New leadership in Glen Alpine to revisit abandoned personnel policy updates, live-streaming in 2026

The new leadership in Glen Alpine opened its term talking about transparency and getting town operations in order. Yet promised steps such as live-streaming meetings and updating the personnel policy have been postponed for another month to give new leaders time to get situated.

On Monday evening, friends and family members filled the seats in town hall in support of outgoing Mayor Michelle Lewis, thanking her for her service to the town, while also welcoming the town’s new leaders.

Sworn in by Burke County Clerk of Court Crystal Carpenter, newly elected Mayor Kevin Herron accepted the wooden gavel and took his seat in the middle of the board of aldermen. Under oath, new board member Chad Wykle joined board members Reid Scott and Luke Boone.

“I would just like to say that I’m glad to be back home in this area,” Wykle said. “My family and I were in Chattanooga for about 20 years, but this was home when we left. It was home when we were there, and it’s home now that we’re back, and I’m excited to be back here and have the opportunity to serve this community that I do love so much.”

Board members Sheila Perkins and Jason Miller both took their oaths to serve another four years on the board, while Boone was selected to serve another term as mayor pro tempore.

Monday’s agenda was fairly light, but set the tone for the work to be completed in 2026, including utilizing the town’s current technology to livestream the board’s monthly meetings and picking back up abandoned efforts to modernize and correct the town’s personnel policy.

THE PUSH FOR TRANSPARENCY

In his monthly public comments, community member Stan Benedict has been pushing for more transparency through livestreamed meetings, a tool that Miller said stopped about six months after he was first elected in 2021.

Several other local governments in Burke County livestream meetings, including the City of Morganton, the Town of Drexel, T own of Hildebran, and the Town of Valdese. Smaller municipalities such as Rutherford College and Connelly Springs do not.

“If we’re going to be transparent, we need to livestream these meetings,” Miller said, adding that the last time the board discussed the issue, the majority were not in support, citing a lack of savviness with technology and prior issues with audio and video quality when attempting to livestream previously.

“This is something I’ve been bugged about for literally four years now,” Miller said, proposing that the board move the topic to a decision at the January meeting. Town Administrator Crystal Carswell expressed that she was hesitant about livestreaming because she said she’s not familiar with Facebook Live technology, but would be willing to learn with the help of Miller.

Boone proposed a contingency that the town disable comments in order to alleviate any divisiveness, but board attorney Rob Denton advised against limiting speech on a public platform.

“That just opens up a can of worms,” Denton said, adding that the town will likely receive negativity either way.

In another push for transparency, Scott questioned the police department about why they will not provide addresses in their dispatch reports. Police Chief Kirk Penley said that the department provides information regarding the type of call, but that dispatch’s direction states not to provide addresses, per North Carolina General Statute 132-1.4.

The 911-call provision makes call contents public, with an exemption of certain information that would reveal identifying information, including the names of the caller, victim, witness, or the address.

PICKING UP POLICY DISCUSSION

Back in June, the board voted to adopt an outdated version of personnel policies and procedures, with the contingency that the board review and upgrade them month by month. The list of policies was last updated in 2007 and is missing important sections and includes many grammatical errors.

However, the efforts to upgrade didn’t last long as the topic was seemingly abandoned in subsequent meetings. “We didn’t assign a task to anybody,” Miller said. “We just talked about it, and then that was that. That was six months ago.”

Perkins said she reached out to the Western Piedmont Council of Governments for guidance, and they responded that they would assist with ordinances, but not personnel policies. Denton said he reached out to the City of Morganton’s attorney Keith Rigsbee, but hasn’t heard back yet.

Carswell said she forwarded Morganton’s personnel policies to board members, but that they might be more expansive than what the Town of Glen Alpine might needs. She did note that there are several details that could be beneficial.

Herron requested that the item be moved to January so that he can review the town’s current policies and procedures, while researching possible frameworks from other municipalities. Perkins added that the Town of Longview could be a resource as they recently had an overhaul of their personnel policies.