But we'll go ahead and get started.

It's 11.06 now.

Thank you all for being here.

We got I think all but one member today, which is great, especially having a new member joining us today.

We'll do our typical roll call as always, but when I ask your name, just go ahead and you know speak up, but also give your your um place of employment, maybe what you do in the area to give more context to um to your role.

Um Ruby, thanks for joining us.

I think Sarah sent you some information about the program.

Um but essentially we are wide variety of of board members who help uh approve funding for people in the Orange County area who need assistance with court fees, um, possible DMV fees.

If you have any questions you want to talk afterwards, I'm always happy to meet.

Um, but it's pretty like low stakes kind of board meeting.

We meet once a month, and our funding is from the towns, Chapel Hill, Carlborough, and um possibly soon from the county.

I think most of you may not know since we had a couple of uh missed meetings last couple months is that we're moving forward with trying to ask the county for um additional funding since we did lose our bail bond um funding.

The county manager has expressed his um kind of sick consent and agreeableness to this.

So um with our budget request from CJRD, we're actually going to include that and have no reason to believe it's gonna be denied by the county commissioners, but that will supplement the additional funding that we lost from um the bail bomb project.

Um I myself, I'm Mitchell Lucas.

I work for the criminal justice resource department.

I help people with driver's license restorations and expunctions.

Um also chair this board, but it's a very collaborative and um holistic board, it's not just myself kind of doing it to all all hands in here.

Um next we'll have Donna.

Hi, I'm Donna Carrington.

I'm the executive director of community empowerment fund.

Um I'm also the current board chair to the Orange County Partnership in homelessness and the board chair for IFC.

Crystal is absent today, so we'll go with Mark.

Hi, I'm Mark Klein Schmidt.

I'm the clerk of Superior Court here in Orange County, where much of the money um is both generated and um comes back to when this board makes decisions.

Tiffany.

Hi, I'm Tiffany Bullard.

I'm the Orange County Local Reentry Council case manager.

I help um clients connect to um county resources who are um coming home from prison.

Danielle.

I'm Danielle DiCaprio, homeless programs manager for the Orange County Partnership and Homelessness, and we provide some emergency um services and stability services like rapid rehousing and street outreach for those who are experiencing homelessness.

Ty.

Uh I'm Ty Hunter.

Um I'm a retired lawyer, happily currently happily unemployed.

And uh I'm here on behalf of the uh local NAACP.

Ruby Hi everyone, my name is Ruby Morales.

I'm uh uh education and training subdirector.

That's a new position at El Centre Hispano.

We have a new instructor recently.

So my uh position oversees all the um educational programs that we have up El Centro.

I'm uh long time uh Chapel Hill resident and being living in the area for like more than 24 years.

Um I'm so excited to be here in the morale on my tongue.

Glad to have you, thank you.

April.

April, are you there?

Yes.

Um April Barber Freedom House October Center, peer support specialist.

And last but not least, Amber.

Hi, I'm Amber Keith Browns.

I'm the victim services coordinator for the sheriff's office.

All right, thank you all.

Um so yeah, as you as you can see, it's a wide variety of backgrounds and people on this call, which helps out with um reviewing applications that we have um each month.

I'm gonna go ahead and start off by sharing my screen.

We're gonna get into our formalities that we do each month.

So we'll start off with is obviously this is our agenda that's been circulated beforehand, I think by Lauren.

Um it's in your inboxes, but I'll go ahead and move to approve the agenda as shown.

So second by Donna, and we'll vote with uh Mark.

Yes.

Tiffany?

Yes.

Danielle?

Yes.

Ty.

Yes.

Ruby.

And she's just voting about uh agreeing to of the motion to uh approve the agenda as shown.

Okay.

But if you have any questions along the way, just let me know.

Thank you.

April?

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

Um next we're gonna get into meeting minutes, and because we haven't um met in a few months, we actually got I think three to to handle.

I'm actually making notes for myself here.

Um think we have Savannah on this meeting today.

I'm gonna try and keep notes best as I can for the meeting minutes after the fact.

Um we'll start off with October's meeting minutes.

It looks like April, Donna, Amber, Crystal, Mark Tiffany, Danielle, Mitch, and Ty.

So everyone's on that call that day.

Um go ahead and I'll vote to approve the meeting minutes as shown.

Second by tie.

Second by tie.

And we'll vote with um Donna.

Yes.

Mark.

Yeah.

Tiffany.

Yes.

Danielle.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

So approved.

And Ruby, the reason I didn't I didn't um ask you there is that since you were not present that day, you can't test to anything that happened back in October or the subsequent months we're gonna have here.

Okay, yeah, I'm just done.

Moving on to November's minutes.

Um that day was um Donna, Crystal, Mark, Danielle, and myself.

And as shown here, um, we did not meet, you do not have any quorum.

So we canceled that meeting.

We'll go ahead and move.

I'll move to approve the meeting minutes as shown.

Only those present can vote.

Oh second.

Donna.

Second, second by Donna and voting with Mark.

Yeah.

And Danielle.

Yes.

And last but not least, um, December's meeting minutes.

Here um present that day was Donna, Danielle, April, and Amber.

If one of you all will handle this.

Um, second Donna will motion.

Donna motions, seconded by um April.

Thank you.

Leaving voting to Danielle.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So meeting minutes have been um approved for the previous three months.

Um, next I'll turn it over to Lauren.

She's gonna fill in today for Sarah and help us with the applicants.

I think we have six holdovers near the previous months, and we have three new ones.

Okay, so good morning, everybody for today's.

Yes, we do have six continued or carryover applications and three new.

And everybody can see my screen.

Yes.

Okay.

So the first carryover applicant is Leonora Caraway.

She resides in Chapel Hill's jurisdiction.

She's not received program assistance in the past three years, has not been convicted of any violent felonies in the past five, is not currently incarcerated.

She does not owe any um court costs, fees.

No, um, she has a 180 dollar DMV fee and is eligible for reinstatement.

She does not need an alcohol assessment.

She's demonstrated that she's on the road to stability, has already pursued other avenues for debt relief, and has demonstrated that assistance will have an immediate impact on her stability.

Um reinter into the community.

So a little bit about the applicant.

She's a 51-year-old white female residing in Chapel Hill at the Oxford House and is over five years sober.

She's employed part-time as a crisis worker with Freedom House, has medical debt.

Getting her driver's license reinstated would allow her to obtain a car and to find a better paying job.

And she is trying to move forward in her recovery journal and is struggling financially, is facing barriers to clothing, transportation, and mental health.

Great.

Thank you, Lauren.

And last thing I just forgot to talk about the current funding balances.

So we all have aware of that.

Moving into today's applicants.

It looks like from the spreadsheet I've circulated.

We have about 10,500 in Chapel Hill.

I think 6,000 in Carborough and then 6100 in the county pot.

Ms.

Caraway, I think it's someone that I actually worked with previously.

I think Tiffany, you may have as well.

It looks like she just applying for her reinstatement fee.

And I um I think there's no suspension in her record.

Tiffany, any any current news from her?

No, not any current news because she's um she's not on the caseload anymore, but um, when we discharged her, it was a positive discharge just because she's been making really great strides.

Um employed, um, she's a house manager at Oxford House, um, five years in sobriety, and she just she's just doing really well.

Great, glad to hear it.

Um Lauren, can you remind me which pot this would be pulling out of?

This would be coming from Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill.

Umless any further discussion, Miss Caraway.

I think it's maybe a clear-cut case here.

Um, I'm gonna move to approve the funding requested of that DMV range statement fee so she can get her driver's license back.

One second.

I'm seconded by Tiffany.

And Ruby, I'm sorry if I get ahead of myself.

Um, what these applications are doing, or um, Lauren and her team over at the Chapel Hill Police Crisis Unit, um, as you may already know from Sarah, they review applications that are made and the funding that was requested.

So for Miss Caraway, um, it is to help her get her driver's license back.

Do we lose Ruby?

On the call, so we're gonna move forward um without her in the time being.

But the rest of you know how this all works.

So we'll move on to voting.

Um, I motioned for approval.

Tiffany has seconded.

We'll vote on that with Donna.

Yes.

Mark.

Absolutely.

Danielle.

Yes.

Ty.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So approved.

The next application is Caitlin Ramsey.

She resides in Chapel Hill's jurisdiction.

She's not received program assistance in the past three years or been convicted of any violent felonies in the past five, not currently incarcerated.

She does owe close to $14,000 in court cost and fees for the various cases listed.

She does not owe fees to the DMV, does not need an alcoholic.

Oh, sorry.

Okay, can you see my screen now?

There we go.

Okay.

Um, so these are the court cost and fees totaling close to $14,000.

She has shown that she's on the roads to disability.

She has not pursued other avenues for debt relief, has demonstrated that assistance will have an immediate impact on her reentry into the community.

She's a 31-year-old white female.

She's residing in Chapel Hill.

At the time of the application, she was enrolled in the UNC Horizons program.

After completing the program, she'll be doing a step-down program, was able to begin working in October and is employed part-time at a fast food restaurant chain.

She is receiving a few benefits, such as food stamps, WIC, and temporary assistance for needy families.

She's the single mother to one dependent.

She does have significant credit card and consumer debt.

The applicant stated that she's trying to change and is working hard on bettering herself, and the old her got caught up in cost that the new her is unable to pay.

So funding would help to relieve stress from her and her family overall.

She is currently on probation parole and she's facing barriers to clothing transportation and domestic violence.

And she does have one um uh 40 a month supervation fees until um next month.

Great, thank you.

Um I met with Sarah and Lauren last week when we were due to applications.

Obviously, this individual has a a lot um being requested here, more than we could even consider approving given our Chapel Hill Pot is um less than the current the balance listed on this sheet here.

Some ideas that we had tossed around, which happy to discuss more with you all is possibly prioritizing her probation case to help make sure she can terminate successfully next month after she finishes that would be her 2024 Brunswick County simple assault conviction.

Um still over a thousand dollars alone on that one, and then also um she had 2025 new Hanover case.

Um top of the list on there, about 323.

Lauram, I can't remember why I don't I noted that one of prioritizing.

Do you recall if many notes?

I do not see that.

I mean, it's okay.

The rationale for us discussing that, but notwithstanding, anyone on the board have any um connection to Ms.

Ramsey.

I don't, but how um can we not give her paperwork to weigh those fees to apply to have those fees weighed?

Yeah, I mean it's it's always an option.

Um it's more so just the requirement of her traveling to these jurisdictions to to do so.

Uh no, like um uh through indigent defense service, kind of put something together and submit it to them so they might be able to do it.

You're saying IDS does that for her for them.

Um when I got out, I owe a lot of money for um the fees that accrued from the attorney, and they did something for me, uh even though my every circumcircumstance is separate, um, to waive the the fees, and um, so I was able to do that, and I wonder because hers are so excessive.

I feel like they have probably approved interest over time.

So that might be an option for her as well.

You know, and yeah, I mean if you have any knowledge resources to share about that, I'm happy to hear more about it.

I'm not quite sure how that would work though, or who to contact.

Um if you have any information, be happy to help share that.

Mark, were you trying to speak?

I was just gonna say I I looked up the biggest one, the one from Pender County that's a decade old.

And the bulk of that five thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars, specifically 4400, 4,090 of it is just probation supervision fees.

Um I mean, I don't know how to get rid of them, but I think that's just because it just they never got it just kept you know, gets getting bigger and bigger.

It's not like it's restitution, it's not like it's even attorney fees.

Um look at that case as well.

I didn't look at that case when we had spoke last week.

Um those fees look erroneous to you by chance because $4400 for probation fees is 11 years.

No, almost 10 years.

I asked because this is a case that was pre-equourts, and there's been a common occurrence with when those cases get added into the new system.

Probation fees keep accruing erroneously until they get mainly changed.

Well, I was just wondering if you're with your experience on maybe with probation fees, is that something that if she was given if we could give her some direction that maybe she could go get something like that reduced?

I don't know.

Um, looking at that case, um she don't probation for 18 months, but got charged probation fees for about nine and a half, 10 years.

Yikes.

Mark, do you know if Pender County was added onto e-courts earlier this year or early early last year?

They were track seven.

So we were four.

So they were like last February.

So actually, I think that's an erroneous fee.

I'm gonna make a note for myself and I'll actually just call the clerk out there.

I think those those fees alone, I think, are in error.

Well, well, that would help a lot if we just chop that one down to size.

What about the felony uh possession of heroin in New Hanover in 18?

Is a lot of that lawyer's phase?

Well, um a thousand dollars of it is jail fees.

Um the attorney fees associated with that's just uh 120 bucks.

Oh but there is a civil judgment of twelve hundred um I can't click through to see why that's a little bit of restitution in there.

See um jail fees are also something we've had success, haven't we in getting those reduced?

Yeah.

And Mitch, what's involved in doing that?

Someone needs to go down with her to uh whatever county it is and make a pitch to a judge.

Is that what happens?

Correct.

So most jurisdictions they require it to be filed and then an in-person hearing.

Um like Wake is the only jurisdiction I know of that does not require a hearing on these things, but most require you to be in person at some point to talk to the judge um to have your motion heard.

Now, the unfortunate thing is that many jurisdictions I've dealt with, or I have clients I've dealt with, is that rather than remitting the fees that they're requesting, they just make them into a civil judgment thinking they're gonna give them benefit by taking it off the criminal side, but I mean, still it is now accruing interest at a higher rate than otherwise would not have April.

Do you recall who you previously worked with at IDS to help with this matter?

I would reach that the ED, uh Mary uh Bulllock.

Mary Bullock.

Yeah, I think that's her name.

Mary Pollard.

Collard.

Damn, well, yeah, pollard.

I think they work to give relief on attorney fees.

Um, I used to be able to do that, and they took it away and gave it to IDS.

Well, almost half of that new Hanover case is a civil judgment over court costs.

Mm-hmm.

Um, see, my understanding is once the it goes to a civil judgment, it can't be taken back out.

I know school government or it was the Duke's Laws Wilson Center made a report about this where if the judge is considering waiving them or making it a civil judgment, it's just better to waive them because the civil judgment can't be undone.

All right.

But there's still hope for these um for the jail fees and for the uh probation stuff, and this is gonna be significant.

So I I'll definitely, aside from today's meeting, I'll contact the Pender County clerk about that five thousand seven hundred dollar amount because it seems to be erroneous by a large chunk.

Um the rest of these, though, obviously it's still gonna be a little it's insurmountable for us to all to consider approving.

Um have any thoughts about about this instance?

Um, I know I mentioned a couple recommendations that I met with Sarah and Lauren about last week when we discussed, but anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

Let me just double check the 25 New Hanover case and maybe figure out why I made note for myself of also prioritizing that one.

I'll put you to the recency of it, or if there is anything else that was a factor.

Oh, it's because she's also in probation for for that case as well.

They just looped in the new Hanover 2025 case with her Brunswick County 2024 case to be on probation for both concurrently.

Fortunately, they waived the probation fees in the New Hanover case since she's already paying it on the Brunswick instance.

And I think you said, Mitch, that she could get off of probation if we uh if she got these fees paid, is that right?

Or that's the hope.

So it looks like she's on probation for 12 months, and that's supposed to terminate, I think end of next next month, February.

Um, I mean, if we were if we were to consider approving the two cases that I've been speaking most about.

It's about 1,435 and plus maybe a bit more if there's a civil judgment um attached to that.

So that's about $1,400.

We'll just say $15 kind of conservatively.

Um, of the $10,500 in the Chapel Hill pot should be pulling from to leave about $9,000 total in that pot.

Um, which I personally think is maybe a good place to start, um, given that we still have to get six months through with our current funding balances.

Any thoughts on that?

I think it's a step in the right direction, but you know, the biggest thing would be that 10-year-old Pender County.

Yeah, I agree.

I I'm still gonna make a note for myself this week to call their them and get that corrected.

Um, at least get that drop down to whatever the correct amount would be, and then um Lawrence, you're always welcome to give people my information and talk about those requests for relief motions, and I can always explain that to them, and then April.

I'll I'm gonna look into Mary Pollard and IDS and see what resource they resources they have available for people across the state dealing with these kinds of fees and other jurisdictions.

I think they have a hearing process.

Okay.

Well, then I'll go ahead and just make a motion.

Um, and I'm gonna move to approve funding for the 2025 New Hanover case and the amount of 323 and a 2024 Brunswick County case and the amount of 1,112.19 cents plus any additional fees if it's a civil judgment that may accrue for the full balance has been paid.

Um so approximate total balance is $1,435 is my motion.

Uh second by tie.

All right, let me make a note of this before I forget it, and I'll go into voting.

And we'll vote on that motion begin with Donna.

Yes.

Mark?

Yeah.

Tiffany?

Yes.

Danielle?

Yes.

I don't believe Ruby.

Yeah, Ruby's off the call still.

Uh moving to April.

Yes.

And then Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So that's that motion's been approved.

The next applicant is April Newsom.

She resides in Chapel Hill's jurisdiction.

She's not received program assistance in the past three years or been convicted of a violent felony in the past five.

She's not currently incarcerated.

She owes about um $3,000 in court cost and fees out of Randolph and Davidson counties.

Does not owe fees to the DMV, does not need an alcohol assessment.

She's demonstrated that she's on the road to stability, has not tried other avenues for debt relief, and has demonstrated that assistance will have an immediate impact on her re-entry into the community.

She's a 24-year-old white female residing in Chapel Hill, had been attending the UNC Horizons program for eight months and was close to graduating at the time of her application submission.

Employee part-time at a fast food restaurant, receiving food stamp benefits, single mother of one dependent, and after meeting her basic living expenses, she has little to no income left over.

She is also not receiving financial support from others and does not have any um money and savings.

She was currently, she was on probation parole.

She'd like to attend a local community college in hopes of becoming a substance use counselor or poor super specialist, and she's facing barriers to housing utilities, food security, clothing, transportation, and substance use.

She also has two pending cases, one out of Davidson and one out of Randolph.

Um the Davidson is in April and the Randolph is later this month.

Wow.

Great, thank you.

And it looks like the Randolph is a probation violation, correct?

Um yes.

Hurtly.

And one thing I'll make note of in that list you see there of the fees being requested.

Um the first line in Randolph and the third line in Randolph.

Um, you'll see the end of that charge list.

It says motion to waive remit costs.

Um I actually looked at these cases last week, and Ms.

Newsom actually did request relief from the court directly on those matters.

And in lieu of waiving those fees, they made them into a civil judgment.

So now they're accruing interest at an 8% rate.

Um she did she did try to get relief directly from the court on those.

The court lifted the criminal fees, but now made them a civil judgment, which is increasing the costs when they go unpaid.

Just to give some more context to her um her cases and her attempts.

Anyone have any um contact with Ms.

Newsom?

Doesn't appear so.

Um just looking at her probation violation.

The probation violation was filed back in December of 2024, so over a year old now, and it's still still pending.

One of them is a monetary amount.

I think it's related to possible restitution, which could not be handled by this board, obviously.

Um do you pay who do you pay restitution to because you've been charged with simple possession?

Yeah, that was my question.

And then there's a case that was dismissed off that, which was another possession.

I mean, it's just like I don't.

Oh, I'm sorry, there's also a misdemeanor larceny on that.

I don't know if you saw that.

It's connected to another case with the misdemeanor Larseny.

Oh, it's consolidated.

Mm-hmm.

And Mark, am I I think I mentioned this last week to Sarah and Lauren, but I wasn't certain on this.

Am I correct in thinking that when a case owes restitution, that has to be paid first before the underlying court costs can be paid?

Honestly, I'd not I can find out.

My belief was my belief was that when you paid onto a criminal case, the first disbursement is to any restitution owed before it starts reducing the cost of the court costs.

And is your point, Mitch, that we couldn't pay the other what costs if we wanted to, because we can't pay restitution and the restitution has to be paid before you can get to the court costs.

Yeah, that's where am I thinking was that would nullify us from even even considering the Davidson County case listed on the screen.

But otherwise, I mean, it looks like she's been doing well in recent months.

Um, looks like she's as Lauren mentioned that Horizons for their program is close to graduating.

Did you ever have a chance, Lauren, to confirm if she graduated yet or not?

I can get that information for you.

Okay.

I don't think it's determinative about any outcome here.

We're just curious.

I know the notes were from November when we couldn't meet Quorum that that month.

Um, if we could get rid of the Randolph debt.

That might help her with her pending cases.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea, Ty.

Um, given the funds we've already approved so far today.

It looks like our Chapel Hill pot would be close to about $9,000.

We add up the remaining costs from Randolph County listed on the screen.

Well, it's about $1,100.

Yeah, $1,083.51 cents, um, possibly a bit more, a few dollars more, given a civil judgment um accrue and interest.

I think that'd be a good place to start for her, at least get her some things behind her and um moving forward.

Is that your motion, Ty?

Yes.

All right, I'll second that.

Um so Ty's motion is the amount of one thousand where'd it go?

Eighty-three something.

1,083 and 51 cents.

Um, plus if any additional civil judgment fees dollars increase the next few days before it's paid.

I haven't I've seconded that, and we'll move to a vote with Donna.

Yes.

Mark?

I'll have to pass since I didn't hear the motion.

Okay.

Um Tiffany?

Yes.

Danielle?

Yes.

April?

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

So approved.

The answer to your question, Mitchell, would the um yes, victims get paid first, then the court.

Okay.

That's good to know.

Thank you.

The next application is uh Nobi Andrews.

She's an Orange County Sheriff's jurisdiction.

She's not received program assistance in the past three years, has not had any violent felonies in the past five, is not currently incarcerated.

She owes six hundred dollars in court cost and fees out of Durham and Harnett counties and a hundred and thirty-three dollars and fifty cents to the DMV.

She does have a suspended status or driver's license.

She does not need an alcohol assessment.

She's demonstrated that she's on the road to stability, has not already pursued other avenues for debt relief, and has demonstrated that assistance will have an immediate impact on her reentry into the community.

She is a 34-year-old black or African American female residing in Hillsborough.

She's unemployed due to a recent layoff and has not received any form of income since then, which has made it difficult for her to meet basic living expenses.

She is receiving food stamp benefits and WIC.

She has two dependents.

Getting her driver's license reinstated will help her to pursue employment and be able to fully support herself.

She's facing very transportation.

She did total her vehicle back in June of 2025 and did not realize that the time that her license was suspended.

She's currently carpooling with a neighbor to drop her children off at school.

She does have a pending case out of Orange County that's scheduled for March.

Thank you.

Um that Lauren's able to pull for me last week, and her again, her license is only suspended due to the fees listed on the sheet there, one in Durham, one in Harnett County with the pending Orange County case set for uh March 4th.

Um my idea when I saw this matter was uh because it's come out of the sheriff's um or the countywide fund to try and conserve how much money as we can.

And my thought was possibly approving funding for the Harnick County matter.

But then because we're right next door to Durham County, and I don't know Durham County judges how they handle fees like this, that if Ms.

I can help her discuss how to handle the Durham County fees in court, but also help her navigate the Orange County case that is pending later this later this year.

So that would help her kind of get on the right path.

But we still we want to approve full funding just to give that extra um funding staying in the county pot.

But open to any ideas or any insight people may have on the board.

So Mitchell is what you're proposing that we pay the Harnick County fee and then the uh DMV fee.

Yeah, I think that would be a wise consideration here.

Well, uh I'll move that then.

All right.

Then I'll go ahead and second that motion as well.

The motion to approve Harnett County 311 and the DMV fee of 13350.

That's um made by Ty.

I've seconded.

And so we'll move on the motion beginning with Donna.

Yes.

Mark?

Yeah.

Tiffany.

Yes.

Danielle?

Yes.

Um April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

And then again, Lawrence has a reminder if um when you all follow up with Ms.

Andrews, um, just to get her my contact information as well, so I can help her with the rest of the matter she's dealing with.

Well due.

Okay, the next case is Amanda Bynum.

She's in Carborough Police jurisdiction.

She has received program assistance in the past three years.

She was a previous applicant that reapplied.

She's not been convicted of any violent felonies in the past five.

It's not currently incarcerated.

She owes the following um monies listed there, and the total amount of about 1,500.

She owes 190 to the DMV, does not need an alcohol assessment.

She's demonstrated that she's on the road to stability, has not already pursued other avenues for debt relief, and has demonstrated that she would that assistance would have an immediate impact on her re-entry into the community.

She's a 39-year-old black African American female residing in Chapel Hill.

She's unemployed and is having difficulty finding employment, receiving food stamp and wick benefits.

She has three dependents, significant medical and credit card debt consumer debt, striving to get her driver's license reinstated, and funding will allow her to have a fresh start and be a better parent to her children.

She is facing barriers to housing utilities, financial management, food security, and transportation.

She does have four pending cases, uh, three out of orange and one out of wake with court dates uh later this actually this week.

Thank you, Lauren.

Um I remember when we spoke last week, we scroll back up to the the fees section.

Uh I think that Durham case for 2025.

That's got a fine.

What'd you say, Mark?

That's got a fine on it.

Right.

It's also a pending case still, I believe.

So I have a note for myself that it's set for March.

Oh, the the no operator's license.

Yes.

Okay.

The the the 2006 case, $25 of that is a fine, just so you know.

So the Durham city town violation is 120 core cost and 25 fine.

Yeah.

Okay.

Sorry.

Um, but so for that sheet though, the 291 of the 20 2025 Durham case, it's actually a pending case still.

So I think it's ill-advised to consider a funding for that since paying it off would admit guilt admit guilt um to the offenses she's been charged with there.

Um this person actually, her application's been pending for a while now.

She was previously approved funding for um some assessments, and she actually at the time when she first applied, had a order for arrest issued out of Orange County.

Um she actually attended a strike order session late last year and had that order for arrest recalled.

That was part of the the board's approval of the of the assessment fees back at that time to have her address that before we consider any additional funding.

So she didn't handle that OFA as she was required to do so, and that is one of the cases you see pending um in Orange County set for um later this week.

So I checked her driving record last week when I met with Sarah and Lauren.

Her license is suspended due to have not yet completed her assessment in classes.

Um then she has to have a civil rev paid as shown on the screen there for the Orange County 2022 case, and then a Guilford County um ferry to comply for traffic offense you see listed there on the screen as well.

Um question for you.

Can you remind me if we know whether she completed her assessments yet or not?

I have not heard from um from my contact if she has.

Okay, so they usually update you once I'm done.

Um I think she was interested in maybe going to another um agency for that assessment.

Okay.

Well, so maybe it sounds like contact with her then maybe may have been at least pretty good so far with handling this.

Okay.

Yes.

Um, anyone else have any personal contacts with Ms.

Bynum?

Doesn't sound like it.

Um, I mean, given given that she did come handle her strike order in Orange County as she was requested to do last time, and it sounds like she's been in decent contact with it with the crisis unit and trying to get those assessments scheduled.

I'm personally kind of inclined to kind of move forward with some of these fees, and I I think I'm more inclined with the um the fees that I talked about, you know, the civil rep has to be paid still and the Guilford County fees.

I just want to double check those amounts for Guilford.

See if any of that is a fine included in there.

It seems to be correctly listed because 260 of that is attorney's fees, 70 of that is an appointment fee, and the rest appear just to be typical court costs.

Wake County has um adjusted their consume offer at ABC store to zero.

She doesn't know that anymore.

I don't know why.

Because it was dismissed.

It got dismissed today, actually.

Oh, yeah, it says the 12th.

That was entered just two hours ago.

Excellent.

Okay, so that maybe clears up some of the things on her sheet there.

So the second and fourth lines on that screen are no longer are not to be kind of considered.

Durham County case is still pending from March.

The Wake County case, the fees are gone because the case was entirely dismissed.

Um, so that would leave 120 for the 06 Durham case with a 25 fine, as Mark mentioned, 578 for Guilford County, and then 100 forange county.

It's probably not advised right now to pay her or try to pay her DMV reinstatement fee since we're not quite sure how long it's gonna take her to handle the rest of the matter she has going on, and especially given she has pending charges that could jeopardize her eligibility status.

But uh, I'm gonna make a motion to approve the funding for the three cases I just um stated the 06 Durham case, the 2023 Guilford County case, and the 2022 Orange County case.

Total balance of those three would be 798.

Um, and she would have to pay a 25 25 dollar fine for the 06 uh Durham case.

That's second.

Was that Danielle?

Yes.

And so we'll vote on that motion um beginning with Donna.

Yes.

Yes.

Mark?

Yes.

Tiffany.

Yes.

Ty.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So approved.

So much.

Everyone can.

Next applicant is Keith Shepherd.

He resides in Chapel Hills jurisdiction.

He's not received program assistance in the past three years, has not been convicted of any violent felonies in the past five.

He's not currently incarcerated.

He does owe close to $10,000 in court costs and fees.

Listed any amounts on the form.

Owes $83.50 to the DMV.

Does not need an alcohol assessment.

He's demonstrated that he's on the road to stability, has not already pursued other avenues for debt relief.

He's demonstrated that assistance would have an impact on his re-entry into the community.

He is a 54-year-old black or African American male.

He's not permitted to work at this time, but is learning a trade through his internship at a court mandated residential treatment program that's in Goldsboro.

He's been sober for over six months.

He was previously unsheltered in the Chapel Hill area.

He's on probation parole and is facing barriers to financial management and transportation.

He does have two upcoming court cases out of Orange County.

Or excuse me, he has one failure to appear in Orange County and then one pending case out of Orange County with a trial date of the 12th.

Thank you, Lauren.

So it looks like the case it's on for today in Orange County.

It's that misdemeanor larceny.

And I've shown in the fees and costs section.

Which no fees in that matter could we consider approving?

His actually his other case he has pending is a 2024 traffic matter.

It's a fair to appear as listed below in the notes section.

But on the fees and cost section, there's a bounce $200 owed because of that fair to appear fee being added.

The case is still actually open.

I reached out to the DA's office a couple times now regarding him as recent as this past Friday, because his own his license is only suspended due to that missed court date now, which I believe happened due to the fact that he's in Goldsborough for a treatment program.

Typically the DAs are responsive to just dismiss those, which I still expect they will, but um they haven't gotten around to I guess responding back to me yet on that matter.

Um I know he's local to the area, it sounds like, but he's in Goldsborough for another few months at least in this program.

Anyone have any contact or connections with Mr.

Shepard.

Um my original thought, because I remember I review helped review this application with Lauren and Sarah and whoever else, I think, on back in December before the meeting.

I had the I had been miss.

I think at that time made a comment about if we got his pending Orange County traffic ticket dismissed, which I still believe it would.

Um we could at least consider approving his DMD reinstatement fee.

Could be the only thing keeping him back from having a Bauer driver's license.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I mean, on that or on the rest of the fees owed.

I just know he's still in the program for another five months or so, so trying to trying to weigh out the benefits of approving fees now versus not having money in the pot to help other people in the meantime.

I mean, this seems like a reasonable one to sort of hold while while he's in the program, given given the limited amount of money we've got in the pot.

Are people agreeable with that of maybe postponing this until 240 to 300?

Donna was sick and net.

I remember talking about this one with Sarah, and I agreed because I mean he might establish you know residency where the program is and get a job there and stay there.

And so I think it we need to hold off until the program's completed.

Okay, I can degree about that.

Do people think we should wait until April or May?

It looks like he's maybe there until or supposed to be there until May of this year.

Maybe May.

I'll go ahead and make that motion then.

Uh Lauren, do you think that's a tenable for you all to make sure this could brought back in May?

No, we'll bring it back in May.

Okay.

So I'll make the motion then to postpone his application until May just to see how his um treatment and decisions go at that point.

Not a second.

Yeah, we will I like that idea.

And we'll vote on it beginning with Mark.

Yeah.

Tiffany.

Yes.

Danielle.

Yes.

Ty.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So approved.

Now to our new applications.

Benjamin Davis.

He resides in Chapel Hill's jurisdiction.

Has not received program assistance in the past three years, no violent felonies in the past five, is not currently incarcerated.

He does owe $656 in court cost and fees, as well as 133.50 cents to the DMV.

Does not need an alcohol assessment.

And he is a 38-year-old black or African American male.

He resides with another individual here in Chapel Hill, but would like to move to Charlotte to be closer to his children.

He's currently employed as a maintenance manager.

He does owe significant child support.

I'm guessing back payment.

Does have two young children that reside in Charlotte.

He is seeking funding for his driver's license reinstatement so that he'll be able to seek better employment.

He is currently dependent on other people or public transit, specifically the best for transportation and disfacing barriers to housing utilities, financial management, and transportation.

Thank you, Lauren.

I was able to actually look at Mr.

Davis's driving record and um determine the only reason he's currently his license is currently suspended is due to the unpaid fees in the Orange County matter, um, which I think it would be wise to just have him refer to me so I can help him directly with the court to get those remitted.

Um the effect of that would be kind of actually be twofold, not only have the actual court costs presumably waived, um, but by having it having it handled in court, it would also avoid the need for a DMV fee to be paid.

Essentially, it would retroactively fix the license suspension and not allow DMB to charge him a reinstatement fee.

Um my personal thought was to at least have him connected with me for that purpose, and then um the board consider approving if desired the Alamance and the Wake County fees that are listed on that screen here.

I do see that he uh would like to move closer to Charlotte with his children.

Lauren, do we know anything about his kind of connection to Chapel Hill or the Orange County area, how long he's been here for?

We did not obtain that information.

No.

Anyone on the on the call have any connection with Mr.

Davis?

He will be having a he'll be coming out of the Chapel Hill pot, which obviously our our largest um pot.

Um maybe leaving in the near future, perhaps to go closer to his children.

I think the fact that he's currently a resident alone qualifies him for possible funding.

So I would make the motion to approve the 241 for Alamance and 191 for Wake, condition on him paying his fine in Alamance County, and then he get referred to me for the assistance with the Orange County matter, he has to resolve.

Second by tie.

All right.

Second by Ty.

I'll vote on that motion beginning with Donna.

Yes.

Mark.

Yes.

Tiffany.

Yes.

Danielle.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

Next applicant is Jennifer Christie.

She resides in Carborough Thesis jurisdiction.

Has not received program assistance in the past three years.

No violent felonies in the past five.

Is not currently incarcerated.

She does owe quite a bit, close to $10,000 in the amounts shown on the screen.

She owes $180 to the DMV, and her license is suspended.

Additionally, she owes $216 for alcohol assessments.

Miss Christie is a 40-year-old white female residing in Carborough at an Oxford home and was 100 plus days sober, currently on probation parole, employed part-time with a home services company in Carborough.

She's receiving food stamp benefits, does have significant medical debt, is wanting to get her driver's license reinstated so that she would be able to have a better job, being able to work more hours and make more money.

She wants to be a responsible productive member of society, and she is facing barriers to financial management and transportation.

She does have a pending case out of Durham County that's going to be uh tried next month.

Thank you, Lauren.

So we have a lot of cases on this individual's application.

Um, first off, anyone have any contact with Miss Christie or know of them?

Yeah, she was on the LRC caseload um for a few months, but she got well connected, so she was positively discharged.

Um, but prior to her discharge, um, she was working, staying sober.

Um, we helped her with rental assistant at the Oxford House.

Um, she just seems to be taking it day by day and doing well.

It's good to hear.

Thank you.

So um obviously we have a lot on this application out of the Carborough pot, and total amount requested here is over $9,000, which is obviously not possible.

Um this application, my thought was possibly approving for the assessment fees and the civil revocations, and then to postpone anything else until she can connect with me and I can maybe work with her more about what she has going on.

I think a lot of this may need to happen through the courts, not necessarily through the debt program.

Um, but I can help her maybe understand it more, and her and I can talk about what her intentions are and how she wants to proceed with with a lot of these things.

So I'll make a motion to approve the 216 for the alcohol assessments, and then I think she had one civil vacation.

Yes, yeah, 2017 Alamance civil rev.

So the total approval at this time would be 316 dollars, and I would actually motion to postpone her for two months to give some time to work on uh or work with me in the meantime.

I think that's a good all right.

So we'll move with that motion, seconded by Tiffany.

And voting begin with Donna.

Yes, Mark?

Yeah.

Danielle?

Yes.

Ty.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So approved.

So we'll approve the 316 total and then um bring her back in March.

And our last application for today is Megan Gentry.

She's in Carberough Police Department's jurisdiction.

She's not received program assistance in the past three years, has not been convicted of any violent felonies in the past five, is not currently incarcerated.

She owes a little over a thousand dollars in court cost and fees, and a hundred and twenty dollars to the DMV.

Her license is eligible for reinstatement, does not owe it for an alcohol assessment.

She has demonstrated that she's on the road to stability, has not tried other avenues for debt relief, has demonstrated that she that it have uh assistance would have an immediate impact on her reentry into the community.

She's a 39-year-old white female residing in Carborough.

She's employed full-time at a fast food restaurant chain.

She is receiving food stamp benefits.

She's the single mother of a six-year-old child, has significant credit card and consumer debt.

She uh recently underwent two surgeries that caused her to miss eight weeks of work, isn't also in need of a double knee and hip replacement.

Funding would help to take a huge weight off the applicant financially.

She's facing barriers to housing utilities, financial management, food security, and transportation.

She's currently using public transit or relies on others for rides.

Um, she's hoping to get her driver's license reinstatement.

So she doesn't have to be so dependent.

Um, she does have one pending case out of Granville County, and that's scheduled for February.

Thank you, Lauren.

Um, I actually have some personal contact connections with Ms.

Gentry.

I worked with her in the past and didn't realize until the application came through that her um license wasn't fully active right now.

It's just elder free instatement.

It's required of that um DMV fee to be paid.

But she does work with my office um quite a bit with some colleagues actually, and um kind of unfortunately she was here in Orange County Court um for a child custody hearing, I think last month, and during the breakover lunch, she got arrested from an unknown to her probation violation on Granville County that was a couple years old, which is why you see this case now on um on the screen here.

So it when I looked at the case, it looks like it's only due to unpaid fees, which is when she then got a got a hold of the application here to apply.

Um I think that for her is probably the most important thing to get done because she has a probation violation hearing set for um next month.

And I looked it up.

I believe the judge actually um gave her like an unsecured bond or something like that because there's no creation violation like attached to the the file to go off of.

It was all they could tell was just the fees that were outstanding.

But again, that's been the OFA, the order for arrest have been outstanding for a while now, and she's so little justice involved that it didn't come up until she was here for a non-criminal matter um to handle her for custody with her child.

Um this is coming out of the carburetor pot, so my personal opinion is to at least approve the funding for the Granville case and then the DMV restoration fee.

But I'm open to anything regarding the additional funding or additional fee listed there of the 760 in Wake County.

Anyone else have any thoughts or insight for Ms.

Gentry?

Um none.

I mean, I'll I'll maybe just make a motion then to go ahead and approve everything listed there.

Um again, the 543 for Granville County.

She's to pay a $40 fine, $760 for Wake, and then the $120 for the restoration fee to the DMV.

I'll second.

All right.

So second by Tiffany.

Vote on that motion beginning with Donna.

Yes.

Mark.

Yes.

I mean, I read that.

Danielle.

Yes.

Ty.

Yes.

April.

Yes.

And Amber.

Yes.

All right.

So approved.

And those are all the cases for this month.

Thank you, uh Lauren.

And thank you all for being on today.

It was great to have essentially everyone on the board today.

It was great to have you all back.

And um, I know we had a long morning to get through all these things, but um fortunately we got a live lot of people serve now from that.

Um I feel like I have business to address, but I can't remember what that may have been.

Any of you all have any business you want to discuss before our lease you all.

Hearing none.

Um, our meeting next month will be back on the third third Monday of the month, and that will be the 16th.

Actually, Mark, is President's Day closed for the state?

Um, you live in the South now.

I can't tell what that means.

We didn't have it back in Ohio.

We don't have it in the South either.

Okay.

So, barring any other issues, we'll have it on the 16th of February.

I hope you all have a fantastic MLK day.

Maybe get out and do some sort of service.

I know you all are very compassionate people in your day-to-day lives anyway.

So I appreciate your work as it is.

But I hope you all have a a great weekend.

Um, and I'll see you next month.

See you next month.

See you then, Ms.

Bye all.