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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-20-2018 1 February 20, 2018 IREDELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PRE-AGENDA MINUTES February 20, 2018 The Iredell County Board of Commissioners met in pre-agenda session on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 5:00 PM, in the Iredell County Government Center (South Wing Conference Room), 200 South Center Street, Statesville, NC. Board Members Present Chairman James B. Mallory III Vice Chairman Tommy Bowles Gene Houpe Jeff McNeely Marvin Norman Staff present: Interim County Manager Beth Jones, County Attorney Lisa Valdez, Assistant County Manager Susan Robertson, Finance Director Deb Alford, Strategic Planner Ben Stikeleather, and Clerk to the Board Retha Gaither. CALL TO ORDER: Chairman James Mallory called the meeting to order. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA: Interim County Manager Beth Jones made the following adjustments: Add: Closed Session – Attorney Client G.S. 143-318.11 (a) (3); Reminder the first item in Administrative Matters will be held until the end of the meeting. Commissioner Norman asked to add, under New Business, a discussion concerning a request from Davis Hospital. Commissioner Houpe asked to make a recognition at the 7:00 meeting. Commissioner McNeely asked to add, under New Business, a discussion concerning the I- 77 Advisory Committee. APPOINTMENT BEFORE THE BOARD Presentation concerning Opioid litigation: Erin Dickinson and Krista Baisch of Crueger Dickinson Law Firm gave a presentation on her firm’s approach to the opioid litigation. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Request from the IT Department for approval of budget amendment #27 in the amount of $60,472 to purchase a secure and safe file collaboration program: IT Director Sheila Cook said the General Government Task Force recommended that one of IT’s goals be addressed during this fiscal year. The goal is to implement a file collaboration program which is a cybersecurity deterrent. The intent will be to replace the staff work practice of using Drop Box and Google Docs which are known ransomware carriers. This has never been blocked because there has not been a secure way to share large files. The time has come, due to the fact that several North Carolina counties have experienced attacks with ransomware. Commissioner Houpe said the General Governmental Task Force felt it was best to be proactive to prevent any incidents. Vice Chairman Bowles said Drop Box and Google Docs are good products. 2 February 20, 2018 Cook said the new product will be controlled through IT’s security and network. It is very user friendly and the sender can define how documents are shared. It does not mean that one cannot send a file to a personal Drop Box but the County’s network will be blocking those two. Commissioner McNeely said there is no choice in this matter. It has to be done now. This item was placed on the consent agenda. BA#27 Appropriate Contingency to purchase Citrix ShareFile to provide a secure and safe file collaboration program for staff 2/20/2018 Account # Current Budget Change Amended Budget 105480 530200 Contingency 135,571 (60,472) 75,099 105445 610150 Depreciable Assets - Tech 105,000 60,472 165,472 Request from Administration for approval of Strategic Goals for ICATS and ECOM: Strategic Planner Ben Stikeleather stated there were a couple more goals that need the Board’s approval. These goals are from ICATS and ECOM and go along with the other departmental goals approved in January. Vice Chairman Bowles asked if ICATS was considered an enterprise fund or a department of the County. Stikeleather stated that when he was the ICATS Director there were two things he was told to remember - that ICATS is an enterprise fund and there are grant funds available that will pay for most things. Alford said ICATS is a special revenue fund not an enterprise. Jones said it is a County department as well. Commissioner Houpe asked if municipalities contribute and if it is enough. Stikeleather said yes they do. When charging for public transportation services the rate set to charge individual groups must be the same. There is a formula and it does cover the cost. There are also other sources such as the Council on Aging, Medicaid, etc. Robertson said there is one weak link and that is with dialysis. Not all dialysis patients qualify for Medicaid. Iredell County Dialysis Organization used to receive a grant through United Way but it has been reduced significantly. The issue is that ICATS must maintain efficiency, the number of transports per hour. The Director has done everything to try to maintain that efficiency but the operation is losing money. Chairman Mallory stated that alternate transportation is being researched. This item was placed on the consent agenda. Request from the Sheriff’s Office for approval of budget amendment #28 to use crime lab fees received for contracted lab testing of drugs, blood and DNA: Major Andy Poteat said this request is for approval of a budget amendment to continue lab services. This is the third year using this lab which is mainly for drug testing, DNA, and alcohol testing. The funds are from previous lab fees and will not come from tax payer dollars. The State lab takes over a year to get results from a drug test but the NMS lab is approximately 21 days. This item was placed on the consent agenda. 3 February 20, 2018 BA#28 To appropriate Crime Lab Fees to cover the NMS Lab contract for drug testing, alcohol blood testing and DNA testing for the Sheriff's Office. 2/20/2018 Account # Current Budget Change Amended Budget 104880 499401 Appro Fund Balance Other Funds - (43,260) (43,260) 105510 537508 Contracted Svcs - Other 160,988 43,260 204,248 Request from the Public Library for approval to apply for a Library Services and Technology Grant in the amount of $10,695: Library Director Steve Messick and Assistant Director Julie Moore requested approval to apply for a grant from the State Library. Messick said this will tie in with the student access project in conjunction with Iredell-Statesville Schools. Moore said the student access project has been going since January of 2017. An improvement to this program would be courier service. There are man y students that are unable to physically visit the library. The grant will pay for courier service to Iredell -Statesville Schools. Students will request materials with their access account, the library will pull the materials, check it out to the student, place the items in their courier bag designating which school and deliver to the ADR Center. From ADR they will be delivered to the individual schools. The media coordinators will be the point of contact at each school. Since it is a partnership with the school system there is a reduced match of 10%, therefore, the amount requested is $10,695. The school system will provide an in-kind match which is the transportation costs. The entire project is $11,818. The service will begin in October and run through May. This item was placed on the consent agenda. Request from Iredell-Statesville Schools for approval of a debt resolution in support of a three-year installment purchase contract with Apple: ISS Superintendent Brady Johnson and Melissa Wike were present along with Melanie Taylor and Martin Page. (This subject matter is written verbatim as requested by a member of the Board of Commissioners.) Johnson said, “We are here tonight to bring our technology lease to you for consideration. For more than a year now we have had a group of people studying the device selection for the Iredell Statesville Schools. I’m passing out a copy of our power point that we used when we presented this to the Board of Education. I’ll reference a few pages for you. The process, as I did say, has been going on a little over a year now. On slide #4 you can see the members of the task force that were charged with studying this question and bringing a recommendation to the Board of Education. You can see there that we did have two school board members that were on the committee this year. Slide #5 will show you all the meetings that were held throughout the school system and the participants that showed up to help us make this very, very important decision. Throughout the work of this committee there were electronic communications where we asked folks to do surveys and to give data back to the committee. Slides #7 & #8 will show you the devices that we looked at. When we charged this group and sent them to work, we told them everything’s is on the table. There is no pre-conceived idea that one device is better than another device. Take a look at all the technology that is out there and make the choice based on what’s in the best interest of our students and our teachers. If you will look at slide #10 you can see that we had participants, 48 teachers in grades K-13, 67 students, total of 17 elementary classes participated in the pilot and 34 schools were involved in this work. Slide #12, in K-2, the committee did recommend iPads. You can see some of the comments on that slide to support that recommendation. We did realize we could not afford a one to one initiative, but the group said a one to two, meaning there is one device for every two children in Kindergarten through second 4 February 20, 2018 grade and those will be iPads. On slide #13 you can see the results of grades three through five. Again it is a one to two ratio of iPads and grades three and four at a one to two ratio of iPads and half Mac Books in fifth grade. In grades six through eight, 81% of teachers and 42% of students chose the Mac Book Air. This keeps with our current lease. We have been using the Mac Book Air in grades six through eight over the last four years. On slide #15 in grades 9 through 13, and that 13th grade is our early college program that we have in place, 65% overall and 90% of the teachers chose the Mac Book Air. Slide #16 is an interesting slide and I’ll be glad to talk to you about that in detail if you’d like. But it just shows you the devices that we looked at and the more yellow stars that you see under those devices on slide #16 gives you an indication of the correlation between this decision and how easily it is for us to transition into this next lease. So the more yellow you see the stronger the recommendation is for that particular device. Again Slide #18 will give you a summary of the device recommendation that was brought to the Board of Education. Again it just breaks it down by grade level. And the important part is over on slide #27 and #28, and that is the financial implications of this lease. And I will turn it over to Melissa Wike who can talk to you about the break down.” 5 February 20, 2018 Wike said, “The cost breakdown I think is pretty self-explanatory. We detailed the cost for secondary schools, elementary schools and then elementary teachers, because elementary teachers were not in any previous Apple installment purchase agreement. This is an additional purchase for us. They’ve had old laptops for the past seven years. They’ve used the same laptops so we included them in this refresh. You can see the total cost of the new installment purchase, it has changed slightly from your copy, it was included in the memo that went to the County Commissioners. There was a little bit of an updated cost on that. I don’t have the totals, but the total of the lease is $12,861,000. This says $12,818,00 but it has some slight revisions from when this original power point was put together. But regardless it is materially correct. You can see we are getting 17,660 devices. Compare that to the previous lease. The previous lease cost was $13 million for 14,935 devices. So you can see that we are paying lease and we are getting more devices so we are pretty pleased with that proposal from Apple.” Melanie Taylor said, “Melissa, I think when the new lease costs changed the total number of devices also increased. You are actually getting, based on student enrollments and things that finalized those numbers. So those numbers are actually more than 17,660.” Wike said, “Yes, thank you. And you can see on the next page the funding sources that were proposed to pay for the lease. At the County Commissioners’ recommendation, we have been sitting aside some capital outlay money since the beginning of our first lease. We have $3.2 million available in reserve. So we will obviously put that toward the cost of these new devices. Again at the recommendation of your out-going County Manager and some prior Commissioners we are shifting some of the costs for the devices; the majority of the costs for the up-coming devices to a capital outlay budget to reoccurring capital outlay budget, that’s $6.5 million. We will be issuing some text book waivers which we are allowed to do from the state. As part of our state funding for textbooks we can choose to shift that pay toward devices. We will use some of our technology usage fees that we’ve charged to students and parents. There will some local current expense money involved and we do have some re-start funds and there is some state funding that is available to use that we will be utilizing and then we will apply some of our sales tax refund towards the costs of the devices.” Johnson said, “We negotiated this lease with Apple back in December. At that time, we were in a very favorable position. We was able to negotiate a zero percent interest rate on this lease. So we are very fortunate to get that. I’m not sure you can get that even today and you certainly won’t in the months ahead. But that is our proposal. We will be happy to answer any questions that you might have.” 6 February 20, 2018 Taylor said, “Just a note, it is a lease to purchase. So we will be paying for the devices over three years. At the end of that, it’s a dollar buy-out, so we will own the devices and the plan is to use those for at least an additional year beyond that.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Brady, I have a couple of questions and correct me if I’m wrong, I had a citizen to send a couple of questions. One of the questions was, you know, the Mac Books over the Chrome Books, they wanted to know the differences of the two. And pulling back the information I was given, back with the first lease when you guys went wit h the Mac Books, after you’ve used them now, it is still accurate to say that you know because you have invested time and money and training of teachers and students, that’s part of your yellow that would show your transfer would be minimal costs there.” Johnson agreed by nod. Commissioner Houpe said, “The Mac Books actually have more storage capability than the Chrome Books. The battery life is better. I know my wife talks about that tremendously. And they talk about the Mac Books, you guys talked about it years ago, I actually did called Mooresville and talked to their technology people and talked to the Superintendent there. Ya’ll consider a Mac Book a full service device because you can order it with pre-programs on it. Where children can use it at home even if they don’t have internet access.” Johnson said, “That is correct.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Chrome Books are more web based. That’s a positive of a Mac Book over Chrome Books. And so I just wanted to go over a couple of those, you know the pre-loaded programs, storage capability, battery life and then our trade in values are pretty close to what the projections were going to be with the previous Board of Commissioners. It’s pretty close there on our trade in values and definitely the Mac Books have a better trade in value and resale value or at the end of its life, than a Chrome Book would have.” Johnson said, “That’s right. What really helps drive this decision is the resale value of those Mac Books. We are getting ready, of course, to sell the devices that we’ve been using the last four years and we are anticipating getting $150 to $200 per machine for those. A Chrome Book will not have near that value. It would be less than $50 even if you could get that out of it. Another thing that helps drive this decision of Mac Book over the Chrome Book is we have invested in considerable amount time and money into training our teachers and our kids. And by changing devices you would in essence lose a lot of that training. Our technicians are certified to work on the Mac Books too. And so by changing devices we would have to retrain our technicians and get them up to speed on the new device. There’s a lot of effort, too, on the school systems to work collaboratively together on this. So many of the charter schools, Mooresville Graded School, Rowan-Salisbury Schools are using the Mac Books. So when children move from one district to another and change during the school year, it makes that transition a lot easier for those kids as well.” Commissioner Houpe said, “I owe you guys an apology. We had intended on talking about these numbers and this presentation in our last Education Task Force meeting, but we went longer on other issues. I had failed to see an email from Mr. Johnson sending us that information. One thing that Marvin (Norman) and I want to make sure about, next time this comes up on another renewal or whatever, we get you guys information before just tonight. I missed that information. It wasn’t Brady’s fault, he sent it and I missed. But, also, I wanted you guys to know their Board of Education approved this 6-1 to request this information from us.” 7 February 20, 2018 Chairman Mallory asked, “What is your on-the-ground experience with the current Mac Books in terms of, you say there is a useful life. There’s an advertised useful life and like most companies, Apple wants you to refresh when they say you need to refresh. Whether that’s an actuality necessary though. My daughter had a Mac Book as a freshman in college all the way through graduate school which was almost eight years using the same. It is a quality product. What I am curious about though is this arbitrary three-years or four-years when the reality may be the ones you have right now may have additional years on them, additional mileage you can get out of them. And then your replacement process can be based on individual or you know you’re expanding numbers to some extent, you’ll have some just break and die but you’ll have others that just keep rocking. So, I’m just curious as to whether that was looked at as a factor to look at in terms of how the process of refreshing. Whether it’s an ‘everybody does it at once’ liking changing your oil because it says so, or whether you really have oil that needs changing. So, has that been kicked around?” Page said, “That was one of the exact questions that the Board looked into. The original claim was three years on them and the Board wanted to go four. So, they went four with it. I actually went down and met with some of the techs. I talked to them and asked their opini ons of that. We were very interested in that. We also looked at doing, like you said, could we trade out just some. The logistics of the trade or the sale, Melissa can speak to that. It’s a lot easier to sell all at one time. The other thing is, just like in an automobile you’ve got a 2018 model car in a fleet and you’ve got the 2019 model car, there are going to be some differences in them. The hard drives are different. We looked at all that and weighed the pros and cons of it. The Board ultimately went along and ok we need the same vehicle so that we stock the same parts and their people repair them. And the thing I got from Tom by text is that they are starting to get some problems with the screens, more screen problems, and they are starting to see more of the battery failure. You have to realize these computers, a lot of these are used 24/7. And the teachers are now saying the students are having, their batteries are going dead. They are now holding their charge. So I think we’ve probably pushed the limit on that, it appears. Again, some could go another year, but it depends on how they are used, how they are recharged and everything. But that was an extensive investigation. That was one reason we put two board members on this committee. So they could watch the process. We were fairly satisfied; we were actually very satisfied. We are probably at the right point we are going to have to trade them out. You are right, some of them probably don’t need it. It’s going to be better to do all at one time.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Mooresville said the same thing.” Johnson said, “Apple recommends three years. We felt like we could stretch an extra year out of it. And that’s particularly true because there are adults using these, but the vast majority, 90% of these are used by children. And children are a little tougher on anything, than grownups are.” Commissioner McNeely said, “I’m just trying to get some figures here. You all are thinking $150 to $200 is the resale value on the old computers.” Johnson replied, “Yes sir.” Commissioner McNeely said, “And now we’ve got close to 15,000 for sale, is that correct?” Wike said, “I know there are 12,300 we purchased. I believe they have 12, 300 Mac Books Airs and I think there are 1,700 iPads in elementary level, but I don’t know if it is quite 15,000 in 8 February 20, 2018 total. You know, you’re in that range. We do have iPads that we are going to offer up for resale and Mac Books Airs.” Commissioner McNeely said, “If it was 15,000 that would be $3 million bucks” Wike said, “Yeah, you’re right.” Commissioner McNeely said, “It would be $3 million bucks. You’ve got the proceeds from the sale for two years in 19 and 20 of basically a total amount of $405,000.” Wike said, “That is not all of the proceeds that we anticipate getting from the sale. That is part of the proceeds that we will use towards the cost of the new devices. That not all of the proceeds that intend to get from the sale.” Commissioner McNeely asked, “What will we do with the other part of the proceeds?” Wike said, “It will go into the current expense fund for the operation of the school system. Because the way it will work is, the funds that incurred the cost for the lease will garner the proceeds from the resale of the devices that they purchased.” Commissioner Houpe asked, “Your employees will have to paid out of the current side, am I right in that? The IT people.” Wike said, “Yes.” Taylor said, “The initial lease was through current expense funds.” Chairman Mallory said, “The next time you do this it will go into capital.” Wike said, “Exactly. The next time it will go in accordance. The proceeds that we get will be allocated in accordance to how the payments were made. Right. The vast majority of it will go back to capital outlay.” Commissioner McNeely said, “There seemed to be a discrepancy there. I still, well, when we got the grant, grants are a great thing but there is always a burden, you know. This is an unencumbered expense going forward. If we get into the computer game, we gonna stay in the computer game. Now we’re feeling the blunt without the grants and we’re looking at spending our capital money on this going forward. I’ve said it all along and I still put this forth to this board or your board, there has to be a revenue stream in my opinion to continue this computer thing at a reasonable pace. I question whether or not, you know, maybe looking at this thing, I’ve always been big on hand-me-downs. I had two sisters, I wore some funny looking dresses as a kid but it worked. What I’m trying to say, could we not have, maybe, took some of these Mac Books and put that into our expanded side on this elementary. I know ya’ll said you want new and you want this but it looks to me like there is still life. If you’ve got little kids that are learning with computers, you know this wouldn’t be something bad if they tore up. This is a hand-me-down and a four-year- old Mac Books. My daughter has one that is three years when she was a senior in high school. She liked her Mac Book at South Iredell. So we got her one. But I wondering instead of going with an iPad, we could have looked at putting Mac Books down there. If they tore them up, we didn’t lose much.” Wike said, “There are a couple of things. You’re going to have economies of scale. The more that you are going to purchase at one time from Apple, you know how it is, you’re bargaining and your purchasing power is going to improve and feel like we’re going to get a better deal with 9 February 20, 2018 all of them at one time. And just like when Martin said, when you sell a used vehicle, the newer it is and the less miles it has on it, the more resale value you’re going to have on them.” Commissioner Houpe said, “The trade-in played into them getting a zero percent interest, too. The whole package. A repeat customer played into that.” Taylor asked, “Can I add one thing to that as well? One of the first things we did as a part of this process was to survey the teachers and their grade level groups and in their subjectary groups and ask them, ‘What do you need a device to be able to do? What do you need it to do and what do you need your students to be able to do with it, instructionally?’ What we found from the teachers and what we found as a result of the pilot by putting iPads out there and putting Mac Books out there, is that teachers at elementary, they didn’t really want Mac Books in the hands of their students, except at the upper grade levels. And that was more so in order to help prepare them for when they got those devices at the middle school level, especially kindergarten, first, second and even into third grade, they really felt that the Mac Book was really more than what their kids needed. They can do everything their kids needed to do with the iPad. It is also much easier for the students at that age to manipulate. They carry it around the room and to use in the classroom. And so, that really helped to drive our decision initially as to what we even put out there for the teachers to try as part of the pilot.” Commissioner Houpe said, “And for the record, talking to Mooresville and some technology people that I talked to independently, some people that potentially are against this, they want to know the difference between the Chrome Books, they’re using a quote that could be a third of the cost. But if you get a comparable Lenovo Chrome Book that can do what the Apple does, or equivalent to that, there’s not really as big a difference in price. But if you go get the cheapest price on a Lenovo Chrome Book just to say this product is cheaper, you’re not comparing apples to apples as far as what the product can do.” Vice Chairman Bowles, “That was my question. I know these Surfaces are like really big now. As far as apples to apples, no pun intended, but what is the cost differentiation between going with the Macintosh product and going with a pc product. Of that, I assuming, the Think Pad, which you looked at, the Lenovo, was a comparable device to an iPad. What is the actual cost?” Taylor said, “When you look at the initial cost, the initial cost difference is about $75 difference between the initial Apple product and the Lenovo product for just the non -negotiated price that they shared with us up front. When we look at some of the additional pieces and consider the residual value that we get from the Apple product versus the Lenovo product, that cost difference comes down to $10. And the Apple product ends up at the end of the lease, after the resale, being about $10 more. One of the key differences is the recommended reserve that the companies require, or recommend you have in reserves, in order for breakage and things like that, Apple recommends a 1% reserve whereas Lenovo recommends a 2-3% reserve. Even though the Lenovo might be cheaper up front, we would be required to purchase more of those products in the end to have those reserves for breakage and those kinds of things. And then after the resale, you’re talking about $10 difference. So I haven’t done the math on all of that but if you’re going to purchase 2-3% more or an additional 1-2% for reserves you’re going to more than wash out that $10 cost.” Vice Chairman Bowles asked, “Just curious, how did you arrive at the Lenovo Think Pad versus everything else on the market?” Taylor said, “Once again we went back to that survey that we did of teachers. We asked them basically a couple of questions but of the two that were related to instructional, ‘What do you 10 February 20, 2018 need the device to be able to do from a teacher perspective and what do you need the students to be able to do with that device in your class room from an instructional perspective. And so that then drove the recommendation. And then, it’s on the slides, but at the elementary level we basically looked at Chrome Books, we looked at the iPads with key boards, we looked at an iPad without a key board, we looked at a Mac Book. Once we got into the middle school and high school level, then we kind of filtered some of those out. At the high school level, we only looked at the Think Pad and the Mac Book Air, because basically what the teachers were asking the students to do there’s a lot of video editing and video creation, presentation creations, that would not be possible at the same level with Chrome Books. We did not consider the Chrome Book at that level at all.” Commissioner Norman said, “Correct if I am wrong, but all this original money for the devices is all grant money, correct?” Wike replied, “No, that is not correct.” Commissioner Norman asked, “Where did all of the original money come from for these devices?” Wike said, “A portion was from the grant, a portion was from local current expense and capital outlay was a small portion of it too.” Commissioner McNeely asked, “On the text book waiver, there’s no waiver in the coming years to develop one?” Wike said, “No, there’s not. You are correct. This is the last year.” Commissioner McNeely asked, “This is from the general assembly?” Wike said, “Yes.” Chairman Mallory asked, “I have a couple of questions. One thing that I had heard, I think as I recall the discussion several years ago, one of the selling points for the Apple products was they were less prone to viruses. Has that been your experience with the Apple product and is that still an industry sort of mantra?” Taylor said, “Yes.” Johnson said, “That is true.” Vice Chairman Bowles said, “I think that holds true when you have the kind of protection that you folks have on it. I know I have a half dozen of each running in our business and it depends on what sites your guys go on, but it can cause problems. It’s not completely immune. I am the one tasked to pay to clean these out. Never the less, I am seeing in our little company, we deal with a lot of artsy folks and a lot of business folks. We see that the business community is still, by in large, operating on pc platforms. But we see the arts y folks, the singers, the video folks, are carrying all the Apple stuff and can’t understand why we didn’t consider a pc. The folks with the pc don’t even want to talk about an Apple. In fact, a lot of times if a power point was created with an Apple in the same room, it may not work right. They are Ford and Chevrolet basically; they are two separate things. I just want to make sure for this kind of investment, but when we price these things out, and I know I am a smaller computer buyer that you are, but we see about a 2 to 1 price break. The pcs are about half the cost of the Apple stuff. We are buying Surfaces and stuff like that.” 11 February 20, 2018 Wike said, “I know as far as the cost, Apple has a different pricing model for education entities and then again we negotiated. It started from even a lower point than the public. But as far as pc versus Mac, maybe Dr. Taylor can answer some of that.” Taylor said, “One of the other things is that we do have the Office Suite on all of our computers and that is what we provide for the students so when you look at a lot of businesses you use that Office Suite, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, so our students are using that and learning that as well as the other pieces. Like I said, when we looked at what teachers were asking students to do and it is creation of videos and creation of those presentations is a part of their social studies and their English assignments and all of those, so it is not just generating music from kind of an artsy perspective it is a part of that instructional process.” Page said, “May I say something at that point? We looked at that a lot and I know in Auto mechanics, we are all pc based. We have pcs all over the place in the shop. Business classes that are Excel, whatever, they’ve got pcs they use. These computers are not designed; they are not really our business computers. Our students want them both. If they’re in auto mechanics they’re going to come in and all the data is on a pc of course. So they learn that. I’m going to be honest, to be an educational tool there’s nothing better than the Mac. I’m convinced of that. That as far as the student taking it and using it as an educational tool there’s no other device that can do as much it can. And that comes from years of seeing them use them with everything in class. I don’t think pc versus Mas really fits in a lot in this particular case.” Vice Chairman Bowles said, “I guess the question is that when the kids grow up and become the purchasing agent in all of these companies will the business world migrate to the Mac platform.” Taylor said, “I think one thing that our students shared when they were talking to the Board and sharing their perspective with the Board, is they actually are much more adept than many of us adults of really operating in both worlds. Because while there are minor differences, the students are much more adept at picking those up. I was a pc person for many, many years. I was a technology teacher and so when my husband brought the first Mac Book home, I was like, ‘Why did you do this, now I am going to have to learn everything different.’ But it’s a control click versus a right click and so they are very adept at actually migrating and working in both worlds.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Dr. Mauney said, when I was talking to him, one of the things they looked at, because of the educational price break it narrows the gap to some degree and then if you look at the end figure because they have had to buy more computers or work on more computers of the life of the lease at the end of the day it narrows that gap pretty close. And then it just becomes a preference. If you drive a Chevrolet or Ford. Price wise is less than what people think if you just go compare. If you look at the big picture and all the numbers, and the resale value.” Taylor said, “At the end of the resale value it’s about $10 difference.” Commissioner McNeely said, “Tonight we are basically being asked to give the money that we’ve been holding for you.” Wike said, “That money is already ours. The $3.2 million is already ours.” Commissioner Houpe said, “We have to approve statutorily.” Commissioner McNeely said, “We are going forward to give that money so we can go ahead a spend it on this but then we’re going forward. And that’s the part that worries me. This is 12 February 20, 2018 going to be a tough budget year and not just for the school side. We may think we got a little reprieve from the hangman’s gallows in K-3 but that can change with the next election, too.” Wike said, “What we understand with what this resolution says, we are not asking you to do more than what you already intended to do for us. Whatever the capital outlay funding formula is, we intend to make this work within that formula. Whatever our current expense allocation is, we intend to make this work within what you are already planning to give to us.” Chairman Mallory said, “You are making a point that I wanted to address. Are you under a time limit with Apple as far as presenting this contract?” Wike replied, “They want this done by the end of March. They need this at this Board meeting.” Chairman Mallory said, “That’s important to know. The other question I had, was you know, we are talking about funding beginning next year, you know you are getting these in next year. I was curious as to why we have this in the 17/18 budget.” Wike said, “We will go ahead and get the computers because there is a big undertaking. It is different this time than there was last time. We have 15,000 devices that we have to take in from schools, we have 17,000 new devices to put into the schools. So we are not going to wait until July to get these new devices. They are going to go ahead and come this year.” Chairman Mallory said, “And sign the contract and yes you’re going to get your check but it will be in the next budget year? Because I think, we’re pretty darn close and we are looking at the overall capital budget, this is one piece of the school budget, the operation and capital. It is one piece of our overall capital budget which is just another piece of the overall, overall budget, so we want… Personally, I want, we’re getting ready in the May time frame to get briefed up on the entire budget. I’m just wondering if this whole thing can be slipped a year in terms as to when we write a check to be in the 18/19 and then push this whole thing out.” Wike said, “There are a couple of reasons. None of this will require you to give us any more money this year. We are not asking for any more money this year. We do want the reserve that we’ve held back from our previous year’s budget.” Commissioner McNeely said, “That’s what I saying, that’s what tonight’s about, the reserve, to a point.” Wike said, “But you had already allocated those funds to us in previous years.” Commissioner Houpe said, “It’s their money, we just saved it.” Wike said. “You just held it for us.” Commissioner McNeely said, “To keep you from spending it, let’s be honest.” Wike said, “It’s like Commissioner McNeely said, the text book waivers. This is the last year I can get that $1.6 million from the State on text book waivers.” Chairman Mallory said, “So there is no reason we can’t, for instance, put a lot of this in the 18/19 budget from ours, from additional capital to cover down on this, but you can expend from what you’ve got already and we can take advantage of the text book waiver and all that. But we can shift some of this to right so that we can have a better understanding of future income streams that this can be part of.” 13 February 20, 2018 Wike said, “Exactly.” Alford said, “The 17/18 money that she is talking about is already appropriated. It is already in our budget. It is just a matter of writing them a check. And I have already incorporated next year’s into their current capital requests they would normally make. This is not adding anything to the budget. This is just taking that money and using it.” Chairman Mallory said, “I understand our total capital budget is going to be limited by what our budget is and that informs then what moneys you have left over for other capital issues.” Wike said, “Exactly.” Jones said, “And what they are saying is they are making a commitment regardless of the final amount that is budgeted for them the next year, the next year, they will make it work and they will pay for it out of that capital money for this lease.” Commissioner McNeely said, “Whether we give a gazillion dollars or two dollars somehow another.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Hopefully our capital fund will continue to increase if the sales tax revenue and other things continue to increase.” Commissioner McNeely said, “Two months, not even that long, a month and a half ago, Kenny came and basically we moved approximately $330,000 for computers. What did that go buy us with this contract coming?” Wike said, “I’m not sure what Dr. Miller came for. It’s probably our existing elementary computer lease. This is the last year for that.” Vice Chairman Bowles said, “We moved it from building.” Commissioner Houpe said, “He moved it from something in capital to something that would cover it which was something they had planned to do and their Board approved.” Commissioner McNeely said, “I’m trying to see how that happened so close to when these are coming.” Wike said, “I think it was just timing. We made that payment probably in September maybe but I’m not sure the timing of his amendment to you. He might not have known to make that amendment until…” Commissioner McNeely said, “I’m not being ugly or anything, but Dr. Johnson, we are not going to take money, I pray, from our building funds and redoing our buildings and putting roofs on to buy computers and do things. So I want that said today and somebody date it and write it down, Retha.” Vice Chairman Bowles said, “That is the pitfall from moving it from current expense to capital. We have to be careful.” Commissioner McNeely said, “We are not going to cheat ourselves and then have to do a bond someday later on to build new buildings because we’ve let our others fall down because we spent it in a different direction.” Commissioner Houpe said, “We’re going to have to do a bond to build buildings no matter what.” 14 February 20, 2018 Commissioner McNeely said, “Yeah, but we don’t have to rebuild the same ones we’ve already built. We need to take care of them.” Commissioner Houpe said, “One thing that I look at with all due respect to everybody, we have a duly elected school board by the voters of Iredell County and they voted 6-1 to request this. They have a responsibility to manage and run the school system so I defer those decisions. We fund the schools, I mean the capital parts of it, and I understand what you are saying and totally agree with you. But so far, out of 10 or 12 audits in a row, there’s been no mismanagement on our Task Force when we look at those things.” Commissioner McNeely said, “They’ve come and asked. There’s not going to be mismanagement.” Commissioner Houpe said, “The Board and administration has spent the money on what it has been intended to be spent on and the audits proved that and the outside audits are proving that so that’s all I want to just reiterate is we’ve not had a problem with money being spent on something it shouldn’t have been spent on.” Commissioner McNeely said, “For clarification, they came and asked to move money from building and maintenance to use it for something and computers would be the last thing and that bothers me.” Commissioner Houpe said, “That was their entire planning that their board approved of.” Commissioner McNeely said, “That’s what bothers me.” Johnson said, “One of the things that we hope to accomplish with this lease, Mr. McNeely, is over the last couple of decades we have piece-milled our technology initiatives. One of the first schools to have a one to one initiative was the early college on the campus of Mitchell Community College. This lease is going to allow us to address all schools with one lease and a very defined renew cycle, so that we won’t have to piece mill and come back and ask you to move money to cover the tail end of this lease. We’ve got one lease now that covers all 36 schools over a four- year period. And so for clarity purposes, it makes it much easier for us to manage our funds rather than patch-working and trying to stretch the dollar.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Brady and Martin, can we also as our task force, can we go ahead and start planning a new process like we did this time, put the revenue aside for the next time you do something with technology, whatever that would be. Revaluate what those amounts would look like and go ahead and start the voluntary for savings, or whatever you want to call it.” Wike said, “We’ve already looked at that and during 2018/19 and 19/20 since we’re taking so much out of capital to make our payments we don’t intend to hold back any funds from capital for those two years. But in 2021, this is all contingent on the funding that we have available at that point in time of course, it is just a plan at this point, right now we are intending on that year to set aside $2.3 million. So we have already thought forward.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Which will be more money than if you did a little bit along all four which you are addressing the issue. I want to make sure we on track for doing this again.” Wike said, “Yes we have. Exactly. It kind of goes back to that we don’t want to continue. We make sure there’s plenty of money available, there’s never all that you need for capital, but we don’t want to hold back on top of taking.” 15 February 20, 2018 Commissioner Houpe said, “That was mine and Marvin’s concern. We want to make sure you guys with us or on behalf of the Board is, that’s our task force. We’re planning this ahead again to pay it forward, per say, to be ready whatever you do next time.” Vice Chairman Bowles asked, “With this lease, you pay the three-year lease and then one year you don’t have to pay a lease at all?” Wike said, “It is an installment purchase. So really a lease is really not the right term. It’s an installment purchase. So after three years we on almost like a $1 buy back.” Vice Chairman Bowles said, “Then you go one year that you don’t have to.” Wike said, “Then we go one year and then if we don’t have the funding available. That’s the beauty of this because if we don’t have the funding available and we do have these good devices we have to hold onto them for another three years or four years then we will be well positioned to do that versus doing a lease and maybe having to buy them back at fair market value at the end when maybe funds are not as available as they are now. So we really feel like this puts us in a really good position going forward knowing that everything is contingent o n funding and if the funding is not there we will own them and can do with them as we need to.” Vice Chairman Bowles said, “Let’s say that you have purchased them for the $1 buy out and you don’t have a so called ‘lease payment’ that year you can escrow that money back.” Wike said, “Exactly.” Commissioner Houpe said, “That’s where I’m coming from. I know the Chairman and Brady both said they were looking at doing that. I wanted ya’ll to know we are on that path of planning that.” Page said, “I would like to make one point clear is these devices are having to be paid out of some money. So we’re taking money from somewhere. It’s just the way it is. If we’re going buy computers and stay in the computer business which was decided four or five years ago and it is what everybody is doing, then this money does have to come from somewhere. We have a lot more flexibility now with our capital budget with that. I am going to be honest, if we were having to take out of our operation we might have to lay teachers off. So you got to balance it out. The Board looked at this very hard. This has been tremendous amount of discussion and at this point in time our capital budget is growing tremendously faster and it was at ya’ll’s recommendation that we actually move it to the capital budget. So we are trying to be good stewards of the tax payer’s money. It’s got to come from somewhere and yes it is coming out of capital. This is our recommendation.” Commissioner McNeely said, “I’ve said it, and I challenge your Board going forward, we need to understand, there needs to be some kind of revenue stream for this. Because this is not going away. We are in the computer game now. So we need to have a revenue stream of some type of other. Ya’ll figure out what you want to do and bring it to use to see if we like or don’t but I’m going to challenge ya’ll to come up with it so that in the end we’re not sitting here trying to figure out where we have enough money in the budget to do this that coming year. We made a gamble. Anytime you look at budgets in the future it’s a gamble. Lord knows what can happen.” Wike said, “Here’s our problem as a school board, we need a revenue stream. We have no way to do that. We cannot levy taxes.” Commissioner McNeely said, “That’s what I challenge you to propose.” 16 February 20, 2018 Wike said, “You are our revenue stream.” Commissioner Houpe said, “This what I’ve been talking to Dr. Mauney in Mooresville. From the task force recommendation, from our position as your guy’s liaison, the schools are an investment. They are our biggest economic driver. If we are going to continue to compete with charters and private schools and things, the technology is a big positive for parents to stay in public schools. And so the economic benefit of the schools and us investing in those schools is coming back. It is creating a revenue stream, however you want to look at it, directly or indirectly. I’ve said it a million times through sales tax revenues and people moving here, buying houses, paying taxes. So you got to look at this thing and have a mentality that we are getting a return, it is creating a revenue stream. It depends on how you look at it. So, Dr. Mauney reminded me of that, because they talk about that in Mooresville, particularly with the growth they have and people moving into their system is because they have been innovative and been leading with technology and all the various other. And our school system here, with Iredell Statesville, our three early colleges, our choice programs, man it’s amazing really what’s it creating. It is helping with the revenue stream.” Commissioner Norman said, “Jeff has issued us a challenge. This is task force. Martin is included in that, I am, so we’ve got to talk about that and figure something out.” Commissioner McNeely said, “There are options out there. We’ve talked about options. There’s options out there. Get a recommendation that we take a look at understand what we are looking at.” Commissioner Norman said, “Melissa, you are right. We are your funding.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Jeff is right, but I’m saying our task force, and you’re part of that with the financial lady, Deb. We’ve got to work together to figure it out.” Wike said, “We appreciate all of you guy’s cooperation on this. We’ve thought and planned this together over the past two or three years and we really, really appreciate it.” Commissioner Houpe said, “Thank you for getting the information we need to look at this.” Page said, “I appreciate ya’ll just talking back and forth with us. Communication is worth it. Most systems don’t have that.” Johnson said, “That is correct.” Commissioner Houpe said, “I believe our task forces are doing what they are intended to do.” Chairman Mallory asked, “So what is the pleasure of the Board?” Commissioner Houpe said, “I’m good with consent.” Commissioner Norman said, “Consent.” Commissioner McNeely said, “Consent.” Chairman Mallory said, “It is consent. We appreciate all that you’ve done relative to our economic development driver and hope that you’ll be able to be implementing in full force this edge factor and aligning your pathways.” Johnson said, “Yes sir. We plan to. We would like to bring you a blue print and do a presentation later in the spring. I think you’ll be impressed with what we’ve got planned.” 17 February 20, 2018 Request from Tax Administration for approval of January refunds and releases : Everything was in order. This item was placed on the consent agenda. Request from the Clerk to the Board for approval of minutes from the meeting on February 6, 2018: There were no comments or corrections. This item was placed on the consent agenda. Request from Administration for approval of an amended Economic Development Incentive Policy: Interim County Manager Beth Jones said the reason that nothing had been circulated is because a little more direction was needed. After comparing some other policies, it became clear that the ultimate goal may not be achieved. It would be helpful if the Board could share the most important issues the revised policy should address. Increasing the tax base is something that is clearly known but does the Board want to incentivize job creation? Should it be a qualifier? Commissioner McNeely feels everything that is incentivized should be tracked, the jobs and the pay. Along with equipment that it has actually been bought and installed. Commissioner Houpe asked about other incentive polices and what is different from Iredell County’s. Chairman Mallory feels the key point is flexibility. Agriculture needs to be promoted which may need a different type of policy in comparison to manufacturing. The current policy is narrow and constricting and it seems that everything is an exception to that policy. The limits need to be broadly defined in order to address the unique characters. Valdez said it is a means of finding flexibility but not subjective. There needs to be some objective criteria that still gives the flexibility that this Board needs. Instead of qualifiers, like the company has to create a certain number of jobs or meet the county average, etc ., give the Board tools to give the company a longer incentive period for having those different things but not requiring them to have those things in order to get the incentive. Vice Chairman Bowles suggested a point system. Economic Director Russ Rogerson said there needs to be more time to make the policy as simplistic as possible but still meets goals. It is going to take much more thought. Chairman Mallory suggested to identify factors that are important to consider but not tie specific weights to those factors because each project is different and unique. Commissioner Norman asked if Rogerson brought some recommendations. Rogerson was not comfortable sharing the current proposals as they have not had time to vet each one and was not ready to present. Jones said one agreement was found to look good on paper, but many issues arose when applied to current projects and actually were counterproductive. It is the desire of this committee to go back to the drawing board with the County’s policy and find ranges. Chairman Mallory suggested the Economic Development Task Force meet again and refine it. 18 February 20, 2018 Jones agreed that would be best. Valdez stated the committee needs to know the factors that the Board wants included. Vice Chairman Bowles asked if there is any one item, that the County does not offer, that usually is the cause of losing a company. Rogerson feels Iredell County is at a competitive advantage from that regard. However, there are uncontrollable challenges with the State and the tier system. It was the consensus of the Board to refer this item to the Economic Development Task Force for further review. The Board recessed at 6:55 PM until the 7:00 PM regular meeting. IREDELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MINUTES February 20, 2018 The Iredell County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, February 20, 2018, at 7:00 PM, in the Iredell County Government Center (Commissioners’ Meeting Room), 200 South Center Street, Statesville, NC. Board Members Present Chairman James B. Mallory III Vice Chairman Tommy Bowles Gene Houpe Jeff McNeely Marvin Norman Staff present: Interim County Manager Beth Jones, County Attorney Lisa Valdez, Assistant County Manager Susan Robertson, Finance Director Deb Alford, Strategic Planner Ben Stikeleather, and Clerk to the Board Retha Gaither. CALL TO ORDER by Chairman Mallory. INVOCATION: Chairman Mallory asked everyone to bow their heads for a moment of silence. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE led by Chairman Mallory ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA Interim County Manager Beth Jones made the following adjustments: Add: Closed Session – Attorney/Client G.S. 143-318.11 (a) (3) Chairman Mallory added: New Business – items from Commissioner Norman and Commissioner McNeely. MOTION by Commissioner Houpe to approve the agenda as adjusted. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 PRESENTATION OF SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS & AWARDS 19 February 20, 2018 Commissioner Houpe recognized Iredell Memorial Hospital and expressed appreciation for the invitation to view the new Vinci AI Surgical System. Also, there have been many calls from citizens expressing appreciation to the Board and the Health Department for the pro-active measures on the opioid epidemic. There have also been numerous calls thanking the Board for the gate guards at the schools and asked the Board to continue working with the Sheriff on security for the schools. Houpe suggested a further discussion at the Winter Retreat. APPOINTMENTS BEFORE THE BOARD Presentation concerning Opioid litigation: Chairman Mallory stated a presentation was made at the pre-agenda asking for the Board to consider participating in a nation-wide litigation against pharmaceuticals and distributors who are linked directly to the increased costs of the opioid epidemic. Two firms have made presentations for the Board’s consideration. Iredell County Health Department presentation regarding updates and information related to North Carolina Medicaid Managed Care Reform and North Carolina Public Health Accreditation: (Chairman Mallory asked the Health Director to give an overview of the recent community meeting held on Saturday, February 17.) Health Department Jane Hinson shared information about Medicaid Managed Care. Legislation was enacted directing the Division of Medical Assistance to move from a fee-for- service structure to a managed care structure. The goal is to launch in 2019. Managed Care Organizations will be responsible for coordinating all services (except services carved out) and will receive a capitated payment for each enrolled beneficiary. There will be two forms: a commercial plan and a provider-led entity. Some of the exclusions are: current individuals who are duly eligible for Medicaid and Medicare will be brought in four years later, foster care is a year away, Medicaid, only long-stay nursing home, is four years down the road, the Community Alternative Program for children and disabled adults is four years away, dental is permanently excluded, and some other programs administered by the school system or child development service agencies. The family planning program is hopefully exempt but legislation will have to change first. Hinson continued to explain how the plan is expected to work, but there will be many things to learn and adjust to. Hinson shared information on the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Program. The goal is to make sure there is consistency across the state, that every county that has a health department can protect the public’s health and assuring the capacity to meet the basic public health services. The accreditation standards are: agency core functions and essential services; facilities and administrative services; and governance. The Health Department was initially accredited in 2010 and successfully re-accredited in 2014. The next re-accreditation survey is required in 2018. The Health Department must submit re-accreditation evidence electronically in late spring of this year with the two-day re-accreditation site visit scheduled for October of this year. If the department does not pass the State accreditation all state dollars could be lost and that would equal about $1.4 million. Hinson further shared all of the many required steps the department goes through for accreditation. Chairman Mallory said it is obvious there is an incredible team at the Health Department who provides a level of service to citizens of this county that is unmatched, unparalleled by any surrounding counties. 20 February 20, 2018 Vice Chairman Bowles said the Health Department and the health agency is about as comprehensive as any entity he has ever served on. The Board of Health meetings are filled with training and extensive information. The Health Department and the Health Board are very dedicated. DAAFI (Drug Alcohol Abuse Free Iredell) has created a handout and a data base on the web site that tells citizens how to seek help for a family member who may have a problem with drugs or alcohol. This past Saturday there was an opioid summit titled Community Action with Compassion which was very informative. It is nationwide estimate is that it will cost $3 to $5 billion to remedy the opioid problem. Hinson said there were approximately 140-150 attendees. It was intentionally focused on the faith based community, but there were many other people from day cares, DSS, EMS and nurses from the school systems. The key note speakers were Dr. Elizabeth Tilson, State Health Director & Chief Medical Officer for NC DHHS and Dr. Omar Manejwala, Addiction Psychiatrist. The event was sponsored by the Partners Behavioral Health Management, Drug-Alcohol Abuse Free Iredell Coalition and the Health Department. Hinson shared information about the training and discussions that took place. Only about 10% of people that struggle with addiction seek help. It was important to make sure that churches reach out and offer compassion and help. Every attendee received the resource materials. One statistical note that was astounding is that in 2011 there were 8.1 million opioid pills dispensed in Iredell County but in 2016 there were 12.1 million which is enough pills for 172,000 citizens to have 70 pills. Iredell’s coalition is strong. This Board helped to fund a full time position and Partners Behavioral Health gave $25,000 toward that position as well. Statesville ABC Board gave $10,000, but just recently the Chairman of the Health Board signed a MOU with the Mooresville ABC Board who sent a check for $117,000. It is to be used in Mooresville for alcohol and substance abuse education or treatment. Also, just recently the Troutman ABC Board agreed to allocate their funds when they get to that level of profit. This will allow the coalition to do more work and to increase the advertising campaigns. Commissioner Houpe stated that he and Commissioner Norman serve on the Education Task Force who has spent a lot of time talking about school security. There have been a lot of calls from parents concerned about school security. However, they were ensured that this Board and the Sheriff’s Office is doing many active patrols and using aggressive measures to ensure safety. It’s unfortunate that the cuts made at the schools have been in support personnel. Until someone has had a family member or know someone that has been directly impacted, they are not as compassionate as they should be. This directly and indirectly affects the entire society. What this County has to do is figure out ways with the schools and health department to deal with mental issues. Mental illness is real and in most cases it can be treated or managed. The County and all agencies have to be more proactive with treatment. Houpe expressed appreciation to the Health Department and suggested to the Board that the time is right to take a look at these positions in the schools. Chairman Mallory expressed appreciation to Hinson and her team for leading the multi- disciplinary effort. This problem is beyond the scope of government to address adequately. The County spends a lot of time fostering economic development and it is clear the workforce must be a primary focus. Employers are searching for workers with skills, values, basic work ethics, potential and attitude. The opioid issues are affecting every community. The State of North Carolina has enacted a STOP Act which will limit the amount or prescriptions for pain to primarily focus on acute pain management as opposed to chronic pain management. That is one reason this 21 February 20, 2018 Board is considering joining the opioid litigation. The long term limitation of prescriptions will save a lot of people from accidently, unknowingly become dependent on those drugs. Iredell County is being proactive and is in the forefront of tackling this issue. The faith based community in Iredell is a secret weapon and needs to be part of the solution and work together. Vice Chairman Bowles said there was a huge presence of law enforcement at the summit which was appreciated. However, the faith based community is now reaching out, wanting to help. PUBLIC HEARINGS Public hearing for the consideration of an economic development incentive for Project Deacon: Economic Representative Chris Younger stated Project Deacon has potential plans to expand and update their existing manufacturing facility located in Mooresville. The expansion planned will be 7,500 sq. ft., replace two older lines of production with the latest technology line of production, and machinery and equipment. Upgrade infrastructure of water lines, electrical, and gas will also be made. They anticipate to create up to 20 new full time positions and generate $52.1 million in new tax investment. The project will expect to be completed by the end of 2018. The request is for a tax back incentive for seven years totaling up to $1,096,857 which averages $1,056,694 per year. Chairman Mallory opened the public hearing. No one wished to speak. Chairman Mallory closed the public hearing. MOTION by Commissioner McNeely to approve an economic incentive not to exceed $1,096,857 over a seven-year period based on the company’s investment of $52.136,436 with 20 new employees and contingency upon a contract being executed within 180 days. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS Interim County Manager Beth Jones summarized the items that were placed on the consent agenda as follows:  Request from the IT Department for approval of budget amendment #27 in the amount of $60,472 to purchase a secure and safe file collaboration program.  Request from Administration for approval of Strategic Goals for ICATS and ECOM. This was the last department and one additional goal for ECOM to round out the strategic planning process.  Request from the Sheriff’s Office for approval of budget amendment #28 to use crime lab fees received for contracted lab testing of drugs, blood and DNA. The annual contract amount is $43,260 and these fees are court ordered.  Request from the Public Library for approval to apply for a Library Services and Technology Grant in the amount of $10,695.  Request from Iredell-Statesville Schools for approval of a debt resolution in support of a three-year installment purchase contract with Apple. The funds for the 17/18 fiscal year have already been budgeted and set aside out of their capital reserve.  Request from Administration for approval of an amended Economic Development Incentive Policy. This was discussed and deferred to the Economic Development Task Force. 22 February 20, 2018  Request from Tax Administration for approval of January refunds and releases.  Request from the Clerk to the Board for approval of minutes from the meeting on February 6, 2018. MOTION by Commissioner Norman to approve the consent agenda. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCIES OCCURING ON BOARDS & COMMISSIONS Iredell County Planning Board – 1 announcement. APPOINTMENTS TO BOARD AND COMMISSIONS ICATS – 1 appointment. MOTION by Commissioner Houpe to appoint Brennan Ferguson who has volunteered to serve. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 Troutman Planning and Zoning ETJ Alternate – 1 Appointment. MOTION by Vice Chairman Bowles to appoint Mark Taylor. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 UNFINISHED BUSINESS (None) PUBLIC COMMENT No one wished to speak. NEW BUSINESS Commissioner Norman stated that all board members had received an email from Janie Stikeleather from Davis Hospital. Stikeleather requested that all board members contact the State DOT concerning lighting at the intersection of Old Mocksville Road and I-40 which is the exit for the hospital. Many patrons of the hospital have complained about the difficulties in seeing the ramps at that exit. Commissioner McNeely has learned that there is a meeting on March 2 so emails need to be sent as soon as possible. NC DOT is moving toward LED lights which is slowing down the process but exits and entrances need to be priority. Commissioner McNeely said the I-77 Advisory Commission met and is beginning to get some questions answered. There are basically six different options that are being investigated. Even if the project was completed and deleted (Centra would complete and the State would buy it out) and the lanes are not toll but it maybe a year before they can be used. This is due to the change of scope of the project. It would require another environmental and air quality analysis. COUNTY MANAGER’S REPORT Interim County Manager Beth Jones gave updates on the following items: 23 February 20, 2018  Winter Retreat begins Thursday at 11:00 and will be at the Career Academy in Troutman. It will continue on Friday beginning at 8:00.  Budget submittals were due today from the departments and appreciation was extended to those directors. CLOSED SESSIONS MOTION by Commissioner McNeely to ratify the approval of the economic development incentive granted to Project Eager, now known as Tristone Flowtech USA, Inc., based on the investment amount of $23.6 million and acknowledge the real property is to be owned by an unrelated third party who shall not be entitled to any portion of the incentives. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 MOTION by Commissioner McNeely to approve making an application for CDBG funds in the amount of $200,000 for Project Deacon. ADJOURNMENT MOTION by Commissioner Norman to adjourn at 9:30 PM. The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, March 6, 2017, 5:00 PM, in the South Wing Conference Room, Government Center, 200 South Center Street, Statesville, NC. VOTING: Ayes – 5; Nays – 0 __________________________________ ___________________________________ Date Approved Retha C. Gaither, Clerk