Good afternoon everybody we're sorry about a two-minute delay we had some technical difficulties but I'm going to call this meeting of the City Council work session to order here in city council chambers on Thursday February 9th it's at 2023 and it's about 102 P.M as the manager was walking in a few minutes ago she said that we needed to I need to check on Hillside High that school is currently in the middle of a situation and so as we come to this moment acts that we just take a moment to think about what happened on yesterday what is currently happening right now as we begin to conduct today's business here that we have to conduct my heart is really heavy and just kind of in your own way let us get a better world picture in our mind a better world for our students here in Durham particularly Hillside High at this moment and how we can actually realize that.
Madam Clerk if you were called the road good afternoon everyone mayor O'Neal I am here mayor Pro tem check context I'm here councilmember Caballero here councilmember Freeman president councilmember Halsey Hyman here councilmember Johnson here and councilmember Leonardo Williams present thank you thank you I do have a couple of announcements one that you need to make fairly quickly as people are counting on us to be efficient and move things along and this would be in reference to our budget Retreat because of a conflict that we missed we are asking now at this point I think all of the council has been notified that I was going to make the ask today to move the budget Retreat the first day to March 2nd and we will also have it followed up by another budget Retreat meeting on March third I don't think we need to vote on it but we do need to have a thumbs up from all those who are in agreement.
Thank you all it's unanimous thank you Mr law so now I do want to tell you about we have a very robust agenda today all of us up here on the diets will be taking part in how we conduct this meeting today we all have various assignments to carry out portions of this meeting but I do want to let you all know that I've I've gotten a couple of phone calls from folk in the community they have been concerned about the decorum I guess that we are conducting ourselves in or not and I just want to ask everybody to be conscious that how we think we may be appearing to people in the Public's eye and there are a lot of people watching us on the internet as well as in person that that perception being rooted in one's own mind they may be subject to differences in opinions as to how we appear to the public I know all of us are hard-working public servants.
And this job is by no means an easy job and I am was not quite used to people talking to me and in such a manner as I have experienced being mayor but at the same time I also recognize as my mother used to tell me Elaine your tongue is mighty Sharp you need to watch that you need to curtail that tongue sometimes and as a lawyer you know you kind of trained to do that in a lot of instances in it as a judge it could it can come off as brutal and unemotional because when you have to sentence somebody to life in prison and you need to say that with a straight face and make sure that they understand you that can almost come off as dismissive or emotionless so I've tried to be cognizant and try to put some virtues out there every month for us to kind of think about as to how we interchange as individuals with each other and with the public at large and.
To try to make sure that we remember that we are working for you all we do work for you all and so with that comes a certain amount of pushback and it should that's the beauty of our democracy that's why I like America that's why I like the United States I like my city I like all of it so there is there there's some pushback that comes from people that they let you and so we have to be cognizant that some of that comes with the job but I do want to ask my colleagues that we be mindful that how we we may have people who differ with how we think or how we vote on different things but let us not make them feel that they are being demeaned by the process of asking and pushing back and that's a fine line on how you do that I just want to raise it as a concern because I've gotten at least three to four phone calls about it.
And I want people to you know be aware that the public is watching they want us to they want to be able to come in here and voice their concerns and there's a certain amount of advocacy that goes on and we too have a right to advocate for our positions but let us do it in peace and Harmony to the extent we can we got a lot of stuff going on in Durham and some of us not pretty right now and so we don't want to be in here arguing and fussing when we we have bigger issues to think about as we do this job so let's just be mindful of that so at this point I am going to pass it over to any of my other colleagues for any announcements that they may have this afternoon I'll look to my left first council member Jose Hyman good afternoon mayor good afternoon to my colleagues good afternoon to my residents I would just like to say that I had the honor.
Yesterday to attend the 18th Annual Durham City Council Martin Luther King Employment Program and our very own wander page our city manager bought the purpose and she did a wonderful job and it was just really so nice to see also the young youth who are from Jordan's Orchestra who also performed and so it was a really nice occasion it was my first time attending and just wanted to say that that it was it happened and it was like the 18th Annual so this has been going on for a while so it was joint city and county and then again happy black history month and because of that I wanted to just kind of spearhead and honor someone by the name of RN Harris who was the first Durham black elected city council member and I'm just going to read just a little bit that was actually after he was appointed I mean excuse me elected this was reporting on his election in May of May 9 1953 in the Caroline times it finally happened after.
Nearly a decade of fruitless attempts by several legal candidates to obtain a seat on the Durham City Council a negro was last elected to serve as the governing body and so I I actually am able to stand on the heels of all of my colleagues but definitely stand on the heels of the first black elected city council member I want to share that thank you thank you so much council member hello any other announcements council member Johnson thank you madam mayor I have submitted a little bit after the deadline apologies a resolution in support of our lgbtq community here in Durham as we deal with some really harmful legislation that's going through the North Carolina General Assembly right now due to the speed that this legislation is progressing I'll be asking my colleagues to suspend the rules and vote on this resolution today rather than wait until our Monday night meeting one of these bills has already passed the Senate and is moving very quickly through the house and I think.
It's important that we express our opposition to this damaging legislation and our solidarity with our lgbtq plus Community as soon as possible so I'll be asking for that at the appropriate time later in the agenda thank you thank you so much council member Johnson council member Leonardo Williams thank you madam mayor and colleagues I it's been an emotional couple days and I just once again would like to just reaffirm just my commitment and and others to supporting the effort of saving lives as much as possible and with that being said I've sent notice to superintendent mubenga and may approach and check context has agreed to join me and I'm sure that we can get others hundreds of others who've already committed it's time for us to go directly into our schools and speak with these young men of color directly when I was teaching I used to see the writing on the wall and I could tell you I could tell my students almost their life based on the trajectory that they were you know.
Performing there in front of me and I would say Hey you are going to end up here are you going to end up here however you could end up X if you change these habits and I'm not in the classroom anymore and that's one of the things I miss most about it because teachers save lives and I hope that you know we can lend whatever support possible but I think it's time to get proximate and I plan to do just that get into these schools I am praying for the families of those who lost or those who actually have young men or youth that are in situations where they are on the brink of doing something that doesn't value their own life and I hope that we can start catching it well before it actually happens with that being said I'll also be asking the council to consider hearing a brief presentation from the folks that are running built to last as well I don't know if we do that now or or.
Later but I'd like to invite the man to give an update on where they are not from a departmental standpoint but from an actual organization standpoint and I love your support in having them come in to provide that thank you so much you you 'll definitely have my support on all the above I was over at Hillside last week I plan to try to make a visit over there real soon I was in touch with Dr Logan and in touch with my Kinfolk who are our students at that school and yesterday was a lot for them a lot for all of us and and it just has to stop at this point we've got to find a way to stop it so I just turned to my left let me know when and where how I need to do whatever turn to my right see we have an announcements on this end.
I'll just add to that that you know there's a child that's not going home and it's just difficult every time I think it goes without saying that as a council we're supportive of the children but I am very mindful that these issues in a very holistic Way start from birth and the work you can do in high school is impactful but the work you can do from birth and prenatal is even more impactful and there are lots of organizations in this city that do that work and I just want to lift them up and saying like there's Equity before birth there's Durham children's initiative there's I mean there's so many and I think in covid there was a falling away of volunteers Falling Away of a lot of in-person activities that are necessary right now and I want to call on all of the folks in our community as our mayor once did to say that it's time to get out here and to get roll up your sleeves and.
Figure out how to support these children and their families that's. Mayor thank you so much good afternoon to you ma'am and to my fellow honorable colleagues it's all in chamber and who are watching or wherever you are Madam mayor you have I mean you you you channeled the voice in The Heart of the City as is your unique role in light of what's happened at Hillside I'll just simply say I want to associate myself with everything you've said and my colleagues have said and and just put this fine point on it with all of the accolades and detention that Durham gets whether it's DPAC or having the highest per capita PhD rate in the country one of them with how many companies are moving to us with all that stuff which is all true as long as our kids are killing each other it will always be a muted celebration this is an editorial on us big Grown Folk in the final analysis it's not those kids this is an editorial on us.
I don't know how we're going to respond to it but this is about us in the final analysis so as we celebrate how great our city is it will always be a celebration with an asterisk as long as this is going on may God bless the family of the young man who was taken from us may God bless Hillside may God bless our city Madam may I have one ask of my colleagues we know that we have been dealing with with Staffing and and salary issues with a number of departments in the city and our we know that 9-1-1 responders are the first voice that people often hear not often they are the first voice that people hear when they call when they are facing some of the most challenging and Darkest Hours I've been in communication with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology and their legislative liaison office and I'm going to ask our colleagues at the next work session to consider a resolution entitled to First Responders the first.
First Responders resolution other cities have taken it up it's winding through the legislature as now as we speak it's a resolution to recognize the value of 9-1-1 telecommunicators in their role in North Carolina public safety for responding to emergency calls from citizens of the state and dispatching those calls to First Responders in the field and I asked for unanimous consent for my college to put that on our next work session agenda to look at and and look at it and look at it and see if we want to add the voice and impromata of the city of Durham to it changing this long term there's no appropriation attached to it in the short term but long term changing this designation of first responder of 9-1-1 call takers the First Responders will put them in a position for differentiation in terms of participation in our Pension Plan compensation and I think will help us hear locally as a municipality in making sure that we're staffed with the with the best people best trained people best.
Compensated people so I asked for that to be placed to look for my colleagues to look for that for a man for it to be placed on next work session agenda in accordance with our practices to have something placed on a work session agenda thank you colleagues thank you madamir. You have your thumbs up on that yes go ahead council member also March 1st is the meeting the convening with the Planning Commission and council members it should be on everyone's calendar but it's March 1st at I believe 6 p.m so that means we have pretty much like Congress Miss Wallace told me today you all have back-to-back meetings now it is sorry about that guys first the second and the third to carry out the people's business all right thank you all I'm going to ask mayor Pro tem to carry us through our priority items I'll come back and read through the agenda and then it'll switch back over to Mayor Pro tem to carry us through our Port items and then our.
Other city council folk will be jumping in on the presentations we have this afternoon and we will move efficiently with your permission Madam mayor good afternoon once again to everyone I'm going to ask now yield now to our city manager for any priority items that she may have good afternoon Madam manager good afternoon Mr Mayor Pro Tem Madam mayor and members of the Durham city council I have only one priority item for your consideration and it is agenda item number 54 the 2023 long session legislative and advocacy agendas a supplemental item that has been added thank you thank you madam manager your item is noted at this time now I'll yield to our City attorney for any priority items you may have good afternoon counselor good afternoon mayor Pro tem the city attorney's office also has one priority item I sent a memo on this to the council earlier this week it is that at the close of all regular business today.
City council recessed a closed session in order to consider a matter in litigation the motion that is needed is to hold a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143 318.11 A3 for attorney client consultation concerning the handling or settlement in the case listed below in that case is Amanda Mingo as guardian ad litem at Al versus city of Durham at Al and that is a Middle District case federally filed in file number 120 cv226 if you'll take a motion if you'll take a motion on that well thank you your items are noted and we will discharge of that at the appropriate time I'll now you I'm sorry I'll now yield to the city clerk for any program items you may have good afternoon Madam Clerk good afternoon Mr Mayor Pro tem I did want to remind you you need to accept the city attorney's priority item yeah I'm going to okay and also there's some disclosure forms on the Dias for the council members we have.
Had a public record request for those so if you could please fill those out today and I'll be able to respond to the public record request thank you everyone thank you Madam Clerk please we have now heard our priority.
Items we have one action item from our City attorney to for a motion to go into closed session at the end of regular business for this work session she's already read the language into the record so I'll entertain a motion they're going to closed session according to the language that our city attorney's already entered into record I heard a motion from council member Freeman and we'll take a second from council member Hyman Madam Clerk you can't open it all that will indicate by raising your right hand all opposed the chair's opinion the vote is unanimous we will go into closed session after our posted agenda has been discharged with Madam mayor.
We the city manager had a was yours just information on you added something to a gym okay the city managers thank you city manager the city manager's item requires movement as well would you please provide a motion for the city manager's item second heard a motion from the mayor second council member Caballero would you please indicate affirmative by raising your right hand any opposed motions unanimous Madam mayor I think that discharges all of our priority items all right I'll go through the agenda and then you'll be ready for speakers and our public speakers today and our Port items all right I will read through the entire agenda beginning with item number one which is the Durham homeless Services advisory committee appointment the Durham Performing Arts Center oversight committee is item two item three the Durham Performing Arts Center oversight committee mayoral appointment number four the Miss Hispanic Latino committee appointment five the citizens advisory committee appointment turn into our departmental items item six on street off street parking performance audit January 2023.
Item seven audit Services oversight committee 2022 annual report number eight 2022 Raleigh Durham Airport Authority annual report item nine the American Recovery plan act Opera project Durham children's initiatives connected to Career pipeline item 10 2022 Durham open space and trails commission annual report 11. 2022 Durham city county appearance commission annual report 12 2022 Board of adjustment annual report item 13 2022 the Planning Commission annual report ing 2022 historic preservation commission annual report number 15 approval of a multi-family housing facility to be known as Hardy Street Apartments in the city of Durham North Carolina with the financing thereof with multi-family housing revenue bonds item 16 2022 Durham Community safety and wellness task force annual report item 17 the budget amendments for certain CIP project ordinances HUD Grant project ordinances and FY 23 annual operating funds bless you item 18.
Cooperative group purchase contract three something extra extreme Duty custom plumper trucks item 19 Construction contract with bar Construction Company Inc for athletic Court Renovations Piney Wood Park pickleball 21 service contract with Arbor Max Tree Service LLC for right-of-way stump removal I'm sorry skip number 20 which is the Durham cultural Advisory Board 2022 annual report item 22 the Durham environmental Affairs board 2022 annual report 23 the Durham Convention Center Authority board 2022 annual report item 24 is former Wheels Skating Center upfit design contract with DTW Architects and planners limited I think we have a citizen who's presented a car for that item that's 24.
There was one on the scale. All right the lease for RDU Presidential Park West property owner LP for Durham Police Department District 4 substation is item 24. that's okay we don't know it's actually this one we have to speak on item 25 has the speaker which is former Wheels Skating Center upfit design contract with DTW Architects and planets ill limited right. Item 26 governing service agreements for on-call Professional Services geotechnical engineering Environmental Services surveying and cost estimating item 27 contract to perform energy audit Services between the city of Durham and Alpha facilities Solutions LLC item 28 the Mia Hispanic Latino committee 2022 annual report 29 is Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act agreement for adult worker and dislocated worker program Eckert Youth Alternatives Inc number 30 2022 Recreation advisory commission annual report 31 the 2022 National Police Athletic League endowment Grant project ordinance 32 2023 Duke doing good grant program ordinance item 33. contract sw-40c construction engineering and inspection services for South Austin Avenue sidewalk number 34 contract SW slash 92 sidewalk repairs 2023.
Item 35 is contract st-322 Maryland Avenue Bridge removal item 36 the interlocal agreement with Durham County for the administration and enforcement of sediment and erosion control requirements within the city of Durham 37 contract sw-40 South Austin Avenue sidewalk project tip tip number c-5183b item 38 stormwater infrastructure repairs sd-2022-02 39 Fellowship placement agreement between the city of Durham and fuse Corps for designing a sustainable solution to waste management project item 40. contract Amendment with granite Cuts LLC doing business as granted consists LLC to upgrade to granicas encoders and software item 41 the Second Amendment to purchase contract for six Galaxie electric buses woohoo item 42 2022 bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission annual report item 43 the construction of a traffic signal at Hillandale Road and Horton Road yes item 44. nutrient analysis analyze their service agreement with hike company okay y'all know these braces a little tricky item 45 the American Rescue plan act offer update item 46 is our affordable house and deep dive presentation in Durham eviction diversion on Durham eviction diversion program.
Item 47 go Durham FY 22 annual report as for our public hearings item 48 zoning map change American village Townhomes 49 Consolidated annexation welcome Venture Park item 15 the zoning map change in 1907 South Miami Boulevard item 51 a public hearing on use of home American Rescue plans art funds ARP funds item 52 is a public hearing on an approval of proposed amendments to the FY 2016-2017-2017. Through 2018 2018 to 2019 2019 through 2020 2020 through 2021 and 21 2021 through 2022 annual action plans we also have a couple of supplemental items item 53 is a presentation on single-use plastic bag fees item 54 is 2023 long session legislative and advocacy agendas all right at item 55 is the resolution that we are being asked to vote on today in solidarity with Durham's lgbtq plus Community Madame mayor I know that councilmember Johnson's made a recommendation or a request but I was going to pull that item so I'd like to actually have some discussion about that item okay.
All right that concludes the reading of our agenda and so what I have for for you to go through mayor Pro tem is item 25 item 54 and item 55 is that what you have our city manager I'm reading from your writing excuse me thank you so much all right I'm turning it back over to you for our community comments mayor for 10. thank you the review output items thank you madam mayor just before we move council member cabiero pointed out to me that there seems to be a coding issue with item number 28 the mayor's Hispanic Latino committee 2022 annual report I'd like to bring that to the staff's attention if you click on image mhalc annual report it looks like Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act agreement for adult and dislocated worker program delivery between the city of Durham and Eckard Youth Alternatives my Spanish is not good but that is most decidedly not doesn't have anything to do with it you got you ready got you thank you all right we are.
Have pulled item number 25 former Wheels. So there's also.
Okay all right I'm pleased to welcome members of our public who who wish to speak on item number 12 item number 25 just pulled item I have a card from former council member Jacqueline wax after we welcome to the chamber back to the chamber and also item number 25 shanetta bear so we welcome to the chamber each of you will have three minutes if you come to the podium and if you'll state your name and address for the record you'll have three minutes good afternoon and welcome good afternoon.
I don't think it's on. Can you hear me now back to item number 24. When it coming in I was here see it here in the Doom and Gloom about yesterday's events at Hillside and I came prepared to speak on this item and this item right here would directly be linked to what is needed and done for some of these youth that are carrying these guns unfortunately the young man that was murdered yesterday it was a senior I'm not going to call his name but I do know his name the family I I I'm really speechless at this point to know that we have a school system that parents wake up every day send their kids to school expecting that these kids are going to be safe and these are the results that we're getting and like you said Pastor check context we have all these wonderful things going on in Durham but we have a lot of bad things that are going on that overshadow anything that's going on right now that should be.
Considered wonderful so I can't really stand here and take pride in what's going on in Durham when I know this is going on every day because I work with these young people and when we talk about some of the solutions it can't be continuing to be just a whole lot of talk and a whole lot of lip service any of y'all gonna go in that trail tomorrow and monitor I come through there every day and I see those kids coming through those Trails going to the store going across the street and I see that happening and it worries me matter of fact one day I actually went over to the school and talked to Dr Logan about a bunch of kids across the street I said you need to have somebody out here doing something about it but with this Wheels situation Wheels if anybody know the history that was a location that East Durham pack one use that facility that was a place where low-income individuals could do things.
With their kids that kept them out of trouble I spent about 20 years doing summer camps and wheels was my like my twice a week place to take the young people to it was inexpensive it didn't cost us much and we were able to go there and do things with families that a lot of things are priced out now there's nothing down here that any of the families I work with can participate in other than walking down to Central Park and walking around in the park there's nothing they can do they can't afford it you can't afford a burger down here so this Wheels Park I'm hoping that when this is completed it's accessible to the population that lives in and around that community that had access to that Park previously because when we start talking about aquatic parks every body of water in Durham right now has a price attached to it camping to you well I'm not going to go any further but I just want to say that this park is.
Instrumental in solving some of these problems with our youth thank you so much Miss Wagstaff and Ms Perris good afternoon before you start Miss Shanetta Burris let me just say my apologies we went to the pulled items we do have cards for folk for Citizens matters to be heard that one so I apologize you will be heard those of you that signed up for Citizens matters and as soon as we hear from this verse then we'll go back to our citizens matters at one is okay all right another business for 25 all right Miss I'm sorry state your name and address you'll have three minutes good after Mr Council my name is shanetta Shanetta Burris 37-1 Highgate Drive and I'm here at data center solidarity with my pack one neighbors who are enthusiastic about the Redevelopment of Wills fun park and the Aquatic Center while there's enthusiasm about the Redevelopment of this community space there are concerns about Community involvement in the planning process as we continue to grow together it's.
Imperative that because that concerned and interested residents participate in the process and that communication is clear it appears that during Parks and Recreation failed to meet with community members in the months of November 2022 as well as December and January 2023 as they've previously discussed moving forward we hope that Durham parks recreation will restore the practice of Engagement residents to Foster trust and include them in the planning process moreover community members have highlighted that the meetings are occurring in silos for example there are certain there are separate means for those interested in the Aquatic Center and those interested in Wills we must achieve a comprehensive understanding of how the site will be developed in the input provided by residence is included in a construction and upfitting of Wills residents more more than a high level overview details regarding the construction of the Aquatic Center at the site are important as folks as we ask folks to collectively reimagine users community space people are closely monitoring the RFP process and are.
Seeking Clarity on how to add these suggestions brought forth by the community are being implemented finally as we are all aware we are in desperate need relational spaces for young people as well as people my age range I like to skate too so it's been critical that we retain facilities like wills and create similar places as well I hope this Council will explore Innovative strategies to ensure that money is not a barrier for residents seek to utilize these spaces thank you thank you so much for being with us there is one more speaker on item number 25 that is Kelsey Monk good afternoon welcome if you'll state your name and address for the record you'll have three minutes thank you for being with us thank you good afternoon Madam mayor Pro tem council members my name is Kelsey Monk my address is 1302 Hudson Avenue I'm a second generation Wheels customer and a participant in the Resident steering committee such that we do meet I just wanted to call the council's attention.
To the timeline and the contract that's up for consideration today when we met in October 2022 and y'all greenlit Wheels General Services said that they could get it ready in 15 months and they outlined 11 core steps to do that we're at step number three in their outline and we're already a month behind so it took about two years for the city to Green Light reopening Wheels I just don't want it to take another two years to be able to skate again thank you thank you so much for being with us thank you all who spoke on item number 25 at this time now we're going to turn to Citizens comments I have several cards I'm going to read verse 5 and I ask that you would just come up in turn state your name and address and you'll each have three minutes James Chavis Pastor a wood senior Tiffany swooper forgive me if that's incorrect Stacy Donahue and the tray is good Mr Chaves good afternoon good afternoon to everyone.
And Black History Month to all the black folks in here that's been through the struggle like me and so many others that really know what the struggle is about I'm coming to speak on wheels since this is Black History Month and black history months mean that we need to look back and see where we've been and where we're going well Park and Recreation underway has not done nothing but discriminate against us black folks you had a young lady always stated we we missed three meetings we was not notified you had his assistant Mary sent out in December that we was going to have a meeting in January we was not notified and we did not have that meeting but come up in January for February.
We get this report the Community Committee North Park and Recreation met on this report we had no input on this report at all but they gonna tell us yes we agreed to what they said now I've been going to the meetings I didn't go to November because they didn't have one I didn't go to December because they didn't have one I didn't go to January because they didn't have one so how can you come and tell us that this is what we accept and we did not know anything about it look on the last page because I know y'all probably got a copy of it and turn it over but Mary send an email out to us in December saying that we was going to have a a meeting in January Mary is quite and I'm black now tell me who's lying me or Mary okay I mean this Black History Month that I'm lying on a white woman against a black man tell me why should I be standing up here.
If we had that meeting tell me what's important to me being black and still scruggling the fight that was struggling right in this place way before I was born and right now we got all these black folks up here and once again we are fighting to still struggle that we once thought before I was born this is discrimination our rights have been violated but you are going to say it's okay I like to know since you all been celebrating Black History Month council member Hyman and all the rest of it what about our rights that we did not get okay what about us that's been trying to take a part and making things right for the city of Durham what about us Davis thank you very much Pastor a wood senior good afternoon sir and welcome if you'll state your name and address for the record you'll have three minutes thank you for being with us.
Good evening my name is Pastor wood I've had an opportunity to be here several times and not say anything but the young man is just speaking about at Hillside I had a personal experience with this young man I volunteer over in the Cornwallis neighborhood with Miss hoops the young man had desires to be to have his own business on in January I called the police department personally and told me that was gunfire outside of that Rec Center she asked me where when what and how many I said I'm a pastor I'm here volunteering she said told me if I have any other problems call her back I told him that the center was on lockdown one police officer did not show up to that Center so you have people in the neighborhood as well that are afraid to come out to let their children come to her Center that she's helping them herself and you ask what we can do as a pastor pastor people say the Bible tells us that.
People die for the lack of knowledge right who's held accountable us pastors because we're not teaching our children as a documentary right now on YouTube you say we're doing well as Miss Wagstaff said as well you said the the worst place to live in North Carolina Durham was on there all this other stuff you're talking about mayor Bell wasn't was in office there was some investors that rode around Durham pointed out where they was going to tear down and break up before they built that Center over there off of the Hayti Center they spoke and said we got a 10-year plan for homeless well they did two things correct they built up downtown the home is still homeless how I know I was that bus driver that drove around town and pointed it out what can we do like she say stop talking it's time to get up and start I'm not throwing those stones but it's time to start talking about you hi because you're talking about all these.
Programs one of the meetings I came here to so you had some programs he's going to check it out I called council member Leonardo Williams said talked about this King program I called him back in January actually find out what we can do to help I hadn't heard from him yet it's talk so mayor I'm on your calendar like I said I'm not throwing stones but I'm willing to help and things that are not done you'll see me again I'll be back in this chamber again these investors that you're talking about buying downtown I watch police officers give tickets to people sitting downtown when I was driving the bus to tell them they couldn't sit there no more council member William said as well he's a part of this as well drinking downtown you ran us out but you gave a license for those that sit it's time to get up Pastor would thank you so much for being with us Tiffany swoops good afternoon if you'll state your name.
And address for the record you have three minutes thank you for being with us hi my name is Tiffany swoop my address is 600 Park offices Drive Suite 300. my speech has changed a little bit due to the incident that occurred yesterday on the young man who lost his life was very dear to me I connected with him and worked with him personally since last year when I launched my services at Weaver Street recreation center and what I will say is he was a young man who had hopes he had dreams he had a goal of owning his own trucking company by the time he was 25 immediately after finishing high school he wanted to go to barbering school just to start his pathway into entrepreneurial ship what I will say is we all are aware that Cornwallis is a very volatile Community it's impoverished the people that who live there have been historically marginalized there's been a lack of services and resources of afford it to their Community during my time.
Being resident at Weaver Street recreation center and I will also add I am new to North Carolina and a lot of things that I am very sensitive to here seem to be have been normalized these youth who are live losing their lives in the streets day after day they are not statistics they are human beings they have potential they have purpose and they could be very resourceful pillars in the community if given a fair opportunity and chance I am here to ask that you all Advocate and consider allocating funds to youth mentoring and youth services because it is very much needed I don't care how much technology you install to identify gunshots if we don't have the resources to respond to those gun shops to make these kids feel that they are safe in their Community to make these kids feel that someone cares and to have someone there to help guide them to that next level of Life the city is going to remain in a Perpetual cycle of what we're experiencing today.
I would just want to say that mentors we bring people from the outside in it's hard for me to get resources and I've lost connections just as recent as last month because of people from outside of the community don't feel safe within the community and because the people who are living in the community are stuck in trauma Cycles themselves they don't have the time or the mindset to participate with what I'm doing which is to break cycles of trauma that's really the gist of what I have to say we need resources we need support we need our city leaders to make Community informed decisions ones that are going to help not help certain parts of the community but all demographics to give all demographics access to equality thank you thank you so much for being with us Stacy Donahue good afternoon thank you for being with us if you'll state your name and address for the record and you'll have three minutes good afternoon thank you my name is Stacy Donahue I'm with a non-profit.
In Durham called strong her together and my address is 4209 newly Flame I wanted to be prepared to you today I envisioned myself having statistics to talk you through and maybe a nice written out three-minute speech and I'm driving over here and I'm thinking to myself why do I not have it together what is what is up and what what was really up when I started thinking about it was mentoring because that's what myself and our leadership team and our volunteers have been focused on since the Inception of our program but particularly the last couple of weeks with a initiative that we have called villagers and villagers is a program that's designed to remove boundaries to extracurricular learning so I just want to share with you just a little snapshot of what we've been working on the last couple of weeks to give you some ideas of how mentoring is is impacting youth that are involved in our program I want to paint a picture of for you of.
The girls that we've been working with most recently right now one of them is wearing an ankle monitor we have kids one has lost a brother and a best friend to gun violence we have kids who are constantly evicted we pick them up from hotels we have kids who have siblings that become pregnant move back home and then kids in our programs are tasked with watching babies while siblings go to work just a lot of things that that point to the fact that these kids are really on the precipice of a path that's that's a virtual landmine of possibilities to fail there's no question but there is a flip side to this and it's and it's a pretty cool one through through the efforts of mentoring what we've been able to see and trust me it takes some sleuthing because these kids that we're working with are not kids who are brimming with self-esteem and confidence and they want to tell you what it is that their dreams are about right.
But if you can get in there with these kids and do the work and the mentoring what you're going to find out is this same group of girls what their dreams are they want to know about sports medicine meteorology space Law photography songwriting same kids and it's mentors who are having this opportunity to get in and show these kids that they do have a possibility that's different than the possibility that they've seen for most of their lives so I would say to you City Council Members thank you for considering and voting for this legislation that's going to help us to move youth mentoring forward and beyond that I mean the opportunity for all of you for programs like ours that stronger together and the many more that we're fortunate to have here in Durham along with school staffs which are just absolutely incredible for all of us to partner together and become these Fierce advocates for these kids that is a hope I think that all of us in this room have.
Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you thank you so much for being with us atrey is good good to see you if you'll state your name and address for the record you have three minutes good afternoon good afternoon I'm atreus good at 3311 Tarleton East I lead an organization called youth mentoring collaborative we Mentor mentors and mentoring organizations to help them be better at what they do I did not know today would be mentoring day but I'm talking about mentoring and specifically from a personal perspective for those that know my personal story my mom struggled with drug addiction when I was growing up and I was forced to deal with a lot of adult issues very early on in life and my dad was there but did not have the ability to provide me with the emotional support that I needed to move forward and so it was my mentor through the greater Charlotte chapter the 100 black men of America that helped me to move forward the 100s model is what this.
Is what they'll be so the idea of visioning that is critically important to see people that look like you in positions of influence to see yourself in that space and so was surrounded by black doctors bankers lawyers scuba divers chefs a broad array of options to help me understand that I could build a different future for myself eventually started a mentoring organization when I was in college and now doing work to help mentoring organizations be stronger and I think that what's most important to think about mentoring right now is that we we are shifting and I think that covid-19 lifted up the veil on what we already knew was a mounting Mental Health crisis and young people struggling the most were black and brown students and specifically mentoring can be used to I guess eliminate some of that mental health stigma specifically in communities of color because I recognize that telling a young person to move forward and be successful is one thing but arming them with the skills so emotion regulation distress tolerance.
Core mindfulness that is critically important to help them understand that we can all build a life that is worth living and with everything that's going on right now it makes it very hard for young people to move forward and be successful and so thank you all so much for supporting the youth mentoring Services act our agency in a different name introduced that to the general assembly and we had difficulty moving it Forward because we did not have bipartisan support and what I can say is that mentoring and having a positive supportive adult in your life should not be a partisan issue I think that all young people should have access to people that simply can say I care about you I want to see you move forward and be successful so whatever can be done here locally to understand that mentoring and having access to those sorts of Role Models I would not be who I am right now had I not had someone that said I care about you but most.
Importantly allowing me to cry to shed the bitterness the frustration that came with my upbringing and build a different a different course of life and a lot of people especially young black and brown you do not have access to mentors and so whatever you all can do to continue to lift that charge it would be greatly appreciated thank you thank you brother good as always good to see you my last card I have is for Katrina Brown is Katrina here good afternoon if you'll approach and state your name and address for the record you have three minutes thank you for being with us.
Hi my name is Katrina Brown and I stay at 2519 South Roxboro Street Apartment 33 in Cornwallis okay I am here to talk about the youth yes I volunteer at the wreck in Cornwallis in. I just want to speak on my young black youth no they don't have a father figure they don't have nobody out here leading them so I just ask that they get any type of funds in that Community to what we can help our young black men to where they can lead up to they personality and let them know this more than what they trying to say they is and I am a mother of five boys and it's hard because I'm raising them by myself without Miss scoop in the pastor Mike what if that was my kid at his that school my oldest son go to Central I'm scared for him every day every day because he's young and black I just need some guidance to help the young men's I can't do it.
Myself I'm out there every day with them I can't do it myself and I need help anything with a man I need help with this young youth that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you so much for being with us we appreciate your your comments this afternoon friends colleagues like that's all of the cards indication I have of folk who were speaking for Citizens matters and we thank all of our our residents and citizens who took time to be with us this afternoon to let your voices be heard at this time now madameer with your permission we're going to go to item pulled item 54 and this was pulled by our honorable colleague Dr Hyman I'm going to yield to her yes thank you mayor and thank you mayor Pro tem my colleagues so I pulled this item because again and first of all I just want to thank the mentoring programs that I have invited here today to speak to us it's heavy on my heart too because.
When I first met Miss Tiffany swoop I literally went to Cornwallis and have been going to the program that she has there and again for me personally growing up in the South Bronx in New York one parent household I would have never been able to be here if people did not wrap their arms around me and Mentor me so I pulled this item because I really would like to see the youth mentoring Service Act that we have on our advocacy list to be moved to the action list as people are saying we've got to stop talking and we've got to stop doing and I am very much number one a social worker by trade but number two a solution focused person and so we keep saying we keep saying and we keep saying what we have to do youth mentored it is evidence-based that you've mentoring does help with risky Behavior we looked at the State of Union Address the other night from the president and he talked about youth.
He talked about substance abuse and he talked about Mental Health the president of the United States so we have to do something here in Durham we have to do something for all of our youth but especially for our populations at risk and so I'm asking my colleagues to be able to move this youth mentoring Service Act from the advocacy to the action list thank you council member colleagues anyone questions or comments I'll have some comments as the chair of the legislative committee but go first that was my question I don't sit on that committee so anyone else right it's it's first off Dr Harmon thank you so much for for your for the passion and for the folk who have come out and spoken to us about it I think it's important for residents and citizens to understand exactly what this is that we're doing the we as a governing board of of Durham of course don't have a vote in Raleigh and each year we send our list of priorities as a.
City as as mediated by us as a council to our legislative delegation and there are two there are essentially two designations that we send one is action one is advocacy they're not in any ranked order of which one is more important but our action lists are items that we are asking the legislature our legislative delegation to actually draft legislation and try and enter into the process of it becoming legislation our advocacy lists are items that are equally important but that we're saying to them if in your judgment you see an opportunity to take the shot through your relationships with other colleagues through your just reading the the lay of the land in the legislature to move on it it's very important that that we're not we're not talking about the importance of mentoring all of us understand it all of us support it all of us embrace it I was impacted by Mentor I had a father in my home a very engaged father but I also had mentors as well who partnered with.
Him so this is I want wanted to be very clear this is not about whether or not we think mentoring is important not this is the machinations of the political reality of the state legislature and and what we're what marching orders we're giving our delegation in Raleigh as they see fit I have no problem moving it to the action unless if colleagues want to do that but I want folk to understand that the debate isn't the importance of it one of the reasons why we differentiate our action list from our advocacy list is because and it was I think atreus mentioned that there wasn't bipartisan support sometimes our legislators have to make a determination as to what fights to fight at what time and sometimes fighting a fight particularly if it's already been fought fighting it again when you've got something else in play May antagonize potential allies May exacerbate efforts to get things done so what we do we say to our legislatures we trust you to read the.
Lay of the land and determine when it's appropriate to take the shot or shoehorn this in but these are the items who we we're actually asking you to draft legislation on and these are the other items that if you see an opportunity to do it do it and I think that's important to lay the land so with that said I have absolutely no objections if it's the will of the council to move the item from advocacy to action but it's very important I think for our residents and citizens to understand that we're all on the same page when it comes to mentoring we're all for it we all applaud the work that our Mentor is doing we know we need more funding from Raleigh and if we have an opportunity to do stuff here locally in terms of funding I certainly would vote for it so thank you I just want to follow up and just figure out how we do move it so do you need a thumbs up do.
You want to have a vote like how do you move forward or not yeah well I wanted to see if there was any other discussion first and then we'll yeah council member Leonardo Williams did you no I I just I support this I know that we have a lot more we have a lot more flexibility to do more at the local level so I'll support it move it to the action agenda that's fine with me but my focus will be what we can do locally hopefully the general assembly will see our hunk report council member Freeman sure and I will add the comment I think it's important that we do move into action because it is going to be critical that in this time frame with all that's going on that we're advocating as a city to actually have funds available and to make that act a state act the same way that the Juneteenth is still on the advocacy list for the state but it's not implemented I mean it's implemented federally but.
Not at the state level and it's on the list as advocacy in that same vein of what you're talking about but I feel like the youth mentoring is something as miss good Mr Good mentioned that's non-partisan and we can definitely lift that up with our delegation to make sure that it moves forward with a lot more yeah action thank you absolutely thank you and again it needs to be understood that this is not binding on our delegation this is not an order to our delegation this is an expression of our will and our desire as as a council and you know we hope it'll do better this time but certainly this this is it it will be yes it will be sent to our this is not being sent to the led the legislature writ large this is to our particular delegation that represents Durham and then they will do our bidding for us there so with that just thumbs up if we want to move it from.
All right staff if you would note that we'll I believe that will take item four items the number of items on our action list from I'm sorry chief chief Wallace did you want to you're correct good afternoon Madam mayor mayor Pro tem check context if the decision of the council is to move the support of the youth mentoring Services act to the action or legislative agenda that will increase our list by one so thereby making it five requests instead of four okay all right thank you very much all right council member good afternoon Miss Wallace real quickly when we do meet with the delegation and I know we're meeting with them soon will we be able to prioritize within that like what what because that's a lot so I just want to have a better understanding so typically they prioritize for US based on some of the comments that mayor Pro tem have mentioned based on what they believed the trajectory of each of these requests are and and the legislative breakfast is a public.
Meeting we are scheduled to have it on February the 20th at 9 00 a.m in the committee room the public is welcome and in previous legislative meetings the delegation has shared with us in those meetings what they're willing to advance and what they're not so it's quite possible that we will hear then what they're willing to move forward thank you I just want to also say that this youth mentoring Act was also something that was done in 2021 right and so some of those same people that actually pushed those this this bill are still there and so I'm hoping to get an audience so that they can hear this so in terms of us prioritizing okay yes they're going to prioritize it but I just wanted to put in preference that they have already put this bill and it didn't pass but they did put it in and I felt that we need to put it in it again because we still have kids dying we still have things that we're not doing.
And that's why I wanted to see it so I thank my colleagues for allowing us to move this thank you thank you council member probably is anyone else on this item all right then we will go to item 55 resolution in solidarity with Durham's LGBT lgbtq plus Community I'm pulling it but council member Johnson had a requested action on it did you want to make any further comments before I no I'm happy to just refer to my colleagues for commentary thank you Colleen anyone else before I I pulled this item firstly this is absolutely without question something we should be forwarding a resolution that this should come forth from this Council I do first I want to say in terms of just from an Institutional history and integrity point of view I don't I don't think it's precedented at least since I I've been on Council where we've moved a resolution that was not tied to a deadline that had to do with money or or something of that native they usually come from staff.
Because of the speed of legislation going through a legislature I don't know that that's something that I mean when hb2 was passed our voice came after that that legislation was passed as well so I'm not sure about establishing precedent where because of the speed of legislation going through Raleigh that our resolution you know our voice I don't think will be less morally powerful after it's passed or not if we're not gonna we can't veto it we can't stop it from happening and I think that it's important also that when we put the emperor mater of the city the voice of the city behind something that it that we've had opportunity to to massage it and make sure that the language is fully reflective of of where we stand I wanted to call first off in the resolution the the attention the second whereas whereas members of the LGBT plus Community currently experience the highest rate of hate motivated violence among all marginalized communities in the U.S I don't know that that's true.
I I don't know that factually that that's correct and I think that the the the power of these resolutions is is the weight the the moral weight of the voice of the people of Durham and I think it undermines that voice if we say things knowingly that are not factual an accident is one thing a mistake is one thing but you know I looked at the FBI and if it's sore if there's a source I mean another resolutions when we've made claims like that we'll say according to such and such or according to such and such I think if this is the case we need to Source this but the sources I've looked at I looked at FBI numbers they published 2021 at the end of 2022 they'll publisher 2022 numbers at the end of 2023 and by far the the the largest amount of cases are are with race now the significant there is a significant percentage for lgbtq Community I think it was like well.
That's what was like 19 or 20 it was almost 69 that was race-based so I guess my I don't think this this resolution is ready to move yet firstly just on that point and then I have one other question because I think this should be tight I think this should be if it's going to have the Improvement of our city you know we should be able to we I don't think we do any favors to are to the community or to our allies if we don't take care to make sure that our moral voice is unimpeachable as much as possible in the factory and righteousness are not mutually exclusive so my first question is where did this number come from and how is it sourced thank you Mr Mayor Pro tem the numbers Source from the FBI which shows that the victimization rate for lgbtq people so the rate at which lgbtq people experience hate crimes is the highest of any other group the number of hate crimes that happen in the U.S.
The number of hate crimes against black folks is the highest but the victimization rate for black people is four victims per 100 000 population and the victimization rate for lgbtq people is 11.9 I'm happy to send you this data that was taken from from the FBI figures and and published online I I looked at this I think we should I think we should somehow source that because as it reads now experience the highest rate of hate motivated violence again among all marginalized communities as that reads now I think that's questionable in the way it's framed I'm sorry I don't did what about it do you feel is questionable given I mean are you do you doubt that that that what I just told you is true or do you think that I don't understand I'm not going to fall into that trap clearly I don't I don't doubt that the level of violence against members of the LGBT community is is high but you you use the term victimization rate which is.
And if it's turning on the term victimization rate we should probably say that it says it says rate though it does you use the word but why are you using words that let's use the words that you used in the resolution I mean if we're and that's my point if somebody reads it back to me if we have to add a word or clarify it then that type then that says something to me I mean let's make it as tight as possible as it reads now I can see members of other communities particularly of the black community taking issue with it as it's framed so let's just be precise with the language I don't understand what's not precise about the word rate let me put it this way you said victimization rate as if there's something different between that and what's said here so why not put victimization rate in there we could put victimization rate in there I don't think that using the word rate is inaccurate however I use the word.
Rate highest rate not highest number so I don't understand your objection I did not say that lgbtq people experience the highest number of hate motivated attacks I said we experience the highest rate I don't think that framing is accurate either and based upon my reading of the FBI documents the FBI numbers that I saw but if I think that what they a a path forward might be is why don't we Source it why don't we put according to as we've done that's well established precedent according to the American Heart Association according to U.S Bureau of Labor and statistics I mean that's not uncommon why don't we source that in this in this resolution so you want me to say according to the FBI according to wherever you got it why is that why is that controversial I think it's unnecessary that's all I I why would we want to make a declaration of of something that on its face could invite scrutiny could invite and I think that takes away from the main goal we.
Have here and that is to bring the moral weight and voice of our city in alignment and in conjunction in cooperation with our brothers and sisters in the lgbtq plus community and if there's ways we can make this document tight to minimize any distractions why wouldn't we want to do that why wouldn't we want to Source a statement that on its face invites controversy it's an accurate statement and I take issue with the fact that you're questioning it given that you very rarely question accurate statements and resolutions brought by other people in this Council and about other issues that's my issue I knew you would but I think it's unnecessary hold up the mayor's gonna have to jump back in and we will hear from a council member Jose Harmon for a second so I'm going to put my professor hat and I was talking about essential we always talk about what excuse me evidence base right so I can understand the siding but we could also use populations at risk that is a.
Population at risk Point Blank so I don't really understand the word smithing but it is a population at risk and I feel the way it's worded is talking about populations evidence you literally use different words and that's there though why can't we why can't we why do we why do we read something and then use different words and say that's what it's saying if that's what you said is true then why don't we just put that why can't we just be precise with language but I I don't want to go back and forth but I just I want to say too that I think it's irrelevant to the evidence-based and sourcing and stuff like that we're talking about people and so I'm just going to leave it at that I'm going to turn to council member Javier for a couple of comments thank you we are not on consensus I just want to say I appreciate my colleague I I understand the urgency behind this resolution and we can Wordsmith it and.
We can accept maybe some friendly amendments to language I don't really care what I do want is for folks in our community like what is happening in this state right now and across this country targeting lgbtq and trans people is terrifying it is moving us to a fascist State and everybody needs to be aware black folks Latino folks immigrants gay and trans folks the time is done for this quite frankly it is a dangerous dangerous time in our state what is happening in the general assembly for a parent for any of us who have lgbtq plus friends neighbors loved ones I I we can word Smith this to death but I really just need some resolution on this this is we talk about the fear that some of us have there's a lot of fear for lots of reasons in this community and I need Durham to stand up comment council member Freeman and then we'll just take it to a vote I think that's what council member Johnson is asking is that.
What you're asking for today yes ma'am thank you thank you thank you madam mayor I was just gonna note that I completely understand the sense of urgency and a it is important that we do stand in solidarity but I do think that mayor Pro tem is correct and that we do want to make sure that the language can't be challenged in a way that makes us look like we don't know what we're talking about and so whenever there's push back on a resolution like this I feel like we should take it just either add the resource or change the language but it should actually reflect what we're trying to say as much as possible just acknowledging how our media and legislature tend to use our words against us and so I I don't know that that needs to take extra time and I'm not sure what the delay like what what Monday nights you know 10 days from now difference would be so somebody has to explain that to me what the rush.
Is to suspend the rules and vote today because that I am not certain on that's all men in America thank you madam mayor thank you colleagues and I do want to I want to be very clear about the theater going on here and this is theater I have written a number of resolutions all of which went through the mill I wrote Durham's resolution on anti-Semitism homo anti-Semitism white supremacy and islamophobia and I went back and forth with colleagues former colleagues on this Council back and forth I've written a number of resolutions in which we've had time to massage it and Wordsmith it so the notion that it's somehow different or exotic that we're massaging a word smithing resolution is simply not true secondly when we put the impromata of our city the weight of our moral voice as a city behind something why would we not want to make it as tight and precise as possible don't we want it to be unimpeachable this isn't our seal it's the city seal.
No one is saying that this resolution should not do not fall for that trap we need to speak on this issue we need to but I would do not do not fall into the Trap that we need to speak so urgently that we can't do it with proficiency and efficiency we can we do it all the time we do it all the time there's no money tied to this we have no veto power over what Raleigh does Raleigh been doing this stuff all the time we we know it comes out we know what they churn so this isn't a surprise hb2 we watch hb2 happen before we responded it was long after so yes this is this is a and with due respect I mean folk can read I mean if if you look at a document and you have to explain it by using other words that's not in the document that's a Telltale sign and if the words that you're using aren't on the page all I'm simply saying.
Is if you think those words are better put those on the page or stick by the words you actually said this language is questionable as it's currently put it's questionable and I think it causes dissension amongst folk who should be arm and arm locked on this there are plenty of ways we can capture the spirit of this document there are plenty of ways that we can transmit the the power of our moral voice as a city and still be correct and accurate they're not mutually exclusive and I'm not going to fall into the Trap that simply questioning the language used so we can it can be most forceful the most effective is somehow not supporting and nobody's going for that that's theater thank you we're going to turn to council member Leonardo Williams and then we're going to try to see if we can make some friendlier movement amendments and then we can vote up or down I think we have to do a motion to suspend the rules in.
Order for us to vote it up or down to move it forth okay yeah next I'll have a couple of comments and then I'll ask for council member Johnson to carry through her emotions we're going to ask you to suspend the rules and then we'll go from there we can do this in decency and underwater all right it's all right to disagree sometimes robust conversations let's go yep all right and for the record everyone on this Council supports our support our lgbtq community this is what democracy looked like and it's messy sometimes and we just want to have it tight it's over here Whispering with councilmember Johnson and I think if we were to just simply make one little Wordsmith here with us that's experienced one of the highest rates I think that that solves it across the board for us and she's perfectly fine with it so we need to get this through bam I'm not perfectly fine with it not perfectly fine thank you well we can get.
There we can get you would agree that we that will be a a medium point to get to the vote to the suspend the rules and go ahead and get to the vote if we make that friendly amendment I have no further comment all right okay I know how my sister feels I've had my stuff torn up all the time I mean you know I've submitted stuff that did not look the way it did when I first submitted it I didn't take it personally we you know that's just the way democracy Works let's move through the other man I'll suggest that amendment was okay let me change with attorney to make sure first we need to suspend our moon our rules to go ahead and then you can make your friendly Amendment just want to get some clarification on on how we move it on each one because we have we do have a friendly Amendment to the document that we probably need to vote on as well sure metamera so yes if council's going.
To take action at a work session you need to entertain a motion first to send the rules to take action once that motion is through you can deal with the motion on the floor okay all right go ahead I think we have a question from council member just a question regarding making changes to the resolution and then making it available to the public how does that work like I don't know that you can change it from what it is right now and then allow folks to review like I think that's part of the process that's why we do it this the way we do it so I'm trying to I'm trying to reconcile that part of this because I know that's been explained to me in the past that you can't just make the changes the day of and then that so I'm just I'm just a little confused because that's not how it was explained previously that's all thank you councilmember so as I would understand this process once.
The rules have been suspended someone would put forth emotion to adopt the resolution if others want to offer friendly amendments during the consideration of that motion then that could proceed maybe I didn't understand your question because you look very confused so if the document itself is changing the resolution that we're approving is changing there doesn't need to be a review is what I'm saying a review from it sounds like I was lied to before that's what I'm getting at applied to by whom.
I I I'm sorry I lied to not a mayor I don't have the ability to answer that question wait a minute let's let's hold up for one second okay so council member Freeman just explained your understanding of what was told to you about the rules from from what I'm hearing this is the first time and I want the general public to get to understand some of the intricacies Okay so this is the first time this has happened since I've been married council member Johnson and his act has asked the council to suspend the rules and move this resolution as it was promulgated by her today and move move it as an move it and and rule on it right spin moves we either voted up or down and then from there it would move now according to what you're saying council member Freeman that is not your understanding of the process after it is changed I believe is what I'm hearing saying if a resolution has changed then.
There is a process that it has to go to the public for them to consider it is that what you're saying I don't know okay so can you turn on your mic and elaborate what was explained to you because you're. Out in that one just keep it short though Mark and and I'm sorry Monique and Mia protein Dr Heim let's move it along yeah I just wanted to say can I just say that like when I did my first one the school safety I think we voted on it and then mayor Pro 10 other people had Corrections and then they made those Corrections and then that was public so that's what happened with the one I did we actually did before we voted but you're right there were yeah and Madame if I can just for again for the point of institutional integrity and and what actually happened historically this is unprecedented where a a council member has asked us to move a resolution totally pinned by them without the.
Courtesy of having their colleagues able to Wordsmith it time to digest it and then to suggest that to to lean on what has been established protocol and decorum for this body is somehow against the spirit of it that is absolutely unprecedented to suspend the rules to move a resolution that has nothing to do with money that's there's no timeline in terms of hiring is unprecedented it has not happened so it you know to to the notion that you know wordsmithing is is it's part of our process what normally happens is when colleagues have issues we have cordially said okay we'll take it back we'll send you our words we've even agreed to pass it on the next Monday meeting after we've adopted our friendly amendments and we've word smithed this is a resolution it's not an ordinance this is something that has resided with with Incredible cordiality and collegiality amongst us it's something that we've done informally it's something that's been very it's never been this a controversial process.
Because we've never asked us any one of us have never asked this body to put the improm out of the city on something that they wrote exclusively without any review or consideration whatsoever that's impressed that's why we're having this conversation what I would recommend is that we lean on regular order there is no money involved there is no deadline involved Raleigh going to do what Riley gonna do they've been doing it and our voice will be no less morally powerful when we pass this then if we pass it at our next Monday meeting or now but if we're going to move forward in this way then to counsel to the spirit of council member Freeman's Commons then then we need to have time to word Smith that's why we we take it offline outside of these meetings so we don't take up this much time in this context to do it collegially accordingly amongst colleagues that's how it's happened this is new some news stuff.
All right are there any further comments now I I do have to say one thing you know just I I realize that precedent means a lot but these are as I've talked with our attorney she's explained that those are our rules and you also have the opportunity as you hope you would you know to adjust or modify your rules or or rely on precedent move but just because it hasn't been done before it doesn't mean that it can't you know that's just that life it can it can happen if it hasn't done before and I like the spirit of the debate to see how we react in these circumstances but I do think that it does really kind of call for a vote up or down whether you want to do as they've asked or you don't and we we vote on that mayor and I'm I'm going to say that this might not my memory may not be correct right so I'm just putting that in there.
But I think that what happened at some point was we created this process to give the space when folks were introducing resolutions and it was just an opportunity so when I think that there's precedent things it is certainly within the last four years I wouldn't be able to tell you because I think we we talked about doing this along the way and I don't remember which council member had put a resolution forward and I think there was a lot of friendly amendments offered in that space in that work session and so then we had come up with this you know maybe we should do it this way and it was to allow some space and some time for folks to Ward Smith and whatnot that is my recollection I don't remember which amendment or which council member or sorry resolution or which council member but I do remember we were kind of in this wordsmithing and taking a little out of time up and so we kind of came up with this somebody.
Please ask ahead of a work session and I think we decided a few you know which councilmember Johnson did hey I'd like to bring forward and council member Halsey Hyman did recently hey I'd like to bring this resolution forward we give our thumbs up the person introduces the language and then we do pass it you know at one of the subsequent meetings but that is a process we kind of came to along the way if that makes sense and maybe my memory is not correct and that's fine but that's how I remember it happening to my council member or to my colleague's points yes in the last four years I don't remember us suspending the rules for this but that's not because there was some major roadblock to it it was just the process we created along the way.
Wow. Male protein yeah I I really appreciate the debate I actually had another amendment as well to and this is why we we have a work session to get to massage the language and and give our input which we have a right to do to if if in our opinion it'll make it stronger so I wanted to in addition to and I think the the council member for accepting the one of the highest rates I the the plank where it says whereas protests and demonstrations targeting drag shows and drag performers have increased dramatically over the last several years with such protests being held in several locations in North Carolina I'm wondering if the council member would be amenable to adding harassment and threats and the reason why I say that is because the protest the the bills that have been introduced the the health care issues those are actual hardcore at governmental actions and policy issues what I'm concerned about is somebody saying and because they've done it before is oh they're protests and.
Demonstrations are are protected activities under the Constitution y'all protesting and demonstrated after George Floyd and when I read this you know as as a boring as some of the things that I hear people say you know I took enough to a constitution to protect their right to say it as as hateful as some of the things I've heard people say their right to protest and demonstrate is enshrined in our culture what they where the line is crossed is when those protests and demonstrations turn into threats and harassment and I'm wondering if we might want to in addition to what's protected Behavior as a born as it is to us with protests and demonstrations if you be amenable to to muscularize that language a bit where we where we also recognize that these aren't just constitutionally protected protests and demonstrations these things crossed the line where they're harassing people and physically threatening them which has been the case and I I think the language should reflect that.
Thank you so much me on Pro tem at the time that we after we the first motion I think will be to suspend the rules and then we'll vote on that after that the considerations will be to word Smith with the two friendly amendments and then at the end of that I believe that we voted up or down as to whether it proceeds would that be correct or or there's one other or we don't suspend the rules we engage in regular order and we get together as colleagues collegially and Wordsmith and have it ready to pass at our next council meeting in regular order and that's and that would be fine too so do we want to vote on that part first that we keep it with regular order all right let us do that by a hand vote all those in favor of keeping basically letting it run through the process that it normally runs through folks so we'll go to GBA foreign thumbs up for those.
Who came with that thumbs up for those who are not okay with that all right we have five two all right it will stay as it is and move to GBA next week and please note those two amendments I would ask that you all try to include those in a draft form and get those out to us so everybody have an opportunity absolutely review all right okay is that the end of all our food items I think that was the last Point leave something out of Mayor yes ma'am right okay we'll head now into our presentations this afternoon and we have some great ones up I can't wait for some of these presentations so we're going to start first with item 45 that's going to be the American Rescue plan act that's going to be lit by council member colleguero of item 46 is affordable housing housing Deep dive council member Joseph Hyman will leave that council member Leonardo Williams would lead 1947 which is go Durham and after that.
Council member Johnson will be leading the presentations on single-use plastic bag fees which is a supplemental item all right let's roll thank you mayor good afternoon see Ms Johnson and her awesome team.
And we're ready whenever you are. Okay good afternoon mayor O'Neill mayor Pro tem check context City Council Members I am Bertha Johnson Deputy city managers for operations I am delighted to be here today to provide you an update on American Rescue plan funding I want to take the opportunity to introduce my team some are existing or existing city employees and some we hired into this process I would say more than not most of them have not worked in local government before so we've had a had a fun time getting up to speed on our local government bureaucracy in the way in which we follow through with our processes and procedures and we also have some other folks in the room who you'll hear from later in the presentation so we have Robert Morales here who is our senior manager for Grants we have Victoria samayor administrative coordinator Scott strain who is our grants writer and Shayla light a senior grants accountant and one of the person I want to mention.
On our team is Carlos Hernandez and the city attorney's office and I would have to say Carlos spends a significant amount of his time working with us and so we appreciate the city attorney's office for allowing them to spend so much time with our team so just as a reminder most of these slides you have seen before the American Rescue plan is an extraordinary federal policy response to the covid-19 pandemic it is also a historic opportunity for us to deal with some of our long-standing racial and economic inequalities and pandemic exposed issues we at the city of Durham received 51.8 million Durham County 62.4 and we'll talk later about how we can collaborate to leverage our resources so again the American Rescue plan funding it's it's very flexible around you know the categories that you can use but we have also some final rules who are a little bit more more stringent but I'll talk about the the top four here Revenue replacement respond to far-reaching Public Health provide premium pay which.
We did for men or our employees water soar Bland infrastructure so when we found out that we were going to receive this funding we came to city council some of you were not here at the time and we proposed the process and we started out with the internal process which was which was advised to us by the award notice so we went to our internal departments to look at what we needed as an organization we also proposed the City Council that we bring back on those ideas to city council for approval which we did and then we embarked upon a community engagement activities to go out to the community and ask the community what they believed we needed to use these funds for related to the covet pandemic so here was our initial timeline we wanted to have Engagement review you know allocation and again evaluation at the end of the process which will happen not only with us but also from U.S treasury and the federal government.
I wanted to remind you all that this process doing this process we gathered a lot of information from our residents we hosted community events we developed a survey in partnership with Durham County North County Central University and community-based organizations to increase public awareness we advertise this opportunity in the newspaper as well as other magazines and broadcast we placed and we share this information doing the PB process we utilize contacts gained through many of our other Outreach opportunities like PB and the comp plan we also sent out email blast to all residents and folks who had engaged with us in different ramps in the city to make sure they were aware of this funding more than 80 proposals were received on the deadline and were reviewed for eligibility and we'll talk later about the different projects that were initially funded and we engaged in partnership with Durham Durham County again North County Central University and NIS and our office of equity and inclusion North Carolina Central University actually had a specific host.
Who worked with us we had Dr Henry mccour we had Dr Harper as well as Dr page who actually served as the host who were bringing folks to the table to engage and they helped us actually design the engagement process again we had two community-wide events you may recall that we started out with those events calling those events budget healing events that was a term that came to us from at the time council member preline who had proposed we do budget healing events and once we received this funding we thought wow now we can have funding to support the information that we get and the proposals we get from the community so again we received over 300 survey responses the survey responses were not necessarily proposal they were just ideas or people's comments about how we should use the money to support the community but the final actually proposals that number was 80.
So during one of our events we asked the participants to rank the following eligible uses in order they think should be prioritized as you can see here number one economic impacts and the last one water sewer infrastructure and you all have seen these slides before but I just want to remind everyone how we got to where we are and the decisions we made in the first round of funding we then went back to those residents so whoever showed up residents showed up at the second event we asked them so what criteria do you think is most important in evaluating proposals and as you can see here the number one is racial equity that actually we pause for a minute we work with Equity inclusion to actually create an equity tool to use for that Criterion so we created a matrix and these were the components of Criterion in that Matrix eligibility obviously is first that is based on U.S treasury eligibility which is why you had eight proposals and you ended up with 34.
Because they had to be eligible based on those guidelines and again Equity impact that was where the equity tool determined whether the project it was Equity based collaboration we wanted to make sure that the proposals actually collaborated with other organizations or the community there may be other non-profit organizations who were doing the same who had the same Mission and we wanted them to do that collaboration I obviously wanted it to align with our goals we wanted the proposals to be Community Driven we asked them did you go out into the community how did you talk to the community about this how do you know that this is what's needed in the community so doing covet obviously a lot of times that was really surveys or there was information that they already had because they've already been working in the community and then registration we looked at how feasible was the proposal for us to administer and the organization as well as look at the data collection and all the other.
Requirements of the funding and the last Criterion was the qualified census tract which is the HUD track that was provided to us by U.S treasury so how do we ensure the Investments align with federal guidelines and Community priorities we received lots of proposals to 80 and we put those into these groups here health and wellness safe stable housing economic equity and Community resiliency and as you may recall we had at the beginning we had one category education and we removed education based on feedback from Council and we changed it to the community category just to remind you all we had review committees made up of County Employees city employees and residents so at those events we asked residents if you're interested in participating in the review process let us know and we will put you on a team based on your interest as well as your experience some we also had some volunteers who did not submit their project on time sent us a proposal it was past the deadline so we invited.
Them to participate on the on one of the Committees in order to be part still be part of the process so here's some of the data about our Review Committee participants. So in December we gave you an all an update and we shared with you our thoughts about around how we should move forward and making decisions about which proposals we fund in May of 2021 Council selected which proposals would be awarded at 70 percent of the original original requested amounts so we had you all had the big spreadsheet which you have as part of your agenda packet you all looked at the spreadsheet we had recommendations to to fund at 100 percent the staff recommendation at 100 those with a score of 24 or or above city council looked at the spreadsheet went away had an opportunity to review those proposals came back and thought all of those proposals were good proposals and decided to fund them at 70 percent maximum 1 million so all proposals at 70 percent of the funding request maximum.
One million so and that is really important important to point out as we think about transformation whereas some of the proposals came back to us and said we proposed you know 5 million or something really big we're only going to get 70 or Max of 1 million and so we talked about how we would be coming back to city council where you may focus on a smaller subset of those or one of the particular categories that we mentioned in the earliest lot city council also deferred some proposals for city council City County consideration based on the county allocation determination at the time Durham County had not gone through their process so you all asked us to hold those and maybe revisit those after we had at the Durham County finished their process and they actually started with us and they went through a different process where they selected categories up front and then looked at the organizations that can meet the requirements of the of those categories so it wasn't really a match.
The funded project proposals work with staff to draft agreements you've seen many of those outlining the terms conditions and Reporting requirements as I mentioned in the last update this took quite a bit of time because by the time we came back to those proposals we were under the final rules and the final rules required us to collect more data it changed the eligibility it changed the documents and the qualification data that we had to collect as an organization to be in compliance so it was basically like starting over again with the organizations so it took a lot of patience and a lot of back and forth to get those Scopes created and also have all of our every agenda item that came to you all and the contracts we actually sent those through the attorney's office in some cases they met with the school of government and other you know authorities to ensure that before they pass that on to you all that they felt comfortable that those projects were eligible and that was a.
Good process and I'll talk about some of the other things we did in the interim between when you gave us that that directive and we came back to you with those items so again the approved proposals we had 17 in economic equity nine and Community resiliency six and stable safe and stable housing and two and health and wellness 20.6 million so what happened next we hired a grants manager we Robert we organized our upper team as you see here in addition to Carlos and and Fred initially began this process with us because it required a lot more work to create the the policy we developed the policy because that is what was recommended as a best practice not all cities created a separate policy but we agree that that was the best practice and we wanted to do that because we know people don't always stay in the same place and wanted to make sure over the years that there would be continuity in applying these funds and approving proposals we developed.
Templates with the attorney's office for the subway the sub-recipient agreement of sub award agreements in a local agreements when we were working with the county and other government agencies and memorandum is an understanding for those proposals that were internal departments we had one-on-ones but every single organization multiple times probably not as efficient as we would have wanted to the process to be but we were learning as we were going along and so sometimes we met with them we went back we found out that we needed to get additional information or they submitted documents we sent them to the attorney's office we went back so if you hear that from organizations it is absolutely true there were times when we had to meet with them on multiple occasions but but you know it all worked out in the end we had to again rework the Scopes what we realized again is when organizations submitted their proposals they may have submitted that proposal on 5 million or 1 million or 2 million and then we said.
You're going to get you know 1 million or if they you know some other amount we had to go back and say now give us a scope based on that funding and give us metric space on that funding and so that was a that required some time as organizations had to work through their programs and services to come back and give us that data so we submitted agreements to departments for review again if it was a related Department you know we thank Community Development when they were priorities related to housing or you know rental assistance of those proposals we reached out to them and met with them for them to help us understand the proposals and make sure they were in alignment what we were trying to accomplish in Community Development and not redundant duplicative and in the work that they're doing so we appreciate that so again that was one example of the department that we met with to talk about the proposals where we had subject matter experts in the organization.
And then we had to create a monitoring process we needed to make sure that we could explain to the proposers to the organizations what the requirements would be around monitoring and I would say we had some organizations we had several who to this day have not committed to the funding because they have not committed to the monitoring process because of capacity and that's a that's a major a major issue that we're trying to work through and even concerns around those who have are accepting the funding but it's yet to it remains to be seen if they actually have the capacity to do the monitoring which will require the staff to do more in terms of making sure that the city of Durham is safe in terms of you know spending the the federal dollars so here are the list of the agreements that have come through city council today these are a lot of the ones were in the in the top of the list because they had the highest score they already had.
Probably received large grants they may have already received Federal funding they were the easiest organizations to create the scope and get the contracts through the process so the discussion we really want to have today is around the remaining funding and I wanted to remind you of what we've already done what the process is like as you think about you know how you want to use the remaining funding 22.56 million so I want to start out talking about potential Joint City County affordable housing efforts again we wanted we want to look at how we can leverage our resources and collaborate with Durham County and anyone else who has you know money to put to this to accomplish some of our some of our goals as you recall in December Community Development put out a request for proposals for affordable housing to to supplement financing for affordable housing developments utilizing low-income housing tax credits a total of nine projects were received we actually funded four of the projects at 16.8 million and we funded four because that.
Was all the funding we had available for the projects what you see on your screen here are the remaining four projects so we based on those projects coming forward and based on the feedback we assumed that those are priorities you're still very much interested in actually implementing and because Durham County is interested in contributing some of their Opera funds to affordable housing and this amount is 20.9 million needed and again we want to commit to the dollar amount not necessarily the exact amount for each project as you all know it's some time has passed and we'll need to get some updates but we want to make that commitment if we're going to make that be so that we can go back to Durham County and say you know we're willing to commit 10 million if you all commit 10 million which was the initial number that we shared with with Durham County.
Foreign again Reginald Johnson is here today if you have questions about the projects so the second group of projects were the projects on the list that you all deferred for joint City County consideration again the County's process process changed to be different in categories versus looking at the specific organizations as you may recall we shared all of our proposals with Durham County and they participated in the engagement process but they their process changed in the end in terms of how they actually decided how which organizations to fund on this list I think there are two that Durham County is planning to fund that is YMCA and there's I think it's the it's the main yes it takes a village project those are two that they are committed to some type of funding now when you look at the numbers here obviously these numbers are the initial requests they haven't been reduced as you did with the other organizations so this is a second I guess option to revisit these.
Projects they came in with the initial batch of projects their initial proposals they came in within the the deadline of project proposals we have not done anything else with these projects.
Foreign so the third list of projects I have here are projects that came in after our deadline those projects may have come through the Opera email address they may have come to the city manager they might have come to all of you most of you I'm sure all of you've seen these products in one form or another but they've come through and the request was tied to Opera funding and so we put those on the list primarily to be transparent that they came through as a request of Opera funding but some of them you've heard from these folks recently in Council meetings and some you may not have but if you have questions about those I'm happy to try to answer those questions but I I feel like you're probably familiar with all of these requests.
Foreign the last group of projects we as we accepted projects that came from outside the organization after the deadline we also have two projects that we're interested in that came from internal departments General Services submitted a request for funding for for the urban forestry division for tree planting initiative and this is really focused on the canopy and it's around the data around reducing energy costs and underserved neighborhoods by 50 percent by increasing the tree canopy and the folks from General services are here also if you have questions about that that request and then we have another one from General Services solarize the triangle initiative and this is really focused on how do we actually help solarize homes for residents and and low to moderate income households to help reduce their electricity bills and and that would I believe that is 16 to 20 eligible households will be addressed with this responding and so again I'm not very familiar with this program but we have the folks in the room who are.
Happy to answer any questions you might have. So again what we we're asking for is feedback on how to prioritize the remaining funds we the team will continue to you know once we hear back from you all we'll work on establishing guidelines and processes based on these proposed ideas or requests as well as any of those that you all have again we still have to once the decision is made we still have to go back through the process we have to refine the scope determine if the projects are eligible and complete the required documentation set up the monitoring to meet with the organizations and so the process does not change but we need to get guidance on how you all want to prioritize their the remaining funds so here's our proposed timeline which is where we are now February to April Council select projects or and initiatives and then we go through again our our process and then we negotiate contracts again if those were depends on what the proposals are where those.
Contracts get negotiated obviously if those are affordable housing process it would be the community development team and not our team and then Council the contracts will come back to you all again as they always do for final decision making so just as a reminder we are always have our website up we have our ARP at dormancy.gov email for for our residents and folks to contact us we have our website up as we always do we'll put this up on the website for residents to look at this discussion so that they have questions or concerns they can share that feedback with you or the staff as well and so we try to make sure we keep that as updated as possible which is why we send folks to our webpage when they have questions about events or upcoming Council meetings about this this topic which is why you might have some a lot of interest today so that is the end of my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions.
I am sure the manager is here as well to support me in that because we've had a lot of conversations about these proposals it's a tough decision thank you thank you for the presentation I'm going to let I have a couple of residents signed up to speak on the presentation so I want to let them go ahead and speak the person I have right now is JB Buxton and I don't know I think he's here with us and then I wasn't sure Madam Clerk if there's anyone on Zoom that signed up there's one individual on Zoom Pamela Andrews but she did not indicate which item number she would like to speak to Okay after we let Mr Buxton speak we'll ask which item thank you okay that's fine.
Good afternoon good afternoon can you please State your name JB Buxton thank you president object and you have three minutes break 32 Beverly Drive although if the college 1637 East Lawson all right council members I appreciate the opportunity to come speak to you I want to make sure you know a couple of things about affordable housing project I first want to say we feel fortunate to be in a city and county that has made this one of its highest priorities and we want to be part of that solution and I say that on behalf of our Board of Trustees our foundation board of directors our faculty staff and our students we know this issue well at Durham Tech we did a study a number of years ago with Temple University that included 700 of our students and we found that 50 percent of our students that experienced some level of Housing and security 20 percent had experienced homelessness in the past year no doubt the pandemic has accelerated some of those Trends we want.
To be part of the solution in improving the housing stock of affordable housing in Durham and we have a proposed project if you look at the four or five that are on there the Mosaic project is the Durham Tech project we have Mosaic nonprofit housing affordable housing development partner as well as Bank of America Community Development Corporation which is a subsidiary of Bank America that's our lender on the project that does affordable housing mixed income projects we have about six and a half acres of developable land on South Briggs a great Transportation route access to 147 across the North Carolina career center about 0.9 walking distance from our main campus where we can build 124 units out of affordable housing that would be split between 30 percent below 30 and below 60 percent Ami we've also had some good conversations with DHA about opportunities to use Section 8 based housing vouchers to create even additional 30 percent what I want you to know about this development is that we subjected it to a.
Rigorous Community engagement process we hired partnership for southern equity to come in they have experience doing this kind of work in communities and getting deep Community engagement about what potential residents community members live in the area want to see out of affordable housing project they came in we did four different sessions had great attendance including council member Freeman's mom at one point who joined one of our sessions to look at what we needed to do and actually revised our site plan based on community input and feedback both in terms of the kind of amenities of the project as well as this site plan itself and so we are excited about this project with this Gap funding together with a four percent lie Tech funding we would be ready to move we believe we have about 25 percent of those 124 units that we could make available for our students based on their eligibility under litec and then about 75 percent which would be available to the community at large so I.
Just wanted you to know about this high priority project for Durham Tech we want to be part of the solution with you and the community and we appreciate your consideration thank you so much Madam Clerk do we do we know if which item I'm unable to tell we have to ask her directly in Open Session okay.
Madam Clerk as she raised her hand to speak she's not raised her hand thank you thank you I'm going to now see if any of my Council colleagues have any questions or comments mayor okay councilmember Leonardo Williams sure thank you the Madame Deputy city manager Johnson he's long titles is there a timeline in which organizations that were identified to receive funding is there a timeline in which they have to make a commitment the you made the timeline for the U.S treasury which is December 2024.
That's we haven't had because there were some that had not committed yet because of the monitoring or something oh yes those so we have not we're still working with those organizations I think we have one that our general services department is working with trying to find an alternative to help them with their Monitor and that's found the Arts Grant and then we have one that we think is going to withdraw totally so there will be some additional funds if we cannot work those proposals out some may require we may be able to find a fiscal sponsor for them to help with the financial reporting burden but we we've not given up on those organizations yet but it's awesome we need to work with them and and let me just say this I've been listening in on the work you all are doing and the amount of support that you all are providing folks is just impeccable thank you for strengthening our community through these organizations by providing them that type that level of support that.
They normally wouldn't have you know a lot of businesses went through that during the pandemic so if you haven't heard thank you thank you to you all president Buxton first nice color tie and thank you for the work that you all are doing and solving many helping to solve many of the the issues that we collaboratively face in our community lastly Miss Johnson so are we are we beholding to the process now because I know we identified we identified the organization's but this was the previous Council identify the process where we will identify organizations in which we would find now we have this next tranche of money are we just locked in con continuing funding these organizations that were not funded the first time or do we get to select the absolutely not new process absolutely not so the organizations that were deferred you all deferred them I think in hopes of collaborating with the county or leveraging our Resources with the county you it's up to the pleasure to.
Counsel whether you want to revisit those proposals at this point or you want to move forward with other of your other ideas or initiatives and the others that are listed in the presentation it was and I I guess I could ask those of you who worked on the subcommittee is that what you were thinking in terms of deferring those for discussion at this point that you would make that decision at this point based on if we were able to to leverage some resources with the county I I I think we just at the states I believe we thought we would put refer these because they were more aligned with what the county was focusing on colleagues correct me from wrong but there was nothing concrete I remember correct that's my understanding yes thank you Daniel sorry thank you all for a great presentation but more importantly all the work that I know you all have put into making this happen it required the the hiring of additional folk and.
Knowing on the contract side what that looks like there is an enormous amount of work that has to go into individualize all those contracts so to think that we come back today and you all have executed 34 contracts and are actually getting that money out the door is is a momentous and a commendable feat that that's that's that's amazing work and then the monitoring process you know that that's also going to be a challenge for all who will have to do that because at the end of the day if our organizations are not successful in meeting the goals and objectives as outlined by the federal government they will be looking to get that money back and so and once it is expended if those organizations for whatever reason would not have that money back in the event that they are not able to comply with those regulations which is why I I am thankful that those who are struggling with whether they can maintain that kind of system to kind of be answerable to.
That they are reconsidering that because it is it has serious implications when you talk about 22 million dollars out there that we'll have to monitor over some years time make sure that people are doing exactly what they can and are capable of doing and if not then the taxpayers of Durham city will be Advanced to those funds back to the government so I just want to which is one of the reasons why as that came into this process I have to be honest as a as an attorney and a former judge I was really leery about doing all of those individual contracts because it's just fraught with fail with the ability to fail and you not be able to catch that in a timely manner to recoup those funds and so thinking about the fact that the city attorney's office was going to have to go through all of these contracts along with all of the other work that they are now doing it cost me a little bit of angst because.
That's a lot of work it's a lot of work on the attorneys it's a lot of work on your staff in addition to what you're always already doing and I have people tell people a lot of times you know you have about 2500 people who work for the city of Durham in the city of 350 000 and most of the work that they do we take for granted because your water's clean your your streets are minimally and doing better in the area but there's a lot of work that these people do every day so I was a little concerned when they said wow we're going to get 30 non-profits individual contracts that they have to monitor for two or three years that's a lot of pressure and I want the city of Durham to understand that which gets to my second part keeping that in mind I do think that we have a couple of issues that we have made as a council the Forefront of our conversations and that's affordable housing.
When I got here the city of Durham had already gone through RFP process and they were able to fund for four seven four of the seven four of eight projects that they had deemed ready to go and the city could check off they were only able to fund four and as we looked at that list I saw Durham Tech is trying to do something that will put us on the map as one of those problems right a community college that will have housing who knows anybody else is doing that nobody then when you look at the other three houses we have folk who at least one of those have already began to develop and this would be part two I think on the East Gear street residential that's part to his family rig Ridge Villas there's another group that's a local group in this that is some local LGB that is minority and business owned local organization and at the end of that after talking with the county the county.
Is willing to help share that burden and so the city officials and accounting officials have come up with a way that we could possibly forgive these folks 20 million dollars taking half of our Opera funds from me so for me that is a great balance because then you're dealing with brick and mortar you're addressing housing needs at the urgency of now and we're going to build that in conjunction with the county and we'll still leave our we won't put a whole lot more pressure on our city and counties to kind of monitor the daily day activity of Nam that that when you're doing a human services kinds of things they won't have that press so I'd like to I'm going to push my attention and and and what I can do to make sure that we fund those four housing efforts first and then the other ones there are some that I am partial to but we can get into those details later because at least two of.
Them I think those I I need to go back and look at what those are but my first initial reaction is let's build some housing especially why we got the counter ready to do that and we also had an opportunity to to kind of make history in terms of supporting our community college which is doing so well we'll have the opportunity to to help a female and minority to own development right here in our hometown to be able to do something in that space so and there's one group that's already out there building they're just looking for us to say okay you can do the second half I think for me that's a win on all on the housing and we're down to 10 million and Counting thank you anyone else councilmember Johnson council member Freeman and thank you councilmember cabiro I just wanted to agree that I think moving these projects forward is a great idea I see no downside to putting additional funding into these projects that are are ready to go.
And I see no upside to waiting so absolutely 100 support moving forward with this proposal thank you thank you councilmember Freeman Council councilmember Johnson covered it I was going to say the exact same thing thank you okay mayor Pro tem and then council member Jose Hyman thank you councilmember and thank you colleagues I'm going to associate myself with everything the mayor said I think she teed up perfectly the notion we we should probably go big with this next tranche for a number of reasons the mayor I mean nailed the bandwidth issues with monitoring and managing so many smaller it feels weird saying a million dollars smaller but y'all know what I mean smaller projects when you've got a big chunk of money I think the funding the using 10 million to fund the affordable housing the the pre-existent ones that we probably would have done had we had the money funding it I think I think is a is a great idea and something we should seriously consider as a council and I'll.
Say with the rest of the toront I mean I you know full disclosure I've I've in my budget request I'm asking for significant down payment on on the Marshall Plan or Marshall tight plan for legacy neighborhoods in our city and and this pitch is I hope it provokes my fellow council members to think about big transformative things with this money one of the cool things about going to you know events like National League of cities and U.S Conference of marriage I thank the mayor for allowing me to attend this last one as you hear you have the colleagues they're doing some stuff with arpa money we hadn't even thought about that we hadn't you know so it's good to get out and hear what people are doing and what you know things we thought we couldn't do it actually turns out you can do so hearing some of the best practices from around the country so I I with this pitch beyond the 10 million for the the housing projects that the mayor's.
Already talked about thinking about something big and transformative that forwards our values with I don't know when we'll see money like this again and you know aside from our regular tax base so I would I'm pushing for something that's transformative and generational with the rest of it so I'm just putting that out there now thank you colleagues thank you councilmember copier thank you council member Paulson so I just want to say ditto ditto ditto basically you know my academic hat we have a lot of students who up forcible insecurity food insecurities and also housing which is a deterrent sometimes to retention so definitely agree with the housing piece thank you Durham tech for that Innovative strategy and again like mayor Pro tem like let's go big councilmember Leonardo Williams and then I think the manager also had something well I didn't know we were at the point of throwing the ideas out so I'll just add mine you know we we don't talk about small businesses a lot on this Council.
And I know that you know there's a lot of risk that goes into that I'm on this Council for a reason and I'm going to speak on that so I would hope that my colleagues will be a minimal to supporting a revolving Loan Fund or replenishing on the lifeline that was provided when we were in the midst of the pandemic there are still businesses trying their best to and I mean local small businesses the criteria is already drafted that are trying to just stay afloat and these are the folks that are providing the local jobs you know these are the folks that we're trying to you know keep people employed and also the ones who generate you know you curate that character for Durham so we don't have to put a lot toward it but I do hope we can consider that.
An opportunity to say a few words I would also like to thank the the particularly the staff members many of which are new to the organization that have been working on this since they hit since they came into came in the front door of of the of 101 City Hall Plaza so I want to wanted to publicly thank them as well as our City attorney and her signing staff to this team almost on a day-to-day basis to make sure Durham does it right one of the things that was really important to us time wise because you all rely on us to implement your policy and that is what we come to work every day to do and we're going to be having some conversations trying to connect some policy Direction ideas together and and make it work with the money so today we wanted to we're very happy because if we can go ahead and allocate in terms of our work working in our planning 10 million dollars toward these affordable.
Housing projects which were not eligible until the final rules of arpa came out last year so we didn't even know we were going to be able to use this funding for for that but because these projects are shovel ready it helps us know that we can be more successful for the fed's timeline if we can match some of their their policies which can be really stringent with what we're doing here on the ground so we're going to take this conversation today as an allocation of 10 million dollars toward affordable housing because I do numbers and I do them all the time that does leave another you know 10 10 12 million dollars plus that the council still has for consideration for for investing as we have conversations going through our budget our CIP our green and Equitable infrastructure dollars and making it work for Durham and so I just wanted to want to say that I don't know if the team has additional direction that you're looking for today but just wanted wanted to say.
That as a manager thank you for that city manager I was going to suggest that at the Bay of pro tem made his comments that just remember as you think about your budget request that you submitted looking at those that this would be eligible funding source for so you may want as the manager said think about you know allocating that as you go through that process and then you don't you have fewer dollars that are competing with the other departmental requests council member Freeman Freeman O'Neill thank you I just had a question and just Clarity wise I'm realizing that we're saying 10 million but I know it's 10 million and change would really be half so do we need to say 11 I just want to be clear we do not need a specific number today we just wanted a commitment to the projects and those will come back to you because they need to update the financials around those projects and so they will be coming back to you and then.
Just secondly I do want to make sure that this is going to be at the 100 not 70 percent level that we were talking about on the previous trunch yeah so so on the housing projects we are you know we we know that those numbers have to you know that the financing sources have to match the project so it would be further evaluated in terms of what that Gap is the city always comes in at the end of of the funding stack and so we we that's why we wanted to have the projects here we wanted to reinforce that we had gone through an RFP process that these housing developers have been in that RFP process already and competed and are continuing to look at creative ways to develop their projects so it was you know was important to us it was about a year ago I think it was February was it February of 2022 when we were in this process so we know we have some.
Updates to do but we're committed to all and we're working as collaboratively with the county to make sure there's enough funding in place from arpa on both sides to deliver all of the projects acknowledging that a dollar in February of 2022 is probably like 80 something since from today so just realizing like it may be more I do want to make sure that it's clearly stated we should support moving forward with the number that is necessary to match that number previously supplied and then also I do want to double check do we still have our revolving Loan Fund with Community I'm sorry Carolina small business because I didn't know it was it wasn't there or no I thought we had one yes we we do still have The Loan Fund from 2020 it is still approximately still approximately a million dollars in that Loan Fund you will recall last year we we rebooted it we changed and reduced some of the requirements change some of the terminology and we.
Have made a few loans as a result of that but we still have a lot of work to do we we need to engage our businesses we need to find out exactly what they need to be successful but to your res to respond to what you say we do have approximately one million dollars So to that point I do want to note that there are a couple of things we can do I know that there are more funds available now for small businesses with the ssbci dollars available I mean I'm at the Rural Center I can't not say it that there are so many dollars that are available and those matching funds that we can make available can go like four or five times further and so even if we were to increase that one million to 2.5 million it could actually do a lot to further the need or to cover the needs of our small businesses and businesses in General within the city and so it.
Would be good to hear some I guess feedback from staff on whether or not that's something we should look at or not but I do note that there's a lot of capital available right now and it'll be nice to maximize thank you mayor O'Neal thank you council member Caballero I just wanted to make sure that we are all clear that you know we we decided those monies we were saying 10 million at this point is that but giving them the option of increasing that amount based upon inflation is that can we get a thumbs up on all that so we're we're definitely looking to fund those four projects we're starting them with an initial figure of 10 million but keeping in mind it may go up because of inflation but they will let us know what that is but saying go ahead I just want a thumbs up for everybody and we're good so that JB can I'm sorry president Buxton can go out here with a smile on his face.
All right here we go thank you all great stuff I I am also just in conclusion I thank you all that is just wonderful what you all are doing I don't know that we could ever pay you all enough to do what you're about to undertake and what attorney Kim's office has done we look forward to do this being transformational and I am going to Echo mayor Pro tem we need to go be with the remaining monies and make sure that we are not over taxing you all and have some real stuff that we we can put our hands on 10 and 20 not saying that all things are are are not you know we're just not going to get this opportunity again I don't think so thank you that would be my remarks thank you really really quickly I had just one clarifying question around yes to everything my colleagues have said I know the staff has been incredible around this so thank you I've heard great things about your team out in the.
Community and folks who've been having to work with you all and just the technical assistance you're providing people it's a moment to be proud of our city staff but we're 100 want to fund all four projects I know some of that is based on also not just inflation but on the county also committing and so what happens if you know we're saying 10 plus some change but what happens if we aren't going to get any County dollars I just want to know where folks are on that so the way we have the way we have to work in in spaces that we've never been in like we are right now is we take the 10 right now and we go to the county to get the rest and if those conditions change and or these numbers change then we come back and we we're going to be with you all a lot the mayor's just talked about it earlier in in March and so we're going to be working on this every every single day.
But we we have had great conversations with them you know if they're they're they're committed so we're gonna you know we're gonna take that we're gonna take them at the word for now and then if that changes we'll we'll be back thank you and I just want to thank president Buxton for being here that's an amazing project as well and yeah but go go big or go home right and then I'm passing on to the next person I'm not sure who the next presentation I think before we go to the next presentation we'll take about a 10 minute break your for human needs foreign thank you all so much that's great stuff.
Foreign.
Thank you.
Okay three thirds okay.
Foreign. Getting back to order and I have the pleasure of having the leader discussion on the affordable housing deep dive presentation on the Durham eviction diversion program so we're going to ask the legal aid of North Carolina diversion eviction program presenters thank you. Hear me okay there we go Gotta Get A Little Closer my name is Sarah D'Amato and I am the Project Director of the legal aid of Durham's eviction diversion program thank you Council people and mayor Pro tem and Madam Mayer for this invitation like a good lawyer I will talk all day long about my case and my cause and so I will try to to just share with you some of the basic information about our program our program as you all know is funded by the city and so consider this perhaps a state of the union report on our city of Durham eviction diversion program and so I want to before I get started introduce myself again my name is Sarah D'Amato I am I've.
Lived in the Triangle all my life I grew up in Hillsboro went to UNC for undergrad went to Central for law school so lived in Durham I live in Pittsboro now I've lived in Raleigh so I I while Durham I don't live here I did live here I do consider myself a native of sorts to the triangle so these issues of how housing affects us do mean a lot to me we have also here Ashley Campbell who is now the executive director of legal aid of North Carolina Peter Gilbert is in attendance he was the attorney who spearheaded this program when it started and then leonhorn is a supervising attorney with us also in our program so again thank you for this opportunity to tell you a little bit more about what we do I am going to talk a little bit about the history of our program and then I'm going to spend the bulk of my time talking about what we're doing now with your money and the taxpayers money for.
Our program and then I want to talk a little bit about where I hope we go and I've heard Madame mayor you call for us to go big and I am inspired by that so I'm going to put our ask in for more money throughout this program and I hope that you can see through our results that we are good stewards of the city's money and that we are doing good things for the residents of the city of Durham and then of course you know if y'all have any questions at the end well you know I will do my best to to answer those the Durham eviction diversion program there we go did this Advance oh that was backwards let's put it the right way.
There we go so the Durham eviction diversion program began as a partnership with the Duke Civil Justice clinic and legal aid of North Carolina in conjunction also with the Durham County Department of Social Services and the primary goal of this program when it started was to avoid eviction judgments and to decrease the number of eviction filings I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in terms of what that looks like in practice but that is the primary goal some of the ideas that go along with that are trying to make sure that people you know it they if they stay in their house ideally we would avoid a filing in the first place so the program started in 2017. there were only a few attorneys I hear all kinds of stories about how many cases they all had to handle sort of like how our parents were like I had to walk to the school two miles in the snow so when the project launched there.
Was there were not a lot of attorneys there was not a lot of staff on that project and they still handled a lot of cases back in 2017-2018 eviction filings were a lot higher than they are now even a lot higher than they were in 2019 or 2020 before the pandemic started so the eviction diversion program that we have in place is modeled after there was in Michigan there were some eviction diversion programs and so Durham took those ideas and modeled those program modeled this program after that and one of the things I don't mention here but I think it's important to know is that other municipalities in North Carolina have modeled their programs after what we're doing here in Durham so so Raleigh is doing an eviction diversion program of sorts Mecklenburg excuse Mecklenburg and then Greensboro are all doing eviction diversion programs that are in some way shape or another modeled after what we're doing here in Durham so a lot of Japan times part of my job is hearing.
From other people across the state to say hey y'all got this program tell me about it what's it look like and that's because they see what we're doing they see the impact that it has and they want to do it too so in that sense Durham has been a real a Trailblazer in that regard I believe I will note that and I've mentioned here that diversion at this point it's really sort of a pipe dream we try to to hope that that's what we're going to do we would like to be able to totally prevent somebody from being filed on and being evicted but unfortunately in this in this environment that's not happening as much as we would love for it to happen and that a lot of that is due to factors that are outside of our control which I will address a little bit later down the road and so unfortunately so many people if they get behind one month here in Durham or if their landlord wants to sell their house.
They are going to be filed on there will be an eviction filing whether or not that case eventually gets resolved because the tenant pays the money or because the tenant moves out before the court date that is left to be seen but in most of those situations somebody is going to get a court filing if they are still in possession when their landlord wants them to be gone so we do our best we try when we have the opportunity to get cases before there's a filing we do our best to try to prevent that filing but once there's a filing after that our main strategy is to ideally keep them housed or to prevent their being an eviction judgment on their record moving forward so that's where we were the initial funding came from two hundred thousand dollars support from the city of Durham there was a smaller Grant and there were four attorneys and they committed to handling 420 cases per year so that's kind of where we were going in 2019.
And then let's take us to where we are right now right now that current funding that comes from the city there was an initial five hundred thousand dollars for the three years of 2020 through 2023 and then due to arpa funding we got that additional 1 million for the two years so 2022 and 2023 and so right now the current Staffing there's myself as the program director there are two supervising attorneys there are seven staff attorneys we hired four in the spring of 2020 and then we hired four more in the summer of 2022 those four additionals that came on in the summer of 2022 were as a result of the courthouse Clinic arpa funding project that that the city graciously funded we have five paralegals one of those is a Spanish-speaking individual I'm the only Spanish-speaking attorney on our staff at this point and then we do have a community resource coordinator the community resource coordinator's role it was essential to the initial program and what Kaz does is to connect.
Our folks with coordinated entry with the community empowerment fund with DSS with DHA so he is really the liaison in our Organization for connecting folks with the resources in our community and also for building those relationships with those partner agencies so this is where we are right now and again the money that funds this Courthouse Clinic came from the city from those arpa funds and so this is where I go big and I say I want you to keep giving us that money please I think that you can see that our results show that right now while we're bridging this Gap in Durham between the folks who are facing eviction while they're waiting for those projects that y'all approved to fund while we're waiting for those to be present we need something on the ground right now to keep people housed right now while we are waiting for these units to be built in this affordable housing to be available in our community and so one of.
The ways that we do that is by providing what we call the courthouse Clinic we started this program it was in full force at the end let's say July August of last year we have an attorney present in the courthouse on the third floor two doors down for where the magistrate courtrooms are and that attorney is there from nine in the morning until two o'clock in the afternoon and we also have a paralegal there as well so in those days that is the prime time for small claims cases in Durham right now we're averaging about the dockets each week for small claims court which is where and I'll go maybe I should have gone into the process first but we'll go into that a little bit later but the when somebody's filed on their first stage of the eviction process in court is in small claims court and that's in front of a magistrate and so those cases are all heard on the third floor in the courthouse and right now when those.
Dockets are posted each week we've got anywhere between 100 to 200 cases each week of evictions in Durham so our Clinic allows for people to without having had any other ability to contact us or to go to any other organization when they show up for court they can meet with one of our attorneys or one of our staff in order to do intake at that point they are able to do we're able to do on the spot intakes for most cases and so if somebody is eligible for legal aid representation and time permitting based on how the schedules work on those cases in some cases we are able to provide same-day representation for those individuals that representation might just look like hey can we get a continuance for another week and then that gives us time to in a lot of cases what it does is it gives us time to connect the tenant with resources in the community have you contacted DSS have you contacted Community empowerment fund have you you.
Know thought about moving out those are the different things that we can do even with just a continuance of a week and so we are able to do that same day representation in some cases in some cases we're not able to obviously yeah as an attorney we have to we have to make sure that we are diligent and out our claims and making sure that we are upholding our professional responsibilities as it relates to representation of our clients most of the people who come to the the courthouse Clinic have a pending case in court the other people who come to the courthouse often have just received a notice to vacate and they want legal advice if they're not eligible for our services we do refer those individuals to the organizations in our community that we believe to do depending on the situation either pro bono work or referral sources for them to find a private attorney in small claims most tenants are not represented in small claims approximately I think.
The statistics are about 90 to 95 percent of tenants do not have an attorney and where that comes into play is really really in some cases it is as subtle as being able to get a continuance for two weeks because you're going to be moving out so if I can just get a continuance for a week and turn in the keys then I can avoid this judgment or my tax refund this is what we're hearing right now my tax refund I'm going to get it on Friday if I can get one more month I mean one more week or you know we can we can resolve this issue so an attorney's presence allows for even something as as basic as getting just another week of time the other part about that too is that it allows us to to raise defenses habitability claims things along those Natures but we need the time to be able to represent those folks and to develop their case so that Courthouse Clinic we have Flyers up they.
Go out with the summonses for this eviction filings in Durham so when tenants do receive court papers they receive a a flyer that tells them that they can come to our our clinic for additional advice there's an email address that they can send their documents to and that email goes to all of us on the team and at currently we have at least one attorney in court each day in addition to the court the attorney who's Staffing the clinic so that attorney is the one who's representing all of the cases for that day and then you usually have two at this point so we are at at the courthouse every day for small claims one of the other benefits that I've seen in going there is that we serve also sort of as an usher in in the hallways there and the courthouse a lot of times traffic court lines starts all the way at the end of the third floor and it lines all the way up.
The third floor and third floor you know all the way along and people will see us there and they're like where do I go and they're not our clients yeah but and there's no other signs so we are often directing people to there's traffic court here this is your courtroom here for your small claims case downstairs is where you're going to file the appeal so we have a very constant presence with on the third floor at at this point and then also the other thing is that everybody if you have a small claims case magistrate for eviction then you if they're judgment centered against you get 10 days in order to appeal that case and it's a whole what we call a de novo trial which means you get to start all over again and that's actually where we get as lawyers the opportunity to do the things like send out Discovery requests where we ask the landlord please show me your lease please show me all the notices.
That's where we get to prepare counter claims we get to do that more intensive legal work the past few months we are averaging about 80 cases per week in that District Court week that's once a month in Durham and so we are there in that capacity as well and then of course if if somebody's not represented by us we can refer them down to the clinic and then they can get assistance at that point and we've also gotten to the point too where the clerks if if there is somebody who has a question or needs assistance with filing an appeal the clerks will refer people back up to the clinic for our assistance the judges have also often referred folks to the clinic as well because they know that they can a person can go there and get information about the eviction process so we I believe that we have a very strong president a presence and I think that that is helping us create more relationships within the courthouse.
Here's the little nuts and bolts about the summary adjustment process the eviction process there's a lot of you know when somebody says I got evicted so if you ask me what that means I I would interpret that as you went to court there was a judgment against you for eviction and then you had to move out but some people refer to being evicted as if they've just received a notice to vacate they've been told they need to get out so that you know that that is that it's not a incorrect statement at all it's just how we interpret what it means to be evicted right so but some rejectment is the court process by which somebody is evicted these trials and small claims there's no right to Discovery so you know it's kind of loosey-goosey a lot of times the trials if there is a trial it's only going to last you know maybe five ten minutes it's really quick corporations do not have to have an attorney they also have.
A mechanism in our general statutes that allows them to to sort of win even if their client is not there as so that means that we have lots of tenants who show up they show up and their landlord's not even there to say you know hey I gave this lease I gave this notice they don't have a person there to testify and the attorney can't testify and in those cases the there's still a judgment that's entered against them again after that judgment is entered then there's a 10-day period to appeal the next part is what makes our jobs very difficult is that after you appeal in order to stay in your house while you are waiting to have your new trial you have to pay that monthly rent directly to the court each month so if you don't then the sheriff can padlock you change locks you may have had the best case you may have all of the best defenses and if you can't pay that monthly rent bond to the court.
Then your landlocked your landlord can change locks and put you out that is huge right now in in Durham and North Carolina especially for individuals who are actively seeking assistance through DSS for example they've got promissory notes from DSS that say hey we'll pay your arrears but they're waiting on that check to come through they're waiting for that assistance and they can't pay that monthly rent right then and so then they get locked out that is not necessarily anything that we can change at this point because that's dictated by Statute but that is one of the things that in the past where we've had rental assistance programs rental assistance programs that worked really quickly helped alleviate that effect by providing financial assistance to Folks at that first step so that they could at least stay in their house while they continue to to represent defend their case again now if you are in small claims and you lose and you don't appeal in those 10 days then the landlord can get.
A rid of possession and lock you out and so right now also in Durham and again this is statutory as well the they must execute that writ within five days and usually the tenant only gets two days notice before the padlocking so what that means in theory and in practice is in theory they get two days notice in practice what happens is those notices get sent out to the tenants by the mail and so in some cases the tenant doesn't know that there was a writ until the sheriff is at the door changing the locks after the Writ is executed then they've got about a week to go back at least once to go get the rest of your stuff so as I note here this whole process from start to end you could miss your February rent this month have court next week and then be locked out by the beginning of March so when you take that and you combine it with the fact that rents are outrageous they're increasing.
The rental application fees are 50 75 100 per person and you have to have perfect credit and you know know how to plant daffodils in their garden and all kinds of other you know interesting requirements the folks that we have that we represent in with legal aid they are struggling struggling to find housing once they've been evicted once they the locks have been changed so many folks are living in their car until they find a new place or they're living with friends and family or they're trying to get into the shelters this is one of the reasons right now why our shelters are full just a few kind of what's going on in terms of evictions right now non-payment of rent is the majority of the cases in the cases where there is rental assistance available these some of these programs require a court filing in order for there to be expedited assistance and so in those cases with our assistance and we're able to work with DSS and work with the.
Landlord in many of those cases once that assistance comes through then those folks are able to stay in their homes so that that piece of our work is I think really crucial when we have rental assistance funding is to be able to have another partner that provides that legal assistance so that the two can work together so when there is rental assistance available we can preserve the tenancies more often and in another slide I'll show you some of our outcomes and it's very clear that when we had the Durham rent relief program our outcomes and our results at that time we were preserving tenancies in 70 or so percent of those cases now that there's limited rental assistance right now those numbers have dropped because if somebody's not able to pay their past due rent and their landlord wants them out I can't preserve that tendency unless the landlord agrees to some type of payment plan or agrees to to accept that rental assistance and that guys that goes to the other.
One where rental assistance is not available so in some cases this is it's not available because you know DSS is one of our our primary Partners on this and they have income requirements there's also varied requirements that have to do with how long ago you lost your income or whether or not your tenancy is a sustainable one I mean that's based on whether or not you have a job sometimes so in some cases that rental assistance is not available and so a tenant is not going to be able to pay off any past due balance in order to stay in their home another situation that we see is a lot of landlords at this point are choosing not to accept rental assistance one of the main reasons we hear is that they you know if a tenant has had maybe a history in the past year or so likely due to covid probably then then landlords are concerned as they say with their ability to keep paying moving forward.
However what we also know is that every time a tenant is evicted the rate the base rent of that property goes up and each eviction causes those rates to keep going up so in some cases landlords are seeing that you know their Market is really heavy at this point for people looking for housing people are going to pay eighteen hundred dollars a month for a one bedroom apartment in Durham you know I this tenant is paying fifteen hundred dollars it's better for me to to just cut my losses and try to rent it out to somebody at a higher rate so in those cases there's in most cases most eviction cases there's no the landlord is not required to accept payment and so in those cases most of the time those will eventually result in move outs either because of an agreement or because the legal line has ended and they're at the end of it and then they get pad locked out so that's the non-payment cases the.
Other cases that we see some are the holdover cases these were really big during coveted times because these were under the radar they were not included specifically in the moratoriums that put a lot of evictions on hold holdover is is let's say I've got a tenant on a buy a house and there's a tenant there and they're on a month-to-month lease we've had clients who've been living at a place for 10 15 years and their house the owner sells the house and then says you've got seven days to be out so in those cases our defenses are are usually fewer because you know if the notice is adequate there's not too much we can do in that situation and in those cases rental assistance doesn't matter as much what matters in those cases to preserve those tenancies is legal assistance because we are the ones who are going to bring up legal defenses and also try to maybe work with a an owner of a new owner of a.
New house so and then breach of lease these are not as common in in private housing these are more common in subsidized housing but this is like your your failure to report an income or failure to you know unauthorize occupants we are seeing a rise in this unauthorized occupants part and that is in part because people have a sister who was evicted and so they want her to they you know they're offering that they stay with them for a little while and then if it's subsidized housing there are limits as to how long a person can stay in a person's house and whether or not you have to report it and so people are losing their subsidized housing right now because they are offering their homes to family members who were recently evicted so these are the main things that we're seeing in eviction cases right now and again most of the ones that we're going to see are for non-payment rent I would say probably about 80 percent of them are non-payment rent.
Our current outcomes so I I do want to put in a plug I heard in the previous presentation about the monitoring that is required with this arpa money and I I will say that kishma James is the person that we've been working with and those monitoring meetings have always been very positive and very helpful and we have we meet with her monthly and we provide reports to her monthly as to what we're doing with the city money on that and so I do appreciate her guidance in in helping us with this program and monitoring us the current so under the program we have current goals our current goals right now are to preserve the tenancy and at least 50 percent of the cases and to avoid eviction judgments in at least 70 percent of cases and to open up 840 cases but that was in part we're closer to a thousand is what our our goals are at this point that had to deal with because of the timing of the.
Program and stuff and it being prorated so I I think the next the little statistics here that I have about our outcomes in December of 2022 and then may of 22 22 also show the importance of rental assistance and also the importance of having legal assistance and rental assistance work together in the communities and so in December we preserved the tenancy 45 percent of the time so that was below our our goal when you looked at all of our cases but if you just look at the cases where we go to court we are preserving tenancies and sixty percent of those cases we're avoiding judgments in 76 percent of those cases and that either is because we win and so a case is dismissed or we negotiate a move out agreement and the landlord takes a dismissal in those cases now in December we've had limited rental assistance pretty much the only rental assistance that we have available is through DSS and so again that that is not as robust of a program as previous.
In the past few years the arpa money that's gone through so if you look in May May was when the Durham rent relief program was still very vibrant people could not apply for it anymore but they were still receiving prospective rent and they were also getting arrears paid off and you'll see in that in that situation we did we were able to preserve the tenancy and 72 percent of those cases because folks got rental assistance and then their landlords dismissed the case or they didn't file at all so that was that was really critical at that point the it shows how that rental assistance helped keep people in their houses during the pandemic and then also moving forward foreign some of the things I've already mentioned in terms of what we're seeing as challenges at this point rental assistance for short-term income loss is very limited DSS of course is is over understaffed and overworked and and highly you know they've there's a high demand and so even to get a short-term.
Assistance from DSS it can take weeks churches are an option Community empowerment fund now with some of the money that the city has recently funded them those are other options for short-term income loss but a lot of times what we see right now we're seeing people being evicted for one month rent one month rent and those filings are coming you know two weeks after that missed payment so there's not a lot of breathing room in that regard we're also seeing as I mentioned before a high demand for rental units so there's a lot of people here in Durham who want to rent in Durham and rents are going up I think we we compared to I think Raleigh and Durham right now North Carolina had the highest rent increase over the past few years we are also seeing there's not a lot of folks who are accepting these Section 8 vouchers so in many cases we're able to preserve the voucher but then we have quite a few reports of people who have.
Been waiting and looking and looking and looking and looking for a landlord who will accept their voucher and if they wait too long if it's been six months DHA in many cases can terminate that voucher so if there's a if they're not able to find a new place then sometimes people are not only losing their housing but they're also losing their voucher again High Cost of finding housing I you know I'm I it's it's one of those things where I you know I don't know that in general unless you've been out there looking for a place to rent that people are aware of how much it costs just to get into a place and so application fees are non-refundable a landlord can have you fill out an application they can have a hundred other people on that list before you and they don't have to tell you that you're not going to get that housing so you pay fifty dollars for yourself fifty dollars for your spouse and you wait.
Security deposits we have also you know you have to show that you can afford three times the income we have a recent situation where we realize that a teacher in Durham barely barely can show that they can afford an average rent in Durham just barely previous eviction filings again one of the things that also is not as well known every single filing against a tenant in North Carolina stays on their residential record they could have been taken to court 15 times and won every single time and when their next landlord checks up their residential history report they will see 15 eviction filings in North Carolina there's not a mechanism at this point to erase those from a person's residential history so every filing in that sense matters past due balances and again rental arrears those are also things that somebody might move and they avoid that court judgment but then now when they try to seek new housing they check in on the previous landlord and previous landlord says no they owe ten thousand.
Dollars and then the new landlord's like yeah no I'll pass so those are some of the things that we are seeing the other part is habitability we do have in some situations people are staying in housing that is subpar that is you know there are a lot of maintenance issues Plumbing issues mold we hear a lot of that and they don't want to or can't move because they can't find another Housing Opportunity at that point so so that and that the effect of that on a family when you have kids who there's no water or there's heating bills right now because there's you know substandard heat in some units you know when a family is paying you know 800 to a thousand dollars a month in in electrical bills well that's going to cut into the amount that you're able to pay for your rent so those that's the main things that we're seeing right now as to why folks in Durham at this point are having a hard time finding housing and staying housed.
Just to talk a little bit briefly about this y'all are quite aware again I've already mentioned DSS quite a few times but they do send us referrals we refer to them that is a relationship and of course if we are able to to refer people to them for rental assistance then we are able to usually negotiate with the landlord to see if they'll accept that that assistance and hold off on the eviction Durham Housing Authority you know last year when the Durham rent relief program kicked off we did a day-long clinic there in order to help folks get into the system for that assistance we also have a good relationship with the general counsel at DHA so that that helps us facilitate you know if there's an issue with finding you know a person's voucher or you know anything so we have a really good relationship in that regard and we're planning an Outreach event in another month or so where we'll do a housing Clinic we're hoping to do it at.
Mcdougald again but we might we might take it over to Cornwallis Road so that relationship is also very important for US housing for New Hope again we regularly work with them Community empowerment fund we had a meeting last week I saw that y'all have funded them and given them some money to help for some rental assistance through the rfpa funds and so now we have also helped establish a referral network with them so that we can send people to them and they can send people to us and then again Alliance a lot of times what we'll do with Alliance is working especially in order to if we need to do what we call a reasonable accommodation request you know somebody needs extra time to move because they're disabled yeah so sometimes we'll be able to reach out and ask for that assistance we we also do a lot of work with the city I mean this law schools Duke Civil Justice Clinic and the interns and then with Central.
Which on our team and I know Madam mayor is a central alumni as am I and as is a few of the other attorneys in our office and I will say that that Partnership of course is near and dear to me because you know if you talk to lawyers in in Durham and in the Triangle you know it's the central grads who are in the courtrooms and doing this work and so I like to think of our program as an incubator of sorts for Central law students we work a lot of times in conjunction with the Civil Justice clinic at Central because if there's an individual who were not able to represent then we can we can send to them so yes ma'am yes just want to ask how much longer is your presentation oh I'm I'm almost done I'm sorry thank you thank you and here we go right into the future the where we are I mean I the I'll just I'll go big or go home right and.
The idea of again the affordable housing initiatives that y'all mentioned that those initiatives are going to impact evictions because if somebody has a house that they can go to then that's going to make it easier for them to avoid eviction and find housing because they're going to be able to find housing if their landlord wants to sell a house for example so that is really important as I think that as our programs work together the fact that we can keep people housed until some of these and other initiatives that Durham has going on until they really start to come to fruition so it would be my ask again that when you look at our numbers that you'll see that we've been good stewards of the city's money in this regard we've done I believe a good job keeping folks housed in Durham to when we can we work and network with the agencies that provide rental assistance and that's an important consideration and so it would be my hope that as you all are.
Considering this next round of arpa money that you consider funding us at least at the same level that we have been funded at in order to to continue to bridge that Gap in the affordable housing crisis in in Durham so and then the other things you can talk about later. Thank you for your detailed presentation I'm going to ask for questions on my colleagues I am going to acknowledge councilmember Leonardo Williams first thank you so beyond the idea that this entire system is set up for the actual tenant to fail and those are my opinions for the record I want to ask the hard question what are your suggestions Beyond a Band-Aid fix and that could be anywhere from you know of having a lobbyist in Raleigh to what what more can we do other than you know just an additional week or the temporary support because this is this is this is not sustainable and we need something more sustainable and we need to be addressing this right here.
Absolutely and that's a good question and I will put a little asterisk beside it and say that because I'm employed with legal aid of North Carolina we do have certain restrictions and certain comments that we can make and so I will say that so much of what what we're experiencing right now is a result of the statutes that are in place so so many of the programs that we might want to implement while there is still a statutory framework that requires I it's essentially five days notice for an eviction so somebody can get the papers on their door today for court next week their continuances don't happen very often so we're Bound by what's in the general statutes as to how much time these cases take you know as I mentioned before in terms of the writs of possession the statute says that the sheriff Shall Serve it within five days so there's little that we can do on the ground to change that so that is I think one huge thing the.
The other part about it which is one of those things that I is is not very concrete I wish I could say concrete but when we understand fully that this could happen to any of us at any time I think it changes that perspective and so we have to get to that point where we realize and understand that one missing one month's rent can put you at risk and that if you don't have those Community Resources and family resources and generational resources if you don't have those available right now you could be out on the street so so last comment for me and I do know about that very well just to sum it all up rinse or rinse are rising home ownership is getting tougher you have to have two to three times the amount of the rent as a security deposit am I accurate so far and also you have to go through a clearance check all right so we're in trouble well one of the.
Other things that we've seen too in that same vein is that recently well in the past year or so a lot of our Durham residents who were facing eviction because the rents were going up they decided hey I'll go out to Vance County I'll go to Granville County I'll find housing there our office in Durham we also go to Vance gray Vance Granville person Caswell Franklin Warren and I always miss another one and and when and now our the clients who were representing out there they can't find housing either and so Durham's lack of affordable housing is expanding into the areas around us as well yeah and I won't be ignorant to this these are part of the Growing Pains of a growing city but I do think that in addition to facing this reality that we need to put some energy into how we can create a community that is more supportive and a sustainable through a sustainable lens and I'd like to maybe speak with you guys at a later.
Time about what that may look like in your line of work absolutely I think other cities recently have done for example like Greensboro at this point has converted a parking lot into a a safe parking area for folks who are living in their cars and that that lot is monitored by law enforcement and there's like a Portage on other other cities have offered lockers that have allowed people to store their belongings in them so there's some some things that can be done acutely and but those are the Band-Aids right and so the idea is that we don't need to have people living in their cars yeah thank you so much you're welcome I look forward to continuing absolutely remember Leonardo Williams I'm going to acknowledge council member Javier then Freeman then the mayor thank you good to see you Sarah I spent a fair amount of time last winter in eviction court and I did it so that I could see what the process was and to have a better understanding.
And I really want to thank your you and your team and the folks at Central when folks can't so a lot of our undocumented folks can't be served by legal aid and if you look at a lot of folks who are getting evicted who were in subpar housing to begin with but at least they had a roof over their head it is our Latino neighbors many folks can't access the same maybe not it's not good enough but they can't even access it they can't access the the supports that are out there and so I know that Central often represents those residents they've been a Lifeline for that community and so I have a lot of deep gratitude for them I definitely think we have to figure out some form of rent assistance I know that there's folks working on a proposal that quite frankly is is way more than we can afford but when I think about housing I think we're going to have to do everything I think we have to look at.
Land use I think we have to look at building more units we have to have rent assistance we have to have eviction diversion and we have to have every piece I've heard folks say we need a day shelter right so that folks can go and shower and have a PO Box because many folks who are unsheltered if you don't have an address you can't even apply for a job I am in the odd situation of being both a tenant and a landlord I rent and I rent my house out and there are some things that folks can do I did not ask for a credit report I asked for one month's deposit I understand I'm taking a risk on it but it's what we need our neighbors to do and folks who who are smaller these are the these are the small things that one can do that do actually help folks out you don't need to have three months of rent it's a hard thing to do when you're.
Thinking about I don't know anyone who has four thousand dollars lying around right or very few folks who have four thousand dollars lying around so I'm just putting it out there because I think there are small things that that are Beyond government right that folks can choose to do and it's a risk I understand that I live it every month but it's still something we decided to do because we had a house we charged less than we need to for market rate housing and it's something else we could choose to do we're not using our property to completely be greedy and make a profit we're doing it to hold on to an asset when we're ready to be back in it and I hope that other folks in Durham also have that attitude I understand it's counter to the system we are in which actually you know is a system of greed and exploitation that is a conversation for another day but I just want to say thank you and.
I hope that we continue to to fund you all at the level that I've seen it has been a tremendous support for folks in Durham it is absolutely necessary and it's way cheaper to help keep folks in there in their current housing than to build new housing even though we also need to do that but it is cheaper and that's one of the reasons we do did the eviction diversion is because we saw an opportunity thank you I'm going to acknowledge council member Freeman then our mayor and then mayor Pro tem thank you thank you councilmember Caballero for covering a lot of what I would have said and I I do I did have a few questions in there and I did want to say to councilmember Leonardo Williams we should probably catch up because I feel like the tenants Bill of Rights is the best way to Advocate forward because if we don't get rights in place that actually allow a tenant to stay like to stand in.
The courtroom and say these are my rights I don't think I mean it's the system is set up way lopsided and and that's the best thing we can do I I did want to note or ask are you copy are you collecting copies of all of these lease agreements and if are they housed someplace that students could do research on them we collect we have a lease Bank but most of that information is going to be specific to the individual client and so and maybe it's a conversation to have yeah with a research institution so that you know no personal information but to at least have the language that's being used and the transition as council member copier was mentioning as folks moved to the application fee and these are all things we could be working to combat if we know more about what's in that lease and then I didn't know if you were collecting demo data I didn't see any in your report or your presentation and so.
Just want to make sure you do state you know who you are serving because I feel like that's often missed absolutely the demographics are part of our monthly report that we send to the city and so I did as it and for 2022 in terms of our demographics for the year of the cases that we opened and I think we it was a total of about 850 cases or so of those 63 identified as white 626 identified as black or African-American and six as Native American and some other race as 61. so an overwhelming close to what 70 percent of the individuals that we represent are identifying as black or African-American 626 that's yes ma'am and I just want to also know are you collecting the demographic data Maybe on landlords whether it's a large corporation or a single you know property owner or multiple property owner I think that that this will all be really good to kind of tie together what we've been saying what we know kind of tangentially.
From a lot of stories in a way that actually gets us to the point where we can make the case that this is a problem for some of our legislature right at the I think right now we could break that down for you it's not something that we have been reporting on so far I do know that other organizations especially dataworks based out of Durham I do believe that they collect that data and specifically and I I do want to say that I appreciate the public education on evictions and I want the public the general public to know as council member Caballero mentioned that legal aid cannot represent undocumented folks but they do offer us like a substantial training to non-profit organizations that face people who are undocumented and it is very helpful to have that information at your fingertips and so if you have not had the training I want to encourage you to reach out to them and get the training so that your staff is well aware of the tenants.
I won't say rights but there I mean there are not Advocates they have Advocates and they have ways to respond to questions that are asked of them so I just want to make sure that that is clearly stated and I am adding I'm just noting in my list and my list keeps growing for this tennis Bill of Rights I will say the erasing the rental eviction judgments figuring out something for the DSs arrears systems because we know that that delay is going to live there and then I'm just making sure yeah those are the three that I added and the lockers and the showers with the parking lot is something I am like specifically focused on I feel like maybe I should be pulling you all in I think I shared with Council that there's a campus study right now for urban ministries and my church St Phillips I'm trying to figure out what it looks like and I feel like this should be a part of that conversation because it is it's.
The way that things are in this state this one program is one that I will say that the program's goals don't actually address all the things that should be looked at and even though you're not Meeting those goals it is very clear to me that without this type of program in place there are so many more gaps and this is this is a like semi-plug in a way that it's it's so hard to even like think about what it would look like without you there because that over 800 people without an advocate in that courtroom have no way to know exactly what it is they should do and shouldn't do and I want to say that the the 1200 others that they speak to about what you told them I mean it just kind of is the gift that keeps on giving because you're sharing information absolutely that and that raises a good point because of our presence now you know just like any program it takes a little while to build.
Up the word and the community and so now what we're seeing more often actually is a lot of our almost all of our clients are coming from the courthouse Clinic as opposed to through the general legal aid helpline and another portion of that are clients who we represented maybe last year and then they had us helping them at that point and they still have my number in there and their cell phone and so then when they get a notice to vacate they call me and so I anticipate that as we continue to build that constant presence and that we've had this program the amount of people that we will continue to serve will increase we've also we have a Facebook page where we will do some live videos on that legal aid we'll do live self-help you know how to represent yourself what you need to know an eviction we just published an eviction guide that gives individuals resources and that's even if we're not able to represent somebody those are.
Resources that we're able to to give to everybody and there was one last thing I was thinking as soon as you said the guide I lost it but foreign. And then Council never have again just very briefly thank you so much being a central gray and law school grad I just have a quick question and I think council member Freeman I know if you're in the courthouse every day you know the players are there particular landlords that you see more often than not are there repeaters if you don't feel comfortable saying the the their names but if you could give us an idea whether you know a lot of people would take up a lot of space on a docket I used to supervise those magistrates and used to I have some of those dockets in District Court once it was appealed to that and I will agree that that law the law in that area in my opinion is very skewed towards not helping poor people maintain housing so I saw that firsthand.
But you always had some frequent flyers that you could count on are you still experiencing that yes we there are some landlords who in my opinion use the summary adjustment process as a debt collection tool and so they are more likely to consider that if they file and they you know somebody's now facing eviction that that will be the impetus that that person needs in order to come up with the money to pay the rent to avoid the eviction and then what happens in those particular cases is that because of the timing of the Court although that particular landlord by the time you get to court they could demand not just the rent that they miss but then whatever month like let's say we're courts today and you missed January rent the landlord could demand February rent as part of the you know to dismiss the case but then sometimes they don't and so then they'll dismiss the case but now the tenant because they sold everything they had they you know borrowed every.
Bit that they could now they can't pay February rent and so then now they get another filing for February and they are in a cycle and that cycle once you get behind and the landlord that you are leasing with they have a right to do that but at the same rate it's it's one of the ways that some tenants get trapped in a cycle because they're using everything that they can get in order to get out and so that is we do see certain landlords who do use that more regularly and sometimes those are the also the ones in their defense as housing providers that are actually more willing to work with us or work with the tenant in terms of coming up with that rental assistance but at that point sometimes the number of filings against that tenant you know it essentially means that that tenant's going to really struggle to find housing anywhere else at that point so we do have we do have.
That as you know we see that a lot and then we also have not any specific landlord in general but the the more you know common apartment complexes that are held by you know LLCs so you can't identify what the name of the company the the apartment complex is by the name we see a lot of of breach of least cases from them so those and those are the cases where it's they might be one month and then you're just there's no defense for a tenant at that point like you know saying you know but my mother died last week is not a defense for why you couldn't pay the rent and then in a lot of those cases the landlord does not have to accept the rent or they won't accept partial payments and so those I think are the two you know the the ones that might be smaller landlords but but use that as a way to collect the rent and then the other ones that are just larger.
Corporations that that don't they go by their lease more so than in some cases the relationships with folks on the ground I'm going to acknowledge mayor Pro tem and then council member Javier I'm also going to ask my colleagues to just let you know that we're coming on five o'clock and we have to also be in closed session thank you councilmember thank you so much for the the great work I let you know I want to totally affirm what you said about other cities asking about how Durham is doing this you know it's one thing that you know but do water and sewer and fix potholes to pick up garbage but it's a different kind of Swag to be able to talk about spending Municipal money on eviction diversion having an immigrant defense fund you know all the things that we have going on in Durham is it it's it you know it's it's there aren't many moments you get to kind of brush your shoulders off in this kind of work.
But this kind of work is is one of those Point rooms so I want to thank you for that as long as I'm a council member I have a vote I will always in perpetuity support funding eviction diversion to answer your earlier query secondly I do want to say also just speaking this is it speak to your point about the eviction filings I don't know if you heard our discussion about our passing our legislative agenda but one of the things we've asked our delegation to spend the precious political Capital that they do have in Raleigh on is leaning in and drafting legislation to allow those filings I I had no idea that actually you know notwithstanding the disposition of the case that the filing was still there and how burdensome that can be to folks so just to I don't know if you heard but we are asking our delegation among other things to to lean in on that and pursue legislative relief when it comes to eviction filing so thank you yeah we'll.
Hope hopefully we'll see but yeah I've heard that there's some good movement in that regard and it's such a you know it's a it's one of those things that benefits the tenant ten years down the road the landlord there's no you know reason why the landlord needs to keep that on the record or anything so it's one of those things that has a really strong and direct impact on a tenant it doesn't really affect anyone else I'm asking our colleagues at the North Carolina League to a municipality to lean in on that as well in their legislative exploits so thank you so much thank you councilmember appreciate it council member Javier I'm good okay council member Johnson and then we're going to wrap up thank you councilmember Hyman I just wanted to thank you for coming today and your colleagues for being here and for doing this program and recognize just the incredible growth that it's had over the last few years and I hope that we can continue as a.
City to support the program and continue to expand it you know covid despite you know well who knows if covet will ever be over but I think it highlighted a lot of the inequalities and challenges that people face in the system by you know making them worse for a while but they you know it's still pretty intense out there for people trying to find affordable housing and there's no signs of the economic situation that we're faced with getting any better for low-income people so we need to continue to invest and and support these kinds of programs thank you thank you thank you and my contact information I believe was at the end so if anybody wants to reach out emails best and then feel free to do so thank you thank you so much for that Rich information moving on we have coming up next our go dorm presentation by director Sean Egan have a way thank you good afternoon mayor mayor Pro tem and members of the.
City council my name is John Egan I'm the director of transportation for the city of Durham so I'll move right into the slide presentation I know you've had a busy day so I'll try to keep the presentation moving so we have seen throughout the covid-19 pandemic how Transit can be critical for the essential workers who keep our community healthy and strong we continue to provide personal protective equipment and Fair free service to Aid in our community's recovery from the pandemic consistent with the city's carbon neutrality and renewable energy action plan we are moving forward with the electrification of our Fleet and you can see here the benefits we are already seeing as well as major Milestones ahead of us.
We thank this Council for approving the design contract prepared by our partners and general services for the Durham station renovation project in December of 2022 we're excited to move forward with this transformative project for our Transit hub our senior shuttled addresses the importance of access to Fresh Foods for residents and senior living communities who have limited Transportation options and you can see that we launched this in 2022 with five communities and we're continuing to grow and see significant interest in this program.
The award-winning go Durham comic is part of our effort to improve Outreach and engagement in our community particularly among families and youth our comic book stories also emphasize what we know to be true that bus operators are heroes. So by population the city of Durham is the fourth largest city in North Carolina but our transit system has the second most ridership in the state clearest demonstration of how much Durham residents count on transit for their daily Transportation needs it also indicates a strong appetite for more and better Services we can provide thanks to support from the Durham County Transit plan the remainder of the presentation shows key performance indicators we have established for the go Durham system city of Durham go triangle and go Durham operations staff meet monthly to review progress and identify opportunities to improve performance in these indicators safety is our top priority so we start with these kpis we track incidents at our Durham station terminal where we have nearly 12 000 daily boardings as.
Well as onboard incidents on all of our routes across the system as shown here rates are consistently below Target but we continue to develop training and customer engagement tools to reduce the frequency of safety incidents on our system I address this body in the fall of 2021 when there had been a number of recent operator assault incidents improved training and coordination with law enforcement have helped to limit the number of assaults since we spoke then to one incident in April of 2022 however as we know one one incident is too many what you can also see here is that the majority of the onboard incidents are minor General disturbances or rule violations such as playing music without headphones.
Foreign note that in September of 2021 as we look at crashes that were preventable we had zero preventable crashes we're working to make that a regular feature rather than the exception that you see in the report here we've also created a million Miler program to recognize bus operators who have in their careers logged one million consecutive miles without a single preventable crash. Due to the importance of transfers at Durham station the target for on-time arrivals at Durham station is 99 or better for all time points our Target is 90 or better we have some work to do to get these numbers up and improve the timeliness of our service for our Riders the red line here shows scheduled hours and is used to measure the share of published 2020 service levels provided taking into account that our announced service reductions due to Staffing shortages we are consistently around 100 percent of what we have of the reduced levels that we have shared with our community but as you can see here throughout.
Much of 20 fiscal 22 we were at around 81 of our budgeted levels so while we have the budget to be able to deliver more hours of service without the staff without the bus operators to drive those routes at those frequencies we're consistently under delivering our service we've made some significant improvements since the end of fiscal year 22 we've been adding staff and we are currently at about 87 percent of our 2020 service levels and with the restoration of 30-minute service on our route 7 beginning on February 18th will bring us to 90 percent of our 2020 service levels I had the pleasure earlier today to meet with some of the most recent graduates from our training program and thank them for making these service Restorations possible the reliability of our Fleet is one of our standout performance areas we've set an aggressive Target of 20 000 miles between failures and we consistently exceed this target keeping the fleet in a state of good repair is critical to avoid service disruptions that can.
Impose a significant hardship on our Riders a major change we made in fiscal year 22 was to add a new executive position director of customer engagement Echo Durham since taking on this role Sangeet Duda has brought a strong Focus to addressing customer complaints timely and using customer feedback to improve training and procedures to provide a better customer experience on the top you see the passengers per Revenue hour what I like to think of as a measure of how crowded our transit system is this measure continues to climb most peer agencies while we're approaching 30 passengers per hour here most of our peers have rates in the teens and so we see additional service frequency and new Crosstown routes funded by the Durham County Transit plan as excellent opportunities to reduce crowding and improve the customer experience.
Our Focus today is on advancing major capital projects such as Durham station and our better bus improvements while continuing Recruitment and Retention to restore 100 percent of 2020 service levels and prepare for expansion anyone in our community interested in joining the team can visit go durhamtransit.org careers and learn about our pay which rises from 18.54 cents per hour to 19.86 per hour in the first six months and is paired with generous health care and retirement benefits for the whole family we're also upgrading our Fleet and planning for a new operations contract managed by the city that is designed to incentivize significant improvements in the kpis presented to you today and with that I'm happy to answer any questions thank you very much director Egan questions colleagues.
Great just one comment because I know we got to go we we do get a fair amount of let me not say we some of us are getting complaints from some drivers that they are getting you know they're in some uncomfortable situations with with passengers but what concerns me is their response after that and that's you know I tell my manager but they tell me that you know shut up and take it or whatever blah blah blah there are two thoughts to every story this is just something that recently came up to me and how how are we dealing with those matters so I've heard similar feedback it came up we had a public meeting at Durham station a week ago yesterday and heard similar feedback from our operators who attended the meeting we had our director of operations there who said if you're not getting a satisfactory answer from your supervisor then bring it to the director of operations bring it up the chain we need to hear about these issues we need to.
Make sure that these issues are getting addressed so if you're not satisfied with how your supervisor is addressing this concern escalate it because we want to hear about this we need to address these issues and so make sure that your voice is heard thank you all right I will pass on to councilmember Johnson thank you director Eagan thank you councilmember Leonardo Williams I believe I'm next doing item 53 our presentation on single-use plastic bags and I've got a number of folks signed up to speak I don't know if you all want to go in a certain order or what okay so yeah feel free to have folks come up as they would like.
Good afternoon Madam mayor mayor Pro tem city manager city council thank you for having us here today we know you've had a lot of important considerations so we appreciate your time and attention this is an important matter impacting Durham residents businesses in our environment so I'll introduce myself I'm Madeline vital I'm the senior program officer and grants manager for don't waste Durham and I'll introduce our presenters today to talk about the 10 cent bag fee proposal don't waste Durham is a Durham-based non-profit and we're based we established in 2017 and we're dedicated to creating solutions to prevent trash through education advocacy and innovation and as you may know we've been advocating for the tencent bag fee at restaurants retailers and grocery stores in Durham for several years and we'd love to see Durham join Over 400 other cities across the country that have passed similar legislation we've seen that this is a extremely effective tool in dramatically reducing single used plastic bags litter pollution in communities especially at low-income and minority communities while still.
Allowing for Consumer choice this has the potential to save Durham businesses and city government significant money and we see it as a win for the Durham economy a win for Durham residents and for our shared environment so as you may remember in August 2019 we bought our proposal to the environmental Affairs board and they passed the proposed fee with the unanimous resolution in October 2021 The Proposal was considered by The Joint City County committee and November 2021 City and County attorneys carefully considered our legal memo and we established that the city has the authority to enact such a fee since then don'tley Sturm and the Duke environmental law and policy Clinic teams have been meeting with City Council Members some of you here today we thank you for your time and feedback we've connected with city and county staff attorneys and Commissioners and have been incorporating their feedback we've also been Gathering more data including speaking and learning from other community leaders that have experience with similar legislation both.
In North Carolina and in other states and we've also been continuing our Boomerang bag fee Bull City Boomerang bag program which provides reusable cloth bags for free in an equitable manner to Shoppers who cannot afford to pay the fee or do not bring their own bag when shopping so with that I would like to introduce the Duke environmental law and policy team they've put together a great presentation for you today and they're going to address how Equity is built into our proposal some of the negative impacts of single-use bags in Durham and Beyond and how our proposal supports the city's strategic plans and sustainability goals as well as some ideas for implementation this team has worked very hard in representing us and serving as legal and policy advisors and they have a wealth of information and they've compiled evidence-based support for this proposed ordinance so our team includes profession Professor Michelle Nolan who's the clinical law professor and co-director Dr Nancy Lauer who's a lecturing fellow and staff scientist at the clinic and.
Clinic students Lily Hunter and Kat Taylor and you may also be receiving some comments from other local groups such as North Carolina Central students the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association and keep Durham beautiful we look forward to your additional feedback and collaboration so we can ensure that this proposal becomes a successful and effective and Equitable ordinance so turn it over to the Duke team could you sorry could you repeat your name oh sorry Madeline vital I don't have a card for you would you mind filling one out over at the clerk station when you get a chance thanks thank you so much for that kind introduction Maddie I do want to take a moment to let you know we will be giving you the Abridged presentation today and so if you have any questions about the slides if we're going over something please be sure to bring it up in questions we'd love to support you and we also want to be very respectful of your time as Maddie mentioned we are one of.
Duke's 11 law clinics that are working to advance equity and Justice through Durham you heard about the clinic that supports the housing eviction program to prevent that and so our Clinic is focused on environmental policy and we're going to talk today about advancing Durham schools a Plastics policy for Durham and I'm going to pass it over to Lily to talk about the importance of this work and its impact on our community right so as cat rightly said basically the entire Foundation of this entire proposal comes down to equity because while we are in environmental clinic at the end of the day what we want to do is provide the most positive benefits to the community that we can and so this is something where we recognize that there have been concerns with how this ordinance would be implemented in an equitable way but we hope to show through kind of kind of explanation of this ordinance that not only is that possible but just by virtue of the ordinance existing it.
Seeks to ameliorate a lot of equity problems that exist just because of how plastic production negatively affects low income and communities of color specifically thank you Lily I'm sorry to skip through so many of Lily's amazing slides please be sure to check out the statistics she's compiled on Equity throughout the United States and also Equity as it applies to Durham County we're going to dig into the proposed ordinance as Maddie mentioned it is a 10 cent fee on every non-reusable bag we developed this ordinance over the course of three years in collaboration with don't waste Durham and many other stakeholders we analyze policy over six different policies in cities around the United States to learn what other cities were doing what they were trying what's out there and we spent a lot of time deep in conversation with Durham businesses and Durham stakeholders like the neighborhood Advisory Board to understand what concerns are relevant to the Durham context and how we can craft this ordinance to really fulfill that we want to highlight some key.
Recommendations that are proposed to be part of the Ordinance one is identifying and tracking metrics that will enable you and the Solid Waste Department to make sure this policy is adaptable so if you notice that something needs to be changed it'll be easy to tailor and you'll have the data necessary to do that we also recommend utilizing the fee to support Waste Management program the programs that could look like hiring someone to administer and collect the fee it could look like supporting waste reduction education efforts like the ones that your sustainability board has ongoing in primary schools so you could supplement and expand that and providing reusable bags as Lily mentioned Equity is a central concern that we've heard you all prioritize throughout this process and there are three key components of the ordinance and its implementation that can ensure it's Equitable for residents one the most important one I'd like to highlight is creating exceptions for low wealth individuals so having an exception for people who are on Snap WIC.
Or receiving Medicaid where this 10 cent fee would impose a significant burden when household budgets are already stretched another would be Outreach and education making sure it's culturally sensitive and accessible so these populations are aware that they have exemptions they know how to ask for them and residents require less education for that and providing support for Boomerang bags yeah so that leads me into the next section which is about business Outreach which again we have noticed has been kind of a question surrounding this ordinance throughout the Inception of The Proposal one thing that we do want to note is the clinic has conducted Outreach in the past years since this ordinance kind of began and what we've found is that 80 percent of businesses that were giving this questionnaire either had a positive or neutral reaction towards the ordinance which kind of goes to show that it may not be such a large change for people as could be thought of without speaking with them we've done research also into other.
Locations that have put into place similar ordinances and those have also ended up being quite positive to the extent where people have been surprised that it works out nicely and something else that we kind of wanted to get into with this is that depending on what our future research shows with the with our Communications with businesses and what it kind of seems like their reaction would be into different aspects of this ordinance it's important to note that you do retain a lot of flexibility in how you'd like this ordinance to play out so it's kind of a way to make sure that you feel like you have options in terms of making sure business owners are still happy and that the community is still happy but it gives you that flexibility and agency in doing so thank you Lily and we're continuing that ongoing research and Outreach we have heard from council member Leonardo Williams that you'd really like a better understanding of what implementation looks like for businesses we're in the process of.
Reaching out to businesses in other cities with a similar ordinance right now but we haven't been able to contact very many just yet and so we're very excited to supply you with more information as soon as we have a robust sample for that we wanted to really close this presentation by thanking you all for leading the way and considering this ordinance you're one of the many cities in North Carolina and throughout the South that is leading the way on Plastics reduction policy just to highlight a few that are also in North Carolina there's Asheville which has passed don't I want to get this very correct so in 2020 their Council voted for a one-year Outreach and education program to talk with their residents about implementing a ban on plastic bags and a fee on paper bags their plan is after the close of that year to vote again on whether to fully implement the ordinance we see that Boone North Carolina is crafting a similar ordinance to the one.
That Asheville is developing and has a voluntary business incentive program Wilmington likewise has a voluntary business incentive program and has passed a resolution stating the importance of plastics reduction and we are also my apologies in conversation with residents in Raleigh and Charlotte who are at the start of this process really looking at policy options and figuring out what will be the best fit for them and so we're very grateful to have the opportunity to support you all and don't waste Durham in leading the way and we're excited to answer any questions you may have I would like to invite Dr Nancy Lauer and Michelle Nolan to join us at the podium so we can make sure all of your questions are answered with the full context thank you all for your time and your efforts thank you so much I have a couple more cards from Vine Nguyen and I think Jordan Bethea as well as Crystal Dreisbach who signed up to speak online are any of those folks interested in speaking at this time.
So good afternoon mayor O'Neil and honorable members of the council my name is Vin and I am a graduate student at in the department of environmental Earth and geospatial Sciences at North Carolina Central University it is an honor and a privilege to speak to you all today I am here to also to provide some suggestions regarding the plastic bag fee I support on having a plastic bag fee in Durham for it encourages people to use reusable bags and be less dependent on plastic bags this will lessen the amount of Plastics in the environment according to the U.S Census Bureau in 2020 13.9 percent of the population lived in Durham are in Durham live in poverty while some may feel that this fee will hurt underprivileged members even more I encourage everyone to see that this fee is a part of a larger movement to ensure that this fee does not burden those members I have some suggestions on making these excuse me to ensure that this fee does not burden those members I have.
Some ideas on making instructions for making reusable bags accessible to all there are internet videos that show users how to make reusable bags out of old clothes and fabrics in addition to these videos having a step-by-step guide with photos will allow users to create their own bags at home these videos and guides can be housed under the connect and engage tab on the sea in the city of Durham website also public libraries can also distribute arts and craft bags to family with the basic materials needed to make reusable bags and a copy of the step-by-step guide Durham can also host community members or community events that allow members to learn to learn how to make their own bags and or pick up donated reusable bags the final way to make reusable bags accessible it involves education in the fifth grade I learned how to sew a pillow in art class young students can do the same in elementary and middle school which will teach them at the valuable skill of sewing and making.
Reusable bags at home at nccu students must complete 120 community service hours to graduate some K-12 students need community service hours for certain clubs or Honor Society I believe that schools can host events where students can make reusable bags in exchange for community service hours this plastic bag fee is a big step in environmental preservation it forces consumers to rely Less on plastic bags and more on reusable bags which will lessen the amount of plastic bags that ultimately ends up in landfills and waterways in addition the profits generated from this fee will be given back to the communities through donations to ensure that everyone is equally affected by this fee the city of Durham can host events or make instructions on making reusable bags accessible for everyone also encouraging schools to participate in Outreach programs that make reusable bags will allow more bags to be donated to local businesses and distribute to community members who need them the most thank you for your time and letting come together to reuse to reduce plastic bags.
In Durham thank you is Jordan Bethea present okay great so that can and the online speakers also not here thank you Madam Clerk for checking on that questions or comments from members of the council mayor Pro Tema and then the mayor thank you so thank you for this presentation excited about the implications environmentally that'll have for quick comment and then a maybe one or two quick questions first off just from a cultural competency point of view I've had a number of constituents talk to me about this and I've talked with colleagues from around the country about this type of ordinance for many black folk these ain't single-use bags a lot of black folks home they got a whole bunch of these bags and they'll put one on the knob either of the pantry and that'll be like your recycling bag or your trash bag I had in one day you say I don't ever I've never bought garbage bags because I those are my garbage bags and my lunch bags as well.
So so for a lot of folk they're not single use they repurpose them every day I do want to ask about the the and I appreciate the focus on Equity but the the practical application of where to pass this ordinance I'm excited about the possible exemptions for SNAP WIC and Medicaid but operationally with these folk identify how would they identify themselves if they're a lot of these folks do their big shopping trip at one time when money hits their EBT card they'll go and get all their groceries at one time but other trips that may not be their main grocery trip are they going to be required to show certification that they're on Snap or Wick every how would that work so it's kind of this differs depending on have implemented ordinances in ways where some don't require any certification at all they take you at face value so if you say that you qualify then you qualify so it's kind of up to Durham in terms of how you'd like.
To make that implementation okay that's helpful and there there are some some low wealth individuals who are priced out of assistance but they're still you know they still struggle that they're not they're not middle-income folk with SNAP WIC and Medicaid be the only threshold kind of metrics for or do you know how the cities are handling low-weld folk who aren't necessarily receiving assistance. So that is something that is again this is an area to highlight where you all can decide on what you feel would be the best opportunity I would like to highlight you can also address that through supporting Boomerang bags and so beefing up that program so low wealth individuals have access to reusable bags free of charge we know we've done some research into other cities and they have chosen to supply reusable bags specifically to members of the population who either get the exemptions or might be lower wealth in order to alleviate that and so making it possible so people don't even really need to rely on the.
Plastic bags anymore but that is something that we can add to our research questions as we continue to explore further implementation and I appreciate your highlighting that no thank you much I appreciate you all being here thank you councilmember Johnson appreciate it thank you Mr May Pro tem our mayor's next and then councilmember Javier thank you all for being here I always like to see young bright legal Minds in this area you are both the law students so thank you are you not one of student instructor a master of Environmental Management students who really likes law so so I I am all for trying to figure out what we do in in the when we reuse plastic bottles just all of it but I just have a question on the equity issue because most people who can't afford you know they're going to pay to die they're going to pay the dime who can afford it and so how how do you how is that Equitable how do you define.
Equity because it's going to be your poor people who will think twice before they spend that dive but most people it will just for a lot of people it's just a dime so how do you balance that how are you all how am I to rationalize that when I go and it's it's like me a pro tem said I I have a lot of plastic bag I have that same scenario right at home just sitting right in my trash cans I do use them as my trash bags a long totem lunch I did it today so they are not single use by not by no means in my household but I do recognize that you know I I too have a certain amount of privilege and so if you say You're Gonna and I go to the grocery store and I hear I I can't I don't want to talk 20 20 cloth bags so my option would be if I know I'm going to go in and buy you know 10 bags of groceries.
I don't know if I'm gonna worry about the 10 cents per bag versus me having a tote 10 bags around in my car but that's the option I have because of the income not from the city mind you because not from that that I looked at today but anywho so yeah the only one tell me what a chick looked like because I was sitting here looking at it okay but in any who you know so how do you make that Equitable because for some of us you know out you you pay the dime and it's the poor people who who will then not it won't be Equitable for them so talk me through that so I think that this is somewhere again where there's flexibility in how the implementation of the ordinance ends up going through and so you can end up making those decisions about what's the threshold you want for like who are the people who will end up being who the ones to pay for it.
To kind of go back into the equity I think this is something where and we we sped through this aspect of the presentation but the issue is that a lot of these inequities exist already so these same communities who are who are the poorest communities are also communities who are living near fracking infrastructure Refinery infrastructure that's causing a lot of air pollution other health crises for the most part so it's kind of something where this starts not just from the bags itself but just the entire plastic bag production and so I think what this ordinance seeks to achieve on some level is it's kind of a shift in what that consumption is going to look like and so that's how you kind of ameliorate the problem is from the beginning and creating less bags ends up helping with that also if I may jump in I'd also love to reference this question to Dr Lauer and Professor Nolan because they were there and doing a lot of that initial research about how this feed.
Does generate an incentive for Behavior change and so while it may be small it does have an impact would either of you like to to comment on that thank you very much and thanks to Lily and Kat for presenting this for our clinic and for don't waste Durham so in terms of equity as Lily said you know this the way we view this is that it's a problem from Cradle to grave and the assessments that we've done throughout the city show that low-wealth communities are most burdened by litter they're the ones who are most exposed to the problems associated with disposal of plastics you know the Sampson County community that receives all of Durham's waste and we're also seeing in terms of the litter cleanups that we've been doing in association with other community groups is that upward of 40 percent of the litter that we're collecting are is composed of plastic film from the degradation of these bags and so you know in that regard this is a problem in.
Equity in how we distribute different burdens throughout our community from you know Cradle to Grape and the plastic production and Disposal process in terms of the fee itself what we are hoping for is that people people will the the 10 cent view sends a signal to someone that this isn't something that is free that is unburdening to the community but that you know it it has a cost associated with it and so what we're trying to do is suggest a policy that reflects that cost to society so that people are more mindful of the decisions that they make in accepting one of these disposable bags and I should say just as an editorial comment single use is how it's designed not necessarily I use them too for many things including picking up after my dog so we understand that they have multiple uses it's just that they're designed as disposable and single-use bags in any event so people who are not able to afford the fee would be able to just say I qualify.
For an exemption and the specific exemptions we've taken are modeled off of policies that are implemented in other parts of the of the country but that could be expanded to think about people who are receiving some form of housing assistance for example and by not requiring somebody to show proof you know show their Medicaid cards show their snap or their EBT card that would preserve a measure of dignity they would still have to say I qualify for an exemption and as part of the education and Outreach that we would do with businesses we would instruct people not to ask for proof but just to take somebody's word on it and so that way if there were people who you know for whom the the policy would still be a burden they didn't qualify for whatever reason because of documentation status or or you know they're just over the income levels they would still be able to take Avail themselves of that exemption for the bags that they need I hope that addresses your concerns.
Thank you council member cabier and then mayor Pro tem thank you thank you for coming today I know you all have been working on this ordinance for quite some time I remember when you came to environmental Affairs board several years ago now and I just want to say that however we implemented or whatever conversation we have I do hope we move forward as a council I find it interesting in Chile they have banned all plastic bags and straws there was no they they don't care what wealth there are plenty countries all over the world that are infinitely less affluent than the United States and communities that their their low wealth individuals are at a level that are way lower than we really think about in the United States so I think that there are ways to do this and that that isn't too burdensome it's been done in many many places I think if we think about littering forest fires we have lots of really great cultural advocacy advocacy campaigns that we can.
Think of that we grew up around and I think that if if we move forward and I hope we do that we can think about how do we create something that is like very Durham specific or contextual so that we can work towards so we're not just oh one day we're going to put in this fee and there wasn't a large campaign of Education advocacy I think the city does a really good job if we look at how we have used water over time even though our population has increased our water consumption hasn't and it's because of a lot of the messaging that the city's done and a lot of the policies that the city is implemented and so we have excelled at that so I think we have pretty good track record on how to do this and I think it's necessary and we're all going to have to make these kinds of decisions if we want a world that's very different especially when I think about plastic use and I'm certainly guilty of.
Of you know I have a bag with a bag and another bag of plastic and I use it for all kinds of things but I also have been using cloth bags for a long time so I think there is a lot of opportunity I know that in schools where they have switched to kids teaching them how to compost so they could composter yeah there was absolutely a lot of training but if they could get kindergarteners to compost all their stuff I think we can get some residents to start thinking differently about their plastic piece thank you councilmember thank you councilmember Johnson Professor I just want to respectfully say we we know they're not designed for for single use part of the genius of our people has been having coping skills having in the Jazz tradition having to use something for multiple purposes pliers aren't meant to turn to TV and Hangers aren't meant to be antenna for TV as well but but it happens sometimes I do also want to say from a cultural.
Competency point of view the because I I want to be careful about conflations the low historically the location of industrial level fracking or whatever entities placed in minority communities or poor communities was not predicated upon the buying habits of poor people those were systemic decisions oftentimes to keep them out of the neighborhoods of the other folk who were using plastic bags regularly so I just want to make sure that that when we talk about the benefits of this that you know folk from McDougall terrorists because they're paying 10 cents you know for a plastic bag that that somehow was going to you know manifest itself in in better decisions from powerful people far removed from their contacts where they place these type of facilities you know we're talking about here as a council everyday folk who are complaining about the price of eggs and now I have to pay you know extra for the bag to put them in so I just want to just be very careful about how we frame.
Issues when we talk about equity and and culture as well thank you council member Johnson thank you mayor Pro tem our council member Hyman's our next speaker Hi how are you thank you so much I know you have been working on this in a long time even prior to me being on the city council and then I had the opportunity to meet with you I also just want to piggyback on what mayor Pro tem said even with the structure of you saying that someone would have to identify that they basically are eligible we still have to be specific you know kind of I guess look at that too because that is a level of someone having to disclose and so you know I remember you know being a little kid we used to have the food stamps in the in the in the packages right and then it went to swiping and so everybody doesn't really know what you're paying when when you're swiping because you could be swiping.
With a MasterCard so I just want us to be conscious of that too because even though we're saying they still have to self-identify that still is a level of self-identifying you know what their I guess income level is so I would just be a little conscious when you're kind of working on how you're going to do that thanks thank you councilmember other questions or comments councilmember Leonardo Williams yep thank you so I have let me start off by saying I've been working on this as well with a few folks and talking with you all and I will you know this is no surprise I do think that this should move forward but I do think we're a little premature before it being an actual ordinance one I think there needs to be more Outreach because it's really easy to see we're just we're going to add a 10 cents and 10 cents is just a dime it's really small I think for me it's more the psychology of it also another point is.
And colleagues I'm just giving speaking out the points that I've made to them already the other side of it is you know I think that we will have more impact which with the robust education campaign rather than a coerced fee when the pandemic was here and we had to police and we can talk about it theoretically I'm speaking from a practitioner point of view in my restaurant trying to police people wearing masks when they came in was hell it was a lot you know now policing who's going to pay 10 cents or not asking my staff to decipher whether hey are you on Snap or not you know or you know or wanting someone to be in an uncomfortable situation to identify themselves I I just think that there are still a lot of practical things that need to be worked out and I can appreciate the Outreach to other cities and Crystal and I was just texting earlier and she's going to get me some of that feedback.
But also just the feedback here you know with the small businesses here in Durham the other thing is I do think there's a way forward but I pushed a little harder you know I would even support you know public art you know showing people how much litter we actually send to Sampson County put it right in Center City let's see the big ball of trash that we're sending out there but people need to see this right now this is a matter of food lion versus Trader Joe's you know it's like you have folks that are Whole Foods you know it's like there is a demographic that has this as a practicing culture and then there are some that you know look give me my plastic bag I need plastic rather than paper because I have to walk home you know so I could appreciate the sensitivity to equity but I think the biggest issue here is more so just you know how do we practically make this.
Happen and when you speak to some of the businesses locally you may go upon the restaurant called zoeles where we do not offer you straws anymore you have to request it you know you're going to drink your water you know if you're in-house you're gonna drink it they have glass not a plastic cup you know and I think those are some of the small things that we do we can do locally but I do ultimately believe this this is something that the federal government needs to get involved in as well because I I can tell you 1 000 plastic to-go bags cost 17 at Sam's Club when I buy a bushel of 100 paper bags it's going to cost me about a hundred and fifty dollars so that is a that's a supply issue that that those are organizations right now we're looking at enforcing you know this 10 cents fee on a use of single-use bag but Sam's Club get to still sell the plaster bags you know so it's it's like.
Healthy food costs more so who's going to be at that you know that sacrifice so those are the things that I think need to still be hashed out as I said before I will be your biggest champion and I will continue to work with you all on this I do think it's premature for it to be an actual ordinance let's work those Kinks out let's bolster the education campaign and bring it forth if I may respond that's okay right okay cool go ahead sorry please respond I I think you highlighted a lot of really valuable points everyone who just spoke and certainly a lot of really important and valuable considerations for the education campaign something we weren't able to go into is one of our key recommendations is that there is this education campaign that's comprehensive clear accessible and that it goes on for a while before this is implemented in terms of the federal government ultimately moving on it as an environment like an environmental student I'm like yes please that's like.
What we dream about and I think in the case of this ordinance cities and counties and States moving forward on this is one way of building that momentum towards eventually getting the federal government to go okay cool we can do this and we won't receive as much pushback as we want or as we would expect and then in terms of the the Outreach or other policies having an impact we when we were doing our policy analysis we did find that you can do voluntary campaigns you know that are encouraging people to change their behavior and those are actually less effective than a fee because you don't have that concrete cost of you know it's not just weighing kind of my moral values how close is this issue to me you're really weighing the okay like I know there's an immediate cost and I know that I can avoid it and so even though someone may be very privileged and be able to afford those bags and that's important to account for.
They they may decide you know but I don't have to pay an extra amount why would I pay an extra amount for a bag when I could bring my own or I could not use a bag or I don't really need one in my house right now so those are some some of the reasons why these fees have been effective in communities in changing the behavior of members of the population on a broad spectrum and not just the behaviors of people who are in those lower wealth communities who will be inherently more affected by yep so what I what I'll say is I am going to I'll support a robust education campaign with a resolution before we move to an ordinance that's that's me personally thank you council member councilmember Javier and I've got some thoughts about myself on the stack thank you just really quickly I would support an education campaign with an ordinance so that we have a clear timeline so 12 months 18 months whatever.
We decide but I do actually feel I mean the the we we tax things that we don't want in our society for a reason sometimes right and so I I understand that that's often not popular but I do actually think that if we want we have to change our behaviors when I think about environmental issues it's both Collective and individual it is a combination of both to see a different future and so part of it is going to be you know I'll be happy to be the Dork who goes to the you know does a video and is like don't forget your bag you know I'll do it in Spanish and English and I did it when I had to wear a mask too Spanish and English and so I I do hope that we I know this conversation may continue on Council but I do actually feel like we we need to rise to the occasion of where we are in this moment and this moment you know we're in crisis thank you.
Thank you council member I've got a couple thoughts on how we can move this forward I think it would be great to get some analysis of the proposal from our staff and from our City attorney with regard to the some of the implementation questions and legal questions if y'all would be if we could send that along and have staff take a look at it before before we move it forward and I also think it would be great to have a subcommittee of counsel again continue to work on some of the questions that have been brought up around equity and around implementation so if their colleagues would be interested in doing that councilmember Hyman says she would be interested in being on a subcommittee anyone else I'm working directly with them on some of this so I'm not going to over commit is that a yes that's a no anyone else would like to be on a subcommittee we can't make it unless we have right I think we need to talk to each.
Other as well I'll get on that okay great so we've got council member Hyman council member Leonardo Williams and council member Javier on a subcommittee and I'll defer to our staff for thoughts on what a staff analysis might be able to add to the conversation. I so you you would like to you all want to form a swift committee who is it formally now councilmember Hyman councilmember Leonardo Williams and council member Caballero have volunteered to be on a subcommittee all right thank you great and yeah if they're if our staff has any comments we'll be excited to hear them otherwise I think we're done.
Okay Amanda mayor thank you we had a great presentation great presentations great meetings however we are coming now to the closings because we have to go into closed sessions so at this point we'll turn to our clerk to hear about our boys in commission good evening everybody I have a few nominations here the Durham homeless Services advisory committee for the category of corporate private sector is Humphrey Truitt Durham Performing Arts Center oversight committee category of arts and culture Philip H Kearney for the category of facility management Ahmed K Singh Durham Performing Arts Center oversight committee mayoral appointment finesse G coach mayor's Hispanic Latino committee appointment Jose e Guerrero and the citizens advisory committee appointment Sherrod Johnson and that's the end of my report all right thank you so much Madam Clerk I'll turn down to our city your manager so that we can settle our agenda thank you madam mayor for consent I have items one through 44 and item 54 GBA item 55 and GBA public hearings items.
48-52 thank you thank you madam city manager is there a motion to settle the agenda don't move I've just been moved by council member Freeman and seconded by council member cavaliera all those in favor if you raise your left hand that is a unanimous vote all right is.
There also a motion to adjourn to closed session second all right we are now all those in favor signed by saying aye all right all right we are in closed session we'll go upstairs and beat up thank you for a minute. Foreign.