City Council · Regular Meeting · January 8, 2024

m and um Madame clerk if you don't mind please call the role good evening uh mayor Williams I'm here mayor PR Middleton I'm here council member Baker here council member Cabo here council member Freeman

presid and council member R here thank you very much the diets will look a little different uh tonight as we uh have the manager and City attorney uh seated in the staff designated area and giving them a break tonight uh as we will facilitate this evening's um meeting so can I see that starting out uh and this meeting is recorded so it'll be able to uh be referenced um there were some questions okay good there were some questions by the candid candidates we are going to go ahead and address those those questions now uh in the beginning so you don't have to go through the time stamp searching for it our question one was is there a cap on the number of persons allowed to speak on each candidate's behalf each candidate this is the answer each candidate will have 30 minutes uh to have their supporters

speak on their behalf um and that how we use that 30 minutes is up to you uh whether you have one person speaking for 10 minutes or if you have 30 people speaking for one minute whether they are online or in person it is up to your discretion to determine what you think will be most compelling um but you have 30 minutes and it it would it would be up to you now in order to uh in in order to uh have them speak online and if they will be speaking uh virtually you will need their name first and last and their email and that would need to be sent to the clerk the city clerk at city. gov Again by 1 pm on Wednesday by 1 pm on

Wednesday you will need to have your suppor supporters who speaking virtually uh to send their information to the clerk first and last name and their email address to the clerk at city. gov that is on Wednesday at 1M the second question will our speakers in support have the opportunity to participate online or over Zoom or are they required to participate in person that is up to your discretion again that is up to your discretion question three related uh here's the question I have several community members who would like to speak but given the short notice they are unable to do so in person is there an option for virtual comment um again yes they would need to send their first and last name and their email to the clerk at city. gov by 1M on Wednesday number four will the three

minutes per person be strictly enforced or will there be more emphasis on the 30 minute total time you have 30 minutes it is up to you in your strategy that you invoke with your supporters on how you utilize your 30 minutes if you don't use the whole 30 minutes you will not be penalized um but you have up to 30 minutes excuse me so again so one speaker could speak for 30 minutes correct if they choose to my god um number five uh related if the if the 10 speakers don't quite take up the full half hour will that negatively impact the other candidates time no um no it won't number six will we need to submit our list of speakers ahead of time yes clarification Madame clerk if they're speaking in person do they need to sign

up ahead of time thank you for that question Mr Mayor it would be appreciated if we received the list of all remote speakers and inperson speakers in advance and then we can be prepared colleagues would it be okay if we just make that a practice uh a procedural uh adjustment to this that we please submit okay uh you should provide your uh speakers to the to the clerk uh virtually by 1 pm uh or in person at the start of the me by the start of the meeting Madam Clerk or would you like it also by 1 pm on Wednesday you knew that with K thank you for that question I I would appreciate all of the speakers the remote speakers and in-person speakers as a list yes by email to city. m on Wednesday all right thank you so candidates all speakers

m. on Wednesday uh be it virtual or in person and last question number seven will each candidate cycle through for their portion of the meeting or will all candidates be present for the duration of the meetings that that's up to you if you want to stay or uh if you want to leave it is a public meeting uh so therefore it will be you know viewed by the public so um you know you bring your aame um and and it won't be a private interview it'll it'll all be public uh anytime there are four of us or more together it will be a public meeting all right those are all of the questions that were submitted by the candidates ahead of time all right at this time

colleagues I believe we are going to go ahead into the interviews all right and um just uh just u a little housekeeping here in additional in addition we will have uh the same questions ask to each candidate and uh each member of the council uh will have five minutes to uh to dialogue with the candidate um and we'll we'll ask the same question each person and we'll rotate that um yeah and I I'll go last so with that being said the first person we have is Mr Mayor just to clarify so we will we will each ask the same question of each candidate all right you should have your questions no no I'm sorry you have five minutes right for whatever questions we y okay are there any other questions or comments by our

colleagues all right uh so first up we have Miss Amanda bour welcome I will say uh thank you for uh throwing your name in the Hat uh congrats on making it to this round and um thanks for willing to make a sacrifice well um good evening Council and thank you for inviting me here to talk to you about the vacancy my name is Amanda bour and I am a resident of Durham I am a wife to Alex Williams who you may remember from the applicant process and a mother to a soon Tobe DPS student named Leo Williams funnily enough um I grew up in smalltown Ohio in a very close-knit Community where it was the norm that we took care of each other and gave back to the community and because of that I think it's really become part of my identity and who I am

and how I want to live my life uh in 2007 I moved to North Carolina to go to school at UNCC to study public health and I moved to Durham in 2010 making Durham my permanent home in 2013 I currently work at Duke hospital as administrative director in neurosciences and prior to that for3 1 years I was a nonprofit administrator at Charles house Association where we cared for people with cognitive impairments and executive function loss and their caregivers I am here tonight in part because I serve on two local Durham nonprofit boards and they are each facing their own crisis nonprofits are really designed to care for some of our most vulnerable populations and I have some serious conc concerns about their continued viability and sustainability in order to do so um

given the current economic climate we are in with Rising prices Workforce shortages and funding issues because of my public health background I really see the interconnectedness of all of these issues and because of that I think it's really important that as we move forward and grow in Durham that we are doing so both with intentionality and sustainability if I were to join you on the council I believe that we could address these issues um yeah thank you so I should I should have stated that that's why I gave you an extra five seconds we'll start with a two-minute introduction and then we'll have five minutes per council member for questions thank you for your introduction yeah thank all right at this time we will start with mayor protim Middleton uh and the floor is yours thank you your honor good evening colleagues good evening it's such a great pleasure to meet you and congratulations on advancing of this far into the the process it's a testament of

how uh how high and regard we held your initial presentation to us so just a couple of of questions uh for you thank you for stepping into this Crucible and running this Gauntlet this isn't isn't an easy proposition so uh you should be very proud uh of yourself and your friends and family and supporter it as well the durm city council is the final Arbiter of All City matters we're also fiduciaries of the city of Durham so I want to ask you do you have a particular economic theory or framework that would inform your governance of the city firstly and secondly what would you be willing to raise taxes for oh my goodness so this is a very specific question and I have managed budgets and um done so in my career as far as economic theories I'm not sure that I can really speak specifically to those and raising taxes is really a tough question to answer because we do as a city need to have Revenue in order to grow but I think that raising taxes is something that we need to look at really

carefully and only do so um when that need is really high we do have to bring in the revenue so whether that looks like first starting out with those public private Partnerships looking at how we're already bringing in the money through property taxes and um if there is that opportunity there because we don't have the other Revenue sources I think we do have to consider it though I think it should be our last um our last Choice thank you for that so we do a lot of land use cases in case you haven't watched us and gentrification is a big issue in our city um what are your views on combating gentrification if you in fact think gentrification is a is a bad thing and what do you think the specific Powers you will have as a council member uh will be available to you to to combat gentrification that's a really great question and I think think that um obviously scad was a really big thing that you all just passed and I have some questions about how that will affect

gentrification and I think it's really important as we do city planning to look and speak with the citizens in the neighborhoods that they live in and make sure that their voices are heard with how we plan and I think that in those historically black neighborhoods or um other lowincome neighborhoods or um other spaces is in Durham that we want to really be careful about gentrification we need to hear what they have to say and how they want to grow rather than um taking land from them or building in a way that hurts their Community what would be your comprehensive plan to combat gun violence and Durham oh a com you guys are tough um so I think that this is a really really hard question obviously everybody likes the um heart program and having people who are able to respond to nonviolent uh crimes and I think that there is an opportunity to expand that I

think that longterm what you really need to do is to invest in um long-term Public Health Solutions that get to the root of the cause and some of those things are you know childhood education social supports um you know how do we really support these young folks who are in these situations so they have other avenues and they have other Pathways and escalations so I think we also have to be really careful and we have to listen to the people in the community that are experiencing the violence right now and to make sure that they have a way to feel safe and that we are taking this as a multipronged approach so we listen to the folks who are in the situations of living in um unsafe neighborhoods and um helping them there and we put into Place some long-term Public Health type of solutions starting with Charly Early Childhood early childhood education um I think that the sooner you can start the interventions the the better I'm a huge

supporter of the heart program here in your assessment how does the heart team address gun violence my understanding is that they go out to nonviolent um calls and they work with those members of the community um to help them with social um issues with um maybe they have specific training um sort of like a social worker to help with mental health and those sorts of things my final question is a quick one and a fun one we're brand ambassadors as well of the city what's your favorite thing about Durham oh my gosh I always say that Durham has heart history resilience and grit and what I really love about Durham is just the diversity and the fact that it is a a small big town and I love it it's been a pleasure speaking to you thank you Happy New Year congratulations thank you thank you Mr Mayor you're welcome uh making it a rule that no one can take my questions that's my question one of them

all right uh council member Baker so many questions too so um Amanda thank you thank you for coming thank you for being here um so when we think about planning zoning development infrastructure um on the urban periphery on our corridors in our neighborhoods um both inside and outside of of of our city sort of the interior and the exterior of our city what do you think are some of the things that we're doing well as a city and that we're that we're accomplishing and what do you think are things that we need to improve upon uh just to clarify you're talking specifically about growth and Zoning yes planning zoning development growth yes yeah so I know that the city council has a long time looking at different zoning um opportunities and some I think there was just you redid the Urban Development ordinance and um I appreciate that we need to grow and in order to grow we need to have higher density housing um especially to limit

the the suburban sprawl I believe is what it's called um and so I really appreciate that with scad some of the things that were packed past such as having churches be able to put um affordable housing on their land um I appreciate that um we got rid of the parking minimum I think that we need to have people and not Cars it also means that we also have to think about how we invest in transportation and alternative me methods to that um so there's a lot that goes into this so I think that there was a lot of positive in scad and I'm really proud of of the way that all handled it so thoughtfully I do think that there are some concerns um going back to um councilman Middleton's point about gentrification I do have some concerns about how it is going to affect um our communities and where that growth is going to go um but I think overall there is there are some

positives thank you um what are some of your top priorities around affordable housing yeah so housing is really tough um and I think that we have some opportunity here specifically in Durham because we have so many organizations and so many people who want to come and live in Durham and that we need to work with those organizations because we do want them to come we do want those large companies to come you know you look at um the is it Apple and Google who want to come here and what is their responsibility to helping us build affordable housing if they want access to our resources such as land and our people then I feel like they also have a responsibility to build and give back to the community in a really positive way I like the approach that has been taken um by the council and saying that and maybe saying no to some proposals because the affordable housing that they were proposing in their development was not high enough I think that the opportunity to build

those public private Partnerships is really important when it comes to affordable housing um I think as we all know the three top things that everybody pays for or most people pay for and the most expensive are housing transportation and um child care if they need it and those things are inextricably linked um for most people and so I I talked a lot about the 15minute cities and really being able to build the Green Space develop in a way that is really intentional so that our communities become closer knit and they are able to walk or bike or take Public Transit Transit to get anywhere they need within 15 minutes and that includes all of their um amenities including work and housing and having mixed use housing Within These um 15minute cities to hopefully lower that affordability thank you very much uh what are some leaders that inspire you this is a great

question um you know I have always been really inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsburg um a woman who has kind of been a leader and a first and not afraid to speak her mind but to also do so with in intention and thought about um how it affects other people um and I think that she really was somebody who wanted to raise up and raise other people up and I really really appreciated her and I'm I'm sad that she's gone thank you very much oh all right thank you uh next up we have council member Cavo hi Amanda good to have you with us um I sent my question via email so you would have a couple you have a little bit of um time to look cases up so my question was uh city council spends a

large portion of its time on zoning and it's a large part of of our job as council members over the last two years uh can you tell me about a zoning case where you agreed with council's decision where we got it right and why and then the opposite um a zoning case where you disagreed with council's uh decision and where he got got it wrong and why and I do want to attribute it this question to former council member Rees it is the question like Charlie's question it is the question I was asked in your very same position thank you and we already discussed a little bit about scab but I will say some of the things that I think were really positive that came out of it and the decisions that you all made as a council again are decreasing that parking Minima um the ability for churches to build housing and hopefully affordable housing on their land um the ability to have adus um and I while not specifically zoning I appreciate the effort that was given to try to work with local developers in order to do this so we don't have these huge

corporations from um out of town out of state out of country coming in to to try to make these um changes so I do appreciate all of those things I do think that there are some areas again that um some zoning issues for example one of the affordable housing um issues that was tied up in the zoning with um the passing scad was about the fiveyear affordability and I think that we could have asked for more um now of course I trust that you all are doing everything um that you can to to make that and I understand that sometimes you have to take the good as it comes to you but I do think that there could have been um a longer period of affordable housing within those developments um the other question I had about the zoning was I did have a question I guess really about um the removal of the buffers in the zoning laws and how that is positively affecting our residents um and and as I

feel that having that buffer between um housing and Industry could potentially be um a positive thing for the residents thank you are there any um so scad was one large thing that we saw are there any zoning other zoning cases that you either disagreed with or agreed with um and it's okay if if that's the one you know best yeah I mean to be honest zoning is something that is not in my um daytoday um I do I have done a lot of work um looking at various things such as the uh empty buildings that we have or the abandoned buildings that we have in Durham and I think that there is a lot of opportunity to look at how um we can Revitalize those and if there are zoning issues there that we can change to do so but I'm not familiar with a lot of the zoning issues that have come before the last two years thank you I appreciate that since I have a little

bit more time I'm going to ask you another question um uh in your opinion what are some uh supports or things that we can do to continue to support our immigrant and Refugee communities here in Durham yeah um so I think that it's really hard when someone comes in from um another country and they really don't know a lot of what's going on um so I think obviously housing is a b one helping them to um find a community here really helps with a lot of of the other things um social determins of Health are so so important and how do we make sure that they have culturally appropriate food for themselves how do we have a family that could potentially be um a connection sort of like a mentor family or that can really introduce them to all of the positives that Durham has to offer um I think that Durham has a lot to offer and is a very diverse first place and I think that having immigrants

here only adds to the value of living in the city thank you I appreciate it those are all my questions thank you very much uh next we have council member Freeman thank you good evening I'm very nice to meet you I have um just a couple questions and I wanted to start just I guess with the building off of that kind of zoning in planning aspect and I no you're mentioning you don't have that background which is actually a good thing I think it's beneficial to have different points of view I wanted to ask if you had any thoughts about how our zoning and planning might have impact on our seniors and geriatric population in our community yeah absolutely um so I think a lot about this when it comes to you know property taxes we have people who are living in their homes for years and years and decades and we raise the property taxes because our home values are increasing so much and our seniors have uh limited income and so when I

think about zoning I think we really need to also think about um how that limited income affects them but also thinking about those mixed use communities and the smaller communities because we need to be able to um we need to be able to access them and and remove the isolation that sometimes they feel um so if we do something like those 15minute communities or the five neighborhoods where we have mixed use um we can have playgrounds with older adults um living nearby we can have accessible green spaces we can have accessible uh walking paths and and sidewalks and so I think there's a lot we can do um when it comes to zoning to think creatively about how we include this segment of the population into our plans because a lot of times they really are left out of the plans and their abilities may be different they still have a lot of value and they bring a lot

to the table and I think we should capitalize on that and I appreciate that that's that's helpful I I do want to um dig in a little bit on your answer around racial equity and see if there's anything Additionally you wanted to add to how you feel about or I should say inclusion and racial Equity yeah so um I firmly believe that any anytime we are making a decision that affects other people that we need to hear their voices and so uh when it comes to racial Equity I think that it's really important to hear uh the diverse voice and to intentionally reach out to people with a different racial background and understand what their perspective is on that and I think that we need to think about racial equity and inclusion in all of the policies that we we do how is it going to affect everyone um whether that is intentionally through a policy or as an unintended consequence

because that is what happens quite often so um for me I think it's just important to intentionally be thinking about it intentionally involving people of color in the decision making especially when it comes to their neighborhoods they should be the ones who are telling us what what we need to do to move forward thank you and then just one last question I'm a foodie and if you have any suggestions on where I might want to test out here in Durham that would be great yeah so I love Durham and I love the food scene here I just ate at Gear street recently um we did Durham delivers I think uh we've had swellies I can never pick a favorite because I love it all so much um some of our favorites are downtown where we can walk back and forth um you know I recently started to get into some of the Asian Foods the Indian and uh Thai food stuff so I would love to give you a list of recommendations but picking one is really hard that's a great

answer thank you thank you very much that's all so you don't have a favorite restaurant it's probably if I was going to yeah I'm joking I'm joking all right uh next we have council member rist Mr Mayor uh Miss Bor thank you for coming I I my colleagues um comments about congratulations to you for reaching this point in the process it's quite an achievement um I've got a couple questions one I sent you beforehand by email so I'll start with that question so choosing for if Cho if chosen for the W 3 seat what is one thing and not the only thing but what's the what's the primary thing you would like to do as a council member to help the one in seven residents in Durham Who currently live below the poverty line yeah so the trick to this question is the one thing right um I think that obviously with the public health bathroom background I'm always looking for the root cause um however ever where i' come in the first thing I would do is really want to try to um decrease food insecurity and make sure that we have access to clean water for everyone I think there is something

like oh I I'm not good with Statistics off the top of my head but there was like 12 or 13,000 children who are food insecure and that is really concerning and I think that we have such a wealth of resources here in Durham with our people that if we do a better job of messaging for that I think we can really decrease that I can use this microphone so I can actually look at you instead of turning away all the time um my second question is um in his press conference today the mayor um outl his top priorities for the oh my this here we go is that better I said the mayor something this sound came you know um so in his press conference day the mayor outlined his priorities for the for the city um it included Community economic and Workforce Development so I want to talk about the middle one there Economic Development which is one of the questions I think in the questionnaire and I'd like to ask you just to say more about how you define economic development what's the goal of Economic Development and what do you see as the

ideal role the city can play in promoting Economic Development okay this is really great question and I've done a lot of work in Workforce Development especially with the Direct Care Workforce um so as I as I said um over and over all of these things are very very related so when we want to grow our economy obviously we need to have businesses and we need to have jobs but we also need to think about those supports that really help folks to have these good paying and um good jobs in general so um when I was doing the work with the workforce I'm sorry the Elder Care Workforce a direct care Workforce you know a lot of these women are women of color they may be single mothers and if there is one thing that would derail them whether it's transportation that day didn't happen for what whatever reason or they couldn't afford child care or they didn't have housing all of these things were issues that then affected also their employment and so I think we have to partner with our local

businesses as well as our community college our Workforce Development boards to come up with some Creative Solutions with our Direct Care Direct Care Workforce with our the this population in mind and making sure that they have their voices heard to come up with Solutions together is really important but I think that there is a lot we can do I know you are familiar with the living wage and the certification program and I think there's an opportunity to both expand that and to make it more visible and so that the residents of Durham are able to say I am going to patronize these restaurants these businesses that do pay a living wage um of course like I said it is more than just a wage I think as an employer we also have to work to be good employers and sometimes that means creating something like um an emergency assistance fund for um for their employees um having flexible scheduling

looking at funding some Transportation options in case of emergency so I think there's a lot that we can do that can be creative and this is one of the areas that I feel like I've done our really a lot of work on and um feel like I I could bring some benefit to the C and doing great thank you checking the clock was only only a minute left huh um I guess so I'm going to skip to my last question so um obviously you've got an impressive resume you've done a lot of work both education profession and profession you've done a lot of work on sort of practice and policy side um you're and actually I gotta say my dad was a participant at Charles house you I know your I know your parents your mother too okay about Charles house yeah so so my question is um given your interest in like health healthare elder care and so forth why the city council there's there's also like the Cy commission does a lot of those issues as well so so why the council yeah so I touched on this a little bit about the nonprofit work that that I am doing um and it is in child care and in Elder

Care um and so what are some of the things that I have seen recently is so I I'll take our um preschool for example and the the church that we are housed in is no longer going to be able to suain to keep to upkeep the building and so the preschool is going to have to move out well this preschool is not regulated is not licensed and so we fall into this really Gray Zone we also are half day and we can't raise enough money funds to find a commercial building because as you all know commercial rents right now are um astronomical um and so so we're looking at closing our preschool and that's maybe only 50 spots in Durham but overall this type of program is 900 families and so if we aren't taking a look at our regulations and our codes and our abilities to potentially help these kinds of organizations then we're going to lose these wonderful programs and that doesn't even mention the fact

that then we're going to have a church whose building is falling apart and what are we going to do with that the church can't uphold it and so it's either going to sit fow or it's going to be gone to a developer somewhere and so we also lose the that um I guess it also helps with isolation because Church hubs as we know um are tend to be older and they tend to be um starting to age Out and because of that you're going to cut me off but because of that social isolation is a real problem for older adults and so given all of these things and that doesn't even talk about the work that I have done in our nursing homes and assisted livings nor on the so much Miss Bor thank you so much yeah all right I uh you Oh I thought you were telling me I was done well yeah there there's uh that was just the penultimate question you got the ultimate guy yeah he asked you at the last minute uh so I wanted to let you finish a statement but uh thank you for

uh thank you for going through this process uh council member cabier and I have gone through no in in Baker three of us have gone through this appointment process um appointment yep oh wow so uh majority of the counil have stood where you are uh I think M was on Zoom though so thank I thank you for being here um I am going to ask a series of questions and I'd like for you to be as concise as possible okay all right here we go uh tell me what what are the psychological steps you go through when you are um prioritizing respect for someone that you just do not like that's an interesting question um I think that it doesn't always matter whether I like someone or not we treat everyone with respect um both privately

and publicly great and thank you for that um you talked about supporting the heart program and you talked about mental health and you talked about some other initiatives tell me concisely what are your immediate Public Safety uh Public Safety ideas something that won't take you know time to materialize yeah I think this is a really hard question because um it is a a safety issue but I think that the biggest thing is talking to the people in the in the environments and in the neighborhoods to see what they need whether that is um additional support um I think that there are some Mental Health and Social uh welfare type of things that we could do getting into the schools younger I'm a big proponent at starting these interventions really young at andly early childhood education um and right now I know it is a hard issue and I don't know that there's one

thing that is going to address it great thank you uh are you uh do you do you see police officers as part of your uh Public Safety apparatus ideas I believe that they play an important part of where we are and what is needed right now awesome thank you uh this is a a rather the next two questions are rather loaded um conceptualize your ideal city with three actionable policy steps that you would Implement I hear you speak a lot a lot about 15minute CI so you can use that if you want it's up to you but give me your ideal Utopia and what are three things you would incor inate to make it happen um so I believe that we need more green spaces especially for parks and wreck and for the younger kids to try to combat some of that gun violence I think that that is a really big one uh I believe that we need to invest in early childhood education as infrastructure to support our

Workforce um and I believe that we should also be really highly looking at how to utilize these small smaller nit communities and the mixed use housing to support each other because really Durham is here for everyone and thinking about that from birth to the end of lives and how we integrate those populations awesome uh I'm going to ask this question because it's easy as a yes uh sort of yes or no we have meetings on Thursdays at 1 pm uh I'm just going to be frank serving in government is not considered the most Equitable reality but it's the reality we have um that is only one meeting during the day I'm responsible for assigning everyone on this Council about nine additional meetings that happened Early Morning Noon evening is your schedule Flex enough for you to meet those obligations it is at this time okay good deal uh and last question for me um this is also another interesting question what factors uh or what are the

factors that you consider when trying to support something that you initially do not support and I can ask a again to what what again psychology here what steps do you take or how do you uh how how do you define being open-minded to something that you know that you don't necessarily agree with sure I mean I think a lot of times it goes down to looking at the facts of the issue so if we're looking at a policy in particular you want to look at um who it is intended to affect who it could potentially um any un unintended consequences who benefits from it and who could be hurt from it and I I think that as long as you have that in mind um you can come around to knowing that there is some positive in there even if you don't initially agree with it thank you so much thank you for your time tonight and

uh yeah thank you that would bring to an and you're uh let me just make sure I'm not missing any like closing remarks type thing oh nope okay thank you thank you so much for coming out tonight all right next we have Miss Chelsea cook and welcome thank you you have two minutes to introduce yourself and then we will start the uh the rotation great all right good evening mayor Williams uh mayor protim Middleton city council city council staff that's here as well um it's a real honor to be here today um my name is Chelsea cook I'm a proud member of the Durham Community the lawyer in me also wants to say that I'm here representing myself and not any nonprofits that I might work for um I am an attorney but before I was an attorney I worked in and around the Durham area I

farmed I waited tables at various restaurants um so I have been in a variety of different places however I always knew that I wanted to be an advocate so in 2015 I applied for law school I was hoping that I could help people access a field that is often gatee kept once I finished law school I returned straight to Durham like I said I had been in the area and I knew that Durham was a place that I wanted to set down Roots um I started my legal career as an advocate um for folks who are facing criminal issues but in the Civil capacity so I represented people who were having having um who were experiencing violence at the hands of those who were sworn to protect them um my heart however was always at the issue that I think underlies all of the problems um that we see in the law and otherwise um which is housing you'll hear me talk about that a lot tonight I think um in my years as an eviction defense attorney I've gained knowledge of the interplays between state federal and City policies and laws um I've also worked quite a great deal with City

specific um organizations or ones that at least are partially City specific U that includes DHA DSS NIS um but most importantly I've worked with real people in Durham and I've seen the policies not working for them um I've seen people who have to look at housing and education and health care and food and they have to make a decision about what they're going to cut out of their budget I'm here because I believe that everyone deserves a seat at the table and I think we all understand that having that seat requires resources and it requires time um I'm here because I love the city and I will uh be happy to answer any questions following thank you so much all right so first up we have mayor Pro Middleton thank you Mr Mayor counselor it's it's an honor to meet you Happy New Year and thank you so much for your willingness to step forward into this Crucible this Gauntlet and congratulations on getting this far in the process uh the Durham city council is the final Arbiter of City business we are all fiduciaries of the city of

Durham uh so in that spirit I want to ask do you have a particular economic theory or worldview that would inform your governance decisions one and two what would you be willing to raise taxes for oh that's a great question for the start all right my world viw um I do have a worldview where everybody has um an equal opportunity to thrive in a community and um that inherently requires resources but I think that it requires a an understanding that those resources have not been equally distributed in the past um it requires a real intentionality and look towards history and also to the Future um and I think we're responsible for really coming to understand what the impact of histories have been of people lacking resources um and try and find ways to make up those resources and and we talk

a lot about Equity as opposed to equality or other words that we might use um and I think that that is really the heart of what my economic goals would be um everyone having opportunities and that really means having those opportunities not starting from a disadvantaged place um I'd be I'd be willing to raise taxes for a few things I mean I think one of the things that I'm going to talk about a lot is going to be housing um it's no surprise to anybody here you'all have read my um application that that's my number one priority I see this every day where people don't have uh safe and affordable housing it's hard to have much else um that is the thing that I think is is the is the most important thing that we can possibly provide for folks in the city um and other things that I'd be willing to raise taxes for I think education is super important um I would love to have more like Community focused resources and that would include something like um Community um re uh policing that sort of thing where we don't have to rely on folks coming into neighborhoods that where they're not familiar they're not

part of that Community um but we could have those uh centered in those local communities um I think that I went over and Beyond on that question thank you no thank you for that uh one one of the terms that's that's bandied about quite a bit in our Public Square is gentrification yes so I'm going to ask what are your views on gentrification and if gentrification is a bad thing if you think it's bad um what particular powers do you think you will have as a member of the council and this Council in general to combat gentrification yeah I mean I don't think that we can consider gentrification good or bad um I don't think that it comes so black and white I wish that it maybe did and and we could sort of campaign one way or the other but um gentrification um as it displaces our certain communities that have been in Durham for a long time have histories in Durham in that regard I think that it's really problematic but there are pieces of gentrification um that bring also with them some revitalization um particularly when it comes to Transit and other um uh

things that we might invest in communities um and could you Pi the second part of your question it that what powers do you think the council has to to combat it or to in or Aid it if you think it's a good thing sure so I mean I don't think it's a good thing generally speaking I mean I do I see communities disappearing I'm watching people every day that are losing access to their housing are having to move out of neighborhoods where they their families have been for Generations um so I certainly don't think that it's a good thing but I recognize that growth happens in a city um that's yeah clock sticking no that that's fine that's fine thank you what do you think we can do uh specifically as a council to combat gun violence from a policy point of view actual votes we can take yeah so I think I talked a little bit about this but um I do

sincerely believe that gun violence is the thing that yields from communities that don't have resources that they need um so certainly in a long-term game we can talk about um resourcing education um and those type of things particularly housing um but also I think that we've done a great job in understanding that um that that not all emergencies are needing um more weapons and more escalation put into those spaces um so I think that we've done a good job in for example the heart program and understanding that not all um fin your thought sure that not sorry that not all um that not all situations need to be escalated um and there are opportunities to come in and deescalate situations and potentially avoid uh gun violence that way as well thank you so much it's been an honor speaking with you thank you thank you council member Baker thank you for coming here Chelsea

um it's great to speak with you I'm very excited to ask this question what are your top priorities around affordable housing oh um okay well come into the weeds with me for a bit um I have some big ideas about affordable housing and and I'm going to speak I want to say from a a perspective of renting although I know that also access to um uh to home ownership is really really important as well um but I'm going to speak to renting because that's what I know the best um my big ideas are incentivizing people to accept vouchers we have a real problem in the city um where we have a dir of homes um for people with vouchers specifically specific bedroom requirements and these type of things that are difficult for people to change and then they don't have places to use their vouchers even when they make it through this long wait list um I also think we should focus more on um low-income housing tax credits and I do think that we should have a real conversation about restrictions on um and and incentives for developers who are coming into the city to M maintain a

certain number of affordable housing and um I know that there is State preemption in some of these spaces um but I do honestly think that there is wiggle room around that and I and I really feel like Durham is a great place where people are really committed to it um that we should be starting to explore some Creative Solutions around that those are big picture ideas is um I know however that like affordable housing is a major crisis right now um and so my second thing is about stemming the immediate tide of homelessness um so things that I'm thinking about in that um are funding for rental assistance um this has been a major issue um right now there's no rental assistance options in Durham and um our eviction rates are the highest that they've been since the start of the pandemic um so we're seeing people with not a lot of options there um and then another thing is homelessness uh services and I think we could be funding those pretty immediately um there's not enough space

we all know that that's true um but there's also not a lot of safe places for people who are lgbtq aligned um I don't believe at this time we have any wet beds so people who are under the influence of some of something don't have a safe place to go um and then a smaller part under that is that also there we know for a fact that having an attorney with you during the eviction process increases your likelihood of not being evicted or not getting an eviction judgment um we don't have a lot of resources for undocumented people at this time and I do think that that's a small piece but I think it's um a group that's that's really um missing there um and then number three would be um housing standards and I don't think that we can talk about affordable housing without talking about the quality of the housing that we're offering um we all know that unfortunately Durham has a long history of providing substandard affordable housing We are failing the DHA is failing inspection results at a level that's above and beyond way out outdoing all of our uh surrounding cities um and

the things that I have seen I mean I just can't even explain how bad the situation is but we've got folks who are powerless because they need a place to live and they're forced to live in places that are absolutely not acceptable for anyone um things that we can do around that that are really concrete um is that we do have an we have a city inspection um that's n is and we have sort of taken away the teeth of that over the years um and the way that I see it happening now it doesn't have much effect um so that's something that we could do is provide a little bit more teeth to the NIS um to that's the neighborhood Inspection Services um and so when they find the properties are failing there is something that they can do about that great thank you um when thinking about the Urban Design of the city of Durham sort of older Parts as well as uh post World War II areas and more Suburban areas what do you think we're doing well and what do you think we need to improve um this is a this is a topic

that I think that I um don't know about as much about as I would like um so I understand that some of the Amendments that have happened recently um to the um to this to the zoning plan um I think something that I that I saw that and and again and I'm going to say that I don't I don't know as much about this and and so I don't know maybe the effects of these things but something that I did see that I think is a great direction that we're going is um kind of stemming the uh sort of urban sprawl I know that there's like issues with drinking water and some other keeping areas Rural and so those things I think um were quite good um and I think in general that there's been a move towards having a more green space and um and I'm a proponent of that within the city and walkability and Transit as well again not my areas but I know that they are closely tied with housing um and would love to see those thank you thank you so much next up council member

Cabo put R I'm sorry okay hi good evening good to see you um I sent my question via email so that you'd have a chance to think about uh that and so um the question is uh city council spends a large portion of time on zoning it is an important part of our job as council members over the last two years can you tell me about a zoning case where you agreed with the council's decision where we got it right and why and then the opposite uh about a zoning case where you disagreed with council's decision and where we got it wrong and why yeah so again I'm going to put the same qualifications that I put before which is that zoning is not my area of expertise um but from my research I do not feel like scad was the right way to go I think that um I I was around for all of the um the meetings and I mean I wasn't physically around for them but I was reading and

following along um and I know that um that we had these uh focus groups and that we weren't able to get documents together where folks were agreeing um and it really felt like it was developer introduced developer LED um um and and I'm just concerned that the voices of everyday citizens in Durham um were not reflected in that decision um so that is something that I think um again I need to learn more about um but from what I read and from what I heard community members say that felt problematic to me um something that I am like super excited about though is the community plan that was just adopted I particularly love in that community plan that there are the voices of real Duram mites in there and that we left the in the plan I think that is amazing as I was saying in my introduction I do think that having a seat at the table is really difficult for a lot of people you have to have resources you have to have time you have to physically get there in order to have a voice in local politics um and that I think that community plan was a great way to sort of um have a

revelation about that focus and Center those voices thank you um my next question is uh what do you think we can do um to support our immigrant and Refugee communities in Durham that's a great question um I do come across um quite a few folks in my practice unfortunately um who have been um theyve found housing of course it's going to be temporary where they've been someone has helped them find that housing um and it hasn't worked out in whatever way it is not sustainable um so I think that there could be I mean wrapped up in in the affordable housing could be um more resources for folks who are coming in um as immigrant populations um one thing I talked about a little bit that I would love to do

more research on is um is we talked about gentrification earlier but sort of having um celebrations of uh and and like places set aside for cultural and Heritage celebrations and I know we're doing some of that um particularly with some of the um neighborhoods in Durham that have been historically black um historically like black entrepreneurs for example um but I think that we could do more of that um to celebrate the folks who are coming in from other places as well thank you that's all thank you very much next up we have C member Freeman thank you and I appreciate your answers this far I just just one additional question I would love for you to expand on your inclusion and racial Equity um comments it looked like it kind of got snipped so I just wanted you to just build off of that you could use

the entire four minutes and 45 seconds thank you council member um yes so I as a part of my job I um I work with people who are poor and this is a I'm not using this term in any kind of way other than to say that their incomes are below a certain amount um and what that looks like in the Durham city is that most of the people I work with are black um and a lot of them are women and a lot of them are single mothers um and what I end up having to do is to explain a process to them that might inherently be unfair they might already be in a place where they are not set up to succeed um there are many things that go into that um and by the time that they get there um they're not set up to succeed they're not set up to do anything except for uh potentially have some experience in the system that's going to be violent and it's probably something that they've experienced before unfortunately um

and I don't know if I'm the right person to do those things and to have those conversations but um what's been really humbling for me is that people have um usted Ed me with their stories they've entrusted me to see their homes um which is I like want to cry when I think about that uh to meet their families to see the things that are really important to them um and the best that I can do is is really listen to them and I know that the solutions to the issues well I'm going to say the the identification to the issues and the solutions to those issues people in the communities already know those there are in the impacted communities people already understand the issues that are there facing and they have good Solutions um and so what I have tried to do is just Elevate those voices and um and thus far people have really trusted me in a way that has has really blown me away so um I'm really I'm really honored uh to even be in this position to even have thought about running which is something that um

people I've worked with have pushed me to do um so that's a that's a true honor for me thank you I I would definitely say you are exactly the voice that needs to speak on these things because I think when it comes from voices like myself I look so much like some of those people you talk about that people don't hear it in the same way so I appreciate that and I would love to hear I again I'm a foodie um any restaurants that you like or special places I should be visiting that have really good food this is funny because when I was thinking of questions that I would ask I was like this is the question that I would ask best meal and Durham which in my opinion is the Friday oxtails at the chicken hut I don't think that you can go wrong with anything at the chicken hut but the oxtails on Friday are like out of this world and now this Friday that is what I'll be doing is that a challenge is that a challenge I'm up for I'm y want to cook and have me be a taste tester I'm like so happy to come to I'm definitely up for judging just so you know all right council member

Freeman is the judge chicken hut zo is coming for you all right no thank you all so much uh and next up up we have council member rist m mayor Miss Cook thanks for coming again uh add my thanks to congrat congratulations to you for coming this far in the process and for being one of the finalist for War I um the question I sent you by email I'll repeat it again you get the advantage now having knock on first of sort of having the question um before you so yeah if elected or chosen for award the war three seat what is the one thing you would do as a council member to help the one in seven residents Who currently live in poverty in our city yeah I mean you're not going to hear anything that you're not going to expect here but for me it's affordable housing that is the number one thing because if you do not have a place to live you do not have access to education you do not often have access to employment so much of that is online these days you don't have the ability to uh to make your own food it becomes very costly very quickly if

you don't have a place to live um store your belongings in a safe manner um there's so many things things that um that stem from having yeah no if I may so like what's the one specific thing that first day on the job I have to choose from my yeah for my list of I mean I think in my experience that and I said this before I would love for my first thing to be a broad sweep but I do also understand that we are hemorrhaging with evictions that are ongoing so I think that my first thing would be rental assistance I think that people need to stay housed I think that um even if it's you know not for forever but for enough time to figure out a move to avoid an eviction judgment as you all know eviction judgments go on your record permanently there's nothing to get those off um anything that buys people a little bit more time um to move their families in a way that makes sense for

them and gives them a little bit of autonomy I think that that's the thing so I would go rental assistance just from my personal experience of of watching the need for that yeah thanks second question um as I said stated before so um we heard the mayor talk today about one of the priorities being Economic Development among community and Workforce Development um there was a question on the survey about Economic Development you answered that but I'd like to pursue that a little further and just ask you for for you how do you define economic development what's the goal of good economic development at the city level and what's the what's the ideal role the city plays in promoting Economic Development yeah I mean we've um we've seen a lot of growth into and I do think that we all are aware that um that growth is coming and that Al that growth is useful for the economy um but to me we have to be able to sustain the growth and so I think that the number one thing for a healthy economy is having a space available for that growth to happen in a way that makes sense that supports the people already living here um we have to have the infrastructure for that growth um so I don't believe

that you can have a function economy where um you're just catering to the needs of people who are coming in and developing and selling property and that sort of thing there have to be people in Durham have to have the ability to partake in the in the things that are going on in Durham so a thriving e economy to me is where place where everybody has the ability to engage great thank you um watching the clock here um my next question is actually I have a question for you in particular um impressive resume both professionally and in sort education background um an amazing work you're doing with um uh Legal Services I'm just curious or legal a of North Carolina I'm just curious like outside of your profession what's the ways you've served in the community organizations causes or so forth what kind of what kind of community engagement um you mentioned that a little bit but I'm curious just sort of if you could elucidate that a little bit more yes so I mean I have done um volunteer work with local

organizations um and some local packs in the area um and a lot of that has been voter turnout and particularly around local elections which I think is super important um and I've done a lot of door knocking which is as you all know because you've probably done it for your own campaigns like very timec consuming um but a lot of the door knocking that I've loved the most has been just asking people in Durham what issues are important to them um which is a thing that I was able to do with Duram for all we were literally just surveying people what's going on what are you feeling um and that has been a really awesome way to engage in the community and really like hear from people um what's going on and and what they'd like to see um I also pride myself in being a person in my social group who's constantly talking about the issues that are going on um so you will hear me having a really fun conversation at parties which is about eviction at all times um but more importantly I think that um I'm trying to be out and about in the community um educating people around what's really going on in

the housing crisis that we're facing and um and and what um sorry what other people who are in different socioeconomic classes than themselves are really um experiencing in the city great thank you thank you thank you very much all right I'm going to ask you a series of questions and just try and be as six synced as possible uh concise as possible um so uh you you you uh well tell me what steps do you take to respect someone you may just dislike that I may dislike yeah oh um well I feel like I disagree with a lot of people I'm not sure I dislike a lot of people um but I really feel like people have common ground that can be reached I I don't know that I've ever met somebody where we can't agree on anything um so for me it's important to talk about that common ground and see if we can come around to other issues on that good thank you uh

could you uh could you conceptualize your ideal city with three action steps that you take so you're playing The Sims yes um everyone has a place to live that is um the number one for me um it's safe and it is secure and it is a place that is habitable um and I think that the second priority for me would be talked a little bit about this before but um community-led deescalation um instead of you know relying on systems that we have had for long periods of time that we have seen not work in the way that we want to like we we definitely have a criminal legal system and a police force um but we don't see a reduction in crime due to those those things um so having having Community accountability and

methods for deescalation I think would be my second thing um and then the third thing would be um education and like opportunities for Education that aren't just in the classroom that cater to one specific style of learning um but the valuation of all types of education and skills and trades um to allow people to contribute in the ways that they are most happy and and able to do and feel fulfilled great um in regarding that I'm going to ask somewhat of a follow-up question slash twart next question okay um do you believe uh police are necessary one and two as somewhat of a followup is do you do you see a difference in safety versus reducing crime okay great question so whether the police are necessary I am like I said I am a realistic person um I would like to say that I see a future

where police as we know it is not a necessary Factor but in this exact moment um I think if we defunded the whole Duram police tomorrow that that would be a problem because we don't have any infrastructure built around any other Alternatives um so whether or not they're necessary I don't think in the long term that that is and I don't think that we have to think so in the Box about it being necessary um but I do understand that for right now that is the structure that we have um I'm sorry could you say any the other was do you see do you see a differentiation between safety safy and crime reduction yes so reduc crime this is coming from a person who's studied law um but what I'm going to say is that a lot of our crimes are made up so yes there is a there is a difference um we have criminalized we have gone over and just broadly criminalized so many things and and things that have been intentionally targeting certain communities and there's no question about that when you look at like how criminal law has been written and the

development of it over the years um so yes there is a major difference um there are certain things that are crimes um which I don't feel maybe make us less safe um but I think that that's a that's sort of a a legal creation um safety to me is like you know your neighbors and they're watching out for you and you're watching out for them and people have shared commitment to the community and and there's not a want to harm people around you and that is to me the definition of safety and I don't think that it maybe even has to be related to Crime I I appreciate that response thank you um lastly uh well almost lastly uh what what factors do you consider uh when trying to um support something that you may not NE actually I'm not going to ask that cuz I think you answered it already uh when you talked about finding common ground um so do you consider

m. however it is my responsibility to assign about nine additional meetings to each person on its Das which requires Early Morning Noon afternoon and evening does your schedule allow you to commit to that um if I have prior knowledge it does and I

also have had conversations about potentially taking cutting my time down if that um were need were was needed to be an um on the table so if it if it is possible that I am ended up sitting on the dasis then yes I will be available and I will ensure that um I can serve the community in that capacity all right thank you thank you very much for your time tonight appreciate it all right next up we have Sheila Huggins welcome to City Hall Miss Huggins thank you for inviting me thank you you have two minutes to introduce yourself and then we will um go into rotation of each member of the diets asking you or having dialogue with you for five minutes all right great um thank you for inviting me again council

members um thank you for showing up this evening people who are here in the room and for those who may be watching on YouTube Facebook or whatever their social media platform of choice is thank you I want to start by first just sort of talking about a theme before I jump into my background I'm here because I care about Durham I'm here because I care about the people who live here in Durham the businesses that are in Durham our institutions that are here I know that there's been a lot of growth and a lot of concern about the direction of our city and I know that people feel like maybe where is the place for me is there still a place for me how do I fit in and this is why I'm here I grew up in a family that's been long committed to political involvement caring about what their community looks like and I worked for the city for almost n years in three different departments so I know about budgeting I know about management I know about working with people I know what it

takes when you have to work late to get a job done because guess what somebody's water doesn't work anymore or you're calling 911 and you're waiting for someone to answer a little bit too long so I care about the direction of the city I believe that my experience as an attorney my experience in the environmental field as an environmental chemist working for the state of North Carolina I believe that my experience working just in the political Arena and understanding the challenges that people still face every single day that those are the experiences that I'm bringing to the table those are the experiences I want to take and help make our city the best that it can be for every single person that's here and that's why I'm here tonight thank you thank you very much first up we have mayor proin Middleton thank you Mr Mayor counselor it's good to see you happy New Year congratulations on getting this far in the process um the Durham city council is the final Arbiter of of Durham's

business we're fiduciaries of the city uh and in that spirit I want to ask you do you have a particular economic worldview or theory that would inform your governance one and two what would you be willing to raise taxes for okay uh economic theory look I'm going to go back to one of the things that I talked about when I was running for office and we talk a lot about people thriving in the city of Durham and people being able to have an affordable life here in the city of Durham but you do not get that if you cannot find a job in this city or you do not have an income to pay for housing to pay for transportation to pay for food to turn on lights and people know the difference between saying I need to get my light bill paid versus I need to go pay Duke power or something like that it matters a lot and so to me I think my main economic world viw is that we need to be doubling down on working with our employers that are here and the ones that are coming to make sure that our residents understand the

skills experience the education that they need to be prepared not just for the jobs of right now but the jobs of tomorrow and the future look I have a daughter who's graduating from college in just a few months I have a nephew who just started his freshman year at North Carolina Central University we are concerned as a family about what their Outlook looks like and whether or not they might be able to live the life that they want to live so when we talk about what my economic Global theme is it is about making sure that people are not just self-sufficient but people are thriving and that people are stable not just now but in the future now when it comes to raising taxes I'm that person that says what are are our needs we look to our community and determine what our community needs are we look to our employees because they carry out everything that needs to get done for the city and we if we are not taking care of both of those then we're not doing our job and that means that

sometimes we have to make the hard choices to be able to say when where and how we're going to be raising taxes if necess thank you necessary thank you so much for that uh one of the terms that's that's much bandied about in our Public Square is gentrification I'm sorry gentrification yes uh and we do a lot of land use cases a little bit on the Durham city council I want to ask what your views are on combating gentrification if in fact you think gentrification is a bad thing and what specific powers do you think you will wield as a council member to combat gentrification if it needs to be combed like a lot of you I went back home and visited my family during the holidays and and I have had a history of taking pictures and video and this particular time as I was leaving the neighborhood there was a track of land that had for a long time been vacant and now it looks just like some of the tracks of lands here where you see the

modern houses and you know the rents that are associated with those houses are not necessarily rents that are affordable to people who live in that neighborhood when I go home to Greenville which is where I'm from and I stand on the front porch I know a lot of the people who have lived in that neighborhood and they're mostly single family homes with apartments behind us but what you don't know is they're mobile homes across the street this is the dire situation that's not just happening in Durham it's happening everywhere and so there are changes that are taking place and yes people who live in their communities are finding it harder and harder and harder to be able to stay in those communities and so I think again it comes down to making sure that every single family is economically stable and that we make sure that to the extent that we can we have policies and programs in place that help them stay in their homes so one of

the things we've done here is what have our lowincome tax property assistance program so those people who are really in Dire Straits can get fun to help pay for their property taxes that's one way of helping them stay in their homes we've had our guaranteed income program and look we're going to run into a lot of challenges to try to figure out how we're going to pay for some of these programs so that we can have people stay in their homes but I a firm believer that we get behind making sure that people have good jobs that they're stable and that they can be in a home where they can grow be safe and take care of their families with the final few seconds we just take a couple of seconds to talk about what we can do uh concretely and through policy to combat gun violence stable families stable homes making sure that especially our young people have access to Opportunities my father was on the Greenville city council for almost six terms and one of the things that he

really pushed really pushed was making sure that there were opportunities for the young people before he was elected to Council he served on Greenville Parks and Recreation we had a pool put up not far from where I lived we had this this the government there the city donating money to the Jackie Robinson league so that young they were mostly boys so that young boys could play baseball those were the kinds of things that I learned growing up that you did in a community to help keep children interested in activities and having things to do I just had this conversation with my daughter today and she said the last thing you want is a bunch of young kids running around without anything to do thank you counsel it's been an honor speaking to you thank you so much council member Baker hey Sheila good to see you thanks for being here yes um so my question is

as you as you navigate Durham um as you get around whether you're driving or running or taking your bike um um and then as you think a little bit about the Urban Design of the new areas that we're building in in Durham what do you think is going well and what do you think is not going well and needs to be improved we've got some challenges here um some of them are not new challenges and I'll just tell you um when my husband and daughter and I moved to durm and we were looking for a place to stay one of the things at the top of the list was it had to be a place where we could walk out the door and live our lives okay so I'm a runner Walker I wanted that kind of neighborhood my husband rides his bike every single day he's better than I am because I don't run in the rain and the snow but he does but here's the thing we lived in an older neighborhood great in terms of trees and parks but very few sidewalks so not entirely safe recently I had the opportunity to drive down Austin Avenue and watch school children

get off the bus there were no sidewalks on Austin Avenue and when you look now they are now sidewalks down one side of the street which is great but it's not the side that they were getting off of the school bus and so we have to look at making sure that we are looking at infrastructure and saying hey here's how much we have to spend where are the places that it's needed the most and making sure we're sort of checking those boxes so we I think in my own personal mind I think we've got a long way to go and I understand that we do have plans in place for some of of these I live near Hill andelle Road and we have had a plan in place for a while for what that should look like when it comes to putting sidewalks there and I'm telling you we have lost and you know we have lost people on guest Road on hillindale road because we do not have the infrastructure in order to keep people safe so along with sort of a holistic view in terms of what Transportation

looks like I think a major part of that a priority has to be the focus on making sure that our residents are safe thank you um what are your top priorities for affordable housing I wish everybody could have an affordable house so I'm going to go back to when um I was running for office and one of the things I talked about was my plan called the 60th because last year was the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for jobs and freedom and I think a lot of times people think about the civil rights part but they don't really hone in on the fact that jobs were an important factor there and not just jobs but safe jobs because that was an issue too but then also the freedom aspect the aspect of being free from illegal discrimination and the legacies of that and so when I look at affordable housing I really do go back to the basics of saying that there is no home that's affordable if you cannot find a

job to pay for it or you do not have an income and so we really have to go back to the basics here I don't know many people at all that can go out and get a house without a job or an income I just don't know them we have got to do a better job of saying to some of our residents what are the skills experience and training that they need to get them on a path to be able to afford what housing is going to cost and then there are always going to be these places where government is going to have to step in and do its part also and part of that includes putting policies in place when we're working with rezonings to say hey we'd rather see units versus donations of money we would rather see that and then sort of understanding what the additional programs are to make sure that we're supporting our residents too but really and truly I'm always going to start with making sure that people have got the money and that they're stable

and can get in the house can afford the transportation to get to the job the food afford the internet and everything that comes with those set of needs thank you um what are some leaders you look up to look so this sounds a little weird okay but I'm going to go back to Silence of the Lambs that part where they talk about um the part where he talks about what you see every day because it matters what you you see every day what I saw every day were two parents who worked as hard as they could to make their Community the best that it could be thank you so much I did not know where you were going with that I thought you were going to say hanible Lector Silence of the Lambs yes wow all right uh council member cavier thank you good to see you Sheila um I sent my question earlier so that

gave you some time to um study uh the question is uh city council spends a large portion of its time on zoning and is an important part of our job as a counc as council members over the last two years can you tell me about a zoning case where you agreed with council's decision where we got it right and why and then opposite about a case a zoning case where you disagreed with council's decision where we got it wrong and why great and thank you for sending that earlier I love the opportunity to do a little bit of research here and I want to talk um specifically first about the bragtown industrial Business Park and I actually took some notes here because I want to make sure I cover a few things um one of the first things that um I want to highlight with that is this part about taking underutilized property and property that we haven't necessarily identified what the future is going to look like this was zoned as light industrial and so now we have the opportunity to have manufacturing to have Healthcare high-tech jobs all of this to come into

this area and again the piece that's missing here is what is the jobs component going to look like so for me I see this as a big opportunity for the residents of this city to again connect with employers connect with the business part the business park to say okay here's an opportunity for our residents to now get jobs and grow this particular development let me highlight just a couple of things and put on my glasses so one of the pieces um that came up with this was this had been a brownsfield site meaning there were some concerns about whether or not there was environmental contamination underutilization of the site I actually worked for it's called now the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality but I worked in the division of waste management and so I understand the background about having contamination ons sites and the amount of money that it takes to redevelop that type of

property and the timeline and other resources right here in the city of Durham I don't know if any of you recall this but when deac was under development there was a moment in time where there was soil that was found on that site that was contaminated and it had been taken to a con construction and debris landfill well a construction and debris land feel is not where you're going to be taking contaminated soil and so when you think about different properties across the city other Brownsville sites other sites that are unutilized and the idea of being able to come together as a council as a Planning Commission and say this is one of those sites that we're going to support in terms of what Redevelopment looks like at a commercial level in terms of Industrial Development and that sort of thing so I think that this is the direction that we need to be going and taking a look at all of our properties like this and figuring out where are there more opportunities like

this in terms of how Durham can grow all right so on the other side this is not one that I necessarily would have voted down but I do feel like it was a lost opportunity here and that was South Point as I said earlier if when we can have units for affordable housing that is a great thing okay on the other hand with this particular site we know that we're talking about a possible hotel with I think up to 200 hotel rooms we're talking about office space Maybe medical office space we're talking about additional retail and I think one of the main issues that came up with this site was how do we continue to expand this in a way that meets the needs of the market so that we don't mind having uh we wind up having something that looks like the demise of Cary town center and I used to shop at Cary Town Center so I remember

what it used to be and so there is a concern about how we say to developers when we're resoning how do we get to the point where we're having units for affordable housing and not just money so I'm all for the jobs I'm Aller the number of contracts that our local businesses got and receive because I think that's very important important I think it has to be a priority as often as we can make it I just feel like this was one of those instances where I wish we could have had some units developed thank you I appreciate those responses um oh I don't have M I don't have time okay um the second part of my or the second question I have is um what do you think we could do to support our immigrant and Refugee communities and Dr right just for the record um this is Council Maris fa he asked a question at the last minute so we allowed the first candidate to go and that is been so long

so you can answer the question right so I think one of the things um that we have to do whenever we're talking about another Community is to go to them first and see what their needs are I'm never going to be the person to try to dictate to someone else what I think their needs are we have a lot of public and private organizations right here in Durham that are doing great work so I think that is the first place that we start ask them what their needs are second as a city we determine where do we fit in with helping those needs get met are there gaps in funding resources opportunities that we have in the city that we can use to then say here's a way that we can help our immigrant communities that are coming here thank you thank you so much council member Freeman thank you it's a pleasure to see you uh this evening I I I think I have I

have a I just have to ask this one question um just because you're your history your background can you say or explain very briefly what happens if you burn the soil and those Brownfield sites rather than removing it to landfills what's the difference and I guess whether or not it's possible or would it be a viable solution I do not know I have not kept up with that level it was just something you know the background in the SC environmental science I just have to ask um so I let me just regularly Le just ask you I know that that when I first ran in 2017 you ran as well I know that this counil has has seen a lot is there anything in particular about where we are today that you think would have been different if you had won that race that is a very interesting question

um ask myself yeah there would be a lot different because of course Leonardo wouldn't have W so the makeup would be entirely different I think I I think though mean like you would have stayed the full four years well hey leave me out of there you know um I think opportunities come up and people find the pathway for them and I think it's important I've always said this to people I will never tell someone what they should or shouldn't do when it comes to running for office I think you have to have those conversations with yourself and with your God and with your family to determine what that looks like in terms of of me being on this board um of course I think the city government experience would have brought something to the table I also think that um the legal training we have a number of people who have legal backgrounds who

are also candidates for this position I think there is something to be said for that when you throw in the science background that I have and I have um a BS in biological sciences with a minor engineer genetics and a specialization in microbiology I can be almost too analytical sometimes into science and data driven and so for me that is usually where I start I then supplement that with anecdotal evidence that comes from the relationships that you have with people and that is the component of that that I think helps direct my decision making thank you um and just tracking back love to hear your thoughts on I know that you you actually shared like a plan around what you would do around racial equity and I guess how how I guess moving forward into that how

would you implement that plan I'm sorry say again now your plan for racial equity on the council or in the city so I think are you talking about the plan for the 60th or I'm sorry I'm talking about your is it was was the one of the questionnaire answers you had like a seveno 7po process or 7even Point areas am I reading the wrong one nope you were the only African-American it is you I think it's answer number I can read a little bit of it to jog your memory if that helps but you you mentioned seven points it was pushing back against the legislation that does not support our values that curtails and eliminates the rights of City residents is that helping all right a little bit um before the holidays so

here's the thing yeah um and I spoke a little bit about the legal background so one of the courses that I took when I was in law school was civil rights litigation and understanding the laws that we have in place that you know have sort of burdened the movement of people in terms of how they have successful livelihoods you know and I think part of that means that we do go back and we take a look at our policies and procedures for number one number one in terms of what those look like are they falling down the same path and a lot of times we tend to operate within our own lens and so I think sometimes that means bringing in other people and listening to them but the other side of that does mean that when we're talking about taking care of especially our residents and our employees that we make sure that we are understanding the impact of

illegal um discrimination and how that has impacted where people are now and their opportunities for where they're going in the future and I'll just say this one thing cuz I think we're out of time you know the highest number of people who were showing up now in terms of education and going to to to University at that level is women and particularly black women and yet the women who the people who also are more likely to be impoverished and to carry High student loan burdens are those very same women and so when we talk about things like especially at the federal level when we talk about things like financial aid and who's getting that and the burden that it places on that and so part of it is looking at and again that's the federal level part of that is understanding the systematic policies that are in place that impact what um race Equity looks like but then we also

have to do that on U the local level also thank you I appreciate that thank you so much next we have council member rist thank you Miss Huggins good to see you again um congratulations on coming this far and and it was a pleasure serving with you or not serving but being with you on the campaign Trail so great to see you um I'm going to start with a question I sent you by email today so if chosen to serve W 3 what is the one thing you would do as a council member to help the one in seven res residents Who currently live in poverty in this city I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here you know if you go back and look at my um questionnaire when I ran my the first question that was asked on the PA questionnaire I mentioned poverty if you go back and look at the Durham committee on the Affairs of black people it doesn't take you much further along before I mention poverty I didn't just start talking about poverty today I was talking about poverty when I ran I

was talking about poverty when I ran in 2017 and you can go back and pull that up and I say this and I will continue to say this you cannot live in this Society if you do not have a stable income and so when we talk about poverty we have to talk about the pathway the complete pathway that gets people not just to this point where they're making it but this point where they're actually thriving and so yes one in seven 13 14% it's really not the number that we're talking about because we know that there's so many more people who are just one or two paychecks away from being a part of that one in seven and so we have to do a better job of saying what is the road map for people to have a more stable environment and part of that has to do with education making sure that we are working well with our educational

institutions like Durham Tech Durham Public School Systems NCC you and Duke and what their role is in making sure that those educational opportunities are available to our residents and then also we're talking about training programs look I worked in the office of Economic and Workforce Development for a little while I can tell you I think they're underst staffed I think they're underresourced if you want to talk about getting people jobs and making Durham better then you have to support the very Department that's out there to do is for our residents and so when we talk about poverty I think there are a lot of spokes in the wheel because I got that science and diversity background there is no one tool that is going to check the box for us there are a lot of tools there are resources we need a good budget and we need a timeline and that's how we impact poverty and we don't do it

alone we have faith institutions we have have other organizations that are working on job training they're working on mentoring for our youth we have a program right here within the city that helps youth get jobs that is a starting point for so many youth so let's talk more about Economic Development tell me and there was a question about this on the survey or the question there tell me what's the goal of Economic Development um and what is the role the proper role the city can play I mean you've worked at o right so what's what's the proper role the city should play in healthy economic development in a city like Durham so there's the governance piece okay making sure that we have solid infrastructure in place making sure that we have a safe Community here making sure that we have the government boxes ticked off so for instance when the business wants to come they know that their employees can call 911 and someone will answer and so the government side of that needs to be our

first priority what are our responsibilities and so we check that box off first the other part of that too is where I think we sort of could do a better job is making sure that we're developing good relationships with companies that are here and those that are coming here and so part of what we really have to be focused on is making sure that we have a really strong tax base here making sure that we have good companies that are coming and providing jobs that pay Fair wages jobs that treat our residents with respect and jobs that not just provide them with just an entry level job or an opportunity for career growth and that's another piece that the city can take on too so for instance if you go to the city's website you can find out about jobs you can find a little bit about benefits but where is the part where the city employee goes you know what I'm at a

accountant level one or budget analyst one what does my pathway look like to get to budget analyst three or assistant director where is that and so there's some pieces that the city can do also in terms of making sure at sort of the micro level in terms of employees that they're a little bit more economically stable but there I think there's an under um current to sort of make sure that we're bringing um good businesses to Durham that we make sure that we're letting the world know how great we are and the world didn't used to think we were that great and then they found out the secret and now everybody wants to come but you know we need to have high expectations we need to hold people up hold businesses up and hold them accountable for having good and great jobs for our residents thank you thank thank you so much all right and uh I'll I'll take the last um round here thank you again for uh being here uh attorney Huggin

so I I was inspired to change this question by a previous candidate um uh you just start off with tell me how you what psychological steps do you take uh to uh respect someone that you disagree with the original question was dislike that's about personality we're getting out of we don't want to focus on that we want to talk about policy so someone of you may disagree with and thank you I think it it was Miss cooker so you know at one point in time I had a teenage daughter we didn't always agree on everything it requires um some work and commitment but really and truly it it's all about communication and respect and how you talk to people and how you treat people and not just what you do out in public but behind closed doors so that people don't ever feel like you don't value them as a

human being I spoke early about um my father being on the city council for a number of years I have two younger sisters so he was in a household with my mother and three young girls and he used to sometimes uh call us waterbears because we would cry about things and one of the things that he would say though as he was out in the world doing his job as a city council member was you have to learn how to disagree with people without getting upset about it now I know a lot of times we get passionate about things I get very passionate about some things but there's a way that you speak to people and there's a way that you communicate to people and it's simply with respect thank you thank you and I'll ask that we can be as succinct as possible so I want to get all these questions out um could

you conceptualize your um could you conceptualize your ideal city with three steps that you would take three three policy actual policy steps three actual policy steps um so I think again the first one would have to be making sure that we have a strong and vibrant economy okay we don't have taxes we can't pay for anything if we don't have that in place so that would be number one making sure we're attracting good businesses keeping good businesses and making sure that our residents are getting that job getting those jobs the second thing is making sure that it's a place that our people want to live in okay that involves everything from having good Parks systems having opportunities for our youth having places for our families to go and enjoy arts and entertainment and just things to do making it a good city and then the third piece is making it a place where everyone feels welcome

and safe and that can look like a lot of different things but those are the three things that I would focus on thank you um what what would you consider what would you consider uh Public Safety Solutions like immediate long long term midterm okay um you know council member Freeman brought up the 2017 race and at that time um farad Ali was running for office and one of the things he used to talk about when he talked about um crime was the fact that you know children don't they aren't born and they don't grow up and go to kindergarten thinking that what I really want to do is to engage in in a life of crime what that really means is that we as adults have usually dropped the ball on some things and so it's up to us to

make sure that we have policies in place procedures in place and I talk about things like opportunities I talk about making sure that we're coordinating with our Public School System making sure that families are more stable families that are stable families that aren't worried about income that aren't worried about about feeding their children have children that then go to school not worried about being hungry and not worried about not being safe and so part of that again goes back to making sure that the home environment is the best environment for our youth and it really starts with them so shortterm and longterm I think wrapped up together all right I'm going to ask this before 0000 um what factors do you uh consider when trying to support something that you may disagree with initially well I'd want to know what I'm missing you know um I think we all come to the table with our own backgrounds

our own experiences our own perspectives and one of the things that I have found that helps me the most is to be in a room full of people that have different perspectives and different views because what happens is I become more informed in my decision making process and I'll just be honest I have been in a number of rooms where people don't necessarily look like me they don't necessarily come from the same background and I have listened to some of those experiences and it has heightened my understanding and so one of the very first things I want to know is what am I missing tell me how my decision-making skills the data that I'm taking in and those anecdotal stories that I'm hearing from residents what piece am I missing because I haven't lived everybody's life I haven't walked in everybody's shoes thank you so much and lastly this is a a g General process question um we meet on

Thursdays at 1 pm I'm responsible for um well we meet on Thursdays at 1: PM however I have to assign committee so everybody on here and we usually split it up to about nine committees or so those are nine additional meetings in uh in addition to the four Council meetings that we have a month um every 1 and third Monday night and every 1 and third Thursday at 1 pm this include this means it's early morning to morning to noon to afternoon to evening does your schedule allow you to be able to uh participate in what is generally an inequitable uh government participation yes um I work for myself so I have a little bit more flexibility with that um I understand that that is an aspect of the job all right thank you very much for being here tonight thank you for having me and next up we

have Madame clerk are we doing close caption I mean um do you recommend us taking a break for any type of accessibility support if so I'd rather do that now before okay thank you we'll take a quick break uh yes I would suggest a quick recess yeah we'll take a quick break Mr sway could you come to the DI please could you pronounce your hi just F uh let's take uh F Well we have one restroom so let's take five minutes I know yall will take 10 so five minutes and let's get back uh so uh yeah let's be back and start at

9: yes e

meet the needs of the city in a variety of different ways mhm right when you think about the work that attorneys do um often times it's specialized by practice right so you might take a bankruptcy attorney who does bankruptcy work for numbers of different clients on the other hand the city attorney's office has one client just a town or city and we do all of the different things that they that that town or city might need from a legal perspective [Music] [Music]

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m. on your collection day two your cart should be at least 3 ft from all other objects such as mailboxes telephone poles fire a

hydrants trees and other carts three your cart should be no more than 3 ft from the curve four no vehicles should be blocking your carts the mechanical arms on our trucks need direct access to your carts and cannot reach around vehicles to find more information about garbage and recycling pickups go to this web [Music] address e

I came quicker than I expect it all right so we have Chast Swain thank you for being here tonight you have two minutes to introduce yourself and then we will begin the rotation of each council member asking you a series of questions and dialoging with you thanks for being here thank you mayor Williams um my name is Jon Swain uh I have been a lifelong North Carolinian I grew up on show one moment please is that my phone hello oh there we go you may need to speak into it a little bit yeah could you reset the clock please just there we go does that work better that's much better thank you so much thank you for start again okay uh my name is j Swain I've been a lifelong North Carolinian I was born and raised on backa Farm about an hour and a half west of here um my background before law was in Ceramics I attended appalachin

State University pursued a BFA before going to Penn State for the same uh I was brought back to North Carolina to pursue a JD at UNCC uh and that was driven a lot by a passion for conservation and the environment I had taken a semester off during college to the like the at and that along with the community that I was raised with on the tobacco farm that I grew up on has um been foundational I think who I am and what I care about uh once in Durham my partner and I moved here while I was still in law school um and have called Durham home ever since uh uh since I graduated from law school I um have worked for the state and have various uh uh capacity both from DHHS to obbm and dncr so Health and Human Services state budget management and then natural culture resources it's always like an alphabet suit but uh it's it's underscored my passion for uh public service and um as I've developed that through state government I've also um

grown to love the city and so that's why I applied I um love to call here home with my husband and my dog we we love to walk to Isaac's Bagels to grab breakfast um we love to be in a community that feels diverse and that accepts us and uh we love to see one that has a little bit of grit and tenacity um because I think those embody some of the ideals that I hold dear and I really appreciate the time that you've given me thank you so much at this time we will move into each council member asking a serious questions we will start with mayor protim Middleton thank you Mr Mayor counselor good evening it's a pleasure uh to meet you and to speak with you tonight congratulations on getting this far uh in the process that's no small achievement um so the durm city council is the final Arbiter of of durm City business we're also fuar of the city uh so in that spirit I want to ask you do you have a particular economic worldview or or philosophy or theory that would inform your governance decisions on the council one and two what would you be willing to raise taxes

for okay um so I do not have a particular economic theory uh that I particularly ascribe to I think what drives my considerations around um economic choices is and and the um in the scope of a community is how the community is investing in its citizens um so looking for a city that is really going to invest and support the people who are here um because we find that for communities that invest in their citizens those citizens invest back into the community um and as great as Durham is for attracting new businesses and new people I think making sure that the people who are here are well supported whether it's their entrepreneurial Spirit um their cultural identities um and then just their day-to-day well-being so ensuring that they have what they need to thrive and Durham um the second part of your question was pertaining to what you would raise taxes for to raising taxes I think that is one of the um hardest questions that council's going to consider at any given point um raising taxes I think would

require a deep consideration of whether or not the impact of the increase would have an outsized impact on the citizens um proportionate to the services that those taxes would go to um I think that uh right now City staff um they do a wonderful job but ensuring that the government and Durham has enough um funds to support the staff that we have now and then also to expand programs is it's something that would probably be pretty Central to uh any tax increase considerations thank you for that speaking of supporting folk uh that are already here one of the terms you'll hear bandied about in our Public Square quite a bit is gentrification so I want to ask what are your views on gentrification and if you see gentrification as a negative a bad thing what what particular powers do you think you would have as a council member individually and this Council collectively would have to combat gentrification yeah C gentrification is being um a massive challenge for the city and not just one that we face today

but one that der has faced for Generations um looking back to uh projects like 147 which you know um cut off downtown from the hati community and the fille street Corridor um those things were intentional and they've created seismic shifts in the prosperity and the well-being of communities um presently we're facing kind of another period where we're looking at development that's pushing out communities I think that um the biggest tool or one of the best tools that I see council leveraging is the unified development ordinance and I know that yall recently passed a new comprehensive plan but the Udo gives you that teeth to really control development um thinking about ways to create communities that um when they have growth it's reflective of what's already there so potentially looking at having um uh size limitations on new dwellings um or certain dwelling types I think those things are are ways that you could shape um the inputs to gentrification uh the one other piece that I'll note is that I think

gentrification is also cultural and so um investing in institutions that support the cultural background of communities um because if you have houses coming in or businesses coming in that displace communities you're not only losing those homes um or the other the other businesses you're also losing kind of those cultural identities um I work in local governments across the state right now and one of the biggest pieces of Pride and energy and um and history is that cultural identity and so looking at how to preserve that too I think is a huge piece of the gentrification conversation thank you for that response um gun violence is in the news almost daily um for the country and for our city as well um as a council member what what would be your recommended comprehensive approach with some specific as to how we can combat gun violence so I've had a personal relationship with gun violence I've had several family members who um have experienced um some great tragedy uh related to gun violence

and I don't know if there's a singular answer or a comprehensive plan I think that there are a lot of steps that the council can take to reduce G violence and I think most of of what I um lean towards is more long long term which is education based and Community Based um I think giving community members Alternatives into um uh opportunities and education that will uh pull you away from um of of crime or of of the use of guns in general I think is critical um and so I think that uh investing in uh Green Space and community centers and better educational outcomes at a at a young age age um should have a dramatic Improvement in the gun violence epidemic the durm is experiencing um because our city is definitely not trending in the same way that the country is right now and that's a concern it's been an honor speaking with you thank you thank

you council member Baker hey Chast thanks for being here it's it's a good to see you um so my first question is when you observe the way that the city is growing and changing um from an Urban Design perspective Ive both parts of the city that already exist as well as um the outskirts of the city and the way that we're suburbanizing what do you think that we're doing well and what do you think uh we're not doing well and needs to be improved so on the doing well part I think really increasing density in the urban core has been uh essential step that is needed both to address um some of the housing needs in the city um but then also creating kind of a a Nexus for the the infrastructure of transportation that will kind of support a broader growing city um something that I see that Durham has uh invested in are kind of the the little nodes of um downtowns around the downtown core so thinking about old Five Points um old eastm on

Andre um Ninth Street the Chapel Hill Corridor um those areas I think are getting um incentivized for development in a in a positive way and I think that'll kind of help create a network for Transportation uh some of the things that I've been a little dismayed to see is the rapid development of exurban areas around the exterior of Durham um so again growing up in a rural area I think that those places have as much character and integrity is urban sites um and creating a development plan um that both benefits those communities and the city I think is something that maybe has fallen to the Wayside recently um and recently may be a stretch I think the past generation may may have been an issue um and seeing the impacts specifically of those developments on some of the watersheds around durm is extremely concerning thank you for those answers um what are your top priorities for affordable housing so something that I touched on

in um my responses to the questionnaire and uh I'll admit that I'm like a a closet planner I don't have any formal background I took um so classes while at Law School in um urban planning and design and I really enjoy land use uh so this is all speaking from somewhat of an amateur perspective but I have seen examples and best practices come out of cities like Toronto where they're taking infill and doing affordable housing on a small scale and while those things do not address um the the wide need for affordable housing in the city I do think that those are some of the more Nimble and creative ways that the city could potentially address um both the property that it has and can Leverage and then also creating um uh affordable housing on a small scale that will have kind of mix income within neighborhoods which has been shown to be really beneficial thank you um what are leaders that inspire you um there are a lot uh I live in the Morehead Hill Neighborhood and just

around the back of the block from me is ply Murray's house um I think PA is a huge inspiration um because they uh existed at the intersect of several different communities um being a queer person being a person of Faith um and then also someone who advocated for social change um I think that's a huge inspiration and it's immensely cool to to be so close to um uh historical Trailblazers like um home uh I also think uh the current Congressman Jeff Jackson in the Charlotte area provides a really good road map of how to communicate with um younger individuals especially so I'm a millennial I see gen Z coming into um their space as adults and figuring out how to make politics and and um and the way the world Works accessible to them I think is extremely critical um so I think that's a another one awesome thank you so

much thank you council member Baker uh Council M ciero hi good evening good to see you I sent my question earlier an email um question is city council spends a large portion of its time on zoning and is an important part of our job as City Council Members over the last two years can you tell me about a zoning case where you agreed with council's decision where we got it right right and why and then about a zoning case you disagreed with uh where we got it wrong and why yeah I think one of the uh most impactful changes recently would be rolling back the parking mandates for new builds in Durham um I think that'll be Monumental both to the development of downtown um but then also to the preservation of some existing structures um I also think that when you remove parking not only do you enhance the development but you entice better public transportation um someone can't have 400 parking spaces to park they're more likely to take a bike or take a train or a bus um and so those

types of multimodal corridors I think will naturally be enhanced by um rolling back the parking requirements uh a um is a case that I think the council may have uh made the wrong decision on I think moving forward right now with the Perry Farm tract and long l Creek is uh a very concerning move um because I think it's exacerbating a lot of impacts that are being felt right now both in those communities with the massive amount of development um and the lack of infrastructure to support them but then also from an environmental standpoint Point uh the impacts that it's going to have on Falls Lake which are already at Peak levels is going to um be interesting and I know that the developer has uh offered a lot of concessions in the way of buffers um but the reality is that right now the city and the environment don't really have the infrastructure support um that type of development

there thank you um my next question is uh what do you think we can do to support our immigrant and Refugee communities so this is speaking anecdotally but um my neighborhood list serve actually has provided a ton of support and intentional relief for communities that are coming into Durham and I see um communities of faith and nonprofits being great partners with the city on that space um the other piece that I think is essential and this is something that I do in my work at Hometown strong is um assessing how Outreach creates accessibility or accessibility barriers for different communities so um I think Durham does an excellent job with creating bilingual Outreach but looking at what other languages um Beyond English and Spanish would be most uh helpful to the community um and then also um not just accessibility of or

language within Outreach but um actually getting the information about the servic of City provides to those communities as they come in um I can only imagine that coming to a new community in a different country would be extremely jarring from day one and those first 60 days or 90 days are extremely critical both from a mental and a physical perspective um and a financial perspective so um providing them the information they need to be successful from day one I think is essential thank you thank thank you council member uh next up we have council member Freeman good evening it's a pleasure to meet you this evening and I just have a couple questions hold

on I did want to ask um the first question question um noting that you had a dog I just wanted to know what type of dog she's a visha and I never anticipated being so in love with the pet or enamored but she's definitely my world okay and then um just understanding you know the way that inclusion and racial Equity works I can appreciate um I can appreciate you sharing your story and and in that as well is there anything in addition to that that you would like to share around inclusion and racial equity yeah um so growing up on a tobacco farm in rural fory County uh there was not a ton of racial diversity um and that's one of the things that I I think is really wonderful about Durham um I I love to get to know people on a very deep level and get to understand their backgrounds and when we discuss racial Equity it's really questions of accessibility um to

does everyone have access to the same spaces whether it is sitting on this dis or um having the opportunity to uh have equal treatment and employment um or equal treatment in housing and access to housing um and it's also support So as an institution does the city provide services and infrastructure to support people um across the city from different racial backgrounds um I think those those two pieces the accessibility piece um and then the support piece are are critical thank you that's helpful and I I don't think I had another question I just want to check of course and then just tracking back I am a foodie so if there are suggestions that you have for places you like to eat maybe one two or three um yeah just go for it that's the hardest question I think you give me tonight because I too am a foodie um

I am completely enamored by Isaac's Bagels it recently opened up on Chapel Hill Street it's two blocks for me and I get to walk up there and they practically know my order at this point um but then I would also encourage you to take a quick Jaun down to softbox have some delicious seafood and top it all off with some ice cream at two roosters it is absolutely delicious and I go and ice cream spot yeah thank you that's all I have thank you thank you Mr Swain I don't think I can compete with those questions are those answers so um I'll apologize for the mundane nature of my questions you've heard me before actually I just say congratulations on making it this far through the process it's a big accomplishment and it's nice to meet meet you um my first question is you've heard before is if chosen for the w three seat what is the one thing you would do as a council member like your day one on Council to address the one in seven F people enduring that live in poverty that's a huge question and a huge issue um

I would Target um Workforce Development so I have had the opportunity to work with the north Colina business committee for education for the past couple of years and a large focus of our work has been looking at how to create better opportunities for students um to make them both aware of the opportunities they have in the workforce and then also to prepare them by giving them the skill sets that they have and during Public Schools is actually been a partner in this work and they've had tremendous outcomes um to the point that I think that there are even some former students who have participated in these programs who've been hired on by the dur Public Schools um so looking at it it's a long-term goal but looking at it from middle school and high school it's like how can you make sure that each student knows the job opportunities out there um and then they have the skill sets to to achieve those um and then I think too you know that the a piece of that Workforce Development is finding mentoring businesses and Durham is full

of amazing businesses um and it's time for them to put a little bit of skin in the game and really get involved and and the ones that I have seen engaged in this get extremely excited about the opportunity to both introduce their industry to young people and then also know that they're kind of pulling homegrown Talent into those businesses appreciate that continuing on that sort of vein now let's look on the economic development side so there was a question on the on the interview form about Economic Development I want don't you say more about how you would Define economic development what's the goal of Economic Development Durham and what's the proper role that the city of Durham plays in promoting good Economic Development here I mean economic development is all about prosperity and so you're seeking to improve the prosperity outcomes of your community um but I think I favor a Community Development approach so looking at ways that you can improve the community that also have positive Economic Development outcomes um supporting small businesses ensuring that um communities have the

resources to Workshop businesses and organizations and um again that Workforce training from school to um employment I think those are all really critical and going back to a previous answer um from early in the night too I think when you create strong communities the people really want to invest in them um and so I I I think we've seen that with different models across the country with like Teach for America it's um it's here in North Carolina in the government space from elephant SE and so looking to expand that throughout different Industries um we've I've had personal experience working with local governments to try to figure out how to build out a pipeline in uh water treatment or in finance um to make some of these jobs that people aren't really aware of more attractive great thank you um my next question is I mean you got an amazing resume super talented um um and a strong background you've you know since you've been in Durham you've jumped into the

community you've been involved in El Creek water water sh Association environmental Affairs board I'm just wondering like what's what's so what's the long-term commitment to Duro it's funny um so my husband's from the mountains and I'm from fory County and when we moved to Durham I made him promise me that we would move to the mountains in five years and that's completely been upended because I've fallen in love with Durham and he has too um I will continue I I think I feel a personal obligation to the community that I'm in and that that goes back to Growing Up on a tobacco farm with an extended family close by and a church family um I don't really feel comfortable not investing in the space that I'm in and I consistently want to grow roots um my background or passions are both in Fine Art and the environment and so as soon as I moved to Durham I had a friend call and say hey there's this organization called EA that um does Environmental Conservation and it was in an urban area and that was something I'd never done I'd worked in conservation

spaces in rural areas um and then that's snowballed into looking at how um EA which is a wonderful Environmental Conservation group can also outfit and equip other community members and organizations to um to kind of take ownership of their own spaces so working with the am Moore community and the environmental subdivision that they fought for and one um and then understanding what that process looks like long term um I think the involvement just snowballs and and that's kind of how I think I'll end up staying endure maybe forever great thank you yeah thank you council members and uh thank you uh Mr Swain for being here tonight congrats on making it this far uh tell me what psychological steps you take to uh earn or you know just gain the

respect of someone that you may disagree with so I'll preface this by saying that I work in communities across the state and particularly rural communities and um my office strives to be nonpartisan and to help every Community possible and we sometimes face um some challenges there because we're the Governor's role initiative and so working with communities across the state that have different political ideology um can present a challenge and the best way that I feel like you break that down is to really boil down to just the issues and to see what's motivating and driving people and I think a lot of times you recognize that there's way more common ground um than than you maybe initially realize and so that's kind of my first step I will say that I take pride in being a bridge builder I think that uh that's a unique skill set that I have that I'm very good at working between people or groups to find Common Ground um to reach compromise and

to ultimately kind of build a shared Vision um and I think my work has kind of underscored that what are the factors that you consider when trying to um I'm I'm I'm going to skip that question I think it's relative to the one I just asked you asked uh could you conceptualize your ideal city with three actionable policies yeah so my ideal city would I feel like this is kind of a trick question it would obviously provide housing for everyone um it would have immense Green Space and um environmental mitigations uh and it public safety would be a non-issue um the answer the second part of that though is the tricky part is how to get to that um I think education is a huge part and um Community investment is

another one so ensuring that communities have the toolkit to thrive um whether that is the spaces whether it's green space or community centers um whether it is the uh the education system that they're in and and having the best schools possible um or or just like the um the energy that I think a tightnit community has um I see that all across durm so I think it's very possible but um there's obviously a long way to go I want to make sure I heard you right did you say Green Space if there was Green Space it wouldn't be a public safety issue oh no I'm I'm saying Public Safety is one of the three oh okay said no sorry I said I said not where Public Safety is not an issue was one of the three kind of idealized things um housing that every having housing for everyone um so no need for a housing

shortage which if Durham's budget was completely expended still could not meet the need um having green space and then eliminating Public Safety as an issue or or crime as an issue okay speaking of Public Safety uh what would be your uh long-term shortterm uh Public Safety policies that you would promote yeah so this is an area that and do you and do you believe that police officers or for or police is a should or should not be a part of it yeah so I think Public Safety again is about strengthening communities and education and Workforce opportunities um or employment opportunities I I think that there is a world where policing is you know not needed but that's not that's not now and

not here so policing is part of um the public safety strategy that I think I would support um and and I think an a more shortterm goal would be to identify ways to minimize the need for policing to ensure that there are other programs um like I know that that Durham has implemented heart recently so being able to respond to non-violent instances with uh a hotline and a crisis um uh task force and then to also be able to provide follow-up Services after that good and could you differentiate um safety I'll wait until it okay could you differentiate safety and um I guess could you differentiate safety and then reducing crime could you differentiate the two yeah so Public Safety would involve uh all aspects of ensuring that human life are protected so looking at

m. first and third Mondays but each of us have about eight or nine committees that we have to serve on uh and that's an that's in addition to all of the public facing engagements that you do outside of those standing meetings uh while it's unfair it's the

m. uh each applicant will have 30 minutes for public support uh how you choose to divvy up that 30 minutes is up to you um your uh supporters can uh either sign up or U and join us on Zoom or they can be here in person uh we are

m. on Wednesday January 10th uh so that's the next step of the process and then we will be voting uh next Tuesday uh January 16th at 9:30 in the morning is that correct that's correct and so um we uh will announce then applicants can wait uh and be sworn in who which whoever is chosen will be sworn in that evening at our council meeting uh so that way if you if you are chosen and you want to bring family or what not to come in you have that opportunity um um I just want to say there are literally four of us on this Das who've been through this process um so we we we really appreciate that you stepped up um for your community and and I can personally attest it it's an intimidating process uh and so everyone's done just remarkably well and everyone should be really really proud of themselves thank

m. thank you all so much thanks

colleagues