Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · February 2, 2026

Good morning everyone. I am just admitting people into the meeting. So just bear with me. Give me one moment.

We are live on YouTube. All right, Dr. Lee, if you would like me to go ahead and get started, I can do so. Uh, good morning everyone.

I'd like to welcome you to our virtual February 2nd, 2026 work session meeting. I will go ahead and call ro um of the board of county commissioners. Uh we do have um chair Dr. Mike Lee. >> I'm present.

>> Uh commissioner Michelle Burton >> present. >> Commissioner Wendy Wendy Jacobs >> here. >> And Commissioner Steven Stephen Valentine >> present. We also have present um our county attorney, Lissa Williamson, and our county manager, Claudia Hager.

>> Morning. >> All right. And uh we are still waiting for Vice Chair Neta Alam to join. Once she joins, I'll go ahead and admit her into the meeting.

Dr. Lee, I will like to add that as of now, we do have four of our speakers on the line. And whenever you're ready, I can um either call their names or I can I can let you do so. >> Okay.

Um I'm going to go ahead. I'm I'm going to still do the public charge and the land acknowledgement and then we'll move right into the uh citizens comments. Okay. And so the board of commissioners um well first of all I

want to welcome everyone to our virtual meeting. um we we felt it was necessarily necessary to continue to meet even though though we had this storm. Uh so we appreciate you joining us and look forward to uh the information that's presented in this meeting. The board of commissioners ask it members and residents to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both uh with the board and fellow residents.

At any time should any member of the board or resident fail to observe this public charge, the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control. Should the quorum fail to be restored, the chair will recess the meeting until such time the genu that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed. I'll now read the land acknowledgement since we're virtual. I'll just do both. As we convene for the Durham County Commissioners meeting, it is crucial to recognize the painful truth of history.

We stand on stolen on the stolen ancestral lands of the Kataba, Eno, and Okanichi uh and Shakori and uh Tuscora peoples who deep whose deep connection to this land predates our arrival. We acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred leading to the dispossession dispossession of indigenous people pe people from their homelands. Their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit. May we humbly honor our an ancestors and elders of these nations, both past and present, by committing ourselves to fostering understanding, healing, and justice for all who inhabit this land. Let us walk forward together with open hearts, acknowledging the past and embracing a future guided by compassion, respect, and unity. The first item on our agenda today is

citizens comments. We have four um comments uh four speakers as uh Clerk Wallace previously mentioned I uh and I'll have Clerk Wallace announce those. You will have three minutes to speak. Um at that point you will be put back on mute.

>> Good morning. We are going to start with Miss Pamela Andrews and um I have asked that you unmute yourself. I will start the timer at three minutes and it should make a noise when that three minutes is up. >> Can you hear me now, Monica?

>> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Good morning, Mike Lee, County Commissioners, Miss Hager, and staff. I want to make a few quick statements this morning concerning annexations in the county. Three more parcels totaling 188 acres are up for annexation request at the planning commission on February the 10th. One parcel is outside the urban

growth boundary 4802 cheek road. Another parcel is in the future growth area on patter called Patterson Hall and one parcel is on Burton Road which has had multiple new developments recently. Again, 4802 Cheek Road, which is a 69 acre lot, is outside the urban growth boundary, which violates policy. Land adjacent to this parcel is noted as future growth area due to fire service needs and upgrade to the sewer capacity at the Fletcher's Chapel Pump Station.

Policy 122 of the comprehensive plan states that future growth areas are where infrastructure and service upgrades were needed. These are a areas require public infrastructure and services before the parcel is annexed into the city. This is the case for Patterson Hall located on Patterson Road near Stylings Road. Patterson Road and Stylings Road both are in need of new sewer services as well as all of Southeast Durham including Fletcher Chapel, Stylings, and Patterson was indicated as needing fire services.

There are 68 subdivisions under construction or built out in the last four years in Southeast Durham alone. At what point are we putting citizens lives in jeopardy by annexing more areas of land in an area noted for specifically needing fire services? A future growth area on Kemp Road was annexed in 2023 in a controversial vote. A new fire station was promised, yet nothing.

Another 7,614 new residential units have been approved since then. We cannot continue to annex in an area that is noted in the comprehensive plan as needing fire services. We also know EMS's ability to handle all these new cases has not been thoroughly analyzed as policy 119 required, which stated we were to ensure new development within the urban growth boundary are within the established level of service for emergency services, including fire, EMS, police, and community safety. We need your

leadership. Southeast Durham's population is already will exceed 52,000 people with an additional 160,495 vehicle trips per day and growing every day. We need emergency infrastructure in place before any more dwellings are passed. Please note that the fire stations 8 and 17 which are city are are being really strained.

Those officers uh firemen tell me frequently how strained they are. Um, plus we lost the ladder truck. Ladder 17 was moved to another location which is needed. So, thank you for your time.

I appreciate it. Next up, we have Miss Wanda Allen. And you have been asked to unmute yourself as well. >> Good morning, everyone. Uh yes, this is Wanda Allen and thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um I trust that

you were able to see the slide that was sent in to you. Um please focus on that slide. Uh this single slide summarizes four separate development parcels in Southeast Durham. Together they exceed over 200 acres two 206 acres which are all within close proximity very close together.

These are not isolated cases. All four parcels share the same unresolved deficiency which is clearly marked on the ta on the table. One project already has been approved by the city council and three more are scheduled for vote on February 10. The 4802 Cheek Road is outside the urban growth boundary. As clearly marked on the chart, fire EMS

and public safety. None of these projects include adequate fire and EMS capabilities analysis. Some of these areas have previously been identified as unstable for development due to emergency services limitations. For an example, Patterson Road, also Burton Road.

Despite this development continues shifting risk to the county emergency response and residents, the environmental impact. All four parcels, all four parcels include environmental limitations including streams, flood planes, wetlands, steep slopes, and emerging soil or soil that just flows directly like triacic basin soil. minimum compliance is being used where

great protection is warranted creating creating long term risk for water in our whales. One area that I am particularly concerned about is these parcels are all surrounded by AC agriculture operations. They're working today farms. They include um voluntary agriculture and present use farms.

Continued development is creating conflict with far farm equipment, tractors and harvest operations. Farmers have raised the health and safety concern about moving equipment and getting hay and crops in and out of these congested rural areas. We as farmers spoke to the city council on stage broke and they basically did not consider it as a problem. Over the last two years, Southeast Durham has added more than 52,000

residents. We need for you guys to be involved in this decision. Thank you. All right.

Next up, we have Miss Cheek Hamilton. And you have been asked to unmute. >> Good morning. Can you hear me?

Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. You can go ahead and start. >> Thank you.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I wanted to let you know that I am a neighbor of 4802 Cheek Road about a half a mile through the field. And I wanted to let you know that I have uh helped uh get some coordination going for a community meeting so our community members could come together and express their concerns about 482 being developed. On the last one, we had 43

participants and no one, all of them were against this project. We don't see benefits to our community. We see that it is taking in land and we think that it is not something that is coming to us, but it's benefiting the city of Durham. It does not fit into our rule setting.

We were told by the developer that a geotechnical report came back and that blasting was possible. This will affect our wells and septic tanks. One of the community members had blasting near his comb and it caused his septic to collapse. No one has fixed it or offered to compensate him. We're also concerned about traffic. Uh this project will increase traffic for uh Cheek Road, Patterson Road, uh Fletcher's Chapel Road, Stalin roads that all feed into

Highway 98. And according to the developer, this particular project and some of the others do not meet the threshold for any sort of traffic studies, but they're being approved individually. We're asking you to be our voice, to speak up for us so that we can have an opportunity to have these studies done, to see what's going on, to provide for the EMS and the fire. Um, we there's a Catholic school in Patterson Hall going on south of me.

There's Cheek Road going on north of me and and west of me. We just had Sage Brook approved. We would like you to look at what has already been approved and to try and think of it as what is it doing to our community. I appreciate your time and uh thank you for letting me speak.

>> And lastly, we have Miss Donna Standback. Uh, Miss Stainback, before you speak, can you confirm if your husband will be speaking with you as well? >> Yes, he he will. But he's right here using the same connection.

>> Okay, perfect. We'll go ahead and get started with your three minutes and then once that's up, we'll start with him if he can just state his name as well. Thank you. >> Thank you.

Good morning, county commissioners and county manager. My name is Donna Stainback. Um I'm concerned I was going to give a little bit more detail about this project being outside the urban growth boundary. It does not meet or show any benefit to the community which is one of the requirements for that and the policies 167 168 and 118 were ruled not consistent by the planning staff and it wasn't represented on the uh draft 2025

evaluation and assessment review as one of the possible annexations. There were other uh annexations to the UGB that were mentioned, but this was not. So, it it it does not appear to be recommended. Um the uh uh the area is not prepared for such a change to the county and city boundaries.

regarding the infrastructure and safety and this um this proposal represents urban sprawl rather than orderly growth. Next, I'd like to speak to the um non-ontiguous part of the project. 1 and even by Durham's uh definition which

uh says that sometimes referred to as a satellite uh required for annexation of a property that does not abut the city's primary corporate limits. property. This is a key point that abut satellite areas annexed into the city of Durham are not themselves contiguous. They are also deemed non-ontiguous annexations by state statutes.

That is the definition. But unfortunately in the um comprehensive plan consistency report they stated it was contiguous by it being up against the Fletcher Mill property. But that's not uh correct according to the state law and even the city of Durham's definition. This annexation would increase the hope for you know a satellite. This site is

not even um adjacent to uh Fletcher's meal. There will not be any cars that can go through it. It you know and uh it's only uh adjacent by like 400 ft 125th of the boundary of this product project. Thank you.

All right, Miss There we go. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and get started. Your three minutes has started, Mr.

Standback. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate the opportunity to speak to all of y'all today. Uh my name is Carrie Stainback and I live on Jimmy Rogers Road.

I am uh within about a mile of this project that is proposed. I am a retired agriculture teacher and environmental studies teacher. My concern of course with this, this is a rural and agricultural neighborhood. It has always been. That

is what it's based on. My property is actually in the voluntary agricultural district because I know the the advantages and and uh the need to keep this land in agricultural use. This project does not fit this community. This community, as I said, has over 28 of the present use value farms, nine voluntary agricultural districts, and is also, this project is in an area that is going to highly impact the flood plains, the wetlands, and this has over six designated streams already that feed directly into Lick Creek and then into Falls Lake. We're already having massive problems with pollution, sedimentation, and all running into that. And of course, open development like this where they just strip everything down and then of course they do not contain all the sediment going is going to have massive effects on the environmental part of

this community. This is not a development that is going to add to this community. This community does not need more housing. As they previously spoken to, this community is already saturated with tons of new development and a lot of it not even yet in use.

Empty buildings sitting there with nobody in them yet. They want to add more to this which is going to bring more problems to our environment, to our traffic. Cheek Road is a major artery coming in from Granville County for those going into Research Triangle Park. Burton Road is also a major artery coming in.

We're already seeing the problems with traffic developing in this area and there has been nothing to do with the infrastructure. There is nothing in here within a 15minute walk to get to anything like stores, shops, businesses. There are absolutely no

sidewalks in the area. There have been no widening to the roads. There's been no improvement in this. 8 miles of the transit zone.

Not near any businesses or schools within 5 miles of here. Uh the nearest grocery store is almost 5 miles away. So it's nothing that is is accessible unless you get in a car and drive to it. that adds that many more trips to the road every day in an already congested community.

Thank you very much. Dr. Lee, that concludes those that were signed up to speak um for this morning's citizen comments. I would like to just acknowledge that we have um vice chair net alum has joined and if I can get a quick attendance from her >> present

>> okay uh thank you all for speaking I appreciate that um um your your concerns have been heard and we will uh see how we address that. We have two of our commissioners who are would like to speak. Wendy, Commissioner Wendy Jacobs had her hand up first and then Commissioner Burton had her hand up second. So, I'll go with uh Commissioner Wendy Jacobs first and then uh Commissioner Burton, I'll allow you to speak after that.

>> Thank you, Chair Lee. Um I just had a follow-up question for staff. Um, number one, if you could confirm with uh the planning department that um 4802 Cheek Road will be coming before us for uh presentation and also input. Uh if that project is located outside of the urban growth boundary, it is supposed to come before our board for um official input.

And the second thing is could could you also um madame manager make sure that um the EMS service capacity is part of the staff reports for all of those projects um because we've seen a problem with that not being included in the assessment of um access to services and um that is a county provided service and I want to make that that is included in any of the staff reports. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll we will follow up on both of those items.

>> U Commissioner Burton. >> Thank you, Chair Lee. Actually, I had the same question that Commissioner Wendy Jacobs had. wanted to know because I live in this part that part of the county that the speakers were um talking about is this development all of it inside the urban growth p

growth boundary or is it that 482 cheek road that one specific part and then also wondering about um how are we as a county planning for EMS? So, Commissioner Wendy Jacobs already addressed it. >> Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. and staff will has taken note. The next item on our agenda. Oh.

Oh. Um I'm sorry, Commissioner Al Long. >> Sorry, Chair Dr. Lee to just um add on to the last request of Commissioner Burton. wondering also, I know um I've requested this a couple times, but wondering if the planning staff have gotten like that data together about our population growth mapped to, you know, our investment in EMS, fire, school seats, like all of the public services and goods that we as a county and city provide. um to see at what rate are we growing and at what rate are our services keeping up with that growth.

We will follow up with um the planning staff on that information. I do know they've uh do capture that. So we will plan for a conversation with them in a work session so that we can have that conversation with the board. Okay, thank you.

Uh, any other comments or discussion from commissioners? Okay, hearing none. Our next item on our agenda is a little bit different. This is a work session.

However, um, as you all know, our meeting, our regular meeting for last week was cancelled um due to ICE. um uh due to an ice storm. Okay. And so those items that were on the consent agenda, well, some of the items that were on the consent agenda for last for our regular work session have been moved to our our regular meeting has been moved to our

work session today. Since this is a work session, we generally don't take action. However, what the staff has asked is that we suspend our rules and approve the consent agenda from our work session uh I'm sorry, our regular meeting on January 26th so that those items can go ahead and move forward. We do have another section after this which is our consent agenda items for our work session today.

So, first I'll accept a motion to suspend the rules. So moved. Second. >> It's been moved and properly seconded that we suspend the rules.

I will do uh Clerk Wallace, do you do a roll call for >> Yes, sir. I can do a roll call. >> Okay. It's been moved and properly second that we suspend the rules.

Clerk Wallace. >> All right. We have uh Vice Chair Alam. >> Hi.

>> Commissioner Burton. >> I. >> Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. >> I. >> Chair Dr. Lee.

>> I. >> Commissioner Stephen Valentine. I >> Okay, the motion passes unanimously. The second part of this motion would be a motion to approve the consent agenda from January 26 20 uh January 26, 2026 regular session.

>> So moved. >> Second. >> Our motion has been properly moved and seconded. Clerk Wallace.

>> Right. We have Vice Chair Long. >> I. Commissioner Burton.

>> I. >> Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. I chair Dr. Lee.

>> I >> and Commissioner Stephen Valentine. >> I >> Okay, the consent agenda the consent agenda passes unanimously. Um and that concludes the suspension of the rules. Um Commissioner Wendy Jacobs.

>> Thank you. Um um Dr. Mike Lee, Chair Lee, um >> you don't have to add all of that. Anyway, um I I just wanted to u note two

very exciting items on the agenda that we just passed. One is the contract with DFI and the county. Um and also really our partnership with Durham Public Schools looking at the Lowe's property. I think this is very exciting um with um so I just want to note that um and I want to thank our county staff for for um taking the lead on this but really important work around um the use of public land for public benefits.

And the second is the um pilot the contract for the pilot for our day center that just how significant again this is made possible by our staff. Um really very detailed scope of work and I hope will lay the foundation for future investments. Um, I know we're going to hear more about our homeless strategic plan, but this was identified um as an

important need in our community through the housing task force um pre-shelter subcommittee, which I served on as as a great need in our community. So, just want to acknowledge this exciting moment. Thank you everyone for making it possible. Okay, thank you.

Are there any other comments from commissioners? Okay, our next item on our agenda is the consent agenda for this work session. Um, uh, Manager Hagar. >> All right.

Good morning, commissioners. I trust you are well. and I will u read the consent items and if you have questions um please um raise your hand and I will um follow up that time. The first item is 26022. 5 million of

debt service fund fund balance to the pay go fund to support the construction of a new radio tower and the purchase of mobile radios in the multi-depart radios and tower capital project. Right. The next item is 26025. This is an approval of capital project amendment 15 and the budget ordinance amendment 47 reducing the open space and farmland preservation capital project by $104,600 transferring that same amount to the general fund to support the purchase of Ken Wolf's farm conservation easement. The next one is 26029. This is an approval of budget ordinance

37 of general fund fund balance to pay for OEES fleet facility rent. Okay, the next one is 2600035. 6 $6 million of limited obligation bond funding to support the EMS station 19 colllocation capital project as well as approve the proposed interlocal agreement and joint use agreement with the city of Durham for the new station 19 co-located public safety facility located at 31 Davis Five.

Okay. The next one is 2640. 94 for automotive vehicle lifts and supporting equipment for the new office of emergency services fleet maintenance facility. The next one is 2600041. This is an approval of capital project amendment 17 and budget ordinance amendment 51 reducing the open space and farmland preservation capital project by $510,000 and transferring the funding to a general fund to support triangle land conservation's purchase and protection of 77 acres and conveyance of 15 acres

to Durham County. The next one is approval of budget ordinance amendment 53 recognizing the receipt of $571,000 from the Army National Guard as a pass through funding for the triangle land acquisition and protection of 50 acres at 517 Dun Woody Road. The next one is 260043. This is to approve Durham County matching grants program recipients for fisc year 2526 grant cycle in the amount of $100,000.

And I see a hand. Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. Yes, thank you. Um really great to see

uh as always the the projects that have applied and been approved. And I just wanted to note um I really jumped out how most of them are actually providing way beyond a 50% match. Um I think my question was can we get from um I guess staff or dust the um a list of you know what who were all the applicants that applied and what was the amount. We usually get that um because my concern is I would I want to make sure that we are meeting the need. Um, we have periodically increased the funding for this program over time and I will I would also be interested in when was the last time we increase the amount. Um, I just want to make sure that we're meeting the need in

the community. um this program really gives a bang for our buck and you can also see that the geographic distribution. Um so um you know as we approach this budget season I just want to make sure that we are um keeping in line with the with what the need is in the community. So th just those were my requests for some follow-up information.

Thank you. >> Great. and we will um follow up with those specific areas. And I know Brendan is on the call, but um we I know he's may note so that we'll get that to you soon. The next one is 260047. This is an approval of budget ordinance amendment number 54 for a transfer of $167,418

from the general government functional area to the economic and physical development functional area for a midyear FTE reallocation. The next one um which is our last consent item is 260050. This is an approval of fiscal year quarter 3 Durham annual transit work plan uh work program amendment in the amount of $200,758. And this concludes our consent agenda items.

>> Uh Commissioner Burton. >> Yes. Um thank you Manager Hager. I just want to say um I'm really I'm glad that Durham County is making an effort with these conservation easements. Um it was really good to see that you know that's a focus of ours

especially after hearing from the residents um south from southeastern Durham County um about all the um development that's going on and that we're trying to make an effort to conserve real life in our county, real land in our county. So, I just wanted to make that comment. Thank you. >> Okay.

Thank you. Are there any other comments from commissioners? Okay. Commissioner Stephen Valentine.

>> Yes. Thank you, chair. I actually had some comments previously, but could not find that feature um to raise my hand, but I just wanted to to see if it was appropriate to outline the matching grant recipients. I know we had sort of passed that already, but is that would that be appropriate?

I think that'd be good information for absolutely to know. >> And Brandon is on the line and can go into that more in more detail. Let's see. I can fill up my information as well.

Now, um, Monica, will Brendan be able to do we have to do a step for him to >> I'm trying to locate his name, manager. >> Okay, sure. Let me see >> because I don't see you said Brendan. >> Yes.

And I thought I saw him >> more. Yes. >> No, ma'am. I think he has left the meeting.

He probably logged off afterward because we had passed the item. So, >> okay. No problem. >> He's in the waiting room right now.

>> Okay. Here we go. Here we go. >> Okay.

All right. Great. >> Give me one second and I will um There we go. He has been acting.

There we go. Brendan, you can speak. I believe you're unmuted. >> I had been I had dropped off.

Could you repeat the question, please? >> Yes. Yes, Brendan. Um, Commissioner Stephen Valentine desires just to hear a um highlevel overview on the recipients uh

of the open space um grants. If you could just share some highlights. Um, for this year's cycle, I I will say we had um which was not funded because it did not meet the program guidelines for its ability to be open to the public. Um, we had five projects recommended for funding.

Uh, one was a firsttime applicant. It was his Stagville applied for a grant this year. uh as part of a larger renovation, they're going to be using the funding to do some trail build some natural trails, surface trails through the the property. Um one second I had closed out my form, unfortunately. Um we had Unique Places to Save which owns a property on Massie Chapel Road adjacent to the um American Tobacco Trail where they're going to be developing a new uh park access as well

as having some natural surface trails and having a bike repair station which I think is a really neat facility they're going to add right there next to the tobacco trail. Um we had uh El Futuro is going to have their phase three of their playground and open space next to their property. Um which is going to include a musical playground. They want to be putting in a lot of uh a large sort of play space with lots of different music instruments that that are are designed to withstand the elements outside. Um then we had uh urban community agronomics as a grant to help with their construction of their welcome center which is going to include a an area for for a toddler play place as well as some other uh information to kind of outline the work they've been doing up there at their Kataba Trail Farm uh which is an amazing facility if you have not had a chance to be there. And then the final

one this year is Central Park School for Children. Uh is going to be they have recently acquired the old Trosa building on the opposite side of um the old North Durham Park and they have it's now their middle school building. So they're going to be renovating the hillside behind that building into a play space as well. Uh and it's going to incorporate parts of the city park as well there.

Um and those are the five grants. We did have a a total request this year of $212,000 in funding. Um we were able to um the committee worked to try to make sure that we were able to at least partially fund uh the the grants as well. Stagville as a first-time applicant, they were awarded the full amount for their grant.

Uh the rest of them all received about right about 40% of what they had asked for this year uh to get us down to that $100,000 figure. Um, but we uh this would be the second year in a row we've had over $100,000 in requests. It varies from year to year depending on

who applies, but in recent years we have been receiving uh larger requests than we have in the past. >> Uh thank you Mr. Moore for for that summary. And I want to acknowledge that in fact that information is available in in our packet of information.

Um but in situations where it's not uh uh apparent to me that uh everyone who's viewing would have access to that information um you know hears from us about where that money or how that money is being spent. So thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Okay.

Any other comments from the commissioners or questions? Alrighty, moving along here. Um, so our next item on our agenda are discussion items. We have about 125 minutes allocated for this. For those

who are presenting, please u note your time. I will note your time as well. We want to try to stay as close as we can to that time. Okay?

We just want to be able to do that. So the first item on our agenda for discussion items is update presentation on the 911 consolidation and heart expansion feasibility study. We have 45 minutes aotted for that. Uh manager Hager did you want to start out with that and then pass it along or >> Sure. I will um actually pass it off to staff. We have um had conversations about um this consolidation and feasibility study um with the board um a couple of times and um we have moved along in process and uh grateful for the efforts by the consultant who is helping to guide this work and the engineering

team who are also co-f facilitators as well as other partners that are throughout the county and city of Durham um staff. So, I will transition to um Perry and others to um kick us off. Um we have the project manager Dan Ashbush and um environmental engineering services also Perry Manes and also Sheriff Bush vice president with ADCO MM um engineering. >> Thank you manager Hager.

So good morning commissioners. Um, in response to your request at our November uh 2025 regular session approval of the contract with AdCom Engineering for the uh Durham 911 consolidation and heart expansion study. we felt it appropriate to get before you to um give you an update on

the uh the status of things and sort of a process overview uh and also give you an opportunity to have dialogue with our consultant um regarding this study. And so, um, again, as the manager mentioned, this effort is being, uh, facilitated by Dan Nosbush, and of course, uh, second, I'm backing him up on this as long with a with a long list of other stakeholders that you'll see throughout the presentation. So, um, I'll turn it over to Sherry, and Sherry, if you have others on your team, you're certainly welcome to introduce them. So, thank you.

>> Uh, good morning. Thank you, Perry. Uh, good morning, county commissioners. um county manager and staff. Um it's just me from adcom this morning and we have prepared a presentation which I believe is in your your packet uh that hopefully answers your questions but I'm here to answer and have any other discussion that you might have. Um if we could advance the slide.

So, our agenda really quick is what is the purpose and context, an overview, uh the update, key focus areas that we know are your priorities, an explanation of the timeline and next steps, and then we'll open up for questions and discussion. Advance the slide, please. So, while we're here, we want to provide a status update on this study and the consolidation study. While we call it that as a lump statement, it does include the expansion of heart as a parallel effort.

We're going to summarize the work that we've completed to date, pro provide some preview of the upcoming activities, answer your questions that were raised during your um contract approval discussion to make sure we're specifically answering those and then of course answer any new ones you have. Uh confirm your priorities are being incorporated in the study and and who are we? who is ADCOM and why we were selected to do this work. Just to iterate here that this is a progress and process update and not a decision

briefing. Advance the slide, please. This is a a quick picture of who we are. This is not the entire team, but this is our core team of subject matter experts and engineers.

We're a small business, woman, veteran, and minority owned business. And we are uh proud to be a client advocate and we're vendor agnostic. So any sort of solutions that we provide are not based on any outside relationships. Advance the slide please.

Um who I am um as as far as credentials for leading this project. I've been in this business of critical control rooms um and local government and state government as far as legislation and strategic planning for for decades. I know I don't sound that old, but I am. Uh so I'm also very much involved in

multiple organizations on a national level um that really speak to the development of best practices and standards and these arenas as well. Advance the slide, please. The team that's supporting this project includes our owner, Susan Runyon, who's a radio engineer by trade, um, but certainly understands critical communications as a whole. Um, she actually was on site with us the first week that we were here.

And then I have a collection of subject matter experts in different areas that are um of support to what we're studying here to include uh Joe Thomas who's a former emergency services director for the uh in the state of Delaware who contributed to legislative language that helped them expand create and expand mental health programs um that coincide with critical control rooms and 911 responses in Delaware. Thank you. Uh advance the slide please.

So why were we chosen? Uh we believe it's because of our background with city and county multi-jurisdictional 911 consolidation studies, regional and countywide dispatch system assessments, integration of mental health response programs with 911 operations similar to HART and backup and continuity planning. And our approach while it's um typical in collection of information and applying the best practice in national standards we do something unique. We apply systems engineering based analysis to the findings and the discovery results to come up with the findings and recommendations that can help you form um decisions that you're comfortable with.

And we have a strong focus on governance, cost modeling, transition planning and risk. Advance the slide, please. So, what are we studying here? The potential consolidation of the city's 911 operation called DEECC and the Durham County Sheriff's Office dispatch operations. Uh parallel to that, but not

dependent on that is looking at the expansion of the heart mental health response program from a city-based program to a potential countywide service and what that might look like and what that would need uh to be successful. There is an alignment of uh consolidation potential consolidation in the heart decisions uh when it comes to continuity planning including backup capabilities at the planned emergency operations center as well as what would it look like should there be a potential consolidation and the objective here is to give you options and they're supported by what we find operationally financially um from governance and implementation analysis. So, not only is it feasible, most things can be found to be feasible, but is it practical? Will it make sense?

Is it doable for uh the county and the city to embark on on one or both of these paths? Advance the slide, please. So, where we are in the study, our current phase is the discovery and

current state assessment. So the project's currently completing task one and two which is initiation and stakeholder engagement and the current state documentation analysis. So at this stage there's no recommendations yet to be made or decisions being proposed and the focus is on building a complete and accurate baseline. Advance the slide please.

So the survey and request for information survey was very extensive. We use a program called Smart Sheet which is a data collaboration platform and each of the agencies were surveyed either in-depth as in the 911 centers where we were asking for tons of data and information or it was very brief as in the response agencies for their piece of it from a technical perspective. So we were uh collecting information like call volumes and workload demographics and staffing and certainly inventorying their technology. We also had a request for information for the documentation. And while we list five things here, it's

far more extensive than that. And we're currently working through what we have received and what we haven't received. Um, and we'll be asking for the things we haven't received if they exist. If they don't exist, we'll we'll move on without them.

And all of this together will establish that foundation for all subsequent analysis. Advance the slide, please. So engagement week one we completed it was January 19th through the 23rd. It's primarily city focused engagement. We're able to complete interactions with stakeholders at the leadership and operational and support levels for the DECC, which is the city's 911 center, and with the heart program leadership, as well as observations of both the heart program and action in the 911 center as well as the operations of the DECC. We incorporated um due to availability the county EMS leadership as well as a fire responders group

interview at one of the fire stations. We had a really good turnout there of about I think 15 or more people of all ranking levels um of operations. We did conduct some individual interviews with leadership, supervisors, support functions and of course the observations I spoke of. Those observations are not only an opportunity to see what are the workflows um when they handle calls, when they dispatch, how heart is integrated, but it's also an opportunity to talk to the people in their element in their environment about the work that they do and what their thoughts and questions and concerns might be about what the future might look like.

Thank you. You can uh advance the slide. Thank you. Our second um engagement week will be this week.

Due to the weather and this being remote, um I elected to stay home and I'll be coming up this afternoon. So, I'll be there for the week. And this week, we'll be engaging the sheriff's office leadership from the sheriff on down. Um, and it'll also include the dispatch operations staff

and their support personnel, the office of emergency services, and there'll also be some focus more on backup 911 planning and continuity. Uh, some follow-up interviews with people that we missed the first week, city and heart staff, and additional operational observations. And the second week, we'll complete the discovery phase, but we will do follow-up remote interviews as necessary. What we find is some people for whatever reason may not be available while we're there as well as discovering additional stakeholders that we need to connect with.

Thank you. You can advance the slide. So board engagements very clear in listening um to your uh board meeting where your board work session or meeting where you were discussing this at contract approval of what the expressed interest is and I appreciate that because a lot of times at your level decision-m level it's we approve it and then we don't see anything until the results and you need to understand what

happens in between. So to do that, we'll make sure that you have visibility into the progress. There's opportunities for involvement and discussion and understanding when and where there are key decision points and and what those involve. So those opportunities u come in the in the guise of status updates through county leadership.

um formal draft review workshop prior to the final recommendations and also know that we'll be doing intermittent draft content reviews with um the project stakeholders uh that will inform this. So again, they won't be surprised by an end outcome of findings and recommendations. And then we're also committed to two work session presentations like this uh to and with the board um at the end of this process. Uh we also are making sure we're sensitive to and informing our processes and being mindful of the Durham County's adopted strategic plan Durham forward 2029.

Thank you. Advance the slide. So best practices and national context. This is almost always a consideration and concern.

We certainly incorporate those um into any discussions about consolidation and where they exist or are being formed regarding uh the mental health program um expansion. We're also doing some um comparables uh to make sure that there isn't anything we've we've missed or maybe even the heart folks may not be aware of that may be of benefit to the expansion of the program. Uh so we're also looking at jurisdictions where programs originated within one entity and expanded regionally which is really where even though you're looking at a countywide it would still be more of a regionalization of that um program. So these appearances inform many of the models that we develop whether it's operations governance uh staffing and cost considerations and one of the most

valuable tools that we gain from interacting with and pulling out information from other studies be it ours or others are the lessons learned. Thank you. Advance the slide. We do try to make sure we're focusing on cost efficiency and investment because those are going to be questions brought up um and considerations when making final decisions.

So, we want to make sure we explicitly addressed what are your current and potential future operating costs. What are the implications for capital investment? Where are the opportunities for efficiency both in operations and in cost? And leveraging your existing assets and plan investments.

Um and and we want to make sure you understand that these cost estimates will be presented alongside the consolidation and hard expansion options not made in isolations uh isolation once the analysis is complete. Advance the slide please. So what does consolidation mean for Durham? Um, one of the things that comes

up in almost every stakeholder engagement, be it individual or group, is the need to define that because it means something different to everyone. We do not come in with any preconceived ideas or predetermined outcome. Um, consolidation at one end of the spectrum can meet a single agency with a single system. All employees are employees of a single entity.

But then there are at least 20 or more variations of that that may work better for you. And that's what we want to make sure we vet all of those out. We just don't aim for um a end outcome that wouldn't suit you. So the study to get to that, the study evaluates the models that are known or even discovered uh for operations, governance structures, technology and facility approaches, transition cost and continuity impacts. and they're all assessed not only for the feasibility but again what will work for Durham and align with Durham's needs. Advance the slide please.

So the backup 91 and EOC coordination is a key consideration in this because timing and resiliency is important to any sort of change and how you provide a service because you want that resiliency built in. So, it's great that this EOCC backup is already being planned, this 911 backup in the new EOC. Uh, so while we're examining the current backup and continuity arrangement, we're looking at how consolidations options affect that redundancy as well as the plan future redundancy. U whether you share facilities or resources um to provide that resilience or cost benefits.

And the goal again is in alignment between what the operational decisions are and any long-term investments. Advance the slide please. Our project timeline. We're right now obviously in the first phase of this fall winter 2025 where we're completing the initiation which we have completed the initiation and conducting the

stakeholder engagement. Um the following phase which will begin probably the end of February uh will be this winter spring 2026 where we do the current state analysis the assessment itself develop options for both the consolidation potential consolidation and the heart expansion and as I mentioned earlier we'll do interim section reviews with project leadership to make sure we're on the right path and we're not trying excuse me trying to take this in the wrong direction. uh spring early summer 2026 we'll actually do the draft report development the draft review workshop which will be on site and refine our recommendations based on the outcome of that workshop and then summer 2026 I believe the due date will be September 1 um will be the delivery of the final report and conduct the board work sessions to help you guys have your opportunity to really go through dissect the report and ask the questions and make um tweaks that would

be needed uh for a uh decision to come out of this process. Advance the slide, please. So, what comes next? Completing the county on site this week, consolidate those findings, begin our options development, integrate the things that are going to be key to decisions, cost, governance, implementation considerations, and prepare those draft materials.

Advance the slide, please. So, um, the last slide I have here is just the key takeaways. We're on schedule and progressing as planned. The discovery stakeholder engagement, I'd say, is 50% complete after this week and the week or so after where we clean up anybody that we missed or that wants to be heard that wasn't.

Um, then we'll be done with the discovery and stakeholder engagement. We're making sure that your priorities are directly shaping the analysis. Um the findings and recommendations will be objective not subjective and it'll be data driven, practical and transparent and we welcome continued dialogue with the board at key

milestones. And that's the end of my presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for this.

I um love your methodology and how you presented this information. It was clear, it was concise, it was um um very informative about where we are and how we move forward for this sensitive topic of the combination here. Um the community is very interested in it and providing this level of data and information is uh essential. So thank you so much for this.

It it was really good to hear uh how you all presented um how you presented this information, your progress, your next steps, what's on track, what's not, and so forth. So, I I just really want to take a moment to appreciate you and your team's efforts and the way that you present it and how you're going to be coming back as well. I'll

>> I'm going to open this up to other commissioners. Uh uh Commissioner Lam, Vice Chair, Commissioner Alam had her chair her uh hand up first and then Commissioner Wendy Jacobs did then uh Commissioner Stephen Valentine. So I'll go in that order. Commissioner Long.

>> Thank you. I want to echo Sherry the comments from Chair Dr. Lee. I really appreciate the thoroughess that y'all have put forward in this process.

I think it's going to be really important for us as commissioners in our decision-m process, but also for residents who are going to want to understand how we're coming up with our decisions to be able to follow through follow through this methodology step by step. Um, so I really appreciate you with uh creating this transparency for us to be able to present residents with. Um I was wondering uh so the city portion of the engagement has been completed.

Wondering with the timeline uh and presentations like will we have periodic report backs to the board or will we wait till like the summer period after everything is completed for a follow-up presentation for the commissioners? I'd like to defer to Perry Manes and Dan Nusbush for that because we are certainly open and available though nothing specific has been scheduled. I imagine that there's an internal process also by which um they need to follow to make sure that things are coming in front of you. Um I can say that nothing formal has been drafted.

We just are open to that because that is important that you see um as I like to call it how the sausage is made. So, thank you Sherry and good morning again commissioners. Great question. So, uh please note that the county manager I are and I are in continued conversations as to how we package and distribute

information to you. Uh clearly, it will be in alignment with what we're hearing from our consultants and their efforts and the the actual stakeholders. And so, uh, we will definitely make it a point to have some type of periodic, uh, check-in, whether it's a white paper or just some way of distributing information to you so you all will be, uh, up to date on the process and where things are. So, thank you.

>> Thank you, Perry. And, okay, I will look forward to those continued presentations. Um the other question that I had was related to as we do an analysis on the cost portion of the consolidation of the 911 call center. Obviously I know that the individual conversations and stakeholder meetings uh take some time but and also cost analysis takes time as well but is there an opportunity and manager Hager I guess I'll present this with you of can we at least the commissioners have the cost

analysis savings shared with us via like a document or a presentation update um sooner rather than later because I feel like that is a significant portion of this decision process because keeping two 911 call centers is very expensive. As well as like with the construction that we've been having of the new emergency response center, uh wanting to have that fiscal data available as soon as possible. Um, Commissioner Lum, that's a great question and I know that that has been in the forefront of the discussions sort of what's the cost benefit of going one direction versus the other and then what's the opportunity cost? What do you give up um in both of those scenarios as well? So I will go back and have conversations with Perry and others to determine the timing of when that cost data is shared. uh and um because there

are some decision points that will will definitely um determine which direction we're headed and and Perry may have um additional information he can share as far as timing, but that is our intent that we keep the board updated so that those key decision points timing wise will not jeopardize the the efficiency of this process. And one of the the the benefits of the partner that's helping us with this with ADCOM is that they've done this work before with with many other um jurisdictions across the country and they will help guide us as well about that. So um that is in the forefront and and I'll um shift to Perry to see if he has any other um comments about that. manager, I think you said that eloquently. Um, yes, we are um have made

that a point with AdCom Engineering and they are and will be able to provide the the cost analytics uh as soon as possible uh to help us shape our decisions. Again, uh we we sort of have to get through the process to really um have that information. And so, um, yes, Commissioner, we will, uh, get you that information as soon as possible to try to, um, get ahead of any efficiencies or or any, uh, I guess cost benefits, uh, that this may bring to the county and for your um, for your information and to be able to share with the public as well. So, we will certainly do that. Thank you. cuz for the current um the 911 emergency center, the new one that is being built with the backup centers, what what's current step is that at like in the construction and planning?

>> Yeah, the the current EOC is actually tracking uh faster than anticipated and that's due to um some I guess expediency in the site plan approval process. uh we are clearly uh wrapping up construction documents and we hope to break ground actually in fall of 2026. And so that just gives you a sort of a a big picture overview of where that project is. So >> thank you >> uh Commissioner Wendy Jacobs.

>> Thank you. Um thank you Sherry so much for your very clear um presentation. and I appreciate all the work that's happened thus far and the fact that you are coming back to us early on in the process to um for input. Um I do have a few follow-up requests and questions. Um one I just want to clarify since the engagement it seems has not happened yet

with the um 911 center that is operated um by the office of the sheriff. Um you I just want to confirm that you're also collecting the data from the operations of that 911 center. >> Yes, ma'am. We have actually already collected that data.

The surveys that I made mention of and sorry I didn't go into great detail about them. Um but they were very extensive and the sheriff's office did complete all of that data. Um, so it has to do with their workload, technology, inventories, demographics. Um, a lot of information has already been collected from the sheriff's office.

So, we go into it with some knowledge of how they operate as far as their workflows and things like that. So, it's not new to us when we walk in the door. >> Okay. And are you looking at both the DECC, the DCC, and the Office of the Sheriff 91, the types of calls? >> Yes. Okay.

>> Most definitely. Because not only the types of calls for service that are accepted and dispatched out of both operations, but how they do it, because there's always slight differences from a police response perspective and from a sheriff's office response perspective, as well as not leaving out the difference between paid fire and volunteer fire. Um, you're lucky to have a countywide EMS, so those responses are consistent and all coming from one location, but we do know the sheriff concentrates on law enforcement and it's sheriff's office response versus a PD response. There is a difference.

Thank you. >> And and are you looking at the training of the uh staff in both of these centers? >> Yes, ma'am. Um part of the request for information is not only policies and procedures, what protocols do they follow and what is their training program look like and what is the content and the results of those training? The training hiring and

training processes. >> Okay. And also how the call calls get interpreted and um directed out and to what entities. >> Yes, that as well.

That is that's a key part of the observations results is to not just talk to someone about it or read about it, but to actually observe it and talk to them while they're doing the job so we understand the why behind what they do. >> Yeah. Okay. I I I ask all of these questions because I appreciate um the you know what we've seen as you know which is predominantly an engineering analysis of this issue and I really want to raise the issue that this is more than just an engineering analysis this is I I want to make sure that the the the work that's being done and This study is actually also looking at this

as the role that the 911 centers play in our behavioral crisis response system. This is not just looking at cost and efficiency. Um, the 911 centers are a part of our crisis response system and I want to make sure that we are also looking at how we are measuring other outcomes because that is the whole purpose of these systems um is what is the impact of how they function. So for instance um are we looking at outcomes such as how people are connected to resources those those that need behavioral health resources how are they connected to those resources. I would like to know how we are looking at the impact to law enforcement

when people are directed to resources and then understanding how that frees up law enforcement to actually be able to focus on things like violent crime. That is something we as a cost that we need to understand in our system. I would like to also see us looking at Um and this this is again this is the national model and conversation. How are we um are we able to measure those that are diverted from interacting with our criminal justice system that don't need to be having that interaction. And I um so there are costs to all of these things if we don't if our system is not operating in the right way. Um, so I I don't I really want to make sure that these are being reflected in the analysis and I I would like to um

suggest that you um I didn't see any mention of working with the stepping up initiative and the sequential intercept map that Durham has adopted. The 911 center, the 911 call is the first intercept on our sequential intercept map. It is the first critical step in our behavioral crisis response system. And our sequential intercept map tells us that we need to try to limit interaction with our criminal justice system in intercept one because studies have shown that for people of color, especially black people in the United States, that as you go beyond intercept one, you increase the collateral damage and the and the probability that black people in in our community and in the United States are going to have increased contact with our criminal

justice system. And I also suggest that you so that you reach out to Renee Shaw who is the head of our stepping up initiative and also to um the director of our um justice resource center. um and because they have the data um and about what our goals are that we are trying to achieve in Durham County to divert people from our criminal justice system. And this has to be part of our analysis on outcomes and costs.

And I know it's hard harder to do that, but this is what is happening nationally as a best practice. Um, I'd also like to know what are and I'm really glad glad to see Joe Thomas part of your team with his background in u mental health programs and governance. But I'd like to know what are the national models that

you are using and I'm going to send um to county manager some resources from the National Association of County Officials about some of the um national models that they have looked at and um I also want to I >> we need to we need to you ask a question that and I want to make sure that we're looking at the Pew Charitable Trust study um improving behavioral health emergency response. Um so I will stop there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Wendy Jacobs.

And I I've taken note of that and I will um get with Perry and Dan about exactly where and how uh the stepping up initiative aligns with the scope of work and and definitely appreciate any material that anybody wants to share regarding these response. um programs for mental health. >> Uh Commissioner Stephen Valentine.

>> Uh thank you, Chair. Uh let me just say that uh my colleagues have sort of worked their way through some uh some very interesting questions with respect to to the way forward and I appreciate uh their their insight. I want to highlight uh the discussion about best practices. I think that it's clear to me as members of the board that uh all of us are invested in moving the ball forward in this particular area and how we get the yes is important and so we should keep uh that particularly in mind but I too commissioner Wendy Jacobs is concerned about the uh behavioral health response as it relates to the integration of the 911 system.

So I I share that uh concern. Um thank you uh Miss Bush for for your presentation this morning. And my question really was one about the collection of data and I think that question has has been answered unequivocally and so um I'm happy to hear that you hadn't had any resistance with regards to the collection of data.

Uh my colleagues from time to time uh have some concerns about that. So I'm I'm uh I'm pleased to hear that uh the collection of data has not been a problem. look forward to your periodic updates and with respect to the discussion on cost analysis cost savings is an important component not the only component um but looking at that analysis uh relative to the expansion of heart also is something uh that we need to get our hands around. Uh again I believe that all of us are committed to getting to yes u but we want to be fiscally sound in how we we get there.

Um, so I look forward to to continuation of this uh discussion and thank you again, Miss Bush. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And then I will give um Commissioner Berton an opportunity.

She had her hand up and she put her hand back down. Just wanted to double check with you. Um, Michelle. >> Yeah, I think Yeah, thanks um, Chair Lee. Yeah, I think everybody covered

what I was going to say and I just wanted to keep the meeting moving, but this is a great presentation and I'm really looking forward to hearing the results um because this is something that our community has been talk about the expansion of heart, the consolidation of the 911 center. So, thank you um Miss Bush for your report and thank you Perry. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Very good.

Thank you all again for your presentation. I was it was it did my heart very good to see the your format and your methodology. So I really appreciate that. Okay.

The next item on our agenda um is uh the uh Durham bike and walk plan update. We have 30 minutes aotted for this. Um Commissioner Hag Manager. >> Yes sir. And um good morning again. The we will have an update on the bike and

walk plan. We have from our transportation um department director Ellen Beckman and Brooke Roering who will share those highlights and so I will pass it off to them. >> All right. Good morning everyone.

My name is Brooke Roering. I'm a transportation planner with Durham County. Uh and we're also joined by Ellen Beckman who is the Durham County Transportation Director. Uh we're very excited to share the bikewalk plan update with you this morning and this is anformational item only.

So there's no action requested today of the commission, but we are seeking commissioner feedback um on the draft plan and our team is anticipating to bring this plan back to you this spring for anticipated adoption. On the next slide, um we'll go over an overview of what we'll start with. Um, so I'll run

through the draft plan and engagement process overview, share how the community may participate in phase three engagement, and we'll also outline next steps for this plan. Uh, while there is much information in this plan, we'll focus primarily on each of the county priority corridor projects along with key policy recommendations as well. So, moving on to the next slide, please. Uh, this is an update to the 2017 bike walk plan, and importantly, it's the first time that Durham County has participated within this planning effort. The bikew walk plan has been a great collaborative effort between the city of Durham, Durham County, the Triangle West transportation planning organization, all to ensure connectivity throughout Durham and the region. Uh, and Alta and idealisms has served as our project consultants throughout this process.

So on the next slide, please. Um development of this plan started in October 2024 with an initial steering committee meeting, preliminary data collection, and phase one engagement. Over the past year, we've held numerous working group meetings to develop draft network recommendations uh that were shared this past fall uh for phase 2 engagement. And we're currently reaching the tail end of this planning process and have publicly shared a full draft plan to gather feedback uh before uh finalization of the plan.

On the next slide, please. So to the left to right, you are seeing near-term, midterm, and long-term improvements within the bikewalk plan. Improvements focus on projects that close gaps and improve safety across the network. The near-term map on the left

uh shows 60 corridor and micro gap projects that are already in some phase of planning, design, or development. Uh most are intended for completion within about five years. Uh there are some exceptions to this however like the long range Durham to Roxboro rail trail uh which will likely take many years to design, fund and implement. The middle map uh provides an overview of midterm priorities identified throughout the bikewalk planning process along with some other related efforts. Uh the middle map includes uh 75 priority projects from the bike walk plan. This includes 25 uh corridor priority projects um in the light pink, 25 intersection projects in yellow and then 25 micro gap projects or projects under 1,000 ft uh

shown in dark pink. Uh this middle map also includes 25 opportunistic projects tied to routine resurfacing and restriping in and that is shown in blue. And uh there are also DPR greenway priorities from the 2021 Durham Trails implementation plan that are shown uh with the green line. uh together these are all considered more midterm anticipated uh priorities for completion within about 15 years.

And then finally, the map on the far right uh shows Durham's long-term vision for a connected walking and biking network. Uh this network is designed to guide future land use and transportation projects and will likely be implemented as new development or redevelopment occurs. Uh the unified development ordinance will refer to this network and require the

recommended facilities along street frontages. Likewise, the city and NC DOT through its complete streets policy will use this network uh when planning projects uh like resurfacing, intersection upgrades, uh street reconstruction, or any new street construction. as well within the county. Specifically, the comprehensive network includes recommended uh buffer or protected bike lanes along with shared use paths as depicted uh on other county adopted plans.

So, next slide, please. In addition to the facility network recommendations, the plan includes policy recommendations for sidewalk maintenance outside of city limits, uh clarifying the county's role in regional greenways, and supporting city sidewalk project delivery. These policies uh all

build on the UDO update uh complete streets and safe routes to school efforts along with past plans such as the comprehensive plan. And next slide, please. The plan is informed by community input, technical analysis, and staff expertise. We've had extensive outreach uh and collaboration with stakeholders through a technical prioritization working group and steering committee.

The planning process included representatives from both the city and county departments, NC DOT regional uh transportation organizations, uh Durham public schools, NCCU bike Durham, Downtown Durham, Inc. along with elected officials from both the city and the county. On the next slide, uh we engaged the community in three phases including existing conditions,

draft priority projects, and draft plan review. Engagement included online maps and surveys, four open houses, over 16 popup events, and bilingual outreach. There were 12 engagement ambassadors supported that supported events and connected with residents uh through throughout the engagement process. We also held stakeholder meetings including presentations to BPAC and DOSS uh and three steering committee meetings along with 16 uh technical prioritization working group sessions.

Next slide please. So phase one uh engagement gathered community input on opportunities and challenges. Uh we had over a thousand map comments and surveys returned. And phase 2 reviewed a draft list of 150 projects that were developed using phase

one input. And we generated over 2,000 location specific comments uh throughout phase 2. Um public input was key in identifying community needs and priorities throughout this process. Um moving on to uh the next slide, please.

So we worked with a prioritization working group composed of both city and county staff to create a datadriven method aligned with Durham's goals. The network was scored using 14 criteria such as safety, equity, uh connectivity and access to destinations. Uh combining data, staff expertise and community expertise. We built a draft list of 150 projects. Uh this was all again shared during phase 2 engagement. And from phase two, uh, that list was refined to 25 corridors, 25

intersections, and 25 micro gaps. And once the list was refined, our team uh was able to work internally to amend project sheets for each priority project that are now available in our draft plan. Uh, for county projects, we specifically relied heavily on local knowledge and community feed feedback. Uh next slide please.

So the draft plan uh has four chapters. Today we'll focus on chapters three and four to review the draft priority project sheets uh specifically the five county priority corridor projects and the proposed county policies for your feedback. Next slide. And we're just going to start with the priority uh corridor projects and moving on to the next slide. Uh Durham County has five key corridor projects that are scattered throughout

Durham. These projects share common themes uh such as improving access to school, strengthening greenway connections, and enhancing uh access to transit um by improving and filling in sidewalk and side path gaps. Most of these projects will require close collaboration between the city and the county. And in the next few slides, we'll walk through each of these project sheets in a little bit more detail.

So next slide please. Uh just as a quick note the plan uh defines facility types such as sidewalks, bike lanes and shared use paths. Uh this is all just to ensure clarity uh when these projects go for actual implementation. Next slide. So, the first of the five county priority projects uh we're showing here is the Irwin Road, Randolph Road

sidewalk gaps project. This project adds sidewalks along Irwin Road and Randolph Road to close gaps and connect the nearby community to Forest View Elementary School. It also includes improvements to Irwin and Mount Si the Irwin and Mount Si intersection and fixes a longstanding orphan sidewalk uh near the school that floods regularly. The map uh on the right shows in red orphan sidewalks or sidewalks with no maintaining agency.

In green, the city maintained sidewalks currently. In purple, there is a short uh it's 130 ft uh sidewalk section that is maintained by the county under a 2015 uh NC DOT sidewalk maintenance agreement. And in the yellow and red dash lines, uh we have the proposed new sidewalks as part of this project. The

photo on the top left shows the orphan sidewalk where uh parents and students have placed boards and stepping stones to cross. We did receive many comments regarding this project during the bikewalk plan engagement. Um many positive comments for this project and the need to improve conditions specifically at this uh sidewalk se segment. So, all of our project sheets are formatted in a similar way, including sections on why it's a priority, safety statistics, um, right-of-way considerations, and implementation partners. And again, it's important to re-emphasize that while the county has identified these five priority projects, many of these uh projects weave between city and county boundaries, which is, you know, just to underscore the importance for coordination, planning, and

implementation between the city of Durham and Durham County for for each of these. So, uh, on the next slide, we can walk through the second priority corridor project. Uh, this is the Mineral Springs Road side path and Freeman Road sidewalk gaps project. It was originally recommended by a city go Durham staff member and it would provide additional improvements to a future transit bus stop and crossing project located at Mineral Springs in Freeman.

It would also serve to connect the surrounding communities to Southern High School. And again, uh you can see the orphan sidewalk highlighted in uh red on this slide. So, moving on to the next slide, please. The NC98 Oak Grove side path and sidewalk project is a large overall

priority with only the first phase shown on this map here. The project is in its entirety uh would connect Lynn Road all the way to Woodland Drive. So overall, it would connect shopping centers, neighborhoods, Oak Grove Elementary School, Neil Middle School, and the East Regional Durham County Library. The first phase that is uh highlighted on this map would specifically connect Oak Crossing Shopping Center, Oak Grove Elementary, and the library.

Uh this is an area with a lot of historical orphan sidewalks as you can see again in red where the right of way was never annexed when when development came in. Also just to note there's a lot of development pressure and new demand being created in this uh part of Durham making it um more of a priority. Um next slide please.

The Scott King Roadside Path project would connect Lion's Farm Elementary School, surrounding neighborhoods, uh, all to the American Tobacco Trail and H. Hearnden Park. Uh, it would do this by filling in gaps, um, of the sidewalks. Um, a city priority intersection improvement project is also located just to the north of this project uh on Fenwick Parkway, which would further connectivity in this area.

Next slide, please. So, here is our fifth and final project. Uh, the I85 bridge is a unique priority because it's more of an opportunistic project. Uh recently NC DOT has begun discussions about replacing the I85 bridge over Falls Lake and staff has flagged this as an opportunity to potentially add bicycle and pedestrian accommodations onto the bridge. Further

improvements are proposed on East Gear Street and Redwood Road and this would connect to the Mountains to Sea Trail, the Panther Creek Greenway and the Redwood campsite. This project would also align with the great trail state plan uh proposed alignment that was created by NC DOT and we have also begun discussions with the US Army Corps and their staff uh recently made us aware that that um there's a Falls Lake master plan which notes a potential future I85 overlook recreation area just across the bridge in Granville County. Uh this is just showing a desire for a future recreation spot within this general area. Uh one last note about this project. Our team reviewed the South Carolina bridge replacement project that's located over Lake Marian. Uh this project is uh set to include bicycle and

pedestrian accommodations on on the bridge. Um, so we've just been using it as a case study into how other communities have done similar projects. Um, and from our preliminary review, uh, including bike and ped accommodations seems like a potential option here. Uh, so this is the last, uh, priority project from the county.

These are all within the draft plan. Again, posted online. Uh, specifically, these can be found on pages 49 through 52 as well. Next slide.

So, moving on to the policy side of this plan. We'll start with sidewalk maintenance policy and then we'll also get into the county's uh greenway policy as well. Next slide. So, as we know, sidewalks are essential for safety and equity, but maintenance responsibilities uh have been fragmented

in Durham. Uh state law requires cities to maintain sidewalks inside city limits. And in the county, most roads are most roads are maintained by NC DOT, but NC DOT does not typically maintain sidewalks. uh NC DOT requires local maintenance agreements for sidewalks built in state right of way.

So we've been working with the planning department to update UDO requirements. So sidewalks are required within the urban growth boundary uh as before and in the current UDO but also in key locations outside of the urban growth boundary. And this is based on county adopted plans. For example, the Durham to Roxboro rail trail plan identifies important community connections to the proposed trail like near Mangum Elementary School, Red Maple Park, and the Mountains to Sea Trail. Past UDIDA requirements, annexation

practices that excluded right ofway and sidewalks uh built without maintenance agreements have created a uh backlog of orphan sidewalks. And currently there are about six miles of orphan sidewalks outside of city limits with no agency uh currently responsible for upkeep of them. While while six miles is a relatively small number compared to Durham's over, you know, 700 miles of sidewalk, uh, lack of maintenance can really create unsafe conditions, uh, such as the Forest View Elementary School example. And I that picture is shown here again.

So, uh, just a little background on the Forest View sidewalk. We believe it was built in the 1990s as part of an off-site profer from a city development, but it was never added to an NC DOT maintenance agreement. Later,

NC DOT widened this road uh causing flooding that makes the sidewalk hazardous for students walking to school. We've received um numerous complaints about this sidewalk, but as it remains an orphan sidewalk, um it is a hard uh sidewalk to address. Uh next slide, please. So to resolve this issue, uh, county staff have produced a few potential options, including a city county partnership, a county only program, or a policy change.

Uh, the first option is a partnership with the city. This would start with a full county sidewalk inventory to locate all orphan sidewalks and clarify who should maintain them. With this information, we could use the city's existing sidewalk maintenance and prioritization program with the county

contributing based on the number of sidewalks uh that are due to uh past and present county requirements. We would also recommend exploring UDO tools such as public access easements and a county payment in loo program. These tools would help maintain flexibility and ensure sidewalk connectivity continues to grow uh while keeping maintenance in mind. This option would avoid duplication of work, ensure ADA compliance uh throughout the city and the county, but it does not align with the city's current maintenance policy. The second option is for a county the county to create its own maintenance program or possibly involve hiring a specific contractor. Uh this would cover sidewalks built under county requirements but would would leave other

orphan sidewalks unmaintained. If neither option works, the third approach would be a policy change to prevent creating sidewalks without a maintaining agency. This could mean updating UDO requirements, uh not requesting, uh NC DOT built sidewalks, and avoiding projects that would result in orphan sidewalks. So, we've been in ongoing discussions with city staff and we all remain committed to working together towards our shared infrastructure goals.

Additionally, uh county attorneys are currently reviewing these recommendations from a legal perspective as well. Uh next slide, please. Our second county policy update focuses on Durham County's role in regional greenway planning and development. To guide this, we looked at what other counties do. Uh typically counties lead

planning and coordination. They can uh provide funding support uh but they are not generally responsible for maintenance. uh funding strategies often include capital improvement improvement programs, voter approved bonds, grants, and partnerships. Uh Wake County approved a 120 million uh dollar bond in 2018 to support greenway and open space goals.

And the uh and Wake County helps fund projects mainly through bond allocations and cost sharing agreements uh for planning and design. Um funding is prioritized for corridors identified in their greenway system plan and based on their regional connectivity goals. Uh but once built uh wake municipalities assume ownership and maintenance while weight continues to coordinate on uh that higher level regional planning and

uh promotion of connectivity within the county. Uh as another part of this process, our team also identified possible greenway extensions that build on the 2011 trails and greenways master plan. Two recommendations of extensions include the Chunky Pipe Creek uh trail, which I believe is in yellow. Uh oh, I'm sorry.

I think that's in green. Um, our recommendation would be extending from the Stallings Road to Santi's Road and on Lick the Lick Creek Trail extension from the urban growth boundary to South View Road. Uh overall for Durham, we recommend adopting a countywide greenway plan such as the bike walk plan, formalizing agreements with municipalities, and phasing projects based on input and

feasibility. Maintenance would be a joint effort primarily led by the city but supported uh by the county and supplemented uh hopefully by volunteer stewardship. Next slide, please. Uh, so the draft plan again is open for public comment through February 9th.

After that, we'll finalize edits and cost estimates for the priority projects and adoption is targeted for spring of 2026. Next slide. Uh, we are seeking input on the priority projects in key policy sections. com.

And final slide, please. Thank you for your time and input. Uh we welcome your questions and feedback. Thank you very much.

And you hit that 30 minutes right on the dot. So I really appreciate that. I appreciate that. I'm

going to allow about 15 minutes for questions or less or less. But okay. All right. So here we go.

Um I'm just kidding. So, all right. Well, I have hands up from uh Commissioner Burton and then Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. So, I'll go with Commissioner Burton first, please.

>> Thank you, Chair Lee, and thank you, Brooke, for this really great presentation. Um, I was just wanting to say I really like in the report about the Southern High School and the sidewalks because I've been hearing about that for at least 10 years about the lack of sidewalks and the danger that imposes. Um, and how that needs to be taken care of. So, I'm really glad that you all are focusing on that. Um, I did have a question about I know you we're not just giving uh uh talking about what we want to do with regards to the maintenance of sidewalks and things, but say if we did

like I guess a county only program or um something like that, would we have to I guess that cost would fall on Durham County totally like we have to have our general services or whoever to do that. I'm just really want to make sure I'm clear about that. Um because I really think we need to have sidewalks um because we're a growing city and county and we're getting out of this mode of this southern and small southern town. So people who move here are expecting sidewalks.

So I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to do that or how do we do that as a county? Yes, thank you for that question, uh, Commissioner Burton. Um, we would essentially have to define that role for the county since we typically have not, um, done, you know, a countywide uh, sidewalk maintenance policy. We do have

uh, that 2015 sidewalk maintenance agreement for the piece very close to Forest View Elementary School. Um, but we would need to have discussions to define, you know, if if the county um has a department that would cover maintenance or potentially work with hiring an outside contractor to do that work. Um, the for the cost, yes, that would fall on the county. Um, we we don't have that information in the report currently. Uh but we do uh estimate that the cost of maintenance would be around five to $13,000 per mile per year. Um so in total the two and a half approximately miles uh that are in the county that are currently orphan sidewalks would be about uh 12 to $31,000

a year. And if I could add to that, >> thank you. And I also wanted to say I really like the >> um Commissioner Burton, you went off mute right in the middle of what your statement was and then we'll go to Ellen. >> Oh yeah, I'm good.

I just I'm want to hear Ellen. Thank you so much. >> Um yeah, thank you commissioners. Um I just wanted to add that um most sidewalks don't require that much maintenance.

Um you know the forest view sidewalk was highlighted because that's a known issue but that is um the exception I think more than the rule. You know, most of the sidewalks are in fine condition and uh routine maintenance just consists of like inspecting them every so often to make sure that they continue to be in acceptable condition without like ADA tripping hazards or anything like that. Um

it's really when there when there is a problem is when you might have um expenses, but the the dayto-day is relatively low maintenance and make low cost. >> That's good to know. Thank you for this great report and I appreciate all your help and guidance and helping us decide what do we do next. Okay, I'll go to Commissioner Wendy Jacobs now.

>> Thank you. Um, I just want to lift up the significance of us having our first city county bike pedestrian plan. We have never done this in Durham. And again, I think it's another example of how the city and the county are collaborating and working together for the benefit of people in our community. Um, so I'm really grateful to everyone who's been leading this process, been

involved. There's been a lot of engagement. I also want to lift up the methodology and the decision making. Um the data that has been used to really narrow down you know these 75 projects has been truly incredible.

um to also really reflect, you know, in a very detailed way that, you know, who is really being impacted in our community by, you know, safety issues and lack of walkability and access and things like that. And so, again, this is a great plan and I think also is are what's being recommended are things that are really feasible. I love the fact that it's, you know, these are things that we can do in the next 5 to 10 years, like the micro gaps, things like that. People want to see progress and I think this is a great plan where people are going to see the impact. I

totally support the recommendations for the county roles related to um regional greenways and also around addressing sidewalk maintenance. since I've been was on the planning commission which goes back now I hate to say it I think it's like it's over it's like 25 years now I think uh a long time that this has been an ongoing issue around sidewalks and we have to solve this um it's not working for people in our community as commissioner Burton noted Southern High School but if you notice almost all of the problems in in the county are school related and are safety related uh for kids to be able to walk safely to school. Um I so I I I support the first recommendation related to that and I really encourage our city and county

staff to work together. I noted that the the barrier was it's not in the city's current policy. Obviously, that policy can be changed and as we just discussed with the 911 centers, we need to be about efficiency and there's no need for the county to create a sidewalk maintenance department and program when that's not something that we do. Whereas the city has a department and they know how to do the work. And so we need to figure out what changes we need to make the city and the county so that we can work together in a cost-effective way. Um, I also want to note that one other funding source that wasn't mentioned um in this so far that I didn't see in the presentation is RTP um that the transit tax that is another um funding source which they are using to build um the trails and well at least

for the design and planning for the triangle bikeway plan uh that goes all the way to the multimodal center, the proposed multimodal center. Um they're they're participating in that. So, that's another important funding source and I look forward to the county being engaged in regional greenways because you can see the incredible progress that Wake County has been able to make in terms of regional plans and the triangle bikeway plan because they have the ability to apply for funding and try to get federal funding and things like that. So, great job.

Thank you so much. Okay, thank you for those comments. Um, are there any other commissioners who are interested in uh making a comment here statement? Well, team, thank you very much for this very informative.

I really appreciate it. This is good stuff. This is how we

move forward in Durham and I really appreciate um your work here. Great presentation. So, thank you very much. All right, the next item on our agenda is an update from uh the Greater Durham Black Chamber of Commerce.

We have aotted 30 minutes for this. I will pass it over to uh Commissioner Hager who will pass it forward. >> Sir, you keep giving me a promotion. Um I I um I politely declined that.

Um but >> manager >> No, no, that's fine. Um good morning again um commissioners. We will have an update on um greater um Black Durham Chamber of Commerce. As a reminder, we have several partner organizations that support our efforts with economic and

workforce development. We've had updates from um also partners that have um been funded through the American Rescue Plan Act dollar. Some of those updates happened um in 2025. And so as we plan for the budget and other conversations um we will um hear um from CJ Broadick who is the president and CEO of the Greater Durm Black Chamber of Commerce.

And so um I will turn it over to him and um as the chair said we have about 15 minutes for the presentation and then we'll allow for questions and answers from the board. Thank you. >> All right. Good uh morning everyone.

Um happy Black History Month. It's good to be with you all um this February and um um to uh comm to Chair Lee and the commissioners to the staff. Uh again,

good morning. My name is CJ Broadick. I've titled this presentation uh partnering to support share prosperity and a more thriving Durham economy. first introduce myself, I'll share a little bit about our organization and then get into the details about the work we've done together in the in the mo in the recent uh past and then uh some some some asks for the future.

Uh so again, I'm CJ Broadick. I've been at Durham president for about 27 years. I do have the pleasure of serving as a president CEO of the Greater Durham Black Chamber of Commerce. Mostly engaged in the community in other ways as the board chair for the Durham Workforce Development Board.

um member of the Durham Race Equity Task Force um and uh in other in other uh uh capacities uh and a happy proud resident of Durham, North Carolina. About the Greater Durham Black Chamber of Commerce, we are a nonprofit organization um that that has been around since 2008 with the goal of fighting against systemic racism's creation and furtherance of economic inequity. Our

mission is to support the growth and development of black entrepreneurs, black businesses in the black business ecosystem. Our vision is black economic freedom, justice and prosperity. Our work is informed and guided by over 300 members of our organization, a 19 person member board uh and the president's council. Um we execute our work in pursuit of our vision by providing advocacy support and access to capital, access to contracts, access to information and also education.

Uh this morning I'd like to again recap our partnership over the last four and a half years or so. Uh request additional access to Durham's economic development tools and work um as well as the company funds and decision-making power. That number two will be guided by some of the things we've learned in the last four and a half years. And then at the end open up for any uh feedback and and questions from all of you. So, let's just start from by recapping. Uh, since 2021, we've executed a contract with Durham County in fiscal year uh 22 and and then again every year since then um to assist businesses impacted by the

pandemic with local, state, and federal resources to to limit the scope of the pandemic. uh to provide, promote, and enroll businesses and targeted training and technical assistance. Addressing identified gaps and opportunities for growth to successfully connect businesses to state, local, state, and federal funding opportunities that will maintain and enhance business operations to work with businesses to identify barriers to success and seek resolution through the containment of small business service providers and available resources. We've also uh been tasked with collaborating with city and county coordinated efforts and partnerships providing businesses with training and technical assistance.

To that end, we've we're charged with the following metrics. Uh collect the number of businesses that we successfully connected to technical assistance. Um the number of businesses that we successfully connected to granted local and and loan funding opportunities and also collect the number of events we hosted to promote funding and technical assistance opportunities. Um, our methodology included publicizing in person, virtual technical assistance

offerings, uh, researching and publishing local, regional, national rent and loan uh, funding opportunities and then providing technical assistance necessary to attain those loans and grants. Uh, designing, planning and executing inerson and virtual uh, sessions and events to respond to the observed needs and then to provide technical assistance again that's needed. as we've done over the over the four over the past four and a half years, we've had um collected data to really be able to show the value of the work and and the contract. And so we've collected data on the many the amount of workshops and seminars we've hosted, the individuals served, the businesses served, the amount of hours spent um what technical assistance uh um counseling and also um you know and also through events and the number of events we've done um for for counseling. Uh you see that that the first year was kind of our our fiscal year 22 was kind of our our foundation year. 215 persons served, 182 businesses, 157 in council hours,

and then um 25 uh events there. And then you see there the 23 the numbers um again 517, 272, and so on and so forth. And then we have there on fiscal year 26 so far um the number of individual served, businesses served, um counseling hours and events. Um beyond 2022, we started to collect more data than this um data um that highlighted a little more granularly um what we were what we wanted to also to keep track of um business grant preparation and support, business loan preparation and support, business certification preparation and support, business plan review and refinement, business branding and pit support, joint venture support, uh connections to contracts, business marketing support, and then business bookkeeping support. I'll add some more details to how we how we got to these uh new collectible um data points in in a bit here. The testimonies we received from as a basis of our work uh one from Howard Pashchet, owner of Real Property

Management Trustworthy. However said, the support I've received from the GBCC has helped me gain insights that have significantly enhanced my business operations. I've also received one-on-one coaching on various things such as achieving my hub certification which has opened new avenues for growth and collaboration. My participation in many of the GBC programs on business planning, bookkeeping, and various best practices has been instrumental in my professional development.

Just share one more testimony for you all. Um Ashley Rollinsson, owner of Heritage Wine, said the GBCC webinars and resources have offered um offered have expanded my business knowledge and awareness in the field where I'm still learning as I grow. Um and the connections I've made with consultants, accountants, fellow business owners, supporters have been truly impactful. The community has given me both tools and relationships that continue to strengthen my journey.

There's two testimonials there. Um lessons learned, major themes in roughly four and a half years of supporting these businesses. uh we've provided an immense value for a nominal fee. Again, uh I think uh if you look at the amount of the the amount of our contract versus the deliverables, I think you'll find

that um you know, per person or per hour. Um we're we're we're hard to beat as it relates to an investment in in our small business community. Um generally, the businesses we've serve can been categorized into one of three distinct phases. Uh startup phase, the growth phase, and the scaling phase.

Um needing corresponding supports. Through our work, there were two big takeaways that I want to share with you that I think are important. The first takeaway is that uh for the businesses we're serving in the startup and growth phases, the supports that are needed and provided often include business plan reviewview and development uh foundational uh bookkeeping, coaching, referrals, um marketing, business development, coaching, counseling, and then facilitated connections again to banks, accountants, insurers, lawyers, HR firms, other support organizations. We find that in this area um we're readily equipped uh with the right tools as an organization um the right partners um to be able to do this work readily and and we've done this work well and we believe um we continue to do this work well. The the second takeaway is that for business

in in the scaling phase and sometimes for business in the growth phase u most important supports required most important supports that they require um require access to economic development tools such as recruitment and retention tools as well as access to larger marketing contracts. At this phase we experienced unnecessary barriers and connecting small businesses to requested information in these tools. In particular, many questions about vacant buildings and opportunities to recruit potential partners to the area ended in dead ends for us and and inability to get information back to uh these small businesses or and that they're that are either growing or scaling. As such, we've experienced feeling um a little bit uh disconnected from Durham's economic and workforce development systems.

Um so based on these two uh key takeaways um we've responded uh with these uh and and requested in in in in like manner. The first thing we've done is continue to design, launch and enhance different programs like our Ignite Business Foundations program uh to help entrepreneurs better understand and gain a solid foundation for their businesses. Uh we've also designed and

launched things like the enriched uh bookkeep bookkeeping training program to increase our entrepreneurs understanding and appreciate and utilization of bookkeeping tools and services. Um again this this is for uh businesses that are typically in the in the startup and growth phases. um for businesses in the scaling phase. We we've now requested uh for for some time now uh to this body additional access to economic development activities and tools to better assist these small businesses to be able to grow appropriately, scale appropriately, and use tools such as marketing and retention opportunities. Um they particularly emphasis on uh um on on figuring out how to connect uh black businesses and and small businesses to these uh opportunities. Um, so the next thing I'll do here again is just share um a couple of uh more detailed, more granular points as it relates to um how the effects of our limited access to Durham's economic workforce development uh tools to be able to uh assist these small businesses, especially black businesses.

Um three things here that um that I'm going to highlight as effects. One is titled passengers not drivers. Uh number two is titled distrust and advocacy and lack of advocacy if you will. And then number three is titled nightmares versus dreams.

Uh in the first portion uh passengers not drivers. I share that small businesses especially black businesses have been relegated to being passengers and not drivers in Durham's economic workforce development system. Uh this has resulted in a lack of critical information and contracts. Um, often businesses in this community, small businesses, black communities feel like they're the last to know and the first to go. Um, their involvement, engagement in in projects, capital projects and and and larger uh seem to be relegated to um, you know, dump trucks, clean up and and things that are not things that things that we think we can do a better job in um, versus you know, versus uh, feasibility studies, consulting, architectural designs and things of that nature. Uh the second thing here in in this um relegation of

being passengers not drivers is that it's really continued to socialize all of us that small businesses especially black businesses are second tier and not deserving of the representation of the access of the power in these economic development systems. Um and it has generally led to over over representation in certain areas and underrepresentation in other areas. um black businesses and workers are over over represented in low pay, low power, low access roles and also underrepresented in industries where there's where where that they're dominated by high pay, high power and high access. The second title here uh is distrust and lack of advocacy.

Small business again especially back businesses also express uh the following barriers in economic work for assistance. uh a lack of trust in negotiated committ community benefit agreements um um a lack of representation and advocacy uh for black businesses and institutions um and a lack of trust in governmental decision-making. These are all connected um uh to again not as much trust and not

much advocacy. And then the third thing here is uh titled nightmares versus dreams. uh uh small businesses especially black businesses have expressed endurance and nightmarish results of an economic war force development system that they don't feel represented in and advocated for in and some of the results include uh some of the results of this uh the the prognosticators of this are the dismantling of Dur's most popular business community and our um longtime failure to rebuild it as as promised. um the continued flow of investment into punitive efforts um like uh uh uh prisons and and and policing as opposed and with the coupled with the underinvestment in empowerment efforts um that that we're trying to one one of which we're trying to propose. Um then lastly, the increase in the medium income and subsequent displacement of Durham uh vulnerable Durham residents has also been a huge concern um for a lot of our constituents. Um we've done a lot of research on this over the years u from disparity studies in 2013, 2022 and prior years uh that have confirmed that our efforts both at

the city and and and the county to remediate the remnants of discrimination have not been sufficient. Um despite being home of historic Black Wall Street, u both our governments are still struggling to spend as low as 5% of contract expenditures with uh blackowned businesses. um black owned businesses uh all over Durham are still are repeatedly struggling to keep open um with the rising cost of business leases um and rising cost of property and many of them are closing and and leaving certain areas um uh particularly areas that are uh approximate to downtown Durham. Um so what can we do about this?

Right. um as a partner um of of the county for the last almost 5 years and being proximate to um small business support services and and seeing firsthand these uh these issues. Um uh we believe that we're key we're in a key position to partner with the with the county uh to solve this. Um and what we've what we're proposing is working together to build a structurally representative responsive and empower

economic and workforce development system. Um what do I mean by that? I mean a system where there is an intentional multifaceted and multi-layered balancing effort. Um where priorities, policies and practices are shaped by the centering of a diverse group of chambers, employers and workers.

Uh this would allow us to be drivers and not just passengers. Allow our community to be all drivers and not just passengers in their economic economic and workforce development work. Uh this will result in increase in economic development activity and increasing small business growth. um black business growth and overall economic growth um and increase in representation advocacy for small businesses and black businesses.

This will also increase our trust and advocacy um you know this will increase our community trust in the community benefit agreements and increase in representation advocacy for our small businesses and our and our black businesses. And this will also increase our overall trust in governmental decision making. And then lastly, this would allow us to um you know to be uh

um I guess encourage us if you will of of dreams and not just nightmares, right? Um this will lead to increased community engagement and participation uh increased economic empowerment and mobility and then um give us the tools uh to engage in economic development strategies to think through what we can do about uh from not just from a uh um a governmental uh um level but through the entire community. What can we do to work together to to to to balance the displacement of vulnerable residents as we continue to grow as a community? Um so what am I asking for?

Um in addition to the continue of our our current partnership um asking for you all to um double down to increase our partnership, increase our access um to economic development tools and resources. We modestly requesting in um $100,000 per year to support our associated cost for service delivery including personnel uh recruitment, marketing, retention, uh community engagement, and data systems. Um I want to be clear that um I know that you all are in a tough budget cycle

and um and uh you have to have to make a lot of decisions around what to fund, what not to fund. I've always been uh clear with you all I think in the last six or seven years that for us the most important thing is access and decision-m power. Um and then thirdly third be financial resources. even if you're not able to allocate um a lot of funds to this um um the the access to the tools on behalf of our community um and our small business community and our black business community uh would be what's necessary to make them feel included.

Um we've been able to produce work um in this in this region um not notwithstanding the amount of resources deployed to us uh for a long time because of our ability to to make it work. Um we do have letters of support from many many uh uh members uh small business partners and uh and constituents. Uh these include um honorable uh William uh Bell uh Dr. Henry McCoy to Caroline Theater um Ferd Ali, Dr.

Kimberly Moore, and many many others. Um thank you all for your time. I'll yield to you all now for any

questions you have for me. >> Thank you Mr. Bratrick. That was a very good that was very very good.

We He got He did it in 18 minutes. So, I really appreciate that. Very good information. I really appreciate this.

I've been I looked over this um presentation a few times. Uh very good information. I really appreciate this. I'm going to go with uh uh Commissioner Burton first, then I'll open it up for anyone else who may have any questions.

>> Thank you, Chair Lee. And um let me know if you all can hear me because I know my computer my connection was breaking up. So >> sound good. You sound good.

>> Good. Thank you. Um thank you um CJ Mr. Broadick for your presentation. Um it was very informative. The question I have is how wrote down economic development

activities. I'm not really clear about that. So, what is it that the Greater Durham Black Chamber of Commerce wants to do to economic development activities to be economic development um initiatives? I'm just really >> Yeah.

Yeah. I I understood your question. Um and uh yeah, I think uh very briefly, I think uh um you know, if you look at our contract, it does fit underneath um the the countyy's economic and workforce development, economic development department. Um but the contract we have is small business support, right?

Um and so all the work that we've been doing in the last four and a half years has been around small business support, which is why I broke it down into the different support small businesses need, right? So, uh, startups and and growth businesses will need, uh, things that we can provide quite readily, right? But there are several, uh, members in our community that are beyond a startup that are doing, uh, well and are looking at expansion,

right? Um, how do they grow? Um, they're looking at recruiting, uh, partners to Durm. Um, so they can be able to team up and and and and and have a sizable have a more sizable part of our economy.

Um, they're looking at um, real estate opportunities, right? Um, and quite often when we when we delve into those arenas and try to get the research for them, we run into a wall. Even though we have uh great friends and colleagues that other other economic development partners around town, whether it's the Durham Chamber or DDI or um Discover Durm, um especially the Durham Chamber, we we get we get information from them. Hey, we'd love to talk to you about this, but this is uh sort of classified and confidential and because you're not a part of this economic development team, if you will. Um we're not at liberty to discuss this with you. Um, one example I give is, you know, I live in Southwest Durham and Car Mic 15, um, uh, Windong 15 car mic on MLK is in my community and we've had several different, um, you know, and car is long

gone since the pandemic and several different businesses have inquired about um, opportunities, you know, what's going to happen there and and and u, and could we recruit there and and and so long story short, there there are tools like that around recruitment, marketing, retention efforts um that we're not that we don't have access to um um u because we're because we're not more deeply engaged in that work. >> So, and I want to make sure I'm clear. So, you're saying because when these economic packages come to before us, because they have to be um you know, secret, right? And because the Greater Durham Black Chamber of Commerce is not in those discussions because so many um businesses want to scale up and they don't know how to scale up because they're not a part of these discussions.

>> Yeah. >> Is that what it is? >> Not not a oneonone. Not a oneonone. Right. It's layered in the sense that um

you know, so there are incentive deals that that you that you're speaking of, right? we just had enough of a waters and RSP to come in and do an incentive deal um in December. Uh that that's one that's one aspect of it, right? So so yeah, we're advocating that we're part of that discussion because we we believe we can add some value to enhance community benefit agreements. Uh we think we can get better profers uh um to include not just you know um um you know I think we were able to get something for Durham uh Durham public schools foundation but we think there are opportunities to to at least ask for a profits as it relates to um how we engage our small business community how we engage our our black business community as well right we don't want them to feel disconnected from that from growth because it's at a certain level if you will I think as a as an empowerment strategy I think that's a good thing right um but beyond um incentive iz deals right beyond deals that we're looking to fund. Um as it relates to um even we went on a the city and the city and the county went on a inner city visit to Austin uh not too

long ago, right? Um, and you know, Austin has the Black Chamber of Commerce that we're uh consistently in in contact with um through the Texas Association of African-American uh Chambers. And there are best methods and practices in Austin from a black business perspective that um could be very very valuable um to us as we think about employing some of the tactics there that that we weren't able to to heavily rely on as a function, you know, as as a part of that that adventure. Um again because it's not a part of our our budget, not a part of our scope of work. Um we weren't able to take to readily take part in that in that activity. Um uh and so those are some of the things but but more but more broadly we're at a fundamental level when we think about building the economy of the future in Durham right we think about building we're in 2020 2026 right now when we think about our derm economy in 2050 right um um certainly our large corporations are thinking about you know are are certainly well well um you know wellunded and well organized you know to

and to think about to have people in place to think about what Durham 2050, 2070 looks like, right? And they're making plans to do that right now around land acquisition, you know, um, uh, real estate and those kind of things, right? We want to make sure that there's a continuum that our small businesses, especially small businesses that are growing, also have have an opportunity to see themselves and we want to also, especially again looking at this from an equity equity lens, we want to make sure that more of our community is thinking about the future. Um, because if you're not thinking about the future and planning for the future, you often find yourself left behind or displaced.

and then and then we wonder what what happened to these displaced businesses. Um I think a lot of it's because they aren't a part of uh a part of that this process and I think that's that's a huge opportunity for us um as a partner. >> Thank you. I'm glad you explained it a little bit more so that has I have a better understanding of what you're trying to accomplish.

So thank you so much. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Uh Commissioner Alum. >> Yes. Thank you um CJ for your presentation and for the work that you

do. Um, I think I wasn't planning on asking too many questions, but uh, Commissioner Burton's questions kind of opened up a new line of thought process for me of so from my understanding like the main request um, I'm hearing is that the desire to be involved in more of the economic development conversations that happen kind of behind the scenes uh, with companies when the county uh, and the legal team is deciding incentive packages. Is that correct? >> That's one part of it.

Yes. The the the that's one part of maybe a three or four broader asks. The broader ask is to be contracted to engage in economic development work broadly speaking. Yes. That includes um uh being a part of those conversations around incentives, incentive deals, but it also secondarily includes um ensuring that we're collecting information from small businesses, including black businesses, around what Durham 2050 looks like for their business, right? How do we ensure

that we're doing things now that their business will be here, right? We lost a giant in NC Mutual um you know, several years ago. M&F is still here. there are other businesses that in in that continuum of of his in that in that historic business uh perspect in a historic business um category and also business that are growing here now.

We want to make sure that just because they're not um um just because they don't they're not aware of some of the recruitment and retention tools that are available here and we want to make sure we don't we don't we don't lose them um either from from either from a perspective of going or going somewhere else. Um but we also want to make sure that if we can get better partners here for them so that they can grow here um we want to make sure we're doing that too. So yeah, it's an expansion of of um our our team around looking at what the future looks like for for our economy. >> Thank you for that uh clarification. Yeah, I think I was just confused because when it comes to the economic development incentive packages that the county does, they are like confidential

meetings where it's usually it is the county attorney's office, the economic development and the companies that aren't typically outside partners because these deals are so sensitive and because they're considering, you know, other jurisdictions, other localities and, you know, obviously with negotiating what the incentive packages as well as the state is the only outside entity that usually gets involved in these deals because the governor has the opportunity to match or provide incentives. So I would just have hesitations and reservations about you know opening that not just to the black chamber of commerce to any outside entity just because of the sensitive nature of those conversations and the risks that open up of just like having those conversations be more public. Um, but I think what I'm hearing is that there's an opportunity of expansion of the relationship within the Durham Black Chamber of Commerce and the Durham Chamber of Commerce when it comes to

supporting our small local businesses here because again, those economic development packages are typically for new companies coming into the area or companies that are expanding and meeting a threshold of a certain number of new jobs being created. And so that may not always be applicable to companies that already exist here um that are you know smaller businesses from any aspect of Durham. So but I think that the opportunity exists of like with the relationship building with the Durham Chamber of Commerce and maybe um wondering like how and I don't see oh yeah I do see u Mr. miracle here of like if there are ways that we can have like I don't know what conversations are already existing with the chamber and like our economic development office and um your team but if there's like a working group that brings the three partnerships together focus more on the

Durham local businesses and how we support you know Durham grown talent uh into the future and making sure that everyone's able to sustain um into Durham 2050 and wondering also like uh CJ could you share a little bit more about what your current budget is and the work that y'all are doing in that space. >> Yeah. Um we've been we've been engaged in this space, you know, for the past I guess six or seven years. I think um um you know um one of the most and I want to maybe add something to the comments you made.

I think um a lot of this is around power being allocated and distributed. How this body sees power being allocated and distributed, right? Um this body uh chose the Durham Chamber of Commerce to negotiate uh and be a part of these deals and and we don't have any problem with that. Uh the Durham Chamber of Commerce, they're

they're our partners. We love working with them. Um um you know there have been conversations in the past around how we can separately uh you know do a deal to to make this work. Um but the it doesn't get to the root of the problem I guess around allocation of power and and and um and and really engaging different segments of our community uh in this work. Um and so um um as as it relates to I think you made you made a you made a point around um you know businesses that are here versus businesses that are not here and and and jobs um and those kind we we understand those parameters and I think um so so do the businesses so the businesses that are that are not here um there are healthy businesses small businesses uh large businesses that that we're engaged with that are not in Durham and some that are in Durham that I think would would love the opportunity to understand and deal with with those incentives uh those those

those those pro those processes but again I think I mentioned that that's certainly just just a small piece of the work um uh but go ahead you first >> I'm just saying and I think for the small businesses that exist already here because there are some companies that like have had campuses um I think like Eli Lilly for example but they did an expansion so they into, you know, Mr. Miracle and his team and we're like, "Hey, we already exist here in Durham, but we want to expand. " So, that all goes through the county and the county staff. It doesn't go through the Durham Chamber of Commerce.

And the negotiations even with the companies goes through Mr. Miracle uh and his team and not through the chamber. It's all internal to the county. >> Yeah. I think those things have changed in the last five or six years. if if you know, you know, again, we've been working on this now for about seven or eight years and um and there have been some changes that have brought more things back in house to to to uh to to

the county's uh staff than were before, right? But um the the main principle here, the main point is that uh for Durham's existence, right, um certain segments of our community, uh small businesses, especially black businesses, um large black businesses in fact, have not had access to these tools to be a part of dreaming about what the dur economy could look like, right? And as a result, um, certain communities, small businesses, small business communities, especially black business communities have been, you know, relegated as passengers, uh, in in economic development and and how we plan for for the future. And so, this body has an opportunity to do something about that and to engage an organization like the Black Chamber, um, in in in this work going forward.

Um, again, the the the our request for for funding is, I think, minimal. Um, you know, you see in in your packet, I think you you list what it costs for you all to hire a full-time employee at 139,000 or something like that. This this is, you know, almost a third of that. And this gives us an

opportunity to investigate, right, how much more engaged our small business community uh can be in economic development, how much more engaged our black business community can be in economic development. Um and so and so I think it's an outstanding opportunity for Durham to lead um not not follow but to lead um the the United States in as as it did in the past with Black Wall Street um and how we can engage sector sectors of our community in economic development um work that that it hasn't before. Um so yeah, so I think there's lots of space to to learn together uh in the future. Um but what I'm proposing is something that hasn't um hasn't been tried before. Um, and I think that our community has suffered as a result. I often say that, you know, um, you know, Charlotte got a start in the 1970s around this uh, city of of being being the the banking center and city of finance that it is right now, you know, but in 1910, 1920, Durham had two large uh, black institutions that were, you

know, doing very well, very very well in in the financial field, right? I think um you know arguably again for me uh speculative speculatively for me if we had uh representation and advocacy and and and ability to to to mold our economy in a way that was balanced before integration before the 1940s and 50s that certainly we might be as relates to the banking capital of the southeast we might it might be durm right and so we don't know what opportunities exist to to do that kind of thing now and into the future um but uh certainly I I think as it relates to our goal of of building empowered communities, um I think this is a this is a layup for us to to to to do um and to uh and to be the the pilot community that that makes it work. Are you >> Thank you for that. Uh Commissioner Wendy Jacobs, >> thank you. I just want to be mindful of time. I don't How much more time do we

have left on this item? negative five minutes. >> Okay, then I will need to be very brief. Um, thank you CJ um for it's great to get an update.

Um I think what would be helpful is if you have any data with the metrics around outcomes because I know a lot of it that you're reporting is kind of like um you know outputs but like do we do you have any data tracking where we're actually accomplishing some of the actual goals that you lay out as what you're trying to do. Um that that would really be be helpful in terms of seeing you know increases you know improvement in the outcomes for those businesses or you know growing or the increased economic development activity that that would be helpful. Um I also I just want to lift up a few things. One is and it would be helpful to get this data from staff. We the the funding the federal

funding that we get for small business development. We channel that money to the city and it becomes part of the funding for the city's office of economic and workforce development. That's where a lot of our federal funding really goes for small business and minority business development. So it would be helpful for I think us our board to understand what you know what are the existing programs that the city is operating on our behalf related to um minority and small business development because traditionally the way that things have been been is that you know the county is very focused on really doing these big in economic incentive deals with um RTP and Treyburn and the city has really their expertise has really been and and our money federal funding has been focused on the um small business

development. I will say though, our staff has done a great job with trying to change the internal work on contracting to your point CJ about trying to work and make sure that we are making sure that blackowned businesses, minority owned businesses are in line, know about the opportunities that we have for contracting both within internally in county government, but also for our economic incentive policies. One of our policy goals um that we ask all of the companies about is to their percentages that they will commit to trying to achieve working and contracting with, you know, blackowned businesses, minority owned um businesses. And so that is a part of our policy. Um, and also I just want to give a shout out to Stephanie Futrell who is part of our economic development team

who has been doing a great job of working on entrepreneurship, innovation, and small um, business development. And I know Commissioner Burton and I both got to see the work that she's been doing with um really leading with um our contracts with Forward Cities and Knox Street Partners and really moving the needle we saw on um a lot of small um you know blackowned and other minority owned businesses. So I just want to lift up that you know you rep you know the work that you're doing is great. We also we have a lot of other um partners in the community that the county does work with in this area. And I think you know for me it's like if we're if we're going to al and as you acknowledged we we're in a financial crisis really with uh at this point looking forward um with a lot of issues um in the county.

we're going to have a lot of challenges, but it, you know, for me is if we're going to expand our work in this what you're proposing, you know, I I think we would probably do an RFP or something like that, which is how we we normally approach these types of things. So, um, you know, I I I hope we can look at ways to support collaboration with you and the Durham Chamber. I hear what you're saying that you would like to see more collaboration and I hope that we could help facilitate that. Um we we want to have an ecosystem in Durham where we are um everyone is at the table and collaborating. Um but as you know, Commissioner Lam noted, we the actual confidential process that's taking place is really between our staff and the county commissioners. Um, and so, um, I I just think it's important just to to

recognize that. Um, anyway, so I I didn't know, um, you know, any follow-up information you could provide related to some of the outcomes would be great. Um, and also letting us know like what are some of your other funding sources and are are there opportunities for you to also get access to some of the federal funding that you know we are conveying to the city? Do they have kind of any grant do they have any grant opportunities or do how does that work?

I I don't really know. um with the Office of Economic Development. Do you receive any funding through through those processes? >> No, you you you touched on about 10 things. So, I'm going to just I know for out of respect for time, I'm only going to touch on one or two of those things, right? Uh to your last question, I know we don't get any funds from OWD at present and and haven't um you know uh since their existence, I think you're

very familiar that uh they have a new director. um they haven't had uh leadership for some time now um um but they have a new director so we'll see what happens there but um a lot of your comments I think are mean to my main point around the history of of of what's happened in in in in these United States right I think a lot of the points you made are are endemic of of of how small businesses especially black businesses have been capped right I think they're they they speak to why you have such large numbers of of of businesses um that are black businesses that are that are that are not um you know um looking for um large opportunities. And I think and I think that's the issue and and um you know if we're going to tell you know small businesses especially black businesses that you know the deals that we're doing with um you know at the county level are too big for them so they need to just focus on the city. I think that's a

mistake. Um and um and and I would hope that we wouldn't send that kind of message um you know to to our small business community or especially our black business community. Um the the the second thing I wanted to point out um I think relates to um again just this huge opportunity we have right I think one of the things that I've seen historically and presently as it relates to to to black entrepreneurs black businesses and small businesses when they come with an idea is that they immediately ask for data um that that sometimes doesn't exist because of the barriers they're experiencing right um you know the data that you're asking for I think is something that we could certainly need to work together to get and because this this body has not ever empowered an organization like ours to help collect this data is then a catch 22. You know um um you know we've done plenty of pilot programs around doing something to to collect data. But I I don't think it's fair to ask

us um you know um about the data of what it would look like to um for such a program to exist when such a program has never ever been um in operation and and and and so I think I would I would I would invite you to think about think about that a little bit um and look at this as a as an opportunity to do a pilot program. Um we've certainly done hundreds of pilot programs in our time um to to to evaluate how something would work and then to collect data. Um so that's how I would look at this as um as this opportunity for us to investigate uh what this looks like. Um and again there are many more uh things we mentioned but respect of time I'll yield for now.

>> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for that. at Commissioner Stephen Valentine. >> You're muted.

>> Stephen Valentine, you're mute. You're muted if you're speaking. >> Oh, sorry about that, Chair. >> All right, >> Mr.

Roger, uh thank you uh for your presentation uh here uh today and and uh shining a light on the importance of small businesses, especially that of black businesses, which essentially um collectively are the the engine of our local economy. And so um black businesses certainly are essential uh to the local ecosystem as you have described here today. But in the best interest of time, I just want to highlight that currently your contract is for specifically workforce development and it sounds like you want to expand more into economic development. So I think it would be a good idea if you got the uh list of your partners who are actually operating in that space um to us that would be important at least for me to be able to evaluate people who are already operating that in that space. and you ex

you expressed the need to have access to tools and so some of those things that we talked about but is there any other um access to tools um that you'd like to highlight for us? No, I think um I think again there a continuum of tools around recruitment, retention um you know in in the business community that that um that that there are many um but broadly speaking I think uh I think uh recruitment and retention tools around how we market uh Durham. I think some of the partners that are here locally um play a role in that and I think that uh we we could be a better we could be of service to them um as as a contracted partner uh like a discover Durham if you will how we market Durham as a as a destination for tourism right um the kind of black businesses we're helping to recruit here the kind of small business we're helping recruit here um you know um um um there are opportunities uh there there are businesses in other places like a New Orleans or Washington you see um that

are expanding. Uh there's a business called uh uh uh cocktails and um Kitchen and Cocktails has been really expanding and we've had several conversations with with them. They're in they're in Miami. They're in they're in DC.

Um they're in and they've looked at Durham as as a as a space. But again without the the proper um work orders if you will um to engage in that work um it becomes very very difficult and and and and those kind of projects you know um um they're part of the continuum of how we of how we of how we do business here um but I don't think they need to be relegated to um the small business uh uh the city to do it in one way and and the county in one way um I think there that's opportunity to do it all there. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay, very good.

Well, I appreciate this presentation. Uh CJ, I'm going to be reaching out to you to try to connect to have a coffee or something. I do have questions. You know, you know, the

numbers that you've presented. I the things I I'd be interested in is understanding what your goals were for those years and what what that means. So like the number for example you said like 152 on something was that did you achieve the goal? Did you over or were did you not achieve those kinds of things?

>> We exceeded we exceeded our goals in every in every capacity we've exceeded our goals. >> Okay. Thank you. But yeah we'll I'm going to reach out to you.

We'll set some time and we'll be able to do that uh chat through that kind of thing. All right. >> Thank you so much for your presentation. Really appreciate it.

>> Thank you. The last item on our agenda is a U legislative goals update in preparation for general assembly short session. Um, manager Hager, >> sorry. Um we will uh have an update from

Deborah Craig Ray, our chief communications officer um about the preparation for the short session. And um as you know that this general assembly will be vetting many key areas and um there are opportunities for us to um present new local bills um and in light of this environment having those conversations now will help us um as we work with our delegation. So Deborah I'll turn it over to you. Um, good morning um, Chair Lee, board members and manager Hager and others.

Um, I apologize about my camera. It doesn't seem to be working this morning. Um, and I'll try to keep to my time. Chair Lee, um, first of all, I'd like to say that um, as you know, we have had a very challenging general assembly session this time. uh not a whole lot of policy has gone on and certainly we

remain the only state in the union without a budget and so that is sort of the um overview of where we are. Recently, I had a conversation with our lobbyist um from Aguire Woods and we talked frankly about what might be expected during this um incoming session. And so I'll have some information about that. But I did want to just draw your attention to the handout that I shared where I noted the local legislative goals that had been approved by our board and the current status of those and where something was introduced.

I noted that. And then of course the current status of the bill and there were only a handful as you can see in my conversation with um Johnny Tilllet and Amanda Falconberry our lobbyists um they recommended prioritizing a few things and I will just read that from my notes if you don't mind. Um the

first item that's on the list is about um data privacy for use. And so what they tried to work on with that is to pursue a statewide standard um drafted by the legislative analysts and that bill was actually introduced by Senator Chiplick and all we wanted to do was just to get Durham County added to it. So it was very simple from our standpoint but again we had some challenges but that is going to be a priority for our lawmakers and our uh lobbyists. The other bill that they emphasized was Senate Bill 281 essential relief for child care act. Now key components are being advanced in other legislation they say including the budget. So the expectation is that after the primary um session would consider conversations about the budget and we may have more to

hear about and we may get closer to passing a budget but that certainly is a little ways off. And finally um monitoring items. Um they are going to be continuing to monitor the meetings of the House Select Committee on property tax reduction and reform as well as any developments related to the repeal or partial repeal of the downzoning law that you recall was passed in 2024. So again, those are some of the priorities that um we'll be working on with Maguire Woods. The other thing I will note that this is a time if you have some other local concerns, local bills that you would like to consider, now is the time to discuss those. And he also emphasized, we want to stay away from bills involving revenue and lean more toward advancing bills

that would involve a policy. And again, that continues the tone that we heard in previous meetings. And I see some hands. >> Absolutely.

Um I have Commissioner Burton first and then I'll have Commissioner Alum. >> All right. Thank you. Um, so one of my concerns or something that I know we all are wanting is we are wanting teachers, school-based employees, state employees paid more money. And I am wanting something and I know all of us do are wanting something moved around that because as a county um it's becoming more challenging for us to keep up with those costs, particularly trying to get school-based

workers, employees to a living wage. And it's going to be difficult for us as a county to do it on our own. And moving our legislature to fund public schools and make sure that these valuable workers are getting paid a living wage. And I know that is something that is being felt across the state.

I know there's discussion in Meckllinburgg County around this. But I really want our lobbyists to have these conversations um because I really think I I I don't think I know it's just really paramount for us to keep that moving and keeping that in the forefront of our legislature. So I just wanted to put that out there >> and and you are absolutely correct. That is definitely a priority um across the board. um all of our counties, the

county commissioners association, it's a priority. We've obviously had conversations with our great Durham lawmakers, they are definitely on board. But um again, the issue is we've got to get this budget through and um until the leadership on the House and the Senate side come together because really the issue is those two sides are far apart in budget discussions. if you have kept up with the conversations.

And so we we're really fighting um serious challenge right now with a budget. But thank you. Absolutely. I agree.

>> Commissioner Long >> um was pulling up my notes. Um sorry, I'm scrolling to find the star log. Okay. So, one of the things and I know um Deborah you started off with the uh disclaimer to avoid budget related finance questions which you're probably going to get from us all budget related

finance questions but one I just wanted to reup I know we've had some conversations and Wendy and I as well as probably uh chair Dr. have been in from our transit conversations that we all sit in um conversations around uh transit tax and I know Commissioner Stephen Valentine, you and I have talked about this as well. uh for the city to uh explore having their own transit tax dollars to address their um maintenance costs and facility upkeep needs that so that way Durham County's transit tax dollars are able to stay focused on the larger scale projects like bus rapid transit. And so if we can see and I know Doug Pachensky from uh TPO is also interested in these conversations. If we can bring that as a priority to our delegation that is not just for Durham County but the city as well as our transit partners in the region. Another thing that we've uh

talked about and to the item that Commissioner Burton had had I'm glad that she had us have a presentation on a few work sessions ago or last work session about the um family reunification processes and just around our court systems in general. If we and again this is more budget but like get advocating for our state legislature state yeah state legislature to put more resources statewide into our judicial systems to help all of 100 county courts get through their backlog and um improving the state systems to avoid delays and the ways that it's costing counties more money. uh when we have these delays and actually causing an increase in the population of our jails when people are not able to go through uh their trial process and are having to stay in the jail for longer periods of time and how that's impacting cost to counties as well as the human aspect of

that. Um also, uh if and I know this is like the I know the realm of the state legislature we're working with, but how we can implement more clean energy tax uh incentives at the local level. Um I know this was something that we had gone through and we almost got passed at the legislative conference, NCAACCC legislative conference like what was that Wendy? like 22 23 legislative goals conference if we can revisit that.

Um because I think we almost got it passed but it failed like by two votes at the legislative goals conference. So trying to bring that back up of like since it is something that Republican commissioners are also interested in as well. >> Okay. And thank you. Those are very good um suggestions and certainly we will work on that. But I will note that for this time we are needing to focus on

Durham County specific goals and we will have to hold statewide goals for our process as we start planning for 27 which will probably be um early summer. But I am making notes and we will make sure that we bring these up when we have those conversations. But very good goals. >> All right.

Thank you, Commissioner Lum. Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. >> Thank you. Um, uh, thank you as always, Deborah, for keeping on top of everything and I'm really grateful, uh, to our statewide lobbyists for their work. Um just to kind of pile on with what other commissioners have said, um I think it's very the conversation around um the committee looking at property tax is very concerning. I want to thank Commissioner Burton for her editorial in the Indie about this and

educating the greater Durham community. I think it's really important for our residents to understand the pressure that has been put on our local county property tax directly because we are not getting adequate support from the state government for paying our teachers for school repairs, maintenance, and new construction. And so if the state legislature literally comes and takes away our local taxing authority, then we're really we will not be able to meet the basic local needs that we have as a county. And so um you know these issues are all tied together and I think Deborah it's going to be really important. I know this is going to be a top priority for the North Carolina Association >> of County Commissioners and so that we

>> are working, you know, handin glove with them and our lobbyists >> so that we can under, you know, make the case about the serious um problems that could result uh for every single county and every single Durham resident. You know, we're we're already having a problem with, and I think this is a lot of the fight right now between the House and the Senate, Republican controlled, is because the way that they're capping the corporate um taxes, we we're going to have revenues shortfalls. And so the these are the bigger issues and they're complicated and we have to keep work working at educating our community members about the source of the problems. Um and I I feel and hear it when we have residents who are really suffering under the property tax, but

there are reasons for it that are beyond our control right now. And to Commissioner Burton's point also about teacher salaries, I believe we're now 48th people. Please correct me in the United States. >> I think you're right.

>> Is what is that, Commissioner Burton? >> 50th. >> 50th. >> So we're 50.

Okay. >> 50th. So here we are literally at the bottom of all of >> budget >> and no budget. And it so it is truly a crisis.

Um I I do want to also write to follow up on Commissioner Lom's point around transportation and transit funding. Again, same issue. We don't have enough money. Um I do want to say that I support us trying to follow up on the model that has already been approved, which is what was approved for Meckllinmberg County and Charlotte and Meckllinmberg County. I think that is it's important that we try to follow up

on what the general assembly has already approved and which is following um the model that we have for our existing transit tax. Um and so I think we'll be mo most successful if we are following that model as well as um working with Campo. So if our lobbyists, if we can get folks together, Deborah, >> um with Triangle West, TPO, uh Campo, which is, you know, way county and beyond and Raleigh, and then with, you know, our our MO to um I think we'll be most successful, which is the 1 cent sales tax increase, but it is a different structure than our existing half% sales tax. It's a it's a different structure. And I I hope that that would help us be successful because we don't have enough money for our transit and transportation needs in

Durham. Um and then the last two other things. One is the Falls Lake rules. Um, you know, we we I we can continue this conversation offline, Deborah, but these are this is happening right now with the Upper News River Basin Association, and we're going to need our lobbyists to get involved.

Um, it's very consequential for the future growth of Durham County and the city of Durham if we don't get fair rules, fair and reasonable rules approved. It could have a detrimental effect on the future of Durham. So, I I want to make sure that our lobbyist gets pulled into that. I am serving as chair of the UNRBA. Um uh also the SNAP funding we haven't resolved around around the administrative cost burden for counties. Um and I think I that's

something else that is a statewide issue. But um you know and also has a great impact on Durham County and every single DSS that these new rules are going to be such a big burden to administer and are a waste of money, but we need the state to be helping us with that administrative cost. So I do want to lift that up as well. Thank you.

>> Yep. And I'll just remind you that we do have a meeting set up on April 17th uh with our lawmakers um to just go over strategy for the upcoming session. And of course, we're communicating with them on a regular basis. Anyway, thank you.

>> All right. And then Commissioner Stephen Valentine here. I realize that uh I'm I'm in the middle of us uh adjourning here, so I'll be very fine. You're fine. take it. >> So, I'd like to lend my uh support to us

following the Meckllinburgg uh transit tax model. Uh we've talked or I've talked with uh Commissioner Lam and Commissioner Wendy Jacobs about this issue. And I think that uh we should be communicating to our lobbyists to um talk to those who were able to to get this across the finish line in Meburg County so that uh Dorm County uh can can meet its needs in that regard. Uh, also just a question for um Craig Lee or Craig uh Craig Lee.

Deborah Craig Ray, sorry. Craig Lee, Deborah Craig Ray. Um, with regard with regard to local bills and uh additional priorities. Yeah, you mentioned the time is now, but if you can give me a a time frame for any of those sorts of sorts of actions out to the future because I know that we meet with the delegation if my mind serves it well sometime in uh late March or or April.

>> It's April 17th. >> April 17th. Okay, good. >> And uh I

apologize. I don't have the local bill deadline on me right now, but your board would need to approve anything that we would carry forward um at the next meeting or certainly the one after that so that I could communicate it to the lawmakers. >> Okay. Thank you.

Mhm. >> And and lastly, uh in the last legislative session, I know that Representative Fernita Austin had continued her efforts to try to carve out an authority for um local schools, meaning Dorm public schools, um to be able to work with the county with respect to housing for our teachers. And so we can get an update on that, I would really appreciate that. Actually, um I did have a conversation with her staff earlier before the weather. I'm sorry. Um the question was around um it was

something I needed to speak to the manager about. Um, I had talked to our attorney and he suggested that I speak to the manager and so I need to work with manager Hager to get you an answer, sir. >> Okay. Thank you so much, >> Mhm.

>> chair. >> All right. >> My remarks. >> Thank you very much.

Are there any other comments we want to consider? All right. I think everyone has uh contributed their comments. Uh uh Deborah.

So, we appreciate your presentation. appreciate your information. And that was our last item on our agenda for this work sess work session today. Um if there's not anything else from any of the commissioners or manager Hager, I will consider us adjourned.

Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. Y'all have a good day. Thank