contracts group when we refer to small towns that's who i'm talking about so essentially what happened when you add all of those numbers together just numbers and personnel that's 14 people that really were supervised by four different lieutenants, eight different sergeants. So you're getting four different supervision styles, four different directives, and there's really no consistency. And we also had a lot of younger deputies who were assigned to these positions who need that more one-on-one supervision, that guidance, that employee development. so credit to lieutenant may it was his idea going back to last summer he volunteered to take on that role part-time to be the lieutenant of of this small town contract supervision and he wanted to do it sort of a trial and error to see how it worked what it looked like and and honestly i can't say i say too much about how good of a job james is doing already his head's already this big but but but honestly it worked so well that we realized this needs to be full-time because the span of control has gotten too large to give you context our average county patrol squad when fully staffed is 13 people that's a lieutenant two sergeants one canine and nine deputies when they're fully staffed that's 13 people one squad we have four county patrol squads now we're looking at 14 people that are assigned to small towns with no direct supervisor they have to have supervision. In other words, you want that increase in these preventive patrols. You want to see a difference in the speeders and the traffic enforcement, the things that this community has brought to our attention that are issues in this community or traffic. we needed that direct supervision model we brought lieutenant may it's worked incredibly well now the value of that is is we have not asked any of the towns to pay for any of that supervision or any of the salary benefits of lieutenant may the county has absorbed that we're continuing to absorb that even though all of his time is spent supervising personnel assigned to these contract towns Well, he's one guy. I know it doesn't seem like it, but he is. He tells me his cape never comes off, but it does. So on occasion, he's on vacation. He needs a break. We need to continue supervision. So he can work 40 hours a week. There's another 128 hours without that direct supervision. So we said, we need to add a sergeant. And the only fair way to do that is for that supervisor to be shared, the cost of that supervisor to be shared proportionately with the five small towns. guys are the largest so essentially the way it broke out or broke down was about seven percent per of the cost per deputy assigned to that township so it's about 35 36 i think for weddington and about 28 for wing it 14 for lake park and marvin and seven or so for west that was about the breakdown so the cost for that on that prorated 90 10 um percent the way we do it cost sharing with the county i think it was about a hundred and don't quote me on the numbers well maybe i have it right here but i want to think it it broke down to about 56 000 per quarter of just for the sergeant position so That was where the majority of the increase was in this next fiscal year's service cost, was for that additional sergeant position. Now we'll say this, to give you a little bit of relief on that, we don't plan to implement that July 1. We're targeting October 1 implementation. So that'll take that first quarter out of it. That'll reduce it by about $14,000. So it's about $14,216 per quarter for that sergeant position. we'll remove that we can't we're not even ready to implement it until October 1 so with that that's a little bit of the of the context in the background there is a need a great need for it I think it's proven it works it's been effective and so that's kind of where we are a couple questions I have

Well, does that include like a car as well? So your complete package per se? Complete package. Okay. Secondly is, since we are the largest, you know, municipality, I guess, would that deputy be here as you know in weddington from time to time does he does he you know if we were the higher percentage would he be here in weddington sort of i'm going to say covering weddington that certain percentage of time how does that work well it's a good question but now how we measure if if he's actually spending 36 percent of his time here or or seven percent in west western chapel obviously he's going to go where the need is the greatest so

you're the largest there's more going on here by just uh i think just by the way it's set up that there's a greater likelihood more time will be spent here than probably the other municipalities that that doesn't mean he won't they won't be in the other municipalities they will but i think it's there's really no exact way to measure it but it's it's just it's just the way it kind of works out it's a shared expense okay and i think our cost was 38 or something like that is that correct leslie for this sergeant well it was 50 i'm sorry it was 56 for the portion of the sergeant and we're going to back out 14 that'll bring it down 42.

Gotcha. So you're starting in October.

Yes, sir. But then the other increase was because you added two other deputies. They weren't a full year last year. So now you're looking at the full year funding. And also there was salary increase for depth factored into that. Gotcha. Okay. Gotcha. Yes, sir.

This is an odd question, but it's a detail that may, I mean, making it from both Leslie and And you as well. I'm kind of curious because, as Jim had asked, an automobile, a car, a vehicle is a part of this. Are we allowed to take a percentage of the depreciation of that cost?

No. The contract is pretty standard on those.

Even though that's a part of our expense. Okay.

and i will tell you as it really thank you for that mr smith because as it relates to the vehicle we a few years ago i think maybe three years ago we used to have the vehicle on a four-year replacement and then to in order to reduce that cost a little bit for the contracts we put it on a five-year schedule it just just because the vehicle cost kept going up We don't control that and those are manufacturers, but that vehicle itself is very expensive. And then the, all the equipment that goes into it, that costs more than the deputy itself, that, that vehicle is their office. So there's a lot of money that's invested in that car and the end of the equipment that they're wearing, the firearms and the computers, all that stuff. that's broken down even it is well some it's on a replacement schedule the vehicle is the biggest cost that's five years the weapons are usually either 10 or 15. the the body armor is a five-year replacement all of it has a replacement schedule that's how it's amortized yes ma'am okay any questions thoughts concerns it's been explained to me i don't have to like an increase as a as a resident of weddings i don't either it's just uh this hopefully though this is a i won't say it's a one-time it is a one-time you know uh jump it we won't do this again i don't say we won't ever do it again who knows with the continued growth but we don't foresee this in the near future i think we're set for a while with staffing we should be so i think we're in a good place and again i applaud you guys for taking the lead and investing in public safety that's like lieutenant may said you do have one of the safest communities and one of the safest counties we're saying a lot given what's right down the road there as we border one of the communities that's not a very safe community great please have the new sergeant come to a council meeting absolutely once we have that individual in place, we absolutely will.

You know, we add to the flock cameras too. Uh, and, uh, from what I understand, they've, they've worked pretty well for you guys.

Uh, that's, that is a game changer asset. That's a game changer.

Yeah.

Um, for everybody. And so the fact that we have, I know there's some pushback and some people criticize, the camera systems, but I could only imagine why you wouldn't want to live in a safe community, why you wouldn't invest in anything possible to keep this community safe. To me, I just shake my head at that, why you wouldn't.

I totally agree. I know Lieutenant May and Deputy Plowler have shared with me at times where, you know, someone's come through and into the town that you guys have been looking for. And within 10, 15 minutes, they have them in, you know, in cuffs. Yes. And, and that, and it's awesome. I mean, it's, uh, it's, it is a game changer.

They really are.

And for what we pay for it, it's, uh, It's worth its weight.

Hiring more deputies. Absolutely.

They work. They're effective. I'll just say this, too. I really appreciate what you guys do and what the deputies that we have here in town. I think we've got a great group. Just like you were saying, Deputy Plyler, Lieutenant May, I really appreciate them.

well we appreciate you guys continued support we thank you for what you do and anytime there's questions just ask and we'll get you an answer yes i'll say this the plot cameras are force multiplier yes sir we're very good and if you see a gap somewhere that you think that we need another one here or there I know we did some pretty strategic planning of where these are, but if the deputies are determined there's a spot that we ought to be concerned about, let us know.

Absolutely.

I've got one quick little question as well. Thank you so much for coming and explaining this. I greatly appreciate that. As Lieutenant May have mentioned, it's that time of year. is where we're getting the doorbells are ringing all the time. Literally, I have been talking to Leslie this afternoon to go through some questions on the budget, and ding-dong, my bell goes a-ringing. A big, aggressive person there. You heard me on the phone. I'm like, I don't have time. I can't talk to you. If you're selling me something, we're done. And so I'm kind of curious, with Wedding to Watch, one of the things that we had seen through ring doorbells, is that people were going door to door and they had sometimes checked underneath the mats or kind of touching around to see if there's a key somewhere. or they were spoofing things out. And so I had to have concerns about this door-to-door solicitation. I wanted to know what your perspective was, because one of the things we talked about even at our off-site was potentially one way we could do this is if somebody had a sign in the front door that there's no doors, it would say no solicitation. That's their signal of no solicitation. But if someone didn't have a sign, they'd be free to ring that doorbell. And so I wanted to get your perspective. Does it prevent anything from a crime perspective? What do you think about a door-to-door solicitation ban?

I think it's really up to the community. A lot of HOAs have no soliciting ban. rules i guess within their their covenants if you will um now we don't necessarily enforce those but there are there are ordinances that you could consider uh to prevent the no soliciting and and if it's posted or marked no soliciting then there's a potential enforcement mechanism but it's like lieutenant may said if you've told them no i'm not interested you know i'm not i don't want to buy it whatever and they continue to persist at that point it could become a trespass if you're asking them to leave they're not leaving just call 9-1-1 let a deputy respond because chances are if they're going door to door they're going to the next door and then we will get the description of who they are then we can have a conversation with them and make that decision on what we can trespass them from there and take enforcement action if necessary i have thought potentially though

these, you have to confront them though. And if we put an ordinance together, it kind of eliminates some of that confrontation. And so that was why I was interested in finding out more

You can minimize it. I don't know that you're going to prevent or stop all of it. Even if you have signage at the entrance to the neighborhood, no soliciting in this community, whatever, it may deter somebody. But a real aggressive door-to-door salesperson, they're just going to go right by that. but and again that's just if you're not comfortable answering the door then certainly don't if you don't answer the door and they don't leave and if you notice they're out there potentially looking under the flower pot or they're looking for what appears to be they're up to no good then call 9-1-1 hopefully they're on camera you got a recording what they're doing then we're going to encounter them right yeah just a suspicious person call and we'll we'll certainly respond and by having deputies 24 7 here you're going to get a pretty quick response we'll have somebody there pretty fast So don't open that door if you're not comfortable, especially after dark. So just let common sense prevail. Don't confront them. If you're not comfortable, just call 911. That's what it's there for.

Okay, cool. We'll be happy to confront.

Thank you so much. Okay, thank you all very much.

Honored to have you with us today. Thank you very much, Mayor. Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay, all right. We're going to move forward. The consent agenda, this approval of the – May 11th, May 19th, April 20th, special meeting minutes, approval of the closed session minutes from five or six dates, and approval of the fiscal year 2025-26 budget amendment. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion to adopt the consent agenda.

Okay. All in favor? Awesome. It's unanimous. The old business fiscal year 2026-27 budget ordinance and set rate at 3.5 and 2026-27 fee schedule. Thank you, Leslie, for all your hard work up front. I know I reached out to you one time and you're like, I'm busy crunching numbers. So I know it's a lot of work.

I was in it that day.

It's hard. So thank you. And so I'll let you lead the way here.

Sure. You have in your packets the proposed fiscal year 27 budget. It's a total of $3,160,000. Tax rate remains unchanged at 3.5 cents. You have a draft ordinance that you can approve. It's included, you'll approve it at the department level. There is a line item budget just for your review as to how we got to those department numbers. And then as always at the very back was the list of the discretionary items that we went through and that are included in the budget. The one, there's a couple things that I'll address right now. One is obviously salaries. We have the planner and the administrator clerk budgeted at their annual full salary. Once that situation is resolved, we will do a budget amendment to reclass between, you know, we have an interim consultant that we're going to hire to fill that position for a while. We'll, we'll move the money where it needs to move, but I don't think it's going to change the total amount. So, and then the other thing I want to draw your attention to is in the, um, salary adjustments for the year, there is a staff, um, adjustments at five percent and there's also an adjustment for you guys for planning board council and mayor and the number that is in the um non the proposed non non-operating expenses it's just a little bit short of what when we did ellen went and did a comparison with other municipalities of your size and in the area And, but it's only like a $5,000 difference. So we will just reclass that from another line item. So it's not going to change the budget. And we includes the increase in the deputies that as to what we have been told it is. And it was pretty much a relatively simple year as far as nothing new is going on this year, which is good. We didn't have any revals, we didn't hire any new deputies. So it was pretty straightforward budget. If you have any questions, now's the time.

I'm going to say up front, you know, I read through this. I looked through all of it. And sometimes I'm like, oh, my gosh, how do you do it? So I appreciate what you do. So thank you. And I will say this, you know, Weddington has always been known as a very well run town. Like what Tom was saying earlier about even just what we have, you know, in our cash is just, you know,

uh and keeping a low tax rate and not raising taxes it's just again my hat's off too so thank you oh and i do one one other thing i would like to say just to remind everybody this is the general fund budget this does not include our skiff grant and any special revenues that park but that is not in this encompassed in this budget cool thank you all right i've got just some general questions topics um

So, first of all, let everybody know Leslie and I had a chance to talk today and I really appreciated that. I went through some of my. super detailed questions like what is line you know 1042 226 or whatever and and i said i don't know so i greatly appreciated that little the minutiae that we went through and some things one of the things that um i had kind of looked through when i looked at the um the proposed budget bigger summary page it looked like the zoning dollar figure was going down from last year to this year and i figured i kind of was guessing where you were going and why it was going down but i wanted you to maybe explain to everybody why it seemed like it

yeah one of the things that yeah i put at the front of every budget and even on the budget measures we budget revenues conserve we budget revenues and expenditures conservatively we don't want to budget any money that we don't know is going to come in the door and we want to budget any expenses at as high as we think they would be for subdivision and permit revenue if it's not in the pipeline i don't i can't guarantee you that that money is coming in the door so i don't budget it unless i i know it's there yeah right and so like for this year we had like morris farms come in so that money came in the door but we didn't know that at july 1 of last year so it wasn't in the budget yeah and i want to thank leslie she sat down with me last week we had a good discussion she answered all my questions very well and she does a very very good job

in making sure we stay out of trouble. I try. You say conservative, I can say cautious or whatever on estimating our revenues. We work very carefully at the expenses. And we question expenses. And we are not going to spend a penny more than we need to

done a very good job of identifying the expense projected expenses right and that's what a budget is and if things change we will adapt right because it's it's for a whole year and when we we try to put you know like we have like other consulting because sometimes we know that at some point during the year we're likely to to get something done and so we try to have just enough of those things in there to get us through the year without having to make major adjustments but

What spurred me down this path was I'd asked last month, when was the last time that mayor or council or planning board had received an adjustment in terms of their statement? And you said that it was And in all honesty, which spurred this as well, was knowing that we have a planner vacancy and that we will need to fund that. And unfortunately, we're very sad to see Karen go and our administrator will be leaving. So I wanted to make sure we're also competitive with neighbors. So I started to dig into, I think you gave me the NCLM documentation that listed out all of the municipalities across the entire state. And so I started to kind of dig through to see what are the estimates for the costs for their planners? What are the estimates for the costs for their administrators? Because I want to make sure we're also competitive. We're going to be competing with them to fill our spots and we need to make sure that we get the best people possible. But then it also made me think, knowing that we haven't had any adjustments since 2012, wanted to see well what did other municipalities do and so as i started to dig through i did analyze um 28 municipalities under 5 000 in population to use that as a benchmark and i looked at anything from 10 000 to 20 000 because that's how it's broken out and then i looked at everybody in wuma And I wanted to kind of throw it out there to say we should maybe discuss. Here's the document that I found. I basically crunched all of the numbers to see. Current mayor's salary is $6,000 here. The WOMA average is $9,969. If I looked at the average population of all 28 municipalities that documented with a population of 5,000, it's at 8,705. So if we started to talk about and think about if we adjusted just for CPI, like what is the inflation increase since 2012 to now, it would basically put us at 8,700. And I did the same then for council because we're talking 14 years. And so I wanted to kind of throw it out there for discussion to see what did you guys think? What is your perspective? Feedback.

look at this position whatever they give us four or five hundred dollars a month it's basically gas money to go around town to come here to go to go to events meetings wherever you go it's not a real salary it is just a reimbursement for expenses stipend a stipend effectively because i would never work full-time for you know what is that four thousand eight hundred dollars personally but it is enough to gas at four dollars a gallon and wear and tear on a vehicle it is tough and and it's and it's a lot of time it's not just i'm showing up here on uh well and we're in a very period right now yeah and i think it's going to continue to be that way is my concern yeah so i i think you've got to have an adjustment sometime and there's never a good time there's never a good time politically there's never a good time And what you're looking here in a budget of three odd million dollars is a very small amount. It's not a significant impact on our budget.

And it would still not even bring us up to average of WOMA.

And you're about the average of a town well smaller than us.

The lowest I saw was I think Newton and that had like, I think it had a stipend of $2,400. but there were some and many, many significantly higher as well. And so I looked at the median, I looked at the mode, I looked at the mean, you know, so, and this is kind of what made the most sense in terms of trying to pull the numbers.

So you went, you really went conservative.

Yes. Yes. Conservative and went with CPI versus trying to get to the median. Correct. So, I mean, that's, I mean, I talked to one of my friends in Rotary, she's a town council person, Eastern part of the state and a town of 500 and they get paid about what we do. So I just, you know, you look at it, it's, it's, it's, it's get around money is all this. And it is, you know, it's not a full time position for anybody. It's a get around money and just,

yeah it's almost becoming full time for me so many the mayors are here you know i can tell you the amount of time you put into it it's crazy it's a lot of time and i we go to meetings together we do and i'm here almost i have meetings or phone calls emails every day it's it's not come up here and just make a some people think let's come up here and make a decision on once a month no it's every day is are these numbers in the current budget as you presented

That was what I was saying. The, the budget includes 8,100, the, the cost plus the payroll taxes associated with this, what's going to be about 14,000. So almost $5,500 short, but they also had not had an increase.

I think they make $50 a month to go to at least 75.

So we put in $75 for the planning board, but the planning board does only get paid if they're at the meeting. Yes. And we have had currently everyone is getting paid, but we've had some planning board members in the past who have refused. You know, said no, they don't want it. They're donating it back, basically.

Right.

So, but planning board numbers don't, they don't, they're not enough to affect the budget at all. So.

So would we need to do something to amend this or can that be?

No, no. Because it's done on a department level and we wouldn't have to change the department budget, the budget as presented is, totally encompasses this. Okay. So.

And to stress again, we're doing all this tonight, even this conversation here. There's no tax increase. No tax increase. 3.5.

Correct.

And we're still in awesome shape.

were in good shape we're running running a little leaner than we have in prior years but that's a good thing so yeah well yeah it's supposed to be a balanced budget and and where it's close to it as we've been in a while yeah yeah and like i said earlier i wasn't exaggerating uh you know other towns have come to us and said how in the heck do you guys do it we can't do it without taxes every year and you even have a 3.5 and we're they were like

way higher and you still couldn't do it and so obviously i was talking to one of them in the west i guess it was the mayor of the western chapel their their rates two and a half cents if i remember correctly one deputy and no trash right yeah think about that yeah one deputy so i would like to make a motion to adopt the new uh stipends for mayor council and

I'm sorry, go ahead.

This is going to have to be part of the budget.

Under North Carolina law, you can only raise your pay at budget time. So we are gonna have to have a formal adoption of this budget with the new salary amounts specifically stated. So even though the money's in the budget won't really change it, we do need to make sure that that is done live when the budget's adopted tonight.

So adopt the budget as presented, including the council and mayor council increases as discussed.

And that will be your motion.

And that's when the motion would be relevant. That's when we would want to do that motion. So if you are in agreement, that's how we can do the motion to pass the total budget.

Yeah.

And give me the number so I have them. It's going to be 87 for the mayor. Are we looking at that?

Yeah, 87 for the mayor.

8705 and 6960. accounts and 75 for the planning board members per month that's per month per meeting i should say per meeting monthly meeting yes and this is annual yeah it's not a month it's not whatever it's an annual deal so it doesn't know that

All right, that makes me happy. We'll just we'll do that when we when it comes time to actually vote. We'll work on that motion so that it includes that additional language.

Nope, you have to have a public hearing.

Yes, we have to have public hearing, and so I'm open public hearing. So are you guys you're finished presenting, so I'm going to open up public hearing. Do we have anybody signed up for public hearing? No? Okay.

All right.

Sure. Go ahead.

Well, as everyone, I'd like to thank Leslie for doing such a great job. And Ellen, thank you for this long overdue.

Thank you, Nancy. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. that's and that's all we'll have for public uh public hearing um i'm gonna close public hearing then public hearings closed we've sort of done our discussion consideration i guess right any anything else you want to add think about ask leslie at this point uh after thoughts um okay then can i get a motion to adopt the agenda as uh presented with the uh

So the motion would be to adopt the budget ordinance as presented with the inclusion of increased salaries for board members as follows. Mayor $8,700 annually, council members 69.60 annually and $75 per meeting for planning board. And set the tax rate at 35 cents. three point five three and a half sorry i live in mecklenburg county um so okay three and a half seconds and um uh then the fee schedule are we adopting the fee schedule also tonight yeah and adopt the fee schedule as presented okay you're gonna do a motion all right so we have a motion to adopt okay all in favor

unanimous we've we've adopted it as presented and stated by uh our attorney so yes very rich this time yes we're gonna go way up there um so and okay all right we're gonna move forward uh zip code resolution um Just to give you, you know, we've had, and I won't go ramble on about it, but as you know, we've been working on a zip code, a unique zip code for Weddington for quite a while, for a year, a little over a year maybe. And so back July 21st last year, it passed the House, two-thirds vote. So we've been pushing it, trying to get it before the Senate. to get it because, you know, you've ever heard expression of take an act of Congress. Well, this is going to take an act of Congress to get it changed. And so so everybody's been working on it. We've been working on it, trying to push it to get before the Senate with and really get our our senators, but until us to sponsor the bill, to support the bill, and to vote for it. I think it just has great benefits for the town. I don't see any downsides. So many people have reached out to me email-wise and whatnot, like, how can I help? What can I do? And we got an email back on May that this is potentially going to go, this is from, they have Senators Joni Ernest, Senator Alex Padilla, Senator John Brasso, and Senator Michael Bennett, Michelle Bennett rather. And this is going to go before the Senate, hopefully June or July of this year. And so we've done a resolution in support of that. I'm asking the residents of Weddington, if you can, if you will, please reach out to Senators Budd and Tillis and tell them to support Senate Bill 4505, um what has happened the uh they've combined two bills uh senate bill 1455 incident bill 2961 into one bill of senate bill 4505 4505 to push this forward so if you can please reach out and tell our senators to support this bill and uh and to vote for it so uh we've got to get this you know past the uh past the senate and uh in this session because when the elections come if it doesn't get past both houses you start over again exactly and that's what happened last time it ended uh at the end of the session and it died so we don't want this bill to die uh we don't normally take questions but i'll take your question sir but uh

Jay Miller, can you explain, because I understand the desire for you to zip code. What's the impact to a small business owner who's got a lot of printed material, multiple online presences, will the WACSA 28173 continue to work? Or does it have to be scrapped and we have to redo all our printing and online?

Yes. So, so way it works is if, if it passes Senate, it they'll take, it'll give you two years to fade. It's a phase in just like Tom said, and they'll give you two years to convert everything over. So they're not like, they're not gonna like bam. And you've got, you know, your, your present zip code doesn't work anymore. It won't work that way. We will not need to build a new post office or a post office in town. Exactly. So at some point you will probably have to get down the road, get your zip code changed, but it's going to be a phase in over a number of years to do that. It will solve a lot of problems for the town because we have a lot of problems. And I hear where you're coming from.

As a resident, I'm all for it.

Yeah.

as someone who's been in business on the internet for 20 years.

Yeah. no i hear you and it's for some in my inconvenience i think for for the greater good of the town uh we've just had a lot of problems we we have residents just right down here in uh stratford-on-providence uh just a couple hundred yards down that claim they live in waxall and uh and they'll argue with you that they live in waxoff because they have a waxall address and then they don't they live here in weddington so there's a lot of confusion i use this as an example it's a lot of confusion i was just wondering how it unfolds yeah it is a replacement not an option yes yes okay yeah right with the phase in with the phase in over a number of years right so that's how to work okay we'll but we'll see if it happens so i mean don't hold your breath so i'm i'm asking everybody to reach out and support it yes And I've had people reach out and say, we've been wanting this for years. And so thank you for doing this. So let's just see.

By what date do people need to come and reach out?

Immediately, because it could go anytime to the Senate. And just like this bill that Tom mentioned tonight, they can throw it into another bill with like 1,400, 14 different things in it and pass that one.

I did read today online that there is a 12% chance of it being heard and adopted. So if you're in support of it, I strongly recommend to reach out to the senators.

Yes, please reach out to your senators because we want this. And Congressman Mark Harris has done a phenomenal job in supporting this. He's the one that pushed it to get us on there, get us a part of it, and spoke before on the House floor about Weddington and our need for it. and so and it passed by two-thirds votes so uh it's like karen said please reach out folks if you're you know watching for us to do this yes so can i get a motion to adopt the zip code resolution yes okay and all in favor unanimous okay and uh so karen we'll talk more about getting it to you know to our congressman we're going to our senators we're going to send this to our senators and uh in support of the town and then those

tonight is a little bit of an unconventional night and we're taking some questions from the audience yeah we've done a little different bill and i have the same question so do you want me to go to the microphone please do yeah we've been unconventional tonight with everything so hey you know way to be adaptive we're making it work um the question is do we know what else is in this 4505 bill that we've been attached to because there might be things in that bill that people may not support and we might Oh, I thought you said they got combined.

Two bills got combined. They could dump it into a known, but this is a standalone.

This is a standalone specific thing.

Yeah.

The zip code is standalone. In the U.S. Senate, what I've talked about.

No, I know what that is because I screenshotted it and sent it to Mayor Bell and asked.

I don't doubt, just like these other things that we talked about with Tom, this could be dumped into another bill.

But the 4505 is a standalone bill only involving zip codes, so people don't need to be concerned with other legislation that they may not be in support of.

There's a huge list of accounts included. yeah okay all zip code is the topic yes and you would recognize a bunch of these towns that don't have their own zip codes yeah so yeah okay make a comment that when i lived over where blakeney is now i had three different zip codes while i went there so crazy things move around whether you want to or not sometimes it's crazy yep so all right we're good with that we're going to move forward discussion of a consideration of the uh

administrator slash clerk job description and um can that get arrested any kind of discussion on that you know do you have any uh problems with that i've read through it i don't have any problems with it and this is what we're going to use to post for the position correct exactly and it is a position for one person as administrator and clerk exactly so are we looking to

Do we think that we should have one role then for the administrator and the clerk again?

Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. One person. You can have separate descriptions for different parts of the job.

Right.

Because sometime 10, 15, 20 years down the road, maybe we do split like some towns do and split the positions, but at least you have identified what would be the posting for is a joint position as administrator clerk.

Just like it is now.

Like it is now.

Yeah.

It just outlines specifically, here's the administrator function, here's the clerk function, that's what we have in here and it's outlined. It may be what you did in future ready in case the time comes, but right now is not the time to do that.

And part of me is like, it may make sense longer term just for job description duties to have one clerk and one administrator, but we haven't really had the discussions either

need to at this time I think in the future as the town grows and gets more complicated that may come to pass but right now what we're looking to do is fill a position with an administrator slash clerk the job description lays out what the administrator does and the clerk does but we're hiring one person so just question

Karen is hard to replace. Is it typical that someone is an administrator and a clerk? Or are they predominantly, like, do 90% of the people, are they administrators? And only 10% are administrators slash clerks? from a designation standpoint.

I mean, Whittington's very unique. It's a very, you have a very, very, very, very, very, very, very small staff. Right. And the administrator clerk job tends to marry well together. If you only need one, one person for those two positions, this town, when I started working here, had a planner administrator position.

So do they need special, like, I don't know, education or backup work? documentation or whatever to do both of those jobs.

The administrator doesn't generally have a specialty or a certification, but the clerk does have a certification.

And so my question is, are most administrators going to be clerk certified?

We'll find out.

The person needs to be is what it boils down to. If we're going to advertise, that's one of the things you have to do. Certifiable, let's just put it that way. In small towns, people wear multiple hats, and that's very common that people have different

multiple titles when you have a staff of six people or whatever we have here yeah you wear multiple hats and clerks in larger towns often have multiple roles so some clerks will do hr and some clerks will do executive assistant to the town manager so that most clerks have a very um

broader broader a broad base of tasks yeah i'm saying this my wife's probably watching on tv right now but in a former life she was the tax collector tax collector and the clerk of a small town in new york so yeah this is very common that you could have i just want to make sure that we're not pigeonholed by far the majority of the time it has been a administrative clerk

and then the few years that it was not it was playing their administrator because they were much smaller periods of time than overall yeah so we can function well like we're doing now and you know that's how we keep our taxes low and that's what we want to do and just keep it efficient that's that's our that's our plan you know

I think what we need to do is lay out the job description nicely. And if we have somebody we like, there could always be negotiations. I'll just say that in what we do. But we have to get the person to negotiate with first.

Right.

So I think in this day and age, to make myself sound like an old fogey, the group that's coming up, the clerks that are out there are more MPAs and have a little bit, I don't mean to sound like that, but are a little bit more ambitious and look at a job like this. And I hate to say it, but more of a stepping stone, but it's appealing because it gives them the experience they need for the administration of a town and they still have the clerk duties. Thank you. Perspective. Okay.

I make a motion we adopt the job description as stated and have Karen post the position.

Any direction on salary?

I would probably use what's in the budget as a guidance range. Would that not be appropriate? Salary can always be discussed if you have the right person.

okay all right uh more or less qualified gotcha yeah motions make it in favor okay it's unanimous okay all right we'll move forward uh update on the vacancy uh district three seat uh i think we've uh we've talked about it and we're we're going to extend that until this coming friday the june 12th june 12th After that, that's it. We're just going to cut it off. Yeah, we've got to start into the interview process, and we can't beyond that. We're just, you know, I'm just going to be blunt. You're wasting your time because we've got to have a deadline on this. So we've extended it many times. And so if you don't know you want to do it, then you probably don't do it if you haven't waited this long. So June 12th, this coming Friday, we have to have it in our hands before then. So, uh, uh, but we have some great candidates already.

So, you know, if you want to throw it out there, let's go for it because, Hey, you know, and if people are curious, have questions, want to know anything, feel free to reach out to us too. We're happy to feel that, you know, anything in terms of what we know. So our emails are on the website.

Yep. We have a five or six good candidates right now. So come on. Anybody else? Okay. No vote needs to be had on that. It's just an update. New business discussion of possible consideration of public engagement with LaBella. And that's LaBella with our park. And so anybody will lead that conversation? I can if you don't.

So I took a chance to... I just posted the opportunity to really dig into this. I did have some concerns. I spent many years in market research, working for large advertising agencies, working for Fortune 500 companies. One of the things from a research perspective that you usually start with are your research objectives. Usually you outline what questions are you trying to answer and how you're going to get to them. And I have concerns about how this is written on the phase one vision alignment. Specifically, this area is, it says that the phase or duration is two weeks long. And it basically is looking for collaboration. And it uses this, I don't know, it uses updated survey to bring awareness to community engagement. And it uses quotation marks around the word service. So I don't know, a normal research paper would include like your objectives, as I mentioned, your scope of work. How many mailings would be, you know, postcards would go out to try to get participation from respondents. How, Is this going to be an online survey? How is it going to be implemented? None of those questions have been answered for me. And that I would like to see a revised scope of work before I can even answer if we should go forward with something like this because it leaves too many questions as to what are they truly delivering.

Can you send me your questions and I can get them to them?

Happily. I just think they need a market researcher to look at this to tell us, you know, out of a town of, you know, 14,500, how many postcards would they send out? How many times would they do that? It seems like even just from a timeline perspective, usually it would take two weeks to write up what the survey would look like. They have this implemented and completed within two weeks.

I don't think so. They were saying that when I spoke with them for some clarification on it, the timeline is not set in stone. Because I didn't understand that either. It takes longer than that. But I know they weren't expecting to have it done like that.

Yeah, that would be helpful. I'm happy to supply my questions. Yeah.

like to see scope of work and research objectives i just don't feel that this is maybe reaching our um what we're hoping to accomplish one once we get that clarified the reason for doing this is because concerns of people had at the last community meeting which was the second community meeting technically about the park and what wanted to be done on the park people felt there was not enough input or whatnot and i think at the last meeting karen how many people showed up besides council and staff 10 10 people probably showed up and uh outside people and they said well this that or the other we didn't have enough input or this that the other so to satisfy those handful of people we were looking at the concept of spending a considerable amount of money to do another survey even though there's one been done a few years back with the land use plan and one before that there's two things that go back historically you know about parks and whatnot and the concept here is what would you like in a park a park is a basic function of a town it's one of those this is what towns do they provide open space recreation etc etc for a time that is what that's one of the functions of a municipality is part of this contract goes to redesign what they proposed initially which was pretty modernistic and not in fitting with the town vision even though we told them i know i told them they should model their design after the age style and look of town hall in the surrounding historic buildings they didn't listen i'll just leave it at that they went award-winning uh park design survey you know park design But, so part of it is to fix that. So part of this is for a survey to ask the people what do they want to see over there, and the other is to update the design based on that. That is my understanding. Is that correct, Karen?

Yes, sir. To create the actual documents that they will use for our conditional zoning application. So it will have. Right.

And the prints may need to change. Architectural stuff changes. This, that, or the other changes.

Right. Because we're not far enough along, even into, I've asked developers, you know, Can you give me an idea on what this would cost? And I can't get anybody because we're not far enough down the road. We don't have this information. So I've asked several, you know, can you just give me an idea of what you think this might cost? And nobody can do that because we're not far enough along. And let me say this also, too. This will be used with grant money. This is not used for taxpayer money. This is grant money to do this. Okay.

But I also think as part of the survey design, I'm not opposed to a park, right? I just want to make sure that if we go forward with the park, that we deliver what the residents want. And as part of that, I want to make sure that if it seems like many people are really interested in phase one and phase two, but not phase three, we may be able to kind of tease that out of the survey results. And I think

Well, I don't even know if we're talking about phases at this point.

I think it's the idea of what do people envision being over there.

That's what it is. And that's all automation.

Yeah. And that's what it is.

To me, there's no talks of phases, so we don't know what phases are.

You don't know how to phase them if you don't know what you're going to have.

Right.

I mean, you look at it from that point of view. But I would say, I don't know, I'm guessing a large portion of and the survey itself is not a huge component of the dollar amount request. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. So you get the survey, community asks for it, we do it, we look at the results, plans get modified or updated and put back into a format because I think, Carrie, you told us we could not apply for that grant or get accepted for that grant until we have actually an approved by council plan yes sir to do that right and that was a the parks and recreation oh yes sir sorry yeah yeah it met with matching funds the matching funds half a million dollars we take a half of ours and they give us a half so that's a million dollars or whatever that would be over there yes and you go from there but you have to have that you got to have a parks events parks committee which we now have and you got to have an approved plan to apply but this would be again next year calendar year correct yes sir and the um it includes scope also includes the uh the sharing of the the survey results and uh meetings to

present the public engagement results and a couple of meetings, open house type things.

Yeah. But I guess the question of actually how it's done, is that really more details other than do we need to have everything ironed up front or is there areas where we can say, we want to make sure this

is there enough in the contract or has it got to be clarified further in your opinion i think if you guys want it clarified further we should get it clarified further okay okay so so how do you proceed with this right now you you're not coming so i i think we table it until we can get a revised proposal in terms of the

You make sure the survey part is done to your satisfaction. I'm not a survey person.

That it's flushed out properly.

okay we know exactly what we're getting in there deliver can you get with karen here okay all right so we're going to make a motion to table it okay all in favor assume okay it's something it's unanimous to table this and we'll move forward so you guys just connect on that if you don't mind um discussion of the uh

uh swca scope of work for environmental surveying i know tom you've been working on this and have a lot of input asking for this for several years since i've been here i think it's very critical important for us to know what we have and for our future planner to know what they are dealing with when it comes to environmental stuff in our town sensitive areas and whatnot this is a pretty expensive all-inclusive contract i want to have something like this done my concern today is i would like to push this off until we have a planner in place and then have that person's input into what this scope of work is to make sure it's what they feel we need i want to do this in general terms but i want a professional person in this to make sure we're getting what we need or they need. And so I will be fully supportive of this if once we have not a contract planner, but a full-time on-staff planner, look at this and bring this up hopefully this fall to review again, once that person's in place and has time to look at this and give their input. It could be something this person may be trained to do portions of this and we don't have and we don't have to have test three or four or whatever yeah they may not have to do this this or this i have no idea but some people are trained in different things and i don't want to pay for something we don't need or they don't think we need it but i think it's a great reservoir of information that the planner would have when a developer comes in and says i'm going to develop this parcel of property they can go to this database, pull it up and let them know upfront, well, you have to worry about X, Y, and Z that's on this property. Just be aware of it and put that into your planning. And it's kind of no different than the tree ordinance in a way where we say, developer, you do your tree survey. We're going to have somebody look behind you to make sure you're doing it right. well we've done the basic work up front to know where a lot of these issues are and make sure they address them up front that's where i see it and especially when you're looking at watersheds and and you know water quality sedimentation all of that they can identify these things plus the planner will not only have perspective but every project that comes through when they start this

project from beginning to end they will every new development that comes through they'll have that as a reservoir they can take ownership and be a part of it so I think it creates more holistic view of our whole town so that's great because what this development here affects this down here and this one comes in and impacts on fire and everything it cascades down as we know everything runs downhill right Rusty it runs downhill so

but i i i love the idea i want that something like this done in the near future but i want to have the whoever our planner may be input to make sure this is what exactly we need okay can i get a motion into table i make a motion to table this until we have a planner who has had time to review the contract and i would tell swca that we're not rejecting them we're just putting on hold until we get a planner to be able to review this is that fair enough karen sir okay all right i know a lot of work went into this but i i want this to be done it's just a matter i want to make sure we do it spend our money wisely okay and we're the motion is to table to some future date not a particular date with some future date okay once we have a planner

Okay. And you've made the motion all in favor. All right. So it's unanimous. So we're tabling this and we're going to move forward. The acceptance of resignation of town administrator slash clerk, Karen Dewey effective June 12th, 2026. Do we have to? Okay. Would you like to say something before? Can I get you to come to the podium? I know it's tough.

I was thinking I would wait until the last. All right. Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to you tonight. It has truly been

It's my honor to serve the town of Weddington for the past nine years. I'm sorry, I thought I was gonna do this, okay. I'd hoped to walk into retirement from here, but I've been offered an opportunity that I cannot pass up in a role where I can continue my public service. Local government work is challenging in ways most people never see. The employees who serve this town work hard every day under increasing pressure, scrutiny, and criticism When rumors, speculation and misinformation replace thoughtful discussion, it becomes difficult for us, the elected officials and the residents to work toward common goals. And I hope this town continues to value not only transparency and accountability, but also the professionalism, expertise and civility, because it's those qualities that are essential to effective local government. So I would really like to thank my team, Jaslyn, Leslie, Kim, Debbie, Karen and our fabulous deputies, Weddington Town Hall runs like a well-oiled machine, despite what you may read on social media. And it is the credit to these amazing folks. Strong organizations rely on professional and knowledgeable staff. I would like to thank the many quiet supporters out there. Your words of encouragement and gratitude have been appreciated. And I know there are a few vocal friends that may be happy to know I'm leaving. And to you all, I simply say you're welcome. I am grateful to those who placed their faith in me by appointing me to this position as the town administrator and clerk. Mayor Liz Callis, Mayor Pro Tem Janice Probst, council members Mike Smith, Jeff Perryman, and Ann Pruitt. It has been a great ride. I've really enjoyed doing this. I leave with sincere gratitude for this council, your willingness to serve the public often in what can be a very difficult and thankless role, especially in these times. Mayor Bell, I appreciate our recent conversations and I wish you and Mayor Pro Tem Smith and Council Member McLaughlin the best of luck moving forward in the best interests of all the Weddington residents and to do so by leveraging the skills and expertise and insights of your experts on staff. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And for all the kindness you've shown me.

I want to say we're going to miss you. And Phil, your shoes, we just can't. And I want to say thank you for all you've done. I know it's been like herding cats with us at times, and I get that. And I want to thank you for all the times I've just busted into your office and said, how do I do this? How do I do that? And you can't do it that way, or you can't, or you can't. You've been such a... blessing to me helpful and uh and it's just uh you've been incredible and that's an understatement so thank you for all you've done for this town for all these years and and um and i just i i i'm gonna be i'm gonna end i i'm gonna tell um i'm gonna tell your future mayor that if it doesn't work out to send you back So Mayor Murray has a has a good one. So thank you. You guys want to say anything?

Ladies first.

So, Karen, I know I kind of pulled you aside earlier today. It has been quite a journey being new on council, not knowing my way around all of this. You have been like the flashlight in the darkness. I appreciate all that you've done truly to show me the way. I'm going to miss you and really, truly I'm sad for us, but really so happy for you because you will grow and continue to change and have some really exciting times ahead. So I'm thrilled with, you know, truly

regret that um that we're losing you so thank you for your service okay tom yeah karen thank you for your service you've been very helpful the two and a half almost three years that i've been on council you are the one if we have a question we go to you know everything and what not all of y'all do a great job. We're gonna, it's gonna be whoever gets into that position has huge, huge shoes to fill. And it's going to be very, very difficult for them for a while. And I'm counting on the staff to help whoever that person is. We're gonna miss you. Waxhaws getting the winter. Unfortunately, we are losing a star in my opinion and to finish this conversation because we need to do it I'm going to begrudgingly make a motion that we accept Karen's resignation effective June 12th as she requested and it is with sad regrets that I have to make that motion yeah and reluctantly I would say you know all in favor

unfortunately yeah so we're grudging unfortunately yeah i think the beauty is this won't be the last dc of me good i'm just down the road okay i think we're going to be calling yes we probably yeah we'll probably all be calling her so eventually be like what now you know

We're going to be on call block. Yeah. We're going to be on the spam list.

Yeah. Okay. So we're going to move forward. Code enforcement report.

In the packets. There was an email this morning that I sent to you all regarding the report from inspections on Friday. So we are moving forward with certain notices of violation and inspections for later in the month.

Okay. all right um and that that's good anything with that okay all right uh the update from our finance uh and tax collector i'm going to come to the mic so we can all hear you thank you leslie you have the monthly statements in your packet we are now in the last month of the year so

it is what it is at this point so um i did i'm playing phone tag with the lgc they have the audit contract for the new auditor i talked to the new auditor monday and she once that contract gets approved is ready to come out she feels confident that she can get our audit done and submitted by june 30th yes so we are very hopeful that the lgc will move quickly with approving that contract and that is all i have the lgc knows the urgency that we have i say they they do so but the one thing i do want to make sure that you're aware of is on the off chance and i should know before june 30th we would need to file an appeal if we don't get that audit submitted so I will keep you updated on how the situation goes.

I have a question.

Well, like I said, I played phone tag today. So I left a message for the LGC contact to call me tomorrow morning on my cell phone. So hopefully I'll know something about that. It's related because we still have an outstanding contract with the old auditor that needs to be terminated and how that works. I don't know.

on this subject do we need to authorize leslie to file the appeal if it looks like preemptively approve an appeal in case it's needed or do you go ahead and just do that do it or do we need to give instruction or what do we need

You might have to call a special meeting. In the event we need one for this purpose. Let's try that and see what happens. But it'll depend on what the LGC requires of us at the time.

because I'd like to give her the power to file the appeal. Yeah.

Yeah, I hear you. Yeah. And so let's do it. And I'm not sure that if it will, we will confirm that this is going to be an OK way to do it. If not, we're going to have to call a special meeting.

Can we do it if it's not? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

But yeah, what I will do, too, is if we do not have an auditor in here, I would say the 20th of the month. It's pretty quick turnaround. They're usually usually only a day of field work and then she can just drop the financials. But if she, if we are not able to get started by that date, I will go ahead and and let you guys see what it says. we can take it from there oh but how much notice to personally in two days okay okay so you have to review the statement after it's done before we approve it yeah yes but we just have to get it submitted to them june 30th okay they're reviewed there yeah this full state yeah yeah so yeah we just have to hit the send button to them by yeah you'll still have time after that too but i'm going to go ahead and get proactive on what that response would be so hopefully we won't need it we'll have it in case okay can i get a motion to give her approval okay you think for us to make a motion it is

yeah we're going to do it and then if there are more steps required when we get closer to it we will come back and and do it the way that the lgc requires us that we authorize leslie to prepare the appeal i guess it's called an appeal that for late filing in their bit that we don't have somebody in place in time to do and file it i would i would also i would act yeah yeah correct okay

okay so it's unanimous on that so you know go ahead and whatever you need to do leslie thank you thank you so much okay um update from our town administrator um at the may planning board meeting the planning board forwarded the toll brothers morris farm project to the council with a recommendation for approval and that will come before the town council when we have a planner um that was all they discussed i have a little update on the potter and forest lawn roundabout the right-of-way is completed the utilities are the movement of the utilities started this month uh preliminary engineering will be completed in december construction will start in june of 27 and that's actually two years from the original projected date so um and i believe we have paid all of our money unless it goes over i'm pretty sure we've paid yeah june 27th coming up JUNE 2027. A YEAR FROM NOW. SO IT WAS ORIGINALLY SUPPOSED TO BE DONE, STARTED IN MAY OF 2025, SORRY. BUT IT'S BEEN PUSHED AROUND. THEY RAN INTO A LOT OF PICKUPS WITH THE RIGHT-OF-WAY ACQUISITION.

ANYTHING ELSE?

THAT'S IT.

Okay. Uh, update for the, uh, park and events committee. And, uh, this past, uh, Monday, they had their first meeting with everyone and, uh, I was here and, uh, everybody's sworn in they're there. They just hit the ground running a lot of great suggestions, comments, ideas flowing. And I'm going to ask Gail to come up, prepare the mic to sort of give us an update on that. Cause she's the, uh, Gail Butler's the chair of the, of the committee. and uh and so but that i think they uh i'm excited about all the stuff they're coming up with uh so uh you know for the uh parking events advisory board told what you got thank you town council thank you well let's talk about something happy we had our first meeting on june 1st uh

We had our total board there. It was magnificent. We accomplished a lot of things. And first of all, we're gonna start off on July the 31st through August 1st, we're going to do, let me take my glasses off. John Houston, who actually will be displaying some revolutionary battle items, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and a map of the location, and I will tell you about this, Camp New Providence. Evidently, in the Revolutionary War, something happened right across the street. but it was Nancy's farm. It was called Camp New Providence. Following King's Mountain, the winning, the Continental Army retreated to and strategized at Hunter Farms across the street. strategized for the continental, for, excuse me, I'm sorry. This has just been a, this has been a difficult time and I appreciate it. I wasn't expecting this at all. And Jim, now I know why you asked me to speak. I am humbled and I would not change a thing that I did or said. And Nancy, me stopping that night was nothing but from love and respect. Not for anything else. Nancy and I have, are retired nurses. Our families have been in the military and we do share a lot. And I respect her family and what they were going through. to have it belittled like that on social media was overwhelming for me. And I wasn't expecting this. As a matter of fact, when I spoke with Ann Marie before this, I really kind of didn't say I kind of didn't want to do this. But I think it is time for healing. I think it is time to move forward. i think it's time that we work together as a as a town as a town council and this new parks and events committee is going to do that we're going to move forward we're going to make this fun and i will start with our and i will give the official name because we ai'd it okay uh weddington's revolutionary legacy and camp newt new providence we will have this on july the 31st through all and august 1st uh times will when we have a little bit further along we'll tell you the times but uh We have a unique opportunity. And Mr. Houston said to us, no one can take this Camp New Providence from Weddington. This is ours and ours alone. And we need to celebrate that. We need to teach our young people what it is and why we live in Weddington. And we're going to start celebrating this. And we're going to start this on July 31st. and August 1st and also with celebration of our 250th anniversary for July 4th. I just want to give my humble thank you and thank you town council for letting me be the chairman of this wonderful committee. And I promise you, I promise you we're going to make a difference. We want to bring our community together and to engage our community, to bring our young people up, to respect our government and what it's like that we need to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Gail.

Gail, I have just a little thank you for serving. I have a question for you. How many members right now are on the park board?

Six.

Correct. So I know that there is one open spot. Yes. I don't know. Do you have any ideas of what we could do with that open spot? Because I had one rattling around.

I thought that there had been talk and maybe some discussion about bringing someone from the high school up and engaging them into this and so that we actually can tap into working with the high school and getting them involved with what's going on in Weddington. So it will help our volunteers, it will give us A FOUNDATION.

IT IS A STRATEGIC IDEA. WE ARE HOLDING THAT SPOT SPECIFICALLY FOR A MEMBER OF OUR WEDDINGTON HIGH SCHOOL OR ONE OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS.

THE CHAIR OF THE WEDDINGTON YOUTH COUNCIL.

CORRECT. SO WE WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYBODY KNEW THIS WAS THAT WAS THE PURPOSE FOR A SIX-MEMBER. RIGHT. IT WAS INTENTIONAL.

RIGHT. be thrilled to have that as a high school member. I'd love it.

So great. I just wanted to make sure that we can broadcast that out. So thank you.

Yep. Thank you for your service. Thank you. Thank you, Gail. And like what you're saying, I think it's just going to be a great way to bring the town together. And really, I'm just going to say it starts some new beginnings. I think this would be awesome.

Um,

The transportation report. I said it last month. I'm just going to recap it. The DOT said that the light at Forest Lawn and Antioch Church Road should be starting in August or September. And fingers crossed, but they've been saying that for quite a while now. But so hopefully in August or September, we'll start seeing some polls go up and hopefully we'll get that done um so anyway fyi crpto was last uh you know last last month um as you know i'm on the board of crpto and of course everybody has heard how they voted down the uh the i-77 south expansion uh i i voted because we we had talked and we felt as a town that this should go forward and uh and had support on that and so i voted to support it and voice my concerns that it should not be killed but should go forward and try to you know make it a win-win and my thing has always been it should be a win-win for the residents not be put on the back of the residents in those communities but also uh i think for for charlotte for the region something has to be done and so i was very disappointed how that vote turned out i'm just hoping something will happen in the future right now i guess we've lost 700 million dollars uh so let's just see what happens so if it comes back around i will support something to be done because we definitely need that for charlotte and the region because i'll say this last thing as of uh From January 1st of 2024 to January, I mean July 1st of 2024 to July 1st of 2025, Charlotte was the fastest growing city in the nation. In this area, we've been somewhere between this region, the third to fifth fastest growing region in the nation. So with 170 something people moving to this town or Charlotte, uh area a day there's something that's got to be done so anyway i'm rambling on by saying that was disappointing in that vote and so hopefully we can get another chance at it uh council comments you may want to go first i agree with everything that has been said and that we need to pull together

We need to pull together as a town. We need to pull together as a council. We need to pull together as a team. And so truly, you know, I'm one of those people to roll up my sleeves if I have questions. The questions are not meant in any way to antagonize. They are just to reach for clarity. I am thinking that, you know, Sad to see Karen go. And I think we have a long road ahead, but this is the first step, so.

Yep.

Tom?

Well, I want to thank Karen wonderful job she's done over these past number of years and we're going to sorely miss her it's going to be very hard to fill the position but I know the staff will pull together we will get through this trying time and with your assistance we'll find the right person to work with y'all that's going to be very important for us is to find the person that y'all feel y'all can work with that's going to be top priority from my point of view anyway is looking at it from that point of view so we're going to count on y'all karen we're going to miss you we're going to have you on speed dial so don't worry about that we'll bug you and nausea until we don't need to it'll be a long time but uh i said my piece earlier about this ability and how to treat staff and i really mean it you know i got a thick skin you can blow me up for whatever but don't kick the staff. That is not right. And I really mean it. And when you disparage council and make innuendos that we are corrupt, we're doing all sorts of illicit things, it does reflect on the staff. And that's not right. so i just i'm pretty fed up with it too and i said my piece earlier and i'll i'll stop there but i want to thank everybody who came out tonight and stayed to the bitter end and because there's only a handful of y'all here yes I want to thank the three people who are not total staff that are here.

Even the two of them are on the park board.

And I want to thank the people on the park board, the park events board for taking on that challenge. We're looking forward to good things, good events coming forward. We do have a little treasure in Camp New Providence where it was the winter headquarters for the Southern Army. continental army back i forgot 1780 or one of those years exactly in there and is it 1780s was i right yes yeah and there is a sign down there right by the creek on the road and that most people drive by and have no idea what it is they think it's a church camp we used to have here i think but uh it is a very important piece of our history and we should celebrate it and if we get going with the park i think incorporating some part of that history into it somewhere would be very appropriate in some manner y'all can figure out just kidding but anyway thank y'all for being thank y'all for being here and i appreciate it and let's move forward in a positive manner thanks

And I want to say too, Karen, thank you for all those times where I busted in your office and you did the counseling session with me and corrected me on things and told me it wasn't as bad as I thought and, you know, that kind of thing. And so, but thank you. And I hope we don't lose contact with you and don't be a stranger. And so again, I can't say thank you enough for all you've done and hurting us hurt. Like I said earlier, hurting the cats and, uh, and just keeping us straight. Cause you've, uh, you've, you've kept us together and kept us on the right track. Both of you Karen's have. And so thank you for all that you've done. And, uh, And, you know, and two, just like Tom was, I can say ditto to a lot of what Tom said, but the staff here is, I was going to say, it's just stinking awesome because they've been here for a long time. And so I don't know how to say thank you enough for all they do. And so Yeah, we have hiccups along the way. And that's every, everybody has hiccups. Sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes we do stupid stuff or say stupid stuff, whatever. It just happens, we're humans. And so I think a lot of the groundwork has been laid tonight with starting to unify, starting to rebuild. Let's continue to work on that. Let's say it this way. So one starts to head off in that other direction. Let's slap on the hands and do come on, pull them back. And let's try to know sometimes we can't control what other people do but we can control ourselves and uh and so uh let's just keep on this positive road and i think we've got a lot of cool stuff ahead of us so anyway i can ramble on thank you again can i get a motion i make a motion to adjourn awesome all right um we're adjourned thank you guys