Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · May 8, 2023

us to Pledge of Allegiance thank you thank you are there any agenda adjustments commissioners hearing on I will move on to the announcements and have Miss Wallace if she will read our announcements for us good evening Commissioners and to the public I will read the announcements that are published in our agenda get free covet home test kits all North Carolina households are eligible to order two free covid-19 home test kits per month

M to 1pm they are also available on Wednesdays from noon until 4 pm property tax relief program Durham County Tax Administration wants to ensure wants to help ensure that all property owners are aware of property tax relief programs that may benefit them there are three major tax relief programs known as Homestead programs available for homeowners who qualify the application deadline for the homestead program is June 1st 2023. gov backslash tax and search for

org for additional information need help buying food snap may be able to help with buying food helping help with completing a Snap application can be provided by Katie Forest at Durham County Cooperative Extension you can contact Katie at

org or call 919-560-7321 children's book week bookmark

design contest for kids calling all kid artists the library wants you to help design a bookmark for children's book week the theme is read books spark change pick up a handout at your local library location create a design and turn it in uh to the library by Saturday May 13th winners will be announced Monday May 22nd there is a link here for additional details about the contest as well as contact information uh there are four different individuals that you can reach out to National Foster Care month May is National Foster Care month and the 2023 theme is strengthening Minds uplifting throughout the month of May Durham County Department of Social Services will help raise awareness about foster care in our community while honoring the young people in foster care as well as the volunteers who support those in need of temporary or permanent housing learn

gov website you can also call 919-560-8092 for additional information that concludes the announcements that are in our agenda thank you Miss Wallace I appreciate you reading those for us the next item commissioners or minutes we have her before us the April 10th 2023 regular session minutes are there any edits or comments regarding the minutes hearing none I will ask for a motion to approve Madam chair I've moved the approval of the April 10th minutes second moved improperly second all in favor aye

ocean approved passes five to zero next we have ceremonial items Madam chair can I make one quick announcement thank you I'm sorry I should have made it right before the announcements uh since we have so many folks in the audience tonight uh a lot of you all know that Fidelity Investments is here in Durham and they recently announced a 250 million dollar Scholars Program for African-American and Hispanic kids the deadline was Friday they have extended it it is 250 million dollars worth of scholarship money last dollar scholarship money and wraparound Services the funding is only available to students in five cities in North Carolina Durham Raleigh High Point Greensboro and Jamestown it is actually available to every zip code in Durham that is unheard of every zip code that only three states us Massachusetts Massachusetts and Texas I'm gonna get of

course I will pass along to the clerk but they extended today that's just 250 million dollars left on the table that our kids can get and the money cannot it's not just used for a degree program it can be used for a certificate program so I see President Buxton sitting there nodding his head in affirmation so it can be used at Durham Tech as well so please please please if you know a deserving student in high school please go to the Fidelity Scholars Program and get your application in by May 15 11 59. thank you so commissioner Burns will that information be on our website so that the public have access to it where will it be located I will send it to Monica right now so that we can make it available on our website thank you okay now we are our ceremonial items uh is next Commissioners 230308 a resolution resilient and

thriving communities week so the board is requested to receive a resolution from the child adverse childhood experience and resilient coordinator and the Durham adverse childhood experience and resilient task force and I have asked commissioner Burns if she will read that um resolution for us Durham County Board of com of County Commissioners resolution resilient and thriving communities week whereas resilient and thriving communities are vital to our community and State's future health success and prosperity to ensure a strong foundation for everyone at all ages and stages of life and whereas the science is clear that resilience is built and that communities and systems play a key role in promoting safe secure and nurturing environments for all and whereas adverse childhood and life experiences adverse Community environments atrocious cultural

experiences and adverse climate events impact overall quality of life and well-being of an entire community and whereas healthy North Carolina 2030 a path toward Health by the North Carolina Institute of medicine in partnership with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health identifies reduction of adverse child experiences by 25 by 2030 as a goal and whereas it is our Collective responsibility to collaborate in a non-partisan fashion to promote positive experiences secure relationships and supportive environments to buffer stress and adversity and to support local resilience coalitions collaboratives task force and initiatives across the state and whereas investing in policies programs and strategies that address adversity and strengthen Community resilience is essential to health and well-being of our community whereas Durham County encourages all individuals and all sectors public-private Early Childhood through post-secondary education faith-based organizations

Health Care Systems Justice systems Social Services systems businesses and elected leaders to collaborate to strengthen our communities and now therefore be it resolved that we the Durham County Board of County Commissioners do hereby Proclaim April 29th through May 6 as resilient and thriving communities week in our community and commend its observance to our citizens be therefore further resolve that we the members of the Durham Board of County Commissioners do hereby urge the entire Durham Community to become trauma-informed and supportive of strategies that strengthen individual family and Community buffers that can prevent or alleviate the effects of adverse childhood experiences and adverse Community environments be it further resolved that we the Durham County Board of County Commissioners commit to work with the Durham adverse childhood experiences and resilience task force to develop and act upon a policy agenda that will address the root causes of adverse experiences in our communities this the eighth day of May 2023

thank you commissioner Burns and I will ask staff um DSS staff or Health Department staff to address you thank you County Commissioners for this resolution thank you chair Howerton for working with us to make it a stronger call to action this year and we really do look forward to working with the board on a policy agenda that can really make real change for our community around adverse experiences would you give uh your name oh yes your depart your title yes sorry Jess Bosque adverse childhood experiences and resilience coordinator Durham County Public Health thank you so much any comments commissioners

well thank you Jess for bringing this to us and for your great presentation at our last meeting and I'm just so glad that we have you as our coordinator and all the work that you're doing to implement what was highlighted in this resolution and I just want to also mention that the Surgeon General announced last week that loneliness is a National Health crisis and um and especially among young people so really lifting that up and I think that that's I feel like that's something that we can do something about in Durham uh we we are an Engaged Community creating a community that is inclusive is important I know this summer there's a big focus on getting all children and youth engaged in something um and the other thing I wanted to share

as I listened to a podcast just this week I did share with a few people um because we're going to be talking about mental health at our joint school board and board accounting commission meeting um talking about how the conclusion of the podcast about the Mental Health crisis in our with our youth is the importance of our youth or children having a relationship with one person just one adult having a positive loving mentoring relationship and that being such a strong protective Factor so again I I think we can this is something that we can do in Durham and thank you and I also want to say thank you Jess thank you for taking this on because it's so important to all of us and and Heidi and I were gonna wanted to get with you but Heidi was busy with a new grandbaby congratulations

so you know the it starts there yeah it starts with the little ones so thank you for all the work that you're doing we're we really appreciate it thank you thank you for the support in this absolutely um the next uh Proclamation is 230309 um older Americans month and the board is proclaimed requested to Proclaim May 2023 as older Americans month and I've asked Mr Potter if she would read this resolution um and have staff from the Department of Social Services come forward it would be my honor to read this resolution proclaiming um older American month 2023 whereas Durham County includes a growing

number of older Americans who contribute their strength wisdom and experience to our community and whereas Durham County is a diverse community and benefits people of all ages abilities and backgrounds and they are all welcomed supported included and given the opportunity to participate and live independently and whereas Durham County recognizes the need to create a community that offers the services and supports older adults may need to make choices about how they age and whereas Durham County can work to build an even better Community for older residents by implementing the master aging plan not limiting our thinking about aging exploring and combating stereotypes emphasizing the many positive aspects of Aging inspiring older adults to push past traditional boundaries embracing our community's diversity and confirming all people

regardless of race ethnicity gender age or disability have the right to make choices and decisions about their own lives to live independently for as long as possible and to participate fully in our community now therefore I bring to a Howerton chair on chair chair and on behalf of the Durham Board of County Commissioners do hereby Proclaim May 2023 as older Americans month in Durham County North Carolina and urge every resident to celebrate our older residents help to create an inclusive society and accept the challenge of flexible thinking around aging we also recommend this observance to our community and urge all residents Community agencies Faith groups medical facilities and businesses to join with the Department of Social Services the Durham Center for Senior Life dementia inclusive Durham and aging well Durham to honor older adults and those who care for them during May and throughout the year this the 8th day of May 2023.

Carter we have with the police good evening my name is Megan Russ and I'm here with Lee little we are both program managers with aging and adult services division with the Department of Social thank you for this Proclamation and recognizing may as older Americans funds to not only have it recognized Statewide but even more importantly for Durham County our community recognizing older Americans month is so important for our residents who are aging while at the Aging in America conference this past March Lee and I were reminded that we are all aging every day not just those who are over 60. this year's theme for older Americans month is aging Unbound which highlights the many diverse aging experiences as well as the community's role in combating ageism and stereotypes one statistic that Governor Cooper

highlighted in his Statewide Proclamation is at 14 percent of employees in North Carolina are 68. we all know that the number of citizens over 60 is growing rapidly and I'm sure that the percentage of people over age 60 that are employed will be growing as well this is something that not everyone thinks about when considering the needs of our older community as Community as a community combating ageism we need to recognize Advocate and support our aging population as their experiences are changing there are more and more adults over 60 staying in the workforce or continuing their education acting as the primary caretaker for children and giving back to our community in meaningful ways we also have a community of older adults and poor health both physically and or mentally and their aging experience can be vastly different it is estimated that over 300 000 North Carolinians are affected by Alzheimer's disease and

related dementias this number is estimated to grow to 400 000 by 2025. we cannot as a community see someone's age and have a one-size-fits-all approach our older community members are aging Unbound I was thrilled to see that Governor Cooper on May 2nd signed executive order 280. North Carolina's commitment to building an age-friendly state this order has outlined 10 sections and the three that we're most excited about are creating a caregiver Workforce strategic leadership group improving protection of vulnerable adults which we know is all so important as APS cases have increased by nearly 70 percent in the last five years and submitting North Carolina's application to become an age-friendly state as the governor signed this executive order I am reminded of what Durham has already put in place with our Master aging plan our plan's mission is that we will

celebrate aging as well as meet the needs and engage and engage the strengths of all residents towards the goal of building a safe affordable accessible connected and inclusive community for all ages I feel so fortunate to be able to reside in a community where leaders both here in Durham County and at the state level take action to improve the lives of our older community our aging and adult services division along with our many Community Partners and with the support of this board of County Commissioners strive to provide our older adults with the various resources services and funding that is needed to allow our community to age Unbound Lee and I with the aging and adult services division along with the Department of Social Services are so very thankful for your recognition and Proclamation for May to be older Americans on May we all age Unbound thank you

commissioners Mr Jacobs thank you so much for bringing us this Proclamation for your comments um Megan and and and both of you for the work that you do um I I did not realize that Governor Cooper was following Durham's lead in being designated an age-friendly Community we started the process about four years ago and our our in in the process with implementing our aging plan um and I I want to recognize that we had a dementia awareness event on April 29th just before the beginning of this special month and Lee thank you for being there and and for DSS um Durham County DSS being one of the sponsors of the event and we had over a hundred people who came out from all different ages all different backgrounds

because dementia and Alzheimer's really impacts almost everyone in the room raised their hand when I asked how many people have know someone or have a family member or friend impacted by the disease so um something that we need to keep working on and I just I'm grateful for for both of you your leadership and aging Adult Services and the great work that DSS does um every day thank you and I also would like to say thank you and for lifting this up it's one of the things that we all know if we live long enough we're going to all get there um I've been to two events this week for seniors and everybody's dancing so it must be something about dancing I show up um it's a good it's a good exercise for seniors to dance

so thank you for bringing this and honoring older adults thank you thank you can't help Sharon because you mentioned that DeMent dancing is considered to be one of the things that you can do to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's I keep dancing oh there you go keep it up all right we will move on to our next Proclamation um and this one is drug National Drug Court month the board is requested to Proclaim May 20 2023 as National Drug Court month and I've asked um commissioner Alum if she would read this Proclamation and then we'll have um I see a judges coming to the podium Durham Board of County Commissioners Proclamation National Drug Court month

5 million individuals and whereas they are now recognized as the most successful justice system intervention in our nation's history and whereas they save an average of six thousand dollars for every individual they serve and whereas treatment courts significantly improve substance use disorder treatment outcomes substantially reduce addiction and related crime and do so at less expense than any other criminal justice strategy and whereas treatment courts improve education employment housing and financial stability promote family reunification reduce foster care

placements and increase the race rate of addicted mothers delivering babies who are fully drug free and whereas treatment courts facilitate community-wide Partnerships bringing together Public Safety and Public Health and whereas treatment courts demonstrate that when one person Rises out of substance use and crime we all rise now therefore I Brenda a Howerton chair and on behalf of the Durham Board of County Commissioners do hereby proclaim the month of May 2023 as National Drug Court month in Durham County North Carolina and urge all citizens to join in recognizing how important it is to help justice-involved individuals remain drug and alcohol free and to become productive members of society this the eighth day of May 2023. um hi my name is lentura Duncan I'm the drug treatment Court coordinator I just want to say thank you for proclaiming made drug court month Durham County drug

treatment Court currently has 30 participants with an average of serving 45 a year last year we had five graduates and we continue to accept referrals our drug treatment Court team was selected to receive training from the National Drug Court Institute for this August as we celebrate drug court month we have Spirit Week for the entire week just to highlight a few this week we're teaming up against drugs by wearing one's favorite sports apparel on Friday May 18th we will have a socket to drugs by wearing tacky socks celebration at cjrc and on May 31st we will have no drugs in sight with the paint knot paint night wearing neon colors drug treatment Court participates in several events throughout the year to include recovery month and during the holiday seasons we provide each participant with the holiday dinner box once again thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you at our next graduation in June thank you good evening

chair Howerton and other honorable members of the commission my name is Judge David Hall I preside over drug court and thank you for the opportunity to address the commission tonight I didn't prepare anything because sometimes it's best to speak from the heart and I've had the honor to preside and or be the steward of drug court since 2018 and I want to uplift the support the leadership that the county provides in funding drug court it wouldn't be here without you you are the leader of our team our family our village uh it goes without saying that people come to drug court sometimes at a low point in their lives of Justice involvement and trying to get out from under addictions

we've had the opportunity the pleasure to have graduated some wonderful people and with your support of wraparound services employment and we have some folks working for the county we've really been able to see some people turn their lives around but we couldn't do it without the support of the cjrc team that is really the backbone and support the inner workings they meet with these folks day to day they get to know them they get to know the ins and outs uh it's a very intimate courtroom it is a closed courtroom due to the nature of the issues that we deal with in drug court but it is open for you to come to visit I would ask the members if if you want to come in and visit that let them

know you're coming in you are always welcome we have some more graduations coming up we've had quite a few graduations in the last year and drug court should be and is a feather in your cap we are one of only 16 counties in the state to have drug court it is a big deal there's a big deal in Durham and it is a big deal across the state to see people graduate have their families come back together reunite kids uh I could go on all night about all of the good things that come out of drug court with your support I hope you'll continue to support it I hope you will come and visit get to meet some of the folks and please keep providing the services that you do because you give hope you have folks that come in get out from

under we offer employment you offer housing we work with Freedom House The Hope Center and that's just a few I don't want to name names because I'll probably leave somebody out but the sheriffs the DA's public defenders uh cjrc and all the treatment providers the police department they're all part of the family so thank you for all you do and thank you for the proclamation for National Drug Court month and we hope to see you soon thank you anything for you Miss Parker good evening and thank you again I I didn't have a lot to say I just wanted to support the team coming up but I do want to say thank you for the continued support of drug treatment Court drug treatment Court provides a valuable resource to the Durham Community Helping

those individuals that are drug and alcohol addicted to become drug and alcohol free and then also become employed and productive members of society so we just thank you so much for the continued support of the court and offer that you come out to our graduation if you want to tour um the drug court Suite on the sixth floor of the courthouse come and visit us there we can tell you all about the court and then really let you see the ins and outs of what the staff do on a day-to-day basis with the individuals that we serve so again we thank you thank you Commissioners commissioner Burns yes ma'am mine will be relatively quick um as always thank you all for so much that you do and thank you for the open invitation I I look forward to June I will try to we have three events I think on the last one but I in preparation for the night I did look up some numbers so this is 20 20 numbers so I think in 2020 uh they did a national survey and 41 million people said that they were dealing with a substance abuse issue in

6 million people between the ages of 12 and 17. so those are our adolescents that's Nationwide that's before 2020 that's before covet that's when that's before people were coping trying to use alcohol and drugs to cope so I imagine the numbers are way worse now court is way Fuller now it's exacerbated now and judge how I love what you said about it being a feather in the cap but it's only a feather in the cap if we receive it that way if the elected officials in the communities receive it that way anybody who's taking the time to go through drug treatment court and graduate that is a nod that they want to take a step in the right direction and so last month was Second Chance act month and in this month is drug treatment Court I almost wish they would reverse so that we could do drug treatment Court last month and then I could press upon you all these are the individuals that need a second chance and so it's only a fit in their cap if we're prepared to say yes you can come here and get a job it's only a fair then they cap if we say yes you can come here and get a certification or improve

your education yes we will put your child in this daycare for free while you are out here looking for a job so while it's good that they're doing their part and we have on some other Community Partners I do hope that you all get to visit the court I you said 16 I thought it was 61 course I mean I was way off judge Hall uh in the state of North Carolina I thought it was more drug courts than that in like 32 counties but we we have a really really great opportunity here to take somebody who's trying to do better and give them the next leg up as they try to the heel so again there's a lot more people that chose alcohol and drugs just to cope post pandemic everybody is not some long-term user some people are just looking for some help so I hope that you all take some time to see what these organizations are doing uh it sounds crazy we taking the C off of cjrc we're not saying substance abuse anymore we're saying substance use so we're changing our rhetoric because we want to be an open community and I just hope you all can join us in that and last thanks special shout out to Goodra who's been at cjrc or 20 some years and she's

retiring so we're gonna miss you sis doing some of this great work I was all okay so commissioner alum thank you Charlton I just want to thank you so much ditto to everything commissioner Burns said and just adding um just how amazing it has been to watch the staff uh who leads this program when Torah and Roshana when I came for this uh Justice Resource Center tour and even after the conversations I've had with you Rashana like the passion that exists uh within your hearts to help our community members and the amount of care I think it's really exemplary of the service leaders that we have within Durham County the way that like that you speak about every individual that comes through the program and you speak about their kids and their families and the impact you want to have I think it's so so important to show the type of environment that we're trying to build here in Durham County and how vital

these programs are not just to exist but to have good people running them people who genuinely care and I'm really glad that we have that here in Durham County with three of you thank you just yes I also want to express my thanks and admiration for the really important work that you three and and your whole team do um related to drug treatment court and I have had the chance to to visit two different times since I've been a commissioner and each time I've learned something new and and uh you know just just felt the the heart in the room for the the work that we're doing and I also know that you are continuing to you're continuously looking to improve um and are trying to follow best practices so that you know our our numbers and data will reflect the the data that was in this resolution as it is doing but I really appreciate that aspect of your work we recently added

medicine for opioid use disorder as one of the potential outcomes of the court it's not just about you know abstaining it's a lot about harm reduction and all of the things that we know are about practices so thank you so much and I'm glad that you brought this resolution to us tonight well I just want to say thank you did you one I just want to say thank you again for all the work you've done I haven't been to the the workshops that you have usually conference uh I normally I used to go to those I haven't done that in a while but we know that when we started this work how important it was then and how important it still is so thank you for all the work that you do to keep it going thank you

all right our next item is a proclamation a resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of Musa Nathan T Garrett senior former County Commissioner and business leader the Board of Commissioners is as to approve this resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of Mr Garrett who made his transition on April 26 2023 the resolution was prepared and read um it was not read at his service but it was uh Bill Bell announced that it was there that we had prepared it on Saturday May 6 at Duke Chapel and at this time and we the family is not here tonight uh we will do that at another time but we wanted to as a community honor

this County Commissioner this Legacy a man that was important to our community commissioner Jacobs thank you for this honor the Durham Board of County Commissioners resolution honoring the Legacy of Nathan Taylor Garrett senior whereas Nathan Taylor Garrett senior was born in Tarboro North Carolina raised in Durham where his family relocated during his early years and where has he received his Early Education in Durham public schools and graduated from Hillside High School as valedictorian and whereas Garrett continued his formal education at Yale University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology studied accounting and business at Wayne State University and earned his CPA certification in 1961

becoming the fifth African American CPA in Michigan where is he opened the first black owned accounting firm in the state of North Carolina and used his insights on black business to achieve success in various professional arenas and where is Garrett founded and served as executive director of the foundation for Community Development originally formed as part of the North Carolina fund a cutting-edge wealth and education program conceived at the request of former North Carolina governor Terry Sanford to break the cycle of poverty for many of the state's residents and whereas as lifelong learning was a personal value he earned a Juris doctorate degree from North Carolina's Central University School of Law in 1986.

S Secretary of Commerce chairman emeritus of the board of directors of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance president of the National Association of minority CPA firms and the North Carolina Association of minority businesses and served as a county Durham County Commissioner from 1972 until 1974. and whereas this gifted pioneering and passionate business leader will long be remembered as a Trailblazer benefactor

mentor and dynamic change maker now therefore be resolved that we the members of the Durham County Board of Commissioners do hereby resolve to honor the memory of Nathan Taylor Garrett senior we urge all Durham County residents to reflect on his extraordinary Legacy of business accomplishments his strong worth ethic his genuine love of this community and his extraordinary contributions this the sixth day of May 2023 Brenda Howerton chair Wendy Jacobs Vice chair knit Alum commissioner namashina Burns commissioner Heidi Carter commissioner thank you and after the service on Saturday

his wife said let's go dance and there was an area at the on the other side of the chapel that we went over and we danced so that's what a way to say goodbye to your community is that everybody gets to dance Tammy Hall was there with me and um it was quite exciting to be there and joyous occasion all right so we are down to other business so 23-0324 the FY 2023-24 managers recommended budget presentation the Durham County Manager Dr Kimberly Sorrell will formally present the recommended budget for FY 2023 to the

Durham County Board of Commissioners this is in accordance with NCG as 159-12 of the local government budget and fiscal Control Act so we will here manager give us the budget foreign

so I will first say that it is a little disappointing for me that budget adoption season coincides with allergy season so please forgive me if I am constantly clearing my throat but I want to say good evening to chair Howerton and this illustrious and very distinguished Board of Commissioners good evening to County staff good evening to County residents it is indeed an honor and a privilege for me to present to you my recommended budget for fiscal year 2023-24 this second budget of my tenure reflects the values and goals of our Visionary board and my personal leadership belief in the power and effectiveness of cohesive comprehensive and focused local government the hard choices made in this recommended budget are meant to solidify some of the gains that the county has

made over the past year respond to issues we are currently experiencing and the choices are also meant to set us up for future successes it is also the culmination of thousands of hours of work across all County departments shared City County agencies and a significant number of partner agencies many of them here tonight these partner agencies are vital to our County's goals and objectives so to all of our County Employees especially our budget and management staff thank you all so much and to our partner partner agencies who also helped in this process I want to give you a great big heartfelt thank you would not be possible without your assistance the budget process that culminates in this document can be seen as a census of County needs and annual evaluation of

County direction as well as a fiscal application of County resources this undertaking is much more than just the costing of a Year's worth of County Services it is a dynamic opportunity for organizational self-reflection it offers a chance for process realignment and as always it offers a chance for our commissioners as County representatives to be active participants in guiding County outcomes through fiscal applications the annual budget process is a series of considered decisions attempting to culminate into comprehensive Solutions so with this in mind we must be a resilient government that not only performs during the best of time but also and perhaps more importantly during times of economic environmental and social uncertainty and while there are so many areas where

the county can expand or provide additional services or even invest more time and resources trust me there are limitations to our very finite resources therefore my recommended budget is a result of very targeted decisions that offer what I think are the best County Investments moving forward I will ask our Board of Commissioners employees as well as residents for Clear short-term and long-term guidance so that we can develop key goals and direction for the county in order to clarify that guidance I am setting in motion a reimagining of the county strategic plan it is my very strong expectation that this updated strategic plan will be a frame of reference for every major policy budget and operational decision made by management and our board

in order for a strategic plan to work it must be referenced it has to be believed in it needs to be constantly discussed and it must be measured that is the essential heart of a strategic plan involving people and actions and being willing to measure the success so am I very excited opinion I believe we are ready to make this important step and in order to identify and make strategic um decisions along with our board it is critical that I have a trusted management team that can inform as well as challenge me and they do that quite well after taking about nine months to observe and understand the management structure that was in place I felt that some changes to the structure could be beneficial to increasing our organizational efficiency the organizational restructure includes

a realignment of leadership portfolios as well as the inclusion of Deputy County managers and assistant County Manager these positions will be vital to ensuring that our best planned Solutions become reality so the development of this budget is predicated on a third straight fiscal year of significant growth in major Revenue sources Durham County continues to grow in terms of Business location job expansion as well as the number of people who choose this community as a desirable place to live all of these economic drivers are in turn pushing our Revenue sources higher and higher and yet we still see feel and recognize the need for so many more services more intensive existing Services as well as

new programs to deal with the evolving issues that are part of our fast-growing community simply put this amazing growth in Revenue has been easily offset by a faster set of growing expenses ultimately though this budget is about meeting the near future needs of the community with an eye toward the ongoing sustainability of Durham County's vibrant economy culture and life so key priorities that I've built into this recommended budget attempt to apply significant Revenue growth to the most important areas that I feel will provide the best outcomes my first priority given such impressive Revenue growth is to implement services at a pace that allow us to minimum to minimize general fund property tax rate increases that may be needed

second is protecting the economic stability of our employees by funding compensation levels that keep up with inflation as well as support existing benefits and thirdly is continuing to support and grow educational and Workforce opportunities for all Durham County residents and while new new positions are needed practically every year I have made a very intentional choice to limit potential position growth for this upcoming fiscal year so broadly speaking estimated Revenue growth for the upcoming fiscal year is distinctly positive major revenues include property tax sales tax Medicaid hold harmless funds occupancy taxed and general fund fund balance Durham County has seen very strong

growth in sales tax revenue as well as growth in city and county property valuation both are a direct reflection on local economic activity which in turn increases overall Revenue collection however even with significant natural growth in revenues the financial needs presented by various departments across the organization are significantly higher than the natural growth in Revenue alone can fund so the fundamental challenge for the development of this recommended budget is that even with significant natural growth and key revenues which total 36 million dollars four key priorities consumed most of this growth as you can see here these priorities totaled approximately 38 million dollars which is two million dollars more than

8 million dollars including Durham Public Schools Durham Technical Community College and Pre-K support also over the last two years there have been significant challenges to filling vacant positions to keep employees from leaving high stress jobs as well as overcoming the the loss of organizational knowledge that occurs when we have long tenured employees that retire to that end it should be noted that costs from current year compensation decisions mid-year reclassifications and

6 million dollars in the upcoming fiscal year please note that the Board of Commissioners and I strongly believe that all of our employees deserve to have salary increases that at a minimum keep up with inflation and surrounding County compensation trends her guidance from a compensation study by the management Advisory Group a major recommendation is a seven percent across the board salary increase for every County position and let the record show I strongly support that recommendation also along with those increases it's like a cola increase but I also want to encourage and acknowledge that our Workforce is an amazing Workforce and I

would like to support and acknowledge the hard work they do by supporting a three to four percent pay for performance increase along with the seven percent increase it is my belief that the most comprehensive solution we can make as a local government is to appropriately recognize the people who will determine vitally important programmatic and service success so in total all employees will be able to receive will be eligible to receive anywhere from a 10 percent pay increase to a maximum pay increase of 11 percent I like working for Durham County so now I'd like to talk about Revenue current projections of year-end property tax collections have the county surpassing budgeted amounts by approximately 7 million dollars this additional Revenue comes from

8 million dollars for the general fund and capital financing fund before any property tax rate increase so to put this into context that's an equivalent to over three cents on the property tax as part of the recent 550 million dollar general obligation Bond referendum the county noted that there may be a related two and a half cents property tax rate increase requested to support future Debt Service based upon these uh our updated estimates we now feel that a one and a half cent property tax rate increase is needed for Capital financing while an

additional one and a half cents is needed for general fund personnel and operational costs this means a total property tax rate increase is recommended at three cents I certainly recognize the impact that property tax increases have on residents and that is it is important for the county where possible to limit the increase on property tax rate this is why our management team was intentional about maximizing efficiencies as well as limiting expansion of services in other areas to provide the highest return on investment for all of our residents so for context we budget property tax revenue in two categories one to support general fund expenses and the other to support Capital financing funds the capital financing fund pays for capital projects and Debt Service

I would like to remind everyone that the property tax rate is the primary revenue source that is controllable by the board and it is the only significant way to raise additional Revenue in future years while the recommended rate for the upcoming fiscal year increases three cents future tax rate increases may also be necessary to support ongoing County goals including our significant commitment to Durham Public Schools to Capital planning and other initiatives so looking at special tax District strong growth in property valuation across all of our special tax districts has allowed me to recommend no tax rate increase for any of them in fact the Durham County Fire and Rescue District which covers the RTP area is requesting a one cent property tax rate decrease I will note that the value and the

5 percent

4 million dollars helps many different general fund initiatives an estimated five percent growth in sales tax collection revenue for next fiscal year is real is relatively conservative and reflects the unknown consequences of any economic downturn so continuing to look at Revenue other Revenue sources of note for the upcoming year based on current trending include an increase of three million dollars in the Medicaid hold harmless funds to an estimated total of 12 million dollars collected a decrease of one million dollars in register of deeds fees due to higher mortgage loan interest rates which

caused a downturn in house buying within the county and directly related to the problem that caused a reduction in the register of deeds fees the higher interest rates on cash account translates into a positive for the County due to an increase in our investment Revenue and now let's look at arpa as it relates to arpa or the American Rescue plan act funds Durham County will expend nearly 63 million dollars in arpa funds over the next several years these dollars will support the public health and economic recovery efforts resulting from the coronavirus pandemic these resources will allow infrastructure Investments which are essential for the community's growth and viability so after much deliberation including Community input staff feedback and board

26 million dollar allocation of arpa funds to support general fund needs with additional allocations occurring in future months through our request for proposal process so while the general fund is where the vast majority of daily activity and spending for government services occurs there are a number of other funds that serve specific County financial and operational purposes these include the already mentioned special tax District The Debt Service fund as well as the sewer Utility Fund

5 million dollars in general fund operations

and I just mentioned this budget does include new positions and the previous slide reflected a need of three million dollars for those new positions however I think it is important to note that the number of new positions this year compared to previous years has dropped considerably with ongoing High vacancy rates the long-term cost of positions and limited available space for additional personnel I felt it is important that we find ways to reallocate existing Human Resources before we look at expanding our Workforce efficiency gains an effective application of existing positions can help slow unnecessary expenditure growth for future budgets in recent board Retreats and conversations the main priority

8 million dollars which equ equates to a per pupil funding increase of 289 dollars to 4 650 per student which is nearly a seven percent increase Additionally the county provides

approximately 58 million dollars in indirect support for DPS through a number of different programs and departments also DPS will be receiving significant Federal covet related funding over the next several years up to 136 billion dollars this Federal funding support will go a long way towards supporting student needs coming out of the pandemic this recommended budget demonstrates that counties continued unwavering commitment to funding education another integral part of Durham County support for education and Workforce training is funding for Durham Technical Community College this higher educational system provides a myriad of services degrees and opportunities that either continue education After High School and towards college or towards a high-paying stable

4 million dollars of total County County funding to T dtcc is for Durham student scholarship like Durham Public Schools additional County funding is being allocated to support salary increases along with additional position support new positions are focused on improving the school to work pipeline needed to support the talent demand of the growing number of businesses in the county and especially those located in RTP

dtcc will continue to provide a pipeline of trained workers for technical jobs with continued funding of five hundred thousand dollars for the dtcc back to work initiative as well as the Bulls initiative as companies have chosen to locate in Durham discussions have been among dtcc and various Economic Development groups as well as the county around how we can help companies meet these increasing Workforce demands these programs being offered by dtcc will help provide and enhance the skills of local residents so they are able to get these jobs and keep these jobs to put it in context more jobs filled by local workers means more dollars in the local economy which means a more vibrant and thriving economy for all of Durham's residents

Additionally the goal of this board has been to reach Universal Pre-K for all Durham County Children this budget reflects the County's support of an increase of over one million dollars for Pre-K this additional funding will expand Durham pre-k by serving up to 100 additional children the estimated cost of universal Pre-K support across the county is more than 25 million dollars annually in total the county is funding education with over 207 million dollars between Durham Public Schools Durham Technical Community College and Pre-K I will state this emphatically our board has and continues to seek ways to expand opportunities for Regis for residents through the continued support of education and we thank you for that

this recommended budget funds several efforts to enhance Community prosperity Cooperative Extension will oversee a second year of food security grants I am recommending 532 thousand dollars to support food security efforts to assist Durham County's most vulnerable residents Additionally the board specifically asked what was needed by the Department of Veterans Services to better support the needs of our large veteran population within the county Lois Harvin Raven director of veteran services answered honestly and said as much as you all can afford to give the department So to that end I am recommending an additional veteran services officer who will assist with expanding Outreach to the 11 500 veterans who need help accessing VA benefits and other services

also to bolster Community safety the sheriff's office is working to mitigate the increasing incidences of co-occurring Mental Health and substance use disorders for persons who are detained through the medication assistant treatment program to support this vulnerable population I am recommending a dedicated medical director to manage all Detention Center programs related to opioid treatment and medication assistance treatment I am also recommending funding a Detention Center maintenance contract which will provide preventative maintenance and repairs consolidating services that are currently spread out between other County departments and separate vendor contracts also for Community safety a new Deputy Chief Fire Marshal position is recommended to provide increased inspections as statutorily mandated

as mentioned earlier there has been an increase in the number of individuals who are entering the County Detention Facility with mental health and Behavioral Health needs as a result I am recommending funding in the newly renamed Justice Services Department formerly known as cjrc for additional Psychiatric Services in the Detention Center I am also excited about the efforts to establish a familiar faces initiative which identifies persons showing up in multiple systems like the detention facilities homeless shelters and emergency departments in order to provide more targeted care in addition the County's new youth home is nearly completed this budget supports opening of the facility to transition current operations and support a new Assessment Center lastly I am recommending funding to

expand the juvenile crime prevention council's annual award amount which supports high-risk juveniles this funding will be used to support expansion of services that significantly reduce risk factors leading to educational difficulties juvenile crime and Community safety concerns related to community stewardship the sewer utility Division and Enterprise fund agency that fully supports its cost through fees charged to customers is adding four new positions two of those positions will ensure adequate 24 7 coverage of the plant while the other positions will provide additional maintenance at the treatment plant and pump station also sewer consumption rates will increase 10 percent to address anticipated operational and capital costs which ensure our high level of

operational Readiness and Environmental Protection the storm water and erosion control division which is another Enterprise fund has two new recommended positions a public education specialist and a storm water and erosion control technician I am following the recommendation of the stormwater plan which was presented several years ago by including an increase in the stormwater utility fee the Departments this is the Department's primary revenue source that fee will increase from forty eight dollars to sixty four dollars per equivalent residential unit the rate increase is one step in a larger approach to eventually increase the fee to 96 dollars per unit by fiscal year 2026. as a reminder these charges are the cost of complying with the Falls Lake and

Jordan Lake State requirements which is a nutrient management strategy to restore water quality in The Lakes by reducing the amount of pollution entering Upstream as we have seen the opioid epidemic which was exacerbated by covid-19 continues to negatively affect families and communities across Durham County as part of the historic 37 billion dollar opioid settlement the county will receive 11 plus million dollars over the next 18 years a portion of that settlement amount four hundred thousand dollars is recommended to fund the community linkages to care support program this was developed to connect individuals who are struggling with substance use disorder with Comprehensive evidence-based care

also to help improve Community well-being I am recommending a five-year 750 000 partnership with the Duke Endowment for healthy people healthy Carolinas this partnership will fund a health education specialist to develop a community-wide coalition designed to establish Equitable strategies to address physical activity nutrition and food access all with the focus on addressing the effects of racism and other social barriers on the health of our most vulnerable population now to note other priorities addressed in this recommended budget it has been a goal of mine to bridge the gap between Durham County government and the valuable voices of our residents to that end I am very excited to recommend the County's first office of

Engagement this office will work with the office of strategy and performance as well as the public information office to establish a Vibrant Community engagement initiative as engagement as an engagement manager will lead in establishing Durham County's first engagement strategy and this position is expected to build lasting internal and external stakeholders relationships there will also be a data analyst position that will provide analytic support to the community engagement effort my expectation is that we will begin to see the impact of this higher level of community engagement on our decisions as Durham County progresses forward other new positions recommended in the budget include a new administrative assistant in the clerk to the board's office as well as a new paralegal

position in the County's attorney's office with the next presidential election scheduled to take place in 2024 election integrity and Security will be of Paramount importance a new Board of Elections facility opening in the upcoming fiscal year will provide enhanced security and a centralized warehouse for equipment and staff to provide support for this new facility I am recommending two new positions a public Outreach specialist as well as an election specialist who will respond to the increasing number of customer inquiries we receive for our isnt department I have included an arpa Broadband manager who will oversee Broadband infrastructure programs and operations for the underserved communities additionally a senior Financial business

analyst will serve as the subject matter expert for large Enterprise Financial applications this in-house expertise is critical as we begin to move towards a new or upgraded Erp system and now for key dates that you can mark on your calendar budget work sessions will begin on Tuesday May 16th and this is where we will provide an overview of the budget and the environment in which it was built another work session is scheduled for May 24th to begin the review of departmental budgets and earnest Monday May 22nd the board will hold a public hearing for this proposed budget as part of the regularly scheduled meeting additional work sessions are scheduled for June 1st and June 5th

and if another work session is needed we have reserved the date of June 6th to hold that work session and then finally budget adoption is planned for June 12th and so now that I have spent a little over a year on the job looking at how we can reorganize the organization re-energizing the leadership team and working towards comprehensive Solutions it is my sincere belief that this budget reflects a continuation of the necessary strategies that will make Durham County an even higher performing organization our management team looks forward to the upcoming board work sessions and the many great outcomes that Durham County Community will experience through the dynamic programs and services delivered out of this budget

I said it last year and I am happy to say it again every visitor every student every County resident every employee every business has a stake in the development of the many services that make up not just a fiscal year but that make up a a thriving environment for people to live grow and thrive in Durham County with that I conclude this presentation of the manager's recommended budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year I look forward to working with the board to get our budget adopted thank you all so much for your time and your attention this evening thank you

we get up give our manager another hand please [Applause] all right that is some awesome incredible work that has been already been done so Commissioners we are down to our consent agenda um we have starting with 230291 down to um down to 23 23 -0333

are there any items that Commissioners wish to pull um so I don't want to pull it but I I do think it's worth highlighting this board actually for those of you all who did not see the news uh three people on this board before me along with two people here actually did um we we uh got the site Shuffle ready and we are now opening up 300 and 500 uh East Main Street which is now 115 I think Queen so I did want to highlight um 23-0332 so I know we just went over the budget cities usually do affordable housing counties don't but I want you all to know that on top of us going out doing a ribbon cutting for a parking deck on top of us going out and digging a really nice hole for 110 Apartments um the chair Vice chair along with the mayor we're partnering if you all don't

see on 23-0332 on a joint City County affordable housing initiative that will bring an additional 1200 units I just wanted to elevate that on the budget night and also on the eve of you know commissioner Howerton and Wendy and Heidi having a forethought in 2020 to build some affordable housing so we talked about the budget but I wanted to highlight that investment um so on top of the 110 this project should bring in another 1200 so this board on top of the budget is trying to bring in 1300 more units of additional housing just wanted to highlight we're going to pull this if y'all keep y'all I'm done I was done that's it you know one second because we have so many people but we but we have a captive audience no but no uh chair Hamilton did we you and I you know last week a lot of people don't come here they haven't seen you do the state of this County they haven't seen the manager talk they came in here to see if they was going to get a raise and see if they project so we

can pull it how did they know okay we can pull it and put it at the bottom of the agenda if you like oh good I'm good okay all right so can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda second thank you removed and properly second all in favor I I give motion passes five to zero but if you'd like me for the pull it we can do that okay all right um I just want to add pile on to um commissioner Burns just to also night we have now did we vote to approve okay uh that besides that item I do want to highlight um item 2300 I mean sorry zero three three three three three Randy are we pulling these are we pulling it nope just one okay highlight that as another opportunity to preserve existing

affordable housing and add okay thank you so now we're going to move on to our public hearing we've got several public hearings tonight the first one is 22-0285 public hearing zoning map change 4 000 sand car way z220053 the board is requested to conduct a public hearing and receive public comments on the revised zoning map change of forty four thousand then far away and adopt two motions we have Alex okay here from the planning department discuss this item thank you thank you chair Harrington Vice chair Jacobs and the rest of the Commissioners thank you for having me this evening Aaron Kane with the planning department uh before we begin staff would like to State for the record that all planning department hearing items tonight

547 acres and located at 4 000 sancer way the current zoning is office institutional the applicant proposes to change this designation to science research Park Center srpc to allow for future research triangles science research uses excuse me and to bring the parcel into consistency with surrounding RTP properties there is no development plan with this rezoning as such it is considered a general rezoning properties are currently designated commercial and Recreation open space on the future land use map the proposed science research Park Center zoning is consistent with this designated future land use the Planning Commission

recommended approval by a vote of eight to zero at its April 11 2023 meeting as a reminder two motions are required to approve the Sony map change the first is to adopt the zoning ordinance and the second is to adopt a consistency statement uh thank you for this your time this evening in addition to myself Scott Levitan and Travis Creighton of Research Triangle Foundation are here to answer questions should you have them thank you any questions for staff commissioner Alum yeah it's just a very quick verification question so this zoning allows for housing up to it could allow for up to 50 residential units but they're not going to use that there is no plan at this time or no commitment to do that and I'm sorry I I did read the information but I just missed your report I'm sorry but

um what is the existing um is that the Hub RTP it is within Hub RTP there is an existing office building on the site and there's no planned changes to that this simply brings that into the same zoning as the rest of the surrounding Hub okay but I just would want to note that if there was residential that would still be consistent with what we're trying to do at the Hub RTP thank you okay any other questions for staff there's no questions for staff I will open public hearing any speakers online no ma'am we have no speaking okay anyone audience signed up no one to speak no man okay if not I will close the public here and bring it back to record and if there are any any questions from the sport

okay then I will ask for a motion I would make a motion to adopt an ordinance amending the unified development ordinance by taking property out of the office and institutional oi zoning district and establishing the same as the science research Park Dash Center SRP hyphen C second second moved and properly second all in favor hi motion passes five to zero and then we have a second motion uh Madam chair I'd like to make a motion to adopt the appropriate consistency statement as required per North Carolina General statute 160 d-605 in a second

second it has been moved improperly second all in favor I motion passes five to zero we will move on to the next public hearing 22-0315 public hearing and ordinance to amend the Durham unified development ordinance for improving access and walkability the board is requested to conduct a public hearing and receive public comments on the unified development ordinance tax amendment Improvement access and walkability tc2100 zero zero seven and adopt two motions we have Brooke uh senior planner here to discuss this item with us good evening Tara Howerton Vice chair Jacobs and honorable Commissioners hello

Brooke Roper with the city County Planning Department the improving access and walkability text amendment is a change to the unified development ordinance initiated by Planning Commission with the goal of making a more connected Community the Durham Planning Commission initiated the amendment during the summer of 2021 and formed a subcommittee to put a draft Amendment forward at the July 2021 Planning Commission meeting Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution to initiate what was formally called The Block length text Amendment over 2022 planning staff have carried out research to create a draft amendment that has gone through numerous revisions by other city and county staff along with members of the Durham bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee the draft was also shared on the growth management social pinpoint site for a two-month engagement period which was followed by further Amendment adjustments based on what we've heard

to achieve the goal of making a more connected Community the amendment proposes various rules for developers which would limit the length of streets and promote more pedestrian connections to nearby existing networks the amendment includes updates to existing connectivity ratio which is the street links divided by nodes that ensures developers are providing sufficient Road and pedestrian networks within new developments and adequately connecting to adjacent areas the amendment also includes a new block length component which limits the allowed length of streets or street blocks that developers can build to help ensure our communities are built to human scale closely connected and walkable the final draft was presented at jccpc on February 1st 2023 where they unanimously agreed to send it forward through the public hearing process at the February 28th Planning Commission meeting the commission recommended approval of tc21 quadruple zero seven by a vote of 12-0

and on April 17 2023 city council unanimously approved Amendment as well thank you staff are available for any questions any questions for staff thank you um just clarify this how does this impact like a single family dwelling in a residential area so this is for for a new develop um so if it's uh you know a private driveway it wouldn't impact that single family clarification um and um I just want to follow up one of the comments that one of the planning Commissioners made commissioner cease would you um just clarify if anything was changed um you know related to the the um concerns that he pointed out of

course yeah we I believe the concern you're mentioning is to include block access point um after we met with the Planning Commission staff um spoke internally and kind of weighed the pros and cons um and we had some internal discussion we decided to keep the node definition as is and not include pedestrian bit blocks access points as suggested simply because our team believes that the way that the scoring Matrix is currently set up it's set up sufficiently to incentivize alternative modes of transportation um and specifically pedestrian facilities if we were to include non-vehicular Transportation modes into the no different definition we fear that it would complicate um you know the connectivity ratio calculation when actually applying it to

to new proposals coming in so therefore we decided to keep it the same okay thank you I appreciate that you all did go back and look at that and work with the Planning Commission to address that um and um I did want to note that I was wondering if you feel like there are more things that may be looked at related to this issue of walkability and connectivity with the rewrite of the Udo because I do want to note that this is addressing some of the goals you know that are in the proposed comprehensive plan related to walkability and multimodal and safety um you know the 15-minute Community kind of thing um but do you think that there are that this will get looked at further in the rewrite of the Udo

certainly yes this is you know just you know a first step on not intended uh in the right direction um you know with the new comprehensive plan there's many many Transportation related goals you mentioned the 15-minute walk um which you know I think this text Amendment really does a good job at addressing but certainly they're you know with the Udo rewrite you know we will continue to look at how we can better connect communities prioritize those folks without access to a car Transit Riders people who walk and bike Etc thank you any other questions and I'd like to just just for the for the audience or for those that are listening uh these things most of us are serve on the jccpc committee

so we have discussed these items quite a bit already so if you don't hear us asking a whole lot of questions we've asked a whole lot of questions before now so thank you no questions for staff I will open the public hearing I have one person that signed up to speak are there any on online there is no one signed up online okay I have um John Talmadge signed up to speak he did say that he may he would get here late so he may not be here yet he's reached out to me to sign up early just in case okay all right are there others anyone else you were none I will close a public hearing bring this back to the board and are there any other questions or concerns not I will ask for a motion

um you have another question commissioner Jacob I'm gonna make a motion but I just want to thank the staff and the Planning Commission because this is something that actually came out of a Planning Commission subcommittee and I I believe it's the first time that the Planning Commission has actually been involved in creating a an ordinance so I just want to commend the Planning Commission for doing this and then the staff for following up on it and and now we have this ordinance before us so I just want to thank everyone and acknowledge the process I also want to acknowledge though the extensive public comments about this issue there were like five pages of comments and basically people were saying you know this is not enough like we seriously need you know more sidewalks and we need you know safe protected bike lanes and we need safe crosswalks and

you know um so I just want to know um when I was asking about um you know Brooke about the comp plan I think we still have a long way to go on this issue this is the first step in recognizing we are really constrained also by um the what is defined as a street standards in the state um we really need to make sure that having us you know multimodal paths safe protected by um um and and pedestrian lanes are implemented at the state level allowed on state roads um and supported so um and we need a sidewalk bond from the city because uh we just we don't have enough money to honestly Implement everything that needs to be done so um I just want to say I'm proud to make the motion to support this and I look forward to more to come

2 Ingress and egress requirements effective June 1st 2023 no could you okay thank you it's been moved in probably second all in favor aye motion passes five to zero and we'll have a second motion I motion to adopt the application statement as required by and general statute 160 second

a has been moved in property second all in favor aye motion passes five to zero we have another public hearing 22-0294 a public here in Durham County Transit plan the board is requested the whole Republic hearing on the Durham County Transit plan this plan is scheduled to be adopted at the May 22nd 23 regular session meeting and we have Ellen Beckman Transportation manager who discussed his item good evening Ellen Beckman Durham County transportation manager so you've received a presentation at the May 1st work session um I'm not going to go over that today but I'll I'll just hit a few of the highlights so we're very pleased and excited to present the final recommended Transit plan for the public hearing and adoption that on May 22nd uh the plan is

required to be adopted by the Board of Commissioners and po board and go triangle board and this is the plan that establishes how we use the half cent sales tax that's raised in Durham County and dedicated to public transit improvements uh the the sales tax was first approved in 2011. when we first adopted plan we re-adopted a plan in 2017 and this is the the major Plan update after after the discontinuation of the Light Rail Project in 2019. 1 billion dollars for public transit improvements through 2040. so as as you know we've gone through a very extensive development process over the last three years I had a lot of public engagement and Community involvement throughout the process it did a lot of Equitable engagement using Community Partners and the recommended plan is a direct Outreach a direct result of that

Outreach um the there are four key themes to the plan improving the current bus system so we heard overwhelmingly for bus riders that they wanted our current bus system to work better so there's a lot of funding for increased frequency evening and weekend bus service I would we also heard that people wanted more projects sooner so there's a lot of smaller wins and projects that we can complete more quickly while we're working towards bigger efforts so things like bus stop improvements throughout the county Paratransit improvements microtransit improvements there's funding for connecting the region with quick and reliable service so it's a it's important to provide connectivity for Durham residents to job opportunities throughout the region and for other people to reach the job opportunities in Durham so a large portion of funding is set aside for those sorts of projects it could be commuter rail or passenger Rail and it

may also be bus rapid transit or other priority infrastructure and then lastly a better experience at bus stops and stations so working on the Durham downtown Durham station Regional Transit Center station and all the bus stops in Durham so those are the highlights of the plan we were making a few final tweaks to the plan before it comes forward for adoption on May 22nd and with that we can open the public hearing there's there's 31 pages of public comments so while there may not be a lot of people here today I think there was a lot of enthusiasm throughout the process and and submitted electronically thank you Ellen questions for staff during none I will open the public hearing and I have one person signed up to speak uh are there others online

no ma'am we do not have anyone else on the line I have Jim savaras you have three minutes good evening Jim Savar at 12 Susanna Drive uh as as indicated in a Transit statement adopted by the Coalition for affordable housing and Transit last April we support the Durham Transit plan and advocate for these funds as well as funds from local sources including Research Triangle Park and from state and federal resources to be used to achieve two vital goals a substantial increase in our bus service and new passenger rail service providing links for Durham to the rest of the triangle region for all residents not just nine

to five commuters and I like to say as we have talked a lot about these uh these proposals and Ellen Beckman has been very informative at many of our meetings we believe that Equity requires that substantial new bus service and Facilities must be provided to historically underserved areas the transit plan funds improve bus service and Facilities including sheltered bus stops for all the economically Transit dependent neighborhoods we commend the plan for these features because Transit funding can only address the needs for sidewalk improvements within a short distance of a bus stop we also call for the county and City governments to provide funding for sidewalks bus stops and bike Lanes your discussion of improving walkability is very is very encouraging in addition we need connections to fast passenger rail transit to Major jobs and activity

centers in the region all Durham residents should have ready access to the estimated 65 percent or more of the new jobs created regionally in the coming 20 years Durham can help our region begin to provide the rail Transit that is needed here and elsewhere in other metropolitan areas to address our climate change crisis The Rail Project plans must confirm that all property along the rail line owned by go triangle or local governments will be utilized as much as possible for development of substantial new affordable housing units finally the planning design and construction and operation of all new Bus and Rail Services must be done in a way that is open transparent and responsive to our community as we have seen this process move forward I would act like to add a couple additional comments that the Coalition has not yet approved we recognize the need to develop passenger

rail in stages whether the initial stage ends ends at RTP or the Ellis Road station needs further planning and discussion the Ellis Road station is designated as a Transit opportunity area in the new Durham comprehensive plan and the area around it has great potential for new residential development that will be promoted by changes to the comprehensive plan if waiting to extend the line to Ellis Road will permit residential growth in this system you need to wrap it up we need to wrap up your comments I'm sorry and establish eligibility for federal funding then waiting will be preferable we thank you yes thank you very much I just final remark do not look for reasons to not do Regional Rail look for ways you can pass your comments over to the clerk if you have more and the clerk will pass them to us thank you

John Thomas you just walked in you signed up to speak if you you have three minutes yes good evening um Commissioners I am John Talmage I live in Durham at 910 Virgie Street and I'm executive director of bike Durham Durham's sustainable Transportation advocacy organization uh I want to point out that about three quarters of the plans spending in the transit plans will go to improve the transit system for our current Riders and it will

improve conditions for Transit workers because there's money there committed to raise salaries so we can put more operators on the system to grow the system and to provide the the service levels that have been funded the last couple of years it's going to make the service more reliable it promises to make trips shorter with a new Crosstown connections um it promises to make the the trip from home to the bus stop and from the bus stop to the final destinations better safer with investments in uh the waiting areas at the stops some of the the access to the bus stops um it also is going to make hopefully it promises to make our Paratransit system better for those Riders through the study that's going to be done and money

set aside to invest in improvements in the Paratransit service um so we're thrilled with the focus of the that 75 roughly percent of of the budget that's dedicated to those but a reminder that that's just a promise of those uh Investments both in services and projects and it requires a dedication each year to the delivery of those promises for current riders in our community and that takes an investment in of attention of your attention of the city's elected official attention staff attention um and also the money to build the capacity of the organizations not just in bus riders and mechanics but also the staff that are going to build the sidewalks build the shelters

um as many of you know I worked at go triangle and in 2011 when Durham passed a bond in 2013 when we started collecting it we had Promises of a number of these types of projects and we were very slow to deliver and that's because our attention was diverted from those types of promises that would make the system better for locals current Riders to a big project that we were never able to deliver and so I want you to pay attention to the difficulty of delivering those that big project and hopefully that the brt study will be an opportunity to look at something that is more deliverable thank you thank you John so any other speakers or the speakers thank you um I will close the public hearing and

bring it back to this board are there questions or comments from the board commissioner Jacobs I just want to get a clarification so Alan this will come back to us for approval for a vote of consideration at the next meeting May 22nd is that correct yes okay just wanted to be clear on that thank you yeah okay no other questions or comments then I will ask for emotion and here we have we don't do we need emotion on this one Ellen in two weeks in two weeks so we leave the public hearing open I still have to close the public hearing I mean I've closed a public hearing and now it's back to us so there's no other X action needed or do you need emotion

Close book you can close the public here I've closed the public hearing so there's no other action is what I'm saying no other action needed no ma'am there's no additional action needed no no all right that's what I was getting at all right thank you and it'll come back to us on the 22nd yeah correct yep yep thank you so the next item is 22-0294 it's a public hearing utilities division draft system development fee analysis and the board is requested to conduct conduct a public hearing to receive comments on the utilities division draft system development fees analysis performed by wild and financial services uh Jay is not here we have Stephanie is it brixley is be here or is that is she online

to introduce the item can you hear me yeah I thought I thought it was pointing this finger at Jesus [Laughter] God I'm sorry our attorney was pointing up and I was thinking he's pointing to God you know okay all right go ahead okay as long as y'all can hear me that's the main thing I can hear you okay um so um we are here to do the public hearing for the system development fee study uh we are required by House Bill 436 to conduct this once every five years um we did a public comment period but we did not receive any uh written comments um but we do have a presentation that um Daryl Parker with Will down Financial Services I will go through and then we

can answer any questions um you all may have um and then if there's anyone there to speak for the public hearing hey any questions for staff hearing none I will open public hearing anyone signed up to speak there's no one signed up to speak but I believe they have their presentation to share before we open the public hearing okay uh yeah this is uh Daryl Parker with well Dan can you hear me okay we can hear you go ahead all right um Monica I hear that you're going to be running the PowerPoint or would you prefer me to share I am running the PowerPoint you just let me know when to click there's gonna be a lot of clicks because I put in some animation effects just you know for for the for the look but um

we'll get through it and move along as quickly as we can I first off good evening I know it's been a long night for all of you already so we will move this along pretty quickly but if you have any questions as we're going feel free to stop me so all right let's get going perfect so you know what we're here to talk about tonight is the system development fees and their uh addressed by a house bill from back in 2017 and uh so kind of what the bill did is it outlined procedures for um for for calculating and for implementing the system development fee so we'll talk a little bit more about uh about exactly what those fees do and what they're for um and uh this is specific to uh to publicly owned uh Utility Systems such as your sewer system okay

so basically uh what a what a system development fee is and we'll call it SDF to just make it a little easier a little shorter so it's a feed that's imposed on new development and it's to fund Water and Sewer improvements here again we're we're looking just at your uh your sewer system tonight uh both existing and planned facilities and we'll talk more about that and um and Facilities that are necessitated by and attributable to the new development okay oh okay there we go so just kind of a general description uh an svf is is a one-time fee that's applied to new system customers and when we calculate these we calculate them separate for water and sewer as required by the bill here again we're just talking about your sewer system tonight uh recovers costs incurred to provide system capacity to new users and it does

help growth pay for itself a biggest benefit is it protects your existing system customers it kind of medicates the possibility of them having to pay for um four new facilities that are really only there for for Duke to support new growth okay Monica so there's uh three different calculation methodologies and these are right right out of American Waterworks Association uh manuals as well as uh the the water environment Federation manuals which is the uh the the Wastewater equivalent to the awwa uh but they're they both have the exact same processes and methodologies so the buy-in is the first method we looked at and what we're what the buy-in does it looks at just what you've already got the the facilities that you've already built um to to provide service treatment

facilities collection lines horse Mains that kind of thing and then there's also the incremental cost method and the incremental cost method looks at the future facilities your Capital Improvements program so what are we having to build over the next five to twenty years to support growth and then there's the combine method which is is really just kind of a weighted average if you will of the other two combined together okay Mark so the uh the the house bill uh did put procedures in place um basically this the analysis has to be done by Financial professional that's that's our role uh most employed generally it's at the industry practices it looks it at least a five-year planning Horizon for the incremental cost method but no more than 20 years

uh what's the analysis is done and the report is done it's uh has to be posted online for 45 days for public comment and as Steffy mentioned we're through that 45-day posting period and there were no comments public hearing is required which is exactly why we're here tonight if there were any modifications to the analysis as a result of either public comment or or the public hearing that would take place uh fees must be adopted by a resolution or ordinance and must be updated at least every five years and and that's that's where we are now you currently have spfs in place for the service system they were adopted five years ago and it's time for the uh for them to be updated okay Monica so just real quick these are the facilities that we're looking to recover from from an SPF as I mentioned earlier treatment collection Force Mains list stations uh disposable facilities but

we're not recovering are things like localized lines in the neighborhoods and that type of thing or or anything that's donated by contributed by developers or Grant funded so you'll see uh we'll we'll just kind of briefly touch on some some of the adjustments that are made to the calculations but you'll see those as we've known okay so our really what we're trying to identify here is our recoverable cost um I mentioned there's the the buying method that looks at the existing facilities incremental costs method looks at the CIP and then the combined so we've looked at it only separately what we're recommending tonight is the the combine the results of the combined methodology okay so here's kind of a visual uh so we've got them separated to buy in the

incremental cost and we combine those costs gives us a total recoverable now that then there are adjustments made to those recoverable amounts there's a Debt Service Credit to the that's applied to the existing facilities and what that does is whatever outstanding debt is currently on the system we we back out the remaining principal balance on that debt uh with the with the the thought basically that we don't want a new customer uh paying an SPF and then paying their their rates that include the payment of your annual debt service requirements so we make an adjustment for that so we net that down and then that the house bill also requires a uh an adjustment to the CIP so we've made that adjustment as well so the total recoverable less The Debt Service and zip credits uh gives us our net recoverable facility costs

from that is how we calculate the fees so here's yeah go ahead you're a good monitor so here's just kind of the the numbers that result there uh you'll may recall from a couple slides back that combined 229 million we back out the combined credits and so we have our net recoverable costs okay Monica so once we've got those net costs we want them separated between the treatment facilities and the collection facilities and we've all already got our data separated that the the existing assets which as part of our analysis we've separated those and uh same with it with the CIP we've separated those and so so then we the reason we do that is because treatment facilities and collection facilities don't have the same capacity uh so basically we take that net cost for treatment divide it under treatment capacity and that gives us a cost per gallon of treatment

capacity to the exact same process on the collection side and so now we've got our cost components per gallon of capacity okay Monica and here's what those numbers look like so basically what we're doing is taking it Taking the treatment and dividing it uh the treatment net treatment costs divided by the treatment capacity of these capacity numbers are adjusted for for example influent infiltration uh for that impacts the services system that reduces the amount of capacity that's available to uh to new customers but we won't go into detail of that but what we're ultimately doing here is we're looking to identify that cost per gallon of capacity and you can see the the treatment facilities are as you might expect quite a bit uh more costly than the collection facilities and then for upon a combined basis it's the 1669. so then what do we do with those numbers

go ahead Monica so we've got our cost per gallon of capacity and then we apply it to uh to a level of service per equivalent residential unit that's what eru has uh basically just your your typical household so the uh the state has a number of 240 gallons per day minimum that's based on 120 gallons per day per bedroom but their their minimum requirement is two bedrooms so that's where the 240 comes from so we take our costs multiplied times our our equivalent residential unit level of service and gives us our SPF per eru go ahead Monica so here's what those numbers look like uh we can see the note there we round them down because you know don't want to be accused of over recovering um so the so the the fees that you see

kind of under the existing right the middle that's your current SPF uh or eru it's uh and we've assumed here that a typical eru is going to be a three-bedroom househoods the minimum two bedroom plus each additional bedroom uh and so you can see those where under the column what we're referring to is calculated those are the the fees that have resulted from the analysis we're going to calculated as as opposed to proposed uh because that's the the number that we can support um we even though we might recommend that that you go through the full cost of recovery you don't have to you can come in at some lesser number if you want but we just can't back up anything higher let us know and you can see the the difference between the two if you go from from the current fee to the calculated fee it'd be noticeable increase in your in your SDS which would also result in a

noticeable increase in your uh your revenues for those capital projects okay Monica so this is how your fees are currently applied and we discussed this with uh Stephanie and her team and and it was determined that we'd stick with the same methodology because it's by by type of customer and so um so we use the uh the calculated numbers to come up with with those resulting fees for all those different options and with that we can jump ahead and see if there are any questions or comments well I first want to thank you for the presentation very thorough and um appreciate this work um just to note I guess it's it's quite

a big difference um we've we've been dramatically under charging um is it sounds like is what the result is and I didn't realize that we actually updated this every five years um so this is a really big increase um so it's I'm glad we do update it every five years [Laughter] thank you okay no questions for staff okay then do I I need to open the public hearing uh are there any speakers online no one signed up correct no one has signed up to speak and we do not have anyone online okay thank you so we will close a public hearing and bring it back to this board are there

any questions from commissioners hearing none I will ask for a motion um chair there is no motion there is an emotion so there is no action needed I don't see I'm looking here that no action needed on this item either no me okay then we will move on to our next item data manager will this increase fee be include included and when we adopt the budget it goes to our budget it will be included as a part of okay thank you goes on to the budget approval uh the other business the board is requested to receive information on the following documents the Meg study report

proposed pay plan and at this time we have Kathy Everett Perry our chief human resource officer to introduce this item for any additional comment good afternoon chair Howerton Commissioners so well attorney Andrews um Monica do we have the consultant ready so we're going to have the consultant from management Advisory Group to Russell Campbell lead this presentation good evening good evening everyone um I appreciate the opportunity to come back and share with you the results of the compensation classification study we've been working on for the past uh five six months or so um when I was uh there last time uh one of the things we talked about was moving forward with developing a compensation

philosophy I in turn provided some resources uh to the HR staff and I believe that your retreat they took you through an exercise of explaining what a compensation philosophy is designed to address its impact the importance to the organization and so I was pleased to see that the organization did a very good job of developing uh the outline of a compensation philosophy that I think is consistent with the goals and objectives that were part of the compensation classification study so what I'd like to do tonight is just highlight some of the findings and recommendations from the study um I think you've been given some of this information in your packet so I won't go through exhaustic detail I just hit the major points as I go through each slot first slide please with respect to a compensation philosophy obviously the goal is to help with the French retention recruitment of

employees to the organization major advantages associated with having philosophy is probably the biggest thing is that it gives information to the employees so they're not left trying to figure out how the values were determined for different positions with the organization what can they expect in terms of a promotion increase should they be promoted to a job in a higher salary ban as well as whether they they're transferred or they're making classification requests all those things are part of philosophy and they're spelled out in black and white which cuts down on on on confusion and misunderstanding within the organization it also Echoes a sense of fairness and Equity within the organization serves as a good recruiting tool because it does have the stamp of the leadership within the organization both the commission level as well as the administrative level and it serves as a good tool for uh career progression as well as a

professional development particularly in ranked departments where you want individuals internally to step up and apply for higher level positions within the organization you want to make sure there's permissible confrontational goal alignment uh that high level of responsibility next one if it's not done well a compensation velocity can create some internal strife within the organization it has to make sense to everyone involved employees leaders constituents uh there needs to be a strong commitment to address inequity issues within your organization it needs to support recruitment retention as I've previously said and also a new support of career development next major factors that go into consideration we've developed a philosophy of course you've got to Define your labor market and Define what your position is going to be in that labor market one of the things I'll share with you here in this presentation are the organizations that served as comparables or peer

organizations that list was mutually developed by mag and the HR staff as well as the input from leadership uh we went into this thing wanting to position the county at the 75th percentile as it relates to compensation typically we found that if you can reach the 75th percentile where you're paying better than 75 percent of your your your your peer group then you should be able to compete across the board with respect for new employees on the recruiting side as well as retain existing skill uh employees within an organization so as I unveiled the new uh Compensation Plan it will be built on the premise of giving you in town of the regional labor market other things that need to be considered at your pay for performance program going forward we'd like to see you increase the potential rates in terms of what a top performing employee could

receive because in addition to making sure that the values of the positions are competitive we also want to make sure actual salaries are current in Commons around that 75th percentile as well so it's important that moving forward since the majority of the increases are going to be tied to Performance that those increases will sustain your current position assuming the study is adopted at that 75th percent Gap and we've also developed some other policies to support the study that specifically speak to compensation administrative guidelines in terms of hiring transfers reclassification requests promotion policies to make sure there's consistency going forward with respect to how those things are handled we've also put together a pay structure that is an Open Range structure where every job is assigned to a pay grade every pay grade has a range that has a minimum which is indicative of the entry level salary the midpoint which is derived

based on the market average and then the top end value for position at this given point in time and we've also provided instruction and guidelines to the staff in terms of maintaining the study until it's time to do a comprehensive study down the road in the next uh four maybe five years next slide these are the 12 cities and counties that were mutual agreed to by staff and mad to serve as peer organizations with respect to collecting uh organizational and pay information from we have of course the city of Durham City of Raleigh Greensboro City of Winston-Salem counties we have Charlotte Mecklenburg Wake County Forsyth County Guilford County Cumberland County Orange County and Gaston County and then at the bottom there you see over there we must take in consideration as well what's being paid in the private sector for comparable jobs so we did access private sector data through the Federal Department of Labor view of Labor

T Personnel drivers secretarial staff as well as other administrative and operational positions and as I said all this was done with the mindset of getting you to the 75th percentile next one talking about your paper performance uh I know the HR staff will be looking to bring to the commission uh some recommendations with respect to uh going forward uh with the intervals in terms of the actual um increases for paper performance down the road based on the uh five different performance levels extent outstanding exceeds expectation these expectations needs Improvement and unacceptable based on what we've seen of what the staff is proposing and looks very realistic and does reflect what we've

seen in the public and private sector in terms of potential increases based on pay for performance uh in the marketplace it's important that we make sure that the pay for performance increases maintain the County's position within the marketplace based on the results of the study so that we can award reward High achieving employees within the organization next one just a couple of uh policy comments in respect to going forward and how we manage the compensation system uh when there's a need to reclassify jobs at a minimum someone should receive a an adjustment of five percent uh and then two and a half for each additional grade if they're going upward in terms of a multiple grade uh increase but it's capped at 10 so the most any individual could receive from a reclassification request would be ten percent uh the same holds true for promotion Baseline of

five percent because they're based on the number of grades uh they're promoted into will dictate uh the total amount of increase and usually that matches what you do for the reclassification process so that should be in line with around 10 percent and keep in mind there will always be extenuating circumstances where you may have to make some adjustments uh but the system is set up to be flexible and to allow uh the HR staff to to to make adjustments to deal with certain situations that may come about we also talked about pay for interim appointments um giving the individuals who are going to go into these animal points make sure that they acknowledge that it is a temperate until otherwise by signing a statement acknowledging as such and their pay will be uh adjusted to reflect the fact that they are in an interim position um by considering what the previous incumbent was made as well as what the pay grade the pay range recommended in

the study uh has in mind for the value of the job next one Aaron typically you want to hire individuals that have uh experience particularly when it comes to technical middle and upper management jobs so that the learning curve is is not as Steep and in order to do that you have to pay someone of a premium when you hire people with extensive experience based on what we put together we're recommending that you take in consideration a maximum of five years of comparable previous experience in terms of setting uh the salary for a new hire and again that should fall in line with the requirements that we've recommended for reclassification requests as well as promotions with that cap of somewhere around 10 percent next slide the pay structure we've developed we've developed two pay structures we've developed one for Public Safety which

just has the public safety uh swarm positions in it and then everyone else who's not a part of a small position of Public Safety uh was assigned to the unified pay structure both pay structures have a range spread from minimum to Max of 70 percent going horizontally they have a five percent increment between grades when you go vertically we found that was consistent with what we were seeing with some of the market peers those 12 cities and counties that I pointed out earlier uh the last time the study was done we actually had three separate pay plans we had a separate plan for senior management positions but have to talking with HR and Leadership we decided that it made more sense from an ease of administration in terms of managing the different pay plans and to make sure that everyone's position uh was was treated fairly and equitably we felt it made more sense to go from three down to two plans that being a unifying and then one

for the public safety uh scoring positions within the organization it's easier to manage it makes sure that there's internal equity in terms of how jobs are grouped in salary ranges are presented for the jobs based on their duties responsibilities as well as their qualifications and what we're trying to do is to develop a process where there's not so much pressure placed on HR to uh reclassify jobs I think in some instances in the past reclassification requests were based more on a desire to reward a deserving employee more so than the job from a contextual change from chain standpoint actually change and so reclassification should be triggered by a potential change to the job not an increase in volume of one or performance it's a performance issue that should be recognized through the annual performance review and the pay for performance program next slide

in terms of maintaining the system the pay ranges will need to be adjusted on an annual basis starting in July of 24. we recommend using the ECI employment cost index which is published by the Federal Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics that particular index takes in consider consideration the cost of benefits and salaries from an increased perspective from that of the employee you can also use the CPI Consumer Price Index as an alternative instrument in terms of determining what the annual adjustment is going to be to the pay ranges I will add whatever you decide to do in terms of a general increase or cost of living increase let's say July 24 you wanted to do four percent you would only need to adjust the pay ranges by two or two and a half percent but give current staff the full four percent Cola by doing that you again mitigate salary compression because current staff would be the

beneficiary of the full four percent and just which impacts more new hires than it does existing staff because we have gotten you to that 75th percentile you don't have to be as aggressive with the pay range adjustment themselves so 50 of whatever you decide to do for a general increase our Cola would be applied to the pay rate so if you did four percent colon you'd only adjust the range about two or two and a half percent uh going forward and individual salaries of those already on staff would be adjusted by the full four percent next next one there have been lots of conversations around the country about moving to a livable wage in Durham you do have a livable wage ordinance um probably the most recognized data source for livable wages just the mass Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT which has been publishing uh the cost of of living uh in various uh parts of the country uh based on family size

single uh two adults the kids Etc we have built a structure moving into the 74 percentile which means the lowest paid position within the county whether it be full-time or part-time would be nine dollars 1020 per hour which we think is a significant Leap Forward uh not only within the county but for an employer in the region I would suggest that going forward that you tie the livable wage ordinance to the Consumer Price Index so that it increases each year by whatever the CPI is as published by the federal department of labor so that it will gradually increase going forward many of the organizations that we deem to be Progressive organizations who have implemented uh livable wage ordinance have tied it to the Consumer Price Index to make sure that it they stay competitive with the cost of living so we recommend that you index that to the CPI index each year which you

wouldn't need to worry about until July of 2024. 8 million dollars that includes giving every employee a seven percent General increase to make sure actual salaries again are competitive to make sure there's a hedge against the inflation which is skilled by historical standards of still a little higher than we've typically seen it over the last couple of decades and so at a minimum no one would get less than seven percent as it relates to the study some will get more than that based on how their actual position fell out

22 for those who didn't have access to a slide

I thought I saw was 90 dollars thank you all for this presentation and the intentionality uh around this I know this is very important to our Board of making sure that all our Durham counties employees feel appreciated and valued I had a question around like the um salary bands just wondering like around the transparency I know with the part that they were mentioning about the experience levels how they'll impact uh the starting salary for transparency are we going to uh update like how on the website the salaries are listed to show like because right now I think some positions have a really wide range where it can be like starting salaries sixty thousand Max salary 130 000 and sometimes like when people apply especially people of color and women they don't know what to

ask for in that range so that uh band that you were that was talked about about like if you have one year of experience if you're going to be minimum around this two years this three years that is that going to be on the job posting to create transparency I think we could address that by having a hiring salary we'll have a range so that people won't look at the entire pay ban to make a I guess indication of what they would like to have and when we put a hiring range they will know that that is where the salary will fall and we will internally look at those experience levels and make the determination yeah because I think my concern is more around like some of the positions that have that really large band and like if someone's applying for it and they may be really experienced but they may be like too nervous to ask for the higher ban and it tends to be like women of color who sell themselves shorts

okay commissioner Carter first of all I I like to just like thank Mr Campbell for this incredible report appreciate that work and um then commissioner Carter you want to go ahead oh yes yes thanks Mr Campbell thanks for our own staff for this information um feels like something I should be thinking about out of work that this is you know I don't know it's late at night and I feel yeah I feel feeble-minded but um this is super important and I I do have a number of questions um are we intending for this to be a discussion tonight or more of just just the presentation tonight and we can have more discussion around it manager doing the budget session tonight it's just a presentation we don't have to go into any depth in-depth conversation okay great well thrilled to see the 19 in uh

1922 sorry since 1922 as the new living wage for Durham County that's um and um you know some things for us to consider I think is part of our compensation philosophy would include one one one element that comes to mind is you know I do think it makes sense to increase our range for pay for performance or four percent right and in so doing we need to be sure it's a really robust evaluation that you know definitely leads to an outcome where wow this person is truly out so we'll be hearing some more about that it sounds like so I think that's really good um and I will just say that when I look at the attachment last comparison list by pay plan

some of the upper ranges especially for more executive staff who I think are all amazing but they were really high I was surprised at the upper range of some of our hay bands and want to be sure that we're spending the bulk of our salary increases on those who are already not making a a you know one of our larger wages um so some of our people who you know are in DSS and these are hard to fill positions and their work is super traumatic you know being sure that substantial uh percentage of the increase is going to that group of employees you see what I'm saying just you know um those are some things I'd like to think more about and and look into a little bit more detail um and that's that's what comes to mind for me tonight I know I'll have some other points of discussion going forward oh

you'll have another bite at it okay well commissioner Carter I can reassure you I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier I'm David Richardson HR manager and I'm responsible for class and comp here under the wonderful leadership of Kathy Everett Perry but I do want to just point out that in those hiring ranges we tend to rarely ever hire anybody past the midpoint of a range is to and especially for executive positions I want to point out is to be able to reflect the potential of where a position can go so say for instance we're looking for a new CFO we're not going to hire that person right at the minimum of that range but they would want to come in especially if they're highly experienced in that area and see that I do have a potential to grow while at Durham County so as Kathy mentioned before we do recommend on our position select the candidates know where our hiring Max is so although that range is there we don't hire people right there at the end

thing I wanted to consider is the recommendation is for seven percent across the board um I don't know I guess I'm just wondering about the possibility of having higher rate higher raises for those who are in our hard to fill positions and maybe are making um less you know dollars per hour and not as a great an increase in those who are already at the executive level of our salaries schedule I don't know beyond the seven percent the majority of the money is going to those that are non-supervisory positions right I'm sure that's true I did look at that um chart you know and um just in the manager's office the 24 employees um even though the percentage their slice of the pie may be small but it per person it was quite large compared to some of the other departments

um so just these are just things I've noticed and I want to think more about really we'll just um what what which one of our budget sessions will this come up manager we are developing the schedule now and so we can we'll send out the schedule once it's developed but we are working with the Departments to develop we'll know when this is going to be on our budget um session yes okay mine mine is really quick for the manager because I had the same concern the commissioner Carter had and correct me if I'm wrong one of the beautiful things about the budget and the way the staff set it up you all have given yourselves room and latitude to do just what commissioner card at so I asked that doing my one-on-one so they've given themselves that space and that latitude for the artists to feel positions and for some of the ones that are lower where the market might be asking for more because as you know you know we've lost what's the good example

um some of our mechanics you know we've lost some others and so we have to be more competitive so I think from what I got from staff and from the manager there's latitude in the budget you know six months from now to kind of sort of do something so I had that same concern and and I'm happy that other folks have it so hey we can do it if we need to do it and correct me because I want to put words in your mouth doctor so well you are correct and if you all recall last budget cycle I recommended um a lower percentage increase for those that made above 75 000 and it was a higher percentage increase for those that and so that is something that we are aware of and we're making sure that we're addressing the compensation needs of those who are our lower salary positions um Monica are we accepting calls I see Dr Allison on the call are we accepting calls we are not she has been watching

the entire time but because I am showing the full screen to keep Mr Russell online for questions or for answers um that's why you can see Dr Allison but we do not have anyone signed up to speak okay thank you I just wanted to check thank you commissioner Jacob yes I'm gonna basically hold my questions and comments to the budget earring Sim it's 10 till 10. I mean the budget work session yeah um I do really appreciate though Mr Campbell and staff the policies um you know I think that's really really important that we have very clear policies and that it's transparent and and I appreciate the importance of having those policies for everybody's sake so I'm really really glad to see that um and the philosophy as well um and I just wanted to ask when will we get the full report um do you know when that will be ready

to be sent out to us it should be the end of this week okay right awesome all right thank you so much I would just quickly note as well we did a large piece of work the year before last on hard to feel positions so those positions still have sign-on bonuses those are some of the things that we put in place so although we are having these adjustments and moving people forward for our Detention officers and our EMS technicians our youth home counselors they have nice hard to feel uh bonuses that are being offered now for those individuals so that's in addition to the work that we're doing all right thank you so much for all of this hard work and um we know we'll get to look at it and discuss it at another time thank you anything else for you Andrew okay Okay so that is that was our last item anything

else from Commissioners or manager hearing none I will ask for a motion to adjourn second moved and properly second all in favor aye we are adjourned foreign