12-18-2018 Work Session Minutes - DRAFT
December 18, 2018
Work Session
Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors
Work Session
December 18, 2018
VIRGINIA: The Work Session of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors was
held on December 18, 2018, in the Main Conference Room, County Administration Building,
Chatham, Virginia 24531. Chairman, Chatham-Blairs District, Robert W. "Bob" Warren, called
the Meeting to Order at 4:30 PM. The following Members were present:
CALL TO ORDER (4:30 PM)
Attendee Name Title Status Arrived
Robert W. "Bob" Warren Chairman - Chatham-Blairs District Present 4:19 PM
Ronald S. Scearce Vice Chair - Westover District Present 4:21 PM
Tim R. Barber Supervisor - Tunstall District Present 4:41 PM
Elton W. Blackstock Supervisor - Staunton River District Present 4:14 PM
Joe B. Davis Supervisor - Dan River District Present 4:24 PM
Ben L. Farmer Supervisor - Callands-Gretna District Present 4:19 PM
Charles H. Miller Supervisor - Banister District Present 4:19 PM
Also in attendance were Mr. David M. Smitherman, County Administrator; Mr. J. Vaden Hunt
Esq., County Attorney; Mr. Gregory L. Sides, Assistant County Administrator for Planning &
Administration; Mr. Richard N. Hicks, Assistant County Administrator for Operations; Mrs. Kimberly G.
Van Der Hyde, Director of Finance; Mr. Chris C. Slemp, Director of Public Safety; and Mrs. Kaylyn M.
McCluster, Deputy Clerk.
AGENDA ITEMS TO BE ADDED
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Motion to Approve Agenda.
RESULT: ADOPTED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Charles H. Miller, Supervisor - Banister District
SECONDER: Ronald S. Scearce, Vice Chair - Westover District
AYES: Warren, Scearce, Blackstock, Davis, Farmer, Miller
ABSENT: Barber
PRESENTATIONS
a. FY18 County Audit Presentation (Staff Contact: Kimberly G. Van Der Hyde); (30
minutes)
Scott Wickham, CPA, with Robinson, Farmer, Cox and Associates, presented the County's
FY2018 Annual Audit Report, which can be found on the County's website at
www.pittsylvaniacountyva.gov.
b. Mis-Assigned Voters Project (Staff Contact: Kelly A. Bailess); (30 minutes)
Board of Supervisors
December 18, 2018
Work Session
Ms. Kelly Bailess, Registrar, presented to the Board an update on the Mis-Assigned Voters
Project. Ms. Bailess stated there was a meeting held with the affected citizens on Saturday,
December 15, 2018, to address the reasoning behind this change and Dr. Jones, Superintendent
of Pittsylvania County Schools was also in attendance at that meeting and agreed to allow the
students to stay in their current schools so they are not disrupted by this matter. There were
questions if the allowance would be for the remainder of this year or their entire K-12 career, and
Ms. Bailess confirmed it would be until they graduate.
STAFF, COMMITTEE, AND/OR CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICER REPORTS
a. New Employee Introduction (Staff Contact: Gregory L. Sides); (5 minutes)
Mr. Sides introduced the County’s new Pet Center Director, James McLaughlin, to the Board.
Mr. McLaughlin has worked at the Portsmouth Humane Society for the last six (6) years, where
he was a part of developing the first no kill City shelter in Hampton Roads. He look s forward to
being in Pittsylvania County and seeing what he can accomplish here.
b. Next Gen 911 Grant Update (Staff Contact: Christopher C. Slemp); (5 minutes)
Mr. Chris Slemp briefed the Board on the Next Gen 911 Grant. Next Gen deals with how the
calls come in and the method they are routed to the centers. The upgrade will not happen until
the latter part of 2020, and there will eventually be a cost of around $58,000 to upgrade, and
once the upgrade is complete, there will be an additional $1,200 per month. There is Grant
money that can be secured from the State for the upgrade and to also cover twenty-four (24)
months of additional costs. Mr. Slemp is requesting the approval to start the Grant process for
this upgrade, and this item will be on the Business Meeting Agenda for action.
c. Discussion of Removal of Dangerous Structure (Staff Contact: Gregory L. Sides); (15
minutes)
Mr. Sides discussed with the Board the potential removal of a dangerous structure located on
U.S. Rt. 29. Mr. Blackstock stated he has previously had complaints from citizens in his District
about these types of things and feels the Board needs to come up with a way to deal with these
situations. He offered to make a Motion at the Business Meeting to direct County Staff t o
develop a Matrix on dilapidated structures, and to also create a line item for funding of said
items, and bring back to the full Board for review.
d. Legislative Committee/Review Update (Staff Contact: J. Vaden Hunt, Esq.); (20
minutes)
Mr. Hunt updated the Board on the Legislative Committee (“LC”) discussion items. There are
two (2) items from the Legislative Committee Meeting that are on tonight’s Business Meeting.
The Legislative Committee met on Thursday, November 29, 2018, and discussed eight (8) items,
as follows: discussion to potentially raise the total annual household income threshold for
elderly/indigent partial real estate tax exemption from $18,000 to $25,000 with a cap of $450 on
said exemption. There was also discussion of Potential Revision to County Code allowing late
(with penalty) Land Use Application filing. Due to time constraints, it would be near impossible
to make this effective this year, and the LC decided to put this item on hold until the Summer to
Board of Supervisors
December 18, 2018
Work Session
consider putting this item in place for next year’s filings. There was discussion of potential
revisions to BOS Bylaws. Mr. Hunt stated there was discussion about potentially moving the
Work Session start time to 4:00 PM, and adding verbiage that allows the Board Member who
appointed a citizen to a committee the authority to remove them for cause. The Board liked the
idea of adding verbiage for committees, but suggested to leave the Work Session at 4:30 PM.
The next item discussed at the LC was the Legislative Priority List. This item is in the form of a
Resolution at the night’s Business Meeting. Also discussed, was the discussion of a potential
revision to the Noise Ordinance. Mr. Hunt explained that Mr. Haskins, Commonwealth’s
Attorney, recently had a case where he was unable to prosecute a particular charge relating to our
Noise Ordinance due to a missing link in the current Code. The current Code references 40-60,
which is wrong and should be 41-6. This will enable him to charge people for violations of the
Noise Ordinance, and the way it is now he is unable to do so, because the Code is referencing a
broken link. There is a Public Hearing on the night’s Business Meeting Agenda to address this
issue. The LC discussed a potential nuisance animals ordinance. The LC took no action on this,
but decided to bring this back to the Board during a Work Session in the beginning of 2019 to
review and this would only apply to domestic animals and would not affect the agriculture
community. Mr. Hunt stated the LC suggested bringing the discussion of a potential Grass and
Weeds Ordinance to the Board in the future. Mr. Warren suggested reaching out to other
communities to see how they handle these situations and go forward from there. The final
discussion item at the LC was potential revisions to the Inoperable Vehicles Ordinance. No
action was taken on this item, and there was consensus from the LC to bring this item back in the
new year for discussion at a future Work Session.
e. Other Reports
BUSINESS MEETING DISCUSSION ITEMS
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Warren adjourned the Meeting at 6:15 PM.