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Town attorney summarizes 2025 session laws affecting Garner
Summary
Town Attorney Terry Jones outlined 2025 session laws with potential municipal impacts, including a Wake County ETJ moratorium through Dec. 31, 2028, new background-check rules for employees working with children effective Oct. 1, and changes to police separation allowances and personnel-file access.
Town Attorney Terry Jones provided an overview of 2025 session laws during the Sept. 16 council meeting, summarizing measures with potential municipal impact in five categories: land use, building code and regulatory fees, transportation, town employees, and laws affecting police officers.
Jones highlighted a moratorium on extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) expansions in Wake County, effective June and remaining in place through Dec. 31, 2028, which prohibits municipalities from expanding ETJs beyond their Jan. 1, 2025 extent. She also summarized an amendment to the state's Brownfields Property Reuse Act (effective July 1) and a new scrap-tire cleanup grant program (effective Oct. 1) that may be relevant if contaminated properties are identified.
On building codes, Jones said a narrow North Carolina Fire Code exemption (effective July 2) applies to certain Type V apartment/hotel/motel buildings of no more than two stories where each unit has a direct exterior exit. The Department of Labor will institute fees for elevator and wheelchair-lift inspections and adjust fees automatically by CPI; building-code rules were also expanded to allow application in certain railroad right-of-way structures.
Regarding town employees, Jones described changes to the local government employees' death-benefit plan and an October 1 requirement for State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) fingerprint-based criminal background checks for new employees who will "work with children in any capacity;" Jones noted uncertainty about how broadly that requirement might apply in municipal contexts (for example, periodic interactions versus organized programs). She said the new check will impose additional fees and waiting requirements for hires covered by the rule.
On police matters, Jones said the legislature expanded options for special separation allowances for local law enforcement officers (effective July 1), with officers able to choose between benefit options if eligible. She also described a law to make personnel records portable so that hiring jurisdictions can access prior employment records, and a new expedited civil process to remove unauthorized occupants from private property (effective in December), which creates an avenue for quicker court-ordered removal and provides limited liability protection for officers acting in good faith.
Jones' memo to the council references 89 session laws adopted in 2025 and includes links and citations; she thanked interns who assisted the legal department with the bill review. No formal council action was required on the briefing.
