Town of Fletcher Agenda Review Meeting Minutes January 3, 2022  Call the meeting to order at: 06:00 pm Those who were in attendance are as follows:  Mayor Preston Blakely Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy Councilman Trevor Lance Councilwoman Sheila Franklin Town Manager Mark Biberdorf Planning & Zoning Director Eric Rufa Moment of Silence or: reflection: Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Preston Blakely ***Public Comments*** None at this time.  Approval of minutes-corrections, additions or deletions  (12/13) meeting. Council Updates  Mayor Blakely asked that the minutes be reviewed for approval at the regular  Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy stated that he wanted to apologize to Councilman Trevor Lance and Mayor Preston Blakely for not being at the December meeting.  Consent Agenda Taxi refunds/releases  No comments were made on the consent agenda at this time.    Continuation of public hearing for approval of an economic development agreement and purchase and sale agreement for Town Center project- Ashely Mayor Blakely stated that this public hearing will continue next week at the regular Discussion of options for filling Council seat in District 2-Mark Biberdorf, Mayor Blakely stated that he knew that Mayor Pro-Tem Bobl Davy had nominated Keith Reid and he then went over the information attached in the agenda packet concerning appointments to a council seat. He stated that according to Coates & Cannons there are two options where you can nominate an individual. There is the motion and vote method where an individual is selected and voted on by council and that person would fill the vacant seat. Then there is nomination and ballot method which Iprefer where the candidates would fill out an application for the process.  Anderson, Sanford Holshouser Law Firm.  council meeting. Town Manager.  Discussion Followed:  Council agrees to do a press release announcing the vacancy with an application process. There will be a 2 week deadline and then a special call meeting will be  scheduled for January 24 at 5:00 pm to select a candidate.  Budget estimate for planningpavingprojects-Ben Cathey, McGill Associates. Town Manager Mark Biberdorf stated that he spoke with Ben Cathey today and he has been working on this with public works. They will give a pretty good estimate of actual construction costs. He is hoping in the next couple of days to have the construction estimate and he will present that and then we try and make a decision tor move forward with the project. Even if the budget estimate is over our anticipated revenues we usually bid everything that is on the list and have been fortunate to get competitive bids. It the bids get too high we can put alternates in there.  Comments from the Town Manager Mark Biberdorf.  Ihave a hard copy of the budget schedule for you and Iwanted to double check and see if these dates will work. The dates in particular are the March 22 Budget workshop where department heads present their full budget requests. The other day is the budget retreat where Ir make the recommended budget presentation to you. Ihave this dated scheduled as May 7 which is the first Saturday and this is also    mother's day weekend which we have been trying to stay away from. WhatI recommend is that we could go back to April 30 or go to May 14 if May 7 is not a  good time.  Council agrees on April 30 for the Budget Retreat meeting.  On the demolition of the buildings for the town center projectIa am working on the RFP right now. Iwould like to try and get it out this month and have it back in February with the lowest responsible bidder for you to approve.  Discussion Followed:  We are: not doing the Chili cook off this year. Parks & Recreation is doing the Polar Bear 5K this year on January 29th. Hopefully we can do that chili cook-off next year. Mayor Blakely asked for a motion to go into Closed Session and it was sO moved by Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy and seconded by Councilman Trevor Lance.  Motion carries all in favor.  Went into Closed Session at: 06:40 pm  Closed Session per NCGS 143-318.11 (5) "Contractual Matters"  Came out of Closed Session at: 09:18 pm  Councilwoman Sheila Franklin made a motion to adjourn and it was seconded by  Councilman Trevor Lance. Motion carries all in favor. Adjourned: 09:20 pm  Approved: 2-4-32 Date  RBy Mayor Prestonl Blakely    Town of Fletcher Council Meeting Minutes January 10, 2022  Call the meeting to order at: 04:00 pm  Councilwoman Sheila Franklin was not here at this time.  Pre-Budget Presentation from Department Heads for the upcoming FY 22/23.  IT-Mathew Horton  We will not be seeing al lot of change the biggest thing we have coming is to update the camera system in the park and here at town hall. Iti is in need of total replacement. Our options is to host the data here at town hall or on the cloud with a recurring fee. We are currently getting proposals on this. Iam thinking this is going Henderson County switched to a new dispatch system and this affects us aswe are tied to their system. As it is we paid for our share of licenses to the system and for We are in the process of doing the AV system upgrades andIt thank you for approving this last time. We actually had the amplifier to the system in this room blow up so iti is ai miracle that the system is working at all. We will have to do a change order to have the amplifier replaced as this was not in the original budget. Councilman Trevor Lance asked how difficult would it be to do a Facebook live/ YouTube to stream our meetings for the public. Iknow these options are free and that would make the meetings available and they can be archived and available for Mathew Horton it would not be too hard it would be totally independent of the other system. This room is kind of difficult with the vaulted ceiling and we would probably want to have two angles one: for you guys and one for the speakers as well. The management ofi it and the training of who is going to operate it would be the hardest part. The software on the laptop that is actually capturing this audio right nowI believe that it has an option that could actually manage this for us. Iwill reach out to the company and get a price on this upgrade and what it would cost.  to cost between 20,000 and 25,000.  what we used Idon't know what the new cost will be on this.  people who could not make it to the meetings.  Discussion Followed:    Administration, Professional Services & Town Facilities Assistant Town Administration Department is salaries for this department which includes Mark, Professional Services is auditor, legal fees, economic development, Apple County The big thing this year is the demolition for our Town Center project that we have Town Manager Mark Biberdorf stated that he is currently working on the RFP sO Town Facilities is for postage, newsletter expenses, utilities, and wellness. Looking ahead for 2022/2023 the biggest expense is going to be our cost ofl living adjustment. Since 2008/2009 we have always based cost of] living on what the social security adjustment is since January 1 of that year. One year it was 5% (2009-2010) but because of the economy we could not fund it that year but a few years later we did aretro adjustment on this. As you may know in January of this year the social security cost of living rate was 5.9% which is going to be $120,000 increase just in salaries not including all the fringe benefits. Iknow that City of Hendersonville and Henderson County have been looking at increases to remain competitive. Councilman Trevor Lance asked if the town does merit raises as well. Assistant Town Manager Heather Taylor stated that we have a pertormance evaluation system and we do all the employees in March and we have a lto3  Manager Heather Taylor  Myself Christine, Candy and Susan. Transit, other professional services.  budgeted for.  that we can get updated bids for demolition of the property.  percent increase based on your evaluation.  Discussion Followed:  Parks & Recreation -Greg Walker and discussed this with them. Discussion Followed:  He passed out a chart with the vents/programs that Parks & Recreation did last year    Items that the parks & recreation department will need in the coming budget More staff is needed in the part time sector for 2 people at 30 hours a week each.  year is as follows:  New scag mower is needed that will cost about 16,000 to 18,000.  Discussion Followed:  Police Department-Dan Terry  The chief: reviewed a few items that they worked on in the last year since he started Items that the police department will be looking at in the coming budget year Increase patrol division by 2 people as we have not had additional increase in patrol in the last 14 years. Iwill put together additional data to show you that this is needed  to work with the town. is as follows:  as thingsIam sure things have changed in the last 14 years.  Discussion Followed:  Iam looking at getting a patrol shield for our division that they could share and at the end of one shift they would pass it along to the next shift. They are very expensive and can cost anywhere from 2,500 to 7,000. Imight be able to purchase Increasing utionrembursement as of right now the department has at least 6 people in college trying to obtain their degrees. Obliviously we want to encourage We recently approved a career development plan for our patrol officers and detectives who achieve additional certifications. Iv would like to work on something similar in career development for our management team including myself.  that this year but if not then in the upcoming budget year.  this among the department.  Public Works- Jabbo Pressley  He went over the items that have been purchased in the last year to included trash and recycle cans, a new scag mower and in the CIP a new garbage truck was  purchased.    Items that public works department will be looking at in the coming year are Two additional pick-up trucks will be needed one to replace the 2000 model that has over 100,000 miles on it and another one to add to our system. The newest pickup truck we had we added the lifter to it to pick up trash in the areas where iti is really  as follows:  too small for the garbage truck to get down the road. An OBD scanner the current one we. have is outdated.  A shop toolbox Aj pneumatic air pump A tire balancer A brush cutter mower. Discussion Followed:  Planning & Zoning-Eric Rufa  Gave an overview of his budget for the past year and does not anticipate any changes for this coming year. We are. having to ramp up our state and federal mandate that addresses storm water quality and Ik have attended local (in 2019) workshops where about 80% oflocal jurisdictions are in violation. We are currently working with McGill and Land of Sky Regional council on this as well.  Discussion Followed:  Accomplishment overall, Revenues, CIP, other projects-Mark Biberdorf. Town Manager Mark Biberdorfwent over the goals for the current fiscal year. We have been able to stay within the budget this year. We have 2.6 million in ARP funds and we have been waiting on the Federal Government Treasury department to get the final rule approved as to what the funds can be used for. Initially we were talking about storm water projects, sewer to unserved areas. I'd like to suggest extension of our greenway trail and Ia am talking about the Meritor/Cane Creek trail. We have some money in CIP for it. He then talked about the CIP which is 8.5 cents of our tax rate to fund projects in the CIP. 6.5 cents of the 8.5 cents is for debt service and the other 2 cents is cash. We were able to purchase all items in this    year's CIP. We have our contract in place with the developer for the town center Onr revenues all the dept. heads have touched on where we are at and the items requested are funded right now. Fund Balance wise we ended out year with a great  project.  audit and are unassigned fund balance grew as well.  Discussion Followed:  Break/Recessed before regular meeting. Break/Recessed at: 05:27 pm Back from Recess at: 06:00 pm  Those who were in attendance are as follows:  Mayor Preston Blakely Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy Councilman Trevor Lance Town Manager Mark Biberdorf Assistant Town Manager Heather Taylor Public Works Director Jabbo Pressley Parks & Recreation Director Greg Walker Police Chief Dan' Terry Planning & Zoning Director Eric Rufa  Councilwoman Sheila Franklin was here for the meeting that began at 6:00 pm.  Moment of silence or reflection ***Public Comments***  Pledge of Allegiance: Mayor Preston Blakely  Gayle Kemp 27 South Chase Drive Fletcher she thanked council for opening the application process for appointing a person to fill the vacant council seat. She also thanked Mayor Blakely and Councilperson Lane for responding to her email about this issue. She is also thankful for the free press in the community as she stated that although she did not alert the press to her concerns she was pleased that they are watching these issues of transparency in our democratic government She stated that she believed that the application process should be held open for a longer period of time and does not see the rush to fill the seat. Ialso believe that any    information received regarding potential candidates should be presented to Fletcher residents for full vetting since the representative will be serving asan unelected official for almost 2 years without any campaign time. This process should be open and transparent to allow time for that to happen again what is the John Olsen 33 Stoney Brook Court Fletcher Thanked council for going through a more through process to select the best candidate that we. have. It might very well be Mr. Reid as he is an upstanding Fletcher citizen and has worked to make the community a better place andIhave a lot of respect for him. It is important that we Councilman Lance on the need to have an equipment process to get someone to place ahead of the budget needs. Ihear you. Iwould point out to you that we do not have a recording or broadcast publishing mechanism in place for council. Iti is 2022 Mills River, Hendersonville, Henderson County, Asheville there are very few our size that don'thave their meetings available for public consumption. Itis 2022 it is  rush.  go through a process.  time. (12/13)  Approval of minutes-corrections, additions or deletions.  Mayor Blakely asked for corrections, additions or deletions to the minutes as presented and seeing none do we have a motion to approve the minutes as presented and it was sO moved by Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy and seconded by  Councilman Trevor Lance. Motion carries all in favor. Council Updates None at this time. Consent Agenda Taxrelunds/releases  Mayor Blakely asked for questions on the consent agenda seeing none do we have ar motion to approve the consent agenda and it was so moved by Mayor Pro-Tem Bob  Davy and seconded by Councilwoman Sheila Franklin.  Motion carries all in favor.    Continuation of public hearing for approval of an economic development agreement and purchase and sale agreement for the Town Center project-  Ashley Anderson, Sanford Holshouser Law Firm.  Mayor Blakely asked if we have anyone here who wishes to speak in relation to the  town center project.  There was no comments from the public at this time.  Mayor Blakely asked for a motion to close the public hearing.  Councilman Trevor Lance made the motion to close the public hearing and it was  seconded by Councilwoman Sheila Franklin.  Motion carries all in favor.  Bob Jessup of Sanford Holshouser law firm gave an overview of the town center project along with the updated Economic Development agreement and Purchase & Will Buie of WGLA Engineering gave a short PowerPoint presentation on the  Sales agreement. project as well. Discussion Followed:  Mayor Blakely asked for a motion to approve the Economic Development agreement and the Purchase & Sale agreement as presented. the EDA and Purchase & Sale agreement as presented to us.  Councilwoman Sheila Franklin stated that she would make a motion to approve Bob Jessup stated that the repurchase agreement needs to be included in the  motion as well.  Councilwoman Sheila Franklin made a motion to approve the EDA and Purchase & Sale agreement and then the Re-purchase agreement as well and it was seconded by  Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy. Any Discussion on the motion?  Councilman Trevor Lance thanked Will Buie for meeting with him. He stated that he originally had a problem with the infrastructure that it can handle it as there is a    lot going on in one small foot print. The next issue was the residential piece thank you from dropping that from 3: stories to 2 stories. Residents want more retail in this  area than apartments.  Motion carries all in favor.  Discussion of options for filing council seat of District 2- Mark Biberdorf, Town Town Manager Mark Biberdorf stated that we did the press release outlying the process and it put on the town's website, Facebook page and was sent out to the media and Ia also did an: interview with WLOS. The application process will run from January 5 until January 19th at 5:00 pm. You have a special call meeting scheduled  Manager.  for January 24 at 5:00 pm.  Budget estimate for planned paving projects-Ben Cathey, McGill Associates. Chris Burwell of McGill Associates provided some comments on the upcoming paving project. (Glensprings Drive, Barrington Court, Hedgewood Court.) The town is looking at $250,000 for the project in current (Powell Bill) appropriations not to exceed $270,000 for the whole project to include design fees, construction Construction Estimate for the project with a 10 % contingency is just over $391,700.  everything.  Discussion Followed:  Mayor Blakely asked for a motion to bid the project as presented and it was sO moved by Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy and seconded by Councilwoman Sheila  Franklin.  Motion carries all in favor.  Comments from the Town Manager Mark Biberdorf.    On the budget schedule that we talked about last week which Ineed to email you the updated schedule. We changed the budget retreat from May 7 to April 30. Iam working on a draft RFP for the demo services on the buildings as you know we have 3 buildings in the railroad right of way which complicates things somewhat. My goal is to get this out this month and come back in February with the lowest On the gateway sign we finally got our approval on that and the old panels are coming off and it should be completed by the end of this month. Public works will be cleaning the base of the structure. In the up-coming budget process we would  responsible bidder.  like to look at another gateway sign at the south end. Mayor Blakely asked for a motion to adjourn. seconded by Councilwoman Sheila Franklin.  Councilman Trevor Lance stated that he would make that motion and it was  Adjourned: 06:42 pm  Approved: 2-14-a2 Date  Bk Bhly Mayor Preston Blakely    Special Call Meeting Minutes January 24, 2022  Selection of Individual to fill District 2 seat  Call the meeting to order at: 5:00 pm Those who were in attendance are as follows:  Mayor Preston Blakely Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy Councilman Trevor Lance Councilwoman Sheila Franklin Town Manager Mark Biberdorf  Council reviewed applications from 7 individuals who applied for the district 2 seat  and asked questions of them as well. The individuals who applied are as follows:  D. Annette Crump Bowser William Lee Bowser Jeff Groh Shawn K Thompson Jonathan Keith Reid Bryan Edward Slusser Dan Murphy trip.  Mr. Jeff Groh could not attend the meeting due to a previously scheduled business  Discussion Followed:  Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Davy stated that he knew there were some questions early on in this process thatInominated someone and that there were various accusations made about that. The reason! I did whatIdid was because my son was about to have al baby and IknewIwas going to be out of town for almost a month and Ic didn't want to have this position be open and have no one apply for it. SoIthrew a name out there and that was: not saying that was the only candidate or the best candidate. I also wanted to say thatIam very impressed with the quality of people that have applied for this job that we are voting on here tonight. We have not had this kind of interest in filling positions in a long time here in Fletcher. If you don'tg get in here    tonight there are other options to get involved on the Planning Board and the Parks &  Recreation Board.  Mayor Blakely also encouraged people to get involved with the town. Councilman Trevor Lance stated that this is a temporary held position until the next election andIencourage everyone to think about the next election. Everybody on this list is very qualified for this position and these are some great applications. Councilwoman Sheila Franklin stated that it makes you almost wish that you had several positions available and echo what they say same thing. Some of you have some special skills and we will probably be looking you up to pick your brain as you  Thank you for applying and willing to step up and help Fletcher.  have some expertise on some things that we don'thave.  Discussion Followed:  Council then cast their ballots and handed them to Mayor Blakely. After reading the ballots he stated that it is unanimous that Mr. Jonathan Keith Reed will be appointed to the district 2 seat and will be sworn in at the February 7 meeting.  Mayor Blakely asked for a motion to adjourn and it was sO moved by Mayor Pro-  Tem Bobl Davy and seconded by Councilwoman Sheila Franklin.  Motion carries all in favor. Adjourned: 05:33 pm  Approved: 3-14-23 Date  ABly  Mayor Preston Blakely