BOCC Regular Meeting 06/07/21

001waiting things are a little more complicated when we sign up online and sign up in person too to try to keep it straight but i'd like to open the monday june 7th 6 pm board of county commissioners meeting and as usual we open our meeting with an invocation and this evening commissioner jerry simpson if you thank you mr chairman you know if there's anyone who has more influence on you as a student in middle school and high school as your teacher it's it's that of an athletic coach i had three sons that went to parkwood middle and parkwood high they played about every sport imaginable and we had a number of great coaches down there we had one that that they speak very highly of who in addition to being an athletic coach has now

002become a life coach pastor lynn koble his pastor at roanoke baptist church here in union county he has a wife donna of 27 years and like me has three uh sons josh 24 matt 21 and jacob 11. lynn commissioner rape when i told him that you were going to offer the invocation said that that was probably a major transition going from a football coach to a pastor i don't know if he's talking about vocabulary or what he was referring to but anyway we welcome you and uh we'll ask you to come up and and offer an invitation thank you for your invitation tonight let us pray our father our god we just first lift up our praises and thank you for the many blessings you bestowed upon us in our county dear we thank you

003for the rain you've sent in the past week we thank you for the rain that we're expecting in the coming days lord you know our needs and you always fulfill them lord i lift this board up to you tonight i pray to your lord that you would give them guidance discernment and direction and every step they take i prayed their lord that they would seek your face and your will in every decision and every thought that they have lord i pray for their families i pray that you just put a hedge of protection around them give them strength just wrap your arms around let them know you're there we thank you for the time that these men and women spend away from their families and the job that they're doing we pray their lord that

004you just continue to give them discernment in every decision everything they do and lord we pray for our county we pray that there might be repentance and there might be revival that break out across this county and tonight dear lord i just lift the heavenly name of jesus and it's in that name i pray amen amen thank you lynn please join me for the pledge i pledge allegiance to america and to the republic for which it stands justice for all all right this evening we will begin with a public hearing for the fy 2022 proposed operating capital budget the fy 22 managers proposed operating capital budget message was filed with the union county clerk and submitted to the board of commissioners on may 28th the budget is available on the county's website and in the

005clerk's board's office for public inspection board of county commissioners received the presentation for the fy 2022 operating in capital budget on june june 3rd during today's meeting the county will hold a public hearing in addition and in addition and all appropriate advertisements and notice have occurred so we'll open our public hearing and with public hearings each speaker must address the board from the lectern they will be asked to begin their remarks by giving their name stating whether they are residents of union county and indicating the municipality which within which they reside if any each speaker will have three minutes to make remarks provided that this is this limitation applies shall not apply to staff or staff representatives or shall it apply to applicants for rezoning permits a speaker may not yield his or her time

006to another speaker speakers should limit their remarks to those addressing the subject of the public hearing speakers may leave written comments and or super supporting documentation if any with the clerk of the board our first speaker is brittany bolden good evening can y'all hear me okay um my name is brittany bolden i am a union county resident and was that all the questions sorry i was doing something municipality what did you live in um i don't know i mean what i think we're in matthews but we're kind of in weddington okay weddings we're like right in between that and indian trails so our address is matthews but everybody tells me it's weddington we just moved in in august so no one will give me a plain answer if you can that would be wonderful we

007can work it out i don't know where i live it's never a good thing good evening my name is brittany bolden i am the union county chair of moms for liberty an organization that is dedicated to fighting for the survival of america by unifying educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government we just launched this chapter two months ago and are already approaching 500 members and growing daily i think based on that it is safe to say that parents are mobilizing first i want to take a moment to thank every one of you who serve in this board i know that it takes time away from your families and i appreciate your sacrifice and willingness to serve i'm here tonight to get on the record the truth about a

008very dangerous and deceptive ideology that is infiltrating every institution in america it goes by many different names critical race theory culturally responsive teaching wokism and anti-racism to name a few but make no mistake it is marxism repackaged marxism made to look better than good in an effort to sell utopia to the masses that will end up where it always does communism death and destruction let us not forget the results of mao stalin and lenin we all know the saying those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it well we should update that saying to those who know history should also be savvy enough to notice a rebranding spin job or you will be doomed to repeat it because that is exactly what is actively happening in our country now i'm not trying to be

009dramatic i wish i was i'm being 100 serious when i say that our country is on the precipice of losing what our founders spilled their blood for if we do not act and quickly we will be the ones who let the american dream fail i personally and all the members of moms for liberty are not willing to just roll over and let that happen i'm here today to ask you to rise up and join us in protecting this land of opportunity if we lose her the world will be a darker place as the shining city upon the hill will no longer illuminate the path to liberty so what do we do well we fight locally we make sure this ideology isn't infiltrating our local institutions and especially our schools we have to be proactive we

010can no longer assume that everything is fine and on the up and up we have to ensure that it is we have to be vigilant that is especially true in regards to the budget we have to read the fine print most of the time federal funds come with conditions this is how the federal government slightly steps on states rights to gain more power we have to refuse all money from the federal government that comes with the condition of having to uphold and implement any of biden's 60 executive orders that he issued in just his first 100 days his first being executive order 1398 which talks about advancing equity through the federal government notice it says equity and not equality they sound similar and that is by design make no mistake they are very different equality

011is equal opportunity equity is equal outcomes that is communism so right off the gate right out of the gate biden has made it very clear what and who he is for and based on how life ends up for the citizens under regimes touting equity we can logically conclude that biden isn't for america or we the people thank you very much i just ask that you look at the budget and we don't pass anything for the school budget that has crt critical race theory anti-racism or any of that in it thank you thank you ma'am our next speaker is jonathan thomas good evening commissioner ms jonathan thomas i live in unincorporated union county just wanted to discuss the uh the upcoming budget some of the things that i was watching that tuesday or correction thursday nights

012meeting brought up several questions i had before i get started with that i do want to thank all of you for your work here keeping such a fiscal responsible budget as well as the manager and staff your efforts have kind of created a little bit of the issue that we've got union county is quite a popular place everyone wants to be here low taxes good schools and uh caused the property values to rise significantly to unprecedented levels after watching the meeting online i saw several items that we're somewhat in conflict with what i've been hearing on social media so i just had a few questions i wanted to pose just for thought so people such as myself may understand them better first off i was watching a slide where the median home value the will

013net an increase of 29 in your property taxes per year i don't recall what that value was there's a little picture on the side of the screen that cut that off and uh the average vehicle tax will decrease by about 19 dollars per year per vehicle and that was a 13 000 dollar a year vehicle so if the average household owns one home but two cars wouldn't that be a tax decrease i've seen uh nothing but but tax increase tax increase tax increase despite the fact yes there is a one cent uh more than revenue neutral per hundred dollars assessed value increase proposed but i don't see that uh when you actually put the numbers also between 2020 and 2021 the county saved roughly 14 million dollars on operating expenses due to cost cuts and

014deferrals compared to 2019. fiscal year 2022 budget is still less than 2019 levels employee benefits dropped 5 million in 2020 this was due to spending deferrals caused by the pandemic union county public schools budget requested a 7.4 increase 7.4 percent increase with the majority of that going to teachers bus drivers and other employees needed for union county public schools some of this is due in part to the state funding of education remaining at 2018 levels this issue is front and center at the 21 board of commissioners meeting where four out of five commissioners voted in favor of allocating 2.5 million dollars in funding one uh one-time staff bonuses for union county public schools pandemic has forced us to rob peter to pay paul keep taxes from being for to keep from raising taxes with decreased

015revenues do you agree that we have an obligation to get back to pre-pandemic funding allocations thank you thank you sir that concludes all the individuals that signed up therefore i will close the public hearing on the budget process i signed up previously today for the new deadline well come on in i'm sorry i didn't have a notification that you unless we did that we may have got to got you on one of the other public hearing things sir your name please uh hey good evening my name is brian helms and i live in monroe um thanks for allowing me to speak tonight i would like to address mass mandates and vaccines as it pertains to the children of union county and the 46 million dollars of federal funds appropriated to union county through arpa the

016american rescue plan act on may 13th the cdc updated guidance regarding mass and face coverings to for the general public this no doubt forced the hand of our governor to follow suit on may 14th as he lifted mass mandates in our state although this was heralded as a return of normal by many because mass will still be required in schools per dhhs toolkit it also signifies a double standard for kids so let me ask why do we have this double standard why can adults gather together in public without masks but kids can at school what's the answer well in the wake of the cdc's announcement that vaccines are available for children as young as 12 perhaps biden has already answered this question when he threatened the choice is simple get vaccinated or wear a mask

017until you do now at least two different school districts in this state are looking at offering vaccination clinics two children at school closer to home charter home or charter schools are doing the same thing charter schools in this county are doing the same thing and they're doing it on field day during eogs and this is vaccines for a virus that has a 99 survival rate requiring our children to be masked in school and incentivizing them to receive basket vaccinations in order to receive the god-given ability to breathe is not only discriminate discriminatory it's downright criminal are vaccines the new mask our county's north carolina school districts being incentivized for offering vaccine clinics from what i read it certainly appears so vaccination campaigns are included in as an eligible use category in the fiscal recovery fund

018provisions of arpa let me be clear the union county board of education is already handcuffed by legislation that binds them to following the requirements of the north carolina department of health and human services toolkit this idea and deal was passed in order to reopen schools and now we're dealing with the fallout that governor governor cooper and mandy cohen can indirectly mandate anything they want through the toolkit according to the boe this is why they will not make mass optional in our schools now the federal government is off government is offering union county money but what's the catch are we going to use this money for vaccination clinics are we going to incentivize our kids to take back vaccinations how about passports free money is never free i urge you guys to remember that you are

019elected representatives what you decide today will be remembered by the voters tomorrow don't make the mistake of selling us out long term for the short term game i urge you to remember your actions regarding the second amendment last year when you guys made union county a 2a sanctuary work with our boe our board of education make it clear to cooper that we have medical freedom of choice in this county and do not use these funds to further any present or future unconstitutional mandates i call on this board tonight to make union county a sanctuary of vaccine freedom of choice we are not descended from fearful men it's time for us to remember that thank you for your time thank you brian we did find that where you're re you registered for informal comments we're good

020okay i'm sorry and you're on the budget yes i signed up at actually 1203 this afternoon i emailed lynn and she said that she would try to get i.t to open up the website for me to formally register on the website so i have completed that name and address okay my name is deb helms and i live in union county not a specific municipality just union county thankfully um i'm here tonight i don't even have a speech i'm here tonight i'm a concerned mother speaking for my children that's all i can do a couple of months ago i was a mother sitting home instructing a child through remote kindergarten and that was not an easy thing for me to do but that's what i had to do because i couldn't bear the thought of my

021child sitting in a mask for seven and a half hours a day at school the physical and psychological stress it was putting her through i couldn't do it so i spent the past couple of months speaking at the school board meeting and doing a lot of research and learning a lot and thankfully i encountered a couple of groups who are also like-minded parents trying to do the same thing we're all trying to fight for our children we're all trying to make a difference and you guys were very proactive back in january you went ahead and jumped ahead of cooper and made us a two-way sanctuary so thank you very much for that and we need to find out what it is that you can do to try to help the school system with some of

022the same things you authorize some of their budget the 46 million dollars that's coming from biden we don't know what it's going to be used for but i can tell you from my beliefs i don't think it's going to be used for anything good um hopefully you can find a way to use the loose terms that he has given with that money but mandate mandated vaccines in school are not the way to go with it this is a brand new vaccine it has not been tested it has not been approved and that is not the way that we need to go with it and we know that that the way they're going to push it very hard and we can't do that so we need to ask you as our elected officials you have taken

023the steps to protect our county from some of cooper's ridiculous illegal mandates we need you to try to do the same to try to protect our children last month last week actually at the school board meeting i opened my speech with a very powerful quote from ronald reagan freedom is never more than one generation from extinction this generation is losing the freedom they are trying to get their hands on this generation and our freedom is gone we need you to work with the school board we need you to do everything we can we need you to be in front of cooper two steps in front of him and you need to make it stop i have brought my five and three-year-old to every meeting we've gone to so that they can see what the power

024of standing up and speaking your voice because a silent voice is never heard so if you just sit by you're going to find yourself in the situation that we are in now this needed to start about a year ago but so many people sat fearful for too long and it has gone too far so we have hard work and i'm just here to ask you do what you can to help us with the next generation and help protect their freedoms please thank you for coming miss helens with that i'll close the public hearing and we'll move on to our next item which is a public hearing for ivana kema usa project blue ron i think you're going to help us with this yes chairman helms commissioners manager watson at our at the march 19 i'm

025sorry the march 15 2021 board of commissioners meeting our office presented a request for a step three economic development incentive grant in an amount not to exceed five hundred and twelve thousand two hundred dollars paid over a five year period for project blue at the time the company seeking the incentive requested that their name be kept confidential due to internal decision-making timelines i am pleased to share with you tonight that the name of the company requesting the incentive is bona chemie usa incorporated as background the company bona cami usa is headquartered in sweden and they have been operating in union county specifically in the monroe corporate center since 2008. the company currently employs 50 people bona produces very well-known hardwood floor care products as well as sports floor paints here at the monroe facility these

026paints are used on every ncaa and every nba floor or basketball court bonacami is seeking the economic development incentive grant in support of the purchase of a 35-acre tract of land in the monroe corporate center in the potential construction of a two hundred and sixty six thousand square foot expansion the approximate total investment is nineteen million seven hundred thousand dollars with a potential job creation of one hundred full-time positions paying an average of forty five thousand dollars per year since the march fifteenth meeting bona chemie usa has executed a purchase agreement with the city of monroe for the 35-acre tract of land in the corporate center but a final decision by bona on the building expansion is still pending at this time therefore incentives remain a very important factor for the project given these details

027we are requesting your consideration tonight of a step three economic development incentive grant an amount not to exceed five hundred and twelve thousand two hundred dollars over over five years based upon the union county tax a pre tax office's appraised value each year on the company's anticipated investment of nineteen million seven hundred thousand dollars and that's an investment in lands building and equipment and machinery based on this investment in holding all factors constant including depreciation the company would pay estimated ad valorem taxes on the new taxable investment of 719 936 dollars over the grant period please note that when we apply the 2021 depreciation schedule and hold all other factors constant the project would produce approximately 657 thousand 298 dollars in tax revenue over the grant period and the grant payout would adjust accordingly over

028the grant period to to 467 thousand six hundred dollars so it would adjust accordingly of course actual tax revenue to the to union county will be based on the current tax rate applied to the assessed value of the investment each year after depreciation the project has a cost benefit analysis of i'm sorry as we do with all of our projects we perform this cost benefit analysis and this project shows a 1.98 to one return over the first five years of the project or the grant period and that increases to three to one over the life of the project the monroe union county economic economic development board of advisors reviewed this project at their march 9th 2021 meeting and at their may 5th 2021 meeting where they unanimously supported us presenting this opportunity to you tonight

029for your consideration we also presented the project to monroe city council at their march 9 2021 meeting or a similar economic development grant was awarded unanimously and at their may 11th 2021 meeting where they approved the purchase agreement for the sale of that 35-acre tract of land therefore the monroe union county economic development board of advisors and staff recommend the award of this step three performance-based economic development incentive grant to bone academy usa incorporated in an amount not to exceed two 512 dollars to help secure this 19.7 million dollar investment i thank you for the opportunity to present this and be happy to answer any questions yeah ron uh i received a call today with a question and i know the answer but i'm gonna let you explain it to the public sure that because

030we're looking at a re-valve rate going down that the reval rate was considered in these calculations yes can you explain that please sir first of all it certainly is considered in in in these calculations the great thing about our incentive program is that it anticipates changes from annual budget increases or decreases and in periods of revaluation it achieves this by the review and modification of the grant factor on an annual basis if the grant factor needs to be modified it's simply typically brought to the county commission one or two meetings after the budget adoption the annual grant payments are based on each year's grant factor the grant factor in the public hearing process is used to establish that not to exceed amount for the grant because of this it provides assurance that the grant payment

031is less than the revenue received by the county so to answer your specific question we have to use the current adopted grant factor which for this level of investment is 2.6 percent so as as an example if we were to use the county manager's proposed budget and anticipated tax rate this project would produce approximately 000 uh in advance revenue and the new not to exceed grant would the grand grant payout would be adjusted down to four hundred and thirteen thousand dollars in in as a grant payout so does that answer your question yeah yes it does and i appreciate it certainly commissioner so uh and the city of monroe also did a grant and and the same i guess math if they do not decrease their rate by the by the same percentage that the

032county does what happens to the grant on their side because you work for both that is true that is true actually the the the grant factor would adjust as well if they the most important component of that grant factor is the tax rate so if their tax rate were to change the the program is set up to reflect that so it's a way to protect the the the um the granting bodies so that we never receive less never we never pay out more than what we receive so okay so right so it goes both ways it can it certainly does like a town that's keeping their full tax rate for a increase they wouldn't be affected and monroe's not they're they're going back some uh so they there's a bill they got protections we have

033protections that is exactly correct yes okay thank you ron thank you with that i will open the public hearing and no one is signed up so therefore i'll close the public here next we have the union county 2050 comprehensive plan hearing and bjorn i take it you're going to help us i am evening chairman helms members of the board manager watson short presentation just to update on what you are here to receive comments on this is the public hearing on the union county 2050 draft plan comprehensive plans guide to the county's future informs current future decision makers on where we are and where we want to go and over the course of the last 18 months we have we believe accomplished that in terms of giving guidance to you recommendations on how to grow into

034the future and address existing and projected issues we have an adopted vision that was adopted approximately a year ago has a lot of important guiding principles that were reflected in the comprehensive plan that you received and was out for comment regarding increased capacity to address a range of community issues recognition of higher density residential retail and employment in designated areas convenient accessibility between such land uses complementary development patterns along the corridors this is a reference to all of the municipalities we have and the different development standards we may have the idea of both rural and urban development and recognition of agriculture as a key industry we have a scenario that we're implementing that's called the advancement scenario it was adopted last fall that recommends a revised land use map which i'm about to show you

035upgraded regulations to apply to new development and new programs to address a range of issues including transportation drinking water litter and broadband internet this is the revised land use map it is significantly less dense and has fewer areas for up zoning compared to the existing land use meth that we use for rezoning requests it also includes a new transition zone designation that addresses the concerns by many municipalities regarding inconsistent development patterns on their boundaries so that is something that we believe is an effective tool to help address that concern between multiple municipalities and so the process we've gone through since the coordinating committee completed their work in february was that we presented to the planning board in march for information they took a month to review it they made a recommendation to you in april

036they did have a couple comments regarding drinking water they felt that that was a really important concern and the county should do more to address that they also had concerns over the quarter cent sales tax regarding the partnership with the ncdot to deliver projects so that was a concern regarding that recommendation and so this was presented to you last month we requested a public hearing we sons advertised for that we didn't receive any comments during the month that was open for comment so we are here tonight to hear from the public regarding the comprehensive plan and then based on this feedback sometime in the future based on your guidance we will bring a plan to you for adoption so i'm happy to answer any questions otherwise could be to open up the hearing any questions

037all right thank you vr thank you and we have individuals with that i'll open up the public hearing and i think our first speaker will be charles walker jr that is my name and i'm a native of this county and now resident again thank goodness after 40 some years in charlotte i want to express appreciation to the planning board and all the volunteers that spent a lot of time and energy on this plan and there are many good things in it but i'm asking the commissioners not to approve the plan as it stands right now because there is in my opinion a seriously critical omission now in what norn just showed there were aspects of it noted there what i'm talking about is the creeping urbanization converting rural farm forest land into urbanized areas you

038can see from the map the parts that are still there but i contend that we're at the critical point here and the american farm land trust did a nationwide study and a year ago provided me north carolina and their assessment was and this was from 2000 to 2016 the rate of conversion statewide was high but the policy response was moderate they also supplied me the statistics for union county as of 2016. there's over 409 000 acres in the county and at that point about five years ago just slightly more than half 208 000 were still rural for forest land i think it's not unreasonable to assume in the past years we have reached that and perhaps past that critical point and unless this plan addresses the seriousness of this it will just go on and

039once you reach a certain point you can't fix it so i think the plan needs to state explicitly one of two things either a our long-range goal is to eventually let this county become completely urbanized like charlotte mecklenburg and if not if that is not the intention then it needs to state that and include some beginning strategies to prevent that happening because without some actual planning as to how to do that i don't think it's going to happen the creek will just continue to go on so i'm asking you not to approve it as currently thank you charles next we have wyatt done good evening gentlemen i'm wyatt dunn i'm the mayor of stallings and i live in stallings obviously jerry i'd like to thank you for your comments about coaches and how they affect

040our student athletes i'm heavily involved in fellowship of christian athletes in union county and i know the effect coaches have on our student athletes so thank you for your comments tonight i'd like to address the quarter cent tax rate increase that we would that stallings would like to support i'm here on behalf of the town council of stallings to support the quarter cent increase for to to fund transportation projects especially the light rail coming in that's proposed to come into union county through stallings so with that i'd like to introduce our mayor pro tem and former mayor linda paxton who's also the vice chair of carpo to me she's a resident expert on transportation issues in union county so when she talks i listen about transportation issues and i hope you do too so thank

041y'all thank you as he said linda thank you very much thank you mayor dunn mr dunn gives me a lot more credit about transportation planning than is deserved but mr chairman honorable commissioners i appreciate the opportunity i am linda paxton and i live at 112 eagle crest drive in stallings and i know this hearing tonight is for the 2050 plan but as mr dunn said i want to speak to you about an important matter that did not get included in the plan and that is um the quarter cent sales tax and putting that on a referendum for this fall and i was asked by the council and the mayor to address that issue with you tonight poor road conditions and congestion is the number one complaint we hear from our residents and the most recent

042evaluation that i've seen reports that at least 34 percent of our rural roads are in mediocre or poor condition and poor roads cost drivers 1.7 billion each year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs and additionally poor roads are a factor in 30 percent of fatal accidents none of you were born in the 1930s and thankfully neither was i but in the 1930s north carolina was touted as the good road state but our declining tax revenues and the escalating construction cost have contributed to serious funding shortfalls and lengthy delays in project completions we are at a critical crossroads for addressing our mobility needs for the long term and while highway construction and widening projects will continue to be extremely important for our region we need to demonstrate support for additional transportation options especially transit the

043towns of stallings matthews and indian trail were awarded a federal planning grant in 2019 for transit-oriented development we presented resolutions to the metrolina transit commission in support of extending the silver line into union county in april of 2020 the metroline of transit commission adopted a refined preferred alternative route that shows the silver line coming into stowlings along highway 74 with a station near the new atrium hospital and also a station in indian trail implementation of this plan will necessarily require financial participation from the county adding a tax on our citizens is never an easy decision but the payoff over the long haul is monumental charlotte made a bold move in 1997 by voting in a half cent sales tax to build the lynx blue line and that tax was resoundingly reaffirmed in 2007 with 70

044percent of the voters supporting it we believe that union county voters are also ready to take a bold step to support the extension of the silver line some naysayers argue that light rail doesn't pay for itself the reality is no transportation pays for itself i would however remind you that the lynx blue line has attracted to date just under 3.3 billion in private real estate investment and the extension out to the university that opened in 2018 already has 1.17 billion in new development we have 40 000 county residents commuting into charlotte from union county to work every day we desperately need another alternative the silver line will give residents the opportunity not only to get to work on a reliable time schedule but also to get to the airport to get to the panther stadium

045the night stadium and other stops in the area please give residents the option of voting for this tax through a referendum on the ballot this fall thank you thank you linda next we have loretta one of these days going to be able to say that last name i am loretta milanson i live in union county i'm very proud about that fact and um i i am here to speak in favor of oh i forgot to say i live in monroe i am here to speak in favor of the environmental committee's visions in particular that litter task force i've only been talking about this for four or five years now and just in case you forget i know commissioner simpson i mean i mix you two up all the time commissioner helms i know i cracked

046you up when i wore this when you all presented litter busters with a proclamation um anyway i'm known as the litter queen and i'm very proud of that and humbled by that too i founded litter busters not long after i live i moved here 10 years ago because my road frontage that leads to my subdivision was in such bad shape with litter since then we've come a long way litter busters had a little over 200 friends on our facebook page about a year ago we are now almost 700 and what happened is after covid and people started getting out and looking around they realize that our roadsides are atrocious and coveted in many ways added to that so although i'm here to beg you to approve that litter task force because we need to bring

047people and government together to come up with plans with ideas with creative ideas because none of the things we've done in the past have worked um anyway with that in mind think about how everything in that visioning for the environment uh actually impacts each other you know you if you can correct litter you can automatically correct some of the other things in that vision so please please consider that task force let us citizens work with you all in government to make union county a better place to live thank you loretta you understand that we just have to say loretta everybody that's synonymous with the little queen so you've achieved that level maybe i don't have to wear the crown as much as i thought next we have is robert is a wall sir okay sorry

048that's okay mr chairman commissioners my name is robert mcnally over 20-year resident here in union county i'm here to support the 2050 plan i was on the infrastructure committee and i have to say that i although there was a lot of back and forth with the committees and within the committees for the things that are recommended in the plan i believed in the process that was laid out for the plan to be presented to you tonight uh it's not going to make everybody happy but i believed in the process was uh was diligent and especially given the fact that we went through covid to do this process i believe the planning staff did a great job in in getting it done so those are my comments i i hope you approve the plan thank you

049thank you sir and that concludes our speakers for a comprehensive plan here go ahead sir so i i want to appreciate uh all the comments and obviously from our committee members i did want to point out that we have a number of our committee members who came here tonight uh to speak as well as just show their support for the effort that was uh put forth for this comp plan as was said it's not going to make everyone happy but it is a path to our future i'd just like to say thank you for everyone who participated because it is a it is hard work and you have to take time out of your day to really come and be part of that so i wanted to recognize those folks that did come to the

050meeting tonight to say thank you and also to those people who are not here for their participation just want to say thank you for that well i if you worked on that plan would you please stand because it was a lot of work and we do want to thank you for all the diligence [Applause] bjorn she was telling you to get up [Laughter] okay with that noah speakers uh we'll close the public hearing and we do thank you all for your support and hard work announced this information next we have our informal comments and the letter queen's on the list again i didn't want to take up litter time with saying thank you thank you to each and every one of you commissioners our manager our clerks and i don't ever know who you guys

051are but unless i'm up here reading your names but there are so many people in our union county government that deserve special recognition and i'm not even going to try you know to go any further than this but bjorn oops he's gone anyway bjorn was fantastic in leading this this whole uh process and um let's see you're still here our head yes his boss back there whose name i don't remember lee jensen i keep mixing him up with the head of general services and i have to mention ron gilkerson the head of the solid waste department and chris meddlin at the landfill those two have been fantastic in pitching in as litter busters and if that task for when that task force is is uh approved i am sure they will both be part of

052that task force they they have told me that verbally although i haven't had them sign on the bottom line yet but but anyway those two they actually have started a pickup using their employees on olive branch and austin cheney because they know that those roads are the main roads that the trash trucks take and anybody any citizen coming to the landfill so they're right there supporting us helping us and i have to give them a big thank you thank you ma'am appreciate what you do next we have uh mr walk up did you want to sign did you want to speak it uh have something else you had to say all righty with that we'll uh close our informal comments and thank you for all that care to share with us next we have additions

053deletions and adoption to the agenda yes mr chairman i'd like to move that agenda item 24 be moved from the consent agenda to old business okay and we'll move that to item 31a okay any any other modifications okay we have a motion any discussion about this discussion all in favor all right okay we have the consent agenda well motion to approve with commissioner williams they're notable okay number 24. we have a motion to approve as is amended any discussion all in favor okay that'll take us to our old business and it's item 31 consider final approval to formally award a step three economic development incentive grant in the amen amount not to and exceed thousand two hundred dollars paid over a five year period ron is anything else you'd like to no sir okay yes

054sir motion to approve and formally award the step three economic development incentive grant to vana bonakimi the usa in the amount of not to exceed 512 200 paid over a five-year period authorized county manager to execute an agreement pending legal review okay we have a motion any discussion all in favor all right okay that brings up item 31a which is item 24 that was moved off consent waived certain requirements for economic development incentive grants mr williams yes thank you mr chairman i just wanted to address this item uh briefly um it involves a waiver of requirements specifically job requirements that are attached to some of our incentive grants for economic development i can appreciate the appreciate that this past year has been a a unique year nonetheless i think it's important that we set a

055high standard in terms of our expectations that the businesses that receive these grants um ought to be expected to satisfy them um so when they don't satisfy elements of that contract of that grant um i think they're not due the money that installment that year so i would move that we do not wave that we don't waive the requirements for these economic development incentive grants all right thank you ron would you like to address this because my understanding is this waiver is for this past year it is sir and chairman helms commissioner williams commissioners thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak on this um it is true that whenever we uh originate an economic development incentive grant that there are some modest job creation requirements along with the capital investment requirements so commissioner

056williams totally appreciate the um the comments but if i may all of these incentive grants and we're talking about uh just four companies and all of these incentive grants were awarded prior to 2020 or prior to the covet 19 pandemic all the companies for whom you're requesting the job forgive job creation forgiveness were heavily impacted by negative market conditions brought on by kova 19. the job creation is a relatively minor requirement of our incentive agreements because the capital investment the capital investment that is required is what really impacts our tax revenues our aerospace industry for example has encountered a worldwide slowdown that has never happened before and their business is still challenged by restrictions on international flights with consolidated metco the truck industry took a real nose dive in the second and third quarter of

0572020 but only temporarily if i if i can as as i'll show you all of these incentive grants were awarded in years of record employment so the base employment number that we use to compare two is were set at uh at years of of record employment they had the most employees that a lot of these companies had ever had overall these companies through no fault of their own had no choice but to reduce staffing but as i'll show only temporarily when we look at december of 2020 and compare that to today so roughly six months in spite of a very challenging labor market and we see the four higher and now hiring banners and signs all over the place many of these companies are experiencing a remarkable recovery ati in spite of this continued international

058downturn in aerospace continues to recruit for positions that open up due to attrition tyson foods has increased employment by nine percent since january one they've added 124 people they continue to do off-site recruitment they have an on-site hiring center there on seacrest and they've increased our minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour to try to attract people consolidated metco has increased employment by 20 percent since january 1. they've added 69 people and the truck industry has recovered to such a degree that the manufacturers are predicting and planning for the 2022 and 2023 production years are going to be the highest production here in north america in their history that's companies such as mac freightliner volvo and the biggest point that i want to share with you tonight is that all of these companies have met

059or exceeded their capital investment requirements specifically if you look at those four companies ati northeast tool tyson foods and consolidated metco they report project investment as of december 2020 of just a little under 262 million dollars in capital investment so in summary the companies have performed remarkably well in the face of unprecedented market conditions brought on by the pandemic but they are recovering at an incredible rate so we firmly believe that the job creation challenges they faced in 2020 was a was a one-off a temporary situation and for these reasons we respectfully request that you forgive the job creation requirements for this year's incentive payments for the past year future goes forward right correct it goes back to normal correct correct okay so and again thank you for letting me share that and i'd be

060happy to answer any other questions mr ray uh i spoke with commissioner williams today who i have developed a tremendous respect i wanted to ask him chairman hams told me we were going to be pulling it off the consent agenda and i talked with him and i certainly understand his reasoning for wanting to not approve it but i i think we lose sight of the fact that property taxes are based on january 1 previous year of this year the tax year or the fiscal year that we're talking about is from july 1 2020 to june 30th and i will be we'll have to vote on this motion first but i will not be voting to not allow it because i think back i try to put myself july 1 to december we still didn't know

061if we was going to have a vaccine and now the problem yes there's plenty of people to go to work but until these unemployment give giveaways from federal government stop people are going to ride that boat until it runs out of water and so this like you said this is a one-off we've never seen anything like this in the past and they're still going to have to hire those people and you know we ati i know i was so happy when we got the 100 plus million dollar investment out there and then they sh shuttered the expansion uh airlines we didn't know if there was going to be an airline industry a year ago 12 months later i heard this weekend that flights are exceeding pre-pandemic but it'll still take a while for him to

062come back so i certainly respect his opinion he he really puts a lot of time and thought into this i just wouldn't want him to be my daddy because i think he would be here he would uh not spare the rod and spoil this child all right thank you ron mr yes sir thank you um ron what would happen in a if if a company have we ever had a company not meet the the jobs requirement not to my knowledge not before so it's never happened before um the anything to offset this so so you're saying that it was offset by the capital investments or did everyone offset it with capital investments or one or two and the rest didn't or we we only re we only requested the forgiveness of the job creation on

063these four companies because the other there's probably a dozen or so grants that are in place that each each business is in a little bit different sector they they did not encounter the reduction in staff that these particular companies did so um does that answer your question commissioner some somewhat i mean if these companies took this as an opportunity to downsize or is it a true they couldn't operate because the governor said you can't open your door is it in my conversation with these companies and and believe me between this morning and right now i've had conversations with them that decision to reduce the number of staff in 2020 was a very very hard decision and it it it it did not take place i truly believe this that it did not take place as

064an opportunity to save a line item budget on labor i think proof of that is the the the um the efforts that these companies are taking to try to fill the open positions that they have right now consolidated metco they have 30 35 open positions that they they need to hire people and they're looking so like commissioner rape has said this situation that we're in with the very generous uh i'm just stating fact that the the very generous unemployment situation is is making it very very hard for these companies to hire so so they haven't eliminated the jobs they have not they just don't have the people to fill those jobs that is my understanding so so they created the jobs and then did they create the jobs they said they would that's a i

065appreciate the fact that you you asked that if you look back at 2018 2019 they were still operating at record employment levels and the the the companies that i mentioned here that had that encountered the reductions in staff really is just part of that 2020 uh tovan 19 oddity that's what we've all encountered so like the school systems they didn't lay off employees the county didn't lay off employees and these are not due to layoffs these are not due to again them eliminating jobs this is due to covet and this is due they have the jobs they're in place they just can't fill them that is my understanding that's right and i'm sure they pay what's the new buzzword nowadays living wage in uh well we all know hci and con meds they that's very

066very good and again tyson in their efforts to attract are they've increased their just their walk in the door starting very low skill position at 15 an hour yeah so all the people all the fast food workers looking for 15 an hour jobs are welcome to go to these places and fill these jobs right that that is that is one of the reasons that they had to do that yeah and i and i i would say i respect exactly the position you're taking commissioner williams because if if these are not doing something that the other said they would do and it wouldn't be fair to the other 8 whatever businesses that were fulfilling but watching what people had to go through and if they've not eliminated jobs they just can't fill them because people would

067rather sit home and be paid by the federal government to sit home that's not their that's not necessarily their fault so um so i'll i'll be voting against the motion and then forward forward doing before relieving this commercial rate one more thing uh i know ati i believe went half time because at one point airline i mean airlines parked planes and canceled all orders so and tyson has a very large group of diverse employees and they would have massive outbreaks of coven in certain departments and that place has to work the whole plant has to run or it's hard for part of the plant to run yes so they have been under a tremendous challenge we just i'm just glad to see everything back and of course it's the first time we've had the regular

068uh audience like it is and i just pray to god that it never happens again because we know what it did know sir mr williams i know i know there's at least three of us that plan on supporting well i'm in conversation today yeah i appreciate these perspectives and i'm grateful for all of these companies and what they mean to the economic fabric of the county believe me and this is not a condemnation um on the economic development process or the grants themselves these things are paid out in installments and this is simply for me just a very simple matter of look this year you didn't happen to meet the requirements of this grant so you're not getting the installment it's not a condemnation of you as a company these aren't funds that are going

069to break you if you don't get them they're relatively modest as far as the operation of these entities go you know i just look at this i take a step back and i look at this as a transaction between parties and you know if you're engaged in any other kind of normal commerce and a party doesn't meet and it doesn't satisfy the obligations of the contract the other party isn't obliged to deliver so it's you know it's no comment again on any of these fine companies it's just that they haven't satisfied the requirements of the grant and for that reason i think you know they shouldn't get the installment so but again i appreciate all the comments and um you know i think good people can differ certainly commissioner ray rushing thank you mr chairman

070and and again i'm if if he had told me that that they were you know laying off people on their own will um i would i would agree with everything that you're saying and and i would agree union county and this was said something about earlier we we didn't shut union county down we we um the best board of commissioners stood with the businesses of union county to say no we're we're not going to shut down and then our state government stepped in our governor shut it down and he he did that and that's not uh that's not this board's fault and and you were you were you were just coming on and getting ready to come on i think when that happened and that wasn't uh this board's fault that wasn't the businesses in

071this in this county's fault that that what happened to them and that that was something that uh again if if it was our fault you know i would even be more you know i'd say yeah we can't condemn somebody for something it's our fault but um but this was done by some authority over us that that we had no control over and and neither did these businesses so if it wasn't a government you know foot on the neck i would say i'll be right there with you uh if it was just an economic downturn i'd i'd be there with you and say hey look you know you you know you didn't meet your goals but this is not a this is a government created problem it's not a economy or business you know related problems

072so so i'd appreciate i would appreciate it and i'd like to vote with you if you change your mind well i think i think good people are just going to have to differ on this one but i mean i think all these perspectives are um you know have some merit commissioner williams i took your opening comment as a motion yes so we uh we will we have a motion to deny uh granting the waiver any further discussion all in favor of denying the waiver all right okay okay all opposed uh the waiver passes thank you what do we need uh do we need to take an actual okay then i'll make a motion that we authorize the county manager to draft and execute a waiver substantially consistent with the agenda idol all in favor okay

073thank you ron appreciate it thank you chairman thank you commissioners next is item 32 appointments to boards and committee central line of workforce development board the terms of eric tillman apprentice representative kelly stigall adult education literacy representative and rich whit stetler private sector representative on the central line of workforce development expire on june 30 2021. these vacancies have been advertised in accordance with board rules and these individuals have applied for reappointment the central line of workforce development board is requesting that these members be reappointed we have a motion to report we'll take one at a time motion to uh to appoint the three representatives mr tillman mrs stigl uh mr wittersladder i boy about bunch of that uh to the to the boards all right okay all in favor all right okay next we have

074the ag advisory board there's a vacancy for unexpired term on the ag advisory board due to the death of a member who served in that position the term expires june 2022 this vacancy has been advertised according to the board rules a procedure for the number of months two applications have been received ron cox and tony helms mr chairman yes sir two excellent candidates for uh fulfilling the uh term here i just want to point out that uh this particular board has statutory requirements with regard to townships and uh farmland preservation district so uh despite the qualifications of both i'm gonna recommend tony hills to that position okay have a nomination any discussion all in favor of mr helms okay next we have the union county home and community care block grant advisory committee patricia kenley's

075term has expired on this committee ms kindly has applied for reappointment there are several other vacancies the vacancies have been advertised in accordance with board rules of procedure dr angela giles charles has also submitted her application served on this committee that's true yes sir much to reappoint ms kennedy and appoint angela charles okay we have a motion in the discussion all in favor okay next item is jury commission gary select term of the jury commission expires june mr clerk has applied for reappointment commission the vacancy has been advertised in accordance with the board of rules and procedures a motion to reappoint mr slalick i'll make him move okay any discussion all in favor all right all right next we have the monroe union county work group on water wastewater resources on may 20th 2021 the

076union county board of commissioners approved forming a collaborative work group along with the city of monroe in order to evaluate water resources and recommend options for using the combined resources of both governments to meet the current and future needs of our residents the same action has been was approved by the monroe city council it is agreed that the work group will consist of two elected members from each board and two elected members from the council along with both city managers and county manager mr chairman yes sir i would like to place for nomination commissioner rape and commissioner williams to fill those two positions okay have a nomination you gentlemen agree with the servant on these positions okay i do mr sherman all right well we have a nomination and uh any discussion all in favor

077aye aye all right great next we have a presentation from union county public schools regarding the fy 2022 budget priorities and objectives good evening chairman helms and board of county commissioner members it's always a pleasure to get the opportunity to come and speak joining with me this evening are members of our board ms merrill our chair who you're going to hear from in just a little bit with regards to the details of the presentation ms heintel mr price as well as seanan mclamb our cfo so let me begin this evening number one by thanking you for the opportunity to be here tonight i also want to speak directly to the board of county commissioners and say thank you this past year this past series of years i believe the relationship between the board of county

078commissioners and the board of education has been at its all-time best and as a superintendent of union county public schools i want to acknowledge that and thank you all as board members for working in tandem and partnership with us i also want to take an opportunity to thank mr watson and his team specifically to deputy commissioner miss lancaster mr hart and miss lyles as it pertains to the budget process you all have been great partners to work with us during the past year and we we very much appreciate you i also would say that the relationship between both administrations staff to staff is at an all-time high i've thoroughly enjoyed working directly much more directly with mr watson our county manager i think that communication efforts the work with the department of health and human

079services and mr joyner and just overall leadership in this county uh is again tremendously positive productive and effective and so from our senior administrative team mark to you and yours thank you very much when i arrived in union county public schools five years ago i informed our board our principals our teachers our staff our community that there was one vision and one goal that i had personally and professionally for our school system and it was to be the best school system in the state in the region and in the nation and while many will will argue and widely believe that perhaps in some ways we've accomplished that during the last five years as superintendent i always believe that we can continuously improve we can always get better no matter what and as a system while

080i'm very very proud of our accomplishments i do not believe we have achieved our ultimate best especially given the challenges associated this past year with the the pandemic and where we are as you can very well imagine to be the best school system in the nation requires a lot requires a lot of hard work a lot of effort a lot of vision and there are so many different categories that with your support we've addressed to try to get there including work around our school system culture academic excellence financial stability facilities improvement safety physical mental social and emotional all of these different categories have had local dollars appropriated to them in the past and we're very appreciative of your of your support of our continuous improvement and growth the budget request submitted to you tonight is

081a very much forward-facing request while the request exceeds what we have historically received these dollars are primed to position or to accomplish three primary goals number one provide funding that will cover state mandates such as benefits insurance etc number two provide funding that will assist union county public schools and continuing to serve a very high performing district academically and non-academically and number three providing funding that what that will impact our capital and facilities needs across many school and district locations and again the details of that our chair ms merrill will present to you in just a few minutes one signature common goal that is a hallmark of this request and one that we all would agree i hope is one of the most important for any organization recruiting developing retaining and compensating a highly effective

082workforce in other words taking care of our current and future employees our this specific aspect of this request will accomplish the following objectives and there are four of them number one it will greatly assist us as a district in recruiting and retaining the best employees in our school system number two it will position the district to remain competitive with surrounding school districts and counties and other like industries such as private and charter number three it will allow us to invest more deeply into our staff and develop their talent so they choose to stay here in union county and union county public schools and number four it communicates and sends a message to our employees that they matter that they're valuable and i think of any years in which that message has to be sent it's

083this year while this budget request may be significant in size it is a request that is important that is needed and that must be sustained to that end mr watson and i and our staff have agreed that when it comes to future compensation we must do a better job of building in a sustainable compensation model so that a future budget request of this size can be minimal and pending your decision whenever you make that i will work hand in hand with mr watson on developing a multi-year long-term plan for our employees and for our school system so that every year incremental steps can be added as opposed to one large compensation chunk like you've seen before with that said however now is the time that we're asking you all to act on this matter as

084it will position our school system to continuing its journey to become the best school system in this nation i would now like to yield the floor mr chair to miss merrell our chair of the school board unless there are any questions that i can answer i have one comment drew i am so proud that we have arrived at where we're at tonight uh i know i had ponies when i was young and if you get a cuckoo burr under the blanket under the saddle you'll have a problem and i know i have been a cuckle bird but you have you have rosen to the occasion and i am so proud of where we're at tonight as you say all we had to do was just talk to each other and uh i can't say enough

085things never thought i'd say it but of course i told you the first time i met you if you'd listen to me i'd make you the best superintendent in the united states i hear you okay i'm listening i i heard you and i still hear you okay but i did say that i didn't say that yes sir thank you thank you mr rape yes ms merrill now don't be a cuckoo bird just kidding well we know that i have been um just want to verify how we advance the slides before we get started is there uh oh this arrow okay okay very good so good evening i don't have a crown and i remember all of your names but um thank you very much for the opportunity that you have given to to us to

086be here tonight to present our budget request following up from our joint meeting back in march i do i also want to acknowledge that our two liaisons that have worked so closely with chairman helms and vice chair dennis rape we have our two liaisons todd price and kathy hinetale here tonight along with seana mclamb our cfo if there are any questions when we get through this presentation so what we have tonight is a very short abbreviated presentation from the full document that you received on may 14th and like dr houlihan already said our budget priorities for 22 is sustaining operations investing in employees program expansions and new initiatives along with investing in our future as dr houlihan very well outlaid to you here's our operating budget and we were able to identify with each department

087several months ago more than two million dollars in our existing budget that we were able to redirect to put in into this budget this request for sustaining operations you will see state mandates and the reason that they're highlighted every number that you see on this presentation and the next slide the these are completely out of our control these are state mandates and local requirements that regardless of what you are able to approve for us in the next budget cycle no matter what this money is going to be due so i just want i wanted to point that out to you kathy and i wanted to make sure that each of you knew that um with the 3.39 million dollars that was a projected increase that these highlighted numbers is going to exceed that a little

088bit so we have facilities facilities increases that are all have already increased we have property and liability insurance increases and then we have lost revenue because our enterprise funds for child nutrition we were not able to charge for any of those items to be able to pay ourselves so so these are needs that that we do need roman numeral 3 investing in our employees and this is something that i came before you last year and acknowledged that you know we're in a critical situation still having to operate on a 2018 state budget you know it's 2021 and things have increased um if the state legislature increases the non-certified and certified staff this will be due and so that's why we wanted to point that out to you tonight along with project projected average increases of

0898 percent so that that alone is 2.7 million above you have the 1 million um and just like i spoke to you last year you know transportation is um some is something that is very critical for union county public schools at last check we were short over 50 drivers and every time i talk to drivers who are thinking about leaving union county public schools or have already put in their resignation it is pay and sometimes they are leaving us not only to go to other counties and other school districts but sometimes they're coming to the county and it's simply an hourly rate wage reason so we had a three-year plan that we brought to the county five years ago and we were able to honor the year one plan in 2018-19 and then we did

090the year two plan then last year we didn't have enough funds to take care of that year three and so we just want to make sure that uh you understand that um the district compensation study for transportation and support staff were now in year four almost five of that compensation study that we did back in 2018 and brought to you so we'd really like to get that off the books with your approval um others uh supplement increases we've had significant conversations with each of you since our joint meeting where we were able to talk to you about the local stipend for our classroom teachers and the need for our school nurses psychologists and social workers and then finally you'll see that we are proposing on average a one dollar per hour for our drivers and

091what we're thinking about doing there it it would with your approval it would be a tier and we would do it based on years of service to union county public schools starting at 1.25 increase than a dollar and beginning at 75 cents and we think that would significantly help our bus drivers recruiting and retaining bus drivers operating budget continued you'll see the additional enrollment projections we're currently paying out from our finance department from the money you provide us out to approximately 30 charter schools i know that you're probably thinking there's only a handful in union county but a lot of our students do go outside of union county and and so we're actually from our finance department cutting checks to approximately 30 charter schools right now and uh their increased enrollment um we will need

092those funds to get those bills paid for charter school then we have athletics our high school athletic directors are currently 10 month employees and i'm sure each one each one of you here know that our athletics run year round through the summers and the school year so we are proposing moving our high school athletic directors from uh 10 month to 12 month employees and the only new position that we are proposing in this budget is in our technology services i'm sure everyone here has met james parker our cto and he he and his staff are having to work through the weekends because of people trying to come into our syst into our systems late at night and all throughout the day 24 7. so he has requested that one position and i just want you

093to know that is the only new position that we would be adding with your approval so at the bottom of this you will see that that our request is over what we asked for last year but please know that the 4 4.7 million alone is is what we need just if we do the state mandates and our local requirements like paying for the charter schools okay that brings us to our capital budget so you can see the six items listed for our facilities needs and then um new vehicles for the vehicles that are that are aging out or have too many miles on them and then uh our existing laptop payments for our teacher and admins that were done several years ago and then um the following year after we did teacher and admin we

094we did a lease payment for our grades 6 through 12 and now our three through five students so you can see those lease payments that we need to make this year for for those devices that are currently in hand we will be providing band uniforms to weddington high school this year with your approval and you can see that our capital request is roughly 19.5 million dollars the next slide you've seen before but again union county public schools is maintaining and taking care of 233 structures across the county okay so that brings us to our summary the proposed fund request and again i just want to point out that the projected increase that we were provided from the county was was just under 3.4 million dollars that i believe you were budgeting for union county public

095schools this year but again i want to remind you just with the state mandates the charter school payments we're at 4.7 million if we didn't do anything else so the additional funding request is 5 almost 5.8 million difference for local compensation needs um we have been in in the um we have been doing market analysis every year and so for our non-certified support staff and the cola increases our district continues to continues to lose market position in the state to our surrounding districts even south carolina our bus drivers and safety assistants did not have not received an increase since 2017 so you can see the 1.5 total there all of these numbers are pulled from slide three so if you go back you'll be able to find these numbers and how they the totals that

096came here under local supplement increases just for our classroom teachers their last increase for their local stipend was in 2017 and in 2018 our local teacher stipend was ranked number 12 in north carolina this year our teacher stipend has dropped all the way to number 19 compared to the other 115 school districts so we we've dropped significantly our proposal in this budget is to increase our local teacher stipend a thousand dollars and as long as the 115 other school districts don't increase their stipend that would bring us to number 10 it would put us um in in the top 10 for our teachers our local supplement increase for our school nurses psychologists and social workers they have not had an increase since 2012 and we are proposing to get them up to market where they

097need to be we're proposing depending on their experience and how long they've been with union county public schools somewhere between 2500 or 3000 to get them where they need to be so we've talked about this many times union county public schools over the last many years has come in as the number three school district for all public schools 115 school districts across north carolina and i think it's very important to talk about who is number one who is number two and what i know what is our vision for union county public schools and we know we all agree that money doesn't fix everything we can agree on that but i think it is important to see how other counties are funding their schools either through their their total per pupil expenditure but but even more

098important how are they being funded locally and you can see that if you just look at local per-pupil expenditure union county public schools ranks 29th while number two polk county is um we're receiving 22 167 267 number two locally polk county their county is providing them two thousand five hundred and sixty seven dollars and that just get that gives them a small bump up to number 22. so that is a nice um it's much better than number and then of course number one um is chapel hill carrboro schools they locally are receiving six thousand four hundred and seventeen dollars from their county just for per pupil expenditure so when you look at union county public schools our students are receiving eight thousand seven hundred and eighty one dollars approximately per student and number two is

099polk county is at eleven thousand and number one is almost at thirteen thousand per pupil so what are our objectives what have our achievements been during a global pandemic and the really great partnership we've had with the county to get through this past year so in 2020 21 um we are struggling to sustain operations based on a 2018 budget those those are dollars we we are wanting to invest in our employees as the largest employer in your county our county union county student growth as we are the sixth largest district and also trying to make sure we have enough money to fund the charter school the students from our county that choose charter schools program enhancements expect expansions in athletics and cyber security and our continued capital needs for 213 structures across this county so

100what have our achievements been and why do i feel like we even deserve to be here before you tonight to ask for such a big request you know coveted 19 has been difficult and when our doors closed last march we've pretty much been drinking by a fire hose ever since trying to you know take care of our taxpayers and do the best we can to follow the mandates coming out of raleigh so it is extremely important for everyone in union county to know and the members here tonight that union county public schools reopen their doors on august 17 2020. we were the largest school district in the state that opened during covet 19. and we had seven or eight other school districts we had many school districts that contacted dr houlihan wanting to meet with

101him and our staff on how are we doing this can we come visit to see what your schools look like how are you doing your temperature checks how are you handling the mask how are you keeping mask on fifth graders um how are you able to do this for 42 000 students when they only have four or five thousand students so we had many school districts across the state that did contact our superintendent wanting to know okay what's your model how are you doing it not only did we transition from offering one day a week to two days a week to four days a week and as soon as because of the vaccines in february and march we were able to bring everyone back from spring break five days a week and i will tell

102you our email box was flooded that was not a popular decision but i can tell you that because of our superintendent cabinet staff and our board of education we have always remembered that our taxpayers and our parents our grandparents we are here for one reason and that is to educate 42 000 students and after seeing the fall results of um how students were actually performing during covet we knew they needed to be back in the classroom not online and for the ones that chose to be online so not only were we offering a plan a and plan b in person school district we were also in the snap of a finger operating a k through 12 virtual academy and completely taking care of those parents and those students who who could not be in our

103schools or did not feel they could be in our schools and making sure that we had the st the teachers and the staff to not only take care of in-person but also the virtu the k-12 virtual academy so in my mind that's two different school districts because that was a challenge i will tell you we also had middle school high school athletics despite covid19 we had five state championships we held proms band theater and chorus in 2020 union county public schools seniors were the only 12th graders in north carolina that got their senior grades because the state the state board and dpi they said they couldn't but the union county public schools board met and we voted i know that we would offer our 12th graders the same option that the state was given grades

1049 10 and 11 their classmates the option of either pass withdrawal or their numerical grade but they said 12th graders could not have their numerical grade so we worked with representative dean arp and senator todd johnson got a local bill written and i am proud to tell you that the class of 2020 in union county public schools is are the only 12th graders in north carolina because of our partnerships and willing to do the right thing for our students always they are the only third about 34 almost 3 500 students in union county public schools are the only ones that got their numerical grade last year and i believe it was around 92 93 of our seniors opted for their numerical grade we held 13 graduations last june and last week we held 13 more

105graduations military academic athletic and cte signing days for our students we provided meals from march 13 2020 through this year with our wonderful sros we reopened after school in january to assist with our working parents and just recently superintendent dr houlihan was named superintendent of the year for the southwest region which includes i believe nine school districts and with that honor being the superintendent of the year for the southwest region dr houlihan our superintendent will now compete for superintendent of the year in hopes of receiving the a craig phillips state award so we we look forward to that in closing our partnership with the chair and the vice chair the county manager the deputy county manager and all the conversations we've been having during this very difficult time we've had amazing communications with the department

106of health union county government and our ucps staff together we've been able to coordinate vaccination clinics between atrium and ucps nurses you have approved design fees for forest hills high school and east elementary you have provided one-time payments for our school nurses and finally you just approved about a month or so ago a one-time payment to all union county public school employees and for that i want to thank each and every one of you for your time your willingness to meet text call receive questions answer questions it has it has been a very very great um relationship to have with the county between our schools and this board and this staff over the past year and we cannot say thank you enough because from our point of view most people who live in union county

107come here for our schools and our vision is not to make it to number two or number one in north carolina our vision is to be the best school district in the nation and i think it's going to be because of our commitment to working together do you have any questions any questions yes thank you uh chairman merrill could you go back one slide to number nine absolutely i found that to be an interesting breakdown of rankings in terms of local per pupil expenditure total per pupil expenditure one thing that's not on there which i found interesting when we had our joint meeting was the state per pupil expenditure out of 116 county and municipal school districts could you share with everybody here and whoever is watching online just where union county public schools ranks

108there i do not have that chart with me no i mean not total but state per pupil the average per pupil for the state right when you look at state funding no i have it in my briefcase okay [Music] yeah i'm sorry i didn't mean to have you go to all that trouble i didn't bring the the big one with me i i brought this one so yeah just is that what you were looking for yeah just that you're right the in terms of state per pupil expenditures you're one i think about putting that on there yeah we're numb we're dead last yeah number 116. yeah i mean that so that's mine thank you thank you for remembering that commissioner russian thank you um there were some speakers earlier in the night that had made

109some comments about some vaccination requirements other things with the school system would you like an opportunity to absolutely address that i would love to speak on that so um dr houlihan those speakers were at our meeting this past tuesday and so dr houlihan went on record and communicated to everyone watching at home and to all the speakers i can't even remember how many speakers we had tuesday night but he communicated that we have no plans no dates to offer vaccinations in our schools during school hours without parent consent that he was on public record with that that is not in the plans um so that addresses vaccinations and their comments were about charter schools that were that you know union county public schools was not doing this but the comments they made were from charter

110schools that were offering that without parental consent any other things they said that that was a lot said so i don't the other thing um i know there's a lot of concern about critical race theory being offered in union county public schools and what you may or may not know is that the state board of education and dpi i believe back in february changed the state standards for social studies k through 12. so it does begin all the way in kindergarten and the state board had a meeting last week their next meeting is on june 18th and they could not even come to an agreement on the unpacking documents for k-5 and some other items at their meeting last week so we will have to wait and see what happens on june 18th with the

111state board but i believe one comment was that we're already a year behind well the truth is is that this has been in the works for two years um the state has actually been working on this for two years and i know catherine truitt has spoken on this the new superintendent um i have been vocal and spoken out against this and the detriment to my own safety and um and i can just tell you that as the chair of union county public schools curriculum we are waiting on those unpacking documents from the state to be sent to all districts so that we can decide how to deliver those new standards to union county public school students but that hasn't even happened yet because we haven't received them the unpacking documents but you know i'm not

112sure that um i'm in we have not had a vote on this but i do not think i do not believe that is something that we would we would ever want to do to offer critical race theory um in union county public schools because i believe the majority of our families would be outraged and with and we've already already received many threats and emails from union county parents saying that they will withdraw their children from union county public schools if we introduce critical race theory so interestingly enough this weekend we found out that they have come up with a new acronym for crt i didn't bring my phone with me what's the new acronym for crt toss me my phone so the new acronym for crt that everyone needs to be aware of bear with

113me i apologize i wasn't i should have written this down knowing it would come up it is culturally responsive teaching one uh one question about this slide that we have so these are the top three districts in north carolina and and according to niche data that most everyone follows the scores the scores so what niche uses is they look at our eog scores end of course grades a-c-t s-a-t biology math one i believe the english two they look at all of those scores and for the last several years we have we have remained number three and chapel hill carrboro has remained number one the only the only thing that i've seen move is number two okay one one comment that i've made before and i'll make again tonight is that union county public schools should

114be commended for and this and the staff and the teachers should be commended for the efficiency if there is a ranking in the nation i would like to see the efficiency rating that here you are the top third consistently uh in the number three ranking at the lowest numbers from the state the lowest dead last dead last funding from the state and you are uh 29th in the state and local yeah our teachers which which consist of a lot of union county children who have grown up through the union county public school system and going on to teach in the union county public school system i have a lot of friends a lot of classmates that that are wonderful union county teachers and work in the in the school system so so that's that's a

115strong message if you want to be number one in anything check the efficiency rating of what you get and what you use it for and how you do it and these schools that come and talk to dr houlihan i tell you i got an idea for you maybe charge them for a little bit so uh so union county taxpayers benefit don't just give it to them for free charge them for it because you should be charging for it you all should be charging for it as a system that again that you do it somehow you do it efficiently and union county that's that's our goal i think here is to do it efficiently you know people ask us don't waste and and the people who are not here tonight ten years ago this conversation would

116be had in a room with standing room only people out the hallway raising cane and and we have come a long way in in this period of time and and and you have gotten a lot of grief lately so i'm gonna give you some not so much grief i'm gonna give you some some pats on the back you have been here through that time period and you have done a wonderful job if people could see the meetings that you and i and kathy and others have been in you know trying our best to come up with a way to do this um for the for the children of union county um how to do it haggling you know i'd rather haggle with you than kathy over money but um but y'all i'm not sure what

117that means [Laughter] kathy's a little tougher on the money but but y'all have done a excellent efficient job and and how many years have you been chairman i've been on the board for seven years and chair for six okay so so most of your time on board that speaks to your leadership that speaks to the choices that you've all made and and how your board is done um so congratulations you have run an efficient system and one last question there was a protest years ago that we all discussed and had issues over about the time the budget problem started and teachers from union county went up to protest what was that protest over um it was budgetary issues or what was it assistance oh that one okay whoo red for ed is that that's the

118one okay in raleigh okay that protest okay what was that over budgetary issues what was that that was over uh state pay and benefits for teachers okay there's not been any in the last three no are the teachers going up and asking for the governor to please sign a budget during coven 19 this past may they didn't but the two prior mays they did and then they've and and they've asked pre-code so they've asked the governor please sign the budget i do not believe they asked the governor to sign the budget that was before him or the many bills all right well thank you again for all the work you do and and i apologize for taking up something melissa we have really enjoyed working together we have accomplished like dr houlihan said a working

119relationship that works for union county and we appreciate y'all's contribution our staff's contribution in this board too we thank you very much thank you no other questions thank you ma'am i tell you we uh union county public schools is a fantastic organization and we're very blessed here in union county that we've got multiple schools that do us an outstanding job and also south piedmont community college that that does an outstanding job for our young people dr farr would you like to speak and share anything with us i'm not trying to put you on the spot but uh we uh dr farris went since she got here she's come up with some creative solutions uh and workarounds that have really benefited union county we really appreciate what you've done thank you thank you i very much

120appreciate the board and the service provided to our college and as you said during covid we had a lot of innovation we were able to use the funding that we did receive as coveted relief to advance our services so that we could provide more virtual services for our students so as as i come up here i really do give you a heartfelt thank you for everything and for the support tell them a little bit about that the two rooms you have that you've tested that's uh kind of leading edge yes the hybrid flexible so uh one of the investments that we made and we are this summer piloting two classrooms that allow for any of the courses taught in those classrooms to have an option for the students to be seated in the classrooms to

121have a virtual synchronous experience or to be asynchronous online within the same course and during the semester students can move from each of those modalities as life happens for them and they may find themselves doing better in one modality over another and our goal is to get all of our classrooms to have that level of flexibility so that it's a much more personalized experience for our students and it does help in times of disruption such as a pandemic so thank you very much for what you do appreciate it next we have county managers comments thank you mr chairman and members of the board a couple of items um this evening one uh it's uh i'm very sad to report that we've had the passing of a union county public works employee mr corey kahalene passed

122away as a result of an off-duty accident on may the 30th and cory leaves behind a wife and two small children and our thoughts and prayers go out to that family you may have seen as you came into the building this afternoon a film crew out in front of the government center and that was none other than good morning america and they were here today to interview one of our union county 911 dispatchers miss carrie michaels who a couple of weeks ago took a call from a mother who had just delivered her baby at home and carrie talked her through some of the things that she needed to be doing during that very important time and stayed with her on the phone until the paramedics and um the father of her child arrived uh and

123as i understand liz katherine this interview will be thursday morning tentatively thursday morning okay so y'all let us know but today what what happened in the courtyard is um carrie michaels got to meet the mother of the child that she helped on the telephone that day so very special time and last but not least we have a member of our board having a very special birthday tomorrow so happy birthday chairman hounds thank you sir thank you very much appreciate it no hat we had to wear hey when you get 75 that is a mr magu what are you talking about commissioner simpson thank you mr chairman i just quickly want to thank pastor koble for our invocation this evening uh thank all those speakers who came and uh spoke in reference to our to our

124budget and want to particularly thank those who volunteered who spoke and who participated in a 2050 plan a vision for the future of our county i appreciate your time that's a long process and uh it takes a lot of effort to give of your time i'd also like to to ask for your thoughts and your prayers um one of our finest here in union county everett medlen who is a an innovator and a leader in our farm community and also has spent many years on the planning board is seriously ill and i want to recognize that fact and think about him to see thank you mr chairman thank you commissioner russian thank you mr chairman um i would like to discuss some of the things that we heard earlier during the budget or the public

125hearing mr uh walkup i believe that you know was had said something about the 2050 committee and and or the plan that had come up and his concerns of outward growth and and this board you know addressed uh some of those concerns a few meetings ago when we when we're limiting the the range of sewage and how far out we're going with the sewage and i think commissioner simpson put it and we're protecting those uh present use areas uh of agriculture by doing that so we are as a board uh recognizing that and working toward that and understand the citizens want that and i believe the 2050 committee has come up with a with a plan for the county that you know i can uh support you know of course you don't always support everything

126that you see or hear and there are parts of it like uh that were recommended to be taken out like the quarter sales tax and and i agree with that and some other uh issues but uh but overall i think it's a hard um thought out plan and a uh and a good plan that that we can get behind for the future of the county um also if there were some questions about any kind of money and funds that we're going to receive from federal government of strings attached if we could please get those uh any anything as soon as possible where we may have strings attached to that funding that would require vaccinations if that would require any kind of passports anything like that that might be in there if we could please figure

127that out as soon as possible with legal and let this board know before we make any decisions there lastly the revenue neutral rate and i've spoken about this a lot especially on social media i asked the staff to prepare a pie chart and a and a comparison showing basically where the county the funding that we will be giving to the schools the funding we would be giving to law enforcement the funding we would be given to county government would go down and expect a change of 1.5 million dollars if the towns maintain the same tax rate or don't go to a revenue neutral tax rate that's very important because i saw one of the mayors of those towns talk about how they were going to uh they're working for the all the people of union

128county not just people their town but at the same time the formulas that they're using and and keeping their rates the same does exactly that it takes away from the school system it takes away from the county to the point where we have to talk about a tax increase of a penny just to make sure that we don't lose as much as we could so so please towns consider what you're doing to your residents that in this reval year where rates went up substantially and i think uh mr thomas had said uh you saw a 29 figure that's just on the average uh some people will face in these towns a 100 percent uh 50 percent i personally just my home will be we'll see a 50 percent increase if the county stayed the same

129uh so by the county dropping our rate to 58 or in that area at least i do recoup that and then that average goes to that figure that you were talking about but in some of these towns they're going to bear the full brunt some of the people who can least afford it are going to bear the full brunt of that increase with no relief and i would hope that the towns would reconsider if they're if they're thinking i i really do believe there's a lot of misinformation going around in the towns about the effect of a revenue neutral rate or what what they shouldn't shouldn't do and it affects all the county taxpayers as well i don't live in a municipality it doesn't affect me don't have any property municipality doesn't affect me tax-wise

130but the people we all represent it does affect and it can have a dramatic effect if the rates are not adjusted even to half of revenue neutral whatever it is they have to adjust them to understand that that's a complete tax increase and increasing huge increase in revenues for those towns if they don't adjust that rate thank you and i hope everyone has a good week mr williams i was uh also very much heartened by many of the public comments i heard tonight um and found a lot of agreement um i'd like to also uh maybe pivot a little bit off of some of the comments regarding the comprehensive plan i think overall it's an excellent plan and i think you know it does a lot to kind of protect and enlarge the green spaces

131and speaking for myself one of the things that makes union county wonderfully different from our northern neighbor is that we embrace some of that rural lifestyle we don't want to be just an undifferentiated part of charlotte mecklenburg and i think the comprehensive plan goes a long way in kind of making that statement so i was very pleased with a lot of the comments there and basically agree there was another comment made during public comments that i'd like to kind of pivot off of and it really touches on um the you know what we're looking at during this budget period in terms of you know the tax rate well obviously there's been a revaluation at some point we as a board are going to have to decide on what that tax rate is whether it's revenue

132neutral or perhaps as has been proposed a cent above revenue neutral but it's important to keep i think those alternatives in perspective what would a one cent increase from the revenue neutral rate what would the outcome of that be well for a 290 000 medium home value which is what we have median in union county that's 29 extra a year now what if you have a couple vehicles at your house most of us do what if your vehicle is valued at 13 000 well then your taxes on your uh personal property on your vehicle is going to drop 38 dollars so you actually have a tax decrease so i think it's important whatever this board decides if we go with a one cent increase or we stay revenue neutral i think it's pretty important to

133keep in mind that these are very marginal modest amounts that we're talking about thank you that's right well i always like to congratulate all our organization employees because uh it's hard to believe we're about to finish up another budget uh van i know everybody knows but you did lose your father since we met last as a regular meeting and i'm sorry for that and beverly your daughter mopped up as at parkwood with awards and all that and being a parkwood graduate me and jerry i had to call that out but tonight my focal point is going to be where we've reached with the school board remember tonight it's going to be a challenge for next year it's going to be a challenge for future boards but uh i am so happy where we at and

134let's try to keep between the ditches next year and do the same thing again i saw and myself i um i think commissioner williams made an excellent point uh technically there are three three items in your property tax according to state statute the only one they consider for revenue neutral is your residence that's the only one with touch but you've got the your resident you've got the automobile that he mentioned and also personal property so we are actually coming in maybe i can't call it revenue neutral but you're coming in where you don't owe as much tax on average and i appreciate that and i can tell you that recent social media actions i've received numerous calls from mayors and council concerning the criticism by this board the position of one board member does not

135constitute the position of the entire board of commissioners this board and staff has worked very hard to improve the relationship with schools municipalities and our community partners it is not our intent to criticize or challenge how municipalities manage their financial situation many have told me about plans they have and it's more than just just this year that's their business with their constituents the opinions of the individual commissioner therefore is their opinion and not the board representative of the board of county commissioners and we appreciate your time and with that i'll ask for a motion to adjourn all the favor all right [Music] did you get uh i think you