[0:00] everyone and welcome to the September
1st, 2026 Dair County Board of
[0:08] Commissioners meeting. At this time, I'd
like to call the good Reverend Keith Dye
[0:14] for an invocation. Reverend Dy, thank
you as always for being here.
[0:18] » Thank you. It is a pleasure. I invite
you to join me in prayer.
[0:25] God, we give you thanks for this day,
for its blessings as well as for its
[0:31] challenges.
You are the source of all that is joyous
[0:35] and good. [snorts]
And you are the provider of wisdom that
[0:39] will carry us through the challenging
times.
[0:42] We thank you for the conscientious
leadership of this board of
[0:45] commissioners and all who oversee the
work done in this beautiful place.
[0:51] Watch over these your servants as they
work together to be good stewards of the
[0:55] resources needed to keep things running
smoothly
[1:01] and provide what is needed for all who
live, work, and sojourn here. We are
[1:09] grateful for those who will be honored
today for their service to Dare County.
[1:14] We are honored by the time given by
those who lift up the needs of our
[1:18] schools, the benefits of our libraries,
and the efforts of programs to help the
[1:23] most vulnerable.
We are thankful for all who share their
[1:28] knowledge,
for those who serve on county boards,
[1:32] and the many who put their safety on the
line as they work to protect us.
[1:37] Now we pray that you will fill us with
compassion, concern,
[1:43] caring, and creativity.
May our work together this day and
[1:48] beyond be a reflection of your
generosity, your mercy, and your love.
[1:54] Bless us, gracious God, to be a
blessing.
[1:58] Amen.
>> Amen.
[2:00] » Thank you, Reverend D. May we stand for
the pledge.
[2:05] I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the stands one
[2:13] nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all.
[2:24] » Okay, county manager.
[2:31] » Thank you, county manager. Um,
happy to have with us this morning the
[2:37] chairman of the board of education,
David Twitty. Thank you for being here
[2:40] this morning. As well as our favorite
senator, Mr. Haneig, is also here with
[2:49] us this morning
[clears throat] as always.
[2:53] » Oh, I'm sorry. uh Senator Elect and and
now Senator Jerry Tilllet is in the
[3:02] room. Senator, thank you for being with
us as well. Um
[3:08] I'd like to start with a little humor.
These three brothers were talking about
[3:15] their mother, their 95 year old mother,
and what they plan to get her for a
[3:21] birthday. And of course she's hard of
hearing and can't see as well very very
[3:28] good. So the first brother John he told
his brothers he said I'm I'mma buy
[3:33] mother a new house.
Second brother George he said well I'm
[3:38] buying mother a new car. Well Steve said
well
[3:45] you know uh since mother's hard of
hearing and she can't see very well. He
[3:50] says, "Uh, I'm going to buy her a parrot
that can recite every scripture in the
[3:56] Bible."
So, they did and they all got together
[4:02] and the mother spoke to John. She said,
"John,
[4:08] the house you bought me is extremely
nice, but it's way too big."
[4:14] And she said, "George," she said, 'The
car you bought me is also extremely
[4:19] nice, but it's way too fast.
She said, "Steve, yours really was the
[4:26] best." She said, "The chicken was
delicious."
[4:33] Now, some out there say, "Why does he do
this? Why does he tell a joke? Why does
[4:41] he have a little bit of humor?"
Well, the professionals say
[4:46] before
a meeting,
[4:50] laughter lowers the level of stress
in your blood stream. So, I'm helping my
[4:58] fellow commissioners out.
Physical tensions fade when you chuckle
[5:03] or smile, so it relaxes their muscles.
[5:09] A brief mental break sharpens your
attention to hard task so it proves
[5:15] their focus and a positive feeling
replaces the nervous dread so it boosts
[5:23] your moods as well. So that's why I have
a little humor before each and every
[5:29] board meeting. Have a few things to
cover this morning. Most of you out
[5:34] there are very much aware of the fact
that Dominion Energy is requesting a
[5:39] rate hike. The North Carolina Utilities
Commission is going to hold a series of
[5:45] public hearings stating in late
September. Uh they said this back in May
[5:52] when they filed a rate proposal with the
North Carolina Utilities Commission.
[5:58] These meetings will begin at 700 pm
and our meeting here in Dair County. It
[6:05] will be right here in this room on
October the 13th. So, if you'd like to
[6:11] make public comment, please please show
up because these this average um is
[6:19] seeking um about a 13 to 15.5%
increase.
[6:26] In addition to that rate increase,
earlier this month, Dominion Energy also
[6:34] has filed a request with the uh North
Carolina Utilities Commission seeking
[6:40] approval to update the fuel cost for
customers in northeast North Carolina.
[6:47] And the Out of Bank's voice reports that
this could add some $23 uh dollars
[6:55] additional dollars
um per month to your utility bill in
[7:01] addition to the potential 13 to 15.5%
if they get this rate hike. This rate
[7:09] hike um is u is a substantial amount of
money that they're looking for. Um uh
[7:17] they serve about 129,000 customers in
northeast North Carolina from Rono
[7:23] Rapids, Aoski, uh Williamson, Elizabeth
City, and the Outer Banks. So, um if you
[7:29] if you want to make public comment,
October 13 in this room, 700 pm
[7:36] concerning those rate hikes.
[clears throat]
[7:41] » Don't do it.
>> Oh, sorry. [laughter]
[7:44] I'll hold my comments for later.
>> All right.
[7:47] 10 days from today
may strike your memory,
[7:54] uh the lives of lost at the World Trade
Center some 25 years ago. On September
[8:01] 11th, 2020, 2001, countless lives were
uh were changed forever. On this coming
[8:09] Friday,
September 11th, we will remember every
[8:14] soul who ever who who never made it
home. Um, every family left with an
[8:19] empty chair, every loved one who still
carries the pain of that to that. Today,
[8:26] we will remember the innocent lives lost
at the World Trade Center and all those
[8:31] who gave their lives trying to save
others. Their names may be etched in
[8:36] stone, but they live on in the hearts of
those who love them and in the memory of
[8:43] a nation. Some wounds never completely
heal. Some losses can never be replaced,
[8:50] but as long as we remember, they will
never truly be gone. So for every life,
[8:56] for every family, for every hero, we
remember, we mourn, and we honor. and we
[9:02] will certainly never ever forget.
And last but certainly not least, um
[9:11] I have the great privilege and and and
sincere gratitude to to offer Dare
[9:21] County Board of Commissioners uh
recognition of Senator Bob, Senator
[9:26] Bobby Haney for his dedicated service,
his steadfast leadership, and his
[9:31] tireless efforts on behalf of the people
of North Carolina's first Senate
[9:36] District. district representing Bertie,
Camden, Curry, Tuck, Dair, Gates,
[9:41] Herdford, Northampton, Pasquank,
Pquimmans, and Terrell counties.
[9:47] Now, Senator, Senator Haney, Bobby
commitment to public service spans
[9:53] nearly a decade. He began his
legislative career as the state
[9:58] representative of North Carolina House
District 6, sering from serving from
[10:03] January 2019 through August 2022.
He then continued his service in the
[10:10] North Carolina Senate as senator for
district 1 from August 2022 through
[10:17] August 2026.
And prior to his service in the General
[10:21] Assembly, Bobby served a two-year term
as Curry Tuck County Commissioner from
[10:26] December 16th uh excuse me, December
2016 through December 2018.
[10:33] And throughout Bobby's service, he has
demonstrated a deep understanding of the
[10:38] unique character, traditions,
challenges, and opportunities that
[10:43] define our co coastal communities. He
consistently worked to ensure that
[10:49] voices of North Eastern North Carolina
are not only heard in Raleigh, but
[10:56] respected and represented in the
decisions that affect our families,
[11:00] businesses, communities, and our way of
life.
[11:05] From our fishermen and working
waterfronts to our farmers, small
[11:09] businesses, families, and local
communities, Senator Haneig has shown a
[11:14] willingness to stand up and fight for
the people who make our region strong.
[11:20] His advocacy for the fishing industry
and those who livelihoods depend on the
[11:25] waters of our coast reflect an
appreciation for the heritage and
[11:30] traditions that have st that have
sustained eastern North Carolina for
[11:35] generations.
He has worked to protect the interest of
[11:38] our counties, to address the concerns of
our citizens, and to preserve the
[11:43] freedoms, the opportunities, and the
quality quality of life that make our
[11:49] communities so special. Whether the
issue has involved our coastal economy,
[11:54] agriculture, infrastructure, public
safety, local government, or the
[11:59] [clears throat] everyday concerns of
working families. He has brought a
[12:03] strong and determined voice to the
table. True public service is measured
[12:10] not simply by legislation or
accomplishments, but [clears throat] by
[12:14] the willingness of the elected official
to listen, to show up, to stand with his
[12:21] constituents, and to fight for the
communities they represent. And Senator
[12:26] Haneig has surely
done this time and time again and his
[12:33] service has reflected that commitment.
Bobby, for your courage to advocate for
[12:39] Eastern North Carolina, your dedication
to our communities, and your continued
[12:44] efforts on behalf of the people of
Senate District 1. We extend our deepest
[12:50] appreciation, and I'd like for you to
meet me up front for a presentation.
[12:57] » [applause]
[13:07] [applause]
[13:12] » Am I the employee of the month?
[laughter]
[13:19] » Never let us down with that outfit you
got on, brother.
[13:24] This is a ticket appreciation, Bobby,
and grateful recognition of your uh
[13:29] dedicated service, steadfast leadership,
and tireless advocacy on behalf of the
[13:33] people there in eastern North Carolina.
Our Dair County Board of Commissioners
[13:38] salute you for your courage, your
commitment, and your extraordinary
[13:43] service to the people of Eastern North
Carolina. and I can't thank you enough
[13:48] for your friendship and always always
always
[13:52] being there for us. Appreciate it.
[applause]
[14:01] [applause]
[14:05] » Very brief. Okay.
>> Very brief. Very brief.
[14:09] » Thank you.
>> Just kidding. Um, you know, Bob Bob said
[14:13] some great words up here, but uh, nobody
does it by themselves. It's been a great
[14:18] partnership with you guys. Um, always
communicating with me. U,
[14:24] early mornings, late nights. Uh, we all
do it together. Nobody does it alone.
[14:28] Uh, proud to serve y'all. And, uh, I'm
stepping down, but I'm not stepping
[14:32] away. So, thank you.
[14:37] [applause]
[14:40] Thank you, Bobby.
All right, county manager.
[14:45] Mr. Chairman, that brings us to item two
on our agenda. This is service pins.
[14:49] We'll be recognizing our employees for
years of service today. We have 75 years
[14:53] of service that we're recognizing. And
we'll start with Gloria J, who will
[14:57] receive her tenure pin from Cliff
Ryland.
[15:06] Good morning and welcome.
>> Thank you, commissioners.
[15:13] » So, I have a think pages here. Not
really. Um, today I have the privilege
[15:17] of recognizing Gloria Jay for her 10
years of dedicated service to Dair
[15:21] County um and to Dair County DHS
specifically. Um 10 years is a
[15:26] tremendous milestone and when I think
about Gloria and what she brings to our
[15:29] department the words immediately come to
mind are reliable, dependable,
[15:33] professional and consistent and that's
every day with her. Um I had the
[15:38] opportunity to work closely with Gloria
and I think what stands out even more is
[15:42] just how she genuinely cares um about
her job, about the organization and
[15:47] about the people around her. Um I can
tell you personally that Gloria keeps me
[15:51] on point. There are a lot of moving
pieces in public health. Um, and Gloria
[15:55] is usually reminding me like, "Hey,
Cliff, we got this policy due." Or,
[15:59] "Hey, Cliff, you know, we have something
that needs to come up on your radar."
[16:02] And she's always on point and always on
time. And, uh, she never misses a
[16:07] deadline and she stay always stays ahead
of them. Um, she takes ownership of our
[16:11] policy review, update processes. Um, and
she works to maintain overall policy
[16:17] compliance throughout public health, due
dates, follow-ups, anything that needs
[16:22] attention and she's making sure nothing
falls through the cracks and I want to
[16:26] thank you for that. She takes that
personal responsibility seriously and
[16:31] she understands that doing her job well
contributes to the success of the entire
[16:35] department.
Um, she serves as our primary point of
[16:38] contact for vital records in Dare
County. Um she's handling all the birth
[16:43] certificates, deaths, home births
processes, burial trans uh transmits. Um
[16:49] any unique situations that come along,
she's on top of. Um it's a very detail-
[16:54] oriented work that she requires uh
accuracy, confidentiality,
[16:58] professionalism, and trust, and she
handles that exceptionally well.
[17:02] She also plays an important part in our
safety in DHS. She coordinates um all of
[17:08] our safety inspections, making sure
concerns are identified and addressed.
[17:13] One additional duty that she takes care
of is our CPR classes for uh Dare County
[17:18] employees and members of our community.
And through that work, Gloria is helping
[17:23] give people skills that literally help
save people's lives.
[17:27] But I don't want today to be about just
her responsibilities because um she
[17:32] brings a lot more to our team than that.
something I personally um think that's
[17:37] um Gloria genuinely cares about people
that she works with. Um she's
[17:41] continually checking up on everyone,
asking how you're doing, how your
[17:45] family's doing, um your kids. Um and
then when she asks you, you can tell
[17:49] that she genuinely cares
and that's not a small thing. Um
[17:56] she's always sort of personally
reminding me, you know, of the things I
[17:59] need to take care of at work and keeping
me on point. Um, and that's Gloria. She
[18:03] cares about getting the job done right,
but she also cares about the people
[18:07] around her. Um, also I want to mention
any kudos or any recognition that our
[18:13] department gets, um, any administrative
task, um, anything going well, a process
[18:19] improvement, Gloria has her hand in it
somewhere. Um, when we're recognized
[18:23] because something was on time or
compliant, um, something's running
[18:27] smoothly,
it's usually because Gloria is helping
[18:31] with that process. And I know she will
never seek the spotlight. Um, she isn't
[18:36] someone who needs attention or wants
everyone to know everything she's done.
[18:39] Simply does the work, does it well,
moves on to the next thing that needs to
[18:43] be accomplished. She's a quiet
professional. Um, she doesn't seek
[18:48] recognition, but she definitely deserves
it. A lot of what she does happens
[18:52] quietly behind the scenes. Uh sometimes
there are people who make organizations
[18:56] successful aren't necessarily the people
standing out front. They're people you
[18:59] can depend on every single day. The ones
who remember the details, meet the
[19:03] deadline, solve the problems, and make
everyone around them better at their
[19:06] jobs. Um I crunched some numbers here,
Gloria, so you can know about how many
[19:10] days you've committed to Dare County. So
I like to I like to crunch numbers, but
[19:14] um 10 years of service. So that like
Monday through Friday, you know, for 10
[19:19] years, minus some holidays in there. And
she rarely has ever taken a a sick day
[19:24] since I've been here. Um, but that's
2,545
[19:30] work days you've given to Dair County.
And that's about 20,360 work hours. Um,
[19:36] so that's thousands of days and hours
helping co-workers, serving the public,
[19:40] meeting deadlines, solving problems,
keeping our facilities safer,
[19:44] maintaining compliance, teaching others,
and making Dair County uh, DHHS a little
[19:48] bit better than the day before. Um, so
today, on behalf of Dare County DHS, and
[19:53] personally me, I want to say thank you.
Thank you for keeping us on track, for
[19:57] your professionalism and dependability,
for all the work you do, and especially
[20:01] for all the work that people don't see.
Thank you for caring about the work just
[20:05] as importantly for caring about the
people that you work with. It's been a
[20:08] privilege for my time with you working
alongside you and very proud of these 10
[20:13] years as we recog recognize you today.
Um congratulations Gloria on 10 years of
[20:19] achievement excellence with Dair County.
This recognition is definitely welld
[20:22] deserved. So
thanks [applause]
[20:37] Next, if Monica Cref will come forward
to receive her tenure pin from Debbie
[20:41] Dutton.
[20:50] » Welcome ladies.
>> Good morning. Good morning chairman,
[20:53] commissioners, county manager. It is my
truly my pleasure to be here this
[21:00] morning to present Monica with her
10-year service pin.
[21:04] Congratulations on achieving this
10-year milestone. We are extremely
[21:10] proud to recognize you as an exceptional
with for your exceptional dedication and
[21:16] service to DHHS and to our community.
Monica is our BEP nurse. That's our
[21:22] breast and cervical cancer control
program and she is an expert in her
[21:28] program managing multiple funding
sources for our patients from state
[21:33] funding, federal funding and grant
funding with consistency,
[21:38] high standards and accuracy and
responsibility.
[21:43] through your compassion and your
dedication, you provide care to those
[21:48] who otherwise would not be able to uh
they would find themselves in difficult
[21:53] situations um managing their health care
and could compromise their positive
[21:59] health outcomes. So, your hard work,
your willingness to help others shines
[22:04] through in everything that you do. Your
commitment to our mission and the care
[22:10] that you provide the community make a
true difference. We appreciate your
[22:14] professionalism, your reliability, and
the passion that you bring to your role.
[22:20] If you don't know Monica, her happy
place is the happiest place on earth.
[22:25] Right.
And that is a wonderful touch of joy
[22:30] that shows through who you are and what
you bring to the what you bring to your
[22:34] to your job and what you bring to DHHS.
Dedication is not what others expect of
[22:40] you, it's what you give to others. So,
thank you for your 10 years of
[22:45] outstanding service and we deeply
appreciate all that you do and we look
[22:50] forward to at least I don't know 20 30
more. [laughter]
[22:55] Thank you. Thank you, Monica.
[applause]
[23:10] » Next, if Pam Kaiser would come forward
to receive her 20-year pimp, Daniel
[23:14] Stein.
[23:23] Welcome again, ladies.
>> Good morning. Good morning.
[23:28] » So, I couldn't be happier um to be here
this morning to present Pam with her
[23:32] 20-year service. Pin [cough] Pam,
[23:38] how did that laugh? All right. Pam's 20
years of service is an extraordinary
[23:42] testament to her dedication, commitment,
and loyalty to the inhome aid program
[23:46] with the Dare County Department of
Social Services. Pam is highly valued
[23:50] for the many contributions she has made
with the care and well-being of the
[23:53] residents of Dare County. Her
professionalism, clinical skill,
[23:57] clinical skills, compassion, and
extensive knowledge of the inhome aid
[24:02] program has positively impacted
countless clients and have helped
[24:06] strengthen our program in so many ways.
Pam began her career with Dar County
[24:11] Social Services as an in-home aid in
2006. In 2018, she was promoted to
[24:17] community health technician or we
otherwise call elite aid. In this role,
[24:22] she took on the important responsibility
of ensuring client services were covered
[24:25] when other aids called out or were on
leave. She also became a part of
[24:30] training and orienting new employees. In
2023, Pam was promoted to senior
[24:35] community health technician, which is
what we call our senior lead aid. With
[24:39] this promotion came expanded
responsibilities, including assigning
[24:43] daily schedules and coordinating
coverage for our clients, assisting with
[24:47] staff trainings and meetings and
managing schedule changes. Anyone who
[24:51] works with Pam knows that she excels at
the challenge of finding coverage at a
[24:55] moment's notice and has saved my hide
several times. Somehow she always seems
[25:01] to make it work. Other responsibilities
in this role include coordination with
[25:05] the Der County garage regarding
regarding maintenance and repairs of our
[25:08] fleet vehicles. Again, this is something
I could not do without her. This may not
[25:13] be the most glamorous part of the job,
but it's another example of the many
[25:17] behindthe-scenes responsibilities Pam
Handles to help keep our program running
[25:21] smoothly. As a licensed CNA, Pam
provides hand-on care to clients,
[25:26] including assistance with bathing,
dressing, grooming, mobility, transfers,
[25:30] and home management tasks. This work is
not easy. It requires physical strength
[25:36] and endurance along with the ability to
stand for long periods of time, bend,
[25:41] lift, assist clients with transfers and
personal care. But the physical demands
[25:46] are only part of what makes this job
challenging. Over the years, inh
[25:51] homemade develop a close relationship
with the clients they serve.
[25:55] They celebrate the good days, provide
encouragement through the difficult
[25:59] ones, and sometimes witness a client's
physical physical decline while
[26:04] continuing to offer steady support to
the client and their family. This takes
[26:07] an incredible amount of emotional
strength and resilience.
[26:12] Pans de demonstrates unwavering patience
and genuine empathy,
[26:17] especially when she's faced with diff
difficult obstacles or challenging daily
[26:21] routines. Her observant nature and
clinical experience has allowed her to
[26:25] recognize subtle changes in a client's
condition and report those concerns
[26:30] before they develop into more serious
problems. That level of attentive
[26:34] attentiveness can make an immeasurable
difference in someone's life. Outside of
[26:39] her work, Pam is a supportive wife and a
loving mother. She also has two
[26:43] four-legged kiddo kiddos, Gizmo and
Blondie, along with her grandpup Lucy.
[26:48] Pam is talented, very talented creator
of custom quilts and spent many years of
[26:52] doing crossstitch. She often shares her
creativity by making thoughtful handmade
[26:56] gifts for her co-workers.
Her thoughtfulness and creativity are
[27:01] just two of the many qualities that make
Pam such a special person.
[27:05] Professionally, Pam's years of
experience and institutional knowledge
[27:08] have made her an invaluable invaluable
resource to our team. She has played an
[27:14] important role in orienting and
supporting new staff, helping ensure
[27:17] that new employees have knowledge, the
skills, and foundation they need to be
[27:21] successful. Pam is truly a team player.
She's always willing to help in whatever
[27:26] way she can. When she's given a task, I
know it will be completed and completed
[27:31] to the highest degree. She is often
proactive in identifying and addressing
[27:35] issues before they even become problems.
As her supervisor, I often think of Pam
[27:40] as our own version of MacGyver. Somehow
she can always rig about anything to
[27:44] meet to meet the need at hand. If there
is a problem to solve, Pam will usually
[27:49] figure it out. Her depend dependability,
initiative, and willingness to step up
[27:54] are qualities that I greatly appreciate.
I hope Pam realizes what an incredible
[27:58] asset she is, not only to me, but to all
the ladies in the team and most and most
[28:04] importantly to the clients we serve.
Pam's compassion and ability to connect
[28:08] with others are not qualities that can
simply be taught. Her heartfelt
[28:11] compassion goes far beyond the duties
listed on the job description. She shows
[28:16] genuine care for not only her clients
but for also her co-workers. She has a
[28:20] way of making pe people feel supported
and valued and cared for. And that is a
[28:25] gift that has made a lasting difference
through her 20 years of service.
[28:30] Pam,
>> dedicated and loyal employees are
[28:33] difficult to find and we are incredibly
fortunate to have you. I want to take
[28:38] this time and opportunity to personally
thank you for your dedication to the
[28:42] program. You have touched so many lives
of so many people in our community and
[28:47] you've made a difference in my life as
well. You have helped shape the program
[28:51] we have today. You are part of the
foundation and cornerstone for the
[28:54] success of the INH home aid program.
Your 20 years of service represent far
[28:58] more than just a number. They represent
20 years of caring for others,
[29:02] supporting your co-workers, serving your
community, solving problems, stepping
[29:07] up, and making a difference in the lives
of countless people. Pam,
[29:12] congratulations on your 20 years of
dedicated service.
[29:16] [applause]
[29:20] » [applause]
[29:28] [clears throat]
>> Next, if Debbie Dutton would come
[29:31] forward to receive her 35-year pin from
Sheila Davies.
[29:42] » Wow. Welcome.
>> 35.
[29:48] Yeah, it's pretty remarkable um to be
celebrating 35, but if you think about
[29:53] we just recognized Gloria, Monica, Pam,
and now Debbie, 75 years of service is a
[29:59] remarkable feat, but that's 75 years of
service within one department in Dare
[30:03] County. So, pretty pretty extraordinary.
Um it's truly an honor to once again
[30:08] stand before you uh this morning to
recognize an extraordinary individual
[30:12] and public servant, Debbie Dutton. for
her 35 years of service to Dare County.
[30:19] Five years ago, I had the privilege of
standing here and presenting Debbie with
[30:22] her 30-year pen. And I remember
reflecting then on the remarkable career
[30:27] she had built, the countless people she
had touched, and the tremendous impact
[30:31] she's made in public health and in our
community. At the end of my remarks that
[30:36] day, I also remember pretty clearly
saying that I hoped Debbie would stay
[30:40] with us for at least another three to
five years. And that every day she
[30:45] stayed with us, I considered a gift.
Well, Debbie, thank you. We got another
[30:49] five years. And what a gift those five
years have been. Today, rather than
[30:54] simply looking back at a list of
accomplishment, I think Debbie's 35-year
[30:58] milestone gives us an opportunity to
reflect on something even more
[31:02] meaningful. the difference one person
can make when they dedicate a career to
[31:07] serving others. 35 years is more than a
measure of time. It represents thousands
[31:13] of days of showing up for co-workers,
students, family, this community. It
[31:18] represents relationships built, people
mentored, programs created, challenges
[31:24] overcome, and an organization that has
grown and changed tremendously.
[31:29] all [snorts] the way Debbie has been
shaping that growth with her work. She
[31:34] began her career with Der County in
1991. Think about where you were in
[31:38] 1991, 35 years ago. Some people probably
in this room may not have been born
[31:43] then. Um she started her career as a
public health nurse, initially working
[31:48] as a school nurse and family planning
coordinator. She went on to become a
[31:52] full-time school nurse, then the school
nurse supervisor, and ultimately the
[31:56] nursing director for our community and
clinical services division. When I asked
[32:01] Debbie to reflect on what has changed
during her 35 years of service, one word
[32:06] came to mind, growth. Debbie started her
career in a little red brick health
[32:11] department building. Some of you may
remember that building um at the corner
[32:15] of an anized stair street in highway
26464.
[32:19] She watched our clinical services expand
from Mano to Fris to Frisco and to Knack
[32:24] Head. When Debbie began as a school
nurse, she was only the third school
[32:28] nurse in Dare County, helping cover all
the schools from Mano to Hatteris and
[32:32] the northern beaches. Today, we have a
school nurse in every Dare County
[32:37] school. She remembers when community and
clinical services consisted of only 11
[32:42] staff members. Today, she leads a team
of approximately 43 staff members. And
[32:48] what was once just four programs,
maternal health, family planning, child
[32:52] health, and communicable disease, has
now grown into 16 agreement addendums or
[32:57] state contracts with numerous programs
and services designed to meet the
[33:02] changing needs of our community. Debly
ha Debbie hasn't simply witnessed that
[33:07] grow growth. She's helped lead that
growth. She was part of the leadership
[33:11] and develop programs such as Peer Power
and Miles of Smiles. She helped extan
[33:16] expand prenatal services so more women
could receive care. I remember gosh 12
[33:22] years ago we were doing prenatal care
two days a week. Now we're doing it five
[33:26] days a week in three locations.
She helped build our school nursing and
[33:31] health program into what it is today
which now includes behavioral health and
[33:35] as of this school year teleaalth. And
throughout 35 years of tremendous change
[33:40] in public health, Debbie has remained a
steady and trusted leader. I also de
[33:46] asked Debbie what she's most proud of
beyond, of course, being an incredible
[33:51] wife, mom, and grandmother. I had to
throw that in. Um, of course, she
[33:55] mentioned being named Dare County
Employee of the Year in 2000. That
[33:59] remains a special accomplishment. She
also spoke about her own professional
[34:03] journey starting from school nurse
growing into the nurse supervisor and
[34:08] director that she is today. But what she
mentioned first tells you a lot about
[34:13] Debbie. She talked about the students
she cared for as a school nurse. She
[34:18] said one of the things she's most proud
of is having watched those students grow
[34:21] into respectful professional adults,
many of whom now work for Dare County or
[34:27] work in our schools or own businesses in
the community and are now raising their
[34:31] own children. To me, that perfectly
captures what 35 years of public service
[34:36] really means. It isn't simply the number
of years you've worked or the positions
[34:41] you've held. It's the generations of
people whose lives you have touched
[34:45] along the way. And after 35 years, there
are also certainly some great stories.
[34:51] Debbie remembers an elementary school
student who was sent to her office to
[34:55] have a little hygiene discussion. After
some investigation, Debbie discovered
[35:00] that while walking to this the bus stop
in Wanchese, the child had found a dead
[35:05] fish on the side of the road and put it
in her pocket of her overalls. As Debbie
[35:11] says, like any good little one cheese
girl, I'm sure she had been taught that
[35:15] when you find a fish, you take care of
it. Then there was the middle school
[35:19] student interviewing Debbie for a PTA
newsletter who asked what the school's
[35:24] nur the school nurse's office needed.
And when Debbie asked the question back
[35:29] to the student, the students
recommendation was bunk beds.
[35:33] And even during COVID, there was a mo
there were moments of joy, including a
[35:37] dance party at one of our larger
vaccination clinics, complete with music
[35:42] provided by our volunteers.
Those stories also say something
[35:46] important about Debbie. Through the
difficult days, the long days, and even
[35:50] some truly extraordinary days, she never
lost her ability to laugh, connect with
[35:55] people, or find joy in her work. Five
years ago, I described Debbie as kind,
[36:00] compassionate, genuine, respected,
knowledgeable, and the epitome of a
[36:05] servant, a public health servant. Five
years later, I wouldn't change a word.
[36:11] What I would add is that we now have
five more years of evidence, five more
[36:15] years of leadership, five more years of
mentoring employees, five more years of
[36:19] caring for our community, five more
years of quietly doing whatever needed
[36:24] to be done. Not because someone was
watching, but because that is simply who
[36:28] Debbie is. On a personal note, I said
five years ago that I cherish Debbie as
[36:33] a person, and I am beyond grateful for
all that she's done for Dair County and
[36:38] for public health. And that's even more
true today. 35 years is an extraordinary
[36:44] legacy of service. You have helped shape
the public health in Dair County. You've
[36:48] cared for generations of families,
helped build programs that will continue
[36:53] long after all of us are gone, developed
employees and future leaders, and made
[36:58] our organization and our community
better because you're a part of it. Five
[37:02] years ago, I had said that every
additional day working with us is a
[37:06] gift. Thanks for giving us 1,824
more days. And I'm certainly not putting
[37:12] an expiration date on that statement,
but I won't hold you to more. on behalf
[37:17] of Dare County Health and Human
Services, your colleagues, the countless
[37:20] individuals and families you've served,
and personally for me, thank you for
[37:24] your 35 years of service. And I will one
last thing. I was thinking about this
[37:29] this morning. So Debbie remarkably wears
I'm not going to pull your neck over
[37:34] proud proudly. She is so proud all of
her service year pens. I do worry about
[37:39] her neck at some point with adding this
this additional pen, but congratulations
[37:43] and thank you.
>> [applause]
[37:50] [applause]
[37:59] [applause]
[38:05] » Oh gosh, I don't know if I can say
anything now.
[38:10] First and foremost, [clears throat] I
just want to thank everyone that has
[38:14] supported me along my journey.
What a special what a special career
[38:20] that I I just I will treasure forever.
35 years ago, a special thanks to Harry
[38:28] Johnson and Louise Gray, those might be
names that you recognize, for taking a
[38:32] chance on me, for all of those that have
supported me along the way. And finally,
[38:38] Jay Berth and Sheila Davies for having
the trust in me to put me in the
[38:43] position that I currently hold. I have
been so blessed and God is so good. As
[38:50] Sheila mentioned, we have seen a
tremendous amount of change from where
[38:54] we've been to where we are today has
been a whirlwind.
[38:59] The support of our community is
unmatched. And thank you to the
[39:03] commissioners over the years, our
leadership in DHS over the years in
[39:08] public health has gotten us to where we
are today. The stories are endless. The
[39:14] memories will last a lifetime. I have a
picture in my office that says something
[39:19] that you might have seen somewhere, but
it says, "Love what you do and you'll
[39:24] never work a day in your life." That is
so true. And I have been so blessed. So,
[39:29] from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
[applause]
[39:42] Next, if Sheriff Doug Dowy would come
forward to present the employee of the
[39:46] month.
[39:55] » Good morning, everyone.
>> Morning, Sheriff.
[39:59] this isn't a surprise to him because
I've never been able to surprise him in
[40:03] my life, I don't think. Um, but I will
start out right from the first saying
[40:07] that um I have nothing to do with this.
This was done from somebody on the
[40:11] outside that uh knows this young man
very well because of where what he does
[40:16] while he's here. So, I'll go ahead and
call him up. Brent Daddy, come on up.
[40:22] [applause]
[40:33] Good morning.
>> Brent has been recognized by one of the
[40:40] individuals that he spends more time
with than anybody. rent works uh in our
[40:44] civil process which anybody in here that
comes to court or is around would know
[40:48] that they see him either at the metal
detector or in the courtroom or walking
[40:53] the halls in the in this building
because he does the security over here.
[40:57] So, he's an all-around guy and and it's
and everybody knows him. I don't care
[41:01] where I go, somebody knows who he is or
where he's been or what he is or what he
[41:05] does. And he called me this morning. He
says, "Anyway I can get out of this," he
[41:09] already knew what he did. The phone call
came to my office and he's not in my
[41:13] office very much, but um the young lady
said, "I can't tell you what I need to
[41:17] tell you while he's in there." I'm like,
"So, what I'm gonna do, run him out and
[41:20] he's going to either think he's in real
trouble or is something's going to be
[41:23] really good." Well, um you know, then he
started looking and he figured out, hey,
[41:27] well, I talk to somebody because he knew
who to talk to and figured out it was
[41:31] but didn't let me know that he knew who
he was that it was going to be him until
[41:35] this morning. But he said, "I'd really
rather not do this." And I understand
[41:38] that completely. He's never been one
that wanted any accolades or tried to um
[41:43] put himself up in front of anybody. He
uh he's definitely a public servant.
[41:47] Loves what he does. Been doing this for
14 years. Um and I'm going to read what
[41:52] the young man that uh that nominated him
for this position said. He said, "I am
[41:56] nominating Brent Daddy for employee of
the month. And I want to explain why
[42:00] length of service is not a reason to
take someone's contribution for granted.
[42:04] It is a reason to recognize it more
specifically. Brent has been with the
[42:08] Dair County Sheriff's Office since 2012.
What he contributed this month was not
[42:12] different from what he contributes each
month. Brent is plugged into the
[42:16] community like no other officer I have
ever worked with. He not only has his
[42:20] cell phone number ready for anyone that
may need his help, but he also answers
[42:26] the call. But the fact that he has
delivered that quality of service for 14
[42:30] years running with no diminishment and
no ceremony represents exactly the kind
[42:35] of sustained commitment that law
enforcement agencies thrive on.
[42:39] You know, that says an awful lot. It's
hard for me, you know, because he is my
[42:44] son to, you know, ever really
acknowledge anything that he does
[42:47] special because no matter what that
would be, somebody would go say, you
[42:51] know, your daddy is the sheriff. I've
never heard him, you know. Now, he'll
[42:55] tell you real quick, his daddy is the
sheriff, that's for sure. But he I've
[42:59] never ever seen him use that anywhere.
I'm very fortunate to have two sons that
[43:03] work with me and um my youngest son in
law school and he promises he's going to
[43:08] the right side, not the dark side. So,
hopefully he'll be in the uh he'll be in
[43:14] that office one day and uh we'll enjoy
what he does. When Brent was about three
[43:19] and a half years old and I worked in a
hosky, I used to take him to Hardies in
[43:23] the morning to meet his grandmom and
granddad. Uh,
[43:27] and he commanded a presence even at
three and a half years old in Hardies.
[43:33] Walked every table, knew everybody in
there, spoke to everybody, stole food
[43:36] off their off of what they were eating.
And I know his grandmama and grand like,
[43:40] "Oh my goodness, it's no telling what
he's going to be like when he grows up."
[43:46] Um he was in a Jeep uh and I we lived
right beside Paul Terry. Paul Terry
[43:50] lived in front of us and uh he was on
the road driving this little Jeep, but
[43:54] he had Thank goodness it didn't run very
fast because he'd have probably not been
[43:57] here today cuz he's kind of wide open.
But um Paul Terry stopped him and they
[44:02] said, "I'd like to see your drive." He
had a lollipop in his mouth and both his
[44:06] hands looked up at him. He said, "I
ain't got no driver's license." He
[44:11] laughed. I laughed. But that's probably
not the first time he's been stopped.
[44:14] hopefully. And uh it may not be the
last. That's exactly right. By Paul
[44:19] Terry. Yes. But we I he a wealth of
knowledge. He works with some people
[44:24] that are very very smart. Um in the
clerk's office. He's he's a part of the
[44:30] drug court and u you know and and has a
heart for them. He wants to make sure
[44:35] that you know things go the right way
and what happens is the right outcome.
[44:39] He'll stick his nose in business that
sometimes I wish he never did, but you
[44:43] know, it's the right place to be because
he thinks it's the right thing to do.
[44:47] With a friend like that, I don't believe
you can go wrong. I And a law
[44:50] enforcement officer, you can't find
anything better than that. That's for
[44:53] sure. Um, I will tell you that if you
call him, he's coming,
[44:59] you know, and get out of the way because
he'll be there for you and he's going to
[45:02] do the job that he needs to do when he
gets there. Um, and as a friend, you
[45:06] can't find a better one. You can call
him, he'll come. It doesn't make any
[45:09] difference. Call him three o'clock in
the morning, five o'clock in the
[45:12] morning, he'll be there. Now, my second
son will tell you if you call him, I'm
[45:16] coming, but I might not be there in the
next 10 minutes. Might take me two or
[45:19] three hours to get there. And my third
one to tell you, don't call me. You
[45:22] might want to call somebody else cuz I
ain't no way in the world I can help
[45:25] you. I don't know what it'll be. So, in
that respect, he's he's the top dog in
[45:30] that in that position. I'm honored to be
able to stand here and say those things
[45:33] about him. And I thank you. I think that
there's somebody else that, you know,
[45:36] feels the same way about him. A lot of
people, one of the ladies back there
[45:39] said, "What are you doing here this
morning?" I said, "We got a lot going
[45:41] on." I said, "But Bren is getting
employed. Oh my god, I want to stay here
[45:44] long enough to see that happen." So
anyway, somebody else knows you, too.
[45:48] But it's an honor for me to be able to
give that to you. I'm proud of you. I
[45:51] love you and you take care of yourself.
[applause]
[45:56] And here,
you got to give that back.
[46:02] And there's your plaque. All right.
[46:09] Thank you. Take that.
[46:16] » Yes, sir.
>> Bobby. Bobby, before you dismiss
[46:21] everybody,
there's a saying behind
[46:25] every good man is a good woman. Well,
I'm gonna reverse that this morning
[46:30] because I'm gonna tell Debbie,
behind a good woman's a good man. And
[46:35] that's Max Dutton, former
board of commissioners, Dair County.
[46:40] Max, stand up. We want to recognize Max.
[applause]
[46:48] I had the honor of serving with Max for
a couple of years on this board. What a
[46:53] principal gentleman he is. And I can't
thank you enough, Max, for your service,
[46:57] too. Bobby,
>> before we go to public comment, will
[47:02] those of you that received a recognition
this morning please go out through this
[47:05] door and get a picture? And I'll wait
just a second for the room to clear
[48:26] Ladies [clears throat] and gentlemen,
now's the time that's been set aside for
[48:28] public comment. If you have public
comment and you've signed up, I'll call
[48:32] on you at the end of calling the list.
If you aren't on there, I'll ask if
[48:35] anyone else hasn't. If so, raise your
hand. Uh, when you come to the podium,
[48:39] please state your name and where you're
from. Please limit your comments to five
[48:42] minutes. There's a green light on the
podium that will come on when your time
[48:46] begins. There's a yellow light on the
podium that will come on uh when you
[48:50] have about a minute left. And when the
red light comes on, you need to conclude
[48:53] your remarks. Uh if you're here to speak
to uh item 11, which is the public
[48:59] hearing on a combined capital grant
application, please wait until that
[49:04] agenda item to speak to that issue. Um
with that said, the first person on the
[49:08] list is Lee Goldman.
[49:15] » Welcome this morning, Lee.
>> Good morning. Like to welcome the
[49:19] commissioners and thank you for taking
the time out to hear me this morning.
[49:23] Last year, I showed up
talking about the same thing. I don't
[49:29] like the word anniversary on certain
events. Anniversaries are great for 250
[49:33] years of the country, wedding
anniversaries, and other things, years
[49:37] of service.
This year marks the 25th remembrance of
[49:42] the events of 911.
I wear this uniform today after giving
[49:47] it some thought of what I should wear
here today.
[49:50] I wore this uniform to countless
funerals to people that I knew, to
[49:54] people I didn't know, from the events
from New York, but also there were other
[50:00] people that wore this type of uniform in
the Pentagon and over in Shanksville to
[50:06] remember those people. Also,
this year is the fifth anniversary, I'm
[50:10] sorry, I used the word I hate, the fifth
year of doing the 911 walk, the walk to
[50:16] remember in Dair County. We started with
30 people. Last year we had 340.
[50:24] I would love to see 500 people.
[50:31] I'm trying to think where to go with
this. [snorts]
[50:34] I don't like to write things down. I
like to speak from the heart. I've
[50:38] watched this grow year after year and I
would like to see it continue to grow.
[50:44] I don't want to see people forget,
but we seem to have done that in this
[50:50] country.
I don't want to see our youth forget the
[50:54] events. I don't want to see the people
that are here forget those events or
[50:59] people to tell other people that those
events never really happened. I am here
[51:04] to invite the county, the people of Deer
County, the visitors, other counties,
[51:13] school children,
everybody to attend this year's walk.
[51:18] There'll be refreshments that are
donated by several different
[51:24] stores, whether it be Stack High, New
York Bagels, Duck Donuts, Front Porch
[51:30] Coffee, Target,
[51:33] um, Food Line, and several others
that'll be supplying free food to
[51:38] everybody. This year, we're opening up
signing in at 7:00.
[51:44] uh because last year we did a little
later and I didn't realize how many
[51:48] people were going to show up. So taking
that into account um we're going to
[51:53] start at seven. There is also a separate
section for Dare County employees to
[51:57] sign up so you can get your wellness
point.
[52:01] And if anybody hasn't had a chance to
listen to uh Betsy Robinson sing the
[52:06] national anthem, that in itself is a
reason to come to hear it. There are
[52:10] other things that I do have in the works
I can't control, but I'm hoping they
[52:15] fall into place. One being the weather.
I do recommend people dress
[52:21] appropriately
and hydrate before, during, and after
[52:26] the event. If you feel you cannot
complete the walk, that is fine. We will
[52:31] have transportation to bring you back.
It's not a competition. It is the day of
[52:35] nothing more than to remember.
[52:40] That's all I really have on this matter.
Does anybody have any questions,
[52:46] thoughts, comments?
I still got a minute and a half.
[52:50] [clears throat]
>> No, but thank you, Lee, for your
[52:54] spearheading this year after year. It's
uh commendable and can't thank you
[52:58] enough for doing that.
>> Thank you. I would like to point out
[53:01] that
>> start time of the walk because it's a
[53:04] different time. It's not like nine on
the dot. No, the start time and the
[53:08] reason we started everything at 7 is the
start time is 8:46. 8:46 is significant
[53:13] because it was the time the first plane
struck the World Trade Center and the
[53:18] events of that day unfolded.
Um,
[53:23] we're looking at about 8:30 for the
national anthem followed by a prayer by
[53:29] Cherry Wheeler, then lining up and then
starting the walk. Uh I will like to
[53:36] just point out another event that will
be happening in October which will be
[53:39] October 10th. It coincides with this. It
is the tunnels to tower run
[53:46] and you can find that also either on
the flyers that I have or you can Google
[53:52] that and it'll be showing up here. This
will be I believe the third year for
[53:55] that event that starts in Kill Devil
Hills. I do have flyers for the events
[54:01] if people would like that. And there's a
QR code. You can uh check out the
[54:05] website, see where we started and where
we ended. I'm hoping that the photo that
[54:09] we take at the top of the monument again
is too big for the lens. Uh last year it
[54:15] was nice to see that. And five, four,
three, two, one. Thank you for your
[54:20] time.
>> Thank you. [applause]
[54:26] » Next is Nicole Hassel Wayne.
[54:35] Welcome this morning.
>> Good morning, Mr. Chairman,
[54:37] commissioners.
Thank you for allowing me this
[54:40] opportunity to speak before this board
today.
[54:44] I have been a resident of this county
for more than 20 years. I am and always
[54:48] will be the incredibly proud mother of
Zane Thomas Hughes, who was murdered
[54:52] last year here in Dair County. and I'm
also the mother of three other
[54:56] phenomenal children. This morning, I am
asking this board to please listen
[55:01] carefully to what the facts reveal
because serious questions about
[55:05] accountability
[55:08] and crime victim's rights violations by
the Der County District Attorney's
[55:12] Office can no longer be ignored. This is
the second time I have stood before this
[55:16] board to raise concerns about the
treatment of my family as crime victims.
[55:22] I am back because those concerns have
not been resolved. The rights guaranteed
[55:27] to us under North Carolina law continue
to be violated. A few of the most
[55:32] disturbing things I have learned along
this journey
[55:35] is my family is not the only family that
has been forced to fight for rights that
[55:40] the law already guarantees. I have
spoken with and learned of other crime
[55:44] victims whose rights have been
repeatedly infringed upon or ignored
[55:48] altogether.
At some point, repeated failures stop
[55:53] looking accidental. They begin to look
systemic, and that is something that
[55:57] this board should take very seriously.
I want to begin with discussing the
[56:04] conduct of the Dair County District
Attorney's Office. Much of my concerns
[56:10] stems from the way my family's rights
have been interpret interpreted,
[56:14] communicated, and enforced. During the
most recent session of Superior Court,
[56:18] the Honorable Judge WBLE said, and I
quote, um, I will tell you unequivocally
[56:23] as the mother of a deceased victim, you
have the best prosecutor prosecuting
[56:27] that case that I know of, and that is
Mr. Jeff Crudin. I greatly respect Judge
[56:31] Wamble, but I strongly disagree with
that assertion, and I do not expect this
[56:35] board to simply take my word for it.
The district attorney of Dair County
[56:41] abuses his position, not simply through
isolated mistakes, but through a pattern
[56:45] of conduct that I believe has gone
unchecked for far too long. In June of
[56:49] this year, District Attorney Jeff Cruden
made false statements that his office
[56:54] had not yet received my son's autopsy
from the office of the chief medical
[56:58] examiner and requested a continuence on
that basis. Then, approximately 2 and a
[57:03] half hours after I spoke publicly at
this meeting on August 3rd, I received
[57:08] an email from his office stating that
the autopsy had finally been received
[57:11] with the copy attached. For months, I
possessed
[57:16] for for months I possessed my own copy
from the OCME of my son's autopsy,
[57:22] and I did not release it. As of
yesterday, I now have something more
[57:27] significant than recordings or just
copies. Written confirmation directly
[57:32] from the North Carolina Office of the
Chief Medical Examiner. According to the
[57:36] OCME, its request log shows that Mr. Mr.
Crudin personally submitted a request
[57:40] for records in Zayn's case through its
document portal. They further confirmed
[57:45] that all reports requested by Mr. by Mr.
Crudin were released to him by email on
[57:50] September 19th of 2025.
That was approximately nine months
[57:55] before Mr. Crudin stood in superior
court and represented that his office
[57:59] had not yet received Zayn's autopsy.
[58:04] I want to be now I want to be precise.
OCM's email states that all reports Mr.
[58:09] Crudin requested were released to him on
September 19th. The email itself does
[58:14] not identify each individual report by
name. But what it does establish is that
[58:18] Mr. Crudin requested records in Zayn's
case and that every report he requested
[58:23] was provided to him by the OCME in
September of 2025. That fact, combined
[58:28] with the representations later made in
court, raises an obvious and serious
[58:32] question that deserves an answer. Over
the course of the last year, Mr. Crudin
[58:37] has created a false narrative not only
about me, but my son,
[58:44] one and one of which my conduct
supposedly threatens or interferes or
[58:50] causes harm to the prosecution of the
people charged with murdering my son.
[58:55] It has been used as justification for
limiting my communication with his
[58:59] office and refusing to enforce rights I
have repeatedly attempted to assert
[59:03] under the Crime Victim's Rights Act.
I do not need to stand at this podium
[59:08] and call anyone a liar. The records can
speak for themselves. Last Thursday, Mr.
[59:13] Crudin put much of that narrative in
writing. I received an email from him
[59:18] that I can make available to this court
in its entirety if you would like. A few
[59:22] of the things
included in the email were my requests
[59:28] for information for an unrelated case
that would hinder the prosecution of
[59:32] those charged with my son's murder. He
also stated that an individual's rights
[59:37] can be forfeit
I have to be quiet now.
[59:42] » Go ahead, ma'am.
>> have to be forfeited or diminished when
[59:46] their actions are supposedly detrimental
to the administration of justice. And
[59:50] finally, he informed me that there will
be very little contact, if any, between
[59:54] his office and me until Zayn's case goes
to trial in March of 2027.
[59:59] He then wrote, "There will be no more
release of privileged information to the
[1:00:02] media like you did with your son's
juvenile case file, if I have any
[1:00:05] control over it." That statement is
important because it is another example
[1:00:09] of the problem I am describing. I did
not res release Zayn's juvenile case
[1:00:14] file. Before Zayn died, I possessed a
copy of the state's discovery of
[1:00:18] evidence evidence against him. Zayn was
a minor when he was charged and I was
[1:00:23] provided this by the attorney I paid to
ret to represent him. That discovery is
[1:00:29] where the limited material I later used
came from. The actual juvenile records
[1:00:33] are entirely different. I have not
released any of those records. So when
[1:00:38] Mr. Cudin states as fact that I released
my son's juvenile case file. That's
[1:00:43] simply not what occurred.
The state's discovery provided to me by
[1:00:48] Zayn's attorney before his death and
juvenile records
[1:00:51] from the clerk's office are not the same
thing. And that distinction matters
[1:00:55] because this allegation has become part
of much of the larger narrative. One
[1:00:59] that is not been you not only one that
has been used not only to justify the
[1:01:05] way I have been treated as a crime
victim, but to suggest that Mr. Mr.
[1:01:08] Crudin somehow has the authority to
diminish, suspend, or affect me
[1:01:12] effectively strip me of that status. I
have spent the last year listening to
[1:01:17] and learning interpretations of the
North Carolina Crime Victim's Rights
[1:01:20] Act, Article 46. The law defines who
qualifies as a victim. It identifies the
[1:01:26] rights afforded to those victims and it
places affirmative obligations upon
[1:01:31] prosecutors in the courts. Those rights
do not disappear because exercising them
[1:01:35] while a prosecutor disagrees with the
victim or because someone decides that
[1:01:39] only one family member
of a homicide victim should matter. The
[1:01:44] very first right listed in the North
Carolina victim crime victim's right act
[1:01:48] is to be treated with dignity and
respect. Me and my family have not been
[1:01:52] treated with dignity and respect.
At Mr. Crudin's request, Zayn's
[1:01:57] biological father was designated as the
primary point of contact for the family.
[1:02:02] Yet that phrase does not appear anywhere
in article 46. The statute identifies
[1:02:07] victims, family members, and individuals
entitled to assert a deceased per
[1:02:11] victim's rights. It does not create a
separate legal category called point of
[1:02:15] contact, quote unquote, that replaces
the rights of other qualifying family
[1:02:19] members. More importantly, this
designation has not worked in practice.
[1:02:24] Zayn's biological father has not been
actively involved in his life since he
[1:02:28] was four years old. He now lives in
Missouri and I do not have a reliable
[1:02:32] way of contacting him directly. Since he
was designated as the family's point of
[1:02:37] contact, my family has not received
notifications from him regarding
[1:02:40] hearings, releases, court dates, or
other developments in Zayn's case. So,
[1:02:44] the question becomes, what purpose does
a point of contact serve if the people
[1:02:49] who are actually entitled to the
information are not receiving or
[1:02:52] receiving it? A procedural label should
never become a substitute for complying
[1:02:57] with the law. and an administrative
phrase that does not exist in the
[1:03:01] statute should not be transformed into a
mechanism for limiting rights that the
[1:03:05] statute expressly provides. The last
thing that I would like to bring to this
[1:03:09] board's attention is the way juvenile
justice is being administered here in
[1:03:12] Dair County. I believe it needs a
serious examination and needs a complete
[1:03:16] overhaul a complete overall hall in a
way it responds to juveniles who present
[1:03:22] a repeated danger to themselves other
children in this community. This past
[1:03:26] May, my 15-year-old son was threatened
by another juvenile to with a gun was
[1:03:32] threatened to be shot by another
juvenile because the boys were
[1:03:36] interested in the same girl. The other
juvenile sent my son of a picture of
[1:03:40] himself
holding what appeared to be an AR-15.
[1:03:45] » Nicole, we're way past time, but try to
try to up.
[1:03:50] » I'm almost done, Sarah. Go fast. Um, my
son reported it to the school resource
[1:03:55] officer and other juveniles were charged
with communicating threats. To my
[1:03:58] knowledge, no search of that juvenile's
residence was ever conducted and the
[1:04:03] weapon depicted in the photograph has
never been recovered.
[1:04:07] Juvenile justice determined that the
appropriate response was a diversion
[1:04:10] contract. His case was never brought
before a judge.
[1:04:16] I believe that this community is
entitled to ask whether keeping that
[1:04:20] case out of court adequately protected
anyone or whether we were once again
[1:04:23] waiting for something irreversible to
happen before deciding the warning signs
[1:04:27] were too serious enough to know that a
stronger intervention was necessary.
[1:04:34] The severity and public safety issue is
bigger than any of us could know. I am
[1:04:38] requesting that this board assist local
law enforcement with starting a safety
[1:04:42] initiative to recover these illegal 3D
printed firearms and conversion kits
[1:04:47] being manufactured by juveniles in Dare
County. Thank you so much.
[1:04:51] » Thank you, ma'am. Thank you.
>> Next is Mitchell Baitman.
[1:04:58] [clears throat]
>> Welcome this morning, Mitchell.
[1:05:00] » Good morning. Good morning,
commissioners, county manager Skyler.
[1:05:04] Good to see all of you.
Uh I'm going to use this as a
[1:05:09] recruitment bid for something that's on
your agenda later on this afternoon.
[1:05:13] It's uh item uh 15 uh article number
one, the uh Bear County Joint Committee
[1:05:23] uh advisory committee, nursing home
advisory committee.
[1:05:27] uh
[1:05:31] the residents in the two facilities that
we have here in Dair County, Peak and
[1:05:36] Spring Arbor,
that's the one of the largest growing
[1:05:41] groups of individuals in our county, the
the ones who often can't speak for
[1:05:46] themselves. They don't all have family
members that live here that can
[1:05:51] represent them either.
uh the general statutes of the state of
[1:05:55] North Carolina established these
committees. While the the county had a
[1:06:01] committee of nursing home advisory board
committee until 2020 at which point all
[1:06:07] the members resigned.
You've had an open committee for almost
[1:06:13] six years now without a single member on
it. And if you go in your packet to the
[1:06:19] general statutes that are quoted there
on uh
[1:06:24] page 127 in your package, you you'll see
that this this committee is not exactly
[1:06:31] like some of the other ones that you
have. You know, you have the authority
[1:06:34] to to uh recommend and put members on
the committee provided that they meet
[1:06:41] the state's requirements.
Uh this is the only committee I think
[1:06:46] the county has that requires 36 hours of
state level training including multiple
[1:06:54] visits to each one of the facilities
uh and a a a letter an essay to
[1:07:02] the committee on aging for why you want
to be on that committee.
[1:07:07] Currently, there are two people in this
county who have met the eligibility to
[1:07:14] serve on that committee since 2020. Two
people.
[1:07:20] Two people. County commissioners. Until
you go through the training, you are not
[1:07:24] eligible to serve on the committee. And
usually there's a county commissioner
[1:07:27] appointed to every one of the boards
that you have. But you will not be
[1:07:30] allowed to be appointed until you finish
the training. There are two people in
[1:07:34] this county who are who have finished
the training to serve on these boards.
[1:07:40] Mary Pendle and me.
That that's not a huge representation.
[1:07:47] There's seven seven open seats.
It is opportunity this afternoon to fill
[1:07:52] two of those through through Mary's uh
uh training and and mine that we just
[1:07:58] finished in the 1 of August. I don't
think I I don't think there's another
[1:08:02] board that requires that level of uh
of state level training. So, uh, I I'd
[1:08:09] like to, uh, I'd like to encourage
everyone everywhere to at least consider
[1:08:15] going through this training because of
the importance that it represents in in
[1:08:19] being an advisory and an oversight group
to to represent these people in the
[1:08:25] community who who often mentally and
physically are unable to speak for
[1:08:29] themselves. So, I'll give up the rest of
my minute and a half. Thank you.
[1:08:34] » Thank you, Mitchell.
Next is Aya Havl.
[1:08:44] » Welcome Aita.
>> Good morning commissioners, county
[1:08:48] manager, everyone else on the deis. Um
I'm Aayita Havl and I live in Salvo. I
[1:08:55] have three comments today. The first
pertains to item 12 on your agenda, the
[1:09:01] joint resolution addressed to Governor
Stein and the Department of
[1:09:05] Transportation that requests a permanent
fairy toll waiver for locally registered
[1:09:11] vehicles. While I support the thought
and the sentiment behind the resolution,
[1:09:16] neither Governor Stein nor the
Department of Transportation have the
[1:09:21] authority to grant a permanent fairy
toll waiver for locally registered
[1:09:25] vehicles. That power rests with the
General Assembly, which passed the law
[1:09:30] requiring tolling of all vehicles
without exception. I would like to
[1:09:34] suggest that this resolution instead be
directed to all of the members of the
[1:09:39] general assembly.
My second comment involves flock cameras
[1:09:45] or more generically automated license
plate readers. I do acknowledge that
[1:09:50] these ALPRs can be extremely useful when
a child has been kidnapped or a suspect
[1:09:56] has fled a crime scene and time is of
the essence. But there are far too many
[1:10:01] reports of misuse of these cameras. And
human nature being what it is, the
[1:10:07] temptation is great.
The following quote comes directly from
[1:10:12] the website of the National Policing
Institute, which is an organization that
[1:10:17] supports the use of these ALPRs.
Quote, "A state audit found federal
[1:10:24] immigration authorities had gained
access to camera data in violation of
[1:10:29] state law.
Disciplinary records show officers using
[1:10:34] these systems to track people they knew
personally.
[1:10:38] Wrongful felony stops have been built on
misread plates.
[1:10:43] Unresolved litigation is testing whether
warrantless queries of a camera network
[1:10:49] amount to a fourth amendment search.
Close quotes.
[1:10:55] In the slides for the upcoming
presentation, I noticed that there is
[1:10:58] almost nothing mentioned about
oversight, transparency, or
[1:11:03] accountability.
As an attorney and someone who values
[1:11:08] our civil liberties, I'm deeply
concerned about how intrusive these
[1:11:12] cameras are. Law enforcement personnel
have used the system to stalk
[1:11:18] ex-romantic partners and to target
people they deem suspicious but who have
[1:11:23] committed no crime. They have also
submitted vague or fake justifications
[1:11:29] for the searches they have run.
As I said earlier, I do recognize the
[1:11:35] benefit of having these cameras for
legitimate crimesolving needs, but there
[1:11:40] should be limitations on the number of
cameras, their placement, how and when
[1:11:46] they are accessed, when and with whom
the data is shared, how long the data is
[1:11:53] retained, and when and how it is
disposed of. If Dear County and its
[1:11:59] municipalities intend to keep these
cameras, I suggest that you provide
[1:12:04] strict oversight and accountability for
them in the form of a civilian review
[1:12:09] board.
People who support these ALPRs sometimes
[1:12:14] say, "Well, if you're not doing anything
wrong, then you shouldn't mind the
[1:12:18] surveillance."
I would repeat that back to the agencies
[1:12:22] using the cameras. If you're not doing
anything wrong, then you won't mind
[1:12:26] independent civilian oversight, audits,
and accountability.
[1:12:31] There are civilian review boards across
the county, the country, reviewing these
[1:12:36] cameras. I can think of no reason why
deer county should not have a civilian
[1:12:41] review board as well if everything is
above board. And finally, my third
[1:12:46] comment is I want to um specifically
thank commissioners Balance, Baitman,
[1:12:52] Ross, and Woodard for uh coming to the
public meeting that we had in uh Buckton
[1:13:00] a few weeks ago um on the standing water
on Highway 12. It was informative and
[1:13:04] useful and responsive to the community,
and I appreciate y'all being there.
[1:13:08] Thank you.
[1:13:12] » [applause]
>> Next is Miriam Rollin.
[1:13:22] » Welcome this morning.
>> Thank you so much. Uh good morning
[1:13:26] commissioners and Dair County residents.
I'm Miriam Roland and I wanted to
[1:13:32] introduce myself. I'm Roland forward for
House District 1. I wanted to share with
[1:13:37] you all uh and with our Dare County
online viewers a little bit about my
[1:13:42] background as the newest candidate on
the ballot at the on the ballot in Dare
[1:13:47] County. First of all, at my core, I care
deeply about people who have needs that
[1:13:53] are not being met. And I also know how
the system works. I've been a fighter
[1:13:59] for disadvantaged kids and families for
my 40 plus year career fighting in
[1:14:04] Congress in state legislatures and in
the courts. While working full-time as
[1:14:10] an advocate for vulnerable kids and
families, I put myself through law
[1:14:14] school at night. And for 16 years, I was
a leader of a group called Fight Crime,
[1:14:20] Invest in Kids, working with over uh
working to win over a billion dollars in
[1:14:26] federal and state investments in proven
effective early childhood education,
[1:14:32] afterchool programs, and voluntary home
visiting for atrisisk new moms. I did
[1:14:37] that working on both sides of the aisle,
bringing the voices of 5,000 police
[1:14:43] chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors to
support these crucial investments in our
[1:14:50] children, youth, and families so we can
all have a better and safer future. Now,
[1:14:57] in retirement with my wonderful husband,
Mike, in beautiful Dare County for the
[1:15:01] last few years, I've been very active in
my party. I even ran for Duck Town
[1:15:07] Council last year, coming up four vote
shy. Heartbreaking. Uh I thought my days
[1:15:12] of seeking public office were over and I
was committed to continuing the work
[1:15:17] needed to help elect candidates on the
November ballot. Then I found out that
[1:15:23] our Democratic candidate for NC House
District 1 was dropping out of the race.
[1:15:28] Remembering the famous quote, "be the
change you want to see in the world, I
[1:15:33] officially became the Democratic
candidate for NC House District 1 in
[1:15:36] early August and have been moving very
fast since then." Uh, time is very tight
[1:15:41] between now and November 3rd. But I'm
not just doing this as an exercise in
[1:15:46] democracy. I'm in it to win it. So, I've
got a web page rolling forward
[1:15:52] fornc.com, a Facebook page rolling
forward for NC House1, ACTB Blue
[1:15:57] account, rack cards, yard signs, and
I've spoken at events in five of the six
[1:16:02] counties. Not bad for a few weeks work.
Um, I'm happy to talk with anyone about
[1:16:08] why I'm running, why I think we can do
better. Reach out for more. Um, my
[1:16:12] emails rolandforwardfornc1gmail.com.
[1:16:17] My phone is 2524911946.
[1:16:21] Mailing address PO Box 8197, Duck, North
Carolina 27949.
[1:16:25] Thanks for listening and let's be in
touch and please vote on November 3rd.
[1:16:30] Thanks so much.
>> Thank you.
[1:16:34] » Next is Andrea O'Donnell.
[1:16:39] » Good morning. I do have some sheets.
[1:16:48] I'm Andrea O'Donnell of Kittyhawk, North
Carolina, the organizer of Deflock Dare.
[1:16:54] I took a vacation day today to be here.
And scheduling public comment for 9:00
[1:16:59] a.m. on a weekday does kind of send a
message that public comment isn't
[1:17:04] exactly
wanted necessarily. There are a lot of
[1:17:09] people that that let me know that they
couldn't be here today because of that
[1:17:13] timing. So, I wanted to add that I have
taken paid time off to be here. You've
[1:17:18] likely seen the growing concern about
automated license plate readers. I'm not
[1:17:22] here to rehash all of the talking
points. I'm here to give you facts and
[1:17:26] one legal warning this board cannot
ignore. Dare County currently runs 48
[1:17:32] static flock cameras across numerous
agencies, plus an unknown number of
[1:17:37] patrol-mounted units. That gives us more
ALPR cameras per capita than Charlotte
[1:17:43] and Raleigh combined.
These aren't simple plate readers. Each
[1:17:49] capture is a highresolution cluster of
images detailing your plate and vehicle
[1:17:55] characteristics feeding a searchable
record of where every driver in this
[1:18:00] county goes. Created without a warrant,
without suspicion, and without consent.
[1:18:08] a drag net.
In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled in the
[1:18:14] United States versus Knots that tracking
one car on one trip with a single beeper
[1:18:21] locator was constitutional.
But the justices explicitly warned that
[1:18:28] dragnet type of law enforcement
practices involving 24-hour surveillance
[1:18:34] of any citizen would raise different
constitutional questions entirely.
[1:18:40] That warning was theoretical in 1983.
Today, it's Dare County's reality. This
[1:18:47] isn't one beeper on one suspect. It's
aworked system logging everyone who
[1:18:53] drives on 158, 64, 12, 345, and our
residential streets. I'm asking you to
[1:19:02] take that 40-year-old warning seriously
today.
[1:19:06] Did you know that Flock's own sales
training materials, which was leaked
[1:19:10] recently, quote, "A company consultant
instructing staff not to bother denying
[1:19:16] that this is mass surveillance, but to
own the narrative by redirecting
[1:19:21] residents to audit logs instead of
consenting, instead of contesting the
[1:19:26] label."
When the vendor selling you this system
[1:19:30] privately admits that it what it
publicly avoids, this board should weigh
[1:19:36] that admission heavier than any
marketing brochure. This isn't about
[1:19:40] distrusting law enforcement. Officers
are human and humans misuse power. This
[1:19:47] is not cynicism or paranoia.
That it's history. It's why the Fourth
[1:19:54] Amendment exists.
No officer could legally follow me every
[1:19:58] day logging my movements without
probable cause.
[1:20:02] Why should an AI powered camera network
be allowed to do exactly that? And safe
[1:20:08] and the safety case, it doesn't hold up.
FBI data shows cities running these
[1:20:14] systems like Atlanta, which has a whole
huge live crime facility, have seen no
[1:20:21] meaningful improvement in clearance
rates for serious crimes.
[1:20:26] We're being asked to accept a permanent
drag net on every innocent driver in
[1:20:31] exchange for a benefit that is not
showing up in the numbers.
[1:20:36] You'll be hearing today from others
about court cases like Shattery Vus and
[1:20:41] hopefully a full written ordinance is
being presented to ban ALPRs countywide.
[1:20:47] I'm leaving you a tracking document
which you just received confirming
[1:20:50] misuse cases, every contract paused,
canceled or abandoned by other
[1:20:54] jurisdictions. Proof this concern is not
fringe. It's bipartisan and it's
[1:21:00] growing. Our petition already has 750
signatures, which you have a copy of
[1:21:06] from your constituents, visitors, and
that was done with very little leg work
[1:21:10] on my part, those 750.
Please read the contract, Mr. Outton. I
[1:21:16] want to make sure you read section 5.3
allowing flock to make their own
[1:21:21] decisions about the sharing of the
information since you signed the
[1:21:26] contract. Do the due diligence. Listen
to the people in this room and the
[1:21:31] people online who can't be here. My job
as a citizen is to defend the
[1:21:36] constitution. I'm asking you to do yours
as elected officials and ban LPRs in
[1:21:43] Dare County. Thank you. [applause]
[1:21:47] » [cheering]
[1:21:52] » Catherine,
>> what?
[1:21:54] » Katherine Heath.
>> There's actually 52 cameras now.
[1:21:58] » 52. You guys put up more.
>> Sometimes it's
[1:22:01] » What was What's Bobby? Who's next?
>> Katherine Heath.
[1:22:05] » Pardon?
>> Katherine Heath. Thank you.
[1:22:09] » Good morning.
>> Welcome, Miss Heath. And I have a copy
[1:22:12] of the relevant portions of Marbury
versus Madison for all of you.
[1:22:25] And all of you should have received uh
my emails last week and I hope you've
[1:22:30] read them. And it should be clear that
I'm opposed to these cameras as the
[1:22:36] system is as broad in scope as it is.
It is not the same as those static
[1:22:42] license plate readers. It's covering
itself with that definition.
[1:22:50] » [clears throat]
[1:22:52] » The men who wrote are the US
Constitution
[1:22:57] and [clears throat] the Declaration of
Independence and the Bill of Rights
[1:23:00] deliberated for years
to protect individual rights from
[1:23:07] overbearing and overreaching government.
And now, are we now so ignorant of our
[1:23:15] history and the founding documents
that define the highest law of the land
[1:23:22] that we live in that we would so
willingly toss them aside for an
[1:23:26] illusion of safety and security.
The surveillance system, barely beyond
[1:23:33] infancy, has already been plagued with
abuses that should remind us all of the
[1:23:39] reason the amendments to the
Constitution were written. Because men
[1:23:44] are not angels.
And government and policing need
[1:23:50] restraints.
Restraints that prevent the base human
[1:23:54] desires from prevailing.
That's why the Fourth Amendment was
[1:23:59] written.
I highly doubt that a challenge to this
[1:24:04] surveillance would survive a
constitutional review in the Supreme
[1:24:08] Court.
I would suggest that you review the
[1:24:13] decision in Marbury versus versus
Madison and a more recent decision in
[1:24:19] Chatry versus United States which I sent
to you.
[1:24:24] and now and make the decision now
to stand on the right side of this
[1:24:31] violation of privacy
before you are forced to deal with the
[1:24:37] error of allowing it to continue.
Thank you. And just to quote Justice
[1:24:46] Jackson in the Chatry case, she said,
"Allowing government to access all of a
[1:24:53] cell phone users movements is a virtual
pen pan panopticon which to scrutinize
[1:25:01] its citizens actions
and these cameras are the same."
[1:25:08] And I included a definition of
panopticon in the papers that I sent.
[1:25:16] [applause]
[1:25:20] » Wescott.
[1:25:24] » Repeat that name.
>> Bonnie Wescott.
[1:25:29] » Welcome, Miss Wes.
>> Good morning. Morning, chairman.
[1:25:33] Morning, commissioners. Thank you for
the opportunity to speak today. Um, I'm
[1:25:37] just going to touch on something that I
was recently made aware of, um, yet is
[1:25:41] supposed to be taking place next month.
Um, I'm here to share my input and
[1:25:47] personal perspective regarding the
proposed relocation of the graves at the
[1:25:51] Dair County Regional Airport.
[1:25:56] I didn't plan on crying today.
[clears throat]
[1:26:06] This is a site
that holds a deeply personal
[1:26:10] significance for me as it contains my
own family's resting place.
[1:26:15] My lineage to this site starts
[sighs] with my father George Obadiah
[1:26:21] Wescuit Jr. His father George Obadiah
Wescuit senior,
[1:26:27] his father
George Rolley Weskit, his father Obadiah
[1:26:33] Jennings Weskuit.
And his father
[1:26:38] who is my great great great-grandfather,
John Wellington Wesk, who is buried on
[1:26:43] the airport property.
To provide some historical context,
[1:26:49] John Wellington
Westgate [snorts]
[1:26:53] donated an acre of the property that was
used to build the original Dair County
[1:26:56] Courthouse in 1870, which stands as
arguably the oldest government building
[1:27:01] in our county.
His contributions [snorts]
[1:27:05] along with those of the others buried
there are foundational to the very
[1:27:09] identity of this community.
These are not merely anonymous unmarked
[1:27:15] graves
or just obstacles at an airport.
[1:27:25] These are local historical figures who
shaped Reno Island and Dair County. They
[1:27:29] deserve to be honored and protected as
permanent designated historical site
[1:27:35] right where they are rather than being
exumed and relocated.
[1:27:42] » [snorts]
>> Sorry.
[1:27:46] Also buried in the cemetery [snorts]
are John Thomas Daniels Senior and Mary
[1:27:52] E. Wesket. They are the parents of John
Thomas Daniels Jr. who was a US
[1:27:57] life-saving service surfman who snapped
[snorts] the iconic and world famous
[1:28:02] photograph of the Wright brothers very
first powered flight in 1903 which took
[1:28:07] place right down the road from where we
are right now.
[1:28:10] » [snorts]
>> The lineage of the individuals in this
[1:28:13] graveyard is directly woven into the
birth of aviation and the global history
[1:28:18] of flight as we know it. Again, these
are not just people we're talking about.
[1:28:24] These are local historical figures and
they should be respected as such.
[1:28:29] » [snorts]
>> Instead of exuming and relocating these
[1:28:31] remains, this area should be formally
designated [snorts] and protected as a
[1:28:36] historical site for our island and our
county. I'm confident that no one in
[1:28:42] this room would be comfortable with the
idea of their own ancestors being
[1:28:47] disturbed centuries centuries after
their passing.
[1:28:52] Logistically and ethically, there is no
dignified way to relocate remains that
[1:28:57] have been at rest for hundreds of years.
We do not know their structural
[1:29:01] integrity
or the conditions of the caskets. After
[1:29:07] centuries in the ground, [snorts] it is
highly improbable that these structures
[1:29:11] can be excavated intact, [snorts] which
risks severe and disrespectful damage to
[1:29:16] the deceased.
[1:29:21] I urge you to please reconsider or
postpone these plans. I [snorts] along
[1:29:28] with other members of the Westgate
family are open to a discussion and a
[1:29:32] viable solution
with [snorts] the airport as well as the
[1:29:36] county.
We owe it to our island's history and
[1:29:39] these individuals,
my family, to let them rest in eternal
[1:29:44] peace. Thank you.
>> [applause]
[1:29:55] » Matthew, is it SARS? I'm sorry, I can't
read your writing.
[1:29:58] » Yeah.
[1:30:02] » Welcome this morning.
>> Good morning. I am Matthew SCS. I'm a
[1:30:05] resident of Southern Shores. Uh, and I'm
here on PTO today to join the chorus of
[1:30:09] voices expressing their concerns with
Dair County's use of ALPR cameras. I'm
[1:30:13] calling for the cancellation of Dair
County's contract with Flock, the
[1:30:16] removal of these cameras, and a
moratorium on all ALPR technologies in
[1:30:19] Dare County. As another Banks local, I
greatly value my privacy. And as as I
[1:30:24] can assure you, anyone who can stand the
isolation of an OBX winter does.
[1:30:29] And as a taxpaying, law-abiding citizen
of Dair County, I have to say I despise
[1:30:33] being under constant drag net
surveillance anytime I go anywhere in my
[1:30:36] car. Supporters will claim that ALPR
cameras enhance public safety. But Dair
[1:30:40] County already has a significantly lower
violent crime rate per per capita than
[1:30:45] the North Carolina state average, a
trend which has held since the prior of
[1:30:49] the prior to the installation of these
cameras. Is our reward for this good
[1:30:52] behavior uh becoming one of the most
highly surveiled counties in North
[1:30:55] Carolina? The only evidence I've seen
for these cameras being used to solve
[1:30:59] crimes in our communities are police
departments posting on Facebook to find
[1:31:02] people who have attempted to vandalize
these surveillance devices. Why should
[1:31:06] I, as a taxpayer, uh, pay for a device
whose only us is to solve problems it
[1:31:10] creates? Nationwide, the story is the
same. In fact, if anything, they make us
[1:31:15] less safe. You have to have your head in
the sand to ignore the countless
[1:31:18] examples of ALPR technologies falsely
implicating innocent people through
[1:31:22] misidentification and being abused by
law enforcement and flock employees to
[1:31:26] spy on private citizens. So, I ask
again, why would I want my tax dollars
[1:31:30] to pay for these cameras?
Keeping to the nationwide frame of
[1:31:34] reference, these technologies are hugely
unpopular across the country and across
[1:31:38] political ideologies. From Los Angeles
to Texas, communities and state
[1:31:42] governments are cancelling their
contract with Flock and banning these
[1:31:45] ALPR technologies. Let me repeat that.
California and Texas agree on this
[1:31:51] issue.
[laughter]
[1:31:54] Why then would tourists who are looking
to relax and enjoy their summer vacation
[1:31:57] choose to come to our little ponopticon?
I can think of few things less relaxing
[1:32:01] than big brother tracking my every move.
As backlash against these ALPR cameras
[1:32:05] continues to grow, I can think uh it
will no doubt impact tourism to Dare
[1:32:09] County, which is our economic backbone.
In conclusion, these cameras do not make
[1:32:13] us safer. As demonstrated today, they
are despised by locals and they are
[1:32:18] detriments to our local economy. Dare
County Board of Commissioners, I call on
[1:32:21] you to defluck Dare County immediately.
Thank you, [applause]
[1:32:29] » Andrea Wendle. [applause]
[1:32:39] » Uh, good morning. Uh,
>> Bobby,
[1:32:43] » you're sorry. Andrea Wendle.
>> Yes.
[1:32:46] » Welcome, Miss Wendle.
>> Good morning. Um, I am proud to live in
[1:32:49] the town of Kittyhawk that does not have
any flock cameras.
[1:32:54] [laughter and gasps]
>> How [clears throat] do you manage?
[1:32:56] » I don't know. Anyway,
townwise, I mean, personal businesses,
[1:33:02] whatever. Um, and I don't think I could
say anything more than that has all been
[1:33:07] eloquently said by previous um,
public commenters. Um I do agree that
[1:33:17] it's a slippery slope and what little
bit of
[1:33:24] u privacy that we have in this world
should be held on to and we can't just
[1:33:30] say no flock it's no any surveillance
because it's it just continues and the
[1:33:38] reason why I was able to come here this
morning to comment is Because my
[1:33:44] daughter, who is 15 and is at first
flight high school, normally doesn't
[1:33:49] have first period class. She has an
online class. She went to school early
[1:33:54] for first period this morning so I could
make the meeting because she felt it was
[1:33:58] important that I come to represent
because she sees the importance of that.
[1:34:04] So that is my time. Thank you.
[applause]
[1:34:12] Sha Clark.
[1:34:17] » Welcome, Mr. Clark.
>> Thank you.
[1:34:21] » Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members
of the board. Um, my name is Taylor
[1:34:26] Clark, a resident of Wes and Dare
County.
[1:34:29] Local reporting shows that nearly 50
flock safety license plate readers
[1:34:33] across this county, which as iterated
earlier is one of the most densest
[1:34:38] deployments per capita in North
Carolina.
[1:34:42] These cameras from a private company
record vehicles and feed the data into a
[1:34:47] searchable network. And most of us were
never informed or asked before they went
[1:34:52] up. I have three questions that still
lack clear answers. perhaps will be
[1:34:58] answered today in the presentation.
How do how much do these systems cost
[1:35:02] taxpayers each year?
Where does the money come from, a grant
[1:35:08] or otherwise,
and which officials voted to approve
[1:35:13] this contract,
and under what open process?
[1:35:18] Local law enforcement has said that
these cameras take point in time photos
[1:35:23] of plates and vehicle details and store
the data for only 30 days, require a
[1:35:29] case number for searches, and audit
these searches. A pamphlet seemingly
[1:35:33] provided by Flock Safety itself that is
now posted on a county website makes
[1:35:38] similar claims, calls privacy concerns
myths
[1:35:44] and states that Flock does not sell
customer data or compile it into a
[1:35:48] national a national database that these
community own that the community owns uh
[1:35:54] the data 100% and only the local agency
decides who to share it with. But in
[1:35:59] practice, Flock operates a national
network. Local departments, including
[1:36:04] the sheriff's office here, have stated
that they share data with other state
[1:36:08] and federal agencies on a case-byase
basis.
[1:36:11] Once sharing is enabled, uh, plate data
collected here can be searched by
[1:36:15] agencies well beyond our county. Even
though the cameras take only point-in-
[1:36:22] time images and do not continuously
track vehicles, a dense network of them
[1:36:26] will allow reconstruction of movements
over time.
[1:36:31] The Supreme Court in Carpenter versus
the United States held that detailed
[1:36:35] location tracking can violate the Fourth
Amendment. Courts are not uniform in
[1:36:40] these this in this decision yet,
although Flock seems to state that it
[1:36:47] is. um as well as a a federal case
called Smith versus the city of uh
[1:36:52] Norfolk,
which challenges dense networks of
[1:36:56] license plate readers uh requiring a
warrant is still on appeal in the Fourth
[1:37:02] Circuit. And as I'm sure you're aware,
the Fourth Circuit is also
[1:37:08] what uh covers North Carolina. So the
constitutional questions remain
[1:37:13] unsettled. Supporters often point to
these u systems catching stolen cars,
[1:37:19] but these AI systems are not infallible.
Uh in Toledo, Ohio in 2024, a flock
[1:37:26] camera misread just one digit on a man's
license plate and flagged it as stolen.
[1:37:32] Brandon Upurch was stopped at gunpoint,
bitten by a police dog, detained, and
[1:37:37] charged. The charges were later dropped,
and he settled a lawsuit for $35,000.
[1:37:44] Similar errors have put other innocent
people at risk. Officers in other places
[1:37:48] have also misused the system for
personal reasons, including stalking.
[1:37:54] Um, but one of my major personal
concerns is that we are outsourcing core
[1:38:01] investigative work to a private
multi-billion dollar company. Continuing
[1:38:08] to expand these systems risks making our
local police dependent on private
[1:38:14] vendors.
Uh once once the departments rely on
[1:38:19] these private companies proprietary
cameras, software and national network
[1:38:23] for leads and evidence, that capability
becomes harder to replace
[1:38:29] and they're potentially fully control
even locally. Uh we did not ask for this
[1:38:36] network. Public safety matters, but so
do privacy, transparency, accuracy, and
[1:38:42] accountability to the people of Der
County. So today, I urge this board to
[1:38:47] demand at least a full public accounting
of the costs, the contract, the votes,
[1:38:55] and data sharing policies.
um and to pause any expansion
[1:39:01] until further resident uh until
residents have been meaningfully heard.
[1:39:05] Thank you,
[applause]
[1:39:11] Morgan.
[1:39:22] [clears throat]
>> Welcome, Miss Morgan.
[1:39:24] » Hey, should have more coffee.
Okay.
[1:39:29] Well, I'm not here to speak about the
flock cameras, but I and I wasn't going
[1:39:34] to say anything until I heard Miss
Wescott speak. I do want to That was
[1:39:38] emotional. I think that, you know,
moving those graves is just wrong. So, I
[1:39:42] just want to jump on that. But I am
here. My name is Katie Morgan and I'm
[1:39:46] here today to voice my strong opposition
to the pennies for parks tax increase
[1:39:52] that will be on the November on our
November ballot. And I have to ask this.
[1:39:58] Isn't this an all Republican board of
commissioners?
[1:40:02] Then show us what fiscal responsibility
looks like. Budget the money you already
[1:40:07] have. I see wasteful and unnecessary
spending by this county all the time.
[1:40:14] I'm appalled that $20,000
has been set aside to convince us
[1:40:19] taxpayers to support raising our own
taxes. Think about that.
[1:40:25] Just think about that. Y'all are using
our tax dollars to convince us to give
[1:40:31] you more tax dollars. That's wild to me.
And then there's the $400,000
[1:40:37] being given to the DAR Housing
Foundation to help with startup costs
[1:40:42] for its nonprofit.
a nonprofit, mind you, that was created
[1:40:47] by many of the same exact people who
were involved in trying to address our
[1:40:53] housing crisis with state funding.
Funding that, as I understand it,
[1:40:58] ultimately had to be sent back because
they couldn't figure out how to use it.
[1:41:03] But here we are still throwing money at
a sinking ship. And for what? And
[1:41:09] seriously, I can't I can't stomach it
when I think about it. I truly can't.
[1:41:15] Here is your answer to the housing
problem. Pay your own employees more and
[1:41:20] let local businesses figure it out for
themselves. The county government is not
[1:41:25] responsible for providing housing.
Period. We can we do need parks and
[1:41:30] wreck improvements, but we don't need
higher taxes to do it. We need better
[1:41:35] budgeting.
>> I urge everyone to vote no in November
[1:41:38] on that tax increase. And it's not that
I'm not interested in the rest of this
[1:41:43] meeting, but we will be leaving because
I'm very proud of my four-year-old for
[1:41:46] hanging out this entire time. And she
told me right before I came up here, she
[1:41:50] had to use the bathroom. So, thank you
for your time.
[1:41:54] [applause]
[1:41:57] » Next is John Amsbury.
[1:42:04] » Welcome, Mr. Ansbury.
>> Good morning, Mr. chairman,
[1:42:09] commissioners, county manager, members
of law enforcement, distinguished
[1:42:13] guests, and fellow citizens. My name is
John Msbury, a resident of Mans Harbor,
[1:42:17] and thank you for the opportunity to
speak this morning. First, I'd like to
[1:42:21] start with this is not an argument
against law enforcement. I will be
[1:42:24] touching on the flot cameras. We all
want effective tools to solve crimes and
[1:42:28] protect our community. My concern is a
simple principle. When government power
[1:42:32] carries significant potential for abuse,
it deserves the highest level of public
[1:42:37] scrutiny.
Flock advertises license plate
[1:42:40] recognition and AI assisted searching.
Those capabilities may assist
[1:42:43] investigators, of course. However, my
concern extends beyond license plates
[1:42:48] alone. Publicly available flock patents
describe much broader technical
[1:42:52] capabilities than those advertised or
conveyed to us by members of law
[1:42:55] enforcement. This alone raises
legitimate questions about how these
[1:42:59] technologies may evolve, what
information they be may be capable of
[1:43:03] collecting or aggregating over time. As
an intelligence analyst, I can
[1:43:07] personally attest that a long-term
record of a person's movement can reveal
[1:43:10] where they worship, where they seek
medical care, who they associate with,
[1:43:14] their political affiliations, where they
work, what time they sleep, where they
[1:43:18] spend their private lives.
And that's not just location data.
[1:43:22] Furthermore, these data sets also feed
into a larger system known as Palunteer,
[1:43:26] which I can explain to you in greater
detail at a later time.
[1:43:30] The broader trend raises concerns about
network surveillance and
[1:43:33] crossjurisdictional data sharing when
information collected here in Dare
[1:43:37] County may become accessible beyond our
county and citizens deserve to know who
[1:43:40] has access under what authority, how
long the data is retained, and what
[1:43:44] safeguards exist to prevent misuse.
Unfortunately, documented cases across
[1:43:49] the country have shown surveillance
systems can and have been improperly
[1:43:53] accessed for personal reasons by members
of law enforcement. Now, I'm not
[1:43:57] suggesting every officer would misuse
these tools, but what I am saying is
[1:44:02] good public policy definitely assumes
the possibility for abuse and build
[1:44:07] safeguards uh accordingly. This is
ultimately a matter of public trust and
[1:44:11] the sheriff serves the people of Dair
County and this board serves the people
[1:44:15] of Der County. Both are accountable to
voters and a public surveillance vendor
[1:44:19] is not.
Given that flock safety is under
[1:44:23] congressional investigation and
communities across this state to include
[1:44:27] Greenville, Davidson County, and
Asheville uh as well as this country
[1:44:32] um are rethinking similar programs and I
ask this board to exercise the same
[1:44:36] caution. Therefore, I respectfully ask
this board to terminate the county's
[1:44:40] participation in this flock program
under the uh until the conclusion of the
[1:44:43] congressional investigation. If the
board is not prepared to do so today, I
[1:44:47] respectfully request that you
immediately suspend the program pending
[1:44:50] an independent third-party audit.
That audit should be conducted by an
[1:44:55] organization with no financial or
contractual obligations to the state,
[1:44:58] county, or surveillance vendor chosen
through a transparent public process.
[1:45:03] The scope should include how the system
has been used, whether searches follow
[1:45:06] county policy and applicable law, who
accessed the data, and whether the
[1:45:10] public got complete and accurate
information beforehand.
[1:45:13] Additionally, that audit should be
approved publicly by the board and the
[1:45:18] final report released to the public to
the fullest extent permitted by law.
[1:45:23] I also asked this board to consider the
fiscal responsibility. These systems are
[1:45:27] not one-time purchases. They require
ongoing subscription fees, maintenance,
[1:45:32] and future expenditures. And before
committing additional taxpayer dollars,
[1:45:36] citizens deserve a full accounting of
the total costs and an honest comparison
[1:45:40] of whether those same resources can
provide greater public safety if
[1:45:43] invested elsewhere.
Our constitutional rights should not
[1:45:47] grow weaker as technology grows
stronger.
[1:45:50] The fourth amendment to the United
States Constitution and Article One,
[1:45:54] particularly section 20 of the North
Carolina Constitution,
[1:45:57] exists to place limits on government
power. Now, section 20 of the article
[1:46:02] one of North Carolina constitution
covers warrants. None of these cameras
[1:46:06] require warrants.
Good government asks not only can we do
[1:46:10] something, but should we do it? And that
question falls squarely within your
[1:46:14] duties as commissioners. Finally, please
understand that we are here today
[1:46:18] exercising one of our most fundamental
constitutional rights, the right to
[1:46:21] petition our government for the red
address of grievances. We're doing so
[1:46:25] peacefully and respectfully because we
believe these concerns are shared by
[1:46:30] many members of this community. If the
people of Dare County believe their
[1:46:33] concerns are not being addressed, our
constitutional system provides peaceful
[1:46:36] and democratic means for civic
participation and the ballot box. Thank
[1:46:41] you very much for your time. [applause]
[1:46:49] That's everyone who signed up. Would
anyone else like to speak at public
[1:46:52] comment? Yes, ma'am.
Please state your name and where you're
[1:46:55] from.
>> What's up, buttercups? My name is
[1:46:59] Melanie Bortser and I'm living in Kill
Double Hills. I'm here to kill the devil
[1:47:03] today, hopefully with y'all doing what
you're doing. But I'm a mom of three
[1:47:07] kids. I'm a business owner in um our
community. And I'm blown away that you
[1:47:12] all signed up for something and you
didn't ask. And I kind of want to know
[1:47:16] like there was a question back here. He
wanted to know all the different He
[1:47:21] wants like to know what's going on
behind the flock cameras, but I kind of
[1:47:24] want to know what's lining y'all's
pockets to have made that decision in
[1:47:28] the first place. I want to know why no
none of us were asked to be permanently
[1:47:33] surveiled. I want to know why we're
living in America and it feels like
[1:47:37] China. I want to know
how you guys can guarantee me that my
[1:47:43] children are not being stalked by
stalkers because they want to go on a
[1:47:48] walk. They want to walk down the bike
path in Kill Devil Hills that has flock
[1:47:52] cameras watching flock cameras. [gasps]
What is What is happening? Why do we
[1:47:58] have cameras watching cameras? Because
you guys do know that when tyranny
[1:48:03] becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. And
these citizens in this community have
[1:48:08] stood back and watched you all abuse
your power. And we have done it the
[1:48:13] democratic way of showing up to speak
and to hold you all accountable. But the
[1:48:20] time is drawing near to find out that we
are more flocked than freaking Raleigh
[1:48:25] and Charlotte. I didn't know that, but I
sure as crap know that our crime rates
[1:48:31] are like nothing. Everybody in this
community pretty much treats everybody
[1:48:35] else like family. There might be like
what 1 to 5% bad people. And the stories
[1:48:40] I see go by on Facebook, the worst thing
I saw last week was somebody embezzled
[1:48:45] $2,000.
That's what you all got to report on.
[1:48:49] And you've got you've got police force
for what? 450,000 people all year long.
[1:48:56] That's why when someone gets pulled
over, three police show up to the
[1:49:00] pullover. Not just one. You got a crowd.
>> Yeah. That's our tax dollars working
[1:49:06] right there. Why do we got to pay?
What's What can someone do the math? I
[1:49:09] didn't even bring my phone in here
today. What is $3,500, which is
[1:49:13] supposedly the amount that each flock
camera costs just to install. What is
[1:49:17] $3500 times 52? Because that's what you
took out of Deer County pockets to put
[1:49:22] these count cameras up. And then I know
that y'all are on a subscription service
[1:49:25] cuz we own nothing. and we will be happy
and be seen as criminals. Like I treat
[1:49:31] people as family when I walk down the
street. Y'all's flock system treats us
[1:49:34] like criminals like we're doing
something wrong. And all of us are out
[1:49:37] here just trying to live our lives.
We're trying to participate in society
[1:49:40] and do good societal things. And y'all
want to call us criminals and track us
[1:49:45] from the moment we wake up in the
morning until the moment we go to sleep
[1:49:48] at night. And I can tell you what, I'm
done. I am done. I spoke in Killvil
[1:49:52] Hills. I'm speaking here and I'm gonna
call to action for the folks in Wanches,
[1:49:57] Man's Harbor, Kuruck County, them boys
are waiting with their sawzalls. And if
[1:50:02] you want to take these cameras down now
and save yourself the funding, what's a
[1:50:07] sawzall? That's how these people are
removing the cameras. They are sawing
[1:50:11] them off and dragging them out and
they're gone. And I want to bring to the
[1:50:15] record all of the gold, all of the
copper, all of the things inside those
[1:50:19] flock cameras, they're dismantling them
and selling them for profit. So, if you
[1:50:23] guys want to get your fund or no, wait,
let's rephrase. If we want to get our
[1:50:28] funding back from the flock corporation
that you all signed us up for, I suggest
[1:50:33] you all take them down, get y'all's
refund. I hope you saved your receipts.
[1:50:39] I don't know what you're doing signing
contracts, but I hope that you all get
[1:50:44] your receipts because them boys are
going to be taking them down and they're
[1:50:47] just waiting. They're waiting for the
democratic process to happen. So, I
[1:50:50] encourage you guys to take some action.
I also encourage you to not pick up
[1:50:56] hundreds years old dead bodies. Like,
what are you all doing? This is what
[1:51:00] we're here to talk about. I took time
out of my day. My kids waiting in the
[1:51:04] car with our puppy so that I can come
here and make sure that our voices are
[1:51:09] heard. So, once again, when tyranny
becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. And
[1:51:15] I ask everybody to stand up and do
something about this and say no effing
[1:51:21] more. Get the flock out of here. Thank
you all. Thank you all for being here.
[1:51:26] We appreciate you. Have a
[applause and cheering] great day.
[1:51:33] » Yes, sir.
[1:51:37] » Apparently, you've got to sign up to
speak. I didn't realize that.
[1:51:41] » What's your name?
>> Andrew Jenkins.
[1:51:42] » Thank you, Mr. Jenkins.
>> Uh, you bet. I am a resident of uh Mano
[1:51:47] and I've just come to speak just a
moment about the the flock situation.
[1:51:52] I'm a 17-year federal employee. I've got
about 32 years of both public and
[1:51:57] private service. I've served in the Af
in Afghanistan. Uh so I've got a little
[1:52:04] bit little bit of skin in the game and
I'm not just uh yelling at the screen
[1:52:08] watching YouTube. Uh so the the flock
situation obviously we've got a lot of
[1:52:14] people here who are wellversed on it and
I won't reiterate a lot of their points
[1:52:17] but if you uh
the the first thing to mention is that
[1:52:22] we're all in support of law enforcement
and actually having a a safe community.
[1:52:26] We all deserve to be safe which is what
the the uh the brochure says but we all
[1:52:31] deserve our privacy as well that's in uh
with respect to our constitutional
[1:52:36] rights. But uh let me just mention a few
things that weren't uh brought up
[1:52:40] before. One of those is that uh these
flock cameras are uh leaning forward in
[1:52:47] the the AI technology. So there's
predictive technologies that are
[1:52:50] installed in the cameras. And what those
what that does predictive technology is
[1:52:56] not just um reactive to crime, it's
predictive to crime. So if there's uh a
[1:53:02] situation where it's going to learn
habits and situations and uh mannerisms
[1:53:08] and uh it it might actually be able to
determine that you will create or will
[1:53:14] commit a crime rather than you have
committed a crime. So predictive
[1:53:18] technology is part of the uh part of the
design. So trying to put guard rails,
[1:53:26] controls, security on these cameras is
impossible. uh what what that's how
[1:53:31] they're designed. So the um the ar
architectural reality is that the system
[1:53:37] cannot be reformed. Uh you'll hear
proposals for local policy compromises,
[1:53:43] shorter data retention periods, inter
agency sharing restrictions or strict
[1:53:47] use policies. These proposals
misunderstand the fundamental
[1:53:50] architecture of the product. Mass
surveillance is not an accidental side
[1:53:54] effect of the Flock platform. it is the
business model and the core technical
[1:53:59] design. So, it's a Trojan horse. Uh it's
a creeping menace. And if we want to
[1:54:06] have a community that's uh we we all
have our privacy and our our our rights,
[1:54:12] I I'm not even saying to do a review.
I'm just saying to reject it and go with
[1:54:17] something else.
[applause]
[1:54:21] Um so, I I I just appreciate your time
and I appreciate the community's time.
[1:54:25] Uh I I think that uh it's a worthwhile
cause and um one of the things is that
[1:54:32] we're no one's making these decisions.
We're not that's why it's a Trojan horse
[1:54:37] because you're going to see down the
road if you hold it up against the
[1:54:40] Constitution and through the Supreme
Court these things are going to start to
[1:54:43] get rolled back. Um you are seeing a lot
of things get rolled back right now
[1:54:47] specifically in Florida which wasn't
mentioned as well. They're they're
[1:54:51] rejecting it statewide. So, I would just
encourage a uh just a little bit of
[1:54:56] insight and and uh research. Thank you
for your time.
[1:55:00] » Thank you, sir.
[applause]
[1:55:04] » Right behind you first.
>> Did you?
[1:55:08] » Yes, sir.
[1:55:15] » My name is Charlie Parker. Uh today I
was ultimately surprised when I walked
[1:55:20] in. I forgot to sign in because there
were a number of people in line waiting
[1:55:25] to come today. That's unusual. Um Bob,
you brought up 911 and Chief, like prior
[1:55:33] years, I will be there. 911 is personal
to me. My classmate Brian McGee never
[1:55:41] came home. 12 other people who graduated
from my high school never came home.
[1:55:48] And for you folks who have never seen or
been to the Twin Towers, you have no
[1:55:53] idea of the scope of how big they were.
If you were fishing 40 miles off
[1:55:58] Manhattan on a clear day, you could see
the tops of the towers. One day, a
[1:56:04] rainy, miserable, cold day, I was uh
volunteered by my wife to be one of the
[1:56:10] drivers of her Girl Scout troop to the
Twin Towers.
[1:56:14] We get in the first elevator and the
girls thought they were being shot off
[1:56:17] in a rocket. The elevators are so fast.
The last elevator door opened up and it
[1:56:23] was beautiful sky. No clouds, sun. We
were above the weather. The girls looked
[1:56:31] down and saw the [clears throat] storm
below them. That's how big those
[1:56:36] buildings were. You can't grasp it. The
second reason why I'm here is I would
[1:56:42] like you folks to rearrange your agenda
and have one last item. We've just heard
[1:56:48] people talk about the flock cameras. The
next is going to be a presentation about
[1:56:53] the flock cameras, but there's no
ability today for the people here, the
[1:56:59] citizens to give their input to you and
get input back from you. A lot number of
[1:57:05] municipalities have at the end a
question and answer period. I think our
[1:57:12] board of commissioners should have a
question and answer period so that when
[1:57:16] you are discussing things you can get
immediate feedback from the citizens. I
[1:57:22] see no reason why you wouldn't go along
with that. Thank you.
[1:57:27] [applause]
[1:57:32] » How you all doing? My name is Jason
Fleck. from Colton Harbor and uh he
[1:57:35] basically just summed it up for me too.
I was going to say like it's kind of
[1:57:39] counterintuitive to have a presentation
and have us go our comments beforehand
[1:57:42] and not afterwards. And everyone's
concerned with y'all review um reviewing
[1:57:47] the flock cameras and having an audit or
something. It's physically impossible
[1:57:50] because y'all have no control over the
flock cameras. The corporation that
[1:57:53] y'all signed up for has the control and
they will not entertain anything y'all
[1:57:57] say. So, as everyone else said, we just
need to reject the flock cameras and all
[1:58:00] surveillance. It's Axon as well. They do
the um body cameras for the police.
[1:58:05] Supposedly, they are now the next flock
cameras that
[1:58:08] » y'all are going to be sold. And as well,
Palanteer, all y'all need to look into
[1:58:11] Palanteer. Oh yeah,
>> because all all y'all ring cameras,
[1:58:14] everything is all tied into Palunteer.
So everyone's worried about flock
[1:58:17] abusing their rights. It's Palanteer.
And it's amazing what we give up in in
[1:58:21] for in for convenience and fear. We give
up all our rights, basically. And then
[1:58:25] everyone comes back here and is upset
about it. But y'all need to wake up.
[1:58:28] These clock cameras,
>> phones,
[1:58:30] » phone, everything's all tied to palent
here. all your doorbell cameras. It's
[1:58:33] all mass surveillance. So, just one more
thing. You all need to deflock their
[1:58:38] county or all mass surveillance really.
And I'm curious on who who orchestrated
[1:58:43] this all as well. Like I want to find
out which one of y'all actually was in
[1:58:47] charge of signing the contract and think
this was good for our our county. So,
[1:58:51] thank you for your time. Have a good
one.
[1:58:54] [applause]
[1:59:03] Good morning. I'm Katherine Fagan. I
think some of you already know me. Um, I
[1:59:07] have a few things. One, um, moving these
graves totally wrong. U, I read about it
[1:59:14] and and was appalled. Hearing Miss
Wescott made it even more real. Um, also
[1:59:20] with the master plan for the airport,
and I live on airport roads, so
[1:59:26] it's very personal to me. Um, how come
when you go to the airport, uh, uh, the
[1:59:32] Der County airport, you cannot get a
copy of the master plan? When I click on
[1:59:36] that, it says I don't have access. I
would like to see the master plan for
[1:59:41] the airport because that is going to
absolutely directly impact me and it
[1:59:44] should be online for everybody. you
know, people who are impacted by their
[1:59:48] families graves being moved, for
example. So, that that was uh that was
[1:59:53] one issue.
Um
[1:59:58] the other thing is the flock cameras.
We should just totally deflock. We
[2:00:04] shouldn't reconsider how the contract is
drafted. Get rid of it. We don't need
[2:00:08] that kind of surveillance. It's
absolutely creepy to think that you are
[2:00:12] being followed wherever you go around
this county and in this jurisdiction.
[2:00:17] And it's absolutely a warrantless
search. And why aren't there not HIPPO
[2:00:22] violations involved in that as well? You
should not know when I'm going to the
[2:00:25] doctor. I don't want you to know. And I
don't want law enforcement to know. It's
[2:00:30] none of your damn business. But yet,
that's what we have going on. They will
[2:00:34] know when I go to the doctors. They will
know what hospital I'm going to. They
[2:00:38] will know what office I'm going to. They
will know who my friends are. And even
[2:00:42] if I'm doing nothing wrong, it doesn't
matter.
[2:00:46] I didn't sign up to be watched. And the
CEO Langley of this organization, when
[2:00:53] you try and look him up, he is blurred.
You can't see his plates. You can't see
[2:00:59] his home. So if he doesn't think privacy
is important, why is he blurred?
[2:01:05] So
you try and say it's for safety, but Ben
[2:01:09] Franklin said those who would give up
essential liberties to purchase a little
[2:01:14] temporary safety deserve neither liberty
nor safety.
[2:01:19] [applause]
[2:01:23] » Flock cameras take away our liberty and
they take away our safety. I don't feel
[2:01:28] safer with them. I feel very much
unsafe. [snorts] And Sheriff Dowy was up
[2:01:33] here earlier and he made a comment and I
have the ultimate respect for Sheriff
[2:01:37] Dowy as he knows. Um, but he made a side
comment that said uh he has a son who's
[2:01:44] in law school that he hopes he goes to
the the right side, not the dark side.
[2:01:49] Now, I believe, and you can correct me
if I'm wrong, Sheriff, but I believe
[2:01:53] he's inferring that he would become a
prosecutor and not a defense council or
[2:01:59] something else. Anyway, but the right
side, the right side of the law is the
[2:02:06] constitutional side. And warrantless
searches,
[2:02:10] warrantless searches are not the right
side of the law. And these flock cameras
[2:02:16] are nothing but warrantless searches.
You know, an officer, if he wants to put
[2:02:19] a tracker on a car, has to go get a
warrant. Has to has to apply for a
[2:02:25] warrant, which is quite a process.
But with these, you don't need a warrant
[2:02:30] because they are going constantly all
the time and they're on people who have
[2:02:36] no knowledge that it's even going on.
And I'm looking over my shoulder all the
[2:02:40] time. I'm not doing anything wrong, but
it's just creepy to be constantly
[2:02:46] stalked by your government.
So
[2:02:52] I already told you about the seal.
If you look at what other juris I think
[2:02:57] this has already been mentioned. I'm
trying to actually cut it short because
[2:03:00] everybody's kind of said what I would
have said. Um other jurisdictions that
[2:03:04] have had it are already deflocking.
Asheville has there's a a a big city in
[2:03:11] uh Arizona. I think Tempe, Arizona has
has done it. Florida of all places,
[2:03:16] California of all. when Florida when
California and Florida and Texas agree,
[2:03:21] we maybe need to be taking a look at
this because this is not one side. This
[2:03:26] is bipartisan. This isn't even this is
tripartisan. This is the people do not
[2:03:30] want to be surveiled 247. Period.
We want to have our liberty and we want
[2:03:37] to feel safe and this does not do that.
This is just the opposite. Thank you.
[2:03:45] [applause]
[2:03:49] Yes, sir.
[2:04:00] [clears throat]
>> Morning, commissioners.
[2:04:03] » Good morning.
>> Thank you for hearing me today.
[2:04:05] » What's your name?
>> Uh, my name is
[2:04:10] Sorry. One second here. I do know my
name. Uh, good morning, commissioners.
[2:04:16] My name is Anderson Weeks, and I'm a
proud lifelong resident of Dair County.
[2:04:21] The Outer Ranks has always felt like a
sanctuary to me, somewhere slightly
[2:04:24] separated from the rest of the world's
craziness. Whenever I was away from
[2:04:28] home, a feeling of comfort and relief
washed over me as I crossed the bridge
[2:04:33] to return. [sighs] I think a lot of
people in this room know the feeling I'm
[2:04:37] talking about. My mom says that the
feeling hits her when she smells the
[2:04:41] salt air.
I always believed that no matter how
[2:04:44] much it changed here, as long as we
didn't get washed into the ocean, I
[2:04:48] would still feel that magic as I crossed
the bridge. [clears throat] Excuse me,
[2:04:51] I'm getting a little sick here. [snorts]
Um, I always believed this, that is,
[2:04:57] until I drove across the bridge and was
greeted by a Flock automated license
[2:05:00] plate reader.
I started looking into ALPRs when I
[2:05:05] realized I was boxed in by them. I,
along with most Southern Shores
[2:05:08] residents, cannot drive to one single
store, restaurant, healthc care
[2:05:12] provider, or school without passing at
least one ALPR.
[2:05:17] At first, I didn't know what they were.
My wife and I would discuss them on the
[2:05:21] drive home. Surely they're temporary,
maybe to study traffic.
[2:05:26] We thought there's no way they set up
all these cameras without engaging the
[2:05:31] public, right? Wrong.
[2:05:36] I quickly learned that every ALPR I
passed stored a photo of my vehicle in a
[2:05:40] database. Not my local police
department's database, but a nationwide
[2:05:43] database managed by a private for-profit
company. For Flock, more profit means
[2:05:48] more surveillance indefinitely.
This indicates that we have no reason to
[2:05:52] believe that this will slow down anytime
soon. If we don't act, we should
[2:05:57] we should expect to see more
surveillance continuing to be
[2:06:00] normalized, which means more cameras
along our roads and maybe some of
[2:06:04] Flock's new quote alpha drones, which
some law American law enforcement
[2:06:09] agencies have already begun using.
>> We have a presentation coming up shortly
[2:06:15] in support of AOPRs. I appreciate that
our presenters and most of the police
[2:06:18] officers who advocate for Flock are good
people. They likely support AOPRs
[2:06:23] because in their daily life in law
enforcement, they see the good
[2:06:26] outweighing the bad.
However, I respectfully ask these
[2:06:30] officers along with everyone else to
consider deeply the cost that could come
[2:06:34] along with our new found surveillance
state as it continues to grow. The slide
[2:06:39] deck, which is available on the county
website, appears to be created by Flock
[2:06:42] for North Carolina law enforcement. I
saw some misleading statements in it, so
[2:06:46] I would like to proactively discuss them
now.
[2:06:49] First, the slides state that AOPRs only
capture a point in time. They don't
[2:06:53] track vehicles continuously. What this
means is they don't track you every step
[2:06:57] of the way between one camera and the
next. However, the density of these
[2:07:01] cameras does enable effectively
continuous tracking. As soon as you pass
[2:07:06] two of them on a single drive, it's
clear
[2:07:10] your travel can be mapped by the time
you pass them um and the distance the
[2:07:17] distance of time between the photos.
Therefore, you've effectively been
[2:07:20] tracked continuously.
Second, the slides state that ALPRs
[2:07:24] don't track people or show police where
people go and they do not allow for the
[2:07:27] search of people. The Kill Hills Police
said something similar at the council
[2:07:32] meeting a couple weeks ago. ALPRs track
license plates, not people. I don't know
[2:07:37] about everyone else here, but my license
plate does not drive itself down the
[2:07:40] road. It's incredibly rare for anyone
else to drive my car. Therefore, by
[2:07:45] tracking my license plate and allowing
law enforcement to search for it, Flock
[2:07:49] has tracked me, a person, and Flock has
enabled others to search for me, a
[2:07:54] person, contrary to what the slides
would tell you. They also state that
[2:07:58] nothing permits Flock to sell customer
data. This is technically true. They
[2:08:01] don't directly sell the customer data.
We technically own it. However, they do
[2:08:07] reserve the rights to share it and they
do sell access to the data. Every time
[2:08:12] law enforcement signs a contract, opting
into the national data sharing, they are
[2:08:16] effectively paying not just for their
cameras, but for Flock's broader
[2:08:20] database. Just yesterday, the New York
Times podcast, The Daily, said, quote,
[2:08:24] "I asked Flock CEO Garrett Langley about
their data sharing, and he said the mass
[2:08:29] majority of their customers opt in for
the national network. Like, that is
[2:08:34] what's appealing, that you have eyes on
the road everywhere, not just in your
[2:08:37] community, but in your whole state and
in your whole country." End quote.
[2:08:45] Flock knows that they are effectively
selling the data, but they intentionally
[2:08:49] provide training and marketing like the
slides we're about to see in order to
[2:08:53] mislead us into thinking otherwise.
So, Flock and Can I go like a minute
[2:08:59] over this? I'll be quick.
Flock and law enforcement tell us that
[2:09:06] ALPRs don't track vehicles continuously,
but we know that what they do is
[2:09:09] effectively the same. They say LPRs
don't track people or allow for
[2:09:14] searching people, but we know that's
exactly what is happening every time a
[2:09:17] vehicle is logged or searched. They say
they don't sell ARP ALPR data, but we
[2:09:23] know they do sell access to the data.
Knowing how misleading those statements
[2:09:27] are, we must consider one more issue.
Flock is actively and intentionally
[2:09:32] providing training, such as these slides
coming up, to mislead our law
[2:09:35] enforcement and to train them, likely
unknowingly, to mislead us.
[2:09:41] Flock knows that tracking people is
unamerican. They know that we will not
[2:09:46] accept it as long as we have a choice.
Rather than changing course, they're
[2:09:51] working hard to prevent us from
understanding the truth so they can
[2:09:54] continue expanding their business. This
intentional misleading of the public
[2:09:59] should demonstrate to all of us why we
cannot trust them to safely administer
[2:10:04] this massive surveillance network.
[snorts]
[2:10:08] » Thank you, [clears throat] Mr. Weeks. I
humbly ask that all Dair County
[2:10:12] commissioners act on behalf of your
constituents in any way you can to
[2:10:16] remove flock alprs completely from our
county. Thank you.
[2:10:21] [applause]
>> Other public comment here this morning.
[2:10:26] » Yes, ma'am.
[2:10:32] » Good morning and thank you all for your
service to this community and thank you
[2:10:35] for listening to us today. I am um on
the deflock dare. I am not a fan. I'm a
[2:10:42] res Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Rachel Bradley um
from Kittyhawk, North Carolina. Um I'm
[2:10:48] completely opposed. I was on my way
yesterday to take my grandkid or to pick
[2:10:52] my grandkids up from school um yesterday
afternoon and I passed camera after
[2:10:57] camera. I then left from the Kittyhawk
Elementary School and drove to Food
[2:11:01] Line. And as I turned there by downtown
Bank to go into Food Line, there's four
[2:11:06] of them right there. Four cameras. And
when I say right there, I mean from me
[2:11:11] to the door, there was the two. Just
past that door, there was two more. So
[2:11:16] in between Town Bank and Food Line
turnin, four cameras.
[2:11:23] It's nonsense. And people are tired of
being watched. I am tired of being
[2:11:27] watched. I'm tired of going out my door,
walking down the road to the skate park
[2:11:32] with my grandkids
and being on camera. It's enough. It's
[2:11:37] enough. People don't want it. We need to
deflock there. You need to listen to the
[2:11:42] people of this community and to what our
our our I mean, this is our
[2:11:46] constitutional right is not to be mass
surveillance. You know, people are so
[2:11:50] worried about these data centers.
Everybody's worried about all these data
[2:11:53] centers. Why do you think we need them?
We've been running on phones and
[2:11:58] computers and networking for quite some
time now with no major huge data
[2:12:04] centers. It's bad enough that we don't
even hardly have any farmland left
[2:12:09] anywhere. This that for all the building
that goes on and all of that is out of
[2:12:13] control as it is. But enough is enough.
And people are sick and tired of being
[2:12:18] walked all over. We're tired of our
liberties being taken from us, our
[2:12:23] freedoms being taken from us. That is
not what this country was founded on. It
[2:12:28] is not what this country is founded on.
It's not what our forefathers died for.
[2:12:33] It's not what the people that made this
country
[2:12:38] wanted. And we don't want it either. And
we hope that you're taking it seriously.
[2:12:43] And we hope you're going to deflock
because enough is enough. And I just
[2:12:48] want to say on a side note, I agree.
Those graves being moved over at Mano
[2:12:54] Airport that have been sitting there for
hundreds and hundreds of years, the fact
[2:12:57] that that's even on the table is absurd.
>> If that was my family members, I would
[2:13:02] fight you tooth and nail. I don't come
to a lot of these. I'm not big on
[2:13:06] politics, but I'm very big on my
liberty. Very big on my liberty and my
[2:13:12] freedoms. [applause]
And props to Sheriff Dowy. I worked with
[2:13:16] him years ago at Village Realy. Years
and years ago, I remember him coming in
[2:13:22] every day. The happiest person in the
room, the most positive person in the
[2:13:27] room. I have voted for you every year. I
was sad to see you leave this year.
[2:13:32] » Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate that.
>> And I appreciate your service to this
[2:13:35] community.
>> And I mean that wholeheartedly.
[2:13:38] » You're sweet.
>> But I hope you take us seriously and I
[2:13:44] thank you for your time. Anybody
[applause]
[2:13:49] else like to speak public?
>> Yes sir.
[2:14:01] » Good morning sir.
>> Good morning. Thank you for the
[2:14:05] opportunity to address this topic with
you guys. Um
[2:14:10] my name is Richard Beal by the way.
Thank you. Um, everyone here has brought
[2:14:15] up so many points that could be rehashed
over and over again about civil
[2:14:20] liberties, civil rights, and how these
cameras take that away.
[2:14:26] I can't even begin to explain how much
pride [clears throat] I have in this
[2:14:30] country,
the people that fought for it, people
[2:14:34] that continue to fight for it. and what
they fight for and what they give their
[2:14:38] lives for is our right to come up here
and protest what is going on right now.
[2:14:44] This is a free country.
It's free because we fight for it and
[2:14:50] it'll stay free because we will continue
to fight for it.
[2:14:54] Our police no ill will towards any of
the police. They do a fantastic job and
[2:15:01] honestly I think that the money being
spent on those cameras would be better
[2:15:04] funded in the community in law
enforcement in education infrastructure
[2:15:11] things that could benefit locally.
I don't think we need private
[2:15:15] corporations dictating who's a criminal
and who's not because they don't know.
[2:15:20] They're going to use software to assume
that everyone is a criminal. even your
[2:15:25] mother, your grandmother, your children,
your children's children. This is the
[2:15:30] beginning of the stripping away of what
makes America America.
[2:15:36] And what I would ask you guys to do is
to take into consideration that they say
[2:15:40] these are plate readers. Why are they in
places where there's pedestrian traffic?
[2:15:45] Because they do facial recognition. They
do all kinds of things that aren't in
[2:15:49] the brochure.
They're not transparent with you.
[2:15:54] They're not transparent with us and
they're never going to be.
[2:15:59] This is strictly set up for them to make
profit at all of our expenses, yours
[2:16:04] included.
So, please
[2:16:09] deflock.
No action. No more of this mess. Let's
[2:16:14] bring government back to government and
not to private corporations.
[2:16:19] Thank you. [applause]
Any
[2:16:25] other public comment this morning?
Seeing no hands here, is there any
[2:16:29] public comment in Bucks?
[2:16:33] » Any public comment from
>> Amla Lacader,
[2:16:42] » welcome everyone.
>> Thank you. Um, my name is Pamela Lacader
[2:16:48] and I am the new chair of the Frisco
Civic Association
[2:16:53] and we are pleased to announce that we
received our 501c3 status last month. We
[2:17:00] look forward to working with the
commissioners, local businesses, county
[2:17:05] officials,
and all other community organizations
[2:17:10] to address the needs and opportunities
in our community. We also would like to
[2:17:16] thank all those who've supported us on
this journey to establish the Frisco
[2:17:23] Civic Association this year. Thank you
very much.
[2:17:28] » Thank you, Miss Lester.
>> Any other public comment from Buckton?
[2:17:33] » No further comment.
>> That Mr. Chairman, we close the public
[2:17:37] comment.
>> All right, county manager, we're going
[2:17:39] to recess for 10 minutes.
[2:17:47] because of the length of the uh HR1 and
and state budget impacts in Dair County,
[2:17:54] item five was going to be a lengthy
presentation. And out of respect for
[2:17:59] those who made public comment this
morning, I've asked the sheriff to uh
[2:18:04] come forward and we'll reverse item five
and six so that we can handle the uh his
[2:18:09] presentation at this time.
[2:18:22] Good morning once again. Um, with me is
Tyler Daddy. Uh, and he will be
[2:18:27] answering your questions because he is
one of the one that has done most of the
[2:18:30] work with this system. Um, but I'm going
to turn around just for a second and
[2:18:34] thank a couple of y'all. Thank you very
much. I do not remember you. I apologize
[2:18:39] for that. But I do remember I know
exactly where you and why we did know
[2:18:42] each other and I thank you for that
>> and you too ma'am. It means a lot. And
[2:18:47] it also means a lot to me to think that
uh you know you people talk about law
[2:18:51] enforcement in Dair County like you do
and I'd like to think that is because of
[2:18:54] some of the work that we have done over
the last 16 years and all the ones that
[2:18:58] were before me that were doing that. We
do have a great sheriff's office. We
[2:19:02] have great local law enforcement and we
do a very good job. I think I we're not
[2:19:07] perfect and we will never be. I assure
you that. But thank you for coming and
[2:19:12] that's what this country is made of and
if we don't adhere to that then there's
[2:19:17] something wrong with us and we surely
are lost. Um so we're just going all we
[2:19:21] are is presenting. We're not you know
obviously it's a tool for us and uh and
[2:19:27] we like what you know what we have been
able to do with it but we understand
[2:19:31] where you are too. So don't holler at
me. And the one lady that said, I don't
[2:19:35] know if she said that the cameras were
the devil or I was the devil, but I
[2:19:38] promise you I am not the devil,
>> but I can be really, really ugly if I
[2:19:42] have to [clears throat] be. So, we'll go
from there. Thank you, Mr. Wood. My
[2:19:46] apologies.
>> Um, and this is just, like I said, I'm
[2:19:50] going to go through it briefly. He'll
answer any questions that y'all have.
[2:19:54] Okay? Hopefully, he can answer any and
all of them. um automated o excuse me
[2:19:58] automated license plate readers alper
under GS20-183
[2:20:04] operated within the statute requirements
of North Carolina
[2:20:07] justice officers using this technology
to locate missing or endangered persons
[2:20:11] conduct investigations and make arrest
they were actually implemented in Dair
[2:20:16] County in 2014 at that time they were
called Leonardo's ELSAC operated two
[2:20:21] locations with a total of four cameras
until 2023
[2:20:25] in July July, 2023, we begin phase one
with flock safety. There were four
[2:20:30] locations, eight cameras. Wright
memorial bridge in Kittyhawk, Collington
[2:20:35] Road at Veterans Drive, Highway 64, Mans
Harbor Road in Mansour, and Highway 12
[2:20:42] and 1243 in a head. In July of 2025, we
went to phase two. Three locations, six
[2:20:50] cameras. Highway 345, Skyo Road, Wanche,
Highway 12, Pamelic Co and Harbor Road
[2:20:57] in Avon, Highway 64, 264, Russell
Trifford Road, and Patty Lane in Manio.
[2:21:05] Total cameras are 14.
>> Excuse me, Sheriff. One of the public
[2:21:09] speakers emphatically stated you have 52
cameras.
[2:21:13] » Now, Mr. Ross, I can tell you that we
have 14,
[2:21:17] » but there are local agencies that have
just as many cameras as we do. So, that
[2:21:23] would be the answer to that.
>> Um, cameras take still shots of
[2:21:27] vehicles, license plates that pass by in
their window of view. No video
[2:21:32] recordings are capable with our cameras.
Cameras are not capable of facial
[2:21:37] recognition. Data retention period is 30
days. And the total users on our system
[2:21:43] is 70 that have access to it. Users with
search capability is 29. The And this
[2:21:51] enables you to have the ability to
search license plate or vehicle
[2:21:55] identifiers within the system. The only
ones in our system that I in our office
[2:22:00] that can do that are administration,
investigation, and patrol supervisors.
[2:22:06] Search requirements, offense type,
offense reason, and case number.
[2:22:12] Standard operation of roles,
telecommunications, and patrol. We're
[2:22:17] able to log on and observe alerts from
hot list. That's NCIC and NCMEC.
[2:22:23] When an alert is received, users
required to verify the validity of alert
[2:22:27] prior to enforcement action per policy.
investigators and patrol supervisors.
[2:22:33] They are able to search camera systems
in accordance with general statute and
[2:22:37] policy. This used to locate missing or
endangered persons, conduct
[2:22:41] investigations, and to make arrest.
Admin system audits updated daily within
[2:22:47] the system and reviewed monthly by
admin. System sharing only
[2:22:52] administrative controls who have access
to which cameras and all of the above.
[2:22:58] hot list, NCIC, National Criminal
Information Center, and the NCMEC, which
[2:23:04] is the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. Over the last 30
[2:23:09] days here, as of 8:28-26,
324,884
[2:23:16] unique vehicles detected,
42 total searches,
[2:23:22] 110 NCIC alerts. And of those alerts,
stolen license plate were 36, stolen
[2:23:31] vehicles 35,
protection orders 22,
[2:23:36] active warrants 12, gang or suspected
terrorist three. Shared networks instate
[2:23:44] we share with 204 and out of state
1,325.
[2:23:49] That's different agencies.
>> Who who has access to the
[2:23:54] » You give me one. I got three and if if
this doesn't answer your question, just
[2:23:58] hold me up. Okay. Um, shared with us
instate 20 Okay.
[2:24:04] 204 instate and 1428 out of state. We
share nothing with federal agencies.
[2:24:09] Zero. That's what we did. Information
sharing. It allows us to search database
[2:24:14] for our suspect vehicles on their
systems. This information is available
[2:24:19] through our transparency portal which is
active now.
[2:24:23] Success stories. Uh the murder at Avalon
Pier. Witness on scene had partial tag
[2:24:28] and description of the vehicle. With the
flop, we were able to identify the
[2:24:32] correct make, model, and license plate.
Other law enforcement databases used to
[2:24:36] verify owner and operator. Alerted when
the vehicle was coming back into Dair
[2:24:40] County, allowing officers to locate and
arrest the suspect.
[2:24:45] Multiple stolen vehicles located. One
specific incident out of Washington
[2:24:49] County where a stolen vehicle was
stopped. Multiple firearms were
[2:24:52] recovered from the suspects after the
vehicle and a foot chase. Death by
[2:24:57] distribution, drug trafficking,
lararsenies, wanted persons and missing
[2:25:01] persons have all been we have used the
system for that. Able to identify
[2:25:06] vehicle of a male trespassing at Manio
Elementary School. And if you remember
[2:25:10] that we we weren't able to know where he
went, but we knew where that he didn't
[2:25:16] leave the county, which gave us a pretty
good head start to figure out where he
[2:25:20] was. and the fact that he was doing
court was a little bit easier to find.
[2:25:23] He was right in our house and we didn't
know it. Now, that is
[2:25:28] it in a nutshell.
And if you have specific questions, he
[2:25:34] knows a whole lot more than I know and
we'll be glad to answer any of them you
[2:25:38] have. Thank you very much.
>> All you
[2:25:44] Any questions from those?
>> One more time, your name, sir. Sorry. My
[2:25:50] name's Tyler Dowy.
>> Hello, Tyler.
[2:25:53] » Hello,
>> Tyler. This packet that Block came
[2:25:58] provided us, I'm assuming they provided
you all with the same packet.
[2:26:02] » Yes, sir, they did.
>> Do you concur with everything in this
[2:26:05] packet?
>> I do. It's it is presented by Flock, but
[2:26:08] it was uh all the information that's
there is true and factual, and it was
[2:26:12] easier to use their resource than create
our own and duplicate the same facts. So
[2:26:16] on the myths and facts page
that
[2:26:22] myth let me see if I can find the page
about it.
[2:26:26] » Oh we should I'm sorry uh commissioner
are we going to go through the slides on
[2:26:31] the presentation?
>> We are not that was just handouts for
[2:26:34] you all.
>> Oh
[2:26:36] » there was a flock handout.
>> So myth ALPRs violate the fourth
[2:26:41] amendment.
I don't believe it's the right of a
[2:26:44] private company or enterprise to
determine what violates or does not
[2:26:49] violate constitutional law.
>> Would you concur with that?
[2:26:53] » I understand what you're saying. At this
point in time, they are legal in the
[2:26:57] state and that's why we're operating
that according to the general statute
[2:27:01] that the sheriff read off to you.
>> I understand. And as you're aware, as we
[2:27:05] convene this day, there's people
convening all over the country getting
[2:27:08] rid of these flock cameras as fast,
including the entire state of Florida
[2:27:13] was just directed by North Carolina or
the Florida Department of Transportation
[2:27:18] to remove all cameras.
>> Right. It is a hot topic of concern
[2:27:22] being discussed nationwide. I do agree.
>> So you understand from a perspective of
[2:27:28] an American citizen why this might be a
concern?
[2:27:32] Giving up any rights that we have is
something that nobody's interested in.
[2:27:35] We as law enforcement are just using
this as a tool to hopefully make Dair
[2:27:40] County a safer place.
>> And I believe y'all do an excellent job.
[2:27:45] But even back in the day, Frank Coahon
didn't even carry a firearm, did he?
[2:27:49] » Times have changed.
>> He just knock you in the head with a
[2:27:51] stump.
>> And the crime rate was pretty low back
[2:27:54] then, too.
I understand the framework of flock and
[2:28:02] the overall concept of a safer
environment. However, built with privacy
[2:28:08] in mind, I disagree with. I I do believe
that they are direct violations of the
[2:28:14] fourth amendment because a camera
stationed on a public roadway. See,
[2:28:19] people have to understand constitutional
law in the aspect of when you're on that
[2:28:23] highway, you do not have the rights
protected. So, them scanning your
[2:28:27] license plate is 100% constitutionally
legal. Okay? They are allowed anything
[2:28:32] you can see with the public eye in a
public area, they are allowed to enhance
[2:28:36] it using whatever technologies
available. However, as we know, those
[2:28:40] flot cameras are stationed on highways.
They know undoubtedly scan across the
[2:28:46] road and then observe people's private
property, businesses, and other things.
[2:28:51] People have houses up and down the road
in Nagad. I'm not so certain that there
[2:28:56] isn't a flock camera overlooking
somebody's private property. Now, people
[2:29:00] are protected under the fourth amendment
to property rights inside of the
[2:29:04] vehicle. when you're going underneath
the vehicle, if it takes a picture and
[2:29:07] can see inside your vehicle, that has
also violated your rights because, as
[2:29:11] you know, aware, your vehicle is private
property and you do need a warrant to
[2:29:15] search. So, there are some underlying
aspects of flock cameras that very well
[2:29:20] could violate the constitutional rights
of our constituents.
[2:29:24] » Right. That's the argument's correct.
Uh, I think currently they're being
[2:29:27] operated under the plane view doctrine
because they are on a public roadway
[2:29:31] » and I'm aware of that. You know, these
cameras, the 14 that we own, do the job
[2:29:37] that we can't afford to put deputies at
these at these points where these
[2:29:41] cameras are to monitor traffic. And they
do so, alerting us of when, you know,
[2:29:46] people with warrants or stolen cars or
all the other hot list hits that you
[2:29:50] were made aware of are entering the
county.
[2:29:53] » I understand. But thou without sin shall
cast the first stone. Obviously, I
[2:29:58] believe our sheriff's department here is
one of the best in the entire nation.
[2:30:01] Thank you very much.
>> However, I do not believe that law
[2:30:05] enforcement are beyond scrutiny. And I
also believe that there has been misuse
[2:30:09] of this program throughout the country
and the nation by law enforcement. But
[2:30:14] » Mr. Creek, we're not arguing that fact
at all.
[2:30:17] » We don't have a penny in a fight.
>> This is your this is that's why we're
[2:30:21] here. We're answering questions to you.
It's not an opinion from us as to
[2:30:25] whether we should keep them or not.
That's apparently your job because
[2:30:28] that's why we're here. That's why these
people are here. So, we can't answer
[2:30:33] those questions and make it only we're
thing we're following is the law. That's
[2:30:37] what we do. That's the reason we put
them up. The court's going to make a
[2:30:40] decision on whether it's legal or not
legal. I guarantee you that. And it
[2:30:44] ain't going to be long before they do
it. I wish they had done it. It been
[2:30:47] nice if they'd have done it today. We
have no problem when they do that. We
[2:30:51] will certainly take them down. If you
vote
[2:30:53] » to take them down today, they'll come
down just that quick. Have all the
[2:30:58] respect. That's why you have your job.
That's why we have our job. We do
[2:31:02] exactly what you set you set the rules
for us, you know, and if it's against
[2:31:06] the if it's if it's against the state
law or federal law, it makes a
[2:31:10] difference. But if that's what you're
going to do, that's fine. We don't have
[2:31:12] a problem. But we're not here standing
up saying we're just telling you what
[2:31:16] what they do and why they do good for
us. Now, with the bad things that come
[2:31:20] along with that that you know, all these
people have talked about, you know, some
[2:31:24] of that may be factual with what they
think and some of it may not be, but we
[2:31:27] don't know. But the court will make a
decision on that. I guarantee you.
[2:31:31] » But it's not us. Okay? It's not us
against them or us against you. We're
[2:31:35] all in this together, boss man. And
that's what we're trying to do. Okay.
[2:31:39] So, you know, it's not our opinion.
We're not trying to make it an opinion
[2:31:42] of ours.
>> So, we're not trying to bring it down to
[2:31:44] that point. You know what I mean?
>> Excellent.
[2:31:46] » Yes, sir.
>> Good. So, uh, excuse me. Go ahead.
[2:31:50] » Just real quick.
>> Yes, sir.
[2:31:51] » Uh, both of you can answer this. I'd
like to hear from both. So,
[2:31:55] professionally, you're of the opinion
that we need these and they serve a
[2:32:00] great purpose.
>> They serve a purpose and I can I told
[2:32:03] you what they had done here.
>> Yeah.
[2:32:06] » You know, in a in the country, they have
done a lot of other things. You know,
[2:32:09] » we've had no bad results from what we
have done here. You know, so they work
[2:32:15] for us and they're legal. But if you
make it illegal or don't want them,
[2:32:19] that's that's you. You do what you need
to do. Both of you are of the
[2:32:24] professional opinion that we should have
them.
[2:32:27] » Yeah. I can tell you that they have
tremendously helped us as far as the law
[2:32:30] enforcement use that we have. For sure.
>> Okay. Thank you.
[2:32:36] » Uh, Commissioner Ce, were you finished?
>> I am finished. And I just want to
[2:32:41] reiterate how much I respect Mr. Dowy
and their entire department. I think
[2:32:45] they do an excellent job.
>> Thank you, Commissioner
[2:32:48] » Tyler. I got a couple of questions that
try to not from Well, not as much so for
[2:32:54] myself as is for the public. Some of the
questions they ask.
[2:32:58] » Yes, sir.
>> Um, so we have 14 cameras.
[2:33:02] » Yes, sir.
>> Are they the Something's been said at
[2:33:06] least
or they were like 3,500 bucks a piece.
[2:33:11] Is that right?
>> They're $3,000 a piece.
[2:33:14] » All right. So, so it's even less now
than what I, you know, somebody stated
[2:33:19] we're spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars that could be spent um more
[2:33:25] efficiently somewhere else. And we have
our board approves the budget uh from
[2:33:32] different department heads and this was
a request from the sheriff. So 14
[2:33:38] cameras at three grand is not several
hundred,000. I mean, you do the math.
[2:33:43] Yes sir.
>> It's less than
[2:33:46] » um
>> what 33 42
[2:33:50] » 4,200 bucks I mean 42,000
>> right roughly. Yes sir.
[2:33:54] » So that that will um um certainly answer
that question for the person that asked
[2:34:00] that.
Do you have any idea Sheriff or Tyler
[2:34:05] what percentage of drop in crime we've
seen since implemented in 2014? I don't
[2:34:12] think we'd be able to put it to a
percentage. Um,
[2:34:17] we have been able to capture vehicles,
you know, wanted suspects, stolen
[2:34:21] vehicles, stolen plates. The sheriff
read off to you the NCIC alerts, and
[2:34:28] it is under a 30-day period, but just in
that amount of time where you're able to
[2:34:32] see stolen license plate alerts were 36,
stolen vehicle alerts were 35, vehicles
[2:34:38] whose registered owners had active
warrants were 12. That doesn't
[2:34:42] necessarily mean that uh we had 35
stolen vehicles individuals
[2:34:47] come into the county. It just means that
that same vehicle or multiple stolen
[2:34:52] vehicles crossed the path of at least
one or more of these flot cameras during
[2:34:57] its time in Dair County. But that's
information that we wouldn't be able to
[2:35:02] know unless an officer was riding behind
that vehicle, entering the tag on its
[2:35:07] own, and then being alerted that it was
stolen.
[2:35:10] I got it. Um
Doug, you mentioned, you know, back in
[2:35:16] 2014 there were four cameras installed
>> and then you mentioned uh 2025
[2:35:23] there was six additional
>> plus 2023. Three segments.
[2:35:27] » Yes. Three segments.
>> 14 23 25.
[2:35:32] » Yes sir, that's correct. 2014
total of 14. Yes, sir.
[2:35:36] » Can you can [clears throat] you tell me
those strategic locations again? And
[2:35:40] they're not. One lady mentioned there's
an intersection and this is not this is
[2:35:46] not an unincorporated there. It's in
Kittyhawk.
[2:35:49] » Okay. Four. She was talking about
Southern Southern Shores. There's four
[2:35:52] cameras.
>> We don't have four cameras on top of
[2:35:56] each other anywhere. Is that correct?
>> No. It's the only place we'd have a a
[2:35:59] two camera, you know, two different C.
Now, I can't that they may in Southern
[2:36:03] Shores.
>> No, I understand that. I'm talking about
[2:36:05] Derek.
>> No, sir. You have two
[2:36:07] » 14 cameras
>> to lead to to read what comes into the
[2:36:10] county. The dual lanes there are two
cameras like that what's coming in and
[2:36:14] going out. So that's
>> what 40. So
[2:36:17] » at every location that we have we have
cameras that cover the opposite lanes of
[2:36:21] travel.
>> Got it.
[2:36:22] » So so both both lanes are covered. So,
the towns that have these other flock
[2:36:31] cameras,
are they're in sync with our cameras? As
[2:36:35] one gentleman said, you if you'll show
up on our camera and you maybe go a mile
[2:36:40] or so down the road and it'll show up on
them. Are they linked like that?
[2:36:45] » We do share permissions where the other
towns can access our cameras and us the
[2:36:50] same.
>> Okay. All right.
[2:36:52] Um
I I may have some more questions, but
[2:36:56] it's all I have right now. Okay,
Commissioner Ross.
[2:36:59] » Yes, I just thanks guys. This is really
really helpful stuff, especially the
[2:37:03] statistics obviously very good. Uh 29
um personnel, Sheriff, you you'd stated
[2:37:12] have search capability.
Um, have any of those 29
[2:37:17] been identified as misusing that search
capability for personal purposes or
[2:37:24] personal gain, personal uses that would
have been contrary to policy in the
[2:37:28] sheriff's department?
>> No, sir. They have not.
[2:37:31] » Okay.
>> And I'm not sure what the outcome will
[2:37:34] be with that. They may not be here
anyway at that point.
[2:37:37] » Yes, I understand. Uh, one more time
those stats the three 324,000.
[2:37:44] Yeah, the sheriff read them earlier
which I found very helpful. I was trying
[2:37:47] to note them down very quickly.
>> This is just 324,884
[2:37:52] unique vehicles detected.
42 total searches and 110 NCIC alerts.
[2:38:00] And Tyler, I think just
>> Yeah, the plates and the 12.
[2:38:04] » Yes, sir.
>> What were the 12
[2:38:06] » 12 active warrants? active warrants.
So, as you've characterized it, it is a
[2:38:12] tool in the toolkit that you as law
enforcement utilize every day. It's it
[2:38:19] sounds to me like it's more of a tool to
secure a quick and prompt arrest of
[2:38:28] potential crimes that are in process or
have just recently taken process. And
[2:38:34] you did reference that the shooting at
Avon Pier uh the cameras were able to
[2:38:39] assist in apprehending the subject or
the uh suspect in in that event.
[2:38:45] » Yes, sir. That's correct.
>> Okay.
[2:38:46] » Avalon.
>> Okay.
[2:38:49] » Okay.
>> Um so you have um I So there's 50
[2:38:53] cameras in all of Dair County.
>> We don't know that.
[2:38:56] » I'm not.
>> We don't know.
[2:38:59] » That was a
live map.
[2:39:02] So there's 14 of them that are yours.
The rest of them they belong to the
[2:39:06] municipalities. Correct. So I'm I'm
concerned with unincorporated deer
[2:39:09] because that's what we have control
over.
[2:39:11] » Understand? Yes ma'am.
>> Um so
[2:39:14] of those 14
when you got well and you said you share
[2:39:19] information with the municipalities.
What other organizations do you share
[2:39:24] that information with? Are you sharing
it with federal authorities? Are you
[2:39:26] sharing it with
>> We just told you we don't share anything
[2:39:29] with federal authorities at all. And
>> but when you so when you get that
[2:39:33] information you put do you put it into a
database where
[2:39:36] » it does that
>> right? So the cameras take a picture and
[2:39:40] then that picture for whoever that we
decide to share with which um is on here
[2:39:45] as well. Right. We share with 204
agencies within the state and 1,325
[2:39:51] out of state agencies.
So essentially that they do have access
[2:39:56] to the if if they have a particular
suspect vehicle that they're looking for
[2:40:02] and they do a search query for a
nationwide cameras and we share with
[2:40:07] them then if that vehicle crossed the
path of one of our cameras, it would
[2:40:12] alert them that their suspect vehicle is
crossing one of our cameras.
[2:40:17] » Well, that means there's over 1500 other
organizations, state and federal, that
[2:40:21] have access.
>> Not federal. Yes.
[2:40:24] » Right. No federal federal.
>> Oh, you said 204
[2:40:28] » 204 within the state and then 1325 out
of state. So that's the surrounding
[2:40:33] states.
>> Okay. Surrounding states,
[2:40:34] » state agencies and other municipalities.
>> I understand.
[2:40:42] » Are they all government agencies?
>> Yes.
[2:40:50] when you um are looking at this, who
audits the system? Do you have someone
[2:40:54] that um and are we
like how is it monitored and audited?
[2:41:01] Right. For the auditing purposes, how
much information is allowed to go back
[2:41:05] out to the public as far as how you're
doing that
[2:41:08] » to the public? It's it's a sensitive
information because it's all criminal
[2:41:12] information that we're using this tool
to to investigate. So, as far as what's
[2:41:18] able to be released to the public, not
much. Uh, as far as the auditing goes,
[2:41:23] uh, myself, Sergeant Johnson, and then
Chief Deputy Daringer are the admin over
[2:41:28] the, um, over our flock account to do
run audits on the users that we have
[2:41:35] with the search capabilities.
[2:41:39] » I might have more questions. And by the
way, you're doing a very good job.
[2:41:43] » Thank you very much. He he's done he's
doing good. Dad, [laughter]
[2:41:48] » anybody else have any questions?
>> Okay, I got a couple and these are uh
[2:41:51] questions that have come up from the
keyboard warriors.
[2:41:55] » Um, are you interested?
>> I don't know what that is, Steve.
[2:41:58] Keyboard warriors.
>> The keyboard warriors like on Facebook
[2:42:01] social media.
>> Social media Monday morning meetings.
[2:42:05] » Repeat.
>> I'm sorry, ma'am.
[2:42:07] » Yes.
>> Um,
[2:42:09] » thank you, Steve.
>> Is this system
[2:42:13] Are you interested in how many times
Jane Doe goes to the grocery store?
[2:42:17] » No, sir.
>> Does it flag anytime Jane Doe goes to
[2:42:21] the grocery store?
>> No, sir.
[2:42:22] » How does it create a flag?
>> Excuse me a minute.
[2:42:27] Those of you in the audience have had an
opportunity to speak at public comment.
[2:42:33] I would request that you have the same
respect that this board had for you when
[2:42:39] you spoke.
We don't need to have sly comments from
[2:42:44] the audience right now. We're actually
trying to make some serious decisions
[2:42:51] regarding these flock cameras and we
would ask that you show us the same
[2:42:56] respect that we showed you. Thank you.
>> So to reate my my question, what does it
[2:43:02] take for you to flag a vehicle in the
system? They have to be involved in a
[2:43:08] criminal investigation of some sort or
be a missing or endangered person.
[2:43:12] » Okay.
>> So, when we run if for anything, right?
[2:43:15] Whether it's a license plate, we can
search by the specific plate or uh just
[2:43:20] like the sheriff talked about at Avalon
Pier that initial day when law
[2:43:24] enforcement responded, a witness on the
scene was able to describe a vehicle and
[2:43:28] give a partial tag. Now, the making
model that they described when we were
[2:43:32] on scene was incorrect. But through
Flock, we were able to run a black sedan
[2:43:38] and with that partial tag and it
identified that vehicle. We're able to
[2:43:42] go into different uh law enforcement um
avenues, tools, databases to be able to
[2:43:48] run and confirm that tag and then that
that led us to our suspect.
[2:43:52] » Okay. Now, if you're looking for a u say
an Amber Alert that has the tag number
[2:43:58] on the Amber Alert.
>> Yes, sir. Is that presented into the
[2:44:01] system so that when that when that
vehicle comes by that camera, it
[2:44:04] automatically alerts you that that
vehicle is there?
[2:44:06] » Right. Our users when logged in and our
telecommunicators are uh our main source
[2:44:11] of that information. When they receive
that alert that a vehicle such as an
[2:44:14] Amber Alert comes into the county or
passes by a camera, they're able to
[2:44:18] verify that that tag is indeed matching
an Amber Alert and then broadcast that
[2:44:23] information out to the units that are in
the area.
[2:44:25] » Okay. And I do know um there's I don't
know the exact number, but I know
[2:44:30] there's over 2,000 Amber Alerts that
have been tracked and cases have been
[2:44:34] cleared due to the system.
>> That I cannot I can't comment on. No,
[2:44:39] sir.
>> All right. Um, another uh question that
[2:44:42] was brought up was if you go through one
flock camera and then you go through the
[2:44:49] second flock camera and they know the
distance and time and say you're going
[2:44:54] say there's a 35 mph speed limit.
>> Yes, sir.
[2:44:56] » And you made that track in 40 miles an
hour. Is it going to flag you and send
[2:45:01] it send you a speeding ticket?
>> No, sir. These cameras are not for speed
[2:45:04] enforcement. Uh, what they don't have
that capability,
[2:45:06] » right?
Um, is there any way to have this system
[2:45:11] and not share any information with any
other agency?
[2:45:14] » Is there any way to have it and not
share it? There is. We can we could it
[2:45:19] kind of defeats the purpose of the
entire network database because in turn
[2:45:24] we use other databases, the other shared
agencies to conduct our criminal
[2:45:28] investigations.
>> Right. So that would that would
[2:45:31] our system
>> essentially. Yes, sir.
[2:45:33] » Okay.
Um,
[2:45:36] and surveillance of our roadways is
nothing new. I mean, we've had this this
[2:45:41] system here since 2014,
>> right? We've been operating uh the
[2:45:45] Alpers since 2014,
>> right? How many DOT traffic cameras are
[2:45:49] in Dair County?
>> That I'd be lying if I tried to quote
[2:45:53] you, but I know a great number.
>> There's a great number of them, and
[2:45:56] they've been in service uh since the
80s.
[2:46:00] And is that any different from this
system?
[2:46:03] I don't understand the operations of the
DOT cameras and what they're capable of
[2:46:07] doing. Uh these are unique in that they
do take pictures of license plates and
[2:46:12] vehicles that pass by.
>> I can identify.
[2:46:14] » Yes, sir.
>> Okay. Um also there's in several areas
[2:46:18] um there's a couple in North Carolina.
Uh there's quite a few in Virginia that
[2:46:22] are toll booths and there's no actual
physical toll booth. You ride through
[2:46:27] it, the camera takes a picture of your
license plate, you get a bill in the
[2:46:30] mail.
>> Yes, sir. Is that similar to this
[2:46:32] technology?
>> No, sir. Or it it could be, but not I I
[2:46:36] am again not proficient in that
technology and we do not these cameras
[2:46:39] do not use that technology to
>> So if there's no reason for it to flag
[2:46:44] you, you would not know who went through
that
[2:46:48] » unless you physically look through it.
>> Um, and obviously with the number of
[2:46:52] manpower you have at the sheriff's
department doing this, I don't think you
[2:46:55] would have the manpower to track every
single vehicle going through there,
[2:46:58] » right? It would be impossible,
>> right? That's all I got.
[2:47:03] » Thank you, Vice Chairman, Commissioner
Baitman.
[2:47:05] » Tyler, um,
I go to Wine Cheese every day, building
[2:47:10] Dare Challenge, sometimes four times a
day.
[2:47:15] Can you pull up and tell me exactly when
I go there?
[2:47:18] » I can tell you when you cross past of
that camera, but I cannot tell you where
[2:47:22] you go from that point on.
So anybody in this room can be taking
[2:47:27] that same route and you'll know that
they go there every day.
[2:47:31] » If their tag is identified and they're
subject of a criminal investigation,
[2:47:35] then I would in turn run that tag and it
would pop up that you had crosspass with
[2:47:41] that camera.
If for some reason this board uh made
[2:47:46] the decision that we only wanted cameras
at the bridges to highlight someone
[2:47:51] coming in and leaving, how would that
affect your department?
[2:47:56] » Uh just like any technology, it's not
100% uh perfect. So we have instances
[2:48:00] where vehicles make it past one camera
uh whether they're being blocked off by
[2:48:04] traffic uh you know, one lane versus the
other and their tags weren't picked up.
[2:48:09] And we do have a lot of traffic that
comes into our county. So if it misses
[2:48:14] it at one camera, then we'd like to
think that we have uh another catch
[2:48:18] point if the a criminal were to alert um
in a different area. So it would not
[2:48:24] make the system as effective if we only
put it at those two locations.
[2:48:31] » Thank you.
>> I've got one other thing.
[2:48:34] » Yes, sir. In the Supreme Court's ruling
in Shatri versus the United States, they
[2:48:40] did say that the geo fencing with the
cell phones did impend on his Fourth
[2:48:45] Amendment rights. And therefore, every
other case using geo fencing is now
[2:48:50] under direct review every case in the
nation. If we continue to use these
[2:48:57] flock cameras and the Supreme Court does
in turn rule later on down the road, a
[2:49:03] year or two maybe, that they do violate
the Fourth Amendment of the
[2:49:06] Constitution, then every case pending
review would be under direct review. And
[2:49:13] if we only have evidence based on using
the flot cameras, we could miss out on
[2:49:18] convicting some bad guys.
>> No, sir. That's I understand what you're
[2:49:22] saying but that's where our policy and
uh our what we direct our users to use
[2:49:28] uh if a if we get an alert then we have
to verify that before we take any
[2:49:33] enforcement action. So it is not just
immediately that car hits a camera and
[2:49:39] we stop it. Law enforcement verifies
that that is indeed the tag that's
[2:49:44] displayed on the vehicle. whatever alert
that law enforcement was alerted to and
[2:49:48] then the enforcement action takes place.
>> Well, you could say the same thing about
[2:49:52] Shatry versus the United States, but it
didn't go that way. He ended up getting
[2:49:56] off on his conviction because of the
geoencing,
[2:49:59] » right? But the this camera does not have
the it's not geoencing per se.
[2:50:02] » Yeah, geo fencing was in that particular
case, I read through it was the law
[2:50:08] enforcement agency at that time, they
contacted cell phones.
[2:50:13] » Yep. to get a broad range of who was
there at that time. That is geo fencing.
[2:50:22] » And that that would be an invasion of
privacy for everybody's cell phone that
[2:50:25] was there who was not involved with the
situation.
[2:50:29] » Well, these cameras monitor every
license plate whether they're involved
[2:50:33] in a criminal thing or not.
>> Yeah. But like you saying too, you're
[2:50:37] only looking for the you're not looking
you're not reading every individual
[2:50:41] camera to go. I mean every tag that goes
through there,
[2:50:44] » right? We It's physically impossible.
Yes, sir.
[2:50:46] » Yeah.
>> So, I got just one quick like
[2:50:49] procedurally I'm I'm going to do a what
if with you sir.
[2:50:51] » So, I'm sitting at home.
>> Mary Ellen steals my truck.
[2:50:55] » She drives out of Wes because she's you
know and I've reported it stolen.
[2:51:01] » Yes, sir.
>> Now, Wes is only one road in, one road
[2:51:04] out. Uh, it's part of the beauty of it.
It's also a bad thing. But it's one road
[2:51:08] in, one road out. And she rides by that.
Does it does when she rides by and it
[2:51:14] reads my tag? And I've reported it
stolen at this point. Does it alert the
[2:51:19] officers on duty? Does it alert the
administrators? Does how does that is
[2:51:24] somebody on patrol? Let's say one of
your guys is sitting at the uh the
[2:51:28] wedding venue up on the corner.
>> Yes, sir.
[2:51:30] » Right. Just past I think the camera.
Does does he get an alert and then does
[2:51:35] he pull out and then pull that vehicle
over? I know you said there's some time
[2:51:38] involved a lot of times with or or is it
a where it's a serious thing like a
[2:51:43] autotheft or if you're looking for a
murder? I mean like what is the what is
[2:51:47] the procedural how how do you go about
doing that? Just to use your scenario,
[2:51:53] if a deputy is indeed in that spot, he's
logged into he or she's logged into
[2:51:57] flock and receives that alert, they in
turn know that that vehicle's coming in
[2:52:02] their direction unless it would to turn
off before them. Right? So, as soon as
[2:52:06] that vehicle that has the description of
the alert that comes past them, they're
[2:52:10] able to observe it physically. They
would then get behind that vehicle,
[2:52:14] verify that that was indeed the stolen
vehicle, and then conduct enforcement
[2:52:18] action. Yes, sir.
>> Okay. I was just wondering procedurally
[2:52:21] how how it would work if you guys are
given alerts or if you're in there just
[2:52:24] searching. Um,
>> no, that's the that's the distinct
[2:52:27] difference between the 70 users that are
able to uh that have accounts with Flock
[2:52:32] and the 29 that
>> the 29 can search 70 get alerts
[2:52:36] regardless,
>> right? All of our patrol deputies, the
[2:52:38] guy that are working, the guys and girls
that are working routine patrol, they're
[2:52:41] logged into the database and our
telecommunicators are logged in just to
[2:52:45] receive alerts for specific incidences
like that.
[2:52:50] Okay. I have more questions.
>> Yes, ma'am.
[2:52:52] » Absolutely. [clears throat]
>> Who controls the placement of the
[2:52:55] cameras? Who decides where they go?
>> We as an agency decided where to place
[2:53:00] them.
>> Okay. Um
[2:53:03] and
someone mentioned I heard someone
[2:53:08] mention Palunteer, which I quickly
looked up is a software company because
[2:53:13] I never heard of it.
>> Is that the software that's being used
[2:53:16] for these cameras? These guys might
would know that better than I do, right?
[2:53:21] We we pay for flock safety. It is a
vendor. We have no allegiance to that
[2:53:26] vendor whatsoever. Uh
are they using that technology that's
[2:53:31] basically big brother and everybody's
concerned? They [clears throat] may be.
[2:53:35] I'm not going to say that they're not,
but I can tell you that they don't have
[2:53:39] access to the information that's in our
cameras. It takes a law enforcement
[2:53:43] officer to be able to have access to
these cameras. So even the salesman's
[2:53:48] that that came in to brief us on the
system, they can't see any of our what
[2:53:54] our cameras are producing.
>> So if you But do you have to do software
[2:53:59] updates?
>> The cameras are they automatically do
[2:54:03] updates
>> and but you don't you're not sure of
[2:54:06] what software they're using for that?
>> No. M as far as I know it's just their
[2:54:10] their flock safety is
>> okay.
[2:54:13] » Who's doing the updates? I have one more
question and actually this question is
[2:54:17] for Bobby. So if
what authority do the commissioners have
[2:54:23] in regulating how these use are used and
that would be just for unincorporated
[2:54:30] DARE correct because we would not have
any authority over whether Southern
[2:54:33] Shores Police Department allows theirs
or Kittyhawk allows theirs or mania or
[2:54:37] whatever.
>> That would be correct. So we if we can't
[2:54:41] say we're going to deflock deer county
and all of them are gone, it would only
[2:54:45] be the 14 that the sheriff's department
is using
[2:54:48] » unincorporated there.
>> Okay. I just want to make that
[2:54:51] distinction.
>> Let me take it.
[2:54:52] » We're making a decision on the 14.
>> Let me take it a step further.
[2:54:58] » We funded these cameras in 2020 2014 in
a consent agenda item. Do we in fact
[2:55:07] have the authority to
Well, we have the authority to rescend
[2:55:14] the funding for those. I'm sure I'm
positive of that. Correct.
[2:55:18] » So, you've got a contract. I don't have
it in front of me because I don't know
[2:55:20] what it says right now, but you've got a
contract that was approved and then
[2:55:24] after it's approved, it was gone through
the process and signed and went out. So,
[2:55:29] and then money was paid
>> for that contract.
[2:55:33] » Right. So that contract is in effect
until it expires or until if there's
[2:55:37] termination provisions in there until
you comply with the termination
[2:55:40] provisions. So in terms of getting money
back or those kind of things, I'm not
[2:55:46] sure what we can do there. In terms of
turning the camera off and not using it,
[2:55:51] then that has nothing to do with the
contract. If you directed that and the
[2:55:56] sheriff did that, then the cameras are
off and then it would be between us and
[2:56:02] flock whether we got any of the money
back or whether we just had to eat the
[2:56:05] balance of the contract.
>> And I and I understand that um perhaps
[2:56:09] maybe you didn't understand the
question. Um
[2:56:13] we cut the funding, we terminate
whatever
[2:56:18] there is with the contract with the uh
person we have the contract with.
[2:56:24] We don't fully manage the sheriff's
department's budget.
[2:56:30] » No, sir.
>> If we if we did away with those, what's
[2:56:33] to prevent the sheriff from taking
looking at other avenues in his
[2:56:39] department to fund those cameras and
keep those cameras rolling? So the
[2:56:43] sheriff is a unique department among
county departments and the sheriff has
[2:56:49] control over how he operates his pro his
department. He can hire and fire whether
[2:56:55] I agree or don't agree, whether you
agree and don't agree. Um he has to do
[2:57:00] some things in line with us. He can't
spend more money than we give him. But
[2:57:05] within his budget, if he moves money
around, he has the authority to change
[2:57:10] his budget within the constraints of
what we do other than salaries and
[2:57:16] benefits because he's agreed to be
they're a part of our salary and benefit
[2:57:20] plan and so they have to comply with the
rules of the salary and benefit plans.
[2:57:24] So the that's a longwinded answer to
your question is conceivably if the
[2:57:28] sheriff chose to fund it another way he
could stop some other program he's doing
[2:57:34] and direct those funds you know to
another place in his budget. The
[2:57:40] departments that we control if you
asking me about public works they could
[2:57:44] not do that without my approval first
and then depending on what it was and
[2:57:50] how big it was your approval.
>> Right. But my point being, we could
[2:57:56] eliminate the funding. We could say
defock the cameras and if he chose to
[2:58:01] find other means in his budget to to
continue the use of those cameras, he
[2:58:08] could do so. Correct. Ultimately, our
our leverage, for lack of a better term,
[2:58:15] with the sheriff's department is
funding. If the sheriff department
[2:58:18] doesn't
act the way that you believe is
[2:58:22] appropriate, then you have the authority
to cut funding, uh it's constitutionally
[2:58:28] you're required to have a sheriff and a
deputy and that's it. And so you have
[2:58:32] complete control of the funding beyond
that.
[2:58:37] » Are there ordinances or anything like
that that could be put in place that we
[2:58:40] could utilize to prevent them from being
>> um I don't know the answer to that. I'd
[2:58:46] have to go look. Um I I mean my
experience has been through three
[2:58:54] sheriffs and I have met with the
incoming sheriff and I would expect that
[2:58:58] to remain is that we would work together
and if that was your will then I think
[2:59:02] we would work it out with them. It would
be their will. So I I would I wouldn't
[2:59:06] expect that we would find ourselves in
that problem.
[2:59:10] » Tyler,
>> I can answer that. We're not going to be
[2:59:11] in a fight over that.
>> Yeah.
[2:59:13] » You do what you do. We're going to go
along what you do. I I can't speak for
[2:59:17] the other sheriff, but two of his men
are back there and uh I'm not sure
[2:59:21] they'd want to answer that question for
him. I apologize. I should have been
[2:59:23] standing up, but um you know, it is what
it is. I no reason for me to go against
[2:59:28] you. U you know, that's that's the way
we work. We've worked that way for 16
[2:59:32] years.
>> Well, on changing that to tomorrow, the
[2:59:35] next day. I got three months left. You
can't run me. So far,
[2:59:38] » I Doug, Doug, I knew the answer to that
before I ever asked it, but I needed to
[2:59:44] ask it.
>> I understand completely. Yes, sir. And I
[2:59:46] hope you know that would have been my
what I said is what I
[2:59:49] » Absolutely.
>> Yes, sir.
[2:59:50] » Tyler, I've got a question. So, you've
heard the um concerns of the citizens.
[2:59:57] » Yes, sir.
>> Um, is there any software out there
[3:00:00] that's less intrusive than what we're
using right now?
[3:00:05] We actually use this is the least
intrusive as far as this technology
[3:00:10] goes.
There are some companies that can track
[3:00:14] many things and uh that's a company that
makes profit, right? They create the
[3:00:19] latest and greatest to try and make
selling points, but we are at the least
[3:00:24] intrusive measure as far as the Alpert
technology goes.
[3:00:28] » And you said they did software updates.
uh they could not automatically do a
[3:00:33] software update that that made them more
intrusive than what you intended when
[3:00:37] you bought the
>> correct. They have to operate within the
[3:00:41] law and they cannot uh review or obtain
the data.
[3:00:46] » Okay.
Thanks.
[3:00:50] » All right, board.
>> I have one last one for Tyler and for
[3:00:53] Sheriff Dowy. One of the public speakers
mentioned that in their opinion this was
[3:00:58] an egregious abuse of power and
rebellion is absolutely next and she
[3:01:04] andor and I think I'm quoting it or
paraphrasing our boys are already with
[3:01:08] sawzols which I didn't know what it was
but I've now learned
[3:01:12] » he's not he's obviously not Tim the tool
man. [laughter]
[3:01:16] » Uh that's correct and they will be going
out and sawing off the polls and the
[3:01:21] cameras. Um,
I mean, we're trying to get to the right
[3:01:27] solution here. And I thought that was a
bit of a chilling threat to to do
[3:01:33] something like that. And I'm not sure if
you guys heard it, but I sure did. And I
[3:01:38] wanted to emphasize the devil. Yes, sir.
>> Yeah, that's right. Called you the
[3:01:42] devil.
>> Yeah. All right. That's not a question.
[3:01:47] It's a comment that I didn't find very
helpful at all.
[3:01:53] All right. Anyone else have any more
questions of Tyler or the sheriff or the
[3:01:58] county manager?
>> Thank you, Tyler. You did.
[3:02:02] » Thank you.
>> Thank you for your time. I appreciate
[3:02:05] » Thank you for your time. And truly, we
do respect your opinion. What you say
[3:02:09] will go with us. I promise. Take care.
[3:02:15] Um,
>> I need my screen fixed here because I
[3:02:20] want to go to something.
[3:02:23] » [snorts]
>> Go back to the agenda.
[3:02:53] Okay, we're uh
>> we're uh certainly under u item six,
[3:02:59] flat cameras, and this was an
information presentation
[3:03:06] by the sheriff and uh and Tyler Dowy.
I'm going to put this out there to the
[3:03:13] board. Is the board prepared to take
some action today with respect to this
[3:03:22] presentation
and the concern they've heard from our
[3:03:26] citizens?
>> Yes.
[3:03:29] » Yes.
>> Okay.
[3:03:29] » All right, Michael. Um, floor is yours.
>> Uh, do you need a motion or you just
[3:03:36] discussion? You said you're prepared to
take action.
[3:03:38] » You said you pretended to take action.
I'm looking for whatction.
[3:03:42] » Yeah.
E either what whichever way whatever you
[3:03:46] what do you have on
>> do you want further discussion? Do you
[3:03:49] want to hear more of my opinion or you
want to hear a motion directly?
[3:03:52] » Okay. I'm I'm of the opinion. Um,
and this is is my view after uh
[3:03:59] everything that's been brought to my
attention, all of the reading I've done,
[3:04:03] all the research I've done um here
lately involving this, it's it's a very
[3:04:10] it's definitely something that will be
taken care of 100% at a much higher
[3:04:15] level of government than us eventually.
I I I feel the Supreme Court's going to
[3:04:19] be forced into ruling on it and I think
it's going to be at the top of their
[3:04:22] agenda very very very soon. Um, until
then,
[3:04:28] I don't feel it's in the best interest
of the public. I don't feel I feel it's
[3:04:33] u intrusive.
Uh, I think it it fringes on taking our
[3:04:38] freedom. Uh, and I'm not in favor of it
at all. U to the point that I'd be
[3:04:46] willing to make a motion to to remove
the cameras. 14
[3:04:52] » 14 the ones that we control
as as the Derek County Sheriff's
[3:04:56] Department and uninccorporated there.
[3:05:02] » Okay. Um
looking for further comments from the
[3:05:07] board.
>> Well, we're probably two years out from
[3:05:10] a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling on
these particular cameras. We might be a
[3:05:17] year out on federal ruling on these
cameras.
[3:05:22] All that being said, it's a it's a very
slippery slope and with numerous
[3:05:30] municipalities,
county councils and commissions, and now
[3:05:36] even entire states getting rid of these
flop cameras. I believe it'd be an
[3:05:42] opportune time to take
I have to respect the values of our
[3:05:50] constituents
and this is a bipartisan issue. I mean,
[3:05:55] I've seen the news every day there is
prominent Democrats and prominent
[3:05:59] Republicans alike all calling to get rid
of these flop cameras. And I believe
[3:06:05] that our Dare County law enforcement
did a beyond excellent job before we had
[3:06:13] flot cameras. and I think they'll do a
beyond excellent job without them.
[3:06:20] I I just I firmly believe it's a
slippery slope and we don't know I know
[3:06:26] what our sheriff's department's going to
do with the information. They're going
[3:06:29] to do a good job. What I don't know is
what flock safety is going to do with
[3:06:33] the information because they know
doubtably they undoubtedly have access
[3:06:37] to all the cameras and all the
information. There's no way they don't.
[3:06:42] It's their technology. It's their data
centers. Everything is ran through their
[3:06:48] software program.
It's it's not an independent county
[3:06:52] software program. It's part of a
national network that
[3:06:59] it's a very it it constitutionally I'm
not a Supreme Court justice. didn't go
[3:07:05] to law school,
but I was able to talk to a superior
[3:07:10] former superior court judge for about
four hours this weekend about this
[3:07:14] particular issue knowing it was coming
up on our agenda. And like I said, it is
[3:07:20] a slippery slope because of the wide
view angles of the cameras. They do
[3:07:24] access into per people's private
property that's beside the roadside and
[3:07:29] they do it does
>> promote a potential property rights
[3:07:34] issue which is protected under the
fourth amendment of the constitution and
[3:07:39] with entire states now getting rid of
it. I feel like it'd be the safe
[3:07:45] decision to get rid of them now. And if
the Supreme Court rules in the future
[3:07:49] that they do not violate the
Constitution and that they are
[3:07:55] in no violation of the Fourth Amendment,
then maybe at that point in time, I'd be
[3:08:00] open to renewing the contract with a
particular ALPR. But until the Supreme
[3:08:05] Court rules on it, obviously we've got a
lot of constituents, bipartisan
[3:08:10] constituents from both sides of the
aisle, which is very unique.
[3:08:16] Uh I believe it'd be in the best
interest of this board to potentially
[3:08:19] take action. Obviously, I value all of
your opinions as well.
[3:08:24] » Thank you, Commissioner. Anyone else?
[3:08:31] » Yeah, I do. I just have a Yes, sir.
Commissioner
[3:08:34] Yeah, we did hear a lot of public
comment today. Much of it was um
[3:08:39] recently presented, which I thank you.
I'm looking at one gentleman here in the
[3:08:43] front row uh with cohesive arguments. We
heard hyperbolic accusations of us
[3:08:49] lining our pockets up here and stalking
children and whatnot. Then we heard a
[3:08:55] fact-based
u fairly unemotional presentation from
[3:08:59] the sheriff's group that explained what
it was, what it wasn't, how it's a tool.
[3:09:05] It's one of many tools that law
enforcement uses. And that the one group
[3:09:10] that we didn't hear from because there's
only a few of them were the victims that
[3:09:15] might have gotten their car back or
gotten the the suspect involved in
[3:09:20] whatever crime they were pursuing
because there's not many of them. They
[3:09:23] won't come to the meeting and thump on
the rost room here like many of uh you
[3:09:30] all did today.
Unfortunately though uh it appears that
[3:09:37] this tool although I believe what the
sheriff's told us that has not been
[3:09:41] abused has not been misused has been re
very very um restricted is still viewed
[3:09:48] as an egregious overstep
by our government.
[3:09:53] And as such,
I um I'm kind of with you all that we
[3:09:59] are listening to our constituents.
And um I'm prepared to again with Mr.
[3:10:05] Bur, Commissioner Bur uh agreed to and I
would think shut off the cameras before
[3:10:11] we take them down because I also agree
this is going to go much higher either
[3:10:15] to the state legislature, the US
Congress and or the Supreme Court
[3:10:19] because it is a nationwide issue. So,
I would make a motion now that we
[3:10:26] effective immediately turn off the
cameras, which again does not infringe
[3:10:31] on the contract if I understood, county
manager. But it uh
[3:10:36] » the contract all it requires us to do is
to pay them the money and we have done
[3:10:41] that. So whether we turn them off, take
them down, whatever. Right.
[3:10:45] » The issue would be what happens with
>> Okay.
[3:10:48] » Yeah. if we can terminate the contract
and it save us money. Now, if the
[3:10:53] contract is a lot
>> before we have discussion, there's a
[3:10:56] motion on the floor and I need a second
in order to continue the conversation.
[3:11:03] » Is there a second? I'll second it.
>> I think there's two though because Mike
[3:11:07] said to remove them and Rob is saying to
turn them off.
[3:11:10] » Mike didn't make a motion.
>> I didn't hear a motion.
[3:11:13] I said I'd be willing to
>> I'm sorry. My bad. There's a motion on
[3:11:16] the floor. [clears throat]
>> Commissioner Ross and I've second it.
[3:11:20] Now the floor is back open for
discussion.
[3:11:24] Commissioner Karief,
>> I'd make a separate motion to
[3:11:29] I guess the proper term would be to
request
[3:11:33] that the sheriff's department terminate
the contract with Flock Safety.
[3:11:39] » Is that correct? That would be that
would be an amendment to the motion. You
[3:11:42] » either have to amend it or rule
>> you would have to
[3:11:46] or you would have to ask the maker of
the motion to restate that motion to
[3:11:52] that effect.
>> Rob, would you be willing to restate
[3:11:56] that motion?
>> I need a clarification. Are we paying a
[3:11:58] monthly lease or fee for these cameras
or were they a onetime purchase
[3:12:02] acquisition?
>> If it's an ongoing lease or fee, then I
[3:12:07] would agree. There's a software license
that we're paying
[3:12:10] » that we paid monthly monthly.
>> I think we It looks like we paid it.
[3:12:14] » Well, let's let's wait until we get the
answer.
[3:12:17] » Do we have an answer?
>> Uh
[3:12:20] » oh.
>> Comes here comes Here comes Jeff.
[3:12:25] » Good morning, Mr. Mr. Commissioner.
>> Come on up so that Yeah.
[3:12:28] » Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Mr.
Commissioners, Mr. Do you wish comment
[3:12:32] from me?
>> We got Can you answer their question?
[3:12:36] » Can you answer the question? I can. Yes,
sir.
[3:12:39] » Uh, flock cameras are leased.
It is an annual contract
[3:12:46] and it's per camera with one contract of
the total 14.
[3:12:52] » When is the contract up?
>> Annually.
[3:12:55] » So, we'd have to renew.
>> Oh, I I I'd have to pull it. I I don't
[3:12:59] know exactly.
>> We've paid the fee. The cameras are up.
[3:13:02] It's paid once annually. Terminating the
contract doesn't do anything. It's the
[3:13:07] use of the camera that I heard being
expressed. So if the cameras were no
[3:13:11] longer being used,
>> so we still have to pay them. We still
[3:13:15] have to pay the money.
>> That's what I'm trying to ask for.
[3:13:18] » That's what we're trying to ask.
>> If there's an annual contract, the
[3:13:20] annual fee has already been paid. So
Flock has their money, releasing the
[3:13:25] cameras. Taking them down would be
problematic because we don't we'd have
[3:13:30] to ask them to take them down. Turning
them off just means the sheriff doesn't
[3:13:34] use them. Um, but the fee has been paid
for the annual thing. If if we either
[3:13:40] had them taken down or removed, they
wouldn't be used when the contract
[3:13:44] expired. We wouldn't renew it unless you
chose to renew it.
[3:13:48] » I got I got a question. Um,
and turn the cameras off and leave them
[3:13:55] on the post.
[3:13:59] I can already feel
>> that the public does not trust us.
[3:14:03] » Right. That's why I said take them down.
>> That's exactly right.
[3:14:07] » Total transparency.
>> Yeah.
[3:14:08] » Total transparency. I say take them
down.
[3:14:11] » Yes.
>> I agree.
[3:14:12] » Can I say this? We're going to take it
down.
[3:14:14] » Leave the camera up. Camera ain't going
to be there.
[3:14:16] » Yeah. Exactly.
>> Exactly.
[3:14:18] » And then we're looking for it.
>> Coming down. You say, we're going to
[3:14:21] take it down.
>> Yeah.
[3:14:22] » There we go.
>> Because then we would be on the hook for
[3:14:25] the camera.
>> All right. U Rod, would you
[3:14:28] » I will modify the motion to remove the
cameras.
[3:14:33] as soon as practical, as soon as
possible.
[3:14:36] » And as a second, I will second that um
amendment to the motion.
[3:14:41] » Floor again once again is open for
discussion.
[3:14:45] » No further comment from me.
>> Call the vote.
[3:14:48] » Uh well, I'll call the vote, but
how soon can we can we can we do this in
[3:14:57] x number of days? Sheriff,
>> give me two weeks.
[3:15:01] » Two weeks. Yes, sir.
>> All right.
[3:15:03] » And that's not that's just to make sure
that we can do it and the company knows
[3:15:07] what we're doing.
>> I understand.
[3:15:09] » All right. With that being said, those
in favor of the motion, please signify
[3:15:14] by saying I
>> I oppose like motion carries unanimous.
[3:15:19] » Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, you you
voted to amend the motion. You got to
[3:15:24] now [applause] vote again on the
[3:15:29] » Hold on. Hold on. We voted on the
amendment. Now we have to vote.
[3:15:32] » You voted to allow the amendment and now
you have to vote on the what's now the
[3:15:37] motion.
>> That's right.
[3:15:39] » Um you care to restate that motion for
us, Bobby. So the public
[3:15:43] » Well, the motion now as amended is the
motion is to remove the flock cameras,
[3:15:47] » right? That's correct. All right. All
those in favor of that motion, please
[3:15:52] signify by saying I oppose like sign.
Motion carries unanimous.
[3:15:59] » [applause]
[3:16:04] » before you adjourn for lunch.
>> Yeah,
[3:16:06] » there's two short items. We could run
those two people out of here before
[3:16:09] lunch if you allow that. Number number
seven and number 10. So, we want to run
[3:16:14] seven and 10 out of here. Okay.
>> I I I agree. Those poor people.
[3:16:18] » We can we can do that. Item seven.
>> All right. Um the first one she says is
[3:16:24] five minutes. This is a number seven is
a proclamation for smart start month and
[3:16:28] diaper need awareness. And I'll turn
that over to you Sarah.
[3:16:32] [clears throat]
But before we bring u
[3:16:37] uh
Carla and Sarah up here, for those of
[3:16:42] you that spoke this morning concerning
the flight cameras,
[3:16:46] I hope and pray that you will be u
addressing your concerns with the six
[3:16:53] municipalities in Dare County
>> that operate 36 other cameras. Sarah,
[3:17:00] » I believe it's 34.
>> Carla, you you guys are up. Ladies are
[3:17:04] up. Excuse me.
>> Good afternoon, commissioners.
[3:17:08] » Good afternoon.
>> Thank you for the opportunity to be here
[3:17:12] today. Uh, I'm Sarah Samson, the
executive director of Children and Youth
[3:17:16] Partnership, and I'm here with Carla
Heard, our um, education and evaluation
[3:17:21] program manager. We do have a slideshow
that we ask that you put on the screen
[3:17:26] for us, please.
[3:17:30] It's okay.
>> It's hard to believe it's September
[3:17:33] already and today is September 1st. Um
September is Smart Start Month and we
[3:17:39] wanted to take a moment to share what
Smart Start means here in Dair County
[3:17:44] and how we at Children and Youth
Partnership are part of that statewide
[3:17:48] effort.
[3:17:51] I would like to start with a short video
and gives a little bit of information
[3:17:56] about SmartStart and the difference this
network is making for young children and
[3:18:00] families in North Carolina.
[3:18:10] Got
[3:18:14] it.
>> Got it.
[3:18:16] » Yeah. Thank you.
>> Amen. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't
[3:18:20] agree more.
[3:18:24] » I did not want to go down that road, but
[3:18:43] Okay, sorry.
[3:18:48] Got it.
[3:19:05] » [laughter]
[3:19:26] » I think we're the seventh county in
North Carolina to do that.
[3:19:35] Time will tell
[3:19:51] a bad thing. We'll see.
[3:20:07] From your first night home to their
first day of school, the Smart Start
[3:20:11] Network is there for families like
yours. Whether you're looking for child
[3:20:15] care, parenting support, early learning
opportunities or health resources, Smart
[3:20:20] Start connects you to [music] free and
local resources. And with local
[3:20:24] partnerships serving every county, help
is closer than you think. For [music]
[3:20:28] over 30 years, North Carolina families
have trusted SmartStart. Find out why at
[3:20:33] smartstart.org.
[3:20:38] » So, as you just saw, SmartStart is a
statewide effort focused on giving young
[3:20:43] children the strong foundation they need
to thrive. We at Children and Youth
[3:20:47] Partnership for Dair County are proud to
be part of that network as a local Smart
[3:20:51] Start partnership. Here in our
community, we bring that mission to life
[3:20:55] by providing programs and services,
connections that support young children,
[3:21:00] their families, and our early childhood
educators. Some examples include the
[3:21:05] Triple P positive parenting program,
which gives parents practical strategies
[3:21:09] and tools for raising confident, healthy
children in our Kaleidoscope play
[3:21:16] groups, where young children and their
caregivers can learn, play, and build
[3:21:20] connections. and Dolly Parton's
Imagination Library, which puts books
[3:21:25] directly in the hands of young children
and help foster a love of reading from
[3:21:30] an early age. We also provide resources
and support to our childcare providers
[3:21:36] and connect families with services to
help them navigate the challenges of
[3:21:40] raising young children. Our mission is
to make sure that children, families,
[3:21:45] and educators in our community have what
they need to thrive. And when we invest
[3:21:49] in young children and the people who
care for them, the whole community
[3:21:53] benefits.
[3:21:58] September is Smart Start Month and we'll
kind of wrap up our presentation later
[3:22:01] with that proclamation, but it is a time
for us to celebrate all the people that
[3:22:06] are part of this work. That could be
early childhood professionals, families,
[3:22:10] community partners, volunteers, and
everyone who contributes to the strong
[3:22:15] foundation for young children. this
year. We're really excited. We have a
[3:22:19] special event coming up and we invite
you to join us on Tuesday, September
[3:22:25] 15th at 10:00 a.m. for a special ribbon
cutting ceremony [laughter] and open
[3:22:30] house uh at Children Youth Partnership.
We have a ribbon cutting for our new uh
[3:22:36] outdoor learning environment. This new
space is a wonderful addition and it's
[3:22:41] going to give children another
opportunity to learn, play, and connect
[3:22:45] with it outdoors.
This amazing space was made possible
[3:22:50] through the generosity and support of
the First Flight Rotary Club and among
[3:22:54] many other community partners, including
the Garage Band Charities. And we are
[3:22:59] incredible grateful for the community
support that helped us make this vision
[3:23:03] a reality. And following the ribbon
cutting at 10, we're going to do an open
[3:23:08] house at our office. Everyone will be
welcome to stay and play in the outdoor
[3:23:13] learning environment, check out our
playroom, our lending library, and meet
[3:23:18] with our staff to learn more about the
programs and services that we provide.
[3:23:23] We would love for you to join us.
Parking is limited, and we encourage
[3:23:27] everyone to carpool. Um, and with that,
um, while we're celebrating the many
[3:23:33] things and the support that we do
provide to children and families in our
[3:23:36] community, there's another important
need in our community that we want to
[3:23:40] highlight today. So, I'm going to hand
it over to Carla, who will talk about
[3:23:44] diaper need awareness and the work of
our diaper bank.
[3:23:48] » Good afternoon, commissioners. Thank you
for having us today. As Sarah mentioned,
[3:23:51] I'm here to talk about CYP's diaper bank
and diaper need awareness week. So,
[3:23:55] picture this. You're home with your
brand new baby doing everything that you
[3:24:00] can to make ends meet and to make sure
that baby's needs are met. The diapers
[3:24:05] from your baby shower seem like a great
start, but babies have a surprising way
[3:24:08] of going through diapers really quickly.
You realize that you're on your last
[3:24:12] package from your baby shower and you
don't have it in the budget to be able
[3:24:16] to make another trip to the store. For
parents already trying to stretch every
[3:24:20] dollar, something as essential as a
clean diaper can become a real source of
[3:24:24] stress for them. And for far too many
families, that's a challenge that they
[3:24:27] face on a regular basis. And that's
where CYP's diaper bank comes in. Each
[3:24:32] month on the second Tuesday and
Wednesday of the month at our office in
[3:24:36] Mano, we hold a diaper pickup for
families to be able to come and pick up
[3:24:39] diapers. they can come and pick up two
packs of diapers for free to help
[3:24:43] support their diaper need. During just
our diaper pickup events over the past
[3:24:48] year, we served 135 families monthly and
we had a high of 157 families in just
[3:24:54] one month. So during the past year, we
distributed over 3,500 packs of diapers
[3:25:00] to families. That's about 90,000 diaper
changes for the better in our community.
[3:25:06] 1,800
[3:25:09] » 3,500 packs of diapers. 1,800. That's
not unduplicated. So
[3:25:14] » they some might duplicated. Yeah, that
is duplicated. Yes.
[3:25:16] » Okay. Thank god. I was about to We don't
have that many. [laughter]
[3:25:19] » 30% of childbearing families are okay.
>> We do have new people coming every
[3:25:24] month, but a lot of our families utilize
that as a resource on a regular basis.
[3:25:28] Uh but none of this would be possible
without our community and their support
[3:25:31] as CYP's diaper bank is a community
funded program through the donation of
[3:25:35] diapers and the donation of funds to
support the purchase of those diapers.
[3:25:40] So last year you all made a meaningful
investment in CYP's diaper bank with a
[3:25:44] generous donation to support the
purchase of diapers. And that support
[3:25:48] went a tremendous way helping us to
provide approximately [clears throat]
[3:25:52] 75,000 diapers over the past year. And
we cannot thank you enough for that
[3:25:56] support last year.
As I mentioned before, diaper need
[3:26:00] awareness week is fast approaching,
happening on September 14th through the
[3:26:04] 20th. Hold on, I'm ahead of myself.
Happening on September 14th through the
[3:26:10] 20th this year, diaper need awareness
week is a time to raise awareness about
[3:26:14] diaper need within the community as well
as to encourage community involvement
[3:26:18] around diaper need. So during diaper
need awareness week, we'll have several
[3:26:22] drop off points for diapers within the
community. And those drop off points are
[3:26:26] listed here on the slide. And as we
spread the word about diaper need across
[3:26:30] the community, we appreciate your
willingness to proclaim the week of
[3:26:34] September 14th through the 20th as
diaper needed awareness week as well as
[3:26:37] the month of September as Smart Start
Month in Dare County. And we welcome any
[3:26:42] questions you may have.
>> All right. Does anybody have any
[3:26:46] questions [laughter] of uh Sarah or
Carl?
[3:26:50] » I I have a just a quick question. So, um
so
[3:26:54] » that's diaper need awareness week during
that week and everybody's going to be
[3:26:58] encouraged to come out and give. But
let's say like throughout the course of
[3:27:02] the year um because I'm a lifelong
bachelor. I wouldn't know a first thing
[3:27:06] about a diaper.
>> What would [laughter]
[3:27:09] what would somebody do if they were so
inclined to come out and give? Would
[3:27:12] they give a monetary donation? Would
they buy the diapers and drop them by a
[3:27:16] location throughout the course of the
year? How do you accept those donations?
[3:27:19] » We have both of those things happening.
A lot of time we have a place on our
[3:27:22] website where people are able to go and
give on our website specifically to
[3:27:25] support CYP's diaper bank or we've had
people that drop off um I don't know if
[3:27:30] library people are here but on a regular
basis we have a patron that comes to
[3:27:34] drop off diapers at the library and they
then get them to us. They can drop them
[3:27:37] off to us at our office. Um and then uh
business-wise you can hold a diaper
[3:27:43] drive. We actually Nags Head Church just
recently held a diaper drive and
[3:27:46] collected over 6,000 diapers for CYP's
diaper bank. Um we have a diaper drive
[3:27:51] toolkit on our website to teach people
how to do a diaper drive or to give them
[3:27:55] ideas for doing a diaper drive. So we
try to support anybody who's interested
[3:27:58] in supporting CYP's diaper bank.
>> That's fantastic. Thank you. That's
[3:28:01] exactly what I just in case anybody's
watching and they're inclined to to
[3:28:06] give, I want them to make sure they have
the the wherewithal and know how to do
[3:28:09] it.
>> I appreciate that.
[3:28:10] » All right. I believe we have a
proclamation. you'd like for us to uh
[3:28:14] approve.
>> County manager, you want to do it? Uh,
[3:28:18] » sure. [laughter]
>> Unless you just want to approve it.
[3:28:21] » Let's just approve it.
>> Yeah, we can do it. It's a long one.
[3:28:24] » It's a long one. I'll read the last. It
says, "You proclaim the month of
[3:28:29] September 26th as Smart Start Month in
Dare County and call upon all citizens
[3:28:33] to celebrate and acknowledge the
essential role Smart Start plays in
[3:28:36] building thriving communities across our
state."
[3:28:38] » Got it.
>> Make the motion to adopt.
[3:28:40] » All right. is a motion on the floor by
the vice chair to adopt and seconded by
[3:28:44] Commissioner Ross. Any further
discussion
[3:28:47] hearing? None. Those in favor of the
motion signify by saying I.
[3:28:50] » I.
>> Motion carries unanimous. I believe I
[3:28:54] can't remember what was our amount last
year we donated.
[3:28:57] » Um last year you donated 15,000.
>> That's what I thought.
[3:29:00] » I'll make a motion donate another 15,000
this year.
[3:29:02] » All right. It's a motion on the floor by
Vice Chair, seconded by Commissioner
[3:29:06] Ross. Floor is open for discussion.
Hearing none. Those in favor signify by
[3:29:13] saying I.
>> Suppose sign. Motion carries unanimous.
[3:29:18] » All right. Deliver some diapers, ladies.
Proclamation there as well. We proclaim
[3:29:23] the week of September 14th through 20th
as diaper need awareness week in Deer
[3:29:28] County.
>> All right.
[3:29:29] » Make a motion to approve.
>> All right. It's a motion on the floor by
[3:29:31] the vice chair. Seconded by
>> Second Commissioner Balance. Any further
[3:29:36] discussion? Hearing none. is in favor
signify by saying I
[3:29:40] » post like sign. Motion carries unanimous
>> break by one. We've got two things we
[3:29:47] can get done, I think.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
[3:29:49] » Well, we can't we we've got
>> 45 minutes
[3:29:55] till
[3:29:58] » she said 124. She said,
[3:30:05] » right?
Right. Um,
[3:30:09] » we're going after Bobby.
>> We'll go. We can Can you How fast can
[3:30:13] you do the CIP? Matt,
>> right?
[3:30:17] » So, we'll do number nine, which is the
Dair County.
[3:30:19] » Start the timer CIP plan.
>> Since the school officials are here,
[3:30:24] » what item we look at?
>> Number 10. Number nine.
[3:30:27] » Nine and 10. Can we do both?
>> We'll try to do nine and 10 before
[3:30:31] lunch.
>> I got it.
[3:30:43] No, make it.
>> All right,
[3:30:49] » start the timer now.
>> Go. [clears throat]
[3:30:52] » All right, we're going to go through the
CIP, the capital improvement plan for
[3:30:55] the schools. This first slide is really
just showing you how this is funded. So
[3:31:00] like the county's capital improvement
plan, it is funded by a capital
[3:31:06] investment fund. The capital investment
fund is funded by our article 42 sales
[3:31:11] tax which is 75% of the funding. Article
40 sales tax which is 20% of the funding
[3:31:18] and the remainder is coming from the
lottery because we can request lottery
[3:31:23] draws for debt service payments. That
goes into one bucket which is this
[3:31:29] capital improvement plan and then
another smaller bucket which is their
[3:31:34] capital outlay which is a basically just
a direct payment to the schools for
[3:31:38] their maintenance and operations.
This [clears throat] slide is just
[3:31:43] visually showing you the distribution of
these the capital improvement plan which
[3:31:48] includes 50 projects and $ 38 million
over the next five years.
[3:31:55] » [clears throat]
>> the I'm going to get to a slide that has
[3:31:59] some highlights, so I'm not going to go
through that.
[3:32:02] [clears throat] This is showing you the
funding. So, how we're paying for that,
[3:32:06] it's the the capital improvement plan,
the 38 million plus the
[3:32:12] um local capital outlay in over that
five years is roughly 3.8 million
[3:32:18] [clears throat] totaling $42 million. So
payo and capital outlay is just money
[3:32:24] coming directly from the fund going to
those projects or to the school and the
[3:32:30] remainder is coming from debt proceeds.
So we're going to issue debt for the
[3:32:34] projects in the plan over the five years
of that 26,850,000.
[3:32:42] So this slide is just showing you how we
got this to balance. So
[3:32:49] the abbreviated version is we had
additions to last year's balance plan of
[3:32:54] 4.7 million. 1.4 million of that though
was just the impact of the sales tax
[3:32:59] allocation. You'll remember when we did
the budget that because the towns raised
[3:33:05] their taxes, the allocation to the
county went down. Well, because the
[3:33:11] school's allocation is a piece of that
allocation, it it also went down
[3:33:15] proportionally. Wait, you mean the towns
raised taxes and the county did not?
[3:33:22] » That's right.
>> Did we get that in the press very? Thank
[3:33:24] you.
>> So, how we made up that difference is we
[3:33:29] are increasing the debt, the borrowing
for the fieldhouse, which we did at the
[3:33:33] last meeting. We removed the Cape Padis
Elementary School expansion, which was
[3:33:38] tied to a COVID bump in enrollment,
which has since gone back down. And so
[3:33:44] 640,000 it was that debt service. We're
going to take more money from the
[3:33:48] lottery and then we shifted out the
timing of the projects. So really
[3:33:55] quickly, these are some highlights. Um
so in 27 we have the tennis court
[3:34:00] overhaul which has a grant component for
funding. We're replacing two a chiller
[3:34:06] and a roof out on Cape Padis. And then
in 28, we're going to start the major
[3:34:11] capital projects starting with the Cape
Pad Secondary School kitchen rebuild.
[3:34:16] There is a possibility of applying for a
grant for that, which we will do and
[3:34:21] hopefully come back with funding it in a
different way, but today it's within
[3:34:25] this plan and it works. There's a $1
million storage building at Run Hill
[3:34:31] and 28. And then in 29, we have the
auxiliary gym and the addition on First
[3:34:36] Flight High School.
And we
[3:34:39] » do we do we know what
>> what are we storing?
[3:34:44] » What are we storing?
>> So today the schools pay for rented
[3:34:49] storage and what this will do is
eliminate all of those rented storage.
[3:34:53] And
>> is that good? Okay. Um [clears throat]
[3:35:02] » this doesn't count towards my seven
minutes.
[3:35:04] » No, it doesn't. I'll talk fast. We're
required to withho to hold um certain
[3:35:09] documentation for years. Um and we've
got boxes and filing cabinets and we
[3:35:16] rent storage buildings to keep all that
in u because it's got to be climate
[3:35:19] controlled and so by law we have to
maintain those documents.
[3:35:22] » So we haven't looked at putting them on
micro fish or something like that.
[3:35:28] » Um yes sir we have. And the
>> that's more expensive.
[3:35:32] » The manpower hours would be tremendous.
>> Got it. Um there's there's rooms and
[3:35:36] rooms of this these documents.
[3:35:45] » Okay. So in 29 we'll start the first
flight elementary school and middle
[3:35:50] school modernization projects which are
two-year projects within this plan. And
[3:35:55] then subsequent to that we have chiller
replacements, roof and track re
[3:36:01] resurfacing. So, these are the large
projects within that 38 plus million
[3:36:06] dollar five-year plan.
>> Matt, we're going to issue one debt
[3:36:09] issuance at the beginning of this for
the 27 projects and all of them. Are we
[3:36:14] going to then carry that or is this
going to be an installment loan?
[3:36:17] » There's going to be two debt issuances
within this plan.
[3:36:21] » All right. Good. I was worried we're
going to sit on too much cash and paying
[3:36:24] debt service on
>> No, that's great point. And actually
[3:36:27] it's three because the we're going to do
the fieldhouse as part of our public
[3:36:31] works issuance, right?
>> And then we'll do this in 28, calendar
[3:36:35] year 28 and calendar year 29.
>> And I lost my slides. All right, there
[3:36:41] we go. This is just the assumptions
within the model, which is consistent
[3:36:45] with the debt issuance assumptions in
the county's capital improvement plan.
[3:36:50] um we are assuming a 3% annual growth in
that sales tax which is that revenue
[3:36:55] that's funding this and then actually
NCDPI gives us a projection for that
[3:37:01] lottery fund.
[3:37:04] Unlike the county plan there is no
coverage. So the county plan has a
[3:37:11] coverage ratio relative to debt service.
The school's model works that the school
[3:37:15] has to have enough resources to fund
this plan. And so this last slide is
[3:37:21] showing you that and we look at their
resources as both the fund balance of
[3:37:26] that restricted fund that came from the
sales tax and additionally the lottery
[3:37:32] fund that the state holds that we can
request draw downs from for debt
[3:37:36] payments. So this is just showing you
that over this 10 years, which is double
[3:37:41] the CIP term, that this plan works
within the capital investment fund and
[3:37:47] the school can afford it.
And if that feels good, then what we're
[3:37:54] going to ask you to do is approve it and
the related budget amendment um that
[3:37:59] will allow us to fund it. Let me add one
thing just I know that you all are aware
[3:38:04] but to make everyone else aware these
funds are designated funds for capital
[3:38:09] purposes and so this capital plan is a
plan that's been put together by the
[3:38:13] school board not by us and Matt and
Rashad have worked hard with Ian and
[3:38:18] Steve and his staff to make it work
within those resources. The school can't
[3:38:23] use these resources to pay teachers,
give raises, do anything else except
[3:38:27] build stuff with. And so that's why we
have a finite amount of money and
[3:38:31] they've managed to to make their needs
fit within that fund. And so for anyone
[3:38:37] who would question why they're spending
the money here rather than somewhere
[3:38:40] else, it's because they don't have other
choices. So
[3:38:46] » I'll make a motion to approve the
recommended DCSCIP plan and adopt the
[3:38:50] related capital project ordinance.
>> Second.
[3:38:52] » There's a motion on the floor by
Commissioner Balance. It's been seconded
[3:38:55] by Commissioner Burus. The floor is open
for discussion.
[3:39:00] Hearing none, those in favor signify by
saying I. I.
[3:39:03] » I oppose like sign. Motion carries.
>> Thank you,
[3:39:06] » Mr. Chair. Real quickly on number 10,
I'm I'm going to try it and you come in
[3:39:10] and fix it if I mess it up. Sheila, um
there there's been a [clears throat]
[3:39:15] request for a school nurse at the early
college. Um what we have is we have a
[3:39:20] grant that would be available to pay for
it for this year. So no new money in
[3:39:24] this budget is needed to do that.
However, once you put it in there, then
[3:39:29] you've created a position and next year
when we do the budget, you're going to
[3:39:33] have to fund it. And so we don't like to
come in and do a grantf funded position
[3:39:37] that's going to create recurring costs
without you knowing about it. And so we
[3:39:43] talked about this.
>> We've talked about this. And so this is
[3:39:46] one of those things where this grant
will pay for it for this year, but
[3:39:49] there'll then be a recurring cost for
that nurse that we have to deal with
[3:39:53] » in future years. And if you're satisfied
with that arrangement, then you would
[3:39:56] approve this today and we can move
forward with it.
[3:39:59] » Pleasure of the board.
>> I'd make a motion we approve. We need
[3:40:02] nurses in the school.
>> That was going to be 300 students in
[3:40:05] that school.
>> Well, hang on.
[3:40:07] » The at the at the final at the end.
>> Get a second.
[3:40:12] » Yeah, we got a second. Nata floor is
open for discussion. Commissioner Ross,
[3:40:16] » how many students are in college today?
>> 100.
[3:40:21] » Oh, over 100.
>> Yeah. All right.
[3:40:22] » There'll be another one. Another class
coming in. There'll be another class
[3:40:26] next year. The goal is get to three,
300.
[3:40:29] » Got it.
[3:40:34] » One more year.
>> This is second year.
[3:40:36] » Second [snorts] year.
>> Two more. Yeah.
[3:40:39] » This year, the next year
>> we'll move into the building. Um
[3:40:43] » January
>> January
[3:40:45] » by the time we start paying for it
>> 29
[3:40:50] » I'll go recount the 30.
>> Okay.
[3:40:53] » Done.
>> Well you talking about this year urban.
[3:40:57] » Yeah.
>> Yeah. Well you add that to the 50ome 53
[3:41:00] last year. So you know he's we're
rounding up. We round up.
[3:41:06] » [laughter]
[3:41:11] » All right. Those in favor of the motion
signify by saying I.
[3:41:14] » Post like sign. Motion carries.
Unanimous.
[3:41:19] » All right. We're going to recess for
lunch.
[3:41:22] » Reconvene at
>> reconvene at uh
[3:41:26] 1:30.
[3:41:30] the Dar County Board of Commissioners
meeting back to order and turn it over
[3:41:34] to the county manager.
>> Um, Mr. Chairman, item five, which is
[3:41:38] the HR1 NC State budget impacts for Dair
County. We're going to move that to our
[3:41:43] October agenda. So, we cross that one
off. Um,
[3:41:49] » that would take us down to item eight,
which is library card signup month
[3:41:54] proclamation.
Uh, if you'd like, I can read that.
[3:41:58] » Yes, sir. Um whereas libraries are
foundation to education, imagination and
[3:42:02] opportunity, offering everything from
early literacy programs to digital tools
[3:42:06] that support lifelong learning and
personal growth. Whereas libraries
[3:42:10] welcome all people serving as inclusive,
accessible community hubs that connect
[3:42:15] individuals across cultures,
generations, and experiences. And
[3:42:18] whereas libraries curate collections and
design programs that reflect the
[3:42:22] diversity of the populations they serve,
ensuring equitable access to
[3:42:25] information, technology, and culture for
all. And whereas libraries help
[3:42:29] individuals navigate life's challenges
by providing trusted information,
[3:42:34] digital access, job search support, and
connections to essential services. And
[3:42:38] whereas libraries contribute to the
thriving local economies by equipping
[3:42:42] job seekers, entrepreneurs, students,
and creators with tools and training to
[3:42:46] succeed. And whereas in times of both
crisis and calm, libraries and their
[3:42:51] staff remain steadfast in supporting and
strengthening their communities. And
[3:42:55] whereas library resources help
households save money, reduce waste, and
[3:42:59] make sustainable choices, all through
the simple power of shared public good.
[3:43:03] Now therefore, be it resolved that the
Dair County Board of Commissioners do
[3:43:06] hereby proclaim September 26 as library
card signup month in North Car in Dare
[3:43:12] County, North Carolina, and encourage
all residents to be sharp and sign up
[3:43:16] for a library card this first day of
September 2026.
[3:43:20] » Motion to adopt.
>> There's a motion on the floor by the
[3:43:23] vice chair to adopt as presented. Is
there a second?
[3:43:27] » Second by Commissioner Burus. Any
further discussion? Hearing none. Those
[3:43:31] in favor signify by saying I.
>> I oppose like sign. Motion carries
[3:43:36] unanimous.
>> Um each year we get a this goes we're
[3:43:39] down now to number 11 paragraph 11. Um
item 11. Each year we get a grant. Uh
[3:43:46] our grant is from NC DOT for our
transportation for seniors and
[3:43:50] individual disabilities. Um in order to
obtain that grant, we have to have a
[3:43:54] public hearing. And so with that said, I
would call to order the public hearing
[3:43:58] with regard to the 2028 NC DOT 5310 5311
combined capital grant application. If
[3:44:07] anyone would like to speak to that
issue, please raise your hand. Uh seeing
[3:44:11] none, is there anyone in in Bucks that
would like to speak?
[3:44:16] » No comment
that uh we would close uh the public
[3:44:20] hearing. Uh and I think I don't think
there's any action required. So
[3:44:25] No,
>> you adopt the resolution. Yes.
[3:44:32] » Motion to adopt the resolution.
>> Okay. There's a motion on the floor by
[3:44:35] the vice chair to adopt the resolution.
Is there a second?
[3:44:38] » Second.
>> Second by Commissioner Burus. Any
[3:44:40] further discussion? Hearing none. Those
in favor signify by saying I. I.
[3:44:45] Opposed. Like sign. Motion carries
unanimous. Item 12 is a joint resolution
[3:44:50] requesting a permanent ferry toll waiver
for locally registered [clears throat]
[3:44:53] vehicles. Uh you have that in front of
you. I would turn that back over to you,
[3:44:57] Mr. Chairman.
>> Uh
[3:45:04] the um well, there's a resolution here.
You want to u you want to read it if you
[3:45:11] will?
>> I will. Uh there's a matter of law that
[3:45:14] was introduced during the
>> myriad of public comments saying this is
[3:45:20] a waste of time. It has to be directed
to the legislature. That's right.
[3:45:23] » Not the governor or the DOT. Right.
>> I don't know if that's true or not. It
[3:45:28] is true.
>> What we would do is we would if we adopt
[3:45:32] it, we would send it to all elected
folks. That's what we would normally do
[3:45:36] anyway.
>> That's what we normally do.
[3:45:37] » Proceed. Sorry. Thank you.
>> Including the legislative. All right.
[3:45:41] » All right. Right. Whereas Senate Bill
257, the 2025 [clears throat]
[3:45:44] appropri appropriations act amends
article 6 of chapter 136 of the North
[3:45:49] Carolina General Statutes to impose
tolls on all ferry routes in North
[3:45:52] Carolina and to increase tolls on
currently existing ferry routes
[3:45:55] according to route destination and
vehicle size. And whereas fairies serve
[3:46:00] as the primary and in some cases
exclusive highways and bridges for the
[3:46:04] residents, commuters, and emergency
services of eastern North Carolina. And
[3:46:08] whereas the residents of Bowfort,
Brunswick, Carter, Craraven, Curry Tuck,
[3:46:12] Dare, Hyde, New Handover, and Pamelo
counties rely on these state maintained
[3:46:16] marine corridors daily to access
employment, medical care, education, and
[3:46:21] essential goods. And whereas mainland
residents of North Carolina enjoy free
[3:46:25] untold access to statemaintained roads,
highways, and bridges funded by the
[3:46:30] general tax base to which coastal
residents also contribute. And whereas
[3:46:34] opposing in additional transit fees on
local citizens simply because they
[3:46:39] reside in a coastal region creates an
unfair system of double taxation. And
[3:46:44] whereas the financial burden of new or
increased tolls will disproportionately
[3:46:48] harm local working families, small
businesses, and fixed income retirees
[3:46:52] who have no viable alternative transit
routes. And whereas a fair and equitable
[3:46:57] solution must distinguish between daily
local commuters who utilize the ferry
[3:47:02] system as an essential highway and
seasonal tourism traffic that utilizes
[3:47:06] the system for recreation. Now therefore
be it resolved by the boards of
[3:47:10] commissioners of the counties of
Bowford, Brunswick, Carrec, Craraven,
[3:47:13] Curry, Tuck, Dare, Hyde, New Hanover,
and Pamelon, North Carolina, that one
[3:47:18] member counties strongly request all
tolls and fees affecting North Carolina
[3:47:21] ferry routes be waved for all vehicles
registered in counties with ferry
[3:47:25] terminals. two that the member of
counties humbly urged the honorable
[3:47:29] governor Josh Stein and the North
Carolina Department of Transportation to
[3:47:32] wave all tolls and fees for vehicles
registered in counties with ferry
[3:47:35] terminals and to create a permanent
waiver exempting all locally registered
[3:47:40] personnel personal and commercial
vehicles from ferry tolls and three the
[3:47:44] member counties request that any
necessary state revenue adjustments
[3:47:47] focus strictly on non-residentinal
seasonal tourism traffic rather than
[3:47:51] penalizing local citizens adopted this
the first day of September 2026 Six
[3:47:57] » move to adopt.
>> There's a motion on the floor by a vice
[3:48:00] chair to adopt as as presented been
seconded by commissioner balance. Floor
[3:48:05] is open for discussion.
>> Question county manager. This
[3:48:09] essentially says any highway, bridge or
ferry or other um road or mode of
[3:48:17] transport is fairly taxed for
recreational use but shall not be taxed
[3:48:24] for daily uh normal use. And they're
making a distinction in the resolution
[3:48:30] we are that if you use it for rec
recreation, it's fair to tax you. If you
[3:48:36] use it to go to work or go to school,
it's unfair to tax you. Does this open a
[3:48:41] can of worms that any jurisdiction
across the state could imply we're going
[3:48:45] to start raising money by putting, you
know, a toll on anyone without a local
[3:48:50] county license plate?
>> I don't know the answer to that. I just
[3:48:54] read that and thought, is that a real
reason?
[3:48:57] » I don't know the answer to that either.
I've never done the research. Look, I
[3:49:01] have heard anecdotally that you can't
distinguish among those that
[3:49:05] » use the roads. You either tax everybody
or you tax none.
[3:49:09] » I've also heard that you can tax at
different rates and and so I really
[3:49:14] don't know the answer to that question.
>> Yeah. I mean,
[3:49:18] » and
>> emotionally I don't want to charge our
[3:49:21] people for tolls, right? But I'm looking
at the wording and saying, "Okay, does
[3:49:24] this open a Pandora's box that uh you go
to Asheville and suddenly you're being
[3:49:29] taxed to go down the road X or Z because
you're on vacation and don't live in
[3:49:34] Asheville."
>> Yeah. Well, also what we've what I what
[3:49:37] I've learned is that for local
residents, you can buy a pass for $150,
[3:49:43] but that pass is per vehicle.
>> Per vehicle, right?
[3:49:46] » Not per person. So if you got two or
three cars
[3:49:50] then you're at you know 300 450
>> and each each usage what what is the
[3:49:56] toll? Do you know what the daily toll
is?
[3:49:58] » That's what they're asking.
>> That's what they're trying to determine.
[3:50:01] They directed the ferry division to
study it and come up with the tolling.
[3:50:07] » Well, if it's a buck a day, you're $700
going two ways on the ferry, right? Mhm.
[3:50:15] » If you used it every single day,
>> again, depending on what they come up
[3:50:19] with as a tolling structure,
>> if you could buy an annual pass for 150
[3:50:22] bucks, you'd be better off to just buy
the annual pass.
[3:50:25] » Oh,
>> I don't know, guys. It just I don't
[3:50:29] know.
>> Barely pay tax people going to their own
[3:50:31] homes.
>> I you know, again, emotionally, I'm with
[3:50:34] you.
>> I don't want to pay tolls.
[3:50:36] » I just don't know how you regulate it.
>> And if we don't care about the
[3:50:40] president, then fine. Let's pass it.
>> What a Really what it boils down to is
[3:50:46] [snorts] a state legislature
has got the funds and they need to
[3:50:51] properly fund the transportation
department and and put the put the
[3:50:58] amount of money in there that the furry
division the rest of NC do needs.
[3:51:03] » Right. And
>> so why are they charging any tolls?
[3:51:06] » Right?
>> That I'm I'm 100% on board with the
[3:51:09] resolution that they don't charge tolls.
>> Right. I got hung up on the well if
[3:51:14] you're recreating recreating then it's
free you got to pay
[3:51:18] » that's what hung me up
>> right
[3:51:22] » Rob so some of the thought processes
they're going to um I was down in my
[3:51:26] house this weekend in Oka Coke and some
of the neighbors down there seems to
[3:51:31] think what they've been told they're
going to be charged $150 a year for
[3:51:35] their priority pass to go over there
then they're also going to be charged
[3:51:39] $150 a year flat fee
for unlimited times going back and
[3:51:44] forth.
Then the tourists are going to be
[3:51:48] charged $6 per car.
[3:51:53] Now, this is not
>> written in stat.
[3:51:56] » Yeah.
>> Right. But that's what their plans are.
[3:52:02] » I mean, we could we could certainly
revise this resolution.
[3:52:06] » I don't know. I mean, am I wrong, guys?
If I'm wrong, you make you talk me out
[3:52:09] of it. you make your points well made.
>> This is a joint resolution. If we're
[3:52:15] going to revise it, it would be it would
be
[3:52:16] » Yeah, it's all the other guys. All the
other counties,
[3:52:20] » like
>> well, we that that doesn't mean we have
[3:52:23] to do a joint resolution. We could do
>> whatever you want. Yeah,
[3:52:30] » to be honest with you, I don't think
it's going to make a difference.
[3:52:33] » And you're probably right. So, I'm
making a big issue out of a no issue.
[3:52:36] So, let's just let's just go. Got it. I
just
[3:52:39] » All right. Those in favor signify by
saying I I oppose like sign. Motion
[3:52:43] carries unanimous.
>> Bobby was a one of one against that
[3:52:46] ordeal. [clears throat]
>> That brings us to item 13 on the agenda.
[3:52:51] Uh the Southern Albamar Association has
their meeting coming up and they have a
[3:52:56] proposed guest list of invitees from uh
Dair County and they're asking you to
[3:53:00] approve that list.
[3:53:05] [clears throat and cough]
>> We are.
[3:53:06] » Did we make the list?
They did.
[3:53:10] » The list is attached.
>> Found it.
[3:53:12] » We
[laughter]
[3:53:18] motion to approve.
>> Motion on the floor by Commissioner
[3:53:20] Balance to approve. Approve as
presented.
[3:53:24] » Is there a second?
>> Second.
[3:53:25] » Second by the vice chair.
>> Further comments.
[3:53:29] » Can we nominate a proxy? I'd like to
nominate Mary Helen to replace me as my
[3:53:33] proxy at Oh, no. Too late. Sorry.
Um, all right.
[3:53:41] All those in favor of the motion signify
by saying I.
[3:53:44] » I.
>> Post like sign. Motion carries
[3:53:46] unanimous.
>> When is this annual meeting?
[3:53:49] » Usually in the fall sometime, Steve, I
don't
[3:53:51] » Yeah, I don't I don't have that date
yet.
[3:53:53] » Okay.
>> You'll get an invitation if you get an
[3:53:56] invitation.
>> Yeah, I remember.
[3:53:58] » It's usually in the fall.
>> Um, move on to the consent agenda. You
[3:54:03] have the approval of the minutes from
August 3rd and August 10th, the tax
[3:54:07] collector's report, contract with Train
US, Inc. elevator maintenance contract,
[3:54:13] um the North Carolina Governor's Highway
Safety Program, local government
[3:54:16] resolution for the NCEL,
and then the North Carolina Highway
[3:54:21] Safety Program, local government
resolution for the GHSPO.
[3:54:27] And then you have the authorization to
present a service weapon to retiring
[3:54:31] deputy sheriff Overbeck and an
authorization to present service weapon
[3:54:36] to retiring deputy sheriff Lieutenant
David Mason.
[3:54:39] » Motion to approve.
>> Motion on on the floor by the vice
[3:54:42] chair.
>> Second.
[3:54:43] » Seconded by Commissioner Baitman. Open
for further discussion. Hearing none.
[3:54:47] Those in favor signify by saying I.
>> I.
[3:54:50] » Post like sign. Motion carries
unanimous.
[3:54:52] » Uh next are your board appointments. Uh
the Dare County Joint Community Advisory
[3:54:57] Committee, Nursing Home Advisory
Committee, Mitchell Baitman and Mary
[3:55:00] Pendle have both completed the required
training to be appointed to the Dair
[3:55:04] County Joint Community Advisory
Committee
[3:55:08] Commission Area on Aging has submitted a
recommendation letters for them to be
[3:55:11] appointed.
>> Motion to appoint.
[3:55:14] » Motion on by the vice chair, seconded by
Commissioner Baitman. Any further
[3:55:19] discussion? Yeah. I just I remember
Mitchell raising this thing and there
[3:55:24] were significant barriers to entry if I
can use that phrase.
[3:55:28] » Yes.
>> Do we anticipate Bobby or Skyler? Do you
[3:55:32] know if there are any other candidates
kind of lining up to do this?
[3:55:36] » We have one more.
>> One more.
[3:55:38] » Currently going through
>> going through it. Okay.
[3:55:40] » Yeah. I was just curious. It's a big
It's a big ask.
[3:55:43] » It is a big ask.
>> It's a big ask.
[3:55:46] » And those requirements aren't ours.
They're the state.
[3:55:48] » I know. I know, right?
>> And there was some issue about liability
[3:55:52] exposure, personal liability that caused
a mass resignation last time.
[3:55:57] » Okay,
>> Bobby, let me ask this. Is there any um
[3:56:01] supposedly the Almoral Commission was
looking at some compensation for these
[3:56:05] people?
>> Um I don't know. I know that we I think
[3:56:08] we reimburse uh these two for their
travel for those trainings here for the
[3:56:14] ones that we have. I don't know what the
album Commission's doing.
[3:56:18] » Okay. I don't recall seeing that on any
of our agendas. Urban.
[3:56:23] » Okay. [clears throat]
>> All right. Ready to move on?
[3:56:27] » Yes, sir.
>> All right. Next is the Health and Human
[3:56:30] Services. The terms of Brent Richardson,
Jamie Daniels, Ashley Jackson, and
[3:56:34] Christopher Roberts expire this month.
The Health and Human Services Board
[3:56:38] recommends Brent Richardson, and Jamie
Daniels be reappointed. Um, Christopher
[3:56:44] Roberts in the case he does not wish to
be reappointed and to fill the seat
[3:56:49] currently held by Roberts. The board
recommends that Ashley Jackson be
[3:56:52] reappointed and moved from her current
atlarge seat to the social worker seat.
[3:56:57] And the board recommends that Joel Keith
be appointed to fill the atlarge seat
[3:57:01] which would then which would have been
held by Ashley Jackson. And
[3:57:04] additionally, due to Dwayne Gibbs lack
of attendance, the Health and Human
[3:57:08] Board recommends appointing Megan Seaman
to fill his seat.
[3:57:13] Motion to approve. It's a
>> motion on by Commissioner Baitman. Is
[3:57:18] there a second? Second.
>> Second by the vice chair.
[3:57:21] » Open for further discussion. Hearing
none. Those in favor signify by saying
[3:57:25] I.
>> Like motion carries unanimous.
[3:57:29] » Next is the Thomas A. Balma Senior
Citizen Senior Center Advisory Board. Uh
[3:57:34] the advisory council recommends the
appointment of Adelaide Paige and Andrea
[3:57:39] Podiger to fill the two vacant seats.
[3:57:46] Motion to approve.
>> Motion on motion on the floor by the
[3:57:50] vice chair page.
>> Seconded by
[3:57:53] » Irvin
>> Irvin Baitman. Any further discussion?
[3:57:56] Hearing? None. Those in favor signify by
saying I.
[3:57:59] » I post like sign.
>> Motion carries unanimous.
[3:58:03] » Then for your upcoming board and
committee appointments in October, you
[3:58:06] have the library board with one term and
the Thomas A. Bomb Senior Center
[3:58:10] Advisory Board with three terms
expiring. In November, you have the
[3:58:14] Older Adult Services Council with two
terms expiring and
[3:58:17] [cough and clears throat] the W working
Working Waterman Commission with one
[3:58:19] term expiring. And then in December, you
have the Equalization and Review Board
[3:58:23] with five terms expiring, the Parks and
Recreation Advisory Board with one term
[3:58:28] expiring, the Stumpy Point Community
Center with one term expiring, and the
[3:58:32] Tourism Board with [snorts] six terms
expiring. That would be your agenda, Mr.
[3:58:36] Chairman.
>> Six terms. Excuse me.
[3:58:40] » Uh, that brings us that brings us to
item 16. Uh, commissioner's business,
[3:58:44] manager's business. Do you have anything
else for us today, Bob?
[3:58:47] » Uh, yeah. I got two things. Um, at one
of our previous meetings, you all had
[3:58:53] asked about ebike regulation and had
asked us to look into it or get with
[3:58:59] planning staff to look into ebike
regulation.
[3:59:02] What we found is a lot of stuff. I mean,
we did some digging and but the long and
[3:59:08] the short of all that is is that
counties don't have the authority to
[3:59:12] regulate ebikes. There's specific
authority for towns to do that, but
[3:59:16] there is no equivalent authority in the
statutes for counties to do that. And
[3:59:20] there's actually a bill in the
legislature right now to give counties
[3:59:25] that authority. And so really not much
we can do about that right now to
[3:59:30] regulate ebikes. Um there's a lot of
stuff in there. about ebikes. There are
[3:59:36] state rules already in effect. And so,
you know, if those rules were enforced
[3:59:42] effectively, then possibly it would
solve some of the problems that you've
[3:59:46] heard about. But, uh, in order to
enforce them, then law enforcement has
[3:59:51] to catch them in the act. And, you know,
that's difficult. So again,
[3:59:56] that's one of the is I'll tell you one
of the other issues that we found was
[4:00:01] towns and communities struggle with what
to do because if you force the ebikes
[4:00:06] off of the bike paths, then you're
forcing them into the road. You can't
[4:00:11] ban them. They're allowed to be on the
public highways just as a bicycle is.
[4:00:15] And if you push them off the bike path,
then you're pushing them in the highway.
[4:00:19] And have you then created a worse
problem? And so should we get the
[4:00:23] authority, you know, we would have to
give some thought as to how we would
[4:00:26] want to regulate them and what we would
want to do. So with that said, not much
[4:00:31] we can do there. I wanted to report back
as you requested me to do. Um,
[4:00:38] at the appropriate time, then we do need
a close session and it won't be long. I
[4:00:44] do need to get some counsel from you all
in close session.
[4:00:47] » All right, sounds good. Um, thank you,
Bobby. Uh, that that brings us to u our
[4:00:54] public information uh officer. Uh,
Dorothy has stepped out. Miss Caitlyn
[4:00:59] Knights have stepped in. Caitlyn, you
have anything for us?
[4:01:02] » Yes. Um, just wanted to let you all know
that we are working on the materials for
[4:01:06] the sales tax referendum, educational
pieces, and you should expect to see
[4:01:10] some proofs next week of the postcard
and the rack card. Um, and then we're
[4:01:15] also beginning to work with our
videographer on the videos that we'll
[4:01:19] produce for those that will run on a
streaming platform. So, just to give you
[4:01:22] a heads up for that. And then another
item that I don't believe we've brought
[4:01:26] up to you is that we've installed an
accessibility toolbar on our website.
[4:01:31] So, you'll see a little symbol of a
person in the lower lefthand corner of
[4:01:36] our site. Now, you can click that and
activate the toolbar. It will translate
[4:01:40] all the text on our website into over 50
different languages. It will read the
[4:01:45] the text aloud. It gives descriptions of
the images on the site and we're working
[4:01:51] on getting it to read all the PDFs on
the website also just to make it more
[4:01:56] accessible. So, just one thing for you
guys to be aware of also.
[4:01:58] » Wow.
>> Thank you.
[4:02:00] » That's pretty cool.
>> Yeah.
[4:02:01] » Yeah.
>> I have a question for you.
[4:02:04] It was asserted with emphasis during
public comment that we are spending
[4:02:10] $20,000 of public money to advocate for
the support and passage of the
[4:02:15] referendum. Is that a correct statement,
Miss Kite?
[4:02:18] » No, it's not.
>> It is the commission directing. Yeah, it
[4:02:21] is.
>> We are we are putting out educational
[4:02:24] pieces because of the way the wording is
on the ballot
[4:02:28] » um to inform people of what it actually
means
[4:02:30] » to inform the constituents.
>> That's correct. Ah, once again, good
[4:02:35] thing we take public comment for what it
is sometimes. Thank you, Miss Kite. Of
[4:02:39] » course.
>> Thank you, Ken. Um,
[4:02:43] our
finance director, Matt, do you have
[4:02:46] anything else for us?
>> I just attended the local government
[4:02:50] commission meeting on break and they
passed our debt issuance.
[4:02:56] So,
>> cool.
[4:02:57] » Cool.
>> That's good.
[4:02:58] » That's good news. Uh, one other real
quick, Matt, on the school CIP,
[4:03:04] that was a 20-year loan advertised over
20.
[4:03:06] » Yes.
>> Okay.
[4:03:10] » All right. Thank you, Matt. Anything
else?
[4:03:13] » Nope.
>> Okay. Um All right. That brings us to a
[4:03:16] commissioner's business. I'm going to
ask Commissioner Ross if he will kick
[4:03:19] that off.
>> I would be glad to, Mr. Chairman. Thank
[4:03:22] you. A couple of updates. Uh we are very
happy as a board I think I speak for all
[4:03:27] of us that the coastal family
collaborative is continuing to advance
[4:03:32] in Buckton with the early child care
initiative and we wish them the best of
[4:03:38] luck. Two really really beneficial and
worthy events are coming up. One from
[4:03:44] the dementia uh friendly coalition on
the 23rd through 25th of October. They
[4:03:51] raise a great deal of funds through a
tennis and pickle ball tournament at our
[4:03:54] very own county manager Duckwoods
Country Club. I have been there and
[4:03:58] attended in the past and I can tell you
it is a great group. Miss Jan Collins
[4:04:04] heads it up and they do amazing work for
the families of those suffering from
[4:04:08] memory loss in our community. The other
one is on the 23rd of October in
[4:04:13] conjunction with OBX Hospital, the
Cancer Shucks fundraiser, which is also
[4:04:18] a highly effective and very worthwhile
uh charitable dinner party that raises a
[4:04:24] lot of money for our own local cancer
center. That's all I have, sir.
[4:04:27] » Thank you, Commissioner Ross. Uh Vice
Chairman, uh the House,
[4:04:34] » uh m be real brief and short since we're
running long. Um, I wanted to reiterate
[4:04:38] the uh 911 uh walk from EMS station one
to the top of Wright Brothers Memorial
[4:04:44] and back to EMS station one. Um, I've
been a part of this since the beginning
[4:04:48] and it's a wonderful tribute. Um, I
can't tell you 911 holds a very dear and
[4:04:55] special place in my heart. I lost two
very good friends that day. Um, one at
[4:04:59] the Pentagon and one at the Twin Towers.
Um, so if you can please come on out.
[4:05:06] Uh, we're trying to get as many people
there as possible. We're trying to break
[4:05:09] some records this year for the 25th.
And, uh, also, even though we've run
[4:05:15] long, the best part of any Dair County
Commissioner board meeting, met our pet
[4:05:20] pet of the month.
>> Our pet of the week this week is Tango.
[4:05:25] Tango is a sweet, almost one-year-old
orange tabby looking for his forever
[4:05:29] home. He's aate, chatty, and loves
attention. He especially enjoys being
[4:05:34] held, and he's always happy when it's
time to eat. The loving, social little
[4:05:38] guy with a big personality who would
make a wonderful companion.
[4:05:46] To adopt Tango or foster one of our
other animals, come visit us Monday
[4:05:51] through Friday at our shelter located in
Manuel. For more information, visit our
[4:05:55] website at obxspca.org
org or visit our OBX SPCA
[4:06:01] Facebook page.
>> So definitely run out to OBX SPCA, check
[4:06:06] out Tango and all the other little
kittens they've got out there and dogs
[4:06:10] and whatever else might be running
around and give somebody their forever
[4:06:13] home. And for that, Mr. Chairman, thank
you.
[4:06:16] » Thank you, Vice Chair, Commissioner
Baitman.
[4:06:19] » Yes, sir.
Um, so I had the um privilege or not so
[4:06:24] privilege of of being on WTKR
interviewed by Will um concerning the
[4:06:30] sales tax parks and wreck issue and the
followup phone calls I got after that
[4:06:37] interview. A couple things came to mind
and that I think
[4:06:43] I'm going to take a personal stance on,
but I would like to throw that to the
[4:06:46] board to see what you guys think about
it. The first would be is, you know, we
[4:06:52] cannot guarantee for future boards what
we're going to do with the sales tax
[4:06:56] money, but we have stated that it's
going to be for parks and wreck. And
[4:07:01] what I'd like to do is I'm going to take
a personal stance that as long as I'm an
[4:07:06] elected official in Dair County and that
sales tax if it does pass, I'm going to
[4:07:12] commit that that $6 million per year is
going to go directly to parks and wreck.
[4:07:18] And I if we could somehow do that and do
it as a board and each take that
[4:07:23] commitment, I think that would help the
citizens to realize that we're not only
[4:07:28] committed, but we're committed to do
exactly what we say we're going to do.
[4:07:35] » I I think you want to just word it to
support the debt issuance and the
[4:07:43] related funding, meaning it's
>> [clears throat]
[4:07:48] » You want to complete and execute that
strategic parks and recck plan and
[4:07:53] that's your commitment, but you're not
specifying a dollar amount. It's
[4:07:57] basically the tax will be used for that
purpose.
[4:08:00] » Matt, I can't hear you if you mind
speaking into the microphone if you
[4:08:04] will.
>> Go ahead.
[4:08:07] » I thought I was kind of clear what I was
I wasn't.
[4:08:09] » It was, but you can't use $6 million
because it might be $5 million next
[4:08:14] year. um depending on what the tax does
over time, what you're doing is
[4:08:18] committing the proceeds from that tax to
the recreation plan, whatever those
[4:08:23] proceeds are
>> until that plan is completed.
[4:08:26] » Until that plan is completed, um one
other thing I'll tell you about that
[4:08:30] commitment and your comment about not
binding future boards, once you borrow
[4:08:34] that money,
>> you found them. uh once you've borrowed
[4:08:37] the money and you've started doing the
work and you've got the loan out there,
[4:08:42] then they're bound by that into the
future.
[4:08:44] » We took out the mortgage, they inherited
the house, they still got to pay the
[4:08:47] mortgage.
>> They will have to continue to pay that.
[4:08:49] So, they can't then five years from now
says we're we're going to stop uh
[4:08:54] because you will be already have that
debt and you'll have all that work done.
[4:08:59] So once you
start and once you borrow the funds then
[4:09:03] whoever comes behind you is locked in.
>> So de facto as soon as we execute the
[4:09:09] loan or float the uh the bond we have
committed ourselves to the project by
[4:09:15] definition.
>> That's right.
[4:09:16] » For what 20 years [clears throat]
>> it'll be a 20 year not 55 54 million 55
[4:09:23] million. Well, here's the here's the
point, at least when I take from
[4:09:27] Commissioner Baitman, and I've stated
this publicly as well, and I'll continue
[4:09:31] to state it. His intention is that
whatever is collected from, and quote me
[4:09:39] if I'm wrong, Commissioner Baitman,
whatever is collected, I'm not putting a
[4:09:43] dollar amount on it, but whatever is
collected from the quarter cent sales
[4:09:47] tax, if it is, if it passes that he is
committing, and I agree, I will commit
[4:09:54] that as long as I'm on this board, I
will not spend a penny of that for
[4:09:59] anything else other than parks and
recrecks improvements. And again, you
[4:10:03] may be committing to spend more if the
sales tax revenue is insufficient for
[4:10:08] the debt service on the bond we're
floating.
[4:10:10] » So, we're back to the original point
that we're going to float a
[4:10:14] [clears throat] bond to fund the plan
for the public works and recreation.
[4:10:21] » The [clears throat] the point being made
>> Well, you said public is social meds
[4:10:26] and recreation.
point being made. There's so much
[4:10:29] there's there's no trust out there. We
even said that earlier today with
[4:10:35] respects to flock cameras. There's no
trust out there.
[4:10:38] » Well, you've been lining your pockets
according to one.
[4:10:41] » Absolutely.
>> We remember that. Um, this this takes
[4:10:45] the nonrust as far as I'm concerned off
the table that I'm committing as long as
[4:10:50] I remain commissioner that I will not
spend a penny of that quarter cent sales
[4:10:55] tax for anything other than parks and
wrecks. It's that simple,
[4:10:59] » you know.
>> Amen.
[4:11:00] » And I make that same commitment. Well,
everybody else in this board made that
[4:11:04] same commitment
>> 100%.
[4:11:07] » Okay. So, it goes on the record.
>> Yes, it goes on the record.
[4:11:10] » Okay. Helen, you put that in bold
letters when you print this.
[4:11:14] » Big letters.
>> You don't know what I'm gonna be doing
[4:11:16] in 20 years, but just in case I'm still
commissioner for 20 years until the
[4:11:19] bonds paid off anyway. [laughter]
>> Okay. And the other the other thing that
[4:11:24] it came up at the same time was what
were we going to spend the money on? And
[4:11:29] so
>> you don't even have a plan. Oh, I'm
[4:11:33] sorry. You do have a plan.
>> I do have We do have a plan. Okay. And
[4:11:36] what the plan is is for the first year
um or with those first sets of money
[4:11:43] that comes in synthetic turf on athletic
fields um updating existing fields based
[4:11:50] on the highest current usage focused on
rectangular multi-use fields and that
[4:11:56] will be approximately $6 million.
And I I'll make that commitment also.
[4:12:01] That's what what we're going to do.
Go ahead.
[4:12:05] » In in your report, there's a critical
need section on page six of that report
[4:12:12] » and it has critical immediate needs and
there were four things. There was the
[4:12:16] synthetic turf that he just said.
There's basically number two says stop
[4:12:21] gap indoor expansions and updates.
That's the Oakley Collier report.
[4:12:26] Then there's splash pads and playgrounds
and then there's playground access. And
[4:12:31] then as you go to the next page of that
report. It has mid-range needs and long
[4:12:36] range needs and and they come up with
our report.
[4:12:40] What this will do, it will allow us to
build everything out that's in that
[4:12:45] report and it would I've asked Dustin to
get our architects to look at it and
[4:12:51] tell us timing wise and he says that
within three years we could have
[4:12:55] everything in that report completed. So
if it passed then as soon as we could
[4:13:01] get the money borrowed the plans drawn
in the start we're 32 months I think
[4:13:07] from there to complete everything that's
in this plan you you mentioned in the
[4:13:13] first year you know what presumably you
would do is you would do those immediate
[4:13:17] needs in the first year and
or they would all go simultaneously
[4:13:23] again depending on the workflow and the
manpower and all those kind of things
[4:13:27] but the The report gives that priority
and it and it does do that and we're
[4:13:32] doing everything on there. If anybody
wants to know what the Oakley Collier
[4:13:36] report does is it says that the Nags
Head Soccer Complex that's talking about
[4:13:41] the synthetic fields. Uh it's at the
Kill Level Hills Youth Center. There's a
[4:13:47] bunch of building repair and
improvements and increasing the square
[4:13:50] footage there. Uh creating bathroom
fixtures, another a new gym there. So,
[4:13:55] there's a number of things there at the
Lions Club over here on Run Oak Island.
[4:14:00] Similar things, a new gym there as well.
Uh there's pickle ball courts, which
[4:14:05] we've already started that are in there.
Uh there at down at the Fezan Center,
[4:14:10] there's again a litany of building
repair and improvements. Um some of
[4:14:15] those things we've already started down
there, but other things would be done by
[4:14:18] this. At the bomb center, there's a
number of building repairs updates and
[4:14:23] and increases there, too. So there's a
whole list of those things that Oakley
[4:14:27] Collier got out that would be done as
you know one of the top priorities in
[4:14:31] this along with you know the other
things that that report does. So for
[4:14:35] anyone that's interested, I think those
things are online and they can go look
[4:14:40] and get the detail for those things. Uh
and they can see the priority and they
[4:14:44] can see what all that stuff means and
and the cost. And again, the unknown
[4:14:48] until this week was, you know, how long
was it going to take us to do that? And
[4:14:52] the answer is we can have it done we
believe in 36 months. So So there's a
[4:14:57] three-year process to complete this if
we had the revenue available to do that.
[4:15:02] Well, there's there's so much out there
saying, "Well, we don't know what you're
[4:15:05] going to do. We don't know what you're
going we but we we put it out there
[4:15:09] multiple times. I mean, that's why we're
spending the funds to educate the
[4:15:14] community what we're doing." And for
them to constantly say, "Well, you know,
[4:15:19] I'd support this, but I don't know what
it's going for. I don't I don't know how
[4:15:22] else we can get this word out. I just
told you it's going to go for syn
[4:15:27] synthetic turf for the first year."
>> That's right.
[4:15:30] Do we have on the website just like a
very simple clear link that we don't
[4:15:38] have to go you know hunting around
searching under what
[4:15:41] » sub just something click here and
there's the plan the critical needs yes
[4:15:46] it's on the left sidebar towards the
very top of the page and then we added
[4:15:50] it before the FAQs
>> because a few weeks ago it wasn't there
[4:15:53] I was searching around I couldn't find
it
[4:15:55] » all right
>> you shared that and a couple of other
[4:15:57] people shared to make it more accessible
>> that's great thank And another item
[4:16:01] we're working on is a really really
clear graphic that shows this all of the
[4:16:05] needs that are going to be addressed all
the projects a one sheet and we'll
[4:16:09] provide that to you guys also.
>> So can can we come in agreement that
[4:16:14] number one priority is going to be the
synthetic turf.
[4:16:19] » You're when you say that it means that
we're going to do that we're going to do
[4:16:23] 10 things. I understand. I understand
that. But
[4:16:26] » I think if we just
>> we're going to do whatever you say.
[4:16:29] » If we name one one one project, we're
going to get done with the first year.
[4:16:33] » What's driving this earth? It's like uh
I don't understand.
[4:16:37] » Social media.
>> Social media and the and and the six
[4:16:41] phone calls I got following the
interview. Well,
[4:16:43] » they just want to know what are you
going to spend your money on? The first
[4:16:47] thing, what's the priority? And I said,
well, I said synthetic turfs. Well,
[4:16:52] how's your board feel about it? I said,
"Well, I'm going to find out.
[4:16:54] » I would tell you if you ask me what
we're going to do first, I would tell
[4:16:57] you we're going to do the the four
things that are the critical needs that
[4:17:00] simultaneously."
>> Thank you.
[4:17:02] » Yeah.
>> Yeah.
[4:17:03] » And I agree to that.
>> Yeah. And we and we would also go with
[4:17:06] go with what the uh parks and rec
advisory board,
[4:17:09] » right,
>> asked us to do.
[4:17:12] » Okay.
Irvin, I think the critical thing that
[4:17:16] you've asked us that the media needs to
to emphasize with a
[4:17:24] putting big red bold letters is the
simple fact of the matter is our board's
[4:17:29] unanimous
about not spending a penny of that
[4:17:34] quarter cent sales tax if it if it's
approved for anything but parks and
[4:17:38] wreck.
>> Okay. I I think that's the that's the
[4:17:41] that's the biggest thing out there that
we could tell the public and we've all
[4:17:47] committed right here today. Um so I I
don't know how they could call us out
[4:17:53] because we've all committed to that.
>> But that's why we're relying on the
[4:17:58] Murray Helens of the world to educate
them and tell them this is this is what
[4:18:04] the board's doing. [laughter]
>> Okay. All right. Let's talk brighte.
[4:18:10] Um
in conversation um Mary Ellen and myself
[4:18:16] been talking to Johnny with um
McGuire and Woods um about lobbying for
[4:18:24] us uh the utilities commission as well
as the Senate and the House to help us
[4:18:30] get that loop done in Hatteris. Um, so I
would like us to um the direction to
[4:18:37] give Bobby and staff to contact them and
get them on the work um of having a
[4:18:43] conversation not only with one of his
partners who used to be chairman of the
[4:18:48] utilities commission to lobby those
guys, what we can do uh to push this
[4:18:53] thing forward as quickly as possible,
what we need to do to um make it work
[4:18:57] and then also lobby the Senate and the
House to do the same thing. And Mary
[4:19:02] Ellen's got something I think she's
going to add to, but she's got some
[4:19:05] things she's already contacted some
folks that she might want to add.
[4:19:08] » Well, we we can certainly add that to MG
Maguire Woods list of things to do for
[4:19:13] us. Absolutely.
>> That's really important.
[4:19:15] » That's what we're paying for.
>> Okay. Um then the last thing I have on
[4:19:20] here is the um pumps on Highway 12. I
talked to Bobby and when we met down
[4:19:25] there, we all went down and had a good
meeting down there with the citizens.
[4:19:31] uh you know, we get a flood, it takes a
while to get permits and pumps. Bobby,
[4:19:35] would you like to let them know what you
found out about uh having pumps down
[4:19:38] there and pumping on a a moment's
notice? So, we've talked [clears throat]
[4:19:43] with DOT and they are on board. We've
talked with the park service and they
[4:19:50] say that they would give us the permits
quickly to pump because we have to do it
[4:19:55] into the ocean. Um we have talked with
DEEQ in Raleigh. um they said they could
[4:20:01] move quickly and we could pump, you
know, when we have those emergencies. Um
[4:20:06] who I have not talked to is fish and
wildlife. The the actual pipe has to
[4:20:11] cross the fish and wildlife. I wouldn't
expect that to be a problem, but I have
[4:20:14] not had a conversation with them yet
about that. Um so I think that the
[4:20:19] answer to the question is we can
>> do that understanding that
[4:20:24] it takes some amount of time to get the
pumps there, some amount of times to get
[4:20:28] it set up. If we take those great big
pumps, it may require lane closures and
[4:20:32] things like that to be able to do them.
Um, if you use the great big pumps, then
[4:20:37] they have a if the water's shallower
than about 4 in, they won't work because
[4:20:43] you can't get a suction because the hose
is bigger than the
[4:20:48] the depth of the water and so the pump
won't pump. Um, and so you can pump it
[4:20:53] down when you use those. Um, you're also
trying to debate when you have water on
[4:20:58] the road, how long do you think it's
going to stay there? Uh, in past times,
[4:21:04] if it came a lot of times in a day, it
was gone and pumping wasn't required.
[4:21:10] And so, there's some a little bit of
wait and see before you get all these
[4:21:15] groups working together and get all that
stuff out there. this last time it
[4:21:20] clearly didn't move off of there for a
long time and pumping should have been
[4:21:24] done earlier and you know we had as we
said down there we had talked to DOT
[4:21:29] about that and they said no that you
know we weren't going to do that that
[4:21:33] was they're going to wait for it to
dissipate and then it didn't dissipate
[4:21:36] as quickly as they said. So, I think
they learned some things there and I
[4:21:40] think we're prepared to help them do
that when the time comes and so uh we
[4:21:44] will react and be ready to go uh when
that happens. Uh and I do need to follow
[4:21:50] up with fish and wildlife to be sure
there's no issues there.
[4:21:55] I say this not to be smart,
but if you want to do it quicker and
[4:22:00] you're worried about all them big pieces
of equipment, a sump pump in a water
[4:22:04] hose will work pretty dag on good
pumping water.
[4:22:09] » I'll tell you that when you're pumping
those waters at the water levels we had,
[4:22:13] you're basically pumping the water in
the road and the water in the pond until
[4:22:19] the pond gets down to the level of the
road. It's a That's a lot a lot a lot of
[4:22:23] water.
>> It is a lot of cell phones,
[4:22:25] » huh?
>> That's a lot of cell phones.
[4:22:26] » Yeah, it's a lot of something pumps.
[clears throat]
[4:22:30] » Figure figure it out to to make it work
quick, Bobby.
[4:22:33] » Yes, sir.
>> Because I mean, really, we don't need to
[4:22:37] sit around for days. I I you know, you
got the mines and you got the equipment,
[4:22:43] so figure it out to figure out how quick
you can get down there and pump it.
[4:22:47] Well, the good news is we got a um D is
working with Fish and Wildlife now. So,
[4:22:52] they'll
>> Yeah, they got a good working
[4:22:54] relationship.
>> That's all I got.
[4:22:56] » Thank you, Commissioner. Good work,
Carson. Commissioner Krief.
[4:23:02] » Yeah, I've got a few things obviously.
Number one is our remembrance of 911.
[4:23:09] I've got a dear friend of mine lives in
Pirates Cove. Never knew it for years.
[4:23:14] He's avid collector. He's he's pretty
wealthy. Collects all grades of music,
[4:23:20] memorabilia, guitars, everything.
Signed, baseball stuff, everything in
[4:23:24] the world. And I asked him what his
favorite thing was. And he said, "A
[4:23:26] suit." I said, "A suit?" I said, "Whose
suit was it?" I'm thinking Frank Sinatra
[4:23:31] or somebody else. He said, "My suit." I
said, "Your suit? What's so special
[4:23:36] about your suit?" He said, "I was
wearing it in the South Tower when it
[4:23:39] hit and the burn marks are still in it."
>> Wow.
[4:23:44] And that's a pretty shocking thing to
think about. Just your average day at
[4:23:49] work, you're not thinking anything of
it. You get your breakfast, you head
[4:23:53] upstairs, and next thing you know,
you're involved directly in the biggest
[4:23:58] terror attack in the history of the
United States.
[4:24:02] Uh obviously 25 years later, it's it is
easy for some people to forget.
[4:24:08] Certainly, we have a whole generation of
young people now who weren't even alive
[4:24:12] when it happened. And I think it is good
to have these walks and have these
[4:24:18] events to memorialize these people who
lost their lives. And uh and it disgusts
[4:24:25] me when I see certain individuals
running for public office across the
[4:24:29] country, one in particular saying that
we deserved 911.
[4:24:34] I don't think those women who were
jumping off of that burning building
[4:24:39] with their last ounce of dignity holding
their blouses down as they plummeted
[4:24:45] towards the street. I don't think
anybody deserves that and I think that
[4:24:51] we should remember those people and
honor them in the best way that we can.
[4:24:56] So please if you're around have day off
obviously I believe it's on a Friday
[4:25:02] this year is that correct
please participate in that walk over
[4:25:07] there to remember those who lost their
lives during such a horrific event.
[4:25:12] Secondly
uh
[4:25:18] we got to get these splash pads off of
here.
[4:25:21] I'm just saying that's what I've caught
the most flack on. I know Urban's got
[4:25:26] some phone calls. I have to
u Yeah, I'm not going to vote in favor
[4:25:31] of splash pads when we got sound and
ocean [laughter] right here. We got
[4:25:36] surrounded by more water than anywhere
in the world really.
[4:25:40] » Oh,
>> splash pads.
[4:25:42] » Yeah,
>> that's the issue holding up the $57
[4:25:46] million parks and wreck. Two splash
pads.
[4:25:51] » Yeah, I don't I don't I don't
>> sure I got it clear. Yeah. Uh,
[4:25:58] pretty much. And other than that,
uh, we got dove season coming up.
[4:26:04] Everybody please stay safe out there.
Uh, obviously there's a lot of people
[4:26:11] hunting close together during dove
season, but I hope everybody enjoys it.
[4:26:16] And other than that, I'm gonna keep it
pretty brief.
[4:26:19] » Thank you, Commissioner.
Commissioner Burus,
[4:26:24] » I think everybody's pretty much touched
on everything. Uh 911 coming up is a
[4:26:28] very big day. We all look forward to
doing that walk. Uh I thank Lee for
[4:26:32] taking the time out and uh and getting
gussied up and coming out here and
[4:26:36] letting us know about it. Um I
appreciate the time and the effort he
[4:26:40] takes to put that event together and the
people that uh that donate and the
[4:26:44] people that show up and walk every year.
Um 25 years, you know, make sure we
[4:26:50] don't forget. Uh other than that, you
know, it's a the children youth
[4:26:54] partnership with the diapers. That's
fantastic. Uh we're very blessed in in
[4:26:58] Dair County. We have a lot of nonprofits
here and a lot of people that are in
[4:27:04] [clears throat] need. The gaps are
filled in by these nonprofits. So, I'm
[4:27:08] very thankful for all the work. Uh if
you're out there and you're listening
[4:27:11] and you're in a nonprofit, thank you for
all you do. Thank you for giving back to
[4:27:15] the community. Um, thank you for filling
in those gaps and uh the community
[4:27:20] certainly appreciates it and uh and I
appreciate it. So, I just want to take a
[4:27:24] minute and thank everybody that that
works with those and all the work they
[4:27:28] do. And that's all I have, sir.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner
[4:27:32] Balance.
>> I'll try to be brief, but I got quite a
[4:27:35] few things here. Um, we're
[clears throat] doing a coyote meeting
[4:27:38] down in Hatteris um on September 10th at
six o'clock at the Fezan Center. Um the
[4:27:44] uh wildlife guys are coming in to talk
about coyotes on Hatter Island because
[4:27:49] it's it's kind of I saw a picture on
Facebook the other day where one was
[4:27:52] coming out of those you know woods
looking at my friend's house and she
[4:27:57] took a picture of him coming across the
street. So anyway, we um uh just being
[4:28:01] proactive in getting that information
out on coyotes and how they operate. um
[4:28:07] September 10th I will actually last
minute have to be out of town so I will
[4:28:10] not be there but Dorothy said she would
be there and um so hopefully it will be
[4:28:15] well attended. I think there's getting
into the fall will be a little bit of
[4:28:18] ramp up on that. Um and following up
with um what uh Commissioner Baitman
[4:28:23] said about Bright Speed. I've been
communicating back and forth and I've
[4:28:26] included you guys in those emails as
I've been um messaging with Mr. Brewer
[4:28:31] and I am sending out today two letters
of information or requests from for
[4:28:37] information from the utilities
commission and from the North Carolina
[4:28:40] Department of Information Technology. Um
just requesting some clarification on
[4:28:45] Bright Speed's responsibility
um what their responsibilities are as a
[4:28:50] private um company and then
clarification on their grant funding
[4:28:53] that they have already received and how
and when they're able to use that. So
[4:28:57] hopefully we'll get some response on
that. Um
[4:29:01] Rob um mentioned the child care. I they
have um put out um ads for a director
[4:29:07] position for the title um daycare um
nonprofit on Hatter Island and they are
[4:29:14] also um currently working on the floors
and the painting and that's almost
[4:29:17] complete. So that is moving forward
well. Um we had with all this rain
[4:29:22] there's been some um flooding in
Hatteris Village. [clears throat]
[4:29:25] There's a drainage system through
Hatteris and there's and most of it is
[4:29:29] working properly, but there's one area
in front of Sunny's restaurant at Willis
[4:29:34] Boat Landing where it's really clogged
and it's it's pretty bad. It's um but
[4:29:39] I've we've been in talks with Tess and
with um uh Ronnie and they have
[4:29:46] identified kind of where the issue is.
So, that is being worked on and so um
[4:29:50] hopefully that will get taken care of.
I've also um will be talking with Ethan
[4:29:54] about that and also with the crosswalks
because the crosswalks have been a in
[4:29:59] the summertime it is especially at dark
where all the ice cream shops are
[4:30:03] popping up everywhere. It's amazing how
much. And then finally, and this is
[4:30:10] important one, um, for those of you that
haven't heard, the CCA won a state case
[4:30:17] against um or the the CCA won a case
against the state for not protecting our
[4:30:25] um fishing
um resource. So, couple things have
[4:30:31] happened since then. Bob and I went to
the NCAACCC and we were able to do a
[4:30:35] presentation on um the impacts of the
fishing. We were able to talk to a lot
[4:30:41] of commissioners across the state about
fishing and what that has kind of meant
[4:30:44] for us. So that was really a really um
great experience. Um and we also on our
[4:30:50] way out were able to stop and speak at
the MFC um meeting too and voice our
[4:30:55] concerns about how this case plays out.
The thing that's kind of troubling and
[4:30:59] the judge has asked for both sides,
which would be the state and the CCA to
[4:31:03] come back with a recommendation,
nowhere in that
[4:31:08] does commercial fishing have a voice.
And so now our fishing is going to be
[4:31:12] subjected to a court case. And it's kind
of scary time if if you're trying to get
[4:31:18] your nets ready for pound net season,
which my husband's been doing for
[4:31:21] several weeks now. And uh so it'll be
interesting. We're going to have to be
[4:31:25] super diligent about that. I'm excited
to see what comes out of the coalition
[4:31:29] meeting. I hope that we get a lot of
attendance for that because it's getting
[4:31:33] ready to ramp up pretty pretty big. So,
um, yep, it was a great, um, we Bobby
[4:31:38] Hanig, Jess Hawkins, my husband, and,
um, and Bob were on the panel, and we
[4:31:43] did a panel discussion about how the
coalition has worked to inform other
[4:31:49] commissioners and other and the public
about the fishing issues in our um,
[4:31:53] coastal communities. And I think it was
it was good. It was a really good
[4:31:59] a really good time. So that's all I got.
>> Thank you. To piggyback on what Marie
[4:32:04] Ellen said, we um we got really really
good feedback from the session. Um and
[4:32:10] it was taped. So have you checked on
when that might be? They said it was
[4:32:16] going to they said it they said it was
going to take I think two weeks but um
[4:32:20] Dorothy said we could get it up on the
coalition website on the Dair County
[4:32:24] website. It'll be a YouTube video. So
hope as soon as we get that back we'll
[4:32:28] » Yeah. [clears throat] So we to release
it also really really happy to get in
[4:32:32] front of that audience
at the NO annual convention and uh we'll
[4:32:38] we'll have this on our agenda for the uh
coastal um fisheries coalition meeting
[4:32:46] uh I believe on the 16th I believe is
that date.
[4:32:49] » Yes. Um and um then the county manager
and I head into Raleigh to meet with our
[4:32:56] lobbyist on a couple of issues that next
day. So stay tuned. We'll keep you
[4:33:01] posted on that. Uh unfortunately, and
Lee, this this is his fifth year doing
[4:33:07] this and Lee's done a great job with
this 911. Unfortunately, uh I'm out of
[4:33:14] town. I usually go out of town on
September 11th because September 11th is
[4:33:20] my birthday
and uh 911 is on my conscience all day
[4:33:26] long that day and thinking about those
people. But normally I'm out of town on
[4:33:31] the 11th and um I'm unfortunately I will
not be there but I will certainly be
[4:33:36] thinking about um you folks that are
walking and thinking about uh the folks
[4:33:42] that we lost on 911. So with that being
said, um
[4:33:47] » Mr. Chairman,
>> we pardon
[4:33:49] » real quick. I just wanted to also say
our our thoughts and prayers with Dewey
[4:33:53] uh right now in in hopefully uh on his
way well well on his way hopefully on
[4:33:58] his way to recovery um you know after
after what he's been through. So our
[4:34:03] thoughts and prayers are with him you
know especially as much as we've talked
[4:34:06] about the commercial fishing industry
and he is a huge advocate one of the
[4:34:10] biggest advocates for him. So
>> I got one more. Absolutely. Thank you
[4:34:14] for bringing that.
>> I got one thing to add to that that I
[4:34:17] forgot during mine. God forbid I forgot
it. On September 12th at the home
[4:34:22] ministry center in W Cheese, we're going
to be doing a big fundraiser for Dewey
[4:34:27] down there. They're doing barbecue
plates.
[4:34:29] » Fantastic.
>> And it's going to be a drive-thru thing.
[4:34:31] So, please tell everybody, you know, to
go down there and we're going to try to
[4:34:34] raise some money for him and his family
there.
[4:34:36] » Great. Thank you, Carson.
Okay. With that being said, we need a
[4:34:41] motion to adjourn for close session.
>> I need a motion for close session
[4:34:44] [snorts] pursuant to NCGS143-318
11 A3 to consult with an attorney
[4:34:50] employer retained by the county in order
to preserve the attorney client
[4:34:52] privilege.
>> So move motion on the floor by the vice
[4:34:55] chair. It's been seconded by
Commissioner Burus. Any further
[4:34:58] discussion? Hearing none. Those in favor
signify by saying I. I post second.
[4:35:03] Motion carries unanimous.
[4:35:07] I call the Dair County Board of
Commissioners meeting back to order and
[4:35:10] I'll turn it over to county manager.
>> Sure. In the close session, the board
[4:35:14] approved the minutes of the last close
session and authorized me to come before
[4:35:18] you to ask forward you a motion to
approve outside council because I have a
[4:35:24] conflict to uh proceed with enforcement
action with regard to the matter Casey
[4:35:30] McFersonson. This is with regard to
zoning, building code, and fire code
[4:35:35] ordinances. So moved.
>> Is there a second?
[4:35:39] » Second.
>> Second. Madam vice chair.
[4:35:42] Floor is open for discussion. Hearing
none. Those in favor signify by saying
[4:35:46] I. I.
>> I. Oppos like sign. Motion carries
[4:35:50] unanimous.
Thank you lady and gentlemen for a great
[4:35:55] meeting today. We need to a motion to
adjourn until October the 5th at 900
[4:36:01] a.m.
>> Motion to adjurnn.
[4:36:03] » Motion on the floor by Commissioner
Balance.
[4:36:05] » Second. Second by Commissioner Burus.
Further discussion hearing? None. Those
[4:36:09] in favor signify by saying I. I.
>> Oppos like sent.