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Good evening, everyone.

I'm Alan Joins, the mayor of Winston Salem.

It's my pleasure to call to order this May 4th meeting of the Winston Some City Council.

Somebody's got to say it May the fourth.

Welcome tonight.

Councilmember Joyner.

Present.

Councilmember Clark.

Here.

Councilmember Andrew Bowen.

Here.

Councilmember Scipio.

Present.

Mayor Praetim Adams.

Here.

Councilmember Taylor?

Present.

Councilmember Hall.

Present.

And Councilmember Burke.

Here.

Thank you very much.

Would you please join the city council meeting a moment of silence?

Thank you.

Would you please join the city council meeting in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Thank you very much.

Our Sergeant at Arms tonight is Lieutenant Joshua Coffey Caffe.

And our fire marshal tonight is Pete Geyke.

Thank you for being with us, keeping us safe here in our meeting tonight.

And it will be replayed on uh tomorrow at nine A.M.

and again Wednesday night at nine PM.

Of course, as you know, copies of our agenda as well as videos of previous meetings are always available online on the city's website, and just click on the watch meetings online option.

Now let's recognize our city manager, Mr.

Pate for uh presentation.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, a couple of uh general general items.

First, today marks the start of public service recognition week.

We just celebrated nationally the first full week of May each year to honor the people who serve our nation as federal, state, local, and tribal government employees.

This includes all of our tremendous City Winston Salem staff members whose dedication supports the quality of life for our residents every day.

Both those that are public-facing and also those that are behind the scenes.

It's my honor to publicly express appreciation for the city, all of the city of Winston Asylum employees, and to reaffirm our shared commitment to sustaining a strong, respected public workforce.

It's a snapshot of last year's water quality and includes details about the sources of your drinking water, how it is treated, what it contains, and exactly how it compares to standards set by state and federal regulatory agencies.

For 2025, as in previous years, our treatment facilities have met or surpassed all state and federal require requirements and standards for drinking water quality.

This accomplishments reflects the quality and dedication of these employees working for you each and every day of the year to make sure we have clean and good drinking water.

That report is available on our website if anyone wants to read.

We also want to make sure everyone knows that applications are now open on our city website for the City of Winston Salem University.

This is an educational program designed to help residents gain a better understanding of the functions and roles of city government and the responsibilities of our various departments.

This once a year 12-week course is free and meets each week on Thursdays from 6 to 9.

Classes will be held at City Hall and other city locations.

Those classes begin on August 20th, but class size is limited, so we encourage people to apply, and you can begin the deadline to apply is on Monday, July 6th.

A couple of events to make sure that you are aware of in the and the our community.

The Forsyth County Law Enforcement Memorial Service will be held on Tuesday, May 5th, tomorrow at 10 a.m.

at two cities church, located at 101 or 1001 North Patterson Avenue in Winston Salem.

The service will honor the lives and legacy of local law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

This annual event is a collaborative effort among all law enforcement agencies in Forsyth County.

The service is open to the public, and lunch will be provided for all attendees following the ceremony.

The North Carolina Department, another event, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the City of Winston Salem are proposing to construct a new sidewalk along the east and west sides of Jonestown Road, which is State Road 1122 from U.S.

421 to Country Club Road.

The purpose of this project is to improve pedestrian safety by completing missing segments of sidewalk along both sides of Jonestown Road.

Public meeting on this will be held again tomorrow, Tuesday, May 5th, from 4 30 to 6 30 at Little Creek Recreation Center at 610 Fox Cross Foxcroft Drive here in Winston Salem.

This coming Thursday on May 7th, a Coffee Ball Cop Coffee with ACOP will take place from 8 to 11 at Toasted Winston Salem at 526 North Liberty Street.

This is a drop-in event for community members to get to know our law enforcement personnel a little better.

And then on this Saturday, the May 9th at 108 10 p.m.

at Winston Lake Park.

You can get ready to sink or swim at Keep Winston Salem Beautiful's cardboard regatta.

So we're challenging everyone to build a functional vessel using only three ingredients cardboard, duct tape, and water soluble soluble paint.

Whether you're an amateur architect or just looking for a splashy afternoon, the regatta is all about engineering, teamwork, and it says a little bit of luck.

But some of those ones that I saw, they look like they had a lot of engineering into them last year.

But we encourage folks if uh you want to do that.

That's a fun way to spend a few hours.

To me, it looked like a lot of family projects putting those uh boats together last year.

Also during the month of May, residents have an opportunity to learn how the neighborhood services department can assist with code enforcement concerns, homeowners, lending opportunities, affordable housing questions, and more.

There is an open house series that allows residents to talk one-on-one with subject matter experts.

The time for all meetings is between 6 and 7, and they're going to be at there's four different locations.

May 18th and many Lee Davis Harris Community Center on the 19th at the Sprague Street Community Center on May 20th at the Haynes Hosary Community Center, and on May 24th, 21st at Carl Russell Community Center.

That's four days in a row, 18th, 19th, 20, and 21st.

And I'm sure you can find additional information on the website if you are looking for specifics on that.

A couple of quick recognitions.

One, in case you don't know, Governor Josh Stein appointed our own Winston-Salem Mayor Alan Joins to the North Carolina Local Government Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees.

He fills a seat that was vacated by former Mayor Nancy Vaughan with a term of service running through March 31st, 2028.

So we congratulate Mayor Joins and thank him for being willing to look after our.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Pate.

Any questions for Mr.

Pate?

Mr.

Clark.

I would just like to say a comment because Ms.

Latham has to put up with me as the head of the finance committee, but she's done a wonderful job.

We've had an alternative financial statement every year.

We've kept our triple A bond rating.

And things have been very, very smooth.

We just you don't hear a lot from her because she takes care of business.

But we're gonna miss you.

Good luck on the next chapter of your life, and please come visit every night.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Clark.

Good point.

We have item H1, please.

Item H1 resolution declaring May 2026 Historic Preservation Month in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

Whereas the City of Winston Salem joins cities and counties across the United States in a nationwide celebration of historic preservation month.

And whereas historic preservation is an effective tool for economic development, tourism promotion, revital revitalizing neighborhoods, fostering local pride, and maintaining community character while enhancing livability.

And whereas Historic Preservation Month is sponsored by the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission.

And whereas the Historic Resources Commission's mission is to con protect and enrich the city and county's cultural, historical, architectural, and archaeological heritage through the identification, designation, and preservation of historic resources.

And whereas the Historic Resources Commission strives to promote the use and conservation of historic properties for the education, pleasure, and enrichment of the residents of Winston Salem and Forsyth County.

And whereas the Historic Resources Commission strives to educate the public about the history of Winston Salem and Forsyth County's built environment, both extant extant and gone, and to amplify the voices and stories of persons and places traditionally excluded from the historic preservation narrative.

And now, therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and city council of the city of Winston-Salem do hereby declare the month of May 2026 as historic preservation month and call upon the people of Winston Salem to join their fellow citizens across the United States in recognizing and participating in this special observance.

Be it further resolved that this resolution be spread upon the minutes of the city council and that a copy be furnished to the Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission.

Sir motion.

So move.

Second.

Motion second by Councilman Scipio and motion by Mayor Protium.

All in favor of the motion, please say aye.

Aye.

That is unanimous.

We have with us tonight CJ Idle, who is the chair of the Historic Resources Commission.

Of course, Michelle McCollow is here chief staff person or director of our human resources as well.

Mayor joins, Mayor Peritim Adams, City Council and City Staff, thank you for this resolution and this opportunity to speak before you.

But I think I'm going to get the resolution first.

Yes.

So is with um I'm here with a little bit of mixed emotion tonight because my term on the Historic Resources Commission does end at this with this year.

So this is my last time speaking before you in this capacity.

Um and I just wanted to take a few moments briefly to express my gratitude to all of City Council for your support for the HRC prior to my coming on, and especially over these last seven and a half years when I first started, I didn't get it.

I didn't understand what this was about.

Um I was a historic archaeologist.

Um I was taught about this opportunity.

I took it, and through the leadership of Michelle and got her taking me under the wing, I get the importance of the HRC and what we do for the community now.

And there's just a couple of stories from my time I'd like to share.

Um, the most impactful of which um deals with our historic marker program.

Um the Piedmont organization of uh the librarian organization of the Piedmont has turned one of our historic markers into a space for them.

It's a space in Happy Hill, a space that used to represent enslavement, uh Jim Crow, redlining, and they've turned this into a place of celebration where they can come and celebrate their community and their heritage.

And I attended one of those meetings one time.

I'm probably the only white person there, and they accepted me into their organ into their culture and let me celebrate with them and celebrate the story of liberation and freedom that that marker came to represent.

And that's just some of the work that the HRC gets to be part of, and I'm so proud to have been part of leading that legacy and this place and place making that we get to do in sharing the story of Winston of all the people who have called Winston Salem and for Syth County home.

It's it's not just my community, it's not just y'all's community.

It really belongs to the people.

And that's I think the work of the HRC, even though we mostly focus on buildings and trying to preserve the built land, the built and architectural landscapes.

It's about the people and the people who have lived there and the people who live there now and serving saving that for the future so that these places can be areas where the past and the present and the future all come together.

And just thank you so much for such for supporting an organization like this.

And then to know that places like our local historic landmark, Grayland will be home to the German national team this summer, and that it's a place where history is still happening, and that we're able to bring everybody together to celebrate this history.

Um just thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support, and I hope you continue to support this.

And we have you have such a wonderful staff with the HRC.

Um, I've got to work with a lot of different public servants over the years in my various roles, from museum director to um archaeologist and HRC staff is the best I've ever worked with.

And it just um they're so great, and they've taught me so much over the last seven and a half years.

And y'all have taught me a lot.

Um, Mayor Pro Tim Adams at our 75th anniversary a couple years ago.

Um just having to follow up her in a speech is an unenviable task, but you always learn something when Mayor Pro Tim shows up, and um councilwoman Scipio seems to be at all of our um marker and bailings, and it's just such a wonder wonder to hear you talk about the East Ward and interact with your constituents.

Just thank you all so much for everything.

Um in 2025, thank you for allowing me that little diatribe.

Um speaking of our um marker program, Clemens has now copied us.

They've seen what success we have.

It's probably it's still a very competitive program.

Um, four or five applicants a year.

I never know which way it's gonna go.

Um, I always feel bad for the ones who don't get selected, but they do have opportunities to continue.

So Clemens has now copied us and they've been working with staff to fill out their own program.

Um again, uh oh, and welcome uh Miss Isabel Colletti to staff.

She's a recent hire.

Um and one statistic I point to that highlights how strong our staff is.

If you look at our major works category, we only denied three COAs in 2025.

That's a testament to the hard work staff puts in working with the applicants, making sure that before they get a chance to present to us, we have an application that's approvable that they know what they're getting into, and staff puts in a lot of hard work that's not necessarily reflected in the record of the meetings to make sure that those applications are to up to the standard we need them to be to approve them.

So if you just look at the statistics and if you go back and look at previous years, we generally don't deny a lot of applications because they come to us in such great state.

So thank you to Michelle and Isabel and the rest of the planning department for making that happen.

Um I am the Kernersville chair, so there is some current bias that's happened over the last year.

I'll fully admit that.

Um we partnered with Kerners Folly in a new program they do on the first Saturday of every month called Their Taste of History.

Michelle came out and gave a great program educing people on historic preservation as part of last year's historic preservation month celebrations.

Um and part of that was the kickoff for a walking tour where we highlight our local landmarks in the other communities.

Kernersville was the first because of the connection with the Folly and me.

And um we've since adapted that to other communities, Walkertown, Bethnia, um, and maybe eventually we'll do a couple for Winston.

Winston's just a lot bigger chunk.

There's a lot, there's a lot going on in Winston.

There's a lot more history here and a lot more architecture.

So there's that.

Um historic marker programs continue going on last year's unveiling of the Happy Hill Cemetery was well attended, and we had one this past weekend um that Councilwoman Burke and Councilwoman Scipio attended.

That was a great time.

Um great to see the community.

And then um Bathabra Park, if you haven't been out there recently, they've received uh certified local government grant to do some restoration work out there and done some great jobs.

So um that's just kind of a highlight of what's been going on around the county with the HRC.

Do you have any questions for me?

Any questions, Mr.

Widow?

Thank you.

Certainly appreciate the great work of the commission and you personally for leading.

I almost forgot.

End of the month civil rights trail marker, please come out.

It's a great time.

These are fund markers.

Um and uh the markers are where the real history of Winston Stalum gets told.

So thank you all.

Thanks, Mr.

Idol.

All right.

Tonight's agenda is comprised of two parts uh the general agenda and consent agenda.

And of course, it's always the practice of the city council to state the consent agenda is first order of business.

Items on this agenda have been unanimously recommended by uh committee of the city council or are being submitted in accordance with established city procedure.

There will be no discussion of the of the items on this uh agenda unless the council members so request at which time the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered individually.

Item is not removed, consent agenda will be enacted with one motion.

Uh council members uh Mayor Protein has made a good suggestion, I believe, that items C5 through C eleven are all housing projects that really will have a huge impact on our city.

So she suggested that we might ask the Michael Blair uh if it's okay, uh, Ms.

Lanier, City Manager, uh, to uh kind of review very briefly just the uh sort of the impact of each one of those projects.

And with that, uh we'll pull those, and then there's a motion is there a motion on a balance.

Motion to approve the balance of the consent agenda.

Second.

Motion is second by councilmember Hall.

All those in favor of the motion say aye.

Aye.

Anyone opposed, and that's uh approved unanimously.

Now, Mr.

Blair, uh thank you, uh Mayor Joins, Mayor Pro Tim Adams, uh, council members, uh Michael Blair, Housing and Development Director.

Um I don't have the PowerPoint up, but I guess I could say just in brief, um we started the process in February to put out uh basically a request for proposals for city lots as well as for um affordable uh either homeownership or rental properties.

Um received those uh RFP results in uh early March, May fifth or March 5th, um, went through a process, which included making sure that all of the new construction had some sort of contact with the neighborhood association that may exist in that area that that that project was in.

So we made an effort, we've learned we learned some things about that.

We're gonna change that a little bit going forward, but I think it's gonna be an effective way of of finding out what fits well in this program in different neighborhoods.

Um then at the end of March, we had a meeting with the Affordable Housing Coalition who we brought to these projects, we brought these projects and actually had several of the applicants that were there that got to speak on their project.

We have actually some of these uh developers are here tonight if you have any questions about any specific projects.

Um they approved those projects, and then it went to committee uh in April, and um now we're here.

And uh basically you have about um let me pull this up real quick.

There are 22 um single family lots or single family home ownership projects.

There's one that's on um Urban Street that's uh a habitat and true homeless project that's got 14 units in it.

The others are um true homes and uh Prosperity Alliance, eight properties that you conveyed the lots last uh iteration of this RFP process, and now we're giving them uh $30,000 per unit to actually build the houses, so those will start construction soon.

There we go.

Um I kind of went through basically you know what what we've done uh that process, the timeline.

Um we actually had 27 submitted applications.

This is a wrong slide, but um what what that meant was 11 completed applications.

An application was basically broken into you could put three lots in it, and um how that worked out was that the projects that had good outreach uh to the neighborhood, as well as a complete application and neighborly were generally the ones selected.

The ones that were rejected generally almost throughout had either no outreach to the neighborhood or an application that was not understandable.

And we we offered people the ability to ask us questions before the uh application date, and we had several approaches, and we did work with people to try to help them with the application.

So valuation was a again a scoring matrix.

Um, but the scoring that the city does is not like the housing finance agency.

Uh housing finance agency has to have a scoring matrix for rural projects, urban projects, and it has to be for everything in the state and all 100 counties.

Ours is very localized, so you'll see scores that are not the same.

We had about three million dollars for the affordable housing and 500,000 for the uh single family uh production for single family home ownership.

Um that's the scoring matrix in general.

Uh anybody has any questions?

That's why if not, I'll move on.

There we go.

Multifamily recommendations, um, five properties.

We had anchor, um that that was the 28 units, which is uh the Vespers, Greenway was at residential 60 units, third wave housing, LLC 62 units, TWG management 148 units, and wallock asset management, which is 60 units.

So we had 358 units total that were being touched by this program in this the cycle.

Um there's the breakout.

Uh several of the one of the projects already has its tax credits, already has some home funding in it.

Uh so this funding will actually make it start.

Um the others uh, like let's say just for example, TWG development on the 148 units is actually a bond taxes and bond project with a 4% credit, which is by right.

So that one will go forward as well.

Um this is the Vespers, which is anchor.

Um this is going to be a uh 9% rehabilitation application that's due on May 15th to actually bring this project um pretty much rebuild it.

Um be about 10 to 15 million dollar project on these 28 units that were built in 1977, serve elderly folks.

There we go.

That's the location, that's what the conditions are now.

That's the actual location on the map.

Nice corner lot, it will actually impact uh the neighborhood.

Um I think it'll change the look on that street.

Greenway residential Sage Point Apartments that have applied three times.

This is the third time for credits.

They didn't get them the first time, the second time.

If they give them the if they don't get them the third time, they said they were going to abandon the project.

I think they're competitive, they should get the funding.

We will you know keep our fingers crossed uh in August.

But that's uh 60 units, nice design.

Um uh it's kind of an odd lot, but I think it'll turn out nice once it's done.

It's very close to some of the other projects that we funded over the years.

There's the actual site on the map.

Um, third wave housing, the 600 Peters Creek, um, which really has changed that intersection over the years.

The city has put um a lot of uh support towards that project.

This is the final amount that will be needed to close out and turn it into permanent financing for the project.

Um everybody knows where that is, so on the map.

Um TWG, this is on three large lots the city owns.

Um this is actually going to be an incredible project because it opens up the other privately owned lots that are around it, which will also be probably more affordable housing that's built there too.

Um so it's a kind of a win-win for the person that owns the property company that owns those lots around it.

There's going to be access to both.

Um so it's it's kind of a redevelopment there that will um hopefully really uh increase the supply of affordable and also kind of mid-market single family houses around it.

And here's Zachary Point, they've already got their credits.

This will push them over the top, they should be able to start construction.

They um applied two years ago and got their um tax credits last year.

And one word about tax credits, real quick, it's at 82 cents right now, uh, which every dollar that's given to a tax credit project.

Usually when it's around 90 cents, you could almost do a tax credit project by itself with a construction loan.

Once it starts dipping around 80, the gaps start appearing in these projects.

So I just want you to know that going forward.

If that goes down further, it could become an issue.

Uh single family lots, um habitat for humanity, that's the 14 units, prosperity alliance, eight units.

That's an have um then that's again the slide was the wrong slide.

Um, but uh that's the general breakdown.

They everybody asked for 40.

We basically split it up and gave them 30, offered 30, and they can make those work.

Uh this is the town urban um urban street townhomes, uh, which is again this habitat with habitat buyers, but true homes will be doing the contracting and general contracting on it.

That's the location.

So you can see a little better there.

Again, it's kind of uh, I think a um visible location, and it will be a visible type project.

And here's the Happy Hill lots.

You can see the are uh blue right there.

Those will all then hopefully start construction very soon because they were conveyed in the last uh iteration of lots and the RFP, and now they've got the funding to get those going.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Michael.

Any questions?

No questions, Mayor.

Just a comment.

Okay, can we get a motion on the floor for?

I'm gonna do that too.

Okay.

I'd like to move that we uh approve C5, C6, C7, C eight, C9, C10, and C11.

Sure, second.

Second.

All right, you want to make your comment?

Yes, thank you.

Um again, a lot of you have heard me over time say that we're doing these houses and these projects, and we're talking about roughly what, 380 housing units or properties.

Approximately I always see in the news my our counterparts around us, they always make sure they let the public know that they are building the approved projects.

And even though this came through committee, I do believe it's important that during our council meetings, because it got approved in committee.

I know we you know we'd like to get these consent agendas done, but I believe going forward in the future, as long as I'm here, we're gonna talk about this housing in our council meetings as well, so the public can see that we are serious about what we're attempting to do.

And we can't do it without community.

We can't do it with without the collaboration of all of the partners and developers, builders, contractors, all of you to make this happen.

And I want to thank you on behalf of the city council.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Council Member Joiner.

I just want to make a note um of clarity.

Um this is really a great thing.

You're talking about more than 200 375 units added to, not just repairing something, but adding to uh uh uh some aging stock of housing that we have.

And so to have new housing coming in, new units coming in.

It does not meet our goal, but it sure does get us a lot closer to it.

And we still got a lot of ways to go.

But I appreciate what what has happened here tonight, and I think it's to be noted that the actual number of units put in.

So thank you very much for your help.

Thank you.

Council Mr.

Joyner.

All those in favor of the motion, please indicate but voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no?

That is unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

We'll now go to the uh general agenda, which is includes four public hearings relative to demolition ordinances as well as a preview of the uh fiscal year 26-27 proposed budget.

Uh, when the public hearings are called, person in the council chamber will be given opportunity to speak.

If uh there is opposition to the item, the proponents and opponents will each be given 15 minutes for presentation and three minutes for rebuttal.

If no one wishes to speak, I'll close the public hearing, and the city council will consider the item.

May we have item G1, please?

Item G1, public hearing in consideration of an ordinance ordering the demolition and removal of a structure located at 633 Mulberry Street, located in the South Ward.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Um, if you give your name and address for the record, please.

Hi, my name is Tammy Watson.

I want to give greetings to Mayor Jonah, um uh Mayor Pro Temp, um, Ms.

Adams, and also my um ward, which is um councilman Jonah and all the councilmen.

First of all, I do want to say thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to come and um share.

Um thank you so much for um giving me some time before.

Um I did get a chance to go through the process, and I am gonna be doing the demolition on the property, only makes sense for me to do that.

Um so what I'm asking is for a continuous because I'm working with a contractor.

He needs more time because he's working on projects, and so probably about 60 days because of the demolition and then all the things that we're gonna do.

Um, so I need time for money.

Um so I need time for money, I need time also for him to get back with me, and so that's what I'm asking for.

Continues for 60 days.

Okay.

Of course, if this is approved tonight, uh there'll be about 60 day period before we would actually move on there as well.

But uh I defer to Councilmember Joyner.

So tell me what do you mean?

I'm sorry.

I want to make sure I understand.

Well, the today basically starts the clock ticking uh for 60 days for the house to be demolished itself.

But I understand why you're saying you'd like to do it yourself, obviously.

Yes, but I do need more time so he can get because he was very specific to me of his project, what he has to do, and then he needs to get with the people to do the demolition.

So I'm just saying if it's 60 days basically.

60 days if I guess I guess that's correct for continuous.

I guess when the I guess you can help me out.

Him and I have been having conversation.

Well, we excuse me.

Uh, and I'll work in closing with the question.

When you render the vote, uh state your name.

We know who you are, but give us your name.

I'm sorry, Brian Shaney neighborhood services.

Okay, go ahead.

Uh when you render the vote today, she's actually going to get 90 days.

90 days.

90 days before we so we could go ahead and approve it tonight.

Yes, okay.

Okay.

He knows what the hearing is.

Watson.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

You're okay.

I'm good.

Is that okay?

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Anyone else want to be heard?

Well, I'll close the public hearing and I'll recognize I know this came from our general committee.

I'll recognize Councilmember Joiner for a motion.

She's ready.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um if I have a moment.

I think that um Ms.

Watson has uh I appreciate you coming in today.

And just to note that uh if this is approved to go through, then the clock does start, and 90 days is what you have, which is more than the 60 that you are asking for.

Um 90 days would have.

I I I take uh no exception.

Uh it is a challenging thing for me to ask for or make a motion to um demolish a house.

Um it is especially as we've just gone through the historical preservation part, the house being being built in 1910, um, you know in an area of the city that has a very diverse and very colorful history.

It takes no pleasure and no small um easy thought to push to get this done.

But there's been a lot of time that has gone by, and that neighborhood deserves to be um improved.

And I hope that you are, as you have always shown in the past, to do what you say you go and do.

And um I look forward to the project progress.

So thank you for showing up tonight.

Mayor, I would make a motion to approve for the demolition and removal of the structure.

Second.

Second by uh Councilmember Burke Councilmember Andrea Brain.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I just have a quick if we are delaying or postponing this for 90 days.

I see that we have continued this from our last council meeting.

Are we continuing it from today or from that original meeting?

No, we're approving the demolition tonight.

So it's just that they be 90 days before.

Got it.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

If not all is favored the motion, please indicate but voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no?

And that is unanimous.

Uh thank you, Councilmember Jordan.

Item G2, please.

Item G2, public hearing in consideration of an ordinance ordering the demolition and removal of a structure located at 844 Rich Avenue, located in the east ward.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone in council chairman who wishes to be heard on this proposed demolition?

Seeing no one, I declare the public hearing closed and recognize Councilmember Scipio.

This is in your ward, although it did come from our general government committee.

Oh, you got the motion right there.

Okay, if you don't mind.

I move for approval of G1.

Of G2.

Second.

Motion second to approve uh item G2.

Any discussion?

Questions?

All those in favor of the motion, please indicate with voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

Sorry.

That's okay.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

Item G3.

Item G3, public hearing in consideration of an ordinance ordering the demolition and removal of a structure located at 1457 Hattie Avenue, located in the northeast ward.

Seeing no one I declare a public hearing closed, I would recognize Council Member Burke.

I move for approval of item G3.

Second.

Second by Council Member Hall.

Any discussion?

All those in favor of the motion, please subdicate the voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

Item G4.

Item G4, public hearing in consideration of an ordinance ordering the demolition and removal of a structure located at 4541 Indiana Avenue.

Thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Is there anyone in the council chamber who wishes to be heard on this proposed demolition?

Seeing no one, I'll declare a public hearing close, and I will recognize.

Thank you.

I move for the approval of agenda item uh G4, the demolition ordinance for 4541 Indiana Avenue.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Councilman Scipio.

Any discussion?

No, not all those favor.

The motion please indicate by voting yes.

Anyone opposed, vote no.

And that is unanimous.

Thank you.

And item G five.

Item G five, City Manager's presentation of fiscal year 2026-27 annual proposed budget.

Recognize our city manager, Mr.

Pate.

Thank you.

I was uh thinking there uh uh as I was coming up.

It's hard to to to talk about where we're at in the process with the budget.

The budget takes it takes a year of preparation.

So we're always in budget preparation.

So this is neither the start nor the finish of anything related to the budget.

I know that the public generally doesn't understand the amount of time and effort that you, as the elected officials of this community, put into working on the budget issues on an annual basis.

Uh but you've spent tremendous hours already in retreat settings and committee meetings and council meetings, listening to the community, uh pouring over the surveys that we do to understand what this community wants and needs.

And this is just one step that's required uh by statute for me to present to you a balanced budget that you can then begin your final deliberations on what our budget will be for the next fiscal year beginning July 1st.

I will commend counsel that uh that you did adopt your budget well in advance last year as you were supposed to, and unfortunately, as we stand here today, we are still waiting for the state of North Carolina to adopt a budget that we would know exactly what is what is going on.

A couple of things on this one.

I uh I'll just say the the bottom line up front.

Uh uh Scott Tesh calls this our no-frills budget.

Uh that's what you're going to see tonight.

I'm going to spend time talking about the things that we've been doing, the things that you have been approving, the ways that we're trying to move this community forward, but there are not a lot of new initiatives and new programs in here besides the ones that you have already approved.

Um I want to uh thank you as the governing body for adopting a strategic plan that sets forth the priorities that you see as important for this community.

Those are our guiding lights, and you will hear me talk about those more as we make this presentation and moving forward.

That is the most important things that we have in terms of making us an efficient and effective government that's delivering the services that your residents want us to deliver.

Your policy direction is helping make us a community of choice, an employer of choice, addressing strategic issues as you've talked a lot about tonight, like affordable housing, like promoting community safety, making sure that we have a community that appears well, that we have a great community appearance, and ensuring that we have proper financial management and direction.

So thank you for all of those.

And we'll I will say that we're this is going to be a just a highlight.

We're not expecting a lot of questions or information today.

Uh again, the public doesn't see the books in front of you that have a operating budget and a capital improvement budget that's hundreds of pages that you get to read between now and our first budget work session uh in uh one week.

As I mentioned, there are four, there's several key project budget priorities, but four main ones that we're that you'll really see throughout as themes throughout this budget.

One is the compensation and benefits to be a regional employer of choice.

You've made decisions related to to our firefighters most recently.

We've got our CDL drivers coming up and a commitment to do all of the organization over the next three-year period, which is really two more years from now, to make sure that we continue to be a place that can attract the best and the brightest employees to join those that are already here that are dedicated to this mission of public service.

We're working very hard on maintaining our current service levels.

So in this budget, you'll see there's some right sizing in a few places of dollars for things that we can do that with, but for the vast majority of the time, what you'll see is a continuation of the services that you have authorized us to provide based on your knowledge of what the community wants.

So you'll continue to see those.

We're not talking about eliminating any of our current programs.

And strategic investments.

And finally, one that again doesn't get a lot of press, but I I applaud you for allowing us to work on dealing with our debt funded priorities and looking at how we're managing debt in this community.

We're taking a lot of actions to basically prepare us so that we will be able to issue debt at a good rate in the future to maintain our triple A bond rating as the finance chair mentioned earlier, that doing those things that are important to keep our metrics uh in the right places they need to be.

Having said that, there are some specific city budget pressures that I'm going to bring back up again with you that again are pushing this budget.

One is inflation is always talked a lot about, and we're all feeling that inflation, particularly at the gas pumps right now.

We see that in our food prices and and other things.

But consumer inflation and government inflation are two different items.

We as a government are not buying consumer goods for the most part.

We're buying specific services and products that are aimed at the governmental sector.

So our inflation rate is running higher than the typical consumer CPI rates that you see out there.

Unfortunately, our revenue bases are also not keeping up with that inflation rate.

We have numbers from the county as late as Friday on what they think our property evaluations are going to be for next year.

Right now we're looking at, based on the county projections, about a half a percent, one half of a percent of growth in our property tax base.

That does not mean that we do not have construction and other things going on in this community, because we do.

But a fair amount of that because of our state statutes are in areas that are tax exempt, whether that's because they're nonprofits or they've got other exemptions as the hospital nonprofits or their universities.

There's a lot of good things going on in our community, but most of that are not adding to the tax base, except for the housing that you're approving.

So those things are positive.

As you see in all the meetings when you go out and meet with constituents and we see in our meetings, the demand for our current services remains high.

And quite honestly, most people stand up at this podium and ask you for increased service levels in a variety of areas across the community.

So we know that that demand is there for what we're doing and to continue moving forward with that.

And then finally, we do know that there's some potential changes going on in the General Assembly.

Several of us will be in Raleigh the next couple of days talking with our uh general assembly with our senators and representatives and listening to the leading municipalities, talk about some of those challenges that we're facing.

We do know that there's a likelihood that a constitutional amendment may come this November that will limit your ability to meet the needs of your constituents.

It will basically take away your authority, potentially, to decide what services you want to provide to the community.

We don't know what the details of that are, and the devil's always in the details.

We also know that reassessment is uh under attack.

The issue with uh assessments are a fairness issue for our communities.

When tax when your value goes up and relative to other properties, then most of the service we provide, public safety, transportation, are related to the value of your property.

If your police and fire are great examples of we're protecting your property from a variety of uh different issues that are out there, we have always based in local government in North Carolina our paying for those based on the value of our property.

Assessments were put in place to make sure that there was fairness in those assessments.

You can look at other states across the country that have limited those assessments, and you can see what impact that has because two neighbors can live right beside each other, one paying an assessment from 10, 20, 30 years ago because they haven't sold their house, and one paying a different assessment because they've moved in, and so the tax burden is on those new residents.

So dealing with those kind of issues on assessments can have a very negative impact on us attracting people into our community.

Continuing on that concept of rising costs and our stagnant revenues a little bit, just to give you some numbers on inflation.

During this period from 2019 to 2026, consumer inflation grew by 30 percent.

If you look at our costs, a cost for a police officer during that same period grew by 43 percent.

A cost for a fire truck grew by 96 percent.

Garbage trucks grew by almost 60 percent, and our building construction grew by 86 percent during that same time period.

If you look at the chart that's uh to my right, that shows you the CPI versus our revaluation adjusted growth.

So, how much we were getting in real growth in our tax base.

And you can see if you add up all those columns, it's 17 percent.

Only in one of those uh seven or eight years did we beat the inflation, the just a consumer inflation rate with the property tax rate.

And that is why you've seen increases in the tax rate over the last several years, basically to pay for the services that the community has asked for.

I'm gonna spend a few minutes talking about a resident satisfaction survey and uh because this is some good news items.

One is our community, our residents perceive our community as a great place to live, to work, to raise children, and appreciate the quality of services.

You can see we beat national and regional averages in all of those areas.

In addition, when you look at drill that down to particular services, for the vast majority of services we deliver, we also beat national and state averages on how residents perceive the services that we're getting.

We're showing a few there: fire, solid waste, water sewer, police, recreation, and parks.

That is a a good story to tell, and that's directly attributed to to your leadership and to the staff that is providing services in those departments.

Our residence survey, though, also tells us where the community would like to see us put some attention.

So we so we're not only looking at the good, but we're also looking at the areas where they have said they want to see us place some priorities.

And most of these areas you are paying attention to.

Transportation infrastructure.

A lot of that goes to resurfacing and roads.

You've added additional funds towards resurfacing and we're maintaining those funds this year.

Community aesthetics, you want us to be a cleaner community.

We are putting additional effort into making sure that we're keeping our community clean and our neighborhoods clean.

Crime prevention and police visibility.

In the crime prevention, you've got money in this budget and you've approved us looking at new technology for the police department to use to better deliver services.

And in terms of visibility, you've at you've allowed us to put in the pay ranges that are necessary for us to this year for the first time, I think in a decade that we have actually increased the number of police officers on our force.

So we're headed in the right direction on police visibility.

We've spent a tremendous amount of time on public transit and looking at new ways to deliver those services within the resources that you've given us.

We've increased those over the last couple of years.

We're maintaining those in this year, but delivering those cross city routes and opportunities for people to get from where they are to where they want to be in as quick a time as possible with better headways.

Parks and facilities maintenance is being improved.

We still have area we're working on uh our assessment of all our facilities, so we'll continue to bring back issues there in parking operations.

Despite the what you hear on both sides, you have modernized the parking operation system so that the vast majority of folks that go ahead and use the apps are tell us that this is a much easier way to do to do parking.

And as we go to other communities, we know parking is not free anywhere.

So this we're we're doing the right things to modernize, and those folks, as once they learn how to use the systems, I think they'll be appreciative of those as well.

Housing affordability, you've talked about that now just a moment ago.

Over the last two years, and including the things that you've adopted tonight, when we look at things that have actually been put in place that are under construction or that you've approved to be to be constructed, that's almost a thousand units of affordable housing that you have approved and participated in providing to the community.

That doesn't include the things that are privately funded by themselves.

So there are other projects out there, but just ones that you've publicly participated in has been almost a thousand units.

And youth program is getting a lot of attention.

We do have a variety of things going on, including in our own uh the organization for pools, parks uh programs for summer programs.

We hire over a hundred youth every year to work in the city.

So I know there's going to be efforts to to do perhaps more of that and invite the community to do more, but we are doing a lot to help with uh youth programming.

The other thing we do is an employee survey.

I'm not going to spend as much time on this, but there's key things that our employees are looking for.

One is to be recognized for the good work that they do, and I appreciate your efforts in helping us do that and efforts like our employee engagement team and our HR department that are working on efforts to recognize uh and reward our employees for the good work they do.

They want the equipment, tools, and resources necessary to do their jobs.

And again, we're continuing that enhancement, particularly on our equipment on our IT side, to put those resources in place to help our employees do what they need to do.

They want to be informed about what's going on, just like our constituents.

So we're doing a lot of extra effort in terms of communicating with the departments and providing the IT resources that are necessary to get the information they need so they know what's going on.

And then in professional development, uh, I think probably uh every last one of you have asked me to continue to focus on training our employees so they're el so they're able to take on new responsibilities and to do their jobs better than they're doing today.

Not that they're doing I think our employees are doing a great job today, but this is uh continuing to move the bar and to move them up.

So there is additional funding that we scraped in to this budget to provide professional, more professional development throughout the organization.

I mentioned before our strategic plan, and here's the four focus areas that are there.

I'm gonna spend just a few minutes talking about uh each of those as we go through.

Economic prosperity.

Here's where we see a lot of our affordable housing.

You you did it says 356 units.

I think it was closer to there's a couple of extra ones added in there, about 380 tonight on the agenda that you approved.

We've you've approved uh expanding our term program, which is helping us to help those residents that need a little bit of rehab help on their houses to keep them in place to work with them on doing that.

We've created speculative building loan program.

I talked about our tax base is not growing as fast as we would like it to, and so we need to continue to work on things that will help push that at economic development needle forward, and this is a big one that's there.

We have about 17 million dollars worth of economic development project funding that's in the in the hopper ready to go.

So we're gonna be continuing to work with you and through a CIP project on looking at how we put those dollars to the best use to make sure that we're adding sustainable growth into our community.

And then I'm gonna talk a little bit more later about sustainable funding for our housing needs, but you had put together 10 million dollars, you spent, I think a little over uh three and a half million tonight of those funds, assuming all those projects go through, and we probably have a couple of million dollars left.

But long term, we're gonna need a more sustainable source of funding for our housing programs.

And looking at having a livable community, uh there's a variety of things that have gone on.

Uh we have the downtown amphitheater project that's that's being pursued right now.

Uh there's some tremendous improvements that have been made at Winston Lake Golf Course.

There's more to come there.

There's a whole variety of parks that we have made some effort at bringing them up to speed and up to date.

There's more to be done there, no doubt about that.

But we are making improvements.

As I mentioned, we're funding law enforcement technologies to respond faster.

The drone program allows us to see what's happening in particular areas and understand what we need to send in terms of officers and not sending officers that we don't need to be there or helping the officers when they go be able to get to the spot they need to so they can apprehend whoever they they need to be looking for.

Our transit zones are routes that and the microtransit uh zones are new innovations that are going on in our transit system that should bring significant benefits to our ridership.

They also automated and put in a new uh web package for that.

I know at least one council member is as taken advantage of and used and uh to ride the the bus system and is as said that it works really easily.

So we encourage people to do that.

So there are lots of different capital projects that we're looking at to make this a livable community.

Thank you.

In terms of community advocacy and engagement, as I mentioned, we're going to Raleigh uh this week to engage with our leaders.

You've also you've had our state leaders here already this month before the the general session started to talk about priorities and needs of our community.

You've done the same with our federal officials, both in Washington and here locally.

One of our congressmen is going to be coming to visit the real-time crime center just this week to see what was going on and how we can they perhaps can either model what we're doing or provide additional resources to help with where we're doing.

We held a city services expo where we had all departments available for the community to come out and understand and ask questions about what services are being provided.

We hope to continue that and and continue to increase the number of folks that come out uh to take advantage of that opportunity.

We're using every effort to engage in social media to get city information out to our community, uh developing grant strategies and doing additional grant writing and reporting as uh many of you have asked us to continue to emphasize.

And then finally, in good government, which is our broad area, and I've mentioned several of these.

We've lowered our debt matrix, uh, and which is a great thing that will allow us to keep our triple A bond rating and to issue debt as it's needed.

We have done confidence class studies for 27 percent of our employees, and at the end of this next year, we'll be at two-thirds, 67 percent of our employees will have had a recent job classification review.

We're improving our equipment replacement schedules, we're making enhancements to our procurement efforts to make them uh seamless and to get more bidders.

We're working on completing the capital projects that you've got in place, including energy reduction and sustainability efforts, and we're working the community facility assessment that you approved last year is underway, and our consultant is on site reviewing those our buildings right now at the first phase, and we'll continue to do that so that this fall we'll have a significant report to bring back to you on what we can accomplish and look to see in these areas.

So just a little bit about the numbers because Scott's gonna do a much better job of going through all the details on this, and we want to give you some opportunity to get through the budget and and to read those.

But so this is it really is just a summary of where we're at.

And looking at uh funds, because unlike the private sector, we as the public self sector have to operate under uh the governmental accounting standards, which means we have to group things by funds and keep the funds separated.

So the general fund is the one that most people understand and we talk about a lot about.

That's where your police, your fire, your sanitation, transportation, parks and recreation, all those major services that we do is in the general fund.

That fund is increasing by 3.1 percent.

There are some accounting changes in there, and so and we'll talk about some of those more in a minute.

So if you if you kind of did it at apples to apples, it would be closer to 5%, but 3.1 percent is is what the number is going up.

Our special revenue and enterprise funds or our utilities, uh, stormwater, our solid uh waste landfill, uh, those types of activities, those are going up 4.1 percent.

Our debt funds, as we've talked about, we've restructured our debt.

Those things that are short-term debt, we've paid those off so that we're not continuing to pay interest on things like cars and desk and uh other things that really don't have a long 20-30 year useful life.

We those are being paid off.

We're gonna do those as pay as you go financing.

And then we're gonna look at using our debt service as it was intended to do long-term projects that will benefit the community for 30 plus years.

If you look at that, that looks like a 65% reduction, but that's because we're getting rid of that short-term debt and the interest payments along with that.

If you look again at apples to apples, it's about a 2% increase.

So we're maintaining our debt service on our long-term capital debt and capacity to issue debt in the future, but eliminating some of that short-term debt.

And then capital projects is basically about the same.

There's a little bit of change over there from year to year.

Quite honestly, a large part of that is in our utilities funds who who does have some variation from year to year as we go along.

And I should have said overall, you'll see that our adjusted change in our all of our funds is like 3.5%, even though it shows a slight uh negative if you're just looking at the raw numbers.

What does this mean on the revenue side?

As I mentioned, uh based on our assessment growth that we have in property taxes, we've worked very hard to try to keep the property tax increase in line with inflation.

So what we're recommending is a 4.6% increase in our property tax assessment.

So the average homeowner would actually see about a five, a little less than $5.50 increase per month for this increase.

This is 2.6 cents off of our uh total uh rate, which is currently 56.7 cents, so it would be 59.3 cents or 2.6 cent increase, or this, as I said, a little less than $5.50 a month.

The water and sewer the utility commission has recommended a 5% increase in our utility fees, which will amount to about $3 a month for again an average household residential user of our water and sewer services.

Solid waste disposal, that's when folks come out to the landfill, there's a $1 increase in that.

Most residents won't see that at all, uh except for it does impact us because the vast majority of the waste that goes there comes from our solid waste trucks.

So we'll be paying a little more to do that.

The landfill is one of those areas that we'll be coming back this fall to talk a lot about with you because we're going to need to expand the landfill at some time in the near future, and a landfill expansion project is a 10 to 15 year horizon to do.

So that takes a long time, and so we're we're looking at some additional sales and some additional opportunities that we'll be bringing back to you.

Stormwater is a 4% increase, again, in line with the utility that we typically do.

And there's a few other small fees that are in there, like picnic shelters that are uh basically intended for the those are when somebody rents those to use those.

Uh that's just to keep up with uh the inflationary cost to provide the services to do that.

Special programs the same way.

Some of those programs that we have to try to make sure that they're affordable to the community, but also that we're covering the cost.

Typically to open up a building to make sure someone you've got to have a staff member there, you've got to clean it up afterwards, so just to recover those costs.

Some of the other fees are the same things or just small items that we're trying to keep up with our inflationary cost.

We're in the home stretch.

So strategic priorities and decisions.

A couple of things that I just want to continue to make sure or to make sure is uh at the forefront of your thought as you're reading through the budget.

One is we talked about affordable housing and the need for a sustainable long-term funding source.

Um I am recommending that you consider a half-cent increase in the property tax rate to be dedicated toward housing and unhoused services.

I think you all know the need that's out there.

You've heard your residents talk about uh constituents talk about the need for these things, whether that's helping the folks that are unhoused or helping the folks that are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

To continue the program that we have, we need a sustainable funding source.

So that that's the easy one that council can debate and vote up or down and decide to add to it or partially add to it or do some other numbers.

Most of our counterparts across the state have usually one cent dedicated to affordable housing.

So this would be a step in that direction if council wants to do that this year.

I've talked about future funding for facility upgrades.

I know uh most of you, if not all of you went out to see some of our facilities.

We have some facilities that are in very poor condition.

We are working on those right now.

We have moved staff out of some of those worst buildings, but we're still work to do.

Uh the Lowry Street, we know the facility assessment study will come back and give us some information, but we do know that our city yard needs to be moved, period.

And so we're working very hard on that one.

Lowry Street will be the place where most of those folks end up going, but that is gonna take some dollars to do that.

Resurfacing, I mentioned before, we're maintaining those dollars that we've got for resurfacing, but we'd like to have resurfacing at a 30-year schedule, meaning that the typical road in the city would expect to be resurfaced once every 30 years.

Now that still means some heavily traveled roads get done more, and if you're on a cul-de-sac, you might be done less.

But to do that, we would need to increase the funds we've got set aside for resurfacing from the 7.2 million we have now to about 12 million dollars.

So that's a big lift.

We don't have that in there this year, but we know that that's a concern that the community continues to ask us to look at how do we improve that.

And we're looking at a variety of ways of doing that, but just to make sure you understand we are underfunded in what we should be doing there.

And then as I've mentioned before, our employee benefits, uh costs uh accruals and uh total compensation.

Uh you you've taken a first step this year, and we've dealt with us uh one portion of the workforce, uh significant another portion will that will be coming to you uh next uh spring to be a part of the next budget cycle.

But but we have you've established a pattern and we certainly appreciate that of saying we want to be competitive in the market.

So we'll have to continue to do that.

And competitive in total compensation means both benefits and salary.

Part of our issue in this in our workforce is that we've we've we've uh been out of balance a little bit with more on benefits and less on salary.

We're trying to bring those both back into alignment.

I will tell council that one of the big drivers of our costs this year is health care benefits.

Uh fortunately for staff, we've been able to absorb health care increases for probably the last eight to ten years.

This year, the budget in front of you goes back to providing a split of those costs.

Roughly 75% of the employer paying it and 25% of the employee paying those to get that back to uh a reasonable kind of uh expectation of where we're gonna go there.

So we'll have more information on that, but that actually won't take effect until the next calendar year.

So we'd go in effect in January of 27.

Uh but that but that is a major driver in our budget.

I think benefits are up probably eight million dollars, six to eight million dollars overall.

Just as a to help with the community watching this and others to we do have a whole variety of of council uh work sessions that are coming up.

There are some other opportunities where we're out in the in the public when we have public meetings asking people for input on what they would like to see enhanced or reduced as a part of services.

I will tell you that we generally get a lot more of enhancement requests, uh very few to limit it.

Um and that depends on where you're where you're at, which which those items change from place to place.

But just as a reminder, we have a budget workshop starting on the 12th at 2 p.m.

Uh here in City Hall, a second one on the 14th, and we'll cover the operating capital budget uh nonprofit agencies uh and most of the details in the budget between those two sessions.

There will be an actual public hearing on the budget for the for the community on May 18th.

That's required by state statute.

And then on the 21st, you'll have a final workshop to review all of the information that you've gotten so far and that you questions that you may have asked for us.

And then this is with a anticipated adoption of the budget at your council meeting on June 1st.

So I I appreciate your your attendance.

I I certainly appreciate all of the work that you have already put into helping us put this budget on the table.

And uh and I'll thank you in advance for the time you're gonna be spending in reading and looking over all this material.

If specific questions come up as you're reading that, I do encourage you to to let me or Scott or one of the ACMs know uh so we can be better prepared to answer those questions for you in the budget work sessions.

And if you have a question, likely some of your colleagues have the same question, so it's helpful for us to know those uh and to get you the best information we can.

Um we were not planning on taking any any questions today, but if there's something that's burning, I'll I'll do that.

Guess what Hall's got one burning.

I do thank you, Mayor Joins.

Uh, manager Pate, thank you.

Glad that you're drinking water.

Take time to do that as I'm talking.

But real quick, seems like in the past that in between some of these meetings, there may have been an opportunity for community members to have maybe a pop-up session, or maybe there was some information or something on social.

Is that in between these meetings or has that been done or did I miss that?

Uh but both.

Okay.

Um we've done several of those.

We've been out at a variety of community meetings already.

The uh the big public meeting that we had obviously was was on on the budget last week or the week before.

Uh there's at least two more meetings that uh Scott and his staff have planned to be in attendance at that's on their uh I think it's on their website that that talks about where you can go and provide input.

The the documents, all of the documents will be available right now uh tomorrow on our website and available for the public to look at.

So we encourage folks to to read the documents, ask send in questions or comments and ask us uh provide their input on the on the budget.

So yes, there will be several opportunities for the community to provide input.

Thank you.

Any other burning questions uh council member Clark?

Say briefly we do have a number of meetings as you see on there.

Um all know where my office is.

If you do have any questions or concerns, please bring them to me.

I do try to incorporate everyone's ideas, thoughts, or whatever.

Uh I do think while every year is is is an important budget.

I think we're being watched very carefully uh by folks in Raleigh.

Um I won't get into what happened last year.

It wasn't our fault, but the average citizen saw a mighty big number.

Uh because we followed the plan that the state put together, which required a revaluation of property.

So anyway, we won't get into that either.

But anyway, I am available anytime, so please come see me if you have questions or comments.

And I uh do invite all council members, not just the uh finance committee, but all council members to join us for these budget sessions because I really need everyone's input because I'm gonna need everybody's support at the end.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Clark.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Pate.

I'm gonna just say to Councilmember Clark's point, uh assessments would be better to done more often instead of less often.

Yeah, because if you would actually do them on an annual basis or biannual, then you wouldn't see these huge increases from year to year.

Yep.

Thank you.

All right, council members, that's all on our agenda.

Uh I have one more thing.

Okay, Mr.

Clark.

Just to get my uh time in today.

Um we talked a lot about housing earlier, just as another data point.

Uh I have two new projects getting ready to start in the West Ward.

These do not require council approval because the lands are already zone RS9.

Uh they're both out in the Metal Arc area.

Collectively, I would say it's 350 homes.

Probably in the four to four fifty range.

Close close enough.

Um, but just want to let you know there's there's houses popping up in a lot of places.

It doesn't always make the paper or make this meeting.

Uh again, the site plan has to be approved by our planning department uh and planning board, but the there's no council need for council approval, so you normally would not hear about them.

Anyway, they're they're coming.

Thank you, Mr.

Clark.

Motion to adjourn.

So move.

Motion by uh second project second by council member joiner.

All those in favor of adjourning, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed no, we are adjourned.

All righty.