Town Council

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Good evening. I call this May 12th, 2026 meeting of the Morrisville Town Council to order. We ask those in attendance to please silence your cell phones at this time. Thank you to those here in person with us tonight, those watching via live stream, and those who are watching a recording of this meeting. Our town mission statement, which helps guide our decisions tonight and into the future, is connecting our diverse community to an enhanced quality of life through innovative programs and services. Officer Aloy- Aloyan is our sergeant at arms for this evening's meeting. We thank you for your attendance. This evening, I'll be reading our invocation. This This past weekend, many of us had the chance to celebrate Mother's Day. It's a reminder of the important role of mothers and caregivers play in our lives. They care take care of what's right in front of them, but they also look ahead, planting the seeds that help young people grow into successful adults. Our work as a council isn't all that different. We're responsible for addressing the immediate needs of our community, and those needs met. But, we're also responsible for looking to the future and making sure we're building a strong foundation for Morrisville's continued growth and success. As we begin tonight's meeting, may we approach our decisions with that same balance of care, responsibility, and long-term thinking. At this time, all who are able, please stand as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we adopt tonight's agenda, town council policy is to review and ensure there are no conflicts of interest or appearance of conflict of interest with any items on the agenda. If you notice anything in the agenda that could be a conflict or look like one, please share that now.

Okay. Seeing none, is there a motion and second to adopt this evening's regular agenda? I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda. Second. Have a motion from Councilmember Johnson, a second from Councilmember Camera Body to adopt this evening's regular agenda. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously. There are two items on this evening's consent agenda. Resolution and budget ordinance amendment for phase one of the design-build for the Gables roadway reconstruction project and resolution authorizing street acceptance for the Park at Town Center subdivision. Would any member of the council wish to pull any item for discussion? Or is there a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda? I'll make that motion. I'll second. Have a motion from Mayor Camera Body, a second from Councilmember Johnson. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously, 7-0. We have one proclamation to be read this evening, and there are also six proclamations on our agenda for reference. And those are a proclamation recognizing May as National Foster Care Month, proclamation proclamation recognizing May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, proclamation recognizing Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, proclamation recognizing National Public Works Week, a proclamation recognizing Building Safety Month, and the proclamation recognizing National Senior Health and Fitness Day. At this time, I'd like to ask Councilmember Garamella to read the proclamation recognizing May as National Tennis Month, and then Laura Wegant would be approaching the middle afterwards, and he will present it to her. Thanks, Mayor. Um as I speak, you know, it's good to see former councilmember Steve Rao, who is an advocate for tennis uh in in the audience. Um so, here's a proclamation recognizing May as the National Tennis Month. Whereas, on May 21st, 1881, the United States Tennis

Association, USTA, originally known as United States National Lawn Tennis Association, was founded in New York City, New York, to create rules and standards for emerging game of lawn tennis. And whereas the USTA is a non-profit national governing body for tennis in the United States with over 550,000 members, is the largest tennis organization in the world, and leads the promotion and growth of the support of every entry every level of play from beginners to professionals at the US Open. And whereas USTA proudly partners with local tennis programs to showcase the important health, social, and educational benefits of tennis, and make the sport available to everyone regardless of the age, environment, conditions, or ability through its USTA adaptive grants. And whereas the latest research of Physical Activity Council, PAC, shows that more than 27 million Americans play tennis in 2025 and presented increase in participation over 2019 and the highest number of players since the PAC study began in 2007. And whereas by increasing the accessibility of tennis for residents of the town of Morrisville of all ages and ability, the USTA has contributed to making our community happier, healthier. And whereas USTA has declared the month of May as National Tennis Month to encourage players, organizations, facilities, retailers, tennis manufacturers, and more promote local programs and activities at parks and facilities to showcase tennis and spread the word about the sport and its benefit, and to help the players and non-players alike find courts and play opportunities in their community. Now, therefore, the Town Council of the Town of Morrisville does hereby recognize May as National Tennis Month and urges the residents of

Morrisville to become aware and support the National Tennis Month. So, um we have in audience I don't know his first name. I didn't get your name. Laura Weymouth. Laura. Please come on up. Do you want to say something? Sure. I don't think you hold this for long. Okay, sure. You can't do that, too, so um thank you to all of you for um for having us here tonight, but also for what you do for the community. Um we certainly Morrisville's known for um live connected, live well, and I think a lot of it has to do with all the tennis that you do provide. It's arguably the healthiest sport on the planet. There was a study that showed that tennis players live on average 9.7 years longer than somebody who's sedentary. So, it adds a lot of years to your life. So, that's definitely live living connected. But, we really, really appreciate our partnership with Morrisville, um Cindy, Park and Rec, Town Council. We've done a lot in the in the time that I've been with Western Wake Tennis, and we get a lot of people out to play, and we got more tennis courts coming, and we're grateful for that, but we couldn't do it without facilities and towns like Morrisville. In fact, there's one little um other tidbit, um 70% of all tennis is happens in public parks. It's not a country club sport, so we couldn't do it without you and what you do for your community is truly amazing. So, appreciate it. Thank you. Thank

Next item on the agenda is Morrisville Speaks public comment. For those who have signed up to speak, please approach the microphone and begin by stating your name and residential address and direct your comments to the council when you're called. Each speaker is allotted to ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to share their thoughts. A timer will start after you state your name and address and a buzzer will sound when your time is up. We appreciate your cooperation in helping us manage the time fairly for all participants. For anyone who wishes to speak on the Evergreen rezoning on 10212 Chapel Road, please note those who spoke during the April 28th public hearing are not permitted to speak on the topic again. We truly appreciate the perspective shared by all those who spoke previously or written comments. Anyone who did not speak on April 28th is welcome to add their name to the sign-in sheet. Council appreciates the time taken and takes into consideration all comments from the public. However, in the interest of time, if you have the same thoughts to share as a speaker who has already spoken, we encourage you to indicate that instead of repeating the same information. This still bears weight the same weight with the council and we appreciate and value your willingness to share your thoughts. If there is a group who would like to elect a spokesperson, that person may have up to 6 minutes to speak on behalf of the group. Those who are with the group at that time, please raise your hand when your representative approaches. Now, I'd like to recognize Town Clerk Bertling to call out the first name. First is Steve Lauderdale. I've got a copy for staff. We don't give that to And it's my pleasure.

Uh thanks and good evening. My name is Steve Lauderdale. I live at 2104 Glade Valley Lane. First, I want to thank and congratulate two new council members, Ashish Patel and Harrison Kesley. Second, I want to thank former council

member Donna Fender for her service to Mooresville. Third, I want to thank the council for having previously adopted a policy that includes providing incentives for affordable multiple family housing. Fourth, I want to mention that you now have a historic opportunity to approve a project that provides 50 years of senior affordable housing in 100% of the units. That's right, senior affordable housing in 100% of the units for 50 years. There seems to be some misinformation about the project. I went to the location again today and there's still a sign that calls this {quote} "Section 8 housing" {end quote}. I'm concerned that folks involved in misinformation had not corrected that sign even though it was made clear 2 weeks ago that this is not Section 8 housing. It was also made clear at last week's neighborhood meeting that this is not Section 8 housing. Facts matter and this sort of in- isn't consistent with an honest and open discussion. I want to thank the owner, developer, and planning department for their roles in a project that will provide senior affordable housing in 100% of the units for 50 years. Finally, there's another interesting aspect to this project. I agree with others that expressed support during the last town council meeting. The record shows that two weeks ago, Morrisville residents Steph Reed and Patty Chance spoke in favor of

this project. I agree with them. It is amazing, perhaps even historic, that the three of us are in agreement on a matter before the council. Wow. Steph, Steve, and Patty in agreement? What does that tell you? Thank you. Next is Stephanie Reed. Stephanie, you spoke during the public hearing on April 28th. Are you here to speak about the rezoning time? No. Hi, my name is Stephanie Reed, C Shanti Steph, and I live at 1672 Legendary Lane, Morrisville. When we see a glass and steel luxury tower go up, our gut reaction is often, "That's not for me. How does that help my rent?" It feels like the town is just getting more expensive. But housing isn't a collection of isolated islands. It's a simple flowing ecosystem. To understand why luxury units actually help the person at the bottom of the ladder, we need to look at something we all understand, the car market. Think about how we buy cars. Most of us don't walk into a dealership and drive off in a brand new 2026 model. We buy used. Where do used cars come from? They are the filter-down result of someone else buying new. When a wealthy person buys a new Tesla, they sell their 5-year-old BMW. The person who buys that BMW sells their 10-year-old Honda. Person who buys that Honda sells their 20-year-old clunker to a student. This is filtering. If you stop the production of new luxury cars, wealthy people don't stop driving. They just start outbidding everyone else for the used Toyota Toyotas. When we don't build new apartments, high earners stay in the older naturally occurring affordable buildings, bidding up the rent rent and pricing out everyone else. This isn't just a theory. It's backed by data. Recent studies on migration chains show that for every 100 new market rate units built, even luxury ones, up to 70 units are freed up in the middle lower income neighborhoods as people move into those new spaces. By housing the person at the top, we stop them from gentrifying the housing at the bottom. We protect our existing affordable stock by giving high budget renters somewhere else to go. Now, let's be clear.

Filtering is a powerful long-term engine, but isn't a magic wand for everyone. For our very low-income neighbors, we cannot simply wait for the market to catch up because supply takes time to build. We must continue to secure affordable housing in the short term by requiring developers to include dedicated affordable units or contribute to housing funds. We fix the overall market by increasing supply and we protect our most vulnerable neighbors by ensuring new growth directly funds roofs for those who need them today. We also have to stop fearing four rent signs. Vacancy is competition. When there are zero vacancies, landlords don't have to compete. They don't have to paint, fix sinks, or keep rent stable because you have no other choice. When we increase supply and vacancies rise, the power shifts to the tenant. To fill an empty unit, a landlord has to offer a better deal, whether that's a free month of rent, a lower deposit, or a price drop. On April 14th, City Builder reported that North Carolina is number one in net domestic migration at over 84,000 people. We are beating Texas and South Carolina, and it's not even close. People are coming. Right now, there is no such thing as too many apartments. If a developer wants to build, let them build. If they overbuild and vacancies rise, that's a win for the renter. The builder takes a financial hit because of it, well, that's the risk of doing business. We cannot solve a worse housing shortage by refusing to build. Just as the shortage of new cars makes every beater on the lot more expensive, a shortage of new housing turns every old apartment into a luxury item. If we want affordability, we need abundance. We need to build for the future while subsidizing for the present, ensuring there is breathing room for everyone in Morrisville. Thank you. Next is Shannon Robinson. Good evening. I am Shannon Robinson, a resident of Morrisville, a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and part of the community organization ONE Wake. We are here to advocate for affordable

housing and to support the Chapel Hill Road rezoning project. Wake County is experiencing a massive surge in senior housing demand. Its 65-plus population is projected to double by 2041. The county expects to have more residents over age 60 than children under age 18 by 2029. Seniors are moving here to be closer to their families as they face healthcare challenges and isolation. Many of them also contribute to our communities, volunteering in schools and other civic organizations. Many people must now work past age 70 and still struggle to keep pace with our economy. We're seeing a boom in active adult neighborhoods and luxury community continuing care communities, but the incentives to build affordable housing are not sufficiently addressing the gap in the market. If we do not intentionally include seniors who live below the area median income, they will be excluded from our community. My family has been repeatedly impacted by the lack of affordable housing in Morrisville. We struggled to find housing for relatives who needed to move here so I could become their caregiver. My aunt had to move away from her friends, her family, and her volunteer jobs because she could no longer afford to live in the triangle. Now we are nearing the time when another aging family member will need to move near us. We have identified no affordable options in the triangle and have not found a solution. If this land must be developed, we can be environmental stewards by ensuring that the parcel is put to its maximum use.

We do not need more commercial property or more single-family homes in Morrisville. I share others' concerns about infrastructure, particularly transportation. I ask the council to mitigate this by ensuring that the public transit accesses this new community and to continue their efforts to widen Chapel Hill Road. Cary, Raleigh, Garner, and Zebulon are all responding to the need for affordable housing. Morrisville has an opportunity to join them. Please vote in favor of this project. Thank you. Next is Nelson Paul. My name is Nelson Paul. My address is 307 Misty Grove Circle, Morrisville. Thank you, Mayor Crowder, Ollie, Town Council. This week a child pornography investigation was initiated into a homosexual couple in Harnett County that resulted in charges of grooming and making sexual content using a 15-year-old boy and a 5-year-old boy. These children were part of this couple's so-called family. On June 5th, the town of Morrisville Music in the Park event will glorify the LGBTQ message. LGBTQ is a lifestyle choice based on sexual perversion. As you can see from this recent news report, the LGBTQ lifestyle presents a threat to innocent children. Last year at the Music in the Park event, a vendor was selling objects whose message challenged the LGBTQ agenda with Bible verses. A couple of the objects referred to Luke 17:2, which is a direct quote from Jesus,

where he warned with no uncertain terms the eternal consequences of sexually abusing children. Interestingly enough, the town of Morrisville had received beforehand objections to this vendor participating. Possibly because of this, the town assigned the vendor a location outside the venue. The police and the town manager, who was also present, allowed an unpermitted protest of the vendor, and at least one town council member participated in that protest. I understand the town council is considering a budget this evening. Question: Have you budgeted for a lawsuit if one were to be brought for discrimination against this Christian vendor's right to free exercise of religious expression? Maybe the town council should reconsider its support of the LGBTQ culture. Supporting this lifestyle choice puts children in danger, and the cost to the town could end up being far more than just the expense of a single music in the park event. Thank you. Next is Patty Chang. Patty, you spoke at the April 28th public hearing. Are you here to speak about the rezoning tonight? Good evening. Um I'm Patty Chang from 304 Miller Drive along Mooresville Center. I'm here to talk about how our town budget has ballooned in the last 7 years. From something like $37 million to over $470 million. And how is this money being used? And you know, in what way is is this are these extra funds being used to support and

represent the people of Mooresville? Okay. We are spending a lot of money on additional public uh events, public funds to use for to represent all the taxpayers of Mooresville, as diverse as we may be, with with different points of views. And last year, I was amazed and horrified to find that the town of Mooresville had staff members intentionally planning to discriminate, target, and make specific individuals feel unwelcomed and uncomfortable at a Mooresville publicly funded event. The fact that we had you know, the town staff had orchestrated intentional discrimination against a vendor who had um filed to be at this event. Keeping them selves in their own tent. And we had staff members and even town council members who were targeting them as to as to thinking that they were entitled to discriminate and treat them like they're not welcomed at a publicly funded event that we all helped to pay for. This event was not sponsored by the LGBT community or funded by the LGBTQ community. So, the fact that there was no permit taken out to demonstrate against somebody else's right to first amend their freedom of speech under our first amendment tells me that they are entitled to to be fined $500 per person under the North Carolina General Assembly 14-2884 where disorderly conduct um under section 7 for anyone who protests a

uh the right for to uh for any for another citizen to demonstrate their right to having a different point of view. We don't need to have that kind of callous disregard to taxpayer funding. Um for whoever wants to take all the extra money that the town has and indiscriminately use that to discriminate against a large population of Mooresville citizens. Thank you. Next is Jim Huffman. James Huffman, 304 Walnut Woods Drive, Morrisville. I was told a long time ago by a person much older than I at the time, if you can't say it better than the person that said it before, keep your mouth shut. So, I'm going to be very brief and say that all of us have concerns for those folks who are looking at rents that started like $1,900 a month, uh not being able to make ends meet, not able to do things that other families would be able to do, especially families with children. So, uh I would encourage you to take a serious look at the need for the uh affordable housing. Uh and I know that this is just a first step toward providing for that, but I trust you to make sure that it is followed step by step and you keep the benefits of families in your interest as well as theirs. Thank you.

Next is Reverend Dr. Rose Cornelius. Good evening, esteemed council members. I'm Reverend Dr. Rose Cornelius. I formerly served as past president of the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce. I've served as the development director at Neighbor Up, formerly known as Dorcas Ministries. I'm the founding co-chair and currently serve on the strategy team of ONE Wake. ONE Wake is a non-partisan, multi-racial, multi-issue group of religious congregations, associations, and other nonprofits in the Wake County area with membership totaling in excess of 50,000 households. ONE Wake has been supportive of affordable housing because that is the number one issue of our members. During my time at Neighbor Up, I became acutely aware of the lack of affordable housing in the Triangle. Every year, the nonprofit supports a lot of seniors with food and money for rent and medical expenses. If you rely solely on Social Security, your Social Security check does not cover all your expenses each month. And that's the reason why I'm here to support Fairview Spring, a housing project that will provide 60 units of affordable housing for people 55 years or older. A couple of months ago, I met a 73-year-old homeless woman who lives in her car. Her name is Sylvia. I asked her to tell me about her journey into homelessness. She said her finances became depleted after she had taken care of her mother and her aunt, when she was an only child. She discovered she just simply could not afford to pay rent. So, she bought a used minivan and has lived in it for the past several years. She said, "Reverend Rose, there's a lot of seniors out here in cars in this community." And she told me that people probably think it's worse to live in a car in the winter months, but in reality, it's the summer months because it can be

dangerous to let your windows down to let in some fresh air. She came to me for help to find a safe place to park because, unless you've noticed it or not, every parking lot has towing signs up, and they will simply tow you without even saying anything to you. I don't need to remind you the average cost of rent in the Triangle, closing in on $2,000 a month. Too many of our neighbors simply cannot afford that. Please remember people like Sylvia when you deliberate on Fairview Spring. And I encourage you to include funding and incentives and provision for other affordable housing projects in Morrisville. Thank you. Dr. Cornelius, if you could please provide your residential address, we'd appreciate it. Yes, 1016 Manchaca Loop, Apex. Thank you. Next is Steve Rao. Good evening, council. My car drove its way back to here today from Raleigh, coming back from work. But first of all, I want to It's great to be in the best place to live, work, and play in the country, the state of North Carolina, the country, the town of Morrisville. And I must say the council looks very good from down here. So, you all are doing a great job. Having sat on that seat for 14 years, I know that no decision is easy. So, I'm not here to change but anything on the agenda. Just to give two thank yous and just to say that I took a little time off and it's great to be back. Uh first of all, I want to thank all of our police officers um here in Morrisville, many of whom I've served with. Um and along with um police officers around the county, in the state, and country cuz it is National Police Appreciation Week. And we're very grateful for their dedicated service. The second is I want to um congratulate Satish Garimella, Council Member Garimella. Uh last week, he was sworn in

as the first vice chair of the North Carolina League of Municipalities, the largest organization that lobbies for all cities in the state, which means a year from now he'll be the first Asian-American president. And it is Asian-American Heritage Month. I think this is a great achievement for not only him and his family, but for the town of Morrisville, but also to show how far we've come. And as I look at the the the folks on the dais tonight, I see Council Member Patel. And I was thinking on the way over here that we're still today the only municipality probably in Wake County of the state with two Hindus and two Indian-Americans, Asian-Americans on the council. This should be something very proud of in Mooresville that we can showcase. And so, it just makes me very proud uh to come here today uh to talk to you about that. Um my speech is over, and so they're like, "Oh my god, Steve Ralls still has the mic with another minute 24." But, um I just want to say that um I'm very proud of each and every one of you. Um I think that Mooresville is just such a great place. Anywhere I go now as a resident uh people are always saying, "Mooresville, Mooresville, Mooresville." And um since it is tennis appreciation week, uh I'm going to probably not watch the meeting till like whenever you all are meeting, but I'll be playing some tennis tonight. But, um I will be back from time to time uh just cuz unless many of you you guys have been like my family for 14 years. Mayor, it's great to see you and council. Keep up the great work. Keep up making the decisions to build this great town. Everyone in Wake County is very proud of the great work that all of us are doing together. I've always called it the miracle of Mooresville, and I really think it is. A place where people from all over the world can come and live here and play, and we're building just such remarkable things. Um and I was honored to be a part of it and looking forward now to watching from my home or from down here. Thank you. Have a great night. Let's get it done. Go Canes. Thank you. Next is Brian Cook.

I'm Brian Cook. I live at 109 Grassy Drive. Uh just want to uh say thank you to the town council for having the the vision and the fortitude with the uh town center. Um it was a a long project, a long time coming, but um a lot of us are excited um for it to progress and to finally be done in the next few years. Um I'm here to talk about the the Maple Pew House. Um I just think it'd be a a good addition to the new town center. Uh it for either community uh meet gathering place or events. Uh I think it's got a great location. Uh you know, the entrance to Town Hall Drive. And I just want to let the town know I think uh you know, some the the same vision and fortitude that you put into the town center uh should be redirected some towards the Maple Pew House. Thank you. That is the end of our signed up speakers. We do have one online comment. Is it appropriate to read it if it's on time? Okay. This comment is respectfully submitted on behalf of the Villas at Sunset Homeowners Association. Morrisville Town Council, the Villas at Sunset Homeowners Association submits this letter in collective and firm opposition to rezoning application REZ 26-20. We represent the residents most directly impacted by this proposal, and we are united in our position. This project in its current form is unacceptable. We are not asking the council to kill this development. We are demanding that it be sent back through for a thorough redesign before any further consideration is given. A traffic crisis that cannot be ignored. Cheverly Road is already at or near capacity during peak evening hours. Adding a 60-unit development without any corresponding road infrastructure improvements is not a planning decision. It is deferred liability. The proposed

left turn entry on Assumption Avenue, absent a dedicated turn lane or signal mitigation, will introduce dangerous conflict points directly at our community's doorstep. This council has an obligation to residents to ensure that new development does not degrade the safety of existing streets. Rezoning 2620 as submitted fails that obligation. Sunset Avenue cannot bear this burden. Sunset Avenue runs through the heart of our community. It is a residential street, not a commercial corridor, and it was never intended to absorb the traffic load of a 60-unit senior facility, including staff, vendors, delivery vehicles, and emergency services. Approving primary access through this road will fundamentally alter the character and safety of our neighborhood, noise that cannot be undone. The applicant must demonstrate viable access solution before this project advances. The parking plan is insufficient and the consequences will fall directly on our community. 60 parking spaces for 60 units does not account for the operational reality of a staffed residential facility. The shortfall is not hypothetical, it is predictable. When residents, staff, and visitors cannot find on-site parking, the overflow will not stay on public streets alone. The Villas at Sunset's designated private parking lots are in close proximity to this development, and we have every reason to expect they will become overflow parking for a project that failed to plan adequately for its own demand. Our residents pay for and depend on those spaces. It is unacceptable for this HOA to bear bear the consequences of the applicant's insufficient parking design. The council must require a parking plan that fully contains demand on-site before before this application advances. This density does not belong on this site. The scale of this project, three stories, 60 units, is disproportionate to the parcel, the surrounding road network, and the capacity of local utilities and public transportation. Density must be earned through adequate infrastructure. Nothing in this application demonstrates that the surrounding area can support this level of intensity. The council should require credible infrastructure analysis before this project moves forward. This project is incompatible with the surrounding community. The Villas at Sunset and the broader neighborhood are single-family residential in character. A large-scale multi-family structure without adequate buffering, setback, or

transition design is an intrusion, not an addition. Responsible land use planning requires that new development respect the fabric that already exists. This proposal does not meet that standard. This is not what town center commercial zoning was intended for. Town center commercial zoning is meant to produce mixed use development that benefits the broader public. What has been submitted here and you have the rest of that page yourself. Yes, we do. Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone who's spoken. If anyone in the audience who did not sign up and would like to address the council, please come forward to the microphone stand, state your name and residential address and you'll have up to 3 minutes to share your comments. Was anyone else wanting to speak on any subject? Okay. Thank you very much. And as a reminder, we encourage the submission of written comments as they offer a valuable way for community members to share their feedback. As we just heard that one then, to submit a written comment, please email publicinput@morrisvilleNC.gov. Thank you very much for your comments tonight. At this time, we are moving on to item 10, which is presentations. We now invite Town Manager Brandon Zuidema to the podium for a recommended FY27 budget presentation and discussion. Town Manager. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh pleasure to be here tonight to present to you the recommended FY2027 annual budget, excuse me, operating budget and CIP. Uh as you know, this uh process started with staff last fall, quite honestly. Uh so, we're we're on pretty much a 12-month budget cycle now. We're always talking about preparing for, implementing, or evaluating budget. So, this started with staff uh towards the end of last calendar year, looking at what we were already accomplishing in FY26, what had been uh brought forward from previous years, and then what were the potential interests and needs going

into the FY27 uh fiscal year. Once that was accomplished, we started our first conversation with you at the abbreviated council retreat due to a little bit of a weather challenge there that weekend, but we got some good conversation started. We've subsequently been back to you on three different occasions to have conversations about where are we in terms of expenditures that are requested or or required for the year, where are we with potential revenues, what are some of the impacts on those things. And then April 30th, I thought we had a very very good conversation about sort of summing that all up with you and getting some really good feedback and insights from you as to what you were willing to consider in terms of creating some capacity for this year and also talking about some of the challenges for not only FY 27, but also FY 28. So tonight we'll talk about really the next 3 years with you. Again, we're never just looking at one year. We're always trying to make sure that we're planning ahead for what we know is coming, what we suspect is coming in order to continue to provide quality services to our community. So tonight, I'm going to walk you through Let me find my mouse here. Again, first thing we want to do before we get into any new budget is review the success that we believe the town has had. That's your success, the community's success, staff's success in implementing the investment that was made through the FY 26 budget. We'll then move into a little more formal review of how this budget review process has come together. We'll give you a detailed overview of the recommended operating budget for FY 27. We'll touch briefly on capital budget highlights on the CIP. Again, we did not do a full review of that this year. We've done a little tweaking with that. We'll share a little bit of that with you. We also want to talk a little bit about some of the key factors looking ahead. Some of what we talk about that may be challenges for FY27, you will see those again in FY28, but we also have some

opportunities. So, it's not it's not all of concern. And then we'll talk about where do we go from tonight. So, when you look at the FY26 budget, the current budget that we're in until the end of June, this year we started to see the significant impact of property reevaluation appeal. So, everybody that is a Wake County resident knows that we had a fairly significant reevaluation that impacted FY25. And as a result of that significant growth, there were astronomically more appeals that occurred from Mooresville, but also across the county. And so, what we found is that over the course of FY26, we've been impacted by the loss of approximately a million dollars in revenue resulting from successful appeals through the state's board. Fortunately, with that we balanced that because as we always have and will continue to, we budgeted very conservatively in other areas. So, the sales tax growth was much more significant than anticipated, so that helped up helped to make up some of that. Again, we also had just other areas where we had budgeted conservatively and were able to work to be creative in maximizing some other revenues to balance that out. We did in FY26 add new recurring costs that was about three and a half million dollars. That included some staff positions and also some other programming and facility needs that will continue. This year we've been very very assertive in grants. So, we have and this says three, I would actually update that to we've been awarded about 3.4 million dollars in grants to date. And and that really is across the board. So, that if you look at the list of those, you would see that that is in transportation and sustainability, the town center, the police department, the fire department, uh a wide-ranging there. And and the

another piece of that that I think is worth mentioning is that within that, if you exclude the $2 million that we got for Church Street Park, cuz that's a big big piece of that through the Wake County hospitality tax, you know, that leaves you with about a million four 31 690 in grant money. And our match was $129,000 or 9% of that. So, um very I think creative work in terms of identifying grants that don't have huge matches uh to really maximize the dollars that are available in FY 26. So, um certainly we're appreciative of our staff that did all that work hunting those down for us. Uh you did make future investment, almost $3.8 million went into reserves in FY 26. Um and you're going to see continue to see the benefit of that in future years to come. Uh and then you know, we do have economic development continuing to be a positive influence on the community. Uh so, if you go just up the street, uh as someone already mentioned, the town center has kicked off. So, uh beginning in FY 20, probably FY 28, we'll start to see some economic impact from that uh in terms of what will go on there. And then we have both Spark and Pathway and and some other development that's going on, but those are certainly the two largest out on the current Parkway extension uh that we do estimate will bring meaningful additional revenue to the town over the next uh few years. We'll talk a little bit more about that uh as we go. So, highlighting some of those 26 successes, uh our first dog park opened. Uh so, you can walk right across the street to that. Already mentioned town center. Uh the public works facility, again, very complimentary of our staff that did some work there to identify an alternate to a new facility. Uh so, we're preserving about $10 million in capital project or debt capacity. Uh and so, that project will kick off into construction this fall, and public works wound up with a new to them uh facility on International Drive. Again, already mentioned that we have

the $2 million in hospitality tax award that is supporting bringing new lighting uh to the Church Street Park cricket field. We'll also support uh drainage upgrades that will start this fall. And then, uh we were able to purchase the former chamber building just on our campus here. So, that not only gives us the benefit of bringing more staff back to the campus to more regularly interact, but we also now own the building instead of just leasing and not really seeing anything for that investment. So, we're very appreciative of your willingness to support that as well. Again, already talked a bit about grant funding. Uh this is to show you some of that growth. FY24, we received about $276,000 in grants. FY25, $700,000. FY26, we're already at $3.4 million in awarded grant money. Uh and again, as I mentioned, really across the board, town center, greenways, uh Church Street Park, technology, intersection, sidewalks. Really wide-ranging support there. Uh and we're also working currently on a Safe Streets for All grant. And again, you um helped us be proactive in that sense because you had to participate in that program early on to be eligible to apply for those money. So, we have done that. Uh and this is uh primarily related to the Morrisville Parkway access. That's going to be we estimate about a $13 million project, and we're applying for about 10 and 1/2 million dollars in grant funding to support that project. So, again, uh a relatively minimal match on our part assuming that that grant is awarded, which we're optimistic of. Uh other core services, again, you were fortunate to let fortunate enough to let us add some positions in FY26. One of those was an HR analyst. We've already seen significant positive impact in terms of our retention and recruitment. We're more consistent. We're providing better support to our departments to do that. Uh at the bottom, you also approved an assistant fire marshal. So, we have really expanded community education and fire prevention efforts because that's what a person can do when they have that as their responsibility.

On the right-hand side, uh you also approved a communications specialist. That was an outgrowth from a fellow that we're able to work with from Leeper and See. And so, the primary uh result coming out of that is that the majority of our publications are now coming out in five languages. Uh so, really a concerted effort to make sure that we are uh effectively engaging with our community uh regardless of what their preferred language is. And then, of course, strengthening our digital environment. Um can't say enough about Rick Ralph and the IT team and what they do to keep us safe from a technology standpoint. Um so, uh last week, we actually all got an invite to uh bring our kids to work on a Sunday. Um so, that was not a legitimate email and I think most of us hopefully recognized that was not an email uh and we're able to question that and not click on that. So, those are those are happening all the time um because if Arteta Arteta our IT department doesn't do that, others will if they can get in. Fortunately, they can't, but again, wanting to make sure that our folks are um staying up with the technology and the dangers that are out there. Uh we have launched our first rental assistance program. Again, Josh and Michelle are here tonight. Uh Brittany, a lot of work that's gone into that. Uh we are recruiting the first applicants for that now. Uh continue to advance public art. We've expanded Smart Show capacity and you'll see more of that expansion in FY '27. Uh we continue with sustainability. Um our most obvious approach is through solar. So, there's now solar on the connector building on this campus and we are preparing to install solar at MAFC including our first parking lot solar canopy. So, we will hopefully have that completed soon. We are once again sort of at the mercy of the federal government to get some things cleared up there. And then lastly the sponsorship program. So, we partnered with a group called superlative and we actually you will hear on Thursday night about an update to that sponsorship policy, but that

group is working now and we anticipate bringing you some of those first opportunities as early as this summer. And again, that's revenue that's not anticipated, but will give you a little bit more flexibility, a little bit more capacity to do things both operationally and potentially with capital over time. Engaging connections again on the right hand side you see we added that seventh goal organizational resiliency to the strategic plan. That's the first addition since that plan was adopted nine years ago and really again speaks to your commitment, staff's commitment to make sure that we're not just worrying about getting through today, tomorrow or this year. That we're looking to the future, that we are making and we're helping you ideally make good decisions about what's going to impact us now, but what what's the impact of that down the road. We've been looking at that in the context of adding positions. What does that mean? Council members Greg and Johnson is very good of reminding us about if you build something, you also have costs that come with that. So, we're doing a good job I think of planning for that and making sure that we can budget for that as well. And then we relaunched the town website. So, kudos to Aaron Hudson and her team in communications and we now have Morris the cricket search engine that everyone can jump onto the website and I think have a much easier time finding some of that information. And then the other thing that we're really expanding on is our our dashboard. This is just a quick look if anyone has not visited that certainly particularly our residents encourage you to do so. It does align with our strategic plan, but you can find a ton of good information and data that you can manipulate and test and and play with on the website there to visit that as well. Uh elevating our brand, and this is, you know, we don't do anything to have this happen, but it's always nice, I think, for our residents to be able to see that we are doing a lot of the right things. And we've been recognized that way through the years. So, we have received Tree City USA designation. That has been

a little bit of time in the works, and we've taken some very specific steps along the way. Uh really pleased to share that this year we have planted almost 1,700 native plants, including 40 canopy trees. If you look at the past years, so 1,700 this year, 625, 200 Excuse me, 450 in 2024. So, significant increase. We expect that to continue. Really focused on our tree canopy and maintaining our designation as a tree city. Uh we are again a finalist for All-America City. So, we're only 5 years out from that recognition, but we're excited to again be a part of that process. So, we are in the process of selecting a team to head to Denver at the end of June to present ourselves there as a candidate, and ideally we'll be recognized again as an All-America City. Uh niche.com niche.com selected us the second place best place to live in North Carolina. We're also from WalletHub the 24th best small town to start a business in the nation for 2026. So, again, a lot of kudos goes out to to Tiffany, and certainly to Amelia, as well as the collaborative relationship with the chamber. Um we were one of two finalists for the National League of Cities 2026 City Cultural Diversity Awards. Extremely proud of that, particularly given the diversity of our community. So, we were able to recognize that. Uh so, Aaron and the mayor and others were in Washington to receive that. And then, again, speaking to our cybersecurity and our strength in that area, we were selected to host an international IT leadership delegation that came here to us to learn from Rick and his team about cybersecurity and the Internet of Things. So, that's a quick summary. And And I would say that does by no means cover all the successes that we've seen in 2026, uh but a lot of that relates directly back to things that you approved in the budget to let us to

continue and to expand good work. So, I think a lot going on there uh for our relatively still small town. So, with that, we will jump into the recommended FY 2027 budget. So, again, I'll make that formal presentation now, um and then we will have a public hearing on May 26th. Uh there's also other opportunities for outreach. Um there is an opportunity tomorrow at the Morrisville Senior Center tomorrow morning at 8:30. Uh we'll be our staff will be at MAFC on Friday from 11:00 to 1:00, also at the Senior Center Friday from 11:00 to 12:00. We will also hold two um budget open houses here at Town Hall before the last two meetings of the month. So, Tuesday, May 26th from 4:30 to 5:30 and also Tuesday, May 28th from 4:30 to 5:30. And then, our team will also be at Music in the Park on June 5th to again continue to hear feedback before you potentially adopt on June 9th. So, as we look at 2027, um any budget year is going to have opportunities and challenges. And then, this year is certainly a year of opportunities and challenges. On the opportunities side, you know, we are still actively pursuing making sure that we are aware of and implement the community's perspective and their interest and their priorities and that's aligned to your priorities and also to the strategic plan goals. Um, we do, as I mentioned, have tax base growth, which is good. Uh, so that will continue to support us moving forward. Um, again, Byron and his team and Genie certainly approached this um, budget conservatively, even borderline ultra conservatively given what is going on um, with the budget and with revenues. We continue to look for creative solutions to advance the work. So, it's not always just ask for more. Uh, you know, a couple examples of that is our communications department has recently done a realignment and what would have

been asked for a website specialist instead was managed within the existing staff. They reorganized, reassigned some duties and were able to do that with existing staff. And then again, this is 27's the third year in a row that we've been able to get a lead for NC fellow uh, for FY 27. It will be in the IT department supporting data and GIS work. Um, so that's been a request for several years from IT. So, instead of paying for a full-time position, uh, we pay about $30,000 to get that full-time support for 10 months of the year. Uh, so we're we're happy that that has occurred and then I've already spoken to the opportunities with sponsorships. So, the challenges um, really start and almost end with the reval and with property tax. So, as I mentioned in FY 25, there was a revaluation. Um, so we this year um, have essentially not received a million dollars in property tax revenue that we thought we would receive and believe it or not, even though that um, reval actually occurred in 24 and impacted FY 25, there are still appeals pending at the state 2 years later. Um, as of today, we have 22 appeals from commercial properties, and if those were all to be approved, um, we would not receive another $500,000 in revenue. So, in our conversation on April 30th, we shared that with you. We talked about that with you, and we elected not to invest that $500,000 for FY27, not knowing if it was coming or not. So, there is some chance that we could see some of that revenue. Uh, we'll know that better after January when we anticipate that these, uh, appeals will finally be closed out before Wake County gets ready to start its next revaluation, uh, in January. Some of that work is is going to start in the fall, but those results will come out early next year. Uh, the other challenge there is also with the revaluation. Um, so, there is some discussion {slash} concern that because of how significant it was for

FY25, uh, that the reval that would come out and impact, uh, in FY28 could actually, um, see values hold steady, could see them decrease a little bit. So, doesn't impact 27 right now, but we want to be prepared for that, um, because that is a potential impact in FY28. So, that is certainly on our mind. Uh, related to that, some of our natural occurring revenue growth has slowed. Um, pre-COVID, we were pretty consistently 5-6% in natural growth. Um, obviously, that slowed during COVID, um, but even with COVID, it was at about 5.8% revenue natural growth, and right now for FY27, uh, we are potentially expecting 0.5% growth, natural revenue growth, um, from a variety of reasons. So, that's also, um, something that is very much in in our minds and in our budgeting approach. And again, we have expanding service investment expectations. So, the community has, um, come to expect that we provide the quality of life that we do, that we provide the quality of services we do, uh and none of that gets any cheaper over time. Uh we're continuing to balance, you know, both capital and operational needs. So, you I think have had good foresight in establishing your reserves and making sure that we maintain that capacity to build and to do things. Um but the the tighter the revenue gets, the more difficult that becomes and the more challenging it is to sometimes have to balance which one we're going to necessarily focus on. Uh and then lastly, just existing obligations versus new community-based programming. Uh there's always ask for more or new or different, um but we are certainly approaching, if not at the point where new may mean a discussion of what do we stop? And we had a little bit of that conversation as a part of the April 30th work session. You'll see a little bit in this budget. So, again, the process overview alluded to this earlier. We started a council retreat. Uh we also immediately began

outreach uh to the community to gain their perspective and their insights. Uh worked with uh Genie led you through a soar budget exercise to identify your eight priorities for this budget. Uh we also provided uh or produced critical feedback on acceptable approaches for that capacity. And we did that April 30th primarily. Uh we prepared some scenario options for you to gain that insight and ensure that what I ultimately recommended in this budget uh aligned with your shared priorities and our strategic goals. Uh so, this has been challenging, um but I also think it's been a very thoughtful process. None of this occurred easily, um but there was a lot of work by council um amongst yourselves and with us in in several sessions, uh and I can tell you that our staff has put an incredible amount of time into this process to make sure that we're bringing you uh the best possible we budget that we can given the totality of the circumstances. Uh not going to certainly read all of this to you. I I don't think you want that. I'm not sure the folks in the audience want that, but I do want to hit some highlights. So, what this slide shows is it's aligning our seven strategic goals uh with the eight budget priorities that you've identified. So, if you look, for example, to sustainability and environment focus, that aligns with sustainable livable community growth. Uh you know, we continue to leverage our cutting-edge ideas. We're taking advantage of technology. Uh we're trying to be sustainable by continuing to add solar and use EV and provide chargers and that sort of thing. Uh if you look down to safe community, uh again, ensuring a strong emergency responsiveness obviously aligns with public safety readiness, and you will see that commitment in this recommended budget to make sure that you we are providing support primarily to the police and fire departments. Uh engage inclusive community aligns with innovative connections. Uh you see that we are talking a lot about entrepreneurship and innovation programs. Uh we actually have a meeting

coming up where we're going to be talking this thing about the space that we have agreed to lease at the town center and what that might be in the context of a shared project uh for innovation and incubator. So, we'll be back to you with more about that. Uh on the right-hand side, you'll see at the top uh resilient fiscal management really, really to um organizational resiliency. Uh maintaining our triple-A bond rating has been really important for us. So, we just did a borrowing uh that you approved for the second part of the public works facility, the actual construction and upfit of it, uh and we borrowed it 4.02%. Um and so, these days that's a really, really good number to be able to achieve. Um we're very competitive in that regard. And so, not only is that good for this borrowing, but it's also good for your CIP and your debt model because all the borrowing that's anticipated in there is anticipated at 5%. Again, very conservative. So, we just picked up essentially 0.98% of capacity in your capital project program, your capital improvement plan, and your debt capacity. Uh moving down there, optimization of operations. Again, we continue to grow into artificial intelligence, uh saving staff time, making sure that we are taking advantage of that. Um our team has been doing training for all of our staff, and some of our staff that have gotten created are doing some of that training as well. Um so, it's not just a here's how AI works, but look what I did. And you might be able to do the same thing. And that's always a much better lesson than listen to me talk to you of you for an hour through a PowerPoint, but let's get hands-on and see what it can do. Uh building our future, again, activating town center has uh has been a long time coming. And so, we're excited that is underway. And then, certainly, we continue to focus on pedestrian and vehicle safety. Also, I just want to share with you the information we have to date in terms of the community perspective. Um I will tell you that that bottom number on the budget outreach survey uh has grown to

64. Um nine more than we had, so that's good. Um and there was also some of that outreach was going on. I think actually today. So, we'll have some more results after today's feedback, and there are several more opportunities for that to come. But you will see that there are seven um community perspective focuses up here, and they don't vary dramatically from what you've identified as your priorities. They certainly don't vary away from the strategic plan. Public safety is not a surprise to anyone. Uh traffic and roadway improvements. I think we all acknowledge that there's efforts to be made there. Uh growth and sustainability. Existing assets. Certainly making useful life of the facilities that we do have. Uh community spaces, park programming, um safe connections for walkability, and then again sound fiscal management and I believe that we consistently demonstrate that for you. So, base budget, um, there are always some impacts, um, in terms of revenue and impacts in terms of expenditure. I'll start on the left with the revenue impacts. Again, not going to read each one of these to you, but hit some highlights. Uh, so changes in land use and zoning regulations, again, a good example of that is TOD where we are sort of currently locked down because of Senate Bill 382, um, so that we have ultimately zero control over right now. We are advocating for that to change. My understanding is that there is work in the legislation to try to address that, but today we can't proceed with TOD because of one limitations on down zoning. Uh, and then also the pace of real estate development and construction cycles obviously impact what's going on in town, impact what that development looks like, what the fees look like, and ultimately what that property tax revenue looks like. Uh, again, but largely out of our capital. We've done what we can. Uh, so for example, with the Novartis announcement recently that they're adding a second phase, again, that is certainly partly on them, but that's also partly on our team. That's partly on Michelle and her team, uh, and emphasizing speed to market. That's part

of why you see a request for a planner in this budget and certainly with Tiffany and the amazing work that she is doing and being out there and being proactive in a way that we haven't been for a very long time. Uh, so the fact that we were able to secure Novartis over a community like Dallas, Texas, um, speaks a lot to our team and and again, that didn't just happen. That was a lot of work by both of those departments to get that done. On the right-hand side, um, expenditure impacts, um, you know, there are always new Well, not always. There are new debt commitments anytime that we borrow money, we certainly have to pay that back. So, you'll see there's about $189,000 of additional debt that we'll be paying this starting this year. Uh, yearly inflation adjustments for not just service agreements, but other things that we do. Um, interestingly, I thought that um, Councilmember Johnson made this point well the other night that, you know, yes, there are rising prices for each one of us in our households, right? Nothing gets any cheaper, um, but nothing gets any cheaper for the town. So, it just is more expensive to do the same thing in a lot of ways, and I just don't want us to lose sight of that, um, because that's part of where the new revenues have to go is to maintain what we're doing. Uh, and then again, we want to make sure that we're valuing our current employees. You have always been crystal clear about that for the entire time that I've been a part of this organization, and so we're going to show you as we go through this that we are again going to do that and make sure that we are treating our employees fairly, um, and giving them as many benefits as we can with the resources that we have. So, this slide is is a little about um, current realities. So, sort of live in the now, recognize what's going on, but also some of the strategies, um, that we're applying to that. Again, I'm certainly not going to read all this to you, um, but you know, on the left-hand side, again, we're seeing significant one-time and in some cases recurring impacts from tax base and our ad valorem revenue, which we actually anticipate to go down slightly in 2027. And then limited authority to raise revenues. Um, you know, we don't have a lot of ability to

make up revenues when the money is not there with ad valorem or sales tax. Again, that's a Dillon Rule state. So, the only authority that you have that we have is what the legislature gives us. And we don't have a lot of levers to turn in terms of generating new revenue. So, that's always a challenge. Um, deferring equipment and facility maintenance costs, you know, we continue to do that. We're doing that this year, um, because of some of those resource limitations. Um, economic development and built environment pressures, um, you know, that's a a good thing for us that there's still a lot of development to come. Um, you know, we have certainly talked about starting to approach build-out, but we've got significant development that can still occur. Um, we still have some space at at Pathway. There's some other large slots of property at at different places around the town. So, we'll still see opportunities there, and we'll still start to see more redevelopment that that could also benefit the town moving forward. Uh, so on the right-hand side, you know, what are some of the strategies that we're taking to um address these realities? Uh, on the first, reorganizing, consolidating similar work. I shared a little bit of that with the comms department and others. Uh, adding staffing resources to address our highest needs. So, this budget does that. This recommended budget includes three positions in the fire department to make sure that we are consistently putting apparatus out with four firefighters on that. Um, it also adds three positions in the police department to address call volume and Lakewood need and also the opening high school where we want to have an SRO. And that includes town center positions cuz you don't open an amazing facility without the folks to program that and take care of that. Uh, again, we tried to be creative this year in how we generate some of that capacity. Uh, as an example, the team dug in and identified in our other post-employment benefits or OPEB, we'd actually over funded that based on what we've been putting into it. So, we have some capacity there that we don't have to fund that for at least two, potentially three years. So, that creates some of that capacity to do

other things with. Um, and then, you know, reducing some service levels where practical. We talked about that. And we're going to look at some things that we may not do quite as much of litter pick up. We may not do quite the same level of landscaping as just two examples of trying to balance where that capacity is best needed. On the right-hand side there, leveraging sales tax growth. Again, we're still budgeting conservatively, um, but there is definitely sales tax growth that we're going to rely on this year. Uh, we have the the sponsorship potential coming. And then again, I think important to highlight for the community that this budget does not recommend a tax increase. Uh we recommend staying at 35 cents and making the most uh that we can with those available revenues. So, I mentioned that we don't just look at this year, we look beyond. So, again, some highlights on here uh for FY27, you know, some hard decisions have been made. So, for example, we're deferring some of our fleet replacements. That's never a great thing to do, but again, we had to make some hard decisions uh to get to a recommended balanced budget. Um we are doing our best to preserve fund balance. Uh we want to make sure that that stays as strong as it can going forward. Uh we are still funding reserves, but not as fully as we have in the past for probably the next 2 years um while we work through the situation we're in with the property tax. Uh in the future, you know, there are some things that are going to be added. I mentioned that the space at Town Center, that's anticipated to be a $100,000 annual lease. That may reduce depending on this partnership that we're working on. Um but right now, we have to plan for that in FY28. Uh we now have a a wonderful or will have a new wonderful public works facility. We have the other half of that building that they did not need to use, that's 25,000 square feet that could be very useful to the town, but that's not going to upfit itself. So, we're going to have to identify some funds and what to best do with that potentially in the future. That's not today, tomorrow, but it it's not far off. Uh if we're making smart use of our resources,

you know, under sustainable fiscal growth, again, we don't know necessarily what the impact of the uh revaluation in 28 will be, but we also balance some of that with the buildout um of the Go District and seeing what's going on again on the Kremlin Parkway. Uh sponsorship will hopefully assist, and uh we always have uh the possibility of circling back in the future to a solid waste via S1 potential capacity uh opportunity. And that as we finish that out in FY28, again, right now we've got two major plans being looked at, the comprehensive transportation plan, as well as the parks and rec master plan, and those will make recommendations that will need investment. So we want to keep that in mind. And then again, 2029, we will probably be planning for a bond referendum. Right now that is likely to be to do the construction of fire station two as it moves from Chapel Hill Road out to Paramount Parkway. And then after that, we'll have additional capacity through bonds by FY31 that will be having further conversation about where that might be invested and what that might look like. So getting into some of the numbers then for you, this is the recommended budget at a glance. So on the new investment on the left-hand side, again, our base budget expenditures are going up about $3 million to 54.18678. Again, based on our collaborative work at the April 30th work session, we identified will not be invested that otherwise would have been that'll be used for other capacity. We are putting $2.4 million into the capital reserves. We're making about 1.6, 1.7 million dollars in new community investments. We're spending investing about $1.5 million in existing staff, and then we are adding 10 new positions that totals out at just over a million dollars. And again, that is um five full-year positions, so that is

the three firefighters are full year, the planner is full year, and then an IT position that is going to be fully funded by an agreement with Southern Pines Regional Council. And then you have four half-year positions that will be the police patrol officer, the police detective, as well as the two positions for town center, one in parks and one in public works. And then the quarter year position is a school resource officer. We just need to hire them by April to let them get trained before they would move to Mooresville High School in the fall. So, that totals out at $60.4 million, actually a reduction from this year's budget. I'll show you those numbers in a moment. On the right hand side, where that revenue is coming from, our base revenues are 58462. Uh again, out of that we are going to hold the 500,000 out of concern that additional appeals would be granted. Uh so, we're going to hold on to that. That's also part of looking at FY28, where we think it could be equally or more challenging from a revenue standpoint. So, that's a little bit of a safeguard built in there for that. Uh we're using about $312,000 in reserves. Uh we have some new program revenues uh that total out of about $705,000. That's um some grant funding. So, a good portion of that is the Smart Shield grant funding that we received. Uh there's also the money in there that's going to fund the IT position from Central Pines. Uh there's some EV uh grant or revenues that have come out of that, some asset forfeiture out of the police department, and then a little bit of revenue from expanding some programming uh at MAFC. And then lastly, we we're going to use about 2.4% of uh fund balance, $1.4 million. That is up just slightly from last year, um but it had started higher and we we dialed that back after the conversation on the 30th um to try to be as conservative there as can we can. So, again, the the magic there is that those two numbers match. So, we have recommended a balanced budget uh for the town. This is just a quick fact sheet um for you to take a look at. Uh again, sort of

show you where we are with major revenues. Um shows you what our new base budget is at $57 million. Uh tax rate stays steady, no change there. Um it stays at 35 cents per $100 valuation. Uh our commercial residential is still strong, slightly towards commercial. That's good for us most times. Right now, it's not as good because of the appeals, quite honestly, but generally that's a solid um uh balance there to have. Running across the bottom, just the overall revenue there. Um one thing I think is worth noting is the new investments this year are 47% less than last year. So, we are doing less um because of our total um fiscal picture. Uh the penny, uh as you can see, this I think is one of the most dramatic um statements of what the revenues look like. You know, if you go back to pre-revaluation, uh we were at 685, we jumped to 950 in FY 25, and then to 970 uh for this year, and we jump only $1,000 for FY 27. And then lastly, assessed value again, uh jumped significantly after the reval, but it's really not grown in a meaningful way since then. We'll break down of where our revenues are coming from, both for you and the community to be able to see. Um again, ad valorem uh it we're anticipating going down about 4 and 1/2%. We are budgeting for sales tax to grow for about 7%. Between the two of those, that is more than 3/4 of our revenue. Uh and again, uh right now, we have some control over property tax, but that could change based on some of the work that's being done in the house. Um so, that that is our major revenue sources. Um not going to read the rest of these to you. You can certainly look through those. Uh you know, just a couple of quick notes, the restricted goes up a bit, and that's because we got some additional funds through the fire tax, through the shared uh where our fire department covers things out in Wake

County unincorporated, and then an increase in smart shuttle funding. Uh if you look at the transfers, they go down dramatically because we transferred in money for the fire apparatus in 26. That was about 2.4 million dollars that's not transferring in this year as we don't have to buy a fire truck this year fortunately. So overall the again at the bottom you see that this year was 62.6 next year will be 60.4 we're reducing our general fund in this recommendation by 3.6%. The flip side of that the expenditures is to remind you and to let the community know again where the money's go where the investment is made general government and that's sort of the the everybody else category if you would development services is engineering inspections planning they're going up a bit and that is primarily because of the smart shuttle funding and the addition of a planner. The public works and facility management actually goes down a bit that's in part because we are not funding the street supplement we're also not funding fleet fully this year so that those numbers go down. Public safety goes down a little bit but part of that is because the fire apparatus isn't there we're adding other things that sort of balance that out so there is additional investment in public safety this year it just doesn't necessarily look like it from here. And then transfers out stay generally the same so again reducing our expenditures down to 60.4 about a 3.6 reduction overall. So as we talked this year we had about 8.6 million dollars in funding requests that came through I would tell you that all 8.6 of those had legitimate justification for them. So what I did with staff is we do a first sort of review of that and we take out some things that we just recognize based on where we believe we are with revenues and capacity that we just know we're not going to be prioritized high enough to even have a conversation with

you about them. So from that we brought you this list of requests that we would recommend we attempt to fund. And so, what you see on there is that there are some things in blue that we did not get to because we don't have the capacity for that. There are some things in pink where we funded a portion of what was asked for, and then there's portions in green where we funded what was asked for. Um so, running down that funding just very quickly, um $15,000 for the fire department. That's the tablets that relate to on-scene firefighter safety. We're doing an alarm system upgrade, uh some training for the police department and Taser replacements. Again, the Tasers are just a basic tool. Um and if you're going to have a fire department, you provide them the basic tools. If you're going to have a police department, you provide them the basic tools. Today, Taser is just part of that basic tool. Um we are doing a mower for Church Street Park to manage better the cricket field. Uh we unfortunately are only doing $180,000 out of the $500 requested for fleet. Uh that means we'll do two vehicles in public safety instead of five. And so, we'll be pushing three uh potentially to another year. Uh we have some requests for some EV mowers and building repairs uh that are not funded. We are doing pedestrian bridge repairs to make sure that our greenways are safe. Uh we are not doing the building automation system for this building yet. Uh and again, we are doing positions. Some of those are not for full year as requested, but some of that's intentional and and tactical in the sense that particularly with the police officers where we have to purchase a vehicle because we have a take-home program. So, if we fund the position for half a year and purchase the vehicle, it basically flushes out for the following year, so it's not um any more or less expensive cuz we'll pay the full year's salary, but we don't have to pay for the vehicle again. Um so, that washes out pretty well. On the right hand side was the original sort of here's what we have to do um or what we can do with some other I fund identified funding

sources. Um, so again, putting 2.4 into reserves, that is no money into land acquisition reserve, and that's, uh, only $471,000 into the transportation reserve. Uh, we're 1.56 for staff benefits. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Uh, we are putting $144,000 in from our own health care reserve. That will ensure that our staff does not have to pay for any health care insurance increases. Uh, this year we're looking at about a 7.7% health care increase, uh, but we're going to cover that for all of our staff with the exception of a small group that use what's called the buyout plan that we're phasing out, but everyone else, whether it's your own insurance or if they cover a family member or members, um, we're going to be able to use that reserve to not put that on them. Uh, debt service, again, I mentioned we're up about $190,000 for new debt. Uh, public safety equipment, that's that, uh, public safety reserve that you maintain and continue to put funding into. So, about $250,000 there for police and fire equipment. Uh, $704,000 for Smart Show expansion, keeping in mind we get about 527 of that in grant money. So, this is just showing the, uh, the investment side of it. The IT specialist that, uh, Central Pines is going to fund, uh, master sustainability plan update is due. We're going to use some EV charger revenue to pay for that. Uh, police interview room cameras, we're going to pay for that with police or DOJ asset money that is very restricted, can only be used for certain things, so we'll use it there. Um, again, fitness instructor programming is going to be balanced out by revenue that's going to come in from expanding that. Uh, IT hardware replacement, um, I thought it was really important that we not push computers down the road. Um, computers are the base of what we do. We've got to have current equipment, we got to have safe equipment. Um, so about $92,000 to do our hardware replacement. Uh, the personnel there is the planner and then again mentioned that $30,000 for a data fellow. And then town center activation

includes both positions, uh, two half-year positions along with the equipment, uh, that's needed to take care of the town center. So, when all in all you've got about $7 million there in investment. Uh, just going into quickly a little bit of some specifics there. Again, the parks reserves is in relating these two the different strategic plan goals. So, under sustainable livable community growth, you have the parks reserve and the master sustainability plan. Public safety readiness, almost $2 million in investment. That includes money into the public safety reserve. Uh, that includes the three firefighters, the three police officers. Uh, there is a possibility of a fourth police officer position that would be grant funded through the governor's highway safety program. We won't know about that until October. Uh, but that only occurs if the grant funding comes through and we would come back to you when that when that grant funding comes. Uh, $193,000 in equipment. Um, and then about $127,000 to support the next phase of preemption. Again, that's devices on traffic lights and in emergency vehicles so that as they approach those emergency or those traffic lights when running to an emergency, they go green. Um, and that helps us in two ways. One is it it expedites the response times, but it also reduces collisions at red lights. Um, it's never ever safe to try to put a fire truck or a police car through a red light. So, this really reduces that as well, um, for a reasonable investment. Engage inclusive community. Uh, again, the two positions there for the town center to kick that off as well as about $104,000 in tools and a vehicle there. Community mobility, about $1.2 million. Uh, so, half of the transportation reserve goes in there. Uh, the pedestrian safety bridge replacement, uh something public works has been working on and evaluating, so we'll get those taken care of, and then the smart shovel. Economic prosperity, um again, $189,000 going to towards the new public works

debt uh that will um allow us to move into that facility and have it upfit, uh and then the planner position we already mentioned, um not only to address speed to market, but also to address expansion into affordable housing and into public art. Uh and we've done a lot in that department, but this would be the first new position since 2018. So, excellent job on Michelle getting us this far, but also in demonstrating data and justification for that additional position. Operational excellence, um again, this is about $60,000 for an HRIS or human resources information system. The one we have is just not working. Um it's it's taking an incredible amount of staff time, and it's creating uh an incredible amount of frustration. Um if I brought department heads to the microphone right now, they would not have very nice things to say, and I say that half-jokingly, but also it's just taking a lot of their time and causing frustration cuz we can't get the company to help us make it work. Uh $154,000 in technology replacements and upgrades, uh $26,000 towards athletic programming and the contracted fitness instructors, uh and then $156,000 the IT support technician. Again, that's going to support Central Pines. They'll pay fully for it, but we'll get some capacity out of that cuz we don't believe that to be a 40-hour a week every week responsibility to Central Pines. Lastly, organizational resiliency, um again, about 1.7 to value existing employees, uh and again, 180 of the 500 that'll go towards fleet replacement right now. So, talking about our most valuable asset, our staff, um we are again following your direction and making sure that we are taking care of our staff and providing them with compensation and benefits to the best of our ability to have them competitive in market and certainly to appreciate the amazing work that they do day in and day out to have the things that we've shown you as successes and just to have, you know, the fire trucks go, the police cars

move, the planning occur, all of that. Um, none of that happens without our staff from everybody doing their role. So, grab by 27, um, we're going to do a 1% cola increase. That's about $295,000. Uh, we have done 2% in the past. Um, and so what we've done is with HR's help and with, um, just talking with other managers, we reached out to look at where we are competitively in terms of when you add cola to merit, how do we look in the market? And so, you know, with us at three, four and a half and 6% for merit, so a high performer can earn a 6% merit award plus what was 2% for cola at 8%, we were well ahead of the game in terms of what others are offering for annual increases. Um, so at this point we've reduced cola to 1%. That's about $300,000, um, that we're not investing this year, but we've kept the merit fully funded at three, four and a half and six for meets, exceeds and far exceeds performance. Um, so we anticipate that that'll be approximately $1.2 million. Uh, we're again doing longevity, so employees basically get a $100 per year of service, but we pay that out every five years, so we give them a $500 check at five years of service, $1,000 at 10, etc. And it generally comes in December, which is a nice little right before Christmas, uh, helper, if you will. Uh, we've also done paying class adjustments. As you know, we look at all of our staff at least once every three years to make sure that their positions are accurately described in their job description and that they're doing that work and then we compare them to other similarly situated employees within the market to make sure that we're not falling behind. Um we're actually going to bring that in-house starting next year um and we'll be able to save a little bit money that way and we think we can also do half of the departments every year. So, we'll go no more than 2 years without looking at everybody across the organization. We'll continue to look at police and fire every year just cuz that's such a quick-changing and competitive market. Um but for this

year we have about $80,000 that we're going to spend on pay class adjustments for staff. Didn't want to highlight um for you and particularly for the community, we had a really good conversation around council expenditures. So, you ultimately adopted rule 36 uh and I'm not going to read that policy to you, but want to highlight some of the things that I think are worthwhile for the community to hear uh about the way that you have approached this. Pardon me, I lost my page. So, top left there, it ensures fiscal responsibility, equity, and particularly transparency in any spending that you do in terms of training and travel funds primarily. Um again, we've really highlighted, you've always done this, but it's worth highlighting that any of those expenditures must serve a public purpose. Um so, money that gets invested is so that you can do your job better, be be more prepared as a council member, get appropriate training. Uh it's not to do other things that don't support your work in this room. Uh again, we've also highlighted um that annual council member compensation is covering some of those incidental costs uh related to that. Council will again see an an increase in their salaries that meets the average increase that we anticipate for staff. So, that'll be 5 and 1/2% based on what the average employee we anticipate to get. Uh so, that will take um the mayor from 16 575 to 17487. It'll take council members from 13973 to 14742. So, I think it's important we just we share that with the community. Uh second row there, it talks about training and travel over $500 has to either be in the budget or be approved by council as a whole so that everyone is aware generally of what others are doing and has some expense to it. Uh and everyone is getting treated equally with equity. You're going to each have $2,000 that is committed to your spending for

your own training, your own attendance at conferences, that sort of thing. Again, we do have exceptions there. So, for example, we just did City Vision last week. That's something we know that you all should attend. So, that does not go against that $2,000. Um there are going to be other conferences and opportunities where everyone is at least invited and maybe anticipated to attend. That also would not go against that money. Uh the other thing that you all agreed was that there are certain events that the mayor attends that where he's representing the council and that that would not come out of his individual, but would rather be council funds to support uh mayor's conference and and other group meetings. Uh on the bottom there in the center, just again, I think it's common sense, but highlighting that no personal items are allowed, no unrelated expenses, no tuition or degree expenses are allowed for council. And then we will, I say we, Caleb, uh will be providing a quarterly report to you that will show where that spending sits, who spent how much of their money. Um we'll make sure that helps us with, I think, keeping you aware of what each other are doing, but also making public disclosures. And then, of course, that will also be reflected in our annual audit for accountability. Again, just emphasize nothing different there other than the specific amount of money for council member, but we've just never written that down the way we have now. So, I think that's important uh in today's world to do that. As you know, um we have some investment that goes into other funds. I just wanted to review this real quickly. The debt service reserve fund. Right now, we're spending about $6.8 million in FY27 on debt. We're spending about $3.1 million on health insurance for staff. We have not invested or placed money into the other post employment benefits of the OPED this year because we over funded, so that gives us a little flexibility. And then we're spending $315,000 for LEO separation, the law enforcement officer separation allowance that we are obligated to fund for those law enforcement officers.

Quickly, just to touch on stormwater. So that is our only enterprise fund, so it's a self-sustaining fund. So you will see that from FY26 to FY27, the stormwater ERU stays the same at $50. There's no increase there. We do anticipate that to grow in revenue by about 0.7%. No significant changes. Permit sales and fees up, and then interest income actually reduces a little bit. So their annual stormwater budget is going up by 1.3%. So really no significant change there. And then on the bottom, we show those expenditures go. They go to personnel, to operations, to capital outlay, and then transfers out typically to capital projects within the stormwater fund. This is your five-year CIP as it sits today. Again, not going to read everything to you, but do want to highlight a little bit that because of the way that the U plan and that you support staff having planned, you have a five-year CIP right now that is funded at $62.3 million. So all these projects have funding identified. You can see that across the bottom of the of the screen there, whether that's cash in reserves or grants or other reserves or bond money. That's all shown across there. So on the top to highlight a few, so in 2027, uh we are working on uh pedestrian access on Aviation Parkway to allow people to cross if they are over on the HSNC side and intend to get down to Cedar Fork District Park. So, there'll be a safe pedestrian crossing there for them. Uh we are in a collaborative relationship with Wake County Public Schools, uh so that they're going to do some development of athletic facilities at Cedar Fork Elementary School that ultimately support Morrisville High School. Um so, we're involved with that because they are building the facilities, but we're doing some betterments around lighting and some other access to those so that we have use of those outside of school hours. Um we are starting design on Fire Station 2 relocation. Again, there is some design

to be done, but we also have a design from Fire Station 3 at Harris Mill that we intend to honor as much as is possible given the site. Um but, that should help us a little bit in design cost and also should help us with that design process being a little bit quicker than it was the first time, which is good um because we are um needing to get that station relocated because of the NC 54 project, uh which is going to take the building that is currently Fire Station 2. Uh we are planning for some Akeman Parkway betterments. Um the design component of that, we continue to work on sidewalks every year. You've made that a priority. We continue to make sure that that is funded uh and then we'll start to design Wake Park Wake Tech Park. Again, that's part of that same agreement with the school system and Wake Tech where we're going to get between 17 and 18 acres that will be a passive park that'll be immediately adjacent to uh the Wake Tech campus, the new Morrisville Middle School, and our new fire station on Fairmont Parkway. And then in the stormwater, they will begin to design work around the Savannah subdivision and the MCR issues that have caused flooding for probably longer than most of us can remember, but we'll get to work on those as the next significant stormwater project. And then if you look out um, you know, '28, we start to do some construction on those projects obviously that are being designed in '27. Uh, '29, we hope to begin Warslow Parkway construction. Uh, we'll also be working on NC 54 betterments and McCrimmon betterments. So, 54 being the widening to four lanes from up at 540 down to Perimeter Park. And then McCrimmon, uh, being widened and also installing the flyover. So, that'll go from over near Airport Boulevard all the way over to Louis Stephens to widen the Perimeter Parkway out to at least four lanes, uh, throughout there. And then other storm water projects down on the bottom there, there's additional, um, storm water work that sort of continues after the Savannah project. There's a Garden Square line lane, excuse me, project. And then ultimately towards the end of this five years,

there's a Town Hall Drive culvert that will be replaced to continue to address, uh, potential flooding. So, some of the influences on this CIP right now, um, again, Aviation Parkway sidewalk and widening. Um, we're doing a crossing now because that project won't kick off until FY 30. Uh, we will be involved with some betterments there. Right now we approximate that at about $4 million. That is funded out. Uh, NC 54 widening, that's about $1.5 million in betterments. And that's again, that's median improvements, that's wider sidewalks, that's other things, uh, to bring it up to town standards. Same thing for McCrimmon, about $2.2 million. Uh, I've already mentioned fire station two getting relocated. Um, we are fortunate again in your model, we had funded out for, um, about $16 million of a fire depart fire station there. Um, but because DOT has changed their course again, uh, they are now taking that. So, we anticipate getting as much as half of the cost of that construction from DOT. So, again, that just frees up more capacity in your CIP program, gives you a little bit debt capacity as that goes. Um, Giselle been working on that. We are um, optimistic that we will reach um, uh, an agreement through mediation soon um, to avoid going to court which nobody wants to do. So, we we think we're on a good path. They're actively negotiating back and forth. Uh, Watkins Park, we estimate really conceptually that that could be about a $6 million park uh, and that's really very conceptual at this point. We'll get into that design work. Um, Morse Boulevard we already mentioned those. Um, again about $13 million to do the improvements across there um, but we're hoping to get more than $10 million in grant funding. Uh, Cedar Fork Community Center probably about an $800,000 investment in our part and then probably another $100,000 uh, annually uh, for maintenance costs and upkeep for our portion of that. Uh, and then Martin Park construction again, that's out in 2031. That's still

pending some additional acquisition uh, and really the $6 million there is really a placeholder. We we don't until we really put some paper or pencil to paper I should say, we'll we'll have a better idea of what's going to happen out there. So, that was a lot. Um, thank you for your patience in letting me get through it. I'm of course happy to take questions when we get wrapped up here. Um, so this is your recommended and balanced operating budget. Um, I believe staff believes that this represents the guidance that you had given us starting as early as the council retreat uh, but certainly through our conversation April 30th. Um, we've talked about the CIP really no significant changes there. Um, you know, we we do believe there's a lot of community benefit in this budget um, even though it was a little difficult to get there in some ways and with some hard decisions again were made uh, but there's a lot of good to support the community um, and from here um, we will go into some work sessions and a public hearing. Um, really I think the two questions I would have for you that I'll of course hold until you get a chance to ask some questions is you know what if anything do you think needs to change in this recommended budget CIP or is there consensus and then really what's the overall guidance as we move towards adoption ideally on June 9th. And then before I get to your question just real quickly here's that calendar. We will be back on May 14th for a work session this Thursday. And then we will come back on the 26th for the public hearing. We certainly invite the public to be here and offer their comments at that. May 28th right now we have a work session scheduled that's technically tentative but it is scheduled. And again right before that is one of the budget works open houses as well. And then we are tentatively planning for an adoption on June 9th. And then the right hand side shows where some of the upcoming information tables and other listening sessions are occurring that gives people continued opportunity to provide feedback and our budget survey is still

open as well. Questions? Okay, I see Mayor Pro Tem Warbody followed by myself followed by Councilmember Strong and Johnson. Could we go back to slide 24? Well, first I'd like to say that I honestly I think you guys do a great job every year but this year I really feel that you've pulled off a miracle. Because I I I really didn't think that we were going to be able to get there. And you've done an amazing job and I want to thank everyone that was involved and I know it takes a village. Having said that, could we go back to slide 24 please? This Yes. So, okay. So, when you say that the total new investments are $7 million, the smart shuttle expansion you have here and it's actually in other places in the presentation too at $700,000 but most of that is covered by grant. I know that you did say that, but so the total new investments, I think that we're not actually investing $704,000 of town money, right? Correct. In some cases, that is grant funding. There are other revenue sources there, but I think we we show it that way in the context of that's new investment into the community. Now, whether it comes from from our revenues or if it comes from other sources such as our agreement through CAMPO and and the the transportation group, or if it comes through again some of the reserves that we have, we know that's a we we look at that every year to try to figure out how we can best use the resources available. Again, some of that's very restricted. Um and some of it's not. And so, that's what this right-hand side really kind of shows you is where are all those different um opportunities being funded from to an extent.

Mhm. Seeing it laid out like this is very helpful to me. I There are a couple things over on the left-hand side. Like, for example, um what are the MAFC

building repairs that were going to be $20,000 but now aren't included? So, those are primarily some cosmetic repairs, um some things that it could look better than it does. Um they're not structural repairs, but it's some painting and some other wall repairs. It's some things that would make the facility more attractive. So, I In my opinion, especially since we've My understanding of our situation is that we may get we probably will get back part of the um outstanding appeals for property taxes from from previous years. And I I would be perfectly happy to put those those building repairs at MAFC back in the budget. I mean, MAFC is a showplace for the town, and I I mean, I've worked out there, not often, but I have worked out there, and the facility is beautiful, and I just think we should keep it that way. I mean for $20,000 honestly it's just you know Yeah, I think that we should probably put that in. Um Okay, and then could you I'm going to just tell you when to stop. Towards the end or towards the end?

Yeah, towards the end, yeah. Okay. Um No. Mhm. Okay, here we are. So when you factor in merit increases at $1.2 million, can you tell me what that entails in terms of employees that are are rated as meeting expectation, I forget what the three things you said were, meeting expectations, exceeding expectations, substantially exceeding expectations. Can you tell me what the breakdown is in that $1.2 million? So that 1.2 is essentially an average. Um because of course we don't know necessarily what those evaluations will be as we build this budget. So we look at past years of what that average has

typically been. Uh we expect generally the same. So this assumes at 1.2 uh that there is about a 4.5% average merit increase. Um and then we actually back that off a little bit because we don't expect that that's assuming full staffing for the year. So we come off of that a little bit just from a a how we show that number um to take a little bit off cuz we know not every employee will be here all year to earn their merit. So this is probably a quibble in the scheme of things, but it really concerns me that that the 4.5 would be the average that we're basing this on because the the majority of employees should be at the meets expectations level. And then there should be some that exceed expectations, and there should be very few that substantially exceed expectations. So, I I'm just wondering, has that has that been the case every year that the 4.5 has been the average? It has leaned in that direction. Um I've actually had three separate meetings in the last 2 weeks. Um SLT would tell you we've talked about it. I've talked about it with David Hacker, our HR. Um and because that that's a concern to me as well. Um because, you know, we want to make sure that we're fairly evaluating our staff. And again, there are going to be folks that are stellar. Um I think that with any organization, this is not a Mooresville issue by any stretch. I've seen this in every government that I've worked in is that people tend to try to, you know, bump up a little bit in terms of where people belong. Uh we've also looked at our system for this year, and I think we've identified some opportunities to um clarify some of the language as to what would what would you qualify for a five versus a four versus a three. Um and we're going to implement that for next year as well. We've already had that conversation.

I think that is very helpful, like a leveling guide Mhm. of sorts. I think that will be very very helpful.

Um Okay. And then So, I guess I guess we'll stick with that 1.2, but your you're saying that probably we will not use all of that due to staff vacancies, and also maybe some more conservative uh evaluations. So, that number does already account for not everybody's going to be here to Sorry, not everybody's going to be here to get married. So, we've already sort of rolled that back a little bit. But again, it's it's a general estimate. I think it's a little bit overestimated to be safe in the budget, not dramatically, but you know, if you're going to lean one way or the other, I'd I'd have a little bit too much than not quite enough. Absolutely same. Um bless you. Okay. Um all right. And then there was just one other question I had. And I also wanted to say that this format, it was very very helpful to me in understanding the budget. Like I think that that it's really answering a lot of my questions up front that I feel like I would usually have at this point. So I I really like this format. I'm glad it was only our 17th iteration, so no worries. Um Okay. So can you just go forward? I think it's like um Yes. Okay. Um I did want to say that I I really I really like the fact that we're doing so much from the capital from on the CIP this year. I mean, that's there's a lot of things on here that are really going to benefit the public a lot. And I Yeah, I'm just really happy that it all stayed in, it's all still funded, and I like that we're that we've planned that out to 2031. And that's really all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I'll go next. Thank Council member Scarborough Councilman. I'm not sure who's going to go after that. Um I would agree that there is a lot of good in this. Uh we put in a few constraints, and

staff worked really hard to meet those needs. So that being said, I'm going to be more high-level. Um I'd like to share that property tax appeals have permanently changed our revenue picture. This isn't just a one-year blip, it's a structural shift. And inflation has hit everyone hard, including the town, and our cost of public safety, transportation, utilities, and basic operations have risen just like they have for our families. Residents on fixed incomes are right to be concerned, and that's why Wake County and organizations like Neighbor Up exist to support people who need help now, not months from now. So, we can either address this challenge head-on or paint ourselves into a corner where the only options later are a much larger tax adjustment or cuts to the services that define Morrisville's quality of life. A small intentional adjustment now prevents a crisis later. Our residents expect safety, mobility, walkability, parks, greenways, and strong programming. These aren't luxuries, they're the foundations of who we are here in Morrisville. Right now, our budget is like a canoe with a hole in it. We can spend all year bailing water with a Dixie cup, or we can patch the hole and keep moving forward. We can be the sailboat that adds enough sail to tack into the headwinds, or we can drift backward and hope for the best. Fiscal pragmatists don't kick the can down the road. They prepare for uncertainty, protect our options, and avoid shocking residents with large increases later. We heard from many residents that they would have been a lot happier with a couple of small adjustments rather than 5 cents a couple years ago. We know our in-state staffing needs. We know our one-time maintenance needs. We know delaying them only makes them more expensive. And we know that if the legislature limits our revenue and flexibility next year, we will wish we had acted now.

I strongly believe it is important for us to consider our fiscal responsibility, not just the voices we're hearing right now, but that the residents who will ask for and rightly expect programs, services, and innovation throughout the entire year. Now is the time to fully fund our land acquisition and our transportation reserves. This is because only by acquiring land can we complete our town center vision and ensure we have the parks and greenways our current and future generations will need. Transportation and mobility remain among our residents' highest priorities, and only by having funds ready to invest and to leverage with our deep NCDOT partner can we improve our transportation network before prices escalate further. We have been proactive and intentional for years in maintaining our pavement in the most efficient way possible. I urge us to continue that proactive practice by fully funding our road maintenance efforts. Delaying them only causes the cost to grow next year or even more if we delay further than that. These reasonable one-time expenses provide us with a measure of safety and flexibility to preserve our quality of life come what may. To do otherwise is to gamble with the quality of life we have worked for decades to create. And if I'm being too pessimistic, if our growth overcomes the property tax appeal losses or if the legislature does not limit our authority and if next year's revaluations does not come in lower than expected, then making these essential investments now simply gives us a stronger financial cushion and greater fiscal capacity in the years ahead. A healthier fund balance is not a problem, it is a safeguard. It gives us more flexibility, more stability and more room to maneuver in an uncertain economy. But if I'm correct and we forego these responsible investments and a small reasonable explainable tax rate adjustment, then we and our residents will feel the consequences for years to come. Our mission is to enhance quality of life not to freeze the tax rate at all costs.

Residents elected us to make their lives better, not to minimize the degradation of services. If we want Morrisville to remain a safe, connected, AAA rated community with world-class amenities, then we must continue investing in the things that made us great. So embedded in that are a couple of things, funding land acquisition, fully funding our transportation and doing our paving. Um those would be the things that I would hope that our council would consider giving feedback on in advance of Thursday or we can discuss it more tonight and or on Thursday. Thank you very much and now I'd like to pass it to Council member Scoggins Johnson. And then I'm not sure who who goes after that. Thank you very much town manager Zidlicky for an excellent presentation. After our last work session as a council, it's very clear that the entire staff worked hard to align with some of the priorities that the council set, you know, uh, for you to um, try to rebalance and and re-prioritize. So it's much appreciated. The most important thing for me is that we have to be very sensitive to the feedback of the public and the environment that is in 2026. Um, as we look at our operating budget, inflation has not only hit the town's projects that are current and future, but it's hit our tax payers, both business and residential, as well. When uh, tax rate or property taxes increased, those that are on payments or mortgages, their mortgage increases. And those that are on fixed incomes, this impacts them even more. Without even increasing our budget, the

insurance on all of our properties, including vehicles as well as homes, it will be increasing. We have been notified that insurance prices are going up all across the state, so even if property taxes aren't um, increased, the payment on people's mortgages that include insurance will be going up. So, this is further impacts people's um ability to live in the community that they know and love. So, being sensitive to that is a top priority for me and doing what we can to live within our means with our strategic vision and reprioritizing as we can and being more efficient with the funds that we do have is important. So, I really do appreciate the fact that we have received such good um information from the general public. I encourage the general public to also provide feedback on this proposed budget because that is really the um the final um input that we have before we make that determination. And so, please, if you haven't um thought about speaking up or you see some changes, please let us know what aligns with um what your thoughts were before. And so, now I have a couple comments about the budget and then some comments about CIP. So, um I'll just do the first one of the MAFC building repair for 20,000 that uh Mayor Pro Tem Rabady mentioned. I also think that that is something that would be good um to see if we can move some things around to prioritize that as um MAFC is is really a um true benefit uh to our public um and keeping that in good order is is important. Um the uh question that I have for you is that as you reprioritize the budget and you

have some funding and some unfunding of items, I think that was Yes, that's the one. Um as these tax assessment appeals go forward and start getting resolved and we actually know what our true new number is, will this be the list that you're going to be looking at to possibly activate for funding or are you going to wait and bring you back to council for re-prioritization cuz sometime will possibly, you know, another 6 months, another 8 months might be a good time to re-look at this. So, great question. Thank you. Um yes, certainly not before after the first three year. So, I think that, you know, we will need to have sort of a more philosophical discussion about how to approach, let's say that 250 out of the 500 materializes as revenue. I think there's a couple of ways to look at that. One is that you could certainly invest that. Um you know, the more you can do one-time things better than recurring, but you could also do recurring there. I think we also wanted that at that point we'll start to get a feel for what the 28 reval is going to look like. And I think that will be a significant factor in how we decide to proceed with any revenue that might come out of that 500 um because if that reval comes back positive, um I think that's good for the town. We can manage through that. Uh if that reval comes back at flat, we can work through that. If that reval comes back and reduces values, we will have potentially some very difficult decisions to make. And I I would recommend that you can at least consider that if if that is what we think is happening, that you not reinvest say 250 and that you hold that uh so that we have a little bit of uh buffer or leverage moving into FY28 cuz I think it's important to keep in mind, you know, we're pulling some levers right now um intelligently, right? I think very very intentionally. Um not levers we want to pull, but we

are pulling to to get to where this is so that you you're not going to have the same levers to pull again in FY28. So, I just think that where we where we land on the reval is probably my most significant concern right now. Um you know, the the the reval results or the set appeal results, excuse me, are going to be impactful because once that's gone, that's gone unless this other the next reval that will come right behind this one being finally resolved, uh could bring, you know, some relief to us, but I think that would be the first thing that I would ask you to think about is let's see where we are um if and when we identify that there are revenues coming back, and I I think my initial recommendation, knowing what I know today, would be we likely hold that um as a buffer against FY28 to make one or two decisions for 28 a little bit easier. Okay. Very good. Um and we we're not even sure if we're going to be allowed to have a reval in the near future with the way the legislature is considering some pausing. So, I know that that's not the place for it today, but it is something that is a risk potentially for all of the communities in Wake County, so. Yeah, it is. I think that, you know, right now the the bill that's been filed is primarily for eight counties, um more down towards the Greensboro area, but that doesn't mean that that couldn't change in that bill. Um that it sounds like the legislature is pretty close on a budget now, uh which means there are likely to be some things added or snuck into that budget that you might not expect to be in a budget, um and some of that could be related to property tax information as well. Very good. So, thank you for that. Um the other item that I had relating to budget was just a clarification on slide 33 regarding rule 36. Um for public transparency,

I think it'd be prudent to say some of the town council allowable expenses are also for some events that we attend throughout the year such as there's an annual um like transportation regional transit um um meeting annual meeting that we attend chamber events um are attended in some local um nonprofit organizations that we do attend that have uh a ticketed Yes, you are correct, 100%. Yeah. Okay, great. Um the next um series of comments that I have are in relation to the um five-year CIP. I believe that's page 36. Very good. Okay. So as I'm looking at this um prospective prioritization um I have a general philosophy that when you're looking at activating projects, you first need to look at what you have prioritize finishing those projects and then if you have not started a new project, you can have that delayed if possible as part of your prioritization. So with that said, one of the observations that I had on this uh five-year CIP is that the Pew House, which is an existing asset for the town um was not mentioned on under this five-year CIP. Now, it is also an unknown as to what the total cost to fully activate the Pew House would be. The Pew House sits in a state of um I guess you would say stasis. It is a structural building that was preserved by the town almost 10 years ago. It does not have working um electric, plumbing, or um um like building um atmosphere control, air

conditioning and heating. In order to use it as a town community space, it those items need to be done and there has to be a design for fit for purpose of what the town wants to use it for. So, I could see why it's not on here, but in the same sense, it is an existing asset that we pay um operational expenses to maintain the structure and maintain the grounds. And it's adjacent and walkable to the dog park and the greenway system. So, um I took the liberty of mapping the Pugh House to the priority budget and strategic goals, as well as looking at the budget respondents prioritization for the um items that they wanted to see in the budget. And the respondents that we have in the survey so far were that they were looking to prioritize sustainable um existing assets and community spaces. Um sustainability for the Pugh House means that we're taking an existing asset and we're repurposing it, therefore making it a sustainable asset for the town. Um it's it can be repurposed for community benefit as a gathering place for future park programming for art appreciation as it was the former house of Mabel Pugh, who was a an artist um and taught actually art at a local college. Um the Pugh House also maps to to a strategic goal of innovative connections um and community connections through the um both historic um you know, connection to history as well as a future connection to activating possibly programming or activities. It provides

a livable community option through its accessibility via sidewalks, greenways, and its location to the town center. It's building our future as it can be recognized currently today as a historical landmark. There's a plaque on the town um the front of the building by the capital area preservation as well as I think there was a historical landmark recognition and it can serve the town as a window to the past, but also um a focus on the future. And um if we add this project, the Pew House activation to the CIP prioritization list, it will improve awareness, increase eligibility for grants, and it will ensure that it's top of mind and included in the town center um overlay. So. And that's what I have so far. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next is Councilmember Carmella and then I'm not sure who's after that. Well, I don't see you, Stephen now, but if you Harrison Castling wants to go first. I mean, Councilmember Castling, that's fine. Okay, so it's Councilmember Carmella, please. Yeah, um Good job, Brandon. I think some of the charts were usually more appealing to my eyes and that's uh the people when they look at it, that actually makes them understand and data doesn't lie. Representation of how it is is pretty much Um I said that uh I wanted to talk about how much reduction have we done like on one of the slides for the transportation. It doesn't say

which slide is that like where you have showed funded and unfunded ones. Yep. Uh So is the transportation reduced amount? Is it like 500? What is like For the fleet? No, the first one, the reserves. Oh, the reserves. So, that funds uh fully funds the public safety reserve at a penny, that fully funds parks at a penny, and it puts 471 into the transportation reserve. You elected to You gave us the guidance on the 30th to hold $500,000 out of that, and it does not fund uh the land acquisition fund. So, there's essentially 2 and 1/2. Okay, 2 and 1/2. Okay. Um and I agree with what Anne was saying like the the smart schedule and all these things. So, you are showing especially the IT specialist that the money is coming in, right? As a revenue. And this is the expense. So, it's basically kind of representing um this is an expenditure and the the revenue for this expenditure is coming from an external grant. Yeah, so this this shows what we as a town are investing in regardless of the revenue source. Yeah, but uh for us, for the public, like you know we are getting pretty much like especially it's funded fully by them. Right. I mean, I think we showed that you know, back here a little bit in terms of where does that revenue come from and then you know, where do we know how do we invest it? And again, so that includes, you know, that new program revenue is going to show where that money from the SRO or the student resource officer support comes in and the money from the Central Pines Regional Council comes in under that. So we we put that on top of you know, the base revenue. That's essentially what we have coming is 58.4.

We pulled out 500 out of concern because of existing appeals. We have used, you know, capital reserves and then the revenues that come in to support those investments. Perfect. Just on this slide, I had one is the 10 new positions million dollars 61. What is the recurring cost for this 10 new positions going forward? We can run that math while we're sitting here, I think and I can get that for you. So out of that you'll see that you know, five of them are full year so they're they're even. The the actual position cost will increase for the two police officers because they are half year positions but again, the actual cost of them in the following year will be about the same because we won't buy a vehicle again. So with the two half year positions for Town Center, those will increase because we're only accounting for half of a year of salary and benefits for the parks and specialist and the public works employee. Yeah, but the vehicle is just a one time expense, right? Like

The what? Vehicle is just a one time expense.

Correct. Right. So those won't come back and and even with the quarter year position, the SRO, that won't likely increase the following year because we are paying the the sort of full salary for that quarter of year to allow them to get trained but then once they get assigned to the high school, the Wake County public school system will pay I think the number is around $88,000. So we really won't see an increase in the cost for that SRO in the next year either. Well, interesting what you said like you are saying we hire them in April and we can even not pay till August. Correct. Yeah, they pay for the school year. For the the year that the fiscal year in which the school year falls. Okay. Um Perfect. So the other thing I wanted to not today, but Thursday, I wanted to talk about the fees. Um but that's a conversation I would

like to uh park it on Thursday. More details into it. Okay, if you would consider sending us any questions you might have ahead of then, that would let us better prepare for a conversation on Thursday. Yeah, I'll do that. All right, thank you. Thank you. I'd be happy to recognize anyone who hasn't spoken yet. If you indicate to me you want to be recognized. Council member Patel, please. Thank you. Mic please. Thank you, sorry. Thank you. And thanks to the staff and everyone who put some work into this. It took me a while to digest everything so I can imagine how much work everybody has put in. Amazing thing. Thank you.

Yep. Um Having said that, I have several questions. If we can go to page 17. Just question about new debt commitment. Can you explain what that is? The new debt commitment? Mhm. Yes. So, for example, this year we will have borrowed about $22 million towards the purchase and upfit of the public works facility and then another two two and a half million dollars towards the purchase and some upfit of the chamber building. So, when we borrow that money, we need to start paying that debt. So, for that 20 I think 23 22 and a half million dollars, we're going to add $189,000 in debt. So, the money that we borrowed in the uh fall for the purchase of the building is on a 20-year borrowing and then the money that we just borrowed for the upfit is on a 15-year. So, for the next at least 15 years, we have $189,000 to pay annually to cover that debt. And this is part of the previous bond referendum or

No, it's just been done through a more traditional loan. Okay. All right, thank you. If you can go to

page 18. Uh There are several bullet points under needs versus wants reality. Mhm. And I understand doing more with less comes at a cost. But how do the other items fit in under need versus want? Some trying to understand that. Can you tell me what you're referring to? I apologize. Oh. Page 18. Yeah, under the under the needs versus wants.

Oh. So, I I understand uh your point about doing more with less comes at cost, but how do the other bullet points fit under needs versus wants? So, I think, you know, if you look at um for example, you know, doing more with less. So, you know, the the the needs may be more, excuse me, the wants. In some case, there are things that we could do, but the needs are really things that we're obligated to do. And those don't always necessarily align in terms of priorities. Um so, we really have to tend to focus more on the needs and then try to get to some of the wants when we have the capacity to do that. So, I don't know that they all necessarily are a perfect alignment there. Again, really more of a an example of some of the challenges and that's just where they happen to land, but you know, again, for example, more community and organizational needs. The the community expects us to do more. You know, we do that as best we can in terms of, you know, particularly with parks and rec programming expansion. The number of new programs that they've added over the past year is amazing. Just unbelievable focus on keeping the programming out there and keeping programs available. So we want to do that. In in parks and rec typically that's not a problem because we're charging a fee to cut recover some portion of that cost. But, you know, in other areas like special events, you know, we don't recover any money from special events. So when the community has expectations for us to potentially do more, we've got to figure out that's not necessarily a need. I think that falls more into a

want and then we've got to we you all with us have to prioritize, you know, where does that fall and how are we going to fund that? And so that was one of our discussions on the 30th was that, you know, there was a request for expansion of special event funding and we elected not to fund that and we actually took a little bit of money from the special events budget in order to balance and and highlight other priorities in this budget. So we drew out about $20,000 of a reduction of what they had this year and so they would likely reduce one of their significant events. Okay, thank you. Um page 19 uh we're talking about reserve Actually, I think you answered that question to Councilman Greenough about the um reserves. So we are underfunding reserves by about $250,000. Is that accurate? No, we're underfunding the your intention of four pennies, we're underfunding by 1.5 million dollars.

1.5 million dollars. We're putting We're putting nothing into land acquisition in in the recommended budget and then you have funded 471 of the 971 of the transportation. So it'd be 1.5 to put that money back in. which again is is a point that we need to maintain awareness of, right? Because that's unlikely to happen in FY28. We talked about that. We think we can do that in FY29 depending on what the revenues look like. That's where what this reval looks like will have a real impact on what we can potentially do in 29 to begin to recover. Because as as we've done here, you know, you've created capacity, but you've created capacity in areas that we want to restore. And so in order to restore that, you know, you've got to take from some of that new revenue. And as we saw, you know, this year, I mean, I think the simplest way to describe the challenge of this year is that we had about $3.7 million in new actual revenue. So if you

look at the things that aren't part of base budget that you typically wanted to do, so if you fund your four reserves, that's $4 million, and then if you fund increases for staff, that's 1.5, and then if you fund fleet, that's 500. So you're already at $6 million, and we have $3.7 million in new revenues. That's the basis of where we sit today from a challenge standpoint. So that 1.5 that you're not funding in reserves is generating capacity to do things like public safety positions and some of the other equipment and some of the other investments that, you know, we we I believe need to do in order to continue to provide quality services, particularly in the area of those strategic plan and counseling community priorities like public safety. So the reserves funds are obviously set up for a reason, and if we are underfunding, just and I don't understand this, so I'll ask you, it's not a rhetorical question. How what risk do we carry by underfunding those reserves? So I can say that What are the risks that we carry by underfunding those reserves? So the risks that we carry, um you know, one is that I think we have done a good job in terms of the land acquisition. The only real risk there would be if that we suddenly have the opportunity to purchase more property than we would have funds for in the land acquisition fund. And so, that would be a coming back to you and having a conversation about how highly do we prioritize those properties. And we're primarily talking probably a town center property or a Martin property. And then if it's more than what we have available in the fund, are you all willing to consider a different source of funding, whether that be fund balance or another reserve or something else to do that? So, that's a risk. Uh transportation, there's honestly less risk. Um did that get to their table? Yes, it did. So, you have you have a piece of paper on your table that provides you information. Uh Council

member Geramella had asked last time, and I think we touched on verbally, but wanted to give you a more detailed answer to that. Page 10 in that FAQs. So, on page 10 it shows you where we are in terms of the transportation reserve, what we've already committed out of that, and shows you that there's really not a risk today based on what we know we intend to fund. And that doesn't mean that down the road we couldn't have a project pop up in 2 years, and we go, "Oh, we really wish we would have had that extra million dollars from the last 2 years, $500,000 a year that we're holding, cuz we could have done more with that project." But today, based on what we know is coming and what's in the transportation reserve, and some other funds that we can use to support transportation projects, we don't believe there's a risk in not being able to do anything that's already intended to be done. Okay, thank you. Um You talked about uh fund we are funding IT positions via Central Pines. So, is it fully funded via Central Pines?

Correct. $126,000 that they will write us essentially a check and we will endorse them, of course, but they will provide us with $126,000. That will fully cover the salary and benefits for that position. That position will primarily be dedicated to providing IT services to Central Pines, but when that person is not needed for Central Pines, they will be an asset to us. Okay. Thanks. Good work. For getting that from the office.

That's Rick Ralph. Yep. And if we can go to page page 21. I think there was Yeah. New investments are being 40% less than prior year. These are new town investments or new business investments?

That's That's our general fund. That's us making about half of the new

investments as opposed to what we did last year because of capacity. Yep. Then I have Give me just a moment. I have some other questions on page 22. Uh What is that other intergovernmental item there? For 4.9 million last year and 5.2 million in 2027. See if I got this one right. Yeah. I'm going to let Byron help me with that one. You You finally stumped me. Uh yeah, uh Council Member Patel, uh this is Byron as Chief Financial Officer of Town of Mooresville. Um that other government other intergovernmental revenue is basically other types of tax revenue that's not necessarily restricted. So, for instance, um sales tax on our utility costs and other um uh not just for electricity, but also for piped natural gas. That's in that calculation, as well as other tax revenue such as beer and wine tax revenue, um some of the other kind of smaller ones that we typically end up seeing. Motor vehicle fees go into that as well. So, it's just other types of tax revenue, not necessarily direct fees for services, um just that tax revenue that typically either gets collected by the state or gets remitted to us that's not strictly restricted. So, is it accurate to say it's it's not fees or services, it's not property taxes or sales taxes. Well, general sales taxes. I know you talked about sales taxes sales taxes on utilities. Correct. Okay. That's correct. And also also just to jump in as well for Councilmember Carmella, uh that um operating costs for next year for those 10 positions would end up being about $1.3 million um after sort of offsetting with that

revenue coming in as as the manager mentioned for the central funds revenue as well as some revenue from Wake County Public Schools for that SRO, it'd come to about $1.1 million in net investment for the town for those 10 positions. I'm done. On the same slide, uh the next line is labeled the restricted. So, that restricted fund is revenue that we receive that can be only used in a certain way. Um so, for example, the smart shuttle funds that we reserved were a big part of why that increase is shown there cuz we're getting that additional money to support the smart shuttle expansion. And then we also have revenues from the fire tax that really can generally be spent for fire department type things. So, right now the Wake County funds chief is about 14%. Chief doing? Sorry, fire department. Wake County funds about 14%.

14%. So, 14% of the overall Fire Department budget is funded by the county. Um, they also, sort of on top of that, they also do some cost share on things like air packs and thermal imaging cameras and and basic equipment. Now, we often do well above what they would fund, um, but they will they will cost share for some of that. And then again, they do about 14% of our budget based on the amount of coverage. Sorry, I keep hitting that thing. Um, the amount of coverage that we provide in the unincorporated portion of Wake County. Understood. So, other than uh, fire, anything else that falls under that? Just a couple of examples.

I'm sure there's some very small numbers there, but really not much, um, because fire is over a million of that, Smart Shuttle is almost 600 of that. Um, I don't know there's a single big number. Fire. So, there's not a there's not a lot of other big numbers, but like I said, those are restricted revenues. So, for instance, that Central Pines revenue, that 126,000,

that will be in there as well. Um, any sort of asset forfeitures that the Police Department would receive, that would go in there as well. Okay, thank you. Bye. Um, just to stay on the same page, transfers in. Yeah, so that is, for example, in 26, that was a big number because 2. 4 million dollars of that was the purchase of two fire engines. So, that's a transfer in from the reserve. So, it's money that can be expended, but it didn't come from revenues from outside, it came from your own savings, essentially. So, it goes down dramatically cuz for the first time in 3 years, we're not buying a fire truck. Okay. So, the 212,000 for FY 27, that is So, that's generally, um, I think 252 of that is coming from the Public Safety Reserve, and then the remainder of that is probably coming from The other 60,000 is coming from the transportation reserve. Okay. So, if we are strictly looking at reserves, this is in addition to the 1.5 million we are underfunding by or No, so what what this looks at is this shows how we get to the 60.4 million dollars that will be the right at least as the recommended budget. So, that's made up of again, if you start at the top, our two biggest that are about 75 76% of our revenue comes from ad valorem property tax and sales tax. Um so, those transfers in are where you take money from your existing reserves and you bring it in to pay for something. So, like last year we brought in 2.4 million dollars from the public safety reserve to order those fire trucks because we have traditionally done pay as you go with the fire trucks because we save money, we get a percentage knocked off by paying for them rather than financing them. So, we set that money aside and that's why you're putting that generally speaking a million dollars into that public safety reserve every year because that's drawn out for what, the next 15 years or so to

plan for, okay, we know that there's a new rescue truck coming and then there's a fire engine and then there's a ladder truck and then there's radios and and SCBA air packs and things like that. So, that's bringing money in from your own reserve into your operating budget. Thank you. And the last item on that page is the fund balance. Correct. So, same same concept, your fund balance is sort of your your savings account. So, what we do every year is that we use some portion of fund balance to balance the budget. And we do that because we know that we will never spend 100% of our operating budget. A, we will never be fully I've never worked anywhere in 33 years that they were fully staffed for a day, say nothing of a year. So, that you were always going to have that managed vacancy savings. So, that's bringing money in from your own reserve into your operating budget. Thank you. And the last item on that page is the fund balance. Correct. So, same same concept, your fund balance is sort of your your savings account. So, what we do every year is that we use some portion of fund balance to balance the budget. And we do that because we know that we will never spend 100% of our operating budget. A, we will never be fully I've never worked anywhere in 33 years that they were fully staffed for a day, say nothing of a year. So, that you were always going to have that managed vacancy savings. So, that's bringing money in from your own reserve into your operating budget. Thank you. And the last item on that page is the fund balance. Correct. So, same same concept, your fund balance is sort of your your savings account. So, what we do every year is that we use some portion of fund balance to balance the budget. And we do And then you're generally it would difficult for us to I say our goal probably is 95%. We'd like to be able to execute 95% of our budget because in addition to those managed vacancies, you're just going to have things that change. We might get a project that comes in under budget. That's a little less likely these days, but it still can happen. Um, but we also might elect to postpone a project or we might not be able to get to a project. So that might push further. Um, any number of things could happen there. So we utilize fund balance by putting it into this budget to balance it to give the capacity for those things. But um, for as long as I know, we've never spent any of that actually spent the fund balance. So it's there as sort of a placeholder to let us balance and then at the end of the year, that money goes back into the fund balance, it's never actually spent. So for example, uh, in as I was reminded today, it's not quite this easy, but for example, at an a $60 million budget, you know, if you were going to spend at 95% of that, that's theoretically $3 million that we don't anticipate spending. So we our this case we're pulling 1.4. So theoretically, 1.6 would go back into

fund balance. Now, it's not going to be that big a number because there's 17 different calculations that have to be done that I won't bore you with cuz I don't know how cuz Carmen does. But there it's just that money will go back into fund balance. That's why we talked a little bit I think the 30th that one of the things we're attempting to do is to reduce our reliance on fund balance to balance this budget so that at the end of the year when we do have that unspent, it goes into fund balance and grows the fund balance. Because we want you a policy Excuse me, I'm sorry. You have a policy that says you'll maintain a fund balance between 25% and 45%. If it drops below 25%, that's seen as problematic because you don't have at least a quarter of the year or 3 months worth of funding for an emergency. And if you have over 45% at some point, your your residents are going to ask, "Why are you continuing to tax me when you're just putting it into a savings account, essentially?" So, we are we would like to be around 35%. That's a number that the credit ratings appreciate, credit rating agencies appreciate. It also gives you, you know, some buffer there that even if you had to spend some of that, you could still get down closer to 25 and not be in violation of your own policy. So, the way to do that is to build that fund balance. But right now, we have not been doing that. We've been putting it into here and not spending it and generally putting the same amount back. So, if we were to, for example, if this year we committed a million dollars in fund balance rather than 1.5, we would probably put $500,000 additional into the fund balance because we wouldn't have committed it. But in the past, we have always budgeted, have never spent it, don't anticipate it even this year, but we do want to reduce that over time cuz we would like to consistently keep that fund balance over 35%. So, the number has stayed consistent. We've typically had, rounding a little bit, $16 million in uncommitted fund balance. But the problem is $16 million out of a $37 million budget, you know, 6 or 7

years ago is a great number. $16 million out of what's going to be 60.4 is not as great a number just by percentage. Thank you for that. That's it for now.

Okay. Thank you. Councilor Yes. Okay. Councilor Councilor Johnson, please. So, first Brandon, thank you. The presentation was fabulous. I want to echo that, too. I like this format. Very informative. So, I appreciate that. Thank you for starting off by um celebrating the successes that we've had here. We we we we all, as elected officials and staff, you're always looking to do better and do more. And you know, what what's the next success? What's the next hurdle to overcome? And we we don't take the time to stop and really think about all that we have accomplished. So, so thank you for that, for doing that. That I think that's really important for us to do. Um And just for I don't have a whole lot of questions cuz you've been standing there for in in 4 more minutes you'll be standing there for 2 hours. So, I'm going to try to be really quick. I won't ask a lot of questions, but um And I don't want to minimize this. I realize this was difficult for you all. And I thank for putting this budget together. And I thank you for listening to the majority of council, listening to our residents, and and bringing this proposed budget forward. I appreciate that, and I don't want to minimize how difficult what it was and what the difficult year that we're in with some unknowns, with some knowns, and the loss of some revenue. So, again, and I'm going to emphasize

again, don't want to minimize this. But and I and Genie, I looked around the room. Genie's the only other one here who's going Even Frank's not here. We have been through some really difficult years in the past. Far far more difficult than what we are in right now. I can remember back in the early 2000s when mid-budget year we had state revenues pulled out from under us. We had budgeted and we had to go do massive budget amendments to figure out how we were going to um pull back on things because revenues weren't coming in. I remember that 2009 timeframe where when when we talk about eliminating service, we eliminated a lot of service, and parks and recs got hit bad um because that was a unfortunately a place that we could um pull from to to balance budget. So, we have had some really difficult years in the past, but we have always come back. We have always done better. When I look at all that we have accomplished here today in 2026, the quality of life for our residents has always been top of mind, and we never forget that. And we now have more We have greenways. I remember the day when there wasn't a greenway in town. We have more parks. We have sidewalk. We have road improvements. We have intersection improvements. We have done a lot. So, I am very optimistic about where we are headed and where we are going. I am I am I know that we will overcome whatever um issues may pop up next and whatever we're facing here today. I I am I've no doubt that we have the staff to help us. We have a community behind us who appreciates what we're doing in this budget year right here right now, and will be behind us as well as well. So,

I just want to say all that, and then just emphasize we are not eliminating any of our services. We are actually enhancing services. We are enhancing our our smart smart shuttle service. We are adding more greenways. We are We're well, yeah, we are. We are adding more greenway. We're getting more sidewalk. We are doing intersection improvements. So, there is a lot in this budget that is again going to enhancing, continually enhancing quality of life of our residents. The only The only two things I will say I'd like to do a fee review at some point. I think Councilmember Gara Mill brought that up. So, I would like to hear where where we're headed on that, whether we're increasing fees and and where that where that all lands. And then you actually answered this for me. Um I was going to ask about that slide 24. You don't need to pull it up. We talked about the items that are not funded. And I think Councilmember Scraggin Johnson asked, you know, could we do that mid year? But you answered that for me. And that That is something as time goes by we can revisit if we have to and if we need to. But but you get you gave a great answer to that. And that's all I'm going to say. Oh, and the last thing, are we going to see the raw data from the budget survey? I know it's still open. So, okay. Genie should be able Absolutely. Okay, thank you. That's it. So, I think in terms of fees, if you haven't had the chance, you do have the revised fee schedule in the abbreviated full budget document that's attached to this item in Peak. So, that that's available to you. May not have had a chance. There's already a lot of reading here. But if you get a chance, again, if you could look at that prior to Thursday and if you have any questions ahead, we would just love to get those ahead to be prepared to better answer. But if not, we can still certainly have a good conversation. There's nothing I don't think that you'll consider shocking or dramatic in

in any of the fee adjustments that are in there. Thank you. I see that right now and I did not look at that There's there's a lot there. And I I think if I could, I would also like to say thank you for the context you just put this in because you know, what we don't do is we don't walk through the base budget every year and we don't highlight the amazing work that our staff is doing and the amazing investments that you're making. And you're right, I mean, we've got work going on on, you know, Sam Mils Creek Greenway. We're restoring the the creek there. We're starting to develop that Greenway. There's so many intersection improvements. There's sidewalks on Lewis Stevens. There's, you know, so many different things. We could be here another 2 hours to talk through that. So, but I think that's an important context that, you know, we're primarily talking about what's new and different, but there's so much good that's already going on that just continues. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. And let me and just for more context, I real- I just talked about early 2000s when it was Governor Easley that pulled our funding mid-year or never gave us our funding in in 2009. I realize the dynamic here in the town of Mooresville is not the same as it was in the early 2000 and 2009. I realize that. I realize our growth patterns are very different. Um but we have great opportunities still. We have projects coming in here that are the town of Mooresville that are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars that we have never had in the past. So, there is a different dynamic at play here today. And you know, and I've always talked about for years and years about the redevelopment potential here that is still um out there um to come. So, anyhow, that that's all I'd say. Thank you. Council member Kesler, please. Thank you, Mayor Colli. And thank you, Brennan, for putting this all together. Um attending the City Vision conference last week uh certainly given me an even greater appreciation um for you and our

staff um does, especially when we continue to work through this uh this budget. Um listening to some stories from other communities, we're we're privileged here. Um and I appreciate seeing all the successes as well. I was around and I saw a lot that was going on last year. But it's nice to have that recap. I'm glad we're on this slide. I did want to highlight a couple of things. I appreciate that we've got the master sustainability plan in here. The Bull Smart Shuttle expansion and the three firefighters. I want to echo the comments about the MAFC building repairs. I was looking through the the FAQ document that we were given. And and it looks like there is some beautification with that, but there's also the rear patio has pieces falling off of it due to rotted materials. That being a safety issue. And it would remain an issue with material continuing to fail. May cause areas to be temporarily closed. I think that's probably a priority to fund. For sure. And then also with the town hall BAS, looking into that. Just what you've provided here for us. You know, want to let the public know about this. So, control system is inadequate and old and antiquated. The HVAC systems can't be monitored remotely. And it's not saving utility costs when when off shift. So, the maintenance time and costs will increase. Not be able to be notified of problems. Increasing costs and downtime. Not being able to place these systems in you know, unoccupied mode. Which just when nobody's in the building, it shuts off or shuts down. It shuts reduces the the usage which saves utility costs. I think that's an important thing. Um Just from a financial sustainability

investment. And if we can get that incorporated, not only as the you know the greenhouse gas emissions reductions. I also kind of the last of my comments, I don't have any questions here. But you know just as I've been thinking about going through this budget process kind of placing this within the broader economic context. Um Like Council member Johnson I was talking about in previous years. Um So the Wake County manager has already proposed two cent tax increase to address state budget shortfalls, revenue losses associated with the Blue Ridge loophole and other funding pressures coming from the state level. At the same time North Carolina is continuing a policy path that phases the corporate income tax debt tax rate down to zero by 2030. Um so even if Morrisville does not increase the property tax rate um you know residents are still likely to see higher costs through these county taxes in addition to utilities, groceries, health care insurance and you know general housing expenses. Um So I certainly don't see the town of Morrisville's property taxes as the primary driver of financial pressure. Um what I do see is that last year North Carolina was ranked ranked for the number one state for business while also being ranked the worst state to work for the fifth consecutive year. Um that reflects a broader economic model built on low wages, weak labor protections and limited collective bargaining rights. In the local area you know we continue pursuing growth and rising property values. Um but it seems that the rising valuations also increase the cost burdens on residents um especially homeowners and renters who are already struggling with affordability. Um and certainly the significant commercial property valuation appeals continue to shift that burden that tax burden on the residents over time. Um Our largest corporations are benefiting from low taxes, low wage structures, rising consumer prices. Um you know while working residents absorb more of that cost burden. Um so,

you know, government we can't control every aspect of the economy. Um, but I think us here as well as, you know, throughout the um throughout our our county or state um or nation that uh you know, we're responsible for deciding uh whether public policy reinforces those dynamics or you know, reframes and restructures them. Um, so I just wanted that to be um out there for um you know, from my point of view um sitting here and and you know, living in the world and talking with residents. Um, that it's it's not just our property taxes that are causing folks um harm. There's a lot of stuff going on right now. Um. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Take a break. Um, did you still want to add a little something? We have a timer for that. You had it up earlier. Oh, I think I'm going to have to say something. Okay. Um, through the discussion do you want another uh Councilmember Patel, please, and then I have a couple. I know we have talked a lot, but I need to add a few things. First of all, I do agree with mayor that property tax appeals have permanently changed the landscape. Um, I also agree that we should fully fund our reserves. However, if you really look at property tax appeals and how why they have been successful, there is a reason. Our growth is slowing. These property tax appeals are being successful because state is finding that their appeals are reasonable. All right? So, we can we can talk about why that is but average person doesn't

have Yes, they do have ability to for appeal but most people don't have legal help that they get or that that corporations get for a successful appeal. Another comment I would make is uh actually something that one of one of the residents mentioned during public comments today. Uh where she mentioned that her family had to move out of the town uh because they could not afford to live here. So, while I agree that residents of the town enjoy the services and and facilities we and amenities we provide, being able to live in the community is more important for residents than being able to enjoy those amenities and for the services we provide. I don't believe anybody looked at today's CPI data. Inflation's still rising. Yes, that that impacts us as as as a town but it also impacts our residents. We need to be mindful of that. I agree that uh with the mayor that being able to we should be being proactive instead of being reactive. But at the same time, reacting to changing economic conditions is not is not bad. Sometimes you have to. So, if you look at our recommended budget. It adds 10 new positions at the cost of over a million dollars. Once fully activated, this become permanent recurring obligations.

It adds 1.56 millions in compensation increases. It also and they're also fully recurring. It expands smart shelter program by $704,000. Activists count center operations $477,000. These are all services I understand the community values and I'm not going to argue against the value of these services. What I'm arguing is this. This budget finances those recurring additions in ways that are not themselves recurring. The budget document itself acknowledges that the revenue growth has averaged just about 5.8% since 2023. And the ad valorem revenue is falling due to revaluation appeals. The document itself warns that FY 2028 will be will bring new recurring obligations. So, I'm going to ask a question which is if we are recurring costs today using one-time revenues and if new recurring obligations arrive in FY 28 and if revenue growth continues to slow what does our structural position look like in 2 years? The answer is if nothing changes, it's going to be a tax increase. And that means that and I I have handed out something that that I want everybody to review before I I mention that. So, I'll talk more at length about it on during Thursday's meeting. But, if nothing changes, tax is going to increase and many families in Morrisville cannot absorb absorb that. So, what I'm asking for is not rejection of our services or of staff. I'm asking for genuine examination of where we can reduce recurring spending.

Not defer it, not shift to revenues, I mean reserves, but actually reduce it. That means looking at programs where participation is low relative to cost. It means evaluating whether all capital authorizations are essential in one year or whether some can be phased. It means being honest that that every dollar of the new recurring spending added now is a dollar that will be on the balance sheet in 2028 when the math gets harder. Our residents are not asking for perfect government. They're not asking They're asking for us to be honest, disciplined, and the government that respects the fact that they are being squeezed from all angles. They have made real adjustments to their household budgets over the past decade. They cut where they could. They deferred where they had to. And they have made it work on what they have. We should be doing the same. That's all. Thank you. Okay. Um I just had a couple of things. I stayed really high level, but in hearing my colleagues, I think it'd be a good idea to add the MFC renovations back in. Uh building automation systems. Um I like Council Member Scruggs-Johnson would really like to activate the Pew House. Um but to do that we need capacity. Um like we need capacity for for the home ownership, like we need it for the veterans memorial. So, um if we want more capacity this budget doesn't get us more capacity. This budget is kind of bailing water. So, let's just keep it high. If we want to do more things, things like that that aren't even on the CIP we have to bring the red line up. We have to have more capacity in general to do that. Um, I do not want to reduce a significant event from Parks and Rec,

any of them. We are living on the fact that we are built in the community together in such a positive way and people love it. And we have 250 year celebration coming up on July 2nd. That should be a wonderful event. Um so I want us to invest in our community by investing in our events. I think that's going to be really important. and I also believe that it's really important that to be fiscally responsible and fully fund our fleet replacement cuz as noted uh we have another 500,000 in needs next year. So, by delaying 380 now it's 800 and 40 or whatever next year. So, the holes are only getting deeper by not addressing some of these challenges now. And I'm not sure why we think that the economy is so terrible right now. We're not like 2009, as you noted, we're not like early 2000s. We're doing okay despite the federal government being really uncertain. Inflation is high but I don't think this is a terrible year for us to explain to the residents that for $10 a month we can keep the town moving forward for years. Um and as we've mentioned, if the holes keep getting deeper, there's a tax rate adjustment that should be really strongly considered in 2018 if not 2017 and in 2018. but if the legislature says we can't even do that, we're in big trouble. Um and then it's that's really cutting stuff in the 2009 time frame that Councilmember Johnson was talking about. So, um if no one else has any other comments, I do think that there's a good time to give our town manager a break because you have been up there for a while. Um this has been good discussion. I've

really enjoyed listening to my colleagues. Did you have something else, Councilmember? Okay. Um why don't we go and reconvene at 9:15, take a little bit more than a 15-minute break. Let's get refreshed and we'll come back and do some more work. We're going to be talking about this more on Thursday. Um do you have what you need from us, Town Manager Sudema? Yes, I think we've heard several things that there's at least some sense of consensus around um and then obviously we're interested in any feedback you have around fees. If you have questions or concerns there, um again, we can certainly talk Thursday night. The more we have it, the time the better prepared we are to help you with that. Okay. Yeah, I think we have what we need. Okay. Thank you very much. Let's go ahead and reconvene at 9:15, please.

Mhm.

We're coming back into session. We have two public hearings tonight. We will first hear from Tiffany McNeal, our economic development director. Good evening, Mayor and Town Council. During the April 28th um Town Council meeting, staff recommendations to our economic development policy represented to Town Council. There were no recommended revisions to that to the economic development policy, and um no additional changes were made to the economic development policy as well. Um I'm happy to ask any questions that you may have this evening. Um if there are no questions, um I ask if we move to um public hearing. Any questions? Seeing none, I declare the public hearing open. Town Clerk, is there anyone signed up? There is no one signed up to speak. Okay. Is there anyone here in the room who would like to speak on this item for up to 3 minutes? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing. I'll make a motion to close the public hearing. Second. Motion from Council Member Johnson, a second from Mayor Pro Tem Reboussin. All those in favor of closing the public hearing as stated, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously 7-0. Public hearing is closed. Any discussion or questions for staff? Seeing none, is there a motion to second on this item? I'll make that motion. Okay, we have some We have language here, right? It's on the screen. No, it's right on the screen. Oh, thank you. Sorry.

That other one is the more complicated one later. Um I make a motion to adopt resolution 2026-146-0 of the Morrisville Town Council adopting the economic development incentive policy. I have a motion from Mayor Pro Tem Reboussin, a second from

I'll second. Go ahead. Please help. From Council Member Patel. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously as well, 7-0. Thank you very much. It's kind of like stir-fry. You did all the preparation last time. This time was really quick and easy. We hope. Thank you. So, keep on bringing those businesses. We really appreciate all your efforts. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to our second public hearing of the evening, we will now hear from Byron Byron Hayes, our Chief Financial Officer. Uh good evening. Here we go. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh this is a public hearing for the installment financing for the renovation of uh uh 125 International, the public works facility, as well as the acquisition of 260 A Town Hall Drive. The total installment financing is for $12 million, $10.5 for public works, and $1.5 for uh 260 Town Hall Drive. Um the ultimately the uh bank proposal is from TD Bank at 4.02% for 15 years. That lines up uh pretty similarly with the first financing for the acquisition of public works facility. Uh we will go to the LGC in June uh in order to fully be approved by the state in order to close on the uh debt in June as well before the end of the fiscal year. And staff recommends holding the public hearing tonight and then approving the resolution for the installment financing. Any questions? Do not see any questions. I declare the public hearing open at this time. Town Clerk. There is no one signed up to speak. Is there anyone here in the room who'd like to speak on this item for up to 3 minutes? Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to close the public hearing. I'll make that motion. I'll second. Motion from Mayor Pro Tem Rabody, second from Council Member Johnson. All those in favor of closing the public hearing on this item, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously 7-0.

Thank you very much. Let's go get some financing after we do this motion. Any questions for staff? I'd entertain the motion to adopt. I'll make that motion. Second. Do you need to read this one out? I'm going to read it first. Sorry. I make a motion to adopt resolution 2026-152-B of the Morrisville Town Council making the findings and determinations on the proposed financing of the public works facility renovation and the acquisition of 260 Town Hall Drive. Second. A motion from Mayor Pro Tem Rabody, second from Council Member Geramello. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing no opposition, that carries unanimously 7-0 as well. Thank you very much. Appreciate your efforts on that. We are now moving to action items. Number 12, we have one action item evening. We now invite Josh Michael, planner three, to the podium. All right. Good evening, Mayor and Town Council. Good evening. So, this is the This is for the rezoning for 10212 Chapel Hill Road. Uh there were some updates uh since the public hearing was closed. Um there was a site plan update. There was a neighborhood meeting. In addition, there was a condition that was removed and addition of another condition. So, I'll just briefly go over the updated slides and of course we can uh go back over any of the other slides. So, I did just want to give an overview of how how LIHTC works. There were some outstanding questions at the last Council meeting about that. So, just to go over LIHTC, it is the primary federal tool for financing affordable rental housing. Uh developers receive federal tax credits if they build and maintain income-restricted units for at least 30 years. That continuum is

uh has a condition for 50 years. Credits are sold to investors, generating equity and reducing project debt, which keeps that rent affordable. And it's not a grant, it's a financing mechanism. So, how it works in North Carolina, it's federally created, but credits are awarded awarded through North Carolina Housing Finance Agency through a statewide competitive scoring system, and ultimately those uh recipients will be awarded in August of this year. So, the developer applies directly to NCHFA. Uh Wake County or Morrisville does not award the tax credits. And in 2026, NCHFA received 15 new LIHTC proposals for Wake County and one gap financing request for evaluation. So, why does Wake County provide gap financing loans? Uh Uh Wake County operates the Affordable Housing Development Program or AHDP, which offers low-interest gap financing loans to close the remaining funding needs after LIHTC equity and other sources are maximized. These county loans are optional local support tools and do not influence the award. To go a little further on that, for some local funding patterns, uh for um so, some of the other municipalities that border us, so they provide direct local funding to support LIHTC developments in their jurisdiction. So, in 2025, Raleigh, Cary, and Apex all contributed local funds to their LIHTC projects. Um net much of that was through the gap financing. In 2026, Raleigh again provided local financing to every Raleigh-based LIHTC development. So, and then I just put some numbers here to kind of show you what those numbers look like for the 2025 awards and the 2026 awards and what those totaled for Wake County and what our neighbors contributed. So, what makes Morrisville's situation unique? Fairview Spring is the only LIHTC project in the 2025 and 2026 cycle to

receive no municipal funding. Wake County is covering the entire local gap through its 1.35 million AHDP loan. This means Morrisville can secure a deeply affordable, high-quality senior housing community without committing any town funds. So, why this matters for our decision-making? Approving Fairview Spring allows Morrisville to benefit from a competitive LIHTC award and major county investment at no local cost. And again, other municip- municipalities routinely invest financially in LIHTC. So, we're receiving those comparable benefits through the tool chest that uh that Town Council developed with the Affordable Housing Incentive Policy. The site plan was updated. Uh you can see that those on the original site plan, the Fairview Avenue betterments were not expressly called out on that. So, now you can see the Chapel Hill Road betterments, Sunset Avenue, and Fairview. Uh another item I'd like to point to is uh the T zone in town center commercial, the maximum lot coverage that you could develop a site to the 65%. Um Fairview Spring is their lot coverage is currently 45%. So, I wanted to highlight that because a lot of developments, commercial developments, multi-family, they maximize that 65%. Um anytime you're able to retain more, or I guess to use less lot lot coverage, the trade-off is you get more tree canopy, there's less stormwater issues, mitigation on stormwater. So, um a by-right development can certainly come in and as has been in the past, they generally do go to maximize that lot coverage to get the best bang for the buck. The other item on the site plan, which I'll get to with the updated condition, you'll see increased parking to comply with the UDO, 75 spaces.

Updated cross-sections for the roads. Councilmember Carmelo wanted us to quantify those improvements, which was I think really astute and smart to do because it does show that, you know, there's almost half a million just on the Chapel Hill Road improvements. Um these numbers have also been confirmed with our engineering department, so these have been confirmed. So, these highlight the 10-ft travel pathway, Sorry. Uh uh 10-ft side path, 15-ft outside lane, and the 12-ft inside traveling lane along Chapel Hill Road. Sunset Avenue, again, total estimated cost of improvements is approximately $280,000. And I think the applicant did a good job of highlighting those improvements in the neighborhood meeting, um showing that the lanes will be expanded on Sunset. As well as providing sidewalk access. And the same for Fairview, 278 or almost 200 279,000 dollars in improvements. The conditions that were updated, they did, as I mentioned, remove the parking conditions, so they are not asking for any alleviation of the UDO parking requirement. They also did add a condition that uh complies with our smart shuttle, and that condition is, "If, as part of the town's smart shuttle program, the town identifies a stop at or adjacent to the development site as a preferred or prioritized location, the developer shall dedicate or convey an easement necessary for the transit stop at no cost to the town and that is mutually agreed to by both the town and the developer." So, those are all the updates that I have. I did also,

um include some attachments with frequently asked questions, um another attachment that looks at home values and bike tax, so I'll be happy to take any questions. You want Councilmember Carmichael followed by Councilmember Scroggins and Council, please. Josh, thank you so much. I think this is a good representation of a the cost and like I talked to several people they were worried if there was no sidewalk on the Chapel Hill and that you know really does bring out you know what is the correct thing. Where is the BMP going? Still we don't have space for BMP or is it under the under the parking lot? Is Uh it is their storm water is underneath. Yeah, it is under the parking lot.

lot I think that's what you said. Okay, and I drove by this. Help me understand. Currently there's a sidewalk on the Gardens, you know, on the on on the other side. Right? And the street dimension are they like is not more than one car can really go through that. With that in my mindset help me understand this particular they had to put a sidewalk, then then curb and gutter, and then the whatever the median like you know to the middle of the whatever they have to put.

Mhm. How does how much does that increase the width of the road with currently what it is right now? Yeah, the applicant can probably speak to this as well but I believe the increase is it 2 ft per for the road on Sunset

ft for one and five 4 and there you 4 ft

for one and five for the other. 4 ft for uh is it Sunset and five No, no, I'm not talking of the site. I'm not I'm not talking of the site. Perhaps we could have um the applicant stand up next to Josh at this time and just make the question and answer a little bit more straightforward. So what I'm trying to say is like here it says 40 to 60 public right of way, right? At the bottom if you like the arrow. Bring your arrow all the way down. More. Yeah, see it's Mhm. 40 to 60 uh public right of way. And on the other side there is a sidewalk on the Cotton's place and Cotton what do you call it there? Uh subdivision is and there is a street. Mhm. So Correct. How much from there is the next curb and gutter? Like what is the distance? And I think I think Timmons did some measurements.

Yeah. Yeah. Um So the So the current the current pavement width um on Sunset Ave um toward Chapel Hill Road is 18 ft wide. And as you go toward Fair- Fairview it expands uh to 30 ft. Um they did some widening when they did the development across the street. So uh what that is there where where's the narrowest point? There's two 9-ft lanes, you know, south uh west bound and east bound. Mhm. One going toward Chapel Hill and one toward Fairview. Uh what we're proposing to do is is go from 18-ft wide pavement to 22-ft wide pavement. That'll That'll provide a full 12-ft lane width um on our side of the project. Those are the

And we'll we'll increase the uh the lane going toward Fairview from uh 9 ft to 10 ft wide. So one lane goes to 9 ft and the other goes to

you can you show me in these like you know like because I'm just trying to visualize it? Um

So And if you could identify your name and your role for the record, that'd be helpful, too. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Your name and your role for the record. Thank you, sir. My name's Patrick Barbour. I'm a senior project manager with the Timmons Group. Um located in Raleigh 5410 Trinity Road. Um I've been doing projects with Evergreen for going on 11 years and my boss has been doing it since 2000. I think it's giving you some background on So so current so currently you can see right here I'm on the plan B you can see my cursor. So approximately we're 18 ft right here. Mhm. Um what we'll be doing is um we're going to the the center line of the road will be adjusted. So right right now you have 9 ft you know 9 ft going towards Fairview. You have 9 ft going towards Chapel Hill Road. What we'll be doing is what we're going to be adding pavement um and and it and it varies cuz as you approach Fairview it gets to like 30 ft wide. Um but at its narrowest point um we'll be going from you know 9 ft on this lane to 10 ft. And we'll we'll be going 12 ft a 12 ft lane from a 9 ft to 12 ft lane um as you're going towards Chapel Hill Road. Okay. So from my understanding there is a a gutter or swell on on the left side like

Yeah that's roadside ditch. So so that will be all leveled out and then a sidewalk will come on top of it and also the road. So basically the best scenario right now you're saying it's uh the current this is the new one right? What is the current one? Well the the the current one is is 18 ft wide. It's with with roadside ditches. Yeah and and what is the final end product? Uh the final width is going to go from 18 to 22 ft wide. 22 ft plus curb and gutter plus grass strip plus plus the uh

And and how much is that like approximately like Uh Yeah. Yeah. I'm close to 27 or something. Okay. Uh yeah, the and that this is all across the Sunset and Fairview, right? Yeah. Fairview Fairview is actually a little bit more widening cuz Fairview is narrower. Fairview is only 17 ft wide. So, we're going from 17 to 22 ft wide. So, basically Yeah, cuz you heard the whole the homeowners are saying we're trying to pull off the middle one pass. So, Mhm. you know, so instead of having a 8 and 1/2 ft lane, you're going to have a 10 a 10 ft lane on the opposite side of our development you have a full 12 ft lane on our side. Cars should be able to pass pass

that much better than that. Can you go back to the Chapel Hill side? So, here you're adding an additional outside lane. Uh actually adding two lanes. So, so there's a there's there's an existing northbound lane and the up center turn lane and the up southbound turn lane. Well, we're adding it to two lanes. We're going to be adding a uh uh 12 ft inside lane and then a 15 ft wide outside lane. So, we're actually adding 27 ft of pavement. The two full lanes. Plus the grass strip plus a 10 ft you know, multi-use path or side path. And and how much is the property width here? Like okay, 298 linear ft. Okay. All right. All right. I think this is very helpful to me. Sure. Thank you. Council member Scott Shelton followed by Council member Johnson. Thank you very much for the updates and I also want to say thank you for the neighborhood meeting that was held last week. It's important for us um

to hear more of the concerns about the neighborhood impact. Although, um you know, whether or not it was required for this project, it it seemed like it's the right thing to do and you met the challenge in a short amount of time, so that's really appreciated. I do believe that you have resolved several of the concerns about the parking through expanding the park at parking count to the standard project requirements. The road improvements are exceeded with adding funding for a transit stop, which will improve access for probably not just the residents of this project, but the residents in the area as well, because it it's probably will be placed so that anyone in the public can access the transit stop once it's determined and where it should go and so forth like that. So, that is much appreciated. I've made previous comments publicly and they were called out publicly as well that I am in support of this project. I think Morrisville needs housing that is affordable for our seniors. I think it is a gap in our fabric of all the things that we offer in our housing stock. And it really um situated in an area that, although it's not ideal for every scenario, there are so many yeses in the boxes that, you know, are required for a project like this to happen. So, I really do appreciate the interest and the support of Wake County as well. That is huge to make this more accessible for the town

and for this um uh company. So, with that said, I also made a statement saying traffic can be mitigated because that is a number one concern of the residents of this um area is the uh roads and the access and safety for those. And so, I'd like to answer their concerns in the sense that um the way that we plan for roads in the town of Morrisville is that we have a comprehensive transportation plan that requires anyone who's improving roads or um is are doing road projects that they meet the standards that are outlined in the comprehensive transportation plan and that's a strategic plan. It's um last been approved in 2019 and the project today is in scope of the 2019 plan, but ironically, we are up in the midst of updating that plan and on April 14th, we had a presentation by our planning team about the comprehensive transportation plan update. In that update, there has been several public uh input opportunities about roads, transit, greenways across our town. So, that was active input sessions um being held. However, I would say to our town manager and staff that we also received um passive public input on our roads and systems. And a passive example is getting an email to a town council email box about a concern about a traffic area. Um specifically, we have received many comments both at town council meetings, planning board meetings, and in our

email box about Sunset Avenue, Fairfax, and NC 54 areas. The um Sunset and Fairfax are local streets. So, they have a certain category of width, and they're never going to be NC 54, but in our current comprehensive transportation plan, I'm sure that it accounts for the improvements that you've outlined and demonstrated because you're following the plan, but with the plan update, there might be more information that we can um consider as part of some of the recent feedback that we've seen. I went back to the presentation on April 14th, and we are now in the um the development of the um plan update phase. But, this timing of the Sunset Avenue and Fairfax should be recent enough that it can at least be reviewed to see if it's still compliant with the comments that we've set forth. Specifically, there's concerns about turn lane access, which I don't think is indirect um a direct area of this project. So, there might be some review of turning and and stuff like that that the town should have as a party to look at um in this comprehensive transportation plan update. So, I would appreciate if um and and I will be happy to forward all the emails that I've received on this uh transportation issue with this project just to make sure that they're bundled up in a nice bow, and everybody can um see them systematically, but I think it's important that um the feedback that we've received on the transportation concerns are gift and we should um review and make sure

that they align for our future as new projects and and other development does occur in this area. Thank you. Councilmember Johnson, please, followed by uh Mayor Pro Tem Perbody. I'm going to use Councilmember Patelson first. Sounds good. Um so first um thank you, Josh, for all the information that you provided in the briefing this um at this meeting. The Q&A was fabulous, so I appreciate that and I want to thank the applicant for all their hard work and also for the community meeting. I think that went well. I was on that. It it it all seemed to go well and folks got to ask and you were very kind with your time. Um folks got to ask what they wanted, so um I appreciate that. I also appreciate the fact that you've made some changes in the conditions. Um I'm pleased with the uh easement for the smarts shuttle because I have no doubt that's where we're going to head once this project is built um to to help with transportation for our our newest residents. So um so thank you for offering that. I I do appreciate um hearing the concern and eliminating the reduction in the parking spaces. For me, I actually would prefer that you have the reduced spaces. I would prefer more green space, personally, um but I'm not going to argue that point and we're here today and I think it's important that this project move forward um for this community. So um I just for the record, I would I would I would more green space the better. And thank you Josh, you explained how this project actually gives much more green space than would potentially be there with other developments that are allowed by right. So, I think that's

important that the more the better for me. Um And this is not really for the applicant, it's more for us. This concern still from the neighborhood heard about access crosswalk and then a center turn lane. The real estate is out there now for a turn lane. There could be a left turn lane onto Sunset. Unfortunately, it's it's striped or it's painted for a left turn into the bank, Fidelity Bank. Why it's not a full function like the rest of that turn lane is all further north on 54 to allow rights and lefts. I I don't know or lefts on both sides. I don't know. Um but is that something even without your new pavement, the real estate's there. So, you know, with your new pavement there could easily be a re-striping there to allow for a left turn lane onto onto Sunset. So, I think I would like very much for us to advocate for that. And it sounds to me like low-hanging fruit, but I understand that's a DOT decision. That is their road. They'll make the call. They'll tell us what they will and won't do, but I think we can advocate on behalf of the residents. So, I I would encourage us to do that. And even with a crosswalk, I have I have some questions about a crosswalk and but but I know that was brought up. So, I think that's something we can we as a town, again, not the applicants, not his to do, but for us to advocate for our residents. And then, um just to um I I don't know. I just just so I say this. Um no no development no one development no one project in the town of Morrisville can solve the congestion issues or the transportation issues we have in this town. Every development and every project has

to do their share. And um and you are doing your share, but I think it's important to remember that. Um you or anybody else who may come, and there will be more development in this area, the properties along 54 here um by right can can build um a lot of different kind of development, and it will come in time. But no one of them, and you yourselves, can't solve it alone. So, um you're doing your part, and I um I I was going to say I appreciate that, but you're required to do your part. So, that's that kind of comes with it. And then, um one other thing about um I think it's important to remember cuz somebody asked me about this, and important to remember that the con- what we are looking at here um of the site is a concept plan. It is not a detailed plan. It is not a landscaping plan. So, I know on this plan we show like a couple of trees here and there. That is not the landscaping plan. There is much more to come on that, and will look very different. Those are um yeah, thank you for Those are just kind of holding places to say we're going to we're going to have a landscaping plan um when we go through this whole process. So, there's more to come on that, and it will look very different than what we see here with just a couple of trees here or there. And then, um I guess the last thing it This is a development that it and Council Member Scroggins Johnson said this. This is a development that is needed on our in our community. This is a portion of our community here today that needs a place to stay and live. And it's also going to be a um retirement community for others to come to Mooresville to live and enjoy what all of us have enjoyed here. The majority uh and I I don't even know what our right number anymore. Let's say we are 34,000 people. Of the 34,000 people

that live here in the town of Mooresville, 33 33,900 of us never lived here in Mooresville. We came from somewhere else. And we are welcomed here like these folks will be welcomed here. We are all an integral part of this community and our diversity makes our community what it is and we are very fortunate. So, I am looking forward to welcoming um the Fairview Springs retirement community and their residents to the town of Mooresville. And that's that's all I've got right now. Thank you. Council member Patel, followed by Mayor Tabb and Mayor Bodie, please. Thank you, Josh. And thank you, Dana. I know you did a good job with the public hearing. I was there. And uh not public hearing, but the neighborhood meeting. And that was very valuable. Uh I'm going to ask some questions to get my point across. Um this this Sunset Avenue, was it there uh before the other neighborhoods who currently have objections were developed? The Sunset Avenue, yes. Uh well, in the I think that uh Uh, one of the residents, Patty Chain, gave a pretty good uh history in the last uh public hearing about that, but if you're talking about the development adjacent, yes, it was. And the homes on Fairview Avenue, they were all they're older than the the villas at Sunset and Con Place. Yes. All right. So, the concerns that neighbors currently have would be the same concerns that those homeowners would have there at that time. I would fair to say yes. Um did

the developers who built uh villas at Sunset and Con Place, did they actually widen the road? Or did any kind of road improvements They would have had to They would have had to do the improvements commensurate with the CTP at the time. Um that I believe that site plan was approved in around 2018, right around then, so with whatever the CTP requirement at that time, they would have had to do some improvements. Okay. But given the the width of the Sunset Avenue, there wasn't much done. Right? So, the concerns that people have about the width of the Sunset Avenue, I think you guys have done a good job at at least trying to trying to address them as much as you can. Um they're spending almost a million dollars on improvements on the roads. in terms of central or left lane, uh I know Council Member Johnson mentioned uh possibility of uh uh left turn lane. I don't I'm looking at the map and I don't think it's possible without because road narrows right after that. Uh so, that problem's probably going to be there, but adding 60 homes um 60 units uh uh of of seniors who don't typically travel during busy hours, uh I think it's not going to be it's not going to have that much impact. At least not as much as the other homes would have had when they were built on that road. Um and just as a question for you, uh and I I you answered my question last time, but I just want to clarify that. If somebody else wanted to build an apartment complex on the same lot, uh

they would be permitted to do so. Yes, they could do uh multi-family there. They they TCC allows for multi-family that's 50 units or less or 50 units or more, so they can run the gauntlet of as much as they want. It would need to be two stories or 35 ft, but as I pointed out, um with only 45% lot coverage, currently in this iteration, one could imagine a scenario where they could still meet that threshold of 60 units even only utilizing 60 uh using uh 65% lot coverage. And would they be required to do same road improvements and sidewalks that that we're currently Uh they would be required to meet the CTP um profile and cross-sections for all three roads. What they wouldn't have required to do is offer dedicated easement for a transit node for potential transit node. Understood. And in terms of number of parking spaces that they would be required to do, would it be same? I'm only talking about parking spaces, not the EV uh parking lot spaces, but just number of parking spaces, would it be same if they were going to build 60-unit apartment complex? That is correct, Councilmember Stell. They would be required to do It would It would be in line with the number of bedrooms in the units. So, the UDO stipulates that for multi-family, it's based on bedroom count. So, these are all one and two-bedroom. So, if they offered three-bedrooms, they would need to do a little bit more. But, if it was commensurate and one and two-bedroom, 60 units, then yes, it would only be 75. Okay. So, having seen everything and what uh what we are getting in return, I think I'm okay with welcoming those

seniors in our town. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Rabady, followed by Councilmember Kessling. So, I I also went out there this morning. I'm sure that at some point in the past week, we all have. Um and I have to say that I can understand the residents' concerns about particularly about Cotton Drive. But, you know, I I have to contrast that with any other use that could go there. And I I honestly I I can't think of a reason why the residents in this this build-building this development would need to use Cotton Drive at all. They're not going out to Aviation to work. They're not I mean, I I just I just don't I I just think that in terms of any other possible use, this this is almost the use guaranteed to produce very little traffic onto Cotton Drive. And with the improvements that the applicant is making on Sunset and Fairview, I I think that we're looking at appropriate traffic mitigation there. So, I I'm going to echo my fellow council members and say, "Welcome to Morrisville." Council member Kesling, please. Thank you for um considering Morrisville for this uh project. Um I definitely think it's a um unique opportunity to provide affordable housing for um an underserved population. Um and I appreciate uh um willingness to engage with our residents through the neighborhood meeting um and address some of the concerns that that they had proposed. Um I think a lot of the concerns that we're

hearing um uh you know, those have been addressed um along the way and I and I appreciate that. Um yeah, I think there's a lot of really good things with this development. Um you know, you could say that there's some downsides in terms of maybe a higher traffic um in that area. Um but, I think with the type of development that is, it's not going to be as um as severe as most people think. Um echoing what uh several of my other council members have um stated. I do appreciate the the smart shuttle stop um allocating for that. Um I think without the um you know, the walkability to uh uh place to the shops, place to eat, I think that's an important thing um to have to provide mobility for those residents that wouldn't have a vehicle as they're moving in. Um I am excited by the increase in parking. there's there's downsides to the parking as we've discussed here and I won't belabor that point. Um but, obviously, you know, flooding risks and reducing green space uh uh kind of compounds um if we if everything adds parking. Um you know, about I guess we're adding the we're at the minimum. Um I mean, if everywhere is at the minimum parking, that's a lot of parking. Um so I appreciated the initial effort, but I do appreciate um responding to the residents' concerns cuz that is also important as well. and that is all I have to say. Mayor Pretend Your Body, please. One more tiny little thing. On the next slide, I believe. No, no. Sorry. Um there was one of these one of these updated slides that Oh, that one. The Chapel Hill one that referred to utility poles being relocated. Are there street lights on these roads? And if not, will there be once the

applicant has finished the project? The applicant is required to install street lights.

Okay. Thank you. Um one question I have is can you zoom out like uh Not on this one. The site plan? Yeah, this. On the Chapel Hill. How far is the intersection of 54 and Morris Aviation there? Is it How far is it from Aviation? Yeah. I was going to say a quarter mile or more. It's down around the curve. What is it?

0.4 miles. 0.4. What's that? 0.4 miles. What? 0.4 miles. Okay. Now, the only reason I was thinking is if any of these residents walk and uh the traffic light um near the Aviation and 54 we don't have any press buttons for pedestal crossing, you know, like so. Mhm. That was one of my things that I was thinking about, you know, how will that look lady be if they wanted to walk to any of the groceries store or because this is a very high intense intersection and we don't currently have anything there other than trying to run and these are all seniors. They don't think they can run through that. But it's not required, right? That's what you're like That is correct, yeah, but this rezoning there's nothing required. I I I will bring up the Aviation improvements at 54. Obviously, that's going to provide that is programmed into

the step and there will be more access control at that intersection. I'm not sure if there's any type of um crosswalk that's planned for that, but there will be at least access control and more opportunities to mitigate traffic when the Aviation improvement does occur. Yeah, because I know on the other side there's development going to come. But that's correct. Sounds good. Potentially. So, I just want to share um one concern is the double yellow line uh to turn into or out of Sunset. Um doesn't sound like there's been accidents yet, but whatever we can do to try to it's not going to stop us tonight. Not going to stop me tonight, but I just want to make sure that we're aware of that. That could be a problem cuz trying to get out of there at 5:00 p.m. is not something I do and I would take Cotton in that case. So that's just something to think about. Council member Patel, please. So I just got one question for you, Josh. Yes, sir. I think somebody mentioned the need to drive down the Cotton Drive. If somebody is coming down southbound towards Aviation Parkway, how what is the best way for them to get into this development? What would be the best

If they're coming down Aviation towards 54? No, from 54 towards Aviation. On 54 towards Aviation. So What is if on 54 so there is so they're heading

cannot make left turn or they They can't. So you can make a left turn. So there is no there is no left turn lane currently to take a left onto Sunset. You can still make a left turn onto Sunset. You would be You would need to stop then

potentially traffic behind you might back up a bit, but you currently can make a left turn. And I do also want to add because this has been brought up by a few council members that the applicant heard the concerns about the left turn lane. There are ongoing conversations with NCDOT from the applicant team and with staff. So if there's ultimately NCDOT will look at that, review that, look at crash data, items like that, and they would be the ones and then of course looking at the cross section and the right of way width to see if they could accommodate that. Um but so those conversations are occurring um where but yes, currently you can make a left onto Sunset. It's just not a turn lane. Okay, thank you. So, the last comment is I know some of the residents have expressed concerns over safety of the seniors uh in this project and uh today we heard from many seniors and there was a overall support for this project um particularly from seniors uh who understand why this project and location is very important. So, but I just wanted to add that to my comments. Thank you. Council member Castling, please. I just wanted to echo the um NC 54 turning left in the Sunset concern. Just wanted to add that. Okay, we've had you guys up there for a little while. Um I don't I'd like to recognize Council member Johnson to make a motion. I'd be happy to make a motion. Okay, I find the proposed zoning map amendment to be consistent with the town of Mooresville's comprehensive plan and in the public interest for the following reasons. One, the proposed rezoning

supports objectives and goals outlined in the town's adopted strategic plan, land use plan, and affordable housing plan. Two, the proposed rezoning aligns with the strategic plan initiative to identify and expand housing options to meet current and future needs of the community. Three, the proposed rezoning creates housing in Mooresville that would preserve and enhance the diversity, quality, character, safety, affordability, and appeal of Mooresville's housing and neighborhoods to strengthen the town's desirability as a great place to live as recommended by the land use plan. And number four, the proposed rezoning adheres to the goal of enhancing development of affordable housing guided by the affordable housing plan, which states the town should seek to develop a balance of housing that would provide that provides a diverse range of housing types, price points, and styles. And I hereby make a motion to approve ordinance 2026-139-0 of the Morrisville Town Council approving a zoning map amendment for Chapel Hill Road, a property located north of the intersection of Chapel Hill Road and Sunset Avenue to the conditional town center commercial REZ-26-0020. Second. I have a motion from Council Member Johnson and second from Council Member Scraggs. Council Member Johnson, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously 7-0. Thank you very much to our staff, to the applicant. We look forward to collaborating with you to make sure that we have lots of housing for our seniors very affordably for 50 years. So, thank you all very much for that. Have a great evening.

The next item on our agenda is about upcoming events. For a full listing of events, please see the town calendar at www.morrisville nc.gov. We're now moving on to Council comments. Mayor Pro Tem Body will share first, then will be followed by Council Member Scraggs. Council Member Scraggs, please. Thank you, Mayor. You know, I thought that I was over the point where I could be appalled by publicly stated bigotry and hate speech, but tonight's meeting has shown us that I I shown me that I am not. And I just want to say how much I look forward to the day when it will not be publicly acceptable to come to a public forum and and spew hate and lies about a marginalized population. Thank you. Council member Scoggins-Johnson followed by Council member Garamella, please. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to thank our fire department and our police department for offering the town council a public safety awareness training Saturday. We had an opportunity to literally be in the shoes of our fire and police. We were provided with the gear that they wear and we wore that the entire time they were doing training and exercises and we were lifting up hoses and and that thing is heavy. I mean, that that just the clothing protective gear is heavy and then to have so many rules, regulations, safety standards to remember and to perform 100% accurately in order to not only be safe, but to save and preserve um

people and property in our town is just so impressive. And then police gave us an understanding of the um uh you know, the environment that we are living in, the things that we need to be aware of to be safe, how they are working hard to provide a safe environment for us every day and I have a deepened respect and appreciation for, you know, those departments. Public safety is not just given. It is only given through training and the right tools to do the job and, of course, the right people to take on that responsibility. So, thank you very much. Council member Garmella, followed by Council member Johnson, please. Um first, my apologies. I could not attend this Saturday. I had too many things going on and plus when you had to go and clean up the dorm. I would rather be here than cleaning up those dorm rooms there. Uh but nevertheless, I think uh uh things like these over the weekend, like what Ricky was talking about, enlightens them. We take things granted. But uh from what I was talking, I think the Ricky or Liz, I can't remember, but the gears were so heavy and they still, you know, go with a smile and say how you are. It's it's not, you know, the reality is different than what it is. And I really appreciate you guys putting together. Maybe in future, I don't know. Council member Johnson, followed by Council member Patel. So, I I do need to say thank you to police department and the fire department. Saturday was wonderful. I have I have always had great respect for fire department and our police department and I did not think it was possible to have

even greater respect for them, but um yeah, putting on the gear was all a different all different ball game. It was pretty hot in those uh in that turnout gear, but um I thank them very much. It really gave us an opportunity to kind of kind of step in their shoes cuz I did not do did not do all a lot. I thank God for Harrison. That's all I can say. And thank you, Harrison was my buddy. Um we teamed and during the PD section and he and I can clear a room now like this. So, we can go in with with our guns a blazing and then we can take care of it. So, um it was um it was wonderful to be with everyone for the whole day. Us as well as PD and fire department. So, thank you for that. And then I do want to congratulate um cuz we need to say it again, uh Council Member Satish Garimella for his appointment as the first vice president of the North Carolina League of Municipalities. The first Mooresville um elected official to serve um as a VP and next year as the president of the league. So, um congratulations, Satish. Looking forward to next year. Next year will be big for Mooresville. Um we better start planning right now. So. Uh let me make Martha Stewart Yeah, well. No, she's she is one of a kind. That's for sure. Yeah. Council Member Patel followed by Council Member Kesling. So, I do like to thank I mean congratulate Council Member Garimella for the appointment. Um and I would also like to echo everyone else uh my appreciation for fire department, police department. It was hot and heavy. And it was only 65° and we were sweating. Uh I won't say we got a chance to step into their shoes. We just played their role um with uh I don't think uh we would survive 1 minute of the real drill, but it was

good and very informative. Thank you. Council Member Kesling followed by myself. Yeah, the public safety day um was really great, really eye-opening to um you know, see what the day-to-day is like for our fire and police. Um And congratulations, Councilman Gary Mellor. Congratulations, Councilman Gary Mellor. And I want to also thank the public safety teams for hosting our council during the training day on Saturday. There's lots of great information, and it's inspiring the level of training and knowledge our teams possess, which is important because they are putting their lives at risk to protect our lives and property. As Councilwoman Scroggins just said, here in Morrisville, um last week, North Carolina League of Municipalities City Vision was a great opportunity to network with with fellow elected officials and staff from around the state and take advantage of numerous educational opportunities as well. From AI to physical and emotional self-care to how to make a strong, lasting connection with a constituent, it was definitely time well spent with our team. And it was conveniently close, just a few minutes away in Raleigh. Another, even larger, opportunity is available to our continuously improving council with National League of Cities gathering in nearby Nashville later this year, where elected officials, staff, national subject matter experts, and federal officials will get together to benefit not only Morrisville but North Carolina and the whole country. As always, please join us Saturday morning at the Western Wake Farmers Market anytime from 8:00 a.m. until noon at Indian Creek Trailhead. And this Saturday, you can also drop by Fire Station 1. They're having an open house just a block away from the market, and you can see how our firefighters train and live and protect all of us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Town Manager Zudell, do you have any comments tonight? I think I've spoken enough, sir. Any questions for the town manager? I would entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. Second. Oh. I would entertain a

Moved. Sorry, I already moved. Mayor Pro Tem Morad made a motion to close to adjourn this meeting. Councilwoman Gary Mellor seconded. All those in favor, please say "Aye." Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that carries unanimously. It is 10:17. We are now adjourned. Thank you all very much. I think we're making a motion