A special meeting on Dec. 2 to approve a new board chair and vice chair included a discussion about possibly adding a second monthly meeting to the Macon County Board of Commissioners’ schedule.
After Josh Young and Barry Breeden were sworn into their four-year terms, Commissioner Danny Antoine nominated Young as the next board chair, which Commissioner Gary Shields seconded.
Before the vote, Commissioner John Shearl read a statement about his expectations for the chair. He compared being a board chair to being a CEO in how they craft the agenda and direct the county in certain directions.
Shearl said they’ve had many long meetings in his two years on the board and hopes that going forward, those will be shortened.
“I hope moving forward that our new chairman will take this role very seriously and spend a lot of time dealing with this, because…in the past, the agenda comes out and the chairman of the board has no idea what’s on that agenda until it’s presented,” Shearl said. And that’s the role of the chairman is to create this agenda and keep this board informed and maybe through that process the meetings will be expedited and not six hours long.”
The board then unanimously approved Young as the next board chair. After switching seats with outgoing chair Gary Shields, Young said he agreed with Shearl.
“I agree wholeheartedly with what you just said, and I think that’s a role that this board needs to work on and be a little more efficient, a little more effective and I think as chairman, what I want to see is a high level of service provided to our citizens,” Young said. “And I’m not saying it’s not happening right now, but I want to enhance that. So that’s really my main focus.”
Young then nominated Shields as vice chair, saying he’s been a strong mentor. The commissioners voted unanimously to appoint Shields as vice chair.
In the discussion of 2025 meeting dates, Shearl brought up the idea of holding a second meeting a month.
“In my mind, it’s completely unfair to the county employees and the staff to have to come in here after work and sit here to 11 o’clock at night,” Shearl said.
Shearl proposed having a morning meeting the same day as the regular 6 p.m. meeting specifically for “county employee business.” Shearl said it would save the taxpayers money from paying county employees overtime and comp time.
Macon County Finance Director Lori Carpenter said most staff attending board meetings are department heads that are salaried and do not qualify for overtime. Other hourly staff that attend board meetings are not tracked to see if they cost the county more money in overtime or comp time.
Young said he feels like it’ll be needed during budget season but asked that they give him “maybe the first quarter of this year” to try to trim down the meetings. Young suggested, “Maybe cutting out some of the presentations that aren’t necessarily pertaining to county business.” Shearl agreed.
As far as holding multiple meetings a month, it’s a mix in other Western North Carolina counties. Jackson, Graham and Swain counties hold a work session on a different day than their regular meeting each month. Clay and Cherokee counties, like Macon, only have one monthly meeting. Transylvania and Haywood counties hold two full meetings a month.
The board set its meeting schedule for 2025 with the meetings held at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. The only exception is November, when the meeting was moved to Thursday, Nov. 13 due to the second Tuesday being Veterans Day and the first Tuesday being Election Day.
How long have the meetings been?
The Board of Commissioners chair sets the agenda for each monthly meeting, which is then approved by the board at that meeting’s onset. The board chair then introduces each agenda item and calls for votes, so more than anyone else, they dictate how long the meetings go.
In the last 12 regular meetings, with Shields as board chair, seven lasted at least four hours, with two others lasting at least three hours. The longest meeting of the year on Aug. 13 lasted five hours and 49 minutes. The average regular meeting with Shields as chair lasted three hours and 48 minutes.
The previous year, with Paul Higdon as board chair, five meetings went at least four hours, with two going more than five. Another two meetings lasted more than three hours. Not counting the 15-minute Feb. 14, 2023, meeting which adjourned with little action due to Valentine’s Day and counting the follow-up meeting the next week, the average Higdon meeting lasted three and a half hours.