BOCC Regular Meeting | 02/06/23

001okay it's like the convene the out the um January or February the third sixth meeting sorry about that at the Union County Board of Commissioners and um with that Vice chairman Melissa Merrill has invocation and Pledge of Allegiance [Music] our heavenly father we come before you tonight as a board and staff with thankful hearts for our Union County and we ask for blessings and protection over each and every one here young and old as we work to represent our County we humbly ask you for your grace wisdom and discernment as we make decisions here tonight and always we ask for your continued blessings over Union County our state in this great country especially for those who serve and protect us and your holy and precious name amen foreign next we have the informal comments I

002believe we have a couple of people signed up for informal comments uh Samantha Dome and if you would just tell where your what city you live in okay sounds good I'm Samantha Don I live at 3616 Bounty Court which is technically a Matthews address which is the reason I'm up here tonight so I am speaking to you today as a resident of Union County and I hope in the months and years to come that remains true my property is one of many on the Union County Mecklenburg County border that could potentially be transferred to Mecklenburg County we purchased a Union County home the thought of being transferred to Mecklenburg County based on a decades-old error is frankly inconceivable I grew up here in Union County and when the opportunity presented itself for my family to

003move back we took it we moved here for the Fantastic schools lower taxes and conservative values that Union County is known for I was horrified to see my property highlighted on the map that was presented by our tax assessor as possibly impacted I listened to the Mecklenburg County born accounting commissioner meeting where they discussed this issue I listened to one commissioner make disparaging remarks about Union County my home I listened to their Commissioners speak only of financial impacts and completely ignore the human ones the impacts on families must not be overlooked in these discussions at their in their own tax assessors words the tax revenue that could be potentially gained by Mecklenburg County was not even needle moving so the impact Mecklenburg County if these homes transfer is very very small but the impact of

004families is incalculable if actions need to be taken I'm requesting that this board and Mecklenburg County do right by the impacted homeowners and take the necessary steps to honor the county information provided to Residents when they purchase those homes Union County is my home and I want to keep it that way thank you I appreciate your time tonight thank you next we have David ransenberg hello I'm David ransomberg I live in Charlotte at 7514 Christopher place um I feel kind of humbled by what she was said but um I want to tell you guys about a project that I'm trying to do and I believe my partner talked to you Mr rushing Doug Levin it's um it's so far off of um Stevens Mill Road and we went through a lot of iterations and discussions

005with the town of Stallings so we tried to take advantage of their small area plan which increases the density and I believe that's what Union County wants in terms of be efficient with their utilities went through a lot of process went through a lot of of public hearings and everything and the the public works department actually began telling us what we needed to do for sewer and the problem was is that it was kind of misleading and off completely we spent the next three years trying to get an understanding what it was and I talked to Mr Matthews as well so I come here today because I feel like we're doing the right things in terms of what needs to be done in Union County what's been requested of us to do and what our

006arduous process has presented us with so I'm requesting you guys to take a very close look at the Crooked Creek expansion for the sewer and I I say that not only for myself but I think it's the wise thing to do in my opinion about expanding density along a major Corridor I think that's where you guys want it but I'm not 100 sure it makes sense to me um so while I uh stand here humbled asking this I do think that not only mine but all the projects involved in this would pay for itself with that extension very quickly um I figured out mine mine alone with my taxes alone to Union County would be about a three percent return from the 15 million dollars it takes and there's a numerous number of other um

007projects along there including the expansion of the hospital so in my in my circumstance being kind of LED down a couple of paths that I thought were correct and also by the public works who gave us some information that turned out to be incorrect and I'm in this process right now that I'm waiting for you guys to to approve this thing so I can get on with what I thought everybody wanted so thank you thank you okay that's all we have signed up to speak did anybody miss the sign up sheet or would like to speak okay next uh we have public hearings um first we start with 23-024 public hearing rezoning requests cz2022-003 some some say a salmonelling seven now there you go and uh you're gonna be handling this one more yes sir

008I gave you Mr chairman members of the board this is a public hearing for a rezoning that is cz-2022-003 meaning it is a conditional rezoning this is a request to rezone one parcel that's a little more than two acres along Crane Road near Marvin Ridge High School to subdivide it into four Lots this would be R20 with conditions would be the specific zoning District the conditions are listed below it's essentially taking one existing home knocking the house down dividing into four lots and then developing them this is the site plan there is a private drive not a public road but a private drive that would serve all four Parcels so all four would be served by this and one of the benefits compared to a buy right development is that this would actually be a

009road that is 20 feet wide as opposed to just a gravel driveway that would be more difficult to serve for emergency vehicles in terms of existing conditions Crane Road a lot of buffering from adjacent subdivisions but you can see them from the adjacent parcel specifically to the south of the site this is the existing house that's on site in terms of development status again you can see that there's a lot of subdivisions nearby the overall zoning is is R40 but these were developed under a combination of smart growth and cluster subdivisions over the years so this would be R20 which is different than what the surrounding zoning is in terms of environmental features there's no streams or Wetlands on site it is forested however the zoning again is R40 which is consistent with the area

010around it Transportation Crane Road carries approximately 8 800 cars per day that counts a couple years old and there's no funded improvements along Crane Road land use plan calls for this area to be single-family residential which with when utilities are present recommends a density of approximately two units per acre Public Schools were commented or I'm consulted for comments and they said because it's considered minor it won't have a noticeable impact on schools Union County Waters comments for that site does have access to water sewer and it's within the Six Mile Basin which has sewer capacity public feedback community meeting was held in November seven attendees was actually held at Marvin Village Hall and no comments or email no phone calls or email comments have been received some questions have been asked but no comments about

011the rezoning and Municipal feedback was solicited from Marvin and none has been received as of today so this was presented to the planning board last month we noted that in terms of negatives obviously if you're taking one partial and turning it into four so there will be an increased impervious surface and potential runoff from that but the positives are that this can be served by utilities the density is consistent with the comprehensive plan and the fact that it includes that cul-de-sac will improve fire service for the rear two parcel so we recommended approval planning board recommended approval and tonight we're asking for public hearing to be conducted and then action taken at your February 20th meeting so I'm happy to answer any questions I did not see the applicant in the audience I don't know

012if you showed up since then but they were at the planning board any questions just one uh the demolition of the existing home was there a resident there or no longer there I believe it's empty but I can't say for sure but I'm pretty sure it's empty any other questions recommendation from the planning board split or unanimous it was unanimous all right and you said the uh developer was here I don't believe they're here okay so no other questions all right thank you very much close that public hearing and next yes oh uh yeah I didn't have anyone signed up anyone the audience want to speak for against the project all right none now close the public review thank you next we have you can send agenda we just have the one color camera next

013you have the consent agenda anyway I want to make a motion to remove anything from consent all right motion to approve consent agenda all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed no these hours [Applause] next we have a business we're gonna put the opioid settlement at the first unless there's any objections anybody have a objections to that I think we have some folks in to talk about that and they would they asked if they could go first any objections no let's uh start with 23-048 opioid settlement work uh work group report and recommendations thank you very much Mr chairman board members I'm going to kick this presentation off this evening with a little bit of background and then we have several folks in the audience who are going to help present the work

014that the opioid work group has been doing over the last several months for your consideration tonight just a little background a refresher for folks regarding the opioid settlement there's some key points here the state worked with the national opioid settlement of 26 billion dollars that North Carolina is receiving 757 million with 80 percent of that slated to go to local governments and 15 percent to the state to deal with the opioid crisis in local communities so several months ago this board entered into an MOA with the state that outlined how the money would be divided between the state counties and a few municipalities and how it could be used and these dollars will be received over the next 18 years so this has a very long Runway and expectation of how these dollars will be

015used in the future this simply shows you what the expected share from that initial MOA will be for Union County so just slightly less than 9.5 million dollars between 2022 and 2038. the first calendar year you see there's expected slightly larger chunks of the settlement that would come we have received These funds they have to be placed in a special Revenue fund to be used only for these purposes one of the things that I wanted to highlight and some of you may have seen this in the last couple of weeks there actually are expected additional settlements and so a pretty large one has just occurred another Nationwide settlement that involves some of the large retailers and that one is expected to be about the same amount of money that would come to the to North

016Carolina and the local governments so another nine million dollars with the same expectations we will be asked and we will bring this to you when we have received it to sign another MOA with basically the same expectations but just reiterating those for this future settlement and how those dollars would be used so you can kind of keep that in mind that this will probably look more like 18 million dollars over the next 18 years at least so the way that Union County chose to to look at this settlement and how it could be used in the community was to put together a work group that started working last year at the in August I believe is when we had our first meeting we gathered folks together who represent the community either from an expertise standpoint

017or their perspective professionally and how they work in the community we identified with that group a mix of short-term and long-term approaches for addressing the opioid situation specifically in Union County so looking at Union County data Union County perspective Union County experience and all the the talent that came into the room to have those discussions and this is really to look at how we can utilize these funds best in a place where we don't do direct opioid work currently so we knew we needed to kind of think a little differently about how we would approach this so here are the the list of folks many of them are here in the room so I would ask anybody who participated in the work group to stand so you can see the the group of folks that

018you have the talent they bring a lot of talent a lot of commitment they worked incredibly hard spent a lot of hours together with Ed Gagnon being the facilitator and then tonight you're going to hear from many of them and then I'm going to come in at the close with the ask that we have to support the recommendations so I'm going to hand it off to Stephanie Stark all right good evening chairman and board members I'm here tonight to discuss the impact of the opioid crisis here in Union County and there are a few data points that I want to mention um first the number of deaths and the number of emergency room visits were much higher between 2020 through 2022 that in 2019 second when we look at the data on the opioid overdose

019emergency department visits I know this slide is super busy and this is 2022 data you can see that the opioids are impacting all populations and age groups in Union County and while no populations are immune to the impact the data on this slide shows that those of white ethnicity and those in the 25 to 44 year old range are impacted disproportionately higher than the percentage of those groups make up of the total population in addition it's also important to note that fentanyl which is you can see in purple on the left hand side of the screen is now contributing issue and at least one emergency department visit each month except for one month on here whereas in 2018 2019 there were absolutely none emergency department visits documented with fentanyl so that is definitely something we're

020seeing a huge rise in and the last data point that I want to point out and again I know this is also a pretty colorful slide but this slide shows the suspected opioid related calls made to EMS between January through November of 2022 and although there are a few spots that have higher volume of calls this map also demonstrates that opioid impact all areas of our County so you can see numbers in the east in the west the North and the South so again opioids they affect everyone and everywhere in this County and I'm going to hand over the presentation to Heather Gardner and Dalton Russell who are going to share some additional information about the impact of opioids with you hi my name is Heather Gardner I'm executive director of Cameron's House of Hope

021um I just wanted to touch base the overdoses in the slide that Stephanie shared with you tonight represents children right here in our community whose parents have died of an overdose who have been affected they've lost the parents of this drug overdose the children of parents and active addiction are living but trauma in very in many many forms so I want to just highlight a couple of those trauma pieces that would be abandonment feeling unloved shame stigma in their schools isolation the emotional neglect that they receive in their household of not receiving any love feeling unwanted loneliness isolation again verbal abuse physical abuse um clothing and food insecurity so those are just to name a few the feeling of guilt that the child carries they blame their self for their parents addiction at times the

022fact that suicide is a thought in their young mind is too much for the children to Bear especially when you're ages 8 10 and 12. so we need to address their emotional and mental health before they grow up to numb the pain of their childhood trauma with another substance and greater there's going to be more overdoses from that so investing in the lives of our children in our schools our department of social services and the community will help prevent substance use in their future thank you yeah my name is Delton Russell I work for Partners Health Management also I'd like to state I'm also a person in long-term recovery um so I share that with you to share that this is the lens that I'm approaching this from um I will say that each each

023one of these numbers on that screen that that's a human being that that's a person's life and as my partner mentioned um you know childhood trauma is a leading predictive indicator that a person will wind up in active addiction and we know that an overwhelming majority to the tune of north of 90 percent we don't have the exact numbers but it's north of 90 percent in Union County children that are involved in child protective services their parents also live with addiction and if you were to take that back their parents probably also had some level of addiction there was some level of trauma there so on and so forth on down the line and it just grows and it gets bigger and it gets bigger it gets bigger so two things I want to highlight

024one unintentional overdose is the leading cause of death in our country under the age of 49. it is not getting better it is getting substantially worse as the data shows us on a daily basis right now today it is worse than it's ever been in the history of our country two I want to point uh point out to you that when people are in recovery not only do their children stop experiencing that trauma that those children also get the safe stable adult that they need to be able to help mitigate and manage the trauma that they've experienced people that are in recovery do things like buy homes they work jobs they pay taxes they're contributing members of society and I know this because that's my story that's who I am so anyways just wanted to

025say that thank you for having me here tonight appreciate you okay I'm gonna present a little bit longer as deputy director Lancaster mentioned a little while ago the opioid settlement work group was about collaboration everyone at the table at different expertise different knowledge and different philosophies and yet everyone came to work together to address this very important issue to come up with a unified vision mission and goals so how do we do this we met five times between August and December we agreed to use the state's collaborative strategic plan methodology which is in your exhibit a in your packet we actually listened to some partner presentations about best practice approaches to help those with opioid addiction we worked between meetings doing research and filling out surveys and we work to align our goals with the

026state's opioid substance use action plan goals of preventing opioid use reducing harm due to opioid related substance abuse and connecting affected individuals to care and support needed so our group came up with a shared vision mission goals and population indicators which are measures and we did all of this with a collaborative approach in mind and all of these as I mentioned were aligned with our state goals again which are which are on this page too so just to read our vision that we came up with because we're really proud of this it's to promote a healthier quality of life for the county Union County Community by preventing harm and death caused by opioid misuse um now I'm going to hand this over to Dr Dube from Wingate University who'll talk more about the root causes

027of the opioid crisis thank you chairman and board for having us here today it is absolutely no doubt that the opioid crisis continues to um wages War especially in Union County one of the things we came up with as a group is to really identify the root causes of the opioid crisis as a researcher somebody who's conducted epidemiologic research for two decades on substance use disorders which is a clinical diagnosis based on the American Psychiatric association gold standard we determined that evidence-based treatments are needed but in order to look at those evidence-based treatments and understand them we also have to understand what are the root causes so we can prevent and mitigate this opioid epidemic So to that end on this slide I highlight a few of the root causes these were identified not just

028from the research by researchers done over decades but when we came together as a stakeholder work group we also heard from the community members that their observation in the community validated what researchers were finding so for example over prescribing of pain medications due to marketing and promotions easy access us so I'm sure you're familiar or may be familiar with the statistic that in North Carolina over 20 percent of 11th grade students say they actually use prescribed medications without a prescription so easy access to both prescription medications without a prescription fentanyl use as was documented by Stephanie in terms of the increase of that in Union County as an illicit drug and also Heather outlining trauma adverse childhood experiences as she was discussing those are actually known risk factors for the opioid epidemic in adults and

029the problem is is we get to gaps in the community is that the response and the strategies there there's there's a lack of continuity of care especially for those who are really working to try to get treatments recovery they they get lost they get treatment there's no proper tracking don't know where they are so we really need to close that Gap in the community response thank you good evening everyone my name is Kevin Walsh I'm the owner and director of operations slash counselor for New Beginnings which is an outpatient treatment center here in Union County I've been hearing a lot of dismal stuff already from everyone tonight and I want to offer you a little bit of Hope okay and and that hope is treatment what we do know about opioid addiction as is all

030addictions is is that they are it is treatable okay and there's there's several different types of treatment options that are available we have uh what is known as as just regular in-office Outpatient Treatment there also is opioid treatment programs that are inpatient slash Outpatient Treatment programs they can vary from short term to long term either being 30 60 or 90 day programs then there's also residential communities some of you may be familiar with places like Bridges or ground 40 those types of residential communities also what we see to be very effective for opioid disorder is what's known as medicated assisted treatment okay now what medicated assisted treatment is it's a combination of the use of medications with counseling and other therapies right and it's it's actually been been um it's it's well it's probably one

031of the most popular type of treatments and most receptive by the person that is addicted and the reason being is because it it takes away the craving they don't have to go through the detoxification or the withdrawals I don't know how many of you familiar with withdrawals from opioids but they they're terrible imagine I'm sure all of you or some of you have had the flu imagine having the flu 10 times over okay that's what an opioid withdrawal is like and so a lot of people don't want to enter into recovery or treatment just because they don't want to suffer from the withdrawals and so it's important you know that we we take that craving away in that withdrawal and we can do that with medicated assisted treatment now this isn't just something where it's

032just you know one dose and and that's it okay it is also um combined with counseling and therapy and support once we take away that craving now we can start to focus on things like Arrested Development past childhood trauma past trauma period we can start to take care of basic needs food clothing shelter employment get people employment ready they can actually be on medicated assisted treatment and and hold down good jobs and steady jobs and um so it is it's proven to be be very effective and and like any kind of treatment okay we need support for that uh we need Community Support we need support from the family and you need support from the recovery community and and that's that's very vital and so to talk a little bit more about what the recovery

033Community has to offer is is dealt and he's going to come up here and and Enlighten you guys a little bit on some of the resources that he has all right so um it's really important that we have transitional housing for people that we have an opportunity for people to live in an area where they can um find sobriety be around other people that also support their sobriety while they're getting involved back in the community you know supported housing is incredibly important we want to increase naloxone and Sprint syringe access Services you know in doing so um we we increase the opportunities for people to stay alive because the truth is is that if I'm not alive then I can't recover you know it's very important expending expanding treatment resources like we talked about getting

034people involved in treatment getting people connected into inpatient treatment getting people connected into outpatient treatment medication assisted treatment all those things are incredibly important and then we also want to expand peer support as I was talking about before you know I shared with you guys I'm a person in long-term recovery having a person that's in long-term recovery to connect with somebody else is an incredibly important piece the great thing about a peer support specialist is a peer support specialist is a liaison between the client and the clinician the client is often coming from a world that they don't maybe always understand where the clinician's coming from and that peer support specialist can help bridge that Gap and once that peer support specialist is able to help bridge that Gap uh there's they're essentially creating more

035buy-in for the the person that's receiving those services to uh to engage with the clinician and that's a incredibly important piece in in making treatment more effective historically speaking the way that we've done treatment is we've kind of had this uh idea of like well it's over here show up if you want to if you don't you know whatever and we found that that's not always the most effective way to do it so having a peer support specialist having somebody that's doing community outreach that's building relationships it's creating buy-in that's an incredibly important and wildly effective piece uh to to making treatment more sustainable for folks therefore helping people find recovery that's more sustainable for them thank you so another key uh piece to the work we've been doing is really thinking about when these

036funds come in and we have these strategies that are aligned with North Carolina's exhibit a what are we going to do to ensure that we're making an impact on a community or in populations and that's where measurement evaluation and alignment for strategies comes in these are three strategies for the evaluation the first I highlight is alignment and we spoke about that the strategies we've developed as a work group actually align directly with the sample strategies from the state provided in exhibit a once we have these strategies we work together and with stakeholders to identify metrics or measures and key outcome indicators those are the outcomes we expect to see success in the population and we actually have already created a draft recommended list of measures however we understand that as the epidemic evolves we may

037need to actually revisit those metrics and continue the conversations and engaging stakeholders and lastly we will on the dashboard we will create a full comprehensive evaluation plan for each of the strategies we've developed so that we can collect valid reliable data and present it through dashboards and provide data visualization and continue tracking over time I'm gonna go back first and and go over these strategies one more time and and then I'm going to have our ask which is not to endorse any particular program any particular agency or organization but really is to endorse these strategies that everyone has worked for these last few months on coming to some Consolidated recommendation and it was an anonymous anonymous it was unanimous recommendation from the entire group they spent a lot of time sharing their own experiences and

038opinions but as you can see that we kind of categorize these in three buckets expanding and increasing existing efforts which would include increasing naloxone and syringe services in the community expanding treatment and Recovery resources increasing economic support for individuals via expanded Transportation options and low or no cost treatment options expanding peer support and substance use care coordination resources and in the second bucket creating new strategies so these are a couple of things that these aren't things that exist currently in this community so support the creation of drug courts we currently have a DUI specialty court but that's the only specialty Court we have and so there was a lot of support around creating more treatment courts in our system for Children and Families developing and implementing a community engagement and substance use disorder related professional

039development strategy and then our third bucket developing collaborative support structure and that's really bringing folks together you heard a couple comments about gaps and collaboration there really hasn't been a concerted effort for getting all the people around the table who are working in this space and making sure that we're you know not creating those gaps or we're not also working on it cross purposes when we know that there really isn't one solution we need a menu of options and we want to use these dollars effectively to do what's right for the community so this again just kind of shows you the dollars that we're talking about and I said you can basically double that the other thing that we would recommend as a group is that and this is really some information that we heard

040from some other counties and some of the professionals who work in this space is that we would like to make these initial funding recommendations when they come to you based on a three-year approach so giving folks and investment in their program or the service that would be provided for at least three years so that we can see what the data tells us long term this is not a one and done scenario and with the 18-year runway that we have we think that that makes a lot of sense we would anticipate having at least a semi-annual review by a collaborative group who would meet and work to evaluate progress with some County staff support we would refine these plans throughout the three-year period And I would anticipate that initially that group would have to meet much

041more regularly so that we get the dashboard put together and put together the resources that are needed to bring this forward many of this work group have agreed that they want to continue this work and this space so again what we're asking you to do or endorse those seven recommendations direct staff to come back in the next 60 days that staff is me and I'll find some other people to bring him back with me at the next time um to engage with others in the community to create plans for how these recommendations could be addressed we know that there are services in the community there's Cameron's house of hope there's ground for you there's bridge to recovery there's Kevin's program there are programs that exist that we think would make sense to make some investment

042in those programs but to flesh those out the needs that they have and align those in a way that that you can endorse those from a contractual relationship going forward and to bring high-level plans for expectations and performance measures back to the board additionally I would add that with treatment courts in particular since that's something that we don't currently do I'll need to continue to have some conversation with the judges and with judge Hucks and staff about how we would suggest a timeline for implementation that's not something that we could just say we want to do that tomorrow and it would happen so we want to bring you back some reasonable expectations for that and with that I'm happy to answer any questions I'm also happy to have any of these folks in the audience

043answer any questions that you might have any you might have any questions Dave could you go back to the strategy summary that strategies page yes um number three uh increase economic support via expanded Transportation options in low no cost treatment options the um the economic support via expanded Transportation options I know this is just strategy level at this point but would some of this funding be available for that that kind of thing okay great yeah so what we would be looking at is building Out programs and services that align with all of these strategies okay very good any other questions Mr chairman I've got a question Brian Helms um so on one of the previous slides when we were talking about metrics um it was mentioned that uh that our stakeholders were used to develop

044the metrics that we were intending to use in the dashboard my question is who were the stakeholders that were collaborated with it was all these things the 25 people that you had listed and many of them are here tonight they worked to identify State at the measures and you should have those in your agenda package that was sent to you a full report with all of those strategies and the appendix um but I can share those with you again if you if you'd like it was also said that um we plan to address gaps in the community so what specifically are we intending to do there are we intended to support the services that we have in the county like ground 40. can you expand a little bit further on that yeah I think that

045those will definitely be things I think one of the big pieces of that is just having an opportunity for all the folks who work in this space to spend more time in a collaborative manner like we've done over the last few months to talk about the issues that they're seeing to talk about the gaps that they think exist like I mean that's where some of these came from number three is a prime example that folks don't have opportunities for low or no cost treatment options they don't have opportunities for transportation all the time the things that it takes to get somebody in treatment that's going to work so really having those discussions and sharing information and making sure that we're all not working in silos and in isolation but really working in a collaborative manner

046okay and I would just say that you know it's been my experience that long-term support is um is something that's critical for treatment of addiction um so I mean I I'm a proponent for long-term support I do have concerns and I'll just say this I do have concerns with the uh number one here increasing uh naloxone which is also called Narcan and syringe service access if you look at other parts of the country this has been an issue it's been an issue where people can acquire this without prescription and it's been abused um I I would say that we need to be careful with that um my my concern also extends to you know the fact that we are looking to investing money with something like this however we have also other needs in our

047community such as diabetic supplies insulin you know so you're going to hear the argument from the people of our County that they're going to say essentially that hey you know we can spend on recovering for addiction but we can't help other folks that have similar needs for medication so thank you I would just like to thank everyone that was on this committee and the time um your personal time outside of your full-time responsibilities I just want to thank everyone that's here tonight that worked on this and um I definitely will be endorsing to move this forward and I will ask the chair um I'm not sure if you want emotion for us to vote on allowing staff to move forward to put together you know what they're going to do in the next 60 days

048or if you're if you want to vote or just everyone's input on if they're just endorsing what is the asking show I would like a vote to endorse the recommendations and and take this direction to staff okay I've got a couple questions too the Narcan that's what is the locks of naloxone that's what it is yes okay and that you know there is an argument like a like commissioner Brian Helm said about you know people that are diabetic but we do have programs you know for people with diabetes and and you know programs where they can get some medications uh yeah I guess this would be for to be sent home with people who have known problems not people just it's not like epipens right we're not sending them out like epipens just you might

049have one one day and you're going to get one correct right I mean they're they're offered in multiple places I mean one of our bigger users is law enforcement the sheriff's office has them in all their cars police departments have them in their cars I mean you can see what EMF how often EMS is using them one point I think it's 1.45 doses per call that's suspected drug overdose and I kind of see a dual prone approach here you know taking the people that are in their 20s and maybe early 30s people that are suffering with current addiction now and then those people before they get addicted the young children in schools that are that we're trying to stop this from both ends we don't want to stop this here after it's gotten that far

050because that's when you know one thing I see and I hear horror stories and if your family hasn't been touched by this you're lucky and and you may not know about it and you may get touched by it soon because I know many families of all income levels are touched by this problem um but I see I see families and these are people that I know are friends of mine they they just it looks they look at marijuana like it's no big deal and we watch it on television and we watch programs about where you know this state's you know illegalizing that State's legalizing and it starts somewhere uh so I think when we when our kids are watching television saying oh this is cool I can do this I can eat brownies with pot

051in them or whatever then they start looking well what's in the medicine cabinet you know it's hard to get pot but it's easy to get Mom and Dad's medicine pain medications and you know we've explained to our children how important it is to stay away from pain medications and being in the gun industry you know state law says that if you store your firearm in a way that a child can have access to it and they take that farm and they injure themselves or somebody else with it if they rob a store with it if they display it in a careless angry or threatening manner that the parent can be charged with the first class misdemeanor you know they can be charged with some serious crimes and you know our storage methods probably should be

052as equal for this drug and these drugs as they are for firearms and so maybe going to the state with our legislative goals of you know what's uh you know maybe the D.A can explain this is there anything now currently where a parent can be charged for having their medications stored in properly heard access utility they could be charged with child abuse can you come up here if you said because I apologize I'm bad I'm the worst in the world about this microphone so just want to make sure the people at home can hear this the answer is yes it's very spec fact specific but yes a parent could be charged under one of the prongs of the criminal statutes involving child abuse for leaving drugs uh where they can be gotten to by the

053child and the child hurts themselves or takes the chip takes the uh takes drugs it's very fact specific but it can be done and it has been done have we charged anybody with this that you can remember got one charged right now got one charge right now yes okay because I think you don't want to say make an example but you do that you know I think we have a police officer maybe from another County that was charged with the firearm related thing in the county when a child reached in the sock drawer and shot shot themselves so again these these drugs are like loaded guns I mean it's you know you you know you can kill yourself you know we like I said we've had people in in that I Know Rich to poor

054it doesn't matter but the fact that you know that these kids are getting these drugs you know we it's a it's a societal thing like I said with the when you're watching television you see CBD oil you know I've even had family grow the CBD oil stuff I mean so I think we just look at things now as Escape I've got a family I'm talking to that you know they've got a child that went through a trauma you know they got two children with trauma but it's just hard to explain to the parent and the grandparents you know sometimes that hey this is this is not this is not this is not funny and everybody doesn't do it they don't think it's funny and they're aggravated about what they're doing but one thing leads to

055the next you know for a so-called you know smaller drugs at least to something else and and uh so yeah I'm in support of what you're talking about I think that uh we need to look at from law enforcement perspective can any of these fundings be used for officers in the schools drug specific officers maybe that can that can uh you know go through do more sweeps or whatever we can you know we just got to show people it's serious and if the kids parents giving it to them or providing it for them or allowing them easy access to it um that's the worst message to send that it's no big deal and um but no thank you all of you for for your work on this and and I know I know I hope

056it's rewarding to I hope that we come to some conclusions on this but you know it's it's something that um we've got to go from both ends we've got to go from the young children all the way up to the older people that are that are overdosed in their vehicles and and and you know their kids are watching so yeah I'm in support of the motion and any discussion on the motion um I have a couple of comments and I'm going to offer a motion um one of the biggest things that stands out to me is we clearly have an issue along the 485 485 Corridor with Mecklenburg and along the highway 74 uh Corridor and you know there's always um the saying if if it ain't broke don't fix it well we've been hearing

057from our share for years that there's a problem and the unintended consequences are our children and um so I would like to make a motion that we accept the recommendations brought to us tonight from from this committee and give them the time that they need uh the the 60 days they need to put together next steps and a plan to come back to us with more information any discussion on the motion and I don't believe we had a prior motion right she she was asking a question yeah yeah so I've got a motion on the floor no discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed thank you very much technique [Applause] next we have the 23054 appointment law firm as County attorney recognize Brian Matthews thank you Mr chairman to the actually

058the there are three items associated with this and I'm going to talk about them all together but but in the end we do need action on on each one individually but but they're related so I'm going to talk about them as a whole so the the County Board has had a contractual arrangement with Perry Bundy Plyler and long for a number of years they have served as the firm for the county attorney and then Richard long is currently the um primary contact for that but that firm has had a number of of individuals have served in the role as primary contact for for County attorney Lincoln Bundy at one point in time and and Don Perry so the the the issue here is not issue but what the matter here is is that the firm

059has changed names and and because the contractual Arrangement was actually with Perry Bundy plowler and long the the contract itself needs to be modified because the name is changing of the firm and then so we have several actions here one has to do with appointment of the new the change in the law firm's name which is Plyler long and carigliano I said it somewhat correctly as the counties uh County attorney and again Richard was still serve as the primary contact with that the next item would be that then you would authorize the manager to enter to negotiate and approve a contract for legal services and essentially it's the same contract nothing really is changing other than the name of the firm and there's terms that we would change if the as long as the board

060is satisfied with that and then the last item which I the board probably may not be aware of is we have a separate contractual arrangement for work that Richard's firm does for our department of social services and and so one of his Partners uh and and several of the staff members serve in a legal role for us for that and and that's a separate Arrangement that we would also need to continue again under that new law firm's name I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have but that's the actions that we're looking for three separate things they all have some relation but it's an appointment of the firm then the contract itself for the legal services for the county attorney and then the contract for the legal services for social services any questions

061um and and you might can help me with this Richard the so right now we're paying pay Bundy Plyler and loan or who are we paying okay so now Perry was is now Don Perry was Perry but is there another Perry in there now and then and then ligand retired so so we but we were able to pay you know is this a question of because I understand it's how how you get paid right yes and there was no problem with like Don being deceased or anything we're getting paid okay right right I got you so so nothing changed with those and and now the new the new partner in The Firm will he be servicing Union County as well or would just UB services work on behalf of the county and I'm the primary

062contact with throughout the years many people with my Law Firm have done different tasks for the accounts right one one thing and I've been with Perry I've been with Bundy and I've been alone and and you know Mr Potter's been also in the firm and I don't know the new guy so what what I thought about this when I saw this was that maybe we go through the process that we went through when when ligand Bundy um left us is that we did an interview process and you were the most qualified according to the board to handle that because of your experience and your firm's experience with the county um similar to what we did with the manager is that the board asked questions of potential attorneys and uh and again found you to be

063the the one that was most qualified so no absolutely no disparaging thing to you but shouldn't we go through that process maybe again just and maybe even meet with your new partner as part of the potential group you know that's one of the concerns that I had and maybe do it as a board to see what where we could go with this and again no no slightly to your firm as you have been the County attorneys for quite some time but that maybe we should put out an RFQ What staff's feelings on that I will answer regarding the DSs work I've shared this with you already um I believe that what we've set up currently for our DSS structure we have hired two internal attorneys with the expectation that over time we're going to take

064that in house dalian's not going to work forever and so we've we've really set ourselves up to have a plan for how that would work long term I I personally am not don't think it's in the County's best interest to look at how we could be served differently from an external attorney in that case because the work that she does is is pretty important to how we keep our child welfare cases going so I would answer that's how I would answer on the DSs side I think staying with that contract is really in the best interest of the organization at this point right and as the and as the county I don't think we ever I don't know that we ever even interviewed her um with any County position so again the intention would be

065that that Richard long would be our board attorney uh and then just like it was with with Mr Bundy when he when he retired we kept we still had the opened it up for other attorneys in the county and elsewhere to to do that so how do we how do we retain Mr long and then yet maybe put out a RFQ similar to what we're doing with the county manager's contract Randy I mean I'll answer it I think that if that's the direction that you give us then we'll go back and work with procurement to to put out an RFQ yeah I guess we would have to enter into a short-term arrangement with Richard sperm Jason yeah so go ahead Jason at the moment the two things you can do to continue the relationship with

066the law firm and and Mr long are to go through the requested items in the agenda which is one to appoint the new named Law Firm it's like a new legal person and then secondly to engage in that contract the contract itself is terminal at will and of course the County Attorney as does the county manager serves at the pleasure of the board so by engaging in those two actions You're simply continuing the status quo until such time as you are able to evaluate where you want to be any com any questions to any other board members I have um one quick question so Mr long is our board attorney is he also the same one from his firm that works with DSS or do you only use the internal Attorneys at this point now

067we use Dell and plywood we actually use several attorneys from Richards firm Dale Ann um Lisa Beeman and then Ashley um McBride does some work for us also on the adult so it's Adult Protective Services and child protective services so based on volume and just Logistics of how we have to run that that takes more attorneys we also have two staff attorneys that are new to us so we're starting to add them into the mix and how that works with how the court structure works so that's how that piece of the business is managed so his firm is the one for your external legal okay but and it's a separate contract though oh it's separate from the board attorney yes okay thank you do do we need to do something then with theirs as well

068it's on your agenda uh it's the first one I think yep so we would be approving the name change for all three okay for all for both the yes for both yeah those contracts and it would be under the new name yeah and I'd like to make a motion we appoint the law firm apply our long and kurgiani LLP as County attorney effective January 1st 2023. and um would you would you add a friendly amendment to that that we put out an RFQ no okay that's my motion all right um then after we vote on this has another item I'd put out I'm going to make a motion that we put our RFQ just the same as we did when Mr Long's partner left who retired from the firm uh just out of Ferris so

069I I'll support the motion I think I think we go through the contract we uh I know Mr Longs got several things as far as condemnations other issues that are going on and exactly what you're saying when's your time frame on going internal with the DSs it's not a like a hard and fast date I mean it's going to happen over time probably the next years is how long that will will take to to fully take all that work in-house okay all right um the motion is to uh change the contract name from Perry Bundy plotter along to um okay all those in favor say aye all opposed no okay now as part of this I'd like to make a motion that we do put out an RFQ request for qualifications uh just as we

070did before um with uh Mr Long's partner all those in favor say aye all opposed no three two okay um so you took us that all took us through where so yeah so you still have 23055 which is the contract because as Jason stated we still need to be in those discussions for that purpose with the current firm and we'll also need to do a 23056 and that is again authorized the agreement for legal services for social services so those two items will still be action and we didn't include those either one no that's correct the authorization would anybody like to make a motion on the authorization for agreement for Legal Services was County attorney I will authorize the interim County Manager to negotiate and approve agreement with Perry plow or long and cogliano LLP

071for engagement of legal services county attorney in the form uh substantially consistent with the attached agreement any questions or discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed all right next we have this authorization for agreement for legal services for social services if I like to make a motion on that one chairman yes I move that we authorize the interim County Manager to negotiate and approve an agreement with plotler long and corigliano LLP for the engagement of legal services for the division of Social Services in a form substantially consistent with the attached agreement okay any discussion on this one I have a question so when we enter into those contracts because I see a difference here I see the the the county is board's attorney is is higher than will but this attorney is

072hired by a contract for a period of time hi Jason is it does it have a Time certain DSS agreement that you have in in your materials lays out a a one-year agreement however that agreement is terminable with uh I believe it's 30 days uh notice by at will by by either party there are some Provisions for transitioning of documents and cases and that sort of thing in there but even though it's a term of a year that is renewed annually there is a provision for at will termination of the agreement by either party so the question here would be is that year from July to July or is it from December to you know how how does that run and are we are we at making changing that to now being to February that

073is the year going to be from February to February or is it I believe all the Agreements are effective January 1 of 2023 because that's the date when the new firm uh was formed and began doing business okay so we're not we're not under any contract with her and Miss planner now because well I mean we're under a contract with uh Ms Plyler and the firm of Perry Bundy Plyler and long LLP that firm as an entity as I understand it still exists although it's not doing business so dalan is doing work for the county under that agreement but that agreement is also terminal at will and effectively that's we're just amending that agreement to substitute the new name okay so she did not have a contract till July she has a contract she had

074a contract that it I guess it was Evergreen really the way it was original or how we we the one we're amending at this point or replacing I believe it automatically renewed to to Ms Lancaster's point it was an evergreen contract that was has been in place for a number of years I believe but it's not renewed in the it's renewed in January not during the budget cycle so so it was Evergreen it went unless we decided to terminate it was going to continue it just continued forever okay um this actually puts puts it in a little different light that it has that annual component that would be calendar year with the expectation that either party could terminate that with 30 days notice and with some transfer of documents being expected um that's obviously a

075little different line of work that we're involved in there any penalty no we've current we just pay what the contract rate is for their for their services on a monthly basis okay any other discussion on the motion and the motion is okay remind me commissioner Williams to to authorize the interim County Manager to negotiate an improvement agreement Plyler long and curriculiano for the engagement of legal services for the DSs and a form substantially consistent with the attached agreement all those in favor say aye aye any imposed none all right so that brings us to 23041 rezoning case 222022-005 Stonebridge Enclave and Mr chairman members of the board it's probably one of your easier actions uh this was presented to you last month and as a reminder this is the site plan this is a effectively

076a part of the Stone Bridge Golf Course subdivision south of Mineral Springs and just asking you to approve a consistency statement to support your decision last month to deny this rezoning okay any motions or discussion motion coordinator to deny this request and it's January 17th meet in 2023 meeting the appropriate consistency statement needs to be adopted by the Bulls and as we're talking we're passing that down uh Jason that's uh that does he need to read it word for word or is that substantial I think it would be helpful yes sorry commissioner put your hands it's coming you can read it word for word that's fine to adopt the consistency statement uh that pairs with the action that you're taking okay any discussion on that motion the motion is to deny correct no discussion houses

077all those in favor of the motion say aye aye aye any opposed no all right next we have the 2022 popular annual financial report we don't know if it's popular or not Beverly [Laughter] it depends yes um kind of clarify the motion for yes please adopting consistency station consistency statement and recent event on action you can say for denial okay and again no no questions or comments and most most to deny with the consistency statement all those in favor say aye aye he imposed all right sorry good evening Commissioners chairman manager Matthews tonight I want to present to you our popular annual financial report as you're aware a few months back we presented to you our annual financial report which is a very large document very hard to read through for your general public so

078the general I mean excuse me government Finance Officers Association one of their best practices is that they encourage governments to supplement that report with a much simpler popular report that's designated to assist those who need or desire less complicated report to review the government's Financial activities for the year um as you're aware when we do our cafe or act excuse me now I have to call it AG for it's presented with a generally accounted accepting principles which is very Broad and the data is very at a high level of detail while this report's necessary for you all to understand our financial position to make decisions sometimes it discourages your general population to read through your financial documents for transparency purposes so we Union County have decided to prepare the popular annual financial report what we

079refer to as a paffer annually as a better way to select certain financial data for a very broad audience the data from the paffer is all executed from our financial report I'm not going to go through this document one page at a time but I did want to highlight some of the things that are in this report for you all and for our general public this report is also available online and will be shared through social media network with the help of public Communications team in the near future so one of the things that is highlighting here is some data for the county that we pull out of our kafir that is very educational for those that may not read through the entire Cafe but want to get major highlights about our data points which

080include here as you can see our population our unemployment rate the number of schools that we serve and our principal employers and largest taxpayers just to name a few of the data that's highlighted in this report the report also includes our award-winning departments through the year and we try to summarize summarize those for the general public in one area this report also goes over each area of physical control that we monitor throughout the year for and gives the definitions of each one of those for the general population to understand which each one of those mean this highlights the net position of the county overall it gives a broad description of what is included in that position what our total net position is for our government-wide our business type activities which is our Enterprise funds for

081water sewer solid waste and the total for the county this also highlights our fun balance for the county what percentage is made up of which category and what each one of those categories mean this also reports on our revenues what percentage is received from what source I mean it gives a general overview of percentage and total operating revenues for all of our business type activities as you can see at the bottom for the past three years in comparison we also list our expenses by category this is the functions of each of our um expenses and you can see the percentage there with education being our largest expense doubt and the second largest expense being Public Safety again highlighting at the bottom the expenditures for a business type activities for the past three years as well

082the report also gives a very high level overview of the County's debt by type the outstanding by the functionality as well as for each function the outstanding of debt by each debt issuance type total outstanding principle at the end of June 30th was around 788 million dollars um this again gives a general fund debt alone not total County debt but the general fund debt Alone by category as well as shows our Debt Service as a percentage of expenditures and this lists our Enterprise debt comparing it from the prior years to where we are at today as well as what capital project major capital projects were funded with the debt that's outstanding we also list our Capital Improvement program the major programs that are going on for our general Capital fund as well as the water

083fund and solid waste and we don't list each individual project because there are numerous projects as you are aware that would have to be included and then we look forward going forward for our Capital Improvement plans and what we are currently expecting to be open within the next fiscal year or there closely after that's the major highlights of the reports I'll be glad to take any questions that you have but it is recommended that you actually accept this report as presented tonight please Mr Russian yes can I ask a question yes sir and your expenses you talked about 47 percent be in schools does that include their debt or is the debt separate um The Debt Service is separate 37 percent is for Education that includes schools in South Piedmont Community College as well the

084debt is separate on that expense for overall expenses is 16 of all General funds added together okay and this is the way that the report is to be presented based on gfoa recommendations any other questions the um when we get ready to go into the budget again you know for this year we're already started in that process you know we we go through a simple well we've got the more complicated version of everything the what I would like to see in this this process is a very clear understanding of what we took in last year versus what we spent you know for example you know us going through it like you said doing a more uh I guess you know a cleaner version for the people at home is seeing how much we took in

085more from one year to the next how much we spent one year to the next and very clear in that so one of these presentations in the future I know we have to wait until the end of the year to get accurate numbers right but one page of that would be really important for the people to see just where we're at so are you asking for that during your budget presentations or at your end when we do our financial report presentation just as we go through I know we'll go through several between here and there so if we can have like you know what we project just just very clear one page now you should be receiving projections I believe at the February 20th meeting from Blake the budget manager yeah so if we could

086have Blake one page you know one one line not not 30 lines on one page because it gets jumbled up a little bit in what we're doing exactly like if I sit down and I at my business I look at my taxes what I make last year versus what I made this year are we going up are we going down did I spend more last year than this year something very simple on on one page separate and then then all the complicated uh stuff you know yes you have a question um Beverly I just have another um that comment about education I'm reading the second the second paragraph um it I think it must be page 11 under general fund and it shows education at 37 the second paragraph uh 41 200 students that is

087only the enrollment I believe for Union County Public Schools um so you're not we need to get the enrollment for all charter schools and I'm sure the um Mrs McLean can tell you how how much how many students from Union County um she is sending out to um however many charter schools so Union County dollars are for Charter Schools Union County Public Schools and spcc so um you may need to correct the number of students and everything in that paragraph and we do receive our data from Miss McLeod yes so I just want to make sure that we include charter schools because local dollars and State dollars are going to them as well and I don't believe that's the correct number so I just want to point that out um for us for Union County

088we um list for our education Partners who we pay directly so you're aware we do not pay Charter Schools directly the schools pay them out of their allotment for what we pay to them directly I understand that and thank you for that clarification but it need that number is not correct so I'll get the number for you how about that okay so so what so when the charter schools they get their money from the state the federal government and they get local tax dollars as well from from the county so you know with her saying it with if there's 46 000 kids that are out there being educated it's important for that number because we do have a lot of people that say you know I don't I don't have kids that are in school

089we hear that from time to time and and again it's you know a lot of people have people you know a lot of people don't have something that somebody else does have you know some people never have a ambulance show up at their house some people never have a police officer but they're there if they need them and they're there if they have a grandchild move in with them they're there you know for other reasons but and and even the charter of private schools now the private schools are not they don't get any local funding at all I'm probably pretty sure they should they don't get they don't get right now state or Federal funding either I would think but if we have 46 000 kids that are being educated which could be close to

090the number with Union County um tax dollars I think it's important and and you are correct the the FL the Union County tax dollars flow through the public school system but I just want to make sure that that we are transparent that it's not the 41 200 students local tax dollars are going to significantly more than that so I'll be happy to get that number for you because people are looking at this would say how much are we paying per pupil and they they might be missing some the average person has no idea that their Charter School um payments are coming through the public school and it's all Union County tax dollars so I think it's important do uh when's this time sensitive oh well this has already been submitted to gfoa so you don't

091need a motion or anything I just need you to accept it as presented based on gfoa best practices yes how about looking at those numbers on school and we'll do it at the next one does that sound okay and just to be transparent we've always presented this in the way that the data's been sent to us for decades from Union County Public Schools it's the same data we've used for years so we capturing every child that's being educated we are reaching out to the schools to ask them to send us their daily population or their ADM accounts and that's the information we've used for decades so we haven't used the for decades we haven't used Union Academy or I wanted to verify what we are receiving from them and I I can't answer that right

092off the top of my head because we get a total we don't get it broken down by types of schools in the budget presentation each May how many are Charter and how many are public so I know the number exists um and I don't know why that why they would not send you the Charter Plus public school but I think it's an extremely easy number to obtain yes and one thing that might be helpful to this as Beverly indicated this has already been provided to gfoa as part of how the the annual financials go but as we're going into budget I have already asked Beverly and Blake actually to look at how we denote charter schools in particular and how we can do that in a more transparent way so when you see next year's

093budget hopefully it aligns with what you're what you're talking about so we've heard that that's how we're working on next year's to give you more clarification on where those Charter Schools what their funding exactly so we'll break that out a little bit differently as you start to see the budget process roll out you know on this has been a great conversation I think a lot of people are going to learn new information through this it's just when I saw the 41 200 number I knew that that is not we we fund significantly More Union County students than that and I would like to get that number yeah we will be cognizant of that going forward and make those changes and how we present it now one other thing the ones that we fund out do

094how do we do out-of-county students so if a student comes from Mecklenburg to Union to do a charter school student s it's the county of residence so if it's a Mecklenburg County resident that goes to any other Charter School outside of Mecklenburg CMS is paying that Charter School bill ucps is paying for Union County residents we have Stu students that live in Union County and go to a charter school in Mecklenburg they might even go to South Carolina or Ranson or Stanley or I mean their the payments could be around 30 different charter schools that are being dispersed out of the public school but that's absolutely a number that schools can give us is absolutely right they have it and we'll get that for you to be clear and just for a point of clarification

095um the fact that the school system makes the payment to the charters right that is according to State Statute is that correct can Jason can you weigh in on that that is that that is correct that's the way the state statutes laid out okay any other comments or questions so do we have a motion on the floor on this I make a motion that we approve um the budget that has been sent to us tonight with the friendly amendment that will correct that number with you not not budget popular annual financial report please there you go yes thank you we might hold it so and again that's going to be checked and fixed in the future correct in the future all right thank you I would just like to say thank you to the public

096Communications team they helped us put this document together in a very easy to read format and they will also be helping us share it with the public for viewing so thank you to Liz's team for their help thank you and be clear this is last year's budget not this year's but right 22. thank you all right how are those in favor of the motion say aye aye any opposed no okay we've done the opioid work this is not separate item this is the woman removed correct next we have 23049 2023 legislative agenda Michelle Lancaster we're gonna get to talk about that again too and I didn't even set it up that way but you'll see one of our legislative items is regarding Charter Schools as well so thank you very much Mr chairman I am

097here to present the uh 2023 legislative agenda so just to go through a couple things just a couple of reminders for folks we do have a lobbyist who represents our interest in Raleigh Daniel Baum with Navigator LLC he has represented us for a little more than seven years does a great job I think our delegation would attest to that and the work that he does on our behalf being there every day at the legislature this session that is currently in place is the long session so typically we anticipate a longer session they have to set their biennium budget so as the name indicates the timelines are a little different for this session and the the expectation that we may have for the things that we can propose to the legislature and hopefully get past that

098we think are in our best interests as an organization or as a community so I provided these to you a few weeks ago these are the guiding principles that we have used for several years really for a couple of reasons particularly when the session starts to wind down you know there are thousands of bills that are introduced every session but as it gets closer to to time to leave lots of things get thrown out you know very rapidly and so after the first year I think of working with Daniel we decided that it really helps if we have some guiding principles that we can look at so if he sees something or if a delegation member sees something and he calls me at eight o'clock at night we can say pretty quickly well no that

099doesn't align with where Union County is or yes it does now that wouldn't apply to anything that is controversy or thing it has controversial aspects we would bring those to the board to vet those but there are certain things that we want to look at and particularly make sure that we support legislative efforts that protect and or enhance our local government revenues and or increase any local fund running flexibility that we may have so we look for flexibility and anything that gives us potentially enhanced revenues if that's possible we also oppose unfunded mandates and any initiatives that fail to fully fund Services shifted to the county so our delegation is pretty aware of usually the way that we'll come down on certain things if they don't align with those two principles that we have so

100I'm going to go go through the items that I have collected essentially from staff and then from a few Commissioners also gave me feedback on items you would like to see and then I have a new item that's fresh that I want to to get your input because it doesn't exactly align with our our guiding principles and and I'll explain that to you some of these are simply placeholders items that we're Gathering more information so we're not sure if we are going to ask for something but we want to be able to present this to the delegation and let them know that these are topics that we're looking at that are of importance some of them actually they've called me about as well so we have a fairly open line of communication about the things

101that we're looking at and so the first one is this County Line issue which was mentioned earlier tonight that the board has heard again we're not sure we're asking for something on this area this is really just to keep this out there if we decide that we do need a legislative change or a legislative fix van and his staff are doing a little more due diligence that's going to take probably the next three to four weeks along with GIS to really look at specific parcel data and determine what kind of issues we we may have that we want to have resolved at the state level yes sir I'll stop you right here um this this issues of extreme importance we heard one of our speakers tonight A lot of people are in limbo and concerned

102about this on on what our position is and I think the confusion with where Mecklenburg is and where Union County the boards are I talked to Jason K about maybe doing a resolution and um and I don't know maybe how how soon that could be prepared but I think the Board needs to maybe take some action on that to ask him to do that so um if you don't mind me making a motion right now on this issue I would make the motion that we asked the attorney to draft a resolution requesting that all assumed lines all assumed property lines all assume properties in Union County including kids in our school system they're attending our school system be maintained and that we would draft that to send to the state I think we can bring

103that back at the next board meeting and bring that back into the next week absolutely any discussion on that motion uh I would just say that I'm in support of that motion you know I know that we have received numerous emails um phone calls regarding this issue I have answered every single email that I've received um you know my my heart goes out to the folks that are impacted by this this is not a decision just based on tax dollars this is a decision that's based on families so I'll be in support of that any other discussion all right all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed none thank you very much yes no no problem at all stop me on any of them the next one is not quite as probably exciting

104to anybody except for the county staff um Towing slash booting vehicles that are improperly parked on on County property uh this is just an area where we don't have specific language that would give us authority to boot vehicles that are in violation of our parking rules on our our property or lease property that the county holds so that's something we'll be looking at the next one has the potential to be probably a little more robust local or Regional medical examiner Services I've I think all of you are aware that in the last year Mecklenburg stopped doing the County's medical examiner services that they had done for quite some time in a regional capacity ours and Cabarrus and so we've had a couple of issues that we've had to work through because bodies have to be

105taken to Raleigh it becomes a much more cumbersome in potentially problematic process so what we'll probably be looking at here is some language that would allow for a local or Regional medical examiner service this is one where we're going to align our ask with Cabarrus County so that we're asking for a similar a similar thing that we just want this to stay at the Forefront the delegation is aware that this is an issue for us and we want to limit any problematic areas that we have here the next one again is has the potential to be a fairly robust is around Water and Sewer I simply put a placeholder around system development fees I'm not exactly sure what if anything we might ask for in terms of looking to open up that legislation but I

106think this as we talk to our delegation and at the end I'll share with you an opportunity for us to have a legislative breakfast with our delegation members I wanted to make sure that they knew this was something that we were looking at the second bullet point there really aligns with what the Union County Chamber has put forward is an item to seek flexibility that allows the utility to implement a method of allocation that prioritizes Industrial and Commercial development so those maybe those may go hand in glove that's you know these are things that we're going to continue to tweak as we have conversation with you is as you have conversations with the delegation and I think community members about what the expectations are going forward with the sdfs and our allocation process and how

107the law impacts that the next one is one that we talked about with you earlier well testing this is one where we're going to work on some seeking some clarifying language regarding potable water because that obviously has raised some questions we think that there may be some opportunity for the legis legislature to give us some more direct guidance on what exactly it is they're looking for in terms of how we follow code um Solid Waste this came from our Solid Waste director regarding scrap tire disposal so this is a very specific ask to restore or allocate funds to the North Carolina scrap tire program sufficient to cover the disposal costs incurred by counties for the proper disposal of scrap tires so we have to take scrap tires currently but we don't get enough of a

108revenue source to cover the cost that that that we incur in doing that service the next one is regarding Medicaid expansion we all believe that Medicaid expansion is probably going to happen during this this session and estimates indicate that Union County DSS will require 10 additional staff based on the 21 increase or approximately 10 000 new eligible Medicaid recipients in the county and so this really aligns with that no unfunded mandates if they're going to expand and we have to add that staff we want the money to come with that that they're going to be receiving to not only pay for the staff but also for any office space and any other costs that we may incur uh child welfare is one that I've talked to you about as well I think individually this is

109an issue where having placement for kids who are in custody of local Departments of Social Services is is an issue not just here in Union County but really all over the state in the country and I really want to shine a light on this with the state that somebody we've got to do something about this this is a real problem so we'll be working on this it really is just what I would call kind of an attention getter that we expect that the state and the local lmes are going to do their job in terms of providing appropriate placement uh the next item came from commissioner rushing to establish drag queen performances as adult entertainment at adult establishments and so that's a very specific ask that we'll have and then the next item is to

110allow for flexibility of boards of Commissioners to participate remotely in meetings I think you'll all remember that during covid we had some special legislation that worked there that is not around any longer to allow for that remote participation in meetings and then lastly we have um three issues that are what I'm calling kind of uh ucps issues slash support the first is around school calendar flexibility and the local Authority uh to to create calendars that align with Community needs so this would allow aligning that semesters with community colleges it wouldn't require any additional funding and that what we would be stating is that we support school districts having local authority to create their calendars that align best for them and the needs of the community the second is to show support for the school system

111in terms of the continued implementation of the Lea modernization project this is their financial system that has been slow in getting implemented um and it being I think successful and giving them all the things that they thought that it was going to give we want to again show our support to get that completed for these pilot leas of which Union County Public Schools is one and then lastly Charter School accountability is the ability to verify student population data that is utilized for what we were talking about earlier those monthly payments what we've heard from the school system is that is something that can sometimes be a challenge in dealing with the 30-some charter schools that they have and so ensuring that that data is given in a way that's verifiable and it's accountable for where

112those tax dollars are going so those are the primary goals any question about those before I give you one last one to think about and to give some some feedback on yes David um the um the item regarding uh remote meeting availability State Statute allows for remote meetings in the event of uh correct uh what kind of additional flexibility beyond that are we talking about I think I've the city of Monroe actually has some language that they've used is probably it would really be to allow a remote ability at any point if the board had a policy that that called for that so it would be given that flexibility more broadly than just in states of emergency something that could be invoked relatively easily relatively easily okay well I would very much be against that

113okay thank you and and I I tend to agree with commissioner Williams on this that one thing is to to participate maybe a discussion or like a question maybe a you know people were asking questions uh in a work session maybe the problem and where I saw the problem in before and I've had to participate being in the hospital the the real problem I see with this is is that I'm on and we're going up to a controversial vote I'm losing you and then click I'm gone because I don't want to be participating even though I listen to everything you know losing that connection I think it's very important that we're probably here for especially boats so are we talking about votes are we talking about so I think it would in my mind and

114what I've looked at is it would have to align with a board policy so all these things you're just saying if you you laid out the the reasons that it could happen as strictly as you wanted them to be but still allowed it outside of the state of emergency so it would really be up to the board I think it's just giving you the flexibility to have a policy that would allow it under the circumstances that you think are appropriate that I think could cover all the things you just said anybody else have any issues with that I tend to support um you know staff if there needs to be you know a quick decision or something made obviously it's you know the chair and the other board members would be contacted but I in

115my experience there are times when a quick Zoom meeting for example with a board member is on business out of state or out of County a a quick Zoom meeting would get something approved or not approved so that staff can move forward so I tend to support having that flexibility as long as it followed policy I think the point is now you don't have that flexibility so the way the statute's written you only have that during a state of emergency and I I personally think there's a strong public policy reason uh to not ask for something different than the rest of the state has and to not create additional obstacles between us and the citizens who like to come to these meetings and in terms of meetings that might call for a quick decision those

116are often meetings where something more perhaps controversial is being considered that's all the more reason to have a public meeting in a physical place where citizens can come and I just I think it would be a mistake to ask for something that is quite a bit different than the way the rest of the state operates I get I do want to maybe this I think that begs a clarification um except for maybe in the case of the um the specific things about the school system which is UC ucps specific and maybe the county line issue I don't foresee us looking for any special legislation which would be local in nature anything in these would be Statewide applicable um yes yes and just my personal opinion I would dare to say that most people are online

117tonight viewing this meeting as opposed to being here in person so again I don't think it would prevent constituents for you know following the meeting yeah you all you all had something similar with the school system and may still have it so so what does the school system do will your by State Statute you have to notice the meeting in advance so even in this particular situation again this is the legislative agenda that's going to the state we're not trying to ask for a special favor just for Union County to have flexibility this is a legislative agenda so you have to announce the meeting and people have plenty of time to either decide they're going to be in person or watch it online and we history would show that thousands of viewers are watching online

118as a PL as opposed to maybe 20 people coming in person yeah what I would say is I clearly hear the the sensitivity to this one so as I talked to Daniel I mean frankly you know some of these when we talk to the delegation they may say we're not supporting that you know I can tell you that you know we're not going to go forward with things that the majority of our delegation says they're not going to support because we're just that's just not the approach we're going to take I can see some abuse that could be opened up here for example you know you've got a couple Commissioners that can show up and the other Commissioners are out of town I skipped a meeting Lynn you'll remember this I skipped a meeting one

119time because it was going to be three Commissioners making the decision on a major multi-million dollar issue for the county and it was only going to be three of us and and I didn't come to that meeting so there would not be a quorum um you know I can see where where two Commissioners or three Commissioners might get together and say well this is controversial so we don't want this one to stay so he's going to be on vacation you know let's call a meeting and and he won't have you know say in it there's just a lot of different ways this could go and and and over the years experiencing that I would be concerned about how you can take it off the list I want to point out that even when you vote

120in a zoom meeting if you don't have a quorum you can't vote then it then it you're just taking up Zoom time but if you don't have a quorum and a zoom meeting you can't call those okay and I got that do you have I agree with uh commissioner rushing and commissioner Williams and I'd make a motion that we strike this from the legislative agenda list any discussion on that motion and again it would be how it's written is what's important to me that I really do you know I just I have seen some time in the past now if the school board is already doing it why can we not do it oh that's not a question I don't think that's a question I can answer I'm not I'm not yeah I don't give

121them a guidance on that so um commissioner David I mean it's David Williams you you've had a question commissioner Brian Helms do you got a question about it or comment no I'm prepared to support uh commissioner Helms Richard helms's motion commissioner Brian Helms yeah I would just say that um you know I understand what Melissa's saying um and I think that there are cases where this could be a perk to have but for for for my opinion my opinion is this is that is that the the county has elected us to be in office to represent them um and I think that we have a duty to be here in person um at regular meetings I believe that that's something that uh that we should do um and so outside of special circumstances I believe

122that the meeting should be in person is there some hearing I kind of hear where I'm at a couple different ways on this um is there any kind of compromise we can come to on this that's in the middle that we that we targeted a little bit more how I would I I'm happy to make a suggestion that I can come back at the next meeting with I can we can give this some thought talk to others I can talk to Jason more and we can maybe come up with something that might be palatable how about that yeah because I I can see like I said I we had a situation where one of the Commissioners was not able to participate in a closed session meeting but did participate on the phone but just we

123weren't sure if they could vote or not so there's a lot of uncertainties here we've got we all got a little spoiled during covet of being able to do things that that uh it's kind of nice to be able to do however you know I I do I see both sides of this so we'll work on it a little bit more well we've got a motion on the floor so I'd ask you to amend it to let her come back maybe at the next meeting and see if there's a compromise in the middle of this because even if we don't do it anybody else asking for this I know that Monroe is my guess is there are probably others who are seeking some flexibility right so the flexibility is nice it's just the accountability of

124it like I said I see a situation where a commissioner might not want a verb on something controversial and they lose connection and I've said that before I said that years ago when we were going through this but as being in after being in the hospital I saw a very it was a good ability to be able to participate from a hospital bed so um again you know commissioner Richard Helms would you mind table in the motion until we until they come back with something that Monroe has I just sung vote on that motion and if you want to come back and propose something else I would entertain that okay so the motion is to take it off the legislative agenda yes and not bring it back no I didn't say that I said take

125it off take it off right now okay so motion's been made any any comments on the motion any questions on the motion um I I'll just say this so I will support the motion um under well with the understanding that additional options will be brought to us okay everybody okay with that all right yep all those in favor say aye aye any opposed so I may ask for van to come up and help with this last one this is one that um van just had gotten from the taxes administrator's office had gotten a call last week with some additional counties to see how we might feel about a possible proposal to make some changes to the elderly or disabled tax exclusion so we currently have about 21 a little more than 2100 property owners who

126operate under that that program and receive some relief to their property tax most of them are in the Monroe or Advanced townships based on what staff has provided we deny about a hundred applicants per year who are within less than two thousand dollars above the threshold which the income threshold currently is 33 800 dollars that is set by dor by the Department of Revenue so this my reaction was this does not align to our guiding principles which the one that I said was that we're always looking for flexibility and more Revenue this is the opposite of that um this would be providing some relief which would affect our Revenue however I think there's some validity to some feedback that we've gotten under the most recent revaluation I think that's what the state Association is reacting

127to particularly with a large suburban and urban areas as well as well as Coastal and Mountain areas they're looking for how they can provide some relief in those areas so I'm not sure if this is something the board would be interested in if you are we would um van can continue to work with those folks this may not go anywhere but I don't want him to go down this path with those counties if you're not supportive of looking at some expansion of that elderly and disabled tax exclusion opportunity so I've got a head nod I I support that okay okay if I hear no I think we'll continue to work on that that will that one will probably come back to you with because that you know we want to make sure that that aligns

128with where you are and you're thinking so the last thing is um tomorrow I will send out uh an invitation for delegation breakfast on Monday February the 20th um we had spent some time working with our delegation to see what works best for them Mondays are always better for them early in the morning before they go back to Raleigh so we will do this at a at a location where we can have breakfast talk about our delegation our our legislative asks hear from them on things that that they're dealing with other think are important to us give you some opportunity to engage with them in that setting we have typically invited our Congressman uh Congressman Bishop as well to hear from him about what's going on at the federal level so you'll get that invitation

129and hopefully be able to make that it'll it'll be a fairly early morning breakfast and with that I'm happy to answer any questions otherwise thank you for your time any questions I did did have one that the animal disposal was that included uh I'm glad I meant to mention that to you today I don't we don't need a legislative fix on that I'm I'm working on I've got some ideas I've been working with the solid waste director on that I need to have some conversation with um the individual you had mentioned to me so I think we can find another way to resolve that that wouldn't take a legislative solution just just to make the rest of the board aware um one of the the rendering company who picked up poultry horses cows large animals

130farm animals things like that they've they've changed their business method or model and there were no they were talking about no longer picking up dead animals in Union County so right now our Farmers would haul to the landfill put in a a trailer that would be hauled away and that's that's been a an issue and a problem if you're not aware of it or not made aware of it so um could be a significant problem for the county with the livestock poultry so we're going to work with them on a solution good thank you all right thank you anything else manager closed sessions don't need to go back into closed session finish a couple of items that are still left on there should we go ahead and do comments before we do that we certainly

131can if you choose let's do that uh County managers comments I have no comments tonight thank you sir commissioner Richard Helms commissioner David Williams no comments Mr chairman commissioner Brian Helms yeah I'll just say very quickly that I appreciated the the speaker tonight that addressed the county line um yeah I said this before but you know I've received numerous emails about it I did watch the Mecklenburg County discussion on this last month and to your point that was some disparaging comments made about our County a county that I'm proud to reside in um now um I would just say this I would say that the discussion that I saw turn towards tax dollar implications I mentioned this before I'll say it again that what we're dealing with with this issue is more than just tax

132dollars what we're dealing with here is we're dealing with children that are going to ucps they could potentially go to Mecklenburg we're dealing with you know a variety of other issues there with businesses so the impact will be felt at the family level so this is a topic that is uh very near and dear to my heart it's one that that I want to see resolution with and it's my hope that that resolution can come through a legislative process that will not adversely affect the Union County residents that live in those areas um I was happy to see what we saw with the legislative agenda I'm glad to see that the the topics of Charter School transparencies on there as well as ucps calendar um with that thanks to all of our staff thanks for

133the folks watching at home appreciate your participation thank you Vice chairman Melissa Merrell and um I have no comments either so the motion will be to reconvene the closed session the um a move that the board recombine the closed session for the following in accordance with GS 143-1318-0.1181 to prevent the disclosure of information that is privileged or confidential pursuant to gs130153a-98 and in accordance with gs143318.11 A3 to consult with an attorney in order to preserve an attorney-client privilege and to consider the and give instructions concerning the handling of the following judicial action the county Union County versus town of marshmall and in accordance with gs143-318.11 A6 to consider the qualifications competence and performance characters character Fitness and conditions of appointment or conditions of initial employment of an individual a public officer or employer employee or

134prospective public officer or employee you need to vote on that all those papers say aye aye any opposed no