As we convene for the dorm County Commissioner meeting it's crucial to recognize the painful truth of history that we stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Kataba Eno okichi shakori and Tuscarora peoples whose deep connections to this land predates our arrival we acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred leading to the dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands their resilience in the face of of adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit may we humbly honor the 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 I will now ask commissioner Vice chair Burns to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance may we all rise I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and.
Justice for. All are there any adjustments to the agenda seeing none I will pass it off to clerk Wallace for announcements good evening everyone I will read the announcements published in tonight's agenda Durham residents in need of in need of a fan or air conditioner may be able to get one from the Durham County Department of Social Services there are eligibility requirements you can call 91 95608 to find out more information pickup is in lobby number 27 on the second floor of the Human Services building which is located at 4:14 East Main Street join the Durham County Library for a drop in crafting activity in celebration of disability pride month we welcome all agents to watercolor and or color their own disability plag disability pride flag you will also have the opportunity to learn more about Durham County Libraries accessibility resources it is held on Tuesday July 9th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Tuesday July 23rd from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the main library located at 300 North Roxboro.
Street come out and listen to the descendants of stagville discuss their history during a panel discussion at the Durham County Main Library on Saturday July 13th from 10:30 a.m. till 12:00 noon you can register online there is a link for the registration and to learn more at making a way out of no way you can visit stagville Memorial project.org the Durham County Cooperative Extension and Durham congregations in action has Grant funds available to support Durham residents access to nutritious food applications are due July 15th 2024 information and applications can be found there is a Google Drive Link fiscal year 2025 agricultural Economic Development grant program is now open the deadline for the Durham County schools and Farmers to apply is Friday August the 23rd at 11:59 p.m. the Durham so and Water Conservation District is holding a training session on Tuesday July 16th at 6:00 p.m. at the Durham Farm Bureau located at 1901 hillindale Road it will also be offered online you can register at a link for training for additional information.
You can contact Sher scly at s c l l y at DC nc.gov or you can call 9956 558 the 22nd annual Russell blunt East Coast invitational track meet will be held inside Durham County Memorial Stadium located at 750 Stadium Drive from Friday July 19th through Sunday July 21st Gates will open at 8:00 a.m. With the first events begin beginning at 9:00 a.m. each day for additional information you can visit the Durham sters.com website and lastly everyone is invited to a pair of community fors to introduce our new resources for youth success and empowerment rise Assessment Center at the Durham County Main Library Auditorium from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday July 30th or Tuesday August 13th these information informative and engaging Community sessions will provide community members a chance to learn about the new program and its benefits to Durham County Community participants will get a firsthand perspective from Rise assessment center staff be able to ask questions and share their thoughts you can submit questions in advance to the.
Staff by completing a form which there is a link online and you can also reach out to rise that's r y s e DC nc.gov that concludes the announcements published in tonight's agenda thank you clerk Wallace are there any announcements from the board commissioner Howton thank you madam chair I have I want to talk a little bit about go triangle and the success that we've been having I serve as a chair of go triangle and there are such great things that that's happening with the staff the board of directors and the staff at Durham County we have received the triangle Mobility Hub raised Grant award and what that is is the triangle Mobility Hub will be a new multimodal Transportation Center positioned in the part of a Transit oriented District in the Research Triangle Park and the timeline for the project completion is set tentatively for 2028 at a projected cost of $58 million and we received $1 million to start with and this is just quite an exciting time for all these to.
Happen one of the other things that's happened is the 250 million for $250,000 go triangle bus project and then another 1.25 million so there's a lot that's happening with go triangle and its success and I know that most of our citizens don't hear about all the work that's being done because go triangle is a regional is what's happening with go triangle is for the region and we worked to try and bring in more federal dollars cuz City County Durham County Orange County cannot carry the burden of all the work that needs to get done and all the funds that need to get done so it's exciting to see these things happening and then the governor just signed off on the $2 tax automobile tax for go triangle so there is so much and there will there was a press release regarding this so there's a lot of things that is happening around go triangle and especially with getting the money and we do want to acknowledge I want to acknowledge Ellen Beckman and her.
Hard work with her and her team that she helps us to get this money in because it's needed to get the things done and to be able to have a regional transit that's needed in the area so that people can get to the jobs can get to doctor's offices to there's so much that's needed around the mobility of Transit so I'm just I just wanted to bring this forward and talk a little bit about it and I passed out copies of the grants to each one of my board members and just I'm just excited that we're able to to really make something happen so that a Citizens see that what the legislature did years ago in creating this entity is not going to waste because it takes people committed it takes people willing to fight for making things like this happen for for for the region thank you madam chair thank you commissioner Haron and thank you for your leadership on the go triangle board and bringing that to us it's my pleasure commissioner.
Jacobs yes so first of all very exciting for us to get the funding for the triangle Mobility Hub is really really important for our region it's going to be a place where bus service train service are local and bus Rapid Transit passenger rail also triangle Bikeway can all meet up at one place and also there are future plans for there to be some type of service from there to the airport which we know we hear over and over again that people want an efficient effective transit to get to the airport so that is that is really really exciting I just wanted to first of all one item that I guess didn't make it into our announcements to let the manager speak for a minute about the announcement of this new certify and succeed program to help minority and women own businesses that because that application process is starting now so and and it's going to be available to people in the Community one-on-one sessions through June 2025 so I have one other announcement but.
M u Madam manager if you could just share or whoever is appropriate just to let the community know about this we did put out a press release around it yes we did you did a really good job sharing the details but it is a program that we are partnering with Latasha best Gaddy her company partnering with us and I'm sorry that the Name Escapes me if anyone can text me with infinity Bridges Infinity Bridges yes yes yes and so it is to help our small businesses and minority women business enterprises to become certified so that they are eligible to compete on contracts what a lot of people don't understand is in order for us to count mwbe utilization The Firm has to be be certified and so we want to get our firms as many firms as possible certified so that we can count them toward mwbe utilization numbers thank you and that's that's actually that was led by our economic development team so they worked in conjunction with our mwbe.
Staff and so we're excited about the Partnerships that are happening okay well thank you so we'll I'll forward that we can include that in the announcements and the other item I just wanted to note that tonight is the 80th anniversary of the murder of private Booker T spicely on July 8th 1944 private spicely was was a soldier who was stationed at Camp Butner and he was shot and killed by a bus driver Duke power was the bus service provider now Duke Energy at that time and it involved him being asked to be move further back in the bus at that time and the jury at that time acquitted the best driver within 28 minutes I see Shannon Shannon and I were at a play a reading last night there is going to be a play coming out so keep your keep your ears and eyes open it'll be November 14th through 17th in Durham and November 7th through 10th 2024 in Chapel Hill called the changing same the cold.
Blooded murder of Booker T spicely by Mike Wy and Howard craft there was a reading last night at North Star church but tonight right now at 7:30 there is a vigil a silent vigil at the historic marker which is near the school of math and science at the corner of West club and Broad Street it is the only historic Mar marker in the state of North Carolina that references Jim Crow laws because private spicely he died standing up against the Jim Crow law so I just want to acknowledge that is happening right now thank you thank you CHR Jacob's Vice chair burds she got mine so yeah I don't I think when we publicized that I'm happy she said it is the intersection of West club and Broad Street because I think they kept saying West club and Berkeley so if anybody anybody who's watching that is the correct intersection and so we want to make sure folks do get that and we do want to acknowledge that 80y year history.
Here I did want to throw out two things there will be we've done significant Investments on this board in stagville there will be a descendants of stag panel on July 13th 2024 I know that we have the poster out so if you want to learn about some additional pieces of this Rich history the tapestry quilt a Durham that does involve slavery you know stagville I've said it up here before was not just a slave plantation it was a slave complex the average Plantation in those times had a small Plantation had three to four slaves average large Plantation had about 40 to 60 slaves stagville had 900 slaves in Durham so just to let you know like the kind of romanticized idea that we see on TV stagville which was here in Durham was a slave plantation and it will be doing a descendant panel I also want to at least acknowledge two people I see that we do have our president JB buckon here from the from the community.
College hello and as we always like to do this customary here I want to acknowledge our city councilwoman DJ Freeman is also here I see she's bought her better half so it's always welcome to our Chambers and the other thing I wanted to throw out there I'm super excited because I think sometimes we do these meetings in the public get to come in for just one but there's such a i i there's such an intersection of of the work that we do so when we sit here and we talk about the new succeed and certified certified succeed program this individual who has this company was also an individual who recently graduated from our innerwise program and she also used to be the former director at the small small business technology Development Center at at Durham Tech so here we have an investment that we've made into a small business and this small business is now able to expand and do additional work another example this week I had an.
Opportunity to go to the women moving forward conference and a young man walked up to me and he wanted me to share my thanks with the staff as well as with my colleagues young man now has his own business I won't say his name he's a carpenter now his wife actually they both do a carpenter HB and he his wife also went through the Bulls initiative so she went through the Bulls Initiative for bow Works he actually now is an apprentice but the thing is they are both they they're both her Hub certified now but the big thing is they were grad he was a graduate in our first hati reborn Justice movement class that young man walked up to me with a suit on and said commissioner Burns please tell your colleagues thank you because you saved my life and you saved my wife's life and please continue to invest in this program so here he was oh he he he says you know we sell Pharmaceuticals the legal way now commissioner Burns and.
We're proud of that so I do want to share that and last but not least I see Andy Amica walking in right on time the last time I was up here and I think the manager what up here we shared that because we do have two additional public hearings tonight about our business and this will be my last announcement you know the Investments that we make in these so just as we open up this public hearing I think this time last year year we said that every dollar that we make in a tax investment for a company is something like $521 happy to tell you all now that every dollar we invest is actually 600 they we get $633 back for every dollar.
That we invest in the new business in the in the businesses that we get to come here through our tax incentives so think about it would you not want to invest a dollar and get $633 back that is what we get to do on this board and this body when we bring companies in so keep that in your back pocket as you see us trying to build back better right hand thank you thank you Vice chair Barn okay that will move us to our citizen comments since we only have one meeting this month we'll have citizen comments during this time and we have one individual Dwayne kite CR C yes if you want to come over to this side to this microphone thank you and you'll have 3 minutes to address the.
Board good evening commissioner Madam chair Madam manager my name is Dwayne kite I am the owner of krych Engineering Group we are located at 4900 KRA Boulevard Suite in Greensboro we are an 11 person minority owned professional engineering firm we've been in business for 10 years and we have worked on a handful of projects for the county we're currently working on a project as a subc consultant to HDR that project is the comprehensive facility Assessment program and on that project krych were're responsible for performing the on-site assessments of your HVAC and mechanical equipment in 43 of your county maintained facilities including your libraries all your libraries we went through your EMS stations and even the courthouse we're in today and K committed 20% of our Workforce to the project over three consecutive months from January to March and we submitted a total of three invoices for our work and to date we have two outstanding invoices totaling nearly $50,000 of work completed dating back to January one invoice in the amount of.
$33,750 days outstanding and another invoice in the amount of $1 155,156 35 is 106 days outstanding krych has performed outstanding service for to HDR in the county on this project and committed 20% of our Workforce doing so delivering our task on time and within budget however the con Financial consideration for for our hard work has not been maintained or delivered I'm sure you'll hear excuses from the prime consultant to why krych hasn't been paid for example you may hear that oh their invoice wasn't turned in on time or it was lost in the email or that we just for simply forgot about it but allow me to Reb rebut some of those comments before they start because we submitted our invoices the 135 38 day outstanding invoice we submitted on February 22nd 6 days before the month closed our 106 day outstanding invoice we submitted on March 25th six days before the the month closed and also we've reached out to the prime project manager over seven times since April regarding payment twice in April.
Three times in June and twice in July but I feel it's in you know every last individual on this project has been paid including my two employees that worked on this job I'm sure all of hdr's employees that worked on the job has been paid and all the the county staff that supported the job but I haven't been paid and you know I hate to be here shedding light on this issue but I think it's important we hear about mwe inclusion and getting people paid and I I appreciate your time thank you thank you n and I spoke with the manager really briefly right now it seems like yeah as you mentioned that this this is a consultant the main Consulting Group that hasn't paid this invoice so the manager is going to follow up with them to ask them where the holdup is and why this hasn't been processed I apologize for the inconvenience that has caused I appreciate your time thank you so much thank you sirk you that concludes our citizen.
Comments I will now ask for the approval of our minutes we have three work one work session and two regular session meeting minutes that need to be approved second okay moved by commissioner Haron second by Vice chair Burns all in favor say I I any opposed okay the motion passes 5 to zero now we will move to our ceremonial items with the introduction of the 2024 Durham County 4 AG youth delegate Amanda Davis for the NC Association of County Commissioners youth voice program good evening County Commissioners and County Manager on behalf of Durham County Cooperative Extension I am pleased to present the 2024 youth voice 4 Delegate for Durham County Amanda Davis Amanda has been a very active and very valued youth leader within both our 4 and our kids voting programs and we are very very pleased that she will be representing our County at this important event I'm going to let Amanda introduce herself to you good evening everyone my name is Amanda Davis I'm a rising 10th grade.
Homeschooler and I've been actively involved in 4 and kids voting dome for the last two years I'm excited to attend youth voice as I believe it will offer valuable opportunities to connect with fellow Youth and hone my leadership abilities my experence experience with 4 and kids voting Durham have prepared me for this opportunity through my participation in citizenship Focus Congress an internship and various camps I'm proud to share that I received a silver award at District activity day and will be assuming the role of North Central District president of 4 after Congress as a young person born and raised in Durham I'm aware of the significant impact the County Commissioners have on issues I care about such as gun violence and homelessness this understanding fuels my enthusiasm to participate and contribute meaningfully to these important discussion excuse me these important discussions I would like to hand a PIN to each of the Board of County Commissioners on behalf of 4 and thank you all for your time and we'd also like to get a photo.
With you if possible the man yeah baby bought a gift.
You.
For e.
Congratulations again Amanda and thank you so much for representing Durham County that will now move us to our.
Consent agenda we have a very very Hefty consent agenda because as I mentioned this is our only meeting for the month of July before we go on break are there any items that a commissioner would like to pull commissioner Carter you tell me if I need to pull it or if I can just ask a question about one it's related to item 24- 0388 the approval of the lease renewal with the animal protection Society I think you just ask it I'm just curious about the timing of this approval and the fact that we haven't yet approved the contract for services with APS and just wondering how that will work I mean in order for them to to meet the qualifications for the lease they have to provide the services and yet there we haven't approved the contract yet for services and so I just am curious about that and I'm sorry I didn't ask earlier it's just I didn't get to it in time and I don't know who can.
Answer M demands are you able to respond to that not necessarily about right that's what they need I can offer one piece of information ma'am the contract for services came to me this morning it's scheduled for your August 5th work session now why it's coming off of different times I can't speak to that okay so maybe we can amend the the rules and approve it at the August 5th session okay yeah and and this is just a guess but it probably is related to the ending date for the lease and so we probably need to get the lease renewed as soon as possible so that there's no Gap okay that sounds good I think the service contract also ends at the end of June so that needs to also be approved ASAP which is what we're going to do okay very good that's what I wanted to confirm thank you.
Any other questions item commissioner Harton and this also is not something I want to pull but I do want to make a comment about it and then there is one that I may need staff to talk on I want to just lift up the Strategic plan and talk and share a little bit about strategic plan and the staff that worked on this a while back years ago you know I was here when we did not have a strategic plan we didn't have a strategic plan and when it was brought before our board it was not something that the board wanted to embrace and we had to get someone from the school of government to come in and explain what it meant for this board to have a strategic plan so it is very exciting to see how this has warped into and the staff has worked on it consistently until now it's such a great plan that talks about our vision our mission and our values because it wasn't something that as.
Board of County Commissioners as this board the former board was embracing so I'm excited to see this going forward thank you madam man manager thanks to the staff and all has worked on this the other one that I was looking at is 249 391 man manager this is about the the food and the how the community will receive it just for the public could we could we talk about that a little bit before we or do do we need to pull it Madam chair or can we have just have the manager talk about a little bit if it's just an explanation I think the manager can respond to it it's 0391 and I'm not sure if Donna is still here y don't want to steal her Thunder but yeah go all righty Le we still have a lot of food and security community and some people may not know how to access it and thanks Commissioners I'm Donar Walton the County Extension director I'm gonna let Raina goldon bag who's our.
Our food security coordinator answer this for you so I'm sorry were you just asking for a little more clarification on what the grant how the grants will be administered was yeah so the County the food security grants we have had for several years this is the second year I believe that it's been funded through arpa funds and we've used an outside contractor to help to actually administer that because that really helps us with our capacity to be able to do more food security work in Durham so communities in Partnership is the organization that that was that were putting forward to be awarded the contract to administer the grants to community organizations that are working on food security for our most pressing needs that we might not be able to fill through other other programs and funding that we're working on through the county so Cien in the community not.
Oh to receive the grant yes so communities and partnership and this was part of the RFP that we wrote is that it was important for the the contractor to be able they put a call out to the community for the grants and with plenty of time for all Community organizations and anyone that wants to apply to under understand the grant there's information sessions and then the organizations will fill out the applications and CIP communities in Partnership will be the one that determines the funding based on what was outlined from the county in the RFP based on the criteria yeah and I and I would add that they have a community so there's a community Advisory Group that that CIP coordinates as part of this RFP and they also so there's a range of Grants so there's also a lot of over the the time we've been doing this type of work we've moved from just straight emergency food which we started during covid to a little bit more of a systemic approach where we're also.
Encouraging organizations to come forward through this this process with grants where they are working collaboratively with other organizations so that that's that's a priority for example or they're making systemic changes to their own work so perhaps maybe they're choosing to to use more culturally appropriate Foods in the communities that serve or they have they've also been asked as part of this grant process to make sure that they are connecting with and engaging the people that they actually serve so in some way those folks who are receiving the food assistance through the organizations that win the grants are also contributing to the betterment and the continuance of the food they are receiving and so it's not just an exchange where we're just giving out charitable food which I think is kind of a it was a place where we started when we started this process but it's really evolved to a much more sophisticated approach that really benefits community members more deeply and also the organizations because I will say that part of the RFP includes.
The vendor supplying the organizations with capacity building efforts around their own capacity to get other grants not just relying for example on the county but also to look at other grant opportunities and to also build their their work in ways that are more helpful and longstanding for them because we know food serving organizations are also often on the margin as well they're they're often kind of you know they're doing what they can do when they bring money in and then they they you know are always on the look so we are looking at that as a capacity building strategy within this broader Grant effort I hope that's helpful yeah that one question.
Inform so there will be so when the RF so when the request for proposals is released there will be communication information about their requirements within within the RFP about what the what the vendor is providing in terms of that information so they'll first be providing information about the information sessions and the application and there's also a lot of support one of the things we want to do is we don't want to keep organizations that maybe traditionally have been have found grants less accessible to them to get access to those grants so so there will be a lot of communication I'm sure this will be part of your announce ments at an upcoming meeting I feel quite certain so yes so there will be a lot of information out there thank you so you are so welcome commissioner Jacobs yeah I just wanted to follow up on that because I had sent a question to Donna and just to clarify that the the because it's not clear from the way the item is worded in.
Our agenda but there is going to be $400,000 available to to the community for the grants so that that I just want to make sure that that's very clear for everyone thank you thank you for that clarification are there any questions about this item or the consent agenda okay then I will entertain a motion for approval so move second okay move by Vice chair Burn seconded by commissioner Carter all in favor say I I any against any extensions okay nope all motion the consent agenda is passed 5 to Zer that now brings us to our public hearings with the first one being the public hearing to adopt the resolution related to not to exceed $40 million Revenue bond series 2024 for RTI let's believe we have Jim T is going to be oh there you go.
Good evening this is a hearing to approve a bond a teer hearing to approve a Bond issuance for RTI I'm sure many of you on the board and everyone here is familiar with RTI a leading nonprofit research and Technology Institute headquartered here in Durham County they have 6,000 employees many of which live and work here in Durham County and this Bond issuance is to approve financing to acquire software and enterprise resource planning software that is essentially a business tool that tracks business processes like procurement Finance HR and similar metrics across the entirety of the RTI organization this tea hearing and resolution are only for purposes of satisfying the requirements of the tax code and it does not reflect this Bond issuance does not reflect the County's debt it is not the County's debt but I'm happy to to take any questions before we do the hearing are there any questions for commissioner Jacobs yes could you or I don't know the County Attorney clarify we have not done.
Something like this in a long time so I think it would be good at least from our attorney or whoever is appropriate to just clarify why this is coming to us for approval and that it does not convey any type of liability financially on the county yeah I can I can certainly answer that the essentially the tax because of the way the tax code is set up it ensures that there is this type of public hearing and approval from the jurisdiction in which the project is located and so because RTI is headquartered here this is where the hearing is is meant to be under the tax code so it's just a way for the for the public to be aware of the project since it is located here however the the debt is issued ued by an external Wisconsin based in this case entity and therefore the debt is not is not the County's debt thank you commissioner Carter the vice shair Burns I'm just curious in approving this are we.
Affirming a set of criteria or or anything in any way why might one not approve this why might an elected body not approve it I mean I I'm just wondering what does the law say that by approving this we are saying XYZ I just not sure what it means yeah that that's a a very understandable question there there's really no criteria I suppose that you're you're affirming in any way again it's really just to give the public that is in the location of wherever the project is located in this case here in Durham County notice really of the of the event it's really I can't tell you why someone might disapprove it it's it's I suppose a fairly routine Hearing in the sense that again it it just doesn't reflect the County's St are are do you think we're we're at least affirming that we believe this is in the best interest of Durham County residents or something like that certain certainly that's true of course if if the board.
Found any particular project under these circumstances to not be in the best interest that the tax code is also providing you an opportunity to to vote precisely so so in that sense yes so that's what we're affirming that we believe this is in the best interest of Durham County's residence that's correct thank you yes hi Mr Tweety I'm not a lawyer but I play one on TV and so I did read some of the approval of the resolution and just correct me if I'm wrong because I I do I I do I hear what my colleagues are saying but it seems that this is more about geolocation and or geography and what the federal law says and what Wisconsin says and I know we have but it says under the federal tax code and the Wisconsin statute creating a Public Finance Authority the bond must be approved in principle so only in principle not that we necessarily support object but in principle by the elected legislative body of a governmental entity with jurisdiction.
Over the project at the public hearing and then it says because of rti's principal location I.E here so it really is like federal law and Wisconsin's law that says hey we need to make sure that the people where this office is located are okay with that so is that what is kind of the guiding principle for why this came in front of us in the first place yes that's precisely correct I I think you've you've summed it up very very well and and as we were look flaty will get you everywhere but yeah that's I think that's the idea is that again we are approving the principle of the matter that it's that we think it's you think it's in the best interest of the county thank you so much sir commissioner Howton can you turn your mic on commissioner on and back off but good time with his mic does it impact all of the businesses in in the Research Triangle in sorry in what sense I.
Suppose do you mean that the the actual the actual issuance of this debt I suppose that's particularly for this project for RTI but this in theory could apply to any any business in the Research Triangle. Park so if they want to do a bond it would any of the businesses could apply for what under the if they meet the criteria that is necessary for the like in this case RTI is a nonprofit organization for example and so these are qualified private activity bonds that can only be issued by nonprofit organizations so there's certainly very there's a lot of requirements for different types of bond issuances so it certainly depends on what the structure of the business is for example what they're going to use the bonds for but in this case because it is a nonprofit organization that's issuing the bonds they can take advantage of these tax incentives to issue the bonds and get get at least some of them in a tax exempt cont text if that makes sense.
Okay if there's no further questions then I will open the tefra hearing for the purposes of meeting the requirements of the Public Finance Authority and section 147f of the Internal Revenue code AS amended regarding the possible issuance by the public Finance Authority of one or more series of its revenue bonds RTI series 2024 in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $40 million and since we've had the explanation from Mr Twitty do we need to repeat the explanation okay wonderful then now that the public hearing is open are there any persons who wish to speak for or against the bonds or the.
Project okay here heing none I will hereby close this public hearing and we will move to the approval of a resolution for this Bond so earlier this should I read this whole thing okay earlier this evening the Board of Commissioners held a public hearing for purposes of meeting the requirements of the Public Finance Authority and section 147f of the Internal Revenue code AS amended regarding the possible issuance by the public Finance Authority of one or more series of its revenue bonds series 2024 in an aggregate principal amount not to exceed 40 million the proceeds of the bond will be loaned to RTI a nor Research Triangle Institute a North Carolina nonprofit corporation and used to finance including through reimbursement the acquisition and installation of cloud-based enterprise resource planning software and pay certain costs incurred in connection with the issuance of the bonds the project is or will be owned and operated by RTI and is or will be assessed through the principal office of RTI located at 3040 corn Wallace Road Durham North Carolina.
27709 under the federal tax code and the Wisconsin statute creating the Public Finance Authority the bond must be approved in principle by the elected legislative body of a governmental unit with jurisdiction over the project after a public hearing because RT principal office is located in the county at 3040 car Wallis Road Durham North Carolina 27709 the Board of Commissioners can satisfy the requirement of the code and Wisconsin law by adopting a resolution approving in principle the issuance of the bonds by adopting such a resolution the county will have no liability whatsoever for the payment of principal premium if any or interest on the bonds and the bonds will not affect the County's legal debt limit RTI will be solely responsible for repayment of the bonds adoption of this resolution is solely to satisfy the requirements of the federal tax code and Wisconsin law now I'll introduce the resolution that Maguire Woods LLP is serving as Bond Council and Council to RTI for this transaction with attorney Jim Twitty with McGuire Woods is present and can.
Answer any questions that the Commissioners may have at this time if there are no questions I will entertain a motion to adopt the resolution entitled resolution approving in principle the issuance of not to exceed 40 million of Public Finance Authority revenue bonds RTI series 2024 for the benefit of Research Triangle Institute so moved moved by Vice chair Burns seconded by commissioner Carter I'll will now ask for a vote all in favor say I I any opposed any extensions okay the resolution is approved 5 to zero thank you Mr twiy thank you that brings us to our next public hearing for a public hearing to consider a performance-based award for project high power with Iona and we have Matt from our Economic Development Office good evening my name is Matt fter and I'm the economic development manager for Durham County the board tonight is requested to hold a public hearing to consider a performance-based incentive award for project high power in the amount of $170,000 and to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute a.
Performance agreement for project high power project high power is the construction and operation of a new premium office headquarters for Iona which will create 203 jobs and invest approximately $10 million over five years the project was officially announced at a press conference last month in downtown Durham before I go into some of the details of the project I'd just like to recognize and thank several of the folks and organizations who worked closely with Durham County to bring this exciting project here at Iona Seth Cutler the CEO Richard statti the chief product officer Derek rush I see him right there their Chief Financial Officer and their general counsel angel Allen we'd also like to thank CBR the site consultant Sydney August and Seth marale Matt glaic at the Durham Chamber of Commerce worked really hard on this project and of course thanks to the whole edpnc Governor's team and state Commerce Department we're very appreciative of their hard work and their commitment Iona is a clean energy technology and electric vehicle charging.
Company they will develop design build and oper operate a unique high-powered EV charging station network and customer experience that will lead to increased EV adoption in North America the network will support and be open to electric vehicles of all brands in addition to corporate functions iona's new state-of-the-art facility here in Durham will include a customer experience lab for research and development of software and Hardware to create a network of more than 30,000 electric vehicle charging points the was founded by a partnership of major Automotive companies including BMW General Motors Honda Hyundai Ki Kia excuse me Mercedes-Benz and stellantis their selection of Durham County will allow for the continued diversification of our local and Regional economy growing our clean energy and Automotive sectors with approval of this award the company has agreed to make reasonable efforts to provide internships to Durham Tech students North Carolina Central students particip ipate in local hiring events and job fairs engage with the Durham Public Schools on a variety of partnership opportunities and commit to.
A 25% mwbe aspirational goal on their construction spending there's additional details in the briefing sheet attached to the agenda item all payments for this project will adhere to the Durham County Economic Development incentive policy and will only occur after annual performance verification that the company has met its job creation and investment and Community Partnership Targets this includes maintaining that property taxes are paid at at least twice the scheduled payment staff recommends approval of this award the public hearing has been advertised as required by law happy to take any questions you may have for staff or if you'd prefer to hear from the company we have Derek Rush iona's CFO here to to speak to the project and address the board like sh oh so before the public hearing so one what welcome am I looking at this gentleman okay making sure and the you also had a title I'm yes'am G right the lawyer acknowledge the lawyer man like but yeah so one thank you all both we we.
Are all of us I think cuz commissioner L had just had a beautiful little one had the opportunity to meet Seth Cutler one the things that I did want to ask I I because I stopped some of y'all on LinkedIn really cool thing that happened right after and this doesn't always happen this way as soon as we opened up as soon as we made the announcements that day Seth actually put up that we were already hiring right so even though you know we I don't work there you all are already hiring and so I know that the number is in here it's it was it's not 170 it's 203 so maybe for the public a couple of things you could answer because I I this was one I was excited about I don't want to say any other names but we have all of these companies popping up right now that are making Battery Systems and then this is a big deal because you got the car companies.
To come together and say n we're going to do this ourselves and I mean the fact that you know you chose Durham is is just huge for us because you saw the value in our people you saw the value in our Workforce and we certainly want to get folks there so the one thing I do want to throw out because I think we have some of those details the public might not can we at least just do a a small kind of breakdown of like the jobs because I want people to know that these 203 jobs are not all like my CFO my general counsel so can Matt I think you yeah I can give a little bit of a a high level I'll let Derek if you'd like to come up and speak a little bit more broadly I I would say just from what the companies provided it's 203 total jobs it bumped up a little I think the number that we saw in close session was.
Around 170 so that did increase and so there's a range of positions kind of from the the more Junior kind of entry level analyst you know all the way up to kind of SE Suite type jobs these are more traditional I would say white white collar jobs you know I don't know if we use that term anymore but that's you know kind of a $100,000 or so average college education required a little different from some of the other projects that that we have but this is a headquarters project and so you know that's kind of the the way that something like that shakes out Derek I'll I'll let you speak I I don't know that I have much to add to that but that that's it's the right description so maybe maybe the one piece I can add is that part of this is not just putting a headquarters in Durham but putting our test lab so there's there's more work than meets the eye in terms of making sure the vehicles.
And the Chargers and the backend software all work together and so that's part of what we expect to be happening and probably one of the key ways we'll draw interns into the program is to help them or have them work with the engineers who are working through all of those interoperability concerns right and the thank you so much sir and I'm G I'm going to go back to one may I will ask you I know that there were many things that we went over in the incentive project and we did say best efforts for for some of the internships and we did outline you know and these and we said at least one one paid internship at nccu and then Mr President I'm happy you hear internship over at Durham Tech so that's your new best friend but I did want to also throw out did we do yes you all make friends before this is over serving as dur Public School CTE advisor is that something that we were able to get in.
There if I'm not mistaken we did have some language about the Durham Public School Partnerships I I think I'll before I address that specifically everything that y'all asked for you know close session for us to go back to the company they they agreed to so I can start with that there are some specific things in the commitments educational sessions with students to include guest speaking hosting teachers for career Readiness Etc that's a a broad commitment that you know if there are specific programs we could certainly slip that in provided it was acceptable to the company no and if everybody please know I'm not picking on them because we did a press conference we did a press release we we did not know these really great things that myself along with the women up here asked for and we did not get the Highlight in the press release that this company said yes to all of them so that is really what I'm trying to highlight I don't want y'all.
The ner I don't want the turny to get nervous like why is she asking all these questions it's because we we didn't get to say all of these things because the governor did that announcement Commerce did that announcement and a lot of those details were not in those bigger press releases so I do want y'all to know that when we go when companies come to us when we go out we really do ask for very specific things that are important to the people in this community and this is a company that said yes to all of them so that's all I'm trying to get to but that's all I got Madam thank you Vice chair Burns commissioner Jacobs I just want to say welcome to Durham County and we're just really thrilled this is a transformative project not just for Durham County but for our for our entire our country and I mean really for our world the way that all of these different car companies International companies National companies are.
Collaborating together is is really amazing and honestly gives me a lot of Hope to see this type of collaboration and the fact that it's going to be happening right here in our community and it's so important for our future survival here on our planet and and really implementing what we the future that we know we need so I'm just really excited that this is happening this is a game Cher and you know we just want to do whatever we can to make sure that people in our community are connected to this opportunity and that we're supplying you with The Talented Workforce that we have here in our community so again thank you thank you it's very good summary of what we're excited about it's it's very good summary of why I joined the company and we're we're we're equally thrilled to to be located in Durham it's someone else said it earlier we we see a lot of potential in terms of the skills the history of research and innovation technology in the area and.
That's that's how we ended up here so as I speak Seth our CEO is packing up his house in Minnesota to to drive down in a couple days thank you so much I Echo the sentiments of my colleagues and I apologize for missing the press conference as Vice chair Burns mentioned I had just had a baby and so I was out taking a little break but we're very excited for Iona to be joining us thank you Matt and Andy as well for bringing this project to us for the board to support really excited to see all of the Innovation that comes out of it and all of the Durham County residents hopefully that'll be able to fill these positions thank you so now I will if there's no other questions from colleagues I will open up may I Madam chair may I just say one more thing yes sometimes when you do these public hearings they can kind of get lost like how amazing this project really is right and so the eight largest Automotive.
Companies in the world got together and said we're going to you know form an electric vehicle charging company and any of all the places in the world we could put it we're going to put it in Durham County so I just think that that's a remarkable thing that we should celebrate and I know we all are but sometimes it kind of gets and and so just thank you to you for your support throughout this process to make make this happen so Madam chair sorry well thank you Matt thank you for bringing the enthusiasm I will now open the public hearing and there were no individuals signed up to speak are there any i' would like to ask if it'd be acceptable for Mt ladic with the greater Durham Chamber of Commerce we had him hoping to come and talk a little bit about the.
Project yes Mr glad we have some questions about this project could you please answer those for us let me get my legal pen I feel like I think walking across the room is going to be longer than my comments so I apologize for elongating the meeting I was just also very grateful for this team that has come and has partnered with us and their willingness to meet with all of our local educational company or organizations and make sure they're connecting a Workforce and all the priorities we have so I just wanted again like the Matt highlighted this is a really big deal so it was a pleasure to work with Matt and Andy on this as well as the team at Ayana thank you madam CH I some of you all might not remember this but I got to give Matt his flowers too in the same way I would give Andy his flowers both Matts cuz but I do want to say we were still in Co and.
We were on a screen when we had I think this first meeting and you know North Carolina wasn't getting car company after car company after car company and your predecessor Ryan I remember I asked on camera I said what are we going to be good at like like we've got to get something you know cuz we we're DM bof farer is like where we eat you know and I'll never forget he said on camera he said it's going to be autonomous vehicles Battery Systems it's going to be electric energy he said that on camera and then he left the chamber and I was just thinking and he told he gave like some really great reasons why and then I he got another job God bless him but he left but you came in and you picked up the rains and I just want to say thank you to you thank you to being able to work with our team thank you for being able to take our vision out into.
The community cuz some days I'll see you I'm really working hard on this commissioner burs and so I I just really appreciate it but yeah somebody said it a couple of years ago you came into this seat and it's just been a force multiply everything around it and we've we've gotten so much so thank you so much thank Youk you since there's no other individuals sign up for comment I will close the public hearing and now Attorney D approve anything no okay that's wanted to make sure because I didn't get a script for this one so so I will entertain a motion to approve the award in the amount of 170,000 to Iona moved by commissioner howon seconded by commissioner Carter all in oh can I think can we just amend that to the award and to authorize yes and authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute commissioner Howton do you accept the amended motion yes okay and I second it all in favor say I I any opposed any abstentions okay the motion.
Passes 5 to zero congratulations thank you so much all right thank thank you very much now it brings us to our final public hearing for for to consider a performance-based award for project Foundry and we have Matt again good evening again our second Economic Development public hearing this evening is for project Foundry we are so very excited to be able to announce tonight and welcome a $65 million expansion of the science Corporation here in Durham County to support their cuttingedge Foundry program science Corporation is a clinical stage medical technology company and a leader in the field of bra brain computer interfaces science is working to restore the quality of life to those with dehabitation conditions for which there are currently no treatment options creating Innovative devices medical devices aimed at restoring Vision cognition and Mobility to patients that have lost it so this is really kind of lifechanging work that they're doing the 57,000 ft expansion and program investment here in Durham will be at their existing tww Alexander Drive location and it will.
Support semi semiconductor manufacturing for new Cutting Edge Technologies including a groundbreaking visual prothesis the company envisions that this facility will be their hub for manufacturing for their next generation of medical devices similar to the previous project kind of before I go into the details I just wanted to acknowledge and recognize just some the folks who really worked closely to bring this this project here at science Corporation we have Jonathan Beck I think he's there he is Cara Cara Cara Cara zapali we have Richard Soares he's not with us but he's their their press person Adrien Don Dave eford there's Dave their kind of site consultant and counsel Matt glad again at the Durham chamber and just the whole team at edpnc and the Commerce department just a lot of lot of work that went into this and so I just want to say thank you for the public hearing though the board is requested to hold a hearing to consider a performance-based award for science corporations project Foundry in the amount of $930,000 and to.
Authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute a performance agreement for project Foundry this new manufacturing project Pro will create 54 jobs and invest approximately $65 million within 5 years manufacturing projects with their great entry-level wages and benefits are a priority for Durham County of the 54 new jobs 67% so more than 2third require only a 2-year degree or less and nearly 90% require 5 years of experience or less so this is just fantastic for folks in the community with approval of this award board the company has agreed to make reasonable efforts to provide internships to Durham Tech students North Carolina Central students to work with Durham Tech to identify coursework and certifications necessary for the entry-level positions participate in local hiring events and job fairs engage with Durham public schools on various partnership opportunities and commit to a 25% mwb be aspirational goal on construction spending there's additional information in the attachment and just similar to what we talked about earlier everything that the board asked for when we went to close session.
We went back to science corporation they agreed to as well all payments for the project will adhere to the Durham County Economic Development incentive policy and will only occur following annual performance verification that the company has met its job creation investment and Community Partnerships Targets this includes maintaining that property taxes paid annually are at minimum twice the scheduled payment staff recommends approval of this award the public hearing has been advertised as required by law and I'd be happy to take any questions or or invite the the the project Foundry science team up if that's your wish as well commissioner Jacobs you mentioned a visual prosthetic so now I'm really curious I would just love to hear about what are some of I mean whatever you are able to talk about but that Jan that you are going to be working on that that sounds incredible all I will say is a non-scientist is it is absolutely incredible and once they describe what it is they're doing I'm going to.
Quote my friend M glad here and say it's almost like science fiction it's something you used to read about and now it's becoming reality I'm a little short for this hi I'm Cara zappelli I'm the director of science corporation's chip manufacturing facility here in Durham first of all I just want to thank the County Commission for their support on our Expansion Project so we actually have two visual proceses that we're working on designed to primarily treat age related macular degeneration which is one of the leading causes of blindness in today's today's Times both of those have slightly different mechanisms but they would essentially be implanted devices in the retina that replace the function of our rods and cones so essentially replacing the mechanism to take in light and convert it into electricity to talk to the brain and so we're working on two different ways of doing that they're in different sort of phases of development we have one that's more early stage and then another that's in late stage clinical trial.
In humans in Europe and we're really hoping to bring that manufacturing to the US and specifically to Durham County because we think that would be really amazing to do. So wow well that's amazing so we're going to save the planet and we're going to save people's eyesight right here in Durham County to save the planet and make sure people can see it that's right we will be copyrighting that immediately after this meeting Dave EP will you be assisting I will thank you so much are there any questions or comments by Shin I had a really quick one because I think what was the Sunset date somebody keep me honest here for the chips sack was what June 30 so you all if it says here that you all the project is seeking chip sack funding do we know whether or not you know is there a timeline for you all and in the event that this passes tonight you know I I I know that those tax incentives have been helpful in being.
Able to bring about business here because people get a j dig break they get a federal break they get a local break so in the event everything passes tonight is there something that you all would need our additional support on even though the deadline is passed Madam commissioner thank you for the question my name is John Beck I'm the operations manager here in Duram for our Foundry Expansion Project and the answer to your question is we have submitted pre-application for chips and science act funding from the federal government and we have not yet received feedback from them on our particular project we are optimistic that we'll get good feedback and that we'll have to turn an application quite quickly back to the federal government but we did put an awful lot of work into the pre-application that explained what type of project we'd like to do here in Durham County so we're optimistic about that Federal funding but we're also very appreciative of Durham County for the incentives you've offered us which made.
The decision to expand our Foundry capacity here in Durham much easier and we're excited about doing that in the near term so thank you for your question thank you so much commissioner Carter then commissioner Howton I just wanted to express how grateful we are that companies like you and the one before you really pay attention to what the commission ERS are asking for as far as Community benefits go you know we spent a lot of time thinking about what the benefits our community wants to see in our incentive agreements and it's and we like getting everything we ask for so thank you very much for taking us seriously around that part of the agreement and we also like receiving at you know greater than or equal to twice the scheduled incentive payment and property tax increases from you also that that's another part of this agreement that we value clearly and and take very seriously and welcome to Durham your work sounds very exciting indeed and I hope that we'll be.
Successful with programming that will connect Durham residents to to your jobs and hope you enjoy living here hope you choose to live in Durham and enjoy living here thank you commissioner Howton thank you I think my colleague just said exactly what I was going to say say the other thing is I think we we have the wrong job you guys it starts out at over $100,000 a year plus benefits you know we got a wrong job so thank you for choosing Durham we look forward to working with you and seeing what your next venture will be thank you commissioner appreciate that very much thank you thank you guys again for expanding here and already being here having chosen Durham in the past and deciding to grow in Durham we appreciate it any other comments okay with that I will open the oh commissioner open the public hearing there were no individuals signed up to speak I see Matt signaling to Matt a lot of people think we're the.
Same person so we're both in person here today to prove that that there are indeed two of us Madam chairwomen and Commissioners thank you for having me again I really wanted to highlight again this company just like with Ayana this is a company that very quickly because of the chips act we started working with them and thanks to the County tax office and Matt and Andy and yourselves very quickly put this on agenda to get through the incentive process so thank you for that also in that very short time science Corporation has set up meetings with Duke with Durham Tech and with nccu they are committed to our community and they've shown that in the very short time in the actions they've had very excited to have them expanding here thank you thank you Matt thank commissioner Jacobs you add.
Something yeah I first of all I want to acknowledge the partnership and the teamwork that this things like this do not happen without everyone working together and and we everyone will need to continue working together right for the long-term success and glad to have JB buckson here who's an important partner for Workforce Development I just really want to highlight also what not only what is special is that the kind of meaningful work that you all are doing to improve people's lives but also you know just how compliment these projects are we feel very strongly about supporting different sectors of our our economy so you know this you know two very different sectors here and also focusing on different types of workers and education backgrounds and so what's also exciting to me about this project is the fact that these are jobs that are accessible to people with different education levels so out of the 54 jobs 67% of them will only require a 2-year degree and or less and.
47% with only 5 years of experience or less and so these are very good jobs good paying jobs for people in our community and that is a really big priority for our our board as well so I'm really excited also to have you all growing here with these really meaningful and important manufacturing jobs for people in our community so again thank you Matt and Matt and Andy and everybody who works together to make make these opportunities possible for all of us thank you I will now close the public hearing and I will bring it back to the board any final questions comments before I entertain a motion to approve the amount of 930,000 and to authorize the county manager to negotiate and execute a performance agreement with project Foundry or with science Corporation for so moved second moved by Vice chair Burns seconded by commissioner Jacobs all in favor say I I any opposed any extensions okay it is award is approved 5 Z thank you so much.
Thank you for your time I do want to say I know you all have said this but these gentlemen here were very very helpful to get us to this point and to get us in front of you and we very much appreciate not only their effort but your effort to to get us in here and and and hear us in in open session so thank you very much thank so that brings us to the end of our public hearings I'll pass it to the attorney for the boards and commission's.
Appointments are you good to go I am I didn't know if there was something more and there's 10 minutes allotted on the agenda for this and it may take that long to read the results for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board oh one second wait a minute I got five I haven't given you one so how you get r. R here is just one yes ma'am let see but I'll ask attorney Massie did you already have for all of them a majority cuz then I think then we could you could just announce it since I did I love you commissioner Harton but it won't.
Change what photo okay yeah okay while we wait we commissioner b i I'd like to while we're adding up these votes I do think we did two really historic announcements tonight so if we could get a camera and actually get an opportunity to take a photo with the individuals for science Incorporated and also from Matt can you bring science Corporation back. In'll come.
Back for.
That and.
That.
For e.
Per.
Are you ready attorney Messi yes ma' okay take it away all right your mic for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board you have selected Gail Adin I'm going to mangle this one Ryan erat for the bicycle Andrian advisory commission Hannah bball and Trenton Cormier for the citizens advisory committee Jennifer ganzer and Seth candle for the criminal justice advisory committee breita Denning and Mike cyrm for the dangerous dog appeal board Grace laws for the Durham Convention Center Authority Susan Amy for the Durham County women's commission Rita Denning MMA Kamara Tiffany Reeves Stacy Johnson and Kelly Lindsay Drayton for the Durham cultural Advisory Board Andrew nurkin for the Durham Planning Commission Sarah chagaris Zuri Williams and Matt copac for the three at large positions and Carrie woke for the Oak Grove car Township position for the Durham Sports commission Brendan Madigan for the Durham Technical Community College Board of trustees Matthew glad for the environmental Affairs board toar Shel shelat Corey God Almighty I'm I'm sorry for for to you Ma'am Corey lvti and Sher.
Taylor for the industrial facilities and Pollution Authority Ivan Francis for the juvenile crime prevention Council Seth candle for the citizen position for the rep of parks and wreck Alex hurdle and for youth under 18 Houston Taft and for the Memorial Stadium Authority Derek. McGee thank you so much attorney Massie thank you and congratulations to all the individuals who applied and were selected and thank you to all the individuals who weren't selected at this time please continue to look at our boards and commissions we have a lot that constantly have opening so please continue to apply and we hope that you will serve Us in another capacity with that that concludes our regular session.
Agenda and we move to closed session so we are let me see the legation the board is requested to ajour into close session to discuss the national opioid litigation with privilege hereby acknowledge pursuant to General statute 14331 18.11 A3 do I hear a motion enter close session for reason stated so moved moved by commissioner Howton second by commissioner Jacobs all in favor say I I any opposed okay we are in close session thank you everyone for joining.
Us.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E.
E for.