MINUTES
STATE
OF
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a regularly scheduled meeting at
Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman
Also present were:
Planning Director Anthony Starr, Fire Marshal Rocky Hyder, Finance Director J.
Carey McLelland, Deputy Clerk to the Board Terry Wilson, Engineering and
Facility Services Director Marcus Jones, Associate County Attorney Sarah
Zambon, Research and Budget Analyst Amy Brantley, Communications Officer Pam
Brice, DSS Director Liston Smith, and Sheriff’s Department PIO Joe Johnson.
Absent was: Assistant County Manager Selena Coffey.
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Moyer called
the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Commissioner Mark
Williams led the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
INVOCATION
County Manager Steve
Wyatt gave the invocation.
INFORMAL PUBLIC COMMENTS
DISCUSSION/ADJUSTMENT OF AGENDA
Commissioner
Williams made the motion to adopt the agenda as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
CONSENT AGENDA
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to approve the consent
agenda as presented. All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
Minutes
Draft minutes were
presented for the Board’s review and consent approval of the following
meetings:
August 2, 2007, special meeting
August 30, 2007, special meeting
September 4, 2007, regular meeting
September 19, 2007, regular meeting
October 1, 2007, regular meeting
Tax Collector’s Report
Terry F. Lyda, Tax
Collector, had presented the tax collector’s report dated October 5, 2007 for
the Board’s review and consent approval.
Tax Refunds
Tax Releases
Case Manager Positions Request
A bill passed by the
General Assembly on July 31, 2007 lifted the State’s cap on the number of
county residents the Special Assistance In-Home Case Management program can
serve.
Program expansion would
allow seventy (70) additional county residents at high-risk of out-of-home
placement the choice to receive Special Assistance Program case management
services in their home.
Establishing two (2) case
manager positions; and (2) approximately 6% county funding (94% Federal revenue
is available). All county costs ($4866)
will be covered by funds already allocated in Social Services’ budget.
|
Staffing Costs for Two
(2) Additional Case Manager Positions |
||
|
Federal Revenue |
|
Total Cost |
|
$83,070 |
$4866 |
$87,936 |
Suggested motion: “I move that the Board approve, based on
available revenue to cover costs, the establishment of two case manager
positions in order to increase service to seventy additional at-risk county
residents this fiscal year.”
Commissioner appointed Firemen’s Relief Fund Trustee for
Gerton
Fire & Rescue
respectfully requested that the Board appoint Bill Mitchell to fulfill the term
of Fred Keihl as Commissioner appointed Trustee of the NC Firemen’s Relief
Fund. Mr. Kiehl had moved to
Suggested motion: “I
move that the Board appoint Bill Mitchell to replace Fred Kiehl as Trustee of
the North Carolina Fire and Rescue.”
Revision to Tipping Fee Waiver Policy
At the request of the
Board, the Tipping Fee Waiver Policy was revised to allow the
Suggested motion: “I move that the Board approve the revised
Tipping Fee Waiver Policy as presented.”
10th
The 2007 Henderson
County Benefit Toy Run Parade Day has been scheduled for Saturday, November 17th,
2007. The proclamation setting aside
this day as Henderson County Benefit Toy Run Parade Day is an attachment to this
set of minutes.
Suggested motion: “I
move that the Board adopt a proclamation proclaiming November 17, 2007 as The
2007 Henderson County Benefit Toy Run Parade Day.”
Resolution
The Board has received a
request from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to support
improvements to
Suggested motion: “I move that the Board adopt the Resolution
supporting Stepp Avenue Improvements as presented.”
NOMINATIONS
Notification of Vacancies
The Board was informed
of the following vacancy which will appear on the next agenda for nominations:
1.
Planning for Older
Adults Block Grant Advisory Committee – 1 vac.
Nominations
Chairman Moyer reminded
the Board of the following vacancies and opened the floor to nominations:
1.
Animal Services
Committee – 1 vac.
Chairman Moyer noted
that the person in position #1 was unable to serve another term and nominated
Lisa Beddingfield for position #1. There
were no other nominations. Chairman
Moyer made the motion to accept Lisa Beddingfield to position #1 by
acclamation. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
2.
Child Fatality
Prevention Team – 1 vac.
No
nominations were made at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
3.
Community Child
Protection Team (CCPT) – 2 vac.
Commissioner McGrady nominated
Patricia Jones for reappointment to position #3. There were no other nominations. Chairman
Moyer made the motion to accept Patricia Jones for reappointment to position #3
by acclamation. All voted in favor and
the motion carried.
Commissioner McGrady
noted that he was still working to fill position #1, which was the chair
position, and hoped to have someone by the next meeting.
4.
No nominations were made
at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
5.
Commissioner Young
nominated Jay Thorndike to position #1.
An application had not been received to date so this item was rolled to
the next meeting.
6.
Hospital Corporation
Board of Directors – 1 vac.
Chairman Moyer noted
that there were two prior nominations, Fielding Lucas and Sherri Brewer. There were no other nominations. The Board was polled by the Clerk with one
vote each.
|
Chuck McGrady |
Mark Williams |
Bill Moyer |
Charlie Messer |
Larry Young |
|
1. Sherri Brewer |
1. Fielding Lucas |
1. Sherri Brewer |
1. Sherri Brewer |
1. Fielding Lucas |
Sherri Brewer was
appointed to position # 11 with three (3) of the five (5) votes.
7.
Juvenile Crime
Prevention Council – 7 vac.
Commissioner
McGrady nominated Karen Saine for position #18 as Parks and Recreation
representative. There were no other nominations. Chairman
Moyer made the motion to accept Karen Saine to position #18 by
acclamation. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
8.
Planning for Older
Adults Block Grant Advisory Committee – 2 vac.
No nominations were made
at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
9.
Senior Volunteer
Services Advisory Council – 2 vac.
Commissioner McGrady
nominated Toni C. Rhegness for position # 2 as recommended by Lee Ann Tucker of
10.
Solid Waste Advisory
Committee – 1 vac.
No nominations were made
at this time so this item was rolled to the next meeting.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The Henderson County
Blue Ribbon Committee on Illegal Immigration presented a final report dated
August 6, 2007. The purpose of the
committee was to assess, determine, and recommend the proper role and specific
steps that the Henderson County Board of Commissioners should take regarding
the issue of illegal immigration. Their
charge was to analyze the impact of illegal immigration on
Chairman Robert Heltman
stated that as the committee debated specific recommendations at length it was
found that there was no unanimous agreement on all recommendations, and
sometimes even concerning a given recommendation or its wording. Studies and reports were met with countering
studies and reports time and again.
Opposing positions hardened, and it was finally decided that the best
the committee could do was list the debated recommendations from all in general
categories.
MUTUALLY AGREED
RECOMMENDATIONS
1.
The
Board of Commissioners should obey and support Federal and State immigration
laws. The first responsibility of any
government is protection of its citizens and the committee suggested that the
Board take every possible step to move this program forward as rapidly as
possible, and to fully fund the Sheriff’s Department.
2.
Collect
and evaluate immigration data from county departments, particularly Health,
Social Services, Schools, and Law Enforcement, especially as new immigration
laws are enacted and/or old laws are enforced.
3.
Consider
creating a follow-on citizens committee, such as the Blue Ribbon Committee, to
again examine the immigration issue.
4.
5.
Encourage
6.
The
County should strongly endorse and support all recommendations made by Sheriff
Rick Davis regarding illegal immigration and illegal immigrant crime. It is especially important to reduce and
preferably eliminate illegal drug traffic in
7.
It
is very important for the County to send an unequivocal message to the public,
employers, and the media that is does not welcome illegal immigration for any
purpose, nor does it condone the employment of illegal immigrants for any
purpose. It should be the duty of the
8.
Discourage
substandard or overly intensive habitation of housing by a combination of
appropriate housing code measures and enforcement of same.
9.
Do
whatever possible within the political means and ways of the BOC to support the
businesses in Henderson County in their efforts to get Congress to reform our
immigration laws to a workable system in order to ensure a balanced and legal
supply of able and willing labor force for our county without negative
complications that come with the illegal immigration.
10.
Recognize
the economic contributions of our Hispanic labor force to out county’s economy.
ENFORCEMENT
1.
Encourage
the Employment of Eligibility Verification Program (EEV) use by all Henderson
County Employers as soon as possible.
2.
The
Sheriff’s department should investigate the employment record of anyone
identified as an illegal alien. The
identity of the employer should be noted and reported to the
3.
Tax
and Budget Planning: Establish a
long-range planning committee consisting of qualified County employees to
determine the impact of immigration on
4.
Despite
the burden on some sectors of the County economy and some employers, the County
must seek to phase out the employment of illegal immigration within three to
five years.
INTEGRATION
1.
Encourage
ESL (English as a Second Language) and US citizenship courses. Recognize individuals who tutor, perhaps
provide added classroom or other meeting space, and promote education of issues
concerning illegal immigration.
2.
Encourage
Drive Education for legal immigrants.
Again, provide moral support and recognition when these efforts are
already being taken by non-government organizations, churches, etc., and
provide space, equipment etc. as possible.
This should include instruction about insurance, legal rights and
responsibilities, etc.
3.
Note
that
4.
The
BOC should, by way of a written document, encourage the Sheriff’s Department to
be very clear and open about what violations trigger 278(g) interventions, to
act consistently with their public statements to the Latino community on the
subject and to ensure that the program is used to remove serious threats to
public safety rather than allow it to become an indiscriminate threat to all
immigrants.
5.
Consider
issuing IFD cards to and registering those undocumented immigrants with no
criminal records, who have a paying job and pay taxes (via the W-2
process). Consider extending public transportation
routes to better serve the origin/destination needs of the immigrant community
as a whole. Encourage carpooling with
centralized informational structure that makes it feasible.
6.
Using
volunteer organizations, implement bi-directional cultural awareness training
in order to dispel misconceptions and provide nondiscriminatory service to all
residents: Encourage that issues of
cultural diversity are included at all levels of the public schools’
curriculum.
7.
Refrain
from adopting resolutions or measures that will place the blame and the burden
of the faulty immigration system and the lack of enforcement thereof on the
business community of
8.
Assist
the business community in its efforts to obtain legal immigration status for
individuals that have been employed for 1 year or longer by the same employer,
under the verified assumption that all normal required payroll and other tax
withholdings have been make over the same time span and no criminal history
outside of the immigration related issues exists.
Some of the
recommendations conflict with others.
Mike Scruggs, a member
of the Blue Ribbon Committee on Illegal Immigration gave the following minority
report:
MINORITY REPORT
RECOMMENDATIONS
1.
The
first priority is for the County to support Sheriff Davis in his efforts to
implement the Federal 287g program allowing local officers to establish the
immigration status of criminals and assist the Federal Government in enforcing
pertinent
2.
3.
Encourage
EEV Program use by all
4.
5.
Establish
a long-range planning committee consisting of qualified County employees to
determine the impact of immigration on
6.
It
is important for the County to send an unequivocal message to the public,
employers, and the media that does not welcome illegal immigration for any
purpose, nor does it condone the employment of illegal immigrants for any
purpose. It should be the duty of the
7.
Despite
the burden on some sectors of the County economy and some employers, the County
must seek to phase out the employment of illegal immigration with three to five
years. As a guideline for this strategy
they recommend reading the Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder:
Downsizing Illegal Immigration – a Strategy of Attrition through Enforcement,
by Mark Krikorian, Dated May 2005.
8.
It
is important that
9.
Any
future committees on illegal immigration or immigration reform appointed by the
Board of Commissioners should consist of
Chairman Moyer stated
that the issue of the 287g program for the Sheriff’s Department continued to
come up. He requested County Manager
Steve Wyatt clarify the article in the paper as to what was going on.
County Manager
Chairman Moyer stated
that the Board has been stalled every time they have been to
Public Input
Glenn Rodgers had signed
up for public input and requested to speak during the illegal immigration
discussion. He stated that “The
Constitution is a shield, not a sword.” The
constitution takes particular pains to frame a complex system of government
designed with checks and balances to prevent the strong from taking advantage
of the weak. Every single one of these
ideas has application with respect to workers in the County who lack our
federal government’s permission to live and work here. Every single one of these ideas trump
whatever any of the rest of us may feel about the minor inconvenience of not
understanding foreign customs or languages or having to pay a small share of
our tax dollars to make sure that no one is denied the benefits of the social
safety net. Mr. Rodgers said “I am
enough of a realist to understand that if undocumented migrants did nothing but
steal jobs, depress wages, raise taxes, and commit heinous crimes, then every
law on the books should be used to get rid of them legally. The vast majority of undocumented workers in
this country, and this county, take jobs that the native population is
unwilling to do. They pay all the many
payroll taxes on their earnings, sales taxes and even, through their landlords,
contribute to local property tax revenues. They are predominantly law abiding.” Mr. Rodgers fails to see a substantial
difference between a fence along our southern border and the Berlin Wall. Both are nothing more than manifestations of
inadequacy and fear. He would hope that
here in Henderson County we can work to rise above such feelings, that we can
reach out and make sure the American Dream is available to all who truly
deserve it, not just those lucky enough to be here by an accident of birth.
Chairman Moyer stated
that at the forum held the previous night on Land Transfer Tax the League of
Women Voters is in the midst of coming up with a nationwide study on illegal
immigration, the cost, pros and cons, etc., and they hope to have some results
back in January.
There are a number of
reports and the Board of Commissioners will take all information under
advisement, see what happens when the Sheriff meets on the 287g program, and
schedule this on an up-coming agenda meeting for discussion when the Board is
ready to proceed.
REPORT
ON PUBLIC INPUT SESSIONS – 2007 FACILITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Corum Smith provided a preliminary status
report on the 2007 Facility Needs Assessment of Henderson County Parks and
Recreation along with the public input.
The final report is scheduled to be presented at the December 3
Commissioner meeting. Five Public Input
Sessions were held as follows:
The total number of comments received was 113
and are available by request. The
results are summarized below.
|
Rank |
Comment Subject |
Number |
|
1 |
Soccer |
28 |
|
2 |
|
24 |
|
3 |
Swimming Pool |
24 |
|
4 |
Greenways * |
17 |
|
5 |
More/Dedicated Funding |
10 |
|
6 |
Greenspace * |
9 |
|
7 |
|
8 |
|
7 |
Tennis (scheduling) |
8 |
|
8 |
|
5 |
|
8 |
|
5 |
|
9 |
|
4 |
|
9 |
|
4 |
|
10 |
No User Fees |
2 |
|
11 |
Full Size Baseball
Field |
1 |
|
11 |
Handicapped Access to
Playgrounds |
1 |
|
11 |
Jackson Park (maintenance) |
1 |
|
11 |
Recreation Website |
1 |
|
11 |
Restrict Tobacco Use |
1 |
*In
Regards to Greenways and Greenspace, “Rails to Trails” was mentioned,
converting the old railway that goes to Brevard into greenways and walking
areas. These numbers do reflect some repetition
due to same citizen attending more than 1 meeting.
County Manager
Chairman Moyer stated
that now that the process is in place, they must now build these priorities
into the capital projects to weigh how much money is available for capital
(including schools, recreation, etc) and match it against the monies
available.
MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT FUND ALLOCATION
Maintenance of Effort
funding applications were received by the county in early October, and provided
to Western Highlands Local Management Entity (LME) for review and
recommendations. Arthur Carder, CEO of
Western Highlands LME, had reviewed the information. In the next four to six
months Western Highlands will be looking at trying to expand the effort around
more. In conclusion primary care clinics
and medical practices working in a consultative role with the able health care
providers to try to change the whole access point to their service array.
Chairman Moyer asked in
respect to the agencies, what
Arthur Carder responded
that in the past they had not had a role in this. This year new legislation was passed saying
that the MOE Funds must be reported to the state in terms of how they are
utilized. They will, in the future, need
to make sure that the funds are used according to the defined purposes.
County Manager
RECESS
Chairman Moyer called
for a 5 minute break.
UPDATE ON BLUE RIDGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ISSUES
Dr. Molly Parkhill,
President of
Strategic Plan
The college is currently
conducting a strategic plan which will help guide the direction of the college
for the next five to seven years. They
have already conducted surveys both externally and will begin surveying the
students and faculty staff shortly. They
have received data from the North Carolina Community College System that
provides demographic trends and economic trends for our community that we will
be triangulating. The college will be
conducting focus groups during the month of November and then the Planning
Council, made up of representatives from faculty, staff and administration,
will be reviewing that data and developing goals and objectives that will be
addressing the training, education, economic and workforce development needs of
the community. The Board of Trustees
will be retreating in December and they will be finalizing the plan. At that point they hope to invite the Board
of Commissioner to their campus for a joint meeting with the Board of Trustees
in order to share the plan and discuss how the Board of Commissioners can aid
them on achieving their goals.
Technology/Education
Building Construction
Dr. Parkhill gave an
update on the college’s construction project.
The new Technology/Education Development building is on schedule. The contractor informs that it is 72% complete
as of this week. Dr. Parkhill shared a
notebook containing photos showing the progress of the construction with the
Board. This building provides
approximately 18,000 square foot of training; 34 classrooms and labs used for
basic and advanced instruction in basic technology for business and industry in
training. They are developing a virtual
reality training center which will provide a simulated 3D stair topic training
environment for the fire fighters and law enforcement personnel. This virtual reality center will also serve
as the core for their new curriculum in 3D visualization that will help support
advance manufacturing, industry and architectural. Also included as part of the new facility, is
a 1,000 square foot conference center.
It will seat up to 1000 people.
The restoration project
on the lake is underway and began last week.
This project was originally estimated to be around $70,000 and this
amount was secured from the Department of Transportation. Because of the requirements by the Department
of Transportation and NCDENR for a siphoning system with a splash pool the cost
came in much higher when it went out for bid.
The lowest bid came in around $150,000 and they were able to negotiate
it down to $134,000. Some County funds
will be used for this project along with funds pulled from personnel funds that
had been set aside for expansion of personnel with maintenance, as well as,
some of their minor repair and renovation projects. They will be approaching the Department of
Transportation to let them know about the increase costs and ask that they
consider giving BRCC additional funds for this project.
Intercollegiate
Athletics
A statewide task force
was formed by the NC Community College Systems to address intercollegiate
athletics in the community college system and a report will be presented this
week at the State Board meeting. BRCC is
not allowed to use State funds for intercollegiate athletics; however they are
allowed to use non-state funds such as private funds, which are consistent with
the intent of the benefactor or donor, grants, concessions, fundraisers,
booster club, contributions, and any kind of support they receive from local
municipalities, schools or college such as facility use. Institutional funds such as student activity
fees, book store, and vending revenues can be used. County funds can be used but must require
approval from the local
Refund Proposal
A 5 year refund plan
proposal was provided to the Board for county funds restitution of the
$62,948.10 that was spent on intercollegiate athletics without approval by the
Board of Commissioners.
Chairman Moyer stated
that discussions had been held with representatives of the Community College
with respect to the monies that were in question. He felt that the 5 year payback was a
reasonable solution and the Board did not want to punish the students at all
for what happened in the past.
Chairman Moyer made the motion that the Board of
Commissioners approve the 5 year refund schedule for $62,948.10 that was put
forth in the recommendation by
The County had been
notified by the NCDOT Public Transportation Division that its Intercity funding
allocation for the
Chairman Moyer stated
that each year the state has pushed the county into keeping this route and
agreed to fund it. Now midyear the
county received indication that they are going to cut off funding at the end of
December, which is a questionable practice.
Anthony Starr noted that
the Planning Staff had been verbally notified that the State intended to fund
the
Rider ship on the
The three options
available are to 1) continue the route and fund the shortfall, 2) discontinue
the route, and 3) fund the shortfall through other grant and local share
funding.
Chairman Moyer made the motion that the Board of
Commissioners recommend the blue route be discontinued unless between now and
December 31, 2007, a funding plan is worked out with the municipalities and
state grants. The vote passed 4 to 1 with Commissioner
McGrady voting nay.
LAND TRANSFER TAX REFERENDUM UPDATE
Chairman Moyer stated that
the Board had received numerous calls in response to the Land Transfer
Tax. One citizen had stated that he
would not support the Land Transfer Tax because the Impact Fee was the way to
go. Chairman Moyer had explained the law
to the citizen and the fact that they could not legally or illegally adopt an
Impact Fee to solve the issues.
Commissioner Young
stated that by adopting the Land Transfer Tax it would go to pay mainly debt
service on capital projects such as schools and will free the money up to do
funding for example for Parks and Recreation projects where there has been no
funds in the past.
Commissioner McGrady brought
up the letter from the John Lock Society in the Hendersonville Tribune stating
that the Land Transfer Tax was not needed.
Chairman Moyer explained
that the letter was given to every county doing the Land Transfer Tax assuming
every counties issues and needs are the same.
He felt this was a poor way to do research and it did not address the
back log of school capacity needs. It
also states that if the County would not do economic development that the
County would have more money available to pay for these projects. First of all the money would be insignificant
with respect to the cost of capital projects.
Commissioner Williams
sees the Land Transfer Tax as being another tool that helps to take the
pressure off the property tax payers.
The tax is based on the amount of money changing hands.
Bob Williford of the
Chamber or Commerce stated that their Board of Directors had met a couple of
weeks prior and discussed the Land Transfer Tax and came out in support of
it. When looking at the three (3)
alternatives; property tax, land transfer tax or the potential for a
combination sales tax and property tax in May and determining which would have
less impact on the business community they determined that the Land Transfer
Tax as the best option.
Commissioner Young said
that the Land Transfer Tax is the closed thing to an Impact Fee that would be
seen in
Commissioner Messer
wanted to get the facts to the people and get them educated about the Land
Transfer Tax and let them decide.
Andrew Tate with
Partnership for Economic Development stated that their Board of Directors had
met the prior week and voted unanimously in support of the Land Transfer
Tax. This generates revenue for the
county specifically for capital improvements.
Chairman Moyer stated
that the issue would be on the November 6 ballot as a referendum for the
public. Early voting starts on the 18th
and absentee ballots were already going out.
Commissioner Young noted
that this tax could not go higher unless the legislature rewrites the law and
gives approval and then it must be put back out to the public again for
referendum.
Russ Burrell stated that
the Board had a public hearing on the noise ordinance and they had received a
draft set that addressed all the concerns.
He requested that the Board look over the draft and place it on a future
agenda.
County Manager
There was nothing
further at this time.
IMPORTANT DATES
Annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet
Chairman Moyer reminded
those in attendance and those watching on television of the annual volunteer
appreciation banquet to recognize members serving on Boards and Committees,
will be held on Tuesday, October 23 at
November 21, 2007 Regular Meeting
Chairman Moyer noted
that the second meeting in November was the day before Thanksgiving and not a
good day due to citizens traveling during the holiday. He asked that the Board consider canceling
this meeting unless something special came up and at the November 5 meeting
they take action to cancel the meeting.
CANE CREEK WATER & SEWER DISTRICT – no
business
CLOSED SESSION
Commissioner McGrady made the motion for the Board to go
into closed session as allowed pursuant to NCGS 143-318.11 for the following
reason(s):
1. (a)(4) To
discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of industries or other
business in the area served by the public body.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
ADJOURN
Commissioner McGrady
made the motion to adjourn the meeting.
All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Attest:
Teresa L. Wilson, Deputy Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer,
Chairman