Board of Supervisors Meeting   1/14/2025

What do they call that?

Right.

Yeah.

Interesting.

I'm sorry at the labs.

They used to be taller.

Because the snow's on?

They should.

They didn't cover those little buildings.

Yeah.

How about back in the day?

Motorcycles, when you buy the new Harleys, a lot of times they'll save 500 miles on a break-in period.

That's crazy.

I'm going to do that in a week, 10,000 miles.

That's what they did to big trucks.

They took them up to like 18,000 miles on an oil change.

And I usually do it at 10.

And at nine, you lose a gallon.

So that means you really need to do it at 10.

You know what I mean?

Like something's breaking down to

Welcome.

In accordance with your bylaws, Section 23A, I as County Administrator will preside during the election of Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for 2025.

Just to go over the rules, you may nominate yourself.

You may vote for yourself.

If a member is nominated and doesn't wish to serve, he or she may notify the chair they wish to decline.

And with that, I open the floor for nominations for chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

Okay.

I nominate Steve Catalano for chair.

Okay.

I heard a nomination for Davis Lamb and for Steve Catalano.

Is there a second to Davis Lamb?

I thought last year we weren't voting for ourselves but I said you can vote well especially if there's more than one you kind of have to because we will go since there are multiple nominations and I'm

It is right out of Robert's Rules of Order.

So if there are two nominations, bylaws call for a roll call vote.

Each member shall announce his or her vote when your name is called.

Members can vote for themselves.

Balloting must continue until a candidate gets a majority, which in this case is three votes.

Second.

Okay, so we have Davis Lamb that was nominated by Francis McGuigan and seconded by Davis Lamb.

And we have a nomination for Steve Catalano that was made by Marie Durrer and seconded by Tim Goolsby.

All right, I am gonna call for a roll call vote and we'll just go along the dais.

So, Mr. McGuigan, how do you vote?

Davis Lamb.

Mr., how do you vote?

Steve Catalano.

Mr. Lamb, how do you vote?

Davis Lamb.

Okay, so with that, I have three votes for Steve Catalano and two votes for Davis Lamb.

So congratulations, Mr. Truman.

Nominate Davis Lamb.

Okay, we'll have the same setup.

I'll second for myself.

I'll second for Marie.

Roll call vote, Mr. McQuiggan.

And the chair votes for Marie Durrer.

Number three on the agenda is closed meeting.

Ms.

Yes, sir.

Where's the Board of Supervisors of Greene County's desires to discuss and close meeting the following matters.

Consultation of legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in an open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body regarding a zoning case and a FOIA case.

Consultation of legal counsel employed or retained by the public body regarding specific legal matters requiring provision of legal advice by such counsel regarding a ruling from the general district court.

Whereas pursuant to section 2.2-3711A7 and A8 of the Code of Virginia, such discussions may occur in a closed meeting.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors of Greene County does hereby authorize discussion of the four stated matters in a closed meeting.

Is there a second?

I second.

We had a motion in the second.

Roll call vote.

Ms.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan?

Aye.

Looks like we had Roger Slykert Excuse me, I'm going to get my time There we go

Do you all think it's going to be really good?

I'm just saying.

I'm just saying.

I'm just saying.

I'm just saying.

You don't like my chair?

Oh, you want to switch?

You want to switch?

Marie?

Does this one go up?

It will, but take this one.

We'll just switch chairs.

It was up in the air so high I had to put it down.

That one is so low.

That one is so low.

Awesome.

But I got to the paper it anyways.

Good golly.

I get this.

All right.

I'm with you.

He hit a button and lost his thing.

I've done that before, too.

See, they had it put like half and half, and I tried to get it where it was.

In the last meeting, I actually knew how to use this thing, and then we've been on for 30 days.

I better get this out.

Change your name, please.

Oh, yeah.

What was the note on the back of that one?

Oh, yeah.

Do I have a motion to come back into open session?

So moved.

Is there a second?

I have a motion and a second.

Roll call vote.

Mr. McQuiggan?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Ms.

Do all members certify that only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirement and only such matters as identified by the motion to enter into a closed meeting were discussed?

Roll call vote.

Mr. McQuiggan?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

I certify.

Ms.

And the chair certifies.

I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular meeting of the Greene County Board of Supervisors.

Next on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda itself.

Is there a second?

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Roll call vote, Ms.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan?

Aye.

Thank you.

I'd like to remind everyone before we open this up that according to the bylaws, all public comments are limited to three minutes.

The first person on our sheet is Ms.

Hope Barber.

Thank you for hearing me tonight.

I'm Hope Barber from Sandersville District.

I just wanted to say thank you all for all the hard work you did last year.

Hopefully this year we'll get a lot more done, or you all will.

I may not.

But anyway, I particularly want to thank Dr. McGuigan for doing such a great job of researching, getting the material out there to the public by social media or talking to people.

I think he's done an exceptional job of, you know, getting us informed, educating a lot of us.

And I want to thank him and all of you for your service.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Chairman, members of the board for this opportunity to speak.

Ken Copeland, Stanardsville District.

In light of the agenda item this evening on social media policy, I hope this is not the last opportunity we will have to speak freely at these meetings.

While I can appreciate the county seeking to establish guidelines and rules around content on county social media sites, the wording in Ms.

Kemp's proposed social media proposal policy so overly broad and vague as to invite overreach and abuse and result in a chilling effect on public comment.

Words have meaning and need to be viewed in light of how they may be used.

Following are several examples.

Ms.

Kemp states that the guidelines and rules apply to members of the public.

However, there's no discussion how this aspect of the policy is to be implemented in practice or how it would be enforced.

Ms.

Kemp defined social media as including all means of communicating on the internet.

This would include emails and instant messaging apps.

thus the policy is stating that any email sent by a citizen must refrain from addressing political comment thus could not email a board member indicating support for their candidacy nor perhaps Ms.

Barber stating thanks to Mr. McGuigan any claim against the county thus could not make statements in opposition to a county action

or endorsement of a visit, thus potentially could not advocate for zoning variance for your own business.

Ms.

Kemp states that the county does not support or verify any social media comments, messages or posts.

Policy thus indicates

that the county will not stand behind the accuracy of any information contained on its website or electronic communications as these fall under Ms.

Kemp's definition of social media.

My comments are being broadcast over the internet as I speak through the county's Zoom app setup and would thus be covered by Ms.

Kemp's proposed policy.

Were Ms.

Kemp's policy currently in fact, I could not state that I have filed a claim against the county in Greene County District Court asking for a writ of mandating to honor a Freedom of Information Act request I had submitted.

Will the board, if this act is policy is enacted, be telling me and others to sit down and shut up?

If words are spoken, they do not want to hear?

Will they delete those words when the video of the meeting is put up on the board website, which again is covered under the definition of social media?

In closing, the board can and should require an enforceability at its meetings and regulate the use of the internet by its staff.

However, the board should not abrogate our First Amendment rights.

Thank you, Mr. Cope.

Jennifer Lewis Fowler.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman and board members.

My name is Jennifer Lewis Fowler and I live in the Midway District.

I'd like to speak on two topics.

First, at the most recent board meeting on December 10th, five weeks ago, Fred Turk relayed an incident to you regarding a significant fall he had while leaving the

this building via the ramp.

Thankfully, Fred did not suffer any serious injuries.

He suggested a few fairly inexpensive ways to improve the safety of the ramp, such as an additional handrail and lighting.

I recognize that there have been holidays and bad weather to deal with.

However, I would like to inquire of the progress and an estimated time that the tripping and falling hazard

that the ramp currently presents will be fixed.

The ramp is not currently ADA compliant, by the way.

And second, it is important for Greene County to have a social media policy.

However, I am concerned about some of the content in the draft copy of the policy document, which will be presented this evening.

It states, quote, the county also respects the First Amendment rights of employees and elected officials who may speak as private citizens on matters of public concern, including on personal social media platforms, end quote.

However, point two under the heading personal account records reads limit the personal account content to personal use.

No county business discussed, end quote.

Well, as a citizen, I may wish to post an opinion or concern on a social media platform regarding Greene County that could be considered county business.

All 20,000 other Greene County residents have that freedom to do so.

However, this document in its current form is highly recommending that county employees do not address county topics on their personal social media accounts.

So from my perspective, it is definitely limiting county staff and board members from our First Amendment rights on our personal social media accounts.

And I will just also state that Mr. Copeland said it better.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Fowler.

Hello.

Welcome.

I'm here for two reasons.

One is we're still we still have a huge concern about the mobile home park in Rucker that's located behind Wendy's.

I personally live there.

I can look out my front door and right to the construction site itself.

It was stated that there was no written contract with Milestone and the county about stipulations and what was supposed to happen.

However, I have looked up the law in Virginia and it says that a verbal agreement is also considered a contract.

One, if it offers one party makes a promise to do or not do something in exchange for something from the other party, which that happened.

Acceptance.

The other party accepts the offer.

That happened.

Consideration.

Each party provides something of value to the other party.

Well, that's supposed to happen, but Milestone wants to not do their end of the part.

So the county agreed that this Wawa that Milestone is leasing the land to could be developed in exchange for the parcel that they bought was supposed to be redeveloped for everybody in that trailer court to move.

However, if Milestone is backing out on what they're saying, why can't the county hold them liable for breach of contract

and either put a stop on the Wawa until they fulfill what they promised or just back out of it altogether since Milestone is not, you know, doing what they said and promised the county, which was that no resident would be displaced out of their home.

Right now, we still have uncertainty of where we're going to go.

We can't find places to put these trailers.

We have homes now, but

When the time comes, when we get that eviction notice, and it's coming soon, we've heard rumors of September 2025, so not sure yet, but when we get these eviction notices, where are we going to go?

And that's a huge stress.

I'm working two jobs.

I've got to leave from here to go to my second job.

It's a huge stress to try to figure out where you're going to live when you already have a home.

Second of all, along with that, we are having so many issues with that construction site.

For the past two nights, last night and Sunday night, I have called the sheriff's office about people trespassing.

They're trying to drive through the construction site to come on down through the trailer court to try to use it as a bypass to bypass the light at 29 and 33.

We have people walking through that construction site.

I know it is against the law.

It's a class one misdemeanor up to 12 months in jail, up to $2,500 in fine or both.

Last night someone drove through there.

I have video on my phone if you'd like to see.

And supposedly now this is in the dark.

at night.

Supposedly the deputy could not see no lights, no nothing, but there was a vehicle stuck in the mud over there and they finally got out and I watched the deputy turn onto Moore Road and go up by CVS.

I was on the phone with dispatch and I said they're going the wrong way.

So we're having issues now and that road is blocked off even to us.

We have to go in and out by Papa John's.

right this moment from 29.

However, once that road opens up, it's going to be 40 times more the issues than what we're having now.

As a private neighborhood, as of right now until that changes, we shouldn't have to endure strangers coming in and out of neighborhood.

We should feel safe in our own area.

I'm asking the board to please emphasize to the sheriff's office to please do their job enforce it and maybe need to reach out to the constructions company which is Momentum Earthworks in Harrisonburg

and ask them to secure the construction site more because I know that's against the law too, being neglectful of a construction site.

I've got pictures on here of kids on top of the big dirt pile that's right there.

Cops actually came down and caught them and talked to them.

So it is proof that people are trespassing in that area.

But my main concern is holding milestone liable for

what they promised us residents and a place to go.

And like I said, it's a legal contract.

You can pull it back from the minutes of August board meeting of 2020.

So right there is your proof right there of the verbal agreement.

And if they're not holding their in, it should be breach of contract and something should be done and either halt the

Project the Wawa until they honor it or dismiss it altogether.

But thank you guys for taking the time to listen to me.

Enjoy y'all's night.

I'm going to go have fun at work.

Especially at a time when we're being criticized as a county because we have no low income or moderate income housing.

I think so.

I think maybe we could get a report from staff on that fact and also send somebody out to understand why the actual construction site is not secure because somebody is going to get hurt and that's really not the idea.

There's got to be some thing that's not going on there correctly.

So I agree.

Can we do that for the next meeting?

Perfect.

We're done with the in person.

How about online?

Okay, great.

Anybody in the audience that didn't get a chance to sign up, would you all like to speak?

Anybody like to speak on the issue?

Yes, sir.

Mr. Zutt.

Mr. Zutt, I just very brief.

Thank you, Dr. McGuigan for input this year.

And I want to say that Ms.

Shafford contacted me shortly prior to the meeting.

The comments that I had sent you all in an email adequately covered.

She assured me that this draft resolution, which is before you, is not an attempt in any way.

It is stifled or curtailed.

Public dissent or comment.

And I thank her for that assurance.

And I hope you all will take a very, very hard look at this resolution before you pass on it.

Anyone else?

The first presentation we have, Ms.

Do we have some representatives from the Women's Club?

Good.

Yes, yes.

Absolutely.

We welcome you.

We're glad to have you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

You're welcome.

2025 Women's Club of Greene County, 50th anniversary documentary.

Whereas the Williams Club of Greene County was founded in 1975 in Greene County, Virginia.

And whereas the Women's Club of Greene County is in the middle of the old classroom, they don't care about it.

Williamsburg, Stabbing in the United States.

And while the Williamsburg, Greene, Patlin, who's working with them, agencies, advocates for children, often supporting individuals and activists with the followers.

They encourage city to follow up multiple groups.

the Women's Scholarship program for the graduating women including the Christmas gift program.

where is the women's father of King County received $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000 to $25,000

My two words would be, I wonder who wrote that?

So that you're a little bit higher in everything they screened in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let everybody know.

There's movement for one night.

Here we go.

Are you ready?

C, fiscal year 2025 audit, Matt McLaren, Robertson Farmer & Cox Associates.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

My name is Matt McLaren.

I'm with Roberts Farmer Cox.

Our firm performed the fiscal year 24 audit.

I'm here this evening to present the results of that audit, but also answer any questions the board may have about the audit process, the results, or the financial report, which I will review very briefly.

Before we review the bound financial report document, I'm going to review a separate letter that we issue every year.

It's called the letter to those charged with governance.

It's a standard letter under professional standards that requires that we communicate certain matters.

I'm going to highlight those matters in my points at this time.

First item highlighted in that letter is under responsibilities.

As everyone's aware, the auditor has responsibility to test documents, test controls, and applying on the financial statement.

But management of the county also has an important role in the audit process.

Management, including the school board and social services and the finance departments, are all required to provide documents necessary to complete our audit process.

The second item described in that letter is accounting estimates.

Most financial statements include estimates in preparation of the financial statement numbers.

The county's statements do include estimates largely related to the estimate of depreciable lives of long-term assets, as well as the measurement of pension and OPEB liabilities.

These are long-term liabilities related to the benefit plans offered to county employees.

Third item described in this letter, difficulties encountered in performing the audit and auditors required in professional standards to disclose the difficulties we had in conducting our audit fieldwork.

Please report that we had the difficulties encountered in conducting the audit for fiscal year 2024.

Next item described in this letter, corrected and uncorrected misstatements.

Most audits include proposed audit adjustments.

is a normal part of the audit process.

If we propose audit adjustments that are not included in the financial report, meaning the financial report is not adjusted to what the auditors feel to be a materially correct financial statement, we're required to disclose those adjustments that were not included in this report, and please report all proposed adjustments have been included in the financial report that has been issued.

And lastly, we're required to disclose under professional standards our knowledge that management has sought a second opinion, also sought opinion shopping,

We're not aware that management has sought a second opinion from another independent CPA firm.

So that summarizes very briefly the communication with those charged governance.

Again, that's a second, excuse me, a stapled separate document or letter that is issued from our firm to the governing body.

Turn my attention to the financial report.

It's a balanced financial document.

It's very lengthy.

I'm going to try to summarize the key points in this document this evening.

And feel free to stop me at any point in time if you have questions related to any of the statements and pages in this document that I will cover.

If you're following along, I'm going to start on page six.

This is the independent auditor's report.

This is commonly called the opinion of the financial statement.

This is where the auditor describes the accuracy of the financial report itself.

So the numbers that are presented in this report spans the course of approximately three and a half pages with an unmodified or a clean opinion on the report, meaning there are no known material deficiencies or misstatements in this financial report.

Correct.

Yep.

I'll use that term one more time.

There are actually three reports in this document that are on the firm's letterhead.

I'll briefly touch on the other two here momentarily.

Down on page 22, this is the balance sheet.

A lot of information on this statement here, but I'm going to highlight the general fund column.

and that's page 22 exhibit three the general fund column being the county's main operating fund the key term on this page is the fund balance and you'll see the total fund balance the general fund is approximately 31.3 million you'll also see that fund balance is categorized based on a hierarchy of reporting and unassigned being the least restrictive of the categories was approximately 18.8 million

at June 30, 2024.

One of the common metrics that I annually tell the board about is related to the unassigned fund balance, and that is the percentage of the unassigned fund balance as it compares to the general fund budgeted expenditures.

So basically, what are the liquid available least restricted reserves available to pay for the approved amended budget?

If you were to do that math, it's approximately 31%.

that compares favorably to what most bond rating agencies would encourage localities to maintain, which is typically between 15 to 25%.

On page 23, this is Exhibit 4.

This is the Statement of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balance, very similar to a Profit and Loss Statement for a for-profit entity.

Again, tracking the General Fund column, you will see that

The increase in general fund fund balance 6.9 million is the third number from the bottom.

The water and sewer activities are reported on a slightly different accounting basis and so they have their own separate financial statements.

Turn your attention to the water and sewer activities and those statements are found starting on page 25.

So we turn to page 25 and 26.

The term net position, very similar to the term fund balance, it's a term for equity, but for the water and sewer.

Combined funds, water and sewer, net position was approximately $37.4 million.

Exhibit seven, found on page 27,

It's very similar to the statement of revenues expenditures change in fund balance, where it reports the increase or decrease in that equity.

You'll see water and sewer reported an increase of approximately $2.47 million.

That's the change in net position, the far-right column and the total column on page 27.

Those are the main financial statement exhibits for the county's funds.

I'm happy to answer any questions about those, but if there are no questions, I'll briefly review the other two reports that auditors require to issue, and they're found in the rear of this document.

Starting on page 162.

As part of our testing, I mentioned that we test internal controls.

Basically, internal control is the segregation of duties, the reporting process, everything that operationally goes into producing the financial information that is available to the public, available to the board, and it's presented in this report.

You're required to test that operation, that control over those financial reporting activities and present our results in this report.

On page 162, you'll find that we've issued a report free of material weaknesses or significant deficiencies.

Then lastly, I'll touch very briefly on the third and final opinion or report that we've issued.

That's on page 164.

This third and final report is directly related to the county's receipt and expenditure of federal funds.

This does include, of course, the school board's receipt of funds as well as Department of Social Services.

Any entity that receives greater than $750,000 federal funds annually is required to have what's called a single audit or a uniform guidance audit.

And this is where an auditor randomly selects federal audit programs to test, which is separate compliance testing that's required on those federal programs.

We're then required to present the results to the federal audit clearinghouse.

And please report the single audits that we have selected for fiscal year 24.

We have issued an unmodified opinion over those compliance programs.

Chairman, that concludes my prepared remarks.

Yeah, Mr. McLaren, I've got a few and I want to thank you for your expertise in the great report.

I'm not good with numbers, let alone an accountant.

So if I say a bunch of stupid things, just kind of give me the look and I'll know.

So on page 10,

It says that we've got revenues in excessive expenditures of 2.9 million.

Now that you just said that we increased the general fund 6.9, right?

And then on page 13, it says governmental activities increased the county's net position by 2.1 million.

And then the final, so what I want to know, I skipped one actually.

and at the close of the fiscal year, the county government funds, this was page 10, reported an ending balance of 31.5 million with an increase of 3.7 million.

So which one of those numbers is like real?

So there's multiple funds in the county operates with.

So first of all, there's multiple bases of accounting.

I hate to even say that, but exhibits one and two are different bases of accounting.

So they're going to have a different change or

increase or decrease in the equity.

But the numbers that I highlight, including the general fund, which you're referencing the 6.9 million, is on what I consider the budgetary basis of accounting.

So this is what you budget, this is in and out.

So it kind of eliminates a lot of those long-term assets like depreciation and things like that.

The 6.9 is the general fund only.

So if you were to look, there was a transfer of the debt service fund, approximately $3.2 million.

That was a loss.

So when you net that, that number is much lower.

Now what that transfer was, it was a transfer of accumulated assets that was sitting there to pay water and sewer debt.

Then

actually kind of answered one of them with the expenditure ratio of the 15 to 25 because that was the Davenport recommendation.

We have an excess of that.

But long-term liabilities of page 12.

So when you take the long-term liabilities and the current liabilities, so it's $64 million plus $9.4 million.

Yeah, so again, that $64 million is used in the basis of accounting where you include the long-term assets and liabilities.

So that's including, you know, the construction costs of buildings and things like that.

But that's also including water and sewer and what's considered governmental activities.

So that 64 point, whatever it was, you mentioned 64.9.

That is the net position combined on what's called the full accrual basis.

But what's the difference between the long term and the current liabilities?

Because when I add those together again, it goes from being 64 million to 74, 73 million.

So the current liability is just the current portion of the debt.

So the net position, the 64.9, that's the net equity.

So that's your full assets less your liability gives you your net position.

So total liabilities were 24.9.

Excuse me, 24.4 for business type, 48.9 for governmental.

You do.

Now, there's a pretty good note that describes what type of debt that is, because I'm going to clarify this.

There's debt in here that includes what's called the pension liability.

I mentioned that in my letter.

That is the...

estimated future liability as it relates to the BRS participation.

So BRS annually measures the liability as it requires to pay future benefits on an actuarial basis to employees that may retire with the county.

So I guess the question is like from the county standpoint, should we be saying that we got, you know, which has been floated around repeatedly 67, 64, or should we be saying we have 73?

So you have 152 million of total gross assets.

You have 73 of debt.

The net is your equity of 64 that's being quoted.

Okay.

Then on page 14, it comes up with, it says basically you have an outstanding obligation of $69 million.

So that one's even different than the other two.

And it says the county's total obligations increased $250,000.

You see that on page 14?

Yeah, and that may be...

over here to the finance staff.

That may be related directly to the bonds.

So there's debt that is included in the total liabilities, but not necessarily long-term payment debt.

So you've got what's called lease liabilities that sometimes are not included in that.

Like I said, you've got the pension.

You also have accrued leave liability, compensated absence type liability.

Okay, because then on, again, page 18, it talks about total liabilities.

And then another question on the same page.

Yeah.

So Virginia is a little bit unique.

School boards in itself do not have tax and authority, so they can't issue long-term debt.

So bonds.

So those bonds that are related to schools are related or excuse me, are reported on the governmental activities.

Now the schools do have long-term obligations, but again, that's because they also participate in VRS.

And then on page 15, there's the statement that the fiscal year 2025 budget increased from $86 million to $93 million, where $6.5 million increased for 7.5%.

I'm trying to follow that.

I think it's one of your generalization statements.

And what I want to know is that when you look at page 13,

It looks like total revenues decreased from fiscal year 23 from 73 million to fiscal year 24 to 61 million.

I mean, is that true?

Am I reading that right?

No, no.

So you, yeah, again, two bases of accounting.

So this is what you referenced first was a budgetary basis of accounting.

That's

drastically different, which you just referenced on page 13.

Okay, so 13, the table the county is presenting is again on the full cruel basis of accounting.

It doesn't have anything to do with that budgetary basis.

No, what I'm just trying to say, I recognize there's different manipulations, but did we lose $10 million in revenue

Because the flip side was, and this is in the same page, is that expenses look like an increase from 2023 from $48 million

to 57 million.

And that to me is an 18% increase in expenditures and an 18% loss in revenue.

No, I understand what you're saying.

You're coming at me a lot of numbers.

I just don't remember the details of it.

But I'm happy to work with

All right.

And then what was the last one I had here?

Yeah, the page 23, what I'm trying to figure out is what our service on the debt is.

So to me, it got a little confusing where it said total principal retirement was $954,000.

Mm-hmm.

And then it says interest and other charges are $440,000.

So, you know, it's about $1.3 million.

But then there's the financing source transfer, which I think you just talked about that $3 million.

So the transfer of 3.2 is just a transfer of cash between funds.

So you'll find that 3.2 again on page 27.

So that really is not a debt service payment.

Debt service fund is just a simple way of accumulating resource to pay future debt service.

So the 1.3 that you referenced is truly debt service.

There's also debt service reported in the school operating fund for school bonds.

There's also debt reported in the water and sewer fund.

So the water and sewer fund is reported, again, in a separate financial statement.

There's a footnote that describes the full debt service that you're requesting.

Do you know where that is?

Yes, sir.

Note 5 starting on page...

48, 47.

Excellent.

Thank you, sir.

Okay, next will be Freedom of Information Act and Conflict of Interest Act Overview, Ms.

Kim.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.

This is going to have less numbers than the last presentation.

Please don't ask me any math questions.

So I just wanted to briefly talk to you all about Freedom of Informatization Act and the Conflict of Interest Act.

Sort of the broad purpose of this is simply to remind you that it exists and remind you that anything comes up and you have questions to let me or Ms.

Shafrick know sooner rather than later.

So broadly, the purpose of Freedom of Information is to

give the public access to public records and also make sure that meetings such as this are open to the public.

So a meeting is obviously this where we notice it and the public comes.

And so that's sort of the easy definition.

It gets a little trickier when perhaps

to all three of you are standing at the, I don't know, red, white, the 4th of July celebration.

And three of you are just enjoying the fireworks and a citizen comes up and says, hey, that Matt McLaren, that was an awesome presentation and starts talking about that.

Well, all of a sudden, now we're talking about county business, we're at the fireworks, but we're kind of

really talking about county business, the three of you, technically that's a meeting, and that's really what we want to avoid, so just, and it happens really fast, and it can be very social, and so just be, just be aware, some, some boards won't stand together, social, like some people are a little bit dramatic about it, but just be aware that those things can happen, and we want to avoid them, obviously.

Not a meeting is social events, sporting events, things like that, you all can

go to the high school football game and be in the same place at the same time.

But if you have any questions, let us know.

We're happy to answer those.

Again, if there's a meeting, we have to give notice.

You have to be in person, there has to be a quorum.

After COVID, the General Assembly has tweaked this a couple of times, but they have made exceptions for when you all can be, one of you can be remote as well as if there's an emergency situation and all of you need to be remote and things like that.

So just know that's in the state code and when that does happen, we will walk you through it.

Hopefully we will not have need for another mass set of electronic meetings.

Again, we post notice, it's posted, and notice for the meetings and notice for public comments are different, just know that, but it's posted out here, I think on the front board, it's also on your website, and you all go above and beyond to notice your meetings in terms of, you know, you send people email opposite of it plus, so you all are doing all the right things.

Again, it's those meetings that kind of really weren't supposed to be a meeting that we're really more concerned about.

You all are obviously allowed to go into closed session, but no votes are ever taken in closed session.

You can have emergency meetings.

I think that's happened a few times.

And basically, as soon as the chair coordinates with all of you, basically, as soon as you all know, we try to put out notice as soon as possible.

But obviously, that is some sort of emergency situation.

I can't remember why they have the last one, but

It does happen, but try to keep those to be as infrequently as possible.

As you know, when I read the long motion to go into closed, I always give essentially a reason.

They're very specific in the code, the reasons you can go into closed.

Those are only some of them.

There are a lot in the code.

A lot of them don't have to do with Board of Supervisors.

But just know the reason I'm reading such a long motion is because it is the code.

We have to give the reason that we're going in there and some sort of tie to the subject.

So just know that there is a reason the long motion that I read to go into closed.

All right, public records.

These are documents that are in the county's possession that are open to the public unless an exception applies.

It's citizens of the Commonwealth that is a limitation.

From time to time, we do get requests from outside of the Commonwealth.

usually you shoot back saying hey you're you know you live in Oklahoma very frequently the request comes back tied to a Virginia address so but that is is the rule so public records include not just paper emails

facts, photos, films, the recording of this, all of those that are in possession of the public body.

It does not include answers to questions, which is frustrating to citizens sometimes.

Sometimes a document is not helpful, they really need an interaction, but that FOIA does not dictate that.

If the county staff wants to talk to people, that's a different situation.

Also, this includes email.

It includes your text messages.

It includes your email, whether it's on your Greene County email or your Yahoo account.

It is much easier if we get a FOIA request to search your Greene County email account.

We do not have access to your personal account, but you still have to turn that over.

So if a citizen sends you an email on your Yahoo account and you forward that to your Greene County account, it'll be captured and it'll be in the search.

Or if you CC yourself or whatever, then IT will find it.

You do want to only have Greene County business on your Greene County email account, just as you don't really want Greene County business on your personal account.

When they do a search, they, I mean, IT runs the search.

So if they run a search for agenda, you know, somebody wants the agenda from all your meetings, it'll pull up that in your email.

However, if you have emails about your

party in Vegas, the agenda for your party in Vegas, that will also pull up.

You do not want Ms.

Shaffer to see that probably, and she does not want to see it.

So that's why we say keep those separate.

It just makes it, you think it'll never happen until it does.

And then here we are.

So just keep that in mind when you're, and I know it's hard because we all have so many emails and text messages and think it gets muddied.

So, but just try to keep that in mind.

There are over 130 exceptions to FOIA.

So when the county gets a request for a document, I don't know what the percentage, but

Most of the time that request is just complied with.

However, if it's, you know, public safety records, education records, obviously, you know, any health records, those get a closer look.

Some of those are still, you still can receive, but those do have FOIA exceptions that we have to be careful not to disclose, you know, EMS records also have to comply with HIPAA.

So a little bit more careful analysis.

So, when a FOIA request is made, it's great when they are in writing because it gives Ms.

Shafferick and staff a better understanding of what is being asked for.

It doesn't have to be in writing, though.

It can be that someone sees you at the high school football game and asks, hey, I'd love to see that audit report.

Yeah, you're good.

and technically that's a FOIA request.

So just keep in mind, because I know that you all get a lot of emails from constituents and things like that.

And even if you have the document, it's really better if you forward it to Ms.

Chafferick so that we know that the FOIA request has been made, you know, because you can FOIA a FOIA request.

So just keep in mind, it's great when they, you know, it's all official and emailed, but sometimes I know you all are getting questions.

So just forward them to Ms.

Shafferick and she will take care of it.

And then we have various, the statute is very specific on how a FOIA request is responded to.

There's generally five days.

You can take a seven day extension.

Obviously we've gotten, you know, some requests that take far longer, you know, weeks or months.

to fulfill, and you can usually have a conversation about that.

But the code is very specific in how the county has to respond, when they have to respond.

Also, the county can and does charge for copies, the time of the person to gather the information, that sort of thing.

And again, all of this is very specific in state code.

You can go ahead, Terry.

Sorry.

So violations for the act, you can be fined, essentially, there's a civil penalty, I think it's pretty steep, and it does escalate with the second, and you all, as the public body, can be individually viable, so that is important for you all to know, so.

I do.

Can you go back to that thing where you just said that you don't have to request in writing and you don't have to mention FOIA.

Which makes it very difficult for you.

I'm not at all saying that that's great.

And it's much easier if they can put it in writing.

But then I guess the question is, does the county, so do all these

You know, 10 day turnarounds and all that, does that disappear if the person just makes an oral request?

No, it does not.

You know, I think, I don't know how often, but I mean, you all do get emails from constituents all the time, and I'm sure they're asking for documents sometimes that you probably don't necessarily think, oh, this is a, you know, FOIA request.

It technically is.

Okay.

So, but yes, it can be.

It can be at Walmart.

That's why Mr. Catalano stays in his car at Walmart sometimes, I think.

Sam works like a charm.

Okay.

All right.

So Conflict of Interest Act.

Conflict of Interest Act is, yeah, presentation is general, you should read the act, you should understand the act.

I will also say it's very specific because it's situated, you know, each of you have a different conflict, you know, because you all have different personal interests.

So just keep that in mind.

Always ask the conflict question because it is very specific, like it's very fact specific to everybody.

So it hinges on whether or not someone has a personal interest in a transaction or a contract.

Personal interest is defined, essentially you have to have some sort of ownership in a business.

And it can also be that you will be enhanced monetarily or it will hurt you.

So it's both ways.

The code is specific.

It's not necessarily what you and I would consider like personal interest.

It's very specifically defined.

So if one of you were a real estate agent and there was a rezoning that was going to bring house sales or business sales or whatever, might you have more sales because you're a real estate agent?

Maybe, but that's sort of a rising tide lifts all boats situations.

Unless you had a contract on the rezoning to sell every single house in the development,

it'd be likely that that situation would not be a specific conflict for you.

So I kind of think of it as, does this just enhance all of us or me specifically?

But again, these are very specific analysis.

So ask the question.

So this includes not only you, but your immediate family.

Immediate family is not defined in any way that it's not defined this way in the rest of the code for other things.

This is really just you, your spouse and anyone else who lives in your household and who's your dependent.

So it's very narrow.

So that's not your sister, your boyfriend that doesn't live with you.

It's very specific and not defined the way immediate family is in the rest of the code.

So just be aware of that.

It also has to be a transaction.

So usually we see these in contracts, negotiations, businesses, sometimes in zoning actions.

But there has to be a governmental transaction happening.

It can't be sort of some ephemeral idea.

So if you have a conflict, first, I would like for you to call me.

But if you do have a conflict, it just means you cannot vote on those subjects, you can't be part of the discussions and you have to disclose that you have a conflict and recuse yourself.

Again, if it's a conflict, but there's large groups, so it's, you know, again, like a rising tide of the situation.

That's a different situation.

Usually in those situations, you can participate and vote with a declaration.

You all also have the requirement that you have to fill out disclosure forms.

This includes all of you.

Smaller towns don't have to do that.

So if you're talking to somebody from Stanardsville, they don't have to do it, I don't believe, if they sit on town council there.

But you have to disclose your financial position, your liabilities, your salary, your wages.

assets, basically compensation over like $1,000.

And you all, I'm just going to say you all have done it and it's all, you've done it.

So if you haven't, do not tell me right now.

We'll talk about it later.

The other part of conflict of interest is gifts, which comes up somewhat frequently.

As you all know, you can't accept gifts over $100.

You cannot take a bunch of smaller gifts to make it aggregate over $100.

That also doesn't work.

It doesn't apply to like gifts from family and friends, obviously.

There's also common exclusions to the gifts.

So, you know,

if you're at if you're at Bayco and there's like the tote bags that they get give you those are usually considered de minimis you can get you know you know food at a reception now it does say you have to stand or walk while enjoying the food but I tend to think food is fine raffle prizes that you might win at a conference all fine um

So violations, these are a class one or three misdemeanor and knowing our intentional misstatement on that economic interest form is a class five felony, which I think is a huge deal.

So I just want you all to be aware of these are a big deal or I think it's a big deal.

If you have a conflict

Call me or Ms.

Shafferick.

We can talk about it.

If there is an issue,

Generally what happens is I will do the research and write a letter.

Usually there isn't a conflict is what tends to happen.

The people that ask generally don't have a conflict and the people that don't ask have something else.

So I do the research, write a letter, and that letter can actually be used as evidence in court if you were ever prosecuted for this.

But I then usually will take that letter and send it over to the Commonwealth's attorney's office

and he does his own research and assuming he agrees with me, he will also write a letter and that letter, assuming you've given him all the facts as you know them to be true, is a bar to prosecution.

So that letter is very important.

So if that happens, essentially, call me, email me, we will talk it through.

And if we need to, you know, write letters, we will do that.

This code does require a training component.

This does not count as your training, by the way.

Sorry, I should have put that slide first.

So if you have any questions, let me or I think Ms.

Morris has probably helped some of you in the past make sure you're trained appropriately, but I believe it's on the website is where you do it.

On your statement about the rising tide lifts all boats kind of thing, it's good that you quote Jack Kennedy.

What if, is that done based on the average citizen?

Meaning, you know, there's a certain section that are in tourism, there's a certain section that are in business.

Yeah, so if you're, yeah, like I said, like if you're a real estate agent,

and there's a housing development.

Well, unless you have a specific contract to market and sell all 200 houses in that housing development, yeah, it'd probably help you maybe, but you also may get no listings out of that.

So, you know, if it generally helps the real estate market or other agents, I mean, there's how many real estate agents in Greene County, but a lot.

So, yeah.

that's, you know, that's not so specific to you.

I had one question once where I think there was a rezoning or SUP of a company that was going to expand them.

In theory, the profits would go up at the company and a planning commission member had retired from there.

So his 401k stocks were all tied with it.

But again, he's not controlling the company.

He's not, you know, that's just not a close enough link for a conflict.

It's

If their stock goes up, great, but he's not in any, you know, any way owning the company or directing the company.

It has to be a pretty close tie to you.

I mean, that you have to have an ownership interest or something very, very specific.

So, but that's why I said they're also very case specific, you know.

I don't, I didn't, I mean, it's just a document.

So this is just a first draft.

You all seemed interested in having some sort of social media policy.

So I did not intend for this to be seven pages.

But so this is just a first draft for you all to consider.

I do think it's important that we don't have any social media policy for staff either.

So some of the things you all just want to make sure that, you know,

There's one person who's in charge of, you know, the department page, the department pages are vetted through the county administrator.

You know, you want to have some sort of decorum and rules about social media.

You know, there's something in here about if there's an emergency, emergency services takes the point on that is the only person posting on social media.

You know, you don't want, you

and Parks and Rec having a different message.

So this is really just a first attempt for you all to discuss and consider.

I know it's under presentations, but really it's for you all to discuss and consider things you want, things you don't.

Again, I don't know that you need every single thing in here, but I wanted to make sure you all had sort of a kitchen sink approach and then you can tell me things that you would like to take out or add.

I mean, I will say that speaking to some of the concerns about the citizens, I mean, the First Amendment is pretty clear that you shall not infringe on somebody's ability to speak.

Virginia has its own Bill of Rights that also mentions the freedom of speech.

And then finally, even our own bylaws with regard to speaking for the county versus speaking for yourself as an individual.

that, you know, one of the things is, you know, media requests have to be approved by the, I think in your document, by the chairman and the county administrator, but

That seems to me if a press person comes up to you, that you should be able to talk to that individual regardless, as long as you're not speaking for the county.

So I think that can be a policy, but I don't think you can restrict somebody's ability to talk to residents and talk to other citizens.

It just doesn't personally

make any sense.

And actually our own bylaws, which paragraph B on page nine says, responding to questions from the media and citizens, board members shall not speak for the entire board without authorization to make a statement or an executive session matters as pursuant to blah, blah, blah.

The media should be referred to the county chairman and the administrator regarding the official action of the board.

I mean, this is y'all's policy.

That's how I've always understood it.

I mean, you all could have a separate policy for employees versus the board.

Yeah.

I feel the same way as Dr. McGuigan because I just feel like we're trying to be, it seems like we're being muffled all the time, stifled.

Don't let them do this.

Don't let them do that.

They can't say this.

They can't say that.

Too many people, men and women, have served this country for 200 years or more, and they've made the ultimate sacrifice, a lot of them, and I'm not giving up my First Amendment, I can tell you that.

I mean, I understand all about the media in here.

I mean, honestly, I've told you my social media policy is simply post pictures of your dogs and that's it.

But so we could make this just for staff and we could start there and you all could develop if you all wanted your own or put in the bylaws.

I mean, as far as staff is concerned, you have a First Amendment right to speech, but

not all the time and when you're an employee of the county we certainly can regulate what certainly regulate what's going on on county social media and should but you know you also there's some limits you know and I don't think we've had a huge problem but it would be nice to have some definition of you know if you do want to reprimand an employee you do need a good policy you know as to why

for reprimanding you for putting something on.

And I'm really not talking so much about personal social media.

I'm talking about if you're in charge of county department and a county social media site, what is going on?

You know, what's on those sites?

That's my concern.

I understand about contracts, things like that, things that we don't talk about Yes, that would, yes Things like that, I understand that much, but I mean, if

If I wanted to muzzle on, I'd have been born as a dog.

That's the way I feel.

I mean, I'm sorry, but that's the way I feel.

When you see all this, you can't say this, you can't do that.

It's like everything else in this job.

You start off thinking, well, maybe we can do a little quick policy.

And then you start reading it and then you like, you know, and I realize it's a proposal.

I'm definitely not going after the messenger.

But once you start reading it and then you stop and think a minute and then you're like, huh.

And then it just gets worse and worse as you read it.

And where we kind of need something.

There's a very fine line in there, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

But this is I know the max.

It's almost as bad as when you went to school.

And it's not personal.

My social media policy is post pictures of your dogs and I don't have to talk to you.

What if we made this, what if we approach this as a policy for staff that maybe gets developed as an appendix, because I think we've talked about updating the personnel policies.

So as an appendix to your personnel policies for staff, and then if you all decide you're going to have a bylaws discussion in a second,

if you all want to have bylaws that pertain obviously to you all that you could do that.

I mean, that's not totally up to you.

You might not want to put the dog on the county website, right?

Maybe ours.

Except for sheltered.

And they need to do that all the time.

They do a great job, too.

Yes.

All right.

Radio project update.

Ms.

I have a number of the board.

While I'm very happy to be here this evening, I was not sure we were ever going to get to this point.

Go ahead to the second slide.

Finally, that's the best word I can use tonight.

Finally.

Our public safety radio system went live last week on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Absolutely.

So the day we went live, we had three ladies working at the sheriff's office in dispatch.

from left to right that supervisor Melissa Robertson, Caitlin Dean and Rachel Brushwood.

And this was a stressful day.

You know, there's always that fear in the back of your mind that it's not going to work when you when you turn it on.

But it worked.

exactly like it should have.

These ladies were phenomenal.

They dealt with some tiny hiccups that we had and maybe a firefighter hitting his emergency alert button four times.

But we definitely appreciate the work that they did that day.

These are our four technicians from Clear Communications that installed all of the subscriber units to our fire trucks, ambulances, and the deputy vehicles, all Sheriff's Office vehicles.

So the big question is, are we better?

Are we better now than we were last Tuesday?

And that is absolutely 100% a yes.

This system is so dynamic.

We have just so many channels to choose from.

We have multiple frequencies.

We're tracking.

We have the emergency alert buttons on all the radios.

We have enhanced privacy.

Sheriff's office, they've gone completely encrypted.

Inoperability with other localities, other systems is easily achieved.

And most importantly, the system is reliable.

Now just a quick example of how this has changed just completely, completely.

With our old system, our mobile radios covered about 65% of the county.

Our portable radios were running at about 35%.

Basically, that means if a person in the field needed help, they may or may not get the dispatch center or one of their co-workers.

This was just absolutely unacceptable, and quite frankly, a little scary.

With the new system, I'm happy to report that mobile coverage is running between 98% and 99%, and portable coverage is running around 95%, 96%.

So huge, huge improvement there.

Obviously, there are a ton of people to thank for this project, Motorola Solutions, our local vendor, Clear Communications,

Mission Critical Partners served as a consultant for us.

Previous boards, I think, Ms.

Durrer, you were on the original board when we actually signed the contract, so thank you.

The current board for just being supportive of everything that we needed along the way.

I mean, we definitely appreciate that.

County staff, Ms.

Shafrick, Terry, who helps me with everything under the sun.

Jim Friedel did a lot of work on the towers

the volunteer fire companies,

Greene County EMS, the 911 Center, the Sheriff's Office, and, you know, just some specific people here that helped us a ton.

Bill Musket is our radio technician for the county, and that's Bill smiling there all pretty.

We did provide Bill with, give Bill a certificate of appreciation at our staff meeting at the end of the year for all the work that he's done on the radio project.

Donna Donovan, Gary Carpenter, Terry Lovell, who is the

IT guy at the Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Smith, Kelly Kemp, and Brian Gordon and Sean Ferguson are our counterparts in Madison County.

And we're just absolutely tremendous in this project.

Through all the hiccups, you know, we now have a very, very dependable and reliable system.

This system is 100% enhancing public safety in Green County right now.

We have a system that helps the sheriff, that helps the fire chiefs, and that helped me sleep better at night.

Y'all think I'm kidding.

But I mean, I know I've had state of this night just so concerned about when this old system was going to fail.

And if it failed, were we going to get it back up?

Greene County certainly got their money's worth on this old system.

We trust the system.

This is a huge, huge safety advancement for us, and we simply just cannot thank you enough for that support.

I really want to thank you all for this project.

It will need advance.

In fact, when I had my new vehicle radio shop a couple months ago, I had my new radio put in, so I ain't got to take it over twice and get it done.

I said, well, I'll just use my walkie if I need to call the office.

I was down to where I could receive on my walkie, but I couldn't get out.

If I had to call the office, I had to use my phone.

So that's how bad the system was getting.

So like Melissa said, this system is great.

It's crystal clear.

It's a relief to me to know that they have communications out there now.

They need help or whatever they want to get through.

And like Melissa said, the dispatchers are phenomenal.

Gary runs out.

with a great bunch of people down there.

Thank you.

And our little snowmen there have their Motorola radios.

They're ready to go.

And I already had the dog picture up.

I'm sorry.

That's Donna's dog enjoying his snow day last Monday.

Yeah, absolutely.

I know it's been hard on everybody that's messed with it because there's been so much time that's transpired.

So I thank you for that.

And

The absolute bonus is that it works because, you know, there is that little thing about life and safety of our responders.

Yeah.

We want them to be able to communicate with dispatch.

We want them to be able to communicate with one another.

And we just simply have not had that ability ever before.

Not like this.

Number 11, consent agenda.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. McQuiggan?

Aye.

And the chair votes aye.

We've talked about the bylaws a lot from afar.

Now we get to look at them up close.

So basically, who would like to start on that?

Maybe a recap of what went right and what went wrong this year.

I felt like things went a lot better than expected.

We had a lot more discussion last year, wondering if things we were going to change were going to work and

et cetera.

So I feel like we had a pretty good experience overall.

So what's the board's pleasure?

I mean, I think, you know, we're here to represent and protect the rights of Greene County residents.

And especially, you know, like we've talked about several times this evening, the freedom of speech.

So what I've noticed in looking at two policies and they're kind of exactly related,

is the notification for our meetings so that the populace can respond and also the ability for them to be on par with the planning department and corporate entities.

So what I would like to try to, and there's about three or four different areas, but the concept is

that we put out the information for the meeting seven days in advance.

And if there's any additions, unless it's vital, and the vital would be determined by an email amongst the board members determining it's vital to add, that we don't add things at two and three days before.

And the reason is we put out an audiovisual policy last year that said seven days before.

Today's agenda came out on Wednesday, and this is the rule rather than the exception, that we're putting out an agenda before they can even possibly respond.

So when I've looked at it, page six, number three,

Speakers desiring audiovisual aids during their presentations may do so.

Speakers may send their audiovisual aids in a format with the AV policy created by the county administrator and the county administrator by email no less than seven days prior to the meeting.

I would put that we actually changed no less than seven days to no less than two business days prior to the first posting of the board agenda.

and no less than one business day to correspond to any additions to the agenda.

So basically they have the right, if it's posted at seven days, to have at least two days to respond.

So if you make that change, then you also need to change the county administrators

verbiage two from the seven days to no later than one week because that's in her AV policy paragraph five page one and the change again would be no later than one week before the presentation date you change that to no less than two business days prior to the first posting of the board agenda and no less than one business day to respond to any additions to the agenda.

and then the only other place that it appears again is

Page 8 in the bylaws where it said items requested to be on the agenda must be submitted prior to the meeting according to the schedule set by the county administrator to allow for distribution of the agenda to the media and for circulation of the packet to the board members.

And then I would move that according to the schedule set by the county administrator be changed to seven days prior to the meeting.

and all it is is again, just to sort of say, we have to set an agenda.

It should be set, if it's gonna be set seven days before, that we don't amend it, that we just kick it to the next meeting if there is an item that comes up, unless it's vital.

And that once that's published,

The citizenry have at least two days to try to get together and respond in a manner and that they're allowed to do AV.

And what was interesting is I would look back, you know, we had the discussion about people having to do a YouTube presentation, you know, in order to present.

Well, it's interesting because when you look at the county administrator's AV policy, it actually says on paragraph five, please ensure that your presentation is formatted in standard Microsoft PowerPoint.

So that thing that we were floating is in violation of our own AV policy.

So I think we should keep that the way it is.

And like I said, just have a pretty firm rule that the agenda is not going to change seven days before

If there is an addition, we kick it to the next meeting, unless it's critical.

And I think the critical determination would be they send out an email saying, we got this really important thing.

Does everybody agree that it has to go?

And if that's true, you still give the populace the ability to respond to that.

two business days after.

Does that make sense to everybody?

It does to me because it might come out Wednesday evening, but I don't know what the format they're using now because you've got to go in and click, click, click, and it comes down.

And by the time you finish, your eyeballs are out there touching the screen.

Do you need to go to the eye doctor?

No.

You don't have time to really research things when you get them on the weekend, you know, and you've been running all week, you know, some truck rivals, they work running all the time, basically.

You know, like myself, I'm going here yawning everywhere all the time, seems like.

But

How do you feel, Ms.

Burrell?

I personally have not seen a problem with what it is now.

And if something comes up, you better decide whether it's something that's really that important that we get it on this meeting or can we lay it two weeks.

Sometimes that's a hard decision because lots of things play in that.

I think the problem is we haven't had one AV presentation by a citizen in 12 months, which just shows that the policy isn't working.

And again, it's impossible.

Like this meeting, it would have been impossible for anybody to submit an audio visual presentation because our board packet came out on Wednesday and it has to be in by Tuesday.

How many citizens out there would like to have the ability to present an audiovisual presentation when you talk?

There's only one, two.

All right.

Well, I'm going to put the motion forward.

It could be voted down if you want.

The motion is that paragraph six, item number three, that we change no less than seven days to no less than two business days prior to the first posting of the board agenda and no less than one business day to respond to any additions to the agenda.

Okay.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Okay.

Like I said, I just like to have more time to stay because, you know, you get you get the facts in the packet.

But I like just studying it and really breaking it down.

I think one of the things that always gets, I don't have a problem when it comes out at all, and I understand that things change along that way in that tight time period, and then some of it is just incidental, right?

I've been a couple things this year that have been a little like, wow, you know what I mean?

That came kind of between the time the agenda went out and the time the actual meeting happened.

But what you're saying is number three actually doesn't fit what we're currently doing.

So if we kept doing what we're currently doing, we would need to change the amount of date, the amount of time.

It's impossible, right?

And to me, it was just like a compromise sort of saying, all right, as long as it's not anything key and the agenda changes three days before, then I don't think you need to do it.

So number three, what would you do number three then?

Well, I think that you just basically, if we want to have a shorter timeframe, if the thing does come out on a Thursday for gosh only knows what reasons, that at least the person has the ability on Monday to submit an AV rather than sort of saying seven days.

So it's not tying us down per se, but it's allowing the citizens to be able to respond to those changes and actually meaningfully input if they want.

Question for Ms.

Schafferick.

So what, why did we arrive at the seven?

Do you remember?

It was, it was who would, from a staffing perspective, who would read.

be available to review it, and how long would that take?

We have one IT guy, and I think that was part of it.

Well, it was beyond a graph, making sure that when it's projected, it doesn't get cut off.

Because if you get all the trouble to do a graph, you want to make sure you can see the whole thing.

there was like length, there was ADA requirements, stuff like that.

I think the amount of people who might wanna do an actual presentation like that.

And I've seen, I think we've discussed this last time too, and Kelly,

can probably chime in because she serves with a lot of other boards that a lot of times the agendas are frozen, you know, if a board member wants to add something or if something comes up, it's frozen like on Sunday, so nothing gets added past Sunday, which then means if they turn it in on Monday,

You know, that would be the final agenda.

But I would also just note, like this morning, I got an email from TJPDC about the

the bright speed termination in a contract that they're going to require somebody signed tomorrow.

So stuff like that gets thrown on.

It's mostly consent agenda stuff.

And that's always going to happen, period.

I mean, there's no, like, I don't want to tell them, no, you're going to have to wait till the end of the month over those routine kind of stuff.

So I don't think that's what you were going on.

So if you want to try and do, you know, like if they

want to, I'm trying to think of an example of an action item or something that got added in that wasn't related to an emergency, but if it's a public hearing for sure we haven't added just because of the noticing requirements, those are never going to be added last minute.

I guess an action item could, but I'm

generally we push all those to the next meeting anyway.

It's only consented to the things or a presentation because someone decided someone's retiring.

I think that Mr. McGuigan's major concern is that that number on the AV presentations doesn't work with what reality is, like it's impossible.

So my question is, and I know we have a motion and a second on the floor, but my question is,

Monday morning, there's never going to be a public hearing that got added from the time that agenda is released.

So those would all be noticed.

Well, again, it's not just public hearing.

I mean, we have a policy.

We've had several policies that were given today that don't have public hearings required.

And I do think people should be able to speak.

And essentially what a PowerPoint presentation, whatever is going to fit.

I mean, we show them all the time.

And if somebody develops in a PowerPoint format, their graph isn't going to get cut off.

We can try and if you guys find that it's overwhelming, the meetings are taking long because I don't think that's going to happen, but we can try and see how it works in practice because sometimes the way things seem like they're going to work seems reasonable until you get in practice and there's something that we can't anticipate right now.

So we can do the AV.

And we won't add anything except like the incentive to think that somebody needs a tax rebate or something, you know what I mean?

How does that fit in your motion?

So we'll do the AV the Monday before.

Oh yeah.

Then I think we would change it to, you don't have to change then anything except you'd have to put, take the seven days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we're going to say one day prior to the meeting?

Word.

You want two days, right?

One day.

I think we need to say Monday at a certain time.

Monday, nine o'clock.

It's going to be unclear to people.

I want to get in fights over what a day is and stuff like that.

All right.

So we will change no less than seven days to... Monday, say 9 a.m.

Yeah.

To the Monday...

at 10 a.m.

Right.

Okay.

So you have a motion and we have a second.

Can we vote that and then make another one?

All right.

So let's vote no, right?

Right.

All right.

No, no, no.

He has to ask.

That's right.

So your change then would read.

Can I just read it?

Because I want to make sure that speakers desiring to use audiovisual aids.

This is on page six under section four, four dash one, public hearings.

Speakers desiring to use audiovisual aids during their presentation will be so.

speakers must send their audiovisual aids in a format compliant with the AV policy created by the county administrator to the county administrator via email no less than, well, I'm going to say prior to Monday 10 a.m.

via email by Monday 10 a.m.

prior to the meeting.

Is that okay, Wordy?

Okay, so we'll have a little call vote on the original motion.

No, no, we're doing the original motion and we're going to make an motion.

No.

Ms.

Goolsby?

No.

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan Aye.

And the chair votes aye.

So then it appears in about three places.

So it also appears in the county administrator's AV policy on page one, paragraph five.

Now, I don't know if we set that or do you, Ms.

Shafrick?

So, I mean, do we have to change that or do you just line through that?

Perfect.

I think that was the only place.

We good with the bylaws?

I'd like to ask the question.

Now, I know it's a time constraint, but the Planning Commission meets on the third Wednesday.

Well, and so...

It would have to be the meeting.

We can't get away from advertising.

And generally, we are doing it online now, but in the paper was actually way more than two weeks because of their notice requirements.

So what's the timeline?

What is earliest going to be 17 days?

We have to advertise a public hearing at least two weeks in advance and then we have to advertise it twice.

So there's no way if the there would be no way for if when the calendar falls the way it does where the Planning Commission happens to be the day after a county meeting that anything in that meeting could be taken up at the following.

It would have to be pushed to February in this example.

All right.

Okay, is there a second?

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

On adoption of the meeting schedule, roll call vote, Dr. McQuigan?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Ms.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

I think everybody's settled in and doing a good job with their assignments.

I have one conflict with the STAR meeting.

That is a conflict for me.

They meet on the first Tuesday, and I have a problem with that one.

You said the first Tuesday?

Any takers?

I'm not familiar with it.

I guess I can take that.

Any other changes?

Or what?

I can't see why not.

Yeah, I really, I can't see why not.

Don't go to Ag Fonds.

Who's the other?

Oh, I thought you were.

No, it's just two of you guys.

Okay.

It's all good.

But I think we should reach out to the stakeholders to try to we already have.

Okay.

Well, Farm Bureau Board didn't know about it.

So we need to do that.

And we need to probably go through extension and see just just put the word out there again and see if we can get some interest.

Young farmers, young farmers, another one.

Everybody happy with what we have?

I think we have some motions in reference to appointments that we've got.

Do we have approval on the liaison assignments?

Is everybody happy with what they have?

Can we make a blanket motion to cover all of those?

Yeah, I must have held it.

So you all want to keep everything except for, I think, Starr,

and Dr. McGuigan to add for us.

So I think we could make a motion saying, hopefully you have a sheet somewhere that says all of- If we do.

Okay.

Okay, we have a motion.

Do I have a second?

I second.

Okay, motion and second.

Roll call vote.

Ms.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. McGuigan?

Aye.

And the chair votes aye.

All right, now move on to the resolutions.

So is it possible to take all of those in one motion, please?

Ms.

Yes, I believe so.

Okay.

Yes.

Unless you all... Make a change.

Unless...

Could we leave out the one about the leadoff?

Those people probably listening a bit for that.

The what?

Vista.

Which one?

So I'm looking for a motion to appoint all those people Thank you I just lost my agenda on the daggone computer So yeah It's kind of cumbersome Um

resolutions and actions to appoint board representatives and liaison to various committees and boards.

So all we have to do, if you look on your agenda, you have all these different committees that we already have representation on.

So we have to reaffirm that representation, basically.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

To me, it seems like they're all resolutions.

We didn't vote on the resolutions.

We just voted on the assignments.

I mean, it doesn't hurt to do another motion.

Because they are separate in the agenda.

There's like an A and a B, I guess.

I make a motion that we adopt these as being served with the representatives that we have for these resolutions now.

Okay.

Let's include non-resolutions.

It's resolutions for appointments to different boards.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Roll call vote.

Ms.

Durr?

Aye.

Mr. Lamb?

Aye.

Mr. Goolsby?

Aye.

Mr. McQuiggan?

Aye.

And the chair votes aye.

All right.

We don't have a number 13.

Number 14, board liaison reports.

Well, I went to Little Washington last Tuesday in the snow.

There were 15 people there.

But I did bring up a thing that I saw on the governor's email that I get.

They're building a $350 to $400 million indoor farm in Chesterfield County.

I mean, it's the way of the future.

So indoor farm, outdoor commercial power generation facility.

Farming, it's less water, more production, 365.

I mean, it's chemistry.

It's chemistry.

I'm going to ask you a question and you'll bet you'll never guess.

Who's the number two agricultural producer in the world?

We're number one.

Jonah.

The Netherlands.

The Netherlands.

And it's all done in greenhouse.

We're working on the budget.

I think they presented the budgets to the county administrators last week, I believe.

Okay.

For the new year.

I appreciated when Dr. McGuigan brought up, you know, like a year in review, because I was like, oh, it's like he knew I was working on this, but it was perfect.

And I made sure that points you brought up were in this as well.

I do think that this is, it's a nice thing to have every year to celebrate our successes, but also kind of looking forward.

And I did it

anchored on the strategy.

So just high level, year in review, the key tenant is service to the community.

And that's what is emphasized here in this report.

So if you go to the next slide.

Also, we welcomed new board members.

So it probably feels like you've been on the board 100 years, but there were changes that were made.

Community engagement is one of the strategic objectives.

And so I just put some examples with some pictures of different ways that the community, you know, we had some good community engagement and some new fun things too, like in particular, the Justin and Tooley Memorial, the Greene County Powerlifting Challenge.

that was very well attended and this year we are going through a process to be sanctioned and that's going to be a very large event that will be held at the school but I think you will be surprised how many people come out for this and it's really fun and I hope you guys are able to go that's going to be in August and you see lots of other

great things that were done because infrastructure, taking care of our infrastructure is also a strategic goal.

So this was some different things that were done in particular, the courthouse renovations, which was great.

A lot of work was done, the transfer station,

updating the kennels, the new roof, which we were talking about earlier, new fitness trails, we sold those unused trailers, you know, all of those things were, you know, it was this was, this was represents a lot of work, but it was a lot of important work.

good governance, some agency innovation.

We've got some different examples here.

I'll speed it up.

Some awards.

This is also something important.

The water treatment plant received a bronze award for excellence in granular media filtration, but the Virginia Department of Health, as old as that treatment plant is, has never ever won an award before.

So I think that was pretty amazing that we were able to get that done.

And then the sheriff's office received its third accreditation and we also got $3 million in budget support from the General Assembly for the White Room Reservoir.

And then these are just a few of the statistics just to give an example.

We're going to add some more.

You're going to see a lot more in the budget.

I just pulled some of them out so you can see.

But, you know, there's a lot of things that are happening that I think are very good.

And that's brighter days ahead.

By the way, that picture, I took that picture when we had the last Aurora Borealis in October.

And you can't see it because it's got the audio thing in the bottom.

But it was up on Skyline Drive looking down over the town of Standardsville.

And that was...

I think that's one of the really cool things about living here is that you can go and, you know, pop up there when there's an Aurora Borealis or something cool.

But just want to thank the board for all their support and everybody's commitment to excellence in public service and all the great things that we're going to do in 2025.

The other things, well, actually might as well stay here.

The EMS, by the way, passed their inspection, which they have to do every two years, and they passed as a model agency.

So as, yeah, so as a high rating, but Stanardsville Volunteer Fire Department also passed their first responder inspection, which was great.

We had a call for action from the town of Stanardsville to come and shovel out people who

You know, just make sure the town was clear.

And a lot of people showed up.

A lot of people from EMS showed up.

A lot of people just came out when they saw us all shoveling.

So we started with, I think, like 12 people and ended up with like 20 something people.

So it was it took like an hour, which was great.

Speaking of volunteers, we do need two volunteers for the Board of Equalization.

That's really critical.

This is a reassessment year.

It is

of the training and everything has to start happening now.

We really need people to volunteer to do that.

The good thing about that as a volunteer opportunity is it's cyclical, so there's not much to do when it's not a reassessment year, but this year there'll be a lot of work up front and it does require the state training.

So we want to hopefully get some people in there for that.

The BZA, the Board of Zoning Appeals, we need one.

We have one vacancy and we need an alternate.

So literally we need two people.

The Town of Standardsville also needs someone.

So, you know, which is different than us, but I'll put a plug in for them because they do need

I think they only have one person on their BZA right now.

The Ruckersville Advisory Committee needs volunteers.

We talked about Ag Forest District Committee needs volunteers and the Tourism Council.

I think there's three spots on the Tourism Council that need to be filled.

So we have lots of great opportunities to be engaged with

Thank you.

Ms.

Schaffer, I have a question.

And that may include the two I have to double check.

But are we going to be doing that, or is it the Tourism Council?

No, that was for Java, I think, what are you thinking about?

Right.