TOWN OF STOKESDALE REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 8325. Angel Pardue Road STOKESDALE, NC: 27357 April 11, 2019 at 7PM  Attendees: Mayor John Flynt, Mayor Pro Tem Thearon Hooks, Councilmen: Frank Bruno, Bill. Jones. Town Clerk/Finance Officer: Alisa Houk, Town Attorney. John Bain, News media: Patti Stokes. Jones, Tim  .Callt to Order: Mayor Flynt  I. Invocation: Rev. Allen Mears from Bethel United Methodist Church I. Pledge of Allegiance: Lead by Girl Scout Troop 02469 May 9, 2019 Town Council meeting. Frank Bruno 2nd the motion.  IV. Review and Adopt Agenda: Thearon Hooks motioned to continue Agenda items 5, 6, and 7 until the  Vote: Tim. Jones: Nay Bill Jones: Nay Frank Bruno: Yes Bruno 2nd the motion: Vote: Tim. Jones: Nay Bill. Jones: Nay Frank Bruno: Yes 2nd the motion: Vote: Tim. Jones: Nay Bill Jones: Nay Frank Bruno: Yes VI. Public Safety Reports:  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  V. Approval of Minutes February 14, 2019: Mayor Flynt motioned to approve without reading. Frank  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  Approval of Minutes March 14, 2019: Mayor Flynt motioned to approve without reading. Frank Bruno  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  Guilford County Sheriff's Report: Lieutenant Fuller of Guilford County Sheriff's Department, that wel had 61 calls for service in Stokesdale in the month of March. Of those there was 1 reports assault case in which an arrest was made. There was another theft at the Dollar General Store aggravated and an arrest was made there. There was also an investigation into someone: shooting out 5 windows at the Stokesdale United Methodist Church witha a BB gun. His advice for the month is to make: sure you secure  BOOK13  3410    your homes, automobiles and outbuildings wheny you are away from home and when working in the yard. When you: secure your automobiles be surei to remove all your valuables from inside those autos. Stokesdale Fire Dept. Report: Chief Gauldin from Stokesdale Fire Dept., had 281 fire related calls and 73 medical assistance calls. His message fori the month is to be careful when using your lawn equipment because accidents do happen. Also, watch fors snakes which will be coming out this time ofy year. VII: Citizen's comments from the floor (3 Minute Limit per Speaker): Catherine Buntoff of McCrory Rd. isv working withag group of citizens researching the history of Stokesdale. She read us as storyt that covered some history of Stokesdale from 1929 through early 1960s, her research was provided by Bob Simpson and his wife. There are more stories and histories that can be obtained by call Joe Thacker 336- Jimmy Landreth, NCI Hwy 681 N.: came to the podium to say thisi is the best council he has ever voted for. Hei thought wel had a good council. He said: seems like before, in the past years at times councils would get in little groups and not discuss things and things would get split up. There are: some concerns going on right nowi that probably need tol be discussed. He's not sure, we don'thave the facts, nobody has all the facts. Hej just believes that the agenda items should have been left. He said it doesn't hurt to discuss things, iron things out and figure outi ift there are problems that need to bei fixed. He just wishes we could go back to doing that and not be sO split. We don't need to be split like some of these other places. Ift there is something going on it needs to bei talked about toi fixi it. He: appreciates Council's Keith McLain, US Hwy 158: came to the podium, he said inj just briefly looking over thei invoices fori the trees, $24,000. to remove 15 downed trees, seems like al lot. He hasa a Stihl chain saw thati is a beast. The majority oft the worki int tree removal is cutting down the trees. Throwing them overt to the side he wouldn't want to be removing them but he has 3 young boys int their 20s that do that worki for him. He couldn't imagine taking more than a dayt to cut 151 trees $24,000j just seems like a quite al bit ofr money. Randy Braswell, Oak Level Church Rd.: Mr. Braswell said he appreciates council's hard work. He said wasn't going to speak but he didn't want the young scouts to leave before he recognized Councilman Bill Jones. Mr. Braswell met Bill on the last dayt to file to runi fora a Town Council seati in 2011. He had never laid eyes on Bill Jones before that day. Bill was born and raised in Stokesdale coming from5 5or6 generations of family here. Hej joined the Guilford County Sheriff's Dept. for a time and has come back here to serve: as a Council member. Bill's service to the Town needs to be known. Braswell said he never knew on the day they met how important as a person Bill would become to him. Bill has true compassion for people and his Town. Billi is one oft the hardest working people Braswell has ever worked around. The things Bill has done fori the Town is incredible. Braswell looked at Bill. Jones and said thank you. Bill acknowledged with ai thank you. Braswell went on to: say that he and Bill rode all overt the place and attended countless meetings. Water meetings, budget meetings, finance meetings, council meetings. Braswell said Bill taught him al lot about himself and government. Braswell address the young people ini the audience and said youy young folks coming along, youy will set this example. Hei is very concerned wheni items are removed from an agenda. He didn't knowwhat was on the agenda before he came to the meeting. These things do need to be discussed. Braswell said but anyway, Bill Iwant to thank you from the bottom of my heart fort thet things, the hours you have spent fori the town. We have been on the roof; you have been on the roof. Youl have saved the town thousands of dollars. Braswell said he is sure other towns have wondered why we did the things we did, like Bill buying valves for the park bathroom toilets. Bill saved this Town hundreds of thousands of dollars. Braswell said he could go ont for hours. Braswell ended by wishing Bill and his wife Pam Gods Speed in their future plans together. He reiterated that he was very concerned about how much money the Town has ini the bank. Mayor Flynt spoke up andi told Randy Braswell that wel have more money in the bank than when he left. Eileen Thiery, Meadow Springs Drive: came to the podium to say that she isn't here to judge. She knows how tough iti is to handle the finances and budget from being a tax assessor in her past. Shej just  708-0334 or Catherine at 336-655-9781 and the Friends of Stokesdale.  service.  BOOK13  3411    wants to say that from her perspective she feels like some things arel being decided by certain members ofcouncil and not discussed with the other two members of council before the meetings. That is just her perspective and: she hopes council will do better to open its lines of communication. She said ifa Mayor Flynt addressed Eileen Thiery he: said we all spend al lot of time in Town Hall. We study the we try to come prepared to the meetings. For example tonight we are discussing a contract for a water issues; model. We have all had time to review all of the information and we've had time to study it. when we come and we have an item forai financial person. We haven't seen anything at all on either But, candidate. We don't know their qualifications, we haven'ts seen their proposals. We don't how much money they are asking for or how many hours they plan to work. Mayor Flynt said he thinks it's inappropriate to make a decision like that when you are turning overa all ofy your financial records to someone and we have no idea how qualified that person is. Eileen said she wasn't necessarily addressing that issue. But, now that the Mayor has brought this up: she knows Mr. Bruno has a good business head she met him years ago and: she has al lot of respect for him. It seems that sometimes very he has made some kinds of decisions because it was allotted to him. However, it still seems like the decisions should be discussed with all oft the members sO that youl know exactly how much resources went into the decision. Mayor Flynt said exactly that is why we have postponed this SO that we can copy ofar resume or proposal from these people sO we can make an intelligent decision. Eileen said geta she thinks hei is missing her point. She knows Mr. Bruno has designated a company to do something, has he given the proposals to everyone on council? Frank Bruno spoke up and asked if which proposals she was referring to. She asked if he has given them all oft the proposals. Tim. Jones spoke up and said no. The discussion went back to hiring ai financial person and became al bit heated. Mayor Flynt asked to move  would like to address her to feel free to do SO.  anyone  ont to the next item. VIII. New Business:  1. Monthly Financial Review: General Fund: Through March 31, 2019 Income spent is$ 295,188.88; Budget fori income is $427,883.33. Expenses: Capital Outlay actual is $ 47,741.05 budget 72,333. Parks and Rec Expenses $46,444, Budget $83,278. Economic Development, Planning and Zoning Expenses $: 13, 680 Budget $ 32,000. General Administrative Expenses $ 44,946. Budget $47,600. Payroll Expenses $7 70,328. Budget $8 83,272. Water Enterprise Fund: Income: Actual $ 408,196. Budget $ 682,768. Capital Outlay Expenses: $15,403. Budget $35,000. Administrative Expenses $31,745. Budget $ 39,600. Maintenance & Repairs$ $122,228. Budget $ 2. Presentation by Girl Scout Troop 02469 of the specifications for building the "Little Free Library". Girl Scout Troop 02469 gave their presentation oft the "Little Free Library "with the help of Vulcan Materials representative who added that Vulcan will be purchasing the wood and materials to build the library and will help the girl scouts build it. Mayor Flynt asked which designs the girls scouts preferred and they all agreed on the Barn Style. Frank motioned to move forward with this, as long as there is no legal liability we needi to address. He asked Mr. Bain and  257,700.  Mr. Bain said he didn't see any problem with it. Thearon 2nd the motion.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  Bill Jones recognized the Boy Scouts that are also in attendance. Mayor Flynt asked the Boy Scouts to stand and say al little something about their reason for attending. Several scouts spoke  BOOK13  3412    totell us what merit badges they are working on which included Citizenship and  Communication.  3. Review of June 14, 2018 Town Council minutes and vote to correct errors. Town Clerk had included the correction to Tim. Jones vote on fort the new park shelter. Tim had voted no, but the original minutes stated that he had voted yes for the shelter. The correction has been made. Frank Bruno motioned to agree to the correction of Tim. Jones vote and tol have the Town Clerk make sure iti is corrected on all copies and the copy that goes to the State of NC. Thearon Hooks  2nd the motion. Vote: Tim Jones: Yes Bill Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  4. Discussion and vote to utilize a standard Text Table to record individual Council member's votes in the Stokesdale Town Council minutes for each motion a vote is taken for. Tim. Jones asked forar motion to continue this item until the May meeting he is communicating with the School of Government about certain matters that pertain to this. Mayor Flynt 2nd the motion.  5. Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  6. Closed Session: G.S. 143-318.11 (6) to discuss al Personnel Matter. Mayor Flynt motioned to recess the April 11, 2019 Regular Town Council Meeting at 8:20PM to goi into closed session to  discuss a personnel matter. Thearon Hooks 2nd the motion.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Nay Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  At 8:40 PMI Mayor Flynt reopened the April 11, 2019 Regular Town Council Meeting. Mayor Flynt made a motion to accept the resignation of our Town. Attorney. John Bain effective June  2019. Frank Bruno 2nd the motion. Vote: Tim Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes further time. IX. Old Business:  30,  Thearon Hooks' Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  The Mayor was going to make a second motion to appoint or ask fori two councilmen to step upi to the search fori the next Town Attorney. After some discussion it was decide to continue this untila a begin  1. Discuss and vote on Hazen & Sawyer building al Hydraulic Model of our water system. Mayor Flynt motioned to approve the building ofi the Hydraulic Model. Thearon Hooks 2nd the motion.  Vote:  BOOK13  3413    2. Discuss bids for Town Park water fountain purchase. Thearon Hooks motioned to continue this  item until the May meeting.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Ves Mayor Flynt: Yes  3. Discuss what Council wants to do with the old cleaned out chlorine tank. Bill. Jones recommended calling a recycle company toj just come and get it. Mayor Flynt motioned to calla recycling company ora company to just dispose oft the tank. Frank Bruno 2nd, motion to recycle  orj just dispose oft the tank.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Nay Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks' Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  4. Review and vote on revision to the Meter Tampering Policy. Attorney. John Bain presented his revisions to the policy effective today. Frank Bruno motionedi to approve the revised meter tampering policy as is with to also include an Ordinance change. Mayor Flynt 2nd the motion.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: Yes Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  5.D Discussion of spending authority and limits. Continued until the May 9, 2019TCI meeting. 6.D Discussion of town's vendor's policy. Continued until the May 9, 2019 TCI meeting. 7. Review, Discuss and vote for/ora against individual proposals from: Dana Luther, CPA and Crutchfield, CPA, for assistance with financial reports. Continued until the May 9, 2019 TCI Kerry 1. Thearon Hooks gave al FEMA update we are less than 20 days awayf from receiving out $75,000. Reimbursement check. The State has declared Hurricane Michael but theyl haven'tsent any information XI. Departmental and Administrative Report: Town Clerks report willl be attached toi the minutes. Jimmy Landreth: Town Council has had a good reputation for being concretive with the Town's money. Hei is still bothered by how much money we: spent on the trees. He wonders howi in the world we came  X. Committee and Board Reports:  meeting.  to us at this time as to when it will be open to accepting claims. XII. Citizen Comments from the Floor (3 Minute Limit per Speaker)  tot that amount. He wants to know how we came about this companyand money.  XIII. Closing Comments from Council  Tim. Jones: It's been an interesting meeting. Any citizen willing to meet with him and Bill. Jones after the meeting. He would welcome them to meet with him. If Council won'tlet him use the building we can Bill Jones: Echoes Tim comments. He is looking back on the Internal Controls that were voted oni in the August 9, 2019 town council meeting. Andi if anyone is interested in reading them he will put them on  meet in the parking lot or he will find another venue for the meeting.  the ai thumb drive. BOOK13  3414    Frank Bruno said he apologizes to everyone for having to step oute earlier. He isn'tfeeling well. He is having ai tough time with allergies from a couple of bee stings to thei face this week. He said her appreciates everyone being here and thanked them fori their support. He said ifa anyone has concerns he is always open to meeting with them come to town hall or meet somewhere and questions or lunch or a cup ofc coffee he will be happy to answer. any questions or concerns. Thearon Hooks Echoes Frank's comments about everyone ina attendance tonight. Wet try to what can; we do the best we can, Things like FEMA fori instance take a lot oft time and effort do  have  we  When the money comes ini it will be announced in the paper. Thank  to  toy put together.  and: staying  you again everyone for coming  Mayor John Flynt said first ofa all he wants to thank Attorney. John Bain for alll his expertise and advice. He hates to see him go but certainly understands the benefits of retirement he is himself. Then he said we have had conversation tonight about whyi it has taken. sO looking to look over our finances. Mr. Pulliam asked toi take al leave of absence for 2 months long to hire someone replace him. When he did decide not to come back and we discussed hiring his wanted to advertise, SO we placed an ad on several websites. We got very little replacement. Council aren'tir interested in driving to Stokesdale to work 8-16 hours a week. We did geta response. a call from Most Kim people Thacker from our advertising and we hired her with 20y years of accounting experience. She came and worked with Alisa. Our account system was old, manual, andi the 2012 version. Kim are now on the 2019 version and electronic. Mr. Pulliam was old school; he had his own helped and we things. He categorized items with names he would recognize. You could ask him for system of doing could go right to it, when no one else could find it. Much like people used to criticize something Carolyn for and her he filing system. She had her own system and knew right where everything was even would have found it. There has been a big transition and there arei things that still need though work. none We else have asked Kim to give us another bid to come back and help us finish upi the transition. She and Alisa able to get most everything moved over before tax season but they weren'table to finish transfer. It's difficult to move manual information over into an automated system. We the Budget about everything we do. We've hadi the North Carolina State Treasurers office out here are and transparent we would welcome them to come back. Asa a matter of fact, Mr. Erwin from the NC Dept. ofTreasurer certainly called recently to speak with Tim. He said Tim had: sent him numerous emails and he better to call and: speak with him directly rather than trying to continue to answer emails. thought We it aren't be trying to hide anything. We are complying with rules that had not been followed in the General Statute from 2013 when the government said we were no longer supposed to be past. allocating founda money into regular CDs; we had over3 million dollars in CDs that were supposed to be converted: to CDARS in 2013. This council has corrected this and these CDARS are earning us a amount ofinterest than we were making. We are spending al lot oft time on our finances. significantly We are larger spending al lot oft time int the office. So, it's tough sometimes toi take the criticism insinuating that we are trying to hide something, or that we are doing something unethical, or trying to pull the wool over somebody's eyes. We are not trying to hide anything from anyone. We have more money in the bank than we did when Mr. Braswell left, it's no one thing, we are justg good stewards oft the and Ispent hours up on Hwy 158 when Hurricane Florence damaged the line there. We money. have lot of meetings. We are working as hard as we can. Everything is in file ally youg got to doi is come attendinga down and take al look at it. Ify you want to talk to our auditors Rouse, Rouse, Penn and Rouse. Ify want to  forward toi it SO we couldn't  ina Alisa has  were  would had Wei  Thearon  see thet financials we have them on file since the beginning of time.  you  BOOK13  3415    XIV.Announcements: Next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for April 25, 2019 at XV. Adjournment. Mayor Flynt motioned at 9:45 pm. Tim. Jones seconded the motion. 7pm.  Vote: Tim. Jones: Yes Bill. Jones: Ves Frank Bruno: Yes  Thearon Hooks Yes Mayor Flynt: Yes  Approved May 9, 2019  A  Mayor  duohuk  Town Clerk/Finance Officer  BOOK13  3416