Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · May 24, 2023

I will call this meeting to order for our budget session on what is today for May when you just got off a plane and running to get here I'm a little winded but I'm here so I will read the public charge given that this is a process the Board of Commissioners ask its members and citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with a board and fellow citizens at any time should any member of the board or any citizen feel to observe this public charge the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control should the Quorum fail to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed I think that our first item is 23.081 the refugee and immigrant update the first item.

Duck and Dodge away. We will start ducking.

Good afternoon Jay Harrison members of the board County residents it is an honor to present to you an overview of immigrants and Refugee a first program this program as you know I'm very excited about it I love it and the reason why is because it reflect the values and goals of the Board of Commissioners and the city council both working tirelessly to improve the well-being of all while reducing barriers to accessing Services especially for to people in need and most of them are immigrants and refugees living in Durham so here is the agenda or my presentation I'll give you an overview of the Refugee and immigrants population in Durham then I'll talk a little bit about the my my role and task as a coordinator and I'll talk about a current work I'm doing since I started last August hit the ground grow running and then I'll talk about next year what I'm looking forward to and Beyond next year then I'll give you a long-term view of what I'm seeing in this program.

And what I would like it to be then I will be more than happy to answer questions and get your recommendation and I will not take too much of your precious time thank you. So Durham through the census 2020 has more than 300 000 people calling Durham County home 14.8 percent of that population foreign born they awesome thing about this numbers is that Jara is way ahead of other neighboring countries counties as the percentage of immigrants and refugees of foreign-born living in Durham even compared to the national average we are pretty far ahead and that says a lot about the work the board is doing the work the leadership is doing the work the city is doing to make Durham a working place for immigrants and refugees to call home.

In addition to the 2020 census from 2020 until today the population is growing and in Durham we have a immigrant and Refugee service providers that work every day with this population Church World Service for instance I've served almost 1 000 people from 2020 to 2023 that goes to World relief as well El Centro El futuro they all have been serving the immigrants and Refugee communities for a long time so this is just to pretty much confirm what you all know that our population is growing and we have more people coming to Durham enterum all these 14.8 percent of the population do speak different languages at home.

Yes so do speak different languages at home and among those languages I for instance do not speak English as the primary language at home it's called Ife it's from West Africa and as you see on the slide more many of people come from different parts of the world bringing languages that they speak with their kids at home and most of them are Spanish Chinese Arabic Swahili Vietnamese that love Filipino Hindu French Pastor diary current Burmese I'm Herrick Bengali Jerry they are from all over the world and unless you hear someone in the grocery store you don't usually know that they do speak many more languages and with all these languages come they come with the different immigration status we have people that are permanent residents refugees I sell is the Dhaka and Visa holders are temporary protectors protective studies and now but that we have the TPS holders for instance we this year they are from 16 countries including Afghanistan Burma Cameroon El Salvador Ethiopia Haiti Honduras Nepal Nicaragua Somali Somalia.

South Sudan Sudan Syria Ukraine Venezuela and Yemen so all this is just more diversity in Durham we do have a higher percentage of foreign born in Durham because of policies that we have and all the policies are geared towards helping immigrant field at home in Durham however the. The new American economy on its City index examine the the landscape of the local policies towards immigrant as well as how immigrants are doing in these cities and counted by looking at their economic social and political outcome so with that if you look at the the slide for instance Durham has an overall score of 2.8 over 5 for the for our immigration immigrant integration based upon policies and social economic outcome so I went ahead and compared Durham with other cities Charlotte and Richmond why do I choose Charlotte enrichment they pretty much have the same composition as as Durham so I wanted to see how we fare compared to these cities so we can see that Charlotte has a score of 3.25 over.

5 and Richmond 3.38 so this obviously says that Durham has room to improve its core. With this I would like to talk a little bit about the the purpose of the city and county immigrant and Refugee Affair why is it created and I we don't know that it's created to support and Empower our immigrant and Refugee communities to successfully integrate into Durham's Civic economic and cultural life so to do so I understand that there are some roles and tasks that I will focus on and the first one is that I know that I'm responsible for driving the city and county and community-wide effort around immigrant and Refugee initiative and practices so since August we've been working on that and I'll talk about the successes that we had in that that thing also to work both internally and in the city and the county and externally in the community and develop and maintain collaborating collaborative partnership with organizations and individuals and support Durham immigrants and Refugee initiative and organization.

So with that in mind these are the current work that I've been doing since August when I started I've had 100 more than 100 one to one meeting with the organizations and individuals in the community and this interagency meetings led to the bringing together of immigrants and Refugee service providers in Durham so yeah for instance they are behind me we have El Centro that is here sitting at the table every month we have church World Service World relief Refugee Community Partnership that is not in Durham but in Carrboro we work we have the Durham Public Schools Representatives the Durham Police Department and Durham Tech and ocaso Foundation this inter-agency coordination it's been really helpful to see what other agencies are doing how to come together and go off a same strategy on how to effectively serve immigrants and refugees in these different agencies in addition to the interagency coordination or Coalition that happened really quick because I was coming to this position already working with the several organization in and around.

Durham so we've known each other for quite a while and getting together this group I won't say it wasn't that hard but they the goal or the purpose of each agencies was so in tune to what the the county and the city is trying to do so getting them at the table you can see that so we are forming an internal City and County collaborative team this to coordinate programming and services at the the local government level we want to know what age department is really doing so that we once we know that we can come up with the ways to help one another to better or to improve our services we're planning a kickoff of this meeting for for this group in the next quarter this meeting would include immigrant and Refugee facing staff from each department so this Outreach is still going and with the meeting is coming very soon so through my presentation until now you can see some kind of planning going on we want.

All the organizations to be on the same step when it comes to serving immigrants and refugees so we went ahead and applied to building integrative Community grants the pictures on this slide I really love these pictures because there are I would say it is Beyond getting the refugee and immigrant service providers at a table this has been one of my greatest achievements so far getting the the leadership from the city and the county to be at the same table and having a conversation that is only focused on immigrants and refugees in Durham so yes I did that however we are still waiting on the building integrated Community grants folks to tell us whether we get it or not this is the first step I this work is much more a collaborative work and we are looking forward to improve that foreign I've talked about immigrant and Refugee service providers they are inter intra-agency collaboration while we are trying to get the service providers around the table to find a common.

Strategy is also very important to me to my to mean that the refugee and immigrant Community are also at the table where the decisions are being made so I came up with the my Durham Leadership Academy this is just a pilot program of course it is a best practice in other cities like Nashville Tennessee they've been running this program for the past 10 to 12 years and have graduated more than 200 immigrants and refugees at the end of the year when they graduate most of the participants apply to boards and commissions yes we we want the immigrants and refugees to civically economically and culturally integrate Durham life so that goes on on that and that's the part we're trying to to follow so we're going to have we're learning a lot about the the program for instance the the first meeting was with the Durham history Museum of History that's the a second picture down to your left the meeting was online we learned a lot about how Durham came to be.

And I myself did not know much about that but was really really happy when I got home and was talking to my kids about do you know that Donald was this yeah my daughter is very like that she learned something to come home and quiz me on on it so she can show she knows so I try to do the same and learning about the history of Durham was great then the the other pictures are the meeting that we had presentation from the Durham Transportation Department that gave the participant a better understanding of how the transportation works and also to know that the transportation department is looking for applicant is looking for drivers the more drivers we have the more the better it's going to be for folks who ride the bus every day and we can also extend the time that the bus goes around but now it only starts at midnight so midnight is also the time when the third shift goes to work so all these are.

Great that we are learning about this all this information is taken and to the participants community and then spread into languages that they speak as they can learn that in English they go over there and we'll speak all these languages that I mentioned to really pass the the information on the next thing I work I am working on a very proud as dorm Refugee day and as you know I've been leading the organizing of Durham Refugee day for the past three four years I'm really proud of the work that we're doing and it is also here the opportunity to say thank you all for making this event happen it gives immigrants and refugees a purpose a sense of belonging of been known and heard on that day that day is also the day where they will put or they put faces to the names we do hear your names through the news social media who is this person and not that day when you are at Durham Refugee there you see.

Immigrants and refugees going around and talking to you trying getting to know you better so thank you for making this happen that's it next year and Beyond we want to increase the interagency and inter-agency coordination as of now we've started this since October we've been here less than a year but that that's not is not a reason not to grow our work is not the reason not to bring many more people at the table a few people cannot really think for the whole population the more people we have at the table the easier it's going to be to find issues and suggestions that will better that will improve the way we serve immigrants and refugees in Durham the next point to to this is the interlocal agreement that to my understanding are it's having some lagging time somewhere on on the resolution or the approval part of it the city level beyond that we want to have a community assessment to map resources know exactly what is out there and how to maximize these.

Our resources next to have a need assessment to collect the data that will help support a common strategy this tragedy that will will require a an additional fund to complete to complete an in-depth analysis of of this I don't not it's not fair to me to come to you and tell you this is what the immigrants and Refugee Community would want is not fair to them it's not fair to me the better way to have to make this a good strategy is to have all these the asset might be in the need assessment then we know exactly what we have we know exactly what is needed and how to strategize on how to improve this and the next one is my well our my Durham 2.0 of course we're learning as we're going but we want to improve that and get many more immigrants and refugees to participate and learn more about how both local government work the more they know the easier it's going to be to bring their suggestion their.

Advice on how to how to improve our work I remember that I have served on two boards so far when since I got here I at one in Chapel Hill and one here it took me a while when I got on the the board to learn why what the board is doing I don't want that we don't have much time to get on the board and sit for three months to learn about that so learning about how the local government work knowing the in and out of all the department is going to be a lot easier to hit the ground going and go giving a more constructive advice instead of just sitting there and wait to learn more about how to improve our work the next one that I would like to talk about is to explore the the concept of and immigrants and Refugee welcome center and this to provide to provide a clear access point to the to the community and government resources and welcome in front door for immigrant.

And Refugee residents in in Durham and lastly we also would like to explore creating a resource guide for immigrants and refugees in Durham in other languages this is also a best practice in Boise Idaho for instance very small City but they do have a resource guides for the immigrants and Refugee communities in other languages it would be a great thing to have in in Durham as well so with this if we get all this next year and beyond that will lead us in five years of having Durham to become a blueprint for immigrants and Refugee integration most of the cities and counties that are certified welcoming City and counties are not working in tandem between the city and the county I think Durham is the only one that have this position so one is better than two hey no that's not the correct Thing Two Is Better Than One excuse me yes so excited I'm just anyway I wanted to emphasize on the fact that having Durham and Durham Durham County and Durham city working.

Together is better than having one city or one County and Durham is known as the the medical city of medicine right well my goal is to make Durham the city of immigrants and Refugee integration to do that we also want to increase the score that I mentioned previously it is it will be the right thing to do we already on that path to get there we also want to improve the communication the public safety Mobility entrepreneurship and Leadership of the Immigrant and Refugee community in Durham while in increasing the participation in the the local government we also want to expand and deepen our collaboration between the city and the county lastly if we do all that I'm sure that we will become the certified welcome city and county together with this I will say thank you for your attention and I am looking forward to your question I will do my best to answer those well thank you so much for your presentation Commissioners questions comments.

Thank you so much nayo and Donna for all of this work I know I myself and this entire board shares the excitement with you about this work I had some questions about like the and last slide when we're talking about like in five years the biggest one is what will it take for Durham to become a certified welcoming city and county is that like a national recognition that we have to like meet certain thresholds if you have some of those on top of your head or like if you can send those to us I would love to be able to learn that and how is your interaction and I know like with you Nyo you've already been integrated into coming from church World Service and the refugee and immigrant space how has the reception been from partners of interacting with government and now having like a government person coming in has there has it been easy to build that trust thank you commission Adam the the reaction number one I would say.

From church World Service Flynn was here she will attested that they were devastated but also happy Happy in terms that I am working with the city and the county to Advance the work that have been started in the community and beyond our church World Service War relief any other immigrants and refugees service providers that I reach out to they are very happy and saying oh nayo now that you're there well I am happy we are happy we're gonna work with you and you will be our go-to person anything we want we're coming to you now and we make you want to make sure that we got this we got that yes the most of all of the service providers the organized organizations are really excited about the position and much more excited I don't know because of nayo I don't want to be patting myself in the back but I do have a that great that good relationship with the the organizations and you can see back behind me Tom promised that they.

Will come but I said no sometimes we are late a little bit but you can see this support it's already a huge thing for me to be sitting here and talking to you while having them as a support team and that says a lot about the relationship we have with the the Board of Commissioners and the service providers in our community thank you I have two more questions in terms of the the welcome City yes we will need to apply and have them come and assess what we have and then work on the shortfalls and they will come back to to check that before they can certify the city and the county as a welcome City and County that might take a little bit of time but we will get there send us like what they're typically looking for for that certification just interested and then my follow-up question also around the mapping that you plan to do have you all been able to connect with we just got a new partnership with.

Haytai reborn which one of their goal areas is their main goal area is to do mapping of all of the non-profits and partnership organizations within Durham County that if you are planning to do that maybe there's a way to integrate with their work since they're also doing the mapping that was one note and the last one second to last one the interlocal agreement do we maybe manager so well do we know what the holdup is on the city side with that I do not know what that hold up is we can follow up and get some information I can give you the broad Strokes if that helps because I because I kind of know at least the timeline so the original interlocal which had the position placed at the at the city was signed by the city and the county in October of 2021 and when the conversation was had to move the position to the county the Board of County Commissioners approved that interlocal that new interlocal which had.

Been shared between on April 11th for some reason it it has not been approved formally by the city I do believe this is an oversight some of the Personnel who were involved in that that's kind of above nio and myself are no longer here at the county and while I think there are some people maybe on the city Side who are aware of that some some ship is missing that has made that connection and so I think we just need some help facilitating that process I I really believe that the city is very supportive I mean certainly as evidence that by the fact they put funds in their in their recent budget proposal so and that say city and county so I'm not sure that they're all aware that they haven't done that so I think it's just a an oversight with all the transition but I'll tell you something I managed as well the last question I have oh the office of immigrant and Refugee affairs what is that looking like and.

Like what do you need from us what is your goals for this Welcome Center office and and I'll jump in and say I actually asked staff to not get ahead of us in surveying and doing A needs assessment because I don't want us as a government to dictate what services would be provided as an office that really needs to come from the Immigrant and Refugee community so while we may have an idea of what we think would be good in an office that really needs to come from the community so that we're responding to their needs although I know we may have some some preconceived ideas of what that could look like.

Head but there are some models that that we have looked at so maybe you can give some general maybe some good broad Strokes on the types of things that might happen service-wise right thank you so the Welcome Center Prospect came through some conversation with the service provider community members they the best that we would do to make sure that the center is sustainable and is not just something we will that's create so that we don't have it running at full speed I think it will be as the the manager said to have that need assessment and to have the community like get it done officially scientifically so we have yeah so we have the data and we have all what it will need to to function of course the the concept or they thought that we had initially to to have the the resource center sometimes we don't have we do not really have the services that will be at this center right it will be a.

I would not like it to be just created at this moment as a placeholder however I would prefer and really like that I put this in your thoughts while you also are having some thought about it because this need to be a thorough collaborative way it's called a collaborative between the board the the leadership the community so that we create something we create a center not something we create a center that is sustainable this sustainability of the center is what is the most important to me whether we created today tomorrow is not really what I'm looking for but I really would like it to be sustainable and serve the needs of the Immigrant Refugee service providers the immigrants and refugees themselves the local government and the leadership so that we are in that way we all know that we have a buy-in into the center if we all have that we are we become State stakeholder in it we will improve its it function and.

Why we do it so this is what I think we should do and take time to do the assessment make sure that we have all the data in order to put together a center that will be sustainable for the immigrants and Refugee community I hope I answer your question thank you and and nayo and Donna thank you so much especially nio for this wonderful PowerPoint and really helps clarify the complicated role that you have I really admire in Durham County the the people in the positions that are responsible for coordinating a system basically and from your description it sounds like that really is part of what you consider to be your role is reaching out to service providers and trying to help the services become more coordinated you're also providing Services directly you know within my leadership my my my Durham the leadership academy and and other way and through other ways as well and so I really think your five-year it almost sounds like a strategic plan you know at least it's a.

Vision and so I think that it feels really solid to me that you're in you're in a you've landed with you know really with both feet on the ground in a in a really strong way and are going to make great strides in your role trying to help improve the coordination of services in the refugee community and I also like your vision for the center that you described we want to be sure that the service providers use it the Immigrant Community use the refugee you know so that would be a big important piece this is a budget work session and you mentioned the needs assessment I'm really all four needs assessments anytime we're about to put a program in place that looks is looking at a system do you have any idea how much that might cost a range.

So I think we have a lot as you know in a Cooperative Extension certainly with some of the other areas that we work in we have a lot of experience with Community engagement needs assessments and there's been quite a range of how the county has spent funds in a variety of areas we believe that with depending on whether we get the building integrated communities Grant which does come with a small twenty five thousand dollar and that takes care of a little bit of that planning portion the needs assessment and that Grant could really work effectively together so for example if we got that Grant maybe it would be 75 000 because you would have to think about you know a vendor also a lot of translation but I think it could be done in a less expensive way based on work that's already been done in the community then some of the other needs assessments that we've done and planning processes particularly if the Bic Grant.

But I mean we can also I mean this is based on our current experience with vendors we have quite a bit of that but we haven't priced the particular you know a particular a vendor but it would have to go through an RFP process regardless okay thank you and Donna left out another point she's very prudent she has already tapped me and said if we need money or the needs assessment can we count on you and I said absolutely yes we'll make sure we find funding to cover that that's fantastic and you know congratulations on your leadership of bringing the city and the county together to apply for this grant it sounds like quite the opportunity you've really accomplished a lot since August and it's clear from this presentation one I'll just have I have a few more one final question is related to your work I was so pleased to see Durham Public Schools and Durham Technical Community College on your list of sort of Outreach Partners providers that kind of thing.

Because it really does feel like that is a great doorway into the Immigrant community in Refugee Community is through our schools because the student population is so large in the Immigrant Refugee community and in the English as a second language community so I'm just wondering if you have any additional plans specifically related to the schools it just feels like all roads lead back to our children and The Cooperative Extension already has this you know parent advocacy course the pfast and so just wondering if you have any other thoughts about that now and if not we can talk later thank you so much yes we are working with the Durham take and the their own Public School we have a working group that meets monthly geared toward the Immigrant youth in a school system they I'm working with Sashi at the yes he is there he is hi Sashi riasam yes and thank you to all the people in the community that are working with nio that came today really appreciate you.

Being being here and you're you're really important work so yeah in in regard to the Immigrant youth in the school system I don't really want to get too far ahead okay it's just a working group we started I think we had like four meetings so far it's that stem from the fact that we have immigrant refugees coming to to Durham some of them are Beyond going to the Durham public school high school and not old enough some are not old enough to go to Durham Tech so they are in some kind of no man's land there's no program that is over there to to catch them so we are entertaining the idea of creating a program that would help them and provide them a two options for for science for most of them for instance some just don't want just want to learn English to go to work Psalm wants to go to College if we take most of the Immigrant and some Refugee for instance from Africa I can talk about that the.

To most of them to make in life you have to go to college so even the kids when the children are like cannot we cannot really register them at high school because they don't have the the background to be there the parents like I want my kid to go to school I'll give the example of of Togo for instance there's no age limit for school we've seen all the people who went back to school and start first grade and going to school with their grandkids we can do that in the U.S but we need to have a program that is a safety net for they they step this range of immigrants that wants to either learn English to go to work or learn English so that they can get a high school diploma what is that going to be because that we have not settled on that that's why I did not bring that on my presentation I get that this is a really really important issue for you to communicate this.

I just want you to know and the board knows that the staff and we've already extended that to we'll extend it to two o'clock and so if you this side of the room have questions for you like to give them an opportunity to ask your questions and we need to make the so you make your answers pretty succinct and given that this is the first time you're having this conversation with us you could make them make your answers succinct so that we can finish with your conversation at two o'clock that would be great yeah thank you thank you you know that's the sorry for asking such leading questions I think it's just it's a passion for him oh totally.

He has a lot to give thank you so much. Commissioner thank you I'm so glad that we are having this chance to have this conversation with you and the work that you're doing is very so very important and I really appreciate that you have stepped into this role I would ask maybe the County Attorney if you could follow up on the interlocal agreement with see what the status of that is with the city and you know 14 having 14 of our population being immigrants and refugees that is a very large percentage that's about the same as our just our Spanish speaking population and I just want to share that I and I've shared this with nio I've been appointed and pointed to the Naco immigration reform task force and at the first meeting I was at in January I actually learned about a program that Lincoln Nebraska has and they only have 34 000 people in in that whole County Lincoln County but they have a very robust.

They are part of the new America task force which you mentioned some of that data from because they're focusing actually on integrating their immigrants into the pipeline of being future City and County employees and also same what you were talking about getting them to join boards and commissions and also to vote as they become citizens I also learned about Hennepin County which has a very very robust program called Elevate and the Hennepin and again you know they they are really very focused on making sure that everyone has access to the fullest extent to to the services that are provided because again it's in the County's best interests overall for that to happen so I I think that you know us as commissioner Vaughn was mentioning I'm very interested in us learning more about being certified we've done that with Durham becoming an age friendly community and it's I think being a part of these setting the bar high for ourselves and understanding what we need to do to.

Reach that and having a plan is going to be important and I'm also interested in the the programs that you've lot laid out that do need funding like creating a resource guide or even the program that you're doing the leadership academy anything that does need funding I mean you're only one person so you know please let us know because I'm concerned about making sure that the city and the county are actually supporting all these different initiatives that you want to do one thing that comes to mind for me is with this Leadership Academy and even you talked about training some of the immigrants and refugees to be ambassadors right now in our community we are paying people to become ambassadors we've done that with the community engagement ambassador program we do that with community health workers so one thing that came to mind to me should we have you know some program we are you know paying people for their time and efforts as Community ambassadors that would also be a way to provide some.

Financial support to immigrants and refugees who just get here some type of stipend but then it makes it easier on you if we actually have people that are going out and helping to again you know connect people to the city and county services and I'm really glad that you are forming a group internally with city and county staff because we do have a lot of resources but we know it is very hard again is you're just one person that everybody knows you and is you know creating those connections and I also wonder at some point should we have an eye out come and present at a joint City County meeting in the future so we can also have you know maybe when you're ready to to to do that as well so I think that is it I was going to mention too in terms of the needs assessment I think our community health survey is a good that has a section on immigrants and refugees so there probably are little pieces here and.

There that might might help but thank you so much and I want to also recognize Sashi and all the other partners you know Durham Public Schools every time a student comes having to assess what their education level is and it's so important that we get our the parents and the adults who frankly come here a lot of them with highly skilled and how do we get them re-certified so that they can you know use their skills in our community as well so thank you I really appreciate everything you're doing commissioner long I mean commissioner Burns I'm not called you by your by the wrong name Mike is you do it sometimes I have commission alarm on my brain but I know who you are how you doing now how you doing Donna I'm gonna give my time to you for my question I saw Alicia part one I could sit here and tell you how great the presentation was but I'm just gonna say ditto to everybody because we're on time.

I I saw a list of your partners one of the things that I'm always concerned about is safety right so I can remember you know even back when CJ was here previously with her and sheerford were together before your office it's one thing to get support for programs it's another thing for a language barrier to be the thing that prevents you from getting help and I don't want that to be a thing so I guess I'm curious are we seeing folks in the community feeling safe and are we seeing those Partnerships with our local law enforcement with the DA's office so forth with our nurses with whoever so that folks can get the help that they need when they go to law enforcement when they go to hospital that's like my big question because I it you know 14.8 percent is a lot those are a lot of different languages and are we not just as discounted the city you know our other entities prepared for that thank you.

We are working with the the chefs department they reach out to have a a refugee serve on the equity board and we have a gentleman it should be not here today there it is it is serving on it and I'm very proud of him being there that is the voice at that table and that is the void a voice that the that table needs on top of that through the myodorum academy we're having the justice department come and present the police department coming to present and this is just to give the the participant opportunity to learn what the opportunities are and how to to work with these different agencies and departments and then take that information back to their community in languages that the community speak so yes we're working on it and I will be very happy to invite you all to come and to our oh all right so yes we will I will reach out to you when we are ready to close thank you so much.

Thank you so much I just have a couple of concerns and you don't have to answer them now but I understand the the philosophy and around the Immigrant Center I'm I'm a little concerned about a separate Center I I hear that as a separation and a community that we have to create a separate entity I'm wondering if there's something could be considered where we've got a lot of different a lot of spaces where people work together a lot of agencies that work together I I'm I so I need to understand why it needed to be a separate entity so if you could talk about that at another time we don't have to talk about it today because we work really really hard to have Durham be inclusive community and to have it be a separate entity it's I I need to understand why we want to do that so we can talk about it another time but I I'd appreciate understanding that yeah because if every if every person comes to Durham feel that different.

Demographics feel that they need their own entity what would we be building. Yeah because we got black folks we got Jewish people we got white folks we got all kinds Hispanic Asia we got all kinds of people and I I need to understand I'd like to understand what's the philosophy about having a separate entity yeah I would like to show you that the Welcome Center is not and will not be a separate entity there have been some best practices all around for for instance at the Durham public school we have the Multicultural Center which is geared towards immigrants and help them the the resource center for instance is you're not going to be just alone in a silo my vision is that the center will provide some services that are already in other departments so it will be inclusive but you're not talking about a standalone Center skin I think I think commissioner we're not sure what we're talking about that's where the needs assist where the needs.

To help us to identify and if we talk about Standalone we're really talking about integrated State I mean it wouldn't be like some building somewhere it would be some building that's connected to something else or you know so I think we've all talked about something that would be very connected so it's it's about right bridging connections yeah we can we can talk about it later I I just was stuck with that one because we don't want this we don't we don't need any more division no we we definitely are not aware that I mean we have a lot of experience working with with immigrant Refugee population and there sometimes needs to be able to have safe conversations and safe space okay and that's really important for those communities and and that will probably be voiced in that needs assessment so we'll let them share that we can talk about it later because we need to move on to the next conversation but thank you so much and because this being the com first.

Conversation we know we'll have some more and Madam chair can I just have one comment as we're wrapping up I think and the needs assessment will clarify this even more but I think when we're thinking about refugees especially we have to take into consideration that a lot of them are coming from areas where the government is not stable and so there is a lot of concern with those parts of the community when we're asking them to come into government spaces and so having is not to separate them but it's to build that trust up so that they can get over the tensions that they're coming to America with Well we I'm sure we'll have more conversations about it commissioner Allam and I was just left with that that I just don't want to hear all right thank you so much.

All right the next conversation is 230382 mental health and behavior health discussion and I don't have any names on here say who's leading this conversation I know we have some representatives from our Justice Services Department Sheriff's Office and you tone.

Gooch and you didn't hear that.

Good afternoon Dwayne Brinson assistant County Manager for Community safety so the next section of the agenda will be focusing on the mental health and Behavioral Health areas for the board we're going to go as it's listed on the agenda which is the Justice Services Department no the recent name change formerly criminal justice and we'll move on to the youth home and then we have our Sheriff's Office that will end the discussion on these topics now very briefly what we will be covering with these departments the sheriff will be covering the opioid treatment program medication assisted treatment program and the medical director which also is being recommended in this budget Justice Services talking about ffi familiar faces as well as the stepping up initiative and then youth home be focusing on mainly the assessment center and what's being done around that the timeline of it and how we are working with the community on the assessment center as well so with that we'll turn it over to the Justice Services director.

Thank you. Good afternoon Commissioners I am the director of the Criminal Justice Resource Center because four to five more six seven more days and I have with me Roshana Parker assistant director and Renee Shaw who is the behavioral health program manager overseeing several of our programs and she is here kind of as a subject matter expert I hope you're well Commissioners Madam manager Mr attorney sorry Mr function it was it was interesting it was big thank you it was good thank you so we are coming to you proposing three expansions and some are more expansion than others our our first request is for additional funds for our Geo mental health program and specifically we are asking to add additional hours to our Psychiatric Services contract we we have a psychiatrist under contract who is the mental health director she currently provides 16 hours a week and those hours are two days on-site Clinic our staff provides all the support she comes in reviews medications or and also puts new recently incarcerated detainees on medications.

And she she also has a partnership with Duke hospital and they have been providing four residents medical residents this year and so four residents give us a lot of extra hours they come once a week but next year we will only have one resident and so we're asking to add additional hours to her weekly service not only is she doing the on-site she's also available by phone to review and and change medications and she based on what's going on in the Detention Center she she communicates with our Geo mental health staff almost daily so and then additionally we're asking for a few funds to purchase some therapeutic items for our for the individuals in our therapeutic housing unit that is the mental health pod and you know for example we just purchased some radios for our clients so they could listen to the TV and and just different things to to provide them some something to do and keep them busy and and also just to give him some some.

Things too that that might help ease their minds a little bit during the day and the third thing the third item that we're asking for funding for it's not much but we're asking for some funds to to provide incentives to the female detainees who participate in the programs that our staff provides twice a week and that is not just for mental health clients it's for all the ladies in the in the in the Pod that are approved by the Detention Center to participate and so you know Valentine's Day or special all the holidays and then yoga mindfulness whatever the staff comes up with and and just some some Therapeutics some some clinical things and and just just helping helping to keep to provide some some well-being and and some mindfulness to to the detainees so not just for the mental health clients that's our first request our second request is our familiar faces I know you have heard about familiar faces initiative before so what we are proposing is funding for two-eyed.

Primarily for two things one is creating a data platform either creating a data platform through our it Department isnt department or purchasing an existing platform that will allow various agencies to communicate about a client so we can enter a client and then do a a referral and the other agency will then know that this client is referred for services and they can provide they can enter information whether that person was seen or what happened there the other item is funding for cross-data analysis cross-sector data analysis and this is something that that really what Nico is emphasizing and what for me if the familiar faces initiative is it's a data-driven initiative it's not Services it's about connecting and understanding the frequent utilizers in the system of a system and then who who is seeing those familiar faces and what services are they receiving and what are they costing all the different systems and how can we then better identify and serve them and some of the analysis also to help us understand even what what the.

Volume is of who those frequent or those familiar faces are that go to Duke emergency room in the go and then go leave the emergency room a few days later show up in the Detention Center they leave the Detention Center a few days later they they are seen by EMS and you know going through all these systems and some of them are utilizing a lot of those systems there are a number of communities that that are working on that as well Mecklenburg Wake County has a familiar faces initiative that they are resurrecting and then of course on the national level it's I think it's focusing on the highest utilizers and and to hopefully create the biggest savings long term and then there's a little bit of extra money for our our jail reentry team has some has some clients that are the familiar faces that we know so far you know some of the individuals that have that were identified through the downtown paint handling for example so when they come out of the Detention.

Center we work with the heart team for example but we're asking for funds like to purchase some cell phones for them and or or for minutes for their cell phones so we can stay in contact with them and also help them with co-pays and and until we can connect them too providers to more long-term that's second this our third request is something that we we I think you have heard before is that you want is Jonah crime prevention council is the Durham County received seven hundred one thousand dollars from the State Department of Public Safety that's an annual allocation in the state budget it is primarily to serve court involved youth and programs can apply to jcpc for funding it's a very sophisticated and elaborate refunding and review process Howerton has been through that many many times before so yeah you know how well oiled this machine is but those programs have to provide a 30 match and the the percentage of this match is determined by the state they.

Determine whether we are 20 a 30 or 10 percent County and we are a 30 percent County the match can be cash or in kind and so the ask is to provide additional funding to additional County funding to the jcpc so the programs don't have to come up with the 30 match in the future and what the the funding that is proposed by the by the manager is overall it's 15 of the 30 of for the match here but that would go a long way for the pro for some of the programs that do struggle to to find that 30 percent this year because of the timing jcpc would determine how they want if you if you approve that funding how JCP jcpc would determine how that funding would be added to the programs and then if it's recurring funds then they could incorporate it in their annual funding process and then provide then make that recommendation to you in their in their regular process and you approve the overall funding request and.

Go during just a quick question did the state stop funding it all together no at one time they they weren't asking for a match that they just started asking for match the match has always been there they always always has been a match yes ma'am I don't remember maybe I'm thinking of a different one but I did the the some of the grantees did not the county didn't give any money that is correct the county has never given County funding to jcpc yes ma'am right okay so the organizations had to do the match yes the organizations usually come up with volunteer hours or some other some some have additional grants and and because I don't think you can match State and State funds so the organizations have some other local donations volunteer hours the in-kind matches yeah thanks I just wanted that clarified and one one more thing while I'm thinking there are there are a number of counties that do provide local funding to add to the jcpc fund.

And then this is an additional funding request and I think there is some well let me clarify please so step our stepping up initiative has did the sequential inner step Map update and one of the law one of the biggest shortcomings or or gaps in in our service Continuum is a level of service for individuals who are very high need and and High mental health needs and in high risk and that that service is either a community support team or a assertive assertive Community treatment team the ACT team those services are there are some providers in the community but those are primarily available for people with insurance so the ask and we thought we were asking you to fund this with the the funds that that Alliance paid back last year that you took back from Alliance because it was due to covet they had some on-spent funds right so that's that was the the understanding of what we were we were basically we're basically proposing to you how you could.

Spend the money Alliance gave you back that there is a proposal that the write-up is in your is in your materials it would it would fund this forensic community support team for basically two years up to two years our our thought is that the money would go back to Alliance so they could contract with an existing provider who already has the infrastructure and already has most of the most of the Staffing established but it would be very specifically for Durham County on uninsured persons that are just as involved which is the big part of our on the unserved population and again the thought is that with the recently approved Medicaid expansion that in a couple years because these are existing providers they know how to build they build they build Alliance they build Medicaid they they have the infrastructure in place then in a couple years the the individuals that are now underinsured could be insured and and that that it could then be basically self-sustaining and and don't need additional County funds.

And those so I probably this was not in our budget request the manage a matter manager I apologies you know I'm looking at you I know you are that's why I am like we'll talk it's okay June 1st I'll be in your office June first and I'm just saying that because it's not fair that other departments don't have the opportunity to come before the board and make an ad for something that they didn't get yes in the recommended budget so and I'm gonna go I'm referred to Vice chair Jacobs to defend us on that one but foreign question about these presentations in general are these presentations explaining some of the details of what you've already recommended yes not necessarily asking for additional funding right and so we we pulled the board you all sent in recommendations of other initiatives that you wanted to see funding and you will have an opportunity to bring those up on the board Commissioners from the Commissioners just so then does that mean like the extra four hours for.

Mental health services is already in the manager's budget right that's already in the manager's budget so this is yes this is the only initial additional and this is the one that's out of order yes ma'am and and we actually thought it was there was a little slush front that you had somewhere else that was not part of your budget so so this is already in the budget you're not asking this one is not ma'am the other the first three are the first three are the first three are in the budget this is the one the manager saying that you is out of order not going through the regular process yes because it it that was not part of our departmental budget request that came through a different process it has been summoned so what does that mean for the rest of the staff that it's coming to us now it it means you're hearing about it now commissioner Jacob sent an email to Dr Sowell and myself and requested that.

This issue be brought put on a budget work session to discuss and so we put it with this portion of the discussion because it was related to behavioral and mental health everybody's right and everybody's wrong it's a decision made by the entire board whether you're going to have additional folks Come and Talk specifically about requests if one commissioner asks for it or all five that I am not clear on who the boss is I just know the Commissioners are top dog and when one says I'd like to talk about it I put it on the agenda and then review it with folks having said that the request save yourself the preferred format is we have a time set aside for Commissioners to make their recommended asks and I would prefer that it not come from a department because the other departments feel like well wait a minute there are things that we could come before the board and ask for that we would like to have and look at the.

Sheriff raising his hand he is the main culprit so I need to make sure that this is a fair and just process that's what I'm saying to be clear a couple of clarifications this request is not in the manager's recommended budget do note the email from commissioner Jacobs came on the 15th the manager's recommended budget was presented on the 12th so this request is that I also want the board to know how to brief conversation with gudrin's in the middle of this this is probably even more reason why she's happy to say see you later as part of the 2223 budget that Alliance savings from 2122 was budgeted to offset Alliance costs technically and this is a number issue there aren't additional Alliance dollars sitting in fund balance unspent from 2122 doesn't mean we can't do it it's six one way half a dozen the other I can talk to you all about that later but just for clarification we budgeted two million dollars of unspent Alliance funds from 2122 to offset their.

Cost in this current year 2223. that money technically is spent but doesn't mean we can't find additional dollars for different things once everybody gets in sync. We gave them six million dollars each year it only cost us four million dollars of new County money because we used two million of we were always going to give them roughly the the amount they requested it just means you had two million dollars to spend on other things or you weren't forced to raise taxes two million dollars because.

One more word of Defense you don't need to defend anything you're leaving in a couple of days I still need to defend it because it's really this money will not be in our department so this is really this is a request to fund Alliance for something it's it's a follow-up to The Intercept map the right the Sim because we have asked a lot you know what are the gaps in our services please tell us and you know you did so I don't know if you thought you had extra money thank you sorry everybody's good y'all your body's good I just want to say I don't think that was ever made clear to us that the alliance money was just folded back into the budget because we actually had a presentation that I was going to say there's more politics with that and we can bring that to you that is correct yeah technically a dollar is a dollar but we did say we would come back yeah and appropriate.

Dollars is needed yeah and with the understanding of the spirit of it but it's not we can't set it aside specifically it's okay yeah I just want to be out there because you are correct yeah we we we actually had a presentation about the gaps in our system and and how do we address the gaps in our mental health system with the idea that we have this money and what are the gaps so then we did the study which is exactly the way the process should work and the update to the sequential intercept map and so if one of the attachments in in this agenda item you will see a detailed report that that all the stakeholders who literally went out and talked to the providers and said what is the gap in our system and that was identified which is basically these are our most vulnerable residents who are just as involved being released from the jail who have no health insurance and they can't get mental health.

Treatment so you know I anyway so this is you know whether it was in this part of our budget work session or another it's important that we have this information and decide whether we want to address it or not. And we did ask for to find out the gabs one of the things the questions that I have goodun is is was but this this research has only done for the Justice involved yes ma'am okay so it has nothing to do with all of our citizens out there in the community it's just Justin yeah because this is a forensic CSD so this means it is for yeah because this is only a portion of the work that we need to do for the community is that right yeah the sequential intercept clearly and and it's it's not for the whole Community it looks at just how how individuals move through the justice system and identifies the gaps it does not it does not imply that these are the that it it.

Meets the needs or it identifies needs is anybody working on that the other piece of it that would mean that you don't have to go see Clarence to get Mental Health that's a that's a gold too that's a broader conversation yeah absolutely I'm not aware I'm not aware yeah I'm not aware okay well that's why gudrin you had recommended that we have a behave do a behavioral health action plan and we need a behavioral health manager because we need to do that community-wide assessment you know that's one that I started talking about way before we even did The Intercept map that the mapping is what this community needs because otherwise everybody's doing a little piece of something and you know and there's nothing wrong with that it's just that when we don't coordinate the work we spent a lot of money and we don't know if we get the results intended yes so yeah so we we really still need to do the community mapping and you'll be gone we got that.

Has nothing to do with this thank you yeah go ahead do we have do we have the strong intent that the players that would need to participate will participate and use the data platform like Duke health for example I think Duke Health would potentially be actually exploring whether Duke would ex would expand an existing project that they have to analyze to add some of our data into it with with you know if we gave them the extra money to do the analysis so there could be a little bit more cost effective but I don't think they will ever give us data I'm being honest with you because I think EMS has been working on a data sharing agreement with Duke and I think most of that data sharing is one way interesting okay well I was afraid of that which makes you know you might need to look at other ways to that's why we are talking really many hours with our County attorney who is who is looking into in.

Into how this could work or and because I think it's it's more a legal approach and and and Duke has a lot of lawyers and but other communities are doing it right and and have been able to come together and so and I know in in Wake County the health systems are participating so yeah yeah there should be a way manager tell us about when we were at that last meeting data sharing dashboard that they're putting together so we are the chancellor Duke's Chancellor's advisory committee or something the manager and I was at that meeting and they are putting together and to roll out a data sharing system they haven't it's not complete pleaded yet but they did talk about it and share it with us so that might be something that there we need to connect with it might be the time is ripe yeah reach out to Deborah Clark Jones yeah.

We're talking about other things with her so she's on she's on the ffi on the familiar faces initiative so so good very good thank you. Renee for your work you're you know we haven't heard from you today but I know that coordinating the mental health programs is a big job and appreciate your your efforts really important. Okay we haven't heard Renee is here and we also have these our researcher on should be online I think if you had any specific questions about this request from the stepping up initiative.

Okay I'm commissioner Jacobs yes I have some follow-up questions I mean I strongly support everything that is the manager has recommended which you have you know elaborated on I also support the request for the forensic act team funding because I know this was identified as a big gap in the update to the sequential intercept map and I do want to clarify though that the sequential intercept map it it maps not just Justin about people it Maps people in crisis in our community and so it starts out at zero and then what happens is because we don't necessarily get them the help they need they do end up in the jail so you know it is it is basically our crisis system but I have a question about the the psychiatrist so and and I'm the reason I'm asking this is because it it ties into my questions about a model for how we do the the medical director for the mat program how many people are served through this model of doing just you know.

Having a contract with a psychiatrist and doing it that way and using residence just wondering how many people are served through this through this so our psychiatrist Works in tandem with our gym mental health staff yeah that that unit that you have shored up significantly over the several years they do the intakes they do the assessments they get all the information and then they basically prepare a clinic so when the psychiatrist comes on comes on site then it's like you go to the doctor's office doctor gets one after the other one after the staff is doing all the the legwork getting the clients and so the psychiatrists reviews meds and prescribes meds and and adjustments and and then also work with the staff if there is someone who needs a involuntary commitment or needs to go to Central Regional hospital but the mental health case load of of the individuals in the Detention Center is about 160 inmates okay about 160 people who are being so they're at a high level supervising.

But obviously a lot of work is being done right and it's like there are standards of psychiatrists sees them and then she has to see them so often to review the medication energy medication yeah okay and what is how much are we paying for the psychiatrist to be as a consultant I guess that'll be 20 hours per week the hourly cause at the hourly rate is around 150 dollars do we know what the how much for them we're paying per year.

A little over a hundred thousand right a little bit over a hundred thousand dollars over a hundred thousand okay she's also the psychiatrist currently providing services at the youth home at the youth home too but that's a separate contract it's a separate contract that's a contract okay Okay so about 160 people are receiving you know and they're on medication as well but being supervised that way okay that's helpful to know thank you but she once someone is on vacate medication unless there are complications she doesn't see them more than once a month if that often right okay.

Commissioner thank you for this presentation and I apologize goodrin I thought your retirement event was today I'm sorry for missing it yesterday and I'm really about it I was even texting Wendy and I was like I feel so bad that I missed this but I'm very supportive of these requests I'm really glad they're in the budget I did have one thing it's not really something for this budget but just since we're talking about the familiar faces initiative just wanted to raise and you know have it on top of our mind of the board that this was something that came up during our budget conversations one-on-one well two on one that we had I was with commissioner Jacobs and I know manager so well we talked about this the connecting the familiar faces project that Wendy has been spearheading with like trying to create like a universal program within our systems of services for individuals you know who is using Social Services more who's using different surfaces that the county provides but also.

Finding a way to connect it with like the library and taking like the IDS and you know adding photos to IDs so that way folks have access to a photo ID that can then be used like in the future for other things like especially since I know the attorney is looking at me now but voter ID is going to be coming down next year we have we work with our clients we get them birth certificates we get them State IDs okay all that yeah I was thinking like you know when we were discussing like how do we get the library card that people have more frequently to be Universal and maybe connecting it into these familiar faces initiative could be arresting you interesting and I'll just say I did have a conversation with our director of Elections as well as ACM Hall and that seems like a very viable option for us and so we're looking into how we can do that with the IDS thank you.

Okay put it and we have the Sheriff's Office all right thank you so much we're going to transition to the youth home assessment center this time and then the sheriff will come up after the youth home okay thank you gudrin thank you.

Hello Angela how you doing good afternoon. I said daughter who's it I can slide up to that mic I will thank you all right okay good evening Commissioners chair Hamilton County staff and our County residents it gives me an honor to present my fiscal year 23-24 budget to you. The new youth home it is scheduled to open in summer of 23. The priority One budget requests are for the assessment center and administrative support staff for the infrastructure of the new facility the funding and current Staffing supports the utilization of 16 to 24 beds in the new facility depending on the vacancy rate at opening no additional youth home counselors and operational expenses included in the recommended budget to open all 36 beds additional updates to share with you is the Department of Public Safety Division of Juvenile Justice and delinquency prevention raise the daily detention per day on rate effective July 1 2023.

Durham County Youth at officeility will the state will pay 153.38 juveniles that are housed at the youth home and are out of County the state will pay us 300 per day and Durham County feeds their house of Youth out of county is one hundred and fifty dollars and that is an increase of about 15 from the previous year Community engagement we held the listening session on April the 28th of this year there are plans to hold a second session and then there are plans for the facilitator to provide an update at a future board of commissioner's work session with you the assessment center the assessment center will be a holistic and a community-based resource hub for at-risk court involved juveniles and their families in crisis and connect our reconnective services promoting a collaborative nature and working with stakeholders to integrate best practices reduce duplication of services ensure access to effective supports and ultimately prevent or divert from systems involvement programming will take a multi-faceted approach and deliver evidence-based assessments to.

Assist children and families in need of intervention and preventative service in the community to address the juvenile security mental health and educational new needs the assessment center again as I like to reiterate is a resource hub for at-risk Youth and Families this space is for different agencies that touch Children and Families we have system Navigators who will be in the assessment center and these are our core providers in our community that is the Department of Social Services we will have Alliance we will have the Juvenile Court district 14 juvenile court councils working with us and we will also be working with Durham Public Schools we will have varying hours to accommodate families and Youth this is a collaboration with our other partners in the Juvenile Justice System mental health agencies our schools youth serving organizations and non-profits to ensure support we will also be working with our jcpc providers that Google mentioned earlier who have an array of services such as mentorship parent support tutorial job readiness triangle literacy working with them.

On their education youth mediation and restorative type Justice agencies I have also requested additional funding for our mental health clinician through Alliance and I have also requested additional resources for our wealth path jail Health contract for our psychologists those two positions that I have mentioned it is hoped that when those hours are increased they will also provide some support to us in the assessment center and that includes my discussion and it is open for further discussion with the board at your pleasure thank you thank you always for the work that you do with you young people in the youth home been there for quite some time so thank you I just have one question we'll pass it over the assessment centers so from what I understand through the the documents and what you just said it it will not be open to community per se to have access to it it is open to the community anyone can be referred to the assessment center a youth may be self-referred anyone can.

Refer Youth and or family to the center law enforcement can refer children and families to us the school can do the same parents can call us and come into the assessment center and of course juvenile court can refer cases that so it is open to the community who are in need as long as they are young people under the age of 18. okay I guess my question is a little bit broader will it will not be used for other things other than referral of Youth right yeah that's what I was that's what I was getting at right there are no other agencies or resources such as Maybe a vocational program or something like that yeah someone wanted to use it for something other than referring of Youth it would not be accessible to them that's correct okay thank you Commissioners commissioner Allam commissioner Burns I don't know why I don't forgive me how you doing Andrew commissioner Burns I don't know why I keep doing that I would be quick and.

I've asked for forgiveness that's all I said you spoke about one thank you for all the work that you've done over the years and how you've tried to move this forward I know two things let's see so I know you said summer 2023 and those seven individuals even though we're doing a step because you're going to hire some more those are the folks who are going to Aid you in being youth counsels right those first no that is for the infrastructure of the assessment center staff that's the program manager and two case managers okay gotcha okay and then we will have some additional infrastructure for the new youth home we need to increase our staff and we need an administrative officer right we need you know some administrative work well no so no that helps because I was when we got it it was seven I was wondering if it was broken up so no that's that's the oil right phase two and phase three are not funded which is increasing the youth home counselors.

Positions at the youth home right so then yeah because we agreed on the step the only reason why I kind of bring that one up I know you know we did a resolution not too long ago about how you know well we did a resolution in support of Billy last of the Department of Public I had to get his name right about the pay that we didn't see in some of the detention centers that we were just at a school board meeting and I said you know how are you all doing with Recruitment and one of the tools there and it wasn't Dr Hardy I forget the other individual's name at this point but she stated that one of the things they really worked on she says once we can get somebody to intern in Durham Public Schools they usually want to stay so I'm trying to out is that some a tool that we're using and I maybe because I know you have to hire for this phase the.

Next two phases and I want you to be successful because there was a lot of pushback in the community and I want to make sure that we you know we got good people in there so is that one of the things that we're using outside of income and you know pay increases to say hey this is this might not be a bad place for you to work well and we also in the past have hired our interns from the local universities that is a good pool of people to come in and work you know they come in for the internship they get experience they learn how to do the job and then we hire them if if they're interested I also participated in a career resource fair in the community you know trying to get additional people we have plans to reach out to a North Carolina Central University in the fall and their career center to see if they can assist us with sending individuals over for employment.

And things of that nature so you know I know you're working yeah I I I spent an awful lot of time screening applications and setting up interviews and to get a full day of interview appliance that you've reached out to and accepted the interview was very difficult because we get ghosted quite a bit last question just from a creative standpoint you listed some Partners who's a partner that you don't have right now that you wish you had in the assessment center or the in the assessment center I mean because you you know we got law enforcement you got the courts you have the schools yes a lot of these young people have some very serious criminal backgrounds but not everybody does so maybe if there was a partner you wish you could have it would be really nice to have a resource for employment I knew that's what she was going to say yeah so yeah that would be really great outside of Workforce Development board outside of triangle literacy youth field there are jcpc.

Providers so we will be reaching out to them but it would be really nice to have some vocational opportunities for our young people because if they're employed you know they have less time to be in the community wreaking havoc on the community okay so that's some homework for us yeah I'm gonna stop my questions now and you to risk my time thank you so much commissioner commissioner Burns I want to talk to you about the recruitment question real quickly last month in our community safety department meeting gotta got to give credit to the sheriff he had a good idea about recruitment and maybe creating a video or some marketing material about what it means to be in Public Safety in Durham County like a holistic Community safety recruitment message to show people what kind of impact they can have if they work in Public Safety in Durham County so that's something we're looking at where all the departments in a portfolio as a means to because recruitment's an issue in all the community safety.

Departments and it's something we need to solve and hopefully that kind of creative thinking will help make some progress in that area.

Yeah thank you so Angela I'm very excited about the assessment center and it being a resource to the community you know when I read the the jccpc report and I I know I mentioned the other day about us getting being able to dig into this a little more deeply because the data is just really concerning I don't want to read off all of the numbers but when we compare ourselves to the state for instance family domain 42 percent of our juveniles who were involved you know who with the system have a runaway history versus 22 percent for the state 52 percent answered yes to alcohol and drug use versus 38 for the State Mental Health 35 percent diagnosed with mental health disorders I mean on almost all of the measures we are way above the state average so I really hope that with this referral system which basically anybody when you look at this anybody could in crisis can say I need help and especially I think we're going.

To see I think a lot of parents who and maybe even through the heart system through the heart program yes I spoke to them yeah when my community engagement around the community back in the fall and they're really excited and are willing to do this as well so yeah I have them in my toolbox as well great they also suggested they would love to come out if we have a situation currently now at the youth home and youth is in crisis they would come out and provide services if we needed that as well great and now with our family Justice Center too you know kids who have been exposed to domestic violence that you know so I think this is going to be a really really great resource and then also with Alliance rolling out then the Moore's program which is going to be the mobile crisis unit for Children and Youth yes and I want I also want to emphasize DSS and I can connect you to our new DSS.

Director if you have not met her yet but she is really comes from a strong background around child welfare but again we're trying to be Upstream right with our with the family's first prevention act and this I think as soon as we can get people Upstream the help they need the better off that will be the I know you said you had a listening session on April 28th was what that was that with the key key stakeholders that we've already that we're already aware of no that was with the stakeholders who opposed the building of the Utah I mean okay that's what I meant yes yes okay yes okay great great okay well I'm glad that we are working with them and hopefully there will be a second session and as I stated then the facilitator hopefully will come back before the board in a work session in the near future to let you know what he discovered and if there are any low-hanging fruit or anything that you can grasp and work with the.

Community on further but I do like to thank you all for the opportunity to fund the assessment center and we are really excited about it because for the last 29 plus years I've been in here I've received numerous calls and I have families showing up at the door seeking assistance in crisis so I know what the need is and I just ask that you all be patient with us and let us let us get our legs our sea legs and our foundation and I really do think this program will grow as as you all know we start a program and things count a balloon and we find other ways to connect with other people and do other things and then hopefully maybe there can be some grant funding or something that we can find to also assist us in that efforts but just thank you for the opportunity to put the vision out there and get the work done so we're really excited and vice chair Jacobs those listening.

Sessions those are the sessions that are being facilitated by Mitch silver okay great yeah and obviously with our I don't see Crystal here or Joanne but the community intervention and support services all of those folks Bull City United yeah they are working with us in this yeah and they have already committed great to to working with us though we've got lots of pipelines I really do so we're excited to get the work done and get started on it and hopefully in the summer the building will be open and we'll get get started and help our citizens so.

2015 I think 2015.

If we can reach him early we can prevent some of the ills of the community you know we can keep them in the community and perhaps provide the mental health needs that they need so that they are not offenders in the community as we know many years ago the stats were 85 percent of children who come into Juvenile Detention have at least one or more dual diagnoses I think that has risen a little higher since covet and we're probably looking at well over 90 percent as we look at the children in the facility now most of them I would say clearly over 90 percent have mental health diagnosis of one or more so yeah that's what's coming into the tension these days so we have a lot of work ahead of us.

For you know I know you're reaching out to the groups and individuals who weren't supportive of the youth home and I just want to say I really appreciate that initiative that you've been taking because that there was a lot of passion and personal impact when we were having this initial discussion about the youth home extension so for there to be leadership in the youth home that didn't want to just you know got the money got the new Building closed off and moved on but to actually engage and bring those voices in I really really genuinely appreciate that as a commissioner because it makes it easier for us to go back in the community also when we have these more sensitive discussions oh well you're quite welcome it's hard work but you know we want to engage with the community as much as possible yeah I agree with that too I was going to say the same thing I had no idea that your engagement session was with some detractors and some for you're right.

We're very much opposed and these are the also the same people who do share a goal that I know we share which is to have zero children in our youth home and hopefully the assessment center when it's fully operational and when the community knows about it will indeed be a resource that will help that happen through prevention I feel like your presentation indicates that you're ready to open thank you so much for getting this off the ground and for all your years of of care for our children well I did have one question about the budget age 71 in the budget book where that's the youth home page and you know there's 57 percent increase in Personnel costs which makes sense because you're hiring new people I think over seven ftes people but what I don't understand is that they're it says there's a two and a half percent increase from the recommended this year's amount versus the original in 2023 but if you look at the actual in 2023 wait a second.

Oh and operating sorry let's look at operating yes the the estimate for this year right is 346 thousand dollars and 269 000 approximately is being recommended and with the the additional assessment center it's just hard for me to imagine offer calls going down. I don't have that page before me perhaps Keith's team can address that better than I you could answer later if you need to or hi commissioner Walker with the budget office that might be the mid-year increases that we've had to have to house juveniles out of County so we aren't you know we hopefully with the opening of the center won't have to house as many juveniles out of County if any juveniles and so we've had to do these increases mid-year to house those individuals and that that shows up in operating yeah okay and so hopefully we will not have to house our children out of County but it's something that we do not wish to do but unfortunately we have to do it for safety.

Of the juveniles that are detained as well as the staff that would explain the decrease thank you thank you any other questions okay anything else for you angel that is it thank you again for the support thank you thank you for all your work. Madam chair we will transition to the Sheriff's office now and as we do just a quick comment about director Nida here this has been part of her vision for more than a decade having in 2023 it's it's a Cutting Edge best practice but to think about 10 years ago her having this vision yeah that's that's impressive she's a classic yep it's wonderful to see it come to fruition it's it you know what it's wonderful and it's sad so it's dual it's wonderful that it's comfortable for wishing but it's sad that we have to have it.

Good afternoon commissioners County Manager I'm Sheriff Clarence Burke here. You know it's always a privilege to come before you all and I have my team with me as I as I always do these are the folks who get the work done day in and day out and in the interest of time you already have the documents that that are in contained in the manager's budget recommendation as it relates to the office of the sheriff so myself and my team are here to answer any questions that you have.

Tips yes thank you so much yeah I would just I'm just with mostly I just have questions about the model for the you know the next phase of the mat program and just and these are questions I have that if you don't have the answers right now that's fine you could just follow up with information but pick up a little bit sorry so what I'm a few thing questions that I'd like to understand is what the what the data is around and the rationale for a full-time medical director just in terms of you know how many people are being served at any one time by the mat program is one of my questions and why why we need to have a full-time person I know that you know what the what the role is of well path currently and the other because I know you've been operating the program with your own staff and with them with the help of well path and we we're providing I know the county about a million dollars.

To pay for the mat program and just to understand I know we want to move up to the next phase of using Methadone in addition to the Suboxone and the bunamorphine but to understand you know and just think about the motto that we have now with doing a contract with the psychiatrist just just to understand the data and the numbers that justify this you know full-time position and also I'd like to understand how this then affects the well path contract in terms of what we're currently providing for them to do so that's that's part of the information that I'd like to understand the other is kind of the proper kind of dotted line to this position because right now we have the well path contract and the the physical health contract has always been under the public health director supervising that ultimately that contract because obviously that's where the expertise is related to health care and then we also have substance use programs and our mental health programs being under the soon to.

Be called Justice Center and the and so the psychiatrist contract and all that is supervised through cjrc so again there's kind of some checks and balances there so that's what I'm trying to understand where is the proper location for this position as well in terms of being supervised either you know for me it's logical that it would be I I just want to understand where is the the correct location for that whether it's public health or Justice Center or Sheriff's Department where the ultimate reporting happens so those are just some of my questions related to it and again if you don't have the that's fine if you just follow up later on with some of the data that I asked for that would be great I think I have some of the data or I can answer some of the questions it would have been helpful to have those questions prior to this conversation but nonetheless to address proper location it resides in the Detention Center because we started the mat program back.

In 2019 and we run the mat program in the detention center with my staff that is the model that is across the country and currently as we sit here today pit wake Mecklenburg are all following the same model that we are currently following and proposing to include that they all have asked for medical director that reports to the sheriff to manage the mat program so this is not foreign you've heard me say that we're leading the way and we're continuing to do that until the proper location is in the jail and just for a point of clarification none of the programs that have been mentioned today that are currently in cjrc would be possible without the cooperation of the Sheriff's Office and allowing those to be inside the facility because I have to sign off on those programs and the Personnel that comes into the jail that's state law as far as the impact with the well path contract there is none well path does not provide us mat Services I am sure.

That they will be happy to and I think the last conversation was for additional 2.3 or 3 million dollars added to the contract we can do it cheaper in-house and we do it in my opinion better whale path currently operates mat and I think Massachusetts and Massachusetts and their population is about 11 00 inmates that they see in Massachusetts but that's the only one that I'm aware of that mat is managed by well path and to your question about why have a medical director to go to the next level it's a federal requirement we cannot go to the next level if we don't satisfy the dea's requirements which we've already met with the exception of the medical director and we also have the public private Partnerships in place for the soft handoff that's also recommended as a best practice and as far as the numbers just from September to 3rd to February 6 we saw approximately 844 individuals 225 of those are approximately 224 those came in already on an opt program.

There is federal law and discussion right now and part of the Americans Disability Act that we we as sheriffs must be able to provide that Continuous Care or will be liable as a matter of fact there's a lawsuit underway right now a federal lawsuit for an agency that failed to do that so we're once again we're ahead of the Curve and we are getting out in front of what is going to be mandatory probably by Year's End or next year when the law passes at the federal level and the forest to say I think I'll stop there thank you so do we have at any given time we have 200 you're saying we have 224 people right now who are in the program today's numbers are you asking right now today yes she'll get that number for you okay it's not 220 it's not 244. those are numbers from September to February that have come through our program and that are currently receiving our services if they're still incarcerated or if they're.

Not because we have that solve handoff and but they also through our peer support program come back for assistance and okay we also give them a med kit when they're released. It's okay yeah I'm just curious how many people at any given time are well there are 364 people incarcerated in the jail today and approximately 65 percent of those either suffer from an addiction or mental health and currently today's 27 people inside okay 27 27 today okay yeah so I guess that's why I'm trying to understand why we need somebody full time for you know it would just be interesting to know that I understand we've got 160 people who are under you know getting who were receiving medication and we have we're able to contract for that and just whether it's something that we could contract for rather than having somebody full time with 27 people you know that's just one of my questions could I do a quick follow-up along okay so since we're on that subject and.

That's not to cut anybody off so I guess I'm always thinking when I read medical director I didn't read medical director to say medical director for this population I read medical director in an umbrella I'm thinking you know everybody likes to make a lot of hay about you know oh we're doing more you know Health Care in the jail then we're doing that on I hear people saying that and the the argument that I usually make is we we as a county you as a sheriff have to take people on spec if the person that you pick up for trespassing is in stage for a liver failure is that not something that the medical director has to deal with yes yes so yeah so I'm trying to so I I hear everybody saying it's just 27 people but we're thinking about a specific subset that's not the people how many people come in there on dialysis how many people come in there with breast cancer I've seen a presentation not too long ago from.

The women's prison where but for the fact that they put a a mammogram machine in there they they started catching women at stage one whereas they would have called them at stage four and that would have cost millions and these women would have had to sit here and go through two and three and four and suffered and been in pain so for me when I think about a medical director I'm not thinking I one I understand the law I understand mat but I'm thinking about the preventative Services that we're going to be able to catch somebody who is I know we're past covet but what Litany of medical issues do y'all not have that just fall on your doorstep every day high blood pressure heart failure lung failure kidney disease because that's what people are living with on the street so just help me and I the reason why I'm in support of support of it is because we have some very very sick and firmed individuals who are on the street due to.

No cause of their own in some circumstances and I personally want somebody there who can make an assessment on the spot so just somebody on this panel tell me if I'm like way off because that's why I'm in support of this can I just get clarification because we already this is supposed to be just for the mat program I thought because we already have a contract and I don't know the amount but we spend right who can tell us for well path is our actually runs our health clinic and and is the provider of the medical care in the jail this is something separate this is just for the mat program so I just want to clarify that sheriff could you clarify that I mean I'm not trying to be funny like I'm a doctor's a doctor a nephrologist can still sit here and make an assessment of a heart patient yes that is correct all agree on that well path is I I won't say what I want to say but.

Sir answer my question please commissioner Burns you are you are you are spot on and commissioner Jacobs you are spot on the medical director primary focus will be the mat program initially however we've already heard from my partners that we don't have enough hours for our doctor now so it is by Design going to be overlap which is a good thing because we do have affirmed individuals who come in with chronic illnesses so when our current contract doctor is not on site the medical director who's doing mat will be there to work closely with our well path Partners as a matter of fact talked with him earlier this morning about this model and they are in full support of it so it's both and right now we have individuals who are on dialysis we have folks in there who have sleep apnea we have just a Litany of medical issues that we have to assess every day and again the doctor's not there all the time so this.

Will be in addition to that but the primary focus is to get the mat opt OTP program up and running because that's a population that we again we're going to be mandated to serve either now or in the next 12 months and another quick follow-up so and that so for I'm trying to think also about some of these facilities that the state in the general assembly is funding where they're like we're going to put 10 beds in this County it's 10 beds in this County I remember a couple of years ago when USDA funded I think six beds in like Cumberland County I could be wrong I noted Robertson County was looking so when I hear people say 10 6 5 and they have full-time medical directors and then you say 27 to me to me 27 doesn't seem like a small number it to me it doesn't now because somebody is there a ratio that we know you know County to County state to state on on what.

Afford because you don't have a lot of facilities that are 20 and 30 beds that not unless it's privately funded and this and quite frankly these are people with money I think maybe in Asheville there are facilities that are a little bit bigger than that I know our the gentleman taking over as the president of the County Commission Association you know there's going to be one of his big pushes because he lost a child and then somebody else lost a sister and they were all in this kind of Mega facility but are we seeing I guess I'm used to seeing Oh you know press release five ten beds and that place is fully staffed so if we can fully staff 10 on a daily basis 20 or 27. and so I I'm just curious because you know I'm only one voter up here but if what's the number what's the ratio that we usually see hey David labar director of Planning Development at the sheriff's office thank you for your point it's well taken.

I think that we need to maybe not look at the number but realize the complexity of what this is whether we're treating 1 10 or 200 and that we make sure that we maintain these moud protocols not just on a weekly basis but a daily basis that will help us mitigate other potential problems in the future if we not manage it appropriately.

That answer your question okay.

A time to review it as well I have to flip out a little early I told the managers I wanted to ask very quickly this is a follow-up on commissioner Burns's comment for just for more clarification So currently the contract that we have with wellpath not for the mat services but for the other medical care that they provide does that has that contract been sufficient in providing the medical services that are needed within the jail right now and the detention for the most part so then.

Director then would that reduce the contract with wellpath if they would be taking on some of the work of wealth path no no again the medical director that I'm proposing here today just like commissioner Jacobs pointed out it's primarily going to focus on the mat program in again it will provide an overlap to support in support of our contract provider well path and what they do for us and again I think that 16 hours a week or when 20 hours a week I think it is so there there will be some overlap so no it I don't see that this position would reduce the hours or the need for the well path to continue to provide their services thank you and then my second question was on a different subject around the vehicle replacement obviously I know this is a standard process I just had a question around the type of vehicles of more mostly just wondering like are any of these or can the county refrain from investing.

I don't know if this is what you're planning on doing but of in ghost vehicles or are any of these going to be those vehicles are just replacing the vehicles I'm not familiar with the ghost vehicle the Sheriff's Office Sheriff's Office cars are police vehicles that have you mean the gray one the gray one that it was painted one time that one great car y'all got again are you asking me am I going to paint these cars a particular color or decal.

There's a big difference between the unmarked but I know what she's talking about there's a because there's a difference between unmarked and a ghost car the ghost car is like that gray silver one it kind of like looks like kid when it's coming up above the Sun and you can't see it that's what she's talking about because there was a photo and someone I know that car it looks like a mirror I'm saying Gray but the ghost car is the car that you can't see so are you asking italic it's a police or Sheriff's vehicle from a certain angle right and I think the chef's room and has some of those already the gray ones that commissioner mentioning I think commissioner Lawrence is trying to figure out in the event she speeds down 70. and she sees a silver bullet coming is it you.

Know yeah and your question is those are any of them going to be replaced with those type of ghost vehicles and can we keep them to be just standard marked fully visible vehicles perhaps. Further detail on that I mean perhaps I mean I don't really have an answer to that because it's a decision that's made not by me it's not just by me it's a decision based on need so the answer is perhaps and ghost Vehicles which is an odd term because they are quite visible have been around for years and and I'm certainly not the first Sheriff's Office to to have any Durham city police has a fleet so perhaps.

I'd like to thank you first for the information for your work for your leadership second thing I want to say is I find it incredibly awkward as an elected body to have to make a decision about the budget of another elected official it's difficult with the sheriff it's difficult with the Board of Education and you know things sort of touch the the the palpableness of this in the in the room right now think about how we feel well look I'm sure that makes it hard too anyway it's a weird relationship right I am very proud of the fact that Durham County under your leadership has you know led the way push in the envelope with our mat program in the jail and I'm thrilled we're going to have another office treatment program OTP that does require medical director right I get them confused there's OBP there's office based and then there's and one of them requires the medical director and I assume that's the type of program yes my only question about you know where.

That petition resides because I think we all agree the position must be there because we want that program it's really important for our community what's the difference between that position and the position for the psychiatrist for example you know in where in where the positions are housed well that's a very good question I'd like to have my own psychiatrist too I mean you know if they want to talk we're going to talk about it because we deal with these folks 24 hours a day seven days a week the biggest difference is the medical director and the person that we will seek to hire is an addiction specialist not just a primary care physician now obviously that's the underpinning or the undergirding of their training but they are specialized in treating individuals who are suffering from opioid use disorder and other addictions we actually as an aside we've just received a grant to introduce Vivitrol because of people who are dealing with alcoholism so again we're we're trying to treat as many.

Individuals who come in my care in custody as possible and in a cross-section of ailments or or addictions so that's the biggest difference and because we right now I'm responsible for this program inside the Detention Center answers my second question which was the the qualifications of the the doctor so you answered that they need to have addiction medicine especially specialty as well shift gears a little bit I'm excited about your the fact that you're going green with your vehicles so wait I'm that makes us all happy I'm sure and I wanted to ask about your animal services department I sit on the Animal Welfare advisory committee and it it comes up always in the you know I guess we meet every two months but it always comes up the number of calls in the in the number of positions and it it seems like Durham County has grown and the number of calls having have increased the response time is really low but they're you know not enough manpower woman power people power.

To have weekend hours if people pick up Strays this came up last night actually so anyway I just wondered are you considering re what do you call it repurposing positions any positions go to who and to increase the number of animal services officers the short answer is yes and respecting what the manager's request of me was I had not prepared to talk about that ask but it is in my budget presentation that we shared with the manager and and Mr Brunson a few weeks back so yes I would love to reclass some Physicians to address the shortfall of Personnel in Animal Services because as you just mentioned our call volume has more than tripled since we took over animal services in 2012 and we're operating with the same nine I think it is ftes and our call volume again has tripled in that period of time so so you are planning to do that yes oh fantastic and will any of those be say fantastic again you have unfilled positions that you're that you're transferred.

Services and I think that's fantastic because I do I believe and I'd like to acknowledge two of the the the officers the sheriff the captain and yeah Captain Manning and and please stand to be recognized Jesus right Captain Manning does a great job of managing the division and lieutenant did I get it right I really do not understand titles anyway I I wanted to acknowledge them and thank them for their amazing work and they they work really well with our shelter that also does amazing work one more question would these positions be what's the difference between civilians and not civilian would they be civilian would they will they carry weapons I guess that's the question civilians do not carry weapons they're not they're not armed they're not deputies so these will be subject basically a dog catcher if you for me with that term from years back yeah so if it's being Personnel who are trained to work in the animal service industry basically okay there's I think Rowan County is that right.

Rowan County is the only Sheriff's Office that currently has that model still in existence so my team has been in communication with them to see how we can incorporate those non-sworn non-depoty individuals into the ranks yeah like the sound of that too because I think it's another way of you know decreasing you know unnecessary interaction between the community and armed law enforcement in ways that could end up going awry you know not because of any ill intent on anyone's part but just because it sometimes happens so I think it's I think it's a really interesting move to try and and thank you for your leadership around that thank you sure thank you and all of your team for the work you're doing I just have one question and might not have come to you yet the heart program have you had any conversation regarding the heart program recently yes I actually been working behind the scenes since its Inception and so very supportive of the heart program and director Ryan Smith he and again.

We've talked about it before the program was launched and we have recently had conversation about how we can expand the program throughout Durham County and it's about their resources and how we can partner with them to to be a co-responder model as a matter of fact we're scheduled to have a meeting earlier this week which is scheduled conflicts but yeah we are very supportive of the heart program and already trying to figure out ways to get it in pockets of Durham County in the unincorporated area once they're staffed enough my emphasis is emphasis is always going to be co-responder and and he and I have had that conversation for almost two years now and how we can work together to make that happen I know the city put more resources in in the program but I did know how much conversation you've been the county is having with them with a sheriff but glad to know that thank you other questions concerns for the board commissioner Jacobs yeah I just wanted to acknowledge.

Attorney Lovelace who was not here the other night when we talked about the solution to the that attorney Massey brought forward and really appreciate you being a part of that compromise and that part the partnership that have hashed that out together so thank you it's exciting that we finally have a resolution on that which I was on Animal Services my first term in office and that was an issue then so it's been it's been a long time coming so I know you were one of the people that was mentioned who was a part of that thank you okay anything else for you Madam chair and if I can ask Sheriff to introduce Miss Gaither too I don't know if she's been with us before in this world good afternoon Commissioners and County Manager I am Keisha Gaither the new finance manager at the Sheriff's Office it's a pleasure sitting before you today to make him take you take care of it makes him dot the eyes and cross the t is where.

The money is yes ma'am okay gotcha and she's doing a great job thank you ma'am thank you thank you all thanks all right all right do we have one more presentation.

Old Foundation yes hi.

Okay and this one is and so this is not going to be 75 minutes hopefully it won't be it is not right right how much time. Half an hour at most depending on how much depends on us right how much how much time do you need for your presentation and then these folks are manners themselves about 15 minutes for the presentation 15 minutes and thank you and if Madam chair can we can we ask our attorney just he sent an email to us yes right before this but if he can go ahead and provide a summary for why they're before us that would be great thank you sure good afternoon everyone so one of the this is a a part of the government process but a little bit new this is a legislative interaction with creation we have a special taxing district that's specifically carved out in the statutes for RTP and forgive my not full understanding but I do think that RTP the geographic entity is represented by RTF which is a created.

Organization that may be not-for-profit I'm not sure but the Research Triangle Park is represented by the Research Triangle Foundation and they essentially are a statutory creation certainly RTP is so the powers that have been sort of separated and vested Grant the the park I'll call it that the ability to to determine appropriate tax rates for that special taxing district and as they are not a levying or collecting entity that is done by governmental entities like Durham County like Wake County and to a lesser degree the municipalities within the counties the process goes a little like this they come before you or provide you information regarding tax rates or in some cases tax rate increases that is supported by data is going to be provided here I suspect and then that is presented to you as the body and then you receive that and then you as the levying and collecting entity need to make a decision about that and the traditional way that such is done in this body is you have the annual budget.

Ordinance that comes before you for your vote it is composed of the presented budget by the manager and apparently each little meeting we have there's a new request but in any regard all of that is put together in an ordinance that is presented to you for a vote it is noticed it is provided to the public for knowledge and though it is not necessarily in the form of a public hearing I have been told it is an agenda item but you debate those items much as you have today and then you make a decision and then it is incorporated into the document and it is put forth because it is a tax on citizens and they are citizens of Durham County or they are Property Owners thus citizens in Durham County and because the park as I understand it Borders or its borders include Durham County and perhaps a portion touches Wake County so the the taxes that are that are charged there have impact in those two counties citizens and Property Owners.

So that comes before you you take a vote and whatever that number is it is incorporated into the tax rate for this district and and they have notice of it and at their next tax assessment those things are included but this presentation should provide you the justification for whatever recommendation is coming and the detail can be provided verbally though it's preferred in writing and you sort of answer to questions but this is a kind of a unique collaboration between a non-governmental entity and a governmental entity the power as deemed from the legislature by the creation of this state by the creation of counties rests with you as the levian authority based on information that's collected or provided from these good folks and there's no vote today it isn't there's not a vote presentation okay thank you attorney you're welcome thank you so if you would introduce yourselves that would be great and go ahead and get started thank you for that that was great context setting I'm Linda Hall you Mike.

Up a little bit closer I'm Linda Hall I'm the Executive Vice President and CFO for the Research Triangle Foundation and I'm Travis Creighton I'm a senior planner and project manager with the Research Triangle Foundation so good afternoon and thank you so much for this opportunity to come before the Commissioners Madam chair also County Manager delighted to be here to talk about our tax our proposed tax for the 2024-25 year I am in a unfortunately given the timing of the meeting Scott Leviton our CEO is not able to be here he couldn't change his plans so we are here on behalf of our CEO I'm going to turn it over to Travis and let Travis go through the presentation and then allow us time for any questions after his presentation thank you thank you Linda and good afternoon Commissioners County Manager County attorney good to be here with you this evening this afternoon and to share our requests with you we do have a very brief presentation that will mostly provide you with some context attorney.

Andrews gave you a great synopsis of a lot of the legal piece of this but I'll walk through a little bit of the history of our tax district and the governance how that works and what we typically spend these revenues on and then I'll get into our specific rate increase request for the upcoming fiscal year so again just to provide that overview and this again will Echo much of what you just heard but our RTP tax district is a creation that's authorized under North Carolina General statutes that district is coterminous with the park boundary so that includes both the Durham portion of RTP and the Wake portion of RTP it's one cohesive district and that district is authorized under the state statute to provide any services that a county or city May provide under state law so those funds can be used for any of those services in the district so the funds are required to be expended in RTP and for the benefit of RTP companies under state law the tax rate the property.

Tax rate authorized is set at a maximum of 10 cents per 100 in assess property value for a general tax rate and then there's also a provision in state law that authorizes an additional up to 10 cents for exclusively expenses on public transportation only as of today and FY 23 the tax rate for the district is 7.8 cents of that General rate and the public transportation tax is not being levied currently so that rate is at zero in F by 23.

So just to Echo again a little bit of the history of this District so while we colloquially refer to this as the RTP tax District its formal name is the Durham wake County's research and Production Service District that's the the name from law when this District was created it dates back to 1986 that is when the board of County commissioners of both Durham and wake counties in that year received a petition from the landowners in RTP as required under the statute to create this District that process was created in 1985 by the North Carolina general assembly in addition to the creation of the district the state law also authorizes the assignment of administration of those funds and the counties when they created the district then did enter into a contract with us at the Research Triangle Foundation upon the district's creation 1986 to administer those tax District funds so that's just a little bit more context to what you already heard from the attorney just to give you a little bit of a sense.

Of the unique relationship that we have here today I also want to just spend a moment to explain where this request is coming from and a little bit about how the tax district is governed so under the state statutes that create our district it also creates What's called the service District advisory committee or sdac this is a committee of 13 members the way that this committee is appointed is the RTP owners and tenants Association which consists of Representatives of all RTP landowners as well as RTP companies that are tenants they provide both your board and the Board of Commissioners in Wake County with a list of recommended members for that committee you receive two names for every seat on that committee and then you choose one of those names to then take those seats that are allocated to Durham County and Wake County does the same thing so then those members that are selected from that recommended list that originates with our companies are appointed to the service District advisory committee.

That's 10 of those 13 members the other two members consist of a representative from each County since the district's Creation in 1980 86 those have been the county managers of both Durham and Wake County and then the last member comes from us as the original owner and developer of Research Triangle Park RTF we receive one developers representative on that committee and that is Scott Levitan our CEO so the request that we bring you today comes directly from this committee the way that we administer this committee typically is we have a planning committee a planning meeting with them typically in February of each year to say here's the projects that we're thinking about for the upcoming fiscal year and to get their feedback and incorporate that into a revised proposal that we then bring to them in May for a vote so that is the process that we followed this year and so the request that we're about to talk about comes directly from those Representatives who are representatives of our Park companies.

And that's essentially what you see here they basically provide those recommended expenditures including the recommended tax rate back to both boards this board and the board in Wake County to approve those recommended expenditures and the recommended tax rate I'll also just give a little bit of context of what we typically spend the revenues in the district on there are sort of six categories we've historically used the revenues on the first one is sort of a range of committees and programs that support our Park companies some examples of that include our sustainability committee which is focused on sustainability initiatives for the park we also have a security committee that's focused on Safety and Security bringing our Park companies together to think about Collective Security needs of their campuses and the park as a whole things of that nature we also have three recreational facilities that the tax district has built and now maintains over time the single largest expense we have out of the tax District on an annual basis is our roadside Mowing and.

Landscaping contract ncdot does not do that in the park we overtook responsibility for that with the creation of the tax district and so we spend about eight hundred thousand dollars a year maintaining those right-of-way Landscaping we also have three dams and lakes in RTP they're in the southern portion of the park so we're also responsible for annual maintenance and inspections of those facilities we also have a trail network of about 20 miles that was constructed using tax District revenue and is now maintained using that revenue and then occasionally we do provide other public services the current example is our RTP connect service which is our first Last Mile Transit connection service in RTP we pay for that with tax District Revenue as well so the request that we're making today specifically concerns the the tax rate for this District so there are two pieces to this the first is that we are asking for a one cent increase to the general tax rate to raise it from 7.8.

Cents to 8.8 cents and for the first time we're also asking for a levy on the public transportation tax that additional 10 cents that authorized we're asking for a 2.5 2.5 Cent Levy today so that would take the total rate for RTP companies from 7.8 cents to 11.3 in terms of the general rate we're making this request specifically to set aside funds for future Safety and Security improvements in the park this has been a common concern raised by our Park companies over time there have been several recent public incidents in the park including a recent car crash and some some companies have also experienced long response times in response to safety incidents they've had so there's a strong interest in our Park companies of having more Revenue available to implement Safety and Security Solutions as we're able to identify what those might be and we're in ongoing conversations with County leadership about what those potential expenses might be the other piece of this is as as I believe all the.

Commissioners are aware our Hub RTP project is currently under construction and moving along very well so we do anticipate having the first residents in RTP starting summer 2024 they'll move into those apartments that are currently under construction and with those first residents in the park we recognize there'll be a higher need for safety and secure Services than currently provided in the park we also already have a strong retail activity at boxshard and that will only expand with the opening of horseshoe RTP and additional retail activity as those buildings come online so we're putting aside this Revenue now in anticipation of all of this activity coming on in in addition to the existing public safety concerns that have already been identified in the park and on the public transportation piece I know many of you on the board are well immersed in the conversations about what the future of regional transit will be RTP just due to the nature of us sitting physically at the center of a region stands to to benefit from many of.

These potential transportation and Transit improvements if they are made so our companies have authorized us and they are supportive of this 2.5 cents that we've asked for to essentially be put into Reserve so while we don't know today what our regional transit solution is going to be we will have some Revenue set aside for when that decision is made for an RTP contribution to implement that service we provided the examples to them you know this could be if the commuter rail proposal moves forward it could be an investment in that in RTP contribution for that RTP station if it's a passenger rail service served by Amtrak likewise it could go into that we already have on the books a proposed bus Rapid Transit line to carry and I know the Durham Transit plan which I believe you all voted on last night we're very excited to see move forward it has a number of projects that would also touch RTP that this Revenue could be used for so I started this job about two years.

Ago and one of the very first questions I got is when is RTP going to Levy that public transportation tax and so from my perspective I'm excited to be here today to ask you to let us do that and provide an RTP contribution for public transit in Durham County and also on the transit piece I did just want to provide this map to you all to give a context of all of the transit that is potentially going to touch RTP so this is right on the border of RTP you see Miami Boulevard right there on the on the park boundary we own about 20 acres that historically has been known as the triangle Metro Center site it has been identified by go triangle as the preferred site for the Regional Transit Center relocation so we are working very closely with them on that plan and if commuter rail does move forward this would also be the location of that station or if it's a passenger rail solution served by Amtrak likewise.

That would be on this site so we've separately invested two hundred thousand dollars of RTF money that's non-tax money that's our foundation money that we're putting in to study this site for potential Transit oriented development Inc in coordination with go triangle so this is just to exemplify that we're very serious about public transit and we want to make sure that we're working with you all and our other Regional Partners on making this possible the last piece of information I want to provide for you and we provided this likewise to our RTP companies was just to to compare what an RTP company pays in tax at a tax rate compared to our regional municipalities so that's really what this slide provides here and this does include the proposed tax increases that many the county here is proposing as well as the other counties in the region so we did provide this information to the s-stack when we brought them this proposal for their vote which they did unanimously support these proposed rate increases.

And our takeaway here is really just to provide for you that even with these additional rate increases that we're asking for the tax rate in RTP including the fire district that serves RTP in other areas in southern Durham County those overall tax rates for our companies remain below our neighboring municipalities respectively in Durham and Wake County so while we are asking for an increase it does still provide a lower tax rate and benefit to our RTP companies than they would see if they were in the city of Durham or Raleigh or Chapel Hill and we're happy to answer any questions that you have thank you thank you so much for this presentation and we are we are really glad to hear this conversation I think we have all been wanting and waiting for it to happen so thank you for the presentation and we will entertain questions from the board The Carter yes thank you for the presentation great justification for the request I would say all together how much money percent do you.

Anticipate generating from the tax so I'm sure Keith will keep me honest on this but I believe the on the Durham County side alone just the the Durham County part of rtpo one cent increase is about 230 000. for the entire park including the Wake County portion it's about 430 000 for a one cent tax increase all right and it was really interesting to me that you said you could provide any services that a county could provide by General statute like you could provide a school or you know with that with that money if these fund These funds could be spent on a school an education in some way as long as it provided benefit to the Parker was located in the park that would check that box under the state legislation I'm not I will clarify I'm not a lawyer this is not legal advice that's one thing they taught us in grad school to always say so I do just want to make sure I put.

That plug in there well that just you know just gives interesting thoughts for the future perhaps I think I have another question but I can't remember what it is so go ahead and move on down if you'd like oh okay. And understanding is that we are looking for These funds to be to support Transit and Public Safety so the one correct yes so so the one cent General tax rate increase we're asking for we would put that into a reserve we haven't identified what those specific solutions would be yet but as I mentioned we are in ongoing conversations with senior County leadership about what opportunities might exist to address some of those concerns and also to be prepared for when we do have residents living at HUB RTP so our request really is to prepare us for when those Solutions are identified we do have that Revenue set aside and to your earlier question commissioner Carter that 430 000 is not a lot of money and so part of.

Why we're asking to put it in a reserve is knowing that with our current valuations we can't generate significant Revenue so while this is for a future expense it lets us be prepared for when those Solutions are identified in a better position than we would be if we were to come with you later and ask for this increase and we don't have any money set aside thank you Jacobs thank you and thank you also for the for I'm really excited that that you all have taken this action because this has been something that's been talked about since the light rail honestly and I know manager so well you are our rep to the committee as well so thank you for serving there yeah I totally support this I think this is really important that you know frankly the companies in RTP need to step up I mean they they really do need to be a partner and helping to be fund these public Investments that we need and.

Are the you know since this is really going to be used especially for the public transportation revenues are are really going to be set aside for future needs are they going to be literally put into a separate account or earmarked that way that's correct so because it is a separate rate under the general statutes it will be in a separate account and Reserve exclusively for public transportation so the way our accounting managers sort of proposed that in the budget and we'll set up that account is it is those funds will be maintained separately so at a 2.5 Cent tax that's about a million dollars a year and so until those projects are identified and committed that money will be separate from the general rate revenue and could not be moved right and related to the general rate funds I know again the the need there's going to be increased need for Public Safety are will those be also earmarked to or not they've been the way it's set.

Up in the budget is it'll be set in a reserve again for Public Safety anticipating a potential future project that those funds would be set aside so it is earmarked in a reserve I mean we've done this in the past with our tax District prior to HUB RTP we we knew there would be public infrastructure needs that our companies were supportive of and providing that and so this replicates that approach that has been taken in the past for the tax District okay and then the I know the map that you showed you know we yeah RTP is literally in the middle of any type of regional transit Solutions and you know the the maybe could we go back to that map that the one that the the yeah and you know it's going to be really really important that very thoughtful planning is done around how we make sure that that's a multimodal site there for brt Rail and also I was wondering about the bikeways plan the triangle bikeways plan which you all are.

Actually already contributing to that which that's that's correct and it is actually this tax District Revenue that is going to fund our design portion of the triangle Bikeway so we have earmarks 485 thousand dollars those are actually an FY 23 funds but because the Campo Campo will administer that contract in partnership with Wake County that will start on July 1. so those funds are reflected in the the fy24 budget is rolling forward to be contributed to Campo combined with wake County's money we'll do one single procurement to do design from the Western end of RTP at I-40 and TW Alexander all the way to the Wake County Terminus at 440. so we'll we'll join with Wake County to do that design and then once that's complete we would anticipate seeking Federal funding for construction okay yeah so we we're we're behind on this yeah and so we hope that when we start doing our planning you'll be partnering with us as well but I I was wondering if you were going.

To also look at how the Bikeway will fit into the Metro Center the multi-modal site as well as getting to the airport absolutely those are both items that are hot topics of conversation with our consultant team that we're funding with this two hundred thousand dollars we do want to make sure that whatever design we have for the Metro Center site anticipates that Bikeway connection and then we are in conversations about what an airport connection would look like you know we understand if the commuter rail proposal moves forward there's been a proposed RDU connection from the Morrisville station we're still interested in understanding what a potential connection from RTP might look like so that's definitely part of the conversation with whatever Regional Transportation Solutions we advance and how that fits into RTP my last comment is just I'm going to be echoing commissioner Howerton here that is I think it's really important that you all are a part of our conversations when you know they're we're you know there are a lot of regional.

Conversations going on and especially with you all stepping up now with this tax then and and the study then it's really important that you all are are that we're all talking to each other and that you all are are included so we need to make sure that that happens absolutely we appreciate that and welcome to be a part of any conversations as they proceed say again will all of the all the funds be into one account or will it be separate accounts so the public transportation funds will be maintained in a separate account because that rate those funds under statute cannot be spent on anything but public transportation so that money will be set aside in a separate fund and then for the general rate increase that'll be as a part of the overall is the same bucket of funds but there's a specific Reserve reflected in the budget for for that allocation for Public Safety and that's an approach that we've taken in the past with our Hub RTP project the.

Public infrastructure received some of this tax District funding and that likewise was put into a reserve on an annual basis to be expended on those over several years so we'll be separated according to counties as well no so the tech because the district is a single District Crossing both counties it's one overall funding source for both counties it's not separated by County the way that as the attorney explained the revenues are collected at the county level separately but we receive them into one single fund because the funds can be expended anywhere in the district regardless of County of origin gotcha thank you good to know that okay Mr Burns mine is really really quick it's three comments three questions so one Echo the sentiments of my car my colleagues that I'm happy to companies in support of it I remember the first time commissioner alignment I got to meet with Scott he told us you know even when you all wheel in boxyard in the midst of the pandemic like companies kind of had.

To double down and they said no we're committed to this we're going to go ahead so I can appreciate that type of expansion y'all are doing some great stuff out there evening D I work that I'm seeing so we get a lot of emails but I'm mad at y'all cause y'all topped off the Horseshoe and y'all can come in here and ask for money and everything else but I ain't get no invitation for the top off of the Horseshoe but that's okay it looks beautiful so I'll let it pass I think one of the other things that I kind of picked up on that I'm excited about it's my first time meeting you sir so good to meet you so and you sound like you know what you're doing I hope so I turned it sounded like you knew I was doing but the reason why I'm super happy is because the two people who kind of sort of manage our money and the individual Linda who managed their money.

Are also both our tbj triangle Business Journal our women of the year in finance so that was a shared so that's what makes me happy we can talk about all this money but I got two people who got Awards managing money managing this money so I feel even better Lindy hadn't been here since she wanted so congratulations to you I did want to throw out really quick so you and these will be rapid fire so you when commissioner Carter just asked about how much money it was going to be is that 10 cents gonna be an additional 230 or does that entire tax rate get us 230 000. the additional one cent is thank you 130. so so yeah so it's a whole lot more money okay so great so that one cent is additional the I will take my last one off because it was really just about the seven the contract for 7 000 acres for y'all to cut all that grass but IBM probably Cuts their own grass so I'ma.

Skip that one you all have apartments that are opening it up my quick question is and you know when I think about public safety thing about people moving here I'm interested to know how many apartments and are any of them set aside as affordable so for the first phase the first three buildings that are currently under structure construction I believe that's 506 total units for this initial phase there are not affordable units in that initial development well I hope it'll be a goal for the next iteration it's definitely a goal for them I think we were at a time five years ago when we entered into an agree you know an agreement with MAA who's building the phase one residential it just wasn't in the economics I think we've proven with you know I cannot be remiss without mentioning the 20 million that you know the county and the Commissioners supported the Hub infrastructure the the Precedence that Travis is talking about 10 10 million of that infrastructure was from the RTP.

Companies right and I think we to add to it which really isn't part of the budget discussion or the the increase because we are truly taking that one cent and putting it aside in a reserve much like we did for the parks companies contribution to to match the 20 million that that Durham County put in but we have beefed up our security this year we're entering into a contract it's about 400 000 to have a more robust security in RTP only 70 000 of that will come from the Durham wake service District budget the rest of it the foundation is paying out of our own operating budget and it really is just a stop Gap until we can get to you know as as the Commissioners as commissioner Jacobs has mentioned a collaborative solution to security enhanced services in the park as we bring residents in the park for the first time and at 64-year history so we are taking that on and we and it is largely centered around box yard the high school.

The frontier campus and also hubs so we are definitely taking it seriously in terms of our investment and and minimizing the the public funds to really set aside this Reserve to help us have a a more robust and permanent solution to enhance Services okay and all the reason just so to clarify not the reason why I asked that was not to put y'all on the spot I just you know when we even had the conversation about bus Rapid Transit when we have the conversation about affordable housing who's going to work in service here Scott even though he's absent has always been very passionate about these issues and the reason why I bring it up is because we need partners that are passionate about those issues and if you all are passionate about it at the top then we're I feel pretty confident that it'll be you all will make sure that those 300 companies know that this is something so that they need to invest in this especially as they try to attract.

Workers so that's the only reason why I build it up I do know you all are good partners and I just want you all to continue to share that message because everybody's not going to work in the building some people gonna clean the buildings cut the grass at the buildings will provide auxiliary services that that your space is a force multiplier we just want to make sure that as it multiplies everybody can multiply with it but I thank you all absolutely absolutely and just to address your the lack of invitation to the topping out just a little bit of background the topping out is a celebration for the construction and team and so we kept it really small I addressed just the the team that was on site we would have loved to have all of you and I just wanted to explain it was a really small celebration for no safety incidents and then you know topping off the last piece of Steel so I don't know.

If you are I need to get eight thank you so I I appreciate this conversation and you can tell us what we need to do next but I want to reiterate my concern as we go forward and I say this to Wake County that we work collaboratively that we don't have these solo conversations that and nobody knows you don't know what the right hand is doing in the left I've I've said that this to Scott and I am asking that as we go forward because if as a region as a region if we don't do that we're going to end up in a mess absolutely yeah we completely hear that and we are a collaborative and willing partner and we hope to continue these conversations to arrive at a solution that's going to work for all of the region absolutely thank you cheers really I'm sorry I just because both of y'all in the room so I heard the public safety and then the transit fund so.

Since you RTP is mostly in the county I imagine that that's going to be a relationship between these two bodies and I'm important that the sheriff when I say that that is correct so that's as you're beefing up Public Safety I guess that you all maybe in the future is the EMS station this is Sheriff Station it's all of those things am I making those up or not at all and and like I said we are in conversation with County leadership with Dr Sewell and her team with Sheriff Burkhead and his team those are ongoing exactly about what the solutions need to be but you're spot on with those conversations that we're targeting so we've established quarterly meetings with research fine triangle Foundation staff and our leadership team to make sure that we're all at the table and having the same conversation in the same direction okay so attorney was it anything else for you anything else that's all we have I mean I think from a procedural perspective we've proposed the tax rate.

Increase and I think at this point it would just be included in the budget document for your adoption if you concur absolutely all right so I would say that it's it's our decision but we might want to clarify at some point who the rate affects since we've now I think I'm hearing we're converting from you know business Commercial to residential if I heard them saying that there will be residential during calendar year you know 2024 those are new people affected by a dual tax so we might want to just be you know clarifying when we do whatever rollout on both ends because it's a different category of taxpayers coming into that District now I think if I understood do you mind if I yeah so the residents that will come in for the first time will be multi-housing rental so the the developer owner will incur the tax in the in the special tax District so the residents won't be paying tax per se real estate tax per se it'll be the.

Owner of which is MAA okay so in in the year 2024 you are correct but it wouldn't be homeowners or homeowner constituents next year just still would it ever back to commissioner Burns you know vision and our vision is yes we're going through a planning exercise RTP 3.0 and I think many of the Commissioners and County Manager have seen that presentation so in our long-range planning yes we're but we're in the process of working through that feasibility study now and to the commissioner's point and County Manager we are working collaboratively as we move forward with that plan because the tenants and potential homeowners are the only voters in that District so just that two cents okay well we would trust our attorney to put that together for us and let us know what we need to do next okay thank you for your time thank you so much thank you all right all right anything else some key coming in this way see he's just coming to see if you all have.

Any other questions or directives for us we go home now just to clarify as it relates to that tax rate increase the manager's recommended budget had no tax rate increase for any fire district including the RTP District that just came and said because it hadn't been presented to her you choose to do it we will add this to our ad delete list and I'll we'll start showing you that at the next meeting on June the 1st but it'll be part of the add delete list it just won't be general fund related you will then say we want to we are agreeing to put this on and then I'll put it in the budget ordinance a three cent tax rate increase or three and a half cent tax rate increase for the RTP District if that's what you all say you want on there and then you will approve that budget ordinance on June the 12th remember the budget ordinance approves the general fund budget and some other funds in that but it also.

Approves tax rates for fire districts and special Revenue districts including RTP okay and yes are there any questions or comments can you tell it's going to be on our agenda for June 1st I am so that we can have get out of here a reasonable time I've got that's a long day that meeting on June the first is 9 A.M to 4 30. it needs to be a short day so that's why I want to see what we can have on the agenda and what we can have on another day.

I've got a doctor's appointment so this weekend yeah well the doctor's appointment was made before we did the before that so if if yeah if we can manage that I'd appreciate it so the the only option would be to move some things from that first to the date that we really didn't want to use of the sixth but that is why the sixth is there but it is certainly up to the the Commissioners yeah I mean people have to it's okay if you have to leave if if that's what the board desires fine what time is your appointment my doctor's appointments at two o'clock and I can't miss it yeah I mean I know commissioner had to leave early today yeah so if the board whatever the voice desires I just have to leave we had on June the first I'm sorry I have it on my computer I was not prepared to throw it up for you guys but just follow me here dtcc and economic development and just listen.

Write these down and listen to them and we can move around adjustments which ones come first rather than second yes and we also sent it it's an email and what we can do is resend the email so that it will be at the top of your email email so you can pull it up too if if one of the dcms or acms did we send that to Commissioners if one of y'all can resend it to Commissioners you could then see what so dtcc and economic development was one and we had that for 45 minutes that's largely talking about some of the increases in dtcc and how they're working with economic development on Workforce related issues Pre-K update was for 45 minutes that in that is in in other education are you talking about Kate elander Kate was going to be a part of that conversation we can add that 45 minutes for both of them and then we had the any any other or deeper conversations about classification and compensation at 90.

Minutes and I think that got us through the morning nine to noon that's the initial setup afternoon was food security update for 30 minutes partially talking about the 532 thousand dollars recommended for food security grants and then the two big ones in the afternoon were stormwater fee updates and relations at 60 minutes and the sewer Utility Fund remember the stormwater fund is going up significantly y'all had some some blow back from that some folks come and talk to you and then the sewer utility is out there trying a Wastewater Plant but that's also a fees to RTP so it's all in relation both of those storm water was 60 minutes and Sewer utility was 60 Minutes that gave you about an hour or a little bit more than an hour at the end of the day knowing we tend to run long on some of these but we can move those around so you have a list as Dr so well said we can move some to the.

Sixth we can keep them all here and keep the ones you're interested in and have those before 2 8 2 p.m whatever the board decides it's it's fine with me I excuse me we will also add arpa for a short conversation as well on the first. And Keith I know you also I I'm trying to I'm almost done going through the budget book to send you a list but I do want to put out there that one topic that I know for sure that I wanted to hear about at one of the other meetings which is about the Lebanon tax District the fire district because I've already been contacted by residents who want to understand what the plan is for that fire department and who are very concerned about all of the full-time firefighters being let go and how that's going to also how the services going to be provided and the impact to their rating and then their insurance their homeowners insurance so I've been so that's something I would like I know for.

At least one of the other meetings that I would like our board to hear directly about that and just for everyone's edification what commissioner Jacobs is talking about is the Lebanon Fire District board decided to not continue to pay County salary firemen in the Lebanon District but rather to start paying those firemen with their own money because frankly from their vantage point it was too expensive they were maxing out the tax rate and how much it cost them to pay for those fire employees so you're really asking to have that board come and talk to you about that because what what the resident the phone calls I've got ten have said that all of the fire providers have been basically let go and people are very concerned how do you hire a firefighter in this environment where we know that First Responders are very hard to hire and so there's a lot of alarm from folks and you know there are constituents so even though we're not directly in charge of this I think we.

Need to understand what's happening that's a pretty long discussion in depth it probably is better for a work session for for us to have it at the level that that we're right so what you do is discuss the tax rate and then leave the generally leave the adjustment of how that tax district has run to that group of director so yeah commissioner Jacob says on a work session I don't think they're asking for a tax rate increase it's not a tax rate so it's not a budget work session issue okay right is that okay am I hearing ever I'm just trying to be responsive to you know concerns of our residents I mean you know everybody wants to know that when they call 9-1-1 and their house is on fire that somebody oh that's that's a discussion that they can have to respond to the concern but because it's not a tax rate discussion we're having it shouldn't be a part of our budget work sessions but we want Commissioners to understand what's going.

On we'll put it down and you definitely have it at a work session as soon as possible after that yeah I'll just I'll just offer real quick comments to a late concerns it is like Keith said they let go the employees in anticipation of bringing those same firefighters back on contract so let me let me stop us I don't want us to try to convey what their plans are I don't want you all to do that let's let that that board come and provide that because I don't want us to say something that may not be accurate let's let them do that all right.

Yes yes.

Okay it's awkward so I did hear Claudia say we were going to add arpa to June the first so and then on June the 5th we have a CIP discussion I don't know that we're going to go through the whole CIP but I was going to let you all know that we're going to update that biennial CIP during the fall coming up but I don't doubt that there are some specific projects you may want to explore and we'll talk with the manager and Perry about that on the fifth we have the Durham Museum of History they will be coming to you with a request for additional funding I just fired off an email to them it's they sent a piece of paper at 600 and some odd thousand dollars but it's for architectural design and maybe some ongoing money I've asked them some questions this was transmitted to me from commissioner Alam it's on there the fifth is a better day given what we've heard the manager so well about.

Decisions to be made when I get some clarification we'll have some summary information for you I will say that it does look like if they're wanting an architect and part of this is maybe a city funding funded and County funded what it is doing is probably setting everyone up for a newer nicer larger Museum of Durham history so and that is a different cost that would come at a different time so looking for a new space and they're talking with the with the city as well as the county yeah I'm just you know gonna throw this out here see if the cat licks it up like the budget is closed like I'm trying to be as respectful as I can be like the additional request I get it you know yeah let's do it if for the public that's Watching You Don't See commissioner Burns asking for no additional sessions because if I got a question I try to go and ask staff that is not a criticism of my colleagues.

Because they've been up here long maybe they know that there's something that folks need to hear about but I'm trying to you said you just got this in an email like next year when we do this like there's got to be a stop because like Brenda 6 the sixth I'm even like I'm juggling a scheduler here and that's it just it is what it is like this is not a Christmas tree that we can keep hanging ornaments on so I would respectfully request any any departments anybody that's sitting up here with me email it or something because like at this point we have a nine seven and a half hour day and I don't think it's fair to key to the manager to Claudia to anybody to keep saying well I want to get this because a museum request I've seen him talk about it in a couple of meetings but I don't think it's fair that somebody should be able to send an email after we've presented the budget and say.

I want this and then they get 30 45 minutes with us because this is precious time so y'all can do what what you want to but at a certain point I want to respect the staff I want to respect other people's time just throwing that out there again see if the cat licks it up. Yeah I have a question I know that we the manager and I did speak about the us to get an update on the housing low-income homeowner relief program and we have talked about it going to Joint City County the only thing that I'm concerned about is actually our board is the board that actually has to approve the change to the policies and I'm wondering if that should actually get presented to us first because we we actually approve those policies last year before the budget was adopted so and also all of our board members are not at Joint City County and whether we should have that presentation come to us first I don't know what your thoughts are yeah.

We can have now and I I didn't understand that it would have a budget impact because at one point we did talk about leaving that that budgeted amount allocated where it was yeah and so it it doesn't have to happen before the budget's approved because you all have already said you wanted to leave that allocation and it's there yeah but it's something that we can bring back before the board for a work session yeah because we we actually our board is the one who approves the DSs board makes the recommendation for the policies but then we have to approve them right but the budget it's the budgeted amount has already been it's a part of the recommended budget yeah that won't be impacted by anything that they bring to you but the policies and how it's administered would be something that this board would approve yeah the funding yes about we the pop the change in the policy we can certainly bring that before the board first this board first yeah.

I I I'm not as making sure that I understand are we having a full day on June the first. That's a good question yeah I mean I didn't hear that I didn't hear that people wanted to change it right the other option is as Dr so well noted is we had always had June the 6th as an extra day we were trying to get done with this quicker because we had a whole day scheduled for the first and we were going to fill up that time and we told you what's on the agenda through the fifth the option is is to move some more stuff to the fifth and or move stuff to the sixth what I don't want to run into is you all running out of time or overtime on the 5th I had been around this group long enough and Commissioners in general to know they tend to run a little bit long want to make sure you have time for questions my recommendation is if you do want to move.

You need to open up the sixth and we will move some of these that I listed for you to the sixth and can I just add one thing about the fifth if I would not advise us to extend the fifth that is our work session day and then there's also an event that is going to take place that will cause you guys to lose an hour and 30 minutes of work session so we already will be at a full day and again just around you the fifth right now A CIP General discussion Durham Museum of History which we just talked about and potential stipends for various boards and commissions which Shannon Trapp will be leading those are the three things set for the fifth the fifth is 130 to 5 which is shorter than you think three and a half hours that's also in theory the wrap-up day unless you move it to the six and what I mean by that then we'll really go through the add delete list and yeah I I.

Mean can we again people get up and walk out from time to time as much as I wanted my vote would be to keep the day how it is if somebody got a doctor's appointment that's fine and then they can come back later but I am not a big proponent of saying let's make the staff and everybody else come back here on the sixth that's my vote so I don't know what y'all want to do yeah I think you know these dates have been on our calendar for for since the beginning of the year and we need to honor that so foreign.

Yeah thank you forward to your questions anybody has questions about the budget feel free to send them to our office thank you.