Wilson County Board of Commissioners to order. This time we'll recognize Commissioner Hill
to lead us in our moment of silence and pledge of allegiance.
With me for a moment of silence, please. If
you will stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic.
Again, welcome to everyone who's in the audience tonight and those that will be speaking
and those that are here just to see and to hear what goes on in a Wilson County Board of Commissioners meeting.
meeting. You're more than welcome to be here. It's our first meeting for the year 2020,
and we will start with consideration of the minutes from our December meeting.
Mr. Chairman, I'll move to approval as you found any mistakes. I didn't.
The motion has been made properly seconded to approve the minutes. Is there any discussion?
There is a correction that we do need to make, and it is fairly important. If you're
turn in the packet to page 35. Under other matters, you will see the meeting
dates list for 2020. If you'll go down to September the 14th, listed as the
meeting date, beside that, the day for the work session should be September
10th instead of October the 1st. We wouldn't want to have the work session
after we've already had the meeting and below September the 14th we need to
insert a meeting for October the 5th and then a work session will be held on
October the 1st. So that's meeting date September 14th. We're adding to the
minutes, a work session to be held on September 10th. We're adding a meeting
date of October the 5th and then corresponding with a work session of
October the 1st.
Are there any other changes or corrections to the
minutes for December meeting?
If not, all those in favor of approving the
minutes with the corrections as noted, please indicate by saying aye.
All opposed, the motion carries.
Next on our agenda is a resolution of appreciation,
and that is for the 100th anniversary for the
League of Women Voters of North Carolina, and that is, print is presented tonight for
the board's approval, and I'd like to ask Commissioner Lucas, if she would, to please
read that resolution to everyone.
Resolution, Wilson County Board of
Commissioners, 100th anniversary, League of Women Voters of North Carolina.
Whereas an organized movement to enfranchise women began in July 1848 at
a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, whereas through the efforts of brave
and courageous women referred to as suffragists who sacrifice family, their
personal life, and their financial resources for over 70 years to gain equal
rights for women, especially the right to vote. Whereas women and men, black and
white, supported the women's suffrage movement for women to gain the
constitutional right of having a voice in making the laws that
governing them. Whereas the woman's suffrage movement led to the passage of the 19th Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States in 1919 with ratification by the states by the
summer of 1920. Whereas the National Women's Suffrage Association dissolved in 1920 to
to create the League of Women Voters of the United States to register voters and educate
all voters.
Whereas the League of Women Voters of North Carolina was launched on October 7, 1920 on
the steps of the Guilford County Courthouse by Gertrude Well, a politically active and
tireless young woman from Gosboro, North Carolina, whereas more than 120,000 women were registered
to vote in North Carolina by 1920, whereas women today constitute a majority vote in
our state and the United States and are running for office in higher numbers and more active
in the election process than ever before in history,
be it resolved that the 100th anniversary of women
gaining the right to vote and the founding
of the League of Women's Voters in the United States
and in North Carolina is recognized for the impact these historic
accomplishments have on citizens' engagement
and the civic life of the community, the state
and the nation. Therefore be it resolved that the Wilson County Board of
Commissioners support the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th
amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the founding of the
League of Women Voters. This the sixth day of January 2020.
Thank You Commissioner
or Lucas. Any discussion?
What is the pleasure of the board?
Motion has been made properly
seconded to approve resolution regarding the 100th anniversary of the League of Women Voters
of North Carolina. Any further discussion or questions?
If not, all those in favor
please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? The motion carries. Next on our agenda
under public hearings is to continue public hearing on Manta Bible College to consider
request to rezone 17.36 acres from AR to OI for the Board's consideration.
I might refer back to the minutes that we just approved to the motion that was approved
regarding Mount of Bible College and that motion was to delay consideration of
that request until January 6, 2020 meeting while staff gather additional
information. So at this time I might ask our Development Services Director, Mr.
Mark Johnson, if he would please come forward and bring commissioners up to
up to speed with information that he and his staff and others have gathered since our last meeting.
Thank you, sir. As you have previously stated, this is a continuation of the public hearing that was conducted, I believe, on December the 9th of last year.
Staff was asked to have time to gather some additional information that may be useful in your deliberations concerning this matter.
A staff have received a trust that the commissioners have copies of what staff have received.
We received an email from Noah Brewer outlining plaques and what heavier as it relates to
the proposed or easement that was referenced at the last meeting.
And as well as we received from Steve Aurovero with a Barclay and associate whose represents
a man of Babacolish information that pertains to the deeds for the properties is apparently
there's two parcels of land involved in this or at one point it was two parcels.
I think a recombination has been since done.
And he also sent to you for your consideration the Wilson County Orders regarding the discharging
of firearms that was asked about as well.
And I do have a letter from Dr. Sellers Jenkins, which is the Manababa College President, submitted
a letter as well.
I'd be glad to answer any questions that I can concerning these items that was submitted.
Any
questions for Mr. Johnson?
Mr. Johnson, could you explain the information that you received from Mr. Brewer and in your opinion what that constitutes?
Actually, I have not had an opportunity to review it, not in detail.
I'm not sure whether our attorney's
search will have to be done to, you know, to authenticate that.
But as far as the due diligence of my office, is nothing indicated on the survey.
And again, you receive copies of two plaques and a recombination plaques and it is incumbent
upon the surveyor or engineer to show all such deeds, all such easements, but pertain to their
property, and so it's their seal, it's their engineer seal that's on it, so that's what
we go by.
So Mr. Johnson, if we approve this, there's no easement, the other landowners won't have
any access to the land, right?
No, I don't think the rezoning have
been a thing to do with the access to the property.
Again, the rezoning is just rezoning the entire parcel.
Whether there's an easement on or not
does not affect the rezoning.
Well, the question last meeting was,
the gentleman was concerned that somebody
through the county's office or county department
had required an easement there,
and he wasn't able to buy the land.
But Mark's pretty certain that that's not anything that the county would have made a recommendation as a private land.
That is correct. I do know over the last 12 years, since my tenure, we cannot require someone to give another person an easement contingent upon any subdivision of the land or what have you.
That's completely up to them.
I believe so. It seems to me that there is a question as to whether or not the easement
was granted or what have you. So I guess that would be something that we have to determine.
But again, that don't have any bearing on the rezoning. I believe and our attorney is
present, I believe an easement in no way conveys property. It just gives an access easement
or utility easement, so the ownership of the property does not change hands.
I believe that Mr. Olivero, which is with Barclay Associates, this is his email that
you have. He did speak, and I'm not quite sure whether or not the, I do know Dr. Jenkins
against, did not speak at the meeting.
There was, I think, a little confusion as to whether
or not it was appropriate for him to speak at that time. And the gentleman trying
to find
Mr. Noah Brewer. I do know that there was, if my recollection serves me correctly, that
there were three individuals spoke in opposition. I'm not certain whether or not Mr. Brewer
or one of those individuals not, but he did submit
additional information for your consideration.
Does
the listeners have any further questions
or discussion regarding the request by Manababa College?
When
we received through email that I
was able to look at, satisfied my questions
at the last meeting concerning especially the easement
attached to the land and not have any further information
supplied or given to us from the individual,
spoke against it. I'm satisfied.
If not, then what is the pleasure of the board?
Mr. Chair, I'm making motion to approve the rezoning request.
Most have been made improperly seconded to approve the rezoning request. Any further
discussion or questions?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
Aye. All opposed?
Aye. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
Sir, at the last meeting, we opened, heard speak, and then we closed the public hearing,
then we discussed.
And the reason that I read the motion at the beginning of this, the reason that I read
the motion at the beginning of this is that the motion at the end of that discussion
was to delay consideration until January 6, 2020 meeting
while staff gather additional information.
It was not to reopen the public hearing.
It was to gather information regarding the consideration
and present that information to us.
We've done that. We've approved the request,
which is exactly...
We did not reopen the public part
of that consideration of that request.
It was sent to us and presented by the staff to us
as a part of their gathering information,
which the motion included.
Next to our agenda is to conduct a public hearing
to approve the resolution authorizing appropriations
and expenditures for the purpose of economic development
by appropriating funds to Merck and Company Incorporated
for the Board's consideration.
This time we recognize Ms. Jennifer Lance and we call this public hearing to order.
Thank you. I'm here on the half of the Merck project, which you heard in closed session as Project Rota.
The project, you know, of course, was announced last month.
and includes 55 new full-time jobs with benefits
and a taxable investment of $57 million.
And the average salary for those jobs is $59,273.
The total cost of the incentive is $700,000 over five years.
And I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Any questions for Ms. Lantz?
If not, is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak regarding this request?
If not, we'll adjourn the public hearing and we'll begin consideration of the request.
Any further questions for Ms. Lantz at this time?
Or discussion?
If not, what's the pleasure of the board?
Move for approval.
Second.
The motion's been made properly seconded to approve the resolution authorizing
Economic Development Appropriating Funds to Work in Company.
Any further discussion or questions?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
All opposed, the motion carries.
Next, we have a public hearing to approve the resolution
authorizing appropriations and expenditures
for the purpose of economic development
by appropriating funds to refresh code for the board's consideration.
We will call the public hearing to order.
Ask Ms. Lance, if she would, to present this request.
Refresco is doing an expansion of $16.5 million with 43 full-time jobs.
It does not include expanding their building, but it does include significant equipment expenditures.
This incentive is a incentive that will be shared by the city and the county, and each entity would expend $50,000 a year for four years.
So it's a $400,000 incentive in total.
And I'll be glad to answer any questions.
Questions or anything from this lands?
If not, is there anybody in the audience who would like to speak regarding the refresco
funds?
If not, we will adjourn the public hearing and begin consideration of the request.
Any further questions or discussion by the board?
If not, is there a motion to approve the request?
Second.
Motion has been made and properly seconded to approve request authorizing appropriations
and expenditure by appropriating funds to refresh code for the
discussion of questions.
Not all those in favor please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
All opposed the motion carries.
We move to personal appearances at this time we ask Ms. Cotang Cho-Moses Audit Manager
Martin Starnes and Associates to present the fiscal year 2019 financial audit for the
board's consideration.
Good evening Chairman and Commissioners.
Thank you for having our firm be your auditor.
Again, another here.
We appreciate that, and we'd like coming out to Wilson County.
I'm going to present to you guys the June 30, 2019 audited financial statements.
For 2019, we issued, our firm issued an unmodified opinion on your financial statements.
It means that your financial statements are not materially misstated to its readers.
We'd like to thank Angel and the finance staff for assisting us in getting the audit report out.
We couldn't have done this without them, so we appreciate them.
For 2019, auditing standards, there was a GASB 88 footnote disclosure for debt that you will see in your CAFR this year.
Additional footnote disclosures regarding debt will be in your audit report.
Some of those include for your applicable debt,
you're gonna see acceleration or termination clauses
to those debt pieces, and you'll also see
asset collateral information.
When we look at the general fund for 2019,
we saw that revenues increased by about $225,000,
a less than 1% change from the prior year.
We also saw that expenditures decreased by 1% $940,000.
So overall, it looks pretty consistent from 2018 to 2019.
When you look at fund balance, what it does is it measures the county's financial resources that are available.
So you have your assets plus your deferred outflows minus your liabilities plus your deferred inflows,
and that gets you to your fund balance or your net position in the enterprise fund.
So within the government funds of the county, you're going to see five classifications of fund balance
for governmental funds. Those include non-spendable, restricted, committed, assigned, and unassigned fund balances.
So if we take a look at the county's fund balance positions, you're going to see restricted fund balance of $8.4 million.
There are other restrictions in that fund balance also. It's $5.4 million. You have committed, assigned, and unassigned fund balance.
So the committed fund balance that you see here, that is your tax rebow fund.
The unassigned fund balance that you see for 2019, the 9.2, those are
assigned fund balances that were designated for subsequent year's expenditures.
A little bit of that number is also human services expenditures.
So if we look at total fund balance over the last three years, you see an increase.
For the current year, there was $3.8 million increase in the general funds fund balance.
Available fund balance is used by the local government commission to compare you with your peer group,
which is determined by your population size. To calculate fund balance available,
you're going to take general funds fund balance, take away any non-spinable fund balance stabilization by state statute,
and then you get your total available fund balance.
So the local government gets that dollar amount and then they calculate a percentage.
And so sometimes you'll often hear them say fund balance percentage.
Dollar wise for Wilson County.
Your available fund balance at the end of 2019 was $39,980,799, which is an increase over the
prior year's available fund balance.
If we look at the general fund's top three revenues,
you're going to see property taxes as the highest source at 55%, followed by your state local
government grants under restricted intergovernmental of 17%, and then your local option sales
tax is 16%. Your other revenues only make up 12%. Your total revenues for the year was
a little bit over $94 million. Your top three revenue source make up 88% of your total revenues.
If we look at property taxes, you'll see a 2.1% increase from the prior year, or in
terms of dollars, you're looking at almost $1.1 million. We saw an increase in your
total levy and your total valuation from the prior year.
The current year's overall collection rate
for property taxes was 98.28%.
Then if we look at your grants,
again, restricted air and governmental
makes up your state, local, federal grants.
We saw a decrease of $314,000.
We saw quite a bit of increases
in some of the grants that you guys got
that were new from prior year,
like the NC One Fund grant.
There were other private grants that the county received that they had not in the prior year.
And then we saw increases in TANF and food and nutrition dollars.
However, there was a large increase in DSS revenue for childcare services since the county is no longer paying the providers.
So those little increases along with that large decrease in childcare services did an overall decrease of almost 2% in revenues.
Local
option sales tax increased by 7% over the prior year.
The largest increase that we saw here was in the article 39 sales tax revenue.
Your top three expenditures, functions of government include human services at 32%,
education 27%, and public safety at 23%.
The total expenditures for the year was almost $92 million.
The top three functions of government there make up about 82% of your government.
So in the other expenditures category, you're going to see general government transportation, environmental protection,
economic and physical development, culture and rec, and your debt service expenditures.
Human services had a decrease of $3.3 million from the prior year.
Again here, you're going to see this decrease because of the childcare providers being taken over by the state now, so the county's no longer paying those providers, so you're going to see a decrease for that.
In addition, the sale of the home health in 2019 caused less expenditures for 2019.
For education, we saw an increase of almost 3% here from the prior year.
The increase was mainly in the public schools current expenditures line.
That line itself, we saw a 3% increase over 2018.
The public safety, we saw an increase of almost $1.1 million.
The increase here were for the purchases of two ambulances during 2019.
We also saw workers' comp claim in the jail department that was quite a bit a large chunk
of the claims that were paid during the current year as well.
If we look at your debt service expenditures, you'll see a decrease from the prior year.
In 2018 or more, 2017 to 2018, you guys had paid off the general obligation debt
in your governmental funds.
So that caused that decrease of 9% over the prior year.
In your solid waste fund, we saw an increase in unrestricted net position, 6% there,
and then a decrease in your cash flows from operation of about $91,000.
We saw a decrease in net income as well from the prior year of about $81,000.
In your water southeast district, we saw an increase in unrestricted net position of $195,000.
A decrease in cash flows from operations of about 56%, and this was due to more cash
being paid for your goods and services in 2019.
And then we saw an increase in net income from the prior year of about $37,000.
And for your Southwest District, we saw an increase in unrestricted net position of
about 53%, a decrease in cash flows from operations of about $190,000, and a decrease
increased in net income from the prior year of about 35%.
The district just had more expenses in the current year than it did in the prior year.
I went through that pretty quick, so if anybody has any questions or comments, I'm available.
Discussion or questions for Ms. John Moses?
Thank you for your presentation.
I believe it's in order since the audit is still at local government commission
for us to approve the audit contingent upon this positive referral back from the local
government commission. Is that correct? Mr. Lee, I believe that is correct. So what is
the pleasure of the board? I would say too that we just did have an audit committee meeting
where we were able to ask a bunch of questions. Hearing this for the first time and not
I'm not asking any pertinent questions about the county dollars, so plenty of questions for them.
And an unmodified opinion is actually the highest recommendation that the auditor can make to us, so that's a possibility.
What is the pleasure of the board?
Move for approval.
Second.
Motion has been made properly.
Seconded to approve the audit as presented to us tonight.
contingent upon his approval and recommendation back to us by local
government commission any further discussion or questions all those in
favor please indicate by saying aye all opposed motion carries next is Mr.
Randy Faircloth our tax administrator to present several things to us
tonight good evening excuse me good evening I do have a couple items for
the board's consideration. Let me get out my eyes here.
I believe, excuse me again, I believe
the first item that is on the agenda is an application for exemption for a piece of property
at 211 Southeast Pinder Street. This piece of property that is being utilized as an
19 request. It came in during the calendar year of 19, so by statute it is allowed to
be considered by the Board as long as it's received within the calendar year. We were
not able to get it on the agenda for the December, so we're bringing it for this meeting.
My staff has reviewed this, and it's our recommendation to be approved.
be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Any
questions for Mr. Faircloth?
What's the pleasure of the board?
We approve. Second. Motion has been made
properly seconded to approve property tax exemption
request. Any further discussion or questions?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye.
All opposed, the motion carries. Thank you.
The next matter I have here is a request by Merck Pharmaceuticals for a waiver of the penalties from a business personal property audit that was conducted back in 2013, I believe, was the start of it.
It's comprising the years 14 through 18.
And I'll go into detail if you'd like.
You have a copy of the letter here.
If you'd like to ask any questions in regards to that,
I would simply say that it has been and will always be
my recommendation that any penalties be denied.
Simply we start down a path where we can't come back from.
So that would be my recommendation to the board.
Commissioner, is there any questions for Mr. Faircloth?
Any discussion regarding the audit finding penalties request to waive?
And to review your appointment, Mr. Faircloth,
is it a recommendation of the tax office to deny?
Yes, sir. And again, I, along with the board,
In no way do we want to put any difficult situations on anyone, let alone good corporate
customers.
However, in this particular instance, and I don't want to go too much into detail because
I don't want to make it appear that I'm beating on a taxpayer because I'm not.
I'm simply trying to state the facts and try to be consistent in how we treat everyone
fair and equitable.
There was an audit done in 2010.
There was agreements that were reached as of 2014.
Compromises made to try to get that audit out of the way and resolved and it was agreed upon.
Unfortunately, immediately it turned around and we had a discovery for the 14th or 18th year.
So as much as I would like to say we would want to try to lean in that direction
When we have two back-to-back audits and both have sufficient, let me get my words right,
to have significant findings is not a good precedent.
And again, I understand we don't want to penalize in any way if we can avoid it,
but I believe in this case I truly believe that it's warranted.
I
think it's also pertinent that we do give tax dollars as incentives to companies
You know, we certainly wanted to list property as they, you know, and not in this case, I'm
sure it wasn't tied to a cent of dollars, but we wanted to make sure you're doing your
job and we're supporting you, how you do your job, and we're giving out taxpayer dollars.
Any other questions or discussion?
A motion is appropriate.
I move for approval, or excuse me, I move for approval of his recommendation, but
to deny the request.
Motion has been made properly seconded to deny the request presented to us by
Merck Sharp and Dawn. Any further discussion or questions?
If not, all
those in favor indicate by saying aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Excuse me.
Last matter for the board's consideration is our monthly refunds and
of course as I mentioned in the last meeting these are refunds that are in
excessive $100 by statute. It must come before this board for approval. Obviously,
we've done our research and due diligence on this and it's recommended
that they they'd be approved.
So Mr. Faircloth, according to what you
last month, this is going to be a regular appearance on our agenda
every month. If we have refunds, yes, sir, it will be. However, I think we
might be able to get this where it can be part of a consent agenda. If I
I don't have anything else that I need to be here for other than that.
I guess it's possible we could do that in a consent manner.
Because again, as I stated last meeting, it's really more of a formality.
And you could deny it, but I think the grounds for denying it would be
putting the board members at risk because we've done all the due diligence
to it and they are entitled to a refund.
But we can't make that decision that has to be done by the board because
it exceeds $100 more.
Any
questions for?
Mr. Faircloth,
is there a motion to approve?
So moved.
Second.
Motion has been made properly seconded to approve the refunds as listed, packet page 68 and 69 in our agenda.
Any further questions or discussion?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by seeing aye.
Aye.
All opposed, motion carries.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We will continue to pursue, see if there's other options that we can work on that as well.
Thank you.
Next we ask Mr. Mark Johnson, our Development Services Director, if he would return to the
podium and has two more presentations for the Board's consideration.
Thank you.
The first item for your consideration is the 5311 Grant Transportation Grant.
The Wilson County Board of Commissioners was granted monies from NCDOT Public Transportation
in the form of 5,311 funds which covers our admin and capital costs for our public transportation system.
The county staff recognized that we had the opportunity to receive an additional $77,280 for capital funding.
So we bring that back to you for your consideration.
We basically redid the grant in its entirety and bring it back for your consideration.
The change will result in the county's local share increasing from, for capital, increasing
from $12,600 to $20,300 and $28, which represents a 10% of the $203,203,280 dollars.
The additional funding would be used to purchase three buses.
What we had in place currently was a situation where we basically could only purchase one-and-a-half buses.
This is going to take us over where we can actually purchase three buses.
And we do have three vehicles that can be decommissioned, have the necessary mileage.
And just in terms of explanation, the state decreased the
ozone vehicles where you can have them decommissioned.
So buses at one point that did not qualify or venisoned,
not qualify for decommissioning because of the reduction.
They now qualify so we can actually get three additional vehicles.
We also, there will also be a decrease however in our administrative
cost as was estimated by our previous transportation planner.
So our cost share, the counter cost share will be reduced for admin for $22,422 to $18,099.
So there will be a slight decrease in our admin cost share.
Now the cost share will be paid out of the selling of the three vehicles.
Usually we get $5,000 to $6,000 for those.
Anything else will come out of our fund balance.
So it would not come out of the general funds of the county.
Any questions from Mr. Johnson regarding the transportation resolution for Section 5311 funding?
If there are no further questions, what's the pleasure of the board?
Mr. Chairman, I move for approval.
Second.
Motion has been made properly seconded to approve the public transportation program resolution for 2021,
fiscal year 2021. Any further questions or discussion?
If not, all those in favor,
please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, the motion carries. Thank you.
In conjunction with the 5311 funding, Instaduity requires each public transportation agency
that we see 5311 funding to do a proficiency review evaluation, which is
the audit of our program to make sure that we are here to all the FTA rules and
insiduity regulation relating to this finisher of grant funding. So as part of
this proficiency review evaluation, the Wilson County Public Transportation
System must have in place an updated public transportation system safety
plan or SSP plan. The SSP plan is a six-part plan consisting of emergency
action plan for our protection plan, prevention, maintenance plan, drug and alcohol policy plan,
and security plan, and continuity of operation plan. So those are SITS plans all inside of
one comprehensive system safety plan to have updated. The question of action this evening
is for the Board to approve of this system safety plan so we can submit it to Instadility
for approval.
Any questions for Mr. Johnson regarding the Wilson County Public Transportation
System Safety Plan?
If not,
is there a motion to approve?
Motion has been made improperly
seconded to approve the Wilson County Public Transportation System Safety Plan. Any further
discussion or questions for Mr. Johnson?
Not all those in favor, please indicate by
seeing aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you sir.
This time we'd like Ms.
Molly Westmoreland our library director to come forward and present research
findings on barriers for the public library services. Good evening
commissioners. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you about the
library's efforts to identify and possibly in the future eliminate some
of the barriers to public library service.
We began by looking at the research that's out there.
And one study was done in 2014 by the Edmonton Public Library.
And they identified that barriers hinder service to communities that need us most.
And our concern is that that will apply to us here as well.
They did have some difficulty.
They used multiple research techniques.
They found that the surveys did not yield as much information as they had hoped because
our customers are reluctant to criticize us.
And I, in my career, have found this to be true whenever we do a customer satisfaction
survey.
People tell us they love us.
And so we have to ask specific questions about the services they're receiving.
There was also a reluctance to admit to the barriers because there was a stigma attached.
It's hard to admit that you find it difficult to pay library fines.
And that was one of the questions they asked them.
People were reluctant to say that because of the stigma associated with that.
What they were able to clearly identify was that the groups who are most affected
our underserved communities, at-risk teens, the homeless, low-income families, adults,
low literacy skills, and of course, as a public library, we want to help improve literacy
skills, and that's one of the groups that are affected by these barriers, people with
low literacy. Also, geographically isolated communities, our branches and our bookmobile
and our outreach to the homebound help in this area but there's still more to be done.
Barriers also affect seniors and teen parents.
They identify the top five barriers to access
to library services as library policies, overdue fines, transportation, service awareness.
We know it's hard for us to get the word out about what we do and who we want to serve,
but also literacies.
Sometimes people are under the impression that public libraries are only for the literate,
and it's not true.
We have many, many services that we can provide to people who may be struggling with literacy.
Sometimes people have difficulty understanding and navigating our policies, and sometimes
Sometimes the policies themselves can be a barrier.
And sometimes people are afraid to check out books because they think they will accrue
fines and fees and they're not sure if they can pay them.
We get calls all the time about people who have difficulty with transportation.
They call us to say, my books are due but I can't get to the library.
And of course the staff will renew for them.
The staff are wonderful about helping people who need us and need our help, but we hear
that a lot.
People don't know what we do or understand it, and then there is the lack of literacy.
Research was also done by our own University of North Carolina, the library school there,
School of Information and Library Services, and they identified some more subtle barriers,
And these in a way may be more difficult to address but also a little bit disturbing.
They found that there were interpersonal barriers to library service as well as economical barriers.
Of course the physical barriers we all know we need to be compliant with the American
the ADA, Americans with Disability Act.
We have to watch the width of our aisles.
We have to make sure that people have access if they are wheelchair bound.
but there can be organizational barriers as well.
So one of the interpersonal barriers is library anxiety.
People feel nervous about coming into a public library
sometimes, and we hear at the reference desk,
oh, I'm sorry to bother you, or this is a silly
question. So people are a little bit intimidated when they come up to a
librarian to ask questions. Not everyone, but it does happen.
And that's one of the reasons we reduce, with the renovations that are going on in the building,
we reduce the size of the reference desk so that it's less imposing and less like something you have to approach with humility and fear,
and more user-friendly.
We also ask our staff to be on the public floor more than they are behind a desk.
So they're out there where the customers are and can ask them a quick question about whether they're finding what they're looking for and so on.
There's also the idea of problem patrons, and we hear this sometimes, that customers are going to take advantage of us.
They're trying to game the system and so on.
And it's true there may be people out there who derive some satisfaction in pulling the wool over our eyes,
But they are a very small majority and libraries sometimes and other organizations make the
mistake of setting policy for the 10%, it's usually less than 10% rather than really looking
at the service of the 90%.
And the third one is really troubling to me is the microaggressions.
And I can safely say we don't have any staff who do this in our public library.
But I think we've all experienced, maybe not all of us, but I know I have,
where you need someone to do something for you and they almost seem to enjoy saying no.
There are some people who derive some satisfaction from elevating themselves
by being unpleasant, I'm sorry to say.
We don't have that in the library, but it's definitely something to be aware of.
And to work against. So some of the solutions they
recommended in this study would be to allow for more autonomy.
And we're in the process of doing that. We're increasing the number
of self-check machines that we have in the library and have added them
to three of our large branches as well. The only reason we didn't
add them to all of them was that there's not enough floor space in some of our small branches.
But this gives customers the freedom not to show what they're checking out to a library
staff member.
And some materials can be about sensitive subjects.
And so it's nice to allow people their privacy and autonomy in using those kiosks.
We strive to help our customers become independent, self-sufficient library users.
Of course we want to help them. We want to engage with them.
But we want them to have independence if they want it.
Of course we want to be warm and inviting, educate everyone about the role of librarians.
We're not here to shush you. We're not here to scold you.
We are here to help and that's something we need to constantly remind people about.
We also need to strive to have a diverse staff.
So when we do hiring and searching for library staff, we look at diversity.
We really want to have staff that represent the community we serve.
So the idea of problem patrons, we need to shift our mindset and understand that if what
we used to call a problem patron is something that we're experiencing, perhaps it's just a
situation that challenges our service model. Perhaps it's someone who needs us, but their
needs challenge our policies. And how can we do a better job of serving everyone? We
also need to assume the best in people. And I will say in my career that I have worked
with librarians who sometimes don't do that. They may assume the worst. I'm sorry to say,
I don't see it here in our library. I don't see it among our staff. But we need to
always assume the best in people. I did have a customer who said he wanted some
special books for research and he said I'd like to keep these a little bit
longer after all I am a scholar and I have a PhD and I said to him of course
we can work with you to keep those books longer but I want you to know that
everyone who comes in our door is a scholar and a PhD as far as we're
So we treat everyone as if they were, well what we say is the jewel in the cushion of hospitality.
So we value our customers tremendously.
So some of the solutions to microaggressions, and we're going to be looking at this.
I want our staff to have opportunities for this kind of growth and development.
They need to have a cultural appreciation of all the different communities we serve.
They need to work to make those emotional connections with people that's so important for building trust and really being able to help people.
We want to demonstrate an ethic of caring, of communication, and we want to participate more with our cultural groups through community-based learning.
So
now this part is what I really want to talk with you about and hear your feedback as we move forward.
Because we really want to look at the economic barriers to our services.
And library fines have been identified as an economic barrier. They're also a revenue source.
So that's why I wanted to have some conversation about that at some point and to really look
at it closely.
There are also some exclusionary policies that libraries can sometimes use and we want
to be mindful of that as well and avoid doing that if at all possible.
So first, library fines and some of the rationalizations around fines.
Finds are in place to encourage patrons to return materials.
They are to teach responsibility and accountability to customers,
especially children and teens, and of course to earn revenue for the library
so that we can demonstrate that we are fiscally responsible.
But are these really effective in meeting these goals?
And as far as the research, there was a research by Bundy in 2005, a study done by him, that said,
despite the adherence of many libraries to fines regimes, there is still no researched evidence
that finding is more effective than any other mechanism to encourage borrowers to return items.
In
fact, there's some anecdotal evidence that shows people don't return their items because
they're afraid to try to pay that fine.
Instead, they will just keep the books and never come back.
So that's what we hope to avoid in our consideration of some possible changes.
So again, the Bundy study showed there was no research
that showed fines helped to bring materials back.
And this one, I've heard this a lot in my career.
It's really not the library's mission to teach responsibility.
We know that this is a good thing.
We hope that our parents and our teachers and our employers
our teaching responsibility, but our mission is to teach, foster, support a love of reading.
Because we really believe that if people read, read widely, excuse me, that they will have a better life.
If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't be in this business.
So teaching responsibility works against fostering a love of reading.
This isn't part of the study. This is some study that we are doing internally to really
look at this. Our fiscal year 20 budget for penalties was $18,500. It was higher last year,
but we lowered it because our revenues did not match our budgeted amount. Our fines,
revenues continue to decline and in this fiscal year we've only brought in a
little under $6,000 so far probably due to some policy changes that where we
stopped charging a $1 fine for DVDs because DVDs have come down so much in
price they're actually less expensive than books often and there was no good
reason to keep finding at a high rate for that.
And some of the other changes we've made, recognizing that we had some barriers in place,
have caused that revenue to go down more.
But it has always been a decline in that item, that line item.
What's really sad is that looking at the current fines on the books, and this is
just at the main library.
We restricted our study to just get a picture of the data we're going to expand as we go
forward to do more research system-wide.
But this is just to give you an idea that 49% of our finds on the books are owed for
children's materials.
To me, that's a heartbreaker right there because what are we telling our children that
reading is something you get fined for, and that's not what we want to convey to them.
We would, if we do make a policy change, we would continue to charge for lost items,
what we call lost items. So if you don't bring your book back, we will charge you for it.
We're not even thinking about just opening the doors and giving away our books,
so you can't keep our books if we go forward with this and that's going to take a lot of
thought and a lot of study. Here are the negative effects of fines. They discourage people
from using the library. They disproportionately affect low income patrons and our children
and they damaged library community relations and road trust.
And a staff member, when I delivered this same presentation at our staff day in December,
just to get them thinking and to ask them, how do you feel about this?
And one of them said to me, oh please, that's the worst part of my day
when I have to ask someone to pay a fine.
And it's obvious that that's a difficulty for them.
They don't look like someone who is affluent and can easily pay.
So yes, it can not only create a barrier to trust and the relationships we want to grow,
it's difficult for staff as well.
Is
that where I am? Did I jump forward? I can't tell.
Yes.
Some of the policies that can be exclusionary are proof of permanent address.
We've done away with that one.
Restricting personal belongings.
My understanding we've never restricted personal belongings.
And those are the kinds of policies that work against the homeless.
Because they may have a backpack or duffel bag that has everything they own.
And we can't ask them to leave that outside.
So they can bring it in the library.
We do ask that it not be placed in a way that could jeopardize someone's safety, someone
could trip over it, and so on.
We do enforce hygiene, unfortunately.
We do have to sometimes talk to customers about odor and so on.
We try to be very careful about this and very tactful about it, and it happens rarely.
Also library behavior.
We do have a principle for service that includes maintaining a welcoming environment.
So if someone is disruptive, they are affecting the library's experience for other people.
But we're very careful with it. We give warnings. We explain the policy.
We give them the why. And only as a last resort would they be banned.
Okay, quickly, so some
of the ethical considerations is the inconsistent application of policy based on personal bias.
We hope this isn't happening, but people are human and they sometimes bring their personal feelings about a group
and it can be reflected in how they enforce the policies.
We have to be very mindful of that.
That, as we've said, some policies have a disproportionate impact on already vulnerable
library patrons.
And it's the idea of the criminalization and stigmatization of experience of poverty
and homelessness.
There's no place for that in a public library.
We welcome the homeless.
We want to serve people who are economically challenged.
That's what we do.
And the American Library Association has put together a statement and a recommendation
that all libraries review their policy in terms of barriers.
And if at all possible, eliminate fines and penalties for overdue materials.
Not for lost.
If you lose a book, you do need to pay for that, but for overdue materials because
it disproportionately affects the poor and the other groups that we mentioned.
Of course, we're always looking at our physical barriers, how are our entrances,
are our aisles wide enough, is our furniture appropriate for all kinds of people,
are there elevators in the right places and equipment that people need and so on?
And then is it hard to find our materials? Have we made it hard? We have to look at that.
We have to make sure that we have accessible formats for everyone.
So in my annual report, I mentioned that we are looking at barriers.
I also claimed that we are for everyone, unfortunately saying it is not enough.
We have to work to make that true.
Neutrality is a myth.
Different populations have different needs.
We need to recognize that, and we need to ensure that people from marginalized groups are served.
And to do that, we have to use forethought, intention, planning and resources.
And we as library professionals need to challenge those taken for granted policies, like overdue fines.
We grew up with them, and it can be hard to change,
But we need to really look closely at who we're excluding when we do that.
Any questions or concerns or comments or anything, any feedback on this?
Ms. Westmore.
Yes, sir.
I frequented libraries in my entire life.
I'm embarrassed to say fines have been a part of my life upon occasion.
Although I try to limit that when I can.
What is the alternative to encourage the return of books?
Because I didn't hear what would replace the fines.
Would it be a way of service change or something along those lines?
How would we try to make sure that that library book comes back?
That's a great question.
And that's how that needs to be in the policy.
policy. That's where the policy needs to be designed carefully so that customers understand
this is not a giveaway. This is an expression of confidence in them that they understand
they are borrowing our books. So borrowing is the key. And that if those books are
not returned, they will immediately lose their library privileges.
And in the policy, we need to think about dollar amounts.
So if they checked out a paperback that costs us $3, is that $3 lost book enough to block
them from future use?
And maybe, maybe because it is a lost book, or is there another threshold that we would
use?
Those are all the things that the library board and the staff really need to figure out.
But it has been done, and it's been done in North Carolina, in many counties.
Forsyth, Hickory, that's a city library, of course.
Region Library Northwestern.
Robinson County and Wake County, just this past week, went fine free. And their revenues
are a whole lot higher than ours for fines. But I think your question had another aspect
to it, and that is, what would replace that revenue? Because it is a revenue source for
us. And so we're going to be looking very closely at that, because we respect the fact
that we need to kind of pay our own way to some extent, but we don't want to pay our
way on the backs of the poor, and I hate to say it that way, but that's the reality.
And we're going to look at, we haven't been able to do this yet.
I was hoping to have some data for you tonight, but it's complex.
How much staff time does it take to collect those fines and process them in for deposit?
Most of our fines or large percentage of them are less than a dollar.
So it's a lot of labor involved in relatively small amounts of money.
It takes just as much time to process a ten-cent fine as it does a ten-dollar fine.
So we definitely want to bring in money for the library.
And we have. We received almost a little over $90,000 in federal grants this fiscal year.
So we're seeking those opportunities to bring in revenue.
And that, in a sense, would help to replace some of the money associated with fines.
Did I answer your question? Did I conclude?
You gave us some food for thought, that's for sure.
With the studies you looked at, as there have been studies done on increased late returns
on late fee free libraries.
So and we're going to be looking at that as well.
What we have is the other side, the studies that show that fines do not bring books back.
The research is not showing that fines are effective in getting books back.
And we have some anecdotal information that says from libraries, but it's vague still and
I need to really refine that for you, but that more books come back, that they come
back because people are not afraid to bring them back.
People are reluctant to bring back a book that has a fine on it.
They would sometimes rather keep the book than never come back to the library.
So yeah, we need to ask those questions, and now I've got a list of libraries I can talk to, so that's helpful.
How often can you check out, recheck a book?
So they check out for three weeks, except some of our newer materials only check out for a week.
Brand new high-demand fiction, they only check out for a week.
But we buy more of those, so you don't have to wait too long.
They check out for a week.
Most materials are for three weeks, and we will renew for you twice, so a total period
of nine weeks.
Yeah, good question.
Thank you.
Yes.
The exterior of the library.
It used to be, I'm
not sure exactly what to call it, an area where you could return
a book.
It said book return on the front of that.
Yes.
If I'm not mistaken, no longer does it say book return, but the way of putting the book
in there is still there, and I used it about three weeks ago after I was coming by there
and just noticed that book return was not on it, but the way of putting it open, putting
a book in and closing it was still there, so I used it.
So is that viable anymore? Because allowing people to return books after hours when the library is closed
might actually get more books back in.
If there was a sign on it, do you mean?
I don't know what happened to the sign. I'm glad you told me that.
I haven't looked at it in a while. I don't know if the sign fell off and we haven't gotten it put up time.
That's not good. It needs to say book return. Absolutely.
The difficulty for some people, though, is that even if it's after hours, and our hours are generous,
we're open from 9 to 9 Monday through Wednesday, and then 9 to 6 Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
But if transportation is an issue, a book drop won't help, because you can't get there.
So, but yes, it definitely needs to have a sign.
What else?
So
with so many books now being available in electronic format, I've taken some
classes and everything I get now is an e-book. So where do you see or how this
would be incorporated in our system here? I'm
just wondering where
videos. So we have e-books and we own 1,200 titles roughly and we have joined in partnership
with some surrounding counties and some a little further away to share our e-books.
So even though we've only purchased 1,200 that we own, our customers have access to
a whole lot more. The issue with ebooks, many people still prefer to hold a book and read
from paper. I like both. I use both. But the publishers are working against public libraries
deliberately by raising the price of ebooks so that they are prohibitively expensive
to public libraries. An individual e-book, for example, could cost $90, where the print version would be a $20 or $25 book and we get a 45% discount on that because we use a job who has understate contract.
We get an enormous discount on our books. And yet for e-books, the price is very high. And the library profession is working on this and trying to reason with publishers
to say there's no reason to treat us differently, an e-book that you could buy for $10.99 would
cost us almost $100. So that's an issue that's going to restrict library's use of those electronic
books. We hope it will get better though. Yeah, but we, yeah.
And I was, you know, when you were talking about barriers, I was just wondering have
have you considered maybe Sunday from maybe one to six or as a timeframe for folks who
can, you know, get by who maybe can't do it the other days of the week?
Yes.
We have looked at that.
I would love to do that.
I've worked in libraries that opened on Sundays.
Some libraries open, and generally it is, for example, one to five, and that allows
people to go to their place of worship, maybe have a little bite of lunch and then come to
the library and have a lovely afternoon experience in the library.
It also helps our students who realize on Sunday they have a term paper due on Monday
and they have a way to get their sources and places where I've worked they did it during
the school year and then maybe didn't have open Sundays on during the summer.
And we have talked about it as a library board.
We've explored this a little bit.
But I would like to continue to talk about that.
I would love for us to do that.
I think that would be good.
And I was thinking about the students.
And one other thing, now the, so if I go now,
am I going to smell that Starbucks coffee in there
and find a nice comfy chair to...
I know.
And isn't that funny?
I mean, not just yet, we're getting there.
But because, well, those of us in the profession
know that a library cafe is a place
where you can use the internet and maybe
get a snack from a vending machine.
But other people read that in the paper.
We had a lovely article in the paper
about the library renovations.
And thought, exactly as you, oh,
I'd be able to get a cup of coffee in there.
So, I've worked in library systems where we did have a cafe, Hickory has a cafe, finding
a vendor who will staff a cafe and make enough money is difficult.
So we thought in the interim, we're looking at the possibility of a vending machine.
And now these aren't the kind of vending machines where you get a cup of coffee and
you wish you hadn't, you know, they're just so bad.
So these are the kind that will give you a macchiata, a latte, a mocha brevet, whatever you want and by
understanding that it's good coffee. So yes, you will be able to smell coffee in the building at some point.
We really are working toward that. Yes.
And just one final thing. I do want to thank you for the bookmobile that travels out in the county.
to the places, to the communities that are out there
that are in between city services and out in the county.
So, and in particular, you know, the stop that's made,
you know, to the children that's out at the
WIDO Academic Enrichment Program.
So it means a lot and they look forward to it.
And then we have some, you know,
a member of the community that will just come over and check out books from that time, so
I appreciate that.
Oh, it's our pleasure.
We love the bookmobile.
In fact, not this fiscal year, but for fiscal year 21, I have to think, because it may
be actually too late for that year, we would like to get a federal grant to purchase
a new bookmobile, yeah.
And they're out there.
That federal money is out there.
of the timing, I can't quite remember.
It may be too late for fiscal year 21,
but we will definitely be pursuing that, yes.
And we'd like that bookmobile to have more internet access,
or this bookmail has none.
So we need to all have books,
but also have a way for people to come on the bookmobile
and do a job search or research for school
or whatever they need.
So, fingers crossed, I'd love to do that.
Anything else?
Any other questions?
Great, thank you.
Thank you so much.
Next we have Ms. Teresa Allen, our health director,
to present four different things to us, I believe.
Good evening, commissioners.
Please let me apologize for the coughing spell.
I haven't coughed this much all day,
and of course you can hear and get going.
But I'm going to give you the pleasure of hearing some of our staff this evening.
Angela Manning is going to present three FDA grants that she wrote for and received for your consideration.
And then Jessica Williams, our communications manager, is going to share with you an opioid video
and the latest initiative we have that surrounds that.
Good evening. I am excited to tell you we were awarded.
We were notified in December that we were fully awarded for the three category of grants that we are eligible for.
It's FDA money that is distributed through AFTO, which is the Association of Food and Drug Officials.
Three of these grants, the first for your consideration and approval is for $3,000 for a travel grant to the FDA Southeast Conference.
They have this conference every year in a different state.
I was able to use the funding that we were awarded this last year to travel to
Nashville, Tennessee for the conference and I was actually asked to be a
presenter on behalf of Representing North Carolina and to share the work that
we have done in Wilson County nationally as a jurisdiction for what we have
done with the FDA program standards. So we were renewed for that and I
believe this year's conference is in Alabama and we are hoping to send
to additional staff members to that. The second small $3,000 grant. I'm excited
about this one. It's kind of unique. We want to offer food safety training
specifically to a targeted population for our temporary food events that we
have. So we have a lot of day fairs, whirligig, fairs and festivals, a lot of
Sunday in the parks. And so what we find is that a lot of people are
really interested. You probably, we get a lot of questions about food trucks and
everybody, you know, has interest in a food truck. And so what we want to do is
we want to provide food safety training targeted specifically to this
transient, temporary base. I mean, unfortunately an outbreak with a
festival or fair an event, you're actually investigating maybe a month
after the actual event happened. And so what we want to do is we want to
offer some targeted training to the public.
This would be free.
This would be hands-on.
And it would really walk people through, number one,
the process of permitting with the health department.
How do you get a permit to be a vendor
at one of these temporary events?
And then also the food safety aspect.
What are the challenges?
If there's no running water,
there's no mechanical refrigeration.
How do you handle food safely?
So we're really excited to kind of put this together.
And this is kind of the first of its kind
in North Carolina.
So I'm really kind of excited about that.
I've got some other counties kind of want them to copy what we're doing.
But and then the last one is for $20,000.
This is to fulfill the last half and
to finalize our FDA risk factors study of risk factors for
foodborne illness with all of our retail food establishments in Wilson County.
We were able to do the first half.
We got funded $20,000, which I'll approve for 2019.
And then we've got the $20,000 grant that will finish us out for 2020.
That grant money will be used to cover, to upgrade some IT equipment.
That my inspectors using the field every day for food inspections, some equipment, replacement,
and to supplement some budgetary items there. So those are the three grants that we rewarded and
would like for you to approve for us to receive an allocate funding.
Be glad to answer any questions. Any questions from Ms. Manning at this time?
I've got a quick question on the food trucks. I know a private individual doesn't understand
and who they're hiring and are they familiar with say an out-of-state or out-of-county?
Do we have a list of approved food truck vendors?
We do for Wilson County, so my staff, anybody can call any event organizer or somebody who
owns a business and wants a list of food trucks to bring out there can call.
The list is in alphabetical order and so no one's name is preferential.
And we only, we give them the people that are permitted.
Now, food trucks are transient and they're very difficult.
Sometimes once we permit them, we can't find them.
Our jurisdiction is only allowed to be in Wilson County.
So I do have food trucks that unfortunately we permit and then go to like Johnson County or Wake County
and we kind of depend on those counties to inspect them.
So we do recommend that people make sure that they have a current inspection.
If it's a food truck, that let's say you're a business and you're bringing in a food truck from Wake County, for example.
That food truck technically by law and their permit is supposed to notify us that they're working in Wilson County.
And a lot of them, if they do, I'll call the other county and say, hey, does this need an inspection?
Because nine times out of ten, if I do an inspection for their food truck, next time they run across one of mine,
They'll reciprocate the favor and that helps us with our 100% compliance for food inspections.
So yes, we can provide a list.
We can also help the public navigate some resources that you can kind of get to to search for food trucks.
But on our website, you know, our food inspections are up there now.
They can type in a name of the food truck and if it's permanent in Wilson County, it will come up with our current inspection.
But we do. And we are also offering, and we've partnered with the Wilson Community College.
Last year was the first time we did it. We do a seminar twice a year to discuss,
specifically for citizens who are interested in starting a food truck.
It's a great need. We probably talk to at least three or four people every week that come into office
and just really trying to get in front of the educational process of what the laws are,
what's needed before someone goes out and makes a major purchase of a food truck and
then finds out that maybe we can't permit it or it's more complicated than what was
assessed. And so we've got that coming up with Wilson Community College's Small
Business Center again to seminars for 2020.
They do. Technically that food truck has to
carry their permit. It may not have to be visible but that truck has to have
permit on its facility at all times of operation. So any food truck that operates in Wilson County,
my staff does have jurisdiction to enter and ask to see that permit. If they cannot show that
permit, we will ask them to leave. If we can verify the permit on site, some things happen.
This is a neighboring county and we can get in touch with the Environmental Health Office
at that time to verify that permit. But if we can't and they don't have a permit on the
they've got to go.
And they are required to post a sanitation grade.
That was a change about three or four years ago,
just like a normal restaurant would.
So that sanitation grade is posted at all times,
just like your regular food service establishment.
But the permit doesn't necessarily have to be publicly posted.
Any other questions?
If not, could we take approval of the grant award
for the food seminar grant first
First, in the amount of $3,000.
Second.
Motion has been made properly seconded to approve the grant award amount of $3,000 for the FDA Food Seminar Grant.
Any further questions or discussion?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
All opposed? Motion carries.
Next will be approval of the grant award amount of $3,000 for the FDA Food Safety Education Grant.
Second.
Motion has been made and properly seconded.
Any further discussion or questions?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
And third, approve with the grant award and the amount of $20,000 for the FDA risk
assessment survey 2020 grant.
Motion has been made and properly seconded.
Any further discussion or questions?
If not, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
All opposed, the motion carries.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
And good evening.
Good evening, commissioners.
My name is Jessica Williams, and I'm here to talk about one of the amazing projects that our health education staff has implemented, and that's our opioid messaging campaign.
So every year the Health Education Department is funded with a grant called Healthy Communities.
And in that grant we're allowed to, this year, to start an opioid messaging campaign
or either connect with one that's already started.
And we wanted to kind of highlight what the work that's already being done here in Wilson County.
So instead of partnering with one that had already been started, we wanted to kind of create our own.
So our health education staff, some of them are here tonight.
So Ms. Melissa Haynes is here. She's one of our health educators.
And Samantha Patrick is our AmeriCorps VISTA employee.
And Samantha has been the lead on this project,
and she's done a phenomenal job getting it off the ground and up and running.
So we began this project back in the fall of last year,
And what we've done is created a video that will educate the public on the dangers and misuse of prescription opioids.
So what we wanted to make sure that people knew was to not share their prescription opioids
and make sure that they're aware of what happens if there's an overdose
and how they can help their family member or you know keep the supplies in the
house so someone can help them if there was an accident. So we created a video
and then we purchased kiosks that will be placed in two pharmacies and we're
hoping one more place here soon.
And we we're working with Wilson Value Drug
drug store and reload discount drugs to place the kiosk in and those are already up and going
and we just placed one in our health department lobby today.
So hopefully we're going to be constantly getting feedback.
There's an evaluation tool that's with that as well that will be each person that fills
out or watches the video, they'll be able to take the evaluation tool and we'll be
able to get feedback real time from that.
And I think we did partner with the Department of Health and Human Services Division of Deaf
and Hard of Hearing.
So this video is accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
So you'll see a sign language interpreter.
And when the video is viewed on YouTube, there are captions that are available in
English and Spanish.
So this video is also shared with all of our organization partners, so we wanted
it to as many people as possible. But thank you for your time and for viewing the video.
Know your risk. Addiction wasn't in the prescription. In 2017, 35 people in our county went to the
emergency department for an opioid overdose. In the same year, 10 Wilson County residents
died of an unintentional opioid overdose death. In our county, over 4 million opioid pills
were dispensed in one year alone.
In our 2019 community health assessment, many of you indicated that you thought substance
misuse was a top issue affecting quality of life in Wilson County.
So let's do something about it.
Prescription opioids play a large role in the opioid epidemic occurring right now
in the United States.
Prescription opioids can be addictive and dangerous if used improperly.
This is why it's so important to follow your doctor's instructions when using medication.
A
person's tolerance may increase with repeated use of prescription opioids, which is common
in jobs with high rates of injuries or illness.
Increased tolerance may lead to addiction and cause some people to use recreational drugs
as a substitute, despite the dangerous risk.
Did you know that 67% of people who misuse prescription drugs say they get them from
family or friends, therefore it is important to properly store and dispose of your medication.
Please do not share any of your prescription medication with anyone and properly store them
using either a locked medicine cabinet or a lock box.
For more information on proper storage of medication or a free lock box, please contact
Community Impact NC at www.impactcarolina.org or at 252-237-1242.
There are multiple ways to properly dispose of unwanted, unused or aspired prescription
appeals. Disposal locations include the police department, the sheriff's office,
CVS pharmacy, Walgreens, and Wilson Value Drug Store.
In
the event of an opioid overdose, look for these signs and symptoms.
Small pinpoint pupils, slower shallow breathing, blue lips and fingernails,
snoring, gasping or gurgling, and if they're unresponsive.
If an overdose is identified, please call 911.
The 911 business emergency law in North Carolina protects individuals from being arrested or charged
for a drug related medical emergency.
The loxone is a medication that reverses opioid overdoses and is used by Wilson Police, the
Sheriff's Office, and EMS during emergencies.
If you feel you are a family member at risk of an overdose, most pharmacies in the Wilson
County Health Department have a loxone nasal spray kits available.
To use the loxone, place your thumb on the plunger and your first and middle fingers
on the sides of the nozzle, tilt the individual's head back and support their neck.
Press the nozzle into one nostril, into your fingers or pressed against the nose,
press the plunger firmly into the nostril and remove, and then seek emergency help.
Addiction may not be written in a prescription, but we know opioids can be very risky.
For more information, please feel free to look at resources such as Hope Alliance,
which helps individuals reach recovery resources.
RC3, which offers programming to support a person's recovery.
Lockyourmeds.org has information about storing your medication.
The Wilson County Health Department has educators to connect you with resources.
And lastly, your pharmacist can answer any other questions that you may have.
Remember
that we are here for you.
We are here for you.
Thank you.
That was good.
Very much.
I did want to say a special thanks to our many community partners who worked with us to put this video together.
It's just another, more evidence of the great partnerships that we have here in Wilson County
and thank you for allowing us to share it.
Thank you.
Next we ask Mr. Michael Cobb, if he would, our E&M Director to come forward and present a request regarding ambulances.
Yes, sir. Good evening.
Good evening.
Our request tonight is a purchase of an ambulance.
The funds for this purchase are budgeted already in this year's budget.
We advertised for and received bids, a summary of that process and the bids we received is
in your packet, and I'll be glad to answer any questions about that when you take a
look at it.
So our request, if you notice the numbers in the agenda and the numbers on the packet
at our request is not for the least expensive one,
instead it's for the vehicle that most closely matches
our specifications.
So there is a difference in the price there.
We believe it's worth the difference that you see in those
to purchase the one that's listed first,
because we've listed them in order that we received them.
So the one that's listed there from Southeastern
Special Vehicles is $199,717 is the ambulance
that we want to move forward with purchasing. That's a request.
It's a little,
it's a roughly a $10,000 increase from last year for a very similar vehicle. I
thank Ford.
May have had an increase. I know the price of metal went up, and I know the price of the
stretcher system went up, too. So there's at least three different price increases that
we had there.
And we're answering any questions if you've got about it. So the two ambulances
that are less expensive than the one I mentioned requesting have some exceptions to our specifications.
For example, one of them is constructed with a thinner metal.
They use different methods as far as the general construction process,
how they seal the joints, that kind of thing.
As far as our long-term plan, we're hoping to remount several of these ambulances,
take the box and put it on a new chassis after we've used the chassis for several years.
And we think just as far as continuity of operations in the service history that we've
gotten from the vehicles and getting them serviced.
They're pretty much interchangeable if you get ready to do that.
As far as remounting the box, there's a process.
I mean, depending on how many years it's been since the first one we bought of this particular kind was in 2012.
So, there will be some differences in the chassis, but the vendors, there are vendors
that are certified to reattach it, to remind it, but it's basically reattach and do some
refurb along the way.
I got a question.
I got a phone call from one of the bidders today out of the blue, and I think I'm the
only one because I asked a few of y'all earlier, and he expressed concern of putting
this out for bid and then not, you know, obviously the load is really low. But you know, obviously
it's not explained like you just did to us that there's some differences in thickness
of metal in the box and other items. I mean, I would think that being in the industry,
this person would have known what their bid had or not. If you're sending, are we sending
them out specifications of what we want. We do. We do. And they send us back a bunch
of very detailed documents that I've got back there in the chair. And they tell us that
we have this many exceptions to your specification. Because some of them are fairly specific.
They're very specific. Like you make southeastern, I guess we dealt with before. So you may
send a spec for the last vehicle they built for us out. South is very similar to it.
Lannick, I think that's probably who I heard from. I didn't catch the guy's name, but because he mentioned $7,000, but
So my my only concern is and I trust you
$7,200 in that
Yeah, my my only concern would be
Communicating with these other bidders so that when we do go out for bid again that they aren't feeling like oh, yeah
We're just giving a number.
And we end up, of course, it was re-advertised.
So I guess the first time we did it, we just got the two.
We only received two the first time.
So I would just caution that maybe we
can communicate with the lower bidders
and why we're doing this.
And just so that next time around,
we put it out for bid that we're
going to have not just Southeastern show up,
because that would, if I kept this low
and kept going with the higher crowd,
I would stop turning on bids.
Okay, any other questions for Mr. Cobb?
This person is very respectful too, so don't...
I've talked with all of them.
Okay, all right, good.
But he did have some concerns.
Okay, what is the pleasure of the board?
Move for approval.
Second.
The motion has been made and properly seconded
to authorize the purchase of an ambulance for $199,717 to Southeastern Specialty Vehicles.
Any further discussion or questions?
What is usually a turnaround time on delivery?
This one, the bid package they set us set about 60 days and it's different for every
vendor. We have heard some talk about 300 days. This one says 60. The gentleman you
talked with gave us a date of late April I think. So it's different for each
fender. That's important too. That's worth some dollars.
So once we once we
prove them, you're gonna go ahead and pull the trigger. We'll talk to him this
week.
Okay. Is that if there are no further questions, all those in favor of
leading the bid to southeastern specialty vehicles as the motion says, please
indicate by saying aye. Aye. I'll oppose the motion carries. Thank you sir.
Mr. Angel Andrew, if he would, please come forward and our financial services director.
I'm
sorry. Don't we have an option too where we can forego the bid process?
Haven't we done that in the past where it was like maybe a state or a comparable bid within a certain number of days?
There's a pre-bid process for contracts that are previously bid.
The language doesn't.
The county EMS department just did a competitive bid say within 30 days we could take.
There is language in the law. Let's say we can do that.
Thank you. Sorry about the question.
Good evening, commissioners.
I want to bring before you two budget amendments, one for the library, one for the sheriff.
Neither one of them require county funds.
And it's just to accept the commission for the library and receive funds for insurance
claim reimbursement.
Bring that to you if you have any questions, I'll be more than glad to answer.
Any questions for Mr. Landra?
If not, is there a motion to approve?
Second.
The motion has been made and properly seconded to approve the budget amendments as presented.
Any questions or discussion?
All those in favor please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
I'll oppose the motion carries.
Thank you.
Next on the agenda is a capital project ordinance for solid waste services.
This is for the expansion of the new cell for solid waste called Westside 2.
Do
you have any questions?
Has that been permitted yet?
I'm sorry.
Has this been permitted yet?
Permitted yet?
We know who's got it.
It's not that I'm aware of.
He's a waste deal.
So, so anything we are approving the page and a half Apple project ordinance solid waste service expansion.
We're approving all of that language.
That's a part of that.
Yes.
This would be for the face one.
So I'm not sure if you have this document before you.
Any
questions regarding the capital project ordinance for solid waste
service expansion? West side 2.
Now is there a motion to approve? So moved.
Second. Motion has been made properly seconded to approve the capital project
ordinance for solid waste expansion? West side 2. Any further questions or
discussion?
None. All those in favor please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed?
The next I want to recognize several 21 actually from the county who have participated in last
year calendar year 19 and attended the municipal finance courses that were offered by our local
Wilson Community College. Out of the 21 employees that went, seven of them alone were directors.
I bring before you just as an example of what is that we covered in that class. And having
taken both classes at the school of government and at the Wilson Community College, I found
this course to be extremely helpful, friendly, valuable to me.
The difference between the School of Government and the local Wilson Community College one
is the price, but the advantage of it as well from going from the School of Government
to the Community Colleges, I took the same class at the School of Government and I
covered the same subject in three days.
At the community college I was able to cover the same subject in a matter of nine weeks.
So I was able to absorb, digest it, and apply it.
And I found that not only did I find it helpful to myself, but the directors and the employees
who attended also has found it to be very, very helpful.
I'm a strong advocate of learning and of discourse.
I will continue to encourage our directors and our departments to encourage their employees to take advantage of this course every time the community college will offer it.
So I just wanted to share with you the names, the departments, the number of employees that went.
And I myself, I'm very proud that out of our department,
we have a staff including myself of eight
and five of our staff members have benefited from this class.
So I'm glad I'm very proud of the employees and my staff
for wanting to educate themselves and learn
what is it that we do, why we do it,
and why the county operates the way we do.
It's very beneficial.
Next on the agenda, I have the monthly financial report for the month of November, and I bring this before you just to present it.
If you have any questions, I would like to answer them for you.
I would just like to ask to make sure that our staff who completed that course, that those names are recorded in the minutes.
Yes, our intention is to send them a letter, recognizing them and letting them know that
we have recognized them tonight before you.
Great.
Did you say it was a non-week course?
Yes, sir.
And in that course, actually, there's a lot that we cover, but we cover the structure
of our local government here, and we also compare that to the city, which is different.
We also cover the accountability of the government accounting.
We cover why we have various funds within the government and our financial structure.
We cover what is revenue, what is expense, what are PO's, why do we do that.
We cover the budget process. We cover your duties.
What is it that you do? Why do you do what you do? Why do we get together every month?
and we bring presentations to you, we cover the LGC, who are they, what they do, what
they represent, why they're so important to us. We cover the capital, capital expenditures,
capital reserves, we cover my role as a financial director, what is that the county, the manager
and yourselves expect of myself and my office. We cover what is the purpose of the pre-audit,
And we covered the audit. What is the purpose of the audit?
And there's a couple of other things that we do. We go into the utilities.
What governs them? How do they operate? How do they bring in revenue?
What's the purpose behind them? What are the pros and some of the cons?
So it covers a great deal of subjects that we can all benefit from.
I would encourage you.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
I believe the report is presented.
to us for informational purposes. Yes, sir. Thank you. You're so welcome. I
do not believe
we have any old business, and I'll refer to Ms. Steinagel for other matters. The only item
I have before you is the budget calendar. We are getting ready to start that process
again, I know it feels like we've presented that it's time to start anew, so we've got
that starting in February and you've got dates that flow through the budget adoption, which
certainly has to be before July 1. Denise, I'm not smart enough to print
that. Is there any way we can get a printed copy of that? Absolutely. Yep, we can get
that for you. We'll get that printed for you and then we'll also get all those
states included on your calendars as well.
But even on a state budget, yeah.
Right.
So we don't have to do it like that.
You're...
Well, we want to do a case with Bruce.
You should.
You're a broker.
See what you do.
Exactly.
We did just...
So if you see anything, let us know.
I think we did stay away from spring breaks and that type of stuff, so then we're not
meeting during that.
In reading through the dates for it, how
essential is it that we do the second budget presentation
on April 21st?
That's a Tuesday night?
We can adjust any of these.
It can be on Wednesday.
That budget presentation on Monday and Tuesday, you had your first Monday night meeting
which was like the 6th.
We stayed away from the 13th through the 17th since that was spring break and so that's the dates of Monday Tuesday
But they can be on any days. This is your calendar. So so make it work for all of you
Do
you suggest we move to a Wednesday or a Thursday or we can do is
Or perhaps a Thursday sometimes Wednesdays can be a conflict in the evening
Which one are we talking about?
It says April 15th.
The 20th is a Monday.
Tuesday, April 21st.
It would be going...
Thursday would be April 23rd.
Right.
Wednesday's are not good for me.
Okay.
What other dates you saw?
What's Thursday?
23rd.
Roger, is that a bad day for you?
Again, I don't know what's coming down tonight.
I'm only in Thursdays and Fridays and I'm not doing it.
I'm not around.
Again, it's a new year, so I'm not sure what's right.
Whatever works for the best of the board.
I mean, I'm trying to work my schedule in this work.
Stay with Mondays and do like the 20th and the 27th.
How does that move to everybody?
Move the 21st to the 27th.
That would be an agenda session that week, too.
On Thursday.
On that Thursday.
Can we
do the 27th?
Keep the 20th and move the 21st to the 27th.
Is there a consensus that that will work?
I'll make it work whatever you're going to do.
OK.
Then is there a motion that we adopt the budget calendar?
Are the times still okay?
Would you rather go earlier?
We have 7 o'clock, but is that still okay?
Again, we can be flexible in whatever works for you.
If you'd rather start at 5.30 or 6.30.
We'd left it at 7 just for consistency.
Same
as time only.
7 is fine with me.
Does
it usually put your personnel recommendations that you present to the
personnel committee in your presentive budget?
I believe we met prior to it this
year. So to answer your question the personnel committee had met and they
were in the budget that I presented this year. I believe in previous years the
that person have to make that afterwards.
It would not be prudent to try to put that prior to the presentation.
Yeah, we can do that.
It would change
some.
So, yeah, and there's not really dates for either of those,
so you could probably just take those off,
or we can insert those differently.
There's not a date for that,
your point being that you would do it beforehand?
Yeah, it really doesn't matter.
So you could move it up that section, that A and B,
we would need to do it sometime before
May 11th, probably sometime in April.
So yeah, we could make that occur.
We could have the department staff will be in by March 30th, so we could get that presented
to you during the month of April.
Would that work?
That would give you no time to say just went crazy road.
Absolutely.
Everything you said could get you a budget.
Absolutely.
So yeah, we could do that.
I don't think the best place to do that, but we could definitely,
we could just say in April, we might move that up from a formatting perspective,
but we could just plan both the personnel committee meeting
and the nonprofit committee to meet in April.
And
is there a motion to adopt the budget calendar as presented with one exception of
moving the date April 21st to April 27th?
The motion has been made in prior to the second year to adopt the budget calendar.
As amended, any further questions or discussion?
Denise, that would include moving the A and B part up.
All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
Aye.
those motion carries committee
reports I
don't think we have any committee
reports this afternoon long day this is brief would you like for me to go
ahead please okay the audit committee met immediately prior to this meeting and
heard from the auditors. The full presentation was prepared for
this meeting tonight.
Okay. Chairman's report. I didn't have
anything to add. Manager report. That puts us at concerns in
public. Conducted by the Wilson County Code of Conduct. We
have two people that have signed up to speak before us
tonight. First of all, Jimmy Hathaway. Mr. Hathaway, if
If you would come forward to the podium, and please state your name, and thank you.
Jimmy Hathaway.
I just wanted to talk about the laws, hunting laws, and Wilson County.
They're not worth the paper they wrote on, you know.
I want to see, can we get something done?
If you've got any questions, y'all want to question me about something, let me know, you know, if I've said something wrong.
They're taking the road to hunt and then their dogs can run all over everywhere, you know.
We need to get them off the road because that road is something besides hunting, you
know.
It's not full of hunting, you know, but they're taking it, parking on the highway, road
blogs they
don't need no written permission the way they're taking the
highway and turning their dogs out you know and I they'd be good if you could
give me a little money so I could give them help to catch the dogs and turn
them over to the animal control and pay off to get a little money from them because they
got tracking cars and shocking cars they can control them dogs a little bit
But in this neighborhood, I'm in that everything goes their way, nothing for
somebody like me that's making my payments and paying taxes and tearing up
my crops and stuff and we need to see can we get down and I know y'all been
busy tonight and I don't want to take much of your time but folks born with
no brain can use more sense than the folks is out there. Excuse me for saying something
about folks with no brain, you know. But I hope we can get something done, work together
on it. You know, some of y'all have got my telephone number, if you need to call me.
And I thank y'all.
Okay. Thank you, sir.
And next we have Mr. John McNeil.
Good
evening, Chair and Commissioner.
My name is John McNeil and I come before you because I've cast my bid for
Kennedy Sea for North Carolina House of Representative,
District 24.
I was born and raised here to the late Robert McNeil and Edna McNeil.
Grew up over on for Narrow Way Street.
was a high school All-American basketball player here, played for the legendary Coach
Harvard Reed, was part of the winning 1984 state championship team, went on to graduate
from Elizabeth City State University in 1992, where I received my bachelor's science and
management, and was married to my late wife, Anita Magnia, had two sons, John II and
La Ronde, and then we moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where I went on to be a successful
businessman and construction owner. Then recently moved back to, upon moving back
to Wilson, North Carolina here, I set out to give back to the community that
stood behind me through my ordeal, bringing me back here to North Carolina.
I went to work for Wilson County Public Schools for seven years where I mentor
children over at Daniel's Learning Center. I helped kids that was adjudicated
by the courts, Wilson County, at least a lab out from the Savior Youth building
over there, and where we had kids that couldn't be on the school grounds.
They
As I was doing that and looking at the percentage of the kids that was actually graduating through
the programs that I had up, I was saying to my family, what is there that I can do next
for the people here, the citizens here of Wilson County.
After praying about it, talking about it, I said, well, I want to run for North Carolina
House of Representatives.
them. And that's what brings me here. In the process of that, I sent Scott Remarry to my
wife Teresa and Family Man. And since wrote a book, Breathe Freedom to John McNeill Story,
talking about the legal battles that I had and in hopes of inspiring other people not
to give up on whatever fight that they have with the personal judicial system here.
And that what helps me.
Or made me make up my mind to run for North Carolina House of Representative because I have
a heart for helping others, especially those that have been affected by incarceration, poverty,
and injustice. The envisions of a thriving future for Wilson County and believes the key success
or the key issues to bring about change to the district, the 24th district, or education,
Making sure schools have proper resources to effectively serve all students,
prison reform, re-examining self-defense laws, creating programs for families of incarcerated individuals,
and agriculture, supporting the economic plot of farmers.
I'm running for North Carolina House of Representatives because I simply care about the well-being of the people.
So I'm a strong candidate, battle tested for Wilson County that needs to represent this
district, the 24th district, effectively in the general assembly and move to the community
forward.
So I'll come before you today just to let you know that I place my candidacy.
Okay.
Thank you, sir.
Thank
you both gentlemen for coming forward tonight and speaking to the board at this
time.
I believe we are going into closed session.
If so, is there a motion that we go into a closed session pursuant to GS 143-318.11
parentheses a close parentheses parentheses for close parentheses to discuss matters
relating to the location and expansion of business in the area served by this
body.
motion has been made properly seconded all those in favor please indicate by
saying aye yes please we will take a quick two minute