City Council - Regular Meeting

call the meeting to order. The Wington City Council like to welcome all those who are with us here this evening and all those who are watching us at home. Thank you for taking an interest at your government. At this time, I'd like to introduce Captain Joe Michael James of the Wilmington Fire Department for our invocation. I will ask if everyone will stand and remain standing afterwards for the pledge of allegiance. Captain, welcome. We can bow bow our heads in reverence. Heavenly Father, I ask that you be with us today as we continue the journey of building a better community. We pray over everybody gathered here today. Grant us the wisdom that is fair, the courage that is steady, and hearts that see the good of every neighbor. Unite us as one city working together in strength and compassion. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Amen. 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. We have one presentation this evening. In that presentation, I'd like to recognize at this time Mr. Rossi Nance, who is a Vietnam veteran, and we will be proclaiming naming March 29th, 2026 as Vietnam Veterans Day in our community. And if Mr. Nance could meet me at the front, there's Mr. Nance.

Yeah, come on down everybody. City of Women of North Carolina Proclamation reads, "Whereas the United States of America Vietnam War commemoration gives us the opportunity for all Americans to recognize, honor, and thank our Vietnam veterans and their families for their service and sacrifices during the Vietnam war from November 1, 1955 through April 30th, 1975. And whereas Americans from every corner of our nation reported for duty during the Vietnam War and we are grateful for their service and their sacrifices. And whereas today we reaffirm one of our most fundamental obligations to show all who have worn the uniform of the United States the respect and dignity they deserve and to honor their sacrifices by serving them as well as they served us. And whereas on March 29th was established as National Vietnam War Veterans Day and gained permanent federal designation through the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017. And now therefore, I, Bill Safo, mayor of the city of Wilmington, on behalf of the entire city city council, do hereby proclaim March 29th, 2026 as Vietnam Veterans Day in our community. And Mr. Nance, I just want to say thank you for everything that you've done for our country. I know that I've met a lot of the Vietnam veterans in our community, and you folks are always out of the National Cemetery, the Memorial Day,

Veterans Day, and you have continued to serve our great nation. and I just want to turn this microphone over to you and say thank you so much and welcome home. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Safo. Um I'm Rossy Nass. I reside in Castle Hayne. I'm not a city member, but I want to thank everyone. Thank you, Mayor and the council, for what you've done for the 29th of March. Welcome home Vietnam Veterans Day. I only want to say one thing. You always see these Vietnam veterans with a hat on, says Vietnam veteran. If you see one this week, next week, shake their hand and to say two words, welcome home. That's all they want. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Our next item of business is our consent agenda items 1 through 8. I would like to pull item C4 and I would like to ask for that particular item which is a resolution authorizing the funding for the Wilmington Police Department transition from shotguns to rifles to be withdrawn. Do I have a motion for that please? I have a motion by Mayor Pro Tim Spears seconded by council member Chaima Clinton Quintana. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I.

I. Any opposed? Item passes unanimously. Now I would like to go back to the consent agenda. Are there any items that any other member would like to hear separately? Mr. Mayor, I'd like to pull C5. C5. Anybody else? Mr. Mayor, I'd like to pull C8 and item C8. Are there any others? If not, what are the wishes of council in respect to C1, C2, C3, C6, and C7? We have a motion to approve by council member Joiner, seconded by council member Santa. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Any oppose? That item passes unanimously. At this time, like to recognize council member David Joiner. Mr. Joiner.

Thank you. So C5 we discussed yesterday at our agenda briefing. This is a resolution authorizing the city manager to purchase 25 pursuit related Taho from Capital Chevrolet, Inc. of Raleigh, North Carolina in the amount of $1,325,175 from the fleet replacement fund. And the reason that I um held this up in agenda briefing yesterday is because I had not yet gotten the update that I had requested related to our fleet transition study. So I want to say thank you to staff who pulled that for me and got that to me um yesterday and today. And so for anybody who was following that, I wanted to provide you with the following update. ICF International is the vendor who is doing the data collection and analysis for us on our fleet transition study. That data was collected between June and November of last year. That project was originally um had a proposed deadline of February 8th of 2026 and it has been extended for a final um deadline and to have product in the city's hand is my understanding by April 26 of 2026. So I'm looking forward to the end of April to finally reviewing that data. Thank you to staff and I move the item.

Okay, we have a motion to approve by council member Joiner, second by council member Andrews. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Any oppose? Item passes unanimously. And now recognize council member JC Law. Miss Law.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I asked for this item to be um up for discussion uh because um the item is requesting the uh removal of the requirement for a homebuilders association member. And one of the reasons I did that is um I wanted us to talk about the purpose of the committee. When we redid it um we started as just a city committee is a little bit different. Um it wasn't just about affordable housing as the product like a the buildings that are subsidized and used for um perpetually affordable products. It was more about housing affordability in the city like in general for all of us. So I really feel like having everybody at the table is important for that. We have a seat for the realtors, we have a seat for the housing coalition, for the chamber, for the Wilmington Housing Authority. Um, and I think that um it would be it wouldn't it would be best to also continue having that seat for a homebuilders association member. I've been to um housing meetings and affordable housing summits um for 20 years and they the progress only happens when we have more people at the table that have the solutions and have the answers. we all um kind of know, you know, in this field, we kind of all know what a lot of the problems are, but I think the more people we have at the table, not just a an an individual who knows something and has experience, but of somebody who's also representing an entire organization, so we have the um resources and the influence and um the knowledge of the entire organization. So that's why I wanted to keep that particular um requirement in place so that we could have somebody appointed by the homebuilders association that would continue that partnership um with the city. So one way one of the reasons that um was put on our agenda is that there

um were some folks from the um previous committee that didn't quite fit into another category. So we were looking at some of their applications who wanted to continue on. So maybe one of the solutions is um we could consider instead of three members um of the representing residents, we could have two members representing residents and maybe an atlarge position. So that's my um that's my thoughts on that for us to bat around. Currently, Miss Law, how many members are in that committee? Is there 11? 11. 11 members. Okay. All right. Miss Andrews.

Yeah. So, I I just have a I guess a difference in philosophy. I think when we First of all, I I've been on this committee for a few years and um I've had a lot of difficulty with sometimes that we over pigeon hole some of these um spots. And we have a chronic one that we're going to finally fill tonight. Um that started out being a convention center hotel which was written into it when the Embassy Suites was the only convention center hotel and we expanded that to we changed it to convention center district hotel and it's still taken almost two years to fill that um that spot and hopefully we're f we're filling it tonight. Um I also philosophically feel that um we're not asking organizations for an appointment. we are the appointing authority and that these boards and commissions are advisory to us and you know we're making the decisions and I agree with having everybody at the table. The fact is this person that served on this board before in that position who was a member of the homebuilders association wants to continue on this board. He's no longer a member of the homebuilders association but he is still a homebuilder. He still has the same qualifications. he still has the the same desire to serve um as a home builder in that affordable housing space. And so to me, I think he still feels the spirit of what we're looking for as far as having, you know, we want the builders and bankers at the table, but we also um have decided to expand that into um people with lived experience. And I know that um we had started out with just one person with lived experience and Mayor Prom Spears had asked for that to be three people with lived experience and we all agreed to that. And um you know that's why I'm fine with just changing this to um to be a home builder uh preferably one with a

uh experience in affordable housing just like we have um a commercial lender preferably one with experience in affordable housing. We're just kind of ex we're keeping the same experience at the table but we're not saying that um a particular organization gets to a point because that's not really true. It's we are the appointing authority. Even the appointments committee really should be properly called the um nominations committee because it's the it's the council as a whole that does the appointments. So,

but the only thing I'll say is I since since we now the city are the only governmental agency in this area that is dealing with affordable housing and since we're reconstituting or creating this uh committee whether it has 11 members or 13 members and I would ask that we put two more members on here because the more I think the more people that are involved in this discussion the clearer it is to most people as to some of the hurdles that we have to overcome. I will also say that the homebuilders association is also probably one of the more powerful lobbying associations in the state of North Carolina, which also play a very important role in public policy when it comes to housing and how you build housing. And I think that having a member would only help us, especially if they're supportive of our endeavor. So to move the the the membership from 11 to 13 and adding another atlarge member uh but also designating one for the homebuilders I think would be appropriate at this time because I think the more the marrier that's involved in this discussion and we also will have more advocates that are out there hopefully tooting the horn as to why affordable housing is critically important to our communities not only here but around the country. Yes, Miss Santino. Um, this is a very practical question. Have any members of the homebuilders association applied to be on this committee or is it is the issue that the previous homebuilder that was on the previous committee is no longer part of the homebuilders association?

That's correct. I I think it makes sense to reappoint that person. Um, but my my question really still stands of the applicants that we've had to the committee, have any of them been member are they current members of the homebuilders association? We haven't had a whole lot of um applications yet since we're still getting the word out that we've recreated it. Um I did talk to the homebuilders association um and they're interested in sending us somebody who with this experience that we're looking for. So I think the um solution that Mayor Sappo brought forward is to add two members, two at large members instead of changing the current one would be a great solution. Then we could have two homebuilders. No,

no, two at large. Two at large three. It would be three at large. We have currently three at large. Correct. Well, we currently, Mr. Mayor, we currently have three members representing residents of affordable housing units. And my understanding of what you said is this amendment changes it to a home builder, preferably one who specializes in affordable housing, but then we would also just add one at large member and then one member of the homebuilders association specifically. Yeah,

understood. So the two extra members, the two extra members in addition to what you have in front of you would be one at large member and one member of the homebuilders association still accepting the one for a regular home builder um who doesn't necessarily have to be part of the association. Is that correct? Yeah. Two home builders total, four residents.

Well, this indivi this individual happened to be part of the homebuilders association. Now he's not a member of the home builders association, but it's just a general home builder. But having 13 members to me is not something that would be out of line since it's our committee. It's the only committee right now in the southeastern North Carolina that has member has is is at least trying to look at this issue in a very broad sense and having more people at the table I think as opposed to less is is always better for us. Yes sir. Mr. Spears of course I got to complicate this thing. Well, which could we not just add one? Why do we need two? We could. I mean, we could. Doesn't matter.

It's not ideal to have an even number in case there's a tie vote. So, that's why people go with the odd numbers. We're having a hard time getting people there anyway. It's more of an advisory commission anyway whether it's 12 or I mean I know what you're saying about the even and uh but I think in this particular thing they're more of an advisory group to the city council and respected things. So if you just added a member like Kevin said I don't think that would be I mean because if you can't get 13 selects going to let you know about it. No m did you have another comment? Um I think I did. Um,

yes, the um the reason I like the two at large was because this is probably not the last time we're going to have someone great apply and we go, "Oh, we don't have a slot for them." Like Celelet mentioned um pigeon holing a lot of the um folks as opposed to we need two home builders. So that's what I was going to say back when I thought of the comment, but we've had some discussions since then. Um but uh if if we any of the solutions that were brought up would be fine with me. Okay. Council member Clinton Quinton. So I just want to be clear that we are keeping the three members um representing residents. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Thank you.

Yes. So we be just adding a member to two two. Yeah. Two. We just add two members. So we currently have when you say we're currently what we currently have not what we currently have proposed. Currently we have 11 members and right now if you add the two members another atlarge and u somebody specifically from the home building 13. Okay. Okay. And just for clarification the atlarge member doesn't necessarily have to be a resident. Um that can be anybody from anywhere as long as they are interested in the affordable housing um and housing affordability. Sure. We'd love to have more. Sure.

There's a lot of people talking about it, not only in the city, but in the county and Pender County and Brunswick County. So, don't think it' be a bad thing. Great. Okay. Great solution. Thanks, everyone. All right. We have a motion to approve by Council Member Andrew, second by Council. Mr. Mayor, may I read the motion? Yes, please. Yeah. So, I I would like to move that we keep the current membership that we have um which includes a member from the Homebuilders Association and just add two additional uh atlarge members. So, that's my motion. Wait, very good. But I'm sorry, but what about the one that's for a home builder who specializes in affordable housing? Forget that. We're just going to slot him into an at large

position spot. Okay. I think I second that. Yes. All right. Perfect. Got it. So, we have a motion by Council Member Andrew, second by Council Member Jordan. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Opposed. Item passes unanimously. Okay, that brings us to our next item of business, which is our public information. We have two speakers that have signed up to speak with us this evening. Our first speaker is Mr. Jack Pollock who is a city resident who will be speaking to us about Major James Caper's Medal of Honor. Jack, welcome. Good evening. What I'm going to share with you real quick, four of you already have heard this um the background on the individual, but for the three that haven't, I think it's very important. Major Capers is a former Marine. He's about 88 years old now. Um, highly decorated Marine, over 60 missions, some covert, some not. Um, he has received uh two bronze stars, a Navy cross, uh, several Purple Hearts, several medals um, medals of commenation. Um about five or six years ago a group of people decided that this was not enough that his uh accomplishments deserved a higher honor. So group of people including uh Congressman Norman from South Carolina have been running an effort through Congress through the administration for those years um to get him uh you know nominated you know for Medal of Honor. So, I stood before you a year ago, if you know, uh, most of those of you that were here would remember that, and I asked the city council to pass a resolution showing support for the effort to uh, you know, help this gentleman, you know, attain the Medal of Honor. and you unanimously approved that resolution along with uh county commission other uh governing organizations around the state

nationwide. Happy to stand in front of you that's first week of March the final legislation was passed through the Senate and he will get his Medal of Honor. So thank you all for your support. It's a tremendous honor. Thank you Jack. Thank you very much. Next speaker is uh Mr. Joel Bario. Is Joel here will be speaking to us. Do not grant WP PD 250 in city money while an investigation into the murder of Mera is still ongoing.

Hello. Thank you for letting me speak today. I'm just speaking on the news that came out yesterday about the uh chief of police asking for the $250,000 to upgrade their weaponry, which uh there's a it's the wrong time to try to do something like this when the community is in outrage and trying to understand what happened with the tragedy of the shooting of Eddie Boto uh Espinosa Sierra. the family still in grieving. They have demands about, you know, just wanting more clarity as what's going on. I know there's an investigation, but for the chief of police to ask for more weapons in a moment like this is uh just this is a time for a vote to really meet the moment. And I think that voting in favor of it is against what's currently happening. when uh you know someone does something wrong, there should be repercussions and there's an investigation going on as to the Wilmington Police Department and the sheriff's officers into what happened and more weapons in that situation will not help. Uh it was a horrific video. I don't know how many of you saw it. Uh but uh please do if you haven't. It's terrible. So that is all I'm asking. Please don't vote in favor of this. At least until after the investigation comes out. More body cam the body camera footage, the list of the officers officers names. Uh yeah, this is a tragedy. Let's not make it worse. Thank you. Okay, that brings us to our next item of business, which is our public hearings. Item PH1 is a resolution approving an amendment to an installment financing

contract in an amount not to exceed 75 million to finance and refinance various city projects. And at this time, I'd like to recognize our city manager, Miss Becky Hawk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Mayor Pro, and members of council. This item will be handled by our finance director, Martha Wayne. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom and council. Tonight I am before you again with the second phase of our debt issuance process. Um I'm going to go briefly over this tonight as you have already seen the presentation once. Um what we the public hearing is actually related to the limited obligation bonds. Um limited obligation bonds there is no voter approval required. Um the city's abilorum taxing power is not pledged and the debt is actually secured by city payments as well as the deed of trust. So the public hearing tonight is going to approve moving forward with this debt issuance as well as adjusting the deed of trust to match the additional borrowing requirement. the limited obligation bonds. Uh we are currently asking for them not to exceed $75 million. Just as a reminder, only 25 million of that is related to new debt. The remaining 50 million is a potential refunding we would like to do to actually save the city funds. Um the estimated savings uh related to the 2015 A is currently around 340,000 and estimated savings related to um series 2016 is around 1.4 million. Just as a reminder from the new borrowing standpoint of the 25 million a large portion of that is going to the parks

maintenance facility as well as street and sidewalks rehab. What I am showing now is just a calendar of the entire debt process. The first time I came before you was February 17th. Um I'm coming for you tonight as part of the public hearing as well as approval of a resolution. Um moving forward at the first meeting in April, uh this item will be heard by the local government commission if you agree and they will hopefully approve the process. we will then go forward with uh pricing and then we hope and plan to close in May. I know that there is a little bit of volatility in the market. So right now as far as the refinancing is concerned um if um there is any reason why it does not make sense for us to move forward with the refunding portion if we aren't seeing the savings we anticipate, we can delay that item. However, as of today, it is still favorable for the city. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

So, before we go to the um to the LGC for them to review this, if the rates were to drop, and I don't know when he's when when the I know that the Fed just made a decision to hold the rates, but if let's just say the rates were to drop before we get there, something happens, you've delayed it. Do we get the savings? Could we or do we have to lock in at this specific rate now?

So what we are currently doing um this particular limited obligation funds has two portions to it. It has the new debt portion as well as the refinancing. So the refinancing piece um as part of this process we also go through a rating agency review. We have had two calls with the rating agencies. The review has not been completed as of yet. Um it still has to go to committee but essentially whenever we have that rating given to the city as far as the refinancing is concerned if it was not favorable we could go to the LGC ask them to delay the date and then we would have several months to come back if we do see it's favorable and we would just work with the LGC to get back on their calendar. So, your adviserss that are looking at this are telling you this is the time to go ahead and lock in. Don't play it.

Uh, right now they're saying it's still favorable. They actually had several um clients actually closed this past week. And, you know, at this point as far as the refinancing and everything else, I mean, they are saying that it is still favorable for the city. Okay. And when do you go before the LGC local government commission to review the financing package? It actually goes forward the first meeting in April which is April 1st and then um the pricing for the bonds is the towards the end of April, April 22nd in that time period. Excuse me again. Will you go back over and out of the 75 how much of it was refi and how much of it was new debt?

Up to 50 million is related to the refinancing and up to 25 million is related to the new debt. Okay. Very good. Are there any other questions I can assist with? Okay, thank you. I'm going to This is a public hearing and ask if anybody in the public wishes to speak on item PH1 in regards to the installment financing contract. Madame clerk, have you had any additional commentary, comments, anything sent in? No sir, I have not.

Okay. Any any further questions from council? Okay, I will close the public hearing and wish and ask for the wishes of councelor in respect to item PH1. We have a motion to approve by council member Andrew, second by council member Joiner. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed. Item passes unanimously. That brings us to the next item which is our ordinances. Item 01 is an ordinance amending the Wilmington City Code Chapter 1 general provisions. And at this time again, I'd like to recognize our city manager, Miss Becky Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, mayor prom, members of council. Uh, our city attorney, Meredith Everheart, will be going over this item with you this evening.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor, mayor prom, members of council. Um, I just wanted to let you know that we don't have a formal presentation for this. You should have all received the redline version that council member Santaita requested yesterday during agenda briefing. This um first chapter one of the city code is part of an overall uh rewrite of the entire city code. We spoke about this um during performance evaluations and reviews for the upcoming year and this is a project that the city attorney's office is taking on to uh revamp the entire code uh one little piece at a time. Um we were able to do the entire chapter for chapter 1 because it was basically definitions. Um, so we took out several of the definitions that were no longer used in the code, um, and were obsolete and then we updated some others. And so there wasn't anything that was truly substantive in this first chapter. Um, as we start going on further into the code, there will be more substantive um, uh, items that we'll bring before you. And so those might not come entire chapters together. They may come in smaller batches, but we are going to systematically work our way through that. Um there are some in speaking with the city manager, there are some code provisions that we would like to prioritize and maybe take out of order because we're already um seeing some issues with those. So you may see some come out of order as well. But this is the first um the first group and I'd be happy to take any questions and we're going to try to uh get you new um new groupings at least every two to three months um for the for the next batch to kind of keep things rolling and and on schedule.

Any questions? Miss Everhart, you guys got a lot of work ahead of you. It is, but I think um there's a lot of our code that was written between 1950 and 1980 and um that's a big time span and there's been a lot of law that has happened in the time period since then. Um and so we're going to try to bring ourselves up to 2026 standards. Okay. Very good. Thank you. What are the wishes of counselor in respect or does anybody have any further questions or comments? If not, what are the wishes of council in respect to the ordinance? We have a motion by council member Santa, second by council member uh Clinton Quintana. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? Item passes unanimously on first reading. Is there a motion to wave second reading? Motion made by council member Joiner, second by mayor pro Tim Spears. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Item passes unanimously on first as well. Second reading. That brings us to our next item business, which is item 02A, which is a resolution officially accepting public streets, pedestrian improvements, and storm drainage facilities within William Booth Drive. And then we have an accompanying item 02B, which is the ordinance establishing a speed limit of 25 miles per hour on William Booth Drive. At this time, again, I'd like to recognize our city manager, Miss Becky Hawk. Miss Hawk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, mayor prom members of council. Rob Gordon, our plan review engineer, will be presenting this item.

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, and members of city council. Um, I have two items for you this evening um for consideration. The first item, item 02A, is a resolution for roadway acceptance of William Booth Drive. The second companion item is establishing a 25 uh mile per hour speed limit on this same roadway. William Booth Drive is located between Carnegie Avenue and 30th Street adjacent to Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. Um, and it was constructed as part of the Salvation Army project last year. I do have a uh correction to the resolution to to announce the total roadway construction cost listed at 1,348,750. um should be correct did not include allowable change orders. The corrected updated roadway construction cost should be $1,464,758. That's consistent with the city's roadway reimbursement contract presented at prior meetings. the total uh roadway value would then be adjusted to 1,581,110. So with those corrections in total um 045 miles of roadway um are being proposed for acceptance along with pedestrian and drainage drainage easements. The roadway improvements within the rideway have been have been reviewed, inspected by city staff and all necessary repairs have been made. Um there are additional details and photos in your agenda packet and I'm h happy to answer any questions that you might have on the resolution. Dennis uh Bill Kenowitz is available if there are any questions on the companion speed limit ordinance.

This was the entire roadway within that project. Correct. That connects um Carnegie around to 30th Street. Okay. Very good. Any questions? Okay. All right. We'll take these one at a time. We'll take the resolution first. What are the wishes of council in respect to the resolution? We have a motion to approve by council member Clinton Quintana. Second by mayor pro Tim Spears. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Any oppose? Item passes unanimously. Only needs one reading. Now let's go to the ordinance which is establishing the speed limit of 25 miles per hour. What are the wishes of council? We have a motion to approve by uh council member Santa, second by council member Andrews. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Any oppose? Item passes unanimously on first reading. Is there a motion to wave second reading in regards to the 25 miles per hour? We have a motion by Council Member Clinton Quintana, second by Mayor Pro Tim Spears. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? Item passes unanimously on first as well as second reading. Mr. Mayor,

yes, sir. Just for clarification on the resolution um that for the record that was with the amended numbers that Mr. Mr. Gordon mentioned. Correct. Could you please um uh that's with the total roadway construction cost of 1,464,758 and with the total value for the roadway at 1,58110. That's correct. And we'll get that additional information to the clerk in a corrected uh resolution.

Thank you very much. Next item business is our resolutions. Item R1 is a resolution approving the issuance, execution, delivery of not to exceed $15 million for stormwater fee revenue, refunding bonds, and providing for certain other matters in connection with the issuance. Again, like to recognize city manager, Miss Hall. Miss Hall.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, mayor proto, members of council, and again, finance director Martha Wayne. Good evening again. I needed to come back a second time as this portion actually did not require a public hearing. So that's why you're seeing me at two different phases within the meeting. Um so this particular portion that I'm referring to is a resolution that is solely related to the 2026 storm water fee revenue refunding. There is no new debt associated with this agreement. The amount is not to exceed 15 million and currently estimated savings would be around 750,000. This is a similar situation where we're planning to go before the LGC at the first meeting and this is planned to close slightly after um the uh limited obligation bonds that I was speaking to earlier just because a lot of times you want to have just a slight variance between the two issuances whenever you're um doing two debt issuances from one municipality. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Are you going to hear these on the same day, the LGC or two different days? Same day. Same day. Yes. And I would imagine there's others that are trying to refinance some stuff also. Yeah. They usually have a fairly full calendar. Okay. Very good. Any comments? Okay. Thank you very much. What are the wishes of council in respect to the resolution? We have a motion to approve by Mayor Pro Tim Spear. Second by council member Joiner. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Any oppose? That item passes unanimously. That brings us to item R2, which is a resolution to sign the Kfir Council of Government's joint letter to the Environmental Management Commission identifying specific concerns related to the Fugquway Vina proposed interbasin transfer request. Again, I'd like to recognize our city manager, Miss Hawk. Miss Hawk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, mayor, pro members of council. This item will be presented by Cara Spencer, our legislative affairs director.

Good evening, mayor, mayor prom, and council. On November 18th, uh the Wilmington City Council unanimously passed a resolution in opposition to Fuqua Verina's Inter Basin transfer request. The resolution um before you tonight represents an opportunity to underscore that opposition by standing with a regional coalition from across southeastern North Carolina um made up to send the message that uh we stand together in mutual concern. And as you know, your legislative agenda for 2026 states shore priority and intention to protect the Capefir River as a source of raw water by preventing its uh its contents without appropriate return. And the letter that you have included in your packet that we're asking you to sign um was drafted by our colleagues at the Cape Council of Governments and is in alignment uh with your intentions. Uh we're hopeful that by signing the regional effort will make a difference when EMC issues its final decision.

So this I know that the COG has weighed in on this. I know the Cape Public Utility Authority is weighed in on this. Um Lower Cafe Water and Sewer Authority is weighed in on this. I think Brunswick County, Pender County, Bladen County, all the counties up river are going all the way to Fedo have weighed in on this how how important this issue is for our community and for our region. And since we're at the end of the line, we're dealing with PAS. We're dealing with uh sea level rise. We're dealing now with the triangle in all intents purposes trying to get into our water basin, get take our water from us, from our communities, from Favville all the way down here. And I can't stress how important this is that we all have a say in this because this is going to drastically affect a lot of different things. But uh I know that Fugquway Arena is asking for six million gallons to be pulled out of the cafir every day. I know right behind them we understand that there's other communities that are waiting in line because as the state has grown the triangle has grown the fastest

and so we have a QR code we that people can go on and make comments. Do we have that? Absolutely. share that with the community because this is an extremely important thing. And the more comments that we have about this, the better off we all are because this is going to affect small communities, big communities, everybody. And they just for some reason just don't care up there. And we're just trying to do our part. I'm not saying they don't care, but I'm just it's a pretty serious situation for our communities.

Yes. And actually, you have a sheet in front of you with the contact information for where residents and members of the public can issue their individual comments through April 1st. Um, there is an email. Actually, Mayor Sappo is the only person that will have that sheet. Um, so, um,

I'm looking at this letter. Um, let me just make let me just make certain say something while you're grabbing it. I just want to um for you to picture it that 6.17 million a day. Uh, that amount of water every single day. If you took a football field and this includes the end zones, that would every single day be 14t deep on a football field. Uh, that's every single day. Do you have that sheet in front of you? I do have the sheet and I'm sorry because I just had a a little accident with my eyes. So I'm gonna ask uh Council Member Clinton Quintano to please read into it and and she's also a member of the Cape Public Utility Authority along with Mr. Joy. So

yes, please. Uh thank you, Mayor Safo. Um for any of those who are interested and I I'm actually begging you to please send an email stating your opposition to Maya. It's m a ya.hul Hulcom h o lc m at dq.nc.gov. And I'll read that one more time. It's Maya hulcomdeq.nc.gov. That's m a ya.h o loom mbdeq.nc.gov. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Mr. Did you have any comments, sir? I was just going to point out um when we were at the National League of Cities conference, I guess a week ago now, uh Mayor Tavo and I were in line. I don't remember what we were in line for, but we turned around and the mayor of Fiway Verina was right behind us and I looked down at his name tag and I said, "I'm glad that you're stuck in line with us because we got some things that we need to talk about." And uh we actually had a relatively friendly conversation. Uh I think my understanding is he's in his first term as mayor and um is learning about this and is aware that it's on our radar. the the more that we can keep the volume up on this, the better off Wilmington and southeastern North Carolina will be on actually, you know, getting what we want, which is to have the water return to the Capefir River so that it remains in our river basin as opposed to, I believe, the noose is the proposed alternative. So,

um, I'm going to support this resolution at the appropriate time. Thank you, Council Member Clayton Quintana. I just want to reiterate it is the return of clean water. We're giving them clean water. We want clean water back, right? Very good. Anybody else? Okay. What are the wishes of councelor in respect to the item which is R2 which is the resolution? We have a motion to approve by council member Andrew, second by council member Santua. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I. I.

Any opposed? That item passes unanimously. Brings us to our next item business which is our reports. Item RP1, reports of council's appointments committee for boards commissions. Um, and this time like to recognize council member Clet Andrews who is the chair. um woman of that committee.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um the committee met on March 2nd, 2026 um present with me as chair and mayor Bill Sappo as a member and council member JC Lyle as a member. Um we recommend the appointment to the convention center advisory committee of Trinity Dunlap as a hotel year um with a term expiring 127208. We recommend the appointment of Aiba Johnson to the greater downtown special area plan steering committee as a representative of the commission on African-American history. We recommend the appointment of Michael Mau uh to the Nino Sports Park User Group Advisory Committee as a member of the rugby community and then to the city of Wilmington Community Relations Advisory Committee. We are recommending four appointments. Um and Trayvon Trey Tate um as an atlarge member with an emphasis on the faith community. Uh Rosemary Tatum as an atlarge member with an emphasis on the business community. Alisa Breitman uh as an atlarge member with an emphasis on the nonprofit community and Bruce Maliga as an atlarge member with an emphasis on members of title 7 groups. um to the Sister Cities Commission. We recommend the appointment of Nancy Bullock as an atlarge member. And we also voted for the removal of Laura Blair from the state ports commission um due to lack of attendance and we are therefore looking for a replacement member from the state ports uh state ports authority to the sister city commission to the Wilmington New Hover County Port Waterway and Beach Commission. We uh are recommending the reappoint of Neil Andrew uh and Ben Cherry as both as at

large members with terms expiring in 2029. To the Association of Wilmington, Inc. Board of Directors, we are recommending the appointment of Council Member Santaita as the council member appointee. And bear with me here because this is a little confusing. There's also the Thealen Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. Board of Trustees at to which we recommend the reappoint of council member Joiner with a term expiring in 2028. And finally to the city of Wilmington Housing Affordability Advisory Committee. Um, we recommend um the appointment of Eric Knight as a member of the Capefar Realtors Association, Roger Gins as a developer of affordable housing, Paul Sti as an as an atlarge member, Shawn Olds as a member of the Capefir Housing Coalition, Katrina Knight as a nonprofit representative, and Morgan Moscow as a commercial lender. And with that, I would like to move this board of appointments. Okay, we have a motion to approve by council member Andrews, second by council member Clinton Quintana. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I.

Any opposed? Item passes unanimously. And Mr. Mayor, if if I may continue, um this is what I've started doing is reading off the ones that

we still need. Okay. So, um, current vacancies that we have, uh, for the, um, City of Wilmington Community Relations Advisory Committee, we're looking for an ATL large member with an emphasis on the civil rights community. Um, and we are also looking for two atlarge members who are members of Title 7 groups. And we're not sticking to the strict definition of Title 7, but basically any member of any underrepresented group, be it uh somebody from the disability community, somebody from the LGBTQ community. Um BIPO community, uh we're we're looking for people to uh to represent our community on the community relations advisory committee. Um, and then to fill out the housing affordability advisory committee, we are looking for somebody from the Wilmington Capefare Homebuilders Association, Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, Wilmington Housing Authority, three members uh representing residents of designated affordable housing units um and uh also a member an an additional member at large. And then for the association of Wilmington, we are looking for a city resident to appoint at that uh for that committee. um for the uh we have somebody um and I think all of these oh for the Wilmington Tree Commission we are looking for um a city resident uh actually we're looking for three city residents for the Wilmington Tree Commission and that's it for the folks that we're looking for. Okay, very good. Thank you.

Okay, this concludes the regular agenda. Are there any items to be brought forward by our city attorney? Yes, sir. We have a motion for close session when you're at that point. Okay, city manager. No reports tonight. Madame clerk? No, sir. Okay, Miss Santua.

Yes, thank you, mayor. Um, I just want to take a minute and uh reflect uh on my time on council. It's been 112 days. They say the first 100 days is the most important in a new job. Um, so I just want to share some of the things that I'm really excited that we've done and I'm looking forward to everything else that we're going to do over the next few years. Um, we have uh attended groundbreings for affordable housing uh and transportation improvements. We've been to ribbon cutings for transportation improvements and a new park. Um, we are working on a deal for a new park property where we will convert 25 acres of private land to public land. Um, we have adjusted the land development code to promote increased housing supply while also keeping the character of Wilmington. Um, we have revived the housing affordability committee and the community relations advisory council. We've advocated for um clean water transportation funding and disaster recovery at both the state and federal level. Um, we have allocated funding to transportation improvements including trails and roads. Um, I've joined the WNPO, which I'm very excited about. Tonight, joining the Thealen Association. That's just a few things. I just want to recap for folks all of the work that we've been doing because I know not everybody sees it every day. We spend a lot of time together. I'm really grateful to work with these folks and uh, like I said, I'm looking forward to the next few years. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you, Miss Andrew. I just wanted to mention um because we've been asked to share this that the city of Wilmington is working to secure a $17.5 million in federal funding to replace the aging bulkhead along our downtown riverfront um at the former Coast Guard cutter diligence site. and they are having an open house tomorrow um in the Aelia room which is right here on this floor um from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. And so if you're interested and they're looking for submission of public comments to support that uh application

Yes sir. First, I I I just want to inform the community that the uh resolution of consent agenda item concerning the the weapons was withdrawn. So, that's a success for our community. And and then I would I would also like to to mention what has happened over the course of a couple of weeks and maybe a month or so. some some some shootings and some murders in our community. Uh uh the murder of a young man yesterday. Um the the murder of uh well a police involved shooting a few weeks ago and um which which alludes to this um I I know we we've been in a a huge uproar about the weapons for uh WPD, but it really alludes to the fact that there there are just too many guns on our streets. um whether whether in a community uh by criminals um by law enforcement and in fact last semester I wrote a paper about about guns uh and my professors didn't necessarily like it but I wrote it anyway uh and there are a lot of handguns there are a lot of guns in the hands of Americans just in general uh way more than than any other nation um and it's I guess it's it's just a thing but we're we're experiencing the severity of the amount of guns that are on the streets in America and and especially in in our community. And um sometimes those facts just seem to cloud that crime is down. But anytime there's there's an incident, you know, we we don't we don't feel safe. We we don't feel like crime is down. And and so I I understand how passionate and compassionate we we are or we're supposed to be about these incidents.

and and I do, of course, I uh I'm happy to engage in uh positive banter as it relates to issues and some of the some of the conversations are going to be tough, but I don't think that we have to talk negatively about um our feelings towards one another because at the end of the day, we're all humans and and we all have feelings about uh the things that that matter to us, but we can we can agree to disagree, but it's it's best to be heard and best to be understood. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, sir. Council member Clinton, how's your eye?

Felt like your knee. Um, so I just wanted to take a a moment to be very serious here. I I hear many people talk about how much they love Wilmington, how beautiful it is, how they love the people, and we're inviting people to come visit, our family members, um friends, but the violence needs to stop. It has to stop. I need for everyone to just take a pause and really think about this. It doesn't solve anything because at the end of the day it was someone's child, brother, sister, whoever, friend. It has to stop. The violence doesn't solve the problem. And we are working our officers also a little harder when they're having to come to these incidents. Chief Zunima stood before us yesterday and gave a reason why they wanted to go from shotguns to rifles. I understood what his request was about, but I agree. It wasn't the time, so I wasn't in favor of voting for it right now. I appreciate everyone who showed up today and also who's online listening. But because you're here, that means you can hear my plea to you to stop the violence. Let's get Wilmington where we want to see it. That vision that you all talk about and how great it is and that we have the beaches and everyone wants to live here. I don't want to live in a city that's full of crime or shootings.

And honestly, I wouldn't want our police officers having to defend that either. And I thank you. Have a good night. Thank you, Mr. Low.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, most of you know this is the 250th anniversary of um the United States. And I wanted to share that this week um the Daughters of the American Revolution are commemorating what is called the Wilmington Tea Walk. And that happened um kind of in solidarity with solidarity with the Boston Tea Party. Only our women of Wilmington um who had this luxury item which was tea. They got their tea and they walked to the river and they burnt it. They didn't just toss it out into the river. they burnt the tea as kind of an act of this is um a luxury we're going to do without because of the taxation issues and it was kind of help helped lead up to um the Declaration of Independence. And so this Thursday um there's a tea walk to kind of commemorate that event and it starts um at 10:00 a.m. this Thursday, March 26, which is my mom's 85th birthday. Happy birthday, mom. She watches these. Um but it starts um at the Bergen Wright Wright um house and um it's it starts at 10 o'clock on Thursday. So if you're interested in a little bit of um Wilmington history of how we uh were involved in our American Revolution, join us.

Join um I mentioned earlier that this time last week we were in Washington DC for the National League of Cities Conference. Last year, the big topic was funding for the Katefir memorial bridge. And it was that meeting last year where we essentially got confirmation that funding that had been allocated during the Biden administration was still on the table during the second Trump administration. Um this year we talked about that it was confirmed that we still have you know that money is available, but really the big topic of conversation was FEMA funding and FEMA restructuring. Um, and I think it's important for folks who are involved uh in any sort of disaster recovery, like as an institution within Wilmington, whether you're in construction, whether you work for local government, um whether you had yourself to be reimbursed after a hurricane recently, um David Rouser has a bill related to FEMA reform and Senator Ted Bud has a different separate bill related to FEMA reform. So, I think it's really important for us to engage with both of those uh members of Congress which represent southeastern North Carolina. Um because if our own state delegation to DC is not on the same page about FEMA, you know, we need to engage and we need to get on the same team so that we can all, you know, have the same vision for what FEMA needs to be in the event of an emergency. So, just wanted to put that on everybody's attention because frankly, it was not something that I knew a ton about until we got up there and it was in front of our faces. Thanks.

Thank you. And I just like to reiterate also that I want to thank all of the council members that were in Washington just to let them know that there are people that when they're making decisions up there, they're affecting the lives of many people in all of our communities. And we want them to see our faces to understand some of the frustrations that we have to deal with on a day in and dayout basis, whether it be FEMA or whether it be uh transportation issues or dealing with the Capefir River and the PAS that is in the river and talking with the EPA. But uh it is important that they hear our voice at the local level from the local level to so they can understand that the decisions that they're making up there are real life decisions that impact people's lives every single day. So I want to thank everybody. I want to thank Cara Spencer for helping to coordinate everything and put things together. I know that you had us packed every single day and in walking around the hill. We lost a couple of people along the way because of injuries, but we made it through and thank God we got back in one piece. So, uh, thank you very much. So, with that, I'm going to ask for a motion to go into close session to enter into close session pursuant to the provisions of North Carolina General Statute section 143-318.11A and 3 in order for the city council to one consult the city attorney or her designate regarding the matter of Carson versus the city case number 726-CV-000038- FL and the close session will be held in the Raven Bark room behind the council chambers. Only city council members and outside council for the city will be allowed into the retiring room for this closed session. At the end of the closed session, the council will reopen its public session and adjourn at that time from this space. So, do I have a motion by council member Clinton Quintana, second by council member Joiner. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying I.

I. Any opposed? That item passes unanimously. We will now go into close session and thank you for night.