1 00:01:02,420 --> 00:01:12,000 Welcome everyone. My name is Jean Hamilton, chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, and I call this July 28th, 2026 business meeting to order. 2 00:01:15,430 --> 00:01:23,450 So as many know, this meeting was called in order to fill the vacancy after the death of Commissioner James Otter-Betford. 3 00:01:25,090 --> 00:01:40,210 The first item I am with if there's no objections going to change the order of the agenda and we will start with the appointments first and then follow with the other items in order. 4 00:01:40,930 --> 00:01:43,090 Madam Chair, do you need a motion to that effect? 5 00:01:43,130 --> 00:01:47,450 I do not need a motion just if there's no objections. I check the rules and procedures. 6 00:01:49,490 --> 00:02:00,330 Okay, so then as I want to say first that this first item is to make an appointment for the vacancy, 7 00:02:00,990 --> 00:02:07,670 I want to start by thanking all the folks who put their name forward, all the candidates. 8 00:02:09,830 --> 00:02:15,570 Ronny Dawsey, Leah Bergman, Maria Palmer, Pam Heminger, Renukasoul, and Eric Valera. 9 00:02:16,390 --> 00:02:17,990 Thank you so much. 10 00:02:18,590 --> 00:02:24,790 The strength of this county is the strength of the people who step up to serve. 11 00:02:25,130 --> 00:02:33,370 Also, I want to thank the Orange County Democratic Party and Lumigie for really driving this process. 12 00:02:33,370 --> 00:02:41,370 and we appreciate the applications that we received and we're working together on this. 13 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:48,660 So is there anyone signed up to speak on this topic? 14 00:02:50,140 --> 00:02:50,140 No, 15 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:52,880 okay. 16 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:54,540 One person. 17 00:02:55,480 --> 00:02:56,120 Yes. 18 00:02:58,780 --> 00:02:59,540 State your name. 19 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:02,920 Good morning. 20 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:03,500 Apologies. 21 00:03:03,780 --> 00:03:04,320 Madam Chair. 22 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:05,460 My name is Brian Lincoln. 23 00:03:05,500 --> 00:03:08,480 I'm the president of the Chapel Hill Carbor Association of Educators. 24 00:03:09,820 --> 00:03:18,340 On the one hand, I wish I wasn't here this morning, it's with a heavy heart on behalf of our organization that we send our condolences to the Bedford family. 25 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,420 Jim Zeta Bedford was a champion of our community. 26 00:03:21,780 --> 00:03:25,760 For all aspects of our community, she was a wonderful individual in human being. 27 00:03:26,340 --> 00:03:28,480 She was a great champion of public education. 28 00:03:29,540 --> 00:03:33,440 And she's someone who our organization proudly supported. 29 00:03:34,100 --> 00:03:56,100 I can think just, it's still shocking to me that it was on vacation when I saw the news just having been with her in the last response over this very difficult budget, and of course she was always the person who was the most prepared, literally brought a binder this thick of all the items in the budget when she would agree to meet and sit down with constituents. 30 00:03:57,100 --> 00:04:07,820 She was just a lovely, lovely person and human being and a great public servant, and I'm sorry to all of you to have lost such a friend and colleague, and I'm sorry for our community. 31 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:14,160 The good news is that I also get to stand here this morning on a much more positive note. 32 00:04:15,180 --> 00:04:22,040 As you noted, Chair Hamilton, our community is a strength. We have wonderful public servants. 33 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:28,460 And I want to be very clear, I have not here to say anything else about any of the other individuals 34 00:04:28,460 --> 00:04:34,480 who you name, but I'm here this morning to strongly endorse the candidacy of Ronnie 35 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:37,640 Dosy to become the next county commissioner. 36 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,140 The Orange County Democratic Party has spoken and spoken clearly. 37 00:04:41,460 --> 00:04:43,560 She will be the candidate this fall. 38 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:44,720 She's running on a post. 39 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,220 She will be joining you all on the board, right? 40 00:04:48,220 --> 00:04:55,600 come the end of election season, and I think in this perilous time, it's all the more important 41 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:01,220 that we begin the process now to begin building those important relationships so that 42 00:05:01,220 --> 00:05:06,960 Ms. Dawsey can hit the ground running and work with you all to meet the needs of our community. 43 00:05:07,580 --> 00:05:13,580 I have known Ms. Dawsey for a long time. Our arcs in public service have overlapped in terms of 44 00:05:13,580 --> 00:05:17,200 she started on the board at the same time that I became an officer in this organization. 45 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:23,460 For the past 12 years, she is championed, right, notions of equity, she is championed, being 46 00:05:23,460 --> 00:05:27,720 an independent thinker, she is someone who will ask questions, she is someone who is not 47 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:32,360 afraid to take a stand, she embodies all that is good in our community. 48 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,680 And while I understand that this board, or excuse me, this commission ultimately gets to make 49 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:41,820 the decision and you merely take the recommendation of the party under consideration, I think 50 00:05:41,820 --> 00:05:46,620 the majority is that she achieved at the party meeting both for the candidacy going forward 51 00:05:46,620 --> 00:05:48,700 and for filling the interim vacancy, 52 00:05:48,780 --> 00:05:50,680 recommend her to be supported. 53 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:54,460 And in my remaining time, I want to thank you all 54 00:05:54,460 --> 00:05:57,360 and a difficult budget season for coming up and stepping up. 55 00:05:57,520 --> 00:05:58,500 We are very appreciative. 56 00:05:58,880 --> 00:05:59,520 Thank you. 57 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:00,840 And we look forward to working with you 58 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:02,340 as you continue to do this good work. 59 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:03,260 All right. 60 00:06:03,540 --> 00:06:04,140 Thank you. 61 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:07,580 All right. 62 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:08,760 Commissioners, 63 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:13,660 any discussion? 64 00:06:14,500 --> 00:06:14,860 I would just- 65 00:06:14,860 --> 00:06:16,700 Are we ready to vote? 66 00:06:16,700 --> 00:06:24,680 just have a brief comment. Since I missed our last meeting, today I just wanted to briefly share 67 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:30,240 my deep sadness and the reason why we are here today, the loss of our dear colleague and friend, 68 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:36,120 James Edda, Bedford. As mentioned, she served the county commission with integrity, 69 00:06:36,380 --> 00:06:42,380 compassion, and very little fanfare. James Edda cared deeply about education, mental health, 70 00:06:42,380 --> 00:06:45,660 Folks with disabilities and folks whose lives presented challenges. 71 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:50,780 She served as chair without arrogance, but with a mission to do the work of the county. 72 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:56,400 When she left the chair, she did not take the easy way out, but signed up for more committees than ever. 73 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:59,060 And she was deeply engaged in those assignments. 74 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:03,660 And I am going to feel her absence every time I drive to with it, because she and she and 75 00:07:03,660 --> 00:07:05,220 I used a carpool. 76 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,980 So today, although I recognize my and everyone's individual talents, 77 00:07:09,980 --> 00:07:15,560 I dedicate myself, and hope that we all strive to be more like James at our service to the county. 78 00:07:16,220 --> 00:07:21,180 And I hope that James at a successor will also aspire to those same qualities and care for our county. 79 00:07:23,060 --> 00:07:23,540 Thank 80 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:27,440 you. 81 00:07:28,060 --> 00:07:38,920 I will just, I mean, it was already state of it just remind that what we're doing today is to fill the vacant position to the end of James at his term. 82 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:48,280 And as we know, Ronnie Gossie has been chosen by the one who's kind of deported to be on the 83 00:07:48,280 --> 00:07:48,980 ballad in November. 84 00:07:50,420 --> 00:07:54,520 So we have ballots in front of us, so we will go ahead and vote. 85 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:13,600 We'll have our law of distancing to the board, collect our ballots and read out the results. 86 00:08:24,390 --> 00:08:25,510 Thank you, commissioners. 87 00:08:25,510 --> 00:08:30,490 I will read out the name of the person voting and who their vote was for. 88 00:08:31,690 --> 00:08:34,890 We have one vote from Earl McKee for Ronny Dassie, 89 00:08:38,190 --> 00:08:40,390 one vote from Jean Hamilton for Ronny Dassie, 90 00:08:42,930 --> 00:08:44,730 one vote from Sally Green for Ronny Dassie, 91 00:08:48,170 --> 00:08:51,270 one vote from Phyllis Portie Ascot for Ronny Dassie, 92 00:08:53,110 --> 00:08:55,550 one vote from Marilyn Carter for Ronny Dassie, 93 00:08:56,650 --> 00:08:59,410 and the final vote from Amy Fowler for Ronny Dassie. 94 00:08:59,550 --> 00:09:00,870 Congratulations, Ms. Dassie. 95 00:09:00,870 --> 00:09:02,210 Congratulations. 96 00:09:08,710 --> 00:09:09,430 Congratulations. 97 00:09:09,730 --> 00:09:13,610 Thank you so much Ronnie for stepping up in this really hard time. 98 00:09:13,970 --> 00:09:19,830 I know your background will fit us very well. 99 00:09:20,170 --> 00:09:22,070 I look forward to working with you. 100 00:09:22,730 --> 00:09:32,030 We know that you can talk more about when you will officially start and take the 101 00:09:32,030 --> 00:09:39,430 of office in the after-acted mentions August 25th, but, you know, there is some flexibility 102 00:09:40,470 --> 00:09:45,930 certainly over the summer we do last so, but we'll definitely win the fall comes, 103 00:09:47,290 --> 00:09:51,010 to be ready to take on the duties. Thank you. 104 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:56,980 Do you want to make any comments? Yes, 105 00:09:57,060 --> 00:09:58,140 come on up. 106 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:07,980 Good morning everybody. Thank you so much. I always like to start with a huge gratitude 107 00:10:07,980 --> 00:10:14,100 for what you all do, the sitting board members, not just in hard decisions like this, but in the way 108 00:10:14,100 --> 00:10:19,840 that you lead for the Orange County residents every day. So thank you, and thank you to the county staff 109 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:29,020 for all the work you do. Sometimes until things are visible to people, they don't, they're not aware 110 00:10:29,020 --> 00:10:34,520 of how hard the work is behind the scenes. And I want to lift that up today for an offer gratitude 111 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:41,800 for everything you do. I want to also thank my family and friends and supporters and folks who've 112 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:47,980 been with me along my growth journey. When I started this work, literally, when I thought about 113 00:10:47,980 --> 00:10:53,460 joining the board in about 20 school board, Chapel Carvera City School Board in 2015, the first 114 00:10:53,460 --> 00:10:59,720 person I met with was James Atta-Betford. And I remember her, we sat at the coffee shop down the street 115 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,720 And I offered to buy her coffee, and she said, 116 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:05,680 you can't buy me coffee because I can't accept anything. 117 00:11:05,780 --> 00:11:08,220 And I was like, it's $2, like, let me buy you coffee. 118 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:11,040 And that was my first lesson from her, 119 00:11:11,060 --> 00:11:12,960 of like the integrity and the commitment 120 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:17,080 that even when nobody's watching that the way you behave matters. 121 00:11:18,100 --> 00:11:20,420 And so her shoes are too big to feel. 122 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:21,880 I'm not going to try to do that, 123 00:11:22,140 --> 00:11:24,280 but I will commit to serving in a way 124 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:28,680 that honors her legacy and I hope that she can look down 125 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:33,800 with pride at the service that the board continues to do in her absence. 126 00:11:34,660 --> 00:11:38,460 So, I don't have a lot more to say than thank you and I look forward to doing you in learning 127 00:11:38,460 --> 00:11:40,680 from you and thank you for all you do. 128 00:11:50,790 --> 00:11:57,630 Being efficient, we have other items on our agenda and Commissioner Carter. 129 00:11:57,950 --> 00:11:59,310 Madam Chair, thank you. 130 00:11:59,890 --> 00:12:06,250 I would like to ask the board to agree that I would draw from the meeting now that we've had 131 00:12:07,770 --> 00:12:17,650 Consequential vote today, I'm taking an economic development class at UNC School of Government and this morning they're talking about economic development strategy. 132 00:12:19,030 --> 00:12:25,230 So in progress, so with your forbearance, I will withdraw from the rest of the meeting if that's consistent with our rules of procedure. 133 00:12:25,230 --> 00:12:26,410 All right, 134 00:12:28,990 --> 00:12:32,810 so everyone in the discussion, anyone agree? 135 00:12:33,530 --> 00:12:36,710 On favor, I may post none. 136 00:12:37,150 --> 00:12:38,830 Thank you, Marilyn, for being here. 137 00:12:39,210 --> 00:12:41,950 Go learn about economic development, strategy, 138 00:12:42,150 --> 00:12:43,850 gratitude to all we need. 139 00:12:48,370 --> 00:12:50,950 Next up, we have a public comment. 140 00:12:52,090 --> 00:12:55,130 For things not on the agenda, is there anyone signed up? 141 00:12:55,430 --> 00:12:56,950 Being none, we'll go on. 142 00:12:56,950 --> 00:13:01,450 Nounsworth's petitions and comments by board members, can we 143 00:13:01,450 --> 00:13:05,870 I'm seeing none, okay, sorry, Commissioner Green. 144 00:13:06,470 --> 00:13:10,530 Yeah, I just want to remind everyone that the, you know, arts mill is going to be 145 00:13:10,530 --> 00:13:17,530 open officially on Friday, August the 7th, it's going to be a real grand reopening with 146 00:13:17,530 --> 00:13:23,750 galleries, tours, food trucks, beverages, art making activities and our own legendary 147 00:13:23,750 --> 00:13:28,030 band of high-fuck, Motown inspired liquid pleasure. 148 00:13:28,630 --> 00:13:29,750 So it should be great fun. 149 00:13:30,070 --> 00:13:32,550 And when I saw Katie last a couple of days ago, 150 00:13:33,050 --> 00:13:35,570 she particularly wanted me to encourage all of my 151 00:13:35,570 --> 00:13:37,370 college you all to try to attend. 152 00:13:38,850 --> 00:13:39,150 All right. 153 00:13:39,450 --> 00:13:40,290 Thank you very much. 154 00:13:41,210 --> 00:13:41,830 Best to your fellow. 155 00:13:42,270 --> 00:13:42,810 Yes, briefly. 156 00:13:43,330 --> 00:13:44,050 Since our last meeting, 157 00:13:44,350 --> 00:13:45,390 I did fill in on the new, 158 00:13:45,390 --> 00:13:47,430 my newly assigned DSS Board. 159 00:13:47,810 --> 00:13:49,950 And Lindsey Schumacher shared on how 160 00:13:49,950 --> 00:13:53,730 the burden that snap changes at the 161 00:13:53,730 --> 00:13:55,470 of Lee Impact for the county budget. 162 00:13:56,530 --> 00:14:01,230 She also reported that the idea of a consolidated human services department had negatively 163 00:14:01,230 --> 00:14:06,870 impacted morale at DSS and along those lines, the DSS chair Oscar Fleming sent us the 164 00:14:06,870 --> 00:14:11,430 BOCC and email outlining their opinion and opposition to such a consolidation. 165 00:14:13,870 --> 00:14:15,210 All right, thank you. 166 00:14:17,270 --> 00:14:24,470 I'll just say again, thank you for all the candidates who submitted applications for this. 167 00:14:24,890 --> 00:14:27,370 They can see, thank you for the comments. 168 00:14:28,430 --> 00:14:34,290 We have our regular, or we have a business meeting on August 25th in which we will be back 169 00:14:34,290 --> 00:14:39,390 to our regular amount of issues in front of us. 170 00:14:40,150 --> 00:14:40,390 All right. 171 00:14:40,610 --> 00:14:43,010 There are no populations, resolutions, special presentations. 172 00:14:43,010 --> 00:14:49,530 We have no public hearings, no items, no items in the regular agenda, no reports. 173 00:14:50,150 --> 00:14:55,890 We do have a consent agenda, and any removal of any items from the consent agenda? 174 00:14:58,190 --> 00:14:58,550 All right. 175 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:15,440 So Vice Chair Farlem was approval of the second, Commissioner Portias got second to it, on favour, aye, any opposed, none that passes 5-0, moving on to the county manager's report. 176 00:15:15,500 --> 00:15:27,900 Nothing today. Nothing today. Can you turn his report? Nothing. Nothing today. Just note, this is information items about follow-up. We have no close session. Do I have a motion to adjourn? 177 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:29,520 Second. 178 00:15:29,980 --> 00:15:30,760 On favor. 179 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:32,700 And you're opposed to none. 180 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:33,700 We are adjourned. 181 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:38,320 Thank you very much for taking time in the middle of summer for this meeting.