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

[1:03] Welcome, everyone. My name is Gene Hamilton, chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, and I call this July 28,
[1:10] 2026 business meeting to order.
[1:15] So as many know, this meeting was called in order to fill the vacancy after the death of Commissioner James
[1:34] the appointments first and then follow with the other items in order I do not
[1:44] need a motion just if there's no objections I check the rules and
[1:47] procedures okay so then as I want to say first that this first item is to
[1:59] make an appointment for the vacancy I want to start by thanking all the
[2:03] folks who put their name forward, all the candidates,
[2:10] Ronnie Dossy, Leah Bergman, Maria Palmer, Pam Hemminger,
[2:14] Renuka Sewell, and Eric Valera.
[2:16] Thank you so much.
[2:18] The strength of this county is the strength
[2:22] of the people who step up to serve.
[2:25] I also want to thank the Orange County Democratic Party
[2:28] and for really driving this process and we appreciate the applications that we received
[2:39] and for working together on this.
[2:44] So is there anyone signed up to speak on this topic?
[2:50] No.
[2:51] Okay.
[2:53] Yes.
[2:54] One person, one.
[2:56] Yes.
[2:59] State your name.
[3:02] Good morning.
[3:03] Apologies, Madam Chair.
[3:04] My name is Brian Link and I'm the President of the Chapel Hill-Carborough Association of Educators.
[3:10] On the one hand, I wish I wasn't here this morning.
[3:13] It's with a heavy heart on behalf of our organization that we send our condolences to the Bedford family.
[3:19] Jim Zeta Bedford was a champion of our community for all aspects of our community.
[3:23] She was a wonderful individual and human being.
[3:26] She was a great champion of public education,
[3:29] and she's someone who our organization proudly supported.
[3:35] I can think just, it's still shocking to me.
[3:37] It was on vacation when I saw the news,
[3:40] just having been with her in the last months
[3:42] over this very difficult budget.
[3:45] And of course, she was always the person
[3:47] who was the most prepared, literally brought a binder
[3:51] this thick of all the items in the budget
[3:54] when she would agree to meet
[3:55] and sit down with constituents.
[3:57] She was just a lovely, lovely person and human being and a great public servant, and I am sorry to all of you to have lost such a friend and colleague, and I'm sorry for our community.
[4:09] The good news is that I also get to stand here this morning on a much more positive note.
[4:15] As you noted, Chair Hamilton, our community is a strength. We have wonderful public servants, and I want to be very clear.
[4:25] I am not here to say anything else about any of the other individuals who you name, but
[4:30] I'm here this morning to strongly endorse the candidacy of Ronnie Dossi to become the next
[4:37] county commissioner. The Orange County Democratic Party has spoken and spoken clearly. She will
[4:42] be the candidate this fall. She's running unopposed. She will be joining you all on
[4:47] the board, right, come the end of election season. And I think in this perilous time,
[4:54] time. It's all the more important that we begin the process now to begin building those
[4:59] important relationships so that Ms. Dossi can hit the ground running and work with you
[5:05] all to meet the needs of our community. I've known Ms. Dossi for a long time. Our arcs
[5:11] in public service have overlapped in terms of she started on the board at the same time
[5:15] that I became an officer in this organization. For the past 12 years she is championed,
[5:21] right, notions of equity. She is championed being an independent thinker. She is someone
[5:26] who will ask questions. She is someone who is not afraid to take a stand. She embodies
[5:30] all that is good in our community. And while I understand that this board, excuse me,
[5:36] this commission ultimately gets to make the decision and you merely take the recommendation
[5:40] of the party under consideration, I think the majorities that she achieved at the
[5:44] party meeting, both for the candidacy going forward and for filling the interim vacancy,
[5:49] recommend her to be supported. And in my remaining time, I want to thank you all
[5:55] in a difficult budget season for coming up and stepping up. We are very
[5:58] appreciative, thank you, and we look forward to working with you as you
[6:01] continue to do this good work. All right, thank you.
[6:06] All right. Commissioners, any
[6:13] discussion. Are we ready to vote? I just have a brief comment since I missed our
[6:21] last meeting. Today I just wanted to briefly share my deep sadness and the
[6:27] reason why we are here today, the loss of our dear colleague and friend James
[6:31] Etta Bedford. As mentioned, she served the County Commission with integrity,
[6:36] compassion, and very little fanfare. James Etta cared deeply about education,
[6:41] mental health, folks with disabilities, and folks whose lives presented challenges.
[6:46] She served as chair without arrogance, but with a mission to do the work of the county.
[6:51] When she left the chair, she did not take the easy way out, but signed up for more committees
[6:56] than ever.
[6:57] And she was deeply engaged in those assignments.
[7:00] And I am going to feel her absence every time I drive to Whitted because she and
[7:03] Jean and I used to carpool.
[7:06] So today, although I recognize my and everyone's individual talents, I dedicate
[7:11] myself and hope that we all strive to be more like Jamesetta in our service to
[7:15] the county and I hope that Jamesetta's successor will also aspire to those same
[7:20] qualities and care for Orange County. Thank you.
[7:28] I will just I mean it was
[7:30] already stated but just remind that what we're doing today is to fill the
[7:35] vacant position to the end of Jamesetta's term and as we know Ronnie
[7:44] Ronnie Dossi has been chosen by the Orange County Democratic Party to be on the ballot
[7:49] in November.
[7:50] So we have ballots in front of us, so we will go ahead and vote.
[8:07] We'll have our Lord Jensen to the board collect our ballots and read out the results.
[8:24] Thank you, commissioners.
[8:26] I will read out the name of the person voting and who their vote was for.
[8:30] We have one vote from Earl McKee for Ronnie Dossy,
[8:38] one vote from Gene Hamilton for Ronnie
[8:40] Dossy,
[8:43] one vote from Sally Green for Ronnie Dossy,
[8:48] one vote from Phyllis Portie Ascot for
[8:51] Ronnie Dossy, one vote from Marilyn Carter for Ronnie Dossy, and the final vote from
[8:58] Amy Fowler for Ronnie Dossy.
[9:00] Congratulations, Ms. Dossy.
[9:01] Congratulations.
[9:09] Congratulations. Thank you so much, Ronnie, for stepping up in this really hard time.
[9:14] I know your background will fit us very well. I look forward to working with you.
[9:24] We know that you can – we will talk more about when you will officially start and take the oath of office.
[9:33] In the abstract, it mentions August 25th, but, you know, there is some flexibility, certainly
[9:41] over the summer we do less, but definitely when the fall comes to be ready to take on
[9:49] the duties.
[9:50] Thank you.
[9:55] Do you want to make any comments?
[9:57] Yes.
[9:57] Come on up.
[10:02] Good morning, everybody.
[10:04] Thank you so much.
[10:05] I always like to start with a huge gratitude for what you all do, the sitting board members,
[10:11] not just in hard decisions like this, but in the way that you lead for the Orange County
[10:16] residents every day.
[10:18] So thank you, and thank you to the county staff for all the work you do.
[10:23] Sometimes until things are visible to people, they're not aware of how hard the work
[10:30] is behind the scenes and I want to lift that up today and offer gratitude for everything
[10:35] you do. I want to also thank my family and friends and supporters and folks who've been
[10:42] with me along my growth journey. When I started this work, literally when I thought about
[10:48] joining the board and about 20 school board, Chepo-Carville City School Board in 2015,
[10:53] the first person I met with was James Eddabedford. And I remember her, we sat at the coffee
[10:59] shop down the street and I offered to buy her coffee and she said, you can't buy me coffee
[11:04] because I can't accept anything and I was like, it's $2, like let me buy you coffee.
[11:09] And that was my first lesson from her of like the integrity and the commitment that even
[11:14] when nobody's watching, that the way you behave matters.
[11:18] And so her shoes are too big to feel.
[11:21] I'm not going to try to do that, but I will commit to serving in a way that honors
[11:25] her legacy and I hope that she can look down with pride at the service that the board continues
[11:32] to do in her absence. So I don't have a lot more to say than thank you and I look forward
[11:38] to joining you and learning from you and thank you for all you do.
[11:51] Being efficient we have other items on our agenda and Commissioner Carter.
[11:58] Madam Chair, thank you. I would like to ask the Board to agree that I withdraw from the
[12:05] meeting now that we've had our consequential vote today. I'm taking an economic development
[12:12] class at UNC School of Government, and this morning they're talking about economic development
[12:17] strategy. So in progress, so with your forbearance, I will withdraw from the rest of the meeting
[12:23] if that's consistent with our rules of procedure.
[12:28] All right, so everyone in the discussion, anyone agree?
[12:34] All in favor?
[12:35] Aye.
[12:36] Any opposed? None.
[12:37] Thank you, Marilyn, for being here.
[12:39] Go learn about economic development strategies.
[12:42] Gratitude to all.
[12:48] Next up we have a public comment for things not on the agenda.
[12:53] Is there anyone signed up?
[12:55] Being none, we'll go on.
[12:57] announcements, petitions and comments by board members, can we? I'm seeing none.
[13:03] Okay, sorry. Commissioner Green. Yeah, I just want to remind everyone that
[13:09] the Arts Mill is going to be reopened officially on Friday, August the 7th.
[13:14] It's going to be a grand reopening with galleries, tours, food trucks, beverages,
[13:21] which is art making activities and our own legendary band High Funk Motown inspired liquid
[13:28] pleasure.
[13:29] So it should be great fun and when I saw Katie last a couple of days ago, she particularly
[13:34] wanted me to encourage all of you all to try to attend.
[13:38] All right.
[13:40] Thank you very much.
[13:41] And best of your fellow?
[13:42] Yes, briefly.
[13:43] Since our last meeting I did fill in on my newly assigned DSS board and Lindsay Shoemaker
[13:49] shared on how the burden that SNAP changes at both the federal and state level will negatively
[13:54] impact the county budget. She also reported that the idea of a consolidated human services
[14:00] department had negatively impacted morale at DSS. And along those lines, the DSS chair
[14:05] Oscar Fleming sent us the BOCC an email outlining their opinion and opposition to such a consolidation.
[14:12] All right. Thank you. We, I'll just say again thank you to all the candidates who submitted
[14:23] applications for this. They can see. Thank you for the comments. We have our regular,
[14:30] or we have a business meeting on August 25th in which we will be back to our regular amount
[14:37] of issues in front of us.
[14:40] All right, there are no proclamations,
[14:42] resolutions, special presentations,
[14:44] we have no public hearings,
[14:46] no other items in the regular agenda,
[14:49] no reports, we do have a consent agenda,
[14:53] and any removal of any items from the consent agenda?
[14:57] No, I approve all of this.
[15:00] consent agenda. So Vice Chair Farrell moves approval of a second. Commissioner Portiasca
[15:05] seconds it. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None. That passes 5-0. Moving on to the county
[15:13] managers report. Nothing today. Nothing today. County attorneys report. Nothing today. Just
[15:21] note there's information items about follow-up. We have no closed session. Do I have a motion
[15:27] to adjourn. Second. All in favor and opposed none. We are adjourned. Thank you very much
[15:35] for taking time in the middle of summer for this meeting.