[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[1:02] 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.
[1:15] So as many know, this meeting was called in order to fill the vacancy after the death of Commissioner James Otter-Betford.
[1:25] 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.
[1:40] Madam Chair, do you need a motion to that effect?
[1:43] I do not need a motion just if there's no objections. I check the rules and procedures.
[1:49] Okay, so then as I want to say first that this first item is to make an appointment for the vacancy,
[2:00] I want to start by thanking all the folks who put their name forward, all the candidates.
[2:09] Ronny Dawsey, Leah Bergman, Maria Palmer, Pam Heminger, Renukasoul, and Eric Valera.
[2:16] Thank you so much.
[2:18] The strength of this county is the strength of the people who step up to serve.
[2:25] Also, I want to thank the Orange County Democratic Party and Lumigie for really driving this process.
[2:33] and we appreciate the applications that we received and we're working together on this.
[2:43] So is there anyone signed up to speak on this topic?
[2:50] No,
[2:52] okay.
[2:54] One person.
[2:55] Yes.
[2:58] State your name.
[3:02] Good morning.
[3:03] Apologies.
[3:03] Madam Chair.
[3:04] My name is Brian Lincoln.
[3:05] I'm the president of the Chapel Hill Carbor Association of Educators.
[3:09] 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.
[3:19] Jim Zeta Bedford was a champion of our community.
[3:21] For all aspects of our community, she was a wonderful individual in human being.
[3:26] She was a great champion of public education.
[3:29] And she's someone who our organization proudly supported.
[3:34] 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.
[3:57] 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.
[4:09] The good news is that I also get to stand here this morning on a much more positive note.
[4:15] As you noted, Chair Hamilton, our community is a strength. We have wonderful public servants.
[4:22] And I want to be very clear, I have not here to say anything else about any of the other individuals
[4:28] who you name, but I'm here this morning to strongly endorse the candidacy of Ronnie
[4:34] Dosy to become the next county commissioner.
[4:38] The Orange County Democratic Party has spoken and spoken clearly.
[4:41] She will be the candidate this fall.
[4:43] She's running on a post.
[4:45] She will be joining you all on the board, right?
[4:48] come the end of election season, and I think in this perilous time, it's all the more important
[4:55] that we begin the process now to begin building those important relationships so that
[5:01] Ms. Dawsey can hit the ground running and work with you all to meet the needs of our community.
[5:07] I have known Ms. Dawsey for a long time. Our arcs in public service have overlapped in terms of
[5:13] she started on the board at the same time that I became an officer in this organization.
[5:17] For the past 12 years, she is championed, right, notions of equity, she is championed, being
[5:23] an independent thinker, she is someone who will ask questions, she is someone who is not
[5:27] afraid to take a stand, she embodies all that is good in our community.
[5:33] And while I understand that this board, or excuse me, this commission ultimately gets to make
[5:37] the decision and you merely take the recommendation of the party under consideration, I think
[5:41] the majority is that she achieved at the party meeting both for the candidacy going forward
[5:46] and for filling the interim vacancy,
[5:48] recommend her to be supported.
[5:51] And in my remaining time, I want to thank you all
[5:54] and a difficult budget season for coming up and stepping up.
[5:57] We are very appreciative.
[5:58] Thank you.
[5:59] And we look forward to working with you
[6:00] as you continue to do this good work.
[6:02] All right.
[6:03] Thank you.
[6:06] All right.
[6:08] Commissioners,
[6:12] any discussion?
[6:14] I would just-
[6:14] Are we ready to vote?
[6:16] just have a brief comment. Since I missed our last meeting, today I just wanted to briefly share
[6:24] my deep sadness and the reason why we are here today, the loss of our dear colleague and friend,
[6:30] James Edda, Bedford. As mentioned, she served the county commission with integrity,
[6:36] compassion, and very little fanfare. James Edda cared deeply about education, mental health,
[6:42] Folks with disabilities and folks whose lives presented challenges.
[6:46] She served as chair without arrogance, but with a mission to do the work of the county.
[6:51] When she left the chair, she did not take the easy way out, but signed up for more committees than ever.
[6:56] And she was deeply engaged in those assignments.
[6:59] And I am going to feel her absence every time I drive to with it, because she and she and
[7:03] I used a carpool.
[7:06] So today, although I recognize my and everyone's individual talents,
[7:09] I dedicate myself, and hope that we all strive to be more like James at our service to the county.
[7:16] And I hope that James at a successor will also aspire to those same qualities and care for our county.
[7:23] Thank
[7:26] you.
[7:28] 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.
[7:39] And as we know, Ronnie Gossie has been chosen by the one who's kind of deported to be on the
[7:48] ballad in November.
[7:50] So we have ballots in front of us, so we will go ahead and vote.
[8:06] We'll have our law of distancing to the board, collect our ballots and read out the results.
[8:24] Thank you, commissioners.
[8:25] I will read out the name of the person voting and who their vote was for.
[8:31] We have one vote from Earl McKee for Ronny Dassie,
[8:38] one vote from Jean Hamilton for Ronny Dassie,
[8:42] one vote from Sally Green for Ronny Dassie,
[8:48] one vote from Phyllis Portie Ascot for Ronny Dassie,
[8:53] one vote from Marilyn Carter for Ronny Dassie,
[8:56] and the final vote from Amy Fowler for Ronny Dassie.
[8:59] Congratulations, Ms. Dassie.
[9:00] Congratulations.
[9:08] Congratulations.
[9:09] Thank you so much Ronnie for stepping up in this really hard time.
[9:13] I know your background will fit us very well.
[9:20] I look forward to working with you.
[9:22] We know that you can talk more about when you will officially start and take the
[9:32] of office in the after-acted mentions August 25th, but, you know, there is some flexibility
[9:40] certainly over the summer we do last so, but we'll definitely win the fall comes,
[9:47] to be ready to take on the duties. Thank you.
[9:55] Do you want to make any comments? Yes,
[9:57] come on up.
[10:02] Good morning everybody. Thank you so much. I always like to start with a huge gratitude
[10:07] for what you all do, the sitting board members, not just in hard decisions like this, but in the way
[10:14] that you lead for the Orange County residents every day. So thank you, and thank you to the county staff
[10:19] for all the work you do. Sometimes until things are visible to people, they don't, they're not aware
[10:29] of how hard the work is behind the scenes. And I want to lift that up today for an offer gratitude
[10:34] for everything you do. I want to also thank my family and friends and supporters and folks who've
[10:41] been with me along my growth journey. When I started this work, literally, when I thought about
[10:47] joining the board in about 20 school board, Chapel Carvera City School Board in 2015, the first
[10:53] person I met with was James Atta-Betford. And I remember her, we sat at the coffee shop down the street
[10:59] And I offered to buy her coffee, and she said,
[11:02] you can't buy me coffee because I can't accept anything.
[11:05] And I was like, it's $2, like, let me buy you coffee.
[11:08] And that was my first lesson from her,
[11:11] of like the integrity and the commitment
[11:12] that even when nobody's watching that the way you behave matters.
[11:18] And so her shoes are too big to feel.
[11:20] I'm not going to try to do that,
[11:22] but I will commit to serving in a way
[11:24] that honors her legacy and I hope that she can look down
[11:28] with pride at the service that the board continues to do in her absence.
[11:34] So, I don't have a lot more to say than thank you and I look forward to doing you in learning
[11:38] from you and thank you for all you do.
[11:50] Being efficient, we have other items on our agenda and Commissioner Carter.
[11:57] Madam Chair, thank you.
[11:59] I would like to ask the board to agree that I would draw from the meeting now that we've had
[12:07] 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.
[12:19] 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.
[12:25] All right,
[12:28] so everyone in the discussion, anyone agree?
[12:33] On favor, I may post none.
[12:37] Thank you, Marilyn, for being here.
[12:39] Go learn about economic development, strategy,
[12:42] gratitude to all we need.
[12:48] Next up, we have a public comment.
[12:52] For things not on the agenda, is there anyone signed up?
[12:55] Being none, we'll go on.
[12:56] Nounsworth's petitions and comments by board members, can we
[13:01] I'm seeing none, okay, sorry, Commissioner Green.
[13:06] Yeah, I just want to remind everyone that the, you know, arts mill is going to be
[13:10] open officially on Friday, August the 7th, it's going to be a real grand reopening with
[13:17] galleries, tours, food trucks, beverages, art making activities and our own legendary
[13:23] band of high-fuck, Motown inspired liquid pleasure.
[13:28] So it should be great fun.
[13:30] And when I saw Katie last a couple of days ago,
[13:33] she particularly wanted me to encourage all of my
[13:35] college you all to try to attend.
[13:38] All right.
[13:39] Thank you very much.
[13:41] Best to your fellow.
[13:42] Yes, briefly.
[13:43] Since our last meeting,
[13:44] I did fill in on the new,
[13:45] my newly assigned DSS Board.
[13:47] And Lindsey Schumacher shared on how
[13:49] the burden that snap changes at the
[13:53] of Lee Impact for the county budget.
[13:56] She also reported that the idea of a consolidated human services department had negatively
[14:01] impacted morale at DSS and along those lines, the DSS chair Oscar Fleming sent us the
[14:06] BOCC and email outlining their opinion and opposition to such a consolidation.
[14:13] All right, thank you.
[14:17] I'll just say again, thank you for all the candidates who submitted applications for this.
[14:24] They can see, thank you for the comments.
[14:28] We have our regular, or we have a business meeting on August 25th in which we will be back
[14:34] to our regular amount of issues in front of us.
[14:40] All right.
[14:40] There are no populations, resolutions, special presentations.
[14:43] We have no public hearings, no items, no items in the regular agenda, no reports.
[14:50] We do have a consent agenda, and any removal of any items from the consent agenda?
[14:58] All right.
[15:00] 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.
[15:15] 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?
[15:29] Second.
[15:29] On favor.
[15:31] And you're opposed to none.
[15:32] We are adjourned.
[15:33] Thank you very much for taking time in the middle of summer for this meeting.