announcements. Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you.
Anyone else? Council >> members member. So, and we're doing comments also tonight or not tonight or what are we >> We are doing them tonight but that's why I'm asking folks to just be as brief as possible because we have a long day. >> Okay.
Yeah. So, I I will um highlight a couple things. Yes. Thank you for mixing.
Uh >> we're going to pause because no one's going to be able to hear us anyway. Hey. >> All right. >> It's a good Go ahead, Council Member Ruth.
Um, yes. Yeah. So, just a couple things real quick. Festival was amazing.
Thanks to all the folks who came out from the community. Always a big party. Um,
and staff the uh 2026 homegrown hero award to Kiwan Hester the cakeman after his incarceration and personal reinvention. So please check out his favorite desserts baked good and coffee shop at 4520 South Alustin Avenue. Um, also want to share that I attended last week the national adaptation forum being able to uh learn from other communities how Durham can better protect our most vulnerable residents from extreme heat and flooding. Um, that's getting worse due to climate change.
So looking forward to sharing some of the lessons I learned back uh with my colleagues and with staff. Uh, I want to thank Bike Durham for the Bull City Stampede uh and NC Greenways for its bike to school event and for lifting up a bike month. Those are wonderful events. Uh, and I will leave it at that for now.
Thank you all. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead, Council Member Bur.
>> All right. Good afternoon. Happy to see everyone this beautiful Monday. Um had a great time at Benbeay as well. CU and he said NCT and
um yeah, I was ready to drive to terminal 2 myself at that point. But no, it was a great time. I appreciated hanging out the city staff as well as dancing. We had a lot of great time.
And also shouts out to the mayor's council for women. They host a spaghetti dinner um last Wednesday, I believe, and it was at Famous Women Forward. So, kudos to them and all the great work they're doing in the community. >> Durham, but I know >> forgive them.
>> Thank you. Okay, I'm I'm just going to say good afternoon everyone. Good to see you all. Next up, priority items.
Um Mr. Ferguson. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor Pro Tim. Members of council, the city manager's office does have a few priority items this evening. First, for agenda item number two, that is the fiscal year 2627 proposed budget and fiscal year 27 to32 capital improvement plan. Just a note that the presentation for this item will be made this evening during the May 18th
city council business meeting. Then uh for today's agenda, agenda item number 17 and agenda number item number 19, these business items do also have uh brief presentations, both of 10 minutes. That's for the proposed water and sewer rates for FY2627. Uh and professional engineering services contract with Kimley Horn and Associates for the Goose Creek Outfall project.
Those are our priority items. >> Thank you so much. Uh, Madame Attorney. >> Thanks, Madame Mayor Prom.
Uh, the city attorney's office has no priority items this afternoon. >> Thank you. Thank you, Madam Clerk. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor Prom.
The city clerk's office also has no items and there's no board report. >> Thank you so much. >> Uh, I do need a motion to accept the priority items, right, at work session? >> No.
Okay. Thank you. >> Because we didn't make any changes. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, now I'm going to move on to our public comment period.
Uh, I have two. I think they're both No, just one. Um, online. Joe Lamb.
Not sure if Mr. Lamb can hear us or Miss Lamb can hear us. Are they there, Madam Clerk? Okay.
>> Hello. Good afternoon. It we can't hear you, but it's okay. We're going to move on to our next public speakers if we have any, and then we'll return to you.
Thank you, Madam Clerk. I don't have any in person folks. Do you? We have Okay.
Okay. They're in process. Okay. Well, I'm going to keep us moving just so that we can um keep our our meeting efficient
and then we will return to public comment as soon as I have uh those cards. Um okay. I'm going to now read our administrative consent uh items. Uh item number one, city clerks under the city clerk's office, approval of city council minutes.
Under departmental items, first uh budget and management services department item number two, fiscal year 2026 27 proposed budget and fiscal year 27 through32 capital improvement plan CIP. And again, this presentation will be made uh this evening under city manager's office. Uh item number three, grant budget ordinance accepting an African-American Mayor's Association American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy American Nutrition Access, affordability, and education large city grant. Under item number four, city council governance retreat.
Item under committee safety department. Item number five, resolution adopting the city of Durham involuntary commitment transportation plan agreement. >> I pull that one. >> Item number six, contract with
volunteers of America of the Carolinas, Inc. for the provision of coordinated entry with diversion services. >> I'll pull that one as well. Under environmental and street services department item number seven utility utility preliminary engineering construction agreement for Tena Parkway and Redmill Road tip number H-0000007B.
>> I like to pull that >> number seven. >> Yes, please. Item number eight, amendment number one to contract 1 19963 with WM Recycle America LLC for processing and marketing of recyclable materials under general general services department. Item number nine, acquisition of 1860 Forest Road uh REID number 239900 for guest road multimmoal project coordination with SW-72 under planning and development department proposed planning and development department FY27 work
program. Item number 11, utility extension agreement with Jasmine Norwood to serve 607 East Gear Street. Item number 12, utility extension agreement with Jamie Tjo Densa and Alejandra Lorenzo Baltasar to serve 1824 East Gear Street. Item number 13, utility extension agreement with Mangum Street Partners LLC to serve Greenhouse Durham uh under transport under the transportation department.
And item number 14, construction contract for housing and urban development HUD funded pedestrian crossing improvement that nine locations with LMJ Pavement Marking LLC. >> Pull that one. >> Uh I both have council members Kopac and Cook on that one. Item number 15, second amendment to contract number 21565, supplemental agreement number three to master agreement number 18919 with Sant Stantech Consulting Services Inc. for design of a two-way conversion of for Roxboro and Mangum Streets. >> Member Tam, can I just want to say I
don't want to pull just to say this has been a big project for a lot of folks over many years and so it's excited to see us move this project through 100% design. So this is a big step for Durham and I'm excited to see that. >> Thank you. Council member Cook, I'm sorry, wrist.
Um, council member Kopac, are you wanting to pull it? Yeah. >> Okay. Number 16, regional information center services agreement FY25 through 27.
And then uh underwater management department proposed water and sewer rates for FY26 through 27. And this is a 10-minute presentation that we'll do at the end. Item number 18, design build services contract with Garnier Companies, Inc. for the Western Intake Partnership intake uh wash raw water facilities design build project.
Was that you, Council Member Baker? Okay, that was number 18 and Council Member Kopac, was that also you? >> Yes.
>> Uh, item number 19, professional engineering services contract with Kimling Horn and Associates, Inc. for the Goose Creek Outfall project. Again, that's a presentation that we'll receive at the end. Uh under presentations, community partnerships and engagement department posts storm recovery update old farm and riverforest neighborhoods.
And then uh under >> that is a presentation, right? >> Yes. Okay. >> And then under public hearings which we will hear this evening under planning and development department uh number 21 consolidated annexation 4802 Cheek Road number uh 22 consolidated annexation shared road sharing road assemblage.
Item number 23, place type map amendments evaluation and assessment report. And that's everything that we have published. Um, I'm going to read out what we've pulled and then the order of presentations. And then I'm going to come back to public comment because I think I have my uh folks now. Uh, I have items number five, 6, 7, 14, 15, and 18 pulled.
>> Okay. And so we will do the pulled items and then we will just do the unless unless uh city staff has an opinion on it, we will just do the presentations in their numerical order. 17 19 and then 20. Is that good?
Okay. Um Okay, here she's going back. say. Okay.
Um, Madame Clerk, let's see if uh Joe Lamb is is able to speak one more time and we'll come back again, but let's just see if they can speak now. Good afternoon. Uh, this is for Joe Lamb.
We can hear you. I mean, sorry, we cannot hear you. Uh not sure what's going on, but we know that you're on the Zoom. >> Madame Mayor Prom, they've been asked to unmute, but they're not unmuting.
>> Okay, you need to unmute your uh I don't know if you're on a phone or on a laptop. I know on the phone it's a little different. Okay, I'm going to keep us moving. We'll try one more time after we're done with in person.
Um, I have several folks who have signed up. I would like to know if they were here for general comment or if they're here for a specific item because then if you are here for a specific item, I will wait for you to speak until we get to that item. Uh, versus just a general public. So, I have Mary Rose Fontana, uh, Gregory Williams, Chris Pearlstein, Chris Pearllistine, Cartuk Sandi, and Tiffany.
15. >> Okay. >> 15 >> 15 >> I'm sorry 19 that's the presentation. Yeah.
Okay. So >> okay if you are here just to make general comment which I think is just Mr. Pearlstein please go ahead and Miss Tiffany. So, uh, Miss Tiffany, go ahead and come on up.
And then, Mr. Prollesine, it'll be you. And then when we get to your agenda item, um, you you'll be able to kick us off with your public comment. Go ahead, Miss Tiffany.
Come on up. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. You have three minutes.
>> Okay. Hi, I am Tiffany Swope. I'm here representing Grac. Um we have a um a mentoring program that we have actually developed a mentoring model um that we would like to uh ask for consideration for public safety uh funding. Uh we've
been asked to scale outside of the Cornwallis community into two additional lowousing high-risk communities to support um both teams and also um um community engagement. Uh with that being said, our program or our model has five pillars. We're already implementing three of those pillars. Uh the other two additional pillars um would uh provide um more support to the community, more support to the kids.
Um but more so want to share that our model has both uh psych uh um mental health um components and also social work components. We work with the kids, but we also work with the families. We've created a great deal of success in the community. Uh in Cornwallis, we've had um over the past four years, we've uh supported the reduction in uh crime with the youth in that community creating success. We have three teens uh graduating this year. One
is a first generation high school student. Um but furthermore uh we see this as a great opportunity to partner with other it's a highly collaborative model that is uh powered by North Carolina Central Psychology Department. Last year we had almost a pipeline of a hundred students who are ready to come into the community. Uh we've had conversations recently with um Durham uh public schools uh also um the sheriff's department who will uh run the PALS program and also uh Durham um police department's victim services unit uh where we can also receive referrals in addition to recent conversations with project bill. So this is a highly collaborative model where we will provide enrichment services in the community uh working with the teams and the strategic plan was actually submitted to the council in September. I hope that everyone's had an opportunity to review it and I hope that you see the
value in considering this model um which we plan to insert in every community across the city. This is a great opportunity to put Durham on the map uh for something that is trailblazing um but also create a success incubator out of the entire city. Thank you. >> Thank you so much.
Um that's the only Oh, Mr. Poston. Yes, go ahead. >> Thank you.
Good afternoon. You have three minutes. >> Good afternoon, city council members. Um I kind of want to start with talking about vision zero.
Um I think you know everybody remembers that we we passed the vision zero um goal and action plan uh last year and we've been working towards uh implementing that and looking at our dashboard. Um I know we have two new council members. Congratulations on your your recent election. um as our new liaison uh to BPAC. Um we've heard from council member Kopac that he also supports this uh and council member I'm
just going to assume for now until I hear otherwise that you also support the vision zero action plan and goals. Uh I think it's a this particular agenda is a really good example of how we have to think about this much more broadly. It's not just about streets like Roxboro. Um it's important we focus on our high injury network.
It's important that we get things like the two-way conversion done or some other uh intervention and we we get that done promptly. Um but also we have to look at our other items. The number one action on that action plan was to reform land use to reduce vehicle miles traveled and that can mean a lot of different things. Uh but one of the things that I think is very pertinent to today's uh meeting is a lot of the things related to the Goose Creek uh outfall uh project. When you look at the area where we are essentially freezing development, it incorporates essentially the entirety of the number three bus. That is our highest frequency uh and highest ridership bus, which means we're saying no new housing unless you have a utility extension agreement on this bus that we have the most
service. Uh it also impacts u substantial portions of the number nine and the number four as well as the number two. uh it impacts Wellland's Village, which we want to do a transit hub. And so by dealing with this issue, um however that ends up being, it's going to have a direct impact on our ability to reduce car dependency, to reduce carcentric sprawl.
These are the areas where we really want to focus on adding more opportunities for folks to live and to work, where we've provided bus service, where we have some level of walkability and bikeability. And so I think it's really important to look at these kind of items not just from the nuts and bolts of how we normally deal with this relates to vision zero and broader city goals. Uh and so for that reason I actually very much support uh my two neighbors who are asking for extension agreements uh to build ADUs. If you look at the location of these two ADUs they are in a block of some of the bus routes that I mentioned. Uh and then the the greenhouse development is also
right there on Bangum which we're hopefully going to safer is also very close proximity to the number n number four and is easily walkable and bikable to downtown. So I think this is really important for us to consider. I also think we really need to push hard on getting this issue fixed. Uh, so I support that contract and I also hope that you'll think about approving projects that may take a little bit of time but commit to let getting it done and commit to getting it done in time for projects to move forward.
So approve them when needed. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Uh the next speaker I have and it's for agenda item number two which although the public hearing for that is on June 1st, I just want to remind folks anyone who's coming to speak on the budget, you will have an opportunity to do that on June.
Is that right? June 1st. >> Yes. >> Okay.
Um but go ahead and come on up. You Yep. Because we take general comment at this time. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. Good to see You have
three minutes. >> I'm Karthik Sundra Morti. I sit on advisory committee in uh watching the great work that DPR puts together every year, every budget, every uh action. I'm following um for example the way they put together this past weekend uh last from Wednesday um till till people are out there I think Saturday morning at 5 to set up uh festival.
what I and and that saw the community come together um and you saw uh folks come together and this was a program run by the by the uh DPR by the city right it couldn't have been possible by anybody else um so I'd like to support um the CIP requests the the um general um budget requests that DPR has um and and basically u um you know support their actions uh in saying that u they they do a great work they giving back. They they do so much community. Uh it's
not um you know um public security or anything like that but it's it's it's what it does is brings in uh life to the community. Uh people are coming into these public spaces and um enjoying it. You can go any weekend to any of our parks. Uh they are filled with folks.
it's playing birthday parties, weddings, you know, all these things happen at these parks and um we need to be uh um funding um uh the the DPR um keeping up with our population growth, keeping up with inflation for new projects. Um we've already u um funded two years ago when we had our aquatics uh bond that we passed. More than 70% uh of the of the community supported that. Um so so we want to put in money where where folks will will uh are using it or want it and um and and grow. So we every time we don't support uh projects that that uh you know need to be funded uh we are falling behind uh you know we people are
coming in and buying you know million-dollar houses right now in in in in you know two blocks from here uh you know is doubled in prices in the past two years. I I I can't understand how people are able to u buy these houses, but we need to be, you know, keeping our taxes high for supporting DPR projects. Uh uh um I know a lot of the issues with the funding this year is that is that uh uh uh people have appealed for for uh tax breaks and then now that's affecting our budget. Um but um I I hope you're able to uh fund projects.
For example, we have um girls flag football that we want to start. That's a big demand for it. That's lining up with our plan uh for for what we what DPR represents. There is uh um boys soccer that we want to fund.
Um these are all very small ticket items in my book that we can we can bring the community in. We've been running girls soccer for years and that's been a great success. So, we want to be adding these programming in. We want to be So, that's
all I have. Thank you very much. I'll come back in June 1st. >> Thank you.
Uh, next item I have pulled is item number five. Council Cook, that was your item. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon.
Ryan Smith, the director of community safety. >> Thank you. Um, I just had a couple of questions about the actual agreement. >> Mhm.
>> Um, there were the sort of A through D requirements of when a heart worker could could take someone instead of a police officer. Um, they're they're inconsistent through the agreement. So, I wanted to ask about that, but I was also just curious overall how often A through D would be met and whether there would in fact be a big reduction in folks transported
by officers. Um >> um sure I I'll speak to that a little bit and then I have assistant director Lee Maser here who is over that who can provide additional insight. Um you know, so first I just want to speak to generally to how it is going to work. So um today if someone to the mattress office and petitions or is you know goes to the mag they're expressing concern for a loved one matri based on that evidence can issue a police custody order.
Police then have to go find that person and right now that person has to be transported in a law enforcement vehicle to the hospital for a first exam. We have, as you all know, been working hard and have an involuntary response team that is a community safety team that can meet officers on scene and that positions us to do the first exam out in community because it is it is not uncommon that someone is transported to the hospital and they're not meeting the criteria. And so we have this time inensive can be traumatic experience transport hospital now that we can do first exams out in the community. we have the capacity uh we have certified
first examiners by the state who can make that assessment and if someone doesn't meet the criteria they can cancel the custody order with the magistrate. That's the good thing that we can do. The other thing though is right now when someone does meet the criteria that person still needs to be transported by an officer to the hospital. This will put an option on the table where our teams together can make an assessment.
We certainly have experiences today where our staff feel that it is safe to transport and if we were able to would transport someone who meets that criteria to the hospital so that they're not going in the back of a police officer carpet and one of our minivans to the hospital for an assessment. The the agreement that you see is worked out through uh the police department and our staff to take into consideration safety considerations. I do feel confident that under this we will see opportunities to provide alternative transport. I think that we will also in practice need to be we'll be capturing data on that and we'll be able to come back and talk and answer in detail not what we project but actually how it's playing out and how many times we are in
fact able because of this new agreement and opportunity able to uh when a transport is needed be able to do that in a heart vehicle as opposed to in a law enforcement vehicle. I think there are some things that we don't know until we until we actually put it into practice. Um, I'm going to ask uh Assistant Director Maer if she wants to speak in more detail to it. >> Hey, just as far as numbers, in 2025 there were 742 IBC transports.
Um, I'll Oh, is this better? Oh, maybe it's not on. >> That's what it is. Okay, >> it is on.
>> Yeah, >> hi. Uh, all right. So, in 2025, there were 742 IBC transports. In 24, there were 836. Once this is approved, we'll be adjusting the hours of the teams that work to um operate at times in which
these IVCs are most frequently being taken out so that we can ensure that we're there to provide the supports that need that's needed during that time. Um but again, as Ryan noted initially, we'll be able to report uh we'll be able to report more data about the actual numbers of of transports once that happens. As for the um qualifications in the in the I can pull up the actual agreement. I have 7,000 tabs open as per usual.
See um one section in the requirements talks about uh having an unmarked car and then later on in the agreement it says either a heart emblem car or car. Is that why the inconsistency? >> Sure. Sure.
So, we wanted to ensure that we were able to transport as often as possible. So, leaving that um variability is going to help us do that. We'll have one vehicle dedicated to this team. Um so, we want to make sure that
we're able to do that during um off hours if there's any maintenance for that vehicle or other times, but primarily we would like um whenever possible for the folks to be transported using our unmarked vehicle. add briefly. I believe that statute also and I think uh our attorney might be here statute around this that allows for this does have a preference for an unmarked vehicle when that's possible. So that's that's why unmarked is there but it one of the agreements among in working through our two attorneys was to allow some things to be um figured out through a supporting um a supporting SOP.
So some of the details, we didn't want to overly prescribe all the details in this so that we can work that out in a supporting um SOP that would guide this work. >> Okay. Yeah. I mean that's that is I read the statute too, but it does say in the transport heating transport transporting agencies. Well, um that it may be accomplished by crisis responders when the following criteria
are met. And it says an unmarked vehicle with secure back seat is available for transit. later on it does take a heart vehicle as well, but I'm concerned that this is gonna contra contradict a leader. Maybe this is an attorney question.
I don't know if somebody's here to answer that question. >> I'm wondering is >> Oh, great. Perfect. Thank you.
>> It's not you. It's the Wi-Fi microphone. So, >> good afternoon. >> Use that instead.
>> Am I on? Oh, I am. Great. Hi, Sophia Hernandez from the city attorney's office.
>> Did you hear my question? >> I did. Um, and I I I think I do want to highlight um Lee Leisure's response in that the statute is permissive and we wanted to allow ourselves a little bit of flexibility based on the situations as they come up. Certainly if an unmarked vehicle isn't available, but a heart vehicle is available, I think the preference would be to go ahead and transport them in that vehicle instead of a police vehicle because not having
the option then would def like default to it being a police vehicle. Yes, that makes sense to me. I just the way that the contract is written, it doesn't seem like it's leaving. I'll open that option.
It sounds like the it is it says when all criteria are met and it only has unmarked vehicle listed in this is C2 D is what I'm looking at C double I D. Um and it but it only says unmarked vehicle. So it just sounds like that is that's the criteria that has to be met. And then later on we talk about unmarked or marked vehicle but it sounds like if there's not an unmarked vehicle available for transit that this then would not kick in.
Okay. So, I don't know. >> Thank you for flagging that. We'll certainly um touch base with staff and if any revisions are necessary, make those before the council meeting.
>> Okay. Thank you. And then um I heard y'all say I think that there was one unmarked vehicle that was available for transit. Is that correct? >> Yes. Uh we're in the process of ordering
it. So, it will be soon. Okay. >> Yeah.
Great. I didn't realize there was one. So, that answers that question. Um and then I am curious about the policy generally uh without a magistrate's order of doing IBC.
I know it's not directly relevant to this, but um there does seem to be some commentary that's been coming both from uh community and also directly from Durham Police Department that there is a lean towards um involuntarily committing folks who are unhoused when there is uh activity. Can you speak to that at all? >> Uh I I wouldn't be able to speak to that. our teams would only, you know, initiate the IVC process when it was clinically necessary.
>> Um, and I don't know if Director Smith, did you have anything to add there? >> No, I think I think Lee said it well. I don't have anything to add. I mean, that does not ring true to my experience or anything that I'm seeing. I could also ask uh assistant director Vance who's over our um street outreach team. I mean, we would not the heart program is
not using involuntary commitment as a strategy for addressing folks who may need to move off the streets and into housing. >> Okay. So, it has there's no been no increase for um and it and the statistics that you said earlier for magistrate ordered ones was that there actually seems to be a decrease from 2024 to 2025. Is that correct?
>> Um I I could follow up. I don't have an answer today. I could provide a follow-up on comparing year like this year today versus last year and the number of involuntary commitments that we're seeing. I don't have that data before me, but happy to provide that in a follow-up.
>> Okay. But no, no policy that relates to unhoused folks that's any different than anyone else. >> No. >> Okay.
Thank you. >> Absolutely not. >> Those are all my questions. Thanks.
>> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. I think I'm still up.
>> Okay. Thanks. Uh item number six, Council Cook, this is also you. Hi. Hi. Um, I just had one quick question, which is why did we not use an
RFP for this service? >> Great. I'm going to have Assistant Director Shanetta Burris come up and answer that, but I actually meant to say something on the last item real quick and I'm sorry, it's just a nice moment and I want to uh see if I get in trouble for this. So, I don't get a chance to talk about the but we got a lovely email and I just want to share one thing because this is a nice an opportunity for residents to hear about this.
This is why we do this work. As you can imagine, it's very difficult for one of those situations is parents have to go down to the magistrate. They're very concerned about a child. That's a hard thing for a parent to do.
Um, we got an email from a parent um and they write, "I cannot adequately express how grateful I am for you and your team's response and presence. It made what is always a fraught, stressful situation as respectful and organized as possible. Kelly and Shaniah, who are the two folks who work on our team, were stellar professionals throughout and made the IPC process as smooth as possible. Um, from filling out the paperwork to making repeated trips to access my son. Um, I don't have their email address, but you
convey my deep gratitude. " Apologies. Now we'll go back to the item in question. Um I'm going to ask Director Advance or to come up.
>> Thank you. >> Hello everybody. Um uh I'm so sorry. The question was why we didn't use an RFP process for this.
So we will be using an RFP process for this. were targeting the fall um to release an RFP. This was an extension of the same contract that Coordinated Entry already had. Part of the reason we didn't do an RFP this spring was because we have three RFPs out right now and then the HUD process starts in uh the HUD consolidated application process as you all know, Council Member Cook starts uh May 29th is what we're hearing from HUD.
Um and that's a 90day process. Again, that's what we're hearing from them right now. That could always change when they actually drop it. Um, part of the logic is to make sure that our staff has an
opportunity to have fully fair and transparent processes and really engage in those processes. A bigger part of the logic is that it's many of the same homelessness providers that are applying across these different processes. And so stacking too many on top of each other ends up meaning that sometimes people feel stretch stretched in terms of what it is they can and cannot apply for. Um, and then you know sometimes people feel stretch stretched in terms of the scoring committees.
Our scoring committees for these RFP processes often involve will always involve um folks who are homelessness providers, folks who are from different sectors. Uh so they can take a look at the RFP responses from different angles. Um and the pool of those folks also we want to make sure it's as robust as possible per cycle. >> My questions on that?
>> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. Uh next up is item number seven. Council member Baker, this is your item. >> Hey, thanks for thanks for coming up. Um, I just want to confirm my
understanding of um these um these these cases because they come up from time to time these um uh so North Carolina Department of Transportation when they um implement a project and there are city utilities in the way it is the responsibility of the city to pay for the relocation even if NC DOT uh does those relocations. So, um, that's that's the case for this for this item. Um, I'm curious, do we have a dollar value of kind of an annual? Are we seeing more of these?
Do we know how much we're putting towards the um these kinds of cases? Because this one is upwards of $800,000. And in this specific case, um, so from the staff report, NCDOT division 5 originally originally planned for turn lanes and signals after further review, they determined that a roundabout should be installed at the intersection. So they planned for
something. The utilities went in, they said, "Actually, never mind. " Is am I understanding that correctly? Good afternoon.
Clint Blackburn, um, Environmental Street Services. Um, not exactly. Um, it we were actually discussing this before we came that we probably should have worded this a little differently. Um, because it does lead to believe that we installed them based on this and then it changed.
um when it says that they originally planned for turn lanes, um DOT has long range plans for these things and you know like they're sitting here thinking okay in 10 20 years we're going to do XYZ. Um and so when they reviewed the plans they realized hey a safer option here you know would be because you know we're always talking to them about vision zero and about how things can be better. So they, you know, you know, they're they're taking that in advisement and they s they saw this
situation. " Um, now would we have had to relocate the water lines if there was a turn lane? I couldn't answer that today. I don't I don't know the answer to that question.
Um, but in this case, we would have to based on the roundabout, which is a safer option. So, it is safer for our residents and, you know, the public at large. So, um, but no, the the, um, the the lines were already there. Um, and so it might have had to be moved anyway without without getting into the concept plans.
I really couldn't answer that question. >> Okay. So, we're we're not sure if we're not a roundabout, which I support roundabouts. Um, I think best practices show that those are effective ways of calming traffic and making intersections safer, but we don't know if we're just a turn lane, we might have had to do this anyway. >> Yeah. Um but certainly in this case we did and they did it at our encouragement
and >> um I don't know exactly how much influence we had on this particular intersection um because I wasn't part of those discussions but um so I I I wouldn't venture to say that we influenced that decision directly. >> Okay. Okay. Understood.
We just we're we're we're these come up from time to time and they're pretty high dollar values and and I'm I'm curious if this has come up at the the league in any conversations with the league. Um just because yeah, these are high dollar values and they seem to come up frequently for and and the the the weight of the cost falls onto local governments for NCDOT projects. It's pretty substantial. So, >> council member wrist.
Thank you, Morim. Uh, yeah, Council Baker, I know you're looking to be new league members, so it's a great question. I haven't been to my first league meeting, but I'll definitely pursue that with league membership. I do want to ask about how we how we're funding this down in the budget. What is it sort of a line item or how do we how are we funding this? >> It's going to come out of the water fund, the water enterprise fund.
>> And so my other question is because again, council member Baker mentioned this, these come up a lot and I know we've talked about these a lot at the TPO level. Usually the conversation is like we want a roundabout and we had speakers here just recently this earlier today talking about vision zero. So folks at the TBO will say we want a roundabout this intersection or that DOT often says like no we can't do it. So I think it's great that DOT is is eager to have us do a roundabout here.
I'm kind of curious what our like what's our long range plan for roundabouts as a better tool for making intersections safer for all kinds whether it's cars or pedestrians or bikers and how we plan to like fund those improvements. Yeah, we often have those discussions with our transportation department. Um we we have monthly meetings where we discuss all kinds of things and that is something we often discuss. Um when we install roundabouts that comes from the CIP fund.
>> Yeah. Um >> so long range are we looking for like a lot of more roundabouts? Like what residents like what can we expect in that regard? I mean, so we do have one that we're designing right now that
transportation designing right now at the corner of I'm going look at Pete Marine and American that's the design is mostly complete at this point. I think we're in acquisitions now. Yeah. And then we have another one that we're looking at at the corner of University and Business 15501 right there next to the Q shack that intersection.
So we're looking at it now. That is something we're we you know that is a deal. those are a DOT intersection. So that is something we'll have to talk to DOT about and we're just now you know starting that you know process. So I don't want to promise anything but you know just to answer your question yes we are looking at some things um we every time we look at a intersection improvement we look at the whole toolbox about what would be the best um design for that best treatment for that. Um and oftentimes we discuss roundabouts but as we know roundabouts are very expensive so it's not something that we just jump
on. We want to make sure we have a really good reason for doing that. Um because it does, you know, it does require a lot of city funds, >> right? And more land as well, right?
>> And more land as well. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, so safe to say we can expect more of these.
I'm excited about that and I look forward to working with state DOT to see if we can sort of share some of the cost of doing this. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yeah.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Is that all? >> Okay.
Thank you. Uh next item I have is item number 14. Council member Kopac and then Council Member Cook. Good afternoon, Sean Egan, transportation director.
>> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, Director Egan. Um, so just first of all, just exciting to see these updates rolling out at the nine locations to make our crossing safer for our pedestrians. So, thank you for this work of you and your team. I just want to make sure I understand the pain points that are driving up some of the project costs that I saw. um you know is there a shortage of vendors for this work or what are we seeing sort of leading to some of these these cost increases?
>> Uh so thank you for that question. Uh so we conducted a solicitation where we reached out to all of the vendors who are qualified uh through the NC DOT qualification process. It's about 500 uh qualified firms. However, when we uh receive bids and when we have uh conversations with firms in our area, uh what we hear is that um they're uh there is a limited number of firms uh working in this area.
Um and that they're busy. Uh and so what we what we'll find is that in some cases we'll get one bid. In this case, we got two bids. Uh so it's not necessarily a shortage of firm but firms but u there's a tremendous amount of work that's happening uh in infrastructure a lot of it being led by NC do and so those firms are uh are trying to manage a very heavy workload
and so that's why we're seeing one or two bids uh on some of our projects. I'm going to try on this. Do you want to just pass it along? I guess.
Um, >> did this one maybe an issue with all of them from the internet? So, okay. Um, uh, can you talk about how much of the funding is coming from HUD and the restrictions that are on that funding might be Yeah. a different Maggie.
>> I'm gonna uh bring up my partners from Housing and Neighborhood Services here to talk about the HUD piece. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Hi, good afternoon.
Uh Maggie Carnegie, acting assistant director of administration with Housing and Neighborhood Services. >> Good afternoon, council members. Uh Council Member Cook, there is $750,000 of community development block grant allocated to this body of work. It is
from previous year's allocations, our 2022 and 2023 program years. And that money comes down and obviously it there were factors that designated these specific nine sites, but what are the restrictions and how did we end up using this for pedestrian crosswalks and is there money forthcoming for other potential infrastructure? So uh funding for these projects was allocated in those respective year's annual action plans that were adopted in 2022 and 2023 respectively. We worked in partnership with um transportation and also what was I believe community engagement when they were part of neighborhood improvement services. They identified some of these um areas through a consultation with uh residents I believe that identified these specific sites and then we have to qualify them as eligible for use with
the community development block grant funding. So it is qualified using a low area benefit analysis but these types of activities were again planned for in those annual action plans. Do we have subsequent plans in in later year allocations? >> So far, not in the 2024 or 2025 or even 2026 year.
Those um project funding allocations are more focused on affordable housing activities and that's indicative through the competitive application process we recently facilitated. um based on need and evaluation of we we have about a $2 million allocation of CDBG each year and approximately a quarter of it goes to um paying off a section 108 loan we have and some other set aides that are required. 5 million
each year to allocate two projects. And then through the competitive application process we facilitated this past year and moving forward will continue to facilitate. That's what it identifies how we're going to invest in the the breadth of eligible CDBG activities. >> I think I've asked you this question before.
I'm going to ask you again. Is there is there possibility to expand the grant if we have additional projects to do? Like are we able are we are we potentially leaving money on the on the table by not including some of these infrastructure things? Like is there any priority of funding that's outside of just affordable housing?
>> So the priorities for CDBG are identified in our larger planning documents. We aren't leaving behind any funding. our allocation on an annual basis is what it is. It's determined by a formula for all grantees throughout the nation. Um and it's calculated at HUD for a variety of different um
factors uh inform that formula and that allocation. So we can as a jurisdiction choose how to expend it and allocate it based on community needs based on the applications we get from subreients and community partners who are going to go forth and implement and carry out this these types of bodies of work. >> Okay, thank you. Those are my questions.
Thanks everyone. >> Thank you. Uh next up we have >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Council >> just real quick. Um so and just to just to clarify what exactly we're talking about here. So these are mostly pedestrian signals and also some um crosswalk painting for the most part. >> That is correct.
>> Okay. And are these um is there going to be any kind of exploration of tightening radi bumpouts any infrastructure changes or is this primarily paint and signals? >> I'm looking to my transportation
friends. Yes. pain pain and signals. >> Okay, that's all.
Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else?
>> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh next up, I have item number 15.
Council member Kopac, that's your item. And then we have a few speakers. Actually, Council Member Kopac, I'm going to take the the residents first and then your question. Um on speakers I have um first speaker I have is Mary Rose Fontana.
>> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. You have three minutes. >> Thank you.
Good afternoon Mayor Prom and council members. My name is Mayor Rose Fontana and I'm here with Bike Durham to support the contract extension with Stantech for the Mangum Roxboro Street designs. Having seen the 25% designs and initial comments from NCDOT, I would like to encourage the city to negotiate with NCDOT during the next phase of design to improve safety for all road
users and replace maintenance costs for both the city and state along the corridor. Some design considerations include reducing cross crosswalk widths, identifying a safe north south bike route and implementing traffic calming measures while lowering speed limits, which would align with the city's vision zero goals to reduce roadway deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2035 and 100% by 2045. Initial comments from NC DOT do not necessarily align with these goals. And based on current crash rates and designs along the corridor, the state's requests may further the corridor's current crash rate and associated maintenance costs.
Relatedly, I'd like to comment on the earlier discussion about roundabouts and their associated costs. Operation and maintenance costs for roundabouts are significantly cheaper than signalized intersections. So, the capital costs like relocated utilities and construction should balance out over time. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to engaging with the city on the next phases of design.
>> Thank you so much. Uh the next speaker I have for item number 15 is Gregory Williams. >> Good afternoon. You have three minutes.
>> Good afternoon. I'm glad to be here. Um firstly, I'd like to open up by thanking the city for um being open to conversations about being more ambitious about the design of this two-way conversion. We know that it is a project that is a long time in the making and a ton has gone into it and so to get back the 25% designs um we are confident after seeing those that we may have to make some concessions for the 100% design but we are fully in favor at Bike Durham of having the 100% designs funded. Um let me see I got a couple of small notes here to hit. Um, some of the things that we really would like to see as we are
hoping that this is ambitious with the 100% design is the continuous north south bike corridor. Even if it isn't all bike lanes um within Mangammer Roxboro, if there is at least a concerted effort like there is with the uh Taylor Street bike route with the Cherros to make sure that there's a highly visible and accessible route that folks can use if they aren't directly on the corridor. That would be fantastic. We are also hoping to um see even more improvements with the uh pedestrian crossings.
Um again, it's just one of those areas where um maybe the cost of maintenance and the cost of implementation can be high, but the cost of a person's life is much higher when it comes to that family. So, everything that we can do to make sure that those corridors are safe for our pedestrians and families who are moving through them would be fantastic. We know that we have schools in that corridor. We have jobs. We have offices. So, everywhere that
folks need to be, we want to make sure that they're able to make it safely. In addition, I don't want to run out of time here. Um, just keeping up the open dialogues with the Department of Transportation on these designs. As we've seen from the conversation on the roundabout, we really are potentially looking at a new era of design with our new lead engineer, Becca Gallas.
And so we have an opportunity to really look at some of the design choices we've made and really push the envelope. We want to thank Stantech for their understanding and willingness to meet with us. And uh I'll be back tonight to talk more. Really appreciate y'all.
>> Thank you so much. And then uh Mr. Oh, no. I think Okay, he made his comment just generally I guess.
Okay. I didn't know if Mr. Baker wanted to speak again. Thank you.
Go ahead, Council Member Kopac. Oh, I'm going to give Director Egan a chance. Sorry about that.
>> Yes, thank you to the speakers. Thank you, Director Egan, to you and your team. Um, I had wanted to elevate some of the points that were were just made. So, thanks for saying those so eloquently, but just to highlight the need for continued work with NC DOT around the design to make sure that we're aligning as best as possible with our our vision zero goals.
So, thank you for your team's attention uh to that. Uh excited to see this work proceed. Want to see more work proceed around uh moving away from unsafe uh basically one-way highways uh through our neighborhoods. Um hope you know Duke Gregson and other uh high injury corridors are next.
Um actually the only question I had was for uh it could be you director Egan or Miss Tracy uh just around the MBE goal for this project. uh and just to talk about the role um and size of the just cities participation and other MBA MBE opportunities going forward for this and similar projects. >> Sure. So I'll I'll do that >> minority business enterprise MBE. Thank you. So um we had to um when we first
solicited for the design services for this based on uh the scope and cost of design um as well as the um the funding availability that we were addressing at the time we had to reconfigure. That's why we're uh bringing this amendment forward now. We had the funding available to get us to this 25% point. Um and so Just Cities was one of the minority business subconultants. U so when we went back to reconfigure that contract uh some of that work was um was shifted to the future phase the the current phase that we're bringing forward uh on the contract. So that happened um in as part of that um and so uh I'm going to look at my notes here um just so that I don't get the um the percentages
uh incorrect. Um but the um just cities uh is receiving an additional 2% of the total contract amount. 676 million will be 6% of that value. So um that uh that additional work will will bring them up to that 6% uh participation level.
>> All right. And I'll just say in response to kind of the beginning of your comment, we've uh I appreciate the comments about um building and strengthening that partnership with NC DOT. actually met um with division 5 engineer Becca Gallas earlier today to talk about this project and some of the other projects um that you mentioned. Um I also wanted to share that along with our chief transportation engineer uh Pete Nicholas, we have Matthew Nulo who is our NC DOT district u engineer for
Durham. um he's here with us u so that uh you know as a as a visible demonstration of the strength of the partnership that we are building uh with NC DOT uh and our focus and uh I got really good uh feedback uh from uh the division engineer uh in my discussion earlier today um our engineers uh are working and the city's engineers are working uh in close collaboration with the NC DOT uh district office as well. Uh, and so I I did I wanted to thank uh Matthew Nof for joining us today uh and for all of the work that um he and his staff have done uh to help us move this project forward. >> Thank you so much um Council Member Baker and then Council Member Wrist.
>> Uh thank you. So yeah, just want to say thanks again for the for this this contract. This exciting stuff. Um, I know this has been a long time coming,
but I just I think this is a great discussion to recognize that like, well, this has been a long time coming and this is this is in multiple plans the city has had. This is not sort of like necessarily just going to happen, right? I recall last year even in the budget process, there was conversations to make sure we had funding in the budget to make this happen. And I I know folks on the council as well as staff and residents were eager to make this a priority of the city.
So, thank you so much for this work bringing it forward. But I think this will be this is the kind of thing people talk about nationwide about transforming these these two-way highways as Council Member Kopac said into really traffic calming city streets. And so I'm so excited about this and thank you for that. Appreciate it.
>> Thanks. Um just tangentially related since we're talking about vision zero. I was curious um if you have any updates about where we are with the developing a new street design manual. I know that that's one of the key actions in the division zero action plan.
I know that it's something >> Director Young, >> we were gonna tie to the UDO and now situation with the UDO. >> Yeah. >> Good afternoon. Sarah Young with
planning and development. That is actually an item that is in our work program for this upcoming year. Um, and so we do expect to get that underway regardless of the LDC. It's much needed.
>> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else?
Okay. I just wanted to say thank you for to the NC DOT staff for being here for our division 5 um director. She's been incredible and it's been I will say hard fought to see some of the changes we wanted to see from NC DOT but well worth it. Uh it will make our residents lives and increase our goals around walk walking and biking and taking other modes of transportation besides a car. And so again, just as as a longtime member of the TPO and and uh been in the trenches for a minute, um I really appreciate uh the the kind of shift and partnerships and also to city transportation staff. Thank you so much.
I think the next item I have up is item number 18. Um Council Member Baker and then Council Member Kopac. Good afternoon, Mayor Pro10, members of council. Don Gley, water management.
>> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. Thanks for thanks for coming up. Um, you've given us uh updates on on this as it's progressed and had a big update in the last um the last presentation that you gave us.
I was just curious if there were any more updates that um as as things have evolved on on this issue since the last presentation that you gave us. Um, nothing new other than the fact that now we're moving forward into spending real dollars and, you know, putting this project in to make it actually make it happen. >> Cool. Um, then I'm also just curious, you know, Jordan Lake is obviously a place where a lot of people like to go to to recreate and so um, you know, we're talking about major infrastructure. um is you know on the front end of the
design um is there thinking about making a design that is um you know ties into the to the natural landscape? >> Um we have been working with North Carolina Parks and Recreation especially since we're impacting the um Vintage Point um boat ramp. So we've uh been um in discussions with them about you know how can we work with them to build this project. um they've come back to us with, hey, here's some improvements that we think would be beneficial um as part of the project and we've um finalized those including some of the as part of the construction some upgrades to that facility.
Um so we're kind of excited to see at the end of the project. I know we're going to be closing the both ramp for about you know two to three years but um that facility should be have a much um a new look when it opens after our construction. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Kopac.
>> Yeah, thank you, Director Gley. So, uh, a couple questions. you know, the first just kind of at a high level, um, you know, when we're thinking about the some of the reasoning required for this sort of project, in what ways will that kind of intersect back with the city, you know, with uh, you know, come before bodies like GCCPC? Um, you know, how much of that is sort of led by and is being done by some of our uh, neighborhood jurisdictions?
Um, like how much of that actually is going to be coming back? um before the city. >> Um I'm going to turn that over to Lori Montgomery who's our project manager to be in more detail. Um you know, certainly we went through a lot of the resoning um when the the treatment plant and the raw water intake was in Chattam County and we completed all of that with all the public outreach in those communities.
Um we'll have to do some minor changes since we're not building the treatment plant in Chattam County. Um but that's more administrative. Um but we do expect to go through um
similar process here in Durham. We've already had some public meetings for the project, but let me I'll turn that over to Lori so she can talk a little bit more. So, Lori Montgomery. >> Good afternoon.
Lori Montgomery, senior engineering manager, utility engineering, water management. So, as far as reszoning for the intake site on Jordan Lake, that process was complete with the Chattam County um entities as part of the the original preliminary engineering report process. There are some minor changes to the the package that was submitted to them that we will need to consider. Since the water treatment plant is moving to a different location, we have a little bit more room available on the site to to do things. So, the layout of the raw water pump station and some of those facilities could change a little bit. There's been some preliminary outreach done to Chattam County um and their board of
commissioners, their planning department already. Our understanding is that that will be a relatively simple administrative process that can be approved at the staff level. If we get into things like building really tall structures that that could exceed current height restrictions, that is something that could require going back in front of the Chattam County Board of Commissioners to to get approval for that. And then on the water treatment plant side, which is being done under that that'll be designed and constructed under a different contract, that parcel next to on Fington Road adjacent to the South Durham Water Reclamation Facility will need to be reszoned and we will be working with the Durham City County Planning Department and development to do that.
Um, we have had preliminary outreach with them. Our understanding is we can expect that to take about 6 to9 months. Um, and it will either require a special use permit as part of that resoning process or
potentially redesating the entire parcel to more of a utility type use. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else have any questions?
Okay, those are all the um pulled items. Um, I want to acknowledge that Mayor Williams is here and so I'm going to pass it back to him and time for our presentations. >> Hello everyone. Um, it's great to be with you all.
I believe we're going to continue the presentations in the order as presented. Is that 17? >> 17. >> Item number 17.
Thank you everyone for your comments thus far. I've been following along on YouTube. I'm glad we have that service. It helps when you're stuck in traffic.
Good afternoon, Mayor Mayor Prom, members of council. Don Gley Water Management. I'm here to talk about the proposed water sewer rates for FY27. Um, a quick overview of the utility.
Our utility continues to grow as Durm grows um with our miles of water lines accounts, backpenters that we have to inspect and and oversee. Um, as we typically do with our our rate presentations, we'll talk a little bit about our rate objectives, strategies, and key issues. Talk about the capital program, customer consumption, and then the proposed rates. Um, our rate sending objectives have have not changed. Um, it's affordability to all of our customers, especially our um, tier one, tier two, tier three customers. sustainability for the utility to be able to ensure that all the operating costs and long-term capital costs and regul regulations are addressed and also to continue to
promote water efficiency and conservation. When it comes to affordability, you know, we have tiered rates to help empower our customers on how they can use water more effectively and more efficiently. um we use a long-term rate model um that we update every year, 10 years to be able to to minimize customer impacts, especially in the lower tiers. And then we have programs to assist our lower income and fixed income customers.
Um historically, you know, we've been moving into towards this period of the next five years with the Jordan Lake project having a heavy influence on where we are with our rates. As you can see, roughly 80% of our customers are within the first three tiers. Um, for affordability programs, you know, we certainly have payment plans to help our customers manage their their payments and payment arrangements to have flexibility in those payments. Um, we offer the hardship fund which is
hund $150,000 annually out of the general fund to help with customers and when they have difficulty paying their water bill. Um, so far this year um over 844 households have taken advantage of the hardship program and we expect to expend um 89,000 by the end of the year. This is the second year that we've been the expenditures have been below the 150,000. So we in discussions with our staff, we're going to be looking at those requirements and qualifications to see if potentially we can expand this program going into next year.
So um we hope to be able to do that work out of the summer and come back with recommendations to the city manager's office this fall. >> How's that hardship fund? Is that funded through water? It's funded through your internal enterprise.
>> No, it's funded through the general fund. >> And and just briefly, when you say expand, I mean expanded or did you say expand or extend? >> Um, currently the requirements that we
have like the 250 $240 per household per month. We're going to be looking at if we um made if we had more than one adjustment during the year or if there were other requirements that we could potentially look at that for households to qualify to see how that would um you know how much money that's involved and then bringing those recommendations back to the city manager's office for consideration. >> So did you say expand or extend? Um well, currently any unused money from one fiscal year is rolled into the next fiscal year.
>> Okay. >> So um so we're looking at maybe expanding the program to have be able to to have more households be able to take advantage of of that. >> Thank you. >> So just to summarize, you're basically evaluating your program to see how to make it better or more efficient at this point.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. >> To see if we can reach more households. um our long-term strategy, you know, we have a 10-year financial model that takes into um all the expenditures of
the utility. Um we continue to have modest rate increases to be able to have a sustainable utility and to try to smooth borrowing out. Um our capital program is of course very robust. We're in five years of very large spending with our capital program.
Um overall we continue to spend money to maintain the existing infrastructure that we have on um our plant our water plants, our wastewater plants, our collection system and distribution system and our dams. You know we want to you know certainly have the generational project that we have with Jordan Lake project. Um we have continuing regulations. We have uh some PAS um immersion contaminants.
um the upcoming falls and Jordan Lake rules that we'll have to meet and certainly make sure we're expanding our infrastructure to make sure that development can continue within Durham. Um our costs continue to rise. Um this slide has I haven't changed this slide in three years now. Looking back the
four years, it's continuing, our costs continue to go up and up, unfortunately. And our, you know, certainly our time frame for projects is starting to stretch out a little bit when we do projects just because of the the size of the projects. Um the the strain on the de the engineering community as a whole because there's a lot fewer firms and there's a lot of work going on in the triangle. So, Um here's a sampling of some of the projects that are um over $25 million that are currently be rolling out in the next few years.
Um once again touching all aspects of the utility. Um as note on the you know when we talked about the Goose Creek letter to industry um we'll be um have that item discussing that in just a few minutes. Um but certainly we'll be uh Goose Creek is currently funded within the CIP, but we're looking forward to you know looking submitting funding for the Elery Creek and the Lick Creek and the Forest Hills outfall
replacements in the coming fiscal year. 7 billion for allocation for projects. A billion of that is the Jordan Lake project. on consumption.
If you look at the kind of since 2014, you can see relatively our overall consumption is continuing to to grow. Um, which further shows the the need for the Jordan Lake project. Our consumption um has not changed for the last been pretty consistent with our tiers. As I mentioned, about 87% of our customers are in the first three tiers. And once again, our our goal is to really make tier one, tier two really affordable um to our customers. And that they're over uh you know, 73% of our
customer base for the rates for FY27. um for the first time our as we have moved into a large capital program um we've now um 51% of the costs of the agility now are related to rate funded CIP or debt service on on the capital projects. Uh we're proposing um a little over $170 million for the utility for the upcoming year to take care of all of the uh expenses um of the utility. Um for the rates for this coming year, there'll be a modest increase in all service and consumption charges, continuation of the watershed protection fee for the 3 cents per 100 cubic feet. Um, of course, customers see different rates um depending on their water consumption and what tiers they're in.
Um, we'll continue the tier three rates for commercial, multif family, residential, industrial, and institutional. Um, double rates for um outside the city limits. And of course, um, different sewer charges will be for customers served by the county waste barter plant because they set the rates for um their for theirs. Um the proposed rates covers the operating costs, paper performance increases, payo funding, debt service, feat replacement or fleet replacement fund for um the vehicles in the in that are in water management uh general fund transfer as well as the as I said the the 3% per tier for wershed protection covers all the necessary debt covenants and maintains adequate operating reserves. You know, certainly this past year, um, we went out for a large debt, um, revenue bond sale and all of the rating agencies continued their high rating of of the Durham utility.
Um, here you can see the the incremental increases um for water rates. the um monthly sewer charge um for service, $123 associated charges for the volume charges, $136 for the service charge for wastewater and 68 cents for um the volume charge for wastewater. Um comparison of what we projected last year to this year. Last year um we were projecting 11% um consistently for the next five years.
at this time last year. Um, this coming year, we're we're seeking uh 12% and then we're projecting out 14 because we continue to see our our costs climb for our projects. 75
per month. 16 spread out over the 12 months. Um for commercial accounts um 20 um uh CCF 5/8 in meter commercial will see a $26 increase per month and um up to $269 for a 2 inch commercial account with large water consumer. Um this is a snapshot from the UNC School of Government Environmental Finance Center. They changed their dashboard so it looks a little different from last year. Um, but when you go to their dashboard for a typical for consumption of 4,000 cubic feet um
compared to the other utilities across North Carolina with similar size accounts um you can see we're slightly below average um with those. The lower right hand dial there is um affordability in index with compared to medium median household income and the finance center. 02. So which is good.
And then looking at it just regionally um other utilities within 25 miles of us. Once again we're we're below the average in that upper leftand corner dial. And um similarly the household medium income is is similar when you're comparing the larger utilities across the North Carolina as well as the some regional. You can see our rates for for 4,000 gallons um per month is at we're right at the average for every for this year and then projecting into next year from what we've heard from
other back from what's being proposed across North Carolina um we'll we'll stay there right about the average for large utilities across North Carolina. And with that, any questions? >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Just have a question in regards to the hardship.
So, and I may be foreshadowing a little bit because I know we're currently like experiencing drought conditions and I've seen that other municipalities have moved to start penalizing customers if they have a leak or so. So, just want to know um in that regard if there is any like if someone does is like a low-income household or experiencing a hardship and they have a a water leak or such, do you all try to connect them with resource to kind of fix that leak or like how do you resolve that? >> Um typically, you know, when they reach out to us and and we see that there's a high consumption bill, we we'll, you know, in our discussions with them, we'll try to find out, you know, do you
know how that that happened? some, you know, frequently they don't. So, we'll offer to come in and do an assessment with our conservation staff to come in to look at all of their fixtures in the house to see if um there if they can find maybe something that was causing that. Some uh what we see a lot of uh in older homes is uh the the toilet flap gets stuck and you jiggle the handle and people don't understand how much water can be lost when that toilet gets stuck.
Um if there's an actual break, um we'll give them credit once the um uh they they've shown us that it's fixed. They they give us the bill to show hey that whatever was broken was hey it was fixed. We'll wait for consumption two months and then we'll credit the water and the sewer back to them if they show us that that was repaired. >> Thank you. And then going back to the question, so I do see you had some breakdowns for commercial, but for the tiers um that were stated earlier like tier one through five. So like are are these
all like residential or >> just for residential? >> Okay. And so like for the highest consumers, just for my own curiosity, like for tier four and tier five, like who are these people honestly? Like how are you consuming this much water?
Like are those like large households or just trying >> people who more than likely have very nice lawns and gardens around their house because those are for people who have all the um the meters that are for irrigation are built at tier five. >> Okay. >> So that's why you're seeing that up there. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. >> Sure. >> Thanks, Mr. Mayor.
Thanks, Mr. Greley. As always, um just a couple questions. So, yeah, first of all, on this affordability thing, I appreciate the conversation about the hardship piece.
Obviously, with tier three rates going up anywhere from 12 to 14% in the next 5 years going forward, that's greater than inflation. So, it's something we want to be aware of. I know that having safe, clean drinking water is like a basic need of all our residents. And I appreciate the work you're doing with the current capacity, but also adding capacity to make sure we are building for the future. So, I know it's not easy. Um, my question, I had a couple
questions. One was um Oh, you you talked about one of your slides talked about total consumption. Do you have any data on because one of the principles or one of the priorities of your department is also conservation. Right.
Right. So do you know what usage is like per like household in tier three? Are we seeing sort of like declining average consumption per household or what do we know about >> declining? Um I I can ask Sid Miller to step up and and give you maybe a quick statistic or two because we just completed our long range water resources plan.
But the the typical and I'll let >> I'd love to hear that. Yeah. Good afternoon. Sid Miller, assistant director for administration, communication, and compliance and water management. So, um I can tell you that we keep track of what the average household consumption or per capita con actually more per capita consumption is.
Um, and we like to look at a moving three-year average because things bounce around. >> How do you measure per capita? >> So, we take the total. We know what our our service area is and we can compare the service area and the number of connections with what the planning department estimates the population at.
And we typically look at July from year to year. >> Okay. So, it's less about per household than it really is per capita. >> Yeah.
We can't really check per capita, but I can tell you as as uh Director Gley had said, um it's been going down over time, and we're now at at about 54 gallons per capita per day, which is I don't know exactly, but I think it's one of the lowest in the state and it's one of the lowest in the country. And that's due to just conservation efforts or whatever. What's the >> I'm going to say it's due to our water
efficiency and conservation team. >> I love it. Yeah. >> But yeah, anything else is that also sort of like our our Yeah.
Any other residents kind of understanding the value? >> We have a culture of conservation in Durham >> and we promote that. >> Yeah. It's really important.
Appreciate that. Last question for Mr. Greley. Um, Raleigh's rates are comparative comparatively low compared to ours.
>> Why is that? Is that important? Because like their their only source is Falls Lake, right? >> Of water.
>> No, they have like like Benson and another lake. But, you know, >> the Army Corps of Engineers built that for them, >> right? >> Falls Lake. >> Falls Lake, >> right? So like I guess I'm saying so we invest a lot of resources and and time and capacity in Falls Lake right the the the rules re all that kind of piece. So part of part of our contribution to the UNRBA and Falls Lake is helping to keep
Raleigh's water rates low. Is that can I say that or is that what's the connection there? >> Um well it environmental stewardship right just keeping the overall environment cleaner. Um, you know, certainly everything that we do in the upper noose that we can do to pre to keep the water that's draining to Falls Lake certainly keeps that facility cleaner for the people who use the facility and and all of the different recreational activities that are there, but certainly that's to, you know, Raleigh's advantage because, you know, their treatment costs are lower.
Um they they were also able to you know work with the core of army corps of engineers and get an additional uh 20 20 million gallons per day allocation out of the lake. So they increase their water supply just through paperwork. >> Yeah. >> Right. Which is I'm not knocking it but you know we're having >> and we're building a new lake. We're having to build a lot of infrastructure, but you know, once we have the infrastructure there, if we're able, if the Army Corps
>> ever reallocated that lake, then we would be able to take advantage of a different allocation if we were successful through um an allocation process. >> Great. Thank you. >> Um and I did want to echo one thing that from Sid when he talked about, you know, we have a conservation culture.
You know, our conservation staff does a great job going into schools across Durm and um we've the last couple years we've been doing a lot of outreach for Durham public schools just to go into career fairs for high schools just to try to introduce students to the water industry to start thinking about us and the staff that goes there have have said that they have a lot of questions. They know what's going on. So I think that's just want to give kudos to our staff that invest that because we're seeing it at the other end. you know, we're going into the classrooms, but then when we're having these career affairs, they know a lot more about water.
>> So, Wayne Drop made an appearance at the council meeting with with council Kobach. So, yeah, all that stuff is helpful. Appreciate it. Yeah.
>> Thank you, Mayor Jim. >> Thank you. I don't have any questions. I
do just want to say that that line of conservation, I mean, that's been it. Well, I mean, we all we all know what happened in Durham in 0809. And so, we we lived some hard times in that moment. for those I I did not live in the city at the time, but I had good friends um who shared all their woes.
Um so we learned some hard lessons and we pivoted and that's what you see today. Um and you know I I just I see your staff at every single community event that I'm at ever. So, uh, thank you for being there and thank you to Durham residents for being, uh, conservationists around their water and really taking part in our toilet replacement programs and all the things that we do, uh, that are really, really, uh, beneficial. And I know that this is some expensive infrastructure, but it is pretty incredible long-term planning.
>> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. I And maybe I missed it. the impact um where it said uh Pittsboro and someone else was uh
merging I >> Chattam County was >> yeah city of Stanford merging with Pittsboro and Chattam County that that had an impact on just how we um the the um Jordan Lake project. >> Okay. So, you know, and having to just re relook at what we were doing because the investment because, you know, city of Sanford wasn't looking at committing into doing anything in the short term. >> So, >> now is that in addition to the the Hall River folks or is that uh the same?
>> It's separate. >> Separate. >> Yes. >> Okay.
All right. And uh my other question was is regarding those donuts, have you looked at inflation on how much the donuts cost? >> Yes. things have gone up.
No, thank you. >> Y >> All right, that'll be it. Thank you. >> I had a presentation. I'm working off of these two notices. I didn't see these items on the next
present now. >> I'm working off of two agenda items, but we're doing affordable housing. Were you signed up for the presentation? >> Um I believe >> what's your name again?
>> Chris M. >> A presentation won't take or you know we just want to comment on it before the comment the public uh period closes. As one of the RP says it'll be open until the 22nd. So we wanted to comment on it before these issues uh close.
Sir, sir, were you here at our last council meeting for the home ARP funding? Is that correct? >> Yes. Now, we're also speaking about the uh the CDBG and the uh ESG and the HOPWA funds just, you know, being able to work out a partnership or propose a partnership for uh to develop the affordable housing units if the the
council is not going to reconsider. >> Okay. I'm going to let you talk with city staff. you're not signed up to do a public to to be sorry for public comment today, nor is that an agenda item before us if I'm >> right.
So, city staff is going to be able to talk with you here in a second. Um, I'm just going to move us on because right now since you're not formally on our agenda, we just need to keep moving. >> Comment though, >> sir, we're going to let you speak with staff. Thank you.
>> Yeah. So, uh, Miss Wallace is going to help you navigate it. >> She's at the door smiling. The nice the nice.
>> Okay. >> All right. Our next item is item number 19. >> Good afternoon again, Don Gerilly Water Management. I'm here to talk about uh the Goose Creek update, alcohol updates.
Um, we're going to talk about the improvements, some of the outreach we've done since we were last with you, and then talk a little bit about the design and construction schedule. Um, as a reminder, when we issued the letter to industry, um, we restricting uh, activities uh, within the Goose Creek Basin. Um, the fa the project is broken up into two phases. When the the the phase one is complete, then the areas shown in purple would be able to open for development.
And then when phase two is complete, kind of the middle third of the basement basin would be open for development. Um since we issued the LTI um as of the submittal for the agenda cycle um 57 developers have out have um reached out to us. Um out of we've evaluated 103 out of the 104 projects that have been submitted to us. Um we're happy to
report that 32 of those projects can move forward fully within the basin. um 64 projects can partially move forward until the construction is complete and seven would have to be on hold until the construction is complete before they get started. gov for with questions. Um we've conducted a outreach with the development community on April 15th about 30 um developers um or representatives from the development community were there for asking questions.
Um we are having a public meeting uh this Thursday on the 21st at Miss Lake. Um we mailed every property owner within the basin to let them know um about the the letter to industry and about this meeting. Um currently we have about 45 people signed up for the
meeting. Um half uh virtually and half signed up to be there in person. So um uh we'll be updating our website monthly and or when there's critical communications. Um for uh when you go to the Cedar Durham Water Management web page, you can see the uh Goose Creek Outfall icon um right there on our homepage if you want to get updates and there's a QR code right there to take you right to the page.
Um if you'd want to just go right to um the page itself, um there's the QR code to take you directly to the to the um the website for the Goose Creek Improvement Project. and we'll be posting all of our updates there. And then we've also let everybody know that if you would like to be notified whenever we do post um updates at the website that they can use this QR code to be not to sign up for getting notices that the website is updated. So
I see a few people taking pictures. That's pausing. Um, as far as the actual project team, um, before you today is the agenda item to actually award the construction contract to Kimy Horn. Um, you've previously awarded the pro program management um, support for water management to HDR and they have assisted us with selecting the engineers and getting in the contracts ready for submitt to council for approval.
And of course the the Kimley Horn team was selected. We were they have actually started work because Kimley Horn was one of the on call engineering firms that we've had in our on call program. So we um utilized the that process to get them started on this project and they've completed their aerial surveys while we were finalizing the contract. So, they're continuing to do work on the project, awaiting the um hopefully the approval of the contract this evening.
The overall timeline for phase one, as I said, we've already gotten started. um we you know we'll we will be looking I'll be talking shortly about how we're looking to accelerate that but from just the right you know early on the the program uh we would see construction completed in 2029 but we will be looking at how we can expedite that construction and I'll be as I said I'll be talking about that shortly um and then in 2030 we'll expect to have the phase two complete um as as far as the considerations in the project. You know, we are building phase two, especially with phase two, through a highly dense urban corridor. Um, we expect to have uh 50 different properties that we'll have to property owners that we'll be dealing with for easements, whether construction or permanent easements.
Um, there will be some environmental impacts, especially on phase one. That's because we go through a lot of the flood plane with phase one. Um, we have two interstate crossings.
We'll have to deal with all the existing flow that's in the existing line as we build the new line and all the connections that are there. And also since we're building the line all the way to the treatment plant, we'll have to be doing some work at the treatment plant itself to accommodate the much larger line. um some relatively I mean the one two good things about uh the project for phase one is that most of the land north of um I40 excuse me I 85 is owned by the city of Durham. So we won't have to worry about negotiating with the property owner for there. Um and then a lot of a lot the other a lot of the portion of once we cross the interstates is the existing infrastructure is within DOT rightway. So that DOT will be a key stakeholder with us as we meet with that um meet with them to see how we can you know build the new phase one and then once we get across I 885 um we have a handful of property owners that we think we'll have to you know negotiate with
for property owners. So we are looking at for phase one to to to help accelerate the project is potentially having multiple patch um packages for construction. Um the one logical um package be an early out in the design process with the with would be the two bores one under um I 85 and the one under I 888 to get the lines across. So um because those could either be bores or or tunnels.
Usually it's a combination thereof. We can only bore so far and then we hit rock and then it's a tunneling operation to get through. but that we we feel that if we can release those packages early, that could help accelerate the the construction. Um, we're also going to look for early delivery of easements, have those identified early where possible, so we can start the negotiations with the property owners and discussion with them. and then having a lot of presubmitt meetings with you know DOT um DEEQ and other regulatory agencies to
help expedite the review process through this. Um key driver um will be you know making sure that all the early work can proceed and move forward. Um it'll identify uh opportunities for schedule acceleration once we have that preliminary work done or Kimley Horn has that preliminary work done and then uh you know identifying what the critical path is to be able to move the project as forward as fast as possible and then continuing the easement acquisition and the communication um with all the regulatory agencies involved. So um we'll be looking at uh all the different ways we can accelerate this project to the original schedule that I've showed you here.
And we'll be, as I said, we'll be posting updates monthly um and when there's critical information that or critical accomplishments there are to to let everybody know where where we're doing and how we're moving through the project. And with that, I'll open up for questions. >> I I'll just start off by saying thank
you for the presentation. Um I I just want to continue to urge I appreciate we're going to look at, you know, you guys looking at ways to expedite the process. Um I I just want to reiterate that because there's more than just you know people not being able to build here. It's it's impacting so many things.
>> Yes. >> Um so if we're looking at looking for Wow. For the first time in my career I was able to actually make magic happen that level of expediting >> right >> but done right. Of course with quality.
>> Anyone else? >> Go ahead. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor again thanks Mr.
G really for the presentation and I echo the mayor's comments. It's we don't often talk about how do we like expedite stuff. So I really appreciate the thoughtful conversation about how to expedite looking at the critical path visibility and how you can sort of work within that I guess. Um so two questions. One is so of the you mentioned the the 104 projects that have been evaluated. Um is that all there is in the pipeline or is there more there?
>> Um that that was as of the the date we submitted for the agenda. Um I think there's we've been contacted by a few other so that we continue to get um updates and we we're going to be posting that on the website as well. >> But those those 104 that's not the universe of all the there's potentially more projects in the in the in the area. >> That's how that's how many projects with developers have reached out to us at this time.
>> Right. Okay. >> Right. As I said about 57 different developers have reached out with us with 104 projects.
Um, and it's good to know that the 32 are moving forward fully of the 64 projects. " Like does that mean that for the for those 64 that can partially move forward, are they are they all waiting in part until 2029 or what's >> No, the ones partial the the ones that are partially that means they can move forward right now. >> So what's fully moved forward versus partially? What's the difference? um the
the usually mostly the the ones we're able to move forward 100% is they are replacing what's already there right so the flow that's being generated on that property they're either tearing it down or renovating it and the flow that they're replacing that with with the development is the same >> same right >> so they can all move forward >> fully on that >> fully yes so as example for a partial if um a single family home is torn down a large single family home is torn down, but then the the land is large enough to put five units in that maybe, you know, two of those units can be constructed, but not the other three because the other three would have to wait for the construction, but that the the two that can be constructed, the amount of flow that those two units are generating was similar to the existing home that's there now as an example. >> Right. So again, so 64 can they can partially move forward, but there's there may be some they're the ones who are they and the ones who are on hold are the ones that are waiting until
2029. >> Those those seven have to wait until now. When we say wait, that means they can still start their activities, their development activities. It's just when they need to kind of work, we need to work with them on timing.
So when they complete their project, it would be right at the same time we're completing our construction. So they would you know get a CO right when we are finishing construction. And as we you know phase one you know those kind of the west third and the east third of the basin are wholly dependent on phase one for construction to be complete. But you know construction in phase two will start down at the lower end and start to move up and parts of that line will come online. So as segments of construction during phase two, as those segments come online, >> the associated properties that are draining to that section that we have to come online, they would be opened up for connection. >> Gotcha.
>> Um my last question, this is for the mayor and the manager as well. So I was just in Denver a couple weeks ago on a trip. We were looking at part in in homeless services capacity. And so in Denver using a uh emergency declaration order from the mayor, they were able to build like 1,200 units in like nine months.
So do we have any emergency powers in our in our state charter that would allow the mayor to declare an emergency? We move even faster because there's still a lot of there's a lot of approvals that we've got to go through. There's there's acquisition, all that kind of stuff. So is that something that is that a possibility?
>> I wish. Uh, I'm actually gonna let the city attorney answer that and I believe it's a pretty definitive answer. >> Thanks, Mr. Manager. Council member Wrist, um, an emergency within the state of North Carolina under our emergency management act is confined to storms, acts of gods, acts of God, unanticipated incidents like I know, not not acts of gods, um, explosions like we had back in
2019, but it it doesn't rise to the level of ongoing policy priorities. >> Policy priorities. Yes, we cannot use the Emergency Management Act for that purpose. And you know, other than something like a storm, a flood, remember that it also requires either the governor or the general assembly to declare a an emergency in order for the local government to act as well.
You know, beyond kind of something very emergent in in the community. >> Gotcha. Thanks. That said, I will just reiterate as director Greley has made so clear, you know, we we've at the executive level in the organization indicated, you know, that that anything that is even a remote possibility for acceleration is something that we want to be notified of.
If there are things we can do to support it, we will absolutely support it. I appreciate this presentation highlighting. I wanted to make sure I'm not sure uh all of the community fully understood that uh we used existing on
call contracts to start work on this immediately. So even as you see new contracts coming forward, that is not an indicating indicator that work is just now starting. Work has been underway for months. Uh and these are contracts that allow that work to continue.
But uh the the uh directive uh that director Greley and his staff have been uh so uh clearly leaning into is to to find every possible way to accelerate this because we understand projects are waiting and we understand these are projects that council supports and are very consistent with our values. >> For the record, I tried to declare a state of emergency a couple times on a uh on a a curfew and I couldn't even do that. So unless you know you guys want to take up the legislative agenda with the general assembly, we are council member Baker, did you have a comment? >> Um, thank you for coming back um, Director Gley and providing us this update. Um, I think when you came before
us last time and we had these conversations, you know, we talked a little bit about, oh, we caught got caught off guard. The communications um could have been better. But I also want to say that, you know, part of it part of what we talked about was the alternative being could we have caught this earlier, but another alternative is that we wouldn't have caught this at all. And so I do want to say thank you for the work that um you and your team have did to catch this and take decisive action so that we didn't have the worst case scenario, which is everyone kept building and there wasn't any more capacity um or catching this even later.
So I think that that's that's an important thing to to uh raise. Um did we I know we've raised kind of the the possibility or idea of sharing costs potentially with the private sector. Is was there any movement on that or is this going to be is this going to be born uh is this are the costs going to be built into the just the cost of
consuming water? >> Yeah. current currently we have you know embedded that with the capital program within the utility. So um that's where it stands right now.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. So Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't see you. >> Um real quick with the I'm trying to find the slide. Apologies. um with easements and other what what departments are in charge of what when we're doing like easement acquis like is it the water department?
Is it general services? Like which department's handling which piece? >> Uh we're working closely with general services. Um we have um e easement acquisition services embedded in these contracts as well to help with the you
know the overall workload the general services has with all the projects across the whole city. So that that was another way of helping to you know leverage and expedite the process. They still would be reviewing all of those you know the process the you know how the methodology on how the you know whatever funding that would for us to purchase that. So we would still work closely with them but we we do have that embedded with with our with our consultants.
>> Do and in in your on your side you have embedded also project managers within the water department. >> Yes. >> Okay. So because I know in other departments a lot of times it's actually living in general services and so it it starts to get in my opinion a little wonky and in some in some cases I think delaying our completion on things.
I would say that historically that hasn't really affected your I mean I think Miss Lake was one of the fastest things I've seen built. So um I think partly because you're also not in you know you're in your own universe as far as funding goes. Um but if that starts to become an
issue, we need to know so different department, but we wanted to know from community development once we pass the affordable housing bond, was there going to be needed extra capacity in that department to deliver the thing? Because there was no point in doing a bond if we weren't going to be able to deliver projects in in a quick quick timeline and then we lose opportunity. And so I think I'm saying the same thing in this case. If it becomes clear that the department needs extra capacity to finish quickly, then that's something council needs to know.
Um, and I know we're we're at the end of this budget cycle, but this is a multi-year project. Um, because it's the same thing. >> We think we're saving money, but it's not because inflation is inflation, and it ends up ultimately being a lot more expensive because we took too long to finish a project and now the thing is way more expensive than we thought. And if we just thrown some money at the beginning of the thing, right, >> maybe we would have, >> you know, shaved some time and that meant money. So I I just want to say that publicly here that we as a council and I think um you know, it's several
years down so going to be a different council, but >> please provide us updates so that we know um this is a big project. It affects all kinds of things. Um and then also when we're thinking about those crossings, those A85 and 8, you know, if there's issues with NC DOT or anything that we can help with, let us know as well. Thank you.
>> Yeah, certainly. Um you know, that's why we um Lisa Mitchell, who's one of our senior engineering managers, um will be the lead project manager on this, but you know, we identified, you know, because of this project, the Ly Creek project, Lick Creek. That's why we brought HDR in to help us manage that. So, HR will be working closely with Lisa and her team to help make sure that we get these projects delivered when we said we're going to deliver them.
>> Maybe even ahead of schedule. Thank you. >> Yes. >> All right.
Thank you so Thank you so much. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Next up is item number uh 20 presentation.
Are we going to take one now? Actually, you guys want to take a five minute break? >> All right, take a five minute break. We'll come back at uh 2:59. m.
Let me know. control and L key. >> Oh, >> we have those to remind us of the basics. The reason they're there because everybody and so downstairs >> I just want to say like I don't know what's
post. >> My god, my inbox blows up. Like I could just call and force you to hire like I ask for a favor, but I just need a quick to me. >> Oh my god. Congratul
All right, let's get uh let's get started again. >> All right, welcome to >> receive your presentation. Thank you. We have a little bit of an audience here.
Good afternoon, Mayor and and all the folks online. Good afternoon, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, council members, city manager, city leadership, colleagues, and our residents, many of who are virtual. I am Stara Tanner, director of the community partnerships and engagement department, also referred to as CPE. This afternoon, I will provide a requested posttorm recovery update for the old farm and river forest neighborhoods following tropical storm Shantel. Today's update provides an overview of the impact of the storm, the city's response, and current recovery status. I
will also highlight resident experiences, recovery challenges, and barriers, as well as the continued support that's being offered. It is important to note that the community partnerships and engagement department was asked was tasked with engagement and assessment which has included documenting conditions, maintaining contact and coordinating information related to recovery. Our role and resources have not included direct service delivery or funding. As most of us are already aware, in July of this past year, tropical storm Shantel brought historic rainfall, resulting in widespread flooding across Durham and parts of Orange County. The Eno River rose to over 25 ft, exceeding the previous records from Hurricane Fram with the North Durham neighborhoods of Old Farm and River Forest being specifically impacted. Following the storm, the city initiated a coordinated outreach effort to inform
residents about available resources, assess impact, and track recovery conditions over time. This included multiple rounds of door-to-door canvasing and bilingual outreach to connect directly with affected households. CPE staff conducted resident conversations and surveys along with ongoing followup by phone and email to document conditions and needs as they evolved. This work supported coordination across city departments and external partners to route issues, share information, and connect residents to resources, including the joint city county disaster recovery center at the North Regional Library, which served as a resource specifically to connect residents with federal assistance. The next few slides highlight many of these coordinated actions. Our communications, community safety, emergency communications center, along with environmental and street services departments each played a vital role in recovery efforts such as coordinating
messaging to deliver real-time updates to keep residents informed. partnering with public safety agencies to ensure displaced residents were connected to sheltering options and recovery support services, handling emergency calls, and coordinating response efforts, including water rescues and road closures. Our fire department teams conducted over 100 water rescues and led life-saving operations across the region. The general services and parks and recreation departments were also involved in recovery efforts by clearing debris, restoring access to public places, and managing damage to parks and working toward safe openings for those areas. Through our posttorm engagement research, door-to-door canvasing, and surveys, 64 homes were identified as affected. Our community engagement staff
developed a household level tracking approach that grouped homes into four categories. The first being repaired and returned. So the homes livable and the residents the household they returned into their homes. The second category repairs in progress meaning that the homes we identified were actively undergoing repair whether or not the resident had returned to the household.
The third category not returned. We could not identify that the resident is currently living in the home. And then the fourth being unknown, indicating that the recent status had not been confirmed. So, let's talk about Old Farm.
Old Farm, there are 462 homes in that neighborhood with 35 with 35 homes identified as being impacted by the storm. Of those 35, here's how they fell into categories. Five households being returned into their homes in the community, 10 in progress in some point of repair, eight having not been returned, and then 12 households being
falling in that unknown category of not being able to confirm the status. In River Forest, there are 169 homes with 29 of those homes being impacted by the storm. of those impacted homes, putting them into the categories. 14 households were identified as having returned to their homes, four in the progress, some state of repair, one having not returned, and then 10 households within River Forest being unknown.
These figures are based on outreach and resident contact. They do not represent an exact census of all homes in either neighborhood. We also found that many residents completed repairs without receiving any formal assistance and that there have been significant challenges to recovery that I'll cover in the upcoming slides. Recovery is still very active across both neighborhoods as we know. I've personally seen both active repair efforts and boarded up houses while
participating in our engagement efforts through our on the ground efforts. We know that in many cases the experiences of our residents that are renters have also been different than those that are own homeowning residents. Homeowners we found are often responsible for coordinating and financing repairs themselves which can slow progress. While we talked to many renters who've been more likely to experience displacement if the properties were not repaired in a timely manner or at all.
In addition to what we're hearing from residents, we've also identified several consistent issues related to the type and severity of damage as well as ongoing risk. First, many homes experience structural damage, particularly to their foundations, crawl spaces. There's damage to core systems, specifically HVAC, along with interior damage to floors, walls, and appliances. We're also seeing ongoing health and environmental concerns. Residents have raised issues related to mold, indoor air quality, and risk of future flooding.
In addition to the damage itself from the storm, our engagement and residents noted a consistent set of financial and process related barriers that are slowing recovery. On the financial side, residents continue to report their repair costs are exceeding the available resources available to them. Even when households receive insurance or assistance, those funds have not always covered the full scope of their repairs, especially if upfront payments are required for those homeowners or those renters or landlords. At the same time, construction and labor costs have increased since the storm and contractor availability has become limited.
Process barriers are also a major source of delay and frustration. Residents often reported uncertainty about where they were in the process or what the next steps they should take. Depending on the content or the extent of the damage, flood plane and elevation elevation requirements add complexity and cost when triggered. These determinations are case specific, but can require additional engineering,
design, and construction work, extending the timelines for recovery and repair. We received several referrals from council related to these requirements and we appreciate the ongoing consultations with our colleagues and other related departments looking at these issues on a case-byase basis. Residents are also navigating programs across city, county, state, and federal levels which differ with eligibility requirements and documentation requirements. These barriers are not only about access to resources but also the difficulty of navigating and applying for resources which contributes to prolonged recovery time frames as you can imagine.
So in summary, recovery from tropical storm Shantel is in progress. However, it remains incomplete for many of the households or some of the households in old farm and river forests with delays tied to awareness, funding, and processes. The city's response and recovery assistance was launched after the storm,
and it continues to utilize staff and services from multiple departments. So, I'll end on a on a high note of what we're doing in the community and and certainly open to questions. And this is again very very brief overview of some of the work we're doing since the storm occurred in July. Um the community partnerships and engagement department or CP has maintained a regular presence in both old forum and river forest including the recent spring fring spring spring gathering where colleagues from water management and county emergency services joined us to share critical information with residents to assist them with many of the challenges noted in this update and to strengthen long-term community resilience.
As I conclude, I'm pleased to recognize that many of the departments, as I said before, continue to work in these neighborhoods. I'm thankful for a couple of my colleagues that stayed as their departments have also been engaged in this work. I'd also like to recognize community partnership and engagement, the staff here today that have played a
role in this work. Carmen Ortiz, our assistant director for community engagement, James Davis, our assistant director for inclusion and compliance, Laura Beiger, who I think is watching us online, our senior community engagement manager, and especially our community engagement strategists who have been on the ground. I think Maria Padilla, they she's an honorary member of that community. She's been out there so much when I've gone out there with her.
They know her. She's talking to them. She gave them a call as the storm season started and she's been hands-on. Also, Lewis Bean has also Luis Bean has also been one of our strategists, one of our um that's been on the ground since his his promotion to being um a full-time strategist.
Want to congratulate him on that as well. And so, it's been really a team approach within this new department and we're pre pleased to to give you this brief update. So, I'll end by sharing that this engagement work in these two communities is one of many events and activities being coordinated by this new department, community partnerships and engagement. In our first year of existence, we have led or
will lead numerous community and partnership efforts such as, and I'll highlight just a few as I end, the recent Hoover Road Community Cookout, Southern High School's new participatory budget pilot, providing almost $75,000 in community mini grants this fiscal year. We're working around the clock to get those funds out into the community, especially for summer youth programs, new language access and ADA programs, expanded digital access and youth services initiatives, and internal application of policy and budget equity tools. Mr. Mayor, Mr.
Manager, this concludes my presentation of a brief overview of the work that we're doing in just these two communities with the highlights of additional work by our department. Thank you. >> Wow. Well, you guys have got a lot gotten a lot done in a very short amount of time.
Um, thank you for your presentation. I will, uh, make a few remarks after my colleagues. Council member Cook. >> Uh, thank you, Director Tanner, and to your team. Thank you so much. I was one
of the council members that asked for this presentation to be brought forward. Hard to believe that it has been gosh almost 10 months since this storm or over 10 months I think. Yeah. um since this storm still feels so impactful.
And if you are a person that does any consumer protection related work in the community, you've come across these households. So I hear you when you talk about the folks that have done everything right. They have insurance, they own their homes, and they are still being displaced because of this storm and the flooding uh because they can't afford the upfront costs. Their insurance won't cover everything.
whatever the case may be, they're all engaged in these fights to ensure that they can continue living in the homes that they have lived in for a long time, potentially for generations, and that they've spent a lot of good value of time and money to to invest in. So, um, it's really it's very serious, and I just want to thank y'all for all of the work that you've been doing out in that community. Um, I do have a couple of questions. a few of the things that we
talked about that are barriers are um city specific and so I was wondering if you could speak more directly to how we've been alleviating some of that or if we have been and and if we have sort of any uh quicker pathways through some of these things like permitting and inspections when there is a disaster that's occurred um or if we need to be thinking about sort of the next potential disaster and things that we could potentially help to alleviate some of that policy burden. >> Sure. Thank you, council member. The approach that our department is taking and working with the other departments, I'll respond in that way first about how we move forward with the possibility unfortunately of future emergency events. We are strengthening our engagement approach with departments such as transportation planning and development so that we have a regular cadence relationship of working with them proactively and when things happen and then strengthening on the other side in the communities so that we already have the contacts there and that speeds up our ability to be responsive both
proactive like this like the spring event and providing them with information but it also enables us to be ready faster to stay ready so to speak to work with these communities because we have the relationships as the designated engagement tool within the city to work internally and then externally. So that's the approach we're taking there. I will say I I emphasize the case byase approach. We know that there's a threshold once those houses reach more than 50% um of damage of their cost that that that triggers other requirements such as the floors and and the type of work that can be done with those homes.
And so rather than just taking a broad sweep and just telling them that, we really have worked with planning and other departments appropriate departments to look at these situations on a casebyase scenario, taking that time with our community, this particular community to look at those. So that's the other approach that we've taken with some of the city processes so that we can help walk them through a bit now that we're in place and can do that with our other departments. >> Is there a process for y'all making recommendations to those departments based on what you've found, what you've
seen? That is the plan to put in place with that regular cadence things that we see that can assist with engagement efforts. That is the plan with with how we're developing the personnel and our strategy. >> Okay.
>> I think those are my questions. Thank you again. >> Thanks Mr. Thanks Director Tanner.
Um very timely report and appreciate all the sort of updates on what we've been doing and thanks for council Cook and others for making sure we have this presentation. It's actually it's interesting such a timely topic. I was actually I was out of town last week as was council copac I was at a conference of urbanists the congress for new urbanism you were at a conference for like adaptation right yeah climb resilience so like it seems and so we were talking about a new climate action handbook that the CNU's come out with for urbanists about like all the things we can do in terms of practice and theory around making our communities more resilient adaptable and mitigating stuff and so I guess my um my question is and this may be as much for you as it is for the manager like you mentioned that response that the city response was launched in response to the storm,
right? And so we've talked a lot about climate resilience here in the city, what our plans are, what we need to improve. So I guess my question is like in addition to that response, which is al which is part of what we need to do, right, with the storm happens, what else would we ideally have in place not even not only in response but sort of ready to go when something like this happens? So can you talk about that and what else we should do or can do to make sure we're even better prepared because these storms as we know will continue to happen.
Um so what is our what do we need to have in place not only again in response but also they are ready to go. >> Thank you council member Riss. So it's complicated question with uh you know with a number of facets to the answer. I mean, I think first and foremost, you know, I believe that this remains and will always need to be a a key focus of our joint city county uh emergency management department whose broad and very challenging uh mandate is to make sure that our community uh is as
prepared as we possibly can be uh for disasters and recovers as quickly as possible from disasters. And so when we talk about spec identifying specific threats and being prepared for those threats, I do think they they bear uh a large uh a heavy burden a lot on their shoulders for helping us and you know know that uh through DCM Chadwell and his coordination there but really with their constant interaction with all of us. I'm actually getting emails from them right now on our uh quarterly updates and and planning sessions. Um, that is a place. That said, I think obviously kind of to what you and uh uh maybe council member Kopac were were listening to last week, obviously this creeps more and more into day-to-day business. And so obviously as we talk about storm water, as we talk about planning and land use, as we talk about um you know heat islands and parks and recreation and how our uh recreation facilities can be used as cooling centers, you know, it it really becomes
sort of a pervasive set of preparation and values that that that we continue to observe and adapt. You know, I think city staff have been leaders in this space, always bringing ideas forward to us, but we certainly know that there are, you know, a number of really active uh community groups in Durham. You know, obviously the environmental affairs board, I know, you know, does a lot of work on this. We are in conversations with our regional partners.
Uh Central Pines is doing work on resiliency. And so it it is a all of the above assignment. um and one that I think you know I continue to look to the council for your leadership as well as to the staff for their uh ongoing leadership um in that area. >> Yeah, I appreciate obviously it's a big priority and it's some and growing one for our city.
So appreciate those thoughts and look forward to working with you and the staff on that going forward. >> I do if I can while I have the mic just want to uh send my thanks to uh Director Tanner and her staff. Uh this was uh an assignment that this department received without a roadmap. Uh as as you know, we
have challenged this department uh in ways this year to really lean into uh the city's biggest priorities and to help us understand how uh we can bridge the resources of the city uh with you know real world problems and challenges that our communities are facing. And this is, you know, really to me one of the clearest examples of how we could do that. A, as this presentation showed, this department doesn't control a lot of the resources that they're trying to help make accessible to residents, but just did a fabulous job of really becoming the onbudsman for the city. Uh, and I just want to commend uh uh Stara's work.
Uh, and it this really began even before we uh hired Stara. So DCM Wimbush really worked with the the department to make sure that we had uh a real presence on the ground in the neighborhood and uh and that was without really a playbook to go by. So I'm I'm really pleased with the amount of credibility uh that this group has earned out in the
neighborhood. Obviously there's more for us to learn and do and I welcome kind of all all feedback about how the city has been doing. Um, but I just want to commend this team for how uh seriously they took this mission and and how uh how much work they've done to really try and bring resources to and clarity to the process to to this neighborhood. So, thank you, Director Tanner.
>> Yeah. And just to add my my thanks to the work of you and your team and in conversation with community residents, you know, the feedback that I've heard is that having Miss Padilla and team accessible really did make it easier in a tough situation to navigate what can be difficult sometimes all the diverse uh departments and services that the city wants to provide. Uh and so I appreciate the work of you and your team in this response and look forward to continued efforts. Council member Baker, do you have a comment? I >> really just want to say thank you um to
you and and all the folks that your team um I think all of this is part of a a city that is an empathetic city um and trying to move make sure that we are a city that is empathetic um and caring for people in their most difficult moments. um as well as people who are the most vulnerable. Uh and you know in in times of changing climate um that is you know that it's going to be something that we might see more of these um moving forward and so having a protocol in place you know there's no roadmap and so forming a road map roadmap while also building in resiliency into the day-to-day I think is all going to be very important. So thank you again for for uh your work and your team's work.
Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you so much, uh, Director Tanner. Yeah, I I've seen the impact of you all's work, um, just in general. But specifically to this, uh, I
remember the night, uh, that this happened, the next morning, I went out there and I just saw our city staff just hard at work. And I saw some things I'd never seen. I didn't know we had this water rescue division and they were putting pulling these uh they were putting these boats together and and just going out into the neighborhood. It was American Red Cross and our fire department >> and they were working so efficiently and I I also saw community members helping one another.
Uh but I also had never seen Durham that way and I know that it was traumatic uh to the residents who who had experienced it back in the late 90s. Um, and you know, as as a kid from Halifax County where we had a flood, we lost everything as well. >> Um, it it can be really traumatic and I know that the families are going to live with us for a long time. But the way we counter that, not only through policy, but also with, you know, just a city government that's compassionate and that's caring and that's the work that you all are doing. And I just I appreciate that personally and
professionally. And uh I do believe that it's going to be on us to address all of the public policy uh uh efforts that are needed here. One thing I'm going to really focus on is the the the vertical coordination with our state and federal leaders. That was a nightmare.
uh and with the federal administration that I mean FEMA is I don't know it's being dismantled or whatever and folks were trying to see how they can get support but they were having to go to they were having to go to the small business administration and it was really confusing because folks were saying I don't have a small business but I'm being told to go to the small business administration to get support uh for federal relief. We didn't have the the funding here locally, but back in the day, FEMA um directed that money to the local governments to respond because we knew what was happening on the ground. But administrations change, practices change. Um but I appreciate the engagement you all are doing because it's providing clarity on recovery. And
um I I just got back in town. I was out of town this weekend and I passed through Canton, North Carolina and I drove uh their community did a documentary uh for the town and there were thousands of people out there watching it together. Uh, and I went to uh just spent a little time with the mayor, Zeb, and people were in tears. But it was just seeing their paper factory, which was the main employer, just totally decipated, gone, and they're getting rid of it, and they had to find out what's going on, what's going to go on next, and then thinking about Chapel Hill, uh, and how they just lost everything over there in our northern, uh, point of the county and city.
Uh, these storms are coming much more aggressive and much more frequently. So, uh, to my colleagues, we we have work to do, uh, in in conjunction with our county colleagues, and hopefully we can get the state involved and the federal federal government involved as well. Uh, we're going to have to look at things a little differently. Um, and I know it's going to be costly. Um, but, you know, lives are at stake and this is something we'll
have to take on. So, we have work uh ahead of us to do, but thank you all for the work that you all are doing here now and and just being compassionate with our residents. >> Thank you so much. I also want to thank our our deputy city manager too, deputy can deputy city manager Wimbush who who leads us and supports us as well as the city manager and charges us with this great engagement work that we are all so very passionate about.
So, thank you again. >> And colleagues, there's a a summit at Duke this week. Um the mayor of Chapel Hill, Jess Anderson, and myself will be speaking. I will have to leave work session a little early on Thursday to speak uh at this conference with Salah.
Uh we'll be talking about this very thing uh public policy and environmental sustainability and resilience. And I'll be talking about the work that we're doing here in Durham and the work that is to come. So um keep an eye on that. It's a two and a half day summit uh hosted at Duke with Salah which is a organization that brings together leaders and nonprofits across the
country to uh talk about this type of work. Go ahead, April 2. >> Thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to staff.
I know that y'all have been uh diligently out there and um I just wanted to also acknowledge that when manager Ferguson moved everybody into one department, I know there was a little bit of heartache for certain staff because y'all had been in other departments and used to being in that department, but I thought that this was one of uh the best decisions to bring everything that the city does in house to have consistent city workers uh instead of hired out consultants uh building those relationships, building that trust and so that way folks know that they can rely on us and it's not, you know a rotating door of actors. Uh not that those folks don't do work good work. Um but I just think it's it's better policy and a better uh relationship building mechanism and uh I know that our PB staff are excellent and they work really really hard. Um and I know that I I have seen Maria Padia in action and I know that she has a lot of trust out in the community. So just wanted to say thank you.
>> Yeah, this is one of the most efficient moves ever. Thank you. I I don't It was so fragmented. The work was somewhat demand done but it was so fragmented.
This is having everything together so much more digestible. >> Thank you. >> All right colleagues. >> All right.
So we are at the end of the agenda at 3:30. Uh but you are not gone for the rest of the day. So we'll be back in a couple of hours. Another matter.
Council member Cook. >> Okay. Okay, I know everyone wants to leave. Um, I am just going to bring this up one more time.
Um, because it's now just a few months out and I know that we have our July recess and so I want to bring it up before we come back and things are more scattered. Um, the meeting on September 21st overlaps with Yam Kapor. I've let both the manager and the mayor know about this. Um, I would request that we move that meeting in advance. This would be like holding it would be essentially like holding it on
Christmas for folks that celebrate that holiday. uh this is our most important holiday of the year. So it is my request that we move that meeting on September 21st. So I'm going to make that official ask of my colleagues.
>> Thank you. >> It's a meeting. >> It's a meeting on Monday night. >> Monday night come >> Monday night, September 21st.
>> Okay. >> So Yamapor technically ends at sundown. We don't eat until the third star comes out. So I will absolutely not be present and nobody Jewish would be able to be present.
Thank you. Uh I I don't think it would be efficient for us to handle that right now. Um but we can have staff work with our with our administration, our administrators to uh work on a date. Uh but we'll just do like we did today.
We'll just make an alternate time. But I um yeah, colleagues, I think everybody should be on board with that. All right. Good.
All right. Mayor Grace, we're good. All right. All right. Uh colleagues,
we're journal. >> No, we're not. You have to settle the agenda. >> Mayor Pro have asked in the beginning.
Do we do I need a motion right now? No. At the end. All right.
>> Uh thank you, mayor, mayor prom, members of council to settle the agenda this evening. I have items 1 and 3 through 19 on consent, item two on GBA, and items 21 through 23 on GBA public hearing. Uh that is the agenda and I do want to mention that uh staff did capture uh everything in work session today. We'll be publishing an updated version of tonight's agenda.
Uh and we'll have a priority memo this evening that that highlights any changes for you this evening. Those are by settled agenda. Mayor, >> thank you. I'll entertain a motion to settle the agenda.
>> It's been moved and properly seconded. All in favor? >> I thank you. Colleagues, we are adjourned at 3:32. Y see you tonight. >> See you guys shortly.