Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · May 6, 2024

Good morning everyone good morning thank you for joining us for our Durham County Board of Commissioners work session this Monday May 6th at 9:00 a.m. I'll have us started with the public charge the Board of Commissioners asks its members and citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with the board and fellow citizens at any time should any member of the board or any citizen fail to observe this public charge the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains personal control should decorum fail to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed as we convene for the Durham Board of County Commissioners meeting it's crucial to recognize the painful truth of our history that we stand on the stolen ancestral lands of the Kataba Eno okichi shakori and Tuscarora peoples whose deep connection to this land predates our arrival we acknowledge with humility the unjust displacement and violence that occurred leading to the.

Dispossession of indigenous peoples from their homelands their resilience in the face of such adversity is a testament to their strength and spirit may we humbly honor the ancestors and Elders of these nations both past and present by committing ourselves to fostering understanding healing and justice for all who inhabit this land let us walk forward together with Open Hearts acknowledging the past and embracing a future Guided by compassion respect and un Unity as a courtesy to others please everyone turn off your cell phones during the meeting and now we will begin our meeting with citizen comments we have dearen Langley joining us.

Virtually darar you are able to speak at this time okay good morning thank you so very much Commissioners for the opportunity to share with you all this morning and I just wanted to bring to you all's attention as you continue to deliberate and think about the budget for the upcoming fisal year the budget is the moral document that identifies and States what our priorities are as a community what do we value where are we making the Investments and for what purpose I have continuously come before for this body pleading and urging on behalf of boys and young men of color in this community there have been over 11 young people shot and kill shot here in Durham over the since the beginning of this Year and that is on track to possibly exceed what has occurred last year and as much as we talk about and say that boys and women of color are a priority in our community our budget does not reflect that commitment and so as we continue as you all.

Continue our elected representatives continue with your budget deliberations I'm asking the county manager as well as the five Commissioners to make a financial commitment to boys and young men of color to embody what we say as a community is a value needs to be memorialized budge tized and actualized in this upcoming budget thank you all so very much thank you Mr Langley for your public comments I believe that's all the public comments that we have signed up for today so that brings us to the consent agenda I'll pass it to manager so great thank you so much Madam chair good morning everyone we will begin with agenda item 24197 budget ordinance amendment number 24 BCC 0095 appropriating general fund restricted fund balance to increase expenditure Authority for the library to receive Corona virus State fiscal recovery funds in the amount of $7,881 1940 item 24224 approval of budget ordinance amendment number 24 BCC 0098 for the Department of Social Services to recognize Duke Energy Carolina's llc2 24 share the light stle EF funds of $2,568.

39 24226 approval of budget ordinance amendment number 24 BCC 0099 for the Department of Social Services to recognize Duke energies Carolina's LLC 2024 NC rate settlement funds of $20,000 to 2 4228 budget ordinance amendment number 24 BCC 001000 Public Health to recognize $50,000 from ncdhhs division of public Health's local and Community Support section 24229 budget ordinance amendment number 24 BCC 00101 Public Health to recognize funds in the amount of $241,100 of child and family well-being North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services for DM's Innovative nutrition education dine program implementation commissioner Jacobs yeah I want just wanted to know if we could get follow-up information about how many schools and students and families are being served by this program and what will be the impact of this additional position and whether do we include this when we when we yeah when we look at the budget for Duren public schools in terms of the things that we are what we fund directly that support the schools those were just director Jenkins.

Giving a thumbs up oh okay yeah that that was a request that Vice chair Burns had in one of our agenda prep meetings okay for us to include yeah and we will get that followup information for you certainly will great yes they do yes great any other questions or comments okay item 24237 approval of capital project amendment number 24 CPA 0024 and budget ordinance amend number 24 BCC 000096 appropriating 1,875 250 of sewer Utility Fund fund balance and transferring those funds to the new chin Page Road lift station Force main and outfall capital project SE 064 to fund $1.4 million of pre- Construction Services costs with the design build firm Garney company's Inc and pay the.

$385,900 million project loan as well as authorize the county manager to execute the contract with Garney company's Inc and any related contract amendments not to exceed $1,875 250 commissioner Jacobs I just had a quick comment which I wanted to really applaud the staff who worked on this AA because it is so detailed and this is a really complex item and I just really appreciate what is reflected in the aaf thank you so much great thank you so much item 240240 approval of the fiscal year 24 Durham Transit work program quarter four amendments it hey Ellen random question I think yeah we're we're on you said 40 right I only have one quick question it I saw the decrease for the north dur project don't be mad because at first I couldn't get the link to open do we know why it I like a decrease right we saving some money but do we know what that million dollar decrease was I know some say increase but the biggest one anybody she looked at brandy.

Brandy looked at her we're going to phone a friend so yeah did we move a bus stop also why she's walking up here shout out to you Ellen cuz like I've been seeing all these random bus stops pop up like mushrooms with shelters and it it it really hit me this weekend you know when it was raining cuz I can think some of those streets didn't have them and I know that's something we talked about the first year so everybody's I'm going to take some pictures and put them online so when folks say we are not working on these bus stops I know I counted like four new ones with shelters that I had not seen so shout out to you and your staff for making sure where we just had a sign we didn't have a bench we have lights we have an awning so but yeah back to that $976,000 that you just saved me yeah Ellen Beckman Transportation director so what happened was we approved you know.

Funding in last year's work program for an expansion of service in North Durham over the past year the the city completed their short range Transit plan that kind of changed what they were thinking how the service would be deployed in the timing of it so they asked to they recognized that they weren't going to be able to provide that you know this year and instead have used the funding to expand night and weekend service which is something they could do in the near term so so they the decrease is because it won't be delivered this year our final work program though plans out the the planned service expansions in North Durham in the future years so I don't know off the top of my head what year each service is but that's it's generally a decrease to reflect what they learn from the short range Transit plan and it also has to do with the bus drivers and you know their ability to hire bus drivers and deploy service.

So no that's helpful so did I now I understand it's not that this is gone we can't do this right now we reallocating it to what we can do now and we'll revisit this so that's yeah that works yeah there's still planned expansions in nor perfect and then on the thank you for recognizing the bus stops I do want to recognize that a lot of those are managed by go triangle so it's their staff that are out there managing and implementing those stops I'm aware with the County Transit plant M thank you Commissioner Carter just quickly wanted to say about the par Transit study that there was a presentation at the bike and pedestrian advisory Commission on this and it was really an interesting presentation and at some point I think it might be of interest to the whole board to hear this it affects Durham County quite a bit since this access happens outside of the city limits oftentimes anyway not always of course but just wanted to to mention that for future.

Planning and Wendy asked this question over the weekend we checked with City staff and they are prepared to present that you know when the C when the study's complete maybe later this summer yeah that'll be great I'm sure you all will love it I won't be here okay any other questions or comments I was say not so fast ma'am this summer okay item 24250 approval to enter enter into a contract with infotech research group in the amount of $432,000 to implement the next phase of execution and selection of the county Erp system item 24258 request the board to authorize the interim County attorney to execute a contract with Arthur J Gallagher riskmanagement company LLC for insurance brokerage and Risk Management Services in the amount of $42,000 item 24260 acceptance of Federal Aviation Administration FAA Grant offer number 3-37 d56 d66 d224 in the amount of $15 million to the Raleigh Durham Airport Authority item 24261 approve the transfer of the County's existing conservation easement on 4100 Picket Road partial to Triangle Land.

Conservancy we got an Applause from the Das item 24262 approval of the interlocal agreement between the city of durh Durham County and the central Pines Regional Council regarding the Duram to Roxboro rail trail planning and feasibility. Study Jacobs Well I just I can't let this go without applauding Ellen and her team for this it I'm just so excited about this opportunity and the fact that there there's incredible Partnerships reflected with this you know working with the East Coast Greenway the city and then there's a co co concurrent you know funding of actually the land acquisition that ncdot is taking the lead on which is also awesome having them taking the lead on that and being a partner and just when you look at the map for this Trail I I just I'm really excited when this gets out into the community the Community engagement because this is going to be such an asset to the people of North Durham and when you look at the root you know four schools a library.

A historic site you know recreational so we've got education then Recreation with Penny's Ben and Horton Grove and then two industrial parks so we're you know we're capturing everything education jobs and Recreation people you know people are going to be able to commute on this and also Oxford maners close to it the sanova landing that we've invested in a veterans affordable housing and also the scope of work that is detailed in our with this project I really appreciate the really excellent work of all of you so thank you commissioner Carter I I was I just wanted to clarify from my own self is this $400 in federal funding we're applying for that it's not a it's not it's we're still in the application Phase or is it received and now we're making our local commitment I'm sorry I didn't quite get that and we and and this also means we did not receive some funding for a similar study from another application.

Good morning Ryan elridge Transportation planner yes the excuse me the $400,000 that has already been committed and approved by the no board that's through upw funding so we're currently working with the no to refine the scope of work and put this out so and then it's a for that remainder of the $100,000 that's a onethird split between the city county and East Coast Greenway Alliance so is the no it's been approved that they're going to request this funding from the federal government or it's already been approved to be given to us by the federal government to the no and then we're matching the onethird that you described we're still waiting the notice to proceed but we're very it's we're very confident that it's all you know going to move through yes okay yes all right best news of all and I agree the scope work was really informative seeing all that happens for half a million dollars first of all $500,000 seems like a lot of money for a feasibility study and we've.

Talked about this before in relation to other things thinking of urban ministries of Durham in particular and and the money that they want for a feasibility study for the expanded services for homelessness and for day Center etc etc but this was just you know very enlightening what all is involved and what all is going to be happening so thanks for providing that great thank you and I will say the the scope will be undergoing a few changes now that we have multiple partners on board and we're looking to add some extra pieces on making sure that this project wouldn't cause displacement looking at you know housing availability and really trying to you know get our bang for the buck when it comes to that money and elaborate on some things that current aren't currently in the scope of work but we want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence and looking forward so there will be some changes when it comes to that some slight changes so okay thank you thank.

You for being very careful commissioner Jacobs yeah that thank you for that followup information Ma scubber and commissioner Carter this is discretionary money that the there's different pots of money that the no gets and there's a whole system where we allocate the funding based on a scoring and so that's how we we got the money for this but yeah I I was thinking about land use when I was reading the scope of work and especially thinking about affordable housing so I'm glad that you all are going to look at that the land use adjacent to the trail that's really important thank you great thank you so much Ryan great thank you okay item 24263 approval of a contract Amendment with RN Architects related to the board of educations facility 3825 South Roxboro Street in the amount of 9,42 and this is renovation project 4730.

Dc155 commissioner Jacobs yeah I just have when this is on our final agenda could we get the actual plans attached because I've seen some visuals yes already so that would be great thank you recently got that and I'm sorry did I say Board of UC Board of election well you can tell what's on my mind can't you the Board of Elections facility thank you yes okay 24264 approval of the purchase of goods contract with various vendors for the workstations private office conference miscellaneous furnishings and equipment for from the Omnia slgsa Andor NC State contracts buying programs for the Board of Elections renovation project number 4730 dc155 with a total budget amount of 69,8.

Se11 all right and item 24266 lease Amendment for Angie's Jamaican G at 3825 South Roxboro Road Suite 123 at the shops of Hope Valley Shopping Center okay and Madam chair that concludes the consent Genta thank you so much now we will move to our discussion items first starting with item 24- 0232 departmental City County Planning Department fy2 work program and we have Sarah Young Presenting for us today good morning Commissioners I'm happy to be here with you to give you a very brief little walk through of our proposed work program for next year as you all know the department is required as a joint Department under the interlocal agreement to put together a work program of all the projects and processes that we will undergo in the coming year and get that ratified and approved by both governing bodies so and we tend to do that every year just before a budget adoption time all right the work program is broken out into two basic categories of things that.

Are a bit intermixed but one is ongoing processes these are things that are legally mandated for instance we have zoning and so there's a variety of zoning Pro related processes that we have to have there are other ongoing processes that are dictated by policy so these are choices that the Gover in bodies have made for instance to have a historic preservation program and so we have ongoing processes related to those and then probably the most exciting bucket is our discretionary projects so these are things that the governing bodies can elect to use staff resources to do or not but we are not bound to do so so these are the things that change year-to year and what I'm going to be talking about we have a number this is actually a very exciting year because if you all will recall in the most recent handful of years while we were working on the comprehensive plan and all of our discretionary resources were allocated to that there was very little in terms.

Of new content in the work program and now that that project has concluded there are a number of items that we are proposing the first couple we have actually already started on this year but they were not in last year's work program we were able to get a jump on them and so they're new to the actual document but not new to the work that we're doing the first as you know is a new Udo unified development ordinance that we have a contract with a consultant to do for us the second is the Research Triangle Park South Design District this is one that was actually a suggestion of commissioner Jacobs at a joint City County planning committee meeting sometime last year and we were able to accommodate that so both both of those are current currently underway the rest of this list are new items that we would begin work on after July 1 the first 1.3.2 is city code amendments for water and sewer connections one of the things.

That we have heard through the comprehensive plan process is that it is really challenging for residents in the unincorporated parts of the county to have water and sewer connections the current exemptions in city code make it challenging for those properties to get those services without being annexed and there are a number of reasons why we should look at bringing these folks off of well and septic and onto City water andwer without having to Annex them so providing water and sewer is a basic health and safety and in many cases a life necessity for folks so we want to look at how we can change city code to make it easier to provide those services to folks that really may need them and may have no other choice 1.3.3 is the community goals and objectives report card this is as an outgrowth of the comprehensive plan the comprehensive plan said that every two years we would revisit the plan and we would issue kind of a report card of how.

We're doing and trying to meet those goals so the work that we're doing now in this in between year it will be to put together all of the Baseline metrics so that we have a place to start measuring from 1.4.1 is small area plan scoping again now that we are not devoting all of our staff resources to writing a comp plan inhouse we have some bandwidth to work on some more localized planning efforts and it's probably been I want to say close to a decade since we last did small area planning in the department for a variety of reasons so the first thing that we want want to do is undergo a bit of a scoping exercise what does a small area plan of today look like what should it entail what should the components be what does engagement look like for this type of endeavor and then come up with a list of prioritized areas that should receive small area planning efforts so that's all in the.

Scoping and then 1.4.2 is a bit of a placeholder to then start working on whatever those prioritized small area plans are we have already started bit on one which is the Walltown Northgate area that was one that was kind of pre- prioritized by The Joint City County planning committee but there will be more 1.5.1 is a landscape manual update as you all know the landscape manual Works in tandem with unified development ordinance and so if we're going to be updating the ordinance it makes good sense to take a look at the manual and do any necessary updates to it as well and then the last item is 1.5.2 Urban growth boundary tree canopy analysis that is a mouthful but basically this is another project kind of in support of the udio rewrite we need to make sure that the amount of tree preservation and tree planting requirements that we have inside the urban growth boundary right which is the area where we say we want densification we want most of the growth.

To happen so that we can preserve the more rural aspects of the county outside of the urban growth boundary so doing a bit of an analysis of what amount of tree protection replanting would need to happen through the development review process particularly so that we can give that information to the consultants and make sure that at the end of the day our Udo does meet that comprehensive plan or helps us meet that comprehensive plan goal of I want to say I don't know if Scot you do you remember the percentage 50 thank you I thought so 55% of Urban Tree canopy inside the urban growth boundary so that is our my summary of the new things to the work program for this coming year thank you so much Sarah so efficient so much and so little time but first I know Vice chair Burns has a question so go to her I want to go back to 1.3.1 so the Research Triangle Park South District so tomorrow you all have a open house come on.

Down all y'all have a open house tomorrow so I'm not going to get all of the acronyms correct I know that staff's recommendation is for it to go to a compact Suburban district with subd District see I pay attention when y'all talk right so a c a CSD like that's what you all recommend cuz right now it's like rural residential it's like 50 million different designations that's in and and Hub RTP is there so two kind of sort of questions one how are we really promoting this not just for the public cuz this is going to be like a RTP downtown are we reaching out to the companies who are out there and they're getting it too and then I saw on the poster there's two there's one on the 7th one on the 21st that is kind of like a drop in so is there a formal presentation cuz I I know how many districts off the top of my head there're like seven and I'm trying to.

Figure out like how this open house is going to go and if people are really going to understand what's going on let's see so Madam Vice chair for your your first question we've we sent old school letters to all the property owners all the renters all the folks within 1,000 ft to to meet the the zoning notification requirements since it will eventually become a zoning change we've tried to reach out to larger apartment complexes to get renters involved we've we've worked with a lot of the property management firms down there to try to get their who represent some of the larger property owners try to get those involved as well and I know there's a school across the street so I mean it's a charter but RTP high is literally in that District so the only reason and I know we're going to probably do more Outreach but since that's such a a big swath like Fidelity is out there boxyard is out there there's a there's a lot in that space and so that.

Was kind of the first question and are you all going to be presenting a presentation or is it just we're asking folks what do they want to see we we won't be doing a formal presentation but we will have areas for and we'll have staff who will be kind doing on thefly presentations for the folks that are there will we're trying to PL it so that it's a drop in and that we don't have you know people who show up late don't miss everything if if this is an ineffective method we will we'll be holding more meetings in August and we'll we'll do it separately but we are planning for just a drop in and we'll have staff there to try to answer questions and present information for folks who who do attend okay cool matal yeah we'll have boards and materials we go okay so okay and then the only thing I would ask if we could get our comm's team to put the poster out since the.

Meeting is tomorrow I know we didn't get to get it in the newsletter so if we I know it's on the city's website I don't know where it is on the County's website but since this is it's in the county you know I I want folks to see that you know we we want folks to come but that that was one my only questions thank y'all for doing an open meeting for this I think people are really excited about the district and I'd like to know what I might drop in my now I know y'all really scared but good luck to y'all tomorrow night in the event I'm not there but thank you for everything thank you I sh Burns I had a couple questions commission okay I wanted to see this may be part of this work program or a different discussion around how I know there's an agreement between the city and county that was established like a while back around the input and the decision making around zoning and e.

Station and commissioner Jacobs and I recently had a conversation about this of like how did that come to fruition and like is this an area that if we wanted to consider changes to that that that would come out of this work program or another of the county having more input into zoning and annexations so this is something that has come up occasionally particularly in recent years as we've seen a lot of growth there's a lot of of interest and one of the things that we have done to so there's no to my knowledge there's no formal agreement there is obviously you know under state law the jurisdiction where the zoning is being requested is the jurisdiction that has jurisdiction to make the decision the what we have tried to do as a kind of first attempt to provide y all more information is you all probably recall that Grace Smith one of our assistant directors will send send you all an email periodically when we have cases that are moving forward so that you all.

Can provide any input that you may have and we would package that input up and provide it to the City Council so I think this is probably a good topic to bring back up either through the administration or even at the Joint City County planning committee meeting that's where we talked about last time you know how the the best way to get both groups kind of sharing information so we're we're happy to to have that conversation we can add that to an agenda or if the Administration has a different way they would like to tackle that happy to do so yeah CU I asked because the main thing I'm thinking about is like even though it is City Limits like these zoning cases are being taken into consideration it does have impact on the county services that we're providing that we have more and more houses being built of people we have to provide Public Health social services to schools and so making sure that that is taken into consideration in as well.

As like the cities looking at well water sewer the services they provide but are they looking at the county services and how it's going to impact us and our ability to service all of these new residents so I'll also say that in terms of schools we do we work a lot with ger Public Schools very closely and we have a methodology for forecasting student generation that we've worked out with them and so that is baked into every staff report one of the things that we can certainly look at is if there are other aspects of services that prompt a need for additional service based on new development we could work to identify those County Services figure out a way to quantify them and bake that into our staff reports as well so that whichever body is making the decision they have the full set of of facts and potential implications so that is definitely something one of the things that I think is in the work program somewhere buried is we have kind of.

Continual process improvements and we have a staff member that works on those so this could definitely be one of those things of just improving our the depth an analysis in our reports I think that would be great I have more and then I'll go to commissioner Jacobs and Howton well one you touch Jon about the County Services growth and I know we talked about this a while ago but if we had if yall had the chance to put together we had talked about like mapping the County Services to the growth if that is something that we could get out of this or like in maybe the next Joint City County talking about like especially the county portions that are being annexed in CU we've gotten I'm sure you all remember a lot of feedback around like EMS fire services share of services in those areas so like showing that on a graph of how the population is growing in these areas and how the service is gr so that as well.

And then for the sewer water sewer connections Sarah you and I had talked about this about just like the cost and wondering like how is that going to be factored in because like those pipes are the most expensive part of getting those connections and like who would be owning that cost yeah absolutely absolutely the changing the policy is the easy part to be honest right and so that's one of the things that we're going to look at is most places that do something like this have some sort of program you know sometimes it's a a loan program sometimes it's a they have grants that can defray part of the cost so those are things that we'll be looking at as kind of a a component to not just changing the city code but then you know are there ways that we can assist because it is very expensive you know and that's developers it's easy for developers to do it because they are baking they're doing it at a large scale and then.

They're baking in that cost you know and passing it through to potential home buyers but when you're an established homeowner you know or you know resident it's it's very different it's hard to come up with a big chunk of change to all of a sudden you know do something like this so we'll look at that you and then my final question we had a few months ago met with our State Legislative delegation and we were talking about like priorities not for this short session because they're mostly working on budget but like for next full session about legislation priorities and something that I brought up and them was like just looking at how to give Municipal and local governments more say in developments and like starting with the small wins we could possibly get I was wondering if you could help us kind of like compiling some things like obviously I don't think the state legislature is going to I wish they would but let cities and counties be able to make their own decisions.

But to be able to have like small victories and like when we talked about like flood zones about those not being included in tree the what is it the conservation areas of keeping those separate because they really are should be separate and then like with the blastings like giving us more power of require IR iring documentation from developers like small pieces that we could maybe chip at to give to our legislators to advocate for us to have more say yeah we we can we can think about some of those things some of those things we may be able to accomplish already without necessarily having to go to the legislature but there are some other avenues to to work through you know fire code is something that similar to building code it can be changed it is not the easiest thing to change but and then I do think that there's the ability to require additional information Etc so those are things that that can be looked at thank you commissioner.

Jacobs thank you I just want to First follow up on something that chair Alam mentioned about looking at the how we're assessing rezonings and how we're doing the analysis I think now is really a good time to do a reset on that because of the implementation of the comprehensive land use plan the new future Place type map and of course looking at we doing our zoning ordinances because and so I I just want to Echo that all of our staff County leadership working with your staff because for instance the methodology around Duram public the impact on education does not reflect it looks at the school capacity and the number of students projected but it doesn't include for instance our local supplement so we really do need to take a look at how that's being we actually added that year oh you did I added okay great I actually thought it might be helpful for you all to see I can send you a sample of a recent resoning be great I did not realize you.

Had add of that thank you for doing that we absolutely did that would be awesome but yeah just to look at is EMS included now we have reached out to EMS and have not really gotten gotten an opportunity to connect with them so we will continue to to follow up with them okay yeah so I think it's this this is a good opportunity just to look at make sure that we're capturing everything and I guess if I would put in a plug for what I think also looking at how could we I appreciate that we get the information from Grace Jones and I'll be the first one to say I'm not good at then following up on those emails so we may need to look at another process that going to really be work be more effective and I think the ones for me that would be priorities would be rezonings that are now not consistent with the urban growth boundary and not consistent with what we just adopted with the comprehensive land.

Use plan that's what I'm most concerned about those I feel like should have a red flag and should come to us because we just adopted this plan and we really all need to be sticking to the plan so for me I would say like I would like those to actually be presented to us so I'm just going to put that out there I I support everything that is in this new work program I do want to though highlight that and I'm I mean all of these things are really really important that three of the items are joint City County one is only is County only and then for our city Only and I know we split our cost 50/50 for the planning department and I do think a larger discussion as we look at what the city and the county pay for it would be helpful for us to to have a better grasp on the cost share related to the planning department not because I want.

To change it but because as we look at conversations about what the city and the county each pay for I think it's important for people to understand that we the county is paying more than our fair share to support the good work in the planning department and not that like like I'm saying I don't want to change the 50/50 split but I do think it's an important Point that I just want to highlight and the last thing I just want to say is could you talk about what small area planning is since we haven't done it and so in a long time and what what does that really mean because I'm a big fan of it but I just think it it would be great for people to hear about that sure commissioner Jacob so I mean in its basic form a small area plan is just a comprehensive plan for a a very for a discreet part of the county they but they are away with the comprehensive plan we're making.

Decisions on a countywide level and so it's hard to drill down into specific areas and get kind of when you're talking about land use for a particular site you don't have the chance to do the kind of the in-depth discussions with neighbors and property owners and so it's a way to kind of refine what was adopted in the comprehensive plan but also kind of look at localized needs we have policies that apply countywide but some needs are different in other one part of the community than they are in the other so it's a way to look more specifically at one part of the county and can figure out what are the needs kind of the public service needs and those sorts of things and one of the reasons why we want to do the scoping first is obviously those needs are going to involve public funds and so understanding from the elected officials what sorts of things you would be willing to support as part of a small.

Area plan whether it's you know some of these are more City functions and County functions but things like adding sidewalks or bus stop amenities or sewer and water extensions those sorts of things what sorts of things would the elected officials like to entertain for certain areas that we think we might be able to afford when you we already know that there's a lot of Demands for our limited funding in both the city and the county so hope that helps thank you commission Harton and your mic is on so don't don't touch the thing the C so the light comes on and the light goes off it comes on and goes off so thank you you could hear me fine thank you so good morning I'm going to address a couple of things that either the chair or Wendy has mentioned before one is I want to also I mention the the cost split that conversation keeps coming up it came up with commissioner raal years ago that the this board needed to really.

Evaluate how that's being split and that conversation drops so we we don't pursue it but it keeps coming up and more less and less is being done as Rel in relation to the county even in this work plan you see that happening and I'm I'm not asking to do anything about it I'm just saying that it keeps the conversation keeps coming up the other thing that commiss the chair mentioned around I I'm not sure how she mentioned it but my question is historical question it goes back as to when I was asked the question what was there a legal document did we do anything legally I don't remember anything that had the county has have less involvment around resoning I remember it it cuz I keep thinking that around 751 and that whole episode around that something changed during that period of time and I don't remember if it was a legislative action or was it a City action can you shed some light on that yeah absolutely commissioner Harton so I I don't recall.

The exact year right the second but there was a change in state law where cities could no longer involuntarily Annex land so you go back you know three decades and it was very common for folks for developers to get their rezoning in the county and get City Water and Sewer extended without being annexed and the city would allow that because they knew that eventually they would be able to Annex them later because there comes a point in time where the cost of maintaining that infrastructure you need more tax base to pay for that right and so at some point cities will may want to Annex land in order to be able to afford to maintain that infrastructure so at some point the legislature changed that and the only way that a city can involuntarily Annex land is through a referendum which nobody does so as a response the city was concerned about its ability to take care of infrastructure in the future and they changed their city code to BAS basically prohibit extension.

Of water and sewer without annexation except in some very specific circumstances so that meant that the developers of the past that would get an entitlement in the county and build a subdivision and then may or may not be annexed in some future now for them to get water and sewer they have to request annexation and because you can't really build a whole neighborhood on well and septic it's just not really feasible that is what that is what is happening so it was it was a change that the city made in order to kind of protect itself financially based on a change that state in state law okay all right yeah sure yeah just I I sort of had that same question because I swear I feel like didn't the County vote on whether or not to Annex the land for 751 South or was that only what so why but right it was before but I don't see the connection that was that was to Zone the.

Land that was to Zone yeah well oh for just a zoning just a zoning yeah well that explains it yeah because when when I was asked the question I couldn't remember whether it was and I remember Bill Bell and that whole group going to Raleigh and around the legislative issues but I couldn't remember I couldn't give them an answer as is was it Raleigh legislative action or was a a City action it was it was both it was it was the state first but then the city to you know in response you right only cities Annex we no so no you want to talk about that yeah so the the city and county did have an informal policy before 751 South where an applicant could seek zoning in either jurisdiction since we had the shared a shared Udo and shared comprehensive plan however with the the change in I think it was 2012 the city also required that oh if you're annexing then you have to get your zoning approval through the city as.

Well and so that was probably the that was a big change as well. Yeah localis that is a local decision so I will I think she did I think we did I will say this that using the and I hate to use the 751 as an example but you know that's an example of what happens when you've got a project that comes in gets zoning approval to build a neighborhood thinking that they're going to be able to then get annexed to get the water and sewer and then that does not happen the other body decides they do not want to do that and then that developer is stuck and it results in them going to the legislature which is what they did and getting then they they basically the city was required to well actually the legislature annexed it for the city 10 years later that just became affected this past year so that yeah I will just say that I think that we need to also be careful that we are not.

We want the best developments possible and so looking at ways that we are not that we are getting that and we're not putting developers in this you know stuck in between land between two governing bodies I would love for us to work together to find a way to make sure that y'all's concerns are addressed that we rewrite the Udo we're getting better designed developments overall it's a tall order but we are here to work on it so all the developments that are happening especially in southern Durham right now are they they have to have approval for annexation before they Bild yes okay thank you thank you commissioner I I just have a couple comments I mean basically I think this feels like a really exciting and Progressive work program all of the you know a new Udo what if that that could have been the only thing here and it still would have been a lot so all these other elements are are are very exciting and I I just wanted no one's.

Mentioned really the landscape manual update and the urban growth boundary tree canopy analysis I feel happy to see those and just you know further advancing our environmental and our conservation goals and and keeping that at the Forefront is great it's great to see and the and the report card will be wonderful too for helping us the elected officials and the the residents track you know what's going on so just thank you so much this it's a really impressive body of work that you're going to be doing and I really thank you for it thank you so much for answering all of our questions and your presentation I look forward to seeing more develop that brings us now to believe the arpa update we have Deputy CM Claudia Hager.

And I realized I forgot to do this for the last item but for this item sticking to the template so we have like 30 minutes for presentation 15 for questions thank you.

Good morning morning you know I don't know how to ask since I'm in the morning part of the presentation usually we're at the end and trying to move swiftly so I will talk until 2 o' no I'm just missing we are going to share some updates on arpa many of these are quick reminders and it's exciting get into this point two years ago we embarked on a framework that the board moved forward on and we have been working our plan which is exciting we'll give some quick updates on overall projects have a discussion about recent treasury final rule changes and give some I guess have some opportunity for board discussion and we'll also continue conversations because there are tweaks that will continue in the next several months we are in process of looking at plans and some programs are moving faster than others and and and we'll also talk through that as well we always show this slide which gives the highlights on categories in which the funding could be spent and.

Public response to the Health crisis the revenue loss Water and Sewer infrastructure Broadband infrastructure premium pay for Central employes as well as to address negative economic impacts as you know the dollars came to us in 2021 the board adopted a framework in April of 22 and no the treasury set some framework and then the board adopted its framework in May 2022 there are categories in which we've spent the dollars and it totals $ 62.4 million and these two dates are upon us we've talked about them the funds must be incurred or obligated by December 31st 2024 and all funds expended by December 31st 2026 that's 30 month months and so we are well on our way to meeting that Target and feel good about where we are in process with that oops I went yeah I did skip this slide the the prioritization and The Guiding principles that the board established This was before the board set the framework so a lot of times folks may not appreciate the the the small steps but.

These were major steps that the board took to commit to how do we use our dollars and it has served as a footprint in how we've navigated it we've leveraged other Federal and State dollars we prioritized projects to align with the board's planning we looked at infrastructure and compliance Etc we'll not go through all of that we we had rubrics to evaluate our projects and many of these principles are line with what of course treasury said but I always on occasion like to go back to that we have it's 50 it's actually 53 not 52 projects with budget areas funded for the various categories 89% of them are committed but there's a plan for all the dollars okay and so rfps and project allocations are underway the two most recent larger rfps the land trust are RFP and for community and affordable housing and then the one to support a day Center efforts for our homeless Community are the most recent ones and those are due early June June 5th the dollars from a project.

Management perspective there's an ongoing evaluation process of projects to determine if Scopes require changing or if category realignments should happen we did a a a board action last week I'm sorry yeah it was last week we did a one last week where we realigned some projects into the revenue replacement catgory to allow for an ease of administrative activ AC ity both from the staff perspective as well as those who are receiving funds we will continue that kind of refinement not only on category alignment but also project scope some of our partners may not be moving as expeditiously and so we will come back and make recommendations on what we may need to do as far as realignment because of treasury's recent Chang es we have more flexibility with that now we were holding our breath and hoping that they were hear from the chorus of folks across the country saying that we needed a little bit more flexibility and Jon will walk through some of that but because they've most recently made some changes.

We can move forward with recommendations in areas with a different level of relief and comfort as we we move forward the last this next bullet series of bullets talked about you know the dollars and when they need to be expended the deadline is 2026 December 31st and as I said that's about 36 30 months and so between now and then we will make sure that we stay on target and support those areas that are funded our intent is for most most of the projects to be complete as it relates to the community grants by summer 2025 they were for 24 months the remaining projects should complete within the fall time frame we have to allow time for close out and always putting a note about our ongoing evaluation of how we support areas programmatically and fiscally from a compliance perspective this is very small but it reflects all of the project areas there are a few we have to come back to the board to actually appropriate the funds for the project.

And timing wise it was for various reasons We've we've not moved them forward often times it's been because some of the projects receive other types of dollars from the state and so so we we've slowed the process to maximize and optimize those dollars we have 88% of those projects in contract and this table is not showing the most recent one but it should show that we have a remaining balance of $4.5 million so apologies for that not showing up but the variance is is this this table does not reflect the two projects that are the rfps that are out there now for the home the day the day Center as well as the land TR so that's where that variance comes from I think the one that we have in our IE legislate has has the correct cor very good all right no worries okay and so Jon will now share the updates we're moving you know I'm so used to went so fast I would have made a slower more detailed version keep chugging.

Through don't slow down all right good morning Commissioners as Claudia mentioned at the end of March the treasury Department passed a new Final rule that relates to the definition of obligation as it pertains to the state and local fiscal recovery funds and this for Durham County and for many other state local governments I'm sure is going to be tremendously beneficial in our administration of these funds over the next 30 months so as context previous to this final rule the the definition of obligation would be how it normally operates for Federal grant funds which is a sort of a hard deadline you would have to have all of your contracts in place by that point you could could not pay for any kind of personnel costs after that deadline as obligation for personnel expenditures is when the work occurs and so it kind of had locked us into a situation where originally after December 31st of this year we would be kind of stuck with the specific projects and Frameworks that we.

Had in place as of that date any any changes after that point would most likely result in us having to return funding to the treasury Department and to miss out on the benefits of that investment within our community the new final rule around the obligation deadline establishes some flexibilities that we believe will and that is the intention of the Treasury Department to prevent us from having to return funds to to treasury in the event of UN unforeseen circumstances around any of our projects so we did want to highlight a couple things for your for your notice and consideration today around this final rule the first of which we want to highlight that we can now utilize arpa funding for personnel costs through December 31st 2026 that's a fairly big change any folks that we had paid for out of arpa funding previously we would only would have been able to employ through the 31st of this year now we have an additional two years we had been planning to do a contract to.

Try to get administrative support for the arpa funds during that period but with this new Final rule we will be allowed we'll be able to instead look at actually hiring staff instead of having to rely on contractor support so that could be very helpful for us in making sure that we're continuing to fulfill our respon fiduciary responsibilities during the the 2-year period for expenditure of funding the second piece to highlight is that as I previously noted if there were any changes originally after December 31st we would to a contract to a project we would have been stuck in a situation of potentially having to return funds now under the new rule we can actually move funding between projects so long as both projects were obligated before for that date so if we have one project that was originally budgeted at a certain level that comes in under budget we can now take that excess funding and apply it to another project where that funding may be needed either because of a cost.

Overrun or simply because we can get more benefit for for that investment so you know as an example if our lift station project came in at under under 10 million we could take that funding and put it towards our affordable housing project and get more units out of that investment and so there's just there's a great deal of flexibility there that'll keep us from having to send money back in the event that anything happens again we can't enter into new contracts but under the new rule we can amend contracts utilize change orders or exercise contingency Clauses to alter the scope of existing projects that would previously also not have been permitted we do have to make sure that our contract language allows for us to take those steps so we are working to review all of our existing projects to make sure that that is a possibility as as these projects come online and take shape so that you know if we need to reserve additional funding to have as a contingency fund.

For a project that we think maybe will go over budget we don't know that we're going have that funding available that we're we're now able to do that instead of being at risk of losing that funding previously we can we can now enter into replacement contracts so if we had a contract with a vendor and that vendor for some reason is not able to deliver the services during that post December 31st 2024 period and we end up having to terminate the contract for cause convenience or or any other reason we can now go out and find another vendor to continue that contract if the contract is for substantially the same Services previously that money would have had to immediately go back to the treasury Department now we have this additional flexibility to identify alternatives to make sure that the work that you all had V had envisioned for this funding and had approved for this funding is able to be completed regardless of what may happen with the economic circumstances of the.

Vendors that we're working with in part partnering with on these initiatives and then finally one thing that I know it's great relief to the county manager staff is that we can shift projects among categories after December 31st if needed so if we need to move something to revenue replacement or or interest income or whatever you know we we can do that as needed after December 31st of this year we're going to try to try to get all that done before then but you know things might happen down the line and we might need to make some adjustments and and now our hands are not tied around how we approach that distribution within our portfolio as.

Well those changes are very helpful so we are so grateful that treasury listen to I'm sure A Chorus of folks around the country who asked for addition additional flexibility because everybody wants to do it right and 30 months out is a long time and things happen so to know we have ways to still make adjustments and not lose the dollars is is a great position a better position than we were a month ago so we we felt it important to share that with you and we will continue our efforts with looking carefully at where we are and mapping out the probability of success with project completion and where we may need to shift and we will continue to give you updates on that there's another slide that's not showing there on the screen but you do you have it in your packet is one that says we'll have a future discussion as well about an evaluation of our our procurement policies to align with increased Federal micro purchase thresholds this is is an area that.

The school of government recommended to jurisdictions and we're going to work with our County Attorney's Office to bring this back to the board so that we can see where if we were to increase some of the levels it will help with operational efficiencies because if there's a gap in timing between a contract approval and when an item with the boards meetings that can for some projects especially Capital related ones it would it it can cause some Challenge and so many of our thresholds have been the same for the last 20 years and so it's just a matter of us looking at which ones we may can do that can provide some efficiencies and revisit some of the other areas later throughout the year but there are some that we would gain some benefits some minor ones that we would bring forward but again we'll come back to the board on those we are now at a point we can have some discussion and welcome to have any board comments and we will also.

Talk a little bit about arpa in our budget deliberations with the budget the 2425 budget so we will have a slot there as well thank those are all my comments thank you so much this presentation is always so informative every time you come before us so just thank you for the amount of detail and work that yall have put in also getting all this money out I know has been extremely extremely difficult and tedious so thank you to your entire team and everyone who's been part of it I had one unrelated related question and this kind of ties into our next item of commissioner directions can we try to get a presentation like this also together for the opioid settlement money okay I know okay perfect that the only thing I had now commissioner Howton thank you madam chairman thank you so much for this presentation you all this work this has been a mountain of work so thank you I just had a quick question for clarification the language interest.

Income what does that mean sure so so we earn interest from the dollars that came to us on the arpa funding okay so the $62 million that we received we've actually earned about $2 million in interest from those those funds treasury gave entities the flexibility to use those funds either on arpa or your general fund so we we chose like many other jurisdictions to invest those dollars into arpa related projects and when we came to the board last week we moved some of the projects some of the smaller ones into the interest income category so that we can then free up money so that you can reinvest those dollars so but it also so what you're saying is that you're using the interest income for that for that particular project that I'm read through ma yes ma'am okay ma' that's I was trying to just they were they ear an interested that's a great question and I'm glad we talked about it because for some it may you know some started out just as a.

Pure arur funded project but now they've shifted to this other category and so when we for instance communicate to treasury we only talk about the six to 2.4 million for them but we will also do a tag along internally and say in addition to that we have these other projects that are being funded by interest income so I'm glad you brought the question up so that we can explain it because you know we started out with 45 nonprofits and now it's a lower number so some may you know get a little confused but we'll walk them through that but from our perspective whether it's the interest income or not it's all because of arpa that we have this resource thank you you're welcome you Vice chair Burns and commissioner Jacobs so try to put all this into one thank y'all I'm going throw on the Applause with everybody else I remember a couple of februaries ago when they put out that 400 page document and called it the.

Final Rule and Claudia we laughed cuz we knew this is not the final rule we've had like 12 since then but we locked ourselves into that right and we locked our nonprofits into that and I'm always joking cuz at no La end up getting the best framework and I'm like throw your framework out now because there's like 10 other rules so I'm happy I I think the other thing I want to comment and just put out there to The Ether I am I along with my colleagues sitting up here we sit in rooms with other counties that I can tell y'all they don't even they don't even know that these rules have changed right like they literally don't they don't have the bandwidth or the infrastructure within their County departments or within their City governments and there some days I'm like really sad so I I do want to say thank y'all because that keeps us thoughtful up here we were at a conference last week and they had some.

Of the public administ I know that the manager was on a panel I didn't get a chance to see it but I remember I I I I want to go back to the director and say I wish you would have just had my whole St in here telling you for two years they like oh this is what you should do with arpa dollars and I would hear localities talk and I said that is not what you supposed to do with that money can somebody and I was like hey could you call clodia Hager like I was I did you know the taxpayers pay for your phone so I was giving out all y'all phone numbers I'll tell the truth at no I I had no problem doing it K you laughing you don't know you the tax administrator I've been giving your phone number out for about a month now so but I won't I I just I just want to throw that on so I feel feel very.

Blessed and very lucky here's where my kind of question is I could go through a couple of them I knew about the rule about the projects I knew about that one here's where my concern is and it'll be post me it is about how we can continue to fund positions right I'mma use a bad example he GNA get me J president buckon was smart enough the first year after we gave him some arpa dollars brother came back and said I need this as a FTE and rode it into the budget so that his was he was the one person is smart enough to do that and so like that's in his allocation like in our budget and it's not pulling off arpa and I I'mma do a ju to position with mecklinburg County and it's ERS but it's aone they had over 400 positions in mecklinburg that were arpa and Essa funded and the manager came back and said you know we can't keep y'all on like they at least gave.

Them to notice I do want us to be forward thinking that as we are putting people on these dollars are are we doing is as full-time time limited positions cuz I know you made a good point now we ain't got a contract for everything but also so folks have a reasonable expectation this is not the most long-term job and I think the manager brought up a good point a couple of meetings ago when she's been telling departments okay the cliff is coming in 2026 like what position do you want to hold on to you historically did it in a Board of Elections meeting so as we are putting people on these dollars I also want us to mindful like which ones do we want to keep and are we telling people early on okay this is not permanent money sure so those two things those are great questions and it has been one of the reason we've been cautious with adding a lot of FTE right so there is a category that's sort of Grant.

Administration and I there there's folks in the county manager's office myself Jon Ella hardgrove and then there's our compliance team in finance Jon Keenan Gary Wood and Christy Wright who have been our other partners and we've probably been absorbing a lot more than we should to keep this going and so we're at a point now that we're pivoting and so the question was and has been do we pivot with contractors to expand the bandwidth now that we've gotten through this or do we bring in folks in house prior to last month we were about to craft a RFP that would have bought in external folks because that was the only way we could do it now we can have greater efficiencies by over the next 30 months having Tim limited positions and in that particular space there's a few other places so of the $62 million there are right now there may be two positions that are funded there are some that were Cooperative Extension related and now they're on interest income.

There are a couple of others as well so we've been very cautious the challenge is our Our Community Partners you know they they are doing great work and some have already asked well how do we cover this expense and our response has been unless treasury comes up with another appropriation unfortunately the county will not be able to support continuation funds and so that has been our response but that is a a a a great question so the direct County FTE we are in a good position the question becomes how are those Community Partners planning and we've been very clear and we remind but it's different when the the timeline ends and then the services that are desired are still priority and so unfortunately at this juncture we don't see how we can close that Gap but we've that's what we've communicated it's a great question quick qu followup really quick so the other rule that changed and I'mma mess it up but let's just say I contracted you gave a good.

Example about the lift station right like let's say it's 10 million well I not that one that's not the rule I want to go the one where in the event you know we have to cancel a contract for calls they can't actually do the work I actually think that is a problem we're going to run into I don't think it's going to be acute to us I think everybody's going to run into that problem Statewide especially around Broadband I think that's going to be a really great example that's a Broadband was one of the reasons why we kicked the can out so far right because we didn't have linemen and people didn't think about breaking through Rock and in the west and all these last mile initiatives so we see all these like I think when we open up these dollars and I don't mean we as end Duram County just Statewide we had so many contractors applying for dollars and we awarded These funds and what we had and what we.

Have say wide are some contractors are like wait a minute I thought I was going to have 10 projects I have 30 I do not have the Personnel to execute this work so they're going to have to cancel their contracts or we're going to have to cancel like are we doing a decent amount of track I know we are so that in the event all right so we pop up July 25 and they're like you know what we actually cannot execute this are we in a position to say all right we got to throw this right back out on the street pivot reallocate these dollars cu the feds have said so and still get this done by 26 cuz I don't want to have to reopen it again yes ma'am and yes Jon coins has a term he coins off ramps and so so we have a lot of ifin statements as it as we've gotten to this point because the list is all clean and pretty right now but there are lots of times.

That we've pivoted and shifted because either the state offered money Broadband is a great example we had originally planned for a higher number but the state the state thank goodness took that on the complexities with broadband and the contractual obligations and negotiations with internet service providers is tremendous and I am so grateful they are facilitating that process that's that is a an example so and that's part of what we'll come back to the board with is showing some examples of well what happens if if something occurs before December 31st 2024 or after what where will our off ramps be and we have some thoughts about potential off-ramps just sort of based on board policy commitments and we are always always going to recommend lowrisk off ramps so so it but it's it is those are that keeps us up and but we are we are in a much better place because treasury has allowed increased flexibility so it is it is not the fear will lose the money it is the board.

Establishing some clear paths of where we may want to place those dollars give one example the federal government and state dollars for child cares decreased and so for us that's a place that's a potential way that we could adjust a contract to support Child Care Subsidy there are some other places so as Jon talked about there's this on the slide when we look at sort of how do we manage it that first bullet when it talks about our need to revisit all of our contracts and make sure there are contingencies in there that we can do a change order or other types of Clauses so that we can make those adjustments so those are the things that we'll we'll start doing so that we can one make it a seamless process when we bring those contracts back but going forward as we craft them make sure there's that flexibil ability in the language our intent is to return no dollars our intent is to stay in compliance and be and so that is a.

Framework in which we operate are trying to operate and so we'll have greater Clarity on some of these areas but are so excited about the increased flexibility that has been given thank you commissioner Jacobs thank you thank you so much for for managing a very complex process so carefully and so glad we have you Jon as a grants manager for Durham County and you know this not just ARA funding but all grants are just you know as we Face the revenue challenges that we have you know your your job is becoming increasingly important so I just wanted to focus on well first of all could we get some of this updated information on our website so first of all having someone who can look through a 107 page updated final Rule and then condense it I really appreciate but the the list of approved projects and and the FAQs if we could get that up on our website that would be great right the the arpa page and the the remaining.

Balance I do think it's going to be would be great if we could have some board input during the budget because I can just list right now you mentioned one of them we've got the challenge of the 300 Child Care Facility we've had a request for a resilience plan I know that we still have the challenge of re-entry housing for women we had the homeless Services advisory committee submit a whole bunch of different requests to us so there there are still a lot of unmet needs that we've already received and requests commissioner mean Vice chair Burns and I both have received requests from our mental health Clubhouse for support right and so we know the challenges that we're going to have with our budget and I would hope that our board could look at this still a lot of money left $4.5 million how we can use that directly for Community needs that we've already that we're already aware of.

So I'll just say well Deputy manager hager's pulling that up so we have pulled the leadership team about the topics from their perspectives that we want to make sure we're addressed during the budget work sessions and then once we'll plan to share that with you all and then ask you all for any additional ones but it arpa is definitely one as well as opioid settlement funding will be brought brought to you all for the budget work sessions great and I see Greg sitting here so I'm going to ask this to both of you with the ending of the Federal support for supporting access to broadband I know there's we are funding a digital Equity with the city right in the arpa funding but are there are there any programs out there now are there any opportunities for our residents now that this is going away and do we know how many people are going to be impacted by this program going away let us come back to you with more specific information on.

That it is similar to the loss and funding with child care support and there's just not enough to close the gaps however we will we come back with with an understanding of what's available and share what the board potentially can do and and bring more clarity around the broadband and digital Equity space okay cuz sometimes you know there are resources that people don't know about and anything that we can do to get that out to the community for instance because I serve on the DSs board I know that we haven't been maxing out our Child Care Subsidy and I know it's complicated that part of it is we don't have the number of providers but again I think sometimes I feel like we don't we're still not getting information out to to people and connecting the dots so I I just wanted to put that out there thank.

You my turn thanks and yeah thanks to you too for being such a formidable team regarding all of the the management of these complicated arpa dollars and and really thanks for explaining how the federal guideline changes benefit us as a county I found that particularly helpful do you think that the guideline changes will in any way benefit our community based part end up helping us benefit our community based partners with either you know current Optimum implementation of their projects or ongoing funding after these funds.

Expire I I will say the action that the board took to move Community Partners either to revenue replacement or interest income will help them tremendously for Community Partners that may not Mo be moving as swiftly it does give us the flexibil ability to do a contract change after 2024 whereas before we may not have and I I would just say that we always keep in Focus what was the original intent with the outcomes desired for that dollar being spent gotcha and as we keep that in mind the flexibility does allow just the board to make sure that that particular outcome continues regardless if it's the same partner or not and so for various reasons U there may be leadership changes in an or entity but the work can still continue which is which is important and so I'm not sure if I'm answering your question your question but it does give further context I do believe yeah and and Jon can sorry I just want to add one point.

That might be self- obvious but I thought about including it in the slides and didn't so I wanted to to at least highlight it our partner organizations our subrecipients they were not subject to the original obligation deadline rule so they've always had the flexibility to continue to pay folks to enter into new contracts as needed those types of things so I did I sometimes that does get lost in the noise a little bit and I did want to make every make sure everybody was on the same page with that is in that the flexibility is really on how we're able to navigate our relationships with them but for their projects have always had greater flexibility than we've had and they will continue to have the the full the full scale of of operational flexibility through the end of their performance period of their individual grants as Claudia noted switching them to revenue replacement or interest income gives them it it eases their administrative burden and their it it softens some of the compliance.

Requirements and so those are kind of what's driving the changes so that they have better flexibility in terms of the actual design and implementation of their programs but in terms of the use of the funding it's they're they're relatively unchanged from the new rules okay thank you that is help we'll never assume anything self-evident with especially with matters related to fining yeah sure go follow on the replacement what happens okay when that those funds are expended because you're replacing right Revenue that they needed so what happens then well the the way that category works the it it can be used in two different ways one the the entity that's receiving the dollars we could use it for a revenue shortfall so let's say our we've had declines in sales taxes so we could use it to offset that revenue and that would be the county you can oh the second way that you can use it is to cover any type of expense that the county can.

Fund and not have to go through all of the additional treasury guidelines if that makes any sense so if there are guidelines that we normally have to follow and then say it goes up to step 10 treasury has like five other steps so so we only have to do five steps if that makes any sense which makes it easier and more flexible and so it is in that space that we have moved those nonprofits into the space that doesn't require as many steps to to do their work and for nonprofits and for me I've worked with them throughout my career at various levels many of them don't have the administrative teams to to do some of the extra work that's required they can do it but they're not necessarily structured for for that level of increased work and so they again comply but this takes some load out for them so it was our desire to to try to make that administrative burden A Little Less in for them and it also lessens our.

Administrative burden as well because of of having fewer steps that we have to climb for reporting purposes and compliance I guess what I'm trying to get at is what it the way it reads when you say Revenue replacement okay you're you're replacing my dollars for now what happens four or five years or down the road you've cuz when you say replace that means you've replaced something that I've already I've lost so what happens later I guess that's what I'm trying to understand that's a great question so those when when the dollars end for the contractual period and most of those Community Partners their contracts in in summer or fall of next year they they're they will be no more money for them yes ma'am and so yeah just continue to follow on that and it seems a little connected to what Wendy was asking too about you know budget discussions maybe I'll just put it this way at the maternal black maternal health and infant mortality conference I felt two very strong Sensations from our.

Community Partners there one how what a wonderful job we've done of pushing money you know towards them to help Advance our black maternal health goals and you know and how grateful they are and and pro progress has been made either you know I picked up on this from Individual conversations or from questions that they asked in the breakout sessions and from from things Rod Jenkins said on a panel etc etc so that was that was really good and you know it seems like there's all that more funding is always needed of course and the county can't always be the Sole Provider of that of course and yet this is a top priority of our board and and has been and we sometimes it's tempting that when something has been a priority one year you know and it's top level discussion during the budget we then don't really discuss it in subsequent budgets because we assume it's going to be ongoing and continued and and so with ARA funding that.

Really isn't the case and to just what what are we going to do about that you know like how are we going to decide when this comes to the and I guess it'll come at budget maybe if we think about it like we're thinking about this one but I you know do are we thinking about everything well that you know the timing of these discussions in our in the context of the full almost billion doll budget yeah is is a good time okay because we we are at a place that we have more needs and desires and we have funds to support those whether it's property taxes sales taxes arpa true our words were never said yes so as we as we look at the 2425 budget year the manager recommended back in the November time frame that we would have somewhat of a pause although the budget will grow but in 2425 it is a very inward look at well what do we move forward with from a.

Base budget perspective if you look at our billion doll operation what do we do what do we stop doing what's a priority continuing you know considering the changes of our community the needs Etc and what are we trying to impact with those dollars so with the arpa funding there will be a component where we will do program evaluation and that will give us additional information with our base budget review we will provide board information as well but it is an inward look that I am sure jurisdictions across the country will be doing because these transformative dollars have been just that right right right it's allowed jurisdictions to look at areas differently the challenge is now that they're gone right how do you handle it if those services or are impactful enough that they need to continue when you're balancing revenues that are back at preco levels from a growth perspective gotcha okay yeah and so related to that me just as a this is sort of an aside it's.

Kind of connected but we I I am eager to to know how we're going to make a fin decision on the preschool in 300 Main Street you know we've received this additional information from Linda Chappelle and so anyway we're we're all eager to know that and I can tell you have a plan for how we're going to address it so great so so another question I have I these are sort of worries is there room or capacity within the arpa funds either via remaining balance or by way of the current current rfps that are out right now or these new flexibilities to achieve the current pressing needs that we have related to housing security like I know we have an RFP out for expanded day services and I also know just I guess you know I hear it frequently being on hsac and also attending the urban ministries of durhams Gayla that there is this huge desire still to umig figure out how to acrew enough Capital need for you know a new shelter.

Basically that will have new and expanded Services working with St Phillips and all that so it so back to my original question is there any room capacity you know within ARA funds to help us do everything we want to do related to that unfortunately there is not enough I I know the Capital Construction component had range for it for that project would would be something the board would need to consider in the Capal CIP okay probably a joint effort how about a study you know how about the initial sort of part of that the you know we don't necessarily support studies with arpa funding I would suggest that we do a an appropriation of local dollars to support that okay because at the end of the day when the feds come in they want to see well what is what what did we get for that did you accomplish it yeah makes sense and you know if we could point to well we have a set aside and it's actually going to move forward.

That's possibly but we always say when in doubt leave it out so we would just suggest that we we appropriate local dollars for for that kind of is that conversation ongoing I mean we've not had recent conversations and I'll let the manager talk through that that just say so you answered it we have not had recent conversations but a part of what we all aware of of this joint conversation around the comprehensive housing conversation some of the outcomes I would hope that would come out of that would be some plans and and next steps as to how we can move toward a concrete you know estimate and some type of scope that would lead us there right now we we we have what what they've projected but without that study there's really no way for us to say what an actual estimated cost would be and for us to bring something to the board so hopefully out of those joint conversations we would have some type of action plan that would get us there what.

What are the joint conversations so I know what the city county school conversation and so we have some of our staff members that cherum has appointed to serve on the the task force and then they would ultimately be a part of some type of subcommittee well has it started no and you're GNA you're are leaz on I think and I I was thinking that I want to make sure I hadn't missed something it they' just formulated I know chair alone sent the the recomend city and the county have presented our members that we appointees to we're waiting for the school board to select their appointees and share it with the rest of us and the goal is to have the first meeting in June that sounds great and I I almost feel like the discussion about you know H how to meet the housing security needs of people who are currently experiencing homelessness is an important enough subcomponent of that larger discussion that this group is going to be having.

That we might need to move sooner and more quickly and with a more focused look because you know this conversation from urban ministries to us has been going on for at least 6 months now I mean I don't even remember when maybe a year and and maybe they're not reaching out because they're hesitant to do so but they're reaching out to us I mean I saw Nea got a an email from sh Sheldon I think and I'm hearing from their board members and you know right so anyway yeah I'm not sure what to tell them right what and what we want to do we we want to have a more collaborative discussion about about it as opposed to them coming to the county to just have that conversation we need all of the stakeholders at the table and I think we'll have a much more sustainable solution if we're doing this as a collective as opposed to us just working on this in a Solo and not knowing what's happening at the city and.

And also I mean that makes sense and and I still keep thinking sometimes I want to use the conjunction but instead I say and and yes ma'am I feel like I've done that a lot in this in this little time of mine here before the microphone but that's my Ed butt you know the I feel like what's going to be needed as part of this larger discussion is information that a feasibility study would provide us isn't it and so I don't want that to get delayed and delayed and further and further and further so and and let me say if that is something that this board decides we want to fund we can certainly do that but we we no else is.

No this is not my project I don't like it when say this is what I want in the budget this is a project that I feel like we've heard from the community for seven years seven and a half years just trying to get some sense that there yeah is this a is this a group is this a board desired action what I'm trying to sense so I take that back to right the people who were asking and the other thing I've. Yes.

Right you know hear from staff what are your thoughts and so I'm hearing you it needs to be part of perhaps an even larger conversation but oh boy that just makes me think okay slow government government does great work this is why we want you as our appointee cuz you're going to whip everyone into shape and keep them moving the train along. That's and I just emailed BCC y' all the list sorry commissioner Howton I think I left you off forwarding it to you now but so you should all have the list of it shows the people the city has mentioned that they want to include as well as the people that the county is going to put forward and and I really do want to say while we're on the arpa subject which includes so many other things and it's linking into the budget season is it's really it is really important to me and I do think to our whole board that we figure out a way to make that 300 Main.

Street Child Care Center not market-based but one that will serve all children so keep up with our maintain our official commitment there commissioner Jacobs and then this last comment on do do I respond to what you just sent just for no this is just okay cuz I just want to make sure that you there were County staff listed and yeah they're listed in Javier's email they're not they're still going to be there they still there this is just additional people that we're okay additional okay yeah no that their staff members that council member cabier had already included from conver ations that we had like DSS director all of that they're still there and then we just added two more to that list okay okay thank you for clarifying that okay thank you so much appreciate it I know now that brings us to our final item with Miss Shannon trap for our commissioner directives and everyone should have an email from Shannon with the Excel.

These good morning Madam chair Madam Vice chair Commissioners Madam manager and Madam attorney we are here to discuss the board directive and I it is my understanding this will return as a standing topic of discussion on the work sessions and so we will bring you to the attention of the April 2024 invite as a reminder these work session staff directives come out of the minutes once you approve those minutes through the clerk's office then those directives that are included in the minutes then get added to the board directives and so if you're looking at the tab for April 2 2024 here are the most recent directives that have been provided to us and we will take any comments or notes that we may need to carry to the.

Team okay I. Will I will resend it.

I just resent it so it should be at the top of your. Email are you good I believe that on the iPad you're not able to access the share drive folder so it works for me it opens in Exel for you oh okay yeah I'm sorry well we have the check your commission Jacob it works for the millennials.

Are there any questions or comments about the directives or any additional notes that you like for the staff to take I was just wondering the some of them are highlighted some of them aren't what does the coloring mean so the yellow highlighting is indicates that those things are outstanding so we just it's a reminder to our team to go back and check on that item but we did a very diligent job this morning of making sure that we have addressed all those items and so you may just need to refresh and if you refresh you should see that there is no.

Highlighting anyone have any questions for Shannon commissioner Jacobs yeah I did I didn't have a chance to look at this yet so I think we just got it this morning but I'll I'll just follow up by email if I have any questions thank you so much and if it will be helpful to you all we'll send the directors out on the Thursday prior to the work session to as a reminder when clerk sends out the agenda and it's a shared drive folder so we could just add it to the idate so it's always live absolutely it's live and all of our ACM dcms have access to it so any comments that you want to provide we you can put those there and we can see them and we'll give everyone some time to review it and email any questions thank you Shannon thank you okay that that brings us to let me double check yes the conclusion of our meeting so we are.

Adjourned go home relax take care of the. Babies for.