OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Orange County FARE Board Meeting Approves Funding for Nine Applicants - Jan 12, 2026

Meeting Portal — Monday, January 12, 2026
BodyChapel Hill, North Carolina
SessionMeeting Portal
DateMonday, January 12, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:10:27

Transcript — Verbatim
0:02

But we'll go ahead and get started.

0:04

It's 11.06 now.

0:05

Thank you all for being here.

0:06

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

0:13

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.

0:27

Um Ruby, thanks for joining us.

0:29

I think Sarah sent you some information about the program.

0:32

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.

0:44

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

0:48

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

0:50

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

0:59

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.

1:13

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

1:19

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.

1:35

Um I myself, I'm Mitchell Lucas.

1:37

I work for the criminal justice resource department.

1:39

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

1:43

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.

1:55

Um next we'll have Donna.

1:58

Hi, I'm Donna Carrington.

2:00

I'm the executive director of community empowerment fund.

2:05

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

2:18

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

2:22

Hi, I'm Mark Klein Schmidt.

2:23

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.

2:37

Tiffany.

2:40

Hi, I'm Tiffany Bullard.

2:41

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

2:45

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

2:55

Danielle.

2:57

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.

3:16

Ty.

3:18

Uh I'm Ty Hunter.

3:20

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

3:26

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

3:33

Ruby Hi everyone, my name is Ruby Morales.

3:39

I'm uh uh education and training subdirector.

3:44

That's a new position at El Centre Hispano.

3:46

We have a new instructor recently.

3:48

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

3:56

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

4:04

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

4:09

Glad to have you, thank you.

4:11

April.

4:20

April, are you there?

4:22

Yes.

4:22

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

4:30

And last but not least, Amber.

4:33

Hi, I'm Amber Keith Browns.

4:35

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

4:41

All right, thank you all.

4:42

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.

4:51

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

4:54

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

5:01

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

5:08

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

5:17

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

5:23

Yes.

5:24

Tiffany?

5:25

Yes.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Debt Relief█████████████████████████████████████████████57%
Procedural█████████████16%
Community Engagement█████████11%
Homelessness███████9%
Public Safety████5%
Youth Programs██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Orange County FARE Board Meeting Approves Funding for Nine Applicants - Jan 12, 2026

The Orange County Financial Assistance for Reentry and Employment (FARE) Board met on January 12, 2026, at 11:06 AM to review and vote on funding requests from individuals needing assistance with court fees, DMV fees, and other reentry-related costs. The board, composed of members from various local agencies, approved funding for several applicants and deferred or postponed others. Key discussions centered on prioritizing funding given limited budgets in Chapel Hill ($10,500), Carrboro ($6,000), and county-wide ($6,100) pots.

Consent Calendar

  • The agenda was approved unanimously.
  • Meeting minutes from October, November (meeting canceled due to lack of quorum), and December 2025 were approved.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No public comments were made during the meeting.

Discussion Items

  • Leonora Caraway (Chapel Hill): Requested $180 for DMV reinstatement fee. Board member Tiffany Bullard noted positive discharge from caseload. Approved unanimously.
  • Caitlin Ramsey (Chapel Hill): Requested ~$14,000 in court costs. Due to limited funds, board approved $1,435 for two specific cases (2025 New Hanover and 2024 Brunswick). Chair Mitchell Lucas will contact Pender County clerk about erroneous probation fees ($4,090 for ~10 years on an 18-month probation). Board also discussed referring her to Indigent Defense Services for fee waiver.
  • April Newsom (Chapel Hill): Requested ~$3,000. Board approved $1,083.51 for Randolph County fees, noting her pending cases and that she had already attempted court relief which converted fees into a civil judgment.
  • Nobi Andrews (Orange County Sheriff's jurisdiction): Requested ~$733 for court costs and DMV fee. Board approved $444.50 (Harnett County and DMV fee), with Lucas to help her handle Durham County fees.
  • Amanda Bynum (Carrboro police jurisdiction): Requested ~$1,500. Board approved $798 for three cases (2006 Durham, 2023 Guilford, 2022 Orange) after noting her pending cases and a Wake County case dismissed earlier that day.
  • Keith Shepherd (Chapel Hill): Requested ~$83.50 for DMV fee plus court costs. Board voted to postpone application until May 2026 due to his being in a residential treatment program in Goldsboro until then.
  • Benjamin Davis (Chapel Hill): Requested ~$789.50. Board approved $432 for Alamance and Wake County fees, conditional on him paying a $25 fine in Alamance and being referred to Lucas for Orange County matter.
  • Jennifer Christie (Carrboro): Requested ~$9,000. Board approved $316 for alcohol assessments and one civil revocation, with a motion to postpone further consideration for two months to allow Lucas to work with her.
  • Megan Gentry (Carrboro): Requested ~$1,423. Board approved full amount: $543 for Granville County (plus $40 fine), $760 for Wake County, and $120 DMV fee.

Key Outcomes

  • Total funds approved: Approximately $4,008 from Chapel Hill pot, $1,399 from Carrboro pot, and $444 from county-wide pot.
  • Chair Mitchell Lucas will contact Pender County clerk about erroneous probation fees for Caitlin Ramsey.
  • Lucas will assist Benjamin Davis with Orange County fee remission.
  • Jennifer Christie's application postponed to March 2026.
  • Keith Shepherd's application postponed to May 2026.
  • Next meeting scheduled for February 16, 2026.

Meeting Transcript

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.

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