by Blake Proctor
Announcing that Commissioner Michael Cogdell was excused absent and Commissioner Dr. Ophelia Munn-Goins was attending via Zoom, Commission Chairman Charles Ray Peterson gaveled the meeting to order at 6:30 pm.
Commissioner Reverend Cameron McGill provided the invocation, and County Manager Greg Martin led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The thirteen-item Consent Agenda was approved without comment. As there were no individuals wishing to come before the Board, nor were there matters of special interest to Commissioners, the Commission dug into the evening’s business.
The first item of business was special recognitions of seven employees for their years of service with the County:
EMPLOYEE DEPARTMENT SERVICE YEARS
· Vanessa Sanchez DSS 5
· Tangela Graham DSS 15
· David Howell EMS 15
· Adam Nobles Environmental Health 15
· Andrew Powell Sheriff’s Office 10
· Kendal Kelly Sheriff’s Office 15
· Dalphaine Jenkins Building Inspection 25
Finance Director Lisa Coleman presented her Department’s Financial Dashboard for the period ending March 31. Nine months into the fiscal year, the theoretical level of revenues and expenditures would be 75.0%.
The dashboard, however, showed that General Fund revenues were at 81.9%, while departmental expenditures were all well below budget, ranging from 58.9% for the Division on Aging to 68.9% for the Sheriff’s Department.
Revenues in the Water system for nine months were at the 74.9% level, while expenses were at 44.7%. Solid Waste showed 94.0% of budgeted revenues, with department expenses 68.4%. For E-911 services, revenues were at 30.2%, with expenses at only 16.4%.
Next to address the Commission was Health Department Director Dr. Terri Duncan. First, she presented an update regarding the 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment Survey.
These surveys are referred to whenever the Department seeks grants or other funding, so it is important that as many Bladen residents as possible complete the survey; it takes merely five minutes to complete. Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
Dr. Duncan then requested approval of the County’s Fiscal Year 2021-22 Consolidated Agreement with the NC Department of Health & Human Services. She then sought approval of Amendment 1 to that Consolidated Agreement. Both requests were approved unanimously.
Each year there are those who avail themselves of the Health Department’s services but fail to pay when charged. Dr. Duncan asked that the Board write off $2,393.82 in bad debts. The Board did so unanimously.
Her final request was the Board’s consideration to approve a Medical Service Agreement with East Coast Migrant Head Start. Once more, the Commission unanimously approved Dr. Duncan’s request.
To end her presentation, Dr. Duncan presented her Covid19 statistics update for the two weeks since the last Commission meeting:
**Ratio is Total Deaths to Positive Cases
Rounding out the agenda were several appointments to advisory boards.
Faye Collins‘ seat on the BART Advisory Board is set to be up for an appointment in December; however, she is stepping down early. Public Health Nurse Amber Sholar was appointed unanimously to fill the post until December.
On the Cape Fear Assembly Advisory Board, Commissioner Dr. Danny Ellis was unanimously appointed to fill the unexpired term of former Commissioner Daniel Dowless; that term expires on April 2022.
Needing to fill another unexpired term – this one on the Child Fatality Protection Team – the Board replaced health educator Travis Greer with Soni Melvin, also a health educator. This term expires in February 2022.
Also newly appointed to that “Team” was Sheila Berkeley replacing Avis Odom and Assistant District Attorney Allan Adams, taking over for former ADA Quinton McGee.
The long-open seat on the Division on Aging Advisory Board vacated by Sonya Guyton some months ago was finally filled with the unanimous appointment of Linda Croom. Her term expires December 31, 2023.
Moving out of Elizabethtown’s Planning & Zoning Extraterritorial Jurisdiction and therefore not eligible to continue serving, Ashley Dowless was replaced with Judy Bowen by unanimous vote of the Commission.
With the terms of three members of the Elizabethtown Rural Fire District expiring, the Commission unanimously reappointed Bizzle Davis and Woody Lancaster, and appointed Gordon Kinlaw to fill the seat of the late Basil White.
The seat on the EMS Advisory Board vacated by former Schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor was filled on a unanimous vote by new Superintendent Dr. Jason Atkinson.
County Manager Martin provided a Calendar Review to advise Board members of meetings and activities for the remainder of April and for the month of May.
He then requested the Board’s consideration of moving the April 26th budget workshop to a later date. Several alternative dates were presented and rejected until it was agreed that this workshop would be held at 4 pm on Monday, May 3, prior to the regular meeting.
But then he recommended that the budget presentation already scheduled for May 10 be canceled. Confusion of Shakespearean proportions ensued as most of the Commissioners misunderstood what was being asked of them and on exactly what they were voting.
With Commissioner Cogdell not in attendance, the Board deadlocked twice on votes to keep that meeting date, then to cancel it. Mr. Martin thereupon carefully explained what he was requesting, and when the third vote was taken, the May 10 meeting was canceled on a 7 – 1 vote, with Chairman Peterson voting nay.
Having spent fifteen minutes on that matter, the meeting finally adjourned at 7:22 pm.
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