Well, good afternoon uh commissioners. Thank you so much, county manager. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come back and share with you our um budget requests and we certainly appreciate all the work that has been going into reviewing our requests and making some um tough decisions uh considering the the state of the county's budget. Uh as you know um there are some challenges within our budget is budgets as well.
Uh again just a reminder um how our budget was developed. It wasn't developed just by a group of people sitting in a conference room and and making an ask. Uh we definitely did engage this community in a in a major way through surveys, through uh town halls, through uh budget hearings, then going back and revising to come back with an ask and also thank you all for uh county manager Hager coming to our board meeting to share uh the current reality of the county budget that helps us helped us go back and make some additional adjustments. And so the fact of the matter is, you know, we're all um um concerned about public education uh considering what's going around the federal and state level state level and just trying to make the best decisions
uh given the budgets and information we have at this this time. So again, we'll share just um our budget highlights, our budget request highlights. Uh we'll also take a moment to share uh some additional work that we've done in our district. Uh again, uh making some tough decisions uh grappling with the decrease in enrollments.
want to take a moment to share some of the cuts that we've made internally um as well. All right, at this time I will turn it over to our uh chief financial officer extraordinaire Jeremy Teter. >> Thank you. Thank you Dr.
Lewis. Uh so the last time uh that we were together was not so long ago on the 12th. Um we um we were still awaiting sort of some iteration of concrete information from the general assembly about what the budget might look like and um we we had um some loose information that had been leaked. Um and and then ultimately they they did shortly after we left you about a day or so they had a a joint press conference with the speaker of the house and the president proemp of the senate about the broader framework uh of what the state budget was going to look like. Um, and so they they were only able to
share some limited details, but but some major details that they felt were important to clear out of the way so that they could push forward and and draft a broader budget document that filled in um the the rest of the blanks, so to speak. And so um what we um what we know u was that it was an average um 8% raise for certified teachers and and a 3% raise for classified um sort of consistent with um what we had heard through the tea leaves uh prior to the formal uh press release uh and average being the operative word um for the certified raises and we'll touch on that a bit a little bit more. Um what we did not know or we had not heard rumblings of uh prior to our um last time here uh was also their desire to include a one-time bonus um for uh certified and classified employees um as a part of their proposal. Um and so for the uh certified folks differentiating that um by years of service. So folks with less than 16 years of experience getting a
$500 bonus. folks with 16 plus years of experience receiving a thousand in the certified space. Um and then where classified employees were concerned providing um the the differentiating marker based on um what their salary is for those folks. So folks earning less than 65,000 would get a 1750 one-time uh bonus from the state.
folks greater than 65,000 in salary would have a $1,000 bonus in in the framework um that was proposed um in the past week or so. Um I alluded to this earlier just the the average being the operative word uh for the certified salary schedule. Uh and so um you can see in the chart here u there's sort of a draft a draft schedule of what the teacher salary schedule would look like in the state of North Carolina. uh and what the changes are. 1%.
5%. So just a very broad spectrum. Um in my 10 years of doing school system finance, seems unprecedented to have that wide um of a differentiation um on the scale. there's always some and it's it's never an across the board as a rule of thumb, but u that was very broad.
Um and it gave us pause um when when we um got our hands on that document. Um so we in our last visit, we had contemplated what uh what did what would things look like in the context of our continuation request to you with an average of 8% and we we felt good about that weighted distribution. um this distribution having the details behind um that average of 8% really gave us something to think about. Um and you know every every school system constructs their budgets differently. We all make different decisions about who we pay from what fund for a variety of
reasons. And so um my colleagues across the state and I have had a fun time sort of unpacking our specific situations and how our schedules are constructed. I feel I remain um committed that I feel lucky to be in Durham. Um and and I I stand by what I said a week or so ago in that um the average locally funded teacher in Durham is on step six um of the salary schedule, right?
In in a lot of districts across the state, it's an average of zero or one. And and so they're they're contending with some larger sort of local movement with their local obligations. 4% for our locally funded teachers and it doesn't shift sort of that concept of the of the weighted scale um very much uh compared to um what we looked at uh with you a week or so ago. Um the the weighted average was going to be about 4% just assuming an average of 8% for certified.
28% uh across all of our employee types that we're paying from from local funds. And so we remain um at a high level, we remain feeling good about the the the construct of our continuation request um in our budget to the county. And um and to be frank, we were just very lucky that our average teacher lands at that point in the salary schedule. Some other districts were not so lucky and and that's a consequence of this unique salary schedule that the general assembly is proposing this year.
Uh but just wanted to sort of lift up um in sort of in a short form a chart format what we projected where things landed um without having good information. Many months ago when we developed our request, we um just applied a 5% um broadly for both sets of employees. You can see the 8% average for certified, 3%
um recommended uh from the general assembly. Um retirement rate spot on with what's being recommended. Um and then uh just within $175 per employee on state health insurance. Um and so the the bottom half of that slide just really references sort of that weighted average calculation we had to go through to reassess our local implications um for the raises that have been proposed in the framework that was announced.
Um, from there we do still have some unanswered questions. Um, and and we're monitoring for any inkling of what might be forthcoming, right? And so important for us, right? Um, in the past, uh, when we have had one-time non-recurring bonuses that have come by way of state action, um, there have been a number of occasions where they have funded that regardless of the employee source.
Uh, and so we're watching that very carefully to see if it will behave in the same way. Um I think that that matters for us quite a bit. Um we still don't have clarity on on what will occur
um with M's pay for teachers in North Carolina. There was um no discussion of that in the uh press briefing at the general assembly a few days ago. Um we we do feel sure that if they had reached a positive conclusion that they were going to do that, they would have led with that along with the other announcements because that's been a major sticking point between the House and the Senate. Um, so it's either going to be a no or they're still trying to iron that out and we're watching that very carefully.
Um, for for Durham and for Wake County that that has important local budget implications. 7 million for us um for us to help sort of manage towards some of these other priorities that we lifted up um in our in our budget ask. Um, and so it's of keen interest for us what they end up doing with M's pay. Um, logistically, you know, we've positioned ourselves well this school year in concert with the team in HR. Um, so we we required our teachers um to add the master's
degree to their license even though the state was not going to pay for it in those cases so that it's a seamless transition in the event that the state does pick it up and and and our folks are well situated uh to make sure um that we have everything in place that we would need uh for it to be paid from state funds. with that change. Obviously, we're all curious. You're probably more than us, right?
Very curious what what comes of of the various constitutional amendments forthcoming about tax limitations. Um, so I think it it affects all of us and and so that's a really a critical unanswered question for us. Um, and so we're we're going to continue to update our board as well as well as the county manager and and ultimately you all um as we continue to learn new pieces of information that come forward from this session um in the general assembly. Um I think um another interesting item that we're watching and I stole a clip um from the news and observer um right is this conversation around um the opportunity scholarships or the private
vouchers. Um and so there um there has been $106 million or so paid in private vouchers in the last two years. 8 8 million of taxpayer funds that would have gone to public schools to follow those children. 8 million uh with the understanding that those funds were to be reinvested into public schools.
8 8 million might make its way back uh into the state budget um for for public schools. Um so that's an an item that's of keen interest to us as we would benefit from a portion of those dollars uh from our state funding if that um comes together. So that's um been very interesting to watch unpack. Um, I think
we're also concerned um that there have been some proposals raised, right, that the Department of Public Instruction would no longer potentially no longer be the entity that disperses our state funds to us and that that may move to the North Carolina State Education Authority um assistance authority um that traditionally works in the higher ed space in in North Carolina. So, uh, I know that our, um, I know Senator Chitlick in particular, uh, lifted some concerns about that on the Senate floor very recently, and we're grateful for her advocacy there. Um, we, we have well functioning systems between the local education agencies and DPI to administer funding. And so, we we certainly hope that DPI remains the authority that administers our state funds.
So, just wanted to it's never ending the the list of things um, that we grow concerned about. Um and so um did want to lift up right some various things that have occurred over time um in the school system since my arrival, Dr. Lewis's arrival, right? And
so in the the last budget cycle, um we we we spent some time looking at our central office staffing and and our board of education, you know, authorized the elimination um of about 27 positions uh that had a little over $2 million in value uh as as we're working to rightsize ourselves and and and and remain good fiscal stewards. Um we did um in in the middle of the current fiscal year terminate some service contracts um that our senior leadership uh felt uh was not necessary or in some cases redundant um and eliminated um 663,000 or more uh worth of local service contracts from the district. 2 million or so in in state revenue. 6 million
in new potential charter school obligations that we'll need to comply with in the new school year. Um and and with with that number sort of being our worst our worst case scenario, but we're making sure that we're prepared for that. And uh we've had to go through um what I don't particularly enjoy, right, is is u making sure that folks stick to what they must have and not the nice to haves in a lot of cases. And so um Dr.
Dr. Lewis and I have spent a lot of time engaging with principles and and other leaders throughout the district just uh forcing them to adhere to our very carefully crafted staffing formulas in the district so that we don't end up in an unfortunate situation um in the school system. So, just wanted to lift up the work that we're doing in that space and and just to note we continue to do that and we're actively going through these activities now um to see what we can do further uh to accommodate some some priority requests that came through our our budget development process. Um, we've talked about this a number of
times and I know in the um in the county manager's recommended budget, um, it's her desire or recommendation to to provide this level of funding to support the continuation request. Um, we've talked about the salary and benefit component quite a bit. Um, the utility space has gotten interesting. Um, I think recently in the news I've seen that the utilities commission had to delay um their hearing on Duke Energy's requests um due to safety or security concerns.
Um, and so I don't know what to make from that other than I think they were expecting some perhaps very robust um public turnout for that. Uh, I think it's not just us um that are watching that. So that I think that meeting's been delayed and until sometime next month um before um they have further review at the utility commission um with Duke Energy's proposal. So still watching that carefully um and preparing for our worst case scenario there um at the school system. Um we've talked about these quite a bit um
and and I know that there's been ongoing advocacy um outside of the folks in this room with some of these items, right? And so we've um you know classified pay was a major tenant um of the superintendent's recommended budget. Um and so um you know reaching for that goal of having a minimum wage of 1922 in the school system um and the associated cost with that um certainly that was the um the tenant um of our or the anchor so to speak right of of the continuation or the expansion request rather that that came through to you all. Um again, same umbrella.
Um right, a common common theme here with the expansion items with with support for classified employees. Um so, uh looking to implement a $100 monthly supplement for our safety assistance, uh that support, um the safety of our students on school buses. Um, from there, um, our occupational and physical therapy, um, folks that work for us do do critical one-on-one work,
uh, with our students who have great needs, um, looking to put in place, um, a competitive model there, um, for us to to be able to retain and and and hopefully bring back um, some occupational and physical therapists who have left us u for other uh, employers in the market. So um from there um we know that um at this point in time this is not really on the table. There are no expansion items um or expand there's not an expansion funding on the table from the county at this point in time and so therefore we won't need to really contemplate at this point sharing any of that with charters. So u we would only be sharing the uh continuation share with charters at this point in time. So um sort of a moot slide at this point in time. Um capital outlay was another space right and so the superintendent breaks um further breaks down um his recommended budget to to reflect the current expense items we just went through as well as the capital
outlay aspect. And so we um in in a current in our current environment receive an an annual $5 million appropriation to take care of ongoing maintenance and facility needs in the district. Um and and above and beyond that this year, uh we requested that continue as well as some additional support uh to finance um the replacement of some aging student devices and and aging um interactive panels um in the in in our classrooms. Uh so bringing the capital outlay request this year with an increase of of 2,823,488 beyond uh what currently occurs.
um commissioners and the manager intimately aware of this chart. You've seen it many times and and so it's just a a a depiction of um the the funding history and and and the um the request this year. So um from there u I think I came in under my 30 minutes and we'll um save time for um answering any questions um
or any clarity um that folks may need. Commissioner Burton. >> Thank you, Chair Lee. Thank you so much for this presentation.
Um, I have a couple of questions. One of the questions I have is, um, that's a lot of employees that are locally funded. I didn't realize that. And so, is it primarily the teacher assistants, office staff, bus drivers who are state funded?
And um is it like exceptional children's TAs that are um locally funded the cafeteria staff? Like I wanted some more clarification on that. >> Yeah. So yeah, fantastic question.
Right. And this is one where if you could um if you put 10 finance officers from school systems in this room today, you would probably get 10 different answers about how we build uh where where we pay our folks from. But in the case of Durham, uh what you're naturally concerned about, um in our in our in our state funds, um there's the larger
concentrations of our classified employees are our um instructional assistants or teacher assistants, um our bus drivers, um that we receive specific aotments for from the state and we're we have to use it in that way. And so that's where we start. Uh and then we do receive uh a bucket of funds um for um it's intended for um office support um or classified support, right? And so um you will see a large concentration of school treasurers or or school data managers um that are paid from our state funds.
And then um when you push out from there um our school nutrition employees are are paid from our school nutrition fund. uh and so they they live in that space uh in that enterprise fund. Um our before and afterare employees for example are classified in nature. They are paid ex explicitly from that fund. Uh but then when you push um specifically into the local dollars um and employees that live there um you're going to see um a number of categories
uh of folks there. There are still instructional aids that are paid there because they do not all fit um right in in the state resources that we receive. Um there are um a lot of um a lot of paraprofessional in nature right um that you'll see throughout the district uh that come from that fund. um you know, receptionists, um anything that won't fit.
Um for our bus drivers, um you know, there most of their pay comes from state dollars, but we do sort of pay above that state ceiling in order to be competitive. And so there's a portion of bus driver pay uh that comes from local dollars. Uh and um I'm thinking of some other um you'll see you'll see some of the finance staff, for example, that comes from local HR staff. uh other folks that we have to have um and most prominently, I can't forget them, right? Are our are our maintenance employees that take care of our buildings, right? And so they are um the state does not like for us to pay for them from state funds because the the buildings are
perceived as a local responsibility. And so any employee that we have that's responsible for taking care of our buildings, we we pay from local funds, right? So those are there could be many many more examples, but those are kind of some broad brush strokes there. Gotcha.
That makes sense. The other question I have was I was looking at the state um DPI's website around where they set the parameters around minimums and maximums, right? And then I guess what DPS does is fill in what the minimum pay is and what the maximum pay is. And I was wondering I saw two charts like there was one side that said minimum, one side said maximum.
And then also I was wondering what how are I don't want to get too much into the weeds because I know I can get really in the weeds, but I'm just wondering how is how are those decisions made for the steps? Does the state set those steps or how does that work? >> Yeah. Um, so our school board adores the minimum and maximum um column that's on
that schedule, but um as as a as a practice um so if you're looking at Durham Public Schools classified salary schedules that are on our website, we um as a we have not utilized that maximum column since that was put in place in the fall of 2024. Um and so our um our classified employees are paid on that that left hand column, the minimum. Um and there's a there's a a bottom floor for step zero and a and a max floor. Um generally we'll see it go up to 35 um where those steps are concerned.
Um and then and then there's an evaluation that occurs um when an employee is brought on board who's classified and and we um and it's been handled different ways in my career in different districts. Um you know some districts may say we'll give you uh we'll give you 100% credit if you came if those years came from another school system. we give you a 100% credit for years on um if it came from the state, some kind of state agency. Um and some school systems may say, "Hey, uh we
" Durham is a little more um on the competitive edge with that where we give step-by-step credit um for relevant work whether it's private, state, another school system. Right? So, um, another great thing about Durham, uh, right and so, uh, and our our HR technicians work diligently to verify prior experience, um, to to help place employees on those steps. Yeah.
>> Well, that's good to know. So, basically, we're dealing with a situation where the state just doesn't pay enough. And here we have been working really hard to try to shore this up. Um, and it's becoming challenging because of the state's decision not to fully fund public schools, fully fund um, classified staff, fully fund teachers, and we're trying to figure out here at the local level, how do we get folks paid? >> And and I remember um, you know, it's been a few years now, but right, the state went through an effort to lift the
minimum wage u, and so they and they did it in two years. So they they lifted it to $13 an hour minimum the first year and then it lifted to the 15 the second year um for our employees. Um and I took a survey at that time and all all finance officers took a survey at that time of what are the local implication right what are the implications of this new minimum wage for your locally funded employees your school nutrition funded employees all these different categories and I think they were trying to capture someone was trying to capture I think what would this be how much money would the state need to come up with right to take care of this obligation and I and I think it just became information right and I I don't think there was ever really a a major shift in in state funding to to sort of go along with that and certainly nothing beyond, you know, that 15, right? So, it it's so your points spot on.
>> Gotcha. I appreciate that. I know I can't really get into the weeds, so I'm going to let my colleagues ask
questions. Thank you so much, >> Commissioner Jacobs. >> Thank you all so much. I want to first recognize almost the entire school board being here.
So, thank you all for being here and and thank you to Mr. Teter and our superintendent and uh we are so lucky to have you, Mr. Teter, here in Durham public schools. It's very evidently the wealth of your experience and knowledge.
Um, I wanted to try to understand now at this point with the funding that is recommended in the county manager budget plus what the state is doing, what will that translate to in terms of hourly pay for classified staff at this moment? >> Yeah. Um, so at this at this point in time, um, we know we know that that's a we know that that's a minimum, right, of a 3% lift. um you know to our minimum wage um for classified employees in
Durham. And so that um and I'm I looked at this number earlier and I don't have it burned in my brain yet. Um but right it makes that number 1766 an hour if it's only the three. Um, and so there are, um, so we've done sort of what I call like my macro or my shorthand math, right, of of um, you know, and so at this point I'm not in a panicky point about right, the state implications.
And so now we're redoing re redoing all of our workpapers to to flesh out in the longhand, right, how what are all these other uh, variables on the table. Uh, and so we're looking very carefully um at at all of our other opportunities that we have right within our budget and and our priorities of what other things can we redirect to to make that um that 3% better um for our classified folks. Um and um we we were hoping that it would would have worked out to a minimum of five from the state, right? G given
that there had been no activity for this year. Uh, and so, uh, I know folks are really feeling that. Um, and, uh, it's hard for them to look at, you know, with the an average of 8% coming through in the in the certified space and they're at three. Um, and so we're, um, sort of like we mentioned earlier, sort of monitoring that M's pay piece, right?
If that, um, if the state picks that up, um, you know, that's another p that's another percent in some change that we can throw at the classified uh, piece of the puzzle. Um we're looking I'm looking at um even looking at my expenditures in in my department and and things that I've put in place as finance officer, right? And I know um as we've gone through an ERP conversion, we've had a fiscal year where we were paying for two systems to allow for a smooth conversion. Couple hundred,000 there that I know I can throw at some of these classified dilemmas. um we had to pay for two audits in one year to catch the school
system up on the audit cycle. There's another h 100,000 right from the finance budget that you know that we're going to throw at um and throw at this right and so we're we're continuing to work through sort of those big chunks that we know are on the table and and um it's very important for us to do what we can. So we we we know a minimum of three, but we're working hard with the variables we can control to get that higher and we'll continue to see that flesh out over the next couple of weeks. >> Well, it's really good to hear you say that.
It sounds like from your perspective that increasing the salary, the hourly wage of the classified staff is the priority. And I would I'm assuming from the comments that I've heard from from our board members is that that's also would be our priority as well. If you can come up with any additional funding. I know when we met uh for the joint meeting, you mentioned possibly being able to find three to four million. And
so I feel like anything that you we can put towards this as a priority would >> be good. >> Yeah, absolutely. Just to reiterate that, you know, that came up during the budget development uh process in terms of feedback. It also came up, you know, when I first got here, you know, investing in our staff salary, particularly our classified staff.
And then when you have like the city going up to $25 an hour, Duke going up to $20 an hour, it it becomes, you know, difficult for us to maintain our our folks that are in front of our our children and doing the work of supporting our our schools. And so, yes, 100% that is our priority. And to Jeremy's point, we are still looking inwards to see where we can u make some additional cuts um to ensure that we are, you know, focusing and and delivering on what we heard and that's and and our folks deserve that. >> Thank you. And um our staff shared with us some really good data that I don't know if it's been shared with you all yet, but hopefully um we'll be be able to send it to you all and also to the be shared with the
school board members. um looking at benchmarking locally funded positions and I just want to share some of the data points that I learned from that. One is that um over the past 10 years there's been an increase well it was from like 2013 to like 1314 to 2023 24 an increase in 62 locally funded positions. um while enrollment declined 2,31 students um as well as just benchmarking percentages with um other counties and basically the highest um when you look at you know the counties that we benchmark ourselves with it's about 20% is the highest and then Durham is 24% of in terms of locally funded positions so I think this is just more for the
long term because I think we all recognize between the city, the county and the schools, the landscape which you highlighted. Um we have we're just at a point where we have to do things differently and what we've been doing is not going to be sustainable going forward. And so what thoughts do you have about being able to reach that kind of benchmark of 20% locally funded positions? And you also mentioned that um there was a reduction um when you showed us that chart just a minute ago of some of the locally funded positions 202526 and I'm just wondering will there be any corresponding reduction of locally funded positions in 2627? >> Yeah. So absolutely and I think um in the c in the course of this staffing
aotment season um across a variety of position categories right we're in the neighborhood of 200 less um locally funded positions right just doing that work to to bring our staffing in line uh with the number right with the shifting numbers of students in schools and so I think definitely the district is moving in in the right direction with that um and continuing to look at that uh and I um you know we're we are getting very fair feedback um from our schools that have been most impacted by that to say okay right you've schools have reacted to declining enrollment what what is central services doing to react in that same way right and so we're we're doing that inward look actively uh and so it's uh definitely ongoing work and that's that's moving in the right direction >> thank you Um and I just um and then all the issues that you brought up um I hope that
uh at the general assembly level um you know we can we we also have a lobbyist and you know we can partner on making sure that our Durham delegation knows about some of these very timely issues like the M's pay and this voucher reinvestment um do potential dollars. So um please let us know and we can also share that directly with with our our lobbyists. I just wanted to share that. And I I guess I wanted to bring up something that's not totally related to to this, but we are going to be talking this afternoon about our violence prevention plan. And that's, you know, a joint plan. Um, I know in the manager's budget is a recommendation for grant funding for some youth related programs, but you know, there's recently been um an article that was in the Ninth
Street Journal about the truency rate in Durham public schools. And I know that's a complex issue. Um but I and then of course we see the graduation rate declining and I'm sure there's some linkage between some of these issues and data points and just wondering this is more for the superintendent um what are your thoughts about how we you know it just feels very urgent um about how we as a community need to act quickly to to address this and what can we all do working together because to me it is a situation it's going to take everyone working together. So just wanted to hear what your thoughts were about this.
>> Yeah, absolutely. Um when we think about our particular our um chronic absenteeism rate that that ultimately leads to students being truent. You know over 35 37% of our students are uh chronically absent. And what that means
is those are students who miss 10% or more of school. And so if we're in a school, for example, 185 days, if you miss 18 days or more, you're chronically absent. Um, and I think as as most districts around the country are grappling with this postco and trying to reel it back in, uh, yes, we are still higher than the the state average in terms of our chronic chronic absenteeism rate, um, I I think more communication and advocacy to our families as is well because if you recall during COVID, we were telling parents to keep their kids home, right? And so what I tell families is um you know, yes, continue to send those notes in when they are out.
Uh and from a parent standpoint, you know, they're thinking, okay, I'm doing my job. Yes, you're doing your job by sending that note in, but at the end of the year, if you sent in 30 notes, your child is chronically absent. And so there's also some things that we can turn and look inward with um as well as it relates to student connectedness to our school, student engagement. Uh there are something called push and pull factors. And so we get to the dropout rate uh which we're projected to increase this coming year. Um there are
some push and pull factors and some of those early indicators are indeed chronic absenteeism rates as well as some um high school math level cores. We typically see a higher uh and we are seeing a higher level of students being chronically absent at the high school level uh to the tune of almost 50% of our high school students. And so when we think about what can we do to ensure that they are coming to school each and every day and on time, it's going to take a community effort and also um having conversations with our students to see why are we not coming to school. And so when we have our what we call our impact meetings with all of our schools, what we're hearing particularly at the secondary level is and and not to generalize here, but some some students are having to work to support their their their families.
And so that's a a systems issue. And so the system, the current system is not working for some of our students. And so how can we ensure that they um are able to um you know work to to provide um support to their families and also uh get their um education. And so we're having some conversations about some different programs and maybe bringing some
programs back as it relates to how we can um accommodate our our students and meet their needs. But number one is to ensure that we are communicating with our families the importance of students coming to school each and every day because sometimes our families may not know um at the end of the year that my child is my child is chronically absent you know because 18 days may not seem like a lot but it is >> and I'm glad you mentioned the issue of students working and that's why programs like at Holton and the Ignite program can really help with students who do need to work. Um, and there and sometimes working is a good thing. I true story my birthday I went to the Lenny and my son said he asked the waitress, you know, is so and so here tonight because one of his students is one of the pastry chefs at the Lenny and you know it turned down he was working that night and came out the the desserts were incredible. Um, but this student is
clearly benefiting from working. He is an ESL student, walks around with cookbooks and he's being mentored by the staff there, the managers taking them under the wing. It's just amazing. So, you know, some of our kids working like that's not a bad thing, but how can we also have, you know, like I said, have a school calendar that supports their ability to do that?
And I know we have the you know just some luckily we have some of those resources already. So um and then my last question is for you Mr. Teter. Um also some of the data that we got was around the um trends related to the negative unassigned fund balance >> and just wondering what your thoughts are about with that.
>> Yes, she will be positive um for for this for this year close out. Right. So there are a number of um just a number of accounting issues with the district that we've had to work through just in
terms of the timing of movement of funds um um that that create obligations that are due to our local fund, right? And so we've we have worked through all that um and and then another major portion of that um right were funds that were due to us from our school nutrition fund. Uh and so we're um you know we're at a spot where we've worked through those accounting issues so that they don't create obligations at the end of the year when we close out. Um and then two um we we're going to be able to recoup um some funding from our school nutrition program this year.
Um so that they're back sort of under control financially and and we're going to be able to bring some of that back in. And so a blend of those items um will move that needle such that um the local fund balance will be a positive number um when we close this fiscal year. Yep. >> Awesome.
Thank you, >> Commissioner Valentine. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair. Uh Dr. Lewis, Mr. Teter, thank you for appearing here
today on behalf of our children and our families. And thank you to members of the school board uh for being here. It shows a level of commitment uh to our parents and our families that uh shouldn't go unnoticed. I actually been talking in real time to some members of our delegation.
So with respect to the question about M's pay, >> um no word as of yet. So they're still they're still grappling. >> Gee, thanks. >> They're still grappling with that.
Um but the consensus is with respect to uh uh the the bonuses that uh everyone seems to believe that doesn't make a difference. Um but they're still trying to see what the the final decision is going to be on that, but the consensus seems to be that uh um they don't believe that it's going to make a difference. >> Great. And so my comment uh initially was be posed as a a question but more my comment and I've I've said this publicly is that uh the elephant in the room that everyone knows about um is the classified pay situation and I have said
that this is a situation that all of us really need to work together on. When I say all of us I mean all of our partners and really we need a a plan. So I think it's clear to me that the problem can't be solved over one cycle, but to the to the extent that it need can be solved, we need to work together over several cycles to to see what that could potentially look like. And so there's many factors that would would go into the final solution, obviously, but what are your thoughts about that?
And so because if we're going to be serious about this, um I I think we need to start having a a plan, one that's workable to to sort of meet those goals. >> Yeah, that's something that we discussed um in terms of, you know, we may not be able to get there in one year, but what does that plan look like over two or threeear period? And I will tell you, it will come with some tough decisions. You know, um as we think about, and um Mr. Tetum uh alluded to it earlier. There's been a lot of nice to haves uh in Durham, but when we're trying to reel
back some staffing that hadn't been uh hadn't taken into account uh the decrease enrollment, um you know, you're going to get advocacy from principles and rightfully so. And I appreciate the advocacy and we have to make sure that we are um adjusting how we operate and ensure that we are being fiscally responsible with the decrease um in enrollment. I was at a U meeting um with the largest 12 districts in the state a couple of weeks ago and one of the superintendents said raise your hand if you're not actively closing a school uh this coming year and I my hand was the only one that went up and so as we were sharing with our board our capital improvement plan uh and this this notion of of right sizing those are going to be some tough conversations tough but necessary to get to that point. I give you a perfect example of that. Uh in my previous district, we had a lot of advocacy work from our union there to get to $15 an hour about maybe four years ago, three or four years ago to to get to $15 an hour. Um you know, we made some tough decisions there that include uh school closure, right sizing, um reduction in force, and just maybe a couple of months ago, I read an article
from my previous district that um they were getting ready to ratify and approve $20 an hour for the classified staff and 51,000 for beginning teachers. And to put that in perspective, that was about maybe 47 thousand for teachers and around 14 14 and some change for our classified staff. So again, I share that to say um to your to answer your question. It's it in terms of a plan um projecting out what will it take to get us to that $20 an hour, 20 plus dollars an hour over the years because we can't, you know, have a goal and then three years get there because live livable wage will go up every year.
So, we have to be thinking about this constantly in terms of being fiscally responsible, not just um when we need to adjust and account for staff salary, but every year. And our board has been asking for a through your budget, you know, to to also assist us with that. And so, it's going to require planning and and some tough decisions along the way. >> Uh superintendent, I I think it's not lost on you that uh a majority of this
board uh wants to see that happen. um and and it's a real big issue um in in our community. And so I think we'd be willing to to to work to to a a solution, one that's workable uh within uh within our budget. And so we look forward to to having those talks and and really moving the ball uh forward.
And like I said, I think that other members of this uh commission are prepared to to help any way they can. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Vice Chair Lom, >> thank you.
Um, want to tag on and my thanks to y'all as well as the schoolboard members for joining, but especially, you know, my comments from our last joint meeting just to the amount of work that y'all have been putting in to bring us out of a hole. Um, I know Dr. Louis, you you did inherit a very sticky situation at DPS and uh Jeremy, you were brought in to help um gear the ship. And even though
we're still struggling with money, it's getting better and it's mostly on the state. And I wanted to ask, and you may not have this yet, but I have to ask. So, with the state raises, I know we don't know what it's going to be officially yet, but with that 3% with the positions that are covered by the state and them covering those raises that like are state funded, how much does that take off of the 17 million gap? So when we um so I think the short answer is when we when we build um our continuation ask um to the county right we account for measures that we expect to sort of come in play right on on the state side of the puzzle right so um so I think that that's a big part of our disappointment of they're only doing three right we we were aspiring for them to at least do five um but um so I think it's still Um,
I think it u it their their where they are in their recommendations makes it harder for us to achieve our goal because we we would love for them to have move the needle five or six on their side to have the state resources to come with that. And so um so we're um and so that's kind of why we are where we are and trying to figure out what else can we do sort of internally um with other areas where we're spending money. So the state budget, if I'm hearing you correctly, is actually going to increase that gap more than we anticipate rather than bring it down. >> It makes it more difficult for us to hit the sort of the target salary that we'd like to, right?
Um we it would have been nice for them to have done 5%. um you know for for classified pay as a part of their proposal and um would have been a nominal gesture. You know works you know considering no raise this year would have worked out to here's two and a half for this past year and two and a half for for the year ahead and and um would have hugged a little bit closer to
cost of living for sure than than than what they've proposed. Uh so, um we we so anytime we're preparing for a raise, we um we account we account for some degree of state money to follow it. And so, um so we're just um back to square one a little bit to to find some money. Yeah.
>> We have like um would you be able to share with us like a salary grade just like of numbers of like how many DPS classified staff are at that minimum wage. Um and then also what the compression would be. Does this ask also take factor in compression and handle that >> or will we see impacts of it? >> Yeah.
So we do have um we have some existing sort of work papers that convey how many of our employees um are are below right. So we did some work previously to sort of capture how many were how many are below the 1922 that we're trying to reach. Um and then and
then separate from that, right, we've also sort of got that drill down of how many live at the the 17 um our current 1715 minimum. Um and so when we built out the model, we tried to avoid creating compression, right? And so so we we've built one out that raises the the bottom floor, but then it sort of ripples throughout the salary schedule to to not create further compression. Um so um but yeah we can uh we've got some existing stuff that we can um make consumable for commissioners and for our board. >> And then to the um issue of like of student enrollment coming down. I think we talked about it briefly in the joint meeting, but wanted to come back to what conversations and like and I know the student enrollment going down is like spread across a lot of schools, >> but have there been any spaces or like schools that you've seen like a significantly higher um drop in enrollment that
consolidating classrooms or consolidating schools could potentially actually be the path that we need to be considering. >> So I'm not the expert in this space, right? You know, so I know my my my astute colleagues in in in facilities, right, in school planning are are are reviewing that uh and we do I think we do have some information that's forthcoming um that will further illuminate right your question. Um, and so, um, I I think there are, um, I think there are some scenarios, um, that that take that take into account projected continued declining enrollment that take into account the condition of particular buildings.
Um, and so I don't want to play too much in their sandbox, but I think that there there is some there's a report to our board forthcoming. I think that will be helpful in in answering your questions. And um it was supposed to have been at our our last meeting um and and we had to postpone that due to a staff illness, but um I think information that information exists and
is forthcoming in a presentation format. >> And I don't think there's been any one particular school or particular area that has seen a larger decrease than uh any others. And the fact of the matter is we're dealing with some schools that are um you know over capacity versus some that are well under capacity. uh we have about 13 of our elementary schools that have an enrollment of 350 or or fewer um that you know that are well under under capacity which um you know continues to um allow us to have those conversations about um right sizing.
So as Jeremy indicated we're um going to share we were supposed to share at our last meeting but one of our staff members were ill. So we'll share begin those conversations uh at our next uh board meeting next week. And then sort of, you know, in part two, I've tried to give everyone an update on this part of the project along the way just in terms of our marketing efforts. And so when we were when we were at the joint meeting on the 12th, right, we um had completed an RFP process to find, you know, a firm to assist us,
identified one contract under legal review. We have a contract back now um u from from our legal team um that we're we're looking to to get authorized here in short order um to to bring in some um expanded marketing efforts. Um so um you know so the the firm we're looking at has had success in in a variety of states in helping to recruit students back to the traditional public schools and um we're um finally got contract in in in a format that our attorneys can live with. and we're going to hit the ground running very quickly um with with some expanded marketing efforts um that are that are very targeted um to to bring some students back to us and and help them understand why we're the choice.
>> And we are looking deeply at that data. Just for example, this year we're down around a thousand students and we look deeper into that data. um we had the lowest birth rates um the past I think it was five years ago the lowest birth rates ever and this was around um um co
and so what that yielded for us was about 150 fewer uh little ones kindergarters coming into our classrooms that coupled with about maybe a little over 300 students that 300 more students took advantage of the um vouchers opportunity scholarships and then about 600 a little over 600 students um left and went to to charter so that's eerily close to that a thousand students that we didn't lost. And so, in addition to the uh marketing uh that we'll be doing, we're also um having our parents tell our story uh and tell their stories of why they chose DPS. We launched a campaign about a month ago uh that highlights some of our families uh sharing, you know, why I chose DPS. And so, if you search um # I choose DPS or I chose DPS, you'll see uh some of those stories.
We encourage you all members of the community. I know you chose DPS and manager Hager. We'll we'd love to put a video out there for you, too. You I think you did one, didn't you?
>> Yeah. >> I have not done one yet, but I will. >> Okay. Yeah. So, um and and families listen to families. And so, uh, kind of
re-energizing our parent ambassadors program so that they can continue to share, uh, why they, um, continue to state because there are some interesting stories of either private or charter school families that came to DPS and how it's been just, um, um, a total difference for them and then some that were DPS parents, left and went to charter, and then came back. And so, we're sharing those stories broadly as well. >> And two final questions. And when a family leaves DPS and goes to a charter school and does choose to return, we don't get that funding returned to DPS.
>> So the the state the state funding would sort of follow in a rears, right? So we would not realize the impact of the state money until the following year. Um and then we pay charters on a monthly basis. And so we um so we would start to save some of what we're passing along to charters and and and the degree of that would depend on at what point in the year they came back to us. Um so yeah, happy to bring them back at any time and
um it really pays dividends um in the following school year. And I'll say it in every space I get an opportunity to do, our charter schools just simply are not outperforming us as well. And so I want to just put that on the record that some families and community members believe or that charter equals better and the data just not does not support that. And I appreciate I think it was Commissioner Burden brought it up um a couple of meetings ago and I think it was used to be practice where charter schools will come in and have to present to the to the county on their academics and demographic data and what they're doing is so innovative since a large chunk of our money your money community's money is going to our charter schools and so uh I think um they owe it to this community to um share you know um the their outcomes. And do we also have like information on even just the staff training like because also the certification requirements for charter schools are much much more lax. And so our educators are definitely a lot more qualified and certified um at DPS than at the charter
schools. But then they're receiving similar or same pay as our certified highly educated and trained educators from DPS. I had one more, but I forgot it. So, I'll probably email it when it comes back to me.
>> All right. Um, thank you for this presentation. Um, I do have a few questions and it's it's slightly different from my colleagues. It's um I've uh kind of set out to speak to as many people in our community about uh different aspects of our budget this year, budget ask and you of course DPS is one. Um I'll preface this by saying I'm a firm believer that causation is not correlation is not causation. All right, we all know that as well as you there's
multifactors. I I I get that there's multifactors in different performance and everything like that. I don't tie anything to anything in specific to performance. Um couple years ago, um there was a before you two were here, there was a like a historic budget granting of DPS.
So I think it was close to 27 million or just over 27 million something like that. My question is um just kind of gathering information from other people is one of the over overarching questions is um well I guess I'm I'm I'm going to break it up into various questions. So from that um what what has changed in DPS from that budget ask itself here? Let me frame
this. Um has teacher retention gone up as a result of that? has any other performance me measurements that after that I'm not saying because of that because of course cor correlation is not causation I'm asking what measures um what have the measures been related to staff after that particular um budget season because after that we had 16 million It was the next year was 16 million I think right and then now we're at 10. Well the ask is back at is up at like 29. Um one of the questions I try to answer is when we do these budgets this is what we kind of expect on on the other side.
Um I say this all the time so my colleagues are not surprised to hear me say this is um I really like to look at at goals like what comes of a budget ask or a budget award. me being on that side of the table for eight years, I understand um it's not as easy to explain that in schools. It's not necessarily a onetoone, you know, we got this budget ass this increased or or so forth. But I will say um I think it was my think I think it was my second year being chair on the school board that we got a new board of commissioners when uh yeah and Wendy was chair and commissioner Jacobs was chair and after that first budget season we
actually started getting the asks that we were asking for back then it was small. It was like the 7 million was like the top, right? That was like what we that was the stretch. 7 million, 10 million and so forth.
Um once we were able to get that because we had specific things we're trying to fund to increase performance because you know we we could get into the the whole funding and underfunding and we couldn't get the supports that we needed at that point. Um but once we started getting the asks that we were asking for um all of our metrics started increasing. I mean we were um we ended up starting to grow again as a district. We our scores were um went up our reading
reading scores especially our reading scores went up. All the measurable, all the things that we measured started increasing once we were able to finally get the budget that we were asking for. And we could show we could draw we could draw a line to that. We could we could show that. Um I'm struggling to show the increase in metrics from that two years ago. the big budget than the 16 15 something million last year and how we can tie it to one of the things we heard with the big budget asked was I think it I think it ended up being like an 11% raise to kind of because of or something like that right 11% >> and it was we need this for teacher retention we need this to keep our teachers here for to to right am I
correct Right. It was because of the financial mishap and then also making sure our classified staff got their pay. >> Yeah. So, it ended up being about 11% raise, right?
And so, um, my question is, did we see teacher retention as a result of that? Because if if that's what the goal was and that's what we saw, then it's an easier ask, not necessarily easier to do, but it's an easier ask to say, okay, like we were able to accomplish this because we're able to get that goal. So, what I'm asking what I'm asking is to help me communicate what it means to fund DPS at $29 million, right? What has happened over the last couple years that actually
aligns with that ask? You know, did we see that increase? Have we seen increase in performance? have we seen um return on that so that we can say okay well we're getting a return if we do this we we can expect this return in the future >> so you >> I spoke long because I knew you all have to look that up so I was kind of >> so I think right as um so right fairly noted right that that first that historic investment you know did predate Dr.
Lewis and myself and we are nonetheless grateful. Uh right and I I think it was it was needed. Um and and I think the classified pay was a huge actor right in that budget puzzle and and then there was a much quieter narrative that moved in tandem with that about you know there was some teacher supplement in there right so um some progress with teacher supplements and as well as some u investments uh necessary for growing together and things of that
nature and and the review of growing together implications I think are underway right um to answer part of question um and I think about the my answer to the classified question and the impact right will it will um it'll sound a little selferving but I think it's an important microcosm um so I think about um some qualified there there have been some qualified classified staff that have left Durham public schools prior to those efforts right and so I think about my finance shop um that I walked into. Um some important folks left Durham public schools for other opportunities um and and so they they found their way to working for the state or county government in in neighboring areas so on so forth. Um we are we are now at a place um from from my view is coming in on the other side of that. Um, I've been
able to easily attract qualified finance professionals to work with me, right, in in in my little tiny little drop of speck of sand, right, in in in the Durham puzzle. Um, and so and consequently, right, I think we we've seen improved financial outcomes, right, in Durham public schools, right? Audits are on time, their findings are falling off, budgets are balanced, right? So think things are running well, right, in that space.
Um, and I think we we see that in some other areas that I don't work as intimately with, but I just use that one as a microcosm of that impact of classified pay investment. And and and we we don't we don't directly impact student achievement per se, right? Um, in in in all of our classified roles, but I think that's a great example. And um in the teacher space um um I'm not equipped to really speak to retention numbers right at this moment, but I will just say just sort of as a broader sort of more qualitative conversation in that
um we're we fall behind despite investment um right in the supplement right in terms of being in that top 10. Um and so we're um we're we're just fighting to to stay relevant. You know, even though we're one of the better uh right, it's um folks look at those rankings and they um and and and it refreshes every year and they look to see who who's who's paying the highest average teacher supplement in North Carolina, right? And so in that it it's a roller coaster ride, you know, between between Wake and Durham and Charlotte Meckllinburgg and you know other other kind of urban centers.
Um and so it's um it it affects sort of our ability um our ability to attract and retain for sure. Um and I >> I don't know if you wanted to add anything more about the um I'll get in trouble if I speak too much about the instructional side of the work >> before you get to that. I do I I get the
um the difference between classified and certified in that >> but also you know certified uh classified staff retention also is >> is kind of I say teacher retention but >> it's more educator retention because I see everyone as educators so I'm curious about what that looks like staff retention >> overall. >> Yeah and I so appreciate that question. I don't know if you recall one of my first conversations with this commission when we were talking about that record investment shortly after we had got here is that I said is is that we owe you all data to to show that the the record investment or the increase investment is is paying dividends and to your point understanding that causation is certainly not not correlation. Um the the states look at um um teacher working conditions there's a retention section within that that survey data. So the year before that record investment um and it this is a um question that's tied in our strategic plan as well again within the retention section of that
survey about 80% of our teachers um believe that that that their school was a good place to work. Our most recent survey data that just came out a couple of weeks ago it's close to 90% now um believe that that is a good good place to work. So in addition to that that retention uh component and I will say also we shared uh last month u our strategic plan update particularly as it relates to retention and what the board has charged us with with is to give some causation data so we can be able to to definitively say that x% of our teachers are staying because of the stipen or x% of our teachers are staying because of that that bonus. And so that's some work that we're continuing to do so we can have some causation data among other metrics.
When we think about our our academics, most recently um state assessment over 90% of our students met or exceeded growth. We looked at some end of the year um data few weeks ago at our principal meeting in every grade level um in reading we show growth u math just about every grade level with a couple of of of grade levels. Um in addition to that when we
look at uh our discipline data and this is just metrics again causation not correlation uh discipline is down over over um throughout the district down 17%. So we are trending in the right direction. Um people are here in Durham because they want to be here and I can't tell you the number of people that I met classified and certified that have been here for years. Um and so but we want to be able to produce that data to definitively say because of this record investment, because of the continued investment, people are staying here uh in Durham.
Just learned about can't wait to meet him. Haven't met him yet. Just learned about a a 91year-old um transportation staff staff member um who's I think he's celebrating his 911st birthday next month. I don't think he's driving buses.
Um but uh understand that he has a um also has a Hellcat, too. So you kind of look out on the road for that. But my point is people are people stay in this district because they believe in the mission and they want to be here and they recognize and understand the community's investment and support in our schools. So more to come on that that data but I appreciate
that question. >> Okay. Thank you. Who had any any other comments?
>> Yes, I remembered my other question. I was wondering um two or three uh joint meetings ago when we had the city also with us, we had been talking about um trying to push more of our high school students into using Durham public transit. I was wondering if there's been any movement on like conversations with the city to try to, you know, educate more kids about how our Durham public I know obviously not all kids will have a bus station near them, but to just try to build that ridership younger. >> Not a lot of conversation.
Uh we do know many of our students do take advantage of our um public transportation. That's something uh Bo and I can continue to have some conversations on, but I appreciate that question. Okay. All clear.
All right. Thank you all for this presentation. Appreciate the update on
the U after the state finally passed the budget or >> we hope. Yeah, at least it's closer, right? So, at least it's out there. We can evaluate it.
So, thank you all very much. Appreciate it. I have one actually one thought is >> um when it gets just thinking ahead um it I think that you all will be important partners about educating our community around the constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot. Um it's going to be very very important that we really educate people about um what the implications would be for Durham public schools and for county services and for the city services as well.
So I think let's just put a pin on that but to be thinking about that in the future. >> All right. Thank you all very much. We appreciate you all being here.
All right. The next item that we have is um justice services department. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. So, commissioners, um, I asked Miss
Humphrey to share with us today about the Department of Justice Services. as you know, they have so many impactful um activities that happen um that support many of our residents and uh Rashana will give some highlights on those programs, but we will remind you of the conversations that we had about family treatment court uh in the budget. Uh you did not see that specifically as an area that was elevated. dollars will be realigned to support that effort and but so I just wanted to ensure that that is a priority and we we did not because of some of the shifts in the budget at the end and us having to do some reductions and other things. We didn't flesh that out specifically, but we will tell you where those realignments will occur so
we can support those efforts um in upcoming months. So don't spend much time, she will not spend much time on the budget part because we will come back, but want to just remind you what our intent is as we move forward. and Minister Jones, Director Jones is going to sit in for me for a moment because I have another u urgent matter and I'll be back. Thank you so much, Manager Hager.
Um good afternoon, um Chair Lee and Commissioners, um thank you so much for having us come today to talk about Justice Services Department. as Claudia um as I'm sorry as manager Hagar indicated um I will talk a little bit about um justice services and our overall programming first and then I will um touch briefly on the presentation for family treatment court. So I have provided two handouts for you. One about the justice services department overall and then the second one is a handout regarding family treatment court. Um so the justice
services department um has staff in three locations across um Durham County. We have our main operations at Main Street. We have um staff located at the Durham County Detention Center and then we also have staff at the Durham County Courthouse. And so across that our major focus is to provide support and services for individuals who are just as involved but struggle with substance use disorders and mental illness.
that is our major and primary focus. So for Main Street, um some of the programs that we offer focus around cognitive behavior intervention, jail transitions, local re-entry council. So I'll stop there and say that one of the requests that was made in the budget through justice services was around providing a human services clinical counselor to help to um transition individuals that were coming out of detention back into the community. And so that is very important because several years ago in the budget we were able to secure funding for staff
to fill a void with individuals leaving the detention center. What we found when individuals were leaving the detention center they were getting lost before they were able to connect with community- based treatment and providers in the community. So we started a unit within justice services that we refer to as jail transitions. Jail Transitions has been very successful in working with individuals that are transitioning from the detention center.
But one of the um items that we have identified most recently as a void is that we needed a clinical person to work with the individuals because of the level of um mental illness, a level of service that individuals were needing. The current staff with jail transitions are uh case manager and a case manager assistant. And although they have done an excellent job in helping to get people to appointments, um, transportation, picking up medication, and that stuff, um, we needed a clinician on that team to really focus in on providing that one-on-one that that the individuals may need before they are able to be connected to community- based treatment.
And so that's why we made a request in this year's budget for a human services clinical counselor to support those individuals in transition. The second part of what we do at Main Street is around treatment services. So we have outpatient um treatment services under our second chance program. We also provide the oversight for recovery court and mental health court.
So those two courts are two of the specialty courts that um we currently oversee as a part of justice services. And I make that point um so that when we do get to the proposal around family treatment court, it's a natural fit for us to um bring in that third specialty court here in Durham under our um umbrella. the services. One of the major things that we do in the Durham County detention center is around um mental health services.
We have an entire mental health team that consists of a contract psychiatrist as well as full-time and part-time clinicians that pervert provide mental health services. Um those services revolve around um clinic. Um the psychiatrist actually runs a clinic three to four times a week
um and does followup pro prescribes medication and has individual appointments with detainees that are severe and persistently mentally ill and need that one-on-one with a psychiatrist. In addition to the work of the psychiatrist, our clinicians on our jail mental health team, they focus around doing intakes when individuals are being processed into detention. So they do intakes, they do sick calls, they operate and manage the um therapeutic housing um therapeutic housing unit that's a part of um the detention center. And what the therapeutic housing unit is, it's a specific unit where detainees that have serious and persistent mental illness and need um daily interaction with the mental health team are housed separately from other detainees.
And so we have that unit available. And in addition, they are responsible for putting individuals on precautions. So sometimes you have individuals in the detention center that may need to be put on suicide watch or what have you. That staff is also responsible for that. So in addition to the full-time and the
part-time staff that we have, we also have a contract with Recovery Innovations to provide that 24-hour coverage that's required for mental health. m. m. m.
in the morning with recovery innovations to provide teleaalth if needed. So that's a major thing that we provide in addition to mental health services in the detention center. We also provide substance use disorder treatment. So we have outpatient treatment at our main street location and then we also have that substance use disorder treatment inside the facility.
Yes. >> Uh, commissioners, we heard a couple of work sessions ago that uh, you wanted more information on all the mental health services that are provided at at the detention center and Rashana and her group are coming back at the June 1st work session to give a much more talk about everything we do with mental health. That's just an overview, be getting more much more information on
that in uh, a little bit over a week. So, that's coming to you soon. And yes, um on the June 1st work session, we will have the psychiatrist with us. We will have the clinical services manager, and we'll also um dive a little deeper into the numbers.
The numbers serve the amount of individuals that they're working with in the detention center. On June 1st, um our court services, um we provide pre-trial services and diversion services. Pre-trial is very important and we feel like that's very beneficial to the county in that we're able to get individuals who would spend a substantial amount of time in detention out into the community under supervision so that they're not um wasting days in the detention center and making that already high number go even higher. So we have provided um pre-trial services for many many years. Um last year we had to actually um come back to the board and ask for an increase in our electronic monitoring contract because of the the larger numbers of individuals that are being released under pre-trial supervision. And just another note about pre-trial
supervision. And one of the things that we may see come up with that is under Arena's law, we just had a meeting with our criminal justice advisory committee that we may see more people coming out under supervision and under electronic monitoring next year once the law goes into effect about um the level of supervision needed for individuals that are being released if they have some type of previous mental illness. And then the last thing I want to uplift about um the work of justice services is around our community collaborations. We have staff that facilitate many of the work groups that exist here in at the county level.
One being the stepping up initiative that is directly related to mental health services. The stepping up initiative has done a lot of work around identifying barriers and gaps in the mental health um continuum of care and we continue to work on that. As you all know, we mentioned at the last board meeting about we are doing a sequential intercept map um refresh. And that's to really dive deeply into this the the um the barriers or the um what do you want
to call it? The barriers and gaps. Thank you. Gaps in services.
So, we are taking a deep dive into that on June 8th. So, we hope that you all can attend if possible. In addition to that subcommittee, we also manage the juvenile crime prevention fund dollars that come into to the county from the state around funding um programs that address high-risisk highnee um youth. And then the last advisory committee I want to talk about is the criminal justice advisory committee which is really dedicated to looking at gaps in the entire criminal justice system and how we might as a committee address some of those issues.
So, that's a kind of quick overview of kind of what the Justice Services Department is involved in. Not everything, but a lot of what we're involved in. And I'll pause there to see if there are any questions about the major services before I switch gears into the proposal around family treatment court. >> Anyone? All right, we'll just keep on going and we'll get questions and
statements at the end. Okay. >> Okay. As um manager Hegar mentioned, we did do a presentation earlier this year around family treatment court.
So this presentation is very brief and just wanting to kind of bring it back to the forefront. Also, I have with me today two of the individuals that were on the family treatment court workg group. We have Maggie Clap, the director of DSS, and we also have the honorable Don Batton, who is our public defender. So, family treatment court proposal.
So, one of the things that Family Treatment Court does, it it targets high-risisk, high need parents and caregivers involved in the child welfare system who are suffering from any type of substance use um that's impacting their parenting. And so, this is not a a new concept for Durham. Um, if you remember from our previous presentation, um, Durham had a family treatment court years ago and due to the administrative office of the court um, defunding treatment courts, um, unfortunately our family treatment court was one of the courts that got um, the funding removed.
And so, we're trying to bring this court back because we see a need not only through my agency, but through DSS and the public defenders office and some of the other court stakeholders. Um, this slide also talks about the referral and enrollment. Basically, any parent or caregiver that is working with DSS can be um referred to family treatment court to help um address some of the issues they're having with parenting, hopefully leading to reunification. Um, if a person is referred, one of the first things that will happen with them is they will go through a um complete clinical comprehensive assessment with one of JSD's clinical staff.
This program would be funded uh well the funding for this program would include two full-time FTEES um a coordinator and a case manager and that is consistent with our other specialty courts. Typically the specialty court consists of a coordinator and a case manager to help manage the cases. Um it's the same as recovery court and mental health
court. They will have the same type of staffing pattern. It will be housed under the justice services department and then the staff will report to the clinical services manager. Program structure and timeline.
Um this is a program that is not going to automatically be able to um start on day one. It's going to take some some up up billill. So, we did a um two-year timeline because it's important to to note that the first few months it'll be about hiring staff um accepting referrals, working with the partner agencies being DSS and some others, Guardian at Lightum, um and all of the other court players to really look at how this program should be structured. Um we will look at some of the historical data on how it was structured in the first um iteration. We'll also look at evidence-based practices to see, you know, if there have been any changes in how the um the court should operate and then we will try to implement those changes into our structure and rolling out the program. And so um we laid out a
timeline that goes from now to to two years forward and how we um lift that up. Some of the goals of the program, and I won't spend a lot of time here, is just to implement a program um collect data and making sure that we're tracking our outcomes um throughout the process. Um one thing I will note, it says that we will admit 10 unduplicated participants. And some per people may say, well, 10 is not a large number with two staff people.
But what this hope is that although it's 10 participants, we're looking at 10 families, um 10 children or more that would be impacted by their parents receiving the structure and support of the court. And so although the numbers are low in the beginning, um this is just to to start up. And so we wanted to be re realistic about the number to serve in that first um iteration. Again, we want to do uh a complete analysis on how it looks at every step.
So we will look at what it looks at at referral, the numbers being screened, the number that are eligible than the number that are being admitted throughout. So that if the numbers for whatever reason seem lower than they should be, we have this funnel that we can look at every decision point to make sure that we can address those issues timely and then go back to either our partner agencies within the core or within DSS to identify where we're missing individuals or where there may be some gaps. We also will put in some mechanisms to track um how participants do from engagement to retention to completion and graduation and then even try to do some followup on how that family goes into the reunification process. Um the budget for family treatment court, we talked about this a few months back, but I just wanted to bring it back to the forefront. We did a two-year budget. As you can see, year one is a little lower than year two simply because we only calculated some of the um the items for a 9-month period because we wanted to be realistic that
the first three months would be around um building and and hiring staff. The second would just be a continuation where we're in full effect for 12 full months. And then that's what a realistic budget would look like for family treatment court in year one and year two. Just just to be clear here, the total for both years that you're asking for is 439 582.
>> Yes. >> Okay. >> And we did it as a two-year because we didn't want to start up knowing that it would take us about six months to get started and then be at the point for >> additional makes total sense. And and that's pretty much the end.
>> Oh, that's that's very good. So, I like that. See? Yeah. >> You put that You guys presented that at the um retreat. You trimmed it down to
just this is what it is. >> Let's talk about it. That I like that. I like that a lot.
Okay. So, we'll go Commissioner Burton, Vice Chair Alum. Um I'm sure Chair Jacobs and Valentine. >> Thank you, Chair Lee.
Thank you so much. This is um really great because we've been talking about how do we reunify families um in the child protective system and then we're coming up with the solution. And I think it's really unfortunate that the off administrative office of the courts um stop doing this to help um people who are s um suffering from sub substance abuse disorder. Um I think the only question I have is we are not and maybe this can I know um Commissioner Jacobs um Deputy County Manager um Jones can answer this. We're not able to use opioid um funds for this. We have to use our general fund money, right?
>> Actually, and public defender Baxton knows this, our um opioid advisory committee um we did look at the family treat treatment court, but there's just not enough money in the opioid dollars to fund all of the requests. So, we did recommend funding for the position that you mentioned, the clinical position. And I think I believe we did recommend partial funding for that. Um >> yes, >> I think so, but we did not um we could we just there there were so many requests for funding.
So unfortunately >> Yeah. >> Gotcha. But I think this is something we're on the right track because again we get about child protective services. How can we bring families together and this is very solutionoriented.
So, thank you so much for your presentation on this. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you so much. This has been
something that even on the last board we've been talking about. So, I'm really happy to see it start to come to fruition. Um because it impacts so many of our families and not that this is a factor in wanting to support this, but just so that we could potentially look at it to show also the value in it. the has there been when we did have drug treatment court or family treatment court in the past a way to calculate also the savings that come out of having a program like this with the fact that we are reunifying families faster um that we're having fewer people enter into our justice system of if there's a way to calculate because obviously there's a cost to it but there is savings also accompanied with investing in a program like this. Yes. And I think one thing to note as well with it being a collaboration between justice services and DSS, we will look for ways to um calculate the savings not just in the numbers with the families that we're
working with, but also in staff and and those type things. So, we will definitely um see a savings with that collaboration. Yeah, that'll be great because I think I mean I think we should definitely I'm very supportive of this. Um very excited that this is coming forward, but I think it's also something that we can kind of set up as a model to be taking also to the state and showing them what this investment uh how it impacts at the human level.
But then we also know at the state the human level may not be their priority, but so the savings uh and the dollar amounts um to push for this to be something that's in every county. >> Okay. Yeah. Commissioner Jacobs here. Well, first of all, I just want to say thank you for starting out with the pre the overview of what the Justice Services Department does because it's truly incredible the number of programs
that you all run in three different locations and just shows how also you are integrated um into the system that we have and um and how important um all the work that you all do. Um last week I was participating in a national advisory group and people from all over the country and one of the one of the things that came up was when I would talk you know not just me but other states or counties um sharing about programs and there are many places and many counties that do not have these types of programs and investments. They just don't have them. Um and so we are really fortunate um that this board and Durham County government has invested made these investments in the people in our community and because it works it and I like what you just brought up um
Commissioner I mean Vice Chair Alam about the savings because um just looking at your measures here um you actually are already doing that um you know I see that you are um providing uh the savings for the community re-entry, the pre-trial services. So um I feel like you are very capable of of coming up with some way of um of reflecting that. Um and also I just want to thank uh defender Baxton and director Clap. know also when we had the budget retreat there was our DA involved and um Judge Montgomery Blind.
So this has been an amazing collaborative effort. Thank you to you all for basically developing this program um and this plan. It's and um we know this is what our community really wants.
Um and we know that this is going to help us achieve the outcomes that we really need. Um, one question I did have was looking at that um, kind of the Could you tell talk a little bit more about besides the mental health treatment and the substance use treatment, some of the um, other types of kind of supports um, based on like what the other courts are like that families may receive. Could you talk a little bit more about that? >> Absolutely.
Um, so one of the things they will have is a directed case manager and coordinator to work with them on ensuring they're participating in treatment. They will also have access to parenting classes. They will have access to housing assistance if needed. Um, child care assistance is needed, um, transportation assistance if needed. So, we really work with each individual participant to develop an individualized
plan. So, it's based on whatever um their needs are, but we will also be looking at what are some of the obstacles for that person that is preventing the most positive parenting experience. And so, um if it's the substance abuse, we'll make that priority, but if not, you know, it may be access to services for that child. And so, we'll also help them to navigate systems that they may not be able to on their own.
So, just that wraparound support from us and other entities that will be a part of that team. >> That's great. And I'm glad you raised the issue of the children, >> uh, what kind of therapeutic services they may need. Um, and just also thinking about, I know this is something that Commissioner Burton brings up a lot, but related to like just skills around financial skills. Um, will they also be if they want to go to school or get a job or something or need help with that, would that be part of it as well? um it's not actually a part of family treatment court, but the good thing
about um family treatment court being housed under the justice services department is the different programs that we have. They will also have access to that. So we have a partnership with Durham Technical Community College. We have some funding for educational and vocational training through our local re-entry council.
And so there are other programs within justice services that they would have access to that could help them with that piece. >> Fantastic. And then my last question is um around the funding. I know vice chair law mentioned this but could you talk about the potential for future grant opportunities for funding?
>> Yes. >> Because we want to get beyond the two years, right? >> Yes, we do. So, one of the things that we have been working on and as you mentioned, we did apply to the opioid settlement fund, but we are also in continuous um seeking of other funding to support this. So, we will be looking to see if the federal government puts out any um RFPs for um family treatment
court. They they put out something at the end of last year that was for the previous year of funding and it was a very short turnaround. So, we were not able to submit for that one, but we're hoping that in 2627 they will put out another RFP and we will definitely try to um seek funding at that point. So, we are in continuous looking for grants as we always do, not just for this, but all of our programming.
>> Thank you. And my last comment, I just want to thank the county manager and her team for saying we will find the money for this. So, I appreciate that. Thank you.
Valentine >> chair. Thank you. So, Director Humphrey, see I got to get used to saying that name correctly. Um, thank you for your presentation uh here today and also uh Assistant County Manager Princeton. Um, thank you. Um, matter of fact, let me just take a moment of personal privilege and say uh some of the things that I've been requesting um over the last week or two,
you've been very responsive and uh so I want to say thank you. I meant to talk to you the the other day when I saw you. I didn't get a chance. So, thank you.
Your your work doesn't go unnoticed. Um, family treatment court. So, I think this is a great initiative. I think it uh will help alleviate some of the uh pressures with regards to family re reunification in our community.
uh we need all the resources that we can get and I said I think this is an example of the the type of uh program and initiative that will help um bring down uh the problem we have with the large numbers of families needing to be reunified. I don't think it's a problem of you know the hard work we're doing. It's a product of the lack of resources that we have um to help our families reunify. Uh there was a discussion uh or really a statement made by Commissioner Burton about the use of opioid settlement funds
and I think the answer is is that yes you can use the money that particular way. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Did I get Okay.
Yes, you can. All right. Good. And so we'll we'll be looking at that.
Um, also I wasn't at the retreat, but with respect to uh the the uh judiciary aligning themselves with uh the program, what what was what was that conversation uh like? >> Are you referring to the defunding of the >> not necessarily the funding, but their their responsiveness as it relates to this program? They're they're going to >> they are very responsive. So the North Carolina administrative office of the court hosts collaborative meetings um with the various types of courts.
So we are in contact with them. We are meeting with AOCC staff around the development of courts. They have a court they have court management specialists that will help you maintain the courts. They just have not dedicated additional funding or new funding um for family treatment courts. They have a few around the state. Uh I just don't know that right
now that's a priority for the ALC to fund new family treatment courts and so um I they're in conversations with us and they support the work. I just don't know that they have the funding to to provide to us for this one. >> Well, with respect to the funding, I mean we can certainly, you know, provide some pressure um through our delegation to to see if they can help us out in that regard, but our our local judges here, they'll get an opportunity with with respect to the adjudications to weigh in. Correct.
>> Yes. Um That's really was the nature of my question. >> I'm sorry. Yeah, Judge Montgomery Blend, she wasn't able to be here today, but she was on the workg group to um pull this together and so the judiciary here is very supportive.
>> Okay. Okay. And uh my final comment or question is around capacity. You talked about the uh the ability of the the initiative to deal with what you describe as families. And so, I mean, the need's going to always be there. Do you have any concerns over at least initial two-year
period about your capacity and your ability to to respond to the need? >> I don't because again um this will be a part of the larger justice services um programming. So, I feel like with the staff that we will hire for this, the two staff for that, the staff we have existing through our um cognitive behavioral programming, our local re-entry council, and then addition because this is a partnership with DSS, DSS staff will also be a part of that team helping with the um parenting piece and some other supportive wraparound services. So, I think between the two departments, I don't have any concerns about capacity.
And lastly, um, Director Humphrey, you have some of your your partners here with you today. We have the the top defender in the county present, Don Baxton, and also the director of DSS, uh, Director Clap. Would you like to step to the mic and provide some input?
>> I like to bring the heavy hitters with me. Um so yes, as Rashana said, um we have just um hired um they're going to be starting next week a parenting position. Um and we're going to get them certified in TripleP, which is uh the evidence-based parenting um program that um the court looks at for this type of um family treatment court um and some other evidence-based programs as well. So we can um definitely assist with that piece um and of course anything else that's needed.
But um yes, Judge Montgomery Blend is very interested and I think this is desperately needed for our families cuz we see this as one of the highest um reasons that um people you know parents are coming into kids are coming into care. So this is definitely needed. So I have been a champion of this um since I've been the public defender. It's obvious to me. I think sometimes it's not understood that even though a lot of um parents come into the court
system dealing with criminal activity is also driven by some of the civil aspects which is how we are also involved um being the public defender. We represent those parents in that courtroom because they have a constitutional right to a lawyer as well in that courtroom when they're looking at the loss of children. And so it's important to my office that we work and help to lessen the number of parents who are waiting to get their children back. It's way too many on the list waiting for a reunification with the lack of resources.
And this court when it was in operation before helped with reunification sooner rather than later. And I'm of the opinion that if we can get this court working and get the families back sooner together, then I will see less of those persons on my case load on the criminal side, be it in juvenile court or adult criminal court. And so that's why this court is important to fund. >> Thank you both for that sort of contextual information. And I thank you again, uh, Director Humphrey.
>> And thank you all. Um I don't have much outside of what my colleagues have said, but I do remember at the retreat, you know, there the energy from the from the commissioners and from everyone in that room around this, it was pretty telling how important it was. And I just I see this as one of those things that actually mo uh a lot of what we do moves the needles, but this is something that we hear from the community. Obviously, we have people passionate behind it, but it takes time to put something like this in place to actually address the issues that people are talking about. And you all have put together this plan to um for this the family treatment court to actually move that needle and uh really make the difference that we in Durham County want to make that want to make that difference. And so I
just deeply appreciate this. I did before um the retreat I had no idea that we didn't have a family treatment court. close or near and it um it just seemed like an obvious thing to do and hearing from u manager Hager and the staff and other board members how important this is is clearly a no-brainer and I hope um that I know this is going to succeed first second year and I hope that we can make this a permanent thing and you know even it increase in the future to to to expand it so that we can um really start to make a difference in in the lives of those who are impacted, you know, just as impacted um and that that you your clientele. Okay. So, thank you all very much. This is I'm
I'm really excited about this. Really excited. >> All right. >> Thank you so much.
>> All right. Thank you all for the presentation. All right. Next item on our agenda is the violence reduction update.
>> Oh, welcome Good afternoon everyone. Um I'm Crystal Harris, director for community intervention and support services and I also have director Humphrey. Um she's we're both on the work group for the joint city county violence reduction plan. Um I know she's not listed as a resource person, but she is also working
um on this and so she will actually start us off on the presentation. Okay. Well, good afternoon again. As you can see, I'm involved in several things.
Um one being a very important collaboration between the city and the county as director Harris mentioned. And so we wanted to provide this board with an update on what has happened thus far with the city county um violence reduction planning process and where we are and where we are trying to get to. So this first slide talks about where we are and some of the things we have planned based on a three-phased approach. The fa first phase which we're currently in is about shared learning and identifying strategies.
We started back in December of last year meeting together um director Harris, myself and um Ryan Smith, the director of community safety for the city. So we have been meeting talking about um the needs for the city and the county to come together and some of the things we needed to do. So from that conversation, we talked
about the need to engage the community, which we have done, to analyze some of the things that were currently going on, to do some mapping, but to also look at some evidence-based practices around what we're trying to accomplish. Phase two of this process will look at planning and implementation, which a timeline for that is going to be this summer. We are planning on a a June violence reduction summit that will look at um bringing um many agencies together with community partners, looking at the resources that are currently out there and then really drilling down into a pre precise strategy for Durham. Phase three of this process we'll then be looking at um later in the summer and on into the fall of 2026 is what the management structure will look like because we understand that once we've gathered the data once we have had the summit we need to develop um what the structure will look like and structure will be important in some of the later slides you'll hear about. So the core takeaway from this phased approach is
around looking at the fact that we're going to be transitioning from phase one and two into phase three after the summit but we also need to do a major shift in how we have been operating. Um the next slide talks about kind of what we've done thus far in a in a little bit more detail and what um has come out of that. So we worked with the Vera Institute to really do an analysis of our current ecosystem. What what do we have here in Durham?
And what came from that is that we are really resourcerich which we talk about all the time. We have a lot of resources here in Durham. One of the things that um was missing though is that the implementation of these strategies of resources is kind of all over the place. We have no single entity that holds responsibility for the performance of the programming that we provide.
And then the coordination also has been fragmented. And so because of that um that's kind of where we are. But some of
the things that we have done um to address that are kind of a diagnosis for that is that because we're resourcerich, we need to be better in our execution. So we have hundreds of nonprofits that exist yet the interventions fail to reach the highest risk or highest need residents. Here in Durham, we see a lot of duplication across the community and some of the services and efforts. And then we also um from feedback from residents face a fragmented system um services that are inaccessible to some.
And then the trust issue is a major factor that we learned about through our listening sessions. So one of the conclusions that was met is that we don't ne necessarily need more programs but we need a more coordinated targeted approach and a management structure that will ensure that the individuals that need the services are able to get those services. Um so one of the other things that we have done as a part of our research to
ensure that as we move forward we're looking at some evidence-based practices and also some of the things that has been have been proven to work across the country. So we brought in the University of Maryland um violence reduction center. They talked about um some strategies around focus deterrence um and their CVI approaches and talked about some cognitive behavioral therapy approaches with us. We also brought in um St.
Paul um they came in and did a a presentation for us um to talk about their CVI and GVI approaches and how they had seen major reductions in violence um using these strategies. But then we also brought a more local um perspective in. We brought the city of Greensboro in and they talked about how they transformed some of the silos that existed in in Greensboro, how their um programming similar to ours had been disjointed and how they made major progress around you know bringing those breaking those silos down, bringing people together to work together and how you know they have been successful in
doing that. So it was very important to us as a work group to look at not only what evidence showed, but also to hear from other jurisdictions that have been successful at doing this work. And one of the things they stressed to us is that it doesn't have to be one simple approach. There can be multiple strategies to address this problem.
And so we were um very excited about being able to hear from these partners and also continue to utilize them as a resource for us as we continue this work. So with that, I'll hand it over to Crystal to talk a little bit more about how we move this forward. >> As Rashana um just stated, we there are several types of evidence-based um interventions that some of our partners that we've spoken to um have implemented within their cities. And one thing we really want to um kind of talk to let everybody know is that we're not trying to duplicate what other cities have done. What we're trying to do is look at some of their evidence-based approaches and see what actually works for Durham.
So, we're looking at Durham's data. We're looking at Durham's resources in our current ecosystem and seeing how some of these evidence-based approaches could be layered on top of what we already have. And so as Rashana talked about um kind of briefly, some of the um interventions or strategies um involve group violence intervention um which basically is where you're combining your law enforcement, your community voices as well as your social services. Um cognitive behavioral, you're subsidizing jobs, you're giving jobs along with some of those uh mental health and substance abuse treatments that are out there to help resolve the issue.
placebased strategies. You're looking at your hotspots, your target areas, and kind of policing them and beautifying those. If there are parks that need to be cleaned up, you're doing that. If there are anything like lights that are out, some a lot of um community um residents that we spoke to said, "We have some street lights that haven't been fixed in a while or some sidewalks that have been fixed in our neighborhoods. " Um and then of course street outreach which we are not unfamiliar with um where you
utilize um credible messengers to help mediate and deescalate um conflicts either while they're happening or prior to happening. So one of the approaches we're kind of wanting to look at is how the blue this is a blueprint for coordinated action. Um, as Rashana mentioned, we have a lot of resources in our community, but there has not been a coordinated effort um to look at how we can best serve our highest risk um residents in the community. And so, if you take a look at um the seat is kind of like the project manager and this person is the one that's kind of holding everything together.
They are the convenor of different things. That may be some advisory groups. Um it could be the ones that are hosting the weekly um shooting reviews that you may have, but this person is the one that's kind of making sure everyone is where they need to be and holding folks accountable and kind of the collective. Um our leg one is our law enforcement. Um with what we've heard from all the cities is that there is always a place for law enforcement.
Um even if you utilize some alternative um response measures, there's still a place for law enforcement at this table when you're trying to do things as a collective. And so they would work on the targeted deterrence and some of the off-ramps. Our second leg would be our community moral voice. Um we can't do this without community.
Um we have held over 15 community um listening sessions um to help engage and learn from our community around what they feel like has worked in the past, what they feel like they need to feel safe in their community. And so you're still going to need need those voices as we move forward. Um we just don't want to hear from them for feedback. we want them to be a part of this plan and have some responsibility and accountability in implementation as well. And then lastly, our third leg is our support and outreach and that's going to be um potentially your violence interruptors and then your social services. One thing we also learned in these community sessions is that people need things and in order we know that kind of poverty is a way for violence and so if we can make sure that people have their basic needs met that in turn will help us decrease
our violence overall. And so one of the proof points is that when all the legs function together under strong management, our results will be are dramatic. And so this is um Pinluff Arkansas actually used this as part of their approach and they achieved over 500 days without a juvenile homicide. So as part of laying the foundation um for our summit, there's three parallel work streams um that the summit hopes to um be grounded in.
Um, track one is our gun violence problem analysis where we are working with um, University of Pennsylvania to complete this. Um, they are actually looking at our data um, looking at all of the assessments, the task force recommendations. We provided a lot of this to them. So, they will have a whole picture um, not just of work that's being complete completed now, but things that have been completed in the past as well that will be relevant. And so they're actually I think they're on site today and tomorrow to actually interview um some of the um detectives and investigators that have
been a part of the homicides and the shootings in our area. " Um because we've learned that if we're more targeted and coordinated in our approach, it's really not your whole city. It's really a coordinated part of our targeted area that is seeing the most violence. And so also the specific people we're looking at demographics and looking at what's the age range that we're seeing.
Um is it the 35 to 50 or is it our youth that we need to make sure that we're focusing on around our strategies. Track two is our target community outreach which we've been doing since November and continue to do. And then track three is the six key um capacity assessment which we will be we're working with um the VRC as well as UPIN to identify and this is just kind of a brief um overview of the um establishing your empirical baseline and as I just stated UPEN is our partner um who is um looking
at and analyzing our data. Um the expected reality is that you know national data indicates violence is um typically hyper concentrated like I just explained um and it's a smaller number of individuals and so that's what they're helping us to identify is where are our individuals and where are our kind of hot spots. This is a this diagram just kind of shows you the work that we've been doing um the folks that we've been talking to. Um we actually recently had a community listening group with um Durham public schools.
it was for their vice principles, principles, and their support staff. Um, we got a lot of insight from them um simply because they see the youth um on a on a daily basis, those that do come to school when they do come to school, even those that are not showing up. We had one social worker that said that she went to Bojangles to see one of her students because she knew that student was leaving school to go to work. " She's like, "Well, let him know that Miss Such and Such is wants to see him and wants to talk to him and so the next day he was there and she was able to
speak with him. Um so they gave us a lot of insight on what are some of the gaps, what are some of the needs that they have to be able to address violence within the schools. Um our own project bill hosted a youth listening session um with some of our youth along with two other um partner agencies with their youth um and we got a lot of good feedback from the youth as well. there last weekend there was a um a justice involved listening session with hey ty reborn.
I also attended one with at re city that was a youth um directed um event as well. The office of violence um the office on survivor care from the city actually hosted an immigrant and survivor voices community listening session for our Latinx population as well as for our survivors. And then they also um will be leading um a listening session with the DHA um Durham Housing Authority residents, not just the leadership of DHA, but actual residents in the different neighborhoods to talk to them specifically as well.
And this slide is just um talking about the different operational baselines for the six key capacities. um just looking at what some of the qualitative interviews will look like for the um Durham Police Department and the other public safety leaders that UPEN will be having between today and tomorrow. As you can see, this is kind of how we're getting to our June um violence reduction summit. We have our public safety ecosystems analysis that was um completed by the Vera Institute of Justice. We have our lived experience which is our community listening sessions and then our national thought leaders which um were the folks that came to talk about the different strategies as well as UPUPAN and VRC and so our foundational local and data and capacity assessment is currently underway. Once we have the summit, all of the um information feedback we received from our community listening sessions will be gathered by the Duke Bellweather team who we are working in collaboration with as well as um from
the youth sessions that we've had. They will compile everything and that will be also presented at the youth summit. I mean at the violence summit as well as our problem analysis will be um shared at that time as well. So at the summit we want to just kind of focus on our northstar and that is to identify and align around a set of evidenceinformed strategies that will reduce community violence and begin saving lives um within the next year.
Our core objective is to jointly understand the nature of our local challenge and then align our operational capacities to meet it. After the summit, what we're hoping to have is that we will have strategy recommendations um and an operational roadmap as to how do we get this done. Um we're looking at some long-term and some short-term um goals um that we're hoping to be able to implement like I said within the next year. Uh we will be working with UPUP to help design our opera operational management team which I'll talk about on the next slide. And then our ultimate
goal of course is transl trans transitioning um translating political will into a sustainable management structure. And so this is what our operational management team will need to look like in order for us to be successful. Um there we need to implement some daily or weekly shooting reviews. Um weekly coordination meetings.
Again that will require someone to be the convenor. Um someone that will kind of hold everyone accountable. um having bi-weekly case conferences and looking at monthly performance reviews, looking at what we're doing well, where are some um identifying gaps, what are some things that we need to do. Um and that can be led by executive leadership um to be able to track our progress.
And so we can't just pick one strategy. Um I don't feel I feel like that's what we've done in the past is kind of picked one or two strategies, but I feel like we need to start layering strategies on top of what we already have. We have a lot of good work being done. it's being done in silos. Um, some are not even nonprofits. It may just be a mom who was a victim of
gun violence, losing one of their children, and they are out here in the community doing good work. And so, we're wanting to just build some centralized um organization and collaboration with our community partners to make sure everyone knows what's going on and has access to those services. And that is our update. >> All right.
Uh, go ahead, Commissioner Burton. >> Yes, I'm gonna go have to leave to go to another meeting, but this is really great. I'm excited about this. Thank you so much for this update.
One of the things I'm reading a really excellent book called Unforgiving Places um by Dr. Jen Lwig. It's talking about gun violence. Have you Yeah, because we were there, right?
Yes, we were there. And I'm almost finished with the book, but it talks about the systems one, system two thinking. And how most gun violence is due to it's not premeditated. It happens in like 10 minutes. Like something happens, a reaction, and then
it occurs. And I'm really glad that we're talking about cognitive behavior therapy to help people with mental health. that systems one, systems two thinking so there's not this split reaction and so I don't know if you've read it yet but it's really really good. So I'm really excited that this is going to occur and I'm going to come to the summit and things like that.
So thank you so much for this report. It's really really good. >> Okay, go ahead. Thank you all so much for this work. Um, and I know how much love and care you guys put into this u from all the various presentations we've had from your team over the years. I'm wondering um seeing like looping this in with the previous presentation we had also like I'm sure you guys are already planning on this like with the family treatment
court kind of getting in that step of like when families are going through that process getting to the young people as early as possible um to provide that intervention um when we look at ways also with like the heart program when they're interacting I've seen like a lot of heart workers like basically becoming mentors to a lot of young people just because even though it's not technically their job description, but they know that that also contributes to reducing the likelihood of that child um getting involved in um gun violence activities. But trying to see so like where do you see the best like three places could be that we could have that re as early as possible intervention with our young people? >> Well, I can speak to the work that we're doing with pro um project build. Um we actually extended our um the age range to include 10 to 13 year olds. We've
also started um doing more engagement within the school system and we actually have a proposal that I kind of put in their ear when we did our uh listening session with them that we want to do more prevention work in the schools. Right now we do an intervention block with Lake View, but we want to be able to expand that to other middle school and high schools and at some point go into the elementary school because we do know that it's even before 10 that we kind of need to talk to them. So we have a plan of how we can engage youth more that are in the schools as well as we um actually have a meeting with Durham Housing Authority to talk about doing some more coordinated work within the actual neighborhoods. So I would have our our outreach workers will actually take for instance be in Cornwallis and actually do a lot of kind of street outreach there and awareness and education.
So that's how we're looking at it is how can we get in front of the youth before we have to put them on our intervention case load. So, we're kind of frontloading more prevention work. >> And I'll just mention one of the important parts of of this collaboration with Crystal and I both being a part of
this. Although my focus isn't youth because we oversee JCPC pro programming, it's about really looking at based on the um risk assessment that's being done and assessment of where violence is happening, how we focus our programming around what we're funding under under our JCPC. >> Great. And yeah, also I know it was like several several joint school board meetings ago.
I can't remember off the top of my head, maybe one of my colleagues remember if there's a way also to connect with specifically with our students in our school like the population of unhoused and homeless students. Um really specifically targeting into there um to try to connect with their families, try to connect with that youth as early as possible to just provide those uh support. And then also, this isn't something that would happen this year because we're going to see the impacts of it long term, but uh tomorrow, you know, council member Wrist has been working on developing these um you know, the baby savings accounts that every
child born in Durham, the city of Durham would have a savings account be opened up and an investment account to help build that financial stability, but also to create more opportunity for them of like some sort of maybe data sharing partner. partnership. Obviously, we won't see all of the impacts of that until that child is like, you know, 16, 17, 18, but to be collecting that data so that we can tie it into also seeing how does that impact that child's path of success and like deterring them um from uh gun violence. >> Commissioner Jacobs Well, thank you so much, director Humphre and director um I'm I'm like >> Harris Harris >> Harris I'm like having a bite. " Um, and um, I'm really glad that we are
taking this approach of looking at the data, best practices, creating a system, you know, all of that structure I think is is really really important. What is the date of the June summit? Do we have a date yet? So, that date has not been publicized yet, but as soon as it is available, I will get it to you all.
>> Okay? Because that we definitely want to get that on people's calendars for sure. Okay? So, I'm going to play a little bit of devil's advocate here because my perspective comes from sitting on the G gang prevention council for many, many years, violence reduction task force, school to justice partnership, trying to get Project Safe Neighborhoods off the ground. I feel like I I've just years and then going through B City United. I'm a little um you know so I feel like
I I have to raise some things. One is I totally agree with some of the points that Vice Chair Alam was just making. To me, the one thing that jumped out like looking at that stool and looking at I know that was just like a little snapshot of interventions, but I do think we have to be focusing on early intervention for sure. Um, I wonder how much the the last gang stud prevention study has factor is going to factor into this or has because what I remember so clearly from the last study that we did was seeing how the signs started in elementary school like that, you know, tracking the data on who were the people the young people who were committing gun violence. You could
track it back to elementary school when they were having mental health issues. They were struggling with academics in school and not maybe they didn't get the help they need and maybe their family didn't get the wraparound support. and then you they're acting out in the classroom and then you see them in high school and they're getting into trouble like shoplifting and then it turns into trespassing and then you see breaking and entering and then all of a sudden it's they've shot somebody. So I do think that for me like I and this also fits in just with our approach in Durham County just so I I hope that we're going to really look at at that whole and with the data with the help of the data and and partnering with Durham public schools because I didn't also didn't I haven't heard a lot until just you mentioned that having a session with Durham public schools but I think so if
you could talk a little bit like what are you all thinking about so far related to how we could and I know they're one of our biggest referrals for project build but how do what are your thoughts about going back to elementary school and so we we know that the reason why we had this listening session with DPS because a lot of people probably wouldn't think to include them in this conversation but we felt like it was our intent was that they are part of this threeprong, you know, collective that we're doing. >> And so, we haven't talked specifically about where they fit in this or how what the strategies will look like, but I can just say for what we're doing with Project Build, we're going through an evaluation right now. And part of that is our looking at our data and actually what we're tracking. And so, we're going we're collaborating with DPS to kind of look at some of our um our suspension rates, some of the behaviors that we have, why our youth are being suspended.
They're also trying to see if there's a connection between some of the um violent crimes that have happened if how that relates back to some of our youth that are in DJJ. So, we are actually thinking about how can we start to link the data together. I know one other thing we talked about with the city with what um Pen is doing with our problem analysis is actually what you just talked about looking at our um shootings and homicides and look linking them back to this person was like associated with this individual. This is associated with this shooting that happened two years ago and trying to kind of link put pieces together and that kind of helps you see what is the history or the pattern of certain things.
And so we can take that same approach like you said looking at starting younger and how we can do earlier interventions. So that'll definitely be a conversation we have once we're within the summit and kind of looking at our strategies and also looking at what programs do we have that may be in that space and if not what can we kind of invest a little bit more in because I know a most of the programs start around 10. I know I don't know
many programs that start anytime earlier. So that may be something we need to kind of look at is how can we get more early interventions >> and at this point has our ASUS coordinator been involved? >> Not at this public health. >> Not yet.
>> So I would suggest bringing her in as well because a lot of this is also linked to trauma. >> Yes. and ASUS and um I think that that's going to be also really um important and I also was wondering about um domestic violence >> because one of our biggest areas of actual gun violence in Durham is domestic violence related. Um have there been have there have we brought in has that been involved at this point?
>> So it hasn't at this point. A lot of additional stakeholders will be brought invol brought into the picture once we have our problem analysis completed. So
that's still ongoing. So once we kind of have that and can kind of see what our data shows us, that's kind of going to lead us to who else needs to be a part of this. Okay. So, the family justice center >> folks um yeah, they they um and they also run the shelter >> because the other thing that the gang study last one showed is like the generational violence.
So, you know, children, kids who have parents in jail, >> um, you know, that that kind of history that kind of repeats itself if you don't have the interventions >> of things like cognitive behavioral therapy or whatever. Um, also I didn't see have you all had in the discussions talked about social media and bullying >> or just the role now that that is playing? So we have we've had those conversations. A lot of things um what we're doing now is kind of foundational to the summit. The work doesn't stop
once the summit happens. That's where the work actually starts. And so as we move through there will be continued conversations around the things that actually impact what our what we're seeing around gun violence or violence in general. And so we'll continue to add on to that.
So we we know from our work and what we've done that there needs to be some you know more conversations around that social media and bullying. We know that's a huge influence on some of the gun violence that we're seeing. So that will be continued in as we're building out the strategies and implementing them. >> Okay.
And then related to the whole system, um you know, I know one was like law enforcement and >> just I have to go back and look at you have a you have a lot of great graphics. Um I didn't see anything related to the court system. Uh again, I know from like very honest conversations that like law enforcement is only one piece of it in terms of like
the hammer. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Because they don't they only can do so much, right?
They are they're the ones who can, you know, collect the evidence or do the arrest. But then there's a second step which is the court system. >> Uh so I don't see anything on here related to like our DA public defender, our judges like >> although it's not listed here. Um, one of the things that we've done as as we have had the other um, cities and stakeholders come in to interview our our stakeholders, they have been a part of those interviews and and we have had the the DA, they actually came in and had, I think, a two-hour meeting with the district attorney's office um, and some other players in the courthouse. So, although we haven't listed out all the players, we have definitely thought very strategically about who needs to be involved on this front part. And then as Crystal mentioned once we finish the the
data analysis it will really um drive us to say okay we need to involve additional players and and bring people along as we prepare for the summit and then postsummit. So they have definitely been involved >> and I think ultimately from again my experience is you know we're talking about in terms of the accountability at the very top you've got a mixture of elected officials because you know the sheriff is elected the DA uh and then of course all of us but then you've got some people who are key stakeholders like the police chief um who who are not who are just staff. And so it seems like one of our challenges has been getting people to agree on this is what we all agree to and this is the part that I'm going to play. And so I think that accountability piece is going to be so key. How do we get
agreement? Because if I feel like we have failed in the past, not just because there are silos and not coordinated, but because ultimately people have not really agreed to collaborate. And so whether that takes the form ofus or some type of you some type of agreements, I I really feel like we're going to need that and then be able to hold each other accountable. Thank you.
And you can comment. >> That's kind of what we that we kind of started it off to show the collaboration and the partnership between having city and county as a part of our work group as well as the former chief um Andrews on the work as well. Very intentional with that. And so we just kind of want to show that it does take a collaborative effort and that partnership is going to be key in all of this. >> Absolutely. Well, I believe that if we can get, you know, with the right
structure and the right accountability and then the data, um, and by the way, you know, I see we're bringing in a lot of outside entities, but going forward, I hope we'll think about how to pull in Duke, NCCU. They both have programs that are related to these areas >> to help get them students involved with the data collection and analysis and I believe we can create a system here in Durham. >> Yes. >> Thank you.
>> We have them on our >> and we can we can do this. It is possible. >> Yes. >> Thank you for your leadership on this.
>> All right, Commissioner Valentine. Uh thank you, Chair. Commissioner Jacobs, I think we get to agreement by flexibility and also some compromise in working together and so I think we can do it. So, Director Harrison and Humphrey, thank you for this important uh update. Um, crime reduction, gun violence
in our community uh was brought home to me here recently by the loss of one of our residents who actually was involved in this critical work. uh she became a victim to gun violence, which is very sad. " And so, um the urgency of this situation is now. And so I want to go back to one of the uh organizations that uh vice chair Lom brought up that I think can play an important role uh in uh our plan.
So we have all these assets related to heart out in the community. And so my first question is are they going to be integrated into this plan? If so and how? And my second question is dur during
your briefing you it seemed to be a prevalent theme around credibility and I think credibility is going to be an important component in how this works with respect to uh implementing mediators and also um utilizing those credible voices that are in our community. And so who are these mediators? Are we connecting with these credible u these credible voices on the front end? And so those are my my two questions.
>> So the if they're going to be a part of it is going to be what we just we meaning folks in this space. Everyone in this room in the June summit. So the work group is not developing the plan or making the decisions. is those that will be participating in the June summit that will be making that plan and deciding what what we're going to do to implement and the strategies we're going to implement moving forward. And so that does include of course our city and county leadership, our sheriff's uh sheriff, his office, DPD, um chief of
police, our DA. We also have several community partners um and community residents that will be um included in this summit to move forward. So the if they're going to be a part of it is kind of that's going to be up to everyone in that space on how and if they're going to be a part of that implementation. >> So I guess my my question then is that are we are we already in the process of reaching out to those individuals because we know who some of them are.
>> Yes. >> Right. Okay. >> Yes.
>> Definitely. We've we've had a lot of conversations. Um I actually have this as a part of my department's um performance management um all of the work that we're doing for this. And so we've had since November, I believe we've had over 60 meetings about this and over 24 actual listening sessions about we've hosted these 24 um events. So we've we've talked to a lot of people. We've invited a lot of people and we've also had people understand that although you're not a part of this piece of it, you're going to have a role and play a part in the next piece of it.
>> Chair, that's all I have. Thank you so much. and um directors Harris and Humphrey, I really appreciate you all. This um I did have a couple just a couple qu questions clarifying now the this uh this program this a this is in coordination with the city, right?
This is the same same program there. I just wanted to be clear about that that we're working together with the city. And the thing I like about that pro that program really and kind of goes to what Commissioner Valentine was saying um um it's really about learning the the nuances about Durham >> and then creating a plan. And I just want to be clear, you know, it is okay to learn from other places. " But we're definitely going to take >> we're make yeah we're making we're taking ideas >> and we're implementing them but in the
Durham way and that's important. You know if we see something working in different places we can absolutely try those things and that's what I really like about this. It seems like it it's a collaborative effort a lot of different stakeholders lot of different lived experience here in Durham and forming it. And I really like this uh three-legged stool here.
It's actually four, but you can't see the fourth one, but it it's what it whatever. >> Um, >> but we use this a lot in in my my work. It's everything kind of works together, right? And you can't have one without the other.
It's not going to stand up. And that is super super important. >> And that's what I'm I'm really excited about this program for. This is a this is a good one.
You guys are going for it. We're going for it. And there's a lot of room for tweaks. >> You know, it's not just one program plop and try to try it.
There's a lot of room for tweaks and input. And that's what's going to make the difference, I think, for this program. So, I deeply
appreciate you all in this work. Um, and I look forward to that session that Commissioner Jacobs was that you all spoke about. I look forward to going there and seeing what our our status and where we've gotten. I don't think we have any more questions.
I think everyone has exhausted the question. So, thank you all very much. >> I appreciate it. >> And again, >> I appreciate the brevity of that is the overview and we got to the discussion.
I appreciate that. All right. The last item that we have on our agenda outside of board discussion is um sewer utility. It's a fee increase.
Oh. Perfect timing here. Yeah, >> I'm just trying out different chairs throughout the entire room today. So, >> give us a report on that.
>> Yes, indeed. >> You're doing a good job. >> Thank you, sir.
>> All right. Chair Lee, commissioners, I'm Maurice Jones, deputy county manager for external affairs. Uh we're going to spend a little time with you this afternoon discussing the sewer utility enterprise fund and our recommendations for next year and beyond. 1 of your budget book.
Uh this fund exists to support the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant and the infrastructure that is needed to ensure the effective and efficient uh operations associated with the plant, including all the pipes and pump stations and equipment and people that make our system work. Those operations provide wastewater services to the research trial triangle park and the areas around the park. In previous commissioner meetings this year, we've provided details on our system upgrades and how they will positively affect our residents and businesses. Those investments will continue to allow for private investment to flow steadily into our community, creating housing and economic opportunities. Tens of millions
of dollars are currently being invested in upgrading our system with tens of millions of dollars more expected in the coming years. We added five full-time positions during this current fiscal year to help manage our major capital projects and to provide thorough and prompt review of public and private development projects. We are proposing a 10% increase in the rates for this fund to help bring in the revenue necessary to support our growing number of capital projects and to fund the debt service needed to pay off the bonds associated with these projects. I will now turn over the presentation to Jay Gibson, the director of engineering and environmental sustainability.
Mr. Gibson, >> good afternoon, commissioners. We're very pleased to be here. uh we've kept it very informal recognizing you've already had a long afternoon. So we uh based on the recent presentation to you uh at the work session and for those of you whose schedule allowed you to join us at the plant uh 6 to 8 weeks ago for
the tour. I felt you had a pretty good overview and briefing on that. So we're going to forego a formal video presentation and had planned uh to tell you in the words of former presidents we'd have a fireside chat with you today. However, when it's 100° outside, that seems a little bit inappropriate to say fireside chat.
So, we'll just have a conversation today. The sewer use fees uh proposed to increase because our operational and capital costs continue to increase significantly. We're seeing also a lot of market volatility due to tariffs, uh, petroleum cost, energy costs, labor cost. And as the sewer use fees are the foundational unit of revenue for this utility, we must keep pace with the actual cost of operating, maintaining, and replacing the system while also maintaining strong coverage ratios. The utility is effectively a private business with public owners, our board, our citizens, our county, and so it has to support itself. We also have aging
infrastructure not yet in the capital plan that's not slated for replacement, but must be maintained to keep it in good operational status. The increase is being based on projections in part derived from our comprehensive rate study completed about 15 months ago by Rafelis Financial Advisors, a highly respected utility financial consultant in conjunction with our engineering leadership team. That indicated about an 8 to 9% increase, 7 8 9% increase. Obviously, that was prior to seeing the energy cost spikes, uh, some of the additional tariffs and things.
And so we came down in the 10% space. Our utility also continues to see the same inflationary pressures as other county units and indeed ourselves uh with more expense on all fronts. Our capital improvements as deputy manager Jones indicated uh we have ramped up perhaps to the most aggressive posture for capital ever in the history of the utility and certainly in the last
20 to 25 years. And that is only going to keep increasing pace. This is necessary to keep the utility in sound operational condition as a lot of our infrastructure is now approaching 40 to 60 years of age and as such is nearing end of life cycle. 0 and I believe it was Commissioner Valentine who uh a couple weeks ago made a very uh present comment that the future began yesterday.
That's how we have to view these capital projects. We can if we wait until we're thirsty to build them to dig the well, we've waited too long. We have to have the capacity up front in order to facilitate sound environmental practice and sound economic development to keep the community prosperous. Again, these fees are our primary demand, our primary mechanism by which we are able to fund these things. We also continue to see a very dynamic and unusual regulatory environment uh where we are facing just
a myriad of unfunded mandates. Everything we're getting from the state and the feds at this time uh regulatory wise is an unfunded mandate. Many of which come with very expensive price tags and as such must be funded by the Jordan Lake rules. a few weeks ago, one of the items that came up and Commissioner Jacobs provided some some excellent insight into the proposed Jordan Lake rules and how those would impact us.
We are also looking as everyone knows at PAS4 dioxane those things have been in the news along with other emerging contaminants. We also have worked Stephanie, myself and others over the last uh 6 to 8 10 years to shift the utility. It was formerly in a very reactive maintenance approach. That doesn't work. Waiting until it breaks to fix it is not good business. So, we have started work back then and continue that work to go to a more proactive plan maintenance, including working with our IT partners to develop and implement a
full-on asset management system to help us with predictive analytics and other things where we can be most efficient and effective in those maintenance practices. Those things help us prevent sewer backups, environmental violations, emergency failures, as well as higher repair cost. We recognize that these increases, be they small or large, affect our customers, all of us, who are already feeling the pinch of inflation. Our program of planned annual user fee increases really are a more sustainable approach financially. And our user base as we talk to folks through the RTP and our CER which is our primary service area are very clear with us and have been over the last 10 15 20 years they much prefer planned annual increases because they can in turn build it into their business proforma rather than artificially holding rates low and then having a rate shock of 30 40 50% as some utilities do all at once. So, we're
taking a more holistic and thoughtful approach that considers current operational, current capital, and planned capital needs and working to fund that in a way that one gives us an excellent shot at high ratings aaa things like that. So when we go out for debt service to help with part of these needs uh capital needs, we will get the best possible borrowing rates and the therefore lower cost to our customers overall as well as maintaining a strong financially sound utility able to weather whatever unforeseen storms come. One of the final things with wastewater is that it's sort of an out of sight, out of mind type infrastructure. You kind of don't know it's there until something goes wrong. However, investing now protects our public health, our environmental quality, our economic development, and it also protects our future rateayers from having larger financial burdens later and continues to best position Durham County for sustained thoughtful community economic
growth and benefits. as as a comparative, city of Durham is proposing a 12% increase this year. City of Greensboro an 11% increase and uh some of our other utilities, Kerry, Raleigh and whatnot are more like in the 3 to 5% range. So Durham County is positioned sort of in the middle where we have been for years to maintain our competitive advantage while also ensuring we keep ourselves fiscally strong and sound.
And we appreciate that. and uh would be glad to to entertain any questions or comments you may have for us. Commissioners um and look at there such an awesome job explaining and um um describing what it is, what you need, what we need and the importance of it. We don't I don't see
any questions from our commissioners. >> Thank you, Mr. Gibson. >> Yeah.
Thank you very much. Um, nothing. >> Okay. All right. Well, I mean, I think the tour that you all gave us of the wastewater plant down that was that was a wastewater plant right there that we went. um just showed the importance >> of you know what we do and and I I think what you mentioned that it's one of those things you don't really notice it till it goes wrong and then it's really bad right I really like the capacity what you're talking about as far as capacity we as commissioners we don't have the luxury just looking at what's right in front of our noses we have to no matter what the community says, oh, we got to do this right now, we got to do this, we need this, we have to look at the future and what it is
that we need to do. And that goes with like land banking. It goes with infra other infrastructure and everything. Data centers, we're not going to touch that right now.
But it is it's something that we have to do and we have to take seriously what the future looks like. And this is one of those projects that this is one of those things that we need to do to protect the future of Durham County. And so I deeply appreciate this presentation and this um information you shared. We have to make sure that we're telling our community about this.
When you drive past that down 54, know what you're looking at. Know the importance of it. when you see the construction of like the lift stations and all that kind of thing, know what it is and why it's important that we're spending money on that. Okay.
But thank you all very much for this presentation. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> We we appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.
>> All right. That was the last thing on the discussion items. Do we have any board discussion that we wanted to have for today? Yes.
just wanted to ask, will we be receiving any sort of update on our uh the city is putting forward money for the homeless uh strategic plan and if we're going to receive an update on like the county side of what funding we're going to be putting into that and also specifically because I know from the city side they're not their priority isn't the day shelter, it's the strategic plan and how much have we set aside in our capital improvement plan for the day shelter? So, we will give the board an update. In the manager's message, we clarified we're setting aside $500,000 to support the joint effort um to address homelessness. In addition to that, we will have um
realigned positions that support the effort. In our budget, we are um funding the the day shelter and that's an allocation of approximately $365,000. There was a pilot last year or this year, you know, when you're talking about multiple years, um that the board approved and um that funding was appropriated. So next fiscal year we will make sure that um the the gap dollars um that are needed beyond um what's a carryover in the current year are there in our CIP the board in no um November of 2024 appropriate they allocated $18 million to support um the homeless um infrastructure that's needed. There was a request at that time
to look at infrastructure investments that were higher than that number um and one that we as staff could not recommend supporting at that level. Nor did the board see that they could. But they um made it as a placeholder to show the importance and the seriousness there was to support that effort. noting that we needed partners to come to the table and we knew the partners are there and know they are there.
Um but that investment is also um in the plan >> that investment >> has that investment already moved out of fund balance or it's just it's on a spreadsheet but it's not >> so that is in our capital improvement plan. So we will not move forward with it and that's only a portion amount of what's needed for an overall project >> and and we would finance that. So um
until it moves forward with some clarity about scope process, we don't appropriate the dollars. And um that's just uh but it we wanted to make sure though as we do long-term planning that the placeholder was there because there's so many competing um priorities. And so that that was the approach that was addressed. But I I don't want us to lose sight because it was a larger amount that was requested due to our current fiscal situation.
We we knew we could do initially the 500,000 as we work through the year through other realignments. We would continue to partner but we also uh did not come prepared to talk about the other investments that we do. But there is a significant amount of direct and indirect support that the county does
already. >> Could you share that? Um, not right now, but send us an email with that information about what positions so that way of like we have the 500,000 in the budget, but in total what would be going to support the strategic? >> Sure.
And so we can do that when there was a step that will occur. We did have a staff person dedicated to support some of that work and we are refining how that's happening. Um some of the work is is happening through our grants area um in the interim period but we do have several staff members that already um support some of the efforts. Um there is an intake evaluation and process mapping that I do want to occur before we allocate dollars and resources. There was a a a number set aside as far as positions, but we do in several areas have departments public health, veteran services, DSS that work
in that intake space and we wanted to make sure all that was mapped before we did final realignment. So, um, that that work is underway as as well. Yep. >> Commissioner Jacobs.
>> Yeah. I just wanted to follow up on this issue. Um, I think what's really key is that in the strategic plan to end functional homelessness. um that the county's role one of the most important I mean there was really just one main position fairly critical position which you referred to manager Hager is that we have a position internally it's re it's refer referred to in the plan as an inflow managing the inflow um and I think that once we get to the point of having and I I know I've had this also had this conversation yesterday uh with um manager Hager about
this very same position. Um because it will be very important for the whole plan to work to have this person internally that is um working with the outside u city staff and the case managers and um really our point of contact for the plan. But also really trying to improve how our internal system works because we are the ones who are providing the preventative services around um you know social services, public health, you know cooperative extension, veteran services like we are the service provider. So justice services like around that case management and coordination. So, I think this position will be really great because it won't only help with the the
ending homelessness, but it's going to help strengthen I think Durham County government internally. Um, but I also want to mention that I learned um I appreciate the setting aside the 500,000 which we're not quite sure exactly how that will be used at this point but um the city has come up with I learned this in the HSAC meeting yesterday. 5 million, is actually a realignment of their existing funding. It is not new funding.
They're using some ARPA funding and they're using some ERP funds that they have. So, actually, we are what we are doing is setting aside new funding. So, I want to apply applaud the county actually for finding new funding for this program. Um, and then related to
the $18 million that we've set aside for capital, I think that's really key because that $18 million was related to what comes next with the homeless shelter. And what we've learned from the strategic plan to end functional homelessness is that we need to move away from congregate housing. And that is actually the model in the plan that we're all moving forward with is around actually creating more housing for people and transitional housing. And you know because people don't want to be in a shelter.
They want privacy. they want um have a sense of self-respect. And so I think that $18 million are is probably going to end up needing to be uh re thought about and will be very critical when we need kind of gap funding and funding for implementing the
new plan which is going to require housing to transition people out of homelessness. So, um it's fantastic that we have that in our capital plan. Thank you. >> Okay.
Any other uh discussion from the commissioners? >> All right. Hearing none. This is a work session, so no need for Oh, I'm sorry.
>> I just wanted to give you a heads up for the next work session. Is that okay? Um, Commissioner Jacobs asked yesterday, and I want to remind every commissioner about sending the manager departments or issues you'd like to talk about over some over the course of some of the next budget work sessions. I would request of her and every one of the commissioners gently and kindly to get that information. If there's a department you want to hear from sooner rather than later, preferably by tomorrow, definitely by Monday if you want to see someone on Thursday, which is the next
meeting. May the 28th and then we have one on June the 2nd. So if there's a department you want to hear from, please get that to the manager and to our office as soon as possible so we can start to develop the agenda for May the 28th and June the 2nd. Secondly, we will be discussing a few minor changes to the budget ordinance at the next meeting.
One of which is that by law we have to uh relay the uh compensation for commissioners and we will be talking about that a little bit in the budget ordinance and there's another issue of around fun >> I thought we had that in there already. >> We haven't had it the way it needed to be clarified I believe. So just >> so we always talk about it and it's the assumption it's the same as staff but it's more nuanced now. So I was like, I know we talk about it every time.
Okay, thanks. >> But we'll bring that up and and that's it. And so just wanted to relay those. Get get to the manager as soon as possible. Department you'd like to see.
Yes. >> And I and I will say I have received questions from commissioners and some followup are written in nature. Some may be a request for additional um updates. So, I'm I'm definitely getting a list of questions.
So, we appreciate all of you and but to the extent that you can get them to us, that'll be great. All right. Thanks. >> Did send a I I sent out yesterday evening an answer to several questions that were brought up at the May 19th meeting.
And as soon as we get those, we'll try to get answers out as soon as possible. >> Sounds good. All right. No one else rushing up here to sit. Okay, I'll consider us adjourned. >> All right, >> thank you all.