PUBLIC HEARING

The Stokesdale Fire District, Inc. will hold a Public Hearing for anyone in Guilford or Rockingham County who pays taxes into the Stokesdale Fire District. It will be held on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, at 7pm at the fire station, 8401 US Hwy. 158, Stokesdale. The hearing is to discuss a request to increase the fire district tax rate.

the case is still under investigation. Residents were reminded to secure their valuables and document their make, model and serial numbers.

A residential burglary on Colgate Road last month is also still under investigation.

Officers assisted N.C. Highway Patrol with the vehicle accident on March 30 when a driver failed to stop for a school bus on N.C. 65, even though its mechanical arm was extended and flashing lights on. A 6-year-old Stokesdale Elementary student was subsequently struck and transported to Brenner Children’s Hospital in critical condition. See update on p. 2.

Administrative Report

Town clerk Dale Martin updated the council on the number of water meters installed in March (13), water meters placed on hold and applications for service (28) and work orders processed (17).

The water system continues to grow, with 752 water customers billed last month (compared to 672 billed in March 2022).

Other activities included staff review of the Ellisboro Road water line extension; submission of two years’ worth of meeting minutes to the state archives for microfilming; execution of contracts; update of meeting minutes on the town’s website; and discussion of town park improvements.

Martin noted staff is also reviewing the town’s development ordinance, which was last amended in 2018.

Staff has attended budget workshops and Lynn Callahan, the recently hired part-time administrative assistant, is getting settled in.

The town is still waiting on NCDOT to install reduced-speed limit signs on Athens Road, Angel Pardue Road and Adano Road.

Committee Reports

Property Committee. Council member Jim Rigsbee noted the town’s lawncare company recently sprayed for weeds.

Town Park Improvement. Chair Tee

Stephenson said the committee continues to meet weekly, and a recommendation for the playground project would be presented later in the meeting. Bids for the outdoor basketball and pickleball courts are still being reviewed.

Financial

Finance officer Kim Thacker presented an overview of the operations and water enterprise account balances. Thacker noted that several CDARS were renewed in February and March at a 3.618% interest rate, which is much higher than it has been the last few years. The town has $2,576,261 in CDARS with the Bank of Oak Ridge and $326,193 with Fidelity Bank.

The town received $75,395 on March 15 for its quarterly share of franchise utility taxes collected from Stokesdale citizens.

Old Business

 5  0 to extend the lawncare contract with Excellence Lawncare for one year, at $24,000.

 5  0 to extend the contract with Hunter Enterprises to maintain the soccer fields in the town park for $12,000 (for one year), subject to receiving proof of general liability insurance of at least $1 million.

Auditing Services

Thacker said the town recently received a proposal for annual auditing services from C. (Cynthia) Randolph, CPA, PLLC; W. Greene, PLLC submitted a proposal last month.

Thacker said she spoke at length with Ms. Randolph, who has 31 years of experience in auditing and public accounting, corporate and fiduciary taxation, and is a member of several professional accounting organizations.

“She enlightened me on several things. Summerfield just contracted with her last month,” Thacker said.

 5  0 to accept a proposal from C. Randolph, CPA to perform the town’s financial audit for FY2022-23 for $10,635.

New Business

Town park improvements. Tee

Stephenson presented Backyard Paradise’s proposal to install playground equipment as described for $81,692.83. Foy noted the town received nine “good” proposals from three different vendors.

Jones asked if anyone had looked at the equipment in person and Foy said no, but staff had checked with four of the references the company provided and council members had been given written feedback.

 5  0 to accept Backyard Paradise’s proposal. Rigsbee commended Stephenson for his hard work on the Town Park Improvement Committee over the last year.

Consideration to accept transcript. Per Jones’s request to add this as an agenda item, council discussed accepting the “Scott transcript” dated May 24, 2022, which was for a closed session on March 12, 2020. During that closed session, shouts could be heard coming from the conference room and then-mayor John Flynt later came out of the closed session and announced, “I just resigned.”

“I’ve gone back and forth on this,” Jones said of his decision to resurrect the incidents that occurred during and after the March 12, 2020 closed session. “… Citizens are entitled to as much transparency as we can deliver,” he added.

Jones then motioned to accept Ms. Scott’s transcript of the closed session as a supplement to the audio recording of the session and said, “It would bother me not to do this.”

When asked about legal concerns Winfree had with Jones’s proposed

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Stokesdale Tc

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action, the attorney explained he had four concerns related to the transcript, including that Ms. Scott is not a registered court reporter. He said the bigger concern, however, was that she didn’t attend the closed session.

“There were several circumstances where people were talking over each other, so it was difficult to know who was saying what,” Winfree said. “I was concerned about how she would know who was speaking.

“Another issue is that the version of the transcript I received was in an editable Microsoft Word format, so anyone could edit it,” Winfree continued. “Last, she certifies that she accurately reported what she was given … portions could have been deleted from the recording. If the town vouches for the accuracy of the transcript, the town might have to defend itself in some kind of defamation action.”

Landreth then said he had spent some sleepless nights over the March 12, 2020 closed session, and was inclined to “leave dead dogs lie.”

 1  4 (with Jones casting the only “aye” vote) to accept the Scott transcript as a supplement to the audio recording of the March 12, 2020 closed session. Recording of closed sessions. Winfree explained the public has a right to attend open meetings and record them if they wish. However, the public can be excluded from closed sessions. Without a policy in place, there is no requirement for closed sessions to be recorded, nor is anyone attending a closed session prohibited from recording it.

“The question is: what right do council members have to record a closed session? If there is no policy, there is no limitation,” Winfree explained, then referenced a situation that occurred in Summerfield a few years ago, in which a then-council member recorded at least one closed session and later shared that recording with members of the public. He presented five options for establishing a policy on recording closed sessions.

 5  0 to continue discussion on the above to the May council meeting.

 4  1 (Foy opposed) to continue discussion about a proposal by Hazen & Sawyer dated April 11 for cost of engineering and consulting services.

Closed Session

At 8:07 p.m. Council recessed the open meeting to discuss legal matters in closed session, then reconvened 20 minutes later.

Council Comments

„ Foy encouraged everyone to keep