Everyone hello hello hello welcome to the the real work session room our committee room it's I don't know how long it's been since the council it's been four years since the council met here but I'm going to stop talking and call us Maya to order at 1M Madame clerk will you please call to roll thank you Mr Mayor and welcome back everyone mayor Williams here mayor proen Middleton I'm here council member Baker here council member Caballero here council member cook here council member Cook pres council member rest here thank you all right before I get into the agenda I just want to talk about the housekeeping rules here not rules but little housekeeping I'm not sure all council members have had a chance to operate in here but as everyone can see we have new technology the owl in the middle of the room has flown away and we now have cameras we have now cameras that are in the ceiling that are streaming online and it's really good picture quality.
The device in front of you is mobile mobile the button on the right allows you to speak if my mine is green now if one other person turns that on dares on it would be green if a third person turns it on it would be blue and that will be all that can be live at the same time the button on the left just allows you to a King so it allows you to mute while you're talking without having to turn the system off you will be able to hear also through the speaker people that are speaking I believe yeah just a little bit I believe from the podium so that that that would come through just a bit as well the microphones are adjustable at the bottom and the top and do know if you pick this device up please pick it up from the sides not the actual microphone because it will unplug all right so new new technology that's pretty cool here thank you it Village and.
All the services that are the cool for all right announcements council member cook all right Baker yeah I was just in this room yesterday that we had The Joint City County planning committee meeting and there were a lot of exciting agenda items on there that I wanted to talk about a lot of great long range planning initiatives also we elected in congratulations to council member cabier who elected as chair and if you want a meeting to run efficiently I would I would recommend council member fellow so we talked about several different items I just want to share a few one was affordable housing planning strategies so I think there was some really great conversation really productive conversation that came out of that with with fellow members of The Joint City County planning committee I want to continue to push for the model that Alexandri Virginia uses for voluntary inclusionary housing that that they achieve on-site units and they get contributions and they get units through density bonuses so I think.
That's a great model and one that I hope that we'll continue to that we'll take a look at and pursue I also want to make sure that we one one initiative that was thrown out there was looking at density bonuses in specifically in transit opportunity areas and for the fature place type map and we responded to to staff sort of asking for a more apprehensive look at trans opportunity areas so so I look forward to to receiving those and I also want to continue to push for permanent affordability I think there's a great a great model out there with the Orange County Home Trust where inclusionary units are fed into the Home Trust model in order to make sure that they're permanently affordable we got a great report planning for Equity there's a team within the planning department making sure that Equitable planning is happening in the city and they they had a great report if you want to take a look at the that agenda item also in the comprehensive.
Plan we have a a goal of 30% open space and and we got a great report on permanent land conservation tracking regarding open space that that I think is worth taking a look at and then finally the the plan Department work program had some exciting longrange planning initiatives updating landscape manual the the work that's going to be happening around Research Triangle Park small area planning and the the comprehensive plan scorecard one of the thing I want to talk about so over the past several months we've had some pretty robust and productive conversations I think about zoning and and development cases here in Durham especially around these large scale annexations and and rezonings meanwhile I've also had the opportunity to to speak with planners Parks and Recreation Durham open space and Trails and developers so our our current practice in in new developments in Durham is to require open space but to privatize it instead of ensuring that it's public and thus essentially and effectively requiring home ownership associations HOAs and new developments in large.
Part to maintain that open space however the state specifically enables local governments to receive public dedication of parks with the added benefit of no longer necessarily requiring HOAs everywhere so as a result of some some of the conversations that I've had I would like to add a resolution to the April 18th work session initiating a Udo text Amendment for Parks dedication in new res residential development so I just seek support from my colleagues to introduce that resolution at April 18th could could you reat the resolution request resolution request initiating Udo text amendments for Park dedication and new residential development yeah that's I'm I'm not sure if this is the appropriate process but there is a process would you consider taking it through jcpc initially I mean this is a could get clarification this would be something operational correct this would be we we so the county can the County Commission can initiate udio text amendments the Planning Commission can can initiate text amendments the City Council can initiate text amendments it doesn't.
Actually apply a text Amendment immediately it just sends a message to the planning department hey we want to work on this and then then it would go to jcpc okay this is just to put the item on the agenda all right what what I'm getting at is sound sounds like operations by resolution and I just want to make sure that that that I don't I'm not sure that's the most appropriate way but I'll have some discussion on it I would just say that is the the mechanism that has pre that was used by the Planning Commission to initiate the Udo text amendments through the Udo procedures you yeah I mean my understanding is anything that is planning related because we are joint City County Planning we do the honors and respect that we bring that there so that we can have conversation discussion there ensure that folks are comfortable with it moving forward since it is a joint City County department and then it moves on respectively to our respective boards.
That's how every Omnibus I've ever experienced as a council member has happened that's how scad happened that's how expanding housing Choice happened so until and and and I'm not saying what you are asking for is against the rules but until I can read the rules and ensure that I am following them I will not be supporting that resolution thank you at least not today so happy to and this is an opportunity in general as a council member is often helpful to have conversations with your colleagues before you introduce things so that you can kind of get a temperature of of where we are in general the culture of of this body has not been to do what you're suggesting not opposed to it but then that that actually takes conversation with colleagues thank you mayor Williams whenever we're ready to move on to next announcements thanks can I just see if I can get thumbs up from four members so I I'm have you had a conversation with the manager about like.
Speak or the planning director about incorporating that we have spoken about it in the past okay all right also just because I'm chair of JCC PC we literally just went through the work plan for the planning department yesterday that was part of our agenda and so this influences their work plan and so if we are going to introduce things like that the that's part of the conversation around work plan because it influences planning capacity Staffing Resources and and ensuring that we are not hamstringing them and that they can get everything else done that they introduced to us as part of their work plan so I think that's the other part that I have a little bit of I guess concern because we had that conversation yesterday and this was not brought up at all thank you I understand yeah and the of course there's a consultant the consultant is going to be making recommendations on short-term items I want to make sure that this makes it onto that list through this.
Resolution I just had a question on how you would move anything forward if it has to like that doesn't make any sense if there's no support for it why would it go to JCC PC so if you can't support it now like if you can't even support the idea of a resolution yeah and I can I do you want to speak to that or I can I can actually yeah so so EHC other other text amendments go to jcpc but they're not initiated by jccp they're initiated by the elected body they go to planning staff planning staff then work with all the appropriate departments to to refine the the language make the language correct then it goes to jcpc then it goes to the appropriate elected.
Bodies thank you I guess what I'm saying is you introduced the idea and the concept at the board so at the at the space so there can be discussion I would not I would really want to be able to have that discussion with the colleagues and staff who are really at the front lines on on planning so that folks have opportunity to really dig in ask questions we can get from staff do they have you know I think the RTP work that was included in the work plan yesterday that was initiated by commissioner Jacobs and she brought it to jcpc and there was a conversation with staff of can you add this to your work plan what does this do to your workflow and I think that's the reason we do it that way out of respect for understanding the Myriad of responsibilities the planning department has and so again you're you can introduce any resolution you want and if there's four bootes there's four bootes but I am encouraging you to bring it to.
Jcpc first so that the folks there can really have conversation and discussion in the in the space that's been created for it thank you yeah and and just add to that I I don't think this is a a debate on whether we agree with it with it conceptually for me it's it's this is the first time I'm hearing about it I I don't know if you had spoken to staff a lot sometimes you just talk to staff and they could they could work it in so I think for me it's just a matter of process I I'm not a fan of what it it comes off as if we're trying to dictate operations by way of resolution and I could be wrong about that that's just the way it initially sounded to me so go ahead to totally totally and resolution is just is just the mechanism through which to initiate and that that's the specific language in the Udo is to initiate the text amendment process which then kicks off it's it's a.
Value statement kicks off the process of a Udo text Amendment so it goes to jcpc it goes to the appropriate bodies staff review it right now we have a consultant who is able to do that kind of work. So so I guess you're requesting now to take action on a resolution or just just to introduce a resolution in two weeks all right usually do that little thumbs.
Up rewrite that is under going right now. Okay okay yes council member I just want to for clarity so the thumbs up or thumbs down would be if we want to prioritize this for the consultant to put it on a on a short list for things that are going to happen before the entire Udo rewrite is that are we just sort of saying that we are going to prioritize this item what it could you just say the request from more time so there's a a procedure laid out in the UniFi development ordinance about how to amend the Udo and different entities can amend or request to amend the Udo in all of those cases that request to initiate that Amendment goes to the plan Department So the plan Department can initiate one U Planning Commission can initiate it city council County Commission they can all initiate the Udo amendment process in this case we happen to have a consultant who is comprehensively rereading the UniFi development ordinance who will likely be presenting some short-term amendments.
And this is to initiate the Udo text amendment process for ensuring that there are public parks in new developments you know it could just be that the that the consultant presents that as part of their set of short term amendments but we don't know that and so this would just ensure that that makes it onto the list so you look go ahead member wrist thanks Mr Mayor I have like I think conceptually makes sense to me as a as a as a as an idea I do as as and as was one of the fellow newbies on the on the on the council my understanding is that and I plann to bring a resolution today I'm actually I'll speak about it in a minute my understanding was that we share that resolution with colleagues prior to bringing it up at a work session then vote to have it then on the on the the the calendar two weeks later right so I I think having not seen.
That I would rather see that first so we can then make the vote about putting it on the the calendar so fair enough I mean I don't think that I have four votes if you're not comfortable with it the rules of procedure state that you make a general statement out of work session and then present the language and language then goes to the next work session and then goes to the general business so that's that's how it is in the in the rules of procedure but I'm happy to you know I don't I don't think that we have four thumbs up here so I'm just going to continue talking with my colleagues on this one and perhaps bring it back next work session thank you Mr Mayor I want to say to my honorable colleague the absence of four votes for the resolution doesn't mean that we won't take it up or that it's not it doesn't warrant a discussion there are other avenues for us and I.
Hope you will bring it up I think you raised some important points but traditionally resolutions and I think you've alluded to this have been statements of belief sending messages I I can't remember a time where a hard policy action that the council has taken that we've elected to Telegraph it via resolution first we've had agendas on the items on the work session we've debated we've directed the the the staff to govern accordingly I don't think there's any push back against substantively what you're saying I think it's just the the the method and process so I hope you won't take the absence of four votes as negating you know the substantive points you bring up so I just want to say that thank you Mr Mayor yeah all that's great I will continue the conversation with you all and hopefully bring this back yeah and let's definitely probably talk after the meeting we can we can get it in today back to announce any other further announcements council member Baker all right U council member.
Cav thank you Mary Williams first of all it's been four years I don't even think manager Paige was manager the last time we were in this room so I'm glad to be back and it's always easier to wear jeans in this room than downstairs so very quickly I may need an excused absence for our next work session which is Thursday April 18th I have a family member having a procedure on Wednesday and I don't know if I'll be back in time my hope is I will be back Wednesday evening but I would go ahead and ask for that excused absence that's it thank you do we need to suspend the rules to take a vote or we can just take a vote on that all right so I will entertain a motion to so moved well one second yeah Mr Mayor you don't have to suspend rules to take procceed FAL votes dur the work session thank you hey Madam attorney how are you all right moved second it's m.
Properly second that you're not going to be here on the 18th potentially all right all in favor I I thank you all right council member Cook thank you I was just going to just bring up I didn't get to mention on Monday I wasn't thinking about it but I I did want to make sure that I did make a request for a proclamation for Child Abuse Prevention month and I wasn't sure what the procedures are since there all these procedures now so I just want to make sure that we do acknowledge child Child Abuse Prevention month for April and figure out how to do that you have a sponsor for it or you want to self-initiate it I can self-initiate all right just you can just fill out the form on where's the form on the mayor's website right that's m r thanks Mr Mayor greetings manager in your new seat here in in our room here City attorney folks who've gathered here so I had actually as I mentioned I plan to bring.
A resolution to the council today about that was brought to me by new hop aabon Society for the so-called lights out Campaign which you may have heard of as an effort to encourage folks to turn off unnecessary lights during the critical bird migratory season that's right now between now and May and then I think in I think September October November most birds are actually migrating at night and so having lights on can confuse them and be detrimental to their getting to where they want to go but at our last council meeting my colleague councilwoman fredman who's smarter than me remembered that we actually did a resolution back in April of 2021 called the a plan for a bird friendly Durham that included a bunch of things including a proposal for a life out campaign at Durham so I just want to say a couple things first of all I want to say I want to thank the planning staff and the general services staff for working to encourage folks to plant.
Native plants in Durham that's a creates a better environment for these migratory Birds that was one of the proposals in this B plan for a bird friendly Durham I also want to read another goal in that plan which we again passed in 2021 but we may have forgotten about that I what happens to Old resolutions they sort of I guess they are in the system but just want to remind us that one of the goals of that of that former resolution called for implementing a lights out program and reducing light pollution replace outdoor lighting that sends much of its light uselessly into the sky with shielded lighting that sends light to the ground where it is needed use ordinances and public education to accomplish this and then number two Implement a lights out program in public buildings during spring and fall migrations I just want to remind my colleagues City staff and the community that we did pass this resolution about a lights out program I'd like to encourage the folks in the city the.
Communication staff as well as other folks in Durham and on on the staff and actually I'll ask the new Autobon Society folks to work with you to share information with businesses and residents about the importance of this lights out campaign that we've endorsed to encourage this key sort of practice we can do here in Durham like many cities have done to make it more friendly for migratory birds so just want to do that again I'll have I'll have the folks from new up aabon reach out with information about how we can educate folks about these lights out campaigns second thing on a on a lighter note I did want to say remind folks that there's two things going on in downtown Durham first of all fullframe documentary film festival starting today through Sunday and I think this is the first time fullframe has been back in person since covid right it's one of the key festivals in Durham that brings a lot of visitors here it's a great.
Event if you haven't been there so I encourage staff residents and others to come to see those films there's also I don't know if still the practice but back in the old days on Sundays they would repeat the the winning sort of films right so it's a way a lot of folks have left by Sunday so you can get tick it easily to those those performances those are always good films on Sunday so it's a good way to see a great film if you want to just show up on Sunday second thing is is that it's it's now the weather's turning night it's baseball season and so your eight-time International League champion Duran BS are back in town for their initial home stand of the year the mayor was there for opening night we're going to go on Saturday so you probably wondering why I'm wearing my my my replic Durham KN 2016 Jersey I thought it sort of both the Bulls and the city colors were kind of appropriate for today's meeting so.
I'm wearing this jersey in honor of the Bulls hope residents staff and others will attend games for the Bulls and and support their 2024 season so thank you Mr Mayor could and would you mind sharing information on your social media platforms about the the bird migration I will do that yeah idea yeah yeah were you ask to renew the resolution no no I mean we we passed that resolution as CC Cook said so we we passed that so I just want to remind folks that we did do that awesome thank you may appr thank you Mr Mayor honorable colleagues everyone in the room it's good to be back in this room feels good gotta get used to the new toys I want to thank our staff and and Technology folk and audio visual folk who worked so hard to prepare this room for us and for our residents watching outside Mr May and colleagues last night I had an opportunity to be iory North Carolina hosting one of the North Carolina League of.
Municipalities town and state dinners as opposed to the large one that has been held in Raleigh the league has decided to Fan out to different parts around our state to get closer to our resident and and get our legislators closer to their constituents and had an opportunity Mr Mayor to to hang out with mayor Hank guess who sends his regards to you and to Durham they've got a lot of great building going on downtown Hickory and the mayor told me that Durham is one of their conversation Partners they were looking at Durham 15 years ago to help design and fuel what's going on in their downtown so I had he was kind enough to walk me around after the dinner last night downtown and he wanted to make sure I had a gave you your regards also had opportunity to speak with the presumptive the next presumptive speaker of our house representative Dustin Hall for some time and he send his regards to you as well Mr Mayor and and I told.
Him we look forward to having a strong working relationship not only to do good by Durham I do right by Dura for all the towns and cities in our state and he sends his regards and goodwi I do want to also just send love and light out to our friends at North Carolina Central University who had a traumatic event this week of shooting on their campus in a campus lockdown I do also want to as the weather gets nice baseball we also know that as the weather gets nice we have to be vigilant for more shooting incidents as well as it's light outside longer and and foler outside longer I join my voice with the mayor and and and as we've done over the years in making sure that this issue of gun violence and doing everything we can as a government remains top of mind for us and at the top of our agenda all of our celebrations of the great things going on in Durham and there are great.
Things going on in Durham will be muted celebrations they will have an asterisk next to it as long as less than two miles from our city center while we are at DPAC and at ball games our children are ducking and covering jumping in bathtubs when it's not bath time and jumping off their bikes and hiding behind garbage cans and trees like soldiers as long as that's going on our that's part of Durham as well as part of the as well as the forward- facing parts of Durham so as the weather gets nice I want to remind our government that all we can do should be top of mind and on the table for combating gun violence and again our thanks that that it wasn't as bad as it was although it was horrific for North Carina Central University and we pray their safety thank you Mr Mayor thank you thank you colleagues for your announcements I gosh I just for what I was about to say yeah opening night was great at.
The dur BS wasn't an outcome we wanted but I'm sure they're gonna bounce back and there was something I was going to oh just another reminder April 9th Tuesday is the state of the city address this is going going to be a phenomenal event we have put a lot of energy into it we will start at 6m in the convention center that is owned by the city and we will have a lot of intentionality throughout the entire evening so get there at 6 and experience all of what's going to be a part of the program we are going to have things focused from young children all the way to our senior C citizens it's going to be a fun night a really fun night and then we'll migrate over to the Carolina Theater which is also owned by the city and we will have the address there and this will be a night where we're going to celebrate Durham and guys are hear from my perspective on how we hope to.
Move forward that is is it's not just you know my ideas it's the collaboration of everything that's happening in the city and I'm just putting it all on blast also there's a regarding yeah that's what it was the fullframe festival there is I don't know if I'm allowed to share specific details yet but one of the one of the showings is of Farmland in Halifax County where I grew up and there would be a a a documentary shown on the effort to retain and revive the management of farmland and I will be actually speaking at the opening of this of this showing and I'll talk about my childhood and I'm really excited because my first biology teacher and her husband are the one of two of The Producers or who the story is really about and I remember being in nth grade with Miss Williams and she and our husband will be there to show this and so she was my first tennis coach as well when we started the tennis team so at.
Southeast Halifax so I'm looking forward to the opening of this piece and talking about where I grew up and then watching this this this this documentary so yeah and it was a okay gotcha Kopac that I think that was it I had some other things I'll share but maybe maybe a little later I was listening to all you all's announcements and some were being shared and then I forgot the rest so all right state of the city April 9th Tuesday it's going to be one heck of an evening and just a quick preview there's a lot of things happening in the city we should be proud of and there's a recent article that actually announced dorham as the number one best run city in North Carolina number one we're amongst the top 10 in the nation I believe the top 20 in the nation but number one in North Carolina Madam manager you and your staff go ahead on with your bad sales that's pretty cool so we we we're g.
To talk about all that and more to come guess we'll go ahead and get get going with the business Adam manager I'll recognize you for any priority items thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protm members of the Durham City Council I do not have any agenda related priority items but I would like one brief moment of personal privilege as we enjoy this new space that we are back in I I sometimes I heard council members speaking about the technology department and Communications but but I'd just like to for a brief moment shout out Viv Cruz odor who was a project manager who's probably not in this room I got my close reading glasses so I don't have on far but her staff is here and it takes a lot to actually coordinate all of the wires and all of the ladders that have to take place to to Really connect this room down to our TV station on the first floor and these leaders project leaders and contractors work quietly and.
Efficiently to get us in this room so thank you to the council members who approved the recommendation for the upgrade in last year's budget and thank you to the team that put it all together so thank you very much that's all I have awesome yeah this is really cool Madam attorney good afternoon Mr Mayor the city attorney's office has no priority items that's all right it's always great no close session today Madame clerk thank you Mr Mayor and welcome the city clerk's office has no items today awesome all right I'll now read the.
Consent agenda I I really like this setup I really do thanks Madame Chief of Staff it's like a big giant teleprompt in front of me don't put your close I know right all right so I read the consider agenda at this time any item can be pulled number one Durham bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission number two approval of city council minutes number three external auditor contract number four Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation bcpi Grant oh yeah go ahead all right that's number four number five third am m to the contract with housing for New Hope to serve as the unsheltered coordinating agency well that one as well all right number six First Amendment to the interlocal agreement with the Durham Public School Board of Education to administer the promoting of academic learning program how number seven American Rescue I'm sorry i p number six as well all right number seven and guys I'm reading so if you want to pull something just just speak up so number seven American Rescue plan act.
Oper funds reinvestment Partners development funding commitment 312 East Umstead Street project okay we'll pull that one as well all right number eight taxable General obligation housing bonds series 2024 number nine Utility Systems revenue bonds series 2024 number 10 climate cores Fellowship agreement with strategic energy Innovations number 11 West Point onino par and river parks playground project design contract with surface 678 PA number 12 fiscal year 2025 to 2027 employee benefits like to pull that all right that's pulled number 13 contract with FM FMLA Source Incorporated for Family Medical Leave Act and Americans with Disabilities Act Administration and Information Services number 14 First Amendment to contract number 1 n 791 American Rescue plan act arpa Sub sub award agreement with Wall Street Jor Incorporated number 15 contract with Duram City skating LLC a subsidiary of limited liability Corporation under the United States of America Incorporated to operate the wills roller Sky rank that Mr please all right number 16 Governor's crime commission 2023 criminal justice Improvement program Grant ordinance project ordinance I'll pull that one.
Number 17 contract SW 74c RightWay acquisition services for various sidewalk projects number 18 contract sw995 sidewalk pres preservation 2024 number 19 contract w93 egi sidewalk repairs 2024 Mr Mayor I don't want to pull that one just want to note we're like that's three big like items around sidewalks which is what people are begging for so glad to see that moving forward absolutely we are being responsive yep number 20 contract SW 93c egi inspections for sidewalk repairs 21 salware maintenance contract with environmental systems Research Institute Incorporated DP s asri Systems Incorporated 22 contract for Last Mile Services with gns Communications and techical Services Incorporated 23 contract for Last Mile Services with lexair electronics Sales Corporation 24 supplemental agreement number two to the reimbursement agreement between North Carolina Department of Transportation and the City of Durham for the lease of the Duram track station I put number 24 right number 25 First Amendment to construction of a traffic signal at hillindale Road and Horton Road right and we have one presentation I believe that's we.
The Durham CH Hill caror Metropolitan planning organization andp on fiscal year 2022 2023 annual report all right and coming up at the next meeting we have the public hearings Consolidated annexation wake Olive apartments and zoning map change trellis Durham RTP fiscal year we'll have the hearing from Community Development Department number 29 fiscal year fiscal year 2024 2025 draft annual annual annual action plan public hearing annual action plan adoption and Grant project ordinances and public hearing and approval of proposed substantial agreement amendments to the fiscal year 2017 2018 20 fiscal year 2018 to 2019 fiscal year 2019 to 2020 fiscal year 2020 to 21 fiscal year 21 to 22 fisc 22 to 23 annual action plans aaps supplemental items resolution and support of immigrant communities in Durham and number 32 2024 short session legislative agenda all right now we are going to do we have any yeah yeah we're all right so before we go to Port items and you give me one so they not resource okay but these two right here.
Citizen matters okay all right we have citizen matters here the first person I have to speak is Dar Langley can you hear me Dar Mr Langley yes I can Mr Mayor and I thank you all for this opportunity to speak first I would like to say I would like to thank mayor Williams for coming out serving as the keynote speaker for the boys of color power Academy that was held two Saturdays ago you only had initially signed up for eight minutes but stayed a whole 40 minutes not only just sharing but being there to engage with the boys both collectively and individually for those who wanted to speak with you so I did want to publicly expressed appreciation for you giving of your time and making that investment but I I come to you all this afternoon you all always asking are there priority items from City staff that report directly to you but as a citizen you all report to me and I have a priority item because.
Two weeks ago my brother was on his exercise bike and a bullet came through the wall and had he gotten off his bike a second later that bullet would have struck him and my reality and my family's reality would be different well let's fast forward to Tuesday of this week one of the murder victims of our city was my cousin a 23y old I have repeatedly come before Council I have repeatedly come before the board of Board of County Commissioners raising the alarm about us making a constructive commitment to boys and young men of color in this community and to organizations who are doing the work on the ground who are making an impact you all have asked citizens to invest their time their talent and their resources in their community and for the past eight years I have done so running the Charles Hamilton Houston Foundation we have two programs our career pathway program which is 8 years old and our young manov exence program which in September will be 5 years old.
In this time we have not gotten a financial commitment from the city or from the county despite the impactful and documented work that we have done this organization provides a Continuum of intense strategy centered skill-based and career focused program services and mentorship to facilitate academic leadership and professional development that prepares boys and young men of color for academic success in the competitive Workforce those are a strong deterrent from picking up using or needing a gun to participate in the drug Enterprise that exists for people who have not been properly served by the systems that we have in our community your support will go a long way Beyond mere financial assistance assistance this work requires resources and no matter how great a mission is it takes money and so I come before you all today again I know you all are looking at your budget preparing to make investments and our city workers who desperately deserve that investment but I need make a commitment to boys and young men of.
Color thank you thank you Mr Langley Madam Clerk I'm assuming that's still alarm Thee I didn't know what was happening I like what's going on over there okay okay so duly noted it's a little traumatic for my alarm when I wake up in the morning all right do I have Jeremy Baker yes Mr Mayor this is Jeremy Buren pleasure to have you you have three minutes welcome thanks for hearing me my name's Jeremy Burren y'all heard me before and I appreciate y'all listening to me the other year I saw some pickle Ballers come out and say thank you and give an update so I'm kind of coming in that spirit because I expressed my witnessing a shooting in 2016 of Larry Donell Owens and that the guy that shot him Eric Baker was out on bone well he got since I spoke to y'all basically he was found in a house full of Guns Over in Wake County he's locked up in Wake County right now and I'm not necessarily a fan of locking.
People up but I'm not a fan of having people who might kill other people people in our city out so I don't know if y'all prayed on it or just heard me or did something but but I appreciate it and I appreciate y'all keeping that family in your thoughts because the what was the man's nephew was killed by gun violence just a few years later his name's Omar so the man that just spoke kind of had me reflecting on gun violence I wanted to say that right now you know I to bounce after these meetings and go take my son to some appointments otherwise I would have stay last week and this week right now Veterans for peace is reciting Beyond Vietnam by Dr King that was spoken on this day in 1967 so I'm kind of want to come in that Spirit though and just in my love of Dr King that knowing that basically none of us would know about Dr King if it hadn't been for.
Mrs King and her work after after he was killed by gun violence and that really is something I wanted to share in relation to gun violence and also what I mentioned last work session the council member wrist about the ongoing comments that relate to Mayor O'Neal gun violence is bad in this city I had an appointment after at Lincoln I couldn't get therapy but once every few weeks it cost $10 I had no income it took five years to get Social Security and therapy at Lincoln cost $10 I had to go to the basement to get a payment plan you know so an office of Survivor care isn't going to solve all these issues I was chronically unemployed and disabled I'm a white brother you know what I'm saying and what happens when you're impacted by gun violence and homelessness or being a vet or being an abused kid at least in Durham is that black women support you and so I think about that when I think about mayor O'Neal and I think about.
This ceasefire so I thank y'all for listening I did the math and there's no amount of time I can speak at work sessions that amounts to the time we spent on Gaza and we're still saying the mom's over there so I thank y'all thank you so much all right put it first all right council member cook you ready all right first is item number four and we have staff. Here good afternoon Andrew Baker assistant budget director budget Management Services Department and also have lindsy Burris who's our Innovation manager awesome I really actually wanted to pull this because on my first I think week as an employee at this office I ran into Andrew outside on the streets and he was like welcome a new council member and I said what are you what are you working on tell me what you're excited about and he went off on paper streets was the first I'd heard of that concept so I actually wanted to give you just a minute to to talk about paper streets.
It's a concept I don't think a lot of people are aware of and then I have a couple of specific questions about some of the grant funding yeah absolutely so paper streets are basically streaks that have been dedicated to the city but they are not maintained by the city and excuse my voice I have allergy so so we have over 600 paper streets throughout the city if you include the county we have over 800 paper streets so there are various conditions of the paper streets some are wooded areas some are used for dumping grounds and what we're trying to do here with the city is to reimagine how we can repurpose and reimagine those paper streets so this grant will sort of be Community Le Grant which we will focus on the most marginalized communities where excuse me those dumpings are taking place well I wanted you to have an opportunity to speak but now I feel kind of badly you're struggling so I'm I'm really proud of Y all for for going.
After and and and getting this grant is there is there my two questions are is there a time limit on the funds and and also like when will we expect to see the fellow coming in if it's if it's approved on next Monday Monday after and then the second one is is you talked about opportunities for other funding and I was wondering if that is through the love your block grant through Bloomberg or if that was other there was other funding that y'all were considering as well yeah so it is a two-year commitment Lindsay do you want to talk more about the positions yeah Lindsay Avan Innovation manager in the budget Department the grant goes through the end of 25 so it's a two-year Grant with about a year and a little over a year and a half on it and the fellow position we are actually co-leading this project with the code enforcement division in neighborhood Improvement services so the fellow Position will actually be housed in.
NIS and the sort of main purpose of that position is to have somebody from the communities of interest be in that position so along with that fellow we also do get an America War Vista member for the two years who will work pretty closely with us and then implementation funds as well and as far as sort of supplemental funding or further funding lots of cities who have gone through this program in the past have been able to kind of Leverage the work that they do from this sort of seed funding into other funding opportunities and this is being run by Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at John's Hopkins and they will kind of help expose us to other potential funding if if this is a program that we decide to to continue on after the two years awesome thanks so much I don't have any further questions I I have a quick question the paper streets are what's the status of the utilization are people just driving on them and I'll.
Ask another question based on your response volume wise I don't know how many are used for which purpose purpose we have kind of some focuses but there's there are quite a few that as Andrew mentioned end up becoming kind of dumping grounds or spaces for legal dumping which is kind of how code enforcement sort of brought this issue to us in the first place there are quite a few that could potentially be things like Trail connections or are sort of informally being used as Trail connections would it be insane to think about repurposing these spaces these paper streets as possible open space of parks yes great question mayor one of the things that the team is doing is our goal is to profile all of the paper streaks to determine any future uses it's important to note that there are challenges when it comes to paper streets such as the L and width of the paper streets but there are definitely opportunities just the what the L okay got you yeah but there are.
Definitely opportunities there okay sounds good Central pocket Parks or you know all right absolutely quick question go ahead Carl thank you Mr Mayor and thank you miss Burris Mr Baker so pardon my ignorance here I read the I read the agenda last night I read about paper streets I'm like I still not quite sure what these are so these are Cally streets that show up on our development or our planning Maps as streets but are they does this mean some of them are paved some not pav they all paid like what is like what they're basically vacant neglected spaces vacant and vacant and neglected spaces for the most part it's important to note that some do have like sewer lines running through them also streams and some are already being used as open space or or or connector so there are some paper streets that are being used but there are some again that are used for littering and dumping grounds so we're trying to address that through this.
Grant but are they all paved or some not even paved no not paved correct no that was my question Mr Mayor is like can we yeah the and this essentially is like quasi public land right yeah yeah again over over 600 paper streets and I think it equates to around 150 acres and then we like so so we the city does own that or do is it like is that unclear who actually owns is that part of the issue yeah would to say we it's dedicated to us but we don't maintain the paper streets basically yeah yeah know I think it's a great idea i' love what you're doing I think trying to figure out is there ways to make these pocket Parks or utilize those I think it's all good so I'm glad you're pursuing that thank you thank you I was goingon to ask the acreage 150 acres I mean that's amazing 600 paper streets I actually used to be a subdivision review planner and so I worked a lot with plat.
And I was in West Texas and there were thousands upon thousands of Acres of paper plats and if you actually flew from the East to El Paso you could see actually all the streets but they didn't actually exist they were just you could just see them from the from the sky so I just think this is a really cool project very very cool project great work in the grant I'm really excited to see the work that comes out of this and and I think this is cool very fine grain planning and the engagement with the neighborhood I think is going to be excellent in figuring out what to do with these spaces because every single every single Paper street is going to have a different solution so thanks for your work thank you and I also want to shout out our core Team U folks from Transportation hearts and Rec General Services I'm missing anyone we get advice from Public Works get advice from public works so everyone and also the attorney's office.
As well so yeah thank you I just saw wade willott back cut over there said we're ready to turn in the park I just saw him scratching from the record he didn't say that all right thank you all so much thank you all right number five Third Amendment to the contract with housing for New Hope to serve as the unsheltered coordinating agency I actually have one very quick question on this I read in here that we were not awarded any funds from Hud's special nfo which was in October 2022 but I saw that there was another round of that funding in 2023 did we apply and not receive the funding in 2023 or what happened in the re Kopac director of the Community Development Department I'm gonna ask Colin Davis homeless manager to.
Respond sorry Colin Davis manager of the homeless system Community Development Department a question it was about the 2022 special noo yeah so is it noo okay I didn't want to say that out loud but I okay so I saw in the in the description that we were not awarded funds in 2022 but that there I looked it up and there was another round of no foe the applications were in June of 2023 did we apply for this and not get granted a second time or did we not apply so in 2022 there were two notice of funding opportunities otherwise know noos the first noo was the annual coord Continuum of Care annual application process in 2022 HUD issued a special noo specifically targeting unsheltered homeless individuals and families in urban and rural areas and they delineated the two and and set aside money for rural areas we as the Continuum of Care applied in 2022 for both our annual noo and the special noo focused on unsheltered individuals and.
We were not awarded the special noo our annual reallocation our annual application was funded in 2023 HUD did not do a special noo for unsheltered they just did the annual ual allocation the annual award amount which we did apply for and we did receive funding and HUD is in the process of issuing contracts based on that competition perfect thank you so much you're very.
Welcome any other questions on that one yeah just a comment is what you know thanks Mr Kopac it's great work also for sorry Mr Davis right I was want say so glad to have the partner at housing for New Hope is a great partner for the city in this work topnotch Housing Organization so thank you for being here yeah just want to shout out before you do that just real quick I want to thank you all for your v for your your diligent work as well I know you have forces that make your job hard there have recent news articles that talk about that and I won't use the public record to demean any agency for you know even the work that they are doing in a good way but I just want to commend you all in your entire network continuing the Care Network even when there are folks that recruit people to this circumstance and then you have to pick them up even when they're not from Durham and you have to pick.
Them up so thank you for your your work all of you all Piers Ty all right yep you want to go ahead now yes I do want to introduce someone before we go to the next item I'd like to introduce our new assistant director for strategy for the Community Development Department Mr Tenya Cook. Miss Coleman comes to us from the HUD Knoxville Tennessee field office where she was a community and planning representative she's also previously worked for the city of Memphis and the City of Charlotte North Carolina and so we're really glad to have her and her expertise on our team so the selfie that we took on the street the other day I sent that to your your old mayor mayor Paul Young and he said you are a superstar and I told him that it you know said you're a superstar and I said well we have a new superstar that we stole from you Soh welcome to the Bull City all right next item was number six council.
Member cook it's me again oh gracious okay I was actually hoping that you could just share with me a little bit more about the funding and then I what let me back up and say that I wanted to pull this item because I was just so glad to read about how successful it's been and I just wanted to draw everyone's attention to some of the quotes that were in there from principles at the two of the four schools that were affected by this it just sounds awesome I these kids are excited to learn I just thought that it sounded great so I I was excited to pull it but I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the funding that went into it and then if there's any sort of thought of making this a more permanent programming since the success has been so impactful yes thank you council member so the House program originated under covid cdbg Community de development block grant covid funding so there was a special.
Allocation to the city of Durham and other localities around the country of Community Development block grant funding cdbg that was designed for covid type activities we were able a lot of the rules were suspended for this funding not I think we got just over maybe just over a million dollars or something of that magnitude one of the things that we did here in Durham was to engage in some Community engagement to see how did residents want to use the funding that we were able to get from the federal government of course the number one reason purpose at the time was a rental assistance but did you also know that we were getting ER funding emergency also and so the second thing that came in was remote learning for kids because the funding had to go to things that impact were impacted by covid the other way that reason that we you method that we use the funds we partner with oewd to help minority businesses with also the same funding.
And so that's where we use the funding but one of the things that was and this pro project is really dear to my heart being the the the the product of Educators myself one of the things that was important and kept coming up in Communications with residents was the learning loss that our kids were having in public schools due to to to covid being not being in school where you know the you know I don't have to go through all of that here so one of the things we reached out to Durham public schools and of course while they were getting of some funding we wanted to do targeted funding in areas that we do work related to our house so the and that were qualified with cdbg and that's how the schools were chosen in partnership with Duram public schools that live the schools in certain areas and they were able to document the learning loss due to covid and one of the things that the public school.
Did was they designed a program that helps students in school during the day as well as after school and they recruit students to basic on the based upon their grades B based upon teachers evaluations and they partner with the kids in school during the school day as well as in the afternoon and this money goes to helping support the teach te supplies tools all the enrichment activities to help them overcome the learning loss and one of the things that's been very important one of our staff members did go out and do on-site visit as we do with all of our programs to see how it's going she was very pleased and that's where the some of the co qu quotes came from and the students DPS has been very receptive the question you asked would it be something that we would look to continue we are now that I have a new assistant director one of the things we're going to be looking at with our cdbg allocations is to do more.
Services as well as things that of course it has to be cdb eligible it was under covid and then we're going to proceed so that is something that we are considering evaluating but this program has been very welled by students by during public schools and they were excited about it from the day that we broke them with the partnership thank you all right number seven council member. Cook I should leave my microphone on I guess okay yes just go over this so I guess this one I just wanted a little bit more of a back drop on it seems like the Gap funding is really substantial in this project it actually seemed like it was about 100% like we were doubling the the price I might be misreading that but I it looked like the original amount was like 1.6 mil and then it was going to increase to 3.2 mil is that correct no the the the price was 3.2 okay but we didn't have the funding sources to be able to cover that.
Oh okay so and so now we do ah okay so we already knew the 3.2 mil number at the beginning okay I I was confused about that it looked like we were because we there was some conversation about that the project had the budget had the Project's budget had increased and so I thought that there was some difference I a lot of feedback is it me if you just move back I'm moving back okay speak closely into the mic casually sit back here yes so there there did in the memo it talks about the fact that the budget of the project had increased and so I was I was a bit confused because the numbers I I yeah it didn't double they did increase as all projects have increased during this time period sure due to you know cost escalation and those sorts of things one of the things that this is going to be a challenging project because this is a renovation of an old building and and it's going to change the the.
Purpose from it for its use and and it's a historic building in many respects also so that's also driving the cost and yes it is relatively unexpensive though it's three point2 million but in terms of the the neighborhood where it's going to be that's one of the areas that we want to do work in it is a historic building has a major role with the African-American community and this is way we can put it to good use the other part is that we had put initial funding in at the city did but we had did limit what we were going to put in but then we did were able to get some Co funding to be able to add to it to round out the funding now we do have some members from reinvestment Partners here and they can talk in detail about the about the project.
Okay sure hey College mate hey hey thank you so much so my name is Amber Bond I serve as the chair of the board of directors for reinvestment partners Peter scolar the executive director couldn't be here today but I mean if you know him you know we're basically twins I'm just a little taller right everyone that laugh knows exactly what Peter learn looks like that's a it's a joke so yeah I'm happy to to to be here and and share more with you about this project I know the the memo that was provided to you all is pretty comprehensive in terms of reinvestment Partners role the history that they have in this community and the work that they've done in terms of Residential Properties and also commercial but if there any specific questions that you have I mean the highlights here that as Mr cook mentioned this is Preservation of a historic building a Redevelopment project in a neighborhood that is already being served by Reen bus Parkers they have another property that they've.
Worked on IT addresses the critical need for affordable housing it has a completely diverse Capital stack in which These funds would add to and it's shovel ready that's the the big deal right the property has already been acquired and with the commitment of this funding they'd be able to start and those units will be available by December of 2026 awesome so and I saw that there were and and Mr Kopac just talked about this a little bit that there's we've there's been more funds available it looked like through HUD and nchf and then with with that extra funding are we able to require more units or larger units perhaps or a lower income restriction on those because I saw I think all of them were single bedroom is that there single room units the memo says 15 but it's actually going to be 17 so they were able to restructure the space on the first floor to do two units that would be AMA compliant okay and what is the income when we talk about.
Affordability what 30 to 60 Ami okay and do we have do we know what how many units of each of those that we're GNA have so I believe it would be all the units that would are between that in that range okay yeah I didn't know if we had anything more specific than that yeah and I get the other question that I had on here and this might be one for Mr Kopac again but now that we know that these the state and local fiscal recover funds slurf I don't know are that affordable housing is an eligible criteria are we are we are we looking for other uses for those funds as well so I want to be sure so you're you're talking about funding that's not in the capital stack for this program yeah so I I might be misremembering but I wrote down that that there was something in the memo that said that we were now aware that affordable housing was an eligible criteria for these local fiscal recovery funds arpa.
That's arpa oh okay okay thank you for clarifying that's arpa so so what's what's that's saying is that when arpa initially came into an existence affordable housing was not one of the eligible activities affordable housing only later after it was already on the street became an eligible activity for Opa funds great okay right I think that's all my questions thank you thank you thank you very much wrist thank you Mr Mayor yeah this is thank you Mr Kopac for the presentation thank you for being here this is an exciting project as Mr Kopac said this is like incredibly historic building has a huge value for the African-American community in Durham I want to thank my colleague councilman Cook who's also been active on this when tracking this project this is really exciting the affordability is exciting and the partner reinvestment Partners is a top-notch partner and Durham that we're lucky to have so this is this is great stuff thank you bigger I just want to ask about the.
30 years of affordability and how we might ensure permanent affordability on the site that's part of a conversation that we've had the the last couple of council member Council meetings and I'll let y'all speak to to your perspective on the extending affordability period so I think it's it's something that can certainly be up for discussion I believe that's a a period that was negotiated and discussed through the Peter and the team but if that was a something that came back from the council as being a a conting is something that we'd certainly consider if you feel like that number maybe could be stretched on thank you yeah I think from from my perspective you know I don't want to leave to the Next Generation affordable housing that that is automatically being lost so whatever we can do you and I I know that we have to make the numbers work but whatever we can do to make sure that we are creating long-term permanent affordable housing I think for me at.
Least is a priority yes and then we agree with you council member and I would just say that one of the things with this particular one is the mission of the the vendor and that plays a major role and getting to Extended periods of affordability so we we agree do you currently have units that are permanently affordable with reinvestment Partners I'm gonna ask Banya to come Shanetta Burris is also here she is RP's Co hi I'm Tanya wolam I'm coo at reinvestment Partners so we have so we have other units similarly under contract for that have a 30-year aort affordability period and typically that's the kind of affordability period because at that point you typically have to make investments back into the property and so at that point you can say after 30 years properties need a lot of Investments and so you need the opportunity to somehow fund those Investments and so if you can find another way of financing to keep them affordable we're a nonprofit.
Our mission it's part of our mission to keep affordable housing so that's always going to be our go-to and we have in terms of affordable units and Dr we about 138 I think either development or in operation so that's where we stand so as a model you you don't currently have a permanent affordable housing model as a nonprofit can you explain what the I guess what the so in the 30 years how would you address How would how would that shift what is what does it do currently so if you were ending next year for one unit what would happen to that unit in year 31 yes is what you're saying so T probably as the nonprofit We would continue to operate it as a affordable housing okay I think the question in terms of what types of Investments would be needed to maintain that property and if there were some type of major Capital Investments that were needed after 30 years and we needed financing for that then we would have to.
Reconsider doing some type of if we need a commercial financing mixed income or those types of things but our first we're always going to lead with affordability so our goal would be to maintain it that's helpful thank you and and I would just add thank you thank you very much that add we're having those conversations that we mentioned the last time we were having and so we would have present with some additional information on the L of the increasing the affordability there are some advantages in some and some challenges to that because they do need to do refinancing and the part about is whether one can maintain the 30% the 30 Ami percent Ami units or below for another 30 years without any additional subsidy being put into the deal for the second 30 years particularly when there are no vouchers and so that's one of the things that has come up in a conversation that we've already been having since the last meeting we have some more conversations to have but.
We'd be willing to most definitely sharing those thoughts after we have more additional conversations with developers and. Lawyers that that that would be sorry was someone else someone okay that that would be great you know the mission of the nonprofit I think speaks for itself and speaks to its commitment to maintaining affordable units within the Financial limitations and and with the need of reinvesting into the property we're of course in a Dillan rule state in either way the state legislature prohibited rent control so that limits our ability to to you know enact those kinds of regulations and so when projects are receiving substantial amounts of public dollars again I just think that it's really important that we have the foresight to to look at these properties and make sure again that we're being responsible to the Next Generation in whatever way possible and I don't know how we can bake in language that would you know allow for that reinvestment in in 30 years if that's necessary while also ensuring that.
You know I I I don't know what what happens in 30 years if if there's a sale or you know leadership changes at the nonprofit or what but just making sure that these properties can remain affordable for for the Next Generation thank you thank you Mr Mar and thank my colleagues I want to congratulate you on this great great project historic project I remember the Congressman price came and presented a big check to us and we had a wonderful ribbon cutting at the property and and just a commitment the work that you've done in this community and continue to do on the community I I it's often the reason why we oftentimes get the 30 years is precisely because of the public investment it would look a lot different if we didn't bring money to the table at all I and and I I I thank your explanation about 30 years doesn't mean that we're not committed Beyond those 30 years I mean they're just financial and Market realities my parents provided me affordable.
Housing for about first 25 years of my life and and then we had to renegotiate they still remained my they still remained my parents but we had to look at the the the agreement and and and hopefully within that 30 years some other things are going on it it's not stagnant we we're it's not like we're not creating other affordable housing opportunities or increasing the stock hopefully we're also creating wealth and and and a population that can afford to pay and live where they want as well so so while we're increasing the stock of affordable housing there's some other work that needs to be going on as well ownership and and educational opportunities and Vocational opportunities to increase the wealth particularly of of our people black and brown people that have so you know historically been been disinvested and haven't had the opportunity so so I get it and and you know as I've said before one of the ways we can as a government ensure permanent affordability is use our own land and.
Use our own money as we did on Willard Street you know as Market players there's only so much bang we're going to get for our buck when we're partnering with other entities 30 years is kind of the standard now but but I would you know just add my voice to challenge us you know we talked about these paper streets some of those streets are in neighborhoods where nobody lives so putting a park there we might want to consider putting housing there those are options that we have with our own land and with our own money and of course that those are hard political decisions because if you look at a piece of land that you could sell for a gazillion dollars and use that money to do something else if you have the political will to say instead of selling it we're going to use it for affordable housing like we did downtown with Willard Street that's the most powerful way a government can can ensure permanent affordable housing full stop and that.
That's just one of the tools that we have our disposal but I'm I'm very excited about this project it is an historic it's a Sacred Space for our city and and and for the African-American community community and and I'm proud of the work that you've done and and in 31 years I if you're true to who you are I'm sure it'll still be affordable with tweaks like my parents had to make with my living arrangements thank you Mr. Mayor thank you so much M just one more comment just in response to my colleague councilman baker man I think you're asking the right questions about permanent affordability and I think it might be helpful at some point on the council to receive a presentation I don't know who that might be from but about like what are the models for permanent affordability because the reality is I mean the models I I am aware of would be like land trust for example land Dr but even like Community Land Trust and.
Durhams got to be able to raise their budget every year to keep it going right so so so it's in theory permanantly affordable but it's it relies on them every year raising their budget to make sure they can continue operating even public housing I'm on the DHA board right that's public housing it's in theory permanently affordable but if we don't get enough money from HUD to make it work you know so it's sort of so I'm kind of curious what the models are really and even Willard Street is like that's 30 years right so that's our that's but again like yeah we've got we got to fund it every year right we got that's how you keep AFF so like so I think it might be helpful at some point to get a presentation from an expert on this that can really lay out what the models are because I think we don't have a whole lot of models but it's worth figuring out what those are and how we can use those here right.
Check Madam manager so so I'm not going to add a lot of words but what I would say is that you know we certainly can bring presentations around workable and in practice you know permanently affordable with you know the educational component of how those Investments take place as it's that's already been said here but when we bring items currently to you those you know those agreement ments and terms have pretty much been set for the particular project but we do hear you you know and in your interest in hearing it you know for future you know future projects or future policy decisions and we will we will make you know make it a priority to to bring an information report back to council around different ways that you know housing can be permanently affordable you mentioned almost all of them here.
Today all right number 12 council member m cook oh no she just pulled a lot so I thought all of them actually I think council member cavier. Okay hey good afternoon all right make sure you there Jim grber and also just real quick considering you and I share this commonality that Podium is adjustable oh okay great I don't know if I want to try and mess with all that the the button yeah appreciate that I'm joking assistant director with human resources I've also got Alex doberstein from IBA who is our benefits consultant for the city thank you good afternoon I just wanted a opportunity for for for new council members so Etna is our administrator but we are a self-insured organization and so I thought it would be a benefit for new council members to really understand what that means and why for us fiscally it has been an especially important decision organizationally so that that is essentially why I remember mayor SCH when we did this last.
Round pulled it for us newbies to really understand the impact and so that is that was my intent here thank you sure y so Alex stoin with benefit advisers were the Consultants on the benefits program overall so the medical plan is self-funded we do have a stoploss insurance so we cap the risk for the city at like a $200,000 limit where the claims above that are picked up by insurance but everything else underneath that is paid for by the city through a fund that we determine a budget for each year so Etna is the administrator so they are who the claims are submitted to and then they through their negotiated contracts with the hospitals and the providers have discounted rates that the city ultimately pays for the employees contribute through payroll deductions as well when they have families or choose to buy up to a a richer plan design but overall it's a around $50 million of medical spend each year so that $5 million three-year number is just for the administration cost that.
They have negotiated rates with the providers and that's the the the big value that is bringing was particularly with the relationship with con and with Duke and wakem they have a provider contract that guarantees contract savings so that was a big deciding point for us on U why we chose to stay with Etna this year is because of that really robust contract with the providers that most of the employees and the family members are utilizing so happy to kind of expand on any questions on that but you know these are the the city's funds here that are you know we're discussing thank you and then just really quick what as a as an employee if you pick your basic plan I know it's in the memo what what are you paying so we we we are very pleased that we are able to continue to have a an employee who chooses single coverage here a plan available that has great benefits at no cost to the employee even though the city is.
Investing in that well ESS and health care for the employee the employee is able to have the confidence that they will not have to pay any amount for for great health insurance and we're able to able to do that even our total cost increases are lower than the market I don't want to start guessing at percentages even though I got a lot of numbers in my head but but but this team probably knows I think it's around 4% increase that we are having to building to the budget for health care cost and I don't know how much lower that is than just general but significantly signant the trend is over 8% and we're we're under 4% so we're running a lot better than the the averages overall due to a lot of investments in wellness and other activities to keep those costs down so PL plans running very well relative to peers thank you I just really say this is a really excellent benefit I will say until I was a city employee.
I hadn't had Insurance since I got kicked off my dad's South Carolina State Employee plan and for folks who unfortunately have to buy their insurance on which is an improvement it was hard fought Obamacare basically I have certainly as a family of five ended up with 15 to 20 to $25,000 worth of medical bills in one year so that is something that many folks struggle with many families struggle with medical debt is one of the largest debts in the country it is really devastating to folks and we all experience that so I just want to say that this is an incredible benefit that we offer and glad to see it thanks council member Cook thank you and just because the item was pulled I will say that is it's of a great benefit to us but I feel like it's important to keep working as a council and as a community towards universal healthcare and so that we have Medicare for everyone it's it's really hard like I'm hard pressed because I felt like the.
Obamacare became a health care plan Amendment or law that came on the books and it really pushes more towards health care plans it doesn't necessarily mean you have better health care and that cost I mean is is heartbreaking I will say that last year with my daughter having an appendicitis I think we saw a $660,000 bill that I would not have been able to cover and I will say that I want to thank my colleague council member risk and his church colleagues who have saw for foresight in in offering to do debt repayment for folks in our community to cover their medical debt and so I think there are there's a lot of folks who are stretching including the city and churches around our community and others to cover what is needed but we as a community have to get to the point where we actually have universal healthcare as well thank you thank you council member Cook absolutely I think many of us here can remember when you got kicked off your parents.
Plan you couldn't stay on until you were 26 so I remember the two to three year gap before I could afford it when I'd already graduated from college so I I think we have definitely improved but yeah just like housing Healthcare as a human. Right gives me joy to hear this all right thank you thank you all right next item pulled council member cook no I'm just I'm just teasing you I'm just teasing you no but I actually oh is it you for real I think it actually okay sorry let's call your name for every item on in we'll get right back to you 15 15 item number 15 welcome there we go on City D par Recreation Department business manager thank you and just i' like to let you know I do have Lauren thinkink vice president from United States here with me as well have come on and I have Rob Rist the controller online as.
Well this is you you can come closer thank you all so much and and really excited about this item is is Jim dorak still with your company United States Jim Darrah is semi-retired He Is We have Karen poo she's our CEO and president of our company cool I had a conversation with Jim I think it was in 21 he reached out to me when when news broke that we had purchased wheels and asked about the opportunity to partner with us and I think it was it was in July of 2022 I I sent him an email and copied City leadership not offering the contract making it clear that this was not an official off of the contract but letting our city leadership know that United States was interested and to get into the mix whenever we issued an RFP and congratulations I'm glad that things worked out and that it's gotten this far at least in the process and and I know we had some really exciting conversations when this.
Was still kind of vaporous and Abstract but it's good to see that we've moved to more concretized realization of of opening up Wheels again for skating and and we're going to have expert management of it which brings me to the question and and maybe this is more for more so for our public this is not meant to be a profit generating Initiative for the city correct no no that their proposal has a small payment to the city in regards to that during the what the United States has done is they are lowering some of their fees that they would normally charge at the their facilities down to a more affordable rate for for term the the Parks and Recreation Department asked for like on Friday night we had asked for them to come down and make their fees $10 for any member of a family on on Fridays they accepted that offer and they actually made it lower they made it actually down to $8 so they're trying to make it as.
Affordable as you know and to be able to operate the facility yeah you you've anticipated the spirit of my question the the I guess we're calling it an operating fee each year yes year two 22 Grand 62 Grand 62 Grand 63 clearly this is not commensurate with with with we're not getting a cut of the profits like at DPAC or or the ballpark and and which is precisely and and because we're not I wanted to to ensure that because they were keeping everything that the pricing would be accessible would would be well you you've spoken to it so do do say again what are they agreeing to in terms of charging so in the cont we list out the original fees but on Tuesday nights they're going to have a reduced fee down to $7.50 for the entrance fee on the their normal fees are $13 throughout the week and then.
And then on the weekends it goes up to 14 but on the Friday nights which was a family night what the department wanted to do is make sure that it was access an open to everybody in the community especially on a Friday night so we had asked for the fee to be lower they went they agreed to our terms but actually went $2 lower so we're making the fee on Friday night where it used to be $13 it's going to be $8 that's and that you know coincide with a decrease in some other little things in the contract like the payment to the city and so forth how do we calculate that annual fee payment H is is there a universal kind of Skate schedule payment to cities what how did we come up with that number I'm going to let would Rob be better for the annual fee to step to the mic if you yes of year one is zero year two is 22,000 year three is.
62,000 and then it hovers in the mid 60s up to seven years how do we come up with that annual Fe I so for the for the first two years of the agreement thing is United States is putting a a large a couple hundred, worth of improvements into the facility as well as new skates new V you video games new systems new you know all new equipment is going into the thing so in order for them to have to again keep it affordable to the public and so forth those first two years we're not collecting a fee in there for them to recoup some of their capital investment into the facility first well it says year two 22 right yeah right right it's in there they and and that's why I said Rob o cutter who's on Auten who's on online can probably answer us better as the controller but he they they they presented a plan in regards to that so they have their profit and loss statements and so forth.
That they shared with us in regards to here you know here's the estimated costs revenues and stuff like that where they can recoup the the capital investment that they're putting in there and then have a slight profit on the side sure no no doubt that the the initial upfront cost are going to be significant I I mean the actual math and calculus to come up with this number 60 is that their did they that's their number that's their number they proposed to us their original numbers in their proposals were were were again a little bit higher but when we went ahead and we reduced some of those entrance fees and so forth we agreed on that $10 fee originally their the money they were going to pay to the city we reduced that accordingly then they came back on top of that without reducing the payment to the city they reduced at the extra $2 on Friday okay I'll just finally say and I'll yield to my colleagues it's really difficult to overstate how.
Important this is to us to our city forget the money just just the the it's an iconic spot there's you know not a person in Durham particularly those who were born who doesn't have a a wheel story or at least Wheels adjacent a family member or a friend and do a good job do a good job and congratulations this gets approved I think it will and looking forward to a lot of good times there so thank you Mr Mar y all right just to that point will the name remain Wheels we have it built into the contract that the name wheels will be in the name you have to say that out loud that's we have it built into the contract that the operator will have to maintain and always have the name wheels in the name so thank you and I just wanted to highlight this is a great opportunity for a woman-owned business to pursue a Contracting and I just wanted to highlight that part pleas thank you that's all thanks.
Item number 16 council member. Cook good afternoon mayor mayor bson members of council Ryan Smith director of the community safety department I'm also joined online by Kesha Preston from the Durham Police Department great so this is going to be a very quick question but I wanted to kind of understand the interaction with the heart program for this and talk about where these employees are going to be housed sure so the employees for the purpose because these are Grant funds that the durhan police department is helping us to administer they will administratively sit in the Duran police department but for all functions for recruiting hiring for their day-to-day supervision they operate as heart staff these will be two Grant funded heart positions one will be a licensed clinical social worker who will be a certified first examiner by the state the other will be an EMT but we have done this before with the connect and protect Grant we have a great partnership with the police department they have greater capacity to administer.
Grants and to apply for these types of Grants and when they're doing that it's easier that they that these staff show up and sit administratively in their budget for managing the the grant process but they function operationally in the field as as our staff does that answer your question yes perfectly and then is there a is there a time frame on this grant ke sure are you online could you speak more to the current time frame yes good afternoon Kesha Preston with the city of dur Police Department currently it's a 2year grant with the opportunity of a additional one-year.
Extension that's all my questions thank you thank you thank you you that's 24 item number 24. Yep good afternoon Mr Mayor mayor protm members of council Sean Ean director of Transportation all right so this is the Am track station so I some of this was in there but I was just hoping you could go over it with me again there was some conversation in there about having other spaces that we might lease I know we're losing a least option in that parking lot to the amstr station so I'm just wondering about how that decision was made what other options we have for spaces to lease if we need those what is going to be the monetary impact of this decision you could just explain a little bit more about it sure so the gravel lot is currently used it's adjacent to the Amtrak station they have their own paved lot U but the gravel lot is used effectively for overflow they it's particularly well used on holiday travel periods so we have 40.
Spaces that are available in that lot right now that lot is adjacent to the southern Terminus of the Durham rail trail project so there's some really exciting public space Parkland opportunities as part of the construction of that trail and so the discussion that we've had with our partners in general services and Parks and Recreation is that that really provides an extraordinary opportunity for public space programming that would be a higher and better use than U vehicle storage for for parking so we're looking forward to those plans developing for how that public space will come together but we think that's an excellent use of that and it could become a really beneficial part of a a gateway to the trail project in terms of other replacement parking we've started some conversations with ncdot as well as go triangle and some of our other partners looking at other potential locations there's there's not a clear city-owned facility that has 40 spaces that could easily be used for this so that's why we're conducting Outreach.
With our partners and we'll spend the next year working through potential Alternatives so that there is there is some overflow parking available and we can really beautify that space and and incorporate it into programming of the public space around the. Trail that's awesome to hear yet I'm I'm excited to to hear about the use of that I know exactly what lot we're talking about and I'm excited to hear about that use just as a general question do we is the Amtrak usage is it a lot of local folks that are using it are people passing through what is it pro is it do we know about its like profitability and relationship toh it's so the the pedmont service is what MTR calls a state sponsored Service so those Services both the Carolinian train that runs from Charlotte up to New York as well as the pedmont services that run between Raleigh and Charlotte are subsidized by the North Carolina Department of Transportation Amtrak can't operate them at a profit based on.
Ticket sales so Amtrak relies upon the state of North Carolina and and other locations other states to subsidize those costs and that's how they've been able to start off it's been about 10 years now that we've had the pedmont service and they just added another round trip going from eight round trips to 10 round trips last year in terms of the users it's a little beyond my expertise I have used the MTR station for travel it's great I highly recommend it we've come along way since we had what was a construction trailer by the side of the railroad that was dubbed the am Shack derisively so we've come a long way we have a a beautiful train Hall in a historic Warehouse structure U so it's it's a great way to welcome visitors to Durham thank you I have no further questions yeah and the the numbers are actually in regards to were you asking about ridership yeah it's it's it's much higher than it was I think we're almost back actually we might be.
Exceeding pre-co so the writers ship is getting higher and higher and higher had a really cool conversation with the CEO of MTR and just talking with some board members from North Carolina railroad you know we have a serious opportunity a real opportunity to put some real marketing behind our rail as an option with the expansion of the amtr service we are very close to Comm rail light Comm rail light if what I'm call it we're not getting Comm rail any time soon but Comm Ro light when we think about the the new stations that are going to come on board and the extension of you know bus Rapid Transit if we can get our Transit plan adopted we will have a much more robust Transit option in the triangle where Durham is actually we're doing our part to connect to Chapel Hill and Raleigh and everyone else has already did it so thank you I believe those are the port items Doug you ready well I guess Sean is going to.
Introduce you since you you're no you're no longer with us in house germ native Doug plinsky needs no introduction so welcome goodness you're very kind and I apologize for jumping up prematurely to support Sean and discussing the train station it's been great I really enjoy hearing about all the awesome things we have going on in Durham paper streets Now While most of you know I worked here for a year while the no was still housed at the city I also worked here a summer in 1995 and one of our tasks was to collect a lot of data in in Durham and in order to collect that data we used the old blueprint replicated cadastral tax maps so we found all those paper streets at one point in time and identified them so as I'm listening to that conversation I am thinking back to where many of them were and there's even one on the other side of Falls Lake from the city of Durham that that may be.
In the county but still in the area so thank you very much I'm glad to be here today just want to come and visit with you and share what we've done over the past year and what we're proposing to do in the next year and remind you how much we appreciate your support for those of you that are new to council just so you are familiar with what we are we are a metropolitan planning organization we are presiding the federally mandated Transportation Planning requirements over the Western triangle including Durham Chapel Hill and carboro and Hillsboro as our Incorporated communities and all of Durham County parts of Orange County and the can't really call it the northwest corner anymore but but a portion of chadam County we collaborate with all of our members which represent those communities and also include the triangle Transit Authority doing businesses go triangle and the State Board of Transportation and representatives from all of our members sit on a policy board that direct us that policy board is.
Advised by a technical committee which includes staff people from all of those agencies and more including universities and other stakeholder groups we tend to meet monthly but we are trying to figure out more efficient ways to conduct those meetings those meetings all used to happen in this room I'm a little jealous of now you guys get great technology because we fought with the owl for a whole year while we were here but it's great to see. Progress and we'll get the slides advancing in just a moment there we go okay can I use the wheel awesome thank you sir yeah so at a real high level the work we accomplish includes a long range conceptual vision of how Transportation Works across the region then the next step in that visualization process is tying fiscally constrained or fiscally our anticipated revenues to those potential improvements and that we are updating our process to work on the 2055 Metropolitan Transportation plan to give you an idea of how far out we're looking with anticipated revenues and.
Projects and then as those projects become more dialed in and more ready for implementation we put them into a 10-year funding program called the the tip we refer to it as but the transportation Improvement program which is identified funding and projects with those resources some other ways that we look at problems and and attempt to solve them include Corridor studies like the two that we've been working on over the past year one is in us70 West in Orange County and us70 East in Durham County which I'm sure most of you are familiar with and then we also have regular touch points with lots of different stakeholder groups including the Durham EAC for bicycle and pedestrian oriented Travelers in our community we have a lot of technical tools we use including a regional travel demand model which receives a lot of resources that is a tool that we must have according to our status with the federal government but we use that to compare the impacts of potential projects on criteria that are.
Important to us like reducing carbon outputs into the the atmosphere other air pollutants and reducing recurring congestion members of our staff also work with local public transportation planning we chair the D both the Durham and Orange County staff working groups which of course support the administration of the half scent collected public transportation taxes in each of those counties we have some other functions with different Federal Transit Administration funding resources like enhanced disability and and Senior Mobility grants and we work continuously with a wide range of Partners we're in the process of updating our Human Services coordinated Transportation plan which connects funding resources and opportunities with lots of public service providers that may not be Transportation focused organizations but try to provide transportation as part of their service portfolio to their their clients we try to incorporate new and Innovative tools into our toolbox and offer those resources to Our member communities one example is we've recently converted our remix software which is used for development impact and public transportation planning to rather.
Than being a sole lie of that software we have a complete license that we furnish access to all of our member communities for we have some other subscriptions that allow us to access what I'll call Big Data but is data collected through a wide variety of resources and we are also able to furnish access to that data to our members some of the special projects we're working on right now We've with the city's support applied for and received a $500,000 Grant from the federal Highway Administration to look at Safe Streets for all across the community be identifying a high Injury Network of both existing crashes and risky locations and coming up with a strategy to attempt to address those quickly and efficiently we're also updating our public involvement policy and as an aspirational model we really hope to achieve the results the and the promise that the city of derms Equitable Community engagement blueprint provides see some of the other things were I've mentioned the plan the program and our budget over the next.
Year we will not be adding any additional staff we like all everyone are in a challenged environment for acquiring and onboarding new staff people so that's why we frequently will bring in outside resources and Consultants to help Phil a void in our capacity or in our our technical expertise two of the initiatives that will involve Durham city and county very sensitively over the next year include U some initial Corridor study work on 15501 between the bypass and the C the county line with Chapel Hill we are working through a scope negotiation right now to update the city and the County's bicycle and pedestrian plan jointly I think that's a really exciting project it's going to have lots of public input opportunities and has some really fresh ways of of looking at data and providing good priorities to elected officials and lastly I'll touch on a little bit more the moment we are trying to clear a backlog of Project funding that we have awarded to our members to implement projects in our.
Communities so we're going to focus some resources on trying to get that freed up now I'd like to to Really point out to this group because several of your members were very involved in 2022 the mo received a governance study that had been conducted through interviewing members and stakeholders and the that governance study offered several suggestions on way to ways to improve the no or improve our functions and one of them centered on how the mo was structured within the city of Durham and what were some opportunities to improve it mayor Williams and councilwoman cabalero were both instrumental in that study and we part of the no board that approved relocating the no from the city of Durham to the central Pines Regional Council at the beginning of this current year or I should say current fiscal year I'd also like to point out councilwoman Cook's support and leadership as the Del and chair of the central Pines Regional Council when we were negotiating that transition and it would not have happened without their support.
Either with that move we we feel that we are in a great space to have a long-term investment in the health and capacity of the no and work on the support with the support of Our member communities we definitely and continuously appreciate the city's long history of piloting region Transportation Planning in the west triangle so with that I'd be happy to answer any questions or receive any other. Feedback thank you good to see you Doug so just real quickly I wanted to say that I I've been quite happy with the the move to Central Pines I think it was the The Right Move I think it did really improve that kind of sense of regionalism that I think you know was was more challenging to achieve when the no was based in the city of Durham I know some of the questions I'm going to ask are kind of like just long-standing no and it's more just around when do you anticipate and I I missed the last no meeting and I have.
Not gone back and watched the video yet so it could have been discussed there so that's on me but more just to help my new colleagues and those who aren't on the no you know the I know that the the the the city when the MP was based within city government you know covered a lot of the costs that I think we're now seeing and and membership dues are shifting and so just was curious about when do you all think that that's going to kind of level set I know that I think that conversation did come up at the mo meeting last week and so I think you know there's a little bit of sticker shock on those increased fees and just was curious about what you think moving forward that what that what that's going to look like absolutely and and just to explain where our costs come from very briefly with an a local government like the Regional Council because it is a local government it's established under state law to.
Do certain things in a specific geography that operates with a lot of federal grants every year we go through a process where we develop two calculated rates the first is a calculated benefit rate second is a calculated indirect cost rate we submit both of those rates for pre-approval to the First Federal agency that's in line to sign off on those rates which historically has been the Department of Commerce once a federal agency accepts the provisional rates we have to apply them to everything and coupled with the move from the city of Durham there were some one-time costs that impacted the central Pines Regional Council this this past year that set those rates higher than they had been in the past not to mention we have some pretty unprecedented inflation that said we believe that we're based on the budget projection for next year that those rates will be fairly consistent barring any other unforeseen disruptions in the future and additionally we've heard loud and clear and and maybe we were insulated.
From it when we were part of the city of derms budgeting process but that it would be more helpful that rather than setting our budget towards the end of each fiscal year that we really created it at the beginning of the fiscal year for the next fiscal year so we've pledged to to have a draft work program for the 2526 fiscal year to all of our members with an estimate of what their potential contributions will be by the end of September thank you for that and then just for colleagues and I don't remember the numbers but I know at some point we are going to have a dis have to have a discussion because it does impact our current our current budget process that we're in now between what was projected and what we're going to have to pay on dues and to to Doug's Point that's that's a an adjustment for this year and we'll know it moving forward I I think that will be a conversation to.
Come but I did want to to flag it and then I have a couple other questions yeah thank you and I think I think membership cheses as I know is that that's been a little bit you know hard and then I know one of the other things that we're talking about is just kind of a percentage of dues that are paid by jurisdictions I know the city of Durham has historically been the kind of biggest contributor we have the most population but I know that there's to be maybe some calibration between what counties are potentially paying versus what municipalities are paying I think that kind of model of every municipality is paying more than the county that they're in and so it just was curious as well again because it does fiscally impact the city and we're here what you think you know can we anticipate around that absolutely we I think definitely would like to incorporate a discussion of how to fairly balanced contribution from municipalities and counties because.
It it often creates a sense that counties are only representing the portion of their population are outside of their boundaries when counties of course include everyone in their cities and towns also we need to have that conversation we need to come up with a way to split it equ equitably we have some draft ideas on how to do that we will couple that discussion with a strategic planning exercise it was also recommended by the governance study I actually have the procurement complete for that and we'll be moving forward with an agreement to kick that off and hav't completed by the end of this calendar year so that may adjust the anticipated contributions after we develop our potential budget in September we may we may have unanimous agreement and be able to to propose something different before that but this be a fun meeting we'll at least have you know a discussion and I think that's really critical the city of Durham has definitely borne the line share of this organization over its its history and.
We appreciate that Legacy and also acknowledge that the region is growing and that you know all the regional Partners need to to pull their Fair weight and I know the one of the other these are all kind of like longstanding you know the federal funding just one I want before you continue to the next question just to put some numbers on this for my colleague so and thanks again Doug for being here so there are 15 member jurisdictions in the N is that correct what seven oh seven I I'm think of another yeah that's that's that's youba yeah so seven so that seven includes Durham City and Durham County because the the dues are by population right we pay 58% of the dues to the no we have 40% of the seats on the board I'm sorry 4% of the votes that we use of a weighted vote 20% of that actual seats in the board so there so endur we're kind of aware of that and I appreciate.
Doug mentioning this this rethink of the bylaws or whatever to address that so it's it's a so we all feel like there's an equitable distribution of like the dues and sort of and decision- making on the M thank you and then just the last thing is and I know this is this is a longstanding I we've had a lot of conversations around it I think it predates me I've I've inherited some of the things and conversations that we were talking about when Council me former C council members re and freelon were the Liaisons and it's just around the the federal funding policy again this kind of cap around the dollars that city of Durham is able to get even though we have you know more of the kind of justice 40 communities here and I know that that's a hard conversation to have but just again I'm hoping that in the ne you know these are conversations that really do we've been kind of you know the the the technical committee and how the votes.
Worked there I mean we've been slowly kind of chipping away at some of these issues and so again just wanting to raise it certainly I I appreciate that and and for reference the city has Awards of about $60 million in current projects that's spread amongst 21 active projects I believe three or four are moving forward and or are under construction now and with our most recent call for projects I believe it was recommended that and I don't recall how many new projects the city was slated to receive but to support existing and new projects within the city with $17 million or so investment now we're currently trying to squeeze some more money out of the state project prioritization process for existing projects with the city of Durham and that may free up even more resources but that gives you a scale of you know around $75 million of locally designated funding to the city of Durham for your investment and leadership in our organization thank you I don't have any.
More questions I just really want to appreciate your leadership on on the mo I think you've done an amazing job I think you are taking the organization to to the next level and this is challenging work we have to work with our neighbors everyone you know is arguing about resources and so just and also really appreciate that you've kind of Incorporated coming to each each board and giving an update thank you it's it's been a pleasure doing this work as a child of the city and sharing our successes and our learning from our opportunities for improvement together thank you I I just wanted to thank council member k cabier for pointing out a few of those things just acknowledging also I know that the Central Carolina Pines fees will probably be going up EX in I just want to prepare us for that and then I just want to make just note that if there's anything I can be helpful with with the Justice $40 please let me know I know that.
We'll be doing there's there's a few meetings that are be that will be occurring in the next couple of months and I want to make sure that if there's anything I can ask for I'm asking for that awesome we appreciate that and as everyone is probably aware purple is the color of green this year so if there are good projects that are potentially eligible under Federal funding opportunity then we want to move them forward and get attention and I also want to welcome you to the Central Carolina Pines new space I think it's it's really been a hard push to try and get to that point and just realizing like I don't know how I don't know if other folks are experiencing the the commercial gentrification but I mean cost for space for commercial space is really getting really high and so I know going forward it's going to be a a it's going to be interesting to see where we land I know that the Central Carolina Pines was able to re revamp.
Their space or re reimagine and renovate and expand into into U more of the space that we were already in and so it really is helpful to have you on as a as a partner in that and so just noting that this the Space is really useful I want to make sure folks are are aware you can all are welcome to come out and use the space if you need meetings or you just need a desk or you I mean if you just want to have lunch like is okay cup of coffee yeah so it's it's always there readily available for any and everyone thank you it looks like a magazine rendering in real life this beautiful space thanks May thanks Doug again for coming today and thanks for welcoming me into the no this it seems like I spent a lot of time with the no and your colleague so it's important work and again thanks for welcoming me in and sort of helping me learn the the.
Transportation lingo and and U work I just so I just want to follow up on Council Cav's question so just on this issue of the of the federal funding policy so I know we talked about this at the last meeting so that's also part of the plan for for updating that policy in the next year in conversation with our colleagues on the N absolutely it it should be know when I talk about clearing a backlog out of projects that that backlog plays into problematic development of a of a funding policy you know and is it really fair because in the end we've got a lot of great ideas and a lot of good projects and a lot of constituents that need that investment now so we want to get those projects working in ways that help our members with their budget needs and their constituents needs and really get I mean it's it's tax money getting back to the people that are contributing to taxes so we we.
Take that very seriously and we want to we want to speed up those Investments and definitely want to examine all the ways including you know paper roadblocks to getting funding where it needs to go but again that I mean partly that's execution right part of it is like the policy we set like it's a it's it's a paper roadblock so we want to figure out how to remove that if if you know the the thought is that a provision and a policy prevents meaningful work for moving forward we want to we want to figure out a way to to address that differently so yes I guess my question is also on that because as I understand the federal funding policy or form Federal funding policy limits Durham city of Durham to 60% a Max of 60% of of the funding from the M right I believe it caps it at 65% and the number of projects and so is that will that sort of policy be reviewed next year as well yes.
Particularly if it's impacting the city's ability to deliver projects I mean I I want to encourage that we have made a lot of investment in the city of Durham there's over $75 million of of funding coming your way and we want there to be more and you know the there's getting the projects out of the way to get more funding in and then there's making sure that we have a system in place that's fair and and getting that investment here yeah and then the last question is oh I I thought your presentation would include those 21 projects so would you mind just sending that to the council so all the members who aren on the MP just have visibility on what those 21 projects are sure and and that information is provided by the staff at the city of Durham we're not generating those project updates it's from you know the team of the transportation department so we'll get we'll get that information to you we shared it at our last no board.
Meeting yeah just yeah just for the council members who AR on the NBO so they can see that absolutely thank you you're welcome thank you for your great work over there at the no I miss you guys I really miss you guys we miss you too operates a little different at go triangle but I don't know if I said it I miss you guys but we we're getting we're gonna get some good stuff going to go triangle as well and really have this Synergy triangle wide so we can move these things forward I I don't think I I think you pretty much answered my question and I'm probably going to reach out to you just so I can get a fuller understanding but just the the new waiting of I guess influence on the.
Dues the new waiting on the dues where the counties you know that sort of scares me a little bit considering that you know the counties hold the transit funds and we are you know I you look at our ratio here we are 90 8% of the transit in durman county in a sense so I'm going to reach out to you directly and get a better understanding and if I need to speak on it publicly again I will of what that new what what's coming that new study what it what may potentially bring when it comes to the dues and all of that stuff look forward to that yeah thank.
You I was just gonna ask very very briefly about the reimagining 15501 projects and sort of the status of that because I also see here initiating a quor study on 1 15501 between bypass and chuffle Hill so just wanted to get a little update on the 15501 quarter study that was adopted in 2020 and then how this other 15501 study plays into that I'm under the impression the last and 2020 predates my time at the no so forgive me for not being as familiar with that work as I probably should be but the last time the mo and and the communities collectively took up 15501 the results of the technical analysis was actually not adopted and that left us in limbo because a lot has Chang so post Light Rail experience situation to now there's been a bit of a difference and we have a partner at ncdot that is very focused on making sure that it's Highway capacity particularly around the busiest stretch of road in the state along I40 is.
Preserved so we are hoping to work with them on a more holistic Corridor study revisioning what 15501 should look like as opposed to just being a wide multi-lane freeway with limited access which is sort of the direction that they've headed in to date we have a draft scope of work put together for that we'll be getting it together for procurement going out and and that draft scope of work includes some of our lessons learned from our most recent work on us70 in in Durham County ideally we will start the procurement process this next quarter and it will go under agreement sometime at the beginning of the fiscal year thanks so so the rematching 15501 study that was done is kind of at this point void as far as I'm aware yes that there there was not a a tactile result that came from that that that anybody was very satisfied with okay that's it for me thanks thank you so much and just for the public while I know the media is.
Always almost over but we are aware that we are pixelated and Communications is also aware they are going to be addressing it for the next meeting yeah we are it's as pixelated online as we are in person on the screens okay thank you so much Doug as we casually refer to you by your first name because everyone screws up your last one all right I believe those are all of my items okay well Madam Clark thank you Mr Mayor I have one nomination with the Duram bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission appointment the nominee is Christopher and perlstein that's it thank you so much all right need to settle the agenda thank you Mr Mayor Mr Mayor proam and members of the council I have for your consent agenda items 1 through 25 and item 31 and 32 and GBA public hearings items 27 through 30 thank you right colleagues I believe that's everything for.
Today Mr Mayor do you need a motion to to settle the agenda oh yeah that's right I'm sorry I was thinking about the next meeting I'll now entertain a me a motion to settle the agenda so all right it's been mov than properly second all in favor I I thank you all so much we are adjourned thank.
You.
Yeah I mean you've been talking about this for.
Year.