are you ready
very good
biggie
man
get her up get solo
[Music]
good evening ladies and gentlemen if you
will please find a seat we'll start um
this meeting for the board of
supervisors for april the 4th tonight
i welcome you guys it's great to have
this many in the house
this is good this is how government
works and it's pleasing to look out into
a sea of faces and see the folks who
have an interest in what is being done
and the work of our county so at this
time
i will call we've officially called the
meeting to order and i will ask for an
invocation if you will please
let us pray
father god lord in heaven we love you we
thank you we praise you today father
father we thank you for this opportunity
to come out we thank you for the
opportunity to be a part of our
government decisions father father we
ask you to
keep us safe forgive us for where we
fail you and take us home safely for
it's in your name i pray amen
now at this time it's a little bit
different tonight so hang on we're going
to have a pledge
but what we're going to do is we're
going to be hosted by a troop of scouts
and it is my absolute pleasure to
introduce to you tonight the books for
the breaks district boy scouts from
castlewood lebanon and honaker
[Applause]
are you ready
lay this off
they are
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
thank you
okay
my name is andrea and i'm the senior
patrol leader for treat 408 and we are
representing the brakes district and we
are absolutely excited to be here today
and we are going to be representing
the district as i said but we're excited
to be here
thank you
[Applause]
i think i stole your thunder and i'm
sorry
anyway at this time i'm going to ask for
an approval of the j the agenda that's
in front of you tonight
i'll say
[Music]
yes ma'am
[Music]
yes but that is presented in our current
agenda that everyone has here tonight
right
yeah yes ma'am okay so i have an i have
a motion and a second all in favor
any opposed
any abstentions motion carries thank you
so at this time we will be having
presentations
and our first presentation
is going to be from ms donna scrolls who
represents the russell county fair
association ms scrolls
sis on yes you are
thank you
so yes i'm donna's pros and i am
currently
here tonight to
represent the russell county fair
association
the brussels county fair
just this very night
signed
another 10-year lease
from the county to
conduct business at the russell county
fairgrounds there in castlewood so
if you will
i have
the payment for that lease
one dollar for 10 years
so that's why you didn't get yours
got it now
all right so yeah we're here tonight to
acknowledge
and thank the russell county board for
their support and encouragement of the
fair
and also to invite you to our
celebration coming up
in september
of the 75th year of the russell county
fair
and horseshoe
so
if you go back to the the time frame
that the fair started
and you kind of take
do the math you'll see that
it's not exactly 75 years but there were
just maybe three years during that time
frame that the fair was not able to be
conducted
and of course last year was uh 2021 was
one of those
2020 i'm sorry 2020 was one of those
years
so
we're extremely
appreciative of all the support that the
the board in this county has has given
us
so the russell county fair association
is a 501c nonprofit organization
that is a leaseholder of the property in
castlewood where the annual
county fair takes place
the russell county fair association
consists of 20 plus board members
but there's over
100 plus
volunteers that work diligently
year round to
assure you of a very fun and educational
several days in the fall of every year
this massive group of dedicated persons
prevent to the community present pardon
me present to the community and the
surrounding area every year
a highly qualif a high quality
and entertaining experience for all ages
while we're busy right now working on
the 2022 fair schedule i can't give you
a whole lot of details
but i will tell you like i said that
we're celebrating 75 years and so our
theme for this year is going to be
75 years of traditions
and you'll see
lots and lots of things passed
and hopefully future to to be presented
at the fair
uh in
when we're
all geared up to go september 5th
through the 10th so mark your calendars
and come on out and join all those 25
000 plus people who attend our fair
every year
we promise you won't be sorry
75 years of tradition and
um
so
like i said i can't give you a lot of
details because contracts aren't signed
and those kind of things for
entertainers or or
specific events but
there's going to be a lot happening and
you won't want to miss it but in the
meantime and on another note the russell
county fair
is working diligently
right now on preparing for activities
all throughout the year
and some of those things that are
happening let's
see um
so
with the renovation of the 8 000 square
foot
uh community or conference center that
we have right there on the fairgrounds
the the renovations almost complete not
hardly
uh summer's coming on and and
although we don't have the heat
installed we we kind of still were able
to have events there this a couple
events this winter without the heat but
we recently uh
the got the the
circular air circulation system is not
necessarily a
air conditioning system but it's it's a
really neat and we're gonna we're
excited about being able to offer events
throughout the summer specifically in
the commercial building so
you'll have to come and see that one of
the things that's happening
uh
day two of
the
soil and water conservation program's
envirothon is happening just in the next
couple of days april the 8th
but on april 30th we're excited to
uh host once more
the castlewood high school's
senior prom
may the 5th through the 7th is a spring
market fair it's a craft show so you
don't want to miss that come on down
and then
may 21st we're we're currently planning
for what we're calling an outdoor expo
lots of vendors and and events going on
during that time for
uh and we think that that this will draw
a big crowd for
um
may the 21st
and for all you kids and the the cub
scouts
where our boy scouts were having the
circus back this year
june the 2nd through the 3rd
july 16th around in july we're planning
on a atv slash jeep show
and then on august 6 we're having a
music fest
there's weddings planned
there's
uh
a couple of weddings actually and some
being made every day it's a it's a
wonderful uh facility for weddings we've
had
i think three there already so uh
i think ev everybody loves the the new
renovations to to the building you have
to come and see
um in september of course fifth through
the 10th is the fair
and then also in september we're once
again hosting the vet fest
october 8th we're looking and
planning on possibly a
oktoberfest brew fest
there's another craft show in the fall
on october 13th through the 16th so
those are some of the things that are
going to happen
um
and
you know we're super excited that the
members of the
russell county fair association like i
said earlier are so dedicated and
committed some of those people who've
been there 75 years
where's dave leonard you heard me say
that
there's kind of a joke in the fair
association that once you join the fair
association you're there for life so
that's how dedicated folks are
and
we're we're super excited to offer to
the community
um
these events
and we're super appreciative of the
russell county
uh
supervisors and
mr lester for
allowing us to one more time
uh sign an agreement for another 10
years for the control of the russell
county fairgrounds
thank you
and if there's extra money there's extra
money out there you know we can always
use extra money from the county budget
that a girl thank you
[Applause]
okay next on our agenda is patrick
brunty with the russell county social
services department
good evening i'm
very thankful to have the opportunity to
come in here and speak to you all
tonight
as miss wallace said my name is patrick
brunty i am the director of the
department of social services here in
russell county
i've been in this position since august
1st of 2014.
the board
that oversees the department the dss
board
which you all appointed
to oversee the department
supported and authorized me to come and
speak with you
there are two separate subjects that i'd
like to talk about
uh tonight
first i'd like to speak uh with you
about who we are and what we do
in the nearly eight years that i've been
in this position
i've tried to fly under the radar so to
speak
uh something about you know the nail
that sticks up gets hammered
so
recently i've come to realize that this
approach has not been very beneficial
to the agency and to our staff
because
our local government
and our community doesn't understand
what we do and what we offer
we've heard the negative comments
we're wasting tax dollars
we're baby snatchers
we're lazy and rather help addicts
instead of honest hard working people
the truth of the matter is our staff is
very dedicated and works tireless
tirelessly to provide as much help as
they can to as many people as they can
they stay late
to process snap application
so a family can go to the grocery store
they leave their families in the middle
of the night to respond
to reports that someone needs help
they sit in our office with terrified
and devastated children have been
removed because their homes aren't safe
they drive children across the state
just so they can get the help that they
need
they investigate allegations that
someone's lying to us
to get benefits for which they're not
entitled
they work very hard
our department provides direct support
and services to the citizens of russell
county that are in need
our benefit programs unit provides
financial nutritional
medical
and child care services for residents
who request the assistance and meet the
eligibility criteria that's set forth by
state and federal program policy
you may be familiar with some of these
programs
supplemental nutrition assistance
program which is snap
which is used to be called food stamps
temporary assistance for needy families
which is
tanf and i'll warn you now dss we speak
in acronyms so if i say something that
you don't understand please stop me it's
just a habit that we that we're in
the tanf is a money payment that's
your welfare check
medicaid
that's self-explanatory energy
assistance child care
our services unit consists of adult
protected services and adult services
child protective services
and foster care
and then our support staff handles
administrative functions of our office
everywhere from greeting
our clients when they come in the door
to paying our bills
now i've provided a report to each of
you
it's
right there on the screen uh
that
it's called the local department of
social services profile report and it's
for the fiscal year of 2021.
this report contains a massive amount of
data and information that i feel is
helpful
and helping people understand what our
staff handles
i won't go through the whole thing
because i feel like i'm reading you a
powerpoint but there are a few measures
that i thought that you all would find
helpful one is
approximate percentage population of
russell county living in poverty
decreased 3.8 percent
in the uh from fiscal year 2020 to
fiscal year 2021.
i believe it went from 20 to 16.1
16.2
uh it's estimated that
10 of the residents of russell county
under the age of 65
are uninsured
approximately 42
of the residents
of russell county received snap tanner
for medicaid at some point in time in
2021
uh the department received abuse and
neglect complaints involving a total of
705 children
and 155 adults in the fiscal year of
2021
and then the big thing that i'd like to
point out is the total amount
of funding spent on social services in
fiscal year
2021 in russell county is 92 million 511
627
the county provided 952
691 of those dollars
so
roughly one percent
92 million dollars
you take that kind of funding out of the
equation
doctor's offices aren't here hospital
certainly is not here walmart probably
wouldn't be here so
we
even though we're funded by tax dollars
those tax dollars
stimulate this economy
so
that is actually that's all i've got as
far as who we are and what we do do you
all have any questions you'd like to ask
about that aspect of it
okay
so the second part of what i wanted to
speak to you about
is i'd like to make a request
the biggest obstacle that we have faced
uh since i've came on board and probably
predated me as well
is recruitment and retention of
qualified employees
ms dye's been a part of the dss board uh
predates me she was on the board that
hired me
and she can attest this
i speak about the number of vacancies at
each board meeting each month
and the stress it puts on our staff
a perfect example of the issues that we
face is
we posted a vacancy for a family service
specialist which is
a social worker you know a cps worker
or a foster care worker aps worker
in may of 2021
while we had multiple vacancies we only
had one applicant that we felt
comfortable with
hiring
we made the offer she accepted
the date you know she
she we had a start date she had a new
hire packet
that her start date came
she didn't show up
i reached out to her
never would respond to me
just never showed up
it just took a little bit of
investigation to
find out that she had accepted another
position
with a another agency within russell
county
but
just didn't
to this day still never heard a word
from her say hey i'm sorry i didn't show
up or anything
so what that did was basically i had to
repost this position
and
that was in august of 2021
we just hired two
individuals one started march first
one started march 16th
that was six months just to fill two
positions
we still have four service vacancies
our recruitment retention problems also
have some unintended consequences
because we are projecting a surplus in
our staff and operations budget of
approximately three hundred thousand
dollars
while replenishing office supplies and
replacing equipment and furniture
we'll decrease the surplus some
it won't we won't be able to spend that
money
the only way that i was able to identify
that we could spend this money is to
provide a one-time payment to our staff
a bonus if you will
and that would allow us to spend the
money on our staff here in russell
county
instead of sending it back to richmond
and have them disperse it to
alexandria fairfax
now this these funds have already been
allocated by the state and by the county
this these are this is our budget
so there's no additional cost to it
to be added to this
so
we're not asking for additional funding
however
the code of virginia does require that
in order for us to do it
that the
local governing body uh
let's see let me find it
authorizes ordinance allowing us to do
this
uh
it's uh
section 15.2-508
um
furthermore
uh it's it's allowable uh the state has
has spoken to directors
across the commonwealth for the past
couple years about this being available
to us
but
not many people are willing to go in
front of their
their governing body and ask for it
but
uh virginia department of social
services finance policy
specifically states that a locality may
provide a monetary bonus
as long as it's authorized by local
ordinance
and not only that it is reimbursable so
the county
would only have to pay 15.5 percent of
that
that expense
which in our case would be
i think it was 10 15 000 maybe something
along those lines
not not that much
in our budget so
now i understand
that
some of the information that i've sent
you all may have inadvertently let us
down a rabbit hole that i didn't mean
for us to go down
because i shared a spreadsheet with the
associated cost
and i only met that spreadsheet to be
informational
and you know for the sake of being
transparent
i did not mean to infer that i'm
requesting you all to
prove any type of funding because again
that funding's already in our budget uh
we don't we don't require you all to
to make any type of decision
it will come out of the same pot as our
salaries or anything along those lines
i'm just requesting that the board
approves the action
if and like i said earlier if we don't
spend these funds by the end of our
budget year which is
may 31st our budget year is different
than the counties in the states
this money is going to be sent back and
it's going to be given away to somebody
else
potentially this will have negative
effects on our
future
allotment from the state
and we rely
heavily on the state
for our funding
for staffing operations
we
as of right now we're spending about
seeing about 87
of our staff and operations experiences
86
is
is just payroll
uh
so that that tells you something a good
a good amount would be about 75
but we don't have the local funds to
pull down on to to do that so we we have
to rely on on the state funds
and
honestly that that is about it
again i appreciate you all give me the
opportunity to speak i'll be happy to
answer any questions you all may have
thank you mr brunch anyone have any
direct questions
uh mr breeding he's going first all
right well
i guess first i need to say
that i appreciate
social services you guys do a job that i
know i couldn't do
you know i've got enough problems
without having to try to solve
half the russian
well
i read through all your documents and i
saw where apparently smith county had
done this right
and they got approved like but it was a
fairly small right it was like six
thousand dollars right
if i read your documents right
you're proposing a bonus to
i guess it's i'm counting 43 employees
right it varies anywhere between 2250
and 5 000
right and that would total 205 000
and then you're
by the time we add the tax
which i guess is there
like a tax right
it totals 220
682.50
for those 43 employees yes but the
county share
would only be 34 205.
in a few cents
and i guess
my first question is
they might have approved 6 000 but
you know
are they gonna
jump back at 220 000
and
i guess is this legal i guess maybe it's
the question for you and katie can we
allocate state funds like that
reallocate
i've looked at the ordinance and i've
looked at the information from smith
county and i've spoken with jeff
who was very familiar with the situation
as
as as a general matter it's legal if you
pass this ordinance which would have to
be advertised no action could be taken
tonight because it would have to be
advertised in the newspaper for two
weeks before it could be considered but
yes it is legal to answer the question
about the amount i mean there's nothing
in the law the way it's written
that that would um prohibit any amount
now how it's i don't know how if there's
any other
how it would be looked at as far as that
goes but it's not it's not illegal
it's legal if you adopt that ordinance
but i can't tell you what repercussions
would come from auditors or anybody like
that
you know thirty four thousand dollars as
compared to the whole it's not a lot i
think that's fifteen and a half percent
of still pretty a chunk of money
uh
i'm not really opposed to this i just
try to make sure it's legal but i've got
a few things that i would like to
have questions on this
and one of them is how many positions do
you have unfilled right now i heard as
many as seven positions we have seven
right now when i sent you all the
information we had six does that include
the two new hires that you had
no they they're included in the 43. okay
so you still got seven unfilled
positions
yes why is why is there such a problem i
mean where do where do you advertise i
mean uh throughout the state it's a yes
it's a state jobs website it's
where they do the state i put it out on
facebook and people share it um
it gets put out on deed
i put it out on
linkedin
it's uh vec picks it up so i mean it's
it's it's out there
it's just
most uh the family service specialists
are difficult because it requires a
four-year degree
with either in a human services field
or in any field plus two years
experience in human services
it used to be much more strict where i
could not screen in a teacher because
virginia department of social services
hr didn't consider that
human services experience
couldn't screen in a police officer
human service experience they have
loosened that up so uh it's it's pretty
pretty broad
um
the positions you have open right now
what level are they
social workers we've got we have four
i guess now we have five family service
specialists and those are the social
workers they require special time that's
a that's a degree position uh we have
one benefit program specialist
that is an entry level no no
degree
and we have
one
clerical position uh
which is uh entry level position as well
theoretically they're all entry-level
positions it's just one but one requires
a degree
you understand if this were to be done
it'd be a one-time shot oh absolutely
absolutely
i think this is going to be a real tough
budget year for us
we're seeing a two percent rise in
virginia retirement system
and i mean that's
you know around the gross absolutely
i would think and i've talked to some of
your dss board members
i would have expected to come through
the board
that the board would have brought in and
say patrick just asked for this
we recommend this
it seems you got a mixed bag on board
some before in the summer yes right
some are not in the middle
but at any rate
i would think
you know
it would be my preference if we
allocated something would be to allocate
that amount and then go back to the
board and have them
you know distribute the money on some
sort of basis
uh
i don't know what kind of basis you used
it's just there's two numbers in there
22 50 and 5 000. right
so
basically i don't know what that's based
on
the 5 000
was for employees that were on the
payroll december
31st 2021
2500 or employees that started january
1st or after the 2020 january 1st of
2022
and there there are four employees that
have that have started
since the beginning of the calendar year
well that answers one of my questions i
guess i was asking if these new hires
would be ultimate
i went back and forth on it and actually
spoke to uh
spoke to
the supervisor about it and
they are a member of our team
i i don't see
why we would not i think that one it's
it's a morale boost
and you know if if they know that
other people are getting this and that
we're willing to
to go out and give them this as well or
at least a partial part of it
then you know that it's that's to build
some good will again i'd defer back to
the dss because that's
well what
as i understand it and i spoke to mr
campbell as well on saturday
smith county had to do it a little
differently
because
they they had to go
board of supervisors
to do the ordinance dss board
to approve basically the amount
or whatever the finalized amount would
be and then back to the board of
supervisors to allocate the funds you
said you said you had a problem hiring
and retained
right i think one thing that i would
demand on this
is if you do this i would call it a
retention bonus
and
have anybody that gets bonus sign sheets
they'll stay with you for at least 12
months okay
and if
you know if if somebody has to leave
finds a much better job six months down
the road you can just prorate the bonus
back right
they wouldn't repay
whatever
yeah i don't have any problem with that
i would have to i'd have to defer to our
attorney to
to draw that up but
you know
being such a tight budget here but i
understand the work workload
and
i command you for being able to do
the work seven dish employees
we'll look at the budget next year
okay thank you mr breeding i'm not i'm
not cutting you off but i am cutting you
off um
well i may not be through response okay
well let's let the let's let somebody
else answer ask a question does anybody
else you have anything they want to ask
while steve is thinking well uh one
thing's patrick i'd like for you to make
it a habit to come here
speak with us i appreciate you coming
uh i've had a uh opportunity to work
with you guys closely on foster care
industry
and
i'm so grateful for that i mean we went
from 100 some kids and dropped
dramatically
in that initiative and the social
workers
went with us late in the evenings on
sundays
visiting churches and different places
encouraging people to look at breaking
the cycle and taking a child we got
recognized by the house of delegates in
that regard and that goes a long way for
you
i know that it's hard to compete and the
greatest investment you can ever makes
in your people
i think now that this boards work
tirelessly to get you a really nice
facility and you have that but
really the greatest investment you can
make is in your personnel and your
people
i really appreciate everybody that works
for your agency working through kobe
because they didn't quit working they
worked through it all
they couldn't just say well i can't work
all these needs still had to be met with
kids being displaced
and i think you know we're still going
to be facing not just a covet pandemic
but there's a mental health pandemic
there's a
culture pandemic there's other pandemics
that we're going to be faced with and
you all have a huge responsibility i
pray for you david
because i really believe that
you don't get the credit you deserve and
i think a lot of it's just because of
perception like we've talked about i've
had the privilege to talk to some of
your people
anybody in here knows that if we can
invest in our people those people are
going to invest right back into our
county
just we don't even meet the minimum
requirement that we should give you
and i think that should be considered in
being able to do this
i'm for it i'll be honest with you i
think that
there's no better way to to motivate
your people except where they're able to
pay their bills and i know the
conversation we had that night that you
know that the three kids and you had
people had to stay in the office down
here with those children
a lot of people just don't know
and i think those times that you're able
to come and do your presentation on a
quarterly basis or whatever it may be
to kind of enlighten people
i'm telling you there's not a board
member who knows everything about
everything and every agency i want to be
educated more about what people do and
how they
provide and services they offer that's
one reason we form mount movers to try
to be educated to know what people do
and what they provide but
i'm like steve you know i think that we
i had a discussion with him about that
retention bonus and making sure that
people just don't take the money and
then they find a better job down the
road and i know you have a difficulty
with that because of our population
compared to other county populations and
they can afford to do certain things
that we might have but we've been
blessed
i mean we've been really blessed to be
able to do what we've been able to do
since we got elected and i just want to
let i know there's some of your workers
here tonight
i'm so grateful and i appreciate
everything they do
just from my little experience of being
involved in that foster care initiative
knowing what a tragedy it is
to have to remove a child you know
absolutely and i when
the the time frame that you're you're
talking about
i think we topped out at 98 kids and we
had three foster care workers and then
the supervisor
the state has
put a cap on the number of case cases a
foster care worker
can hold
and that's 15
so
we would we would have sunk sucked
we would have still done the work but
i mean they were putting in 78 hours
so
and and
and i appreciate and we we appreciate
what mountain movers and what you all
did to help us with recruitment
and speaking of which one of the one of
the vacancies
what i plan on doing is
making a foster care recruiter out of
one of those vacancies
somebody who will do the exact same
thing you know when the churches go
community organizations
go to events
and try to recruit foster homes
restaurants you don't have to be a
full-time foster parent just
are you willing to keep a a couple kids
for up to seven days
we we need everything
so
and a lot of a lot of the issues are
and i'll continue with the foster care
analogy
we have workers that can leave us
go to
host and family services or depaul
may get you know seven eight thousand
dollars more
and have six cases
yeah
i mean that's a no-brainer
thank you mr frankie one moment anyone
else have any questions
[Music]
one of the things i do want to reiterate
to this group that it will have to come
by ordinance
you will have a chance to voice your
opinion on this
remember there is local tax dollars
involved in this i'm not trying to spend
it but i want it to be very transparent
absolutely what is it what is at stake
here
and um so just we all agree that we
thank you for your service we thank you
each and every one of you all who have
come tonight
um if there's nothing else from our
board we'll move along are we good to go
steve i'm coming back to you last day
all right all right thank you guys thank
you mr brunty
now at this time we're going to hear
from the county administrator mr alonzo
lester
good afternoon board of supervisors
how are y'all doing today
and thank you mr protein for your
presentation and it was a good
opportunity because during this year of
course we're just coming out of the
pandemic
and
usually during this time of the year
we've already begin our budget meetings
and workshops
and
with the specific
legislation just convening today general
assembly is coming back today of course
everyone knows that how difficult time
they're having three or three billion
dollars apart
in their budget issues
so
one of the things that i did is not just
go into the things that's that that's
reflecting in the county as well because
that's my job and responsibility to
convey to the board of supervisors
issues that will be coming up before you
of all county agencies
so we've got to look at the picture as a
whole
all county departments did a great
outstanding over the last two years
during the pandemic
and
we were accoladed from the virginia
department of health
from the commissioners
and we did a great job of course
everyone sees that the kovid noun has
went down we went into days with no
cases and no fatalities
so
now during this time not only the county
is coming out of the pandemic the state
of virginia has come out of the pandemic
and one of the things that they're that
the board of supervisors will have to
consider
and and their concerns is before this
board this is different than our last
seven years of budgets
so this one is going to be hard one of
the things i want to emphasize to the
board supervisors is this
everything that has came before the
board in the financial impact it will be
before the board was implemented by the
state of virginia
there is
nothing that the county has done
incorrectly financially we have lived
within our means we have cut our costs
and we're in but we have to deal with
what's coming down legislatively and
what i like to do is present
what
is coming down legislatively and i tied
it in with the dss component also
[Music]
got too many clickers
second page
right now
there you go i got it
here we go i got it
okay
nfy 2223 budget issues of course the
first thing that we got to deal with is
what is current this year
of course everyone knows that the
minimum wire wage was
eleven dollars per hour this is during
the current budget year
that was a financial impact that it
began back in january
of course also with eleven dollars there
will be a twelve dollar increase in the
fy twenty 2223
of the minimum wage sorry requirement
which will be another financial impact
and
this is again
things and issues that have been
implemented by implemented by the state
the third thing that has been
implemented by state the virginia
retirement system which also affects all
the schools the uff is everything is
raising
they raised it from
13.05 to 15.05 that and how that equates
to two percent increase but
when you calculate in the gross salaries
that's a 20
increase
in the retirement benefit cost and the
board of supervisors when we started
bursting workshops we see those
individual line items come before the
board in each and every department not
just department social services but the
schools
the sheriff's departments the courts and
et cetera
of course during fy 22 and 23 virginia
is proposing a 5 pay raise
so and also 5 pay raise next year these
are major impacts to the county
if the the board of supervisors desires
to proceed down this path to be able to
give these five percent we got to be
very conservative in these items that we
keep going through that we've got to be
selective of to be able to meet these
financial goals
in vision and again
everyone in the audience has heard about
the proposed reduction in local grocery
uh local grocery sales pass
right now to the county
we pull 50 000 a month in sales tax from
the local walmart alone
that will be revenue gone
if this is implemented
so that's not counting the food cities
it's not counting the mom and pop stores
this is not counting anything this is
only the one percent proposed
also
everyone knows about the rate of
inflation price of gas and the price of
groceries has went through the roof of
course there are operations we haven't
hired anybody else we are also having
problems same thing as department social
services the schools and the shirts we
can't find people
we're having to pick up the extra loads
between all the county employees and
move things around to make it work
but just with the increased operating
cost of increasing inflation our costs
has soared over 10 to 15 over the
previous year
that includes fuel
house food
and etc schools
and now when we go into
hasbro that has been previously
mentioned
there
we have to do an ordinance for this
currently
there is no county ordinance in place
not for state funding for bonus you are
sitting presidents here
so what this means is the ordinance will
not be specific to the department of
social services it will be specific to
all county departments that have state
funding which is the schools the
constitution officers the courts
department of health and et cetera and
and governing boards that have state
funding if they have funds left over at
the remaining year they will be eligible
once you set this motion in place with
this ordinance
right now also as mentioned before
as as mr breeding had mentioned there's
been no formal request or resolution
from the local dss
no it is not required at the state level
but it is required with our internal
auditors
so that their request must have
formality between the local dss
governing board to the local governing
board of the board of supervisors
and traditionally
one thing that the board of supervisors
has done for the seven years you have
said in these seats
you have
always had level funding
and equal salary and bonuses countywide
y'all not agreed on the noise ordinances
you'd agreed on a lot of other things
that's here before you tonight but one
thing you have agreed to you have
traditionally stuck to
is
level county wide level salaries and
bonuses because that's who we're up here
representing all county departments
and this again will be sending
presidents
again when we have any department
whether it's part of social services
whether it's the school board or the
constitution officers
any time that you have state funding
involved and you don't send it back
you're keeping our elevated funding up
as many times i've heard other other
without through budget years
other departments on training getting
cuts to done
that to cut their funding but when you
do that you keep your elevated funding
what that means is not only are you
keeping your state funding elevated
you're keeping the county's fund portion
elevated also
so
we know that there's vacant positions
there's other departments it's got
things for equipment etc but right now
that's what you see that is coming down
from the state is going to be very
difficult
of course
katie and i
our jobs is to protect the board
supervisors in the county we have
reached out and we will have talked to
the department of social services legal
financial along with the authors of
public accountants we have communication
with them on this and we're requesting
guidance approval
from the local dss to be able to utilize
these state funds not that the state
funds is not eligible because the local
governing board has that authority
but it has never been at this amount
what you have seen traditionally
throughout the state
is approvals for 250 or 500
that's what you see max you do not see
an average of five thousand dollar
bonuses out of the end of your state
funds
second
three years ago the department of social
services also did an employment internal
alignment with the same fund money
that which the board supervisors
approved
again they have seven positions that's
open that's vacant and so do we so does
the schools so does the constitution
officer so does the sheriff's department
and what they're doing is they're trying
to work with what they got without
encountering any additional county money
because you got to remember with this
there are 60 36 000
give or take i got the exact number that
is encumbered of local taxpayers funds
that is it
that is a position a full-time year
position on the salary of one of these
physicians either of a school
or a sheriff's department or a
maintenance department this is filling
the position
this would pay that salary and of course
in the end
for the fy 2223 county budget
this will set
have an impact on your tax rates if you
cannot cover your budget by law
you then we've got to consider
tax increases right now with no
additional or reduced or the reduced
revenue that's coming along
additional operating costs
levels are are a big concern where we
have cut we have reoperated
we have done what we could do whether
it's federal or state or local money
y'all are the stewardships of it
so as we proceed through we must be
financially cautious we must be
financially good stewards whether it's
federal state or local
there's a board
and i thank the board
do you have any questions
any questions yeah i got a question uh
you mentioned the constitutional
officers in the school did they give
bonuses
they do
they did well not not this was what you
know hey i thought you said do they do
the pandemic did they get bonuses uh
from the arpa money
but they did give bonuses yes and so did
we
okay but i mean they did give bonuses
associated with sheriff's office give
birth
yeah share some directs yes yes sir but
that's the constitutional office right
yes they did get bonuses yes
that's all
yep
any other questions
no but what excuse me but what you're
saying is error 30 i wrote that down and
you said it's 36 000
of local tax dollars it's 34 205.
i know that's 34 205
arbitrary but anyway that is
our
local
share that comes out of our local taxes
that is correct man okay
so with this being said
what's to keep any of the constitutional
officers or the sheriff's office or any
of these other
boards and committees and agencies
to come back and say where is my thirty
four thousand dollars
as i pointed out in in the presentation
and mentioned
if you do this ordinance which one is
not in place and there's been a reason
for that
you do not have an ordinance in place or
the or if it didn't then that department
would not be here asking for your
approval
to when the board supervisors or the
other agency had done their
approval of bonuses or their level of
bonuses it had to be in through the
federal side through the cares or the
rfa funds during the pandemic number one
number two is
they
if we give a bonus which the board
sufficers we knew that katie and i knew
that the board of supervisors has total
autonomy to do it it is out of the
general funds we and the board of
supervisors and russell county citizens
knew it beforehand you were giving it
out of general funds this is coming out
of state funds which you do not have a
ordinance for normally the way the other
departments do has the schools
and and the other departments and
sheriffs and the ones that receive
federal state and local because you all
approve it each and every month they
wrote a move through their federal
funding their state funding and residual
into their their
locality funding that's why you see at
the end of the year which would give
totally legal standing to the school
board at the end of the year in the
reversion money to step down and say
there is an ordinance in place for a
bonus now
let me ask this uh katie if you don't
care to answer this for me i just want
some clarity
so the amount that we're speaking as far
as our contribution
can it be budgeted or utilized through
the department through their board and
then the rest of it instead of sending
it back to the state
that sets a pretty bad president when
you send that money back to them like
you don't
you know
i mean that that's a reflection that you
know maybe they don't need that money
next time maybe just cut them deeper or
something
are you asking if you can separate the
local funds from the state funds my
understanding and this is more of a
lonzo question is that's a match that
based on the percentage of the state
funds that's the amount that we allocate
so there would be no way to separate
that so the fifteen fives there locally
fifteen five is on their eighth is it
day fifty five i think that's correct
and that's that's why also the authors
of public accounts have looked at and
the central office department of social
services it is 15.5 why why would the
ordinance have to be so wrong why would
it not be just your partner
well you can do that
but you're you're singling out and you
shouldn't
do it to be fair and equitable as you
have before the last seven years
you can go specifically with the
ordinance that's at the pleasure of the
board of supervisors katie will also
tell you that that just says the
department of social services
but then you would have to write
specifically for the dss
but also you got to remember the big
ones with the big state funding between
the constitution department of health
that they're going to also be requesting
the same
the same in like kind and the same
treatment
well
if they have
money left over in their
me payroll it you can't run it down to
the state line item in payroll it is a
state funding how department social
services has done that funding is
irrelevant no matter what state line it
what funding line it is in within the
state of virginia state funding is state
funding
so what you're saying is just send the
200 some thousand back to the state
well
if no i'm not saying that either because
everyone y'all know me i do not like
giving back money but here is the thing
about it
if you open up the pandora box for one
you do all
well
i don't agree with you on that okay i
don't agree with you on that because i
think i think you've got to look at all
these entities
and the responsibilities and the work
some of these people put in 20 some
years they work through the complete
pandemic some did not some got to work
from home
they got you know you got to look at
every consideration and and and look at
the
the information that's required i mean i
think you ought to treat everybody i've
been an advocate for treating everybody
equally and fairly
but this is a circumstance where they
have a surplus of money that's from the
state and i don't want to see you send
that money back to the state
i know and i understand that but again
back to the point
every dollar that you keep elevated
locks us into 15.5 yeah
well the shares department pays
everything
once we allocate that money they pretty
much do whatever they want to
yes that is by law also so basically we
don't have the government
uh
well authority to do anything if they
want to give a 25 000 bonus they have
the right to do that no not exactly you
can't do with what even even from the
guides for the department of social
services i'm talking about schools even
with the school of state state funds and
federal funds you have to utilize what
we call due diligence one in oversight
you have to make sure it is a
responsible ethical
stewardship of federal and state money
if you have not traditionally give
bonuses of this size then it is out of
the ordinary scope of business and in
tradition
if it was a 250 or a 500 bonus we would
not be here having this conversation
because traditionally that has been the
sizes of the bonuses that we have given
i have got
i like i said i have rest out to the
department of social services and this
is the guidance that i'm repeating is
what they're telling me in writing
again the apa will be looking at this
again the internal auditors will be
looking at this
so what you're saying is
what are you saying if they look at it
is it illegal
no well i mean no it is not illegal and
katie conferred to that it's it's
stewardship of business expenses
of way you do the salaries if what has
traditionally been what the county
amount has been
or has given equally and surely between
all county employees
because the schools you all know in the
beginning had some big dollars
they had over a million dollars at one
time and surplus
and now we're down to around 180 000
which they could with this education
level and experience one of these people
that were here locally in russell county
could they go to another county and make
12 14 thousand dollars
i say that again now
i said with the level of experience in
education that these people have
dedicated their life here in russell
county could they go to another county
and make a lot more money
in it with today's labor market yes it
is it is so what i'm saying if you look
at what these people could actually do
as they're struggling right now trying
to get people to work and based on the
competition around the area
that's even making it more difficult i
mean
to me
you reward people for what they do in
their commitment dedication of what
their jobs are i'm not saying the
president with other people i'm just
saying sort gordon
you're to take care of the people that's
doing the job i mean if they go across
the border 30-minute drive make 20 more
thousand dollars on a year
you're going to have that happen
you're going to say the president that
if we are not able to take care of our
people in russell county then they're
going to
go and then what are you going to do to
fix that
well and that's a good point
that's been said
excuse me
thank you i mean what are you going to
do and to fix that and and then just in
the smith county example
what they passed that one for was to
assist with the health care insurance it
was
i i mean you can look after case after
case and bonuses after bonuses in the
state of virginia
i've done this for 28 years in the state
i've had i had larger numbers sitting in
the state with the department of
transportation department of health that
i could have took on vacant positions
even state to state money
and moved it into
at the end of the year
took vacant positions and gave to
bonuses but never had
not at that level
but like i said if this was 200 or 250
500 or even 750 you're in the ranges of
traditional
bonuses that has been given not only in
the county but in the state
i think it's two-edged sword i think
you're gonna have to do something to
take care of your people
mr lester do you have anything else you
need to address no ma'am
any more questions
anybody else have any questions or
concerns or comments
mr i was one of the
social services
having this plan left over
and yet they have to
um
not be uh discriminatory
all the other
employees have to get a bonus too that's
the one that came up for the extra money
looks like that i know that girl's
regular special
thought
why could they not give it to their
employees since they had the money left
over from
having to give it to everybody
well
excuse me
that i can
from what money they had left over was
from vacant positions that they did not
have field
that is you know subsidized county
positions that have been advertised some
of the in and looking at some of the
positions and advertising
you know like a physical assistance it's
been open since 2021.
you know we're and i'm i'm like
mr brain when they started talking about
where you advertising that and how how
to do maybe the county can step in and
help you know advertise them a little
bit more you know different or use our
applications too
but
mr christian what you're referring to is
those vacant funding agencies uh
physicians how they come up with that
funding
school has it the sheriff's department
has expanded the
the county has it
and so we have a lot of positions that
are either state funded or state
subsidized
and way the school board does it and
they have a little bit more autonomy
than the department of social services
like i mentioned before
they spend their federal funds their
state funds and then they leave their
local funds for reversion they can
easily at their own autonomy of the
school board change at mythology and
spend local funds first because like mr
breeding stated under code virginia they
can take those funds and expend them
first but traditionally in partnering
with the other agencies with the county
departments this is has worked out to
where it
has not made a financial impact
to the localities to be able to move
that funding in to be able to keep it as
anyone knows that right now again with
the state i mean with the state budget
and what's coming down we've got to be
good financial fiduciaries
it doesn't sound like a lot but it's 34
000 of local money that's a position
and if if if it would please the board
of supervisors i we would be willing to
work with league council department
social services to ensure that that 220
got carried over to the next year
because i know that's in place too we
have discussed that with the department
of social services you you and then that
way you still have that funding
available next year for those positions
and you have 12 months to fill them get
the help that you need based off your
basil positions the same way the
sheriff's department does and the school
does
okay any more questions
i'm going to move you along because
we're going to
thank you man thank you mr lester yes
ma'am
[Music]
next we have on our agenda
older americans month proclamation for
may 2022
that's in your board book
as a resolution
i'll accept a motion to accept it i'll
make
it thank you thank you thank you um all
in favor
any opposed any abstentions motion
carries thank you
all right next we are moving on over to
our public hearing and before we start
our public hearing
i know you guys are waiting patiently i
think there should be a sign-in sheet
somewhere thank you
i appreciate it
all right
so these this public hearing is for the
noise ordinance proposed for russell
county
so i'm going to read you a few things
and i'd like for you to abide by these
requests that i'm going to ask of you i
know it's been tough to sit here through
some things but i'm going to ask you to
please listen and abide by and respect
this board's
authority
attendees are not entitled to be
disorderly or disruptive in the meeting
from proceeding in an orderly efficient
and a fashionable manner effective
manner
disruptive behavior may result in a
recess
or removal from the meeting
all attendees are asked to be very
respectful of all speakers
rules will be enforced fairly and
impartially
to ensure the efficient and effective
conduct of business
all violators
may be subject to removal from the
meeting
after we have the public expression
i'm going to ask the
at the appropriate time
under the county attorney's uh request
and comments
there will be a time for the county
attorney and the administrator
to um respond to some of the
comments
from the audience
this is to ensure that you walk away
today
with an answer
that is satisfactory to what you know
and you can understand through virginia
code please remember and be cognizant
that this is all done
under the virginia code which is law
there's no law made here tonight it's
only an ordinance given to us
in protection of our citizens which
could mean you or me or anyone else so
there's no one coming with any
preconceived notions on this i hope
also um i just want to make sure that
you everyone understands
that i don't care to call on you and i
will so please
be respectful
i'm going to give you three minutes
also if you have brought
comments written comments
that you would like those to be placed
into the record
you can submit those to mr lester those
will be placed in our minutes and they
will always be there as your personal
comments and the way you feel about
what's going on in the county
so
at this time
everybody understand katie are you okay
with that yes
all right
please give us your name and address
please speak into the microphone
and uh daniel hess you're first
oh yes uh mr breeding has asked that we
now this is on the noise ordinance this
is okay
i didn't hear all of that i've got we've
got public comment to follow this
that was just handed to me
so um
boy scouts troop 408 come on and i'll
let you come and so your children can go
home
it's chairman's a prerogative i can make
that decision on my own thank you
we're here representing the breaks
district of the boy scouts of america so
we submitted a letter to miss wallace to
you asking for funding for a thousand
dollars and i was asked to come to
discuss that tonight because we're
trying to increase you youth activities
the brakes district is compiled of both
buck county county and russell county so
we serve all the communities in russell
county as well as mckinnon county but
candy county has come to us and said
we're going to give you a thousand
dollars for your youth activities and
you'll get russell county to match that
so here we are got a thousand dollars
from mckinney county that i might not
get if we can't get it from russell
that's what i'm here to say oopsie
so you're playing one of us against the
other so that's what i thought i was
told to ask for the thousand dollars to
match the candy county stuff okay your
your wish has been heard um i will
forward this over and mr lester is
already aware of that there will be
uh and we're not even supposed to be
having conversation but since it's you
and these children we're going to have
this conversation so anyway yes we will
see to that mr lester correct
thank you appreciate it we will match
buchanan county somehow some way right
board
and thank you for coming and we
appreciate your pledge it was sweet and
we love you thank you so much thank you
for the work you do for our youth
[Applause]
okay now we're back to noise ordnance so
any anybody here that can that doesn't
want to speak to noise ordinance the
public comments are later in this uh in
this meeting so we just asked you to be
patient with us we're trying to run the
program like it's listed on our agenda
first off
is
sandy hess swords creek
good afternoon my name is sandy hess i
am from swords creek
i oppose this noise ordinance for common
sense reasons it will not solve any of
the issues that these complainants have
brought forward it's been proven over
and over that we can't rely on the
government even local government to
solve our problems
how many times did we hear that the
orders that was put in place over the
past two years were for the greater good
i see no good coming out of this
ordinance
it will be weaponized hitting neighbor
against neighbor
causing more strife and discontent than
it solves
i also feel that it violates my first
amendment right freedom of speech
the last time i checked bill of rights
didn't set a decimal level for freedom
another reason that i'm against this
ordinance is because it poses a
potential threat to our religious
freedoms
as the ordinance stands right now it
states that the county religious
services
are exempt
why does it specifically use the term
county services
i know mr king had expressed to me after
the last meeting and to at least one
more pastor
that most of these pastors here are not
even ordained
so
does that mean if their church is not
registered with the clerk that it's not
considered a county church
god ordains ministers not the government
as easily as this ordinance has been
changed over and over the exemptions
that have been added to appease everyone
could just as easily be removed once
this ordinance is passed
i know miss wallace was very concerned
at the last public hearing that the
public
not be misled not on her watch and that
is admirable
however i went to the board of
supervisors office personally on march
the 11th i picked up 25 copies of the
ordinance that was discussed
and posted on the website at our last
meeting on march the 7th sometime
between friday march the 11th and
wednesday march the 16th
the exemption l for religious services
had been added
there are still two documents on the
county website under the document center
one has the church exemption one does
not
as thomas jefferson stated most
government most bad government has grown
out of too much government
mr christian made a declaration at the
last board meeting that and i quote
they don't want this government
overreach
that was very insightful of mr christian
it's obvious mr christian's in tune with
his constituents
i would only hope that the rest of this
board would follow mr christian's very
own words
when he profoundly stated
we don't want this government overreach
uh
i will ask you to hold your applause i
know that it's it's fun it's okay to do
this and i i don't have a problem hugely
but it does take up an enormous amount
of time
so in order to
be expediting getting everybody in here
to have everybody to say
they're what they want to say i've
probably got maybe
several
pages
so i want to make sure that everybody
gets heard and i'm going to be quiet so
please just let us move forward okay
doug mays
i'm doug mays i live in 1183 sydney kill
garden road level in virginia
i'm here to
support this ordinance
and the reason i i i
i'm looking here that was
mentioned about
yard maintenance what we do about that
farm animals
lawfully discharged firearms
and will it impact religious services
now
yard might just maintenance everybody's
got a lawn mower and that could get
around that one
but farm animals
all i hear is a move from the cows on
the hillside i need down there
and as far as their machinery when they
move my
hay and roll it i don't even realize
that they even know they're there
and as far as the religious
services outside
i'm sure if
people with amplifiers outside
they're not going to be criticized
unless they're really really too loud
then those ministers be
a minister from god
they're gonna they'll want to tone it
down a little bit and i don't think
that's gonna hurt anybody there
one guy on and here says what's what's
noise well here's what noise is
if you go up there and uh
uh
mr uh kane i guess it is
it when
uh amplifiers are going to music three
or four o'clock in the morning
blasting music and waking up to
neighbors good
now that's noise
down here mr osborne
his autistic daughter
just goes to pieces when there's loud
music going
she's already pulling her hair out and
beg to make it
make it stop
that's noise
and that's not only noise that's torture
most of us were tortured
uh
people like what mr breeding had to say
people who are entitled to peace
and
there's going to be voting on this
there's two types of people in russell
county there's good citizens and bad
citizens a lot of y'all i'm so glad we
get this
room full of good citizens in here
tonight
and
i think if we if you
vote against us uh
ordinance from the noise
you're voting against good citizens
[Applause]
for russell county oh east lebanon west
lebanon oh i don't know
east living i don't know okay
remember if you would like to submit any
of your comments please give them to mr
lester dana tucker hoenaker
madame chairman the board i appreciate
your time let me speak appreciate the
emails
my name is daniel tucker i live in
honaker now the county really doesn't
affect me our town is going to deal with
this as well
but i am in your county and we are
looking at a property i believe i'm in
your district street
people say they have a right to do as
they please because it's their property
and i'm on board with that i am a
property owner
but i can't run a brothel no more than i
can run a meth lab for my property and
there's laws on that to protect society
and that's what it is
this is a health issue you're facing
it's a safety issue i've been doing this
for 47 years
i run audio that's my life
if you don't pass it you're helping me
out
i carry meters i look at county noise
ordinances
so i can say within those parameters
people are misunderstanding
these decimals
99 of the people in the county will not
even be affected by this
they don't understand it
they will never be in violation
of this code
it's the people that are living door to
door with each other that are making
this noise
you know you're going to have 0.1
percent of the bad
affecting
100
of the people
that's being affected by them it's
torture
you all got my emails
if you think i'm exaggerating to you and
madam chairwoman i did read your rules
because i would love to play to you what
we spent an entire summer spring and
fall
there was no escaping
there was nowhere we could go within our
home
joneco police department and i don't
mean it like y'all do down here bless
their heart i'm not calling them idiots
based up there at my dinner table said
mr tucker there's nothing we can do
supreme court of virginia
unconstitutional
and that's why these meters are here now
opinions no longer matter
if it's above the noise
limit it's above the noise limit
and if you got a party going on or a
bonfire 12 o'clock at night
you're in the country you're 300 foot
off the road off your property line
there's no way you can violate it i
could have pink floyd come out and throw
a party on your property
set up my sound system seven thousand
watts and i would not be in violation of
your noise
it's strictly the people that are in
these close proximities of each other
culpepper went through this
on their website sheriff's department
absolutely nothing we can do
do not call us
we have no authority whatsoever
to intervene on behalf of noise
complaints
and that's what you're going to do to
your own law enforcement departments
you're going to tie their hands behind
their back
when they talk about pitting neighbor
against neighbor
if you don't pass it that's exactly what
you're going to do
this should be bipartisan not how many
people show up from your district this
is a safety concern for everybody in
russell county
because when you get these neighbors so
frustrated
that they're really literally ready to
take the law into their own hands
somebody's going to answer for that
and that's just as simple as it is
it's a real easy process 99 of the
people standing behind me
would not want to interfere with their
neighbor's well-being excuse me
the three-minute limit
madam chair
thank you very much for your time thank
you
um by the way i'm not i'm not keeping
time tonight so somebody is supposed to
be
i'm
oh that's right you are not
thank you
cody jackson
good evening my name is cody jackson and
i'm a resident of the cleveland area of
the county i'm in mr ray's district
i'm also a minister at harmony community
church in belfast
first let me begin by saying that i
appreciate the board listening to our
concerns at the last meeting and
agreeing to postpone the vote until this
public comment session could be
conducted i believe that was a great
move in building a foundation of trust
with the residents of the county
i've since taken the time to review the
current version of the ordinance
including the new additions for
religious services and i want to tell
the the board attorney that i appreciate
her efforts uh to protect our church's
first amendment rights from
weaponization
but i still do have some concerns uh
that this could still be used in that
manner for instance exemption j
specifically calls out amplified
expression uh which all of our services
would actually fall under that because
we use pa equipment during service and
that is not specifically mentioned in
exemption l
there also still remains no call out for
outdoor worship services which is very
highly concerning as i stated at the
last meeting
i also believe this ordinance as a whole
provides great opportunity for
weaponization against neighbors
for no other reason than vengeful
annoyance
the broad application of this ordinance
over the entire county is extremely
unnecessary as an example my neighbor
lives at least 300 yards down the hill
from me and it's been if it's best for
him to weed eat or mow at midnight that
really is not any business of mine
it won't be an issue for him anyway but
not everybody is blessed with neighbors
as nice as i am
regarding weaponization it was given as
an example at the last meeting that
sometimes laws are necessary even though
we don't fully protect from their
malicious use the example given was of
assault which is undoubtedly necessary
to bring people responsible for heinous
acts to justice
in spite of the fact that some may be
able to accuse others wrongfully i agree
with this statement because put simply
the benefits outweigh the risks i must
disagree however that this is an
applicable comparison as i do not
believe the benefits of this ordinance
come close to outweighing the risk in
summary after review and listening to
residents both from the last meeting
and throughout the month i find this
ordinance unnecessary unwise and
unpopular this is a great opportunity
for the board to further cultivate trust
among your voters by showing that you
are servants of the people i urge you to
stand in agreement with the residents of
this county and vote no on adopting this
ordinance thank you thank you
brandon bye
good afternoon i'm brandon boss and i'm
from cleveland and i just wanted to say
that i was against the noise
thank you mr vice
joni baker lebanon
hello my name is johnny baker living in
steve briggs district and i encourage
each one of the board members to
look through the eyes of law enforcement
i've got over 20 years in law
enforcement experience so i know
something about you know answering these
calls and things like that with the
disputing neighbors and domestic
situations and the meth crisis that
we're facing
my personal opinion is that i believe
that we're going to go in this direction
it's going to create more harm than good
because law enforcement cannot make good
neighbors you know the simple truth is
that we're supposed to be enforcing the
laws you know protecting the citizens
but we can't make good neighbors i
believe that this ordinance if it's
passed is going to put law enforcement
in father harm's way by the neighbors as
you all have heard retaliating against
one another
more call volumes you know so
law enforcement already has a great
burden on them as we've seen across the
country with assaults and things like
that and as the gentleman spoke about
social services you know you can't find
workers and a lot of that's due to the
burden that's placed on social services
and law enforcement you know so i would
encourage everyone to think about this
from the people that's going to have to
go out and answer the calls because the
call volume is going to increase i can
assure you
so look for the the law enforcement side
of this as well not just the citizens
you know it's unfortunate that we don't
have better neighbors to where that it
doesn't bother you know someone
regardless of their situation you know
that's just common curse but it's a
civil matter and i believe it needs to
stay like that and we need to try to
ensure better safety for the law
enforcement personnel as well and
consider their job because they'll be
the ones that had to go out and face
this
thank you mr beggar
oh my goodness uh dwayne halbert
i'm dwyane helbert i'm um cultiva hollow
area of lebanon i'm mr breeding's
district i just wanted to say that
i don't believe that
the board can ordinate respect among
neighbors
unfortunately some people have bad
neighbors i've had bad neighbors in the
past
um
but i'm against this moore's ordinance
thank you
thank you mr hilbert
next is mike dye
i'm mike dime from uh
call ray's district now pastor harmony
community church
i have papers here signed from harmony
community church and from revival center
sword street
uh they are in revival so they sent me
their list there's 125 names on here we
stand together against this ordinance
i like to ask all seven board members
which
mine's not here tonight slice the six
that's here to vote against this
uh i was here in march and spoke against
this ordinance and
i got a phone call that sunday
and uh just exactly what we said would
happen happen
uh
before this ordinances even passed
uh the call uh went south
when i said my mind's not changed i'm
still against it
and he began to bash churches preachers
and pastors so if you don't think this
is going to happen it's already happened
it i mean it's not even been passed
and this has already happened russell
county fire has been here 75 years our
church was built in the 1800s
and russell county has gone 236 years
without a noise ordinance and i don't
think we need one now
uh
a speaker tonight's already talked about
an outside church service getting too
loud
uh freedom of religion
not freedom of religion if you stay calm
if you don't say this you know and and i
i mean i'd like i wish there's a lot of
people here tonight that's not gonna
speak but i wish they'd all stand up
tonight that's against this
and just and to show
that that there's people here tonight
that is against this ordinance
that that does not want to see this past
uh brother chester ball talked to him
after the meeting in march
he's got a ride i think at three o'clock
in the morning the weeding his land mow
his yard if he wants to
uh he can't breathe when it gets hot
and i think he ought to be able he owns
that land that's his land his house
uh i asked uh three board members here
do you really want to pass an ordinance
that can send a law enforcement officer
to the home of an 85 year old korean
veteran at 11 30 at night and tell him
he's got to turn his tv down because
it's too loud
i mean is that the ordinance you want to
pass
and sad to say
the response was yet
i even asked one that didn't know that
dogs were supposed to be exempt
do you really want to pass an ordinance
that could take the dogs away from your
own 78 year old dad his response was i
don't think dad needs him
who are you to say what your dad does or
doesn't need on his own land this is
government overreach we've got too much
government and i just want to say ditto
to everything cindy has said
and and i encourage you please vote
against this vote no
to this ordinance uh you got a chance
tonight i mean i think it's going to be
sad to look back over this this many
people
and really say it doesn't matter what
you think i'm going to vote this in uh
and i'll tell you if it needs to be out
here if my time's called i didn't think
i was going to speak three minutes
thank you mr dime
mr owens
i think it's noah did i get it right
thank you
okay
all right um tim hess hoenoker
madam chairman my name is tim hess i'm a
member of real chapel i live in drill
virginia minister at grilled chapel
first and foremost i don't have to be
obtained by the county because i know
when god called me to preach i don't
need no
nobody tell me who and when i can can't
preach but i will say this
have you ever been in a church service
when the spirit moves peanut are you
going to be the one going to tell us got
to shut it down
it's got to be inside
first revival i healed was at bill
crawford's and irvington you know where
that's there
most of you probably know bill crawford
the holy ghost fell upon me when i was
preaching i wound up out in the middle
of the street
you walk out the front door his church
in the middle of the road you know where
i'm talking about don't you lou
you know where bill crawford's church is
wound up out in the road i was preaching
you know i didn't realize how i got out
there
didn't matter to me
i was obeying god and when you think you
can step in and tell me when and when i
cannot obey god because you want to pass
this sound ordinance
take me to court's all i can tell you
i talked to a few of the members i i'm
on peanut i'm peanut is in my district i
think i know how he stands to talk to
another one that yes he said well you me
you're exempt from this to an appoint he
said your neighbor will have to go down
and pay a certain fee and draw charges
up against you if you violate this thing
okay if i'm waiting in my yard at six
o'clock in the morning
and he goes and presses charges on me
and i go to the courthouse and the judge
says mr hess will you eat in your yard
at six o'clock in the morning
i'm gonna say yes your honor i might
find you guilty because that's what any
normal judge would do because i admitted
that i was doing it
so don't tell me i'm exempt from
something that i'm not
don't tell us that the churches are
exempt from something drill chapel has
an amplified system i know i had to
learn how to use that wayne hubbard had
to teach me we've got one
we use it outside we have singings
outside we have church we may have to
have church outside we didn't have to
have a whole lot of church outside that
i know of we might have to when y'all
think you can step in
the only question i have for you i pay
my taxes
i work for everything that i have
if i give you a car or give you a piece
of land and then tell you what you can
and cannot do on it how much ownership
do you really have of that piece of land
i own where i live
i own my home i should be able to have
my tv if i i don't hear good in my right
ear i haven't since i was in school if i
got to turn my tv up i'm going to turn
it up i pay the cable bill y'all don't
i'm going to turn it up where i can hear
for y'all to tell me what i can and
cannot do on my property is useless and
i have each board member to know and not
been threatening but i have family in
every single district
i've talked to every single one of them
they're all against this thing remember
we put you in your position
you didn't earn it we voted you there we
put you there
if you want to stay there
stand on the bible stand on the word
that's what this country was founded on
you know my thing is you put a sound
ordinance in i didn't know i was going
to preach i don't planned on it but you
put a sound on it and i think about when
jesus said he was coming back in the
clouds of glory are you going to be the
one to stand there and tell people that
they can't shout
i mean you think about this because it
comes back you cannot pin things on
people over one or two people it's not
an ordinance issue with the young lady
that has the autistic child
it's not an organization chair
thank you for your time you're finished
thank you
tara
hi my name is tara dime from cleveland
i'm here to speak against the noise
ordinance after listening to the
complaints it seems to me that these
people are being harassed with noise
just as just used as the means if this
passed do you not think they'll find
other ways especially with 19 exemptions
this ordinance will solve nothing in
these situations but will further pit
neighbor against neighbor once the
police are gone and the judge has ruled
that person is still their neighbor
it has solved nothing and further
deepened the divide between the
households
has the board reached out to the
sheriff's department and commonwealth's
attorney to try to figure out a solution
that can be worked with the current
harassment laws that are already on the
books
surely with all these smart people we
have in these laws we could figure out a
solution to the specific incidences
without making some new blanket
ordinance that will affect many and
undoubtedly create new problems due to
unintended consequences
i'd like to make a couple more points
first off at last month's meeting the
crowd was discouraged from speaking if
they were going to say something similar
to someone who had already spoken it
seemed as though some members on the
board were concerned with time it
shouldn't matter if everyone is saying
similar things
they are here to hear their to voice
their concerns and should be heard it is
reprehensible to discourage anyone in
any way from speaking at these meetings
if these people are taking time out of
their busy schedules to speak to you you
should take the time to listen
after all
that that is your job as their
representatives
one final point we are concerned over
this ordinance concerned with government
overreach and concerned about this board
that seems to find new ways every few
months to chip away at our personal
freedoms
i'm tired of it and other people are
tired of it too
since you all have been elected how many
times have we all had to come here and
pack the boardroom how many times have
we had to move had to have board
meetings move to this very room because
you all are considering doing something
egregious
make no mistake members of the board
this county is going through an
awakening business as usual is no longer
acceptable
government overreach will not be
tolerated i ask you all to do the right
thing and vote against this ordinance i
also ask that you all put forth effort
with the commonwealth's attorney and
sheriff's department to come up with a
solution for these people being harassed
that doesn't restrict the freedom of
every citizen of russell county thank
you
b.j king
okay most of you know i'm poor
you know
and i was really disappointed when i
left sure the meeting last month
instead of helping her stomping his
pastors and praying for that guy whose
daughter was going in the fence we just
kept on going that's not what pastors do
pastors are supposed to be
number one in the area they're supposed
to be pillars of the community
they're supposed to look after their
community
you cannot close your eyes of what's
going around you this is not the same
county as it was 200 years ago these are
not the same people that live in this
county now we absolutely have too many
people raising pain and using drugs
on my way from here last month or last
month i want to tell you
i got to rosedale to the church
and i pulled over
and i told god i said god you want me to
keep fighting this send me some kind of
thing
we've always wanted god to send us a
message
well god sent me three of them that week
one i got to my
house i pulled underneath my carport
cover
and just as i did the state police in
the county was pulling in my neighbors
over there who've been partying all
night raising cane he'd went to a young
girl's house this isn't the first i'd
give you ten ladies mr king
address the board okay thank you sir
anyway
when i got there i didn't know what was
going on i just knew the sheriff and the
state police was there
this guy had went after party over there
and threatened another young lady that
if she didn't get in there and get
underneath the bed right now that they
were going to come and get her
i know 10 ladies up around their areas
that this has happened if you don't
believe me go up to robin's grocery
store talk to the poor clerk of parents
terrified to work at night talk to the
other one and it quit
okay
you know
i talked to the sheriff's department
they signed my thing
the sheriff and all the deputies are for
it because you were talking about going
out more yeah but at least they could do
something they told me until the noise
ordinance passed they can't do nothing
even if they're building the drugs they
said if this is passed
because you have to have something
besides probable cause
now if it's passed
they can go to the door
and according to mr combs investigator
once they get there if they open up the
door and there's no way and there's
something going on there's drugs they
can do something
people
a lot of pastors jumped on this last
month not knowing nothing
well let me tell you something
i think that's the way the devil does it
the devil gets his foot in there and
this is exactly what that is that bro
that's the devil work a lot of pastors
here jumped on this like a duck jumping
on a gun bug
that's the way i felt about it
i'm telling you i don't usually get
round up i'm trying to behave but this
is a lot
if you had to live in my community and
see these poor people up there going
through it and one pastor told me it
didn't matter
that the blood wouldn't be on their
hands well if it's not on your hands
it's in your community whose hands is it
on miss kane yes ma'am three minutes is
it yes sir i'm sorry
but
your what needs to be passed
it needs to do it not just for me
for the safety of the community
okay i'm asking you
you've had your first warning
everybody respectful respectful
it's hard for us to hear in this room so
i appreciate it if you all will keep it
down no whispering you don't need to
talk okay mr james nunley
good evening thank you for the
opportunity to speak i'm james nunley
live in lebanon here i do pastor cedar
point baptist church i do have quite a
few concerns just in general
concerns over the easy removal of any
kind of exemption without public notice
that's a concern for me
in regards to this being passed why do
we need a blanket ordinance to address a
few isolated incidents specifically you
know
a lot keeps an honest man out i'm afraid
if we do a noise ordinance it'll just
keep the honest folks more quiet
and those that don't care for it they'll
just keep on going what's that happening
anyway
as mr lester spoke to it'll be a further
exhaustion of overworked county deputies
we were already short staffed so that's
obvious
uh the possibility of creating yet
another
monitor position
and thereby impacting the taxpayers
to the to the tune i guess you would say
of almost 34 000
at a position
um and then furthermore the
weaponization of it as you've heard lots
but i just wanted to take a moment um
and address the comparison um of assault
versus
the noise ordinance i i agree um i think
assault should definitely stay on there
but one is illegal and one is not unless
this passes by this board thank you
thank you mr nunley tara knoll
thank you all for having us this evening
my name is tara knoll i live in the
spring city area of cleveland virginia
i'm speaking tonight for myself and my
husband larry noel jr who could not be
here for medical purposes tonight
he and i do oppose having this noise
ordinance put into place
and that's that you please vote no to
this ordinance
we both feel that it would not only
infringe on our rights as property
owners but our religious freedoms
for example
if i want to go out in my front yard and
praise the lord for the morning
i should not have to worry
about my neighbors and what that they
may be hearing or whatever i'm thinking
who is going to call the authorities
because of what i have to say
or if i was being too loud
we are concerned that this will affect
our local churches
we are aware that there have been some
exemptions written for the church
but we are afraid that these will one
day be voted out and it will affect our
rights to praise our lord
and to share his amazing love
this ordinance will also take away from
our much needed resources in our
community our county law enforcement
officers will be tied up taking care of
unnecessary
unwarranted calls for needless
complaints
rather than being able to respond to
medical emergencies motor vehicle
accidents domestic violence calls just
to name a few
god's word tells us in matthew 22 37-39
to lord to love the lord thy god with
all thy heart
with all thy soul and with all thy mind
and the first is the greatest
commandment
and the second is like unto it
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself
let us do this and these discussions
wouldn't be necessary
thank you thank you
donald mitchell
well i have to ignorantly say
that i signed that paperbacker not
really knowing what it was this is the
first meeting
that i've attended on this so
y'all can call me stupid if you want to
or whatever
but i just like to say i'm against the
ordinance
and
i live
in
ridgewood subdivision
in lebanon and i have to say that
all of our people that live in our
respect one another
and the lady read the
passage from the bible
a while ago
you know if we love our friends and our
neighbors
we're going to not make noise anyway
they might be times maybe in emergency
situations we might have to
do something late or do something a
little early
but overall i think we'll we have
respect for
our fellow man and for our neighbors
and as far as
pertaining to the churches
you know if if
our church didn't have
an amplification system in it i wear two
hearing aids and i've i've lost 50
percent of my hearing
and if they didn't have that i wouldn't
know what was going on i try to read the
lips but i'm not very good at it
you can ask my neighbors around me and
my wife
friends
they have to repeat to me so many times
i get ashamed
of what you know what's going on
but i just like to say
i'm vote
no against it
for it
[Music]
thank you mr mitchell don bush
say first of all mr nunley failed to
mention that he had 20 members from his
church with assigned
the petition against the ordinance my
name is don bush i live in belfast area
of russell county i'm a registered voter
and i vote i'm opposed to the passage of
the proposed noise noise ordinance i
believe it is governmental overreach i
feel that it will do more harm than good
to our county and its citizens you
cannot pass laws that will change the
deviant and unkind actions of people i
understand the problem of those who have
expressed the issues they have with
their neighbors i do not think this
ordinance will help them with their
grievances i do not i do why do we need
such a wide sweeping ordinance in an
attempt to solve neighborly issues
we have a litter ordinance in this
county and as i understand it a person
hired to oversee it but it has done
nothing to stop the people in my
community
from cleaning out their cars and
throwing the trash out the window just
take a ride on 642 belfast mills road
off 19 and look at the litter the
ordinance has not changed their behavior
only god can change a person and change
their behavior
many in russell county have become leery
and concerned about what can happen when
there is too much governmental overreach
we have seen too many woke asinine and
stupid laws and decisions from the
federal government we know
there is little that we can do about the
stupidity and greed in washington but we
can and must start by getting involved
in russell county and the recent
transgender issue in the school system
of our county has awakened a sleeping
moral majority that will be heard if not
now in november
people
are becoming
uh
skeptical and afraid of what the
government could and might do
in the interpretation of one word in
this ordinance could change many ideals
in it just by the misum interpreter
interpretation of one word
in
it would
do the russell county residents
or board of supervisors would determine
to decide what we're going to do when
the federal government sends us our
first busload of illegal immigrants
what will it do to our school what our
school system what will social services
do
where will they live there are more
important issues
that than noise thank you for your
service to our community and this form
in which you have we have given us the
freedom to express our views thanks
thank you sir
paul herndon
that i pronounced that correctly miss
herndon
thank you
my name is paul herndon i live in
clarksville six swords creek virginia
i think i'm the third generation
hernandez lived on the property that i
live on
and
i'm i'm proud to say i live in the
mountains here in russell county
and hope to stay here but i vote in
russia county also
and i want to say right off the bat that
i'm against this ordinance
uh i think it's overreach now i feel for
these folks it's got to neighbors i mean
it's it's it's real uh you know i i
don't suffer from what they suffer from
that's real and
i wish we could push a button and fix it
but it's we live in a world now that
apparently not
not enough people are true believers in
the bible and read the bible and and
understand that you love your neighbors
if you love your neighbor you got
respect it ain't you know
it ain't about anything other than just
uh doing the right thing and we've got
wiki people uh
i know them everybody here knows some of
them some of them is probably family
members
but i want to say i'm against it and
when i first heard this i thought that
uh you know that don't sound too bad
when i first heard it
and kind of looked at it i thought this
don't sound bad
and then when i when i dug into it and
then i i asked the question that red
flag me i said well how many actual
people has called in
over the past year has called in over
noisy neighbors
and that's when i realized that it's
a lot of overreach going on everybody
says that the wheel squeaks what gets
the oil
i hate it for the people that's got a
problem
but i do encourage you all i feel very
strong this needs to be voted down uh
we've got other issues in our county i i
was sure the last time they talked about
losing about 10 000 people and you know
and the administrator talked about uh
you know the budget and all that and and
all good points made
but you know
we need to be talking about what we can
do to get jobs and get you interested in
cause get money into your county doing
doing things for the county and getting
that revenue people to spend taxes and
stuff
that's important
and we have got to be able to take a
stand
against what our federal government
might do and it and some of this will to
y'all it's gonna fall on your lap i mean
there's gonna be some tough decisions
it's not gonna get easier guys it's
gonna get worse
but i appreciate your time and i want to
say that i am against this
and uh thank you
thank you mr brandon
very eloquently put
sharon harinden
my name is sharon herndon and i live in
swords creek and i'm definitely against
this
and
i would like to tell you i do go to
church and but i also have a place in my
home that i go to the woods to pray if
the spirit comes by and blesses me to
shout
i don't control that volume
and if my neighbor calls on me then
therefore i would be in trouble
but i don't think my neighbor would but
that's one of the reasons i would
definitely ask all of you to please
respectfully vote no on this ordinance
thank you miss heritage
mr larry hughes
my name's larry hughes i live in lebanon
virginia i'm in steve's district
uh as usual
i've never had my thoughts together but
i do want to thank the board for taking
time let me talk to you
uh and i think you have good intentions
i think this sir but my i want upfront
i'm against this ordinance and i'll tell
you why i think number one is uh
why do we need to punish the whole
county for a few people
are you you're trying to take a broad
brush and punish us all for something a
few people's done and i can tell you
i've lived in a situation that our
neighbors have done this very things to
me in my life but okay i've done we we
got through it uh but why should you i
ask you to honor your oath protect my
citizens my other citizens and my
liberties uh and then you if you're
passing this with this overreach as i
said it's called creation problems
again god gives us free will and we
choose to do or not to do things
and again we can't change human nature
but maybe we do need some laws that but
why don't we
exercise some of the existing laws we
have
again uh
if you go back down here and we talk
about noise
like what is noise
one person noise is another person's
joy
how about how about a cone hunter at
nighttime he's hunting at nighttime at
you know 12 o'clock you know
i know the dog's not there but that to
them that's noise not it's not
necessarily a noise to me or no noise
this pleasure then maybe a noise but i
don't complain with that so we have to
realize that things we may be doing is
going to hurt a lot of people with good
intentions hurting people
same thing happening in washington
county last year i told you about that
last month we're dealing with
my question and maybe
our council would help us with this why
isn't the 18.2-415
which is this early conduct that's a
state law why is not it enforced what
does the law tell us basically it tells
us
if i can get it here so the person is
guilty of disorder contact if the intent
is to cause public inconvenience
annoyance or alarm or reckless creating
risk thereof if we have the law of the
books why don't we enforce it when a
person created these problems we say we
can't do it don't have no well there's
laws on the book that's this
if you look to that correct know that i
appreciate that i know maybe it needs to
be
uh
massage a little bit make it more
pregnant for this but i think what
you're doing is wrong
again the question is you said we got
some ambient we need ambient noise
what's ambient noise what is the ambient
level 70
normal office complex 80 85 maybe in a
restaurant setting what is it you say
what would you establish
ambient or ambit noise it may take you
know osha enforces safety issues for the
health of workers that's using eight
hour time weighted average of 85
decibels before they you have to do
anything so 85 decibels is what i could
work
and not be hurt
my lifetime
but now you're telling me it's 10
degrees above ambient watts or 10
decibels above me why just what is the
ambient it's going to take you can't do
an ambit in five seconds
thank you but i do want you to think
about this gotcha thank you miss cues
lynn head
my name is lynn hess i'm swords creek
virginia david eaton's district i'm
pastor of miller creek community church
i also have a petition signed here i
have 28 members of my church signed this
petition that i represent here tonight
that are all against this noise
ordinance
i would like to say first off after our
last meeting some of the pastors in this
room uh received text from a board
member
unfortunately i didn't get one of those
texts
swallows
uh
they so that just shows you there's a
difference in who stands up here and
speaks and who don't because i
participate in some more of these board
meetings than what other people do
i think we all want to be heard the same
whether you've seen my face a hundred
times or whether you've seen my face one
time
but i stand here tonight i wanted to
tell you about a case that i looked up
it was a noise ordinance case it was in
virginia beach
virginia beach past the nord's ordinance
and they cited a bar uh and it was
virginia beach versus tanner
by them uh sighting this bar the the bar
took the city of virginia beach to court
and it actually made it all the way to
the virginia supreme court
and the virginia supreme court ruled it
unconstitutional
the way that it was written
it was too broad too many exemptions
uh well smith county right across the
road over here our neighbors you know
across the mountain
had a similar situation come up they
passed the norah's ordinance well the
commonwealth's attorney said we can't
even enforce this in order's ordinance
because of virginia beach ruling on the
supreme court
and then fairfax had the same thing come
up in their county they couldn't even
enforce it because of the ruling of the
virginia beach
ordinance
so
i want you to think about that and then
also i want you to look at
19.2
dash 2. let me put my glasses on so
c270.7
which determines the decibels
of what a noise ordinance has these
machines has to be calibrated every year
by the virginia state government
which is a great expense to the
to russell county
mr lonzo lester just stopped here and
told us how
badly we're strapped for money across
our county
that we can't even give the dss
department the money that's a surplus to
them that worked other counties load
cases through coveted
not only our load cases but worked other
counties load cases
but
we don't need to be hiring an officer
now to go and enforce this noise
ordinance and that's what we'd have to
do is have another officer like we did
for the litter ordinance we'd have to
have a noise
the officer to go around tell people to
be quiet
like the rest of these people say it and
they they so welcome we put it that we
don't need this ordinance we're a rural
county we're not fair facts we are not
uh a housing development as i said last
month we live in a rural county and we
enjoy our royal county
thank you mr hayes
you're welcome miss wallace
john smith
my name is john smith
and i go to church in
russell county
and uh
i come here tonight with one thing in
mind but after i've listened to your
meeting i've got three things i'd like
to address to you guys
and so it's some of this is some food
for thought
i'm a retired coal miner
i was a supervisor at
buckingham i work with mr hess
i was a supervisor there for 15 years as
a supervisor underground coal mine for
20 years
all right
now with that being said
the smiths
when they come across on mafia when they
come across on the ship every one of
them
all the men served this country
defended this country against all
enemies foreign and domestic
and the united states constitution
was written in 1776 and it governs our
laws
and that is all the law i need let me
know what god i need to serve because
this country was founded upon
freedom of religion
they wanted they left england to come
here because of religious persecution
these people are your ancestors
so you think about this noise ordinance
before you pass it
or if you vote on it or you vote it down
i pray i've been praying you voted down
but think about this
these people voted you in
you're sitting here talking about all
this money
you know why you can't get nobody to
work department sold some services
you don't pay them nothing
ain't nobody wants to tell a kid your
mom and daddy don't love you they love
drugs more than they love you
it takes a special person to do that job
for what you pay
you know why you can't get no police
officers to enforce the law
you don't pay them enough
i've got three college degrees two
bachelors of arts and one bachelor of
science
i decided to be an underground coal
miner because it paid more
i went when i went to school i learned
that when i made more money
i lived better
that's common sense
now here's some food for thought for you
guys supervisors let me give you some
good advice as a supervisor
if i bossed those men at buckhannon the
way you have run this meeting tonight we
wouldn't have been able to flush the
toilets in the bath house
do your job
uphold your oath
be a supervisor make those hard choices
if you can't give the department social
services that raise
or that bonus give them a pay raise so
they can get people hired to do the job
you're finished oh by the way could you
ma'am if you want
if you want respect
you need to give respect you don't
demand it could you give us your address
please my address is pounding meal i
live in tassel but i come over here to
speak for my constitutional rights
and i told you i will defend those
rights
against all enemies foreign and travis
woods you're up next
you need to remember thank you i hope
you respect your husband the way you
respect these people because you do that
man there bless his heart he's a good
fellow
how you doing i'm travis woods
gravel lake
been on the same 26 acres for
46
years or better we've uh
my son and i we've raced motorcycles and
rode motorcycles on a property all that
time and
never had a complaint from a neighbor
not one
and i don't want to see that become
illegal with a boat here tonight i'm not
here looking for an exemption for
off-road vehicles i'm out here looking
for exemption for the church but lord
i'm here looking to tell y'all you need
to vote this down
i'm against it thank you
thank you travis
randall smith
i'll go ahead and take save time i'm
running spinning i'll travel 18.
casper district and uh appreciate board
hearing me tonight but uh i'm here
against this ordinance and uh
got a couple of reasons why
but first of all before i do that mr
king
and
mr osmond i talked to last meeting
i do encourage them to seek civil
restitution
if they're being damaged that's the way
to go seek civil restitution for it but
stop to it
and i think
i'll ask the county attorney to address
this later
but i don't think they have to violate a
law to be civilly allowed
so uh any
let that be gone but anyway uh i do
encourage that but the uh one thing that
i did notice in here that really really
bothers me
is uh
the complaints and it says no
no person should be charged with
violating this ordinance unless the
complainant appears before magistrate
okay but also because however when a
uh
police officer is
present
during the violation he can go ahead and
institute's actions and i'm all for our
sheriff's department i think they are a
role model for many other counties
but uh
we need to the potential for abuse in
just that one paragraph
with one bad officer one bad situation
it's it's just not right it's it's it's
it's just uh
not right and uh
there was another well
as far as the enforcement sheriff's
office the enforcement but it also
includes
other employees
as part of the enforcement that
that's scary
any county employee could be designated
to take care of this uh
if any ordinance
one thing i know is missing and it's any
ordinance of this type whether it be a
harassment ordinance or whatever it
should include
notification first thank you mr smee all
right i apologize give it two words
notification first then it should be
some type of um
meeting between the two parties under
the supervision the sheriff's office or
whatever then if you have to
cite someone then let judges the
attorney will address that for you thank
you
[Applause]
pastor don
i'm getting better at this
madam chair thank you for
hosting this meeting for us
you know
as i said last month
anything that has 19 exemptions in it
needs to go
what we're hearing here is that the
sheriffs can't do anything when they go
to our claim for mr king
but they can
the other thing is about this is that
you're trying to legislate sin and there
is no law that can be passed that can
legislate sin sin is in the human heart
you cannot pass a law that will stop sin
but there are laws on the books
he can file a civil complaint
there is disorderly conduct
he can make a complaint and as a
chaplain for the police department here
in lebanon
when a complaint is made and i'm on the
right along we have to check out every
complaint
it does put the officers in a
predicament
because
police officers cannot make good
neighbors as brother joni already said
and i think everybody that's come here
and spoke tonight is just letting you
know
that this is
not something that this community needs
or that this county needs and i don't
think anybody said it better than sandy
hess did tonight and i thank you for
your time
thank you pastor dawn
[Applause]
jennifer fletcher
my name is jennifer fletcher i live on
moccasin and thank you for letting me
speak
i want to be here tonight i should be
home with my family
as should all of us
but um i just want you to
not vote this
we don't need more exemptions
we just don't need this law
thank you miss fletcher
[Applause]
nate kaiser
the moment we've all been waiting for
all right my name is nate kaiser i live
on green valley road i'm in mr breen's
district um there are a few things
brought up that the police say there's
no options no
nothing they can do virginia code
18.2-419
assembly with another in a manner in
which disturbing an individual's right
to create tranquility in their home
uh mr uh keene if there's anybody that
is assembling with your neighbor then
that would be a violation of that
virginia code
uh and then also if your neighbor is
approaching you or
giving you abusive language or insulting
language
virginia code 18.2-416
that will be a violation of that code
got that katie
all right now moving forward
you are trying to pass a ordinance that
is far-reaching and far bigger than any
of the problems that these people have
brought to you
it can be easily addressed in one code
which i googled in about three minutes
and found
the virginia beach
uh code for disturbing the piece
generally is the way it's titled uh is
code section
23-10 of the virginia beach code
it says it shall be unlawful and a class
1 misdemeanor for any person to disturb
the peace of others
by violent turmoil or
austin
i don't even know how to say that word
austin precious
conduct means
nuisance conduct um or by threatening
challenging to fight assault fighting or
striking another that right there i
encourage you to to trash this ordinance
because that's exactly what it is and
adopted this this would take care of and
address all the problems that all these
people have raised in this room tonight
it would take care of that problem right
there
nobody i don't is any if anybody's got a
problem with what i just read as a
disturbing piece please stand up
all right everybody's in favor of it i
think you should do that
amen
[Applause]
wayne hubbard
my name is wayne hubbard i'm from the
miller creek section swords creek
mr beaton is my representative
and it's been appropriately pointed out
before this board tonight that there are
laws on the book
to take care of mr king and the other
complaints that we've heard here tonight
and a noise ordinance as he pointed out
that his neighbors are distributing
drugs and narcotics there are laws on
the book that is still illegal in the
state of virginia
however we need to keep republicans in
power in richmond or the democrats may
legalize that
i don't know but i would fear they would
but this noise ordinance why why do you
want to punish
the 26 000 plus citizens in the county
of russell that have no problem
for the few that do we don't need this
ordinance it's not going to address drug
uh
distribution it's not going to address
illegal activity
if there's that kind of activity going
on why in the world is russell county or
the state of virginia state police or
the russell county investigators not on
the scene and taking care of this they
get paid and they're on salary and
they're on payroll to take care of these
kind of things
if they're if they're selling drugs go
stop them you you take them to jail for
selling drugs they can't make noise at
his residence no more
it's that sample
it is that simple
so we have investigators are they on
this
complaint but they understanding that
they're selling drugs and that's just
one complaint i understand that but
there's very few complaints
and i appreciate the fact that y'all
give us this here and i requested this
last month and and you all did it i
appreciate it
but as you can see
this is not popular in ross county and i
assure you
the next person that runs for
supervisor at large that says i will
repeal this noise ordinance if it's
voted in they will get all of our votes
[Applause]
thank you mr hubbard
uh next on our list is cameron shelton
let this be a lesson that if you show up
late to the sign up sheet all the good
things to talk about are gone so i will
just say that i would ask you to
vote no on this
and i'm thankful for the opportunity to
get up here and speak to my elected
officials i think that's a beautiful
thing that we have in america that we
should all cherish and appreciate that
to have this opportunity to speak in
front of y'all and uh
that's it it's all been covered as far
as i can tell thank y'all
thank you
cameron judy shelton
i am so sorry please excuse me i'm like
my son that's what happens when you show
up late but uh
your pen ran out of your ink pen ran out
of ink on that oh
well
my son wrote my name down so he probably
set me up i apologize
but uh i thank y'all for allowing me the
opportunity to speak here tonight my
name is jody shelton i'm from uh
sports creek area of rose county peanuts
my her misreading's mine
my representative uh
i'm i'm going to kind of talk for the
ones that can't be here tonight
i'm kind of going along a different line
i
i do
go against this uh noise ordinance i do
feel
for mr king i i hope that uh you know
there are laws on the books that can
take care of what he's you know his need
and i think all of us together as a
church we ought to pray for it you know
his situation and everything because
uh if the law enforcement can't do it we
all serve god that can you know take
care of this problem but uh
you know like i said i live in the
swords creek area of roster county
i'm a member of harmony community church
and a veteran
uh
i was deployed to mosul iraq in 2004 to
fight against a dictator and to defend
and preserve the freedoms and rights
we've loved and cherished for so long
here in america
the old saying you don't know what you
have until it's gone is true
when i left for iraq my son who
stepped up here before i did he was 12
years old and my daughter she just had
turned seven
they were the most important things in
my life
i lost over a year
with them when i was deployed
and i'd do it all again
i'd go again you know if it made sure
that they that they never had to face
what i had to go through when i was over
there and i and i you know i do a few
people that serve that's exactly what
they did and if any of you board members
served i want to thank you for for
serving uh but you know it seems like
here we here we are again uh you know uh
feels like i'm fighting and defending uh
those same uh rights that uh
you know we
that the constitution of the united
states and the bill rights of you know
our forefathers fight so long ago to uh
to assure that we have and uh but it
seems like i don't that we're here again
tonight trying to fight for those same
rights
to preserve those same rights uh on
december 21st 2004
uh while i was in iraq a suicide bomber
walked into our chow hall in mosul some
of you might remember that uh
at 1202 he stood up yelled allah blew
himself up
he killed 22 people wounded 72 others
some of those people wounded
live in this county and in our
surrounding counties
two of the men killed that day
one of them was 21 year old nicholas
mason when i was 21 year old david ruin
they served in my unit
you know they were good they were they
were good men and
you know i think about them i think
about them often
but you know there's been a lot of men
and women that came and gone
that's gave so much for our freedom and
rights
and uh to give you just one minute i'll
finish up i promise
uh you know they paid the ultimate price
they paid the ultimate price and they
gave they gave their all for these
freedoms and rights that we have
i got just one paragraph and i'm
finished
you know and uh
and now with us
and y'all without sacrificing anything
and sitting here
uh
you know with a swipe of pin tonight
y'all can take y'all and take one of
these freedoms away from us
you know and
i hope y'all look at everybody that's
sitting here tonight and uh
you know think twice before you do this
uh there's there's millions of men and
women
that paid the ultimate sacrifice they
gave their lives so that we can enjoy
the freedoms and the rights that we have
today
and you know they never got to grow up
thank you mr shelton they never got that
family thank you mr shelton
please say goodbye
[Laughter]
gina krauth
hi everybody hi i'm gina crout
and i live in the town of lebanon
and uh
believe it or not i am supporting this
and i understand and it's been said that
it probably will involve the town where
we are living closer to one another and
maybe not so much in the world
and we may never use it
okay
um and i it's my bad that i didn't read
it
and i hear the word said it's very
far-reaching but i and someone over
there said that the case of the autistic
girl is very real
now everybody's talking about rights
rights
and i have a right
not that this is really happening for me
but uh to quiet enjoyment
so if we use the example of music
and yes you have a right to listen to
the music you choose
and when it crosses the property line to
my property and is interfering with my
family and my enjoyment well
i also have a right
and my right is no less
than that person's right isn't that
right
yeah thank you
um and you know sometimes people will
say well it's not your business but the
minute he comes across the property line
and is in my backyard it is it does you
know you've given it to me it is my
business now
now i'm going to tell you that i think
we're getting a little extreme i just
don't see this thing being a big bomb i
see this thing being lovely for people
who are having a problem and need a
little help because
handling this yourself can be
contentious and nobody wants ugly
situations with neighbors nobody wants
that and so oh thank god so many of you
have wonderful neighbors
um i do too
but some people don't
and i think it would be wonderful even
if it's a community committee or a
council
to have some place to go
for perspective
for standard
for
um
mediation for negotiation
and there be it
over and out
thank you miss kraut
now that does bring us to the end of the
comments for the noise ordinance
i would not skip over your name
al i'll tell you what
i'm going to ask that anybody's name
that i didn't call
if they would like to come up and speak
you are more than welcome to mr dameron
you have the floor
i do ask that you uh please show respect
to our speakers
thank you
um i thank each and every one of you for
allowing me to get up here i'm pastor
stephen cameron
i pastored the close valley church of
swords creek over in clarks valley
peanut eaton is my constituency if you
wanted whatever you want county
but i thank the lord that jesus christ
is my lord and savior and i serve him
the way that he allows me to
and uh on this i've heard a lot of
different people talk about a lot of
different things
and uh mr keynes said that we're not the
same people we was 250 years ago
but we still served the same god
that we served 250 years ago
and if it wasn't for the churches you
wouldn't have the rights that you have
today
i thank god for all our soldiers that's
ever fought in any battle for our rights
as americans but it's a bit well if it
wasn't for the hand of god working
through his children we wouldn't be here
today we wouldn't have these rights
and a lady got a pure while to go and
she said i should be at home with my
family we all should be we should never
have richness
this is government overreach we're just
a small county
we don't need a noise ordinance we've
lived all of our life without one
i've never seen a time whenever a church
could interrupt someone's day and they
want to call the law on it i would
invite somebody to come into our church
when the holy ghost is moving and try to
stop it
i praise the lord that he's our lord and
savior and we answer to him first and
then to man the bible says to obey the
law or obey them that have the rule over
you as much as life in you when it comes
outside of that we put god first we
praise him the way that we're supposed
to praise him in spirit and in truth for
that's what he seeketh to worship him
i i hate it for the people that's felt
that you have the child with the
sickness
i hate it for you mr king that you
suffer the things you do i hate this i
hope you vote it down i hope you say no
over a few a few complaints you can't
stop the whole county from enjoying
things i mean
this gives neighbor against neighbor
somebody's sighting in their rifle
all neighbors got to do is call the law
bring them in try to put a stop to it i
don't want my house to be measured by
decibels by somebody else i paid for my
land i pay my taxes i've got a right to
do with my church
and my house as i see fit in the eyes of
god
i thank him for the freedom that he give
me and the rights that he gave me
i believe that y'all all make the choice
before you vote
i don't want between you and god's your
business
how many of you claim to be a christian
how many we claim to do the right thing
it's god first everybody that's sitting
in these seats
god's before they
god's before your rights
to vote against somebody else's
it's god first
people say
thank you for your time
thank you
all right i'm going to ask is anyone
else yes sir come on up
we've got this gentleman's coming right
here you'll have to
quite just get lying behind him if you
don't mind
and
here i i just think it's a bad thing
they several lawsuits take care of all
these problems that we're gonna throw on
everybody we're gonna put it on
everybody's back
because of this and it's an overreach
it's it's completely an overreach we've
got laws on the books for keeping your
place clean it ain't enforced
i mean
i've been told it was gonna be done but
it ain't never got done
luanne knows what i'm talking about
she knows what i'm talking about all i'm
saying is this is an overreach
i've never had no problem with people
i don't see this i just i can't see it
we're not a big city
we i don't live in a city and here here
you gonna
say i'm running my chainsaw neighbor
don't like it well they're gonna call
they're gonna come see me
that's crazy
well i'm gonna mow my yard that's my
business
i am a taxpayer
i never owed nobody nothing that i
didn't pay
but i'm telling you right now this is
the wrong approach to take
i'm telling you
y'all are going to be reelected
if you get a chance
but i'm telling you this is not good
it's just not good for this county
it's not good at all
and i thank you
i am milan
thank you mr
my name is james davis i attend sword
street block church and i live at maple
gal if this noise level go through what
we're going to do about these trucks but
you're going to come up to the house and
you're going to say okay you know we
want to we'll
i don't think that you can and i think
the best thing we can do right now is to
eliminate that stuff there's no way or
not
we need this stuff because i attend the
church at the block church we was
outside almost a year having outside
services
i'm sure there's times that people went
by and they probably hear us i hope they
did i hope i'm praying for the lord they
did
but if if we ever stand for something
right now let's stand for something
right let's stand for the lord i thank
you
thank you so much
[Applause]
i'm wanda burke um i live here in the
town of lebanon
i'm coming to speak because i know my
husband right now would be furious with
me if i didn't
um
he is a
lebanon resident this is where he has
lived his life he came we moved back
here about 15
16 years ago
he loves lebanon
um but i think
probably most of you know who he is he's
going to hold everybody accountable
that's what he believes that he will he
will stand for what he believes in and
he told me before i came in here tonight
to tell you all no
there's a point
to
stepping on all of us
a church
especially
should never be stepped on
and everybody that does is going to
stand before the good lord and take
accountability for that
it's not just about the churches it's
about everything and like they said i
agree there are people here that have
bad neighbors i've had them
i don't now but i have
but you have to deal with it there's
there's ways to deal with it without
this but i'm just going to say that for
for both of us i will stand here and
just say that we oppose this
you all are here because you were
elected to be put in this place
you all can be
unelected to be in this place
and i think this kind of shows it thank
you
[Applause]
yes sir you sure can
just give me your name
last time up here they said i got our
order
so i apologize for that start off
but
what i got up saying over your name
please sir chester ball i live
on eckerd
but what upset me
i i don't know about you all and i guess
a lot of them pays a lot more taxes than
i do
but i just had come over here
paid 700 and some dollars in taxes
most of it land taxes
and
then i come up here
and they tell me when i can can't mold
me to eat and stuff like that
and
didn't there anymore you all helped me
pay my taxes
not every one of yous
but i had to do it
all right
in six months i'll be coming back paying
them again
now where do you all get your money from
does it come from texas
is that where it come from
huh
is that where your money comes from
tax people
look back through here
how much tax money is back through there
you'll pay stuff like this
and
people start moving out here
and
that's going to hurt everything
but i think it's sad when you come over
here and you pay your taxes and then you
walk in here and they say you came on
with a certain time i think that's
pretty pitiful
and these and again the churches needs
to be left alone
that's between them and god
that ain't up to me in you
but i just want to say
that it's bad when you pay your taxes to
multiplayer and they say you can't do
this you can't do that
and
nobody helps pay them
that's what i had to say
thank you mr ball
[Applause]
anybody else
i'm from storage creek um
under mr eaton's district
i don't have a lot to say it's already
been said and i think probably most of
you don't mind if you mind before you
got here how he was going to vote but
i want to make a comment you look behind
you look behind me and you see all these
people in red the red doesn't represent
a political party
it represents stop
don't do this that's what we have on red
tonight we're saying no to this when i
was in school i was taught majority
rules
you've had two
two meetings to talk about this issue
and both times the majority has said no
to this the majority is saying no
listen to the majority that's all i've
got to say
thank you
[Applause]
i'm benjamin price from belfast uh
rebecca dies my
supervisor and i think we spoke on the
phone you remember
and i just wanted to point out that you
remember what you told me
you said you were gonna vote the way
that your
what your people says and i just wanted
to make sure that was here and i'm
completely against it i know she was
wearing red i'm not wearing green i'm
not ready but i'm i'm against it so
please i encourage everybody to vote
thank you mr price
anybody else
all hearts clear
then i'm going to close the public
hearing for the noise ordinance of
brussel county
all right
moving along
is um
the approval of minutes
i need a motion to approve the minutes
from the
last board meeting of march
do i hear an approval
okay i i'm having a hard time hearing
down here so mr breeding gave me a
motion
i'll take a second from you mr christian
okay thank you
all in favor
uh
any opposed
motion carries
all right next thing we're working on is
the approval of expenditures
for payment
i need a motion for that
i'm going to pay the bills
so moved
all right thank you mr eaton i need a
second
got a second all in favor
any opposed
motion carries
okay now we come to the citizens comment
period and i apologize to those who came
and we're still working on this so miss
couch are you still in the room
i'm sorry come on up
on behalf of the russell county kids
fishing day
uh we had actually hadn't got to have it
in the last three years
due to the like 2019 they had to
reconstruction the bridge and then the
last two years is covet and you all have
always been really good to donate to us
uh we have been doing fundraisers and
other things to make money on our own
but the board of supervisors all been
real good to donate and you usually give
us like 300
and i was just wondering if maybe y'all
would consider that
okay thank you that ms couch
yes
have you got enough for everyone
all right thank you so much
mr
lester's it we do it every year so
traditionally i'm going to use that word
again yes sir
i will remind the board that uh
mr ray who represents um a lot of things
and is very much in tune with the kids
fishing day and very supportive of it is
not here so and he has donated i'm going
to lean on you
i'm leaning on you mr brady
i'd appreciate it i'm looking for one
i'll make a motion if we support this
in the amount of 300 is that yes sir
and not to speak for mr ray but he's
going to donate too so that'll give more
for the kids an opportunity he put it he
pulled some out of his discretionary
funds
okay so i have a motion for mr breeding
do i hear a second
got a second from mr eaton all in favor
any opposed
motion carries
thank you miss couch
since carl's not here can i make a
motion to give his money yes sir
how much you need
six houses
all right moving on um do we have any
constitutional officers here for their
reports
all right
i'm moving on to the county attorney
reports and request
miss pat
yes madam chair and you want me to i did
take notes during the
public hearing on the noise ordinance do
you want me to try to address some of
the questions and concerns that were
brought up
yes ma'am
and i know a lot of people had similar
concerns but i'm just going to try to go
through my list so bear with me um
the first speaker and this one was a
common
issue that was brought up about
weaponizing it again neighbor against
neighbor um i did you know briefly
address that and i understand
everybody's or there's been a few people
that have pointed out my analogy of
assault and
um
this ordinance um i think it can be true
i mean i can't there's no way that we
could ever write this ordinance or
probably any law that that protects
people against other people that could
not be weaponized i mean that's that's
really all i can say to that is so
that's you know
as far as like a quick solution that
there's a way to rewrite it to stop that
i don't think you can do that i don't
think you could do any any law like that
that would not be weaponized assault
trespass anything that's you know person
against person
um
and and if the and if somebody has a way
i'm i'm definitely all ears i'm
definitely always willing to learn but
um i don't think that issue can just go
away
um
another concern was that it would
violate the first first amendment rights
because i think there's been a lot of
discussion about amplification and sound
and what i just want to generally say
and this can definitely be
expounded on a lot but the first
amendment is not completely absolute
there are time manner and place
restrictions which is what this
ordinance would fall under where it says
that you cannot do certain things at
certain places or certain times and
those
those restrictions are constitutional
if they're narrowly tailored and that's
why
when you see and you read case law
on
noise ordinances and things like that
you'll see the word vague and hard to
understand and that's why that's there
is because it has to be
because the first amendment is such a
precious right
anything that restricts it has to be
narrowly tailored and that's one of the
reasons for this specific ordinance as
opposed to a more broad broad one that
doesn't have exemptions or doesn't spell
out things is that um to pass
constitutional scrutiny it does have to
let people know what they cannot
can and can't do and be narrowly
tailored to protect that interest and so
this is what um in my opinion um the
language does do um there are challenges
legal challenges to
various laws every day and that's sort
of the checks and balance system
to make sure that the laws are narrowly
tailored and this is an ordinance that
is already in effect
in
albemarle county
and
i'm not aware um i have and there there
could be changes and they may update
their ordinance from time to time but um
these
this the specificity of this ordinance
is what in my opinion helps make it
narrowly tailored um
let's see
um
let me get down to the exemptions
because i know there was some questions
that had to do with
those as well
initially there was a
question over exemption j
about protected expression and
under the first amendment but not
amplified
and it seemed it seemed like there was a
little bit of confusion that because
that exemption's there that that would
also apply to the religious and in that
that could not the religious services
which means they could not be amplified
but the way that specific language works
in an ordinance is the specific language
overrides the more general language so
it um the exemption under ale under all
county religious services
religious events or religious activities
including not limited to musical
equipment singing bells chimes and
organs which are part of such service
event activity or expression
that that means in any form and it means
it's exempt and the decibel level
doesn't apply the amplification doesn't
apply and the amplification would be for
other protected speech
in certain situations so
nothing else in the ordinance would
somehow diminish from that
religious exemption
um let's see
and again i'm only addressing the legal
concerns i know there were several
concerns brought up
um and
i can only give you legal advice yes
i'm sorry
i'm sorry mr smith
mr smith is that his name
mr smith you're out of order
please find your seat
thank you
miss patton you may continue
thank you madam chair um
there was one um
concern about dogs and that is clearly
barking dogs are clearly exempt and so
that's um not a not an issue and
there was there was again a lot of
people concerned with how it would
affect churches and religious activities
but because of exemption l
um that
all of that is protected all of those
concerns are addressed as i stated at
the last meeting in the language that
albemarle county had originally in their
ordinances that first amendment speech
was protected which would have
encompassed
religious services but out of out of a
consideration to make it more clear we
added that language that we pulled from
another locality black blacksburgs and
noise ordinance to make it more clear
that all religious activities would not
uh would not be subject to this noise
ordinance and would be exempt so that
that was added so all of that in my
legal opinion all of those
concerns are addressed because it would
not apply to any of that there would not
be any violations for
even if they exceeded the decimal levels
that are provided for in the in the
ordinance
another another concern was that um i
guess while there might be some comfort
that there are exemptions
that they could be easily removed
and but that that is not correct if the
board does adopt this ordinance if it
ever decided to
amend any part of the ordinance pursuant
to virginia code 15.2
27 it would have to be
the proposed amendments would have to be
advertised in a newspaper for two
successive weeks before it could be
considered by this board so it's not
something that the board could just
decide one day we're going to pass a
motion to amend this it would have
public notice would have to be given
um
i know it was brought up um by a few
individuals about potential other um
laws and i want to i've tried to pull
them up as we've gone um
the the statute that criminalizes
disorderly conduct is 18.2
dash
and
the reason that that is not helpful in
mr king and other situations is because
that only applies to when you're in
public you have to be on public property
for that to apply and so when a person
is in
their home on prior you know not even
their home just as long as they're on
private property there's nothing that
the police officers can do to charge
them with disorderly conduct so that is
why that is not
that cannot be used in that way
and
another
code section i think that was brought up
was 18.2
419 and i've looked that up i was not
familiar with that code section it's and
its title is picketing or disrupting
tranquility of home and it says a person
any person who shall engage in picketing
before about the residence or dwelling
or shall assemble with another person or
persons in a manner which disrupts
and
an individual's right to tranquility in
his home shall be guilty of a class
three misdemeanor each day on which a
violation of this section occurs will
constitute a separate offense and so
that's really not going to encompass all
the things that a noise ordinance is
going to do i mean a lot of times
the complaints that you're talking about
are excessive noise not someone
assembling or standing outside your
property protesting which is what this
what is what that statute is for so in
my opinion and
i don't i don't think that would help
alleviate the concerns that this this
ordinance
has been designed to address
um
let's see
apologize let me go back
the other um the other code section that
was brought up was
um 18.2-45
416
and that's punishment for be using
abusive language to another again that's
kind of we call that a curse and abuse
statute and again that's going to only
encompass someone using foul language
it's not going to encompass excessive
noise and disturbances like that so
again i don't feel that that's going to
be a solution to the problem that was
and put forth
and another and i've just briefly i've
just briefly read it i tried to if
people brought up code sections or
case law
um i did try to look up i'm tanner v
virginia and that was a challenge to or
for genius for
virginia
i'm getting it wrong
virginia beach city of virginia beach
and i did read that and
it was a challenge to the noise
ordinance and
um as i skimmed through it let me see
the reason
um that they did um decide that was
constitutional is because it was vague
and it did not give fair notice as to
what would have been a violation of the
ordinance and because
um the general part was vague the court
did decide that the whole ordinance had
to be lit read in conjunction with that
and so that
it would and and it was
you could determine what would offend a
reasonable person as opposed to what we
have tried to do here with decimal
levels and clear
um
actions that would cause a violation so
just a brief reading of this i i think
there
the ordinance that was under attack
there is very different from the one
that we're considering today um
was that the 23-10 that mr kaiser
addressed no no i have i'm not familiar
with that that ordinance and i have that
i think that was a separate ordinance
from what i understood i don't even know
if that was a noise ordinance but it was
it was virginia beach but i don't know
that it was their noise it was it was
just strictly theirs right
yeah
my understanding from what he said it
wasn't law it was the ordinance that
they've enacted and i i did write it
down but i have not had a chance to read
that
um
the case i was citing i think mr hess
had brought up the tanner v
city of virginia beach
um
another concern is about i guess the
complaint process
how i do envision most of the
enforcement would be would be
in the presence of a police officer who
has
the proper
machinery under the ordinance to measure
the decibel sound levels however a
private individual if
if they did choose to you know possess
that equipment and also have it
calibrated and
pursuant to the ordinance could go take
a complaint
but part of that process just like any
other for assault or trespass is that
you you go to the magistrate and you
swear under oath under penalty of
perjury that something happened so that
would be a way and
you know that's not you know again
that's not uncommon and people do that
for trespass and for assault they're
allowed to go to the magistrates and
swear out a warrant for that and that's
how that process works um
sleep
i think that i think that covers um most
of the legal questions that were brought
up and during citizens comment but i'm
happy to try to answer any questions the
board would have that that i may have
missed
okay
the county where it was addressed that
it was strictly just a county religious
service could you interpret how that
statement um
well
yes in in my opinion and the reason it
says all county religious services is
this ordinance would only apply in the
county
it actually you know we can't enforce it
in the towns and they can choose to have
their own noise ordinance so any that
means any religious activity occurring
in the county
um would be subject to this ordinance
and obviously the ordinance would not
have any effect and you know beyond
their jurisdiction
so
i i didn't really see i mean you could
put all religious services you could
take county out i mean that's definitely
that's that's a a word preference choice
in my opinion it would not it would not
do anything to the actual meaning of it
um in my in my opinion because again you
can only enforce it under the
jurisdiction which you have power over
so and that would be the
county okay and if i may uh while we're
having this conversation
the town of lebanon does have a noise
noise ordinance correct
that that is my understanding yes okay
so there there is a noise ordinance that
functions within the town of lebanon
so those of you that live in the town of
lebanon or have churches in the town of
lebanon you are functioning under a
noise or an ordinance correct is there
anything else that you need to tell us
from that as far as
legal
um
again i'm happy to answer any questions
um especially if the board members think
i have i've missed one i tried to take
good notes and tried to cover everything
again a lot of the a lot of the concerns
are similar and
and
as far as far as from a legal standpoint
but the way that the ordinance is is
written there would there would be no
violations for any religious activity
that's that's all covered there's no
um it's very
it
it says all county religious services
okay so any board members have any
questions of our county attorney while
we're here
all hearts clear on that one
okay
then we're going to just go ahead and
move on because we need to take under
consideration the notes that we've been
given
and uh the names i do ask you to bring
mr smith i will recognize you but no we
don't normally do this
mr smith asked about seeking civil
damages concerning um
there's there's some law that you're
referring to i'm assuming
um there is um some nuisance civil law
and
the
i'm not really prepared to speak on all
of the nuances of that although i will
say generally when you undertake civil
litigation the concern that would be
there and is
would be that the cost to the individual
and also
the issue when you when you go to civil
court the issue would be damages and
collecting
monetary damages for the money and that
or for the
um for your
your um
i guess pain and suffering
that's not exactly how i wanted to say
it but um collecting money for that so i
mean you could have individuals that you
could get a judgment against and they
could never pay it so i mean there's
there's concerns for that and you know
and injunctions are possible to get
there they're they're hard to do in that
situation so
i i won't say i mean there there are
civil remedies but they're not
um it's kind of like it's
i also look at it as trespass trespass
you can sue somebody civilly for it's
also a crime that you can go to the
magistrate and have um
the court determine it and and so that's
that's kind of the way it is so to say
that there's no remedy it's not um it's
not accurate but i mean a lot of times
civil to get litigation especially
something of that nature can be very
costly so that's the concern on that
on that level
okay thank you board members anybody
else we're good okay
we do have some more information that we
need to put into the packet for the
noise coordinates i've got a
sheet or three or four
of names that wants to be added into the
minutes if you have any comments or
anything that you need to have added
into this please see mr lester
and have it added into the uh into the
minutes as so it'll be recorded for us
and i'm just going to move on
to
the psa resolution
madam chair um there's a resolution that
the board has before it um
the um when we
consolidated the two psas russell county
psa and castlewood
water and sewage authority part of that
was that um
the the board the russell county board
of supervisors would set any
compensation to be received by the board
members and that's something that we
have not done the brussel county psa
recently voted to
limit
their um
their
payment for their services to 200 per
month
and so
and the resolution that you have before
you is just basically to confirm that if
that's what the board is comfortable
with by
because technically it requires your
approval i think they've been operating
like this for the last couple of months
that that's the most that any board
member can um be compensated for for
their services as opposed to 200 per
meeting which i think they were doing
before
um
so this would just be a resolution
adopting what that board has already
adopted okay so um
do i hear a motion to adopt this
resolution on behalf of the request of
the psa
[Music]
all right mr breeding has made a motion
i need a session
mr eaton
any discussion
any
discussion
all in favor
any opposed
motion carries
thank you
uh also tonight we heard uh the renewal
of the fairgrounds lease i have
that in my hands to sign immediately and
make it legal for the fairgrounds so um
i'm going to entertain a motion that we
accept the fairgrounds renewal lease
after 10 years i think or 20 years or 30
years that i think we're safe to say we
can do another 10. so this is for
another 10 years
anybody want to make a motion for that
mr lovelace
yes we do have our dollar everyone
support the fair place
all right all in favor discussion
oh discussion yeah i got one thing uh i
brought this up years ago i know that
tyler hoenaker has christmas parade and
the fourth of july when i served on the
town council we considered them town
events so we could help cover the
expense and cost of the insurance and
stuff provide those things i brought
this up numerous times
it seems to me like this is actually a
county event hosting an affair for seven
days and i know they're paying in
regards to fourteen fifty thousand
dollars
for insurance just to have a seven day
opinion and i don't understand why if we
considered it a county event why we
can't
subsidize that and i know it's something
to do with vaco and and that but you
would think that if the towns
municipalities could do it
i mean i'm just bringing that out that's
a great that's a great point mr eaton um
we have a motion in a second so we're in
discussion mr lester i'm going to call
on you can you address that or do you
want to
do some research
yes madam chair and in the previous
years that that had came up as a
concern like mr e pointed out
as the fairgrounds as a whole and what
activities that we do and the events
that we have
the normal activities are covered under
our vehicle general liability insurance
it is a county-owned facility it is
county-owned land
now if you have an event that is high
risk if you have bronco busting
as the county as our job is we we got to
ensure that
the event holder has insurance on
liability so they don't come back on the
county we can't pay for
the risk that
if he's having an event that they'll end
up suing the county so protection of
that we have in place is if it's a high
risk event
or even a medium risk event to a high
risk event we ensure that the event
holder takes place because usually
majority of the time
that these external events that happen
is they're making money on the fees so
they can afford to pay the insurance and
that's basically what we do we try to
circumvent and reduce the cost to the
fire grounds immensely i mean and not
just to point out like don mister
like donna did when she was standing
here if if
just invite you we have remodeled it we
did a quarter million dollars worth of
grant funds all funds
to update it it is gorgeous you will be
very very proud of the fairgrounds and
what we have done but again we have to
protect the citizens on those high risk
medium risk events
well and i would be willing to work
event by event with the fairgrounds that
way they would know which ones it they
would not incur any cost other than what
is you know required or needed
okay
uh mr eaton are you good with that yeah
if you if he would have had a discussion
with them to identify these because i
know
what he was discussing as far as the
bull riding they have to provide their
own insurance
the ones that come in to the event they
have their own insurance
yeah the ones that have the right they
carry they carry the fairgrounds as a
shipper
yes so what i'm saying is i don't
understand why the fair fair
i'd like to see them to be able to
reduce the rates to for to get into fair
and if we can help them save money so
people will have access to it it's
pretty expensive
to go and i'm just looking at a way to
drive down the cost
for attendance to be able if we could
save 15 000 maybe they could just
do a lot cheaper admission for and get
more people to come more crowds
that's just what kind of i'm looking at
but if you'll discuss that with let's
see how we can work together to cut some
of that cost
uh
you know i think it would help
absolutely i'll be glad to okay we have
a motion in a second to give them a
renewal lease
all in favor
any opposed
motion carries is patton
operational medical director contract
yes madam chair um
this is a contract um
that we previously had with dr rex road
and when he retired we needed to fill
this spot
and this is um
a complete this is a volunteer contract
so no county funds are being used that's
why you are not going through the
virginia
public procurement act because it's on a
volunteer basis
and so um lonzo has spoken with the
individual my understanding who's
willing to serve and i did
revise this contract a little bit but
i'm asking the board to approve this
contract so that you will have an
omd which you which you were required to
have
got a motion in a second
got a second all in favor
all right moving on to the sifa bylaws
um
again
i'm on the wrong one again
um this is mediterra this has to do with
the um property that the board of
supervisors previously purchased um for
the animal shelter property we had
previously um gotten an easement um
right away from mr leonard and part of
that part of the negotiations on behalf
of the board through the county
administrator was that giving us the
easement that he gave us that the board
would give an easement across the
property because he owns property
adjoining on both sides
and
that that would be in consideration and
there was some delays due to covid and
getting that
taken care of mr leonard did take care
of all the cost in obtaining the survey
and all of that and but when the board
conveys any interest in property even
just a right of way
you do have to have a public hearing so
i'm asking the board to set a public
hearing for may to consider that
grant of a right-of-way which again was
in consideration for the one that we
received i'll make a motion to have a
public hearing regards to these
i have a motion i need a second
have a second all in favor
and i'm sorry any discussion on this
i think we've
discussed this couple years ago
all right
moving forward sit for bylaws yes madam
chair um
sifa is the um
cumberland industrial facilities
authority um which russell county is a
member of it's basically a regional ida
and so and
recently sifa did take in dickinson
county as a member and so we had to
the civic board did have to amend their
bylaws to change to allow for dickinson
county to be in and change how voting
and how the chair
the chair person and the vice chair
would be appointed and so that has been
done the sifa board has approved this
but as a as
the russell county board of supervisors
as a member of cfa does have to
individually approve their
bylaws i'll make that motion
see
okay well we have a motion in a second
um any discussion on this
okay
all in favor
any opposed
motion carries thank you
county administrator mr mr uh breeding
you have something yes ma'am i
i think you know since all these people
been waiting around here maybe we ought
to even though carl's not here tonight
he's sick maybe we ought to just go
ahead and vote
so are you well are you ready to put
emotion on the table
i'm gonna make a motion that we
table indefinitely this new noise
ordinance
essentially do away with
i'm and that's based on
what i've heard our whole function in
having these public hearings because we
don't know what you guys want
until you come out and tell us you know
and it's not you against us we're we're
trying to do our job and represent our
districts you know so i've tallied up
the comments before and against in my
district
and and i'm i'm good uh
too
okay we have a motion in a second so um
i will say if we're in discussion
and um i did talk to carl earlier and i
i i said that i know he's sick so just
full disclosure here
that um
he's not representing his district so i
have no idea where all that stands
and if you guys want to push it forward
and and go with the motion we'll we'll
run this thing and see where it goes
so i have a motion and a second any more
discussion
i'm going to do a roll call vote
all right boris
on a noise ordinance or no noise
ordinance up or down
i made a motion to trash the noise
organs
to do away with it
completely
so a yay vote means you're in favor of
doing away with
i've got abstain just because i want
carl to be here
i mean i know what i
what i would say but i'm going to be
fair to him
david
i've already seen it dude your vote
please
i'm against it
i'll vote yes
okay so david's a yes you're a yes orris
is a
extension rebecca is an abstention champ
i'm a yes
and i'm a yes motion
[Applause]
thank you all for coming this is one
thing this is the way government works i
wish you guys come out to every meeting
you know we maybe wouldn't have to go
through this the way this thing started
we had people coming and they had
problems we were trying to address those
problems but it just kind of mushroomed
down into a bigger issue so
get involved be involved
[Music]
i gotta go to the bathroom made him
chair can we take him out
ma'am chair you want to take a break
yes we'll take a break
business of the county finished
huh
i'm on are you okay
[Music]
our big long recess that was a long time
[Music]
thank you we're back in session now hang
on lou i'm giving you my telephone okay
sorry that's okay
our telephone numbers for anybody that
needs to text call or
anything is listed on the county website
you're welcome to call any of us texas
at any time
ask any questions we'll tell you what we
can you sir
all right um we're going to the county
administrator reports and request
that's the russell county litter officer
yes ma'am
first i'd like to introduce the new
county leader officer now he
he got comments on him no one knew who
he was
welcome aboard
don't let him resign
james if you don't mind introduce
yourself and live about who you are and
what we're doing
madam chairboard my name is james brooks
i'm a native of russell county i grew up
in the big town of daint
and then later i moved to castlewood
i'm a u.s army veteran
i spent 20 years uh as a virginia state
game warden just retired last year
and uh one of the reasons why i'm taking
this job is to help take care of my
mother
so
pray for
um
[Music]
my vision i guess uh for the job is to
help people clean up what they need to
clean up
i'm a conservationist at heart
with my job
i have a degree in criminal justice
an associate degree in wildlife law and
management
and
i've been married for 30 years today
and i'm here with you
i'm here with you instead of my wife on
my 30th anniversary
yeah but uh i took her out this past
weekend so we celebrated um
so far i have had probably 20
20 calls
of
homes that are in violation of code and
one business the business was unfounded
it cleaned up before it got there
i'm currently working with several
residents to assist or finding ways to
help clean up by getting the
transportation or finding neighbors that
can help them so the way i see it it's a
community effort
you want to beautify your neighborhood
because of what can come in because of
that if you have a trashy neighborhood
or a trashy county then businesses don't
want to come in tourists don't want to
come in so
that's the way i can help the county in
doing the job
i'm open to
[Music]
help or advice
you know this is something new for me
i did do some little work with
as a game warden in in the counties i
work
russell county was in my district i did
a lot of work here
i did a lot of work with cameras and i'm
still waiting to get those we're working
on it i'm working on getting my uniforms
and i'm in a borrowed vehicle as we
speak but that is being handled
and my computer is coming so
when all that gets here i'll be set up
and ready to do uh
better or be more equipped to do my job
better
do you have any questions for me i guess
the only question thanks for coming
aboard
uh i just wanted to
when i was on the waste management
authority i know we talked about
surveillance and cameras i know you just
mentioned cameras i was addressed by a
gentleman that lives here in town
lebanon uh when i first came in the door
that said you need to put up cameras you
need to try to catch these people in the
act right and so i'm glad you mentioned
that i think any assistance that i'm
sure tim and well carl's not here i
can't speak for because but tim and them
knows that the waste management
authority the three county operations
have been great to work you know along
the lines and i know missy and her group
is wonderful
and what they do and what they're able
to contribute to the county so i think
you've got a good team good
anybody
else's job
well
if you know anything
about me at all you know i'll do my job
that's that's something i don't shy away
from so
i was a deputy here in the county back
in
92 93 94
uh worked under trig fields
uh and at the time
uh
bless trigg's heart but trigg was
tighter on the banjo stream and
when it come to raises triggers didn't
want to give you a raise so i had to
kind of bounce around up my pay
uh my dream job was always a game award
and i lived my dream and uh
i've i fulfilled you know a lot of
things a lot of people didn't do so
but uh i'll do my job and i'll help
people do it and i'll try to do it in
the right way respectful way
and if i have no other
option then i'll go to someone and do a
court but i think we can work things out
with that without doing that and that's
what i hope to do
that is such a intent when we
tried to move forward with a new
ordinance
and that this has been the intent the
whole time of this board is to make
russell county better and help our
citizens to be better sometimes it was
hard because of the aged and i know that
you're going to recognize that as you go
along because i can see your heart
and thank you so much for this i
appreciate it any more comments or
questions for the board go home
we appreciate
thank you james thank you james and also
on another note just to make sure as
james had mentioned uh he has extensive
experience one of the things that like
mr christian pointed out
we're we're i've had people coming in
offering to clean up that i have not had
in three years he has he is on that hard
list hard and the second thing is and
he's not even in uniform because they
got a little concerned with him going
out and just see these as we call them
and i said make sure you you got this
but
we the point is
by next week we hope to have his
uniforms in place and i'll have a point
of contact for y'all when y'all have a
situation to be able to address it
quickly he really moves on these issues
quick so
very good next is request thank you
madam chair first on there is of course
uh again we're back to money as as the
big topic anymore this is a resolution
for the uh
cdbg grant resolution for the daint
regional sewer line extension it says
whereas russell county has been
obligated continues on certain
conditions a 2.5 million dollars of the
community development grant program for
the dane sewer line extension project
this is requested by the
coming plateau planning district i need
a motion to accept the uh the movement
forward on this resolution for
appropriation of two point five million
dollars
i'll go ahead oh we got a bunch okay
i'll take all of your motions and so i
need to say thank you mr eaton okay have
a motion a second any discussion on the
dank to saint paul sewer
system
all in favor
any opposed
any extensions thank you very much
motion carries
next on the account administrator
request is uh of course on the last
agenda we have interviewed for our
accounts payable position
mrs karen davis you retired so
we have interviewed our our potential
candidates and rebecca campbell will be
replacing miss davis so i need a motion
for approval for rebecca campbell for
the accounts payable position so move
thank you mr eaton i need a second got a
second mr breeding any discussion
i'll call for the motion all in favor
any opposed
okay any extensions
thank you thank you ma'am chair next on
the county administrative request as we
gain one we lose one the uh
the bill inspector has given notice for
resignation effective september the
first i mean return
to said origination didn't sorry
apologize
resignation of september the first this
is uh of course this will be uh
advertised and be interviewed for
this is the positions that we're going
to have to do duel at the time because
of all of our projects we got the
courthouse project we got project we got
pure salmon project we've got the
regular county issues so we need to move
before forward to be able to do a
turnover and do a duel so i need
approval to advertise for the russell
county building official position have a
motion need a second i'll second it
yeah
one thing alonzo yes sir um
i think in our best interest
for mickey's done a great job he's been
heavily involved in these projects
if for some way we could work something
out with them on a
contractual basis until you get this
person hired and trained
and also actually you need somebody to
train him would make you be that person
that
would be suitable to try to work with
him and introduce him to all these
projects
absolutely this is what i'm proposing if
we advertise now in april we are going
to hire in may
that way he can work side by side till
september with him so maybe four months
yes four months of assignment four
months yes sir okay if if these uh if
the amount of candidates that we've got
here that we should not have a problem
if it does then we approach the board
for a request yeah like an extension to
keep you a little bit longer yes sir
okay have a motion and a second all in
favor
and you post
motion carries
as you're seeing in the board packet
it's that time of the year we gotta do
bowling and
um
as you all seen in the beds this is for
the
uh russell county maintenance department
which we do all our mowing in-house we
have no contractual contracts again it's
in-house work i need a motion for
approval for the uh more purchase of the
mower
we've got a motion i need a
got a second all in favor uh
i'm sorry no discussion there i
apologize board
i don't think we needed one apparently
next on the account administrative
request is a
county vehicle surplus these are the two
vehicles that they're setting
down here at the end of the parking lot
they
they can't be renovated or anything so
we're going to surplus them to get them
out of the way and get them off our
insurance because we're stealing current
milestone i need a motion to surplus
these two vehicles that was in the
packets mr eaton gave us a motion i need
a second see
mr breeding all in favor any discussions
hearing that all in favor
any opposed
the last thing on the county
administrative request is a request from
the home acre little league they are
requesting their next year's allotment
now and again
it's up front so they can buy a mower so
they they need
just like the other ones do there will
be in advance there's not additional
funding this is only in advance so this
is a borrow forward yes sir yes my
allocation yes ma'am and they understand
that yes ma'am all right are they they
need emotions they turning in their
financials yes yes sir okay
i'll make that motion
we have a motion from miss donny two
seconds
mr eaton um any discussion further
all in favor
any opposed
motion carries thank you madam chair
that concludes canada ministry reports a
request
um anything um if we haven't gone
through our board thing so i'm going to
go down the line and see if we have any
concerns from our board members
so um
i'll begin with you mr christian do you
want to say anything tonight you got any
concerns any needs what do you need
i guess
okay
is that
i don't think so
mr eagle yes ma'am i got a couple things
are we going to take any action on the
department social services
situation
this evening i mean i know that was
discussed but
uh
i did have a question about that too did
you say we had to have public hearing on
that yes we did yeah yeah
it's no it's not i think we're hearing
you
notice
you have to do it
so as soon as as far as soon as you
could get it in the lebanon paper would
be next wednesday you ones i would have
to get it to them by monday if that was
going to be then it would have to be
advertised two weeks before any board
can take any action well i want to i
want to make a motion that we accept
this uh pending that it goes back to
their board uh for review
and allocation approval
and the amount uh i'd rather for their
board to set the allocation of the
amounts for the employee not us
and is that is that legal to do that
i mean for the board to make that
uh appropriation
i i would like to look at the smith
county one i would want if if this is
something that you're going to do just
thinking about how it would affect you i
think you would want to be very specific
and narrowly
tailored to this situation and not a
general application statute so i don't
as far as
the amount to be given to each
employee i mean i think i think that
could be determined by them perhaps but
i don't know if you would want to set
the overall amount that
that
no that's what i'm saying i'm just
looking at their board i think their
board destiny
i think the board does too yeah they
they would be the one to do it but i
mean you would want i guess probably
what you would want to do if you if you
took this up but to limit it to this one
time situation due to
you know i guess say that due to the
inability to
to feel vacant positions that this
funding that's already in place
may may buy this ordinance may be
used for a bonus and then let them take
care of the specifics whatever you say
i'll make it nice
before you do let me chime in
yeah yes yes steve my auditors will
require
from the department of social services
board
they will look at it as a request and
you cannot leave it again we go into
these open-ended things they may be the
definitive in what their request is to
the board of supervisors to to ensure
that y'all are appropriating the right
amount of money you cannot leave it
open-ended
okay so mr eaton you want to retailer
your motion
to um
or you want to leave it no i mean i just
want to make sure i get it right i want
to be able to support the employees in
the best possible way i guess probably
the best thing to do is just if you want
to
make a motion to direct me to draft an
ordinance and i'll look at what smith
county did and work with what one's own
i'll do that
that way that way you don't have to put
specifics into your emotions
okay we have a motion and a second for
the account before before we do
there's two components here
you have the ordinance that must be
approved and the request that must come
from the local dss board those are two
components that the state will look at
and also the auditors will look at
you're going to take care of that right
legally i mean you're going to look at
that all these
yes
that's what i've been working with
because a lot of times questions that
seem like a legal question are really an
auditor question and so that's and why i
wanted him to get information on that
side and it may be if what lonzo is
saying is right i mean i think the board
i think the dss board might have to call
a special called meeting to
you know vote and then we and then we
adopt what they're asking for
i would think that would be the fairest
way so i mean it's going to be a little
bit you know that's going to take a
little bit of time it won't get in the
paper next week if they have to call a
special called meeting because they
don't meet until then when's the
deadline
may 31st do we have enough time
may 31st yeah i mean especially if
that's something that they want to do is
call a special called meeting because my
understanding is they usually meet the
fourth tuesday
of the month so they if they want to get
you know
because we would have to advertise it
after we received that
for two weeks
could that be part of my motion that i'm
requesting them to have a special call
i'm saying it's a request
[Music]
the way i again the way i would look at
it is again this was a request that was
made to you all by them so i mean it
would be you know that that you all are
directing the county attorney to prepare
an ordinance subject to them
uh subject to the dss board voting
um passing a request for the
for the for the proposed bonus
well that's my move
[Music]
you get all that man
i did but i'm not repeating it
we have a motion
and mr breeding gave us a second after
david amended his so all in favor
uh
i'm going to abstain because i serve on
that board and i'll wait till my board
meets and
they can do their thing we have an
abstention uh any opposed
hearing none motion carries i got one
more thing madam chair if it's okay
we've been here quite a while i know and
i'll hurry uh i want to thank the board
when we years ago you know we adopted
the race program
i feel like it's been a great success
and now
as things have moved ahead
[Music]
the college is in the process of doing a
housing project and i know with the g5
the g5 that was adopted by the state cut
cut it about in half i guess or i'm
gonna guess around half as far as our
contribution
well i'd like to leave that money
in the budget to be able to assist with
this russell county house i'd like for
them to call it russell county
what i would like to do is promote this
house
for foster kids that
that age out of foster care
from russell county
one of the
true needs that i see that these foster
children have it's when they age out is
education job and housing
one of the things that this board's
always talked about is housing and more
housing but
i've met a young girl i think steve was
there that gave kind of like brief
testimony of
what she had to go through being in
foster families and then trying to find
when she aged out she was homeless
basically she had to find a house and
they was able to get her an education
but she struggled to find a place to
live
and
this money that's already in there it's
not raising anything it's not
doing anything it's just keeping the
appropriated funding that we've got
established and get keep keep that up
let this go toward the russell county
house based on providing housing
for russell county
uh
children that age out of foster care
have a place to live and
continue their career and workforce and
everything but i
i i would like to put that in the form
of a motion uh to be able to david can i
interject i'm sorry
we need to talk with patrick because if
they're in foster care when they get out
they are given this money
they they will be provided place to
leave if it's paid and in the state of
virginia they can have a four year
education
foster care does pay for that
too
so
how much money do they get for housing
whatever they need
whatever their
for how long until they enter
to a four-year degree yeah so they get
their degree well this also would be set
aside for kids in russell county to have
a place
to to live but i felt urgent about you
know
being able to have a housing even if it
pays i mean that would be some uh
substantial funding that would come to
the college or to help provide maybe
additional scholarships or something
like that for other kids
i don't know how that would work but i i
do know there's a need for the russell
county house
for us to be able to contribute money to
this to keep it sustainable and i think
russ county will take the lead on i
really do
well um we probably need to have some
discussion on that so um
uh
we have our two budget folks here um mr
christian and
um is die
and so let me clarify something here so
you want to take
what we contribute to the race program
which is
we get we give how much
70 75 000 to that just the difference
between the state's new program is going
to reduce
30 30 percent just take the difference
yeah what is taking the difference the
state's going to reduce it what 30
percent yes
but well
[Applause]
as the county administrator with what
i'm seeing in the budget until the state
gets done
this probably needs to be worked out in
the budget workshops because what y'all
are going to see was a small sliver of
what's coming down
that will impact this county
seriously this is going to be the
hardest budget i've seen in 28 years
so i realize we have a motion on the
floor and a second david uh
mr
do you want to rescind that or are you
willing to drive it on well i mean i
just think it's a true need we're not
raising we're just keeping it
you know there functional uh to be able
to call this the russell county house
and be able to house students i think
it's an investment i don't think it's a
waste of money i think it's an
investment because you're going to get a
good return on this investment by being
able to help house these kids that can't
have a place to live and and i don't
think anybody on this board disagrees
with that and disagrees with the
the idea of doing this it's just that i
think that
well
let's just see if we can vote it up or
down see which way we go with it
boris
you want to vote on this
okay
rebecca i'm going to say no
just for the fact that we have not had
the first budget meeting yet and i know
what we have paid in to raise every year
and we need to wait to see how much the
governor's programs are going to help us
and
i you know i think the kids deserve it i
went southwest both my children went to
southwest but i'm going to say no at
this time because we do not know
what we're going to have and what's
going to face our county to operate our
county this next year i don't want to
short change
our agencies just yet i mean we can come
back i'd be happy to come back and
address it later but right now i'm going
to say no
david
yes
steve yes
jim oh
i'm a no
so where does that leave us
well we can come back and address it
david we have our workshop on there
yes
so sure you know if we see we're gonna
make it bring it back yes i i think that
we're all on the same page it's just us
we're in a scary situation right now
and i i just don't think that we're at
the point where we can do this
so we have the time
no you haven't done it
three hours
okay sorry about that
all right moving on steve you said you
have nothing
are you sure yes i'm sure
i just
good all teased and the chair um i do
want to say that i'm i'm quite thankful
for um
a good meeting i think that it went well
i think that
the folks in the um
seats that we are looking that are
looking back at us did a great job of
commenting and uh showed very much
concern
was uh acted nice and was reverent and
and treated everybody accordingly i
think it went well
um so i'm i'm very pleased to see um how
we've all come through this and
please don't bring up another noise
ordinance question
and uh with that i will say thank you
and you are adjourned another