001e e e December 16th 2024 regular meeting of Union County Board of Commissioners to order at this time I would like to recognize commissioner balam for our invocation dear heavenly father Lord we just come to you tonight um seeking wisdom and guidance or we ask that and it is our prayer that our decisions will be pleasing in your sight where we enter into or as we're in the midst of the Christmas season Lord that we would all be um conscious of the U sacrifices that you've made and that we would all praise you and what we do and and Lord I just ask that you lead guide direct us in your will we thank you for your love your protection and your forgiveness all we know that all good things come from you and we
002are truly blessed so in Jesus's name I pray amen amen if everyone would please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance 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 the next item on the agenda is informal comments from the community we have a couple that signed up online and one in person the first person we have is Stephen wargan um I think I probably have something I need to give directions for first um before the speakers begin um each speaker must address the board from the lectern and begin their remarks by giving their name stating whether they are a resident of Union County and indicating the municipality in which they
003reside if any each each speaker will have three minutes to make remarks a tone may sound at the conclusion of your remarks a speaker may not yield any of his or her time to another speaker speakers may not discuss matters which are the subject of public hearings and they must be courteous in their language and presentation restatements or repetitive comments by the same speaker whe whether at the same or separate meetings may be ruled out of order and terminated by the chair personal attacks will not be tolerated speakers may leave written comments and or supporting documents if any with our clerk to the board so again we do have um a couple of speakers um we will start with Steph wargan good evening my name is Steve organ and I am a resident of Union
004County and I live in the Heritage South um subdivision of Indian Trail and um my topic is the sewer smell good to see everybody again you probably have been wondering where we've been right um for those new on the council on the on the board um we were here for last couple of years periodically talking about what is a severe problem we have in the uh Heritage South um sub and um the reason we stopped coming is frankly a show of good faith at our last meeting commissioner Merl you um put forth a vote and that initiated the pilot program and we left that meeting just pleased and wanted to say personally thank you for doing that um we decided I'm on the board in our neighborhood and it we were very adamant to people
005ought to leave you alone since you did this we don't need to occupy your meetings and just inundate you with as many as 50 60 70 people which we done in the past our thought was let this pilot program move forward and let's see where that goes John over at the water department has been outstanding I will tell you that he's worked with us he's been in constant communication with us um the infrastructure has been put in for the pilot program there's been a number of steps albeit they have been delayed on a multiple of occasions but we are moving in a for forward manner so to that we're really appreciative so why are we here now we understand that this is going to come to a conclusion at some point we think within the
006next 3 to four months at that point there should be strong evidence to whether the um water treatment um idea the solution provided by the water department could be effective unfortunately that's when the hard work starts because once that that is clearly determined to work let's assume positively it does then this board has to make a decision to vote on it we know budgets are coming up and know those conversations I do a lot of work in public sector so I know they're getting ready to gear up we hope this will be part of those conversations so we just wanted you to know that um we're here we haven't gone anywhere out of uh an effort to be respectful to this body we have not inundated you uh we look forward in this spring once
007we get these Solutions I'm sure John will be very communicative as to where that's going I'm going to leave on the following note uh any of the new Commissioners you will not be clearly as far down the road on this as many of the older Commissioners are we are going to email all the Commissioners and ask if we can have an audience a few of us just to bring you up to speed on everything that has happened prior to this state and we hope you'll allow us to meet with you on that I'll close by saying that um five years we've been at this and as you know we're a 55 plus community so you would have a lot of older folks in that community in those five years several of those folks are no
008longer with us it's unfortunate that the last several years of their life their quality of life was not what they expected please hear us when we tell you we need to get this resolved I know you do the best thing you can thank you for hearing me I appreciate it Merry Christmas folks chairman Commissioners attorneys Etc um my name is Ed green I live in Union County I live on the border of um Monroe and the Indian Trail I'm here to speak with regard to the senior nutrition program and the waiting list that they have the problem with that I've been involved with the program for two and a half years and um it's safe to say that I've seen um you know the joy the happiness that the our clients have when I um
009when I bring the meal to them um I have a primary route which is in Unionville and so that's out into the rural area and many of of the Farms that are just trying to survive and so you certainly see the benefit there but I have also done many routes in Indian Trail which is it's a different demographic but you know the problems are there as well and so um the fact that we have um a waiting list of people who we we really want to help that's the name of the program um it's a struggle for us to the the drivers who go out and you know they've made it their mission to serve others and yet they feel this um you know the irony of pushing back and saying well we can't serve
010anymore even though you're there to serve and you want to serve we can't um and that's a problem and it's it's been made aware to me that some of that's regarding money and we need to find a way to uh um you know put some more aside for these people who need it but the other point I wanted to make was as I said it's it's a it's almost a fully 100% volunteer program and so um in my one of my tasks with with our program is that I'm involved with our focus group and that's made up of the volunteer drivers to see if there's a way that we can um generate more interest and get more people involved to serve and it's not easy in the middle of the day or the middle of
011the morning to kind of stop what you're doing and go someplace and pick up food and then deliver it to so many houses and all that so it's hard to find people but in the past year we've made a a strong effort to do that and we've gone out to the Rotary Club and the Kanas and churches we've had a we have in the middle of a program now to notify churches that we have this need in this program and churches you know by by name pretty much one of serve um the people in the community and so we're appealing to that because of these efforts the the the short list that we've the long list that we used to have of looking for drivers each day um has shrunk Dr dramatically and so we've
012made that effort to get more people involved and they want to be involved and then they see that the numbers of meals that we're delivering is now ding when it we used to be six or seven or eight and now it's three and four and that's because we don't have enough funding to get give out more meals so we've taken care of of our part and our to provide you know the the force behind this program and we're just hoping that maybe you know we can find a way to put aside some more funds to help more people it's it's not only just senior nutrition and their food it's also senior wellness and well-being and so if mentally they're healthy and happy because they see people coming to the door to say hello and bring
013food we all we all gain so thank you for your understanding and hopefully you consider that thank you thank you for what you do Mr Green thank you welcome we had um another person sign up here tonight um Carolyn burough my name is Carolyn burough and I live in the Alton community and congratulations to the new members and all of the officers um I've been here before some people know that I continue to ask for the reopen the Shortline water program since 2022 there hasn't been anything done and there's not been any applications allowed since 2022 so it's that that's that's why I'm here that's why I'm asking to for the new people and I'll be glad to uh get some information to you and um I hope you have a very merry Christmas thank
014you the next item on our agenda is item 24-8 24 a public hearing regarding resoning petition for a PUD Amendment CZ 2024-the beorn Hansen senior planner for comments uh G me Madam chair do anyone happen to know the password for this computer I do not [Laughter] for there you go thank you okay gon Madam chair members of the board manager Matthews this is a resoning 2024 D z- cz- 008 called the dormy rezoning uh for the applicant um this is a conditional rezoning so there is a site plan associated with it it's actually not a rezoning it's implementing the Pud 6 rezoning which encompasses a lot of the area along Ray Road near the intersection of Tom short this is an undeveloped commercial portion um in front of a self storage facility opposite of the
015Kohls and so this is uh proposed to develop a 12,000 foot office building medical office more specifically so there's a site plan associated with the um application is for all office uses including medical office and there's a natural surface pedestrian trail that they want to build within a portion of the flood plane that would be allowed as long as it's natural surface and it and is committed to meet our unified development ordinance requirements so this is the actual site plan um again this is Ray Road this is the entrance to the um self storage facility behind it uh the building would be closer to Ray Road with the parking to the rear this area all to the map North is in the flood plane and there would be a little bit of on street parking
016along the the driveway and the Remer would be um back here to the west of the site itself the existing conditions again you can see it's a large undeveloped piece of land looking North on Ray Road it's already sidewalks curbing gutter installed looking South and immediately to the South there's a a residential neighborhood terms of development the area is vicinity map so again this is the parcel um the subdivision to the South is the one that we were just looking at on the previous map terms of environmental features again you have this large flood plane this is the 500-year flood plane so it's a little bit larger than what we regulate but it's it's illustrative to show that there is a lot of flood plane going through the area as well as a creek and
017they're going to detain the um storm water events as prescribed in our recently amended development standards so it is a little bit more stringent than what we previously would have required it's a 50-year storm instead of 25 doesn't mean it's double the intensity but it's a little bit bigger than what previously would have been required terms of Zoning for the area again you can see the the six which is if you see the legend on the left side the Pud six so this is already zoned for business to allow this office use this is just an implementation uh requirement to actually show the site plan associated with it and this is the same zoning designation that applies for the um undeveloped commercial property to the north as well as the Kohls to the south of
018Tom Short Road terms of Transportation there's no funded improvements in this immediate area this is expected to have a fairly low amount of traffic impact um a few hundred vehicles per day but the the other way of looking at it is that it also provides um Medical Services in closer proximity to Residents in the area so they could actually be making shorter trips to accomplish the same purpose um Ray Road has about 22,000 cars a day Tom short 7,000 cars a day but there are no funded improvements in the immediate area the land use plan does call for this area to be a commercial node uh the yellow is for single family residential which is what's already built and the commercial the community center small is it's what's shown at the intersection of Tom short
019and Ray this is consistent with that plan because it's commercial in nature the school system was not consulted for comments and Public Water and Sewer are available to the site public feedback at community meeting was required as a part of the rezoning process and was held in early October three residents attended and asked questions about the process for the rezoning and parking requirements no changes were made as a result of that meeting and we haven't received any additional um comments from the public since then uh we always reach out to municipalities if the rezoning is very close to their boundaries this is close to Marin and um they responded they don't have any comments about the the site plan or the proposed use so we always provide um pluses and negatives for any proposed rezoning
020um the negatives is that it would increase in prvious area immediately adjacent to a flood plane and um does add additional activity in the area so that would increase um the number of cars in the area turning movements in particular however this is consistent with the land use plan it's in in a urbanized part of the county where these types of uses are expected and um having uses like these in in proximity to residential areas could make it more convenient because it's a shorter drive and um the development of the specific site it shares access with an existing commercial use so that reduces the impact on Ray Road um so we recommend approval and the planning board or I'm sorry the land use board acting as the planning board um reviewed this in November and
021they also unanimously recommended approval citing the consistency with the adopted plan and The Limited traffic impacts of the proposed use so the applicant is here to provide any additional information that you may wish to hear otherwise I'm happy to answer any questions you may have does anyone have any questions no ma'am mam chair commissioner hams thank you ma'am um born um if you can go back to one of the maps that shows the proximity of this property to the resid IAL that'll work so um I guess my concern and this is one of the negatives that's listed here on the report uh the proposed use would increase impervious uh area immediately adjacent to a flood plane increasing the potential floating in the area um and I I believe that we've got agreement that um right
022now what's being planned is 50e Storm mitigation is that correct yes sir okay since the um since the applicant's here I would be curious to know if the applicant would be amendable to increasing the storm water mitigation due to the proximity of the residential area um here with this uh with this parcel that would that would be a question for them so if you want to call them up we can do so yeah if the applicant's here and wouldn't mind coming up good evening uh my name is Aaron ha I'm here on behalf of of dormy equity Partners this is Rob Taylor also with uh dormy Equity Partners so uh as a part of this development this the morning star uh development that that exists right there there there is a retaining wall that was
023designed to help address the the storm water issues and that's already in place um and did you have anything yeah no so when Morning Star stores built back behind there they accounted for that flood plane and built the retaining wall and elevated the so if you look at the site it's a pad level site already pread so what that has allowed for and our discussions is to ensure that there's that proper drop off in between where our site down into the flood plane to then account for uh some of that additional uh kind of runoff if you will so making sure that it's not going into the resident or then also having this being a medical site we've uh in terms of addressing that and ensuring that it all flow properly back into into that
024as part of that uh D also mentioned having that be that flood plane is a heavily densed kind of wooded area and what we wanted to do is just to make that a little bit more of a a little nicer nature like walking trail for the uh residents as well as the employees the medical that would be utilized in this and we wanted to help maybe quote unquote clean up that site into the flood plane a little bit so uh just to help ensure like exactly what you said I think it help to promote drainage and also that intersection if you're familiar with that Tom short railroad intersection just a lot of densely wooded overgrown shrub brush right there and so for the site that we control we want to help alleviate that and make
025a lot cleaner more natural type of site yeah so so with that retaining wall there with the storage unit facility you know how much I mean if we had to put a number on this I mean how much storm or you know what type of storm event would this be appropriate for are we talking about 50 or are we talking about 7 5 I mean do we have any kind of information on that because again my my concern here is it's not that I'm I'm I'm in opposition to your project but my concern here is is that I I don't want to have a negative impact on the current residents here in your backyard with flooding I'm trying to think if I think it flows to the north so the you know the the area
026you see it it it flows to the north towards m County the the issue of of flooding you know again this a 50-year storm we hear about 100e storms 500e storms I think last fall in the Wesley Chapel area for certain areas it was a Thousand-Year storm so what you're talking about is just how long the water is going to stay on site and they are going to have some detention for their water that accumulates as a part of that storm and then it'll get released East um but the floodway itself they like like um was said there's actually a wall that was built to create more developable land that's why the floodway goes around the building because they actually elevated that um I mean the fact that it's doing a 50-year storm there just
027between a 50 and 100 in an instance like this the fact that they're retaining it is what matters not so much that they're staying away from it um they're really isn't a significant difference in what you're going to get beyond what the 50-year storm is going to provide once you're beyond that it's so large um you know you look at the overall area that's been developed and the fact there really aren't any ponds anywhere else on this picture um tells you that it's it's pretty much already set in stone how this area is going to behave Madame clerk has anyone signed up to speak at the public hearing for this matter I'm not the clerk but no one has signed up and and ma'am i' do believe that the the team has some additional slides
028to prevent or to present that may help you okay great we that good evening so I again I think you're a little bit familiar with the site but to show again this is this is the site on the west side of Ray Road just south of the intersection with Tom Short Road the Morning Star self stor facility is is just here to the west of the site there's an MSA Swim Center over here as well this is the residential neighborhood um here's a here's an aerial shot of the same thing here's the Morning Star facility um and and this is uh you can see some of how it's built up above the flood plane there um there's the there's a private road here that goes along the the south of the site uh that that
029runs into Ray Road here are some visuals of the site this is looking uh from Ray Road toward the intersection with Tom short here's the facility here is uh a a six foot privacy fence um and here's the residential neighborhood that's to the south of of the site and here's the site itself as you can see uh undeveloped site here's here's some of that um you know brush that that Rob was telling you about here's here's a view down that private road you can see another good look at the at the fence here that already exists uh and this is where uh the building would be uh this is looking uh from the private road across the site back toward Ray Road and again you see the self storage facility on the left uh the
030uh as Bjorn showed you the the current Zoning for the site is PUD 6b2 um it this is not a resoning request it's a it's a a site plan and and building elevation approval um so that that's the amendment is is what the applicant is seeking uh it's a one-story 12,000 ft medical office and office building and again the site plan is here um again Ray Road running at this here's the private road and the fence to the residential neighborhood the Morning Star self storage facility um here's the the 12,000 ft one-story building the parking would be here uh and here's the natural surface walking trail um that we were talking about um here's some building elevations um just kind of 2D from from Ray Road from the parking lot uh but we also have
031some some renderings uh that that make it a little easier to see at least for me so this is sort of a a little bit of an aerial view from Ray Road uh looking here's the privacy fence and the and the private road so the Morning Star is not pictured but it would be back here so this is the the the view from Ray Road uh this is on the sidewalk on Ray Road and we'll just kind of walk around the building this is from uh the bottom of the the private road where it runs into Ray Road this is along the private road still along the private road uh and then this is from the parking lot with the the Morning Star sort of to your left and then uh from the parking lot
032and then again this is the the natural surface walking trail um and and Ray Road would be on your left there so again uh kind of an overview but but that's the site and and and can to see the put Amendment so thank you for your time and and let us know if there are any other questions we can answer ma'am yes did did I hear say there will be on street parking on the private road yes there are a couple spots go back to the you can see them here next to the next to the building okay and and then some uh these oak trees will be added uh along there and in the parking lot as well may I ask the uh approximate value of the building cost of the building there be
033taxable value how about that ballpark is fine approximately three to four million great and uh what do you estimate uh W with approval how long do you estimate construction time less than 12 months less than 12 months yeah thank you y thank you do you have tenants that would already lined up to occupy this or will you be seeking medical tenants um so both so we we do not have any formal commitments pending this it's it's hard to get anybody to commit pending this outcome so once this has its it's primarily going to be as as we've said at the community meeting it is highly likely that this is already existing Medical in the community that is out own right and has long wait times I'm also a resident of this community I live a
034mile from this project actually so this has a very personal component to us um and so through our through the fund I run the real estate we are we found this opportunity and said hey this is something that we think will serve us well uh it'll help expand these Medical Services unfortunately this area is in our opinion extremely light on Medical Services um to serve the existing community and there's just not a lot of expansion opportunity so um for this purpose I'll share that you know we're talking with several groups that are more in the pl me market just up the street about a half a mile um that you know they're in 3,000 square fet and they need five or or six so it's likely that we will take this 12,000 and probably split
035it into two and they have two 6,000 foot tenants of existing medical already in the community to help further serve the residents of the community nice yep excent okay thank you thank you we do not have speakers signed up for the public hearing are there is there anyone here tonight that wishes to speak but did not have a chance to sign up hearing none I will now close the public hearing next on the agenda is item 24- 862 Proclamation for cervical cancer awareness month in January 2025 I will recognize County Manager Brian Matthews for this item thank you madam chair um so this is um last year the board approved the proclamation last year of Miss Christy Chambers um did a presentation actually brought that to the board she was unable to attend tonight she
036is asking for the board to adopt the same Proclamation for the January 2025 um uh cervical cancer awareness month mon um and I'll try to answer questions if I can but this is a request from Miss Chambers for the board to consider that Proclamation yeah okay I'd like to make a motion that the board adopts the um Pro proclaiming January 2025 to be cervical cancer awareness month in Union County thank you any comments all those in favor say I I I None opposed thank you very much our next agenda item is 24- 843 service award recognition I will now recognize Julie broom our human resource director for this item good evening Commissioners we recently held our fourth quarter service award program and we're able to recognize several employees that reach service award Milestones uh there
037were about 61 recipients that we had for this quarter and we were able to recognize over half of those in the program personally the county service award program begins at 5 years of service and progresses in 5-year increments for this particular quarter we recognize 33 5-year recipients 11 10year recipients four 15year recipients 10 20year recipients one 25e recipient and two 30-year recipients this was a pretty large group for us and there were a lot of smiles and appreciation in the room for all of the dedication and commitment that these employees have shown to Union County uh we would like to share a short video with you uh this evening that captures some of those recognition moments unfortunately all of our employees can't attend these meetings so this gives an opportunity for you to see this
038information uh for friends and family members of these participants to see this information and of course their colleagues to join in in celebrating with them um I also want to thank the board members that were able to join us for this meeting and just let you all know that you have an open invitation anytime you want to join us for these programs that we do quarterly um again I'd like to extend our thanks and appreciation to all the employees for their service their dedication to our community a thanks to the public Communications team for coordinating the video and I hope you all enjoy thank you [Music] good morning good morning everyone and Welcome to our Q4 service award ceremony as you can tell we have a very large group today today we will be recognizing
039employees yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations thank you so much and I really appreciate you Tak care of us congratulations on five years these two gentlemen have 90 years of experience in the construction trade wrap your head around that for just a minute 45 years each it's it's mind boing I thank you very much for what you do it's great it's it's great to be recognized for your your efforts and uh uh the county does a great job with recognizing their employees it's inspiring to hear some of the stories uh so uh it's a great thing to do for morale my only regret is I didn't come to work for the county earlier in my career because uh the people are great uh they seem to uh care about their employees and uh
040uh they take good care of us so it's just a good environment to come to every [Music] day conratulations [Music] it's so wonderful to be able to work for an organization that truly put so much value on the the the folks that are truly serving the residents of Union County so it's it's very humbling and it's um affirming and it just really reiterates why we do what we [Applause] do we appreciate what in order to end the fire service there is a tradition after years you get a leather fire helmet so this is another gift we would like to give to [Applause] White definely it it really does feel like a sense of accomplishment I've been with the county for 30 years I started out with the county as a receptionist for the County manager
041and I've been able to grow and develop and when I came to the county I didn't have a college degree and the people that worked with me really pushed me and encouraged me to do that so along the way um I was able to to go through college and receive my bachelor's degree when I started I was 21 as a very um just shy person and with all the resources and people along the way encouraging me I've really flourished and now I'm a supervisor um which I never thought that I would be but with all with everyone in your corner and such a great place to work um I've been able to accomplish a [Applause] [Music] lot you I guess for me it's just I feel it's I've really been appreciated and feel like a
042part of the team when I say the team I'm talking about Union County government in general and it shows the appreciation that the work that's been put in by this the employees of the county um for me again I know I stress the word family but it does give a sense of family ABS with cohesiveness wow what a great turnout I mean it's it's amazing to see this many people come out and I'm going to support your co-workers and celebrate them 37 uh folks today I think that's one of our largest uh classes to celebrate all of our employees here um first off I want to thank you for coming second I want to thank our um our chairman and our vice chairman for coming today I believe uh Jr Ral has come to almost
043all of these if not all of these while he has been on the board and that's important he's coming to see and listen to you you and and and understand the impact you have on the county and the vice chairman couldn't stay he had to leave he had something to go but he has been to several of them and and I I appreciate that they come because that helps them make connections for the work you do so when they're making decisions about the county they understand the impact that that has on you as our employees um I heard one of the the folks one of the speakers say that that the some times you hear people say well you're lucky to work for the county and she said no the county is lucky to have
044you working for them and that is that is absolutely right we are so lucky to have every one of you working for the county because you are what makes this the best place to be you do have a servant heart and I want to say thank you very much I hope you have a great rest of your day [Music] well that was pretty awesome you madam chair um Miss broom or Mr Matthews specifically will we be invited or re by email or uh notified of the next quarterly to make sure we can attend how how exactly we be notified yes we'll we will send you those and put those on your calendars if you'd like excellent thank you absolutely thank you thank you thank you and I recognized someone sitting on our panel at an
045anniversary Mr Jason K and I was so shocked and stunned when I saw you on the video how many years I it it has been 5 years my pleasure of 5 years I won't say what it feels like it's north of 5 years years but I've been here for five well congratulations and thank you for the five years and we look forward to five five more or more more are there any motions regarding a request requested revisions or amendments to either the consent agenda or the business agenda uh Madam chair I have at least one and a question for the chair if I could I uh have a question about one of the items on the consent agenda which is not pertaining to the actual item but if I could be leave leave to just
046mention that rather than pull it from consent if that's okay it's item 24825 budget amendment County manager's office I would like to ask the uh County manager if he could arrange in a future meeting a presentation by the Strate stry and Innovation team to learn more about what they're doing who the people are involved what the the metrics are so if we could just um if you could arrange that presentation of some kind in a future meeting then that's really all I wanted on that item yeah uh I do have an addition to the business section of the agenda I would like the board to consider an item uh concerning the dissolution of the Monroe Union County Economic Development Commission and add this to the business portion of the agenda at the uh location at
047the pleasure of the chair okay um we will put that right um before we do um appointment of Commissioners to the board of committees boarding committees we'll do it right before that so that would be prior to item 24851 right thank you are there any any other amendments mam chair um yeah I'd like to make a motion that the U that we add consideration of a resolution in support of uh repeal or amendment of section 3K do1 of session law 2024-the the name it was resolution yep so resolution in support of repeal or amendment of section 3K period or do one of session law 2024-25 [Music] forward we are now at the business portion of our agenda the first item on business is item 24- 762 the opioid settlement funding Plan update I will recognize
048our consultant Miss Michelle Lancaster for an update to the board concerning this item thank you very much chair board members glad to be here welcome back thank you thank you very much I have three items that I'm going to be covering tonight so this is the the first item um that I'll be walking through there are three things that I've been working on since I've retired that um two of them that I'm I'm shifting my engagement to folks on staff or otherwise and we'll talk about that um and one that that I'm going to continue to work on I believe um so I'm going to start with opioids and I'm really want to provide an overview I'm going to give some background information here so that some of the new board members may not be
049as familiar with the opioid settlement this is something that the county engaged in in 2022 I think um I'll I'll try to provide as much detail as I think would be helpful to you to understand this and then if I'm always happy to answer any questions provide some of the initial um reports and presentations that were done that might help you understand this a little bit better um this is a a some information that frankly we've been working on like I said since 2022 um North Carolina entered into settlement with several other states I think everybody's aware of the Nationwide opioid crisis and North Carolina on the on its total is receiving a little more than 1.4 billion dollars over the next 18 years to tackle the opioid crisis from those settlements Union County will
050be receiving more than $17.7 million over that same time this has a very long Runway as you can see as I said this started in 2022 the expectation is this goes through 2038 um many of these funds were front loaded so there's a little more that the counties are receiving on the front end of this and then it kind of tapers off and gets some a more steady stream in the later years uh and the information that I'm sharing today is through the end of the fiscal year for the report reporting that was due to the Attorney General's office in October um the North Carolina County Commissioners Association really played a large role in these settlements and specifically working for counties to ensure that they receive these funds directly so 80% of the funds were
051coming back to counties so that they could use them in the communities um that were most affected by the opioid crisis counties who are responsible for law enforcement and many places Health and Human Services and the families that are that are impacted the most there have been several different settlements the largest of these were occurring in 2022 with additional settlements following in smaller amounts but they've all followed the same principles that were agreed to in the original in the original work I would add and and I'll probably say this a couple times as I'm talking about this this was very unusual and unique for counties this is very new counties had never been given this 18-year runway for something with money coming year over-year with very specific e um expectations and additionally this is not
052a space that counties had typically worked in so while there may have been Partnerships there were Partnerships that we had for Outside Agency funding there were some Human Service relationships the county itself didn't does not have staff who have been working in the opioid space um so we've really done a lot of work to I think build the program that that you have today this really provides for you U the the the programs that were funded so for board members who were here and then for for the newer board members there was a group of Community Partners that came together spent several weeks a couple of months really working on what a recommendation would look like there's a lot of guidance and that continues to grow on how these funds need to be used there's
053a lot of expectation on how these are used and so this group along with County staff put together recommendations that then came to the board for ultimate action on the things that should be funded and what you see here are the programs that were funded and the amounts that they were funded at the recommend for program funding was for a three-year funding cycle again that's slightly unique to what counties typically would do um when you have an annual budget cycle These funds go into special Revenue funds so we're able to use them year after year a little bit differently um we also um it was the strong recommendation from The Advisory Group that provided the recommendation that we wanted the county to invest in things for a longer period of time to see what worked
054to give it some time to see where that investment was made and where you felt like you were actually seeing a different so that when you make those future um decisions about funding that you're doing that Based on data and so there's a lot of data that's been collected started to be collected that you should expect to see as this as this first three-year trunch ends and so um Wing University is providing some oversight it's actually through Dr Shanta dubet who is a public health professor at wingit with 25 years of experience in the substance use area she is leading the work group and leading the data collection work that's happening she's working with the logic models with all of the programs partnering with staff to ensure that you're getting the bang for the bug
055that you're looking for um the other thing that I would add is even for the nonprofits who work in this space I think what they're seeing and what we what we hoped we would see is while we know anecdotally they're doing really great work in the community the work that they're doing doesn't allow them to sit and really think about what are the measures that we want to have what do we want to take to other funders that might want to invest in us so they really get the benefit of this resource now because of the funding from the opioid settlement so that you can can see how they can grow their work their good work that they're doing in the community um the next one treatment courts doc um judge hux and her team
056have started a um a family treatment Court they also plan to use these funds to start a veterans treatment court and so they have hit the ground running with that work and the family treatment Court um now oone distribution is for the Human Services Group um Public Health to distribute nxone is needed they have not spent any of those funds to date they are still using State funds for Noone and and those would really be used the These funds would be used for partner agencies who perhaps don't have other mechanisms for getting ncks on making sure that they have that in place um bridge to recovery is a local 30-day treatment program here in Monroe and and they do good work ground 40 many of you are probably very familiar with their six-month program for
057men coming out of prison and homelessness and they they do great work Cameron's House of Hope is working with kids who have been affected by substance use and Mike witson and what he started there then New Beginnings is doing medically assisted um treatment for folks who want to use that to get themselves off of their their opioid addiction and then there's a partnership with ucps and the sheriff's office for a pilot program that got added that they have started um in two of the School clusters and then you can see the funding there that goes with those for the three years if you don't mind me um interrupt here real quick what are the two clusters for ucps it is Porter Ridge and Sun Valley and it's the middle and high schools so four schools
058gotcha thank you mam chair it it's an anti vaping program I believe right it is a harm reduction program it includes vaping and drug use and it's a whole an evidence-based program that they are that they are implementing in those four schools um Michelle so I'm certainly not um not an expert on opioids um but is the concentration on vaping and how does that pertain to opioid abuse no so it's a I mean so I'm not an expert either so and there may be some people in here who have better answers to that but I think we know that there's some Gateway activities there for students and so you're really trying to stop that you know that even even starting those behaviors that then lead them to use other substances and again what they're using
059in the schools is an evidence-based program that's used in in other parts of the country and they're doing it as a pilot to see in those clusters those two my understanding from um Mr mcra at ucps is that those um leaders at those schools were really anxious to get something in place they felt like they had some issues particularly with vaping that they were having a hard time getting their arms around how they're dealing with that in terms of um discipline in the school and so they want to see if if they use this here do we see some outcomes again they're working with Dr dubet and the team to come up with performance measures so they'll be measuring things that you'll be able to look at and see if they're having the impact that
060they hope to have so so at this point we don't have data about you know how many folks are enrolled or no they just started this is you'll remember that this was a a later ad to the program so I actually talked to Jerry today they have just started but they've been meeting with Dr dubet and the team and so there starting that data collection and so you should start I think you this time next year you'll be able to see the data that they've started to collect thank you thank you some of the key Milestones that it's actually a really good segue that that all the programs again with ucps coming along a little bit later so they're just getting started in this but working on metrics logic models they've got those completed using
061Red Cap which is their um data collection system it's a hippoc compliant research electronic data capture system um and so they're collecting the data two quarters worth of data have been collected from everybody but ucps in that program um they have started their initial data visualizations so that there will be a dashboard that folks will be able to access and I'll show you a sample of one of those um we've also completed the state reporting that's required and I would add that it's fairly extensive expectations from the Attorney General's office on the reporting and we also this the funding here um was captured by single audit so we also went through the audit um with the the County's Auditors and and provided them with quite a bit of information as they were doing that work
062can I ask a question um if you can go back one slide um the state reporting you said that's been completed yes have we seen any of that has that been sent to the board it was not sent to the board I don't believe but we can do that please absolutely thank you m this again is just an illustration um of one of the socio demographic slides that they've started putting together this work is being completed and so we'll make sure that you get a link to the website so that you can look at the dashboard data as it's there so you'll have that to access and the additional information um I I think what they're putting together is is really well done and impressive to see the work that they've put in and and
063again that the partner agencies have have really Embrace this and wanting to make sure that they're getting good measures and putting things together uh that make sense for the work that they're doing and for the investment that the county is going to be making with these funds in the community so tonight um I mentioned that this there there are few things that I'm transitioning and this is one of one of the projects that I'm transitioning working to transition to staff and so the recommendation from staff and myself is to add an opioid settlement program coordinator strategy analyst to the County strategy and Innovation team that person will manage the work group work the reporting requirements and the community engagement that needs to occur in this space um this will allow the county to develop some
064in-house expertise in this area that will continue to be funded through settlement funds through 2038 you know as I mentioned earlier this is not work that Counties have traditionally done so we don't really have people on staff who have worked in this space um as their primary function and so I think adding somebody to that team and and commissioner asked to get a report from them I think that that's the right team for them to be connected to and um and if you have any questions about that position I think Clayton can help answer those as well and how that will fit and so the action um you would be taking is to receive the information on the opioid settlement Plan update the paying classification plan to include a new job classification of opioid settlement
065program coordinator strategy analyst pay grade M authorized the addition of one FTE in the county manager's office for the job classification of program coordinator strategy an analyst sorry and also adopt a budget amendment number 18 as I mentioned at the beginning there are some smaller settlements that continue to come through and so there's one that's coming through for fy2 in the amount of 86,7 712 and so this is that fourth action that is budget amendment 18 the plan is to utilize those funds for the new FTE and the additional audit testing that was required that cost $5,000 to do that single audit work um in the next year you should expect to see after you get the person on staff um the additional reporting we'll also make sure that you see the reporting that's already
066been completed the fin finalization of the dashboard info additional engagement with the funded partners and the development of recommendations for the next allocation of funds that should be coming um in 25 and 26 I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any so the opioid settlement coordinator Position will be funded from the proceeds of correct the settlement correct thank you and that position would be only I mean it's not a forever position that would eventually have to be picked up by the county um when the when the opioid funds run out or whatever that position would be would end also correct that is that that is certainly um I think what is anticipated the board can always make a decision to continue a program if they want to but it's our it it it's
067our opinion that when the program and the funding ends then the position would end and go away the board could make the decision not to do that in the future and again this has such a long Runway 2038 I hope that you're all here in 2038 I'm not sure if the rest of these folks are going to be here in 2038 talk about this program um what I would add I think I agree with Brian I think what you could also expect is the folks who are working on this if there are things that are working that they may look for additional funding sources you know over that period of time that could backfill that um but you do have funding through 2038 so that's you know pretty pretty darn long time for Grant if
068you what you would typically think of as a grant funding source M chair um Michelle and and maybe Clayton um as far is the auditing cost that is required with this settlement am I understanding that correctly so it reached a it reached a dollar threshold that made it a requirement of the of single audit okay and I'm I'm sorry who makes this requirement is this so is this part of the settlement or is government commission I believe is actually who makes that requirement okay all right and and if we can go back to the full-time employee um for just a second here so so if I understand correct correctly this is over the course of 18 years correct and we're already three years in so we're looking at 15 years um that we would be
069you know essentially assuming another full-time employee and would this full-time what what would be the plan here would this full-time employee let report up to our assistant County Manager uh the deputy or would would that be under Superion under the manager's office it would report to one of our assistant County managers and then ultimately to me okay and and so the expectation of this individual would be then to kind of pick up the management of this program uh would be to um essentially facilitate the expenditures of the money being received from the settlement correct um look for other opportunities with other settlements am I understanding that correctly yes I I think you know if you'll remember you know when we came so we had you know a large group that met for quite a while
070to come up with recommendations you're going to need somebody to facilitate that in an on an ongoing basis even I mean you could do this every three years you may decide you want to fund every year I mean that's going to be the board's the board's decision but I think you need what this person would be expected to do is really manage all of those pieces the relationship with the folks in the community the relationship at the state so the State Association of County Commissioners receed some funding in this area too to provide guidance and support for the reporting and all the the things that are expected after receiving these settlements so somebody who can engage with those folks to do that um also I think you know I've gotten a lot of a modest
071amount but several folks ask about well you know this didn't fund all the nonprofits that are working in opioid use all the programs and there are probably some other good ones out there that could be funded you know having somebody who can engage and vet and and really you know get more involved in that part of the community work again I'm I'm like a broken Rec on this but this is just not something that you have County staff who have been immersed in this this it's not how substance use and Behavioral Health has been managed across the state those things have really been managed differently and outside of local government and so bringing this in now and again with this expectation that for 18 years you're going to be asked to make these decisions about
072how to spend this money in this space having somebody who can be your expert and and that you can have some confidence in in you know what you're doing as you spend those dollars where would this person be located or what what building at this point in time I believe that uh they would be at our patent office uh which is where strategy and Innovation um which reports to the county manager's office so they would be in our what's our our patent building is where they would be located okay okay mam chair go ahead um so just for clarification we don't feel like we have the inhouse resources to do this function currently that that would be my opinion yes sir okay as part of your I'm sorry were you finished yeah as part of
073your presentation you mentioned the groups and the funding they would receive but I would like more information on this specific programs they intend to or how they're going to use the money and I would also like to know the time frame which the board will be updated on uh where things stand rather than just once a year plus I'd also like to know the metrics that will be used to measure the effectiveness of how each group is using that funding to see maybe in year three we we found one approach was not effective and make the decision to divert those funds somewhere else or add it to an existing organization getting funding because that seems to have the biggest bang for the buck so I'm interested in knowing how we're going to be receive over
074uh what periods information on the effectiveness of the program and how the money is actually being spent yeah and we can absolutely we can make sure that you get that I do want to make sure that I was C I don't know that I was clear about this those the funding for this was already approved by the board those allocations so this started about a year ago the work started with the two quarters of data collection that I mentioned in the key metrics but we will get you all that and I'll get you the initial reports too because I think that'll help kind of inform you about all those decisions that were made back in 2022 and 2023 to get to this point and then you should expect that um 25 26 you should be
075asked to make additional decisions about how those funds are used and that you're asking the exact right questions what were the data that were collected what were the results and that's really what the team is is building out right now and exactly how each group that's receiving the funding is using that absolutely for instant ground 40 let's and I'm just using example don't feel like I'm I'm uh singling you all out but if they use that say because they need to upfit one of their facilities to be able to handle more clients that's where half the money's going things like that rather than a little more in depth than just saying this group is getting this amount of money absolutely so there is an action requested so um with that being said I will make
076a motion to receive information on the County's opioid settlement Plan update the pay and classification plan to include a new job classification as follows an opioid settlement program coordinator or strategy analyst with a pay grade M authorize the addition of one full-time equivalency FTE in the county manager's office for the following job classification one opioid settlement program coordinator or strategy analyst and for adopt budget amendment number 18 are there any questions comments from the board Madam chair yes so my my only heartburn with this uh action being requested is the hiring of of a new full-time employee you know that's that's my that's my reservation with this um you know I I mean I was on the board obviously when we made the decisions about where to allocate the money and so you know I
077understand you know why we're doing what we're doing with the funds um however my concern is is that you know we're we're hiring someone um to do essentially something that that I maybe I'm missing the mark maybe I'm not understanding the the the full details here but but we're hiring someone to essentially do something that that I think that we have the ability to do inhouse um you know we've got a fully staff management team and and I think that you know this is something that you know maybe we can divvy up responsibilities maybe we can have you know multiple people doing multiple things here but I don't know that it merits the addition of a full-time employee and so um if that is you know if that is uh a part of the motion
078then I'll have to vote no so I would like to ask the county manager do we have staff that can divy up the responsibilities to oversee uh Michelle Brian correct me if I'm wrong I think Union County has received $9 million in one settlement um with the opioid we've received a little less than 4 million total to date but you're going to you'll be getting money every year until you get to that 17 million and it may grow with additional settlements so the funds for the motion are from the or will be yes ma' used not from the taxpayer dollars Union County it's going to be you know this position is going to be funded through the money we're receiving um so I guess my question is to the county manager do we have current
079employees that can divvy up the responsibilities to oversee all of this opioid money being sent to the county um do you have someone on staff that can um manage this opioid settlement well could I take that one step step further before you answer that um perhaps you could provide more specific functions for that position and that might help us understand that this justifies a dedicated individual could you as specific as possible could you lay out the the job responsibilities of this position I think Madam Madam chair if I could um we looked at multiple jurisdictions um and the way they did this was they added a position to specifically oversee this um we looked at multiple jurisdictions and we actually built our job description based on those other job descriptions that we got from all
080these other counties that we looked at so I can just read through some of these um develops and monitors and reports on the opioid settlement programs budget expenditures and compliance with state and federal guidelines monitors and reports on the impact of opioid settlement program initiatives ensuring alignment with Community needs and goals continuously Audits and evaluates opioid settlement program and other program metrics outcomes and recommends improvements Based on data and stakeholder feedback oversees contracts with Opa provider agencies ensuring proper use of funds and evaluating program Effectiveness facilitate facilitates Community engagement to encourage public education and support answering questions connecting individuals and sharing resources and information regarding opioid funding coordinates the County's opioid Settlement workg Group including scheduling meetings developing agendas and maintaining meeting summaries so those are some of the specific job duties that um this
081individual will be doing and again we mirrored that off of what other counties are doing also want to I want to keep men you to keep in mind is that the the initial um request for wingit was to help us with data acquisition it is not expected that we are going to continue with their services permanently so all of that work is going to have to migrate to the county all the all the data all the um getting the data uh reviewing it providing those reports is going to be a function of what we have to do uh so just keep that in mind as well it it's ultimately we're going to own the entire program we're not going to be farming it out over time so the funding for Wing at University will go
082away because of the data collection responsib we we won't be funding them them will be have that money will come back into whatever you Fund in the program okay so what what exact skill sets are you looking for in the individual to fill this position is it is it an accounting background is it a working with um settlements such as this what what are you looking for in the ideal candidate to fill this position I think somebody who understands grants management although this is not technically a grant it operates like one so somebody who has that somebody who has skills in reporting and connecting with the state understanding their systems uh as well as understanding data analysis Trend analysis um understanding all of those things which is why this is sort of a natural fit
083with strategy Innovation because that's what our analysts do internally for our departments is they do some of this type of work so a motion is on the floor um are there any other questions yes what if the salary for pay grade M uh Market or midpoint is about 91,000 91,000 we get 86,000 the first year that I want you we get we have almost $4 million they're just taking the 86 million and adding it to it we we have over $4 million that we've received to date so I don't want anyone to think that we're behind we actually have more than enough to cover the program plus additional I have a question so last year wingit university got over $500,000 to collect data correct for three years for years all those programs are funded for
084three years even still at $91,000 what we're paying we paid them over a half a million dollars well you didn't just pay them to collect data it was actually to build the system so it's building the entire system from the ground up so we didn't have a system okay so they're building the system and collecting the data and I just want to clarify Union County is not funding this this money came to Union County because of Union County's need um because of our opioid instances oh no understand that completely still funds going we need to be responsible with these I just wanted to be clear that we're not funding this it is you know the fact that Union County has an opioid problem and so in the settlement Union County received these dollars to help
085remediate adults kids that are you know um you know consequences of adult behaviors and you know find a way to treat the adults and take care of the children while the adults are um being helped Madam chairman um I Michelle said this and I and I I just wanted you're asking the right questions U keep in mind and she the counties don't do this kind of work this is not something that is normally within our function uh so we were starting from scratch and having to figure out how to actually put a program in place um it is anticipated that we will wean ourselves off of these outside um entities and bring this inhouse obviously we will still have to fund bridg Authority I mean um bridg recovery those types of agencies but we will
086ultimately be responsible for reporting managing all of those aspects but we didn't know how to start a program we've never done this before so that was the reason we work with wing getting some of these other partners is to start the program I'll just share that this is reminiscent to me when Union County Public Schools received $27 million in grant funding and we had to create positions to oversee that $27 million Grant fund and when that Grant ended that position Ended as well which is why I asked the question I asked earlier you know this position will end when the money ends so um I just thought I would share that with you um with our experience with you know large amounts of money coming to us are there any other questions or comments okay
087so we um I did make the motion all those in favor of the motion as listed in the agenda say I I I all those opposed okay motion fails all right so um I do I do need to understand something I I there are still things that we will obviously need to do so the budget amendment is still related to funds that we're receiving so keep that in mind uh whether you approve the position or not it sounds like the board is not going to there are that at least at a minimum needs to be done uh to receive those funds so if the board could could at least consider accepting the funds as far as the budget amendment goes that would be I'd appreciate that well I I would say that um Commissioners that
088were that voted no perhaps uh if you would recommend a motion that you feel comfortable in supporting so we can accept the funds or whatever objections you might have if they can be addressed in an alternative motion Mr manager are you suggesting that you need a motion at least to accept the fund and that was my understanding for the budget amendment okay yes mam chair you're talking about budget amendment 18 yes that's correct yes yeah so so again you know my concern was the addition of the full-time employee uh I don't have a problem with adopting the budget amendment number 18 so I'll make the motion that we adopt budget amendment number 18 qu question in add adopting in the motion to adopt that budget amendment does that include the allocation for the U uh
089position in question no it's my understanding that that that's the board's already said no to that so this is really just receive those funds it goes into the opioid program we'll have to figure out how we manage that okay do the Commissioners have available a copy of budget amendment 18 to look at at this time um you you may want to look at a copy of that the version that I'm looking for at budget amendment 18 uh simply uh allocates revenue of 86677 and produces operating revenue of 86677 all of which is connected to that position it then that's the case and we'll make sure we bring back a different budget amendment I I wasn't sure that it was specific to the position but if it's if it is then we'll bring back a different
090budget amendment yeah I'm just picking up the discussion and what the manager needed as well we may want to tailor something to that that sure I appreciate the clarification thank you okay thank you very much okay so mechanically what happens in in not adopting a budget amendment does that mean the money's just sitting somewhere and we're not able to fund these organizations until we have a new budget amendment that keep in mind that we've already received a very large amount and and so this was just additional funding we received so no it it's not it's it's not going to hold anything up the so these programs are this distribution is already in place correct funding is already going out that's correct yes sir all right M Madam chair um for the record I'll resend my
091motion okay thank you the next item on our agenda is item 24823 south pedmont regional autopsy Center update I will again recognize our consultant Michelle Lancaster for an update to the board concerning this item thank you very much Madam chair this one I'm not asking for any action on so this is just providing you information on a pretty big project for the county that many of you may have heard from heard about the south pedmont regional autopsy Center or the sprack um to give again some background on this and I'll provide some context here the state has provided funding for a um a capital expenditure for a new Regional autopsy Center in Union County as well as some operational funds which I'll I'll get into more specifics about that um medical examiner services in North
092Carolina is is incredibly complex I would say it's pretty complicated um operation the state has a chief medical examiner Who currently her name is Dr Michelle aurelus who works in the department of M of Health and Human Services the division of Public Health there are also locations in the state that provide assistance to the state to ensure that medical examiner services are carried out throughout the state I'm very familiar with the meinberg office that is one of the offices I worked in meinberg before I came to Union County and for a a period of my career that was part of my responsibility to to oversee that function and for about 20 years the meinberg office had served as a regional facility and through a contract with the state providing Regional autopsy Services of which Union
093happened to be a part of that until 2023 um and it was along with Anson and U cabis Union they also provide servic to Gaston County and Cleveland County those counties still receive services from mecklinburg um I also just want everybody to to kind of have a frame of reference that all deaths that occur in in the state do not result in an autopsy specifically suspicious deaths deaths of children those would require autopsies there's some investigation that happens at times to make sure that that bodies are autopsy that need to even with this new Regional Center um so in in like I said in 20 202 or 22 was I think when they made the decision that mecklinburg was going to cut anen Union in cabis and so at the time I was still working
094with the county obviously at that time um this was something that we a few things when we found out about it that were problematic I think from from the county perspective one was that we didn't find out about it until about 3 weeks before it was actually going to occur and the move was going to mean that bodies autopsied for Union Anon and cabis were going to now be relocated to Raleigh for that function and so we found out about that we expressed our concern specifically for law enforcement while they're not the majority of cases you know every case is not a a law enforcement jurisdiction case but many of them are and lots of times detectives or officers want to witness the autopsy that's happening so moving from doing that in mecklinburg County to
095Raleigh and then working with the making sure that you schedule that at the right time we knew was going to be problematic we also knew that um that the state had a waiting list for doing autopsies they have had a problem in the past and I think continue to have hiring issues uh for hiring forensic pathologist and so timeliness was something that we were concerned about not only for law enforcement but also just for community members who might have a death that has to have an autopsy and they need closure and want that and so we were concerned about that so we reached out to the state we frankly didn't get a lot of response um except for you know to our concern except for that our bodies now be taken to to um Raleigh
096and so from there we actually asked the board to ask for a legislative item from that for that Year's legislative agenda from the delegation to support a regional or a local solution to that problem um I would say that um I believe that the delegation was very supportive although not very promising I think they thought that this was going to be a pretty big mountain to climb to to change a system that is pretty entrenched the way the me system is in the of North Carolina so um we made that request our board members um made that request our law enforcement Partners helped uh plead that case and we actually were successful um and received funding of $20 million in capital funding from the state to build a facility and then $2 million in recurring
097operational funds um along with that however our original ask was to take care of Union Anson and cabis because those were the three that were immediately impacted and as things can sometimes happen in Raleigh um it got tweaked a bit and you see the the list here that became the south pedmont regional autopsy Center Nine counties Union Anson cabis Montgomery Rowan Stanley Moore Richmond and Gaston uh the dates that are beside these are dates that we asked the general assembly during this most recent session which I'll talk about in my next item um to give us some flexibility um the state had an interpretation of the original U language in the legislation that we would not open up our facility until we were ready to take all nine counties um I believed we believed that
098doing a phased approach made sense and that we could potentially find a short-term solution before there was a long-term facility built and so we began to work on that and we got support to give us that flexibility and so these dates are estimated dates that we actually provided but we also got language that gives us flexibility if we're not ready to take those counties we have flexibility and and when we can do that and how we can make that happen um tomorrow at two at 5:00 we will be able to start taking Union County autopsies specifically and so we've really worked the this entire last 12 months on getting to this point um as I already mentioned the first two things there about mecklinburg and that relationship and how that worked um we you know
099began to find a local solution we received these These funds and then we've had this long road of getting contracts with the state the last of which you actually adopted at your December 2nd meeting um for individual autopsy fees um the way those are paid if a a person without getting we in the weeds but if a the county of residence from where a person dies has to pay a portion of a $5,800 fee and then the state pays the remaining portion of that fee to the place that does the autopsy and so um I I'll also give you some numbers in just a second so you can kind of see the what we're talking about in terms of of volume for all these counties the most recent data that we have the current fee
100is $5,800 per autopsy so the county of residents pays $3,625 and the state pays $2,175 and so like I said tomorrow we're going to be ready to start taking Union County autopsies and um this is something that we've really worked diligently um the the temporary location that we found is at Union County uh atrium at the Monroe facility that hospital actually has a morg it was built it was a county hospital that has a morg that really hasn't been used for many years except for for body storage it's actually in really good shape for the purposes that we need we have identified a forensic pathologist who is ready to start working I'll tell you a little bit about him in just a minute um and we've spent a lot of time with the hospital I
101I really want to thank those folks Denise white and Michael Jordan for their commitment to to f to finding a short-term solution which will probably be a few years to use their facility and really partner with us for something that's important to the community this data death data that I'm able to get has a a lag which is why this is 2022 but this gives you some idea of the magnitude of the number of cases so for Union at the bottom while in 2022 there were 1,800 more than 1,00 deaths in the county only 700 of those were autopsi I mean 70 sorry and so you can see that it's you about one every couple of weeks um and so we're going to get this operation up and started and really learn from those cases
102with um with our physician that we have who is on board to start those Dr pret and are we ready to do that tomorrow and the answer to that is yes for in short term we have our location identified that's really what you need and then you need a forensic pathologist and as I mentioned one of the issues that we were concerned about originally with Raleigh is that forensic Pathologists are incredibly difficult to find and recruit um it's not a large pipeline for one thing and the ones that are in the pipeline can really set where they go and where they want to work and so we're fortunate that Dr pette Who lives in Charlotte currently Works in meinberg County he actually grew up here in Union County has done work for the state office
103has done some work down at ECU where they have a facility is really excited about the opportunity to build this facility and work with Union County and and building this Regional presence that is unique frankly to the rest of the State uh the funding model is unique what the state is providing as well as the kind of nine count region that has come together and is prescribed by law he is a forensic pathologist again with extensive experience um we also Union County is home to the former uh chief medical examiner for meinberg Dr Mike Sullivan who has assisted um Jonathan with really looking at facilities thinking about what this would look like thinking about processes um Dr pette and I have spent time with law enforcement the da um a a lot of time with
104the state kind of ironing out what this is going to look like going forward and so we're all I think excited I said I'm actually I want to see the first autopsy and that's not like a fun thing to do but I've worked really hard and I want to see this thing happen um and he's he's ready ready to hit the ground running um and so what's next and so we'll have our Union County cases we'll be able to start I think we have a good process everybody's been informed we have really good local medical examiners I mentioned at the beginning that the system is complex somewhat complicated so there's the chief medical examiner their forensic pathologist who do the autopsy the actual autopsy work then there are local medical um examiners in every County
105that are appointed by the state there are nurses Nurse Practitioners dentists EMTs um we here have mainly nurses Nurse practition and EMTs and we're very fortunate that our local medical examiners actually many of them have been doing this for quite a long time and they're they're very seasoned very built into the system understand Union County very well and and they are so on board and excited about this getting started and so over the next year what we will begin to do simultaneous really with starting Union County is start with Anson and cabar us reach out to their law enforcement their folks who are doing body transport their local medical examiners we don't have all those relationships yet but starting to build those figure out how they operate currently how can we replicate that as close
106as possible to fit with what we think will work with this Regional Center and then start taking their cases as well um facility coordination with staff and the work that facilities will be doing in the long-term location which um I think is going to be located on 74 by the the sheriff's office um and and helping inform that and then doing again this kind of is a theme with the state there's a lot of required reporting um because this is still a state function everything that we do operates under the jurisdiction of the chief medical examiner and making sure that we're getting those reporting uh requirements for all the work that we're doing here in that space and with that um that was a really high level happy to spend any time answering questions um
107and spending time out outside of this venue to to talk more with folks and introduce you to Dr pette if you would like that oh is he here he's not here but we we'll get him here he was not able to come tonight cuz we have been working on this for a good two years and I just want to say uh thank you Michelle um because I remember um getting the cause a couple of years ago when we were first on the board when it it felt like overnight meinberg County dropped us and all of a sudden we had no place um to go for autopsies other than uh transporting all the way to Raleigh and then our law enforcement not being able to hop in the car and be at the autopsy when they
108got the phone call um you know they couldn't be there in in you know a three-hour drive to witness the autopsy and um and one thing that what that I also wanted to add on was you we had a contract with a local funeral home to transport the bodies um and and store the bodies Union County residents um you know so we had this local funeral home that would go to mecklinburg you know take care of the bodies for us and all of a sudden now we're asking them to transport the bodies 3 hours to Raleigh so it affected a local business um that I'm so glad you mentioned that partnered with Holland funeral service Jonathan Holland if you know him he's a great partner has been a great partner in this space has hung
109in there his facil is right across from the hospital he does provide storage and transportation we partner with other funeral homes as well he does the majority of that work and has really been committed to that and and you know working through this you know having to go up and down and and that the money that he gets paid for that is actually prescribed by Statute it is not a large sum of money um that they get and and so they have really been committ and and it has been a a long journey here but I think we're in a a really good space for going forward so I you know I just wanted to you know remember that you know because this was a crisis you know for all of these counties especially Union
110County and if it was your loved one that needed an autopsy and there were it was a backlog in Raleigh just imagine you know a Union County family not really knowing how they could lay their family member to rest and honor their loved one and um it it was it was a it was a problem and I just want to thank um Sheriff Kathy Tony Underwood um Michelle all of our staff that when you know when we went to our state representatives we did not get hopeful information and um because Michelle did have contacts over in meinberg county and new Dr pret which you know his expertise and his licenses um would be exactly what we needed if we were able to do this right here in Union ca County and um so I just
111want to say thank you and share that with the rest of the board this was a crisis it was a problem um and I'm I'm happy that we were able to get this done in two years and not five or 10 years thank you any other any questions yes Mr sides um uh on your timeline will we be able to handle any other counties besides Union at the current Atrium facility yes yes Dr perette believes so I mean we want to we want to spend some time with just the union cases to see you know again our volume data has got some age on it so we want to make sure we're not getting in over our head but and just last week he I mean I think we'll be able to take Anson and
112cabis pretty soon and the facility can accommodate a lot the outlier really is Gaston and for a couple of reasons actually the number of cases is is a huge is they're just an outlier in the number of cases um but they also are continuing to get their services at meinberg so they have a more convenient location right now and so we've been intentional we have let them know I I've talked to their manager's office a couple of times as we were working through this that they would be expected to come on board when a new facility is open because of those things and they understand that their legislators understand that that they would be expected to come on when we had a new facility because we wouldn't be able to accommodate them in in the
113temporary location okay can you uh give us the up-to-date status of the new facility and the timeline for its completion and activation So currently we have both the design and the construction manager at risk contract or Scopes out to bid right now submissions are um due in January and we expect um selection in February at some point so I think the the timeline on that is about um roughly a year or so for design and then a couple years for construction so we're looking three years that's right plus before we'll actually start to open for business okay mam chair yes so um first of all Michelle I I don't know that I share your enthusiasm for wanting to see the autopsy no I know I don't blame you but um but yeah it is um
114it is good that you know we're starting um you know doing Union County autopsies on Tuesday so uh I just had a real quick question regarding the reporting yes so um you had a bullet there about require reporting um are we talking about like medical reporting up to the state is that what there's a little bit of there's a little bit of Bo yes so Dr pet will have certain reports that are required as you would imagine for every autopsy that have to go up then we have monthly reporting requirements we also have requirements on the funding that's coming for the capital expenditure so we've got lots of State expectations and the operational funds that are coming that we would need to report so monthly quarterly and annually reporting for these these dollars okay and
115uh final question about Gaston you said that was an outlier and and I'm sure you probably had numbers up there um yeah thank you wow could you share that with with the board yes keep in mind this is 2022 yeah I I my my my understanding is that the numbers haven't gone down so I will I have tried to get the 23 data as soon as they have that they'll give it to me but I'll let you have this data as well you're welcome to this I mean I'll say that more County and Rowan County surprise me compared to their population so um but those are total deaths not not number of autopsies but still you know it could be a predictor of needing more in the future I'm not sure and and as far
116as um like Gaston's Rel relationship there with meinberg so they're they're obviously tied in there with meinberg doing um medical examination but it's I guess I guess where I'm going is we see possibility there where meinberg can't handle the case load and and we expect to have some spill over from Gaston is that what you were alluding to I mean we we will get Gaston Gaston is a part of our non count region eventually they will be a part of this this Regional Center and they actually requested that so that that is that will happen and mcclurg's aware of this I mean I think you know I think they're probably more interested in kind of timing I think what meinberg sees what their chief medical examiner has shared with me and and because Dr pervette
117works there as well is that at some point meinberg alone their case number is going to be all that they can handle that while they could do the re you know serve this Regional fill for some period of time that eventually you know we were just the first time that that was going to happen that eventually the other Cleveland County Gaston County are probably going to get that same notification that they cannot accommodate that um and so you know we will start with nine the other thing that I should mention is you know in conversations with the state with State DHHS what I've really tried to impress upon them and and I I believe this is we want the whole system to be to function well so whatever this Center does that can help the
118entire system function we want to be able to articulate that and help them be better as well this is only good for the community it's not a you know we want to do something different in in Union County to be unique it's how can the can they learn some lessons from what we're doing I think they're they're getting a little more open to that like okay what are you guys doing how are you going to do it maybe there's some things we can learn from that um I also should um to add in there I think I mentioned it in one of the slides but over the next year what we would expect too is to bring a staff person on board So eventually you will be asked I think to add us you have
119actually approved the staff position for this a business manager um that can start to work alongside as I transition away from this um to understanding the relationships the all the the stuff that we're going to put in place the processes the procedures um and then you will be building out some additional staff Dr pet also would expect you know to come to work as an employee at some point he's going to be a contractor at first but he fully intends to to join this as as his full-time opportunity um but that will really depend on how you know how the case loads come how that but we will bring you some regular updates um so that you know exactly where that's going after you know we get started again there's no you we'll say we're
120taking cases tomorrow at 5 we'll be able to do that but you know we don't have a case typically every day I don't know when the first one will be but we'll you know hopefully in a month or so we'll give you and I can send you an email and let you know um um kind of where we are and then we can do an update maybe after 3 months might be a good kind of lius test of letting you know what that looks like what the volume looks like if we ran into anything things we didn't anticipate not necessarily a bad thing that we don't have a case every day EXA exactly I know I'm okay if it you know we don't get one until sometime in January I think that's okay February March
121thank you thank you agenda is item 24- 826 legisl legislative and state budget updates I will once again recognize Michelle Lancaster for an update to the board concerning this item thank you very much and this is my last update tonight which is a legislative update I'm going to provide a brief overview of the most recent session and then I'm going to hand this off to Patrick who's going to provide information on the County's plan for the long session that begins in January this is another area that I will not continue to work on over the next year so County staff will be taking um more of this role on on um and I'll just remind folks that you do have a a state lobbyist Daniel balm who who does lobbying at the at Raleigh um
122on behalf of the county and has done that for many years um we have typically since I have been with the county have had guiding principles these are the two guiding principles to support legislative efforts that protect Andor enhance local government's revenues Andor increase our local funding flexibility and oppose any unfunded mandates and any initiatives that fail to fully fund fun Services shifted to the county and there's some reason behind these some of these is we just want some general messaging to the to our delegation members but also we wanted some guidance for staff and for Daniel when things pop up as session progresses sometimes you're asked to make some pretty quick decisions about if you support or don't support a certain thing so we wanted some guidelines for those um we have always though
123if there are items that we believe are sensitive to the board always brought those to the board for for input and guidance and and I would expect that the county would continue to do that um just as this is a recap of the short session that wasn't so short um they they've changed every year but this one started in uh April and ended on Friday of last week so it was a rather long session with not a lot of of activity frankly that local governments have become accustomed to probably seeing so we had some priority items these are the priority items that we had we had a longer list of things that we were supportive of and interested in but I'm just recapping the the priorities uh EMS base bases funding the regional me office
124flexibility which I mentioned in my previous uh presentation we were able to get that the ones that are in bold or the ones that we did get positive action on we actually got that very early in session in a technical Corrections Bill uh the general assembly was in our delegation was willing to hop on that one pretty quickly for us and take care of that and then the third one's seeking additional clarifying language for some budget language from 2022 regarding $8 million that the county had been provided for land acquisition design permitting construction of of the items you see there we saw some clarifying language there we actually didn't get that until last week um but we did get it um in the in one of the the final I think it was actually in
125the hurricane bill that ended up with a lot of things put in that bill and so we did actually get that language that we had asked for um the last two um items that were our priori seeking and supporting State funding to allow continuation of ucps daily and school touring program we did not we're not successful with that and seeking legislation that would allow Union County water to sell water from the Yadkin Regional Water Project to the city of Monroe and others um we were not able to get those um and some of some of that is that there was limited budget action and no individual projects were allowed to be a part of the budget and and there were also um no capital projects that were allowed to be in this form of the
126budget there was just a lot of back and forth going on at Raleigh I did pick one item that I know it's just been gotten a lot of of a lot of attention the last few weeks opportunity scholarships and the funding that was included in the budget and I was able to find the most recent data which was updated on December 2nd that in Union County 1,52 students um are receiving opportunity scholarships to the tune of a little more than $3.5 million uh from that fund and I just there's been a lot a lot of conversation about that around the the region and the state there were a lot of there were some things that went on there was a tax notification provision that we actually the county gave a ton of feedback about what
127we didn't like about that it was going to require the tax collector to go and physically put notifications in front of delinquent tax owner property we gave a ton of feedback on that and and worked with the State Association on that we act where everybody was unsuccessful it actually got put into into law but it actually got reversed last week as as part of the hurricane bill as well so we'll take that as that our our feedback did get some action a little later than we had expected again the money budget mini budget that was adopted uh late in session had no member projects no capital projects it did have funding for additional um students in public schools and at the community College which I think is you know we're supportive of that obviously that's
128important to us and and that funding um and there was an election going on and then there was a hurricane and that really took a lot I think of the energy of what everybody was focused on in Raleigh and so when I I'm going to turn it over to Patrick now but um the session starts in January long session um they will be there on January the 8th for their organizational meetings and then they they'll just be there for the day they will break and come back at the end of January to actually start start their work I think January 25th um we do have members of the delegation who are in leadership uh representative AR has been one of the budget drafters for quite some time I would expect that to continue and then
129Senator Johnson was elected as the the um majority whip in the Senate which is which is great for Union County to have those folks in leadership in Raleigh so with that I'll turn it over to Patrick thank you Michelle um so the goal tonight is to try to get some consensus around what our 2025 legislative priorities will be some of these that you're seeing in front of you have come from staff some of them have come directly from board members and some are carryovers from previous sessions um so I'm going to go through them pretty quickly but if you have questions on them please stop me and I can go into further uh detail uh appropriate funding for placements and treatments options mandated by epsdt that is the early periodic screening Diagnostics and or diagnosis
130and treatment uh what that is essentially asking for is the state to provide adequate funding for intreatment facilities around the state there is a extreme shortage of mental health in treatment facilities for youth in the state and we are pushing the state to provide adequate funding uh support North Carolina farmland and Military protection act this is um an item the board took action on at the December 1st meeting to pre prevent foreign governments from buying land in and around military base and certain other facilities uh seek legislation that allows consistent application of the homestead exemption act um the homestead exemption provides tax relief for aging seniors at a certain uh income level um it it is applied equally across the state and if you look at a county like Union as opposed to a county
131like Anson the median household income is is drastically different so this would um encourage flexibility for additional ta tax relief and some of the high income high growth areas such as Union County to allow seniors to stay in their homes longer and pay a A reduced tax bill um it would seek to repeal the provisions of uh Senate Bill 382 that uh restrict some of our down zoning options it would restore or we would ask to restore allocate funds to the NC scrap tire program sufficient to cover all disposal costs we do get reimbursement for some of that cost but it does not cover the total cost as an alternate uh we can eliminate we would ask to eliminate the provision that uh our our landfill has to accept those scrap tires we do have
132to do that now um but if they did if they did take that uh away we'd no longer have to accept certain scrap tires uh allow local government this is a carryover it's it's listed on a requested item but it is a carryover to allow local governments to PRI prioritize Wastewater capacity based on commercial industrial as opposed to residential um we did not get much traction on that last year but it is a priority that the board expressed interest in continuing to to seek uh long-term concerns with waste wall are alternatives currently if we do not have uh public sewer in an area uh you can you can get certain septic systems that we never see um they are self- permitted there are new technologies that don't come before environmental health that don't come before
133building code um so we would ask for local input in some of those decisions that are being made and in Raleigh um and then increase State funding for senior nutrition in just a moment you'll hear about some of the senior nutrition needs in in Union County and this was a priority of the board prior uh carryover items establish drag queen performances as adult entertainment at adult establishments this is a carryover um seek and support state funding to allow continuation of the ucps daily in school T tutoring program Michelle talked a little bit about um that we asked for that last year again did not get much traction but this is a program that the schools they want to continue funding um it's been proven successful um so we're going to ask for funding for that
134to continue uh support state funding for treatment courts this is another carryover we we do fund the treatment courts in Union County right now through some of the opioid settlement funding uh treatment courts used to be funded in the state by the state and they took that away at some point so we'd like to establish that just based on the Su success we've seen with some of those treatment courts um seek funding for uni County Jail construction and funding for EMS base station funding in January you'll see a presentation from David Hy the EMS director about um the base St base staging plan um and there's about six bases that we are calling for in the rural parts of this County and that would help with some of those uh those stations um so this
135this is the current list uh again as Michelle said session will be starting late January so items can be added to this throughout the session as items come up that we see we will inform the board uh but tonight we would like a motion to accept this as your current legislative agenda understanding that it can be amended moving forward U I would like to get the um I just thought of this one I know you had asked me for any additions but I just thought of this late um what are staff thoughts on the addition of another Superior Court Judge don't we have a courtroom space that's not being that could be utilized for an additional Superior Court Judge we can we can reach out to the courts to see what the uh space needs
136are whether it be a district court judge or a superior court judge we can certainly reach out to them to see where the need is well I'm more concerned about Superior Court Judge because the longer it takes for trials because the the judge has a heavy case load that means the more of those proven uh innocent I mean innocent until proven guilties in our jail length of stay continues to increase especially for violent criminals because these court cases take forever and I don't know I'm not an expert on the bottleneck and I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus but I would say all the areas under this under that uh jurisdiction are growing so I would think it would be time for another judge to help clear some of these cases certainly have
137it so maybe Trey Trey Robinson could be a good reference for you on that and the uh Chief Supreme Court Judge get their thoughts sure okay thank you any other you have question you're you're looking for a motion correct to move forward with this a motion to adopt this as your 2025 legislative priority list yes yes sir I I'll make a motion to adopt this as our priority list with the inclusion of a superior court judge any other comments amendments changes okay all those in favor of the motion say I I I thank you okay thank you our next agenda item is 24- 850 senior nutrition home delivery I'm going to introduce this item but um Janet Payne our executive director director for the Human Services is going to be given the presentation um this
138is a request from commissioner sides at the last meeting um what you're going to see tonight is options on how to eliminate um the waiting list that we are currently on for senior nutrition you will hear a little bit about the past few years some of our criteria for how we qualify people um I will say that during Co there was a lot of money that was given by the states by the state and the FEDS to address some of these a lot of that money has gone away and we have seen the effects of that decline in funding and Janet will go into detail but I'd like to thank Stephanie star a director of community support and Outreach and I'd like to thank Andrew friend for being here tonight uh Council and aging so
139Janet with that I'll turn it over thank you Patrick and uh thank you commissioner Merill and uh Vice chairman Helms and all of the Commissioners for allowing me to have the opportunity to present tonight and commissioner sides for your inquiry into this program I'm excited to be able to share information with you there are four different components of information that I would like to share with you this evening and Patrick uh covered those briefly first I'm going to provide an overview of the program services and then a summary of Eligibility and intake for clients and what that process looks like participation data and then two options along with estimated costs to address the goals that you had requested us um to review commissioner sides which are to eliminate the weight list of 586 people and
140to add weekend Mills for hom delivered clients the senior nutrition program goal is very simple it is to enable senior adults to maintain um or improve their physical social emotional health and and mental health and then also to be able to live independently in their homes as long as possible and we achieve those goals through two different components one is providing nutritious in-person meals in a congregate dining setting and the second is to provide homebound uh home delivered meals for our homebound residents and ultimately the program does provide more than a meal because it includes opportunities for social interaction and education and that is extremely important especially for our senior adult population the meals are provided currently today Monday through Friday and in order to be eligible for funding uh Federal funding and state funding
141they have to meet the two guidelines of providing at least 700 calories per meal and onethird of the daily recommended dietary allowances I brought some Mills for you all to try and would offer you the opportunity to take them home uh with you so would love some feedback on that uh at a future meeting as I mentioned previously senior nutrition services are more than just a meal the program includes the opportunities for social interaction through something as brief as a conversation when a homebound client receives their meals through a meal delivery whether that be from a volunteer or through uh one of our Frozen Mill vendors or through Union County transportation staff and it also uh th this interaction also includes the educational opportunities and activities in the congregate setting which are more robust and
142in-depth and and both of those components are valuable to the seniors who we provide service to ultimately I want to mention that the engagement in this space does help reduce the impact of loneliness and isolation that can often and and is often a factor in the lives of older adults and that contributes positively ultimately to their mental health and well-being the next component is Service delivery and our service delivery is provided by County employees and an amazing group of volunteers and I'd like to also thank Mr Ed green for being here um tonight and and for your participation and leading that effort each day our part-time site managers coordinate packing warm Mills at one of four congregate sites and they pack those Mills for homebound delivery as well they serve Mills and facilitate interactive opportunities
143at one of the four sites which are listed here for you Indian TR United Methodist Mineral Springs United Methodist the basemore active adults Center in Monroe and Wing get Baptist and we're very appreciative to each of these partners for um for their partnership as that does enable us to provide better service to our residents ultimately the home delivered service is provided in one of two ways uh we provide warm Mills that are delivered on 29 routes by an average of 220 volunteers each month and the warm Mill recipients must live near Mill site to be able to ensure that we're able to safely deliver Mills within an appropriate time frame so that they meet Health regulations we also provide Frozen Mills and those frozen Mills are delivered to recipients who live outside of this warm
144Mill Area they are um provided by a vendor Trio and also by Union County transportation using a County Pool vehicle that funding has uh for the Union County transportation deliveries has been enabled through one-time covid pandemic funding and that will be going away and so we will be transitioning to only utilizing Trio moving forward just because we don't have additional non-count funds um to to supplement that after this year Union County transportation will help however continue to support the senior nutrition program and I do want to mention that because currently about 50% of participants at the congregate sites actually utilize Union County transportation um to to get to from their homes or residences to the mill site in terms of eligibility requirements to be eligible for the program there are two foundational components one is
145an individual must be a Union County resident and the second is they must be over the age of 60 additionally for homebound participants there are four uh different components they must be physically or mentally unable to obtain food or prepare meals and have no responsible person who is willing and able to provide that service on a daily basis they must be physically or mentally unable to participate at a congregate nutrition site and they must be unable to leave home at will therefore not able to actually get to the mill site on a daily basis uh it's important to note that during the Pand mic we actually had to transition everyone including those who are eligible for congregate services and they would have normally participated in a congregate site to getting hom delivered Mills and so
146those restrictions that I just mentioned weren't applicable and have recently been reinstated for the homebound clients additionally um once someone is a client we also complete assessments for all program participants the congre congregate participants are assessed one time per year and homebound is assessed twice per year one of which must be in the home this next slide provides an overview of our intake and screening process so after a referral is received our County staff meet with the client they verify that those minimum standards of being uh a County resident and over age 60 are are met and then we ask seven questions but we start and those questions are listed here for you we start with the question is the applicant able to leave home at will and while that's listed number six on this
147priority screening that's just how it comes from um the Area Agency on Aging and so we start with that though because if the answer to that is that they are able to leave their home at will we do not add them to the hom delivered weight list we instead provide them with information about congregate Mill Site Services and provide them with information about Union County transportation and um and give them the opportunity to participate at the congregate sites if they are unable to leave home at will then we do ask the remaining six screening questions during that initial screening process we prioritize the client's needs and then once a spot on excuse me prioritize the clients based on their responses and need and then once a spot on the hom delivered route opens up staff
148will review the map of clients in the service area right now we're only um moving clients that are eligible in the hot Mill route area all of the waiting list onto uh active service and clients are sorted in order of their assigned priority levels one through four one being the highest and then also based on time length of time on the wait list and we are then able to have staff contact the client schedule a home visit complete all of the state required forms which is uh dos 101 which that takes about 10 to 20 minutes to complete for each client so we don't do that on the frontend screening process we only do it when a slot opens up because in addition to that time that it takes we also have travel time which
149based on the size of the county can obviously vary greatly so this slide provides an overview of service volume and in 2025 we served an average of 100 seniors per day in the congregate setting and 226 per day on our H delivered Mill routes through the self-reported screening which is uh what we are allowed to do in the intake process 8 5% of congregate and 76% of our hom delivered clients indicate that they are at or below the poverty level and 73% of congregate and 60% of those clients uh that are hom delivered indicate that they live alone we do not cap the number of congregate participants due to the goal of enabling socialization and the fact that the inperson socialization is so much more effective um participation at congregate sites this year is actually
150getting closer to pre-co levels so the numbers that you have on the screen in front of you hopefully will will demonstrate that before Co we were averaging about 1,300 clients per month serving over 16,000 congregate Mills annually and this year we're on track to uh to serve 15, 72 Ms which is about 12,000 1,256 per month and so that increase I think is due to a couple of different reasons won the move last year uh to the Monroe basemore Senior Center and and that just provides additional opportunity and ease of access for residents in the local area and then also um just an increased need to socialize seniors have have reported that they're lonely and they want to re-engage and and they are looking forward to doing that we also anticipate having some additional congregate
151participants due to the move that actually occurred this last week from Marshville to Wing our home delivered numbers have conversely been steadily decreasing and that is not due to a reduction in demand but rather due to Rising food and labor prices and limited funding especially a decrease in the most recently in in the pandemic in covid funds and then obviously we have increase in the weight list so this slide depicts the H delivered weight list and what you see on the right hand side is a not beautiful map um but with with pin placed for the residents who are on our wait list currently as of the end of November we had 586 residents who requested to participate and completed the initial intake screening process and and those seven questions ultimately excuse me may I
152interrupt you yes sir let me make sure I have this correct 586 that are on the waiting list that have been vetted through the initial seven question vetting process yes sir that's not people that just inquired or referred that's correct they're basically approved for service they have completed the first step of approval we will have to when we have a slot open up we will have to complete the 101 form which is the full about 20 minute screening form just to to verify that their answers to those questions are still the same as they were when we completed the initial seven questions screening process but yes sir that is correct how how often do you have would you say maybe 1% 2% 5% after the second round or final uh verification might drop off of
153Eligibility I am hesitant to answer that because I don't have the exact answer it's not too darn many that no sir I I do not think that it is I can tell you that um so the the next number that you see is the projected annual increase and this may get to the question that you are asking so since January of 2023 we're averaging 35 referrals per month or people requesting service from us and of those we have about 10 of them that are screened out and about 25 substantiated and added to the weight list and so then after that point unless there has been a circumstance change where they um are no longer living in their home or some other situation that may have occurred heard um they would very likely remain eligible yes
154sir uh so uh additionally in terms of the projected annual increase because that was one of the questions that You' ask us to address over the course of time beyond the current weight list this is a guesstimate but it's based on the facts that we have based on our current intake and we also know as Andrew fren mentioned in a presentation he did a couple of uh meetings ago that the population of UH 60 plus seniors in North Carolina as a whole and in Union County specifically is increasing it's actually increased at a rate of over 5% per year since 2000 and currently seniors comprise about 20% of our population but that will increase to about 26% by 2040 so why does this matter um just want to share a little bit I think we
155probably are all on the same page about that but ultimately maintaining nutrition does enhance the individual physical well-being and also as I've mentioned before the interaction socialization and education enables us to support our senior residents with more than just a mill ultimately if we can keep people in their home versus having to spend time in a hospital or nursing home not only will they have a better quality of life but the expense of doing so is actually at a much lower total cost uh the annual cost of a meal recipient based on Mills on Wheels data is about 2,76 $65 for 250 days and Union County currently serves 260 days worth of meals and our cost is about $1,400 per meal for those warm Mills and $1,900 for Frozen Mills so this slide just as
156a recap of the current Mill recipient volume and projected need for next year and on the next two slides I'll provide you with operational scenarios for your consideration to address the 586 people that are currently on the hom delivered waiting list and also enable us to continue serving congregate residents which we are anticipating as you can see here a slight increase um in in that but not a substantial increase just because that has already been going back up and so the current numbers are are trending in the direction that we would expect to see um probably balance out not not sure about that but um some moderate increase there and so ultimately we're thinking uh that if we were to complete those two activities and remove the 586 people and then have a small increase
157in congregate we're estimating that our daily meal recipients would move from 345 to 931 res excuse me 326 to 945 I residents so the two operational scenarios that we have developed are shown here cost will be shown on the next slide both of those options s do eliminate the weight list and do add the weekend Mills for hom delivered clients both maximize our existing hot Mill routes to enable about 10 to 12 clients on each most Mill routes today currently only have about 68 clients and again as Mr Green mentioned earlier today that is largely due to funding this would utilize existing volunteers for the delivery of warm Mills so it wouldn't change that model at all in both scenarios additional County staff are needed to support the administrative work required to manage the increase
158clients and that would include completing intake mandatory annual assessments um and the primary differences that you'll note here are that option one does add all remaining clients on the Frozen Mill program with delivery by our contractor and option two also adds all remaining clients to the Frozen Mill program but expands County staff positions and requires purchase of storage equipment and refrigerated delivery vehicles to be able to enable uh staff to deliver Frozen Mills and not have to be dependent on an outside thirdparty vendor I will note that with option one there is an uncertainty that a vendor may have the capacity to expand service to enable coverage of all additional Frozen Mill recipients but both are good options this is the final slide for your consideration tonight the cost to serve County residents currently participating
159and those on the waiting list is shown here and FY 23 total expenses es were 895,000 FY 24 those total expenses were 875,000 the reason for the reduction there is because uh we had a reduction in service due to reduced availability of the one-time funding as I mentioned earlier the um funding is still available in part the onetime funding this year but that will go away at the end actually it's it's gone now um because as the end of November it it was expended our costs in FY 25 are estimated to be $955,000 those costs do include a 34 34% increase in food expenses um and about a 3% increase in staff expenses and as mentioned we are serving fewer homebound clients each year in FY 23 we served 445 seniors on the home Brown
160program versus 336 in FY 24 and to manage our fiscal resources this year we are removing clients who no longer qualify for the homebound and not filling spots of seniors who come off of that program to try to manage and balance our budget for this year and and we believe that we will be able to do that um based on the current trajectory and this year we've served 289 unique seniors in that Homebound Program so for FY 26 we are presenting three scenarios to you the first one was just primarily for your reference it was not commissioner sides what you had specifically requested but I wanted to include it and that represents just maintaining current clients if we were to do that due to the loss of the one towntime funding we would have a
161deficit of approximately $100,000 in Revenue to cover expenses then option one which eliminates the weight list and adds weekend Mills with service of the Frozen Mills provided by a vendor is estimated to cost a little bit over 2.5 million representing a deficit of about 1, 560,000 and option two which also eliminates the weight list and adds weekend Mills for home delivered clients uh with frozen Mills delivered by new County staff and County Equipment is estimated to cost 2.8 million and represents a deficit of 1,846 th000 that option option two does include a one-time cost of $190,000 for purchase of refrigerated storage unit and two delivery vehicles and so the ongoing operational need for that would be approximately 1,656 th000 um obviously those are estimates based on the research that we have been able to complete
162since this request and that may fluctuate based on inflation and other cost so Janet can you go back to the previous slide real quick I would be happy to do that can you go a little more into detail about um on option one ad staff what is What is your current Staffing look like what do they do and why would you need to add another 1.5 FTE absolutely So currently we have a program manager who works for Stephanie that program manager actually oversees our senior nutrition program as well as our Wick program which is women infant children um and that is a nutrition program for obviously children and and their mothers um and then we have a senior coordinator so a full-time uh senior coordinator that does the mill planning and um management of Staffing
163and that sort of thing we have a social worker that engages with all of the um all of the existing clients and then also engages with the volunteers to coordinate volunteer uh meal delivery and all of those components we have four benefited part-time site managers so one for each of the sites and we have two part-time site managers that are are solely admin related and so what these two uh operational scenarios would be doing is adding the full-time social worker and transitioning the uh part-time admin to a full-time admin and then option two adds one and a half driver FTE as well and the work that those people would be doing would simply be managing the 586 additional clients with all of with with the two assessments a year and then any other ongoing uh
164activity that has to be completed and and those assessments we do every year are required to receive some of the funding we do from both the state and federal programs yes sir that's correct so if if we if we said for example we wanted to eliminate some of those requirements we would lose additional funding and some of those which would be additional funding the county would have to so I just wanted you all to understand that even if we had the funding today to handle the meals in order to do the assessments um it would take us over a year to get through the weight list with our current Staffing wanted to add that what what is the item add nsip Revenue well I apologize so um for every meal that we may flip to
165the next slide just for uh reference so the second uh row down that is beneath the federal and state row under revenue is the nsip and so for every meal that we provide that meets those calorie and nutritional requirements the USDA provides 80 cents per Mill and so that Revenue would increase the reason that Revenue would increase even if we um kept our current projected clients is because when we receive federal revenue like the onetime covid funding that isn't Revenue that is ongoing like the hccg older Americans Act funding those Mills are not eligible for um for that nsip reimbursement so again nothing nothing we need action on tonight the commissioner sides I know you asked for this I know the numbers are pretty large um at current we would not have any funding for
166this outside of one-time fund balance and that is onetime money we would not be able to continue this program uh beyond the end of the current fiscal year unless there was some change in um Revenue to the program well hold on that's not my intention whether it is my colleagues are not that's for them to say one of my questions was starting say January for the remainder of the current fiscal year what would it take to adopt Option One to begin I realize you're not going to be able to take out the waiting list overnight but what would the anticipated cost for the remainder of this fiscal year I would like to have the opportunity and I apologize that I don't have a specific number for that but what we need to be able to
167make that happen is we would need as Patrick mentioned a few moments ago we would need to be able to have the Staffing to be able to begin going through and completing the assessments to get people off of the wait list and then we would also need so if if we were able to do that in an incremental basis um at and I'm not sure do you have the number that would be monthly I apologize but I will'll provide that to you tomorrow um I would think that we would be able to incrementally begin to add some number of clients off of that every month and probably be able to begin that process by well if we were to hire people um that would take probably until February and so if we started that in
168February we could incrementally begin to remove clients from the wait list at that point and so it would just be the added Meal cost at that point I don't think you quite understand me I don't want to wait till February so the issue is that you you you literally can't put people on there without going through the evaluation process right I I I get it but we can start with what we have yes sir we can start and that's the number I want if we started January 1st with what we have and what we need before the end of the current fiscal year what's it going to take for option one okay unless somebody's excited about option two so is it fair to take that $1.5 million deficit and cut it in half for the
169remainder of the fisical year just forsake a ease I want to make sure I understand what you're asking so um there's 586 people on the waiting list yes um those 586 people would not start getting meals understood okay I want all right because you got to start the evaluation you got to confirm the evaluation process supposedly from what you were saying the 586 have already had an initial vetting correct yes sir okay final vetting before you actually start delivering meals sir and so that would probably take a couple of months to go through that process that's why she said February because to be able to go through those 586 and actually get them Avail them available but you're starting January 1 or whenever this this Bo you start the V you start the final vetting
170yes that's and as they get vetted they get meals correct okay I understand you're not going to be able to get through it with the staff you have yes sir and there's a there's a timeline for adding but if you started today with what you have as far as staff how many can we knock out and how fast can we start getting the meals to them and what dollars do you need to do it through the remainder of the physical year physical year 26 option one or two that's a budget discussion for next year I'm talking about what can we do now may I bring that back to you at your next meeting sir it wouldn't I'd say the worst case scenario it would be half because you're going to get to a point where
171we can add about 10 to 15 people that we can clear from the weight list every week but you start adding those people to the twice a year evaluation so at some point very quickly you're going to run out of Staff time to conduct those twice annual um so I would say it's probably it's going to take time it's going to take time so but if we can serve 10 people January 1st the week of January 1st that's 10 more people that are getting meals so one thing that we could do and I will be able to have this number for you very quickly is adjust the warm Mill routes that we are utilizing our current volunteer your staff on if we were able to increase the number of warm Mill homes that we included
172on each route to the 10 to 12 that would be reasonably able to be done within the an appropriate amount of time to keep the Mills at temperature that is something that we could do we still have to complete the assessments but that would be some I would recommend I think starting with that process probably um but the assessments either way have to be compl let me put it this way yes sir we may not have a final number to F to finish out the fiscal year what's it going to take to get started tonight if majority of this board decides to what do we need to get it started I would say more anything more than we have right now currently what you're seeing is projected give me a number that's reason for the
173first quarter of of 2025 at a minimum a half a million dollars all right at a minimum okay okay all right there's there's a number you you live it with that as it getting started yes sir okay thank you for your enthusiasm I like it I like it I'll just comment I mean obvious ly um we know I I've said this before in our last meeting this this is a crisis and I'm sure you heard Michelle Lancaster um we requested to put this need for senior nutrition as part of our legislative update to our state legislators to make them aware that our County their County that they represent us in Raleigh to make sure they understand that Union county is number two in the state for the fastest growing population of senior nutrition needs so
174um you know Mr sides I agree with you completely I mean we we need to get started yesterday and that's why we've been talking about this um and we need to get our state legislators um on board to understand that we need their help in securing funds to take care of Union County number two in the state for this growing um aging population that needs meals and and so that they can advocate for us in Raleigh for State dollars and grant money to help us get started ASAP just just like like you're Desiring um so we've put this on the legislative agenda I think you know staff hears us that we recognize you know the the population of um Union County Citizens that helped make Union County now need us and um and so I
175agree with Mr sides we need to work with staff and we need to work with you and um Andrew friend to you know figure out what can we do tomorrow to get started and and so I do agree with you we but um stat you need to get back with us because now you know that this is on our legislative agenda um and we recognize we have received the information that's been Pres presented to us and now we need to give you time to say okay what can we do right away how much do we need to cover this so we can move the needle off the wa weight list we need that information back from you and we need to give the county manager and staff an opportunity um to go back to the
176office and and and say okay how can we start moving this ASAP but without without giving them that opportunity I don't know that we can do that tonight well we we don't have the number we'll find out real quick okay all right this presentation was made back in October okay and I'm not throwing anybody on their bus please understand this was made back in October this number has risen since October MH um Mr Matthews what exact can approximate numbers what is the county budget for this fiscal year uh it's over 500 million okay do we have available funds in our fund balance for say $500,000 is that currently available yes sir okay folks there isn't much more of a basic service to our citizens to keep them safe and what does that mean they're protected
177body's fine gentleman from in the sheriff's department and they have something to eat now maybe I'm so passionate about this because these are my folks I'm in the age group I know I don't look it but um these are vets these are widows these are grandmothers grandfathers maybe even great grandmothers and great-grandfathers um you know a county as rich as ours has over 500 people that are not getting a decent meal now if these were kids if these were kids we wouldn't have a waiting list it'd already be taken care of I I last week I toured our jail and the guests in our jail are served two hot meals and one cold meal a day and that's of course required by law their requirements but we have seniors out there that aren't eating as
178good as people in our jail now I can't sit up here and say okay get back to us with this or get back to us with that and with that I make a motion that we appropriate $500,000 from our fund balance to start tomorrow working on this waiting list and that's my motion okay so with that motion I I just want to ask would you be able to distribute meals tomorrow if such motion passes and I'll ask you and I'll ask the county manager first uh no we would not necessarily be able to now I I think according to Janet um we could be more quickly on the home meal uh clients but no we could not start serving more tomorrow it would take I it I would take at least 30 days before we
179start serving new clients in my opinion so do we have the staff and the volunteers to start asking those other questions um Janet correct me if I'm wrong but what we would most likely do is immediately start to verify additional people on the wait list and immediately be able to max out our hot uh route delivery do we have staff available to begin doing that we we have we have capacity I don't know at what level how many more people we can take off the waiting list with our current Staffing level is we can we can take more off but it's not going to be 586 and we would we would we would work up until the limit of that person's ability to continue to verify new P new uh uh recipients and existing clients
180and in the short term if you all were to make this motion and were to pass this evening and it did not include any of the requested Staffing adjustments in terms of the administrative part-time to full-time then I would talk with the manager and I think the best option probably to take action as quickly as possible would be to see if we could work with a contract agency shortterm to bring on some staff again contract staff that could help ramp this up in terms of beginning to um address of those but that would not be a long-term solution obviously um that would at best be a short-term solution and Jan and I appreciate you bringing that up because I I I would not want to move forward with hiring employees without knowing there's a commitment
181to this being a long-term program if it was a contract basis well we figure that out that's certainly an option but I would not want to hire full-time staff until we know there's a commitment so what I'm hearing is you would the the process is final vetting first before anybody gets a meal yes sir but if funds are appropriated tonight you could uh con you could expedite or continue the vetting process and once somebody's vetted they get a meal so if you started two you know whenever how quickly after somebody's vetted do they get a [Music] meal final vetting how quickly can you get somebody a couple of days couple of days yes sir it's a matter of ordering the food and if we have the funding for the food it's a matter of ordering
182the extra meals okay and then adding them to either the warm Mill route that is that is driven by the volunteers or adding them to our vendors uh Frozen Mill program so it's just literally taking care of those Logistics to make sure that we can get the mill to them um all right we know we need to feed these folks we don't want to see our neighbors hungry I I fully understand that sometimes I question is this really the role of government I mean we have churches in the community we have organ organizations that of goodwi that may be better equipped to actually do this job have has there been any thoughts of partnering with churches and with with other groups who were formed and who take great great pride in the good work they
183do in the community has that been something that we've tried to incorporate into the program no sir not to dat we have churches that do provide volunteers um and very actively provide volunteers to deliver the mill routes but in terms of them providing the service themselves that is not something that has occurred or been discussed okay and I just want to repeat what commissioner sad said earlier um those that have committed crimes are getting meals and our students in our schools are getting meals but we have seniors senior adults in our community who are are on a waiting list that's the that's the challenge mam chair yes um Janet ju just a question here and I'm sorry if I if I missed this um but the numbers that we're seeing is this this is countywide
184correct yes sir okay so this is the entirety of our borders in the county sir say that again this is this yeah this is everywhere this the enti yes so we're not like pitch and hold into rural areas this is everywhere yes sir has there been any discussion with any kind of Partnerships with the municipalities for this program so not officially however after Andrew F um presentation to you all about the hccb funding Indian Trail has expressed an interest to hear more about that in general um that obviously is not anything official and no presentation has occurred and that the intent of that I believe was broader in nature but um that would be an opportunity that if you all wanted to engage in that we would welcome the chance to make that happen and
185provide additional education for municipalities well well I mean I'm looking at your map here and I'm seeing a lot of flags there around uh the Weddington area um sty yep Stallings um there's some there in waxa um you know even out in Marshville so so it it looks like there's opportunity here to potentially partner with some of our um some of our you know municipalities um and I I mean I would be personally I would be um open to exploring you know what we can do there with with Partnerships with with those folks as well and I don't know if that's something that um I don't know what the uh what the process would be there but uh um Brian maybe you can weigh in on that I mean is that something that that uh
186the staff can can take on and maybe communicate with their staff certainly I I I think that's just a matter of um the management team and I Conta acting the the managers for those towns and and and their elected officials if they don't have managers and just having those discussions and you know the example that I look to with this is the partnership that we've got with Indian Trail with 74 um uh Express you know that's that's a great partnership and you know Indian Trail's been been a fantastic partner with us that's helped reduce our cost and made the whole program more effective so many hands make light light work right so if we can get some Partnerships here with uh with some of our larger municipalities um you know maybe maybe we can you
187know with this program just my thoughts I don't know if with state federal and local I I don't know if this is an option or not but we do have 53 schools across this County with commercial grade kitchens in the schools and I'm not exactly sure where extra food goes each day if there's any food um and and I know there's a lot of federal dollars and stuff that goes with Child Nutrition um but we do have 53 schools across the county North Southeast and West we also have culinary ummies in multiple high schools across Union County Public Schools where they have commercial grade kitchens and they're cooking food and becoming culinary getting their culinary certifications in Union County Public Schools so I I don't I would like to ask um the manager you know
188if he could have a discussion with the superintendent and um our CTE director um to see if there's any if this is an opportunity um in some of these communities where we have schools um to help with some of some of these requests as well if there's extra food I don't know if there's extra food or if the cafet and if it's even allowed because of the federal dollars for Child Nutrition but um I'd like to ask you to you know just inquire if if that's a possibility because there's 53 commercial grade you know kitchens in our County and um I don't know it's usually a pretty great partnership when you get cute little kids and seniors um if there's some kind of partnership we could work out there to um to get additional food
189um to our seniors I just think we need to take advantage of every resource we have just like you know this County being able to you know come up with a medical examiner office when it looked like that was going to be near to impossible to get done and two years later you know we're getting it done so um maybe you know there's a way to look at our um really good resources that we already have in the county we've got really really good schools uni County Public Schools we've got really good Charter Schools um houses of Faith like you mentioned um commissioner bcam I think we need to look at everything well if I may just make a closing argument here and we'll we'll get on with it uh 586 and that's around Thanksgiving
190and here we are close to Christmas so undoubtedly that number is higher we heard from the county manager we we have the funds to get started it is no doubt I certainly understand we are not going to eliminate this waiting list overnight but we can start with what we have if we appropriate 500,000 as a start from our fund balance and we can start doing the final vetting and then deliver meals as M Payne said within a matter of days so let's say maybe in the next month we can only knock out 20 25 of those that's 20 to 25 more people that are getting fed a decent meal why wouldn't we do it why wouldn't we start are we going to wait six more months until the beginning of the physical year and then
191you know look and see if we can put it in the budget I I ask my colleagues to vote Yes so we start tomorrow so um I don't know if this is a fair request or not a fair request but I do see our CFO here tonight and personally I would just like some feedback on the pros or cons of taking money out of our fund balance um without having the proper planning or discussion uh to do that I feel like the Commissioners need to understand um removing half a million dollars from our fund balance um would you like to share with us if if if we're in a position to make this decision tonight well good afternoon you did you didn't know you were going to be up here did you no no that's
192okay um so we have finalized yes we have finalized our audit and yes there is funding available if you so choose to appropriate fund balance for this however I would not be doing my job if I did not tell you that fund balance is for one-time use okay and if you want to continue the funding in future years fund balance is not there for that and you would have to incorporate that into your ongoing operating budget year after year after year right that's a very good point thank you for that reminder and I I appreciate that Beverly and and and that was one of the points I wanted to make is that certainly if the board wanted to move forward that is fine I suspect that however many people we can serve you're not going
193to tell them in July we're not going to serve you anymore so now we have to come up with the funding to continue the program as long as the board understands that accepts that that's fine but I doubt we're going to tell people no after we've gotten them on the program well again I can only speak for me but I'm going for the whole inchel Lada in the next budget so I don't consider this a onetime deal I consider this a start so if my memory is correct from the October presentation and um I did not bring my October folder with me Mr sides commissioner sides but you you can probably help me with this the on the needs slide from October in order to meet the needs from uh for the weit list at
194that time I believe it was $800,000 to accomplish this and then there was another figure $1 million to accomplish this do you remember what I'm referring to yes Ma and can you speak to that at a high level it was I believe $100,000 that was our initial current deficit for um for this year close to $100,000 and as I mentioned earlier we are not adding people back so that has been reduced for this year that would be um what is in the column that is before you for the F 26 current clients only deficit number and then the number that was presented was approximately $1 million and that was based largely on just the uh food expenses the additional uh weekend Mills obviously were not included in that because that wasn't a component and also
195at that time we had not included uh the additional cost for Staffing that would need to be included for supporting those additional clients that would' be serving in an ongoing way does that answer your question commissioner Merill yes ma'am it was for inhome serviceses yes and that is provided by both Council on Aging and Union County Human Services through DSS uh adults program so Mr sides going into the budget season in the next few months knowing that they presented a $1.8 million needs request to us in October do you still feel comfortable with the 500,000 tonight well I don't maybe this helps to consider the 500,000 is seed money okay because I don't have a number we don't have a number in front of us what it's going to take to finish out the fiscal
196year but this gets us moving okay and we may need to once we know what it's going to take to finish out the remainder of the fiscal year we may be coming back to the again but this gets us going this this gets the vetting process finalized and people getting meals okay can can I make AC just putting this out there okay I fully agree with what Mr uh commissioner Sid is saying yes I think that everyone deserves food undoubtedly can we how would everyone feel if we reduced our number somewhat to get the ball rolling that way we can contact ucps our churches other municipalities to see what they can contribute so that everybody has a little skin in the game if you will did you have have a number in mind I mean
197that that half of me was his number not mine you asked what was in the available in the fund ballot so but I mean even if we started out smaller $100,000 to $200,000 how about 250 and spit it in half and allow staff to start reaching out to miss municipalities to ucps to the uba the union um Baptist Association other churches in our area to see if they can start contributing to seniors that are in their care Church wise to help alleviate the issue see if they'll Pony up a little yes can we start smaller okay again I don't want to come to budget session and go we can't come up with this extra $2 million with every everything else coming down the pipe okay so so I would rather start out smaller and build
198our way up and I I understand completely what you're saying everybody deserves you know our 500 plus people deserve to have meals nobody is arguing that point at all but I think we need to take a little bit smaller bites out of the numbers before we move on before we do the whole plate if it's more am meable to my colleagues and yet still gets the ball rolling I'll I'll roll with it two 200 250 250 200 I'm comfortable I will amend my motion to uh ask for 200,000 from our fund balance to initiate working on our waiting list how's that we um Madam chair sorry um so I I think that we all need to come back to the realization though that and Beverly you know mentioned this that this is one time money
199okay and it's a Band-Aid that that's that's effectively what it is and and listen I you know I there's not a single one of us up here that doesn't want to take care of our seniors um and so I really appreciate you know commissioner s's heart and his passion for this and and I'm I really do because it is important that we take care of our seniors but I I think that we also have to understand that you know fund balance is it's typically used with capital um it's typically used with capital projects where you know there is a a set cost there it's not necessarily an operating type expense um you know so so if we start down this road you know whether it's 500,000 whether it's 200,000 whether it's 10 bucks there is
200going to be an expectation from the folks that we serve that we continue to fund this and I'm not saying that we shouldn't I'm not saying that we should but what I'm saying is we don't know what we don't know and you know we are going into budget season and so you know if you go down this road tonight then you are effectively saying that you know hey we're going to be funding you for the long term and we're going to be you know putting putting us out there for the long term and so you know yes you might get started tonight but you're going to have that reoccurring cost every single budget cycle and it's going to well probably get larger now look I'm not saying that we shouldn't look for ways to to
201service our senior folks with meals I'm not saying that at all um but I do think that you know again the municipal Partners I think that could be a valid um source of of help with this um I think that you had a great idea too with our legislative agenda ultimately I don't know that the county can take this on by ourselves we need help we need help yeah we need help and and you know I I agree I think that this is a crisis I want to I want to do everything that I possibly can to help those folks but we're going to need help and we're going to need help from a variety of sources so that's going to be our state delegation um as well as Municipal partners and you know anybody
202else wants to volunteer in between I agree and one thing that I was was going to ask is when you take that map that had all of the red flags all over it is there a way to break that down so that so that we can let Indian Trail we have approximately this many requests waiting for you Unionville we have this many requests stylings Wing It Marshville I would like it broken down so that when we're coordinating or communicating with our municipalities um they know what's going on in their Community absolutely and then and then that'll help drill it down to this Elementary School this Middle School this High School this church this organization we can do that by ZIP code okay so it will be close okay yeah if that's fair without getting to
203the specific that's kind of hard because I have a Monro ZIP code right I'm out New Salem right rightley Chapel has a Monroe zip code yes so that's yeah but we we should be able to be we will work with GIS to try to make that be as accurate as possible and we should be able to make that happen very relatively easily I I understand my colleagues concerns with taking funds from the fund balance but the alternative is not to do anything before the next budget year because you can ask your municipalities but remember they're in the same thing they don't have their budget is already set unless they want to dip into their fund balance until next July so that means we're kicking this down the road until next July okay I understand your
204concerns about the fund balance but the alternative is to do nothing well that definitely wasn't spoken to do nothing well if you're waiting if you're not going to the fund balance where are you going to get the money to start is there any other alternative nothing that's quick I mean obviously the only alternatives are working with other jurisdictions to help fund it and that's not a quick process that'll take time okay let's let's call a question call the question do you have unless somebody has um commissioner Christina HMS what I would like to see is Staff go out initiate the discussion so that we don't have to and as um Vice chair Helm said you know fund balance money is mostly from Capital so I want to make sure that we are still protecting our
205budget by helping our seniors but I think jumping the gun and doing it immediately is not going to benefit us and you know we don't have a crystal ball to see what's coming down the road I think tonight is a very great step but I'd like to see what staff can do before we pull any triggers yeah um I would like um to offer a friendly Amendment to commissioner side's motion that when we take the vote um for the $200,000 to be used from fund balance to get this started I want to ensure that it is to address only those currently on the wait list the meals and the uh the the food expense and that none of the money can be used uh towards like Administration or or like hiring or whatever that the
206the the $200,000 is to address the weight list and the food only certainly can I ask a question so um with with existing staff um there's there's again there's a limit to how many people we can vet I if the board wants additional people vetted we'd have to contract with those services that is still considered administ ministrative funds if the board does not want us to contract which is fine just understand it's a slower process for us to vet there's less people that we're going to get to be able to serve it's a if or other so I I I just want to understand if it's no Administration funds that's perfectly fine it's just going to take more time and and that's okay as long as we know that then I withdraw my friendly Amendment
207[Music] I can I make a suggestion yes please so I I understand that the the I get it that this is a this is a need but there's also what is the future of the cost that we're going to have to incur and how do we pay for that and and I understand the commissioner sides would like to see people get meals in their hands first off some of these expenses are because we're going to seven days that's one of the increases for it you're going from five to seven I understand people need to eat um seven days but you are increasing the cost because it's going to seven days the other part of it is we do have to vet you know one of the things you can consider is maybe giv us authorization
208to start the vetting process but not necessarily serving meals while we then also meet with municipalities meet with ucps start to gather a plan for how can we fund this I get it folks aren't going to get meals but we're getting them to the point where literally as soon as the decision's made they could start getting meals that's just a suggestion it will not get anyone any meals all it does is start the vetting process so that we can at least have people ready to go that's just something to think about which is different than the motion that's on the floor correct okay commissioner bcam did you have something you wanted to ask or share maybe maybe if I can remember there's a lot going on up here oh um oh my goodness so I
209understand the enthusiasm and I and I I would love to feed the whole world tonight you know but it is tough and I understand count Mr Matthew's point we don't want to set this precedence if we if we start this and then all of a sudden it stops there there's an issue um I mean if we give as a Christmas present and this is one you know this is the one time thing I I get it to me that's that's totally different but I'm really concerned about starting this and stopping it and and I found you you don't fix problems by throwing money at them and we need to we need I I love the idea of incorporating the the different different municipalities and start the vetting process and exploring what we can do you
210know I love that idea I love the idea of trying to incorporate churches and then Hometown Heroes and all these guys that do all this good work and they they love to do it try to incorporate all these folks and let do this as a community instead of just a county body so that's those are my thoughts and um and but I will say I appreciate the enthusiasm and he's he's pushing us to really think about this thing but those are those are my thoughts I'm going to agree with the county manager I think starting the vetting process is the right step um let's start working with getting other people involved in this instead of us just jumping in feet first into the deep end and not know well yeah really head first you're exactly
211right so I would like to make a motion or do we need to vote on that motion the first motion first okay okay the motion on FL is to allocate $200,000 from fun balance to start addressing theight and feeding people tomor all those in favor say I I all those opposed commissioner Christina HS I would like to make a motion to instruct staff to work with municipalities ucps and our local churches once we get District needs I guess is the correct terminology for um for our citizens in need of food um I don't know where else I want to say at this point so let me see if I understand this we we you you did the initial vet not well how did they get on the waiting list wait wait a minute how did
212these folks get what vetting did they go through to get the 586 to get on the waiting list the initial seven question screening okay and then there is uh when we complete form that is required um it's called the Dos 101 form there's a short form and a long form but there's a and it asks more question question yes sir okay so your motion is that we go to step two vetting with are you going to need money to do that time time and if depending on how quickly you want us to vet money for contract staff if you want us to vet more quickly then we can vet with the staff that we have but we can do some number roughly 10 a week probably with our current staff then obviously if we start
213removing those and putting them actively on the program they will then add to the number of recurring reviews that we have to complete as well so that we'll increase those two time per year reviews that have to occur but we're not feeding anybody so yes sir if we if we just complete the initial full V we could we could do that and then have to do the form and and ask the other questions that have not been asked yet how does that expedite anything if you're not putting any money for meals behind it they any meals until they do this right but once they do it they're not getting a meal but they would at that point be eligible for meals if additional funding was determined by you all that that is something that you
214wanted to invest no one can get meals until they call the 500 and what 586 people back which is going to take time to ask the 586 people the other questions that haven't been asked yet and the form that has to be filled out and those actually have to be home visits for the first for the for those home but if you're not putting any money in for meals that means you're waiting until July of 2025 before you actually start fun meals I'm not saying July I mean it could be next budget well you're saying you don't want that's what we're saying we're saying that the county manager is going to ask municipalities how much can you come out of pocket now say starting in January to help feed people in your community okay so
215are we allocating any money for Contracting to expedite this vetting we will allocate money as soon as they come back to us and say we called 586 people no what to see they they had to go in the homes and visit them and and um and those 586 people have to complete the questions that haven't been asked yet plus the form plus a home visit so you're saying we're going to run through the whole 580 if I understand this correctly we're going to we're going to go through start going through the second phase of vetting for all 586 and then when that's done we'll figure out funding for meals um I don't not sure I understand the end game here I want to clarify that we are not going to be able to go through
216all 586 with current we will go through as many as we can but it will not be 586 right I mean commissioner sides the only way current people who are currently getting meals is because they followed the procedures they they answered the questions they filled out the form they had a home visit um those things have to be done in order to get on the list to receive meals and to get on the route which was part of my original motion to start that second vetting process but once they've been vetted and approved to get them a meal I'm not sure what this motion is helping expedite other than going through the list but it's not feeding anybody it's getting clure to feed people oh it's the next step like they'll be able to come
217back to us at the next meeting and tell us how how many they can get off the weight list yeah I think yeah I think what we've what we've determined is you know approximately 10 a week we can add to that obviously you know that's that takes time but we think we can add another 10 per week um with current Staffing that's not Contracting with anyone um and during that time frame obviously meeting with municipalities other um you know other partners to find out whether they're willing to fund anything and then bring that back to the board at a future meeting and say this is how many we've been able to vet this is what we found out as far as funding goes from other agencies what is the board's pleasure at that point in
218time what I would also like is for the staff to go ahead and start seeking um what it will cost for that contract help to get this done so I I would say we want you to start um getting information or you know numbers and cost um and and who that contractor will be what will the what will the cost be um to take you know 20 30 40 people 50 people off the weight list in the meantime okay so that if I understand this correctly there's no money with this motion it's just asking to go ahead and start the second phase of vetting with a with a current staff and knock out as many as you can and then come back to us and say in a month there's let's say there's 40 are
219we going to appropriate from fund balance money to feed those 40 just asking but most so in two weeks so in two weeks not only will we have that but hopefully we will have a price from a contract vendor that maybe that we'll be able to if we're able to do 10 to add 10 per week um with current staff how many more can we do with a vendor commissioner Merl may I just add one point to that so I think in terms of coming back with the cost for the contract staff and an estimated number that we could complete per month with the contract staff member we can certainly uh obtain that cost in light of the fact that we have Christmas and New Year's and we do have to actually schedule the home
220visits not talking about our staff but the clients that are on the waiting list we have to they obviously have to welcome us into their home as well uh so there may be a delay in that time frame and it might be more prudent to come back maybe at the second meeting in January for that component um if well to provide meaningful dat get started yeah let's get started and I do agree you'll have more information at the second January meeting but you know get started right right away and um and then we'll have more you know information at the the second meeting I agree with that timeline M Madam chair yes um Janet I just got a real hopefully just a real quick question okay and I have all the time in the world
221sir I am here for you okay Dennis Joiner is not here tonight so you're it Dennis if you're watching buddy so um so my my question is is I mean obviously we've discussed a lot of things um on this topic and and I just want to make I just want to make sure when we go to the second stage of vetting like what's being discussed at that point is there an expectation from the folks being vetted that they will start receiving meals because because here we would need to very clearly communicate what is occurring and see that that's my concern is that you know if we press forward with that second stage of vetting are we creating an expectation you know there that we may or may not be able to fund and and so
222you know I think that we should be careful with this because you know if you put it out there and you say hey we're going to go ahead and proceed with um with the next step in vetting and they are already familiar with this process then they're going to be saying to us and obviously to your department H hello hey you know I I've proceeded to this next step you know when can I start expecting the service and so I think that we need to manage our expectations with this um so that we don't um get out over our skis you know before the board's had enough time to sit here and say okay well this is how much it's going to cost us um so just just my question and my point if there
223is a motion taken and Direction provided for us to take any action we will make sure that we are very clear in our messaging and we'll need direction from you all in regard to what that might look like I think and I think you've been pretty clear on that and a point of clarification too I think I heard earlier if I'm not mistaken that once a a client has completed the questions filled out the form had the home visit I think you said meals could could begin within a few days technically speak two to three days so you know once we follow the procedure let's say a week for good measure but a few days is yes you know on once all these boxes have been checked meals can start going to those people and
224it sounds like we do have funds to get started although it's onetime funds but that's why we're not going all in we're being cautious with a smaller number than than a bigger number no that failed um that failed that failed there's no yeah the 200 but but what I'm saying is is we have funds when this number comes back to work with but it's available it's available if we choose to do that may I make one other point and I apologize that I'm not certain on this but um the title of the form is actually a registration form the Dos 101 form I would like to have the chance uh if you all take action tonight or not either way to just verify that the information I just provided is correct meaning that we can
225go ahead and complete the form and not put them on the program actively um because I do not want to missp to that so if a motion is made if that could be included as part of that motion that would be very help in case there is a restriction that would preclude us from being able to complete that and not actively put them on if they are then qualified Madam chair yes if I can just comment um again very briefly so I I am I am perfectly fine with reaching out to Municipal partners and and you know uh contacting our state folks doing everything that we possibly can to try to gain some support within our borders for this program um I I think that we should just be careful with this vetting process because
226again to your point I think that you're creating an expectation that it's going to require board action for us to service that may or may not pass so so would you prefer us wait let staff go to municipalities ucps churches um ubas um uh even the dasis for Catholic Church to go to them first before we move forward with the vetting process for these citizens through the chair um yes I think that that would be the the thing to do is to you know again see what kind of support we can get from um from our our municipalities um any other partners that we can that we can reach out to um and then see what we're working with and at that point you know we can proceed with additional vetting because again I don't
227want to create an expectation and then you know we're we're looking at you know $100,000 $200,000 $300,000 of fund balance and then that now becomes recurring cost and it's going to be something that's going to have to be budgeted and so listen I'm not saying that we don't that we don't do something here but what I am saying is is let's take this one step at a time yeah thanks my so um would that mean you withdrawing your motion would that she would her motion or modify I will modify that we wait for staff to visit citizens to complete the vetting process until after staff comes back to us with hopefully commitments from municipalities ucps and area churches through through the chair yeah if I may um I I think that and and I think
228this is where you're where you're going but just to just to clarify um I I think that what we're asking staff to do is to direct staff you know to reach out to Municipal partners and other potential Partners in the area for um well see who might be yeah see who might be interested in funding this this program we we just have to come up with new creative ways to get this funded and I think this is a really good start there's motion okay that's the motion on the floor okay all those in favor say I yes can we commissioner HS okay okay so we are going to direct staff to reach out to municipalities ucps churches and under other funding sources to see what they can contribute so once we get that information back
229staff is going to start the vetting process after we get that information back but that would Rec can I ask one question of the staff I mean is this something feasible this something that y'all can do they they can ask they can ask course they can say no well I wanted to know problem ask yeah that clarify good that clarify okay let's go all right okay all those in favor of the motion say I I all those oppose no okay motion passes four to one okay thank you all right okay next on our agenda is item 24- 858 consideration of acceptance of an offer to purchase county-owned property I want to recognize County Manager Brian Matthews concerning this item thank you madam chair this is the reverter interest um that uh the county owns with
230the old Shiloh School om manro Road um we did receive an offer to purchase from um Union Academy which currently uses that facility and and in fact they have some ownership rights to that um property U the county went through a um upset bid process we did not receive any upset bids um at at the current po um stage we need a decision from the board do you wish to accept that offer do you wish to reject that offer um do you wish to allow for additional offers um and so it need some direction from board on from the board on how to proceed with the offer that's currently on the table make a motion Madam chair make a motion to reject the offer any questions comments can I ask for clarification would that rejection
231mean also in that you do would not entertain an additional offer on that unless of course it were for the actual cost of the land in the building that is correct that is included my motion um and I will go a step further that it is not for sale we are not this this property is not for sale okay any comments questions all those in favor of the motion say I I I all those opposed pass this okay um I would like to take a 10-minute recess um real quick um we will be let's see what time is it right now what time do we want to come back yeah we'll be back at 9:45 thank you recess e e e that's okay the board is back from a 10-minute recess the next item of
232business is item 24868 contract Amendment for ML Consulting LLC as commissioner Brian HMS requested that this item be placed on the business agenda I will recognize um first I'll recognize commissioner Brian HS and um management staff the county manager um to take it from here thank you uh Madam chair um so I I I want to first of all um say this that you know I I asked for this item to be on business because I I believe that this is a uh a decision that that may generate more discussion hopefully not as much discussion as the last item um but uh but uh first of all I want to say this I want to I want to to thank U Michelle Lancaster um for all of her service to the county um I I
233want to thank her for her service as she was our uh our Deputy County manager there for a while um I want to thank her for the service that she's provided the county for uh Consulting work that she's been doing over the last couple years um however I I also look at this and and I liken the the Consulting contract that we're looking at with this item as very much you know what would happen in the private sector and you know it's been my experience in the private sector that we have consultants for short-term things um that don't last years at a time and and so I I want to make this clear that you know again I'm not um I think we should all be thankful for Michelle service you know with what she's
234done but as I sit here I look at our at our County management staff and we have a County Manager we have a deputy County Manager we have an assistant County Manager we have strategy and Innovation directors we have um our economic our newly formed Economic Development Department we have facilities folks um so we have resources and and I firmly believe that we have the resources that we need in house to proceed with um these projects and and so I I say that to say this that I I would like to make a motion that we deny um the amendment with mrl Consulting and that we allow for the current contract to expire at the end of term thank you uh commissioner HS as always I I appre appreciate and value uh the perspective you
235bring from Corporate America um I too have a long resume in Corporate America um but having served Union County for 10 plus years um I do have to um unfortunately disagree with your motion on this Michelle Lancaster um has been a very valuable liaison uh to this board um the opioid crisis is um a national problem a world problem um hopefully that will be addressed in the next um presidential Administration with the border and what's coming in but until then we have an opioid crisis and Union County has been a identified as a very high concentration of opioid uh deaths and near deaths and um I think we're fortunate to have a resource um in local and state government um Michelle Lancaster has spent her Adult Career um in building Liaisons and contacts and relation
236ships with people across North Carolina that has benefited Union County um for example being able to to open a medical examiner's office when me mecklinburg uh dropped us and um so for those reasons and her expertise and I do agree Consultants are not meant to be carried over you know like a fulltime employee but we have um you know our legislative agenda she has those relationships we have the medical examiner uh the medical examiner um thing that's getting ready to launch just for Union County and hopefully we'll be able to add on a handful of other counties um in the coming year and we'll need her um her expertise um so I will not be able to support your motion to terminate her contract yes if I understand correctly cor me f along Mr Matthews
237uh this proposes to narrow her Focus just to the regional autopsy Center cor correct yes sir so and and and you know Michelle has taken on a number of projects over the last couple of years so she will be coming off of the opioid um project she will be coming off of the um legislative um project where she was LE a on and her Focus will be only that of the medical examiner's office okay my my concern is um as we heard tonight it's going to be at least three years before the autopsy Center is fully operational and implemented and I liken that project to the barn where going to have an executive director who's going to be I don't think you really Market an an autopsy Center but you'll have relationships with the counties
238and coordinating with all the various interests so I I think it is essential um as this project gets off the ground that we have a staff employee or a staff person that is responsible not just for the next year but ongoing forward to ensure the success of this yeah I I completely agree with you and if um in part of Michelle's um presentation she indicated that you will be getting uh in in the course of the next year few months or so a request to actually add a position that will become essentially the manager the person overseeing how this project runs operates um you can't run in a medical examiner's office or autopsy's office with just a pathologist you have to have other staff there and so we we are going to have to ramp
239that up hire staff um and and Michelle's role will decrease um she anticipates that it will take probably not a full year to get to the point where she is no longer involved in this um but she does have expertise she does have contacts with um with the state and that's why um staff has recommended that we consider um her role to continue we certainly understand the board may choose not to um Brian if I could just interject um we actually anticipated this happening and so as part of the budget for fy2 a position was already approved uh a business manager position to uh essentially take on the duties that Michelle had been doing uh and moving those two so there's already position approved in the budget that would be funded with um the medical
240examiner office funding um Michelle's contract if approved would would also be funded with um funding from the state Grant um because that's the anticipated um transition that that we we thought would occur so that position is already available in The Bu in the budget we haven't actually gone out recruited for that position because it's been as Michelle said it's been a little bit slow to get some things going and so we haven't had it had to expend those funds yet I have a question yes um I have multiple questions but I'll take them one at a time um who does Michelle report to go ahead well technically she reports to to the county manager her contract is with the county manager's office okay how often does she report to you uh it depends on the
241circumstances at least once a month sometimes more often okay so how are we keeping how is the board being informed how what she's doing for the county because I understand that from my understanding she has multiple contracts multiple itemsin her contract just one contract I I was under the impression she had contracts with other entities other entities okay so how is that information reported to the board so we are understanding what we're getting for what we're paying so essentially Michelle does these updates period periodically to the board that is the only way that she's been communicating other than to me um or to Patrick if I'm not around and there's something going on that that information doesn't necessarily or hasn't been communicated directly to the board it's only been in these specific um times okay
242so my understanding is she also contracts with wing at University is that correct at this point in time she's actually a full-time employee with wing University so she's a full-time employee with them she contracts with us how many hours does she work a week a month for Union County so it varies so I would say on a monthly basis if you if you add it all up she probably working somewhere in the 30h hour range so she's working 70 hours a week between wing it and us it depends yes ma'am it does it depends with issue with the barn since wing it is kind of in partnership with us who is she representing in that position is she representing wingit in their vision for the barn out in that area or is she looking out
243for UCP or Union County sorry she's not like working actually on the barn project now she may be working on behalf of wingit university for the barn project she's not working for us on the barn project she's working on opioid uh liaison and medical examiner's office but we also have a lobbyist that works for Union County and Michelle also does the same thing as a lobbyist does correct so we're basically double funding one position so a lobbyist I I'm I'm a lobbyist actually is at Raleigh they are the ones who are actually hearing the bills that are getting introduced Michelle is not in Raley she is not getting the you know hearing the bills that are introduced dealing with those people directly I would say her role is a little bit different I I understand
244where you're going it is a little bit different but it's but she does manage our our um lobbyist she manages that position and I will say that is one of the the items that's going away January 1 that is transitioning to me so what Michelle did is she would communicate with the lobbyist about what's H happening and then she would bring that back to us and then we would bring that to you all um obviously this last six months has been a little bit unique in Raleigh with the with the short session um but that is communicate with uh the lobbyist in Raleigh and bring that information back to you it won't be Michelle anymore so to to explain that a little bit further so she was going to stay on uh temporarily to see
245the medical examiner's office through and and help with the transition of opening that medical examiner's office and bringing on um you know the examiner um but she was transitioning away from our legislative agenda um and the opioid funds that is now going to be going to them inhouse right and and I will say about the the length of the contract I think none of us anticipated how difficult it would be to get through the bureaucracy and Raleigh with some of these contracts and some of these agreements it's taken a very long time and a lot of back and forth between um State staff because they don't necessarily this wasn't their idea this was a legislative priority to come to Union County so there's been a lot of meetings and I think Clayton myself and Bri
246we've all talked to Michelle probably on a weekly basis there are formal updates that she comes and gives um but we're in constant communication with Michelle and every time she is meeting with somebody and a lot of the time she has to have the same meeting three times before she gets anywhere whether we're getting that information um it's possible we haven't communicated that back to you all as as well as we we should but she does communicate with us pretty um consistently mam chair yes um so you just to kind of touch on what Comm commissioner Christina Helms was was getting at I I think that there's a question of of accountability and um and you know maybe maybe we're not getting that you know from from staff um but you know I think that
247when you look at it you know Consulting is very different than say a full-time employee and um and so there's not going to be you're not punching a clock all right so the only thing that we have to go on is what she's telling us um and what staff is you know communicating um and and you know going back to well she communicates with lobbyists and then then she goes back to staff and well why can't we communicate with the lobbyist and and so again maybe I'm looking at it very very simplistically um but I think that long-term Consulting contracts are problematic for the County um and so you I'll stand by my motion I would like to ask staff if this motion were to pass who do we have that would be able to
248step in to take over overseeing this medical examiner's office and our our new medical examiner um to begin doing autopsies this week I mean obviously there'll be one of us on the management team we'll just have to get up to speed we'll have to you know learn more about how the an autopsy Center operates and and that'll be one of our one of the three of us who will take that role on okay so point of clarification Michelle has never opened a medical examiner's office before she that's correct she oversaw um that process in mberg County but they didn't an open one they had it she just oversaw that's correct their functionality so so she she was on the tail end of it the daily operations sort of thing correct so so this has been
249a new game for her as well I mean she had background info that helped but we're beyond that point now correct yes ma'am okay so what in regards to the health department how can they jump in and assist if this motion passes can they I I I don't know that that's a role that they would play in this to be honest with you that's not a health department function again if the board is not interested in the contract we'll figure it out I we'll have to figure it out uh but I can't say that the health department is the right place for that to be okay did I I'm sorry can I just go we do not Michelle experience we're going to have to post the position sooner rather than later to Clayton's point to
250if we're not to have Melle we have to hire someone Plus benefits and salary and bring them to do what she's do independently we would seek to post the position immediately essentially regardless of how the decision um we are going to use the funding that the state has set aside for the autopsy Center for this position and we intended on using that for Michelle's contract as well if the board approved if you don't regardless we're going to use the funding from the State dollars that we Reed for this well I I just me if the plan was to have to get an executive director and I'm not sure if that's the right terminology for the position in place at some point um then I would think if this motion passes we could expedite that process
251to to your point start posting yeah we we would have to and I think our concern with two weeks left in the year is what gets lost in that transition um I I I I understand the concern with longterm Consulting contracts how how involved Michelle has been on this on a daily basis I would ask from a staff standpoint if they if you're not comfortable with the year at least a period of time to where we can transition um because right now contract ends at the end of this this calendar year and we we are we are capable we would figure it out but we are just on the doorstep of start starting autopsies and we would not want something to go wrong initially so we personally I would ask for a little bit of
252transition time if the board is open to that that they don't want to support a full year uh what kind of time frame did you have in mind I I would ask for six months I mean we might not need that whole time we would immediately post the position it does take time to hire positions around here it's usually a three-month turnaround um so it's just it's not quick it's holidays right now so we probably wouldn't get posted till the first of the year so I would I would think at the a minimum 6 months would give us the Comfort level to say we can get someone in get them up to speed and let Michelle transition that knowledge to that person Madam chair yes um I'm I'm not willing to amend the motion to
253six months I'm willing to amend the motion till the very last day of February 2025 two months two months so I will amend my motion um so that we continue with the contract as amended till the final day of February 2025 at that point the um the contract for consulting services with um um with Michelle would end at the final day of February 2025 I don't think anyone is not appreciating the things that Michelle has done I think the biggest concern is the length of the contract um she has great resources I'm not taking that away from her um my concern is the biggest thing that I have heard is we hear from her at the legislative breakfast and renewal of contract I don't know what she's doing for us what am I spending my
254money on what are we spending our taxpayers money on we have to be good stewards of the taxpayers money and I don't see it I'm sure she's doing a great job I don't see it that is my major problem again I've asked other board members I've asked staff who does she report to when does she show up are we getting our bang for our buck is what this comes down to again nobody's diminishing what she has done in the past and what she's currently doing my concern is the length of the contract and her reporting to staff who reports to us and I think there's been a breakdown maybe in communication because she she is working with staff often I mean monthly if not weekly or bi-weekly again and and honestly it's uh the chair
255and the vice chair who sets the agenda and ask her to come do a presentation and an update so perhaps the fault lies in the chair and the vice chair for not putting her on the agenda more often and and personally I would be okay to extend the contract three or six months for me personally but for another year no I would like to see it shorter term because again I understand we're in the government business right now however we need to get out of the mind of government business and start working being financially responsible to the taxpayers um and doing long-term contracts is not it well I I absolutely agree with what you're saying I really do but what we have been doing for the last two years in Michelle working with our state
256legislators and staff and this board for the last two years to be able to open a medical examiner's office in Union County is I mean this has been a Monumental yeah no Tak that away from her well yes we are yes we are we're taking that away from her because we didn't ask for a quarterly update or you know more updates when when it took a lot of work to be able to do our first autopsy in 2024 we're going to do our first autops this week and that family will not be on a backlog in Raleigh waiting to get their family member laid to rest and so that is the only disagreement I have yes we have to be fiscally responsible but we also have to be responsible to the taxpayers of Union County
257that have that have lost a loved one and don't don't know why and so and and and I will tell you right right now we would not have a medical examiner's office or a licensed medical examiner none of this would would have been possible if Michelle Lancaster had not been working tirelessly every week for that autopsy to happen tomorrow and there are other counties that also got dropped by mecklinburg county that if when Union County gets this up and running we'll be able to start doing Anson county cabis county and I work I work in the eighth congressional district I I work with eight other you know eight other Sheriff Offices and they are so they cannot believe that Union County did do because their people are waiting on autopsies also because they got dropped
258by mecklinburg and they're waiting to lay their loved ones to rest too so I just want to say bravo bravo Union County for doing what even our state legislators said couldn't be done and Michelle Lancaster got it done and I don't know how we're going to do this without her I'll just say that I don't know where we go at the end of this contract I don't know what we're going to do with these families who need an autopsy and and now the person who got this done for our county is not going to be around to see it you know to see it through for the next three months 6 months 12 months I I think we're I think we're in trouble uh commissioner Mr Helms would you accept a friendly amendment to uh
259instead extend the contract for six months for a smooth transition to an executive director as a fulltime employee would you accept that amendment to your motion through the chair yes yes um commissioner Sid I I think that the the point here is is that we we started discussing this you know over a year ago and um and a year ago you know we were trying to set the the pathway you know so that um so that we could you know move on from this contract and and so I'm I'm anxious for the county to start taking on this responsibility um and so I understand where you're going I I really do and and I and I understand the um the the the the thought process there that okay we're going to need some time but
260I can tell you I mean and Mr Deputy County Manager you correct me if I'm wrong but are you not you know kind of in the know on on these projects as well all right if if if Michelle's been communicating with our County staff then I'm assuming that you know you guys are somewhat up to speed here I'd say it's accurate we're up to speed but she has a relationship she's been in all the meetings she knows the doctor she knows the atrium contacts so it yes we we know what's happening but it would take some time to transition those relationships transition those contracts so where we will feel Comfort we will do whatever the board wants and if if this is what the board decides we we we'll figure it out it's just we
261don't want the the department to suffer because there's a transition um so I think that's our concern at this point that we don't want to rush this thing as a transition from what Michelle's been doing to what we will be doing and we know we will be doing and miss something in in the meantime and I think that that's a valid concern but I think we've also heard from our County Manager we just heard that again from our Deputy County manager that you know the county will will proceed you know we're gonna we're going to make this thing work and so you know I believe it would be a luxury at this point you know to give it 6 months um I still prefer the uh the end of February you know I I think
262that you know we have to make um a firm decision and um and listen you know the County's going to go on the County's going to go on without any you know there's any one of us um the county will proceed so um so I I would prefer to stay with my original motion so if I understood correctly we are going to be undertaking autopsies for Union County effective tomorrow yes right okay they'll be available they'll be as needed of course but we have everything in place to assume that responsibility it's and then what I I can't remember what she said Anson County's next okay okay so we have a motion on the board there are no other comments all those in favor of Mr Bri H's motion please say I all those opposed the
263motion fails um I would like to make a motion um to um I would like to make a motion to approve the extension of the agreement for 11 months for the additional contract term say that the county would be um ml consulting's primary client that any additional clients be disclosed and approved by the count and that any future contract renewal or extension or terms term options be approved by the board of County County Commissioners with the county manager authorized to terminate the agreement if deemed in the best interest of the county if there are no comments or questions for the motion all those in favor say I all those opposed I would like to make a motion Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that the board approved the extension of the agreement for
264six months of the contract for mrl Consulting as their primary client with any additional clients being dis disclosed and approved by the county and that any future contract renewal or extensions of the term options be approved by the board with the county manager authorized to terminate the agreement if deemed in the best interest of the county your motions all in favor the motion say I all those opposed so the motion carries to okay next on the agenda is item 24851 appointment of Commissioners to boards and committees solution yeah we have an addition we we had two matters we had the EDC matter and then the uh the s382 resolution your microphone no okay so um we had two amendments to the agenda um I am going to direct this uh the next one the dissolution
265of the um Monroe City Union County Economic Development um committee I'll um hand this over to commissioner Gary sides thank you madam chair uh I make a motion that the board authorize the County Attorney to send a letter to the city of Monroe regarding the following actions the board agrees with the city of Monroe to move forward with the dissolution of the Monroe Union County Economic Development commission as soon as reasonably possible two the board agrees with the city that the county and the city should jointly work on a plan for a dissolution of the EDC three the board agrees the following should be included in the plan of dissolution for the EDC that the county and the City of Monroe have mutual access to EDC records pursuant to applicable law and that the county
266and City work together to itemize a list of assets for distribution to the parties as City County owned City owned or EDC owned in accordance with the interlocal agreement and the board calls for a meeting of the EDC board of directors to be held in the near future for The Limited purpose of authorizing a person to pay necessary current and valid invoices and obligations of the EDC authorizing a person to oversee the dissemination of EDC records to Union County in the city of Monroe pursuant to applicable law and authorizing an inventory of assets and property to be ultimately distributed to Union County and the City of Monroe pursuant to the interlocal agreement thank you commissioner sides are there any questions or comments all those in favor of the motion say I I I all those
267opposed motion passes 5 okay the next um one we had was uh the resolution um I'm going to toss it over to commissioner Brian hams regarding the support of repeal or amendment of section 3k. one of session law 20 24- 57 thank you madam chair um so the the resolution is um you know appearing on the screen here and and I think that everyone here is familiar with um Senate Bill uh 382 and and what this this resolution does is it obviously um expresses the County's support for repealing U that final section so that would be section 3K uh do1 one of session law 2024 57 and what that does is that pertains to um to down zoning and and what this bill has done is this prohibited um in a lot of ways prohibited
268down zoning by counties unless you know they receive um certain Express written u u permission you know from Property Owners um just in my opinion I I believe that this is um this is governmental overreach and U and so with that in mind I I'll I'll make the motion that the board adopt the resolution in support of repeal or amendment of section 3K do1 of session law 2024-the motion say I I I all those opposed okay thank you that passes fa okay um next on the agenda is item 24- 851 appointment of Commissioners to boards and committees the positions available to be filled by Commissioners are listed in an attachment to this agenda item and each commissioner has been provided a hard copy of the list of available positions we will go through the list
269of boards and committees one by one and will vote on appointments to each board and committee where there is a current commissioner appointed to the Border committee this appointment can remain the same or the board May select different Commissioners for the appointment so let's begin uh top of the list the first one is the agriculture Advisory Board um I'd like to appoint Clancy bcam okay all those in favor say I I I okay the next one is the Kataba river water supply project governing board um I do not think we currently have anyone on that one we do okay it's blank yeah um so so I currently serve on there uh commission well um former commissioner David Williams was serving on there as well okay um so there are two openings on this board um
270I would prefer to stay on this board if if the board sees fit so we need to appoint one other individual is there are there is there another commissioner interested in serving with uh Brian HS on the Kataba river water supply project yes awesome okay all those in favor of Brian hams and Clancy balam serving on the Kataba river water supply project governing board please say I I thank you very much centralina Council of government we currently have um Brian Helms um how many positions do we have on that one one just one pos just one seat yes ma'am okay would you like to continue serving in that capacity um I would be open for another commissioner to to take that on um what what I find is that there's some difficulty there uh with
271crtp in centralina so I think the county would be better served if we can have another volunteer from the board okay so the floor is open okay um I will take that one um all those in favor of Melissa Merill serving on the central Ina Council of governments please say I I I thank you very much okay centralina Economic Development commission um Madam chair yes I I'm wondering if we have to appoint someone for this committee I have the same concern because I I think that that's included with centrolina Council of governments um but I'll defer to staff for clarification sorry I was asking one question Central Economic Development I don't even honestly know what that is um can we come back to it yeah we'll T we'll table that committee especially given our current
272economic um development situation we'll table that one um Madame clerk if you don't mind making note of that um the economic development Board of advis I think that's kind of tabled right now def we will table that the Monroe okay the next one table for the Monroe Union County Economic Development commission we just um made a motion to dissolve that and work with Monroe City next committee is the Fire Commission Mr chair M chairman um that um commission has not met in quite some time and I think it would it would be better if we work towards just dissolving that all together we're talking about the fire Comm Fire Commission so I would recommend you not appoint anyone to that and then we work to dissolve that Okie do sounds good to me the next
273one is Human Services Board I'll take that one I'm sorry was that Mr sides me over here okay all those in favor of uh commissioner side serving on the Human Services Board please say I I I very good okay job ready partnership Council and I would just ask the county manager if you have any input on these um it appears that we currently don't have anyone we did have someone okay so it is open it is it is open is anyone interested in the job ready partnership Council and I believe that one meets around lunch um oh I'm in seriously should should we put food or not beside all the categories if I got a br I'll take it okay all those in favor of commissioner Gary side serving on the job ready partnership Council
274please say I I I I the juvenile crime prevention Council open also it meets on Wednesdays around 8:00 um Madam chair yes um Miss Lyn how often does that um how it's like monthly monthly okay I believe who was on that before so Madam chair I have some interest in serving there but um but if they're meeting monthly I can't guarantee that I can be there so do you want an alternate you want to do it and then have an alternate you can't make it think um is that um chair MC Miss Le is that possible that we can assign an alternate to that as well or is that is that one of those boards that's only I think it's only for the member I will say that they struggle for a quorum so even
275if you weren't able to make every month making they struggle to a handful um is better than nothing so whoever can show up however often you can is better than not having anyone on there okay any takers I mean I well Gary if you think that you can make it then go ahead I can make it go ahead okay Gary size all those in favor of commissioner Gary sides serving on the juvenile crime prevention Council please say I I I Library Board of Trustees I'll do that one all those in favor of commissioner Christina Helms serving on the library Board of Trustees please say I I I local emergency planning committee has a vacancy they meet at lunch as well don't they they they do offer days pack me quarterly quarterly I'll uh M Madam
276chair if there's no interest I I'll got some interest there I'll okay okay um all those in favor of commissioner Brian Helm serving on the local emergency planning committee please say I I I okay the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning organization currently commissioner Brian HMS serves it looks like we would also need an alternate I'll volunteers an alternate Madam chair I I would prefer to remain on that committee okay very good um all those in favor of um Brian HMS continuing his service on the Charlotte Regional Transportation Planning organization with commissioner Gary sides is the alternate please vote by saying I I I parks and Rick Advisory Board I am currently on that one I'll do that one um all those in favor of commissioner Christina Helm serving on Parks and Rick Advisory Board please vote
277by saying I I I the Rocky River rural planning organization Transportation advisory committee I currently um sit on on that one and I believe Jr um was the alternate um is anyone interested in being the alternate they um tend to meet um uh in Stanley County um if anyone and they usually have dinner M Madam chair how if food is the how often do they meet is um it's it's not that I mean what would you say um Madam clerk how often do they technically are they supposed to meet it look like quarter or three months quarterly yeah typically it's about every months and they and they do will be meeting here in September okay in September nice um anyone interested in being the alternate Clancy balam okay all those in favor of Melissa Merill
278continuing to serve on the Rocky River rural planning organization Transportation advisory committee with Clancy balam is the alternate please say I I okay s pedmont Community College um we reappointed Jerry Simpson on June 3rd 2024 um his term will expire in 2028 does not require a new appointment so we're good on um spcc um uh School liaison will be the chair and the vice chair um so that will be um Melissa Merill and commissioner Brian HMS do we need to vote on that since it's automatically the chair and the vice share no okay huh we we've had some questions on that in the past I think it's probably wise to go ahead and vote okay um I will speak up and say that up until about four years ago um it was it's not traditionally
279the chair and the vice chair automatically um so all those in favor of Melissa Merill and Brian HMS serving uh this term is the school liaison please vote by saying I I I uh Transportation advisory no appointment made um in 2023 does anyone have an interest in serving on the transportation Advisory Board the transit system this is the localit system local Transit provide lunch and how often do they meet I believe it's quarterly quarterly what exactly are respons our own transportation department that this is the this is the group that is for I got you um I have an interest in that I I will put my name in the Hat for that one um all those in favor of Melissa Merill serving on the local transit system transportation Advisory Board please vote by saying
280I I I okay um the Yadkin river water supply project Advisory Board we need two Commissioners um are there two Commissioners I'm my name was on that are there two Commissioners that are interested in the Yadkin river water supply project Advisory Board Bo so um M Madam chair so so we need two appointments there so okay so this would be the uh essentially the uh the same type of Advisory board that we've got with the katal do they meet in the evening says during the day I think they meet during the day I I'll volunteer for one of the positions are are you going to continue on yourself I'll continue on with you okay all those in favor of G commissioner Gary s and commissioner Melissa Merill serving on the Yadkin river water supply project
281Advisory Board please say I I I and the last um one is Partners board of directors um no appointment needed so we're complete well this and the only thing that I would ask is is if Madame clerk when you receive imitations if you would um put these into our calendars um and just make us aware and remind us where we need to be um and what they're serving that day thank you very much and thank you for always helping to keep us organized okay that takes of that I will now go to the county manager for commun I have no comments okay um I will start with uh commissioner Gary sides we'll start at your end of the Das tonight for comments Merry Christmas and happy New Year commissioner Brian hams thank you madam chair
282um yeah so it's been a long night so no comments other than uh Merry Christmas and I'll Echo happy New Year as well thank you okay I just want to wish everyone um a very Merry Christmas and a very healthy happy prosperous new year and I just ask for everyone to travel and um make very safe decisions while you're out celebrating this holiday season um we've been here long enough merry Christmas happy New Year please be safe I've enjoyed spending the night with y'all there's cops in the back and I hope yall all have a Merry Christmas and with that I will make a motion to adjourn okay all those in favor say I I thank you staff thank you everyone Merry Christmas