everyone hello hello hello welcome to the uh the real work session room our committee room um it's I don't know how long it's been since the council it's been four years since the council met here um 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 um 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 um 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 uh the owl in the middle of the room has flown away and we now have cameras we have now uh cameras that are in the ceiling that are streaming
online um and it's really good picture quality uh the device in front of you is mobile mobile uh the button on the right allows you to speak uh 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 uh the button on the left just allows you to a King so it allows you to mute while you're talking um without having to turn the system off you will be able to hear also through the speaker uh people that are speaking I believe uh yeah um just a little bit I believe from the podium uh so that that that would come through just a bit as well the microphones are adjustable at the bottom and the top um 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 uh new technology that's pretty cool here thank you uh it Village and all the services that are the cool for all right uh announcements council member cook all right Baker yeah I was just in this room yesterday that we had uh The Joint City County planning committee meeting um and there were a lot of exciting agenda items on there that I wanted to talk about um a lot of great long range planning initiatives um 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 um so we talked about several different items I just want to share a few one was affordable housing planning strategies um so I think there was some really great conversation really
productive conversation that came out of that with uh with fellow uh members of The Joint City County planning committee um I want to continue to push for uh the model that Alexandri Virginia uses for voluntary inclusionary housing uh 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 uh that we'll take a look at and pursue um I also want to make sure that we um one one initiative that was thrown out there um was looking at density bonuses in specifically in transit opportunity areas and for the fature place type map um and we uh 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 um permanent affordability um I think there's a great a great model out there with the Orange County Home Trust uh where uh inclusionary units are fed into
uh the Home Trust model um in order to make sure that they're permanently affordable we got a great report um planning for Equity um 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 um also uh in the comprehensive plan we have a a goal of 30% open space and um and we got a great report on uh permanent land conservation tracking um regarding open space um 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 um the the work that's going to be happening around Research Triangle Park um small area planning and the the comprehensive plan scorecard one of the thing I want to talk about um so over the past several months we've had some pretty robust um and productive conversations I think about zoning and and development cases here in Durham especially around
these large scale annexations and and rezonings um meanwhile I've also had the opportunity to to speak with uh planners Parks and Recreation um Durham open space and Trails uh 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 um that it's public uh and thus essentially and effectively requiring home ownership associations HOAs and new developments um in large part to maintain that open space however the state specifically enables local governments to receive public dedication of parks uh 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 uh 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 um 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 um 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 uh the Udo um 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 uh 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 um respective boards uh that's how every Omnibus I've ever experienced as a council member has
happened that's how scad happened um 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 um 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 um 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 um 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 uh 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 uh the that's part of the conversation around work plan because it influences planning capacity Staffing Resources um 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 um I guess concern um because we had that conversation yesterday and this was not brought up at all thank you I understand yeah and the um of course there's a consultant uh the consultant is going to
be making recommendations on short-term uh 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 um so uh 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 um 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 um um at the at the space so there can be discussion um 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 uh opportunity to really dig in ask questions we can get from staff do they have you know um 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 um 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 uh 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 um so I think for me it's just a matter of process um I I'm not a fan of uh what it it comes off as if we're trying to dictate operations by way of resolution um and I could be wrong about that that's just the way it initially sounded to me so go ahead to totally totally um and resolution is just is just uh 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 uh 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 uh 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 um there's a a procedure laid out in the UniFi development ordinance about how to amend the Udo and um different entities can amend or request to amend the Udo uh 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 um they can all initiate the Udo amendment process um in this case we happen to have a consultant who is comprehensively rereading the UniFi development ordinance who um will likely
be presenting some short-term amendments and this is to initiate the Udo text amendment process for uh ensuring that there are public parks in new developments um you know it could just be that the that the um consultant presents that as part of their set of uh short term amendments um but we don't know that and so this would just ensure that that makes it onto the list um so you look go ahead member wrist thanks Mr Mayor I have like I think conceptually makes sense to me um 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 um the rules of procedure um 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 um I'm happy to um 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 um perhaps bring it back next work session thank you Mr Mayor I want to say to my um 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 uh uh bring it up I think you raised some important points but traditionally resolutions and I think you've alluded to this have been
um statements of belief sending um messages I I can't remember a time where a hard policy action that the council has taken that we've elected to uh Telegraph it via resolution first we've had agendas on the um items on the work session we've debated we've directed uh the the um 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 um 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 um back to announce any other further announcements council member Baker all right U council member Cav thank you Mary Williams um first of all it's been four years I don't even
think uh manager Paige was manager the last time uh 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 um so um very quickly I may need an excused absence uh for our next work session which is um Thursday April 18th um 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 uh 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 um just bring up I didn't get to mention on Monday I wasn't um 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 um and I wasn't um sure what the procedures are since there all these procedures now um so I just want to make sure that we do uh acknowledge child Child Abuse Prevention month for April and um 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 uh City attorney
folks who've gathered here so I had actually as I mentioned I plan to bring a resolution to the council today um 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 um but at our last council meeting uh 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 um 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 um 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 um I'd like to encourage um the folks in the city the communication staff as well as um other folks um 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 uh 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 um 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 um 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 um 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 uh 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 uh feels good um gotta get used to the new uh toys I want to thank our staff and and
Technology folk and audio visual folk who worked so hard to prepare this room uh for us and for our residents uh watching outside Mr May and colleagues last night I had an opportunity to be iory North Carolina uh 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 uh the league has decided to Fan out uh to different parts around our state to get closer uh to our resident and and get our legislators closer um to their constituents and had an opportunity Mr Mayor to to hang out with mayor Hank guess who sends his regards uh to you uh and to Durham they've got a lot of great building going on downtown Hickory and the mayor told me that uh durm is one of their conversation Partners they were looking at durm 15 years ago uh to help design uh 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 um 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 uh 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 um I do want to also just send uh love and light out to our friends at North Carolina Central University who had a traumatic uh event this week of shooting on their campus in a campus lockdown um 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 uh um I join my voice with the mayor and and and as we've done over the years uh in making sure that this issue of gun violence uh and doing everything we can as a government uh remains top of mind for us and at the top of our agenda uh 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 um 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 um I want to remind our government that all we can do should be top of mind and on the table uh for combating gun violence and again uh our thanks that that it wasn't as bad as it was although it was horrific for North Carina Central University uh and we pray their safety thank you Mr Mayor thank you um thank you colleagues for your uh announcements I um gosh I just for what I was about to say um yeah opening night was great at the dur BS um wasn't an outcome we wanted but I'm sure they're gonna bounce back um and there was something I was going to oh just uh another reminder um April 9th
Tuesday is the state of the city address uh this is going going to be a phenomenal event um we have put a lot of energy into it um we will start at 6m in the convention center that is owned by the city uh and we will um 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 um we are going to have things focused from young children all the way to our senior C citizens um 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 uh and um we will have the address there and uh this will be a night where we're going to celebrate Durham and um guys are hear from my perspective on uh how we hope to move forward um that is uh 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 uh also um there's a uh regarding yeah that's what it was the fullframe festival uh there is I don't know if I'm allowed to share specific details yet but one of the uh one of the showings is of Farmland in Halifax County where I grew up and uh there would be a a a documentary shown on um the effort to retain and revive the management of farmland and I will be actually speaking at the opening of this uh of this showing and I'll talk about my childhood and uh I'm really excited because my first biology teacher and her husband are the uh one of two of The Producers or who the story is really about and um
I remember being in nth grade with Miss Williams and she and our husband will be there to show this and um so she was my first tennis coach as well when we started the tennis team so uh at Southeast Halifax so I'm looking forward to the opening of this piece and uh talking about where I grew up and then watching this this this this documentary um so yeah and it was a okay gotcha Kopac uh 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 uh then I forgot the rest so all right state of the city April 9th Tuesday uh it's going to be one heck of an evening and um 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 um 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 [Music] nation um but number one in North Carolina uh Madam manager you and your staff go ahead on with your bad sales that's pretty cool uh so we we we're g to talk about all that and more to come um 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 um but I would like one brief moment of personal privilege as we uh enjoy this new space that we are uh back in I I sometimes I heard council members uh speaking about the technology uh department and Communications but but I'd just like to
for a brief moment shout out Viv uh 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 uh ladders that have to take place to to Really connect uh this room down to our TV station on the first floor and um these leaders project uh leaders and contractors work quietly and efficiently to get us in this room uh so thank you to the council members who approved the uh recommendation for the upgrade in last year's budget and thank you to the team uh that put it all together so thank you very much that's all I have awesome yeah this is really cool uh 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 uh the city clerk's office has no items today awesome all right I'll now uh read the um consent agenda I I really like this setup I really do thanks um Madame Chief of Staff um 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 um 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 uh 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 uh and guys I'm reading so if you want to pull something just just speak up so um 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 uh 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 uh 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 uh 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 uh one presentation I believe uh that's we uh the Durham CH Hill caror Metropolitan planning organization andp on fiscal year 2022 2023 annual report all right and uh coming up at the next meeting we have the public hearings Consolidated annexation wake Olive apartments and zoning map change trellis Durham RTP uh fiscal year uh 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 um 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
um you give me one so they not resource okay but these two right here citizen matters okay all right we have uh citizen matters uh here uh 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 uh 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 um 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 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 uh 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 um 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 uh thanks for hearing me my name's Jeremy Burren uh y'all heard me before and I appreciate y'all listening to me um 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 uh witnessing a shooting in 2016 of Larry Donell Owens and that uh the guy that shot him Eric Baker was out on bone well he got since I spoke to y'all uh 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 um so I don't know if y'all prayed on it or just heard me um 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 um 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 um go take my son to some appointments otherwise I would have stay last week and um this week right now Veterans for peace is reciting Beyond Vietnam by Dr King that was uh spoken on this day in 1967 so I'm kind of want to come in that Spirit though um 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 um 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 um gun violence is bad in this city I had an appointment after uh 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 uh 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 um I really actually wanted to pull this because [Music] um 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 um and then I have a couple of specific questions about some
of the grant funding yeah absolutely so paper streets are basically uh streaks that have been dedicated to the city but they are not maintained by the city and excuse my voice I have allergy so um so we have over 600 paper streets throughout the city if you include the county we have over 800 um paper streets so there are various conditions of the paper streets um some are wooded areas um some are uh used for dumping grounds and what we're trying to do here with the city is to reimagine how we can repurpose and reimagine uh those paper streets so this grant will sort of be uh 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 um so I'm I'm really proud of Y all for for going after and and um and getting this grant
um is there is there my two questions are is there a time limit on the funds um and and also like when will we expect to see the fellow coming in um if it's if it's approved on next Monday Monday after um 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 uh 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 um on it and the fellow position uh 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 um and the sort of main purpose of
that position is to have somebody from the communities of interest uh be in that position um so along with that fellow we also do get an America War Vista member for the two years um who will work pretty closely with us and then implementation funds as well um and as far as sort of supplemental funding or further funding um lots of cities who have gone through this program in the past uh have been able to kind of Leverage the work that they do from this sort of seed funding uh into other funding opportunities and uh this is being run by Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at John's Hopkins uh and they will kind of uh 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 um we have kind of some focuses but there's there are quite a few that as Andrew mentioned uh end up becoming kind of dumping grounds or spaces for legal dumping which is kind of how uh code enforcement sort of brought this issue to us in the first place um 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 uh spaces these paper streets as possible open space of parks yes great question mayor um one of the things that the team um is doing is um our goal is to profile all of the paper streaks to determine um any future uses um it's important to note that there are challenges when it comes to paper streets such as the uh 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 uh miss Burris Mr Baker um 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 um spaces vacant and um vacant and neglected spaces for the most part um it's important to note that some do have like uh sewer lines running through them also streams um and some are already being used as open space or or or connector so there are some um
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 um uh 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 um very fine grain planning um and the engagement with the neighborhood I think is going to be excellent in figuring out what to do with these spaces um because um 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 uh 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 uh wade willott back uh 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 um I read in here that we were not awarded any funds from Hud's special nfo um 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 uh 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 um so I saw in the in the description that we were not awarded funds in 2022 um but that there I looked it up and there was another round of no foe um 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 uh 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 uh 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 um also for um 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 um yeah just want to shout out before you do that just real quick I want to thank you all for your v um 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 uh 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 uh continuing the Care Network um 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 uh so thank you for your your work all of you all Piers Ty all right uh yep you want to go ahead
now yes I do want to um uh introduce uh 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 uh Miss Coleman comes to us from the uh HUD Knoxville Tennessee field office where she was a community and planning uh representative she's also previously worked for the uh city of uh Memphis and the City of Charlotte North Carolina and so we're really glad to have her and her expertise uh on our team so uh the selfie that we took on the street the other day I sent that to your your old mayor uh 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 um oh gracious okay um I was actually hoping that you could uh just share with me a little bit more about the funding um 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 um from principles at the two of the four schools um that were affected by this uh it just sounds awesome I these kids are excited to learn um I just thought that it sounded great uh so I I was excited to pull it um 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 uh yes thank you council member so the uh House program originated under covid uh cdbg Community de development block grant covid funding so there was a special allocation uh to the city of Durham and other uh localities around the country of Community Development uh block grant funding cdbg uh that was designed for covid type activities um we were able a lot of the rules were suspended for this funding um not I think we got just over uh maybe just over a million dollars or something of that uh magnitude one of the things that we did here in Durham was to uh engage in some Community engagement to see how did residents want to use the uh funding uh that we were able to uh get from the federal government of course the number one uh uh reason uh 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 uh uh remote learning for kids because the funding had to go to things that uh 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 uh 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 uh to to covid being not being in school where you know the you know I don't have to go through all of that uh here so one of the things we reached out to uh Durham public
schools and uh 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 uh areas and they were able to document the learning loss uh due to covid and one of the things that uh the public school uh 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 uh 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 uh overcome the learning loss and one of the things that's been very important one of our uh
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 uh some of the co qu quotes came from uh and the students DPS has been very receptive uh the question you asked would it be something that we would look to continue uh we are now that I have a new assistant director uh one of the things we're going to be looking at with our cdbg allocations is to do more uh Services as well as things that of course it has to be cdb eligible uh it was under covid uh and then uh we're going to proceed so that is something that we are uh considering evaluating but this program has been uh very welled by students by uh during public schools and they were excited about it from the day that we uh broke them with the partnership thank you all right number seven council member
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 um 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 um 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 uh due to um you know cost escalation and those sorts of uh things one of the things that this is going to be a challenging project because this is a renovation of an old building and uh and it's going to change the the purpose uh from it uh for its use and and it's a historic building in many respects also so that's also driving uh the cost and uh yes it is relatively uh
unexpensive though it's three uh 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 um uh major role with the African-American community and this is way we can put it to uh good use the other part is that we had put initial funding in at the city uh did but we had did limit what we were going to put in but then we did were able to get some Co funding uh to be able to add to it to round out the funding now we do have some members from uh uh reinvestment Partners here uh and they can talk in detail about the uh about the project okay sure hey College mate hey hey thank you so much so my name is Amber Bond I serve as the uh chair of the board of directors for reinvestment
partners um 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 um 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 um and the work that they've done in terms of Residential Properties and also commercial uh but if there any specific questions that you have I mean the highlights here that um as Mr cook mentioned this is Preservation of a historic building uh a Redevelopment project in a neighborhood that is already being served by Reen bus Parkers they have another property that they've worked on uh IT addresses the critical need for affordable housing it has a completely diverse Capital stack um 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 um 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 uh restructure the space on the first floor to do two units that would be um 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 um 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 um 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 um 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 uh affordable housing was not one of the eligible activities uh 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 um 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 um and the partner reinvestment Partners is a top-notch partner and durm that we're lucky to have so this is this is great stuff thank you bigger um I just want to ask about the 30 years of affordability and how we might uh ensure permanent affordability
on the site uh that's uh part of a conversation that we've had uh uh the the last couple of council member Council meetings and I'll let uh y'all speak to to your um perspective on the extending affordability period so I think it's it's something that can certainly be um up for discussion um I believe that's a um a period that was negotiated and discussed through the Peter and the team uh 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 um you and I I know that we have to make the numbers work but whatever we can do to make sure that uh we
are creating long-term permanent affordable housing I think for me at least is a priority yes and then we agree uh with you council member and I would just say that one of the things with this particular one is the mission of the uh the vendor and that plays a major role and getting to Extended uh periods of affordability um 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 um 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 um after 30 years properties need a lot of Investments and so um 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 um in terms of affordable units and Dr we about 138 I think either development or in operation um so that's where we stand so as a model you you don't currently have a permanent affordable um 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 um and if there were some type of major Capital Investments that were needed after 30 years um 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 um 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 uh present with some additional information uh on the L of the increasing the affordability
there are some advantages in some and some challenges uh to that because they do need to do refinancing uh 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 uh being put into the deal for the second 30 years uh 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 uh conversations to have but we'd be willing to most definitely sharing those thoughts after uh we have more additional conversations with developers and lawyers that that that would be sorry was someone else someone okay um that that would be great um you know the mission of the nonprofit I think speaks for itself and speaks to its commitment to maintaining affordable units within
um the Financial limitations um and and with the need of um reinvesting into the property we're of course in a Dillan rule state um in either way um the state legislature prohibited rent control so that limits our ability to to you know enact those kinds of regulations um and so when projects are receiving substantial amounts of public dollars um again I just think that it's really important that we um 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 um and I don't know how we can bake in language that um would uh you know allow for that reinvestment in in 30 years if that's necessary while also ensuring that um you know I I I don't know what what happens in 30 years if if there's a sale or uh you know leadership changes at the nonprofit or what um but just making sure that these properties can remain
affordable um 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 um 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 um the work that you've done in this community uh and continue to do on the community I I [Music] um it's often the reason why we oftentimes get the 30 years is precisely because of the public uh investment it would look a lot different if we didn't bring money uh to the table at all I um 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 um 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 uh the the agreement um 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 uh there's some other work that needs to be going on as well uh ownership and and educational opportunities and Vocational opportunities to increase the wealth particularly of of our people black and brown people um that have so you know historically been been disinvested and haven't had the opportunity um 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 um 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 um 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 uh these paper streets uh 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 uh 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 uh with Willard Street that's the most powerful way a government can can ensure permanent affordable housing full stop um 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 uh 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 um you know we certainly can bring presentations around workable um 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 um but when we bring items currently to you those uh you know those agreement ments and terms have pretty much been set for the particular project but we do hear
you uh you know and in your interest in hearing it you know for future um you know future projects or future policy uh 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 uh 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 uh 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 uh organization and so I thought it would be a benefit for new council members to really understand what that means uh and why for us fiscally it has been an especially important decision uh 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 uh at like a $200,000 limit uh where the claims above that are picked up by insurance but everything else underneath that is paid for by the city through a fund uh 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 uh that the city ultimately pays for uh the employees contribute through payroll deductions as well uh 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 um negotiated rates with the providers and that's the the the big um value that is bringing uh was particularly with the relationship with con and with Duke and wakem uh 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 uh you know we're discussing thank you and then just really quick um 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 uh we we are very pleased that we are able to continue to have a uh an employee who chooses single coverage here um 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 uh for for great health insurance and we're able to uh able to do that um 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% uh 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 uh due to a lot of investments in wellness and other activities to keep those costs down so PL plans running very well uh relative to peers thank you I just really uh say this is a really excellent benefit I will say uh 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 um unfortunately have to buy their insurance on which is an improvement it was hard fought uh Obamacare basically I have certainly as a family of five uh ended up with 15 to 20 to $25,000 worth
of medical bills in one year um so that is something that many uh uh folks struggle with many families struggle with medical debt is one of the largest debts in the country uh it is uh 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 uh 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 um it's important to keep working as a council and as a community towards universal healthcare and so that we have Medicare for everyone um it's it's really hard like I'm hard pressed because I felt like the Obamacare became a health care plan um 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 uh 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 um my colleague council member risk um 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 um uh 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 uh so I remember the two to three year gap before I could afford it uh when I'd already graduated from college so I I think we have definitely improved but uh yeah uh 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 uh on City D par Recreation Department business manager thank you and just uh i' like to let you know I do have Lauren thinkink uh 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 uh so much and and really excited about this item is is Jim dorak still uh with your company United States Jim Darrah is um semi-retired He Is We have Karen poo she's our CEO and president of our company cool I had a conversation with uh 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 uh at least uh 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 uh to more concretized realization of of
opening up uh Wheels again for skating and and we're going to have um 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 uh Initiative for the city correct no no that their proposal has a small payment to the city in regards to that um 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 um a more affordable uh rate for for term um the the Parks and Recreation Department asked for like on Friday night we had asked for them to come down and make their fees uh $10 uh for any member of a family on on Fridays uh 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 uh the the I guess we're calling it um an
50 uh for the entrance fee on the their normal fees are $13 uh throughout the week and then um 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 uh 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 um 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 uh you video games
uh new systems new you know all new equipment is going into the thing so in order for them to have to again keep it um 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 uh um 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 uh 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 um 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 um we agreed on that $10 fee originally their uh 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 um 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 durm particularly those who were born who doesn't have a a wheel story or at least Wheels adjacent a family member or a friend um and do a good job do a good job and congratulations um this gets approved I think it will and um looking forward to a lot of good times uh there so thank you Mr Mar y all right just to that point um 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 um so thank you and I just wanted to highlight this is um a great um opportunity for a woman-owned business uh 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 uh 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 um 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 uh 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 uh but we have done this before with the um 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 um city of dur Police Department um currently it's a 2year grant um 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 uh so this is the um Am track station so uh 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 uh they uh it's particularly well used on holiday uh travel periods um so uh we have 40 spaces that are available in that lot right now that lot is um adjacent to the southern Terminus of the Durham rail trail project so um there's some really exciting public space uh Parkland opportunities as part of the construction of that trail uh and so the discussion that we've had with our partners in general services and uh Parks and Recreation is that that really
uh provides an extraordinary opportunity for public space programming that would be a higher and better use than U vehicle storage uh for for parking so uh we're uh looking forward to those plans developing for how that uh public space will come together but we think that's an excellent use of that um and it could become a really uh 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 um go triangle and some of our other partners uh looking at other uh potential locations there's there's not a clear city-owned uh facility that um has 40 spaces that could easily be um used for this so that's why we're conducting Outreach with our partners um and we'll spend um the next year working through potential
Alternatives so that there is uh there is some overflow parking available uh 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 uh 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 uh so Amtrak relies upon the state of North Carolina and and other locations other states to subsidize those costs um and that's how they've been able to uh start off it's been about 10 years now that we've had the pedmont service uh and they just added another round trip going from eight round trips to 10 round trips last year uh in terms of the users um it's a little um beyond my expertise I have used uh 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 um so uh we've come a long way we have a a beautiful train Hall in
um a historic Warehouse structure U so it's it's a great way to welcome um visitors to Durham thank you I have no further questions yeah and the the numbers are actually um 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 um just talking with some board members from North Carolina railroad you know we have a serious opportunity uh a real opportunity to put some real marketing behind our rail as an option uh 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 um we will have a much more robust uh Transit option uh 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 uh 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 um apologize for jumping up prematurely to uh support Sean and discussing the train station uh it's been great I really enjoy hearing about all the awesome things we have going on in Durham um paper streets uh 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 uh 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 uh that that may be in the county but um still in the area so thank you very much I'm glad to be here today um 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 uh remind you how much we appreciate your support um for those of you that are new to council uh just so you uh are
familiar with what we are we are a metropolitan planning organization we are um 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 um we collaborate with all of our members which represent those communities uh and also include the triangle Transit Authority doing businesses go triangle and the State Board of Transportation um and representatives from all of our members sit on a policy board that direct us um 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 um 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 um 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 um the work we accomplish includes a long range conceptual vision of how Transportation Works across the region um then the next step in that visualization process is tying fiscally uh constrained or fiscally our
anticipated revenues to those potential improvements um and that uh we are updating our uh process to work on the 2055 Metropolitan Transportation plan to give you an idea of how far out we're looking with uh anticipated revenues and projects um 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 um some other ways that we look at problems and and attempt to solve them include Corridor studies um 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 um and then uh we also have regular touch points with lots of different stakeholder groups including the Durham EAC uh for bicycle and pedestrian um oriented Travelers in our community uh we have a lot of technical tools we use including a regional travel demand model which uh receives a lot of resources that is a tool that we must have according to our status with the federal government uh but we use that to compare the impacts of potential projects on um criteria that are important to us like uh reducing carbon outputs into the the atmosphere other air pollutants and um reducing recurring congestion uh members of our staff also work with local public transportation planning we uh 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 um we have some other functions with uh different Federal Transit Administration funding resources like enhanced uh disability and and Senior Mobility grants um and we work continuously with a wide range of Partners we're in the process of updating our Human Services coordinated Transportation plan um 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 um we try to incorporate new and Innovative tools into our toolbox and offer those resources to Our member
communities one example is um we've recently converted our remix software which is used for development impact and public transportation planning to rather than being a sole uh lie of that software we have a complete license that we furnish access to all of our member communities for um we have some other uh subscriptions that allow us to access uh 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 um some of the special projects we're working on right now uh We've uh with the city's support applied for and received a $500,000 Grant from the federal um Highway Administration to look at Safe Streets for all across the community be identifying a high Injury Network um of both existing crashes and risky locations and coming up with a strategy
to attempt to address those quickly and efficiently um we're also updating our uh public involvement policy um and as an aspirational um model we really hope to achieve the results uh the and the promise that the city of derms Equitable Community engagement blueprint provides see some of the other things were uh I've mentioned the plan the program and our budget um over the next year we will not be adding any additional staff uh we like all everyone are in a challenged environment for acquiring and uh onboarding new staff people um so that's why we frequently will bring in outside resources and Consultants to help Phil a void um uh in our capacity or in our our technical expertise um 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 um we are working through a scope negotiation right now to update the city and the County's bicycle and pedestrian plan jointly um 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 um I'll touch on a little bit more the moment we are trying to clear a backlog of uh 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 um now I'd like to to Really point out to this group because several of your members were very involved
um in 2022 the mo uh received a governance study that had been conducted through interviewing members and stakeholders um 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 um how the mo was structured within the city of Durham and what were some opportunities to improve it um mayor Williams and councilwoman cabalero were both uh instrumental in that study and we part of the no board that approved relocating um the no from the city of Durham to the central Pines Regional Council uh at the beginning of this current year um or I should say current fiscal year I'd also like to point out councilwoman Cook's uh 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 um 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 uh with the support of Our member communities uh 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 um 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 um that I think you know was was more challenging to achieve um when
uh 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 um more just to help um my new colleagues um and those who aren't on the no um 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 um I know that I think that conversation did come up at the mo meeting uh last week um 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 uh with
an a local government like the Regional Council because it is a local government um it's established under state law to do certain things in a specific geography um that operates with a lot of federal grants um every year we go through a process where we develop uh two calculated rates uh the first is a calculated benefit rate second is a calculated indirect cost rate uh we submit both of those rates for pre-approval to um the First Federal agency that's in line to sign off on those rates which historically has been the Department of Commerce um once a federal agency accepts the provisional rates we have to apply them to everything um and coupled with the move from the city of Durham uh 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 uh not to mention we have some pretty unprecedented inflation um 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 um 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 uh 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 uh 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 uh 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 um because it does impact our current our current budget process that we're in now between what was projected and what um 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 um I I think that will be a conversation to come but I did want to to flag it um and then uh I have a couple other questions yeah thank you um and I think I think membership cheses as I know is that that's been a little bit you know hard um and then um 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 um 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 um 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 um what you think you know can we anticipate around that uh absolutely we uh I think definitely would like to incorporate a discussion of how to um fairly balanced contribution from municipalities and counties um 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 um we need to have that conversation we need to come up with a way to split it equ equitably um 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 um I actually have the procurement complete for that and we'll be moving forward with an agreement to kick that off um and hav't completed by the end of this calendar year um 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 um you know a discussion and I think that's really critical uh the city of Durham has definitely borne the line share of this organization over its its history and uh we appreciate that Legacy and also acknowledge that the region is growing and that um 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 um 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 um and thanks again Doug for being here so um 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 durm 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 uh when Council me former C council members re and uh 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 um 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 um but just again
I'm hoping that in the ne you know these are conversations that really do um 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 um 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 um that's spread amongst 21 active projects I believe three or four are moving forward and or are under construction now um and with our most recent call for projects um I believe it was recommended that and I don't recall how many new projects the city was slated to receive but to um support existing and new projects within the city with $17 million or so investment now we're currently trying to um squeeze some more money out of the state project prioritization process for
existing projects um 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 um to the city of Durham for your investment and leadership in our organization thank you I don't have any more questions um 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 uh 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 um and giving an update thank you it's uh it's been a pleasure um doing this work as a child of the city and um sharing our successes and our learning from our um opportunities for improvement together thank you I I just wanted to um thank council member k cabier for pointing out a few of those things um
just acknowledging also I know that the Central Carolina Pines uh 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 um please let me know I know that um 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 uh 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 um uh I think it's it's really been a hard push to try and get uh 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 uh 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 um reimagine and renovate and expand into into U more of the space that we were already in and so it really is helpful to um 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 um 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 um problematic uh development of a of a funding policy you know and is it really fair um 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 um so we want to get those projects working in ways that help our members with their budget needs and their constituents needs um 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 uh we want to speed up those Investments and um 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 um 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 um um 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 um 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 uh I don't know if I said it I miss you guys um 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 um move these things forward uh I I don't think I I think you pretty much answered my question um 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 uh I guess influence on the dues um 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 um 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 um 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 um I was just gonna ask very very briefly about the uh 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 um 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 um 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 um but uh 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 um 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 um Highway capacity particularly around the busiest stretch of road in the state along I40 is preserved um so uh we are hoping to work with them on a more holistic Corridor study uh revisioning what 15501 should look like as opposed to just being a wide multi-lane freeway with limited access um which is sort of the direction that they've headed in to date um we have a draft scope of work put together for that we'll be getting it together for procurement um 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 um ideally uh we will start the procurement process uh this next quarter and it will go under agreement um sometime at the beginning of the fiscal year thanks so so the um 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 um came from that that that anybody was very satisfied with okay that's it for me thanks thank you so much and uh just for the public uh while I know the media is always almost over but uh 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 uh on the screens okay thank you uh so much Doug um as we casually refer to you by your first name because everyone screws up your last one all right uh 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 um need to settle the agenda thank you Mr Mayor um 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 uh 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