Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · June 12, 2023

good evening everyone I will call this meeting to order on Monday June 12 2023 and I will Begin by reading the public charge the Board of Commissioners ask his members and citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with the board and fellow citizens at any time should any member of the board or any citizen fail to observe the public charge the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control the decorum fail to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed if you will let's go to this side this time commissioner along would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance if you will stand with us

[Music] foreign first acknowledge some of our visitors who see me we have some young people that will want to say welcome and thank them for being here we have interns and uh fellows if you will stand and let people see who you are would be great [Applause] yeah you know it's always great to have our young people with us and they are all in um college and we'll be working some of them will be working for the

next several years with us and some of them will be up for part-time so we welcome you and we look forward to seeing you around Commissioners are there any uh agenda adjustments hearing on I will move on to announcements and I'll clerk will read our announcement good evening everyone I will read the announcements published in our agenda this evening the first um advertisements of tax liens North Carolina law requires the tax collector to annually publish current year unpaid real estate taxes Durham County property taxes not paid by May 31st at 5 PM will be advertised in the local newspaper on June 21st for additional information you can contact 919-560-0300 or you can visit

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m in the black Farmers Market on the first and third Sundays from 1 to 4 pm Juneteenth holiday closure most Durham County government offices will be closed in recognition of the Juneteenth holiday on Monday June 19th 2023 our offices will reopen with the normal hours of operation on Tuesday June 20th to read more about impacts to certain Services you can visit the Durham County website there is one additional announcement that did not make your agenda packet it is the Bulls bio work academy is accepting applications the building up local Life Sciences industry initiative bio work academy is now accepting applicants for its fall 2023 cohort they're offering full scholarships to young adults from Durham County ages 18 to 25 who are interested in pursuing a

org backslash Bulls initiative and the deadline to apply is July 21st that concludes the announcements thank you Miss Wallace any other announcements commissioner alum thank you chair Howerton I just wanted to share an announcement that uh Duke University's Nicholas Institute of for energy environment and sustainability is having their opening grand opening celebration event for the heat policy Innovation Hub um Dr Ashley Ward is hosting this event with Duke experts around uh climate change and the environment will

be there it's going to be Wednesday June 21st from 3 to 5 PM and I will forward the information to Monica so she can publish it it'll be at the at gross Hall on the front porch thank you um I just want to share something that we were all given at The Joint City County meeting last Wednesday it's a little flag it says do your duty pick up the duty uh and hashtag Durham Duty pledge um this is an effort uh from uh the uh public works but because we just um we just passed a new uh ordinance that requires um developments to have uh you know dog way stations um but I just I just wanted to read why

this is important um the longer it sits the grosser it gets parasite eggs in decaying dog waste can infect people and pets bacteria and nutrients in dog waste become water pollution when rain washes poop through storm drains and into creeks and there's also um a video that you can link to um and it's just a whole campaign basically to encourage people to do your duty and post your pictures as you are doing your duty and there's also little bags that are available for people to put on their dog collar or their backpack or whatever so just wanted to share that thank you thank you commissioner Burns mine are relatively quick um I don't the first one I actually don't have in front of me uh last week we were all able to

participate in the Juneteenth um flag raising and while we were there uh they announced like five events and I did not have a tape recorder nor ink pen but if we could get those you know yes our office is closed so it's not a day off it's a day on it would be really great if you know we could take the time I as a community to go out and support some of these I said five but they really like 10 or 12. I just learned more about this holiday and and how it came about I also wanted to throw out there um I'm happy that the clerk did uh mention um the Bulls initiative so I I I do apologize if you did say this but one of the information sessions is tomorrow and that information session you can actually log on there's a link a lot of people are really struggling with it because on the website it's just a poster and then you have to go down and it says click QR code but you don't actually click the QR code is the picture beside it I always try to go through these steps because if we send it to y'all and y'all can't do it that's

a problem so that's not on the county that's actually on their website but I did want that direction out there the uh information session is tomorrow so you can learn more about the Bulls initiative and so you do have to go down and click on the link and then last but not least one of the things that um and I'm sure that our clerk will be able to share it on our social media momentum financial academy I'm so super duper excited that we have a manager who sees that a lot of our small businesses here actually fail because they don't have good Financial practices so she along with staff are starting another in a kind of mini MBA program but along with that one the city is doing a program and the applications close um the information session is June 20th but the application closes June 26th so this is a four-week class that um the city along with the library is doing for micro Enterprises just around financial management so you might have a really great idea you might be a beautician you might sell a widget but you you know you don't even know how to open up QuickBooks I get it so this is a free

class that the city has that Focus just on getting finances straight for um for your business and then you can come on over and do our 39 week class that our manager was so gracious enough to purchase so we just want you to be sturdy so again Financial Momentum Academy anything else okay so moving on our next Commissioners is our minutes we have um May 1st 2023 I work session minutes and May 8th 2023 our regular session minutes are there any edits or any additions hearing none I can get a motion and a second from the commissioners Madam chair I move that our May first work session and our May 8th regular session 20 23 minutes the uh approved

we have a second second all in favor aye aye okay motion passes five to zero nice Commissioners we have a ceremonial item 230415 it's a resolution honoring our beloved the life of Conan Seville Morgan the board is requested to approve of resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of Mr Morgan who made his transition on May 28 2023 Mr Morgan was highly regarded as a brilliant political strategist and it trusted political advisor who worked with many successful candidates across the state and Nation

he was a friend to many and always showed a unique measure of professionalism warmth and respect for everyone he met well I subject the board to join in reading the resolution to honor in his honor and we have decided that the three of us will read the resolution uh and we're going to start with um I think commissioner Burns will you read the first three hours for as is plead Durham Board of County Commissioners resolution Conan travell Morgan whereas Conan travell Morgan a native of Garner North Carolina attended North Carolina State University where he obtained his undergraduate degree and computer science as a Caldwell fellow and was

also a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated and where is Morgan's love of serving others began in the early age it looked at student body president of Garner High School where he used his platform to speak up for students and Educators by addressing the Wake County School Board in 1999 in support of a school bond and whereas his passion for politics was often unmatched by his love of science dedicating much of his free time to volunteer in NC for the North Carolina Science Olympiad in homage to his time as a competitor while in high school and his service to the Olympiad was honored in 2016 when he received the Dr James L painter distinguished service award and where is Morgan founded and served as managing partner of Longleaf agency using his skill sets and talents to progress positive change across North Carolina through the support of

candidates and advocacy organizations and to Champion a platform of equity and Justice at every level of his work and government and whereas he unselfishly shared his talents with others leading as a Visionary and Mentor for many young and old across the state and Country and while serving as president of the young Democrats of North Carolina Morgan made it his mission to pass on the torch and lift up young leaders especially young leaders of color to advocate for Equity across our state and whereas his service to Durham came full circle from his high school days when he served as the primary and consultant on the 2022 Durham Bond referendum

championing one of his earliest passions supporting public education and where his contributions assisted the Blue Ribbon committee to raise awareness and pass the bonds overwhelmingly with over 80 percent of support from residents and whereas Conan T Prevail Morgan leaves behind his lovely wife Reina Walters Morgan his parents Pamela and Timothy his sister Jalisa Morgan family members friends and colleagues and whereas Conan was simply an amazing life force who shared his grace kindness and respect with everyone he came in contact with this gifted passionate leader and philanthropist will long be remembered as a role model mentor and dynamic Visionary to all who are blessed to know him the leg of the legacy of his work

will continue on through those he loved and inspired now therefore be it resolved that we the members of the Durham County Board of Commissioners do hereby honor the memory of Conan travell Morgan we urge all Durham County residents to reflect on his extraordinary Legacy of public advocacy His Kind demeanor his genuine love and his extraordinary contributions to our state this the fifth day of June 2023 thank you all for reading that I I don't think it was anybody on Zoom no it was a very special person to so many of us um so if the emotion in the boys that you may hear is that he was very dear to

so many people at North Carolina and I will move on so our next item is um a proclamation on pride month uh 230422 the board is requested to approve a proclamation designating June as pride month in Durham County and before we read that resolution I I just want to mention a few facts here that Biden Harris Administration announced action to protect lgbtq I plus communities and as I was reading through this it said

this was printed on June 8th today in celebration of pride month the Biden Harris Administration is announcing new actions to protect lbgtqi plus communities from attacks on their rights and safety over a dozen states have enacted anti-laws that violate our most basic values and freedoms As Americans and all cruel and crackless Palace to our kids our neighbors and those in our community so there were several bullets protect lbgtqi plus communities support kids and you can find this on the website I just found it very interesting that

they support our communities and just wanted to mention that um so the proclamation I will ask starting with each one of the Commissioners will read a part of this and then I will ask Natalie Watson interim executive director of the LBGTQ Center in Durham to come forward and accept the proclamation and if she if you'd like to hear like to say a few words um so I think Wendy are you starting with you if you will start with the reading of this please Durham Board of County Commissioners Proclamation pride month 2023. where is the Stonewall riots a period approach

I might keep going in and out violent clashes with law enforcement in June 1969 is commonly viewed as the origin of the modern gay rights movement in this country and where is the lgtbqia plus movement in Durham is rooted in an April 17 1981 protest in response to the hate motivated assault of four men at the Little River on April 12 1981 and resulting death of Ronald sunny antonovich terms first NC Pride March in 1986 was organized by the triangle lesbian and gay Alliance tlga and mayor whip gulley's proclamation of

Durham's first anti-discrimination week in 1986 resulted in him being challenged by an unsuccessful recall campaign and whereas celebrating pride month raises awareness and provides support and advocacy for the lgbtqia plus community and is an opportunity to become educated engage in dialogue strengthen alliances and build understanding and whereas lgbtqia plus Americans continue to face discrimination simply for being who they are and the county of Durham stands with this community in this struggle to ensure equal treatment for all and whereas while much progress has been Advanced we know that there is still work to be done to ensure that everyone enjoys the full promise of dignity protection equity and freedom

and whereas more than 400 anti-lgbtqia plus bills have been introduced in the state legislatures all across the United States since the start of the year and Progressive officials and citizens must speak up to protect lgbtqia plus right and whereas Durham County government continuously advocates for protections for all lgbtqia plus individuals in order to make it clear that there is no place in this Progressive Community State or Nation for denial of Human Rights regardless of anyone's sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression and whereas Durham County's non-discrimination ordinance approved in 2022 by the board of County Commissioners that's this board provides freedom from discrimination on the basis of race ethnicity Creed color sex pregnancy Merida or familial status sexual orientation gender identity or

expression national origin or ancestry marital or familiar status pregnancy militaries in there twice religious belief or non-belief we meant it age or disability in employment and access to all places of public accommodation near therefore I Brenda a Howerton chair and on behalf of the Durham County Durham Board of County Commissioners do hereby Proclaim June 2023 as pride month in Durham County we call upon Durham County residents to recognize the achievements of the members of the lgbtqi Plus IA plus community and to celebrate and support a culture of inclusiveness and acceptance acceptance during this month and every month this the 12th day of June 2023.

there you are Natalie hey y'all how's it going good thank you for being here thank you for having me again and um thank you for this Proclamation I was having a conversation with a friend I want to say yesterday the day before and we were talking I was talking about how cool it was last week I accepted the proclamation from the city council city council this week I'm accepting the proclamation from the County Commissioners and how important that is and what it says about Durham the city the county are coming together and saying this is the city and the county that we live in this is who we love this is who we respect you will not come into our County and discriminate against everybody so thank you so much for that um and I'm always very grateful about what y'all write and we talked about how there was a couple other cities that had done some pride proclamations and some of them didn't even mention lgbtq and so it's huge that y'all have been so

thoughtful and how you write these proclamations specifically adding in the historical component a lot of folks don't realize that pride in North Carolina was started because people were murdered it was a protest just like pride in 1969 was started as a protest um Narco I mean Durham as well as North Carolina continues that Legacy of activism and being the first to speak out against you know uh when folks are are doing people wrong so you know I'm very proud to live in the city and county of Durham we are very grateful for this Proclamation we are grateful to celebrate Pride one thing that the lgbtq Center Durham tries to do is focus on Joy because there's so much pain and there's so much hurt in our community and we want to come together and try and find as much joy as possible so a lot of the events that we try to do and try to support are all about finding Joy so please look for any of the events that are happening this month all the

lgbtq center of Durham will not be holding an event you will find us at many including a Juneteenth celebration in the Hayti neighborhood on Friday night and just plugging this in there are they are celebrating Juneteenth all weekend the city council proclaimed Juneteenth weekend as the 16th excuse me the 17th through the 19th so please go out and celebrate and thank you so much y'all commissioners commissioner Burns I I had one quick question for the interim executive director but I don't want to be executive right we interim executive director but we're going to put a call in on it now I had heard aroma that you went over to Wake County and did a training for their employees was I was I did I hear that wrong yes I'm excited to say that uh our director of our youth center and assistant director of IU Center presented a pronouns 101 uh uh on Friday to Wake County government

employees I want to say there was at least 300 people there um so we were excited for Wake County to come get us we're excited to do it in Durham County y'all let us know hey Miss plugs aimless plug we do do trainings and we will craft them to what your needs are and have conversations and be very real and upfront we're currently working with a business you would like for us to partner and do one-on-one trainings with their new hires we're gonna have to come back to them and say it can't just be one in order for folks to really understand and learn you got to practice and you got to have the space to grow and so we're going to present them with like more than one opportunity to train their folks wow well I only bring that up because I remember last year during the pride Proclamation you stood up here and said you know I'm born in Durham raised in Durham I want to live in Durham get married in Durham and as much as we're doing a lot of this work the community got to be prepared for it too so I just want to say thank you for preparing the community that you want to be in and

grow in and love in so I hope my Shameless plug up they did it in Wake County I hope people heard the Shameless plug I hope some folks will take her up on her offer and her training uh yes and I'm now married in Durham County so there you go I got a wife now here and if I may just respond to the Shameless plug yes yes um our director of Equitable well-being is now on staff and Dr Brent Lewis I don't know if he's here this evening but Dr Brent Lewis um has a plethora of trainings and other things that will be coming forth so you all will get to hear about the great work that's happening and we'll make sure um we connect you now commission alone thank you thank you Natalie and on the track of Shameless plugs I also hear

that the lgbtq center of Durham has a donor that is looking to match or looking for other partners to match with them uh for the upcoming pride and well it's supposed to go towards vaccines and STI testing possibly and other services that lgbtq Center uh provides and I know we briefly discussed this at our budget retreat but I would love for you know our board and our staff to look into ways that we can support the lgbtq center more because it is really a pinnacle for our community a place of resources and a safe space for so many people within Durham County and since they've done all this hard work to find someone who's willing uh to match contributions it would be really great for Durham County to be able to help them Reach that goal yes we were really excited we we did get

someone offer a a match um so we are looking for folks to donate we are looking for sponsors for pride pride will be September 23rd this year we're really excited um about what we're bringing to Pride uh hopefully we'll be sponsored excuse me not sponsoring but kind of working with the Bull City Summit which is going to be in its second year they're attempting to bring South by Southwest to Durham which is cool so we're really looking forward to the opportunities that are there but yes please donate um if you have a business or an organization would like to sponsor please reach out um any amount is good and you'll get at least you know on our website and a conversation with me so that's always great Mr Jacobs go ahead well thank you Natalie um really appreciate your very positive leadership in in our community it's contagious

um could you just give us a little detail about the donations is that something that individuals can donate to or is it what level of donation is it so they are matching up to 25 000. and so um this actually gives me an idea that I can do it I can set up a different uh by tomorrow y'all will see a link either on our website or in everybody's um email signature that if you donate directly to that link that will be counted towards our match of 25 000 so the goal is to try and get 50 000 into the center so you will see that link tomorrow okay and what's the deadline you know what they're being very flexible with us but the deadline I'm going to give y'all is September 8th that's when everything is in so uh parade registrations vendor registrations all that needs to be in by the eighth so we're going to give the community until September 8th I think that we should have a goal our I believe our community can match that by the end of pride month twenty five thousand dollars I think

that's very doable for this community so all right I'll look for that link yes tomorrow uh but I I just wanted to say that as as a proud mom of LD lgtbqia plus children um that it is so important that we celebrate and that we also speak out um Durham will always be a community that fights for the human rights of all people and I want to also say that recent efforts as we see 400 bills that have been filed in this country targeting trans youth are and you know targeting books and Medical Treatments Athletics bathrooms they are all a

distraction these are all efforts to divide people and they will not work we know that every single religion on our planet teaches us to love each other we know that love will always win over hate and we will not keep fighting for the dignity and respect and equal rights of lgtbqia Plus members or versus of our community of our country of a world and so we just have to keep remembering that and fighting and know that Durham will always be a place where everyone is loved and welcome okay I'll just say here here that was very well said and thank you Natalie for all of your work and your

7 million dollars in federal funding for programs you aware of we are I do want to say plug something real quick um a local community member um who's a drag queen named stormy day had the opportunity to emcee some of y'all might have seen this but there was a prom held for Trans youth at the Capitol a couple Mondays ago and so a local Durham Community member got to emcee that prom and I just want to lift her up she's a huge member of the community she works at the Durham Co-op she is their community outreach person but y'all Durham is doing it Durham is showing up nationally and letting folks know we are black we are proud and we are going to support the people that we love so I just wanted to plug that real quick thank you so much you got one more things okay and Natalie you just gave me

an idea of something else to add to the history of Durham I really wonder we may have been the first Library to hold a drag event at our in storytelling event at our Durham County Library that was back in my first term in office I would say maybe 2017 or 18 we need to look into as Tammy get baguette but so we'll have to add that to um our um our history our proud history yes yeah and thank you so much for being here and thank you for the work that you do thank you hey um Commissioners we don't have a resolution for Juneteenth I think we've already done that but I do want to mention uh that you know when you talk about

Juneteenth and a holiday this was a holiday that back in 2020 I recommended that the Durham County recognized Juneteenth as an official holiday that honoring employees and that they get a paid holiday it took us took us a little while to get it finally approved so it started in 20 June 22 of 20. it was finally approved in February 21. uh before we voted on it and became effective um I think on the 15th of 21. it took off a long time to get that approved but I'm glad that we took the initiative because I don't believe that that's happening across the state where all employees across the state get a paid holiday so that's that's a great thing that we do one of the things that we do is take

03 oh 385 and I did I see uh okay I'm looking to see no I don't want to sign up for that one um so these uh there are a couple of awards and announcements here for uh Greg Murrow I don't believe he's here he's not here is that correct but I still want to acknowledge Him and if there are any other any of his um staff or anyone's here could send in for him the boards requested to acknowledge that Durham County government has been recognized by capital p i a cop Gia and the public technology

Institute among its 2023 PDI Solutions Award winners is it anyone here from his Department okay well we acknowledge Him Anyway and okay there's an award here for him when he's back and Ward in his absence and the award says comp t i a public technology Institute 2023 Solutions Award winner Durham County North Carolina Durham County Emergency rental assistance Care Program phase two that's a war and then if we go down to 230386 not acknowledging that Greg

Morrow CIO of Durham County government has been recognized as one of government Technologies top 25 doers dreamers and drivers for 2023. T staff are

not here but I you know I just think this is very significant and I just want to note that one of the aspects of his award was for the special software program that he and his staff developed were the distribution of the e-wrap funding that is the emergency rental assistance funding and this was done in partnership with the Department of Social Services this was a collaboration between DSS and it and was really made possible getting out the funds quickly to Residents and tracking that and so I I just think it's really significant and very Innovative and really helped people in our community okay any other comments

just hold it until he's here yeah foreign okay now we're moving on Commissioners to our consent agenda um there are a couple of items that we needed to pull um the one that manager page 23 22. so we will pull item number 230425 [Music] and is that being moved by not being moved will be discussed tonight okay that'll be put to the end that's um 230425

and it's adoption of an initial resolution authorizing 60 million dollars in general obligation um refunding bonds series 20 that one okay then there are a couple others 27 23 . 27 we will pull 2304 33 and 23 0434 these are one is the contractor pool for the American Rescue plan act Community grants and then the other one is also about the community those two

all right are there any others that need to be pool commissioners so we have items 230296 through um 230435 for on the consent agenda with an exception of the three that I mentioned so again a motion to approve all those items uh I make a motion to approve all the items on the consent agenda except for the ones that you have designated to be pulled second it's been consent agenda has been moved in second all in favor aye

0414 and that is adoption of the FY 2023-24 budget ordinance the Durham County Manager presents the FY 2324 annual budget ordinance to the Durham County Board of Commissioners for approval the submission is on in is in accordance with the local government budget and fiscal Control Act which requires adoption of the annual budget no later than July 1. any comments

um only that I just like to really thank staff for all of the the hard work and the investment of time in pulling together helping the pulling together budget and also responding to the questions and and gathering information to help the board come to a consensus and make an informed decision on this budget so thank you so much to our budget director Keith Lane assistant director David 80s and all of the budget team we have a superstar Rockstar budget office thank you so much Claudia Hager our Deputy County Manager who provides oversight or our financial any other comments before we call for a vote you know we also give a shout out to the manager I mean she she's give yeah see she's you know this is her second budget and you know we throw everything in it but the kitchen sink I mean

Durham's budget is really the everything bagel and so I I just have to say that for her you know people were making requests pushing and pulling on us some things you couldn't couldn't do and I can I I did thank her but she actually sent I think a email last night is 11 35 and I was like what do you want but she was literally trying to make sure she added something that we all cared about so I just want to say thank you to you and kudos to you because she she went hard in the paint late last night and early this morning so thank you to you Dr soell okay I I have some comments that I'll submit I will give to the clerk for uh including the public record I won't read them all but so do we need to go ahead and vote before all the comments I'll do that Monica we can do comments okay I think we need to go ahead and I just want to remind you that we do have one citizen that did sign up to speak okay

on the budget okay we have do we have two persons just one on the second person signed up to speak on the museum item okay uh deworn Langley um item 230414 that's uh budget if you are on the zoom okay if you would you have three minutes good evening to Howard and vice chair Jacobs and Commissioners alarm Burns and Carter as well as city manager Dr so well I'm here to speak uh in two capacities one the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation we take pride in our commitment to ensuring that academic success goes beyond theoretical knowledge and I'm here again to again Ask for 250 000 to strengthen our capacity and programming in addition to my work as the chair of the juvenile

crime prevention Council we thank Dr Sowell for including 105 300 to expand jcpc's annual award amount and we asked the Commissioners to approved the initial request of 210 330 year after year jcpc diligently conducts an in-depth review of risk and needs that are gaining critical insights into the unique challenges of our young people and as you all are aware we are seeing increased vulnerabilities among our young people as well as a significant increase in the number of juvenile complaints and that is why this request is so critically important and while you all may decide to approve the budget without uh amending to include these two requests I will continue to come back until both are approved thank you thank you okay all right um commissioner long thank you um let's go ahead and take a vote for

the budget and then we can do the cotton do comments okay I will make a motion oh okay awesome Madam chair I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the fiscal year 2023 2024 budget ordinance okay second okay it's been moved in properly second to adopt the uh 20 FY 23 24 budget ordinance all in favor aye aye motion passes five to zero uh now go ahead with your comment I know you want to take the vote first that I couldn't try to sneak in a few things into them I'm gonna let you do that that's why we took the vote I had this whole plan no we're not we're not going there okay thank you okay but no I just wanted to also add on

to my thanks to all of the staff and all the Departments for year after year making us the best county in North Carolina in the country with all of the programs Services we provide and congratulations to the manager so well this is your second budget but this is technically the First full budget that you have overseen so congratulations on this huge accomplishment thank you to all of our budget staff I'm really excited of just all of the community engagement that we've seen throughout this budget process and just really grateful to Durham County residents especially because this budget also marks the beginning of our bonds being implemented and so thank you to all the Durham County residents again the over 80 percent of folks who voted in support of the bonds that are now going to be funded starting with this budget so just thank you to everyone we're really really grateful to be able to serve this County

yes I also want to thank the budget staff and the whole department and all the Departments who've weighed in on what's important what they need to provide the outstanding services that we do for our community um there's one element in particular well first let me go back to the thanks I wanted to say to that it's really important that commissioners understand um as much as possible about the budget and that enables us to make you know good decisions hopefully and uh you know our budget team they they answer so many questions they never ever make us feel like a question might not be the most knowledgeable question even um and I've really appreciated that over the years and um and it's a benefit to the community because it does mean that we have a better understanding of exactly what

22 I want to lift that way up and I want to say he needs to match it you know School District can only imagine if we help them match it but you know and and I hope Private Industry will pay attention too because we're going to attract your people and we're going to hold them so I I this is a great step towards um you know continuing to be vigilant that we increase our wages annually and Pace with the cost of living here in Durham thank you Mr Jacob I just want to say ditto to everything that all of my colleagues have already said um and that this budget which is

844 million nine hundred forty thousand four hundred ninety six dollars is the biggest budget in the history of Durham County and is a huge investment in the people of our community and is a reflection of our values and our priorities I I also want to lift up what that our board and Durham County government continues to lead the way with a holistic and systemic approach to fight poverty and Equitable acts and create Equitable access to Shared prosperity and well-being for all with Durham County's minimum living wage at nineteen dollars and 22 cents an hour we are setting the bar

and the standard for others to follow we are also in this budget funding the requested increase for salaries at Durham tech for janitors and for their some of their staff and we are in this budget increasing Durham Public Schools request to increase the salaries of their classified staff who are the bus drivers the cafeteria workers the assistant teachers and others who play such an important role in the everyday lives of thirty three thousand students I also want to acknowledge that we are still laser focused on our education to jobs pipeline we are we want to make sure that Durham youth are connected to the jobs that we

9 million dollars because we know this is critical for creating a foundation for lifelong learning and achievement and I'm also excited there's so much in this budget but one of the things I'm really excited about is a new initiative The Familiar Faces initiative that will be housed at the Justice Services

Department that will used a data driven approach track our most vulnerable residents who are interacting with County departments in many ways and are using many of our services so that we can better serve them and their needs and also this budget includes our first allocation of opioid settlement money for our community linkages to CARE program that's housed in public health that connects people to substance use and Mental Health Training through peer support and also for a medical director to expand the medication assisted treatment program for people who are in the detention center and have opioid use disorder I want to acknowledge the leadership of our County Manager as well I think this is the most

non-controversial budget that I've experienced in my 11 years in elected office so I want to thank you and of course all of the staff this is a team effort with everyone so many people being involved at so many level and our and our budget um Keith David and and all the A Team for the budget staff and especially to the Durham Community um to my colleagues um that all the engagement of our community is what makes Durham such a special place that it is thank you thank you commissioner Burns okay I like uh commissioner Jacobs I did I I Maceo has taught me now there are things I need to enter into public records so she's covered a couple of things but I do want to hit on a couple of pump points that I

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09 million dollars for classified study of proposed salary increases so we're not just increasing salaries here we're working diligent diligently not just across the Enterprise but across the county uh to do so the total funding for Durham Public Schools is 187 million 951 627 if I'm a penny or two off I'm sure the manager will correct me and this equates to an additional 289 dollars per student or four thousand six hundred and fifty dollars per pupil so each year that I've been on this board we've been able to move that up and you might ask yourself why is this important you all have been watching on the news and you see that we have opportunity scholarships uh and it's not actually providing opportunities for everybody right now the office of state budget and management has been able to make some projection and it's believed that fiscal year 2026 and 27 Public Schools across

the state will see a decline in state funding by more than 203 million dollars it is projected that the new voucher program will reduce Durham State funding by 6 million four hundred three thousand four hundred and six dollars annually the number of students accessing opportunity Scholarships in Durham will move from 945 to possibly 2612. so that's more kids leaving out of Durham public schools and that's less allocations for the state so I do want people to understand that this board has been doing their part and we're going to continue to do our part but we cannot do it by ourselves we need your voices not just here but we need them in Raleigh as you can see those voices were absent tonight I hope that they were in Raleigh lifting their voices up there I will end here because there are some things that are in the budget that the man uh that we that we haven't uplifted that are small but are really important so while we had over 60 million dollars in financial required test and over 100 positions the manager is really diligent we only approved or moved up I think 17

beta 17 new employees uh as we work to rework our strategic plan we want to make sure we looked across the Enterprise to not only add additional support but hard to hire positions but also to restructure and reduce where we might need to I recognize much like my neighbors that water quality is vital elections are important and protections of veterans are Paramount which is why within those 17 positions we're having a new elections Outreach specialist how you doing uh Lois a new veterans Outreach specialist as well as a public education specialist for our storm water so these are all things that you all have elevated that are important to you and that we're investing in we're seeing more grants go out for solar Durham more grants going out for our small minority farmers and an MBA program started out for our women and minority uh contractors so please take some time to go through this budget and look at some of the really really great things things and even though we're raising taxes our manager also wanted us to tighten our bills and she asked staff to reduce uh

positions by two and a half million dollars so we're not asking folks to do anything we're not doing ourselves again I applaud the staff I applaud the managers I apply my board and please go out there and tell folks that during public that Durham's Board of County Commissioners does support education public education thank you okay so thank you Commissioners so for the public as you can see we and here we are excited and pleased about this budget and I too have a written statement that I will read uh in its entirety for this budget so as we come to the accumulation of this year's Dynamic budget process I want to sincerely thank our extraordinary staff who did the work to get us to this point as I often tell community members

our board succeeds in addressing critical needs and requests from residence thanks to the hard-working dedicated staff we have in departments across this organization Deputy County Manager Hager budget director Lang along with the entire staff of budget and finance let me just say we are so fortunate to have your leadership over this annual process thanks are also due to our department heads for working together as team players to help make this responsible budget so that we'll serve us well over the coming year all of you have collaborated to respond to the ideas

and Prime and priorities of each of our board members and we and we get down to it as board members and to ensure that they have included our ideas in this budget as for that I say thank you this budget totals nearly 900 million dollars and I rounded it up what commissioner mentioned and include significant Investments in recruiting and training critical County Employees educational improvements Public Safety affordable housing we have worked very well with the city around affordable housing this past year and nothing is better than when you can collaborate with city and county for our

22 cents per one dollar valuation certainly inflation plays a role in this decision and you will recall that voters approved our largest ever Bond referendum last fall for schools and public buildings at that time we noted that a tax increase would result but now that we will continue to offer a popular low-income homeowners relief program to help eligible residents with that tax bill I am very proud that our board continues

8 million dollars more to Durham Public Schools those additional funds will help improve salaries and certified employees as well as for classified workers the funding also provides for a salary study with increased funding for Charter School support we are increasing funding for Durham Durham Technical Community College to help them continue to train our residents to compete or serve the skilled jobs that continue to be available in biopharmacy medical technology and more as new companies move and expand in Durham County this budget allows us to continue to expand the number or Pre-K classrooms for our youngest residents and even next

year we're entertaining three-year-olds something I'm so proud to say we have prioritized so many years we continue to give help to them to give destructives the great to our children to have great starts in their educational Journey our resilient County employees have certainly hung in there with us over the years and I've been here for 15 of them especially during this pandemic we all know that this has not been the easiest time to be in government service we've asked a great deal from our employees especially those in certain public facing positions and we are happy to include a significant

across the board increase as well as other Supportive Services to promote the health and well-being of our most vulnerable asset our employees this budget includes investments in adding a few employees to help address new demands or Services critical to our growing population some of these Services enhancements include supporting food security efforts for our most vulnerable residents expanding Outreach to our veterans providing a new facility for our Board of election also we are funding a Broadband manager to help us level the digital divide and effectively oversee the federal and state Broadband improvements and hiring a new medical director

position to manage all programs related to the opioid treatment program and medication assistant treatment at the Durham County Detention Center we have much much to celebrate with this budget and I and along with my colleagues are proud of the work that we have done together in developing a budget that will produce improved outcomes and services throughout Durham County now let's get to work thank you all right chair Howerton yes can we just take a moment to ask all of the staff who worked on the budget to just stand up so we can appreciate them absolutely and we will apply them all the budget folks that got this

I'm the manager too manager [Applause] all right moving on all right our next item is 230437 see did I have someone signed up for that one no that was three six the one we pulled um yes okay budget ordinance amendment number two four b c c00002 appropriating two hundred thousand dollars of under undersigned general fund fun fund balance to downtown Durham Inc and complying with Section law

2021-191 General statute 14-234 Dot three so the Durham County Board of commission is requested to approve the budget ordinance as stated and in this action here um you will hear you will see that some of the Commissioners will not vote on a few things here because of a section law 2 0 2 1-91191 um so are there any questions on this item commissioners we can go back yeah so three the three six that the manager

was talking about has been cool to put it at the bottom so that's why I'm I went past that one so are there any comments on this item on 230437 commissioner hearing none I will call for a motion I'd like to make a motion that we approve the budget amendment appropriating 200 000 of unassigned fund balance uh to the downtown Durham Incorporated and it has been moved and probably second all in favor aye aye aye motion passes four to zero one abstention okay we'll move on to 230438

3 second moved in probably second all in favor I

passes four to zero with I abstained with one extension alone in mountaintree I think we need to go back to two three dash zero four three six go back to which one page 29 with zero four three six let's pull to go to the end of the agenda the Museum of Science that's the one I circled okay sure

3 are there any questions on this item okay like a motion

358 124 million dollars to the Museum of Life and Science okay [Music] um moved in property second all in favor aye abstain motion passes four to zero with one engine chair Howerton I will say that we did have a citizen that signed up to speak for this item if she's able to come up okay let's see summer okay you have three minutes thank you um Commissioners and Dr so well for letting me speak very briefly

my name is Kate Center I'm the vice president of advancement at the Museum of Life and Science um first I just want to say that the museum is a very personal place to me I moved down here about 20 years ago and started as a nanny and the museum was a great place for me to take my little kiddos to go to share my love of science but also to create a sense of community for me as I got to know Durham and the wonderful place that it was fast forward a couple years later I actually got married there and it became a very personal place to my husband and I fast forward a couple years later and my daughter at 18 months was diagnosed with autism and the museum provided a place that helped me as a parent to be able to understand and navigate that diagnosis and figure out how I can also take her out into the public have a safe space for her and have a community that appreciates who she is and so personally I was very grateful for the museum last year I had the opportunity to come over and work and I realized that my story is not unique that there are a lot of

people within the community who really love the museum and find that same sense of of comfort community and and specialness that really makes us a unique place within within the county I will also say it's great to see all the different things that we do for the community community with your support and we are incredibly grateful for that so thank you very much for the opportunity to say thank you for considering our request and and for voting to support us again this year we are very grateful for that thank you thank you all right um we'll go back Commissioners to 230425 and this is adoption of initial resolution authorizing 60 million dollars General obligation refunding bond series 2023 including a resolution calling for

public hearing you know General obligation refunding bond order foreign that was pulled from the agenda I'm sorry so yes this this agenda item was pulled so that we can have some remarks from our bond camps Deputy in the bond Council and then we'll come back to the TN VR yes this was this was pulled doesn't this need to go at the end of the agenda though yeah I think we have to wait until the end of the agenda we have the two ordinance first since we've already started with it let me go ahead and finish it please go ahead thank you greetings to uh chair Harrington the Commissioners and members of this a great board with Dr soell attorney Andrew we come before you on

this evening to talk about this great Finance opportunity that we have and in this first step of this authorization process for the issuance of the Geo Bonds in which we approved in 2016 and we used it for community colleges for the library for the museums as well as the the schools and so on tonight we are going to be asking several things here we're going to ask that you adopt the final resolution for the Board of Commissioners of the county of Durham North Carolina the making the certain statement of facts concerning proposed bond issue then we're wanting to introduce the bond authorization the issuance of the 60 million dollars General obligation refunding bonds and then we're asking for the adoption of the calling of the

public hearing we also part of our team here we have our Parker Poe that's with us with our bond Council which is Carlos Manzano manzanos and then we also have with us our finance team which is our assistant CFO for debt which is Joe Fatima and our senior accountant which is uh Jamelia Wilson Davis and of course our leader which is Claudia Hager and so if we have any questions we can we have our bond counsel over here with us tonight happy to answer any questions on any of the resolutions or the action to introduce questions commissioners hearing none um looking at my instructions here

so so the resolution and title resolution of the County Board commissioners of the county of Durham North Carolina making certain that making certain State resolution title resolution of the board of County commissioners of the county of Durham North Carolina making certain statements of fact concerning proposed bond issue s of fact concerning proposed bond issue is before the board for consideration making certain funds related certain findings related to proposed issue of General obligation refunding bonds is there a motion to adopt the resolution has been moved and seconded or is there any discussion of the motion

hearing none I'd like to introduce a bond order entitled oh I gotta have a vote so I will read chair Howerton I'm sorry um I'd like to introduce a bond order entitled bond order authorizing the issuance of 60 million refunding bonds series 2023 the bonds will refund the County's General obligation bond series 2 2021 which was authorized pursuant to bond orders approved in the 2016 referendum for Community College Library Museum and school purposes copies of the bond order are available in your agenda packet in the complete form of bond order will be written upon the minutes of this meeting as having been introduced in accordance with the North Carolina General statutes so Madam clerk do we get a do we take a vote before we go any farther we do attorney on the first one hi this

is uh Carlos Manzano Bond Council so there is no need to take a vote on the introduction of the bond order just by reading it into the record you've kind of checked the Box on that hey let's check the box do we need to vote on the resolution that we read before that yes the first the first resolution because I think there was a motion in a second but there wasn't a vote on the resolution okay I'm listening to my attorney now guys yeah sorry a lot of speakers everybody hold on for a second okay we had a resolution that was spoken motion and a second procedurally we must vote okay then normally we would go to where the clerk spoke so if we could do that now to remind those voting and the citizens of the fact that we had a uh emotion and it was second it will take that vote for the record so we had a motion and we had a second okay all in favor aye aye so it passes motion passes five to zero

then we go to the the next part of this item um so um let the outside Council speak toward I think the second motion is up now uh the second is the introduction to our bond authorization uh the issuance of the 60 million dollar general obligation refunding bonds of the county of Durham North Carolina yes and that action is the uh the introduction of the bond order that that um if you'd like to read it into the record again so we have the okay I'll reread it again and I'd like to introduce the bond order entitled bond order authorizing the issuance of 60 million refunding bonds series 2023 the bonds will refund the County's General obligation bond series 2021 which was authorized pursuant to bond orders approved in the 2016 referendum for

college for Community College Library museums and school purposes copies of the bond order are available in your agenda packet and the complete form of bond order will be written upon the minutes of this meeting as having been introduced in accordance with the North Carolina General statutes a resolution in title bond order authorizing the insurance of 50 million dollars refunding bond series 2023 setting public hearings thereon and directing a publication of notice of said public hearings is before the board for consideration calling a public hearing is there a motion to adopt the resolution I second the motion the motion has been moved there has been a motion a second is there any discussion

part of this motion is refers to a public hearing is is that happening next or does that come in the future yes so the resolution that you that you all are adopting tonight will call public hearing for the June 26th board meeting we will be working with the county to publish a notice of said public hearing before okay any other comments okay it's been moved in probably second all in favor aye motion passes five to zero any other discussion all right okay um go to 230389 the amendment to chapter 4 of the Durham County code

Awards to allow for creation to trap neuter vaccination release program and the person pretty sassy our senior assistant County attorney is here for this discussion commissioners Adam excuse me Madam chair commissioners um as you noted the purpose of this amendment is to amend the animal Control Ordinance to permit the establishment of a trap neuter vaccinate release program this was originally proposed to you by the Animal Welfare advisory committee as a more effective and more humane

approach to managing pre-roaming cats unknown to cats and they came to you and said they wanted to propose a community solution to a community problem and asked you to remove impediments in the existing ordinance that they believed prevented this program from being established now I'm happy to tell you that the draft ordinance before you the amendment's tonight address all four of the impediments they identified um and I would like to recognize the folks who worked so well to make that come together I pulled together a small working group and really just tried to stay out of it and help them come together and we had the chair of the animal welfare advisory

committees feral Community cat committee Jan Paul we had and I'm going to get it right this time the head of APs shafanda Allen Davis there's gonna be cats on my car I know it all right let me make a note on that and just strike that reverse it shafanda Davis Allen the sheriff's legal advisor Keisha Lovelace and then I was very fortunate because this is not my bailiwick that's why I was trying to stay out of it and just say okay what can we come together and make work and it was recommended to me that a local advocate for animals and something of an expert on the concept of tnvr Sarah reichman would be an essential

resource for us and that was proposed by Jan and I'm deeply appreciative um and and I also have to recognize she's not here tonight Dr Jennifer Frederico the director of Wake County Animal Services whose program adopted in 2011 we kind of looked at as a model and to be honest I think once the four of them all came together we had this sorted out in about a month and a half and came up with what you have tonight um as I say we've addressed all the impediments identified by the Animal Welfare advisory committee and the local groups I know that independent animal rescue is ready to proceed and hopefully

there are more groups and more individuals who are ready to stand up and participate and expand what can be done and will be done to provide these services to reduce this population effectively and humanely and to Foster good relationships and understanding amongst the community now if you all have any questions about the ordinance I will certainly do my best to respond to them but I did not want to try to go through this line by line [Laughter] I think Curtis we've asked you so many questions we're all just like should we ask him anymore [Laughter] I think Mr Jacobs has one

I do not have a question um I I want to add one person to your thank you list and that is commissioner Carter who has been helping to Champion this and move this along over this over several years I'll take credit for getting it rolling back in 2016. when I was the our representative to the um Animal Welfare advisory committee so this has been a long time in the making but I I want to recognize you Curtis for bringing everyone together I think this is just a great um example of people working together and compromising and nobody getting exactly what they wanted um and um but I think this meets the um it gets to the heart of what people have

been trying to do which is to take away the barrier were people frankly doing something that they're already doing um and you know we we have it was a new world to me when I joined the committee uh that we already had people in the community volunteering and managing um what we call now Community cat colonies but you know this is something that's happening and it is an effective strategy to try to manage a big problem and we know that we can't kill all the cats and we can't we it's actually quite expensive I I don't remember do you remember the amount that we spent last year Curtis it was yeah we spent a lot of money and you know basically ex you know killing I forget 60 cats or something like that

there's an estimation that we have like 60 000 cats in Durham so uh not only is it not possible to catch all of them but we also can't afford it and this is a strategy that other Counties have already adopted we're unfortunately we're not leading on this we're actually catching up um so I just want to say thank you to everyone who's been involved um thank you to our community who is going to now really take the lead on this and I do look forward to in the future being able to take the next step um which is you know hopefully finding uh some non-profit partners that will help to cover really cover the expense for this and really expand this in a much broader way so I'm really excited to vote on this uh and thank you to everyone and thank you for all the Advocates that are here as well foreign

I'll say ditto to commissioner Jacob's Commons and also adding in the thanks uh thank you attorney Massey for all of the work uh that you put in behind this for figuratively and literally hurting cats for the messenger thank you so much for all the back and forth I know you've been doing um especially since it's a scenario you haven't like weren't very knowledgeable but like you never let that show for us you've always been our expert in this and I really appreciate it also thank you to all the residents who have emailed and contacted us about this I feel like this has been one of the most passionate um issues that has come before our board from the first time it was introduced to us of the public comments we received from all the emails everything so just thank you to all the Durham County residents we're so passionate about this issue um and took the time to reach out to us to share their thoughts and perspective thank you

okay I'll just pile on quickly and say thank you to the our reps here tonight who really helped um bring make this ordinance a reality to Curtis um and I just wanted to and you know I also want to point out that once the ordinance has been in place for a few years this was a negotiated ordinance and so no one is thrilled with it um but that's what happens with compromise and so once this has been in place for a few years we'll be able to you know determine what the Practical effects of it are what benefits there are what what what what what what ways we might be able to improve it and so it's really good we're getting going um and so that in the future we we might be able to make it even better that's all I want to say commissioner Burns ditto and I was just going to make the motion all right I like to make a motion to adopt the

attached resolution amend in chapter four of the Durham County code of ordinance to allow for a creation of a trap neuter vaccinate release program it's been moved improperly second all in favor aye motion passes five to zero and I promise you Curtis had a little bit more hair but he started working on it [Laughter] thank you Curtis thank you okay there were two other items Commissioners that were pulled um 230433 oh okay contract approval for the American act

rescue act fund Community Grants awarded and RFP category like for Claudia you will just talk about those a little bit there's so much in these proposals just in the community as an idea both and also zero four three four let's just share with the community a little bit about what's in those two items thank you having a little technology and pulling it all up um good evening board members it is exciting um coming to this stage of the process and sharing updates on our American Rescue plan act Community grants we awarded 46 proposals and we're halfway through of executing contracts that is a a quite

detailed process for tonight's agenda there are contracts related but both to youth focused efforts the first set of contracts are for purpose learning lab as well as Emily K and for both of them they will provide tutorial Services as well as enrichment activities and as you know with the programming of arpa dollars there is a desire to help mitigate issues that happen with the covid-19 learning loss challenge that many families are facing including my own family that that are areas that we can support and wrap our arms around our youth and their families and so for the the one on zero four three three again they will focus on youth learning and tutorial activities

and then for the other contract for four three four that particular one is capacity building and supporting efforts for maternal health and this partnership is with the Center for Child and Family Health at Duke University and we're excited for the efforts they will do to help bolster efforts to support mothers and and their children for the most critical time of life thank you Claudia this has been a lot of work and we so appreciate the work that you've done around this because there's so much richness in all of this funding that we are get giving to the community and we are happy that we were able to get the American Rescue fund

um and um just wanted a little bit highlighted so the community knows some of these grants are already being awarded um they will be receiving the money sometime soon yes ma'am and um and we're grateful that we'll have the ability for them to expend the dollars over 24 month period we are honoring that we recognize who we're trying to get it all spent by December 2024 however we do have until 2026 to expend the dollars so we are honoring that commitment for a 24-month process so they'll have sufficient time for planning as well as implementation and then most important for us to do the evaluation evaluation and storytelling so we're excited thank you any questions from commissioners

hearing none thank you Claudia so much and I will entertain a motion to approve 230433 and 230434 we already adopt the third one twenty four three five because that's the third contract we did already okay we already approved uh okay okay so I almost it's been moved uh second moved and properly second all in favor aye passes five to zero I believe that is all the items that we have are there any is there anything else before this board to Mr Jacobs yes um Madam chair I

would like to request an excused absence for our June 26th meeting um I hope that I can attend because I really want to vote on the Carver Creek project but I don't know if I will be able to I I will be it would have to be attending virtually but so just in case if I'm not able to get in for some reason I and I can't vote even if I'm attending virtually but anyway I'm just going to go ahead and request an excuse absence in advance move approval of an accused absence for commissioner Jacobs first meeting okay it's been moved in probably a second for excuse absence for commissioner Jacobs all in favor okay passes motion passes five to zero anything else before this board I call for a motion to adjourn so moved okay moved in second all in

favor aye any abstentions you want to stay [Laughter] passes we are adjourned