TOWN OF STOKESDALE REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING 8325 ANGEL PARDUE ROAD STOKESDALE, NC2 27357 May 14, 2020 AT 7PM  Attendance: Mayor. John Flynt, Mayor Pro Tem' Thearon Hooks, Councilmen: Jim Rigsbee, Jimmy Landreth, Derek Foy, Accountant: Kimberly" Thacker, Town Attorney: Tom Medlin  I. II.  Call to Order: Mayor Flynt  Review and Adopt the Agenda: Mayor Flynt referred to Items 1-6 and asked to remove these items from Consent Agenda to open items for discussion. Mayor Flynt also asked that al line be added for Kim Thacker to give the March Financials to # 6. Before the Budget discussion. Derek Foy asked that #: 12 and 13 be moved and inserted right aftert the financials for discussion. Mayor Flynt motioned to adopt the agenda with these changes. Derek Foy 2nd the motion.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  III. Approval of Minutes:  February: 13, 2020, - Derek Foy motioned to approve the February 13, 2020 minutes as written.  Jim Rigsbee seconded the motioned.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  March 5, 2020: Mayor Flynt asked for a correction to last item on page 1. Attorney's fees have $50,000. Written, but council had agreed to $ 60,000.. Also, under salaries he thought council agreed Town Clerk 70% GF & 30% Water; Derek Foy corrected him said the notes reflect that Town Clerk should be 60% GF, 40% water and Deputy Clerk 20% GF, 80% water. Mayor Flynt retracted his request to change the salaries.. Jimmy Landreth spoke up and said he wants to make sure that everyone understands he didn't agree to anything during the May! 5, 2020 Budget Workshop. Derek then spoke and said he feels like there was a lot of comments and discussion regarding allocations that wasl left out of the typed minutes and hej just wanted to  3518  Book 14    state that is why his vote for approval of these minutes will be no. No one actually motioned  but Mayor Flynt called for a vote.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes No  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  No No  March 12, 2020- Derek Foy asked fori the wording when Mayor Flynt left the closed session portion of the meeting that he left the meeting unexcused by council. Alisa agreed to change the wording. Jimmy Landreth asked that his vote on 6. Where he and Jim Rigsbee were' voted in as co-chairman for the property committee. Alisa has that. Jimmy Landreth voted yes for himself. He voted no. Derek Foy motioned to approve the March 12, 2020 minutes with the two changes  just discussed. Jimmy Landreth seconded the motion.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  IV. Old Business: NONE New Business: proposals.  V. 1.  Vote on Vendor Proposal for Drainage issue in the Park: Mayor Flynt presented the two *Yates Construction $7,900. or *Green Ridge Landscape Solutions! $ 11,650.00. The catch basin in the park needs to be re-worked it clogs up with debris and caused drainage issues. Yates has been down and looked at it and has quoted. $7900. Tot fixt the problems. Mayor Flynt just to geti it on thei floor for discussion made a motion to accept Yates Construction bid for $7900. But not to start the work until our. July 1, 2020 Budget goes into effect.. Jim Rigsbee seconded the motion. Mayor Flynt called to question no one spoke immediately so the Mayor started to vote he vote Aye, Derek Foy interrupted and asked sO we have had two vendors look at this? Mayor Flynt said yes. Derek Foy then asked Jimmy Landreth, I know youl have looked at this, do you think we could get this done any less? Anymore economical than these two proposais?. Jimmy Landreth said he did not know; would like to see a couple of storms and go down there and look at it afterward. When it stops up ify you go down there and clear it out it runs. Iwould rather wait and look at it a couple of times. Anybody ever looked at ity when it storms. Thearon Hooks said yes, hei is even wade ini it halfway to my knees to clear thei flat one out. Thearon said hei thinks its going to keep on doing it until we get iti fixed, Jimmy.. Jimmy asked if the proposals were to fix it. Thearon: said yes, its $11,650. With Greenridge and $7900 with' Yates. Jimmy Landreth asked ift this was a guaranteed" fix? Are the pipes too small? Mayor Flynt said he personally went down there with Gene and Bob Yates; they do al lot of this kind of work. They) just did the culvert work to fix drainage issues we had at the front of Town Hall. They have done a lot of work for us over  3519  Book 14    the last 20 years and they always guarantee their work, its always first quality. They will stand behind their work.. Jimmy asked what budget this will go on. Mayor Flynt said it will go on the next budget 20-21 Budget year. Jimmy said So, this is not for this budget year. Mayor Flynt said we can authorize the proposal tonight but state the work does not begin until after. July 1, 2020.. Jimmy Landreth said can we do that? Mayor Flynt It think we can will ask Tom Medlin the attorney. Tom Medlin said yeah you can  dot that approve the contract tonight and put iti in next years budget.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 2.  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  No No  Vote to approve Hunter Enterprise Amendment to Main contract to continue soccer field repairs and maintenance for 2020 at their regular cost of $10,000. Pery year. Price has been same for3 years. Mayor Flynt presented the contract, this is an extension of last years contract. They have not increased their rate in the last 3 years. Mayor Flynt motioned to approve the contract for Hunter Enterprise to continue to take care oft the soccer fields. Derek Foy seconded the motion. Mayor Flynt asked' Tom Medlin what date we should use for the contract to go into effect since its late in coming to  council. Tom Medlin said to date it the time we approve.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 3.  Ves Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  Vote on proposal submitted by KMS Roofing to install the year banners in downtown. (they installed the Christmas banners for us this past year). Their proposal for two-man crew and bucket truck $1,000. Thearon Hooks motioned to approve KMS Roofing toi install the year round banners at no more than $1000.. Jimmy Landreth said he wishes in the future that when we have something like this that we  also include the cost ofi installation int the proposal. Mayor Flynt answered noted.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 4.  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy! Landreth  No No  Proposal from Sentry' Watch for License plate reading camera $3 3,172.96 Tabled until Budget is discussed. Thearon Hooks made the motion that council approve the purchase ofal License plate reading camera witha a CAT6w wire to bei installed to be attached to the existing cameras that we already have in the Town Hall at the price quoted of $3,172.96. to get it ont the floor Mayor Flynt secondedi the motion. Jimmy Landreth said that is al lot of money. He said something to the Mayor about that before the meeting. Youg got $3,172.96 to put iti in and then $1200 more to put iti in you gotta dig a ditch and all that. Thati is al lot of money for a camera. Iknow it'sf for security reason, but Ifeel like that is) just too  3520  Book 14    much money. Thearon said. Jimmyl Iknow you understand this is a high definition camera to read license plates. We have had two events in the park where the Deputies did not have license plates to immediately identify the vehicles involved in two separate criminal acts in the park. That is where the idea ofi installing this camera came from. This camera will freeze frame the license plates. Jimmy asked the Mayor ift the parki isi insured for vandalism? The Mayor said no.. Jimmy said it's not?. Alisa spoke up and clarified. If there is vandalism to any oft the structures in the park, yes, they are covered. But the ground is not insurable. The Mayor added what is damaged is also subject to a deductible. Alisa agreed and added the deductible is $1,000. Or more and the more claims you file you could be looking for another insurance company. Jimmy said he really needs to think about it. He might be willing to reconsider in ai few months. Mayor Flynt asked if he wanted him to restate his motion to hold off until July? Derek said he would like to see this moved to the next fiscal year as well. He sees the value int this he cannot really access if the price is right or not. Mayor Flynt said sO should lamend my motion to approve it but not begin the work until. July 1, 2020? Tom Medlin said that. Jimmy Landreth or Derek Foy could motion to table this until the. July meeting?. Jimmy Landreth motioned to table until. July 1, 2020.  Derek Foy seconded the motion.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 5.  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  Proposal from Blaney Electric to run at trench and pvc pipe for Sentry' Watch to hook up the License Plate Camera. 995.001 to 1200.00. Tabled until Budget is discussed. that. Jimmy Landreth or Derek Foy could motion toi table this until the. July meeting?. Jimmy Landreth motioned to table until July 1,  2020. Derek Foy seconded the motion.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 6.  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  Financial Reports Kim Thacker first gave the April 30, 2020 Financial report. The report is attached to these minutes for the records. Derek Foy asked Kim ifs she had any projections for the General Fund for the end of the Fiscal Year. Kim said yes, she had asked Alisa to send her what expenses she expected to come out between now and. June 30th. Alisa sent her just. June. So, Kim went in and did a projection herself. Based on Alisa's numbers around $40,000. Some thousand just for June, Kimi thinks adding May in will be around $80,000 to $100,000. More before end of the year. Derek said sO around $565,00. Kim first said yes then said $560,000 but she might be overstating. Derek said back in the March meeting council voted to add $80,000.to the Gen. Fund revenue. That and the expected Franchise fees, does Kim think that will be enough to cover the remainder of the year. Kim said in her opinion because of Covid-19 and everything we do not know; we are all uncertain of what is going moving forward. She doesn'ti think SO, she said as of right now our income is around $227,000 but that does not include the $80,000 and we do expect another bigf franchise payment around. June 15 and  3521  Book 14    another that comes in September for the quarter of April-June quarter that will apply to the 2019-2020 Budget. She ify you average the. June 15th, which is usually around 75,000 and the! September which Is usually around $64-65,000. You can do that math. Derek asked heri if she thinks our revenue will fall under $400,000.? Kim asked Derek without the budget amendment oft the $80,000.?D Derek yes from outside sources. Kim: said hope not but maybe. Kim said I honestly do not know Derek. Derek. said hei is concerned, and he is looking forward to next year. Mayor Flynt addressed Derek and said based on Budget verse Actual as of March 2020 we: still have $217,000. And ify you take out the $80,000. Our budget was for $445,000. We are expecting another $228,000 in revenue, yes, we have spent al lot of money this year no question. Mayor Flynt asked ift there were any other questions for Kim. No one spoke up: so Mayor Flynt moved toi the next item. We had moved number 12 Unauthorized Expenditures up to talk about after the budget discussion. Derek then asked the Mayor if we were goingt to discuss the Budget. Mayor Flynt said we didn't have thet financials so, he puti it here under # 63 and Derek wanted 12 and 131 moved up sO he was going to do the Budget discussion after Derek talked about 12 and 13. Derek said well Ij just want to make sure we are going to talk about the budget. The Mayor said we must. 12. Unauthorized yendlureyDlbunements from Town of Stokesdale's General Fund - Beaver Outdoors Solutions - Added by Derek Foy for discussion, 31 pages ofs supporting documents. Derek wanted to talk about some unauthorized disbursements from the Town. It think it relates to the situation that we arei in this fiscal year. Derek does not believe we are following our internal policy in procedures that wel have set up. In all the sheets that Derek said he has distributed to council. The first set of disbursement are regarding Beaver Outdoor Solutions for cutting down the trees in Town Park. That has been talked about ad nauseum and he does not want to belabor this. The reason he put this because it appears to be number: 1 ofwhat has now been a pattern. Back in April of last year, April 4, of last year it appears that Beaver did some work for the Town, installing mulch and pruning some trees, the scope of that work ended up being right over $12,000. Ihad that laid out in the packet. What rubs Derek wrong is that the $12,000. Was one scope of work and that should have come to council to vote on it and to the citizens for transparency. Ifcouncil decides that $12,000 isa a fair price for mulch and pruning trees, then that is the will of council. But this denied council and citizens the opportunity to see this. What really bothers me about this is there is email evidence where former councilmen Frank Bruno and Beaver Outdoors worked together to structure al large sumi invoices to come in right under the $2500 spending authority that the individual councilmember had in this instance. Derek thinks this isa a violation of the Town's Code of Ethics. If Derek defines ethics, this was just doing the wrong thing. More specificallyi in our case we had a councilmen and vendor trying to work around the town's policies to do business without a vote of council. Derek said he really frowns upon that and certainly hopes it does not happen again. Then there was a third instance back in November when we spent another $9,000. On mulch again that was not brought to council. We have these internal policies and we have failed safes on top of these policies and yett this still happened. There are pre-audit certifications in place. This is just concerning it has cost the Town al lot of money and now hei is wondering what else could be out there. Derek wants council to discuss this. He does not really know what to do. He just felt it was his duty to report this to Council and the citizens. Mayor Flynt said if you look at the original contract with Beaver, there is a provisioni in there that twice a year that they will put down Mulch at $65.00 per yard, and we signed that contract and that is what they have done. Ify you look at any standard landscaping contract, they are not going to identify how many! bales of pine needles or mulch they will need to put down. Mayor Flynt said he has dealt with three different HOAS and they have similar contracts. They do not knowi ifi it's going to be 550 bales or 1000. We authorized them in our original contract for $8.50a bale  3522  Book 14    for pine needles and $65.00 per yard for mulch. Mayor Flynt said he believes it was' voted on by council as part of the original contract. Mayor Flynt does not think there has been anything unethical about it. Mayor Flynt said he would let Alisa address the rest of Derek 's comments, Mayor Flynt says he knows Alisa had addressed these comments to Derek and other councilmembers 5 or 61 times. She has sent you copies of invoices; she had: showed you where they were authorized, Frank Bruno was the chairman of the property committee with a spending authority of $2500. They did send an invoice for $10,000. That wast fort four smaller jobs, they lumped them altogether. Derek asked the Mayor, SO youare saying that the part int the contract that says extra billable items bound the Town to buy those from Beaver? Mayor Flynt said yessir, you can ask" Tom Medlin, but believe it does have to be a reasonable and justifiable amount but thati is a standard agreement. Derek said he would love to hear Tom's perspective on this. Tom came in and said in answer tot the question. He said hei is referring to the estimate and at the end of the estimate it says we can provide all these services on a weekly rate of $845 and willi invoice monthly. The $845. Per week is fori the description ofs services in 1-8 on the estimate. That dollar amount does not include an extra billable item that can be ordered. They do quote the prices oft the extral billable items when they are ordered said quite honestly hearing both sides of what you are discussing that its not clear, and apparently its not clear. Tom thinks those prices were approved, but does that fall within the authority oft the person ordering because the prices are already set. The prices were already approved by council, but Tom thinks the problem Derek is pointing out is that the person ordering iti is running up mulch that is going to cost $9,000. And let's assume that is at fair price fori the number of bales needed. Was that authority already in place because the prices were approved. Tom said he thinks you are not bound to do the mulch, you are not bound to them to doi the irrigation, snow removal these were extra billable items. The Town could have used somebody else. They) just told youi in the estimate that if you do use them these are prices. If you call them up and ask them to doi itt then you are engaging their services. He thinks ifiti is going to exceed someone'ss spending authority then it should have come back to council. Mayor Flynt asked Tom ifi in the future you have a contract with al landscaper, and they charge $8.25 per bale of pine needles who makes the determination how many bales they are, going to use. Is that up to the property committee or Town Council, because Ihave no idea how many! bales of pine needles it takes. The only way I would know is after the pine needles have been put down. Tom said regardless of who is talking to the landscaper about doing the work, he would suggest having the landscaper come out look at the property and give us an estimate of how many bales and the cost to install it and take it to council for a votei ifi it exceeds your spending limit without a vote. Thearon asked Tom if he recalled discussing this contract ina a February meeting and that all the items werei inclusive. Tom said he remembers discussing this contract in a closed session if that is what Thearon is meaning. Thearon said he believes int the future that council as a group needs to let Tom look at something of this magnitude and give them feed back over and above what it takes to get the grass mowed or whatever and sit down as a group.Id don'tt think we need to go after anybody because again the horse's hide is hairless and you can't even see where the hoof prints are over this amount of time over thei issues. We have beat the trees until he does not even know where they were. Thati is Thearon's recommendation. Hei then asked Tom if as the Town Attorney would hel be able to look at these things and maybe delineate these larger items? Orl help us write up a policy for these type things? Derek: spoke in and said he believed Frank Bruno was aware of the spending authority. Thearon said Derek Ir not asking about that at this point, lam not being rude about it. Ify you would allow Tom to answer this question first, sol do not forget whatisaid." Tom asked Thearon to restate his question he got lost. Thearon said the question was, we have basic needs and he is using thei front page oft this estimatei for an example, the  3523  Book 14    basic stuff through the year 1-8, anything over and above that, where it says extral billable items, he would like Tom to look over that on any of our contractsi in the future and tell us what that means, not monetarily but what that means overa and above the! basic items. Does council need to look at that asa separate contractual agreement? Tom said yes int thet future he can do that. Thearon: said he would rather do that instead of goingi into character assassination, he has already been through that. He would rather come up with a new process this night going forward that all council folks will be willing to abide by, thati is where he is coming from. Derek said the point he had ist the confusion as to whether this was part of the contract. The email evidence shows that this is an extral billable. The email states that Frank asked Beaver to break down the invoice into smaller invoices under his spending limit. Then Beaver replied they had broken it down into five smalleri invoices and put al little smiley face. In this email Frank requested that these bel broken upi into smaller invoices. The reason he would want that to happen, I guess is that he was aware of the spending authority. He got this done sO there would not be a need ofa vote of council. That is what Derek has large concerns over. Derek just read an article ini the newspaper where this happened in Chapel Hill and both parties involved lost their jobs. Thearon asked Mr. Attorney may I, when were are going into these what type of liability are we incurring as a Town right now floating this possible, what kinds of names will this involve, my name other names, the Town's name before we: step in a mud puddle we can't get out of without somebody sticking us? Tom said hei isn't sure he is answering Thearon's question but he will try. At this point Mr. Foyi is just pointing out some facts that hel has found and questioning the practices ofas supplier modifying some invoices to get them within spending limits. Estimating mulching as a whole and then breaking those down. So, what Tom would say is that Dereki is saying het thinks its wrong and he doesn't want itt to continue andi ifany other councilmembers have anything to say you would like to hearit. In regards to Mr. Bruno you are saying simply from reading emails. Mr. Bruno is not here to say one way or the other about that. There is no vote, you are free to comment to Mr. Foy or not. He isj just pointing this out to make sure it does not continue. Mayor Flynt comment that at the last meeting we discussed this and we basically agreed to honor the contract with Beaver for only the mowing services at $845 per week. They were not authorized to do any additional works so the Mayor thinks we have solved that problem. So, unless council or the property committee asked them to do anything further that is all they willl be allowed to do until the contract ends in March 2021.. Jimmy Landreth is not sure how we can do this under the contract we have. He personally does not like that we have this with the invoice restructuring. Jimmy Landreth made a motion to have Derek Foy look into this and report back to council with what het finds. Ask questions, find time lines, he doesn't know maybe we could get some money back. Mayor Flynt asked Tom before a second motion was made, didn't we address the limitations of the contract going forward with Beaver int thei form of al letter? Andi isn'tt that legally binding?Tom: said someone needed to second. Jimmy Landreth's motion before he could answer. Jim Rigsbee seconded the motion to allow Tom to reply. The contract has been acknowledged to be a two not one-year contract. Beaver has been put on notice that they are only to bill us fori items 1-8 monthly. Anye extra items whether they are extra billable items or noti includes the mulch, pine needles, irrigation, etc. must be approved by council. Tom did give notice oft this to Beaver Outdoors in a letter, because of council's decision in an earlier meeting. So, the motion on the floor for Mr. Foyt to investigate that is not going to cancel this contract or the position that has been taken on it. Whatever Mr. Foy does or brings back to councili is upt to him and that is assuming you agree tol have him look further into this. He already has the emails and other things of that nature. Ifhe goes to talk to' Vic Beaver about it that is fine. Jimmy Landreth ask ifi it was possible to recoup any of this money?. Jimmy does not meani all the money there were services rendered but the  3524  Book 14    unauthorized invoices. Tom said you made the point there were services render. Ifthere were unauthorized services, they were asked to preform them and they rendered the: services so they have a right to be paid for those services. Thearon Hooks said Tom let me ask you a question. Iwas not eluding tot thati to begin with and maybe that is whyi it got a little off. Iwas basically eluding to the fact that at this point and time we are still going to have to have services done whether they do them or somebody else does them to keep up the property at this point and time through the season until their contract ends. Thearon's concerni isi if we hear your legal opinion correctly that nothing is going to be done, there has been no quid-pro-quo here ast far as finances go. We are still going to have to dot fort the town and that will be paying double almost. So, my concern is being ex-lawe enforcement investigations are done by qualified people, because a lot oft times it doesn't take but one word from someone to end up witha a 100 million-dollar law suit. So that is Thearon's concern to take out money that we do have now. Learn from the whole thing and move forward. Derek spoke up and said he would certainly be happy to investigate it further. Derek does not know about getting the Town's money back, that would be an ideal outcome. Not sure how that could happen maybe filing a potential claim against the Finance Officer's performance bond, and hei is not sure that is even work. He thinks that might bet the most reasonable likelihood of getting any of this money back. Mayor Flynt spoke up and said Ido not understand, you are going to go after Alisa as the Finance Officer. Derek said well thei finance officer makes the disbursements' that is the only way he sees that the Town could recover: any money. The pre- audit was not done on any of these invoices and it was out of budget. Derek said that is the only path he can see to getting any money back. Derek said the question was asked and he answered it. Thearon: said the question was asked to the Attorney. Tom spoke upi and said Thearon at the end ofy your statement you asked ifith his idea was reasonable. Mayor Flynt said we had at first and second motion to do further  investigation and called for a vote.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  No NO Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  YVes Yes  After the vote Mayor Flynt advised the three that voted yes for further investigation to be careful because they could open the Town up for al lawsuit for liable, slander, or defamation of character. 13. Discuss Proposed Changes to Town's! Separation of Duties Policy- - Added by Derek Foyf for discussion, 8 pages of supporting documents. Derek Foy asked Mr. Medlin to have the Mayora address the comments hej just made. Mr. Medlin said the Mayor made a comment and he doesn't feel iti is appropriate to address that. Derek said the purpose of him looking at our Separation of Duties policy is to hone in on our spending. Hei feels the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and Finance Officer have high spending authorities. He doesn't want to go over the whole policy but he has highlighted some changes he would like to make. The first one is on page 3. He added several notes where no citizen shall have a key to Town Hall without a vote of Council. No citizen shall have at town email address without a vote of Council. No vendor shall have al key to Town Hall without a vote of Council. The Mayor asked Derek if we could addressi these three items before he moves on through the rest of his changes. Derek agreed that they could. Mayor Flynt addressed No vendor shall have keyt to Town Hall. Mayor Flynt said what about our cleaning lady? Secondly, no citizen shall have al key to Town Hall without a vote of Council. What about the Fire Department, Todd Gauldin, Randy Southard, all thet fireman is citizens oft the Town? You aren'tgoing to allow them to have al key in case we have at fire? Who is going to let the cleaning lady in  3525  Book 14    and out every week? She doesn'to come in until after 5:00pm now and the Mayor said he certainly wasn't going to sit here and wait on her to come inc clean and lock up when she leaves at 6:300 or 7:00 PM. One ofy you will have step up to the plate tol let these people in and out.. Jimmy Landreth said the "keyword" is vote of Council, John. Its not saying no one can have one, itj just means they need a vote of Council. So, much gets done without a vote of Council. Derek agreed that's all just needs a vote of Council. Thearon addressed Derek, he said my understanding is the cleaning lady has a key now, int this case are we going to grandfather heri in? Or are we, going to suspend cleaning until we can put this on the Agenda and vote for her to have al key? Derek said nahl he would sayi if this passes just make ar motion that she has a key. Tom Medlin's suggestion was to Table this until the Town Clerk can provide a list of who has keys and email addresses. Presenti it to Council: SO you can approve it sO you don't have a 30-day gap. Discussion and agreement to table until they have a list for the. June meeting. Mayor Flynt then said okay! let's go to Page 4. Derek said he also wants to change our spending authorities from $2500. Downi to $500. For non-emergency repairs/purchases to run the Town Hall on a daily basis without a vote of Council. And that one council person must sign off on any purchases between $ 251 and $500.00 per occurrence. Mayor Flynt commented that we are going to have to have council meetings probably once a week. We would not be able to pay the electric bill, Spectrum's billi the water bill, IT, we couldn't pay hardly anything with $ 500.00. So, ify you guys want to have a regular scheduled meeting once a week you are going to have to do that. $500i is a ridiculously low figure, that's okay he said I'm here every day, ify you guys want to come in it will take a quorum. Derek said that'sagreat point Mr. Mayor and on page! 5. Purchase Orders are not required for reoccurring payments specifiedi in a current up to date service contract or utility service provider. The intent of this is to hone in our spending. Mayor Flynt said okay let's go back to page 4. The Mayor has a real issue with the in the event of an emergency requiring an expenditure above $500. An emergency meeting shall be called for council to vote on the necessary expense. Mayor Flynt said what if some of us are out of town, youl have to have a quorum, in the event of an emergency called meeting you have to give the news media and each member of council notice by email, phone, or written notice. if wel have a water rupture int the middle oft the night, I'm probably not going to want to have a meeting at 2:00 am, 50 wej just going to let the water run until morning. There are sO many things that can happen to the water system. $500. Would just barely mobilize Yates or another company. So, ifi it drains the tank it'sg going to ber more than $ 500, Ican guarantee. When people start calling in and saying I don't have any water we are going to have to say well wel have to have an emergency meeting it may be 12 hours. Mayor Flynt said this is crazy, we've talked about this before. Ify you remember we had the problem on Hwy 158 that was a $75,000 repair. Thank God for Yates Construction they went ahead and didi the work based on our past performance. But ift they had not been able to get the pipe or ifv we had any more rain, we could have ended up with the entire town without water. What happens if we had al bad storm hurricane, tornado, and we have damage to the building and we need to make temporary repairs, board up broken windows, cover a damaged leaking roof. If not enough of us are in town to have a quorum Ithink you are asking for trouble. Mayor Flynt said, Derek, Ithink the real issues for mei is you have no trust in anybody, and If find that offensive. Mayor Flynt said he spoke with Gail Dunham former! Mayor of Summerfield, Summerfield Town Council they are discussing giving their Town Manager a $500,000. Spending limit, and you are not even willing to give the Mayor something ini the event of an emergency? Mayor Flynt said It tell you what I'mi the number two call under Bobby Yates for emergencies. I'll take my name offa and let you, Derek take my place. The last Hurricane when we had the Hwy 158 pipe emergency the Mayor said he had 68 phone calls while he wasi in church. I'lI let you take those calls. Derek said, John this is a discussion of, there is  3526  Book 14    no reason to get on your pulpit and preach. Thel Mayor answered back no, I'mj just making valid points. Jim Rigsbee asked if he could make the suggestion that we table this and discuss this later in a Business meeting? Derek: said this is a good Business Meeting discussion the intent is to tighten our spending authority, not to paralyze the Town. The Mayor said he believes that is an unattended consequence. Thearon said last time when they worked the hurricane, where we had the wash out oft the main water pipe on Hwy 158, Yates Const. did go out and attempt to shore up the line. Theyl had an emergency meeting the next day after Yates had given us a proposal of what they thought it would cost to make the necessary repairs. We had a main water linei to the Town that had been exposed to elements due toa wash out of the side of Hwy 158 embankment, overnight it dropped another foot and the ground around it was eroding away by the hour. Without an agreement with the Town to take care of our water lines Yates would have never gone out there and shored it upl before cost were discussed and agreed upon. Thearon thinks if Derek wants changes, he needs to come back and council talk as a group and maybe even consider tiering spending authority, Starting at $500. And as things are added increase. Thearon said ifl were you, I'd ask Alisa to come up with a cost sheet of where $500 fits, where $1000 fits and SO on. Micro-managing at town is not the way to do it. Thearon said he has been in government positions for 30 years from Federal all the way down to local they do it buti it'sa a failure. That's why we are where we are today politically. So, l'm giving you food fort thought. Derek said Thearon, your point is well taken I'lItable this. Tom Medlin spoke int for the sake of the minutes he asked, Derek are you requesting this be tabled until the next business meeting? Derek answered yessir Iwould like to have it during a business meeting when we have the time to hash it out. Derek motioned to table this until a  business meeting. Jim Rigsbee seconded the motion.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  7.2020-2021 Budget Draft Presentation - Public Hearing and Vote will be during. June 11, 2020 meeting. Mayor Flynt motioned to table until a Special Called Meeting is held to discuss the budget further. Special called meetingi is put in place for May 21, 2020 at 7PM. Jim Rigsbee seconded.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy! Landreth  Yes Yes  8.  Discuss/Vote on New Audit Firm: Firms as follows  *Gibson & Company, P.A. (Winston-Salem) Recommended by Oak Ridge, Summerfield, & *Wade Greene PLLC (Whiteville) recommended by Summerfield - $14,000. *Rouse, Rouse, Rouse & Gardner LLP (Eden) our auditors for thel last 3y years $13,200.  Boonville- $14,500.  3527  Book 14    **In addition, Request for proposals were sent to Cannon & Cannon LLP they no longer do municipal Jim Rigsbee motioned to approved Rouse, Rouse, Rouse, & Gardner LLP based on discussion he had with Kim Thacker. She preferred to remain with them and they are the most cost effective. Derek Foy seconded the motion. Thearon Hooks spoke up and said hel had some reservations as this past year when Rouse did our audit, we had to do al lot of back and forth entries. During the 2018-2019 audit Trevor Gardner had encouraged us to switch from manual entry Quick Books to the Online version and also to upgrade from the 2012 Version to 2019. When we hired Kim Thacker as our accountant and told her of Trevor's recommendation, she worked with Alisa in converting our old 2012 manual entry Quick Books over to the 2019 Online version. It took al lot of long days and nights for several months to get everything switched over. Then when Rex Rouse came back to do the 2019 Rex and his assistant both said they had never worked with Quick Books online before. Had Kim back everything off the system and rerun reports. Aftera a couple of weeks, hel had her put everything back online. Thearon just doesn'ty want us tol have to go through all of that again. Derek replied that Kim had stated to him that Rex Rouse had been very patient with us and Derek said that we were also going through the manual to online transition sO it took patience on both ends. Derek also added he would like to be involved in the audit process this year. He plans to take some days off work and plans on being at Town Hall so he can discuss the process with Mr. Rouse.. Jim Rigsbee said he just wants Miss Alisa and Miss Kim to be happy with who ever we chose. Kim Thacker spoke and said yes at first it was very irritating, but we were going through thei transition from very old school to updated online 2019 version. But she really appreciated Mr. Rouse's knowledge and how patient he was, now did we go around things ai few times? We did. But, at the end of the days she really appreciated his knowledge. Mr. Rouse gave good advice, this was his third year of doing our audits, therefore she feels like he is comfortable, he knows what to expect, and how we do things at Town Hall. She isj just voicing her opinion. Int the end iti is upi to council.  audits and sent to Dixon Hughes Goodman in Charlotte and they did not reply.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 9.  YES Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  Discuss two proposals for new IT Services: * Kryptic IT $6912.00 per year * Total Computer Solutions $4752.00 per year  Jim Rigsbee presented the proposals, he said we are looking at enhancing our equipment, and obtain an offsite maintenance contract for virus protection and other IT: services. As we grow as a Town, we just feel its time to move: to the next level. He has examined proposals from Kryptic IT and Total Computer Solutions. Kryptic presented their proposal in December. Looking at both contracts they are very similar, Jim Rigsbee favors TCS based on the cost. TCS cost is $4752 pery year for basic monitoring and off-site security. Jim Rigsbee motioned to accept TCS contract for $ 4752.00 per year for a two-year contract for basic monitoring and off-site security. Mr. Purcell from TCS was ini the meeting and came on, thanked everyone for allowing him toj join in. Mayor Flynt asked if he was going to store our files on  3528  Book 14    the Cloud. Mr. Purcell said that could be done as well as an on-site. server. Mr. Purcell went on to describe some of the other services they will and can provide. Mayor Flynt seconded. Jim Rigsbee's motion. Thearon asked if they provide 24/7 service. Mr. Purcell: said yes, they do. Our contract is based on business hours that we arel here but they do have an after-hours call-in number for assistance after  hours.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee 9. motion.  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  Appoint Derek Foy to the Events Committee, Application has been complete and is your folder, Mayor Flynt motioned to appoint Derek Foyt to the Events Committee. Jimmy Landreth seconded" the  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  10. Discussion and vote on farmers market. No supporting docs, Added by Jimmy Landreth. Jimmy Landreth's concern was that was there ever a votei to have a Farmer's Market? Thearon said. Jimmy as best he recalls there was no official vote. It was an approval of the Events Committee it was presented to Council no one disapproved of hold the Farmer's Market so itj just moved forward. Jimmy'snegative thoughts are he seen' where we are asking for Food Trucks to come to the Farmer's Market. We have small family restaurants here in towni that are struggling right now with whati is going on. Youl have the grocery stores, Sadie's, businesses that sell plants. He said we charge kids to play soccer, and charge for other events, the Methodist Church is starting al Farmer's Market, Ihope they aren't going to ask Food Trucks. He feels like we are taking dollars away from other businesses and restaurants int town. We charge other people to use the facilities but we aren't charging thei farmers market people anything. Tom Medlin asked. Jimmy if he was making a motion? He woutd like to hear what the folks that are fori it discuss before a motion is made. Thearon said he knows we have asked some local food trucks to come but he hasn't seen on the list to come yet. People were tickled with the Farmer's Market last year. They enjoyed being down here. It was al lot of fun and hei is all fori it. Mayor Flynt agreed that people have been happy with it. The vendors are local vendors, the restaurants are welcome to come and set upi if they would like to like David Wrenn who came to one of our events and sold chicken salad sandwiches. All local farmer's and vendors are welcome. We don't charge anybody. He personally thinks its great he is alli fori it. Thearon added that when he spoke to al lady at the Methodist Church, she told him their market was only running through. July. Ift they close in. July our market still has three months to go.. Jim Rigsbee said he thinks everyone enjoys the Market. He believes the biggest heartache is there was never a vote.. Jim Rigsbee is willing to make a motion to vote on having the Farmer's Market on a year to year  basis. Look at it each year.. John Flynt seconded the vote.  3529  Book 14    VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  11. General discussion on overtime and possible vote. No supporting docs, Added by. Jimmy VI. Citizen's Comments from the Floor. Youv will be called in the order your call came into the Mark. Jordahl: Said hel believes there was a lot of productive conversation tonight. He also wants to give as shout out to the Stokesdale Fire Department, they came out tol his house yesterday for a CO2 issue, it was unbelievable had kind and helpful they were and he just wants to say he appreciates their efforts. John responded by saying yessir, the Stokesdale Fire Department is at tremendous asset to the Mary. Jordahl: Echoes her husband's sentiments and wanted to add a Thank you to Lowes Foods, she ordered a ton of food to be sent to the Stokesdale Fire Department as a thank you for responding sO well to their call for help. The manager at Lowe's Food handled her order and delivered it himself. Mark Nadel: Wanted to congratulate the Town on putting these Zoom meetings together. He has a question about the event committee. He said the Events Committee had a meeting and had voted to hold off ont the Farmer's Market. His question is, does a committee chairperson had the authority to run (open and run) an event or not. How does that work?1 Thearon said the chairman's do not have the authority to open and run an event on their own. Other than the Planning Board, all other committees are only advisory boards, they don't have the authority to make any final decisions. Mark: said last year he put the signs up each week. Now, this year someone put the: signs up and they are still up. Ift they are left up, we are going to need new signs by end oft the year. There is work to running the Farmer's Market. In his opinion hei thinks the Market isa a great idea, he also thinks that the Town should support the Church by calling ours off. We bring in people but not a whole lot of people. He thinks if we start charging, we will shoot ourselves in the foot. He knows its been voted to continue it but he thinks we should look at supporting the church. Tom Medlin spoke up and wanted to address Mark Nadel's question. Which is what authority dot the committees have? Tom said committees only have the authority thati is given to them byt the Council. So, if Council has voted to given the chair ofa a certain committee authority to do something otherwise it has to go before Council for a vote. Under the Policies and Procedures Book is usually where this kind of stuffi is set out, and that is where you would go to look Terry Hedenskog: said he wanted to speak a good bit on the expenditures but he believes council covered that well. He is the Stokesdale Parks and Rec President; they are a non-profit and have a loto of volunteers that put in countless hours. It struck a nerve with him that we are charging Parks and Reca  Landreth.. Jimmy Landreth said to table hei is not ready to discuss att this time. queue. Please be brief SO everyone has a chance to make their comments.  community.  that kind ofi information up, Mr. Nadel.  non-profit to use thet fields, but we are charging people who make a profit.  3530  Book 14    VII. Closing Comments from Council:  Jimmy! Landreth asked on announcements beginning June 1, Alisa explained to him that thisi isa standard with all council meetings everywhere else. During the monthly meetings other boards and committees are asked to give a report on their meetings, advise what they are working on, and any plans they have. Its part of communication and lets the Town's people know whati is going on. He agrees but there again you've talked to two council and putting an item we are, going to do, and there are three other councilmen. Li just believe things should go to council. He doesn't have a problem with it but when Isee: something on there that we are, going to start doing andl I haven'te even had a voice in it. Thearon said he started this last year. He would come into meetings and sometimes there were things going on and people would ask him about things that happened with the events committee ora a planning board meeting and he may not know the answer. It came back up a couple of weeks ago with a question about al Planning Board vote. He asked Priscilla for a copy oft the minutes. How do you votet for something like this? Ifyou vote no, you are saying you don'twant the minutes of the other boards and committees on the record.. Jimmy asked if we are goingt to require all the committee chairman to be ati the meetings? Mayor Flynt said Eileen Thiery ist the secretary of the ORC, she could report on what the ORC has done, anybody from the committees could do the report. It doesn't have to be the chairperson. Mayor Flynt  said all they are trying to do isl keep up with what everyone is doing. Jim Rigsbee: Thank you for your time and patience  Derek Foy: Than ky you for all those that stayed for the entire meeting. Shout out to the Boys Scouts to attending the meeting. Hats offt to first responders, retail workers putting yourselves on the front lines. Jimmy Landreth wants everyone to get out and support your local restaurants, order some meals to go. Thearon Hooks wants to thank Kim Thacker for hanging in there with us. We canl be difficult and he appreciates what you do. Thanks to Mark Nadel for his input, Thanks to Tom Medlin for all his wisdom. Shout out to the Fire Department they are a great group of guys. Chief Gauldin' st father passed away this past week, he spent his entire life dedicated to the Fire Department, thank you to. John Estep, with John Flynt: said he was little skeptical about how this meeting was going to go tonight. But it turned out okay. Thanked everyone for attending. Thanked. John Estep for assistance, and work he has done for the  him these meetings may not have happened.  Town over the past two years. VIII. Announcements:  1) Farmer's Market began May 6, and will continue each' Wednesday through October 28 from 4pm to  7pm  2) Planning Board will have al Public Hearing Virtual meeting May 28, 2020 at 7PM.  3) Beginning with the. June 1 meeting we willl be adding Reports from the Planning Board, ORC, Events Committee, and the Property Committee to the Agenda. The Chairperson from each committee should  3531  Book 14    be prepared when called upon to give a summary of the minutes from the last committee meeting to IX. Adjournment: Mayor Flynt motioned to adjourn at 10:05 PM, Derek Foy seconded the motion.  advise on what they are working on and any plans they have on going.  VOTE: Mayor Flynt Thearon Hooks Jim Rigsbee  Yes Yes Yes  Derek Foy Jimmy Landreth  Yes Yes  Approved. July 9, 2020 by all of Council. 4  Mayor. John Flynt  Attested by:.  Alisa Houk, Town Clerk  uichi)  3532  Book 14