February 15 2021 Commissioners Meeting

Channel: AlamanceCountyNC

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alamance county is pleased to present. the alamance county commissioners

meeting

mr carter i think you have the invocation and the. pledge hello thank you join me in prayer folks

father god as we gather together before you. deliberating the business for the citizens of

alamance county we seek your guidance your. leadership control help the meditations of

our heart our mind the words of our mouths be. acceptable in your sight dear lord watch over and

protect us as we go through this day bring us some. dry weather to lord i'll just add that into we ask

these things dear lord in the powerful and holy. name of jesus christ amen join me in the pledge

i pledge allegiance to the black of the. united states of america and to the republic

for which it enhanced one nation under god. indivisible with liberty and justice for all

madam secretary i only. believe we have two speakers

are they on topic or are they just public. speakers do you know okay so we have um

we have one speaker who signed up to speak. on a non-agenda item the second person that's

signed up did not specify so i don't know if we. have anybody over in overflow just a second ago

and then we have one caller on. the line in written comments

so if we can go to the caller. on the line and now i've got two

two good evening you're connected to the county. commissioners meeting if you could state your

full name address and county of residence and. topic you're speaking on please um my name is

tommy hicks i live in 1730 quakenbush road snow. camp north carolina in alamance county and i am

speaking on a land use issue brand new manager. uh we have a speaker um generally on zoning

we need to decide whether that's on. topic or whether that's a general speaker

well we have the presentation of land use by. the uh by professor david owens so we could we

could if you wanted to allow the gentleman to. go ahead and speak just because we put the um

land use regulation item on so if the chair and. the board are willing uh you could you could

define him as a speaker for on agenda items i. would say board if you agree this is on topic

does everyone agree i do yes all right mr. hicks please go ahead thank you very much

members of the commission on january 11 2018. under our heavy industrial and development

ordinance alamance county issued an attempt. to construct permit for a blast finding snow

camp which i'm sure you're all aware. of since that time local residents have

raised numerous issues concerned to the board of. commissioners concerning our health and safety

these concerns include close proximity of the. mind to colonials hazardous material pipelines

and surrounding properties depending on. groundwater in addition to those concerns

we identified obvious differences in the site. plan submitted to the state for a mining permit

and the one that was submitted to the county we. also identified apparent inconsistencies of both

site plans with certain requirements of the hideo. in response to our concerns in october of 2019 the

board of commissioners voted to engage a third. party attorney to review the hideo permit

issued to snow camp property investment. investments and this review was completed

by credit justice of the van weaker law firm and. was released to the public in january of this year

it discloses a number of apparent inconsistencies. with the requirements in the hideo as we pointed

out including differences in the state and county. site plans and an issue with land spacing mr just

is recommended to send the permit applicant and. alamance aggregates a written notice to respond

to these issues and to collect more facts to date. no such notice has been sent in november of this

of this past year the department of environmental. quality issued a mining permit to alamance

aggregates for the snow camp mine which is posted. on its website the site approved by the state

barely resembles the site plan upon which the. county issued the county permit construction is

underway at the site despite behind a requirement. that any changes or amendments to an approved site

plan but prior to construction must be submitted. to the planning department for review and approval

the state mining permit uh provides that under. our statutes that the issuance of a mining permit

does not supersede or otherwise. affect or prevent the enforcement

of any zoning regulation or ordinance newly. adopted by an incorporated city or county

mr justice concluded that the hydro grants broader. leak to the planning director to address any

illegal work nevertheless our planning department. has yet to issue any notice to the permit holder

to request review of the amended site plan over. any of the issues noted in mr justice's report

if we do not enforce our ordinances that we. risk losing what little protection they afford

our communities i am asking that you request the. planning department to notify alamus aggregates

and snow camp property investments of the need. for the review of the amended site plans and to

respond to the outstanding issues included in mr. justice's review thank you very much thank you

other speakers uh mr carter but i think. yours is off to uh the agenda so we'll

call on you at the end of the meeting should. i go back to your other room wherever you're

um plenty of plenty of space here mr chairman. okay thank you catching the next caller

well i'm sorry i didn't know that good evening. you're connected to the county commissioners

meeting if you could state your full name. full address in red county of residence

yes good evening my name is omar bautista. and i live in burlington north carolina

1717 durham street in elementary county

i have spoken i'm sorry i'm. sorry what's your topic sir

on the uh the uh renewal of the contract with. ice okay you may start your three minutes

all right thank you as i was saying i have spoken. in front of you before to share the story of when

i spent 10 months locked up in a cage separated. from my family in great part because of the

agreement that sarah terry johnson has with ice. it didn't matter that i was in the country legally

that i had kids to feed nor that i was never. convicted of a crime this is this this is just

what happens when you give perry johnson the. resources and the free range to do as it jesus

but you all already know this and. yet have continued to enable him

not only have you refused to end the contract. with ice and are now getting ready to

renew it we are talking about. spending it over by a million dollars

expansion is the right thing to do when the. when business is going well what is wrong is

making a business out of tearing families apart. and that is exactly what terry johnson is doing

by proxy this is what the county commission is. doing as well but let's just pretend for a second

that there is nothing inhumane on christian about. profiting from leaving children parentless it is

really wise to spend an additional million dollars. to rip apart families in the middle of a pandemic

when so many people in in businesses are. struggling to consider expanding the jail's

budget to separate more families just seems like. a bad bad business decision when schools have been

underfunded for years and people are choosing to. move out of the out of the country seeking better

conditions for their children maybe expanding the. budget of the jail is a poor business decision

so i am here to ask you not to expand the. sheriff's budget in fact i am here to ask you that

you don't renew the contract with ice this. community does not need it it does not want it

and there are so many more important needs those. resources can go forward too thank you thank you

did he give his address yep 1717 drum screen. okay what was his name i didn't catch him

he's been here big pardon omar. bautista thank you he's been fun

okay we had received a lot of written. comments but due to the limitations i'll only

be able to read three of those two are

in opposition of the budget amendment and the. third is in support of the budget amendment

are you ready first first one is from. caitlin fields of 2205 rogers street

the sheriff's department budget should not. be increased they should not be rewarded

for profiting from a racist system the. next one is from carrie griffin of graham

good evening commissioners when you ask most. people what they love about living in alamance

county a common response is the people this is. true for myself too i love the rich tapestry of

folks from all walks of life that call this county. home yet not all of the people who live here

feel safe or welcomed in large part due to the. sheriff's partnership with ice i am writing to say

two things do not approve the sheriff's amended. budget stop exploiting people from our community

for profit i urge you to reduce funding for. the sheriff's wasteful and abusive immigration

enforcement activities and to exercise much needed. oversight of his practices with ice the amended

budget will only work to tear more families apart. while preying on the very providers of our youth

our entire community including undocumented. members are vibrant strong and deserving

we call on you to reject any increase in funding. that will exaggerate serious rights violations

in the existing immigration enforcement system. and instead abolish this partnership with ice

and we took we took the uh written comments. the first ones that we received and this is in

support of the budget amendment. from jeffrey clayton of graham

elements county should be compensated for their. role in the cooperation with ice thank you terry

johnson for continuing to enforce the laws of. our country the united states provides ample

opportunity for people with skills and experience. to enter and contribute to society our country

doesn't need more people coming here who just want. to change it into what they think it should be

because they don't like it just look at graham. people moved here from progressive cities and

then complained that it wasn't inclusive enough. it's happening on a national level too and cities

have to do their part if we are to stem the flow. of invaders keep fighting for american citizens

terry any other comments we have all right. agenda items commissioners any comments

we next next need to approve the. agenda motion to approve second

discussion hearing none all. in favor signify by saying aye

all opposed case you down swing okay. the consent agenda motion to approve

any discussion there being none all in. favor signify by saying hi i'm opposed

again carries unanimously thank you all right. mr hagan i think you're you're up next about

well good evening commissioners good evening i. have a request before you this evening by the

alamance community college to allocate 335. 600 from the college's capital reserve fund

for a project that involves work to be done. to the college's ems education program space

i believe at this time we have staff from the. college joining us by zoom and what i'd like to do

is ask them to present you information about the. project and then i'll go over the financial piece

of the information when they're finished talking. about what it's all about so i think i heard dr

gatewood uh on the zoom call and i think he may. have some other staff with him so dr gatewood

are you with us this evening yes i am thank you. very much good evening everyone and thank you to

chairpage and members of the board for the. opportunity tonight to present our request

on behalf of the elements community board of. trustees we're requesting to use 355 600 worth

of capital reserve funds to upgrade expand and. renovate our emergency medical services facilities

the board of trustees at the meeting on last. monday night february 8th approved this capital

project to be funded using county capital funds. however it requires the board of commissioner

of the school in order to move forward i have with. me tonight matt bainco our chief financial officer

who will answer any questions that. you may have about finances and tom

hartman who is our associate vice president of. administrative services who will actually present

most of the slides that we have tonight let. me just say a few things before i refer to tom

for the remainder of this presentation and that. is the emergency services program provides a

huge service to our county it provides much. needed education and training that consists of

non-credit courses professional licensure. and refresher refresher courses and basic

and advanced life science uh sciences and life. support i should be on slide two where it's

assisting with the slides and that will be the. slides that stats acc ems program and so if you

roll this up what we're talking about here is the. emergency medical technician program the emergency

medical responder program and paramedics and then. we have an array of posters and refresher courses

and certificates that come under these different. programs enhancing the facility would make it

really great and that is what tom harkin will talk. about he will show you i'll give you some examples

of how our facility looks now and then also some. examples of how it could look and this matters in

this case looks matters because it is indicative. of the resources we have to deliver this program

the enrollment in this program has really. skyrocketed for example in 2017 we enrolled

426 students which is really good in itself but. then by 2019 that enrollment had jumped to 705

students and it's been tempered a bit by the virus. but even at that tempered state the enrollment is

still almost 600 students uh for the year that we. are in now and so it is again it's an incredibly

important program the facilities we have are. insufficient and cannot support the growth that we

are achieving tom i would defer to you now. to take this presentation forward and then

again we will answer any questions you have. following on this presentation of the slides

all right thank you dr dave i appreciate. that could you go to the next slide please

thank you um the current status of the ems program. uh just to give you a little bit of information on

that uh currently as dr david mentioned it's a. high enrollment program currently uh we lack the

dedicated space currently the program is in about. less than three thousand square feet it's actually

housed and you can see from the pictures there. it's housed in a ford former computer integrated

machining program lab so that used to be our. machining lab before we move to our new building

and that is now where we've housed the ems program. for about the last year and a half to two years

if you go to the next slide please um improvements. are critical for the program to meet the required

credentialing and the accreditation standards of. the program uh improved state-of-the-art lecture

and technology classrooms are critical for the. continued growth that dr david mentioned and also

increased storage capacity as needed for a large. quantity of training materials and those slides

give you some examples again of the machining labs. and how they're using that space at this point

you go to the next slide please

okay the ems program vision again the. vision for the program is that it remains

at the main campus of acc that we dedicate. 6 300 square feet of space for the program

plus an additional 1800 square feet. of shared space for the program

and the hope is to create simulation. labs and state-of-the-art learning

spaces similar to what we see in the photos. there these are from other community colleges

one is a simulated emergency room the sim labs the. simulated labs are very important to the program

as well as a simulated residence so that the. students will go through the process from going

from a residence all the way to the emergency. emergency room and so on next slide please

and this continues with that vision one of the. options that will be part of this would be a

control room for observation critique. basically behind that two-way mirror

the faculty are back there and they're instructing. the students and watching them critiquing them as

they go through their procedures also we'll. be looking at adding a simulated ambulance in

addition to the ambulance that we have we have an. ambulance that they do practice on in real time

out on campus but this would be a. simulated annual in the classroom

provide more detailed instruction and. hands-on instruction next slide please

and the renovation timeline the renovation needs. for the program really are immediate as the ems

program has to vacate their current temporary. space in the machining labs that first floor of

that building is actually going to become the. abs early college program that construction

is part of our backfill program and that. construction begins in may so we need to

move ems out of that area and get them into their. new space which would be the second floor of that

building and the thing about bms program. and renovation it complements the overall

capital projects and renovations. that are going on with the college

including the badco project that i mentioned we. have a culinary expansion going on and of course

all of the bond projects that are going on so. that's something we want to move on rather quickly

so with that i think we can open up any questions. anyone has about hey commissioners i'm happy to

present the financial information at this time. or if you had questions for the college staff

about the programmatic uh details of the. project i'm sure they'd be happy to answer

any board member have a question i have i have. one question i'm curious to see have you done

some projections on where you think uh the student. enrollment might go to in the next couple of years

uh commissioner carter i i i i'm speculating. here but i suspect that that enrollment will

certainly continue to increase and i would not. be surprised at all if we didn't reach 900 to a

thousand students it's becoming more and more in. demand to have really really well trained people

in the emergency services area so i think that can. continue to grow how many of those students are we

seeing from alamance county and how many from. surrounding counties do we have a breakdown on

that i do not have a breakdown with me uh tonight. but i can assure you that most of these students

are from alamance county not all of them but most. are the thing about students coming in from out

of the county is they recognize the quality of. our program the quality of our instructions so

that it is sought after i would also add that when. students do come from outside of their county that

is revenue that the college generates in terms. of the state ft reimbursement so it's a benefit

to the college which helps us provide and even. better services to the residents of our county

i have a question thank you dr gatewood it's. pam i know we've got the fire academy at abs

which has been extremely successful and the. ems thank goodness covet uh how is that student

that's going to be in that ems academy at abs. how do they filter into you like dave when they

start there what do they bring with them as far as. credits and everything i i don't want to overstate

this i'm not an expert in this area but i can. i can tell you that whatever preparation they

get while at abs certainly supports and. undergirds what they will do here in other words

they may come in as more advanced students and. and that's always helpful they'll have to in those

cases they'll spend less time with us but again. i don't want to overstate my answer here because

that's not really my area of exercise and just. one more thing on the accelerated career program

how many how much as far as numbers is that. going to be able to increase for students

since you're going to have a larger area i think. it would be significant you mean the uh the uh

early college program early college yes the. original goal we had for the early college

was around 350 students so we should be able. to certainly accommodate up to 350 at some time

and that may also require some more strategic. scheduling those kinds of things but

that was the original vision that we had for this. program when we started it several years ago well

i know that it's nothing but amazing when kids. can graduate high school at no cost and have an

associate's degree i wish that for every student. thank you so much for doing that thank you well

mr chairman if there are no other questions this. completes our presentation and we want to thank

you for all your great work thank you sir thank. you sir thank you very much any other discussion

do we have a motion wait nope are we finished. if the commissioner is like i'll go over the

financial information uh pertaining to this. project all right we we have it in our packet so

i just assume we don't seem to have the clicker. so that's all right okay this is a one slide

presentation i might indicate to those on uh on. zoom we have in our packets this information so

we're not quite as jumpy as as we appear. that wasn't even what i was talking about

so uh commissioners you've heard from the college. they're requesting to allocate 335 600 from the

college's capital reserves proposing to use this. to renovate space at the campus for their ems

education program so the county holds capital. reserves for the college we currently have in

our capital reserve specifically for the community. college six million four hundred and ninety four

thousand four hundred and eighty four dollars. all right there you go okay that's all right

so those capital reserves that's 6.4 million. dollars that is in the county's capital reserve

specifically for the college we have plans. for those dollars uh they are to be used for

the college's current debt the college's future. debt which is from the education bond project

it's also to be used for planned cip amounts. in our capital plan we have certain dollar

amounts for the next seven to ten years that we. told the college you can expect this much per

year those reserves will be used for that too and. we've also believed that we can use these reserves

parts of them to pay for the new acc facility. ops so you can remember we were talking about

the new education bond projects at the. college we were some level of concern

to make sure that in the future we had enough. money to pay the operating costs for those two

we believe that the reserves are building at. such a rate for the college uh that we could use

some of these reserve funds as they start coming. online with these new buildings which is good news

so where does that money come from it comes from. debt step down so as we pay the college's debt the

way we're set up now we put the money back into. their reserves we did that to try to keep the

property tax impact low when we pass the property. tax increase that was needed for the bonds also

i'm sure the commissioners will remember 1.4 cents. of the 7.04 property tax increase was specifically

for the community college's capital plan that was. education bond debt and these other cip amounts so

we're building capital reserves and at this time. we estimate there are 998 544 dollars in surplus

capital reserves that means that we have built. almost a million dollars more in capital reserves

than we think it's going to take to pay current. debt future debt operating costs and their planned

cip amounts that has happened because the college. has changed some timelines on their project from

when we originally set the 7.04 uh property tax. increase they've moved a few of their projects

back that means debt would be delayed so but. the reserves keep building preparing to pay

that debt and we've also our property tax base has. grown more than our conservative estimate for the

plan i think for the plan we may have estimated. around one percent we're really seeing about two

to three in our property tax base this is all. good news but it leads to additional dollars

forming in the capital reserve that is good we. want to see those capital reserves grow because

we haven't issued that debt yet right we haven't. actually started some of the major construction

so we want it's better for us in my opinion. to see some capital reserves building beyond

what we think it will take based on our initial. estimates to pay this uh to pay this debt so if

the commissioners and and any use of these capital. reserves must be approved by the county board of

commissioners thus the college is here tonight. it's earmarked for their use but they have to

come to the commissioners and request permission. to be able to use it if the commissioners approve

the 335 600 for this uh ems space renovation. it would leave an estimated 662 944 dollars in

surplus capital reserve that is again above and. beyond what we think it will take to pay for all

the the debt and plan cip uh it is important to. understand too that that 998 and that 662 is also

based on our planning interest rates when we we. did our plan originally we estimated four and a

half percent in interest rates for the bond debt. right i think it will be lower i think we'll be

closer to three percent something in those in that. area so we'll see the capital reserves i think

continue to grow we won't know that bond interest. rate obviously until we really sell and lock in

so the commissioners could tonight approve. this if you if you feel comfortable doing

that understanding we're using surplus capital. reserves in acc's uh account uh for the that the

county holds it does require a budget amendment. and and obviously you've heard from the staff so

the funding is there you know i we want to be. careful with the capital reserves because we

haven't gotten deep into these bigger education. bond projects and we do want to make sure we you

know 20-year debt we want to make sure we've got. that covered right there's no question about that

i am encouraged that i think we could uh if the. capital reserves are building at such a rate

that i think we could also eventually use them. to pay some of these operating costs when the

new buildings come online because i think we. had estimated around half a million dollars a

year in new operating debt from the college's. new education bond um buildings the ones they

would build um the funding is there it's all. about do the commissioners feel comfortable

allocating some of it now for this particular. project i i would tell you that i think it's

going to go higher than 998 thousand dollars once. we lock in the actual uh interest rate for the

bonds that will sell in april so i'll be happy to. answer any questions and i see we still have the

acc folks here too i'm sure they'll be happy to do. so i'll make a motion that we approve the request

john chairman paisley i am married to craig. thompson who is one of the acc board of

trustee members and i can i will not vote on. this i just think it's a conflict i just uh

i don't want to be in charge. of my husband's budget

i just don't feel comfortable doing it um jeremy. pages should we make a motion to allow her to

um he's not receiving any financial benefit from. this grant whatsoever i know that it's just a

personal preference if it's okay all right boy do. we have a motion to allow her to decrease herself

sure i'll make a motion thank. you do you have a second

second yeah motion second the whole. in favor signify by saying uh-huh

all opposed mission carrick thank you all right. any other discussion on this matter before we vote

do we have a motion to approve this grant we do. have a second and we got that recorded all in

favor signify by saying aye all opposed carries. again with the opposition thank you gentlemen

mr chairman of the board thank you so much. thank you thank you great work absolutely

i think our financial officer is next up

ms evans how are you doing doing. well i hope you are tonight as well

good evening commissioners um i come before you. tonight to request approval for us to write off

ems billing accounts totaling 2.7 million dollars. that are uncollectible because they are over

three years old and all legal and cost-effective. collection efforts have been exhausted um by state

statute we are only allowed to go back three years. to enforce that collection however even if they

are written off if someone does want to pay on an. outstanding bill we happily accept that payment

and on zoom call tonight is also ray viverman. so he is available if any questions come about

so just to give you a little background on. our ems policies and where we are so right

now currently alamance county utilizes emsmc for. our billing and rosman and associates for our

ems collection agency prior to contracting with. ems mc in december of 2019 the county used amd

and we had many problems with their billing. and collection practices so we were able to put

out an rfp which was about a eight to ten month. process and we selected emsmc as our new provider

currently our process is that all of our invoicing. is handled by our billing company and they send

out a 30-day notice and if there is no response. within 30 days they send out another notice if

there's no response in those 30 days they send out. another notice so our patients are given 90 days

on which they can pay for our bill um any invoice. with activity so if someone has called in and said

i can't pay all of this at one time. but i want to set up payment plans

emsmc works with our patients sets up those. payment plans and as long as there is activity

they are not turned over to a collection agency. and emsmc actively collects on that patient's

account also any outstanding insurance claims. that are under review emsmc continues to claim on

those until they have extinguished all collection. agencies at that time after those 90 days if there

is no response then that invoice then is passed. on to rossman and associates our collection agency

and it's also sent to um the north carolina set. debt set off program which is a wonderful program

that the state enacted several years ago that. counties and municipalities any governmental

agency if you had a citizen who owed you money you. can send that debt to their clearing house and any

citizen who receives a state refund tax or if they. win lottery winnings that are in excess of 600

then those earnings and winnings are attached. first to pay back any debt that a citizen would

have to a county or municipality and we are. actively participating in that program as well

so mainly these write-offs that are for. you tonight are mostly from private pays

um citizens who don't have insurance cannot pay. and some of them unfortunately just will not pay

we are right in line with other counties. collecting about 70 of the amount billed

so just to give you a little bit of prior. write-off history in 2019 the county road off 534

938 and 63 which was for the period of. january through december of 2015 and in

that same year we collected four million dollars. just slightly over four million dollars that year

in 2016 which is the request that's before you. tonight um we do pick up a little bit of 2015. um

you know i just spoke a few minutes. ago about we had some problems with amd

they did not write off everything that they. should have in that first year this also picks

up our business relationship with rossman and. associates so we're going back and taking off um

write-offs for 2015 2016 and 2017 which totals. up to our 2.7 million dollars in fiscal year

16 um the write-offs totaled 580 000 and in that. year we received 4.3 million dollars and in fiscal

year 17 we're asking to write off 1.5 million. and we received 4.4 million in revenue that year

so if there are any other questions that the. board has i'll answer them as best as i can or

if it's more collection as far as ridership then. ray is available to answer those questions as well

i have a question pertaining to the medicaid. a lot of these as i understand it are required

right offs anyway that we don't have a choice. that is true and i spoke with ray this afternoon

and our billing company and ready say if i mistake. is that our billing company is able to go ahead

and adjust those bills at the time of billing and. whenever they receive that medicaid payment back

that's correct and they just you know medicaid. pays what they pay and then you can't balance

build the patients you can't do anything. else with those bills so they write that

off as a contractual allowance which you know. is equivalent to a write-off but they tend to do

that on the front end and so we only average about. 121.81 revenue for a medicaid transport which is

significantly lower than the medicare or private. inter counterparts and that medicaid write-off

is part of this package right here no sir no. sir the um billing company is able to go ahead

and contractually adjust those bills down on the. front end instead of the write-off one thing that

when ray and i were talking this afternoon one. thing that we're seeing as more of a trend is as

employers are offering more of a high deductible. insurance plan and employees are taking that plan

it puts more responsibility on the employee to pay. for their health insurance or their health claims

and so he's seeing a rise in private pays that. are going unpaid i have a question what kind of

money are we having to pay as a county to. these people that does this collection um

ray i'll let you speak to that because the. contract yeah so we collect or we pay them 4.5

of what they collect so it's not you know if. they don't collect anything we wouldn't pay them

anything and so it kind of incentivizes them. to try to collect as much revenue as they can

uh because that ups what they're paid uh from. the county and one other thing like no matter

how many times someone calls we go if it's. the same person regardless if they've got

an account that's open yes ma'am yes ma'am. that's a lot of money that's a lot of sickness

there's a chairman up up question you mentioned. that the new billing company had to write off

some bad debt that the old billing company failed. to write off if you account for that you have a

sense of of if you compare year over year how. the how the bad debt is increasing it seems to

be increasing quite a bit it is increasing um and. so i will say that we have one more year with the

old billing company so we should see probably. about the same amount in next year's write-off

that we would bring granted i would say not 2.7. million because if you look at just fiscal year 17

we're looking at about 1.5 million. so that trend could possibly continue

one thing i will say is that our rossman and. associates our collection agency they do a

really good job with what they what they. do they will work and set up payment plans

with patients as well they send out what they. call a soft enforcement letter first of all just

to introduce themselves and say we're collection. agency collecting on behalf of alamance county

if there is no response then they are able to. attach that debt to the person's credit report

so they are actively working those cases and. we have worked with them since fiscal year 2018

and we we have seen them be able to collect um. 140 000 on our behalf since that time uh you met

it's a four percent collection rate is that. for payment on the for the ems mc for rossmann

and associate rate it's is it 20. 13 for the salt. drilling and 19 for the hard collections and like

susan said we give them another 90 days so once it. goes to collections they get three more statements

and that's on the soft collection so that does not. impact credit if they set up payment plans at that

point it will never go over to hard collections. as long because they don't miss any payments

but then once it goes over to heart collections. i think it's there for another 120 days

and at that point if it's not collected it goes to. north carolina that's it off and that's where it

resides then you know sometimes you have accounts. that are five six years old where somebody will

win the lottery or they'll get a state tax. return and then that'll that'll pay that debt

uh that they owe the count do we have the ability. to enter judgments in this debt um so we do it is

one of our options with the issues that we had. with amb we decided that it was in our citizens

best interest not to do that because the billing. that they had done was so confused and messed up

that we decided let's get through everything with. a and b and then once all of that is extinguished

then we can take a stricter enforcement of these. collections might also indicate as an attorney and

back in the day of biomedical laboratories which. later turned into race and then lab labcorp i was

doing a lot of collection work nationwide for. them you get into small bills filing fees all

kinds of thrown away costs if you go after those. small small amounts now if they're large amounts

but ems is not going to have a large amount likely. large enough to file litigation over but if you do

and get a judgment then you can do in north. carolina what's called a supplemental procedure

and actually bring the the debtor in and question. them about assets and all kinds of things but to

make that cost efficient or effective rather you. all you would have to have a pretty sizable debt

you would not do that over a one ambulance bill. by any means so this debt is like a lot of volume

and um and like this like all these numbers. you gave us where what would that money

go to help if we had it so if those. monies were collected it offsets the ems

budget so their revenues offset their expenses and. it would just give them greater capacity and so we

could if we had all this we could probably buy. additional buses like ambulances and have more

staff if we need it and maybe located in mebane. instead of just all in this area we could use that

and just a side note with um covet and i know um. crime hadn't stopped drug abuse hadn't stopped

nothing stopped because of covet except us. having to work and stuff um just just make

sure we always know that no matter what's going. on with covet ems always goes out that's correct

again all those this looks like a tremendous. amount of money there's small small debts

typically is that correct that's correct i did. a quick um average and rosman had about 6 000

tickets that they would be writing off this. debt and it averaged out to 325.67 per ticket

and court cost filing via loan can. you repeat that average again sure 325

dollars and 67 cents you're welcome i do have. another question i'll make a motion we approve

the request he has one more question i'm sorry. i'm sorry i just want to get some numbers up

you mentioned in 2017 i want to go back. through these numbers again if you can

uh you mentioned that you have 1.5 million and. uh bad and 4.4 collected yes okay can you give

me the number in 2016 and 2018 if you haven't. sure 2016. we ca we had a total write-off of 580

763-18 and we received 4.3 almost 4.4 million. that year as well and then 2018 we're not

requesting that to be written off tonight so i. don't have those figures in front of me tonight

but i can get those to you commissioner. no worries okay thank you you're welcome

it just shows you that that that takes away from. other things that are very important that's 2.7

million a lot of money okay motion to approve the. request a second any other discussion all in favor

motion carries thank you commissioners thank you

thank you ray i think we have our wonderful. professor david owens uh next is he on

yeah there he is i understand you're an attorney. you're a professor uh you're pretty much

uh everything all rolled into one. and we appreciate your helping us out

uh delighted to be with you briefly. tonight um mr chairman members of the uh

commission uh what i thought i would do is just do. a very quick overview on some a few zoning issues

i was with you a couple years ago i understand you. moved along a little further on consideration of

zoning issues so i thought i'd introduce that. see if you've got any questions about that

and also briefly talk about development moratoria. and what your options are there i understand some

questions that have come up about how you. can use that tool if you wanted to do that

so i would address those two issues. and be happy to address anything else

you would like to talk about relative to. development regulation zoning but i will be

relatively brief and give you a quick overview. and then see if you've got any questions or

thoughts about this that i can help you with. does that sound reasonable yes sir yes sir

okay well i think uh i will have this. powerpoint here i can't although i'm

not physically leaving chapel hill i can't. virtually leave chapel hill without a powerpoint

uh a couple of quick slides for you uh just. to get started um quick reminder on zone

there are a lot of things you can do with sony if. you decide to go that route there are other things

you cannot do the main reason you would look. at zoning in addition to or replacing or

incorporating the existing ordinances you have. like cell power mobile home park heavy industry

and other types of development regulation is to. consolidate all of these development regulations

into one place have a common set of definitions. administrative procedures and what zoning adds to

the mix is that you can have with different zones. differential standards for different types of the

county so and the main thing that allows you to do. is to address compatibility of adjacent land uses

you may decide for example if you have a. residential area that you do not want heavy

industry immediately adjacent to an industrial. or entirely within a residential area or you may

have other areas that are especially well suited. for industrial development or heavy development

and you don't want to allow single-family. homes to come in and use the limited amount

of space you've got available for that issues. because of the use conflicts that invariably

arise in that situation so the main reason most. local governments have used zoning is to address

this whole question of compatibility of adjacent. land uses and make sure that one person's use of

a property is not unduly harming their neighbors. efficient provision of infrastructure is another

important uh dimension to consider uh some places. have water and sewer some places don't and that

has an impact on what uses are appropriate there. are rail highway access that sort of thing with

major public investments in infrastructure. making sure that's efficiently used

is an important dimension of zoning protection of. public health and safety issues noise emissions

vibration all those sorts of things are legitimate. factors to consider in using zoning protecting

property values one of the reasons zoning has. been very popular in north carolina over the years

is many private property owners want to be. sure that their neighbors are not using their

property in a way that might be legal but will. be otherwise injurious to their property values

and protecting neighborhood property values and. balancing individual property rights is certainly

a legitimate factor to think about was zoning. counties i think i showed you this map a couple

of years ago it hasn't changed much in the last. two years the counties in blue are the counties

with county-wide zoning the counties in red 69 of. our counties have now gone to county-wide zoning

the counties in red have partial county zoning. parts of their areas are zoned and the counties

in white are the counties without counting zones. almost all those counties have municipal zoning

within the counties but county government has not. adopted zoning in those 19 counties shown in white

counties have the option that cities do not have. if a city adopts zoning it has to be applied

throughout the entire city counties have the. option of zoning all of your unincorporated area

are only part of a county cannot do any zoning. inside of a city unless the city asks for that

and that includes the city's extra territorial. area but the county can zone any unincorporated

area or any part of it so if you want to design. just the area covered by a small area plan

and leave the rest of the unincorporated area. unzoned you certainly have that option there

used to be a requirement that the county. zone if you had any partial county zoning

then it'd be at least 640 acres a minimum but. that minimum was repealed with the adoption of

chapter 160d last year so now the county can pick. as large or small an area as you deem appropriate

on moratorium a moratorium is constitutional. as long as it is not too long a key fact when

you're thinking about a moratorium if you want. to go that route is how long should it be and our

u.s supreme court said as long as as it is less. than a year it's almost conclusively deemed to be

constitutional not a taking of private property. rights to put a temporary hold on development

of property but it can't be too long and that also. leads to our statutory authority in north carolina

our statute says you can do a moratorium. on any development approval required by law

now one important fact in this statement is that. you can't just do a moratorium say no develop

it's a moratorium on an approval so if no approval. is required then you can't do a moratorium

you do the moratorium on approving various. types of development so you have to have

something in place that requires a development. approval because that's what you're putting the

moratorium on you're not processing and approving. any applications during the term of the moratorium

if you adopt moratorium you have to do a. public hearing unless there's an imminent

threat to public health and safety the published. notice depends on how long the moratorium is

if it's more than 60 days you have to do two. published notices uh the first note is at least

10 days but not more than 25 days prior to the. effective date of the moratorium and the second

notice in a separate calendar week so that's the. notice of the hearing on adoption of a moratorium

very importantly our legislature said whenever. you do a moratorium you have to adopt a written

statement at the time you approve the moratorium. that addresses each of these four points

you have to say why you need a moratorium why are. we doing this we need this because we don't have

any regulations on adult entertainment sighting. and we would like to put those regulations in

place before any of those businesses come in to. be or whatever explain why it is you need this

explain why an alternative to. the moratorium is inadequate

specify the scope and duration of the moratorium. that is exactly what does it apply to does it

apply to building permits subdivision plants. permits for industrial development specify

exactly what it covers and how long it's going to. last whether this could be 90 days 180 days a year

and then fourthly explain what you're going. to do during the moratorium to address why you

imposed it the example i gave you earlier i had a. small town in western north carolina that had no

adult entertainment regulations and somebody. proposed converting an existing restaurant

to a topless bar just informally talked about they. said whoa we need a moratorium on this because we

need to think about what can we do what should. we do we need some legal analysis we need a plan

and we need six months to sort of consult. with our attorney solicit public comment

consider our regulation and put it into place. before applications come in of that nature

so you just explain this is what we're going to do. during the 6 months or 12 months of the moratorium

those four things you have to do at the. beginning you can't do it after the fact

you have to do that at the time you adopt the. moratorium or before that put it in writing

and the entire board has to approve that statement

there are a couple of things that moratoria. do not apply to and these are important to

keep in mind in terms of whether a moratorium. is appropriate in an individual circumstance

this first one is perhaps the most important. if a complete application has been submitted

for a required development approval prior. to the effective date of the moratorium

the permit choice rule applies and what the. permit choice rule is is a statute that says

if i've got a complete application and you put my. application on hold because there's a moratorium

when the moratorium expires i can choose to be. covered either by the prior rule or the new rule

so you're more if the purpose of your moratorium. is to get a new rule into effect if somebody has a

completed application in prior to the effective. date of the moratorium they can choose to be

covered by the old rule rather than the new rule. you adopted at the conclusion of the moratorium

so that's an important factor to think about. in terms of whether moratorium is going to be

effective for the reasons you need it similarly. it does not apply to a subdivision plat approval

if a complete plat approval application is already. in prior to the effective date of the moratorium

you cannot do a moratorium on residential. land uses single-family or multi-family if the

purpose of the moratorium is to update a plan or a. regulation now if the purpose of the moratorium is

to provide adequate wastewater treatment or water. services or fire services or something along those

lines yes but if the purpose is well we don't. have an adequate regulation on mobile home parks

or multi-family housing we need a moratorium. in this area on residential development so

we can develop a better plan or a. new regulation that you cannot do

lastly if somebody already has a vested right. to development a moratorium does not extinguish

their vested right you may be able to put their. right on hold during the moratorium but at the

conclusion of the moratorium they can resume. and carry on whatever they have a vested right

a legally established vested right to do and. then the last point i make about moratoria is

that your ability to extend the moratorium is. very limited so if you adopt a moratorium for six

months and at the end of five months you say well. we really needed nine months uh there are strict

limitations on your ability to add another. three months to the end of the moratorium

so if you do decide to think about that you should. probably err on the side of making the moratorium

long enough to do what you need to do and then. shorten it if if that's feasible or if you finish

up your work early but it's a lot easier to. shorten the moratorium than it is to extend it

once you have adopted it so that's a a quick. overview of moratorium a quick overview of some

zoning issues i'll be glad to answer any questions. or help you with anything else that i can

i just have a question on your map that showed. all the colors of the ones who have and have not

um i noticed the mountain section the far west. was white as far as that particular zone color

and then a lot of the coastal was that white. zone color is that just for geography reasons or

what what is behind that okay

and there we sit right in the. middle that little white box

the adoption of county zoning would match up. to that very closely those white counties on

the coast or in the intercoastal plain. are very rural counties and and most of

them are losing population rather than gaining. population so for the most part there's not any

growth in development to regulate and the same is. largely true in the far west with the additional

owned by the national park service or national. forest and most of the developable land

is in municipalities rather than in the counties. so there's not a whole lot of privately owned

land in the unincorporated areas in those. mountain counties that is suitable for development

counties have elected not to proceed with. zoning alamance county is as you know uh the one

most populous county we have in the. piedmont that does i i would note that many

of the things addressed by zoning alamax. counties addressed with individual ordinances

i have a question yes professor owens craig turner

if you assume that zoning is implemented. what procedural options does a county have

to allow citizens to challenge the. zoning of their particular parcel

for the most part is a practical matter that. is usually done prior to adoption and that the

county would propose a zoning map for a small area. or the part of the county you're going to zone

and put the ordinance with your regulations and. the zoning map which district you're putting in

out for public review and comment and have an. extended period of time for people to make those

comments prior to adoption buncombe county for. example just adopted county-wide zoning for the

first time about five years ago in buncombe county. and they had their map out for several months

and said this is what we're thinking of. doing and allowed each individual citizen

to comment on that send in their comment and look. at that really on a parcel by parcel basis with

individual citizens and then sent those comments. to the planning board for review and comment the

staff reviewed it and the commissioners ultimately. adopted something with that kind of input once you

adopt it uh the the legal recourse a citizen would. have would generally be to come in and ask you

to amend the zoning for their property to do a. rezoning to say i would like my property at 431

east 41st street to be rezoned. from residential to commercial

um legally going to court to challenge it. is is not something that's very practical

in the sense that unless the county's. zoning is arbitrary and capricious

uh the court's not going to second-guess the. judgment of how property should be zoned that's

largely a judgment for the county commissioners. to make when you adopt or amend the regulation

but citizen after the zoning is implemented a. citizen could seek a variance or a special use

permit to change their particular parcels. designation and do that not in court but

through the planning process yes yes and it's. intended to not require people to go to court

uh and there are two different very different. types of things to change one is to change the

zoning designation itself that's a rezoning. amending the zoning the zoning map is part

of your zoning ordinance so to amend the. zoning map the citizen asks for that rezoning

that goes to the staff does the review it goes. to the planning board for review and comment and

then it comes to the county commissioners and the. county commissioners must hold a public hearing

prior to amending that you send a letter to the. property owner to all of the adjacent property

owners notifying them of the hearing so you get. lots of public input on that but ultimately it's

a judgment call by the county commissioners as to. whether it was zoned appropriately the first time

or whether it should be amended in response. to that landowner request so it's largely a

policy choice for the commissioners with. the input from the neighbors and from the

planning board as well as your staff now a special. use permit is an entirely different proposition

that's where you say we would like to allow a. certain type of development provided it meets the

conditions specified in the ordinance and that's. a judicial type hearing which you can assign to

the planning board board of adjustments or to the. county commissioners but that's not a legislative

policy judgment when you hold a hearing there. you're gathering evidence as to are the standards

in the ordinance met so for example standard might. be would it cause a significant adverse impact on

neighboring property values so you would have. testimony from witnesses as to whether or not

that project would cause property value damages. and it's a very formal court-like proceeding for a

special use permit similarly a variant somebody's. coming and saying i want to do something that's

not allowed by the regulation but i would have. practical difficulties an unnecessary hardship

if i had to comply with the regulation and there's. something unique about my property that you should

let me have an exception to the general rules. and again that's a judicial type proceeding

that's generally handled by the planning. board or the board of adjustment thank you

if we should

zone at some point a portion of the county. a partial zoning how difficult is it

to one undo that if that happens. or can it be undone and secondly

how difficult is it to then later. zone additional parts of the county

both of those are relatively straightforward you. can undo it by simply amending the ordinance to

repeal it it simply requires the. same kind of notice and hearing

you use to adopt it so you would if you. wanted to repeal the zoning you would simply

propose that call a public hearing do two. published notices send it to the planning board

for review and comment and then the commissioners. would vote on it it would probably as a practical

matter take you 60 to 90 days to go through the. notice and hearing process but it can be undone

just as quickly perhaps more quickly. than doing it in the first place

extending it to other areas is fairly common but. you use the same process most counties that have

county-wide zoning started with partial county. zoning some counties gradually expanded it some

have been partial from chatham county for example. zoned the eastern half of the county 30 years ago

and did not zone the western half until about two. years ago because there was more development in

the pittsboro area than there was in the. siler city area so they just didn't feel

like they needed zoning in the western half of. the county so they didn't do it for 30 years um

and ultimately the citizens came in and said. they wanted it so the commissioners extended

it but you can leave it partial county zoning. as long as you want or as quickly as you want

some of the counties up by lake gaston. all they zone is the area around the lake

they don't zone the rest of the. county and haven't sent it for

25 30 years but that's a policy choice. for the county board of commissioners

professor i'm going to ask you something because. you mentioned a certain type of business that

would involve clothing and things um years ago we. used to have a place where um there was an 87 out

in the country out in the country i mean out. in the country and it was uh entertainment um

you know what with all kind of. stuff that you wouldn't want to go

and there was a lot of crime. there shootings blah blah blah

and um we don't have zoning and that plopped. right in the middle a very rural community

church right up the street everything and it was. a real hot spot for the neighbors it was just

my sheriff's sitting here and he knows. exactly what i'm talking about and anyway

anyway if we don't have zoning something like. that can just pop up anyway but if we do have

someone do they have to get permission and we. can say no for something like that to come here

yes yeah if you don't have zoning. then they can do it wherever

wherever they want uh if you had zoned it you. could you could put do you could prohibit it

altogether in certain districts say this is a. residential district and we're only going to allow

single-family residences duplexes places. of worship daycare center whatever you

do the list whatever you think is appropriate. for that rural crossroads communities

and then other things i know one county it was a. a stump dump somebody had a inner debris landfill

that was bringing in lots of dump trucks and the. noise and the dust in a very rural crossroads

communities and the neighbors said you we're. literally being the dump because we don't have any

zoning that limits these inert debris landfills. in our part of the county or a nightclub

or you know some other use that would. cause a problem for the neighbors so

when you craft the ordinance you say. which land uses you want to allow and

you can prohibit everything else or you can. have a specific list of the other things

you do not want to allow you could say no. commercial uses at all or just no nightclubs

you know in some areas it's the uh here in. orange county you probably saw we uh having uh

wrestling with a very large gas station uh truck. stop sort of thing by the the interstate and a lot

of the neighbors felt like you know a gas. station is not a problem but one of these

mega truck stops would be a problem for our. our neighborhood but that's where the county

commissioners get involved in saying how much. is too much in that area and consulting with

the neighbors and deciding what's appropriate. for that particular area the limitation for

counties is that you cannot regulate uh bona fide. farming through zoning agriculture is exempt from

county zone that includes raising animals road. crops aquaculture horticulture agritourism um

we had a situation in orange county similar. to the one you talked about it said it was a

somebody bought a abandoned farm and built. a barn that was to be used as an event space

not as a farm thing but just hosting. parties wedding receptions down a small

dirt road and the neighbors in the immediate. vicinity were not happy uh they were very

unhappy with this you know 200 person event space. being located in the midst of their very rural

uh community and if it were a commercial venture. it is subject to county zoning that particular

owner tried to get around it by contending it. was agritourism uh the challenge wasn't that

hadn't been farmed for 50 years and they built. a barn for the sole purpose of hosting events

a dispute that was in court for about four. years and it's still in part in court well

i just want to add on one thing allegedly if you. have a place existing now right in the middle of

like a very busy intersection what i consider. town and it sells all kind of pornography and

all kind of everything that goes with that no. matter what okay we're not zoned so there it is

if we zone can we write somewhere in our. zoning that we can't have stuff like that

yes you can uh there are limits to that. most sony ordinances say if you were here

unlawfully here before we adopted. our regulation you can step

but it becomes a non-conforming they. cannot enlarge it or expand it or change it

you do have the option of phasing out those. non-conformities that's primarily done with signs

in order to be fair to new businesses you. want eventually the old businesses to come

into compliance with your regulation and have. the same sign restrictions that everybody else

has so you give them two or three years or four. years to come into compliance but that can also

be done with particular types of businesses. greensboro did that with adult businesses

they had a lot of massage parlors adult bookstores. and other things particularly concentrated

along lee street if you've driven that area and. they wanted to limit those so they gave them a

couple of years once they adopted their separation. requirements for adult businesses and said you can

stay there another year or two to recoup your. investment but after that you've got to relocate

to a more appropriate location so that's. been done something with sweepstakes parlors

adult entertainment and some things like that. but you have to give them a little bit of time

to recoup their investment in order to be fair to. that property owner but after there we could you

can they can just leave yes okay but professor. owens most of those like lee street for example

is governed by greece for a city not guilford. county and that's going to be our case pretty

much on i-85 and i-40 obviously one road all the. way east to west um almost exclusively that's

within municipalities and so we'll have little or. actually no zoning capabilities along that corner

yes that's true this county has no zoning. authority within the corporate limits or

within the city's extra territorial jurisdiction. i think the location that miss thompson was

that's been years and years ago hasn't it which. one that had the club or whatever it was yeah

terry and it was i think outside. of municipality but that's that's

an oddity yeah yeah onslaught county had that. uh jacksonville tightened up its regulations

and a lot of the businesses jacksonville. was regulating moved out to onslow county so

once the city tightened up its regulations if. the county did not have any you might see the

same sort of thing oslo county had to go back. and update their regulations so they didn't get

the problems just moving from. the city out to the county right

adult entertainment that's what i. was trying to think of thank you

commissioners any other questions. mr chairman i i have a question

that's related to this matter but it's for. miss cattle who's uh i see she's on the zoom

call would it be appropriate for me. to ask her a question that's related

i think it's fun uh miss cattle we we talked. at the last meeting well that the commissioners

approved um the small land use uh what we. call it option a for zoning and snow camp

um i asked about option c which is what the. planning board recommended do you remember that

yes sir um was the planning board specific about. the purpose for its recommendation on option c

so the discussion the planning. board had for option c

being overlays was that there was a concern that. if there is zoning put into the snow camp area

mapping out where the snow camp area. plan is that it could push development

outside of that area that would have come. there and that an overlay district for

major arterials and just transportation purposes. where we see the most growth would be maybe of

importance to cover any extrovert that was going. to be pushed and make sure we control that growth

was the planning board specific about what an. overlay might look like the overlay that it was

recommended no there's no specifics talked about. at that point um would did the planning board

mention the type of overlay that the county. that it was recommending to the commissioners

no there was a suggestion that's. in the land development plan about

agricultural preservation forward overlay that was

one of the things it was considered but. the discussion included all the above

might indicate to the general public. uh miss cattle is our planning director

uh we're not going to outside parties sorry. continue i should have mentioned that um can you

describe for the for the board what an overlay. is so overlay feels very different than just a

blanket zoning or zoning a specific area like the. snow camp area and overlay just covers a specific

what you would call transportation corridor that's. what we're looking at that would protect this

very specific area it could be a mile or two. wide and anything outside that overlay that isn't

already zoned wouldn't be touched it would still. be unzoned so you can do an agricultural overlay

to protect current agricultural uses or you. can do overlay along major corridors to protect

residential or commercial development and. kind of guide that development for the future

um mr jim i didn't i didn't speak any of the. commissions about this but i i'd like to i'd like

to propose in motion i'd like to propose that that. the county commissioners direct the planning board

to identify those land areas within the county's. jurisdiction that are most suited for agricultural

use and that are most suited for industrial use. but that are outside the small area plan that we

identify as last minute simply that they

identify those areas to give the county. commissioners more information about

how we might proceed i also ask that you include. in that uh the agriculture areas that would not be

affected by zoning uh that are in that snow. camp district than we previously identified

i don't know if uh i would i thought the zoning. for the small air plan would have would obviate

the need for that it may it could we can't jump. it might be wood but we can pull a map together

to kind of show that because we'll probably pull. them out together faster than we can do the zoning

ordinance right what i'm asking is identify. those areas that would not be affected by our

our zoning yes i think that would be appropriate. as well and i would add that to the motion thank

you that would not be effective i'm asking i'm. just trying to clarify you say would or would not

well either way i mean it would cover either. way if it would be effective that we also

identify those that would not by virtue of. the fact that the rest of it was done right

commissioners anything else except on this matter. uh we're not having a vote on zoning obviously but

does anybody have any other statement about. the motion that's on the table right now do

we i'll check at that moment i think however. we can really be the most prepared without

stuck on one particular thing and then. like two weeks later oh no we really

should have thought about this i think that. you can't help but win on that so good job

i just want the large landowners the farmers or. whatever to know whether they would or would not

be impacted if we in fact do this if they continue. farming i think it just gives the commission the

most information that we can have on how to. proceed regardless of what we decide any other

discussion all in favor of mr turner's. motion signify by saying aye aye all opposed

emotion carries mr secretary do you need. for him to repeat that motion yes please

all right i move that the county. commissioners direct the planning board

to identify the land areas. within the county's jurisdiction

that are best suited for agricultural use. and that are best suited for industrial use

for those areas that are outside the. small area plan and also identify

those parcels within the small area plan

that would not be affected by the. zoning in the small area plant

i agree all right i'm secretary you have that. and everyone agrees on this board that that is

the motion they voted on is that correct yes sir. all right thank you just hang out anything else on

this part this portion no i think uh we all would. appreciate uh county attorney albright lining up

professor owens to come thank you very much clyde. i appreciate that i hope professor erwin's a lot

and i thank him for appearing tonight thank. you yes sir thank you we're very appreciative

to the professor for attending and uh giving us. a very good presentation and professor owens i

truly mr chairman and i both as attorneys. really appreciate what you presented thank

you certainly if i can ever be of any help just. let me know thank you appreciate it and thank you

to miss cato as well oh absolutely she's always. she's professional and always knows her stuff

okay

we have our budget amendments nope order mr chair. we have a healthcare department oh i'm sorry

mr health director otherwise known as tony

good evening chairman paisley. vice chair carter commissioners

so first and foremost i want to thank the. staff especially last week last week was a cold

and icy week and their true determination and grit. standing out in that weather was was amazing just

to see their passion and make sure folks got. vaccinated so truly heartfelt thanks to those

staff and thanks to our call center folks and rit. last week we had one of the highest volumes hit

the phone system at the 387 000 call attempts. into the system trying for folks trying to get

into appointments so um great job to those folks. for trying to deliver the best customer service

they can under the circumstances quickly moving. through people to get them appointments for

their first dose shot so i just want to say. thanks to all those all those folks involved

so today as of last night we had 37 cases reported. this brings us to 618 active cases i think last

time i came before you that was doubled it was. around in the 20 1200s that we had active cases

here in alamance county we have 18 active. in the hospital and 228 deaths our weekly

average coming in per day is about 70 cases per. day now so that continues to go down as well

our percent positive has decreased again percent. positive is the positive test over total test

the goal here is to get below percent and we've. seen very significant drop over the last couple

weeks just at the end of january we're at. our highest uh fourteen point nine percent

um excuse me early january we're at fourteen. nine percent now we're down to eight percent so

i hope that continues to trend down just slightly. over five now is that right like correct i'm sorry

just slightly over five percent now we're at eight. percent now eight percent okay i was looking at

the blue line i'm sorry our new cases for 100 000. population over 14 days is down to 745. i think

last time when i came before you is in the 800s. or thousands somewhere in there so we continue

to see that drop as well one of those measures. that's kind of how we compare ourselves to other

counties and and states but we keep an eye on that. and that's that's great that's continued to drop

all right our state report for outbreaks and. clusters we currently have eight nursing homes

in outbreak 10 residential care facilities one. congregate 11 and one correctional facility

clusters we have three childcares and one one k-12. school and the k-12 school will be adults staff

or what is that so that is them it's. one of our high schools and it's

it's probably ready to come off. pretty soon it takes 28 days for

for it to be removed from the list and that that's. assuming there's no other cases that have occurred

um so this next slide this is new new that i. haven't presented before so looking at 2020 from

january 2020 all the way to december 31st. our total death to total cases was 186 deaths

to 11 053 cases that works out to about a. 1.6 per 8 percent total deaths of total cases

when we just look at our long-term care. facility deaths there is 109 deaths

to 508 cases in long-term care facilities. if we back that out we just look at general

population so folks that weren't in the long. term care facilities there was 77 deaths to 10

545 cases which comes out to about 0.73 percent. and so for 2020 long-term care facility deaths

were 109 and that's out of 186 deaths so it comes. to 58 deaths all deaths by aids group we had 123

deaths that were 75 and older between 65 and. 74 there was 37 deaths 55 to 64 19 40 to 54

4 and 20 to 39 years of age there were three. looking at 2021 since january 1 we've had

a total of 45 deaths out of 4 931 cases at a. 0.91 rate for our long-term care facilities

looking at those cases there's 23 deaths out. of 205 cases in long-term care facilities

again if we back that out and just look at general. population 22 deaths at a 470 4726 so 0.47 percent

there and then out of overall deaths uh 23 out of. 45 deaths we're in the long term care facilities

so at 51 percent and then when we look at age. groups but all deaths to to date from january 1.

35 or 75 and older seven or 65 to 74. one. from 55 to 64 and then two from 20 to 39.

so i know i know this chart. is hard to see i apologize

this graph is actually on the nc dhs website and. it's updated daily at noon i can tell you at 11

59 every day i'm hitting refresh on my computer. consistently and why because it shows me how many

people are vaccinated in alamance county and i. get excited when i see that number go up and up so

um i'm like a little kid at christmas at 11 59 p.m. um so first though shots in alamance county as of

february 15 17 610 so we are at 10.39 percent. of our population so out of that 17 610 um 68

are 65 and older so that comes out to about 11. almost 12 000. if you remember previous meetings

i've said our 65 and older populations about. 17.17 percent or 29 000 residents in alamance

county so that puts us about 41 percent of. the way they're getting our folks 65 and older

vaccinated so we are making progress and when. i say it's not only the health department we

have partners in the communities i'll talk about. here in a little bit that are assisting with that

that effort as for the health department um we. have received our allocation 9395 was our received

allocation um on that chart it says 1051 but as. we were sitting this meeting i got the updated

numbers so as of the update ten thousand four. hundred eight first doses were administered so

we continue to get extra doses out of. those vials and then for our second doses

we're at five thousand four hundred and. twenty eight second doses have been given

by the health department and in the state 7. 982 for alamance county according to state data

so again our our mission here is. shots and arms safety and efficiency

kind of looking back a little bit last week. we worked with one of the local pharmacies

they had an allocation of 100 vaccines and. 70 of those vaccines we were able to get from

school school teachers folks that work in school. and chiropractic employees that are 65 and older

start their vaccinations so that pharmacy helped. out never started that process we transferred 200

extra doses to two local pharmacies one of those. pharmacies is working with burlington housing

authority and working with our marginalized our. historically marginalized populations and they're

actually going they're also working with unc. and they're actually going to go door to door

and make sure folks 65 and older are vaccinated. so they were very appreciative to receive the

vaccine that we transferred over um and then we. transferred another hundred doses over to another

pharmacy and that's just so they can focus on 65. and older population received or will be receiving

our baseline allocation and 200 additional. doses this week which comes out to 1175 doses

which has been consistent with the previous weeks. moving into the future is a big question mark

i feel confident that we'll continue to get a. similar amount but i don't know what that is so

stay tuned and hopefully we'll be able to continue. to push those vaccinations out the johnson johnson

vaccine is scheduled to be reviewed on february. 26th so the fda will be looking at that and i pray

a couple days later that gets approved and we can. start getting that vaccine out to the supply chain

so these are more providers that were added this. week so again it's good when we see providers

being added so once there's enough vaccine in the. marketplace these are other places where people

will be able to go to get their vaccinations. just this last week walgreens started here in the

county two two in burlington one in graham and one. in evan and their goal is to do a hundred a day at

all four locations so each week so that that's. good we've got more vaccine being distributed in

our community cohen is operating facility bmoc. sites they're doing about 200 per day right now

piedmont health services out of their facility. is giving about 500 doses a week and then monet

cohen has also had a mobile unit that they put. out in the community and doing anywhere from 50

to 100 shots with the mobile unit depending where. they go is that an analysis or another camera

that's an alamance yeah i wouldn't be surprised if. you didn't rockingham and greensboro as well yeah

so um looking forward so i continue to

do have a need for for medical personnel so. we're always in the market for volunteers or

anyone that has a medical licensure to come and. assist um we're fortunate the city of med ben is

starting to send their firefighters to us which is. great we've had some in and out from some national

guard troops but they do keep coming when. when one gets deployed out of the county we do

have been getting some replacements we actually. have a group coming from chatham county

um this thursday and friday too or excuse. me this tuesday and thursday to help out

nc baptist on a mission started assisting today. and then of course any other volunteers from the

community from our father our pharmacies our. medical practices retired rns anybody that we

can get we're happy to have come on site and. assist us in giving those vaccinations out

um so we're readying we're rating our first dose. operations at the eric lane site so this friday

will actually be the walkthrough and then. we'll start testing kind of our processes

there to make sure they run efficient this will be. with cone we're looking to partner with cone and

they'll be assisting us there they've. actually been picking up the costs on

some of the outfit there the internet the outfit. is with the furniture the tables and the chairs

uh the cleaning services security not only the. the cameras and the alarms that go into the

building but um traffic to help direct traffic. but also direct people inside the building so

they're actually going to pick up the cost for. those for those things i happen to stop by there

today it's like a bunch of ants walking around. running around that place a lot of good it's

hard to get it done yes sir don't you take your. tents down every day and put them back up every

day at sea so not not the tents the tents are a. temporary permanent structure per se but we break

everything down as far as the heaters the. generators all the equipment gets broken

down boxed up put in a trailer trash thrown away. i mean all the all the pieces to move that around

so that's done every day not only at sea tech but. at the stadium site so that's a whole lot of time

big big deal it's about it's about 45 minutes to. an hour to set up and then break down same amount

of time maybe after this is over they can have. like reality shows of health departments racing

on how to put up and take down sights like they. firemen do they climb all the stuff y'all can win

so again looking forward we're hoping. more providers will enroll with the state

to help us give the vaccine when. there's more into the marketplace

as i mentioned previously our partnership with. cohen again the mission there more shots in our

an efficient and integrated process with our. partners and strategic communication to reach out

to our store and to communication and reach. to our historically marginalized populations

next saturday we'll be supporting piedmont health. services and the general state baptist convention

at the stadium site they're going to put on an. event do anywhere from three to five hundred

vaccinations there so we're going to. be out there and supporting that effort

so the last thing i had to talk about was. the government governors and the secretary's

announcement last week about moving the state. moving to group three on february 24th for schools

and child care and then to essential workers. on march 10th so it was made clear that this

again is dependent on the supply that we receive. again demand is truly outpacing supply however

i was able to work with my team and we have. been able to come up with a tentative plan

right now of using our extra doses which equates. to about 350 to 450 doses per week to be able

to start vaccinating the schools and the child. cares after february 24th to start that process

to be determined on the schedule thus far. and then start working our way through

that group again this is all dependent. and assumes no additional vaccine or no

a constant vaccine in the marketplace it doesn't. assume an increase if we have an increased

rate we can just move people that much faster. through the process um it also doesn't assume

a new vaccine entering the marketplace. for the johnson johnson which i'm really

alluding to so anyways that plan is tentative. to to start that um cohort of that population

and that is all i have and i'm happy to answer. any questions as a state indicated to you that

they will increase the vaccine available to us. with the increased groupings that they're allowing

us to vaccinate so no no indication of that. it's it's been the only indication that we have

was really our baseline guarantee that we have. up to this week and after that's kind of the

we just don't know um i know and i'll. be honest i don't think the state

does quite yet either what their next month. allocation is because they move into march so

it sounds really hopeful it's getting better and. better data don't lie so well i personally want to

say that i was out at the site uh last monday. i have never seen any operation any smoother

you drive up station one everything's checked. nobody gets in that's not not already pre-screened

you go to station two station three everything. is just like clockwork uh and even down to the

how long you have to wait depending on which. vaccine um extremely well done and we want to

thank you thank you absolutely definitely. mr chairman good question how much yes sir

you mentioned that february 24th 300 vaccines. those are 300 that are dedicated to teachers and

child care workers correct that'll be our our. extra doses so those extra doses that we don't

aren't accounted for in the normal allocation will. there be a separate method for method for teachers

and child care workers to call in and establish. appointments for those separate vaccines yeah so

we'll do it very similar to how we did the the. healthcare worker so i have a team currently

working with abs the private schools um and the. child care workers and what they're doing now is

putting the list together not only lists with. their names but it has all their registration

information on there so they're gathering all. that information that'll give us an idea how

many we need to vaccinate um in the county so as. soon as we have that we'll have a list and we'll

and it will be very controlled and calculated as. we bring those folks in so no they will not be

um we're working through their employers they. won't have to call into the appointment line to

make an appointment mr chairman what is there like. 1400 teachers about 2 000 2 000 teachers so we we

estimate about 30 3 600 we'll get the. vaccine um there's about 3 500 in abs

um that's like cafeteria stuff oh yeah this is. this is not teachers this is all the staff in

the school 580 from the private schools and. 1062 from child care and so we're operating

off that number comes out about 5142 we're. estimating about 70 of that population will

probably get their their vaccination based on some. recent studies which was about 10 12 weeks but

calculated nine weeks all things being equal yeah. yeah for one dose for the first dose yeah yeah

johnson's johnson's calling for just one days is. that correct that is correct we had a an email

from a gentleman he's 74. he's starting to get a. little relaxing so i've been calling like i mean

he's called and called and called and just could. not get through and you could just start to hear

the inside and the fear come in there and i was. in my drug store southport drug um and he kent

was telling me that they're starting to do that. and i thought oh my gosh this is wonderful so i

gave him the number to them to get out and he goes. the first of march so he's going to get a shot

the more places it's so much better don't. put everything on the backs of you guys

i know that you and nit and the county manager. myself all of us have talked about scheduling

um and right now it's pretty much first. come first serve on the telephone calls

if you meet the grouping requirements is there. any way to allow people in advance um and

it is working on that now i'm saying. so that we can do it both on computer

or through the internet and on the phone. how is that going well it's going well

we had another meeting today we have a scheduled. meeting with forsyth county we we as i talked

last time we've gone into seeing if we could do. it in-house versus using an outside uh source

we honed in on acuity which is a software package. that we're looking at the guilford county enforcer

and so i got two teams half my gosh a third. of my staff is doing both at the same time

it's not about necessarily the um you know we're. still looking at the software package but also

in house it's also about when you deal 400 000. calls the same is true for websites and so every

part of that process has got to be vetted and. make sure it's fresh so we're doing we're doing

all that i think we can do something a scheduling. thing very soon it's all those other pieces just

like when um you get a phone call we had to make. sure we had the capacity to handle phone calls

so yeah so hopefully by the next week we're in. one basket so we can do this resource together

we're going as fast as we possibly can the. governor threw us a little curve with the 24

going yet another phase it's putting. in the mix but still not having enough

vaccines so we're going as fast as we. can but uh luckily the call center even

with 400 000 didn't go down and so it's been. working every time so and that was in one day

that was like the first monday i think isn't that. correct when it went to uh the new the 65 plus

50 times that's true 74. right so and what i would. also say is you know a lot of people call on that

first hour and maybe they give up and then toward. the end of the day it's a lot less folk so i'd

say try again later in the end of the day we'll. see the numbers every hour so and i'm seeing it

all around us the same kind of problems it's a. supply and demand situation we again we welcome

the different pharmacies and folks that are doing. it and we're very excited for the partnership with

cones hopefully that brings more vaccines that we. would give them out and a big shout out we're now

orange we're not red anymore yeah tony i got one. question what time is the walkthrough on friday

that's not a big deal you can get back. guys yeah try two or three but yeah

but we don't want a thousand. people out for the walking

thank you thank you

now let's try to go to elections thank you. commissioners i'm standing in for kathy

holland this evening for her budget amendment. uh you have in your packet request for a budget

amendment to the board of elections budget in. the dollar amount of 144 486 dollars these are uh

java grant funds uh that elections can. use for various technological improvements

there are no l uh no local matching funds are. required to accept these and we recommended the

commissioners amend the board of elections budget. by 144 486 dollars and you can see in your packet

the various uses that the board of elections can. make with these funds technological uses worker

training kathy is and her folks are gearing up. for the municipal elections this fall so they are

getting ready and i'm sure these funds will come. in handy you know it's very likely we may still be

social distancing and doing some of these things. that we went through in the november election so

we were pleased to see this come in and hopefully. she can put it to good use motion to approve

second any further discussion on favor. signify by saying aye aye for please

carries thank you so the second budget amendment. you have in your packets proposes to amend the

current uh fiscal year 2021 jail budget by one. million twelve thousand five hundred dollars this

is the estimated cost to manage the ice program. uh operated by the almost county sheriff's office

from february 1st until june 30th so this is. the dollar amount that we're estimating it

will cost for run the ice program from february. 1 to june 30th it's important to note that the

ice expenditures are completely offset by ice. revenue so this program while it is proposed

to spend a little over a million dollars will. bring in that same dollar amount to cover those

costs there are no county dollars in the ice. program so we estimate the total annual cost

the program is funded by the federal government. on an annual basis from february to february we're

estimating that from february of 2021 to february. of 2022 the ice program will cost two million four

hundred and sixty three thousand seven hundred and. fifty dollars and what we'll plan to do is as part

of the upcoming budget process uh for fiscal year. 2122 we will propose to add 1 million 451 250 to

the ice program offset by additional ice revenues. that will take this program for the entire year so

what's being proposed tonight is to amend. the jail's budget just to get the ice program

through june 30th then budget time the budget will. include the additional 1.4 million so this time

as the sheriff if he has anything to add or. wants to comment on this budget movement no

we just uh you know we're moving forward with the. program and i think we're very lucky with uh the

state of our nation to be able to get another year. contract with immigration and customer enforcement

every county doesn't have this program right. no man how many of these programs are in the

state of north carolina there's there's some age. we're the only 70 to over 72 hour holding facility

in north carolina so your transportation things. that's going to be folks coming from all over the

state to here and possibly then going somewhere. else that's correct we we will pick them up

bring them here get them here they'll either go. to atlanta or somewhere too and you go to atlanta

also we don't take them marshall i mean the uh ice. bus picks them up okay where now this means that

the funding that comes in from ice

is used for the ice detainees and the. ice detainees are people that have been

illegally entered the united states and have. again been convicted of a crime that's correct

not necessarily from alabama's county at all. no sir we we go far as uh uh derrick county

we've picked them up there county down on the. coast to the mountains uh uh raleigh charlotte

et cetera but uh these are people that are have. come illegally and have violated our laws uh and

being convicted so they're not just arrested. it's done as far as the case and conviction

stands okay sorry steve i think from some of. the emails we've seen there's some confusion

that this might be similar to the old 287 g. program but this time absolutely we do not go

out with ice and pick people up we transport. them after they've already been taken into

custody in other parts of the state processed. brought to our detention center most of them

don't stay here more than 24 to 48 hours and. then they're transported out and this money is

solely for this it doesn't branch out in. other areas like like food services and abs

that is federal you can't touch it in. no other part of the whole school system

so this is in its own entity as well that's. right it's pay for the ice program here okay

any other questions oh maybe we approve it. second thank you any other discussion well

in favor signify saying hi any oppose passes. unanimously thank you sheriff thank you

is mr carter the only other speaker. yes bruce do you see anybody

mr carter i have one question um before i come. up to today am i allowed to give you anything

for you to look at while i'm speaking

i don't know of any prohibition. mr albright that's up to the board

want to go this way you want. to go that way i'll be fine

do you have enough for thomas uh. he can have them after it's done

um at the last opportunity i had to speak. um i made a i refer to it as hyperbole

i compared um what was happening in the. united states to the situation in germany

when germany lost the war they made sure that. there was no demonstration of of victory um or

they did not promote the third right at all they. made sure that there were no statues erected and

i believe that that that has uh has merit as it. relates to when we're looking at the united states

the south lost the war and i i can't see why we. continue to put up the statues so i'll look at it

i'll continue with my with my discussion. reasonable people can agree that what

actually should be done with the statutes in the. united states is the same thing that germany did

they did not allow statues to be erected in. germany to to support or up uplift the third right

and the in the correct confederate statues sit. in that same category as far as i'm concerned

and a lot of people in the united. states believe the same thing

in the meantime you that sit on the dais use. 100.2 or 2.1 as a reason not to take that down

and that's similar whatever you want to call it. similar uh what do they call it seminar prominence

this is a different way to look at seminar similar. prominence a tall statue in front of a courthouse

is not necessarily similar prominence you can have. a statue in a church and it is similar prominence

i look at it as another instance where we put our. our foot on a neck of people like last week when i

when i left here someone said why are you. upset why don't you just not look at the statue

why don't you just not look at it don't. see it this is what i see and what i see

is this statue right here but there's. some people in the county who see this

they see that they see that. when they look at the statue

when they look at the statue they also see that. they see that instead of a person standing on

on a pedestal they also see that instead. of someone standing on a pedestal

that's something we ought to consider. not everybody sees it as a statue

and lastly most recently they see this a lot. of americans see that instead of the statue

that's the problem with what we're while we're. faced with what we have in the united states today

i have no disrespect for the deus i look at

the forgotten cause as something. that we need to put in our history

and um i'm done i let my three minutes get. away from me again thank you thank you mr silla

but i think i made my point thank you master okay. i understand there are no other speakers is that

correct that is correct thank you are there. any uh commissioner responses there being no

county manager uh just a quick quick report. you do have in your packet a physical report

just to hit the highlights of this information. that includes county information school system

and the community college but i wanted to point. out a few things particularly on the revenue front

our property tax revenues are coming in about 2.3. million dollars higher than fiscal year 1920 which

is great news we budgeted for a 2.4 million dollar. increase so we we feel like we've projected pretty

well uh but the the revenues are coming in from. property taxes as we expected sales tax revenue

uh we've received through november uh the november. sales are in so that is accounted to us in

february so february of uh 2020 versus february. of 21. we've seen a 9.1 percent increase which

is fantastic uh fiscal year 1920 versus fiscal. year 2021 both fiscal years through february

uh fiscal year 2021 we've seen an 11.7 percent. increase again fantastic news and the covid months

uh which we're considered to be march of 2020. through uh november of 2020 because these

sales tax receipts came from november versus. march of 19 through november of 19 is a 6.62

increase in sales tax revenue all of. this is good news much better than our

20 decrease that we projected what happened to. sales tax revenue so at this point sales tax

revenue is coming in very strong and that. is excellent we're watching other revenues

particularly our ems revenue revenues from library. and parks due to their being closed and several

of their programs stopped we're watching our. detention revenues as well as dss and we're also

watching our investment revenues to keep. an eye on those to see how they're going to

come in for the fiscal year something i would. put in the commissioner's minds to consider

that there were several things that we did not. fund this year additional things that we did

not fund that we may want to start thinking about. as sales tax revenue continues to come in strong

this includes parks and library operations we. are coming up on uh youth baseball season we

did not fund the youth baseball program uh well. we'll need to be talking about whether or not

we want to try to budget some of this additional. sales tax revenue that's coming in above budget

for that program maybe even at our next meeting i. understand from brian baker that they're going to

need to make a decision fairly soon about whether. or not to offer youth baseball in the spring

i think they feel like they could offer it but we. didn't budget for it so we may need to talk about

that also as we continue into the fiscal year. if we keep seeing these sales tax revenues come

in this strong versus what we thought was going to. happen we may want to give some thought to putting

funds back in our own capital improvement plan we. usually budget 250 000 a year to make repairs to

county buildings we did not do that in this. fiscal year as part of the budget reduction

something to think about as well as our capital. equipment we didn't fund our capital equipment

program for this fiscal year where we usually buy. our surf cars ambulances those kinds of vehicles

my thought would be if we keep seeing these. strong sales tax revenues come in if we think we

can afford to buy some of that equipment now that. might help us in the next budget year right try to

keep us from being two years behind and and we may. want to consider uh putting some money back into

farmland preservation if you recall commissioners. i think we had normally budgeted 150 000 for that

program i believe we took it to 75 000 so very. successful they make great use of that money if

the money's coming in as strong as it seems to be. those are things we may want to consider budgeting

some of this additional sales tax revenue to cover. i would suggest that with the exception of the

athletic program for the parks department we might. be looking at april may time frame if we keep

seeing the strong dollars come in uh you may see. me come to you with some suggestions about what we

could bring back out of those those categories i. do think you may hear from the next meeting about

the parks um youth baseball programs well just for. context too i'll say that what happened last year

when we got a lot of pushback from a lot of. citizens about the youth programs being cut in

the budget when in fact the governor had actually. cut had had blocked the implementation of the

program so that made it logical for us to take it. out of the budget because he wasn't going to allow

the programs to be implemented so if if he's. going to allow it then i think definitely we

need to consider putting that back in for this. for the balance of this year so we can allow

the kids to get out of the house yeah i'd also. like say i was on that recreation and parks board

since 2013 or 2014 continuously i take myself. off because of the duties with the chair but

miss thompson i think you're on that board now. but that needs to be implemented as quickly as

possible because they've got to start their teams. and preparing training all kinds of things have

to happen and we can't wait well it's two weeks. to our next meeting i would really encourage us

as a board to go ahead and implement that. as as quickly as possible uh mr baker the

parks director has indicated to me if he had some. idea of the march 1st meeting i think that would

give them enough time they're working on what that. program would look like they did not if i remember

correctly we did not offer you football i think. we offered a scaled-down version of the basketball

program a pod pipe program social distance in the. works i think they're trying to figure out what

would be the most appropriate form of baseball. and softball to bring back an offer for the kids

so i i think from my my take from mr baker would. be if at the march first meeting i'll have some

dollar figures from him that i can bring to you. that i would uh propose if we still see these good

uh sales tax revenue coming in to cover those. costs with the sales tax revenue that has come

the other the other items while very important. uh we may want to wait until april just to make

sure this trend i mean i feel certain that we. are trending very well in sales tax my hope had

been to have six to seven months of good sales. tax data under our belts before we bring any of

these type things back but i feel like these. are ones that very important to our community

uh farmland preservation is one of the pillars. of our strategic plan and and we're we're it

in alamance county that is working actively to. preserve farmland so it'd be very nice to bring

bring some of these uh items back but again i. think you'll you'll hear from me next meeting

about the um baseball softball program and then. probably an april may time frame on these others

and i just wanted to bring you up to. speed on how we're doing financially

thank you mr chair thank you mr real quick. question yes sir mr mr how are we doing on

uh property tax realizations so uh we've we've. brought in i think i said uh maybe 2.3 million

above where we were last year which is good news. what we've seen in the past is our base has grown

approximately three percent so as you know the tax. rate stayed the same in 2021 so we're bringing in

additional revenue but we budgeted for that. i'll make sure everybody understands that was

that was planned we thought that would probably. happen we budgeted for it so we're very close to

hitting the dollar amount that we thought we would. hit with property tax but if you break it down to

percentages of folks who have paid and folks. who are late do you know if if we're behind in

that metric van i don't know i can uh certainly. get with jeremy and and share that information

with you um after this meeting i'd be happy to. but i'm i don't know top my head how things are

going uh and i don't know if jeremy's here i know. he usually attends but not yes i'm just wondering

if the if the tide is lifting because there's more. folks you know to pay property tax or if you know

if enough if the same amount of people are are. still same percentage of people are still susan

or andrea i don't know if y'all had discussions. with jeremy recently about this and give him

[ __ ] any light i'm i will certainly reach. out to him and i know if he was here he could

comment on it but uh i don't know if anyone's. had any conversation with jeremy that mike uh

we've been talking to jeremy just in planning. for next year and um he actually gave a report

to the board on the fall talking about how people. seem to be paying on time i think he's got some

updated information that he'd be able to share. i'll i'll query him and share that with you um

after this meeting tonight one other thing i'd. like to just inquire about possibly or maybe

just for us as a group to think about when i was. on the board in 2014 we gave a and i forgotten

the percentage maybe a two percent discount. for early pay by on or before august 1st um

i'm not sure that wouldn't be a good thing to at. least look at again i'd want to know the numbers

before before or against such a proposition but. the earlier we bring in money we can invest it

the taxpayers would receive a benefit from paying. early and if it's even a wash it looks like that

might be a good idea well we have the land. of the hour your ears must have been burning

so you were talking about percentages just. come to the podium if you would please sir sure

thank you thank you i wasn't sure if. i could approach um it's very similar

uh we were actually slightly ahead going into. december i think we might be just a tiny bit off

uh right now but i mean neck in that close uh. but really we've been leading by two percent

most of the the months up until uh right now in. february and we're pretty much neck and neck so

thank yeah very much and chris. atkins additionally if if you could

kind of give us some numbers before we. get into budget uh the budget period in

april on what a discount early for early pay. might save or cost us absolutely thank you

mr chairman i have a few questions yes. sir if you don't mind yes mr haygood

um i'm looking at the property taxes. here at the very top of this spreadsheet

the actual number i just want to make. sure that i'm looking at the numbers

properly you are giving us numbers here that. pretty much give us an indication of how

the county is doing over seven months of the. 12-month budget correct yes okay how often i'm

seeing here that we're 8.4 million dollars under. budget for our property taxes that we've collected

i'm looking at a number on the right hand. side that says 131 2020 of 89 million 332 000

so you are i do agree with you that you do are. getting more tax revenues than you did last year

right underneath it is a sales. tax number um year-to-date

it's 13 to 15.39 so that's. about 1.9 million like you said

how often do we get tax revenues past january. 1st for property taxes i mean are people paying

currently now that happens daily uh weekly. i think our uh well i'll decision if you

can i guess my question uh brian is excuse. me mr hager is um i guess my question is do

you normally i know you said did you plan. for the uh the the three percent increase

uh do you normally get to this. time of year and you have um

roughly nine percent uncollected you know when. you get the bus into february is that normal

yes how often does does that um i'm looking at. your percentage of the budget and uh you know just

i'm just doing basic math 7 divided by 12 is 58. so everything under 58 would be underwater correct

i think it some of this would depend on the. timing too some of these revenues are timed

differently but yes can you explain to me. what restricted inter-government revenue is

or for the for the public because there's a large. number here i'm just trying to figure out how we

get to that yes we have a definition in here. that most of that if i'm not mistaken is dss

and health department specific some of the. revenues are reimbursement so in the unrestricted

intergovernmental or the restricted government. those are um a lot of those can be reimbursement

related medicaid reimbursements or things. like that some of them can be one time a year

settlements we have cost settlements that happen. in those categories and so when we're comparing

year to year on our revenue categories it helps. to have some more detail on that of that breakdown

if you're interested in that we can provide. yeah i'll just be curious to see how that um

those numbers come in because um you know i can. understand the sales tax number up top it's right

at the number um but the 15.2 million dollars that. you're under budget for the restricted internet

government i was just curious as is it just one. of those things where things are just delayed and

payments come in later down the road and i guess. my next question is to be uh as we all know in

accounting everything doesn't come to zero unless. you square it out uh do you at the end of the year

you have your intergovernment uh restricted. unrestricted intergovernment stuff does it

like if you get to june 30th then. you still have stuff that hasn't been

been taken care of do you uh write that off or. do you look to bring that in until the next year

i'm just curious how this number. is going to come back to us

so the restricted intergovernmental is also based. on what dss and the health department spend to so

i think you know in general we usually have a lot. of lap salaries in those two departments because

they have they have some difficulty hiring a lot. of turnover so if they don't spend it we won't get

the reimbursement so that'll have some effect. um but yes the the timing has a lot to do with

when we'll receive this 15 points i'll just keep. a lot keep an eye on it just take a look on it and

your staff at some point sure thank you

reward any other comments is this. like we're done and we make a comment

i'm sure are we making comments for our own. or are we making a comment on billy's comment

because i'm not touching it it's so over my. head we had just moved on to commissioner's

okay i just want to play by the rules uh well. i have a quick one and um and you know i just

i have a real special i just can't let go of. our seniors that are passing away in rest homes

and i mean i and i purposely did not do this right. after our health department did because i didn't

want this to attach to anything that they've done. because this is just an issue that that is just it

gets all over me um just to share something with. you because i'm going to see the same principle

this and i'll be really quick i know some of us. want to leave but back in 2009 there was a place

in carthage and it was pine lake nursing center. and um a lady worked there she worked in the

dementia part of the clinic and she had separated. from her husband bad domestic violence case

and he came to that center looking for her and he. bought a double barrel shotgun and he was after

her in every kind of way well she locked herself. in the dementia aspect because it was a lockdown

but this guy went from room to room looking for. her and in each room he um he killed a jerry avant

which was a 39 year old former coast guard he was. a nurse there he killed a miss declare who was 98

i missed done who was 86 miss garner who was 75. and miss golson who was 78 and miss hedrick who

was 78. uh miss johnson was 89 miss musser who. was 88 and they were in their beds or they were

in a wheelchair out in the hall and each time he. shot them he was shooting his wife because he was

he had just lost it and the call goes out because. there's somebody visiting their parent and they're

in another place locked down with the door shut. hiding in a closet that called law enforcement

and a very young 19 year old justin garner was. hunting and he hadn't been on the police less

than a year and he went headstrong and he went in. that facility and he was told he got there before

anybody did he's coming toward the front of the. building because he just could not find his wife

and he come out after just shooting one of. these patients in their bed and this boy he

got shot in his foot by this guy i'm not even. going to mention his name he was convicted he

was given the death penalty and he's no longer. with us and justin shot him and he hit the floor

and 19 years old and was hunting and came in. there and see this is so tragic because all these

folks were in their beds in their wheelchairs just. just living there whatever life they had and they

didn't ask for none of this and and i looked. and i said i was talked to tony today and 23

out of the 45 deaths since january 1 have. been from rest homes and and i look at our

numbers because last time 213 they were. like 200 before that now they're 228. um

i just think this is as unacceptable as it gets. we um i see everybody i was out at walmart the

other day and everybody their mother was there. everybody's all over the place it looks like

they're having a big sale who did i tell today was. it um i know who it was i said why don't we make a

motion to close walmart then we'll really see how. serious people are about being smart with covet

and and i hear about all these deaths of all these. people they just come and us and i've you know

y'all know i have their deaths gonna see all these. lists of all these diseases that they have and

then kobe just comes in and clobbers them and just. like the folks in our rest home facilities right

now where we've got eight cases i think he's eight. places they're there they don't bring covet into

themselves it walks in the door and and there's. no blame it's just the sickest thing i've ever

seen in my life you know there was a blame for. this guy who went in and shot all these people

i had the chief um mckenzie he come with justin. and they spoke at my men for change event that

year when i was at family abuse services and and. what they told me what they saw the aftermath

of like that was worse than any war they've. ever been in and this is a war covet is like

a war to me because we keep losing these folks. these folks are the ones who have paved the way

their ages they've been in wars we don't even. know what wars are and they pave the way for

our freedoms they've paved the way for me to. take my bible to starbucks and read it in public

not like china where you have to hide in some cave. of fear losing your life getting caught we're so

blessed in this country for the freedoms we have. but we've got to do better by this population

because they're sitting ducks for this and i don't. know what we've got to do and i'm so thankful

those three directors came here i saw their. heartbreakingness broadbrokenness and what they're

saying because they take it really personal. but we're not stopping it it's not changing

and so as much as i want children back in school i. want them safe they're our future and we hear all

this data and all this thing and i'm going to work. as hard as i can i wanted them back last year but

the whole time we keep talking about everything. getting our vaccines and all this everything these

folks are still dying every day in these rest. home centers and it's just unacceptable and um

that's somebody's parents thank god for. janice dean who does the weather for fox news

who stayed on cuomo because of the things we. found out now over 50 of the deaths and rest homes

were not even reported and that's that's that's. prosecutable to me that's all i'm going to say

but um we got to figure out something better here. if we have to get a naval hospital and park it in

the hall river to put these people on it to keep. them safe it is worth that 24 million fund balance

if we have to park it here because i am serious. about this because this cannot be just the news

it cannot be another set of numbers because we're. getting numb to it because this is parkland high

school's weekend where they had the shooting down. in florida it was horrible it's horrible but these

people are just as important they are the parkland. students they used to be students just like we

were so i don't know what we have to do we have. to look at this somehow whatever we've got to do

but we have got to go to war for these. people because this is a mom and a dad an

aunt and uncle this is our families that are. just writing them off and putting in the data

and i'm sorry that is not going to work not. now mince county we are better than that and so

we got to come up with a plan whatever that is. and we got to come up with a quick we talk about

baseball for young people you dagger right because. they need it these folks need their future because

they're living there and they're paying big bucks. to live there too so um that's all my comment

i just want to say thanks again to the. health department after that remark

you're doing a super super job and with. the limited resources you have you're

really helping the scouting thank you john. i got my comment yes sir i just want to um

i just want to make sure that we uh at the next. meeting march first we're going to talk about um

zoning for snow camp well only thing i. would really like to ask the public to do

is i would really like to have everyone. who's concerned about snow cap for or against

i want to hear both sides yep i want to hear from. the people because i can see this thing from both

sides and i've had lots of emails from folks so. i can understand why they don't want it and i

understand why they do want it and i would really. like to bring this all out and let everyone in

the public hear this is extremely important for. our county whether we want to admit it or not

zoning it's here for us we're going to have. to take a step here and do something because

if we don't decide how our county looks. someone's going to decide for us and i

really like for our citizens to decide this. and not someone else who's not from here

good point thank you well i want to also point out. our next meeting is a public hearing and it's on

that issue so and everybody out in the audience. we get this packet and this is a small packet

the agenda is printed every or published every. thursday prior to our meetings every thursday

so we're up here looking at documents. and considering numbers and so forth

we as board members have all seen them we. studied those numbers we've looked at the

packet but guess what everybody out in the in the. county is available to you as well all you've got

to do is just go on your computer and look at. that agenda not just the agenda but the agenda

packet and it's in pdf form it's in digital form. it's in multiple forms if you don't look at it

there's not much more we can do to. try to educate you as the public

any other comments before. we go into our other session

i'd like to move at this point that we go into. closed session pursuant to north carolina general

statute section 143-318-11 friend a friend. six to consider a personal matter second

in discussion all in favor signify by. saying hi um all opposed motion carry

we're in executive session for our excuse me. clue session we hope for a short period of time

we're back in session

we discussed a personnel matter in the clue. session do you have any further motions

motion to adjourn second any discussion they're. being done all in favor signify by saying

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