Town Council - Regular Meeting

as one. And then we need to add um key item session 143-318 3 consulting with attorney 1 311 A3. Those two items need to I make a motion we approve the agenda as amended. Motion made by McGawan to agenda. Uh seconded by Councilwoman Dobin. All in favor? Okay. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda items. Everybody read through them and have any questions or comments on them. Mayor, I just wanted to clarify last month um the minutes that are under the consent agenda, unless there's an issue with any of the minutes, you can take one vote to approve the consent agenda and not vote on each one of the minutes. Yes. So, have any additions or correction any of the amendments? in in I didn't mean amendments meetings. Do I hear a motion to accept these items? Do I hear a second?

Motion made by Councilman McGawan, seconded by Mayor Pro Tim Triet to accept these. Uh all in favor? Okay. I call the first open forum. Anybody wishing to make a comment come forward. Limit your comments to three minutes. No one wishing to come. We'll close the open forum at 6:35. You have in your packet um an item to postpone the public hearing that was supposed to be for tonight and to reschedu that on to July the 21st. And I don't think we have to vote on that, do we? We just it is going to be rescheduled. The next item is um Yes. May I just inquire on that? Is it going to be re reposted, republished and all that? Yeah, it's going to everything's going to be taken care of. The next item is the calling of a public hearing. And I'm going to let Wendy come forward and give us the information on this. We have an applicant that has requested the reszone of partial 05 05021E from a current town of Clayton zoning

classification of CRM to the town of Wilson's Mills zoning classification of C70 which is commercial. This would be consistent with annexation of said property already set for hearing on July 21st, 2025. A map of the area is attached. We ask that you please make a motion to call a public hearing for the reszone of this parcel on July 21st, 2025 at 6:30. So move. What is the um classification of CRM? I have no idea. That's a town of Clayton classification. So that that's in their ETJ, but they want to be in the town of Wilson Mills, correct? Yes, sir. Somebody made the motion. I thought motion made by Councilman Jernigan, second by Councilman McGawan. Does anyone have any more questions? Okay. All in favor will be for me first. Um Lyanna and I and David attended a meeting in Clayton last was it last just last week? It was was it? We had a wonderful time sitting around the table with with town council members and county commissioners and elected officials and it was just a time we did not sit people. It was really I evening

to me. David, do you have any comments on that meeting? No, not really. I had a very good time. I enjoyed it. I sat um I bailed out on you guys and went over to the town of Benson and met some really nice folks over there and learned about a really nice steakhouse. A real steakhouse. All the was all the towns represented there? Yes. Well, no. Lacy was not. Okay, good. And that's all I have. So, Lanna, found administrator. Um, just an update again on the comprehensive utility study. They still have not gotten us final comments on the final draft for you to approve. And um I don't have any excuses for them. There were some comments that were sent from the county and they are still reviewing those and now I believe this week the gentleman that's been working on it from TRC is on vacation. One time they told us that they were not they didn't have the information. Yes. Yes, they they they had it last month. They got it right before the meeting and they didn't have time, excuse me, they didn't have time to comment on that and add it to the final draft before our council meeting in May. And when I talked with them last week, they still have not finished the comments on the final draft from what the county sent. So these were concerns that these were were some concerns that the county had about the way some of the numbers were calculated based on what

they know as far as the the capacity for both sewer and water. So it's not just about the sewer. Did they did the county send them that much additional? It was quite a bit. It was quite I mean it was about two two pages of information that explaining where in the study they had concerns about the way that the the calculations had been done and we we forwarded that to them and as soon as we got it and told them that we agreed with what the county was saying and we wanted those issues addressed and that's what they're still working on. So, just just so I can make sure, Lyanna, that that was the the group that brought that big old thick packet and I was questioning about gravity and That's correct. Well, yeah, of course there's questions because we had questions about their numbers as well. Um, so so they've had this for, I guess, a month, right? Plus, and they still hadn't Are we are we paying them to to do this study? What we've what we have been paying them, we've been paying them in increments, but remember this was a grant that we received. This was a revitalization grant that we got from the Department of Commerce, and they've sent the final invoice, but we're not going to pay the final invoice until you all approve the final draft. Good. Good. Very good. Um, the only other thing that I have is we discussed last month, may have been at your work session about scheduling a council retreat and I should be sending out some dates this coming week once I hear back from one more about options for for that day. And we're looking at a weekday sometime between Monday and Thursday during the month of July. So, it'll be an all day retreat, but I've got to get one more schedule before I can send that out.

I don't have anything else unless anybody's got any questions. Sure is. Let's go. Let's go with that. I do have I do have a question. Shall I hold it till later? No, you can you can go ahead. And it has nothing to do with the budgets or any of that stuff. It has to do with a uh question that was placed before me by a resident regarding the dog park. How come there's no trees out there for the dogs? I'll just let it drop there. Our plan after we get it to where it can be open to the public is to start adding things inside and some of that will be shade canopies. I will pass that along. Thank you. Trees will not grow in that area. That that's why the dog park. Right. What are we going to put out there? That's shade canopies. Okay, cool. Thank you. So, you've got two social media policies in front of you, and both of these have been reviewed by the attorney. Um, the first one is a policy on internal social media that would address appropriate use and content and management of the town operated social media. So, this would be the town's Facebook, Instagram, um, LinkedIn, things like that. and it clarifies responsibilities for the employees that deal with social media. The second one is a policy on public social media that would address appropriate use content management of town sorry I had that backwards. The first one is the internal for for personal social media use that's related to public issues and then a public social media policy that relates to the official town platforms. What is Didn't mean to make that

confusing. I'm not sure. An internal social media like like what? Um well, isn't that public? Can you can you hit your mic for me? Want somebody from the town basically posting things that ain't they shouldn't it's it's like a personal account, but let's say somebody gets disgruntled or whatever. If I don't know, let's say Tony says, "I don't want to go clean up the dog park." And I'm I'm just going to use you as example. He don't want to go clean up the dog park because somebody let a a great Dane out there and he wants to vent on the town social media page. It makes the town look bad, right? So it it has to be professional and that near about every government agency in the state has a social media policy like this. Okay. That way it it it protects the town and the employees. Right. And I understand it and that's good. I'm glad to hear that. But basically we've got we're going we're talking one social media account but two different policies. So this let me just clarify real quick. the the internal social media policy really deals more with like um well and there's a there's an example here on this first page. So like if if employees are representing themselves as a town creating social media such as the public works department for the town of Wilson's Mills is not the the official town's page but it is representing an internal department within the town and there are policies that they have to follow such as public records law and um

the comment the comment section whether they turn that off or delete can or cannot delete them, things like that. Can we not put that all under the town rather than saying, "Patrick, no, you can't start up your own public works social Facebook page for the town. access a official town social media website that they, you know, or in ordinarily they have first amendment right to engage in in comments and discourse, but there are certain um things that are not permitted such as, you know, discrimination or explicit um content or promotions, political type things. So this is what people who would access the town's website would see and know is not permitted to be posted as a comment or on a or linked to a town site. The internal one is is a directive for employees to on how they manage those official accounts. It's not really intended for outside viewers to know, you know, this is what you're supposed to these are the rules that you follow when you do post to a town account. It does sort of overlap a little bit. But, you know, the one is intended for folks who to put them on notice of what what will or not be tolerated in terms of public comment. Okay. Um, and the one other distinction I did want to make is that you do have sort of official um accounts that you recognize. you know, one is the main Hannah Wilson Mills page

and then you might have subpages or other pages specific to departments and then it occasionally happens where a an official uh with the town might post on their personal page and that gets into like a legally gray area. If they begin to comment on town business um and then start blocking people or or you know hiding comments then then you get into like first amendment issues u with respect to blur learn a line between whether it's a personal page or a official page of the town whether it's endorsed by the town that sort of thing. So this is intended to make clear delineation between what's allowed to be an official account and if you do have a personal account how to make sure that there's a clear line drawn between personal account versus an official account with the town. Um, and there's some Supreme Court case, recent Supreme Court cases deciding these issues and it does give a little bit of protection for employees posting on their personal account. So anyway, so if you do use me use me as an example. So, if I post something on my Facebook page, No, I'm I'm just saying I have a Facebook page and if someone from my neighborhood or the town posts something asking for a a a direction or what's the town up to with this, that, or the other thing, how how do you handle that? I mean, how would I handle that specifically? Um, so if somebody here a good example uh before I just talked to Lyanna a second ago, my uh my neighbor did ask about uh trees in the dog park and he didn't ask on a Facebook page. He sent me a text and I said just come to the meeting and and uh use use the public comment period to ask Lyanna

because I have no no clue. But if I if I did, I mean, now that I do, I really I I wouldn't want to post it. I just pick up the phone and call him, I guess. But if I did post it and if I posted something erroneous, you know, am I speaking for the town then? I mean, I I'm I'm just not quite sure where to go. Maybe I'll just Right. So yeah, you know, you don't really invite any issues unless you start to engage in censorship, you know, through that social media account and and the lines can easily blur if you use a personal account for what looks like official business of town. And to the extent it's used for official business of the town, it could uh depending on certain factors, be viewed as a town of Wilson's Mills account, basically an official account. and some of the factors and I'm don't have it readily in my mind but there's some factors such as whether what you're talking about is within the scope of your expertise as a you know if it's department head if it's a it's a matter within the um the police department and the public works director is addressing it that's not something that's within his ordinary scope of uh his duties as public works director so he would not be representing the town in engaging in discussion. You know, say there was some political issue happening that that involved the police department. If he was commenting on that, that wouldn't necessarily be official comment of the town because it doesn't fall within his department. So, so if I were to if I were to theoretically if I were to go on Facebook and and post and say, "Hey folks, we're looking to put up some shade devices at the dog park." That's something I really shouldn't do. That's for the town to do on their website. Yeah, I would certainly encourage you to go through the official, right? So, you have to be very careful. In other words,

what what you're saying is be very careful about what you do post. Certainly. Okay. What what if if I were to say, "Yeah, okay. I'm going to run for election next time." Or if Mr. Brown does. Can you put that on your own Facebook page or is Sure. is you're straddling something there? No, that's No, that's that's fine. I mean, certainly if you're you're an employee or an official of the town, okay, and you're wanting to comment on something that's town related, certainly encouraged to use the official count town platforms to do that. Okay. And I think looking too on page three of this up at the top where it says that if you do post content to a personal page, especially like if you're talking about something that's going on at the town or venting about something that's going on at the town, you include the disclaimer that the views expressed on this account are my own and do not reflect the official position of the town of Wilson's Meals. So you're you're basically you you know you put it on there but everybody knows that that those are not necessarily the town's views. Those are your views as whoever you are on your personal page. Okay. Thank you. One other note about these. Um, we try to go through and we changed a a few of them, but there are still some places that talk about the coordination and authorization by the town clerk and it should say town administrator. I did talk with Emily. She does not want that responsibility. So, everywhere that it says clerk should say administrator and we will amend that that word throughout the policy before we post it.

We do we not have a policy that just says that that that that town employees are not going to do social media during work hours that are not going to what I'm sorry be on social media during work hours. So I don't think town has a policy that says that. So certainly some of these social media accounts would require an a town employee to work on unless designated to work on the town's social media pages. I I could be wrong, but I think there's something in the policy about personal, you know, engaging in personal pursuits on town time, but I I don't I don't recall. There is. It's very antiquated. I think it talks about just be making personal phone calls or doing personal handling personal business or something like that that it doesn't reference social media because our personnel policy needs to be updated. It was Yeah, I mean, you know, and that's what I was that's that's the reason I asked that question because I mean social media has exploded in the past what three years, five years maybe. Um, but you know, I just sit here thinking kind of what when Dave was talking is I mean I I think we have to have a policy in place. There's there's no question about that nowadays. You know, I I I often see on certain social media, not not not all of them because I'm not on all the platforms, but if somebody who knows way more than than you do or this town council does gets on the social media and expresses their their um

their opinion, trying to be nice and They say that we've purchased land as swamp, for example. Um, I don't respond. It's been pretty hard not to respond because, you know, to me, ignorance is is hard to ignore, but true. Um, but I don't I choose not to respond because I'm not going to get in a in a this and that for people who first of all don't live in the town and and second of all their post are are about as popular as as some diseases. But um I would just encourage any of us to to refrain from that. I think in the long run that'll whether it's staff or or us as council, but it it'll it'll go a long ways. I think if someone if someone writes on our personal page and they say, "Hey, what's what's the town policy regarding such and such?" I I don't want to be put into that that situation, do I refer them to to you? Do I say contact the town? Do I call Peter or what? Sure. I mean, just refer them back to the town, especially if they're posting on your personal page, right? So, move. We would need two, one for each policy. Yes, ma'am. First policy. Second on the first policy.

Yes. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Mhm. J Sharp, the one that comes and gives our um our yearly report. Yes, ma'am. No, Sherry. Sir, just this is a it's a little throwaway question, but if if we vote to approve this, we're approving it as written, correct? Yes. What if there's typos? Well, I can call that to their attention. I I I just found them on uh page one, paragraph one. Uh, second sentence, last word the with an exclamation mark. And one, two, three, four, five, six line down, the word aggregates got an exclamation mark after that. Seven, and the eighth line down, uh, the board basic has an exclamation mark after that. I didn't find any others, but obviously little typos, but and it's in the all three exclamation points are in the first paragraph. First paragraph. Yeah, three words. I'll have him change that. Okay. I didn't see any others, but okay. Somebody has fat fingers like me. I make I'll make a motion we approve the 24 2024 2025 audit contract for the town of Wilson's Mills as uh as amended for typos. All right.

Okay. I knew that was going to come up. I had to divide it like this because only the sewer and the master plan have only been have only had one budget amendment so far this year. But the general fund has actually had four. So I had to divide them out such as it is. Yes. Mhm. It's a sewer, not the It's not for the master plan. It's just for the sewer. It is for the sewer and the master plan. They're two different. I didn't realize that. But you can have you can have multiple funds on one amendment. One amendment. Okay. Okay. Yes. I mean, I do. Um, so if if I'm I I've tried to read through this and and try to understand as best my s mind can. So, we're decreasing $360. Correct. Correct. But we're increasing on the master plan 83,000. No. See, you got to stay with the same fund. Right up under there when you see the increase or the decrease of the public util Jooko public utilities. Right up under that is also the sewer fund, Tim. And you're decreasing $360 there. So, it equals it out. But then I'm looking under master plan

and then you got the master plan and you're increasing at $83,97 and and then you're going to um increase and decrease on the second page, which it all equals out to zero. But that's in accounting. Um, Miss Bolita, whenever you increase, you actually minus out. And so you take the 200,000 that you have there and you decrease it the 116,000 and the 80,000 and it comes out to zero. Because the increase on the f the 83,000 is a revenue item. Good. I make a motion we uh we approve the sewer and master plan budget amendment number two for the town of Wilson's Mills.

This is the final one for the gear. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Well, it won't zero them out. It'll just like take them out the deficit. Yeah, Lyanna, you've re reviewed these things. All right, then. I will say I make a motion to approve the budget amendment number four for the town of Wilson's Mills general fund. Thank you. Can I would just say this nothing major but um on the ordinance to amend um fiscal year 2425 go down June it go it says that uh regular session this 16th they uh June 2025 the town budget adopted on June 14th 20,274. Yeah, it's right above the the U. What page is this? It's uh it's page 7071 to 74. It's year 20,274.

When I read that Marth got a little worse, but um yeah, mayor or mayor counselor, do we need another um another motion to approve as amended with the typo? That that's a type. Did you want to go? Oh, okay. You didn't you have close session as as item number E before the open form there? It needs to be number number eight and the German's number nine, right? Okay. Thank you. make a motion. Uh we go into close session as per um general statute 143-318.11A as an atom 3. Consult with an attorney.