Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · November 27, 2023

m. I will first read the public charge the Board of Commissioners ask its members and citizens to conduct themselves in a respectful courteous manner both with the board and fellow citizens at any time should any member of the board or any citizen fail to observe this public charge the chair will ask the offending person to leave the meeting until that individual regains person control should theorum fail to be restored the chair will recess the meeting until such time that a genuine commitment to the public charge is observed at this time if we could stand and repeat the uh Pledge of Allegiance

and commissioner Mike Lee would you mind leading Us in that flag the United States of America are there any agenda adjustments Commissioners hearing none uh did you have Okay um hearing none we will move on to our announcements by clerk good evening everyone I will read the announcements published in tonight's agenda cheers on Hometown ban drill teams schools and Community groups as they make their way down Main Street in Durham at the Durham holiday parade at

m. m. m. the drive runs through January 5th you can contact Cindy Riley um there's an email and a contact number is 919-5671 9 uh if you would like to host a drive additional drop off locations in

m. on Saturday December 2nd this event is free it features a remarkable lineup of speakers

each offering a wealth of knowledge compassion and resources for the bereaved guiding them through the holiday season you can register and there is a link as well the latest edition of the Durham County Sheriff's Office podcast Star Talk is out this time Sheriff Clarence Burkhead and Captain Kimberly Lane have a discussion surrounding the Recruitment and Training Division you can get additional information and view the podcast episodes at the dcar talk. com site those interested in development data and Trends Durham County has a new online resource at their fingertips with the Durham City County Planning Department's New Durham planning dashboard data will be updated quarterly on this interactive website designed to let users easily explore Trend data population and demographic information and an interactive map that provides tools to

m. this is a virtual session um and it will inform participants about tips that you can do this holiday season to stay healthy with so many food options at work home and everywhere in between um there will be a guest speaker Chelsea Hawkins and you can register via the link on the website that concludes the announcements in tonight's agenda okay I forget to turn this on sometimes um we have a lot going on in this community um so govern yourselves accordingly and as Miss Wallace

mentioned all of these it items will be on the website as well for you to be go back and get the dates correct on your calendars okay commissioner Burns yeah one more announcement um sure thank you so much um we probably won't get to see some of you wonderful beautiful people before Friday it was in our newsletter but I did want to share for anybody who's interested and I'm going to read it so I we can move along expeditiously this Friday December 1st 2023 uh is uh Booker SP ley's birthday along with that birthday celebration we what not just we the Spicer family um the North Carolina Department of Natural and cultural resources and members of the North Carolina School of Math and Science will be unveiling a new State Highway historical marker and a host of program speakers and musical uh performances to honor PFC spicely for those of you all who are unfamiliar in 1944 uh PFC Booker T spicely and African-American soldiers station at Camp Buton Board of the Durham city bus

m. m. honoring The Life and Legacy of PFC Booker T spicely again that one is actually on our website and it's on our Facebook but we do look forward to seeing some of y'all there that was my one announcement thank you thank you commissioner Jacob thank you commissioner Burns for for raising that and I know that Eddie Davis is very happy about that our our resident historian um I

just wanted to also note that on December 1st is the first uh official uh roll out of Medicaid expansion and so um it's really important that we spread the word to people uh about applying for Medicaid um people can apply online uh with the E eath system by phone or in person there is more information on our website also the DSs website and also to uh for people to know that many uh immigrants and refugees are also eligible could be eligible for Medicaid expansion so we really encourage people to uh find out if they are eligible um and we are really excited that this is finally happening in our community and and also the entire state of North Carolina thank

you than for you commissioner Mike Lee no thank you there is a lot going on as we said as I stated earlier um Commissioners we have our minutes uh 23881 uh regular minutes are there any edits or uh additions to those minutes if not I will entertain a motion for approval Madam chair some move second it's been motion by commissioner Burns second by commissioner um Jacobs all in favor I motion approved 4 to zero uh and just for the audience our audience um commissioner Allam has an excuse absence tonight uh and I think I [Music]

saw I I saw our representative Mory in the room I just want to take acknowledge our elected official anyone else I I did see um mayor schules a past mayor tools in the room anyone else just wanted to make sure that we acknowledge them so we're going to move on to our ceremonial items uh the first item is 23863 it's a resolution honoring the memory of honold Stephen Valentine the board is requested to approve a resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of Mr Arnold Stephen Valentine who made his transition on November 1st 2023 honor D served as Durham County's Youth home director from September

1985 until his retirement in December 205 he is highly regarded he was highly regarded for his intellect and his passion for the community especially for young for Young Justice involved youth he was a friend to many and always showed a unique measure of professionalism warmth and respect for everyone he met on behalf of Durham County and its residents we extend our sincere condolence to Miss Betty Stephen Valentine and the entire Stephen Valentine family uh and I have the resolution here that I will read Durham County Board of Commissioners resolution Arnold Stephen Valentine whereas arold Stephen Valentine was born in New York New York where he received his secondary education before attending

Wilber Force University and Howard University for his undergraduate studies and whereas following graduation he returned to Long Island New York to attend they have to help me with that University I'll let you say it where he received a master's degree in social work and whereas thereafter he worked in various Departments of the US social and Justice systems where he came to understand a need for more equity and fairness in the lives of black children black families and black communities and whereas his passion to help others led him to spend two years in in Tanzania where he taught young men in a secondary school and whereas eventually his family found their way to

Durham North Carolina where Arnold Stephen Valentine spent a lifetime helping to build better lives for young men who were Justice involved or to prevent them from becoming juses involved and whereas he unselfishly shared his talents with others leading as a Visionary and Mentor for many young men who joined his rights of Pat passage program known for this for its positive impact on Impossible young black males and whereas after re retiring from Durham County government where he served as youth home director from 1985 to 205 he joined North Carolina Central University as a faculty member in the criminal justice department continuing to share his passion and intellect with the next generation of leaders and whereas honor

Stephen Valentine will long be remembered as a role model mentor and dynamic Visionary to all whose lives he touched now therefore be it resolved that we the members of the Durham County Board of Commissioners do hereby resolve to honor the memory of Mr honoral Stephen Valentine we urge all Durham County residents to remember this amazing life force and the unique contribution he made to the entire durm community and Beyond this the 27th day of November 2023 signed by all the Commissioners and I believe his wife is here and other members of his of his team if you'd like to have comment you want to go to one of the mics if you'd like to have something to

say sorry take your time uh first of all I'd like to thank um the um this group for recognizing Arnold and uh the work that uh he certainly was involved in for close to 40 years um we landed here in Durham um not knowing very much about the city or about what was here for us and I think that uh someone was looking at out for us because we found quite a bit um and uh we were involved from beginning to end with uh this community with the people in it with the um the interactions with a uh work for uh the young people in

this community and I think Arnold uh is a person that um enjoyed every moment here it is said I think it's a Buddhist saying that um when you light a lamp for others the uh light also sheds for you and I believe that that was his life that he LD the he lit a life a light for others and also shared in that and I'd like to have the individuals who represent rights of Passage program as it continues to go forward uh who represent uh other members of our family who represent the uh uh Durham Business and Professional chain can we have them just stand and be recognized please

[Applause] yes [Applause] and you can see um with just the uh the ones who are here tonight his work will continue thank you thank you so [Applause] much Commissioners anything commissioner jaob thank you so much Mrs Stephen Valentine for your words and also for all of you being here tonight and uh I share my sympathies but also what an incredible Legacy Arthur Stephen Valentine is leaving our community I had the privilege of serving on the gang reduction task force with him for many

years and we were really blessed to have him on that task force and sharing ing his perspective and his wisdom with all of us on the task force and I know Reverend hearnen with writes a passage all the work that you all have been doing in the community uh so I just want to say I'm I'm grateful that I uh got to at least work with him um in that capacity but um also thank you to all of you for continuing on his work and I also so I worked with anold and I you know I knew I experienced his commitment to our youth um just a real genuine committed person that wanted the best for our young people and I that's a huge loss for our community and I just extend my

condolences and just know that he touched a lot of us thank you all right um and the resolution will um Monica she'll get a copy of it she's already gotten it see she's she takes care of it thank you thanks Monica all right we'll move on to our next um resolution recognition 23836 the recognition of O director Jim Groves for receiving the colonial Phillips Nichols water award from the North Carolina emergency management association Durham County Office of Emergency Services director Jim Gro was awarded the 2023 Colonial Philip Nichols Waters

award from the North Carolina emergency management association during the organization's 2023 fall conference this award is presented to the local emergency management leader who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in their Emergency Management program and has contributed to the overall good and advancement of Emergency Management in the state um Groves has served the residence of North Carolina for nearly 40 years he is the [Music] inaugural OES director starting his tenure on March 1 2020 previously Grove served 10 years as the Durham County Safety manager Emergency Management coordinator from 1920 1993 to 203 then as the fire Marshall

Emergency Management director from 2015 to 2020 he began his Public Service career as a volunteer with fire and Emergency Medical Services in 1984 at the Parkwood volunteer fire department in Durham during his time with Parkwood Groves were certified as a North Carolina firefighter emergency medical technician and hazardous materials technician now there's a whole lot more to read here but what I'm going to do is allow Jim to tell you about a little bit about this himself so okay thank you madam chair Dwayne Brenson assistant County Manager okay just want to add a quick remark before Mr Groves comes up a lot of people don't know that our work history involves more than just Durham County we worked

together in Orange County uh for a number of years so I've had an opportunity to uh work with Mr Groves for a while and it's an honor um for him to get this award I'm very happy for him very pleased for him and it's very Welles deserved so uh Mr Groves Mr Bron Jim Groves your emergency services director thank you all so much for taking the time to recognize um the colonel Waters award um you know you're reading through some of that stuff and you're making me feel as old old as my bones feel right now that's a whole lot I got two more pages that I could read you know I've been doing this uh for a while you know we we were not uh I'm not born and bred in Durham I was an Air Force child and we settled here in Durham uh when I was in Middle School went to githens and Jordan but we settled here because of the va's association with Duke University my

father was sick and so it's kind of a neat thing for me to have um completed Middle School at giens and high school at Jordan get my first degree at dur Tech and um being able to volunteer for the Parkwood community in southern Durham for so many years and then I have an opportunity to make a difference in the entire Community as an emergency manager and so um it's been kind of a lifelong calling it's an interesting the the the N the new no leadership series is leading on purpose and they talk about your job and is it a is it a job is it a career or is it a calling and I truly believe uh with your own County and this position that I've I've realized my calling um and so it's it's just been a pleasure and a joy U so thank you very much for the recognition I really appreciate it

[Applause] he comments from Commissioners mine is really really quick um uh one director grov uh well pause and and I know you can receive this one thank you to everyone who came um to celebrate uh Mr Arnold really appreciate you all yeah this is a long so thank you all so very much um I I just wanted to say to you director Groves um I remember when I first started out as a county commissioner and we were all on zoom and I get a note from somebody one day saying commissioner Burns we know you short if you need us to come to your house and take the battery out of your smoke detector we will come up there and take that battery out your smoke now let

me clarify they didn't do it cuz that's the kind of stuff y'all would write in the newspaper that I was misusing res I got a ladder I figured it out I don't know why they put that thing in the top of my ceiling I don't know why but that's just the kind of person that Jim Groves is right like he is thinking about things y'all know I had to went nose blind to that thing I ain't hear and but he heard it on the zoom he said commissioner Burns if you need us to come over there we will change out that thing for you and so um that was I I I throw that out there cuz he is like that with everything so whenever he comes to us and he asks for money it is for something that we really need I know y'all don't get to come to our work sessions but we have a mannequin that can deliver babies why because people in Durham can deliver babies why do we have it cuz Jim knew to go buy it we have mannequins now that are getting upgrades for CPR they scared Jesus out of me cuz they can move and I don't like stuff that can move that can't talk but they can move and do you know why we have those upgrades cuz he ask us for the money right before he left he asked for a bunch of stuff he came in here the

other day with his arm broke which made me think this is like a senior in high school he got a fight club going in the basement of this place and I I I knew once he had a cast on and had Awards he must be leaving so he's also retiring so I am going to miss you because when the batteries run out I don't know what I'm going to do but I want to also throw this out when the whole world is sitting back trying to figure out how they're going to get ambulances because there's like a 20 Monon backlog this gentleman figured out a way to put a Ford uh a box from a Ford Chassis to a Mercedes chassis so we wouldn't have a break in any of our ambulances this is the man who went to finance and budget and to our manager and said I know the whole world has stopped but can we buy our ambulances 3 years in advance so people in Durham don't have to worry about whether or not they get help this is the man who went out and as we were doing electrostatic cleaning made sure he found something that was vegan friendly that we could clean our ambulances out with so when people are in there struggling to breathe they're not taking

any harmful chemicals I really could go on and on and on about some of the Investments and advancement that he's he's made um the things that he's taught me that I'm cognizant of especially when I think about training the next level of paramedics that we're going to need at Derm Tech um so you will be greatly missed uh you are greatly appreciated and I miss you good luck and Godspeed and I know you are going to miss the best show on Earth thank you commissioner Burns okay commissioner Mike Lee yes thank you madam chair and Jim I also just want to say congratulations first on uh such a well earned and and deserved honor and award um Durham County has some incredible amazing leaders of our department and and people who are providing top-notch services to the community Jim but you're in the upper echelon tier of that group and uh we will definitely miss you um I just love that you started at Parkwood as a volunteer firefighter

there um and I love how you summed up your career as a calling and and good for you congratulations on that too people spend a lifetime searching for their calling and for purpose their purpose and meaningful work and um the fact that you considered a call falling I'm sure is partly attributable to the fact that you're so good at what you do um you've certainly made durm County a safer more prepared community and thank you so much for that thank you ma'am commissioner Jacobs Jim I also want to congratulate you this is a welld deserved recognition for you from your peers and you really have created an incredible Legacy here in Durham County and what amazes me is that you still your attitude is still 100% positive and the fact that you clearly have energy for this work and

and enjoy it it's visible to everybody I I don't think I've ever seen you visibly concerned or upset about anything considering the kind of work that you do which is all related to First Response and Emergency Management and Hazard mitigation and disasters and uh you name it um so um it it really amazes me and you have you have led a lot of really tough transitions in Durham uh changes within the volunteer fire departments uh that I remember were very difficult the merger of s uh the fire department the Durham City and County Fire Department uh which was very challenging um and then just getting through covid and everything that was required for that by many many people uh and again as commissioner Burns noted

planning for a future with Supply chains and just an everchanging landscape so really thank you so much for everything that you've done for our community and congratulations and I to add my congratulations again uh Jer was on the TV show with us uh this week so I had a opportunity to hear him and give my accul but and I'll do it again publicly just thank you for your service thank you for your heart this the work that you do is about heart so I I wish you all the luck in the world thank you so much okay anything else all right thank you all right we have one more

um uh recognition and that is 238 uh 38 uh recognition of Goomer um guden guten I'll get it out in a minut I'll get it out in a minute guten farmer uh G for receiving the order of the long leaf pine for her 25 years of outstanding service dedication and leadership as the Director of Durham Count's clinical Justice Resource Center and I will um give the honors to Comm commissioner Jacobs to honor G thank you um before I say anything I'm I'm actually G to turn it over to Rana Parker because I think she has the uh she's got the important document in her hand so I will I will wait hold off on my comments and turn it over to Rana

Parker director of our Justice Services Department and Justice uh Resource Center thank you so so much good evening I'm definitely honored to be here this evening to stand here as we bestow this prestigious award upon um someone who is so deserving gam Palmer needs no introduction to this group or to the Durham Community when you say her name people know from her years know her from her years of dedicated service they know her as a hard worker and a go-getter they know her as an innovator and a leader I know her from having worked side by side with her for 10 years I know the pass that she has for helping people and the commitment she made to work day in and day out until the day she retired we miss her but we want her to know that the commitment to this work continues and we are building on the awesome Foundation that she laid with that I will um turn it over to a couple of supporters that came tonight to share in this honor they shared in helping to

prepare it and so I wanted to give the time to them to say a few words before we actually um give her the ual War so with that I'll turn it over to representative Mor good evening Commissioners wonderful to see you everyone what a great celebration uh we just heard about Arnold Stephen Valentine who's a Visionary he taught me about kids Juvenile Justice and 18 years as a judge and I came in when goodan came and started the criminal justice resource ource Center because of the vision of this County the County Commissioners let's put some resources in to what was then was the most Innovative program in the state we're not helping incarcerated people we're helping people Durham was the first County in the entire State let's start a juvenile

drug court let's start a family drug court let's start adult criminal drug court we had three drug courts running those were not punitive those were Rehabilitation we had first appearances in jail we knew nothing as a judge about it let's do a cash Bond but goodan and her leadership and people under her gave us information about these people who came in jail every morning this is their record this is the mental health issues they have this is the Family Support so we were so so much wiser in how we would address first offenders and we would see laws that were unjust and in Durham we said how do we make it better and with goodan and with Kelly we started the first state misdemeanor diversion program don't arrest these kids that are 16 and 17 for minor

offenses give them to a program don't start a criminal record I think when I left there were about 800 we prevented from having a criminal record because of goodin's leadership so it spanned everything in re-entry so Durham should be so proud and it happened because of your commitment and it happened because we picked the right person and the leadership of goodam Palmer who so is deserving of the order of the long leaf fine thank you very much much we also have Rob Lang that will say a few words from the US attorney's office of the Middle District thank you Rashana Madam chair Commissioners you all should be congratulated we try to build the model of what you build and the other 24 counties in our district uh the only

line item consistently funded re-entry based Center in the state for many many many years Greensboro is now their their County Commissioners are funding a similar organization uh that goodin ran for years and it's starting to catch on but you were 20 years ahead of your time and so thank you for your leadership and seeing that Vision uh that goodin was able to act out I bring greetings from my boss United States Attorney sandre harston appointed by judge uh by President Biden to be the chief Federal law enforcement officer of this district and I wanted just say to this group that when gudan retired they had to change the Criminal Justice Resource Center into a department in the judicial Services Department to replace all the work but we congratulate her and it has been a pleasure I learned she was there's an old song I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool she was re-entry she and Nicole Sullivan were

talking about re-entry 25 years ago when nobody in this state even saw it re-entry is the smartest business we do in the Criminal Justice Center it's where a high percentage of our people that come back and cycle through and what you have done down here under goodin's leadership and I'm certain that it will continue we are just glad to partner uh with this fine County and with this great uh resource department my last thing is I was down in Lee County and we were talking about re-entry and they're at the very bottom of this and I said you need to go up to Durham County and see what they're doing they went down Lee County is not as rich in resources as this community they came up here and their County Commissioners allocated $500,000 to begin this process to fund the Baseline to begin a program like that so you not only has this commission and gin leadership changed Durham County but you're changing other places and showing people how to do business better to do business smarter be more efficient and to change lives and to save lives

and families so thank you very much scrin it's an honor to work with you I could rely on her any time she's always accountable uh and uh it's just a pleasure and congratulations wow so not to take up much more time I will go ahead and read the um Proclamation or the order of the long leaf pine Gan can you come up as she's coming I will I will read what it says state of North Carolina Roy Cooper Governor excuse me with special confidence in the Integrity learning and Zeal of gam Palmer I do confer the order of the long leaf pine with the rank of Ambassador extraordinaire privileged to enjoy fully All rights granted to members of his exalted order among which is the special privilege to the per to purpose the following North Carolina toast in the

select company anywhere in the Free World here's to the land of the long leaf pine the summer land where the sun does shine where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great here's to down home the old North State sign Roy Cooper October 9th 2023 [Applause] wow [Applause] good evening Commissioners Madam manager Mr attorney um and everybody in the audience uh so I did prepare just very brief comments because um ran was trying

to keep this semi secet but she forgot that I know how to find an agenda so I I looked up the agenda and I knew what this was about so it's so good to be here um it's been almost six months since I retired so first thanks to Governor Cooper for for the recognition and a very special thank you to everyone who had a hand in making this happen Kelly Andrews um and all of you who advocated on my behalf to the governor it's indeed a great honor thank you everyone representative Mory Rob ranov for the kind words but none of this happened in a vacuum right the amazing progress that was made in Durham over the last 25 years in in criminal justice was due to the efforts of many people people not just one and

yet so much remains to be done to the team at Justice Services never stop challenging the status quo always look for even better ways to serve your clients and recognize that your biggest successes happen in partnership with other organizations and with community members continue to learn from others look for for inspiration here in Durham outside of the county outside of the state and sometimes outside of the country never lose your compassion and your willingness to go above and beyond for for so many people like you have done many many times in the past and I know you have and to all of you especially you Commissioners please continue to find ways and new ways to support individuals enthralled in and entangled

in the justice system including the victims continue to support the women and the men who do this hard work especially those who often don't get the recognition they deserve and continue to ask hard questions and demand accountability from all the system partners and all the Justice Partners up and down the system and I know you will and I thank you and continue to do great work thank you thanks again everybody well but gam before you step away you know I'm not going to keep my mouth shut first thing she said when I she walked in she said first of all this better be quick and you better not

cry y'all should have placed the waight so to strike strike out both hopefully I I I don't know if I'm going to be successful on either one of these but I also want to um ackowledge um all of the staff and all the partners who are here tonight because of Gan if you could please stand and gan's husband Russell especially you [Applause] we we thank you for for sharing Gautam with us for 25 years um so thank you um and you know it it really is incredible what um you know I I I took great pleasure in writing a letter to Governor Cooper about Gan it really was an honor and a privilege and I'm I won't reread the letter that I read your retired govern party okay um but it it is pretty incredible um to think what we have

after 25 years thanks to gam we we heard some lists of some of the programs but the fact is we now have a department of more than 80 people who run a dizzying array of programs that serve people in our community and with an incredible staff who by the way we had almost no vacancies in this Department during the pandemic what does that tell you about gan's leadership and also all the people who are part of the Justice Services Department what incredible team so um we heard some me me mention the misdemeanor and post arrest aversion program jail mental health jail mental health screened 1,942 detainees last year and refer 47% of these people for mental health services which we provide 24 hours a day

in our jail our Mental Health and Drug Treatment court that diverts residents from our jail in the first place and provides them the opportunity for treatment and Recovery pre-trial Services which allows 220 people last year to remain out of the Detention Center under supervision and connected to Services while awaiting Court disposition and reduces third last year 33,105 m600 th000 our JailBase star program our which is and our Second Chance substance use and treatment use programs our re-entry Council um kin also helped to start and run our criminal justice advisory committee juvenile crime prevention Council

stepping up initiative gang reduction advisory committee and the Duram joins together to save lives um addressing substance of medication misuse mental health and um substance mental health and treatment subcommittee and then as interim general manager for durm County government she led the process helping us determine how to use our opioid settlement funds I I could just go on and on and I I just want to say that for me personally um she failed I told you I I would not be doing the work that I'm doing today if it wasn't for gam when I was chair of the board she said hey I how about uh um how about applying for this peer Justice Learning Network Grant with no and you know everyone

knows with good when she tells you to do something you do it right so I I applied and we got it so next thing I know I'm doing this peer Justice Learning Network experience with 12 other elected officials nationally leag and their staff and with gan and of course that was a life-changing experience for me and next she says well hey there's a familiar faces initiative opportunity why don't you apply for that sure so next thing I get into this uh National leadership Network for familiar faces um and so thanks to Gan and her partnership and her leadership not just of people in the community but of elected officials I am now leading the Durham familiar faces initiative we came back from Haven for New Hope for Haven for Hope in San Antonio and that led to the Carver creep

campus for permanent Supportive Housing in Durham which is our first ever campus for permanent Supportive Housing that the city and the county have funded with housing for New Hope and none of that would have happened without youan so you have Creator Legacy in so many ways with so many people I'm really grateful for you and ready for you to get back on some of these committees thank you and you so deserving of this honor from Governor Cooper thank you commissioner Burns I remember one day I was standing in the hallway it was a big group of us so this is public at this point and Gan looked at me and she says oh my gosh I could never do that I can't keep a secret at all what you mean you can't keep a secret she said I can't keep a secret at all people said man don't tell her nothing I said no I'mma ask her everything because if she can't keep a secret I ain't worried about her lying

to me and that was all I needed soon as she said that I knew I could trust this woman and it has been a beautiful relationship ever since I can be on a trip and Gan would call me on the phone commissioner Burns let me tell you what just happened and blah blah blah blah and we would go through this whole thing and and it was she's not a tattletail she just gives you good data so that we can make the best informed decisions for this community I think commissioner Jacobs did a great job of kind of sort of outlining some of the stuff y'all know it's campaign season folks going to be taking credit for everything I'm happy like I need y'all to understand a lot of this stuff is so driven by staff they are the subject matter experts they bring it to us one and there's an interconnectivity to it and I hate that we didn't get to do Mr Stephen Valentine because I thought I'd be able to wrap all of these in at one but in this community we have people that walk around at night ride their bikes at night ride their scooters at night and they don't recognize that the reason why you can ride your bike you can walk downtown and you can take your scooter is because of the sacrifices and the conversations and

negotiations that were made because of people like director Parker like director Palmer and like the folks that are sitting over there in that section like to clean up these streets it takes hard work it is that you going to see a lot of people who say oh you know Derm is so clean it didn't just get that way somebody had to say I want to make sure this person is not a familiar face and doesn't have to do this again so for me I S I sit on the joint um on the juvenile crime prevention Council and one of the things that we were able to do this year as a board was give them additional funding and some people like well what you gave them more money what for there are nonprofits in Durham you know I'll say this I don't mind saying it publicly they are mile wide and two inches deep they are not actually doing the work and then you got some out there that are doing a whole bunch of work without the resources and they can't go into the senses tracks it's really really bad so we based on Her counsel and about where we needed additional need we were able to give them additional money and open the grant

process up to folks who had never been able to apply before and really work with them and say okay this is how you work with government this is how you work with them and today I kid you not g I got three uh uh I got three annual reports from folks that we gave grants to for the first time because you knew that they were worth it and they are kids I I I know you saving these kids lives so please know that even though you have left your work lives on I have done site visits with a lot of them and and I'm seeing the change because we can't do it by ourselves so and even in our priorities the manager asked us I asked for three more amounts of money for jcpc cuz you have always encouraged me to continue to get in good trouble so uh I am thankful thankful thankful for everything that you've been able to do for us um I always say that Criminal Justice Reform is like a stool that got four legs we doing our part Judicial Systems doing their part the sheriff and

them doing their part I won't say who's not doing their part we all know who that is um but and we and we taking up that weight and so I I I will stop here because I see people getting annoyed um but I do want you to know that when you left uh there was like a collective s around the state like oh my gosh like who is going to lead this charge and the beautiful thing about being a great leader is that you invested in a wonderful person so when it came time for us I said it's going to be Rashana Parker everybody breathe a collective size so thank you a leader is somebody who makes another leader who makes a Le leader and I just want you to know you are a leader that I aspire to be like and thank you for everything that you've done to save black children and brown children in Durham commissioner Mike Lee oh just briefly I uh too want to say congratulations to you gin and to say thank you for um working for Duram

County in the ways that you did to develop the the Criminal Justice Resource Center now the justices Justice Services Department um thank you for bringing your your Brilliance your radical empathy um your vision your intense commitment to this work uh because it has attracted a lot of important Partners um you know I had nothing against Governor Cooper but when I read the sheet tonight for the people who are going to be presenting this award to you I thought this is the most exalted list of leaders for justice and fairness in our community I've could imagine and on that list Leia rubert Marsha Mor marshia Owen R Parker Wendy you were on there I see Kelly Andrews um I see somebody else whose name I just cannot remember because I'm old hello um a new day and um all the the work for young people um and restorative justice Amy Amy thank you um anyway so many people here um

which it it just it just speaks volumes um about you Gan thank you we miss you I hope you're having some good runs jogs so so thank you gin I you know I served with you for what 10 years on your board it was always an honor and a privilege to serve because I knew how why I was there I was there for our young people and I it was always a joy to be there uh and I wish you the best as you go in a different direction and uh we just so appreciate the work that you did and the Legacy that you've left so again kudos ditos to all my board members what they have said already and thank you thank you so much to everyone and commissioner Burns I left County

government but I didn't leave Durham County and I'm still here thank you okay so Commissioners now we're down to 23864 Durham County Commissioner some highlights and I want to acknowledge our um mayor um mayor in Waiting mayor Leo mayor elect is mayor in Waiting mayor elect Leo uh Willam and sanado Williams is here in the audience just to acknowledge Him um so I will take a few minutes uh Commissioners and audience to talk

about accomplishments that we things that we've accomplished just some highlights some things that I felt that would be good to highlight um so I'm going to start here with so I want to take a few minutes and just reflect on the extraordinary work that has been done by this wonderful Board of County Commissioners and under my leadership as a chair of the board and I have served as a chair with Commissioners for the last three years um when I was appointed it was a very difficult time for for this board and what I knew then and I know now is when you focus on what matters the rest falls into place and What mattered was the people

of durm so when you recall that when we were elected in 2020 we became the first all female Board of County Commissioners in North Carolina there were a few cities with that kind of Dynamics but now but not in Durham County I was honored to be elected by this historic board as its chair please know that it has been my pleasure to work with such an outstanding board outstanding group of dedicated hardworking Commissioners on behalf of this entire community and Durham County is in a good place let me say that again Durham County is in a good place

not because of the commissioners but because of the staff and the people that get this work done we show up and they show they make us look good and I am honored we all bring a different backgrounds and experiences to the table and we work together as we examine issues develop policies and serve the great people of durh County a task force a major task and we have all kinds of task forces but the major task of County Commissioners is to hire certain staff for the first time I've been since I've been on this board we had the responsibility of Hiring Our top leaders that the Commissioners are responsible

com her leadership continues to be outstanding our board also hired our new County attorney Al Andrews over here and a just a few weeks later then we had to name a new tax administrator so do he in the

room he's over there okay thank you for being here these leaders will continue to move Durham forward as our board began to operate we were still addressing covid the pandemic over the months and years our Public Health director Rod Jenkins not sure he's here tonight and his staff helped ensure that we receive vaccine even though we didn't want to and that we use proper Health standards to regain our lifestyles during the pandemic you may remember that for a time we had the Pro Glass Shields between us in this room and our meetings were completely virtual thankfully we can now conduct our business in person with the addition of Virtual

Technology that means you can sometimes people want to be on Zoom they can do that or come to the meetings a positive result is more participation about our residents earlier this year I was a part of a delegation uh that traveled to Lake plet and I don't know if any of you been to Lake plet but that's called place I've ever been to ice and snow for a final vote by the FIFA it's F IA International University sports Federation to bring the world University Summer Games to the to this region in 2029 durm along with Raleigh Chapel Hill Greensboro and Carrie will be the locations of these games we were successful and this will be one of our

state's largest ever sports event we expect these games to bring an economic impact of nearly $150 million do to this state that will be amazing after four years of collaboration among community members planning staff and elected officials with the common goal of producing an equable final product the 2023 comprehensive plan was adopted by a Board of Commissioners and our durm city council this is a major accomplishment for our community I am so grateful that this plan will be used to guide important decisions around zoning and other planning issues for the next 15 to 20 years in March of

9 trillion doll to State and local governments to recover from covid-19 pandemic Rend durm County received our $62 million of these funds A Board of Commissioners proactively developed and adopted a comprehensive flame framework to guide the distribution of these proceeds now the person that did that work Claudia haager and her team and that was amazing work I can't every time I think each time she thought she had it all done the feds would change the rules and to go back and do it again so it's been major work this framework allocates and funds products

products projects products and projects that are now being used to transform our community's health education infrastructure and the economy all while aligning the county strategic goals Additionally the funds are helping out Public Health response to covid-19 through expanded access to medical and Behavior Health Care while also addressing Health disparities funds are also combating negative economic impacts by assisting small businesses and expanding an infrastructure to create a pipeline for Workforce Development by building building up local label markets through the bills initiative a portion of these funds will replace public sector revenue losses

enabling Durham County to continue providing essential government services such as free and reduced public health health care and funding food insecurity for those needing critical support because food insecurity is Major in this community and not just this community other communities as well transformative Investments are being made to expand access to broadband and underserved communities father $10 million will support a new lift station needed for current and future Waste Management our board has worked with the city of derome to leverage our American Rescue fund dollars to optimize transformative infrastructure funds in fy22 to 23 we approved two

5 million from each jurisdiction and as I listened to the Realtors today one of the things that they said was when we talk about affordable housing do we talk about attainable housing it can be affordable but is it attainable also Duram County and the City of Durham have partnered to support a project called Carver Creek the one that commissioner Jacobs just mentioned a minute ago this project will provide affordable housing and expand it into a

Supportive Housing campus for people transition out of homelessness Services include substance abuse treatment mental and physical health care will be provided on site in the spring our board came together with the community to celebrate the midpoint of our 300 East Main Street project this includes affordable housing parking and daycare construction on the related 500 East Main Street project continues as well and we were excited to see that happen to cut that ribbon Economic Development job Readiness and training are important values for this board I'm very proud of our focus on Business Development especially small and minority business

development this Board of Commissioners exhibits a commitment to inclusion and the advancement of minority owned small businesses and Professionals in the county through the launch of a new initiative the mwb evolution in Durham managed by impr prise the program which kicked off just a few weeks ago is designed for minority women small business owners who want to take their businesses to the next level participants must attend 13 sessions to complete the program in 2021 maid and Durham continue to build out the Bulls initiative with its Partners through its efforts to create an an align strategics string align strategies in community engagement education engagement and corporate

engagement the 2023 scope of work continues and Begins the scaling of the Bulls biotech Academy our board has supported this effort in our annual budget the goal is to prepare our young people for challenging careers in the growing life science Industry for providing financial assistance certifications and postgraduate support our board continues to support our strong Economic Development efforts over the period we are able to increase our staff of one and added three more employees but the amazing results is that during the pandemic durm County continued to welcome new companies and

5 million and 250 jobs certainly Durham County has continued its reputation for being the highly competitive and business-friendly

that is a lot during a pandemic then commissioner Al and I became the founding members of the counties for guaranteed income program earlier this year where um along with 15 other counties from Across the Nation we were in DC uh at the White House and we presented to president Biden's staff regarding funding for the national guaranteed income program and shared important points about how much families needed the assistance and you know this program is modeled after Mayors for guaranteed income uh which initially um started by mayor Stockton of California Michael tubs and the City of Durham did their guaranteed income uh program last year

as well I'm so proud that this board has have taken a critical step toward addressing e economic disparities by implementing dco Thrive a guaranteed income pilot program that aims to help durm families go from surviving to thriving this program will provide no strings attached financial support to 125 lowincome families and access the potential pos positive impacts positive impacts on the community we will provide $750 to families with children each month to help them with everyday living expenses last month last Monday this m this past Monday we launched the program to the

community by showing the film its Basics and discussed how lifechanging these funds can be for families and if you pay attention to the website you can see the date that you can begin to file a register for the program I was honored to to have been appointed by the National Environmental local government advisory committee by EPA secretary Michael rean our work has been centered on issues affecting local governments including past which is the forever chemical and how they affect health and the environment regulatory Innovation and reform Environmental Protection pollution prevention performance measures and coordinated Environmental Management stewardship and there was something on

3 million from federal by partisan infrastructure law the money will be used to re renovate our Redwood convenience center in North East Durham and to improve our cycl recycling process our fourth district congresswoman Valerie fushi along with other state and federal officials joined us for the presentation a few weeks ago thanks to our general services staff for participating in this Grant and I don't know if Mo here or not Mo and her staff did an extreme job with

5 million grant for Emer Energy Efficiency upgrades in lowincome homes the Energy Efficiency and conservation block grant competitive Grant is a funding opportunity from the office of state and Community energy programs opportunity from the office of State emergency okay programs at the US Department of energy durm County was the only entity in North Carolina to be selected for the grant program the purpose is to implement a program that will reduce energy burdens and promote Energy Efficiency and under resourced neighborhoods last year I served on the

na Board of Trustees and was also the chair of the healthy counties committee and I thought that was ending but the ended I ended up being asked to serve again um and that the uh I was also asked to chair the committee for a and I was happy to do it so so Edna and BCA Global and our public health staff to bring us a community Wellness event called mindful eating for the Beloved Community if you didn't have an opportunity to be there and sample some of the foods you really missed something the food was awesome because the sole purpose of the event was to begin cultivating a healthy focus on food and working to reconnect food to family community culture and Faith the event was held at our senior

center for life and was a day of screening massages food tasting and fun education has always been a top priority for our Board of County Commissioners and over the past three years we continue to fully fund Duram Public School requests for operations in capital fund funding and that also included substantial increases for the classified employees prek expansion resulted in new slots for new our prek programs to give our youngest residents a great start in their educational Journey we also increased our funding support for durm Technical Community College in requested Capital funding I'm honored to serve on the durm tech Board of Trustees this fall durm Technical College launched its president's emerging leaders

280 million of Durham Public

Schools 112 million for germ Technical Community College and $13 million for our Museum of Life and Science all three questions were approved and now we see new buildings Ren Ovation land acquisition and future expansion underway over the period the Board of Commissioners worked to provide support for our employees and our budget approval we work to ensure that salaries and benefits were in line with and often better than our peer local governments we reported a recent classification and compensation study we approved a new County employee holiday juneth that went into effect on 2021 and as a as a result of of

that some of our communities had their own June teeth in their communities through the years we supported the county manager's budget recommendations around bonuses for hard to fill positions those employees who did not have the option to work remotely we worked with a group mom's rising to implement improve benefits to our employees and we have representatives from more moms Rising here and we I'd like for you to come to them Mike and our employees have responded positive having five dedicated Wellness days uh more time with adoption and more options to care for themselves and their families and these were these were items that Mom's Rising presented to brought to us and ask us to

entertain um so I'd like for you to have a comment on thisk thank you so much chair Harton and all of the Commissioners we are so excited um um to talk about um your Champion paid Le policies for uh Durham Durham County Employees we have this thank you card that we would like to leave with you all and I will read it so dear chair Howton and Durham County Commissioners on behalf of over a million members of Mom's Rising across the country and 40,000 across North Carolina and many right here in Durham County I want to thank you for championing policies that lift up Working Families including the recently approved Family First paid leave policy expanding paid policies to meet the caregiving needs of Durham County Employees being there for family is what matters most and no one should have to choose between the family they love and

the job that they need thank you for being champions for Working Families oh thank you wonderful wow it's [Laughter] awesome I said somebody get a picture of of it we will pause briefly for this photo

okay [Applause] all right so we're almost through um let's see as they say it takes a village community expected mothers with pre-existing health conditions are being given blood pressure monitors continued steps are being made to ensure that Durham is a breastfeeding friendly friendly environment for All Families such as encouraging employees

to provide lactation spaces Durham County Department of Public Health continues his collaboration with born in Durham that is focused on maternal and infant Health outcomes with a goal of eliminating prenatal inequities in Durham County Durham County Department of Public Health has partnered with Guilford County Health Department North Carolina on health of Human Services and other key stakeholders to convene a regional black paternal health and infant mortality conference in the spring so last year was held it was held in gford County we're looking to have it held in Durham County in the spring we have hired our first food security coordinator Mary oxendine she may be in the room this position supports the community

by developing developing a strong and Equitable food system for residents to find affordable and healthy foods this is one of the bipartisan identified during the covid pandemic and it was critical but we work to help our families find and receive healthy and nutritious Foods the work around Durham County's Master aging plan is posit positively moving forward much like communities everywhere we have seen a growing number of older adults and those adults are living longer our board is committed to Bringing resources to Bear to ensure that our seniors are age with dignity and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in their golden years this is none of us can get out of it there's

only one way we can get out of aging and we all know what that is okay the ma the master agent plan steering committee has convened working groups to address community support and Health Services senior hunger and nutrition housing as committees are being found formalized action plans with strategies to add address the key components will soon emerge transportation is a priority in any Community the board continued to work closely with our region on this issue I was honored to have been chosen recently as the first black female to chair the go triangle Board of Trustees is some at some point in this I hope in my lifetime we can stop saying first won't have to say the first first black but we are still doing that the first black female

was appointed today to the realtor Association so we're still having to say that also I want to share a few important Transportation accomplishments as we interact during the past three years you know our planning uh Department uh we really we only have Ellen Beckman I think we're hiring some other folks now we've got a couple of other people we got um who we have in the we've got two we've got two more people in that department as Ellen beckman's been doing the work for the LA for quite some time on her own and that's a lot our board approved the Durham County Transit plan Prov providing a vision for how to spend more than1 billion dollar of Transit Revenue

2 million Federal Railroad Administration Grant to conduct a planning study to improve safety at three railroad crossings in East Durham this is Major win for our community our board supported the establishment of the Community intervention and support service department this new Department brings together three program areas that were

previously operating separately I don't think I've ever known the durm county to create a department that was Major work major work for the staff that did that work and we appreciate all the work that you do that was the Bull City United My Brothers Keeper and project Bill the Department's focus is to provide coordinated and pro programmatic support and systems level strategies in partnership with the community to promote resident and Community safety and prosperity Bull City unit entered into a local agreement with the city of Durham to expand its work to reduce gun violence in census tracks that were experiencing higher firearm related incidents the staff was expanded from seven to 25 it's a lot of

people Bull City United received a Brian Justice assistance grant from the Department of Justice in the amount of $250,000 to examine cross systems approaches to address gun violence and offer recommendations for Pro promising practices prise promising practices and Sustainable Solutions so all of these things we are working on there's no it's not like they're finished they're being they are work being worked on My Brother's Keeper is now utilizing the national MBK model to continue to work to improve life and career outcomes for young boys and men's of color project Bill received an additional $25,000 from juvenile crime prevention councel real reallocation funds to expand skill

building opportunities for its participants and there's so many programs that the city and county have teamed up to work together the Partnerships is is vital the boys and Bs Boys and Girls Club the county join with the Boys and Girls Club of durman orange counties to expand tutoring service including an initiative that collaborates with boys with Durham County Library operation to expand homework help through in-person and remote learning options and Durham County uh also funded bus a couple of vans that the students needed because the vans that they were riding in um was in very very bad shape durm County and the City

established an interlocal agreement to expand communitybased programming coordination by the County's Community intervention and support service department the hati reborn Justice movement is an umbrella organization that works with existing Community Partners to help develop and coordinate strategies that interrupt the cycle of violence while concurrently increasing the health and prosperity within marginalized communities the board allocated $2 million to leverage federal funds awarded by Congress to in the amount of $700,000 to support hati reborn J Justice movement efforts so there's two two different sets of money there many thanks to our former representative David Price who ensured that these funds were

approved and the work continues successfully and as I begin to close so as you see the work that we've done over the last three years as Commissioners has been phenomenal members of the board and the staff have worked very hard with various Community organizations residents staff and employees to achieve goals and priorities in many many areas it has been a pleasure to work on projects and initiatives that improve the quality of life for all of our residents and I just wanted to take this opportunity tonight to say thank you the community thank you because this work is hard work is

Ser is servant leadership work and when you elect us to do you do the work that's what we do is we get down with it and go to work so I just want consent agenda and I'm going to allow the I'm going to ask the manager if she will go through these and see if any Commissioners have anything that they want to pull um and if not then we will have a vote to approve the consent agenda but I'll let I'll ask the manager she'll go through these so I will just turn to um our commissioners and ask are there any of the items that you would like pull for us to consider individually Vice chair Jacobs um Madame manager I don't want to pull anything but there is a really big item on here right that I think it would be great if we could hear from staff

about so the community can know about this um I know we're going to hear a report from Mary oxendine after this our food security coordinator and this item really ties into her report so that's item 23- 0857 um if would be great if we could hear more about that item great I think we have we if that's the farm campus Farm Camp y it is if she's going to come to the podium we're going to have to vote on the others and then have her well she wouldn't be speaking on it it's um other staff if would speak on it our our real estate staff it's a real estate deal right it is well I'm delighted to speak on this item I presume you want me to do that right now and not wait for you to finish going through the agenda okay is that correct thank you well good evening I'm Nancy Mitchell I'm the senior real estate officer for Durham County and we

are pleased to bring to the board for your consideration tonight the purchase of a 130 acre parcel at the intersection of 15501 Factory Road this is um a piece of property that is currently undeveloped we are purchasing it from the owner uh who has owned a great deal of land in that part of our County for a long time this is and and the property owner I should say came to Durham County because he specifically wanted to make sure that the parcel was kept in good care and wasn't overly developed and and that it would continue to serve the citizens of Durham uh long into the future so with that uh we also have some other staff members here who have more of the details on how the property is proposed to be used for your consideration tonight also are the deal points in the purchase of

the property one is a $100,000 earnest money deposit which will be paid uh pretty much immediately upon the approv approval of this item we'll get that in the works this week we'd like to get under contract as quickly as possible we have some due diligence that we will conduct related to the soils and the suitability of the soils with a goal toward closing by the end of February the idea for the property specifically our current need is to have a place for uh our farm campus which will be operated and developed and operated by our um Cooperative Extension and we have again staff here to talk about the specifics of that but uh if there are any questions I'd be happy to inter questions no would love to hear what Donna has to say as well thank you and

thank you for your great work I'd like to make a request that we actually carve out some time at a work session for a really thorough you know presentation on this for the community it's it's frustrating um probably for the community too but I think for board members when there's you know massive item that really is worthy of sounding the trumpet about right but it's on the consent agenda and you I want to honor that fact by not you know drawing this out because it is consent but if we could just lift this up at the future and give it the recognition it it so deserves this really is a dream come true and we we will certainly do that I just um did want to add that staff we really needed to get this approved because time is of the essence for for staff but we will certainly bring it back at a work session and that's wonderful I'm Donna R waltin the um Durham County Extension director and very proud to partner with our our real estate partners and our friends in open space who actually brought this property to all of our attention um durm County

Farm campus is an idea that's been talked about in durm County among the community for several years I know some of you have been part of those conversations and the idea is to honor our agricultural history but also our agricultural future as an urban sustainable agricultural community that is innovating and growing all the time in the space but we know that land is difficult uh to come by in durm County we know that um all things are not Equitable for all folks who want to access land and so der County Farm campus is an effort to provide an opportunity for many different people from many different backgrounds to access land to learn how to farm how to grow things whether it's on a smaller or larger scale to engage with our broader agricultural community that already exists for the purposes of education and partnership with them um this is uh timely because we actually do have the community may know from some previous conversations we do have a USDA Grant where we are exploring in depth what

this will will look like and so there's going to be some wonderful opportunities in the coming months for the community to engage with this concept um and and right now what we've been talking about I think in terms of this deal and what it will look like um is that obviously there would be agricultural U growing of items right but we've also talked about the facility needs of Northern Durham County of the need for community and educational space um for agriculture and other purposes and also a real shortage of production and value added production space in Northern D County what that means for the community so it's that idea of if I grow a tomato and I want to make it salsa I I have to have a commercial kitchen that I can do that in and so that potentially adds um some value if we are able to move toward a facility down the road so those are some broad Strokes of the things that we hope to do um we're all very excited about it and we look forward to talking with you about it in a work session and we certainly have other staff here who could answer more detailed questions if anyone had them at this time so we're excited again

okay anything else commission Burns okay yeah the question from the manager on the floor was one um I have no problem making them thank you Don I I moved on past um uh that one but for the sake of highlighting sake because I know that we have some folks in here who would appreciate it I just wanted to highlight two items as well we have over $12 million in oper funds that we are about to approve on here I'm not going to belabor the point but we are making some significant invest shout out to Claudia shout out to the manager for taking the torch but we're making some from the lift station to Public Health this is $12 million about to go into the community with the stroke of this pen the other thing I want to highlight it has been a long and arduous Journey but I remember the night we voted on it and how easy it was much like the farm campus I just want to elevate the shops at Hope Valley because we finally have a management company people been asking us about it no

different than a farm campus we are going to have to study what we want to put there so that we can put what is best for the community there I know I got Pine ideas about how I would love to extend the county out into uh you know close to the Cook Road close to the hillside but before we can do all of that we had to close the deal so as the stroke of this pin goes in a second we will have a management company for the shops at South Point on MLK and while many of those places the Family Dollars have long-term leases there are some vacancy he there and please don't jump on the staff just yet Perry I see you back there don't worry I'm not going to send them to you yet but as as we become landlords we are looking forward to the opportunity to open up those spaces and do some really great work and extend our footprint Beyond downtown so those are the two things I just wanted to highlight like when we buy land we are not buying land to buy land we are buying land to Aid and Durham's Prosperity okay

so one more because I see NAA sitting out there and I just want to recognize another and your some of your team there too from cooperate extension uh the my Durham Academy for refugees and immigrants the funding that you have received and again my question is to hear back more later is $7,000 is not very much but we appreciate you get getting that funding and I want to make sure that that program is fully funded the way we fund the neighborhood college and the planning Academy um so just if we can let us know and really excited and thank you for running that program okay if there is there anything else for you man manager if not I will ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda Madam chair I like to make a motion if we approve the consent agenda as is second okay it's been motion made

by commissioner burn second by commissioner uh Jacobs all in favor I motions approved four to zero okay and our next item is we are down to other business which is 2308 5 food County food security initiatives update an upcoming plan uh and I think the resource person on here's Mary oxendine is here and Donna reward for that presentation got you a food campus now Mary okay can you okay it is it is very exciting um yeah we're excited to share more with you all about um anticipated plans or just vision for that and and as

we learn more from working and hearing from Community how that Vision oh sorry how that Vision unfolds um sorry so yes uh for the past few years we've come to you all each year just to provide you with an update on uh initiatives that we've been doing for the previous fiscal year and kind of give you a sense of plans for the coming fiscal year um and so we wanted to come back in and share another update with you all tonight um but before we get started I wanted to do a quick land acknowledgement um as we always do um but Durham County occupies the ancestral traditionals and contemporary land of the Eno shakori okichi shirra sapon Lumby and tuscora people um and we hope that we can honor the land and our ancestors in the way that we care for the land and each other so as I mentioned we'll talk about some

food security statistics what we um some initiatives that we conducted last fiscal year and then plans for this fiscal year and what we're doing and then we'll have time for questions and uh conversation afterwards so you all have seen this slide before um but I wanted to do just a quick refresher that there's different levels of food food security so we want everybody to be on the the top green high food security so they have no problems or anxiety about accessing adequate healthy foods um and on the other end of that spectrum is the very low food security so these folks at times during the year they are changing their eating P patterns um disrupting their food intake uh maybe reducing their in food input or intake um all because there's lack of money or other resources to access food and so we'll um the next slide will kind of illustrate some questions or or show some questions

to kind of illustrate this so each year or every three years actually uh we do a durm County Community Health assessment and the question on the right is one question that's been on the survey uh for a few years in the last 12 months did you ever cut the size of your Mills or skip Mills because there wasn't enough money for food um so skipping Mills or cutting your Mills is an indicator of very low food security and you can see that the numbers haven't changed too much over the past few years um and actually even in 2022 it seems apparently that it didn't change too much but I wanted to point out a couple caveats uh to that number is that the surveys were conducted around September October November of last year and during that time we still had the snap emergency allotments which really uh maximized people's SNAP benefits and really impacted um their ability to access food

in a positive way and so that will significantly impact people's response to this question and so I'm not sure what the numbers would look like if we asked that same question today um also I wanted to note that um only 205 people responded to this survey uh so you know we we are definitely um the public health is working hard to try to increase response rates for future surveys but um this is during one of the peak uh uh one of the sort of peak covid uh moments and so a lot of volunteers weren't necessarily willing to go out and do the survey so we didn't have a lot of responses uh so just wanted to to let you all know about that but we did ask one new question this year that um tries to get at you know um more information before folks get to that very low food security so in the past 12 months did you ever worry your food would run out before you got money to buy more so we're thinking about are

7% of respondents did say that they worried sometimes that they would run out of food um and so this oh this will be the the last graph uh I won't throw too many numbers at you but um so this graph is from the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina um they're not the only Food Bank partner that we have in Durham County but they have the most uh partner agents or food pantries in the county and so um you can see and I will say that this this these numbers are not Unique Individuals so this is

individuals served by food pantries and direct distributions but if a person came to a food pantry multiple times they would be counted multiple times in these numbers so don't Focus so much on the precise numbers themselves but more of the trends um and so that you can see in 2020 when Co hit the number went up dramatically and they've pretty much stayed up um the data from 2023 was just partial from this year and I did get more updated data um since I've submitted these slides that shows that we're getting pretty close to those 2022 numbers so it doesn't seem like the the number of folks that are visiting pantries is decreasing significantly um but you can see from that line that um kind of is decreasing to the right is actually the number of pantries so we have more people to serve with fewer pantries and so whenever we talk about supporting our social safety net we really are thinking about how do we make

sure that those pantries have the support that they need to you know to maintain those high levels of service so um why are these numbers still high just really quickly kind of the negative economic impacts of Co are still very real um people got like months and months and months behind on bills and if before Co you were only able to save $10 a month that's not going to get you very far in paying things back um folks may be unhoused now because housing costs have gone up drastically the cost of food gas other Essentials has gone up dramatically since Co um in 2022 the cost of food that you purchase at a grocery store has gone up 11% % um and then as I mentioned before the there's been a decrease in covid related federal assistance so the the programs to support people are decreasing while the cost have not

6 million in support of food security efforts in the county with more than 78% of that going to Black indigenous and people of color organizations um we also leveraged

relationships with other institutions like Duke Health to make sure that the double bucks program continued um so we were able to help um connect the double book program to Duke and they received $185,000 from that relationship we distributed over 677 th000 Mills to food pantries across durm County in support of snap recipients and have provided food assistance to over 28,000 people through hom delivered meals hot Community meals food boxes meal kits grocy gift cards pretty much any kind of way that you can give people food we're we're trying to do it um and so I just have a couple quotes here I'm going to just read one of them for time one and this is from our Duram County nonprofit Grant recipients one older lady told us that her health has improved since coming to our food pantry another older gentleman tells us

every week that he loves us and that we are his family and that the food we give him has helped him recover from cancer surgery the food that we are supporting pantries with is nutritious healthy food that are help that's helping people not just have something to eat but have healthy food to eat and doing it in a way that people feel like their family they feel like they're cared for um and so this is it's not just you get what you get you get meaning and you get value and you get relationship and you get some good tasting food um so thinking about working toward systemic change uh we are we have multiple groups that we are collectively working with to Think Through different initiatives um work collectively with to move things forward in the community so we created a food we already had the food um security network but we created a steering committee to help guide that community

group we also created a regional food system partnership so we are in collaboration with Wake County and Orange County and thinking about how do we move forward as a region and I will say that that Regional partnership actually goes beyond wake in Orange County where we have folks from Granville County and um other counties so we're really thinking about how do we move forward as a as a region together um and then we I think last year we mentioned um that we were going to create a county City Food security team and we do have that so we are working across departments and thinking about how can we support each other's work how can we promote um the and and support each other's teams and then uh I was invited to attend the White House conference on Hunger nutrition and health so I get to work or connect with um inter um other organizations nationally who are working on food security work and thinking about how can I um how can we be involved in that National Space and then thinking about um shifting

power and resources uh so our our food security grants that you all graciously have continued to support are operated by a bipo black indigenous people of colorled organization that is commun Community rooted um we are really working on Farm campus and kind of exploring how we increase access to land and resource for the most marginalized people in our community um and so those are just like I'm just trying to give some quick highlights so thinking about this fiscal year what are we working on so uh again this two-pronged approach supporting our social safety net we again have our County nonprofit and the food security grants um and thank thank you so much for approving the food security grants this year using arpa funds and there's potential for multi-year commitment through those um we are also as um chair Howton mentioned earlier our AE our older adult population is increasing and so we're increasing our support for our

older adults their home delivered meals conect connecting them to needed services and providing social connections and then we're extending supports to workingclass families so where the federal government is shrinking we're kind of expanding our supports to make sure that pantries have the food that they need for um folks that are visiting and also you all recently approved a three-year commitment to support double buck so thank you and then um so for this year thinking about like systems change um we are piloting Equitable strategies again you all recently approved um a a community accountable grosser in Northeast Central Durham um so we're going to be starting that project soon um and we continue to explore different Community wealth building um as a food security strategy and thinking about how do we help families H be economics or have Economic Security so that they can access food the way that they need to um and we're taking a asset-based Community

Development approach and thinking about who we're selecting as our contractor and as we move forward with our food system assessment and exploring dreams as we've talked about with farm camp us and thinking about how do we make sure that that um really maximizes its potential and thinking about government governance and Community engagement and making sure that that um that farm campus is a place where the community feels like it was designed for them and they feel welcome to be there um and I just wanted to like take a few minutes to to kind of Pat ourselves on the back even more a little bit so how far we've come uh so I I also was thinking about sort of the past few years um chair Howerton highlighted a few things and so just thinking about food security specifically um the county has supported over $7 million in commitments offer food security efforts and on average we're managing 17 grants and contracts

at the same time um as I mentioned before we have three cross sectoral collaborative groups that are engaging over 335 people each week um we have a annual event that we co-created with the community called world hunger day that I think all of you have attended um and we've leveraged the County's resources to bring in over $363,000 um to support the efforts that we're doing and I know some of you looked at us like we were kind of crazy and we probably were a little bit back in September of 2021 we came and shared a long list of all the things that we thought they County could potentially do with arpa funding and I just wanted to say we've done pretty much all these things we've provided stop Gap funding for emergency food providers we've provided sustained access to Fresh Produce we it hasn't been the county money but DPS is replacing and replenishing their

kitchen equipment um you know we're we're supporting generational wealth development so I just wanted to say we are definitely on our way to creating a sustainable Equitable Community Food system uh by building health and wealth in the community um and all as as I think I say every year I very much so am in the belief that Equitable place-based strategies that are designed by the community um can support increased Economic Security Community leadership and assets and while we're on that long-term path um we do need to support current needs to make sure that our community is safe and healthy that's all you for your presentation and Donna I have one question um I'm just I guess I was wondering what's your plans for going

forth we won't have as much money as we've had last gots what kind of um what kind of plans do we have going forth to maintain things as they are you know with wealth building it takes dollars and do you have any plans about where we where you can go with that I think that's a really good question and one that I've been thinking about myself because I do know that um during Co there was a lot more additional Federal money coming to the county um that isn't necessarily sustaining um it's a it's a difficult question um because we can apply for Grants um you know we can I think the pantries we have discussions all the time about how can they help make sure that the work that they're doing is sustainable some of

them um have decided to form separate 501 c3s outside of their church so that they can indep dependently apply for Grants um you know we've talked about different food drives and different fundraising strategies um so I think community members are very much so interested in in working with me to think about like how do we kind of make sure that we can keep the supports that we need um is it going to be at the same level I I think it would be very difficult to maintain you know million dollars each year but I do think that um community members are willing to to really put in a lot of work to make sure that they can provide a lot of support to the community and I because every week the pantries are always turning people away even now um so it's just a difficult decision to make as to you know how much how much is realistic as far as their

sustainability and and pushing themselves yeah as as we are hearing the need is is growing it's not decreasing so um I'd like for us to really have some conversation about what it is that so what's what's possible and I think that the the funding and the things that you all are doing outside of food will likely help so thinking about housing housing is one of the largest expenses that people have so as we're as you all work with the city and developing more affordable housing po potentially even as low as the 30 Ami 30% Ami I think that will really help folks um you know there's a lot of initiatives around like um early childhood education and child care all these things really come together to support people it's food housing Child Care like all the things are connected so I think even though we won't have as much specifically to to invest in food I

think the Investments that you've made over the past few years will um start coming to fruition as people are able to access those more affordable housing options things okay thank you commissioner Mike Lee you um thanks for the great presentation and just you know I really appreciate your work and your um vision for this work the fact that it's comprehensive in the way that you just described um looking at all costs not just the cost of food right because that is part of affordability um I really like the fact that you all have taken this approach where it's imperative to meet the immediate need the emergency need and the work that's been done there and the continued work that we will do and and and especially since so much of it is working with our community rooted Partners um and that that immediate uh

the work to meet the immediate need is connected to your um work for more long-term systemic change and the Equitable strategies that you're partnering and also with Community Players to build community wealth um I just think that's really the way to go it's complicated it's hard to even explain and to describe but I think you've done a really good job of helping us understand it help the community understand it and put it into action and I I'm really looking forward to seeing how that you know continues to play out and mentioned it I mentioned you Mary and this work at our Retreat last uh week when we were talking about our sort of you know indiv our priorities as Commissioners for the future and I you know I really want us to continue investing in this work um and in our food system uh development to be sure we do have a a local Regional I guess food system that's Equitable from which

everyone can get healthy food um and you know it's a system that's racially Equitable it's it's sustainable it's environmentally just all these things there's so much to think about um I am would love to hear more about your Regional food system partnership at some point I don't feel like I know much about that probably I've just uh neglected to to to uh I don't know read about something I missed something somehow or I forgotten it um and I'm wondering is it all connected to the work that the central Pines Central Carolina Pines uh used to be TJ Cog Central Carolina Pines Regional Council is doing because they're doing some Regional work with food system I don't know whether that was part of the regional food system partnership or not we are looped into yeah re I'm TJ formerly TJ

something Pines yes Central P um yes so we we definitely looped into that um the the and they're looking at like an um I think it's an 18 count region so it is a little bit broader than what we're looking at but and also I think their their goal is is slightly different but we are sharing data is what I'll definitely say um but so the the original premise of Regional food system partnership was actually thinking about how do we use um how do we connect Farmers to institutional purchasing procurement um so thinking about Durham Public Schools um they are very interested in buying local food but how do we make sure that we have the farming infrastructure in place to be able to support that kind of that level of purchasing right now uh you know Lyndon who is the dur Public

Schools and sorry if there's I don't know if there's an echo but um she is she's been working with a lot of uh um local aggregators but there's still a very limited amount of food that our farmers are producing um because we're a lot of our farmers are not necessarily at that scale so thinking so we've been talking a lot about how do we um build the capacity of farmers in the in the infrastructure but also in their knowledge um so that they can be able to um access those institutional markets so it's again thinking about like the wealth building opportunities and and viewing farming as a business practice and thinking about creating more jobs in that but also at the same time making sure that our our youth have healthy local food that's regeneratively grown and um and so from that we're thinking about not just DPS but thinking about other institutions too and and what if Durham County itself made a commitment to you know anytime we're purchasing

food to make sure that it's x% is local or um the other you know Wake County Orange County other institutions um thinking about how do we support our farmers regionally and being able to sell to institutions well I would certainly endorse that I think those all sound like great ideas and um certainly our farm campus will help support that Vision as well uh so it's going to be great to hear more about that the farm campus really is going to be um a a project that has the potential to meet so many of our crosscutting goals really you know certainly Central around central around food but uh other other goals as well the environment sustainability equity in many ways um so that's going to be great and all and all this you know work of that you're doing is the same centered around food um I had something else but it's slipping my mind

um you guys can go ahead and if it comes to me I'll I'll raise my hand again if that's all right commissioner Burns okay so one really really quick thank you uh Mary thank you Donna for your leadership um you put a quote up there talking about a gentleman said you know I'm pass my cancer surgery or the food you all bring me is so good I kind of sort of want to take some time you know we always want to say let us acknowledge the I really want to take some time to acknowledge you one of the things that U May O'Neil and I really agree on is that we have to build systems that surpass people in the event because you started here in 2021 as much as I would love for you to end your career here there's this wonderful outfit about her in the eny and she is now working on her Masters and I'm pretty sure they're G to pull her up to the White House so if you haven't read she was in the Indie last week it was want to F about some of our really great farms so so shout out to you on that I saw and then commissioner Jacobs did sent it to everyone so

congratulations to you but the reason why that's important to me before you got here you know I could think of people that were not in our net well not the network she's talking about but were not in our food pantry Network like there were churches that were operating every week giving out food and then you would see somebody get on a bus and go way across town because they knew about the food uh Pantry that was highly publicized when here it was three blocks away there's church that has collard greens and sweet potatoes and milk and eggs and they were you know how do I get this back on the bus so one thank you for taking the time that was one of your first jobs here was to map this network and as much as we want to take some credit about funding these things we can only do it if you all brought it to us so I do want to take some time to acknowledge you and yes I was one of those people when she came in here with that laundry list that first day I said oh she knew and and and I'll never forget on camera I said well are we supposed to fun all this she said if you don't ask she said closed mouths don't get fed I will never forget that but she planted that idea in our heads and and

I'm not going to go too deep cuz we've had some conversations um about this food insecurity and to just jump off of something that commissioner Mike Lee said I'm really excited about how you all are um attacking this supply chain issue because what we do have is a lot of people in positions of power whether it be here or in corporate who say you know what we want to help black Farmers because they're retiring we want to do this we want to buy local the problem is like you said they are not scalable and then what we end up doing even from a co-op stage we will get a a contractor into a squash contract that they can't even do fulfillment for for a year and so I do appreciate the fact that you all are attacking that in that way because what we don't want to do is set people up to be unsuccessful and we also don't want our school systems to start out on these pilots and then people say well it didn't work well it didn't work because we didn't put the appropriate structure right around it so that's one that I'm really huge on oh USD like that was one people always want to have a consistent

stream of black and brown Farmers but if their yields are not that high they can't continuously support this school system so I love that I do here's my question because I did want to give you your Kudos um we got funding from the USDA office of Agriculture Urban Agriculture and Innovative production there it is all right I was ready and uh one of the parts of that feasibility study was actually trying to see okay could we found a track of land among other things and so now we've kind of found this track of land it's $165,000 my question to you is now that we've kind of done this part and I don't want to lock you into this on camera but what is our timetable looking like since now we've kind of already got some of the things that we need and we have you two beautiful ladies leading the H so how long is one contractually we got feasibility study it's a grant from this date to this date and what could when can we expect to have a report from said

feasibility study maybe Donna and I can both chime in that way you can bring it back to us um so we yes we are definitely moving uh and and have found a track of land now right um and so that was definitely that was just one aspect of the feasibility study we do still want to conduct um a lot of community engagement to really make sure that we design it in a way with community in mind and like with their voices at the table um and so but we we will definitely have preliminary data that we can share with you all before final reports come out from like our contractors okay um I'm afraid to say a timeline I'm going to no no I said I didn't want to lock you in that was the disclaimer like so yeah and and I think that's fair I think what's really interesting about this opportunity is we won't be talking about a hypothetical tract of land anymore which I think is what this process was designed to do was to talk about what could be possible on something that

doesn't exist and so we'll actually be talking about actual land so there may be some richer opportunities for Community engagement we may need may be able to sit together on that property and absorb it I I'm looking forward to all of you being able to have the opportunity to do that too I was very odd um and move by this land um it's that type of land and it's so transformative I think for us individually and I think can be for so many people so the fact that we could actually engage the community around actual land um we are working with our contractors because it does involve a little twist in the scope there's a couple things in there that are going to be a little bit different um but we have built in all along because in respect to the type of processes you have that are bound by budgets and time frames um we do have points in time where we're asking for interim reporting which kind of is one of the things that happened here that helped us with this process to get the scoring back we wouldn't have gotten that as early early but we built in some interim points in time so we'll be revisiting exactly kind of when those hit based on this kind of new process so all along we'll have some data and we'll

at least be able to come back to you with some preliminary here's maybe what this should look like in the next six months you know as a kind of a placeholder um as we're working through this process so we will be looking at that as we go through this due diligence phase in the actual Farm campus um process for the Contracting um we have some some definite points that we've discussed um as a team about what we should know to be good stewards in the interim as we're moving toward this Vision that's Perfection perfect no thank you so much you're welcome and by all means thank you for elevating this conversation because a lot of us do not go to sleep hungry at night and if it were not for you all um I hitting a call on this you know we wouldn't always know what exactly to do so just thank you for your servant leadership and I would love to give a shout out just kind of thinking back when Mary's position was established and you created this I'd love to give some credit to in hunger Durham and the folks who really um came up with this idea of this position talked with the city

exactly the they really did want the city and the county to have this position it took us a while but we finally got it in hunger Durham and while no one would ever say yay Co I think Co did tell us some things about Hunger that we might have known but really brought us into some Stark relief but those were the folks kind of behind the scenes for years um kind of trudging away and they want wanted to see this happen and I know that they're excited about what's been happening um do you work with um deline sellers yes deline um you will probably see on the website that proper of extension Soil and Water and other County departments are partners and our logos actually are on on UK can's website um we have had depending on wh which one of us um whether our agriculture team or one of us has met with her um and a variety of things she also participates in many of our County Grant programs as well both the agricultural grants but also the food security grants because she does dip into both of those pools when I was out there cars were lined up uh you know

just for Miles just drive in and they put food in the cars well we we definitely hope I I would say um you know delie and I haven't had a chance to talk and meet about this yet but one of the things we do hope because they are also present in Northern Durham that there will be some really unique opportunities to partner and not you know duplicate the same things right but to really partner and enhance the work that that you can is doing through this partnership and really build a nice bridge between um what durm County Farm campus can do and offer to you can what you can can offer der County Farm campus and vice versa okay all right all right Mr Jacobs thank you first of all I just wanted to also thank you Mary and Donna as well for your leadership and support it's really astounding considering that you are you are one person and of course collaborating with a lot of people but the uh all that you

have really achieved is is really astounding and you're still smiling so thank you um you know I I'm just sitting here and thinking um about just all if like an asset map of just all the assets that we do have in Durham County um you know even the Hub farm Durham Northern Durham The Hub Farm um that we we for small County Land wives we do we have created a lot of assets and then thinking about all of the different partners within Durham County government that connect Duram food you know we have public Health doing dine you know teaching kids about healthy food in the schools we've got our real estate department helping us preserve farmland and doing conservation easements and now helping us get a farm

campus you know DSS with all the food programs and you know our Farmland board our so and water all the stuff that you do internally with Cooperative Extension it's it's pretty amazing all the ways that we are trying to work towards sustainability um and self-sufficiency and the idea of growing your own literally um but I I do think it is a daunting um that we do have to work towards this vision of you know sustainability and Equity because when the SNAP benefits went away from covid we lost $30 million of food benefit benefits per month that's how much we were getting during Co $30 million a month in Durham County we can't we don't have the resources to replicate that um so yeah we we really need to um you know

we need to keep doing what we're doing and and keep the vision of what we're investing in for the long term um one of my questions for you was was around um working with older adults like our adult and Aging Services Lee little we have over 400 seniors waiting for meals uh Meals on Wheels the list just keeps getting bigger and every time I see the list I ask okay well are those folks getting helped other ways are they are they connected to food pantries um and you know I see it's an is still here boy our refugees and immigrants of course you know hopefully them being part of Cooperative Extension but we just our veterans I you know I just think about how many people we really need to get connected into the system that you're building do you do you feel like you're being able to actually do

that and and around like aging and adult services with DFS um that's am I able to really no singularly I am not but I am working with other organizations that are helping with that um so um one thing that we're going to be well probably will come to you all soon is we're we've been in conversation with um durm Center for Senior Life to increase one of their um staff person to full-time so that they can um connect seniors or older adults rather to um more re resources not just food resources but all kinds of resources so that you know if you get support with medication then that frees up money that you could potentially spend on food um and we we on the County city um food security team we do have uh a couple folks actually from DSS on the team and so we work with them and with Mills on

Wheels and thinking about how can we take some folks off the waiting list so we do have a a contract separately with Mills on Wheels to be able to remove some folks from the waiting list um it it is a pretty extensive waiting list um and sometimes I do get calls um and so you know I we do direct people to to food pantries um there's organizations like root causes that deliver um food and produce to people's homes um and so we're definitely connecting folks to different organizations and agencies that can support them um but yeah so we are trying to fill in the gaps as much as we can yeah and I would say Mary's talked a lot about the need for hom delivered meals you we certainly noticed that during Co but it's continued and this is a you know a challenge unique to the senior population so I mean Mary's helped us focus on some targeted investments in that particular space but it's still a really limited space and the need is great so I think that that is an area of thought I mean so you know

some of the things if we have to choose our money and choose how we spend it healthy food is hard you know at a food at a food drive you're going to get canned goods right you're going to get non-als but you're not going to get fresh food you know you're not going to get food that will show up at somebody's home so when we think about longer term investments that we might make as a county and where we find some of the gaps that's definitely one of the places I I've certainly heard Mary and others talk about that hom delivered piece it's it's not something it's not something everybody's doing right that's tough and it makes me think about what we heard at the leadership academy around communication and the silos within Durham County departments knowing about resources even and for instance the lowincome homeon relief program now is doing case management you know they're saying okay you're getting this um benefit do you need help with other things so I think the more that we can do the kind of like you were saying Mary it's not just getting food to

people it's the more holistic approach that we can find out ways that we can address all you know the gaps and the needs um and I'll just put in a plug for what we talked about at our last school board meeting with the school board about the set program and ensuring universal access to breakfast and lunch and then tying in with Lyndon on bringing in our local farmers with that would that would be a dream right so yeah absolutely dream I think staff is working on that and and I'm going to put a plug I'm and I'm I'm talking to the City Senior Center K City thing but we can participate uh and that's a conversation I'd

like he build a building and not put a kitchen in that was done a long time ago they still don't have a kitchen in the senior center so that's a conversation I'd like to have with K thank you so much is there anything else or or we finish can I lift up something for the future just not tonight but um when we're thinking about their whole food system is there a place for the county to participate you know with the city or regionally or whatever or even just the county about food waste you know that part of the system you know the sort of like the the end of the system but not really because it's a circle anyway but feel like that's an important part reducing waste you know for both environmental reasons and also affordability and hunger and we um and

our partners in public health are actually already working on that um and thinking about how do we prevent food waste and also redirect um good food to folks that might need it um so there's a project that Kelly waro is leading with the means database and thinking about how do we you know maybe if there was a conference and they um had multiple trades that they didn't serve um so that food is hot you how do we connect them immediately with a pantry or with an organ organization that can get that food out to folks that need it so yeah we we are working on it thank you again for your great report always great to see you thank you for the work commiss what's left is our boards and commission appointments attorney are you ready yes Madam chair so for tonight's board and commission members voting we

have two the first is the Durham County women's commission we have a vacant position and the new appointee will be Alexandra Alvarez for the Farmland protection Advisory Board there two vacant positions and for that you have voted on Kenyan Browning of enoad and Nicole Connelly of the Little River V vad so those are your three new appointees thank you very much and congratulations to uh citizens that have been appointed willing is there anything else second hi we areed