Regular Town Council Meeting

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Good evening everyone. Welcome to the town council meeting. I will call the meeting to order for Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. And we're going to move right into the agenda starting with the pledge of allegiance. So if you would stand and join us in the pledge. 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.

All right. Thank you. Also like to welcome those joining us by live stream via YouTube. And we'll move right now into the invocation of Marita diversity statement. The town of Apex values and celebrates diversity and inclusion. We see diversity as a strength that binds our community together. Inviting members from different faith communities to deliver the invocation at the beginning of our council meeting supports this unity. Recognizing that not everyone practices the same traditions, we welcome you to have a private moment of silence. And tonight what I would like to do is honor recognize actually um Yom Hashoa Holocaust Remembrance Day. As we gather this evening, we do so during the observance of Yom Hashoa Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time set aside to remember the millions of lives lost during one of the darkest chapters in human history. We honor the memory of those who were taken, the resilience of those who survived, and the responsibility we all share to ensure that such hatred and injustice are never repeated. As a community, we stand together in remembrance and reflection and in our shared commitment to dignity, humanity, and respect for all people. At this time, I invite us to observe a moment of silence.

Thank you. All right, we move now into announcements and petitions by the governing body and we'll start with Mayor Pro Tim Mahaffi is the first.

Thanks, Mayor. [clears throat] Uh there's one thing I want to uh to report out to the public and to to the council. Um member of the board of elections reached out to me this past uh week. They noticed our uh legislative agenda included a discussion about evenear elections and they were interested in talking about the topic. Uh so working with them and our staff uh we arranged to have the board of elections uh director and one of the board members come to our second meeting May to give a presentation about uh the implications the costs the benefits kind of a factual presentation to uh to inform everyone a little bit more about the implications of that change before anything is actually done. So that'll be the second uh second meeting in May.

Okay. Thanks.

Very well.

Thank you.

All right. Council member Gray. Evening all my colleagues and those who are here once again we're going to have another opportunity to discuss the budget um as a public hearing. Uh so please this is uh one of those opportunities where we are really looking for feedback on how we can shape our budget and this is a a budgetary year that is going to be uh shaped by not only what our town needs are but uh you know the lack of funding sources that we've received in the past from either state or federal for uh sources. So, we really do uh value and really um seek to get the input of those um who are residents as to how we can best come up with our budget. And I know that on Thursday we're going to be getting at least the proposal on the budget from our uh town manager has been working really hard on that, but we still always need input. So, we look forward for your input and keep an eye out on that on our public hearings. Um, last thing I want to bring to um, I just want to bring a little attention to is uh, just want everybody to remember that at this point in time there are those who are serving our nation in harm's way and we should

always remember the impact that these days have had on them and uh, on their families. It's something that we just want to bring to everyone's attention as something we should never forget. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Ziggger.

Thank you, Mayor. A couple quick things. Uh two weeks ago I had an opportunity to do some volunteer work for Wake County Habitat for Humanity. Uh always a good time uh swing and hammer. Uh I enjoy doing that work. Uh we're still working on Old Pool Place on the east side of of Raleigh. It's uh probably the biggest uh development that Habitat for Humanity has done in Wake County. Uh, but I'm also looking uh looking forward to them coming back to to Apex at at some point so we can continue that work and uh and help build affordable housing for our community um as well as the larger Wake County community. A quick update on CSX now that the weather is getting warmer. Um, you know, been reaching out to the CSX folks again to see if we can turn up the engines again. Um, so for those that that are impacted by these engines, they they know that um they, you know, CSX keeps them running overnight uh when the temperatures get cold, it's to prevent the engines from seizing up and dumping their cooling fluid when when the temperatures drop below 35 degrees. So they have an internal policy that states that um when the nighttime temperatures stay above 40 degrees, you know, those engines can can be turned off at at night. So kindly reminded CSX of their own internal policy and hopefully we can enjoy some peace and quiet in the evenings and um and on the weekends for those residents downtown. And then lastly, uh looking ahead to the agenda a little bit, we're going to doing some board appointments tonight. Um, I have to be honest, I uh I had a hard time making my my selections. And so I think we are very fortunate uh to be in this town where we have this many qualified volunteers for uh for you know positions on advisory boards uh in in the town of Apex. And so I appreciate everybody that have submitted their application even

though you might not be uh appointed tonight. I just want to recognize everybody that did volunteer and you know the the quality of the candidates that we're seeing. Thank you, sir. All right, council member move.

Good evening, everyone. Um, I want to share one important initiatives during uh the past several months, Commissioner Cheryl Stallings, myself and we have been working to put together a task force and with the help from Alan. Thank you, Alan. Okay. um this task force called peak resilience and well-being task force. This idea um you know brought to me during my campaign when parents came to me uh tell me uh do something to help our young people facing mental struggles. And this idea um since then deeply you know uh in my mind you know um this task force mostly um is a volunteer based. We have a team of crew members includes um mental health professionals, public health professionals, also representatives from each ethnic groups and the marginalized communities. Um two weeks ago I talked to WCPSS um Tayata you know um Staten. She is in charge of uh behavioral health in big county schools. She told me we lost four lives right before Easter and with the federal and the state budget cut the the situation is only going to get worse. So I think it's a great idea our community

you together to help with our students and our residents. The data show that one in five adults have been experiencing mental illness during the last year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people. So I think you know this task force would do good things put um for our community. So thank you. Please stay tuned. The first planning meeting is on April 23rd. Our first workshop is scheduled on May 29th. So please stay tuned for all the updates. If you uh like to volunteer or provide resources, information, please uh feel free come to me. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, Council Member Reese.

Thank you, Mayor. Want to bring a few things to everybody's attention in terms of events. Some of the things you're seeing uh across your screen. Um, one of them is uh not listed, I don't believe, but the Chamber of Commerce Economic Forum is tomorrow from 5 to 7 pm at the senior center and we'll have representatives from the US Chamber of Commerce, Wake County Economic Development. Um, Colleen Morray from our Apex Economic Development Department. Um, should be a great event. Again, that's tomorrow from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. an economic forum at the senior center. Uh the next is on your screen. I want to bring attention to Earthfest. That is this Saturday on uh Town Hall uh campus right out here in the parking lot. Um and it's going to be a great event. and that is Saturday from 12 to 4:00 p.m. Um, and along these lines, uh,

in regard to what Council Member Gray just talked about with the budget, um, I will be, uh, proposing, uh, for us to explore during this, uh, budget cycle, uh, two, um, initiatives. One will be to expand our launch apex program. It is an incredible program that had uh 67 applicants uh last year um and only 20 seats. And so that's um one uh great opportunity where we have a good problem. Um and uh I think it would be uh great for us to capture those additional uh opportunities. And the second is for us to uh expand our plant the peak program. Um that is a great program where you can apply and have a native tree pretty good size planted professionally in your yard to push to uh increase uh that program as part of again this is along the lines of earthfest and sustainability um and reforesting uh Apex as much as we can. And then the other is uh to initiate a uh plant the peakway and plant the parks uh just as footholds for us to build uh broader programs uh across town. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you so much, council.

All right, I'll

just to clarify, Earthfest is next Saturday.

That is next Saturday.

The 25th.

Will be early though. Uh if you want to come out this coming Saturday, [laughter] uh it sounds like I need to show up just

to meet you and uh yeah, I defer to the screen. So, thank you. Appreciate that.

Thank you. Just two quick things. Um I I just want to say um Saturday I got challenged by the Holly Springs mayor to 100 meter race and uh I'll just say that

I won't do that again. My body is feeling it today, but Apex prevailed. So, we we got that done. But also, in the spirit of athletics, history was made yesterday. Um, you may be familiar with a dynamic women's basketball player. Her name is Andy Navar. She played for Apex Friendship, graduated in 2022, McDonald's All-American. She went on to play one year at Stanford, transferred to the University of North Carolina.

Yes. Uh, and played three years there. and she was the 28th overall pick for the Atlanta Dream. So, history has made the first person ever drafted, first woman drafted in the WNBA right here in Apex, North Carolina. So, Andy, if you're watching, congratulations. [applause] All right, so we'll close that out. We'll move to adoption of the meeting agenda. Uh, town staff is requesting the removal of and updates to the following items. Removal of consent agenda item number 14, memorandum of understanding between the town of Apex and North Carolina Children's Health Incorporated. Removal of presentation number five, automated license plate reader LPR program update. And then final updated resolution and member list for regular meeting agenda item number one, resolution establishing peak resilience and well-being task force. So with those changes, recommendations, is there a motion?

So moved.

Motion Ziggerman.

Second.

Second. Mayor Pro Tim discussion. All in favor say I.

Opposed. Motion carries.

Now have a consent agenda. As previously noted, town staff request removal of consent agenda item number 14. Memorandum of understanding between town of Apex and North Carolina Children's Health Incorporated. With that note, are there any other recommended changes? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve?

Motion approved.

Motion approved. Mayor Pro Tim.

Second.

Second. Zman. All in favor say I. I.

Oppos? Motion carries. All right, town council committee reports. This is a time in our meeting agenda for updates

regarding any recent meetings of the town council committees. One meeting has been held with the ad hoc finance committee and I'll defer to the finance committee chair, Mayor Coen Mahaffy, to provide a status report.

Uh thank you, mayor. uh the finance committee which is myself and and council member Gray met last Thursday uh we met to receive a high level update about the town's financial position as well as the uh economic environment uh we find ourselves in as we head into the budget season. Um generally speaking uh we were told our growth is slowing uh even faster than we previously been forecast. Property tax revenue is uh scheduled or forecasted to be up I think 3.4 four 3.5% this year which is uh down from the initial estimates and and down dramatically from five or six years ago is you know 10 15% year-over-year. At the same time uh we're seeing increased demand in the expenditure side uh with increased insurance costs continuing to and retirement costs continuing to greatly exceed inflation. So the budget's released on Thursday and we'll get our first peak at at how it all shakes out then and I'll see you all at the work session.

Very well. Thank you so much for that update report. All right, we'll move now to town manager report updates. Mr. Vosberg.

Good evening, mayor and council. I have a few updates for you and then we've got a couple proclamations a little earlier than normal. We can talk about that. So, first I was going to clarify Earthfest is

Saturday, April 25th. It's great. We're working in conjunction here. This is good. Uh

I'll still see you Saturday. [laughter]

I'll be there. So, that's here on Town Hall campus from 12:00 to 4. Uh that is a pretty cool event. They it's two pages of activities. I won't read it, but there's a lot of information on our website and you can check it out. The schedule's laid out already, so if there's something you're interested in, you can check that. Uh, next, we've got the Love Local Showcase, which will be Sunday, April 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. And that's where downtown and non-down businesses are showcased in our downtown. Uh, so be sure to come out and check that out. They'll have swag,

samples, and special promotions for all of those businesses. On Sunday, April 26th, we've got a couple of events at the Howie Cultural Cultural Arts Center that I will highlight. The first is actually tomorrow night. It's the On the Steps Concert Series with Shaina Tucker, and that is from 7:30 to 9:30. And the last time I checked, there were a couple tickets available still for that, but I don't know if that's still the case. They are $35 for those tickets. Uh then we have an exciting event on Saturday, April 18th at 3:00 and Sunday, April 19th at 3:00. It's the senior showcase. Uh so this is an event I think it started in 2014. Uh and it it takes uh a local resident did the writing, there are scenes, there are songs, and it features all 55 plus uh participants will be featured in that uh showcase. And so it should be a lot of fun at the senior showcase. And tickets are free for those, but you have to request them. So, make sure you get on that. Then, a couple other things. Next is our meter update for our electric meters. We've replaced approximately 14,000 have been exchanged already. We have a little over 16,000 left. So, we're almost at the halfway point. Again, the projection was sometime in the fall to be completed with that exchange. Uh it continues to trend very well and uh knock on wood, not not a lot of issues with that exchange and we're at the halfway point. So, we'll continue on with that. Then I have the two proclamations that we'd like to go over. Uh so we've got two celebrations this week. It's national uh or North Carolina line workers appreciation week and also our public safety telecommunicators week. Uh so I will not say a whole lot about those other than we appreciate the staff for everything that they do keeping Apex safe, keeping us powered. I did send spend some time with a couple members of our electric department last week. It'll be a pretty cool video featuring some members of the team that comes out this week and in honor of the appreciation week and I'll turn it back to council

for those two proclamations. Yeah, absolutely. [applause]

Okay, we get this done. Let's honor some great people here at proclamations. Okay, we'll start with the Apex Electric Line Worker Appreciation Day and Council Member Gray will start off the reading. Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

The proclamation for Apex Electric Line Workers Appreciation Day. Whereas on January 3rd, 2017, the 115th Congress of the United States adopted House Resolution 10 recognizing line workers, the profession of line workers, and the critical contribution these dedicated individuals make to protect public safety while expressing support for designating April 18th as National Linemen Appreciation Day. And Whereas on April 15, 2015, the North Carolina General Assembly ratified House Bill 140, designating the second Monday in April of each year as line worker appreciation day in North Carolina, which falls on April 13th in 2026. And

whereas the town council of town of Apex recognize and celebrates the vital role of electric line workers and wishes to honor the dedicated personnel who serve our community with professionalism and commitment And

whereas public power utilities rely on skilled line workers who are responsible for constructing, operating, and maintaining the electric distribution system that delivers safe and reliable power to homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure throughout Apex. hand.

Whereas the line worker profession requires exceptional technical skill, ongoing training, and unwavering commitment to safety with personnel working in all weather conditions and at all hours to ensure uninterrupted service. hand. Whereas line workers serve as the first responders during storms and emergencies, often working under dangerous conditions to restore power, secure damage infrastructure, and protect the safety of the public and fellow emergency responders. And whereas the line workers serving the town of Apex demonstrate courage, dedication, and a spirit of service above self, contributing significantly to the quality of life and economic vitality of our community.

Now therefore, I, Jacqu K. Gilbert, mayor of Apex, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim April 13th and April 18th, 2026 as line worker appreciation days and proudly designate Friday, April 17th, 2026 as Town of Apex line worker appreciation day, encouraging all residents to join in expressing gratitude for the essential work performed by these highly skilled professionals. Be it further proclaimed that the town of Apex joins communities across North Carolina and the United States in honoring public power line workers for their dedication, service, and commitment to keeping our community safe and powered. Tonight, we'll start

with our great director who's watching, Kathy My. Hello, Kathy. Emily Woody, please come up. John Rose, Marty Stone, other electric utilities department team members come up and receive the proclamation. Thank you so much for your service. [applause] [applause] [laughter]

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. All right.

All right.

[laughter]

Oh, we need to balance this out a little bit.

We have Can we have a couple of you guys over here?

Yeah.

And then you right there. All right, another round of applause for these. [applause]

All right, thank you.

Yeah,

okay. Thank you again for your work. We'll move now to the second proclamation, National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week 2026. Council member, move, if you would please start us on the reading proclamation. Whereas the week of April 12 through April 18, 2026 is recognized nationwide, a public safety telecommunication week, honoring those who serve the critical first point of contact in times of emergency. And

whereas public safety telecommunicators perform an essential role in protecting life and property by answering emergency and non-emergency calls, dispatching appropriate resources, and providing calm, clear guidance to individuals in distress. And whereas the town of Apex proudly recognizes its dedicated team of 14 public safety telecommunicators who serve the community with professionalism, compassion, and

unwavering commitment. And

whereas the Apex Police Department Emergency Communication Center handles a significant volume of activity each year, including approximately 4,000 emergency 911 calls, 56,000 non-emergency calls, and 68,000 calls for service, reflecting both the scale and complexity of their responsibilities. and [laughter]

rough night. Whereas these highly trained professionals serve as the vital link between residents and emergency responders, including law enforcement, fire and emergency responders, emergency medical services, often making critical decisions in high pressure and rapidly evolving situations. And whereas public safety telecommunicators demonstrate exceptional skill, resilience, and dedication working behind the scenes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure timely and effective emergency response. And whereas their service is fundamental to the safety, security, and well-being of the Apex community, and their contributions deserve recognition and appreciation. Now therefore, I Jacqu K. Gilbert, mayor of Apex, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim Sunday, April 12th through Saturday, April 18th, 2026 as Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in the town of Apex and encourage all residents to recognize and thank these dedicated professionals for their vital service. Be it further proclaimed that the town of Apex expresses its sincere gratitude to its public safety telecommunicators

for their professionalism, dedication, and commitment to serving others in times of need. I would like to call up Assistant Town Manager Demetria John. Where's she at? Did she leave?

She's over in the corner.

She's in the corner. All right, cool. [clears throat] Jim Newuhos, communications manager. Supervisor Shawn Williams, Jerica Cole, and Kylie Rhodess, and telecommunicators Patricia Warlo, Warlow, Joel Ward, Piper York, and Wayne Faber. All right. [applause] All right.

And of course, Chief Ron Johansson.

Thanks so much for being here.

[laughter]

Are you okay?

Thank you so much.

All right. It means you

can have this work. Y'all can [laughter]

Well, y'all can push back if it's just if it's just going to be one row. It's kind of awkward to have three forward. So, let's just push y'all back in. We just scooch in as little much as we can. There you go.

I know, right? Another round of applause for [applause] Okay. I just wanted to take a second to recognize uh all our telecommunicators. Um you know, they're the they're the voice behind the headset. Uh when the the calm voice that answers all these emergencies, a lot of times you hear the sirens, uh you see the the lights, but but you never see these folks. Uh they always hide behind the headset. They never want to be seen. They never want to be recognized. Uh they take all the emergencies that you that you call in uh home with them every night. uh and they they they take that home with them. They they hold it in uh and they never get recognized. Um that's why they get a whole week. Uh a lot of times they they never want the recognition, but we want to give it to them. Um I I appreciate the adopted dispatcher. We started that two years ago. Um and it it took off. Uh Kylie Rhodess um and Supervisor Cole, those are the two that started it and they and it took off with a hit and we can't thank you folks enough for it because it really uh means a lot to them. to get recognized and to to see all the support that we get really is uh touching. They don't um they don't see enough of it. So again, we really appreciate it. Um I can't thank them enough uh for what they do every day and uh for all the training that they do uh behind the scenes to make sure that everybody gets taken care of in here. So again, thank you and thank all the TCS.

Thank you. Thank you. [applause]

[applause]

You're really not having your name, right? [laughter]

All right. Mr. Boxer, do you have anything else? You're good. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. We'll move now to uh town clerk Coleman.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council. Uh just an update. Uh again, I've mentioned this a couple times, but just as a reminder, um the uh North Carolina General Assembly will be meeting in the House um tomorrow on the property tax reform. U just to be clear, um all the proposals on the table would impact uh municipalities and counties uh pretty significantly. um and it does not provide immediate tax relief at this point. So I would just um caution everyone to to be mindful of that meeting for tomorrow and then we'll have another report out u at the next council meeting and obviously updates before then but just wanted to note that that meeting is happening tomorrow um and we will be watching closely for what comes out as a recommendation from that committee. Um and then we'll move into appointments. So the the first TC1 uh is appointments to the culture and arts advisory board. Um we had uh Daryl Heron who was recommended to fill a partial term vacancy that was previously occupied by Aaron Barnes.

Motion to approve women of Daryl.

Second.

We have motion. Mayor Promathy second. Council member Moo. Any discussion?

All right. All in favor indicate by saying I.

I. I

oppose. All right. Motion carries unanimously. Thanks.

TC2 uh is an appointment to fill a partial term vacancy on the multimmoal transportation advisory board. Um [clears throat] the recommendation is for Jean Sakit.

Motion to approve. John Kit.

Motion to approve. Mafey.

Second.

Second. Zerman.

All right. All in favor indicate by saying I

opposed. Motion carries.

Okay. TC3 is appointment to the parks and recreation advisory board. Uh the recommendation is for Abishka Singh. Um and this is to a partial term vacancy which was previously occupied by Mr. Michael Caners effective through June 30th, 2027.

Motion to approve Abishek Singh.

Motion Zigerman

second.

Second. Gray. All in favor indicate by saying I.

I post. Motion carries.

Okay. And the last one is uh an appointment to fill the vice chair role on the parks and recreation advisory board. This is to confirm Lisa Estridge, who was unanimously recommended by the current parks and recreation board to uh continue filling in that role through the remainder of this calendar year through December 31st.

Motion to approve.

Motion Gray.

Second.

Second. Ziggman. All in favor say I.

I.

Oppos.

Motion carries.

That concludes my report.

All right. Thank you so much. All right. We'll move now into public forum. This is opportunity for community members to speak. Um, wow. Short list tonight. Okay, great. So, we'll go ahead and start the public forum. And, uh, I'd like to call up Don Kazalino. Don Kazalino, 3632 Bosco Road. Good evening. This mirror is not a stunt, but a reflection of public concern. Public trust is at risk. As the saying goes, if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change. From the public's perspective, government no longer feels fully

accountable, feels increasingly insulated from the people it serves. It was reported two weeks ago that Apex's July 2024 cyber attack compromised the personal financial data of 22,000 residents. The public was not informed for nearly 2 years. Why? In December, we were told this incident resulted in approximately 300,000 in utility underbilling. By February 2026, that figure had grown to 10 million shortfall. What changed? Where did the additional $9.7 million come from? What breakdown in controls, reporting, or oversight allowed that shift? What is being done now to correct and restore public confidence? At the last council meeting, instead of clear answers, the town manager, Randy Vosberg, highlighted a community Easter egg hunt. Meanwhile, Terry Mafy reports growth is slowing, yet 20 additional positions are still being added. All of you collectively up here represent taxpayer funded compensation of approximately $1.5 million. Across the rest of Apex, there are 29 planning positions. Within a $7.4 4 million compensation budget supporting employees. This reflects a staffing and outsourcing structure aligned more with development activity than with transparent service to the public. There is a widening perception gap between what residents are experiencing and what is being

communicated publicly. And under the North Carolina Constitution, you took an oath to serve the people, not to manage perception, not to bury decisions in process, and not to reduce accountability. And what we're seeing is information withheld, explanations limited, and decisions moving forward without accountability. This is not transparency. You do not answer to shareholders. You answer to us. We are the people and this government serves the people. Thank you. [applause]

Elizabeth Stit Elizabeth Rait 3113 Friendship Road Mayor Town Council. Good evening. So, I would say based on all the applications that the town received for the boards, it's a pretty good sign that we do not have enough volunteer positions for the community. We are a growing community and we really have not increased the number of volunteer opportunities. I've talked in the past about how Raleigh has um resident advisory councils. We could add those. We could divide the town up into districts like Raleigh does. And so that the people who want to have a say in their community have an opportunity to do so. They should not have to be weeded through a bunch of resumeumés and only one or two can get chosen. We have a community that is very educated, who's very motivated and would like to have a say in what's going on, but there's not enough opportunities. So I ask you to consider where you can partner with the community and allow more opportunity to come in. Now you know you have different groups like the area that I represent the data

center area. We have people who want to get involved but we show up week after week or meeting after meeting because there's nowhere for us to go other than here. So, I ask you to give us the opportunity and create some advisory committees so that anybody who wants to volunteer can volunteer, not have to be putting their resume out there and saying, "Hey, choose me. Choose me." I'm not within the town limits and so I don't get to be chosen. We're not allowed, but I am very much impacted by every decision that you guys make. your taxes and what you fund and don't fund. I have no say in that, but it impacts whether I can get out of my driveway to the stoplight. You know, what is coming in? Is our community owned by local investors or is our community being owned by people out of town? You know, we need to have a greater say. And that is why we keep showing up over and over. And it's amazing the number of times that I get comments because I keep coming. They're like, "Why do you keep coming?" They don't listen. And I'm like, "Well, I'm going to keep coming because I have hope that maybe at some point you will listen." And I appreciate all of you taking the time to make eye contact with me because there's couple people who don't ever make eye contact. And when we take our time, we'd like just to have a few men moments of your time back. Thank you. [applause]

Fran Hudson.

Hello, Fran Hudson. 55424 Rex Road. Mayor and Council, I submitted a public records request six months ago today. This was a simple request and only included data

required by North Carolina's General Statute 132. Other municipalities have filled the same request in a matter of days. And yet, I'm still waiting for Apex after 6 months and many inquiries. On October 27th, Allan emailed me stating, "I anticipate this request to be fully completed slashclosed by the end of this week." After several unanswered inquiries, I included Randy Bossberg in my December 18th email. Allan replied and said on December 23rd that my emails were flagged as spam or junk and that he anticipated having an update before the end of next week. Allan also stated the town manager does not oversee the public records program and I haven't heard from Allan since. Under North Carolina General Statute 168-148, the town manager is the chief administer administrator, sorry, and has powers and duties that include directing and supervising the administration of all departments, offices, and agencies of the city and must see that all laws of the state are faithfully executed. Even more concerning, um JP Paris prepared a report that in it that was included in the December 9th meeting about the public records. If they're still verifying this data after six months of me waiting, how could he have reported a summary on the information that I asked for? Either the clerk had the information and has refused to provide it to me, or JP's report lacks factual evidence presented for the 2023 and 2024 years. I even posted a comment on Terry Mappy's Facebook post highlighting the office of the town clerk. Um, Ashley Gentry

actually replied to that comment offering assist assistance, but I was not assisted. Um, Terry, you personally reached out to me by email and after my comment on your Facebook post, um, you offered to help and I included all of you. In my reply on March 13th, I also requested a time I could come to the clerk's office to see what the process of the verification is and received no reply from Allan or any of you. That was included in that email. Um, the town clerk web page states, "The town clerk is committed to providing you with the highest quality of customer service possible. I have not received the highest quality of service possible. I've been ignored. I've been disregarded. And the town has failed to honor the oaths you swore to uphold. I challenge the town to investigate this and get back to me as promptly as possible.

Thank you for speaking tonight. [applause] Barbara Collins. Barbara Collins.

Barbara Collins, uh, 901 Norwood Lane, Apex for 28 years. Same house. So, I'm not here to talk about anything other than affordable housing. And I want to uh give you my idea that I have vetted with people who told me on the one hand it was terrible and on the other hand not doable and on the other hand too expensive. So let me answer all of those quickly. One of the big housing problems we have in Apex uh is that we were fairly rural and houses were affordable and people like me moved into them. Uh we moved into our house because of the high schools, right? We wanted to be walking distance and then we couldn't be redistricted, right? So, everybody has made their choices to be here. Well, 30

years later, I have nowhere to go. And so, I could give up my house in Apex, right? Because wouldn't Bank of America rather have a $700,000 loan uh than a bunch of people who are just sitting around being old hippies and not have to pay anymore, right? So, here's my idea. There is a vested interest in through banks, insurance companies, finance uh it's an economic uh employment issue, senior housing. So my idea is this that we find land uh in Apex, right? Has to be here. Sorry, sit back down. Say thank you. She's not allowed to do that. So thank you. All right. So, we have a plot of land. Uh, we've paid for it. Never mind how we've paid for it, right? It has the right zoning. Great. We're all working together. Those two things done. We need a piece of land that we can put uh seven single wide mobile homes, not tiny houses because I'm not walking up those stairs and my husband is still alive. We'll never live in a tiny home. Period. Right? Like, we're not doing that. [laughter] Okay. Okay, so you have seven single wide, right? They are owned by the corporation or whatever nonprofit uh that owns that land. Uh none of the single wides are uh owned uh by the people who would live there. They live there and we can bring in a visiting nurse every day be- because we have seven elderly people living there. there can be a minute clinic on the property that would serve our entire community. So, where it went wrong as I was pitching this to people was in single wide homes, right? They didn't like the idea of it. It's a I know that there's a reminiscing, right, about what that's

mean in our community. But people are solving this all over the country and it's time for us to do it, too. If we had better, more affordable senior housing that allowed us to stay in our community with our grandchildren and our families in retirement, beautiful area, who wouldn't do it? That's my question. [laughter] Thank you.

All right. [applause] [cheering] All right. Final speaker of George Hogan.

[clears throat]

George Hogan, 2140 Victoria Lane. Members of council, so I spent the last two meetings talking about Flock cameras, the contract, the cameras, the lack of evidence justifying them. But tonight, I want to walk through the company. What is Flock? This is not a neutral public safety vendor. This is a venturebacked surveillance company backed by $7.5 billion. Excuse me. That's their valuation. It's raised $650 million. Its lead investors include the founders fund, the venture firm founded by Peter Teal. Teal co-founder Palunt, which holds 900 million in federal contracts, including with ICE and the US military. Palunteer is currently building what has been described as a master database for the federal government to cross reference tre tax records, immigration records, and agency data. Tiel served on Trump's presidential transition team. He bankrolled JD Vance's Senate campaign. His founders fund partners led Trump's uh uh defense department transition and his associates now hold positions in the Department of Defense and in the White House. Four days ago, the current occupant of the White House posted on his little truth true true social praising Palenter by the stock ticker.

Why? Because he wanted to boost the stock prices. This is the ecosystem behind the cameras that are on our roads. As of yesterday, Axios reports that Flock now is raising even more capital. Flock is targeting 100 drone cities by the end of this year. And it's not slowing down. This is accelerating. So, I want to be direct about something. I spent the last 20 years working for private equity and venturebacked companies. 10 of those years and currently sitting as an executive. I know how investor pressure works. I know what a company does when it's preparing for an IPO. It does not slow down. It does not voluntar voluntarily limit data collection. It does not prioritize the interest of something like Apex. When Flock rewrites his terms and expands his platform and pushes into new cities, it's not doing it for Apex. It's doing it for the network and for these returns. So, the more you look at the company, it gets worse. Flock terms and conditions live on its website and are incorporated in our contract with this city by reference. They can be rewritten at any time without our consent. They were rewritten in December of 25. Then again in February. What did they change? They removed flock does not own and shall not sell customer data. The data license was made perpetual surviving contract termination. Mandatory arbitration under Georgia law was added which North Carolina statute says is void. But we voted you voted on one set of terms and they have changed those set of terms. Even if you get rid of flock now that data is gone. All of our data now belongs to flock. Peter Teal in Palunter. Thank you. [applause]

We'll end public forum close. Thank you to all of you who came to speak tonight. It's important that we hear from all of you. So, thank you so much. Uh we'll transition right now to proclamation

special presentations. Uh the first proclamation will be child abuse prevention month. So, if I can have my colleagues to join me down for the reading of the proclamations.

[clears throat]

Whereas children are vital to the future success. uccess, prosperity and quality of life in our community and all children deserve to grow up in safe, stable and nurturing environment. And whereas child abuse and neglect remains serious public health issues, they can have lasting effects on a child's physical, emotional, and mental well-being. And

whereas preventing child abuse and neglect requires a shared commitment among families, neighbors, educators, health care providers, community organizations, and government agencies. And [clears throat]

whereas strengthening families through supportive services, education, and access to resources can help prevent abuse and promote healthy child development. And whereas communities that prioritize prevention efforts, promote awareness, and provide support systems help ensure that children can thrive and reach their full potential. And

whereas increasing public awareness and encouraging individuals and

organizations to work together plays a critical role in protecting children and supporting families and whereas the town council of the town of Apex is committed to supporting initiatives that enhance the safety and well-being of children and families in our community. Now therefore, I, Jacqu K. Gilbert, mayor of Apex, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as child abuse prevention month in the town of Apex and urge all residents to work together to prevent child abuse and neglect by supporting families, strengthening communities, and promoting awareness. Be it further resolved that the town of Apex encourages all residents to recognize the importance of creating safe, stable, and nurturing environments for every child and to participate in efforts that support child well-being throughout the year. And I would like to call up from Western Wake Health and Human Services, Miss Joselyn Williams, for the great work that you do for our communities. Thank you. [applause] Come right here. We're kind of off center. [laughter]

On behalf of the Western Human Services Center here in uh Western Wake County, we'd like to thank you all for the recognition as well as continuing to build awareness and uh we we've got social workers that do it every day um and every day and and every night. So, we uh really appreciate you showing uh this appreciation by proclamation and continuing to make our citizens, our neighbors aware that um as our theme goes, positive childhoods begins with us. Thank you.

Thank you so much. [applause]

All right. Next proclamation is Nepal day Saturday April 18 2026 and Council Ziggman will start off the reading.

All right. Proclamation for Nepal day 2026. Whereas Wake County is home to more than 6,000 Nepali families with many of these having their roots planted in the town of Apex. hands.

Whereas the Nepal Center of North Carolina is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote Nepali culture and traditions and has done tremendous work in the community through highway cleanups, blood donation programs, youth college preparations, and much more. And Whereas the town of Apex is honored to be home to many Nepalese families as they are friendly neighbors, committed community members, and excellent contributors to our local economy. And

whereas as a blend of culture with one of Nepal's most popular sports, the town is proud to celebrate the first full year of operation of the cricket pitch at Apex JC Park this past March. And whereas paying homage to the iconic Nepali landmark of Mount Everest and to the history of North Carolina, the motto of the Nepal Center of North Carolina is first in height, first in flight, symbolizing the connections between the cultures and the unity that has been created between the communities. Now therefore, I Jacqu K. Gilbert, mayor of Apex, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim Saturday, April 18th, 2026 as Nepal day in the town of Apex and extend my appreciation to all the Nepali residents in Apex for helping make our town so special. So yes, absolutely. [applause] Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thanks for coming out. Yeah, I think I think we should have them more in the middle and then have council members kind of get the outside.

Yeah. [clears throat]

Yeah. a little bit.

There we go.

You can be right here next to your name. Good evening everyone. I'm extremely delighted to share about our Nepal event that's happening this Saturday, April 18 and thank you very much for this proclamation and thank you for this recognition. Quick background about Nepal day. It's celebrated to welcome Nepali new year and this year we are welcoming 2083. I know it's 2026 but we are way ahead in time living in the future and today is the first day of 2083 in Nepal. So this Saturday we are celebrating this Nepal day in Cedar Fork District Park. So I'd like to invite all the community members there where we would have cultural performance representing representing Nepali culture. We would have food from different parts of the country and at the same time we also have kids friendly event like bouncy house and also other vendors selling products. So come experience Nepali culture and experience mini Nepal at Cedar Fork District Park this Saturday, April 18. And thank you for this recognition. It's means a lot to us. Thank you. We greatly appreciate that. [applause]

Okay. Our final final proclamation will be rooted in care for our community. Earth Day and Festival. Mayor Pro Tim Mafy.

Thank you, Mayor. Whereas, Earth Day observed annually on April 22nd is a global call to action that unites communities worldwide in recognizing the importance of environmental stewardship, conservation, and collective responsibility to protect natural resources for present and future generations. And whereas the town of Apex is committed to advancing sustainability, environmental awareness, and resilient community practices through education partnerships and local initiatives that promote responsible steward stewardship of land, water, and air resources. hand. Whereas environmental sustainability is strengthened through community engagement that encourages waste reduction, recycling, composting, pollinator protection, tree planting, and other practices that support ecological health and biodiversity within the local ecosystem. And

whereas the 2026 Apex Earthfest held on Saturday, April 25th centers on the theme of sustainable fashion, highlighting the environment environmental impact of textile production while promoting reuse, recycling, clothing wraps, up clothing swaps, sorry, upycling, and responsible consumer choices through activities such as fashion shows, workshops, demonstrations, and documentary screening. And

whereas Apex Earthfest further advances

environmental education and action through initiatives such as Arbor Day and pollinator garden plantings, low-waist food offerings, composting and recycling demonstrations, and a community marketplace showcasing local resources. es and sustainability focused organizations.

Now therefore, I Jacqu K. Gilbert, mayor of Apex, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 as Earth Day and Saturday, April 24th, 2026 as Apex Earth Festival Day in the town of Apex and encourage all residents to participate in activities that promote environmental awareness, sustainability, and community connection. Be it further proclaimed that the town of Apex calls upon all residents to remain rooted in care for our community and environment by embracing sustainable practices that protect and preserve natural resources for future generations. And I'd like to call Mayor Pro Tim Mafy up before I call up the recipients of the proclamation. [clears throat]

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um, so in honor of birthday and consistent with the proclamation uh that we just read, I wanted to bring forward resolution for the town of Apex. It's actually a couple pages long. Uh it's available online if you want to click through to see it. Uh but in general, this is a resolution uh encouraging the reduction of paper process in the town of Apex. It affirms that of Apex's commitment to sustainability by encouraging a continued shift from paperbased process to digital operations. It recognizes progress made with staff and directs staff to expand paperless practices were practical, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and minimizing the environmental impact. Uh the resolution emphasizes flexibility allowing departments to retain paper use when necessary and ensure compliance with legal requirements. Uh overall the intent here is to establish paperless processes as a default for the town of Apex while supporting the ongoing evaluation and improvement aligned with

the town sustainability plan. I thought it was fitting to have this resolution aligned with our rooted and community earth day festivals and to bolster our sustainability efforts and I'm proud to uh make a motion to approve.

Motion to approve. Got a motion.

Second.

Great. Second move. All in favor say I.

I.

Oppos. All right. Motion carries. [applause]

Okay. Receiving the proclamation, please come up. Norah Skinner, Don Reeves, Neri Mohler, she's our environmental advisory board EAB vice chair. Melissa Ripper, EAB member. Daniel Elli, EAB member. Sandra Noir, EAB member. So, please come up and receive the proclamation.

[laughter]

Yeah. Yeah. All of

Yes. All you going to be in the middle [laughter] kind of center a little bit more scooting a little bit more on this might be able to do this without [applause]

if you um may have noticed if you've been watching the screens, the Environmental Advisory Board actually has three more meetings this week alone. So, I just want to thank all the members for showing up tonight, for spending one more night with us when they really didn't have to. Um, but I'm glad that they came out. And then same thing, wanted to just talk about Earthfest. Please come out and join us on the 25th on that Saturday. We have a sustainable fashion show. So, it's not just about sustainable fashion. We're actually putting the clothes on. Um, there are some staff members. Ashley and I are going to be in the fashion show. So, that's going to be super fun. Um, we have a clothing swap we're doing, some sewing workshops, um, a documentary screening about local designers from the triangle. So, it's just going to be a really fun Saturday afternoon and we'd love to see you there. Thank you. [applause]

All right. There's one other name I didn't mention from EAB, Suzanne Mason. So, thank you for being here. All right. Absolutely. [applause] Thank you.

All right. All right, everybody good? We rolling on?

Okay. All right. Good. All right. We'll move now to presentation six yard wastists update. Mr. John Mullis, public works director. Thanks for being here.

Good evening, mayor and council. Uh my pleasure to be back before you this evening. I'm John Mullis, public works director. Uh during the February 26 council retreat, several motions were made regarding yard waste programming and transition schedules. During that retreat presentation, I mentioned that

we would come back uh with a proposed timeline as well as a communications plan. So, tonight I'm going to hit the proposed timeline that we're recommending as far as and also uh addressing potential ordinance changes, just the highlights on ordinance changes, and then I'll be deferring to our communications director, Stacy Galloway. Uh so uh that's our agenda that's on the screen and here is the actual motions um that were made. I'll start with uh the second motion um which was to direct staff to begin immediately immediate communication with the public regarding the town council's intent to eliminate grass collection effective July 1st. The next motion was to direct staff to evaluate the feasibility of transitioning all other yard waste to a containerized collection system. And then the last motion uh was to transition to a bi-weekly uh collection. Before I begin uh the next part of the presentation, I just want to remind you as well as our audience that a lot of work was done over almost three years. Um, if you would, if anyone is interested, you can go back to the work sessions that were held in December of as well as March of 2024 because there's a wealth of information that frames where we are today. And then also the uh there was a period of two-year study period of our yard waste program itself that we brought before you in February of 2026. So, uh, for those that might want a recap of what brought us to where we are now, I think that's a really good reference point, uh, for us to consider. As far as the timeline, um, April 26 tonight, we're providing a town the town council an update. In uh, April 28th meeting, our our intention is

to to receive public input uh, on the proposed changes. uh May 12th, we'd like to bring back uh to you uh proposed uh ordinance revisions uh and that would also include the enforcement component that was mentioned at one of the work sessions that you were interested in. Uh July 1st uh of this year is when the ordinances would take effect and then October 18th is when we would begin our leaf season. Uh just a reminder, there are no planned changes to leaf collection. Uh that will still be done um with the vacuum trucks. Uh mainly due to volume and just uh just the overall volume that we have. Um what is different and you may remember in the work session we presented a bi-weekly collection zone map. Um, one big one big thing about the zone collection is uh residents will have all week uh to have they'll put their yard waste out on Sunday night or Monday morning before that week and we collect all week uh in a certain zone. Uh I540 divides the A route and the B routes. Um so that bi-weekly collection zone will go for a period of seven sweeps. This is very common practice in large municipalities. Um, our neighbors, uh, Raleigh, uh, which they've gone to full containerization this year, but they had two sweeps. Kerry has two sweeps. Uh, they they they try to get or actually they have three sweeps. Two sweeps before Christmas and one after. Uh, and then Holly Springs has four sweeps. We're proposing seven. Um, and then as the leaf season uh rolls out, we start our regular bi-weekly collection uh following the leaf season. Uh, regarding grass collection, uh, we plan on collecting grass all through the growing season. Uh, so

January 1st of 2027 is where we're proposing to eliminate uh, the collection of grass. February 8th is when we would start the regular bi-weekly zone collection. October 17th, we would go back to uh the leaf season. So, we're on a bi-weekly schedule for both leaves and regular collection. Now, one of the motions was to direct staff to look into containerization of yard waste. Um, as you may remember, everyone around us does some type of containerization. Um, the biggest benefit really is the standardization of how you collect waste. We learned from our data that the most efficient collection practices is a single operator out collecting waste versus multiple people. So, containerization gets everything in the same component. Also, the neighborhood aesthetics just absolutely uh a big difference in that everything is contained. It protects our storm water infrastructure, you know, so we're able to keep the the town looking good. Uh and it really plays well into just the sustainability part of of how we do our operations. Um, as far as containerizations, the yard waste carts would start to be delivered between May and June uh of 2028 with a go live after July 4th uh of July 10th. That's when we would start the actual containerization process. Proposed ordinances, again, this is not all of them, but this is just to give you an idea. Uh right now uh where we place yard waste is along the curb edge of pavement pavement. Right now we uh collect limbs 8 foot long uh 8 foot or 8 in in diameter and we do include grass clipping. So what would change as of July 1st uh we would have that three

feet behind the curb and edge of pavement pavement and small limbs would go from 8t to six feet. The reason for this is is we use reloaders. So when you put the limbs in the rear loaders, they can't be too wide. So that's the biggest uh reason uh there. And then of course uh the exclusion of grass clippings. And then after containerization in the spring of 2028, uh your collection point is all carts. So what doesn't fit in the cart, we're offering um specialized collection. So if anyone has yard waste debris, they have the enhanced option of calling us for a fee to have that yard waste collected. Um pre-collection practices, uh right now currently no yard waste, less than 10 ft of storm drain, uh and unlimited volumes of yard waste. Uh proposing is uh uh still less than 10 ft upstream of a storm drain. No yard waste from separate properties. That way we can identify who the yard waist belongs to. Uh no yard waste six foot from obstacles. As you know, when we're operating hydraulic arms, that's very difficult to maneuver uh that. Uh and then we also have yard waste placed in bike lanes, ramp, sidewalks. So we're just trying to tighten the ordinance on that a little bit. And then yard waste place in directional travel. That helps us if we have to do any chipping operation. everything is in the right uh order for us. Um and less than two cubic yards are without a fee uh during the period up until we get to containerization. And then council uh has given direction uh still to define what uh excess yard waste is, but the consensus has been greater than two cubic yards. Now, just to put that in perspective, that's about what fits on the back of a pickup truck. Uh two cubic yards. Um, so we would collect that amount of yard waste without a fee. And

then when you get to containerization, um, your placement restrictions really only applies to leaves. You put those out in front of your yard. Uh, because the yard waste would be in a cart. You would just put it out, uh, like normal. Uh, so one cart would be included in the fee. And service limitations. uh once per week. Uh the change would go to collection scheduled by council, which is currently proposed bi-weekly. And then no land clearing debris. That's if you stump your have a stump in your yard or something. We don't get that now, but we've added uh the definitions to be a little bit more specific where no land clearing debris, grass, dirt, roots, uh sod, mulch, concrete, a lot of those are in that now. It's just not been really clearly defined. And the reason for this is is this not something that our disposal facilities would accept anyway. [snorts] Proposed ordinance changes enforcement. Um right now we just refuse collection. We don't have a lot of of ordinances behind us. So that's one of the things we're trying to uh gain. And so when the ordinances are uh adopted and proposed, there'll be an um there'll be some enforcement behind that. Uh which is something that's well needed. Uh but as I've mentioned over and over, our intent is is is just for compliance. So we want to educate coach. If we uh wind up and have a a situation where we have the same household or resident over and over and over, we'll have some ordinances. But our intent is to help our residents collect. So, but we've just not had the the enforcement action backing us in the past. So, hopefully we'll resolve that.

So, happy to answer any questions before I turn it over to communications. One quick question, John, and I know this is kind of the burning question that I think everyone who is hearing this and may not have followed the last

three years and I let me tell you, appreciate the two years of research that you've done on this, you know, can you speak a little bit to the to to the concern about, you know, why we're making this change on grass and specifically speaking to where this stuff goes and its capacity and what may happen. And then as a followup to that, if you could also speak a little bit to the uh to to the question about, you know, why this is really necessary when we start looking at things such as our our drains, how close we put stuff and yeah, things like that.

So, um, we're not alone. Carrie and Holly Springs is in the same boat that we are as far as grass. All of us use the same count on your finger disposal facilities that have capacity issues. So, um we have no trouble getting rid of of woody material, uh branches, leaves, you know, chips and mulch can be made out of those products and compost. But grass is one of those items that have herbicides, pesticides, people fertilize their yard. Well, that picks up in the in the grass. So if someone is is a certified composter that they don't want that type of mix in their compost mix. So what happens with it to one part of your question is the folks who will take it generally make dirt mix it with other material uh and so it's not part of the compost process. So, what challenges that we run into is we if we're going to have a guaranteed curbside collection program, we need a we need guaranteed contracts. And no one's been willing to enter into long-term contracts. A lot of this is because of state regulations on this. It's different types of contracts for different types of yardways. So, it's very it's very difficult for us. Um Raleigh thought about this a long time ago. So, they have the bandwidth and the uh all

the necessary permits, all the labor and resources to be able to accept grass uh at their facility. Unfortunately, Wake County doesn't have a facility. So, every municipality in in Wake County is responsible for their own yard waste. And so, we're not alone and we're we're seeking uh collaboration uh for joint partnerships of of what to do with our yard waste. Um but the biggest issue is grass. Now the reason we made the recommendation and we knew it was controversial is we followed our sustainability plan. It's out there on the hallway environmental leadership and it tells us reducing yard waste disposal. It you know our daily operations how we can operate efficiently. So grass is one of those things that is probably one of the most recyclable items that you can have. The issue is that if you haven't maintained it properly, there's a big rain and you have high grass, you you have a lot more. You may have to do a little bit more work. But if you'll look at your landscapers, very few of them are bagging grass or putting it out. They're mowing it, mulching it, using mulching blades, and they blow it back in to their their grass. Now that being said, there are different types of grasses that require different types of maintenance. So the question becomes it really boils down to it's a maintenance issue on how the lawn is maintained and then council's decision is what level of service do they want to provide? Maybe a certain type of of resident has that certain type of grass. It's challenging and we know it's challenging. Um, our goal is to try to provide educational resources, try to help our residents understand how to to maintain a lawn. Uh, but, uh, I wish we had a place to take it, you know, but at the end of the day, even if we did,

the sustainability of it of hauling it, uh, when it's best left in place is just a hard it's a difficult pill to swallow because it truly is something that can be recycled in place. And so that's where we are today. Um I don't know what the future holds as far as we're we're able to dispose of grass right now. Not under contract, but you know, we we run the risk of uh we're full. We can't take anymore. It's wet. The fields are wet. We can't get into dispose. So it's just eliminating that grass that can be best left in place is what our goals are to meet our sustainability objectives. But we realize that it's difficult for some folks who have certain types of grasses. It's just that we think that more people grass cycle now then don't. I don't have the data to support that yet. We are working on getting that data, but in general, we feel like most people are recycling using mulching blades and leaving grass in place. I hope I answered all your questions, Council Member Gray. Okay. Um, one question that I think council member Gray asked that you didn't get to yet is the uh the impact on our storm water system.

Yes.

And then why that's factored in here as well.

Thank you for asking that question. So, our drinking water source is Jordan. And while uh it's not an it's not a potential or it's not an immediate issue, as we grow, containerization will help remove the threat of some of the grasses that could get into our storm water systems with the nitrogen, thus causing algae blooms, you know, things like that. So it the containerization part and and getting it getting the grass off the the the curb side is a wonderful thing. So uh it it is an

important factor probably more containerization than than putting it loose. But if you even if you had a place to get rid of the grass uh that would be good at least you've got it container. So, the containerization part really uh helps if you have grass, but it's better to leave it in place if you can.

Yep.

What's just quick question, the difference with the um clumps of weeds pulling from flower beds and stuff like that, was that considered just regular?

I I think we're okay. I think we're fine. Um it's the massive parts of of grass, green leaves, and things like that. we're not going to have enough volume to make a difference because when it's mixed with the other processes because when you go to containers, you go to a single stream, you're winding up grinding and processing that. It kind of gets turned into into dirt, you know, as part of that process. So, uh we're not worried. We we can't have dirt now. Uh but weeds, we don't have any problem with weeds at all. And that's where a lot of people do weed their yard. So, we'd be fine there.

And I had a lot of questions about that. So, yeah, I appreciate you.

Yeah. clarity to it.

Yeah. It It's just the m the massive volume of of grass and then when it gets wet it's heavy and we pay by the time. Yes, ma'am.

Yes. Um my question is if we do the containerization, right, what if people put grass into the container with the leaves, the branch, and everything?

It's still the grass volume and it still has the herbicides and and things. you know, the weeds probably don't haven't been sprayed or you or they'd be dead, you know, whereas the that you're not fertilizing your weeds. So, weeds don't bother us as bad as grass, but the grass is still the problem of of having a disposal outlet that will accept it.

So, if everything including the grass inside that container, I mean, do we have anywhere to take all those, you know, yard waste? Yeah, we we do right

now, but it's not under contract and they're not interested in in a contract. And that's why we looked at our sustainability for direction uh when we made the recommendation um until unless we did our own facility, which I don't think there's an interest in doing that, you know, just because it would need to be a regional approach and and we are having discussions with our neighboring peer communities. If that were to happen, then you might have the possibility of doing that. It's just that the volumes and the weights and and things are challenging.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

I got a couple questions. Sure. Couple situations I want to know your answer to. Uh what do you say to a resident who maybe lives on a culde-sac and they have very little road frontage to put a pile of grass on with this ordinance change and it has to be in front of your yard. There may not be a location. We we we we're not concerned about that because we would help that resident identify a place where we know it's their yard waste. But when we go to containerization, that should solve that that concern. Uh but if they are in a culde-sac and it's and we do have situations where someone will put their yard waste in front of another house that maybe didn't have yard waste that week and we do get complaints about that but we would work with each individual resident to make sure hey we understand this is your location for your yard waste.

Okay. And similarly uh the containerization said still a couple years away.

Yes. Uh, but I've heard a lot of uh people reached out to me to talk about, well, I don't have room for another container. You know, what do I what do I do? My HOA requires me to have these um, you know, covered and I don't got room for it. So, do you and I'm imagining other communities who've done this, have had this problem. Uh, what do you say to to those residents or the HOAs in the area who may have some rules around that sector container? Yeah, we we I've been through this before and I can, you know, name some major subdivisions in in um

Holly Springs that we actually met with and the HOAs when they when they voted and I was there, they voted for the community aesthetics over the screening and so they gave the a year uh leeway for people to add a third screen to the side of their property because they do require or trash bins to be screened. Um, as far as, and this is your common thing, I don't have room for a third bin. Most people have a have room, but they also, we are planning on offering an opt out. They would still pay a yard waist fee, but if they absolutely didn't want to use that third bin, they could still have on demand uh fees and and collection if they wanted oneoff service. Um, but it's just the part of of exchanging the street for a cart. I mean, we can't use the street as a dumping ground and shouldn't for a lot of aesthetic environmental reasons. So, what they're really saying is, I really I may not have room for a cart, but I just want to keep doing it, putting yard waste in the street, and that's just not a good option. It's difficult. I I get it. But it other communities have faced the same problem and they they they've managed it just fine after the change after the transition.

Just to reiterate, did I hear you say that in your position as a public works director and other municipality, you met with the HOAs as you transitioned and talked through this and worked with them? Okay.

We did. And um we we had at the end of the day at every HOA meeting, I'm going to say we probably had at least 10 of the largest HOAs that we met with. At the end of the day, they made it work and I've actually talked to a few of them post that and they love that there's no yard waste on the street anymore. So, you know, they they they favored it, but they were uncertain and unsure going into it that I I don't want

to sugarcoat that. But after the the transition happened, it was fine.

I have one concern.

Yes. that um I think uh maybe uh several weeks ago, right, one senior uh came here and she said if we do the container uh container thing, but you know, she's old and doesn't have the strength to pick up all those yard waste branches to put into the container. So do you have I mean have you thought thought thought about you know uh something to help seniors or the people have disabilities?

Yes ma'am. Just like we have with our current solid waste we would offer backdoor collection. We don't go on private property unless we have an agreement to retrieve uh you know their waste container. Uh so we would follow the same model that we do with trash and recycling. Now, we can't go pick up the sticks for them, you know. Um, and I'm I'd be curious to see how they're doing it now, you know, picking up the stick and and bring it to the street. We actually uh have had people say that after they got the cart, they loved it because they rolled the cart to where the sticks were in the front yard and had their kids put sticks or or put their own sticks in. the cart unless unless you're really putting heavy items in on wheels, it's not that heavy. However, if they are able to get the yard waste into the cart, we would make provisions to be able to roll it to the curb for them or collect it for them. We just can't go on private property and put their yard waste in it. So, we would we would do the best that we could to help them.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Yeah.

I have a couple questions. Okay. Um, John, first off, thank you for being here. Thank you for your presentation uh during the retreat. Um, and thank you

for working on this for several years. Wanted to make sure I heard you correctly when you said that facilities are running out of capac. The main thing, the lion share of comments that I've received have been around the grass clippings. Yep.

I think people are going to work through some of the uh bi-weekly and the containerization, but it was the grass clipping specifically that folks are worried about. So, I just want to talk with you quickly about the inevitability of this uh process that we have right now. Quickly, can you talk about what the other municipalities adjacent to us? You said Kerry and Holly Springs are dealing with this. What is their plan with their grass clippings? They're in the same boat we are. Uh, in fact, we have

meaning meaning that Carrie is under a contract and when their contract expires, you know, they may or may not be renewed. I don't have knowledge of that, but they are aware like we are aware. We have a program that we're picking up stuff and it's great to get off the street, but when it's in the truck, where do you go if they go, "Sorry, we're full." or something like that. Um, we are working diligently with our peer communities to see if we can come together, you know, and and figure something out. But that involves land, that involves, you know, while Raleigh is still open for business. We've met with them. Maybe we could have a a potential contract with them, but their council is looking after Raleigh. You know, they they need more staff now that they're not getting, you know, budgets. They have budgets just like we have budgets. So, while they may have some land and they may have staffing needs, if they don't get the staff, they can't keep taking everybody else's yard way. So, I look for that to shut off. When we first uh reached out to them, they said you can bring one load a day and we may

be in leaf season, we might have four loads a day.

Sorry, grass clippings.

Yeah. Right. But I'm saying that even with even with with grass clippings in the spring, you could bring one one load a day. Now, in our town, that's probably four or five days, maybe, you know. Um, but then they've got Morrisville, they've got their own yard waste, they've got other places, too. So, until we can get contracted disposal for everything, uh, it puts us in a difficult place. and grass is the big the big thing. It is

and it's it I believe I remember correctly from the retreat that you said that right now we're driving it to Harick County on an

Yes, we are. That that's the one place that we we've been taking it.

But that is about to shut down in 28. Is that correct?

No, we we did have rumblings that they could be potentially for sale. Uh but that's just rumor and I've not been able to confirm it. So that put us on alert that we better we can't count if we don't have a contract. We just can't count on anything. It's good right now.

Uh and and maybe they won't maybe that is just a rumor, you know, but uh until we can get guaranteed disposal, that's our that's our challenge.

Okay. And the reason I say that is because um the feedback I'm getting less concern in places like my neighborhood that's only 10 years old and so we don't have very many established um you know large deciduous or or pine trees. Um, when I think about neighborhoods like Shepherd's Vineyard or Holland Crossing,

um, uh, Abington, I think about large trees that shade yards, um, and a, a spring rain comes through 20 minutes. That yard takes several days to dry out,

right? Um, and so

when folks are asked about how they're able to accommodate this new process, I know that I would be able to at my house because my yard dries out pretty quickly. Um, but those folks are going to run into challenges when it comes to especially fescue and um some of those uh uh longer grasses that take uh that can be soggy, right? And it seems like they're running into, you know, stuck between a rock and a hard place. It it is challenging, but it still boils down to a maintenance issue. And what's unfortunate is most people only have certain amount of time. Maybe it's in right the weekend and then it rains. Um you may have to mow high, you may have to mow twice,

you know, for things like that. But at the end of the day, they should be able to accommodate clipping a little bit, a little bit, but it's going to be a maintenance issue. And I think that's the difficult situation we all find ourselves in is that what level of service are we responsible for those types of grass clippings, you know, uh when we have difficulty getting rid of them, but we know they want to mow their yard for the for the appearance, too. But it boils down to probably a maintenance issue uh of how they have to manage the weather and their time. I know that's probably not the best answer, but that's pretty much the way we see it in talking with our uh uh turf folks into to how you address that. And it's a maintenance issue of mowing it a little higher, giving it a day or so and catching the time when you can can uh can get it mowed the proper proper way and blowing it back as best you can. But if if it has not been mowed in two weeks and they fertilize, that's the other thing, you know, they throw

the fertilizer out, it just really grows rapidly. So, um, that's going to be a tough decision, but we I think the answer that we would provide people is we it's a maintenance thing. You have to try to figure out the best way to maintain your yard, you know.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, if there's no other questions, I'm gonna turn over to Stacy.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council. I'm just going to hit some of the highlights of our communications plan related to these changes. Um, at any given time, our team is working through about 20 to 30 open communications plans. This is something we're very used to. We know our tactics. We know how to reach our different target targeted audiences, but this is a big long communications plan. This is a multi-year. It's a multi-phase, multi-topic uh plan that we're going to sort of roll into phases. So, I'm going to go through just hitting the highlights for um a few of the different phases. So, the first thing that we'll talk about are the ordinance changes. And so, focusing on explaining uh the ordinance changes that happen, they they happen on um July 1, but they're not all implemented for action on July 1. So, helping people understand that these things take effect on July 1st, but then uh some of the things happen later than that, some of the the different um proposed changes. So upon council review uh approval of all these ordinance changes, that's when we really have all the good details that we start disseminating to the community. And so hitting and each of these categories, we're going to hit in person, print, digital, and beyond tactics. Um but some of these have a so we're going to throw our full arsenal at everything. So big challenging questions for our community. Um as a resident here, I know we're going to have some questions ourselves. So there's there's going to be a lot of different tactics, but the same across different topics as

well. So getting out at uh festivals like Earthfest, Peakfest, talking to residents as they stop by the booth and starting our education there and then printed and digital um materials beyond that first in-person outreach in the first phase. All right. Right. So then we move into bi-weekly collection knowing that that starts after the the first growing season of the year. Um and so then again the educational booze having also one thing one resources that we have now that we didn't have before was our ask Apex team and so making sure they have all of the FAQs starting there with our call center knowing that we're going to mail out to our community with their zones with the schedules. Um, one thing you might not be aware of and we'll push this a lot is our recollect uh app or all Apex collects mobile app that provides a schedule for collection for trash recycling and yard waste. And so we'll be making a lot of changes in the app and encouraging people to download the app to remind them when their service date is and then pushing campaign materials through that app as well. All right, then we move into the elimination of grass collection. That's going to be the big one, right? that's gonna be where most of the questions are and we'll spend most of our focus. Um, and so really just focusing on educational materials, helping people understand how to maintain their lawns without uh dumping their clippings on the on the curb. I can go through any of these in more detail, but there we're just hitting the highlights at this point. And then after all of those things happen, we'll we'll hit a spring 2027 reminder campaign. reminding everyone of all the things that have been approved but not in practice yet. And so letting them know ahead of that next growing season as we approach the heavier yardway season all the things that will be coming up um to bear. So that hits the very very big highlights of our communications plan for all the phases and then as we move to towards containerization. And I do not have a slide for that because that's like two

years from now and we have to figure out what works, what hits with our audience here and what questions they have and then we will certainly work towards um the communications plan for containerization but it doesn't have its own separate slide. I think yeah that's about it for my piece.

Any questions about communications? Uh yeah, just for clarification, um so we're talking about stopping the grass collections on January 1st, 2027.

Will we start educating people before that or are we I kind of got the impression from your slides that's that's kind of its own separate phase starting on January 1st.

Yeah.

And especially since that will be by far the biggest impact probably that people will will perceive. Um I [clears throat] think we need to prepare people as best we can. So the sooner we can start those communications

I think the better. So I just want to make sure I I understood the date correctly or if not then

um you know can we move up the the

Absolutely. It's a little more layered than the slides present because they each have their kind of their own topic but we'll we'd like to focus on some things at one time but each each topic will have a reminder campaign throughout. So absolutely once we understand and have all the details and it's all approved by you guys um then we have we have uh Karen and Jaylen on our team who have been meeting frequently with public works and living and breathing grass and can talk to you all about Zora and all things that I I don't know and so they're really heavy in this and will are very well prepared with the full campaign once everything is approved.

Thank you.

Yes. Early and often. I just want to say um thank you so much for the presentation and April 28th is the feedback from the community. Um I I will say we're down the road now, but it would have been great to get the feedback prior to the decision being made. So I will say that um what what do you expect to gain from the 28th and then would that change anything that

we're doing? Um what are the thoughts on that?

Sorry. Uh so I I can speak to that. The 28th was thrown out as an option if there was a a specific date to do feedback. We've got other methods we can do. We've we've talked about a survey. Staff's ready to to drop has developed a survey on the education piece. Uh so really we would seek direction from council on what that piece looks like. Um we have no no specific plan for the 28th. We just threw that out as an option if council wanted to invite public opinion on that day.

Yeah. And I neglected to mention right now in our community survey, we actually have five questions at the end of that survey in our rotating uh section of the survey that does get feedback about yard waste and grass cycling. So we're getting some data already.

Thank you.

All right. Any other questions for

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Stacia. So that that concludes the presentation. We uh if there's any feedback that we would welcome that we're you've seen the direction we're heading, you've seen the communications plan. Uh ordinance adoption is set for the first meeting in May. So if there's anything you would like to tweak, change, get more information on, seek input in different ways, we would take that direction now. Um otherwise, our plan is to bring ordinance change at the first meeting in May. I I just start off by say thanks to everyone. Um, a lot of work involved and I would like to see that April 28th feedback session. I mean, if it could be a Can we do a public hearing just to get the feedback? Can we do it that way? Is that legal? Can we do that?

Lori. Oh, can we can we do a public hearing on the 28th for this? Awesome.

Yeah, it's not required, but Any

objection to that?

Okay.

Anything else? Be back.

So, just to be clear, for the 28th, we would run it kind of what we did with the budget public hearings where we would put an item on. There wouldn't necessarily be a staff presentation. It would just be to solicit it. Okay. We good?

All right. All right. Thank you.

Everybody good? Ready to roll on with public hearings?

Yeah, I can break.

You want a break? Just wait for 10. Is that good?

Whatever.

Okay, I'll do 10. We're going to do 10 minute. All right, we're being recessed for 10 minutes. 8 o'clock. Be back. Thank you.

We should. Okay. All right. We're back in session. Um, we will approach Tim. I'm happy he's making his way back in. All right. We'll move now to public hearing one, annexation number 819.

So 9 Tw.

We voted for you.

Yes. Thank you. [laughter]

All right. Good evening. So, this annexation is in the northern portion of our jurisdiction. Uh, you can see it's located on Twin Creek Road. Uh, the request is for annexation to obtain town uh, utilities due to a well failure. Stafford recommends approval of the annexation.

Happy to answer any questions.

Questions for Miss Kent.

All right. Hearing none, we'll open up the public hearing for comment. No one signed to speak. Public hearing is closed.

Motion approved.

Motion second.

Second. Gray. All in favor say I. I opposed. The motion carries.

Public hearing two, annual operating budget public hearing fiscal year 2627.

Okay. And this is that part of the uh agenda where we love to hear from the public just to kind of go let's brief overview. We have a brand well I don't want to say brand new. We have an improved budgeting process that's been um about two years in in the making or three years in the making where to provide a budget to us as a council to approve rather than us driving that decision downward. It's been moved basically where the departments get a chance to provide their priorities to us and then we get an opportunity to critique and identify those priorities. And once we get the proposed budget, we're going to have yet more opportunity to provide our input. But as the prepared budget is starting to be prepared, moments like this give us an opportunity to have the public um make comments and provide input to us. So, as always, this is a priority. I know that the mayor has said this, my colleagues on council have said

this. We'd like to hear feedback and we like to hear comments. So, this is that opportunity.

All right. Thank you so much. All right. With that, we'll open up public hearing for comment. Elizabeth Racet.

Elizabeth Racet 3113 Friendship Road. Mayor, mayor and town council, good evening. If I may ask one question, am I the only person signed up for this public hearing?

Ah, the very good. Um, so that's great news because in the years past, I have typically been the only person to speak up. Um, continuing on my theme for tonight about leveraging the community. The one thing that I have heard is obviously is the budget's going to be difficult because growth is slowing down and obviously there's a lot of needs that um are on our plate at the moment. So I would ask for you to look outside of the box, ask the town departments and say if you had volunteers, what could you use them for? You know, could you reduce your cost? So just as NC DOT has adopt a road, do we want to do adopt a road program in Apex where the citizens who live on the streets that the town owns, they pick up the trash, they call when it needs to be mowed. You know, what could they do to help reduce the maintenance cost? Could we reduce the cost of running our parks? Could we have someone sponsor a ball field or sponsor a bench or have the bench be a memorial over for a family member or for a special event? Could we have a garden club who comes and help plants the flowers at town hall or in front of other buildings? Do we have an opportunity to post volunteer hours? There's a lot of people in our community that could use volunteer hours, but they don't know necessarily where to begin. Could we

post different things people could do? My personal favorite, if I could, I would love to volunteer to help with public records. I would love to help get those out. I asked for my fair share of them. And so I, you know, I feel like if I am supervised and, you know, I followed the rules, maybe I could help with the backlog. Do we want to leverage people who want to get job skills? Do we have any opportunities for them in our community? Do they need to learn how to use, you know, do they need to come job shadow to see if it's something they want to learn? So, for like the EMS dispatchers that were here, how how does someone become one of those? Do we want to take some high school interns through the program? So what we haven't seen in the last four years that I have looked at the budgets and yes I have read all three 400 pages some of them are very tedious and difficult and I've read the last 10 years of budgets we don't talk about leveraging our community and if you want more people engaged you got to give them more opportunity. Thank you. Thank you for speaking [applause] Welch. Good evening, mayor, council members, town staff, and members of the public. My name is Phil Welch. I live at 1471 Biggley Floop in Apex. My thanks to Council Member Gray for suggesting the monthly hearings on the on the budget. Um I have a simple concise message

regarding the next year's budget. Please look at prioritizing the funding in the budget to reflect the priorities in last year's update to the affordable housing plan. You unan unanimously approved the findings and strategies in the update. It's time to aggressively pursue the strategies that you support. In the five years since the council unanimously approved the initial affordable housing plan, the the town has made some progress in providing more affordable housing choices uh to our lower lower income neighbors and central workers. Unfortunately, the gap in housing choices continues to grow. Apex is quickly losing the diversity which attracted many of us here. The window of opportunity to reverse this trend is closing along with the land available to build more [clears throat] varieties of housing. Over the past year, you've heard 10 speakers present various ways that housing choices can affect households, both negatively and positively, including the long-lasting effects thousands of our students face when their [snorts] families are evicted and their educations are disrupted. Number two, the life-changing difference in a habitat homeowner and her teenage daughter experienced in their new home in Apex. Number three, a local pediatrician's description the various damaging health effects suffered by children without safe, sanitary, healthy, stable homes. Number four, opportunities to provide homes for Apex's essential workers, including from NC Children's Hospital in the Veridia Master Development. Number five, a plea from a Habitat Wake founder for the council's help in preserving the dream of serving and living in Apex. Previous council members had the foresight to dedicate a penny tax for affordable housing even before commissioning the initial affordable housing plan. After hearing the housing needs assessment and

recommendations in the plan, the council all approved the plan and increased the funding to a penny and a half. Unfortunately, that was later decreased back to a penny. That's clearly inadequate. I'm asking that the council and staff once again step up to adequately funding the implementation of critically needed affordable housing. We need you to recommmit to increasing the number of affordable homes built and preserved across price points for all lower income h households. Estimates of the deficits in our supply of affordable housing choices were included in my talk for you last month. Also included were recommended increases in five affordable housing programs. I will be discussing these deficits and increases with you and town staff in the coming weeks to answer questions and understand your responses. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wilch.

Okay, that was the last speaker signed up. Uh public hearing is close.

Okay.

And Council Gray, thank you so much for that suggestion. It's great that we get the feedback.

Yeah. No, we appreciate that. and uh Elizabeth and and Phil, both of you, we I mean these are good comments, great great great input. I look forward to getting a chance to chat with uh uh with town manager about how we can implement those things. Elizabeth, your comments about looking for volunteers is I think well wellreasoned thought process and Phil, thank you for challenging us and reminding us of the obligations that we have taken with our affordable housing plan. Uh important issues that we've got to balance with the overall budget. So we appreciate your input.

All right. All right. Moving on to the final public hearing. Public hearing three. Legislative public hearing considers 12 month moratorum on the acceptance processing, approval of development applications for data centers, cryptocurrency mining, data processing, and other associated uses with data centers. Mr. Bosber,

good evening once again, Mayor and Council. I will go over just a few highlights of the proposed ordinance. Uh if there are questions, I'm assisted

this evening by our legal department and also our planning department for in-depth questions. Um we are here tonight because council directed us to draft a moratorum. So what you have before you this evening is an ordinance uh that that addresses the UDO because it does not currently define or provide supplemental standards for data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining operations, or any other uses associated with data processing facilities. Uh it's important to note as a Dylan rule state in this case North Carolina statutes do allow regulation in this area uh they allow for the enactment of a temporary moratoria to study and regulate such land uses. Uh so what you have before you is uh proposed to apply to the apex corporate limits extr territorial jurisdiction and future planning areas as shown on the 2045 land use map. The timeline is to take effect April 28th, 20 thou 2026 and it would go through April 27th, 2027. Uh there are as we got into this, we had to really um pay attention to the definition that is covered in the ordinance. I wanted to point out that there's an exclusion for incidental server rooms supporting permitted principal uses uh such as a hospital or offices provided that they comply with accessory uses uh provisions. Uh so if the primary use is a hospital they can have what some might call a data center within that hospital and we didn't want to exclude that potential operation. Uh so that is accounted for in our definition. The main reasons that we have cited for the research we've got environmental and community impacts. uh you're well verssed in that by now the electric impacts, environmental impacts, air quality impacts. Uh and then next would be uh coming up with the appropriate regulations. As I mentioned, the UDO does not specifically have language to address data centers. So there's a regulatory gap that we can fill. Uh and the last is speaks to the timing. Uh we've got 12 months. That's generally what is permitted through the statutes and the task would be before

the environmental advisory board. uh this council directed them to form a subcommittee that has been done. They will be meeting tomorrow and uh the plan they have they'll adopt a schedule of meetings throughout the year. Uh they've already laid it out. It will generally be the second oh the first Wednesday of each month beginning at 5:00 pm. Uh so the first one will be tomorrow and that's at 5:00 pm here in town hall and then after that it'll be the first Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm with one exception which is July. There will not be a meeting in July. So they uh assuming they'll adopt this tomorrow but it's a full schedule of each of those meetings all the way through April of 2027. Uh so that has been referred to the AB. They've taken it up and we would ask for um public hearing process for the ordinance adoption this evening.

That's all I've got. Thank you. Comment

and I think we've talked about this a lot, right? And now that we have no active uh proposal in front of us, I think this is the right time for us to put this moratorum in place and give our staff the uh the time it needs to um reconsider some of the uh the feedback that we received from from the community how to reflect that properly in our UDL and be better prepared next time in case a similar proposal reaches our desks.

Thank you so much for that. Um we'll we'll go ahead and open up the public hearing for this and then we'll come back for more comments. So, right now we have the first speaker, Michelle Hoffner Okconor. Please come up. Nine minutes, please. Mr. Cliff. Dr. Michelle Hoffner Okconor, 2664 Jordan Point Boulevard. Good evening, Mayor Gilbert, Town Council, and members of the town staff. I am here to endorse the proposed year-long moratorium on the acceptance, processing, and approval of data development applications for data centers, cryptocurrency mining, data

processing, and other uses associated with data centers as specific specified uses within the town of Apex corporate limits and its extr territorial jurisdiction. My endorsement is all-encompassing, representing any house, representing my household, including my husband, fur children, and son, who will be here soon, and representing my fellow advocates in solidarity, including those from the Protect Wake County Coalition, my neighbors in Jordan Point, very importantly, not as their board of director. uh Jordan Manners, Jordan Oaks, Belterra, and Woodbury. Those residing in the ETJ of Friendship and New Hill who do not have a recogniz recognized vo v vote in this town as well as those who live within the corporate limits of Apex. Those who live over the county line in Shadow and over the town line in Holly Springs who were still way too close to the proposed site and anyone else near and far who recognizes the necessity and value of this moratorum. Thank you for taking our concerns seriously and I hope you all will en enthusiastically vote in favor of this proposal tonight. Since I have additional time to speak and I am the first to speak for this hearing, I would be remiss if I did not take the opportunity to provide some additional key remarks. Amongst the crowd tonight may be developers who are here to tell you to vote no and why people like me are just complaining and that the town is missing out on tax dollars. Let me be abundantly clear. While many developers are not 38-year-old entitled millennials who work for dad, they are indeed bad used card salesmen who obscure the truth and even flat out lie to get their way. Over a six-month period, we watched Michael Nutelli and his team lie about how how to appropriately control sound from a data center, lie about the minimum number of diesel generators required to sustain this project, uh lie about the amount of water that would be needed for cooling and under what circumstances, and so much more. We even heard him intimate that a hypers scale AI data center has a right of way over lives and quality of life of taxpaying residents, and that this the data center should have been considered as important as a children's hospital. Remember, we were offered the d the double B of data centers, a subprime technological fossil that would be a quicker, cheaper build than that of the AAA data centers we see in Scandinavian countries, which supply their own green power, are quiet, and

use little to no water. Under no circumstances should you reconsider your vote in favor of this moratorium, because any remarks from developers tonight are anything but the truth, and they do not deserve your consideration. So, what should the town, both elected officials and staff, prioritize over the next 12 months? Back in September, I stated that we needed to ask and answer many questions in order to determine if we can allow a data center here at all and if so, under what circumstances. First and foremost, good research performed by qualified experts free of any conflicts of interest associated with local, state, and federal governments as well as private enterprise efforts associated with data center development. Our town should have a strong understanding of all options associated with each aspect of a data center before moving forward with deciding what belongs in an ordinance. Some of these items include extensive generator modeling. If we adjust the size, number of generators, and even the field type, what do the emissions look like under best case and worst case weather scenarios year round at 1 6 24 and 72 and 168 hours? Is there a scenario in which the emissions do not reach private properties? Do the emissions exceed current regulations and if so, at what time point? Sound studies that go beyond evaluation of a weighted decibb. Sound studies must include C- weightighted decibel for the explicit purpose of identifying methods and technologies that must be required in order to achieve a neutral balanced sound at all times, including when the data center uses backup power. And to take this one step further, a biological specialist should also be included. Members of our very own EAB pointed out at their me back in October that wildlife and gameland surrounded the proposed site. So, what additional mitigations are needed to adequately address this? Economic modeling. How many tax dollarers can the town really expect over the life cycle of a single data center? How many jobs will actually be created? Is the expected salary for these positions compatible with the cost of living in the town of Apex, which would allow hiring of people from our town as opposed to increasing the number of commuters. Other items that need to be considered are and or modeled is the predicted number of water needed year round to cool the servers using openloop or closed loop systems and how the our

municipal water system um even as backup would be affected affect resources available to residents. The heat predicted to be released year round that would alter our atmospheric temperature. Amount of PAS released via runoff and aerosolized refrigerants potential and potential impact of thermal runway from lithium ion batteries. The list goes on, doesn't it? Second, we must devel we must answer how the presence of any data center and its design aligns with the environmental and sustainability goals for the town of Apex for which there are many according to the tracker on the town website. To reference Glenn Renie, who is not here tonight, but sent remarks to Allen, as well as my own remarks from the last meeting, federal laws continue to loosen and are ultimately a moving target that any ordinance is unlikely to account for. Duke Energy is asking NCU for an 18% rate increase over the next two years, but has supplied no plans for review with respect to the types of projects they will pursue to increase grid capacity and stabilize power. We already know that the staff present at the January 22nd working session lied to this council claiming that the lifespan of coal plants are not being extended because we know they are. So, how would these changes that an that Apex has no control over affect our ability to realize town initiatives? I suppose instead of calling it the peak of good living, we could refer to the town as the peak of environmental chaos. But that doesn't sound as nice, does it? Finally, and easily the most important in my opinion, is the quality of life of our apex and ETJ residents, especially those living within a 3 to 5 mile radius of any proposed sites. Are these taxpaying citizens meant to suffer for some bizarre version of the greater good? Are these citizens meant to be exposed to harmful pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, sulfur dioxides, methane, pas, etc. Are these people meant to live in fear for what they will track into their homes on the bottom of their shoes or what will enter via their pet's paws? Are these people meant to stop gardening because their yards are inevitably will have inevitably become contaminated? Are they meant to install noise dampening curtains and expensive hepailters to mitigate noise and air pollutants? what happens when their health care costs for

indications ranging from cancer to heart disease to Alzheimer's and other neurological conditions inevitably increase um because they've been exposed to all these pollutants. A reminder that meeting regulatory compliance at any point often does not equate with what is in the best interest of public health. So who will take responsibility for the irreparable damage to these people's lives? I hope the efforts from our elected leadership and town c or elected leadership and town staff will take these items to heart and prioritize answering these questions. Furthermore, I hope that if questions are not sufficiently answered in the time to support authoring of an ordinance that is beyond reproach and that will protect citizens and stand the test of time that this council will not hesitate to extend this moratorum. I have emphasized in my speeches the danger of the Dunning Krueger effect and proceeding in the absence of identifying and understanding all relevant information. The next year should be a testament to decision-making based on strong scientific evidence. Many of us will continue to advocate for this throughout the year. We won't go away easily. You all know that I'm due to become a mom soon. And I doubt it will surprise any of you if I show up with spit up on my should on my shirt and sleep deprived given that I showed up earlier this year with half my face while after shadow boxing with developers or some might call that periodontal surgery. Following your votes in favor tonight, I look forward to the next year with cautious optimism and hope that this town will commit to delivering on its peak of good living promise by updating our ordinance to ensure that quality of life for all is not only upheld but augmented. And a quick reminder to everyone in the room, you can do your part by showing up and sharing important information with our town staff and town council and also by supporting our small local businesses. Because by uplifting these people and encouraging more businesses to come here of that variety, perhaps this will also help to prevent us from choosing to take tax dollars from sleazy developers and Fortune 100 companies who will never have our best interest at heart. Thank you.

Thank you for speaking. [applause] Next speaker, Don Cosalino.

Don Kazalino, 3632 Bosow Road. Good evening. I stand here as one of the people. Under the North Carolina Constitution, Article One, Section Two, all political power is derived from the people. Government exists by consent and must operate with transparency and accountability. That standard is not being met. I will be direct. No data centers in Wake County ever. This moratorum creates the appearance of action while delaying public understanding of issues already raised by residents. At Apex's peak plan 2055 discussion, residents were shown maps and planning materials. However, the full water infrastructure infrastructure implications of high density private development including data centers were not included in the public presentation despite known zoning relevance. The water resources director Jonathan Jacobs was not present at the discussion. That absence raises questions about the completeness of technical input during the presentation. Key questions remain before the public. What is the documented water capacity and limitation analysis for the level of development and where is that reflected in the materials presented to to residents? The absence of those elements raised questions and concerns about completeness of the public record. That gap in information is contributing to the declining public trust. Residents are now seeing expanded layers of governance, task force, advisory boards, and resilience initiatives often presented as coordination or innovation. This raises ongoing questions about decision-making authority when responsibilities are distributed across boards, consultants, and affiliated entities. Consent agenda

item 15 tonight expands the structure through a land trust model that introduces additional non-elected participants into long-term land use decisions alongside municipal leadership. This adds another layer between the public and decisions affecting land, water, and development. Under the North Carolina Constitution, accountability cannot be diluted. The pattern residents are raising concerns about includes unresolved cyber security issues, ongoing infrastructure questions, and the expansion of governance structures under existing decision-making frameworks. Residents are not asking for delay. We're not asking for study. We're not asking for reconsideration. We are stating a clear position. No data centers in Wake County ever. Thank you. [applause]

Final speaker, Fran Hudson.

Hello again. So, I actually printed out page one of the UDO and it's very important to show that there is already language in there that protects the people because the purpose that's stated in the general section, the purpose of this ordinance is to promote and protect the public health, safety, peace, comfort, and general welfare of the citizens and residents of Apex and its extr territorial jurisdiction. It is a comprehensive unified set of regulations that govern the subdivisions of land and development of land and use of land. So these it's really the regulation that's the great part and to make this a stronger protection of those people and the safety and the health and the everything that we've been asking this town council to consider when we're talking about the data center projects that could possibly return. Um the specific purpose starts with implement

policies of the 2045 land use plan. That really should be last on this. I think that needs to be revised because B is protect the small town character. That should be number one. Protect the people. Protect the character of Apex. It's not going to be Apex any longer if you don't protect that. And then number C, the currency is promote good planning practice. So the good planning practice that's a very arbitrary term like that could mean anything. Um but you really need to look at the welfare of the people determined by the people to decide what that is. The people need to have that decision, not five people making a vote. The other um authority that's shown on page one um that only gives the authority to regulate and to enforce. So it's not a give a free-for-all with all of this development. It is you are supposed to regulate which means make regular. So a data center is not regular in any way, shape or form to Apex. Now a lot of the highdensity development is not regular because you have a community that was a very small community. We had you know land and now there's no land. It's being gulped up by all these big developers. So if you're going to actually follow the UDO and make sure that you're protecting the people and the welfare of them, you need to regulate. Thank you.

Thank you for speaking. [applause]

All right, public hearing is closed for comment. Happy to see where we are right now. And I know there's been a lot of discussion. We've heard from the community. I just want to thank my colleagues for bringing this all forward to this point tonight and why waste time.

Yeah. Um

just to add my comments, I want to thank staff for the work they did over the past couple weeks to kind of do all this research. Um I know probably wasn't easy to to get all together and as as you heard the town manager say earlier, there's a lot of state regulations involved. No, we have to give a specific um has to be temporary is is in the state statute. [clears throat] We have to uh give specific reasons that the town manager mentioned is in the ordinance that we talked about a couple weeks ago in our are written down the ordinance. Thank you for staff for for doing that. And Apex of course is going to follow the laws of the state when we do stuff like this. So our ordinance uh reflects that. And uh likewise, you know, this will give us time to develop our rules and our ordinances and we expect developers to follow them. And um with that I'll move adoption of the ordinance.

That's a motion for you.

Yes.

Motion mappy.

A second.

Second. Zigggerman. Further comments.

It's an important step that we have to take in order to give us the the benefit of being able to u make sure that we're getting this right. Um many thanks and I know my colleagues have said this before. Thank you to many residents and those who live in and around Apex for providing the input and and and giving us some insight in terms of some of the various concerns that are out there and it's something that I think we all heard and when we start taking a look at how u how our ordinance changes need to take place. It's certainly going to be on the forefront of our mind as to what's going to be best for the people of Apex.

Anyone else? I just want to say how proud I am of this [clears throat] community for crossing political lines, cultural lines to work together, to collaborate, to problem solve, to bring us to this evening. I know many countless hours went into this from

staff, from the community, and this is the peak of good living. We're going to protect the residents of this town. We're going to protect our air, our water, our power, and our kids. And this is a great step for our community. I look forward to the hard work and the due diligence that will occur over this next 12 months and I'm looking forward to having a robust unified development ordinance to protect our community. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

I think it's very necessary and it's a great thing for our town. Thank I want to thank our staff putting so much effort, lots of research and our residents. You have been coming here almost seven months, nine staff with to each council meeting to express your concerns, to voice your uh opinions and especially lots of experts actually give us lots of great ideas, advice on the facts about that data center. It's a community effort and I think um we may make example because I heard uh one council member in Wendell um you know from him he told me that um they may consider doing a moratorum too. So it's you it's kind of you know uh our all communities work together to find a solution to protect our residents. I'm proud of us. Thank you.

Great words. Thank you. The community has spoken. We have a motion to second.

Call for the vote. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. [applause] All right, we move on to regular meeting agenda. One sec. resolution establishing the peak resilience and well-being task force. Council member Moot.

Yes. Okay. Um like uh I uh introduced this uh task force in the beginning. This is volunteer based and this is not to replace the professional service. This is um a our plan is to educate um residents to get rid of stigma. uh to identify early warning signs to help our young people, families in need and residents to get the resources to have to have easy, friendly and um accessible resources to get rid of obstacles. So um this also will be you know um the first ever in Wick County this task force like that. I hope through this program you know other um cities or municipalities they can learn and do their own you know uh program to help residents in need. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We're excited to

support you on it. Um, any other comments before we move? We all have the copy of the resolution, right? We've seen it. All right.

I just to make one comment about this. I I think it's important to understand that this is going to be a great task force to help highlight some of the issues that we have and bring some focus and attention to them. Um, but it's by no means a replacement. Uh, we we know a lot of a lot of these issues are addressed by other entities like, you know, Wake County, which is why I'm I'm very proud to see U. Commissioner Stallings's taking a big role in this. Um the schools um so I'm glad that they're taking a role in this, but there's many other entities that are there. U this is a great stepping point to start figuring out how we can provide um some more resources. But I think the important part about this whole thing is it's that highlighter that brings this to attention. And u uh I you know congratulate and uh really appreciate my colleague Sumu for bringing this in. It's one of those things that was a constant question during the course of her campaign. This is evidence of her ability to say, "Well, I heard what you said and we're going to bring that forward." And I know my colleagues are proud to be able to support this effort.

Absolutely.

Thank you. That's touchy.

Thank you, Councilwoman. [laughter]

I'll just say really quickly that um Council Member Gray may have been already reading my mind because I was going to echo a few of those things. Uh but

I was gonna say Earthfest is Saturday.

Yeah. [laughter]

Is it Saturday?

Nepal day is on Saturday. [laughter]

Just want to say how uh proud I am of Council Member Moo for um not only talking the talking the talk, but walking the walk when it came to things that uh she wanted to ensure are top priorities for our town. And I think this is great because while council member Gray I I agree that there are uh other resources, this is a great new

first stop for people right here in the Peak City when people wonder where to go, where to turn. her having um leading this task force alongside Commissioner Stallings is going to be you know with community members regularly out in the community talking about this task force I think um is a great step and well represents our town. So I support I'm in support.

Thank you

very well.

Thank you so much.

I was just going to you know thank you for uh your initiative you're showing here. This is such an important issue and um you know it's it's great to see an elected official um campaign on something and then work to sort of solve the issues that are that you're passionate about and that you've been speaking about for so long. And the same with uh with Cheryl she used to sit up here with us. So it's it's good to see her back involved with Apex. Um so thank you for your efforts here.

Thank you.

All right. Well, that leaves me then. [laughter] So thank you. You know what what really excites me about this uh about this initiative um you know through our public safety team like we have some connections with with agencies or foundations or nonprofits in the area that offer a support structure for our residents in need uh in need of of mental health care services. Um but it's a very small group of organizations that we interact with through those means and I really see an opportunity here you know given the uh the broadness of of the crew members and the participants in in the in the list um and and the reach they have into the community you know through their professional connections but also like through their elected positions and and so forth. I really see an opportunity for us to build out that that support network that so that that we can offer our citizens even, you know, uh if this

task force were to uh fade away at some point, right? I I hope that the legacy that it leaves behind is that improved uh support structure uh for our residents. So, I'm very supportive of this um and you know, looking forward to see what what this brings.

Thank you. Yes.

All right. Is that your motion? Council

second. [laughter] Approve. Um, approve. Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve the resolution.

Oh, okay. So,

or do you want to make a motion? You should make a motion.

I make a motion to approve.

Yeah, that's what she did. Okay. So, second. Okay. All right. All in favor say I. I. Oppos. All right. Motion carries unanimously. We're good.

Congratulations. [applause]

All right. We almost made 8:30. Officer Carney, thank you for being here, man. Yes, sir. All right. [laughter] All right. Any other business? Council hearing none, I will meet journ. Thank you so much. Thank y'all.

Great job, M. Great. Great job.

Yes.