City Council · Regular Meeting · February 8, 2024

good afternoon welcome to City Hall it's great to see everyone here and we will call this meeting to order at 1:00 and I am on the wrong Agenda One Moment all right Madam clerk if you will please call call the role thank you Mr Mayor Leonardo Williams I'm here mayor Pro Middleton has requested an excused absence for today Nate Baker here council member cabayo has also requested an excused absence council member cook here council member Freeman president Carl Rist here thank you uh I believe we have to uh uh excuse council member uh ciero uh so we can go ahead and do that now before we get into the rest of the agenda I'll entertain a motion so moved second it's been moved and properly seconded all in favor please show by your uh

hand thank you Javiera Caballero you are excused if you can hear me who better yeah I feel better all right um any announcements by Council just thank you I just wanted to let you know I have to cut out at 4: um I got to catch up for late hopefully we won't be here by 4: but heard I just want to let you know restaurant lingo I hear you sorry all right yes ma'am council member um I need to request an absence for the next work session which is February 22nd I'll be at my school of government training all right I'll entertain a motion move been moved second been moved and properly seconded all in favor of uh council member cook being excused please show by

your sign hand all right thank you so much you are you will be excused any other yes council member B thank you Mr Mayor um just a couple announcements one is that um I was glad to um attend your request and with with Nate Baker and actually councilwoman Freeman yesterday the kickoff celebration for the 100th anniversary celebration for derms parks and wreck our um our department started 100 years ago with a budget of $5,400 and now is a $20 million plus program that provides education Outreach uh Recreation healthiness and opportunities for parks and trails and community centers so it's an amazing department and I look forward to celebrating the 100 years during this year and I hope you all will be part of those celebrations the second thing if I will if I may um I did receive a request from Emily Sutton who's the har River Keeper with h River assembly who's been doing some River Cleanup in Durham but also collecting data on the health of our rivers in Durham and has requested making a presentation to the council at an upcoming meeting just to present what

they've learning from their data about the health of our Rivers so I would like to request we put that on an upcoming agenda council members okay thank you Mr Mayor well I let I just communicate with the clerk to I get that scheduled any other announcements all right uh and I am just rolling in from the North Carolina Mayors Association and uh it was it was just a great place to be with uh mayors of you know towns and cities of all sizes and uh just to really get a a really cool perspective of the landscape of North Carolina and where we're headed um you know some of the Hot Topics were you know Transit you know of course housing uh and making sure you're registered to vote and after you registered to vote please go

vote please right um You have you want to add to that I do I think it's a I think before our next meeting early voting will start so it probably would be a good idea to state that early voting starts next Thursday and uh your polling locations throughout the county will be open I I did want to also share to um council member RIS point I am headed to Philadelphia for the power Rising 2024 conference or Summit um representing dur and I'm excited to be in a space where we're talking about economic empowerment and health and wellness I want to make sure I get everything political empowerment uh Community Education Technology Innovation and the key pillars of activism and engagement for women of color and so I'm excited to represent pder thank you I sounds like a cool conference I look forward to your book report um when you when you come back

all right uh at this time we'll move on with the uh with the agenda I do know I want to just kind of get ahead um well I'll give some other remarks before we get to other agenda items um at this time I will acknowledge our city manager for any priority items good afternoon Mr Mayor members of the Durham city council I have two priority items for you this afternoon agenda item number 44 which is a citizen matter uh Mr Chris Han the response from Parks and Recreation Department has been added as attachments 2 through four and agenda item number 45 a citizen matter Sarah Ma Sarah Maxwell the citizen asked to be removed from the February 8th work session agenda right thank you um

not Madam uh City attorney rayberg but Mr Deputy city manager uh senior senior C attorney that's corre that's correct uh um Fred Lamar senior um Deputy city manager I'm sorry City attorney boy that was City attorney um in um um sitting in for the city city Attorney Kim rayberg um and good afternoon Mr Mr Mayor and members of the council the city attorney's office does have one priority item that is to request that the city council hold a closed session at the at the conclusion of the um business uh the end of today I can read you that motion that we have now or I can read it before uh we go into the Clos session if you accept the closed session yeah we uh we can read it before so we won't lose place of it and um well at the time that we take that motion up very good I will do that thank you sounds good all right and Madame Clark

I'll acknowledge you thank you good afternoon Mr Mayor and City Council Members the city clerk's office has no um priority items today thank you all I always get a little nervous when City attorneys has uh priority items but thank you all for your service all right um at this time I will read the consent agenda number one one approval of city council minutes number two Durham open space and trails commission appointment number three human relations commission appointment number four mayor's Council for women appointment mayor um number five mayor's Hispanic Latino committee appointment number six uh number six participatory budgeting steering committee appointment number seven racial Equity commission appointment the finance uh number eight this is the finance department December 2023 bid report under the departmental items audit services department number

nine audit Services oversight committee 2023 annual report number 10 billing and collections performance audit January 2024 number 11 Durham Convention and visitors bureau DBA discover Durham 2023 annual report number 12 2023 Board of adjustment annual report 13 2023 appearance commission annual report 14 2023 Durham open space and trails commission annual report number 15 2023 Durham Planning Commission annual report number 16 2023 Durham historic preservation commission annual report Mr Mayor before you continue I do want to say that there um the annual reports um and attachments they are available to the general public and I do want to make sure that you do take a look at that because the priorities of our boards and committees is important and we could definitely use a lot more volunteers and so as I look out into the crowd and see so many of you I want you to make sure that you're

engaged with us and more than one way so um want to invite you to apply for those positions thank you thank you for that comment it is very valid uh what you see in these these commissions and uh committees and task forces is what it real work that touches us on a daily basis the most uh so you really want to see your city a certain way get involved in some of these uh commissions just apply online thank you for that um council member and you made me lose my place number 17 17 all right 17 uh resolution for conveyance of surplus properties to durm Community Land trustees incorporated number 18 2023 citizens just want to make sure you lose your place again and just say I am excited to see number 17 I am not going to pull it but I am very excited to see that it's moving forward and that we can address this is issue thank you I'm going get I'm going get you a bail over there all right number 18 uh 2023 CI

citizens advisory committee annual report number 19 third amendment to license agreement with American Towers LLC for the emergency communications department at Parkwood Tower number 20 Durham Cultural Arts no Durham cultural Advisory Board 2023 annual report 21 Durham environmental affairs board 2023 annual report the 22 Durham Convention Center Authority board 2023 annual report neighborhood Improvement services department number 23 housing appeals board annual report for fiscal year 2023 24 amendment to non-discrimination ordinance o ewd 25 First Amendment to contract with infinity Bridges Incorporated to deliver dur momentum 360 financial academy parks correct 26 2023 Recreation advisory commission annual report 27 resolution accepting the City

of Raleigh storm water restoration funding agreement for South for the South lb storm water project 28 First Amendment to service contract with kimley horn kimley horn and Associates LLC 29 contract with ESO Solutions Incorporated for a records management system 30 Street Smart LC software as a service contract Amendment 31 2023 bycle and pedestrian advisory commission annual report 32 inter local agreement with the city of Durham Central Pines Regional Council in Durham County reg regarding cost sharing for the city of Durham Durham County Bicycle and pedestrian plan number 33 amendment number four to Professional Services contract would deal rmp Incorporated for Woodcraft Parkway extension 34 supplemental agreement number four for multimotor Grants support with wsp USA

Incorporated number 35 T River Land Conservancy noris form noris Farm Watershed protection project authorization to fund 36 Eno River Association yeah raria Gardens Watershed protection project author to fund 37 propose build credit for water customers completing water service line material surveys 38 propose boundary revision for the Southeast Regional lift station service area and we have presentation the Water Management Department city council LED in Copper rule revision presentation we'll have 20 minutes for that and we have a public hearing that will be uh on our next meeting with this planning department Consolidated annexation

sagebrook item 41 Consolidated annexation 5802 South Miami Boulevard multif family 42 zoning map change 1339 Co Mill Road 43 text Amendment remainder lot with and uh we have a citizen matters uh will take on that which the manager addressed earlier and the supplemental item the resolution supporting to end the end to the balance between Israel and Palestine one moment please expecting a lot of prot um I would request that number 46 be pulled from the consent

agenda all right and those are all of the items on the agenda I will uh have this conferred with the manager no I think it's more related to the palis all right and also uh we will I'll entertain a motion to approve the priority items by uh presented by the manager so moved second it's been moved and properly seconded that we approved the item the uh priority item stated by our city manager all in favor please show by your hand all right all opposed all right thank you one moment

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all right we talked about our Thanksgiving meal up here and uh where we going on vacation all of those things no uh seriously speaking uh thank you all for your patience colleagues thank you for your patience um what we are what we were actually discussing was uh we we have a citizen matter uh Mr Chris Han you can go ahead and come up to the podium if you are here all right um so we'll take your uh citizen matter first um we do have a water management presentation that we have 20 minutes allocated for but in proper protocol we do have to address we have to take the presentations last uh so um but what we were discussing just how do we ensure that we uh hear as many people as possible um on this uh on the matter for citizen uh I'm sorry

ceasefire uh item number 46 and we have a significant amount of people signed up uh it is at the mayor's discretion how we do that I could either a lot a block of time or I could um just provide however much time for each person and uh what we were discussing is what is the most Equitable Fair way that we can hear everyone uh that that chooses to speak so uh in regards of that matter um we will allow a minute and a half one and a half minutes to where we can get through all of the cards here as well as those that are online um but you may address your citizen matter first you have three minutes you can state your name for the record I'm so sorry one moment I do need a motion I need to entertain a motion to approve the no Madam clerk I got your message we're going to we choose chose to do it

on later this is the one for close session yeah so we're going to do it at the end motion yeah okay thank you but Mr Mayor I just have a question are we are we moving the presentation up no um it's going to have to come after the uh pull item okay yep so we we I don't want staff to be here all day but also you know that's we're kind of meeting in the middle on uh as best as possible Right it be first the presentation is last it will be last yep okay sorry about that s yeah you can state your name and uh address for the record you have three minutes sure thank you uh my name is Dr Chris Han I'm a resident of Durham in the Northgate Park neighborhood um and I'm I'm here before you with a wearing a few hats um one um I'm a parent of a toddler I'm also the co-director of research and education at

the North Carolina environmental justice Network and I've also been organizing around the issue of of Leen Parks um that has been occurring and um we've learned about this issue from research that happened at Duke University last last summer that was published and since that time um a large group of concerned citizens has been organizing to learn more and address the issue appropriately um so for folks that don't know uh about uh five parks in the in Durham have found um lead in The Soil um because they were former incineration sites and in the 1920s and 40s when that was shut down then those areas were converted into parks that we know and love um but no remediation occurred for that transition and in fact some of the um fill the ash from those incineration sites was used to uh level um areas in the park so not only the areas where the incinerators were but also surrounding

areas have also been used um I have found that that elevated um lead in the soil and so I I did want to come today to I know that that to bring that urgency to your attention because this was an issue that was um that we were able to speak about in June of last year and put on the Forefront of what you're doing this year I want to bring that urgency for a few reasons um even though this is a decades long issue that happened well before most of our time we do have the collective memory and observations that this is occurring now and we can provide feedback um in how this process can take place best it in my role at uh the environmental justice Network I do a lot of community engagement and Community engaged research and I find that that approach in able to not just inform residents of the environmental harms that are occurring in their areas but also getting feedback to incorporate where problems and how problems are occurring is really critical I'll give you one

example um just a couple weeks ago the um the EPA did list that the screening for soil levels um uh should go from 400 parts per million to 200 parts per million they cut an old rule they cut the um the screening down in half uh recognizing the harm that lead can have in soil you have appropriately also followed that guidance to cut that um in half and follow that guidance um they also said that in some cases you should use a 100 parts per million cut it further in half but they said that you should do that when there's known other lead exposures the Department of Environmental Quality doesn't have that information but the residents do they know where their lead paint is they know where there are problems that there may be lead exposures so I urge you to actually use uh community residents for getting that kind of information to make a better plan not just to understand like their feelings or what's going on but to actually incorporate that

feedback into remediation and Outreach plans thank you thank you for your comments thank you for your comments and that work I will now now move to the pulled items um this is this is not a public hearing so there is no proponent or opponent uh indicated but I will call the names in the order that I um have received them if you sign up online but you are here in person then therefore you will need to fill out a physical card if if you sign up online and you are here in person you will need to fill out a physical card also in addition

um as I explained the format and how we address will address this uh there are some people who signed up uh as a citizen matter citizens matter and that citizens matter is titled the same as the item 46 so therefore all of these will be addressed as item 46 um and I'll I'll call those in order as we a lot time forward of one and a half minutes one moment okay um Mr Mayor before one moment please Nadine Burr are you in the audience okay there you go um mayor could Rabbi saber um Rabbi Sofer okay gotcha council member could I be heard

briefly say one more time could I be heard briefly yes um think you should a resource person was going to lead us off or at least give some background information first um you pull the item so you will uh lead us off great thank you um there's a lot going on in our community and I just want to recognize um a few folks specifically with regard to this resolution that we're going to discuss today with the understanding that we're going to discuss it again um at a city council meeting the F or our next city council meeting um Monday after next um and I will have more statements at that time but just to start us off today I want to recognize the time and intention so many people have put in into this resolution that is on the agenda uh first off to my colleagues you've each had very deep and often painful conversations with so many of our community members you've thought deeply about this

conflict and I want to thank each of you for the care that you've put into it second to our constituents you have called you have emailed us You' have shown up to speak our meetings are live streamed our agendas are public of course we want you to know what we're doing but most importantly we want to hear from you you've come to this Hall you've shared your anger you've shared your dreams you've shared your grief I'm so grateful that this space has felt safe for you to do that and important enough for you to do that I just want to recognize how much courage and how much vulnerability it takes to come speak on things that are deeply personal to us this work session is only the first step in deciding what we as a city want to say and if we want to say something at all and this resolution is also just a small part of a dream that I think we all share for Liberation and for peace and we have a lot of work to do and I'm feeling really hopeful so I

just want to thank you Durham for for coming out to [Applause] speak council members thank you council member cook uh council members I will acknowledge you to also share commentary as we uh go into this discussion I would I would just say that I want to thank um Chelsea Cook and Nate Baker for taking the lead and making sure that we have good language to work with um or language specifically to work with um I know that the residents in the community that did come together with the mayor um came up with some language and I do want to like there's so much to try and cover with words that you can't

and I really I really do appreciate each and every voice that comes in here and shares their story their pain their passion the just acknowledgement of our humanity and the work to try and make our community better and I know that the heart of our people um speaks volumes I just want us all to be able to move forward together because we here in durm have a lot of work to do I think you see that with just what happened this morning or last night with the school board and our superintendent and you know from the students in our schools who are trying to navigate this space and you know with all of the folks who've experienced any kind of trauma related to gun violence or war or just oppression that we've got a lot of work to do but this is the right tone I feel

like and striking something that said or striking the right tone and saying like we hear you we want to do this together we want to meet you and we want to figure out a way forward to address the issues we can he in durm thank you thank you council member and just a quick reminder Miss Burr and Rabbi Sofer please make sure you if you haven't already fill out a physical card um I I'll be calling on you still but just make sure you fill out one of these with the clerk this uh we just have to have this on record for you so as we get to that point council member R thank you Mr mayor I'll be brief um I just want to Echo some of the comments my colleagues have shared um uh you have asked us to listen to you on this issue and we've been listening deeply um we have been having individual conversations we've received your emails and responded to many of those um we've heard your comments previously in

sessions here and we look forward to hearing more this is what democracy is all about um All of You Who Come here I appreciate you're coming here I know this is something we all have deep deep fears about concerns about um pain about this whole situation it affects all of us in this community so I appreciate all of you coming here to share your deepest um most personal feelings about this issue I also just want to say real quick um for the mayor who's over there Mr Mayor if I may in addition to all these conversations the mayor also pulled together a small group of leaders Faith leaders from the from the Christian tradition from the Jewish tradition from the Muslim tradition also to bring folks together so I would just want to thank the mayor Mr Mayor um for your work to bring together individuals to try to hammer out some kind of consensus on this and that was part of the process so I hope the mayor has heard me on that one but um I want to thank him for that as well council member I apologize I just I

I I saw something happening I didn't want us to get confused over here the clerk's I won't repeat my comments but I just wanted in addition to all the folks who are here sharing their feelings and folks online I just did want to acknowledge the process you led as well to bring f together different Faith Traditions to really to come together and try to figure out what we as a community how we can respond on this so that was also an important part of this process of having a response from your elected leader so thank you for that leadership totally totally my uh my my pleasure and and I simply uh took the initiative it was the residents who who really uh were brave enough to come together and I'll talk about that a little later Nate Baker did you have any commentary sure just very briefly L um I just want to thank um the enormous amount of community engagement that we've seen on this issue um I don't think I've ever seen the amount of engagement on any other issue um that I've participated in in the past you know I've really been involved in in Durham politics and and local government since 201 uh 17 um and um so so just a

huge huge amount of community input and Community engagement on this issue um and um it's it's complex um and we are seven voices up here uh on the dis and we all have um a little bit more of a megaphone in a microphone but if we can all speak together um then we are a little bit greater than the Su of our parts and so I think that that's that's something that I think about as we as we go into this and I'm going to be here to listen today so thank you very much thank you all so much and I am going to one last thing sorry and just one last thing too in addition all these comments I do want to acknowledge my U my new colleague on the council councilwoman cook um you're the newest person on the council I appreciate your stepping up I know this has been a lot of work a lot of time but also a lot of energy and passion and emotion you've poured into this so thank you for your leadership on this um appreciate [Applause] that yes I I don't think anyone would

ever realize how much work went in behind the scenes on all with us um I am going to go ahead and call uh names um you will not see your time on the clerk's clock but you will hear an alert and um we we we have a significant amount of speakers uh so I'm going to be very strict about the one and a half minutes um yes ma'am Mr Mayor I'm sorry to interrupt but council member caber would also like to say a few comments and she's on sorry uh and just for the record you will not see her up here uh Javiera Caballero has uh a circumstance Beyond her control uh so she will be joining us via virtual uh she will not be able to uh take a vote but neither are we really uh today uh so I wanted to make sure we had that capacity there so council member can you hear me good afternoon Mr Mayor yes I canar could you could you speak up uh so we

can hear you really well can you hear me now yeah that's much better thank you welcome thank you Mr Mayor good afternoon everyone good afternoon colleagues thank you for my excused absence um I am homesick um I just wanted to uh acknowledge all the work that my council member colleague uh Chelsea Cook did along with Nate Baker and just all the community um conversations around this I did participate in the small group conversation along with the mayor proem a few weeks ago and I know that this has been a hard conversation for our community but I'm um just uh really grateful for where we are in this moment and uh look forward to supporting uh this resolution and also looking forward to hearing um public comment on it thank you so much thank you council member Madame clerk we are going to start virtually the first person I have is

Adam single right Adam single can you hear me Mr Mayor there's no Adam single in the queue all right an Phils Mr Mayor there's no Anne Fields in the queue either Quay Weston yes there is a Quay Weston Quay can you hear me hello I can can you hear me all a little bit if you can speak up for me uh this better a little bit just make sure you speaking close into the uh into the phone or the microphone you have one and a half minutes and I'll please don't think I'm being rude but I'll interrupt you at the one and a half minute Mark your time starts now thank you cool uh so I want to name first my appreciation that our city is taking this up and also um we've been waiting a while for this so start by saying that there are several additions of language that I

think would make this resolution more strong and precise and that's language around like the international court of justice ruling language on hostages Etc but I also want to name that you're going to hear many things today I mean regardless of what is said by some opponents I think calling for the end of death and destruction doesn't make us as a community less safe it actually should move us towards peace I think there's so much fear in this space fear of Jewish neighbor safety fear of backlash for voting on it fear of of using the perfect words fear of the impact on future political aspirations and that's not to invalidate anyone community's vulnerabil vulnerability but to remind us that our fear is not a stop sign and it should actually move us closer to humanity and finding Creative Solutions to create peace so some will say resolution like this is anti-israel others will say the city of Durham shouldn't have a say on International Affairs or anything beyond its scope and by that logic I think we will have to ignore that our city is impacted by County state and federal decisions and Leonardo Williams mentioned voting so that's a perfect reminder that we don't exist in a vacuum and to be honest this

resolution is the easy part living into our values after the resolution is passed is the hard part creating a durm that honors the truth of history that honors all people regardless of race gender religion orientation is where we will have to work harder so it doesn't start and stop with the document but now as a unified body I think you will have to make a you'll have to make a choice to be courageous so I appreciate you for bringing it forward and I hope you all will support it thank you so much Mr won next next I have Kayla Kayla or Leela Champion can you hear me do you see Kayla online okay Kayla if you can hear me uh state your name and you have one and a half minutes hello can you hear me yes really well thank you thank you all right hello my name is Leila champion and I live in the city of Durham I am asking today like many of us

for you to consider a strong resolution for a permanent ceasefire I think when you're considering this resolution it is vitally important for all of us to remember the concept of perfect victimhood when we think of victims of violence at home or abroad we often expect them to be weak and vulnerable involved in a respectable activity at the time of victimization and blameless in all aspects of the interaction I am a person who condemns violence in all forms and I specifically condemn violence against any civilian population it is important to remember that this conflict did not begin on October 7th and the Palestinian people are not a people who have gone quietly into the night they have raged against apartheid and I suspect that many of us would do the same if we faced such horrific circumstances for 57 years they are not perfect victims nor should we expect them to be in the face of countless acts of violence and genocide I ask that you pass this resolution today and stand with the Palestinian community and our

community of Durham as a whole thank you thank you so much uh next I have Damon Williams hi can you hear me I can than thank you all right my name is Damon Williams 27713 Ahmed basil Ramadan Abed I would have laid a rose down for this three-year-old on Monday night but obviously the city of Durham cannot be contained by the close walls of the council chambers ammed is one of the more than 20,000 Palestinians killed by the occupation since October when an Israeli government official calls for total Destruction ethnic cleansing extermination and genocide a military offer officer makes it happen when that Israeli officer uses US military technology to know ahead of time that a

child like Ahmed will be collateral he operationalizes those genocidal calls when Israeli soldiers use weapons that my taxes paid for that Soldier carries out genocide in real time in a way that implicates me implicates us so I'm here to say that we need a strong ceasefire resolution that honors the loss of this precious three-year-old and all this and so many others we need a resolution that tells the truth about this situation if we cannot call it a genocide this resolution loses significant power and depth we need a resolution whose heartbeat is as consistent and strong as the claps and Stomps we all felt on Monday we must amend the resolution so that it will adamant call for the end to US military aid to Israel because that is what Durham demands in one strong loving and Powerful voice so what will be the row that this Council lays down to honor the dead and fight for the living the people of Durham say let it be a beautiful rose a rose that is worth laying down a rose that exudes love and

Liberation from durh Mr William thank you so much for your comments for our uh guest in the in the room um when really appreciate you supporting someone that states something that you agree with however I like the snaps better because when you clap you totally drown out what they're saying we can't hear it so you will just uh either hold your applause to the end or just snap please next person I have is uh Leslie St Dre hello can you hear me could you speak up a little bit uh hi can you hear me that's better okay you have one and a half minut thank you for joining us thanks for having me um after 125 days of Israel's ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians I am encouraged to see

that some of yall are finally starting to move away from positions including a position of Silence that enabled the indiscriminate Slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank you can't have consensus with those supporting a state that has indiscriminately slaughtered over 27,000 Palestinians 13,000 of whom are children and one that is engaged in Summits to plan for the development of land they've soaked in blood suggesting the oppressed sit down with their oppressors to agree on if the oppressed has rights to live in dignity on their land is in itself an act of violence let's be clear Palestinians in historic Palestine are facing the worst atrocities most of us have ever witness in our lifetime the resolution language that was passed by other cities long ago does not meet this moment we're currently in and this language is even weaker than many of those across the country that were passed long ago we're here today to demand amendments to this water down language to quote inv violence giving zero context to October 7th and what Palestinians have endured from their colonizers and their colonizer supporters specifically since um uh

since before 1948 I'll let others here demanding Amendment speak to those details and we can email them to you we don't need a water down resolution we need at least four of you to stand strong with us and let Durham set an example that our country built on genocide doesn't have to continue to support it we breathe together we breathe together thank you so much thank you so much next I [Applause] have no that's in person she's in person Shiva marashi Mar marashi yes thank you so sorry please pronounce that for me Marv dashy Marv dashy got you yes thank you welcome you have one and a half minutes thank you um my name is Shiva I'm a Durham resident and healthcare worker here in our city uh I provided comment

at your work session in December urging you to introduce and pass the ceasefire resolution just want to thank you for hearing us first and foremost um since I last spoke with you eight weeks ago the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza has fully collapsed and now with no no functioning hospitals in over 27,000 deaths over 400 of my Healthcare colleagues in this District signed a letter in support of ceasefire and we delivered that letter to representative Valerie fushi on November 14th that's now nearly three months ago we ask that this resolution reflect the urgency of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and as such call for an immediate lift of The Siege on Gaza allowing sufficient humanitarian Aid to reach over 2 million Palestinians I'd also like for you to consider what this new reality means for Palestinians in Gaza beyond the statistic SS and across Generations these wounds cut deeper than flesh Palestinians and Gaza have shown us what it means to persist in the face of death destruction and despair but they shouldn't carry this burden alone we witnessed a powerful moment of collective grief here on Monday and we

owe it to them to move through this grief and toward Collective action as you consider this ceasefire resolution I urge you to name the gravity of what's being carried out in Gaza and call it what it is a genocide thank you put a check mark behind here right check here Gideon buo James next I have Sophia Chima Sophia if you can hear me can you hear me yes loud and clear welcome you

have one and a half minutes thank you my name is Sophia I'm a w two durm resident and I'm here today to call on the council to include a number of points in the ceasefire resolution number one an immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza as well as in the West W Bank and East Jerusalem number two lifting The Siege on Gaza to allow for sufficient and immediate humanitarian Aid to enter this point would also include a call for the United States to reinstate unra funding and demand our Congressional representatives to block any bills that would impact unra funding number three ending us Aid and arms to Israel and number four releasing all hostages that are held in Gaza and in Israel it is important to note that Israel has doubled the number of detained Palestinians since October 7th with many of these hostages coming from the occupied West Bank as a local history researcher I often look to local historical events to understand how we should move forward in this moment we can look to former mayor whb gully's historic 1986 non-discrimination Proclamation the city council passing a resolution to oppose aparte in South Africa and to being the first US city to ban police exchanges with the IDF in

2018 as moments when the city has stood on the right side of History it has been 125 days since October 7th and yet it is not too late to stand in new Humanity free free Palestine thank you thank you um next and my my last online sign up is um Meredith wil Wilkinson hello can you hear can you hear me yes if you can speak up a little bit for me and uh welcome you have one and a half minutes thank you very much uh hi my name is Meredith I'm a Durham resident and I'm calling in today to express my support for a strong and clear resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza uh I moved to Durham in 2022 and even before making that move

I learned about the 2018 Council decision to ban Durham police training by the Israeli military and knowing this made me feel safer moving here and excited to Eng engage in community organizations after knowing this I've been disappointed that in the face of an ongoing genocide in Gaza this Council has not moved more swiftly to follow in the footsteps of other US cities to adopt a ceasefire resolution so I ask you to please use this as an opportunity as one step to stay true to this Legacy and adopt the community drafted resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza um I really appreciate deeply what uh former speaker qu stated that this resolution can't be the end of this conversation but rather a commitment to continued solidarity and Justice thank you thank you that concludes all of our online speakers at this time we will

move to our inperson speakers and what I will do is I will call five names at a time uh and you will be able to to line up at the podium to my right your left and uh the reason why I'm doing that is because this is a very thick deck of cards and uh we want to make sure that we can hear as many people as possible all right uh so and just a reminder uh the citizens matter is the same subject matter as the uh item 46 so they're all being heard together um the first person I have is Vicky Ryder next aan Rosenthal next Josh ravage uh next is yotam Kahana and last uh well not last but of the five Deborah

Freeman welcome thank you for being here you have one and a half minutes I thank you I want to thank everyone the clerk will send the uh buzzer so you won't have a clock to look at so just hear that okay I got you uh not easy to condense my remarks but I'll do the best I can and I want to thank you for listening to us on Monday night and for listening to us today um I want to preface my rocks with a couple of personal statements one is my husband is a veteran of the war on Vietnam he has seen up close what war can do to both sides in a military conflict we still suffer from that as does as do the people of Vietnam whether they were North or South they suffered whether Israeli or Palestinian people suffer in war and genocide is genocide

no matter which side commits in um the other personal statement that I want to make is that um I would urge you not to be swayed by those who might try to equate the call for peace with anti-Semitism I am a Jew my parents and my grandparents fled from the programs in the early 1900s and the Holocaust of the 1940s and I can tell you that if they were still with us today they would be the first to be standing and asking that you use the power of your office and your sense of human decency to call for an end to the bombing an end to the killing and an end to the suffering simply we're asking that you sign on to a ceasefire resolution it would have been very easy to dismiss this issue as having no relevance to the conduct of Durham business thank you but it has everything to do with Duran business and we urge you to do the right thing thank you

please state your name and you have 90 seconds Durham is known as a hot bed of anti-Semitism you could state your name first Amy Rosenthal Durham is known as a hot bed of anti-Semitism which was on full display this past Monday right here it seemed like Nazi Germany in the 1930s for Jews the mob intent on our destruction was overpowering taking over the meeting grabbing our flag knocking one woman down blocking our movement they yelled anti-semitic slogans without consequence we did not feel safe as the mob ranted just as Hamas supporters bullied us here on Monday they are bullying city councils across the country Hamas is not only a genocidal Islamic terrorist organization it's also known for breaking ceasefires they broke the last ceasefire on October 7th when they invaded isra Israel and gleefully attacked civilians raping mutilating and beheading babies burning children alive cutting babies out of pregnant women shooting Nails into their thighs and

groin and more Hamas promises to repeat the October 7th over and over until all Jews are dead some Hamas supporters here are anti-semitic While others have simply fallen for the propaganda and are being used as Pawns in the quest to destroy Israel and kill Jews they want everyone to believe that they care about innocent lives but they don't are they calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine no 12,000 children killed in Syria not a peep are they protesting the massacre of Christians in Nigeria no what about the weager Muslims helding camps in China not a CL when it's about Jews when it's about Jews excuse me excuse me when it's about Jews durs anti-semites show up they're energized when they can blame and skatebo Jews one moment I have no idea what the hissing is I I don't know we're not going to be rude and disrespectful we just cannot now if I'm

what no no no I'm not I'm not I'm not do I'm not even doing this for Applause I'm doing it for respect for one another now if we're going to do this the Durham way then we're going to do it the Durham way but we will have respect for one another if we cannot do that we can't hear each other or even respect one another then what are we here for so you may not agree but we're going to have to we're going to have to find a way to in here in this Hall so I don't know what I see humans in here I don't see any snakes or anything the hissing cannot happen the interruption cannot happen now we're trying to find the best way to have this conversation the fact that we're having the conversation let's not do that we're creating space for one another to actually have it I'm giving you an additional 30 seconds thank you thank you so they want everyone to believe that they care about innocent lives but they don't they're

calling are they calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine no the 12,000 children killed in Syrian Civil War no nothing are they protesting the massacre of Christians in Nigeria no what about the weaker Muslims held in camps in China no not a peep but when it's about Jews Durham's anti-semites show up they're energized when they can blame and scapegoat Jews the proposed resolution demonstrates appalling ignorance as it parot Hamas talking points we ask Faith leaders in the to sh a moral backbone thank you thank you I I'll also add that you know whether you know you are for or against a ceas fire no matter what it is the council is going to take both of those perspectives sir sir the Clark um the council's going to take all sides of this argument so please look up here talk to us okay that let's let's not do that right Josh ravage against

the resolution can I start you may thank you I see a major conflict flaming up in dur between free speech and MOB rule I looked at your de the other night and saw a row of police separating you from a mob your rights to speak at a meeting you were hosting were totally shut down you were silenced we did not have police protection in the audience members of our small pro-israel contingent were robbed of an Israeli flag that was taken so violently that the woman holding it was knocked to the ground I was standing in the front row and was purposely bumped several times during the mob scene evidently to unsuccessfully convince me to shut up and move even the mob didn't have free speech they were using crib sheets containing the words they were supposed to chant and Shout I understand this council is under pressure a small but noisy pramas contingent of 100 to 200 people is trying to distract you from addressing issues important to the tens of thousands of local citizens who are

registered voters you've got your hands full however it's time for Faith leaders City councils and citizens of good faith to step up and show some moral courage don't roll over to the antiem pramas mob if you do you'll be sending the message to the citizens of durm that they can bend this Council into approving whatever foolish damaging repugnant idea they like simply by bullying you and disrupting your meetings that will be your legacy I therefore ask you no I implore you to do the right thing don't approve a statement or a resolution regarding Middle East policy thank you yam you have one hello city council of Durham my name is yam I'm here a resident in Durham and I'm here asking you to help us to combat the lies what happened over here in Durham is that they come over here to the city council say about genocide and different

different things when they go ahead and outside you can hear this online on YouTube they go ahead and cheer for October 7 with me today I brought a USB that like showing a exactly the atrocities that going to happen that happen in October 7 when they open a pregant woman and they murder her babies in front of her eyes before they go ahead and murder her they didn't stop there they go ahead and film that in order for the whole Jewish Community to go ahead and see what they about to do to all of us and those leadership of the anti- Israelis go ahead and praise that I'm asking you guys in your resolution that you did you forgot to mention Kamas those people over here there is a difference between this civilians of Gaza that requested over overrule of the like the people of the Hamas ruling compared to the people over here that ask for ceasefire in order to comp continue to put Hamas on the leadership Hamas is the one that steal the trucks that come for with humanitary ha to Gaza Hamas is the one that opened the war in

2008 2014 2023 if you do not put its Israel Kamas War you miss the whole thing and I would like to to address another Li that going over here I want you to Google the growth of the population of the Palestinians if you Google that you will see the graph go up compared to the the Muslim in China that goes down currently so much thank you so much and thank you for the old police guys I prepare for you this one to the CL right thank [Applause] you hello I'm Deborah fredman rape is not resistance torture beheadings babies being burned alive should never be acceptable in a civil Democratic Society but our council is coerced into making a political statement to appease Hamas supporters as part of a group triangle Democratic socialists wrote hamas's

Slaughter has been falsely labeled as terrorism this is unvarnished evil why do we allow these people to dictate their War view of the world our city council is plagued with gun violence a major crisis in our public schools and underst staff Police Department yet Council considers the request of Hamas supporters who glorified the slaughter of 12200 Israelis I can't fathom the moral recklessness of leaders determined to push a resolution at the expense of the Safety and Security of the Jewish Community when you know these resolutions always incite more hate we aren't Democratic here in Durham we've regressed into the Middle Ages when Jews are ambushed by a mob in a kangaroo court intent on curring favor with Hamas supporters I ask council members who value democracy to stop allowing the

Jewish Community to be sacrificed for political points I ask the mayor and councel to follow the same path that Raleigh and Chapel Hill have taken please say no to hate Make No statement regarding the Middle East thank [Applause] you the next five names Kathy Kaufman um I I have a Katherine wolf and Phoebe wolf on the same same um card can I start or so I have a Catherine wolf I have a fee okay I have a uh Kang

ching and I have Andrew Gluck and um Rina Rachel galper come up as well okay okay Kathy Kaufman thank you for joining us thank you as those who know me are aware I have immediate family in Israel a member of my synagogue in Chapel Hill has 21 family members killed on o oh yeah the mics are really sensitive we can hear you okay sorry um a member of my Chapel Hill synagogue has 21 family members killed on October 7th and seven abducted into Gaza meanwhile at home the vitriol in the atmosphere has been toxic so I ask that you please not unnecessarily fan the Flames also no Israelis were in Gaza on

October 6th Israel is waging a war against Hamas that it did not start and did not want on October 7th Hamas invaded and and tortured and slaughtered 1200 people up close and in gruesome fashion Hamas is still holding 130 Israelis in their Gaza Terror dungeons including some 19 young women and according to hostages already released several of those women are being continually raped by their captors Israel cannot abandon their family and nor would you please do not do this finally I have two quick things one is I want I want to thank the police for escorting us out of the building away from the hostile crowd on Monday night a very kind officer work walked me all the way to my car which I really appreciate and finally I have something for you Leonardo Williams I hope that you will wear it I'm wearing this necklace many people are it's not political in English it says bring them home now and in Hebrew it says in Hebrew it says shanu shaza our heart is a

prisoner in God thank you but I I don't want you to think I'm being rude but electors aren't allowed to up gifts we'll have to gift it off but thank you I have uh cath cath are you Katherine or Phoebe I'm Phoebe welcome Phoebe my name is Phoebe wolf I just turned 14 but why am I here today instead of in school because the Durham city council is considering a resolution that will make life harder for Jews and Durham the people in this room say that their ceasefire resolution is about Gaza they say it's about Israel but we know that's not true they're trying to make life harder for Jews here in America and they're succeeding Jewish kids are being bullied in school more and more whether it's a few mean words from a classmate a teacher who puts up a fake map of Israel's Borders or swasa that's written in the bathroom the goals of Hamas was not only to kill Israeli families but to make every Jew alive fearful and to feel

pain which is precisely why they live streamed on October 7th this resol olution will only make Hamas celebrate and help their plans succeed to make all Jews in and out of Israel fear my friends are already afraid to wear a star of David necklace or yamakan now I can't believe things have gone this bad today the Jews of Durham see glimpses of Nazi Germany 1939 we hear it in the slogans calling for the Jews of Israel to disappear from The River To The Sea we see it in their cfas which is the same garment Hamas War World torturing over thousand Israelis anding taking grandmothers and babies hostage I don't know what's scarier watching pure evil terrorize your people or seeing so much of the world support it I'm asking you to do your job and protect us do not pass this resolution it will make the haters more bold please put an end to this horror show thank you thank you Catherine wol Katherine wolf North Carolinians

know a good deal about the mob we've seen it before how they targeted certain people how they hounded certain people how they ran certain people out of town we thought we were done with the mob we thought we'd relegated the mob to musty old history books and Distant Memories We were wrong council members the mob is back there are more ways than one to oppress a people the people pushing a so-called ceasefire resolution know this well you don't need roundups and one-way train tickets you don't need even to shout people down in City Hall they've realized all you need to do is keep up the pressure in this case on the Jews keep targeting the Jews keep hounding the Jews keep calling for violence against Jewish bodies the mob loves nothing more than to feel its power the mob is energized by oppression it imposes it is up to you city council members will you bow to the Mob the way officials before did or will you reject

any resolution that seeks to impose a ceasefire on Israel and in doing so turn the mob away history is calling set things right this time thank [Applause] you I want to remind everyone to focus your attention up here as you're speaking are you Mr Glu Angel GL are you Andrew glck are you Andrew Gluck okay sorry out of order here thank you why are you consider this Durham has zero say in international Mariners Durham did something similar to this and is now know as known as the anti-semitic capital of North Carolina I believe you have actual local issues you should be addressing that you can do something about all you're doing now is dividing the community the Hamas terrorist supporters have spoken before you claim to care about Muslim lives but they don't did they come before the city

council when half a million Muslims were killed in Syria by other Muslims no do they come before you on behalf of the WEA Muslims tortured in China no they come before you now because they can blame Jews for the situation in Gaza which is solely the responsibility of Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7th women and Mom and men were brutally raped tortured mutilated and murdered babies beheaded and burnt alive this is the outrage and those Jewish lives matter how many times has Duran even entertained a resolution about a ceasefire concerning a country that was brutally attacked only now because Jews are involved you guys should be ashamed to even consider something like this you have no say in any of this anything you do only affects your community cannot do anything internationally and there's absolutely no reason Raleigh decided against this greensb decided against this it's a waste of your time when you should have lots of other things enduring that should be handled that is a local issue not International thank

you thank you and I will ask you to pronounce your name appropriately so I can be able to respect you uh good morning uh good afternoon my name is Gan J Meo I'm with the United for fair economy um we believe that the war in Gaza right now is the defining moment for us uh we believe in safety for all people that includes our Jewish brothers and sisters well our Palestinian and Muslim and brothers and sisters um how Zin said that um um also uh we want to I want to say that that this possession and the oppression of Palestinians is a recipe for more war and more violence uh is not a recipe for peace and safety uh and also Howard Zin said you can't be neutral on a moving train uh when there's a genocide happening when our taxpayer dollars affecting us is aiding Israel in committing genocide when our residents right here are suffering and our own city workers uh can't even afford to live here anymore and they live have to live in hotels we the least that we can do the bare minimum is to say speak up and say that this is not

okay uh uh please join us in calling for a permanent feas fire that includes language around um uh immediate ceasefire for all of historics Palestine and the USA and arms to Israel Le lift the seeg on Gaza to allow immediate and sufficient humanitarian Aid to enter release or hostage ises held in Israel and Gaza uh and Israel's genocide of Palestinians and the end occupation of Palestine thank [Applause] you can you hear me you may now and just for the record my name is Reena Rachel galper thank you for that so first of all I want to say that suppressing the dissent because we don't agree with opinions is not anything that I respect I will say that I think tempers and feelings are high so I'm going to

make an effort to not come from a place of trauma as I talked to you there is genocide that is going on in Gaza that does not diminish the fact that there have been hostages taken and killed I believe that we have the capacity to hold both things they are not equal and yet it Grieves me what I do want to say is that there is also a lack of clear information on what is going on so some of the allegations of rape babies being torn out I would suggest that you actually read Jeremy skill's article because there's been extensive investigation and rebuttal of those claims that are part of an Israeli campaign of disinformation that has been bought Lock Stock and Barrel and is driving policy and so I think it's really important to be well educated on this and to also hold some

loving space where people can come to the table and be dedicated to Liberation and this is really powerful because this is not just about Palestine it's about continued racist practice in Durham it's about the parent Bill of Rights that is actually censoring our LGB btq community so there's a lot of intersection which makes this issue very close thank you your time is up thanks thank you madam clerk I I did not hear it that time uh the next a few names I have can you see what that is Lori I I can't really understand the handwriting I'm going to try it Lorraine or

laorel [Music] Mian okay uh Eli dwit Emily wils Caroline Booth MO Brady Nadine Burr thank you you have one and a half minutes my name is Lorraine me I'm a survivor of the World Trade Center I witnessed the murder of thousands right in front of me I saw people jumping I saw people on fire right in front of me I survived but my husband who was a federal agent did not he later died from his exposure from the first Tower while recovering bodies of the

dead and I have to live with that our nation fought back to defend itself against that attack so now with Israel doing the same why is Israel being held to a different standard why are you holding Israel to a different standard those demanding fire are the same who scream from The River To The Sea a call for the apartheid a call for the genocide and for the ethnic cleansing of the Israeli People Israel is a Sovereign Nation founded by the original Progressive Movement and Indigenous people seeking to return to their Homeland our country was not demanded to cease fire against Al-Qaeda we defended ourselves so why now are you asking Israel to do the same thank you you hi uh members of the council my

name is student Rabbi Eli dwit I am a resident of Durham I was born and raised here as a member of the Beloved Jewish community and I am here today not because my religious convictions alone support me as I enter a fourth month of calling for ceasefire I'm actually here to speak from a place of moral Clarity that needs no religious justification I stand with my neighbors the people of Durham who are saying no to genocide no to ethnic cleansing no to starvation built upon 75 years of brutal Colonial occupation as a Jewish spiritual leader I am unique positioned to stay the occupation of Palestine is not an elusive religious conflict we must support each other in articulating the true root causes of the 75 years occupation such as the violence of imperialism white supremacy Christian Supremacy and racial capitalism which is

1 billion thank you very much for your time thank you for joining us hello my name is Emily and I'm a pastor here in Durham calling on the city council to vote to adopt a ceasefire resolution I want to build upon an important Point Quay Weston named during the public hearing on Monday explicitly connecting the

displacement of Palestinians with the displacement of vulnerable communities here in Durham these issues are interconnected and the idea that an international statement distracts us from local issues is a false binary because the Market Force is driving developers to build here in Durham regardless of the potential for displacement are undergirded by the same Market forces driving Israeli real estate firms to capitalize on the forced displacement of Palestinians and build new settlements on the decimated Gaza Strip so when you all vote on Monday know that what you're doing is building trust not just trust in the Democratic process not just our trust in the Democratic process but also trust that you'll stand in solidarity when the most vulnerable here in Durham are at risk of displacement because how can we trust on this body to stand against displacement here in Durham if you don't stand against such a horrific massive widescale displacement event around the world as council member baker said on Monday night this body may not feel empowered to enact systemic change on the world stage but in the cases where you do have a clear opportunity to fight developers who don't care about the

people of Durham we want to trust that this body will stand in the corner of the most vulnerable and so voting yes on this resolution is a vote for our trust in the Democratic process and shows us that you're willing to stand against displacement whether across the world or right here in Durham thank you thank you uh Caroline Booth hi my name is Caroline booth and I am a Duram resident living in the Morehead Hill Neighborhood I have stage fright and so I am scared to be standing here but this is a topic that is important to speak up about I am strongly in favor of the city of Durham passing a ceasefire resolution do I think Durham taking a stance is going to end the war and change the world no but I do think this is something tangible that we can do to put pressure on higher levels of government to take action and can ultimately save lives my family lost my beautiful 18-year-old brother-in-law

Ethan to gun violence 3 years ago and so I'm familiar with the profound grief that comes with losing family I can only imagine the Deep sense of loss and Trauma that the Palestinian Community is experiencing having lost around 30,000 Souls this is an opportunity for Durham to communicate to our state and to our country what our community stands for I am vly opposed to my tax dollars funding the genocide the Israeli government is inflicting on the Palestinian people and would much rather that money go towards paying our sanitation workers and our teachers a living wage thank you Mo Brady good afternoon city council my name is Mo Brady I live in Durham uh City ZIP code 27707 I'm here to ask all of you to join the 70 plus other US cities in adopting a resolution to support a ceasefire in Palestine not a vague end to violence

but a ceasefire I also ask that you take time to determine which Avenues our tax dollars are taking towards Israel and end the city's financial support for this war that began in 1948 I would also ask that a resolution includes language that explicitly States the St city of Durham stance against genocide and apartheid in all forms and that it include language supporting the release of all hostages including the hostages currently being held without trial by the Israeli military thank you for your time and I remind everyone listening again that we are all connected as human beings that wanting safety for Palestinians is not anti-Semitism and that this genocide has has not made anyone more safe indiscriminate murder does not make anyone safer bombing communities to Rubble does not make anyone safer setting all of groves of Blaze does not make anyone safer 13,000 children dead does not make anyone safer never again is now and it never again means never again for anyone we are obligated to one another to love and honor the life that connects us all please call for a

ceasefire thank you nine B um my name is nine bur I live in Durham which words from Gaza changed you forever she is my mama I know her from her hair I don't want to wash my hands that's all that's left of my children are you taking me to the cemetery no dear you are alive and as beautiful as as the moon whoever stays till the end will tell the story what story will Durham tell Will we tell a story of how we stood for justice to call for a permanent ceasefire to name a 75e occupation of the Palestinian people will we call out the genocide that is clearly happening with 30,000 Palestinians dead will we call out Israel for not

caring about their own hostages is as they keep bombing we hear the pleas from the hostages parents we should listen as we call for a stronger ceasefire resolution let's make it as strong as we can let's tell the truth of the nature of the atrocities happening in Palestine let's protect each other here in Durham as well we do not stand for anti-Semitism we also do not stand for people coming against the Palestinian people our Muslims brothers and sisters and I want to share that as one of another one of our members from Mother's for ceasefire came in with her baby stroller a security guard said check the baby might have a bomb on it haha she's going to be making a complaint an official Complaint to you but this is what we're talking about thank you for your time thank you thank

you the next names that I have Robert Gutman Maya coin mju just gonna leave it at mju uh Adrien Marie Brown and Victor Ora Mr Gutman you are up now is there Maya K here Maya K all right thank you uh thank you councilman especially uh Mr Williams um I'm aware that you put a lot of effort to this and I thank you for that and I understand that you see this as a useful compromise to help you get

through this chaos to those who say that it was an invention you haven't seen the film that was taken from the GoPros of the terrorists showing themselves killing and showing themselves smiling and laughing it was awful so is the bombing and the unnecessary attacks unnecessary killings of the Palestinians but most of that was because the terrorists are hiding behind these civilians they didn't need to do that and they're still doing that Hamas is not mentioned in the resolution it really has to be because they are the ones who started this the term permanent ceasefire is a surrender Hamas has promised to continue they're not going to obey a ceasefire you're only asking Israel to Forever Forever stop trying to resist the terror that they've already seen and that was

promised I'm a physician and I learned a lot in medical school and one of the most important lessons I learned from a very Dear Professor when we were arguing about what to do his answer was don't just do something stand there just like uh uh Ry and Chapel Hill have done thank you Mr Gutman Gutman I'm sorry Maya K not have M please say your last name I'm going to get it one day M Raj we can work on it off screen work on it I would like to thank our mayor and our city council for working hard to listen to durm Residents from every Walk of Life my name is mju rajendren and I'm here alongside fellow durm residents calling out for a permanent ceasefire a week ago the World Health organization's director announced that now over a 100,000 Gins are either dead injured or

missing since October 7th many of whom are children as a mother of two I'm unable to remain silent as innocent children and their families are killed injured displaced and disappeared with our dollars today Durham lifts 100,000 roses to end the genocide as an organizer working in communities of color and Durham for 25 years I am unable to remain silent as our federal dollars flow to Israel's military spending instead of bringing peace to our people here in the Bull City we will end the cultures of domination and extraction that poison our world and extinguish the war economy it is our Collective responsibility to do everything in our power to bring genocide to an end and restore freedom and sovereignty to Palestine May the city of Durham model for this nation what it means to acknowledge the unjust apartheid occupation that began long before October 7th Durham residents have the power to bring genocide to an end by joining municipalities across the US calling for ceasefire I urge our city council to tell the truth that you knowing your hearts without fear never again is right

now ceas fire CE ceas fire ceas fire ceas fire St the stop the OCC thank you for your [Applause] time Adrian Marie Brown thank you for introducing this ceasefire resolution all of us here in Bull City live on land that was violently colonized by people who saw indigenous and black people as animals as the Israeli leaders have been speaking of the Palestinians throughout this campaign the US is not a moral Authority for peace or Justice this is how we need to learn we need the leadership and guidance of our Palestinian and Arab leaders as well as our Jewish beloveds who are speaking through their own trauma and their own need for safety to recognize that all of us need to be safe together and genocide does not make us

safer the subjugation and murder of others never makes us safer with 100,000 Palestinians murdered in 125 days and more civilian deaths than any other conflict this Century Palestine is demanding that we grow our souls from Monday until today hundreds were killed or starve to death those are on us we have to turn the tide of our government we have to make this change please add these edits to your current proposal in immediate and permanent ceasefire stop sending Israel Aid and arms through this tantrum us funding and support is the only way this genocide is able to continue please do your job as if your family is in Gaza and like the people there cannot get safe cannot get out craft this resolution for your own family please make the demands you would make for your own children never again not in our names cease fire thank you

9 million gazans have been displaced that

is almost the entire population of Gaza with Israel's total Bay of Gaza there are severe shortages of medicine no electricity and a looming famine for the entire population Leonardo Williams there's nine issue of two sides how can you possibly conflate this as a both sides argument when one side has one of the biggest armies in the world World armed with nuclear weapons funded by the United States and the other side has no standing army an infrastructure that has been crippled due to Decades of Israeli occupation and half of their population are children one side is begging for an end to the genocide and the other side wants to continue it which side do you stand on if by now you have not seen which side stands with Humanity then you are not fit to serve in public office history will not look kindly on politicians who stood by and did nothing what the C Council witnessed on Monday was a powerful and peaceful demonstration not a mob by a durm community to make sure this Council heard our demands for thank you m TOA for

your the uh next the next few names that I have King Sage Lee Mortimer Mortimer Gabriella lot Rabbi Matthew saur and rakia deasi thank you for being here peace y'all my name is King Sage I'm here to today grateful that I know that the power of collective Voice still works that the you can't hear me can I start over peace y'all my name is King Sage I'm here today feeling grateful that I know that the power of our Collective Voice still works that our freedom songs still hold great power I want to affirm the work of council

members cook and Baker thank you for hearing us as this resolution is edited I urge you to walk away from the temptation of Mass Appeal instead walk toward the lingering song and uplifted voices from Monday night's action when we fight together we know that the genocidal intent of Israel is unmistakable and must be clearly named even and especially in the face of zionists who would rather have you believe that the present tense Slaughter of the people of Gaza is justifiable we when we breathe together we know that the US is no stranger to misnaming genocide my breath carries me to the memory of my ancestors it carries me to the memory of Southern trees that still stand bearing the memory of bloody leaves and bloody Roots When we grieve together we must know that Palestine Bears this same wound my duty is to the legacy of the black and brown Freedom Fighters who got me here my duty is to the founding members of this of the SNCC hailing from right here in North Carolina at Shaw University who as they prepared to Usher the South into a

generation of resistance against segregation took the time to write what we are asking you to write today a passionate de crying of the genocide and apartheid occupation of Palestine look it up their writing was really really powerful When We Stand Together We align our commitment to Liberation from our so much for your so we can get clear on what our this time what is your D person I have is Lee Mortimer thank [Applause] you thank you Lee Mortimer 35e resident of Durham I want to commend this Council for your courage in formulating a message that addresses our community's deep anguish over the devastation in gulfing Gaza and as our government does little to nothing to Halt the Carnage I'm also a board member of voices for justice in Palestine we did not hesitate to condemn on our website hamas's brutal violence against Israelis on October 7th

but there is no justification for the deaths of so many defenseless women children elderly and entire families Israel's indiscriminate bombing and the massive civilian death constitute a war crime and the Biden Administration is deeply complicit Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas and rescue their remaining hostages their unrelenting assault May hamas's military capability but the thousands of families that's devastated by the ongoing Slaughter will create Legions of embittered survivors to carry on where Hamas left off and thinking that overwhelming Firepower will bring their hostages out alive simply defies logic Washington listened when local governments around the country including the Durham city council took a stand against South African apartate in the 1980s in an election year when a recent NBC poll showed 60% disapproval of Biden's handling of this war your vo is needed

6 million from Chevron Intel caterpillar and Hyundai their Council

knew their Investments were supporting the destruction and genocide of the Palestinian people and their land so they put their money where their mouth is Durham city council can do this too for those of us whose tax dollars gas purchases Amazon orders and everyday actions support Israel by default we have to take intentional everyday actions to support Palestine instead thousands of your constituents get this they're taking countless actions to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as council members many of whom hope to be elected again y'all can follow those examples too I urge the Durham city council to take a first step by passing a strong ceasefire resolution um that includes an immediate and permanent thank thank you for your time next I have Rabbi Matthew Sofer my name is Matthew Sofer senior Rabbi of Judea reformed congregation

proud resident of Durham I commend the drafters of this resolution for naming October 7th when Hamas invaded Israel to brutally Massacre more than 12200 innocent civilians I urge you to include in this resolution condemnation of hamas's brutality including sexual violence decapitation murdering babies and burning Holocaust Survivors alive a month after October 7th I went to Israel to kibuts near o I walked in the rubble of these homes I cannot unsee or UNS smell what Hamas did before retreating to embed themselves in civilian population in gazin and still I'm someone who calls for an end to this war a multilateral ceasefire an end to Bloodshed for humanitarian Aid and for the return of the hostages public vital that only targets Israel as genocidal and skips over October 7th in Hamas serves to Grant Hamas immunity for the worst

atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust despite the rage in the Public Square there is a conscientious faithful majority who believes there's no self-contradiction in saying in one breath that Israel as a state protecting 46% of Jews on Earth has a right to Def defend itself and the enduring occupation is a dehumanizing Injustice there's no contradiction in saying that Jews have a rightful place in their Homeland and so do Palestinians in one breath we can say that hamas's is genocidal and so are EXT dream Israeli Ministry I support this pass it moves us closer to each other's Hearts thank you thank you my earrings okay hi there my name is daki deali I'm from North Carolina and a long-term resident and Community doctor

here in Durham I love our state and our community here in Durham I I care about the people that stand against genocide in this moment and even the ones who stand for it I know as I hope you do that AP partide War oppression will not keep any of us safe anywhere for long will not keep our children's Futures intact will not get us to that future where we get to tend our broken hearts and Thrive together we have an opportunity in this terrible moment we have witnessed four months straight As Palestinians document the horrors on the ground as Israel with the fin financial support of our tax dollars decimate families and cities land and safety we and Durham have a chance to add our voice to the millions around the planet who are naming this as a genocide calling for it to stop and being specific about what money and from where must stop funding bombs y'all are leaders in our community as such this moment requires you to stand for what's moral and just

and lead us all of us towards the beautiful thriving future we all want a future where all of our lives are equally worthy of protection that means being bold and being clear that none of the world's great religions endorses standing with a genocidal military superpower against the poor displaced and hungry no matter what debunked myths are levied or accusations that come your way we are lucky in this room to not be in the line of fire and that means us and honestly for to sign on to this resolution [Applause] I have three cards left uh victorua right I I have um Imam Rafi zi Mohamed

Muhammad and Laura I'm going to say Laura Gaby or Gibney Gibney right thank you uh Imam you have one and a half minutes good afternoon councel body my name is Imam Rafi Z Muhammad I'm a member of the Nation of Islam we are seeking a clear and just resolution to seize far in the Gaza without nepotism there really can be no peace without Justice Justice no justice without truth America is on the brink of anak at this juncture Mountain pressure and Global condemnation of both Israel and Hamas and the United States voices are increasing the cry to stop assault stop genocide and the destruction of the Palestinian people a mid and escalating humanitarian crisis and expanding wall

we who cry out immediate resolution in this matter desire to desire to reason with the political leadership with the hope of formulating a Cooperative effort for the benefit of us all of us all for the good of the whole that that is which time demands at this point if we do not make an Earnest move towards real resolutions then each moment each day we move closer to Revolution in this country and anaki in cities across the nation and abroad at the onset we understand that there are difficulty factors in this Mission we're formulating a resolution due to the very unique nature of these times which is a great time of trouble mentioned in the 12 chapter of Daniel thank you for your [Applause] time and as we get as we uh hear you miss Gibney you said Gibney right Gibney yes Gibney okay thank you for being here

6 billion taxpayer dollars for Israel my heart broke on January 26th because of the impact the suspension of Aid could

have on Gaza and survival but also because it demonstrated to Palestinians that the US would ignore the icj rulings and continue to punish them the victims of Decades of apartheid and occupation and of this genocidal Onslaught and they would continue to support the oppressor the occupier the messages sent to Palestinians was clear you don't matter you are worthless many of us in Durham want to say send the opposite message to Palestinians you are worthy you are not dispensable and we want to send a message to the White House and Congress that we do not accept their cruel disregard for Palestinian lives they could stop this genocide now bying the supply weapons thank you and could you uh pronounce your name so I can make sure I state it correctly mayor my name is musri um I am here speaking in support

of the resolution I find it very painful that when we mourn when we call for freedom and Liberation we are accused of anti-Semitism what does this mean it means that for them our mere lives are an existential threat when our mourning is considered anti-Semitism they cry for their hostages but refuse to listen to The Very families of those hostages who have called for a ceasefire there hatred for our lives is greater than their love for their own in the United States another Palestinian was stabbed this is the third attack in just the past few months against Palestinians in the United States real deliberate attacks in Gaza 110,000 are either killed injured or dying under the rubble 565,000 are expected to die within the year in Gaza my question to all who oppose the ceasefire or all who consider this to be too complex is until when how many of our loved ones must die for

their Vengeance to be calmed this isn't complex we need you to call for a permanent ceasefire to call for an an to US military aid to call for the United States to respect and comply with the legally binding measures of the international court of justice which is the highest law of the land in the United States and we call on you to call on President Biden to refund onoda we are needing you to read the evidence and not listen to Mere accusations like I said this is not this is not complex the question to you do you agree with Thomas fredman who labeled me and my family and my community as insects in the New York Times or do you really believe that all lives are equal and all life is precious if you believe in the latter then call for a permanent ceasefire humanitarian Aid to all and respect international law thank you

right those are all of the uh cards that I have all of the speakers that I have for today I want to um I I want to thank everyone for Having the courage to share their pain share their um share their experiences you live the experiences I I want to appreciate everyone for you know just putting in the time to you know just come together uh around whatever position it is um this is a situation where there's it's impossible for everyone to be pleased with an outcome and I I just want to you know really highlight that the resolution that we have before us um didn't start this way it did not start this

way and um I received a phone call one evening and it was uh council member cook and she said this is personal to me me and I want to you know she said actually she said this is personal to me I have skin in the game now and I said I respect that and I you know there's a process that that I took lead on um on behalf of the council and she said I understand but you know I think we can pull something together and I said well go ahead and work on that and um she worked on it and then she sent it back to me and sent it to our colleagues and she said everyone just give me feedback and uh for me specifically she asked she said would you please share it with your small group uh and get their feedback um and this is this is there are a lot of people that have you know really viewed it there are a lot of eyes that

have been laid on it there are um quite a few folks that have provided feedback and I still don't think we're at the final editor some some wording uh uh just some small things that uh that you know have to be considered um to council member R Point what he was referring to earlier I I remember what happened uh retroactively the last resolution uh that the council took on I believe that was I may have the year wrong 20 was it 2018 council member Freeman what 2018 um and I I thought I I still get emails about that uh I actually got cursed out about it and I wasn't even looking into politics at the time um but the best way I figured we could take this

on was to gather a small group of people who what I called my uh team of intellectual Rivals and there were imams there were rabbis there were Christian leaders there were activist it was intentionally a very small room and I we we it was a very um heavy evening uh it was the it was the night of the day that we celebrate Martin Luther King Junior's birthday and it was a very very very difficult conversation to have and you know there's um I know I had to be vulnerable and you know and I and I said I was going to protect the people who were brave enough to come in that room um and if they ever wanted to you know just share publicly who they were then they have that

right um there was a lot of fear there was a lot of anger um I broke down in tears because I just didn't want to hurt anybody and it is very very very scary when you bring people in such a small room whom you know totally disagree with one another and they're bringing in their personal experiences literally personal as in family members on both sides of the issue being impacted by this matter and then you have the voice of what about Durham how is it that our issues here are being overshadowed and and I I've yet to sit comfortable with an either or in this conversation uh we do have to create space we came out of that uh that that evening I wouldn't dare say everyone was agreeing with one another but there was

definitely mutual respect and that was progress in my eyes and that evening you know we uh ended it with what must be in this what must be in this Collective of words whether it's a resolution whether it's a proclamation whether it's a statement whatever it is and based on that experience based on those words I authored a statement my colleague authored a resolution and I believe that is the approach that this council is going to assume and I appreciate people you come up here to the podium and you demand your desires and you do it from a from a position of you know uh be brave be couraged do what I

want you to do or do what we want you to do that is how it's interpreted and it comes from both sides but what is the the bigger picture from where I'm sitting is when I look out in the audience I see people who have very different perspectives sitting amongst one another you're sitting at the same level you're sitting in the same seats you're sitting in the same part of the room and what we're experiencing in real time is how we deliberate very difficult conversations and ideal in this country so I have a great deal of gratitude for my colleagues and how we see things differently and have enough respect for one another to find you know a a a I wouldn't even say a happy medium but find a consensus or the just have the ability to compromise and that is what I'll always

have respect for and if you look at one of us one of my colleagues or myself and say you didn't do what I told you to do the blood is on your hands or you didn't do what I told you to do we're going to continue to be vulnerable and and and felt feel unsafe you know that is your right but it is really easy really easy to be a Critic when you don't have to be the actor and this is a very very very tough role and these are heavy decisions we have to make and we at the end of the day we have to go home to our families and we have to still try to live our lives but whether we agree or not one thing's for sure when we go home at night we take your pain with us and

that is the weight of an elected official so however we end up with this but I which I feel good about I feel like we've put a lot of work into it but wherever we end I hope that we will end this as we petrica in our lives together with a mutual respect for one another because we cannot kill ourselves off and I don't mean that physically or or realistically I mean just like in our ability to work together so colleagues I personally want to thank you all um this is a work session so it it won't require a vote today um we will have this on our general business agenda on Monday um where um I'm pretty sure we'll have a bit more dialogue about it and um we'll go from there I want to appreciate you bringing

um council member or mayor protim Middleton into the room today making sure that you said every word I was just saying I want to appreciate you you know bringing in mayor protim Middleton and you know having a long speech oh yeah oh I see yeah well you know it's perks to be a mayor all right um next up thank you all so much uh feel free to stay for the interesting things um the Water Management presentation colleagues actually let let's take a f minute break and um we'll

be we'll be right back at it I can't even see back there it's 308 we'll come back we'll come back at uh about 3 313 recording stopped

give it a few more minutes to uh get our colleagues back I'm really excited Mr Don gley because you're so exciting you're entertaining GRE I did get a chance to tour the uh water facility Water Management Facility all of it well most of it most of it no well not all of them the one the um what is it called snow Miss Creek yeah Miss Lake yeah I did not know all of that was over there I that's the part I didn't get a chance to see so I went from the conference room where we do the Retreats all the way over to the offices and H H2 Studio H2O and all that stuff I've been there yeah did you see the g wow now I think still the waits for the management facility is the most fascinating I mean just how complex it is how they do the renewable energy with the methane gas I mean I'm like every school needs to take a field trip out

the air it is fascinating I mean they were using all these words that I could never pronounce like have you been out there call I've been there just for to the film our video no no no I mean the waste water manage to see those see that plant at work yeah actually I have to show you that when I was a kid my aunt took a was a teacher this is in Fort La took us out to the waste treat let see how it worked back then soct of us his little kids start see how it works oh wow I'm sure much more all right thank you all so much for your uh patience we will uh resume and at this time we have our last well we have a

presentation by our director Don gy and uh let's see here 39 39 yep from our water management department item 39 city council LED and copper rule revision presentation we have 20 minutes don't feel like you have to take all of it but we have 20 minutes for you thank you for being here great thank you Leonardo Williams uh good afternoon uh members of council and as well as the residents that are here um uh we're we're here today um to give you some general information about uh the EPA regulations concerning the lead and copper rule revision that was adopted back in 2021 um we've been working on compliance with those regulations for the last several years and we're about to enter a phase where we're going to be doing some um Outreach to our community so we felt it was important to come here today to give you a better understanding

of the rule and what we have to do and how it might um impact our residents and and also to give you an understanding of what other items might be coming for in future Council U meetings for for your consideration there's actually you've already seen one item and that's the $30 Bill credit earlier today so um but first off um before we get into the rule I wanted to talk about the you know our mission statement in water management was to provide you know cost-effective Water and Wastewater services that meet the customers's expectations and all regulatory requirements you know when it comes to water our our mission is to protect the public health of our community and make sure that the public has the trust in Water Management in the city of Durham that they are that we are looking out after you know their public health so that's an important component of our public Outreach some important facts about

drinking our derms drinking water um and how we're keeping Durham lead lead free and Lead safe um water leaving the city of Durham's water treatment plant is lead free and it is tested every single day um residents that are interested in looking at our water quality can do that do can do that at any time we publish an annual water quality report it's on you can residents can um look at the most recent report as well as prior years at the Water Management web pages on the city Duram website um we have been in compliance uh with the original lead and copper rule since the early 1900 or 1990s excuse me um there was uh some concerns raised in 2006 which uh you know at the leadership at the time both with water management and City manager's office actually had discussions with EPA but you know we've been in compliance since the rule came out um lead can enter drinking water by leeching from lead pipes that connect

some older homes to the water system a process called corrosion um North Carolina banned the use of lead service lines and Lead solder in 1985 and we are confident to say that lead service lines are lead free starting in 1988 to account for any older materials that might have been used in the construction between 1985 and 1988 um lead and drinking water can also come from household plumbing fixtures um brass or Chrome plated uh brass faucets that contain lead um that was the use of lead in uh fixtures was banned in 2014 so for your information but but why does lead come out of these fixtures in pipes well lead is corrosive by Nature um at the water treatment plants we add zinc aof forat to manage the pH levels of our water and that significantly lowers the potential for any lead coming out of our water we um test our water Tri anually for EPA regulations for lead and copper as as

part of our corrosion control program and I'm happy to say that a majority of our results that any lead and copper if it is there it's below detection levels and any uh the few houses that might have a slightly above detection level it is significantly I mean significantly below any action levels so we've been uh our our corrosion control program has been very successful um you know as we've seen across the country you know lead does leech out and that's part of the reason why there's a crisis in Flint um that was caused um when they changed water sources and they chose not to continue to have Havoc corrosion control program to inhibit lead from coming out of their pipes and let that that led to the crisis in Flint Michigan and that is a similarly to the crisis if you've seen in other communities across the country where they have not really had a good corrosion control program and that has led to older lines leeching

out um but I want to reiterate that you know a strong corosion control program is is effective and has been effective Ur as as far as the requirements for the rule revision there are several components I'm mostly going to talk about the service line material inventory but there are other components um we'll have to develop a lead service line replacement plan we have we'll be in we've already started in increasing our compliance sampling and we'll be uh also sampling in schools and daycares across our community um I mentioned our control corrosion control treatment we'll continue to make sure that that's optimized for our drinking water and our community and also a big component of public education and Outreach and I did want to mention that it did talk about school and daycare sampling we've been working with Durham public schools for decades in about their schools and and doing the sampling testing for them and helping them when they've had issues so we've we've had a good working relationship with Durham County Schools um there has

not been the private schools and dayc carees has has not been and that's a change in the rule that we'll be sampling it also in in those facilities as well so a big part of the the rule is the is is talking about lead service lines and what we talk what we mean by lead service lines are lines that come from the water main end the street into the home and there's three components of water um as it comes into out out of the faucet there's the um Service uh owned line as you see in this diagram that's between the water man and the meter there's the private side between the meter and the house and then there's the premises the premise Plumbing the lead and copper rule covers the service owned service line and the customer owned service line it does not cover the premise Plumbing that that's that's separate from now um in some communities um the the whole service line is owned

by utility and in some communities the whole service line is owned by the homeowner in our community it's publicly owned from the the water main up to the meter which is RightWay line the property line and then it's privately owned from there to the house um so we Pro we have over 96,000 service lines in our system so that means we we have to know as part of our inventory 96,000 public service line components and 96,000 private components so it'll as you can imagine that's a lot of work um we've contact we've have been working with CDM Smith a consultant to help us with this effort um the inventory needs to be completed um by this October we don't necessarily have to know all of the service lines and what the material are

um but we do have to complete our inventory so we've been working hard to try to get as complete an inventory as possible um we're about to finalize our public Outreach to community to help engage them to help us with that inventory and we're also proposing a a $30 Bill credit um which is on this Council cycle um to help with that validation we're as you've seen in the agenda item the $30 Bill credit is saves the city a tremendous amount of money because having to validate it ourselves can cost anywhere between $250 and $600 to validate the service line so um we're hoping to engage the community to help us so what do we know so far about those 96,000 service lines well by looking at all of our internal records with the city and looking at homes that were built after um 1988 uh we know that 73% of the public service lines are not LED and based our our view we're projecting

of the unknown so the 25% so left that 15% will turn out to be we uh pretty confident they'll not be led so that leaves about 12% of that be unknown on the private side um as you can see we have still have a lot of work to do which is why we need to engage our our our customers and our residents to help us with that inventory so we we continue to to we need to continue to identify the unknown um and uh we we part of the process will be doing is we'll be having a outwardly at our website the city's website on the Durham Water Management page um we'll be having a map where customers can click on their home and see the information about their service both the private side and the public side so it'll be very public facing and they'll be able to also click on their neighbors if they're interested to see the other community um we'll also be

using that website as a tool to help get permission to go into their um if they don't want to sell validate what their Plumbing is then um they'll be able to give us permission to come onto that property to do that engagement so um we're really excited about this it's we've already gone through a couple demonstrations of that and it works really well we're really excited to push that out and we'll be doing that shortly um sorry uh just to interrupt you that is a really cool feature and if no one's really listening right probably they probably missed it but that's really cool I just wanted it's a graphic map that they can just click on their neighborhood and I was just sitting that was my one question one of my two questions was was there a map and now that you said there's a map I'm hoping that there's going to be a um demonstration of using the map that U Miss Thompson's going to help help us with yes yes part of our when I get to my public engagement we're working on that too as well and we'll be constantly updating that so it be updated in live time so as you know um residents can

click on and see how you know if it's unknown if if changes happen so we're really excited about that um you know the you know we'll be we're starting uh as I mentioned we'll be starting our public engagement next month to start potholing and do um uh crawl space inspections for those houses that have crawl spaces of course we have challenges when there'll be houses on slabs um so that's why we need to do the potholing and the yards to determine the service line um as I mentioned we'll have to submit to the state before 2024 um and just to reiterate we don't we won't know 100% by this October but we need to continue to to work on that um EPA will be is working on lead and copper rule improvements and we expect them to push out that rule um later this year and that clarifies some of the um the work of the rule revision including in that before there was you just had to

work on 3% of the unknowns every year now you have to have done within um 10 years so we have to have all the unknowns known within a 10-year time frame but we ex we want to be done within the next couple years we don't want to wait the the the full 10 years um a picture map of where the knowns and unknowns are in the city as you can see the the um the black is the knowns the yellow is the unknowns and they're pretty spread out across the whole our whole system so we'll be engaging in all of the uh communities throughout the throughout the city um when it comes to talking about Community engagement goals you know certainly we want to be very transparent responsive we want to be reassuring to our community about our drinking water quality um and we want to engage our community about the inventory um we've hired a u a part-time U communication staff to help dedicated wholly to these efforts working with our existing staff

um they're working closely with CDM to come up with a public information Outreach plan and we'll be working with uh Bary Thompson and her staff to make sure that you know we reach out to to our community and as I said we'll have lots of additional information on the website um how to do those self- inspections where to get information Etc yeah um as far as our engagement strategy we want to have continuous ongoing timely communication um because it it affects the broad Community we want to make sure we we reach out as to everybody that we possibly can um so we have a variety of uh initiatives that you see here um and we hope to uh um have a positive response from all of our our residents and if you have any other thoughts we're happy to uh take in any other great ideas that we can take in to to reach out to our community um as I mentioned other

requirements we have um you know we have to develop our service replacement plan we'll be doing that um in the next couple months as I said right now we haven't seen any lead service lines but we do have to have a plan in place in case we find some um we're updating our sampling protocols and locations um as I said you know we're we'll be uh increased sampling and public Outreach after 2024 October this year so it'll be ongoing um you know we'll be kicking we've been working on the inventory in developing the public Outreach plan and we'll be starting as I said next month with our public Outreach on on uh what you might see as far as future actions by city council around this um uh for us doing compliance there's the $30 Bill credit which currently is in cycle um we may have we may do additional contracts for inventory verification um we will bring the service line replacement plan to you for

consider ation after we discussed that with the city manager's office um approving of any additional grants um as you as you're aware we received a million dollar Grant from the state of North Carolina to um help us with our efforts um in identifying our inventory and uh we expect there to be more funding um available and as well as there's a been additional funding um coming out of Washington for um to help um fund replacement of lead service lines so we you know we expect that there to be opportunities in the future and also of course receive updates as needed so um the inventory is to us is the root of the lead safe Durham and as I said you know all of those uh efforts in the boxes that I've talked about are a part of you know us um being led safe in Durham

um just some general uh you know guidelines that we give residents if they are concerned about their their service line I'm certainly running uh cold water at least 5 minutes before using um that helps get the water out of the house and turns the water over before using use cold water especially for baby formula um warmer water tends to leech um if there is is any lead easier than cold water so we use cold water change your air Raiders and anytime any Resident can call a durm one call for a test it's free and we're happy to come out and take a water sample um in your home and test it and give you the results so um certainly can use filters and uh if there's any worry about L exposure certainly called during public health so um as our goal is to protect public health and and the more we know the

gov um as I mentioned you can call Durham one call at any time about getting your residents can call at any time to get their water tested and you can also call us staff on that number that's listed there leave a message and we'll call you back and and happy to answer any questions that anybody has so with that I'll just open it up for any questions anybody may right have thank you so much director gradley um this you know I I teas a lot because you you are very you know just

straightforward and you don't get excited or sad or anything you just are very straightforward on the information but what you say is always the work that you bring before us is always so impeccable and uh I really appreciate it I'm looking forward to um seeing what my area where I live what it what's up there and um thanks for you know continuing the work to keep Durham Durham's water award winning colleagues council member cook thank you for your presentation as you know I am new so I'm just trying to get a footing and I was hoping you could answer a couple of broad questions for me quickly um the first is that I my understanding of lead contamination um is related to water flow and I know that we don't have a decreasing population like some of these cities who have had issues and in in fact we have the opposite we have quite an increasing population and I was wondering if you could speak to um how

an increasing population is affecting y'all's progress moving forward if there's anything that we should look out for in that um strictly related to water quality or as a as a broadly related to water quality so I mean I imagine there's going to be we're going to be required to put in more infrastructure around these things and I'm just wondering if you can speak a little bit briefly I know it's a very broad question yeah um you know for us to you know in water management and working closely with the city manager's office is to ensure that you know Durham's needs around you know Water and Wastewater um are met as we go forward you know from our standpoint we're we're looking 40 50 years in the future so all of our Master planning all of our the CIP projects that you'll see coming forward are to make sure that there's enough capacity um and that all the all the regulations are being met so that Durham can continue to grow um it's a challenge there's a lot of um

challenges both from the growth of the city and the Aging infrastructure that we have to be replacing that as well as new regulations that are coming down the pike so we we try to balance those three legs of the triangle with our Capital program and our operations to to try to make sure that we're meeting all of those needs going forward as far as water quality you know it's um it's key for us to as new regulations come along that we continue to be looking at um simultaneous compliance because you don't want to change one thing to meet one rule and have it affect another rule so it's really important for us to be able to at any given time as these regulations come out that may when we need to consider potentially water quality and changing processes or adding new processes is how does how do they all interrelate to make sure that the the water is safe and we're meeting all the regulations I hope that answered your question yeah thanks thanks um and then you talked about a million doll grant that you have um to assist with

inventory um can you tell us a little bit more about where that Grant came from and you said I think that there was going to be more money forthcoming and just about that so so we've been told um you know the um uh there's been several um awards for from coming out of Washington as far as directed towards EPA to support this effort um and th that those funds are funneled through the North Carolina um Department of uh Environmental Quality the water infrastructure Division and we appi we applied for that Grant because they targeted money just for the inventory um in targeted areas and uh you know we applied for the million dollar Grant and we were successful so we're really excited about that and and we've been told that there will be additional funds in the future council member Freeman thank you I appreciate U council member covering that question I just want to add that it

would be helpful to figure out if I don't know if it's legal or not but figuring out if we can prioritize I guess any of the grant funding we might be able to make available to people who are of low age or low income uh or homeowners who have low income um and then figuring out how to include like people of diff like people with disabilities and then also see seniors um just cuz I know it's not going to be enough money to do everybody but figuring out how to prioritize that group of people right and that that's what the you know the million-dollar Grant was dedicated you know is specifically for areas that have been identified in Durham for that so but we'll continue to to look at that as a priority okay and and certainly anybody who has a health risk who's at risk with their health thank you Mr Mayor um thank you Mr gley for the presentation really appreciate the the thoughtfulness of your department and thinking through these very strategically over as you said 30 years in advance it gives a lot

of confidence to the residents of durm to know that that our water management folks are thinking about this um actually I should say as an aside um before I came on Council and my work as a consultant I've been to Flint I've worked with folks in Flint so I've been there and I've seen the devastating impacts of the the Water Crisis for families across Flint so it's this is serious stuff my question is simply and I love the idea of the $30 Bill credit for for um homeowners to help identify service lines my question that's maybe just a basic one was like these these service lines from the meter to the house are underground right so how do how would a homeowner who wants to help out to do that that identification how would they do that um we'll have some videos and do that you know certainly the the ones that you um can't verify um like house on a slab that's well you'll contact us give us permission to come on the property and we'll be potholing which is you know vacuum activation down to the service to determine what its material is I a pooling that does a term for so you're actually sort of sort of probing down through the yard into the service L it's like a little vacuum that

kind of goes down it sucks the dirt up so we create an opening about 6 in in diameter as we go down and um it's very unobtrusive and it goes down until we see the material and then determine it great thank you yeah Nate Baker yeah I think Chelsea Cook asked asked one of the questions that I was I was going to um so uh we receive money Federal resources through ncdeq correct correct um so do you feel like confident that um you have the capacity and will continue to have the capacity to be able to apply for the various grants that that EPA offers moving forward we do okay right and that's one um CDM Smith um who's the consultant who's working with us they're assisting us with those Grant applications as well as well as as well as City staff and finance staff Etc all right thank you so much for your

presentation colleagues thank you thank you all right at this time um we will entertain a motion to proceed to close session thank you um oh I'm sorry I need to settle stuff up right go ahead thank you and good afternoon Mr Mayor and City Council Members I have the board and committee report and I'll pull it up right here um the Durham open space and trails commission appointment category of at large Jason pagee human relations commission appointment category of Caucasian non-hispanic person Amanda borer mayor's Council for women appointment category Public Safety sector Leslie R rck mayor Hispanic Latino committee appointment Josie D Cordova participatory budgeting steering committee appointment category of Youth kuami menoon and then the last one the racial

Equity commission category at large Elena Snavely and that's the end of the report thank you madam thank you madam clerk all right at this time I will um acknowledge our manager to settle the agenda move second Oh no I got to set it got it fedal the agenda then I'll call for it thank you Mr Mayor members of the Durham city council for your uh city council meeting I have for consent items 1 through 38 General business agenda item number 46 and general business agenda public hearings item items 40 through 43 thank you madam manager and for 46 yeah all right at this time I'll entertain a motion to um proceed to close session so much second all right

11 A3 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling or settlement of darl Howard versus city of Durham at all and Daryl dowy at all versus city of Durham so moved second think you it's been moved and properly second if I could see all in favor by raise of your hand I'll oppose thank you we will proceed to close session do I location in the uh committee room procedurally once we uh once we conclude from uh the uh closed session

we will come back into Open session in the committee room to end the meeting