thank you good afternoon everyone uh good afternoon to staff good to see you all after our break I hope lots of you went away and got some time away um and to my colleagues as well that everyone got to rest up I know that we have lots of issues to work on this fall um and then the other thing I just wanted to say is thank you to the students who came to visit us this morning for those the mayor council member Leonardo Williams and Dr Halsey Holman and I were able to meet them this morning and it's always excellent to see some of our youth and they asked excellent questions and it was a good way to start our work again with uh just some some great kids and thanks to the staff who helped us get that ready thank you good afternoon ma'am good to see you and good to see all of my colleagues welcome back from what I hope was a restful and rejuvenating break uh just wanted to shout everybody out and say it's a privilege to be back in chamber I also want to send a shout out to our Administration for a very very strong hire of Christina Reardon officially as our budget director so Kudos and
congratulations to her thank you madam mayor turning to my right the announcements I'm sorry to my left how are you again good afternoon to our residents of Durham it's good to be back to work for you to my colleagues I hope everybody had a rest I surely tried to do that rest even though I did teach through the summer and still teaching um but I also want to shout out all of our students who are going back to school the year-round schools have begun so I'm wishing them a productive year and getting ready for our students who will be going to Traditional School coming up so just wanted to say that thank you thank you madam mayor I slept and it left town and it felt great so thank you Dr Hyman um just welcome back it's great to see everyone again and shout out to the stronghur to gather her our mentoring group that came this morning on to uh sitting in our seats and take pictures with us in tour City Hall
445 in the executive summary
section of the agenda member agenda item number 19 zoning map change 602 North Hoover Road the title of the proposed zoning and attachment a zoning context map was changed from industrial Light IL to industrial Light with development plan which is ild agenda item number 20 Consolidated annexation 631 and 633 Clayton Road consistency statement attachment o was attached that's all I have for you today thank you um Deputy city manager Johnson you have now heard the manager's priority items and may I please have a motion for their approval second to move my councilman Williams I think second in my councilwoman Freeman all those in favor if you were signed by saying aye aye all those opposed have the same right there are none that vote passes unanimously I now recognize our City attorney for any priority items she
may have good afternoon Madam mayor mayor Tim Middleton members of the council it's good to see you again the city attorney's office has one priority item this afternoon and that is a request that the city council hold a closed session at the conclusion of all regular business we request closed session for attorney-client consultation concerning the handling or settlement in the following cases a state of Brook Maynard versus city of Durham and Daryl Dowdy versus city of Durham I am happy to provide the motion at the end of the meeting if you would prefer to vote then we can do it now okay so the motion is to hold a closed session pursuant to North Carolina General statute 143 318 Point 1183 for attorney-client consultation concerning the handling or settlement of a state of Brook Maynard versus city of Durham that's 20 CVS 2645 filed in Durham County Superior Court and Daryl Dowdy versus city of Durham that is a Middle District of North Carolina case filed in the federal court as 23 cv133 so
still moved second all right we have now we will now entertain a motion to hold a closed session at the end of the meeting and after we vote on this one we could vote also to approve the prior the items her prior to items so that motion has been made by Council and councilman Freeman councilman Williams second of the council woman Freeman all those in favor if you signed by saying aye all those opposed have the same right hearing none that motion passes unanimously let us also entertain a motion to accept her priority items move then moved by Councilwoman Freeman seconded by Councilwoman Javiera all those in favor of would you signed by saying aye all those opposed have the same right hearing none that motion passes we did it kind of out of order but that's okay thank you very much thank you we now turn to our clerk to see if she has any priority items this afternoon thank you very much Madam mayor I do have one item it is the
agenda item number two Durham historic preservation commission mayoral appointment the item has been requested to be referred back to the city clerk's office thank you now just provide a little context the Miss fake Calhoun has a term that she can feel rather than replace her we did not figure that out until later on in the process after Miss tabern had applied but miss Calhoun who now sits in that seat has a an unexpired term that she can feel or the next she can she's still eligible to feel a second term is that correct so we're going to refer back in order for her to continue in that space so um I will now entertain a motion to accept the city clerk's prior to item moved second or it has been moved by Councilwoman Javiera seconded by Councilwoman Freeman all those in favor if you Osama saying aye aye all those posts have the same right hearing none
that motion passes unanimously and we will now move to the business of our agenda we will read the agenda in its entirety starting with our administrative consent items item number one is the Durham open space and trails commission appointment item two the Durham historic preservation commission mayor or appointment which has been referred back item three is the Durham affordable housing implementation implementation committee appointment item four is the Durham affordable housing implementation committee mayor appointments number five May and June 2023 be reports and we're moving to Department of items item 6 2024 city council meeting schedule item seven contract amendment number one for Durham Workforce Development board Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act NC Works career center operations with
Eckert Youth Alternatives Inc number eight contract amendment number one for Durham Workforce Development board Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act adult and dislocated worker program with Eckert U of Youth Alternatives Inc item nine is the amendment to the contract with the fmrt Group LLC for the provision of police Psychological Services for the city of Durham Police Department anyway I'd like to pull that please yes sir item 10. it's a contract for water quality web portal repair and maintenance for the stormwater quality program 11 contract amendment number two to Professional Services contract sw-47d marine marine road bike and pedestrian improvements number 12 the municipal agreement with
the North Carolina Department of Transportation for Durham bike facilities II tip number bl-0028 13 is the municipal agreement with the North Carolina department of transportation from neighborhood bike routes to tip number bl-0031 14 is a municipal agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation for Horton Road pedestrian facilities tip number bl-0063 item 15 is the Consulting contract with just cities Collective LLC for the development of a transportation Equity action plan item 18 falls on the public hearings item 16. sorry item 16 is a known zoning map change brightleaf North item 17 Consolidated annexation Fletcher Crossing item 18 zoning map change Fair Haven walk item 19 it's only map change
602 North Hoover Road item 20 Consolidated annexation 631 and 633 Clayton Road item 21 limited obligation bonds series 2023 and we will turn also to our citizens matter and we do have one person and we have several people in the audience to speak but number 22 on agenda is actually miss Gwen silver who will be making comments on a public petition process so um uh city manager we have one city manager Deputy city manager we had one poet item and no presentation in it what item is item nine by mayor Pro tem is that what you have yes ma'am all right we will now turn to miss Gwen silver she is here to speak to us in person today or on the Internet do you have her listed on the internet all right Miss silver you will have
three minutes yes and we are ready to listen man okay good afternoon uh mayor council members city manager and City administrators I'm Gwen silver at 302 Sapphire Drive and I first want to thank Transportation director Sean Egan for taking the time to look at street parking in Stone Hill Estates I have proposed some changes to the petition process so that it does not allow a rogue management company and one disgruntled homeowner to shut down one side of the street for personal reasons let me I know that I'm having difficulty understanding what she's saying wow I did unmute it we can hear you it's just not coming in clear in here and we did hear that part so start again miss silver okay so I uh maybe I should slow down I did want to thank Transportation director Sean Egan
for a time to look at street parking in Stone Hill Estates I proposed some changes to him about the petition process so that it does not allow a rogue management company and one disgruntled homeowner to shut down one side of the street for personal reasons this process divided our HOA divided homeowners divided a husband and wife and left residents not knowing anything about the no parking until our June 2023 annual meeting and at that annual meeting a board member admitted that after getting the required signatures she stopped sharing the petition the current process led to name-calling branding people as hostile people lying and still lying about the process a request for mediation through the state of North Carolina hurt feelings and tears here in the South we
call that a hot mess some of the changes that I'm proposing are to allow homeowners input before the process even starts one way to do that is to coordinate with neighborhood Improvement services to have the community community strategist coordinate the meeting so that it is done by us have the process be EMS or police driven rather than it being the whims of one person who wants to close the street for personal reasons and to require more than 50 percent homeowner approval for the petition process nowhere in a democratic process there's 50 of anybody get to have the final say now I understand that the process in my community is already underway and it has to play out however I'm making this request for changes so that all of this does not happen to another Community the new process is going to ensure that everything is fair and that everything is equitable mayor O'Neill I know you're
leaving us but I want to thank you for the outstanding work that you've done as our mayor you came into your own and you have served Durham well I wish you rest as you enter retirement again thank you so much for your comments today we will now turn to the others we only have one other speaker I believe on the internet so we'll go ahead and see if Miss Jacqueline Wagstaff can speak to us now for three minutes mad America you hear me yes we can okay good afternoon uh Madam mayor council members uh glad to see that you're back at work hope everybody is rested and ready to uh dig in and do the work that's needed for the city of Durham and the resident but um I'm bringing to you today a concern and it's mostly a legal concern and I I'm assuming that if I publicly State my
concerns someone will get back with me about it I would like for the attorney to at some point provide me with um documentation about Ward residency for Council Members I would like to know what is the requirement of residency status if you sit in a seat that you occupy as a ward member representing award and what would be the legal process if you no longer um reside in that Ward what would be the legal processes that has to be taken to either remove you or address the issue because at this point um there are citizens and including myself that have some serious concerns about the residency of one of us current seated board council members and we would like to know what that process is and how soon can we get that information
so that we can take the proper step because we believe that it is improper to hold a seat that requires that you the member have to live in the world and to know that you don't live in the ward and I'm not saying that person doesn't but right now it is a brave concern that we believe that person doesn't live in the world and we would just like to get some clarity on it to understand because as public officials this is what some of the officials up there I believe don't understand that when you become a public official your whole life become a part of the public structure your social media your residency especially your residency so if this person does not live in that Ward we would like to start the process of actually finding someone that can sit in that seat that actually represents that Ward so I'm requesting information from the attorney to give me Clarity on what the war system requires and what the process is if a
person no longer lives in that Ward system and I thank you very much thank you for your comments this afternoon we will now turn to our citizens who have joined us in person we'll start first with Mr Jesse Huddleston followed by Sherman o'henson followed by James Davis Jr and Miss johnetta Austin in that order and you will have three minutes apiece good afternoon mayor mayor Pro tem City Council Members City staff thank you for having me my name is Jesse Huddleston my pronouns are he she they we can't get me wrong so long as you're being kind and I'm here in the role as co-chair of
Pride Durham NC that is a part of the lgbtq center of Durham the reason why I'm here is a particular request for some support and Leadership within I think the city manager's office to help coordinate the way in which the city is comprehensively participating and engaging with pride Durham and see hoping that can happen with some order with some strategy and with some sustainability for context very quickly um in my role as co-chair I've been engaging in liaison with several different partners from within the city from city council all the way to folks who are working diligently within the cities offices that's included folks in participatory budgeting that I just spoke to because they knew I was here folks in parks and rec of course we liaised with the police for inspections the equity department and the list goes
on and it's getting to a point now where it's clear that the city is engaged and supportive of this program happening it happens every year it's very likely that some of you might March in the parade or that some of our city units might table in our Festival but what feels unclear is who in place is in a position to actually help coordinate this so we're not missing out on the times where people can actually connect and we can save resources time money energy and maybe that doesn't exist yet right um historically NC Pride was functioning until 2018 they disbanded and then Pride durmancy came on the scene of course by 2020 it's the pandemic we've gone virtual so it's only really been five years a dynamic five years at that and now it feels like a real opportunity to codify local institutions like the city like the county that can come together and help put this on in a way that I
think can have major economic and political implications in the years to come but that takes a lot of cooperation that takes time so we can cross that bridge when we get there but at least for now for September 20 23 Saturday September 23rd is pride dormancy big day for that day in September I'm hopeful that there can be some step to meet with Deputy city manager or others in the city manager unit is it Communications I'm not sure but at least wanted to transparently bring it to all of you so that there's a clear uh there's a clear expression of that of how much support that there is internally I think folks are working hard but it's just not clear where to go for now and also where to go for what we can plan out in the years to come thank you so much we're standing strong thanks
another west ender coming up Mr Henson and I came here today to talk about some problems that we're having with senior affordable housing but the snow used to talk about the problems because we all know what the problems are let's talk about I'm going to talk about some solutions we need a solution whereas these seniors who are living in these build as well this confidence has been given millions of dollars to take over the building we need a committee or a general some way 24 hours not on a recorder because most of the seniors don't like to talk on uh to record it where they can call 24 hour I have a problem here my elevator is stuck I have an apartment I can't get there there's sewage coming up out my bathtub since someone immediately that's what we need that's one that's uh what we need we need a committee and these people who we're putting on these chairs make sure that they're from Durham make sure they know this area if you were born in
Watusi Massachusetts it's nothing you can tell us about hay time and then try to look at our general today all these things here there's nothing concerned that with you okay don't go to that sermon where to stay on sale but anyway we need to have those things as a solution somebody needs to do this immediately it needs to have been done the other day am I right sure you like Seminole Houston because these things are important I wasn't aware of this until I'm being evicted at the end of the month I have nowhere to go it costs to move they caught the transfer electricity and utilities and so what that senior citizens can do of course the solution is trying to take care of your parents Mr Chavis thank you
good afternoon to y'all mayor city council members this year has been a busy year but this summer has been more busy than usuals because lives has been flowing left and right since this lead has been coming out in the open and we the people who was old like me know about this late we was at the first meeting with Park and Recreation and some of us told us then but we haven't had another meeting but they put out some information last week of how they're going to do it but they failed we asked failed to get back in contact with us men I get the beating part is I know y'all wondering why I gave y'all this information and I want you to look at it especially the extract because if you don't get a chance to
look at you we'll have a copy but I want you to look at what channel the TV style station put out this morning and if you don't believe how my phone ring just being a volunteer I invite any of y'all that get paid to come out here with me because people call me this morning and I had something already scheduled to do and I had to put that aside and I had to change this morning what I was going to say to you all to prove what we've been saying we the community folks are not the liars it's the staff that y'all on hidden and hide and put in these positions and look at that look at Channel 5 they put it out and put it that red part I circled I suffered up for a reason I got caught in mines we've been saying this
over and over to the city we know how y'all conduct some of y'all undercover business and how y'all get over on the community and wage just brought out to our attention that we told him that last Thursday he went to Duke and told them don't y'all say nothing until we get you to come we or I whatever you want to say about Park and Recreation the right to put the information out to the community don't you tell the community unless I or we say so so we are puppy on his screen but we pay his salary okay now how you think that made me feel as being black and he's being white you can call me racist I don't care I've been called more than that this week
okay but I'm not gonna be afraid to continue to stand up to y'all and ask y'all first one to come Saturday to the meeting fine thank you Mr Chavis all right but please do something about this because this is not the end it's just the beginning good afternoon it's awesome mayor O'Neill mayor Pro tem Middleton
and the rest of the council persons my name is johnetta Alston I reside at 4900. North Roxboro apartment 319. better known as the J F K Towers that no longer is a picture of JFK hanging in the lobby I guess it was a disrespect to have him in such a nasty place no one should be living in that JFK Towers is a senior disabled living space one bedroom apartments I'm gonna think there's about 60 percent of the residents that live there do not have air they give you one box fan
when you tell them you're your air is out my air isn't out but the water from the air is backing up into my apartment onto the cockpit that the carpet is soaking wet there's about two inches of mold sitting on the floor on the carpet on top of the carpet at bat I have health issues I guess I had to say that part um on behalf of that Community Millennium housing out of Ohio are the owners of this building Durham Housing Authority gave this company back in 2019 19 million dollars to rehab it when the troubleshooter went out when when [Music] Global Foundation owned the building
Millennium purchased it from them along with all of the the problems that was going on then problems such as the elevators don't work there's three elevators at all times maybe one might work the water system is bad I got a note here on my door yesterday that says they're turning the water off on Friday July the 21st for several hours this is this is on a weekly basis this is not just for tomorrow this is on a weekly basis we go without period don't matter problem is don't matter if you need water to flush it don't matter you're not going to have water because they don't turn it off in the whole building do the best you can and uh trash we have trash shoots on every floor they're always blocked so the older people who do the best they can to get
around take it to the shoot can't get it in there throw it outside the door but the last thing you have to do something we're the ones that the community used you stood on our backs to get where you are today so therefore you should send everybody out there to get it right because obviously this company does not care and I live with my daughter now but I'm not moving until it's right thank you Miss Austin thank you we now turn to item number nine which I believe it's pool by well which I know was pulled by mayor pro team male Pro tem and item nine thank you your honor Madam mayor I'm sorry to interrupt there's one speaker on the virtual queue
with his hand up okay if you will go ahead and call that person to the Forefront hello yes we can hear you Mr Roberson yeah good afternoon uh mayor Pro uh uh judge O'Neill first let me say this I haven't had a chance to do this congratulations on Heating and call to be mayor of Durham this is another first for you first female judge to be elected to Superior Court in Durham County now the first female mayor to be mayor of Durham and I think it's the greatest thing that ever happened to Durham um what um my my issue it was my question was uh the issue about the investigation of city council uh has that been concluded or is it ongoing
I believe it is ongoing Mr Roberson Aldo is I should not be interrupting you but I I noticed you Paul so I will tell you that it is it is ongoing from my understanding okay great um one my other thing is uh I was the the fireman's pay when I see that they make 14 so they make 14 an hour as a as an individual that responds to the call of or help I just couldn't believe it and I'm working at McDonald's I make 17. so I'm saying myself why would they even uh uh deny them to your pay I mean what I'm just curious what provoked them not to give them their uh legitimate pay those four this is called a complain that's all
thank you Mr Roberson I appreciate your calling in you have a great day you too is there uh anyone else online that would like to be heard at this time and I think I've gone through all of the cards so we will now turn back to Mayor Pro tem for pool item number nine which is an amendment to the contract with the fmrt Group LLC for the provision of police Psychological Services for the city of Durham Police Department we have Pro tem thank you madam mayor good afternoon Madam mayor mayor Pro tem city council David Anthony assistant chief administrative Services Bureau I'm here to answer your questions assistant chief thank you so much for being here it's good to see you and as always we are incredibly grateful for you and the entire Command Staff and all the men and women under your command um that hold the line for us every day I I had a question about um the Psychological Services which is a
profoundly good thing that we have that's available uh for um our officers and and let me preface this by saying I'm sure my questions are are more about my level of comprehension rather than the clarity of the memo which is often the case uh with me but I the there's a line in the memo it says in July 2022 the city and the fmrt group executed the contract for the delivery of Psychological Services for members of the Durham Police Department and we know but this is not a new thing but it says this included evaluations from members of specific teams within the department our our Patrol officers required to go through evaluations or is this a service that's available upon demand or are you referred to it by a command uh member of the Command Staff could you explain to us how how it's integrated into our operations at the department yes sir that's that's a great question so the fmrt we have a contract for fmrt that does provide testing and Psychological
Services uh at wheel for officers and employees that do seek that however we do have certain circumstances to where there are things that we mandate a critical incident uh that had occurred would occur we would then send the employees after that critical incident fit for duties those type of things so they are all able to access those resources which is the with that contract initially is for however we do have certain units within the department that we do based upon the nature of their duties we mandate that they do uh I think it's semi-annual or quarterly trained training and due to the nature of that they go they have to participate in these Services the reason for the increase is based upon our recent reorganization we have added more staff into those units so we have increased our homicide units we've also taken on the victim Services units from Community safety so that now they we are putting them in there due to the nature of how they're working side by side so it is an increase of the Personnel that we are
mandating to go to those thanks thank you so much and that kind of anticipated my next question because as I read the memo there was a line that talked about um the employees assigned to these units may be exposed to work stressors beyond that of other employees which you know I don't know if that SWAT or whatever hostage negotiations but but I was wondering was there some type of critical incident or self-reporting that occasion this increase but to hear you it's just we got more people so we need more money is yes sir and it's it's available any of the they are mandated to do it because of their position because we we understand the stressors they go to it go through so we want to make sure that they get any information they're able to decompress through that as necessary what this has done is just because we've added more people into those units so that we want them to uh participate in those Services as well got you know that that that clears up um what I what I had to ask thank you again uh so much good to see you yes sir good thank you back
thank you so much thank you thank you here today all right I think we are now we have no presentations this afternoon so we are now at our board and uh commissions uh report from our Clerk foreign thank you madam mayor I would start with the item number two was referred back that was the mayoral appointment on the historic preservation committee the Durham affordable housing implementation committee appointment is Glenda Ange the two appointments or I'm sorry the nominations the two nominations to the Durham affordable housing implementation committee mayoral appointments are Courtney James and Prince R Rivers and then for the final nomination the Durham open space and trails commission
there was not consensus three council members had selected Connor M chapel and the other three council members had requested re-advertisement of the position and councilmember Johnson has not voted because she's not in attendance today I didn't know how you wanted to proceed the open space I think we have open space and trails commission had there been re-advertised I noticed we just had the one person but I'm not sure whether it had been re-advertised a number of times I would have to check on that hi good afternoon Madam mayor mayor O'Neill members of city council Lola Roman here with the city clerk's office um I can answer that quick question um there was a previous appointment made to fill that seat by Mr Stephen Cohn that Council had previously nominated but he resigned because he actually took
a county seat um and filled the county category on that so I had to re-advertise that seat so it's technically only be been re-advertised once so far um I'm fine with flipping I think I voted for the applicant and I'm fine with re-advertising thank you we have four votes to re-advertise that position thank you thank you thank you um councilman Javier we now turn to uh settle our agenda I'll turn it to Deputy city manager Johnson Madame mayor I have items one and three through fifteen on consent and GBA public hearings item 16 through 21. thank you I like to entertain a motion to sell the agenda move okay the move by Council councilman Freeman councilman Williams seconded by councilwoman Freeman I'll write all those in favor of
Usama saying aye aye all those posts have the same right hearing none our agenda is settled now are there any other items to come before the council before we are adjourned to go into closed session hearing none we will adjourn at 143 on 7 20 23 Bull City strong shout out to the Watkins family Circle reunion in Durham North Carolina for 51 years all right