[0:09] Good evening. I will call the meeting to
order at this time. If you will please
[0:13] rise for the invocation and remain
standing for the pledge of allegiance.
[0:17] This time I'll call upon Dr. Cohen if he
will please lead us in the invocation
[0:21] this evening.
>> I take it. I'm doing it.
[0:24] » Let us bow our heads.
Heavenly Father, we come before you this
[0:29] evening with grateful hearts for the
privilege of serving our community.
[0:36] We thank you for the blessings
you have poured upon Smithfield,
[0:41] its peoples,
its history, and its future. Lord, grant
[0:48] us wisdom. Wisdom
that is study and clear so that every
[0:55] decision we make tonight reflects
fairness, compassion, and integrity.
[1:03] Help us to listen to each other. Help us
to hear
[1:09] your will.
Let us speak with kindness
[1:14] and let us work together in unity for
the good of all who come to this town
[1:20] who makes this town our homes.
This I pray in Jesus's name.
[1:27] Let the church say amen.
>> Amen. [clears throat]
[1:31] » I pledge allegiance
>> to the flag of the United States of
[1:35] America and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation under God,
[1:42] indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
[1:48] [clears throat]
[2:00] » [snorts]
[2:05] » All right. Uh, we have the agenda. We do
have a couple of known additions to the
[2:10] agenda. One is to remove consent agenda
item number two. Um this is at the
[2:16] request of the applicant.
And then to add to consent agenda item
[2:23] number eight, which is consideration and
request for approval of a temporary use
[2:28] permit to allow the closure of South
Third Street and a portion of East
[2:33] Johnston Street on Saturday, September
5th, 2026 from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We
[2:40] Does everybody have this information?
>> They should. Yeah.
[2:44] » Okay. Yep.
>> All right. All right. Any other
[2:48] additions or corrections to the agenda?
>> If not, I'll entertain a motion. I just
[2:53] » I would like to ask uh for an amendment
to the agenda.
[2:57] » Okay.
>> I would like to ask that consent items
[3:00] number
three and four be moved down to
[3:04] business. So that would be business two
and three.
[3:24] And uh also, mayor, can you have the
clerk
[3:28] tell us
the statues for the close session?
[3:36] Is that personnel in a contract?
>> Yes.
[3:40] » Okay.
[cough and laughter]
[3:42] Okay. Any other
thoughts, comments, conditions? Not I'll
[3:48] entertain a motion to approve the agenda
as amended.
[3:51] » So move.
>> Motion. Do I have a second?
[3:55] » Second.
>> Motion a second. All in favor?
[3:58] Any opposed? Motion carries. All right.
Now move on to our presentations. Our
[4:06] first presentation this evening is a
proclamation acknowledging September the
[4:10] 17th through the 23rd, 2026 as
Constitution Week in the town of
[4:16] Smithfield. So Dedra, I'll ask you to
come forward.
[4:31] behind.
[4:37] How are you?
>> Everything doing well. If you will just
[4:41] uh please bear with me as I read this
proclamation. It is my honor uh to do
[4:46] this once again this year um and to be
able to read this proclamation for
[4:51] Constitution Week, which is going to be
September the 17th through the 23rd uh
[4:57] of this year in the town of Smithfield.
Whereas September the 17th, 2026
[5:03] marks the 239th anniversary of drafting
the Constitution of the United States of
[5:09] America by the Constitutional
Convention. And whereas it is fitting
[5:13] and proper to accord official
recognition to this magnificent document
[5:18] and to and and its memorable anniversary
and to the patriotic celebrations which
[5:24] will commemorate the occasion. And
whereas public wall 915 guarantees the
[5:31] issuing of a proclamation each year by
the president of the United States of
[5:36] America designating September the 17th
through the 23rd as Constitution Week.
[5:42] Now therefore, I, Andy Moore, mayor of
the town of Smithfield, do hereby
[5:46] proclaim September the 17th through the
23rd, 2026
[5:51] to be Constitution Week in the town of
Smithfield. And I ask our citizens to
[5:56] reaffirm the ideals the framers of the
Constitution in 1787 by vigilantly
[6:02] protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us
through this guardian of our liberties,
[6:07] remembering that lost rights may never
be regained.
[6:12] » Thank you so much. I will present this
to you. All right.
[6:15] » Couple of posters and could you mic?
Absolutely. I just wanted to say that
[6:20] you are all invited on September 17th at
3:45 in the afternoon to the Market
[6:26] Street steps of the courthouse where we
will have a brief ceremony marking the
[6:31] time and at 4:00 we will ring bells and
make noise which is what um the framers
[6:37] of the constitution requested should be
done every year to not only mark the
[6:42] occasion but to make the general public
aware of this as Andy said this
[6:47] magnificent document that we still claim
that guarantees our freedoms. So, if
[6:51] you're available, please come. September
17th, 3:45.
[6:55] » Thank you very much.
>> Thank you so much.
[6:56] » Thank you for the proclamation.
>> Absolutely. Good to see you again.
[6:59] » All right. Good to see you.
>> I'll see you in the October.
[7:01] » Okay. Thank you.
[7:21] All right, we will now move to our next
presentation which was is the electric
[7:25] rate study. Ted
>> Council, good evening. Tonight staff has
[7:31] asked Mr. Mike Johnson of Utility
Financial Solutions, otherwise known as
[7:35] UFS, to present his preliminary analysis
of the electric rate cost of service
[7:39] study that UFS performed for the town.
As you may be aware, having a cost of
[7:45] service study performed every five years
is a financial best practice, and it's
[7:50] been about five years since we had our
last one. Also, as many many of you may
[7:54] know, UFS is a trusted firm with a long,
successful track record in Smithfield.
[8:00] They have helped guide our utility rates
to maintain a healthy and strong
[8:03] financial position in both the electric
fund and the water fund. So, uh, I'll
[8:09] stop talking and let Mike uh, go ahead.
Uh, Mr. Mike Johnson, if you're ready.
[8:14] » I'm ready. Thank you, Ted. And thank you
everyone for allowing me to come here
[8:20] today to present the results. Um, I'm
Lee Johnson, the project manager, as Ted
[8:25] just mentioned. Can you all Can you hear
me, Ted? Everybody can hear me there.
[8:29] » We can hear you, but there's a lot of
echo in it.
[8:33] That may not be your issue. That may be
our issue. So,
[8:36] » let me just try that. Is that any
better?
[8:39] » Is that any better or not?
[8:44] Not much better.
>> That's a little better.
[8:48] » Okay, I I'll go ahead and then if we we
run into problems, we'll figure out a
[8:52] way to deal with them.
[8:56] So, the purpose of today is to review
the electric cost of service study
[9:00] results and the financial projection
results. Um there's two questions that
[9:06] are driving today. Uh that's is the
utility financially sustainable and are
[9:13] the correct customers paying their fair
share.
[9:17] » I'm going to turn my camera off and then
just go through a brief presentation.
[9:23] » I cannot hear him either.
>> Can you ask them to turn monitor
[9:27] speakers?
>> Okay.
[9:29] » And not the other one.
Um,
[9:35] » that I don't know.
>> Mute one of them. I got you.
[9:52] » Now that works.
>> Let's see if that works. Mike.
[9:56] » Okay. Any better testing? One, two,
three. Is that better?
[10:03] » It's a little
>> Maybe if you just increase the volume so
[10:06] I can
>> now turn that one up so they can
[10:09] » Are they the same?
>> That's the That one muted.
[10:16] » He's on the computer.
[10:29] Move your mouse.
[10:34] » Yeah.
[10:40] » All right, Mike. Try that again.
>> Okay. Testing one, two, three. Is this
[10:45] any better? That's
>> better.
[10:47] » That's much better.
Oh, I can't hear you now, Ted. You must
[10:51] have switched that one off.
>> Okay, great. Um, the road map for what
[10:56] we're doing today, um, the first half of
this this presentation is going to be on
[11:02] the financial projection. I'm going to
look at the debt coverage ratio, uh, the
[11:06] minimum cash reserves, target operating
income, and then the resulting rate
[11:11] adjustment plan. So, basically, we're
going to identify how much revenue is
[11:15] needed. The second half of the cost of
service study is the cost of service
[11:19] study results
uh which is going to identify who should
[11:23] pay for the revenue that's needed.
[11:29] So with any
>> [clears throat]
[11:33] » um with any projection there there's a
need to have assumptions um and these
[11:39] are the assumptions that are going into
the into the into our model for the uh
[11:43] for the electric utility. So inflation I
have steady at 3% throughout the period
[11:50] from 2027 through 2031
I have very little growth um you know 1%
[11:58] maybe half a percent towards the end
the purchase power uh at 20 through 31 I
[12:05] have somewhere between 3 and 4% and
that's being provided to me by
[12:09] electricities
the 3.7% reduction in 27 7. Um it's a
[12:16] bit of an anomaly. Um the only reason
it's going down is because you have
[12:20] what's called a rider one in your tariff
and and the 22 and the 23 rider one
[12:26] portions will be going away. So you your
demand and energy costs are actually
[12:31] going up, but those rider costs are
coming down. So you're going to see a
[12:36] 3.7% reduction in purchase power, but
it's just from those riders. It's not
[12:40] the fact that energy prices are going
down.
[12:44] Um, investment income I've got at 2.5%
for 2027 and then I've got it going down
[12:50] to more normal levels that we're used
to, but uh, it's it's conservative. You
[12:55] know, it could be anywhere three to
three three down to 0.5%.
[13:01] Capital funded projects. I got a couple
of big projects that are going on. Um,
[13:08] we got a unit the this is substation on
the access point one. that's getting
[13:13] refurbished. Um, and the total for that
is 7 million over two years. And then
[13:19] there's another couple of projects that
make up the rest of it. Uh, in 29
[13:24] through 31, we've got some uh
reconductoring of of some lines about a
[13:30] million dollars through that period.
Does anybody have any questions or
[13:35] anything any looks off on the
assumptions?
[13:40] Okay.
[13:45] This is the uh the summary results. This
is basically the the the baseline. This
[13:51] is what happens if you did nothing. If
you didn't change anything,
[13:55] um this is what your finances would look
like at a high level.
[13:59] We look at three different um three
different
[14:05] um metrics or
targets that that we want to achieve and
[14:12] we try and balance those out when we go
a rate design. Those three are um let's
[14:17] see if I can get a P here.
Those three are the debt coverage ratio
[14:23] which you're in really good shape. uh
you don't have much debt and it falls
[14:27] off in fiscal year 2027.
The next one is the recommended minimum
[14:32] cash and this is the big one. We want
this one always to be good uh because
[14:37] cash is king.
And then there's the adjusted operating
[14:42] income
which we want to be this is an upper
[14:47] boundary this this this uh target. Um,
and you can see from here these red bits
[14:53] are where we're falling below. So, we
need to do something to try and move
[14:57] them. The uh the debt coverage ratio,
like I said, is
[15:03] is is good. Um, even if you were to take
out a small loan in 2028, it it would
[15:08] still still be good with the amount of
income you're going to be generating
[15:13] uh later. The the recommended minimum
cash though is is an issue. Um we we
[15:20] only come up with a recommended minimum
and and that's based on um we're
[15:24] accounting for risks in in this in in in
running the utility and we want to make
[15:29] sure that you have enough working
capital to cover 45 days of O and M
[15:36] expenses less depreciation. We want to
make sure you have enough funds to start
[15:42] uh start funding where a catastrophe to
occur, maybe a storm come through,
[15:47] something like that. We want to be able
to pay your highest debt service payment
[15:53] and pay your capital that's going to be
starting in that year.
[16:00] The adjusted operating income that I've
got there, that's that's the the optimal
[16:04] is made up of of two things.
[16:09] It's made up of um interest expenses on
debt which as I said you know you don't
[16:14] have any and it's also a rate of return
which is kind of strange for nonprofit
[16:20] um municipal utilities that we have to
make a rate of return but we do have to
[16:25] make a rate of return in order to
recover the inflationary costs on the
[16:29] assets. So for you guys, we're
calculating the optimal operating income
[16:34] that we don't want to exceed is
somewhere between a million and 1.2
[16:38] million. That's not a target. It's just
a it's just, you know, we we don't
[16:42] really want it. It's an upper boundary.
So we've got our lower boundary is our
[16:46] cash and our upper boundary is is our
optimal operating income. So somehow we
[16:52] want to get the rates to go just between
those two.
[16:57] So
[17:02] this is the [clears throat] I have to
cut off.
[17:08] Okay, this is the rate track that we've
come up with. Um there's here there's
[17:14] 32%
in the first three years and then two
[17:19] 3%s.
debt coverage ratio is the same, but
[17:24] here we've got rid of the red ones that
were down here and they're all positive
[17:30] now. So, this is this is good. And then
our cash is still good as well. We've
[17:35] we've got it above the minimum. Bear in
mind, this is a minimum. So, we want to
[17:39] we want to exceed it. And we want to
make sure that we're prudently
[17:42] collecting money for future construction
costs.
[17:48] So, with this rate track, we we
basically check all the boxes. There
[17:53] might be a timing concern when I looked
at this this morning on the the the two
[17:58] $4 million payments in um 27 and 28, but
I I calculated out and the rate track
[18:05] would would remain the same if you took
out a $2.5 million bond issuance in
[18:10] 2028.
That's assuming that the the 4 millions
[18:16] both hit in 2027 and 28. You would be
short on cash and you may need to bond
[18:21] something, but that would the rate track
would stay the same, but the the the
[18:27] cash would be higher at the end is
basically what would happen. You'd have
[18:31] an extra couple of million dollars of
cash at the end.
[18:37] Now, this is the results of the cost of
service. So this this here is the actual
[18:42] cost of service. This is what it costs
to serve those customers
[18:49] and here is the projected revenues for
your customers and then this is
[18:55] basically the overall change. So in
order to get to cost of service you need
[18:59] to raise your rates 3.7%.
However, residentials
[19:04] they have a cost of service of 5.4 4
million, but you're only collecting 4.9
[19:10] from them. So, they would need in order
to get to cost of service, I'm not
[19:14] recommending this, they would need a
9.6% rate increase.
[19:20] Um, for general service, they need a
4.8%.
[19:24] Municipal general service at 29% area
lighting and they would need a decrease.
[19:31] Um, the municipal light municipal
lighting you don't actually charge for.
[19:35] It's a it's a benefit of being an APA
utility. That's about a $230,000
[19:41] value to the town. Um residential time
of use that would need to see an
[19:47] increase um 29%
below cost of service, above cost of
[19:53] service.
Um general service is is sort of close
[19:58] to cost of service 2.8 8 to 3.7
commercial turning uses
[20:05] is uh slightly over. They're overpaying
at the moment and the same for the CP2
[20:11] customer. Uh they're overpaying a little
bit and the CP3 customer is underpaying.
[20:18] So we need to move these customers
toward cost of service. We don't want to
[20:23] jump to it because it's really just a
snapshot in time we're looking at. Um so
[20:29] we we like to do gradual moves
[clears throat] toward cost of service
[20:32] maybe at 1 or 2% uh bandwidth from
whatever whatever rate track we agree
[20:39] on.
[20:42] This is um the monthly customer charge.
Um there's a lot of emphasis on this in
[20:49] [clears throat and snorts]
in in the market today for for all
[20:53] electric utilities. Um, with the advent
of solar and um, renewables, uh, we want
[21:00] to make sure people are paying for the
the fixed charges that don't change on a
[21:05] monthly basis.
The the cost of service you see here for
[21:09] residential is 19.54.
That's what it actually costs to provide
[21:15] energy to that customer on a monthly
basis before any kilowatt hours are
[21:21] provided to them. That's basically for
the service drop, the meter meter
[21:26] reading, billing and collection, uh
customer service and and a small portion
[21:32] of the distribution system. Um you need
a wire basically to get from the
[21:36] substation to the service drop. And we
look at the smallest size wire that
[21:41] could carry
uh a kilowatt out there. And we do
[21:46] what's called a minimum system analysis.
And that cost goes into the customer
[21:51] charge for the minimum part of it and
then anything over that becomes part of
[21:55] the demand cost.
So these are these are these are charges
[22:01] that occur regardless of whether you use
any energy. So you're currently charging
[22:06] $13
and it actually cost $1954 to provide
[22:12] that service. So we're collecting the
rest of that money from the energy or
[22:16] the demand charge. And if we're getting
it from the energy charge, it means that
[22:20] people are overpaying for their energy.
So people like solar solar providers,
[22:27] they're they're actually benefiting from
not paying the full amount that they
[22:31] should be paying here for the for the
customer charge
[22:35] because they should be paying 1954, but
they're only paying the $13.
[22:41] Over [clears throat]
on the right hand side is a breakdown of
[22:46] what that 1954
cost is.
[22:51] It's made up of some distribution costs,
transformer costs, substation costs, and
[22:57] that's probably about $10.50.
Then we got meter O&M $4. So meter
[23:04] reading a buck 90 billion a dollar
services $132. that's service drops and
[23:10] things like that and then the customer
service of 70 cents.
[23:15] So we really want to move fairly quickly
to get to the 1954. Um so
[23:23] we've uh we looking at when we look at
the next steps
[23:29] um before I identified a a
[clears throat] revenue change of 2%.
[23:35] Um and so as to move toward that as I
mentioned before we we typically look
[23:42] for a bandwidth um in your case when
when I when I looked at it I thought a
[23:47] 2% bandwidth would be good which means
the maximum increase for anybody would
[23:51] be the 2% that the rates are going to
change plus 2% so that would be 4%. And
[23:57] the minimum
increase is going to be the 2% rate
[24:01] change uh less than 2%. So there would
be zero. So then so some people would
[24:07] see zero and some people might see 4%.
The other thing is the customer charges.
[24:13] We'd like to move those towards cost of
service. And I put together a rate
[24:18] design and and there's there's there's
more detail in everything that I've gone
[24:22] through tonight in in your package. Um,
but there is a full-blown rate design.
[24:28] I'm if [laughter] if if we need to
change that, that's fine. I' I've put it
[24:32] in there just as a reference point. This
is the the sample residential rate, and
[24:38] this is in your in in your packet. Um,
and what what we're proposing is the
[24:44] singlephase customer going from the 13
to $16. So, that's a $3 increase. And
[24:52] then after that, a couple of 150s to get
us close to that 90 that $19 that we
[24:57] wanted to be at.
And then we've offset it with a change
[25:01] in the energy to get our revenue
requirement, which here we're saying we
[25:05] wanted 2.5%.
And that 2.5% is when when when we
[25:10] looked back at the cost of service, they
needed to have a higher increase than um
[25:16] than other people cuz they were they
were remember they were about 9% from
[25:19] cost of service. and overall it was
3.5%.
[25:23] So they're going to need slightly higher
than 2% and we figure that they need a
[25:28] 2.5% rate change in order to in order
[clears throat] to start moving toward
[25:33] cost of service. Um and that's offset
with other people getting a decrease.
[25:37] And you can see all of those in in the
packet. So the effect of that on an
[25:42] annual basis, this this chart shows you
that the people at 450 kilowatt hours,
[25:49] they're probably going to see a 5% rate
change in the first year and then 3.3
[25:54] 3.5 in the second year. And then once
you get to 1050, which is basically your
[26:01] average usage, people start seeing less
of an increase. It starts going the
[26:06] other way once you get past that. And
that's because we're we're going to
[26:10] we're putting more less emphasis on the
energy.
[26:14] The right hand side here shows the
effect of it. And basically it's the
[26:19] customer charge. It's $3 in the first
year
[26:24] and $3 here there. And then the second
year uh it's [clears throat] not so much
[26:28] the customer charge cuz the customer
charge has only gone up to 150. So it's
[26:32] the it's the change in energy that's
going to drive the second year. But you
[26:35] can see the average is $3 and then 305
and then 313
[26:44] and that's it
[26:48] for the presentation. So I don't know if
there's any questions there. Ted, you
[26:52] may have to use sign language. I'll put
the mic back on.
[27:00] » Any I know it's very difficult. Any any
questions?
[27:04] » Not we may have to.
>> Mayor, I do have one question. Um maybe
[27:08] I really struggle here and I've looked
at the material. Can you ask him uh
[27:13] based on his rate model the change for
the time of use for residential versus u
[27:19] the standard? It almost seems like it's
cost prohibitive. At what point do we
[27:23] eliminate
um because based off this it was like a
[27:27] 30% change and would that even be worth
it to the customer? I guess it depends
[27:32] on how much they use off peak, but um I
don't understand why.
[27:36] » Mike, did you happen to hear that
question?
[27:39] » I I did hear the question. I looked at
it this morning and I
[27:43] um I didn't see
I can get to the design.
[27:53] So, it's basically the [clears throat]
it's the what's what's driving it is the
[28:01] cost of service for that customer is $34
and they'll be paying $19. That's that's
[28:08] really the big driver. Um because
then then they're further away from that
[28:15] charge. But there is also the demand. We
we we we're getting the energy pretty
[28:20] close to where we should. um you know
the the demand should be higher and then
[28:26] the energy should be lower. This is this
is an oil energy price which is what
[28:30] Duke's energy price is to you guys. Uh
it's not it's not on an off peak but
[28:37] they still we're we're overcharging here
especially here and then we're we're
[28:43] undercharging here.
So we need to really
[28:49] in increase here and then decrease here,
but it is still the 29 the 29%
[28:54] differential.
Um but it still it would still work for
[28:59] them as a rate. Um it's just we need to
get it balanced out for them.
[29:06] They would still save money on rate if
they used it efficiently.
[29:18] Did you hear that, Councilman Scott?
[laughter]
[29:20] » Mayor, I did not.
>> I did. I found um Yeah,
[29:25] » it [clears throat] I'm sorry, Mr. John.
It's it's it's very difficult to
[29:28] » Yeah, they're not hearing uh your
explanation. I think the heart of the
[29:34] question, if I can rephrase it, and
Travis, please correct me if I'm wrong.
[29:38] Um the residential toou looked like
there's a big
[29:43] uh overcharge based on the and that was
just kind of a question slash concern.
[29:49] Is that right Travis?
>> Yeah.
[29:53] Um I believe and Mike please correct me
if I'm wrong. Um it was a general that
[29:59] certain charges are over certain classes
have been overcharged and certain are
[30:03] under but I didn't quite get the
conclusion on that. mic.
[30:08] » Um, yeah, it's I don't know you can hear
me, but the the maybe if you switch your
[30:13] mic off, you can hear me a little bit
better, Ted. That seemed to be the issue
[30:16] before. Um, but it it's it's driven by
us under we're charging not enough for
[30:24] the actual demand. Um,
we're overcharging on the energy. Um,
[30:30] the the big one is the customer charge.
We should be charging the $34.
[30:34] um around China in 1946. These meters
are they're more complex to to read and
[30:41] to to the billing is more complex. So
it's it's a higher cost to have the
[30:46] meter for these customers. But even even
at cost of service, they would they
[30:51] would be cheaper um on on this than on
the residential rate.
[30:59] Was that better for sound?
[31:04] I think I understood your
>> I'm gonna see if Brian can come.
[31:09] » I heard Did you understand that answer?
>> Pattern actually we put them currently
[31:15] residentials are 12.3 cents is sort of
the cost of service and for
[31:23] the residential based on their load it's
12.62.
[31:26] So this the cost of service is slightly
more for them based on how they're using
[31:31] the system. Um
>> yeah, sorry.
[31:42] » Let me let me basically what he's saying
is we need to be doing a 2.5 2% 1.5 1%
[31:50] and.5 increase every year to stay
positive. [clears throat]
[31:56] Is that right, Ted?
>> Yeah. He's he's looking for rate
[32:01] increases wash like between the various
uh category various
[32:05] » an average increase.5 for the next three
years
[32:08] » between commercial and residential
>> all across all
[32:12] » across all our rate which is a lot will
be a lot less but it'll wash out as a
[32:17] 2.5% increase.
>> Gotcha. 2%.
[32:21] » 2%. I'm sorry.
>> These are the individual rates how they
[32:27] would go up.
>> If at least Ted can hear and then he can
[32:29] relay.
>> Yeah.
[32:31] » Yeah.
>> Trying to figure out if I can crank it
[32:33] up just a little bit more.
[32:37] » He's not working.
>> Where is this big right here?
[32:41] Close. Okay.
[32:52] Any other questions
for right now?
[32:56] » Do we think time of use is still
beneficial
[32:59] to the customers?
>> Mike, the question was, do we think time
[33:03] of use is still a bene is still
beneficial to the customers?
[33:08] » I I think it is, but I think it needs to
get tweaked. Um, it's a different study
[33:13] to actually do a time of use study. I'm
just looking at the overall picture. Um,
[33:17] but your your your buckets for the
energy and demand need to be tweaked.
[33:23] You your your your um your on- peak
demand should really go up. Um, and the
[33:30] off peak sorry, the on- peak energy
should go up and the off peak energy
[33:35] should go down. That off- peak energy
that you're charging should be closer to
[33:40] 3 3 4 cents. Um, I don't think I
designed this, right?
[33:47] » Perhaps not. I'm not going to hold you
to it, but [laughter] but that that was
[33:51] the general question.
>> Yeah, but I I can I can put together a
[33:55] range for you, Ted. Um, that that would
that would show where it should be. the
[34:00] the the power supply demand cost that
that big number from Duke the $23 that
[34:06] should really go into the on peak which
is going to make that on peak closer to
[34:10] probably 20 cents and then they can save
on the they can they can then save money
[34:16] by the 3 cents using the three or 4
cents for for the uh
[34:22] for the for the energy off peak and then
the distribution costs are picked up in
[34:27] that what what's uh your demand charge
picks up the distribution costs here. So
[34:33] there there is there is good reasons to
review this rate.
[34:41] » Thank you.
[34:47] » Any other questions,
comments at this time?
[34:56] I I would like to offer that if you I
know there was a lot of information,
[35:00] some of it may not have transmitted
well. Um, but if you do have further
[35:04] questions, please send an email to Kim
and myself both and we'll get them to
[35:08] Mike and he can answer them via email.
Uh, I'm not asking, this is a
[35:12] presentation. I'm not asking for action
to be taken tonight. Uh, just that you
[35:15] guys hear it and hopefully understand
some of it and then we'll get you to
[35:19] understand the rest as soon as we can
and just kind of consume it, if you
[35:22] will. We have to have a public hearing,
too.
[35:24] » Yeah, we're going to have to have a
public hearing to adopt the any
[35:27] recommended rate plan or over three
years or whatnot.
[35:31] » Okay.
>> All right. And during that public
[35:35] hearing, is it the intent to have
somebody from UFS here at the site at
[35:42] the meeting? I think it's advisable.
I I will ask if UFS can attend uh on
[35:50] site during that public hearing and that
would be October the 6th I think is the
[35:55] » it's the first the 1st
>> the first Tuesday in October which I
[35:58] believe is the 6th.
Let me
[36:01] » yeah
[36:04] see if
>> M I think was we talked about this
[36:07] during budgets budget and we did nothing
to electrical rates because we knew this
[36:11] study was coming and now here's our
study now we need to
[36:14] » correct
>> digest it and in October we need to make
[36:17] your decision
>> correct
[36:18] » correct
>> got you thank you
[36:19] » we have an adjustment
>> that is possible it probably be Mark but
[36:23] Mark's Mark's good at teaching
he'd be good at that
[36:26] » that's okay thank you that would be
wonderful
[36:31] Okay. All right. Thank you. And then
also I think during budget nonrelated to
[36:36] electric but we talked about we would do
electric first and then afterwards we
[36:41] would do a water
>> water's next
[36:42] » and that's that's
>> Yep.
[36:44] » We're starting that process as well.
>> We will start that as Yes.
[36:48] » soon. Correct.
>> Okay. All right. Any other questions
[36:52] this time?
>> No. Thank you, sir.
[36:55] » Thank you, Mike. I'm going to um
disconnect you now. So, thank you for
[36:58] your time this evening.
>> Okay. Thanks. Thanks, everybody.
[37:02] » Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[37:06] » All right. We'll now move on. Uh we
don't have any public hearings this
[37:11] evening. We'll now move to citizens
comments. If anyone wishing to speak
[37:15] dear during citizens comments, you will
please come forward, state your name and
[37:19] address for the record. I will ask that
you hold your comments to three minutes
[37:23] or less. and I will ask the clerk if she
will um uh time the the speakers,
[37:29] please.
>> Good evening, Stephanie Avery
[37:32] Smithfield. I have more of a more
questions than I do comments. I want to
[37:39] know when do you plan to do a
presentation to the town for the new
[37:44] baseball stadium, showing the drawings,
the budget, and what is coming.
[37:51] especially for the people who live close
to the stadium. I think it would be a
[37:56] good idea to do it um so that everybody
has an opportunity to see where our tax
[38:03] dollars are going. the um also regarding
the stadium I hope you have factored in
[38:10] cons contingency reserves with capital
projects there's always overrun and with
[38:18] inflation and also tariffs everything
you never know what's going to cost
[38:25] tomorrow what you have budgeted for
today
[38:29] and last item is could you put a no
entry on Front Street. I have met two
[38:37] people on that one-way street coming
down front and I'm like, "Uh, excuse me.
[38:42] This is a one-way street." And it's
usually during the day when the court is
[38:48] in session and people are trying to find
a parking space and they don't realize
[38:53] that's a one-way street. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Anthony.
[38:59] » And anyone else wishing to speak, please
come forward if Tom. Good evening.
[39:06] » Uh hello. My name is Jonathan Bell. I
live on 205 West Steven Street in
[39:10] Smithfield. Um hello Mr. Mayor, uh board
members, uh Attorney Spence, interim
[39:19] manager Picket. Thank you for having me
here. Um as well as all of you, the
[39:23] concerned citizens here in Smithfield,
North Carolina.
[39:27] I was born and grew up in this town. My
grandfather's name is on a plaque
[39:31] outside of this building. I love this
town. I enjoy living a quiet life here.
[39:36] You usually wouldn't see me here today.
I used to tell my friends and family
[39:40] that I didn't care what the town board
did as long as the trash was picked up
[39:43] and the lights stayed on. And boy, do I
still wish that was true. In the last
[39:49] year, I've seen the trash not get picked
up. Not just in front of my house, but
[39:53] I've seen debris sit on curb the curb or
streets all over town. In the last year,
[39:57] I've seen tax revenues go up while
quality of service has gone down. In the
[40:02] last year, I've seen businesses downtown
shut their doors for good because new
[40:06] zoning and traffic rules are
incompatible with keeping a business
[40:09] open on the very block where this
building sits.
[40:13] I've seen town employees who worked here
for years abruptly quit because their
[40:17] bosses made working conditions
unlivable.
[40:21] Tonight we all learned that about a
staggered utility rate hike that the
[40:25] board doesn't even understand and could
not hear, but undoubtedly will obviously
[40:30] approve.
Some will pay more, some will pay less,
[40:35] but how will will the tax players know
what we're going to pay? I guess there
[40:40] will be a public hearing in the future.
Undoubtedly, too late for us to change
[40:44] it. I've seen the town break ground in a
ballpark that no one wanted. And just
[40:49] last month, we were told the budget
would be increased by $10 million. $10
[40:53] million, the burden of which will
ultimately fall upon you, us, the
[40:58] taxpayer, no matter what this board and
the interim town manager have to say.
[41:05] We will have to shoulder this burden.
And we're to believe that the Wilson
[41:09] Hobbs are going to make it worth worth
it when they couldn't even draw the
[41:12] revenue revenue in Wilson. I'm sure that
someone will make $10 million off of
[41:18] that money. But the question is who?
Whomever it is, I'd rather they didn't.
[41:22] I'd rather they didn't profit from my
tax dollars. Jesus told us that it's
[41:26] easier for a camel to pass through the
eye of a needle than it is to enter the
[41:29] kingdom of heaven. Please forgive me for
my language, but as Judge Judy used to
[41:34] say, "Don't piss down my leg and tell me
it's raining."
[41:39] And let's mention our interim town
manager who makes 160 thou plus th,000 a
[41:44] year when the average salary for a
full-time town manager in North Carolina
[41:48] is 108,000.
Now I'm sure in Kerry and Chapel Hill
[41:53] and Durham, they may need a manager that
makes that much, but we're not Carrie.
[41:57] We're not Chapel Hill and we're not
Durham. We're Smithfield.
[42:01] That's more than a vice president at
First Citizens Banks makes. More than
[42:04] the county engineer, more than the chief
deputy sheriff, and almost as much as
[42:08] the sheriff Bizzle himself. And for
what? She ran down the town of Benson
[42:12] into the ground. Left when people
started asking where the money went and
[42:16] now refuses to pay back the money she
borrowed from them. I came here today to
[42:20] tell the board that we, the citizens of
Smithfield, are watching. You can spend
[42:25] this however you want, but I promise you
I wouldn't be here if these issues
[42:29] hadn't upset not just me, but hundreds
of others.
[42:32] » Thank you, Mr. Bale.
>> We don't just ask. We demand that you
[42:35] spend our tax dollars wisely. You have a
choice to make since the general
[42:39] election is not this year, but next
year. You've got just over a year. Make
[42:43] the right decisions. Otherwise, you'll
hear the words that have been echoed
[42:47] throughout the annals of history. Six
simper Tyrannis.
[42:52] Thus always to tyrants.
Remember your job is to never see me
[42:58] here.
Thank you.
[43:01] » Thank you, Mr. Bill. Anyone else wishing
to speak?
[43:05] Come forward at this time. If you will,
please state your name and address for
[43:09] the record, please. And I'll ask you uh
hold your comments to three minutes or
[43:12] less, please. Cool.
>> Brett Reno, uh Eden Drive, Smithfield.
[43:17] Mayor, council members, thank you. Uh
thank you for what you do. Thank you for
[43:21] uh allowing me to speak. Um I guess
maybe two things. Uh real brief. Um the
[43:28] last council meeting I asked a question
to the council
[43:32] about what number would be the magic
number that makes this stadium project
[43:38] nonviable.
And I didn't ask you to give me an
[43:42] answer.
I thought I might get at least a phone
[43:46] call from somebody up here.
Didn't get one.
[43:52] » Didn't get one.
[43:56] » I'm asking this time. I want to know
what that number is. I'm curious to know
[44:01] what that number is. And Dr. Cohen,
Scott, Miss Dar, I don't want it from
[44:08] y'all because y'all didn't vote for it.
I want it from one of the other four up
[44:12] here. The mayor broke the tie. I'm just
stating facts. I'm not I'm not pointing
[44:16] the finger. I want to ask correctly. So,
I want it from the other four.
[44:22] I know all I know all four of you very
well. Councilman Wood's not here.
[44:27] Illness. Totally get it. You are all
businessmen. I know you for a fact.
[44:33] You're all businessmen.
When we started out this venture at 6
[44:38] million and now we're at 16269, I think
is the number.
[44:43] If Stevens, if your business was looking
at a piece of equipment
[44:49] and all of a sudden, Brett, how much is
$6 million, Sloan? It's what it's going
[44:54] to cost.
3 months later, I come back, Sloan, it's
[44:58] gone up 170%.
Would you still buy that piece of
[45:02] equipment? I'll answer it for you. You
absolutely would not. Not from me.
[45:07] I have a I have a problem with it. I
still have a problem with it. I'm just
[45:11] asking you to please, please do your due
diligence. Something's not right.
[45:17] Something is absolutely, incredibly not
right. Second thing, Project 70 across
[45:23] from my neighborhood.
It doesn't look right. I'm not an
[45:29] engineer. I don't claim to be one.
The grading looks off. It is
[45:34] approximately, and I'm just going by
eyeball. I have not measured it. There
[45:38] are parts of it that look like it's 3
feet above the normal graded height of
[45:42] Book of Dairy Road. It does not look
right. It's going to be a water problem
[45:47] when it's all said and done.
Also, if you'll stand at Eden Drive and
[45:53] look into local 70, the driveway that's
going into the old Howell property
[45:57] there, look at the curb and gutter. Look
at the street. That is a graded piece of
[46:03] property. It should in all seriousness
be flat just like this floor is. It
[46:08] could have some swell in it. I got it.
But within 300 ft, it shouldn't look
[46:13] like a
washboard going down through there. It's
[46:16] going to look horrible. If it's going to
be next to me or next to anybody in the
[46:21] town of Smithfield, I think we have the
right for it to look good and to look
[46:25] decent. They're already got the curb and
gutter poured. They're pouring every
[46:29] day. if they don't take a look at it, if
somebody's not going to go out there and
[46:32] take a look at it and hold them
accountable to it, it's going to be
[46:36] beyond the point of fixing. They're not
going to want to fix it. Thank you.
[46:39] » Thank you, Mr. Pride.
>> Anyone else wishing to speak?
[46:48] » Hello.
>> Good evening.
[46:50] » Hello, Kam.
>> So, I am Kam. I work at your local
[46:54] Johnston County Public Health
Department. Again, this is just quick
[46:58] quarterly update. I just want to remind
everyone that September is suicide
[47:03] awareness month. So, I have packets
available for everyone that has um
[47:08] warning signs for both youth and adults
regarding suicide. It's also time for
[47:13] our back to school vaccines. We have
that available at the health department.
[47:17] We also have Narcan available for free
for anybody in Johnston County. So, if
[47:22] anyone needs Narcan, please let us know.
And we're also starting a diabetes
[47:27] prevention program this week. So if
anyone is interested in preventing
[47:32] diabetes in our county, please join us
for free. Thank you.
[47:36] » Thank you.
>> Thank you very much.
[47:43] All right. Anyone else?
[47:48] All right. Not seeing any. We'll now
move on to our consent agenda. I have a
[47:54] motion to approve the consent agenda as
amended.
[47:58] » I make a motion to approve the consent
agenda as amended.
[48:02] » Second motion and a second. All in
favor?
[48:06] » I.
>> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right.
[48:13] All right. We'll now move on to our
business items.
[48:18] First business item this evening is
consideration and request for approval
[48:22] to adopt ordinance number 530-2026
electric connection policy. Ted, thank
[48:30] you council. Good evening. Thank you for
uh thank you for allowing me to speak
[48:35] tonight. I'm here to request the town
council consider a change to the town
[48:39] code and of ordinances specifically as
the ordinance pertain to the electric
[48:44] system.
Staff is proposing to help clarify
[48:49] section 18 of the code of ordinances by
adding electricity as a named and
[48:54] specified utility beyond the mention in
section 184. To accomplish this, staff
[49:01] is proposing an amendment to section
18.4 to point to a proposed article 7 of
[49:07] section 18. Further, staff proposes to
add article 7 which provides guidance in
[49:13] how new development will connect to the
town's electric system.
[49:18] So the first proposed amendment is the
addition
[49:22] uh of the phrase
to the ordinance in section 184 which
[49:28] allows for the addition of article 7 and
begins the establishment within the code
[49:32] of ordinances of electricity as a
utility and mi maintains the guiding
[49:38] document customer service guidelines for
all general matters. Here you can see
[49:42] the highlighted phrase that draws
attention to article 7. This is the only
[49:46] proposed edit for section 184.
[49:51] The second amendment to add uh artic is
to add is to add article 7 as the
[49:58] current code of ordinances stops at
article six. Article 7 will provide
[50:02] guidance on connecting to the electrical
system beginning with the town policy on
[50:07] extending electric main lines. Staff is
asking to codify this policy so
[50:12] interested parties will have a
reference. This policy proposes to put
[50:16] the financial burden of development uh
electrically on the project similar to
[50:22] how water and sewer are now constructed.
That is the only goal of this and I
[50:28] appreciate your time and I'll leave that
up and I can answer any questions you
[50:33] may have.
>> Any questions for for Ted?
[50:39] tell you on this article 7, we
effectively have been doing that,
[50:44] haven't we? It just wasn't in their
code,
[50:48] » right? So section 184, that's what it
talks about. Uh when we look through the
[50:53] code of ordinances, there is no explicit
determination of electricity as a
[50:58] utility. So that was the first step. We
need to make sure it's there. It is in
[51:02] section 184 because it speaks to the
customer service guidelines manual which
[51:09] is currently being updated and has been
being updated. It's kind of a living
[51:12] document but and that speaks to you know
cut off policies and metering the whole
[51:18] nine yards. Electricity is in there but
it's not in the code of ordinances. So
[51:22] what we're adding is an article 7 which
actually specifies electrical system as
[51:28] a utility. Um, and that's really the the
change to 184 is as we develop these
[51:34] ordinances, I still want to maintain
that book as a guideline because we've
[51:38] used it as you're saying for uh well
well since the 90s maybe even before
[51:44] then. Um so then we move into section
seven which that's what we start talking
[51:49] about the connection of the electrical
system. The very first
[51:52] uh proposed section deals with that
extension of of main lines into like new
[51:58] development. But to to answer that was a
long answer to answer the question that
[52:02] yes we have been using it all along.
>> Thank you.
[52:10] » Any other questions,
comments?
[52:21] Need a motion?
>> Motion to approve ordinance number 530
[52:26] 2006
>> 26. Have a motion. I have a second.
[52:30] » Sorry.
>> 2026.
[52:32] » 5:30 2026. Have a motion. I have a
second.
[52:35] » Second.
>> Motion. A second. All in favor?
[52:39] » Any opposed?
>> Thank you. Carries. Thank you, sir.
[52:43] Appreciate it.
[52:50] Okay, we'll move now to our second
business item, which is
[52:56] » um the bid award for power up
that
[53:00] » it's the travel policy.
>> Travel policy. Sorry. Yep.
[53:04] » Sorry.
>> I noticed that too.
[53:05] » Y
>> um so we briefly t um talked about this
[53:08] at the last meeting. This is just a a
simple revision of the travel policy. Um
[53:13] the the note the changes are in your
policy um highlighted in yellow and have
[53:19] strikethroughs. Um we changed credit
cards to PC cards, purchase cards and
[53:24] then um we changed
um in the table of approvals. Um the
[53:31] town manager would be their travel would
be approved by the mayor as opposed to
[53:35] the finance director. Elected and
appointed officials would be approved by
[53:39] vote of council as opposed to the town
manager. Um we also changed the um
[53:46] reimbursement submitt to from 5 days to
14 days
[53:51] and um those are and the um actual perdm
we went with federal rate um for
[54:00] breakfast, lunch and dinner and those
are the only changes.
[54:05] » Thank you. Any any questions on the
policy as drafted? Mayor, I did have one
[54:11] question, but Miss Picket, thank you
answered it. I was going to ask you
[54:14] about the days for the submitt. I saw
where it was changed, so
[54:18] » you actually gave a little more time. I
was thought that that was kind of a
[54:22] » Mhm.
>> I I thought it was uh longer than that
[54:26] actually, but I'm I appreciate you
clarifying that.
[54:28] » Yeah, no problem.
>> Okay. All right. Any other questions?
[54:34] If not, I'll entertain a motion.
[54:40] Adopt
[54:45] a motion to adopt the policy.
>> Motion to adopt this travel policy as
[54:49] written.
>> Second motion and a second. All in
[54:53] favor? I
>> opposed. Motion carries.
[55:00] Thank you. All right. We'll move on now
to our next item which was uh moved from
[55:06] the consent agenda and that was the uh
budget amendment.
[55:14] » Evening mayor and council. Uh my name is
Tracy Stubblefield. I'm the finance
[55:19] director. Um so tonight I have um before
you consideration and request for
[55:25] approval to adopt budget amendment to
appropriate general fund fund balance
[55:30] for the Smithfield baseball stadium. Uh
so this um budget amendment shows where
[55:37] the money is coming from and this was um
it's an accounting um
[55:43] request that we have to uh appropriate
the fund balance that was approved in
[55:48] the August 18th 2026 meeting. Um the
budget amendment updates the baseball
[55:56] stadium project budget to reflect the
appropriated um funds. And so you'll see
[56:02] on page 78
um the revenue accounts, the expense
[56:08] accounts, and uh where we're moving the
money. Um and as I said, this is um for
[56:15] the just for the movement of the the
funds that you appropriated
[56:19] [clears throat] in the last meeting
>> as well as the state budget.
[56:23] » That's right. And that's right. Thank
you so much. Um as well as the state
[56:27] budget funds.
[56:31] So, can I um Does anyone have any
questions?
[56:35] » Any questions?
>> I do have a few questions. Miss Stfield,
[56:39] thank you for your presentation. Um I
I'm a little bit um concerned about the
[56:45] um can you help me understand where
[laughter] this money is going to be
[56:49] moved? Because in the budget we have, we
talked about this during the budget,
[56:54] there's no money in here for the
baseball stadium or project. Um, and I
[56:59] just wonder why we don't have a budget
besides the PowerPoint slide we were
[57:04] given last meeting to reflect these
numbers.
[57:11] » So, um, so we do have um the project
fund and I I apologize I do not have um
[57:19] the the amounts pulled up. I don't have
my computer with me in here, but um so
[57:24] we did already have that project fund
set up from a previous meeting. Uh and
[57:29] then the fund balance that we discussed
at the August 18th meeting that is um
[57:37] that is shown the appropriated fund
balance uh that was voted on uh in the
[57:43] amount of 3,272
um I mean sorry 3 million272752.
[57:55] that that will be moved into that
project fund.
[57:58] » Into the project fund.
>> That's right.
[58:01] » And where will those numbers be kept
>> the expenses and all that stuff?
[58:07] » Right. So all of that will be kept in uh
if you look on uh page 78. So the we set
[58:14] up an expense line item for this
baseball stadium uh so that we could
[58:19] track all of those funds separately. And
um so that is the expense fund which is
[58:24] uh fund 46606200
57007413
[58:31] entitled um it just says on here BB so
baseball stadium expense
[58:37] » just so we can track those separately.
>> Missfield, where can I find that in this
[58:40] book?
>> Um so uh Kim, correct me if I'm wrong.
[58:45] Did I'm trying to recall. So this um the
budget book does not show the project
[58:52] line items. So our budget, our approved
budget has general fund um water, sewer
[58:58] and electric. So these funds are tracked
in uh fund 46 for all of our projects.
[59:05] » So your capital funds are separate,
>> right?
[59:08] » Okay.
>> Get you your capital funds anytime you
[59:10] want them.
>> Yes.
[59:12] » So but would it be on our website? I
mean,
[59:15] » um I don't know that we usually keep any
of our um funds on there. Um
[59:21] » to my knowledge, we don't we don't have
any of our funds on the website.
[59:26] » Well, we do have our budget on there.
And I I just think it's important that
[59:30] we're transparent about this. And
>> I remember bringing this to the
[59:34] council's attention during budget that
there was no zero dollars in this book.
[59:39] Our current adopted budget was adopted
in June. We've been in it 2 months for
[59:42] this ballpark.
>> There is.
[59:44] » Mhm.
>> If I could finish, um there is a page
[59:47] that was added in here for maintenance.
Is that what you're referring to, Miss
[59:50] Picket?
>> Mhm.
[59:51] » Uh but at the end of the day, we we were
given some numbers and a gentleman come
[59:57] in here that represented a a a
contractor
[1:00:02] » and they said no more than $6 million.
>> And now I appreciate staff's due
[1:00:07] diligent. we come back and now we're at
16 million. Now, I realize there's some
[1:00:13] money that come from other areas, but at
the end of the day,
[1:00:17] » we've got to be able to track these
numbers. And I do not feel like that
[1:00:23] them just being on some computer
somewhere, it it needs to be noted. And
[1:00:27] the other thing, Tracy, I I've done some
research and I'm very concerned. I mean,
[1:00:31] we were reprimanded by the auditor and
by the LGC for our last audit in regards
[1:00:37] to some of this exact mess.
>> And when I say mess, I'm talking about
[1:00:42] poor financial recordkeeping. And I'm
not picking on you because in fact,
[1:00:48] you've made a lot of changes to help us
get there. And I'm not picking on Miss
[1:00:51] Picket either. But my point is there's
some problems. And if we cannot
[1:00:57] adequately manage this, we don't get to
make this mistake. at one time with this
[1:01:03] much money. I've done some math and if
we did not have the I'm not going to ask
[1:01:08] you the question. I'm going to make a
statement. If we did not have the extra
[1:01:12] money in the bank, what would it take to
raise it in the taxes for this physical
[1:01:16] year? And that's just for the $4
million. I I'll do it for you. One penny
[1:01:21] generates about $240,000.
So essentially we'd be around 18 cents.
[1:01:28] Now, that depends if the visitor bureau
gives us the 500,000 or what, but at the
[1:01:32] end of the day, we still don't have a
complete project budget. You
[1:01:38] » you if you look at page 81,
that's the next agenda item. That's the
[1:01:44] amendment to that's amendment number one
to the original project ordinance that
[1:01:49] we approved earlier in the year. So,
that was the original 6 million that was
[1:01:54] the capital project. So you had um an
original project that was approved and
[1:01:59] this is amendment number one and that
all ties back to the general ledger in
[1:02:03] fund 46.
So you have already approved a capital
[1:02:08] project for this and this next one is is
the amendment.
[1:02:14] » That's for this this right here is an
amendment to an amendment.
[1:02:18] » No, it's an amendment one to an an
original capital project.
[1:02:22] » Okay.
>> For the stadium.
[1:02:24] » Thank Thank you. uh you you know I
actually think I brought those documents
[1:02:28] on the June 2nd meeting. We we we in
fact I actually wasn't here and I looked
[1:02:34] it up and that's when that thing was
done on June 2nd. But again to my point
[1:02:42] there was a whole bunch of budget
amendments done that night but it had
[1:02:45] nothing to do with the ballpark but
there was a ballpark one adopted but
[1:02:50] there's no itemization of anything.
It's got to be transparent. All our
[1:02:56] projects should be. Um, but anyhow, I
just want this council to really think
[1:03:01] about this. We got hurricane season on
us and this money that is in the bank is
[1:03:09] the taxpayers's money. It is a healthy
fund,
[1:03:13] but
we're going to be collecting this money
[1:03:16] again. So, we may have to change our tax
rate if this project don't go well. And
[1:03:21] I think there should be it also be known
that there's still $5.5 million that's
[1:03:27] unaccounted for of an increased expense.
I I just don't it doesn't make it it
[1:03:33] doesn't make sense to me. Not for for uh
what we're responsible for in this town.
[1:03:42] » Nobody ever suggested taking 18 cents of
normal fund general fund money to to pay
[1:03:50] for this. That was never the case. I
know you weren't you missed a lot of
[1:03:54] those early meetings, but that was never
discussed. We knew we could do this
[1:03:58] without raising taxes. We can still do
it. And you would talk about the cost.
[1:04:02] We need to take three millions off the
top and because we moved it for a
[1:04:07] council member who said, "I'm willing to
work with y'all. I just we just need to
[1:04:10] move the location." So, there's three
million right there.
[1:04:15] I mean, this is why do you have to argue
about every little thing? I mean, this
[1:04:18] is a this gets
they're doing their job and you get
[1:04:24] ahead of them before they have it.
They're presenting us how they're going
[1:04:26] to manage it and account for it and you
just want to take them down every second
[1:04:30] you get. I appreciate the questions and
give them a chance to be transparent.
[1:04:35] They're just getting into it. But they
made the suggestion that we're going to
[1:04:38] spend 18 cents of our general fund,
which would be what? 20%.
[1:04:44] No, excuse me, 40%. that that was never
suggested. So that that is does not that
[1:04:50] has not ever been suggested. And we can
do this. We can do this. We have the
[1:04:55] funds. We we have the money. We've
already been through this. So if we want
[1:04:58] to rehash it every week, let's let's do
it. So whatever
[1:05:05] » any [clears throat] other
>> Let staff do let staff do the job that
[1:05:09] we assign them to do.
>> Mayor, I'd like to have the floor again.
[1:05:11] » Yes, sir. Uh, and just to address
council's concerns, you know, I want to
[1:05:16] be clear that I didn't say that in fact
that 18 cents would go from for taxes.
[1:05:22] This simple math, that's how we generate
our our funds.
[1:05:26] » Yeah.
>> And and the other the other part of that
[1:05:29] is really important to think about is we
have a revenue neutral rate and we
[1:05:34] discussed it in a budget workshop and a
few of us got out of character because
[1:05:38] said we never change our tax rate, but
we have to to manage the budget. And I
[1:05:42] asked at that time, what would a revenue
neutral rate look like? And uh council
[1:05:46] did not agree with me on that sum of
them. But anyhow, that was only a couple
[1:05:53] cents. My point with saying this that I
didn't say nothing about the 18 cents of
[1:05:58] increase in it. But if you had to raise
the money this year to pay it, if we
[1:06:02] didn't have it in the bank, that's what
about what it would cost.
[1:06:05] » But we don't have to.
>> I still have the floor, sir. And to and
[1:06:09] to further address the council's
concern, mayor, in regards to the $3
[1:06:12] million increase, that is exactly not
factual. I've got the record right here
[1:06:17] where where I have the floor, sir.
>> Good. Thank you.
[1:06:20] » Uh it's was $88,000. And the reason for
that discussion was because of potential
[1:06:27] litigation
>> that you were threatening.
[1:06:29] » I have the floor.
>> Hey, hey, nothing from the audience. see
[1:06:34] that.
>> So, just before this gets out of hand,
[1:06:38] anything any other outbursts in the
audience, I'll ask you to leave. Okay.
[1:06:42] I'm sorry, but we got to conduct the
business and these are the ones that are
[1:06:46] conducting the business right now. Okay.
My apologies. I'm I'm giving him the
[1:06:50] floor back.
>> My apologies. I apologize.
[1:06:53] » Yeah. But, you know, we were discussing
about the the the move. Well, quite
[1:06:57] frankly, there was grant money that this
council was never told about that was
[1:07:01] going to be wasted. And there were
setbacks that could not be met. There
[1:07:05] were neighbors and that were very upset
about this project. And yes, there were
[1:07:12] there has been some changes and I have
been supportive and I I continue to
[1:07:15] support economic development and I also
continue to support recreation. But at
[1:07:21] the end of the day, we going to have to
say enough is enough. And we said 6
[1:07:27] million.
This board approved it. we moved on and
[1:07:32] we haven't had time to process it. We we
we spent, you know, we were told, you
[1:07:37] know, last meeting the additional money
and I I I'm thankful for that. But at
[1:07:43] the end of the day,
this is not a good idea in my opinion
[1:07:49] and I'm sorry that I disagree with
council or some council, but mayor, I
[1:07:55] make a motion we decline this financial
move.
[1:08:00] both of them.
[1:08:05] We need to renegotiate the contract.
We're building a private entity, a
[1:08:09] restaurant or not really a restaurant, a
fast service type restaurant. Um, we
[1:08:16] have a contract to play ball. And at the
end of the day,
[1:08:23] I still think we can make that work. But
this thing has just gotten to the point
[1:08:27] now where it is abs absolutely
too expensive.
[1:08:40] Right. Any other further discussion?
>> Could you ask him to recite his motion
[1:08:47] again, please?
>> Yes, mayor. I'll be glad to recite a
[1:08:52] motion to make it clear for the clerk. I
will make a motion that we deny the fund
[1:08:56] move in this budget amendment.
It starts on page 75
[1:09:03] and the second part of that is on starts
on page 83. No, excuse me
[1:09:11] 79.
[1:09:18] For clarity, is that the 3 million that
he's asking? I just want clarification
[1:09:22] what he's asking.
>> Yes,
[1:09:27] » that's that's the the budget amendment.
>> Yeah,
[1:09:31] » I second.
>> Got a bud a motion and a second. Any
[1:09:35] further discussion?
>> Yeah,
[1:09:37] » I would like to say um first of all, I
think had this gone through I think we
[1:09:45] do need a a regular accounting of what
we've been in that account at this
[1:09:49] point. It is important transport. One
thing we haven't discussed though is
[1:09:56] there are multiple contracts out there.
And to one point that Mr. Renfro brought
[1:10:03] up, what cost is too much?
There's a financial cost that has not
[1:10:09] been
uh calculated at this point. Can't be
[1:10:13] calculated at this point. We have
contracts with three separate entities
[1:10:17] right now. And if for some reason
this does not happen as a contract that
[1:10:23] we all as a board agreed to enter into,
there's potential for lawsuit from all
[1:10:30] of these entities individually against
the town. And should that happen,
[1:10:37] uh I'm pretty sure the county and
visitors bureau will not be willing to
[1:10:43] pony up for the settlement in that and
that will rest solely on the town. So
[1:10:47] there is another cost there that we need
to consider as well
[1:10:53] that could be fairly substantial
considering if this doesn't happen the
[1:10:59] TOBS will have missed two seasons of
baseball and they could have
[1:11:03] [clears throat] made other arrangements.
So just something to consider uh when
[1:11:07] people talk about the cost of the
project. There's also a cost for not
[1:11:12] completing the project that we just
can't walk away with what we've got in
[1:11:16] it right now. So,
>> okay.
[1:11:20] » Well,
well, what about the fundraising? Let's
[1:11:24] say that we're going to do raise it
fundraising.
[1:11:27] » I had two people text me today asked if
we had that ready. They were extremely
[1:11:30] » I have the floor according to RU's
order.
[1:11:35] » Thank you.
>> Okay, Miss Wolf. Uh, what about
[1:11:39] fundraising the $3 million
[clears throat]
[1:11:44] » the
>> I'm asking the question and I don't get
[1:11:47] I'm
>> so So hold on a minute. So are you
[1:11:50] asking the question? I am asking
question from staff.
[1:11:53] » Okay.
>> You get an update on the
[1:11:56] » it's supposed to come at the next
meeting.
[1:11:58] » I think that's what was told.
>> But that Yeah, that was I mean this was
[1:12:02] agreed upon at the last meeting. So, we
were trying to do the paperwork so we
[1:12:05] could continue pushing forward. We still
have 5.5 million we have to
[1:12:09] » collect. And if we collect more than
that, then obviously that would go back
[1:12:13] into fund balance.
[1:12:17] » Wait, the fundraising will be part of
it. Yes, Miss Wallace.
[1:12:22] » Okay. So, uh, a lot of, uh, people in
the community is saying we got our
[1:12:28] property taxes and we see how much money
is being taken out.
[1:12:33] probably take everything lined out and
then if this doesn't fan out right then
[1:12:38] I property tax is going to go up because
we already paying county tax and we you
[1:12:43] shaking your head Kim we I I have my
bill what what I'm what they taking out
[1:12:49] » I have it
>> yes
[1:12:52] » and they're taking out 41% if that's go
higher how a lot of the elderly is going
[1:12:59] to be able to afford to pay their
poverty taxes they're not going to be
[1:13:02] able to do it that a lot of them going
to become homeless, unhoused as you call
[1:13:07] it. Cuz if we don't stop spending all
this money,
[1:13:12] everybody's one check, miss one check,
then you going to be unhoused. And
[1:13:17] that's what a lot of people's going to
be.
[1:13:24] » Thank you. [clears throat]
>> Any other questions, comments?
[1:13:27] » Mayor, I I'd like to make one other
comment. Um, council raised a concern
[1:13:33] about potential lawsuit due to the
contracts and um, Miss Picket has
[1:13:36] informed us of that and uh, I think
that's an honest uh, risk with this.
[1:13:43] However,
[1:13:47] based on the fact that we never held a
public hearing, all those contracts are
[1:13:51] null and void per the general statute
the way it reads to me. I'll let others
[1:13:56] determine that for theirel, but I think
that would protect the town in some way.
[1:14:00] And the other thing is is a price
increase. I mean, if we had a contractor
[1:14:04] quote to build you a house for 500,000
and he come and says it's going to be a
[1:14:08] hundred, you know, a million and
500,000,
[1:14:11] what's the person going to do? They're
going to say, "I can't afford it." At
[1:14:15] some point, we have to acknowledge that.
You know,
[1:14:19] I think that this contract can be
renegotiated, but the motion's on the
[1:14:24] floor. Any
further? Yes. Sorry, Dr. C.
[1:14:29] » I do have a concern from the very
beginning, we
[1:14:34] I assume I assume that we had a cap for
the financial responsibility that the
[1:14:39] town would incur.
However, recently
[1:14:44] there was increase of $6,000 above what
we initially what I thought would be the
[1:14:50] total
cost.
[1:14:53] Now, that's concerning.
And this is an amendment to the original
[1:14:59] contract. What where's what's to say
that we won't have an amendment two
[1:15:05] weeks from now? Where does the cost
stop?
[1:15:10] This is a concern.
And I think since we not had a public
[1:15:16] uh
uh
[1:15:19] » hearing,
>> a public hearing, I think that's in
[1:15:23] order. I think to get over or get around
this, maybe that may be something we
[1:15:30] need to consider.
And and when we talk about somebody
[1:15:33] being sued,
[1:15:37] that's the least concern.
$6 million over what we initially
[1:15:44] started with.
What's to say that two months it'll be
[1:15:48] five more million dollars? That's my C
question.
[1:15:58] So, I would like to just point out that
the the the
[1:16:06] vote to approve the 3 million uh dollars
uh three 3,272,752
[1:16:15] was voted on and approved that the last
meeting. So, this is just what we're
[1:16:21] voting on this evening is just the
accounting, right? just for the books.
[1:16:26] So, I want to be clear on that. And yes,
I did break that tie. Um, and I stand
[1:16:31] behind it and I'll stand behind it uh
today. I understand the concerns.
[1:16:38] There's been a lot that's gone on into
this and I certainly hope that we
[1:16:42] haven't come this far to to all of a
sudden squash this project, right? Um
[1:16:51] we we we've looked at several different
locations and those locations didn't pan
[1:16:56] out for for various reasons, right? Um
but this location provided an
[1:17:03] opportunity for the town not only build
the stadium but to also put in
[1:17:09] potentially for for a a facility as well
as for the expansion of other parks and
[1:17:15] recre facilities. Right. So there's
things that are in this project.
[1:17:21] Uh the overrun. Now again, I I don't
disagree. That's uh quite quite a bit of
[1:17:28] a of an increase, but there are things
that are included in there like the road
[1:17:33] that we would put in that would need to
be put in regardless if we were going to
[1:17:39] utilize that property, which is was
discussed for for potential recreation
[1:17:43] other recreation facilities.
um you know parking as well. Yes, it
[1:17:49] would be used for the stadium, but it
would also be utilized, you know, for
[1:17:53] for other recreation uses and so forth.
Some of the infrastructure, the
[1:17:57] electric, the water, the sewer, and so
forth that goes into that also would be
[1:18:02] able to be used for other park
expansions. So, I just want the council
[1:18:07] to think about that. We we have funding
we have received funding from the state
[1:18:13] um uh specifically to be utilized
towards this if my my fear is is and I
[1:18:21] is if we don't move forward um and I
again understand the concerns I don't I
[1:18:28] don't disagree with those concerns but
my fear is is that funding is gone and
[1:18:33] we will lose that funding and potential
future funding for parks and wreck that
[1:18:38] we may need to expand. So that that's
that is one of my my fears. Now does
[1:18:44] that as does that answer all the
questions and so forth and the concerns?
[1:18:49] No, absolutely not. But it's also
something that we do need to consider
[1:18:54] and we do need to think about. Um we do
have contracts in place. Um, and it
[1:19:01] would be my fear that we would get sued.
And if we get sued and we lose, we don't
[1:19:08] have a ballpark and we don't have
anything to show. And we could be more
[1:19:13] than what's done. Okay? So, you got to
think about that. The decisions that you
[1:19:19] make are not easy. They're not hard. I I
mean, they're hard, right?
[1:19:25] But you have to think about it from that
standpoint as well. And that's not a,
[1:19:28] you know, it's not a threat. It's just
things to think about. If we get sued,
[1:19:33] if we more than likely we will get sued.
Okay, not if it is more than likely we
[1:19:39] will. It will cost us I I would imagine
much more than this and legal fees or
[1:19:45] not at least not much more, probably the
same amount and legal fees and so forth.
[1:19:51] And we don't have anything to show for
it. Nothing.
[1:19:55] Okay, that is that is a real concern of
mine. Okay, I again I understand what
[1:20:02] Mr. Renfro was saying. I I understand
what you're saying and I'll tell you
[1:20:06] right now, I don't know what that number
is right now, sir. Um I'll tell you
[1:20:10] without having to call you. Um I'm not
sure what that number is, right?
[1:20:14] Hopefully it's not any more than what
we've already discussed. Right.
[1:20:17] [clears throat]
But but I but but that [clears throat]
[1:20:22] would be my concern at this at this
point. Um I get it that members on the
[1:20:28] board do not agree and that and that's
and that's fine. But we did make a
[1:20:32] decision at the last me meeting um to
move forward with moving that money.
[1:20:38] This is the accounting process of that.
That's all that is is is the accounting
[1:20:44] portion of it. Um, I would just ask that
uh you you take that in into
[1:20:49] consideration as uh from a business
standpoint. Is it worth that risk?
[1:20:56] » That would be my only uh thoughts and
comments.
[1:21:00] you're going you're going to have a a
closed session tonight and if um
[1:21:05] you want to add to that closed session
to discuss
[1:21:09] what what it means to breach a contract
or three contracts and what are the
[1:21:14] consequences of that we we could do it
in close session. I would rather do it
[1:21:17] in close session than out here. Um and
um but contracts would be meaningless if
[1:21:24] you could just renegotiate them at will.
Um and we we have this constant
[1:21:30] reference to a public hearing. [snorts]
This is a public hearing is basically
[1:21:34] designed for a time during a meeting
which you discuss and have people
[1:21:39] discuss a particular project such as
this ballpark
[1:21:44] and how many times has it been in front
of this board?
[1:21:47] Um how many times has it been discussed?
I mean at least I would think 10.
[1:21:54] Um,
so but but I I don't want to discuss
[1:21:59] breach of contract in in the public when
whatever you say can be quoted against
[1:22:04] you in court. So um that would be
appropriate in closely
[1:22:12] and I and just one other portion it's it
to to Councilman Scott's thoughts and
[1:22:18] and and uh what he was asking. I don't
think anybody up here minds, you know,
[1:22:29] having a detailed budget and and
accounting process, right? As Councilman
[1:22:33] Stevens said, this was the start of that
tonight. That's what this is is to show
[1:22:38] that money. That is the next thing on
the agenda. People talk about
[1:22:43] transparency. There's nothing
Everything's been in in the public,
[1:22:48] right? So from a transparency standpoint
and and showing that I don't think
[1:22:54] anybody is saying that we don't do that.
Is it a lot of money? Is it a risk?
[1:23:00] Absolutely.
It absolutely is.
[1:23:04] But saying that we're not trying to do
our accounting properly. And I'm not
[1:23:09] saying that you were saying that
Councilman Scott at all. That's not what
[1:23:12] I'm saying. I'm just making a statement
uh a general statement. It's simply not
[1:23:17] true. Right? That's what we're doing
tonight. It is right here.
[1:23:23] If you haven't looked at it, look at it.
But don't say that we're not being
[1:23:29] transparent and that we haven't had
meetings on this. I don't know how many
[1:23:34] we've had, but we've had a lot. And they
have been right here in this room in the
[1:23:41] public. And if you've chosen not to be
involved until now, that is on you.
[1:23:48] That is on you. Okay. It is. It
absolutely is because everything has
[1:23:56] been publicized, put on the agenda and
talked about. Okay. So, is it every
[1:24:04] single detail to the the color of the a
building? Maybe not. But the general
[1:24:12] accounting and what's there has been
presented, right? It was presented last
[1:24:18] meeting and yes, I voted to break that
tie and move the money because I believe
[1:24:23] in the project. All right. So, I just
want the public regardless of what
[1:24:29] happens, you know, here, but I want the
p the public to understand that
[1:24:35] just as I've had we've had two or three
speak against this, there's also people
[1:24:41] that are are for the ball field, believe
it or not. So
[1:24:47] they let it be known and they tell us
and if not, you know, I wouldn't I
[1:24:53] wouldn't be in favor of it myself if
there weren't people that that also
[1:24:58] believed in it.
Anyway, my point is is that regardless
[1:25:04] of what happens,
it is it the notion that it's not public
[1:25:10] hearing or no public hearing as as the
attorney stated. uh I don't think
[1:25:15] there's any any requirement or anything
to have a public hearing in this case as
[1:25:20] as from what staff has presented uh to
us and things that have occurred um from
[1:25:27] voting on this and moving things forward
have occurred in open meetings. Okay? So
[1:25:33] I just want to make that clear to the
public. Uh you can you can agree with it
[1:25:38] or disagree with it but just tell the
facts. Okay? Don't make it look like
[1:25:45] something that it's not and stand up and
be all dramatic about things uh and
[1:25:51] speak online about things that are
simply not the case. Right? And I'm not
[1:25:57] talking about any specific person. I'm
just talking in general because that
[1:26:02] seems to be what people sometimes
tend to do these days.
[1:26:10] Um, it's I have no problem with hearing
a different side of a story, uh, hearing
[1:26:18] the pros and hearing the cons. And if
you disagree, then that's fine. We
[1:26:23] disagree and we move on, right? And
that's what we'll do tonight. You know
[1:26:28] what you no matter what happens tonight.
Uh, that's or that's what I'll do. Um,
[1:26:33] you know, because it that that's what it
is. But I just I just want to uh be
[1:26:38] clear from the from a board standpoint,
whether you're for or against, I don't
[1:26:42] think there's anybody on this board
that's tried to hide, you know, or is
[1:26:46] trying to hide anything when it comes to
this. I mean, good gracious, it's a, you
[1:26:51] know, it's a it's a huge expense, right?
and we need to be open and and certainly
[1:26:56] if this were to move forward uh 100%
agree with with Councilman Scott and and
[1:27:03] everybody else and I think we all agree
with that. Um yes, we would want a
[1:27:07] detailed accounting and that's what the
the very next item on the agenda would
[1:27:11] be for uh is the start of that process.
So that's all that's all I'm going to
[1:27:16] say. I know that's a lot, but um things
have gotten a little tense this evening
[1:27:22] and so forth. And I just thought it was
good just to to put it out there. And
[1:27:26] again, you don't have to agree. Um
that's that's that's [snorts] that's,
[1:27:31] you know, that's that's up to you. But
um to make it look like something is uh
[1:27:37] being done underhanded and so forth is
simply not true. And I'm not saying
[1:27:42] anybody in this room or anybody tonight
or anybody on this council has said
[1:27:45] that. That's just a general statement uh
about the whole process. Okay. So
[1:27:52] anyway, that's all I have. Sorry that
was a long-winded and I know we got a
[1:27:55] motion on the table in a second.
>> May I like to make a couple more
[1:27:58] comments?
>> Yes, sir. Go ahead.
[1:28:00] » Um first of all, u thank you for the
opportunity to speak again. Uh I think
[1:28:05] we need to really reflect on what a
public hearing is.
[1:28:10] Yes, we've had public meetings, but a
public hearing, the law says you
[1:28:14] announce it 10 days to the public and
then you open the floor and let them
[1:28:18] speak. We've not let them do that yet.
Talking about it in a public meeting is
[1:28:24] not a public hearing.
And the other thing that was mentioned
[1:28:29] is about the lawsuit. I [clears throat]
think we have to look at what risks we
[1:28:33] have versus
where does it stop at. And
[1:28:39] if somebody's been
eluding that this was not up and
[1:28:44] transparent, I understand this is a
change tonight. But reality is there has
[1:28:50] been money spent on this already and
that should be reflected. We should have
[1:28:54] that in front of us right now besides a
PowerPoint slide that says it's probably
[1:28:58] going to be $5.5 million next year, 3.27
this year. We need,
[1:29:04] you've got to have the checks and
balances and and we don't have that. If
[1:29:08] it moves forward, I hope we can obtain
that
[1:29:12] about the contract.
There's two contracts. There's a design
[1:29:18] build and we talked about that and the
gentleman stood right there. I don't
[1:29:23] know how he can sue us when it's on the
record that it was going to be $6
[1:29:27] million.
And then few last meeting we had here we
[1:29:33] found out it was going to be $16
million. Yeah, that's right. And
[1:29:42] Travis would
ask you a question.
[1:29:46] » Sure.
>> Uh would you want to get a
[1:29:50] more detailed
accounting
[1:29:55] uh set out just on this particular
issue?
[1:29:58] uh printed on the agenda and put into
the next meeting. I don't know if you
[1:30:04] object to that, mayor, but I mean, so
it's very clear and you have chance to
[1:30:10] comment in advance and get more if you
don't think it's there.
[1:30:13] » Put it on the agenda and and it could be
if you want an advertised meeting, it
[1:30:17] could be an advertised meeting, but
there've been a lot of meetings on this.
[1:30:20] Now, I don't know how many advertised.
That's the only difference.
[1:30:23] » You'd have to advertise it for the
October meeting if you you want to
[1:30:27] advert, but if if you're worried about
every technicality, you could advertise
[1:30:31] it. Um, every one of these state laws
that affect this budget stuff, and we
[1:30:37] got rode up by say you're supposed to
have a public hearing. I mean, we
[1:30:42] shouldn't be doing uh budget amendments
in the consent agenda. I mean, this is a
[1:30:48] real item.
>> U, that's what concerns me. I, you know,
[1:30:53] Mr. suspense. With all due respect,
this council is going to do what they
[1:30:58] want to do. But I do have a concern with
the motion that I've got on the floor
[1:31:04] that two of my fellow council members
are not here and I feel like they should
[1:31:08] have a right to weigh in on this.
I would be willing to uh
[1:31:16] amend my motion.
We need to have a further discussion in
[1:31:21] close session before we call for a vote
on this mayor if it's so appropriate
[1:31:26] because there is some things that we
need to talk about with this contract.
[1:31:32] There's a major risk for our town.
[1:31:37] I'm fine with that. MP is that fun?
>> Yeah.
[1:31:41] » So, Miss Wallace, do you you would you
agree with that? You seconded the
[1:31:46] motion.
>> Yeah, second. But also I want to say to
[1:31:49] this uh if we would get the financial
report
[1:31:54] days before because I had to thumb
through all this here at the meeting. So
[1:32:00] uh a lot of decisions that you're asking
us to make we don't even have the back
[1:32:06] of the finance state until today and you
can't look at it. And I've been asking
[1:32:11] and asking and all the training that
I've had in the finance they said you
[1:32:15] are supposed to have these
way before your meeting. We got the our
[1:32:20] agenda.
No, no education.
[1:32:26] They said that you should have the
financial statement when you get your
[1:32:31] agenda. And we get it every time since
I've been on the board the day of the
[1:32:36] meeting. And that needs to stop. It
really needs to stop. If you want us to
[1:32:41] vote effective, you need to give us
something to work with
[1:32:53] » financial report.
[1:32:58] » Think that's something that could be
worked on.
[1:33:01] » So all that money I've been spending on
training, this is what I'm learning that
[1:33:04] you need to have.
[1:33:09] All right. So, Miss Wallace, for your
points, are you you're in agreement with
[1:33:16] we'll we'll um
>> Yes.
[1:33:18] » I guess
Councilman Scott, you'll
[1:33:22] » um withdraw your motion till we go into
close session. Is that what I'm hearing?
[1:33:27] » Yes, sir.
>> Okay.
[1:33:28] » All right. All right.
Do we we good? We don't need anything on
[1:33:33] that, right? There's no vote or
anything. I mean, do we need
[1:33:37] So we need a vote.
>> Yeah.
[1:33:39] » Okay. All right.
>> Vote to to put it in close. I mean he's
[1:33:42] already made the motion to put it in
close session.
[1:33:44] » Okay. So we just need a mo we just need
a
[1:33:47] » say to you a second
>> to go into close session and discuss
[1:33:50] that further.
>> Yes.
[1:33:51] » Okay. So I have a motion and a second.
All in favor?
[1:33:55] » I.
>> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. All right.
[1:33:59] Now, um there's then probably no reason
for us to do the next one [laughter]
[1:34:05] as well. So, um we will now move on then
to
[1:34:11] Councilman's comments. Thank you.
>> All right. Anything from council this
[1:34:18] like we probably got a lot for close
session.
[1:34:22] » All right. All right. I'm not seeing
anything.
[1:34:26] » Quick question.
>> Yes, sir. uh the close session to
[1:34:29] discuss that is that already covered by
A5 and A6. Is that
[1:34:33] » No,
>> we need to have
[1:34:36] » we got to have the the additional one
involves I'm going to have to site
[1:34:39] subsection but it it involves possible
litigation
[1:34:49] » three
need to add three
[1:34:52] » section three
>> section three.
[1:34:58] All right. Um [laughter]
Miss Manager, I'll turn it over to you.
[1:35:02] Yeah. All right. So, town offices will
be closed on Monday for Labor Day. Um,
[1:35:08] we have a lot of activities coming up in
the coming month um that are at the top
[1:35:15] most uh most recent will be September
11th, our fall Friday concert um on the
[1:35:21] on the front. Um the Ava Gardner
Festival is October 1st and 2nd and then
[1:35:28] October Fest October 10th. Um, I would
like to say that street resurfacing
[1:35:33] should be wrapping up in the next couple
weeks and then, um, Lawrence will be
[1:35:38] gearing up to get the list out for the
next set of street resurfacing.
[1:35:42] Um,
our fire department is 100% uh, staffed.
[1:35:49] [clears throat]
So, that's exciting. Our police
[1:35:51] department is also uh they're doing
their last um enrollment of an employee
[1:35:57] and they will also be 100% staffed which
is the I think that's been quite a while
[1:36:02] since they have been 100% staffed. So
it's good to hear. Um
[1:36:08] we are in the process of doing
interviews right now for the assistant
[1:36:12] finance director, the CSR position as
well as a payroll technician. Um and
[1:36:18] that assistant finance director will be
taking over the roles of Greg who has
[1:36:23] been working on our bank
reconciliations. As we all know, he is
[1:36:26] um sick and so that's why it's late this
month. Um we talked to him today and we
[1:36:32] should have that by the next meeting. Um
and that is all I have.
[1:36:37] » Oh, that just just reminded me I don't
think this is really necessary, but you
[1:36:42] we spoke of Greg being sick. Obviously,
everybody knows that Councilman Wood is
[1:36:49] » I'm sorry.
>> I said it's personal about Greg. We said
[1:36:52] that's violating HIPPA law.
>> Everybody knows he's sick.
[1:36:55] » Yeah.
>> So, anyway, um sorry. Um so, everybody
[1:37:01] knows about Councilman Wood um as sick.
So, I would entertain a motion that we
[1:37:07] excuse him.
>> We did we do the resolution? We did that
[1:37:10] full time. We did a resolution. Sorry.
Sorry. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All
[1:37:13] right. Appreciate it.
>> I do have one more thing. If
[1:37:17] » she's finished, now I'll make a
statement.
[1:37:18] » Absolutely.
>> I got one more thing. I'm sorry if
[1:37:20] that's okay.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
[1:37:21] » Um I did send out an email yesterday for
a doodle poll for a retreat um for when
[1:37:28] uh Councilman Wood comes back. He should
be back in November, but that's rolling
[1:37:32] into the holidays. So the doodle poll is
for January, February time frame. It
[1:37:35] would be a Friday and a Saturday. if you
could all go in and fill out the doodle
[1:37:39] poll so we can get a consensus on a
weekend for that retreat, I'd appreciate
[1:37:44] it. Um, but I sent that out yesterday to
everybody.
[1:37:50] » I would like to uh announce that uh this
be my fifth year just recognizing the
[1:37:57] the first responders. I know this is not
on the information here. I think it's
[1:38:01] very important. I was doing this before
I was a town council woman. So, I have
[1:38:07] continued to do that. So, we will be
representing the firefighters, the first
[1:38:11] responder EMS, and that will be this
coming Saturday.
[1:38:15] » And what time is that, Miss?
>> It will be from uh 12 to 2.
[1:38:19] » And location?
>> It's going to be at Gertru um Johnson
[1:38:24] Park.
>> Okay. All right.
[1:38:27] » I see this announced on the kiosk, but I
I don't see it here announced here.
[1:38:31] » Okay. All right. Thank you.
>> You're welcome. Um, and then also, um,
[1:38:37] did want to mention I I see Mr. Cowwell
in the back, Adam.
[1:38:43] I guess, uh, Commissioner Elect, as long
as there's not a lot of writins. Is that
[1:38:49] is that correct, sir? Welcome. Uh,
pleased pleased to have you here. Uh,
[1:38:54] sorry I didn't see you at the beginning
of meeting, but now some folks have
[1:38:57] moved away. I see you sitting back
there. So, so, welcome. Glad you're
[1:39:00] you're I came to Smithfield and um
appreciate you. Yeah, appreciate you
[1:39:06] coming. Look look look look forward to
to working with you uh uh in a few
[1:39:11] months. Congratulations, sir. All right.
If there's nothing else, um I entertain
[1:39:17] a motion to go into close session. Uh
pursuant to North Carolina General
[1:39:22] Statute 143
uh-318.11
[1:39:27] section A5 A6 and section three. Have a
motion.
[1:39:33] » Move.
>> Motion a second. All in favor?
[1:39:36] » I.
>> All right. We'll go into close session
[1:39:38] at this time. Thank you.