[0:04] Good evening. I call this work session on the Morseville town council order for April 24th, 2025. We have two items to discuss tonight, and we're going to reverse the order from the agenda. We're going to start with budget work session on expenditures, and then we're going to do town council roundtable. So at this time, I'd like to pass it to Brandon Zudimer, our town manager, and Byron Hayes, our chief financial officer, to get us started, sir. Thank you mayor, good evening, everyone. So we have a presentation for you tonight. You were called two weeks ago that we focused

[0:34] just primarily on the revenue side of where we stood at this point.

[0:38] And so tonight is going to focus primarily on the investment or expenditure side.

[0:42] What we're going to be able to do with the funds that we have.

[0:45] We're going to walk you through, we're going to sort of tag team as we go.

[0:49] I'm taking the easy stuff, he's taking the hard stuff, but we'll walk through.

[0:53] This is, and again, I think before we jump in, just want to remind you this is not the recommended budget.

[0:58] It is very close, but it is not the recommended budget.

[1:01] We will certainly try to answer any questions you have tonight and use your feedback tonight to then develop a recommended budget.

[1:09] Our intention is to get that to you Monday, the 28th.

[1:12] So you have that two weeks in advance of the meeting on the 13th and

[1:15] give you plenty of time to be able to go through that in more detail once we've finalized what comes out of tonight.

[1:21] Again, just for the public, this will be released to the public on Friday, May 9th, in the head of the May 13th meeting where I'll present it.

[1:30] We then have a May 15th work session and public hearing, and then the proposed date for adoption is the May 27th meeting.

[1:39] If for any reason that we're not to occur, we have the flexibility for a May 29th work session that was calendar as an optional work session.

[1:48] And then we would come back at the first meeting in June and seek adoption that night.

[1:53] So with that, I'm going to turn over to Byron and get us started. Thank you.

[1:56] All right, so we will start with just a quick update on our community engagement.

[2:04] First, wanted to just point out where we stood with our preliminary budget portal.

[2:08] As I believe I talked you all back in during retreat, we got about 86 participants in our

[2:15] preliminary budget portal.

[2:17] Give you guys a sense of kind of what we asked for.

[2:19] We shortened it a little bit, which is a little different than what we normally did.

[2:26] we only had two questions. One, where we asked the community what they, what their most important

[2:33] priority, council priority was for them and then kind of an open-ended question just to see if

[2:39] they had any additional feedback. That survey basically yielded the top two priorities being

[2:44] thriving livable neighborhoods in public safety readiness. After that, we went to holy and started our

[2:50] bracket kind of preliminary bracket engagement. So same basic concept, but the idea that we went

[2:57] out into the community and actually gave them the opportunity to provide input about which priorities

[3:02] were most important to them. After wholly, with 100 participants, we ultimately found that quality

[3:09] life and state community was the most important at that time. That gave us the input that we needed

[3:13] in order to be able to post our online portal submissions. When we started the bracket online,

[3:19] we ended up with 67 responses as of the 15th of this month.

[3:24] We closed that survey today,

[3:27] so we will have some additional information

[3:29] to be able to bring back to you all at the next time,

[3:31] with a total concept of what that campaign ended up looking like.

[3:35] But after the 15th with those 67 responses,

[3:39] we ended up seeing the same thing that we saw at Holy,

[3:41] safe community and quality of life

[3:43] being our two highest priorities.

[3:45] We also went to various advisory committees.

[3:52] The senior center is the one that we have detailed on currently.

[3:56] The others we are waiting for them to basically finalize responses to us.

[4:01] Today was kind of the last day that we are going to get those with the understanding that we're also going to go to a couple in May as well.

[4:08] The senior center brought back the same as Holy and the online bracket.

[4:12] it, safe community and quality life being the top two responses that we've gotten so far.

[4:18] As I stated a second ago, this is still preliminary.

[4:21] We will have the rest of the detail once we kind of compile everything after it close

[4:26] today.

[4:27] But overall, what we're hearing from the community is safe community and quality life being

[4:32] the top two priorities for them this particular year.

[4:37] So we'll move on and we'll go into challenges and opportunities.

[4:41] So to give you some highlights of where we are, the left hand column there is going to be some of the challenges that we are collectively facing and then on the right side we'll talk about some opportunities.

[4:51] I don't think any of these will surprise you. Operation inflationary impacts.

[4:55] Yeah, we're adding over $100,000 to the...

[5:00] We have a base budget, just in operational impacts from the inflation that relates primarily to our contracts and agreements that we have with people providing service for us. Obviously, as our community continues to grow, the needs and the expectations continue to grow. We are doing our best to balance those against the revenue that we have to invest. Also, onboarding new and expanded facilities continues to add to the work that we need to do. It also, in some cases, adds to the staff that we need to have to maintain those facilities.

[5:30] Again, we talk a lot about economic instability and volatility, so we have taken a very proactive

[5:37] budget strategy.

[5:38] We'll talk more about that tonight, and we're also monitoring indicators for any sensitive

[5:44] revenue sources.

[5:45] Obviously, sales tax is probably our greatest concern at this point as far as where that

[5:49] goes.

[5:50] Also monitoring utilities.

[5:51] That's a decent chunk of the budget, and then some smaller offsets that are there.

[5:56] Again, balancing existing commitments with new opportunities, we intentionally don't

[6:03] include everything we routinely do in base budget to give us some flexibility.

[6:07] That's one of the tools we've always used not just this year.

[6:11] So things like the reserve revenue money that we put into those accounts and then also

[6:18] things like the public safety reserve fund and then vehicles.

[6:21] You know, that's typically about a half a million dollars a year, but we don't guarantee

[6:25] a half a million dollars a year depending on what the budget may look like.

[6:29] Also again, we have to align those new requests with offsetting revenues, so we are certainly

[6:34] working to build revenue, which you will see when we get the message to you that there are

[6:38] some increases in some of the fees.

[6:41] You've already heard some of the things that Parks and Rec is doing to try to increase some

[6:44] of their revenues to offset some of the additional opportunities they're trying to offer.

[6:49] Generally, over 7% of our operating revenues and we, again, are directed to those future

[6:54] reserves we talked about.

[6:56] That's the three reserves that have been created for transportation, parks, and land acquisition.

[7:02] And then, again, those are each of the pennies.

[7:04] Right now, that's about 700, excuse me, $970, that was $10,000.

[7:09] I think it's right.

[7:10] Thank you.

[7:12] Good call.

[7:15] So, maybe they were flagging me over there, I didn't see them, but thank you, Councilmember

[7:19] Robody.

[7:20] I was on a roll.

[7:22] Again, that's going into those three reserves and then also $850,000 right now goes into

[7:27] that public safety reserve that allows us to pay cash when we purchase large apparatus

[7:31] that saves us money at the time rather than doing an interest basis and then some other

[7:36] equipment that's also included in that fund.

[7:38] So, lots of challenges. Some are existing challenges. A couple of those are things we haven't

[7:43] necessarily had to focus on the last couple of years. And then on the right side, there

[7:47] is good news. There are opportunities. We spent some time talking at the last meeting this

[7:51] week about sponsorship investments for both capital and operating potential and also getting

[7:57] that consulting policy and that support in place. And we'll be back to you soon with some

[8:03] updates on the questions that were asked Tuesday as well.

[8:07] Again, we have opportunities to build the talent pipeline through recruitment and retention.

[8:12] That is a challenge that everyone is facing, but I think we are being, well, I know we

[8:17] are being proactive.

[8:18] We are not sitting back and, you know, what was me, we're taking intentional steps.

[8:24] So part of that is, you know, specific succession development, so we're implementing a leadership

[8:28] Academy. So we have been fortunate to be assigned a fellow from UNC for the following

[8:34] year that fellow will work in the HR department and focus on leadership academy and training

[8:39] opportunities to continue to develop our staff. Again, we also, as I mentioned, we're taking care

[8:45] of those, taking advantage of those professional fellows to come in and also sending our staff

[8:49] to external training. And then we're doing what we can to be market competitive. You've been very clear

[8:54] throughout, at least my time here, that you care about and want to make sure that we

[8:59] are taking care of our staff. And I can tell you that I appreciate that because I have

[9:02] the same goal. And I can tell you that staff appreciates that. They may not always rush

[9:06] up to you to say that. But when we have conversations, they do truly appreciate that. Particularly

[9:12] staff that's worked other places and hasn't always had the benefits of what you do for our

[9:16] staff. So thank you for that. And you'll see that in this budget that you're

[9:21] We're asking you to invest about $2 million in existing staff through the potential for

[9:27] COLA, Merit, longevity, and paying class adjustments to keep us at market.

[9:32] And then really, lastly, in fiscal readiness, we talk a lot about the fund balance and where

[9:37] we'd like it to be.

[9:38] But we have a very solid fund balance that is an asset to us and gives us some flexibility.

[9:45] We consistently control spending limits when we hit July 2nd.

[9:49] It's not a buy-it-all, it's a very controlled spending so that we aren't having to rely too much on fun balance through the year until we start to see revenues coming.

[9:58] And again, you're going to see...

[10:00] Some recommendations tonight that even further looks at controlling spending in the interest of being conservative and giving us a little opportunity to be ready if things were to be worse with sales tax, for example, than we anticipate. Again, manage use of cash reserves. Those reserves you're putting away come in handy when there are identified projects. And then also we oftentimes have those one-offs that come up or show up that are opportunities and that gives us some flexibility there. And then the last thing I would say is, you know,

[10:29] And we're very fortunate to be in a really strong regional economy.

[10:34] So what we face here is going to be potentially not as bad as what even others in North Carolina

[10:41] face say, nothing of around the country, because of the regional economic strength here.

[10:46] Byron.

[10:48] All right.

[10:49] So before we dive into expenses, I do want to take a look at where we are potentially going

[10:55] to end up long-term.

[10:56] So, this is just a chart, kind of taking a look at, from 2023, all the way up to 2030,

[11:04] just projecting out where revenues ultimately will be.

[11:07] Do you want to point out that this is a pretty conservative look at revenues?

[11:11] They're growing early on at about 5% to 7%, and then later it's growing at about 3% to 5%.

[11:18] So, that's pretty standard.

[11:21] We don't want to project too high and be too aggressive in those later years.

[11:24] we want to kind of give a pretty good look at where ultimately it's going to be.

[11:29] When looking at the chart, you do see that there are three darker lines there.

[11:35] Those represent our revaluation years. As you all know,

[11:39] what county is moving from a four-year cycle to a two-year cycle. So this builds in

[11:43] the initial three years for the phase in and then from that point on it's two years. So

[11:50] to 2028 and 2030 are both reevaluation years.

[11:55] And just like I said, this is still continued

[11:57] to be pretty conservative in our estimates

[11:59] for this particular projection

[12:02] and ultimately in 2030 looking at a little bit over

[12:05] about $80 million in those five years.

[12:09] So moving on to kind of what makes up those factors

[12:13] in those future budgets,

[12:15] we are considering the fact that there are calls

[12:18] the service increases that we will probably see over the course of the next five years.

[12:23] We know our personnel calls have gone up just not only dollar-wise but also percentage-wise

[12:29] in the past ten years due to the fact that as we continue to grow as a community we continue

[12:39] to increase service and in order to increase service and maintain those service levels we

[12:42] do have to maintain staffing levels as well.

[12:45] And we do appreciate the fact that Council's been attentive to that, and that we've been able to fill those positions and be able to meet the needs of the community in that manner.

[12:54] But not only are we looking to, you know, continue those staffing increases over the course of time, but also look for other technological advances in order to maintain some level of efficiency within the organization as well.

[13:07] We know we can't just staff our way up to service levels all the time, we need to look for other efficiencies in order to be able to be the type of nimble community that you all are expecting of us.

[13:18] Also want to talk a little bit about new development and redevelopment.

[13:22] We know that the town is built out for the most part but we do have opportunities for redevelopment.

[13:27] That was not necessarily captured all the way in that in the previous graph.

[13:32] We know that things are going to come in the future, we just don't know what those are.

[13:36] So we don't want to project anything that isn't necessarily guaranteed to come to fruition.

[13:41] However, we do maintain some level of projections in there for some of our current redevelopments

[13:47] and other zoning ordinance changes that you all have approved that help with some of that.

[13:52] And then lastly, just want to take a look at the fact that we do want to make sure that we're proactive

[13:57] in terms of our economic development and in terms of being able to have a seat at the table

[14:01] when whenever they're going to be major economic changes within the region to make sure that

[14:06] we can strike while the iron is hot and make sure that we have a seat at the table in order

[14:11] to be able to affect the type of change that Morrisville needs when the rest of the region is also looking

[14:18] at making other changes.

[14:21] So the next slide you've seen this and we're not going to spend a lot of time

[14:25] on it, but think it's good as a quick reminder, and also if we have folks watching that haven't

[14:30] seen this before, the inside there, the six colors are our six strategic plan goals.

[14:36] We spend a lot of time talking about them, and then this year, again, you created collaboratively

[14:42] ten priorities for the budget, and those ten priorities are outlined around the outside

[14:47] of the strategic plan goals, and you can see how they generally align with primarily one

[14:53] of those six goals. And we are, again, we're using this along with the information we're getting back from.

[15:00] We, to make sure that what we're trying to invest in is what you need us and want us to invest in and what will best support our community.

[15:10] So take a look at our facts and figures. This is a chart you all have seen in the past and I don't want to dwell too much on each of the different bullet points. Just want to call out two things. Number one being our average revenue growth. Typically we see a revenue growth of about 10% this year. We're projecting about 7% that's due to the fact that we work cognizant of what you all told us.

[15:32] us about your concerns about the economy and so our projections are relatively conservative

[15:37] this year. So that growth level is not quite the same as it typically is. However, we

[15:42] are considering the fact that as the year continues on, you know, around the March, April

[15:48] point, when we start to see how to good sense of where we are with sales tax and some of

[15:52] our other revenues, if we have the ability to reappropriate additional dollars that are

[15:56] coming in, that we didn't necessarily plan for, that we would see in a more traditional

[16:02] more aggressive look at our projections, that is something that we will be looking at doing in order

[16:07] to be able to increase the budget to get some of those one-time projects done this particular year,

[16:11] instead of having to wait until future budget cycles. And then also want to point out the other

[16:16] bullet point about our tax-based component. As you all know last year we saw not just a pretty major

[16:22] increase in our assess value, but we saw our commercial tax base and our residential tax base

[16:27] and about 57 to 43%. This year we're seeing that that kind of level back out a little bit.

[16:34] So our commercial versus residential is at about 54 to 46. So it's starting to come back down

[16:40] and level out a little bit and just wanted to point that out as well. Moving on to the next slide.

[16:45] This is a list of our total our total requests for the year from our staff. This is something I believe

[16:51] we've we've shown you all before in the past in this particular format. And I believe we've shown

[16:56] this when we first got those results but ultimately just want to point out that of this 14.5 million

[17:02] dollars it is outlined in all of the different council priorities that you all gave to us.

[17:09] All of these aren't necessarily funded, we don't have the ability to fund every single request

[17:13] that came in. However, we were able to get a good majority of those but just wanted to point out

[17:20] that of these 14.5 million dollars they are in those particular categories.

[17:27] Moving on to kind of where we started with our base budget and where we're ending up

[17:31] right now in this particular preview, we should you all initially that our base budget

[17:38] for revenues was at about 58.3, our base budget for expenditures was at about 51.15.

[17:45] We were able to get about 11 and a half of that $14.5 million in request funded, however,

[17:52] they didn't all just come from that base budget capacity.

[17:55] We have other means of being able to fund that both through reserves, offsetting revenues

[17:59] as the manager talked about earlier, and other grant opportunities that we have.

[18:04] Ultimately, right now, we're sitting at about $62.6 million that we're looking at.

[18:10] However, keep in mind that this is still preliminary, we're still working through all of these changes

[18:15] and we will be bringing you back a recommended budget that's not only balanced, but we'll

[18:19] be complete at that time.

[18:23] All right.

[18:23] So, next we want to talk through the 10 goals, the 10 priorities, and generally what we

[18:31] are able to do or what will be in your recommended budget, and then a little later we'll talk

[18:36] about some specifics of what may be actually in and what may not be in to give you some

[18:41] look at some of the things that I think you have interest in.

[18:44] So business collaboration, that's $45,000, that's going to the economic development department

[18:49] that is going to support a marketing campaign and some enhanced outreach programs.

[18:55] You know, we also have our renewed collaboration with the Chamber, as well as working on some marketing development

[19:01] through both Tiffany and Amelia in economic development.

[19:05] And again, that's $45 additional.

[19:07] They already have a base budget that was developed this year, this fiscal year.

[19:11] So that's $45,000 additional dollars to do that investment with them.

[19:15] From the community viewpoint, about $250,000 part of that is developing in advance community

[19:22] dashboard.

[19:23] We've had some conversations about that of us using more data to identify outcome measures.

[19:29] So that will be a part of that.

[19:31] We are also the unique video engagement is the rep software we continue to see good success

[19:36] with that.

[19:36] We're getting interactions in community.

[19:38] Again, we get good questions that we can respond to.

[19:40] We also have the ability to push out information through rep.

[19:44] Some amenity availability, smart sensor expansion, again, we are trying to do the best job we can to track use and availability of our park amenities primarily around tennis courts right now, but moving into potentially like the basketball courts.

[20:00] Park Southern Law, Pickleball Courts, and other things. So again, using the technology, rather than having to have people out there and tracking in, and that gives real time information to our community. Continue to expand public Wi-Fi access in our parks. And then we have some additional investment into our events department or events division in parks and rec to let them continue to grow some of our events and introduce perhaps some others. Economic resiliency. There's about $1.3 million there.

[20:29] that includes the future community investments that we are making and you'll see some stars next to a couple of these and those stars will be explained when we get to another slide but they're part of what we're going to potentially hold on to until April to make sure that the revenues are where we think they are and we'll come back to that.

[20:49] So we do have some town center debt that starts this year based on the bonds that we issued in the current fiscal year.

[20:55] We are continuing to work on infrastructure improvements.

[20:58] That's not only sidewalks and intersection improvements, but

[21:01] other related projects, perimeter park area study.

[21:06] So Michelle has recommended that so that we take a closer look at what is going on with that office space.

[21:12] It really becomes applicable across the town.

[21:15] And so again, trying to protect the existing tax base that's out there.

[21:19] We know you have some, we have and we know you have some concerns with what happens if that does not get

[21:25] reoccupied. So, that's a way to take a look at that. And then, again, sponsorship opportunities.

[21:31] This currently includes the funding we discussed Tuesday. Obviously, we'll be back to you

[21:35] with that and see where that ends up at. And then on this page, the last one is inclusivity.

[21:41] So, about $135,000 part of that is dedication to continuing the language access program

[21:47] by converting the current fellow into a position in communications so that that work can continue

[21:53] in trying to expand our outreach to the community, expand our support to our staff and being

[21:58] able to effectively communicate and outreach. And then there's also money in here to continue

[22:03] the public art icon and potentially murals depending on the cost of the icon.

[22:14] So the next slide we start with operational excellence. That's about $642,000. Some technology

[22:20] advancements and replacements. You know, Rick and his team are always looking at new opportunities.

[22:25] How do we make ourselves better?

[22:27] How do we make ourselves safer?

[22:29] So there's some investment there in security measures,

[22:33] both physical security and also online security,

[22:36] facility care and maintenance,

[22:37] which ultimately creates long-term savings,

[22:40] but we're continuing to maintain our buildings,

[22:43] updated grounds, and facility tools,

[22:45] again, to help us work better and also more efficiently.

[22:48] So not necessarily any more people,

[22:49] but adding tools that we don't necessarily have to have hands on

[22:52] all the time to work.

[22:53] and then of course leadership and succession planning, which will build our future.

[22:59] Next will be quality of life. So again, maximizing parks program capacity to meet the needs of our community.

[23:05] You've heard some of that from the parks department in terms of expanding opportunities at CFCC.

[23:11] We'll be doing a expansion at the senior center that will enhance programming.

[23:15] Always trying to keep M-A-F-C as full as we can and they were keeping it full.

[23:20] And then some enhancements in the athletic programs as well.

[23:23] There is money in this budget for the park's master plan update that obviously informs where we're headed with future operating and capital decisions.

[23:32] We are have identified a funding source for that, which is the bond premium that came with the most recent bond sale.

[23:40] We had talked about potentially the park reserve, but from the meeting I heard pushed back on that and concerns with why and then has some other conversations.

[23:49] So, we've looked a different way to make sure that we can get that going without hitting a reserve for that because we appreciate your desire to make sure we protect the reserves.

[23:59] And then just generally some needed facility updates, we continue to have aging buildings so that makes us have to do work to keep them safe and accessible and looking like they should as a town facility.

[24:12] Recognizing successes, again, this is where the money comes in for competitive packages

[24:18] to retain skills and knowledge, strategic event support to improve customer service,

[24:23] and then also investment in our talent pipeline to make sure that we are doing that work to

[24:28] develop the staff that we currently have while also improving our efforts to recruit qualified

[24:34] candidates.

[24:39] Lastly, on this page, safe community, that's about $4.5 million.

[24:43] You can see that generally aligns with that being one of the priorities of everyone, staff,

[24:49] council, community.

[24:50] So, innovative equipment and investigative tools that includes looking at a digital forensic lab for the police department

[24:58] that's up.

[25:00] Probably in the neighborhood of about $50,000, there is some grant money to support that, and also some asset money that they can use to support that. Improve fire prevention. That would include an assistant fire marshal position that would replace two part time employees that we currently, well, two part time positions that we currently have that are hard to fill and hard to keep working. So it's it's about I think $127,000 for that position.

[25:28] but we've got $54,000 in existing monies in the part-time budget that we would apply to that.

[25:34] And then, Giselle has also been working with the Chief Dewey and the Fire Marshall,

[25:39] and they have identified some fee increases that bring us a little closer to market

[25:43] that will also generate $20,000 to $25,000.

[25:46] So, it's not a full ask.

[25:48] We're, again, trying to be creative with revenues to offset some of the asks.

[25:52] This includes two community resource officers that would be civilians part-time in the police

[25:57] department.

[25:59] So they would be doing things like minor traffic crash investigation.

[26:04] You've heard Chief Acosta talk about that that's now allowed in North Carolina.

[26:08] So that would save a sworn officer from having to do that work.

[26:11] They could also provide traffic control at other crashes.

[26:14] They can be a relief for school crossing guards.

[26:17] And then they can also be another presence at community events, all of which potentially

[26:22] allows police officers to do more work without having to pay for more police officers.

[26:28] Security initiatives sort of mentioned that earlier, working to harden up our buildings, and

[26:34] also make sure that our network is safe and secure.

[26:37] And then pedestrian ADA, ADA, excuse me, accessibility.

[26:41] So, part of that is improvements and then part of that is a study of all of our facilities

[26:46] that's sort of a joint effort between public works and parks.

[26:51] Sustainability environment, we continue to work on the master plan initiatives.

[26:56] So, they're actually carrying over $333,000.

[26:59] Part of that is related to solar that got paused because of the buy America and buy,

[27:04] excuse me, buy America, buy America, build America.

[27:08] I'll get it.

[27:09] So some of that carries over, and then, of course, that's on top of the $200,000 that's in base budget.

[27:15] So the Sustainability Program will have about $533,000 in FY26.

[27:22] Some of that will go to a matching grant to continue solar, so that is coming to the connector.

[27:28] We just replaced the roof on that building if you've driven by and noticed that.

[27:31] So solar, it's now ready for solar, and then also some solar at MFC.

[27:36] We are also, I think, to Council Member Scrogg and Johnson's point.

[27:41] There was an ask for a part-time employee.

[27:43] We are, instead, going to start with an intern, and that intern is going to use some existing

[27:48] part-time money that is in the Public Works budget, so we can provide that support without asking

[27:53] for a position.

[27:55] Lastly, transportation, again, planning for future infrastructure investments to ease congestion,

[28:01] also sustaining the current smart shuttle program.

[28:03] Of course, the alternative transit study is happening as well to see what the next steps might be and then this also includes some enhanced equipment for public works that would allow for better and easier and more efficient sidewalk maintenance questions

[28:21] want to keep going first?

[28:23] Sure.

[28:25] The internship for sustainability, what's the link the time? Is it just a summer position or what?

[28:33] I think that'll determine on Jeffery and Kimberly coming up with a plan for an advertisement seeing what the interest is there whether that is a college student that's looking for a semester in that file that with another intern or if there's somebody that would be interested in doing that for a longer period of time and perhaps seeing if it were to turn into a position in the future.

[28:54] Okay, so it hasn't been determined.

[28:57] No, okay.

[28:57] Not entirely.

[28:58] All right, thanks.

[29:00] Okay.

[29:01] Yes ma'am.

[29:03] So, on the Perimeter Park study, I don't understand why we need a Perimeter Park study if we have an economic development

[29:12] person that could conceivably, I mean, I thought part of her job was finding businesses to put in places that are empty.

[29:20] So, she is responsible for finding businesses.

[29:23] The challenge is that Perimeter Park is a little bit different because it's not traditional business space.

[29:27] it's mostly office space and they're having trouble with not only filling that but now they also have

[29:33] expiring leases that that haven't impacted them previously but will continue to impact over the

[29:38] next couple of years so this would be coming out of the planning department primarily looking at

[29:44] what is the impact there what are options in terms of converting those into something else if the

[29:49] owners are interested in trying to work with us and do that and it's a perimeter part study but it

[29:54] also can expand across town to other offices that have vacancies as well.

[30:00] Okay. I actually think that belongs in economic development as well. It might be related to planning

[30:13] with the outcomes, but the study should be led by the economic development role because

[30:23] is that all kind of folds in,

[30:27] because you understand what the needs are,

[30:29] what the opportunities are,

[30:31] and that corresponds with potential businesses.

[30:36] Now, the needs of the spaces can be shared with planning,

[30:40] but I think with all due respect,

[30:43] we just hired somebody specifically looking at

[30:47] that area of town,

[30:50] and that's what I believe economic development is for.

[30:57] It's looking at this space.

[30:59] Maybe she doesn't have the expertise,

[31:01] but if she can lead it,

[31:04] then that really kind of adds a depth of experience

[31:11] and it really gives us a better hold

[31:13] and that we didn't have before.

[31:16] She will certainly be a part of that and she may end up leading that I think it's coming out of planning right now because it's consistent with other

[31:24] Small area plans that have been done because it may ultimately involve UDO impact to how do we allow the UDO to foster what might be able to come there

[31:33] So it would certainly be a paired. So what is the fee associated with this study? I think that's important for me to appreciate

[31:41] So I think the estimate is two hundred one fifty

[31:47] Yeah, 150 and what is the timeline if

[31:55] you don't mind.

[31:58] Yes, that yes

[32:00] Yeah,

[32:06] so Tiffany and I have talked about this one and we would be collaborating on it if it's approved

[32:12] What we were looking at was really two phases to the study and

[32:17] Phase one we are anticipating she would take more of a lead on

[32:21] Even though the whole thing was proposed by the planning phase one

[32:25] while we'd be collaborating she'd be more heavily involved and then phase two would be more planning so phase one would be a gap analysis that looks at the entire town and the market and where is the market saturated and where their opportunities and that would be across all use types.

[32:45] and then that information would feed into a larger study of perimeter park to help inform that study.

[32:56] But the second part, we envision being more like typical sub area planning that you've seen in the past.

[33:04] Land use planning with a lot of community outreach, similar to the small area plans we did for the McCrim and Corridor,

[33:13] for town center, for TOD and really looking at that area to say, do we think the

[33:22] future is office? If not, let's start over and re-envision what this area could

[33:28] be and that could end up being any multitude of things. Thank you for that

[33:34] explanation. I think I still think she should lead and it sounds like the first

[33:41] part is a really good fit for that economic development vision because the whole

[33:48] town is what she is tasked to do, right?

[33:53] And the second part does make sense that

[33:56] it's a planning foundation, but I just really want us to lean into this

[34:03] economic development position when we see opportunities for depth and

[34:08] brought the experience and it's not, it's a senior level position so I want to see leadership

[34:15] from that role because we are a great town and we need to do, you know, great things

[34:22] and hopefully, you know, given people the right opportunities, we'll be able to get the

[34:28] return on the investment for the taxpayers.

[34:31] So thank you.

[34:32] Appreciate that.

[34:33] I do have a couple of other comments.

[34:35] One is regarding the transportation.

[34:39] I know that you said sustaining the smart shuttle program, but I would really emphasize

[34:46] that we have had a lot of discussion about ridership and the software that is managing the shuttle service

[34:55] has deficits in its inability to have concurrent writers or

[35:00] And it's not having a full shuttle at times. And then there's denial of service when there's certain peak times. And that is mostly a software issue and not necessarily too many people needing the service. So I would ask that we better understand if there is any future enhanced.

[35:30] to that software, what that cost might be so that it could be considered in the future

[35:37] as something that we have and something is not necessarily going to be funded or postponed

[35:44] that we could kind of move that into the top of the list because I know that we've talked

[35:49] about improving the shuttle service and that certainly has been on my mind a lot.

[35:58] But I want to have more cars off the road if we can and have more reliable service.

[36:04] And we've added additional weekend service.

[36:09] So let's do what we can to help.

[36:11] Yeah, no, it's definitely sort of a two-prong approach to improvement there, one of which

[36:15] we've already added the second Saturday shuttle.

[36:18] We are planning to add the second Sunday shuttle.

[36:21] So that will reduce some of the not available, some of the delays.

[36:24] and then Michelle and particularly Caleb continue to work with GoKerry and Viya to see if we can get improvements to that software.

[36:33] Great. Excellent point. Thank you.

[36:34] And then the last thing that I want to comment on, which is not in your presentation, which is extremely comprehensive.

[36:44] So you don't have to answer this tonight, but one of the things that struck me is that we're talking about the future and all the great things that we want to do

[36:53] and how we want to add staff because of the demands of the growing town and the service

[37:00] levels that are required, but I did not see a slide in this deck at least for this meeting

[37:08] of what are the service levels before, like from the last year or the last two years,

[37:13] and how we, when we added staff that service level was increased.

[37:17] So, we need to tell the story before and after, if you will, just to show people the value

[37:25] that we've been returning, and I know that we have shared that in different meetings

[37:29] in different contexts, but never maybe as a whole kind of like a slide or maybe two slides

[37:37] to kind of tell that story a little bit more solidly, because I know there's going to be a lot

[37:42] eyes and they're just looking at us adding positions without really having

[37:50] that full appreciation for why, the why behind that. And one thing that might

[37:57] be helpful to tell that story is to add more metrics. And I know we collect

[38:02] metrics, you know, with the parks department and some of our smart

[38:08] technology and so forth. So we do have in fire and police to show the increase in the demand

[38:16] for service and how that correlates. So that would be, I think, an interesting way to illustrate

[38:23] the value as well as if there's efficiencies that we've been able to manage with the extra staff

[38:30] or through technology that would also help that a little bit. So I do think that

[38:37] But our vision is strong, but telling everyone what a great way of coming along we are,

[38:47] that would be great to see.

[38:50] So thank you.

[38:51] Yeah, we can bring that back.

[38:52] Certainly bring that back.

[38:53] Council Member Allen and Council Member Vendor.

[38:57] In terms of the planning, the perimeter park study, I think it's a hybrid.

[39:01] I do understand where planning would have to start with planning, because I think that

[39:07] I'm looking at the uses, what would be allowed there, so initially it would be kind of looking at what potentially could be done, but then I think tying it into the economic development in terms of, okay, once you know, these are the uses, perhaps transitioning that to them, you know, leading and saying, well, these are the kinds of things that can fit there, whenever I look at that, imagine like, you know, could it be like a box yard, RTP where, you know, you could take old buildings that make it like the frontier, you know, kind of thinking then, what would that look like,

[39:36] So just throwing that out there, I think, you know, it's kind of what I would call a hybrid approach.

[39:42] In terms of, and you might be talking about later, economic resiliency, does the cricket stadium fall into that in terms of, you know, where we are now and the future investments that we're going to look at?

[40:00] Um, that down the road. So, uh, just to make sure I understand, are you asking, um, the changes to the cricket stadium or the cricket stadium, as it currently says? Um, well, just the, it's also an economic development argument. I mean, the fact that we had majorly cricket, and now that's going to be gone. And one of the kinds of investments and strategy that we have of our own funding going in, but also the strategy of Wake County, occupancy tax money.

[40:29] the kinds of amenities that we could build to either bring larger events there or even get

[40:36] the MLC back which might be out of bringing it to us. So we have a presentation in the future

[40:41] and that am I getting ahead of myself? No, we do have a presentation coming again. So May 27th,

[40:46] you'll hear from BDP, the consultant that we have hired that's done the study of Church Street Park,

[40:51] and then we also have a session coming up with you to discuss the agreement that we have and where

[40:57] we are with other components or aspects of cricket as well.

[41:00] What would be helpful in that is that the data somewhere,

[41:04] whether the, you know, how many over the years when we did big events,

[41:07] how many people came in, how many hotels that is there?

[41:10] Is it loose collecting that information?

[41:12] Is it us? Is it the county?

[41:14] No, the county, the Greater Rally Sports Authority.

[41:17] So they can track that.

[41:18] Yeah, and we've used that.

[41:20] We've had that.

[41:20] We shared some of that with you over time as far as what the impact was

[41:25] was over the last particularly three years

[41:27] while we were in this agreement.

[41:30] So that is, again, also part of why we have a good,

[41:34] I think, opportunity to seek some

[41:37] of the hospitality tax from the county,

[41:39] because my conversations with Dennis Edwards

[41:41] and others, Lauren Gold, they acknowledge

[41:44] and recognize that we are drawing

[41:46] some significant crowds out there,

[41:48] which impacts, you know, heads and beds,

[41:49] it impacts meals, tax and other things, so.

[41:53] Yeah, and I will just say to in terms of the projection, it does not necessarily include any revenue sources that we don't currently have or don't currently have, you know, a commitment to so things like occupancy tax to be able to help fund anything out at church street, whether it's, you know, directly related to cricket tourism or cricket or the expansion of the facility, that's not necessarily built in here.

[42:18] but neither is any other grant or revenue source

[42:21] that we don't have an expectation of receiving in the picture.

[42:24] It's okay.

[42:27] That's more funer.

[42:28] Yes.

[42:29] I'd like to go back to the smart shuttle.

[42:32] A few meetings back.

[42:37] We talked to individuals that are doing a study on our smart shuttle.

[42:45] When are we supposed to get the results back from that study?

[42:49] the alternative transit study includes the smart shuttle, but also other components that just kicked off

[42:55] 30, 45 days ago. I believe the responses are back this fall. There may be an initial update. Michelle

[43:03] can come up and give us a little detail. Sorry, Michelle, thank you.

[43:15] So you'll see in the next

[43:16] news and notes that the public engagement is kicking off, attending a lot of our big events,

[43:21] that's coming up on Springfest and other things.

[43:24] Our goal is to get you an update in June,

[43:29] but it is going to be closer to the end of the year

[43:31] before that study is complete.

[43:34] Okay, thank you.

[43:36] I'm just that

[43:41] this wording that we're just sustaining

[43:44] our Smart Shuttle program bothers me

[43:48] because it makes it seem like we're not doing anything

[43:52] and to improve it or expand it.

[43:55] We can change that word.

[43:57] Thank you.

[43:58] All right.

[43:59] That's it.

[44:01] Mayor Colley, and then I'll get Councilor.

[44:12] Are we going to be improving and enhancing?

[44:17] We are in the sense that we're still

[44:18] going to be adding the second Sunday shuttle.

[44:21] Beyond that, the approach has been

[44:23] that we're going to generally hold while this transit study

[44:25] is done, rather than adding, trying to add more stops

[44:28] that we don't know if we'll stay or not.

[44:30] you know we've added the most recent one on church street but after that we've

[44:34] essentially agreed that we're going to hold on well that study is conducted so

[44:38] we don't invest money there that might be better invested if there's an

[44:41] alternative identified and we just don't know what the outcome of that study will

[44:45] be okay they're calling so I just like to share some thoughts on the perimeter

[44:54] park study I'd like to just kind of begin with the end in mind and just keep

[44:59] in mine.

[45:00] Own that property. It's pretty much up to those office holders, similarly to the help that we gave to Spark and pathways in that we got information from them about what could be a good path forward for them. So I don't necessarily feel like we need to be on the hook for a consultant if we can do a little bit more of that understanding in house and using networking for

[45:29] that kind of knowledge. I don't know if we need a consultant to come in and essentially

[45:34] tell us what time it is. So that's just something to keep in mind because there's only certain

[45:39] things that we're going to be able to do to actually move that needle and that's UDO based.

[45:42] So planning will have to be important towards the end, but I'm not sure if paying a consultant

[45:48] $150,000 is going to come up with something that no one else in the country understands.

[45:54] I think the best practices are out there. So I think we just need to try to lean in and help our

[45:59] business community maintain their profits and their ability to operate in a

[46:05] functional way. So, but that's coming in the future lots of time to discuss

[46:11] about this one to sort of plant that seed early that that's not really our

[46:15] direct problem. It's going to affect us a lot but we can be helpers rather than

[46:20] the driving force on that I think. So we certainly have an opportunity in that

[46:25] sense. So when we move to the next slide here that's going to talk about some things that we're

[46:30] recommending delaying until April 1st that could be potentially one of those that could give Michelle

[46:36] her team and Tiffany and Amelia a chance to look at that perhaps consider what we might be able to do

[46:43] internally and then come back to you with some more explanation of if they still feel a study

[46:48] you know we can offer some explanation in detail about why that's the what they feel in their

[46:53] professional opinion is the best way to go.

[46:55] Thank you, sir.

[46:56] Okay.

[46:58] All right.

[47:00] So I'm sorry.

[47:01] My

[47:10] mic wasn't on.

[47:11] I even highlighted this on slide 10,

[47:13] when you talk about the 11.5 million and holding,

[47:17] it's just 800 K.

[47:19] So if need be,

[47:22] why isn't it more than that?

[47:23] Could it be more than that?

[47:25] Why that number?

[47:26] Why those projects?

[47:27] And then,

[47:29] is there opportunity?

[47:30] I just want to know for the answer to go in deeper if we need to.

[47:37] We certainly could, so I think how we got to the 800 was we were looking for a couple things.

[47:43] One, what is work that does not have to start now?

[47:47] What is maybe expansion or new information, new projects programming that if we're starting new we could certainly start later in the year.

[47:55] And some of that is also new equipment that could potentially wait until later in the year.

[48:02] As we're going to get to, that includes $300,000 that would be reserves.

[48:07] So $100,000 from each of the three reserves.

[48:10] And the reason we approached it that way is that if we feel if it's serious enough that we're having to cut,

[48:16] perhaps a million dollars out of the budget, that we may want to consider, do we fully fund the reserves and

[48:23] what's the impact on operations if we continue to fully fund those and pull $300,000 to somewhere else.

[48:30] Again, I think we feel that this is, you know, we're normally conservative.

[48:36] This is like conservative plus plus in terms of, and you've seen some of that last time from,

[48:41] from Byron and you're going to weren't explaining a little bit about that in here where we are,

[48:46] you know, some things are holding flat where we honestly expect there will be some growth.

[48:50] We're also showing decreases in a couple places where we think it may stay stable, but again, we're making sure that we are holding some of that back.

[48:59] So it's only 800,000 that's being programmed to be held, but I think we could comfortably say 750,000 to another million dollars that could have been generated in revenue if we weren't being as conservative as we are.

[49:12] Okay, that's fine, thank you, yeah, that's a couple.

[49:18] So,

[49:21] again, part of the plan of this budget is to delay about $800,000 until April.

[49:27] We started talking about until January, but unfortunately, we're always three months behind

[49:32] on sales tax revenue.

[49:33] And that's really where we expect there could be the most volatility if it's going to happen.

[49:38] So holding $800,000 is about seven to seven and a half percent of the sales tax we receive.

[49:45] So we feel that's a pretty good buffer that even if things turn worse and anticipated that we should be able to buffer with that

[49:52] But again that we could certainly go deeper in delaying some other things if that's the preference of council

[49:58] What we show right now

[50:00] Now is some of the athletic program improvements, and some of the needed facility updates would delay until April. That could be painting and carpeting in some places, some other things within the athletic program. That would delay some of this innovative equipment for police and fire. Again, that's, for example, the police digital forensic life. It's about $50,000, but we would delay that because it's new. And if they haven't had it, they can wait until April to start that.

[50:28] And then again, there's two parts to the pedestrian ADA accessibility.

[50:33] One part is to do some actual work that's already been identified.

[50:36] And then the other part is a study of our facility so we would delay the study until April 1st.

[50:42] Again, we already talked about the holding a portion of those reserve fund investments.

[50:47] Some greenway care in maintenance. That's some new equipment in public works that's going to let them be more efficient with the work they do that could hold.

[50:55] and then, again, some other grounds and facility tools, primarily out of public works, our

[51:00] Jeffrey, that your improvements and make us more efficient, but they could wait until

[51:05] April if we needed to.

[51:10] Okay.

[51:11] Questions there?

[51:13] That's my word, Betty.

[51:15] So I understand the budget tool of not funding the reserves fully, because I understand we

[51:22] have to have a balanced budget.

[51:25] But I just can't stress enough that we can't make a habit of not funding the reserves.

[51:35] Every time we've done that, it's turned into a slippery slope and then we don't have

[51:40] money when we need it.

[51:42] So if we get okay with that, is are the reserves going to be the first thing that gets funded

[51:52] in April will we realize like when when would we pull the trigger and say oh we can put that

[51:57] 300,000 back in. So our intent would be to come back to you once we have the second quarter sales

[52:03] tax numbers through December through the holidays, which is really one of the more telling periods

[52:07] of course for the year. So with soon as we had those in April we would we would analyze that of

[52:12] course and see where we're at and if we felt comfortable from a staff standpoint we would come

[52:16] to you in a meeting and share with you this is where we're at. You know we feel we are at least

[52:21] performing it where we projected so we feel comfortable recommending that we do the $800,000

[52:26] in investment that would include the $300 into the reserves and then about $500,000 worth

[52:31] of additional equipment and items in the budget.

[52:36] And I can't speak for everybody obviously but I would like that $300,000 to be first on

[52:41] the list of things like I think we have to get in a habit of paying ourselves first and so

[52:48] So I think that we should, like, I'm okay to do it as a budget exercise, but I'm not

[52:55] okay to do it in real life.

[52:56] So we can certainly make that the first priority to come back in.

[53:00] Well, I mean, don't do it on my account, but I'd be interested to hear what everybody else

[53:03] thinks.

[53:04] Well, I also do want to point out that these are items that will be funded in the recommended

[53:09] budget.

[53:10] We just won't necessarily put the trigger on.

[53:12] So it's not a situation where we, you know, would immediately try to fund something else

[53:17] with that $300,000.

[53:18] It's $300,000 that essentially just wouldn't be transferred.

[53:22] So the revenues ended up not coming in kind of where we anticipated.

[53:27] That's where that $800,000 kind of played into.

[53:30] No, the manager's going to go into a slide.

[53:32] If we see revenues actually increased,

[53:34] with a little bit more kind of aggressive approach,

[53:38] then where traditional conservative method has been

[53:42] in this particular year.

[53:43] But this is actually, it will be in the budget.

[53:46] It's just not the full amount that we will transfer in this issue.

[53:49] Right, and I definitely understand that and what I'm saying is that by the end of the

[53:57] year, I want to be sure that we've transferred, that that's been transferred.

[54:03] So I hope things go better than we think they will, but I don't want to see us get, we've

[54:12] done so well with reserves.

[54:14] And I don't want to see us getting into a situation where we treat that money as optional.

[54:22] I have a follow-up question.

[54:25] I'm assuming we would be notified if it were to occur that we did not fund those reserves?

[54:36] Absolutely.

[54:37] Okay.

[54:37] There's a discussion coming in April with an update, whatever it is.

[54:41] It could be that things that were worse than we expected.

[54:44] that we may need to hold a portion of that 800

[54:48] because we're concerned.

[54:49] It may be that, hey, we're right where we budgeted for,

[54:53] still conservative, not where we've been in the past,

[54:55] but we already budgeted for it,

[54:57] so you would have to, of course, agree to that click.

[55:00] And then we would just say go ahead and spend that, or we could be in a situation where we've been more conservative than ultimately we needed to be, and there could be additional revenues. If sales tax doesn't do what we've predicted and it does a little bit better, if utilities do a little bit better, there could be additional revenues there. And that's what the next slide is about, is that we could ask you to consider, if we've done better than anticipated, you could consider additional appropriations to the budget, and we could amend it at that point.

[55:29] in April. So again, some of the things that we would look for, there's about $600,000

[55:36] here. One is parks and grounds enhancements, particularly with some facilities and green

[55:41] ways that we just didn't fit into the $62 million budget. Some additional security replacement

[55:48] items that we are holding off on. Again, one of the positions that's been requested is

[55:54] a data analyst position in the IT department that would really serve other departments as

[55:59] well because of how much data we work and may also potentially support our efforts to

[56:03] expand the use of data and our dashboards. So we would ask you to consider adding that

[56:09] position in April if there were necessary funds for that. Again, at that point, you wouldn't

[56:16] have to fund the full year of it, but you would have to full fund it in 27. So that would be

[56:21] an opportunity. There's also from the community viewpoint, the opportunity to do some expansion

[56:29] of the mobile app that is not currently funded, initialize the comprehensive public art

[56:35] plan development that is currently not funded in the original monies.

[56:40] And then in operational, excuse me, in sustainability, the streetscape and landscaping master plan,

[56:47] that is something we would like to do.

[56:48] But again, that's a new initiative, so we're sort of holding on some of the new initiatives.

[56:53] And then under operational excellence, there is some additional grounds in streets equipment

[56:58] replacement or new equipment requests that we have not funded in the original budget.

[57:04] And then there's also a request for some budgeting and long range planning software

[57:09] that would provide us some efficiencies, but we're making it now.

[57:13] It would be better if we had it, but we're not going to ask for it in the original budget.

[57:17] It would be something we would actually consider if we were ahead of the curve on what we budgeted

[57:21] for revenues.

[57:25] So actually, on the last slide, about the 800, those last two bullets, about the sustainability

[57:33] environment, greenway care, maintenance, grounds of facility tools, I mean, that's a year-round

[57:38] usage, but we really start working on that stuff like February, March. So I don't know if there's

[57:44] thoughts of having public works maybe request getting that equipment in place earlier so we could be

[57:50] more efficient as we start the year of taking care of everything, but I don't want to

[57:55] delay reserves.

[57:56] So, it's just the timing of maintaining all that.

[58:01] It's extended to, you know, make them more efficient, have some different better equipment.

[58:05] So, of course, I'd like to do all that right now, but again, trying to do that earlier than

[58:10] April, I think I would caution against because if we were going to do that, I think with

[58:15] the way we're recommending this budget, it would need to be in the budget.

[58:17] I mean, particularly if there's consensus around the idea that the reserve should get funded

[58:22] first, when this money comes, that would still be down on my potentially passed, even

[58:28] the other things that are indicated here.

[58:30] And we need the comfort level of having the data in April.

[58:33] Yes, I think that's the main thing that this is all about.

[58:36] I think that's the best approach for us with the uncertainty.

[58:39] Thank you.

[58:40] Thank you.

[58:42] Yeah, I have a question on this slide.

[58:45] No, not that slide.

[58:46] The next one.

[58:47] So where, what triggered this bullet or need for improving street scape in landscaping master plan?

[58:59] I don't recall seeing that in the sustainability master plan.

[59:03] It's not a part of the sustainability master plan.

[59:07] It relates to sustainability. That's where it fit best in these categories.

[59:11] That is sort of a collaborative request from planning and engineering.

[59:16] They requested it two years in a row now, and just it has a solid price tag to it, so we haven't gotten to it.

[59:23] Again, it's something we would like to do, but it's not something we're doing right now, and we can go without it if we have to.

[59:30] Ideally, we would have it, and it would make us more consistent as we continue to do more work with betterments on NC DOT projects and other things.

[59:39] But again, it's over $200,000.

[59:42] Okay, but it doesn't sound like it's really a sustainability environment initiative it's relative to the environment to an extent

[59:52] I mean it's it probably fits there as much as anywhere else. Okay

[1:00:01] So on these potential additional appropriations, again, that would also come before us. Absolutely.

[1:00:09] You would have to amend your budget to add these. Yeah. Yes. So I think I would, when the time comes, I would want it, and you might say this for other bullets on here too, but the mobile app outreach and awareness enhancements, I think I want to, I don't think.

[1:00:27] I want to know how some kind of history on the app and how it's being used, is it,

[1:00:37] because I will tell you, I'm not, I don't use it a lot, so I'm concerned about spending money on

[1:00:46] something that's not bringing value, and maybe that's just me, and that's why I want to understand

[1:00:50] And how it's being used, what the date you've collected on that can tell us.

[1:00:56] And if it is, we need to enhance it to make it more usable, that's fine.

[1:01:04] I need to know all that before we make the next step.

[1:01:09] I'm sorry to interrupt you.

[1:01:10] I think this would almost be like a mini budget request.

[1:01:14] So I think we would be evaluating where we're at.

[1:01:17] We would see what the first quarter numbers were, and then perhaps in March, we might come

[1:01:21] to you with more description of this and explanation of this so you knew where we were at.

[1:01:26] And then once we have the numbers, if you were willing to, we could go then.

[1:01:30] Because I don't want to wait too long to introduce it to you and have to go through two or three

[1:01:35] meetings and then we're already in June and it may make it challenging to actually spend

[1:01:39] the money if you were to add it.

[1:01:41] So again, none of this you have to do.

[1:01:42] this is just if we really have been way too conservative and we've got additional revenues,

[1:01:47] you could look at any or all of this and we would certainly bring it to you in advance

[1:01:50] to give you again really a mini budget presentation.

[1:01:53] Okay.

[1:01:54] Good.

[1:01:55] Go ahead.

[1:01:55] No, no.

[1:01:56] Go ahead.

[1:01:56] You might answer my next question.

[1:01:58] Well, I don't know if I will.

[1:01:59] All I was going to say specifically about the app, so this particular initiative is the gamification

[1:02:05] portion of the app in order to help try and drive traffic to the app, try and drive engagement.

[1:02:11] So the whole point of trying to do this particular one is to actually make sure that we do have some engagement on the app that it's not just going unused throughout the entire existence.

[1:02:21] Okay, okay, because I get, you know, just to kind of, I just don't want to throw good money after bad.

[1:02:28] You have to show me that there's, there's some value out there now and that we're going to enhance that value to the citizens before I would quite frankly do almost anything.

[1:02:41] So okay, the other thing I also wanted to point out as well is that prior to us bringing back anything there will be at least three financial reports that we will provide for you all in FY26 prior to you making a decision.

[1:02:56] And we'll make sure in each of those that we bring back some sort of progress on the delay as well as the additional appropriation so you all will have plenty of information to be able to help make a decision in either side.

[1:03:11] Yeah, so Councilmember Johnson got me thinking about that mobile app and spending more money on it

[1:03:19] I mean the app we have now is worse than the one we had before but it sounds like

[1:03:29] this item is you said gamification so it's just to add gamification to people go

[1:03:38] to the app rather than improving the app?

[1:03:44] So I would imagine there would be some level of improvement

[1:03:47] that would also exist in there.

[1:03:48] And I did to speak for Rick in that particular scenario.

[1:03:52] So it's definitely something that we can bring back to you

[1:03:55] while in terms of exactly what that particular initiative would

[1:03:58] do, what those points of change would be within the app

[1:04:02] as well as what the technical specs of the change would be.

[1:04:05] So that you all have the ability to understand exactly

[1:04:08] What is going to happen? Yeah, I mean, I'll say this like I used to use the previous app

[1:04:14] I don't use this one at all so if they're gonna spend any money on it

[1:04:19] If it they need to improve it if they're just gonna add some game to make it pseudo fun

[1:04:26] That's a waste of money

[1:04:30] I'm like we need to bring back a good update on that perhaps in the spring

[1:04:35] I mean before we talk about spending any money on it, yeah, we'll absolutely do that.

[1:04:40] Thank you.

[1:04:41] All right.

[1:04:43] Okay.

[1:04:44] So, the next one, I want to give you some specific examples, you know, we've talked

[1:04:48] a little bit in generalities and around the priorities, but this is some specific examples

[1:04:53] based on what our conversations have been, this relates to what the council is interested

[1:04:58] in, what the community is interested in.

[1:05:00] So, highlights from what is funded, 9-1-1 dispatching increases. So, our partnership with Carey, those costs continue to increase. So, we are funding those. And that's formulaic. That's not they thought they should charge us more. That's just what it costs to do the work. They have a formula that relates to, and it's a national government. That's not something that Carey created. So, we understand what that is. Again, the capital reserves are funded. There is economic development support. We purge you all very clearly.

[1:05:29] that you're I believe pleased with where we've gotten to but there's a lot more to do so there is

[1:05:33] additional support for Tiffany and Amelia in there. This does include purchasing two fire engines

[1:05:39] and a water rescue boat to upgrade the boat they currently have. You may ask why a water rescue boat

[1:05:46] and Morrisville but A, it went to respond to Haleen. It is also used on like Crabtree here like Jordan

[1:05:52] around here. We're part of a group with Apex and in some extent with Carey so we do get use of that

[1:05:58] and the one they have is really undersized and not fit to do some of the work they do.

[1:06:04] And again, all of that fire engines and the rescue boat is going to be funded

[1:06:07] out of the public safety reserve.

[1:06:10] We are recommending full COLA and merit as we have in the past.

[1:06:14] We are asking for four full-time positions and two part-time positions.

[1:06:20] So for the four full-time positions, two of those do not require full funding.

[1:06:24] So, we already alluded to or spoke of the assistant fire marshal and that there is part time money that would support that along with increasing fees in the fire marshal's office.

[1:06:34] The second position would be the accounting generalist that we spoke about earlier this spring.

[1:06:38] Again, with the reorganization and the combination of the two departments, there is money left over from what we were paying for prior positions.

[1:06:48] So, it is about a $10,000 need and that accounting generalist would be paid for.

[1:06:52] The third position is the LAP position in communications, the language access plan that

[1:06:59] we convert what has been a new fellow position into a full-time position.

[1:07:04] We have seen extraordinary results with that.

[1:07:07] We've seen that in the community in terms of communication and outreach and being able

[1:07:12] to, I believe, reach more people than we have in the past and find more people that are willing

[1:07:18] to try to communicate with us.

[1:07:19] you may have heard me say when we went into that language access program with UNC, you know,

[1:07:26] the light that came on for me was I knew we had residents that struggled to communicate with us

[1:07:30] because of language barriers. I didn't realize we had a segment of the population that didn't even

[1:07:34] try. So I think we're reaching some of those folks by being proactive putting more information out

[1:07:39] in five different languages. So feel strongly that that position is needed to continue that good work

[1:07:46] And then the fourth position is an HR position that will focus on recruitment and retention.

[1:07:52] So we have previously done that a little more scattered across the departments.

[1:07:56] So this would bring that back into the HR department.

[1:07:59] It would be more consistent, it would be better managed.

[1:08:03] It would be a person that specializes in that work and would help us to do a better job, both recruiting and retaining employees.

[1:08:11] And then the two part time staff positions are the two community officers that we mentioned in the police department.

[1:08:16] Department. We are funding Gen. V.I. to continue that work in the IT Department. We are also

[1:08:23] funding IT hardware and security enhancements. That includes a variety of things. Laptop

[1:08:29] replacement includes also security enhancements around our network and other things that will

[1:08:36] help to keep us safe and also technology-technologically sound. Again, language access continuation

[1:08:43] relation related to the position, we're adding additional park Wi-Fi and court sensors

[1:08:47] so we can be more proactive in letting our residents and our community members and visitors

[1:08:52] know what's available, what's not, what are wait times, that sort of thing.

[1:08:56] This does fund pedestrian accessibility so that we ensure that we continue to be in compliance

[1:09:02] with ADA requirements.

[1:09:04] It does have funding for a perimeter park small area planning and we've heard you and

[1:09:09] the feedback there and we'll continue to look at that.

[1:09:11] This funds the police, digital forensics.

[1:09:14] It also funds the parks and rec master plan again.

[1:09:17] That's coming out of not the general revenues but out of money we received in the bond premium.

[1:09:24] And then it will include the senior center lease expansion.

[1:09:28] So we've added money into that line to make sure that we can add a little about double our senior center lease costs.

[1:09:36] And we did get those leases back this week.

[1:09:38] so we'll be coming back to share that information with you as well.

[1:09:41] And then we will need to identify funding for the upfit there,

[1:09:45] but I think we have a plan that will come back to share with you when that's an appropriate time to do that.

[1:09:51] So the things that are unfunded, and you'll notice if they have a star there around that could be funded list in April,

[1:09:56] if we were to be ahead of where we expect the budgets.

[1:10:00] CIP software for greater efficiency, the data analyst position, MAFC, tennis controlled entry. So we are funding controlled entry for the practice pitches at Church Street Southern Lot, particularly the ones that are actually turf to protect them, not that they can't be used, but that we want to control to use to make sure that we know that the people are using them are educated on what it is, you know, don't take cleats in there, some of those kind of things. And we also manage the use, so it's not just, you know, whoever gets there,

[1:10:29] the earliest that day gets before the day, we're going to manage that as well.

[1:10:33] A similar request is made for the tennis courts at the back of M.A.F.C., we're going to

[1:10:39] push that till the following year to come up with that money.

[1:10:43] Again, we...

[1:10:44] So at the tennis courts, right now, you can park in the back and just walk on.

[1:10:47] In the past, you used to have to go through the facility to get out there, but now you

[1:10:51] can just come in and walk on.

[1:10:52] So it's taken away some of the control we have of that.

[1:10:55] And again, because they're busy and because people like to try to play tennis and sometimes

[1:10:58] pickle ball there, we want to control that access just to avoid conflict and concern

[1:11:03] and to better ensure that we can show when they're available and when they're not available.

[1:11:07] And they're never locked. Not right now. No, I know that. Yeah. I can hear it.

[1:11:12] You can hear it when it's closed. Somebody's out there playing. Yeah, I've been

[1:11:21] So let me

[1:11:26] just go through this. Okay, but I just run through that list and we'll stay on this slide. We've already talked about the gamification.

[1:11:33] Park signage. We're going to hold off on that because we are looking at improving the signage across the town, particularly with the dog park coming.

[1:11:41] So that may fall under what we're doing with wayfinding parks and grounds enhancements again. That's something that could potentially be added.

[1:11:48] the public art plan could be added. The additional public works equipment and then that street scape and landscaping master plan could be added if you chose to if we had the resources and you were confident in that I have to be honest. I have no clue.

[1:12:07] So I have three things, this generative AI, what is that specifically, how is that

[1:12:16] going to be used to help our residents, or is it just on there to sound cool?

[1:12:24] It's not on there to sound cool.

[1:12:26] But I mean, just sticking it on there doesn't mean anything.

[1:12:30] What is it going to do for us?

[1:12:33] So it's going to assist the IT Department in developing a genitive AI that links into

[1:12:38] town documents and resources that can be accessed through the website because if you've tried

[1:12:44] to use our current website in the search engine, you probably have the same result I have,

[1:12:48] which is frustration.

[1:12:50] So that's going to be improved.

[1:12:51] So again, it's not just the ability to search the website, but it's the ability to access

[1:12:56] public records within all of our different domains.

[1:12:58] And so that will help reduce potentially public records who

[1:13:02] press to some extent.

[1:13:03] It makes us more transparent and be able to find things

[1:13:06] whether that's meeting minutes or proclamations or whatever

[1:13:09] may have been done that can be a struggle right now.

[1:13:12] And then the other aspect of that is we're also working

[1:13:15] on gendered AI for staff that is similar to but not the same

[1:13:19] as what's on the website because of course there's things

[1:13:21] we have that staff can access that we respectfully

[1:13:24] don't want the public to aspect in some cases and maybe

[1:13:27] working documents, they may be things that are not public records.

[1:13:31] So we're working on that now, and that, again, creates a lot of efficiency for our staff.

[1:13:36] We started testing the tool right now, and it's amazing what it can do to save time on

[1:13:41] searching things and finding things, and even making some recommendations around, you know,

[1:13:46] I want to say this, and it gives you that draft.

[1:13:49] I mean, it's similar to ChatGTTP, GPT, sorry, in a sense, but it's all about art content.

[1:13:54] But that's already been funded, you've already got that part.

[1:13:58] Well, we have the start of that, but this is to continue to evolve that and build it out.

[1:14:03] Okay. So then my second question, the language access person.

[1:14:11] So we're making that a permanent position, but maybe I'm naive, but it would seem to me

[1:14:22] that at some point we would no longer need that position because everything would have

[1:14:32] been interpreted and planned out for and like she evaluated apps and tools for translations to

[1:14:48] be used, so will this fade away eventually?

[1:14:54] I don't think it will.

[1:14:55] I think that your correct, some of that initial work is going to get completed.

[1:14:59] You know, there's always going to...

[1:15:00] There will be additional things to, you know, to translate to work with the community on. So I think it is part of finishing out the initial part of that work. But there's also an opportunity there to continue to enhance our ongoing community engagement. Because, you know, we have people in comms that do certain things, but we don't have someone that's almost strictly focused on what's continued to look for ways to engage the community, to share information, to seek information. So I do think there would be consistent work over time in that position.

[1:15:29] Okay, that would be worth offspending.

[1:15:32] Okay, and then lastly, I just wanted to add,

[1:15:35] because Mayor Colle made a good point on the perimeter part,

[1:15:40] is that we don't own that property.

[1:15:42] So why would we be spending $150,000 to fund a plan

[1:15:47] for the people that own that property?

[1:15:52] I mean, that should be something that they do,

[1:15:54] So if they want to get tenants.

[1:15:59] So I agree to some extent with that, I think we also have an obligation to identify potential

[1:16:05] alternatives.

[1:16:06] Again, part of that is, what do we do with our UDO that makes us more friendly for what

[1:16:12] they might do there?

[1:16:13] So I agree, it's not our job to individually rescue them, but we've met with them on a couple

[1:16:18] of different occasions.

[1:16:20] We've shared with them that, you know, and we have some obligation in the sense that that really impacts our tax base.

[1:16:26] And so what we don't want to do is let that disappear because, you know, we just decided to let it wait and see what happened.

[1:16:32] It is, it is a significant component of what goes on in the community.

[1:16:36] And it's not just perimeter park.

[1:16:37] Again, I think we call it the perimeter park small area plan.

[1:16:40] But the results of that and the things that we might change could impact other areas of town that may be facing issues with office occupancy

[1:16:47] and conversion to other uses and things like that.

[1:16:50] So yes, Michelle, are you going to save me again?

[1:17:01] If I could, I would like to add, and I think kind of maybe what Tiffany and I have in our heads

[1:17:08] is a little different than what I'm hearing from some of the council members.

[1:17:13] So I want to make sure we're on the same page.

[1:17:16] We're looking at about a 220 acre area, a lot of it, great infrastructure, great buildings,

[1:17:23] a lot of those buildings aren't readily adaptable to other uses.

[1:17:28] So I think part of this is we're thinking beyond just recruiting tenants for existing buildings.

[1:17:34] We're thinking that a part of this area might be areas where we're talking about

[1:17:39] needing true redevelopment to infuse it with something else.

[1:17:44] So and we need to talk with the property owner and engage them in all that needs to occur.

[1:17:48] But we've done small area plans for McCrimmon.

[1:17:51] we've done them for TOD. We don't own those areas, but we're thinking beyond just getting tenants and buildings.

[1:17:57] We're thinking some of these buildings, you know, opening it up and thinking about tearing down the starting completely fresh in some areas.

[1:18:05] And what's the vision for that and what would that look like and what type of uses.

[1:18:09] So I just wanted to make sure I wasn't sure if we were thinking the same thing there. So just wanted to clarify that.

[1:18:17] Thank you Michelle, I think yours is down you're good, it's Raoul, Mayor Farley, and then we'll get this.

[1:18:34] No, I think I just put mine up, I'm last.

[1:18:38] With the generative AI, the question I have is, I know that we've been working at this

[1:18:43] new chatbot.

[1:18:44] We're going to be willing out with our website event.

[1:18:48] Would there be the potential eventually for, like what they call, years ago, well, a

[1:18:53] few years ago, we talked about a 3-1-1 call center, but we couldn't do it because of the

[1:18:58] cost.

[1:18:59] And Kerry did it.

[1:19:00] But now, you can enable 3-1-1 with these kinds of AI technologies.

[1:19:04] Jesus, that's something down the road of potential.

[1:19:07] You know, so, you know, someone want to know,

[1:19:09] what is my yard risk?

[1:19:10] Get picked up, they could just, you know,

[1:19:12] come in and ask that, you know, it ends.

[1:19:14] Well, I think we're honestly hoping

[1:19:15] that this genitive AI will do that.

[1:19:17] As long as we have that information available

[1:19:20] to the tool, you know, it can, we can help it learn.

[1:19:23] And that's what Rick has shared with someone

[1:19:25] because I am not the expert.

[1:19:28] That's why we have Rick, right?

[1:19:29] But he's helping me learn and understand.

[1:19:31] And part of that is that the machine learns

[1:19:34] the more it does and the more it finds things and understands you know how things go so certainly over

[1:19:38] time I think it becomes an informal 3-1-1 for us rather than standing up you know with facility

[1:19:44] that I honestly don't think we have the volume or the funds to do right now. I think VIT can come

[1:19:49] eventually I think maybe a presentation or a work session where they can come and talk about

[1:19:53] what is the benefit to staff what is the benefit to the residents that being really important.

[1:19:58] Yeah, I think they have more work to do.

[1:20:00] So before that would be meaningful, but absolutely, we'll continue to provide updates. And the final question as a manager, what I'm hearing you say is that you are seeing already just in the initial use of an increasing productivity. Yes, that we're reducing the amount of times you have to write an email where staff can just go into that and advance it for you or gives you ideas of what you're going to talk about if you're going to go talk to the department, which then frees them up to do other things, other challenges, you give them. It helped me send you an email last week. Yeah. Yeah.

[1:20:31] Yes, it's an incredibly powerful tool.

[1:20:34] We've also talked a little bit about the potential danger with that,

[1:20:38] but some of that danger diminishes when it's our own generative AI,

[1:20:42] because you're not finding crazy things from the web.

[1:20:45] I mean, you still could, because it does search the web,

[1:20:47] but you're finding more information that comes from a more skill source,

[1:20:50] which makes it easier and more trustworthy.

[1:20:55] Also?

[1:20:55] Yeah, that.

[1:20:56] Thank you.

[1:20:56] So coming back to the controlled entry for tennis or any of our fields, I'm I value more openness and making it easier because I thought it was kind of burdensome to have to go through the facility to go play tennis in the past.

[1:21:14] It won't necessarily be going through the facility. It may be that you have a swipe that can be programmed to give you access.

[1:21:21] us if you remember or that sort of thing or again if you just are a user so it doesn't

[1:21:27] necessarily mean having to go back through and check in it just means it's trying to

[1:21:30] protect that a little bit to people that you know have priority to use it perhaps or

[1:21:35] you know I've made plans to use it but it's not going to be a go back into the lobby it's

[1:21:39] all technology.

[1:21:40] Tom Manager can I just jump in and just add something that's really a little bit of a twist

[1:21:44] on this particular sensor group it's also going to allow people which I think is a really

[1:21:49] cool thing, it's going to allow people to request additional players too.

[1:21:54] So it's optimizing the use and the space and the availability as well as knowing when

[1:22:00] the courts available and when it's not available.

[1:22:02] So it's really smart tech and really kind of moving ahead of the pack here.

[1:22:06] So just wanted to add that little tidbit, that nice feature that's going to also come with

[1:22:11] knowing if the courts available it is a whole or not.

[1:22:14] It's going to bring people together.

[1:22:15] there. Thank you. I like that and I'm not sure why it's just MFC then and not also

[1:22:21] Marshall Community Park and Church Street where we have facilities also because we have

[1:22:27] to start somewhere. Isn't it because it's a separate club? People buy a membership

[1:22:31] to play the MFC so you don't want them using it without. There's a piece of that but again

[1:22:38] it's we're going to implement this more over time but it's not practical to try to do

[1:22:44] do it all at once, particularly given this budget.

[1:22:47] So the Southern Lot to protect those practice pitches is our initial priority because

[1:22:51] the damage there is what we're concerned about with people that don't, you know, may

[1:22:55] not, you know, try to use it as a batting cage, which they can do, but not in the same way

[1:23:00] they use a true batting cage because you can really damage the ground in that practice

[1:23:06] pitch.

[1:23:07] So I guess the 10th courts have generally been open to everybody.

[1:23:10] Not just our residents and stuff.

[1:23:13] So I was wondering why we haven't already started this maybe at the baseball fields, where we have just the locks and only the teams that are allowed to be there are there.

[1:23:22] That might be a good test case because our team has identified the southern lot as a first priority.

[1:23:28] Okay. Yeah. There and then make it happen. Have fun. But those are the unfunded ones for now. Yes.

[1:23:37] Okay. I like embracing technology. I just want to make sure that we're not hindering access.

[1:23:49] Now my mic is on, so a while back, Council Member Fender mentioned the new position for the

[1:23:59] language access individual. And I, too, feel like a lot of the work was a project and the

[1:24:10] translations and exploration and the gap analysis,

[1:24:15] those were related to a project that has been completed

[1:24:22] and now we're looking at sustainment

[1:24:24] of the outreach effort for the town.

[1:24:29] I realize policies change, programs change,

[1:24:33] information does change, but the level of effort

[1:24:38] will not be as high as it has probably been from the last year.

[1:24:45] With that, I really think that the position belongs in communications because it's related

[1:24:52] to community.

[1:24:53] It is in communications.

[1:24:55] Well, I mean, like, it should not be called the language access role.

[1:25:00] It should be called a communications or community outreach coordinator, too, or what. Right. And the reason I say that is because it's more than language. It's culture. It's, it's a lot, it's, there's more depth that, you know, so I, I don't feel like it should be labeled as language access. I just feel like it's a broader.

[1:25:29] or kind of connection that we're trying to establish.

[1:25:34] Okay. The second one is Generative AI. We've got a trend here going on with all the council members.

[1:25:44] I have been very fortunate to have had Microsoft co-pilot for the last year as a professional

[1:25:53] and I have used it a lot for various items, projects, reports, presentations, capturing

[1:26:07] meeting summaries, kind of generating new ideas. It is an amazing tool. With that said,

[1:26:14] we need to communicate to our public what we're going to intend on giving back to them

[1:26:20] through the generative AI because so many people haven't had the experience that I've had

[1:26:26] and some are just trying to understand what it means and it can be scary.

[1:26:31] So if we look at the slide that has the generative AI and just say externally enhancing communication

[1:26:39] and enhancing, you know, you gave a laundry list but it really needs to speak to the public

[1:26:47] that you're using generative AI to improve transparency of government

[1:26:52] programming and documentation, for example. And then also generative AI

[1:26:58] internally enhancing staff efficiency and operations. I think that's going to

[1:27:05] resonate with the public because we were kind of explaining a little bit about

[1:27:12] about the purpose, not specific activities and tasks, but just letting them know of ways

[1:27:20] that we're innovating and leading in that space, and it's really a benefit and a value.

[1:27:26] We'll certainly spend on that in the budget message.

[1:27:27] Yes.

[1:27:28] And then finally, poor Michelle, that you attended today, I want to talk to her for a second.

[1:27:36] Again, the more I hear, and the more questions from Council is, I think it's important that

[1:27:43] we get more information about this perimeter park study in a written form.

[1:27:49] Could you provide a purpose, a scope, timeline, just so that we understand it, because I'm

[1:27:57] hearing good information, but I really need to see it written down so I can kind of understand

[1:28:02] and it a little bit better, because the scope is important.

[1:28:07] It is over $100,000, and I take a lot of those larger projects

[1:28:13] with more caution, and I want to review it, and I'm sure others

[1:28:18] would want to have that opportunity as well.

[1:28:22] So in that way, we can better understand and appreciate

[1:28:27] and ask deeper questions if needed.

[1:28:30] I mean, I don't want to get in the space, but I do want to express that I haven't really

[1:28:37] heard this before.

[1:28:38] And so I feel like I need to have a better understanding to, you know, as I move through

[1:28:44] the budget process.

[1:28:45] I'm happy to share that.

[1:28:46] Okay.

[1:28:46] Thank you.

[1:28:48] That's a move, John.

[1:28:49] Okay.

[1:28:50] We're not done talking about the program report, small area plan.

[1:28:55] So I've got to put my two cents in about that too.

[1:28:58] I think the name probably does need to be changed because if I'm hearing correctly, it's more than just perimeter park

[1:29:04] Or is it just perimeter park? Well, no, it doesn't matter. I think we need more information, so that's fine

[1:29:11] but I

[1:29:14] Need even more than that

[1:29:15] It I have been very supportive of all the small earlier small area plans. We have done in the past

[1:29:22] because we knew there was development pressure coming to those areas and we

[1:29:28] wanted to be proactive and get ahead of that. I need to know there's some kind

[1:29:34] of pressure here from the in this case the owners of the property that they

[1:29:41] want to redevelop. Why do we want to create a plan if there's no desire to

[1:29:52] even have a plan. So I need to start. They are quite frankly. And I will tell you and I, I need

[1:30:00] Because the one meeting I went to that the chamber conducted where we talked about the empty space out there, and many of you were there, and you might out of the different impression. My impression was they were looking for us to save them. And that's not going to happen. They have to be willing to save themselves. And they have to be willing to invest. And they have to be willing to,

[1:30:28] to fulfill whatever small area plan we come up with, and I didn't hear that at all.

[1:30:37] So I need to hear that this is, before we invest this kind of money to come up with a plan,

[1:30:44] which I am very supportive of, I need to understand there's a desire on the other end.

[1:30:49] Otherwise, it's a plan that's going to sit on the shelf and we'll be outdated very quickly

[1:30:54] as technology and the economy and things change.

[1:30:57] So, I don't want to spend this kind of money without the other landlords involved coming

[1:31:06] to the table.

[1:31:08] And I know we would engage, I'm not saying that.

[1:31:10] I know we would do our part to engage, but I need to hear from them, they are ready.

[1:31:15] And then I think we can work together to come up with a plan that can it help us and help

[1:31:21] them.

[1:31:23] That's just my two cents on that.

[1:31:27] Okay.

[1:31:27] Thank you all.

[1:31:28] that's very good feedback. We appreciate it. That'll help us wrap up our recommended budget.

[1:31:37] Yep, this is me. So looking at expenses, we will briefly talk just a little bit about how

[1:31:43] we're factoring and recruitment, recruitment and retention and the advantages of that

[1:31:48] in this budget as well. This budget does include a 2% market adjustment as well as a 4 and a half

[1:31:55] percent merit adjustment, just to make sure that we can maintain a level of competitiveness

[1:32:01] within the market for employees. It also includes the job classification market study,

[1:32:06] market analysis for paying class for that purpose as well. In addition to that, we do

[1:32:12] have our Elders retirement increases that have been built in based on projections from the

[1:32:19] the state of North Carolina.

[1:32:21] And in addition to that,

[1:32:22] we also have our healthcare premium increases this year.

[1:32:25] However, that due to planning in the past

[1:32:30] and kind of solid financial management and projections,

[1:32:33] we do know that our healthcare fund can support

[1:32:36] any increases this particular year.

[1:32:38] So we don't see a massive jump

[1:32:40] within the general fund budget funding that increase.

[1:32:43] And real quickly on that.

[1:32:45] So we have been pretty consistent between two and a half and three percent of an increase for at least the last three years.

[1:32:53] We funded a five percent increase because we were building our reserve within end ship.

[1:32:58] So they like us to keep a two times reserve in there and for a while we weren't there.

[1:33:02] So we continue to contribute. So we're now there.

[1:33:06] So again, end ship is really continuing to demonstrate its value to us and certainly to our staff in terms of the coverage and how that's working.

[1:33:13] So this year at 2.5% health premium increase is I think very good considering the market a neighboring municipality recently announced a 24% increase in health insurance.

[1:33:29] So 2.5% is very good.

[1:33:32] So, again, Kudos to Genie, Kudos to Martha at the time for getting us involved with Endship.

[1:33:38] You know, it's gone from a very small group.

[1:33:41] I think 10 started that, maybe even seven started that.

[1:33:44] We were one of those.

[1:33:45] It's now up to, I believe, 29 members and they're looking at adding six more this summer.

[1:33:51] And it's gone up to covering more than, it has more than 20,000 covered lives.

[1:33:55] So the buying power, if you will, is pretty impressive there.

[1:33:59] So that's going well and again because of that internal reserve we have we're going to be able to

[1:34:05] Not charge an increase to our staff even with a family or spousal coverage

[1:34:12] The only exception is that is anyways on the buy-up. That's a choice and they pay for that

[1:34:16] But we'll again be able to help our staff out a little bit with no premium increase being shared with them

[1:34:23] I

[1:34:26] have a quick question about that is 4.5% merit all across or is it an average?

[1:34:32] So that's going to be average.

[1:34:33] So let's just make sure that's clear because we'll have exceed such a bit of stations

[1:34:37] and doesn't like we have in the past.

[1:34:40] Thank you.

[1:34:40] Yeah.

[1:34:43] So just kind of continuing on with our recruitment and retention focus for this outcome in

[1:34:48] fiscal year.

[1:34:49] Our HR department does have plans to help establish a task force in order to help develop

[1:34:54] of the Leadership Academy for the organization.

[1:34:57] This will give others.

[1:35:08] There's also another tool in our toolbox in order to be able to maintain a level of succession within the organization so that as staff does ultimately decide to leave at any point that we have people ready to take over and be able to pick up the ball and hit the ground running in order to continue the work.

[1:35:29] work that we do as a community.

[1:35:31] In addition to that, there is going to be a fellow, a UNC fellow for this year that

[1:35:36] is going to aid our HR department, helping to get that leadership academy underway and

[1:35:41] help with some of that initial planning, initial succession planning and strategic leadership

[1:35:47] development.

[1:35:48] We also do have as well the introduction of an HR analyst in this budget to help focus on

[1:35:54] recruitment and retention, to help streamline the recruitment process in order to make sure

[1:35:59] that we get folks in the door quicker, ready to work, ready to go.

[1:36:04] And the one thing that I do want to point out with this change,

[1:36:07] there is a change in software and that change in software

[1:36:10] is actually going to be cheaper than our current software.

[1:36:13] So we will see a level of efficiency as well as calls going down

[1:36:16] in order to implement this.

[1:36:19] And that's really, again, Kudos to David in the HR department

[1:36:22] for looking at different options and seeing what we had.

[1:36:25] Councilmember Spada, John.

[1:36:26] Thank you. I actually want to go back up slide to the, yeah, that's it. Thank you.

[1:36:36] It's been recently made known to me that the dental plan for the town is no longer the same or it's being canceled.

[1:36:48] And could you speak a little bit about that and how that future program would be part of that 2.5% health

[1:36:58] bit?

[1:36:59] So what has happened is we have previously used Delta Dental and it's been through the North Carolina League of

[1:37:05] Municipalities.

[1:37:06] So the League announced a few months ago that they were going to stop that fund and those services.

[1:37:11] So they're no longer offering health insurance and dental insurance.

[1:37:14] I care that sort of thing.

[1:37:16] So David and his team have been working on that and have identified an option with Mutual

[1:37:21] of Omaha who already provides us some services.

[1:37:25] So we are switching over to them.

[1:37:27] And with that we actually find that there are more practitioners in the area that participated

[1:37:32] in that than doing Delta Dental so that should be advantageous to our staff and anyone that

[1:37:36] we cover with health insurance and we actually anticipate seeing a small decrease in cost

[1:37:42] because of this move.

[1:37:44] Very good, that's very helpful and it's more reassuring to that 2.5 and how you were

[1:37:51] able to meet that target versus 24 percent, I'm kind of gobsmacked at that, to be honest.

[1:37:59] The other comment is in the slide that we were on, yeah, just, yeah, that's it.

[1:38:09] I don't know if we've talked about this, so I apologize if I haven't mentioned this before

[1:38:14] for, but one of the investments in staff to me would be to have training on customer service.

[1:38:25] We have a lot of part time and staff that haven't been enrolled very long, and a lot

[1:38:37] A lot of staff do have exposure to the public through various activities that they do.

[1:38:45] Having a program of training or some way of consistently keeping everybody with the same level of service,

[1:38:58] I think would be fantastic.

[1:39:01] And it's leadership is good, don't get me wrong.

[1:39:04] I think we need to train our future leaders and invest heavily there.

[1:39:08] But it's also that customer service aspect really kind of brings more spill up a notch.

[1:39:17] And helping both our staff and our public understand what is needed in communicating more effectively.

[1:39:26] And having that confidence in the level of service is something I feel is very valuable.

[1:39:31] So-

[1:39:31] Thank you.

[1:39:32] Thank you.

[1:39:33] Councilmember Johnson. So yeah actually I'm going back to the other slide on I know we're talking

[1:39:39] about health insurance here but when was the last time or how often do we go out and get quotes

[1:39:46] on all our insurance like workers comp property and liability do we do that when was the last time

[1:39:52] we did it. I would have to check on that it's it's recent it hasn't been the last year or two we do do

[1:39:59] Do that on the...

[1:40:00] And I will talk with David and I get to answer that. Make sure I because I think that's important. Sure. Of course that we're shopping around for the best the best that we can. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

[1:40:18] Okay. Okay. So just looking at a couple of other highlights, a couple of other areas that are in this. In this. Can I say I'm sorry. Can I and I echo. Sorry. I meant to say that to and I echo.

[1:40:31] So, Council Member Skrazen-Shan, with customer service, I just want to echo that.

[1:40:38] Sorry.

[1:40:39] I'm sorry.

[1:40:39] No, no, no.

[1:40:40] Okay.

[1:40:42] Okay.

[1:40:43] So, a couple of other topics that we do have in this budget.

[1:40:45] The base budget does have affordable housing resources for the ability to kind of get that initiative

[1:40:53] started for this particular year, based on the current council direction as it stands.

[1:40:57] also includes the chamber agreement. The chamber agreement is currently set at

[1:41:01] $50,000 and one thing I do just kind of want to make sure I get a temperature

[1:41:06] check in the room that everybody's okay with the current level of funding

[1:41:10] for the for the chamber in this particular budget. We good?

[1:41:17] I have to not ask for

[1:41:18] more. Yeah I think you know Christy is very realistic about that. I think she

[1:41:24] know is where they are and she is very, you know, understanding of is taking time to understand

[1:41:29] the history and how we got to here. So I think she recognizes that there's respectfully

[1:41:35] still a little more proof in the pudding to come. And I actually spoke to their board this morning

[1:41:41] at the regular meeting. And I shared that, you know, that was where I anticipated that we were

[1:41:46] heading and that as we, you know, grow more comfortable with and see more consistent performance,

[1:41:51] Maybe it's not a one-year agreement next time, and maybe it is different funding, depending

[1:41:55] on what's going on, where the partnerships are, what Tiffany and Amelia are sharing

[1:41:59] with us.

[1:42:00] So, yeah.

[1:42:00] But I think, I say that to say that, I think Christie gets that, which is good.

[1:42:06] And then just lastly, just want to point out, too, that this is a year of a CIP refresh.

[1:42:12] Right now, we currently have kind of a draft CIP planned for this particular budget based

[1:42:17] on consensus and input that we received from our treat.

[1:42:20] We did hear you all that you did want to go back and do a second prioritization exercise and once we get the remainder of those prioritizations in, then we'll come back and compile those and bring you all that back once we have all those submissions.

[1:42:36] And that can generally be done.

[1:42:48] We, if you want, we have about two more slides and then we can, yeah, we can, I'll move on through and we'll get over that.

[1:43:01] So I do also want to point out where we are in terms of our sustainability initiatives.

[1:43:08] Over the past four years, the town has received and-or funded itself roughly about a million

[1:43:14] dollars worth of sustainability initiatives.

[1:43:17] We've currently spent a little bit more than half of that, almost $600,000.

[1:43:21] And right now, we have about $333,000 remaining, which the manager mentioned earlier.

[1:43:25] Some of that is from grants, some of that is from the $200,000 in recurring based budget

[1:43:32] funding that you all have appropriated each year for the past couple of years.

[1:43:37] Just want to also point out, too, that there are other areas that might not necessarily

[1:43:44] receive direct funding, but we do consider all levels of sustainability initiatives to be

[1:43:51] a part of all of our projects.

[1:43:52] So anywhere from our collaboration with our public works department and our financial services department to develop a sustainable purchasing policy, which, you know, generates everything for making sure that we purchase can, excuse me, compostable, compostable silverware and cutlery plates, as well as other areas where we look to purchase.

[1:44:18] whenever we do our vehicle purchases that we first look for EVs and hybrid vehicles prior to buying just regular combustible engine.

[1:44:29] Regular combustible engine vehicles.

[1:44:31] We are happy to report that that man in the back that our public works director is hopeful that we will be able to get our first fully EV vehicles this particular coming fiscal year.

[1:44:43] Still on board with that and then as well as just other other solar projects that are still ongoing and hopefully will be

[1:44:50] Completed by the end of this fiscal year

[1:44:55] and I do also just want to I also want to point out too that

[1:45:00] But I think the manager mentioned it earlier, but we do have that $333,000 in remaining funds that will be carried over this year. But that will be in addition to the $200,000 that's in the base budget. So they should have about a half a million dollars to be able to be able to get those particular initiatives and projects done for this fiscal year.

[1:45:22] So just moving on to some of our cost comparison factors. We did hear you all that you wanted to make sure that we provided you with some level of

[1:45:31] peer data from our other municipalities within the region.

[1:45:35] We're still a bit early and we're still working on collecting that.

[1:45:38] We do have some, but we also want to make sure that we are attentive to the needs of

[1:45:42] the other municipalities and making sure that we don't get ahead of their councils.

[1:45:46] In a lot of cases, their budget and finance departments have not been able to present

[1:45:50] in front of their boards so we don't want to bring back any information prior to them being able

[1:45:55] to share what their boards first. But I do want to point out that just from our initial

[1:46:01] conversations. There is a level of consensus that there is a pretty conservative approach

[1:46:06] to the budget process for all of our municipalities within the area. They all hear pretty much

[1:46:11] the same information that we do, particularly related to sales tax. And so there is a pretty

[1:46:17] concerted effort for everyone to be very conservative when it comes to that, just due to the volatility

[1:46:21] and the potential, the potential downfall in the market that might indicate a level of changes

[1:46:28] in sales tax different from what we traditionally see.

[1:46:32] Also want to point out that there is about three to five percent average merit for the

[1:46:37] municipalities in the area.

[1:46:39] We do hear that.

[1:46:40] We don't have specific numbers that we're ready to share with you all yet about each and

[1:46:43] every one of those municipalities.

[1:46:45] But the consensus is somewhere around about three percent to five percent, so we're right

[1:46:49] kind of in the middle there.

[1:46:51] We also want to point out that we do currently still have the third lowest tax rate based

[1:46:56] on the information that we have within the area.

[1:47:00] Any questions about kind of cost comparison so far?

[1:47:05] And once we do have that data, we will make sure to bring that back to you all as well.

[1:47:11] So lastly, we're kind of wrapping up, just want to make sure that if we have any other follow-up

[1:47:17] items and any other key FAQs that you all have so far that we maintain, you know, be able

[1:47:25] to get that back to you all.

[1:47:26] Does anyone have any questions right now about any of the other topics that we've covered

[1:47:31] so far today?

[1:47:39] Yeah.

[1:47:39] And we definitely captured all of those and we'll make sure to bring those back to you either

[1:47:42] at a later date via the FAQ or in a presentation based on what you all have requested so far.

[1:47:50] All right.

[1:47:51] So other than that, I know we're ready to go.

[1:47:53] I just want to point out where we are.

[1:47:55] We will be bringing you all the recommended budget next week and then we will prepare to be

[1:48:00] be able to provide you all with the preview and the public hearing in there.

[1:48:04] All right.

[1:48:05] Thank you.

[1:48:09] Very nice.

[1:48:10] You want to take a 10-minute break, people, and come back at 8.

[1:48:13] That be right.

[1:48:14] We'll come back for roundtables.

[1:48:15] Please be back at 8 p.m.

[1:48:16] Thank you.

[1:48:22] At this point, we are coming back in session.

[1:48:24] Town Council of Roundtable, I'll pass it once again to Deputy Town Manager Zudema.

[1:48:29] I'm going to backtrack just for a second, back to budget.

[1:48:32] We ran out to the break.

[1:48:33] I have something to share with you.

[1:48:35] So, Parks and Rec has put together their recommendation for the fee structure at the senior center regarding potentially an enrollment or a membership fee for non-residents, basically no cost to residents unless they like to take a trip.

[1:48:54] So, I would like to give this to you now to look at.

[1:48:56] and then we can certainly discuss it again when we come back together either the 13th

[1:49:01] or during the work session on the 15th.

[1:49:03] What we will do is for the purposes of the recommended budget, we'll show this rate

[1:49:07] in the fee schedule, but we can certainly amend that as we have conversations.

[1:49:11] But I think it addresses your discussions and perhaps your concerns.

[1:49:16] So if you have comments or questions prior to the 13th, please feel free to share those

[1:49:22] with me.

[1:49:40] So

[1:49:43] now I'll pass it to Deputy Tenman, George Zell, Roy Gries to facilitate our discussion

[1:49:48] about Town Council Roundtable.

[1:49:50] Thank you.

[1:49:51] Thank you, Mayor.

[1:49:52] So we have one new item submitted for tonight.

[1:49:54] It was introduced by Mayor Colleys, so Mayor, if you would like to introduce your item.

[1:50:00] During one discussion, I guess a couple of weeks ago, I brought up the fact that there was discussion at that time about the craftry Creek Nature Park and whether or not it might be possible to look into what amenities were going to be in that park. And since it's been delayed kind of indefinitely at this time, would there be any value in looking into that and maybe doing any of those elsewhere as part of that park before it's developed or along any of our greenways. I was told that that should be a roundtable item.

[1:50:29] So I'm bringing it up now in case anyone has any thoughts about that.

[1:50:32] This simple ask is to have staff take a look at what would be programmed in there.

[1:50:38] And whether or not it would be reasonable to go ahead and maybe do some of that programming now.

[1:50:42] An example would be kind of an educational thing along a greenway.

[1:50:46] We're going to have a walking path back there raised and we do have a raised board walk along

[1:50:52] the greenway already. So I'm not sure why we can do some kind of educational thing that we would do

[1:50:57] at the new park, just to be more educational and lean into sustainability and whatever else

[1:51:03] we would educate people about at the park. So not asking to do much else than just ask staff

[1:51:08] to look at using existing amenities to serve that. And I'm hoping that any thoughts that you

[1:51:15] might have council member buddy.

[1:51:19] Yeah, I think that's a good idea especially since we don't know when

[1:51:22] If we're going to be able to do the full plan for that park, I think it'd be nice to have an educational trail back there.

[1:51:30] I like the ones that we already have in town, especially one that leans into the environmental aspect, like the wetlands and, you know, something like that.

[1:51:39] But I mean, just asking staff to look into it, I think it's fine.

[1:51:43] Okay. Councilmember Schrogg and Johnson followed by Councilmember Fender.

[1:51:46] I'm still untangling this microphone.

[1:51:48] One thing that popped in my head when I was looking at this proposal is that very low

[1:51:56] spend, but one of the things I'd like is some of the signs around our parks and history

[1:52:05] signs where we have information.

[1:52:08] I've seen in some cities where they have identification of trees like you might be able to have something

[1:52:15] this is a very old blah, blah, blah tree and have information like a QR code where they could learn

[1:52:22] more about that tree. Somehow bringing some education about that natural area

[1:52:30] with very low cost simple signage or creating some sort of scavenger hunt, if you will,

[1:52:39] there might be a win-win, we'll be encouraging people to learn something as well as keeping it preserved more naturally, maybe, so that would be great.

[1:52:51] Thank you.

[1:52:52] Thank you, Council Member Fender, followed by Council Member Johnson.

[1:52:55] Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, at a minimum we could do educational science.

[1:53:00] we already have some with the storm water pond a church street park and then over here but

[1:53:10] and something like that like for the wetlands the raised boardwalk goes through that wetlands the

[1:53:17] area has to create I think I think it's a good I like that thank you councilmember johnson so yeah I'm

[1:53:26] I'm fine with that, having Steph look into it.

[1:53:29] It also occurs to me, though, we just talked about the fact that we're going to do a park's master plan update.

[1:53:35] So I don't know how that all ties in.

[1:53:38] So I'd like to, I think when Steph considers that I would like to understand that to how it ties in with the master plan.

[1:53:56] We will then have staff evaluate and bring an update back.

[1:54:01] Thank you all very much.

[1:54:04] I also want to talk about a couple of things.

[1:54:09] Okay.

[1:54:10] Do you have something related to this or older items?

[1:54:13] Older items.

[1:54:14] Okay.

[1:54:14] So we are essentially moving into that right now.

[1:54:17] So I'll give you the floor.

[1:54:20] OK, so I would like, where is it?

[1:54:22] It's on page 10.

[1:54:25] The item on the senior center survey.

[1:54:30] I know it says complete is out, but we have still not

[1:54:33] received that information.

[1:54:34] So in my mind that is not complete.

[1:54:37] And then the last update it talks about that it was conducted

[1:54:42] in November, and it wasn't conducted in November.

[1:54:45] It was conducted in January and February.

[1:54:47] of this year. So I want to make sure that it's updated and reflected correctly.

[1:55:00] Johnston, if I could, we thank you for your patience with that. We kind of showed you what

[1:55:05] that looked like in a spreadsheet, but Jeannie and Micah have been working on that in the

[1:55:10] midst of doing budget work as well. They showed me a draft today. We're making some

[1:55:14] matters. We should have that to you tomorrow. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. It was page 10 of

[1:55:20] The packet is page 2 of 7, perfect the top page 2 of 7.

[1:55:30] OK, I'll make a note, and we'll make sure we'll reflect it correctly.

[1:55:34] Thank you.

[1:55:36] So we provided a summary of the items that were previously presented.

[1:55:41] There are great updates there.

[1:55:43] The last round table we had several items introduced.

[1:55:46] And staff has provided what I will consider

[1:55:50] very good updates on each of those items. I'm not planning to hold you here to

[1:55:57] give you a summary of all of the updates that were provided on the spreadsheet.

[1:56:00] I'm sure you appreciate that, but I would like to ask if you all have any questions.

[1:56:06] Is there anything that was not clear or anything that you feel needs to be

[1:56:10] explored any further than it already has?

[1:56:18] No? Okay, well perfect. There's also in

[1:56:22] In addition to this, there was a confidential memo that was provided from Jeffrey to you all that came from the town attorney related to one of the items.

[1:56:33] So that was included in this packet, but it is in your emails.

[1:56:37] So with that, the next round table is going to be in June 24.

[1:56:43] Our meetings in May are pretty packed already with budget discussion.

[1:56:46] So our next one will be June 24, so the deadline for submissions on that one will be June 16th.

[1:56:55] In fact, just have a request, and this goes to not only the round table submissions, but any request to council for feedback.

[1:57:09] If we could have the request at midnight of the day that it's due.

[1:57:14] And the reason I mentioned that is a lot of the times it's like everything's

[1:57:21] due at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, blah, blah, blah. I've worked during the day so it's

[1:57:27] really the day before that the deadline is for me and if I can't get to it then I'm

[1:57:32] in the deadline and sometimes the survey formal close because it's closing at 5 p.m.

[1:57:38] and I can't add, so we could just customarily make it 11.59 pm on the day that it's due,

[1:57:47] that would allow some flexibility for the town council.

[1:57:52] That's in general. In general, that includes, you know, ballots due for committees.

[1:57:58] Oh, I agree. Thank you. My end of day is not 5 pm.

[1:58:05] My end of day is midnight.

[1:58:08] I would tell the round table form is always open, so you can submit at any time, and yes,

[1:58:16] I'm with you, that if I say the deadline is June 16 to 1159 and June 16, good, we like

[1:58:25] that.

[1:58:25] Yeah, absolutely.

[1:58:28] Can we clarify for your calendar reminders, is it helpful to have it still kind of during

[1:58:34] the visible part of the day or is at, so I worry that if it's at 11 to 12 it will be missed.

[1:58:41] So a calendar, if you put an all day, all day preferred, that will flow to the top of our

[1:58:48] day and we'll see it.

[1:58:50] Perfect.

[1:58:51] We'll make sure to do that going forward.

[1:58:52] Thank you so much.

[1:58:53] Thank you for those reminders.

[1:58:55] They are very, they are very helpful.

[1:59:00] Any other questions on Roundtable Councilman Fender?

[1:59:02] But follow up question on the memo from Frank Gray.

[1:59:07] Are you looking, is staff looking for feedback on this?

[1:59:11] Because the memo left it open.

[1:59:14] So we wanted to share with you

[1:59:15] what was the attorney's opinion based on the research

[1:59:18] that was completed.

[1:59:19] In addition to the memo, the summary

[1:59:22] explained what was staff position on that item

[1:59:25] and what are some of the challenges with some of that.

[1:59:28] So if you have any feedback,

[1:59:30] you will like to provide or any clarification, we will take it.

[1:59:34] I haven't read through the comments on your spreadsheet from staff.

[1:59:41] If you would like to look through it and follow up on an email,

[1:59:45] we will certainly take that or we can or if you prefer to discuss at the

[1:59:49] next round table, we could do that too.

[1:59:51] Okay, thank you.

[1:59:54] Well, thank you all.

[1:59:55] Thank you.

[2:00:00] Anything for the good of the order, sir? No, sir. Okay, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

[2:00:09] On some of my revidi, all those in favor of adjourning, please say aye.

[2:00:13] Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries the unanimously 6-0. Thank you very much.

Town Council - Apr 24th, 2025

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