cook great good afternoon everyone thank you for being here those folks watching at home uh just a couple of quick announcements the first is that I had the pleasure of doing a ride along with our firefighters yesterday um and it was really really informative and um yeah it was just a I mean say it was a great time but um I did get to slide down the poll so that actually was very fun um and I did not hurt myself so I feel good about that um a big thanks to yeah I know I was like I surely can do this I have the upper body strength but I you know whatever anyway um uh big thanks to Captain Travis Martin who drove me around for about four hours yesterday um on his day off which uh was really really something because they worked 24-hour shifts and I'm sure that he needed time to rest so I was really grateful for that um the other thing I just want to say is that it is extremely cold outside and um I want to say a
couple of quick things about that the first is that if you are a tenant and you are renting and there is a problem with your heat this is an emergent situation your landlord needs to be fixing that within 48 Hours um ideally within 24 if you're not getting response from your landlord um you are welcome to call if you are inside the city limits um our uh one call number or directly to the neighborhood Improvement Services an inspector will come out they will do an inspection to assess your heating if it does not work and your landlord is not responsive they will hold an emergency session and end up doing those repairs um and then later straightening that out so that is an option if you are a tenant um I just want to remind folks that that is a pathway that you can take the other thing is that if you or someone you know is unsheltered during this time um it is extremely dangerous to be outside 24/7 in temperature is this cold I would encourage folks to call entry point it is a white flag week so every night
m. m. and those are all my announcements thank you thank you council member congratulations on successfully getting down that poll council member Baker good afternoon good afternoon um just one thing I I wanted to extend my deepest condolences um City Durham lost one of its um in in Bruce mabery and uh just wanted to offer condolences to the the family the friends and the colleagues of um of
Bruce um he's with the general Services um his passing as I understand was unexpected it's always hard to lose someone it's even harder to lose someone when uh it is unexpected and before their time um I didn't know him personally but read um some very good things about him and so I just wanted to say I'm very sorry for for the loss um that that everyone has experienced thank you thank you council member Mr manager do you want to thank you council member Baker I did want to let Council know uh I have asked uh staff to provide a brief report today just uh uh um reiterating some of the um details you just shared and sharing a little bit about Mr maybery so that will be under my priority items thank you thank you council member cabier good afternoon good afternoon uh good afternoon everyone um um I have something that I would like to bring to a subsequent work session agenda should I go ahead and do that now okay um so at our um I think many of you
know we got a update from Community Development during our last uh Joint City County meeting in December um and from there subsequently several folks including folks on hsac have been working on a proposal that all uh City Council Members city manager County Commissioners and and County manager will be receiving by the end of next week and I would like to be able to discuss the proposal um at our I think it's January 25th work session um and so uh wanted to bring that forward here happy to answer any questions anyone has those are all my announcements Council just for clarity are is is the staff GNA be preparing something for us or is it who's going to be presenting no it would be uh an opportunity to have a discussion amongst council members um uh based on that proposal uh there are folks part of the the people working on the proposal are are different um uh uh organizations within our Continuum of
Care uh including folks from Community Development is a combination of people on the hsac and then in the pre- shelter housing subcommittee group um so that uh that is where the uh proposal is coming from I'll pull the house is that all right a all right but you appear to resource person it's fine if I appear as a resource person um and once folks have the proposal in hand um they so we we're we're to be receiving that sometime soon my understanding is that they are finalizing by next Wednesday and then we'll be sending it to electeds on both boards because there are asks that affect the county and there asks that affect the city uh and then to um both City and County Manager all right thank you Council Mr M good afternoon sir we're going through announcement uh C member R good afternoon thank you good afternoon Mr Mayor PRM welcome uh Mr Mayor Mr city manager new city manager good to see again colleagues uh staff and those uh here um in online so just a couple
things um I I want to not a couple of other um uh um folks want to keep in our memory first this Dr leavon Allison who is absolutely a legend inm politics a force of nature um who led the durm committee for I think 13 years but played a number of roles here in the durm in the city of Durham in a impactful and profound way so I count myself lucky to have known Dr Allison and work with her she was amazing and I think her her adition always to think about who benefits who pays is a constant reminder to me about how to think about policy choices so um want to keep her memory in our hearts second thing is today is a national day of morning for President Jimmy Carter I think you as you think you all know and I think that service maybe is going on right now in the in the National Cathedral um I had the if I can share anecdote Mr Mayor I had the total pleasure it's a lifetime memory for me as a kid 1976 in the summer driving home from a summer vacation my mom who many of you all know who's very involved in politics who just was working at the polls at ' 89 last November um said hey we should drive by the small town of Plains Georgia there's this guy who's a
you know former governor of Georgia who's running for president we should just go by and check out this place drove up to Plains Georgia pulled up to the train depot and there was a little parade that went from the depot down Main Street or whatever so we we just kind of followed in the parade and at the end of the parade my mom said you know uh Mr Carter's mom Miss lilan is here in the parade we should offer her a ride back to the train depot so we offered my mom kind of got up and said like Miss Lily and I'm Carol RIS from Fort larda Florida so glad to be here can we give you a ride back the train depot and she said sure you can you know so miss Lillian jumps in the back seat and right away these two like Secret Service kind jump in right next to her you know so we'll never forget that her charm and Grace and just being there at that moment of American History I should say also that later my wife and I kind of followed uh President Carter's example and spent a year working for Habitat for Humanity again based on his work work there with habitat so um he's a big figure and sort of for all of us as Americans and me as well so I remember his memory the last thing I'll say as I mentioned at the the work session I'm sorry at our at our city council meeting
on Monday is that we did experience our first pedestrian fatality already of this year um um and you know we can't work fast enough to reduce those fatalities as I said you know we've all and I I credit my colleagues who've been on the council before me for actually enacting a vision zero policy hiring a vision zero coordinator so that that plan is in action we're moving on that um but it can't go fast enough so I would like to have an update at our next work session meeting just on the status of that where we're where we're kind of go with the work with vision zero work plan certainly our work to reduce these fatalities is based on not only what we've done with the bonds improving streets and sidewalks but there's a whole bunch of things I'm assuming are coming forward with that Vision zero plan so I'd love an update on where that plan is what we can expect with that and if there's any reasons why that plan is being delayed that we need to know about so um I could have my colleague support for that I'd appreciate that any objections all right thank you thank you Mr Mayor thank you uh council member R and thank you colleagues for for some
wonderful uh announcements today is indeed councilman RIS the day of requium uh and memory we certainly honor the life and memory of of as you said a giant and Dr El Leonia Allison as an American elected official there are a lot of people we look to for example as an inspiration as an African-American elected official black elected official in this country in the south in North Carolina it's difficult uh to have a serious conversation about the exercise of power and once's entry into that Arena and her name not come up you can have a conversation but if it's going to be a serious conversation particularly in the state of North Carolina her name must uh come up uh so we paused um I know the mayor will say more the entire city pauses uh and M uh remembering her and thanking God for her life and for her service and for example whether you were on the receiving end of admonition or or praise uh you did not leave her presence without being changed uh in one way or another may God bless her memory uh I got a Jimmy Carter story man I'm G to see your story uh and and one up in 1980
uh I was a a young boy uh in Brooklyn New York and President Carter was running for re-election and he came uh to my church it was a very prominent uh Baptist Church in Bedford starus in Brooklyn I remember Muhammad Ali came governor Cuomo came Senator Ted Kennedy and the president of course was the headliner my dad uh Deacon there at the church was part of a security apparatus of course Secret Service was running of the ball and my dad was standing at a door that the champ Muhammad Ali and President Carter would have come through so he's standing there and the president comes through President Carter comes in and my dad reaches for his hand Secret Service grabs his hand president reaches around the agent and grabs my dad's other hand so he he's got my dad in between the secret service agent he looks around and says I got it I got it and walks in my dad never stopped telling that story it didn't matter what the family was talking about he'd always bring up his Muhammad Ali story that day and the James Earl Carter story that day so so God bless his memory and and just so many memories like that uh uh
populate our our Public Square today and and um thank you for your reflection and and I'm proud that our family was touched by his life as well finally uh today Mr May I'll be attending uh a homegoing service of remembrance for pastor Don Westbrook uh here tonight uh Pastor Don served at bethl Christian Center for 54 years uh here in our city I remember some time ago Mr Mayor before you uh assumed uh the gavel uh delivering a proclamation I think it was on the occasion of was 50th Anniversary then so this is a full circle moment tonight so we certainly send condolences and best wishes to his congregation to his family to his children grandchildren and great-grandchildren after 54 years of service in a pull pit in our city uh great uh Faith leader here in Derman a great citizen of our city uh and we uh bless him bless his memory and may it be a blessing thank you Mr Mayor thank you colleagues I'll yield to the mayor thank you and good afternoon everyone it's great to be with you um we uh I employ everyone to live
every day like you see last uh you just never know when that time will come and uh as we you know uh Chelsea celebrate the life of President Carter as listening to that on the way here um is they just left the um they just left and and are in route back to his hometown I believe now plane uh PLS um but also uh you know we we usually come out heavily and vote for presidents but we don't come out and vote as much locally although local politics impact us most and um I learned that the Heart Way really quickly uh my first day teaching at Shephard Middle School just a little short smallframe woman with a really big presence hands on our hip rocking left to right in the hallways of Shephard Middle School this was literally my
first day on the job of my first real job as a music teacher and and I remember my principal you know because I didn't notice her own staff I was like who's that lady he said just keep walking and I kept right on walking and I think he probably intentionally told me to do that just so I can learn who Dr Allison was uh because as I walked past her young man are you gonna walk past me and not say anything and she basically blessed me out about the hallways not being wide enough for the kids in the building so so I I guess my assignment was to advocate for a construction project to widen the hallways or something but these kids here they're here to learn they should be comfortable not crammed in these hallways and I went back to my principal and I was like who is that woman and he just started laughing he said that's Dr E lvania Allison and you need to make sure you know who she is and that was my
first interaction and she has been impacting my life and many uh very diverse ways ever since um she loved the collard greens from my restaurant because they have peanut butter in them and I would have to go to her home uh you know she will call me and she'll start talking about politics and she'll cut me off mid sentence and say what are you doing right now like well I'm just sitting here well you're just sitting you're not doing nothing so bring me those color greens so I would have to go to the restaurant get collar greens and take it to her house and I knew I needed an advocate uh uh allocate at least an hour because she would pull out these manuals and she would say this is how we got Shirley Chisum where she is where she was and this is how I became the first black woman to lead the committee and this is how we used to organize to get presidents elected and she just started the things that I would only be able to read in history books she had the manuals of how they organized the
South so I address her as a dur icon a North Carolina Legend and a way maker for this country she um had a significant impact on so many Industries civically socially even in the health care industry so um her life is uh she she has left us as of uh two evenings ago but her Legacy will live on forever I'm sure I I've gone all over the country including when I spent time with the president of the United States KLA Harris who's from California she said is Dr V Allison still in Durham everyone knows who she is so her Legacy will reach far and wide um and uh I you know we also mentioned Calla the pass okay yeah got you at the council meeting yeah okay gotcha um and so yeah we we're here to get the work
done today mayor Pro I'm going to ask that you uh facilitate a good deal of the meeting today um it's just one of those days I have a lot going on up here in my head and I just need to not be uh fully uh facilitated I'll I'll jump in a little later but you don't mind just getting us started and going absolutely appreciate it yes sir thank you right colleagues uh we finished with announcements at this time I'll yield to our city manager for uh any prior uh priority items that he may have this the first work session my first work session congrat first work session all right right thank you very much way real quick before we get started I do want to say uh in regards to the Bull City future fund uh please look out for a press release uh we are getting really close to being able to open up for applications uh for organizations throughout the community so uh just look out for that press release that is coming I'm really excited about that um the goal is to raise a million dollars uh we haven't gotten there yet but we are getting to the point where we can start uh the application process to
disperse funds thank you thank you mayor honorable mayor proen members of council the city manager's office does have one priority item there's a supplemental item that's been added it's agenda item number 19 Cooperative group purchase contract heavy duty mobile and air light support truck that is uh on in your agenda in addition uh with your consent Mr chair I'd uh like to add two reports uh to the agenda briefly uh if if you're comt with that one of which I alluded to earlier right first I'd like to uh ask Gina propes director of General Services uh to come speak and and offer additional comments as council member Baker mentioned earlier we lost a member of the city family this week tragically and suddenly uh Bruce maybery was an employee of Gina's and asked Gina just to to share a little bit of information about Bruce thank you Gina thank you city manager and um good afternoon um
mayor mayor prend members of council appreciate the opportunity to share off the news of the sudden and unexpected passing of Bruce ma Bruce let me tell you a little bit about Bruce Bruce was a dedicated member of the general Services Department he was on our Landscaping team he's been with the city since 2019 but in speaking with colleagues I'm like God it's just 2019 it felt like it was much longer because of his contributions um when you speak to Bruce's supervisors his managers his co-workers what they'll say is his reputation was one of integ he was hardworking and detail oriented he refused to compromise on quality and he often reminded others and he ensured those standards were met he was on our down downtown Landscaping team to um ensure that our city facilities and grounds were um healthy and well careed for um you might not know it because when you're doing maintenance you you might not pay attention to some of those things you know the grass gets cut uh things get edged the the shrubs get
pruned but he also um Bruce was also involved in some special projects and his fingerprints are all over downtown um he was instrumental installing the retaining walls around the trees along pedigree street so when you drive down pedigree there's trees um it's along the railroad Corridor it's across from Durham station and that was the first part of a project that then created you know a very um visual appeal as well as you know erosion control and things like that so when you drive down pedigree you can know that Bruce ma fingerprints are there um there were many other things um if he were here today he would be doing whatever was necessary to get ready for winter weather he was a very you should be proud to know that he was a dedicated City employee personally um Bruce shared a life with his wife Britney he was a devoted um son and cared for his mother um just we we share our Collective condolences with his family his friends and his dear General Services co-workers um we're going to hold our memories of Bruce tightly we're going to miss him greatly and we'll continue to hold his family
and his loved ones in our hearts his service is tonight at 6:00 in um Roxboro at Strickland and Jones Memorial Funeral Services thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share more about him thank you Gina you you you do him honor and and we've mourned his passing uh there's a second brief report uh Gina did make mention of the fact that we have winter weather on the way it's uh it's been a minute since Durham has had winter weather so I've asked DCM Bera Winbush over the operations portfolio just to briefly share some of the details of our preparation and protocols if you have questions for DCM wi bisher myself we'll take those as well thank you thank you good afternoon mayor members of council ber the Winbush Deputy City Manager for operations I'm sure you all have been following the forecast as we have as well from the latest uh forecast report we had from the national weather service this morning and rileigh we are expected to the weather is supposed to start Friday at 3M for the eastern part of the state
m. there will probably be enough snow 1 to 2 inches to accumulate on the streets so that there will be hazardous conditions lasting through Saturday black ice will also be a concern on Sunday and Monday and there will also be enough accumulation freezing rain to result in down trees and weather other weather outages such as uh electricity and gas we will have our latest up today on our Citywide coordination meeting with Emergency Management that would include City departments County departments DPS Derm Tech and our local universities we have already uh activated our severe weather web page here you will find lots of information not only about City departments um known closures cancellations as well as schedule changes you will see information about go Durham as well as Solid Waste
collections there are a few things I want to share with you today that I have received from the Departments uh earlier this morning emergency communications is bringing on extra staff for Friday night and Saturday morning staff will have all the appropriate emergency contact information for City and County departments commercial utility companies along with ncdot our police department will bring on additional staff overnight into Saturday officers will also have salt and sandbags so that they can put those down if they experience any slick spots on the streets as they Traverse the city they will provide updates on their social media pages and through our Communications departments Solid Waste um as you can see on the web page um they will not open the waste disposal and recycling center on Saturday they will also will not provide collections on Saturday Water Management all of our emergency generators have been fueled if needed and preparation for the storm sand and salt have been applied around our facilities for safety General
m. if you call before then or after then you can leave a message you can also go to the web page put in a service requ request or use the text number they will not be available any additional hours uh they're never available any additional hours during a weather event uh we have
received communication from uh Duke Energy as well I'm sure you've seen those uh emails with information about how to contact them we also have that on our web page we will continue to update this page as well as Communications will be providing updates on all of their social media platforms and if you need additional information please feel free to reach out to during one call during normal hour or reach out to the web page to get information about who you should contact for particular events I'm happy to answer any other questions colleagues any questions uh council member uh cabier thank you this isn't necessarily a question for you but it is a question for parks and recck um and that is about the MLK event on Saturday and what what the plan is there afternoon w w cation you're referring to the uh the walk that correct I think it's at uh WD
Hill oh okay uh yeah that's still scheduled as is right now until we get additional direction or forecast and then we'll uh push that out as needed thank you thank you council member colleagues anyone else one other thing I want to mention I had a note about um is our heart team will operate normal hours and so uh Ryan Smith is here if you have any questions about that but we want to make sure that folks know that they will be out and about as normal uh if you have no further questions thank you Deputy city manager wimbush and Mr chair uh I there's nothing further as part of my priority items Mr manager and Madam Deputy thank you uh so much uh for that update while the rest of us will be watching Netflix and warming our homes our Frontline workers will be out there uh placing M El in danger on our behalf so please convey the Gratitude of an entire city uh to all of them on our behalf thank you so much uh did was did you say something about item number 19 you added
something to 19 was there anything actionable in your in your uh priority items I jotted it I'll move for approval of the manager's uh it was simply notification that the item was added after the original publication of the agenda so it is not on your original publication thank got you thank you all right thank you Mr manager Madam City attorney any uh priority items good afternoon mayor PRM Mr Mayor members of the council the city attorney's office has no priority items today thank you so much Madam clerk good afternoon good afternoon Mr Mayor Mr Mayor protemp and members of city council I don't have any priority items but I am missing one vote for the boards and committees and commissions report um as of right now I only have two votes for one nominee and three other council members have individually voted for other people so there isn't a general consensus on that the horse trade so I was late I did I did submit mine did you get it no okay
I submitted it like about 10 15 minutes ago I'll follow back up with Diana if you did happen to vote however with the other two um it still wouldn't give us General consensus on the same person though or majority on the same person leading who's the person um I have right now Kaitlyn kempsey um with votes from council member uh cook and council member Baker I'll change my vote you know do we need to do we need to send this back we'll put it on GBA all right thank you colleagues Madam clerk was that was there anything else no thank you all right actually if I could also just interject I understand that um Madame Deputy clerk Roland just received her certified um what's it called certified uh municipal clerk
designation so I wanted to congratulate you on that well done thank you very much yeah mad attorney did you have Mr Mayor P I apologize um the manager just brought something to my attention um the city attorney's office did add a priority item it's item number 20 on today's agenda I'd actually intended it to go on the next agenda but it doesn't really matter it's it's really a housekeeping matter for you all to set the filing fees for the municipal election this fall AB um I received an email before the holiday from director Bowens asking what the filing fees would be he's trying to get his stucks in a row so um if y'all have any questions about that it's it's a fairly perfunctory matter you handled the same thing in 2023 thank you madam attorney sure right colleagues I think we're we've exhausted our priority items at this time now I'll read for the record administrative consent items um for our agenda minister to consent items uh can be pulled by any member of the council or member of the public for further discussion if not
these items could be passed by one vote at our general meeting um next Monday or at our next Monday general meeting all right administrative consent item city clerk's office item number one Durham Planning Commission appointment which has been placed on GBA under departmental items budget and Management Services Department item number two fy2 CIP budget ordinance amendments 2024 General obligation Bond referendum item number three under the fire department purchase of self-contained breathing apparatus for fire department office of Economic and Workforce Development item number four FY 2024 through 2025 agreement to fund education to Career initiatives operated by made in Durham using city of Durham Grant funds item number five partners for re-entry opportunities in Workforce Development proud Grant Cooperative agreement eer Youth Alternatives Inc doing business as eard connects pull that one item number five is Pulled Under public works department item number six contract amendment number one
to br-10 C Bridge Professional Services item excuse me item number seven contract st- 334 see utility locate Services 2025 I'm pulling that item number eight contract sw97 sidewalk repairs 2025 big shout out for that yeah I was gonna say shout out for that you want to pull it yeah item number eight is pulled item number nine amendment number three to Professional Services contract sw-4 6D hillindale road bike and pedestrian improvements tip number u- 4726 hn harah for that under Technology Solutions Department item number 10 contract with navon Inc to enhance the onbase agenda workflow I do not I'm not going to pull up but I do have some questions I I'll direct to staff subsequent um item number 11 contract with application software technology LLC for Next Generation enterprise resource planning Solutions
implementation under transportation department item number 12 Street impact fee eligibility for various Transportation projects item number 13 Federal Transit Agency section 5310 Grant project ordinance and under public hearings to be heard at our next council meeting uh from the city County Planning Department item number 14 zoning map change 3112 South Alon Avenue item number 15 zoning map change Brick Works item number 16 zoning map change Davis Park West under Community Development Department item number SE 17 5year FY 2025 through 2030 Consolidated plan in FY 2025 through 2026 annual action plan public needs hearing uh under office of Economic and Workforce Development item number 18 public hearing and economic development incentive agreement with LSD Jones and Suns Inc and citizens matters to be heard at 1M I believe I have one uh Jacqueline
Wagstaff to be a citizen matter to be heard at one under supplemental items from Fleet Management Department Cooperative group purchase contract heavy duty Mo heavy duty mobile air and light support truck and under the city attorney's office an ordinance setting uh setting filing fees for candidates to municipal office in the city of Durham and that ends the reading of our published agenda for the work session today I have by my Reckoning pulled items number five seven and eight Mr manager do you concur I do thank you all right at this time we'll move to our citizens matter to be heard at one uh is Miss Wagstaff online Mr Mr Mayor pretent she's not on Zoom currently okay and I do not see her uh in chamber with us today if she should show up we will certainly honor her ability to to speak for the council with that uh Mr Mayor with your permission we'll move to pulled items all right item number five and that was pulled by forgive me uh that was mine yeah council member yeah
thank you Mr Mayor Pam um just partly is a matter of process so I so I did have a number of questions about this item um that I've been talking to um Miss Graham Scott abat who's the director of the Workforce Development board she's been sharing information with me there's a long contract 40-page contract I've been working through on this um important work I mean this is I maybe I should say at the outset this work of providing Workforce training for folks reentering our community is absolutely critical um I've had a chance I've been reviewing that there's also an evaluation she's going to send me so I want to look at that stuff I don't know that means do we put this on GBA or do or what's the process for that when there's if there's information between the work session and the and the the city council meeting what's the right proc process for that yeah I'm not sure I have as much questions that but more I still want to review that so yeah so so and so if I yeah yeah how we handle that uh good afternoon um I'm Aid Nixon uh acting director for the office economic and Workforce Development I'm not sure I understand your question I mean it's
partly a question for my colleagues like I do have I want to review the evaluation you all have done of the first year of Beard's um performance in this contract okay and so but I haven't had chance to review that so I need more time to we certainly put it on GBA Mond meeting yeah and staff will any questions you have so we visit Monday night yes just great thank you okay that's it council member thank you all right item number seven was pulled by me I think we dispose this fairly quickly good afternoon Tasha Johnson Public Works assistant director good afternoon good to see you happy New Year so the the Locating Services that's when y'all come out and put the little Flags right so we'll know where stuff is correct okay the people we're hiring to do this do do I'm trying to understand this just just from a process point of view do we have like a master blueprint of where all of our um
utilities are I guess how intense is the actual ating when you go places in the city as opposed to the city just telling these folk here's the master plan of where we have our stuff just go and plant the flags or do they actually have to relocate stuff or do ground Sona or do we how much do we know where stuff already is so there is a master map right and different areas of the city are more complex than others uh the downtown area uh being older um has a lot more utilities the outer parts of the City newer are easier to locate and then there are different types of locators there are drops for someone who just wants to uh extend from the RightWay to their home to connect to uh uh cable or Fiber and then there are continuous locates for major projects like CIP and capital projects uh so it is there's a range of complications involved and the locates that we provide or get assistance with from the contractor are the more simple ones and
so all of them are it through internal staff we give the simpler ones to the contract and we focus on the more complex areas of the city got you and um and I promise you I'm not trying to be fa fous or minimize it but I'm just so this contract isn't about them just going out and put putting Flags where we tell them I guess I'm wondering how intense is their work in actual locating or is it just a matter of taking the master map and putting an orange or red flag somewhere and that's no you have to actually locate it so you have to actually find the manhole or the cleanout and then put marks between them to locate where the utility is most likely to be got you clarifying question sure please so uh M Johnson if if you could elaborate um when the the map gets a locator to the location there's a physical process they have to go through to act before they put the paint down um and or sometimes with certain utilities they
they're using sensors that find the utilities under the ground and they Place paint so it's not just a matter of picking the map and transferring it onto the street they are actually using equipment in on that location to locate does that help answer your question absolutely I was just wondering how intense a process thank you is this are we talking ground sonar or or kind of you know I was just wondering um you know again not spending money just to go out and put Flags down I was just wondering how intense their work was and and I think I've gotten this in okay thank you I appreciate you good to see you good to see you thanks so much colleagues anyone else on this item all right then we'll move on to pull item number eight council member cook I believe that was you Hi how are you hello good to see you again Johns Public Works assistant director um I just actually um am hoping that you'll just do a a kind of brief synopsis of this for us um I just have a couple specific questions but really I'm
looking at this because I know we're about to have quite a bit of sidewalk construction and so I'm just using this as sort of an example of what that looks like so I was wondering if first you could talk a little bit about why we choose to contract this out um and and what the advantages are of using a contractor to do sidewalk maintenance and building we contract it out because it is far more work than we have the capacity internally to deal with um Street Maintenance focuses on point repairs the more simple repair types and the longer areas are shifted to Contracting and we put those under contract to do on an annual basis so this contract is part of the annual FY 25 funds right um and and when you say longer versus shorter what it can you give me like a example is a block or so okay um as opposed to like a mile as opposed to miles or mini blocks okay um and then there is a contingency fund as
part of this contract is that generally something that we see in contracts of this type it is and we try to keep the contingency fairly low because these are projects that we can monitor on the location by location basis and we want to get as much work done under each contract as we can uh so we keep the contingency low cool you actually answered one of my questions with that so thank you and then my final question is that I know that we have um a method for identifying sidewalks to build and we've done um sort of a I know that we have different sorry different things that we value in terms of like equity and um and Readiness and these other things when we're looking at repairs is there something similar that we used to prioritize or how do we find uh what to repair and how much to do at at any given time there are similar considerations this is uh it considers risk and Equity there was a study completed in 2021 that uh looked at the sidewalk conditions throughout the whole
25 million for just repairs for that amount of space correct and that seems we got three um
responses so that seems to be generally the going rate yes cool thank you those are all my questions I appreciate it thank you council member colleagues anyone else yeah counc M thank you Mr Johnson um just one question so the the the memo from staff referenced sort of several locations across the city for this particular project where sw97 the map shows two different spots one is north of central the other is Northwest of central is that the two locations or is are there more locations that are going to be repairs will take place those are the two locations that we anticipate being able to complete in this contract okay okay thank you is and will that fulfill that the uh this is um yeah contract sw97 will that fulfill sw97 or is there more in there that'll come later those are the ones that we've identified for sw97 depending on how the work goes um we may have to uh shorten up some of the sections which we anticipate picking up with the bond contract which we open biz for next week
but this this is the this would these two areas are that that encompasses s sw97 or is there correct okay thank you thank you colleag colleagues anyone else Mr Mayor I um I I was going to talk about this a little later in other matters before we dismiss but anecdotally and feel free if you can't answer this now but the amount of money we um spend on contracts is have have we ever looked at what the actual cost comparison would be if we done a lot of this work like more of it inhouse and I only asked that question and um I only asked because my one of the first things we passed uh when I first joined Council in 2021 I thought it was a typo when I looked at the amount allocated for C uh for sidewalks um I think it was sidewalk repair or create or or making sidewalks one or the other I think it was about 10 million and then I looked at the distance and I was just blown away and I
remember the first thing I said was I know what business I'm going to go into when I retire you know I'm gonna create my own cement yard but I I when I asked the question why don't we uh why don't we mix and pour our own cement it was like well it's really expensive it's really uh complex uh but then I went to our Waste Water Management Facility and listened to the staff expl what happens there and I was like there's no one in the city that cannot handle anything complex because they use words that never known existed before um so H do we see do we know of a comparison a cost comparison of what it would be if we handled it in-house the larger projects as well all-inclusive in-house versus Contracting out the money we spend out hour I do know we've looked at the cost comparison for inhouse versus contract they are approximately equal there it's not a big difference the last time I saw the numbers um and the bigger issue at
this point is capacity um we've identified $80 million worth of backlog and sidewalk repair need and we just don't have the capacity to tackle that in a timely manner okay thank you Mr colle anyone else all right by my Reckoning we've exhausted all of our pulled items Mr Mayor we're at settling the agenda and gabbling out know if you want to land us or yeah I I just had a few things I wanted to put on a radar I'm not prepared to uh bring them before the council just yet uh but as we're going into the budget season uh one of the things I'm going to bring back up is I Mr manager this will be on one of our 101s but I am seriously interested in the spending assessment uh what and what I'm saying is you know what are we spending money on uh that is outside of the purview of uh City brick and mortar and infrastructure
CIP uh what special projects we're funding what special groups we're funding uh what are our recurring projects what are they not and I know I can dig through the U the budget and do all of this analysis myself but also that that's why we have amazing people with amazing folks in place uh so um when we again I'll talk about that and and once I get that data back uh colleagues there may be some things I'll bring to you as we explore uh other ways to address our budget um approach our budget season and uh and also how we uh do our work sessions and uh My overall goal is to ensure that we are being a proactive government rather than reactive um so and the other thing was uh I know can I ask so is part of your concerned the balance between sort of what staff does and sort of contractors whe whether that's an efficient way to do well part of it part of it is that's why I went on to ask while she was here
um it it really is getting to the root of efficiency and if we get you know not to try and get any operations of it but more so can we you know assist with you know uh some Innovative policies that could change the way we do things uh governments we are bureaucracies and we get really comfortable and the way we've been doing things forever including how we function as a council so I'll I'll be looking at that but I don't want to I just want to put it on the radar that that is coming I'm not prepared to bring that for just yet but uh from you know the question I just asked to you know their many groups that we're funding um and and you know just looking at how much is going there who they are do we need to have a system of rotation in place do we want to just keep it consistent this make a lot of people happy and a lot of people pissed off but I think it's important that we uh it's going to be important information for us as we change our Behavior how we approach budget and lastly uh I met with
uh a bike Advocates yesterday and we were talking um you know and you just bought it up also just you know when we're thinking about traffic safety we're thinking about you know folks uh you know ensuring that our streets are safe I wanted I wanted to let them know that I you know this is not a either or conversation I think it's very important that as we build a holistic City that we're not looking at traffic safety and in the safety of Life by gun balance it's two different things but in fact it's all tied together you should be able to get from point A to point B in the city anywhere safely we have a vision zero plan for traffic I'm looking for some version of vision zero when it comes to gun violence when it comes to you know our kids being able to play safely in streets what that looks like I don't know just yet but I wanted to also put that out in atmosphere that it is coming uh of some type of proposal and I would uh bring that for us to address it in
the near very near future all right thank you Mr mayor council member cook um I just wanted to say that I'd be interested in working on that with you I've literally used that exact line and I think I talked with our vision zero coordinator about this saying that um I was interested in using Vision zero as a pilot program to see the interactions between a bunch of different departments and Community organizations and to see how we could could lead that to be a vision zero for gun violence as well um so I'm I'm excited to hear that we've both arrived at that exact same language and would' be really happy to work on that with you I mean you are the War I council member you know that's where I come from we we have good stock thank you colleagues anyone else Vision zero for gun violence amen absolutely uh Mr manager I think we're ready to settle thank you mayor protim uh the agenda is settled as followed or for my notes it's on the consent agenda items 2
m we are officially adjourned God bless Durham be safe in the weather maybe you should leave more meetings you know happen this is gonna happen