June 27,2 2023 Work Session Minutes  HAMLET CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION COUNCIL CHAMBERS ROOM 201 MAIN STREET, HAMLET, NC: 28345 TUESDAY, June 27, 2023 5:30PM MINUTES  Governing Body Present: Mayor Mayor Pro Tem Jesse McQueen Council Member Eddie Martin Council Member Maurice Stuart Council Member Abbie Covington Council Member Oscar Sellers  Bill Bayless  Staff Present: City Manager Incoming Clerk Outgoing Clerk  Matthew Christian Cindy Terry Gail Strickland  Others Present: Chris McDonald, Matt Lamb, Andy Honeycutt, Roger Sauls  1. Call to Order 2. Adoption of Agenda The vote was! 5-0.  Mayor Bayless called the meeting to order at! 5:30 pm.  Council Member Covington motioned to adopt the Agenda. Council Member Stuart provided the second.  3. Approval of Minutes for. June 13, 2023 Regular Meeting and Closed Session Council Member Covington provided the second. The vote was! 5-0. Consideration of RFQ: - Stormwater Asset Inventory Assessment  Council Member Stuart motioned to adopt the Minutes for the Regular Meeting and the Closed Session.  4. Work Session  City Manager Christian advised that the City was awarded a $400,000 grant to study and map the existing stormwater assets to the City. He stated that in order to move forward, the City needs to have an understanding of the stormwater system to request more, grants. Thel Manager recommended the LKC firmi to assess the City'ss stormwater, LKC assisted with procuring the grant, and they are familiar with the project, infrastructure and staff. There were no questions from Council. AI motion was made by Council Member Sellers, seconded by Council Member McQueen, that the City award the Stormwater Asset  Inventory Assessment project to LKC. The vote was 5-0. Consideration of RFQ - Water System Improvements  City Manager Christian advised that the City! has received a grant for $10,000,000 to improve the water treatment plant and to replace approximately 4,200 feet of lines in East Rockingham. LKC was the only firm to send an RFQ for this project. He remarked that LKC had also helped with the application. Manager Christian recommended LKC be awarded the contract. Council Member Covington made a motion to  1    June 27, 2023 Work Session Minutes Martin. The vote was 5-0. Consideration of RFQ - Water Meters  award the contract for Water System Improvement to LKC. The motion was seconded by Council Member  City Manager Christian stated that hel had received three responses on the replacement oft the City's water meters. The scope ofv work will be to assist, advise and install the initial 1,500 water meters. Manager Christian recommended MeterSys. Andy Honeycutt, President of MeterSys, made a presentation on his company. He advised that MeterSys provides feasibility analysis, procurement and program management for all of their projects. Mr. Honeycutt. stated that the benefits oft the new meters would be billing accuracy, efficient metering automation, customer engagement and water resource management. MeterSys will also provide a customer portal for the citizens of Hamlet. Council Members Bayless and Sellers inquired about storms affecting the meters, more specifically the areas in the City prone to flooding. Mr. Honeycutt advised that MeterSys has been very successful in maintaining infrastructure during storms. He also advised that the boxes havet the capability of working even submerged. Council Member Stuart stated he loves that the MeterSys site has a minority presence. Council Member Covington made a motion, seconded by Council Member Stuart, that the City award the contract to install new water meters fori the City to MeterSys. The vote was 4-1. Council Member  McQueen cast the dissenting vote.  Consideration of RFQ- On-Call Engineering Services  City Manager Christian advised that he prepared 3 separate RFQ's for 3 different projects. Doing sO allows the City to select multiple firms for multiple projects. Ita also does not prevent the Cityt from doing project specific RFQ'sa as needed. The Manager recommended LKC, Withers-Ravenel and Thomas & Hutton for On-Call Engineering Services. These firms would be able to adjust the scope ofa project according to the grant funds received in order to get the most work done. AI Motion was made by Council Member Covington, seconded by Council Member Sellers, to award the contracts for On-Call Engineering Services  tol LKC, Withers-Ravenel and Thomas & Hutton. The vote was 5-0.  Consideration of Personnel Policy Updates  Manager Christian advised thati there have been ai few substantive edits to the Personnel Policyi including the market pay plan, tobacco products, probationary employees, travel and meal policy, bereavement leave and drug screening, as well as the addition ofa Social Media Policy. Council Member Covington inquired about the Social Media Policy. The Manager explained that the Policy would be a guideline as to how employees present themselves in their personal lives and jobs. He also advised that the Policy came from the League's outline for a Social Media Policy. Council Member McQueen advised that he would like for the City Attorney to review the Policy before Council votes on it. Mayor Bayless tabled the policy until  City Attorney Morphis is at the. July 11, 2023 meeting. Consideration of Public Comment Policy  The City Manager then presented a proposed Public Comment Policy which provides basic guidelines for speakers. The Policyi initially provided al limit of 3 minutes for each individual speaker, and 51 minutes for each group. The group would appoint one person to speak for the entire group. Mayor Bayless suggested that comments be amended to! 5 minutes across the board. The Manager recommended that the Policy reflect that in-person comments would be heard and that, alternatively, comments could be in made in writing. Council Member Covington moved to adopt the changes, with Council Member McQueen  providing the second. The vote was 5-0.  Other Business  City Manager Christian reminded Council that the City received a $78,000 USDA grant and a $400,000 rural transformation grant. Mr. Christian stated he would get a team together to reconfigure the scope of  2    June 27,2 2023 Work Session Minutes  work for the grants. He stated that hel hopes to get the grant to do the bridge. Mr. Christian advised that Manager Christian requested that the August meeting be changed from August 81 to August15at6:00 p.m. Councilagreed with the Managersrequest. The change of date willl be advertised.  he would keep Council informed about the projects.  5. Motion to Adjourn The vote was! 5-0. Respectfully: submitted, GACRMy  At6 6:12 pm, Council Members Sellers and Martin provided the motion and second to adjourn the meeting.  Cindy  "HAML  oN SEAL NORTH  3