Board of Education - Regular Meeting

Good evening. We want to welcome everyone to the November 10th Williamson County Commissioner Meeting. As a friendly reminder, uh ask everyone to please silence their cell phones uh for the duration of the meeting. Our first item on the agenda is always the invocation and pledge and tonight it will be given by District 9. Uh the invocation to be given by Commissioner Matt Williams. Uh the pledge to be led by Commissioner Chaz Morton. Please rise. [clears throat] Please join me in prayer. [snorts] Lord, we thank you today for the opportunity to peacefully congregate, contemplate, and act in the relative safety and security that we enjoy in our community. Help us keep our community's interest front and center as we navigate our [clears throat] unique challenges and to remember that the bountiful blessings bestowed upon our community are exceedingly rare across the rest of the nation and the world. Many of those places our veteran community have had to deploy to. And this week especially, we thank you for all the men and women who have so bravely offered themselves in the self selfless service to our nation. Hold and protect those that have and continue to serve. Lord, help us to be fiscally conservative, responsible, and wise with our resources. Such as on November 10th, 1775, when the Continental Congress, prudent with limited resources, authorized two battalions of Marines to arm ships already in possession. Lord, [snorts] we thank you for the safety you have blessed upon our community. As the hymn says, "If the Army and Navy should ever look upon heaven's scenes, they would see the streets are guarded by the United States Marines." Too many of the cities in our mighty nation have seen firsthand Marines having to guard their streets, but not in Williamson County, as you have blessed us with sound

judgment and a God-loving people. Lord, on this 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps, we especially thank you for allowing the Marines to become the most feared fighting force in the world, for empowering them to judge the living from the air, land, and the sea, knowing that we trust in your divine judgment of the dead. Please forgive the Marines of their trespasses against our brethren in the Navy for stealing their anchor. Please forgive the Marines for their trespasses against our brethren in the army for stealing the rope. Please forgive the Marines for the of their trespasses against our brethren in the Air Force for stealing their eagle. And Lord, on the seventh day while you rested, please forgive the Marines of their trespasses for overrunning your perimeter and stealing the globe. But in your omnipotent wisdom, we thank you for allowing the Marines to run the show ever since and wish them a happy 250th birthday. simpified elves in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] Next item on our agenda is the roll call. If all the commissioners have signed in, if you'll please press your present button once it appears. Mr. Whidby is not here tonight and we'll be calling upon Miss Darlene throughout the evening to record the vote. We thank her for being here. I'm not seeing it on my screen yet. We went down. They're rolling in.

I keep seeing presents are popping up slowly. Go ahead and press the present button. If you're ready to do so, go ahead and call the role, Miss Darlene. Press the present. She said press the present button. Has if you haven't pressed your present button, or maybe you did and you're seeing it again, press it again. Oh, some aren't seeing it. Okay. I think some of us are seeing it and some aren't.

The only commissioner I'm aware of being absent is Commissioner Stresser and he did notify us that he would not be able to attend this evening. So, I believe we have 23 present, one absent.

I hope the folks don't take this. Now it works great in the afternoon when we come down here. I thought I hit my pressing button. I'm not seeing it again.

There we go.

Where is dresser? 23 present, one absent. Thank you for that. And again, we did hear from Mr. Stresser and we knew he would not be able to make it this evening. Next item is approval of the minutes of our last meeting, the October 13th commissioner meeting. Copies, I believe, were mailed out to all commissioners. I'll entertain a motion. It's not showing up here, but it looks like here I have a motion uh from Commissioner Torres, seconded by Commissioner Lisa Hayes. Are there any questions or comments regarding or additions or corrections regarding the the minutes from October's commissioner meeting? Chairman, I don't have a comment on the Some of us still don't have the ability, I don't think, to

Yeah, I don't either. Everything's working pretty slow up here. Some have the button on their screen to speak or to uh make a motion and some don't. We need to do a reboot perhaps or

He doesn't know. He looks confused. Mine's one of the screens and I think Tom's is as well. Does that equal one minute 50 seconds?

I was going to say 45 [snorts] Apologize to those in attendance. We're having some technical difficulties up here and it be better to work these out now than when we start getting into resolutions in the rest of the agenda.

Oh, do [laughter] Commissioner Sturgeon says she has Spotify and some great tunes that she could be playing for us. Can you ask that if anyone doesn't need to be on

I think I'd rather have our IT guy tell me that that might be the issue first.

Here we go. [clears throat] She's pushingbody's buttons right now to record them as present. Okay, this needs to not be what I'm seeing. I've got an error message on my screen. I don't think there's everybody need to do it. I just put the code into it.

Yeah. Is there anybody else? Can we get somebody? [cough] Yeah, I don't I should have the other screen.

Thanks. already announced that but if anybody else has a screen that's showing an error message if any of the commissioners are having a issue with their screen showing an error message right now or uh raise your hand and we'll come to you and we'll get you rebooted. Okay.

All right. I think we might be good. Knock on wood. So, where we left off was with a proper motion and a second for approval of the minutes. The motion coming again from Commissioner Drew Torres and seconded by Commissioner Lee Lisa Hayes. And I don't remember there being any requests for additions or corrections, but I'll ask one more time if there are maybe a show by hands if uh Okay, then once it pops up on your screen, if you're ready to vote, there we go. If you're in favor of approval of the minutes from last month's commissioner meeting, please hit your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene.

23 yes. Motion passes. Next, we have citizens communications. We've had quite a few people sign up tonight. Um, our rules allow for up to three minutes for a total of 30 minutes. When we have more than 10 sign up, we have to divide the 30 minutes uh by the equal parts of how many people signed up. We've had how many sign up? 16.

16. So, we're going to give each person 1 minute and 45 seconds. Uh I'll give you a warning as you get close. When you have about 15 seconds left, if you haven't wrapped things up, I'll give you a kind reminder to start wrapping things up. Also, as we say in all these meetings, uh when you come to the podium, state your name, the town that you live in, uh and then, you know, be courteous as you speak. We won't allow any u remarks that uh that uh go against no personal attacks will be permitted. Um be cordial as you speak. No, derogatory statements to be made towards individuals. Also, no clapping, uh, booing or audience participation is required either. Again, remember how we were all raised and and we'll be civil during all this. And if so, we'll hear every comment and that's the intention of this body is to hear every comment. We cannot respond back. So, if you ask us a question and we sit here in silence, that's because our rules dictate that we can't respond to your comments. Uh, it's not that we don't uh want to or care. It's just that our rules don't permit us to have a dialogue as you speak. So, I'll begin to call you u one at a time in the order in which you signed up. First on the list is uh your honor, Judge Joseph Woody Woodruff. Mr. Chairman, members of the county commission, thank you for this opportunity. Seven years ago, a task force was formed to study the needs for public safety infrastructure here in Williamson County called the Triple J task force. That task force um worked for more than a year, retained uh outside consultants. in 2019. Uh after a

year of continued study in 2020, a five volume uh master plan report was uh delivered to the county commission which was adopted as a blueprint for uh the future on how to address the the needs of congestion and the obsolescence of the facilities for juvenile services, the jail and the courts. Um the global pandemic disrupted that process. uh it blew up the timeline. It completely obliterated the economic uh assumptions and one of the casualties of that was that the program or the the plan for the courthouse got decoupled from everything else. Um in the [clears throat] what the pandemic did not do of course when it went away was do anything about the need for courtrooms, offices, holding cells, public spaces and physical security. Those needs still exist today. But fortunately, the some of the folks who were involved in that task force have continued to meet and to work on plans for the future of of the courthouse. And last week, um, an opportunity

15 seconds, your honor. I know it goes by quick. Well, I I urge I'll extend some grace to your honor. I urge No, no, no. I encourage all please to u take up the motion that commissioners um Morton and Mason late filed. It's extremely important and uh I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you your honor. Next we have your honor uh Judge Dena Hood.

Good evening commissioners. I am Judge Dena Hood. I live in Franklin, Tennessee. Uh my colleagues and I tried to divide up what we wanted to tell you tonight so we don't repeat ourselves. I want to talk to you about uh security concerns. Uh the security concerns facing the courthouse are well known and documented through the years. There's a statutory man uh mandatory or mandated courthouse security uh committee meeting that meets annually and reports to this board. um and of that there is always concerns about the judiciary's um security. I've got statistics. I'm going to cut that out. I think we all know in this political environment or not just political in today's environment uh political danger danger for the just uh justices have has increased um and we need some more security measures at our courthouse. I do want to tell you from a personal standpoint since I've been on the bench in 2022, I've had two incidents of threats uh where law enforcement has done a threat security assessment. During a time when one of those threat assessments happened, I uh came to work, got out of my car, I didn't see anyone, and as soon as I got out, there was a person this close to me. And it turned out to be fine, but it was startling. and that person shouldn't have been able to get that close to me. And then let me just say

I'll just want to end of saying it's not just judges security that it's at risk. Uh people in the public, we compel them to come to court, jurors, witnesses, uh uh litigants, they all walk out of the same building, the same doors where there could be a criminal defendant or someone who's upset, they walked in and out the same door. so we can do better on the security standpoint. Thank you. Thank you, your honor. Our next judge speaking tonight, your honor, uh, Judge David Vil,

Mr. Chairman, honorable commissioners, thank you for listening to us tonight. I am asking you to respectfully consider uh allowing late filed resolution 112541 to be heard tonight. Um we currently have two general sessions judges and only one and a half general sessions courtrooms. We have four circuit judges uh and a special master. We have two courtrooms where we can hold jury trials in the judicial center. Uh we have one small courtroom where the parties and the litigants are on top of one another. Uh we also make use of the historic courthouse which has one courtroom but no holding cell. So we cannot have a criminal jury trial there if anyone is in custody. The lack of having four full courtrooms affects our ability to administer justice. Uh we're limited on what we can do based purely on the facilities limitations. Uh with the rate of growth growth that this county has seen uh and with it the court cases, it's only going to get worse. Uh in 2002 when construction of the judicial center began, Williamson County had approximately 137,000 people. Uh, as of July of last year, we now have approximately twice as many, just under twice as many, 269,000 people. And I suggest it will continue to increase. Now, one option would be to find a band-aid to patch up the justice holes that we have now, and then we can do it again in 10 years, and again in 10 years, and again in 10 years. But might I suggest it'd be a better use of our resources to address our needs headon with a facility that's designed from the ground up to handle both our current needs and future needs.

15 seconds. With that, I would respectfully request that you allow late filed resolution 112541 to be considered this evening and to allow us to uh look into the possibility of the property that is cited therein. Thank you very much. Thank you, Judge Vil. And then uh our final judge tonight is your honor, Judge Deanna Johnson.

Good evening. Thank you for having us. Uh Diana Johnson. I live in Franklin. Uh again, thank you for having us. Um I'm the fourth and final judge. I believe a lot of people say I look like Kira Cedric. And so the closure, I guess that that is appropriate. Um but uh I won't reiterate what my colleagues have said. We're all on the same page in that regard. Uh, Judge Woodruff discussed the meetings we had back in 2017, 2018, 2019. Uh, a lot of different groups were involved. The downtown neighborhood association, the business community, um, different community groups, different business people, the Williamson County Bar Association, uh, downtown merchants association, lots of groups were involved to talk about what happens if you move the the courthouse out of that downtown area. As Judge V discussed, uh it's not feasible, as you can tell from the resolution itself, it's not feasible uh to do something to that current ex existing building. And so this opportunity that has arisen over on Colombia Avenue, uh presents itself as a great opportunity to at least look into it. Um and so I implore you to please consider the late filed resolution and at least let us look into that opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you, Judge Johnson. Next on our list is Mr. Frank Lympus. [cough] [clears throat] My name is Frank Limpus. I live in Franklin and I want to talk briefly about the hospital sale. I direct my comments to those who have operated this clandestine effort that started in July with a supposed strategic planning process for the hospital. Citizens have learned you are now in tactical execution of steps that include vetting potential purchasers for the hospital. All without notifying the representatives of Williamson County residents about what you're doing. We need full transparent public disclosure of what's on the table, plus financial advice and legal representation that's not under an inquiry. I also strongly support Commissioner Lawrence's resolution to ensure that any proceeds from a hospital cell will benefit the people of Williamson County. For 68 years, the hospital has been publicly supported by county taxpayers. The equity in that facility belongs to the population of Williamson County, not some third-party entity who will spend however they wish. As a voice of the people, you commissioners have oversight in this situation. and I respectfully ask that you please assert your responsibility on behalf of citizens. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Limpus. Next, we have Catella.

Well, I don't know if that's Hopefully, I'm saying it correct. Uh, Mr. Jim Catella that goes with the or Kella, maybe.

That's all right. Good evening. Uh, my name is Jim Kella. I've emailed all of you uh recently and I just wanted to have you put a face with my name and my situation regarding the waste management issues that are before you. Um on a personal level um I have experienced terrible service from these public servants. uh my experience I as I've mentioned in my email that I have a property that is uh five years now under a arbitrary stop work order because of a healthy septic system. It works. We have a problem in this county with our waste management and uh the regulations are exceedingly complex. I've had to spend tens of thousands of dollars of money that is better deployed to beautify a building on attorney's fees, engineering fees. We have a serious problem. And as a 30-year resident of this county, I'm a Franklin resident. I should have mentioned that earlier. Um, and I currently own $8 million of market value of real estate in this county until this waste management uh debacle that we have in our government is fixed. I will not be investing any more money in Williamson County. Period. Full stop. That breaks my heart. My son was raised here. He went to school here. We love it here.

15 seconds. And so we have a problem and I'm asking you to fix it and uh it's not just me, it's many other citizens in our in our county. So thank you for your time and uh if any of you want to email me afterwards, you're more than welcome to see the building and see my situation. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mr. Kella. Next, we have Casey Johnson.

Good evening, members of the board. My name is Casey Johnson. I live in Columbia, Tennessee. I'm a mother to a one-year-old girl, a wife, and Army veteran. I'm here to talk about SDM Resolution 11-25-7. In my time in sewage disposal over the last few months, I've met many wonderful people who have dedicated their careers to serving this community with pride and commitment. As we look ahead to the pending task force, I respectfully ask that an impartial commissioner be appointed to lead it and that it includes voices from within the department. The people who do this work every day know where improvements can be made and their experience is essential in shaping effective and realistic solutions. Change is necessary, but it doesn't neither come through fear or uncertainty. Many want to be part of the effort to strengthen the department and make it more efficient for the residents we serve. We care deeply about the work we do and we want to see the department succeed. Whatever the task force recommends, I urge them to provide clear guidance for how those changes should be carried out. This will help prevent delays and confusion both for the employees and for the homeowners who rely on our services every day. If the task force decides that budget cuts are necessary, I also ask that clear direction be given to help identify or create alternative employment opportunities. These are hardworking individuals who have given the time and energy thank you to this county and they deserve to be treated with fairness and respect. Quick decisions that look efficient on paper often end up costing more in the long run and our goal should be lasting improvement, not temporary savings. Thank you for listening.

Thank you. Next on the list is Miss Dory BS. [laughter]

Hey, good evening. I'm Dory BS. I'm the founder and president of the Harpath Conservancy, and we are 26-year-old statewide science-based conservation organization, and our vision is clean water and healthy rivers across Tennessee. I've been working involved with Williamson County ever since I moved here. Um, I've done a lot with Williamson County on storm water. Uh, worked a lot on land use planning and know a lot about sewer and that's what I want to talk about just briefly tonight is the sewer task force. I've attended the, uh, public health committee last week and there are a number of amendments to that resolution that will um, if those amendments are adopted, I think that t the task force will help solve some of the problems that you're hearing. Even our own organization has heard many complaints over the years. There are lots of people who want to support the county in terms of making sure that our, you know, people's homes are protected. It's a very big investment for most people. The septic fields, unfortunately, Williamson County doesn't have uniform soils. It's a very difficult placement in Tennessee. Soils are not to um they're not the same. And so, we do need some of that customization off of the Tennessee state rags. I want to point out that if we go back to where the way it used to work, you have a number of counties right around us. The standard zoning is one acre. You have TKC with the septic field. And there are a number of homes right now in eastern Rutherford near the Canon County border or after six months they have sewage backing up into their into their bathtubs and their sewage into their toilets. So, it's not a simple thing. It does require some specificity. Um, definitely we need some system improvements. There's no doubt about it.

And I just wanted to let you know our organization is there to work with the task force and help out any way we can. But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. But at the same time, you do have some dedicated staff who definitely want to work on streamlining systems and there are a lot of public there a lot of property owners who also expect that too. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss BS. Next, we have Frank Laroso. Laruso. Hopefully, I'm saying it correctly. Laruso got a thumbs up.

Hi, good evening, commissioners. My name is Frank Laruso. I'm a recent graduate from Purdue University with a degree in agricultural and biological engineering and currently I work for the SDM staff. I've been here for about a year and I would like to speak on what you guys have over there as far as staff because truly, you know, I feel lucky um to be working with them. You've got trained professionals in soil science and uh mapping and you've got a PE. Um that's not very many people out there are pees. That's pretty hard to find. So um you've got a great group of uh trained professionals with probably hundreds of years of experience working for the county and I'm proud to be part of that group and as professionals I do believe that uh we all deserve respect and as public servants also. I very much appreciate the budget committee and the public health committee for voting to amend the resolution regarding our department to try to remove the budget cuts. I truly believe that this group of people could greatly benefit the community and I ask you all to please support the uh resolution with the amendments so that we can all work together try to turn this ship around. Thank you.

Thank you Taber.

Next up is Grady Taber. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Grady Taber. I live in Brentwood, Tennessee. Uh, I'm speaking tonight to ask your support for resolution 112539 sponsored by Commissioner Zelo and Tunnen Cliffe and especially want to thank Commissioner Tunnen Cliff. This is my uh third time to speak regarding the adequate facilities tax since 2019. And we're asking to increase the nonresidential portion of that tax from the current 34 cents per square foot on new non-residential development to $2 per square foot and to charge that countywide. Also u want to thank Commissioner Richards for his work on getting a study done by Tishler Bay to evaluate this uh this increase in the non-residentidential adequate facilities tax because if we assume development costs are around $350 per square foot. A $2 fee at permitting is a rounding error. It's 0.57%. Um, you should all have this little spreadsheet here. And the study, we were disappointed it didn't go back to historical development, but the 10-year time frame from '09 to 19, if we would have had $2 in place, that's 27.5 million. Um, and you can see we've got a lot of big projects coming soon. Um, I spoke to uh Greg Sanford who's 10 seconds retired CEO at Tractor Supply and asked him when he was CEO in 2014 when they built their corporate

headquarters in Brentwood if this $2 would have had him walk away and his answer was absolutely no. Tom, thank you. Thank you. Next we have Kim Kajun or Kogan.

Hi, thank you. Hi Kim Kaggin. I live in Brentwood. Um I'm also here to support uh ask your support for resolution 112539 which is the adequate facilities uh resol tax resolution and I want to thank commissioners and tenniff for all the work you've done to get the resolution before you tonight. Um, as Grady mentioned, we've been pushing this effort since 2019 and and with the study that Chris Richards had done and um, now we're at that point where it's time to make some decisions. So, this is a one-time permitting fee that is businessfriendly, particularly for small local businesses. The AFT is a permitting fee, a one-time permitting fee that developers pay when they build a new commercial development. Our local businesses lease space oftentimes from local property owners. those property owners pass that property tax fee on to those businesses. And we were here when the local owners of uh a lot of those businesses and buildings down on Main Street Franklin are asking for some relief due to the high property taxes. Well, the AFT can help. It's another revenue source that will have large developers like Boille out of Memphis whose 2024 revenue was around $20 million and Spectrum out of North Carolina with revenue around $16 million to help pay for the strain on our infrastructure. By collecting more permitting fees, this helps offset future property tax increases. And we are going through a large one now. And when we pass the AFT at $2, you can tell local businesses you are looking for ways to help reduce property taxes um or at least stall some of the future increases that get passed on to them.

15 seconds. Yeah, I'll end it there because I have more. Okay. Thank you. Next we have um well Douglas York unless you're planning on speaking later. Uh if you are wanting to speak now come to the podium now otherwise we'll move to my later. Thank you sir. Then we move on to Elise Frell. Elise Frell.

Good evening. Elise Frell. I live in Franklin. Um, I want to echo the comments that Mr. Limpus made on the Williamson Health sale. I really don't understand how a county commission can be told to stay out of the way of a potential sales process. Um, because if this assets to be sold, then it's your job not to stay out of the way. Your job is to is to demand full transparency, independent legal counsel, and to protect the equity built up for the taxpayers of this county. I want I am just asking you guys to please demand a process that respects the public, not one that makes decisions, you know, in back doors and I just asking you to do the job you were elected to do. Um, which is protect the assets of Williamson County and the taxpayers of Williamson County. Y'all act like you don't live here, but you do. So, this is to protect you and us. So, I just don't understand this whole backdoor process. and especially I just am surprised that the lawyers on this commission wouldn't be outraged by that. So anyway, I just um just want you guys to you know make sure that we have a an accountable transparent process so that the public can be aware of what's going on.

Thanks. Thank you. Next we have Kirkan Kirkan. Kirk Euan. Actually it's ever Kirk. Sorry. Kirk ever. Or maybe I'm not even close. [laughter] It's hard to read it. Uh lives in Colia. Ka Kaure. Okay. K. Print was a little difficult to read. I apologize.

Hello, I'm Caillou. I'm from Columbia, Tennessee. I'm a uh employee here at the county. Uh I'm a plat reviewer for SDM. I graduated from UT Martin with a degree in natural resources management, soil and water conservation. I'm a father of two as well as one of the many parents that work in my department. I've worked here nearly nine years and at that time I've seen a great deal of change. When I started this department was backlog and as time went by the volume of submitts continued to increase. At one time, I was working nights and weekends just trying to keep up. In the past three years, our department has made dramatic improvement after gaining more staff and changing regulations. We went from a six-month backlog to two weeks or less in some cases. With this resolution, I fully agree our regulations should be reviewed and improved, but we need our staff to maintain the quality of work we are currently providing. In the past three years, we have changed our regulations that make regulations making it much easier to renovate homes without a new plat or location map or abandoning SL or bringing uh old systems into compliance and much more. The staff here is dedicated to helping the public in keeping up with health and safety standards. Again, I agree our regulations need to be reviewed and the regulations we have are longer than the states as stated by some. But if you'll see what I brought up here, our soils handbook, regulations, and technical manual are all just one book, while the state is three. I ask that you continue with the recommendations of the health and budget committees and extend the time frame for the task force to review our uh to review our regulations and not make the budget cuts and then decide if once the review is done if we need to cut our budget and personnel.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, I have Jonathan Stewart. My name is Jonathan Stewart and I'm an employee of the subject department and I'll be addressing the resolution 11257. Both the budget committee and the health committee have agreed that it would be unwise and imprudent to make uninformed budget cuts without knowing the depth of the cuts being made. Our department has already begun to see attrition because of the way in which this resolution was originally presented. I'm glad that both committees have agreed to approach this issue more seriously and urge the rest of the commissioners to adopt the amendments which have been proposed. In regard to the regulation task force, there are no doubt many regulations that have been acquired over the years that can be examined for effectiveness to determine where appropriate changes can be made. As I and my colleagues have suggested to both previous committees, there are some regulations that were acquired through the spirit of caution that may now have outlived their usefulness as technology and methodology have progressed. However, these systems of guidance and rules are there for a reason. And like Christian philosopher GK Chesterton once said, never remove a fence until you have discovered the reason it was built. A reformer's duty is first to understand. The process of refinement in any field or profession is never a hasty or undisiplined pursuit of change. The lattice of safeguards and the decades of learned wisdom housed within the Williamson County Septic Regulations are the result of previous experience, learned mistakes, and the traditional wisdom gained through hardship. I ask that this commission proceed with wisdom, as I know the task force is meant to do. Thank you. in finding out which current regulations are truly unnecessary versus what is expedient or convenient to remove. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, I have Jane Sadler. Good evening. My name is Jane Sadler. I live in the unincorporated area of Williamson County. Back in March, I was the lone voice at this meeting expressing concern and sadness about the proposed mall project and asking you to stand with those of us who will be directly impacted. Last week, Simon Properties unveiled their updated plans. While they've described these as an improvement for those of us living in the unincorporated area, our concerns remain the same. Their proposal includes widening a short approximately 1.3 mile portion of Highway 31 to four lanes and adding four stop lightss along that short route. This will push even more traffic from I65 to I840 to 431. The same corridor our families already rely on to get to our jobs, our homes, our churches, and our local stores. It's already congested today. what will happen during construction and what happens when the mall opens. Widening this short approximate 1.3 mile portion to four lanes will not solve any traffic problems and especially not when the city of Franklin has already approved 700 plus new homes one mile south of this area and Thompson Station has approved 400 plus homes just two miles away. I'm asking you, my county representatives, to help us. We are your voting constituents. By working with T DOT and Thompson Station, we're asking you to find solutions that make sense for all residents, not just the developers. Please help protect the quality of life in the unincorporated areas of Williamson County. Thank you.

Thank you.

And our last speaker, I believe, is Kathy Marlin. Good evening everyone. I'm Kathy Marlin. I live in unincorporated Williamson County about one mile from the proposed Sagefield development. Residents have many concerns about this proposed development with over 70 stores and a hotel at 1733 Lewisburg Pike. It will bring more traffic congestion to an already congested area that bottlenecks from 840 onto Lewisburg Pike. Plus, we have traffic from concerts at the nearby First Bank Amphitheater. There are several housing developments nearby approved to be built, which will add even more traffic. Residents often struggle to get out of their driveways. Now, on Disber Pike, residents do not want the mall. There are retail and hotel developments already in place and some to be built within a few miles of this site. These are Tollgate, Berry Farms, Fountain View on Highway 31 and June Lake. The mall does not fit into the area and would permanently change the rural character and our way of life that we hold dear and we need your help with this matter. Thank you.

Thank you. That concludes citizen communications and with that we'll move on the agenda to communications and messages. Uh quite a few. Uh first we have eight late filed resolutions tonight. If there are no objections we will hear resolutions 36, 37, 38, 40, and 42 under appropriations as well as resolutions 39, 41, and 43 under other. If there are no objections, we will hear those this evening. I hear no objections. We also have requests uh by several commissioners to move some of the resolutions up to accommodate those uh in attendance tonight who are here to hear those resolutions. Those being resolutions 8, 33, and 43. If there are no objections, I'll give you a moment to well, first I'll ask if there are any objections and I'll give you a moment to move those uh behind resolution 7 uh in the agenda. Are there any uh objections to moving those resolutions up to accommodate those in the audience tonight? I see none. So again, I'm going to do the exercise myself. We'll be moving resolutions 8, 33, and 43. Uh, Commissioner Sturgeon,

is there a resolution 40 and I'm missing it? Or is there no late filed resolution 40? Uh, resolution 40, I believe, might be under appropriations. Am I right on that, Diane? Yes. It's a late filed resolution, but it's under appropriations and it's on the agenda page. Oh, I got it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Torres, sorry, did you intend to move 41? Sorry, I just want to clarify. 41 is the courthouse. Is that the one, not 43, which is the city of Franklin, the gun range? Oh, yes. Thank you for that, Commissioner Torres. You're welcome.

43. I misspoke and said, are we moving 43 as well? Up to Okay, there's another resolution that I intended to move to the front without objection. the one that uh our honors our judges are here for tonight which is resolution 41 if there number seven if there are no objections [clears throat] we move an eight or seven yes so we move the two after eight or after or just keep them in order

those I'll restate them uh moving up behind resolution seven will then be resolution eight followed by Resolution 33 followed by Thank you, Commissioner Torres. Resolution 41 followed by Resolution 43. Where's my 41?

[snorts]

Commissioner Tunnliff, I am not familiar with all the resolution numbers as quickly, but what about moving resolutions that staff have to stay for? Is there any way to move some of those forward? Is there any that's all of them? think we'd be picking and choosing amongst staff that are all here and and dedicated to be here and we appreciate that. Unless there's a particular resolution that uh you believe there are uh citizens here for then we'll consider moving those up as well.

Forgive me. am number seven. All right, number eight. Yep. Then 33. And next we have a proclamation. I will call on Mayor Rogers Anderson. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we have the opportunity to honor our county historian Rick Warick and his wife is with him tonight. Dela, if you both would come up. [cough] Rogers, for some reason we're having the mic's not that loud tonight. So

I'll pick fix that problem.

Speak. [laughter] Many of you know Rick and his dedicated work that he has done for this county for many, many years. And today, tonight with his wife beside him, I'd like to read the following. Whereas Mr. Rick Warick moved to Franklin in 1970 and began teaching at Hillsboro School in Williamson County and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1971. And after two decades of teaching, he took a sbatical to concentrate on writing a book about the material culture of Williamson County and shortly thereafter retired from the public school system and began amazing a wealth of historical information on people and places throughout our county. And in February 1965, the general assembly approved an act to encourage and provide the collection and the preservation of state and county history and for the appointment of a county historian for each county of our state. And in January 2017, the Williamson County Board of Commissioners appointed Rick Warick to serve as the Williamson County historian. following the late Virginia Daniel Bowman who served from 1972 to 2017 and succeeded the county's f first historian Colonel Campbell Brown who served from 1965 to 1972. Rick is the editor of 29 published journals and over 25 additional published books and has served on numerous boards including the Tennessee Historical Commission, the Williamson

County Historical Society, the Heritage Foundation, Carter's House, America AfricanAmerican Heritage Society of Williamson County, and Franklin's Charge. And though often described as a walking encyclopedia of all things Williams County history, Rick Rick modestly considers himself as a man of tidbits of history. And though he serves without compensation, his wealth of knowledge provides an invaluable service and a source of historical information. By my signature, we are resolving tonight to proclaim the appreciation of Mr. Rick Warick in honor of his passion for our county's history and his dedication to bringing stories to life, his historical collection and his documents documentations of all the past of a service to the residents of Williamson County. Please join me as we say thank you to Rick and the sacrifice that Elaine [applause and cheering] has made. [applause] All I can say is it has been a pleasure to serve Williamson County. We have a rich history and we need to preserve it and I'm doing my damnedest. [laughter] [applause] Thank you, Mr. Warwick. Very, very welld deserved. I'm not sure any of the microphones are working. Anyone in the audience? Are y'all able to hear us through the speakers? I don't know if Creed is there's something that you can do. But the

lights are on, but I don't hear anything coming through the the general speakers. If Creed can hear me back there and is able to do something.

Okay.

What? Do what you can if you can. And before we move on to reports of county offices, there was talk about maybe reading another proclamation tonight. And I think Diane and I both thought that the gentleman we were going to read it on behalf of would prefer that we act in the interest of time. But I will mention that this past Friday coming up on Veterans Day tomorrow, one of our uh county and local leaders, Mr. Bob Rabner, had put together uh what he hopes to be an annual uh veterans award ceremony uh benefit banquet. We honored quite a few u veterans this year. Um and we honored them with proclamations. One of those proclamations I had to sign. I know I've delivered proclamations. I think every commissioner up here has at some point uh spoken and delivered a a proclamation. Uh but we don't usually sign them. I had to sign this one because this particular proclamation uh was honoring our very own Mr. Rogers Anderson. And as I honored him with that proclamation, I I made a point to not only thank him for his service to our country, uh, but to also thank him for his service to our county. [applause] [applause] Now we'll move on to reports of county offices and I will call on our very own Mr. Mayor Rogers Anderson. I'm not

Thank you very much. I don't often get surprised at these meetings, but I am that one. Thank you very much. And with that in mind, tomorrow at 11 1111, contrary to Matt Williams's uh prayer, there will be other people there other than Marines. And uh I encourage you to attend the uh Veterans Day um parade that starts at 11:00. I understand there'll be some refreshments there uh in the morning, and I do encourage you to come. It's a great time to see our men and women that have worn the uniform and not all of them are Marines. So tonight I would like to call on Phoebe and as she's making her way way up here to give the reports um we do have four or five presentations we'll be making Mr. chairman and we we will ask uh if you don't mind me taking the point here uh Grace Works Lisa Bale will be coming up talking to us a little about what's going on in the SNAP pro program here within Williamson County but first Phoebe

Good good evening commissioners and thank you Mayor Anderson. Uh this evening I'd like to start first start with an update on our bond issue previously approved by this commission. The county has gone out for public sale for both our general obligation public improvement and school bonds and our county district bonds series 2025. We received 15 bids for our general obligation issue accepting the lowest bid of 3.589%. We received eight bids for our county district school bonds accepting the low bid of 3.6%. Our closing date is set for the 18th of this month as I am required to provide this body with a debt obligation report within within 45 days um of the closing. And since we do not meet in December, I ask that you please keep a lookout on your email as I will be distributing those to you so that I can meet that obligation. So, if you will please be mindful and open that report. I will provide a hard copy in January, but since we do not meet, I do need to to make sure that you have have had the opportunity to review that report. The county did receive a profit from the Coil Springs Conference Center for the month of September in the amount of 5,955. So, that is improvement. I know we've had a loss for the last two months. the Cool Springs Conference Center. Um, this will almost break us even, not quite there yet, but I anticipate over next month we should see a profit and turn the corner for the total year. I have also been asked to take a couple of more minutes this evening um to discuss our privilege tax report. If you will please take this time to pull your copy out. Uh, it may help if we all were looking at the same sheet of paper. This should be in your packet this evening.

So, our privilege tax collections for the month of September were slightly down with a total of 859,000. This is a little bit lower than what we have been bringing in the last few months. Um, but we are still holding steady based on year-to-year average. So if you take a look at your privilege tax report um this evening you have a resolution 112539 coming before you to discuss the increase of the adequate facilities tax on commercial properties. So if you look at this um I know I report every month on what that total dollar amount is but I want to make sure that you are aware that this report actually represents two different privilege tax. So these are two different taxes. So when we speak of them, we collectively call this this is your privilege tax for the month. But what we're act looking at is two different taxes. The first being the adequate school facility tax and the second being the adequate facilities tax. The adequate facilities tax is what you're discussing this evening. The first column of your report as you can see is listed at the as the adequate school facilities tax. Um for these collections we do collect this dollar within the county incorporated and within the city. So this is incorporated and in unincorporated. So that dollar is shared and the revenue that is generated from those proceeds and those permits are shared with the county. We have some discussion over the budget committee. uh this is what was referred to as that 30% off the top that we split. So those collections are distributed with the town with the towns within the Williamson County based on their population. You will notice there are four other columns to the right of the adequate

school facilities. These are the columns that make up your adequate facilities tax. Now, the adequate facilities tax is only collected on commercial property currently within the unincorporated county boundaries. If you'll go down to about the middle of that page, listing reading from left to right, you will see the word commercial. Um you can see that for the month of September we collected a total of $66,528.32 and that distribution was according to the 30 and 4 cent split um went to fire and highway. This is what we are discussing this evening. So I just kind of wanted to point that out so you'll know when we move forward if there is any questions um regarding that distribution that that is what you're looking at. Um again for the total that I report on each month to you for a total uh privilege tax collections this includes all of the all of the columns. Um so if you'll look at monthly total if you would just add I know it doesn't add for you and you have to take my word for it but you are welcome to always check my math. U if you look at that monthly total and you add those columns straight across that is your monthly total that I report to you every month. So, at this time, I'd be happy to take any questions um if there is any further discussion that you all would like to have. If not, then I will yield the floor.

Any questions for Miss Riley? I see none. Thank you. Diane, you might try resetting this mic. I know you just did the whole system. system. Nobody can hear in the back. Yeah, I agree. I still can't. So, next we have um Alicia Bell with the Grace Works asked for some time to um give you an update on the SNAP program here in Williamson County.

Thank you for your time tonight. I don't plan to use allotted to me for all the important work that you have to accomplish. Um I'm Alicia Bell. I am a born, raised, and publicly educated Williamson County resident. I live in Franklin and I have the honor to serve this community as the CEO of Grace Works Ministries. Tonight, I just wanted to give um this important leadership an update on what has happened locally in your community regarding uh the effects of the SNAP program with the federal shutdown. We have 3,300 Williamson County residents who depend on SNAP to feed their families. We also have an incredible ministry that was founded 30 years ago in this community and we are built for moments like this. So, I'm very honored to be able to share with you that Grace Works, who on a regular basis provides food, shelter, [snorts] and support services for your Williamson County residents about 7 minutes from here, that we were able to have a plan in place within about 48 hours that was designed to serve every single one of these SNAP recipients, all 3,300 of them. What we have seen in reality is what I'm here to report on tonight on a regular day. um not in an environment like this. We serve 45 families a day both in Williamson County and in neighboring communities. For SNAP, we prioritize our Williamson County neighbors to make sure they had access. And we are seeing a 25% increase right now in our food pantry every day on average. Of course, there was an influx at the beginning and it's evened out to about 25% increase. So, we're very proud to be able to um offer this service to those residents. As I mentioned, we're built for times like this. Um, and it's a place that we want to partner with the leadership of this community so that you know, we're we are designed to fill these gaps. What we're predicting in the future, though, we're optimistic that this season is going to come to an end. Um, that it's going to be a little rough in the next few months as folks reccalibrate from what choices and

sacrifices they may have had to have made in order to feed their families um in the interim. So, our shelter programs that are only for Williamson County residents where we offer rent and utility assistance for families experiencing crisis or traumatic poverty, uh we are prepared to make sure that we are available um to meet those needs as well as the next few months unfold. Thank you for your time and thank you for listening to Grace Works. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, next up, if Connor will make his way up, we're going to have an update on several of your questions in regards to the public safety here in Williamson County. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good to see you, Commissioner. Just allow me one moment here.

[cough and clears throat]

again. Good good to see you all. So, this presentation came about because of several questions that came up about the state of the fire service in Williamson County. and I wanted to take this opportunity to have this conversation here and bring you up to speed on the things that we've accomplished since the public safety task force report as well as some of the challenges that we're facing in the fire service currently. Um, so I'm I'm Connor Scott. I'm the public safety director for the county. Um, and again I I just have a couple minutes here to go over this sort of detailed conversation with you all. So I'm not going to go over every slide here. you have more information in your packets and I'm happy to pick up this conversation in more detail at a later date. Uh but as a reminder, public safety for the county is the 911 center uh which answers 911 calls and dispatches fire, police, and EMS across all of the county other than Brentwood. Brentwood does have their own 911 dispatch center for fire and police. Uh public safety is also the emergency management agency for the county. Uh and it's our support to the county fire service, which is what we'll be speaking about today. Uh it's also our partnership with Williamson Health and uh the delivery of services for EMS which is a county department but of course is run through a public private partnership through EMS and did just want to mention tonight that I don't want to forget first responders who work in our community every day um who uh we don't always think of in this group and that's Vanderbilt Lifellight who of course uh is having a very challenging time right now. So just wanted to make sure to remind you all to keep them in your thoughts and prayers. um they work very very closely with us and come to us when called. Um so please don't forget them. So the uh the Williamson County Fire Service is a partnership um the office of public safety, the county provides support to the volunteer departments uh which cover all of the uninorporated areas of the county and Thompson Station. The other municipalities, Franklin, Brentwood, Nollesville, Spring

Hill, Fair View, of course, have their own full-time fire departments, but the rest of the county is covered completely by volunteer services. Uh, and it would not be fair to have this conversation without the chiefs of those departments. So, uh, two of the chiefs were able to join us tonight. Unfortunately, Chief Kesler from Arrington was able to unable to join us. Uh, but Chief Bob Galopy from the Williamson County Rescue Squad and Chief Brian Jones from Williamson Fire Rescue is here. Also Jay Bonson in on my team. He's the fire coordinator for the county. Um they're available to answer questions as well. And again, I want to speed through this to to really get to your questions. Uh there are 14 stations across the county that are staffed by these volunteer uh volunteer departments. And under Mayor Anderson's leadership, and you all know the county has dramatically stepped up support to the volunteer departments. uh volunteer departments across the country are facing a lot of challenges when it comes to funding, when it comes to sustaining volunteers, recruiting and retent retaining um obtaining apparatus. One of the biggest challenges that we have but is also nationwide is increasing costs in fire apparatus both to buy to maintain. Wait times as you've heard can be up to four or five years when purchasing apparatus. Um so this county has really stepped the support over the last dec decade or so. Uh we now have 11 full-time individuals who do nothing but support the volunteer service through some of the things you see on the screen here. Really with the goal of doing everything it takes to support the volunteer departments to set them up to be able to respond to calls and and our team does respond to calls too. Um all of our team are active certified firefighters and are able to supplement the volunteers as needed. uh which is a lot of what they do during daytime hours when volunteers are at their normal jobs and are unable to respond to calls. So as you know and and as you heard you know there was a triple J task force that looked at the state of the jail

juvenile services in the courthouse. There was also, as you know, a public safety task force that convened for about a year from 2022 to 2023 to look at how we deliver public safety services and in particular fire services across the county. And out of that report, you all are familiar with it. It's on our website for those who are not. Uh there were several recommendations and we have been aggressively working on those recommendations over the past couple years um to really put in place some improvements in our infrastructure. everything from buildings, apparatus, the way we train, um, governments and organization. And hopefully you all have seen that we've had sort of peacemeal conversations and you've seen me coming to this body with several different resolutions to improve the way that we deliver services. U, but now we have an opportunity to just have a brief conversation holistically about the fire service. So, one of the things that I put together in my just about year and a half here was basically a simple SWAT analysis of the fire service that recognizes sort of the internal and external factors that are facing the fire service. A lot of these again come out of the public safety task force, but as you know, the county is rapidly evolving and growing and the fire service is rapidly changing. So, some of these things are changing on a dayby-day, week-by-eek basis. So, some of the biggest challenges that we have, I already mentioned, are around apparatus maintenance. You've seen us done many budget transfers to try to be creative to be able to fund apparatus maintenance. Um, building infrastructure. Um, our stations are not where they need to be. Uh, we really only have a couple stations that can actually could support full-time firefighters if we decided to move to that option. Uh, with sleeping quarters, um, even running water. We have some stations that don't have running water in them. Uh, but one of the big areas that I want to talk about tonight really just to put on your radar and and I'm not coming tonight with a funding

request or a big recommendation, but as we have these challenging conversations about the financial future of the county, I wouldn't be doing my job as a public safety director if I didn't put these things on your radar. And the big challenge that I want to talk about tonight is volunteer retention. It it's really an area where we are struggling and we have exceptional volunteers in this system. Don't don't take away any message that says that the volunteers aren't incredible because we have some very very high performing volunteers. We just don't have enough of them and the ones that we have um don't stay in our system long enough. this slide and and again all this information is in your packets and and this may be something that we want to pick up at a law enforcement public safety committee meeting uh just for the sake of time here but this just gives you a snapshot of some of our stations that we have. U this slide goes over some of our call volume and shows you that our call volume as you probably already knew and would expect is for the most part increasing year after year. U 20 is the the station triune that we opened this year. That's why the numbers are a little bit goofy there. But that already in that brand new station that we stood up just this year, we've already had 341 calls in the triune area. Um, so I I put in some information on national trends in volunteerism. But I think that the the one number that really stands out as we've evaluated our volunteers progress as they as they stay in the system is that looking back from 2018 to current over if you look over five years 84% of our volunteers have left the system. And that matches with national trends. And you know really in any other volunteer field, you know, if you volunteered at your church for three or four years consistently in a position that would be very completely acceptable and a great thing to do, but we're not seeing the return on investment that we put into these volunteers in terms of training, the equipment we provide, um everything that we put into them. So

it's becoming a challenge and we hear everything from um time requirements, life changes with the increasing demands on volunteer firefighters in terms of the training, the safety standards, um what is asked of them. It's just very hard for anyone to to give of their time. And it really is about a year of solid training just to be able to operate as a basic firefighter because these people have to give up their nights and weekends to be able to do the training. They don't have 9 to5 hours to be able to do it. So after getting through that year to become a pro productive volunteer, there's a lot of upkeep and requirements to and and the need to respond to calls and our volunteers just aren't able to do that on a consistent basis. Another another thing that we look at in terms of analysis is each one of these blue vertical lines here represents one of our volunteers. So to the far left you see one volunteer who's run almost 600 calls. And as as you look through our system, we have about 220 225 active volunteers, but many of them are only responding to a handful of calls each year. And we're really relying on just a small number of a core group of volunteers to provide adequate fire coverage for the county. There is good news though. Uh our program was recently recognized by the state uh and received an award for delivering the most training hours for volunteers for any training fire training entity across the state. Um, like I said, there is no lack of quality among our volunteers. Uh, we have higher training standards. Uh, our program is consistently recognized as one of the best in the state. Um, our volunteers are routinely poached by career departments who want to hire our volunteers because they've gone through a high level of training, which of course there are pros and cons with that. Uh, but it leaves much to be desired in terms of keeping our volunteers on board and providing adequate fire protection. Um, a lot of this is is what you have seen over the last several months. Uh, we have changed the reporting structure for the fire

organization. They they used to be lower down in the emergency management structure. Um, now the fire coordinator reports directly to me. Just recognizing the elevated importance of that position and all of the work that happens in the fire service. We've been working aggressively on auto. You've seen that come across your desks with Spring Hill Thompson Station. We're working on an agreement with Franklin on I65. um knowing that there are going to be times when we need help from our neighbors and they've been willing to step up and support. A similar story with Fair View and Nolanville. You've seen us entered to an agreement with them where they are covering the areas that's further for us uh to reach than them and several other uh projects that are going on throughout the county. Um again, I I don't have time to cover all the information here. Um again, I'm not coming with a budget request tonight or or big recommendations for moving forward. I just wanted to put this conversation on your radar. I know that I will be back and there all of these things are going to follow under um that SWAT analysis that I that I put together that our team has put together uh the recommendations of the public safety task force and the ever evolving nature of fire service and fire protection in Williamson County. So I had to go through that very quickly but did want to leave time for questions and I of course have the chiefs here if you want to hear anything operational from the departments.

Any questions for Mr. Scott? I see none. Oh, Commissioner Sturgeon [snorts] and tax committee passes and appar meaning we can't use it for anything else like what's your opinion on whe

Sure. So in terms of capital funding for question I'm working on his opinion Mr. Scott, if you could do us a favor and just repeat the question that Commissioner Sturgeon So the question from Commissioner Sturgeon was about the adequate facilities tax and there's an amendment to the resolution that would allow for only ambulances and fire apparatus to be purchased with that funding. Is that correct? Ambulances.

Yeah. Well, we have other funding sources. We we also pull from general fund reserve to fund apparatus and fund ambulances. were also able to use the the privilege tax which I guess I guess is a category under the privilege tax. So I guess I would say I would say I don't have an official opinion on that. Um there are other options for funding those things. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions or comments from Mr. Scott? I see none.

Thank you all. So, as he's clearing out this, the next uh presentation we'll have tonight will be overside. Jim, if you'll make your way up, you had asked for a uh update on the JJ program that is going on. Um, as Jim is setting up his slide presentation, he's got some other individuals here that he can introduce that can address some of the numbers and the questions that you might have. I will say that um, today many of you will remember we moved the MURF from off from Century Court off from the hill, moved it out to the [snorts] landfill. the MURF is up and running um in the oversight of M Nolan and then the special ops going on and then one of the resolutions that I would suspect this late file that you want to ask some questions about. How about the numbers down at the courthouse? What do those look like? So, Jim, we've asked Jim and um to be prepared to answer some of those questions for you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rogers. Good evening. Uh do we need to plug this computer in that's here? Thank you. Okay. Um, as a reminder, you know, but as a reminder, the the current projects that we're involved in, can you hear me? Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Current projects that that we're involved in revolving JJ are obviously the jail, juvenile justice center, the alternative learning center, the special ops building as Rogers just mentioned. And then we also um uh have included I'll explain later uh the gun range which was part of the program as well. And uh there's an impound lot and maintenance building that I'll explain to you later. A lot has been going on over the last several months. Um we have uh along with I'm sure any other project we have struggled budget-wise, but I think we have good news on that to report after this. Jeff Kunan with Gresham Smith. uh who is leading the design effort for these buildings. Uh is going to take you through what has been done to date and what's to come in the future and to tell you a little bit about uh these buildings that are they're in in design [clears throat] and what design phase they're in.

And the PowerPoint's not up. Is there a thumb drive in there? [snorts]

[snorts]

You want to come? [laughter] We seem to be having some technical difficulties. So, we're going to take a fivem minute recess and we'll reconvene at um reconvene at 7:30.

Okay. All right. I'll do it. just send you an email telling you that we've already

going to reconvene the November 10th Williamson County Commissioner meeting. I believe we've gotten all the technical difficulties worked out and Mr. Jim Cross is well ready to give his presentation. So, if all the commissioners can begin making their way back to their seats, we'll proceed with the rest of the meeting.

I apologize for the technical difficulties we seem to be having tonight. All depends on how many questions. Pretty pretty full meeting with a lot of moving parts. Mr. Clifford, if you could take your seat, we're going to start.

You may proceed, Mr. Cross. Okay. Thank you. So, as I mentioned, Jeff Kunan with uh Gresian Smith is going to talk about that. And as Commissioner Torres just reminded me, I've got five minutes, so we'll make it brief.

Okay. Thank you everybody. Uh I I will do that. I will try to make it brief here. U certainly have time for to ask answer questions uh as we go ahead, but I'm going I'm going to give you a a brief summary of where we stand with the design of all the remaining components of the project. Uh right now we've got that covered in a series of slides here. Uh before I get into that though, I just want to take a moment to mention uh you know say a word of thanks to all the stakeholders from the sheriff uh his organization and juvenile justice and Williamson County schools for their collaboration on this. Um it's it's been a very intense process uh to focus on developing the design here to make a a series of facilities that are highly functional and efficient uh and also look for creative ways to save money and I think that uh all in all the group has really excelled themselves in that respect. So I'm going to jump in and touch on the jail here. Uh so that's what you see on the screen here. Most of these slides you'll see two columns. uh on the left hand side there will be a column that says the previous design that uh is some broad language there but that that refers to the last completed milestone development of the design. So in many cases uh some of these were done or the last milestone was developed back at the beginning of 2023 or in the end of 2022. So those are those are the numbers that you're seeing over there and then on the right hand side you see the current design. to what we've uh completed to date here. So uh the jail here you see the the square footage is shown at 320,000 square ft and then beneath that you see a 230,000 ft number that is enclosed square footage. So uh just just as a note there why is that differentiated here? The jail uh has a a

parking structure that is tucked underneath the southern side of the building. So, the building is taking advantage of a sloping site in order to tuck the parking for all of the jail staff underneath the building. And of course, this is this is a concept that will help us preserve more of the site later on for future development. Um and and it's a pretty efficient way to create uh covered parking and direct secure access for all the jail staff into and out of the jail vertically instead of horizontally. Uh [clears throat] between the previous schematic design and now the completed design development, you see that we have netted out one additional uh bed here. So we're we're generally right on target. Um and we've also managed to squeeze a little bit of square footage out of the building. And a lot of that comes from rethinking how the circulation works, finding efficiencies there. Um and and uh you know generally uh making uh especially with regard to some of the uh I'll call it the back of house circulation for servicing behind cells and that sort of thing. It's a still still a highly functional building, but we've managed to find some some real efficiencies there. Okay, moving to the juvenile justice center. You see the previous uh schematic design for that was approximately 124,000 square feet. At the time, the uh juvenile justice center and the alternative learning center were combined into one uh contiguous facility. Now the current scheme has broken those apart. Uh so of the previous uh facility about 124,000 square foot of that square feet of that was uh associated with the juvenile justice center. Um the previous design also showed really effectively an an ultimate buildout uh especially for the courtroom spaces. So, one one of the

things that we've done as we've moved ahead uh with this uh revised schematic design is we've we've had uh conversations with the staff, looked at the growth of cases and so on to better understand what the uh needs are going to be for courtrooms immediately upon opening. So, we're we're showing four furnished courtrooms and two shelled space courtrooms that will be built out uh eventually. We're still providing community room space, although we've we've reduced the scale of that a little bit. And then uh through that same conversation, we've we've uh determined that the right solution is to go ahead and construct the 32 uh secure beds, six respit beds, and of course, the clerk's office has always been part of this scheme here. All that is now being fit into uh an area that is uh a little sort of around uh 10% smaller about 112,000 square ft as opposed to 124,000 square ft. So again, we've we've managed to find some efficiencies uh in the facility uh while still retaining a high level of functional service and utility and also preparing for an effective and efficient growth into the future.

One more minute. Thank you. Then I'll move faster. Um so this is the alternative learning center. Uh it is a adaptive reuse of the existing 300 Beasley facility. Um again as I said previously there was a somewhat different scheme that uh this building was incorporated into a single structure that also housed the JJC. We now are looking at about 24,000 square ft of finished space as opposed to 32,000 square ft. And basically we're really accommodating the 150 students that we expect on day one versus the ultimate build out of 250 students which we have space allocated to grow into 17,000 foot remaining. Um this is the uh gun range. The gun range is effectively the same. Uh even though the program has evolved slightly, the overall building size has remained the same, a little over 6,000 square ft. And then the impound lot is uh really an impound lot and also a uh maintenance facility for the building. So previously there was some maintenance facility space that was in the jail that has been relocated out in favor of uh incorporating uh a bit of a different strategy in terms of dealing with the mechanical electrical and plumbing systems for the entire campus here. The result is that this building has got a little bit bigger, moving from about 2600 square ft to about 9,000 square feet. So there you are, Jim. So quick review of the quick review of the budget um for all of these buildings. Before I do that, I want to talk about the maintenance facility and the gun range. The gun range and the maintenance facility were not in the initial plan for this phase. The gun range, if you don't know, is located at the very rear of the property currently

of the jail. And it came apparent to us as we were working through this process that if we didn't do the gun range first, we would have to go back through finished property through the secured fence of the jail and then work on the gun range once the sheriff sheriff's office was being done. We were able to uh do two things. one, we're able to find the money within the budget to be able to do that now. And we took some space or some uses out of the sheriff's office to put into the gun range that's going to reduce square footage of the sheriff's office. Uh, and it was much less expensive to put these uses in this building than it would be into the sheriff's office. So, um, you can see, uh, I don't know if this comes up on your screen there or not, but, uh, our previous cost estimate for each of these components. And what we did, if some of those look different than what you may have seen in the past, is that we have now removing removed the site work from each of these components and put that into one. Our intention is is to bid the site work as one package and do that as one package and not allocate that to each component of this. Um, as Jeff mentioned, as we have been working through the schematic design to design development, the JJC still in schematic design. As that further develops into design development, there's still be more opportunity to value engineer on that building as well. Um but working with the stakeholders uh we were enable engineering process and we've been able to cut $25.6 million out of the budget. Uh which gets us to a total current budget of $341 million which is $3.5 million almost 3 million6 over the the allocated bond proceeds for for these projects. Uh these projects have not

gone out to bid yet. We feel very certain that we're going to be able to make up the $3.6 million deficit that we currently have, but these numbers still here carry a $30 million contingency uh that we don't anticipate to have to use. We would recommend once we go into construction, we would carry about a $16 million contingency. So, we anticipate these numbers to still work their way down, but at this point in time, it's still prudent to carry a $30 million contingency into this point. That's very quick um overview. I think this package either you will have it or it will be sent to you. I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm happy to to answer questions after the fact as well if you would like to to do that.

Any questions for Mr. Cross? Hold on. If you let him unplug that first. Oh, she can see the screen. Oh, okay. Screen. If you can turn Commissioner Lawrence's mic on, I'll go ahead and I'll just talk about So, Jim, thank you for being here tonight. You uh Well, they took the numbers down, but it was 25 million. I think you value engineered. As I recall, there was u a savings of 20 million if you move the alternative learning center out of the J juvenile center. So, is that part of that 25 million or is that

It is. Um we probably didn't realize the full amount of that 20 million. Uh as we got into the alternative learning center building, uh we found that the the roof wasn't in good shape. It's going to new roof. The all the HVAC equipment was in the life. That's going to have to be replaced. Um because we're changing uses of the building from a warehouse to educational. Uh city of Franklin is about to adopt the new international building code which which is going to cause us to have to put more reinforcement in the roof to meet the wind tornado requirements. Uh so we didn't get all the efficiencies out of that that we had hoped. A good portion of that savings was going to come out of sight because we were not having to relocate the the Charles Meeks drive and the fiber optic line and all those utilities. Um, our site drawing packages have just come out and so that's going out to get priced and so hopefully we'll be able to see more savings as that comes through.

But we've already through value engineering and another um resolution that you'll hear tonight. We've already saved about $4.7 million out of the site package already. So, and I think there'll be more to do for All right. Thank you. Any other questions or comments for Mr. cross. Uh, Commissioner Judy Herbert, when are you going to break ground?

Well, um, if you approve the, uh, resolution tonight, the late file resolution, we hope to pull a grading permit in early December. The, uh, the special ops building is complete. So, special ops is moving out of the 306 building now. Um, matter of fact, I think they're already out. Uh, and we're starting to prepare demolition of that building soon. So all the asbestous removal will start uh the week before Thanksgiving or the week of Thanksgiving. Uh and then that building will start to come down pretty soon and then site work will start shortly after that. Thank you, Commissioner Sturgeon.

I apologize for coming in a little bit after you started your presentation. So maybe you covered this, but when the numbers were up, they're gone now. It was the original estimate and current estimate and it was about a $50 million difference. What caused the change from the original estimate to the current estimate? Why did it go up the from the current estimate? I'm not Well, is there a way we can put the numbers back? Yeah, it was like 316 went up to like 30 66 66. Yeah. And then you managed to value engineer another 25 million out. But it's still why did it go from one to the other?

Well, a lot of different things caused that. Uh design was one. So, we had to go back and get that out. And then we were uh when we were here a year ago, we were dealing with 2023 numbers. So, we all those numbers been updated since then. Uh inflation.

And like I said, this has not been put out to bid yet. So, this has not gone to the subm market. So, we really feel like when that does, we're going to start to see some of that condense back down. But, uh, there's still a lot of turmoil in the markets right now related to tariffs and other things where people are pricing their work as if tariffs are going to happen, but they haven't really happened yet. So, I think all that will start to work itself down a little, but that's not the total problem, but is prices have continued to to rise. So, it's still just an estimate is what you're saying. It is just an estimate. That's true. It has not gone out to bid yet. And we still have $30 million of contingency in there as well. Right. I saw that. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments for Mr. Cross? And does everyone have a request to speak button showing on there? Nobody does. Okay. While they work on that, if you could just raise your hand if you have. Uh, and I see none. Thank you. Thank you. Any followup, Rogers? I do not, Mr. Chairman. I think that's all the reports that you all did asked us to bring forward. I'll answer any questions you might have, though.

Any questions for the mayor? I see none. With that, we'll call on Superintendent of Schools, Mr. Jason Golden.

Thank you, Mr. chair and thank you commissioners. Uh as I was uh standing there uh during Commissioner Williams prayer, he made me smile. Uh I have one particular uncle who would have thoroughly appreciated your prayer. But it actually um gave me a reminder of those moments throughout the school year where we identify, at least in my mind as the school's uh chief executive who we are. Uh we intentionally and thoughtfully have school tomorrow uh on Veterans Day. And we do that because we want to make sure our students have that opportunity to honor our veterans. Commissioner Williams, I know you've attended uh at least one of those, maybe some more over the years. I speak at one

you you've spoken uh at one of our elementary schools. I know. Uh so I want to thank you for that. Uh tomorrow, our students will be in school. We do that in conjunction with Franklin Special District as well. We work as a team uh to make sure that that's an important [clears throat] aspect of our community. We're going to have a lot of students participating tomorrow. uh you've you've had a busy uh day already. I'm just going to mention the one item that's an expenditure item on uh your agenda tonight related to schools. Uh we do have our annual bus request. We retire our buses based on state requirements related to mileage. Uh and then we we we ask you to approve our purchases. This year uh in this time of year, we are netting a request for two fewer school buses than we currently have based on the retirements and the replacements. That includes a reduction in six from our from our general education fleet. Uh because we've done an analysis of maintenance and determined that we can we can get by with fewer replacement buses to cycle. Uh but it incre it includes an increase of four net special education buses because that demand continues to increase in our community net to reduction uh on that item tonight. Open to any questions you may have.

Any questions or comments for Mr. Golden Commissioner Petty High School Friday for a special program for veterans. And I gotta tell you this, I was told that the students organized and wrote everything. Uh they they were they gave tremendous speeches. They brought a guy in that had been in Iraqi in Iraq, I think, or Afghanistan. Uh the band was awesome. Uh the whole program, I was very impressed with what the students put together. It was a tremendous program. Thank you for doing that.

Thank you, Commissioner. Page High School's uh student council put that together entirely on their own. pretty incredible group. Uh, and I tell you, seeing a grandparent or a parent walk across the gym floor to greet their child, uh, and you all know that those veterans are pretty humble, uh, as a as a group and and letting letting those children and grandchildren know what their parents and grandparents have done to open up those conversations is a is a big part of that. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments for Superintendent Golden? And for our IT team, we still don't have uh request to speak buttons showing up on our screen. And again, while they work on that, uh we'll go by a show of hands. I see none. Thank you, Mr. Golden. With that, we'll move on to the hospital report with uh our CEO, Phil Mazooka, and our CFO, Terry Fowler. Ahead on my comments, uh good evening, but maybe I should say good night. Uh I uh appreciate you having me uh Mr. Chair and and commissioners. I'll start with some brief comments and then I'll turn it over to Terry who can provide the financial report. So to start I want to give a quick update on our cardiac imaging projects. We're expecting delivery of our new CT scan with cardiac imaging capabilities this week with installation and tech testing to take place over the next 30 days. We expect to see our first patient with this new unit on December 15th. It'll give us a better access to CT procedures being our third unit at the main hospital. The cardiac studies actually will begin just after the first of the year as we get staff trained and on our new software package. Excuse [clears throat] me. Our new large boore MRI with cardiac imaging capabilities is still planned to take uh our first patient in March of 2026. The longer lead time is due to the construction required uh for that unit. As I reported last month, our thorough and deliberate strategic planning process related to the future of Williamson Health continues as we explore all potential pathways to the best possible future. This includes a wide spectrum of options from ways to remain independent all the way to a potential change in ownership. As you know, if the Williamson Health Board of Trustees concludes that a sale is the correct path forward, the County

Commission must approve any transaction. That said, I want to reiterate that our board is not close to making a decision on our future. We're still in the information gathering phase using many different avenues, including the RFP solicitations that we announced last month. We do not expect to provide any significant updates on the comprehensive strategic planning process until 2026. A topic that's come up over the past few weeks is what happens with the proceeds from the sale if our board chooses to go down the path of change in ownership. [clears throat] The question is better answered by lawyers and not hospital leadership. The mission of Williamson Health is to provide worldclass healthc care to members of our community. That has always been our focus and what is what drives our strategic planning process. The process we are going through is an effort to ensure that Williamson Health is in a position to continue to provide high quality and compassionate care to our communities for years to come. Lastly, as we have said in every step of the process, Williamson Health will always follow the law, whether it is as currently written or if it is amended. It's not our place to determine what happens with the proceeds and we will ensure full compliance with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements. Now with that, I'll turn it over to Terry for the update on the financials. Good evening everyone. First, I want to apologize for the August financials being sent to you instead of September. You should have received the September financials which should be in your packet. Uh the financial results for September uh IBIDA was favorable to budget by 8.6% or almost $182,000

12%. Net income for September was favorable to budget by 20% or $82,000 and favorable year-to- date by $52,000 or almost 53%. September volumes were lower compared to budget in prior year with the exception of physician office visits, GI procedures, Kathlab cases, which were up compared to budget. Deliveries were also up 7% versus budget and 1% versus prior year. The lower volumes are why you see net operating revenue was down from the for the month versus budget by 53,000 or almost 2%. However, however, we still beat budget for net income as operating expenses were lower than budget by 1.2 million or 4.1%. Ebida margin percent was 7.4 4 for the month and 7.9% year-to date and operating cash increased uh $3,94,000 due to decreases in accounts receivable and timing of payroll. Uh days cash on hand all sources increased to 116 days which is up three days and debt coverage was the same as prior month at 2.48. And this concludes my report.

Any questions for Mr. Mr. Mazuka or Mr. Fowler and again I'll go by a show of hands since our Mr. Petty, [clears throat] hi. I just was wondering uh down here on the operating cash fund, what is the restricted uh funds? What what was that for? Want me to cover it? 68, 68 million.

So, it's two things. One is the bond covenants that we have that require us to keep a certain amount of cash on hand uh to support the bond uh payments. And so, that's about somewhere around 30.5 million. The remainder is funded depreciation. So a lot of hospitals, everyone records depreciation, but there's not a lot of organizations that actually fund the depreciation. Our board in the past had decided that they wanted to on their own fund depreciation. So there's about uh I think $38 million of funded depreciation. I think it's on page two of your uh balance sheet that shows you those three categories. So the board could actually use those funds for whatever they want. in the past and they're normally used to take care of things that happen with your facility or whatever it may be in the past that system, but they can use it for whatever.

Any other questions or comments for either Mr. Mazuka or Mr. Fowler? I see none. With that, I believe we have a report from our budget committee chairman, Mr. Chaz Morton.

Uh yes, thank you. Um one of the tasks that comes before our commission, it's been brought up uh uh within a resolution and otherwise um is seeking independent counsel um in connection with the potential sale of the hospital. Uh we have identified counsel and uh Mr. Jesse Neil is here. Uh we are here just to vote on his approved uh to approve his rate. Um his rate is $900 per hour. Um which I know is a significant amount. Um mergers and acquisition is a very very specialized field. Um I believe it is a reasonable rate but Mr. Neil is here. We are here to vote upon the recommended rate.

With that um I'll entertain a motion and we'll have to do that verbally. Resolution. There's no resolution. Um, but we'll have a motion, a second, a time for dialogue. Got a motion from Commissioner Sanford, seconded by Commissioner Carden. Um, and I believe you said Neil is here. Yes. You want to speak before I open the floor or maybe come up to the podium because I will anticipate there'll be some questions. fully enlarged. And while he comes to the podium, um maybe our system's working now because I see a question or comment from Commissioner Richards up first.

Uh do you want to go ahead and and if you have some words you'd like to say first and then I'll call on the commissioners to ask questions?

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioners. I appreciate your time. I know you're very very busy. A little background about me. I'm a middle Tennessee uh native who has developed a niche advising almost exclusively uh governmental hospitals and county governments that are affiliated with them. And I advise them both in terms of evaluating transactions about whether to move forward with them or whether not to. And then if the choice to move forward is is where they reach then I help them execute on that uh that transition that transaction. And I've been doing this uh almost exclusively for several years. Excuse [clears throat] me. Uh in and I've done it in Tennessee and California uh and Florida uh as well.

Okay. If you'll pull your microphone up a little closer to you. Uh first question or comment goes to Commissioner Richards. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to object to this vote. Um it's not part of the agenda and according to our rules, it has to be part of the agenda like it requires a twothirds vote of the county commission to approve this vote. 10.7 says it could be considered. It is on the agenda. So, council is telling me that um where is it on? It doesn't fall under the uh statute of requiring two objections to not be heard. Is that correct, council? Rule 4.7 would allow if it is on the agenda at You want to say that to everyone?

Rule 4.7 allows matters on the agenda at the beginning of the commission meeting to be heard. Where is it on the agenda? I don't see it on the agenda. It's under reports of county offices under budget committee outside legal council rate approval. Okay.

All right. Well, I have another objection. This engagement letter was initiated negotiated through the county office which is currently conflicted with this matter. Because of that conflict, neither the county attorney nor anyone recommended through his office can legally serve as independent counsel for the commission. Approving this tonight would expose the county's significant legal and ethical risk. I respectfully request that this item be deferred until we can review and get our own independent counsel. I would also note there's several things in the contract that maybe the commission is not aware of. It pretty much waves away all of our rights to conflicts of interest. Um, and I believe you have your own conflict of interest. You were previous counsel for who? I've had a number of clients over the years.

CHS, is that correct? I was in-house lawyer for Community Health Systems for a period of years. Okay. And and you don't feel like that would present a conflict of interest to this bidding process? No, sir. Okay. I I would respectfully disagree. I think this is a bad choice. I I have a resolution that would uh address this issue and we can as a commission pick our own untainted council. I would also say the contract says that this attorney would report to the mayor, not to the county commission as it's written now. So even if we hire this individual, we still would not have our own legal counsel.

And I believe before the system went down again, and we had a question or comment next from Commissioner Lisa Hayes. Is that correct? Not really, but maybe Jeff. So, it's and Chris may have just unanswered the question, but would he be uh available to answer any questions we have as a commission towards this whole strategic planning and project of the hospital? Yes. So, at any point I could call Mr. Neil and say, "Hey, I have a question. Just want to run something by you and understand." Mr. Your mic is down. You'll have to use my m

Mr. Neil will represent the county in the transaction. He will be available to advise county commission as to what that process or the results are. So there is no distinction between the mayor and the county commission in terms of representing the county overall. So yes, he would be available to answer those questions. Okay. Thank you. He was speaking loudly because his mic is not working. Um thank you. And again, our system seems to be down again. So, as for a with a show of hands, is there are other questions or comments? Commissioner Lawrence, and then I'll go to Commissioner Sturgeon. I'll try to take them in order as I see them.

All right. This question is also for council. So, what would be the distinction between, excuse me, hiring our own attorney for to represent the commission and in this case hiring Mr. Neil to represent the county? Is there is there really a distinction there?

Use my mic if you want. The statute authorizes the mayor to employ council for the county subject to approval of the rate. Now, there are opportunities, I guess, for the county commission to do that. That issue has come up and it's always been disposed of due to duplication of cost and efforts. His representation of the county and his fiduciary duty will be to the county as a whole, including the branches of government, including the county commission. So there is no conflict between the branches. So again, it would be duplicative of the effort [clears throat] and I don't know under what authority you would utilize that.

Okay. But he he would not represent the hospital. Correct. Correct. Okay. And I'm glad to comment on that. I've

uh for for better or for worse, I spent a lot of time in front of county commissions talking about um their affiliated hospital and worked with them. Um really my charge in my experience on other transactions is to um meet with you individually, understand your needs, understand your questions, understand the questions that are being brought to you by your constituents, and then through my experience on mergers and acquisitions and in the attorney general's office, help get you that individualized feedback, that individualized solution, that individualized provision in the documents. that takes the the the political or the governmental question concern issue and finds a solution through the through the evaluation process to your satisfaction. Uh I am at your disposal in that regard and uh having spent time in government and also at a hospital system is probably how I came to have this lane in um uh in my law practice. And so uh very much is a individualized feedback. I would be able to answer your questions, research what issues you needed to be researched. Uh I'm uh at at your disposal and my goal really at the end is to support the commission and the county to one and first is evaluate the options that are before it and to help facilitate the direction that ultimately you choose. And if I do say so myself, it's it's absolutely true that the the community, every community I've worked in, they look to their county and their county commissioners to lead them through the process, to to ask the questions, to find answers, and give them confidence that what they're doing is in the best interest of the government and the community that are there. And so, uh, it's it's it's not the kind of legal engagement where you have a lot of boxes that you can just

check and pull off the shelf. It's something that's very much individualized to the community, to the county, to the county commissioners, uh, and their expectations and issues and concerns. And, uh, that's what I've committed to do through this engagement, and that's what I hope I can do. Commissioner Sturge, have you already spoken to this? Okay, go ahead, Commissioner Sturgeon.

I'm I'm just curious how this works. If if you're hired by the county mayor and you're working for the county, but the county mayor is also on the board of trustees. So, what does he take off his mayor hat, put on his county trustee hat or I mean hospital board hat and the other lawyer talks to him and then when he puts his mayor hat back on represent him? I mean, how do how do we know that it's really going to be your agenda? our agenda in a fiduciary way.

I do appreciate that and the corporate lawyer in me really appreciates that question and if I if I could get some indulgence. Uh obviously we have not moved forward with the engagement but evaluating those very issues will be key I think for the the council that ultimately the the county and the county commission decide and I think you'll it'll be uh as as is typical in that type of situation. every relationship between the county hospital and the county, no two of them are alike. In Hamilton County, it was different than Williamson County. And so the issues and the facts that are raised up have to be analyzed and bespoke to the satisfaction of that county and the county commission. And so I think we will have to flush that out and make a determination on the direction that you think is best.

Commissioner Petty, unless you had a follow. Thanks for coming out tonight. Uh my question is uh the first I heard of you and being hired uh was at the budget committee last week. So I'm wondering who is it that made made the decision to hire you and were any county commissioners involved in that?

I I can't speak to that. So back in the process around late July and August as the hospital was proceeding down with the direction of what you heard Phil Mazooka say, do we merge? Do we stay? Do we sell? became apparent to me to reach out to legal counsel Jeff [clears throat] Mosley and say, "We got to have someone that's going to protect the interest of the taxpayers and your interest as county commissioners." I said, "Do you know someone like that?" And so through some processes, we became engaged with him. We reached out to him, said, "What kind of experience have you had?" We reached out to him and asked, "Uh, have you done something like a not for-profit hospital?" And all of those u questions were answered satisfaction. So the process that you go through and not downplaying the questions that you're asking because they're all good questions, but we do this throughout our tenure whereby the county mayor, he's got to have he can't reach out to all 24 of you. Now, he can communicate with you, answer your questions, but from time to time, we have to have things signed and paychecks have to be presented to him. The one element that I will reach out to you, Commissioner Petty, is that we're building in the [cough] the fee of his company that in the event that that um the hospital does sale that part of that cost will be reimbursed back to the county through the acquisition of who if that's the route that you all decide to go. So the only thing we're doing here tonight is finding a lawyer to represent

you and there is no conflict commissioner from me and the different ads. I'm trying to do the same thing that you're doing the best for the county and but get you somebody here before you and he is very qualified to do that. So that's the journey we took is here tonight. All you I mean you're you're voting on his rate just like we do at every budget meeting as long as I've been around. It's his rate that you're approving. So we don't get anything to say about

Commissioner Sturgeon. You've not been called on. I'll get to you mayor if you wish. I think our next speaker if Mr. Petty doesn't have a follow-up will be Commissioner Williams. Or did you not press? I didn't press. Okay. I'm sorry. I thought I saw you up there. and I'll go to Commissioner Mary Smith.

Hi. Um, so I just I probably this might be a question for Jeff because it sounds like there's a lot of questions just about how we got to this point because I don't know that anybody on the commission other than a few emails realized that we were going out and getting legal counsel. So, I don't know that there was an RFP process or how many people actually were talked to about this potential largest transaction this county has ever undergone. And I think a lot of us have just have a lot of questions around what the county's interests are. So nothing personal, but is there a way we can defer this? Is there until maybe we get an opportunity to get some clarity on?

It's your choice. you just won't have anybody representing the county until you get back around to it because as the mayor has said, you know, this this isn't my area of expertise and that's why we went to identify somebody who does mergers and acquisitions and has been through the attorney general process. So, I'm not going to jump into that in the meantime. So, the county will go unrepresented if you defer this. Well, if we if we do defer it,

I do make a motion to defer it. Is there also a way just to kind of put a pause until because I have reached out to um Wesley Robertson at CASS because I know Campbell County just recently went through a similar thing and so I have reached out just to try to have somebody make sure that we understand as county commission what our oversight should be as this process continues and we understand what exactly it is we will be looking at um from the standpoint. I don't know that anybody really can explain to me right now what our interests are with regards to the hospital because it's gone through so many evolutions and there's been add-ons there satellites. There's so many components now to Williamson Health. I don't even know if somebody can actually tell me exactly what our interests are today with regards to the county versus the operational side of it. So, I just I would I would like to defer just because I think we need an opportunity to have somebody kind of come in and give the county commission, you know, just a snapshot of this is what the county's interests are so that we can make sure that we're actually doing the right thing by the taxpayers.

Motion to defer has to have a date. Um, I'd like to make a motion to defer it to our January meeting. I have a motion to defer this vote to our January meeting. Do I hear a second?

Second. Second came from Commissioner Richards. Any discussions or comments on the motion to defer? And I have uh Commissioner Morton on the uh amendment or motion to defer. I think it's on both. [clears throat] Certainly within the motion to defer. Um, with regard to to questions that that some of the commissioners have had, um, I'd had the opportunity to to meet with Jesse and and and speak with him about his practice to questions that that the commission doesn't even know that it needs the answers to, um, I will say as as a practicing lawyer, one who has done so for over 25 years, I'm I'm very impressed with his credentials, with his ability. I feel confident that he will lead us through this process. He understands questions that we don't even know how to ask. Um, as to the question of who else might be available, there there may be someone else. I will tell you that in Nashville, there are a great number of healthcare lawyers independently. I have reached out to them. They are all conflicted out. um understanding what legal conflict means uh may may be beyond um the understanding of of some of our commissioners. Um past representation does not necessarily forego. Uh Jesse's loyalty will be to the county, not to the mayor, not to any individual on this commission. It is to the county. Um and and so I I I don't understand fully uh I disagree with the idea of of the conflict being present. Um I will say that like I said I' I've looked into other healthcare council that I know perform in these areas. They are representing interested buyers and so they are conflicted out. They are truly on the other side. Um and it's my understanding the hospital has

engaged I believe Basar and Sims to represent it and its interests which is why we cannot represent be represented by Basper and Sims. We cannot be represented by Bolt com Bradley now. We cannot be represented by Holland and Knight. These are all conflicted out because of their other side of it. We have somewhat lucked into council in that he's got this experience. were he with his former firm, he would be conflicted out through that. Uh because they have started a new firm, they have not yet had the opportunity to to latch on to any of the healthcare providers. But I I would fear that at some point Jesse may fall out, but he is available now. Um to the question of deferring, I I am nervous going ahead without counsel. I will say that we can terminate representation if we are not satisfied with the product we're receiving. But but deferring this gives me great concern.

Thank you, Commissioner Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As an attorney too, I I would disagree with there being a conflict, but I won't discount the hesitancy with some of the commissioners. And maybe there's an opportunity where we can do a tentative or temporary engagement because I too am hesitant to go forward without representation at this point because the train is rolling forward and I do feel like we need some representation. But I understand the concerns of the commission and perhaps instead of deferring it completely until January, perhaps we do a tentative engagement, get some representation now while commissioners with hesitation have time to look into things, look into options or answer their questions without leaving us unrepresented. And then in January, perhaps we can have another debate about anything that a commissioner has found and whether or not we need to continue the temporary representation or do something different. Commissioner Sanford,

I concur with um Morton and Clifford, but my question is I guess to Jeff, so is each commissioner going to get his email and cell phone number and let's say for example, Tunliffe has a hundred questions for him and next thing you know that alone is $80,000 bill and then um Commissioner Torres has 30 questions for him and when does it end? So, I'm just curious how that works. We have historically, well, first of all, I need to state the statute says the county mayor employs the council, not the county legislative body. The county legislative body fixes the compensation, the rate. That's the only involvement you have under 56112. Secondarily, the idea of him saying, "I report to the mayor," is to try to streamline the questions and the issues that are presented to him. Every commissioner can call me and have, you know, our engagement letter says that first call is free, but if I have to research, if I have to draft, if I have to do those things, they get build. So, I, you know, it's going to be kind of the same situation. It seems to me that the more economical way to go about that is for your committee structure to address the questions with Jesse and have him address those. But that's up to the individual commissioners. But yeah, it can get expensive in a hurry if everybody's calling on their own and getting individual answers because you don't know if they're duplicative or not among other things.

Mr. Chair, I had a question about point of order with my comment. I intended to make an adjustment, but I don't know if the right thing to do is make an amendment to the amendment or encourage um a no vote on the amendment so we can bring up the thought that I had which was provide a temporary assignment until the next commission meeting where we would review it. So that would essentially be approve the rate until the January commission meeting which we would then review it. It's not an amendment. It's a motion to defer. Let me check with council to see if he has suggestions on uh I have a tendency to want to let others speak and then I'll come back to you if you wish to

make that suggestion at that time. Uh and then in the order uh with our protocol uh Christopher for Commissioner Richards has already spoken so I'll go now to Commissioner Hayes. I'm good. Commissioner pulled. Oh, you pulled. Okay. Uh then we go to Chris uh Commissioner Richards.

Thank you Mr. Chair. uh two points uh that I I really didn't want to have to go here. The first is that Mr. Mosley is not entirely correct and it's a shame that the commissioner has to research this. There is an AG opinion that says that the commission can hire their own legal counsel and that's exactly in this case in a case of conflict of interest. I'm not sure why he doesn't want to share that with us, but he should be sharing that with us. The other issue is that the state is currently investigating Mr. Mosley for a conflict of interest. Like that conflicts any advice that he gives to the commission right now. I did not want to share that. Mr. Mosley chose to share that in an email this afternoon. Um it's I'm not prevented from sharing that.

Point of order. Is this to the a motion on the floor? Uh point of vote is Yeah,

it's whether or not we should defer or not. I think it's very relevant if we're receiving uh adequate legal legal counsel. Uh Mr. Mosley continuing to give us legal counsel right now is actually digging himself and the county commission deeper into the hole. It it is an active investigation and I'm sure you understand the Board of Professional Ethics does not lightly go into investigations. They receive thousands of complaints a year and something like this is of a high magnitude that the county commission should should take seriously and certainly the attorney should understand who spoke and said that there is no conflict of interest. I would disagree with them and say well somebody at the state certainly seems to think that there is.

Thank you. Can I address that?

Yeah, I'll let council address that if it if he wishes. First, if if Commissioner Richards is referring to the AG opinion he cited in his email, um he should know that opinion does not address independent council for the county commission as has been pounded pointed out by other commissioners. It's a wrong citation. Secondarily, it that only occurs when you have a conflict between the branches. There is no conflict between the branches between the mayor and the county commission. Third, you have made the complaint to the board of professional responsibility. That is the only thing they have seen. The board of professional responsibility will investigate if your complaint, if it is proven true, has the basis for a proceeding. It has not made that determination and in fact it has not even received my response. I am confident when this process goes through that we will be completely cleared because you have omitted material information for the board like the fact that the hospital and the county have issued consents to mutual representation or dual representation. Both of those consents say that either party can ask me to recuse myself if there is a potential conflict. In this case, the mayor said in this opportunity, he would like additional outside counsel. That has been done. The county commission must approve the sale. There is no conflict. I am confident that will be the finding. There is no information other than your bald-faced complaint. And with that, I'll restrict all further comments. Both sides have spoken. We appreciate that. The rest of the comments I I'll accept will have to be uh specifically given to the motion to defer or any ideas that might take us out of deferral into another direction. So with that on the motion to defer, Commissioner Hayes.

Yes. Um I do agree with the comment that I do think we need some counsel between now and considering. So I like the deferral to go ahead and have counsel and maybe do a deeper dive in January. I too have made phone calls and found several firms that had to opt out as well. Um, but my concern is is I would like to sit down and maybe the mayor can host this and just have us sit down and talk with you. Um, and I don't know if we can do that in private like we've done with one other issue because I don't know if we can do that or it's public. I don't care. But just to have an open discussion. I think there's enough concern about the county commission having questions, not feeling like we're privy to a lot of things like the strategic planning that's occurring. So, you know, I would like that. I don't know, mayor, if you could do that between now and the end of the year. I think that would help a lot. But thank you, Mr. Neil. We're sorry to put you through this.

Mr. Chairman, if I may.

Absolutely. you we we will have a meeting if you want it at the law enforcement budget committee. We'll invite him down [cough] whatever committee meeting you want because we don't do things in private. What we have been talking to him is about the opportunity. This process the hospital is going through. It's going as we speak. Not may not at 9 8:15 in the evening, but the process is going on. And he is here to represent you and this county. But as as Jeff has said, I'm the one that has to hire. You have to approve the rate. And whether you do a temporary, that's fine. We just need representation at thisos uh this this this body and this county needs to be represented.

I just know two major firms have opted out of being able to then talk to me or assist. So that tells me that RFP process is and I have seen the words RFP used. Now again, that's where I would like some clarification to understand is it strategic planning or is an RFP because these are multiple hospitals that have been reached out to and that's a concern for me because again my job is to represent my constituents that are taxpayers and this whole this is huge and we don't know what we don't know. So that's all I have to say. Thank you. Again, try to keep your comments to the motion to defer. did. Uh, Commissioner Torres on the motion to defer.

Yes. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. So, um, I would just ask who maybe Commissioner Smith, if you would consider withdrawing the motion to defer, um, you know, as somebody who works for the largest private healthcare company that's based here in Nashville, um, these things move pretty quickly once they start moving. And I do have concerns, especially with us not meeting in December and not having representation. And so I would just respectfully ask you to consider letting us vote on the rate, whether it's temporary, as Commissioner Morton pointed out, it sounds like the way the engagement is set that we've got latitude to make changes at a later date if if need be. But this is a very specialized type of law where as this continues to progress where we're going to need um that council, that outside counsel. Thank you. Commissioner Smith, if you wish to address that. Otherwise, I'll go

first. If if you have a response, you can make it now or

Yeah, I'm fine with um withdrawing the motion to defer. Um but I would like to within the next couple weeks just maybe have a committee meeting because I do think that there's a lot of folks that just really want to understand what does the county currently own. We've gone through the bone and joint clinic. We've gone through a lot of different iterations and the Williamson Health has expanded exponentially over the last 70 years. So I think there's just a lot of questions around what are our counties taxpayers interest in this transaction. So I will withdraw but I'm hoping the next couple weeks maybe we could just have a you know some sort of you know committee meeting whatever the case might be just to understand how we're being represented and what you're actually representing us for. And with a motion to withdraw, I'll need the second to also withdraw. Commissioner Richards, do you withdraw?

Then the motion to defer is still going to stay on the floor. Uh before I go to Commissioner Williams, did you have something? Uh other than to say we'll find a time to address that. We'll make it public so that just come down, answer your questions, get more comfortable with him. But I do want to reiterate what Commissioner Tory says. This process is going on. Commissioner Williams, we do not have legal counsel there because Jeff does cannot represent in this fashion. He has not gone down this road before. Understood. Commissioner Williams

at $900 per hour. Encourage brevity. I call the question. [laughter] We have a motion to call the question. And do I hear a second? Second comes from Commissioner Tunnliffe. This requires a 23 majority. Okay. We'll do a voice vote. If it doesn't sound like it's close to unanimous, then we'll do a roll call. Uh it just simp has to be a majority vote here. So all those in favor of the uh calling the question. We have a motion and a second to call the question, which means we'll require two. You're right.

Okay. Then it does require two/3s. I apologize. Um, so we're going to do a voice vote first. If it doesn't appear to be close to unanimous, then we'll do a a roll call, Miss Darlene, if you can be prepared for that. Yeah, this this would be to call the question. Call the question on the deferral, which is still on the floor because the even though the motion was removed by the maker, it was not removed by the second. So, uh, we now have a motion and a second to call the question. I would second that. It's been second. It's been seconded, but we'll take yours as a third. And uh and with that, uh if you're in favor of calling the question, signify by saying I.

I. Any opposed? The question is called. And we're back to the the vote at hand to approve the rate. The motion to defer now. And this is a majority vote. No, I'm sorry. Yes. These things get complicated. We are now back to the motion to defer which is still on the on the table. Um, and the question has been called, so there will be no more comments. Is it been loaded or do I need to No, just we'll do a voice vote. And again, if it doesn't sound like it's close to unanimous, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, if you are in favor of deferring this to January's meeting, signify by saying I. All opposed.

Then the motion to defer fails. Now we're back to the the vote at hand and I will go to commissioner Ielo. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh this is Lee for the for the mayor. Um based on my understanding of the appointment rules about an attorney, pretty much you determined to select an attorney and then we're voting solely on the compensation. What I would ask is, you know, rather than saying this is a temporary appointment, would the mayor consider revisiting this in January of whether to retain council moving forward? So, we can appoint council now and then we vote whether to continue the representation in January. That way, we're covered in the months intervening.

Let let me let me answer that question. But what I what I feel that I heard from you saying you're wanting to engage him on a temporary basis until we can get back to together in January and confirm it on a full-time basis somewhat. But my understanding is the commission really can't determine this is a temporary appointment. It would have to come from the mayor's office whether there'd be a commitment of revisiting this in January um for continuation of representation. I I don't think the commission could put a restriction on the term of employment. I think that comes from the mayor's office. That is correct. Um so just

I will consider that if that's direction you all want to go. But I do need somebody. We you all need somebody. Well, and I agree. I think this needs to happen now. Um but some of the commissioner's concerns about um having an opportunity to review later on u that might go to a switch some of the concerns.

I always have the pleasure of the client. It's temporary. He has agreed to those terms of doing a temporary and then we'll come back and visit this in January. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Um Commissioner Petty I believe is next has already spoken. I don't see anybody else though. So go ahead, Commissioner Petty. Well, um, unless you accidentally hit it. No,

I I agree with everything that, uh, Commissioner said, and I think it's a good idea. We'll do a temporary for now. We can firm it up in January, and I I do agree that we need to have representation now. I don't think there's any question about that. Any other questions or comments? All right. Then we are now going to be voting on the rate. Is this something that's loaded or a voice vote? I think it's a voice vote. It loaded. Is it loaded?

Is this one loaded or do we need to do a voice vote? Voice vote. Okay. Seeing no more questions or comments, we're voting on the rate uh now under the new uh assurances that it will be temporary uh to be uh re-examined in January. If you're in favor of that, signify by saying I I. Any opposed? Opposed? Passes with one uh objection. 22 to one. All right. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, commissioners. Appreciate it. And lastly, under reports of county offices, I believe we have a report from Gordon from parks and reccks department. The natives are

I'm coming up here with a smile on my face. The parks and recreation department provides fun and enjoyment for the county. That's what we're here for. And uh hopefully we're going to get this to the finish line. You can start hearing resolutions. Beth, come up here with me, please, ma'am. I'm pleased to announce tonight when you see the business from the parks and recreation department, it's all good news. You know, we have over $5 million that's coming in the way of donations, and these are always good. We have great partners in the county. You're voting on a resolution later on tonight to accept a million dollars from Excel Swim Club. If you approve that resolution tonight, XL Swim Club will join us in January for a million-doll check presentation. In the meantime, what I'd like to do is let everybody and remind everybody that Beth Laws, one of your former county commissioners, a longtime public steward and servant in Williamson County, town of Dolanville, has been employed by the mayor's office to be a grant writer for Williamson County. One of the best moves our great mayor has ever made. Beth has been so successful in all the endeavors that we've done together in parks and wreck and we just want to share a couple of things with you. In year 20 24 we applied for an LPRF grant and we received that grant for 2,173,000. [applause] In year 2025, we went back to the whale, applied for another LPR grant, LPRF grant, and we were awarded this one for the amount of $3,458,100.

[applause] I'd like to recognize best part in this along with Phyllis Huffman on my staff who's done an amazing amount of research and also Andrea Hastings in the budget and finance department. Andrea is the accountant who deals with the dotting the eyes, crossing the tees. Beth writes them, Andrea checks them. Phyllis is like the private detective that pulls it all together. So, it's a great team. We have some great success stories. Also want to thank County Commissioner Brian Clifford for his support helping through uh get things through TEK. Great sponsor, great partner from the state of Tennessee. So, thank you all. I hope you approve our resolutions tonight and uh we'll end this on a happy note. All right. Thank you all. [applause] Thank you, Beth Laws, for all you do for our community, our county. The grants that uh we vote on every month, uh more and more of them have your name attached to them, and we couldn't be more grateful and thank you for what you do. Uh Commissioner Williams, did you wish to speak?

Yeah, I just want to echo echo uh gratitude to uh Beth for everything she's been doing for the county. Do you have any idea as what the total amount of dollars you've helped us procure in grant funding as estimate? I think it's estimated 9 million, but $9 million that we otherwise would not have received without your help. Thank you very much. [applause] [applause] TAKE A BREAK NOW OR GO ON TO BEER BOARD.

Next on the agenda will be beer board followed by the consent agenda and then we will move on to zoning. At some point I think I get the sense that we want to take a break maybe. Do we want to go on to beer board or take a break now?

Keep going. All right. I think I'm seeing a majority of votes to keep going. All right, so we'll go on to the election appointments. Uh, this one, the only one we have tonight is the beer board, which is a three-year term expiring 11 of 28. It is an at large member term expiring is Tommy Randolph. Nomination is Tommy Randolph. I have a motion from Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Any comments or questions on that nomination? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote. If you're in favor of the nomination, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene.

Nomination is approved. Next, we go to the consent agenda. Um, I'll entertain a motion if your screen is allowing you to do so. Have a proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Jennifer Mason. Uh any questions or comments concerning the consent agenda? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of approval of the consent agenda, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no. Motion passes. Oh, I'm sorry. 22 yes. One abstain. One abstain. Yes. Sorry.

That's okay. Um, now we move on to zoning and we have three zoning hearings tonight. I pull my first one up. I apologize. I didn't have it already. You don't do

Oh, I'm sorry. We've got unfinished business before zoning. So, under unfinished business, we have resolution 11251, formerly resolution 102519, a resolution to amend the rules, regulations, and procedures of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners concerning the attachment of contracts to resolutions. Looking for a proper motion. Motion made by Commissioner Tunnliff, seconded by Commissioner Greg Sanford. uh questions or com or sorry going to explanation rules committees rules committee was 640 against as amended and of course the commission action taken last month was to defer this to this month's meeting and for explanation we'll go to commissioner Brian Clifford.

Thank you Mr. Chair. This was a resolution that was really requested by the county clerk and I think it's an efficiency uh cost savings uh paper reduction. All those things were in the spirit of this uh while still providing the commission with what it needs. I think this will save the county some money and save some heartache for our county clerk by providing contracts in this fashion. Um if the county clerk's office has anything to add to that, I would certainly encourage them to provide information. for from what I understand, it's basically going from an opt out to an opt-in. Now, instead of automatically getting the contracts uh and you would have to opt out if you didn't want them. Now, you you'll only get the the front page and if you want the entire contract, you'll opt in and they will send that to you. Am I correct on that?

Rules committee. Okay, I already called that out. And again, rules committee was six in favor, zero against. I have a question or comment from commission as amended. question or comment from Commissioner Hayes. So, is this an optin to get a copy um electronically or or paper? Okay, that's it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 11251, signify by pressing your yes button. All opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23 yes zero no. Resolution passes.

So we were voting on it as amended amendment made their amendment. Okay. No. Thank you Commissioner Sturgeon. Um if you want that somebody needs to make a motion to reconsider. Now we need a motion to reconsider. Motion made by Commissioner Sanford, seconded by Commissioner Smith. Does that record a vote? No. Voice vote is fine. Voice vote is fine. If you are in favor of reconsidering this to add the amendment, signify by saying yes. Any opposed? Now we'll go to Commissioner Clifford for the amendment. And he refers to council.

You wish to make it, Commissioner Sturgeon. Okay, we'll go to Commissioner Sturgeon for the amendment. Yeah, originally it just said you get a c you get a copy and then the front first page. And I just want to codify that if a if you request a full hard copy, you get one. So that's just adding that language to the resolution. Okay. So yeah, again, it'll be a an optin instead of opt. We said it, but we didn't say it as an amendment. It's doesn't it's a red. A hard copy is available and it is technically already in the resolution. So,

well, you would just add be available upon request would really be. This just says it's available, but it doesn't say to be requested. What you explain does, but this does not. Okay. So, the amendment adds uh the language available upon request and we will now vote on the amendment unless there are questions or comments on the amendment. You have one, Commissioner Williams. Okay. [clears throat]

Um, in concern of of the amendment, the amended resolution, you know, if a commissioner wants to opt in or opt out, you know, that's their choice. I just want to call out, we did have a discussion in committee. Any other organization I've been a part of, um, the cover page of an a contract's insufficient. It's not going to give you the information you want. You're going to want to have a summary page that probably captures about 15 key terms of any contract out there. So, I would like to see just making the other commissioners aware that that's an insufficient option. What would be more sufficient is if you had a summary page that captured 15 key terms that probably the rules committee probably wants to identify and then if a commissioner only wanted to receive that, that could be adequate. But, I mean, effectively, I I wouldn't recommend opting into not receiving the contract just to receive a cover page. That's all. Any other questions or comments on the amendment? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote on the amendment by voice.

It can be by voice. So, if you're in favor of the amendment, signify by saying I. Any opposed? The amendment passes. Uh, now we'll go to the vote on the main resolution. As we did previously, we'll re load that one. Have to give her a minute. She's going to reload it. We When it pops up on your screen, if you're in favor of this resolution now as amended, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. There we go. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene.

23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Apologize for the obscure way that that transpired. We now go to zoning. We have three zoning hearings. Uh so the way these work, we read the resolution twice for each. The first time I'm reading it to the general public and then I'll ask if anybody in the general public wishes to come up and speak on the zoning hearing. Uh if we hear none, we'll move on to the vote uh for that public hearing. Uh the first one is resolution 11259, a resolution to amend articles 10, 14, and 20 of the zoning ordinance regarding conservation subdivisions. I'll open this up to the public. Anyone wishing to speak to resolution 11259, please come to the podium now. Going once, going twice. Zoning hearing is closed and we'll move on to the resolution itself for the county commissioners. Again, resolution 11259, a resolution to amend articles 10, 14, and 20 of the zoning ordinance regarding conservation subdivisions. The regional planning commission was 740 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Judy Herbert.

I was going to call Aaron Holmes to come up and talk about this resolution.

Thank you, Commissioner Herbert. So this is an amendment to the zoning ordinance regarding conservation subdivisions where the proposal is to increase the minimum lot size from one/4 acre to a half acre in the RD5 and RP5 districts. Increase the size of the required open space strip between the lots in the conservation subdivision and the adjoining property. Double the size of the required streetscape in front of the conservation subdivision. and then establish a minimum of a 100 ft buffer from a cemetery to the disposal fields and storage ponds for a non-traditional wastewater treatment and disposal system and also establish a 300t setback for from a buff from a buffer from a cemetery to the wastewater systems treatment system.

Any questions or comments? Looks like I have one from Commissioner Petty. Just want to be for clarity because I read this myself. So that's saying if you have a half acre lock, if you have two half acre locks, there's going to be 150 ft between the the lot lines of the two properties. That's correct. Between the lot lines and the development and that's going to be throughout the whole development. That is correct. Okay. Just want to make sure I had it clear. That's correct. Commissioner Sturgeon. Thank you, Chairman. Um Erin, what preclude what what led to this change? Why do what what problem are we fixing?

So, currently there is a conservation subdivision on Owen Hill Road before the planning commission. Planning commission will see it on Thursday night and several county commissioners asked us to look at amending the conservation subdivision to prevent what um to strengthen the conservation subdivision requirements so that we would have the larger buffers. the streetscapes would be doubled so that you could not see the development from the roadway at any time of the year. And then there's also a cemetery on the property, the development property. And currently our regulations require those cemeteries to be located in an open space, but we do not have any buffer requirements from a wastewater system. Wastewater system is located close to this cemetery on the property. That's what prompted these these proposals.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote on resolution 11259, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darling. 22 yes, one no. Resolution passes. Onto our next zoning hearing. I'll open up the zoning hearing now for a resolution to amend articles 11 and 23 of the zoning ordinance regarding private airports, landing strips, and helports. I don't need a motion first, right? Yeah.

So, at this time, if there's anyone uh in the in attendance tonight who wishes to speak to this resolution, please come to the podium and give us your name and the town in which you live. Going once. Going twice. This zoning hearing is closed and we'll move on to the resolution itself. Again, resolution 112510, a resolution to amend articles 11 and 23 of the zoning ordinance regarding private airports, landing strips, and helports. Proper motion made by Commissioner Sturgeon, seconded by Commissioner Mary Smith. Regional Planning Commission was 740 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is uh affecting our zoning ordinances to create a new use type around landing strips or helellipads for private use and would clarify how the setbacks are measured for this new use type. And I would also invite Aaron Holmes to come up and speak further on its impact.

Thank you, Commissioner Clifford. So, this is a this would create a brand new accessory use category. It would only be allowed for existing residential and agricultural uses. As Commissioner Clifford said, it also establishes the way the setbacks are measured. They're collinear for the for the runway all the way to the property lines. This will also be a special use in the zoning districts listed inside of the resolution. Any questions or comments? I have one from Commissioner Lisa Hayes.

Okay. So, is this maybe going to what Commissioner Sturgeon said earlier, what what are we solving for and is this increasing? How is this affecting constituents?

So, this is in response to we had a an applicant who submitted an application for a runway. It's his own private runway. There's one on the property. When we measured the setbacks, it was the end of the runway and the sides of the runway were too close to the property lines. So after we as the staff looked at it, we determined that the current regulations for it were too broad and decided that any runway for private use should be cut out and an own its own category created as an accessory use to the residential or agricultural use. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Uh, Commissioner Williams. So, if I understand this correctly, current is 1,000 ft set back from a property line. And this would change it to a,000 ft set back from a residential structure. That's correct. And that's only for the accessory use for the residential or the agricultural use. So there has to be a ongoing agricultural residential use on the property and it would be measured to the uh to the existing dwelling. Yes. Okay. So the agricultural use is a limiting factor as to where that applies. Yes, that is correct. That and the residential use. Yes.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Uh, Commissioner Mary Smith, I just have to ask, are we seeing because I'm I'm I've had people like mention that helicopter transportation is something that's actually growing in the area. Are we seeing a lot of folks requesting this as part of the residential? Yes. So, we've actually seen two. So, the one that prompted this and there's a second helellipad that has been made application for. Okay. So, are there like is there another governing body that kind of oversees how many helicopters we might see in the skies?

Not that I'm aware of. I know the FAA requ has requirements, but not that I'm aware of. Any other questions or comments? I guess I have one. And is there any sort of noise ordinance that uh is attached to this or would be uh uh looked into by another department? So we do have noise standards but it would not apply to this one. Okay. So the FAA does have requirements for takeoff and landings the time frame if I'm not mistaken. Okay. [laughter] If there are no other questions or comments, I see one now from Commissioner

Petty make it easier or harder for somebody to install a helilop pad for their their property.

So it would require a second layer of scrutiny by the board of zoning appeals. And so it's it's the same as it is now. This is just for an accessory use. Currently, the way that it reads is it's straight across the board for any use. So, I would say that it would make it it's the same. It's the same process. Okay. Any other questions or comments? I see none. If you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 112510, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed, your no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darling.

23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. And for our final zoning hearing tonight, I'll open up the floor and open up the zoning hearing for resolution 112511, a resolution to amend article 11 of the zoning ordinance regarding telecommunication towers. If there's anyone in the audience wishing to speak to this resolution, please come to the podium and state your name and the town in which you live in. Going once, going twice. Zoning hearing is closed and we'll move on to voting on the resolution itself. Again, resolution 112511, a resolution to amend article 11 of the zoning ordinance regarding telecommunication towers. The regional planning commun uh commission was 740 against. explanation, please. Commissioner Mary Smith.

Yes, thank you. Um, and I guess Christy, do you want to be the one to come up in case there's any questions? But this was a continuation. Um, it's a little over a year ago, we did the setbacks for the schools. And so, one of the things that came out of that was just better notification to the public when these towers might be coming up closer to residential. Um, so Christiey's been putting a lot of work into this and so I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into it. just to kind of if I had to summarize it, she can probably summarize it better. It really improves public notification to a radius versus just adjacent property owners and it also puts a greater oness I believe on the um providers to to show that there is a gap in coverage. But I'll let you answer any other questions that may come up.

Any questions or comments? So have one here from Commissioner Jennifer Mason. Thank you. So I'm fully in support of this. I just want to make sure because we had a long discussion when we talked about the schools that we're not going up against any of the the requirements that the federal government puts on us for the I forget what it's called. Radio. Yes. Radio frequency. So, I just want to make sure we're still in a line there that we're not getting crossways with them because I know there are certain things we can control, certain things we cannot control.

Absolutely. Um and and really to answer your question, no, we're not getting crossways there. Um, and I was very careful in that regard. What this essentially does, as Commissioner Smith said, is significantly increases the notification process. Um, not only notification to property owners within a radius as opposed to adjacent property, but also some signage requirements that we didn't have before on the property and at uh the nearest crossroads. There's specific information that has to be on the signs that has to be in the notification letters. Um we are asking for some additional data uh when the application is made to show that there is a gap in coverage that can't be addressed by a collocation. Um the other the other um big push for um or what this is trying to accomplish is to provide more information to the residents. So when they do get these notification letters and they come to the county offices, they're getting a lot more information. And so we're essentially asking the tower companies to provide like the NEPA um study that they're doing their FCC application, their FFA FAA application. So not things that they have to do more of, but just provide it in our process so our county residents have easier access to that information and then also provide a study of what that RF is confirming that it's consistent with the FCC requirements. Um but we're not imposing any standards.

Okay. So thank you. Commissioner Toncliffe. Yeah, I have a conflict of interest on this resolution and we'll be abstaining as I did with the two in the uh consent agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I see. Now, sorry, Commissioner Sturgeon. I'm just curious, what's the increase in um radius of verification? So, now it's a 1500 square foot radius from the site uh site, I'm sorry, a circular Mhm. from the lease side of the tower as opposed to if before it was just adjacent property owners to that property. That's what I thought. Yeah. Thanks. Any other questions or comments?

Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 112511, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Smith, no. Record the vote, please, Mr. Arlene. 22. Yes. Zero. No. One abstain.

Resolution passes. All right. We're now under appropriations and our first resolution for the night, resolution 11257. A resolution calling for the establishment of a task force whose mandate is to recommend a reduction in the regulations of subsurface sewage disposal systems and calling for a reduction in the budget of the county department of sewage disposal management. I have a proper motion made by Commissioner Guy Carden and seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Budget committee was 540 against as amended. Public health was 440 against as amended. Explanation please. Commissioner Judy Herbert.

Okay. This is a project I think we've worked on for several years. Me and Brian Clifford and Greg Sanford. Um we did some changes back several years ago which were really good. We worked with a consulting firm, but it wasn't quite enough. So, we've done a new one, and this is to establish a task force um of experts on this. And it's not going to cost the county anything. This will be totally free. It will be their time volunteer to do this. These are people that can get in there immediately and say, "These are some changes that need to be done." I think it is a great idea and I'm fully supporting this. And I think there's some things in here about decreasing the budget, but I think there was an amendment to take that out. I don't know if you want me to make those amendments.

Let me go to the other sponsors and then uh and then we'll ask if anyone wants to go ahead and read off the amendments uh that I believe have already been loaded and then we'll take uh questions and comments from the other commissioners. So, uh, if you're done, Commissioner Herbert, I'll now go to Commissioner Brian Clifford, uh, for his explanation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I know this is a complicated one, so it does take a bit of explaining and comment, but our goal in bringing this resolution is really to reset some of the regulations and bring back some accountability in our county rules. our homeowners, businesses, and churches have just reached their breaking point. And that's why this resolution is now um because of that. Over time, we've seen a huge increase in our septic rules, uh often adopted without us being involved. Certainly no oversight by this county commission. We spend $2.5 million every year on this service here in the county, and the state of Tennessee does it in 85 other counties at no cost to those counties. So, it's definitely something we have to be cognizant about when we're spending 2.5 million a year. But in doing so, we have six times the amount of regulations as the rest of the state. So, here in Williamson County, 436 pages of regulations compared to the state's 78 pages. It also costs our citizen on average 10 times more than it does the rest of the state. The average cost of a four to fivebedroom septic system across the state is about $10,000 allin and that includes the regulatory compliance consultants installation. In Williamson County on the other hand, the average cost is around 80 to 100,000 which when you think about it that's about 10% of the average home price here in our county. And when we talk about affordable housing in our county, we just have to consider things like that that are 10% of of a home cost. Then on top of that, it takes up to a 100 times longer to get things done in Williamson County. And that's not really an exaggeration. By that, I mean state law requires the state to turn around septic permits within 45 days. The state just recently said its average turnaround times just over a week and that they find it unacceptable when it takes 20 days. But here, and you've heard from people tonight, you're you're going to

hear hopefully from more that it takes sometimes a year or two years to get a permit in Williamson County. So, at the end of the day, I think we need to provide the essential government function that comes from regulating septic. No more and no less. And right now, we require a lot out of our citizens. I mean, we require a lot of cost, a lot of time, a lot of investment. And to be clear, this is not a reflection on our our most of our county staff. They are public servants and they they do a great job with what they're required to do. They simply operate under a flawed system that we we must fix. And it's not a reflection on Mike Madison either, our director of community development. I do believe he's the right leader to help work through these changes. So, just to be clear, it's not a reflection on that. But the resolution would essentially do two things. that will one establish a task force to tell us what above state regulations might be required in Williamson County and why so we can decide whether or not to enact those on our citizens and then also to conduct some research about how this county commission could have voting and approval of new regulations enacted on our citizens which currently we don't fort that lies with the unelected members of the board of health and think about the zoning ordinance we just heard this evening you all had a chance to ask questions and approve approve those regulations before we enact them on our citizens. For septic, we do not get that opportunity. So, this resolution would require our county attorneys to look into options for us to have approval and oversight before we enact regulations that clearly impact our citizens in a high high degree. Then, finally, with a recent resignation uh and some of the discussions at committee, I agree with the amendments to remove the budget reductions for right now. Uh, I'm not opposed to any of the amendments that have been discussed at budget or public health, which essentially does three things. It extends the timelines, it

delays the budget discussions, and then it adds another member to the task force, which would be a member of staff appointed by Mike Madison. And then I know there's going to be some discussion about adding more people to the task force. I would just simply ask that we keep it tight enough to be efficient. Uh, I don't think we need to create more bureaucracy or un unreasonable timing from this task force. And even in that spirit, I've said I don't need to be on the task force. I think we just need to get some recommendations, make sure they're provided by experts, and just get it back to this commission to extend or to to consider. And then finally, the extension of timing does worry me a bit and I would caution us on extending the task force report deadline more than what's provided in the amendments at the bottom of the resolution in your packet because at some point the budget committee has to consider it, this commission has to consider it before the next fiscal year and it's already going to be a really tight timeline. And if I could, Mr. Chair, I would like to request your permission and if you'd like to go to another sponsor, I understand. But I would like to request your permission to have county resident Jessica Bell speak briefly about her experience um so that can better inform our discussion here tonight. And I believe we have may have another that wishes to give their experience. But let me go now to the third sponsor on this resolution um and give an opportunity for Commissioner Sanford to speak.

I'm gonna defer for right now. Go ahead. Okay. Um then as a sponsor of the resolution, I'll go to you first, Commissioner Clifford. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to request that Jessica Bell be allowed to to speak briefly and I have asked her to keep it under three minutes. And Jessica Bell's with Okay. I believe with this um it does require a vote, a majority vote of the commissioners. Um I'll need a motion and a second uh to have a private citizen come speak before us to share their experiences. motion.

Uh got a motion from Commissioner Sanford, seconded by Commissioner Lawrence. If you're in favor of allowing uh a resident to come and share u under the guidelines of three minutes u their uh their story with us, then signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Okay, we'll call on her now if you wish to to speak. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Generous of you guys. Um my name is Jessica Bell. I live in College Grove. And um I just want to thank you all for um taking the time, those of you who responded to an email that I had sent about two weeks ago and for the invitation to come and share my family story. And while it may be uh slightly more complex than some other families or citizens, um it has been one that has largely consumed the last four years of uh my my time and my life. And I just want to share with you what it's been like since we purchased our property in 2021. We had dreams to build our farm in our homestead of Williamson County. And um while I don't intend to make any proposals on on how the task force operates um or to be disparaging to any of the staff of Williamson County who u many of you I now have gotten to know and um and love um I urge you to consider as a task force the remediation for the families that have suffered over the last four years. And um sorry, let me jump to uh I'm trying to pare it down as I as I go through this. Um the the majority of the concerns are the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexpected direct costs, not not to mention the other financial harms, which I'll cover shortly. Um for the record, our home is still not built and um we are uh evaluating uh the income and uh the four years of work that has gone down the drain. So tonight I just want to share just the facts and figures um timeline and finance for a real family. Uh the most heartbreaking of all as I reflect on this are the years of precious time with my children. Uh the four years uh that we've lost in a secure environment. Um

we've sacrificed an unbelievable amount of time managing this project and navigating the process. And when we started we had a fourth and a sixth grader. Uh now we have an eighth and a tenth grader. Um I'll start with the uh summary and the timeline. So in July 2021, a preliminary perk test had already been completed on our property. We complete uh we closed our property in September of 2021 and immediately began the process. About 16 months later around November 2 uh 2022, the initial field location map was approved. Uh it was prepared and submitted by our surveyor and unfortunately at that time of my review of this location map, I dis discovered that the surveyor had made an unfortunate error. We now had to go through that 14 to 18month process a second time. About 10 months later, I started asking more questions about the regulations, which I had not had an opportunity to look through uh for our seven plus acre property. I questioned our surveyor where it said in the regulations that a property of our side had to size had to be recorded um with a field location map. I was unfortunately met with condescending comments from our surveyor. Um, I followed up with the county um about those regulations and I was assured that there were regulations that covered this, but I never received any language specifying and in the 400page document um could not find it myself. Because our field uh original field was stuck in the septic process a second time for about 20 months at this point, we decided to see if we could identify a separate building site on our property. With the new information I had just learned, we decided to get dedicate soils to a conventional system that would not require the overengineering of an alternative system. And at this point, I had never even been given an option of a conventional system. However, I later learned that that conventional system would have been an option on our property. Additionally, our alternative system was uh requiring

a curtain drain. However, um this was requested to be reviewed and at that point a licensed soil scientist was able to furnish a letter saying that this uh curtain drain, which I believe it would amount to about $7,000 in additional um in uh install cost, um the letter was submitted with our application saying that this would not be necessary and it was entirely un um not useful at all. However, that was overridden. Uh, so we jumped to March 20th of 2024 when our original septic site was finally approved. So that was over three and a half years later. Onto the financial injury uh portion of it. We spent four years living out of various rentals, managing our property from a distance and living out of boxes uh with most of them in storage for uh about three and a half years. Uh that cost us over $20,000 to do that. We had to extend a two-year lease three additional times, which added an additional $75,000 and then the owners would no longer rent to us because they were selling their property. So, we did end up spending a couple of months in an RV. This was four uh family members plus a dog. That was an experience. Um we had delays in expanding our farm. We had started our farm initially, planted a bunch of trees, added animals and continued to keep those animals alive, the garden maintained and the machinery um much of which sat out for two years until we had to build some sort of structure on the property to keep that prop uh to keep that machinery working. Uh the repair cost $10,000 to keep those uh machines back in operation.

30 seconds.

After two years, um that garage cost us $150,000. We excavated, graded, and prepared our site for building. Um we staked and then restaked, installed septic fences, and then they blew down and we had to reinstall them. Uh we lost our $20,000 in architectural designs because we had to change our designs because we could no longer afford our house. Um, I'm going to jump to the the the the final portion of this. As Brian Clifford mentioned in his September 2025 article, we've paid for the Cadillac twice and still do not get to drive it. So, as you can imagine, uh, many of the details were omitted to keep this short. But, while we were nearly at the finish line, the damages are done, and I appeal to this task force to consider the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars uh, for remediation to these devastating injuries. Thank you so much again. I appreciate it. Thank you. At this time, I'll call on Commissioner Lawrence, who I believe might have a similar request.

I do, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Doug York is here tonight. He has probably more experience possibly than anybody in this county because of the both the amount of years that he's lived here and the number of properties that he has owned and he has asked us to address the commission tonight. And with the commission's approval, uh, we'll hear from him as well. Motion. Same thing. I'll entertain a motion. Have a motion. Commissioner Sanford, seconded from Commissioner Smith, Mary Smith. Um, all those in favor of letting Dr. York speak, signify by saying I. I. Any opposed?

Mr. York, you have the podium. And it was um it's five minutes, not three. And I I did give uh the previous speaker six minutes, and I appreciate your comments, but um five minutes, please, Dr. York.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the commission. I've been a resident of Williamson County for 48 and a half years now. I practiced surgery at the Williamson Medical Center for 40 of those years, almost 40. I worked most of the time. I was passionate about and the only thing I did other than work was buy land. Um, I was very fortunate in that respect. But as early as 1980 when I bought my first farm on Lisburg Pike with a house built in 1840, gentleman had walked away from the project because he tried to do an addition on it with barn lumber and it wouldn't support itself. So he he left. But before he left, he put a new septic system in with field line appropriate for the bedrooms. Um it sat there vacant for a few years and then I purchased it. I hired an architect. to design an addition to add 3200 ft² to a 2200 ft house. When I went to get permission about the septic, the director at that time um said that they hadn't kept very good records and that I was not going to be allowed to use the septic system that had been installed and never been used. I had to abandon it, put in a new septic tank in all the new field lines, which to best my recollection was three or $4,000 at that time. That was my first experience. My second was that I purchased uh lots in Oakleaf subdivision out there at the corner of Hen Lane and um and Columbia Highway been the old warf dairy farm. I purchased 17 lots in the mid80s from the developers and then of course we fell on hard times in the late 1980s. Um at foreclosure ended up picking up numerous additional lots to the extent that I owned quite a bit of that

subdivision at one time. The septic department decided that the lot sat there too long. The economy was bad. Nobody was building. They better look at them again. And although they were platted, they went out and started probing around and decided that there was fill from a drainage ditch on one of them that had to be scraped, even though it didn't involve the septic fields. I spent $25,000. had to hire a soil scientist that sat out there for a week under a tree with the the then director of the the sewage department while the excavators excavated all of the fill off of the entire lot to satisfy them. About that same time, I sold the lot in Oakleaf subdivision to a lady and her husband who built a very fine house. They put up a a very nice fence in the back around a swimming pool. And unfortunately, they missed it by about three feet and had it over on an adjacent lot owned. It gave the septic department an opportunity to express their regrets for not having uh adequately uh outlined where her septics field were. So, they made her redo her entire the house was built. They were living in it. go back and get a soil scientist and a a surveyor to do theirs all over again. And oh, by the way, you got to do the lot next door where you're buying a tenth of an acre. So, they had to do a lot that was already didn't wasn't even involved in this. They spent an inordinate amount of money on that occasion. Third experience I had with the safety department was I owned 31 and a half acres on the north side of 96 highway at Triune. Right before the 5 acre rule came into effect, I set about to uh divide off an acre and a half realizing I have six 5 acre tracks. So I did all the work, turned it into the septic department. They refused to um allow me to to record it because they

wanted to know what was going to go on on the other 30 acres. I'd bought that parcel in two pieces and there was a line dividing part of it. They required me to have a survey of the whole business again and get that line out of it. And um it by the time I did all of the work they had required, it took another couple of years. I went back to them and they said, "Oh, you can't you can't do that now. You've it's got to be combined with a lot next door that had a house built in 1809. You'll have to have a 6 and 12 acre lot there." At that point, I reached out to Mike Madison who did some research and told me that I'm not going to have to worry about that. I had it in process and he was going to demand that the sub department approve it. That lot sold in April for $285,000. uh it would have been negligible attached to a house built in 1890. I would have lost a tremendous amount of money over that experience.

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Um I've had two additional issues since that time. The most recent I have I bought a property with a was part of the dairy farm in Nestle Down. Had a house built in 1945 and a house that one of the heirs had built in 1989. Um, I was told that I'd have to do a primary and secondary for the house, although there was no problem with either one of them. I'd have to abandon the septic for the uh 1987 house and and uh put in a modified low pressure system cost $60,000. I spent $20,000 on soil scientists and surveying to satisfy them to get it uh recorded in uh end of July. Thank you, Dr. York. I appreciate the comments. Thank you. Now, um because he's a sponsor, I'll move to Commissioner Sanford if you have question or comment at this time.

Thank you. Um so, this issue is near and dear to my heart. is actually one of the reasons why I ran for county commission. Um there were some issues in district 5 and um I thought if I was elected commissioner I could come in wave my magic wand and fix fix the septic uh issues and I found out real quick that's not the case. Um back several years ago I uh developed some property on Wilson Pike, five lots, went through the process. Um 18 months had gone by and still didn't have permit to build a home. I hired um Doug Hail, spent $20,000 with him to sue the county. And [clears throat] shortly thereafter um I received my permit to build a home. [cough and clears throat] There's some great people that work over in the septic department. And there's a few that's not so great. [clears throat] the the emails y'all have gotten, the stories you've heard tonight, the terror that this director has rained down on citizens of Williamson County and has been allowed to continue and is is absolutely sickening. It's disgusting. These regulations are too much. They need to be cut and I fully support this task force moving forward and coming back to this commission reporting of what needs to happen with that septic department. Thank you. U Commissioner Hayes, I know you probably feel like I'm skipping over you here time and time again. If it's okay with you, I believe Commissioner Webb is prepared to make all the amendments that are listed at the bottom here.

Not all of them, but okay. You can go ahead and let them go. Okay. and then if it's okay I'll come right back to you. No problem. Uh Commissioner Web. Thank you Mr. Chair. Um on these resolution uh amendments I will ask Commissioner Cart al made one of those at the budget committee meeting. And uh checking my notes there are two typos that are listed here at the bottom. And before I read put those on the floor I will make the corrections. The first bullet point changed the date from 2126. The vote in the budget committee was to 4126. That is correct. And then the third bullet point there, change the date from 126 to 2226. That is also correct.

And so, Mr. Chair, the the amendments uh with those corrections are before you. And uh at your discretion, we can go all those all at once or I can do them individually. In the interest of time, if it pleases the commission, why don't we go ahead and list them all at once and get a motion in a second, and then of course we can add to them, subtract to them as dialogue permits. All right. I don't think I need to meet them, but I will uh ask that you make the motion to accept the amendments to the resolution as presented on page three of the uh resolution. I have a proper motion. Second.

Seconded by Commissioner Judy Herbert. Uh so now we are asking on questions and comments to all the amendments that are listed. Hopefully you all see them here at the bottom of your resolution on page two. Page two. There may be another page in your agenda that also lists them. Uh with that finally I'll call on you Commissioner Hayes. [clears throat] on the bottom of the resolution is incorrect. The type what you have is correct and that's what is correct.

Go ahead, Miss Hayes. Okay. Ready for me? Yes. Um, I would like to propose a um an amendment to you're looking on page two, section three, where it begins, members of the SSDs task force. And I have gone through the pleasure of actually typing it up. If anybody can pass these out, you can look at what I'm talking about. Tried to for convenience sake to make it easier. While those are being passed out, if you kept one for yourself and can read it to us, you didn't. Now, I believe you're proposing an amendment to the amendment. And if you'll go ahead and read it. Are you talking about the overall amendment that's at the bottom of the Yes. Yes. You're making an amendment to the amendment.

Making an amendment to the If you'll read that amendment to us, Commissioner Hayes, while the printed document is being passed out.

So, uh, where it begins now, therefore, as it resolved, members of the SSDS task force, the county, uh, so I reordered a little bit just to make it simpler. A, uh, the county mayor or county mayor's designate. Um, B, the county development director shall be nominated and approved by the majority of the vote of the county commission. This position shall act as chair of the SSDS task force. No problem there. C. Um, one county commissioner for each of the eight districts. And I list those district numbers 1 2 5 6 8 9 11 and 12. If I've missed one, my apologies, but I think those are the districts that actually have um septic issues uh or in unincorporated areas with oversight by the section um septic department. The county commissioner and each district mentioned above will be nominated by and approved by the majority vote of the county commission whose nomination appointment shall be documented in amendment res amended resolution during the November county commission meeting. Uh number one, county commissioner appointed. Basically, I listed the same thing. I just worded it. I just words I mean um docu crap. It's all right. Format formatted it a little cleaner. Um some of the dates below may not be incon congruent. I'd have to check against the um amended resolution, but basically the task force shall um uh vote on recommendations. All appointments herein, including the names and contact information shall be provided. The chair of the county commission no later than November 30th. The chair of the county commission shall then immediately provide names and contact information for all appointees to the chair of the SSDS task force. As noted above, the names of the appointees to the SSDS task force shall be included in the final report of the SSDS task force. Uh e. The chair of the SSDS task force shall set the first meeting of the SSDS task force to occur no later than December 10th. Am I married to this date? No, but I'm trying to put a date so we have a starting point. and meeting shall continue at minimum monthly set by the chair of the SSDS task force deemed

necessary to accomplish the mandates hearing and the deadline provided. Um, and there's one more sentence that hadn't changed. So, the point of my wanting to amend this, I too just like these Miss Bell and Mr. York have experienced the lovely nightmare of our septic department. And again, I love our staff. I know they work hard. I know that, you know, you're following the direction you were given. I don't fault you on that and and I feel for you. Um I spent upwards of about $50,000 and five and a half years have gotten nowhere to the point where I finally sold my property for other reasons, but so I understand. I totally understand. Um but I too support this overall resolution. I just think that districts that are impacted should have representation. I've seen with other issues in this county where they're not represented by a diverse array of county commissioners who um as you many people know in my district. I will speak openly and I will push back. Some do not and again I'm not going to call names but I just feel like we need to have a broader recommendation. It's not going to slow things down like some people say. I think it will give a broader perspective and if there's anybody who will be vocal and fight on behalf of people and and this nightmare that they've experienced, it's me because I've also experienced it. So yes, I would like to also be on this committee and I think more districts should be represented and not just one. I I just that's my feelings on the matter and that's why I'm set forth this amendment. Anybody have any questions? I'm happy to answer them.

Well, the next uh step would be to get a second. Before I do get the second, let me make sure I this isn't a typo. Just as a point of clarification, is there a reason why you have omitted districts 3, 4, 7, and 10? Is that do they have unincorporated issues with septic systems? I believe they do add them in. No, those are just the ones that I know for a fact I've heard stories about and know have septic, okay, as an issue. So, my apologies if I missed that. So I believe the overall intent is to instead of having one member of the commission on the task force have eight. Yes. Correct.

And that motion has been made by way of her statement in this document. Do I have a second? Second comes from Commissioner Richards. So we now have an amendment to the amendment on the floor. Uh Commissioner Mary Smith on the amendment to the amendment. I if not I'll call on you again later. Yeah, I think I have a different amendment, but I'll do it after this is over. Okay. Oh, yes. I I won't be able to do at two amendments. You have to take a vote. Now, then you're back to one. So, then you can add another amendment.

No, it's it's okay. It was the public health committee amendment. So, I can do it after this because I know they were doing the budget first and then so the public health amendments separate.

Commissioner uh Herbert on the amendment to the amendment. All right, we have worked on this and worked on this. The task force is not for all the commissioners to vote their concerns of things that's happened. It is to get these regulations changed. We want them from the experts. We're not the experts. They are. And I don't want to get bogged down in a task force. We don't want to hear every commissioner's issue with the septic. We know there's it. Believe me, I know. I get calls every week with issues with the septic regulations and things. I think that is overkill. We need to get in there, get the experts, as we call them, the soil scientists, the surveyors, the engineers, and make these. They already know changes to make. There are people in the septic department that can tell you. I don't think that's nurse. I don't know what 12 commissioners can contribute to this. We are not experts in that field and this is the whole purpose is to get the experts that know and get these regulations changed ASAP and let's get going. Thank you.

Commissioner Tunnakiff, did you withdraw? Yes, I did. Okay, then Commissioner Sturgeon on the amendment to the amendment. Oh, yeah. Okay. I forgot my question. Um, I just noticed that your amendment, Lisa, says December 10th. The original date was the 15th, and I'm just wondering why you changed it. I know there was discussion about uh getting this started sooner rather than later. So, I moved it up. Okay. To go ahead and push it forward. Actually, did you move it up or did you move it back? Thank you. That was my comment. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Commissioner Mason on the amendment to the amendment.

Thank you. I may be stating the obvious here, but if you have more than one county commissioner on the task force, you then have to have an open meeting. Uh, it then becomes public, whereas a task force with one commissioner can meet multiple times, work it without making it public. It I'm just concerned that that could be a hindrance. It doesn't preclude other publishing it in the paper.

Correct. It doesn't preclude other county commissioners from attending that task force meeting. Um, or does it? How how would that work? If a commissioner attended it, is it still have to be public and published in the paper? the the if the body has two or more governing body members commissioners on it and that body the task force deliberates towards a recommendation back to the county commission then it would have to be an open meeting. Okay. But if it only had one county commissioner and other county commissioners came and observed and they're not voting and deliberating then they can do that.

Okay. that that's my only concern with having and I think that kind of piggybacks on Commissioner Herbert, you know, maybe too many cooks in the kitchen that would be voting members. But I do understand Commissioner Hayes's concern of wanting commissioners who want to be involved be involved, but I don't think that precludes people if they're not on the task force from attending those meetings. Commissioner Webb on the amendment to the amendment.

Um, Mr. Chair, this may be for legal. Can we divorce the uh this amendment on the member the amendment to the amendment divorce it? Because uh I'm just concerned that the comments such as what Commissioner Mace just made if uh we that got a negative response then we have positive response even from the public health committee on the ones coming out of budget. What can we divorce this? What's the process? the the amendment to amend will be voted on separately from the other amendments. It will be voted on first. If it passes, then the group of amendments that you put in place would be voted on as amended.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Clifford on the amendment to the amendment. If I may, can I ask Mike Madison to come up? I have a question. Sure. That's what he said.

Not a difficult question, I promise. So, if this goes through as drafted in the resolution now, without the amendment, you would be chair of the task force. Would you commit to this commission that you would hold at least two public meetings during the term of that task force work to give opportunity for the public and commissioners and whoever else to voice into the task force as opposed to appointing new members to the task force? Would you commit to holding at least two public meetings?

Yeah. So, let me if I could let me say a few things. Um, so first, you know, I wanted the opportunity to to say that as community development director for the past year and a half, I don't have the history that some people do, but what I have observed during my time are a bunch of hardworking uh good people in that office who care about what they do and care about providing a good service. So, I wanted to make sure that I had an opportunity to get that in. I also wanted to point out to the commission that that over the past several years, there have been quite a few really good changes. Um, some of which have to do with the uh the time for reviews which have very very significantly been improved. There have also been a number of of amendments to the regulations that have continued through that time. And I I wanted to make that point as well. Having said that, I agree and and you heard that staff, you know, many of them have voiced their agreement that the regs need to continue to be evaluated. So, I'm very supportive of this task force idea. Um, and as the the chair, the way it's set up, um, you know, I want to make sure that that is done in a in a very efficient, very productive, transparent process. And so, however it's set up, I anticipate that those meetings would be um would be not necessarily advertised from a legal standpoint, but it would be well known when those would occur and uh would welcome, you know, the attendance of county commission members of, you know, people from the public. Um, so yes, I I would certainly commit to making that a very transparent process.

Okay. Can I ask it a different way? Follow up. So, the idea of a commitment to two public meetings, those would be very formal. They would be noticed public meetings for people to show up. I do appreciate you making it very transparent. We should definitely do that. Um, if we do put more than one commissioner on it, it makes it um it would require a public meeting for every time they meet or everything they discuss, which would limit even two members of the task force calling each other to say, "Hey, what do you think about this regulation?" and they would have to wait until a public meeting is scheduled to come to a room like this to then say, "Hey, what do you think about that regulation?" And that just takes a whole lot of time.

But I think maybe a potential solution to accomplish what commissioners are are suggesting is that we have public meetings alongside the task force so that they can be very efficient with their task force work, have public meetings for participation by commissioners and other members of the public, but then also allow it to move quickly. So, I guess the commitment I would ask is to commit to organizing two official public meetings during the term of the task force.

I think that's doable. We we've got a fairly short amount of time to get this done from December to April the 1st with holidays built in. I could see how that could be valuable taking taking comment at the beginning and then on the recommendations. Um, so you know, it's it's of course up to you all, but but sure, if that's the desire of the commission, then then we can make that work. Commissioner Sturgeon, you've already spoken, so I'll hold your spot and go to Commissioner Tunnliffe.

Yeah, I am against having more than one commissioner on this task force, but if we choose to go this route, uh, I think every district should be represented. We all talk to commissioners, I mean to residents from around the county, and I think we all should be equally knowledgeable what's going on. That being said, I think it ought to be just one of us, but if it's going to be all of us, list should be all of us. Commissioner Matt Williams on the amendment to the amendment.

Yeah, just a couple of thoughts. Um, and I guess this is a question maybe Mike you might remember. I feel like the last time last real significant task force that we stood up was for the land use revamp. Do you remember what the composition of that task force was I was on it and there was about 12 of us but I don't remember exactly what the composition was was from county commissioners to farmers and developers. I mean we had a broad array of interests represented. Do you do you remember maybe some more details around that composition? Uh Commissioner Williams I don't remember the exact composition. and it did include, you know, a number of stakeholders as this as this group is intended to as well. Um, but I don't recall the exact composition.

Okay. And then I I just want to call out just for the commission, I I do see an absence of anybody from the planning commission on here, would I mean, in Mike, in your opinion, would should the planning commission also be represented in this? I I I personally don't think that that they need to have a an official representation, although if you all, you know, decide that then then they then that uh could could happen. Of course, um planning [snorts] commission members just like county commission members and and members of the public may be interested in the process and may want to attend and voice opinions. um some of them I already have. Uh so I don't believe that they necessarily need to be represented on the committee, but um certainly welcome to attend and participate.

Thank you. Commissioner Hayes, you've already spoken. I'll hold your spot and go to Commissioner Petty. Yeah, I I was going to say I don't know why all the committee meetings couldn't be public, but after what M Commissioner Clifford said, I didn't realize that issue. Um, but the point is, uh, any commissioner will be able to come to these meetings and sit in. Now, one of the things I try to do is I record a lot of the meetings for my newsletter I send out each week to try to inform the public what's going on in the county. So, I'm assuming if I come to one of the meetings, it's not public, I wouldn't be able to record it. Is that correct? Not be able to record the meeting.

Yeah. It was, but it's not a public meeting. I mean, a public meeting I I have to be able to record it, but if if it's not public, I'd have to get permission. I'd have to research that. I don't know off the top of my head. We'll have to get back to you on that one. Okay. So, my my next question is u so when you have these non-public meetings, um are you going to be providing minutes available for all of us after the meeting so we know what was talked about and what you know what issues came up and that sort of thing? Yes, sir. I do I do anticipate doing minutes from each meeting. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner, if I could, you just said they're non-public. They're just not advertised as a public meeting or an open meeting under 844. I forget the section number. So, the difference when you're talking about an open meeting that requires advertising pursuant to that section versus whether they are open to those who might be present is a different those are two different matters. It's not closed to the public. Okay. Necessarily. I mean, there's no reason it could needs to be closed. It just doesn't have to go through the advertisement for an open meeting and doesn't have the same deliberative limitations of two commissioners being there that you have if they're both on the comm on the task force. Okay. So, recording it would be no problem.

I don't know the answer to that, but I'm just saying they would still be open for you attending. Yeah. Right. I understand that. Okay. Commissioner Sturgeon on the amendment to the amendment.

Y Thank you. Um I in public health we talked about this resolution at length and I was assured that these meetings would all be open and that anybody can attend them. And if you're not going to put in a public notice, how is the public supposed to know that they're happening? So I'm not going to vote for this unless the public has notice and is able to come if they choose because they're the ones that are suffering. So, they need to be able to come to these meetings and I think every commissioner should be able to know that they're happening. We should have meeting minutes and they should be public. It's a very important thing. I don't I don't see why we can't do that. Commissioner Clifford.

So, that's my comment. I I guess I don't get a response, but

I was I was told don't even worry about how many commissioners are on the task force because we would all be able to go, but you can't go if you don't know when it is. Uh, I guess just as a point of a clarification, hopefully I'm not making things worse. It's it's a situation where because of the open meetings act, if there are two or more commissioners on any board, as you know, uh, a process has to be put in place of going to the paper and having sufficient notice given. Uh, where if it's one commissioner, it's still open to the public and any commissioner can go or any member of the public can go. Uh but we don't have to wait two weeks uh time period. We can still, I believe, put out a notice. We're just not tied to it uh to two weeks uh preventing us from doing something that may may have more urgency behind it.

May I May I please? Um, Commissioner Sturgeon, what I would anticipate doing given the compressed time frame we're working under is at the first meeting trying to schedule many subsequent meetings and making those uh making those dates available. Make a notice for the first meeting that it's Sure. Sure. Commissioner Hayes, on the amendment on your amendment to the amendment.

Yep. Um, you know, I've heard concerns about in the past the board of public health had the, you know, they are the ones that reviewed the changes to the rags and, you know, county commission had no insight to that. Um, you know, a lot of this has been hidden in the past away where county commission couldn't see it. So, I don't understand. I mean, I do understand we're worried about speed. I get it. But let's be deliberate and maybe we don't need every district I've listed here. Maybe we just need four. I want greater representation. And yes, being public, our citizens have spent a lot of money and suffered as we've heard. Why not be open and transparent with open meetings? I just we owe this to our residents for the many years that they have had to endure the ugliness of this laborious process. God knows. Again, I've been on the receiving end of it. So, that's why I'm so adamant that I don't care if we if we cut it down to four or five districts. I just think we owe our residents that are taxpayers and with all the constrnation of everything being secret and behind closed doors. What are we doing again? We're going to I mean, maybe they are going to be public, but why why is the open meetings such a a hurdle? Why is this such a problem? I just don't see why we can't have more commissioners involved. and I will stop bloviating, but I I just don't understand the problem. I think greater representation is not a bad thing.

Commissioner Clifford on the amendment to the amendment. Very briefly, following Commissioner Sturgeon's comments, I think when I asked Mike Madison to commit to those two public meetings, those would include the full notice and everything to ensure the public can attend. And I hope that would accomplish some of your concern. Um, beyond that, I would just encourage for expedience because our our citizens are spending thousands of dollars on this every month and until we get changes, that's going to continue. So, expedience is a concern. I'd encourage the commission to vote no for this amendment to the amendment and let it roll forward as amended by the budget and public health committees.

Any other questions or comments on the amendment to the amendment? If not, I'll ask if this has been loaded or should I do a voice vote? Voice vote. Okay. If you're in favor of the amendment to the amendment, signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? No. I believe that was a close enough call that I'll ask Mr. Arlene to do a um roll call vote. Iello, no. Beth, no. Carden, no. Clifford, no. Guffy, no. Hayes, yes. Herbert, no.

Hester, no. Jones, no. Lawrence, no. Mason, no. Morton, no. O'Neal, no. Petty, yes. Richards, yes. Sanford, no. Smith, yes. I'm sorry. Steve Smith, no. Sturgeon, yes. Torres, yes. Tennac Cliffe, no. Web, no. Williams,

no. Mr. Chairman, I think I messed up on uh Mary Smith. Was it a yes or no? Yes. Yes. Thank you. I have seven. Yes. So, so that's 16. No, correct.

That's the count I've got as well. 17 yes. 16 no. Amendment to the amendment fails. We're back to the original amendment where I believe Commissioner Mary Smith wishes to possibly add another amendment. Commissioner Smith. Mary Smith. Yeah. I just want to make sure that I'm doing this correctly, but the at the public health committee meeting, um, Mike Madison, uh, we discussed adding a current member of the, uh, subject department to the task force. So if I can go ahead and make that amendment now. Um the amendment was to add a new bullet point at the end of the makeup the composition of the task force to add a current member of SDM staff appointed by the community development director.

The motion is made by Commissioner Mary Smith and it was seconded by I heard someone up here first, Commissioner Clifford. Uh questions or comments to the new amendment to the amendment? Seeing none, if we're ready to vote on the amendment to the amendment to add a member of the uh septic uh office to this task force. Uh if that's been loaded or do we need to do a voice vote again? I expect a voice vote. Correct. Voice vote. Okay. If you're in favor of the new amendment to the amendment, signify by saying I. I. Any opposed?

That amendment passes. Now we're back to the original amendment. Any questions or comments on the original amendment? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote on the original amendment. Has this one been loaded? This one's been loaded. So, it should pop up on your screen. If you're in favor, when it pops up, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no button. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

So, the amendment passes and we're back now to the final resolution as amended. Resolution 11257 as amended. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the resolution as amended, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Do we now need to take a break? Okay. Uh, we're going to take a 10m minute break and we'll reconvene.

Reconvene at let's call it an 8 minute break and we'll reconvene at 10:00.

Congratulations. Hello. Okay, hold on. I mean the sunshine.

If the commissioners can start making their way back to their seats, we'll reconvene. All right, we'll reconvene the November 10th Williamson County Commissioner meeting. I think there's still a few others that are finding their seats, but I'm sure they're on their way. Um, so on to resolution, the second resolution under appropriations, uh, resolution 11258, a resolution to appoint one county commissioner to serve on the subsurface sewage disposal system task force. not in his chair.

I'll entertain uh by screen your motion and second. We have a proper motion made by Commissioner Megan Guffy, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Um this one didn't go to committee. Okay, we'll get an explanation, please, from Commissioner Clifford. This is resolution 11258 to appoint a county commissioner. Ah, got to task force. Thank you. Sorry I was late to return, Mr. Chair.

So, following the resolution that we just passed which called for the appointment of one county commissioner to serve on the task force, we presented this resolution for this body to nominate and approve the county commission county commissioner to serve on that task force. And the way that we approached it was to draft a resolution, provide a blank space for an amendment to be inserted with the county commissioner's name, which we would then vote on the amendment as the appointment. And so, um, I would like to make an amendment to add a name to that blank, which I think is appropriate as this commissioner, um, even before my time on the commission has been working on improving septic fielding complaints, uh, and has put a lot of time and effort into this, represents, uh, all unincorporated area. Um, and I think would be appropriate as the representative commissioner. So, I move to put Commissioner Judy Herbert in the blank spot.

Second. Second. It came from Commissioner Sanford. I believe also Betsy Hester was a close second in there, too. Um, so we have an amendment to the resolution to add Judy Herbert's name uh to the list. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the amendment, is this one loaded or voice vote? It is loaded. Okay, it's loaded. It's loaded. So, when it comes up on your screen, if you're in favor of that amendment, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Hayes,

record the vote, please. Mr. Darlene 22 yes zero no one abstain.

The amendment passes. So now we're on to the main resolution as amended. Uh again a resolution to appoint one county commissioner to serve on the subsurface sewage disposal system task force. And now as amended that commissioner will be Judy Herbert. Any questions or comments on the resolution as amended? I don't see a request to speak. So, if you have one, maybe raise your hand. Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, when it pops up on your screen, if you're in favor of the resolution as amended, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Hayes, record the vote, please, Mr. Arlene.

22 yes, zero no, one abstain. Resolution passes on to uh the next resolution that we did move up in the agenda that being resolution 112533. Resolution requesting I'd like to request first because the judges are still here. Get them out of here. This could take a while. U say that again. I got the mic on that. Um is it 41 or 43? We still have the judges here. This this resolution could take a while. I thought if we could move up 2542 and and uh this the judges are still here. That's what they're here. 42 112542. No, I'm sorry.

41 I'm sorry. 43 is the late file judicial property. 41 41 41.

So in the series of resolutions that we had already moved up, I have a request to change the order slightly and go ahead and move on to uh resolution 112541. and then we'll go to 33 and then I assume 43. Are there any objections to making that move? Seeing none, we'll go to resolution now 112541. resolution to acquire the option for property on Columbia Avenue for the construction of a new courthouse and to authorize the Williamson County mayor to execute the necessary documents to allow the appropriate due diligence concerning said property and appropriating an amount not to exceed $300,000 revenues to come from existing juvenile justice and jail bond funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Greg Sanford, seconded by Commissioner Tom Tunnliffe. Uh this was late filed so no committee meetings met. I'll go to Commissioner Morton for an explanation.

Uh yes. Uh appreciate everyone's tolerance with a with a late filed U resolution here. Um the opportunity has come up to acquire additional space. Uh as was mentioned by the judges, the the Triple J project did include a judicial system which was quite frankly uh undersized the time we opened it 20 years ago. Um what what has happened since then? You may recall a couple years ago uh we used to be merged into another judicial district. Our judges were shared with Hickman, Perry, and Lewis counties. Uh those judges are no longer shared. So now we've got four judges in a space that was originally designed for three that we always knew we needed to improve. Uh downtown space, uh there's just no existing way to do it at the courthouse. Jim Cross is here. I know engineers have looked at it. We actually just voted last month on some funds for the Heritage uh Foundation to improve the Dan German House uh Dan German Hospital. So there's there's a lot that's going on down there. We can't expand there. This would be an opportunity to keep it in Franklin. Is a state requirement that the courthouse be located in the county seat, which is Franklin. Um for all those reasons, um the opportunity we obviously need to do d do due diligence and check out the environmentals on it. This would give us the opportunity to do so. It's not a commitment to purchase it, but if we don't start moving on these things, that property will go because downtown Franklin goes quick.

Question or comment from Commissioner Lawrence. I have two questions, Mr. Chairman. Uh, first of all, there's some property that's open to the east of the courthouse. Now, that that was, in my recollection, the place where we were talking about expanding the current courthouse. Is that not an option now or I'm not familiar with that property either mayor or there's there's some parking area there now and I I I thought we owned it and there was talk about that was where we were going to expand the courthouse. Is that am I am I remembering that correctly? Mayor

Mr. Are you talking about the uh parking area where the judges and sheriffs work? So, if I could have Jim come up and kind of give us a discussion on that. We have just spent, as Commissioner said here, doing some remodeling to the historical old Dan German. In fact, later on tonight, I think there's a resolution and accept money from the Heritage Foundation to help reimburse us for the cost that we've incurred on that building. That other area presents a a challenge for us to do the expansion of what we were looking at. Not to say you couldn't do it, but you the the the prevailing problem that always comes up with the downtown area is parking. No matter what we do, Jim, Jim, you want to help me out because I know you've done some of the due diligence on that.

I had too many people in my ear over there. Um, Gretchian Smith did the 2019 master plan and Jeff again is here and maybe better for him to come up and talk about since they did the master plan to answer your question. Commissioner. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Um when we did the study um we were uh requested to look primarily at real estate that the county already owned. And uh at the time uh the the discussion was that there was some favor to keeping the courthouse and the population [laughter] in that general location adjacent to all of the uh you know all the business and and that sort of thing. Uh however the three existing buildings and when I say three I mean the the the new judicial center which I think was something like circa 2008 2006 somewhere in that era the historic courthouse and then the courthouse annex behind it um are are laid out in I would say a a complicated geometry. that makes it difficult to link the buildings today. And then the site that you're referring to, which is really the only other piece of property uh in the area that is available, uh sort of falls in that same characterization of kind of continuing the very difficult connection between the parcels. So if you can imagine a series of parcels that are only connected at the corners that is essentially what you have there. So what what ended up happening is we began to study laying that out is uh a a significant amount of circulation space was required to make the connections uh between the different courtrooms. and and even then we we still found that uh a lot of the spaces that were fitting into the historic courthouse and the annex

uh were probably not really ideal in terms of how they uh worked for security and we were still very limited in terms of the number of courtrooms that we could provide uh to be potentially um uh functional for criminal trials. So there were we came up with a way to make it work but I would I would describe it as a somewhat tortured plan uh in order to get there. Now in addition to that uh we uh noted in the master plan that uh the parking requirement for the courthouse really couldn't be satisfied um by I guess dedicated spaces. So that we were we were going to end up expecting that as the courthouse continues to expand and the population of users expands that those users were going to have to find their own parking someplace in the downtown area.

Mhm. Okay. So it's a it's a it's a complex um bill to do it right there. It sounds like it may be expensive. Um, was there any has there been any discussion about building a a courtroom out at the jail for criminal trials?

Uh, I believe we do have a hearing room at the jail. I'm looking at we did did we not decide not to do that? Okay. No, I I think um there has been some discussion about that. I think there has been some discussion about whether there might be an opportunity for some um remote hearings I think. Right. Okay. Yeah, I think that's the plan uh moving forward is relying on that and it there's there is not a hearing room at the jail. There are hearing rooms in the juvenile justice center.

Okay. Thank you, Jeff. Commissioner Sturgeon, thank you.

I I I know we peeled off the judicial system from the original JJ project. Do we do we have an estimate on how much it's going to cost? Do we have a design or a time schedule on when we're going to do it? And if we approve this $300,000 to do due diligence, what are the what's the possibility that it's just $300,000 spent and we're still looking for a place to put the jail uh justice center? Well, I could say that uh the master plan study did contemplate a solution. Um developed a geometry on the real estate that we had to use there adjacent to the existing courthouse. Uh developed a rough order of magnitude cost and a timeline. So all all of these things were included in the master plan study. Uh of course this was all done in 2019 2020. Um and uh you know just as we did with the rest of the program as we began to advance that one of the first things that that we would need to do is uh probably validate that the things that we understood about the how the court would function are still valid. Um, but that being said, uh, I would expect that the rough order of magnitude scale of that building, uh, if it if it can fit in the area that we designated,

I'm I'm relatively familiar with the piece of property that we're talking about. Yeah. Here. And I would I would say that that property is certainly large enough to accommodate that. Do you have any idea? mayor has something to add. I I don't recall what the number was from the master plan. I I did not come prepared with that. You probably would have to revise it anyways. If 2019 was the last time you put together numbers on the judicial center, is that I I would say that uh the passage of time always increases the price of things. And have have we actually approved the judicial center to the intent to fund or I mean so let [clears throat] me try to

Mr. Chairman if you don't mind please let me try to get us down the road. Yes. Yeah. So I draw your attention to the ve the very last and it be further resolved. This is the way it was written and maybe it was confusing when I asked Diane to do this, but to authorize [clears throat] the use of existing bond funds. We do have some money left in our bond funds available to to acquire the right to perform such due diligence. It does not take $300,000 to due diligence.

Okay. what you do with the due diligence. I don't know what that cost is, but it's nowhere near $300,000. When once we do the due diligence on this piece of property and if it comes back favorable, we want to engage tomorrow with the owner of this property. If you vote a fa if you vote u in favor of this to immediately get legal counsel to draw up an intent and what's that word, Jeff, that you use that commitment with the down payment. What? The earnest money. Earnest money.

We'll put earnest money down on that immediately so this owner knows we're serious and no one else can go back in there until we finish doing our due diligence. You're reserving the property based on the value of what's happening downtown on the property. That confused even more. I I'm just trying to understand where we're at in the approval [clears throat] of the judicial center and if we know how much it's going to cost or we're just saying we'll spend up to $300,000 to look at this property. No, and that's it. Nope. The $300,000 is is like an earnest money towards this property.

Oh, if if the sale if you all don't approve it, we walk away. We get our $300,000 back. Oh, I thought the 300,000 was like they do engineering studies and stuff like that. We will do that and we will take some of those funds, but it won't be anywhere close to 300,000. So, the $300,000 is like money to hold the property. That's correct. Until we can figure out if we want

to you guys. Another way to look at it, if this is the piece of property that we should invest in, whatever the purchase price is, we've got some ideas on that, but that purchase price doesn't have anything to do with the structure and the bond money and the numbers that Jim gave you earlier tonight do not include, and I repeat, do not include because we pull them out, right? looking at the total cost. But that time has come and the judges says are saying where are we going to be in 10 years and 25 years? Ask one more question. Do we have any idea what this land would cost?

I'll turn that over to Jim. Do you know what [clears throat] kind of price? Rough estimate? Not yet. Price range? Probably a lot. [laughter] All you're trying to do is see if you want it. [laughter] And if we want it, then we got to see if it qualifies for us to get here. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Ayeloo.

Yeah, just briefly touch upon uh Commissioner Lawrence's question about spacing and use. Um our our judicial system is unique in Williamson County and that we don't have designated criminal court judges. Our judges wear the hats of both civil and criminal judges. So even when they do have a criminal trial going on, when the jury's out, they still might be doing civil work that might need to be at the civil portion of what they're doing. Um, also from a staffing perspective, our clerks are all centralized in one area, both the circuit court and our chancery court clerks. Um, they've got judicial assistance and then also the question of juries. So really, I think if we're talking about locations, it's not something that can be broken up easily without duplicating cost or space and certainly personnel issues on moving around. Not to mention the concern about judicial security if we do break it up into various locations. Um, so I think it's worth examining what we can do to keep the entire judiciary really kind of centralized in one spot. Um, and perhaps this might be a question for the sheriff whether the Hill property might also look at filling in some of the sheriff's needs that might cut down costs elsewhere. Um, because right now they're kind of spread out as well.

Commissioner Mary Smith. Yeah, I just had a probably a quick followup question. Um, probably maybe for the mayor. So with the 300,000, if I heard you right, is that that's going to be used kind of just to hold the property so we can do the due diligence. Will there be some sort of report or evaluation that will come out of that due diligence that will be presented to the commission?

Jim, can you tell them what the [clears throat] due diligence process and environmental what they'll actually come back with? So to determine if the property is usable, I would suggest a phase one environmental and a geotechnical study, subsurface to see what's there. Um and then um probably some sort of a zoning study to see if it's it's per currently zoned or allowed for this particular use to go on there. So, those three things wouldn't take a long time to do and be fairly I would say you probably spend uh no probably no more than $15,000 to do all of that. Okay. Thank you.

Commissioner Lisa Hayes, my apologies if I missed this. Um and maybe the mayor can answer this. Are we also considering in this judicial center we've been talking about including the the juvenile justice center in there now or is that still going to be separate? Mr. Chairman, to answer your question, Commissioner, no, the juvenile is being handled all on Beasley. Okay. I just want to make sure all of that this is strictly the downtown court system looking into the future and specifically about the resolution to see if the land's usable. Can we get the square footage we need on the side, vertically, parking, the whole nine yards? Thank you,

Commissioner Mason.

Thank you. I am a co-sponsor of the resolution, so obviously I am in support of it. Um, for any of you that have ever been in the courthouse, I can tell you we we need something. We need changes. Safety, I'll piggyback on what Judge Hood said. You know, in today's climate, it tensions run high. I I think the last three jury trials I've had, the jurors have asked to be escorted to their cars because they had to walk out with the defendant's family and they just convicted this person to a very serious crime. And so you have safety of your jurors. I've had to be escorted to my car before because again of family members who are have been upset with me. And that's just my personal experiences. I've sat in the half courtroom, which is probably a little bit bigger than that section right there. Um the where the clerks are sitting up there um shoulderto-shoulder with an inmate because I when I say the courtroom is small, that's how small that courtroom is. So it's not a question of do we need it, it's really a question of uh when we need it. And so this is just not even phase one. This is half a baby step just to look at it and see if it's even feasible. And then obviously there'll be more steps after this, but this is something that we do need to seriously look at and just start that process to see if this is a project we're going to take on in the next however time frame it may be. But if any of y'all haven't been to the courthouse, call me. I'll be glad to take you down there, have you sit with me next to some some inmates. Um it it's a it's an experience. So

Commissioner Petty understand [snorts] analysis of this about 15 grand. Is that right? That what you said. Repeat your question please. To do the analysis the due diligence that you want to do. You say it's going to cost about 15 grand. Yes sir. To do the uh phase one environmental and the geotechnical. Okay. So that's that's the cost that we have to pay. And so we have to put $300,000 in some kind of escrow account in the process. And if we decide we don't want to do it, we get all our money back. I mean,

it's not not above your pay grade. You just don't want to answer it. The answer is [laughter] no. Um, if this body after we do this due diligence and then that process starts, we're going to have to get a what's the final price on the land. If you all don't want it, that's the end of the discussion. That's not the end of the discussion though. What we're what we're going to do with the court system. Yeah,

we have got to address it. And I the sole purpose meeting with all of the elected officials and the judges over the last several months, the number one reason that keeps popping up is this issue of security. The very thing the commissioner has talked about and our judges are concerned, our law enforcement is concerned, and we have to provide a safe place for them to work and conduct and do their do the very thing what we need to do. But this is a it's a baby step. But I'm afraid that property is going to get used or purchased by someone else. The actions of tonight I'll get with legal. We'll tie it up. Get some earnest money down. And but you still have the the right to vote it down.

Yeah. I I guess my question if we give them the we put the earnest money down but we say no and we get it all back. What's the point of the earnest money? I mean because it's not really earnest. Well, it's it's I can't compare it to anything. I've never done a personally bought a courthouse, but I know I have purchased land where it didn't pan out the way I wanted and you got your earnest money back. Okay. Right. Just wanted to double check. Commissioner Steve Smith.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a just a thought that I had. if if this goes through and comes to fruition, what are the thoughts on the current courthouse? So, my envision of this would be it'll come back to you, it'll pass environmental standards. Jim will tell us through some modeling, can we get the square footage? Can we get what we need on that piece of property? Do we go up vertically? How do we handle parking? He's going to come back with us [clears throat] with that and tell us we can do this on this piece of property or we cannot do it. Let's assume that he says we can't do it. We're gone. We reach out to him and say we can't use it. If we're going to purchase the property, then there's going to have to be a group just like we did for the sheriff and judge Guffy formed, meet the standards that Jeff can pull together. That will give us a price of the structure and it should tell us how long um how long that would satisfy those needs. twice a month.

We have, help me out, Phoebe. We've got a few dollars still left in our JJ plan through the bonding that we did, but not very much. So, what happens?

We would have to borrow money to purchase the land. Then we'd have to borrow money to build the new courthouse. So that's the path in my mind as we go down. How long will that take? It's up to you all about funding. What do we do the existing structures? Um I've not given that a lot of thought, but I have thought about it. I cannot in my wildest imaginations think that we would sell the historical courtroom. M

I just can't imagine that you all would push the buttons for that without the community coming unglued. That that's been around a very long time. the part we built since 200 two or four whenever that was put in six that doesn't have this the historical um flavor that the others but maybe it's a way that the schools and county administration could look at relocating. Maybe you could sell it. Maybe you could lease it. There are a lot of options that you could do, but you're still circulating around. The big problem is where you gonna park everybody, everyone. So, that's to be determined. Commissioner, that's the best I can answer right now.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 112541, signify by pressing your yes button when it appears on the screen. And there it is. If not, press your no button. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution P. Resolution passes. Resolution now 112533. Another resolution that we moved up. Resolution requesting the Tennessee General Assembly to enact a private act granting Williamson County an exemption from Tennessee Code Annitated 48-68-2065 or to amend the same general statute regarding limitations on the use of proceeds from the sale of a public benefit hospital. Proper motion made by uh Commissioner Drew Torres and seconded by Commissioner Barb Sturgeon. Property committee was 341 against. budget committee was 243 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Greg Lawrence.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I realize it's 10:30. We have a few people here that hung in tonight. Thank you for uh this resolution. Phil Mazooka asked the question, "What happens to the proceeds of the hospital if it sells?" And after spending 30 minutes on the phone with council this week, um I'm convinced that's going to be a very difficult question to answer. This resolution only deals with one very specific but very important aspect of the answer to that question. When the hospital board came in here, Bo Haron came in this summer in July and he read the letter that the board had put together. He said the proceeds of the from the sale of the hospital will go to a private foundation and those funds will be used for healthc care purposes in Williamson County. Now, he said that because in 2012, there was a a bill passed and at the state legislature that precludes those funds from being able to go to the county to the county general fund and be under the oversight of the county commission and to be administered by the county commission. The state law specifically says, as this resolution says, the money shall not be returned to the county except to pay for legal obligations of such county or municipality. Currently, the taxpayers own the majority of the property at the hospital. Some people think we don't, some people don't even realize we own the hospital, but the taxpayers own the majority of the physical plant of the property. In 2004, the taxpayers gave the hospital $20 million. In the last 20 years, we've also uh allowed the hospital to borrow 200 over

$250 million through our AAA bonds. And those are taxpayer bonds that the taxpayers are on the hook for. I realize the hospital has been paying the the the note on that. But if at some point the hospital were not able to pay the note, the taxpayers would have to pick up the tab. So the taxpayers have been taking the risk on that $250,000 or $250 million. It is 1030 said that. So, I have worked with Senator Johnson's office on this resolution uh to get the wording uh the way he wants it. And so basically what we are going to do with this resolution is ask our state legislators to change the law either through a private act. For those of you who don't know what a private act is, it's it's the um it would be a bill that applies specifically to Williamson County and only Williamson County. So if our state legislators deemed that that was the best route to go and they passed a private act bill, then the the act would only apply to the sale of Williamson Medical. The other route they could go is change state law. So this resolution leaves it open-ended and allows them to make that decision. What the best route that they think they should go. I got a letter from Senator Johnson's office this morning assuring me that if this resolution passes with twothirds majority that he will carry it in the Senate, we'll get some of our House guys to carry it there and they will do their absolute dead level best to uh to to to get the law changed. So essentially this law asks the question, do you believe that if the county owned property sells

that the proceeds of those properties should come back to the the county the taxpayers representatives the the property the taxpayers own? If it sells, do those proceeds come back to this body, which are the representatives of the taxpayers, or does it go to a private foundation whose board is unelected and unaccountable to the taxpayers? If the answer to that question is yes, you believe that those dollars should come back to this body, then that's your vote tonight. If you believe that it shouldn't come back to this body, then that's your vote tonight. It's as simple as that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Commissioner Sanford, I'm sorry. Let me go u I haven't been doing this like I should that there's another sponsor on this one. Commissioner Petty is the other sponsor. Let me go to Commissioner Petty first if he has any statement he'd like to make.

No, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I I agree with uh obviously with Commissioner Lawrence. Um, this is county property and we are we are the commission and we the the money should come back to the county and and we 24 should be the ones to decide how the money is used. I know there's some concern people say well you know uh there's a lot of medical needs we still have. For example, uh we it costs us at least $12 million a year to have our ambulance service which by the way is outstanding. uh they say well if it stay it goes in the trust fund then that money could be used to offset that cost and that's very true but we could also vote for that ourselves and I think the the responsibility uh for any proceeds that come from this hospital comes to the county we are the county and which we should be the ones to determine how that money is spent commissioner Sanford

so Jeff question um just even math the hospital sells for a billion dollars they've borrowed 250 um on a taxpayer dime. Does it automatically have to pay the 250 bond back? Okay, that's all I have. Thank you. That would be one of the obligations to the county under the current proceeds. And then lastly, just so I'm clear, then it goes to this board, whoever these people are to decide what happens with the rest of the money, but it has to be for the public health of Williamson County. Yes. and we have no no say of what that is. So, we couldn't pay off the rest of the debt. We couldn't form a fire department that's badly needed. We couldn't do anything.

You would not have control of it under the current setup. Thank you. Commissioner Mason,

thank you. Um, so this came up in property and I I've been giving it a lot of thought and I have a lot of thoughts about the hospital and the potential sale of it. Uh, you know, first and foremost, I I think very highly of our hospital. My child was born there. They are great community partners, especially with the court system. Anytime I've needed them in court to testify, records, they they're there. I can't say that about other hospitals. We had a attempted first-degree murder and the ER doctor of the woman who had the knife stabbed through her face, refused to even talk to us, let alone testify in the criminal trial. So, I have high high regard for our hospital. But beside that, I I Commissioner Williams gave a very impassion speech at the property committee and I understand exactly where he's coming from about the the board and their due diligence and and how this money needs to be spent and and I agree with that and I again to Commissioner Petty with our ambulance service. And so my thoughts kind of go all over the place on this, but where I really came down to is I like options. And so I supported this in property committee. I'm fairly certain I'm going to support it tonight. And and I don't know if the right answer is that it it can be used for anything, but I like having options. Um right now our hands are tied with how it can be used. And so I like the idea of maybe there's another option. Maybe there's another type of committee. maybe we can use the money for a fire department ambulance service and have pay down debt. Um, but I like knowing that we can have that conversation. And so that's why I supported it in property probably while I'll support it tonight. But I also understand um the concerns that everybody have, especially those commissioners that have served on our hospital board and have done such a great job. And I also value their opinion on this resolution as well. Thank you,

Commissioner Steve Smith. Thank you, Mr. chair. Um, so having been associated with the hospital for over 20 years, uh, recently retired, I've been through several rounds of these discussions. So, the the way the charter for the hospital worked, and council can correct me if I'm wrong, is when the charter was granted, a municipal government's name had to be on the deed to the property. Didn't mean they bought it. It could have been Franklin. as it happens, it was Williamson County. Um, so there's there's that. Um, the other thing is the structure that puts the money into a uh foundation or trust or or whatever. um is set up for health care purposes, which could be the ambulance service, could be the trainers at schools. Um and you know, if if that money comes back to the county commission, yeah, the commission could do those things. But the temptation, as Jennifer, somebody mentioned, oh, we've got this huge chunk of money. let's pay off this debt and then it's going to be gone. With the the trust or the foundation or however it's structured, you've got that pool of money that could in perpetuity fund those health care needs of the community and that's why I'm I'm opposed

to this. Commissioner Mary Smith.

Thank you. Um, chair, um, I'm actually in support of this resolution because I I have heard the concerns around the healthc care, but I think that having an elected body oversee that those funds is much probably much more advisable to give the taxpayers a voice and how it's spent. And if we do decide to send a portion of that for health care for medical purposes, we have the opportunity to do that. But I think having elected folks that the taxpayers feel like they can choose from is just a much better route for us to take for accountability and transparency in this case, especially as this is the largest transaction this county has probably ever seen if it happens. Thank you, Commissioner Matt Williams.

Oh, yeah. U [clears throat] property committee um it was a good lively discussion actually. feels, you know, I voted no on this at at property committee, but it was a good informative discussion to kind of understand the mindset of some of the other commissioners and and quite honestly, we we took some of those back and we discussed them at the board and ultimately this is what it boils down to. There are some statutory healthc care requirements that we have to do and a portion of that the hospital pays for on our behalf. Then there's some additional things that the hospital does that we don't statutoily have to do, right? So whether we pay for it out of the funds from proceeds from the sale of the hospital or [clears throat] if we pay for it statutoily because we have to pay for it anyways honestly the hospital board has no real stance on it. That's an ultimate decision that we can make down the road. And quite honestly, I think I think majority of the board's okay because at the end of the day, why not? Let's let's make the ask and let's ask. Why not? You know, maybe they'll maybe they'll amend the law and if they do, then we've got the optionality and if they don't, then you know, we've got our marching orders there, too. So, no objection here. [snorts]

Commissioner Clifford.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I big fan of the hospital. I've got a lot of hardware in here over the past few weeks alone. Um, I don't think we all wanted it to be in a point where we had, well, I say a lot of us wouldn't want to be at the point where we had to sell the hospital, but I think the reality is the circumstances have changed. The certificate of need laws have significantly changed to the point where we have to consider this. And I think when this law was passed a couple decades ago, it was not under the same situation we're in now. And I think the times have changed. And I think a lot of ways that law when passed was an effort to tamp down ideas of selling the hospital because it would be restricted to almost exactly what the hospital was doing. Um, but things have changed and I think because of that, having the opportunity to review what's most important based on what the potential sale of this hospital or the property thereof could provide the county is something that I think this commission should have the right to discuss and vote upon as elected officials here. So, um, because the situation's changed, because the co laws are now essentially toothless, and because I do think we are in a position where we have to consider selling the hospital, I think the best course of action is for the county commission to have a say in how those monies are used for the county.

Commissioner Guffy, and I know you disagree with me,

um, hospital also very near and dear to my heart, and um, I cannot support this um, resolution. And one of the reasons in serving on the board of trustees for the time that I have um and and you know understanding where we are in these times um you know we have a strong health system we have a strong hospital system. The strategic planning process that we're under right now is that it's a process. It is determining the opportunities, the options that are available to us. And in considering it um you know it was a very difficult um emotional decision to even um consider a sale of the hospital. And throughout the process, the the piece that I found in we're looking at remaining independent and we're focusing a lot of attention there. And the board has said repeatedly, all of us have said repeatedly in the board meetings that that is the ultimate goal for us. But if a sale were to happen, the ability for a foundation, for a trust, or potentially endowment to provide ambulance, mental health initiatives, um you know, the schools, having the trainers and the nursing staff, um being able to, you know, support the law enforcement um with mental health initiatives and to have those funds that are earmarked because the mission of Williamson Health from the beginning has always in the health of our community and our community changes. Um, our community needs change, but the health of our community is so important and I think having a trust and a foundation that is set up specifically to manage those concerns that our health system

has done that other health systems would never take on. Um, I can't support this resolution. I really uh appreciate and look forward to if the day ever comes that there's a foundation that manages that for our community. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of resolution 112533, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Le. 17-6

17-6. My math isn't good enough to know if that passes under Johnson's. Okay, so he gets the two/3 vote and passes. Resolution 112543, another late filed resolution. uh resolution to overrule the denial of the city of Franklin planning and sustainability departments action regarding the proposed adult detention center and gun range. Proper motion made by Commissioner Greg Sanford and seconded by Commissioner David O'Neal. Uh no committees met on this. Explanation please. Commissioner Webb.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you look on the back, you'll see what the city of Franklin has uh required and then if Mr. Cross will be available to answer any questions about why we would like to use our ability to overrule those requirements from the city. We're going to recommend approval so we can continue working on this project. Do we have any questions, Mr. Cross?

Any questions for Mr. Cross? I see none. If you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record. Record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene. 21. Yes. Two. No.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112512. A resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 Williamson County Veterans Treatment Court budget by $114,679 for the Tennessee Opio Opioid Abatement Council funds. revenues to come from rollover federal grant funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Steve Smith and seconded by Commissioner Tom Tunnliffe. Uh the budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton. Uh yes, as stated, these are just rollover funds uh for uh our opioid abatement. Just roll over from last year.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Jones, record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene. 23. Yes. Zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112513. Resolution amending the 2526 general purpose school fund budget by $3,184,000 for the purchase of buses. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tom Tunnliff, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. School board was 1240 against. Education was 540 against. Budget was 540 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Morton. Uh, Superintendent Golden on this. This is for new school buses.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112514. Resolution for an intercategory adjustment of $12,465,616 for approved raises and other pay adjustments for the 2526 budget year. Proper motion made by Commissioner Steve Smith, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. School board was 1240 against. Education was 540 against. Budget was 540 against. Explanation, please, Commissioner Morton. Uh, this were the pay raises we've previously approved. This just moves them to the appropriate line items.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Darlene.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112515, resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a grant contract with the state of Tennessee Department of State, Tennessee State Library and Archives on behalf of the Williamson County Archives and Museum, and appropriating and amending the 2526 Archives and Museum budget by $4,685, revenues to come from grant funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Drew Torres and seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation, please, Commissioner Morton. Uh these are state grant funds. There's no matching requirement from the county.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene. 23. Yes. Zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112516. resolution authorizing the Williamson County mayor to execute agreements with certain organizations providing opioid remediation and abatement services and appropriating funds for those services. Appropriations to come from opioid abatement funds. Proper MO motion made by Commissioner Guy Carden, seconded by Commissioner Tom Tunnliffe. The opioid abatement task force was 940 against. Public health was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton. Uh this is just dispersing the opioid settlement funds in accordance with the recommendations of the task force.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112517, resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a lease agreement with the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County accepting a donation from the Heritage Foundation and appropriating and amending the 2526 capital projects budget by $120,000. Revenues to come from donations. Proper motion made by Commissioner Torres, seconded by Commissioner Jones. Property committee was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Ricky Jones. This is where the Heritage Foundation has agreed to give $120,000 in donations for improvements at the Dan German Hospital. Commissioner Sanford. Did you hear your button accident? Okay.

I don't think so. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 23. Yes. Zero. No.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112518. Resolution authorizing the Williamson County mayor to enter into a letter of agreement with the state of Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration and appropriating and amending the 2526 general sessions budget by $15,912.15. Proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Law enforcement was 340 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Greg Sanford. This is a grant for the criminal justice program for electronic monitoring agency fund. And there's no matching uh funds required by us.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 25/19, resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a grant contract with the state of Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and appropriating and amending the 2526 Sheriff's Department budget by $40,000 revenues to come from grant funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Law enforcement was 340 against, budget committee was 540 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Greg Sanford. This is a grant for us to participate in the police traffic services highway safety project. Uh there's no matching funds required.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 112520, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 health department budget by $44,400. Revenues to come from the state of Tennessee. Proper motion made by Commissioner Torres, seconded by Commissioner Sturgeon. Public health was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation, please, Commissioner Morton. Uh

these are additional funds uh coming from the state. Kathy McGomery mentioned last month that as part of the computation we were doing on the pay increases, the state needed to catch their money up and this is their money that they're putting back in. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote. If you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112521, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 parks and recreation budget by $95,294.99. Revenues to come from donations. Proper motion made by Commissioner Guy Carden and seconded by Commissioner Steve Smith. Parks and Wreck was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton. Uh these again are funds from sports leagues and uh theater and dance programs. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Miss Darlene.

23 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 112512, resolution accepting the conditional donation of $1 million from Excel Aquatics, Inc. to be used to expand the current planned Bethesda Parks and Recreation Center to include an What did I say? Uh ah sorry. Uh [laughter] where am I at now? I think he was given the time. I'm on 22. Okay. Did I miss misstate date? Oh, I'm sorry.

11:2522. And this again is for a million dollar donation for somebody help me here. Natatorium natiatorum. Boy, it is late. Parks and wreck was 440 against. Property committee 440 against. Budget committee 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Morton. Uh this is your opportunity to see Gordon show up with another one of those large checks in January. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene. 23. Yes. Zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112523. Resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 Williamson County Library budget revenues received in prior fiscal year from grant funds and unappropriated county general fund balance. Proper motion made by Commissioner Steve Smith. Seconded by Commissioner Greg Sanford. Library board was 740 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Paul Webb. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is $16.74 that we're going to roll into the general fund balance for the fiscal year and be used to complete the storybook trail. Urge approval. Any questions or comments on this $16.74?

I'm surprised there are none. If you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. If you're opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112524, resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a grant contract with the state of Tennessee, office of the Secretary of State, Tennessee State Library and Archives on behalf of the Williamson County Library and appropriating and amending the 2526 library budget by $9,349. Proper motion made by Commissioner Torres and seconded by Commissioner Sanford. Library board was 840 against. The budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Webb.

There we go. Thank you. Um, this is the library technology grant does require a match which is in the uh library budget. So, urge approval. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112525, resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 library budget by $18,687.50. Revenues to come from donations. Proper motion made by Commissioner Barb Sturgeon and seconded by Commissioner Guy Carden. Library board was 840 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Paul Webb. Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. This is resolution accepting the second quarter donation from the city of Franklin toward the library.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112526. Resolution accepting a donation from the friends of Williamson County Animal Center and appropriating and amending the 2526 animal center budget by $8,000. Revenues to come from donations. Proper motion made by Commissioner Tunnliff. Seconded by Commissioner Sanford. Public health was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Morton. These are funds for hungry kittens. Any question? Urge approval.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Web. There we go. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112536, resolution authorizing the Williamson County mayor to enter into a grant contract with the state of Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and amending the 2526 Sheriff's Office budget by 4,500,000 revenues to come from grant funds. Proper motion made by Commissioner Lisa Hayes and seconded by Commissioner Paul Webb. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Webb. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is to uh the state funding the SRO's for Williamson County Schools and the Franklin Special School District for the 4.5 million.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Mr. Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Late filed resolution 112537. resolution authorizing the Williamson County mayor to enter into a grant contract with the state of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and appropriating and amending the 2526 parks and recreation budget by $3,524,000 revenues [clears throat] to come from grant funds. And this one is another one that uh comes to us from Beth Laws and again we appreciate her. The proper motion is made by Commissioner Barb Sturgeon, seconded by Commissioner Guy Carden. The parks and recck committee was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Morton.

Uh these funds for the College Grove Park and the Wilkins branch mountain bike trails. Uh the county does have a match, but our land meets that match part. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23. Yes. Zero. No.

Resolution passes. Late filed resolution 112538. Resolution appropriating and amending the 2526 animal center budget by $990. Revenues to come from donations. Proper motion made by Commissioner Sturgeon. Seconded by Commissioner Tunnliffe. Public health was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Webb. Uh this is an a grant from Petco Love. No uh no no matching funds are required. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please. Miss Darlene.

23 yes, zero no. Resolution passes. Resolution 112540, resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a letter of agreement with the Tennessee State Museums on behalf of the Williamson County Archives and Museums and appropriating and amending the 2526 Archives budget by $19,780 revenues to come from grant funds. And once again, uh, special thanks given to Beth Laws for another grant uh that she was able to receive on our behalf. Uh, proper motion made by Commissioner Greg Sanford, seconded by Commissioner Guy Carden. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation, please. Commissioner Web. As you said, Mr. Chair, this is a grant and it does not require any matching funds.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed [clears throat] or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23. Yes. Zero. No. Resolution passes. Resolution 112542. Resolution authorizing the Williamson County Mayor to enter into a letter of agreement with the Tennessee State Museum on behalf of Williamson County Parks and Recreation and appropriating and amending the 2526 parks and recreation budget by $13,800. Revenues to come from grant funds. Proper motion made by

Hadn't changed the screen yet. Here we go. Here we go. Proper motion made by Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Uh, this one is late filed, did not go before any committee. Um, and I've asked Commissioner Torres if he would give the explanation on this one. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, this is a grant uh that does not require any matching funds. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change your vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Webb, record the vote, please. Mr. Arlene,

23. Resolution passes. Uh, resolution 11254 has been withdrawn by its author. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Okay. Resolution 11255, resolution to affirm the oversight authority of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners over Williamson Health to address potential conflicts of interest in legal representation and to request outside legal counsel to review the ongoing request for proposals and potential sale or transfer of the county owned assets. Motion made by uh Commissioner Mary Smith, seconded by Commissioner Lisa Hayes. Uh this resolution did not go to any committees at the request of the author and explanation, please. Commissioner Richards.

Thank you. Uh we've talked about this earlier on tonight. This resolution tonight is not about taking sides or making premature decisions about Williamson Hill's future, which I guess we've already done. It's about restoring proper oversight, independence, and transparency in a process that's become legally and ethically compromised. As commissioners, we have a statutory duty to protect county owned assets and ensure that any action involving their potential sale or transfer is conducted lawfully and with full public accountability. Yet, at present, the same legal council represents both the Williamson Health Board, which is which is exploring a possible sale, and this county commission, which would have to approve it. that dual representation creates an undeniable conflict of interest under the Tennessee rules of professional conduct. This resolution simply affirms commission's right and duty to have its own independent and legal counsel to evaluate and advise us on any proposed transaction or related matter and ensures that when we make decisions of this magnitude, we do so with unbiased advice free from divided loyalties or outside influence. We are not obstructing process. We are protecting the integrity of the process, the taxpayers's interest, and the public trust in the county government.

Commissioner Iel, oh, I'm sorry. This one has a dual sponsorship, so I'll go first to Commissioner Lisa Hayes if she wishes to speak. No need to add. I think Chris did a great job. Okay, Commissioner Iel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be as brief as my conscience permits. Um, I respect the efforts of Commissioner Richards and Hayes to draw attention to the frankly esoteric and convoluted process regarding examining the potential sale of the Williamson County Medical Center. Um, further, I agree that a heightened scrutiny must be laid upon this issue. The commission and the citizens of Williamson County should demand nothing less. However, tonight's acceptance of independent legal counsel is an important first step to accomplish those goals. What I cannot support is the tone and substance of this resolution. As well placed as the concerns for transparency um and for care of a county asset may have been, this resolution, in my view uh deviates from that purpose to include severe allegations against a member of our legal bar. As a lawyer, I take allegations of legal misconduct with extreme seriousness. We are a self-governed profession overseen by our Supreme Court and the related board of professional conduct that are charged with protecting our citizens and monitoring the legal profession. Uh and contrary to the content of this resolution, this legislative body has no authority or business adopting a resolution finding that our county attorney or any attorney violated a rule of professional conduct. That is the sole purview of our board of professional conduct and the Supreme Court. I would like to clarify that I do not support any finding of a conflict and to my knowledge the commission has taken no such action to make a complaint against the bar. What's been referenced tonight is simply a dispute between Commissioner Richards and the firm. Without [clears throat] getting into a fight about the practice of law and our ethics, I will say that our committee has been presented with an appropriately executed waiver of conflict by the medical center and the mayor's office,

the two entities represented by Burgger, Mosley, and Carson. Both waivers contain language that if at any point either the medical center or the mayor requests recusal of the law firm for any reason, they would happily comply. Further, either party can revoke the waiver at any point for any reason under our rules, a professional conduct. I have not seen any such global request for recusal, but it does appear that some protection has worked out because either the clients have requested or the attorneys on their own valition have requested independent legal counsel to represent the county with respect to the county potential sale of the county hospital. Again, I welcome measures to increase transparency and use of independent council or other protective measures to protect our county assets under the controlling statutes, but I cannot support approval of this resolution that has, in my opinion, stumbled in its execution and is utterly inappropriate in its form. Further, I question the legal authorities citated um both in the communications that I've seen today um via email as well as those that found the foundation of this resolution. And for that reason, I urge the maker to withdraw this resolution and the second to withdraw as well. Thank you.

Request has been made to withdraw to the author, Commissioner Richards, and to the second. Next uh person with the request to speak or make a comment is Commissioner Lawrence.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh I'm I'm not a lawyer and I I respect the legal bonds in the room and and Commissioner Alo's comments about the conflict of interest. Um yeah, on the surface I could see a what I perceive as a conflict, but legally it may not be. You know, I'm I don't know enough about the law to understand that process. Some of you in the room do. Um but the but the seventh whereas I think it's the seventh whereas is is I mean the actually the resolution shifts [clears throat] a little bit beyond that issue

to one that I think is a deeper issue here and that it it talks about the fact that um [clears throat] well it mentions the private act. So I I read the private act this week and it in very clear language basically says the hospital does not have the authority to sell itself. So that brings up a deeper question. If the hospital doesn't have the authority to sell itself, does it have the authority to conduct the administrative RFP to sell itself? Again, I put that question in council and and with all due respect to our council, they they don't have they freely admit they don't have the experience of going through a public sale of a public hospital. So, you know, the these are hard questions and I know we've hired council tonight and I would love to put that question to him, but my um I guess my question for council is should that since the AG is the ultimate entity here that will decide on whether a hospital sale will go through, should we not put these uh maybe some of these questions in in um that that Commissioner Richards and Commissioner Hayes are bringing up, specifically that one in the in the form of a question um a questionnaire to the AG and get his opinion on before we go much further with this process. The attorney general in recent years has announced that they will not give advisory opinions on such questions. They will only address the constitutionality of proposed legislation. So [snorts] you can ask, but unlike the old days when your representative or state senator could request an opinion as to

interpretation of an act, they won't grant that. Now, now that's my experience as in dealing with the AG's office as it currently is constituted. Okay. Any followup? No, that that answered my question. Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Hayes, you've already spoken. I'll hold your place. space. Oh, I'm that's right. You you went ahead and So, Commissioner Hayes,

thank you. Thank you. Um, the intent of this is again more transparency, looking out for our taxpayers, ensuring that we have appropriate legal counsel advisement and of course a lot of this was in the works long before we find out that council has been selected and already had an RFP, I mean a contract. So again, I think this is unfolding pretty quickly. We're told it's strategic planning. Then we see, oh no, we're engaged in an RFP. I mean, people have used the words RFP that are on this that are involved with this process. So again, the concern is we have a role as county commissioners and we have a fiduciary responsibility to look after our taxpayers. So, I personally would like council that I feel is looking out for the county commission's best interest because, and I don't want to offend you, mayor, but you are on the board and so it' be nice to have a balance. And again, please don't take that as any offense at all. I don't mean it that way, but it just feels unnatural not to have counsel for our benefit because we are making decisions based on taxpayers. So, that that's all I have to say. Thank you,

Commissioner Clifford. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As an attorney as well, I I do see pretty big issues with this resolution. I think what's happening is an arguments being manifested here in a resolution. I I think the point has been made. Um, and I know there's ongoing complaints that will resolve much of the discussion and much of the whereas here. I don't think it has to be a resolution, a premature resolution from this county commission. Um, but also we did in fact hire council tonight that can answer these questions that will be ethically obligated to represent the county and us and answer them in our best interest. So, I think also this this resolution is moot in a lot of ways because of that. Um, I too would encourage the sponsor, take the high road. Let's pull this resolution, allow our council that we hired the opportunity to answer your questions directly, and if you feel that that has not been done by council, then of course resubmit your resolution or thoughts of what you need to be answered. But I think in in some ways, yes, there's an argument going, passions are high. manifested here, but council was hired tonight and I think you can accomplish a lot of what you want here through questions of council and then come back at a later time. So again, I too would encourage the sponsor and the motion to to withdraw.

Commissioner Richards, you've already spoken. I'll hold your spot and go to Commissioner Torres.

I just have a question. It's probably for Jeff. Jeff, if um the fact that we hired the outside counsel today or tonight, excuse me. Um, [clears throat] I'm just thinking through is there anything that precludes any discussions that we have with him from being in the public view? Um, or would it fall into I think it's only happened one time since I've been on the commission where we went into a closed session. So, I'm just trying to think through kind of the operational mechanics of us engaging him in a public setting. In general, [clears throat] he would have to give you advice on whether it fell within the attorney client privilege, which is different than the normal attorney client privilege because of the public body. And normally when we have gone into executive session, it has been as litigation updates and we've had active litigation or threatened litigation that would uh entitle you to an executive session. I have not researched this law and I would tell you to rely on the opinion you get from from Jesse as to whether that can be done in close session. Um but he but you always have the option of doing it in open session regardless.

Okay. So, I guess the question then would be, [sighs] would it make sense if he's coming back in January to defer this to January? And um there's elements of this I I appreciate the spirit of it, but I think we took the step today to protect ourselves by having outside counsel. Um, I think there's elements of the resolution that personally I'm not comfortable with. So, I don't know, you know, Commissioner Richards, if you'd be comfortable with the deferral, but um, just something to contemplate.

Commissioner Richards,

I' I'd like to speak. I I know I'm not supposed to speak directly, so I'll speak to you, Chair. This is not a conflict between me and Mr. for Mosley. I'm trying to do what's best for the county commission. I I will note that Commissioner Clifford mentioned, you know, I can ask questions. If you'll notice today's email, I was told by council that he will not answer my questions the last set that I asked, which is an ethical problem. I can't get legal counsel. So, hence the concern with this resolution. Do I have adequate legal counsel? It appears that I do not. and hence the concern for this resolution. I'm more than willing to amend this to change it. The goal is for the commission to be able to pick their own council. That's really all this is and that's I don't think that's too much to ask for.

And just as a point of clarification, Commissioner Clifford, when you said we were free to ask questions, you meant the council that we hired tonight, correct? or did you mean uh did you mean the council of Burgger and Mosley? I was referring to the council that we hired tonight. I think the past questions were of council Mosley previously, but I think that situation has changed as of two hours ago. I would submit that we're in a different place now and perhaps you may have adequate representation that you haven't tried to take advantage of yet and I would encourage you to try to take advantage of it before pursuing something like this. Uh, Commissioner Mary Smith.

Um, I think everyone's made really good points and I do feel like part of this has been somewhat resolved. So, I I guess I'm of the preference to go ahead and defer if you'd be open to that since we did we did get legal counsel tonight and kind of see where we're at in January with this process. So, I don't know that anybody has made [music] a motion to defer, but I guess I'd like to go ahead and make that motion. Second. I have a motion to defer from Commissioner Mary Smith. Vocal second came from Commissioner Greg Lawrence. Any questions or comments on the motion to defer? Um Oh, yeah. To the January meeting. Okay.

Any questions or comments on the motion to defer this to the January meeting? Uh yeah, I saw that with both of you. Both of you want to speak? Okay, just real quick. Yeah, let me go to Commissioner Sturgeon first because you've already spoken. Uh, Commissioner Sturgeon. Okay. Um, you know, I know a lot of thought was put into this resolution and I do I do like the idea of the county commission. Pull your mic down a little bit.

I do like the idea of the county commission having council that puts the county commission's agenda, our best interest first. I I like that idea, but I do feel like we did make a decision to give um our outside counsel I can't remember his name. Neil

um two months to see how things are working. And I think deferring it is a good idea because we'll have more information in January and um we might be happy with the way things are. So I'm I would agree with the motion to defer. Um, and then Commission, uh, Commissioner Clifford's on the board, but I noticed uh, Commissioner Richards did, and y'all both spoken, so I'll go to Commissioner Richards. Yeah, just really quick, I'll respect I'm getting the sense that this this resolution doesn't I'll support a deferral until January. Is that it? The January commissioner meeting. Okay. Was that your intent, Commissioner Smith?

Commissioner Clifford, my comments are on the motion to defer. When we defer a resolution, it will come back in its existing form. I think after some opportunity, this thing might need to change significantly and it might be more efficient for us if we give the sponsor an opportunity just either we vote it down or give him an opportunity to withdraw it. and that way he can reddraft it for this January meeting in a much better way than I think leaving it as is with so many amendments I feel like we're going to have to go through that it's going to take an enormous amount of time and discussion and drafts and back and forth that I if the motion to defer moves forward I will be voting no on that in that regard um I think that's my point

Commissioner Richard you have a request to pull the res resolution to resubmit it in a different form. Yeah, I think that that makes sense. I'll pull it and I can just rewrite it. Commissioner Hayes, do you concur with that? Okay, then this resolution has been pulled.

On to resolution 11256, a resolution amending the rules, regulations, and procedures of the Williamson County Board of Commissioners concerning the publication of a committee meeting of committee meeting agendas. Uh, proper motion made by Commissioner Drew Torres and seconded by Commissioner Christopher Richards. The rules committee was 640 against as amended. Uh, explanation, please, Commissioner Richards.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, this is hopefully pretty simple and won't require a lot of debate. It had pretty much the support of the mayor's office. It does have an an amendment to it. Um, okay. Um, the general thought is to to have the the agendas of committee meetings published on the county website uh 48 hours beforehand. Uh, I I did realize in talking about this during committee that I had a 48 hour deadline for the publication of the agendas and for the filing of the resolutions, which is not possible for the mayor's office. So, after some discussion in the rules committee, um it was decided to have a three-day and and Bobby, can you correct me if I'm wrong? Are you still awake? I'm like, I you don't have to get up.

But it's three days for the resolution to be filed. Correct. Correct. And then two days for it to be put onto the website. And it's that it's that simple. Any questions or comments? Commissioner Mason. Well, and the amendments need to be offered too, I believe. Yep.

Obviously, anytime we can get information to the public before the meeting, that is a positive thing. My question is for the mayor's office because we've had these discussions before about the technology and how upto-date it is and can this easily be done. And so I'm curious if somebody whether that be Diane or the mayor could address is this feasible given our current technology and your all's office and the ability to post that because again we've had these discussions before just about some of the hardships based on the website technology.

Commissioner Mason, yes we can post on the website what we have at the time. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Sturgeon.

Yeah, I just wanted to say we talked about this a lot in the rules committee and I was very encouraged that um Jamie was able to be there and so we had a lot of input from her on what she thought um was doable and I think in the end we all just decided to give it a go. I mean if you kind of have to do it to to actually get a good feel for where the snags are. So, I think we I think everybody's [snorts] willing to go forward in good faith to try to give the public an agenda before the meeting. So, they know what this make their public comments on. So, I'm I'm happy with this resolution. Commissioner Petty.

Yeah, I'm I agree. [clears throat] And I've had conversations with uh Jamie and Carolyn about it and it's very doable. And a lot of times the the resolutions and genders are going to be prepared way before 48 hours is a lot of that stuff can be put on and it can be added to later. It's not it it's pretty relatively easy to do. Uh I do have one comment though uh where it says in the the paragraph resolutions filed after the agenda deadline may be considered by the committee and I think that that should be changed to submitted. File is is a is a term that that's used when Jeff Whidby has actually filed it and put a date on it and it's stamped and it's ready to go. So just to to to prevent confusion it's these these these resolutions are submitted and then they are filed later on. So I think we got to change resolutions filed to resolutions submitted

submitted to who? U this is I you know it's it's the third paragraph from the bottom. Yes. The question is who is it? Excuse me. Excuse me. the second paragraph from the bottom. The question is who is it submitted to? It's submitted to Jamie or Carolyn. They're or or they're they're the ones that they get they get them and then that's the ones they're going to put on the website. So submit So So it's not a it's not a officially filed resolution. I understand. I'm saying so submitted to the mayor's office. Yes. Yes. Are you offering that as an amendment?

Yes, I'm offering that as an amendment. So, I have a motion to make that change. Seconded by Lisa Hayes. Lisa Hayes. All right. Uh questions or comments on So, you know, we don't have these amendments. Yeah, we have another couple amendments. This one first. Um it's getting late. I know. Council, do you have a recommendation to go take these separately or try to No, I I'd start voting on one at a time. Okay.

Um, so recognizing that we have a couple of more amendments to go, uh, Commissioner Petty has made the first amendment and, uh, I'll take any questions or comments to that amendment, uh, Commissioner Mary Smith on the amendment. I guess I just had a question. Um, it sounds like exactly what you described, Commissioner Petty, is the second proposed amendment. I don't have my understanding. I don't know why mine's not attached or I don't have it here

page. There's a first proposed amendment and then the second proposed amendment is to change it to resolution submitted after the deadline for a spec for a specific committee meeting. So I didn't know if this was already covered if we're submitting redundant amendments or not. Is this it? No, that's not okay. Thank you for pointing that out. Okay. So, so I think we can withdraw his amendment and then just go through the amendments that were given to us. Are you okay with that, Commissioner Petty withdrawing your amendment? Uh, Commissioner Hayes, are you okay with withdrawing your second? Is that a yes?

Yes. Okay. Uh, is there someone here, Commissioner Richards or otherwise, who wishes to offer the amendments that are attached? motion. Okay, Commissioner Richards, you're I'll you're called upon uh making a motion to make those amendments. Correct. Do I need to read all of these or Okay. They're submitted in writing, so you can just as you know. Okay. Presented. As presented. As presented. Okay. Did I hear a second from you, Commissioner Sturge? Yes.

All right. Any questions or comments on those amendments? Seeing none, are we ready to vote on the amendment? Is it loaded? Almost. Should pop up on your screen soon. When it does, if you're in favor of the amendment, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Herbert and Commissioner Mason, record the vote, please. Mr. 22 yes, one no.

Amendment passes. We're now back to the resolution as amended. Any questions or comments on the resolution as amended? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, when it appears on your screen, if you're in favor of the resolution as amended, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Williams. Commissioner. There we go. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 21 yes, one no, one abstain.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112527, a resolution accepting a donation from Friends of Williamson County Animal Center for a Geneva MV1 seal and cut electroc cardery unit. On behalf of Williamson County Animal Center, proper motion made by Commissioner Torres and seconded by Commissioner Carden. The public health committee was 440 against. Public committee was 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Morton. [clears throat] Uh I understand this helps improve recovery time for the animals uh rather than risk having it used on me. I will give no further explanation.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 23, yes 0, no.

Resolution passes. Resolution 112528, resolution to permit the temporary serving of alcohol at the Williamson County Public Library for the Williamson County Library Foundation's fundraising event. Proper motion made by Commissioner Steve Smith and seconded by Commissioner Paul Webb. Library board was 840 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Webb. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. As you know, when the library has their events to serve alcohol, they have to have this board's permission. We've done this many years in the past, so we ask for your approval.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 21 yes, one no. Resolution passes. Resolution 11:2530. Resolution declaring certain county-owned weapons as surplus. Proper motion made by Commissioner Guy Carden and seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. Property committee was 440 against. Law enforcement was 340 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please. Commissioner Greg Sanford. Uh these are just older weapons that uh we need to get rid of.

Any questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Williams. Oh, I'm sorry. Was there a question? Showing her absent. Ah, Commissioner Herbert is showing up as absent. There we go. Now you're back in order, I think. Go ahead and press your vote button if it's showing up. There's not a vote button. Oh, it's not. Can she voice voice vote it? You can voice vote, Commissioner Herbert.

Okay. Are we on the weapons? I didn't get to do the library one. You do? Well, okay. Give us your voice vote on the library one for the record. Oh, did I abstain? Okay, that's okay. And this one on the voted yes on the library. No, I didn't. I didn't vote at all. It shows you did 23. I abstain though on the library. What do you want the record to reflect? Abstain. Abstain on the library resolution. Let the record reflect that on the previous resolution. On this resolution, how would you like your vote recorded? Yes. As a yes. And with that, if you will please record the vote, Miss Darlene.

Okay. 23. Yes. Zero. No. We're on 32. Resolution passes. Resolution 112532. Resolution to modify the Williamson County Boardbased Tax Relief Program by increasing the eligible income requirements for elderly citizens in Williamson County to qualify for tax relief. Proper motion made by Commissioner Barb Sturgeon and seconded by Commissioner Drew Torres. The tax committee was 440 against. Budget committee was 540 against. Explanation please, Commissioner Mary Smith.

Yes, thank you, Chair. Um, so this was actually brought to my attention by a constituent um with regards to the broad-bas program. There's two different programs and so I think I sent you all the memo that I got from Bobby that um basically distinguished the two different programs. Uh the broadbase had an automatic increase of 3.3% every year, but 3.3% really hasn't kept up with the consumer price index and the cost of living index. So I went through and basically did a recalculation to recalibrate that. And then um Bobby also helped me put in an automatic calculation that matches the social security um increase every year. So instead of the 3.3% it will use the so the same that social security uses. So, it's basically just to kind of bring that back up to where cost of living is.

Is there an amendment that you're making or this [clears throat] this resolution already reflects that? Okay. Commissioner Lisa Hayes, I just want to thank Commissioner Smith and uh Karen Paris for bringing this forward and providing the detail. I think it's a good thing, so I support it. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 23 yes, zero no.

Resolution passes. Late filed resolution 112539, a resolution increasing the assessed rate of the Williamson County Adequate Facilities Tax Private Act, private act number 118 of 1987 as amended concerning new non-residential development. Proper motion made by Commissioner Barb Sturgeon and seconded by Commissioner David O'Neal. The tax study was 440 against. Budget committee was 441 against as amended. Education impact fee task force was 540 against as amended. Explanation first to Commissioner Tunnliffe. Yes, this is uh been in the works for a little while and it's we've heard enough about it in several of the committees, but for those that haven't been able to attend the tax study or the budget, currently we're experiencing 30 attaining 34 cents in the unincorporated areas as a onetime fee on commercial construction, which amounts to very little money each year. Um, we have the right and and the ability with this act to increase that to $2 per square foot heated and cooled in the entire county, not just the unincorporated areas. You've you've got numbers and that have been distributed that show you what that would have been if we had it over time. Um, right now the study that was done showed it to be around almost $12 million um over the next 10 years. I am encouraging that we go to the $2. Um, we do have several motions [clears throat] and amend to amendments. I'm sorry. We have several amendments. Uh, three came out of budget. Two came out of tax study. And would you like to let Sean talk before I throw those resolutions out there? I mean those Okay. Amendments out there.

Commissioner Ielo. Thank you. Um, as you can see from this resolution, uh, this is a wide reaching support all the way from Brentwood down to Franklin. Uh, we've supported this resolution. Um, but it just adds another tool to the toolbox of trying to maximize uh, where we're getting funding for, um, certain capital expenditures. Um, as Commissioner Tunnel will explain in more detail, um, you always talk about other alternatives and taking out bonds. Here's an alternative that might help offset some of those future capital costs. Uh, Commissioner Richards.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If you uh if you look at the handout that hopefully some of you still have on your desk, you'll notice um Mr. Taber was uh gracious enough to put up a a list. If you look from the years 2009 to 2019, we've if we had had this tax in place, we would have made $27,500,000. We've missed out on a lot of income. And I I just want to voice my support for this this resolution. Commissioner Betsy Hester, is that right? Okay. I think somebody withdrew the

chairman. Uh, I support businesses in Williamson County and this might prevent some businesses from moving ahead. I think there's some ramifications of this that might come back to be a problem. Thank you, Commissioner Petty. you know, I 100%

um every year we add on billions, yeah, millions of dollars of capital expense. The school district hits us for about 40 million a year. So, this happens every single year. And this is money that we're missing out on that and it's my understanding it's going to be used for um fire and ambulance which is really important. Um so I I think somebody wants to come here and develop they should pay to help the infrastructure that we have here. And it's a one-time thing. They don't pay it every year. They pay it once at permitting and they're done. And as one of the gentlemen that came up and spoke talked about uh the tractor, I think it was tractor supply when they moved in and he asked if they would have had a $2 permit fee. He said that wouldn't have bothered us at all. I don't think it's going to hurt business at all and it's money we should be getting that we can use for our infrastructure.

Commissioner Tunnel Cliff, I apologize. I was supposed to come directly back to you, I think, for the amendments.

No worries, sir. Um, that is very true. It is a onetime fee. It does not come back annually. Um, and the fact that Tractor Supply, who spent a large chunk of money to build their headquarters up in Brentwood, state stated that they would have come regardless, tells me a lot. Um, I've spoken to several contractors that say it is less than a rounding air in Sheetrock. Um, I don't I don't see the the challenges there. I don't see it as a hindrance to business. Um, I think it's a positive step forward. In July, we all talked about needing additional forms of income for the county um to help avoid tax increases. This definitely does that without putting the burden on the back of our homeowners. So, that is hence why we I brought this forward now when I did. Um, out of tax study came two proposed amendments which I believe you all should have. Um the first one was proposed I believe by Commissioner Smith in tax study. Am I right on that Mary?

Yeah. Um to set the rate at a dollar per square foot effective January 1 of 2026 and then raising that rate to $1.50 50 effective April 1st, 2026. The reason the $150 was chosen was that is what Rutherford County, Davidson County, and Murray County is charging for a uh fee in their respective counties. There was a concern that someone might just jump across the county line to build instead of staying in Williamson County. Same fee. So, I I don't see that as a hindrance. Um, so that is the first amendment. Would you like to continue to do these as together or separate?

I think they're loaded. Are they loaded separate? Okay. Then I will make that as the first amendment to do it at a dollar January 1st $1.50 on April 1st per square foot. Proper motion made by Commissioner Ton Cliff. Do I hear a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Richards. Any questions or comments on the amendment? Commissioner Sturgeon.

Yeah. Um I personally kind of like the $2. I remember when we talked about the educational impact fee and people said, "Oh no, it's going to kill the growth in Williamson County and it did not uh even even slow it down for a second. And I think this is even less impactful than our educational impact fee. It really is a rather minor expense for a new business. So on the amendment, I'd rather not I'd rather just go for the $2 and um I don't think there's going to be any negative repercussions honestly. And um I also agree with the public comment that I mean businesses will look at this as a way to keep their property taxes lower. So that's my comments.

Commissioner Webb. Uh thank you Mr. Chair. The only thing in out of budget we had we passed an amendment to make the effective date of July 1st so that those are in the process would have a chance to uh you know get in before the deadline because there's some people January 1st they're right now trying to get their permits and working on this and that might make a difference. So I got a concern. I'm not going to make a motion to amend that, but just before you vote, think that you may have somebody in your district that's running along here to get a building permit and then they're going to hit them with another dollar or whatever the fee is at that point. I think we're going to possibly take that amendment separately.

This one has January 1. this amendment that Tom as January 1st 2026 at a dollar then April 1st at $150. Oh, I see. Just wanted to make that point. That's okay. This is the one that's loaded. Okay. But you're not making that amendment. No. Okay. Commissioner Sanford,

I uh I fully support the $2. Um, if I'm building it as a developer 10,000t building and I spend $3 million on the building and I have to pay $20,000 fee, it's irrelevant at $3 million. Um, all I'm going to do is pass it on to my tenants. Um, and I will rent that building out in two seconds. Um, Triune, we're fixing to see a massive, massive commercial development. Uh, Arrington special character area fixing to [clears throat] see massive development. Um, this is a great way to uh recoup a little bit of money um instead of taking on more debt. So, I fully support the $2. For anybody that thinks that this is going to cause somebody to go to another county is is ludicrous.

Commissioner Mary Smith amend. Yes. Um, based on Commissioner Sturgeon's comments and Commissioner Sanford's, I would like to amend that amendment, make a motion to amend the amendment to have a dollar at January 1 and $2 at April one. We have a motion to amend the amendment changing the second portion of that amendment, the portion that would go to $150 to go to $2. Do I hear a second? Seconded by Commissioner Lawrence. Any questions or comments on the amendment to the amendment? Jennifer Mason.

Thank you. Can somebody who was on tax committee, whether it's Commissioner Smith or Commissioner Tungliffe, explain to me the thought process of doing a $1.50 versus $2. And I know now it's the amendment to go to two, but what what was the conversation? That was what our bordering counties were doing was $1.50. And we wanted to match our bordering counties. Yeah, I assume that's what their goal was with that. But there was a concern that maybe we would be a deterrent to come to Williamson County. But

but the study that was done, did it it talk about any concern about businesses not relocating here because of $2? I in my reading of the study, I don't think they addressed that. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on the amendment to the amendment? Are they Have they been loaded? Or can we just roll call voted? Do we need to do a voice voice vote or has the amendment to the amendment been loaded? I'm guessing not. Oh, it has.

Okay. Okay. The amendment to the amendment I think it's not written. Okay. Yeah. Changing the second portion from $150 to $2. I can't remember the date, but April 1st. April 1st. Okay. Uh so this changes the amendment. We know the intent that in April 1st instead of $150, it'll go to $2. Uh one more time, any questions or comments on that amendment to the amendment? Looks like I do have another one. Bill Petty. Yeah. I don't understand why the what it three months, four months. Why not just go $2 right away and be done with it? [laughter]

I think what Commissioner Webb had pointed out was there may be some people who already have permits pulled that might not be fair to them to get hit with this when they weren't expecting it as they budgeted. Permits ready to submit. Permits ready to submit. Any other questions or comments? Commissioner Herbert, you're getting me confused on all the amendments. What's the first one? Why wouldn't you just take away the first amendment and just Can we do that? If the if the author withdraws it. Well, you amended it yourself. I mean, not the author, but the motion. This is the amendment and she's only doing that as the amendment to the amendment, right? The amendment is still there. Just amending the last portion to $2 instead of a dollar.

Correct. So, the amendment is still in in play, but the amendment is a dollar at January 1st. And we have now you're just changing the second half to two. That's what we're reading. Correct. There is much. Instead of just taking away the first and putting it right [clears throat] to begin with, you're amending the amendment. Either way, yes, sir. That wasn't the amendment.

The graduated the original resolution didn't have the January 1st and April 1st. Commissioner Sturgeon, I'll try to make it really quick. I would like to know um it's your amendment, Commissioner Tunny Cliff. How do you feel about the amendment to the amendment? Do you actually support this amendment or would you be okay with the $2 right off? Am I allowed to ask him that?

You are. I'll support Mary's amendment to the amendment. And for those of you that are tired because it's midnight, um that's going from a $150 April 1st to $2 April 1st. So yes, I support that amendment to the amendment. Any other questions on the amendment to the amendment? Seeing none, if it is loaded, then we are voting on the amendment to the amendment. If you're in favor of the amendment to the amendment, signify by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Miss Darlene. 20 yes, three no.

So, the amendment to the amendment passes. Do we now to Herbert's point, do we go to the amendment? Yes, because it's now amended. Okay. So, the amendment as amended is the next vote. Is the next vote. So, any questions or comments on the amendment as amended? Uh, show of hands instead of uh

uh Commissioner Mason. We're on the first amendment dates of January 1st and April 1st. So to go to Commissioner Webb's point about do we really need to look at July versus April because of where people are in the process. Again, I wasn't at tax committee, so I would defer this to someone at tax committee. Does it make more sense to protect those people's interest who are already in the process to go from what is it 34 cents to $2? Does it make sense to wait and do the $2 July 1st?

I will defer to Commissioner Smith on that because it was her amendment in the first place at tax study. As far as like dates, I think it was just to get into this budget year, but waiting too long. We were afraid that everyone would kind of rush to get their projects in and we didn't want to like Commissioner Sanford mentioned there's a lot of things coming up but I did feel like it was adequate notice. It gives them like 90 days notice versus 6 months so that we wouldn't miss out on those income. Any other questions or comments on the amended amendment? And that's not showing up on my screen. So, I'll

Commissioner Clifford. Yeah.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, this this is probably a realistic opportunity, probably a good opportunity. Um, I struggle with the fact that we don't spend enough time thinking about ways to reduce some of the spending and work quick to approve. I mean, this is a tax, call it a fee. It's a tax on businesses. It's just what it is. But that's my heartburn that we just don't spend enough time thinking about reductions in serious conversations. I know we talk at budget committee and but I just don't ever feel like we put in fruitful conversations about where reductions need to be made. And maybe that's a course of conversation over the next year. But my my only heartburn is moving forward with this so fastly and taxing businesses is without conversations about reductions. And take the septic for instance. It's 2 million $2.5 million of a potential reduction. um we're quick to do this which at best will add a million dollars but there's opportunities out there. So I just encourage us think about those opportunities and not always look to to tax quickly.

Commissioner Hayes on the amended amendment fully support it. I appreciate Tom and Chris and Ayella's uh efforts. This was not done quickly. I don't believe I think there was a lot of work behind it and I think it's a good thing. Our neighboring counties do $150. Why shouldn't we step up? We are a very attractive county. Why shouldn't we benefit from that? So, I'm in full support and thank you guys. Any other questions or comments on the amended amendment? Happy Veterans Day.

Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the amended amendment, signify [clears throat] by pressing your yes button. Any opposed or no? Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Arlene. 20 yes, three no. The amendment, amended amendment passes. I do believe, Commissioner Tunklet, there may be another amendment ambulances and fire apparatus.

No, the it the resolution already states ambulances and fire apparatus. The second amendment that came out of text study was what did you change one word in there didn't you Mary

capital I'm not sure that was you recall with the second amendment hope your brain's better at midnight than mine amendment concerned. What we did was break out the $166 um correct and the um unincorporated area because that will be the increase and then $2 inside the incorporated area. I removed the language that specified that because we were going to $150. I just removed that language in case we amended it again. So that's the difference between what is in the resolution and the amendment. Everything between the dashes is deleted. what he said. So, do we not need do we not need the second amendment then?

Yes, you still need it. Otherwise, the 166 would remain in there. Okay. And that would match up to the numbers. That's why it was deleted. Commissioner Smith, if you made that amendment and tax study, do you want to make that here? Sure. I'll make a motion to amend it from I guess what what am I doing? I can't tell. It says $2. Well, actually I do. I need to because the original resolution already says $2. That's what I was thinking.

That's not the issue in the second now. Therefore, be it resolved. The very last one, it states that a $1.66 in the unincorporated area and $2 in the are in the Yeah. And $2 in the incorporated areas between those dashes is being removed because you've only got a dollar between January and April 1. Okay. So, that's all that's coming out. Okay. Quest point on that, please. Phoebe, can can you explain why we are at $166 in there? Because there's already 34 cents on correct. Yeah. So, should that not stay in there? We don't.

You're you're not going up $2 in the unincorporated areas on January 1, only after April 1. So, you'd have to have two separate sets of numbers, which would say 66 cents and then $166. So, it has to be amended one way or the other. Yes, sir. Simplify. That's right. Okay. So, I will make an amendment to remove the I believe it's on your screen if you just want to read it. Yeah. Is that correct on the screen now? That's the way Bobby that's the correct language. Yes. Yes. [snorts] So amend it to now say and everybody should have to delete the language. And so now just we'll say be further resolved. You say as presented because

as presented. There we go. As presented it is on the screen. So I've got a proper motion to amend it as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. Seconded by Commissioner Ricky Jones. uh questions or comments on the new amendment and I'll go to Commissioner Sanford. Mr. Chair, the the last vote I meant to vote yes, I voted no. So, we can have Darlene change that. M Darlene, I believe Commissioner Sanford intended to vote yes. Tired. Tired on the last vote. Ask you about that. Two against. Let the record reflect that, please. We're all getting a little tired.

Uh questions or comments on the new amendment? Uh Commissioner Sturgeon maybe because it's after midnight, but I'm confused and I'm looking at what's on my screen and it's talking about ambulances and fire apparatus. All right. That's not being changed. That was already in the original one. Mhm. So is that are we saying fire are we saying ambulance and fire apparatus because we uh have to because that's statutoily that's all we can use it on or are we restricting ourselves? We can change voluntarily the one the statute says capital expense with growth I believe because of growth. So

these are the capital expenses that that were chosen by the author in making the initial resolution. So the amendment is just repeating what was in the original resolution. No, it the amendment is taking out the language. Okay. My my point is is I don't want to be restricted to just fire. That would be another resolution if I don't have to be. That would be another amendment. This amendment does not affect naming ambulance and fire apparatus. Okay. So, if this amendment that Miss Can Commissioner Smith has put in motion for that amendment now or should I wait until we resolve what what we're in?

It it doesn't affect the amendment that she's making. So, I would wait and do it separately. Okay. Any other questions or comments on the new amendment to remove the language as presented? replacing it. Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the new amendment, signify by pressing your yes button, opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner Williams, record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 21 yes, two no.

So, now we're back to the resolution as amended. Uh questions or comments? And I'll go first to Commissioner Well, Commissioner Webb pushed in first. So, yeah, I'll go first to Commissioner Webb. You want to make that amendment though in a minute?

Uh, Mr. Chair, I'll just make a couple comments. Commissioner Sturgeon was asking about could we change it? And if you look there in the original and what we the amendment we just passed, I'll read this. This allocation remain in effect unless and until a change in its distribution is authorized by a majority vote of the board of commissioners. So, this body can change it at any time. So now the point I want to make, Mr. Chair, on this is, you know, I've consistently been voted against it. But here's the thing. We just put a $2 square foot tax for new structures, new commercial structures. That is not recurring money. Do not take that to the bank. This beetime money, right?

You know, we some economists say we're going to have a recession. You heard Jim say prices are going up. We may not have a lot of buildings. So, let's keep that in mind. This is extra money when we get it. Don't spend it ahead of time. The other point, just put a $2 per square foot tax if this passes per square foot of a new building and you're going to use it for ambulances. That's a good thing in my opinion because all of us benefit from the Williamson Health ambulances. Now, my next comment didn't pass out of budget, but I'm going to die on this stake no matter what. If we built the building across the street in the city of Franklin and you charge them $2 a square foot, then that fire apparatus operation may go out to Arrington. Well, that's kind of like an impact fee. But building create an impact right here in Franklin. Franklin Fire needs the new apparatus or the extra equipment, not out in the county. So here again, this is another tax on the incorporated residents of five of our six cities, which will be used for fire apparatus to benefit those out in the county. It's time for the folks in the county to figure this out, start paying their own way. it's more urban and something bad is going to happen if they don't start paying for the fire tax. So my main concern against this is uh I think it's too much. But the other part is you're taxing those in the city to benefit those in the county and many people in the county can pay their own way. So I wanted to let that point be made and it's why I wouldn't don't support it. Thank you. Commissioner Herbert,

Commissioner Webb, I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. [laughter] I said, "We live in the rural area, but where do we buy everything? We go to the cities and all of our sales tax. We don't have a Kroger's or Publix out in the rural area. We go to the cities and the cities get a lot of our sales taxes. So, I don't see a problem with them sharing some of this taxes." Thank you, Commissioner Tunnliff. I love I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Commissioner Sturgeon. I've already spoken to you. I

have to agree with you, Judy. 100% you're wrong because I mean, if you have a car accident on 8:40, you going to call Brentwood Fire Department to come and save you? I don't think so. So, I strongly object to that opinion, but you have a right to have it. So, um I my only reason for making this motion is is I like to keep our options open. Probably wouldn't happen. What if we actually brought in more money than we could spend on ambulance and fire apparatus? Probably won't ever happen, but I I just don't know why we would restrict ourselves right out of the gate on how we can use this money. That's all. So, um I don't know if you all are willing to support it, but I'm going to make a motion to um do we have to designate what we're going to spend it on?

Can we just say for the public benefit? It has to be it has to be for capital projects for sure. Okay. So, can we just amend it to say to be spent on capital projects and leave it? Okay. That's what I'd like to do. If I can get a second. got an amendment to amend the very last paragraph from exclusively earmarked for capital acquisitions of ambulances and fire apparatus to capital projects under the private act. Do I hear a second?

Commissioner Mary Smith questions or comments on where are we at now? The amendment to the amendment or no amendment the new amendment to the new to the resolution already amended. Um questions or comments on this new amendment to the already amended resolution? I'll go to Commissioner Toncliffe. The the thought process behind ambulance and fire apparatus [clears throat] was well thought in the fact that we're talking about a hospital situation currently that it might be run by someone different here soon. and will that same operator feel the same way Williamson Health does? That was part of the reasoning. The other reasoning was our cities all use our ambulance service. So, the cities should not have an issue with this being charged in their city limits and being spent at the county level. and your comment to Commissioner Webb earlier concerning the fire department. Uh I travel 8:40 now, probably 4 days a week and I'm glad that we have a county fire system volunteer that will come and hopefully help me if I have a problem out there. So that is why we did what we we did in the what I did in the resolution when it was drafted. Uh, Commissioner Webb.

So, so I just want to be clear with counselor. The the [clears throat] amendment we're debating now goes for any county capital project as as approved in the private act as defined. I don't have that language in front of me. I don't know if it's all capital projects of the county, but is it Bobby? So, yeah, any capital project would would qualify. Oh, well, that opens it up to everything. All right. Yep. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? on the amendment. Uh, Commissioner Petty.

Yeah, I I agree [clears throat] with Commissioner Toncliffe. Um, we have an outstanding ambulance service. We constantly have to upgrade them. The ambulance service covers the entire county and um, I have no problem with money going for that because I I think it's going to be well spent. Any other questions on the amendment? Seeing none, if you're ready to vote, if you're in favor of the new amendment to the amended resolution, signify by pressing your yes button. If you're opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Record the vote, please, Mr. Darlene. 15 yes, eight no.

The amendment passes. Now we're at the resolution as amended. Any questions or comments or other amendments that you want to add to this resolution? This would be the time to do it. Seeing none, if you're ready to vote on this resolution as amended. Uh if you're in favor, signify by pressing your yes button. Opposed or no. Anyone wishing to change their vote, please do so at this time. Commissioner O'Neal, record the vote, please. Miss Darlene. 19 yes, three no. Resolution passes. I want to thank Miss Darlene for standing in for Commissioner Whidby and doing a great job along with staff,

County Clerk Whidby and uh our IT department for keeping us afloat. All the department heads for staying and as always our sheriff's deputies for remaining here through the entirety of the night. Standing